Ken Livingstone

BBC

The Mayor of London's four-week suspension has been frozen by a High Court judge, pending an appeal.

There's the answer to my question, Truth Seeker.

Racist Lie

Yoram Ettinger on Ynet

Hamas' victory will spur on Arab emigration (especially amongst PA employees and their families), and growing anti-Semitism in France and the former Soviet Union will spur aliya (Jewish immigration).

French Jews don't flee french antisemitism. They emigrate to Israel because they can. French muslims don't emigrate to a muslim country to getaway from french racism. They don't emigrate. They stay in France, because they have no other choice.


Idan Landau on Ynet

What, exactly, would be lost the day we lost our Jewish majority? Arnon Sofer doesn't say. To each his own nightmares.

Some speak about the end of the "Jewish nature" of the country. But this is absurd. Even now, according to Sofer's numbers, 42 percent of Israel's residents, including the Territories, are Palestinian. Their influence on the "Jewish nature" of the country is negligible, unless discrimination and racism are considered "Jewish."

A fifth of Israeli citizens are Arab. Do they get a fifth of the land available for building, a fifth of the country's education and infrastructure resources, a fifth of available public funds? Of course not.

The most obvious discrimination against them has gone on for decades, even in areas where they are the majority.

Mr Irving

D.Irving website

I am not anti-coloured, take it from me; nothing pleases me more than when I arrive at an airport, or a station or a seaport, and I see a coloured family there -- the black father, the black wife and the black children. I think it is just as handsome a spectacle as the English family, or the French family, or the German family, or the South African family, or whatever. I think that is the way that God planned it and that is the way it should be. When I see these families arriving at the airport I am happy (and when I see them leaving at London airport I am happy).
[Cheers and Laughter].

But if there is one thing that gets up my nose, I must admit, it is this -- the way ... the thing is when I am down in Torquay and I switch on my television set and I see one of them reading our news to us. It is our news and they're reading it to me. (If I was a chauvinist I would say I object even to seeing women reading our news to us.)

This should be enough to convince any thinking person who might not know D.Irving, that this is a xenophobic man. The only people it wouldn't shock, are presumably those who agree with him. Those people are even less likely to have a change of heart seeing him jailed for expressing his opinions.

Harajuku, Tokyo

David Irving makes a point

In an interview from his cell, D.I., who denies the gassing - or the extent of it - of Jews by Nazis, said he's on his own because most historians are afraid of being sent to jail as he was. While this is probably a wild exageration, and most historians probably don't feel coerced into their theories, it is true, that evidence isn't usually accepted in a democratic court of law if it has been obtained by torture. In the same way, history shouldn't be based on legally acceptable facts and/or censorship.

BBC

The prosecutor also deemed the sentence too light because of "Irving's special importance to right-wing radicals", a spokesman for the office said.

This is a society admitting it is incapable of ridding itself of its extremist elements without blaming it on an indvidual. My grandmother fled Austria. Austria was probably the only country invaded by the Nazis where the latter were truly welcomed. Creating scapegoats isn't a serious way of coming to terms with the past.

"Given the ruthless efficiency of the Germans, if there was an extermination programme to kill all the Jews, how come so many survived?"

That in itself is stereotypical nonesense. Any thinking person can see that this man is not a serious historian. Only those who are not so sure need the law to decide for them...

A Geezer

BBC

"I never really thought I'd be a Muslim," he told ABC. "I'd say, 'Oh look, you know, I really love your religion but I really love my beer'."

Insane

BBC

Fifa has launched an investigation after the BBC discovered touts were selling illegal tickets for England's World Cup games for up to £900 each.
With Fifa selling the same tickets for £68, it represents a 1,000% mark-up.

What sad person is willing to pay £900 for a football match?!

Censorship comes to Britain

Over at A Logical Voice, Truth Seeker says:

While Blair & Co claim that they helping to spread "freedom and democracy" in Iraq, and Afghanistan (though quite clearly, all they've helped to spread is civil war) at home, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone is suspended from office by an unelected body, because of comments made to an Evening Standard reporter.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't such a disgusting act of disrespect towards democracy.

No Smoking!

I've said this before, but too many people seem to think this is just a matter of taking smokers' rights away. Do non-smokers not have rights?
I am a smoker.
The idea that this is a case of the state being nanny is a fallacious argument worthy of the tobacco industry. My conspiracy theory is that those who whinge about soon not being allowed to smoke in their own homes, are being paid by BAT.

