On Being Angry and Dangerous 892


I learn the interesting news that David Aaronovitch tweeted to Joan Smith and Jenny Jones that I am:

“an angry and dangerous man who could as easily be on the far right as the far left”.

I had no idea I was on the far left, though I suppose it is a matter of perspective, and from where Mr Aaronovitch stands I, and a great many others, look awfully far away to the left. I don’t believe you should bomb people for their own good, I don’t believe the people of Palestine should be crushed, I don’t believe the profit motive should dominate the NHS, I think utilities and railways were better in public ownership, I think education should be free. I guess that makes me Joseph Stalin.

But actually I am very flattered. Apparently I am not just angry – since the invasion of Iraq and the banker bailouts everybody should be angry – but “dangerous”. If I can be a danger to the interests represented by a Rupert Murdoch employee like Aaronovitch, I must have done something right in my life. I fear he sadly overrates me; but it does make me feel a little bit warmer, and hold my head that little bit higher.


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892 thoughts on “On Being Angry and Dangerous

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  • Mary

    Perfectly reasonable comments from Gilad Atzmon (or ‘the self hating Jew’ as the Zionists call him) on this week’s judgement from Judge Gershon.

    http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/gilad-atzmon-rachel-corrie-and-the-kosher-legal-stamp.html

    Sky News are just saying that Israel will not give prior notice to the US if and when they attack Iran.

    In that context, Ban Ki Moon is perpetuating the lie about Iran wiping Israel off the map.

    “Mr Ban responded to the ayatollah’s statement by calling on Iran to build confidence in its nuclear ambitions by co-operating fully with the Security Council over its nuclear programme.

    He also rebuked Tehran for its hostilty towards Israel, saying: “I strongly reject threats by any member states to destroy another or outrageous attempt to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust , claiming that another state, Israel, does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19418556

  • macky

    “Ban Ki Moon is perpetuating the lie about Iran wiping Israel off the map.”

    I wonder what the US has over him;

    “Top secret cables revealed that Mrs Clinton, the Secretary of State, even ordered diplomats to obtain DNA data – including iris scans and fingerprints – as well as credit card and frequent flier numbers.

    All permanent members of the security council – including Russia, China, France and the UK – were targeted by the secret spying mission, as well as the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333920/WikiLeaks-Hillary-Clinton-ordered-U-S-diplomats-spy-UN-leaders.html#ixzz2532vtvF8

  • Fedup

    Mr Wanky Moon responded to the threat statement made by isreal to bomb Iran, by calling on isreal to be careful not to hurt any of yenta bombing Iran.

    The pitiful state of affairs of the world is to debate imaginary nukes, and to overlook the real threats of war, and destruction. The UN is no longer an organisation fit for its’ purpose, and it should go the way of the League of the Nations, ie disbanded and a new organisation that can arbitrate, and exert influence without favouring the handful of nations who appear to be benefiting from the lawless world that the latter-day League of Nations has spawned.

  • nevermind

    Good to hear you had a a great time in that rabbit hole, Clark, you were sooo lucky to escape a mauling. Essex was threatened by the Essex Lion, well it was more like a pussy cat, but you never know, somebody one day might identify cats from dogs down there.

    Gavin Essler has still not apologised for being an arse, but who cares, we are used to being treated like shitty doormats, aren’t we?

  • Vronsky

    @Clark

    Good to see you back, feeling and sounding better.

    Anent the oddness of dreams I once studied maths a bit intensively, specifically Group Theory which I have A Thing about (nobody’s perfect). I discovered that if I was thinking about a problem as I went to sleep I would usefully often dream the solution. In one particular case I’d looked at a problem, decided that a solution was possible through prime number decomposition but decided that it would take many laborious pages and I’d go hopelessly wrong half way down the first one due to my inability to read my own handwriting.

    In my dream I started off on the process anyway and found that I got to a solution in less than a page. I was somewhat aware that I was asleep and time didn’t exist and I could scribble out as many pages as I wanted, and that illusion allowed me to make a start. I took to sleeping with a pencil and paper beside the bed so that these strange intuitions could be recorded before they evaporated away.

