This year's GGs are altogether a display of PC hypocrisy and calculated politicking that takes your breath away. Ignoring many of the best movies of the year, the voters have gone, as everyone predicted, for the gay propaganda of "Brokeback Mountain", which deliberately reverses the American archetype of the independent, virile countryman, in the service of the gay agenda and, specifically, of the current hot-button issue - gay "marriage". Only, in order to show that we are all friends here and that the straight and Christian majority has nothing to fear and is not being slapped across the face or discriminated against, they have paired it with another movie - the biopic of Johnny Cash, a man who comes as close to the cowboy archetype as anyone ever did, a devout Baptist, and the author of "I walk the line" - a hymn to traditional marriage. Never mind that Cash would probably have let his tongue be cut out rather than be found encouraging gay "marriage" and the gay lifestyle; we are all friends here. No bloody wonder that in this great and wonderful tent of PC friendship and community there is space for all those poor misunderstood Muslims and Palestinians. Incidentally, has anyone checked how much "Brokeback Mountain" grossed in Palestine?

Posted by: Paolo at January 17, 2006 5:21 AM

There needs to be a lot of condemnation of Hollywood and specifically of Hani's pro-Nazi movie. The kid gloves have to be taken off when dealing with Hollywood's moral/political corruption, historical ignorance, and political confusion. These people have no justification, no grounds, for lecturing to the world. And they have to be vehemently criticized, not gently scolded. Don't forget to stay away from the movies.

Abu Assad takes a "neutral" stand on mass murder. He is revolting. Of course, Arabs/Muslims/overly dhimmified Christians/ have a propensity for making excuses for just about everything. If I am not mistaken, a German govt agency paid for producing the film. Hmmm.

It seems that almost everyone and everything is conspiring to bring about the end of civilization. Including the fake humanitarianism of Hollywood and their brother in spirit, Abu assad.

Posted by: Eliyahu at January 17, 2006 7:03 AM

The voters were the members of the foreign press corps in Hollywood. An entirely expected result. We'll see in a few years -- a very few years -- just how those English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and other European journalists feel about the matter of Islam, and the phony "Palestinian people" and their phony plight, created in order to disguise the relentless Jihad by Arab Muslims (and islamochristians) against the Infidel state of Israel.

Hollywood Hills, eh? Should have no trouble with the most important part of film-making --- which is raising the money in the first place. Riyadh here we come.

Posted by: Hugh at January 17, 2006 8:43 AM

Nice to see a post from Paolo after what seems to have been a lengthy absence.

Ron Radosh and others have written lately of Hollywood's strange politics in earlier days and what was behind it -- Stalin's support and control over the American Communist Party, which many screenwriters and actors belonged to. Films like Paradise Now and Munich are the legacy of that pseudo-liberal political chic.

And I'm sure Hany Abu-Assad has heard of Leni Reifenstrahl (apologies for the spelling) and other great cinematic propagandists of lesser artistic talents.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 17, 2006 8:55 AM

Eliyahu posted: "These people have no justification, no grounds, for lecturing to the world. And they have to be vehemently criticized, not gently scolded. Don't forget to stay away from the movies."

I totally agree. I heard on the radio this morning that movie sales were down 7% in 2005. Do you think they'll ever figure out that maybe the sales are down not from everyone downloading movies, but the general population tiring of them pushing their liberal agenda? I think I saw about 4 movies last year, with the last being The Chronicles of Narnia (a great movie by all standards). I just have no desire to see any of their trash. Although, I will be seeing Underworld Evolution this weekend. There's just something about Kate Beckinsale in tight black leather!

שלום

Posted by: Constantinople at January 17, 2006 9:10 AM

"Walk the Line" was good, but that Dopp kit on the shelf that appears in the scene in which Johnny Cash pulls the sink from the wall (before June agrees to marry him on-stage in Ottawa, and they live happily ever after) appears to be a much more recent model than what was available in 1955. That's a quibble.

Another kind of anachronism, and far graver mistakes, are on display in that pro-"Palestinian" movie by a "Palestinian" offering his case for "Palestine" -- it backdates the recently-invented "Palestinian people," the careful appropriation of the toponym used by Western Christendom since Roman times for Israel ("Israel"is "Palestine" and "Palestine" is "Israel") and its rhetorical reification -- talk of "Palestine" is meant to summon its existence, but it does not exist, and one hopes it will not, because it can only exist as a mortal threat, sooner or later, to Israel, and on land ripped away from the Israelis despite their legal, their moral, their historic claims.

