Friday, August 27, 2010

Cheers, Mr. President

Photo Credits: Scott Olson/Getty Images, Mark Wilson/Getty Images, SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images, Pete Souza/White House via Getty Images

I find it completely shocking that nearly 20% of Americans believe that President Obama is Muslim. Where are 60 million people getting this crazy idea?

A national survey by the Pew Research Center found that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) say Obama is a Muslim. Only 34 percent of those polled correctly identified the president as a Christian, half down from when he took office.

There's a note in the results of the survey saying that the interviews for the poll were conducted before Obama's comments about the proposed ground zero mosque. Just imagine what the polls will show after Americans watch his semi-defense of the mosque!

So what's fueling the constant drumbeat of Muslim rumours?

See, I think it's because people can't seem to move past his Muslim middle name. I mean, seriously, so what. it's not like he had a say in choosing his name, right?

See, his daddy Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was brought up a Muslim in Kenya, even though Obama's momma (sorry, I couldn't help myself), Stanley Ann Dunham, was raised as a Christian in the United States. The couple met as students at university and apparently neither were very religious at the time of their son's birth. Back in 2008, Obama told an audience that his father's religion didn't influence him much as his parents divorced when he was only 2 years old. "My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn't know him."

Fair enough.

After divorcing his father when Obama was 2 years old, Dunham then married Lolo Soetoro, a self-identified Muslim from Indonesia. For a brief time as a child, Barack Obama went under the name Barry Soetoro.

At the age of 6, Obama, his mother and Lolo Soetoro moved to Indonesia. For two of the four years that the family lived in Jakarta, Obama attended a Catholic elementary school. But it was the two years he spent at Muslim school that seems to be the one that most people are harping on.

The rumours got so strong that at one point, the White House was forced to put out a statement affirming Obama's Christian faith.

But still there's been no shortage of people who have explicitly embraced the falsehood. I mean, I have to quote some of them here, because some of the things they suggest are wonderfully preposterous.

Laura Ingraham, a Fox News contributor filling in for Bill O'Reilly's radio show, the O'Reilly Factor, said it "seemed a bit odd" that Obama went to the gym on Christmas Day.

I love how while she's 'reporting' this, the giant cross on her necklace glints in the studio lights. Marvelous!

Another completely laughable suggestion was by Cathie Adams, former chair of Republican Party of Texas when she tweeted a video link suggesting Obama is a Muslim plant installed by the Saudi royal family.

Man, people LOVE their conspiracy theories, don't they?

Posted by MEL at 12:30 PM 0 comments
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Friday, August 20, 2010

Message in a Bottle

If you ever find yourself in need of a financial advisor in California, may I suggest you steer clear of Michael Kevin Lallana? Or, at the very least, you should bring your own water to any meetings you have with him.

Mr. Lallana was arrested yesterday for allegedly ejaculating into his female co-worker's water bottle in their office on two separate occasions.

I know, right. Gross.

The first time he did it, on 14 January, the co-worker drank it, “felt sick” and poured it out. The second time her water tasted strange to her, she sent for lab testing. The results: semen.

Apparently Lallana volunteered a DNA sample when asked to do so (oh wow, how upstanding of him!) and doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out: it was a positive match.

Lallana, a husband and father, is currently jail time and mandatory sex offender registration if he is convicted.

I almost hope he's innocent though, just for the story of how someone obtained his semen and put it in that coworker's water bottle. I wonder if there’ll come a time when we’ll have to carry those little semen-detecting lights, like forensic investigators in a CSI episode. Also, the mystery of how the victim detected the semen in her water (and felt sick) has not yet been addressed.

I do have to point out that some of the comments in this online story were simply inspired:

Another interesting comment:

On a separate but totally related note, across the pond, a new book 'MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949' by Professor Keith Jeffery has reveals that a member of MI6, the British spy agency, discovered that semen makes excellent invisible ink.

The discovery that that "semen would not react to iodine vapour” was made during WWI and often deployed in the field.

And the name of the man who discovered this?

Mansfield Cumming.

Posted by MEL at 6:38 PM 0 comments
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Robert Cattinson

This was way too good to pass up. I just could not resist posting an entry about this.

The feline equivalent of New York Fashion week is where the catwalk really turns into a cat-walk. The Fashionable Feline Extravaganza is part fashion show, part Cat Lady Convention, as their owners dressed them up in crazy cute little outfits. The feline-fête was hosted by animal rescue and adoption organization, the North Shore Animal League. (Ironic, since the cats look miserable! And super pissed off, come to think about it).

However, one photo among the slideshow had me in hysterics all day. Even now I can't type this with a straight face.

Photos by Sarah Cates

You’re welcome.

Speaking of crazy cat ladies feline fashionistas, Japan’s Takako Iwasa well-known among the cat-munity in Tokyo for her spectacular kitty tailoring, according to this report.

Her models are her own cats, Prin and Koutaro. Iwasa has them dressed up in business suits, bunny costumes, Victorian gowns, magician capes, you name it.

While she sells her pieces on her website, she says profit is not her motive. "With the business, my dream has been realized”, Iwasa said.

And beside Prin, she has "the voice" to thank.

"I always get my ideas for designs," she says, "with inspirations caused by the voice from the sky."

Awesome.


P.S – I’d like to create a special prize for whoever can make a ‘Bella’ cat. She must look 'hissy' and display a false sense of entitlement.

Posted by MEL at 2:41 AM 0 comments
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