    I often get a similar effect with crossword puzzles and have heard it reported by others. Awake, one clue defeats me, but I wake up after sleeping for about an hour and know the solution. Spookier still, I sometimes look at a crossword puzzle and immediately get the solution to one of the clues – but I don’t know which one and may not find it till near the end. I think it’s something to do with the subconscious getting interested in a problem and sticking with it when the higher consciousness has moved elsewhere.

  • Vronsky

    @jon

    “oppressing any or all of them will just create more religionists”

    Is disagreement and disapproval now ‘oppression’? Poor things.

  • wendy

    so uk has sent a further 200 special forces to fight in syria … along with nato agreeing to greater intervention .. looks like we’re fully at war ..
    .
    but why tell the british public?
    .
    syria has to fall by october/november for iran timetable to be kept ..

  • Jon

    @Vronsky, regarding the oppression of religion:

    Is disagreement and disapproval now ‘oppression’? Poor things.

    I was drawing a parallel with official government oppression of religion (for example, how China oppresses the Falun Gong movement, whilst failing to stamp it out) with the manner in which real/perceived anti-Jewish feeling strengthens the Jewish movement. Do I think Jewish people are oppressed per se – no, probably not.

    I am still of the view that Judaism itself is not the problem, even though, as I say, I don’t approve of organised religion in any form.

  • Jon

    Another example of the same: I’d say media intolerance towards Islam in Britain (and undoubtedly elsewhere) in encouraging more people to turn to Islam, and encouraging some people who are already Islamic to be more observant and/or fundamentalist. This illustrates the problem I am talking about: i.e. from a critics’ perspective, the result is counterproductive.

  • Steve Cook

    “@Jon

    Another example of the same: I’d say media intolerance towards Islam in Britain (and undoubtedly elsewhere) in encouraging more people to turn to Islam, and encouraging some people who are already Islamic to be more observant and/or fundamentalist. This illustrates the problem I am talking about: i.e. from a critics’ perspective, the result is counterproductive….”

    What do you mean by intolerance Jon?

  • Mary

    Lack of Press Freedom Shields “Reporters Without Borders” From Exposure
    By Joe Emersberger Aug 30, 2012

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the press freedom watchdog, is a fraud. You can find people who say this in small non-corporate outlets, and who provide slam dunk evidence for that harsh assessment.

    {http://www.zcommunications.org/reporters-without-borders-and-washingtons-coups-by-diana-barahona}

    However, the corporate media in English speaking countries has been routinely citing RSF’s Press Freedom Index as if it were irrefutable evidence that the Correa government in Ecuador (and even more so the Chavez government in Venezuela) has been “cracking down” on press freedom.

    RSF’s Press Freedom index was cited in the Newstatesman by “legal correspondent” David Allen Green in an attempt debunk the “legal myth” (how it’s a “legal” myth I’ll leave others to unravel) that by “giving Assange asylum, Ecuador is protecting freedom of the press”.

    {http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition}

    An Australian television “journalist” berated Julian Assange’s mother, Christine, and demanded to know if her son would be fighting for press freedom in Ecuador if he should ever arrive there.

    /..
    http://www.zcommunications.org/lack-of-press-freedom-shields-reporters-without-borders-from-exposure-by-joe-emersberger

  • Fedup

    The latest efforts of Bullshit Broadcasting corporation is centring around withdrawing a package on Syria. The clip has been pulled off and is currently on its way into the memoryhole.

    It contains an interview with a “Free Syrian Army” captured prisoner. The severely bruised chap showing signs of having been torture, which evidently are explained as not inflicted by his captors! Later the said POW then is told he is getting exchanged for another prisoner, and given a truck to drive up to a Syrian Army checkpoint!

    Then the “Free Syrian Army” personnel glumly inform the camera crew that their plan has backfired, and the truck load of explosives sent to blow up the Syrian Army check point has malfunctioned.

    Fact that the captured prisoner was getting used as a human shield and subsequent interview to this effect, perhaps are the basis of the withdrawal of the package in case the matter ever gets to Hague.

