Mystic Politics

Saudi Arabian Writer Faces Possible Execution Over Tweets

“Hamza Kashgari, a writer from Saudi Arabia, thought he was simply tweeting a few observations about his love and respect for the Prophet Muhammad. Instead, he might have been securing his own death sentence.”

Sexy Israeli Photo Shoot Mocks Ultra-Orthodox Women Haters

‘An Israeli fashion magazine called BelleMode is set to publish a provocative spread that will surely upset the conservative Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox contingency. The spread features a number of scantily clad men and women posing provocatively (and sexily!) in outfits that resemble the clothing favored by Haredim, except with some minor differences. Like, some of the shirts are see-through. And some of the models have forgotten to wear their pants.’

A Few Words On The Infuriating Liberal Media Argument http://mys.tc/1sk journalism news minstream

A Few Words On The Infuriating ‘Liberal Media’ Argument

‘If you tune into Fox News or Conservative talk radio, you’re not likely to have to wait a long time before they mention the Liberal Media. They talk about it as if it’s a monolithic, cohesive organization whose aim is to brainwash the American public so they can install a Tsar atop a new world order that forces people to gay marry and use energy efficient lightbulbs. In addition, Conservative politicians never miss a chance to dismiss a story as coming from the Liberal Media if it happens to cast them in any kind of negative light. Here are a couple of things that are infuriating about this.’

Noam Chomsky: Anniversaries From ‘Unhistory’ http://mys.tc/1s2 politics history media propaganda

The Top Six Mistakes Reporters Make About Mormons http://mys.tc/1rz religion politics media

Meet Iran’s 3,500-woman-strong ninja army http://mys.tc/1rt politics media wtf

Neither Radical Nor Secular: The West Struggles with the New Islamism

‘Last Monday, the 23rd of January, the Egyptian People’s Assembly convened the first gathering of a freely elected representative government in a post-Mubarak world. This historic moment took place just two days before the first anniversary of the protest movement that made such an assembly possible. Yet during the course of that year, reporters in American and European news outlets have struggled to come to grips with events in the rapidly changing Middle East that, in many ways, have defied conventional stereotypes of politics and culture in the Arab World.’

The War Drums of the New York Times http://mys.tc/1ra nytimes propaganda media journalism

Bad Journalism: The War Drums of the New York Times

‘“Israel Vs Iran” reads Sunday’s cover of the New York Times Magazine– the words written ominously in ashes from which smoke and flame still rise. Inside the magazine, Ronen Bergman a military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth argues that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2012 is inevitable, though he admits that, even if successful, such an operation might only delay the development of an Iranian bomb by a few months or at most years, and would open Israel to a devastating counterattack by Iranian rockets, some of which can hit Tel Aviv. Once again, we are being presented with war as a fait accompli. But does such reporting function as a self-fulfilling prophecy?’