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Wednesday
1 March 2006
Taking a Stand
This
was printed yesterday in Jyllland-Posten.
I'm going to let it speak for itself.
MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome
fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian
global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists,
intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the
promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.
The recent events, which
occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European
newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal
values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field.
It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that
we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and
theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms,
Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on
these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal
and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even
despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred.
Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and
secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of
domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the
others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or
discriminated people.
We reject « cultural
relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim
culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular
values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to
renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia",
an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with
stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality
of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all
continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and
free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of
Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
12 signatures
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
Presentations:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, from somilian origin, is member of Dutch parliement, member
of the liberal party VVD. Writter of the film Submission which caused the
assasination of Theo Van Gogh by an islamist in november 2004, she lives
under police protection.
Chahla Chafiq
Chahla Chafiq, writer from iranian origin, exiled in France is a novelist
and an essayist. She's the author of "Le nouvel homme islamiste , la prison
politique en Iran " (2002). She also wrote novels such as "Chemins et
brouillard" (2005).
Caroline Fourest
Essayist, editor in chief of Prochoix (a review who defend liberties against
dogmatic and integrist ideologies), author of several reference books on «
laicité » and fanatism : Tirs Croisés : la laïcité à l'épreuve des
intégrismes juif, chrétien et musulman (with Fiammetta Venner), Frère Tariq
: discours, stratégie et méthode de Tariq Ramadan, et la Tentation
obscurantiste (Grasset, 2005). She receieved the National prize of laicité
in 2005.
Bernard-Henri Lévy
French philosoph, born in Algeria, engaged against all the XXth century «
ism » (Fascism, antisemitism, totalitarism, terrorism), he is the author of
La Barbarie à visage humain, L'Idéologie française, La Pureté dangereuse,
and more recently American Vertigo.
Irshad Manji
Irshad Manji is a Fellow at Yale University and the internationally
best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for
Reform in Her Faith" (en francais: "Musulmane Mais Libre"). She speaks out
for free expression based on the Koran itself. Née en Ouganda, elle a fui ce
pays avec sa famille musulmane d'origine indienne à l'âge de quatre ans et
vit maintenant au Canada, où ses émissions et ses livres connaissent un
énorme succès.
Mehdi Mozaffari
Mehdi Mozaffari, professor from iranian origin and exiled in Denmark, is the
author of several articles and books on islam and islamism such as :
Authority in Islam: From Muhammad to Khomeini, Fatwa: Violence and
Discourtesy and Glaobalization and Civilizations.
Maryam Namazie
Writer, TV International English producer; Director of the Worker-communist
Party of Iran's International Relations; and 2005 winner of the National
Secular Society's Secularist of the Year award.
Taslima Nasreen
Taslima Nasreen is born in Bangladesh. Doctor, her positions defending women
and minorities brought her in trouble with a comittee of integrist called «
Destroy Taslima » and to be persecuted as « apostate »
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is the author of nine novels, including Midnight's Children,
The Satanic Verses and, most recently, Shalimar the Clown. He has received
many literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Prize for
Best Novel, Germany's Author of the Year Award, the European Union's
Aristeion Prize, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Mantova,
and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is a Commandeur of
the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, an Honorary Professor in the Humanities at
M.I.T., and the president of PEN American Center. His books have been
translated into over 40 languages.
Philippe Val
Director of publication of Charlie Hebdo (Leftwing french newspaper who have
republished the cartoons on the prophet Muhammad by solidarity with the
danish citizens targeted by islamists).
Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq , author notably of Why I am Not a Muslim ; Leaving Islam :
Apostates Speak Out ; and The Origins of the Koran , is at present Research
Fellow at a New York Institute conducting philological and historical
research into the Origins of Islam and its Holy Book.
Antoine Sfeir :
Born in Lebanon, christian, Antoine Sfeir choosed french nationality to live
in an universalist and « laïc » (real secular) country. He is the director
of Les cahiers de l'Orient and has published several reference books on
islamism such as Les réseaux d'Allah (2001) et Liberté, égalité, Islam : la
République face au communautarisme (2005).
"I think, Mr.
Bond, that you will find my little pet fatally amusing."
The Natural History
museum in South Kensington has placed on display a
28-foot long giant
squid-- one of the most complete specimens ever to be recovered.
Now if they could just bring one back alive, I'm sure that Blofeld would
love one for his office aquarium.
Japanese scientists
have published a study that says that
survivors of
Hiroshima are still suffering from health problems. Given that
even those who were babes in arms at the time the atomic bomb was dropped
are now in their late sixties, their poor health is one of the less
surprising developments. I have no doubts that inside of thirty years
they will suffer an alarming death rate as well.
A restaurant in
Clerkenwell has made double history. Not only does it employ waiters
who are actually blind instead of just acting like they are, but the
dining room is kept in pitch darkness so the patrons haven't the
slightest clue as to what they are eating.
I know a few eateries where such
a system would have been a distinct improvement.
Over
at the Way of the World,
Craig Brown gives us a peek into Britain's future and confirms why
investing in CCTV manufacturers is the best investment you'll make in your
life.
But Before We Announce the Best Actor
Award, Let's Make a Few Calls.
Owing to the fact that the Best
Picture award this year went to a film that no one had seen and that the
ratings were so abysmal, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science has
decided that next year the Oscar awards telecast will be combined with a
special edition of Dialling for Dollars.
