Israellycool

Just when you thought PETA could not get more asinine…they get more asinine.

The animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written a letter to Norm Goldstein, the editor of the AP stylebook, asking that the book be changed so that pronouns referring to animals always be “he,” “she,” and “who.” AP responded by noting that the stylebook only uses “it” and “which” if the animal’s sex has not been established and the animal’s name is unknown.

PETA says that in a society that is recognizing animals rights more and more, the pronouns were what animals “deserved,” and the letter from Anna West, Director of Written Communications, noted that many magazines had already made the switch. The legal system, as well, recently elevated animals to a status beyond “property,” and now holds that abusing animals is a crime worse than vandalism.

“The public now recognizes that whales, who sing across oceans; great apes, who share more than 98 percent of our DNA; sheep, who can recognize as many as 50 faces after not having seen them for two years; and pigs and chickens, who can learn to operate switches in order to control heat and light in factory-farm sheds, are feeling, intelligent individuals — not objects,” the letter states. “Our language should reflect this.”

AP spokesman Jack Stokes pointed to the current AP stylebook guidelines, saying that the news organization already does what’s being requested. “It’s very specific,” he said.

Below is the exact wording of the “animals” entry in the AP book:

“Do not apply a personal pronoun to an animal unless its sex has been established or the animal has a name: The dog was scared; it barked. Rover was scared; he barked. The cat, which was scared, ran to its basket. Susie the cat, who was scared, ran to her basket. The bull tosses his horns.

“Capitalize the name of a specific animal, and use Roman numerals to show sequence: Bowser, Whirlaway II.

“For breed names, follow the spelling and capitalization in Webster’s New World College Dictionary. For breeds not listed in the dictionary, capitalize words derived from proper nouns; use lowercase elsewhere: basset hound, Boston terrier.”

I will concede, though, that it is very likely the average animal is of greater intellect than the average PETA activist (hat tip: Shy Guy).

In Iran, it seems like cutting off heads is much easier than cutting hair.

Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said Sunday.

The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.

“Western hairstyles … have been banned,” the newspaper Etemad said in a front-page headline.

It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing number of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months.

Under Iran’s Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obligated to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.

Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment.

The student news agency ISNA quoted a police statement as saying: “In an official order to barbershops, they have been warned to avoid using Western hair styles and doing men’s eyebrows.”

Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the Khorusi (Rooster) style and some also use make-up.

Several hairdressers for men in Tehran offer cuts in the style of Hollywood movie stars and other Western celebrities. Clients can also have their eyebrows plucked.

The head of the barbers’ union, Mohammad Eftekharifard, said police had instructed it to “exercise specific regulations in barbershops that work under its supervision.”

Barbers who do not follow these rules might be closed down for a month and even lose their permits to operate, Etemad quoted him as saying.

“Currently some barbershops apply make-up and use (hair) styles that are in line with those in European countries and America,” Eftekharifard said.

He added: “An official order has been sent to the union … not to apply make-up on men’s faces (or) do eyebrows … and hence the barbers are not allowed to do these things.”

Since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005 on a promise of returning to the values of the revolution, hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on what they consider immoral behavior.

And it’s not just Iran.

The Supreme Fatwa Council of Palestine has issued a fatwa permitting men’s and women’s hairdressers to operate on condition that they do not break Islamic law.

The fatwa stated that women can be employed as hairdressers as long as they only cut the hair of women that want to look attractive for their husbands and not other men or foreigners; this would be Haram (forbidden).

It also stated that if a foreign man is present in the hairdressers, women must be prohibited from entering it.

The council urged the Palestinian Muslims to avoid “suspicion” and to follow the religious rules and rituals according to Islamic law.

The fatwa also said that men can work as barbers and activity in the barber shops is not prohibited in any way, as long as it is not against Islam.