Saturday, May 23, 2009

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Scott Mendelson: Night at the Museum 2 defeats Terminator Salvation - Huff Post Friday box office rundown Top
The list ... As expected by many (including myself), Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian took the top spot away from Terminator Salvation on its first night. The sequel to the insanely leggy 2006 family favorite took in $15.3 million, while Terminator Salvation took in $14.8 million on its second day of release. For comparison, the first Night at the Museum took in $12.1 million on opening day, but it only managed an opening weekend of $30 million, since its first Sunday fell on the box office black hole known as Christmas Eve. From the looks of things, the three-day total will be around or above $45 million, putting this franchise right in line with the National Treasure series (the $35 million opening original gave way to a $45 million opening sequel). I'd just assume not speculate too much until the full weekend numbers are in. Family-driven matinees could absolutely explode over the weekend, leading to a three-day total well over $50 million (a 3.5x multiplier would give it $54 million for the three-day weekend). But this is a rock-solid, if not spectacular start for a film that most expected to place second for the weekend. But with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday matinees now in play, Terminator Salvation is now doomed to come in second for the weekend. At this point, there is no reason to assume that it's not playing like and old-fashioned, adult-skewing hit that will peak on Saturday instead of opening day (think Indiana Jones 4 or King Kong ). For example, the $14.8 million looks like only a token 11% uptick from its opening Thursday, if you take away the $3 million in midnight showings, then the Thursday to Friday bounce becomes a more impressive 35% increase. Tomato/tomata perhaps, but its too soon to write this one off quite yet (Saturday is this film's day of reckoning). As of this moment, the two-day total is still right in line with the $28 million earned by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines , and the former sequel had the advantage of opening in the middle of summer vacation (while this new sequel had the advantage of six years worth of inflation). By Monday, it should be sitting right around the $72 million that Terminator 3 earned over the five-day Fourth of July weekend. Those who are making negative comparisons to Fast & Furious should remember that the three-day total for T3 ($44 million) was still under the three-day opening weekend of 2 Fast 2 Furious ($50 million) in the summer of 2003. For the record, I still think it was beyond stupid for Warner Bros. to open this one a day early. First of all, by splitting the opening day audience into two non-vacation days, you basically ended up with two middling box office days as opposed to one superior opening day. I'd imagine that WB would be more impressed with a $20-$25 million opening day that blew away Night at the Museum 2 , as opposed to a $28 million two-day total. Second of all, the film isn't all that good, and the extra day has just given the general audiences one extra day to tell their friends as the weekend rolls on. I call this the ' Godzilla Rule': if your movie isn't all that good, do NOT open it early and allow bad word of mouth to spread prior to the Fri-Sun weekend (see also - Matrix Revolutions and Superman Returns ). Angels & Demons fell a disturbing 63% from last Friday, which is especially troubling as the opening day wasn't particularly front-loaded. Barring a miracle (no pun intended), Angels & Demons will not quite reach the $100 million mark by Monday (its Friday total is $63 million). Star Trek fell 51% on its first non-IMAX buffered day (although apparently many IMAX theaters are still doing midnight Star Trek IMAX showings), which means it'll still spend its third weekend with a drop of well under 50%. I'd favor Star Trek to win the weekend over all, as geeks who felt burned by Terminator Salvation or decided to heed their friends' advice and not go at all... they are far more likely to check out Star Trek than Angels & Demons . It'll be close, but Star Trek should eclipse the (estimated) $193 earned by Monsters Vs. Aliens by Monday. More to come as the final numbers roll in over the weekend. Scott Mendelson
 
Calf In Colorado Born With 7 Legs, 2 Spines Top
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — It's an unlucky No. 7 for a calf born with a few extra legs in Colorado. The Steamboat Pilot & Today of Steamboat Springs reports that a veterinary hospital helped deliver a seven-legged calf Thursday. The staff at the Steamboat Veterinary Hospital said the Black Angus calf, which was delivered by cesarean section, had two spines but one head. One leg also had two hooves. The calf lived for only about 10 minutes. Veterinarian Lee Meyring (MY'-ring) says the birth was an incomplete splitting of the embryo into twins. He says he had previously seen a calf with a fifth leg, but the seven-legged calf was the most bizarre he has seen. The hospital says the calf's owners do not want to be identified. ___ Information from: Steamboat Pilot & Today, http://steamboatpilot.com/
 
Best Late Night Jokes Of The Week: Terror Goo, Body Scanners, And The Downhill Dodge (VIDEO) Top
David Letterman introduced us to a new kind of car this week with the "Downhill Dodge," a motorless vehicle sure to meet new mileage standards. Jon Stewart, on the other hand, addressed a homegrown terror plot foiled this week in New York. According to Fox News, the bombs were made not of C4 but "fake goo." Stewart said their stinger missiles were actually giant hot dogs, their cell phones were actually Pez dispensers, and their beards were actually bees. More from Jimmy Kimmel on the Governator and Stephen Colbert on Bob Graham below. For last week's best jokes click here. WATCH: Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on Late Night Shows
 
Bridgeport Mural The Latest In Chicago's Long Line Of Art Censorship Top
[W]e need put this latest act in perspective. We are a city where, not so long ago, outraged aldermen led cops into the School of the Art Institute -- also private property -- to arrest a painting. More on Press Freedom
 
Where The Chicago Cougar Wound Up Top
Remember the Chicago cougar? It has been slightly more than a year since it was shot by police as it wandered Roscoe Village. More on Animals
 
Steven Weber: Republicans: The Party You Save May Be Your Own Top
From an overall agenda of inaction to daily coordinated interference, the Right Wing (the one that flaps so desperately in an effort to keep the eagle flying in an ever contracting circle) has effectively declared war -- on America. Seething with as much passion to impede progress as any terrorist organization it claims to revile, the Republican party and its radical off-shoots (composed of varying proportions of extreme religious zealots and neo-con imperialists, along with the blue-suited, well-groomed face it presents in the form of its congressmen and congresswomen) simply hate, hate, hate the country they claim to represent. And led by a chorus of vitriolic voices blaring from various outposts in a toxic mutation of Radio Free Europe (Radio Fear America?), they have shed their ersatz-Everyman cloak and make no bones about their mission: to preserve some fusty idea of so-called American values and hegemony and to go down, if necessary, with automatic rifles blazing. Regardless of the reams of polysyllabic analyses supplied by apologists and apparatchiks which would seek to misdirect and/or rationalize what boils down to simple malignancy, there really is no logical reason why the Republicans in their current incarnation as corporate-fascist lapdogs should be allowed to have any kind of access to power. Their policies (or lack thereof) along with their tiresome xenophobia in just about every area in which they seek to involve themselves are now only the cultural equivalent of mold and need to be replaced by sane, thoughtful versions represented by sane, thoughtful and truly patriotic participants in the life of this nation. I believe those sane, thoughtful and truly patriotic participants are out there. I believe they may actually outnumber the bullies who have terrorized them into silence and complicity. As the majority of citizens in this country voted for change and got -- finally -- a president who is leading it on the journey it deserves, a journey which it was prevented from embarking on for years by relentless foes to Democracy, so can those who abide by traditional, rational Conservative ideals but who are and have been alarmed by the madmen who have highjacked those ideals for obviously nefarious purposes, join in and contribute to this country's return to greatness. There is no shame in rejecting the current Republican agenda of cynicism, bitterness, waste and obstruction. In fact, it would be an act of heroism in a time when America needs it most. More on GOP
 