A scientist has
declared that he has solved the mystery of the
Loch
Ness Monster. According to Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at
Glasgow University’s Hunterian Museum, Nessie is, in fact... wait for it... an
elephant. All these years and such a blindingly simple explanation was
staring us in the face.
Next up: the Abominable
Snowman is a hippopotamus.
Has the US government been
operating a super-secret spacecraft that makes the official space shuttle
look like a tin lizzie?
Aviation Week & Space Technology looks into this orbital mystery.
Are
you the sort who lies awake at night worrying about race relations? Do you
fear that your children will come to judge others by their characters rather
than as representatives of officially-sanctioned victim groups? Do you fret
and pick at the coverlet as you turn over and over in your mind the
implications of politically incorrect livestock? Then fear not, for the
nursery schools of Britain have the Party’s…. um… your best interests at
heart.
Take the staff of
Family
Centre in Abingdon and the Sure Start centre in Sutton Courtenay,
Oxfordshire for example. These dedicated moulders of minds have decided
that teaching trivial things like the alphabet and finger painting to
nursery school children must take a back seat to a far more pressing
matter: enforcing political orthodoxy by exposing and expunging the racist
overtones of that hymn to prejudice, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.”
In a spate of busybodyism
that has not been seen since 19th century American spinsters
declared that chicken legs and breasts must henceforth be referred to as
dark and white meat, the nursery schools in question now force their little
charges to sing “Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep,” least the under-fives be whipped
into a hate-crazed frenzy and march out en mass after nap time to
join the National Front. And just to prove that the staff have way too much
free time on their hands, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” has had the
dwarf reference removed and the ending of “Humpty Dumpty"
has been changed to spare the tender sensibilities of the children who might
be upset by the sight of yolk. Whether they will also be cosseted from
bruising produced by being exposed to a light breeze is still to be
determined.
Stuart Chamberlain,
manager of the afore mentioned institutions, told the local Courier
Journal newspaper:
We have taken the equal
opportunities approach to everything we do. This is fairly standard
across nurseries. We are following stringent equal opportunities rules.
No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything
else.
How this relates to the
colour of wool is uncertain. I presume that it comes under the “anything
else” category. At any rate, Mr. Chamberlain in his zeal to avoid
presenting a racist sheep to the children has committed the equally heinous
faux pas of changing it into a homophobic one. I currently reside in
Seattle, one of the most gay-friendly cities in the United States, and one
cannot walk through the bohemian streets of Capitol Hill, “the neighbourhood
that dares not speak its name,” without being confronted with the rainbow
banner of the gay-rights movement on practically every other window and
bumper. Clearly, “Baa. Baa, Rainbow Sheep” is a slap in the face for the
entire gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-transvestite community— especially
the ovine branch.
Is Mr. Chamberlain saying
that it is wrong to single out sheep for their ethnicity, but their sexual
orientation is fair game? It’s enough to make any dedicated Guardian
reader hang his copy in shame!
And what about Snow White;
true, that vile slur of acknowledging the existence of dwarves has been put
right by denying it. How that is any better, I don’t know, but if
inclusiveness means excluding something, who am I to argue with inverted
logic? It’s not like this is an exercise in knee-jerk contrarianism, now is
it? However, Snow White still stands proud in all her offensive,
neo-colonialist provocation. Have we forgotten that in the story this
brazen symbol of Anglo-Saxon oppression is declared “the fairest one of
all?” Can this affront to decent, right-on, go-ahead thinking be allowed to
stand?
I will not bother to bring
Mr. Chamberlain et al to task over Humpty Dumpty. No doubt they will
be hearing from the anti-war groups about the militaristic overtones of “all
the King’s horses and all the King’s men,” the nutritionist lobby for
promoting a high-cholesterol role-model, and the vegans for referring to an
animal food product at all. They are already in enough hot water for
falling into the typical male, patriarchal, white-supremacist, Christian,
Imperialist, Capitalist, Pro-British trap of allowing the storyline of
exploitation revolving around bags of wool distributed to economic parasites
and class enemies to remain intact. Worse, they also commit the
Anthropocentric crime of allowing the character in “Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep”
to continue to be referred to as a “sheep.” And they compound this crime by
invoking the stereotypical taunt of “Baa, Baa” to stand. If this isn’t pure
specism, I don’t know what is.
No, if we are to be truly
inclusive, non-judgemental, and diverse, we must take our principles to
their logical conclusions. In the true light of tolerance and
understanding, the “rhyme” (down with Western verse-structure concepts!)
will henceforth be known as, “Nondescript Sound, Nondescript Sound, Neutral
Coloured Entity” and the story will follow the title character’s efforts to
lobby for social justice and organise a boycott against Israel.
Slobodan
Milosevic, the former leader of Serbia, has
escaped
justice by dying of a heart attack in his cell in the Hague. On
the surface this is a dictator and war criminal avoiding his appointment
with judgement (in this world, at least), but it gets more interesting as it
goes along.
The
first thing is that Milosevic died on 5 March, yet the news was not made
public until the 11th.
There may be a legitimate reason for this, but given how the mainstream
media almost had an apoplectic fit when the news of Dick Cheney accidentally
shooting a hunting companion wasn't text messaged to them straight from the
grouse shoot, it's telling how silent they are in this matter.
