July 31, 2010
Chris Christie porn
It seems an unlikely concatenation but the comparison is entirely appropriate. It is more than a little disturbing how much I relate to this.
Alas. Sweet, sweet video at the link. Glenn Beck features.
In every silver lining a cloud reflected
Britain's new left and lefterer government goes to war with itself over funding Trident, the heart of the UK's nuclear deterrent. Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Chancellor George Osborne cannot agree whose budget should account for the £20billion need to acquire four new submarines.
One option is to reduce the purchase from four vessels to three.
Not anymore, there isn't. The British Establishment has demonstrated its priorities; blasé at the prospect of its sailors taken captive by Persian corsairs, shocked at the sight of a captive sailor smoking a cigarette on television. I cannot imagine any circumstance - up to and including an atomic weapons attack on London - that would precipitate a British nuclear response. Spend as much or as little as you like, there is no deterrent without the bottle.
Given the Royal Navy's latter day role as a jumped up coast guard, I can only qualify the following as good news.
India is said to be interested in buying one of the ships.
Sadly, even this silver lining is tarnished. Don't count on Her Majesty's dhimmis to sell either carrier to a bulwark against the Umma. And may God help us when Charles becomes Emir and defender of his faith.
Last of England related: Square Mile Wife visits the loo, encounters local insurgent, coins useful term.
Effect and cause
The Merry Men: Charges have been dropped against the Dudley Two.
Two English Defence League members, who were arrested during a rooftop protest, have had all charges dropped against them.
Leon McCreery from Stockport and John Shaw from Knaresborough were arrested during the incident over the May Bank holiday, after being taken down from the roof of a disused factory in Hall Street by riot police.
The EDL is an indigenous insurgent movement protesting the Saracen occupation of England.
The Saracens: Gunshots and car burnings in Dudley as Saracen colonists object to the imposition of native common law upon the dignity of the occupying power.
1. It was Muslims rioting…
2. It was because the EDL people who were arrested on the rooftops protesting the opening of a megamosque in Dudley that no one wanted and government is forcing on people.
Of course, Eeyore may be jumping to conclusions. It is not as though we have any precedent for this sort of behaviour.
Old is new again
Meet the new Russia: Formerly known as the KGB, "FSB" is a Russian initialism standing for "Human Rights Commission".
In a statement yesterday, the Kremlin said the security service, known as the FSB, would now be able to issue warnings to those 'whose acts create the conditions for the committing of a crime'.
Same as the old Russia: Follow the link for an explanation why Canada needs new fighter aircraft.
National Defence officials said the fact that two Russian TU-95 Bears flew into Canada’s “area of interest” – about 250 nautical miles, or 460 kilometres, away from Goose Bay, Nfld. – constituted a “close one.” The incoming Russian planes were spotted by NORAD on Wednesday, and two Canadian fighter jets were dispatched from the air force base in Bagotville, Que., to meet them.
July 30, 2010
Virtually existing socialism
Ace sums up a form of brain damage incurred by the ruling class of the entire Western world; a profoundly maladaptive memeplex, if you will: "I think there is a type of person -- well-represented in the "Political Class" and in progressive politics -- that has learned, from college, that the Abstract is everything, that Real Smart People are always focused on the Abstract, on metaphors, on symbols."
And I thought, "Gee, no, actually it's not a symbol of a division; it really is, in fact, a physical division." Because, see, you're rioting. (And not symbolically in riot, either.) You can tell it's a real-world division because now you can't get to the G-20 conference center and throw rock-metaphors through the window-symbols.
Language, vocabulary, ideas, imagery -- everything succumbed to my one intense purpose of thinking & dreaming myself back into that world of periwigs & long s's which for some odd reason seemed to me the normal world.
Agent Bedhead sent this widget along. Depending on the snippet, it is this or Cory Doctorow for me.
Ghost of a flea: Mentat Emperor
Full scale version here; best with headphones unless you have decent reference monitors. The video is an edit of Umberto Scarpelli's sword and sandal epic, The Giant of Metropolis (1961). I needed something that said "vacation on Kaitain".
July 29, 2010
Parvenus and communists
Dorothy Thompson's August 1941 Harper's piece "Who goes Nazi?" is a gem; a classic for its style and entirely current in its observations and class, character and consequences (thanks to Kathy Shaidle for the link).
I won't spoil it by excerpting anything except its opening lines. One observation among many stands out for me: There was a time when, amongst many other things, it was obvious the Nazi Party was just another Communist Party.
Loyalty test
Michael Rubin asks if Turkey can give American defense secrets to Iran.
No, the truth is we are dependent on the goodwill of the "President" of the United States to defend the defense secrets of the United States.
It is the sort of thing Americans used to be able to take for granted two long years ago.
July 28, 2010
Ban the burqa
More than half of Canadians polled want to ape the French and ban the burqa. Impressive considering far more than half of Canadians are sleep walking off the cliff and are consequently too busy to know what a burqa might be when it is at home.
"This is Canada -- we don't ban anything," he said."
The punch line is at Blazing Cat Fur.
July 27, 2010
Gratuitous image of Katy Perry in PVC
We need traffic to fight the collaborators at Canadian Living and they tell me "sex sells". Fight the power!
Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one
Burma is working on nuclear weapons program.
Fears that Burma had joined a clandestine nuclear network linking North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and Syria have been growing for some time, but there has not been hard evidence until now.
Not to worry, intelligence agencies are seeking to provide the IAEA with proof of a clandestine programme in the hope of a formal inquiry.
Or we could drop a couple small A-bombs on the appropriate bits of Burma and let the junta draw its own conclusions from the rubble. But I am old fashioned that way.
JournoLism
David Warren: "The dogs in Pavlov's experiment did not "conspire" to salivate."
July 26, 2010
Oliver Stone unmasks
Oliver Stone: "Jewish domination" of the media prevents Hitler from being portrayed "in context".
