August 31, 2010
A report from CSIS
Another post stolen from Vlad Tepes!
Somebody get Michael Ignatieff on the line; with a brain his big*, perhaps he can make the connections eluding the rest of us.
* That's a perfectly cromulent grammatical construction, thank you.
A break in the clouds
Talks are underway for a quarter of the wings for the F-35 production run, wings for 800 aircraft, to be built in Israel.
I would quote the article but I gather al Reuters has a problem with fair use (if not with Photoshop).
I shall quote Popular Science instead. Am I missing something? A flying Jeep would have tested my suspension of disbelief as a twelve year old.
Regrettably, there is generation of men - about five to fifteen years younger than me - whose brains deactivate when they hear the word "Transformer". As these men are in mid-career roles, it will be interesting to see how far they can push this absurdity along the procurement chain.
August 30, 2010
Glenn Beck: Restoring Honor (August 28, 2010)
Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally in Washington, D.C.
God bless you, Mr. Beck.
Update: Five Feet of Fury has video of an unscheduled flyover at the beggining of the rally.
French prostitutes join the human rights protest
Carla Bruni and Isabelle Adjani campaign to save the life of Iranian "adultress" Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani from death by stoning.
In response, Kayhan, a newspaper mouthpiece for the mullahs, calls Carla Bruni and Isabelle Adjani prostitutes.
An editorial in the paper points to her chequered love life, which has included numerous relationships with high-profile celebrities. Entitled ‘French prostitutes join the human rights protest,’ the article singles out Ms Bruni-Sarkozy and Isabelle Adjani, the French actress and friend of the First Lady who is also calling for Sakineh’s release. Kayhan aims to ‘defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution’ and is directly under the supervision of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.
For anyone not familiar with the code, this is to say Carla Bruni and Isabelle Adjani should also be put to death by stoning. Such is the fate of prostitutes and hypocrites under an Islamic conception of human rights.
Take away observation: If anyone does anything to stop Iran going nuclear, Canadians will take to the streets to protest in their thousands.
Because the Left hates women.
Pat Condell: Bad faith at Ground Zero
This is his best rant to date; I'd quote it but I would have to quote the whole thing. Testify!
An Alfred Hitchcock documentary on the Nazi Holocaust
An Alfred Hitchcock documentary on the Nazi Holocaust.
Thousands of Germans were forced to witness the work of the death camps. These days the Left would say that was the real war crime.
August 29, 2010
A word from the faithless and accursed
PressTV/Mouth of Sauron: Amnesty International rebukes Canada's human rights violations, i.e. defunding NGOs like Amnesty International.
"There is a real shrinking of democratic spaces in this country... Many organizations have lost their funding for raising inconvenient questions," AFP quoted Shetty as saying.
Also, something about boy band member Omar Khadr.
In related news: Salil Shetty needs a swift kick in the nuts.
August 28, 2010
Adapt or die
Vive la France.
Un: Nicolas Sarkozy to foreign-born French: Target police and lose your citizenship.
Because minority groups always protest in the streets to defend their right to target police.
Deux: French proposal would strip naturalized citizens of nationality if convicted of serious crimes.
Eric Besson says he will also propose that repeat offenders born in France to foreign parents could be denied French citizenship.
Trois: France's crackdown on Romas continues, hundreds deported.
"Travelling minorities" should win a Marxist euphemism award of some kind. Then the writer should be shot dead.
Khat: Foreign-born polygamists to be stripped of French citizenship.
If England or America had done any of this, the Left would have an embolism. Which would be a plus.
I even seen me a shark eat an octopus
An upgraded Akula hunter-killer* submarine has reportedly been stalking a Vanguard SSBN ("boomer" to the Yanks, "bomber" to the Brits) in the North Atlantic in an attempt to record its acoustic signature.
"The Russians have been playing games with us, the Americans and French in the North Atlantic," a senior Navy commander said.
Not a problem. Give it a few years and there won't be a Royal Navy left for the Russians to play tag with.
* This is a NATO designation. Somewhat confusingly, the Russian's call their big bastard Typhoon SSBNs "Akula".
August 27, 2010
Christopher Hitchens: 2010 Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture
Christopher Hitchens delivers the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA.
Christopher Hitchens takes questions from audience.