Patti Blagojevich Says Faith In Marriage Not Shaken Top
After enduring a six-month roller coaster that brought her husband -- and family -- into an unwanted national spotlight, former Illinois first lady Patti Blagojevich says the faith she has in her marriage to indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich isn't shaken. More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Sandy Goodman: A Modest Proposal To Permit Everyone To Carry Guns In Public Buildings Top
Amid the welter of depressing news about the Great Recession, the Taliban's successes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a new rash of bombings in Iraq, there is a single bright spot. Congress has overwhelmingly passed, and the president has signed into law a bill permitting the carrying of loaded and concealed weapons in our national parks. All I can say is it's about time. Several years ago, while my wife and I were driving through Yellowstone National Park, we were frequently delayed - and sometimes felt threatened - by large numbers of bison. Herds of the big, ugly beasts blocked the roads. And I often caught them staring as though they meant to charge our vehicle. Only by gunning the engine could I frighten the creatures away. But now that I can carry a loaded weapon in Yellowstone, I will no longer feel threatened. I can simply gun the beasts down if I sense a threat - or even if they have the chutzpah to slow my passage. And since assault weapons are no longer banned, I can take down several at a time with a few trigger tugs. And maybe knock off a couple of obnoxious tourists while I'm at it. I see the law permitting loaded guns in national parks as just one more step in the lengthy process of our finally reclaiming our Second Amendment rights. The big first step came in June 2008, when the Supreme Court finally ruled that there is an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. President Obama's decision not to push for another assault weapons ban was another step. And this new law is a third. We gun rights advocates are on a roll! It's clear to me what the next step should be. We should permit--even encourage--the carrying of loaded weapons in all public buildings. They can be concealed, or not (assault rifles and shotguns are, after all, too big to conceal). Democrat elitists will, of course, bitterly complain about this. But pay no attention to their whining. Law enforcement elitists will doubtless join in that whining; the Fraternal Order of Police and a Park Rangers group have already come out against loaded guns in national parks. But let's look at the advantages of permitting citizens to carry loaded weapons in public buildings. Four years ago a defendant on trial for rape in an Atlanta courtroom grabbed a gun from a deputy sheriff and killed the judge and two other people, critically wounded a fourth before escaping. He was later caught. Now imagine if the judge or one or more of the jurors - or anyone else in the courtroom other than the armed deputies - was carrying a weapon. Imagine if, for example, a woman juror happened to be sitting with an assault rifle in her lap. She might have prevented the murders or gunned down the killer then and there. Of course, the juror might have hit more innocent people, especially if she didn't have much practice with semi-automatic rifles. But - as our military tells us all the time, when it kills innocent Afghans in its air strikes --- sorry, but collateral damage is sometimes unavoidable. In 1998, a man with a .38 pistol killed two policemen at the Capitol in Washington. People panicked because bullets were flying all around. But if Congress members, staffers and tourists were armed, perhaps the killings could have been prevented. And what if more bullets flying around created more victims? Well, sometimes that can't be helped. I saw the movie "Milk." Which reminded me that if either San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk or Mayor George Moscone was armed, he might have prevented Dan White from shooting both of them to death at City Hall in 1978. Of course, other people on the scene, like then-Supervisor Dianne Feinstein, might have been hit as well. But so what, today we'd simply have one less liberal Democrat Feminazi senator. And, getting back to national parks, the magazine Politico has pointed out that the White House itself, or at least part of the building and all of the grounds, has been a national park since it was designated one in 1961. The National Park Service calls its 18 acres of gardens and grounds The President's Park, and has a website that says so. Does that mean that White House tourists can bring loaded weapons inside? Well, the measure President Obama just reluctantly signed (as the price of credit card reforms he wanted) makes loaded weapons legal in national parks if "the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the state" in which the park is located. Washington, of course, is not a state. But the city has no law that bans guns in national parks within its jurisdiction. So, can I pack heat in the Executive Mansion? A spokesman for the mayor says NO! the legislation "will not apply to the national parks" in Washington. More important, the Secret Service won't hear of it. "We control security at the White House," a spokesman told Politico. "No weapons are permitted." Just a bunch of spoilsports. More on Afghanistan
 
Atheist Ads Come To Chicago Buses: 'In the Beginning, Man Created God' Top
CHICAGO (AP) - For the past week, 25 buses from the Chicago Transit Authority have been bearing an unusual advertising slogan. The large ads read "In the Beginning, Man Created God," and they're scheduled to remain on the sides of the buses through June. They're part of an effort by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, with the help of the American Humanist Association. The board that runs South Bend's city bus system recently agreed to allow ads on that city's buses reading: "You can be good without God." The group had hoped to have the ads installed on 20 South Bend buses before President Barack Obama's appearance at the University of Notre Dame last Sunday, but that move was delayed. Bloomington, Indiana's city bus service recently rejected similar ads, prompting a lawsuit. Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com -ASSOCIATED PRESS More on Religion
 
