'...AmeriCorps is one of Obama’s favorite federal programs. They know that AmeriCorps gave an $800,000-plus grant to Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., who just happens to be an influential friend and supporter of the president. They know that Walpin investigated Johnson’s misuse of that federal money. They know that as a result of Walpin’s probe, Johnson was suspended from receiving any new federal grants, a fact that caused controversy in Sacramento when leaders realized it could prevent the city from receiving millions in federal stimulus money. They know that, amid the local uproar over the Johnson affair, the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento, Lawrence Brown, made a deal to let Johnson off the hook, and then took the unusual step of denouncing Walpin. They know that Walpin vigorously objected to Johnson’s getting off easy. And they know that after Walpin protested, the president fired him.'
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Probe-finds-new-clues-in-AmeriCorps-IG-scandal--52109667.html
Amongst the many, many things Barack Obama promised during his campaign for President was an end to business-as-usual Washington politics. Most people interpreted that as a good thing. They believed it meant transparency would replace secrecy, that clean government would replace corruption and venality, and that representatives would listen to their constituents rather than lobbyists.
What is has meant in this case is that large organisations who recieve funds from the federal government now need not worry about misspending the money- as long as they are friends of Barack. Can you say Banana Republic? Can you say 'public policy as operated by all the third-world shitholes'? Can you say becoming more like Haiti and less like the United States every day?
Friday, July 31, 2009
HRW: ignorant or worse?
'Human rights campaigners have voiced concern over the death of the leader of an Islamic sect in Nigerian police custody, calling it "unlawful" killing.
Nigerian government officials said Mohammed Yusuf, 39, was shot while trying to escape. His capture by police had been announced just hours earlier.
His group is blamed for days of unrest that has left hundreds of people dead....
Staff at Human Rights Watch said there should be an immediate investigation into the case.
"The extrajudicial killing of Mr Yusuf in police custody is a shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for the rule of law," said Human Rights Watch's Eric Guttschuss.
Another Human Rights Watch researcher, Corinne Dufka, told AP news agency: "The Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for this unlawful killing and any others associated with the recent violence in northern Nigeria."'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8177681.stm
Is this deliberate provocation? The houses torched byProcol Boko Haram are still smoking, the bodies of the dead policemen and Christian citizens are not buried yet, and Human Rights Watch is positively incensed by the summary execution of the leader of the murderous gang. This goes beyond a weird sense of priorities, straight across into cheerleading for the muslims. By making a big splash about the killing of Muhammad Yusuf, they guaruntee that most muslim enclaves in Britain and round the world will never spend a second thinking about the dead Nigerian Christians, but only embroidering their vast conspiracy and grievance theories.
It almost defies belief. Do these smart, smart people really think that Northern Nigeria has a crime problem? Do they really think that the missing ingredient is proper police procedures?
Think back to Rwanda. What stopped the Hutu genocide? A highly effective Tutsi army. They didn't go round the country insisting that the Hutus follow proper police procedures; there wouldn't be any Tutsis left. Is the HRW attitude parochial and ignorant, or is it worse than that?
Given their casual equanimity with hundreds of brutally murdered Christian Nigerians, we have to suspect that it is.
Nigerian government officials said Mohammed Yusuf, 39, was shot while trying to escape. His capture by police had been announced just hours earlier.
His group is blamed for days of unrest that has left hundreds of people dead....
Staff at Human Rights Watch said there should be an immediate investigation into the case.
"The extrajudicial killing of Mr Yusuf in police custody is a shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for the rule of law," said Human Rights Watch's Eric Guttschuss.
Another Human Rights Watch researcher, Corinne Dufka, told AP news agency: "The Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for this unlawful killing and any others associated with the recent violence in northern Nigeria."'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8177681.stm
Is this deliberate provocation? The houses torched by
It almost defies belief. Do these smart, smart people really think that Northern Nigeria has a crime problem? Do they really think that the missing ingredient is proper police procedures?
Think back to Rwanda. What stopped the Hutu genocide? A highly effective Tutsi army. They didn't go round the country insisting that the Hutus follow proper police procedures; there wouldn't be any Tutsis left. Is the HRW attitude parochial and ignorant, or is it worse than that?
Given their casual equanimity with hundreds of brutally murdered Christian Nigerians, we have to suspect that it is.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
West Wing vs Engine Room
'The one leading policy wonk on health care, Budget Director Peter Orszag, has either missed signals of danger or has failed to communicate their seriousness to his colleagues. On Feb. 25, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, a Democratic appointee, signaled in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee that the CBO would not credit health care bills with the budget savings the administration was promising.
Orszag, as a former CBO director himself, should have realized what this meant, which is that Democrats would have to shape their bills accordingly. They didn't, and were stunned when the CBO came out in June and this month with estimates of little or no savings.'
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-has-aura-but-doesn_t-know-how-to-legislate-8032142-51922177.html
You may have seen "The West Wing", a beautifully-filmed fantasy of how spectacularly thoughtful, humane, sophisticated, urbane, witty and effective a Democrat President and his acolytes would have been if they'd actually won; and that dim-wit Bush hadn't spoiled the party. Time after time, the fictional protagonists razor-sharp wits and deeply moral underpinnings led America away from evil and towards the light.
Then Barack Obama won the Presidency. Now we can measure "The West Wing" against an actual, blood-and-bone Democrat presidency. Oooops!
Can you say 'amateur'? This was the line that caught my eye - 'He created the impression on the campaign trail that he was familiar with major issues and readily ticked off his positions on them.' How many of the people occupying chairs in the White House are at the level of a tick-list when it comes to understanding the problems and difficulties of the United States? You know, they've read the bullet points. They've read the handy synopses of the issues printed up for distribution at demos. They've discussed Americas problems in the bar, and at BBQ's and over dinner. What more does a Democrat politician need?
And of course the answer is NOTHING. Sadly, though, the people in the White House are meant to be executive personnel not politicians. Canny politics, those arts of misdirection, vagueness and lying got them into the White House. But now they have to run the country. Oooops again.
Five out of Obamas twelve years as a 'legislator' were spent running for some other more senior office. He had written two books about himself by the time he was twenty eight. Obamas major, perhaps only, subject is Barack Obama. You can see why he might not have had time to bone up on dusty, boring subjects like the Health Care industry in the United States. I mean, where is the Barack Obama angle?
Obama is still wedded to all his sophomoric marxist fantasies and fundamentally they are what guide his opinions and behaviour on legislation. He doesn't care about the details, he wants that huge chunk of human life comprised in health care under the aegis of government. Details are for lesser mortals- the Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis of this world. All the difficult policy work on Obamas agenda has so far been outsourced to the dimwits on Capitol Hill. At least Billary had the nous and the work-ethic to produce their own Health Care Reform bill, although it never got out of the starting blocks.
I'm going to make a prediction: by the end of his term in office, Obama will be the least-respected, most-reviled President ever. The pathetic platitudes, lordly hauteur and pseudo-intellectualism that got him into office will metastasize in the publics minds and become terrible jokes. Walter Mitty will get laughed out of town. He had better hope the Dems don't pass a terrible, ignorant Health care reform bill. Doing nothing won't get you in as much trouble as doing something terrible.
Orszag, as a former CBO director himself, should have realized what this meant, which is that Democrats would have to shape their bills accordingly. They didn't, and were stunned when the CBO came out in June and this month with estimates of little or no savings.'
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-has-aura-but-doesn_t-know-how-to-legislate-8032142-51922177.html
You may have seen "The West Wing", a beautifully-filmed fantasy of how spectacularly thoughtful, humane, sophisticated, urbane, witty and effective a Democrat President and his acolytes would have been if they'd actually won; and that dim-wit Bush hadn't spoiled the party. Time after time, the fictional protagonists razor-sharp wits and deeply moral underpinnings led America away from evil and towards the light.