Prince: Let's Go Crazy / Take Me With U
The opposite of jihad? A smurf love bomb to you all!
August 26, 2010
Michael Savage: Tears Up Michael Bloomberg - 8-25-2010
Hat tip to Five Feet of Fury.
EXACTLY: "If you want to march into a box-car, follow Bloomberg."
Moon-o-theism, Part VI: The Moonwalker
Another terror arrest in Ottawa, this one a Canadian Idol contestant (both the link and video stolen from Vlad Tepes for great justice).
He should have been deported for using the expression "2K5". And for moonwalking.*
Her name isn't "April" Lavigne, btw. But I would have liked to hear some Hilary Duff. Encore!
In case you were wondering, he is wearing a cheval kamise and "the biggest topi known to mankind."
* Get your Moon Idol jokes while they're fresh, folks.
For reference: The Khuram Sher Facebook fan page.
Updating with factoids: He's a pathologist, recently hired by St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital. A Muslim doctor planning terror attacks; it boggles the mind.
Expect the RCMP to take flack for naming their investigation Proect Samosa (take that, culturally insensitive Americans!)
They were also raising money to fund IED attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan, RCMP chief superintendent Serge Therriault said Thursday at a news conference in Ottawa.
Two of the accused, Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh and Misbahuddin Ahmed, were taken into custody in Ottawa Wednesday. The third, Khurram Syed Sher, was arrested in London, Ont.
They should have stuck to raising funds to attack Israel. They could have got tickets to sail with CUPE.
Levi-O-sa. Not levio-SAH.
Because this place has become such a downer.
Because at the Flea it is all about the caring. And the mwa mwa.
Emma Watson said: 'Although I wasn't centrally involved in the design of this collection, I had great fun in helping People Tree select some gorgeous Fair Trade textiles -- a dogtooth hand-woven check, cable knits, and the first Fair Trade hand-woven brushed checked fabric which has been made into easy tulip skirts, dresses and shirts. There are even a few party dresses, such as the little black satin tulip dress which can be dressed up or down to suit any occasion'
Finally, the media is actually doing it's job
Pamela Geller: "This guy is dirty."
Ofra Haza feat. Iggy Pop: Daw Da Hiya
Remember feminism? Just more fuel for the Left's bonfire of the sanities.
August 25, 2010
The EDL is going to Bradford
"Most of the trouble lately has come from the police, it's not come from us."
Warning: Free and frank language.
John Barry: Moonraker - Flight Into Space
John Barry conducting the City Of Prague Philharmonic. I want this played at my funeral freeze drying.
August 24, 2010
Tolerance
Dorothy Sayers on the sin that believes in nothing.
More at the link.
Miss Moral Beauty
Coming soon to a womens studies program near you.
Don't forget about preventing vice!
Well f*ck you, Hans Brix
Not anti-war. Just on the other side.
In a more civilized age, he would have been given a last cigarette, asked for a few more banal words and then shot at dawn.
August 23, 2010
MK Danny Danon (Likud): We all have to awake
"I think we all have to awake and understand we have a problem with Iran."
Panorama: What happened on the Flotilla to Gaza
With a grateful hat tip to Rochelle.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Related: But will the Left march in their droves to protest Cypriot Nazism? No, they will not.
To the Left, it's only racism when Israel does it.
August 22, 2010
Our misplaced compassion
Ezra Levant: "71% of Tamil "refugees" go back to Sri Lanka for holidays."
This should be the beginning and the end of the argument.
Are they tortured? Do they have a well-founded fear of persecution?
Are things so bloody bad over there that we have to let a boatload of them into Canada, just because they showed up?
No. But day is night and wrong is right and if the navy were to sink the next lot, somehow we would be the bad guys.
Directly related: "Is there really anyone in Britain who needs to beg?"
Yes, they are called tax-payers.
August 21, 2010
That's the spirit
God rest Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed at Normandy.
When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.”
The only way out is through.
But first men must remember that they are men.
And the fire ran along upon the ground
Eeyore posts a CNN interview/hit piece with Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, noted for his plan to burn the Koran on 9/11.
Some words Pastor Jones might usefully have said but did not find the words to say.
