Neglectful vixen!
Apologies for so few posts on the blog lately: I've been crunching deadlines to clear the decks before I go up to San Francisco for the Olympic torch protests. (And considering what happened in London today, looks like it's going to be good times!! Leave bail donations in the tip jar, please!)
Anyway, here's the catch-up from last week. My Los Angeles Daily News column was on Geert Wilders' "Fitna" film, which I watched and critiqued:
"Geert Wilders is not going to win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short anytime soon.
The far-right Dutch politician with the trademark blond mane has delighted in being the shock-jock of parliament, and spends his days in police protection for a litany of anti-Islam comments. But while Wilders' short film 'Fitna,' released online last week with equal parts fanfare and trepidation, makes some salient points about the impact of Islamic radicalism, the message falls flat because of, well, the messenger.
Wilders, after all, prefers no Islam instead of championing moderate Muslims in Europe. He compares the Quran to Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.' And his film bounces back to the same premise: The Netherlands has too many Muslims.
The terror that killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, though, goes a lot deeper than demographic figures.
With a script credited to 'Geert Wilders & Scarlet Pimpernel,' 'Fitna' begins with the cartoon of Mohammed with the bomb in his turban that sparked deadly riots in 2006. The fuse on the turban bomb is lit, sizzling across a blank page of a book that later stands in for the Quran.
Kurt Westergaard, who drew that cartoon for Danish publication Jyllands-Posten and was recently the target of a murder plot, said Wilders' usage was 'theft' and 'an abuse of my cartoon.' Nowhere does 'Fitna' touch on the real story behind that cartoon, either, which is one of the most troubling parts about the vicious reaction to the Jyllands-Posten spread: Westergaard drew the cartoon to show how terrorists misuse Islam. ..."
And something I never thought would happen: The Arab-American News has cited me as a voice of reason.
Over at Pajamas Media, I previewed the San Fran torch run, which took an interesting turn last week with the Board of Supervisors approving a resolution basically dissing the torch and calling out city officials for being so accommodating to Beijing:
"...Newsom postponed releasing details of the torch route — to wind along the waterfront Embarcadero — until Tuesday, stymieing protesters’ organizational efforts. Protesters, he said, will be allowed to assemble at the end of the six-mile route, and officials also have designated Union Square, Portsmouth Square, Civic Center and Washington Square as acceptable rally points — also known as points far enough removed from the torch route.
Tuesday’s resolution, authored by Supervisor Chris Daly, was a symbolic, stern resolution that included the following:
- Urges federal authorities 'to call for an international inquiry to investigate these recent atrocities' in Tibet and asks China to allow free media inside the country;
- Urges Newsom to buck up and express his concern regarding the Tibet crackdown and asks him to urge China to behave;
- Urges Newsom to give protesters full access outside of the designated 'First Amendment Areas';
- 'Urges the Olympic Committee to boycott the Beijing 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony if there is no cessation of violence from Chinese security forces against peaceful protestors and other critics of the Chinese government';
- Commends the Olympic-protest flames also passing through town: the Human Rights Torch Relay and the Tibetan Freedom Torch;
- Urges the city official who accepts the torch to do so in the name of human rights and 'urges the above City Official to also make publicly known that the 2008 Summer Olympic Games Torch is received with alarm and protest at the failure of China to meet its past solemn promises to the international community'
The resolution passed 8-3. A resolution introduced simultaneously by Supervisor Carmen Chu — a watered-down statement welcoming the Olympic, Human Rights, and Tibetan Freedom torches equally without slamming China for human-rights violations — thankfully failed. Before Tuesday’s votes, the Chinese Consulate was quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle as saying the passage of either would be 'an insult to good, friendly relations.'
In fact, on Friday morning Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong stopped into Newsom’s office for a half-hour meeting that his office was otherwise zip-lipped about. On Tuesday, Newsom was passing off Daly’s resolution as symbolic mumbo-jumbo. Hardly surprising. Shortly before his 2004 swearing-in, Newsom credited Chinatown with handing him the runoff victory: 'There is one reason I won a very close election. And that is the support of the Asian community, and the Chinese community in particular. I could not have done it without you.'..."
Read the whole thing! And stay tuned for my San Fran coverage...
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