Then Barack Obama won the Presidency. Now we can measure "The West Wing" against an actual, blood-and-bone Democrat presidency. Oooops!
Can you say 'amateur'? This was the line that caught my eye - 'He created the impression on the campaign trail that he was familiar with major issues and readily ticked off his positions on them.' How many of the people occupying chairs in the White House are at the level of a tick-list when it comes to understanding the problems and difficulties of the United States? You know, they've read the bullet points. They've read the handy synopses of the issues printed up for distribution at demos. They've discussed Americas problems in the bar, and at BBQ's and over dinner. What more does a Democrat politician need?
And of course the answer is NOTHING. Sadly, though, the people in the White House are meant to be executive personnel not politicians. Canny politics, those arts of misdirection, vagueness and lying got them into the White House. But now they have to run the country. Oooops again.
Five out of Obamas twelve years as a 'legislator' were spent running for some other more senior office. He had written two books about himself by the time he was twenty eight. Obamas major, perhaps only, subject is Barack Obama. You can see why he might not have had time to bone up on dusty, boring subjects like the Health Care industry in the United States. I mean, where is the Barack Obama angle?
Obama is still wedded to all his sophomoric marxist fantasies and fundamentally they are what guide his opinions and behaviour on legislation. He doesn't care about the details, he wants that huge chunk of human life comprised in health care under the aegis of government. Details are for lesser mortals- the Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis of this world. All the difficult policy work on Obamas agenda has so far been outsourced to the dimwits on Capitol Hill. At least Billary had the nous and the work-ethic to produce their own Health Care Reform bill, although it never got out of the starting blocks.
I'm going to make a prediction: by the end of his term in office, Obama will be the least-respected, most-reviled President ever. The pathetic platitudes, lordly hauteur and pseudo-intellectualism that got him into office will metastasize in the publics minds and become terrible jokes. Walter Mitty will get laughed out of town. He had better hope the Dems don't pass a terrible, ignorant Health care reform bill. Doing nothing won't get you in as much trouble as doing something terrible.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
MI-6 strike again, a bit like Spectre
'They have launched co-ordinated attacks across northern Nigeria, threatening to overthrow the government and impose strict Islamic law - but who exactly are the Nigerian Taliban?'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8172270.stm
Isn't it obvious? Its MI-6! Who else could it be?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8172270.stm
Isn't it obvious? Its MI-6! Who else could it be?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Its the Somme all over again II
This is an update of the previous post by this name. Last night I watched a documentary called "1916: Total War". It was mainly about the Somme- why it was fought, how it was fought, what it meant to those who took part, and what its effect was on the British army.
The Somme is constantly used by lefties as shorthand for 'prime example of the futility of war, and especially the stupidity of donkey aristocrats who think nothing of killing their working class squaddies'. As this documentary points out, that analysis is bullshit. Approximately two hundred thousand ordinary soldiers turned out for Earl Haigs funeral. Earl Haig was the general in charge at the Somme. The Somme was the blooding of a whole nations fighting men, Lord Kitcheners New Army. It was the formative experience which enabled the victories of 1918, the greatest victories a British army has ever won, by the largest army Britain has ever fielded.
British casualties on the first day of the Somme were 57,470 of which 19,240 were killed or died of wounds. As a point of comparison, the whole Rhodesian army was approximately 20,000. The battle then ground on for four and a half months.
No British engagement in the twenty-first century compares to the great clashes of the twentieth. To put it into perspective, the New Zealand Division, lost 2,000 of its 15,000 men at the Somme. That is more men lost in one battle than Britain has lost in all warfare since the Korean war. Britain lost 179 personnel (many not combat fatalities) in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. It has lost 191 personnel in Afghanistan (again many not combat fatalities) in the even longer period 2001 to 2009. By absolutely any yardstick, those are miniscule totals. Given the amount of contacts and combat that have taken place in both countries, it shows how staggeringly effective our forces are at killing and not being killed.
Yet if you read the BBC website, you'd imagine that not only are our troops pathetic little children wandering about in someone elses war, but that they are taking casualties on a massive scale. They are victims, hung out to dry by the monster Gordon Brown and the despicable MOD.
How many Britons outside the White City group wank see our armed forces this way? A tiny sprinkling in our big cities, and thats all. Everybody else (excepting the moslems in the moslem state-within-a-state enclaves) see them as heroes, the battle-hardened but thin green line toughing out a mostly unrewarding posting in inhospitable places on our behalf.
The BBC coercively takes £3.2 BILLION every year from British taxpayers, and yet their coverage of Afghanistan is completely pathetic and shit.
Compare:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8167615.stm
with:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/an-artery-of-opium-a-vein-of-taliban.htm
Michael Yon gets no assistance from anyone, just private contributions (please make one if you like his material). And yet he does a better job than the whole over-paid BBC. Why aren't people angry? Maybe they are.
The Somme is constantly used by lefties as shorthand for 'prime example of the futility of war, and especially the stupidity of donkey aristocrats who think nothing of killing their working class squaddies'. As this documentary points out, that analysis is bullshit. Approximately two hundred thousand ordinary soldiers turned out for Earl Haigs funeral. Earl Haig was the general in charge at the Somme. The Somme was the blooding of a whole nations fighting men, Lord Kitcheners New Army. It was the formative experience which enabled the victories of 1918, the greatest victories a British army has ever won, by the largest army Britain has ever fielded.
British casualties on the first day of the Somme were 57,470 of which 19,240 were killed or died of wounds. As a point of comparison, the whole Rhodesian army was approximately 20,000. The battle then ground on for four and a half months.
No British engagement in the twenty-first century compares to the great clashes of the twentieth. To put it into perspective, the New Zealand Division, lost 2,000 of its 15,000 men at the Somme. That is more men lost in one battle than Britain has lost in all warfare since the Korean war. Britain lost 179 personnel (many not combat fatalities) in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. It has lost 191 personnel in Afghanistan (again many not combat fatalities) in the even longer period 2001 to 2009. By absolutely any yardstick, those are miniscule totals. Given the amount of contacts and combat that have taken place in both countries, it shows how staggeringly effective our forces are at killing and not being killed.
Yet if you read the BBC website, you'd imagine that not only are our troops pathetic little children wandering about in someone elses war, but that they are taking casualties on a massive scale. They are victims, hung out to dry by the monster Gordon Brown and the despicable MOD.
How many Britons outside the White City group wank see our armed forces this way? A tiny sprinkling in our big cities, and thats all. Everybody else (excepting the moslems in the moslem state-within-a-state enclaves) see them as heroes, the battle-hardened but thin green line toughing out a mostly unrewarding posting in inhospitable places on our behalf.
The BBC coercively takes £3.2 BILLION every year from British taxpayers, and yet their coverage of Afghanistan is completely pathetic and shit.
Compare:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8167615.stm
with:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/an-artery-of-opium-a-vein-of-taliban.htm
Michael Yon gets no assistance from anyone, just private contributions (please make one if you like his material). And yet he does a better job than the whole over-paid BBC. Why aren't people angry? Maybe they are.
Unintended consequences of Liberal Bullshit #79,832
'HEATHER MACDONALD: Inside the Jail Inferno. Excerpt: “The spread of quality-of-life policing, which targets low-level offenses like aggressive panhandling, public urination, and littering, has brought a more mentally unstable, troubled population into jails—one that mental hospitals would have treated before the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960s and ’70s shuttered most state mental hospitals. In fact, jails have become society’s primary mental institutions, though few have the funding or expertise to carry out that role properly.'
