There are many thousands of people imprisoned in Uzbekistan alone who should not be imprisoned and who suffer much worse conditions than even the genuine horrors of Wandsworth being visited on Julian Assange. But the Assange case has implications for ever deteriorating Western freedoms which should not be overlooked.
Then there are many war criminals who ought to be in jail and who are not. Most prominent of these are Bush, Blair, Cheney, Straw and their crew. A minor figurewho ought to be in jail is Anna Ardin. Here are two tweets she published after being “raped” by Julian Assange:
‘Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a couple of available seats tonight or tomorrow? #fb’
‘Sitting outdoors at 02:00 and hardly freezing with the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing! #fb’
She subsequently deleted and tried to expunge those. I doff my hat to Rixstep:
http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml
For another avowed feminist trying to bring Assange down, analyse the use of language in this article by the Guardian’s useless Helen Piddle. For a worm like her to use words like bizarre and raggle-taggle in relation to John Pilger really defies rationality.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/julian-assange-celebrity-supporters
..if I know that no-one really knows more than anyone else, yet know that, by knowing that, it leaves me knowing more than other people who do think they know more than anyone else, where does that leave me?
understanding, rather than knowing, possibly. hey dreoilin, hope all’s good. do you have a kitten yet?
“I was brought up as a Roman Catholic”
You and me both, Tony. And I think we both chucked it in about the same age.
Yes, there’s no question, educational standards in the UK have deteriorated over the past couple of decades. Interesting re. music, Vronsky.
Btw, Alfred, you don’t need a smear artist, “”SS” or anyone else, when the smears emerge from your own pen.
seriously chaps, the C of E is comparatively great. I’m sorry. Still, you had incense and weekly absolution & other cool stuff (I’m afraid I just borrowed it)
Hi tech,
No, I haven’t. Was just looking at some on a fostering website yesterday.
@SS
“when the smears emerge from your own pen.”
OK SS, put or shut up. Give us the quotes.
I often thought that if I wanted to be a Christian I’d prefer to be Protestant. We couldn’t even read the Bible. It had to be “interpreted” for us. And then there was infallability … and not attending Mass on a Sunday was a mortal sin. The two things I enjoyed were the incense and the Latin. Loved Latin.
Some protestants though, crikey. Like Catholics without the incense. C of E, I’m telling you. No obligations other than to be vaguely nice, or so it seemed, when I was growing up.
Would it help if there was some kind of non-religious religion?
tempted to say yes, but on reflection it might be too much like a computer code
Avaaz is claiming that it’s petition (text below) received 400,000 signatures in one day. I spat at Clark for supposing that their target of 1M signatures mattered since it’s nothing in relative terms, but now I’m slightly more interested (I did sign, Clark). Go along and sign if you haven’t (no link, you’re all smart people who will find it if you want to). It obviously won’t matter, but flex the muscles, rattle the sabre.
Avaaz petition:
“To the U.S. and other governments and corporations involved in the crackdown on WikiLeaks:
We call on you to stop the crackdown on WikiLeaks and its partners immediately. We urge you to respect democratic principles and laws of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. If WikiLeaks and the journalists it works with have violated any laws they should be pursued in the courts with due process. They should not be subjected to an extra-judicial campaign of intimidation.”
Alfred, you constantly refer to “genocide” and “invasion” in utterly inappropriate circumstances. These are smears.
Hmm. Something has to happen. Religion will continue to be eroded by rationality and by movement of people. Religion is a horrible evolved mess, with vital emotional and social functions inextricably interwoven with incompatible dogmas and superstitions.
Nine-eleven was the catalyzing political event of the 21st century. It has never been the subject of a forensic or judicial investigation. But Craig Murray and his sycophants don’t question the US Government line that 9/11 was the work of Al Qaeda under the direction of Osama bin Laden located at the time in Afghanistan.
Now we have Assange fully endorsed by Craig Murray telling us, by way of a stolen diplomatic cable authorized for release by the State Department, that Osama bin Laden, who was suffering from end-case kidney failure in 2001, is alive and well directing the war against the US from a base in Pakistan.
Yet Craig Murray and his side-kicks claim to be against the war, which raises this very interesting question: why? If they believe that the US was attacked by bin Laden with the connivance of Afghanistan in 2001 and that the US is still being attacked under the direction of bin Laden, now with the connivance of Pakistan, why are they against the war. Every nation has a right of self-defense. The position taken by Craig Murray and his unquestioning supporters here is that the war is evil. Why?
The answer, I suggest, is that Craig Murray is a shill for the NWO. Hence the determined opposition to any investigation of charges that 9/11 was a false flag attack to justify the launch of a war of imperial aggression. Hence also the policing of comment on 9/11 by the supposedly banned extremely aggressive Angrysoba and Larry.
Empires hate internal division on racial, national or cultural grounds. Hence the Murray line Scotch nationalism: break up the UK and deny the existence of a British nation, and call any critics racists, and see the pieces more closely incorporated into the larger largely undemocratic EU.
All empires hate national traditions. Hence the Murray line on Britian’s constitutional monarchy, the first and most brilliantly effective check on absolute government the modern world has seen, ridicule it, deny its function, insist that it is a bastion of privilege.
