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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 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 in