Happy New Year

New years resolution: I'm thinking of joining the darkside.

Hong Kong movie subtitles

8 ) Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?

10) You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.

and my personal favourite...

21) Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.

Damn straight baby...

A Merry Xmas Lolcat 4 u....

Going on holidays

Until early January sometime. So 'see' you all then...

Here's a bear while you wait...

Oz Gov't take note

A warning video of exactly what can happen if a workplace loses internet....

Office Apocalypse: When The Internet Goes Down at Work -- powered by Cracked.com

Get your hands off my Feed!

shot of crowd at the Anti Internet Censorship rally in Melbourne, Saturday 13th Dec

So on this rainy Saturday afternoon, the No Clean Feed people organized a protest against the Australian Government's proposed internet censorship scheme. About 200-300 people turned up and they had about half a dozen speakers from ISPs, Amnesty International, Electronic Frontiers Australia, "Internet professionals" (not quite sure what that guy did) and some 'random dude' (more about Mr random later).

some dude from an ISP (Sorry, I didn't catch his name - ed)

A couple of take-away points:

• The scheme will use a blacklist of web sites that every internet company will be forced to use.
• This blacklist will be decided by the government.
• This blacklist has been 'protected' by Freedom of Information laws (FoI) so that ordinary Australians will not know which websites have been banned, and therefore will have no recourse to protest the banning of certain websites
• Telstra and Internode (Australia's largest and 2nd largest ISPs respectively) have point blank refused to take part in the trial.
• The proposed scheme will only prevent people from accessing certain websites. Illicit material swapped via peer-to-peer (P2P... think Napster or Kazaa) or any other mechanism that doesn't involve a web browser will not be stopped. For those not technically minded, I can assure you that the "bad people" on the net rarely use webpages to trade in their stuff.
  
  

The speakers for the most part all made some good points, and the temptation to compare the proposed internet censorship scheme to Hitler's bookburning was there in full effect from some of the more politically aligned speakers.


The crowd composition was mixed; families, IT workers, socialist activists, turtles.

An Anti-Censorship turtle?

I saw one keffiyeh and Mr random, as part of his speech against censorship asked the crowd "Did you know that there has been a genocide going on in Palestine for 40 years?" with some mutterings of assent from the crowd.

Now, for Mr random to say that would rather suggest that his internet at home is already being filtered by his own very misguided views. Also he started his speech saying "My dear old mum had a saying: I might disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." The more astute of you (or anyone who can use Google) may have noticed that Mr random's dear old mum did not invent this quote, it was the french philosopher Voltaire who said "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

Now I'm all for using quotes, whether they be from Mr random's dear old mum or one of the Enlightenment philosophers, but if you do use a grandstanding quote, I would suggest you attribute it to the right person, otherwise you might look a little 'foolish' however he clearly had the crowd on his side and those that might resent his misappropriation of a quote (ie. me) kept quiet.

St George slaying the dragon of censorship

All in all, not a bad turn out. If the socialist group organising the rallies can realize this issue transcends the usual left/right perspectives, they will have a greater chance of success. If, on the other hand, they use it simply as a springboard to indoctrinate individuals into socialist activism (which, by my conversation with the earnest young lad where I signed the petition, seemed to be going) they will be battling against the usual political apathy of the average Aussie, which is legend.

The crowd about to start some chants on the steps of the State Library

Mumbai Media Analysis

One of the truly sad things about the Mumbai atrocities (apart from the appalling loss of life and injury) is the speed at which Western media agencies went out of their way to somehow point the finger at everyone and everything other than the actual perpetrators and their ideology.

The UK leader of the Green Party blamed Israel, and the New York Times perpetrated the gross fallacy that

"It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."

Of course words from the sole surviving terrorist contradict this vile piece of propaganda (via The Times of India)

"Kasab has told police that they were sent with a specific mission of targeting Israelis to avenge atrocities on Palestinians. This was why they targetted Nariman House, a complex meant for Israelis. Sources said Kasab's colleagues killed in the operation had stayed in Nariman House earlier. "

Doesn't quite sound like it was "an accidental hostage scene". I doubt a retraction of the article from America's "paper of record" is forthcoming.

The sole surviving Mumbai terrorist (Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21), pointing to the complete lack of halal snacks available
at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway kiosk, before gunning down 54 people in retaliation for this grievance.
(Picture source)

William Dalrymple, writing for The Observer in the UK blames the Mumbai atrocities on the US, UK, India, Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, blah blah blah and strawberry ice-cream (I may have added that last one):

"These were not poor, madrasah-educated Pakistanis from the villages, brainwashed by mullahs, but angry and well-educated, middle-class kids furious at the gross injustice they perceive being done to Muslims by Israel, the US, the UK and India in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir respectively."

There is not a grievance anywhere in the world (or time) that the Islamists will not fail to take offence to and that Western apologetics will not use as excuses for their atrocities. Read a cogent takedown of this git at Harry's Place.

