me: “Why do you insist on coming untied all the time?” shoe:  “Why should I knot?” me: “Well, is there something wrong with the way I walk, some oddity in my gait, that’s causing you—and not my right shoe—to come untied so frequently?” me: “Is there knot?” me: me: me: “WHAT IS SO GODDAMNED FUNNY?” me: “STUPID SHOE!”

Allah directs my attention to what I’ve come to expect will be the typical response to Muslim rioting over cartoon depictions of Mohammed from the “progressive”, soft-socialistic side of our contentious philosophical divide over autonomy vs. group identity here at home.  From University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy research associate Reza Aslan, concluding his Slate essay, “Picturing to Depicting”:

CNSNews: John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is one of two Americans who have been nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Last year, Democrats and a few Republicans refused to confirm Bolton to the U.N. post, forcing President Bush to resort to a recess appointment. Bolton and Kenneth R. Timmerman were formally nominated by Sweden’s former deputy prime minister Per Ahlmark, for playing a major role

In the WSJ, “inauthentic” Iranian Amir Taheri offers his insights into the current (manufactured) cartoon controversy: “The Muslim Fury,” one newspaper headline screamed. “The Rage of Islam Sweeps Europe,” said another. “The clash of civilizations is coming,” warned one commentator. All this refers to the row provoked by the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper four months ago. Since then a number of demonstrations have

Once I’d settled down enough to regain my composure, I’d planned to write a long and scathing piece on the ugly political partisanship that erupted at Coretta Scott King’s memorial service—from Jimmy Carter, a former US President, shamefully straining to connect the Hoover-era wiretapping of Martin Luther King (approved, ironically, by Bobby Kennedy, whose brother Ted received a warm reception, his being a Demcrat and all) to the current and

Waiting… (2005) Directed by Rob McKittrick.  Stars Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Justin Long, David Koechner, Dane Cook, Jordan Ladd, Chi McBride, John Francis Daley, Alanna Ubach, Kaitlin Doubleday, Vanessa Lengies, and Luis Guzmán. Five words or less review: Those ain’t bacon bits, honey. *for anyone who has ever worked in a corporate restaurant—and I was a waiter and bartender for 6 years during college and grad school—this movie is your