The
other interesting thing is that the attitude of the International Criminal
Tribunal is that this is the
"worst
outcome"-- presumably because it blemishes the court's already tarnished
reputation.
Sorry,
but this is only the third worst outcome. The worst would have
been Milosevic walking free and the second worst would be his living out his
days in a cushy prison facility similar to the one he's spent his last years
in.
The
best scenario would have involved a rope and a sharp drop.
Meanwhile, there is a fight over who is going to get
Slobo's body. His followers want it sent to Belgrade so it can be
used as a totem to rally the faithful while his family want the body sent to
Moscow because the Milosevics would have a bit of trouble attending a Serbian
funeral, seeing as they are facing criminal charges of their own.
Meanwhile,
Anne Owers, Britain's Inspector of Prisons, is taking Belmarsh prison
to
task for treating Muslim terrorist inmates like... well, terrorists.
It's bad enough that the poor little dears have to pine away for missing out
on the jihad to subdue the kufir without reminding them that they are
prisoners of the infidels.
Maybe Ms. Owers can arrange a
bomb-release programme for them.
On the other hand, the Ms. Owers
could always send them a poster of this photo published on
Roger L. Simon's site showing a recent cartoon demonstration in Turkey.
When I saw it all I could think of was the title "Europe: 2035."
The
Communist Chinese government has paid Pope Benedict XVI a
rare compliment by accusing him of walking in his predecessor's
footsteps
for
appointing Cardinal Joseph Zen.
Liu Bainian, the vice-chairman
of the "official" Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association said,
Is it like Poland? Didn't the
Church play a big role in Poland?
Let us hope that Beijing's fears
are more than justified.
The
mental health charity
Rethink is trying to remove the negative image of mental illness by
unveiling a bronze statue of Sir Winston Churchill in a strait jacket.
According to a Rethink spokesman,
We believe that destroying the
stigma that surrounds mental illness is a matter of national priority. We
also believe that it is the joint responsibility of the media, Government
and the public to achieve this aim, by portraying a more positive image of
people with mental illness.
Leaving aside whether a "positive"
image of mental illness is either possible or desirable, it is a staggering
example of not thinking an idea through to commission a statue of the late
prime minister as a candidate for the rubber room. Rethink claims that
their intent was to show how Churchill regarded his episodes of depression
as a "strait jacket" that he rose above.
Unfortunately, the actual message
communicated is "Churchill was a loony."
The
government has altered the
BBC's
charter requiring the corporation to renew national identity,
citizenship and instil (all together now!) “respect.”
The idea of having the BBC
support British institutions instead of tearing them down is delightful, but
even if the Beeb is a state broadcaster, this sort of government interference
is ominous-- especially when it comes from a
government that has no respect for British institutions itself and when it's written up in the sort of vague mission
statement language that could be interpreted any way one likes.
Good lord, I'm standing up for
the BBC. Can the apocalypse be far behind?
Odds
are that if Labour stays true to form,
any good intentions regarding reform of the BBC will have Orwellian consequences. After months of
reassurance that it would do no such thing, the government has passed the
Animal Welfare Act, which will destroy centuries of tradition and ban
animals from all travelling circuses-- animals which will now have to be put
down.
This is one of this of those
"animal welfare" bills that have nothing to do with animals. In the
best tradition of Oliver Cromwell, Labour is going after the circuses for
the same reason they went after the fox hunters, smokers, and fast-food
eaters: not because of what was being done, but because someone was enjoying
it.
Still,
Labour can surprise. Not only have they pledged to maintain the
Independent Nuclear Deterrent, they're preparing for the next generation of
British nuclear forces.
There's a very good review in Slate of
the bookBreaking the Spellby Daniel C. Bennett that explains (or explains away) religion by means
of behavioural evolution. It's a remarkably fair review for Slate
that brings out a number
of problems with Bennett's argument, though it fails to point up the two
most obvious: The first being that his definition of religion is so
narrow that it is really an definition
of Christianity and the second is that his arguments about religion could
just as easily apply to any and all forms of thought.
In other words, it's an argument that invalidates itself by denying not only
religion, but all reason.
Personally, I prefer
this report that claims that mankind survived by boogying through the
ice ages.
Question is, did he samba
through the warm periods?
Train late?
Sick of delays? Tired of getting to work at noon because the "wrong
leaves" were on the track? Why not try a
flying saucer?
British Rail was going to back in 1970.
It had to happen sooner
or later somewhere. A group in Germany has demanded an
indictment against the Koran for it's political impact. According to
Jylland-Posten,
A broad alliance of
grass-roots movements have gone to the prosecutors of several states to
hinder the dissemination of the Quran. According to the indictment, the
Quran is not just a religious and historic book, but also a political book,
which is incompatible with the constitution.
I've always said that one should
be careful about trying to knock down the protections in a democratic
society. It's a two-edged sword, laddie.
When did St. Patrick’s Day become a
season? More to the point, when does the bloody thing end? I had enough
trouble dealing with the Christmas (Sorry, “Holiday.” I didn’t mean to use
profanity) season, which now seems to start sometime around Midsummer’s
Eve. Then Halloween started to bleed out all over the place until I
couldn’t look a pumpkin in the face and St. Valentine’s Day hit the starting
gate sometime in late afternoon on New Years Day. Now the St. Patrick’s Day
“season” kicks off while the bloom is still on the Valentine rose— at least
if you listen to those bizarre
Guinness cartoon
characters.