Do not imagine Oliver Stone is the exception. Give the Saudis ten more years to throw your money at Western universities and the rehabilitation of Adolph Hitler will be the received wisdom of progressives everywhere.
He was a vegetarian, you know.
Ed West closes with an excellent point.
Update: WWTDD? has more.
“We can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ ”
Sure we can. For example, Oliver Stone is a bad man. See how easy that was?
The medium is the mass age
Nicholas always has good material at Quotulatiousness, please visit and thereby assuage my guilt (if only somewhat) for lifting this P.J. O'Rourke quote in its entirety.
What would Kipling Say?
Mark E. Horning posts a timely pastiche to the comments at Jerry Pournelle's Current Chaos Manor.
The lesson still stands before us, and Kipling he saw it plain.
The rest at the link.
July 25, 2010
Restoring the time line
If I could go back in time it would be a toss up between killing Adolph Hitler and killing Lawrence of Arabia for all the incalculable damage both men did to civilization and humanity.
Sources close to Dominick Browne, also known as Lord Mereworth, say he has even received a marriage proposal from beautiful 28-year-old Sara Al Amoudi.
That said, I am forced to keep my snark in reserve. Even veiled, she is a hottie. Therein lies a big part of the problem.
Next stop: The 1930s
The Russian Orthodox Church is set to train youth to "guard faith and country".
This sounds all too familiar.
What makes the new youth groups stand out is their planned promotion of a blend of religion, anti-Western philosophy, politics and patriotism — values that will be passed on by youth leaders like Batrakov, who is among 100 people who signed up for a two-month crash course on Orthodox youth leadership in Moscow that started in May. Church representatives said the number of such leaders might reach into the thousands.
Submission Earth: Now that NASA's primary mission is submission, Russia considers Chinese spaceships as a back up for Soyuz and Progress.
After U.S. space shuttles cease their missions in 2011, Russia will remain the only country capable of delivering crews to the ISS.
Defenestration
Or maybe it is still 1929.
Resolution 1553
I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of sphincters are tightening in Iran.
Resolution 1553 provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress backs Israel's use of 'all means necessary' against Iran, "including the use of military force," BBC Persian reported.
Update: Welcome Dallas Morning News readers. Click through to the main page for the latest rant.
July 24, 2010
Paper covers rock
Rock: UK unemployment (July 14, 2010) stands at 7.8% with close to 2.5 million people unemployed.
"There is still a huge amount of work to do to revitalise the economy and create an environment where businesses are growing and employing people again."
Paper: Candidates for a North Yorkshire constituency have clashed over the high level of unemployment in the area.
The Liberal Democrats said the economic stimulus package offered in their manifesto could bring jobs to the area.
Scissors: Malins Fabrics of Selby, North Yorkshire is closing after 48 years, the fabric shop can't find any staff.
Partner Diane Bayes believes the benefits culture and a poor work ethic are to blame for her having to shut up shop after three years of coping with unfilled job vacancies.
She has put job posters in the window, taken out adverts in a local newspaper and tried recruiting through the JobCentre, but has barely had any applications.
Touchable
Purple Avenger: The peasants are revolting.
If only Canadians cared enough about their democracy to become ever so slightly irate.
Allen West on healing America
I was about to stand up when I remembered I was sitting at my desk. And I have the wrong passport (via Hot Air).
Arguably the most heavily defended airspace on the planet
Using open source satellite imagery, IMINT & Analysis offers an impressive picture of Russian strategic air defense.
...
The SAM systems which have been identified do, however, provide valuable insight into Russian SAM deployment strategies, allowing the overall SAM network to be analyzed even if all of the deployed assets cannot be located.
Many - many - maps and lively debate in the comments at the link.
Comic Book Fans vs. Westboro Baptist Church
"What do we want?" "Gay sex!" "When do we want it?" "Now!"
Hat tip to Mr. Myrick.
July 23, 2010
The Most Dangerous Countries in the World
I doubt many Flea-readers would be surprised by a list of countries suffering from hight crime or terrorism rates; stereotyping really can be a great time-saver.
But can anyone explain kidnapping rates in the UK and Canada? Having spent years in both places, I never knew the danger I have been in.
Notes on the World Cup
Theodore Dalrymple: The British and French teams reflected social problems back home.
Punchline at the link.
Elsewhere among the ruins: Portsmouth officials descend into self-parody, ordereding all violence to be removed from a traditional Punch and Judy show.
But puppeteer Daniel Liversidge will be keeping Mr Punch's catchphrase: 'That's the way to do it.'
They are doing it wrong.
While I am in Dalrymple country: Take the time to compare Fr. Robert Crouse on faith and pharmaceuticals with Theodore Dalrymple's Romancing Opiates. Both contradict today's received wisdom (which is neither received nor wisdom).
July 22, 2010
Not wearing black
Hastings Street, Vancouver from BCCLA staff on Vimeo.
(From the comments: Nicholas points out the Vimeo copy of the video has gone down the memory hole. It is still available at CTV News... for now).
Surveillance footage shows three Vancouver police officers, apparently unwilling to share the sidewalk, shoving a woman to the ground.
She has multiple sclerosis.
"One of the three officers can be seen pushing over a small and visibly disabled woman after she appears to brush into him accidentally. He then stands over her," Robert Holmes of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association told ctvbc.ca.
Footage from a video camera posted outside the hotel shows the officers walking away while the woman is still on the ground. After a few moments someone helps her up and she continues walking.
Three more hero-victims for "law and order" "conservatives" (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur for the video embed).
The Vancouver Police Department has issued a farcical statement.
Don Cherry picking
The CBC is doing a really good job of serving the public, according to the CBC (via Halls of Macademia).
Canadians: Know your place!
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost
The Deputy Prime Minister: Nick Clegg.