William Kristol, writing for the New York Times, mentions a few other egregious incidents of "false finger pointing", such as Martha Nussbaums op-ed for the LA times who spends the whole column equivocating Islamic terrorism with anything but the actual cause:

"If, as now seems likely, last week's terrible events in Mumbai were the work of Islamic terrorists, that's more bad news for India's minority Muslim population."

I would have said it's actual bad news for those that got KILLED and their surviving relatives. But no, it's that "vulnerable minority" root cause again.

"Never mind that the perpetrators were probably funded from outside India, in connection with the ongoing conflict over Kashmir."

So absolutely nothing, NOTHING AT ALL to do with a particular barbaric ideology??

As Kristol writes in his column:

"So jihadists kill innocents in Mumbai and Nussbaum ends up decrying racial profiling here. Is it just that liberal academics are required to include some alleged ugly American phenomenon in everything they write? "

The Australian has a good column about the tendency of Western media agencies to give Islamic terrorists all the grievances they could possibly need:

"When it comes to terrorists and their grievances, nearly all the Western media have provided them with a rich diet on which to feed."

Another op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Tom Gross details the disgraceful behaviour of Western media. The major point:

"But then the terrorists in Mumbai didn't need to make any public announcements. They knew that many deluded Western journalists and academics will do that job for them, explaining that the West is to blame, especially the Zionists."

I don't know what can be done to reverse this situation, but it would be nice occasionally for the mainstream media to, you know, maybe stand up for the ideas and values that make their existence possible. But once again, I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.

Here is a spot-on segment from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart about the Mumbai terrorists. I hasten to add I doubt Jon Stewart and his Daily show would do anything that would require real risk, like standing up for free speech (for example displaying those Mohammed cartoons), however their take on this particular issue matches my own...almost to the letter.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Arab Money

(via FiveFeetofFury)

I always had a bit of a soft spot for Busta Rhymes, so without further ado let me introduce his newest single "Arab Money" that of course has raised protests and a radio station in the UK has suspended two broadcasters for playing it.




Here's a page with the lyrics. Make your own mind up if it's offensive. Of course the arab sounds (words?) might be saying some really bad shit, but somehow I doubt it.

Of course, these "protests" are curiously silent on real atrocities (see Mumbai) perpetrated by types believeing in a certain ideology, as are other major groups and countries that you know, should probably say something about it. But hey, what's the death of 188 people compared to the Massive Destructive and Offensive power of a .... rap song.

Keep it real people. Peace out!

Wood on Mars?

From this story in the Daily Mail.

Is this a picture of a piece of timber...on Mars?

Comments on what this could be from any current or former geologists reading this blog would be appreciated...

Human Wrongs III - The junkie edition

Actual headline from the Daily Mail:

"Drug addicted prisoners receive compensation for being forced to go cold turkey."


From the article:

"Around £11,400 was paid to three inmates at Winchester Prison in Hampshire after a court ruled that it was a breach of their human rights to deny them drugs such as heroin and substitute substances."

Seriously, WTF? These guys are in PRISON. It's not supposed to be a !@#ing cakewalk. It's supposed to be unpleasant. That's what prison is. Most law abiding citizens of any country get that.

"Really sorry Snake, but you're not supposed to be taking heroin or any other illegal drug whilst your doing time. You want to do drugs? THEN STAY OUT OF JAIL YOU FUCKING MORON!!!!!"

The revolution will come, but not as neo/crypto Marxists believe. It won't be lefty sympathising 'underclasses' rising up against the White Male Patriarchy. It will be lynch mobs of outraged citizens with pitchforks and torches wanting to take the frankenstein monster of activist judiciaries to task for yet another outrageous judgement.

"Human Rights" my ass.....

Friday afternoon Lego

Why? Because it's cool that's why. And everyone loves lego.




Related: BrickArms is a company that makes custom lego minifigures and weapons. So just in case you are all still wondering what to get me for Christmas, a Lego terrorist with a Lego sniper to shoot his yella' plastic ass would be perfect.

Here's a small selection of what is available:

Censoring the Internet

The Australian Federal Government is attempting to mandate internet filtering at the ISP level. Ie. they want to force ISPs to implementing filtering technologies to restrict access to certain websites based what the government decides Australian citizens shouldn't see.

This is being advanced primarily on the platform of "saving the children", specifically from child pornorgraphy. However the legislation as it's worded does not explain exactly how the Government will decide certain web sites are unacceptable for ALL Australian citizens (not just those involving child pornography). Of course, Australians won't be able to know which sites are blocked, because as in all censorship schemes, this kind of transparency is unlikely for obvious reasons. If the government succeeds, Australia will be joining such esteemed champions of free speech such as China, Saudia Arabia and Iran.

There are simultaneous protests being held around the country on Saturday 13th December. Details available from http://www.nocleanfeedforum.com/. The Melbourne protest details are available from here and here. Facebook event here.

