"Shame" is right. Seeing these photos brought a lump to my throat and made me recall all too clearly that awful morning, hearing the news as it developed. What is WRONG with our President that he's so insensitive to the effect this trial will have upon the people who were actually there, who had to live through this horror?

Whoopsie. That comment was meant to go on the post with the 9/11 photos. As you were.

"Shame" is right. Seeing these photos brought a lump to my throat and made me recall all too clearly that awful morning, hearing the news as it developed. What is WRONG with our President that he's so insensitive to the effect this trial will have upon the people who were actually there, who had to live through this horror?

I just thought of another innocent swastika. I was visiting recently with my great-aunt, who's in her eighties. She showed me a photo of her as a little girl, pushing a wooden doll carriage. She pointed out a swastika painted on the carriage. My great-grandmother had painted it there as a good-luck symbol...around 1920.

Real Name, similar to Hitler's misinterpretation of the meaning of "Aryan?" A couple of years ago, my husband and I toured a Native American museum in Colorado. There was a woven blanket with swastikas worked into the pattern, and it dated back to the early 20th century, many years before the Nazis. There was an explanation by the display of the non-Nazi history and meaning of the swastika, and while this was being displayed as an artifact and work of art, the Native Americans would never again use this symbol because it had been forever corrupted by the Nazis. It was quite sobering, seeing such a beautiful work of art that nonetheless had the power to shock because of the double meaning.

Normally, I would have a hard time believing that anyone at the NY Times would even care about anything going on in Colorado. Flyover country, after all.

Pamela, I want to commend you for bringing this issue to our attention. I once thought of myself as something of a WWII history buff, but I'd never read anything about Muslim involvement with the Nazis before I read it here. Because of the Nazi atrocities, it will apparently be for all time okay to portray Germans as bad guys in movies, or make fun of German culture. Everyone knows about the Italian and Japanese efforts in WWII. Now we learn that the Axis apparently had a fourth branch, one that it's not P.C. to acknowledge in this day and age. Thanks for being politically incorrect!

Wow, talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

My hubby made a good point about the hand notes: his guess was that she had prepared note cards or crib sheets or whatever in advance, and then had some last-minute ideas she wanted to make sure she didn't forget, so those went on the hand. If this is "evidence" of Palin's supposed lack of intelligence, it's as thin as can possibly be.

I think it's been taken down. I can't find it on FB.

In a way, this reminds me of the stories I've heard of women who were dead set to breastfeed their babies wherever they wanted--in the aisles of stores, in dressing rooms, wherever--when there were dedicated places set up for them to do so in privacy and in sanitary settings. This isn't so much about prayer, not when the bus company had provided places for Muslim employees to pray in privacy. This is about making an in-your-face statement.

From what I've heard and read, it seems that Ron Reagan did everything he could to embarrass his dad when Ronald Reagan was alive. It seems a bit disingenuous to hide behind the legacy of his father now.

P.S. Pamela, you were excellent!

I wish I could get one of Palin's critics to explain, with as little frothing at the mouth as possible, to explain exactly WHY they believe her to be stupid. Give me some evidence. Unfortunately, this seems to be impossible.

I would say that being buried in an Obama T-shirt is a pretty apt metaphor for what's happening to this country. Except Obama sees it as a compliment.

What DID happen to the Nobel Prize money? That story has completely disappeared.

I watched the SOTUS and took notes. We started out with the TV on the CBS affiliate, couldn't take the fawning, and switched over to FOX. I said to my husband, "I wonder how long it will take him to blame the last administration?" We weren't disappointed. When it was all over with, I felt sort of like I'd stuffed myself on cotton candy. Like it says in EVITA, "[S]he didn't say much but [s]he said it loud!" Curious, I got online and Googled "Obama narcissistic personality disorder" and got an amazing number of hits, including this must-read article, written before he even got elected: www.faithfreedom.org/obama.html

Thank you! I love this song!

Good heavens. I grew up in a small flyover-country town that was extremely homogenous, both ethnically and religiously (almost 100% White Protestant), and I even know what phylacteries are and what they look like.

Much as I recognize that this is pure awesome sauce for Massachusetts specifically and the American voting process in general, I'm sure not looking forward to the savagery Scott Brown can expect at the hands of the media.

That must be an amazing thing to experience. I am envious! You're there to watch history being made.

"We're doin' fine. We're doin' fine." He kept saying that, as though it would make it true.

"Christianity is a religion that tells you if you're raped- the rapist must pay your father Gold, and the rapist marries the raped. Is this a just religion?" Yes, because stoning rape victims to death for "adultery" is SO much more righteous.

I can't imagine how or why this one slight teenaged girl has inspired so much rabid rage.

If devout Muslims are so offended by portrayals of Mohammed, one must ask oneself: which cultures produced these illustrations? Were they not Muslim cultures?