Standing in for David Cameron, who is thousands of miles away in America, Mr Clegg taunted Labour MPs that they had supported 'the illegal invasion of Iraq'.
Next up: Ba'ath Party reparations.
The Prime Minister: David Cameron.
Downing Street hastily claimed that Mr Cameron had meant to refer to the 1940s in general. But by then the damage was done.
General Sir Patrick Cordingley, former commander of the Desert Rats, said: 'I am quite sure if Winston Churchill were alive today he would be dismayed.'
1940 was only setting the scene for the illegal invasion of Normandy.
The people: What's left of them.
The sharply rising numbers of babies with foreign-born mothers came despite an overall fall in births.
The figures produced fresh warnings to ministers that immigration rates must be brought down to avoid the growing threat of overpopulation in Britain.
Spot the logic problem.
Equivocation is the highest form of patriotism
WWTDD?: "The Captain America movie won’t be all American-y."
“…it’s also the idea that this is not about America so much as it is about the spirit of doing the right thing. It’s an international cast and an international story.”
Only Joss Whedan can save us now. No, snap, he wrote Captain Planet, didnt' he?
The free and frank dicussion continues
"Though I chuckle, this is no laughing matter."
First, to say I am not entirely certain why I am linking this. Some combination of awe/incredulity at other people's priorities and an admiration for the speaker's cadence, yes. But mainly as an illustration of how people actually talk about the world - how people actually conceptualize the world and make decisions in the world - and how this bears no relationship to the self-imposed thought control practiced by the Establishment and its Myrmidons.
"Black women would appreciate your cooperation in this matter."
I don't have to agree with Atlanta Sistah, but she does not live in fear of a semantic planet. Respect.
Second, to bitterly complain she won't let people embed the video (Update: Ha! Now embedded. Thanks, Scott.).
Third, and I can't believe I am doing this: A reply. It has almost four times the page views.
Remember: Cook, bake and cut a bitch. It's all about priorities.
July 21, 2010
The Liberal Express
Michael Ignatieff's "listening tour" had to make a pit stop for repairs.
July 20, 2010
British Resistance Organisation
Wikipedia: "The Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained highly secret units created by the United Kingdom government during the Second World War. With the aim of resisting the expected invasion of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany."
And on the assumption the police would choose to collaborate with the occupation. An entirely reasonable assumption, as it turns out.
Am Yisrael Chai
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi speaks at the Arch of Titus in Rome, July 19, 2010.
Existentially related: This is what you get for being nice.
Existentially related: Iron Dome passes its final tests.
Tao Te Trudeau
Jiang Xueqin makes an intriguing comparison between 1984 and the Tao Te Ching, arguing George Orwell’s dystopia was Lao Tse's utopia.
It's a stretch, if you ask me, but the following always, always bears repeating.
‘Don’t you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.’
In Canada, Newspeak is called "inclusive language". For now. Next week the term "inclusive language" will be racist.
A thought: When it comes time to choose between the orbits of Delhi and Peking, I have little doubt "peace, order and good government" will make the decision easy for us. I would call this state of affairs depressing but the soma should take care of the feeling presently (Victory Gin having been outlawed on health grounds).
The Game
WIth news of the mainstream popularity of gaming in Germany, Quotulatiousness comments on the life of gamers in the English-speaking world.
Related somehow: Scientists have used a computer program to decipher a written language that is more than three thousand years old.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the program that the language was related to another known language, in this case Hebrew. The system is then able to make assumptions about the way different words are formed and whether they consist of a prefix and a suffix, for example.
Through repeated analysis, the program linked letters and words to map nearly all Ugaritic symbols to their Hebrew equivalents in a matter of hours.
Iwrestledabearonce: Tastes Like Kevin Bacon
In case you are wondering what the hottest woman in the world looks like.
July 19, 2010
I am an Englishman
"... from a BBC programme called NCS Manhunt, features a speech by a man called Laurence Bright, played by the excellent Marc Warren. It was originally aired on March 12, 2001, and the summary says: “It becomes clear that the crimes are racially motivated, and the team uncovers a secretive right-wing organisation bent on starting a race war.”
Starting/acknowledging, it's all relative. But by all means let Parliament, the Church of England, the BBC and all the rest carry on dismissing the concerns of the English working classes as racist. Their concerns will soon arrive at a leafy green suburb near the places Members of Parliament, the clergy and BBC journalists call home.
These three generations of my family, were in the fish trade. I'm the first member of my family not to work at the market in Billingsgate. My great-grandfather had eleven brothers and sisters. I dont know exactly how many of his generation married or exactly how many children they produced. I've so far tracked over two-hundred of them.
Many still live in Bermondsey. Some are still in the fish trade.
There are seven called George, and five called Victoria. I stand here, in front of you, as a representative of all of them. And I ask in their name the great question put by our patron, Mr Powell. What do they know of England, who only England know? Or, what can my family, who come from England, who lived in England, who know only England, say of this, our country?
Mr Powell once spoke of the destruction of ancient Athens and the miraculous survival in the blackened ruins of that city of the sacred olive tree; the symbol of Greece, their country. And he also spoke of us, the English, at the heart of a vanished empire, seeming to find within ourselves that one of our own oak trees, the sap rising from our ancient roots, and he said perhaps, after all, we who have inhabited this island fortress for an unbroken thousand years, brought up, as he said, within the sound of English bird song under the English oak, in the English meadow, beneath the red cross of St. George, it is us who know most of England.
And I appreciated him for saying that, because it was as if he spoke for my family, who understand well their own country. Who understand even better their own capital, London town, as we used to call her. As we strolled in her parks, as we marveled at her palaces, as we did buisness in the city, went west for a dance, took a boat on the river. The pale ale and eel pie of old London. The London of my family for as many generations as I know. The London that will in less than fifteen years will be less than fifty percent white. London, where in fifteen years a white person will be in the minority.
Am I racist? No. Do I have anything against people of other races? No. So what then is my gripe?
