Turkey's Islamist president Erdogan continues imposing his Islamist way of life on the public. Recently he attempted to curb drinking, calling anyone who sips a beer an "alcoholic."

It spurred some demonstrations. The protesters were also objecting to Erdogan's development initiatives, tearing down parks to build shopping centers. There's also an anti-Islam element to this part of the protest: Protesters object to Erdogan's habit of targeting cinemas and other such places of Western depravity in order to build malls (with the construction contracts going to his cronies, critics say).

Public anger has flared among urban and secular Turks after police violently broke up an anti-development sit-in in the square, with protests spreading to other cities as demonstrators denounced what they see as Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian style.

As the furious protests entered its second day, police fired tear gas and turned on water cannons at angry demonstrators, some of whom threw rocks and bottles on their march toward the city's landmark Taksim Square.

...

At Taksim, protesters chanted "Tayyip resign!" Turkish celebrities joined the crowds, with thousands milling around the square, waving flags, and cheering and clapping at anti-government speeches. Many drank beer in protest of newly enacted alcohol curbs, singing "cheers Tayyip!"

A Bing translation of the Le Monde article (which has more background than the Fox article, and those two pictures hotlinked above) is here.

Everywhere the alcohol flows in streams, beer bottles knocked together in toasts, and, contrary to custom, people drinking openly in the street. Street vendors make their trade and roam with buckets of ice-cooled bottles. The demonization, the repeated stigmatisation of drinkers of alcohol by the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the measures of restriction of consumption were one of the many elements that have fed this revolt.

"Mr. Erdogan wants to rail against our mode of life, he does not tolerate people who love art, or who live a Western lifestyle. He destroyed historic buildings, cinemas and theatres to the replace with horrible shopping centers built by his friends', railed Erkan, father of a family of 55 years, came with his wife and two teenage children. Later, a young woman with a group of friends gives a similar notice. "His vision of the Turkish family and women is totally retrograde", said Esra, a beer in one hand, a Turkish flag in the other.

The protesters seek media coverage, as they haven none in their own country.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was facing the biggest challenge to his 10-year rule this weekend as parts of Istanbul turned into a war zone. Violent clashes took place between riot police and tens of thousands of demonstrators outraged at the heavy-handed response of authorities to an environmental protest on Friday.

The eruption of frustration with Erdogan's government spread to a dozen other Turkish cities overnight and supporters gathered worldwide in Boston, London, Barcelona and Amsterdam to voice solidarity with the protesters.

...

Several overturned police and municipal vehicles were covered in graffiti demanding the government resigns.

"This is our museum", explained one protester, laughing. "Memories of the days when a dictator ruled Turkey!"

...

Sirri Sureyya Onder, an MP from the Kurdish Peace and Democracy party (BDP), who was injured by a teargas cartridge on Saturday, said the government had gone too far in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

"They are rebelling against all of this now. People are fed up with this lack of public discussion, with the disrespect, the immoderateness, the lawlessness and the authoritarianism of this government. It is not very good at apologising. But this time I think it will have to."

The lack of media coverage has further inflamed tension on the streets. "There is a total media blackout on this in Turkey, the Turkish media silent on the protests; they all collaborate with the government," said 21-year-old student Ayse Sarac. "We follow the foreign news coverage to get more information."

I think the greatest propaganda against Islamist government is Islamist government itself. Egypt is also discovering this, of course.

Headline Joke: "Canadian Protester" quipped "Molson's Labe" in the comments, and so I stole that for the headline.

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 AM | Comments (238)
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Google osition4">ordered to comply with FBI demands, by same judge who found the same demands to be unconstitutional. Circle, squared.

Last year the FBI sent out more than 16,000 [National Security Letters] to companies relating to the private data – mainly financial, internet or phone records – of more than 7,000 Americans.

What, not our Gmail? Only the terrorists?

Oh, Right. Because, political targeting under this president's benevolent care could never happen.

Clean as the driven snow, TFG is.

I'm not sure I follow the procedural logic surrounding the 19 letters in question. Well, to be clear, I most definitely do not follow it. I'm just a caveman. Your "penumbras" and "motions to the court" frighten and confuse me.

After receiving sworn statements from two top-ranking FBI officials, the judge said she was satisfied that 17 of the 19 letters were issued properly. She wanted more information on two other letters.

So in effect, the FBI has convinced a hostile judge of the legal justification for 17 of their search demands.

After months & months of legal back and forth.

Wouldn't it have been quicker to just go to a judge in the first place and, oh, I don't know, Get a Warrant?

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:15 PM | Comments (249)
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If you are ill-informed enough to support the NRA, the good Professor is going to put you some knowledge. You can trust him, because he is in the mainstream on gun issues. Just ask him.

Spoiler: A certain group is a bunch of traitors and should be shot.

He defends himself in the comments, saying that his is not a call to violence. Just a warning to those with contrary views who are huffing on their own dog-whistles.

