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.