8/12/2006

Reutersgate on Block Island!

Photoshopped! It even happens in the smallest of newspapers. Apparently Adnan Hajii, a photo stringer of Lebanese lineage, has taken up residence on BI under the alias of "Nameless"! I refer to the photo in this weeks newspaper, emblazoned across the front of the paper. In an amazing display of camera wielding, the local bathing pavilion has disappeared into the nether world, and a very nice looking sand dune has appeared in it's place. Is nothing sacred anymore? Why is it necessary to TRY and dupe we who live here with a false representation of actuality? I can't be the only one who has noticed this. I realize that this is a much better view than that of the boxy building, but come on folks, reality would have sufficed. BTW, don't know who Adnan Hajii is? Go to a web site called "Little Green Footballs" and scroll through a few previous posts of the last week or so. You'll find, in the Blogosphere, the only coverage of the fake,(photoshopped) photos by this man sent to Reuters, and then on too the rest of the world giving totally false apprasials of what is going on in the Isreali/Hezbollah war. NOT ONE WORD has been seen in the MSM about these dupliticious actions by AP/Reuters. Their credibility has been shot to hell in my estimation, and I will find it hard to believe anything they put forth in the future, as nothing more than their reconstructed views of what actually happened. Truth be damned! Another BTW, sorry about my prediliction for the use of comma's. I never learned the rules for the correct usage. TIFN

36 comments:

Everett said...

I used to watch the CBS news most every night for years, till it finally penetrated my little mind that virtually every story we saw had a slant that always put the conservative element in a bad and shady light. I always liked Dan Rather but thought him a little to sanctimonious at times . Then along comes Rathergate and I quit watching any national news for a while figuring they were all complicit (sp) somehow. But then after reading the blogs about this photo-shopping, I went looking on the MSM for some stories, and on the three "biggies" I could find not one story. Probably because they were all furiously checking their databases to see how many phony pix were in there! They didn't want to get caught with their pants around their ankles to. So it was best to ignore the whole fiasco! I remain, thoroughly disgusted. One other thing on a completely different subject. How long do you think it will be before, Iran, Syria, Lebenon(sp) Saudia Arabia et al, will finaly wipe Israel off the map in light of the US going along with the UN resolution to stop the shooting there? It won't be long now, and you can bet your farm deed that Israel will toss a few of their non-existent nukes when it becomes apparent that they are headed for the "final solution"!! Thats when all hell breakes loose as Pakistan and India and all the rest jump in with theirs. I hope to hell our "star wars" shit really works when all the nukes start flying. Never thought I'd see that day, but it comes closer everyday in my view, limited though it may be. TIFN

Sam said...

Wow, that was some mighty powerful breakfast cereal, Everett!

You might have a good point, though, about how the Hezbollah (sp?) has in a way, come out on top. It is possibly the best organized and financed underground army in the world. Oh, and correct me if I'm wrong, they're Sunni Moslems, as opposed to Shiite. That could have implications for Iraq.

I don't claim to know very much about the Hezbollah, other than it is a powerful group that basically runs Lebanon, since it has a very weak government and army. Believe it or not, the UN armed forces are over there. That's another matter, I'm sure one that is cause for consternation.

Beautiful place, Everett, with the coast and all those huge cypress trees and ancient ruins. Darned shame.

Sam said...

Hmm, my memory is funny because I was a baby back then, but I do remember the John Birch Society, Posse Commitatus, and a bunch of freaky pro-German folks who didn't hide their ultra-nationalism. Then I came to discover that the place I moved, Leander TX, was a major birthplace of the KKK. Man, my dreams of an idyllic youth are vanishing, dude!

I think your right, Ex-Man, that the spoils of WWII awarded certain areas that profoundly changed the Middle East. If you recall this was mainly the Brits and US dividing up the lands, forming Iraq, creating Isreal, so so forth. I don't think they did a very good job, and carving out a nation-state for a single religion was possibly the cruelest mistake even committed.

Sorry, but we made the mess, so stop thinking like it is all happening to us like for no reason but random "terrorism." It is a war against our own history of really bad decisions.

Sam said...

Quite so, just like there are Zoroastrians and Eastern Christians and other minorities all over the Middle East, of varying races and cultures. It would be like saying that America is all a bunch of Southern Baptists, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

Before the area imploded, my parents spend a few weeks abroad in the area between Eqypt and Syria. If some remote villages the folks still dress like Bedoins and speak a language very similar to ancient Assyrian - something I found fascinating. The women were especially gracious, and made everyone have tea many times over ... it was so bad my mother was making jokes about needing more bushes in the desert, for all that darn tea.

The men? They played with guns and trucks for the most part, from what my folks could tell - besides smoking cigs like an old wood stove. A favorite pastime is to race up a 200-foot sand dune without rolling over or getting bogged down. The men don't like to be photographed but loved showing off their 25-year old trucks. /s/

Anonymous said...
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Sam said...

i detect some tongue-in-cheek there, but perhaps all this is "much ado about nothing." Well, except for making sure houses aren't falling off a bluff or they get that "perfect" shot of your face - that stuff's important!

