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27. februar 2006
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Glenn Reynolds ponders:
With the Cartoon Wars giving way to the ports imbroglio, Jim Geraghty, blogging from Turkey, wonders if we're seeing a tipping point in Western attitudes toward Islam. Geraghty collects a lot of quotes, and writes of "my sense that in recent weeks, a large chunk of Americans just decided that they no longer have any faith in the good sense or non-hostile nature of the Muslim world. If subsequent polls find similar results, the port deal is dead."
Obviously, the consequences of such a movement will have huge ramifications, way beyond the controversial port deal, if this marks a significant and lasting shift in what Americans think.
While I share the frustration of many, I will still argue it would be a significant mistake to assume that the loudest voices in the Muslim world are necessarily the representative voices. If anything, the recent cartoon controversy in Europe may well be the tipping point where moderate Muslims are beginning to be fed up with being publicly represented by bearded imams and screaming jihadis.
It is important to not let singular events (even very serious ones) totally dominate the long-term picture. As for what the long-term picture is, I see two possible outcomes, one good and one bad, and I obviously don't know better than any of you which will play out in the end. We may well be on the tipping point that will determine that outcome.
Now, imagine yourself trying to understand the political trends in Eastern Europe in the beginning of 1985...
10:45:27 PM 
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Now this is actually funny.
Citing health concerns, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has ended his hunger strike after 11 days, his attorney said Monday from Amman, Jordan.
Well, yeah, not eating can adversely affect your health. Wasn't Saddam aware of this fact when he started?
I guess he needed a crash diet. Now he just needs a shave (like, from the neck up).
4:28:38 PM
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If we are to believe a new theory advanced by anthropologists, blondes evolved 10,000 years ago in Europe as women fought over a dwindling population of scarce men. Cave-girl blondes, as the Times writes, started having more fun, and their blonde hair and blue eyes attracted Thag and his friends for a bit of fun, too.
According to the study, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to make them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.
The study argues that blond hair originated in the region because of food shortages 10,000-11,000 years ago. Until then, humans had the dark brown hair and dark eyes that still dominate in the rest of the world. Almost the only sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses. Finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men.
Lighter hair colours, which started as rare mutations, became popular for breeding and numbers increased dramatically, according to the research, published under the aegis of the University of St Andrews.
“Human hair and eye colour are unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe (and their) origin over a short span of evolutionary time indicates some kind of selection,” says the study by Peter Frost, a Canadian anthropologist. Frost adds that the high death rate among male hunters “increased the pressures of sexual selection on early European women, one possible outcome being an unusual complex of colour traits.”
The credibility of this article is marred by journalists Roger Dobson and Abul Taher falling for an old hoax story.
However, the future of the blonde is uncertain.
A study by the World Health Organisation found that natural blonds are likely to be extinct within 200 years because there are too few people carrying the blond gene. According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202.
As I wrote back in October 2002 (!), this story is rubbish, and the study never existed.
PS: Yes, the picture is again Norwegian glamour model Charlotte Fredriksen.
8:53:36 AM
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Professor Hasan Bolkhari, a Cultural Advisor to Iranian Education Ministry, has laid out his views that the cartoon Tom and Jerry is a Jewish plot in a lecture on Iranian TV.
Hasan Bolkhari: "There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry." [...]
"Some say that this creation by Walt Disney [sic] will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse - especially the mouse.
"Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe." [...]
"No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews." [...]
"Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scenes connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion ].
"Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows."
Mind-boggling.
Hat-tip to Orac, who wonders why Tom and Jerry is attributed to Disney, and no mention was made of Mickey Mouse!
12:08:04 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2006; 16:51:40.
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