By Debbie Schlussel
StuffonMyCat.com. WHY?
Don’t forget: Dogs Rule. Cats are useless and spread disease.
Cats . . . It’s What’s for Dinner in North Korea.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’m cited by Advertising Age columnist Jonah Bloom, who agrees with part of my take on the new Wall Street Journal design:

If I was going to nitpick, there are a couple of things that didn’t quite work on day one: . . . . “The Journal Exchange” — the home of its “Letters to the Editor” — perhaps deserves more prominent location than the back of the Marketplace section. Debbie Schlussel posits this one on her blog. In fact I’d like to see more reader comment throughout the pages.

Advertising Age is the bible of the ad industry. In this case, it’s good to be a “nitpicker.”

By Debbie Schlussel
By now, you’ve heard about the cheers for Shi’ite extremist Moqtada Al-Sadr at Saddam Hussein’s hanging, last Friday.
But you probably haven’t heard that many of those Arab-Americans dancing in the streets of Dearborn, Michigan are extremist Shi’ite supporters of the murderous Al-Sadr, too. They fervently support Hezbollah and HAMAS, too.
There’s a reason food was reportedly half off, that night, at La Shish–the restaurant chain owned by fugitive Hezbollah financier and federal indictee Talal Chahine.
Yes, Saddam Hussein was an evil, mass-murdering terrorist leader. He deserved what he got. But the group of radical Muslims dancing on his grave should disturb us. And many of them are on our soil.

Extremism Goes Mainstream: Shi’ite American Imam Husham Al-Husainy
Meet Husham Al-Husainy. In Iraq, he was an aircraft engineer. But in America, he’s an extremist cleric and disciple of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who enjoys huge mainstream support.
Imam Al-Husainy organized the “spontaneous,” “impromptu” rally, Friday Night, and was featured in most national and international press reports about the celebrating Iraqi-Americans.
Al-Husainy heads one of Dearborn’s three largest Shi’ite mosques, the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center mosque. The mosque is also among the largest is North America. And he enjoys prominence in the media as a respected Islamic authority.
Hussainy was one of the imams shown in photographs around the world being hugged by President Bush after we invaded Iraq, and he was invited to the Pentagon to confer with top officials.
But make no mistake. Imam Al-Husainy is no moderate. He was an advisor to the late Mohammed Bakr Al-Hakim, leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution. He’s allied with the mainstream of Iraq’s Shia Islam, which is terrorizing and driving out the few Christians left there.
Friday Night, Associated Press quoted Al-Husainy’s teenage son, Ali Al-Najjar:

This is the first time I’ve seen my dad this happy.

But I’ve seen him this happy on several occasions.
This past summer, Al-Husainy seemed very happy leading almost-daily protests of thousands of Hezbollah supporters on the streets of Dearborn and Detroit, swarming with swastikas and anti-Semitic, anti-American signs.
Later, I watched him very much enjoy himself at an anti-Semitic rally of 3,000 Hezbollah supporters at Dearborn’s Bint Jebail Cultural Center. He was among several who delivered hate-filled, anti-American rhetoric. I watched him cheer others on when they called for the hastened destruction of the Jews and when they said Americans are “diseased.”
After the event, he seemed very happy when he put his arms around Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s favorite rabbi, Yisroel Dovid Weiss of the Neturei Kartah, who attended the recent Holocaust-denial conference. “We make a great team,” he said of Weiss, who was flown into Detroit for the Hezbollah rallies.
Husainy seemed very happy in August 2004 when he led anti-Bush, anti-American rallies on the streets of Dearborn, which gave aid and comfort to the enemy in Iraq, at a time when Al-Sadr’s terrorist thugs, the Mehdi Army, were actively making life tough for American soldiers, as they are, again, now. (The Mehdi Army recently kidnapped an Iraqi-American soldier.)
Imam Husainy was also in great spirits when he led a number of pro-HAMAS and pro-Arafat rallies in the area. Yes, Shi’ites who hate Sunnis to death in Iraq, love Sunnis in Israel when they’re killing the Jews. In late 2004, he seemed thrilled to lead a rally on the streets of Dearborn, commemorating Arafat’s death. He and his followers held signs featuring enlarged photos of Khomeini at the rally.
Husainy was very happy to attack American soldiers in an interview:

I heard that many soldiers are running away or committing suicide or getting psychological treatment. I’m not surprised. . . . They act like an occupation force . . . . Iraqis don’t see the soldiers as friends.