  • nuid

    Israel: “The Rachel Corrie verdict, a defeat for justice and accountability, a victory for impunity” – UN expert

    GENEVA (30 August 2012) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, condemned this week’s ruling by an Israeli judge blocking a civil suit filed by the family of a young American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, in 2003.
    This is his statement:

    http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12470&LangID=E

  • nuid

    Former Navy SEAL in “material breach” of non-disclousre agreements with Osama bin Laden book, according to the Pentagon’s top attorney in a letter obtained by Reuters.

    The Pentagon says it is considering “all remedies legally available” against the former Navy SEAL and all those acting in concert with him. The Pentagon says further public dissemination of the book “will aggravate your breach and violation of your agreements.”

    https://plus.google.com/+Reuters/posts/3qGvB4QKP4H

    (Only Obama and members of his admin are allowed to “leak”, and only when it’s advantageous to Obama)

  • McVities Digestives

    I see the unelected government of the UK is about to make ‘squatting’ illegal. Makes perfect sense, seeing as there are 500,000 homeless people in the UK and empty housing stock stands at a record 1.1 million properties – the vast majority of which are being kept off-market by the banks to keep property prices artificially high.

    It’s great to see the millionaires who make up the unelected government are looking after their own interests at the expense of the 60 million. I cant wait for the abject misery that will soon be heaped upon the UK when the FTSE and property bubbles burst. It’s well deserved when 60 million people just sit idly by and watch these criminals quite literally *take* power.

    The British have no spine, they’ve been deluded by all that WW2 propaganda, industrial revolution crap and those ‘green and pleasant land’ Sunday evening programmes that are continually pumped out by the BBC – and they pay for it, suckers is an understatement.

    The Brits should make like the Icelanders and start chucking them in prison, but that of course requires a bit of back-bone. The British are only good at whining and putting on a ‘brave face’. Pathetic people, pathetic nation.

  • Jay

    “This bond can prepare the ground for transitioning to a just and humane order.”

    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/30/259025/leaders-inaugural-speech-at-nam-summit/

    The words of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s

    Is the language he uses simply rheteric and spin we are so used to or does this man have the integrity that his words seem to imply.

    “This is one of the most important issues of the human community.”

    What is to be? All of the nations and people have their adages where do you see the end game?

    Blade Runner, Mad Max,…

    Nurturing a world, as the Ayatolah says a Human community.

  • Mary

    French & US Intelligence Chemical Weapons False Flag in Syria Exposed
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SxKIyk5dgqk

    Excerpt from Hague’s speech to the Security Council yesterday –

    ‘Fourth, the people of Syria live in the shadow of the threat of the Syria regime’s stock of chemical and biological weapons. All members of this Council should demand that Syria adheres to its obligations to secure and account for these stocks, and call on the UN Secretary-General to ensure that the Investigation Mechanism into allegations of the use of chemical and biological weapons can readily be deployed.’
    {http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=PressS&id=805383182}

    He is sending more of our money to the ‘rebels’.

  • Komodo

    Another example of the same: I’d say media intolerance towards Islam in Britain (and undoubtedly elsewhere) in encouraging more people to turn to Islam, and encouraging some people who are already Islamic to be more observant and/or fundamentalist. This illustrates the problem I am talking about: i.e. from a critics’ perspective, the result is counterproductive.

    Cogent and little-discussed point, Jon. Christianity would today be a forgotten cult if it had not been efficiently persecuted by the Roman emperors. And antisemitism towards the diaspora is a valuable tool for Israel’s zionists as it recruits support for the apartheid state. As Theodor Herzl remarked:
    (in his “Diaries”, page 19) “Anti-Semites will become our surest friends, anti-Semitic countries our allies.”

    http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/antisemitism/zionismpromotes.cfm

  • Komodo

    He is sending more of our money to the ‘rebels’.

    Cheer up, Mary. It will bite him in the bum when the rebels prove to be even less compliant than Assad…

  • Komodo

    I guess the Navy SEAL’s sales will triple now. Bad move, Obama. Especially as you were not so long ago taking the credit for personally slotting bin Laden yourself….