ID Cards

It's the first time I post on the subject. I watched Peter Hain defend ID cards on Question TIme. He said we already have ID, we're already tagged. So, why go further?
Here in France, we have ID cards, but I don't have one. I'm white, though. This is about a freedom being taken away, and those who will see their freedom taken away will be those who look different. That's obvious. France is a particularly good example of a police state, regarding police violence, for example. Yet, I have never been stopped by police on the street, and neither, as far as I know, have my friends or members of my family. It may be to do with the colour of my skin or it may be to do with the areas I hang out in - which are not areas where a majority of non-whites live. British police may seem more civilised, but we've all seen the reports of 'institutional racism' in the police, so I don't think we can expect any better from them.

De Menezes inquest

Channel4

And as the Crown Prosecution Service is still considering whether to charge any of the Metropolitan Police officers involved in the operation that led to his fatal shooting, a full inquest hearing cannot be held.

Just because the perpetrators of this crime were working for 'our' government, doesn'n make this a lesser crime. An innocent man was killed, and what's more, according to all the evidence we have seen, he was unnecessarily killed. Therefore, it is a disgrace that the inquest into his death is taking so long, and that there has been no hard punishment of officers involved.

Awareness

Many may wonder how our consumerism here can affect the lives of others. Here's an example:

The villagers sell the wood to traders in a practice that environmentalists say is a major cause of deadly landslides in Indonesia, by removing natural barriers to heavy rain run-off.

We react when natural disasters take place, generously (though not always enough), yet we fail to see how changing our everyday habits could help prevent such disasters in the first place.
Here is one way.

Robert Cray

Words Light Fires reports on this new song and video by bluesman Robert Cray. It's a beautiful anti-war video and well worth watching.
Watch Video

Actors or terrorists?

A Logical Voice picked up on this on the BBC

One of the actors, Rizwan Ahmed, said a police officer asked him if he intended to make any more "political" films. The men were released quickly and not arrested, said Bedfordshire police. Inquiry "Six people were stopped under the Terrorism Act. This is something that happens all the time and obviously at airports and train stations," said a spokeswoman.

No doubt, the said police officer was a 'rogue element'. He is nevertheless a representative of the said Terrorism Act. So, who is to say this kind of blatant intimidation, worthy of the worst kind of dictatorship's secret police methods isn't a common occurance?

Demonstrate!

My friends at A Logical Voice call all of you who are in London on March 18th to demonstrate against Blair and New Labour's abuses of power. I will sadly not be there, so I join Truth Seeker&co in calling for a massive turnout.

Unlawful opinions

BBC

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the UK's Holocaust Educational Trust welcomed the verdict. "Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism dressed up as intellectual debate. It should be regarded as such and treated as such," Ms Pollock told the BBC News website.

But the author and academic Deborah Lipstadt, who Irving unsuccessfully sued for libel in the UK in 2000 over claims that he was a Holocaust denier, said she was dismayed.

"I am not happy when censorship wins, and I don't believe in winning battles via censorship... The way of fighting Holocaust deniers is with history and with truth," she told the BBC News website.

The New Terror

BBC

Fuelled in part by alarmist press reports and by the attempts of government agencies to draw blame away from farming, there are now calls for drastic measures against wild bird populations.

I believe these measures would put some species at risk of extinction, without having any effect on the spread of avian flu.

...

Much more likely is that before starting out, they picked up the virus from farms, either from infected poultry or their faeces. Mute swans often graze agricultural fields, and are likely to have come into contact with poultry manure spread as a fertiliser.

...

But in intensively farmed poultry, the high density of birds and constant exposure to faeces, saliva and other secretions provide ideal conditions for the replication, mutation, recombination and selection through which highly lethal forms can evolve.

...

Some of the agencies attempting to monitor and control avian flu, such as the FAO, seem to have been reluctant to draw attention to the role of intensive agriculture, because of the impact on national economies and on access to cheap sources of protein.

...

It may also be time to take a long, hard look at the way the world feeds itself, and to decide whether the price paid for modern farming in terms of risks to human health and the Earth's biodiversity is too high.

Israel holds back Palestinian aid

BBC

Israel will withhold an estimated $50m (£28m) in monthly customs revenues due to the PA, as well as impose travel restrictions on Hamas members.

"Israel will not hold contacts with the administration in which Hamas plays any part - small, large or permanent."

I wonder what Rabbi Sacks thinks of this. After all this is a democratically elected government Israel is punishing. If it is wrong for the Church of England to refuse to invest in a company which is involved in the destruction of innocent Palestinian homes, then surely this is wrong too. Would it be too much to call it anti-islamic?

Image of the day

Renaming Danish Pastries

BBC

"This is a punishment for those who start misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," he said.