When a student union collides with reality

A happy resolution to my previous post about the Cystic Fibrosis charity shmozzle from Carleton University, Canada.

It appears that the voices of outrage and protest on this patently ridiculous motion were heard (via FiveFeetofFury). Two student councillors resigned (including the idiot that crafted the motion) and students at the university are wanting to impeach the student president.

Political Correctness 0 Reality 1

The fisk to end all fisks

The ultimate internet smackdown courtesy of Mark Steyn. You don't really need to know of the details of the debate to be awed by the point by point take down, with trademark humour and wit.

His mastery of english from internet slang-1337 speak, to properly constructed Queens English witticisms puts everyone to shame, not least the journalism professor who is the target of this particular column.

Read it all. It's an education....

(oh and don't send your kids to study journalism at Ryerson University, Canada)

Law & Enforcement

A firebrand, a "radical right-wing extremist", an agent provocateur, someone who regularly gets death threats for her columns, one of the few people the left hate more than Dubya, I am of course talking about Ann Coulter.

My post here talked about the ethical and judicial difficulties of exactly what we should do with non-state, non-uniformed combatants today. In her latest column, she demonstrates quite well the difficulties of closing Guantanamo and the problems of recidivism from at least one of the ex-inmates.

The crux of the column:

"After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer."

Go read it all. It's worth it.

Pirates 1 - Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions 0

This story won't be raising the share price of "Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions" anytime soon.

A description of the battle:

"They fired water cannon at the pirates, and zig-zagged. They also used a long range accoustic device (LRAD) which fires laser-like beams of excruciatingly-painful sound at attackers. They beat off three or four attacks but the pirates then began firing RPGs at the LRAD’s operator."

This is an LRAD.

An embarrassing description of the rescue:

“There were three members of the crew on the roof (of the ship),” said Frederic Karakaya, the helicopter pilot. “They were hiding and signalled to us. They were spotted, and jumped into the water.

“We pretended we hadn’t seen them so we didn’t alert the pirates to their position. We dropped a coloured marker, then gave their position to a German Lynx (helicopter) which winched them aboard.”

Can't say I blame them. Facing down machine guns and rocket propelled grenades with a water hose and what is essentially a large speaker, I'd probably be jumping in the water too or looking for another job.

One last thing straight out of a Hollywood movie:

"The pirates then fired on them while they were in the water, and tried to run them down in the hijacked vessel. "

The "Impossibility" of Science Fiction

This is fascinating. Anyone who has read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age will immediately see the similarity. In the story, there is technology that allows companies to design a form of chemical/bio-technological seed that grows into something. In the universe of the story, companies grow huge islands on the sea for human colonization, however one brilliant technologist designs a 'seed' which turns into an interactive encyclopedia for his daughter, and changes the world.

Impossible? Think again. Welcome to the world of DNA origami....

Mumbai Massacre

Picture source

With bullets and explosions still ringing out in Mumbai, it's worth noting that this kind of coordinated chaos is possible anywhere in the world with the right motivations.

Mumbai does not have a great history when it comes to terrorist attacks. In July 2006, there were 7 explosions on commuter trains that killed 174 people. Bombs killed 52 Muslims in 2003. In 1993, bombs killed 250 civilians and 700 injured.

I'm sure there are more, but you get the picture. It is a city often targeted by terrorists.

Paranoia and misinformation are key weapons in these types of attacks, and the most recent ones are no exception. A previously unheard of group (Deccan Mujahaideen) is claiming responsibility. The Indian authorities have been fingering the Pakistani based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) since the beginning, and there appears to be more than a few crazies willing to point the finger at Mossad, because you know, Israel has so much to gain from blowing up India.

From a technical perspective, the popularity of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies has run circles around traditional news media, with BBC quoting twitter as a news source and emergency contact information being propagated at lightning speeds. Blogs and other new media technologies are not only reporting the news but also creating the news, in a strange self-referential feeding frenzy. This link will show you a real-time updated comments of twitter users on the #mumbai channel. Flickr, a popular photo sharing site is hosting snaps from locals about the incidents, with some contributors being interviewed by TV stations. The speed at which news gets out is incredible, and makes the world just that little bit smaller.

I hope the Indian authorities find and kill/prosecute all those responsible, however these kind of attacks are unlikely to stop. And inevitably they will spread to other countries.

Update: Fixed spelling and added link to Reuters story.

Identity Politics

In this brave new post-racial world of inclusiveness, love and teddy bears, where a black man has been elected the leader of the free world, and human rights trump all concerns of individual liberty and free speech, surely we can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya?

Well...no. Not if you happen to be white and male. From this story (via FiveFeetofFury) :

"OTTAWA -- The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough.

Cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men" said the motion read Monday night to student councillors, who voted almost unanimously in favour of it."

What an awesome evolution of charity. Apparently diseases are only now worthy of research depending on their impact on designated victim groups. And if you happen to be of European descent, male and straight....hurry up and die already!!! And note, this is

"a win for diversity"

Expect more of these kind of "motions" in the future. Remember kids, it's only Racist if suggested by a whitey...

