In Iran, people are executed for consensual sex. Amnesty International also reports that women are frequently jailed, flogged, and stoned simply for speaking out about women’s rights.
The human rights watchdog group also reports that Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world, including the stonings and executions of child “offenders”…those under the age of 18 accused of alleged crimes.
Yet, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to America earlier this week, sounding like a women’s rights activist and overall compassionate nice guy. His apparent new-found love and respect for women is matched only by his joy at reporting to the world that his country does not have any homosexuals.
Sadly, like the flaming alcoholic that proclaims he only has a few drinks every now and then, Ahmadinejad denies that his regime habitually abuses women. Oh, and one other thing, his denial of homosexuals in his country is a weak attempt at covering up the fact that he executes them at quite a clip. Reports are that as many as 400 people have been killed for false charges of rape and abuse, when indeed the sex was consensual.
I rarely tag international Scrooges, but since he was on U.S. soil, Ahmadinejad is This Week’s Top Scrooge.
Other bonehead remarks from the “petty and cruel dictator” include questioning the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust while at Columbia University Monday.
This from Columbia President Lee Bollinger as reported by CBS and AP:
“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said, to loud applause.
He said Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.
“When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous,” Bollinger said. “The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history.”
And what was Ahmadinejad’s response? More from the same story:
Ahmadinejad rose, also to applause, and after a religious invocation, said Bollinger’s opening was “an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here.”
“There were many insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully,” Ahmadinejad said, accusing Bollinger of falling under the influence of the hostile U.S. press and politicians. “I should not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment.”
Unfriendly treatment? The king of hate, the leader of the Let’s Kill Jews and Infidels Club, and the world power-aholic, cries “unfriendly treatment”?
My only other dismay comes from seeing how many people in the U.S. kept quiet about Ahmadinejad, yet proclaimed their hatred for all-things-Bush this week.
Guess Ahmadinejad knows something about romancing public opinion after all.
Kenji Nagai of APF was shot while trying to take photographs as police and military officials fired upon and then charged at protesters in Yangon’s city centre September 27, 2007. Kenji, 52, a Japanese photographer, later died. The video comes from YouTube. Although disturbing, it is not graphic in nature. This is Japanese TV news station video.
Herb Lusk, now a pastor in Philadelphia, was the first NFL player to pray in the end zone. ( Getty Images/Jeff Fusco)
You can choose to do the rumba after scoring a touchdown or you can kneel down for a quick prayer…that’s freedom of expression, no matter how hard the NFL tries to crackdown on end zone celebrations…they happen.
Herb Lusk chose to kneel down and pray…and 30 years of scoring moments later, sports has changed for better and worse.
PHILADELPHIA — The play was 48 Toss, and 30 years later, Dick Vermeil remembers it as if he called it last Sunday. Herb Lusk took a pitch from Ron Jaworski, headed around left end and breezed unscathed 70 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Four steps over the goal line at Giants Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles’ running back rewrote the playbook. Alone in the end zone, with a crowd of 48,824 looking on, he celebrated with a gesture in what has since become a watershed moment in American sports.
With little ceremony and no advance warning, Lusk kept his eyes straight, dropped to his left knee and bowed his head in prayer. A few seconds later, he stood back up and returned to the sideline, his legacy sealed.
“Herb Lusk was the first NFL player to kneel in the end zone and pray,” said Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, which has footage of more than 9,000 games played since 1894.
One quote:
Said Vince Papale, Lusk’s teammate, whose career was portrayed in the 2006 movie “Invincible”: “Religion was such a hot-button issue that no one wanted to touch it. . . . What I liked about it, it was a private, sensitive moment for him. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, hey, look at me,’ like a lot of the celebrations have become these days. It wasn’t demonstrative.”
This is a great article with lots of NFL sports history. Be sure to take a look!
Christian leaders expressed solidarity for Myanmar’s pro-democracy monks who mobilized tens of thousands of citizens this week for their non-violent protests.
The head of the Anglican church in Myanmar, also known as Burma, said he is praying for the country as thousands take to the streets of the capital, Yangon, to demonstrate against the government.
“We pray for peace and the future of the country,” said Anglican archbishop Samuel San Si Htay, according to Ecumenical News International.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Thailand-based Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), Prawate Khid-arn, praised the positive role the monks played in helping people “to overcome the inhumane conditions to which they have been subjected for a long time.”
Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia and has one of the world’s worst religious freedom records. The military regime, which has ruled the country on and off since 1988, is accused of sanctioning sexual violence against women of ethnic minorities as well as ordering crosses and churches destroyed.