A Dopp kit is one thing. A series of political lies, at the service of the relentless Jihad against an Infidel state, is quite another.

Posted by: Hugh at January 17, 2006 9:10 AM

I saw one here on SBS TV here and it had interviews with a woman before she disseminated her body parts all over a road and several other homicidal self smearers. Everyone said the "correct" things about "what a wonderful .....(son/ daughter/friend/pupil etc )" the c4 porter was.

It was so sanitised and so maudlin and so cliched that that I had to wonder about the mentality of the producer/director and just how he expected anyone to believe this trash.

Anyone who has seen the results of such a bomb and listened to the brainwashed garbage from the mouths of their (now richer) family should be appalled by this.

But I suppose that it is after all Hollywood, and we all know how little truth matters there.

courage defined = the manufacturer of Qur'anic toilet paper.

Posted by: Zathras at January 17, 2006 9:28 AM

Thanks for noticing, Waterdragon. I had a fire in my former flat and was involved in a fairly apocalyptic house move - not so much Murphy's Law as Murphy's Code and Code of Procedure. Even what could NOT go wrong did go wrong. Everything is now back in shape, but I think that - because of real life obligations - I may not post quite as often as I used to.

I think I am one of the not many people who actually watched Leni Riefenstahl's documentaries. They are, not a doubt about it, brilliant and involving. But Riefenstahl has one point above Abu-Assad, even supposing that he is as good as she was: Riefenstahl, at least in the thirties, did not know that the Nazis were actually killing people on a large scale. Abu Assad does.

Posted by: Paolo at January 17, 2006 10:09 AM

I never watch the Hollywood crowd giving out awards to each other. However, I can't help wondering if: 1) Hany Abu-Assad brought the Mrs. to the ceremony and 2) if she was in attendance, was she wearing something red and slinky with lots of cleavage, or if she dressed in the way that her fellow Palestinians could recognize one of their own Islamic female fanatics, hajab, heavy overcoat and stylish suicide belt. I also wonder when "Brokenback Mountain" will be shown in the West Bank and Gaza.

Posted by: maryrose at January 17, 2006 10:10 AM

The Golden Globe is nothing more than Hollyweird rewarding it self for being on the outside of normalcy in America and the world.
Sbu Assad may have been surprised, but not those of us that know the Hollyweird left. It was a given that "Paradise Now" would win. It's pro terror. It's giving the average viewer an insight into the thinking of the oppressed Palestinian that feels the heavy heel of the oppressor on his neck. What a crock!!! I'm a black American. I've been called racial names and denied certain jobs. My ancestors were kidnapped and forced into slavery, called nothing more than property of the plantation owner/s, freedom given but denied, denied an education, inventions stolen from them, beaten, flogged ,hosed, had dogs sicced on them, lynched, murdered. But I never used that as an excuse to blow up innocent people. Black people in this country have more than a reason to hate this counrty, but yet we don't. Inspite of my skin color, I've managed to educate myself, overcome obsticles, and kept myself from becoming some number in the leftist system of "we just want to help you". Jesse "Jackass" Jackson did not help me, Al "Slim Shady" Sharpton did not help me, nor did Louis FarraConman help me!!! I've achieved without government set asides and/or handouts.
This movie is just another in a line of movies that are designed to make us more PC toward terrorists. To try an get into their heads and "feel their pain". Nuts to That!!! "We the People" felt their utter hatered Sept. 11th, 2001. I don't need to understand the workings of a sick mind!!! I saw it on television!!! The fact that Danny Glover, Spike Lee and Harry Belafonte put down not only our President, but our counrty as well shows "We the People" that the leftist in Hollyweird don't care what we think. Only their agenda matters. They know what is best.
The fact that movies like "Paradise Now and Brokeback Mountain" can come away with awards shows that "We the People" are just another obsticle that the Hollyweird left have to further try to brainwash.

Posted by: Ironman Hondo at January 17, 2006 10:40 AM

The onslaught of Marxism --- first in the form of Socialism, then Communism, and now Liberalism --- was and is of course based on recognition of unreality as real.

Now, a little racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action, well, that's nibbling around the edges. But endorsing terrorism in an age of WMD is madness.

DISLOYAL NYTIMES DISLOYAL WASHPO DISLOYAL CHITRIB DISLOYAL LATIMES

Not that I blame George Clooney. Here's a dumbass who hears static over a dial-tone when he tries to think. It's only natural that he's lecturing the world. He played a doctor on TV for several years.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at January 17, 2006 12:31 PM

Paolo:

Sorry to hear of the disruption you've been enduring. I've just been through about a year and a half of misery since I undertook renovating a big old house to turn half of it into my suite and the other half into a rental.

