Ahmed Mohamed Gets Slam’med — Doggerel!

This story angered me so much that I couldn't write about it immediately. Here it is, as soon as I calmed down enough not to spew a relentless stream of obscenities and profanities...

Doesn't he look
DANGEROUS?
(Gimme a break!)

Several days after 14-year-old Ahmed  Mohamed, formerly of Irving, TX, was arrested and jailed for bringing a clock he (re)constructed to school, where one teacher (and apparently the mayor of Irving) thought it was a bomb or a hoax bomb, the whole family decided to forsake the not-so-good old USA and accept an offer from the fabulously wealthy nation of Qatar to enroll young Ahmed in the complex of technology-related schools and universities at Doha. They're on their way, and the wretched anti‑Arab, anti-Muslim bastards apparently now running the US have lost us another bright, talented kid who might have invented something important for America someday, if only the hostile muthafuckas had not chased him and his family off...

     Ahmed Mohamed
     Gets Slam’med

A clockmaker, Ahmed Mohamed,
Did swear that no one would be bomb'ed.
And most folks believed him,
But bigots deceived him,
So into the clink the boy's slam'med.

Thus Ahmed Mohamed takes stock
Right after one night in the dock:
"Forget Harry Potter;
I'm headed for Qatar!"
And thus HE is cleaning THEIR clock!

     - Steve Bates

On the positive side, the kid's invention and subsequent jailing got him an invitation from President Obama to an Astronomy Day at the White House (Butthead Sen. Ted said this was purely political). On the negative side (IMHO), he got another invitation from Mark Zuckerberg...

Binge-Reading Ms. Klein

I haven't slept well the last couple of nights, and have devoted the otherwise wasted time to an attempt to finish Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine before I turn 67 years old tomorrow. In sheer number of pages, I have not that far to go, but the entire book is truly depressing reading, and it is so packed full of information and examples that one gets the most out of it by reading every word. And of course Ms. Klein, of necessity, takes the reader back to the George W. Bush presidency, which was IMNSHO even worse than the Obama era. Ah, well; I have plenty of good, cheap wine on hand, and an undeniably good book, to see me through the evening...

---

AFTERTHOUGHT: let me clarify. Obama has been disappointing to me, while GeeDubya and crew were utterly disgusting. Got it?

Loretta Lynch Confirmation Held Up... And Held Up... And...

... held up, by the GOP, of course. Pretty much everyone admits she is well-qualified and will be confirmed if she ever gets a vote in the Senate.

Lynch

At this point, according to President Obama (heard here on CNN), her nomination has been held up "longer than the five previous attorney general nominees combined" [note: Yahoo! News says seven, not five] delayed each time on an issue completely unrelated either to Lynch herself or to the Attorney General's office, each issue deliberately introduced by the GOP to prevent any advancement of the confirmation process.

Maybe this is politics as usual.

Or maybe this is further evidence that today's GOP is incapable of governing.

‘National Security’ And National/International Abuse Of Government Power: Chomsky

His ideological personal history aside, Noam Chomsky has, in the past two decades, struck me as one of the clearest thinkers of our age on issues involving both international relations and relations between individuals and government. His latest article for The Nation is no exception. Wait until late at night when you have fewer distractions, brew yourself some really strong tea and read Chomsky's response to the question, Should We Stop Talking About National Security? / Our government has always justified its worst abuses of power—here and abroad—on the basis of “national security.” His themes will not surprise you if you've read any of his other articles, but you may appreciate his synthesis in one place of policy issues seldom mentioned together in the American press and media.