Too many Christians have misread II Corinthians 6:3. I can think of no greater stumbling block before the truth than a dissembling, feigned and cowardly respect for the ministry of Satan. In these days, to give offense is now a moral obligation.
August 20, 2010
God bless the troops
President George W. Bush Greeting Troops at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
This video, photos and production are from the www.welcomehomeahero.com Volunteer Team
Update: I forwarded this to a number of people. Here is one reply.
He's a fine fine man even if I wanted to kickbox him a few times. But then I remember how much he loves our military and let's it show. Like this.
God bless you too, Sondra.
The truth is knowledge and knowledge is power
We used to be taught lessons in civics and the classics, in the fundamentals of citizenship. From kindergarteners to post-graduates, we now find ourselves in the ruins tutored only in grievance by a second generation of instructors who were never taught properly themselves. Never having been exposed to the truth, let alone the means to seek after the truth, they are not intellectually, let alone spiritually, capable of teaching anything worthwhile themselves.
There must be a lingering commitment to duty and scholarship in mainland China. How else to explain the fact Lieutenant General Yazhou Liu has grasped a simplisme beyond the ken of student council president in Washington.
''A bad system makes a good person behave badly while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most urgent thing, without it there can be no sustainable rise.''
Your Job in Germany (1946)
"The problem now is future peace. That is your job in Germany. ... You are up against German history. It isn't good."
Dr. Seuss was a bad ass. Too bad our culture doesn't make men anymore.
If we had some fraction of the common sense displayed by this film, we would be on our way to sorting out our current troubles. But today common sense is racist.
Imagine a post-war occupation of Nazi Germany without a program of de-Nazification. Better yet, a post-war occupation that did away with the upper echelons of the Nazi Party but enshrined Nazism in the post-war German constitution.
But then you don't have to imagine anything. You have Iraq and Afghanistan.
August 19, 2010
The peasants are revolting
Charles Windsor lectures the great unwashed.
The instruction came at the end of a list of 20 lifestyle changes recommended by the Prince of Wales for his new green campaign, Start.
Background: Peasants, know your place!
The portfolio is managed in five geographical districts: London – commercial property and the Kennington estate; Eastern – estates in Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire; Hereford; Western – estates in Devon and Cornwall; and The Isles of Scilly. There are satellite offices on Dartmoor and at Poundbury.
The properties cover everything from large farms of more than 650 hectares to small gardens, office premises to craft workshops, Highgrove House to barn conversions, along with new developments such as Poundbury.
You're the next Kris Donald
"Shaun Paul McNally, 14, was playing outside his home when a pack of Asian youths punched, kicked and spat on him and battered him with metal poles."
Click through for the rest if you can stomach the truth.
Today Scotland. Toronto tomorrow.
Herbert A. Philbrick: What Is Communism?
With a hat tip to the Binkster.
"How could any free and intelligent people living in country like America let a gang of vicious outsiders come in and take over?"
Roscoe Holcomb: I am a man of constant sorrow
Remember America?
And a more upbeat rendition by the Soggy Bottom Boys for my Dad.
August 18, 2010
We remember
For more, visit www.KeepAmericaSafe.com.
Author Christopher Hitchens
Charlie Rose interviews Christopher Hitchens. In which Rose is not wearing socks and the Hitch quotes Samuel Johnson:
Correct.
This is Hitch on an excellent day (with a grateful hat tip to the Armored Facilities Manager).
Related: From two years ago but still news. Prince Harry can look every soldier in the eye.
King Harry, please.
The dream of reciprocity
IDF soldiers describe guard duty during "holy month" of Ramadan. Also, wishful thinking.
August 17, 2010
Bibi's choice
Someone has to be the first to say it: Maybe it's the illness. Maybe it's the treatment.
That said, Christopher Hitchens has always been wrong-headed about Israel.
To summarize my point of view: An atomic weapon in the hands of the Persians is an existential threat to Israel and that is enough of an argument for me.
That such a weapon should also prove a threat to their Arab neighbours is to me a matter of perfect indifference. If the Arabs are too cowardly to defend themselves with the weapons we have given them, let them live with the consequences. We are already buying the oil we should never have given them in the first place. Whether our treasure should be wasted on pleasure palaces north or south of the Persian Gulf is - again - a matter of perfect indifference to me.
