Bonekickers

Bonekickers is a new BBC series that, judging from the previews, is the sort that as a writer I'd run down a side street to avoid. Maybe it has something to do with its self-consciously ethnic and gender balanced cast, painfully cliched "feisty" female lead and publicity stills that uses the dreaded Pose™ that says "We think we're tough and edgy with that indefinable rock-star vibe, though nobody over the age of 15 who doesn't live in their mother's cellar will agree." It looks predictably awful in that hideous trendy way that fills in for creativity these days and I'd probably put it with Torchwood, Robin Hood, and Hex in the Do Not Watch Unless Threatened By Lord Olivier With A Pair Of Dental Pliers file if it weren't for the fact that it is about a load of archaeologists.

This would have been worth a laugh because as a retired archaeologist I've very low expectations about how my field is portrayed in popular culture as a glamorous sort of licensed tomb-robbing and treasure hunting rather than the meticulous, often boring enterprise that it really is. I'm even willing to forgive that the average archaeologist is never shown in truth as a chronically skint bastard forever on the lookout for a decent job. True, according to the reviews, one character is shown as a hard drinker, but the fantasy lies in it being one character.

But I'll let that pass. Let them forever be Indiana Jones chasing after the Holy Grail or the True Cross or the Lost Bus Ticket and more power to them. There are worse ways for a profession to be portrayed (*cough* Casualty *cough*).

Even the BBC is willing to admit this by running an article that points out the... "heightened" nature of the programme. Except they leave one tiny detail out.

You'll notice that I said that it "would have been" worth a laugh. That was before I noticed the buzz on the Internet about the premiere episode that tried to be "contemporary" by having as the villains a load of crazed, white Christian fundamentalists who want to drive all other religions out of Britain and start off their reign of terror by decapitating a peace-loving Muslim.

Marvelous. One moment I'm anticipating a nice MST3K giggle and the next I'm confronted by the BBC using the licence fee to produce something out of an Al Qaeda recruiting video. Suddenly my sense of irony is lacking and I don't feel much like laughing.

Doggy Dhimmitude III

Police in Britain must now put booties on sniffer dogs while searching Muslim homes to prevent giving "offence".

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of 7/7. I bring this up because the police seem to have forgotten this little incident.

Oh, THAT First Commandment!

Dhimmitude in education from the Telegraph:

Two schoolboys were allegedly disciplined after refusing to kneel down and "pray to Allah" during a religious education lesson.

It was claimed that the boys, from a year seven class of 11 and 12-year-olds, were given detention after refusing to take part in a practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

It's as if commonsense just picked up her skirts and ran screaming from the room.

Cultural Suicide Judicial Style

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, says that he agrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury and that Sharia should be adopted in Britain.

Sometimes it's like going to the bridge of the Titanic and finding the captain trying to do a deal with the iceberg.

Doggy Dhimmitude II

And just to show that sniffer dogs aren't the only ones running afoul of the Faithful, Muslims in Dundee are in a lather because a post card advertising a new police telephone number has a puppy on it.

For today's bonus round, did the Dundee police:

a) Tell the Muslims concerned that Britain is a dog-loving nation and if the offended don't learn to accommodate themselves to their host's ways, they'd best reconsider their decision to immigrate.

b) Issue an abject apology and promise never to do such a wicked thing again.

If you answered b, then congratulations! You are now the new chief constable!

Update: According to The Courier, the incident is a bit overblown due to an overzealous Muslim councilman and that Mahmud Sarwar, trustee of the Scottish Islamic and Cultural Centre and the Dura Street mosque, has said that the dog wasn't really offensive.

That's certainly a welcome development, but it does, however, miss two important points. First, the police should never have apologised for something that no reasonable person would be offended by and second, though their comments are welcome, it is not the place of the Scottish Islamic and Cultural Centre or the Dura Street mosque to have a say whether or not the Tayside police put dogs on their postcards and should have no bearing on any decisions.

Doggy Dhimmitude

From the Daily Express:

Police sniffer dogs trained to spot terrorists at railway stations may no longer come into contact with Muslim passengers – after complaints that it is against the suspects’ religion.

Perhaps the best response to this sort of complaint is that being blown up by Jihadists is against our religion* and that a sense of perspective is in order.

*I trust that I don't have to explain that "our religion" includes all creeds subscribed to by civilised men whether followers of cross or crescent.

Amend or Else

Pakistan has sent a delegation to the EU demanding requesting that freedom of expression be abolished restricted. According to a report in Pakistan's Daily Times:

The delegation, headed by an additional secretary of the Interior Ministry, will meet the leaders of the EU countries in a bid to convince them that the recent attack on the Danish Embassy in Pakistan could be a reaction against the blasphemous campaign, sources said.

