The Bookworm Beat 8/22/16 — the “as the world turns” edition and open thread

Woman-writing-300x265No wonder 1984 is no longer required reading in high schools. One of the Little Bookworms, after a summer of sloth, decided to read something noteworthy before returning to school. Her choice was George Orwell’s 1984, which I would include in any top 25 or even top 10 reading list.

Despite how wonderful 1984 is, both in terms of style and content, my Little Bookworm managed to pass all the way through a very highly rated public school without any exposure to Orwell at all — no 1984, no Animal Farm, no The Road to Wigan Pier, and no Politics and the English Language. George Orwell is persona non grata in our local high school.

My Little Bookworm did give me some insight into why public schools are loath to teach one of the greatest writers and thinkers in the English language. When we asked what her takeaway was from the book, she had this to say: “That whole Thought Police thing Orwell wrote about — it’s just like Political Correctness. There are no clear rules, but you have to think correctly or you get into trouble.”

Islam, the rapey religion. Not all Muslim men are rapists. Indeed, most Muslim men are not rapists. But when we look at the vast increase in rapes in countries such as Sweden or Denmark, or when we see sexual assaults across Germany, or when five-year-olds are raped by a group older boys here in America, it’s not a coincidence that a disproportionate number of these rapists and assaulters were raised in the Muslim tradition. As Robert Spencer explains, rape is hardwired in Islam.

One Muslim says Islam needs help. Why does our media and political class celebrate CAIR when it should be celebrating Tam Khan, who urges Muslims to do better? I can’t find Khan’s original Facebook post (which led to his being kicked off Facebook, allegedly “by mistake,” before being reinstated). You can see that post here, though. Khan also reiterated those same thoughts in a later post, which I reproduce here:

I am writing this in follow up to my post that went viral and in order to clarify a few points as there seems to be confusion.

I will first reiterate that I am clearly not a politician, writer or philosopher, neither have I held myself out as anything other than I am.

My post was very reactionary and, whilst inflammatory in nature, was aimed at a small minority of idiots who are often given a media platform to ridicule Islam and portray the religion and Muslims negatively. The likes of Anjem Choudhury etc.

These people do not represent Islam in any way they go out of their way to cause trouble whether for attention or because they truly hold warped beliefs. either way, they and the disgusting murderous terrorists are the reason the world unfairly judges over a billion Muslims negatively. It is always the loudest and most outrageous voices that are given a media platform to speak with that continues to fuel this fire. My post was simply to show people this is not Islam or a representation of Islam. I used the same inflammatory style to voice an opinion.

As for deportation comment yes they should be and when I said entire family my point is if you have a family member that is aware and allows this to continue then surely that is tantamount to “aiding and abetting”. I would like to think I would do my best to stop anyone I know of spreading hate or worse.

This positive action isn’t just for Muslims although this is obviously the community I associate with, but also the rest of society in speaking out against hate whether on public transport when muslims are targeted in public or even speaking out against the likes of EDL, Britain First, BNP etc. These people are as hateful, ignorant and evil. Spread of hatred is just the same and it divides people inciting hate.

Islam is a religion of peace. Don’t judge Islam on individuals the same way Muslims shouldn’t judge Christianity on the likes of Bush or Blair who lied to the world and went on to authorise the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people.

My post was aimed at my community because as a Muslim Brit who was born and raised in the UK I recall a much more integrated upbringing. Everyone practiced their own religion with no animosity. This can be restored but only with education. That can only happen if we eradicate these extremists from having a platform to talk on our behalf.

My point on Muslims being victims meant we cannot sit and just always reiterate why we are where we are. Yes there are other reasons some people are prone to brainwashing over others and yes there are issues around foreign policy and the West being seen to invade Muslim countries BUT it doesn’t mean we sit and not do anything. We can make a start in our communities, encourage youth to integrate, provide positive role models etc. Show the world the positive reasons why our faith is strong and follow the footsteps of the example of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH who was persecuted continuously.

People were so outraged over my post but please show the same outrage when another human is a target of a terrorist or even a victim of hate based crime. My intention was to show the beauty of Islam and how we are all the same and all want one thing, peace. Islam teaches believers of it to live amongst other religions and cultures and respect one another. Nobody has the right to chant for hate or death. People need to stop getting heated and discuss, debate and only then people will understand what Islam really is. It’s our duty to do this.

Let’s all, myself included, spend more time praying, donating and doing charitable acts, treat others well, respect elders etc, then watch how people will genuinely see the beauty of Islam. Majority of people are already doing so but it’s time those voices are the ones we hear and not the ‘bad apples’ and only we Muslims can do that.

I appreciate all the positive feedback and even the few negative. Again, rather than make silly fake accounts and be abusive towards me why not enter into a sensible discussion or I’ll be more than happy to discuss. I’m not a politician nor activist but a proud British Muslim who wants to eradicate all the horror we see today. The best way to start is at home.

Yes, Khan does call Islam a “religion of peace,” which is too often a cop-out, but in Khan’s case, he’s actually making demands on his co-religionists that will bring Islam in line with that description. Good for him!

Also, as someone who did MMA for years, I think it’s icing on the cake that Khan is a high-level MMA fighter.

The law of unintended consequences again strikes Lefties. Lefties struck a blow for ex-cons by making it illegal for employers to ask an applicant whether he or she has done time. They reasoned that employers don’t like hiring ex-cons so keeping this information confidential would increase ex-cons’ access to employment. Wrong!

But research suggests otherwise. Instead, such policies encourage racial stereotyping by employers that hinders minority groups from finding work.

