Facebook and the image of Mohammed

Two weeks ago, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, had a post on his facebook page (yes he is also a customer) that said, 

"A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him..."

Now Facebook is cooperating on the censoring of websites with images of Mohammed where those websites come from Turkey.
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Is Zuckerberg a hypocrite. Not in my estimation.

He merely didn't distinguish between US originating websites and those in other countries. He is also guilty of being pompous because he didn't do that.

Facebook, like other multinational countries, must obey the laws of the countries in which they do business even if those laws are stupid or tyrannical (in any event, Turkish citizens can easily access French or US websites and see all the images they want, including those purporting to be of Mohammed (it seems to me interesting that since nobody knows what Mohammed actually looked like, besides a few obvious things, e.g., he was male, he wore robes, he had a goatee or beard), nobody who is accused of drawing Mohammed is actually doing so).

The image is from a Washington Post story, here.

Meteorologist Gives Up Flying for Global Warming

There are a lot of conferences to attend if you are a climate activist or climate scientist. One such fellow, Eric Holthaus (first image), 
had been, by his own estimate, 75k air miles a year and gave it up for global warming (reportedly, he also had a vasectomy to stop overpopulation). 

He also counsels his fellow activists and/or scientists to do so. It's not that successful yet. 

The reports out of Davos are that hundreds of

private jets (and similar number of corporate jets and chartered small passenger load jets- 2nd image is of an Pharrell Williams, a hip hop performer/composer and climate activist tweeter on a private jet) have landed at this luxury destination to discuss climate change (aka Global Warming).

As a bonus, Holthaus gives additional information on Jeff Greene (he owns a 145' boat which seems to have cruised to a tropical destination some years ago and did damage to a coral reef).

Holthaus's post is at Slate, here.

Jeff Greene - Self Confessed Financial Hypocrisy

Jeff Greene is a billionaire, a major contributor to Democratic candidates and actually ran for the 2010 Democratic party nomination for a Senate Seat in Florida (he lost the primary and the guy who beat him lost in the general election). The image is from that campaign.

He was interviewed in Davos, Switzerland. He said that

 "...“I’m remarkably long for my level of pessimism. Our economy is in deep trouble..."

This is the first type of hypocrisy I've found where the hypocrite actually has a financial interest in being proven wrong (being long means his money 'bets' on the market going up).

There is another, more standard hypocrisy here. He flew to Davos on his private jet (with his wife and kids and two nannies) for the World Economic Forum and said, 

 “...America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence..."

That type of behavior is actually pretty common and Greene probably reasons that since his time is pretty valuable and his charitable contributions (he is sponsoring a conference on 'closing the gap' in Palm Beach, FL) are substantial, he should get a pass. 

The article with the quotes is here.

Is Senator Ernst a Welfare Queen Hypocrite

A website post (noted below) essentially charges her with hypocrisy although without using the word, "hypocrisy".

The basis of the hypocrisy is that Senator Joni Ernst (image on left) is for cutting waste in government but her family benefited from agriculture subsidies. There are a few problems with the charge, however. Of the $460k or so in subsidies noted by the post, the vast majority went to Ernst's uncle.  Ernst' father received about $38k in subsidies and this was over a 14 year period. Senator Ernst herself seems to have received zero in agricultural subsidies. Thus the specific facts contradict the theme of hypocrisy.

However, even had Senator Ernst received subsidies herself, she may not consider such subsidies as 'waste' or she might consider them 'waste' but be willing to take advantage of them since they are legal although she would like to end them. This is similar to my own feeling that dues paid to my synagogue (similarly anyone's dues to churches, temples, mosques, etc.) ought not to be considered charity for the purpose of schedule A of the IRS form 1040 because they are not as much 'charity' as would an equal gift to, say, the Red Cross or a Hadassah Hospital (I would be willing to see synagogue dues as 50% itemizable since the synagogue does some social work, counseling, etc). However, my opinion doesn't, in any way, require me to refuse to itemize my synagogue dues.

The website post with the information on Senator Ernst is here. 

The New York Times - Mohammud cartoon vs Piss Christ

This is yet another NYTimes issue (note logo as image).

 
Earlier this month there was a terror attack on the office of a magazine that published several cartoons with what is supposed to be Mohammad.

The New York Times, had in the past, published such pictures as the "Piss Christ". That is an image of a crucifix into which the artist, Andres Serrano, had placed his own urine. It was a pretty big photo; 60" by 40".

Is the NYTimes hypocritical for not publishing Mohammad's image while having published the Piss Christ as well as similar Christian-offensive art and some Holocaust denial art. Here we have a chance for an interesting distinction. The NYTimes's editor currently (and during the Mohammad image decision) has only been editor since mid 2014. Thus it is possible that, in some way, the NYTimes is a different paper than it was when the Piss Christ and other offensive things were published. Since this is such an interesting oddity, I don't think I'll call the NYTimes a hypocrite, at least until they publish something as offensive to Jews or Christians as the Mohammad images were to moslems. Even then, if they published, say another crucifix in urine but said specifically, "We are doing this because we know Christians won't kill us", that would still be enough to get me to judge them non-hypocrites (although it would be somewhat cowardly)..

A Huffington Post article recently on the NYTimes vs other newspapers in regard to the Mohammad image is here.

An article from 2012 in the Guardian on the 1989 photo "Piss Christ" is here.

One Image Many Hypocrisy Charges

There was a demonstration in Paris in support and/or in sympathy with victims of the January 9, 2015 atrocities which killed cartoonists, police and shoppers at a Kosher food market in Paris. the demonstration was on January 11, 2015. 

In the front row: Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu, Malian President Keita, French President Hollande, German Chancellor Merkel, Euro Council President Tusk, and Palestinian Authority President Abbas. Also attending were numerous other dignitaries from over 40 countries.

Hamas foreign affairs chief al-Zahar (second image) accused Abbas of hypocrisy (I'm not sure of what the hypocrisy actually is).

Turkish President Erdogan (third image) accused Netanyahu of hypocrisy for attending the demonstration. Erdogan says Netanyahu is a terrorist because of the Gaza deaths in last years war.

An official from Reporters without Borders (RwB) charged several officials of countries which persecute journalists (Egypt, Turkey, Russia, the UAE and Gabon) saying 

"Glad so many world leaders could take time off jailing and torturing journalists and dissidents to march for free expression in France."

Although,  the RwB official doesn't charge 'hypocrisy', this case is closer to being hypocrisy than the other two. In the case of the charge against 'Abbas', I can't figure out what the hypocrisy is supposed to be. In the case of the charge of Netanyahu, Israel made no effort to kill Paleos for their many cartoons depicting Netanyahu as evil, as a cannibal, etc.

al-Zahar charge of hypocrisy is here

Erdogan charge of hypocrisy is here.https://qu1ck51lv3r.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/erdogan-slams-netanyahu-for-attending-paris-rally/

RwB charge is here.