Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Does This Fatwa Make Me Look Fat?



From today's New York Times:

Paul McCartney has refused to cancel his concert in Israel, despite threats from Islamic militants, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The response follows comments made by Omar Bakri Muhammad, a militant Lebanese Islamic activist, in an interview that appeared in The Sunday Express of London. Mr. Bakri said, “If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel,” He also said: “He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”


Omar, dude -- "Silly Love Songs" was thirty-five years ago. Move on.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so fucking sick of organized religion in all its manifestations, I could puke.

And I'm sick of being told what a bad person this makes me. At least I'm not trying to shove my worldview onto anybody. I'm not threatening to murder anyone for not sharing my imaginary friends in the sky. I'm not threatening death on one of the world's most popular entertainers because I don't like his audience --

[head swells & explodes, strewing steaming bits of Gummo all over Power Pop blog...]

steve simels said...

Gummo -- don't mince words, tell us what you really think.
:-)

Anonymous said...

Lately, I've started calling it corporate religion.
I read 'High Fidelity' again yesterday. Jack Black, in the movie, asks (paraphrase)" Can an artist be forgiven for really bad songs later in their career on the basis of the sublime art that they produced while young"? And in Pauls case, I'd say Yea Yea Yea.

Anonymous said...

when they hear him do "shul on the hill" they'll all smile

Wendy said...

I'm not threatening death on one of the world's most popular entertainers because I don't like his audience --

Well, I might make an exception for Britney.

Just kidding!!!!!!

Seriously, I am so frickin' tired of crazy people, but especially the ones who think "God" is on their side.

TMink said...

You know, I always heard that Paul was the Beatle who wanted everyone to love him. Wasn't he the one who wanted to keep things cool and non-confrontational? Wasn't he the last one to drop? (Acid, not dead.)

And here he is now, taking a stand for Israel. Getting death threats! Doing the right thing even when it makes him unpopular.

God bless him.

In a non-organized kind of way.

Trey

Noam Sane said...

Some people wanna fill the world with silly death threats


also, what Gummo said

Anonymous said...

Totally OT...but I just heard that Norman Whitfield has died at 65.

I knew he wrote "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," but I was surprised to learn that he wrote just about every Motown hit in the 60's and 70's not penned by Smoky Robinson.

A very great loss.

RIP.

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Truly sad news re Whitfield.

And re Paul, it does seem like the truly great ones don’t scare easy. Remember watching Dylan play live at one of those televised award shows when some lunatic with the word Soy Bomb painted on his belly rushed the stage? Bob just gave him a patented Bob squint & never missed a note – just impressively unflappable.

Then I remember Lennon talking about how the Beatles were inundated with death threats during their last U.S. tour. One anecdote in particular stuck with me. John described how they were playing at some outdoor stadium when somebody in the audience set off firecrackers that sounded exactly like gun shots, & he described how each Beatle instinctively turned and did a quick a body count of the rest of the band to make sure no one had been shot … and then they kicked into the next song.

steve simels said...

Whitfield was the architect of the whole Motown psychedelic thing in the early 70s...all those cool Temptations songs like "Cloud 9"...

A loss indeed...

Anonymous said...

What exactly did McCartney do to earn the death threat? (Beyond the obvious cheap jokes.)

ROT(Plumber)

Anonymous said...

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

And re Paul, it does seem like the truly great ones don’t scare easy.


The last Grateful Dead show I saw was in the summer of 1995, in Deer Creek, Indiana. No one could figure out why the house lights stayed on for the whole show.

We found out later that there had been death threats that day against Jerry Garcia. Not only did he not flinch, that night he performed "Dire Wolf" with its cheeky chorus of "Pleeeeeease, don't murder me!"

Anonymous said...

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

And re Paul, it does seem like the truly great ones don’t scare easy.


The last Grateful Dead show I saw was in the summer of 1995, in Deer Creek, Indiana. No one could figure out why the house lights stayed on for the whole show.

We found out later that there had been death threats that day against Jerry Garcia. Not only did he not flinch, that night he performed "Dire Wolf" with its cheeky chorus of "Pleeeeeease, don't murder me!"