Barbie denounced as destructive by Iranian prosecutor
Guardian
The blonde-haired, scantily-clad Barbie doll and other western toys will lead to "destructive and cultural consequences" for Iran, the country's leading prosecutor was quoted as saying today.
In a letter to the Iranian vice-president, published in the Mardom Salari daily newspaper, the prosecutor general, Dori Najafabadi, wrote: "The appearance of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter and ... computer games and movies are all a danger warning to the officials in the cultural arena," Reuters reported.
Najafabadi, a high-ranking cleric, said Iran was the world's third biggest importer of toys, and suggested this posed a threat to the "personality and identity" of the new generation.
"The unrestrained entry of this sort of imported toys ... will bring destructive cultural and social consequences in their wake," he wrote.
He added that many toys were smuggled into Iran, accusing importers of concentrating on profits at the expense of cultural values.
This is not the first time Barbie has become the focus of Iranian disapproval. In May 2002, the Komiteh - the public morality police - cracked down on sellers of the doll, arresting shopkeepers and saying Barbie was improperly dressed.
At the time, one shopkeeper told the Guardian that the Komiteh had taken $11,000 (£5,534) of his goods during the raids. "Iranians love everything Barbie. I just can't understand it," he said.
An Iranian version of the doll, called Sara, was launched. She follows Islamic rules of dress and her brother, Dara - much like Barbie's boyfriend, Ken - is the male version of the doll.
Too attractive for Iranian tastes.
That picture reminded me of the great video of the well-dressed woman kicking the shrouded hag down the street in Tehran!
ReplyDeleteObama & The Flag Pin [Jonah Goldberg]
ReplyDeleteFrom Don Surber:
To offset complaints that he was just wearing the patriotic lapel pin for show, he spoke about it in Kokomo, Ind., on Friday, as reported by Jake Tapper of ABC News.
“This is a phony issue,” Obama said. “So let me address it right now.”
Just what we need, politicians who are brave enough to tackle what they view as the phony issues of the day.
Obama on Friday: “The reason that I don’t always wear a flag pin is not that I disrespect the flag, it’s that when I started wearing a flag pin after 9/11, I gotta admit that sometimes I would misplace it and so I didn’t always put it on.”
Obama in October: “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
Thank you, Sen. Obama, for clarifying where you stand on this “phony issue.”
Not wearing flag pins is a phony issue Doug. Does Baghdad Jim McDermott suddenly become a patriot because he wears a flag pin? Is John McCain not a patriot if he misplaces his? The flag is the symbol of America, but a flag pin is just a symbol of that symbol. And if you make it a litmus test it will become as meaningless as the phrase "God bless America" has become at the end of every Presidential speech since Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteRant continues:
ReplyDeleteWhen Obama refuses to wear a flag pin he makes a statement. That statement is the rejection of empty symbolism in favor of true patriotic deeds and values. There is no religious test for public office. Pledging allegience to the flag is viewed by some as a weird kind of state religion, putting the flag over the cross. Certainly the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists think along these lines. Besides, there are strict rules about the display of the flag and wearing a flag is forbidden.
EXCELLENT ADVICE FOUNDS IN PROVERBS
ReplyDeleteDOOM SPEAKS
For Obama, the Voice of Doom?
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Barack Obama's pastor would have been wise to continue to heed that wisdom.
Should it become necessary in the months from now to identify the moment that doomed Obama's presidential aspirations, attention is likely to focus on the hour between nine and ten this morning at the National Press Club. It was then that Wright, Obama's longtime pastor, reignited a controversy about race from which Obama had only recently recovered - and added lighter fuel.
Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.
In front of 30 television cameras, Wright's audience cheered him on as the minister mocked the media and, at one point, did a little victory dance on the podium. It seemed as if Wright, jokingly offering himself as Obama's vice president, was actually trying to doom Obama; a member of the head table, American Urban Radio's April Ryan, confirmed that Wright's security was provided by bodyguards from Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.
Wright suggested that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his pastor. "He didn't distance himself," Wright announced. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American."
Explaining further, Wright said friends had written to him and said, "We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected." The minister continued: "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."
Wright also argued, at least four times over the course of the hour, that he was speaking not for himself but for the black church.
"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," the minister said. "It is an attack on the black church." He positioned himself as a mainstream voice of African American religious traditions. "Why am I speaking out now?" he asked. "If you think I'm going to let you talk about my mama and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious tradition and my grandma, you got another thing coming."
