FOX is not news...but we knew that

I seldom deliberately watch Fox News, but when I do, it is often out of morbid curiosity. I mean, I have seen it enough to know that in most of its programming there is a bias and agenda that outweighs any mission to get the facts straight or be anything like "fair and balanced," but sometimes an issue comes up that makes me think they might not be wrong...and then...

In this case, it is in the reporting of the case of Caleigh Wood, a high school graduate appealing a case that stemmed from a world history class she took as a junior.

Reports on Fox and other news outlets of their ilk say that she was made to write an "Islamic conversion prayer,"  as WND quoted the Thomas More Law Center's legal team on this matter...

"As a Christian and 11th-grader at La Plata High School in Maryland, Caleigh Wood was taught that 'Most Muslims' faith is stronger than the average Christian.' She was also required to profess in writing, the Islamic conversion creed, 'There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.' Ms. Wood believed that it is a sin to profess by word or in writing, that there is any other god except the Christian God. She stood firm in her Christian beliefs and was punished for it. The school refused her request to opt-out or give her an alternative assignment. She refused to complete her anti-Christian assignment and consequently received a failing grade," 

...and the next thing you know, reports are even saying that she was forced to "recite" the prayer (known as the Shadaha), the recitation of which would have turned her into a Muslim!

She took the principal to court over this and lost. She appealed and lost. She (and the TMLC) went all the way to the Supreme Court of the US...and her appeal was rejected. That is the news item I was reading.

After reading the Fox article I thought for a bit. I am an atheist who supports the First Amendment, and I personally object to the use of "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" in any official use, so I would not want schoolkids to be forced to recite any prayer. The Fox article, through it's use of quotations, was able to express the opinion that no schoolchild should be forced to say a prayer that is not part of their religion, and that it was a "double standard" to not allow Christian payer in school and yet allow this to happen.

Could Fox be right, just this once? Could I actually be agreeing with what Fox said? I decided to click on the video in the Fox article to see if there were more details.

I could not get past the first two minutes.

The host of the program asked the first guest why the Supreme Court would reject this case. The fellow was upfront about how he was not in the meeting and does not know the specific reason why they would reject the case. Then he went on and put the decision in a greater context of Islamicizing America, as if the newly-conservative court, the one that for which a submitted judge was ignored for the better part of a year so that a Republican president could submit a known conservative, would have an "Islamic agenda."

The next guest was an "Muslim scholar," Zuhdi Jasser, president of something called the American Islamic Center for Democracy. He fell over himself decrying the allowance of the prayer in school as a violation of the separation of church and state and gushed thanks over the TMLC for standing up and going to bat for this girl.

They did make a show of acting lie they were explaining the legal basis for the original decision, something called the "Lemon test," but did not go into detail over what that was or that it was the precedent set in Lemon vs. Kurtzman. I thought they were going to talk about "If you squeeze it, does it taste like a lemon" or something.

So I decided to look into the issue a bit more. What kind of public school would really force a kid to say a prayer that turns people into Muslims? Would simply saying one sentence turn you into a Muslim?

So in the course of a very brief Google search I found this article from "the Free Speech Center at MTSU" and the actual court documents of the decision in the 4th Circuit Court and the Lemon case.

It turns out that what was being described was not what was happening at all. As part of a five-day section of a world history class that focused on Islam. The specific complaint was about the moment in the class in which, in an exam, there was a "fill in the blank" question in which one had to fill in two words in the sentence that was the Shahada.

So I looked up the Shadaha. Apparently, yes, saying it is the minimum one needs to do to accept Islam as one's faith. As it says in islamreligion dot com...

"Becoming a Muslim is a simple and easy process.  All that a person has to do is to say a sentence called the Testimony of Faith (Shahada), which is pronounced as:

I testify “La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasoolu Allah.”

"These Arabic words mean, “There is no true god (deity) but God (Allah), and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of God.”  Once a person says the Testimony of Faith (Shahada) with conviction and understanding its meaning, then he/she has become a Muslim."

I think that filing in a couple of words in that sentence in a written exam in school is not exactly the same as saying something "with conviction" in the eyes of any god that may be listening and any legal authority that may care.