Addendum: Another instance of identity politics gone too far:

"eHarmony, a Christian-targeted dating website, gets sued by a gay man demanding that the business match him up with a same-sex partner."
...
" To be clear: The company never refused to do business with anyone. Their great “sin” was not providing a specialized service that litigious gay people demanded they provide."

Even some gays recognise the insanity of this type of lawsuit:

"This is nothing more than a nuisance lawsuit. He just felt hurt because a website offered dating services for heterosexuals, but not for him. "

Brave new world indeed.

As previously banned on YouTube

Earlier this year, the Head of the Church of England (Dr Rowan Williams) made some ridiculous remarks about the introduction of Sharia in Britain. Clearly he and his Lord Chief Justice comrade could see which way the wind is blowing (as I mentioned in my post here)

Apparently Sharia law is now in full effect in Britain (at least to those willing to submit to it).

About a month behind the 8-ball, I have caught up on the minor controversy that our good friend Pat Condell created when one of his videos was banned after criticising the Saudis, Saudi Arabia and Islam (you know, the usual things he complains about). After a concerted campaign from his supporters, his video was reinstated.

Enjoy the video you were almost not allowed to see....

Care factor

File away in the who-gives-a-flying-crap file:

Actual headline from The Age: "Abbas threatens snap election"

The world yawns...

Human Rights will be the death of us

This column in the Wall Street Journal (via Melanie Phillips) is an interesting look at the difficulties of prosecuting ye pirates, giving it proper historical context.

The column raises the interesting issue of extra-judicial trials, especially in the light of similar arrangements re: fighting 'unlawful' combatants (read: The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, other scary bearded groups, etc...) and the difficulties of prosecution and incarceration. With the news that President-elect Obama will probably close down Guantanemo, with the probable consequence of bringing the lovable and peaceful huggy-bears that are currently residing there into the US Civil court system.

This poses many problems, principally that of what do you do with them once they've "served their time". Deport them to their countries of origin? Western countries have a certain squeamishness about sending the bad guys back where they came from should their home countries infringe on their 'Human Rights' such as their right to keep breathing.

From the Wall Street Journal column

"Last April the British Foreign Office reportedly warned the Royal Navy not to detain pirates, since this might violate their "human rights" and could even lead to claims of asylum in Britain."

Nothing clearly shows the decline of the West more than that paragraph.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau articulated the idea of The Social Contract* in 1762, in that citizens of a nation, by virtue of being born there, entered into a social covenant (or contract) with society. The imperialism of the West, much like the imperialism of the Romans before it, understood this and promoted this. Ie that the societies held certain commnon values. The reason why they did this is that they felt their values were worthy. In the example of Britain and the West, principally it was the idea of individual human dignity.

Warning: Dead White Male ( picture source)

Rousseau's Contract was a notion that sought to bring together the common will, as laws were " the conditions on which civil society exist." and

"The right of laying down the rules of society belong only to those that form the society"

This is something that every individual, no matter which civilization or ethnic group they belong to understands implicitly. You could argue that International Law, if an extension of Rousseau's idea means that we are all "citizens of world" and that we are all bound by the same laws, thus everything from unrestricted immigration to tolerance of intolerable practices should prevent (mostly) Western countries from exercising their power to restrict immigration or prosecute unlawful combatants that do not follow the commonly understood laws of war (or Geneva Convention). Rousseau however has a rejoinder to this situation:

"There is undoubtedly a universal justice which springs from reason alone, but if that justice is to be acknowledge as such it must be reciprocal"

Therein lies to the answer to the hysterical lefties who protest the injustice(s) of Guantanemo, the US Army and supporters of David Hicks.

"Guantanamo is a terrible place where you get several helpings of torture a day with generous sides of beatings and it is all so injust as you are only an innocent goat-herder? How about the injustice visited of these Taliban prisoners (WARNING: Pictures of dead bodies) ? Are there reciprocal cries of injustice from the same groups?

[chirp-chirp]


To be continued....

*quoting from Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1762) "The Social Contract", published by Penguin Books, England (2004)

"Kalashnikovs, goats and khat"

These guys are exceptionally well organised, and they clearly understand the need for PR.

Here we have an in-depth interview with the "brigands" courtesy of the Daily Mail. Interesting reading.
There is one small appeal to 'root causes':

"'Before, I was an honest fisherman,' he declares as he crouches on the scalding sand. 'But since the commercial fishing boats emptied our seas, we have had to find a way to survive.'
...
'Money is no longer a problem,' he nods happily. "

And in other news, thanks to the profitable piracy season this year, the pirates are making an offer to acquire Citibank.

Negative coverage in The Age?

