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Bangkok TV soap opera attracts Muslim anger and scrutiny

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A TV station in Buddhist-majority Thailand has agreed to allow government-approved "Islamic experts" to revise a soap opera script after a small but vocal Muslim group complained that the show misrepresents their religion.

The soap opera "Fah Jarod Sai" or "Where the Sky Meets the Sand" stars Thai actors in a superficial melodrama portraying an imaginary Arab-style royal officer who falls in love with a girl who is half-Thai, half-French, in a fantasy kingdom named Hinfara.

On August 22, a small, outspoken Bangkok-based group, Muslims for Peace, demanded Channel 7 cancel the series.

On August 24, in response, Channel 7's executives met Thailand's moderate Muslim spiritual leader Aziz Phitakkumpon, who is the "Chularatchamontri" or State Counselor for Islamic Affairs, which is an advisory position approved by the prime minister and appointed by the king.

It was not announced whether or not the Chularatchamontri and his office's Muslim colleagues also objected to the soap opera.

The Muslims for Peace presented their complaint to Bangkok

No Military Coups for America? What About November 1963?

An interesting aspect of the military coup in Egypt has been the attitude of American mainstream commentators who suggest that unlike Egypt and other countries, the chances of a military coup in the United States are virtually nil. See, for example, “America the Coupless” by Rosa Brooks and “Could a Military Coup Happen in America?” by Paul Greenberg.

Really? What about November 22, 1963?

“Oh, Jacob, don’t be silly. President Kennedy’s assassination couldn’t have been orchestrated by the U.S. national-security state, notwithstanding the overwhelming amount of evidence pointing in that direction, because it’s just inconceivable that such a thing could happen here in our country. That’s just a conspiracy theory. Such things only happen in places like Egypt … or Chile … or Iran … or Guatemala … or South Vietnam and, yes, oftentimes with the support and participation of the U.S. military and the CIA, but such a thing could never happen here in our country.”

Buying a gun in Thailand can be expensive

BANGKOK, Thailand -- If you have an itchy trigger finger in Thailand, you need to be relatively wealthy to buy some of the best quality guns which are made in America and avidly collected.

Tourists meanwhile can buy custom-made leather holsters and other accessories at the estimated 80 weapons stores along Burapha Road, just east of the Sala Chalerm Krung Royal Theatre, where 90 percent of Bangkok's gun shops are located.

Most of the shops have been in business for more than 40 years, and welcome walk-in customers, but may discourage photographs of their deadly arsenals.

"Not many foreigners buy guns in Thailand because the price is really expensive, compared to the U.S. and other countries, because of our importing quota and taxes," says the Firearms Association of Thailand's Director of International Relations, Polpatr Tanomsup.

"Guns are really expensive, so it is considered a sport for the rich. Like cars, and stuff like that. It is like a Louis Vuitton for guys, or a Hermes bag for guys," Polpatr says.

Expats and other foreigners working in Thailand can buy guns, but

The March on Washington through the eyes of a young radical

The March on Washington means many things to many people, but for those of us who were born well after the event, the occasion runs the risk of resembling just another footnote in a textbook. Reading about Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous words is one thing, but hearing them in person is something else entirely. Nonetheless, the March on that fateful day in 1963 has meaningful prescriptions that can still resonate today.

The March on Washington represented much more than ‘Jobs and Freedom.’ It was not only a push for equality, but a demand for equality at a time when it was inconvenient to do so. The repression of African Americans in civil society for so long is not something to be brushed aside as a historical note. Deprived of their basic, natural rights, it was not timely to demand the recognition of those rights. Indeed, it would have been much easier to wait until Congress eventually came around to its senses on the matter. That reasoning would not satisfy Martin Luther King Jr.; equality is a cause that does not wait.