Apparently the courts feel the same way. The "Lemon test" is not some variant of "If it looks like a duck..." but rather a three-step process by which one asks certain things about the context in which religious information is used/disseminated/tested in school to determine if it constitutes a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion.

The MTSU article linked above breaks down the three steps of the Lemon test and, one by one, shows how the case passes the Lemon test as not a violation of the First Amendment. Here is the link again so you can check it yourself.

So there you have it. Not even the 5-4 conservative majority in the Supreme Court found the young woman's case to have enough merit to warrant hearing the appeal.

A simple Google search of her name will find plenty of pictures of her. She is young, blonde, beautiful, and had nicely-done makeup. I am sure she will be able to get whatever she wants in life if she asks nicely, so long as she is not asking a court to rule against the Constitution and legal precedent.

So what the heck is the point of championing such an obviously flawed case? I mean, Islam is a big part of the world in which we live, and learning about it can only help us. If we understand it, we will be able to deal with the people who believe in it in a more appropriate manner (and i can say that whatever you believe that manner to be. Knowing your enemy is as important as knowing your friend).

But there are already people who are scared of Muslims. After all, the 9-11 conspirators were Muslim. A lot of the world's oil is controlled by Muslims. If we can destroy or scare away all the Muslims, then we will protect ourselves from future 9-11s and be able to take all the oil, right?

Well, if you follow that logic, then we ought to vote for those candidates that talk toughest against Muslims. Then who cares if those candidates relax pollution standards, causing increased incidents of asthma in inner cities, cancer in Klondikes, and medical problems in Michigan. But the corporations that don't have to spend extra money minimizing and properly disposing of their waste will make more profits. And maybe some of those profits will trickle down to the workers, maybe not, but more importantly, no more Muslim problems!

And that is just one of the many other issues supported by the same candidates who demonize Muslims and are supported by Fox News which I find objectionable.

And so the business executives sponsor the networks that make the Muslims look bad so the candidates that talk tough against them can get elected and loosen up pollution restrictions to they can make more money. Whether or not most Muslims are suicidal plane-hijacking terrorists or oil sheikhs or if we should learn abut history and the people around us unimportant.

And Fox News is not "news." It is an entertainment/opinion channel with an agenda.

The End of the "Lost Stuff in a Taxi" Saga

This is Shaikh, the driver mentioned in this story, in fron of his cab, with my stuff. Read on to find out what happened...

When last we left our hero, he was agonizing over the inventory of what had been lost. The laptop computer and external hard drive held many gigabytes worth of video, pictures, and writings (some of it had been saved onto a new computer, but there was a lot that had not, including the latest video edits).

There was also the relatively new pair of glasses, the date book, the Metrocard, and a bunch of just-purchased food.

The appropriate calls had been made to 311 (lost property reports had been filed with the Taxi and Limousine Commission) and I had been informed that calling the Manhattan police precinct to which lost property is to be delivered could be made over the next couple of days.
One of the most useful suggestions had been to ask if local businesses had security video of the street. Certainly they would have caught the taxi, and maybe from that I could find the medallion number. With that, my TLC report would be complete and perhaps the driver himself could be contacted.

Armed with this concept, I called out for my day job with the intention of "putting my life back together." This would begin with checking out my other laptops from past years, other external hard drives, and seeing which files I currently need or hold in high value I had o n them, and which I had, potentially, now lost forever. But there are also a few other things going on right now that will require some phone calls,m maybe a visit to a bank, and some cleaning of my apartment, throwing things out, fixing things, and taking stuff to my strage space, and this would be as good a day as any to get that done.

But first I decided to go back to the site of the incident and investigate security camera options. Here was the rundown:

The deli on the corner, from which all this action began, does not have cameras pointing in the right direction.
Dunkin Donuts does not have security cameras pointed in the right direction.
The bakery-deli a few doors down from the deli doesn't have cameras pointed in the right direction, but they say the real estate office next door does.
The real estate office next door opens at 10 AM, in abut two hours.
The brand new bakery-deli that jiust opened up two days ago and is looking forward to the reopening of the Astoria Blvd station on the N line because it will bring a lot of business in (scheduled for December 18) does not have a camera pointed in the right direction
The convenience store further down the block says their boss-man will be back around 1 PM.
The gas station across the street may8 have cameras, but the boss-man will be arriving at 6 PM.
The traffic cop in the Dunkin Donuts does not know where there may be any traffic cams or how to get in touch with someone who does, just to go to the local precinct, but this is not his usual spot.
The construction supervisor (or whatever) working on the Astoria Boulevard N train station does not know anything about the security cameras they might have, or who to talk to about it.
All the other little businesses on that little strip are closed at that hour.