This is just awesome.
(Full link here [http://www.theage.com.au/national/local-muslim-clerics-accused-20081120-6ctp.html] because The Age doesn't have a stellar record at keeping archived articles or making it easier to search for them)

Clearly I don't believe that the misogynistic elements of a certain faith are "awesome", only that this story is reported on the front page of The Age. And that is awesome. Because our media organs are reporting some "uncomfortable" facts without couching it in multi-cultural-politically-correct-tolerance terms. The editorial board fight between the multi-culturalists and the feminists about covering this story would have been history-making. I'm glad the feminists won. I hope they keep winning.

It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.

And a bit further on:

The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.

Note: this isn't in some backwater 3rd world middle eastern country. This is in Melbourne. Australia. OK, Shepparton is mentioned as well, but I still consider that part of Australia.

Community members quoted in the report believe that imams' narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.

Well...duh....

But we can't have this kind of reporting without some dissembling from the imams to make up the 'balance':

The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints "absolutely".

"They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact," he said.

Note that the report was using "community members" as the source for their stories, clearly members of the Islamic community in Melbourne. But Sheikh Fehmi denies them "absolutely". That's fine. The Sheikh's 'religion' denies "absolutely" the separation of Church and State, which works for us quite fine thank you, so clearly denial runs deep (and not a river in Egypt).

The fact that this report was commissioned by the Howard Government and reported positively on the cover of The Age may force me to rethink my opinions of this left-wing propaganda leaflet broadsheet.

Here's some further (slightly nicer) coverage on the Sheikh and his faith:

"Cleric vows to end segregation in mosques"
<http://www.theage.com.au/national/cleric-vows-to-end-segregation-in-mosques-20081121-6e4u.html>

Good luck with that...

Extraditing Speech II

This story about a Holocaust denier successfully resisting an EU extradition order is actually a good thing.

Whilst this guy has some disgusting and false ideas, the notion that he could be dragged from a a plane on the tarmac at Heathrow, under the jurisdiction of an EU arrest warrant issued on the behalf of the German government for opinions published on a web page when he was living in Australia had frightening implications for everyone. (I previously wrote about him here)

His crime was posting some Holocaust denial material on the web in 2000 and 2004, when he was residing in Australia. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany but not Australia.

However it's not complete victory for free speech, the Judge only stopped the extradition:

because the warrant contained only "sparse" details about Dr Toben's alleged offences, including exactly what they were, as well as where and when they took place.

which would suggest that had the German authorities actually given accurate web addresses to the postings, then the judge may have allowed the extradition.

Let me repeat myself: The idea that you can get extradited (read:punished) to a foreign country for breaking their domestic laws, when the 'crime' was committed in a completely different country has frightening implications, whether these arrest warrants are issued under the auspices of the ever so just and never corrupt EU parliament or UN.

It is totalitarian in nature and this idea that a country can extend the sovereignty of it's laws to another country goes against the very concept of a sovereign nation, however I suspect that is the idea.

Pirates pirates pirates

With the news that the Saudi owned MV Sirius Star was hijacked earlier this week some 450 miles south east of Mombasas in Kenya, with a full cargo of oil worth about USD$100million, it would appear that the ol' pirates are extending their reach.

Previously, merchant ships were targeted as they entered the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Suez Canal through which 7.5% of the worlds sea trade is carried out, however this Saudi ship was hijacked over 2,000km from the Gulf of because the ship is too big for the Suez Canal, they were going to travel around Africa.

The MV Sirius Star, is a supertanker that ways approximately 390,000 tonnes and has a length of 332m and a beam (or width) of 58m and when full, carries up to a quarter of the daily oil output of Saudi Arabia. To put this into perspective, the US Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carriers have the same length and a beam of 40.84m. In other words, this class of aircraft carrier slightly smaller than the MV Sirius Star.
The fact the pirates could hijack a ship this size shows that any ship is vulnerable. Something every country with a shipping industry in the world is very concerned about. So much so that even the once proud and currently gun-shy Royal Navy is now engaging the pirates, as is the Indian Navy, French commandos have carried out two rescues this year which included some chasing down the pirates on land and giving em' what for, and the US 5th Fleet is currently patrolling the area, and the Russkies have a destroyer there too.

So all in all, might be a good time for our pirate friends to seek out other career opportunities.

A question of faith

(picture source)

It seems that humans have an innate need to believe in something larger than themselves, be it a supernatural deity or deities, heaven/hell or teapots.

These days we have a religion disguised as science, a political system disguised as a religion, and scientists and atheists behaving like evangelising missionaries.

Western Civilization is unique in that it appears to be the only one where the debate on the meaning of God and His involvement with human affairs became the central narrative of our civilization. The story of Christianity incorporates the desire of religious power to be the final word in the affairs of man, and the inevitable responses from the State, varying from “No, bugger off” to different flavours of homicide, fratricide, and genocide.

