links for 2009-08-24

"A man who was holding a sign reading "Death to Obama" Wednesday outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in Hagerstown, Md., has been turned over to the Secret Service."

"We're left with a kind of bellyflop allegory as a result. District 9's aliens don't represent an oppressed race in South Africa, but instead embody the stereotype of outcast slum-dweller. They seem incapable of integrating themselves into human society due to something intrinsic to their natures, rather than anti-alien feeling among the citizens of Johannesburg."

"The original was a surprise hit, grossing almost $70 million domestically from a budget of around $37 million."

"Three white construction workers "asked us what we were doing here, in a very rude way," Mark Boyd said. "They were surprised that a black family could buy a home like this." When the new tile contractor, Dennis Rosaco, removed the tile several months later, he found a small package. Wrapped in newspaper were 11 M-90 firecrackers, ready to explode if anyone lighted a fire in the fireplace."

"If there was a major link between Islam and honor killings, why aren’t there any cases to date involving convert families or Black American Muslims (and yes there are second and third generation Black American Muslim families). You’d think that the hard core who have adopted all sorts of cultural practices from the Middle East would have even more to lose in terms of their so called “Islamic authenticity.” "

"Q-Tip, hip-hop legend and former member of A Tribe Called Quest, has taken to Twitter in a bid to sway New Yorkers from voting for Mayor Bloomberg this November."

"You want to work on improving Palestine and the lives of its people, fine, that is admirable and fantastic. But don’t you dare undermine other struggles on the premise that Palestine is more important. We have other issues; and while the entire Arab world is writing about, talking about, fighting towards, and obsessing about Palestinians (a lot of whom are discriminated against by their own Arab neighbours) we are going to put a lot of time and effort focusing on the other issues that affect the lives of millions of individuals in this region and beyond, knowing fully well that not many care to make these other crimes the focus of their struggles, even when it’s often far worse than the Palestinian conflict."