BETTER YOUR BRAIN

(via oberstingwithconor)

Survey finds significant correlation between trust in Fox News and negative attitudes about Muslims

jesshullinger:

From the poll: “Americans who most trust Fox News are more likely to believe that Muslims want to establish Shari’a law, have not done enough to oppose extremism, and believe investigating Muslim extremism is a good idea.”

Commentary and analysis here from Greg Sargent at The Washington Post.

“…if Fox’s explicit goal has been to create a self-sustaining, self-perpetuating alternate reality, as many have alleged, it appears that when it comes to Americans’ views of Muslims, the network may be succeeding brilliantly.”

(via pantslessprogressive)

Source:

• The State, as well as pro-Mubarak protesters (many of whom have been coerced into this by the state) have begun shooting at protestors. Things are deteriorating quickly. Protests will continue, and people will continue to die. Laying down one’s life for one’s ideals is a powerful death. Every martyr the state perpetuates creates 2 more brave protesters ready to take the place of the fallen. 
• We stand to lose a lot of great historical artifacts if things continue down the path they seem set on. Whether things are destroyed by Secret Police or Protestors, once they’re gone, they’re gone. 
• A real risk here is a power vacuum once Mubarak steps down, which is officially in September but will ostensibly be considerably sooner, being taken advantage of. The Muslim Brotherhood stands to gain some power if this happens, but only about 25% of the population back them. To be clear, the Muslim Brotherhood is a vaguely fundamentalist Islamic group that have some to some power and renown in the Middle East. They’ve been outlawed in Egypt but still maintain a presence. Depending on the issue, they range from being extremely helpful to rather sinister. In this case, they should have some say in Egyptian politics when the new government takes over, as they do represent a hefty minority. Nearly 90% of Egyptians are Muslim, and most see religion as having some roll in government. However, most Egyptians also have no desire to live in a theocratic state like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Maintaing balance between the secular and religious factions of Egypt as power changes hands will be tricky. Hopefully a suitable candidate will be fairly elected as President and will help moderate congressional elections and appointments and such. 
• Contrary to most Middle Eastern revolutions, this has been largely secular. Rather than being driven by religion ,it’s been driven by frustration ,disgust, and a thirst for democracy and reform. This is very interesting to me.
• Obama needs to tread very carefully in this matter. He doesn’t need to be seen as backing a future regime. I have mixed feelings about how he’s handled it so far. I think he’s been a bit too friendly with the Muslim Brotherhood, but on the other hand he wants a quick change of power which I find very wise. Siding with ElBaradei has also been a smooth move. 
• The main candidates to assume power in Egypt when Mubarak steps down: 

1. Mohamed Elbaradie- former UN ambassador, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, all around good guy. excellent choice.
2. Omar Suleiman- 2nd hand man to current Egyptian president, ex military man, eradicated a lot of Islamic terrorism as Chief of Egyptian Security, albiet through questionable means. very sketchy appointment and candidate
3. Amr Moussa- Sec. General of the Arab league, ex foreign minister under Mubarak. seeing as he used to be the voice for dictators, another shoddy choice, although not a terrible one
4. Ayman Nour- lost the presidential election to Mubarak in 2005 and was jailed shortly after, leads a liberal human rights oriented party. this may not resonate well with all of Egypt’s poor, who are more concerned with immediate issues, but none the less a solid candidate.
5. Mohammad Badie- Mentor of Muslim Brotherhood, unlikely to actually run as the Brotherhood has stated that they don’t wish to assume power, even assuming they’re allowed in the country again. However, his group will certainly play an important role in the months to come.