I read an interesting story about mega-yachts and yes, a few probably came to the Island this summer. It turns out that most of the time, when company managers buy a big yacht, their company's stock usually tanks.

So, if this intelligence is right, please send me a list of the big mega-yachts so I can short the stocks on those puppies! Hope you're having a wonderful summer. Sam

Anonymous said...

Everett--wouldn't worry about your "usage" of English!!! It's honest. How about we worry about the "proper usage" of the island!? Therein lies the rub! Spelling, grammar,syntax--al that stuff was just made up anyway and changes daily. Have you read "Eats, Shoots and Runs"? But I digress---maybe.

Anonymous said...

Let's call the whole thing off....

Just a quick post re: Hezbollah.
The Arabic world knows them as
Hezb'Allah-- the Army of God and they are a Shia or Shiite organization pretty much bankrolled by Iran.

Al Qaeda tends to be a Sunni organization that, in the past, has not supported or cheered on Hezb'Allah in any way, shape, or form. It was a surprise, for a number of mid-East political observers when Al Qaeada did endorse the work of Hezb'Allah, and was read as an appeal to move beyond tribal factions to unite in overthrowing Israel and the Christian crusaders ( that's us--the USA).


The president of Iran is pretty much a puppet of the Ayatollahs and acts as their political voice to push for the re-establishment of the caliphate that once secured Shia control of the area. Hence, the concern about the development of nuclear weapons by the Iranian Government.
There are those who worry that should Iran develop nuclear capabilities, they'll decide that it's time to 'unleash hell' to usher in the comming of the long awaited prophet--- or something like that.

Belief it or not.... this is why the year 2000 ushered in a wave of militant islamic violence! For a number of those who are pledged to militant Islam-- it's time to restore Islam to its former glory.
Back in the 8th -9th century, Islam outpaced Christianity and Judaism in philosophy, science, architecture and trade. Baghdad was the glory of Muslim scholarhship-- their center of learning unrivalled by any European city.
What happened?
The Crusades...

Everett said...

I read a book a long time ago called,"the walking Drum" and it professed that "medicine" of some advanced state, came out of the Muslim world and that it was a closely guarded secret and not for export to the christian world. Well I guess the christians of the Crusades managed to infiltrate the schools somehow and came away with the knowledge that has spread worldwide. So shouldn't the muslims have been better off if they had willingly spread their knowledge while retaining some sort of control over it's dissemination? But I guess, I don't know, that the Mullahs of the period didn't want anyone spreading a science that was in conflict with their views of what their prophet supposedly was espousing. So someone enlighten me AGAIN, who were the two Brothers, Sons, whoever, who split and went their separate ways founding christianity and the moslem world?? Sounds like a filial pissing match too me, a devout infidel! TIFN

Sam said...

Interesting and I don't know why ... both the Moslem and Aztec/Mayan high cultures seemed to wane or even vanish about 1100 A.D. Both had extremely advanced sciences of algebra and astronomy. I am not sure about the medicine department, Everett, other than it was extremely crude in comparison to higher order math.

If you want to know how advanced these societies were, simply look at their calendars. We tend to think of a year as 365 days but these folks had multiple calendars based on the sun, moon, planets, seasons, all with interlocking keys and formulas that could translate one from and into another. I do believe these folks knew about the "leap year" effect and could fix it to the minute.

Then came the Dark Ages.

Anonymous said...

Judaism,Islam and Christianity all share the same Father of Faith==Abraham. All three are known as People of the Book because they draw their basic principles and ethos primarily from their scriptures.

Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was the son of Hagar, the
egyptian slave girl of Sarah, who was not able to concieve a child. Later.. Sarah finally gives birth to Isaac.
Needless to say,there was tension among the mothers and sons regarding the rights of the first born. Eventually, Sarah prevails upon Abraham to basically cast Hagar and Ishmael out into the desert to die.
Ishmael survives and becomes the ancestor of the Arab people. Isaac inherited all that God promised to Abraham and his people.
Are these the two brothers you were wondering about??

By the way..
Islamic scholars did share their scientific discoveries with their Christian neighbors. The great cathedrals of Europe rely on the architectural and engineering innovations of muslim mathematicians. Additionally...the writings of Aristotle were lost to the west for centuries, but provided the basis for Islamic science and philosophy. His philosophical and scientific treatises are finally accepted into Christian univerisities around the 11-12th centuries! But it was a tough sell because of Aristotle's popularity among Muslim scholars.

Sam said...

That is way cool! It makes me rethink the character named Ishmael in Melville's Moby Dick. Thanks for the posting.

I got to thinking, that the math behind the arches might have also been used in building the old boats, since the ribs are really just arches. Maybe I'm just full of gas, but what I saw was the old timers built the ribs before they assembled the ship, so they must have known what they were doing - no templates or computers or nothing!
/Sam

Everett said...

