I had excellent news from my cardiologist yesterday. Ready to think about other things now. I am horrified by the continuing stream of ” royal” baby hype on television. Truly pathetic – is this 1313 or 2013? Who buys into this nonsense?
I thought the Lib Dem take on Trident missiles was hilarious. This small group of islands does apparently need to retain the ability to wipe out one third of the urban population of humankind, as a defence against something undefined – possibly people we invade getting too annoyed about it – and in order to increase our “influence” in the World. As we plainly have less influence than the Germans, who don’t feel this need for the power of obliteration, I do not quite see how this works. Nor do I see Pakistan, which does have nuclear weapons, as very influential. Nor do I quite understand how our influence can be increased by possessing something under effective American control. But there you are.
Anyway, the Lib Dems have come to the intellectually scintillating conclusion that we do need this world shattering power, but we don’t need it on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons or on Saturday mornings, which will be cheaper. Brilliant, and plainly does not dodge any big ethical or practical questions at all.
Free speech does not imply a right to dialogue.
“This pretty much guts national security journalism in the states in which it matters.”
4th Circuit rules reporter’s privilege doesn’t exist, NYT’s James Risen must testify
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/19/fourth-circuit-guts-national-security-journalis/
https://twitter.com/FreedomofPress
@ Herbie
“Not exactly the greatest defense one might make of Israel, but then I remember that Israel makes a similar argument when presented with evidence of its crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The Israelis simply claim that because the US, Australia and Europe ethnically cleansed various unfortunate natives they came across then, Israel can do it too!”
____________
Interesting – but somewhat surprising – to learn from Herbie that Israel has claimed that it has engaged in ethnic cleansing but that it is/was OK because others had done the same thing.
You wouldn’t be able to provide a source for that claim of yours, would you? Preferably from Osrael itself, since you claim that it’s their assertion.
Thank you;
Osrael Is that Zionost supporting Australia whose new PM is sending all illegal immigrants to the heavenly Papua New Guines to be given the once over?
Mr Rudd must be greatly admired by the Tory boys and girls in this country and envied for having PNG on his doorstep.
Explosive device after explosive device. Arsonist after arsonist. We have some nice types living amongst us. Any of them getting their collars felt?
Wolverhampton Mosque: Explosion debris found at site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-23372217
When capitalism doesn’t need people anymore
Photos of Detroit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit#/?picture=370173054&index=0
Bravo to brave Bradley Manning.
Regarding the request to sign the Nobel Peace Prize petition, would Bradley Manning accept a prize from the same outfit who awarded one to Obomber? I think not.
‘Bradley Manning wins 2013 Sean MacBride Peace Award by the International Peace Bureau
Posted by The Editors on July 19, 2013, 5:09 pm
U.S. whistleblower and international hero Bradley Manning has just been awarded the 2013 Sean MacBride Peace Award by the International Peace Bureau, itself a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for which Manning is a nominee this year.
A petition supporting Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize has gathered 88,000 signatures, many of them with comments, and is aiming for 100,000 before delivering it to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. Anyone can sign and add their comments at ManningNobel.org ‘
http://warisacrime.org/content/manning-wins-peace-prize
(ex Medialens)
@ Komodo (14h28)
You really shouldn’t tangle woth people who know what they’re talking about.
Where, in that General Assembly Resolution on Israel’s admission to the UN, is there a mention of Israel having or needing declared borders?
This is what I was asking Nevermind about.
I note that he has not aanswered and that your ‘answer’ is not in fact an answer to the question neing asked.
BTW, Article 1 of the Resultion on Israel’s admission, part of which you lovingly set out in bold, is a standard article which is contained in every General Assembly Resolution which admits a new member to the UN. It simply refers back to Chapter II, Article 4, para 1 of the UN Charter.
“Bradley Manning has just been awarded the 2013 Sean MacBride Peace Award”
________________
Is that the Sean MacBride who was once an active IRA member or another Sean MacBride?
Well the explosion has been accepted to be the result of a bomb and not a fire cracker, as a first step!!
Seeing as it has taken “only” two weeks for the police to accept the “loud bang” was in fact a bomb!
If a loud cracker were to go off in the vicinity of another religions place of worship. The RAF would have been called to shoot down the approaching aircraft whilst the army had cordoned off the whole town that it was in, and the police were rounding up every Muslim in sight, all the while the medjia screaming their tits off about the inhumanity of the anti-this and anti-that.
re Alexander Navalny and his five-year stretch :
18h11 English time and just one post so far (Ben Franklin).
Expressing not indignation at the sentence on the Russian whistleblower but informing us that he’s been let out on bail pending his appeal.
**************
La vita è bella, life is good (indignation for Snowden, indifference for Navalny)
Further re Sean MacBride:
But I’ll happily admit he made up for it afterwards.
It’s called, “holding Israel to a higher moral standard” than others, particularly the West.
They also call it “double standards”, and as recently as last week Netanyahu tried to equate it with antisemitism.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10276
Other have called it, “whataboutery”
What it means is that you shouldn’t criticize Israel for its crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing because others have done the same before.
Here’s the succinct version of it:
“Yes, Strenger agrees, “Israel is guilty of human rights violations in the West Bank,” but those violations are “negligible compared to those perpetrated by any number of states ranging from Iran through Russia to China.”
