Ephemeral Isle
Archives
Support Tales of Future Past!
Help us keep Tales of Future Past going and growing with your donation to our bandwidth fund.
Archives
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 WarraqPresentations:
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).
Thursday
2 March 2006
Beats a Piranha Tank Any Day
"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.
Slow Worries
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.
Wild Wicker
The house in Scotland
where Britt Ekland was filmed cavorting in the all together for
The
Wicker Man is up for sale.
Cue Major Bloodnok reaction noises.
Blind Date
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.
Friday
3 March 2006
Alfred Hitchcock, Call Your Service
An
RAF Chinook helicopter that survived the Falkland's War, the Afghan War, and
the Iraq War was downed by a
kamikaze pigeon.
And to think that the Ministry of Defence spent so much money on missiles.
Funny Money
The
United States
Treasury is introducing a new ten dollar bill that incorporates a new
colour scheme aimed at foiling counterfeiters.
A Treasury spokesman has declared that from now on "greenbacks" will be referred to as "greeny-pinky-sort-of-beigey-backs."
Shape of Things to Come
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.
Monday
6 March 2006
Too Much Spare Time
Nigel and Leslie enjoyed a rich inner 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.
Charge!
Headline: Archbishop attacks Guantanamo.
I think he was relying on the element of surprise.
Tuesday
7 March 2006
Um... Right
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.
One Day at the Front
"What makes you think our conversation is bugged, Herr General?"
The Spaceship that Came in From the Cold
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.
Wednesday
8 March 2006
PC Ewe
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.
Only then can we expunge our guilt.
9 March 2006
One Day in the Lab
"Of course, some people thought the Atomic Penis Enlarger was a bit silly."
Friday
10 March 2006
Another Day in the Lab
Sometimes the boys down in the computer lab just liked to tear loose.
Monday
13 March 2006
Cheating the Gallows
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.
Club Jihad
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.
Picture of Fear
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."
Echoes of the '80s
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.
Mad Idea
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."
Charter Challenge
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?
Last Show
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.
Nuclear Future
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.
What would Michael Foot say if he were alive?
<He's not dead!>
Oh, Sorry.
Evolutionary Thought
There's a very good review in
Slate of
the book
Breaking the Spell
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?
Tuesday
14 March 2006
Flying Britrail
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.
In hindsight, it sound almost sensible.
What Goes Around...
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.
Tip o' the hat to Agora.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day Season
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.
Wednesday
15 March 2006
Beware the Ides of March
Tales From the Woodshed
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.
(Tip o' the hat to the Captain's Quarters)
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.
Thursday
16 March 2006
What About Gromit?
Headline: Wallace to stop being '60 minutes' regular
Some Are More Equal Than Others
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.
Anyone else is just being "provocative."
Hal's Heyday
The ever-amusing James Lileks has a new section dedicated to press photos from the days when men were real men and computers were real computers.
Lemurs, on the other hand, were small kitchen appliances.
The Revolution Has Been Postponed
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!
Real or Memorex?
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.
Friday
17 March 2006
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick's Day from Ephemeral Isle.
Big Cats
Wild boar and now
really big
pussycats; is this the British Isles or the world’s largest safari park?
St. Patrick’s Day Extra
A reader has sent in a link to what must be the ultimate St. Patrick’s Day accessory: A pill that turns your poo green.
It’s Not Just for Neocons
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.
Think of Them More As Guidelines
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?
Robo-carp
Meanwhile, scientists
in Japan have perfected the world’s first
robot carp.
See it in action with this live, interactive exhibit!
Google Mars
Planning a trip to Mars?
Let Google help with its new
mapping service for the Red Planet.
permalink
Not Wasting His Life Department
A
high-school student in Salem, Virginia has learned to
recite pi
to 8784 places.
This kid really needs to get laid.
Headline: Not Civil War, Not Yet, But...
We’re hoping!
To put this sort of loathsome wishful thinking in perspective, Tim Blair shows that predictions of civil war in Iraq are not exactly a novelty.