That such a weapon should threaten "Europe" is a plus. This is what they wanted. This is what they got.
That such a weapon would inconvenience American power is an object lesson in why the Americans should have nuked Moscow before the atomic genie got out of its bottle more than fifty years ago. That the United States should have allowed yet another barbarian state to arm itself for apocalypse is only one more unsettled dream in the long sleep of reason.
All I ask - and asking it I know it is too much to ask - is that if Israel should ever decide to act in its own defense that the rest of the world should stay out of the way.
That Christopher Hitchens' list of concerns should Iran get the bomb includes damage to the reputation of the United Nations only shows the moral depths to which our civilization has sunk. That such an educated man should spare a moment for such a nonsense is almost too depressing to articulate.
So my hope is it is the illness. Or the drugs. The rest of the Establishment of the West has no such excuse.
Exit wish: Nuke the bastards and let it be a lesson to the next. And if the next should fail the lesson, nuke them too.
Carry on up the hajj
Pilgrims at Mecca chant "There Is No God But Allah, and America Is The Enemy of Allah!"
So good to have friends. Of peace. Let's sell them advanced F-15s. Hat tip to Rochelle.
Middle of the Road: Samson and Delilah
Coming soon to a Middle East near you: The Samson Option.
August 16, 2010
Vanishing in a puff of logic
Mark Taylor argues for new ways to offer a quality higher education "to more students at a lower price."
Outsource the lot to Madras? Nay!
Because the only reason to take a doctorate in philosophy is to become a tenured academic, apparently. So much for Diogenes. But then Mark Taylor has Diogenes beat for cyncism.
Taylor is chair of the religion department at Columbia. But not to worry about excessive duplication in his field. His opposite number at N.Y.U. is just as capable of issuing fatwas in the New York Times.
That said, Taylor's entire argument is premised on dueling assertions: Higher education represents a bubble market comparable to the sub-prime imbroglio but with "soaring unemployment" higher education has somehow "never been more important to society or more widely desired".
The do say proof denies faith.
And the answer is: Vigorously encourage all potential applicants to consider a community college/polytechnical education using statistics demonstrating projected income with a skilled trade vs income with a liberal arts degree, anyone who still wants a PhD in philosophy can take their chances; phase out all programs duplicating college/polytechnical school programs; enact and enforce draconian admission standards and grades assessment across the board; cut all sports related scholarships, this one conservatives may object to because they think universities are a form of public entertainment; fire all faculty currently employed by or deans promoted from "studies" departments; instigate class action lawsuits on behalf of womens studies students against womens studies faculty; divest from countries whose legal codes enshrine gender apartheid and refuse and return endowments from dictatorships or citizens of dictatorships; firewall professional programs from academic programs, including and especially prestigious law, medicine and engineering programs, and; add the following mandatory courses to the degree requirements for all undergraduate study - Introductory Economics... actually, I was going to add Latin, evolutionary psychology, accounting and principles of engineering to the list but so long as everyone graduates with an understanding of price elasticity the rest will follow.
Depression: Harvard University has sold all its holdings in Israel. Because Harvard is has sold its soul to Satan.
Harvard Update: "Not so fast!"
Solomonia explains at the link.
August 15, 2010
American Socialists
Congratulations, we have finally arrived at tomorrow. History owes Senator McCarthy an apology.
Published in October of last year but only now getting press, the Socialist Party of America lists 70 House Democrats as party members, including half the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA?
A: Seventy
Q: How many of the DSA members sit on the Judiciary Committee?
A: Eleven: John Conyers [Chairman of the Judiciary Committee], Tammy Baldwin, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutierrez, Melvin Watt, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Linda Sanchez [there are 23 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of which eleven, almost half, are now members of the DSA].
Much more at the link.
Update: Welcome Kathy Shaidle readers at David Horowitz's News Real Blog.
T Minus 6 Days
Once the fuel rods are loaded, Bolton told Fox News on Friday afternoon, "it makes it essentially immune from attack by Israel. Because once the rods are in the reactor an attack on the reactor risks spreading radiation in the air, and perhaps into the water of the Persian Gulf."
Or Israel could nuke Iran. It's that or suicide.
