I am becoming quite fond of my little corner of Schiphol airport. I have put up my Christmas cards and a few bits of tinsel. I now have a boarding card for the 0800 to Manchester. This is the sixth boarding card I have had. It is very hard to understand why, time after time, they don’t know a flight is cancelled until some time after it was due to leave and all the passengers have queued at the gate for hours.
Of course, Manchester is a lot further from Ramsgate than Schiphol is, so even if the flight atually goes, this represents rather dubious progress.
Happy New Year everybody.
Remarkably, KLM delivered my lost luggage, including my laptop, at 9.30 pm on New Year’s Eve. At that time a pretty lively party was already in full swing,much improved by the presence of a great many beautiful young women, mostly from Latvia. I am not sure why; my life as ever consists of a bewildering succession of chance encounters with really nice people. I am in the fortunate position of being able to say that Nadira was the most lovely of all, without indulging in dutiful hyperbole.
It was an extremely happy Christmas. Having my mum, both my brothers and all my three chidren together was as great as it was rare.
We have been through the laptop in lost luggage discussion before. The problem is that my shoulders dislocate at the drop of a hat, and I travel without hand luggage to avoid an accident.
2011 is going to be a very important year for me. particularly the first quarter. A number of crucial events are going either to set me up financially for the rest of my life, or result in real distress and failure. At present I have reason to be very optimistic. I am also very absorbed in my life of Alexander Burnes, which I hope will help establish a serious academic reputation.
The Portuguese edition of Murder in Samarkand has sold unexpectedly well in Brazil. The translation of the Turkish edition has just been finished.
I hope to do a Wikileaks retrospective in the next couple of days. Just a quick thought on the case of the poor young gardener in Bristol. Of the Jill Dando case, long before Barry Bulsara’s succesful appeal I blogged that this appeared to be a miscarriage of justice in which the police had fitted up the local weirdo.
Despite not being enamoured of landlords in general, I fear the same dynamic is at work in Bristol, albeit Chris Jefferies is much more intellectually capable than Bulsara. My instinct is that the police have picked up on Jefferies for being camper than a boy scout jamboree and archer than Trajan.
Jefferies’ release on bail has me worried that there was nothing against him other than the “He’s a weird one, guv” instinct of some not very bright cop. The case needs to be closely watched as history shows that the powers of the police to make the evidence fit the suspect are considerable.
The trolls are not worth feeding. Two mouthy little Yanks who will never take responsibility for what their country did to Fallujah. Cowardly little bastards. ‘God’ has fuck all to do with it.
Er, excuse me while I wet my pants laughing…..
Was that our self-appointed moderator, Jon? The guy with the non-Midas touch.
Evidently his latest rhetorical sleight of hand is: DON’T FEED THE TROLLS!
Trolls are people who lack the knowledge and means of expression to engage in meaningful argument. Thus in order to cover their fundamental ignorance they form rat-packs who first try a bit of name-dropping to try to impress and win some cachet with other superficial characters of the same ilk.
As soon as they realise they’re not getting away with it because there are others with greater understanding they resort to smear and trivialization.
When these tactics don’t work they resort to synthetic personalization or gross obscenity.
When these too fail they then plead with the blog host for a blanket-ban to expunge comment from their adversaries.
Jon weren’t you caught out eulogizing re-Chris Hedges much like evgenui goes on about Chomsky?
Neither of you guys appear to have any idea that both Hedges and Chomsky borrowed extensively from the works of earlier theorists.
At least Chomsky has admitted some debt to Lippmann but Hedges is just cashing in on yet another bout of the helplessness and melancholy that currently pervades the establishment left.
Looks like you’ll have to get moderating quick before Larry intellectually embarrasses you as well!
NO DISRESPECT TO LARRY-at least he’s never going to pretend he’s well read. Unlike you, the guy knows his limits.
Here, you anal-rape-obsessed little shits, sign this:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-fayiz-al-kandari-to-the-care-of-the-kuwait-government-now/
Dis blog findin’ its feet agin, by God!
Dya here wass our Massa Bama sayin’ bout dem drone tings doin’ all der killin’:
http://www.headlinenewsbureau.com/siterun_data/news/world/doc537c4f0415b3bbdf7218ade83cf2648c.html
Tinkin’ dis guy tain’t fit to lead us to Hell yawl!