My gripe, and I speak on behalf of seven men called George and five women called Victoiria, my gripe is quite simple.
My gripe is that we were never asked. My gripe is that we were told, not asked, and everyday we are told again and again how we are to be and how our country is to be. We are told by them, and we know who they are, they're English too. They are the class that has always set themselves apart, they are the class that has always taken what they wanted for themselves, and now they are the class that is giving England away.
They have never asked us, and they never will.
Do we allow them to sell our heritage? Or is it time for us to speak?
To speak, to refuse them the right to give away our holy, or bountiful, our only England that has, that has nurtured us, naked, grown us as the oak. Is it time for us that England know to come yet again and defend our country? With our fire, our fists?
Is it time for us sons to rise again?
I say yes.
I say yes.
I say... Yes.
The Left would have you believe Enoch Powell yearned for rivers of blood, they said much the same of Winston Churchill. I understand the danger of self-fulfilling prophecy; forecast rivers of blood and rivers of blood you shall have, the argument goes. But then much the same might be said of calling people racist instead of listening to them and their fears.
If you watch Cabaret, you will understand something of what was lost when Nazi Germany destroyed Weimar Germany. What wil be rather less clear is that Weimar Germany created Nazi Germany. And we are doing it all again. "This time it will be different," they (always) say. Yes, because this time we should have known better.
Before someone emails me: Yes, I get the Kipling reference. Take it up with Enoch Powell, it was his critique not mine.
A nice new shopping mall opened today in Gaza
“On a day when (because EU Foreign Policy Chief Baroness Ashton is in Gaza) the BBC and other media have featured extensive reports all day long on what they term the dire economic situation in Gaza, why are they not mentioning the new shopping mall that opened there yesterday?"
Via Jonah Goldberg.
Springtime in an English Village (1944)
July 18, 2010
SS-GB
It do not believe I can express what it feels to publish these words:
"today god fuck the british bobby".
Follow the link. It gets much worse.
Also: Gates of Vienna.
Singh's full and frank discussion of inter-communal relations at the link.
A thought: This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we will be lucky to live through it.
Pax quaeritur bello.
Here we go here we go here we go: Dudley the Return EDL.
Yesterday EDL were messed about, attacked by police and prevented from getting to the demo spot.
Consideration is now being given to a return, an unannouced demo with no net announcement and no police liason, arranged off net among trusted people. Until we make our point there we shall return.
Update: Here is another speech from the Dudley EDL demo, this time from a Brazillian woman who is with the Jewish division of EDL, speaking on Sharia law (via Blazing Cat Fur).
"This is Great Britain. No surrender!" I quote.
Update: ITN propaganda.
Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier.
A Gurkha soldier has been flown back to the UK after hacking the head off a dead Taliban commander with his ceremonial knife to prove the dead man’s identity.
His unit had been told that they were seeking a ‘high value target,’ a Taliban commander, and that they must prove they had killed the right man.
I am not seeing the problem here.
Steve Martin: King Tut (Live 1979)
Because life does not 100% suck. Thanks to Mr. Liddle.
July 17, 2010
Precursor
Unless something drastic is done, there are only two likely outcomes for Weimar Europe.
Cheap Throat
Drew M.: "I guess it's good to know that the Washington Post doesn't only hate America when Republicans are in office."
Imperial History of the Middle East
See five thousand years of history in 90 seconds. Sadly, no bunnies.
I almost did not link this because of its treatment of the last hundred years or so. Judge for thyself.
The Sadistic Adventures Of Captain Marvel
The first couple minutes are the most satisfying thing you will see all day. They won't let me embed the thing, damn them.
Secret of the Incas (1954)
Fair warning: You will get sucked in to the whole film. Even if you have never seen it, I guarantee parts of it will look familiar.
Yma Sumac, FTMFW.
July 16, 2010
Richard Cheese: Closer
Blame Chris Myrick for the inspiration. And my mood on a Friday afternoon. This one goes with a shout out to Agent Bedhead. Not safe for work unless you are an executive director or are too corporate or whatever.
The Master, FTW
Every Doctor Who villain since 1963.
There is a chart.
Sane or unsane
Pop quiz: The Technocracy argues one of the following propositions is bizarre:
A) Sterilize the poor and bring back the workhouse.
B) Offer suspended sentences with no jail time for mothers who strangle their daughters to death.
Actually, it is a bit of no-brainer, isn't it?
July 15, 2010
Christopher Hitchens on his memoir, Hitch-22
Hugh Hewitt hosted an at times moving three hour interview with Christopher Hitchens, author of Hitch-22, a new memoir and - tragically - diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Hewitt's radio show is behind a firewall and I had not thought to look for the transcript, so thanks to Kathy Shaidle for that.
Clash of the Titans Also via Five Feet of Fury, Theodore Dalrymple reviews Hitch-22.
For example.
Peter Hitchens does rather well by contrast. Read the whole thing, the pun of the year is waiting for you.
Comeuppance
Now that BP has been transformed from a green energy giant into a witch, they may find their comeuppance for an authentic atrocity of their devising.
Energy con related: Larry Hagman shills for solar power. The Borg-like power of capitalism is demonstrated yet again as "peak oil" psychosis morphs into a marketing strategy.
Update: BP collusion confirmed.
Malice In Wonderland: The Red Queen Theory
By Ed Watkins (Eat Me version at the link).
Flotilla Incident Timeline
IDF Spokesperson's Unit: "The film, produced by the Eiland Team of Experts, breaks down the events of the flotilla using a timeline which alternates between 3D models and footage captured throughout the incident."
There were 718 total passengers of the flotilla ships. Most were released without undergoing any investigation. The last passenger left on June 6th.
July 14, 2010
But was he wearing black?
Law and order conservatives reached for comment: The guy with the video camera should have been charged!