Own a Bit of Hal
Yes, you to can own a bit of the most famous homicidal paranoiac mainframe computer in history. Well, a bit of it, anyway. Sort of.
20 March 2006
When Office Meetings Go Wrong
Some people felt that Neville had a slight ego problem.
I Wish I Knew How to Quit EU
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?
Tuesday
21 March 2006
Where Have All the Protests Gone?
It's been a remarkable week.
First we had the
stealth
civil war in Iraq, then we had the
stealth anti-war protests, and now we have the stealth
coup. It seems that the overthrow of the United States
government that was planned for yesterday came off as less than an
unalloyed success.
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.
With Friends Like These...
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.
Grim Milestone Department
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.
Role of a Lifetime
And
Susan Sarandon is set to take on the part that she was born to play:
Cindy Sheehan.
Thousands of satirists are organising a march against Ms. Sarandon as they accuse her of taking the bread out of their mouths.
Last Dictator's Days Numbered?
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.
Why Wait?
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.
Holy Underwear
God
and knickers: Heaven knows, when I think of one, I think of the
other.
Cyberbugs
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.
Wednesday
22 March 2006
Cartoon War Spreads to Wales
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!
Swedish Censorship Minister Resigns
On the upside, the
Swedish minister responsible for shutting down a web site that dared to
publish the cartoons has been forced to resign.
Maybe there is a glimmer of courage in Stockholm after all.
Not Knowing Whether to Laugh or Cry
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.
Maybe the they’ll eat each other.
Belarus Rising
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.
Cure or Delay?
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.
This is just cool!
Israel has
developed a bullet
with a wireless video camera inside it. It’s a big bullet, mind, but
it’s still like something off of Q’s workbench.
Is Lego racist?
According
to the UN it is. Remember, that’s the UN that just reformed its
Human Rights Commission by changing the name and letting the likes of
Zimbabwe stay on the rolls.
Genocide in Dafur? Who cares? We've got Danish toy makers to go after in retaliation for cartoons they had nothing to do with!
Charles: The Dhimmi Prince
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.
The Prince, Islam, and Tolerance
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 for converting 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.
Muslims, Austria, and the Flag
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.
And whose side are they supposed to be on?
Savile Political Row
Savile
Row tailors have come out in protest against high rents and development
plans that threaten their businesses.
The demonstration may not be effective, but it was impeccably dressed.
Thursday
23 March 2006
A Win for Civilisation
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.
Why We Fight
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.
Christian or Crazy
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: A World of His Own
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.
Britain Stuffs Straw
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.
Lego my Poster
<image>
The UN poster calling Lego
racist has been
quietly removed from Turtle Bay’s site, so here it is, preserved for
posterity.
They Just Don’t Get It
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 insistence of the government of making the whole country pay for their willful blindness toward what we are facing. Catching a few sprats while the mackerels are planting ricin bombs is the height of lunacy, but changing the way crimes are tried in a way that will diminish the rights of everyone by introducing undemocratic inquisitions is most emphatically not the way to go.
Again, the problem here is not the intent to face the threat of Islamofascists with stern measures, but in the unwillingness of the Blair government to admit that we are at war and that the men that we face are not criminals, but deadly enemies who owe allegiance to a foreign organization and ideology. Until we stop talking about “arresting” the terrorists, but of “capturing” them, we will always be at a disadvantage in this war and our liberties will suffer. This is wartime, so it is time to act the part. If a Jihadist is captured, then treat him according to the rules of war as a “spy or saboteur” (not a POW) and lock him up for the duration of hostilities. No crime needs to be proven, only the status of the prisoner. In other words, if a bomb is planted to blow a safe, then the detainee goes to the courts for civilian trial, if the bomb is meant as a terrorist weapon, then he is banged up without further consideration in the high security section of a POW camp until we win the war. If a trail is warranted because he has murdered or been involved in murdering civilians, then let it be done by a duly appointed and monitored military tribunal operating under the code of military justice where classified evidence too sensitive for open court can be presented in camera and where the defendant faces the gallows rather than the prison cell. That is what the Americans should have done with Zacarias Moussaoui and that is what Britain should do.