L A R
R
Y
Calling all Zionist shills, neo-con fundamentalist evangelist quran burning ministers, saint-googling Shi’ite polytheists, DOES ANYONE OUT THERE BELIEVE IN God?
New-age, green man, druids?, Manicheans?, Israeli phosphor-pyromaniacs rocking your brains against the ruins of Solomon’s temple?
Oh dear, it’s not looking very good for religion round here. I might just as well be down at the bookies betting on virtual dogs.
Best books of the year anyone? Main event? Film? Conversation?
“In my country, religion impulses are continuously weeded out.”
“what’s it like to live in a country where state-sponsored educators tell children that Jesus and Mohammed could do magic?”
I cannot remember reading any interesting or inspirational posts from you Larry. Your ‘hog-farm’ derisiveness and ‘trailer-park’ abuse must be the constructs of debunking – a word precipitated into mainstream since the ‘towering inferno’ and the precursor to ridicule.
You are not discerning at all for a lawyer, in fact I challenge your college degree and JD from an ABA. Prove it Larry!
Dubya like many turned to religion when everything seemed lost and he wanted to re-define himself. In America the beauty of the religious right as a political bloc is that they often act in unison.
Using a strategy credited to Rove, Dubya recalled a meeting with Arthur Blessitt!? when the bottom had dropped out of the Bush small share of the oil market and his marriage was creaking.
http://www.blessitt.com/?q=praying_with_george_w_bush
Blissett would not empower the evangelicals to the degree needed and another spiritual counsellor ‘to the presidents’ was always ‘in the frame’, one Billy Graham, Jew hating President Nixons appeaser:
“Graham regrets Jewish slur,” BBC News, March 2nd 2002
Dubya’s absolution, a massive political stunt, culminated in Dubya’s being ‘cleansed with ‘HOLY’ water was the seeds of empowerment.
The religious right would now ensure Dubya’s political success and subsequent second term needed to orchestrate the catalyst for the Iraq massacre.
So much for American religion – it sucks!
I wonder if the Queen would deign to add a little word as mother of Fid.Def , Defender of Face. God doesn’t look at your rolls-royce, He looks at your heart.
What about uncle Tony. He’s got time to spare stuck in a kibbutz. He could fart and we could pretend he was uttering a statement of theoretical belief in God.
Or David C’mon you bastards, we know you’ve got a few quid stached under the bed. At least he admits to occasional, part-time, whimsical, political faith.
OO-RAH! Sempir Fi! We the brave guys! We can’t read but we’ll blow your head off quicker ‘n look at you! AND the head of your two year old son! Give us your daughters to rape, we’re AMERICANS!
technicolour: Best film I’ve seen this year is ‘The Road’
Interesting book : http://www.alphabetvsgoddess.com
Conversation? Hmm. Well, since it’s the 120th anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee, it’s probably a good time to recall that in that land of freedom of and from religion, it was only in 1976 that Jimmy Carter signed a law that allowed the native Americans to practice their own religion. Being religiously native American was a criminal offence prior to that. Just about within living memory, these NA’s were put into ‘Indian schools’ and were forbidden to speak their own language. If they did, they would be whipped, beaten, put into solitary confinement, their mouths washed out with soap. This was the treatment of five year olds. Besides speaking English, they had to adopt Christianity, and absolutely not participate in their own religious practices – all this as law until 1976.
Naturally, the right-wingers and the fascists of the time hated this move by Carter. Today, Obama plans to give the NA’s fairer representation: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8344449.stm .
And just as naturally again, the fascists/teabaggers hate the idea, are going nuts and lying about it. Few publications lie better that worldnut-daily:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=243153
Plus
‘I didn’t think of Iraqis as humans,’ says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340207/I-didnt-think-Iraqis-humans-says-U-S-soldier-raped-14-year-old-girl-killing-her-family.html
Brian Blessed could wee on the Union Jack as a symbol of religious principle, or the Pope could kiss the Heathrow ice in the direction of Mecca as a symbol of being the nominal head of ALL Muslims and people of religious faith.
glenn; thanks ever so. Alphabet v Goddess sounds fascinating; possibly why dyslexic people are often so positively interesting compared to the general? Would be nice if consumer culture contributed to a shift against itself (‘the system holds the seeds of it’s own destruction’?) Missed the Road (felt I’d read enough dystopia/Stephen King) but also don’t see many films, mine so far is Scott Pilgrim 🙂
Have just passed that fact about native Americans on to an awed ‘wow’; same goes for gypsy children in Sweden I’m afraid, too. We sadly have a lot to work with, as Clark pointed out. But improving, that’s the message. Forwards!
argh ‘it’s’ – meant ‘its’. would never have done that pre computers. resolution, attend to punctuation!
