Bookmarks 09/21/2011

• ‫سقوط عبد المسيح الشامي في حلقة الإتجاه المعاكس‬‎ – YouTube

  Pro-Assad guest on AJ’s Opposite Direction program last night fell off his chair… literally.

  On FB there is now a fan page group dedicated to “the Assad man who fell off his chair.” A perfect allegory of what many hope will soon happen to the regime of Hafez Assad.

   

• Richard Dawkins, an Original Thinker Who Bashes Orthodoxy – NYTimes.com

  Interesting look into the work and life of a man who’s passionate about life, a militant atheist. A man impatient about religion. My personal Ayatollah. This man doesn’t look 70 at all does he?

  Dawkins is writing a book for children, even thinking of creating a school. But he warns “it would not be a school for atheists. ‘I am almost pathologically afraid of indoctrinating children,’ he says. ‘it would be a ‘Think for Yourself Academy.’ ‘ ”

   

  • Professor Dawkins often declines to talk in San Francisco and New York; these cities are too gloriously godless, as far as he is concerned. “As an atheistic lecturer, you are rather wasting your time,” he says. He prefers the Bible Belt, where controversy is raw.

• Rick Falkvinge – Speech at the Election Party Berlin 18.09.2011 – YouTube

  Pirate Party founder gives emotional speech after pirates won a historic 9% in German elections — via awesome @PPMaroc.

• Al-Jazeera – Director Announces Resignation – NYTimes.com

  The NYT reports on Al Jazeera director-general resignation linking it to a diplomatic cable dated Oct. 2010 and released by Wikileaks recently, claiming that Khanfar was in direct contact with U.S. intelligence and that he removed content in response to Americans complaints. Those claims were rejected by Waddah Khanfar who commented on Twitter that he was “entertained by all the rumors of why I have resigned.”

  • Wadah Khanfar’s resignation follows release of documents by Wikileaks, purporting to show he had close ties with the U.S. and agreed to remove some content in response to American objections.
  • On his Twitter account, Khanfar justified his resignation as prompted by the network needs for “renewal and change,” and commented on several tweets linking his resignation to the leaked U.S. embassy cables, by saying, “(I am) entertained by all the rumors of why I have resigned.”