Rick Horowitz: Sticks and Stones: Who Says the GOP Doesn't Have a Strategy? Top
You can understand how disappointing it must have been, especially for the folks who'd dreamed up the idea in the first place. They had to compromise, and compromising is never fun, especially when you really believe in what you're doing. And these folks certainly believe in what they're doing. That was the bad news -- the compromising, I mean. The good news? The good news is that there are still plenty of other ways for the Republican National Committee to embarrass itself. There they were, assembled in Washington to stick it to the Democrats. The economy may be on life support. The unemployment rate may be heading for double digits, with the banking and credit systems only barely starting to thaw. There's still a war going on in Iraq, and another one in Afghanistan bleeding over into Pakistan, with the growing danger that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists. So naturally the GOP shock troops figured that this was the perfect time for a resolution that called the Democrats names. "Socialist," to be precise about it. The GOP resolution was going to officially rename the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party." No, really. This was how they were going to spend their time. This was how they were going to try to convince the American people -- who've been bailing on the GOP in large numbers, and in virtually every demographic category -- to return to the fold: by calling the Democrats names. The "Democrat Socialist Party." Consider it Joe the Plumber's greatest contribution to political discourse. (And how far has a party fallen when it starts borrowing its strategy from the likes of Joe the Plumber? What's next? Sarah Palin's "Discourse on Reason"?) Anyway, cooler -- but just barely -- heads prevailed. Apparently it dawned on the party leadership (such as it is) that, as former chairman Haley Barbour put it, "Calling people names isn't useful." That passing such a resolution could open the Republicans, rather than their intended targets across the aisle, to even more ridicule. So they scrapped it? Not exactly. They "massaged" it. They softened the wording just a tad. Instead of trying to rename the Democratic Party, the revised resolution simply "recognize(d) that the Democratic Party is dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals," and pointed out the Democrats' "clear and obvious purpose in proposing, passing and implementing socialist programs through federal legislation." People who receive radio transmissions from distant planets through their fillings also find many things "clear and obvious." The rest of us tend to steer clear of these people whenever possible. Where were we? Right -- compromise. The reworded resolution carried the day, and the GOP shock troops had to be content with just half a loaf. But all is not lost. Not as long as that bold, brash GOP spirit lives on in the hearts of the faithful. In fact, the meeting may have adjourned, but the opportunities to take the fight to the enemy are still out there, just waiting for someone to give the go-ahead. So get ready for Republicans egging the Democrats' windows, and throwing toilet paper into Democrats' trees. Prepare yourself for Republicans ordering lots of pizzas to be delivered to Democrats' doors. With anchovies! And what if they dismantled a big SUV -- or even a truck, you know, like a really big one? -- and they took all the pieces into the Democrats' headquarters late at night when nobody's around, and then they reassembled the whole thing right there in the lobby? -- they'd just freak out!!! And then after that, they could -- The Republican Party: Ready to lead. Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com . More on GOP
 
Boris Johnson, London Mayor, Nearly Killed By Truck While Riding Bike Top
Footage of Boris Johnson's near miss with a lorry while out cycling shows the London Mayor lucky to be alive. More on Video
 
UK Expense Scandal Widens With Disclosure Of $2,600 Duck Hut Top
LONDON — A lawmaker at the center of Britain's growing expense account scandal said Saturday he has been humiliated by public revelations about his attempt to get taxpayers to pay for a duck hut on his country estate. Opposition Conservative Party legislator Peter Viggers' duck hut _ used to shield ducks from predators _ has become a potent symbol of expense account excess in recent days. He tried in vain to bill taxpayers 1,645 pounds ($2,600) for the structure _ just one of many misdeeds in a scandal that has turned British voters against their elected representatives and led many chagrined lawmakers to say they will step down when their current terms are up. "I have made a ridiculous and grave error of judgment," said Viggers, who has dropped plans to seek re-election. "I am ashamed and humiliated and I apologize. As has been reported, my claim for the duck house was rightly 'not allowed' by the Fees Office. I paid for it myself, and in fact it was never liked by the ducks and is now in storage." Viggers, 71, was told by Conservative Party leader David Cameron not to seek another term after he was found to have sought reimbursement of 30,000 pounds ($47,660) for gardening expenses over three years. New polls released Saturday indicated that an increasing number of Britons want a national election to be held this year, and there is a strong amount of interest in new candidates from smaller parties rather than the three major parties that have long dominated British politics. Still, there are no indications that Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose Labour Party is far behind in the polls, plans to risk an early vote. He is required by law to call an election by the middle of next year. Prominent Labour Party figure Ian McCartney, a former party chairman, on Saturday joined the ranks of lawmakers indicating they will not seek re-election, although he said health problems were to blame. McCartney made his surprise announcement several days after disclosing that he had paid back nearly 15,000 pounds ($23,800) of expense account claims for champagne flutes, wine glasses, sofas and other household items. Andrew Mackay, who had already quit as an aide to Cameron over his expenses claims, said on Saturday that he will stand down as a lawmaker at the next election. He was repeatedly heckled at a public meeting he held Friday in his parliamentary constituency. Mackay claimed housing allowances on one house, while his wife Julie Kirkbride _ also a lawmaker _ claimed benefits on another home, meaning taxpayers were subsidizing two of the couple's properties. Voters circulated a petition on Saturday calling on Kirkbride also to stand down. Some of the mystery surrounding how Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper got access to millions of receipts from parliamentary expense account folders was solved Friday night when a former special forces officer disclosed that he had served as the middleman for the information. John Wick, now a private security consultant, said he provided the data because it was in the public interest for the truth about expense account abuse to come out. "Parliament will be a better place, society will be a better place," he said. Wick, a Conservative Party backer, did not say how he obtained the information or whether the newspaper had paid him for it.
 
America's 15 Best Bargain Cities Top
To determine which U.S. cities are the best bargains, Forbes looked at the country's 50 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions -- geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget used by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics.
 
