Came across this and thought I'd share his valid point:
As a nation that was founded by men and women who were being persecuted for their particular faith, we should know that the best path to finding freedom is finding freedom for others. We were formed as a pluralistic society and this means we welcome all religions. Islam did not attack the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, sick and twisted men did, who not only hijacked four airplanes but also hijacked a religion. Let us not stereotype the over one billion Muslims around the world because of the evil acts of a few.
Cairo's embassy in Nigeria said on Thursday a 13-year-old girl at the centre of claims that a Nigerian senator had taken the minor as his fourth wife is still at school in Egypt. The senator, Ahmed Sani Yerima, 49, meanwhile denied in an interview with the BBC that the girl was 13 and said that as a Muslim he had not broken any law by marrying the teenager claiming Sharia law allows this.
"The girl is still in school in Egypt and nobody has complained to the embassy in respect of the girl," Egyptian embassy spokesman Mohammed Saber told AFP.
He said however that the embassy "will follow the issue" because it is illegal in Egypt to marry an underage girl. The Nigerian senate on Wednesday ordered an inquiry after claims by rights groups that Yerima had paid a dowry of $US100,000 to marry the girl.
Women's groups protested outside parliament on Tuesday to urge the senate to investigate the claims.
In a telephone interview from Egypt with the BBC's Hausa service on Thursday, Yerima defended himself. "I don't care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned," he said, describing those complaining as "detractors". "History tells us that Prophet Mohammed did marry a young girl as well. Therefore I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around."
This kid is amazing, and at just 10 years old, seems so well-adjusted and bright. He gets it. His name is Will Phillips of Arkansas and he is speaking up for gay rights! Kudos to his open-minded parents. I now have a different view of Arkansas for sure.
Here he is again being asked a simple question at the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards:
A hot new social-networking service dubbed Bubbly, which is essentially a voice-based Twitter, is quickly gaining popularity among Indians. And thanks to Bollywood celebs being early adopters, Bubbly is growing virally and with virtually zero marketing spend.
For more on the new trend and application, read here!
In a recent use of modern technology, new results for the famed Boy King reveal interesting results.
Scientists have identified Akhenaten, the "heretic" king who introduced monotheism to ancient Egypt, as Tutankhamun's father.
Akhenaten first married Nefertiti, who was renowned for her great beauty, but had no sons so he then married his sister in an effort to have a son.
This new investigation was led by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Hawass said it would take several months to reveal more details about the identity of the Tutankhamun's mother. His parents had been siblings and he had only paternal grandparents. His family lineage begins with his great grandparents, Thuya and Yuya. They had a daughter who has now been identified as Queen Tiye, King Tut's grandmother and the wife of Amenhotep III.
King Tutankhamun, it appears, was a frail boy who suffered from a cleft palate and club foot. He died of complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria. CT scans of his feet showed he had a slight deformity and a severe bone condition called Kohler Disease. "We have a club foot on one side and a flat foot on another side," Dr. Pusch said, who assisted in the investigation. "And the club foot is the foot that shows indication of bone necrosis." Bone necrosis occurs when biological tissue dies inside a body. King Tut would have been living with this painful condition for years, which would explain the 130 walking sticks found in his tomb.
In 2005, researchers studying CT scans of King Tut announced they had found a fresh fracture in his left leg and no evidence suggesting he had been hit in the head, as was once believed, but foul play wasn't ruled out as a cause of death - until now.
Scientists are also looking for the mummy of queen Nefertiti but they have identified Ankhsenamun as Tutankhamun's wife. Two fetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb, which was full of treasure, were identified as his offspring.
Major bummer reading about this today. One of my favorite characters is not returning to Mad Men. After having a male client make advances on his character, which were not returned, he gets the can AFTER the clients switches the situation on him and calls in a favor to his bosses that he doesn't want Sal on the job any more. When confronted by Sal's boss, Don Draper, he is let go even though he let's him know the whole story. Money talks and Sal walks. He packs his bags and we see he wander off - last seen near the park disheveled and in a fog.
Claims the Broadway Buzz...
Bryan Batt, the Broadway vet who made a splash on the Emmy-winning Mad Men as art director Salvatore Romano, won’t be returning to the hit show, according to TV Guide.
“I was supposed to be notified by December 31,” Batt told the magazine, “and nothing.” Sal was fired by Don Draper (played by heartthrob Jon Hamm) after resisting a male client’s advances on the October 11, 2009 episode, but the character’s future was left uncertain. Shooting for the show’s fourth season begins in March.
“We don’t murder people on our show, but for there to be any stakes, there have to be consequences,” Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner said about the loss of Batt. “I know how people felt about Bryan. I obviously love working with him, and he has been an indelible character since the pilot. But I felt it was an expression of the times that he couldn’t work there anymore. It’s the ultimate case of sexual harassment.”
Batt’s Broadway credits include understudying Albin in the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles, Saturday Night Fever, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sunset Boulevard, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express and Cats. Off-Broadway, he gave a memorable performance in Jeffrey and appeared in several versions of Forbidden Broadway.
So will Batt’s next move be a return to the Great White Way? “From your mouth to the producers’ ears,” Batt told Broadway.com in October. “There’s nothing like Broadway.”
Heidi Montag, star of MTV's The Hills has recently come under fire for undergoing 10 plastic surgeries in one day. Pretty crazy for a 23 year old. Usually it is her crazy husband and wannabe celebrity, attention whore Spencer who does the outlandish, but not this time.
She was such a beautiful girl to begin with! The Hollywood machine is eating her up alive! I can only guess this is due to the pressures to look amazing and be the celebrity and paparazzi favorite she craves, but I think it's a case of no self esteem. I thought she looked younger before the Barbie transformation. Such a shame.
In lieu of the controversy, I founds this hilarious video spoof of her recent interview with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood.
Yes on Prop. 8 supporter Meg Whitman just wrote a $20 million check to her campaign to become the next Governor of California and has said she will spend more than $100 million of her own money to buy herself the job. You read that right — $100 million! Meg got her money from her start up, you might have heard of it - Ebay.
But unlike our current Republican governor who has refused to defend Prop. 8 in federal court and who has signed dozens of LGBT rights bills, Whitman has advocated for eliminating our right to marry. If elected, she would likely defend Prop. 8 in court with taxpayer dollars — not to mention what she could do with the stroke of a pen to pro-LGBT bills that pass the legislature.
While we can't match her dollar for dollar, we can fight her anti-equality efforts on the ground. But we can't do it without your support.
AP
