News Cut: February 17, 2009 Archive

Animal stories

Posted at 7:14 AM on February 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)

Nothing gets people worked up like stories about animals. Two are in the news today.

In the Twin Cities, 118 cats were euthanized after they were rescued from a St. Anthony mobile home. The Humane Society deemed them too sick to be adopted. Animal Ark, a no-kill shelter, said it would've saved the cats if the Humane Society had returned its calls. The bulletin boards and letters-to-the-editor sites are buzzing.

In the UK, the head of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Europe is defending a demonstration at the Westminster Dog Show, during which PETA dressed up as members of the KKK to claim that the show was promoting a master race for dogs.

"We want people to see that if they are outraged - as they should be - by the way the KKK arbitrarily labels certain people "inferior" simply because of the way they look, they should also be outraged that the AKC does the same thing to dogs," Poorva Joshipura said.

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Islamic law

Posted at 10:59 AM on February 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

On Midmorning today, it was hard to miss the litany of things that are going quite badly for the U.S. "anti terrorism" fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Julianne Smith, the director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that U.S. military forces will be doubled, while she answered an emphatic "yes" when asked whether she agrees with Gen. David Petraeus that there's no military solution in Afghanistan. Petraeus said the same thing about Iraq in 2007, but Iraq had something resembling a functioning government in this century. Afghanistan has been a mess for centuries.

At the same time, Pakistan has given in to the Taliban, and agreed to enforce Islamic Law in the Swat Valley. That's the last thing the U.S. wanted, Smith told Kerri Miller. The U.S. fears that Pakistan will be the new Afghanistan, a haven for Osama bin Laden to launch offensives against the West.

Few news sources today, however, reveal exactly what is meant by "Islamic law." The Washington Post only says it doesn't mean the brutal and repressive approach the Taliban took in Afghanistan.

Philip Reeves, National Public Radio's man in the region, says people in the area are "fed up with a judiciary that's broken down" and that they want local judicial units. Presumably that doesn't mean beheadings and the stoning of rape victims. But what does it mean beyond that?

The New York Times says only that "they said the authorities agreed to a legal system rejecting any law that did not comply with the teachings of the Koran and the sayings and teachings of the prophet Muhammad, known as the Sunnah." But who's interpretation of the Koran?

The Associated Press says it doesn't mean women won't be educated.

Even the Christian Science Monitor fails to adequately describe the implications of the imposition, noting only that it will prevent the delay and costs of appeals to a secular court system.

In a years-old report, the Council on Foreign Relations notes that Sharia -- Islamic Law -- can take any number of forms.

(Photo: Delegation members of a pro-Taliban leader Soofi Mohammad, leave after an agreement with government officials in Peshawar on Sunday. Tariq Mahmood /AFP/Getty Images.)

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Picture of the year

Posted at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Media

I'm prohibited by copyright law from showing you the winner of the contest for the best news photograph of the year as chosen by the World Press Photo. Lots of online sites appear to be ripping the photographer off, but I'm not going to be one of them. You'll have to look for yourself here.

It is a chilling image of a Cleveland police officer, gun drawn, making sure the people who lived in a foreclosed-upon home are out of it.

It's a sign of the times in the journalism industry, too, that the world's best news photo ran only online, and that the photographer who took it is having trouble finding work.

Another online site -- The Raw File -- won first place in the "stories" category for its photographs accompanying a profile of Troy, New York.

I couldn't find the photographs on the Web site, but did find this photographic story about Troy which further documents the declining economy.

Upstate Girls - What Became of Collar City from The Raw File on Vimeo.

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Interior design showdown

Posted at 1:51 PM on February 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

It's days like this when I wish the Minnesota Fantasy Legislature was still around. A bill that got a hearing in a Senate committee today is the type we used to sink our teeth into -- the kind that would get almost no coverage.

SF376 requires the licensing of interior designers:

Any person shall be deemed to be practicing licensed interior design within the meaning of sections 326.02 to 326.15 who holds out as being able to perform or does perform any professional service in connection with the planning, design, or administration of construction for the purpose of ensuring compliance with specifications and design of any private or public interior spaces, including preparation of documents relative to non-load-bearing interior construction, programming, space planning, finishes, materials, and furnishings where the safeguarding of the occupants' life, health, safety, welfare is concerned or involved, when the professional service requires the application of design theories related to human behavior and aesthetics, acquired by education and experience. Licensed interior designers are design professionals who are qualified by means of education, experience, and examination.

This is a legislative initiative of the International Interior Design Association Northland. It says licensing will make sure that poisonous toxins are kept out of your workplace, fire retardant substances are used, and more effort will be made toward using renewable materials. The group's top 10 list of reasons to support the bill includes, "to keep your wrists and backs in good health through the personal application of ergonomic standards."

Apparently, this is causing quite a stir nationwide between designers and remodelers. Other states have also moved to license interior designers, according to a blog called Interior Design Freedom Coalition.

"This bill will add nothing to the health, safety and welfare of the public. Rather, it will enable a handful of interior designers to corner the design market at the expense of our members and others in the design community who will essentially be barred from working. Study after study has shown no evidence to suggest that harm is occurring to the public as a result of the unregulated practice of interior designers," it said last year when a similar bill was filed.

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