USA: HATE CRIME AS QUEENS MAN CONFUSES SIKH WITH ARAB

New Yorker charged with hate crime against Sikh

The Hindustan Times reports

A man has been charged with a hate crime for attacking a Sikh worshipper near a Gurudwara in Queens area in New York. David Wood, 36, allegedly approached Baljeet Singh, 63, on January14, screaming: “Arab, go back to your country”, and beat him up as Singh parked his car outside the gurdwara.

Wood, who lives near the gurdwara, was charged with second-degree assault as a hate crime, second and third degree assault and second-degree aggravated harassment.

He is being held on a $10,000 bail and will return to court Jan 30. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

According to a release by United Sikhs, a rights group, Singh suffered a broken nose and a fractured jaw, both of which will require surgery. He is still on a liquid diet.

The victim told United Sikhs that Wood attacked him and hurled racial abuses at him without any provocation on his part. The congregants of the Gurudwara in New Hyde Park, which the victim’s family has attended for 12 years, have previously experienced resentment from the defendant’s house due to the proximity of the gurdwara to his residence.

INCITING HATE

Guardian: Robert Tait: Danish library plans to house cartoons of prophet Muhammad

Denmark’s national library is to risk re-opening an international political storm by housing the cartoon images of the prophet Muhammad that provoked violent convulsions throughout the Islamic world two years ago.

The royal library in Copenhagen - founded in the 17th century by King Frederik III and home to many historic treasures - has declared the drawings to be of historic value and is trying to acquire them for “preservation purposes”.

The library, widely acknowledged as the most significant in Scandinavia, has agreed to take possession of the caricatures on behalf of the museum of Danish cartoon art, a spokesman told the Art Newspaper.

Negotiations with the artists behind the 12 cartoons are said to be at an advanced stage. Several have agreed to donate the works for mothing but the museum may have to buy some of them. One has already been sold to a private buyer.

Around 100 people died in riots across the Muslim world as protests spread after the publication of the cartoons - one of which depicted Muhammad with a bomb in his turban - in numerous western newspapers in 2006. The disturbances led to Denmark’s embassy in Damascus being burned and diplomatic missions in several other Muslim countries being attacked. The cartoons originally appeared in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.

Jytte Kjaergaard, a spokeswoman for the library, said they were unlikely to be displayed publicly and insisted the decision was not intended to be controversial.

“We are not interested in an exhibition, we are interested in them being kept safe for future generations because they have created history in Denmark,” she told the Guardian. “This is the obvious place to keep them because we have all the security measures in place.

“It would be very difficult for a private person to come in and sabotage them because to see them for research purposes you will need a letter of consent from your university professor. They will be treated like any rare book.”

The library does not expect to have to pay large sums for the cartoons, after Denmark’s main auction houses declined to handle any proposed sale.

SONG FOR OBAMA

Annie Palovcik writes to tell us about her song about Barrack Obama

I think you will be interested in a song I have written titled ILLINOIS BOY, inspired by Barack Obama. I first heard about the Senator while on one of my annual holidays in Honolulu, where he grew up. Some of our Hawaiian friends’ children had gone to school with him. They told me of their pride in this Senator from Illinois.

ILLINOIS BOY is witty, whimsical and fun, with a slight country flavor. A few friends have suggested that you can’t refer to a black man in America as a boy. But it’s not unusual in country music to call a youthful man a boy, and I think they are overlooking the change in the race relations that Obama’s candidacy so clearly embodies.

You can hear the song instantly and for free at cdbaby.com/cd/anniepalovcik Please give it a listen.

Rebecca writes from Reno, NV

Hi Danny - So true, since our most important economic driver right now is producing death and scarcity, how far into the future can our American “culture” and “economy” expand?

Now people realize that fat local defense contracts are no safeguard against the greed at the top of the pyramid. Is there a breakdown of foreclosures ranked by which industry head of household is employed in? Probably defense workers have a lower rate of foreclosure. If the government starts defaulting on corporate defense contracts you will hear screaming and pain from the white middle class that will be terrifying.

The other day I was in an Office Max parking lot and a big Lexus drove in front of me, while I was walking. A woman next to me yelled out “I ought to shoot her tires out - who does she think she is, driving in front of you.” And I was afraid to ignore her because she probably had a gun in her car, which she was getting into. So I just said “shame”, and in m mind thinking ’shame on both those selfish impatient people’. But who am I to judge, but then again, I don’t want to get into a shooting match in a strip mall parking lot in the middle of the day. But the level of rage and frustration is increasing exponentially - I’m sure you see it too.

Joeseph Oerther writes:

Someone should look into the who issued the recent accounting standards that requires states to record all of their retiree health insurance, pension and any other benefit for retirees as debt obligations. This is a new standard as most states paid these bill as they came due. The result of the standard is the state bond ratings all will fall.

WATCH” VIDEO BY BRAVE NEW FILMS: JOHN MCCAIN BECOMES DR. STRANGELOVE

WATCH: CHANGE ANYONE?ANIMATION BY MARK FIORE

ANDY BOROWITZ MAKES FUN OF RALPH NADER (For the Record, I do not believe Nader can be held responsible for Gore’s loss in Florida. )

Nader Warns Bloomberg Not to Run

That was the message delivered today to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg by consumer activist Ralph Nader, who warned Mr. Bloomberg, “If some egomaniac is going to jump in and screw up this election, it’s going to be me.”

Mr. Nader established an exploratory committee for a presidential bid today to let Mr. Bloomberg know that there was “only room for one self-absorbed gas-bag in the 2008 race.”

At a press conference in Washington, Mr. Nader said that voters who are looking for someone to spoil the 2008 election should be suspicious of Mr. Bloomberg’s motives: “Michael Bloomberg has a track record of winning elections, not screwing them up.”

In contrast, Mr. Nader said, “I know how hard it is to wreck an election, and I am prepared to put in the long hours necessary to mess this one up big-time.”…

MAKE LOVE TO A NEOCON EVENT—WILL ANYONE PROTEST?

PRESS RELEASE: Norman Podhoretz, renowned author and editor Emeritus of Commentary magazine; Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Mark Steyn, New York Times Best Selling Author; John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson of Power Line Blog.

Power Line Blog will host a celebratory dinner in honor of Norman Podhoretz, the founder of the Neoconservative Movement, to include a brief discussion on the state of our national security and present a $25,000 donation to the charity Soldier’s Angels, the largest monetary compensation to accompany a book award in the U.S., in his honor.

Visuals: Speech and dedication by Henry Kissinger and Mark Steyn; Presentation of a $25,000 check to Soldier’s Angels.

FINAL QUOTE FROM HISTORIAN GARTON ASH ON THE SURVELLANCE STATE (GUARDIAN)

This has got to stop. Britain’s snooper state is getting completely out of hand. We are sleepwalking into a surveillance society, and we must wake up. When the Stasi started spying on me, as I moved around East Germany 30 years ago, I travelled on the assumption that I was coming from one of the freest countries in the world to one of the least free. I don’t think I was wrong then, but I would certainly be wrong now. Today, the people of East Germany are much less spied upon than the people of Britain.

Have a great Weekend. See Rambo free Burma. (If only) and I hope to be back Monday. Who will win the superbowl is the question more Americans exercised by than who will triumph on Super Tuesday. I will have something to say about both.

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