Nearly half of the reported cases documented against women of the Chin ethnic minority were gang rapes, and at least a third were committed by officers, according to U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
“These horrors are being sanctioned by the state in Burma,” said Cheery Zahau, a spokesperson for the Women’s League of Chinland, in a released statement. “How can the civilized world accept this junta among their ranks? And how can countries like India and China be arming these rapists?”
The Chin population in Burma is about 90 percent Christian and is severely persecuted by Burma’s traditionally pro-Buddhist military regime.
Smaller protests led by Buddhist monks began since Aug. 19, but it was the massive 100,000-people demonstration on Monday that propelled Myanmar into the international spotlight. Monday’s protest was the biggest demonstration since a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
“The open dissent and the bold marches of people across the cities is a clear sign that people are not willing to conform to the might of the military dictators,” said CCA’s Prawate in a letter to the Myanmar Council of Churches.
“The liberative spirituality of Buddhism and other religions is a positive non-violent counter force to transform the principalities, powers and demonic forces which have overtaken your country for decades,” he added.
The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches in Malaysia, said he hopes the protests will lead to a “new era of democracy and peace” in Myanmar, according to ENI.
Myanmar’s entire population is composed of 89 percent Buddhist and about four percent Christians.
Reuters photo attributed to a stringer captures journalist shooting photo before his death.
Reuters cutline: Kenji Nagai of APF tries to take photographs as he lies injured after police and military officials fired upon and then charged at protesters in Yangon’s city centre September 27, 2007. Kenji, 52, a Japanese photographer, was shot by soldiers as they fired to disperse the crowd. Kenji later died. (Stringer/Reuters)
If you are a tiny little dictatorship in a far corner in the world you can no longer hide. Human rights atrocities are no longer a dirty little secret an opressive regime can hide.
The world has become a smaller place.
From AP:
Images of the protests have been transmitted by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet, focusing attention on the escalating faceoff.
The lead:
YANGON, Myanmar — Security forces fired automatic weapons into thousands of pro-democracy protesters for a second day Thursday, and the military government said nine people were killed and 11 wounded.
Tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta’s crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations. Security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100, according to a monk at one monastery.
Journalist dead:
Among the dead was Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist covering the protests in Yangon for Japanese video news agency APF News. He was confirmed dead after his father and company representative identified him in a photo, a Japanese Embassy official in Myanmar told The Associated Press by telephone.
The flames of freedom in Mynamar are being fueled primarily by internet reports, including blog posts. Now that some deaths are being reported it seems the monks will be getting some serious footing.
YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces shot and wounded three people, and beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks Wednesday in the most violent crackdown against the protests that began last month, witnesses said. About 300 monks and activists were arrested, dissidents said.
Reports from exiled Myanmar journalists and activists in Thailand said security forces had shot and killed as many as five people in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. The reports could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press.
Bob McCarty, a political blogger with a line of catchy slogan merchandise, will be a guest on The Mancow Show Friday. McCarty’s “Don’t Taze Me, Bro” clothing and product line has been getting a lot of pub lately.
Thanks in part to the phenomena that is the Don’t Taze Me, Bro!™ line of t-shirts and other merchandise, this blogger will appear on the nationally-syndicated The Mancow Show Friday at 6:10 a.m. Central.
The Mancow Show is hosted by Erich “Mancow” Muller, a longtime Chicago radio chart-topper and frequent guest on Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends show. Broadcast live from Chicago, The Mancow Show airs on more than 30 radio stations and via the internet, reaching 8-10 million listeners daily with a unique mix of news, humor, commentary and entertainment.
Be sure to wake up early and tune in to The Mancow Show Friday morning at 6:10 a.m. Central.
To find out how to get your hands on “Don’t Taze Me, Bro!” merchandise, go to my World’s Most Dangerous Blog site.
Keep on blogging in the free world! I know those poor people in Belarus were trying to do something similar a couple years ago, but the numbers, publicity and momentum were just not there. Things appear different here.
BANGKOK (AFP) - Savvy young bloggers in Myanmar are breaking through the military junta’s tight Internet controls to post photos and videos of swelling anti-government protests, experts said Tuesday.
The government blocks almost every website that carries news or information about the Southeast Asian country, and even bars access to web-based email.
But an army of young techies in Yangon works around the clock to circumvent the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as soon as the protests happen.
Many of these images have been picked up by mainstream news organisations, because bloggers have managed to capture images that no one else can get.
Welcome!
TheScroogeReport is all about the news and then some! This kind of news is not just a (holiday) seasonal type of thing. It’s year-round kind of scroogery (and acts of kindness).
Our aim is to make this a place to get news and information about the spiritual battles that go on every day…at least those we may be able to recognize!
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.- John 1:4,5
