From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sun 15 Dec 2002 - 17:53:47 GMT
> Yes, I'm surprised you pulled MEMRI's quotes about itself off of
> MEMRI's page for us. But note who they quote: Krauthammer, Nordlinger,
> Peretz, Lantos, Adelman, etc. These are ultra-pro-Zionists. There are
> some interesting names there, like Woolsey, Lewis and Friedman.
> Lewis, who is greatly respected in Middle East historical studies, is
> an early Zionist. Friedman is in my opinion, also excellent, but as he
> is the first to admit, pro-Israeli. Jim Woolsey is also excellent, but
> on other matters, but no expert on the Middle East. Now, if he were
> commenting on arms control (in which he did some very important and
> difficult work for the US and the world), his praise would be more
> weighty. I haven't heard of David Tell. Maybe HE is an expert on the
> Middle East and without a dog in the fight?
>
Actually, considering how you attempt to discredit the messenger
service simply because the messages do not jive with your
prepackaged opinions, if deities actually existed, and we got the solid
endorsements of all major Mideast monotheistic aspects, from Jahweh
to God to Allah, for the site's veracity, you'd be complaining because
Ahura Mazda hadn't weighed in. From attacking the site, you switch to
attacking its endorsers. The white dog truth is that many of the Muslim
people cited by MEMRI are hanging themselves with their own words,
and you don't like seeing them twisting in the wind hoist upon their own
rabid rhetoric.
>
> I went back to the MEMRI site, and was able to link up some of the
> materials you quoted to the video material--many thanks; as I said in
> my last email, though, this leaves us with the question of MEMRI's own
> biases.
>
What about the biases of the people on the videos, for memesake?
>
> I notice they don't reveal who is running the site, or funding it.
> (Somehow, I don't think your dedication and $20 bucks to them is
> covering the budget.)
>
I'll bet I'm far from the only donor.
>
> So, who is behind the site??? Who is the
> director of MEMRI? Who is on their advisory board? Who on their Board?
> Who is staff director? Maybe I'm missing the part of their site that
> provides this information. Joe, can you point me to this information?
> You have piqued my curiosity.
>
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the
Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the
language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East,
providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media,
as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual,
social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.
Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy
in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan,
nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located
in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, and
Jerusalem, where MEMRI also maintains its Media Center.
MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew,
Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian.
>
I suppose they're kinda like Ibn Warraq in a way; certain that if
their identities were known to Radical Muslims, that the bullets
and bombs would be forthcoming for daring to translate for the
world what they are saying to each other.
>
> Well, you came back to Pipes and the anonymous "ibn Warraq" -- your
> admiration for Pipes speaks volumes, and makes it easier to reach
> conclusions about how much credibility your admiration and financial
> payment to MEMRI should be given.
>
Your distaste for Pipes speaks volumes, also, and places you in
interesting compny, such as CAIR. To view CAIR's attack upon Daniel
Pipes, and his rebuttal, go to:
http://www.danielpipes.org/cair.shtml
>
> I notice that you ignore my challenge to you to produce ANY complaints
> that have been made of my provision of references. If indeed you
> can't find any, a simple apology on your part will suffice. Not that
> I'm holding my breath. Your callousness about people I know who died
> in the WTC has not been forgotten by members of this list.
>
Most people complain about the inadequacy of the present rather than
the lack of the absent. I noticed that, despite my request, you did not
provide me with any credible academic references you have previously
posted/cited. I can not only not find complaints about your references; I
can't find your references.
And you have a funny way of honoring your dead friends - by denying
the deadly ubiquity of the violent ideological totalitarianism that
motivated their murderers. THAT is my definition of callous. See? I
can ad hominem right back at you. But I would prefer to stick to the
subject at hand - which is not about the credibility of MEMRI or its
supporters, but about the vicious memeplex being spouted over the
Mideast airwaves, and what we can figure out about it.
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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