They said that the delegation would also tell the EU that if such acts against Islam are not controlled, more attacks on the EU diplomatic missions abroad could not be ruled out.

Let us hope that this is merely poorly worded journalism. Otherwise, this smacks of being an ultimatum.

Conversion is a One-Way Street

Rod Liddle weighs in on the recent flap in where a "community support officer" (the worst idea in the history of law enforcement) threatened to arrest two Christian evangelicals for trying to preach the gospel in Birmingham:

You may argue that the policeman was merely trying to keep the peace — in which case, we might as well say that Alum Rock Road is, in a serious sense, no longer a part of Britain, no longer under central jurisdiction. Like it or not — and believe me, West Midlands police do not like it one bit — Alum Rock Road is now a no-go area for proselytising Christians; perhaps it has been for some time. But now it is a no-go area officially, according to the local police force — unless they do something about it, quickly.

If this state of affairs is not reversed quickly and decisively, then the government will now have to explain how immigration has become colonisation and why they are colluding in it.

Hug a Jihadist

I thought it was a sign of pure moral cowardice when the British government decided to pretend that the Jiahdist War was a police matter and started turning the screws on the general public to the point where anti-terrorism laws were used to spy on illicit dog poo, but it's now clear that it's a case of New Labour being barking mad. What other conclusion can there be when the next bright idea is not to lock up Jihadists, but to give them therapy to "de-radicalise" them.

Bear in mind that this is not Room 101 style political re-education that you or I would receive under "hate crime" legislation if we offended the tender sensibilities of some Anti-Semitic imam who calls on the Faithful every Friday to commit mass murder. We're taking something more along the lines of a nice cup of tea and some sympathetic chat. This will cost, by the bye, £12.5 million.

I do wish that someone would point out to Gordon Brown et al that the Jihadists are the baddies.

Carts and Horses

Police in Strathclyde are recruiting Muslims so that they have a chance to show that moderate Muslims have a stake in this war and so that their knowledge and contacts inside the Islamic community can be used to hunt down and destroy Jihadist cells quickly and ruthlessly.

Just kidding. It's to,

(T)ackle Islamophobia and improve understanding of Islam.

Good to see that Scotland has got its head jammed firmly up its fundament.

Swimming Segregation

Hackney institutes "Muslim only" swimming at the local baths.

The money quote from the outraged infidel who was turned away:

I asked (the member of staff) whether Clissold leisure centre would institute whites-only swimming for racists. His answer was that they would if there was sufficient demand.

Not having any sort of moral compass makes decisions so easy.

Some are More Equal Than Others

Why we can outgun the Jihadists in the field a thousand to one, but can still lose the war on the home front:

One of the world's most dangerous terror suspects was last night preparing for a life on benefits in Britain after judges ruled that his deportation would breach human rights law.

It gets worse:

The rulings mean that - despite Tony Blair's promise in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 attacks that the "rules of the game have changed" - not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from this country.

Sir Winston is corkscrewing in his grave.

Comedy of Fear

Can Mohammed go to the mountain?

Not if you're the BBC.

The Disappeared

When a community becomes a shadow state.

Police Academy Dhimmitude

Police in Britain are to be taught the Koran and Sharia law as part of a programme to "combat extremism".

One would have thought that a solid knowledge of English law and how to write out an arrest report would have been enough. No doubt policemen will also now be versed in the Catholic Bible and the Napoleonic Code on the off chance that they have to lock up a Frenchman.

Reuters Enigma

Reuters reports on the seventh night of rioting and burning by "youths" in Denmark:

Bands of youths set fire to cars, buses and schools in Denmark on Saturday, the seventh night of rioting and vandalism in the capital Copenhagen and other Danish cities, police said on Sunday.

So far, business as usual. But in paragraph seven, this peculiar non sequitar showed up:

Social workers said an alleged plot to kill a Danish cartoonist for his drawing two years ago of the Prophet Mohammad might have fuelled the riots. Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon on Wednesday in protest against the plot. What is this doing here?

What on Earth do cartoons of Mohammed have to do with rioting "youths", who are no doubt confirmed secularists and can trace their ancestry unbroken to King Ongendus?

Someone should look into this mystery.

Brand Image

And the winner of the 2008 Jellyfish Award goes to the Dutch Catholics who have re-branded Lent as "Christian Ramadan".

Next up: Churches are to be henceforth referred to as "Christian Mosques".

Williams Forgets Which Church He Belongs To

Addressing the firestorm generated by his remarks that sharia law in Britain is "unavoidable", the Archbishop of Canterbury said this today in his defence:

I believe quite strongly that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to address issues about the perceived concerns of other religious communities, and to try and bring them into better public focus.