Absurdities: A document without an author, a quote without an attribution, and an assurance without proof

The Inuit people are alleged to have dozens of words for snow. While the abuse of the English language continues unchecked in government, journalists covering national security issues need dozens of words to describe the different forms of absurd. Claiming the tail is wagging the dog when you might be viewing a pack of gray wolves against an overcast sky is a fitting metaphor. Regardless of what is the tail, what is the dog, or what is the wolf, two things are clear: German Prime Minister Angela Merkle is willing to accept any absurd justification for American spying on her citizens from NSA head Keith Alexander and ignore any evidence to contrary even if it comes from within her own government.

50 years later: The president’s response

This Wednesday, Aug. 28, on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Dream” oration, President Barack Obama will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Much of the press is speculating about whether the president can reach the “King standard.” Can he deliver an address with the poetry and the vision that made Dr. King’s speech timeless?

But, I suggest to you that this is the wrong standard by which to measure the president. Barack Obama isn’t the leader of a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He is the leader of the government. The March on Washington 50 years ago was a call by an oppressed people seeking justice. As the call to the march detailed, we marched to “help resolve an American crisis,” a crisis “born of the twin evils of racism and economic deprivation.”

An Appeal Against Attacking Syria

Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace laureate, today appealed to the Rt. Hon. William Hague, British Foreign Minister, and M. Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister, to stop calling for military action against Syria which, she said, will only lead the Middle East into even more violence and bloodshed for its people.

Maguire said:

Arming rebels and authorizing military action by USA/NATO forces will not solve the problem facing Syria, but indeed could lead to the death of thousands of Syrians, the breaking-up of Syria, and it falling under the control of violent fundamentalist jihadist forces. It will mean the further fleeing of Syrians into surrounding countries which will themselves become destabilised. The entire Middle East will become unstable and violence will spiral out of control.

Fifty years later: What would King say now?

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people marched on Washington, DC. The platform for the speakers and singers program was set up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out on the Reflecting Pond with the Washington Monument in the distance. The thousands and thousands of participants – at the time the largest crowd ever to march on the nation’s capital – showed clearly that a century after the Civil War far too many Americans, especially black Americans, were still deprived of their fundamental rights as citizens.

A. Philip Randolph’s call for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom showed the political leaders of America that the time for change was at hand. As Bob Dylan would sing the following year, “The Times They Are a-Changin’” – whether white America was ready or not.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took the stage for remarks listed as item 16 on the official program. Yet his “I Have a Dream” speech is probably what is best remembered from that momentous day. From the moment he began to speak, the crowd was rapt, many chanting in response to his words.

Another day, another dark website, another journalist silenced in fear

Citing the decision by the secure email provider Lavabit to close rather than install NSA spying hardware and/or software directly on its servers, an important and long lived legal news blog groklaw.net shuttered this week. The founder of the blog, Pamela Jones or PJ, had collaboratively covered major intellectual property lawsuits, anti-trust suits and issues around open source software for 10 years with both programmers and lawyers, bridging the gap between the two professions in a masterpiece project of investigative citizen journalism. The owner of Lavabit, Ladar Levison, claimed he was threatened with arrest several times while being dragged through court in order to compel him to spy on his customers. Sources quoted by NBC have said that the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is now considering charging Levison for shuttering his business.

Tell Congress to say NO to a War on Syria

The neocon war criminals who took the U.S. into an illegal and disastrous war in Iraq are back - and demanding a Syria War.
The Shock and Awe bombing of Baghdad in 2003 that launched the disastrous Iraq War. We say No!
Attacking Syria won't reduce the violence - it will only escalate it with devastating consequences for Syrians and Americans, as we learned so painfully in Iraq.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq killed 100,000 to 600,000 Iraqi civilians. For Americans, the invasion killed 4,486 U.S. troops and wounded 32,223. Of the 2.3 million U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, roughly 20% suffer from PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury, and hundreds commit suicide each year. For returning troops and their loved ones, the war is never over.

Tell Congress: No Syria War!

Economically, the U.S. absolutely cannot afford war with Syria. The Iraq War cost the U.S. economy $3 trillion and helped cause the Great Recession of 2008, which has not ended.

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