Jake from Freedom Folks has Chicago immigration march pics

They're here and as always, Jake does an excellent job capturing the essence of an event.

Technorati tags: May 1 Immigration border Chicago

League of Villains update: Senior Iranian and Cuban meet

The Sudanese president visited Tehran last week, which inspired this post where I discussed Iran's apparent building of a League of Villains, such as the type of organization that attempted to defeat television character Jimmy Neutron.

Cuba's ambassador to Iran, Fernando Garcia, met with the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, on Tuesday.

From the Tehran Times:

(Haddad-Adel) said he was glad to witness progress in Iran-Cuba cooperation through holding talks and execution of agreements signed by the two sides. The speaker referred to the people's revolutions of both states and their common enemy, namely the U.S., as a factor giving momentum to their favorable ties and said, "The U.S. opposition to the Iranian and Cuban revolutions emanated from the fact that both were supported by people."

Note the use of past tense in that last sentence.
More...

For his part, Garcia said, "Cuba takes pride in cooperating with a friendly country such as Iran. The same was declared by President Castro in his recent speech."

What is North Korea's part in all of this?

Technorati tags: Iran Farsi iranian Cuba Castro Cubano Fidel Castro ايران League of Villains

French comedy no laughing matter

Two months ago, Jerry Lewis received France's highest civilian honor. As I once did, the French view him as one of the greatest comedians ever.

But then I turned 10, and got on with the rest of my life. But the French see things differently than everyone else.

Good friend of the blog Steven Plaut has a new FrontPage Magazine article up about a French comedian, Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, who is quite popular in France today.

As Dr. Plaut explains, M'Bala M'Bala, is the result of a union between a British mother and a Cameroonian father. That enough would make him unique in the Gallic state, but his hateful comedy performed at the expense of Jews puts him in a rank of his own.

Not the least significant reason for Dieudonné's appeal is his eagerness to pander to the anti-Israel prejudices of French audiences. In one of his more notorious acts, he dressed up as a uniformed Israeli settler in the Palestinian occupied territories, gave Nazi salutes, and called upon young people to "join the American-Zionist axis."

He also likes to dress up as a rabbi on stage and cry "Isra-heil!" During an anti-Israel sketch in which he portrays Hitler in his bunker, Dieudonné closes with the line: "You will see, in the future, people will come to realize that I, Adolf Hitler, was really a moderate."

As such punch lines suggest, Dieudonné has a fairly extensive repertoire of anti-Jewish "humor." He frequently attacks Jews for "whining" about the Holocaust even as they are "mistreating" the Palestinians.

Little Green Footballs has more (including a picture of M'Bala M'Bala) here.

M'Bala M'Bala has had a few run-ins with the French authorities ovinflammatorymmotory anti-Semitic comments, but the simple truth is that he's one of France's most popular comedians.

So in 50 years it's quite possible M'Bala M'Bala will receive France-istan's highest civilian honor. If that happens, look for him to tell Jew jokes at the expense of Jerry Lewis.

Technorati tags: Jerry Lewis Comedy Dieudonné antisémitisme Israël Israel ישראל française anti-semitism Jews

Got a Palm Treo today

And I did this post from the device. Where have you been all my life? I'll add the Technorati tags later.

Technorati tags: Treo TREO 650 Palm PDA SmartPhone

Iran: "Hit me and I punch out some other guy"

That's the logic of the mad mullahs from Iran.

"We have announced that whenever America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel," the Iranian Student News Agency quoted Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani as saying.

Technorati tags: Iran ايران Israel ישראל Middle East

Chicago immigration March: How many? Time for Marathon Pundit's Law

How many people showed up at yesterday's Second City version of the May 1 March? That depends on who you ask.

According to the March organizers, the number of protesters was 700,000. At this point, I want to invoke what I call Marathon Pundit's Law of Rally Attendance.

That law is, take whatever crowd estimate given by a rally organizer, then slice it in half. You then will have a much more accurate crowd count.

Along that line of thinking, the Chicago Police figured the count to be around 400,000.

Case closed.

DePaul prez Holtschneider co-winner of the Sheldon Award

And what is a Sheldon Award? It's named after a particularly spineless university president, Sheldon Hackney of the University of Pennsylvania for his anti-free speech conduct in the 1993 Water Buffalo Incident.

John Leo, columnist and editor for US News and World Report announced this year's winners today. And competition was fierce.

Sharing the award with Father Holtschneider of Chicago's DePaul University was Washington State University's V. Lane Rawlins.

Leo described Holtschneider and his West Coast twin Rawlins as the "Ruth and Gehrig of modern Sheldonism."

Here's what Leo had to say about Father Holtschneider and DePaul:

A veteran, part-time teacher with a good record, Thomas Klocek, was suspended without a hearing after a verbal run-in with pro-Palestinian students at a school fair. He refused an order to apologize, and balked at the university's plan to put a monitor in his classes. Then he sued.

The College Republicans were found guilty of violating a campus prohibition against "propaganda" after handing out fliers criticizing an upcoming lecture by radical professor Ward Churchill.

Sponsors of a mock bake sale satirizing affirmative action were hauled on the carpet. They were found not guilty of harassment, but then censured because the university said their application for table space was faulty. Holtschneider denounced the sale as "an affront to DePaul's values of respect and dignity."

Runners up for the Sheldon Award were the presidents of Penn State University, Georgia Tech University, and the University of Central Florida.

I'm willing to pick up Holtschneider's Sheldon trophy for him.

Technorati tags: DePaul Ward Churchill Academic freedom Academia Free Speech Chicago Penn Penn State Central Florida Washington State WSU Catholic Thomas Klocek

Estimated 300,000 at Chicago immigration march

The Chicago Sun-Times has a running log of what is occurring at the Chicago May 1 immigration rally. According to the paper, and estimated 300,000 marchers are present. Many businesses in downtown Chicago are closed because customer can't navigate through the blocked off streets.

Deliveries? In downtown Chicago today? Good luck.

Technorati tags: May 1 Immigration border Chicago illinois Politics

May comes in like a lion with protests

Of course today is the day for those big open borders marches across the country. Michelle Malkin has started her coverage a time zone east of here. Closer to me, Jake Jacobsen of Freedom Folks will be snapping his digital camera liberally (meant in the original definition of the word), at the Chicago rally, where rain is expected.

Pajamas Media will be documenting the undocumented in Los Angeles.

Technorati tags: May 1 Immigration protest nothing gringo Politics

Something I wrote caught the attention of a Chicago Tribune columnist

It's enjoyable to discover that someone who writes for a living, picks up on something I blogged, and does a post on it in his blog.

That's what happened last week when Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune has this entry on his Change of Subject blog:

Marathon Pundit" John Ruberry refers in this posting to prison as "the house with many doors."

I'd never heard this one before, but figure it's a good time to start collecting euphemisms and other slang terms for prison.

Pretty cool. Just a couple of problems. Sadly, I didn't invent the term. Worse, I can't remember where I came across it, but I suspect I read it in Cecil Adams' The Straight Dope column.

Technorati tags: Eric Zorn Chicago Tribune prison culturemedia Chicago Blogging