In other words, get serious about this war.
And if you don't like that, there's always the C of E approach.
Defence in a Thimble
Dr.
Laim Fox, the Shadow Defence Minister says that with defence spending at
its lowest since 1930, by the time the new Wembly Stadium is finished the
entire British Army could be seated inside, that the Royal Navy will be
smaller than the Falkland’s taskforce, and that the RAF will have fewer
attack aircraft than the RAF Museum at Hendon.
Well, I feel secure now.
Friday
24 March 2006
One Day in Westminster
Gordon Brown
puts his
budget into
operation.
Rescue: Will Gratitude Follow?
Apparently not. After a
British-led military operation
rescued
three self-righteous
pro-terrorist dupes
anti-war activists from captivity by a terrorist cell militant group,
the whiney
little titty babies peace
group to which they belong posted this spit in the eye
note of
thanks on their web site.
Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad.
We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end. (emphasis added)
Will someone please explain to me exactly
why Coalition forces risked their lives to rescue this load of ungrateful
Jihadist fellow-travellers dedicated peace advocates?
Because it was their duty, that’s why.
More on this at Michelle Malkin.
Rescue Update
It
appears now that the American hostage Tom Fox was not tortured and executed,
but rather was the tragic victim of a terrorist cell on the ropes:
Instead three bullet wounds were found in his arm and three in his chest. The bruising thought to be signs of torture was instead seen as evidence of a struggle.
Investigators concluded the kidnappers had not killed him simply because he was American. He had been killed possibly while trying to escape - which would explain the lack of a video of his murder that would usually accompanies a politically-motivated killing.
The kidnappers appeared to have lost control of the situation, and their unintended act had led to new leads. By last weekend hopes of a possible rescue were increasing.
Later reports show that the rescue operation of the Christian Peacemaker hostages was fronted by the SAS and included American and Canadian special forces. What is really going to put the cat among the pigeons is that the rescue was made possible after a prisoner cracked under interrogation. Given that "interrogation" to some on the Left equals "torture," perhaps the terrorists should claim a "do-over."
Twit
The
BBC has put up another
Eurabian
whitewash on their site. In an expose that hits with all the force of a
marshmallow hammer, Roger Hardy concludes that Euromuslim youths pose no
threat because they like to party—and he says so in very, very short
paragraphs
My European journey took me from Leeds and Paris to Amsterdam and finally Milan.
There are many ways of being a young Muslim in the new Europe.
Many embrace a vibrant youth culture, while Islam - if it matters at all - is simply a badge of identity.
Others are finding a new identity based on an Islam very different from that of their parents.
The idea that integration is not taking place at all - and that Islam just will not fit into European society - seems to me a myth.
That thwacking sound is my forehead pounding on the desk. Of course they have a “vibrant youth culture” and Islam is a “badge of identity” (though not “simply”) that is “very different from that of their parents.” That’s the point of the problem, not a reason for complacency. They embrace Western culture, but only the most decadent bits, which both attracts and repels them as it feeds an inferiority complex instilled by radical Islam and makes them despise their host country even more. Look at the example of the Islamofascists on trial in Britain who had very definite ideas about the sort of women who go to London nightclubs—ideas that were not due to a priori reasoning. Indeed, Mark Steyn pointed this out in one of his columns on the recent French Intafada:
As to the "French" "youth", a reader in Antibes cautions me against characterising the disaffected as "Islamist". "Look at the pictures of the youths," he advises. "They look like LA gangsters, not beturbaned prophet-monkeys."
But that's the point. The first country formally to embrace "multiculturalism" - to the extent of giving it a cabinet post - was Canada, where it was sold as a form of benign cultural cross-pollination: the best of all worlds. But just as often it gives us the worst of all worlds. More than three years ago, I wrote about the "tournante" or "take your turn" - the gang rape that's become an adolescent rite of passage in the Muslim quarters of French cities - and similar phenomena throughout the West: "Multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture - the subjugation of women - combine with the worst attributes of Western culture - licence and self-gratification. Tattooed, pierced Pakistani skinhead gangs swaggering down the streets of northern England areas are as much a product of multiculturalism as the turban-wearing Sikh Mountie in the vice-regal escort." Islamofascism itself is what it says: a fusion of Islamic identity with old-school European totalitarianism. But, whether in turbans or gangsta threads, just as Communism was in its day, so Islam is today's ideology of choice for the world's disaffected.