I didn't mean to suggest that Abu-Assad was an artist on Riefenstahl's level, but rather that he was being extremely disingenuous in maintaining that "cinema" is only about presenting conflicting points of view. Riefenstahl was a consumate artist and not a particularly ideological person. I am sure Abu-Assad is not anywhere near as naive about the politics behind the terror bombers.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 17, 2006 12:38 PM

Haha...I was just thinking how great it would have been if it was a "trick" Golden Globe...the party-trick exploding kind.

Picure it...

Abu-Assad name is announced, camera zooms in to a surprised and emotional Abu-Assad kissing and hugging his burqa clad girlfriend/boyfriend (who knows!).

Abu-Assad makes his way to the podium wiping a suspicion of moisture from his eye.

Abu-Assad takes the microphone and makes a plea for a Palestinian state, saying he saw the Golden Globe as "a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally....

BOOM!

Closeup of Abu-Assad's shocked, blackened face.

Everyone bursts into hysterics of laughter and Abu-Assad is booted unceremoniously off the stage.

Hehehe

Posted by: Mike_W at January 17, 2006 12:40 PM

Abu-Assad kissing and hugging his burqa clad girlfriend/boyfriend (who knows!).

No! It is only in advertisements that minorities --- Hindus and east Asians excepted --- go through the motions of coupling up with their own. No, a Moslem would definitely appear at the Golden Globes with a white woman. A real blonde, real dumb, real progressive white woman. After all, what about the after party?

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at January 17, 2006 12:54 PM

Who knows these Palestenian guys would have threatend secretly the Golden Globe Organisers to bomb the Award giving fiunction by a suicide bomber if they fail to give the award to 'ParadiseNow'!..I am just kidding!.
I find so many Posters in this site , ofended by the award winning Gay film'Brokeback Mountain'.But why one should compare this gay film with an Islamic murder plotted film?They dont go togehter. BBMountain deals with a human problem,which is prevelent not only in America,but throughout the world. No country is bold enough to tackle it. Sofar no one had the ghuts to expose it as it is to the Streight world,which thinks its immoral,sinfull,and punishable by God. I am of the openion that Gayness is not acquird,but people are born with this tendency.So why you look down upon them and
pretend to be 'holy holy?What is wrong with that picture winning the award? Those ,who condemn the movie, go and see the movie, touch your heart ,and then do your Posting here. I have many Gay friends in my office,and they are so well behaved,kind-hearted,generous beings. They dont go on flaunting their Gayness to attract every male members in my office . In fact,they feel terrible of their drawback,and often hide it. They cannot help itand. It is a God given 'gift' to them.Then how can God can punish them for that?.For heavens sake ,please dont compare them with these merciless killers, the Suicide bombers,who aim at the distruction of all the mankind ,except themslelves.

Posted by: rafia at January 17, 2006 1:00 PM

OT:

It's long, but insightful. George Jonas responds to Spielberg's "Munich."

http://www.georgejonas.ca/recent_writing.cfm?id=382

(sorry, don't know how to insert a link)

Posted by: Farah at January 17, 2006 2:46 PM

These award ceremonies are nothing but "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours". Why give any importance or credence to these 'happy' folks tapping each other on their backs and enjoying a good dinner and haveing fun at our expense. Why bother even to watch self glorification.
Hollywood is just that - tinsel town and make believe, its the poor film goer who pays indirectly for all this rubbish called awards & entertainment.

Posted by: faqi at January 17, 2006 2:47 PM

Rafia: In my comment, I wondered when "Brokeback Mountain" would be shown in Gaza/West Bank. I meant to imply that, although Hollywood may embrace all sorts of diversity, the sympathizers of suicide bombers in the West Bank/Gaza do not and never will. They have zero tolerance for all people, except fundamentalist Muslims. The dumb-dumbs in Hollywood will never or are incapable of understanding that diversity is a one way street with Muslims. I refer you to the recent article about Muslims in Scotland requesting that a Catholic school be turned over to Muslims.

