Low Earth Orbit

I'd be perfect if you'd just adjust your belief system properly

[source]

I hate to pile on poor Mary Mapes, but really, she’s so loony and so lauded by Old Media that it is beyond human endurance to resist. She wrote at the conclusion of her recent book,

And I wish for the people of this country a chance to believe again in the press and its duty to ask questions on their behalf, to believe that reporters care about real-life Americans, to believe that knowledge is power, to believe that the truth really can set us free.

One is merely left noting that Mapes has no wish that journalists start either believing or doing these things, only that the American Street starts believing that journalists do so. If Mapes wants a chance for that to happen, maybe she should try leading by example.

Credit where credit is due

[source, source]

Police have launched an investigation into claims that video tapes and DVDs handed out at mosques in Dewsbury [UK] were being used to recruit terrorists.

The tapes, purporting to contain readings from the Koran, were given to Muslims attending two mosques in Savile Town during the weekend’s Eid festival.

Local resident Safiq Patel said: “When people played them they realised they were violent jihad videos.”

We’re not Old Media, so we report the good along with the bad. Two key points stand out here:

1. The people passing out these tapes felt the need to disguise them as something more innocuous. That’s not the sign of a winning ideology.
2. The recipients reported the incident to the police, indicating that
   • They were willing to talk to police
   • They didn’t think violent jihad based video tapes were a good thing