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/82546/
I'm sure you've seen 'One flew over the Cuckoos nest'- pretty much everybody in the world must have seen it by now. And the point of the movie, which they clonk you over the head with over and over and over again, is that mental asylums are evil places where wonderful, quirky, sweet, harmless weirdos are sent to be zombified and murdered. Asylums are run by little hitlers and sadistic bitches. The staff- indeed the whole institution- represent 'The Man' who just wants to sweep all the slightly aberrant people off the streets into a prison for the mind and body.
So America and Britain and lots of other countries close their Mental Asylums, and guess what? The REAL prisons fill up with the mentally ill. Hmmmmm. Good result!
Normal prisoners, prison warders, the mentally ill and relatives of the mentally ill are all losers. The winners are the libtards who can now sleep the sleep of the self-righteous, knowing they have destroyed the evil Mental Asylum system. Yay for Liberals! Yay for the bright future!
UPDATE
'The number of people killed by those with a mental illness increased between 1997 and 2005, official figures show. The National Confidential Inquiry reported while 54 people were killed in England and Wales in 1997, this had risen to over 70 in both 2004 and 2005.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8173386.stm
Quirky, sweet, harmless weirdos!
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/82546/
I'm sure you've seen 'One flew over the Cuckoos nest'- pretty much everybody in the world must have seen it by now. And the point of the movie, which they clonk you over the head with over and over and over again, is that mental asylums are evil places where wonderful, quirky, sweet, harmless weirdos are sent to be zombified and murdered. Asylums are run by little hitlers and sadistic bitches. The staff- indeed the whole institution- represent 'The Man' who just wants to sweep all the slightly aberrant people off the streets into a prison for the mind and body.
So America and Britain and lots of other countries close their Mental Asylums, and guess what? The REAL prisons fill up with the mentally ill. Hmmmmm. Good result!
Normal prisoners, prison warders, the mentally ill and relatives of the mentally ill are all losers. The winners are the libtards who can now sleep the sleep of the self-righteous, knowing they have destroyed the evil Mental Asylum system. Yay for Liberals! Yay for the bright future!
UPDATE
'The number of people killed by those with a mental illness increased between 1997 and 2005, official figures show. The National Confidential Inquiry reported while 54 people were killed in England and Wales in 1997, this had risen to over 70 in both 2004 and 2005.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8173386.stm
Quirky, sweet, harmless weirdos!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Goddamn hippies
'Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, who advocates reforming copyright laws to allow free file-sharing, downloading, and the right to copy everything from the latest Hollywood blockbuster to patented pharmaceuticals.
"The thing is you can't just monitor some internet traffic," he told me. "In order to find out what you want to see you need to see all of it. It's not about swapping music as such. It's about the Big Brother society that is being set up using the excuse of catching file-sharers.
"We know where this road ends, even though each step of the way can be justified, because so many societies have been down it before."
To make the point, activists deluged Swedish parliamentarians with copies of George Orwell's totalitarian satire 1984 ahead of last year's vote.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8140895.stm
'...Some musicians and artists, like Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus, have spoken out against the Pirate Party, but few will go on the record because the debate is so explosive.' Explosive?
'An exception is Alexandar Bard, a musician behind 100 Swedish top 40 hits, and latterly an academic specialising in the internet.
He says file-sharing is killing the Swedish music industry: "Six years ago Sweden was the third biggest producer of music in the world and last year we were only the ninth.
"So today in Sweden it's impossible to get a recording contract because there are no record companies around to sign with. It means you can't get paid for making music and you can't get a budget to make music.
"File-sharing is not a big issue politically, it's not like climate change or the environment. And the Pirate Party has turned it into a big issue to win votes."
But Pirate Party founder Mr Falkvinge is unrepentant.
"We are going to put the record industry out of business", he says. "And we are very much looking forward to that."'
Oh, ok. I was wondering if the true end-point of these capers was going to be revealed in this article, and it almost is. A country that does not respect property rights ends up a poverty-stricken shithole. Something Mr Falkvinge has never experienced and is therefore looking forward to. Please get back to us Mr Falkvinge after Sweden becomes a poverty-stricken shithole. I especially would want to hear from your children.
"The thing is you can't just monitor some internet traffic," he told me. "In order to find out what you want to see you need to see all of it. It's not about swapping music as such. It's about the Big Brother society that is being set up using the excuse of catching file-sharers.
"We know where this road ends, even though each step of the way can be justified, because so many societies have been down it before."
To make the point, activists deluged Swedish parliamentarians with copies of George Orwell's totalitarian satire 1984 ahead of last year's vote.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8140895.stm
'...Some musicians and artists, like Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus, have spoken out against the Pirate Party, but few will go on the record because the debate is so explosive.' Explosive?
'An exception is Alexandar Bard, a musician behind 100 Swedish top 40 hits, and latterly an academic specialising in the internet.
He says file-sharing is killing the Swedish music industry: "Six years ago Sweden was the third biggest producer of music in the world and last year we were only the ninth.
"So today in Sweden it's impossible to get a recording contract because there are no record companies around to sign with. It means you can't get paid for making music and you can't get a budget to make music.
"File-sharing is not a big issue politically, it's not like climate change or the environment. And the Pirate Party has turned it into a big issue to win votes."
But Pirate Party founder Mr Falkvinge is unrepentant.
"We are going to put the record industry out of business", he says. "And we are very much looking forward to that."'
Oh, ok. I was wondering if the true end-point of these capers was going to be revealed in this article, and it almost is. A country that does not respect property rights ends up a poverty-stricken shithole. Something Mr Falkvinge has never experienced and is therefore looking forward to. Please get back to us Mr Falkvinge after Sweden becomes a poverty-stricken shithole. I especially would want to hear from your children.
Monday, July 13, 2009
We can't lose. No really, we can't.
'Chávez may be preoccupied with what he claims are incipient coups in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. This would be consistent with former President Castro’s assertion the day before that if former President Zelaya “is not returned to his post, a wave of coups threatens to sweep many Latin American governments.”'
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/has-chavez-quit-on-zelaya/2/
A coup, just to clarify for those of you who missed my post about fake democracy, is an election where the lefties lose due to their abominable mismanagement of the country.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/has-chavez-quit-on-zelaya/2/
A coup, just to clarify for those of you who missed my post about fake democracy, is an election where the lefties lose due to their abominable mismanagement of the country.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Meet President Obama
'We've seen him in action for a bit more than six months. What we can say with confidence, now that we have the evidence of his actions, is that had he run on (a) transforming the U.S. economy by massive federal government intervention, (b) taking an owner's stake in the automobile industry, (c) transforming the rules of America's energy economy, (d) instituting a national health-care system - all of these simultaneously and in the centre of a financial meltdown - Barack Obama wouldn't merely have lost the election, he wouldn't have got as many votes as gnarly old Ross Perot did in an election long past. He wouldn't, in other words, have beaten a bad-tempered, egotistical spoiler.'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/obama-on-the-flying-trapeze/article1214507/ [Hat Tip: Instapundit]
Yes, yes and yes. Of course, that woman in Louisiana who believed Obama was going to give her a new car and a new house would still have voted for him...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/obama-on-the-flying-trapeze/article1214507/ [Hat Tip: Instapundit]
Yes, yes and yes. Of course, that woman in Louisiana who believed Obama was going to give her a new car and a new house would still have voted for him...
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Its the Somme all over again
'The line between life and death has become dangerously thin in Afghanistan's bloody war zone, writes BBC correspondent Ian Pannell, who reports exclusively from the front line where he is embedded with British soldiers.
Seven soldiers dead in seven days. It is a grim statistic, but it is also the reality of British losses in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Six of the seven died in operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, in Helmand in the last week.
We had been travelling on the front line with the troops from A Company, 2 Mercian, part of the Light Dragoon Battle Group.