During the Cold War, I knew many a Trotskyite who had a taste for Savile Row suits and Scotch whiskey. It didn’t mean that they didn’t want to bury us.
Stability is the Dry Rot of History
Speaking of
Mark Steyn, the man himself has a new column in which he asserts that
stability is the last thing that anyone should want in the Middle East.
In 2002, Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, warned that a US invasion of Iraq would "threaten the whole stability of the Middle East." Of course. Otherwise, why do it?
Read the whole thing, as the kids say.
Revenge of South Park
I
have learned one very important lesson last night: Never, never cross Trey
Parker and Matt Stone. In the
new season
premiere of South Park,
Parker and Stone handled the recent
“quitting”
of Isaac Hayes by having his character of Chef “return” using very, very
obviously spliced dialogue by Hayes to put together an episode that saw Chef
brainwashed, accused of being a child molester, struck by lightning, burned,
dropped down a cliff, impaled on a tree branch, shot several times, mauled
by a lion, having his face torn off and disemboweled by a bear, and then
reincarnated as a Darth Vader version of himself—all due to the machination
of a “fruity little club” that looks suspiciously like a Scientology parody.
Do NOT get on the wrong side of these guys.
A True Example of a Mistake
Andrew
McCarthy has a very timely piece about the trial in Afghanistan of Abdul
Rahman, who a faces death for converting from Islam to Christianity. It not
only points up the gulf that exists between Islam and Western liberalism, it
also shows the folly of sacrificing our principles in favour of short-term
realpolitik goals. True, it is often necessary to compromise in order to
reach one’s goals and even Churchill once said that if Hitler invaded Hell
he’d sign a pact with the Devil, but compromise is a very long way from
abandonment, which is what happened in Afghanistan over the role of sharia
in running that country in the post-Taliban age.
Clive of India’s Tortoise Dies
A
tortoise
that once belonged to
Clive of India died in an Indian zoo at the age of 255. Death was due
to natural causes and not, as first rumoured, due to trying to blow out the
candles on his birthday cake.
Amazingly, I didn’t even know that the late Baron of Plassey even had a tortoise, but one lives and learns.
“Moderate” Is Another Word For Kufir
Moderate Muslims who are
keeping silent either out of fear of the Islamofascists or hope of jumping
to the winning side at the last minute are going to be in for a rude
awakening if they don’t make up their minds soon. As
this story out of Denmark shows, their fanatical co-religionists don’t
make much of any distinction between a “moderate” and an infidel when it
comes to death threats.
Monday
27 March 2006
Wooden-Headed Nickels
Seattle
has done what no leftist city has ever managed to do. It caused my
wife, a life-long Truman Democrat, to declare that we are leaving Seattle
never to return. (What about the monorail!?!) Just a second, Honey.
I'll get there.
What has caused this sudden change? Call it the 100% recycled, macrobiotic, fair-trade, organic, co-op vended straw that broke the free-range camel's back. And that is the decision by Mayor Greg Nickels to sacrifice Seattle at the altar of Gaia to atone for man's environmental sins.
The Honourable Mr. Nickels is convinced that global warming is not a controversial scientific hypothesis with heavy political stakes, but rather a "planetary emergency" that requires his personal attention. With suitable modesty, he has spent the last year putting aside boring little local-government distractions like fixing pot holes and making sure the litter is picked up in favour of doing what the people really elected him to do: Jaunting around the country collecting signatures from 219 United States mayors agreeing to his mini-Kyoto treaty to decrease greenhouse gases-- an effort that has garnered praise from former vice-president Al Gore.