Armed with this knowledge,. I decided to patronize the new bakery-deli and bought an apple turnover/triangle for breakfast. I also decided to head back to my GF's house just a few blocks away, where my evening had started, and take a nap until 10 AM, when I would go that real estate office.
So I slept on the couch with the dog for a couple of hours, woke up, decided on a breakfast of healthy cereal (I would save the apple triangle for later) and put a note pad and pen in a bag, and went out to talk to the real estate folks.

When I got there, the fellow in the office was helpful as he could be, but the guy who could access the security camera footage was out of town and not getting back to the office until Thursday (it was now Tuesday morning). They did have a remarkably massive hardcover book about World War II under the coffee table, but I decided not to stop and look at...more than a couple of pages... before walking outside and seeing...

...a yellow Toyota Sienna taxi cab, just like the one that took my stuff, parked right at the curb in front of me.

I looked through the passenger window and saw the seats looking like the same pattern I remembered from last night (a double-seat-wide bench, and a single seat, presumably for asymmetrical fold-downs) but there was no baggage there. There was none in the luggage area, either, and then I heard a heavily foreign-accented voice to my right.

"[Hey buddy, are you the guy who left his stuff in my cab]?" (I actually couldn't understand the actual words he said, but I am pretty sure that's what he meant.)

Awkwardly, we were able to figure out that he was the cab driver who had driven off with my stuff, and that he had come back and dropped it off at the deli on the corner where this whole adventure began!

I asked him to come with me to the deli, and when we walked in, the female Korean shop owner I had seen earlier that morning reacted with joy and surprise, seeing that I had come back for my stuff.
I was still a little suspicious. Up until this point I had visions of the taxi driver believing that I had abandoned the ride and dumping the stuff on the street. I imagined that the taxi dispatcher, rather than going to Manhattan to drop the stuff off at a precinct, would have said "get rid of it. If they track it to this location, they could accuse us of theft!" and it getting dumped in some out-of-the-way abandoned lot, like a stolen car whose mag-wheels had been removed and replaced with ordinary wheels (as happened to a former GF of mine).

I did not see the bags at first, but the lady pulled out the Stew Leonard's shopping bag with its smiling boy on the stooll milking a smiling cow. "Well, that's one," I thought, "I wonder if the laptop is there."

Then she pulled out the laptop computer bag.

My cynicism and doubt of a man who drove off with my stuff after I had said "wait here" still had not completely vanished. I had fallen prey to scams before. I had once literally fallen for the "envelope in the pants" trick on the very night that "The Sting" had been shown on TV, so in cases like this my tendency is to verify, then trust.

I looked in the bag.

The laptop was there.

Then the lady pulled out the small black grocery bag that contained the last of last nights purchase at that very same deli and I knew that, for that moment at least, all was right with the world.

I thought about giving him money right there,but I only had a dollar in my pocket. I also must admit that a prt of my is ws a little miffed that he drove off with my stuff in the first place.

AS we walked back to his cab, he told me that he did not know that I had left stuff in the cab until the next fare came along and told him. He said that he had even gone to Roosevelt Island (I had told him that was my destination when I had initially gotten in and tried to find me, even asking a cop there for assistance.

He had left his name and phone number on a piece of paper that had been taped to one of the bags, and he said words that I think meant to call him any time I needed a ride somewhere.

I arranged the bags on the sidewalk in front of the car for a picture and he volunteered to get in the picture. That is the picture that accompanied the Facebook post of mine that I posted immediately.
I shook his hand, thanked him warmly and with appropriately accentuating adjectives, and he went on his way. I felt a great feeling fo relief. and then faced the question: What do I do now?