That significantly complicates Obama's job as he contemplates how to extinguish Wright's latest incendiary device. Now, he needs to do more than express disagreement with his former pastor's view; he needs to refute his former pastor's suggestion that Obama privately agrees with him.
Wright seemed aggrieved that his inflammatory quotations were out of the full "context" of his sermons -- yet he repeated many of the same accusations in the context of a half-hour Q&A session this morning.
His claim that the September 11 attacks mean "America's chickens are coming home to roost"?
Wright defended it: "Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles."
His views on Farrakhan and Israel? "Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion. He was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter's being vilified for and Bishop Tutu's being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago. He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color."
He denounced those who "can worship God on Sunday morning, wearing a black clergy robe, and kill others on Sunday evening, wearing a white Klan robe." He praised the communist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua. He renewed his belief that the government created AIDS as a means of genocide against people of color ("I believe our government is capable of doing anything").
And he vigorously renewed demands for an apology for slavery: "Britain has apologized to Africans. But this country's leaders have refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I'm not going to keep stepping on your foot and asking you, does this hurt, do you forgive me for stepping on your foot, if I'm still stepping on your foot. Understand that? Capisce?"
Capisce, reverend. All too well.
Out this way, Barbie never made a big hit. Most girls, least in my daughter's stable, had toy horses. Dozens. Still have them packed away.
ReplyDeleteBesides, there are strict rules about the display of the flag and wearing a flag is forbidden.
ReplyDeleteThe flag is the symbol of America, but a flag pin is just a symbol of that symbol.
Wright suggested that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his pastor. "He didn't distance himself," Wright announced. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American."
ReplyDeleteExplaining further, Wright said friends had written to him and said, "We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected." The minister continued: "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."
I struggle to know what to make of this. Help me, T!
How can...how can...how can any of this be true..unless...unless...Obama's a fraud?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Barbie may well be a greater threat to us than to the Iranians, if what she represents is not sensuality, but a kind of mindlessness, which really can be dangerous.
ReplyDeleteBan Barbie!
Bring back the noble horses of wisdom.
From inside a gated community, segregated from the rest of America, speaking from the porch of his multi-million dollar mansion, Rev. Jeremiah Wright said, : "I describe the conditions in this country"...
ReplyDeleteResearchers Discover Massive Asshole in Blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteWho would that be?
From inside the cramped cab of a John Deere 6602, airconditioning broken down again, a sweltering bob said: "I describe the conditions in America...and G-Damn John Deere and the Cargil and Company."
ReplyDeleteScrappleface will have some good stuff on Wright in a day or so.
ReplyDeleteThe lapel pin imbroglio is small stuff which when taken with the other small stuff makes larger stuff.
ReplyDeleteRemember right after 9-11 when the media made an issue of the talking heads who interest of "objectivity" declined to wear pins? Please, we know it was and is the leftist mindset. Obama, like Wright and Ayres is a leftist, pure and simple. It will be up to McCain to draw out the true picture of the candidate.
I hope that massive asshole isn't a gamma buster.
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Bobal: I struggle to know what to make of this. Help me, T!
ReplyDeleteBobal, actually, we've been through since the "O Mindless One" crap you posted on Belmont Club. I'm posting this as a courtesy so you don't waste bandwidth.
Ok, the peckerwood will back off, but hoestly, I don't see how you can defend these guys. These guys aren't democrats of old, but you might be too young to remember. These guys are dangerous, and they are not going to bring anybody together. Obama may be that miracle of miracles, a 'democrat' that actually turns the Jews into republicans, where they ought to be. He's already got the working whites riled, what with calling us mindless gun lugging churchgoing peckerwoods. There's nothing funny about it really, except in a grim sort of way. They've had their chance with me. I said once, before I knew much of Wright, well, really, an African centric church might be understandable, given the natural tendency of everyone but the saints to identify with their own group. But this stuff has gone way beyond that.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of worthies. Good ol' unca Jerry.
SCDS--Sudden Candidate Death Syndrome
ReplyDeleteWell, the decline of US culture does start with the introduction of Barbie, circa 1959.
ReplyDeleteAfter Barie was introduced, the sexual and drug revolutions, in the US, took off like gangbusters.
It was Free Love for everyone, just like Barbie and Ken had in the playhouse.
Barbie being built in a deformed human profile, to accent the breasts, in a sexually provocative manner.
The downfall of the "Family" can be traced directly to Barbie, no doubt of it.
The fundementalist Muslims in Iran know the deal about the dangers poised by loosened moral values that Barbie represents.