Technicolour: Heh, don’t worry about it – hopefully I got my “that” instead of “than” overlooked above 🙂
Anon:
“If you display psychopathic attitudes and tendancies in the British Army you are rooted out and discharged, not encouraged as appears to be the case in the US. Encouraged to become more violent and therefore allegedly more effective on the battlefield – a concept that is obviously heavily flawed. In the British Army you are taught to be magnanimous in victory, and to avoid triumphalism, for the slaughtering of fellow humans should never be taken lightly, even if they are trying to slaughter you. While i think it likely this person may already have had psychological problems before he ended up in the Army, i do not doubt his experiences of being surrounded by people with little or no respect for the sanctity of human life have indeed contributed to this horrific crime. The US needs to look at how it recruits and subseqently trains its forces. This may also put an end to the continual incidents of ‘friendly fire’, otherwise it will eventually put an end to the ‘special relationship’.” – comment.
Rest in peace ‘Abeer’ my angel – in our thoughts – never forgotten – you are safe now.
Glenn: “Being religiously native American was a criminal offence prior to that.”
BWWWWAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Are you that stupid, Glenn?
Do you actually think Native Americans were locked up for expressing alternative religious beliefs?
Christ, you’re a moron.
Imagine how the hippies would have rioted.
Come to think of it, maybe we should lock up a hippy or two for crystal worship and other silly magical beliefs. 🙂
The issue had to do with land, and facilitating Native American access to land for their religious worship. So the new law was meant to facilitate religion, not end your imagined thought-control prohibition.
And it was 1978, you dummy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Religious_Freedom_Act#cite_note-1
Educate yourself.
technicolour: “Have just passed that fact about native Americans on to an awed ‘wow’;”
God damn, how quickly you people will believe anything.
Please point out an example of a Native American ever being incarcerated for expressing a different religious belief.
Not a fact, technicolour. Entirely made up.
America remains the land of religious freedom. That will continue to be the case, regardless of the number of lies you people invent out of your sad, pathetic spite.
Justin Raimondo captures the essence of Billington’s take on Dostoevsky’s poetics in The Possessed with this erudite take-down of neo-con revolutionary fervour and self-righteousness under Dubya Bush:
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/feb/28/00007/
For the intellectually-challenged here gathered-“erudite” is NOT a glue!
No, Dr. Saadi, I will not answer your question, which deals with no issue that is open to question, but is intended only a smear, just as your endorsement of Angrysoba in calling me a cunt and a kike-, nigger- etc.-hating racist was a smear of the lowest kind.
But I have real questions for you that you have yet to answer:
“If Al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11, and if on 9/11 Al Qaeda was run by Osama bin Laden, and if Osama bin Laden was then a guest of the Afghanistan Government, and if as was the case, the Afghanistan Government refused to hand Osama bin Laden over to American justice, on what possible grounds can the US and its allies, including Britain, be condemned for their war against the Afghanistan Taliban? …
So which is it Dr. Saadi? Did Al Qaeda, directed from Afghanistan, attack the US on 9/11 as Craig Murray asserts, or was 9/11 a false flag attack connived at or instigated by the US itself?”
And here’s another real question, Dr. Saadi, that you’ve refused to answer:
According to Wikileaks, Osama bin Laden’s is alive and well and and living in Pakistan from where he is directing military operations against the US in Afghanistan. So are not US military operations in Pakistan, however tragic the consequences, entirely justifiable, or are we to conclude that Julian Assange is an unwitting dupe or conscious agent of US disinformation?
And here are some more questions for you Dr. Saadi:
Which of the following Frankfurt school techniques for the destruction of the British nation do you not endorse? Your answers would help us all understand your racist Anglophobia.
1. Government mandated indoctrination in school of young children with politically correct views about sexuality, race and gender.