When I had called into work to tell them that I was taking the day off to deal with this, they had informed me that one of my co-workers was out sick for the day, as he had been yesterday. All the other various things I had intended to do that da that did not involve this bag were still on the table, though, and I as not sure when I would get another chance to do them. In the end, I decided to go to work. The staff of which I am a part is small as it is, the busy season has just hit, and there are people who need my help there. I also am trying to save up for the life change I am making in just under four months.

I have been astounded by the outpourigs of sympathy and advice over this story. Hundtrds of "Likes" and "Hearts" and "sads." I had shared this on some other groups in the hoe that by spreading the word the stuff might be found and returned. Likewise ther, from strasngers, the first day was full of sympathy, advise and support.

Then, after I posted the happy ending to the story, some negativity came out. "Delete this." "#fakenews." Accusations that I had made it up to call for attention or that I must have been stoned out of my gourd.

Well, fuck 'em. Haters gonna hate. If we can;t ask for help when we need it, how are we ever going to get the help we need? And if we can't have sympathy for one another, then someday (may that day never come) when we find ourselves in need of sympathy, we may to get it. And that is when humans, as a species, are doomed. If we cannot have mutual respect for each other, if we cannot sympathize with a person's feelings, if we cannot give a person a little respect and consideration, then we are just a pack of angry dogs or robots, hermits who will starve and die if we make that one mistake from which we cannot recover.

"You should have doe this; I always do that; I would never make such a mistake; people in that situation don't deserve help; they should pay the price for their mistake; bad choices lead to bad consequences, and it's not my responsibility; I'm not paying for that!" These are the words of those with small minds and small hearts.Maybe they can successfully screw over anyone who has something that they need. Maybe they have a small, select circle of folks for whom they do care but outside that circle is irrelevant to them. Maybe they seem like great, friendly people when you first meet them. But when the chips are down and a choice has to be made, will they step up? Will they make the sacrifice play? Heck with the sacrifice play, will they have the decency to be considerate?If you have two and I have none and each of us only needs one, what will it take to get you to give your extra one?

Thieves and scammers exist, yes. There are folks who do very well for themselves by playing on your sympathy. It is important to learn how to identify these folks, because they leach resources away from the truly needy. But that does to mean rejection of all charity for fear of some abuse. It only takes a little effort to help someone, a little time to be considerate. In the end, the more of us who can be willing to help, the more of us can be worthy of help, and then the greater the odds of survival of our species.

The suggestion has been made that I contact the driver's boss and report on how honest and hard-working he was to return my stuff. I will do that, somehow.

So, a question for you all (and also a test of who actually has read this far), how much should I tip the driver?

Stuff I lost in a taxi tonight

Short Version: Lost in a taxi (Toyota Sienna, probably yellow) between 11:00 and 11:05 PM on Monday, October 8, 2019, at the corner of Astoria Boulevard and 31st Street. Taxi presumably continued up 31st Street under the N train in the Manhattan direction:

My laptop computer (HP), in a grey computer bag (both the long shoulder strap and backpack shoulder straps were attached), along with an external hard drive (Silicon Power Armor A80) with a steampunk sticker on it, date book, Metrocard, pens, flash drive, my aviator-style, Transitions-lensed glasses. phone charging cable, and a few papers and envelopes.

The laptop has come loose at one hinge and the screen is cracked, but it still works.

Also two bags of groceries, including some beverages, yogurt, candy bars, a roast beef hero sandwich, and a slice of double-meat pizza (that was to be my dinner).

One of those bags was a Supermarket (possibly Stew Leonard's) shopping/tote bag that also had a hardcover, signed, personalized copy of "Action Presidents: Abraham Lincoln" by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey that I had just picked up at NY Comic Con.

If anyone has any information abut these items, particularly the laptop and external hard drive, please contact me at 917-474-8724, zorikh@yahoo.com, or through Facebook Messenger. Financial compensation is available.

Thanks!

You can read the long, full story here.

Lost important stuff in cab

(Short version posted minutes after this. Here are all the ugly details)
Well it seems that every few years a complete catastrophe happens to me. Here is the latest...

