The shocking death of Lee Rigby quite naturally appals us all. The intention of the crazed little group who conceived this killing was to make it as horrible as possible in order to scare people.
Horrible, sociopathic violence happens to people from time to time. They have done since Cain killed Abel, metaphorically or literally as you choose. Here is another headline today, just as horrific:
A British soldier has been jailed for stabbing a 10-year-old boy after getting drunk on vodka while serving in Afghanistan.
Both that obscene attack and Michael Adebolajo’s appalling actions are borne out of the same conflict. But it is reasonable to suppose that both these incidents involved people with, for whatever reason, a pre-disposition to murderous violence.
Such people have always been with us and will always be with us, but fortunately they are very, very few. In a nation of 60 million, involvement in violent crime is very low. If you are the victim of criminal violence, the odds over the last decade are about one in twenty thousand that the violence inflicted on you will have any linkage to political or terrorist causation. And the odds that you will suffer any kind of violent attack are thankfully pretty remote.
We should not panic from theatrical violence, just deplore and take sober stock. Sadly if a lunatic on the bus decides to strangle you tomorrow, there are no pre-emptive laws that can stop that. We should stop pretending that the state can always prevent.
Dear Habbakuk – but who is to say that poetry cannot be prose chopped into lines? – who is the rigid arbiter between the two? Do go and read some poetry outside your rigid definition – there’s a good chap.
Lobotokuk Splendidus
I’m the Bird of Distopia
So enraged when challenged
See my bower of bullshit
Be destroyed by my call
“HaBa HaBa HaBa Haba”
Forever and ever and ever and ever………………………….
@ Rose :
Well, I’d say that for a start; prose remains prose and chopping it up into lines doesn’t miraculously transform it into poetry.
I’ll of course take seriously your advice to read some poetry “outside my rigid definition”, but you’ll have to tell me what that “rigid definition” is in order to steer me in the correct direction.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Our Tribe Rite or Rong
Our slaughter of Them so shiny
Their efforts against us paltry and tiny
We are the Noble
They’re Savage Agressors
We are the Victims
They’re “Colateral Damage”
Death-toll? What Death-toll?
I fry you with blasts of high-minded rage
Daily Mail—Whilst the Guardian is taking steps to reduce the backlash against Muslims in the UK (comments closed) the DM keeps fanning the flames.
Of course those in the communities rioters burn and loot remind me of Watts in 1965. Major businesses refused to re-build and the result was a greater ghetto with only liquor stores and paycheck lending outfits on every corner with usury aplenty. Fresh Produce became as scarce as careers outside fast food and drug-dealing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330247/Sweden-flames-As-gangs-migrants-riot-nights-running–Utopian-boats-multicultural-success-story-turn-ashes.html
O/T Dave Lawton; If you are around…Ecats….
http://www.universetoday.com/102398/cold-fusion-experiment-maybe-holds-promise-possibly-hang-on-a-sec/#more-102398
Habbakuk – Try Theodore Roethke “In a Dark Time” for starters.
Spot on.
We’ve moved on from the Iraq war – but Iraqis don’t have that choice
Like characters from The Great Gatsby, Britain and the US have arrogantly turned their backs and left a country in ruins
John Pilger
The Guardian, Sunday 26 May 2013 18.00 BS
[..]’Iraq is no longer news. Last week, the killing of 57 Iraqis in one day was a non-event compared with the murder of a British soldier in London. Yet the two atrocities are connected. Their emblem might be a lavish new movie of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Two of the main characters, as Fitzgerald wrote, “smashed up things and creatures and retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness … and let other people clean up the mess”.
The “mess” left by George Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq is a sectarian war, the bombs of 7/7 and now a man waving a bloody meat cleaver in Woolwich. Bush has retreated back into his Mickey Mouse “presidential library and museum” and Tony Blair into his jackdaw travels and his money.
Their “mess” is a crime of epic proportions, wrote Von Sponeck, referring to the Iraqi ministry of social affairs’ estimate of 4.5 million children who have lost one or both parents. “This means a horrific 14% of Iraq’s population are orphans,” he wrote. “An estimated one million families are headed by women, most of them widows”. Domestic violence and child abuse are rightly urgent issues in Britain; in Iraq the catastrophe ignited by Britain has brought violence and abuse into millions of homes.'[..]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/26/iraqis-cant-turn-backs-on-deadly-legacy
Thanks, Samenleving, Jemand, Ben. Yes, I’d read that about Vulliamy and also about the colonial role of the SS – a very valid point indeed, as many of the tactics of empire have been turned inward. Ben, indeed, it is used routinely in narcotics and many other fields, so it is logical that it would used here too in this field.
Wrt the EDL, it seemed to pop up so quickly from nowhere and to be so much better organised than the usual shambolic Far Right grouping… Also, there seem to be those who move in the areas b/w some Muslim groups and the EDL, often ‘men-with-vans’ (beware a man-with-a-van, especially if he comes bearing flowers). These individuals might warrant further examination. Someone may wish to examine their trash, literally and metaphorically, and to turn the surveillance back onto them, shine a light in dark places. ‘Out’ them all, once and for all.