So Dr. Williams's job is to speak on behalf of other religions. I see.

That must take the cake as the most curious interpretation of the duties of a Anglican clergyman since the Bishop of Durham said that he should keep his job even though he didn't believe in the Resurrection. One would have thought that as Primate of the Church of England His Grace's first and foremost duty was to speak on behalf of Christianity and addressing the concerns (note the lack of the eye-raising word "perceived") of Christians while leaving the Jihadists to carry their own pail.

Strange to see a man of the Archbishop's alleged intelligence digging his own grave with his tongue.

Law of Unintended Consequences

The Archbishop of Canterbury is acting all surprised that his statements that the adoption of sharia in Britain is "unavoidable" have resulted in calls inside and out of the church for his resignation. His Grace, in a fit of pure brass, claims that he just wanted to "provoke discussion".

He certainly did that, though I don't think he imagined that it would be about his employment status. Maybe now he has a better understanding of "unavoidable".

Update: Has the Archbishop gone bonkers?

Sharia in Britain "Unavoidable."

Having backed the abolition of the blasphemy laws in Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury now says that the adoption of sharia law is "unavoidable".

Sometimes I wonder is His Grace has ever bothered to read his job description. But he is right. Sharia law in Britain is unavoidable-- provided you do nothing except capitulate at every challenge.

School Quiz

Britain is having a major problem with Muslim schools being infiltrated by Jihadists bent on turning them into recruiting and indoctrination centres. Do you:

1. Keep a close eye on such schools and make certain that they are not being subverted.
2. Let them police themselves with minimal oversight.

If you chose 2, congratulations! You are now the Education Minister.

Wanted: A Moral Compass.

Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent and Tel Aviv Bureau Chief, comes completely unglued with a column that demonstrates that he absolutely lost the ability to tell good from evil.

It is hard for me to describe Ahmed Sanakreh as a terrorist, although I know it's true. Hard, because I got to know him and his family quite well, and when you understand people, it's hard to hate them...

Alaa, Ahmed and their friend Nasser abu Aziz were my de facto guides to the Palestinian side of the second Intifada (uprising). They were terrorists to the Israelis, freedom fighters to their neighbors, and sources to me.

Dear God, how rudderless do you have to be to not only employ such monsters as "guides," but to actually sympathise with them and then try to justify it with some very public and ineffectual hand-wringing? What sort of an attitude is, "Sure they're bloodthirsty murders who don't discriminate between soldiers and little girls, but they're nice chaps when you get to know them."

To coin a phrase, Get a new soul. That thing's not fit for a dog. Get a new soul.

Barmy Becta

From the BBC:

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from (Becta, the government's educational technology agency) annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims.

I think Becta has just given sufficient grounds for its own abolishment.

A Matter of Priorities

Twelve Pakistanis in Spain have been arrested on terrorism charges and the BBC looks at the impact... on Pakistanis.

No mention, however, on why Jihadis keep getting rounded up in a country that rolled over and did as it was told after the Madrid bombings. Maybe appeasement doesn't work?

War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery

Daily Mail headline:

Government renames Islamic terrorism as 'anti-Islamic activity' to woo Muslims

In addition, water is dry, fire is cold, and up is down.

I was going to do this as an update to this morning's previous post on New Labour covering its eyes and hoping the Jihadists will go away, but this Orwellian touch deserves a post of its own.

Brown's Blinkers

Fourteen terrorist suspects are arrested in Spain. A Belarus editor is sentenced to prison for publishing the Mohammed cartoons. Meanwhile, New Labour states that there is no war with the Jihadists (if there actually are Jihadists and not a just a load of mixed-up kids), but merely a domestic "criminal" matter that can be dealt with by soft words and a bit of censorship.

After seven years of semi-clarity about the threat we face, Britain is going back to sleep.

Levant Update

More on the Ezra Levant interrogation as he comments on the insane logic of what traffics in Canada under the Orwellian label of human rights: A murder cannot be compelled to apologise for his actions, but a publisher can.

Cartoon Wars: Canada

Ezra Levant, former publisher of the Western Standard, was hauled before the Alberta "Human Rights" Commission for the Thoughtcrime of publishing the Danish Mohammed cartoons and was interrogated by one Shirlene McGovern from the Ministry of Love. Rather than rolling over and saying "Please Ma'am may I have another?" Mr. Levant fought back and made sure a video camera was rolling.