A prayer for dhimmis
Muammar Gaddafi orders Libyans to offer a prayer for Gordon Brown and Kenny MacAskill who, in a more civilized age, would have been hanged, drawn and quartered.
Colonel Gaddafi, the country’s dictator, has ordered prayers to mark Friday’s anniversary of the decision to free Al Megrahi from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
According to the medical opinion upon which his release was based, Al Megrahi died nine months ago. Yet his zombie staggers on as a symbol of hope to British petro-chemical interests. It's a miracle!
Dhimmi news extra: The British Establishment is too spineless to enforce parking tickets against their masters let alone see off the occupation. Our only hope now is a revolution.
Leftist news extra: We are cutting £20 billion from the defence budget but we have £520 million to hire prostitutes and pay for lap dances.
The Occupation of Britain
HIter's Britain imagines an alternate history where the Nazis invaded and occupied Britain, a counter-factual fiction based on plans developed by Adolph Hitler and General von Brauschitz.
Churchill did what he had to do to prevent this from happening. He was prepared to do anything to prevent this from happening.
Sidebar: Von Brauschitz and the rest of the German army high command knew what the SS was doing.
August 14, 2010
Female troops guard India-Pakistan border
Authentic feminism opposes jihad with armed force. The report is a year old but this is still news.
Update: Welcome New York Times readers. You shall find much here to infuriate you.
Update: A much warmer welcome to Bharat Rakshak readers. Aapka swaagat hai! This blog is militantly pro-India.
Update: Solomonia makes an excellent point about a comparison no one ever makes. Note to India: Do not make hotel accommodation too comfortable close to the border lest you attract the media vermin plaguing Israel.
Charles I enters the House of Commons
The traitor king.
Diction lesson: Parliament has four syllables.
August 13, 2010
A crime against humanity
Der Spiegel claims to have evidence the Turkish military used chemical weapons against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey is a member of NATO. Canada is in a military alliance with Turkey.
David Cameron demands we admit Turkey into the European Union. If you disagree, he calls you a bigot.
Turkey is now allied with Iran, Hamas and the Left.
As is obvious, I don't have coherent words for this yet.
Polenz recommended an international investigation to examine the deaths of eight Kurdish activists from the PKK. Claudia Roth, co-chair of the German Green party, echoed Polenz’s criticisms, seconding his call for an investigation.
MP Andrej Hunko urged the German Foreign Ministry to file a complaint against Turkey with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.
A forensic report from Hamburg University Hospital confirmed that the eight Kurds had been murdered by “the use of chemical substances.”
By all means file that complaint. That will show them. Nothing like a complaint at The Hague to make men possessed by Satan quake in their boots.
With laughter.
Related: Iran and Turkey are to send "weapons, rockets, guns" to Hezbollah. When they are used against Israel, the Left will throw candy into the streets.
Also: Yes, I want a Crusade. I demand a Crusade.
Ken Loach: Looks and Smiles
It's always someone else's fault in't North.
I am not certain what magic wand Thatcher was supposed to have waved to make Yorkshire not miserable. That said, even period Leftist propaganda is heart warming to me now. It was still recognizably England.
1:39:51 of bleak at the second link.
Exit observation: It is a beautiful film. Instead of bitching about the culture, it is time for conservatives to start making some.
The Greasy Chip Butty Song
Like a gallon of Magnet
Like a packet of Woodbines
Like a good pinch of snuff
Like a night out in Sheffield
Like a greasy chip butty
Like Sheffield United
Come fill me again....
Na Na Na Naa Naa Naaaaa, ooo!
Fault lines
Square Mile Wife explains a fault line in Britain's counter-jihad movement. This is a useful primer for anyone who has not lived and worked in the UK. Perhaps even more so to polite company conservatives in the UK, their environment to them as a fish is in water.
Hard truths: Coming soon to a leafy green suburb near you.
University cuts of 35% will be worst since the Great Depression
By a strange coincidence, the United Kingdom is faced with its worst economic circumstances since the 1930s. What are the odds?
From the comments, common sense.
Henceforth to be known as "comment sense". Due to the wit.
