Not too long ago we discussed children’s Bible picture books. Well, the Islamic government of Malaysia is confiscating Christian books that picture Abraham, Moses, Jesus, or other Biblical figures who are recognized by Islam as prophets. Islam forbids visual representations of holy figures, so even non-Muslims must do the same.

And remember how some liberal Christians were saying that we should just use “Allah” for God, since the word is simply the Arabic word for the deity? Well, the Islamic government of Malaysia has also outlawed Christians or any other non-Muslims from using the term “Allah.” This, in effect, prevents Christians from saying the word “God” in the Arabic language.

Read this.

You must read Noemie Emery’s “The Weekly Standard” article in The Wages of Sensitivity, which discusses how the Clintons are being accused of racial insensitivity whenever they criticize Obama, the kind of purposeful misinterpretation that they themselves pioneered:

For the Clintons, with their sense of private entitlement running head on into their boomer assertion of moral enlightenment, all this must come as a shock. As Matt Bai wrote on the New York Times website, “It must be a kind of nightmare for both Clintons to be running .  .  . against a talented black man, to be caught in an existential choice between losing their mythical status in the black community, or possibly losing to a candidate they feel certain does not deserve to win.” It’s all the worse as they are in part the authors of their own misfortune: “The Clintons embody the generation that invented identity politics and political correctness,” as Bai informs us, and so sprung the trap on themselves.

They embraced Anita Hill, and her (unproven) story of feminist grievance, and helped ride it to victory in the Year of the Woman; they promised a cabinet that “looked like America” (though not quite as much so as George W. Bush’s), hectored opponents of affirmative action, and suggested impeachment was a device thought up by southern conservatives to punish the Clintons for having black friends. Now they find themselves unable to criticize a black man for what they think are legitimate reasons, because they helped to teach people that criticism is bias in disguise, and they can’t complain that their words have been misinterpreted, because the theory of hate speech maintains that the listener can project on to words uttered by others whatever motives he wants to see in them. If he declares himself offended, the listener has the last word.

Add this to the unforeseen clash of two groups who have been told for years by liberals that they are victims of everyone, and the result is explosive. It is, David Brooks writes, “a Tom Wolfe novel” beyond even Wolfe’s imagining. “All the rhetorical devices that have been a staple of identity politics are now being exploited by the Clinton and Obama campaigns,” Brooks continues, “competing to play the victim .  .  . accusing each other of insensitivity .  .  . deliberately misinterpreting each other’s comments in order to somehow imply that the other is morally retrograde. All the habits of verbal thuggery that have long been used against critics of affirmative action .  .  . and critics of radical feminism .  .  . are now being turned inward by the Democratic front-runners. .  .  . Every revolution devours its offspring, and it seems that the multicultural one does, too.”

HT: Wesley Pruden in “The Washington Times”

Fred Thompson, the great conservative hope, has dropped out of the presidential race. Meanwhile, Romney leads by a fairly large margin in Florida. It looks like the Republicans will nominate either McCain or Romney. Of those two, who would be better?

The Academy Awards nominations have been released:

Performance by an actor in a leading role

George Clooney in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
(DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah” (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal)
Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There” (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in “American Gangster” (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement” (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone” (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)

I’m embarrassed to say that, former movie critic though I am when I was Culture Editor for WORLD, I have seen NONE of these shows. Can anyone speak to them? Can anyone deduce any cultural significance from this list?

it’s probably because it includes a bunch of links. For some reason, this blog software flags such comments and puts them in a “moderation” queue that I have to approve. I do approve them, but it might take awhile for them to appear. So that’s what’s happening if you make a comment and it doesn’t appear immediately. But don’t let that slow you down. Again, I think the comments and the discussions that get going are the best part of this blog.