Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle!

Unbelievable.

You wake up in the morning to hear the big news: twenty British citizens — all Lutherans of Scandinavian descent — were planning to hijack a dozen planes and blow them up over Arabic cities.

Well... yes... that would indeed be unbelievable.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/10/06 12:10:32 PM
Categorized as International.

Paranoid? Or Perceptive?

Time will tell.

Bernard Lewis writes at OpinionJournal, Tuesday:

.... In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time — Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise.

What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/10/06 07:15:14 AM
Categorized as International.

"A Few Thoughts on the Eve of Couric"

By the blogger @ The Anchoress:

Being sick gives you too much time to think and stew, and my boredom level is so off-the-charts that I have been thinking about Katie Couric and the future of CBS Evening News....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/10/06 07:07:50 AM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.

"Reuters Photo Fraud"

At Zombietime:

The recent discovery that the Reuters news agency released a digitally manipulated photograph as an authentic image of the bombing in Beirut has drawn attention to the important topic of bias in the media. But lost in the frenzy over one particular image is an even more devastating fact: that over the last week Reuters has been caught red-handed in an astonishing variety of journalistic frauds in the photo coverage of the war in Lebanon.

This page serves as an overview of the various types of hoaxes, lies and other deceptions perpetrated by Reuters in recent days, since the details of the scandal are getting overwhelmed by a torrent of shallow mainstream media coverage that can easily confuse or mislead the viewer. Almost all of the investigative work has been done by cutting-edge blogs, but the proliferation of exposés might overwhelm the casual Web-surfer, who might be getting the various related scandals mixed up. In this essay I hope to straighten it all out.

It's important to understand that there is not just a single fraudulent Reuters photograph, nor even only one kind of fraudulent photograph. There are in fact dozens of photographs whose authenticity has been questioned, and they fall into four distinct categories....

P.S. Here is a very well-done narrated photo slideshow demonstrating a wide variety of "fauxtography" coming from the Israeli-Hizb'Allah war zone. (Thanks, Robert.)

[Follow-up: "The Red Cross Ambulance Incident".]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/10/06 06:57:10 AM
Categorized as International & Media.

"Language Problem, Dude"

By Robert Godwin @ One Cosmos (profanity alert):

What is the deeper meaning of the controversy surrounding the manipulated Reuters loadocraps? After all, everyone knows Reuters has a leftist agenda and that it has been manipulating the news for years. It’s not so much that they manipulated the photos, but that the photos were intended to be manipulative to begin with.

In other words, the initial — and far more consequential — manipulation takes place when a Reuters idiotor decides to use this or that photo to encapsulate and illustrate his view of reality. If his initial view of reality is true, then the manipulated photo can only be more true, not less true, because it is doing a better job of conveying a truth that transcends material images: the truth that Israel is a genocidal aggressor that wantonly targets innocent civilians. To coin a phrase, the photos may be fake, but they are accurate — only more so.

That is certainly how the left sees it, which is why the controversy is of no consequence to them....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/10/06 06:44:53 AM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.