Marcia G. Yerman: Memorial Day 2009 - A Look at Women in the Military Top
While the media parses the ongoing debate between Obama and Cheney on patriotism, terrorism and torture, there is another story that begs for attention this Memorial Day weekend. It is the narrative of service to our country by women, which too often goes unacknowledged. Enmeshed in the stories of women who have served in the military, are the accounts of sexual harassment and abuse that are starting to see the light of day. The issue of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) has consistently been swept under the rug. At a House Committee hearing on Female Veteran's Affairs held on May 20th, it got an airing. The oldest veteran present, Josephine Anton, served as a member of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) during World War II. When Rep. Timothy J. Walz (DFL-Minn.) asked the assembled panel if there had been any progress on the problem of sexual assault in the armed services, the general consensus was negative. Jen Hogg, former Army Sergeant and Associate Director of the Service Women's Action Network ( SWAN ), was present in Washington to listen as Anuradha Bhagwati, former Marine Corps Captain and the Executive Director of SWAN gave testimony. Bhagwati discussed female vet's health care benefits, and the current policies regarding treatment of MST victims. In a pre-hearing press release Bhagwati stated, "Female veterans leaving the military with physical and psychological wounds from service are being treated like second class citizens by the Department of Veterans Affairs." Her on-site testimony was even more damning, as she related elements of her own experience: "As a regular patient at the Manhattan VA Hospital for the last three years, I am intimately experienced with the trials of receiving quality health care and benefits from the VA for both physical injuries and psychological wounds, including Military Sexual Trauma (MST). The last place many survivors of MST want to go for treatment or counseling is a VA hospital. My first trip to the Manhattan VA Hospital was a nightmare. I felt like I was running a gauntlet as I stepped into the lobby and was confronted by a sea of hostile faces, all of them male. Most veterans and VA employees assume women veterans are secretaries, wives, or cleaning staff. Many employees refuse us the common courtesy and professional service that they extend to male veterans. The first psychiatrist I saw rolled his eyes at me when I told him I needed to talk to a female doctor. The MST counselor was too overbooked to take me on as a patient. A physician was so shocked that I had been a Marine that he told me I looked like a 'shopkeeper.' I've been lectured and counseled by dozens of nurses, many of them women, who feel that they are at liberty to talk to female veterans in an unprofessional manner. When I shared my frustrations with the women veterans' coordinator, she told me I "should be happy to have free health care." To add insult to injury, despite the detailed evidence I submitted supporting service-connected trauma from MST - including witness statements from an Equal Opportunity investigation that the Marines by policy destroyed two years after the fact - the VA rejected my claim. At that point I had to make a difficult choice between appealing my claim and having my trauma dragged on for several more years, or giving up. Being a veteran is already a full-time job." I spoke by telephone with Hogg, one of the ten founders of SWAN, about her evolution from soldier to activist. She explained that the established veteran groups which she had been hooking up with were not giving sufficient attention to the concerns that were endemic to female vets. Hogg conveyed to me, "I was repeatedly told that MST was a woman's issue." The delineated goal of SWAN is to "fill the giant national void in leadership, advocacy, and policy design for women veterans and sevice members, as well as women considering military service." They have laid out an ambitious agenda, targeting six core points. • Comprehensive VA Health Care of Women Vets - This includes an elevated awareness in all VA facilities, and access to female practioners. • Military Sexual Trauma - Counseling, pro-bono legal services and advocacy. • Support for LGBT women in the military - Gay women are discharged by the Department of Defense at twice the number as for male counterparts. • Homeless women vets - The homeless population stats currently show that one of three homeless people nationwide are veterans. Women and their children comprise a growing part of this demographic. • Education and Counseling - With recruiters under pressure to fill quotas, they are reaching out to young women. SWAN members are involved in presenting a voice at high school and colleges relating information about their personal service. The Pentagon confirmed that one in three women serving her country has been the victim of a sexual assault. There were 3,000 sexual assaults "reported" in 2008 (as opposed to those that went unreported for fear of ostracism or repercussion). It is clear that the problems of our service women need to be heard and addressed. Voices about the inequities are starting to enter into the mainstream conversation. Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright has lectured tirelessly about the injustices endured by women in the military. Most recently Helen Benedict wrote The Lonely Soldier -- The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. Hopefully, in between the barbecues and the parades, our citizens will reflect on both the physical and emotional challenges that our service women have -- and continue -- to face. Technorati Profile
 
Morgan Stanley To Boost Executive Salaries As Bonuses Decline Top
Morgan Stanley, the sixth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, will increase some executive salaries and double Chief Financial Officer Colm Kelleher's pay as bonuses come under scrutiny from the Obama administration and lawmakers.
 
Iran Told U.S. No Talks Until After June Elections: Report Top
The Obama administration has contacted Iran several times for talks, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his government ruled out any discussions before his nation's presidential elections next month, an Iranian media outlet reported. More on Iran
 
Frank Schaeffer: Big Time Evangelical Religion: Consumerist Individualism Top
Ask yourself: what will happen to his church when Rick Warren dies, leaves or is thrown out? Will it remain as successful? Are people there for each other and their community? Are they there for Jesus? Or are they there for Rick Warren? The North American evangelical/fundamentalist brand of Christianity is the religious version of the American civil religion: consumerist individualism. The consumer picks a pastor based on where the action seems to be: "Wow, you aught to hear our pastor!" Such "churches" are often founded by a man or woman who started them the way other men and women start a restaurant or a movie company. In Warren's case he's pastor of a church called Saddleback but it's more properly known as "Rick Warren's church," just as the Crystal Cathedral came to be known as "Robert Schuller's church" etc. Warren isn't the first hero-author to capture the imagination of the consumers of American religion. Before Warren there were many other celebrity leaders, including authors C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham and my late father (Francis Schaeffer) to name a few of countless stars. Since in the Protestant world the word "Christian" can mean anything, Protestants need to hang on to some sort of distinctiveness. One person might be a "C.S. Lewis-type Christian," another might describe themselves as a "Francis Schaeffer-type," and so forth. And given American's love of material success, there are plenty of people who look at Rick Warren's 50,000 member strong church, and say "Hey, now that's what I call a church! I'm a Rick Warren type-Christian!" Today the American evangelical/fundamentalist consumer of religion is even more prone to the truism that nothing succeeds like success. Talk about unregulated banks and hedge funds, the biggest unregulated American market is big time religion. It's success isn't measured in spiritual gain that changes anything for the better. Big time as religion is in the USA, compared to highly secular Europe, nevertheless America's teen sex statistics, abortion rates, spread of STDs, divorce and child rape rates are higher than those in non-church-going Europe. So the "success" of Warren's-type of born again entrepreneurship is a failure when measured against actual results in regard to what used to be called the fruits of the spirit. Evangelical/fundamentalist leaders don't see it that way. Their faith entertains. It makes money. It nurtures a celebrity culture all of its own with its own TV stations, radio stations, book publishers author tours, rock concerts, schools, colleges, etc. What's not to love? It is no coincidence that other entrepreneurs who aren't believers, have gotten in on the act. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch now owns the largest "Christian" publishing company, having bought out and then folded it into his stable of publishing giants, one of which publishes -- Rick Warren. The evangelical/fundamentalist religion is no different in its core "values" than the celebrity-worshiping, entertainment-oriented society it claims to be a prophetic witness to. Star power is seductive. Pastors aren't pastors in the evangelical/fundamentalist culture any more than evangelical/fundamentalist "writers" are writers or intellectuals are actual intellectuals. How can an intellectual already have made up his or her mind about what the truth is? Rather "pastors" are the inventors of their own product line sold as religion, offering themselves as just another consumer choice to a culture that picks ministers the way they pick sweaters. Empire builders are empire builders, and entertainers are entertainers, regardless of what they call themselves. Mea culpa! I only understood the reality of the symbiotic relationship between our consumer/entertainment culture and the star religious empire builders, after I quit being one myself. Judging by the many emails I'm getting from pastors who have read my novels Portofino and Zermatt which are humorous stories about a preacher's family, seen from the inside by a preacher's kid, it seems that many a preacher is in the position of Groucho Marx. Groucho said he'd never want to belong to a club that would let someone like him join. The doubt and self-loathing expressed to me by so many pastors is amazing. Of course they all beg me never to tell anyone what they are telling me. I can't prove this but I think that any person who remains a "professional Christian" in the evangelical/fundamentalist world for a lifetime, especially pastors, risks becoming atheists and/or liars. They put on an act of certainty. Sooner or later they become flakes faking it, or quit. Worse yet, some just stop asking questions. The very fact that a preacher can fool others when he or she has so many doubts makes the self-appointed mediator of faith the deepest cynic of all if, that is, he or she doesn't embrace paradox. If you have to be correct all the time, while knowing that you are wrong most of the time, you become an actor. Been there, done that. Frank Schaeffer is a writer. He is author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and also author of the forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (Or Atheism).
 