From very early on, Christian authorities realised that to have the freedom to worship, they would have to demonstrate to the powers that be that they were not a threat, and that corporeal power was something best left to princes, whilst they would hold the monopoly to the incorporeal Kingdom. It didn't always go that way; if we were inclined to be generous, you could say it was a guiding principal of Christian doctrine. As Jesus put it “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” (Matthew 22:15-22)

Until around 300AD when the Roman Emperor Claudius I made Christianity the “official state religion”, Christianity was competing with a whole bunch of pagan religions and the Roman State; it has been widely recognised that the success of the Roman Empire was instrumental in spreading Christian beliefs. Like it or not the West is a direct beneficiary of Greco-Roman-Christian civilization. Our world-views, ethics and morals all come from the same source. This is not say it is the final word on all things ever, but it is important to recognise that fact.

“In Islam God is Ceasar, in China and Japan, Caesar is God, in Orthodoxy [Russia] God is Caesar's junior partner.”
-- Samuel P Huntingdon (1996), The Clash of the Civilizaions and the Remaking of the World Order

The history of the West is in many ways, the history of Christianity, the power struggles between the bishops and princes. And as with any other human endeavour, the best and worst of human nature was there in spades . With the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the consequent foundation of the Protestant faith, faith became a private matter between the individual and God, as opposed to only being able to hear the message of God through ordained authorities. The recognition of the foibles of human nature and their respective religious (read: very human) institutions was a principle motivator for Enlightenment thinkers advocating the separation of Church and State. As I have previously stated, this is perhaps the defining difference between the West and the Rest.

"However, within Islam's all-encompassing religiopolitical ideology, no dichotomy exists between the civil world of government and the theological world of religion."
--Janet Levy, 1/3/08, "The Fallacy of Shared Values"

In the West we generally view faith as something that you practice privately, or with like minded people. I don't have a problem whatever Space Monkey, God, or Flying Spaghetti Monster you want to believe in. I do have a problem however, should you feel compelled to make me 'respect' those ideas, free of criticism or inquiry.

The Church (or Space Monkey) has no place in the legislative (or jurisdictional) space, and it extremely sad that the British Lord Chief Justice and many others no longer believe this. It is even more depressing that the Archbishop of Canterbury (head of the Church of England) believes that the central aspect of Islamic theology, namely Sharia law, is compatible with western liberal democracy:

"In conclusion, it seems that if we are to think intelligently about the relations between Islam and British law, we need a fair amount of 'deconstruction' of crude oppositions and mythologies, whether of the nature of sharia or the nature of the Enlightenment. "
--Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, 7th Feb,2008

"What the Reverend Doctor has missed, is that the failure of Muslim immigrants to assimilate is not because of our failure to accommodate, but their failure to grasp a rational epistemology. His treason, however, is far worse than betraying English values or the dogmas of his creed, he has betrayed what made both possible, a culture of reason. The English Common Law, nor the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith, was not the product of men who thought the best way to win an argument was to blow themselves up."
-- http://godscopybook.blogs.com/gpb/2008/02/assorted-link-1.html

If anything, defines the West apart from the other civilizations, it is the principal of individual rights with respect to the State. On this principal alone it is completely and utterly in opposition to the legal and theological precepts of Sharia. Black and White. God and the Devil. Coke and Pepsi.

The Christian ideal of “tolerance” has been taken too far when a clearly intolerant world-view is accepted as valid, principally because it is practiced by the “ever oppressed foreigner.”. This ties in neatly with the idea of “White Guilt”. More on that particular thought later....

The Warming blues....

You know that little matter of faith I completely deny, also known as Man-made global warming?

Well, you can't really go higher than Dr James Hansen who works for Nasa's Goddard Space Institute for Space studies who:

"who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change."

Well, it appears that Mr science-is-settled-that's-the-consensus-so-STFU has made a teensy-weensy little error on the latest Warming figures.

"On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". "

Fascinating. Note that this joker is Da Man (after the Nobel Laureate Goracle of course!) when it comes to The Warming heeby-jeebies.

Some more juice:

"Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s."

Please people, keep telling me The Warming is Real and We Must Act Now!!!! Let's completely hamstring our economy on the basis of what these consensus builders say.

Here's what I think of your Warming....


Here's some blogs written by real climate experts:

• http://www.climateaudit.org/
• http://wattsupwiththat.com/

Incivility

Two things from the Herald Sun today.

Jill Singer (who I believe is a closet conservative in lefty clothing) writes about an incident she experienced on the 112 Tram.

"While it stops in Middle Park, a loud and boisterous cluster of teenage girls shove me aside as they make to leap aboard.

"Get out of our way, you effing slut," says one of these charmers. "

And then Damon Young, (author of Distraction: A philosopher's guide to being free) writes:

"EVERY time I board a train, I see him. And he annoys the hell of me. He's in his 20s, he has his sunglasses on, cap pulled down, and iPod in.

And he's sitting on the seat reserved for elderly or special needs passengers.