I wouldn’t mind it so much, except that
there isn’t that much to St. Patrick’s Day and it’s a bit difficult to
spread it over an entire season. In Ireland it’s just another saint’s day
marked by just another mass, but in the United States it’s become an excuse
for swilling tremendous amounts of beer and subsidizing the food colouring
industry (green division). True, there are radical fringe elements that
have tried to introduce green wrapping paper for one’s St. Patrick’s Day
presents (whatever the Hell those are) and St. Patrick’s Day bobbles and
cheap bead necklaces for those who still haven’t sobered up from Mardis
Gras, but when a holiday revolves around the Irish proclivity for
single-minded liver abuse, that sort of thing doesn’t get much of a
toehold. St. Patrick’s Day is about focus and that focus is centred on
serious pint depletion.
My problem is that St. Patrick’s Day as a
season puts a hell of a lot of strain on the holiday infrastructure as
foot-sore marching bands slog their way through yet another parade and
gay-rights groups are too weary to protest their exclusion. I mean, I like
getting smashed out of my gourd on Guinness and sub-standard lager dyed a
hideous shade of green as much as the next man, but after a fortnight of
solid booze-ups it starts to take its toll. And I’m not just talking about
on my vitals. Frankly, I don’t think there’s going to be a pub in
serviceable condition left in the district by the 17th. I mean,
the George and Dragon is in ruins, the Dubliner is a burnt-out shell, and
even Murphy’s is only a tired shadow of its former self. The only one left
intact is the Fado and they’re putting up the barricades even as we speak.
And who can blame them? The local riot squad is so exhausted that they can
barely lift truncheon at this point.
Now some people blame this sort of
travelling punch-up on all the booze the revellers have been soaking in, but
there are extenuating circumstances. Irish music is beautiful, but it can
be a bit taxing when the local pennywhistle bands have gone on strike after
being asked to play “Whisky in the Jar” for the 9824th time and
the landlord decides to fall back on canned music. Then it’s all downhill.
Be fair; how long can a man listen to a Chieftains CD before something
snaps— especially if they’re singing “Danny Boy?”
The colour factor comes into play as
well. No, I do not mean racial violence. I mean the laundry effect. Being
either too drunk or too hung-over or both to do the laundry while the
spouse/girlfriend is too disgusted to do it for you, one tends to run out of
green clothing after a few days and this increases the chances of a lapse of
judgment resulting in the selection of a burnt umber shirt, which in the
wrong light might be confused with orange by the intoxicated and
belligerent.
Mind you, things would be a lot worse if
it weren’t for the mitigating effects of weeks of corned beef and cabbage.
All those boiled potatoes slow you down, you see. And then there’s the gas
factor that has forced the local authorities to pass a combination law that
requires open windows in all drinking establishments and a carpet ban on
playing “light my farts” for the duration.
Needless to say, by the 17th the average celebrant’s breath is in such a state that “Kiss
me, I’m Irish” is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. As
for sex, this is either impossible or so possible that one often seriously
considers lobotomy as a means to expunge the offending memories. This is
especially the case if close friends or livestock are involved. Close
friends AND livestock may require emigration.
I haven’t even touched on the subject of
St. Patrick’s Day carols. That’s because to the sober these generally go by
the name of “drunken, discordant bellowing of obscene rugby songs at the top
of the top of the voice by a load of soused yabos at two o’clock in the
morning and why isn’t there ever a cop around when you need one?” This lack
of appreciation tends to introduce an element of strain into community
relations.
On reflection, perhaps a St. Patrick’s
Day season wasn’t the brightest idea to come down the pike. I mean, if this
sort of thing catches on it’s only a matter of time before we have a
Hogmanay season, a Mardi Gras season and a Cinco de Mayo season. And at
that point, I think even cable television presenters who make a living from
egging on drunken excess by the not easily embarrassed will want a quiet
night in.
It looks as though the free ride
for the mainstream media is well and truly over as this compendium of
critiques illustrates:
Jim Walsh of the Courier Post took Dan Rather at his word and tried to
ask him the "tough questions" only to find himself censored:
Here's the scene: Former CBS
anchorman Dan Rather is in Cherry Hill, giving a speech about the need for
journalists to do better.
"What's gone out of fashion
is the tough question and the follow-up," he tells an admiring audience of
about 600 people at Cherry Hill's Star Forum.
So how can I, the guy
covering Rather's remarks, just sit there?
When he finishes, I hurry to
a floor mike to ask Rather about an issue that will be part of my story.
"Mr. Rather," I say. "Great
suggestions. But you left the anchor desk last year after your report
questioning President Bush's military service was discredited. Key memos
could not be authenticated. Do you think the failure to ask questions then
affects your credibility now?"
Rather responds with civility
-- if not clarity. He notes, in part, that an independent review "couldn't
determine whether the documents were authentic or not."
Eager to please, I follow up:
"The Courier-Post won't run something if we're not sure it's authentic. Are
you saying it's OK . . ."
But my microphone goes dead
-- and the audience stirs to life.
Some people jeer. Others
glare and scowl (I can now distinguish between the two). This continues
outside as I call in my story.