U.S. Relying More On Allies In Questioning Terror Suspects Top
The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and former American government officials.
 
Madhav Kumar Nepal, Communist Leader, Elected Nepal's New PM Top
KATMANDU, Nepal — Lawmakers elected a communist party leader as Nepal's new prime minister on Saturday in a move aimed at ending weeks of political turmoil. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) was elected unopposed, parliament speaker Subash Nemwang announced. Parliament members congratulated Nepal, and his supporters cheered and offered him flowers when he walked out of parliament. Nepal, 56, has the backing of 22 political parties and 350 members in the 601-seat parliament, more than the simple majority required to be elected. Nepal has been a prominent figure in Nepalese politics for more than a decade. He was a key figure in 2005 protests against the authoritarian rule of then-King Gyanendra and the weeks of street protests that led to the restoration of democracy a year later. The previous prime minister, former Maoist rebel chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, resigned May 4 following a dispute with Nepal's president. Dahal's party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), had blocked parliamentary proceedings but ended its protest several days ago, allowing Saturday's election. Maoist lawmakers walked out of parliament on Saturday and did not participate in the process. Both Dahal's and Nepal's parties are communist but differ in policies and beliefs. The Maoists ended their decade-long armed struggle just three years ago and entered a peace process. They won general elections in 2008 but did not obtain a majority in parliament. Nepal's party has long been part of mainstream politics. Dahal resigned after President Ram Baran Yadav rejected his sacking of the country's army chief, who had resisted efforts to integrate former Maoist fighters into the military.
 
Kuwait: Swine Flu Cases Detected Among US Soldiers Top
KUWAIT CITY — Several swine flu cases have been detected among U.S. soldiers passing through Kuwait, officials said Saturday. The soldiers were treated on a U.S. base and some of them have left the country, the state news agency quoted a Health Ministry official as saying. The official, Ibrahim Abdul-Hadi, did not say how many soldiers were infected or where they were traveling from. The U.S. Embassy said cases have "tentatively" been confirmed without providing details. It said the soldiers did not come into contact with the Kuwaiti population. "Each case was characterized as being a mild flu-like symptom," the American military said in a statement. "All but ... a couple have been treated and returned to duty." No further details were provided. Oil-rich Kuwait is an ally of Washington and a logistics base for U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq. The Kuwaiti health official said no other swine flu cases have been detected in the country. The World Health Organization's global tally now stands at 12,022 cases of swine flu and 86 deaths in 42 countries. More than half of those cases have been reported in the United States, while most of the deaths occurred in Mexico. The virus was first detected last month. More on Swine Flu
 
Pakistani Troops Take On Taliban In Main Swat Town Top
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani security forces fought street battles with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley's main urban center Saturday, a critical phase in the effort to wrest the northwest region near Afghanistan out of insurgent hands. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas warned that the operation in Mingora town could be "painfully slow," noting some 10,000 to 20,000 civilians are still trapped there. The fight also could prove a major test for a military more geared toward conventional warfare on plains than bloody urban battles. The military operation in Swat and surrounding districts has strong support from Washington, which wants Pakistan to root out insurgents who use its territory to plan attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. For now, it appears to have broad public support in Pakistan as well. Abbas said 17 suspected militants had been killed in the past 24 hours of the operation in the valley. He said another major town, Matta, was cleared of militants. But some 1,500 to 2,000 insurgents remained in Swat _ hard-core fighters, he said. Mingora, which normally has at least 375,000 residents, is a major commercial center for the valley, one the military had been preparing to enter for several days. "The terrorists are going to use (civilians) as human shields. They are going to make them hostage, so we are moving very carefully," Abbas said. "The pace of the operation will be painfully slow. So keep patient. But the operation has started and, God willing, we are going to take it to the logical conclusion." The military says about 1,100 suspected insurgents have died so far in the month-old offensive. It has not given any tally of civilian deaths, and it's unclear how it is separating regular citizens killed from militants. Residents fleeing the region have reported dozens of ordinary Pakistanis killed in the fight. Abbas also said no civilians were killed during the operation in Matta. Information provided by the military and civilians is nearly impossible to verify independently because of limited access to the region. The offensive also has triggered an exodus of nearly 1.9 million refugees, more than 160,000 to relief camps. Some fear the generally broad public support for the military campaign could drain away if the refugees' plight worsens or if the army gets bogged down too long. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday downplayed reports that the army would expand the offensive to the lawless, semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have long had strongholds. Reports that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said such an expansion was in the works have already led some families to leave the South Waziristan tribal area, the main base of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. "It is not like this," Gilani said in response to questions about a possible new front. "We are not foolish to do it everywhere." It would be difficult for the army to force a fight in another territory before clearing the Taliban from Swat. Pakistan's army has long been more structured around fighting a conventional battle against rival India on the plains of the Punjab region using tanks and artillery. It has limited experience battling guerrillas in urban settings. Many Taliban fighters can simply blend into the population or melt away to the hillsides. The army said it had made gains toward retaking another Taliban hide-out in Swat, the Piochar area, putting the militants there on the run. In a statement, it said local residents had told them they were subjected to forced labor by "miscreants-terrorists." ___ Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report. More on Pakistan
 