My pregnant wife and toddler son need to sit down, but he's not moving. "

Whilst I would argue that having an iPod for public transport is pretty much a necessity, both authors have experienced the same thing. a lack of respect. Now the reasons for both incidents I'm sure are many and varied (root causes, the disintegration of the family unit, the invention of the best MP3 player evah, blah blah blah), however it points to the same thing that apparently even the ancient Greeks used to complain about; the "incivility of youth". Having been a youth once, I remember how pissed off I was when 'grown ups' used to order me out of my seat on the tram because I was only paying concession.

In Jill's case, I have no idea what the right thing to do is when dealing with a gang of violent teenage slags. In the olden days, if young 'uns had tried the same thing with adults, they would have got a smack around the ears and roundly told off. These days with the sense of entitlement that kids have and the fact smacking your own kids is frowned upon, there's no reason why these little !@# shouldn't do what they want. Why not? There's no consequences for their anti-social behaviour. Had either of the authors responded with any sort of physical contact, the State would have come down hard on both of them, leaving these "charmers" to continue on their merry little way. Ask Jeremy Clarkson, the presenter of Top Gear, who had a run in with some teenage 'hoodies'. After provoking him, the little scamps recorded his outburst on a mobile phone, and then the cops brought him in for questioning, eventually clearing him.

What's to be done? Without wading into the morality morass of what constitutes a family unit these days, I would suggest that maybe a 'recalibrating' of the legislative focus on juvenile anti-social behaviour. I'm confident that even if these 'young pups' had completely absent parents, if they knew that the consequences of being violent to other other members of society, regardless of age, would be punished the same way, then that would force a rethink before acting out violently. And should an adult citizen act out in self defence against gangs of marauding teenagers, then maybe the Law should consider the case on it's merits and not automatically vilify the adult for being in a position of 'power' or whatever.

Given the state of policing in Victoria these days I'm not exactly confident.

The Gayest Community Service Announcement

Controlling language is paramount to the utopian vision of humanity. Pretty sure George Orwell got it right in his book 1984. My previous posts (here and here) talk a little about the intent to control language, and the sheer ridiculousness of it, however that doesn't stop well intentioned bureaucrats and politicians advancing these insane regulations.

If only we could stop people saying certain words then those things will stop.

So for example, if only could stop people screaming "Islamophobia!" then maybe it will all just fade away (although that starts the debate on how something that doesn't exist can just fade away....but I digress).

Introducing the newest community service announcement (from the city of New York, although I'm not 100% on that one) that is slated to be as effective and memorable as Nancy Reagans "Just Say No" campaign.

Longer Ski holidays thanks to The Warming

And in Global Warming news, so much snow has fallen on European ski resorts this year that they opened early, some up to a month early.

Damn that Warming!!!! Making rich people have more fun. I wonder where Al Gore will be skiing this season...

Offending Language

So I might have been a bit facetious about the removal of latin words from an English council communications, however this one just goes beyond the pale.

Imagine that, they're actually afraid of offending the Welsh. To put it in Australian terms, that's like Victorians being afraid of offending Tasmanians.

@#$! sake....

The dogs President

Coming to you via Kathy Shaidle in FiveFeetofFury

This was an op-ed in the New York Times:

Here, in a few sentences, Obama did the following: He deepened his bond with every dog lover in America. He identified with every household that’s tried to figure out what kind of dog to get. He touched every parent with a kid allergic to pets. He showed compassion by preferring a dog from a shelter. And he demonstrated a dry and slightly politically incorrect wit by commenting that “a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

Not bad. It could be a tough four or eight years for conservatives.

When I first read it, I thought he was taking the piss. He isn't. He is dead serious.

No wonder the Republicans lost... they didn't even bother courting the "dog" vote.

Gays vs African-Americans

This is weird. I though once The One was elected that all racism would just disappear overnight, and that this was the moment "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

However, the problem with messianic intentions and utopian visions is that quite often "real" (or dare I say it 'objective') reality intrudes, and human natures reveals itself to be what it has always been...messy, nasty and well, plain self-interested.

To whit, here's a story about Gay activists calling black protesters the "n-word" about the protests on California's Prop 8, a bill allowing same-sex marriage.

Not that this has anything to with The Chosen One however this is only 2 days after the US elected the first black man as president, and "everyone" (at least that's what the media shows) has been wallowing in sheer orgiastic extasy over the end of bushhitler, racism and the bogeyman.

Oh well, I guess humans will be humans....

Who

(Amazon link)

is this author is talking about...

"His campaign commercials...boasted that this was a "time for greatness". [ ] like Mussolini, promised a national "restoration" and a "new politics" that would transcend old categories of left and right. He insisted that the forceful application of his own will in solving the nation's problems than traditional democratic means."
--Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism", 2007

Any of the above sound familiar?

Right on cue...

I think this must have happened about 5.4 seconds after the Obama acceptance speech:

Headline: Russia to deploy short-range missiles near Poland

(can't see what they're worried about though, given my last post, The One's as yet unarticulated policies and his ideological mentors, they should be extending the hand of the proletarian revolution or whatever it is that commies do when they say hello to each other)

Excuse me sir, i think that's the wrong flag....