I do wonder whether they might be undercover Special Branch or headhunted and trained police officers or agents (i.e. not official employees but still on salaries) in the pay of the SS. Perhaps they have fathered children, growing symmetrical beards and sleeping with Muslim women as they did with (those other) Green women? We know this is unofficially authorised – and plausibly denied, indeed, Jemand, plausibly denied. Dirty tricks? They wrote the book.
O/T I know. Sorry Jon and Craig.
Rose.
Thank you for pointing out “In a Dark Time” by Theodore Roethke
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172120
Beautiful sentiments and I’m sure if he works on it, one day, he may just be recognised as a poet of my own calibre.
I’ll leave you with my latest oeuvre, short-listed for the William Topaz Mc Gonnagle Award for Outstanding Poetry 2013.
Lobotokus Splendidus
v. 47
Oh! Ill-fated blog of Craig Murray,
I now must conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central premisses would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with the intellect
of sensible men like Mr Habbukock,
For the stronger we our load-bearing posts do build,
The less chance we have of having them killed.
I see you are a fan of fine poetry. You can view one of the finest poems of all time here
http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/the-tay-bridge-disaster
A Node @ 1:37
Brilliant Deconstruction of that Guardian Piece,
“For the stronger we our load-bearing posts do build …”
You should practise what you preach.
I’ll give you 2/10 for that ditty.
Not even sure it qualifies as a ditty –
A body would want to be very drunk to try and sing that. 😉
“Which of course they would as they were a minority oppressing the majority – I think Nye Bevan made a quote about how you could judge civilisations by their treatment of minorities or something similar.”
Talking of quotes.
@ Jermand.
“The Soviets used to describe democracy as an arrangement wherein the majority get to oppress the minority. If I am one of the minority, why should I accept being oppressed?”
A bit like the situation the Muslims are in today then?
Why should the Muslim minority accept their oppression now, and even more so when the least worst system (which you worryingly seem only to accept when it’s to your own benefit) gives them legitimacy to legislate for their own lives e.g. by introducing shariah for themselves?
In the mean time, I trust you’ll be speaking up for the said oppressed minority,
I liked the Kibo, heres an offering:
Bear less about those wonky trolly loads
The wheeling waterboatmen bugs,
plucked by the bird
and slurped by the newt.
This brook bubbles, its gravels shimmer, fishes are jumpin.
Dreoilin
An Equal-Opportunities Repost
You’re barb ed jibes do cut me to the quick
In fact they make me feel like a bit of a……..idiot
But take refuge I do
In the sure knowledge that true genius is seldom recognised
‘Till the great one him/herself has been interized.
LOL Kibo
I must away to my boudoir. (Wiki says, The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning “to be sulky” or boudeur, meaning “sulky”)
G’night all
For those nightowls so disposed, here’s a little musical diversion; that is, if you like Eric Clapton.
This was his darkest LP, imo. However this piece is sublime, imo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIWbuiDNQWI
It’s late and so I will blow off some energy with a little background, again as per your taste; This was the primordial best of his recovery after the loss of his son. “Unplugged” was his first necessary step toward true recovery, and though in almost every sense it was an example of pure technical perfection, and though his art form did not suffer in the body of the LP, it left off the inevitable sense of permanent loss. Even though “tears in heaven’ was heartfelt and genuine, I’m not sure he had fully processed and had used music as an escape. I think this culminated in ‘Pilgrim’.
Especially “Circus”….
Thanks Ben.
A good end to a long day.
And thanks to CM and all. A brilliant, revealing blog.
Goodnight.
Nice indeed Ben
it got me thinking about another star’s loss, where he challenges ye gods about his loss…
So, I prayed
But you weren’t listening.
Making miracles?
So, I begged
But you were far away.
Saving souls perhaps?
So, I screamed
But she was very small
And you have worlds to mend.
So, she died
And you were glorious.
But you were somewhere else.
If you are my shepherd
Then I’m lost and no one can find me.
If you are my saviour
Then I’m dead and no one can help me.
If you are my glory
Then I’m sick and no one can cure me.
If you light my darkness
Then I’m blind and no one can see me.
If you are my father
Then love lies abandoned and bleeding.
If you are my comfort
Then nightmares are real and deceiving.
If you are my answer
Then I must have asked the wrong question.
I’d spit on your heaven
If I could find one to believe in
Garry Numan
i think its raw..oozing of hurt…Confronting ALL religeons.
Lwtc247, while you are busy living with the conspiracy around the clock, could you find the time to speak out for the innocent minorities in Muslim countries who are routinely subjected to discrimination and violent crimes?
And exactly what is the “oppression” experienced by Muslims in the UK? I was under the impression that Muslims are still migrating to the UK to escape oppression in their Islamic homelands. Surely you don’t flee your own home to, ironically, take refuge in the strange lands of your brutal oppressors, do you? Aren’t peace-loving Muslim countries able to provide them with a new home, free of the oppression you mentioned? We’ve heard that immigration is a good thing. We’ve heard that immigration is good for the economy. I’d like to know why Muslim countries are reluctant to provide sanctuary to their Muslim brothers, especially when they routinely decry their victimisation around the world. I also wonder how many non-Muslim asylum seekers these countries provide safe haven to.