In the same interview, he was very happy to engage in bizarre anti-American, anti-Israel conspiracy theories and rhetoric:

Saddam . . . he handed Iraq to the coalition. I believe he is an agent of America. . . . Saddam created a bunch of gangs who have no faith . . . . We also think some outsiders, with some Iraqis, and, by the way, I don’t want to exclude the Zionists. I think some extremists from the Mossad came in and took a chance to have some revenge, because we don’t know who killed [Imam Mohammed Bakr] Al-Hakim or Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Imam Al-Husainy and other Shi’ite leaders in Dearborn are not just followers of Khomeini, they are supporters of Moqtada Al-Sadr and proteges of his late uncle, Imam Mohammed Bakr Al-Sadr–who was murdered by Saddam Hussein. Every year, the Al-Sadr Foundation holds a fundraising banquet in Dearborn. Does any Foundation money go to fund the Mehdi Army?
A brochure announcing the 2005 event, quotes Bakr Al-Sadr’s Islamo-supremacist worldview with approval. It encompasses the separatist view the Shi’ites here in America, who produced the brochure, embrace:

One can either love Allah or love the world. But both the loves cannot be contained in one heart. Let us examine our hearts to see whether the love of Allah or the love of this world prevails over them. If the love of Allah prevails over our hearts, let us make it deeper. If, Allah forbid, the love of this world prevails, let us try to save ourselves from this dreadful malady.

The brochure also quotes Sadr on Khomeini:

The only thing I have sought in my life is to make the establishment of an Islamic government on earth possible. Since it has been formed in Iran under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, it makes no difference to me whether I am alive or dead because the dream I wanted to attain and hope I wanted to achieve have [sic] come true, thanks to Allah.

Remember, this is the same Khomeini who took Americans hostage for 444 days in Tehran. And few Shi’ites disapproved.
America’s Shi’ite enemies are not just in Sadr City or Central Beirut and Southern Lebanon. They are in America’s own Little Sadr City–East Dearborn, where they danced on the streets after Saddam Hussein’s execution.
Proving the old adage wrong. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.
Sometimes, he’s just our enemy. And, unfortunately, he’s living on American soil with permanent citizenship. And a lot of easily-incited followers.

By Debbie Schlussel
Recently, we told you about how burqas (full Muslim face veils plus thobes/long robes/dresses) and niqabs (full Muslim face veils) were being used by Muslim cop-killers and terrorists to escape the West and justice.
Well, the veiled threat continues. Now, Muslim women in burqas are using the concealing garb to steal jewelry from shops in India. That’s why some Indian jewelry shops are banning women in burqas from shopping there. (Thanks to reader Frank Z. for the tip.)

No Way! Paris and Nicole Converted to Islam?
Yet another reason why I applaud Hamtramckstan, Michigan Judge Paul Paruk’s ruling against allowing witnesses wearing the face veils in his courtroom to give testimony.
And BTW, it’s very difficult to eat spaghetti while wearing one.


Future Guest Burqas, er . . . Workers?

Burqa Family Photo

By Debbie Schlussel
In terms of new literary offerings, 2007 doesn’t look so great. Here are some of the new fiction and non-fiction novels coming out for the first 1/3 of the year, according to USA Today, along with my take:

Jan. 9
“Exile,” by Richard North Patterson (Henry Holt). An attorney defends a Palestinian woman accused of killing Israel’s prime minister.

Gee, I wonder what the slant of that one will be. NOT. Either the woman will be somehow justified in killing him. Or she will have been set-up/framed by evil Zionist conspirators. I had enough of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian “thrillers” when I heard about John Le Carre’s “The Little Drummer Girl.” And I had enough pan-Islamist thrillers when I read about “The Hidden Assassins.” Enough is enough. Think of a new tack, Mr. Patterson (or is that, Mr. North Patterson?).