This is a brutal, bloody struggle.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8142229.stm
Has the art of war reporting fallen to its lowest ebb? The British forces lost around 400 dead retaking the tiny sheep haven in the south Atlantic, fighting some Argie conscripts. It could have been much worse, but for luck and the Grace of God. While every death is a tragedy for a British family and for the friends of that man, for the British army as a whole, with 104,000 infantrymen, its really just a tiny pinprick. Peacetime training exercises sometimes have more fatalities.
I'm not sure what Ian Pannells regular beat is, but it definitely isn't anything to do with the military. He doesn't know the jargon, he doesn't know tactics, he doesn't know strategy, he has no context, no historical knowledge and no benchmarks for his judgements. And those are his good points. He is a hysterical nancy with a florid turn of speech.
Britain used to have many of the best war correspondents in the world. Why the fuck can't we turn out even one decent one, and get him a job at the BBC?
If you watch the little video, the funniest bit is this: when one solitary bloke opens up with something that sounds suspiciously like a MAC 10 (not even the stopping power of an AK 47), he intones '...and yet the Taliban attack yet again.' What would the guy have made of Bastogne, or Dien Bien Phu, or the Pusan perimeter? I think we all know. He'd have pooped his pants and run all the way back to Pinner or wherever.
Seven soldiers dead in seven days. It is a grim statistic, but it is also the reality of British losses in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Six of the seven died in operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, in Helmand in the last week.
We had been travelling on the front line with the troops from A Company, 2 Mercian, part of the Light Dragoon Battle Group.
This is a brutal, bloody struggle.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8142229.stm
Has the art of war reporting fallen to its lowest ebb? The British forces lost around 400 dead retaking the tiny sheep haven in the south Atlantic, fighting some Argie conscripts. It could have been much worse, but for luck and the Grace of God. While every death is a tragedy for a British family and for the friends of that man, for the British army as a whole, with 104,000 infantrymen, its really just a tiny pinprick. Peacetime training exercises sometimes have more fatalities.
I'm not sure what Ian Pannells regular beat is, but it definitely isn't anything to do with the military. He doesn't know the jargon, he doesn't know tactics, he doesn't know strategy, he has no context, no historical knowledge and no benchmarks for his judgements. And those are his good points. He is a hysterical nancy with a florid turn of speech.
Britain used to have many of the best war correspondents in the world. Why the fuck can't we turn out even one decent one, and get him a job at the BBC?
If you watch the little video, the funniest bit is this: when one solitary bloke opens up with something that sounds suspiciously like a MAC 10 (not even the stopping power of an AK 47), he intones '...and yet the Taliban attack yet again.' What would the guy have made of Bastogne, or Dien Bien Phu, or the Pusan perimeter? I think we all know. He'd have pooped his pants and run all the way back to Pinner or wherever.
The teeny tiny world of the Sex Wars
'Life without men
Scientists claim to have grown human sperm in a lab, and columnists and bloggers are musing on the possibility of a world where men are no longer needed.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8142104.stm
Having long ago forgotten about the Sex Wars, it always surprises me that there are still people fighting them. But after reading a few paragraphs of this ploddingly humorous piece, it did strike me that only a few million people out of eight billion or so EVER frame life like this. The ones who do: all went to university, probably did some liberal arts degree, and will have sucked long and hard on the teats of the lefty world view. Its an enormously parochial little world.
I challenge you to find a single person in the Phillipines, Angola, Lithuania, Borneo or Nepal and a million places in between who would even understand the frame of reference of these blatherings. Most of the planet just gets on with having babies, going to work and going to church on Sunday. I very often wish I lived in one of those places, instead of in the home of the eternally gazed-navel.
Scientists claim to have grown human sperm in a lab, and columnists and bloggers are musing on the possibility of a world where men are no longer needed.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8142104.stm
Having long ago forgotten about the Sex Wars, it always surprises me that there are still people fighting them. But after reading a few paragraphs of this ploddingly humorous piece, it did strike me that only a few million people out of eight billion or so EVER frame life like this. The ones who do: all went to university, probably did some liberal arts degree, and will have sucked long and hard on the teats of the lefty world view. Its an enormously parochial little world.
I challenge you to find a single person in the Phillipines, Angola, Lithuania, Borneo or Nepal and a million places in between who would even understand the frame of reference of these blatherings. Most of the planet just gets on with having babies, going to work and going to church on Sunday. I very often wish I lived in one of those places, instead of in the home of the eternally gazed-navel.
Disgusting brazen hypocrites
So I just finished up writing the previous post, and the very next thing I read is:
“So the Obama administration is all for due process, as long as it produces the correct result. Obama already has said that Guantanamo detainees who cannot be successfully tried by military commissions or civilian courts can still be imprisoned indefinitely if they are considered too dangerous to release. Now Johnson is saying that even those who are prosecuted can be kept imprisoned regardless of the verdict. The only point of prosecuting them, it seems, is to create an impression of due process while continuing the Bush detention policies that Obama condemned during the campaign.”
http://reason.com/blog/show/134686.html
Ahem, what now exactly? Those are called 'Show Trials' and the Soviet Union specialised in them. They were and are political and social theatre, having nothing whatsoever to do with impartial justice.
'... if for some reason he is not convicted for a lengthy prison sentence, then as a matter of legal authority I think it's our view that we would have the ability to detain him.' Hmmm, that reminds me of something someone said during the Bush presidency...
Can't be though, because everybody including President (at the time Senator) Obama said that Bush was riding roughshod over the constitution (although the US constitution has nothing to say about prisoners of war and who qualifies as one), tradition and justice. So it can't be.
“So the Obama administration is all for due process, as long as it produces the correct result. Obama already has said that Guantanamo detainees who cannot be successfully tried by military commissions or civilian courts can still be imprisoned indefinitely if they are considered too dangerous to release. Now Johnson is saying that even those who are prosecuted can be kept imprisoned regardless of the verdict. The only point of prosecuting them, it seems, is to create an impression of due process while continuing the Bush detention policies that Obama condemned during the campaign.”
http://reason.com/blog/show/134686.html
Ahem, what now exactly? Those are called 'Show Trials' and the Soviet Union specialised in them. They were and are political and social theatre, having nothing whatsoever to do with impartial justice.
'... if for some reason he is not convicted for a lengthy prison sentence, then as a matter of legal authority I think it's our view that we would have the ability to detain him.' Hmmm, that reminds me of something someone said during the Bush presidency...
Can't be though, because everybody including President (at the time Senator) Obama said that Bush was riding roughshod over the constitution (although the US constitution has nothing to say about prisoners of war and who qualifies as one), tradition and justice. So it can't be.
Fake and Real Democracy
'The legitimacy of genuine democracy is hijacked via concepts such as "sovereign democracy" in Russia, "people's democracy" in China and "religious democracy" in Iran--all homes to state-controlled mass media, especially via the outlet of television. This report notes that the notion of democracy, in this murky landscape, becomes "a semantic shell for each authoritarian ruler to fill as he pleases." Is this what America now proposes to converge and collaborate with?'
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/08/obama-medvedev-putin-communism-opinions-columnists-russia.html
Thank you Claudia Rosett. I meant ages ago to blog about this exact phenomenon. Why does Robert Mugabe bother to have elections, when everybody knows who will win? Why do the Mullahs in Iran bother to have elections, when 70-80% of the candidates are tossed out by the committee tasked with maintaining the islamic revolution before a single ballot is cast? Why does Russia go through the formalities of elections, when Putins party (Russian Home) plus the four other political parties he owns constitute 80% of ALL political activity (the Communists being most of the rest)? You don't have to go very far in history to find a parallel.