Busted by YouTube: Video seen by 2m proves police officer who claimed cyclist ran into him was LYING.
Patrick Pogan claimed activist Christopher Long steered into him and knocked him down during a demonstration in New York.
But a YouTube video seen by two million people so far has exposed him as a liar.
Respect their authori-tah!
Arrested for blowing bubbles at the G20 in Toronto (via Five Feet of Fury).
Stamping boot, meet face. But this isn't a vision of the future. It is a couple weeks in to Canada's new normal.
If you think this is fine you are not a "law and order" conservative, you are against law and order. I do not know if this officer should be prosecuted as he most probably followed the letter of the law. But he needs to be fired and take up a job where anger management isn't an issue. In the meantime, there are a number of civil servants who owe this bubble blower an apology.
This is on your watch, Mr. Harper. You start.
100% related if you think about it: Why are Senate Democrats fundraising in Canada? Click through as you like but to my mind the question answers itself.
Update: For the pro-jackboot assault-with-bubbles analysis, read the comments to this post. For the left-wing pinko radical analysis, read Five Feet of Fury.
Taylor and his girlfriend were walking home and stopped to observe a peaceful protest. They were arrested, as were a couple who had the misfortune to step onto the Esplanade after dinner at The Keg, as the police swooped down. (…)
Several officers laughed at one girl crying for her overdue medication. Taylor begged for water for nine hours and eventually passed out... When detained women begged for pads or tampons, male guards laughed and said: 'That explains your attitudes.'
Krista Branch: I Am America
I had to balance polemics vs hotness with this one. 2 Chronicles 7:14 remains topical.
Related: It wasn’t all that long ago that country music was apolitical.
July 13, 2010
Vincible ignorance
The Diplomat publishes the first in a series of articles looking at recent developments in China’s military. First up, some not so recent capability developments in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
For those that are interested though, a more accurate picture can be gleaned from the fact that about 5 years ago, China planned to field well in excess of 500 Russian designed Sukhoi Flanker fighters, a size comparable to the now declining United States Air Force fleet of around 600 Boeing F-15 Eagle fighters. The Flanker was designed to be a direct equivalent (in some respects superior) to the F-15, which is also the backbone of the Japanese and Singaporean fighter fleets.
Much more bad news at the link.
The sighting of the snark: Galrahn and I have been thinking along the same lines. I looked at it, dismissed the things it couldn't be, and came up with something I had thought to be largely imaginary.
Here's hoping I am wrong.
Or it could just be a long exposure of a helicopter. Much, much less interesting. But I find I am about done with interesting times.
Taranis
BAE Systems has developed the perfect machine for destroying what remains of British civilization.
What's the over/under on this thing dropping its ordinance in the name of a) Skynet or b) the next Caliph?
The plane will test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even in another continent.
Let us admit the remote possibility the Taranis will be operated by someone espousing old school Celtic values. If so, things could get spectacularly interesting.
Moon-o-theism, Part IV: The Mooning is a Harsh Mistress
Charles S. Griffith offers a new plan for NASA and Muslims in outer space (via Vlad Tepes).
I won't spoil the rest.
Oksana Grigorieva: Beautiful Heartache
In solidarity with Grigorieva. The less said about the producer the better.
July 12, 2010
Heterosexual Panic Defense
These are some tough lesbians but they could have used a more inventive lawyer.
Even more topical than it was five years ago
"Well, I guess that genocide in Sudan must've worked itself out on its own."
Execution of General Anton Dostler
The good old days. And not a "human rights" lawyer in sight.
July 11, 2010
Think of the restaurants
Camel's milk will be on a supermarket shelf near you soon.
High in Vitamin C and low in fat it is also more digestible than cow's milk and suitable for the lactose-intolerant.
Camelicious!
A Terrorist's Guide to Improving Israel's Media Coverage
Daniel Greenfield is writing with tongue in cheek but I would follow his suggestions to the letter.
This is a tour de force, I suggest you read the whole thing. Especially if you are with the Canada-Israel Committee.
Carpe diem: Time to put theory into practice (hat tip to Rochelle).
Dear North Korea
It's not me, it's you.
"I think I need a cigarette!"
July 10, 2010
Judy Rebick: My heart aches for Akmol Miah
Ok, I paraphrase. But seeing as she thinks Omar Khadr is Nelson Mandela, I figure Judy Rebick has a wide on for child soldiers everywhere.
Call it a hat tip for the Left's new protest signs.
When she refused to get back together and told her mother he was trying to blackmail her, Miah ran a Google search on 'how to burn someone's house down'. Miah and his cousin Shihabuddin Choudhury, 21, then poured petrol through the front letterbox as the family slept at their home in Tooting, south London.
...
Miah, who is now 15, celebrated his success by using a picture of the burnt house as his computer screensaver.
When reached for comment, Canadian feminists explained "the whores had it coming".
Snark: Someone has told Rebick how to spell "Khadr" but not how to rename .jpg files.
Directly related: Afghanistan, where women set themselves on fire. This used to be a feminist concern. Now, not so much.
My heart aches for Fawzia.
While we are on the subject of authentic feminism Mark Steyn (via Five Feet of Fury).
Declining Western fertility rates explained
And by declining I mean cratering.
Radar Men from the Moon (1952)
Basically Mad Men for geeks. Chapter 1: Moon Rocket!
July 09, 2010
Born in the wrong place
Al Jazeera's Asia Blog tells the David and Goliath story of Yang Youde, a farmer who decided to fight off land eviction teams with his homemade cannon (if I can link the CBC, I can link Al Jazeera).
The spirit of Robert Heinlein is strong in this one. If more Canadians were like Yang Youde, we might enjoy the freedom of speech and expression they do in Red China.
Hell, we might still be able to buy clove cigarettes and smoke them in public.
Almost time to find out if chess beats go
Three modified Ohio-class boomers equipped with up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles each have made a dramatic entrance.