- Scott Ford, London SW7, 13/8/2010 13:18
@Scott. This is not true. Polytechnics and Universities were different. The main aim of the Polytechnics was teaching, not research. I was an undergraduate at a polytechnic and a post-graduate student at a top 20 university. There was a massive difference: the polytechnic hired ex-practitioners who in general were good lecturers and academic standards were maintained through reviews by the CNAA. I gained a good degree. The top 20 university hired academics who were in general: poor lecturers, lazy and only interested in their research. The course was poor and the qualification worthless. In my humble opinion the Polytechnics were far superior to Universities for students who wanted a non-academic career.
- Steve West, Cambs UK, 13/8/2010 13:57
August 12, 2010
Check and check
In which Ace makes yet another fundamental observation on the art, nay, the science of blogging.
The whole secret of the universe
From Return Trip to Nirvana (pdf) by Arthur Koestler, Sunday Telegraph, 12 March 1961.
August 11, 2010
Iran in the 1970s
The 1970s in Iran resemble the 1970s anywhere else in the popular imagination. If Satan had not claimed the place, generations of young women could have warmed their toes in the sun as these women, their mothers, did before them. But Satan did claim Iran and half of humanity was consigned to the darkness at a stroke. Almost no one, not even the most committed counter-jihadis, truly understad how quickly it can happen here.
It is already happening here.
The Left demonstrate takes to the street to defend the Satanic imperative that took Iran. Feminists seeing these images would see them a grotesque examples of "patriarchy", certainly no better than being condemned to a bin liner.
This via Ace of Space HQ with thoughts on Sansabelt slacks; snark a last refuge for what is left of sanity in the face of elemental evil.
Related: "[Theo van Gogh] told me that the Dutch had an expression he held dear: vrijheid, blijheid. It means, he told me, 'freedom is happiness.'"
Christopher Hitchens on antisemitism
Video at Vlad Tepes. While these appear to be brief (under ten minutes in total), I have to save them until later but it appears Martin Amis is still in attendance.
Robyn feat. Röyksopp: None Of Dem
There is a phasing stab at 4:37 that is straight out of Blade Runner. I have played this ten times in a row so far this morning.
August 10, 2010
The Memory Hole
Compare and contrast: Here is today's version of the RS Foundation About Us page. As I post this, the page has precisely nothing to say.
By contrast, here is a snapshot of the RS Foundation About Us page via the all seeing Google cache.
How is the media supposed to credit Shujaat Wasty with all the great Truthing he does as Director of the RS Foundation if their website comes over all coy on the subject? Assuming the media ever takes an interest. Imagine all that charitable work and not taking credit for it.
Credit. Blame. Who am I to judge?
For posterity.
Shujaat Wasty has a Masters in Education with a background in Business Management and Southern Asian Studies. He works for the Government of Canada and is currently pursuing further graduate studies. His work and research interests include social justice through health and educational empowerment.
Does anyone have a contact directory for Canada's federal civil service?
Just asking.
Related: I was in a meeting and missed yesterday's Michael Ignatieff Q&A. Comments at The Works or whatever that site is called suggest he ducked any questions on Canada's pot laws; this despite a clear interest in the subject. I am taking a wild guess he did not have anything to say about the Blood Libel MasterCard.
Ignatieff and 100% of the rest of Canada's Establishment. The cowards.
Update: Maria forwards a link to a transcript of the Ignatieff chat (thanks!). 10,000 quatloos to the Flea-reader prepared to wade through it and let us know what he said.
Updaterer: That didn't take long. Are Liberals "progressive?" "Respectfully" why does this ass want to be Prime Minister? Jesus wept.
Seeing as cookies are now banned in this pre-school excuse for a political culture, me and the Cookie Monster are heading out back for a toke.
The Persians
The National Theatre Wales is staging a new version of Aeschylus' The Persians by Kaite O'Reilly at a British Army traning village in the Brecon Beacons. Even the most irritating promotional video in the history of the Welsh people could not stop me going; the Atlantic ocean and a sold out sign have that covered.
My enthusiasm explained: The cast is also made up of former members of the "internationally acknowledged" experimental performance company Brith Gof.
And then: A much better, if no more informative, promotional video. Wales features.
August 09, 2010
Al-Gadir class submarines
Four more Ghadir-class littoral submarines have been delivered to the Iranian navy, adding to seven already in service.