Posted by: maryrose at January 17, 2006 2:51 PM

The GG have become a joke and this years awards were a celebration of political correctness in the extreme. From the gay propaganda film Brokeback Mountain to lead acting awards for an actor who portrayed a gay writer and an actress who portrayed a transsexual.However, the worst PC award was for the Palestinian snuff film "Paradise Now".Are the people who chose to award "Paradise Now" aware that the increase security at the GG and other awards shows is a direct result of Islamic terrorism? I'd also be interested in knowing when Brokeback Mountain, Capote and TransAmerica will open in Gaza?

Posted by: Roxane at January 17, 2006 2:58 PM

The problem lies, of course, in the fact that by 1944 she still believed in him, still professed innocence of the death camps.
She was in obssesed with Hitler just as David Irving is today.
The pity is that one of the world's most brilliant innovators crossed paths with history's most barbarous being and failed to step back. But then that is the nature of obsession.
Wilhelm Furtwaengler also considered "Art" to be above "Politics".

Posted by: chevalier de st george at January 17, 2006 3:40 PM

Roxanne:

So, how has Hollywood changed from the days when they painted pretty pictures of Joe Stalin's workers' paradise was to the way they now depict the terror bombers of the Middle East and the cause they give their lives to. I read somewhere, not long ago, that some oil sheik donated $100 million to building homes in the PA for the families of "martyrs". And, of course, the families get all sorts of other compensation for giving their sons and daughters' lives, so that we now have a Hamas candidate who is funding her election campaign out of the booty she received for contributing three sons to the cause of eradicating every trace of Israel.

On the other side of the equation we have the gormless Steven Spielberg and his screenwriter, Tony Kushner, with their simplistic "cycle of violence" crap providing a platform for the "Palestinians" in "Munich" without providing a scrap of historic context prior to WW II or acknowleding the fact that about 50% of Israel's Jewish population is made up of non-Ashkenazim -- Jews who came from lands under Muslim rule in North Africa and Asia Minor.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 17, 2006 3:44 PM

Farah:

just do a copy-past on the browser's address:

http://www.georgejonas.ca/recent_writing.cfm?id=382

The piece is long. At a glance, Jonas misses at least one point about the movie himself -- Avner isn't sexually aroused by his memories, but rather plagued by them night and day. A film reviewer friend says the scene was used to "bookend" the opening, when we find Avner and his expecting wife enjoying married life before he was sent out on his mission.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 17, 2006 3:50 PM

Incidentally, has anyone checked how much "Brokeback Mountain" grossed in Palestine?

Moslems don't encourage human male homosexuality, they practice it. Actually, they don't practice it, they're really really good at it.

As men who consign their women to the status of cows, they hump their Moslem Maidens to breed (Jihad of the loins) and one another for pleasure.

Showing an agitprop film like Brokeback Mountain in Dar al-Islam would only confuse the hell out of everybody.

MORE MOSLEMS MORE ISLAM MORE DEPRAVITY MORE MOSLEMS MORE MORE MORE

The movie Brokeback was designed to confuse us, not the Moslems. Same goes for the award winning pro-terrorism film.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at January 17, 2006 6:30 PM

"I read somewhere, not long ago, that some oil sheik donated $100 million to building homes in the PA for the families of "martyrs". And, of course, the families get all sorts of other compensation for giving their sons and daughters' lives, so that we now have a Hamas candidate who is funding her election campaign out of the booty she received for contributing three sons to the cause of eradicating every trace of Israel. "

Which is precisely why, as others here have pointed out, an effective strategy to discourage these 'martyrs' and these 'families' (if you can grace them with that term), who so eagerly and so unnaturally offer up their own children in exchange for fame and money is to deal with the families directly, and harshly. Until the world is willing to do that, the IDF should at least continue to bulldoze houses, and then bulldoze those replacement houses so generously offered by the ummah.

Posted by: Infidel33 at January 17, 2006 8:35 PM

I haven't seen this film and have no plans to spend money to do so (so there's a huge caveat for what follows). But I was wondering what Bruce Thornton was up to these days and so went over to VDH's site to find out and saw his recent review of a book called "One Nation Under Therapy":

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/thornton011506.html

This quote from his article struck me:

"This social determinism, which blames society for all psychic ills, has fostered as well the transformation of “sin to syndrome.” As the authors show, the imperative to be “nice” and non-judgmental has changed what were once venial or even mortal sins to “sickness,” and what were once sinners to “victims” who are now entitled to our empathy and compassion (and frequently our tax dollars). What we have lost from this transformation is the “capacity for appropriate moral indignation and a willingness to censure irresponsible and destructive behavior.” To Sommers and Satel, this medicalizing of moral failure has had its most destructive impact in the case of the pedophilic Catholic priests, several of whom were “treated” for their “sickness,” and then once “cured” sent out to prey again on children in their parishes. So too with addicts and murderers exculpated by those the authors call the “champions of therapism,” who speak of “ailment, dysfunction, and brain disease” rather than in terms of wrong choices, moral failure, and bad character."

