Fake news, fake rags and those oh so shallow reporters!

Sure, the picture above is full of it! Nothing printed there is real. It's all fake. Yet, under the rules of journalism that are in place today, I print crap like that and get away with it!

For the record, CNN simply could not collapse...any more than it already has. The outlet has had zero credibility for some time now and most thinking adults know that to be true. Rachel is not interested in men, any men, according to my male intuition. And if either outlet ever spoke the real truth, their collective tongues would fall right out of their mouths.

Why efforts to curtail global climate change are doomed from the start.

A recent article published on the CNN web page was written by a gentleman named Kumi Naidoo. Kumi is the executive director for the Greenpeace International and I found the article well written.

One point he makes is to state that “most scientists tell us that we must dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avert catastrophic climate change.” Truer words have never been spoken, however there exists a fly in the ointment of that statement. It has to do with people. Too darn many people.

Even if all the world’s leaders were to suddenly be smitten with the desire to completely curb the careless throwing of carbon into the air. Even if we were to plunge ourselves back into the Dark Ages by outlawing the use of gasoline, diesel and coal, there would still be a minor problem.

In case no one has noticed the world population is exploding. Just since 1960, a time many of us remember, it has grown from about 3 billion to something over 6.7 billion. Multiply that number by 900 grams. That’s roughly the amount of CO2 gas that each and every one of us emit per day, every day, 24/7. Then there’s the methane gas, but I think you get the picture.

Unless we do something to drastically reduce the total population, no amount of other corrective actions we take will amount to very much in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, Mr. Naidoo, this tired old planet needed amends made, but that time was decades ago. At current growth trends, we will have 8 billion or more souls on this planet by 2025 and it will keep going up more or less logarithmically from there. Worldwide CO2 levels, currently at an all time high of over 888 parts per million (the highest levels in over four hundred thousand years), will continue ever upwards until such time as the planet will elect to bring about a new balance. More than likely this will take the form of an ice age when melting ice caps breakdown and stop the thermohaline circulation belts in the oceans. Of course we just may all die of heat prostration in a runaway greenhouse scenario. Take your pick. Either way, the time for definitive action was long ago.

Another reason not to watch CNN!

Editor's note: I had to reprint this piece that was on a CNN website as an example of the convoluted and backward thinking the likes of which are trampling American freedoms everywhere. This gentleman starts right off telling his readers that not only is Juan a racist but that he made a windfall by being one. I’m not sure what disgusts me more. Idiots like Arsalan Iftikhar or the fact that somewhere along the line he learned how to write. This editorial is loaded with pointless innuendo and remarks made by Mr. Williams that are presented either in part or taken completely out of context. I’ll say this one more time and I’ll say it very slowly so people like Arsalan can understand. Here in America, it’s perfectly OK to express an opinion. If Juan had been working for a privately owned company, then yes fire away, but Mr. Iftikhar, it is a fact that NPR is supported in part by public funds! That alone gives him the inalienable right to freely express an opinion without fear of retribution. A right that, sadly you do not share in your country of origin.

(CNN) -- Imagine for a moment that there was a prominent American conservative journalist who ignorantly disparaged an entire minority group on national television, got fired for it by the nation's largest public radio media organization and then still managed to pull down a $2 million payday with the television network where he made the remarks.
Man, it must be nice to be Juan Williams.
A quick recap: Williams, a National Public Radio "news analyst," appeared on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday to talk about Bill O'Reilly's recent remarks about Muslims on ABC's "The View;" the latter' shows co-hosts, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, had walked off the television set in protest.

When asked what he thought about the incident, Williams responded: "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. ...You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. ... But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
When someone begins with the weak disclaimer that he is "not a bigot," you can probably bet the farm that he is about to say something pretty bigoted.

Soon after, Williams was terminated as an NPR news analyst -- a position he had held for 10 years -- for reasons that included his repeated opinion statements that have teetered on the brink of bigoted nonsense in the past.

For example, many African-Americans were rightfully shocked in January 2009 when Williams, who is black, said on Fox that the first lady "Michelle Obama, you know. ... She's got this Stokely Carmichael [of the black power movement] in a designer dress thing going. ..."

In her first interview after the firing, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "There have been several instances over the last couple of years where we have felt Juan has stepped over the line," she said, citing the Michelle Obama remark and others. "This isn't a case of one strike and you're out. ..."

Additionally, during this week's Fox appearance, Williams kept referring back to the September 11 attacks in describing his uneasiness about people in "Muslim garb."

Sadly, this is where he should lose any objective argument with any reasonable observer out there.
As a historical fact, neither the 19 hijackers from September 11 nor the failed "shoe bomber" nor the failed "underwear bomber" ever wore any "Muslim garb" when committing their criminal acts of terrorism on an airplane.

Once Williams made that factually wrong statement, he then no longer continued being a "news analyst"; he had crossed over the line into simply voicing his paranoid and irrational fears to the general public.
"Juan Williams is a news analyst; he is not a commentator and he is not a columnist," Schiller told an Atlanta Press Club luncheon Thursday. "We have relied on him over the years to give us perspective on the news, not to talk about his opinions."

She added, "NPR news analysts have a distinctive role and set of responsibilities. This is a very different role than that of a commentator or columnist. News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that's what's happened in this situation. As you all well know, we offer views of all kinds on our air every day, but those views are expressed by those we interview -- not our reporters and analysts."

As someone who has been an on-air NPR commentator for more than three years now, I can understand the difference between a news analyst and a commentator.

Just as I support NPR's firing of Williams, I also publicly supported both the firing of CNN's Rick Sanchez and Helen Thomas' forced retirement from Hearst Newspapers for their own bizarrely bigoted statements about Jews and Israelis. Both crossed any reasonable line for an objective journalist.
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com correctly points out: "The Helen Thomas/Rick Sanchez incidents -- and countless others -- demonstrate how unequal and imbalanced our standards have become in determining which group-based comments are acceptable and which ones are not. ... If we're going to fire or otherwise punish people for expressing prohibited ideas against various groups, it's long overdue that those standards be applied equally to anti-Muslim animus, now easily one of the most -- if not the single most -- pervasive, tolerated and dangerous forms of blatant bigotry in America."
The First Amendment of our beloved Constitution allows all people to express racist or bigoted thoughts. However, it does not mean that a reputable, mainstream media organization (such as NPR) must give these people a continued platform for those xenophobic views.
Fox News is a different story.

As prominent right-wing figures such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee publicly called for Congress officially to cut funding for NPR, Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes "handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning," said the Los Angeles Times, "in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary." He'll have a steady gig on the cable news network and a regular column on its website.

The sad moral of this story is that if you take a bigoted potshot against Muslims in the public media today, no need to worry. There is probably a certain "fair and balanced" news network that might have a $2 million check waiting for you.

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington and all around moron.