Being the “other”

Shariah at the Kumback Café – NYTimes.com. Shariah is the new hot-button wedge issue, as radicalizing as abortion or gay marriage, seized on by Republicans to mobilize conservative Americans against the supposed “stealth jihad” of Muslims in the United States and against a Democratic president portrayed as oblivious to — or complicit with — the threat. Not since 9/11 has Islamophobia been at such a pitch in the United States.

Starting yesterday afternoon, New York time, Mumbai (Bombay) came under a terrorist attack. Currently more than 100 people are dead and over 300 are wounded, with multiple hostage situations. I can offer nothing that the news is not giving, except a prayer for the souls of the deceased; a prayer for the wounded; a prayer that those who perpetrated this act face wrath of the God whom they so easily defame. Choose your mainstream news source: I’m using BBC, both for the local coverage, and to get some sense of distance from it all. Sepia Mutiny links to sources of…

No comment on the Electoral Vote breakdown…. Will post once we know something for sure.