Meanwhile, Danish journalist
Samuel Rachlin has CBS in a pincer movement over its recent 60 Minutes
report that portrayed the Danes as a bunch of mouth-breathing racist yahoos:
This kind of journalism does
not have much in common with the tradition of Ed R. Murrow or what his
associate, Fred Friendly, taught me at the Graduate School of Journalism at
Columbia University when I took my degree there in the late 70ies. The snide
asides and sarcasm that permeated the narrative do not mix with the high
quality journalism I have learned to expect from 60 Minutes. What we got was
a presentation so biased, distorted and corrupted by so many inaccuracies
and innuendos that it was impossible to recognize Denmark. I am sorry to say
it, but it is shameful for the profession that both Bob Simon and I belong
to.
Back in the States, the New York
Times ran a cover story profiling a former inmate of Abu Ghraib who was the
subject of that notorious hooded photo. Only
Salon has had the poor taste to point out that he was no such thing.
It seems that they did the one thing the NYT didn't bother with: They
asked the Pentagon who said,
We have had several detainees
claim they were the person depicted in the photograph in question. Our
investigation indicates that the person you have is not the detainee who was
depicted in the photograph released in connection with the Abu Ghraib
investigation.
And hopping over to Iraq,
Ralph Peters gives the MSM a burr under their saddle by finding a whole
lot of civil war not happening there:
In the wake of the bombing of
the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a flurry of sectarian attacks inspired wild
media claims of a collapse into civil war. It didn't happen. Driving and
walking the streets of Baghdad, I found children playing and, in most
neighborhoods, business as usual. Iraq can be deadly, but, more often, it's
just dreary.
And
Nick Coleman, who writes for
the left-wing New Statesman, takes the Left, including the BBC, to
task for getting into bed with the Islamofascists:
The anti-imperialists see US
power as the greatest threat of our day. The reckless brutality of the Bush
administration appals them, as does Tony Blair’s willingness to go along
with it. This view so dominates the mainstream liberal press and parts of
the BBC that it often seems like the only left-wing view. The danger for the
anti-imperialists is that they will end up on the far right. A few are
already there.
Staying in Britian, the
Daily Ablution fisks Terence Blacker of the Independent, who is
attacking bloggers for the heinous crime of using anonymous sources and
lifting story material from press releases, both common journalistic
practices:
At the risk of sounding
rather more than "prickly", I really can't help but express my amazement at
the combination of disingenuity and chutzpah that Mr. Blacker displays. Of
course one should be wary of trusting what's on a blog - that's the most
obvious thing in the world. But the astoundingly ludicrous assertion that a
newspaper would never print so much as a paragraph from a press release, and
the implication that the MSM therefore constitutes an unsullied bastion of
Truth by comparison, are themselves salutary reminders that the work of
professional journalists must be closely scrutinised as well.
The BBC takes another drubbing
from Peter C.
Glover at TCS Daily by saying that the Beeb comes not to praise Edward
R. Murrow, but to bury him:
Anyone picking up BBC
broadcasts on the Planet Zog might easily come to believe that Public Enemy
No. 1 and the evil empire are not Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, but George W. Bush
and the USA. A litany of recent stories on the BBC have implied that Bush is
pretty much responsible for phone taps, denying mass murderers their human
rights (by sanctioning capital punishment), melting polar ice caps, pulling
the levee plugs in New Orleans and ferrying undesirables around to torture
them, primarily, at Guantanamo Bay. And with this last story: "Guantanamo
man alleges 'torture'" (3 March 2006) the BBC even manages to sink below its
own low broadcasting standards.
Having gained the coup of an
interview with a serving Guantanamo inmate — the first by any agency — its
lead story turned out to be predicated upon this gentleman's assertion that
his force-feeding "amounts to torture." In the BBC's view it appears the
U.S. authorities are "torturing" men by ...keeping them alive. Just what
exactly the BBC expects the American military to do — when the same
force-feeding procedure is common policy among all Western nations — they do
not take the trouble to explain.
Just 50 years ago the use of
the name of the BBC and the use of "BBC English" meant one thing. It meant
speaking truth to the world with a posh public school accent. Today Ed
Murrow's moral values and broadcasting ethics would not, it seems, strike
much of a chord with the average BBC news editor. And whatever is going on
at Guantanamo Bay, I doubt that Truth is being "tortured" and abused quite
so systematically as it is in contemporary BBC news reports.
Finally,
The Cassandra Page takes on the MSM in general with a list of great
journalistic lies from 2005.
I thought all of this criticism
was taking its toll when I read this bit over at
Adlyada about a right-wing coup at the Groaniad, but it turns out that
April Fool's came early this year.
I see that
San Francisco
State University is standing up for freedom of speech. Mind you,
that's only as long as "free speech" is defined as allowing a load of
Islamofascists to physically attack a Jewish "Peace In The Middle East
Rally" and scream "Get out or we'll kill you" at the participants.
The insurrection aimed at
overthrowing the United States government by force and replace it with a
left-wing junta that was supposed to take place yesterday has been postponed
until the 20th. Political
Cooperative. org, which seems to be organising this bit of courteously
forewarned treason, says on their
web site (Warning! Bad folk
music!),
We are calling on all
Member Nations of the U.N., All Representatives and Justices in the
World Court and International Criminal Courts, all soldiers and CIA
agents and government officials who have been blackmailed by the
dictators to go with us and remove Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their
friends from our House. We need a government that is comprised of social
justice organizations who have been fighting for human rights all along.