It isn't a lot of missiles compared to China's arsenal across from Taiwan but as martial theatre it is impressive nonetheless.
1983 Islington Squatter Punk Documentary
"We're not queer, that's for sure!" Ahh, the left; our moral superiors.
By 1986, we were charging ten bucks a photo in Vancouver. But then goth lacked the political niceties of punk.
Related: Now collecting for a bounty on punk era Kathy Shaidle photos!
July 08, 2010
Sakine Ashtiani to be Stoned to Death in Iran
Kathy Shaidle forwards the following note from Theo Caldwell. I am publishing it in its entirety (emphasis added).
To preface with my own belief: There is a great evil loose in the world. And too many free people do not understand that sitting on the fence is a decision of its own.
This is much more important that my usual missives. Any day now, Sakine Ashtiani will be stoned to death in Iran. She is a mother of two, convicted of the crime of “adultery,” for which she has already been given 99 lashes (a sentence carried out in front of her teenage son).
I’m writing today to ask you to help me make this woman famous, as many other good people are trying to do, so we can get her out of this predicament. If we can create a situation where any political or media discussion of Iran is incomplete without mentioning Ashtiani, I think that is our best shot at achieving freedom for her, and many others who are brutalized in that country.
I look to my pals, Craig and Marc Kielburger (copied on this email), both of whom are nobler, better looking and better dressed than I shall ever be. Because they cared enough about one person – a little boy who was killed by child slavers – they created a movement that has helped people all over the world.
I’m not a movement guy, and I wouldn’t know what to do with one anyway, but I want to get this lady out of jail. What I’ve done so far is shoot my mouth, literally and figuratively (links to follow), and I ask all of you is to find your own way to help.
This is not a political, left-right issue. Consequently, there are lots of avenues for the eclectic group reading this note to pursue. From Amnesty International to our Republican friends in Congress, from our NDP pals painting protest placards to our Tory chums trying to manage coalitions, as well as everyone in between – every one of you can do something.
I am asking you to figure out what that something is, and please do it.
Today, I did an interview about Ashtiani on BBC Radio. I’d ask you to listen not just to what I say (I get loud enough that you can’t very well miss me, anyway), but also to what the host and other guest, “Layla,” put forward. It is this kind of apathy and moral relativism that keeps people in bondage. The link is here: http://radio-theocaldwell.blogspot.com/2010/07/theo-caldwell-discusses-sanikeh.html
Also, I published a column on Ashtiani in all Sun Media newspapers today. It is pasted below and available here: http://www.theocaldwell.com/2010/07/way-of-life.html
Thanks, friends, and thank you in advance for whatever you are about to do to help Sakine Ashtiani.
Cheers,
Theo Caldwell
A WAY OF LIFE – THEO CALDWELL, SUN MEDIA, JULY 8, 2010
Every Monday, for 15 minutes, a young man speaks to his mother through prison glass. She is Sakine Mohammedie Ashtiani, and since 2006 she has been tormented by the government of Iran for “adultery.”
Ashtiani was originally condemned to 99 lashes, a sentence which was carried out in front of her 17-year-old son. Now, after re-examining her case, Iranian authorities have decided she should also be stoned to death.
To be clear, these maniacs want to throw rocks at this woman’s head until her brains are dashed out.
Treating people like this is evil. Regimes that do such things must be exposed, rattled and, at times, replaced. And in countries fortunate enough not to be subject to such brutality, we ought to recalibrate our priorities from cozy concerns like reality shows and “climate change” to the plight of our fellow human beings.
This struggle is cultural, psychological, military, and economic. Most of all, it is a test of wills. Do we have the strength to call evil by its name and resist, or will we fumble about and find reasons not to until it’s too late? Iran is only the most prominent and dangerous among the entities that oppose us, and Ashtiani’s story is one of heartbreaking thousands, chronicled by Amnesty International and others.
An opportunity existed, after the uprising that followed Iran’s stolen elections last year, for good people of the world to show their support. There was one guy in particular who could have made a difference with a single speech. Unfortunately, Barack Obama demurred.
To understand the value that a few words from the American president can have to folks who are under repression, consider former Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky’s reaction to Ronald Reagan’s 1987 “Tear down this wall” address in Berlin: “That was the moment that really marked the end for them, and the beginning for us.”
On an individual basis, Western nations, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have been hopeless at protecting their citizens when they are imprisoned or unjustly treated in basket-case countries. The closest thing to a victory on this front came when Bill Clinton flew to North Korea last August to rescue two American women from the clutches of Kim Jong-il. The former president even posed for a forced photo-op in a room so hideously decorated that sanctions should be suspended until the regime has time to buy something tasteful.
So if free nations cannot protect their own people abroad, what can they possibly do for Ashtiani? And what could anyone reading this column do to help her? Perhaps, provide profile for her cause.
I’d like to see her on more t-shirts than Che Guevara. If a fraction of the energy evinced by those who showed up at the G20 in Toronto to protest the evils of “globalization” (or whatever) were instead directed toward, say, not hitting women with rocks until they die, we’d be getting somewhere. Or, if the zeal of feminists who demand the freedom to abort a child right up until he goes to his first hockey practice were pointed toward sparing their sisters from state-sanctioned death by blunt-force trauma, their help would be invaluable.
We enjoy a way of life in this part of the world. We owe our support to those who do not.
theo@halfgreat.com
Theo Caldwell is the author of Finn the half-Great.
More: Human rights activist Mina Ahadi tries to stop death by stoning for Iranian woman (via Atheist News).
"Legally it's all over," Ahadi said Sunday. "It's a done deal. Sakineh can be stoned at any minute."
"That is why we have decided to start a very broad, international public movement. Only that can help."
Video at the link. Also via Atheist News, two petitions:
http://www.care2.com/news/member/901922468/1702641
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-sakineh-mohammadi.html
More: Contact the Embassy of Mordor in Canada.
