Well, I've always had a pathological fixation on media-savvy female faux-reformer xenophobe-pandering twits.

There is BLOGGING and there is 'B-MSM-L-Islamofascist-O-meme-G-Bush-G-dhimmi-ING'

ya abu l-maal,

i know next to nothing about maghrebine media business(es). i know a fair bit about muslim immigrants to europe, european & u.s. attitudes/politics towards immigrants, islamism & its opponents, and the media politics associated with those issues.

guess where i commented?

--raf*

ps: why was this posted on aqoul & not the lounsbury blog?

Louns, I've always wanted to know why you spell "wanking" with an H.

Yeah I've seen that too. Especially going to message boards, where many people are right-wingnuts and Christian fundies. They especially like to use the word "dhimmi" or "apologist" to describe anyone who doesn't agree with their worldview that Islam is evil and that every Muslim is a terrorist. I even got a full half-page diatribe insulting me and probably every one of my family members and telling me to go join up with Osama, from a supposed "Christian". It's very surprising what type of choice words these types use. Of course I also got the same type of style reply from a mujahedeen supporting retard who things that the Koran tells him that he's not supposed to be friends with Christians..etc. It's very sad how this world is filled with so much hate and retardedness...

and "connection" with an x?

As i have said at other blogs where the "social" posts get more commentary than the "hard" posts, it's just a question of what we feel competent to comment on. I'd love to be an econ whiz, in which case I woudl comment on your financial posts, but i am not, and I would just expose myself as an econ-idiot. So, it's easier to comment on stuff like Ayaan or the posts about cultural type stuff. In a perfect world, of course, we'd all be much more serious.

As for the US bigot types, they seem to be everywhere these days. I had a pointless comment argument (on the Sand Monkey blog) with a guy who said that Islam was to blame for Egyptian police brutality and that those of us who did nto see the obvious, direct connection were just beyond hope.

What the others sais - I do know a bit about asylum law and immigrant/refugee issues, and feminism for that matter, but essentially nothing about comparative media in North Africa. Guess which one I'm going to comment on?

Ah Lounsbury, don't be mean. When I ask about stats for the income distribution of non-Emiratis in Dubai, nobody seems to answer - what am I supposed to do? Besides, your rants about Right Bolshies and Left Whankers are just so much more entertaining...you prefer that stuff to media markets to, admit it.

ps: why was this posted on aqoul & not the lounsbury blog?

I think this sort of thing needs to be repeated once in a while. It is endlessly amusing (and/or irritating) to see bloggers pontificate on sectarian conflict in Iraq after one Google search and a few Wikipedia articles. These are people who likely didn't know Islam had sects prior to 2003, yet they speak in absolutes and pretend to be authoritative.

This is why I don't read a lot of US political/foreign policy blogs. 99% idiots, just like the real world.

dear e,

i was referring to this:

I'll also say that our own commentators seem rather more interested in telegenic Somali chicks than media economics. Disappointing really. Well, what can I say, business and economic illiteracy seems general, while telegenic chicas are easier to understand.

so were a lot of the other commenters.

i don't understand why L ranted this on aqoul & not his own blog.

at least on his posts the commenters actually comment on the post & not some extraneous barely-even-related issue...

--raf*

Lounsbury,
I agree that it can get incredibly shrill on both sides of the divide. But which, if any, source do you recommend on this particular story? My impression so far is that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been the victim of some shabby treatment from her own party. In which case, she deserves better than to be called a "telegenic chica", doesn't she? Or am I missing the bigger picture? I'm genuinely curious to know what you think.

Clive,

I don't know what good sources there are myself, thus my agnosticism, and contempt for the whanking on hysterically among the monolinguals who have't, to be frank, a fucking clue.

Shabby treatment?

I don't know. As I understand they're following the very rules they agitated for (and which Ms Ayaan was presumably okay with). She seems to have favoured the very rigidity that is taking her down.

My attitude is then, live by the sword, die by the sword.

Of course, again, without being a Dutch speaker and with French and English coverage being all over the place, I am mostly contemptuous of the hysterical over-reaction based on a minimal understanding of the situ. Ergo, my position - wait for solid facts and not engage in hysterics.

Ah yes, re the questions supra.

I like Whanking with an H.
As connexion.

Maybe 'Aqoul has many European readers who know nothing about MENA matters, and therefore don't comment on stuff they know nothing about? like Anna_in_Cairo said.

what can I say, business and economic illiteracy seems general, while telegenic chicas are easier to understand.

Why not post a top list of books and call it the Lounsbury's Guide to Business and Economic Literacy (providing it doesn't yet exist)? At least then people would know where you're coming from.

...

Does anyone have links to Ayaan's own words regarding the details of Dutch immigration policy?

I'm not moved by this general idea, as Lounsbury seems to have been in the comments, that her party's zero-tolerance stance on issue X should automatically be extended to her with all its caveats, or lack thereof.

Why not post a top list of books and call it the Lounsbury's Guide to Business and Economic Literacy (providing it doesn't yet exist)?

All other things being equal, I would much prefer a Lounsbury guide to telegenic chicas.

L, I greatly enjoy your econ and business related posts. The fact that you write about stuff that no one else is writing about makes it all the more valuable and interesting to me. I read them all but I never post on them because, well, I'm a McDoo eating American with fuck-all experience in Arab countries, much less experience with actually working in Arab economies. Rather than shamelessly whanking on about something I have only patchy and secondary knowledge of—and then getting the savage beating that I would undoubtedly deserve—I just sit back and see what I can learn from you and the other comments. I suspect the other contributors to 'Aqoul have a similar attitude about it, especially since they know that you will call them out on any errors they make(a very intimidating prospect).

Just because people don't make a ton of comments on the topic doesn't mean that your posts are going unappreciated.

Why no book list / guide to business?

Because it would be boring and like work. And not what I like to do.

Looks like Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a job waiting for her at the New York Times too, should she want it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/opinion/19fri3.html

Amen to that. (The post, that is, not the comment above this one.)