Yeah right. More likely a move to make sure no one decides to boycott them.

French fries and French toast were renamed "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" at cafeterias in the US House of Representatives in 2003, after France opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Interesting parallel.

Imre Kertesz: "Kaddish for a Child Not Born"

I saw this play last night, and was so moved, I decided to buy the book. I would like to quote it. The following is my translation of a french translation, so please allow for slight imperfections. It is also jsut an extract. I may post other extract as I read the text. I hope readers of this blog will comment.

"Auschwitz is inexplicable" is false first of all, structurally, since what is can by definition be explained, even if this explanation, is by it's nature, purely arbitrary, erroneous, nondescript, but it is a fact, that a fact has at least two existences, one factual, the other spiritual, a spiritual existential mode which is nothing but an explanation, a cluster of explanations, and what's more an over-explanation of the facts, which in the end means annihilation of these facts, or at the very least their blurrring; this unfortunate statement- "Auschwitz is inexplicable" -is itself an explanation, it allows the unfortunate author to explain that we should not utter a word about Auschwitz, that Auschwitz does not, or rather did not exist, since, is it not so, that only things which do not or did not exist are inexplicable? However, I probably said, that Aushcwitz did, and therefore does exist, and that there is therefore an explanation, and there is indeed no explanation to the idea that Auschwitz did not exist, that is, that one couldn't explain, that Auschwitz did not exist, didn't take place, that a state of the world did not take place in the fact named "Auschwitz"(I say this to pay hommage to Mr Oblath), there could indeed be no explanation to the absence of Auschwitz, and consequently, there has been something of Auschwitz floating around for a long time, maybe even centuries, like the sombre fruit which ripens in the sparkling rays of countless humiliations, waiting for the right moment to fall on people's heads, since finally what is, and so it must be, since it is: the history of the world is the image and the accomplisment of the spirit (quoting H.), since to consider the world as a sequence of arbitrary coincidences would be to have a rather unworthy view of the world (quoting myself), therefore, let us not forget, that: He who views the world rationally, is viewed by the world rationally: both are mutually defined-as said H. not H. the dictator and chancellor, but H. the grandiose visionary, the mad philosopher, who serves refined dishes to all the dictators, to all the chancellors and other such official userpers...

Fanatical irrationality

On Any Answers, a caller reacting to the subject of The Chief Rabbi's anger at the CoE's decision not to invest in Caterpillar which provides machinery used for Israeli destruction of Palestinian houses: First he said the issue is nothing to do with what Israel does to Palestinians, but rather, that one can not punish an international company like Caterpillar for what it's machinery is used for in one place. We should then, he added somewhat cynically, logically look at who provides hammers to Israel or who provides fertilisers to Palestinian bombers. He finished by saying this is an excuse for antisemites. So, in under two minutes, he managed to contradict his first statement.
Another example of an unwavering supporter of Israel attempting to censor any criticism of Israel with the use of the irrational fear of antisemitism.

Unelected house

Lord Turner who is opposed the 'glorification of terrorism bill' said today on Any Questions, that in the end, the House of Commons is the elected house, and will get it's way.
Isn't it strange, though, that these days, the unelected Lords seem to agree with the population more often than the elected House of Commons does?

Children in 'jail'

BBC

"We found that some of the treatment children in custody experience would in another setting be considered abusive and could trigger a child protection investigation."

According to Lord Carlisle on BBC Radio4, Britain has twice as many children in prison as in Germany, which has around twenty million more inhabitants. Shocking.
He also said, that some children seek to provoke abuse as this is what they have always known.
I find it terrible, that instead of seeking to address the roots of child offence, our society prefers to concentrate on punishment. At the same time, is it that surprising?

Vandalism

They were also ordered to pay AU$151,000 (US$111,300) to clean up the damage.

How do you clean up the damage done by a murderous and illegal war, MrHoward?

Discrimination

In Britain, there is no written constitution, unlike France. In France, the constitution guarantees in its first article equality of origin, race or religion (but not gender).
In Britain, there is a Race Relations Act (1976) and a Sex Discrimination Act (1975), but nothing that guarantees religious equality.
The problem of having a written constitution is that, as is the case in France, an article in the constitution can prevent change taking place. For example, in France it is possible to have affirmative action in favour of women, since there is no mention of gender in the constitution, but it isn't possible for minorities, since it is clearly stated that all are equal regardless of origin or race.
I'd be interested to know what readers think, and particularly whether they think there should be a 'Religious Relations/Discriminations Act'.

Thanks DJEB!

