BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

May 12, 2004

The Daily Stern

: THE LAWLESSNESS OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Dale McFeatters, whose column I read in the NY Post, comes out in defense of the First Amendment and Howard Stern against the FCC:

It would be ironic if the conservative FCC set out to get shock jock Howard Stern, whose huge ratings should tell the FCC something, and got Rush instead, but unintended consequences are an inevitable consequence of trying to regulate speech.

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Says who?

: Glenn Reynolds says Howard Stern is dissing Catherine Seipp. But the truth is, Seipp dissed Stern's audience.

Miller had wondered if the anti-Bush tirade Stern's been on lately might affect the election, and I suggested that the radio shock jock's core 18-to-34-year-old demographic aren't all that likely to get to the polls anyway. I mean, how many of these guys can even get off the couch?

"That moron is Cathy Sepp," Stern growled, in surprisingly grim and angry tones, after playing the Miller audio clip. (No one can ever pronounce my name.) "Trust me, honey, they do get off the couch."

Well, that was moronic. I'd say the number of decouched Stern listneners beats the audience of the effing National Review by, oh, 100,000 to 1.

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Lights! Camera! Post!
: Israelly Cool sends notice of Salam Pax' film deal.

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If only it were just the economy, stupid

: Iraqi blogger Omar has a wonderful essay today on the power of the economy in Iraq. The real measure of our success in rebuilding the country is being ignored: It's the value of the dinar and the wages of the people.

He tells a story about his uncle and aunt, both teachers who could barely support their family under Saddam (they had to sell even their refrigerator) and now they are paid decent wages; they were paid less than $15 a month before and now they make almost $800.

My young cousin is a religious Sunni who goes to the mosque and listens to the cleric there every Friday and believes whatever he says, as he’s still young.... My uncle had some unusual sense of humor that didn’t fit quite well in his somewhat religious family. He winked at me and turned to his son and asked him "What do you think of the Americans?" His son answered, "They are occupiers". "So you think we should fight them?" his father asked. Ibrahim said "No, but I don’t like them". My uncle said, pretending to change the subject "Do you like your new computer that no one shares with you?" "Yes of course dad". "Ok, are you satisfied with the satellite dish receiver we have or do you need a better one?" "This one is fine but I heard there’s a better one that gets more channels" "ok I’ll get you that next week". Then he said, "Is there anything else you’d like to have son?" "No dad I have all that I need". "Ok but how about a car?" Ibrahim was astounded and said "Really? a..a CAR.. for me!?". "Of course for you! I’m too old to drive now and my eyes are not that well and you are the older son. So whom else would it be for!?" "Oh, dad that will be great! When will that happen?" "Just finish you’re exams and you’ll have it". "I will dad". "Are you happy now son?" "Yes dad, sure I am!" "Then why do you hate the Americans you son of a b***h!? I couldn’t get you a bicycle a year ago, I could hardly feed you and your brothers and sisters. You didn’t know what an apple or a banana tasted like, I couldn’t buy you a damned Pepsi bottle except in occasions, and now you can have all that you wish, and a car of your own! Who do you think made that possible!?" My cousin’s face turned red and didn’t answer as we laughed and I said "What do you think Ibrahim?" He said, "Well it’s true but it’s our money. They are not giving us a charity" and I said "Of course it’s our money, so let’s forget the Billions of dollars they are giving to rebuild Iraq and the efforts they are doing to cut down our debts and lets talk about our money. Why didn’t your father, I, my brothers and all the Iraqis have anything worth mentioning before the Americans came?" He said, "Because Saddam used it to buy weapons and build palaces". "There you have it Ibrahim, but Americans are not touching our money. Can you tell me who’s better; the ‘occupiers’ who are helping us or the ‘patriot’ who did all that you know to us?" He said in a faint voice "They are better than Saddam but still they are not Muslims". "So do you want them to be Muslims?" "I wish they were." "Will you fight them to that?" he said, "No, of course not. I don’t like fighting." We didn’t want to pressure and embarrass him further and didn’t go further, as he’s still young but he’s smart and good-natured and will get it soon.

Omar goes on to talk about the "dangers of the vicious circle of (prosperity-stability-more prosperity-more stability) that the Americans and the Iraqi traitors (like myself) are trying to establish."

They (our brothers) are doing all that they can; bombing oil pipelines and ports, beheading foreigners in the name of Iraqis and Allah, attacking electricity stations, creating chaos that allows thieves to loot everything they can, yet it’s still not working!! The Iraqi Dinar stands stable despite some Arab governments formally warned their citizens from dealing with it, the oil production is increasing, the markets are full of goods, most Iraqis are busy working, studying selling and buying and the average income is rising!
Please, all those who care about the poor Iraqis and want to save them from the brutality of the American invaders and who want to prevent the Americans from stealing our fortune; meaning Bin laden, Zagrawi and their followers, Arab and Muslim tyrants, our good friend monsieur Dominique de Villepin, all the pacifist of the world, the major media, and in short, all those who hate America and obviously love Iraq: Get your s**t together and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT or else one or two years from now Iraq will be…a prosperous country, and then we will never forgive you for letting us down when we needed you!

Thank God for the Omars of the world.

: Another Iraqi blogger, Firas Georges, says today:

I hope that through this blog I may help rebuilding my country and pay back a small part of what I owe Iraq and Iraqis.

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Sand Nazis

When I heard the horrid news about Nick Berg's murder in Iraq, I wondered what I'm sure many of you wondered: Was he Jewish? Was that why these sand Nazis selected him for murder as they did Daniel Pearl.

Blogger Steven I. Weiss reports in the Forward that Berg was, indeed, Jewish and becoming more observant recently. A friend told Weiss:

Spool told the Forward that “in the past year or year-and-a-half,” Berg “was starting to wear tzitzit [ritual fringes], he was starting to become more observant.” Spool characterized Berg’s late-in-life turn to Jewish observance as “a quest for knowledge,” adding that once Berg started, “nothing got in his way.”

: The AP report adds:

Berg's father said his son was Jewish and had a fringed religious cloth with him, but he did not think Berg wore the clothing in public. Still, "there's a better chance than not that they knew he was Jewish,' Michael Berg said. "If there was any doubt that they were going to kill him that probably clinched it, I'm guessing.'

: Listenening to NPR and the BBC on the way to work this morning, I heard no mention at all that Berg was Jewish. Is that just bad reporting? It could not be more relevant: Al Qaeda selects American Jews for execution. Let's call Nazis Nazis.

: Blogger Heather knew Nick Berg. [via David Weinberger]

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