Part 1:

Part 2:

and Part 3:

Mr. Levant hits the nail squarely on the proverbial when he points out that it is the Jihadists who are defaming Islam by trying to shut him up and bringing "hatred" down on moderate Muslims by claiming to speak in their name. Meanwhile, over at NRO, Mark Steyn had this to say about the episode:

Ms McGovern, a blandly unexceptional bureaucrat, is a classic example of the (minority-rights) syndrome. No "vulnerable" Canadian Muslim has been attacked over the cartoons, but the cartoonists had to go into hiding, and a gang of Muslim youths turned up at their children's grade schools, and Muslim rioters around the world threatened death to anyone who published them, and even managed to kill a few folks who had nothing to do with them. Nonetheless, upon receiving a complaint from a Saudi imam trained at an explicitly infidelophobic academy and who's publicly called for the introduction of sharia in Canada, Shirlene McGovern decides that the purely hypothetical backlash to Muslims takes precedence over any actual backlash against anybody else.

It's refreshing that Mr. Levant understands that liberty is the freedom to tell the government to push off-- especially when it acts as the enforcement arm of the country's sworn enemies.

Update:

Follow Up

Yesterday's news: The Bishop of Rochester states that some Muslim areas of Britain are becoming "no-go" zones for infidels.

Not news: Muslim "leaders" demand that the Bishop resign or be sacked.

News: The C of E backs the Bishop.

Next up: Porcine aviation.

When Recessional Becomes Rout?

The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali has warned that a half century of mass immigration and multiculturalism has borne bitter fruit that threatens Christianity as Britain's public religion and basis of our culture and has resulted in certain areas of Britain becoming "no go" areas where infidels tread at their peril.

You may all go back to sleep now-- until the call to the Faithful wafts forth from the local minarets.

War is Peace

According to Britain's chief prosecutor, Britain is not at war and that the terrorists are no real threat:

The people who were murdered on July 7 were not the victims of war. The men who killed them were not soldiers. They were fantasists, narcissists, murderers and criminals and need to be responded to in that way.

And Hitler was just a comic little ranter-- until people started dismissing him as such.

Allah: Off Limits to Dhimmis

Remember that bishop who said that Christians should start referring to God as "Allah" to smooth things over with Muslims?

Malaysia responded by making it illegal.

Damned if you do, etc.

Dhimmitude in Minnesota

A tale of a Minnesota community college's "meditation room" morphing into a mosque complete with sex-segregated areas, literature that describes Christians and Jews as "enemies of Allah" and a college administration that refuses to investigate what it would never allow any other religion to do.

"Tolerance" is now synonymous with "cowardice", it seems.

Half a Glass

Gillian Gibbons, the British schoolteacher at the centre of the Sudanese teddy bear row has been pardoned by the president of Sudan after meeting with two British Muslim peers.

While I am overjoyed that Mrs. Gibbons is safe and well, I am also disgusted that it happened because Britain tacitly acknowledged that mere Khaffirs are unworthy to make petition to so exalted a figure as the head of a state usually in the news for one of the worst cases of genocide in recent years.

Update: In related news, a British children's author has "got the message."

Lesson Learned

Proving once again that the "courage" of the artistic community does not apply when actual courage is required, a feminist author in India has agreed to censor her latest book in hopes that the Jihadists will allow her to "live peacefully."

Good luck with that.

School of Dhimmitude

Muslims in Khartoum demonstrated how Islam is the "Religion of Peace" by taking to the streets with clubs and swords to demand that the British schoolteacher who allowed her students to name their teddy bear "Mohammed" be put to death.

The only thing more reprehensible than this display of barbarism is the fifteen-day sentence that the schoolteacher received in what was obviously a compromise between Whitehall and the Sudanese government instead of the more reliable policy of telling Sudan to release the woman immediately and with a full apology or face the modern equivalent of a gunboat and five rounds rapid.

Clearly Mr. Brown will be learning the old, hard lesson that when dealing with oriental barbarians the only solid course of action is to confront and humiliate them so that their provocations of civilised peoples are laid bare as nothing more than a path to defeat and shame. Instead, he has made Britain to appear the weak horse and has made her people more vulnerable.

What We Face

A British schoolteacher in the Sudan faces six months in jail or forty lashes for naming a teddy bear "Muhammad."

Just a little reminder of what dhimmitude looks like.

Dhimmitude in the Art World

The utter moral fraudulence of modern art revealed:

Britain’s contemporary artists are fêted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.

Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”

Anytime an "artist" starts bleating on about "speaking truth to power", "pushing the envelope", being "transgressive" and how "courageous" they are, feel free to respond with slow, sarcastic clapping.

A Costly Venture

Been there, done that, got smashed with the battleaxe.

The British government is giving Muslim "groups" £70 million as danegeld to fund combating "extremism".