In any other place, an endorsement from Al Gore would have been regarded as the kiss of death. Just ask Howard Dean. Never mind Mr. Gore's odd statements that sometimes throw the question of his sanity into the hazard, I can't think of many people who'd want a green endorsement from a man who tends to make major speeches about the incontrovertible nature of global warming on the coldest day of the year. In Seattle, on the other hand, the imprimatur of Gore is controversial only if it isn't shouted with sufficient volume from the rooftops.
At first glance, Mr. Nickels' being able to get 219 mayors onboard with him looks like a major achievement. That is, until you read what they actually signed on to and it turns out to be a non-binding agreement that calls for the federal government to do most of the heavy lifting and for the mayors to endorse a list of boilerplate green policies that are easily promised and easily forgotten.
Mr. Nickels, on the other hand, seems to be taking reducing greenhouse emissions more seriously. "Seems," of course, being the operative word. This plan, remember, comes from a man who boasts about how Seattle has managed to reduce its greenhouse gases from power generation to almost zero while neglecting to mention that the city gets almost all of its electricity from hydroelectric dams and that the biggest greenhouse gas source is from the contractors that supply the power company with cement.
The mayor commissioned a "green ribbon" panel (Get it? Green ribbon?) to study the situation and provide solutions. In any logical world, such solutions would involves things like eliminating traffic jams and encouraging people to tune up their car engines, but that sounded too much like "city government" stuff. Much better to harken back to the days when Lambeth Council declared the borough a nuclear free zone and put forward a raft of grandiose schemes meant to reform the whole of Western civilisation, so the GR committee came up with this sort of thing:
-
Increase public transport
-
More bike paths and pedestrian districts
-
Redesign neighbourhoods
-
Increase city vehicle fuel efficiency
-
Increase efficiency of motor vehicles in general
-
Road tolls
-
Increase parking fees
Notice nothing here about improving road traffic? You know, all that pollution due to cars idling as they creep through the permanent gridlock that is Seattle thanks to choke points that had they been in Iraq would have kept the invasion force still queuing up in Kuwait? No? I didn't think so. The fact is that the city of Seattle can't even deal with replacing a major viaduct that they've known to be an imminent hazard to life and property since the last major earthquake in 2001. When it comes to things like building new bridges across Lake Washington or widening motorways the most they can do is a weak fluttering of the fingers.
As for public transport, do NOT ask my wife about that if you don't want to be drenched in enraged spittle. The city has had a record of managing public transport that would do credit to a Chinese fire drill run by a more than usually corrupt golf club secretary. Seattle's answer to bus transportation was a multi-million dollar tunnel system under the city centre that no one ever used; their answer to a need for rail transportation was a light-rail system that costs so much per mile that the rails must be made of platinum; and their answer to a monorail project that was voted in by popular referendum and hated by the city council was, with Nickels' leadership, to drag their feet every step of the way, impose confiscatory car licence fees to finance it, put the project back for a referendum vote four more times, run up a debt in the tens of millions, and generally sabotage the project to the point where the end was a mercy killing.
(Nickels-- Ya know, I think reducing greenhouse gases and getting people out of their cars to reduce pollution are laudable goals and I do my best to make sure my family does it's best to contribute toward these goals, but how dare you issue an "Action Plan" to reduce global warming pollution that includes an objective of reducing the city's dependence on cars by significantly increasing public transportation mere months after you and your office worked to undermine an actual, reachable, viable public transportation project, the Monorail. What can you be thinking?! Listen, you little...)
Yes, thank you, Honey. Where was I? Oh, yes.
Bicycle paths? After a decade, the flagship bike path, the Burke-Gilman trail is still uncompleted. And as for bicycles being a general solution, I have only to point to a topographical map of Seattle to put paid to that.
Redesigning neighbourhoods? Go talk to London. The whole city burned down in 1666 and they couldn't shift the streets an inch. And if you think that four and a half centuries have changed things, I would recommend that you visit Seattle City Hall, dust off the plans for Seattle Commons, and learn why Seattle is called the Place Where Urban Planning Goes to Die.
