And The Blowfish?

Let's Clear Up The Confusion: There's been a lot of talk lately about Houthi - or, rather, about The Houthis. Abq Jew cheerfully admits he got confused; so this is his attempt to clear things up.

This is a photo of Hootie and the Blowfish, an American rock band formed in Columbia, South Carolina in 1986. Their lead singer (Hootie) was/is Darius Rucker, second from the left. These are NOT the rocket-firing semi-Yemeni Houthis currently in the news.

This is a photo of the Houthis currently in the news. Wikipedia informs us:

The Houthi movement (/ˈhuːθi/; Arabic: الحوثيون al-Ḥūthīyūn [al.ħuː.θiː.juːn]), officially known as Ansar Allah[a] (أنصار الله ʾAnṣār Allāh, lit. 'Supporters of God'), is a Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. 

It is predominantly made up of Zaidi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely from the Houthi tribe.

Under the leadership of Zaidi religious leader Hussein al-Houthi, the Houthis emerged as an opposition movement to Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who they accused of corruption and being backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

In 2003, influenced by the Lebanese Shia political and military organization Hezbollah, the Houthis adopted their official slogan against the United States, Israel and the Jews. 

 

Al-Houthi was killed by the Yemeni military in Saada in 2004, sparking the Houthi insurgency, after having resisted Saleh's order for his arrest. Since then, the movement has been mostly led by his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

The Houthis are an obstinate, murderous, unfriendly lot.

The organization took part in the Yemeni Revolution of 2011 by participating in street protests and coordinating with other Yemeni opposition groups. They joined Yemen's National Dialogue Conference but later rejected the 2011 reconciliation deal.

In late 2014, the Houthis repaired their relationship with Saleh, and with his help they took control of the capital city. The takeover prompted a Saudi-led military intervention to restore the internationally recognized government, leading to an ongoing civil war which included missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and its ally United Arab Emirates.

Following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the Houthis began to fire missiles at Israel and attack ships off Yemen's coast in the Red Sea, which they say is in solidarity with the Palestinians and aiming to facilitate entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

 

That's enough about the Houthis. How about the Blowfish?

Blowfish - by which Abq Jew means pro-Houthi protesters who have zero zilch understanding of who is doing what to whom in the post-October 7th Middle East, and even less comprehension of why they are doing it  - are turning up all over the world to demonstrate their opposition to US and allied forces' attacks upon those Houthis in Yemen who are a) fighting the Yemeni government; and b) firing missiles at US and allied shipping. And, as of this morning, US and allied forces.

Abq Jew is confused again.

So let's turn from pain to paean - with Dan Rather's article about Darius Rucker (Hootie, remember?) in his Substack newsletter Steady. A reason to smile.

Rock ‘n’ roller turned country music superstar Darius Rucker is having a good couple of months. He just received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and released his eighth solo album to positive reviews. Those honors and achievements don’t come as a shock to anyone who has followed Rucker’s career. But another recent award was a real surprise, even to Rucker himself.

The Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation chose Rucker to receive its humanitarian award. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, to anyone.

For decades, Darius Rucker’s music has given us plenty of reasons to smile. His service and philanthropy are just as remarkable and worthy of celebration.

Rucker has helped raise millions to treat children with cancer, and millions more to build a new children’s hospital in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. He also donates his time to Musicians on Call, a service that provides singers to hospitalized patients in need of cheering up. Imagine Darius Rucker popping in for a tune or two?! He’s done it. A lot.

You should click here to read all of Dan Rather's article.  Which concludes with Darius Rucker's video of his song "Wagon Wheel," which won a Grammy in 2014.

But there's way more banjo in Darius Rucker's CMT performance of "Only Wanna Be With You," with which you, Abq Jew's steady readers, may be a bit more familiar.

Rucker recently addressed the issue of race in country music in an Op-Ed for the Tennessean.

The one thing I’ve found, in the places I've been and with the things I've tried to do – which were always unconventional – is that you can change people's hearts. 

You can change people's minds. You can change the way people see the world, if they love you, and if they're friends with you. 

Country music has this stigma of rebel flags and racism, and that's changing. I think it's changing drastically. And I'm just glad. I hope I'm remembered as one of the people that tried to fight that, and one of the reasons that changed.