Tel (Consulate) 613-233-4726
Fax (consulate) 613-236-4726
Tel (Embassy) 613-235-4726
Fax (Embassy) 613-232-5712
Tele Information 613-230-8831
E-Mail Addresses
E-mail (Consulate): consulate@salamiran.org
E-mail (Embassy): executive@salamiran.org
Reminder: The shame of former Canadian Prime Minsiter Jean Chretien in Iran is Canada's ongoing shame too.
Update July 9, 2010: Iran backs down. Sort of.
A statement issued by the Iranian embassy in London said that 'according to information from the relevant judicial authorities in Iran [Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani] will not be executed by stoning'.
But it did not say whether Ms Ashtiani, a mother-of-two, would be spared or executed by hanging instead.
Omar Khadr: Canadian Mandela
No surprises Judy Rebick can't spell "Khadr" correctly.
Background: "Tears for a terrorist."
Syrian industrial accident
Syrian "President" Bashar al-Assad has ordered the shutdown of all military exercises due to a not-so-mysterious plague outbreak in the Syrian army.
The worst thing about this is not the prospect of the Syrians manufacturing bioweapons, it is knowing how the Left would react if they were inflicted on the free people of Israel.
With stomach turning glee. Satan has them.
...
Drinking water, food and a heat wave are not common causes of plague ... unless they have increased the contact between humans and plague carriers. Because of this ... questions should be raised about the true cause of the Syrian army plague.
Related: The IDF reveals Hizbullah positions.
Using the village of el-Khiam – located about 4 km. north of the border – as an example, the IDF showed extensive footage, videos and maps of homes that Hizbullah has taken over and used to store weapons caches and establish command-and-control centers.
Video at the link.
What does America have to hide?
Vir Sanghvi: Here is a hypothetical situation.
Naturally, the US would want to extradite this person so that he could be tried in a US court for his involvement in one of the worst acts of terrorism in recent times. Assume now that India not only refused to discuss the extradition but also denied the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) any access to the suspect.
RTWT. If Sanghvi's speculation is to be believed, it gets much worse.
Death penalty for honour murders
The Times of India reports a good idea. The headline explains itself but wait there's more.
In related news: All cultures are equal!
Stop presses: Civil Rights Commission does its job
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is to renew subpoenas and pursue a federal probe in the Black Panther voter intimidation case.
Commissioner Ashley Taylor said the panel will send out a letter as early as Wednesday calling for the Justice Department to open an investigation into the charge.
Video at the link. Ashley Taylor for Congress?
Twilight: For Guys
It's like a female Shawshank Redemption directed by Michael Bay! Most probably nsfw, btw.
July 07, 2010
Green wash
An "independent" enquiry has cleared British climate "scientists" of fraud.
Good news! Everyone's grants, awards, honours and sinecures are safe.
Most were unconvinced by the report that followed a the six-month review by a committee led by former civil servant Sir Muir Russell, which looked into the hundreds of e-mails hacked last year from the University of East Anglia.
Climate sceptics and bloggers had alleged that the e-mails showed climate scientists wrongfully manipulating data to change the outcome, concealing key data and attempting to subvert the process of peer review of scientific papers.
Sir Muir Russell is a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh which, purely coincidentally, endorses the IPCC. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of "green energy" producer ScottishPower. Oddly enough!
Peasants: Shut up!
Related: Hot weather in the summer and cold weather in the winter proves climate instability or something.
"My strong opinion is that these kinds of extremes are something you would expect in a warming world, and expect to happen more frequently," Harry McCaughey, a professor of climatology at Queen's University, told CTV.ca.
Also related: Climatology is a scam.
Update The Register has more on the University of East Anglia's "independent" enquiry into the conduct of its own staff. It turns out they cannot even honestly represent the content of their own report. And why should they? Their brain-washed followers can now declare the "stolen" emails proved nothing.
Not that proof of anything was ever at issue for the cultists.
Harlan Ellison speaks to college students
Testify!
Related: Grammar Nazis. This is like watching me at work.
July 06, 2010
Homeless man rescues Old Glory
In the driving wind and rain. This chokes me up and I don't have an American passport. Not yet.
Thanks to Hot Air.
This really is starting to feel like 1932
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is talking about the economy. I assumed he meant something else.
Let us be honest. The US is still trapped in depression a full 18 months into zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and fiscal stimulus that has pushed the budget deficit above 10pc of GDP.
It is almost time for socialists to round up the usual scapegoats.
Israeli soldiers dancing in Hebron
Let the bleeding hearts bleed. This is why I love Israel, a nation committed to joy and human freedom surrounded by teeming millions in darkness and bondage of their own choosing.
While I am on the subject: WWII Jewish Brigade Music Group Song.
Wonder Girls: 2 Different Tears
Considering a new career teaching English in South Korea. I will be gangsta.
July 05, 2010
The injustice system
Terrorist Activist group Smash EDO broke into an arms component company in Brighton last year doing £180,000 of damage. They have now been acquitted on a "lawful excuse" defense, claiming EDO MBM Technology was illegally exporting arms components to Israel.
The judge. Speaking to the jury.
Israel's Ambassador Ron Prosor said this was not a great time for the United Kingdom’s justice system. Sadly, England is no longer England and Prosor's mastery of understatement is likely to go unappreciated.
Dead or Alive: That's The Way (I Like It)
Blazing Cat Fur: For all your Toronto Pride reportage.
July 04, 2010
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward
From Quantum praedecessores, Pope Eugene III's "Summons to A Crusade" of December 1, 1154.
If not now, when?
Happy birthday, America.
Tuned to a dead channel
China reaches a developmental landmark: A generation of over-qualified, under-employed white collar workers.
Photo essay at the link.
Also: More on the ant tribe at People's Daily Online.
On the head of a pin
Elisabeth Rieper at the National University of Singapore suggests quantum entanglement holds DNA together.
