« A Random Question | Main | Bipartisanship! » Secret Muslims at the Table25 Jan 2008 03:10 pm Here's a bit more Table this time discussing the fact that Barack Obama's not a Muslim no matter how many people send around emails saying that he is: If you'd rather download this -- or any other -- installment of The Table as an audio file to listen to while on the go, click here and you'll find them all. Comments (19)
The Café Milano reference strikes me as some serious Beltwayese. 
Yeah, it's cool to have the kind of power I do.
I thought today's episode was supposed to resolve how you were going to deal with Mr. Ambinder's strange pass at you at the end of the last show. Workplace harrassment is a big issue, after all.
The Table makes excellent lunch-at-your-desk viewing - please try to put them up before noon!
How cold is it in that room that you're wearing both a sweater and a jacket?
hey, that's actually quite a good ep. improving, guys.
Matt, slow it down. This frenzied, "rabid dog" charge into the conversation at all times gets irritating after a while. Try giving Ross and Marc a change to say something edgewise. Ross had the most - in fact, the only - interesting comment in this episode where he pointed out that Obama could possibly really engage the conservative side, while still not being agreed with by conservatives, while Hillary Clinton couldn't. I think that point leads to considerations of both Obama's "electability" and Obama's bi-partisanship potential if he were to be elected - which of course is something the Obama campaign has emphasized and Matt, IIRC, has denigrated somewhat.
I dunno. Please forgive me, but everytime I see you three sitting around that table, I think: "Here are three Fred Kaplans in training." Hit the gym! Shave! Get better haircuts! Go outdoors!
Ok, I'll tell you straight out. When old John McLaughlin kicks the bucket you three are a shoe in. Hopefully Ross isn't the new Tony Blankley. But you guys need a fourth. Maybe that Megan McArdle chicky?
Here is a suggestion, Matt. The next time Marc Ambinder interrupts you, punch him in the face. Seriously, that guy gets on my nerves. Why doesn't he wait until people stop talking before he interjects? Its obnoxious and rude. Tell him to stop.
Can you tell the technical division at the Atlantic to turn this into a proper podcast with video and audio options? i.e. an RSS feed subscribed to in iTunes (or preferred client) that is notified when there is a new version to be downloaded and then does it. I really have no desire, in this world of automated downloading, to have to manually click, save, add to iTunes, etc… when there exists a common and widely used solution for avoiding the drudgery. Thanks.
I hate to tell you that you are wrong about Obama. Obama IS a Muslim. Do you remembe when Senator Allen found out that his mother was born a Jew? To my orthodox Jewish friends that means that Senator Allen IS a Jew. It doesn't matter that he went to a Christian church all his life. If his mother was born a Jew then the son is Jewish, PERIOD. Obama is in a similar situation. His father was a Muslim so the son is a Muslim. Again, it doesn't matter tha Obama is a Chistian. The only problem I see about this is that the only people who believe that Obama is Muslim are religios Muslims. There are a number of Muslims who believe that leaving Islam is a crime punishable by death. PS - I have contributed to the Obama campaign
@Neil Wilson, You are a moron. The reason why Senator Allen is Jewish is because if your mother is Jewish you can prove directly that he has Jewish blood. He popped out of that woman. It is also Jewish tradition. You cannot translate that tradition to Islam, and you cannot then make it the father's line. You cannot prove that Barack's father was the man thought to be his father, because you can never prove that Barack's Mother didn't have an affair. By the way, your line of reasoning probably makes you a Jew, Muslim and Christian at some point too Neil. Can you prove all your bloodlines? So which one are you? And when did we start again believing in America that you are defined by your birth, and not by your actions? Read the Declaration again.
Neil Wilson, Islam is not transmitted through the generations the same way Judaism is. Just because one is born from a Muslim father it does not make that child automatically a Muslim. Islam teaches that children are born into a state of purity and the parents are responsible for teaching the child his/her faith. As Obama's father did not raise him, his agnostic mother did, Obama is not a Muslim.
I am seriously puzzling over the post by Neil and Richard. Neil who apparently thinks that religion is carried on the Y-chromosome or in the mitochondrial DNA. Richard who makes flawed arguments about not being able to determine who the father is. To be consistent, using his criteria, it would also be impossible to "prove" that the mother is actually the mother. At the moment of birth we can identify the mother (assuming no egg donation which is safe for when Obama was born), but we would need some sort of record as proof and even then the record might be questionable. After birth, because the child is no longer attached to the mother, it is possible (maybe not likely) that the child might have been switched with another child obscuring the actual maternity. This switch could have been accidental or intentional. Maternity might be somewhat easier to establish than paternity, but it cannot be proved directly as Richard assumes. Of course fortunately we have DNA testing these days which allows us to establish maternity and paternity more directly, although even here they may only tell us that Obama's father was his assumed father or one of his male kin who inherited the same Y-chromosome or Obama's mother was his assumed mother or one of her female kin who inherited the same mtDNA.
After watching this video, I understand why, contray to all evidence, people are still saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The commentators couldn't even say, definitively, that he was not a Muslim. Barack Obama's been a member of the same Christian church for almost 20 years. Why the hesitation from the commentators? Are folk that uncomfortable with a black man this close to the White House? This video would not instill confidence in someone who was on the fence about Obama. Here's the thing: If someone were recruiting a Manchurian candidate 20 years ago (it would take that long to groom a candidate), would they choose someone who looked like Barack Obama. Seriously. Twenty years ago, who could have predicted that a black candidate would have such an impact on a presidential election? Would you have taken that bet? If Obama was some kind of Manchurian candidate, how exactly would that work? What powers could he invoke to take over? I just don't get how a "take over" could happen considering the country is 70% white protestant and the generals controlling the nukes are white.
After watching this video, I understand why, contray to all evidence, people are still saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The commentators couldn't even say, definitively, that he was not a Muslim. Barack Obama's been a member of the same Christian church for almost 20 years. Why the hesitation from the commentators? Are folk that uncomfortable with a black man this close to the White House? This video would not instill confidence in someone who was on the fence about Obama. Here's the thing: If someone were recruiting a Manchurian candidate 20 years ago (it would take that long to groom a candidate), would they choose someone who looked like Barack Obama. Seriously. Twenty years ago, who could have predicted that a black candidate would have such an impact on a presidential election? Would you have taken that bet? If Obama was some kind of Manchurian candidate, how exactly would that work? What powers could he invoke to take over? I just don't get how a "take over" could happen considering the country is 70% white protestant and the generals controlling the nukes are white.
Holy cow, those are some high voices. It's like listening to Rossini's Otello, where there's the tenor, the high tenor, and the even higher tenor.
Comments closed February 08, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
Christopher M, ask and ye shall receive (in less than 10 minutes)!
Posted by Ricky B | January 25, 2008 3:24 PM