This is only a truncated version of Darrow Bogganio's
(It seems to be a one-man organisation) call to arms that he posted on the
United for
Peace events calender (since removed) that gives the full glory of his
loopiness and bad grammar,
TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE BY STORM - Stop Genocide,
Torture and Occupation
U.N. SOS - We need your help to end the reign
of international criminals.
It is our duty and the duty of the United
Nations to rescue the people of the world from the U.S. dictators.
Murder for occupation and theft of land is illegal. Murder of
journalists is criminal. Remove the traitors who have stolen the U.S.
budget and used it to commit international crimes against humanity.
If we were being bombed and our journalists
were being murdered here in the U.S. by a foreign country’s military, we
would hope that the people of that country would stop what they are
doing and go to their president’s office and demand that it was stopped.
If we were the ones burying thousands and thousands of our family
members and watching the destruction of the homes, schools, churches and
offices that we had worked for decades to build, we would hope that
someone, somewhere would care enough to do something for us. We must
stop the criminals in our government NOW. There is no meeting with
Congress that is going to change what they are doing. We must put the
power of the people into action and stay there until they leave!
Inviting everyone to the White House for a
protest rally to show that we do not accept the criminal government,
illegal wars and the permanent occupation planned for Iraq and
Afghanistan. For Nat Turner, For Martin and Coretta, For all the Torture
and Assassination in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and many others – We will
not allow the Slave Holders that Still Prevail in this Country to Rule
us any longer. Imprisonment and torture based on race, religion,
resources or region is no different than the slavery we sought to
abolish years ago. The Administration is Criminal and if they will not
step down, we must storm in, show them how many of us do not accept a
criminal government. How can we stand by and watch them kill our
brothers, sisters, journalists and friends for their dollars?
We are calling on all citizens and governments
in every country to stand with us. We are calling on all Member Nations
of the U.N.; All Representatives and Justices in the World Court and
International Criminal Courts; All Human Rights Advocates; All Soldiers
and CIA agents and government officials who have been blackmailed or are
in fear of the dictators to join us in ending this reign of corporate
terror in our government. The World Criminal Courts need to incarcerate
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for admitted crimes and known crimes of
international scope. The Political Cooperative will put a new, temporary
government in place that is comprised of people from Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and all the organizations that have
finally made us aware of the truth of the savage practices and illegal
policies of our government in assassinating our own officials as well as
people throughout the world who oppose their criminal activity. We need
all of you to save U.S. victims and global victims from their ongoing
criminal activity. We are calling on the military, police, citizens and
religious organizations to stand with us and help us to bring democracy
back to the United States and by doing so, free the world from the
wrath, occupation, theft, torture, blackmail and assassination by the
Criminals in the United States Government. What they have done all over
the world is much worse than what Saddam Hussein has done, so why are
they not in jail too? They have admitted to international and national
crimes, so why have they not been taken to Court too?
You've got to take Mr. Bogannio
seriously. He's got capital letters and he's not afraid to use them!
But don't you dare question his patriotism!
When I first came across the
above bit of Weather Underground Redux, I thought it was a parody site along
the lines of
Blame Bush.
The New America will also be a nation of
compassion, not greed. Every able-bodied American will be guaranteed
their inalienable right to work, and will be required to exercise that
right to provide for those who choose not to. In our New America, greedy
oil companies will no longer be able to gouge The People at the pump,
for gasoline taxes will be raised to $17 a gallon to discourage The
People from driving altogether. The capitalist exploitation of labor
will be abolished, and corporations will face severe penalties should
they make any more profits off the backs of the working poor. Or if they
make any profits at all, for that matter.
Our New America, damn you, will be a nation of
love, not hate. Men, womyn, transgendered, polygendered, and nongendered
alike will be encouraged to explore their sexuality safe from the
disapproving glares of organized religion, and will be free to enjoy a
life of marital bliss with small rodents, various forms of poultry, and
a wide variety of popular houseplants. Racial bigotry of any kind will
not be tolerated, and everyone will be treated equally just as soon as
the White Devil has paid his debt for the suffering he’s inflicted on
people of color for centuries.
Trouble is, Liberal Larry is so
much more convincing.
There’s been much talk about how the case
for the war in Iraq is unravelling because a handful of conservatives have
jumped ship. If
this
comment from the Groaniad is anything to go by, they
may have just been making room for leftists climbing onboard.
There’s
consternation in
some quarters that the US Army’s new SWORD combat robot being deployed to
Iraq violates Asimov’s First Law of
Robotics. Would someone please pick up the clue phone and remind these
people that the Three Laws of Robotics are fictional?
For those of you who get the
allusion in the title, you have a good idea of what the EU is doing to us.
In fact, it's a wonder that any of us can still sit down at this point.
In the latest developments in the road show of the odd and insidious, we
learn that
Church
Organs in Britain may become a thing of the past, thanks to EU
regulations that limit the amount of lead allowed in electrical equipment.
Apparently, having an electric
blower makes a church organ "electrical equipment." By that
logic, a submarine is an airfield because it has a radar set.