Of course, he has a number of great examples of those dog-whistle calls for violence from the right.

And by "a number", I mean "zero".

Go for the purifying flame of indignant rage. Stay for the cooling smackdown in the comments, where he whines and complains about veiled threats in response to his Very Important, fact-based Opinion that just happens to include an overt threat to those he disagrees with.

Update - zombie's concise version:

35 His primary thesis is this:

Conservatives claim they need guns because they are all paranoid that they might have to defend themselves from a tyrannical government sending the army to crush dissent. That is SO paranoid and stupid. So much so that we must now send the army after you to crush your dissent.

Stop being so paranoid!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:45 AM | Comments (212)
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Because they don't have enough to do ... how'd you like a little congressional oversight with your NFL?

Posted by: andy at 03:15 AM | Comments (234)
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Yep, gaming below more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 11:50 AM | Comments (76)
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Andrew was late to his sister in law's wedding again so he's a bit in the dog house today. You're stuck with me. Here we go.

Compare and contrast.

A Springfield Model 1892-99 (no guessing today) in .30-40.

Or a Spanish Mauser in 7x57mm.

You get to pick.

Why the rifle matters in a fight. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:16 AM | Comments (158)
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If you're looking for a laugh, read this hysterical column written by Curtis Morrison, the man caught trying to bug Mitch McConnell's campaign office.

A few of the funny lines:

"Unlike Mitch McConnell, I will not paint myself as a victim.", says guy in 3000 whiny, self-satisfied words intended to paint himself as the victim.

"McConnell was prepping for a race against the actress Ashley Judd — it was “the Whac-a-Mole stage of the campaign,” McConnell said smugly — and the recording captures his team in some Grade-A jackassery, including plans to use Judd’s history of depression against her." They were reading word-for-word from her autobiography.

"If given another chance to record him, IÂ’d do it again." He's about to be charged with a felony and his bugging accomplished absolutely nothing.

If you don't feel like reading it, at least click through to the picture. A little old to be crawling around on his hands and knees with a rudimentary recording device, no?

Posted by: JohnE. at 04:44 PM | Comments (214)
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Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the the award-winning AoSHQ's Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Couldn't think of a good, appropriate photo, but you can't miss with teh puppehs.

The Nook Is... Out? It's OUT?

In last Tuesday's ONT, Maet linked to this piece about 10 familar brands that they predict will be gone by 2014 due to declining sales. Coming in at #2 was the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader. Why? Becaue apparently, B&N has been underperforming for some time now:

Sales at the companyÂ’s Nook segment, which includes both the e-reader and online books, declined by 26% between the third quarter of 2012 and the third quarter of 2013. The NookÂ’s disadvantage may have little to do with its hardware or software and more to do with size of its online audience. It competes against much larger e-commerce sites that have access to hundreds of millions of new readers. While Amazon has more than 130 million visitors a month according to Quantcast, Barnes & Noble has just over 6 million visitors

My first e-reader was a Nook, and if I had to do it over again, I'd've bought a Kindle instead. The selection for the Kindle is better by an order of magnitude at least. Plus, the Kindle encouraged or created a whole cottage industry of self-publishing that the Nook cannot even hope to duplicate. The main reason I went with the Nook, which was that it could handle the popular .ePub format standard while the Kindle could not, doesn't seem very important to me now. There's no question in my mind that Amazon created a superior product.

But...

I like marketplace competition. Kindle book prices are already pretty high, but with the Nook books out of the picture, there will be even less reason for Amazon to keep a lid on them. So I think we can expect more Kindle ebook price bloat coming up in the months ahead, if the Nook goes down the tubes as predicted. And that makes me sad.

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:25 AM | Comments (154)
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Open thread, but found this interesting.

I missed this story early this year, but Miami-Dade will pay back $1.2 billion on a bond package valued at $91 million starting in the late 2020s for the Miami Marlins new stadium. This is only one on the bond packages. The total is close to $2.5b on $500 million borrowed. Amazing.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball's attendance is down around 2.9% and the Miami Marlins alone are responsible for 40% of that.

Is anyone aware of any examples of public financing of sports team stadiums working out well for taxpayers? I'm really asking. Please link one in the comments if you find any.

Posted by: JohnE. at 02:12 PM | Add Comment
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Open thread, but found this interesting.

I missed this story early this year, but Miami-Dade will pay back $1.2 billion on a bond package valued at $91 million starting in the late 2020s for the Miami Marlins new stadium. This is only one on the bond packages. The total is close to $2.5b on $500 million borrowed. Amazing.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball's attendance is down around 2.9% and the Miami Marlins alone are responsible for 40% of that.

Is anyone aware of any examples of public financing of sports team stadiums working out well for taxpayers? I'm really asking. Please link one in the comments if you find any.

Posted by: JohnE. at 02:12 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.