Today, Tuesday, January 27th, marks the seventieth anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, the death camp where the Nazis killed 1.1 million people between 1940 and 1945. 90% of those killed there were Jews and Auschwitz.was where one out of six of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were murdered. But the camp also housed, and killed, Polish people, Soviet political prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses, “homosexuals,” and Romani.
One of the people who survived Auschwitz,was Franciszek Jaźwiecki, a Polish political prisoner and artist, who captured the faces of his fellow inmates through the hundreds of portraits he drew. As Agnieszka Sieradzka, an art historian the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, writes, “the most interesting in these portraits are eyes — a very strange helplessness.” Sieradzka also suspects Jaźwiecki saw the portraits as future artifacts, since almost every portrait featured the prisoner number of the subject, which made them identifiable.
In case you missed President Obama’s amazing ad-libbed zinger of a comeback from this week’s State of The Union Address, here it is presented in its true essence: a music video.
When President Obama said, “I have no more campaigns to run,” some Republicans cheer and clapped. And without missing a beat, our commander in chief said, “I know, because I won both of them.” LIKE A BOSS!
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! To celebrate, let’s honor the currently sitting politicians who voted against making this day a federal or state holiday!
First, some background. Congressman John Conyers, (D-MI) first introduced legislation for a Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday on April 8, 1968, four days after he was killed. When Conyers brought the bill to the floor in November 1979, it failed by five votes. A bill was finally passed in 1983 and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, who only signed it because his veto would have been over-ridden.
So, let’s take a look at the politicians who are still in office and who voted against honoring Dr. King through a federal holiday.
Really, France? The country that prides itself on its liberté responds to an unfunny, hateful and stupid Facebook comment by arresting the idiot who posts it? The week after holding a march honoring free speech as well as those killed over exercising free speech? France does have a long tradition of conditional liberty. I think we all know the famous quote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, unless you post it on Facebook, in which case you deserve to be arrested.” (This quote is really, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” It is misattributed to Voltaire but is actually a phrase used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall to describe Voltaire’s position.)
On Wednesday, French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, who goes by his first name only, was arrested for being an “apologist for terrorism” over a post he wrote on Facebook on Monday: “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly,” mixing the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan in solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting with a reference to Amédy Coulibaly, the man who killed four people at a kosher supermarket last week.
Sunday night’s Golden Globes awards were truly epic. Hosting the awards ceremony for the third and last time, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were amazeballs, went out with a bang, will be missed and should basically host every event ever. There were, of course, examples of douche-baggery (you know who I’m talking to… Jeremy Renner and Bill Bob). But the night was also marked by ground breaking nominations and wins, which honored people, ideas and populations who are all to often ignored, marginalized, invisible. In other words, nominations and wins which would make especially self-pitying straight, white, male conservatives who freak out about their alleged loss of power, extremely uncomfortable, angry, sad, and even more self-pitying. So, here, without any further ado, I present the moments from the 2015 Golden Globes that made conservative heads explode. (OK. A little bit more ado… Because I don’t actually have the footage of exploding heads, to illustrate the reactions as I imagine them, I turn to GIFs of some of the characters from The Office.)
images of Robert Plant and Willie Dixon via wikipedia
Cultural appropriation is the gift that keeps on giving. Thursday marked what would have been the 80th birthday of Elvis Presley, whose relationship with Black music was complex, to say the least. Madonna created a social media backlash when she posted altered photos of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to promote her new album. And… Iggy Azalea.
But what about good old fashioned theft?
Some of the most successful songs performed by white singers are songs written and/ or performed by Black singers. Here is a mere sample of some of the countless examples (that we know of).