Even the cover of this book appears agenda-laden. It bears a key which resembles the key that has become the self-chosen symbol of Al-Awda (The Return), terrorist-allied Palestinians who falsely claim they have a “right of return” and reclamation of property they sold or abandoned in Israel.
The full name of this one is “Exile: A Novel.” At almost 600 pages, it should really be called, “Exile: The Drivel.”

Feb. 13
“The Double Bind,” by Chris Bohjalian (Shaye Areheart). Gatsby references are woven through this story of a woman struggling in the aftermath of mental and physical abuse.

Oy! Poor Great Gatsby. I can hear the rustling as F. Scott Fitzgerald turns over in his grave.

“Heart-Shaped Box,” by Joe Hill (HarperCollins). In this novel from Stephen King’s son, a collector gets more than he bargained for when he buys a revenge-hungry ghost on the Internet.

Is the son as good as the father? Doesn’t sound like it from this description.

“Past Perfect,” by Susan Isaacs (Simon & Schuster). A fired CIA agent searches for a missing former co-worker in this comic novel.

Richard Tenet goes looking for Valerie Plame, brings clowns Joe Wilson and federal prosecutor FitzGerald along for comic relief?

“Ten Days in the Hills,” by Jane Smiley (Knopf). Self-help author and her lover, a film director, host a house full of quirky guests after the 2003 Oscars.

Puh-leeze. A precursor to the ending of the Jim Jones “residential colony”? Comes with complementary satchels of pachouli and valium.

Feb. 20
“Finn,” by Jon Clinch (Random House). Using clues that Mark Twain left in Huckleberry Finn, the author builds a tale of Huck’s notorious father.

Uh, no. Mark Twain is one of my fave writers. He cannot be imitated. Or ripped off.

Feb. 27
“Shopaholic & Baby,” by Sophie Kinsella (Dial Press). Becky Bloomwood is pregnant, and she discovers a new world of shopping.

Proposed subtitle: The Death of Ideas and Creativity in America. News Flash: “Sex And the City” was canceled a while ago.

March 1
“The Long Road Home,” by Martha Raddatz (Putnam). ABC News correspondent’s experiences covering the war in Iraq.

Could she come up with a more trite title?! Yet another anti-War “expose” that’ll put you to sleep . . . by yet another Mainstream Media “news” “correspondent.” YAAAAAWN. Next!

March 6
“Whitethorn Woods,” by Maeve Binchy (Knopf). Residents of a small Irish town face demolition of their famous shrine for a highway.

Now, this one appears promising. Sounds like Kelo v. Connecticut visits Emerald Isle.

March 13
“You Don’t Love Me Yet,” by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday). Farce centers on members of an L.A. alt-rock band.

Dude, the audience for this kan’t reed and just spent the $25 this would’ve cost them on some quality “herb.” Sorry, Paris Hilton doesn’t read books.

April 2
“Boomsday,” by Christopher Buckley (Twelve). War erupts between retired boomers and the generation footing the bill in this comic novel.

Ahhh . . . a bright spot in a dark printed universe. Buckley is always funny. And taking on the hippie generation? Sounds very appetizing.

April 3
“The Feminine Mistake,” by Leslie Bennetts (Voice/Hyperion). Working mother makes the case for having a career.

I thought Betty Friedan died in 2006. Resurrected so soon?

April 10
“Einstein: His Life and Universe,” by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster). Touted as first full biography of the genius and the science that he studied.

Sounds promising and interesting.

April 17
“Good Husband of Zebra Drive,” by Alexander McCall Smith (Knopf). The latest in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

Been there. Read that. It’s called “Nancy Drew,” “Remington Steele,” or for the low-brow set, Pamela Anderson’s defunct “V.I.P.”

April 24
“Body Surfing,” by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown,). A woman conflicted by death and divorce must learn to love again.

Gee, how original. Hello . . . . Danielle Steele, Harlequin Romance and Lifetime Channel called, and they want their stale idea back.
And they killed trees for these?!

