From fork-admin@xent.com Thu Sep 19 11:04:48 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.spamassassin.taint.org Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EEB6716F03 for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2002 11:04:45 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Thu, 19 Sep 2002 11:04:46 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8IH9dC08730 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 18:09:40 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE2802940E9; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 10:06:05 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org Received: from argote.ch (argote.ch [80.65.224.17]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8967929409E for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 10:05:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: by argote.ch (Postfix, from userid 500) id 80FA1C44D; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:07:52 +0200 (CEST) To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org Subject: Re: Defending Unliked Speech Message-Id: <20020918170752.80FA1C44D@argote.ch> From: harley@argote.ch (Robert Harley) Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@spamassassin.taint.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:07:52 +0200 (CEST) Gordon Mohr quoted: ># French Writer Tried As Anti-Islam, Protest Erupts ># By Caroline Brothers ># ># PARIS (Reuters) - Provocative French novelist Michel Houellebecq ># faced a Paris court on Tuesday for allegedly inciting racial hatred ># by calling Islam "the stupidest religion" and its holy book the ># Koran a depressing read. ># ># The case, brought against him by four Muslim groups, is a cause ># celebre reminiscent of the Salman Rushdie affair, pitting freedom of ># expression against religious sensitivities. Very reminiscent indeed. Ayatollah Chirac has decreed a death sentence on Houellebecq and liked-minded fundamentalists have offered millions of euros bounty for his head, so he has gone into hiding under police protection for a few years. Or maybe some handful of Muslims are acting uppity and dragging him to court under "hate speech" laws make a point about people not showin' dem da massive respect dat dey deserve, especially these days. Or maybe some journo is trying to fill column inches on a boring day. BTW I read Houellebecq's "Extension du domaine de la lutte" recently, about a depressed computer services dude working in Paris, looking for love and not finding it, slowing losing his marbles and trying to get a friend of his to kill a woman, and ending up in a clinic for nutcases... Yikes! Purposely provocative, very depressing, with some unbelievably boring passages where the anti-hero writes little stories about animals talking philosophical mumbo-jumbo to each other, quoted inline in full for pages on end. It starts out: "On Friday evening, I was invited to a party with some colleagues from work. There were about thrity of us, all professionals aged from twenty-five to forty. At one point, some cunt started getting undressed. She took off her T-shirt, then her bra, then her skirt, all the while making unbelievable faces. She pranced around for a few seconds, then she started getting dresesd again because she didn't know what else to do. Anyway she never sleeps with anyone. Which underlines the absurdity of her behaviour. After my fourth glass of vodka I started to feel pretty bad so I had to go lie down on a bunch of cushions behind the couch. Shortly after that, two girls came and sat on the couch. Those girls are not pretty at all, the two fat office cows actually. They go to eat together and read books about the development of language in children, all that sort of stuff." ... and it's downhill from there! R