Every time an extremist who is Muslim commits an act of terrorism, people ask where the moderate Muslim voices condemning violence are. (Interestingly, as a Jew, I don’t usually get asked to condemn extremism when it is perpetuated by Jewish fundamentalists like Baruch Goldstein, who shot 29 praying Muslims do death, and injured 125, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, or Yigal Amir, who killed Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.) And the same thing is happening following this week’s deplorable, pathetic, and tragic killing of 12 people at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Not surprisingly, much of the “where is the Muslim outrage” outrage is coming from… Fox News, as Media Matters notes. Fox’s own Monica Crowley, for example, said that Muslims “should be condemning” the attack and that she hadn’t “heard any condemnation… from any groups.” Fox News’ America’s Newsroom guest Steve Emerson complained, “you don’t see denunciations of radical Islam, by name, by mainstream Islamic groups.” Bob Beckel, a host of Fox News’ The Five host said Muslims were “being quiet” about the shooting and accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of keeping “their mouth shut when things happen.”
To be fair, it’s not all Fox News. Here’s CNN’s Don “why didn’t you just bite Bill Cosby’s penis” Lemon asking Arsalan Iftikhar, a Human Rights attorney and the founder of The Muslim Guy website, “Do you support ISIS?” on Wednesday.
So, allow me to do some of the legwork for the media… And present examples of Muslim outrage about the Paris shooting.
Let’s start with organizations, like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has, according to Fox, kept its mouth shut. Somehow they managed to get out this statement.
We strongly condemn this brutal and cowardly attack and reiterate our repudiation of any such assault on freedom of speech, even speech that mocks faiths and religious figures. The proper response to such attacks on the freedoms we hold dear is not to vilify any faith, but instead to marginalize extremists of all backgrounds who seek to stifle freedom and to create or widen societal divisions.
We offer sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed or injured in this attack. We also call for the swift apprehension of the perpetrators, who should be punished to the full extent of the law.
When we study Islam, we see clearly that the Quran condemns this kind of violence categorically. That Prophet Muhammad said that a Muslim is one from whom all others are safe…. This is not about religion. This is about political power, this is about uneducated, ignorant youth who are being manipulated by clerics and extremists. And this is why it’s all the more important for us, as the moderates, regardless of faith, to stay united and combat this.
It’s not quite as unbelievable as the Immaculate Conception, but it’s pretty unthinkable, given the history of diplomatic “relations” between the U.S. and Cuba.
Tuesday, the wife of one of the Cuban Five gave birth to a baby girl, Gema Hernández Pérez. Gerardo Hernández was one of the three former Cuban intelligence agents, freed, after being in jail for 16 years, during a prisoner swap between Cuba and the U.S. last month, which also resulted in the release of the U.S. business man Alan Gross. But, obviously, Hernández was still in prison when his wife Adriana Pérez was impregnated. So, how did it happen? Conjugal visits, you say? Nope. Those weren’t allowed. The milk man, you say? Nope. The baby is of Hernández genetic stock.
As Hernández explained, “I had to do it by ‘remote control’.” OK. So, what does that mean?
Too many police leaders and politicians have responded to the recent tragic double murder of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos by blaming Barack Obama, Bill de Blasio, and peaceful police brutality protestors. At the same time, they refuse to acknowledge, let alone condemn, the police violence and brutality that have claimed the lives of countless people, including Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
This New Year’s, a good resolution for these professional pugilists would be to learn from the very families who have lost their loved ones to police brutality. The families of Michael Brown and, Eric Garner, in particular, would be good to study. While grieving their own losses, they have been able to extend condolences and sympathy to the grieving families of officers Lui and Ramos. And they have condemned violence in any form.
If you plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve Wednesday or New Year’s Day Thursday, I’m glad you’re reading this. In an attempt to understand whether New Years celebrations are actually Christian, I did some research on the internets. While some Christians celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, it turns out that God most definitely does NOT want you to celebrate it. Here are some reasons why.
1. History proves it is wrong.
Lest you think celebrating New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day is no big deal, The Church of God Faithful Flock proves just how wrong you are in an essay called The Truth About New Year’s, which makes GREAT USE OF ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!
Notice the proof of history… The celebration of New Year’s began in ancient Babylonia in Mesopotamia. It was a pagan custom of ancient sun-worship 2000 years before the birth of Jesus. The celebration of New Year’s is never once commanded in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles never observed it. Moses forbade it!
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