Speaking of racial stereotyping, I assume you saw this wonderful one, with CNN assuming all felons are black:

CNN racist

Raaacist!!

It is entirely possible to stop illegal immigration. I’m not too worried that Trump is backing off his “ship everyone back to Mexico” rhetoric. I always understood that to be a rhetorical device aimed at making people understand that he sees illegal immigration into America as a problem.

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to ship everyone back. Instead, you need to make it sufficiently unpleasant for a critical mass that the others ship themselves back voluntarily (as they did when the recession started). Police work never means catching every criminal. Instead, it means making the price of crime seem too high. After all, unless they’re pure predators, insane, or dysfunctionally stupid, even law breakers are rational actors.

Read here how, in the 1950s, the Eisenhower administration cracked down on illegal immigration, making it too costly an effort for most to try.

Have you ever wondered how Michael Ramirez creates his incisive political cartoons? If so, you need wonder no more. Michael Ramirez has put up a post detailing the work that goes into the published cartoon. What’s amazing to me is that the cartoon idea appears fully formed in his mind before he ever sets pen to paper. What a brilliant man.

A Politically-Correct movie review. I didn’t get this post up earlier today because my Little Bookworm begged me to see Kubo and the Two Strings. First, let me say that it’s one of the most visually beautiful films I’ve ever seen, a seamless amalgam of computer stop motion animation based on Japanese art with an emphasis on origami. The movie is eye candy.

Having said that, I was deeply troubled by the movie’s cultural appropriation. It took place in a Japanese setting (albeit a mythological one), but it was made in Hillsboro, Oregon, by what appears to be an entirely white creative team!

Worse, almost none of the voice actors playing the main characters are actually Japanese! Instead, aside from the bit roles that were given to people with Japanese names, the big-name cast is mostly a “Who’s who” of white, non-Japanese cultural appropriators: Charlize Theron; Art Parkinson; Ralph Fiennes; Brenda Vaccaro; Rooney Mara; and Matthew McConaughey are the headliners. George Takai got his name high up on the list, but had a small role.

Honestly, it was hard to watch this kind of blatant cultural theft.

Matters weren’t helped by the fact that the movie was a preachy religious movie, with extended narratives about prayer and eternal life.

Oh, wait! The whole religious shtick is actually okay because it wasn’t the Judeo-Christian religious tradition being foisted on young moviegoers. Instead, it was a Shinto-New Age fusion, which is obviously acceptable because to hold otherwise would be raaacist.

(Getting a little confused here, because it’s apparently not cultural appropriation to laud someone’s religious tradition ahead of your own, but it is cultural appropriation if . . . ah, heck! Whatever.)

Honest review here? Stunningly beautiful images; trite, boring story.

Yes, abortion in American is racist. Here’s the summary of an article in the Open Journal of Preventative Medicine (emphasis mine):

There is no credible scientific opposition to the fact that a genetically distinct human life begins at conception and that an induced abortion is a death. Yet, abortion is not reported as a cause of death in the U.S. vital statistics system. Mortality patterns have profound implications for public policy. As a cause of death, we found abortion to be highly consequential, with large racial and ethnic disparities. Abortion represented 16.4% of non-Hispanic White deaths, but 61.1% and 64.0% of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic deaths respectively. For Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL), the ubiquitous measure of premature death, abortion accumulated 63.1% of non-Hispanic White YPLL and 86.5% and 87.4% of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic YPLL respectively. Further, as measured by the availability of valid data and resources allocated for research, there is evidence that the science community is not appropriately engaged on this crucial public health problem.

You know the racists have really won when, instead of doing the dirty work themselves when it comes to killing the disfavored race, the racists convince the disfavored race to commit auto-genocide.

Maybe you’d better stop relying so much on your GPS. Much as I hate to love things Google, I love GoogleMaps. It gives me the information I need in a way that my brain understands. The downside of that whole “brain understands” thing, though, is that my reliance on GoogleMaps may be causing the directional sensor in my brain to atrophy. That can’t be good.

When the indoctrination fails. I’ve been quite unhappy about the fact that one of my Little Bookworms is heading off to an extremely liberal college. (Long story there, that I can’t explain here.) I’m hoping, though, that the indoctrination will be so obnoxious that she does what Jay Stephens did: fights back and becomes a conservative. Since this is the same Little Bookworm who made the connection between Big Brother’s Thought Control and political correctness, maybe there’s hope.

When it comes to the insanity at American colleges, I hope more people take a page out of Dennis Prager’s book and stop donating to their colleges. I’m proud to say that I’ve never given a single penny to Cal — except of course for the money forcibly removed from me for state and federal taxes.

Radar O’Reilly on government. I was wasting time the other day looking up the bios of actors who started in M*A*S*H on television. A surprising number have died, which made me feel old and tired. One thing did lift me up, though, and that was an unexpected quotation from Gary Burghoff, who played Radar O’Reilly. I have no idea if Burghoff is a leftist or a conservative, but this quotation strikes me as being inherently conservative: “I don’t vote for the guy I trust. I vote for the guy who trusts me the most.”

Praise from Caesar is praise indeed. I was extremely flattered that Mike McDaniel, one of the best bloggers out there, found inspiration in one of my posts. He writes movingly about faith — and the choice we make to believe.

Speaking of faith, the friend of whom I spoke the other day, who is having a health crisis, is still having that crisis. His daughter said prayers would help, so please, when you say your prayers, drop in a little line for my friend (I’m sure that God will know who “Bookworm’s friend” is).

Nicer out of bed = more fun in bed. I don’t know if a study was necessary, but a study did prove that if you’re nice, you get more sex. If you like sex, be nice.