Dick Sheney shoots his mate

Time

If Cheney now finds himself criticized or lampooned, he'll ironically be in the same position he himself put Senator John Kerry in during the final days of the 2004 Presidential campaign, though the circumstances then did not involve a potentially deadly accident. At the time, Cheney used his widely-known experience as a hunter to mock a duck-hunting foray in Ohio in which Senator John Kerry ended up shooting a goose. "The senator who gets a grade of 'F' from the National Rifle Association went hunting this morning," Cheney reportedly said, to hoots. "I understand he bought a new camouflage jacket for the occasion, which did make me wonder how regularly he does go goose hunting.” As the Texas incident shows, experience does not make hunters immune to accidents, which is why hunting advocacy groups put such a relentless focus on safety as the top priority.

My kinda humour

Freedom of Speech?

Middle East Times

"Jyllands-Posten does not want to publish Holocaust drawings of an Iranian newspaper under any circumstances," said chief editor Carsten Juste on the paper's Website.

This newspaper is the hero of the islamophobic 'freedom of speech' shouting brigade.

Understanding Others

Newstalk ZB

New Zealand Catholic agency is calling for people of all religions to get to know each other better, in the wake of the publishing of the controversial Mohammed cartoons.

Caritas director Michael Smith says the issue has highlighted how tolerance and understanding needs to be improved. He says it is important people try to understand different religions and cultures.

Mr Smith welcomes the outcome of the meeting this week of media and religious leaders, in particular the apology by the media for the offence caused and the recognition of freedom of speech by religious leaders.

Imperial Traditions

Princess Kiko
BBC

If the baby turns out to be a boy, support for changing the law would quickly dwindle. If a girl, Mr Koizumi might just have time to introduce a bill, but he may not want to risk such a rush.

I wonder how much pressure was put on the couple to procreate, 12 years after the birth of their last child.
Here's to a girl, anyway!

Ethnic considerations in Israeli elections

This is a pretty serious analysis from Haaretz

Is the claim regarding the departure of the Ashkenazi Laborites based on empirical research? And if so, is the reason for their departure actually connected to Peretz's Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) background? To clarify these issues, the first thing to check is whether there has been a decline in the number of Ashkenazis intending to vote for the Labor Party. If there is such a decline, it would be interesting to see whether it is greater than the decline in the number of Mizrahis planning to vote Labor.

(...)

More in-depth research is required to isolate the effect of each of these factors on its own, including ethnic background. The fact that the mention of ethnic identification in the election propaganda could in itself have a certain impact must also be taken into account, although not specifically in the direction anticipated by those who raised the issue.

It should perhaps be added that, as far as I know, Mizrahis traditionally favour Likud, whereas Ashkenazis traditionally favour Labour. This may explain the departure of Mizrahis from the party, whereas ethnicity could be a major factor in the reasons for Ashkenazis departing. Perhaps someone could give some insight.

Photo Update

Nuclear-free Middle East not good for Israel

Haaretz

Toward the end of the discussion, Israel's delegate, Israel Michaeli, said he opposed the article because the issue of Iran should not be connected to other regional issues. In any event, he said, everyone supports regions that are free of weapons of mass destruction, but it would be unacceptable and irresponsible to accept such a resolution at this stage.

This seems to be the strongest indication yet from a representative of Israel that it does indeed have nuclear weapons. Not that it would come as a surprise.

Global Voices

Global Voices

I say.. we haven’t done the simplest thing; educating.. if you hold a Danish person walking down the street and invite him for a hot cup of ‘Arabian Coffee‘ and talked to him about who is Mohammed (the prophet) that everyone is talking about, a lot of things would have changed.. at least he will know that not all Arabs - emphasizing on the word ‘ALL’.. unfortunately!- should be sharp-fanged.. and that Mohammed should not be subject to sarcasm because he is a great man (regardless if one believes in his message or not).. who knows, he might get addicted to the ‘Arabian Coffee’ and ask you for more treats and more to learn!

Cartoon controversy:the bitter irony

Haaretz

One of the AEL cartoons displayed an image of Dutch Holocaust victim Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler, and another questioned whether the
Holocaust actually occurred.

Denying the Holocaust is illegal under most European hate speech laws, which outlaw intimidating or inciting hatred toward groups on the basis of their ethnic, cultural, religious or sexual identity. Complaints about alleged hate speech are common but prosecutions are rare and convictions very rare.

Convictions may be rare, but law suits are not, and the furor around alleged anti-semitism or racism is quite common here in France.