It strikes me that this expectation that we should have empthy for suicide bombers and that the GG would honor this film is a good example of this pervasive tendency to "therapeutize" behavior that ought to be morally condemned instead. It's not that I object to understanding the psychodynamics of what produces murderers and pedophiles and suicide bombers. But I object to the confusion of understanding the psychodynamics of these behaviors from a scientific perspective (for the purpose of eradicating them) with actual EMPATHY for them. But that seems to be what has occurred. The attempt to understand the causes of such pathology has led not to efforts to use that understanding to eradicate such behavior; rather it has led to empathy, which may well result in perpetuating such behavior. The accolades given this film seem to be a good example of where this pervasive western tendency towards "therapeutism" has gotten us.

Posted by: Caroline at January 17, 2006 8:44 PM

Sorry - I guess the proper term is "therapism" rather than "therapeutism".

Posted by: Caroline at January 17, 2006 8:48 PM

I didn't see "Paradise Now." I did see "Ushpizin." It was excellent, excellent, excellent; writing, directing, acting, everything. It's hands down the best movie I've seen in 10 years (the last movie I saw was "Apollo 13," hehehe). Seriously though, "Ushpizin" is superb. I can't imagine a sympathetic story about murderers could be any better. But hey, I'm not one of the Hollywood elite, so what do I know. Besides, like I said I didn't see "72 Raisins Now" and I have no intention on seeing any more Arab propaganda, other than Reuters and Associated Press of course.

Posted by: MrsEener at January 17, 2006 9:01 PM

Very much off the track here and only meant to be an amicable expansion:

chevalier de st george said:

>The problem lies, of course, in the fact that >by 1944 she still believed in him, still >professed innocence of the death camps.

I also have seen most of her available work at one time or another.

Leni Riefenstahl's 2 major documentaries were made in 1934 (triumph of the Will) and 1936 (?Olympia). At those times amost NO German would have considered Hitler a danger to anyone other than jews and few believed even that would last.

By 1944 many Germans guessed about the camps but few knew for certain and almost no one not involved with the camps knew of the degree of the human destruction and while they did not know for certain they could cling to innocence. However, with the soviet steamroller approaching and allied mass bombing of cities I doubt whether knowing would have made any difference anyway as by then it was a war of annihilation on both sides as far as most germans were concerned and the post Hitler bomb plot showed that even sympathy for an enemy could get you hanged let alone talking about what happened in camps. Many really did expect Hitler to pull them out of disaster with the V weapons and the new Uboats and of those aware of atrocities most could not believe that their beloved fuhrer had knowledge of the crimes. That gives you some idea as to just how intense was his mesmerising of the German people. Thank God he ditched them in his last will and testament or we might have an islamic style problem with Nazism still.

>She was in obssesed with Hitler just as David >Irving is today.

She always admitted this and said it was such a pity that what started so well turned out so badly. She admitted that it was an adolescent girlish fascination which she never really overcame.

Irving is a fool and not even a good revisionist historian. he should talk to some Muslim historians to see how best to eliminate truth in his "works".

>The pity is that one of the world's most >brilliant innovators crossed paths with >history's most barbarous being and failed to >step back. But then that is the nature of >obsession.
>Wilhelm Furtwaengler also considered "Art" to >be above "Politics".

He wasn't considered barbarous until German atrocities in the East became wellknown. Those inflicted upon Poland were almost unknown in the west until Hitler invaded the USSR.

Hitler was seen by many Germans as God up to Stalingrad and few had noticed the price (near 800k casualties by the Winter war) until then.

We all know now the true history of events but these are known because Germany lost and did not have time to destroy her archives. Even the allies with all of their intelligence and reconaissance capacity were overwhelmed by the knowledge of the atrocities at the end of the war as it now explained so many previously puzzling occurrences.

In other words it is not hard to understand why germans felt the way that they did about Hitler before and during much of the war. But to still feel this way after the end of the war and the Nuremburg trials with the obvious evidence, then that has to be pure fanatacism, or as you say: obsession.