Ir Amim: Jerusalem: City of Walls Top
Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director, Ir Amim Ilana Sichel, Research Fellow, Ir Amim This past Sunday, Jerusalem celebrated the opening day of "Education Transcends Walls," a week-long focus on education in honor of Jerusalem Day -- the Israeli anniversary of the "reunification" of the city following the 1967 war. The event featured a wide array of performances, concerts, and panels discussing and honoring the achievements and challenges of Jerusalem in the educational sphere. It seemed, however, that the evening's lofty title belonged to another event altogether. It soon became evident that schools serving the Palestinian third of Jerusalem's population were conspicuously absent. It seemed, in fact, that despite the optimistically entitled event, Jerusalem's walls were strong, intact, and higher than ever. As was apparent that evening and over the four decades of Israeli control, Jerusalem has never become a united city. East and West Jerusalem are divided along lines of both political and national aspirations, as well as by deep socioeconomic disparities. Jerusalem's population is further divided by cultural orientation: Israelis look west toward Tel Aviv while Palestinians look toward Ramallah in the West Bank. Nonetheless, both Israelis and Palestinians see Jerusalem as their capital city. Negotiation efforts have made it clear that no political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come to pass if it does not include a mutual resolution on Jerusalem. Though Israeli politicians seek popularity points by accusing each other of dividing the city, Israelis themselves seem to be more sanguine about the complicated realities of Jerusalem. A public opinion poll commissioned by Ir Amim revealed that 78% of Israelis see life in the city as effectively divided. A further 65% would be willing to forego Israeli jurisdiction over Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem for the sake of a peace agreement, as long as the holy sites remained accessible. These numbers point to the need for leadership that will move toward a negotiated settlement in Jerusalem; leadership that will build a city in which both nations can live in dignity, a city which honors and protects the three religions and two national narratives within it. (See " State of Affairs: Jerusalem 2008 " for analysis and research on Jerusalem life and politics.) Meanwhile, Jerusalem's walls are being reinforced. The separation wall courses around and through the city, and cuts off Palestinian Jerusalemites from their cultural and economic environs in Ramallah, Bethlehem, and the West Bank. In some areas, the wall even cuts off Palestinian Jerusalemites from the very city in which they live, work, learn, and pay taxes. Those who remain within the walls of Jerusalem suffer from municipal neglect: they face a shortage of over 1500 classrooms and over 70 km of sewage mains. They find it nearly impossible to obtain building permits in their own city, and as residents, not citizens, know that leaving Jerusalem for the West Bank may cut them off from the city forever. The challenge for today is to create two effective political communities in the urban space now known as Jerusalem. The answer -- a path toward a stable and secure future -- will look less like a series of performances and concerts, and more like a reckoning of the contradictory realities of Jerusalem and the city's centrality in both Palestinian and Israeli political life. In the new political climate created by the Obama administration, the Israeli government may find itself pushed to working toward a lasting resolution. As Jerusalemites find themselves increasingly surrounded by walls, the need is more pressing than ever to transform the city into a fulcrum for the resolution of the conflict -- and not a spark toward its conflagration. It is upon us to seize this chance for the future of the city cherished by Israelis and Palestinians, and by Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the world. More on Israel
 
Helene Pavlov: Tennis Season Is Here -- All About a Common Noncontact Injuries in the Lower Leg Top
Many indoor and outdoor tennis players are aware of tennis elbow but few are familiar with the painful and debilitating condition of "tennis leg." This condition is most common in the middle-aged recreational athlete and brought on by sudden and abrupt changes in direction often required during game play. In addition to intense pain, patients describe hearing an audible 'pop' or feeling as though someone has shot them in the back of the leg. The pain will often radiate to the knee or ankle and bruising may occur in the affected area. The symptoms of "tennis leg" most commonly results from an acute rupture of the Achilles tendon and less frequently, by a tear in one of the calf muscles, the gastrocnemius muscle, or the plantaris tendon. Distinguishing between these injuries and from potentially life threatening conditions can be difficult by physical exam. Douglas Mintz, MD, Musculoskeletal Radiologist at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York comments that "MRI, because of its ability to accurately image soft tissue damage, is the most common method for evaluating the affected area. At HSS, we can also perform diagnostic ultrasound, a method of diagnosis that is much less commonly used in this country." Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (US) , in trained and experienced hands can be used to both diagnose and follow musculoskeletal injures during the rehabilitation period. Proper diagnosis is key to ensuring that the player quickly and appropriately rehabilitates in order to get back out on the court.
 
Jennifer Vanasco: Some Churches Support Gay Rights Top
We have this idea in the gay community that Christianity is against us. We think that every clergy member everywhere is combing the Bible on Saturday nights, trying to find new ways of convincing their congregations the next morning that gays and lesbians are not equal citizens, that we are condemned by God. We imagine a Berlin Wall of churches between us and our full civil rights, poking their spires into the sky like impassable spikes. We think that churches inspire people only to hate us. We are wrong. "On a range of policy issues, Mainline Protestant clergy are generally more supportive of LGBT rights than the general population," according to a report released last week from the progressive think tank Public Religion Research . It says that 67 percent of Mainline clergy support hate crimes legislation; 66 percent support workplace protections for gays and lesbians; 55 percent support gay and lesbian adoption rights; 45 percent support the ordination of gays and lesbians with no special requirements (like celibacy). One third support same-sex marriage and another third support civil unions, meaning that only a third doesn't think that gays and lesbians should have full civil partnership rights. When pastors are assured that churches will be free to perform marriages for gays and lesbians or not, according to the doctrine of their denomination and the feeling of their congregations, 46 percent support equal marriage. Mainline denominations are those, like Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Obama's own United Church of Christ, that identify themselves as Protestant but are not born again or evangelical. We tend to hear a lot about evangelical pastors - Rick Warren, for example - in the media, and a lot about evangelical and born again beliefs. But evangelicals, with their conservative, literal view of the Bible, do not equal all of Christianity. And even evangelicals are starting to move leftward on gay rights (including Rick Warren, who has started publicly softening his previous anti-gay stance). The "New Evangelicals" think that their churches should focus on poverty and improving the environment. In 1987, 73 percent of white evangelical Protestants thought that a teacher should be fired for being gay, according to a Pew Research Center poll . This year, only 40 percent thought so. Younger evangelicals are, like the rest of the country, more likely to approve of - or just not care about - equal marriage. Last summer, a Faith in Public Life poll found that 24 percent of evangelicals 18-34 support gay marriage, up from 17 percent just three years ago. That's a seven-point difference and that's huge. For a while, I was in conversation with a minister of a small evangelical congregation who was trying to find a way to keep his church's theology while also welcoming gays and lesbians into the pews. "Know that I'm not the only one," he said. "There are more evangelicals where I am than most people realize." There are more religious leaders of all denominations who are for gays and lesbian rights than we realize as well. In New York, for example, hundreds of ministers have joined together as part of Pride in the Pulpit to advocate for equality and justice for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. "Religion" is not a monolith, especially in the United States. There are religious leaders who are for gay and lesbian rights and they are voicing their support in the pulpit. Take my friend's pastor, a Lutheran minister who on Mother's Day said in his sermon, "I have a very hard time finding any reason to be afraid of what is happening in Massachusetts and Iowa and elsewhere. The institution of marriage is strong; it cannot be damaged by extending it to others who want to get married. On the contrary, marriage is strengthened by doing so." Christianity is not out to get gays and lesbians, despite the popular perception. Not all churches are barring our way to equal rights. Indeed, some are opening the door. Jennifer Vanasco is editor in chief of 365gay.com. More on Gay Marriage
 