Why did Octavian, as Ceasar Augustus, succeed where his uncle Julius Ceasar failed? Because he cloaked his one-man tyranny in as much Republican tradition, ritual, rhetoric and imagery as he could. The few political animals who knew exactly what game was being played exerted little power; and the mass of the plebians couldn't tell Octavians fake Republic from the real deal. They were happy with the bread, circuses and pretty speeches; massive public spending on beautiful impressive buildings and facilities for the delictation of the Roman mob did the rest. Sound familiar?
But as Mark Steyn pointed out about having tyrants as allies, just because he's our bastard he is still a bastard. Mugabe and Chavez and Ahmadinejad have a carapace of respectability bestowed by their 'elections', but that can't mask the disgusting stink of what actually exists within. A tyranny works by benefitting a lucky few, placating the mass, and terrorising the few recalcitrants. And if the mass becomes recalcitrant? You only need to look at Iran in 2009.
Sadly, the number of these fake democracies must be nearly as numerous as the real ones. For every India there's a China, for every Honduras there's a Venezuela. Africa is virtually all fake democracies. Even Britain is veering away from real democracy towards a castrated version: many of the great and good in Britain want the BNP banned. They don't want to ban the one hundred communist parties, interestingly. Apparently, the far left are 'good' murderous scum, while the far right are 'bad' murderous scum.
Personally, I would ban every political party which held as one of its tenets the destruction of democracy. That would get rid all the commie parties, and the islamists and probably most of the far right. Democracy is a game for democrats.
Fake, or 'Chavez', democracy is one man one vote once. That isn't democracy. And that's what he is trying to export to the rest of central and south America. Illigitimate regimes have a strong vested interest in breeding more illigitimate regimes- there's a strange comaraderie amongst criminal regimes which makes them feel safer in their evil deeds. Viz Putin and the Iranians.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/08/obama-medvedev-putin-communism-opinions-columnists-russia.html
Thank you Claudia Rosett. I meant ages ago to blog about this exact phenomenon. Why does Robert Mugabe bother to have elections, when everybody knows who will win? Why do the Mullahs in Iran bother to have elections, when 70-80% of the candidates are tossed out by the committee tasked with maintaining the islamic revolution before a single ballot is cast? Why does Russia go through the formalities of elections, when Putins party (Russian Home) plus the four other political parties he owns constitute 80% of ALL political activity (the Communists being most of the rest)? You don't have to go very far in history to find a parallel.
Why did Octavian, as Ceasar Augustus, succeed where his uncle Julius Ceasar failed? Because he cloaked his one-man tyranny in as much Republican tradition, ritual, rhetoric and imagery as he could. The few political animals who knew exactly what game was being played exerted little power; and the mass of the plebians couldn't tell Octavians fake Republic from the real deal. They were happy with the bread, circuses and pretty speeches; massive public spending on beautiful impressive buildings and facilities for the delictation of the Roman mob did the rest. Sound familiar?
But as Mark Steyn pointed out about having tyrants as allies, just because he's our bastard he is still a bastard. Mugabe and Chavez and Ahmadinejad have a carapace of respectability bestowed by their 'elections', but that can't mask the disgusting stink of what actually exists within. A tyranny works by benefitting a lucky few, placating the mass, and terrorising the few recalcitrants. And if the mass becomes recalcitrant? You only need to look at Iran in 2009.
Sadly, the number of these fake democracies must be nearly as numerous as the real ones. For every India there's a China, for every Honduras there's a Venezuela. Africa is virtually all fake democracies. Even Britain is veering away from real democracy towards a castrated version: many of the great and good in Britain want the BNP banned. They don't want to ban the one hundred communist parties, interestingly. Apparently, the far left are 'good' murderous scum, while the far right are 'bad' murderous scum.
Personally, I would ban every political party which held as one of its tenets the destruction of democracy. That would get rid all the commie parties, and the islamists and probably most of the far right. Democracy is a game for democrats.
Fake, or 'Chavez', democracy is one man one vote once. That isn't democracy. And that's what he is trying to export to the rest of central and south America. Illigitimate regimes have a strong vested interest in breeding more illigitimate regimes- there's a strange comaraderie amongst criminal regimes which makes them feel safer in their evil deeds. Viz Putin and the Iranians.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
What do you expect from Comrade Obama?
'The insanity of this policy by the Obama administration cannot be understated. It used to be the GOP that was (oftentimes rightly) criticized for propping up tyrants and despots because they were “our” tyrants and despots. At the height of the Cold War, a valid defense for that realpolitik position could be made. But where is the greater evil on the horizon that we are willing to sacrifice the Honduran people for? It is no longer the Soviet Union and worldwide communism.
In fact, the main evil we face in much of the world today is the thugocratic regimes like Iran and Venezuela, wacko nut-jobs like North Korea, and communist China. Yet, in this situation, we’ve actually allied ourselves with Venezuela’s Chavez!'
http://www.hoystory.com/?p=6138
Yuh huh. What do you expect from a man who sat in Church every Sunday for twenty years listening to the screeching, fascistic hatemongering of a black 'liberation' preacher, and 'didn't hear'? What do you expect from a man who was THE MOST LIBERAL voting Senator in Congress? I mean really people, pay attention.
In fact, the main evil we face in much of the world today is the thugocratic regimes like Iran and Venezuela, wacko nut-jobs like North Korea, and communist China. Yet, in this situation, we’ve actually allied ourselves with Venezuela’s Chavez!'
http://www.hoystory.com/?p=6138
Yuh huh. What do you expect from a man who sat in Church every Sunday for twenty years listening to the screeching, fascistic hatemongering of a black 'liberation' preacher, and 'didn't hear'? What do you expect from a man who was THE MOST LIBERAL voting Senator in Congress? I mean really people, pay attention.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Tell me why they are allowed to live in Britain again?
'Three jailed for publisher arson
Taj had claimed to have "no idea" about the plot
Three men have been jailed for an arson attack at the home of a publisher days before his novel about the Prophet Muhammad was due to be published.
Martin Rynja's home in Lonsdale Square, Islington, north London, was targeted on 27 September last year.
Abbas Taj, 30, Ali Beheshti, 41, and Abrar Mirza, 23, from east London, were each jailed for four-and-a-half years.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8139076.stm
These look like Likely Lads don't they? Bet they're a bundle of laughs down the pub on a Friday night! Happy geezers! Larks and high jinks, eh? I bet they luv their mums! Salt of the earth!
Why should the rest of us tolerate this scum? How could any novel about Muhammad be any more outrageous than the real Muhammad: the paedophile who 'married' and had sex with a nine year old girl? How is that possible? islam is not a religion- its a death/underage sex/phony outrage cult, and its exponents cause about 90% of the trouble in the world. Why would we want that here in Britain again?
Palin must spend 20 years in a think tank
'This push-pull dynamic will hold Palin up for a long time, but it can’t propel her into the presidency. For that she needs substance, not the hackneyed sound bites she clings to for dear life. For that she needs a positive program, not just the hatred of conservatism’s favorite enemies. On this score, her premature exit from the governorship makes her task all the more arduous. As the soon-to-be-former half-term governor of a small state, she makes that other prominent populist social conservative, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, look formidably credentialed in comparison.
Whether she becomes more seasoned and more policy-oriented is the key to whether she cashes in her charisma for something more meaningful. As for Alaska, it will be a beloved afterthought.'
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Nzc0MzY3MWRjMjE1OTE0NmI1ZjYzYzQwMWY1ZTE5Njk=
What a load of horse-hockey. '... it can't propel her into the Presidency. For that she needs substance.' And that substance can be found by being an obscure Illinois state senator and a quarter term US junior senator. In the age of celebrity, being a celebrity is substance. Or hadn't you noticed, Rich?