As for improving motor vehicle efficiency, aside from acting as if no auto designer had ever thought of it, when did motor car engineering become the responsibility of city government?
Now, the star prize will go to anyone who can guess which of these proposals has any chance of being implemented?
May I have the envelope, please?
And the winner is, road tolls and increased parking fees! So what if Seattle spent decades trying to revitalise the city centre? Let's strangle it in the name of Saving the World.
Why Nickels couldn't just have said I want to raise taxes and not waste our time with his environmentalist posturing, I have no idea. But I'm sure that he'll be heartened to learn that Chez Szondy is doing its part to decrease its share of greenhouse gas emissions inside the ecotopian precincts of Seattle.
We're moving.
Tuesday
28 March 2006
Sauce For the Gander
Abdul
Rahman seems to have escaped the hangman thanks to a legal technicality,
but he's not out of the woods yet. The local "moderate" imams in a
remarkable display of tolerance have called for Mr. Rahman to be torn
limb from limb. Not surprisingly, Mr. Rahman is planning a trip for
his health-- preferably to any country that will give him
asylum.
Mark Steyn has a nice little history lesson for the Western powers on how this sort of thing should be handled in future:
In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" -- the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:
''You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
Absolutely.
Problem? What Problem?
One of
Steyn's favourite subjects is the demographic doom that Europe is facing.
According to statistics, Europe is facing the dubious choice between having
whole nations dying out by the end of the century or having the native
population replaced by Muslim immigrants who are acting more like colonists
these days. The BBC, with its usual razor-sharp nose for news,
has finally decided to look into the matter with three articles discussing
the population implosion in the
EU,
Italy, and
Norway.
The Beeb's conclusion? That the population is declining, but it isn't a real problem-- at least, nothing that a bigger welfare state wouldn't cure. In fact, let's just forget the crisis and talk about who has the best childcare policies.
Oh, and the word "Muslim" was scarcely to be seen, so immigration is clearly not a factor to be considered.
Just goes to show that not only is it possible to ignore a problem, but that if you try really, really hard you can actually make the very policies that caused the problem to look like the solution.
Want to really help people to have more children? How about cutting taxes, cutting entitlements, giving families massive tax incentives, supporting traditional families, discouraging abortion and contraceptive use by married couples, make it clear that only UNWED births are being discouraged by family planning policies, and putting a stop to making every stay at home mother feel guilty.
Naw.
permalink
ID Update
What the hurry with
the governments efforts to introduce ID cards?
Henry Porter in the Groaniad explains.
Thunderbird 6
Not quite, but this flying hotel is most definitely where I want to spend my next holiday. So long as I don't have to set foot in that lounge with the transparent floors.
Acrophobia is go!
Dolphin Days
And while I'm on holiday, I most
definitely want one of these
for beach day.
Now Pay Attention, 007
Lethal
credit cards and killer pens. It looks as though Q has gone
private.
Wednesday
29 March 2006
Death Ray Update
The
Pentagon's
Airborne laser project,
which weds a giant gas-powered laser cannon with a 747 has escaped the
threat of cancellation as is on track for its first missile interception
test in 2008.
This means that Blofeld can start dusting off those hijacking plans again.
A Dream Deflated
In the win some, lose some
department, Darpa has cancelled its Walrus programme to build a
giant blimp
the size of an aircraft carrier.
Now where is Blofeld going to mount
that laser cannon after he steals it?
permalink
SCRAM!
On the other hand, a
British team has successfully tested a
scramjet craft in Australia that reached a velocity of Mach 8.
Mind you, the ship was only four feet six inches long, so there is going to be some upscaling in the future, but from little oaks do mighty acorns grow.
Reboot the Carrier!
The Royal Navy is
rather proud of its new Queen Elizabeth Class
aircraft carriers that
are currently being designed. Not only will they be the second largest
warships in the world after the American Nimitz class supercarriers, but
they will have reduced the crew requirements from 2000 men down to 800.
The RN plans to achieve this by making the new carriers heavily automated. This means that one man can do the work of ten. It also means that if you lose the reboot disk on the eve of battle, then things could get a tad embarrassing.