Dr. Larry Dossey: I Feel Your Pain: Fact or Fiction Top
Bill Clinton famously told Americans, "I feel your pain." Was the prez speaking truthfully or was he, as his detractors claimed, just an oily politician currying favor from suffering citizens? In the past few years, neuroscientists have discovered that individuals may indeed feel the pain of someone else. This conclusion is based on the discovery of "mirror neurons" in the brain, which fire both when a person engages in an activity or merely witnesses someone else who is engaged in the same action. Researchers suggest that when we see a homeless person begging on the street or an emaciated child in Darfur, we feel emotionally moved because we are hardwired to directly share their experience. Thus many experts contend that mirror neurons form the physical basis for altruism, empathy and compassion. Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at University of California-San Diego, says, "Mirror neurons dissolve the barrier between you and someone else." Ramachandran therefore calls them "Gandhi neurons." Others disagree. Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at University of California-Berkeley's Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, considers mirror neurons a myth. She thinks their significance "is blown way out of proportion." Huge ensembles of different kinds of neurons are involved in any cognition, she says. "The idea that a kind of neuron alone could explain empathy or behavior or self-consciousness simply makes no sense. It's just as likely that those neurons are mirroring because people a re imitating each other and feeling empathy, not the other way around." Let's look further. Experts say that in order for mirror neurons to fire and trigger empathy and compassion, an individual must see the suffering person. But this is a shortsighted view (no pun intended), because it cannot account for instances of profound empathy and compassion in which vision or any other physical sense plays no role. Consider the experience of Larry Kincheloe, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Oklahoma City. I received a remarkable letter from him, in which he described how premonitions and bodily sensations sometimes set the stage for compassionate, empathic patient care. His experiences have led him to propose a new field he calls "intuitive obstetrics." After completing his training in obstetrics and gynecology, Kincheloe joined a very traditional medical group and practiced for about four years without any unusual events. Then one Saturday afternoon he received a call from the hospital that a patient of his was in early labor. He gave routine orders, and since this was her first baby he assumed that delivery would be hours away. While raking leaves, he experienced an overwhelming feeling that he had to go to the hospital. He immediately called labor and delivery and was told by the nurse that everything was going fine; his patient was only five centimeters dilated and delivery was not expected for several more hours. Even with this reassurance, the feeling got stronger and Kincheloe began to feel an aching pain in the center of his chest. He described it as similar to the feeling one has at sixteen years old and loses their first love -- an achingly sad, melancholy sense. The more he tried to ignore the sensation the stronger it grew, until it reached the point where he felt he was drowning. By this time he was desperate to get to the hospital. He jumped into his car and sped away. As he neared the hospital he began to feel better. When he walked onto the labor unit, there was an overwhelming sense of relief. When he reached the labor and delivery area, the nurse was just walking out of his patient's labor room. When she asked why he was there, Kincheloe honestly admitted that he did not know, only that he felt he was needed and that his place was with his patient. She gave him a strange look and told him that she had just checked the woman and that she was only seven centimeters dilated. At that moment a cry came from the labor room. He rushed to the room just in time to deliver a healthy infant. Afterward, when the nurse asked how he had known to come to the hospital after being told that delivery was hours away, he had no answer. After that day, Kincheloe started paying attention to his feelings. He's learned to trust them. Having experienced these intuitive sensations hundreds of times, he routinely acts on them. Usually by the time he gets a call from labor and delivery, he is already getting dressed or is in his car on the way to the hospital. He often answers the phone by saying, "I know. I am on my way," knowing that it is labor and delivery calling him to come in. This is now such a common occurrence among the labor and delivery staff that they use his chest sensations as a clinical tool in predicting when his patients will deliver. Dr. Kincheloe's experiences suggest that physical sensations can mediate empathic connections with others, beyond the range of the physical senses. These physical symptoms are like psychic cell phones uniting a distant individual who is in need with someone else. A classic example, reported by the English social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), involved Arthur Severn, the well-known landscape painter. Severn awoke early one morning and went to the nearby lake for a sail. His wife Joan, who remained in bed, was suddenly awakened by the feeling of a severe, painful blow to the mouth, of no apparent cause. Shortly thereafter her husband Arthur returned, holding a cloth to his bleeding mouth. He reported that the wind had freshened abruptly and caused the tiller to hit him in the mouth, almost knocking him from the boat at the estimated time his wife felt the blow. Mathematician-statistician Douglas Stokes reported a similar instance in 2002. When he was teaching a course on parapsychology at the University of Michigan, one of his students reported that his father was knocked off a bench one day by an "invisible blow to the jaw." Five minutes later his dad received a call from a local gymnasium where his wife was exercising, informing him that she had broken her jaw on a piece of fitness equipment. The late psychiatrist lan Stevenson, of the University of Virginia, has investigated scores of comparable instances in which distant, emotionally close individuals experienced similar physical symptoms. Most involved parents and children, spouses, siblings, twins, lovers, and very close friends. Again, the common thread seems to be the emotional bondedness and empathy experienced by the separated persons. In a typical example, a mother was writing a letter to her daughter, who had recently gone away to college. For no obvious reason her right hand began to burn so severely she had to put down her pen. She received a phone call less than an hour later informing her that her daughter's right hand had been severely burned by acid in a laboratory accident, at the same time that she, the mother, had felt the burning pain. In another case, a woman suddenly doubled over, clutching her chest in severe pain, saying, "Something has happened to Nell, she has been hurt." Two hours later the sheriff arrived to inform her that Nell, her daughter, had been involved in an auto accident, and that a piece of the steering wheel had penetrated her chest. These events occur in the context of emotional closeness, empathy, compassion, and love. They do not depend on physically seeing another individual, as the mirror neuron hypothesis requires. This kind of remote, empathic knowing is the sort of ability that a survival-oriented organism might develop, because this ability favors the physical survival of the person in need, and therefore procreation. This trait might eventually be incorporated as part of our genetic endowment and passed down through succeeding generations. How might it actually work? A host of hypotheses have been advanced to explain these happenings, all proposing, in one way or another, new images of the nature of consciousness, the nature of time, or extensions of the unity that are possibly foreshadowed in concept of nonlocality in quantum mechanics. As I discuss in my recent book The Power of Premonitions , these views have been proposed by eminent scientists, including Nobelists. No one knows which, if any, of these hypotheses may eventually be validated. But what is certain is that we have vastly underestimated the extent of "the ties that bind" us together through empathy, altruism, and compassion, and which make us uniquely human. Dr. Larry Dossey is the author of eleven books about the nature of consciousness and the role of spirituality in healthcare, most recently The Power of Premonitions (Dutton/Penguin, 2009). More on Wellness
 