By Debbie Schlussel
More evidence that if you play with Islamic terrorists, you get burned.
Part of the reason Muammar “Daffy” Qaddafi–he of the surname spelled many ways in the western media (and on this site)–got his country, Libya, off the State Department terrorist list was that he offered a “buy-out” deal to the families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the explosion of which he helped orchestrate along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
His plan was to pay his way to absolution, by paying several multi-million dollar payments adding up to a total of $10 million per victim to the families of each victim. Almost all of the families took the bait.

Surprise! Surprise!: Muammar “MC Hammer” Qaddafi Reneges on Lockerbie Victims Pay-Off Deal
But if you sleep with snakes–even for $10 million–you get bitten. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal features a letter to the editor by Kara Weipz, President of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, whose brother was murdered in the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack.
Weipz claims that Qaddafi “reneged on is compensation agreement with the Lockerbie victims and is refusing to comply with the terms of the settlement.” Translation: Qaddafi did not pay up the full $10 mill, the final installment of which was required for him to get Libya taken off the State Dept. terrorist list. We took Libya off the list, but they didn’t get all of their money. (The late Billy Carter was smart. He got his $200,000 “loan” from Qaddafi up-front.)
While I feel bad for the victims’ families that their loved ones were murdered by Qaddafi, it’s hard to feel bad about their not getting the money. They sold their souls for $10 million each to the devil. And just because you sell out to the devil, doesn’t mean the devil will keep his end of the bargain. Weipz writes, “So much for Libya’s rehabilitation.” But paying $10 million–when you murdered over 200 American airline passengers and several U.S. Marines in a German disco in 1986 in cold blood–isn’t rehabilitation.
It’s just blood money. Time for her and the families (but for the couple or so who refused the pay-off) to realize that.
Here’s Weipz’s full letter:

Hold Gadhafi Accountable
January 2, 2007; Page B10
As someone whose brother was murdered by Libyan terrorists, I read your editorial about Libya’s most recent act of barbarism with deep disappointment (“Gadhafi’s Hostages – II,” Dec. 20). The victims of Pan Am Flight 103 stand in solidarity with the innocent medical workers facing death in Gadhafi’s lawless, terrorist regime.
As you correctly observe, there is a linkage between Gadhafi’s attempted extortion of Bulgaria’s government and the claims of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims. But it must also be noted that the Gadhafi regime has reneged on its compensation agreement with the Lockerbie victims and is refusing to comply with the terms of the settlement. So much for Libya’s rehabilitation.
Kara Weipz
President
Victims of Pan Am Flight 103
Mount Laurel, N.J.

**** PREVIOUS:
18 Years Ago Today: Remembering the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103
Shame: What’s Behind Restoring Ties with Libya
The Resurrection of Billy Carter

By Debbie Schlussel
Meet Wesley Autrey of Manhattan–a real-life Superman in the real-life Metropolis.
Yesterday, the 50-year-old Vietnam Veteran jumped onto the New York Subway tracks to keep a young man from getting run over. Cameron Hollopeter, 19, had a seizure and fell onto the tracks. While most would have screamed in desperation, Autrey did the unthinkable and heroic, risking his own life to save that of a stranger.
After trying to pull Hollopeter up from the tracks, Autrey quickly jumped onto the tracks pushing Hollopeter down into a drainage trough betewen the rails, and pinning both of them down. With this heroic move, Autrey saved Hollopeter from likely death from a quickly approaching train–just in the nick of time.

Wesley Autrey: American Hero & Real-Life Superman
The train cars went over them with just two inches to spare. Subway drainage troughs, just under the train tracks are only 8 to 24 inches deep, with the trains just above.
Yes, real men are not gone from America. We just don’t hear about them enough. Wesley Autrey, American Hero.
**** UPDATE: Reader Dave, a Vietnam Vet, noting Autrey’s tremendous heroism, notices that media reports (mostly from AP) might be incorrectly reporting on Autrey’s status as a Vietnam Vet (or, more likely, got his age wrong):

