The Respectability of Torture
St Mary’s University College, Thurs 1st August, 7.30pm
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, was a whistleblower who was removed from his ambassadorial post by Tony Blair for exposing the Tashkent regime‟s use of rape and systematic torture, including the boiling to death of political opponents. He has also spoken out against Central Asia‟s appalling dictatorships, regimes which are allies of the West, involved in torture and rendition, and was accused of threatening MI6‟s relationship with the CIA. Now a human rights activist, author and broadcaster, he outlines the dynamics of torture and the hypocrisy of incriminated Western governments.
My first public appearance for a while will be in Belfast on 1 August where I shall be giving a talk. Long term readers of this blog will recall that, while my focus is largely on international affairs, the domestic political achievements I most hope to see are a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.
dear James, there is currently no topic to be off!
@ Chris Jones
“This was my paragraph you refer to, which was in reply to your double standards in defending the teaching of Hebrew whilst happily condoning discrimination against teaching Welsh to Welsh kids:”
______________
For the third time, Mr Jones, I was pointing to the unequal distribution of Welsh speakers in Wales.
Please refresh my memory and quote me “happily condoning discrimination against teaching Welsh to Welsh kids”.
You will be unable to do so for the simple reason I didn’t say (or even imply) that. But do try to prove me wrong!
PS- I can see you’ve pocked up one of the tricks of the Eminences rather quickly; I refer, of course, to making false claims about what someone else actually said. Well done…bach.
Thx, Tech…look forward.
There is no law giving Scotland rights to sovereignty.
There is no law giving Scotland rights to dapper savoir faire.
There is no hat giving Gondwanaland rights to firm and well-consolidated stools.
There is no string giving norns rights to clitoral orgasms of bonegrinding intensity.
All equally true, equally perspicuous. Our consensus is increasingly comprehensive. So welcome to the cause! Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba!
@ Jon and others
wow, having followed the Stormfront link and read some of the comments on that thread, I begin to see better why publications like Searchlight and organisations like the Jewish Defence League exist. There is a lot of really sick, hateful stuff on there, written by what appear to be very seriously disturbed people.
Habbabkuk: That’s nothing, mate. You should see the sort of stuff they post on the Motorcycle News forums 🙁
[Mod: post made by a sock puppet pretending to be this poster, removed]
I wonder if he comments @Stormfront….or is that in the budget?
“wow, having followed” – very unlike the style of our own dear Mr Habbakuk. Can I just ask, when did you ‘get down with the kidz’ H?
Otherwise, sure everyone with an internet connection saw this?
http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-tiny-things-that-stopped-suicides/
[Mod: I rarely cut criticism of moderator, but this is highly unpleasant – I am allegedly “sounding like a manager of a cheap Bangladeshi restaurant handing out a menu of stale food”, and much more nonsense besides. Removed.]
@guano – I appreciate your sensible advice although even worn crumpled underpants can sometimes be entertaining..
I love this board 🙂
“Bear in mind in the real world the rule-of-thumb is that it costs you 5 times to replace a new customer as with retaining one”
Was Krishnamurti (for all newcomers, Villager is a devotee of Krishnamurti) a capitalist?
Fred
23 Aug, 2013 – 11:11 pm
“They say if you sit an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters one of them will write the works of Shakespeare.
This blog represents what the other ones would write.”
Brilliant one Fred. I love your lateral wit and approach in general. I envision somehow all the monkeys are also wearing spectacles (their conditioning), so you get very different ranges of clarity. Thank you for your example of keeping them straight.
TC are you losing your marbles? First i heard that Krishnamurti had ‘devotees’. Got any credible sources for that? With love may i suggest you stick to the knitting?
“If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.” Bradley Maning
Re detention and harrassement of David Miranda but could just as well be about Manning’s cruel treatment. The authorities want you to understand they can do it to you, too. Whether they’ve miscalculated depends on how well they’ve gauged the passivity of the public. Barry Eisler
@ Flaming June. 9 58pm
Thanks for the text of the open letter to the Telegraph from 34 prominent Jewish people regarding the BBC’s censoring of Nigel Kennedy’s statement, “…getting rid of apartheid gives a beautiful chance for amazing things to happen”. Nigel Kennedy
“As Jewish campaigners for equality, justice and freedom for all in Israel/Palestine, we urge the BBC to acknowledge his comments as an integral part of a performance which was warmly received by an enthusiastic Proms crowd.”
TC again, as for what K was and wasn’t, i suggest you ask him here:
http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/index.php
Enter your key words in search and there you are. I understand he wanted to record all he said to minimise other people’s interpretations as representative. Of course one is free to discuss anything at anytime. If you want to meet up at the Centre some w/e i’m game — haven’t been there foe awhile. Great countryside, total freedom except for meal times, amazing , clean vegetarian food, variable company if you want it, but a darned sight better than here.
@Habbabkuk – So you are indeed a fibber – a flying donkey with gold earrings. It’s been great but i’ll leave you to your Simon Cowellesque fantasy
Sofia Kibo Noh
24 Aug, 2013 – 2:38 am
@ Flaming June. 9 58pm
“Thanks for the text of the open letter to the Telegraph from 34 prominent Jewish people ”
Sofia, no doubt you recognised all the signatories at the bat of an eyelid and concluded they were all ‘prominent’. Jewish yes but prominent? Sure about it? Please give us a brief introduction to them to support your assertion. Take as much help from Aunty June to complete your research, but with the extended holiday weekend, please don’t get lazy, ok? Thanks in advance!
Suhayl,
I’d love to go to the festival. Very probably can’t make it but a few friends of mine I know are there. Glad to hear Craig is alive, kicking and seemingly well and having fun.
Best wishes to all!