Posted by: Zathras at January 17, 2006 10:03 PM

"Abu-Assad, who works out of Holland but is now looking for a house in Hollywood Hills, had expected to lose as he did earlier this month to martial arts comedy "Kung Fu Hustle" at the Broadcast Film Critics awards."

Fancy losing to "Kung Fu Hustle" - that was pure trash (but entertaining!!)

"It is a God given 'gift' to them.Then how can God can punish them for that?"

rafia - Hate to tell you this, but the Polictically Incorrect God of the Bible loves them, but hates their sin, just the same as it is with me. Oh and he does punish this transgression, last time it was with a bit of burning sulfur at Sodom and Gomorrah. We will all be punished for our sin. You, me and everyone else. It just comes down to who takes the eternal "rap" for our sins.

"I am of the openion that Gayness is not acquird,but people are born with this tendency"

We all are - it's called sin, being a fallen Human being.

I know that they are loving, caring people. But they are not a foundational building block upon which society rests. Hetrosexual families are.

Posted by: 3rdtimelucky at January 17, 2006 10:18 PM

Violent death is the life blood(sic) of cheap cinema.

Sounds like a Zombie Film in mufti.

Another panderer for cash, willing to trample over bloody corpses -literally and metaphorically in this case- to get his Mercedes, McMansion, and USAfreedom, safe outside of the chaotic Muslim Sphere.

(I'll rent "The Seven Samurai" one more time before this weasel gets a cent ...for siding with The Blob -of moral ambiguity.)

Posted by: profitsbeard at January 17, 2006 10:33 PM

Gay cowboys? Rare as methodists who burn down mosques.

" I've seen the Mona Lisa
I've heard Shakespeare read real fine
Just like hearing Johnny Cash
Sing 'I Walk the Line' " ~ Rodney Crowell

Posted by: islamophobic pride at January 18, 2006 12:32 AM

Courtesy of blogger Debbie Schussell's blogsite, Matthew Kunzel describes an education campaign being conducted by the German government directed to 14 year olds who may attend Paradise Now. I think I'll flip this to Spencer as an excellent example of dhimmitude.

Here's the meat of the piece:

"It was important for us that the film should not be received without commentary," explained the President of BPB, Thomas Kruger, in conversation with the newspaper the Tageszeitung (29 September 2005). "If teachers discuss the film critically, this could prevent students of Turkish or Arab origin from watching it in a naive way. Thus, the basis for their possible need to identify with the main characters will be removed."

Really?

Leaving aside the question of why the BPB is recommending for educational use a movie that urges all viewers to identify with Palestinian mass-murderers: what makes Thomas Kruger think that his brochure will undermine such identification?

Here's the URL to the whole article:

http://www.trans-int.com/blog/archives/52-Suicide-Bombing-for-a-Higher-Ideal-Germanys-Central-Office-for-Political-Education-on-Paradise-Now.html

Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 18, 2006 7:59 AM

waterdragon - Good link. I read that article this morning. To me it gave some validity to the link I posted earlier, about "therapism" (the Bruce Thornton review of "One Nation Under Therapy"). An example of "therapism" from your link:

"Form two teams. Each team is to write an internal monologue on one of the scenes from the perspective of Said. Use the following questions to guide your reflections: What does Said perceive? How does he feel? What does he think? What decision does he make? What factors influence these decisions?"

Somehow, the capacity to see things from the "Other's" POV - to actually understand their motivations and thoughts and feelings while committing a terribly violent crime - abrogates judgement. That is what our psychoanalytic/psychotherapeutic culture has seemingly wrought.

Quite ironic then, that Freud is actually BANNED in Saudi Arabia - as revealed by a poster on another thread somewhere (these threads are growing faster and longer than I can keep up with:-))

In any case, if that's where the West would like to go, then imagine yourself as the person who did this:

http://www.fomi.nu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=15466&highlight=#15466

Scroll down on page 2 of Shiva's website (and thank you Shiva for linking to these pictures) until you get to the picture of the woman who has an entire broomstick shoved up her vagina. Not just up her vagina - obviously that broomstick goes way way up into her body, practically to her neck.

Why don't we give THAT as a "therapism/empathy" assignment to our kids? Let's see, how would that little assignment look?

"Form two teams. Each team is to write an internal monologue on this scene from the perspective of Muhammad - the guy who shoved this broomstick up this woman's vagina and sheer through all her internal organs'. Use the following questions to guide your reflections: What does Muhammad perceive? How does he feel? What does he think? What decision does he make? What factors influence these decisions?"

Posted by: Caroline at January 18, 2006 7:00 PM