Did I say that I only accept democracy when it’s to my “own benefit”? Or did you just assume that? And may I ask, for whose benefit is one supposed to accept a political system? Your neighbour’s? For whose benefit does he accept the same system? It is a pretty strange system in which the minority vote in favour of the majority and the majority vote in favour of the minority. How does that work? I thought democracy purported to represent the amorphous will of the people by having each person cast his vote in self-interest. Otherwise, how would a democratic system express valid responses to the aggregated needs of the people it purports to represent?
Incidentally, it’s not “Jermand”, as in “German”, it is Jemand as in “Puerile epithets are no substitute for intelligent arguments”.
Ben Franklin You recently enquired about Lincolnshire. Grimsby, once a busy fishing port, is in that county and this is what happened there last night. The local police say that they are aware of racist comments on social media.
Video: Petrol bombs thrown inside Grimsby mosque (updated)
Monday, May 27, 2013
http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/BREAKING-updated-Petrol-bombs-thrown-inside/story-19096477-detail/story.html#axzz2UTTYsptW
Is Hague spending the Bank Holiday strolling along the prom in the sunshine with Ffion? No. He is in Brussels trying to persuade his fellow EU foreign ministers to allow arms to go to the Syrian rebels, one of whom cut out the heart of his enemy and was filmed eating it.
Syria conflict: EU to discuss amending arms embargo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22677599#
What are the ‘carefully controlled circumstances’ under which these weapons would be released? He has leant no lessons from his government’s attack on Libya which resulted in the horrific murder of Gaddafi. The aftermath there is still unfolding.
A comment from a Medialens contributor.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1369631368.html
O/T Two reviews of the Gibney film about Wikileaks.
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/05/23/we-steal-secrets-documentary-focuses-on-personalities-of-assange-manning-over-significance-of-wikileaks/
http://www.alexaobrien.com/secondsight/wikileaks/bradley_manning/a_review_of_alex_gibney_we_steal_secrest_story_of_wikileaks.html
Well, if the Foreign Secretary were spending the day strolling along the seaside with his wife he wouldn’t be doing his job properly, would he?
Today is not a Bank Holiday in Belgium and the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council was scheduled for today at the beginning of the Irish Presidency.
PS – I realise that the above info isn’t very interesting or useful; Heaven help me, I must be getting into the swing of this thread!
Lobotokus Splendidus (Bird of Distopia)
v. 15
I’m the Ultimate Predator
I kill the Messanger
High Priest of the Warrior-Trolls
With a tap on my key board
Evil Facts can be ignored
I cheer-lead our violence
No matter just how many die
Oh bugger that doesn’nt scan
Or anything
“And exactly what is the “oppression” experienced by Muslims in the UK? I was under the impression that Muslims are still migrating to the UK to escape oppression in their Islamic homelands. Surely you don’t flee your own home to, ironically, take refuge in the strange lands of your brutal oppressors, do you? Aren’t peace-loving Muslim countries able to provide them with a new home, free of the oppression you mentioned? We’ve heard that immigration is a good thing. We’ve heard that immigration is good for the economy. I’d like to know why Muslim countries are reluctant to provide sanctuary to their Muslim brothers, especially when they routinely decry their victimisation around the world. I also wonder how many non-Muslim asylum seekers these countries provide safe haven to?”
——–
I’ll admit that I’ve haven’t been following this discussion as closely as I might have done, but the above para from Jemand’s post did catch my attention and I think he makes a number of very fair points. Notably :
1/. There does seem to be a lack of solidarity between Arab (or Muslim, if you will) states on both the international and domestic fronts. I refer to practical aspects as opposed to political declarations, of course.
2/. As far as oppression of Muslims in the UK is concerned, I do note, on my visits, the number of British born people of Asian ethnicity working in the service industries – the very industries where one might have expected discrimination to be especially strong since they involve close contact with the white, non-Muslim population. Compare this to the situation in the majority (if not all) of the Continental European countries where there is a distinct lack (to put it mildly) of dark faces in areas such as the front offices of banks, estate agents, front line government offices and so on. This is not to say that there is no discrimination, but I do find the phenomenon a heartening one and a cause for cautious optimism.
All for now, off to play some beach volley. Enjoy the day, all!
For the obsessive responder who probably heard this live in the music halls.
Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside
I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll upon the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play:
“Tiddely-om-pom-pom!”
So just let me be beside the seaside
I’ll be beside myself with glee
And there’s lots of girls beside,
I should like to be beside
Beside the seaside!
Beside the sea!
It’s a holiday in America too. Memorial Day.
What hypocrisy from the Commmander in Chief.
Today, we pay tribute to those patriots who never came back — who fought for a home to which they never returned, and died for a country whose gratitude they will always have… Scripture teaches us that “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2013/0513_memorialday/
A different view from another American.
Good Americans Should Mourn First the Millions America Has Slaughtered
by Jay Janson / May 26th, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/05/good-americans-should-mourn-first-the-millions-america-has-slaughtered/