A federal judge in California has cleared the way for Barbie doll maker Mattel Inc (MAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to go forward with its lawsuit against ex-employee and Bratz dolls inventor Carter Bryant.
ReplyDeleteMattel, the world's largest toy maker, had claimed it owns MGA Entertainment's Bratz dolls because Bryant conceived the big-headed, pouty-lipped toys while he worked as a Barbie designer.
In a ruling issued on Friday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson said "the undisputed facts establish that Bryant breached his fiduciary duty to communicate his inventions to Mattel when, rather than doing so, he secretly entered into a contract with Mattel's competitor, while still employed by Mattel."
Suit Against Bratz Inventor
R-Rated
ReplyDeleteBarbie Does Mecca
Barbie Romances The Bedouin Bone
ReplyDeleteYou folks will be rid of me soon, I won't punish you much longer.
ReplyDeleteRemind me again, what Federal office is Mr Wright running for?
ReplyDeleteWhere you goin'?
ReplyDelete"What I think is interesting is none of the voters I talk to ask about it," Obama said. "Now, there may be people who are troubled about it and are being polite in not asking me about it.
ReplyDeleteBut that's not what I hear from the voters. What I'm hearing is concerns about gas prices.
I'm hearing from people concerned about their jobs being shifted overseas."
Doesn't Speak for him
Secretary of Cultural Affairs:)
ReplyDeleteEast.
Forgot the, to Ohio.
ReplyDeleteChild Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar says 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were living on the ranch in Eldorado. Of that group, 31 already have children or are pregnant.
ReplyDeleteState officials took custody of all 463 children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch more than three weeks ago after a raid prompted by calls to a domestic violence hotline.
Child welfare officials say there was a pattern of underage girls forced into "spiritual marriages" with much older men at the ranch.
Girls have been Pregnant
Geez, looks like the Feds may come out looking good. At the least, statutory rapes all over the place.
ReplyDeleteOkay, before you drop off the edge of the world, bobal, I apologize for calling you a peckerwood, but I don't remember doing so.
ReplyDeleteNothing to apologize for. I got a kick out of it. Had to look up what it meant though. And I apologize to you for anything you might wish. You know your Finn, makes you wonderful in my mind, differences of opinion nothwithstanding.
ReplyDeletebob:
ReplyDeleteI think Texas is going to get their lunch handed to them over this business. Until a few years ago, in Texas the minimum age for marriage was 14. It's now 16.
I don't think it will end so well for Texas or the country.
Some Republicans have worried that by not using the Wright issue, Mr. McCain was denying himself a potentially potent weapon.
ReplyDeleteBut in recent days, Mr. McCain has stepped up his attacks on Mr. Obama on other fronts. He questioned Mr. Obama’s association with William Ayers, a former member of the radical group Weather Underground.
And he also said of a supportive statement that a member of Hamas had made about Mr. Obama: “It’s clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.”
Former Pastor
Yeah, it wasn't the Feds, I remember now. Well, I don't know. When I think of age it's 18 in my mind, as that is what it has been here, as far as I know. Unless I'm getting it mixed up with drinking age. Even at 16, it sounds like a lot going on. Have to wait and see. A 'marriage' even at 16--what about the coercion element? Is that an angle? Gets complicated. Maybe most of it was 'legal' though disgusting.
ReplyDeleteClimate changes come in all sorts and sizes. Over the last few billion years our planet has ranged from being a global snowball to a world so warm that reptiles bathed in the sun in Antarctica, according to the geologic evidence.
ReplyDeleteLife has always played a pivotal role in Earth's climate, having been both driven to evolve by climate changes and an actual driver of climate change. Among the most important climate players have been those organisms that suck up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the air, deposit its carbon into the ground, and release oxygen into the atmosphere – a.k.a., plants, algae and other photosynthesizers.
Over millions of years they enriched the atmosphere with oxygen, making animal life and a cooler world possible. Surprisingly, clay may have also played a big role.
Climate Change
No comment on the Texas thing. When I write anything about horny teenagers Doug calls me a child pornographer. But the Mother of God was 14 when she got knocked up by Gabriel or whatever. There's old school ways, and there's modern ways.
ReplyDeleteYou missed not only Jonah's points, but Baracks', but what the hey, you'd rather spout than take the time to make sense.
ReplyDeleteI won't even ask what the govt pays you to do, hoping the product bears no resemblence to the worthless drivel you type out.
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Gosh, the Iranians are way too extreme and harsh on their woman. One thing that really helps a womans self esteem is getting ready for the day and looking good so she may be admired. This is complete opposite.
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