Hence, quantum biology.
That's possible because phonons have a wavelength which is similar in size to a DNA helix and this allows standing waves to form, a phenomenon known as phonon trapping. When this happens, the phonons cannot easily escape. A similar kind of phonon trapping is known to cause problems in silicon structures of the same size.
Via Warren Ellis.
In joke
Flea-readers outside Google Ads' catchment area for Toronto will be edified to learn what has popped up in my sidebar.* I confess it may only be amusing to those of us in le tout rightosphere up north.**
* I make no endorsement for the advertised product or service; I am making an editorial observation.
** The answer is "yes", btw. But only if I get to be Chief of Police.
Blow that Vuvuzela
Sometimes a Vuvuzela is just a lucky, lucky Vuvuzela.
July 03, 2010
Religious Freedom Day
Is a great day to ban the Bible!
A touch of the tar brush
The Union Jack has been rebranded in the hope of reflecting "a more modern society". By adding black.
Remember: When the Left says it, it isn't racist.
The proposed new flag [at the link] is the work of Nigel Turner, an enthusiastic fan of the UK's transformation into a multiracial society over the past 50 years.
Note to the BBC: The United Kingdom has always been a multi-racial society. Even if we lump the Welsh, the Cornish, the Manx, the Scots and (some of) the Irish into a Celtic mass it is still the lot of them vs the English.*
The BBC still clearly believes there is a "white" race (which makes them not racist somehow).
* Yes, I know the Isle of Mann is not part of the United Kingdom. Just didn't want to leave anyone out. The Channel Islanders can fend for themselves.
July 02, 2010
Neglect by peace officer
Joe Warmington makes an excellent point by way of a story about a Good Samaritan (hat tip to Five Feet of Fury).
Not sure if it applies to a senior officer’s orders?
They used to shoot men for malingering. But then I am an old fashioned law and order type.
And another thing: Warmington points out we are unlikely to get much by way of an independent public inquiry.
To anyone wondering how bloggers might play a role: The Jawa Report bags another bad guy.
They have another bad guy in their sights. At the link.
Night of the Living Wonks
Toward an international relations theory of zombies (hat tip to the Sister of the Flea).
Not so called "running zombies", obviously.
The Golden Blessing
Another Chinese crew has been taken captive by Somali pirates and once again the Chinese have sortied in force in response. Impressive.
Though it would be more impressive if we did not know the last time the Chinese deployed in response to piracy they were also busy paying the pirates a four million dollar ransom.
What gets rewarded, gets repeated.
Boiling water and boiling oil: Ranjit B. Rai considers China's "string of pearls" and their related Malacca Dilemma. Such is the developing vocabulary of strategy in a world after Pax Americana.
And then: India and China vie for energy.
India so far has faced an uneven contest to close the gap with China, which can dip into US$ 2.4 trillion of foreign currency reserves to buy stakes in oil and natural gas fields from Iraq to Uganda, compared with India’s US$ 250 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
Congratulations, Walmart shoppers!
It wouldn't be loverly
Hitler could not crush the spirit of the East End of London.
But the East End of London has been vanquished all the same.
As its traditional speakers emigrate to Essex and Hertfordshire, the 650-year-old accent is dying off in London., to be replaced by multicultural London English, heavily influenced by West Indian patois, Bangladeshi and remnants of old cockney.
No one consented to this.
All a man can betray is his conscience
Second look at... "General Betray-us".
Now comes word that elements within his command – including many of its “senior officers” and “intelligence personnel” – believe the United States should abandon its longstanding policy of “isolating and marginalizing” Hamas and Hezbollah.
Full Moon
I look at pictures of animal rights terrorists and all I see are three Twilight fans.
July 01, 2010
A vacation slide show you won’t want to miss
Inspired by the kingdom's newly declared commitment to tourism, Maureen Dowd and Ashley Parker, traveled to Saudi Arabia: "Their only mistake? Being born female."
Pictured above...
It turns out Arabs have a sense of humour about themselves. Just don't try it in Canada, the blasphemy police will have you in front of a drumhead tribunal.
Another thought: Credit where credit is due. At least Dowd and Parker, perhaps empowered by Sex and the City 2 are prepared to offer ridicule Arabian gender mores as feminists used to do before the Arabs declared war on us. Most feminists have no interest in the individual rights of women, most likely because most feminists are Marxists first and feminists second.
To protect and serve
In the aftermath of the Toronto G20 meetings, Mark Steyn considers "Le tout rightosphere up north" on what the police should have done but didn't and didn't do but should have done (via Five Feet of Fury).
Much more at the link including, and especially, Steyn's description of a pushy police officer as "a minor municipal functionary". Quite right.
Related: Jay Currie and I are in complete agreement. A civil society must have confidence in the police.
I don't anymore. Not to tell the truth.
Perhaps I was the fool to imagine these minor municipal functionaries could be relied upon to uphold civil liberties when they can't recover a stolen bicycle. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
Extra credit: Kelly McParland on Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair's trouble with the truth (via Blazing Cat Fur).
Not me. Not with this police force under this Chief of Police.
Immigrants, know your place
German anarchists, convinced immigrants to Germany should not support Germany's FIFA World Cup bid, have been harassing immigrants daring to fly the German flag.
A naive sort might confuse anarchist nihilism anti-nationalism with old fashioned racism.
Both Bassal and Mohammed told Berliner Morgenpost that they are incredulous they have to defend hanging a German flag to native Germans. Though the store owner’s entire family have been citizens for many years, the leftists believe immigrants must remain foreigners, he added.
Elsewhere, this opinion is enshrined as state ideology. South Africa called it apartheid, Canada calls it multiculturalism.
Bad news
Christopher Hitchens has esophegal cancer. Kathy Shaidle comments to good effect.
Conan the Barbarian: The Musical
Conservatives have more fun, btw.