3. The undermining of the independent authority of school teachers.
4. The promotion of measures that undermine parental authority and promote family breakdown.
5. Mass immigration to destroy national identity, and undermine the economic welfare of the indigenous population.
6. Contempt for the religious tradition of the nation.
7. Encouragement of dependency on the state.
8. The transformation of a free press into a stupifying distraction and channel of propaganda.
9. The undermining of the political institutions, e.g., parliamentary democracy, upon which the existing social order depends.
10. The promotion of separatism.
glenn, have checked your fact on wiki. how dare you try and put a gloss on the USA’s behaviour by declaring that they finally gave Native Americans freedom of religion in 1976, when apparently they didn’t do so until two years later, in 1978. Please stop here with your biased pro USA viewpoint.
Otherwise, the law’s been changed. A step forward, as I said, if it seems a strangely belated one. Still, here, I believe, it’s still legal to shoot Welsh people?
alfred, come on, you’re sounding wilder and wilder. like a joke, though not a funny one. i’m sure suhayl would advise you to calm down and embrace your (beautiful, foreign, I believe) wife.
he’d also probably ask you to answer his simple question: would you vote BNP? since you haven’t, despite repeated polite requests. but to me you are sounding rather too frothing mouthed to vote at all.
Technicolour
The legality of shooting Welsh people has been somewhat exaggerated. The last I heard (at least 30 years ago) was of an old bye law (at that point not repealed) which allowed for the shooting of any Welshmen found in Chester after 10pm. Whether the law still exists or not I can’t say.
I would like you folks to name one Native American who was incarcerated for his or her religious beliefs.
I think you folks look at the title of the statute – The American Indian Religious Freedom Act – and conclude that American Indians must not have had freedom of religion prior to such statute. It’s very ignorant thinking.
Glenn, what else are you going to make up? Would you be incarcerated in your were a Muslim? A Hindu?
Hmm, AB, I don’t understand why you won’t answer Suhayl’s question. You don’t support them, and latterly – perhaps always – have maintained the BNP is a security services operation. But you speak positively of a number of their policies. I’d imagine a simple ‘no’ from you would suffice, and it might put to bed the bad feeling between you?
That said, if you refer to people here as acolytes, or Suhayl as a racist, I don’t imagine you’ll get much of a productive conversation. It shouldn’t matter who started the ill feeling, to my mind – some people here believe different things to you, and vice versa. There is no need for hostilities; exchanges are so much more rewarding without them! 🙂
There are some policies of the BNP which I have no trouble supporting, in particular, getting rid of ruinous “free-trade”, and restricting the freedom of employment of foreigners to undercut British workers. Import taxes (and some export taxes) would be jolly useful too. The hanging, flogging and deportation policies… not so fond of.
Heh Glenn – have you found that one Native American who was thrown in jail because of his or her religious beliefs?
BWWWAAAAHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!
Mark,
‘I do not doubt his experiences of being surrounded by people with little or no respect for the sanctity of human life have indeed contributed …
Tony Blair had already witnessed the carpet bombing by the US of innocent Afghanis when he was contemplating invasion of Iraq. His position required him to include in his judgement, not only the effect of a vacuum of power on the Iraqi population, but the effect of a vacuum of humanity by the coalition of US and false-flag Zionist forces in the Middle East, (who are still murdering Christians in Iraq as we speak).
His blindness to the actualities of US style war, was not a defect of military intelligence, but a catastrophic bias to the Zionist cause, which allowed him to ignore the disaster that followed his decision. If I was a judge, I would take into account his continuing relationship with the state of Israel, and his continuing presence in that country, as evidence of complete absence of contrition, or even recognition of his extraordinarily biassed views.
If nothing is done to move to prosecute him, I’m sure you would agree that the assumption of Iraqis will continue to be that we the British people are complicit in his callous disregard for their safety in inflicting war. David Cameron is a friend of Israel and Ed Miliband is a citizen of Israel so the matter stops there. In politics, justice is not logical. But the total collapse of the Western economic system might shake the consciences of the Muslim-haters into thinking about what they had done to deserve economic ground zero to strike here.
If the shrill blather from teabaggers (such as St. Loony) weren’t proof enough, here’s proof from the Germans of why Americans are generally considered insane:
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149324
Hey Craig, been busy beyond belief on new book, hence lack of posting etc. But just wanted to say Happy New Year to you and yours, all the best for 2011!