Sick puppies

Clashes Around Muslim Brotherhood’s Main Headquarters in Cairo (Photo credit: Jonathan Rashad)

I was truly horrified when I read a report today that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were setting puppies alight and using them as gas bombs, during the current protests against the ousting of Egyptian President Morsi. These reports were carried by a number of online news sources, even reasonably reputable one’s.

Not surprisingly, there was an instant outcry from many gullible people who accepted the story without giving it a second thought it seems.

My suspicions about the veracity of these reports were immediately raised because this act is no ordinary thing. It takes a special kind of monster to do something so heinous. After a bit of checking, and when the story disappeared from the source where I had originally read it, I came to the conclusion that there was some mischief afoot.

My skepticism was confirmed by The Guardian’s Egypt correspondent Patrick Kingsley, and reported here in the Huffington Post:

I think it’s really, really unlikely that Muslim Brotherhood protesters could have turned puppies into firebombs during clashes in Tahrir Square. Aside from a couple of brief instances, Brotherhood demonstrators have not been able to enter the square all summer. Most importantly, the logistics of this seem barely feasible. Gathering 20 puppies, transporting them to a protest, dousing them in petrol, and then throwing them at soldiers while being teargassed strikes me as not just impractical, but nigh-on impossible.

Why would anyone spread such vicious lies? I hold no brief for the Muslim Brotherhood, or any Brotherhood for that matter. They’re all mostly crass ideologues. But there’s absolutely no need to slander a person or organization by spreading false rumours or blatant lies about them, especially when they do such a great job of discrediting themselves.

Whoever spread this hoax are really sick puppies.

Is the Global Warming Threat, a Monster Hoax?

I’ve just returned from a short holiday down in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa. It was hot, really hot, the entire time I was there, even on the few overcast days. I usually visit Durban every December to visit family, and every year it just feels hotter and more humid than the last. And I’m not kidding, it’s a furnace down there.

In the middle of one agonizingly hot day, I remember mentioning to some of my relatives that anyone who does not think that global warming is real, had better think again. They all agreed, that global warming was real. So, imagine my horror when I got back to Johannesburg and logged onto Worpress.com to find a blog post about an article claiming that global warming was one big lie. Written by Harold Ambler in the Huffington Post, the article is called “Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted.” Ambler presents a supposedly scientific essay on why “global warming” and “climate change” is the “biggest whopper ever sold to the public…”

Now, I don’t know where Harold Amber lives, but its surely not Durban. I live in Mogale City, about 650 kilometers from Durban, and even up here at an altitude in excess of 6000 meters above sea level, I’ve noticed that year on year, it just keeps getting hotter. And I’m not the only one whose noticed the increase in temperatures. I’m no scientist, but I just know that something is very wrong with the climate. It may not be because of CO2 emissions, but until I get more scientific corroboration, than Harold Ambler is providing, the jury is still out.