Nuclear Tallyho
The
man in charge of Britain's nuclear deterrent gets a nice profile in the
latest Sunday Herald. One interesting part of the interview is this
tidbit regarding CND types who try to break into the base, which he sees as
less of a hazard than a challenge:
“Having someone who constantly causes you to challenge security arrangements is not a bad thing,” he says, adding that the Royal Marines are the last line of defence in incidences of security breaches. “They have a policy of ‘Final Denial’,” he says.
Since they banned fox-hunting in Scotland, I suppose that hippie coursing has become an acceptable substitute.
Eat Your Heart Out, Kirk!
Rolls Royce has
presented HMS Illustrious with a spanking-new leather
captain's chair that is a bit
of a step up from the old carved oak and a cushion jobs:
It is based on the front seat originally designed for the best-selling Rolls-Royce Phantom and has been specially adapted for its sea-faring role. The chair was officially presented by Rolls-Royce chairman, Ian Robertson, and a group of Rolls-Royce staff to Captain Bob Cooling and his crew in Portsmouth yesterday, as part of the ship’s refurbishment. The interlinked Rolls-Royce monogram is embroidered on both sides of the headrest and specially modified arm-rests have been fitted. The seat has been engineered to allow a full range of electrical adjustment to ensure optimum comfort at all times. A wood veneered table features in the rear of the chair and a plaque has also been fitted to mark the occasion.
But does it have cupholders?
The Future of Seattle
Is
this what is in
store for Seattle if Mayor Nickels' tax hikes
global warming initiatives go into effect?
Very probably.
Hellbound Train
Now that he's fitted Seattle with
a hair shirt, Mayor Nickels is taking the first step in his bold,
planet-saving mission by improving
public transport. Well, that's "improvement" as in killing the
monorail project and ignoring the bus system in favour of a lakeside tram
that goes not much of anywhere.
Great thinking, you Honour.
God Save the Theme!
BBC 4 listeners are
not taking the effort to ban the British
theme that started the broadcast day for 33 years. In fact, they
are striking back at the controller in rather a novel way:
As a topless Routemaster bus repeatedly circled his office at Broadcasting House yesterday, the threatened medley of tunes was blasted from the top deck.
Not that, but the theme has been released in the shops and is on its way to becoming a top ten hit.
Irony. You can't beat it.
Another Nail
It seems that it
doesn't matter whether or not Parliament forces ID cards on us.
If Westminster doesn't do it openly, then the
EU will do it by stealth
And Another
From the
Anchoress comes news of this sickening bit of PC soft-headeness:
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” Has been changed to reflect both the freedom that comes with salvation - which is very nice - and also the decree from some publishing house on high that we never, ever sing a lyric that might suggest a negative. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved and set me free…”
Even the hymns aren't safe any longer.
Amazing Requim
Amazing
Stories, the world's first science fiction magazine, has ceased
publication after eighty years.
Let us doff our space helmets for a moment's silence.
Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006)
Stanislaw
Lem, author of such science fiction classics as Solaris and The Cyberiad,
has died at the age of 84.
The bookshops will seem a little poorer now.
The Art of Coffee
Don't try to understand, just enjoy.
Home, Sweet Home
At last, I have found the home I have always dreamed of.
Three guesses where my study is going to be. Sharks mandatory; White cat optional.
Quick, Robin!
And, of course, something from these people would be installed.
I like the clock best.
Thursday
30 March 2006
Democracy at Work
From the Seattle PI.
Polls don't lie.
Great Musical Moments
Many historians suspect that the defeat of the Japanese Imperial Army was due to its obsession with brass band supremacy.
Spring Scene
Mrs. Donohue took no chances when it came to UV protection.
That's Show Biz!
Just thinking about this story makes my eyes water.
His Mistress's Voice
II don't know if this study has any validity, but I'm using it the first chance I get. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Thursday
30 March 2006
Evil in Seattle
Seattle
has been in the news again and not in a good way. If you've been
following the major news services you've no doubt heard about the grisly
murder spree last week that left six people dead-- seven, if you count the
murderer, who blew his own head off with a shotgun.