You know how it is, being young, beautiful US citizen having elected the first 'black' US president, swept up in the moment of "Change" and "Hope" and letting your hair down and screaming and waving the Hammer and Sickle flag in support....hang on...what?

That "per se" is illegal

Re: this

(with apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller )

First they came for prima facie, but I thought nothing of it because it was first, and I said nothing
Then they came for status quo, but I thought socking it to "The Man" was OK, and I said nothing
Then they came for ad lib, as it was a bit spontaneous, so I said nothing
Then they came for pro rata, and I wasn't worried because it was only part of the full thing, and I said nothing
Then they came for et cetera, and it was all blah blah blah and so on, so I said nothing
Then they came for my bona fides, and there was no latin left.

Gay rights at the UN? ha ha

Just in case any of you were still in the thrall of the UN with the promised Nirvana of Human Rights, you might want to read this story.

Islamic (in)tolerance trumps Gay Rights.

How long do you think before the advances in Women's Rights are slowly rolled back...you know, so as not to offend certain countries.

E-shopping you can believe in

Would you trust an online e-commerce site that had knowingly disabled all anti-fraud mechanisms on their credit card payment processing? How about if it turned out they had re-written or bypassed any anti-fraud payment processing checks?

Would you trust the CEO of that organisation if he/she was willing to keep using the money and the system even after the story made it to the press?

What if that person was running for public office? Say, president of the United States?

A less nuanced approach to the story:

• Mark Steyn
• A credit card expert

A little more on that Iranian dirty-bomb-ship

Whilst I fully subscribe to the idea that the media suppresses certain stories if it does not meet the accepted narrative, I find it hard to believe that international news agencies (as opposed to US) are that in the tank for the Chosen One to not report this.

http://www.scoopthis.org/2008/10/iran-dirty-bomb-plot-thwarted-days-away-from-execution-no-media-coverage-for-2-months-and-counting/

However it is a little strange that it hasn't quite got into the mainstream media yet. I can't really say why, but hope that suddenly the "backchannels" to Mad Jad's regime are getting flooded by the international community going "tut-tut. Mahmoud, you REALLY can't do this kind of crap"

However I'm not holding my breath....

Agent of Change? Or Unreformed Socialist?

(source: http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/MichaelRamirez/2008/10/9)

Unless you've been living in Tasmania, you may have noticed that the US presidential election is weeks away. And the sheer volume of media coverage on Sarah Palin should give you cause for concern.

The more someone tells me I have to believe something, the less inclined I am to believe it. My current denial of man-made global warming is as a direct result of being bombarded with messages since I was about 5 that we (and by we, I mean the West and it's offspring, capitalism) are entirely responsible for all environmental degradation since the dinosaurs.

The 24/7 media "investigations" into every minute aspect of Sarah Palin's life is raising a constant source of non-scandals that is keeping the mainstream media way too busy to look into the real scandals of their chosen presidential candidate.

If you recognise even two of the names in the cartoon above, then clearly you're getting your news from sources other than the papers. If John McCain had been associated with any of those characters, he would have been publicly crucified and hung out to dry (and rightly so I might add).

However, instead of trying to work out what actually triggered the current financial crisis and the consequent USD$700 billion government bailout, (and exactly how much a particular presidential candidate had in causing it) we are treated to some real hard-hitting scoops on the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

The media bias in this election has got to such a stage that there is now an increasing. amount. of. journos. (registered Democrats some of them) that are horrified that among other things, instead of investigating Obama's ties with unrepentant domestic terrorists, they are going after a private citizen Joe the Plumber who had the temerity to ask the Chosen One a question.

In this media saturated modern age, perception is everything and that is exactly what the Obama campaign is counting on. The possibility that the next US president could be a fully committed socialist is astounding in the fact that there appears to be absolutely zero interest by the media in investigating it.



Links
Mark Steyn (as the last loyal right-wingnut pundit) on the current state of the campaign:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-most-one-2205757-world-people

"We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years. We are deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism.
Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the people of the world, to join the world struggle, to attack from the inside. "
Bill Ayers manifesto: http://www.zombietime.com/prairie_fire/

Government Computers used to dig dirt on Joe:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/24/joe.html?sid=101

Taliban Summer Camps of Fun

(picture source)

Just in case you had forgotten exactly why we are in Afghanistan:

"It was like a factory that had been recruiting nine to 12-year-old boys, and turning them into suicide bombers,"

Note: these are the same ideological compadres of that treasonous-creep-cum-Guantanemo-martyr David Hicks.

And these are our heroes that we send there to stop these monsters.

"Suffering from serious upper-body wounds, the soldier struggled on to the front of his SAS long range patrol vehicle and, under heavy fire, used a rope to attach himself firmly between the vehicle's bull bar and radiator.
Once he was secured, and there was no chance he would fall off if he fainted, he picked up his DM-4 assault rifle and resumed firing at the enemy during a two-hour fighting withdrawal."

Audie Murphy would be proud...