Well, at least the voters in France
and Denmark have put paid to the EU constitution, right? None of that
lumbering horror of a document is going to come back and haunt us, right?
At last report, none of the
three major branches of the federal government have fallen before the
onslaught of Darrow Bogganio's forces of progressive righteousness and
continue to function without incident. When the White House Press
Secretary was asked about the attempted insurrection, he could not stop
snickering for a full five minutes.
Deroy Murdock explores why it is that left-wing anti-war groups seem to
take little interest when the people and groups they supposedly support are
attacked and murdered by the Islamofascists.
It seems that generals aren't the only ones who believe
in employing cannon fodder.
Meanwhile, another
Grim Milestone™ was
passed in Iraq where the total American military deaths has passed the
number of American casualties in the worst months of the Vietnam War.
Next on the Grim Milestone™ list,
when the casualties equal the square root of 6,411,024.
The elections in
Belarus
have been condemned as a fraud even by Jimmy Carter-- not surprising when a
hated dictator comes in with 82 percent of the vote.
The only question now is whether
the revolution will be named after a colour or a tree.
In a remarkable piece
of hypocrisy and chutzpah, the Blair government has decided to
move Britain into the Continental time zone in an "experiment" that has
"irreversible" written all over it.
Makes sense, though. Why not
be a Good European and surrender to the EU before they even tell you to cave
in? It's so much easier.
For years we've been thinking
that the coming race of killer cyborgs would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger,
but now we know
better.
The United States military is at this very moment creating an army of
Terminator butterflies that are poised to wrest control of the world from
man.
How they'll work the machine guns
is still not fully explained.
The
Church in Wales
is showing that it is standing up for the highest ideals of liberalism and
the Anglican faith by caving in like a wet paper bag over publication of the
Danish cartoons.
What’s truly so pathetic about this is that
the cartoon in question is not one of the infamous Danish twelve, but
one that was published as a comment
about them!
The attempt by the French
government to buy off the Islamofascists by handing them free jobs has
backfired as Gallic
spinelessness collides with Socialist
shiftlessness.
The people of
Belarus
continue to protest against the rigged elections that returned the current
dictator with 82 percent of the vote. The turnout isn’t large by Western
standards, but in a country that is run like a
Soviet theme park it’s a pretty good showing.
Philips Research has
developed a
high-tech wood stove for Third World nations aimed at greater efficiency
and less pollution. Mind you, it still burns wood, so it doesn’t solve the
problem of deforestation that is devastating much of the undeveloped world,
just slows it down a tad.
This is one of those examples
where the West weaning itself off fossil fuels would be an excellent thing,
but in a way that would make the eco-freaks’ brains explode. Want to really
help the Third World? Quick? Then shift the industrialised
world to a nuclear-powered economy and leave most of the fossil fuels behind
so the rest of the world can catch up. That's a damn sight better than
helping them to stay in the 12th century.
Any
hope that
Prince
Charles will be Defender of the Faith was quashed the other day during
his visit to a Cairo mosque where instead of standing up for freedom of
speech he condemned it:
The recent ghastly
strife and anger over the Danish cartoons shows the danger that comes of
our failure to listen and to respect what is precious and sacred to
others. In my view, the true mark of a civilised society is the respect
it pays to minorities and to strangers.
Unfortunately, His Highness forgot that the
“respect” asked for by the ROP is the sort that Mafia bosses want from their
underlings and victims.
Over at the Times,
Ruth Gledhill looks at the Prince of Wales’ attitude and how Islamic
“tolerance” actually works in practice. According to Scottish academic,
Graham Spence, it is less Islamic tolerance is less a matter of principle
than pragmatism.
The Qur’an is not
written in chronological order. It is possible however to link the
different parts of the Qur’an to different periods of Mohammed’s life,
each characterized by a slightly different philosophy. During the early
part of his ministry in Mecca, his followers were few in number, and the
peaceful passages all come from this period. During the Medinan period,
his followers had grown in numbers, were stronger and much more
influential and this is reflected in much more adversarial attitude. The
third period, marked by the return to and conquest of Mecca gives us an
altogether different picture of Islam and an intolerance of other
religions. Surah 2.256 was thus abrogated by a later verse, composed
after Mohammed had conquered Mecca and was preparing his new Muslim
empire for Jihad against the non-Muslim world: "Slay the idolaters
wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and
prepare for them each ambush" (Surah 9.5). This "verse of the sword" not
only abrogates 2.256, but also abrogates well over a hundred earlier
verses that formerly taught peace and tolerance toward non-believers.
When you look at
Mohamed’s life in conjunction with the Qur’an and the Hadiths you can
see a pattern that is reflected in the Islamic world today. In Islamic
societies which are complete i.e. have some form of Shariah law and are
therefore closest to Mohammed’s third period, you see these aggressive
attitudes to other religions writ large. In those who are closest to the
second period, such as the Mogul rule of India, there is more tolerance,
and in those where Muslims are a minority, such as the UK and France the
philosophy of the first period applies. In places like northern Nigeria
we are seeing a transition from stage two to stage three. Some argue
that in the UK, France and Holland we are seeing a transition from stage
one to stage two.