Long, long gone are the days when you needed to have ACTUAL accomplishments and REAL experience. How did the sterling experience of long-time Senator McCain fare in contest with the near-zero experience of Obama? Look good in front of a camera, talk a bunch of Miss Universe 'I just want world peace and bunnies and for everybody to be friends' crap and play your identity politics to the hilt, and you can win. Be a student of governance, philosophy and international relations, and get nothing.
Whether she becomes more seasoned and more policy-oriented is the key to whether she cashes in her charisma for something more meaningful. As for Alaska, it will be a beloved afterthought.'
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Nzc0MzY3MWRjMjE1OTE0NmI1ZjYzYzQwMWY1ZTE5Njk=
What a load of horse-hockey. '... it can't propel her into the Presidency. For that she needs substance.' And that substance can be found by being an obscure Illinois state senator and a quarter term US junior senator. In the age of celebrity, being a celebrity is substance. Or hadn't you noticed, Rich?
Long, long gone are the days when you needed to have ACTUAL accomplishments and REAL experience. How did the sterling experience of long-time Senator McCain fare in contest with the near-zero experience of Obama? Look good in front of a camera, talk a bunch of Miss Universe 'I just want world peace and bunnies and for everybody to be friends' crap and play your identity politics to the hilt, and you can win. Be a student of governance, philosophy and international relations, and get nothing.
MI6 behind all muslim atrocities everywhere forever
'More bombs in south Philippines
At least six people have been killed and many others wounded when a powerful bomb exploded on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines.
Military officials said several of the wounded were in a critical condition and the death toll could rise.
Police said they had also defused another bomb near the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo.
This latest attack follows a bomb blast outside a cathedral in the southern Mindanao province of Cotabato.
That explosion, on Sunday, killed five people and wounded 55.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8137511.stm
Fortunately we already know who to blame- its the NEFARIOUS BRITISH GOVERNMENT. Yup. You might not have expected that, but you see, whenever muslims blow up Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, or Doaists anywhere in the world, they have a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. Its MI6, just trying to make muslims look bad. Because they just aren't up to making themselves look bad!
And try to forget all those websites encouraging young muslims to do exactly what the 7/7 murderers did. And all those imams in mosques encouraging young muslims to do exactly what the 7/7 murderers did. And all the other muslims all over the world, Spain, Germany, China, Nigeria, Phillipines, Israel etc etc where young muslims have done exactly the same as the 7/7 murderers. Not relevant OK!!! Its MI6!!! OK!!!!
At least six people have been killed and many others wounded when a powerful bomb exploded on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines.
Military officials said several of the wounded were in a critical condition and the death toll could rise.
Police said they had also defused another bomb near the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo.
This latest attack follows a bomb blast outside a cathedral in the southern Mindanao province of Cotabato.
That explosion, on Sunday, killed five people and wounded 55.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8137511.stm
Fortunately we already know who to blame- its the NEFARIOUS BRITISH GOVERNMENT. Yup. You might not have expected that, but you see, whenever muslims blow up Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, or Doaists anywhere in the world, they have a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. Its MI6, just trying to make muslims look bad. Because they just aren't up to making themselves look bad!
And try to forget all those websites encouraging young muslims to do exactly what the 7/7 murderers did. And all those imams in mosques encouraging young muslims to do exactly what the 7/7 murderers did. And all the other muslims all over the world, Spain, Germany, China, Nigeria, Phillipines, Israel etc etc where young muslims have done exactly the same as the 7/7 murderers. Not relevant OK!!! Its MI6!!! OK!!!!
Lets defend ourselves with pointy sticks then
'What is it about aircraft carriers?
Of course they are big. And they are expensive. The latest estimate is that the Royal Navy's two new carriers, HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, will cost £5bn - 25% up on just a year ago.'
'...Perhaps more than any weapons except nuclear ones, aircraft carriers tend to be seen as a statement of how a country views its military role in the world. And therein lies a lot of the controversy which seems to surround them.
The steel-cutting ceremony in Glasgow is certainly a historic event. It marks the formal start of construction of HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The last time that happened in Britain for a "proper" full-size aircraft carrier was 65 years ago. (The ship then was HMS Hermes, of Falklands fame, still serving now in the Indian Navy as the Viraat.)
But the carriers have also been at the heart of the arguments over the levels of and priorities in defence spending.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8137257.stm
A famous political slogan from American history comes from Americas first real foreign entanglement- the Barbary war. "Millions on defense, not a penny on tribute". The pirates of Morocco and Tunisia wanted 'tribute', bribes, to stop from plundering the ships of the industrial nations.
Apparently, the reverse is what many of my compatriots, especially the ones on the left, want for Britain today "Millions on tribute, not a penny on defense". What a shambling shitpot this country is becoming. If we wont protect ourselves who will? The mad mullahs of Tehran? The tepid tyranny in Moscow? The fat verbose boyscout in Caracas? All those people around Europe who love the English so much?
Oh, and by the way 'expensive'? Five paltry billion out of FIVE HUNDRED BILLION is not expensive. Morons.
Of course they are big. And they are expensive. The latest estimate is that the Royal Navy's two new carriers, HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, will cost £5bn - 25% up on just a year ago.'
'...Perhaps more than any weapons except nuclear ones, aircraft carriers tend to be seen as a statement of how a country views its military role in the world. And therein lies a lot of the controversy which seems to surround them.
The steel-cutting ceremony in Glasgow is certainly a historic event. It marks the formal start of construction of HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The last time that happened in Britain for a "proper" full-size aircraft carrier was 65 years ago. (The ship then was HMS Hermes, of Falklands fame, still serving now in the Indian Navy as the Viraat.)
But the carriers have also been at the heart of the arguments over the levels of and priorities in defence spending.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8137257.stm
A famous political slogan from American history comes from Americas first real foreign entanglement- the Barbary war. "Millions on defense, not a penny on tribute". The pirates of Morocco and Tunisia wanted 'tribute', bribes, to stop from plundering the ships of the industrial nations.
Apparently, the reverse is what many of my compatriots, especially the ones on the left, want for Britain today "Millions on tribute, not a penny on defense". What a shambling shitpot this country is becoming. If we wont protect ourselves who will? The mad mullahs of Tehran? The tepid tyranny in Moscow? The fat verbose boyscout in Caracas? All those people around Europe who love the English so much?
Oh, and by the way 'expensive'? Five paltry billion out of FIVE HUNDRED BILLION is not expensive. Morons.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Why bother their pretty little heads?
'Mr. Zelaya's violations of the rule of law in recent months were numerous. But the tipping point came 10 days ago, when he led a violent mob that stormed a military base to seize and distribute Venezuelan-printed ballots for an illegal referendum.'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html
Want to know something cute? There is no mention of this on the BBC website. No mention of it has been made in their TV reports. Its almost as if they don't want you to know some material facts...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html
Want to know something cute? There is no mention of this on the BBC website. No mention of it has been made in their TV reports. Its almost as if they don't want you to know some material facts...
Why I love Glenn Reynolds
'WHAT I DID YESTERDAY: I’m grading law-review comments, each of which is 30-40 pages long and requires completing a 5-page gradesheet. This is so miserable that yesterday I quit to disassemble the dishwasher (well, the filtration part), clean out all the limestone scale with vinegar and a toothbrush, and put it back together — and it felt like fun! Anyway, now the dishes are sparkling clean again, and I’m still 1/3 of the way through the law-review stuff.'
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/81423/
Been there oh so many times. Still made me laugh out loud though.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/81423/
Been there oh so many times. Still made me laugh out loud though.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Its not really about history teaching at all
'It's difficult to love a country that you know little about - particularly if alternative histories (imperial guilt etc) grow up to fill the vacuum.'
