Thanks, Kate & Blue Gal, for the heads-up. As you might imagine, I missed the news yesterday (online or televised). As usual, updates are posted at The Christian Science Monitor‘s site for Jill.
Happy day!
D.
A few weeks ago, I followed Blue Gal’s lead in drawing your attention to the plight of reporter Jill Carroll. Jill was kidnapped in Iraq and is still being held hostage. Three deadlines have passed for her released. I’ve been remiss lately in banging the drum, but Jurassic Pork’s Assclowns of the Week fired me up.
Hey, I don’t want to be an assclown. Not even a liberal assclown.
From JP’s post:
I’d like to follow Blue Gal’s lead and ask that you all give some thought (and prayer, if you’re so minded) to the plight of kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, the Muslim community has been vocal in their support for Ms. Carroll:
A delegation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations arrived in Baghdad Saturday, adding its voice to what is described as an unprecedented outpouring of Muslim support for the release of American reporter Jill Carroll.
“The kidnapping of Jill Carroll does not benefit the kidnappers,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based group that represents US mosques and Islamic associations. “She has been friendly and respectful of the Iraqi people, not an enemy,” he added.
I don’t think Blue Gal will mind if I shamelessly steal the rest of her post:
So here is my idea. Tell your blog readers you support Jill Carroll and link to the Monitor, just like I did. That’s it. Not too dramatic but drama is not what we need or want right now, no matter how much it might serve the interests of the 24/7 news universe.
Update: one reader had another good idea–to link to one of Jill’s own articles.
A leader of Hamas called for her release today. The Muslims are united on this. Amazing.
Let’s keep Jill Carroll in the forefront of our web-consciousness until she is released. Thanks!
D.
The Christian Science Monitor continues to post daily updates on kidnaped journalist Jill Carroll. She has not been forgotten.
Screw the New York Times firewall. You can find your morning Dowdage at Jurassic Pork’s blog (Happiness is a Warm Gun). My favorite bit from the always scintillating Ms. Dowd:
As Carey Goldberg wrote in The Boston Globe, the most popular Harvard course is one taught by Tal Ben-Shahar about how to shed pathologies.
You’d think just being lucky enough to get that Harvard edge would cause elation. But Ms. Goldberg reported that more than 800 students left smiling and cheering after hearing Dr. Ben-Shahar offer self-help formulas like these: “Learn to fail or fail to learn”; don’t think, “It happened for the best,” but rather, “How can I make the best of what happened?”
He meditated with the students, telling them to “give yourself permission to just be.”
Learn to fail or fail to learn? Is that the sound of one ass-cheek farting, or what?
Although I might sigh over this, it also gives me a feeling of warmth and superiority. I retain a great deal of empathy for Berkeley freshmen, kids who have outshined their high school classmates but now find themselves in a hive populated by nothing but the best and the brightest. While they are working their butts raw to ace Chem 1, or English Composition, or Calculus, their Ivy League colleagues are busy trying to giving themselves permission to just be.
As we used to say in college, you can always tell a Harvard man, but you can’t tell him much.
Karen and I have had first-hand experience with both a public university (Berkeley) and a private university (Stanford), and we’re on agreement on this: One of the main differences between the two is their attitude towards failure. Public schools realize some kids won’t make the grade. Private schools don’t accept failure as an option. Public schools understand that without the possibility of failure, success is meaningless. Private schools see dropouts as a loss of donors (not only the student, but his parents).
But the Ivy Leaguers take care of their own, even Yale dropouts like Dick Cheney. We don’t live in a meritocracy. I dare you to consider our current administration as an example of this, and not say, No duh. Sorry for the double negative.
***
I’m going to our county’s Democratic Party fundraising dinner tonight. I predict: dry chicken breast, mushy peas, and lots of pissed-off libruls like me. I’ll let you know how it goes.
D.
Technorati tags: Maureen Dowd, Dick Cheney, Harvard, Ivy League, Jill Carroll
*Recommend my diary over at Daily Kos*Â
Many of the folks who wander into Balls and Walnuts will see either the top post (and not much else) or some ancient post (and not much else). Thus, if I blog about kidnaped American journalist Jill Carroll, the post will be visible for a day or two before getting buried and pushed out of sight.
BUT. If I put her on the sidebar, no one will miss her. As you can see, the Christian Science Monitor recently published an update. It’s even a tiny bit heartening.
Take a look, and let me know if I have screwed anything up on your browser. B&W still looks fine to me here in Firefox. By the way, you can’t imagine how stoked I am that I was able to fiddle with the sidebar this much and not totally fluff it up.
D.
The 78th Annual Academy Awards kicked off with a stretch of uninspired animation meant to evoke Hollywood’s rich history. Bleech. They had all year to do this? And that’s how I feel about the lead-up to Jon Stewart’s introduction, too. What began as a sort-of funny riff on Brokeback Mountain soon became a tired, uninspired joke.
Jon Stewart’s opening monologue had one, count it, one good joke (the actresses not having enough cloth to cover their breasts), plus a fun medley of gay themes in Westerns. The closing clip of Charleton Heston and Gregory Peck was priceless. (more…)