Hi Whirrled, Yup, those were the two guys! Now, who was the person who so plaintively said," Can't we all just get along?" t'would be good if we could!

Sam said...

Hey Ex-Manissean that was good. I heard a real interesting story about how asphalt and oil naturally bubbled up in certain parts of the Middle East because there was so much of it. Anyway, rocks, bushes, anything could be set on fire real easy next to one of these petroleum seeps. Such magical rocks and liquids were used for centuries before British Petroleum got interested, sometime around WWI.

I tried to research the history of the Jewish Sabbath Lamp but didn't do too good - but it is a big deal.

Sam said...

Hey did you see that some crackpot named Adrian is back to slamming everyone on BI in his blog? I was cleaning up my dead old Internet bookmarks and up pops this grouchy old whacko again. Just look up Adrians Isle ... ewwwww! Somebody grab a hold of the grumpy old b@%$*$$! and tickle him until he farts.
-sam

Sam said...

He's steamed at Ballards for some reason now ... a good Island family that's been there since dirt but there just might be a running feud there, like the Hattfields and McCoys. Well, there's some foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog, too!

http://adriansisle.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

So Sam, let me get this straight.
You think it's ok for an establishment to overserve patrons?
What about the Rescue squad needing a police escort to attend to calls within the establshment?
Please qualify what you mean by a "good island family that's beent there since dirt"?

Sam said...

Gee, Puzzled, you caught me real good on that one. I was going give a list of all the other bars that served to me and my 19 year-old daughter recently but heck, we didn't even go to Ballard's because that place ... it is just not what proper folks do, at least in my opinion. I would not go there.

That Ballards place has one horrible rep. The music carries for miles and frankly, the crowd looked a little too druggy for me. I've been coming to BI since 1971 every few years, not consistent but I know the place OK, and I never once set foot in that joint. It was like evil and the feeling was palpable, real.

All beach bars have the same problem but I've seen some bartenders cull the kids from the adults real good. When money comes before common sense, that is where the problem begins. I am totally surprised that the state alcohol cops didn't completely shut down Ballards. This has been going on for years and years in the open, as you well know.

My bad,
Sam

Anonymous said...

Sam, you sure know a alot about a place you claim to not go to.

Sam said...

fishing the jetties and walking the docks ... sometimes the surf break at Ballards ain't too shabby, either. But you're right, I got most my stuff second hand, like cigarette smoke!

Anonymous said...

Hey Sam after about five attempts I was able to find adrians isle again. I guess blogspot is trying to keep him in the dark too! But he is my kind of guy! Got a huge hair up his butt about Ballards. He probably worked there back when old,"I'm going to live forever" Paul Phillipi owned the place.

Sam said...

Everett,
maybe the old cooter isn't barking up a tree ... I read the digital copy of the BI Times for the 26th and like wow, it sounds like a mess to me.

Everett said...

Well Adrain, As my daddy once told me, and you must have known him, don't be cutting off your nose to spite your face, so I'm desperately trying to live by that adage. I might not be happy with the situation but refuse to shoot myself in the foot, or other places! I also try to live by that other adage that says that descretion is the better part of valor!

Sam said...

Everett were you trying to say that you should attack the establishment and not the family? If you think Ballards sucks because of the inappropriate public behavior it engenders, well come on and say it, right?

I could say that the 'Gannsett and Dead-Eyes and the Oar had similar problems ever since the Mott family put 'em all out for lease. But I don't blame ole Sam Mott's family because I have respect and know better!

Anonymous said...

I dunno but remember that Everett's family runs a business out here and you just can't go around taking on every cause that pops up. There are plenty of folks who can not only speak about Ballards but actually do something about Ballards. ( although the state pretty much put a crimp in that)

A friend once told me that you have to pick your fights in life. You can't take on everyone and everything. That was pretty good advice.

Sam said...

There is an old Texas expression that "you need to dance with the people that brung ya." Aside from being really poor grammar, it really tells it all.

As to alcohol licensing, I am an advocate of strengthening town ordinances on our island (note I did not say Block Island's) so that if a peace officer found evidence of a violation of a town liquor permit, sanctions would be implemented no matter what.

If you think Ballard's is a bad case, consider that on our Island, several people die each year from alcohol poisoning each year, especially during Spring Break. We simply must take matters in our hands because the state folks do such a lousy job.

On our little Island, we know that most of the "wet T-shirt gals" are really hookers (sorry, modeling agency representatives) and we know the young underage kids hired by the alcohol board to try to get the bartenders and bar-backs to sell them booze against the law.

It is rather comical. Why can't a local town enforce conditions of its own alcohol permits?

Sam said...
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Everett said...
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Sam said...
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Everett said...
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Everett said...

There you go everyone, I took all the comments about the picture down. I posted an apology also, a rather long one actually, but when I read the last sentence by the GUY involved, I recanted and removed it to. He said he was asking me NICELY! to remove it or, I do believe I detected a veiled threat there! Can't be kow-towing to that kind of innuendo so out it went and I'll now drop the whole matter. Bye Now!!