Indeed, Strenger asks: What about the U.S? What about Guantanamo? What about the drone program of “targeted assassinations? As long as Hawking and other British academics don’t boycott the U.S., Strenger argued, their double standards are “profoundly hypocritical.””
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/standards-judgment-policies.html
Here’s the long version:
http://www.jr.co.il/articles/judging.txt
You’ll find many many examples of its use.
“English time,” Habbabkuk. Oh really, so time is English now, is it? I always thought it was mean, green and a witch to boot! Or possibly, Lughnasadh, hot and British.
“La vita è bella, life is good (indignation for Snowden, indifference for Navalny)”
Habby the “Narrative Brigade” is still trying to figure out how to play this ‘non-standard’ event. Pavlovian reactions are apparently easier than Navalnyian ones.
Also some people are distracted and worried about chickens and ponies in the ‘heat wave’ (summer). Wait for the Hot August Night!
Soolaimon-Brother Love Neil Diamond (Hot August Night 1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-LsdbHlQf4
Oh dear.
Habby, if you’ve problems with Sean MacBride you’ll surely be having even greater problems with those Israeli terrorists who never made up for it and are terrorizing away to this very day!!
Sean MacBride received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the Lenin Peace Prize for 1975–1976 and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980. He was a founding member of Amnesty International and served as its International Chairman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_MacBride
http://www.ipb.org/web/index.php?mostra=content&menu=about%20ipb&submenu=Sean%20MacBride%20Peace%20Prize
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353821/Sean-MacBride
Well I thought the government’s response to the protests might prick the conscience of our better Western governments, but keep examining the rat droppings for flea scat.
Ben, this one’s just for you……brother aficionado
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC8y7S2NTu8
“Explosive device after explosive device. Arsonist after arsonist. We have some nice types living amongst us. Any of them getting their collars felt?”
Asks Mary. But if the suspected arsonists and bombers were Muslim, the Murrayistas would be falling over themselves trying to find a conspiracy. Anomalies would be found, links discovered, narratives questioned, official accounts discredited, questions unanswered, things not adding up, with the overall impression being that no Muslim extremist does anything bad, ever. It’s all a plot by the Mossad, CIA, MI6 and Israel – US, UK, “the West”, are responsible for all evils in the world.
Not once has Mary ever said “we have some nice types living amongst us” in response to an Islamist terrorist act. And never has a Murrayista questioned any official account that supports their world-view.
A famous album and recorded live at the Greek. I think it’s one of the last outdoor venues in Cal, Villager.
Thanks for the Wayback Machine ride.
I think this bloke is posting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ic5sA3vQ0
Anon jeers as usual at one of my posts expressing sympathy for my fellow citizens. He obviously cares little for anyone who is disabled, cannot work and who is now being subjected to a cruel welfare cut commonly called the ‘bedroom tax’. Similarly the mother of the child with special needs.
The originator of the tax and of all the other welfare cuts is Ian Duncan Smith and he has no such worries. He married into a minor aristocratic family and occupies a large house in the country provided by the in laws. A scrounger and a hypocrite. Also a failed party leader. 🙂
Chapter and verse. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/why-iain-duncan-smith-should-look-1400558
~~~
PS I hate Anon’s gravatar, or whatever it’s called, with its creepy specs. Probably chosen to imply a threat.
Detailed information on the dangers to the environment of fracking. Copy to Gideon and Michael Fallon, the ‘energy’ minister aka Cameron’s mouthpiece whenever one is needed.
Former Mobil VP Warns of Fracking and Climate Change
Friday, 19 July 2013
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17605-former-mobil-vp-warns-of-fracking-and-climate-change
Chris Hedges with an interesting take on how the separation of powers should work in this environment:
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10461
What a bizarre response, Mary!
[Mod/Jon: removed, unconstructive attack]
“… no Muslim extremist does anything bad, ever.” Anon, 6:47pm, 18.7.13.
You may wish to check out the ‘Counterrevolution’ thread as it has been over the past 2-3 days or so, as an illustration of what happens when one questions the core political stances of those who advance Islamism. All credit to Jon for remaining calm and steadfast and for confronting intolerance.
I would like to stress that the dynamics evident there are not typical of this blog or of those who regularly contribute to it.
You will see that there, I have been called, “House Nigger”, “white supremacist”, “Zionist” and much else, simply because I question the tenets of Islamism.
For me, it’s water off a duck’s back – ‘words and real people’ are what I do and anyone who knows me in person, from my work or here will only laugh at such name-calling – but one easily can imagine that a less robust person, or someone keen to avoid giving offence, say, might well be intimidated by such behaviour. And that is how some Western liberals are intimidated. Ironically, Leftists in Muslim countries know fine well what they are facing and are not intimidated.
For me, it is imperative that war capitalism and Islamism both are critiqued; of course, they feed into, and off, one another.
[Mod/Jon: more commentary about Mary, removed – please keep it civil]
Wrt Anon’s shades, clearly, it is a sign of the Men in Black, or the Blues Brothers, or The Man from Ipanema, or Our Man in Havana, or an advert for Raybans, or Booker T and the MGs, or George Harrison from the cover of ‘Revolver’.
Oh no, now there will ne spam from sunglasses companies, music sellers, the Cuban exiles who allegedly killed JFK and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.