Now you too can own an iPhone 4 without being arrested by Apple’s rent-a-cops. See the latest on what’s included in the new Gizmo.
This latest blow-up on Helen Thomas generally confirms me in my belief about 90% of this ‘debate’ is best ignored since it generally amounts to mainly-ill-informed and overwhelmingly grandiose hatred and nonsense. Sad. But true.
I had figured I’d ignore the Helen Thomas blow-up. But now since she’s retiring and was presumably forced out, I don’t feel right not addressing it.
I’ve heard numerous attempts to, if not excuse, than at least mitigate her comments. And they don’t fly. This was awful comment. Yesterday I was at a family event and one close friend of ours who was understandably unhappy about this episode noted that his father lost his wife and children in Poland and barely managed to get out alive before settling in Palestine and starting a new family — of which this son was the first child. Read More
TPM Reader B saw Four Lions at Sundance and tells us what he thought …
Saw it at Sundance. Brutally funny. Great comic actors – completely slapstick.
Helen Thomas has just announced she’s retiring, effective immediately.
A caller on CSPAN this morning said he supports Helen Thomas’s saying the Jews should get out of Palestine, adding that they were kicked out of Germany “mainly because of diseases and homosexuality that were spreading.”
I’ve mentioned in a few posts the hypothetical Waiting for Guffman type movie about inept jihadis. And I just found out from TPM Reader CK that it’s already been made and was actually shown at Sundance this year. Given the quite controversial subject matter I’m actually kind of surprised I hadn’t heard about it. It’s called Four Lions. I only just found out about it. But here’s the trailer under the fold … Read More
As you probably saw, we had a couple new arrests over the weekend on the homegrown terrorism front — this time two guys from New Jersey who were trying to go to Somalia and join the local al Qaida affiliate, al Shabaab. Let me preface everything by noting once again that, as we’ve seen, even fairly shambling violent losers who can do a lot of damage, especially if they turn themselves over to more sophisticated terrorists for use as cannon fodder.
But I’m struck again by the pattern of violent and fairly sad-sac losers who look like you might have seen them in some jihadist version of Waiting for Guffman. Alessa and Almonte, the new duo had already tried to join a jihadist group in Jordan. But those guys told them to get lost. The AP describes their preparation for the trip to Somalia …
But their preparations apparently were unsophisticated. They lifted weights, bought military-style pants and water bottles, played violent video games and watched terrorist videos online.
The New Jersey men arrested over the weekend at JFK, allegedly on their way to Somalia to join the jihad, had no known ties to terrorist groups but were hoping if they just showed up they’d connect with terrorists. They’d tried a similar tactic in 2007, the feds say, showing up in Jordan but finding no takers for their services and left disappointed.