Ms Schlussel:
Just read your piece on Mr Wesley Autrey, who is a real hero,
cannot deny that. But if he is 50, how can he be a Viet Nam vet
please? Born in 1957, ten years old in 1967, and twenty in 1977. All US troops out of SVN in 1973 except for advisors to ARVN and USMC guards at the Embassy, so he would have been only 16! Oops. Unless they got his age incorrect perhaps? Just wondering is
all

That’s a good question. Perhaps reporters made it up. But two media accounts I saw (here and here) reported that Autrey is a Vietnam Vet. It appears AP originally reported he was a Vietnam Vet and then sent out later versions that omit that.
Regardless, either way, Wesley Autrey is a great American and a hero. No doubt about that.
**** UPDATE, 01/05/07: Turns out that the original AP report was correct, after all. Wesley is a proud U.S. Navy Veteran of Vietnam.

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s the third day of 2007. But the ACLU thinks it’s still 2004.
Yes, our friends at the Americans for Terrorists’ Liberties Union are at it again. Only they can’t come up with any new material with which to attack America on behalf. So, they’re rehashing old material . . . from 2004.
The group trotted results of an internal FBI survey of Bureau agents and employees deployed to Gitmo about treatment of terrorist detainees held there. The ACLU obtained the documents in a Freedom of Information Act request. But the incidents described are old news. And keep in mind, the FBI does not conduct the interrogations at Gitmo. The military does, so FBI agents really are clueless on the topic.
Still, since the ACLU thinks it’s news–and thinks it’s torture, we present to you a quick quiz:
TORTURE QUIZ

Which of the following constitutes real torture?:
a) a Gitmo interrogator allegedly dressed as a Catholic priest and “baptizing” a Muslim prisoner, in order to get the prisoner to behave or provide information to stop further terrorist murders of Americans
b) a Gitmo female guard allegedly handling genitals of prisoners and wiping menstrual blood on their faces, in order to get the prisoner to behave or provide information to stop further terrorist murders of Americans
c) a Gitmo detainee allegedly spending hours in a hot room, in order to get the prisoner to behave or provide information to stop further terrorist murders of Americans
d) a Gitmo detainee allegedly getting his head wrapped in duct tape (points for creativity; marketing for 3M?), in order to get the prisoner to behave or provide information to stop further terrorist murders of Americans
e) an American named Nicholas Berg, Paul Johnson, or (insert name here of several innocent Americans–and foreigners) slowly disfigured, dismembered, and beheaded alive with a butterknife and without anesthesia, in order to make a lovely video keepsake to demoralize Americans and Westerners and recruit new members to the jihadist revolution

I vote for the last one. The rest are just sandbox games in the playground. But the ACLU would have you believe the last is no biggie and the first four–all of which are allegations by FBI agents not involved–are the real torture.
Again, the documents released by the ACLU are years old and are based on hearsay and allegations, heard third-hand (and possibly made up) by FBI agents who are not in charge at Gitmo and don’t really know what’s going on there (and are probably jealous that the military, not the FBI, is doing the job).
And the timing of the release is suspicious. This comes right after the Pentagon has asked for $125 million for a legal facility on Guantanamo Bay. The facility is needed to hold trials/tribunals there–you know, the legal proceedings the ACLU keeps whining and pining for.
The ACLU wants to stop the request from being pursued, it appears. So, they release this stupid hearsay-by-third-parties survey to nix the funding.
Hopefully, it won’t work.

By Debbie Schlussel
As a religious Wall Street Journal reader, I was a bit disappointed with today’s newly re-designed version of the print edition. The paper’s been hyping the “makeover” in the media for quite some time.
I know everything must change “with the times,” but change must also come for a reason. And it should be for the better. The paper is the best daily print publication in America (probably the world), with interesting stories and great editorials and op-eds (except on immigration and foreign investment in vital American entities). As I tritely often write on this site, “If it ain’t broke . . . .”
My biggest problem with the new re-design is that they’ve moved the “Letters to the Editor” to the back of the Marketplace section. It’s like moving meat to the back of the dietary supplements section of the supermarket. The whole reason people write letters to the editor is to be heard–to have those who read the original pieces, to which they’re responding, read their letters. They want to make a cameo in the show, not get a seat in the stands.

