Related articles:

UA prof acquitted in Turkey Thorns & Flowers Thorns & Flowers Thorns & Flowers Thorns & Flowers

Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President

A flower to Irfan Adil Uncu. The Turkish judge acquitted University of Arizona assistant professor and writer Elif Shafak, who went on trial in Turkey charged with "insulting Turkishness." The judge made the decision based on lack of evidence, according to The Associated Press.

The charges against Shafak stemmed from comments made by fictional characters in her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul" on the massacre of Armenians during World War I.

"The Bastard of Istanbul," published in Turkey, will be published in the United States in January, according to former Star book editor and free-lance writer J.C. Martin.

A thorn to the Turkish government for charging Shafak in the first place, under Article 301 of the Turkish criminal code, which prohibits any perceived insult to Turkishness.

And a flower to Shafak — a bouquet with plenty of pink and baby's breath. Shafak was not in court this week because she gave birth Saturday to a daughter, whom she named Sheherezade Zelda. Sheherezade was the woman who told tales in "The Thousand and One Nights," according to Anne H. Betteridge, director of the UA Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Thorns, thorns and more thorns to those involved with the David Duke Web link to Randy Graf.

The first thorn goes to former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana state Rep. Duke, who put a link from his Web site to Congressional District 8 Republican candidate Graf's site. Anyone with a smidgen of computer savvy can link to just about any site, make up phony sites and post false information with a couple of clicks of a mouse.

Graf's campaign denounced the link. Duke and the Klan should not have plopped Graf into a politically volatile situation without the candidate's OK.

The Arizona Democratic Party made the situation thornier when it e-mailed a press release Wednesday that suggested a Graf-Duke alliance, which was based only on Duke's Web site.

We can only imagine Duke's motives in adding the link that Graf disavows, but we're fairly confident it was to promote Duke and did not have Graf's interests in mind. Graf is a conservative and has strong beliefs on border security that have been called extreme, but he is not in the same orbit as Duke.

Let's stay focused on the merits of the candidates and the issues — not the actions of an over-the-top, out-of-district racist.