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Monday Morning Links
The Guardian Angels hold their first recruiting session and vow to be on the streets by the summer. The mayor and the chief of police gave them the cold shoulder last time but criticism is a little more muted this time around. Torontoist remains lukewarm on the volunteer crime-prevention group. We’d prefer to see trained police officers doing the job of crime prevention and community policing but can understand how people in the city feel frustrated by gun crime.
The Strand, Victoria College’s student paper gets in on “offending muslims” by publishing a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad kissing. The editor of the paper points out that it isn’t an act of hate. Culturally insensitive perhaps but Torontoist doesn’t think the cartoon will incite any riots. The message just isn’t as pointed and inflammatory.
Filmmaker Sandy Dubowski knows a little about religious controversy. His last film Trembling Before G-d looked at the life of gay and lesbian Hasidic and Orthodox Jews. His next film will be looking at their Muslim counterparts. Dubowski has vowed that he’ll screen the film in as many Muslim nations as he can.
Dubowski probably won’t be protected from angry mobs but he’ll have some protection from angry e-mails. The US government has signed into a law legislation that makes it illegal for you to e-mail, and post “annoying” messages without using your real identity. Does this mean that all those entertaining flame wars on Slashdot might just land you in federal prison? Pretty unlikely, legal experts are probably trying to stop themselves from laughing, the law is simply unenforcable and violates the first amendment.
Speaking of annoying messages, Donald Rumsfeld is opening up a new front on the War on Terror, the media (including blogs). So it’s not enough that American troops fired on Al Jazeera reporters those poor Middle Eastern bloggers are being targetted too?