I haven't been writing much about it until now because I don't usually take an interest in murder cases where the only interesting factor is the body count and mainly because I’ve been waiting for the facts to filter through the typical low standard of local reporting that turns a quote from the police saying that the killings were “almost execution style” into “executions.”
The killings were a grisly affair. There's no getting around that fact. Nor that the circumstances were as bizarre as they were tragic. They revolved around a load of teenagers and twentysomethings in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle who had been attending a rave billed as "Better Off Undead," where the attendees were encouraged to come dressed as corpses and zombies. Afterwards, a large group kept the party going at a private house on East Republican Street.
One of the partygoers was Kyle, Aaron Huff, 28, who was described as "quiet." At seven AM, Mr. Huff went out to his pickup truck, collected a handgun, a Bushmaster assault rifle, and a pistol grip shotgun. On his way back to the party, he spray painted the word "Now" three times on the pavement and then proceeded to make his way through the house, methodically shooting at anyone he encountered while declaring "They're's plenty for everyone." When the police showed up, Mr. Huff turned his shotgun on himself.
This is one of those episodes where two very strange aspects of modern life collide and leave behind a great deal of tragedy and not much in the way of explanation.
On the one hand, we have the anonymity that cities afford, which allows solitary wickedness to fester and grow. Jack the Ripper would never have even begun his career if he’d lived in a small village, but in a place like Seattle one can be surrounded by thousands of people, yet be cloaked in rock-solid invisibility. On the other hand, we have the emptiness of people who so lack a spiritual mooring that they define their lives around dance music and a “scene;" an emptiness that evokes the sound of a stone dropped in a well and makes it impossible to tell the difference between a fellow lost soul and a murderous predator. Added to this was the fact that two of the victims were two girls age 14 and 15, who shouldn't have been in that house in the first place.
What is frustrating about this case is that there are so many questions, but there will never be any solid answers. Perhaps Huff was insane. Perhaps he was in command of all his faculties. Frankly, I'm more inclined to believe the latter. Evil is a very hard thing for anyone to look square in the face. The tendency is to seek an answer in pathology rather than in calculated wickedness. There is something reassuring about the idea that acts of cruelty and murder are impossible in a healthy reasoning individual. Better to look for a diseased mind than a diseased philosophy.
The other thing about this killing is that it plays to the impulse of people to Do Something. When something this awful happens the last thing that people want to hear is that the only thing that can reasonably done is to pray, bury the dead, console the grieving, and move on. There has to be someone to blame, but the only one to blame is dead. So, some scapegoat has to be found-- usually one against which someone already has a grudge. Raves need to be cracked down on. Guns need to be banned. Teenagers need to be barred from dances. Something need to be done about policing, drugs, overweight men with goatees; anything. Somebody must Do Something.
And that somebody is most often the government. But sometimes the government is as powerless at the end of the day as the Man in the Moon. Sometimes the best answer is that there are situations where the government can and should do nothing; that the burden must be carried by churches, parents, and individuals.
Even with the best intentions, government may try to help, but only end up making things worse. Take the example of the shootings in Dunblane, Scotland ten years ago. In that case, another quiet man walked into a primary school and gunned down fifteen young children and their teacher and then killed himself. There was a public outcry for the government to Do Something, which they did. They passed a raft of legislation that nearly banned every firearm in Great Britain that wasn't in the hands of the IRA. This effectively disarmed the public over a decade when violent crime skyrocketed and the police became less interested in stopping criminals than in organising sensitivity training seminars. The end result was that the public became easy prey to criminals secure in the knowledge that they could rob and assault their victims with impunity.
But it did nothing to ensure that such an atrocity would ever happen again.
Now, I am not saying that the proper response to such evil is to meet it with folded hands. Far from it. There are ways to combat such wickedness beforehand, but the answer does not lie in government programmes, bans, and profilings. It lies in each of us reaching out to our brothers and sisters and in each of us finding something more substantial to feed the soul than pop music and shoddy fashion.