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On days like this, I feel like crawling under the blankets and never coming out.  Although I regularly rail against idiocy and lies and question the opposite world  in which the obstructionists of progress reside, I’m at a loss to explain the insanity of religious zealots.

So some idiot makes a low-budget, truly awful movie and posts it online. Go after that guy if you must, but to engage in riots and violence aimed at a country that had nothing to do with the production of said sorry piece of shit?  I just don’t get it.

As more time passes and serious minds investigate exactly what happened in Bengazi, we learn that the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was probably a long time in the planning, had been planned for the 9/11 anniversary, and was likely in retaliation for the killing of an Al-Qaeda second in command (the worst job ever, after Spinal Tap drummer), who was a Libyan citizen.  See Rachel Maddow’s report from last night, which sums it all up very tidily:

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Discouraged yet? If not, just know that the protests in the Arab world over that stupid low-budget movie that no one in the western world knows or cares about are growing.  Ugh.  It is, indeed, a mad world.

And while all of this is going on, our elections are being stolen.  I spoke about that with investigative journalist Greg Palast who deals with the issue in his new book, Billionaires & Bandits – How to Steal An Election in 9 Easy Steps.  

Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court hears arguments about its new, discriminatory, voter-suppressing voter ID restriction laws, and its ruling could determine the outcome of this year’s presidential election.  Although the judiciary branch should not be politicized, it most certainly is. And the PA Supreme Court is evenly split between judges appointed by Democrats and by Republicans.  We’ll find out their ruling at the end of the month and, with it, whether it’s ideology or democracy that rules the land.

I wonder why the UN doesn’t send election observers here to the US, as our system is completely FUBAR.

I spent most of the second hour talking about these things and more with my dear friend, actress/comedian Maysoon Zayid.  If you live near the NYC area, you’ll want to head over to ArabComedy.com and get tickets for the 9th Annual Arab-American Comedy Festival happening next month!

And that’s it for our week… Please don’t let the world disintegrate before I’m back Monday morning…