  • Phil

    Here’s a few words for anyone not technical minded but curious about escaping the clutches of corporate software.

    Ubuntu (discussed by others above) is an version of the incredible Linux operating system. There are many variations which can be a bit daunting for new users.

    There are versions targeting frustrated windows/macs users.

    Historically the open source operating systems have worked less well with some hardware than windows but this is less true every day. Anyway, these can be installed along side your current windows, so you can test them before abandoning windows completely.

    My favourite version for the non-technical is Kubuntu. I install this on friend’s pc/laptops whenever windows lets them down. Even the most technology adverse amongst them use it perfectly happily.

    So, if you fancy using fantastic, community driven, free, reliable, secure software take a look at starting with Kubuntu. It is a liberating, anti corporate practical step you can take today. Take a look!

    http://www.kubuntu.org/

  • Komodo

    While the US would undoubtedly welcome that well-known North Atlantic nation, Israel, into NATO (in order to “defend” the Mediterranean), there are some dissident voices….
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/nato-official-soon-israel-won-t-have-unanimous-support-for-iran-strike.premium-1.457731

    Usual apologies for linking to a paywall: if you think it’s worth a dollar to read the rest, feel free, but it’s the Law of Hack that the story is told in the first two paragraphs, so you’re only missing half the story.

  • bert

    William Hague: “Fourth, the people of Syria live in the shadow of the threat of the Syria regime’s stock of chemical and biological weapons. All members of this Council should demand that Syria adheres to its obligations to secure and account for these stocks

    “The Syria regime” indeed!

    This is what the Arab spring, invasions of Libya and Syria etc. are all about: disarm the Arabs and Muslims, who are the wickedest terrorists on Earth if they maintain some kind of military deterrent against another 1967, another major round of Israeli military projection, which can only be a matter of time.

    Did anyone else grok the 2010 incident where the Israeli airforce flew over Hungary to give backup to a Mossad assassination in Budapest?

    @Jon – your analogy between the effects of critical harshness towards unpleasantness in Islam and the effects of similar harshness in respect of Judaism is rather like comparing Hampstead to Peckham. Ultra-rich Jewish interests believe in no religious crap at all, only in what’s practical, and thrive on confusion. There is no Christian or Islamic parallel to Zionist propaganda and the hold and reach that it has. I don’t say this because this is how I want it, but because this is how I think it is.

  • Komodo

    More context still on HR1143:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/opinion/friedman-why-not-in-vegas.html?_r=2&ref=thomaslfriedman

    So how about all you U.S. politicians — Republicans and Democrats — stop feeding off this conflict for political gain. Stop using this conflict as a backdrop for campaign photo-ops and fund-raisers. Stop making things even worse by telling the most hard-line Israelis everything that they want to hear, just to grovel for Jewish votes and money, while blatantly ignoring the other side. There are real lives at stake out there. If you’re not going to do something constructive, stay away. They can make enough trouble for themselves on their own.

  • Jon

    @Steve Cook – what do I mean by intolerance? There wasn’t any special meaning, other than the one mainly recognised by liberals in the context of Islamophobia. The mainstream media offers a counter-reaction to Islam as useful official enemy, partly to encourage sales from xenophobes and those looking for a shock story, and partly as a subconscious journalist bias that has large slices of the media agreeing with and propagating establishment viewpoints.

    Anti-Islam perspectives tend to be expressed in highlighting the violent parts of its holy books rather than its peaceful parts; drawing attention to holders of radical perspectives as an illustration of the whole of the religion or culture; assuming without evidence that any terrorist action is the work of Islamic operatives; and offering unfair critiques of countries that are primarily Islamic in nature.

  • nuid

    I’m just reading that while Clint Eastwood describes himself as a ‘fiscal conservative’, he backs gay marriage, favours gun control and abortion rights and supports environmental causes. So how did he allow himself to be suckered into making a fool of himself talking to an empty chair on the Romney platform last night? Poor old fella is the laugh of the internet …

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