The letters belong on the op-ed page, where they used to be before the re-design. Now, in the back of a section on business marketing and trends, no-one will see or read them. Not good.
Then, there’s the size. The Wall Street Journal shrunk the size of the paper, ostensibly to keep up with all the other newspapers that have shrunk to a new standard size (and this will also save the Dow Jones Co. money in reduced paper costs due to less paper).
But with that shrinkage comes less on the front page. Those wonderful, interesting stories that frequently populate the front-page have shrunk, too. There’s less of them. I noted that it took me far less time to get through the paper, this morning. But it also made me think I was reading much smaller content. Perhaps the typeface hasn’t really shrunken in size, and it’s just the shrunken size of the newspaper that is playing tricks with my eyes. But either the typeface is smaller or there’s less content. It must be one or the other, given the new, much smaller pages. It appears that there is at least one column less per page.
As for the increased colors, graphics, bells, and whistles, if they think that this will increase the paper’s appeal to a younger audience, good luck. The Wall Street Journal is all about content–the written content. Younger audiences will read it for that, if they read it at all . . . not for the color and graphics, which really aren’t that modern, appealing, or different. The rest will stick to not reading newspapers–WSJ or otherwise. This new re-design won’t stop the death of newspapers in America, or even slow it.
It’s only the first day of the new format. I’m sure, like with many publication re-designs, I’ll get used to it. But they really do need to move the Letters to the Editor back to the op-ed page, where they belong.
Since the Journal is one of the most read newspapers in America (it’s in the top three with USA Today and the New York Times), one assumes the paper did market research with readers and potential readers. Given the new design, I’m not sure.
It might be like “New Coke.”
**** UPDATE: Reader Paul alerts me to these pics of the old (left) and new (right) Wall Street Journals, from NewsDesigner.com:

By Debbie Schlussel
I almost never agree with USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham. But his op-ed in today’s paper is excellent and worth reading.
He compares the outrage about the killing of Sean Bell by New York cops versus the lack of outrage over another category of killings, that includes victim Kevin West. West’s murderer was Black.
An excerpt from “Where’s the Outrage Over Black-on-Black Killings?”:

As troubling as it is that Bell’s life might have been cut short by the unlawful actions of some rogue cops, it bothers me more that most of this nation’s black murder victims are killed by other blacks. And despite this chilling fact, nowhere have tens of thousands of people taken to the streets recently to protest this carnage. Not in New York, or Baltimore, or Atlanta, or Detroit, or Chicago. Nowhere.

USA Today Columnist DeWayne Wickham

Of the country’s 14,860 homicide victims in 2005, 7,125 were black, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. And of the 3,289 cases that year in which a single black was killed by a single assailant, the FBI says, 91% of the killers were black.
Let me put this another way: The number of blacks killed in 2005 in this one homicide category alone approaches the total of all the blacks lynched in this country from 1882 to 1968, according to records maintained by Tuskegee University.
So why aren’t black leaders taking up this fight? Why do so many turn out to decry the death of one black man at the hands of some cops, but no mass rallies take on the deaths of thousands of blacks who are slaughtered by other blacks?
“I think it’s because we know it’s our fault, and we’re constantly looking for someone else to blame,” says Baltimore City Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm, who, like me, grew up in Cherry Hill, a poor black neighborhood on the city’s south side.
Hamm says most black leaders are afraid to address this issue, afraid to confront the apathy, fear and indifference that allow many poor black neighborhoods to become killing fields.
He could be right.
But whatever the reason, it’s time for black leaders – activists, preachers, educators, politicians, business and community leaders – to say enough is enough.
It’s time for them to be as aggressive, and as demanding, in combating the black murder rate as they are in fighting for an increase in minimum wage or an expansion in health care.
The ripple effects of black-on-black killings have turned many inner city neighborhoods into urban wastelands, chased businesses from those communities, fueled a growth in other crimes and sapped the resources of local governments.
As mad as black folks have a right to be over the killing of Sean Bell, we ought to be angry over the failure of black leaders to be equally outraged over the murder of Kevin West – and the thousands of blacks who are killed each year by other blacks.

Writing that took guts.