Qanta Ahmed: Invisible Women at Work: Meet Maha Al-Muneef, the Gloria Steinem of Arabia Top
Earlier this month, I was invited to comment on the Saudi judge who condoned wife-slapping as appropriate punishment for a spendthrift wife, first reported in the Arab News . The comment (made at a conference for academics at a symposium on domestic violence in Saudi Arabia) engendered a sharp intake of breath, on both sides of the Levant. Describing the rising tide of reform engulfing the issues of abuse (both domestic violence and child abuse) within the Kingdom to the CNN audience, I quickly realized my comments were news, even to the well informed here in the United States. Surprising, given the fact HM King Abdullah has made these very issues such a priority of his monarchy since his 2005 ascent to the throne. At the helm of civil activism driving these reforms is Dr. Maha Al Muneef. For years now I have been watching Dr. Al Muneef at work, pursuing her passion from before even she knew she would one day be heading the single most influential movement to change attitudes towards women and children in the Kingdom. The judge's myopic bias is a gift in disguise: he provides a welcome fracture in the puritanical theocratic edifice which is rapidly crumbling, and will ultimately dissolve under the pressure of much needed, sane debate. Those at the apex of The National Family Safety Program have long recognized that some men working in the Saudi Arabian judicial system and certain elements at work within the Kingdom's prosecution departments share the same misogynistic views as the judge who triggered the global outcry. Some have actually been known to abuse the women in their own lives, something which simultaneously revolts and galvanizes the Saudi men and women into redoubling their efforts to end such hypocrisy. Realizing the intrinsic bias present in the very infrastructure of the Saudi judiciary, Dr. Al Muneef and her organization have launched a grassroots response. Her movement speaks to the novel interactions between a new citizen vanguard and the Establishment which have, until now, been unprecedented within Saudi society. Every month, within every major city in the Kingdom, The National Family Safety Program hosts a 'town hall meeting" open to the city's chief justice, the director of the police department, the prosecuting lawyers serving in the city's courts and other lawyers and activists who are focused on women's rights. These community meetings have created some of the first public forma to air and discuss these problems. The premise is simple: once one airs such misogynistic and unfounded attitudes, they tend to shrivel under the scrutiny of broad daylight, particularly so when illuminated with Islam's powerful ideals, which are immensely invested in favor of preserving the rights and interests of society's most powerless members: women and children. While ignorant theocracy may long have attempted to foist a distortion of Islam as a weapon to confine and suffocate womanhood, they are beginning to find Islam will ultimately provide the very armament to liberate women from precisely such baseless subjugation. Dr. Al Muneef and her colleagues are busy enacting precisely these sentiments. The first city-wide symposium hosted by the National Patient Safety Program was held in Jeddah, the second in Madinah (revered by Muslims globally as one of the two Holy Sites of Islam), and the third meeting was in the southern province of Asir, in the city of Abha, where the judge said his notorious comments. His screeching irrationality sentiments only exposes how brittle the puritanical establishment is becoming in the new climate of transparency which is beginning to sweep many aspects of Saudi life, most notably surrounding the vibrant and influential roles of Saudi women. Calcified puritans are increasingly anxious when faced with the rising temperatures of domestic scrutiny trained upon them. They will soon find the full force of Islam's cool and tempered logic falling upon them like a dead weight as the educated expose the theocracy's intrinsic fallacies. All Muslims have three responsibilities: to themselves, to society and to God. Judges choosing fanaticism effectively abrogate all other duties when applying their rulings to Muslims, and overlook the fact that their judicial expression of Islam is fundamentally flawed when they condone cruelty to women. Condoning physical abuse to women is anathema to all Islamic ideals and certainly serves neither God nor society nor the Muslim individual herself. While Craig and Marc Keilberger discussed " Seeing the potential of Saudi Women " earlier this week here on Huffington Post, and are rightly concerned about the limitations which affect many women and girls in the Kingdom, we must recognize that among the privileged, educated intellectual sectors, barriers are narrowing tremendously. In fact, Saudi Arabia already 'sees' the tremendous potential in Saudi women and is rapidly profiting from new talent in the shape of movements like the National Patient Safety Program. What perhaps has been difficult to identify has been Western recognition of these very landmarks in advancing Saudi Arabian human rights. Our reluctance to televise these stories, report these events, or discuss them in the public sphere this side of the Atlantic is increasingly perplexing. America in particular must now be truly introspective and consider whether they are ready to re-cast the decade long, near immutable vilification the post 9-11 Kingdom. Of course, Saudi Arabia has a long way to go in righting the imbalance between male and female rights -- they are not alone in their need for seeking gender equality: the last time I checked, women were paid 77 cents on the dollar to men, right here in the US. Nonetheless, there is unquestionably a sea-change in possibilities for Saudi Arabian women which will emphatically set the tone for women throughout the Muslim world, including I hope, in the country of my heritage, Pakistan which has some of the worst records on sex trafficking in the world. When I explain these views challenging the traditionally negative casting of a homogenous Saudi Arabia made thus more palatable for the post 9-11 Western public, I find myself dubbed a 'paid agent of the Saudi government,' or 'feverishly supportive' of His Majesty King Abdullah. I am neither. I am merely a Muslim woman exercising my responsibilities: to expose injustice. We have an intensely distorted assessment of the Kingdom which must be rejected if one is to seek a true and more balanced view of the very exciting reforms and activism afoot. The educated, particularly the educated amongst women, will be the single most powerful engine for reform and progress. Dr. Al Muneef's movement, a movement for which she lobbied and secured Royal patronage (finding it in Princess Adila bint Abdullah, King Abdullah's daughter, no less) is a perfect example of the advantaged reaching out to improve conditions for the disenfranchised. She has invested hours of her own time, carved out from her busy academic pediatric infectious disease career, and her family responsibilities to build what you see today. When we were last together at an academic meeting for female professors in Riyadh this past December, she explained to me how she personally went to every police station and court in Riyadh and met with the officers and judges to educate them about abuse. Standing in her veil, a tiny figure at under five feet tall in heels, she counseled what can only be described as an exceptionally tough crowd, often facing an unreceptive and very crusty establishment who barely reluctantly tolerated her discourse. She always speaks with deference and diplomacy in the face of disdain and sometimes contempt, understanding (like every effective citizen activist) that how you express yourself is just as important as what you express. One by one, she culls favor and support for her missions, introducing a diametrically new paradigm challenging the theocracy so entrenched in the past. Until Dr Al Muneef's work, there existed no means of public engagement with the judiciary outside of facing trial oneself. Because of her personal efforts, Dr. Al Muneef has, within the framework of the National Patient Safety Program, exposed the Saudi judiciary them to healthy, open and strong domestic criticism. As a reflection of King Abdullah's appetite for reform and transparency, these events have been widely and very favorably explored in the Saudi Media, reflecting the security and confidence of a rather free Saudi press, one might say. Meanwhile Dr. Al Muneef continues her work raising awareness of domestic violence in Saudi Arabia. She recently held the second expert symposium on domestic violence and the key note speaker was none other than the newly appointed Saudi Minister of Justice, Mohammed Al Issa, evidence of her growing impact. So, while you may only 'see' a small veiled figure when you visit the Kingdom to meet with Dr. Al Muneef, make no mistake, she is realizing fully the potential of many Saudi women, and, while to the West she and many activists like her may remain invisible, her actions are not only visible but emphatically palpable. She is the Gloria Steinem of Arabia. More on Women's Rights
 

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