Do you still beat your wife?, or, Yes, these are our allies

Fun time Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-‘Arifi on a Ramadhan show (shown on LBC network) explains to young men the steps toward beating their wives:

1. Admonish them

2. Move out of the bedroom

3…and I’m quoting here:

If neither method works with her, what is the third option?Guest: “‘And beat them.'”

Al-‘Arifi: “That’s right. How is this beating performed? What do you think?”

Guest: “Light beatings.”

Al-‘Arifi: “Light beatings in what way?”

Guest:” For example, I wouldn’t beat her in the face…”

Al-‘Arifi: “Beating in the face is forbidden, even when it comes to animals. When a person is beating an animal… Even if you want your camel or donkey to start walking, you are not allowed to beat it in the face. If this is true for animals, it is all the more true when it comes to humans. So beatings should be light and not in the face.

Next week on the show: stoning those pesky women who don’t cover their face..

Every bit of this post is absolutely real except that last sentence. Kind of speaks for itself, eh?

h/t: Cranky

The post in which I implore the major league baseball owners to look Scott Boras in the eye and to channel Nancy Reagan..

Please, please, please,,,just say NO.

This is about the madness surrounding Alex Rodriguez who is now peddling his considerable baseball wares to every major league team (well, every major league team if you count the Dodgers, the Angels, the Cubs, the Red Sox and the Yankees as every major league team*).  He’s a damn talented player and he did have a bang-up fine year last year, but for the love of  Alexander Cartwright, please, please don’t pay this man 30 million bucks a year to play what used to be America’s pastime.   It skews the balance of the team.  It takes the team out of team-work.

Plus, this is really about more than young Alex’s dream..this is mostly about agent Scott Boras’s dream to show the world that ‘his’ is bigger than anyone Else’s.

I love baseball, and it doesn’t bother me one iota that talented people who have a scarce talent make the big bucks.  That’s generally how capitalism works, but isn’t there a line of sanity at which this mostly ego-inflation stops?  What do you do with the 30th million that you couldn’t have done with the first, say, twenty?

*Sadly, most major league teams couldn’t begin to afford the current wage demands of A-Rod.

When will the writers’ strike start to effect blogs?, or, Harpo’s blues…

Seriously, I was reading this MSNBC piece on the writers’ strike and how certain celebrities were joining the picket line, and then I saw this nugget of information:

“The Oprah Winfrey Show” doesn’t employ union writers and will continue uninterrupted.

mmmmm, interesting….

Imus in the mor-ning (why can’t Sharpton go away?)

So-called shock-jock, Don Imus is coming back. WABC has hired the aging cowboy for morning drive-time. Most of you know Imus by the stupid comment on his show about the Rutgers basketball womens’ team. It was reprehensible*, and thanks to Al Sharpton and other lynch-mobbers, Imus lost his job. He should have been censured and suspended.

On the other hand, Imus is much much more than a stupid comment. He’s cranky, often misanthropic, hypochondriac and probably the most complex, giving television personality in my lifetime. He’s colorful in the midst of oatmeal news-dolls.   If you are NOT a morning person, Imus is the perfect companion.

Now that Imus is returning, Sharpton said yesterday that Citadel (Citadel owns WABC) needs to meet with advertisers and black groups to explain how they plan to prevent the radio host’s return to “his former vile and biased behavior.”

Sharpton, one of the strongest voices calling for the shock jock’s firing, said Imus had a right to make a living and could return to radio.

“Mr. Imus has the right to make a living, but we have the right to make sure he does not come back to disrupt our living,” Sharpton said. “Particularly since these are commitments he made personally.”

WTF! Who shot the sheriff? When exactly did Sharpton get THAT power – “Imus had a right to earn a living and could return to the radio“. Wow.

And..just exactly whose life was disrupted by Imus? I wish someone WOULD disrupt that faux-crown from the furrowed mantle of the man who has apparently become the great decider. Did anybody tell Bush?

*Let’s stipulate that the comment was vile, stupid, racist and shouldn’t have been said.  Let’s also stipulate that there is more to any of us than some of the stupid things we’ve said.