All empires hate independent thought. Hence the Murray line on education, it must be paid for by the state and thus entirely controlled by the state, and thus an open conduit for propaganda.
All empires promote internal trade. Hence the Murray line of globalization. The NWO is a world empire, hence global free trade. If that means effective unemployment or partial employment for 9 million Britons, so be it.
But the anti-torture thing. That’s a good cover, since we know that all empires have used torture and that all empire no doubt always will.
@Suhayl
“Alfred, you constantly refer to “genocide” and “invasion” in utterly inappropriate circumstances. These are smears.”
Don’t be so pathetic. I asked for quotes not a reiteration of the smear.
Here, I’ll give you 24 hours, assuming I’m not excluded from future access to the site.
dreoilin: ach, you have to go & see one 🙂
is there a community which has never had a religion?
Prostate
These guys are long past the stage where they can separate fact from fiction. Retards is an understatement. This lot are defectives.
The Guardian Assange support list reads like an inventory of the UK’s controlled opposition. Why isn’t Murray on the list?
Dose of Bill Engdahl called for:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22357
LOL – simple answer, they (we) believe that you have cause and effect the wrong way around. We believe that terrorist attacks are a response to dreadful Western foreign policy, of which those wars are a part.
and so does Eliza Manningham -Buller, yipee.
“If they believe that the US was attacked by bin Laden with the connivance of Afghanistan in 2001 and that the US is still being attacked under the direction of bin Laden, now with the connivance of Pakistan, why are they against the war.”
God, that’s a stupid question, Alfred. It’s like saying, why would anyone be against the UK invading Ireland, and waging war on us, to get its hands on Martin McGuinness (when he was IRA.)
yep, dreoilin; also it’s a large ‘if’. And the Loya Jurga in Afghanistan had offered to hand Bin Laden over or facilitate it, before & after 9/11.
Sometimes I think this is all some kind of game cooked up by crazy strategists. Sometimes I think it’s people’s incompetence, sometimes both. I know I’ve got another 40 years left, so what to do with them? Wing it?
“with the connivance of Afghanistan”
and “with the connivance of Pakistan”
You know perfectly well it’s a whole lot more complicated than than, Alfred. I have no idea why you come on here and act dumb. Other than for your own entertainment, as I’ve said before.
“And the Loya Jurga in Afghanistan had offered to hand Bin Laden over or facilitate it”
Yes, tech. I think he comes on here to see if he can put people through hoops, that’s all.
Alfred, if you really are posing under a different handle, why? Are you worried that your views are so unpopular you need a sock-puppet?
“If they [Craig’s readers] believe that the US was attacked by bin Laden with the connivance of Afghanistan in 2001 and that the US is still being attacked under the direction of bin Laden, now with the connivance of Pakistan, why are they against the war?”
Phew, that’s a blinkered position. Lying to go to war, making massive transfers of public money to the military-industrial complex, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and risking or ending the lives of hundreds of soldiers, to steal natural resources and/or to remake a nationalist country in the neo-conservative mould, and you wonder why we’re a bit pissed off?
Christ!
“We believe that terrorist attacks are a response to dreadful Western foreign policy, of which those wars are a part.”
In a nutshell. 🙂
I should be off …
Barenboim is conducting Beethoven’s 9th on Sky Arts 2 with his Israel/Palestinian orchestra right now. You have just about time to tune in for the finale. More could be said about this – hasta tarde –
“I know I’ve got another 40 years left”
Lucky you. 🙂
G’night all
LOL
Astute critical deduction re-Murray.
An NWO pied piper followed by a shower of intellectually-challenged adolescent groupies who are dumb enough to believe he’s a genuine “whistle-blower”.
LMAO!
Vronsky – I envy you hearing that Barenboim concert but as I won’t pay a penny piece to Murdoch, I don’t have Sky.
btw Avaaz is supposed to be a Soros funded outfit specifically designed to absorb dissent.
@somebody – Avaaz has achieved some pretty good things, to be honest (though I’d not heard it was Soros-funded). It’s a great deal more liberal than many other outlets (single-issue groups and small left-leaning parties aside). They occasionally come out with a howler (the World Bank was set up to reduce international poverty, for example) but generally they’re right on the money (no pun intended).
Incidentally, most people here will know of them already, but for those that don’t, there’s a British version of Avaaz – 38 Degrees. They’re well worth following also, imo.
somebody
I don’t have Sky either – it’s on Virgin. I’ve expressed uncertainty in the past about avaaz and I’d welcome any substantive information that anyone has.
The Beethoven has just finished. You should have swallowed your principles – it was fabulous, but Barenboim has been a hero of mine since childhood. All those pan-semitic faces, doing what they shouldn’t do, sitting together and uttering the ultimate anthem of optimism. Serious musical commentators say that the Ninth is passe, written for an age of naive optimism, unintelligible in our times, and it will be long before it can be understood again. Not on tonight’s showing. This is the sort of thing you have to stop, angrysoba. It’s a conspiracy theory if I ever saw one.