IDF "Dogs of War"

Haaretz

After Mustafa left the house, the soldiers entered. Salha says that they were too many to count, "maybe 40"; she was very frightened and their faces were painted black. She remained seated on the mattress on the floor, which is her bed. "I remained alone in the house, in bed," she explains, adding that the soldiers noticed her, didn't say a word, and went outside. A few minutes later the dog entered. She described a frightening red animal with a collar to which an electronic device was attached. Why did the dog enter after the soldiers had already searched the house?

This article comes from an Israeli newspaper, not a Palestinian or Arab media outlet.
Everybody was up in arms after the recent Hamas victory in Palestinian controlled areas, and I cannot say I was overjoyed. However, what this article shows, is that these elections mean very little, as there is no Palestinian state, and Israel is still as present and as aggressive as ever in Palestinian lives.
With regards to this particular story, what I find most worrying is that this apparently trained dog did more than simply help to arrest a suspect, it actually 'attempted' to kill, and what's more the victim was not the suspect.

Mike Slack

Fear of the rice king

Japan Times

"If Aiko becomes the reigning empress and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor," Hiranuma told about 40 lawmakers, academics and supporters at a Tokyo hall. "We should never let that happen."

Old Man Moves a Mountain by Lie Zie

Link

Tatxmg and Wangwu are two mountains with an area of seven hundred li square and rise to a great height of thousands of ren. They were originally situated south of Jizhou and north of Heyang.

North of the mountains lived an old man called Yugong (literally 'foolish old man') who was nearly ninety years old. Since his home faced the two mountains, he was troubled by the fact that they blocked the way of the inhabitants who had to take a roundabout route whenever they went out. He gathered his family together to discuss the matter.

"Let us do everything in our power to flatten these forbidding mountains so that there is a direct route to the south of Yuzhou reaching the southern bank of the Han River. What do you say?" Everyone applauded his suggestion.

His wife voiced her doubts. "You are not strong enough even to remove a small hillock like Kuifu. How can you tackle TaTxmg and Wangwu? And where would you dump the earth and rocks?"

"We can dump it into the edge of the Bo Sea and north of Yintu," said everyone.

Therefore Yugong took with him three sons and grandsons who could carry a load on their shoulders. They broke up rocks and dug up mounds of earth which were transported to the edge of the Bo Sea in baskets. His neighbour, a widow by the name of Jingcheng, had a posthumous son who was just at the age of discarding his silk teeth. This vivacious boy jumped at the chance of giving them a hand. From winter through summer the workers only returned home once.

An old man called Zhisou (literally 'wise old man') who lived in Hequ, near a bend of the Yellow River, was amused and dissuaded Yugong.

"How can you be so foolish? With your advanced years and the little strength that you have left, you cannot even destroy a blade of grass on the mountain, not to speak of its earth and stone."

Yugong from north of the mountains heaved a long sigh. "You are so obstinate that you do not use your reason. Even the widow and her little son do better than you. Though I die, my son lives on. My son produces a grandson and in turn the grandson has a so?of his own. Sons follow sons and grandsons follow sons. My sons and grandsons go on and on without end but the mountains will not grow in size. Then why worry about not being able to flatten them?" Zhisou of Hequ was bereft of speech.

The god of the mountains who held a snake in his hand heard about this and was afraid that Yugong would not stop digging at the mountains. He reported the matter to the king of the gods who was moved by Yugong's sincerity. The king commanded the two sons of Kua'eshi, a god with great strength, to carry away the two mountains on their backs: one was put east of Shuozhou and the other south of Yongzhou. From that time onwards no mountain stood between the south of Jizhou and the southern bank of the Han River.

Is the UK gvt completely out of touch with reality?

Jack Straw talking this morning on Radio 4 took on a lecturing tone to tell us that we, as Europeans cannot comprehend the depth of bad feeling Americans have towards Iran, as we never had an embassy under siege. He then went on to give us a lesson on the 'complicated' nature of the iranian leadership, with it's two levels of power.
What does he think we are:dumb? Doesn't he think we know the pain and suffering whole peoples have endured at the hands of american violence? Doesn't he think we are aware of the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of every state and government? Iran is hardly alone in the world in holding up a smokescreen. No need to look further that 'western democracies' to find such 'majic realism' (to pay homage to an author in the news..).
Every time I hear Blair, Straw and most of their accolytes attempting to explain the logic of their deeply unpopular and undemocratic measures, I cringe at the arrocance of their tone. Bush, at least doesn't bother going into lengthy explanations:you're either with us or against us. But our pathetic leaders always seem to find it necessary to act like schoolteachers when lecturing and admonishing us for failing to see the light.