This sort of thing isn’t
just an abstract argument either. Look at the case of
Abdul
Rahman, a former Muslim who faces the death penalty in Afghanistan
forconverting to
Christianity. Aside from the fact that every member of NATO and the
Coalition should be leaning on the Afghan government like a ton of bricks,
it is clear that part of
the war against Islamofascism involves Islam as a
whole facing the hard reality that is must leave
this sort of barbarism behind if it's going to put
some daylight between the "moderates" and the fascists.
What is astonishing
about this piece from The
Brussels Journal is not that the Muslims did this, but that the Austrian
Army allowed them to get away with it:
Last week three
Muslim conscripts of the Austrian army refused to salute the Austrian
flag because this was incompatible with their faith. The Austrian paper
Die Presse (18 March) reported that three soldiers of the Maria Theresia
barracks, where most of the 1,000 Muslim soldiers serve, refused to
salute the flag at a parade and instead turned their backs on it. The
soldiers were not disciplined. However, an imam was summoned to issue a
fatwa stating that Muslims are allowed to salute the Austrian flag.
The House of Lords
has handed down a win for those of us who don’t want to see Britain
groveling at the feet of sharia. The Lords pronounced that Shabina Begum
was not unlawfully excluded from her school when she was barred from
attending in a jibab. In fact, the Lords said that the school had bent over
backwards to accommodate Muslim sentiments and that Miss Begum had options
to attend other schools where the sort of dress she desired to wear was
allowed, so her human rights were never in jeopardy.
Of course, whether it was Miss Begum’s
desire to wear a jibab is still open to question, as the
BBC account
(I love how they filed this under “education.”)
ignores one tiny fact in the case.
At a subsequent meeting about her non-attendance, she was accompanied
not by her father (who died when she was little), nor by her mother (who
spoke no English), but by her brother, Shuweb Rahman
(who has ties to the radical Islamist group
Hizb ut-Tahrir-- ed.), and
"another young man". Both young men apparently acted "aggressively" and
were "not prepared to compromise". Shabina did not attend school for the
next two years.
She said the school
had excluded her unlawfully. The school said she had excluded herself,
and won at a High Court hearing in April 2004. Shabina's mother died a
month before the hearing. It was her brother who was her "litigation
friend" in that case (and the subsequent ones).
Why the court didn’t question whether or
not this girl was putting forward her case of her own free will or was being
used as a cats paw, I’ll never understand.
Because the
Islamofascists are trying to
get their hands on nukes,
that’s why. The trial of an Al Qaeda cell in London makes for chilling
reading as court testimony reveals their plans to buy atomic weapons from
the Russian Mafia and their attitude toward their would-be victims in
planning their attacks that reveals where their motives lie:
The prosecution
alleged that Mr Akbar also said: "The biggest nightclub in central
London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent - those
slags dancing around."
Clearly, they were desperate altruists
forced to act by Britain’s involvement in Bush’s insane war and nothing so
sordid as hatred of Britain.
Looks like there’s a
bit of
face-saving going on over the Khyber Pass. Now that the United States,
Britain, Germany, and Italy have brought pressure to bear on Afghanistan
over the trial of Abdul Rahman, who is facing death for the heinous crime of
converting the Christianity, the prosecution has suddenly said that Rahman
is insane and unfit to stand trial.
We think he could
be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person.
We didn’t liberate Afghanistan from the
Taliban to allow this sort of barbarism to continue and the Afghans must
learn that they’re being held to a higher standard now. I’d have been
happier if this ended with the Afghan government flatly declaring that
apostasy is not a crime, but I’ll settle for fighting that battle after Mr.
Rahman’s head is out of the noose.
Charlie
Sheen appears to have taken up permanent residence on the planet Zog.
In a recent radio interview, the actor implies that the 9/11 attacks were a
set-up by the US government to provide an excuse to let slip the dogs of war
so that Dick Cheney could wade up to his armpits in the blood of innocents.
Among other gems, Mr. Sheen claims that the aeroplane that hit the South
Tower “didn't look any commercial jetliner I've flown on any time in my
life,” that the towers and the infamous Building 7 were destroyed by
controlled demolitions, that no airliner hit the Pentagon, and that
President Bush must have known what was happening because he carried on
reading to a group of schoolchildren at Booker Elementary School while the
Secret Service brought the car ‘round rather than bolting from the room like
a bat out of Hell.
For those of you who are living on Earth,
Popular Mechanics has an excellent article debunking the claims of the
tinfoil beanie brigade.
A
leaked letter has revealed that the British government is ignoring the
bleatings of Jack Straw and will table a resolution at the UN Security
Council threatening the use of force if Iran does not cease trying to get
its hands on nuclear weapons.
As
Captain
Ed points out, going to the Security Council to face down Iran is like
bringing sherbet stick to a knife fight, but it’s a start.
Charles
Clarke, the Home Secretary believes that Britain’s criminal justice
system is inadequate to fight terrorism and his solution is to follow the
lead of (God help us!) the French.
He also indicated a
continuing view in at least part of the Government that current judicial
procedures are not suited to dealing with the terrorist threat. While he
emphasised that he was speaking in a personal capacity, the Home
Secretary said he would prefer the French inquisitorial system, which
allows investigating judges to question suspects before their lawyers
are brought in.
I would be the first one to condemn the
farce that has Britain trying to fight crazed Islamofascists plotting death
and spewing hate by dragging them through the courts with cases that take
years to prosecute-- if it’s possible to bring a case at all. What I don’t
agree with is the in