Texas television station KCBD kicked up a cloud of anti-Muslim bigotry Tuesday night by sharing an alert from the National Weather Service on its Facebook page.
“Haboob northwest of Lubbock as seen from the Science Spectrum,” the NWS warned. “If you must drive west of Lubbock, plan for near-zero visibility in blowing dust and strong winds of 50+ mph.”
Although haboobs are more commonly known as “dust storms,” a NWS meteorologist said the Arabic word refers to a particular weather phenomenon.
A haboob refers specifically to a wall of dust created by cool, dense air blowing away from a thunderstorm or along a cold front, said meteorologist Jerome James.
But it signaled something even more threatening to some of the station’s Facebook fans.
“Never had a haboob until we got that muslim boob for potus,” said viewer Jeff Bertrand, referring to President Barack Obama, who is believed by some of this critics to secretly be a Muslim.
Meteorologists have used the word “haboob” since at least the 1950s, James said.
He said dry conditions in Texas had made the phenomenon, with its distinctive brown skies, more common in recent years.
The English language uses many words with Arabic origins, including cotton, algebra, candy, lemon, alcohol, and sofa.
Haha, if they want to start that muslim-bashing war then they have a pretty long list of words to attack.
How about the word “Admiral” which also has arabic origins. No no no, lets use American words – “The big sea honcho” – oh no thats Japanese… oh heck. Or perhaps they would use the direct translation of Amīr al-bahr from which the word comes from – commander of the sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Arabic_origin
Racism takes many forms unfortunately…
Then there’s the very long list of stars names derived from Arabic from Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) , Betelgueuse (Alpha orionis),and Chertan ( Theta Leonis) through to Mirzam (Beta Canis Majoris) and all the way Zubenelgenubi. See among other places :
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html
Zubenelgenubi also known as Alpha Librae which was meant to be in brackets after it. Oops. A name meaning “southern claw”* which almost always raises a smile in the planetarium – and thanks to the Arabs pointing out stars at night often sounds like a magical incantation being evoked.
* Off topic trivia for the day – the constellation of Libra used to be the front end of the scorpion until Caesar (Julius the original Roman one) separated it from that. Libra is also the only zodiacal constellation representing inanimate object rather than an animal, mythical critter or human figure.
And not just words, but mathematics too. The roots of albebra and modern math in general are Arabic. Of course, these folks can always go back to using stone age math—they can get up to 25 using their fingers, toes, eyes, ears, and nose. I’m sure Inhofe, Cornnyn, and Barton “count” that way already.
Teaching our kids Arabic numerals is clearly a Muslim plot to subvert America – at least many here in Texas believe so. To strike a blow for Euro-centric chauvinism I urge everyone to fill out their IRS Form 1040 – er, Form MXL, I mean – in Roman numerals this year.
Unfortunately most Americans have never visited another country, so they believe the “we’re #1” claim about most everything. And if you try to explain that the original illegal immigrants were Anglos, not Latinos, you’re wasting your time. On a brighter note, here in Arizona the weather service has used haboob regularly for giant dust storms without serious complaints. That could change if it becomes an issue on Fox, of course.
Uh, Wes? Are you sure about “the original illegal immigrants were Anglos”?
Christopher Columbus was the forerunner a huge influx of illegals from Spain, and the French and Dutch were also very busy farther north. The area of northern NJ that I grew up in was Dutch before it became overrun with Anglo illegals.
‘Orange,’ too, I’m told (hence no rhyme in English for it)… An all-too typical mix of stupid, paranoid and hostile.
A poet in Oxford tradition
got stuck in a fencing position
By rhyming with orange
he managed to de-lunge
– no need to consult the physician.
A poet by rhyme defeated
Sat down with his pen
He bleated
I can’t do a thing
With this orange thing
So instead
I will just do free verse.
Wait.
You can’t write
Without rhyme.
Rhyme with orange
Will bring a cringe?
Or break a hinge?
Or prevent a stinge?
Or call a physician.
It could be an unhinged
cringe orange binge.
Orange Julius in July anyone?
Maybe it was a haboob
who couldn’t rhyme in Texoob.
I have never understood national or state chauvinism.
How can someone derive personal pride in the happenstance of where they were born or raised? How is it logical to have blanket condemnation or pride in a people,sect,creed,nation,sex,religion,race,,,whatever?
Can someone ‘splain this to me?
Lower animals have herds, schools, packs, prides, flocks, gaggles, etc. In most cases, this is an adaptive response to mere survival needs, although it can be “social” to some extent.
In his evolutionary pathway, man has developed these wonderful things called “civilizations and societies” to facilitate survival. It all grows out of man’s “higher intelligence”, which is used for “rational thinking”, and which in some folks (Jesus, communitarians in general, progressives, environmentalists) shows some logical thought and concern for the greater good within the larger group.
In others, it becomes mindless belief and adherance to ideology and “groupthink”, and a lot of that results from the way the brain is hard-wired. It manifests itself in many ways—-closed-mindedness, willful ignorance, misogyny, xenophobia, intolerance, racism, belief in unfettered free markets and no central government and other “conservative” beliefs—-but on the suface it is merely a sign of people who are ignorant and afraid.
I will again recommend The Republican Brain by Chris Mooney as a good starting place to examine and “explain” the phenomena.
Actually,I am already familiar with those concepts,so my question really was more of a rhetorical one. I am just not wired that way,and it has taken me a long time to understand that apparently a majority of people are.It has caused me more arguments and conflict in my life than I would like to admit. At some point I realized that Judo was a better approach than boxing. (But I still find myself ‘throwing a punch’ every now and again). 😉
The folks we are dealing with here do not understand “judo”—-they will not recognize the truth of your “throw” but merely say “I slipped” and get back up, just as dumb as when you started to put the moves on them. Many of them DO understand a punch much better, though—-keep punching—you’ll sleep better.
Fairly simple” it’s “the Other.” Humans do this, always will. stupid and useless, but…there ya go!
Its real easy. You line up half on one side of the gym and make them wear their jerseys inside out so they have the light color and the other side with dark jerseys on the other. Now you give one side balls and tell them to throw them at the other side. Make aggressive noises to encourage them. Then give the other side a turn. Now you are off and running. See. Easy. There are actually psychological studies that do exactly this. One is called the prisoner study, if memory serves. They had to stop some of these because it got to real.
Christopher- Nice illustration! That pretty much condenses how I view the process from the outside of it (although,nobody is totally immune from that kind of manipulation).
I despair when I see mindless regurgitation of obvious propaganda that ‘friends’ of mine on FB seem to think represents urgent re-education of us silly mindless ‘sheeple’,when it is patently evident that they are credulously swallowing total bunk as though it were handed down by god.
‘I will again recommend The Republican Brain by Chris Mooney as a good starting place to examine and “explain” the phenomena.’
Unfortunately, as with much material, those in most need will not read, either through inability or deliberate avoidance.
Because of the “backfire effect” (discussed in Brain and elsewhere), we don’t want those “most in need” to read the book because it will only make them more intransigent in their willful ignorance and cognitive dissonance.
The book should be read by enlightened folks who seek to understand the phenomena but don’t suffer from it—it is very difficult to “cure” the sufferers. It’s more a “know thy enemy” thing than suggestions for fighting the war.