Paul Haggis Humbly but Heroically Stands up to Scientology

I've met the guy several times, I assisted in designing his loft here in NYC.  He's a passionate, thoughtful, thorough guy.  He wrote Crash, In the Valley of Elah, Million Dollar Baby, and others.  After having lived in LA for seven years, I'm still not sure quite what the "Hollywood Type" is --  I've heard so much false testimony and seen various and met many glorious -- but I don't think you could give him any of the derogatory aspects of that title.   He has, recently proven his thoughtfulness, compassion, and bravery by breaking with his church of many years over it's treatment of gays.  His story is chronicled finally and wonderfully in the New Yorker and here is the LINK.  Enjoy.

Terry Gross interviewed the article's author on NPR's Fresh Air and that interview is shorter and HERE.

I'm troubled on "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day"

I've just watched a video of a recent uprising at a university lecture hall.  During a lecture on the limits of free speech.  In Sweden.  It is shocking and frightening, and utterly stark raving mad.

I'm troubled because I feel like sharing the video here, but I don't want to unfairly prejudice anyone who isn't familiar with immigration and assimilation in Northern Europe, so if you don't consider yourself that up-to-date on the massive struggles with national identity and religious freedoms that are taking place in the EU right now, get your salt grain ready.

If you're wondering about the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, here is the FB page for it.  If you've been living under a rock, HERE is the recent caterwauling over South Park's recent episode and it's being censored.  And here is the story about the video you're about to see, but the basics are:

Man sketches Mohammed (there are over seven MILLION "mohammed" results on google image)

Man gets threatened repeatedly, including by an insane American woman who plots his murder.

Man gets physically attacked during a lecture on freedom of expression, pepper spray is necessary to subdue the crowd chanting and screaming for allah. The scene is unbelievable.  I post it as a cautionary tale.  Religion is a dangerous drug.  For more on that, if you're interested, HERE.

the video after the jump...

The South needs some more Freedom to remind them of Slavery

A serious proposal for the Charleston Harbor -- a male version of the Statue of Liberty called the Statue of Freedom (they love that distinction, Liberty is so snooty) has made its way to the Patriot's Point Development Authority.

"At Tuesday’s monthly board meeting, Rodney Cook, of the National Monument Foundation suggested that a male version of Lady Liberty could house a museum about South Carolina’s role in the Civil War.

The statue would be the same size as the one in New York City, and cost about $150M. Most of that money would come from the private sector."

Wait . . . South Carolina's ROLE in the CIVIL WAR? -- you mean starting it and losing it, and now wanting to commemorate cotton and slavery with a big statue to duel with the North's much less homo-erotic one?

Good one.

Some words from the brilliant Geoffrey Nunberg on the shift from Liberty to Freedom after the leap ...