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/07/a-patriotic-plea-to-david-cameron.html
Really? I don't love 'a country'. I am English, and I feel English, and many many things around me resonate with me, in a way that American things didn't when I lived there. But I don't love England because the name of the General in charge at Waterloo was Napoleon (joke). I am rooted here. About a million different things tie me to this place- language, traditions, folkways, rediculously specific weather forecasts that are always wrong, sensible reasonableness, Little Chef and oh so much more. But 99% of those ties that bind would still bind if I didn't know any history of England at all. After all, most Englishmen before universal education would have learned history in the pub and at home, if at all.
In a strange way, I feel like this insistence on learning history is simply because most of the millions of immigrants in Britain right now don't have any ties that bind- they don't know or share the culture of England, the traditions, the folkways, the deeply ingrained attitudes- nothing. So they could at least bloody well learn our history, right?
But to me, its a feeble attempt to paper over what is completely obvious- that most of the immigrants here don't want to assimilate. And increasingly, the English don't want them here, assimilated or not. The BNP will grow, of that I have no doubt, because whereas the Conservative Party used to at least acknowledge and represent the feelings of anger native English people had for the non-assimilated hordes, they have now joined up with the PC Liberals and Labour in continuously blasting English people with accusations of racism and bigotry. Under this never-ceasing assault, even the most equable people eventually get tired of the opprobrium and vilification.
Immigrants who don't want to assimilate are telling you something- you are not worthy of assimilating with. And for those on the front lines of the human tidal wave of immigration in Britain, that message has gotten through loud and clear. That is stoking the fires which the BNP are only too happy to pour petrol on.
The English people are not the initiators here- the English people never asked to have England backfilled with foreigners. The responsibility for that is with our MPs and ministers, who promised things they should never have promised, but kept them anyway.
Look where the big growth in BNP vote is: the northern industrial towns where the hillbilly Pakistanis came in their hundreds of thousands, and still live like hillbilly Pakistanis in bizarre and jarring juxtaposition with the northern English. I've been told I'm very close to being BNP. I'm not, but there are millions of English men and women who are, and I completely understand why. They don't want to live surrounded by hostile aliens in their own homeland, and neither do I.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/07/a-patriotic-plea-to-david-cameron.html
Really? I don't love 'a country'. I am English, and I feel English, and many many things around me resonate with me, in a way that American things didn't when I lived there. But I don't love England because the name of the General in charge at Waterloo was Napoleon (joke). I am rooted here. About a million different things tie me to this place- language, traditions, folkways, rediculously specific weather forecasts that are always wrong, sensible reasonableness, Little Chef and oh so much more. But 99% of those ties that bind would still bind if I didn't know any history of England at all. After all, most Englishmen before universal education would have learned history in the pub and at home, if at all.
In a strange way, I feel like this insistence on learning history is simply because most of the millions of immigrants in Britain right now don't have any ties that bind- they don't know or share the culture of England, the traditions, the folkways, the deeply ingrained attitudes- nothing. So they could at least bloody well learn our history, right?
But to me, its a feeble attempt to paper over what is completely obvious- that most of the immigrants here don't want to assimilate. And increasingly, the English don't want them here, assimilated or not. The BNP will grow, of that I have no doubt, because whereas the Conservative Party used to at least acknowledge and represent the feelings of anger native English people had for the non-assimilated hordes, they have now joined up with the PC Liberals and Labour in continuously blasting English people with accusations of racism and bigotry. Under this never-ceasing assault, even the most equable people eventually get tired of the opprobrium and vilification.
Immigrants who don't want to assimilate are telling you something- you are not worthy of assimilating with. And for those on the front lines of the human tidal wave of immigration in Britain, that message has gotten through loud and clear. That is stoking the fires which the BNP are only too happy to pour petrol on.
The English people are not the initiators here- the English people never asked to have England backfilled with foreigners. The responsibility for that is with our MPs and ministers, who promised things they should never have promised, but kept them anyway.
Look where the big growth in BNP vote is: the northern industrial towns where the hillbilly Pakistanis came in their hundreds of thousands, and still live like hillbilly Pakistanis in bizarre and jarring juxtaposition with the northern English. I've been told I'm very close to being BNP. I'm not, but there are millions of English men and women who are, and I completely understand why. They don't want to live surrounded by hostile aliens in their own homeland, and neither do I.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Islamists can't wait to tell you about this!
Found this on a British islamist website:
'The Helmand-Arghandab Valley Authority
... that level of development might not exist but for the big investment in water infrastructure known as the Helmand-Arghandab Valley Authority project.
The American government spent $72 million on the project between 1957 and 1979, and earlier helped financed another $39.5 million through Export-Import Bank loans. The Afghan government chipped in an additional $25 million.
The irrigation project irrigated tens of thousands of hectares in Nawa and Garmsir, as well as several other central districts. As an extra enticement to settlers – many of them nomadic peoples – US contractors helped build schools systems and even constructed the current capital of Lashkar Gah in a desert region of ancient ruins.'
They were making a point about how evil the US is, and how it has over many decades tried to get rid of muslims, destroy them, make their lives worse.
Kidding! Of course you are never ever going to read factual information like that on an islamist website. Facts are no good when you are trying to create 7-year old suicide bombers. Why do we, and of course by we I mean America and europe, continue to give things like this enormously expensive gift to the extremely ungrateful Afghan people? Not only is there no gratitude, nobody even knows it happened! Like the billions and billions President Bush gave to Africa.
This piece is actually from http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0703/p06s36-wogn.html, not known for its love of warmongers.
'The Helmand-Arghandab Valley Authority
... that level of development might not exist but for the big investment in water infrastructure known as the Helmand-Arghandab Valley Authority project.
The American government spent $72 million on the project between 1957 and 1979, and earlier helped financed another $39.5 million through Export-Import Bank loans. The Afghan government chipped in an additional $25 million.
The irrigation project irrigated tens of thousands of hectares in Nawa and Garmsir, as well as several other central districts. As an extra enticement to settlers – many of them nomadic peoples – US contractors helped build schools systems and even constructed the current capital of Lashkar Gah in a desert region of ancient ruins.'
They were making a point about how evil the US is, and how it has over many decades tried to get rid of muslims, destroy them, make their lives worse.
Kidding! Of course you are never ever going to read factual information like that on an islamist website. Facts are no good when you are trying to create 7-year old suicide bombers. Why do we, and of course by we I mean America and europe, continue to give things like this enormously expensive gift to the extremely ungrateful Afghan people? Not only is there no gratitude, nobody even knows it happened! Like the billions and billions President Bush gave to Africa.
This piece is actually from http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0703/p06s36-wogn.html, not known for its love of warmongers.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
All civilians are not created equal
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/07/a-conversation.php
'Kaplan: There are a thousand disappearances a year in Sri Lanka separate from the war. Journalists are terrified there. The only journalism you read is pro-government. So that’s one thing they did.
The Tamil Tigers had human shields by the tens of thousands, not just by the dozens and hundreds like Al Qaeda. They put people between themselves and the government and say "you have to kill all the people to get to us." So the government obliged them. The government killed thousands of civilians.
MJT: Tamil civilians?
Kaplan: Yes. They killed thousands of civilians in the course of winning this war. It acted in a way so brutal that there are no lessons for the West.
MJT: Would you say it was as brutal as Russia’s counterinsurgency in Chechnya?
Kaplan: Yeah. It was. The U.N. is investigating whether as many as 20,000 civilians have been killed during the last few months.'
Imagine if you will, that rather than Tamil peasants, those civilians were Palestinians; and that the Israeli government were attacking them. Cynthia Mckinney and some other commie stooges are at this very moment trying to get yet another 'Freedom Tug' into Gaza. Spare a few shekels, thoughts, anything for Tamils? No? Too busy with the poor ickle Palis huh...