@ Kempe 23 Aug, 2013 – 8:03 pm
“What’s all this “she”? The MSM have all been at it but you don’t change sex simply by putting on a cheap wig and some lipstick. He’s still male and probably always will be. It’s like something out of Monty Python.”
The famous lumberjack bit? 🙂
@ Villager 23 Aug, 2013 – 10:20 pm
“Yes i do find it a little curious to say the least that we’re talking of a member of the US Military here, given the rigorous health-examinations one would expect in place.”
The rigorous health-examinations consisted of “turn your head and cough,” “no flat feet or missing limbs,” “not totally blind or deaf,” and “are you now or have you ever been a homosexual”. Anyone invoking the latter to avoid to military service, in the time of the draft, was required to prove so by a letter from their psychiatrist or finding a like-minded dude in line and giving an on-site demonstration. 🙂
Manning enlisted under the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy so the last question would not have been asked.
Gender dimorphism is indeed strange. It’s a condition where someone has extremely strong feelings, often starting in childhood, that they are, mentally, of the opposite sex to the body in which they feel themselves entrapped. It has nothing to with being gay or a transvestite.
Doctors will not undertake gender reassignment treatments unless the person has had extensive psychiatric counseling to insure the feelings are genuine and not a passing thought.
I knew one person who was undergoing male to female transition but ran out of cash and became destitute following hormone treatments and before surgery. She was living in a family shelter and opted to use the womens showers, sending others screaming. Catholic Charities, which were aiding her, issued a legal determination that she could use womens facilities.
Because I’d spoken with her a few times, other dudes designated me her bf; much ribbing and joshery.
As to how to address Manning, I think it’s correct to follow her wishes, as we would with preferences for Miss, Mrs., Ms.
End of amateur on-line sex-ed class.
NR, thanks for that. I fully respect the name change and title aspects. Those are the easy bits — its the physiology ‘bits’ and psychiatry aspects that are more profound and therefore curious. I’m surprised that military medical checks would not involve sexual health and ‘weighing the balls’ procedures.
Hagel thinks it would be an awfully good idea if the US lined up its naval power in the region against the Syrian coast. So it’s goodbye Manama and up north for the Fifth Fleet then.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10263765/US-positioning-forces-for-possible-action-against-Syria.html
Just posturing we hope.
Meanwhile, thousands are protesting in the hellhole known as Bahrain. The poor people know that they cannot be kept down for ever.
Bahrain gripped by renewed protests
There have been continuing demonstrations calling for political reform across Bahrain for the past several days, under conditions of virtual martial law and lockdown.
The authorities broke up demonstrations on August 14 with tear gas and birdshot, arresting at least 13 demonstrators. According to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an organisation based in Manama, a large number of foreign mercenaries from Jordan and Pakistan aided government troops, firing tear gas and pepper spray indiscriminately.
/..
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/19/bahr-a19.html
@ Villager 24 Aug, 2013 – 3:34 am
Re above: Never thought of that, but the “turn your head and cough” test, ostensibly to check for a hernia, would indeed allow doc to weigh one’s balls, and presumably if somebody was totally nutless or otherwise oddly equipped they’d be sent to another line for further investigation.
Are you by chance confusing gender dimorphism or transgenderedness with hermaphroditism, where a person is born with a genetic defect resulting in indeterminate genitals? That’s a whole different kettle of fish – excuse my bad joke.
Long ago, that was a major family crisis and shame. Parents had to decide whether to raise the child as a boy or girl, which might not match how they eventually developed either mentally or physically. Now there is a possibility of surgical correction, and I guess hormone therapy, though don’t know at what age.
In gender dimorphism the body is fully and normally developed as male or female, but the internal sexual mental image that the person has of themselves doesn’t match the sex of their body. Or that’s how I understand it.
Trayvon Martin’s mother speaks of his murder and that many young black Americans are now very afraid. She has spoken out the stop and frisk policy of the New York police.
Trayvon Martin’s mother speaks out against New York stop-and-frisk policy
Sybrina Fulton, mother of slain teen Trayvon Martin spoke out against New York’s stop-and-frisk policy
Fulton said no one should have the power to stop someone based on the color of their skin
In the past decade, five million stop-and-frisks have taken place – 87 per cent of those stopped were black or Hispanic
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2396781/Trayvon-Martins-mother-speaks-New-York-stop-frisk-policy.html
~~
This weekend sees the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous speech.
Politicians have abused Martin Luther King Jr’s dream
King wanted people to ‘not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’. We’re still waiting for that
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/martin-luther-king-dream-speech-misunderstand
@FJ, perhaps a small prayer will help “Get thee out of here (this blog), Satan,” (With apologies to Matt 4.10 and the Son of Man !)
HOT TOPIC (before its too late to do anything about it)
Should Labour get rid of crypto Ed Milliband now before the next election,seeing as how his brother is now being groomed at the CIA front Charity in the US, perhaps to replace Dennis Ross. A good pointer is how another socialist crypto Hollande has become a “bomb bomb bomb” Arabs (more “hungarian” than sarkozy even, the socialist traitor!) proponent over Syria now – using the full might of the French State, no less. Will we have Edski doing the same in two years time, to hell with the homeless and disabled?
Thank you Krisnamurky. I like your take and agree about Mr Hollande. His sidekick Fabius is scsry too.
~~
Correction to mine above.
Trayvon Martin’s mother speaks of his murder and that many young black Americans are now very afraid. She has spoken ABOUT the stop and frisk policy of the New York police……..
@ Chris Jones
So you were unable to find a quotation to back up your lying assertion that I “happily condone discrimination against teaching Welsh to Welsh kids”?
Thank you for clarifying.
I hereby appoint you a candidate member of the Egregiousness of Eminences.