But before I begin, it could have been worse. It's still pretty bad, but it could have been worse. I just have to check a few things to make sure.

I have a part-time (sometimes full-time) night job that requires me to wear a tie and bring my lunch. And breakfast. And sometimes dinner. Most often I catch a few hours of sleep at my GF, Maria Dedvukaj's house. I then shower, but on my suit, stop at the local deli to get food, then catch a cab to head off to the work location. Tonight that pattern was maintained, with the added detail that I would be on Roosevelt Island.

Another added detail was that I had overslept and was running late, so I was a little rushed. I had not tied my tie, but had it draped around my neck when I collected my food from the deli and spotted a yellow taxi, aerodynamic SUV style, conveniently waiting at a red light across the street. I rushed to the cab, manipulated the door handle according to the instructions "PULL AND SLIDE TO OPEN," threw my bags inside, and jumped in. I told him we were going to Roosevelt Island, and then realizes my tie had fallen off.

This tie was actually a rather special tie for me. Maria had gotten it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It is a tasteful dark blue with a pattern of tiny little white Star Wars rebel logos.

I asked him to pull over immediately (we had not actually gotten anywhere yet). We turned right off Astoria Boulevard to o onto 31st st, and I asked him to pull over right at the corner, under the subway tracks. In a bit of a hurry, I asked him to wait there because I had dropped something. He seemed to understand.

I ran out of the cab,back across the street to the deli, in less than a minute failed to find the tie, I left the deli, and saw my tie lying in the street. Relieved, I picked it up, looked up, and...

...no taxi. The spot at which I had gotten out was empty. The cab was gone.

There was another yellow taxi at that corner, still on the Astoria Boulevard side, sitting at the curb. I thought it might me my cab, but it was a boxy SUV style, the door handles were wrong, there were no instructions on the door, and my bags were not inside. There was another cab there too, a sedan. But it was also not my taxi.

Now, you might think,"so he just lost some groceries and will be a little later for work. At least he found his beloved tie." Well, here's what that tie cost me:

My computer bag with my laptop computer and external hard drive in it.

There were other odds and ends in those bags (date book, unused 30-day Metrocard, flash drive, a personalized, signed graphic novel about the life of Abraham Lincoln, my aviator-shape glasses with transitions lenses, etc), but they were all replaceable or forgettable, to one degree or another.

Not the computer. Not the external hard drive.

I had been in hurryhurryhurrydontpanic mode before. Now I was approaching panic mode. I looked up the street and saw what I though was the signal light on top of a n empty taxi and started running. By the time I got to where that possible taxi might have been, it was no where in sight. I ran back to the intersection and saw that the cabs that had been there were gone now. I wandered through the temporarily vacant part of the intersection, turning in all directions, hoping beyond hope that some answer to my dilemma would appear. I repeated "Oh my god!" in a half-shout, half-wail, half-moan that reeked of desperation, terror, and uncertainty. I started inventorying what I had just lost. Mostly it was the videos had been editing. I had recently moved a lot of files onto my external hard drive so I could move them onto a new computer, but that selfsame external hard drive was in that selfsame bag. And now I had no food or drink for the rest of the night

I thought about how I could have jumped into one of those two cabs that had been parked at the corner and tried to chase down the taxi that left me. Now both they and the original cab were long gone.

At least I still had my wallet and my phone. I used my phone to ask Google for the Taxi and Limousine commission (did you know they have a one-star rating on Google?). I dialed that number and got an automated-response system with no options for "lost property." I tried to remember any details about the taxi, but I did not remember any words or numbers on it aside form those instructions by the door handle. I did not actually make a trip or pay a fare.

My panic mode wound down to a combination of desperation, depression, and practicality. I still had a job, and I still needed to get to work. (I left out the part abut how my phone and while I was initially looking for the car and it was the fellow at work whose shift I was suppose to relieve. I had rapidly and emotionally tried to explain that I had lost my stuff in a cab and would call back. Lets just pretend I had included it in a literately functional manner). The emotional upheaval I had gone through had superseded the hunger I had been feeling, and I decided not to take the time to get more food.

