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.

Israel and the US for democracy-their way

BBC

Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out any talks with "an armed terror organisation that calls for Israel's destruction".

US President George W Bush said Washington would not deal with Hamas unless it rejected its call to destroy Israel.

So, if we are to understand this correctly, democracy is OK if the US is militarily present in the country, effectively occupying the country?
I have always opposed the killing of innocent civilians. This, however is the reality of war, as practiced by Hamas, Israel, the US and countless others.
For years Israel has had a policy of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth regarding the war with Palestinan armed groups. This can be seen in Spielberg's latest film 'Munich', but it continues to this day. The same is true on the Palestinian side, but no-one in the Israeli flag-waving camp ever answers this most simple question:who has the might, who has the power, who has the fuctioning state? The election in Gaza, and most importantly the media coverage and political reactions to it are a farce, since there is no Palestinian state. I will repeat, as I have said before, that ideally, I am for a bi-national state, as I oppose any state defined along religious lines. This is the case in Israel, and it could well be the case in a Palestinian state, even if Palestinian does not mean Muslim.

And Voice has this

On Menezes shooting

Voice had this to say recently:

To me (and pardon my language here) it's an absolute bloody disgrace that the only person to be arrested so far in relation to the murder of Mr de Menezes is a journalist who told the truth about the murder, and the only reason the journalist seems to have been arrested is because the police are upset that their lies were found out. Now, i'll repeat it, it's an absolute bloody disgrace.

Indeed.

When Scotland Yard could do with Israeli advice...

Taipei Times

"There has not been a single such incident in Israel ... In
fact, as a number of recent terror attacks have demonstrated, the opposite is
the case," one Israeli defense source said. "Police have lost their lives
because they decided not to shoot a person they suspected. In all cases they
sought to question the person."

Admirable...still, let's hope Scotland Yard doesn't take to bombarding houses and ethnic minority neighbourhoods in order to kill a suspect...

Wishing you all a happy christmas and a merry new year

Flying the flag

BBC

The BBC's Hong Kong correspondent, Chris Hogg, says the defeat will probably confirm Beijing's suspicion that the territory's democrats are untrustworthy and unpatriotic - the very reasons, some analysts say, that China is reluctant to offer Hong Kong true democracy.

Sounds familiar..

'Terrorists' coming to Japan?

Mainichi Daily News

After the man began to run away, four male passengers, including two police officers who were on their way to work, chased him for some 50 meters before tackling him on the platform. He fell unconscious shortly afterwards, and later died. (Mainichi)

Were the four male passengers over-zealous in an attempt to prove their feminist credentials? If only japanese police officers could be this 'efficient' in tackling the mafia!