'Kaplan: There are a thousand disappearances a year in Sri Lanka separate from the war. Journalists are terrified there. The only journalism you read is pro-government. So that’s one thing they did.
The Tamil Tigers had human shields by the tens of thousands, not just by the dozens and hundreds like Al Qaeda. They put people between themselves and the government and say "you have to kill all the people to get to us." So the government obliged them. The government killed thousands of civilians.
MJT: Tamil civilians?
Kaplan: Yes. They killed thousands of civilians in the course of winning this war. It acted in a way so brutal that there are no lessons for the West.
MJT: Would you say it was as brutal as Russia’s counterinsurgency in Chechnya?
Kaplan: Yeah. It was. The U.N. is investigating whether as many as 20,000 civilians have been killed during the last few months.'
Imagine if you will, that rather than Tamil peasants, those civilians were Palestinians; and that the Israeli government were attacking them. Cynthia Mckinney and some other commie stooges are at this very moment trying to get yet another 'Freedom Tug' into Gaza. Spare a few shekels, thoughts, anything for Tamils? No? Too busy with the poor ickle Palis huh...
Reporting by memory
Its worth reading this piece of shit if only to get an insight into the tiny, tiny amount of information gathered before it was written:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8129422.stm
'An old-fashioned coup in Honduras?
In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, Stephen Gibbs finds out what people think of last weekend's coup, which exiled President Manuel Zelaya.'
Well, we all know the answer to that question don't we? If it was some communist scum that got ousted, of course its an old-fashioned coup!
'Looking at it made me think that some things really have not changed since the heyday of Latin American coups in the 1970s and 1980s.
You really can take over a country by seizing control of a few key buildings. If the soldiers are on your side, or if you are the army, it is relatively easy.'
No mention of the tens of thousands marching in SUPPORT of the kicking out of Zelaya.
'But something has changed, which is going to make the ousting of President Zelaya difficult to sustain.
A global consensus has been reached, that military coups of any form are unacceptable.
Forty years ago, plenty of blind eyes would be turned in the White House, when the telex arrived announcing that another Central American leader had been forced from power. Those days it seems, are over.'
You know what you can do with your 'Global Consensus', Monseiur Gibbs? You can shove it up your arse. There was a global consensus that the US shouldn't take out Saddam Hussein. Me and the whole fucking Iraqi nation heartily endorse that action, even if the 'global consensus' doesn't. And guess what? Me and the whole fucking Honduran nation don't give a tiny rats arse about your global consensus, or your shabby, lazy, senile reporting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8129422.stm
'An old-fashioned coup in Honduras?
In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, Stephen Gibbs finds out what people think of last weekend's coup, which exiled President Manuel Zelaya.'
Well, we all know the answer to that question don't we? If it was some communist scum that got ousted, of course its an old-fashioned coup!
'Looking at it made me think that some things really have not changed since the heyday of Latin American coups in the 1970s and 1980s.
You really can take over a country by seizing control of a few key buildings. If the soldiers are on your side, or if you are the army, it is relatively easy.'
No mention of the tens of thousands marching in SUPPORT of the kicking out of Zelaya.
'But something has changed, which is going to make the ousting of President Zelaya difficult to sustain.
A global consensus has been reached, that military coups of any form are unacceptable.
Forty years ago, plenty of blind eyes would be turned in the White House, when the telex arrived announcing that another Central American leader had been forced from power. Those days it seems, are over.'
You know what you can do with your 'Global Consensus', Monseiur Gibbs? You can shove it up your arse. There was a global consensus that the US shouldn't take out Saddam Hussein. Me and the whole fucking Iraqi nation heartily endorse that action, even if the 'global consensus' doesn't. And guess what? Me and the whole fucking Honduran nation don't give a tiny rats arse about your global consensus, or your shabby, lazy, senile reporting.
Not coming to a TV or radio near you
'Tens of thousands of Hondurans demonstrated in support of President Micheletti and the military this week. Chavez-lackey Manuel Zelaya was ousted on Sunday after he tried to extend his power illegally. (El Heraldo)'
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/07/honduran-democracy-protesters-lash-out.html
How long did it take Obama to respond to the events on the streets of Tehran? About three and a half months, by my count.
Honduras is obviously different. Without pausing to read anything, get a briefing or clean his teeth, Obama is straight in there- telling the Chavez-lite Zelaya that he has been WRONGED! Thanks, Barack. Just goes to show. Lefties stick together.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/07/honduran-democracy-protesters-lash-out.html
How long did it take Obama to respond to the events on the streets of Tehran? About three and a half months, by my count.
Honduras is obviously different. Without pausing to read anything, get a briefing or clean his teeth, Obama is straight in there- telling the Chavez-lite Zelaya that he has been WRONGED! Thanks, Barack. Just goes to show. Lefties stick together.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Exactly as I suspected
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmM5ZGIxMzJmYmZjNmVmZDBkOTBiOTU1ZDQ0ODg4MjQ=
'From a reader:
Jonah [Goldberg]:
I have written you several times over the years. We are "friends" on Facebook and I loved Liberal Fascism.
I was born in Honduras and my maternal relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) all live there.
The country is bewildered that the world, especially the United States, is not on their side. Zelaya was confident of his plans to convert Honduras into a Venezuelan satellite. The Honduran people are proud of their constitution and are proud to have a functioning democratic system. Zelaya was replaced by a member of his own party who vows to see that this November's presidential election takes place. What happened was not a "coup" but a bipartisan effort to save the nation.
It is heartbreaking for me to see President Obama throw Honduras under the bus. He did not speak out when Zelaya was attempting to stage a sham "constitutional referendum" with ballots printed in Venezuela.
My mother immigrated from Honduras and is a registered Republican because she remembers how the GOP stood up to communists when her countrymen were afraid of Fidel Castro. Now, Hugo Chavez is threatening to invade her beloved homeland and an American president is not standing up for a free and democratic Honduras.
Bewildered NR devotee,'
I am sure there are millions of Hondurans going through the same bewildered phase right now. They have recieved a primer in 'How Obama thinks', and its not pretty. This is not the first democracy that will wake up to the enormous change US voters have wreaked upon the world. Would McCain have been a bigger friend to democrats across the world? Maybe, but I wouldn't have counted on that.
'From a reader:
Jonah [Goldberg]:
I have written you several times over the years. We are "friends" on Facebook and I loved Liberal Fascism.
I was born in Honduras and my maternal relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) all live there.
The country is bewildered that the world, especially the United States, is not on their side. Zelaya was confident of his plans to convert Honduras into a Venezuelan satellite. The Honduran people are proud of their constitution and are proud to have a functioning democratic system. Zelaya was replaced by a member of his own party who vows to see that this November's presidential election takes place. What happened was not a "coup" but a bipartisan effort to save the nation.
It is heartbreaking for me to see President Obama throw Honduras under the bus. He did not speak out when Zelaya was attempting to stage a sham "constitutional referendum" with ballots printed in Venezuela.
My mother immigrated from Honduras and is a registered Republican because she remembers how the GOP stood up to communists when her countrymen were afraid of Fidel Castro. Now, Hugo Chavez is threatening to invade her beloved homeland and an American president is not standing up for a free and democratic Honduras.
Bewildered NR devotee,'
I am sure there are millions of Hondurans going through the same bewildered phase right now. They have recieved a primer in 'How Obama thinks', and its not pretty. This is not the first democracy that will wake up to the enormous change US voters have wreaked upon the world. Would McCain have been a bigger friend to democrats across the world? Maybe, but I wouldn't have counted on that.
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