Eventually another taxi came by and I hailed it. As we drove I spotted a taxi a lot like the one with my bags filling up at a gas station. I asked the driver to stop there and made sure he kept the meter running and understood that I was going to check out that cab,

It turned out to not be the same cab, but I asked the driver what the make and model was, and he said it was a Toyota Sienna There was a taxi dispatch across the street, and though I did see another Toyota Sienna there, it looked like it had been parked there for a while. When we turned a corner and passed a grocery store, stopping at a red light, we were next to yet another Toyota Sienna. There was no one in it, and though the back seat looked the same, there were no bags in it, or in the back luggage compartment. I briefly toyed with the idea that the driver might be inside the store, but what would he have done with my stuff?

The driver gave me the number for Curb and I tried calling it, but did not understand how that would help. He said all taxi drivers are on it.

I had called my GF to let her know hat had happened, and she gave me what comfort and practical advice she could. I got to work and found my co-worker and another person awaiting m e, saying that they were concerned that I had been fighting for my life or something. I was no doubt a sweaty mess, but at least I had my beloved Star Wars tie.

I explained what had happened, particularly about how I had not identifying info abut the car. Vinnie (my co-worker who had called me earlier),expressed sympathy. He thinks that there may be a way that it the stuff may get back to me.

I called the Curb phone number and talked to a fellow, explaining the story, and he transferred me to the credit card processing company. Since there was no transaction, there was no record of my trip. I wondered if it was possible that they could track down the next fare that was picked up, just a few minutes past 11 PM on 31st Street in Queens by a yellow taxi Toyota Sienna. Apparently they can't track things with that particular collection of information. I tried calling Curb again, explaining how there was no transaction, so connecting me with the credit card processing company won;t help, but he did so anyway,although he prefaced it by saying "they deal with the divers" and not mentioning that they were the credit card processing company.

Somewhere in there someone mentioned calling 311, so I did that. Without any identifying numbers on the taxi cab there was nothing more that she could do but take a report of lost property. I described the property in as much detail as possible, and even asked her to copy the report and change the cab to green, just in case I misremembered the taxi's color.

She very courteously and thoroughly took down all the information gave her and gave me a cpuple of file numbers and phone numbers. Apparently taxi drivers are supposed to turn lost property into a precinct in Manhattan.

So now I am, with a more calm head, continuing to inventory my losses here. Of course there ar ea lot of "wy didn't you's" and "What made you think's" at play here. I my defence, I can submit this:

Ever since my local cab company got bought out and went to heck (they used to come in three minutes; last I checked it took ten minutes to get them on the phone) and I figured out how to use Uber, I have been using it extensively. Uber drivers have been understanding when I make one last dash up the stairs to bring down something I forgot. I even mentally checked in that I had stuff in the cab so the driver would now that I would be coming back to the cab, so the thought that he might drive away was a very low-percentile risk to me. And I did take a little time as I thought possible to look for that tie.

And it turns out that "follow that car" is a much faster reflex in movies than in real life.

Now, this is not the end of the world. It may set back certain projects by months. It may mean the irretrievable loss of certain computer files (pictures, video, writings) but...
I did not lose...
my wallet,
my phone,
my tie,
my prized "SHAZAM!" hat that I was wearing.
I have a new laptop that I have been slowly moving some files to in preparation for eventual transition.
A lot of the files on this computer and ext HD were on previous computers and ext HDs.
My suitcase,with all the clothes that I had worn over the weekend, including my Utilikilt and Captain Marvel doublet, I had decided to leave behind.
Everything else that I had gotten at NY Comic Con was in my home or my GF's home.
...And I still have my health. And both of my jobs.

There are much more important issues in the world than this personal catastrophe, but it still sucks.

But I am still going to take the day off of my day job to fully inventory my losses and try to rebuild, clearing up some things that have been hanging over my head for months as so many of my days and nights have been filled with double commitments.

I have already determined and filed the appropriate papers to leave my current day job indefinitely to focus on those projects that have been hanging over my head for years, and this in no way will affect that. I have been doing quite will for myself recently in many categories that I historically have not, and that proves that I actually can do anything if I decide that is what I am going to do.

And Vinnie gave me a chicken hero sandwich tonight, proving that a hero can be more than just a sandwich.