Iran’s inventory of submarines patrolling Gulf waters also includes up to three Russian-built Kilo class diesel submarines bought in 1990s and a Nahang, an Iranian-built light sub weighing 500 tons that was first launched in 2006.
GlobalSecurity.org has background of the development and capabilities of the Yono Class / Ghadir Class "midget" submarine. Serving History has a number of images of an Iranian Ghadir class submarine.
Related: North Korea may have used one of its Yono class submarines to sink the Cheonan.
But military experts disagree. Iran's "Ghadir" class subs, which are similar in size to the "Yono" subs carry two torpedo launchers capable of firing 533 mm projectiles. Intelligence officials believe these are actually North Korean "Yono" subs that the North exported to Iran.
Oceania has never been at war with Eastasia
The United States and Vietnam demonstrate their military relationship with an American carrier visit.
...
Chinese navy ships were seen shadowing the USS George Washington at a distance over the past several days as the supercarrier made its way through the South China Sea along Vietnam's eastern coast, US navy officials said.
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
August 08, 2010
O frabjous day
io9 has frabjous tidings:
Both this happy news and the following illustrative backgrounder arrive thanks to Taylor Empire Airways.
I love the Australian you can hear in "tiered". It's the small things that get me going.
Visitors
A planned EDL rally in Bradford suggests two possibilities:
a) Bradford is still part of England. Free English men have the right to gather there, or;
b) Bradford is no longer part of England and the writ of English law no longer applies there.
The local Member of Parliament, who swore an oath to Her Majesty the Queen, shares her opinion.
We know the police will side with the real invaders.
Update: The Guardian wrings its hands at the prospect of violence in Bradford, thereby doing its level best to inflame police jihadis against the EDL. But for all their best efforts to stir it, Bradford might not be the big one.
The big one could be Amsterdam. Tommy Robinson has announced a demonstration in Amsterdam for Saturday October 30 in coordination with the European Defence League in support of Geert Wilders (via Het Vrije Volk).
So to summarise lets stand together proud and fight for this country under the EDL name as one, UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL.
Thanks and No Surrender Ever
Update: Welcome Five Feet of Fury readers. It is only now I notice two typos in this post, of course. Note to self: PIMF.
Dutch Joint Strike Fighter order unlikely
The disarmament of the West continues. Good. As I have said before, unless we are prepared to use our weapons we are better off without them. If we do not buy them they cannot fall into the hands of some Emir. The Caliphate won't be able to maintain its bounty arsenals, still less replace them, but they will be able to do a lot of damage before they are through with them.
True for the "British". Truer, sooner, for the "Dutch" under their incoming prime minister Mark Rutte.
...
The paper says Rutte is well aware that ordering JSF aircraft at a cost of €6bn would be very sensitive at a time of cuts in education, healthcare and social security spending. He is committed to finding austerity measures to generate €18bn in savings between now and 2015.
With so many new mouths to feed, cloth, house, educate and treat, small wonder the few remaining Dutch can no longer afford to defend themselves.
Nature vs poseur
Everyone must read The Fourth Checkraise now. I have only just now found the blog as its author, Illka, a sardonic professor of some description, is off to Los Vegas and plans no updates until September. I shall have to content myself with his archives.
For example, a word on lesbians and eugenics.
Also via Illka, a handy comparison of Rich People's Leftism vs Poor People's Leftism.
Why wasn't George Bush's word good enough?
Journalists: Our moral and intellectual superiors (via Ryan Gill).
Objectivity!
Related: Photos from the Tea Party Express news conference.
Extra: More from the Tea Party Express.
Eminem: Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna
"Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano." Brilliant, terrifying; the man is a genius. This is a message from the heart of a disordered relationship, a narcissistic personality and an enabling codependent partner; excrutiating to live and notoriously difficult to address, let alone represent. But not for impossible for Marshall Mathers, apparently.
The Rimbaud comparisons are tiresome, I realize, but when they are apt what choice do we have but to make them?
Update: Welcome New York Times readers. Feel free to take a look around. You shall find much here to infuriate you.
August 07, 2010
Not for turning
Meryl Streep, who should be pilloried in the stocks, is set to portray an aged Margaret Thatcher, wracked by guilt and reduced to a shadow of herself by dementia.
The news is in astonishing (yet all too predictable) bad taste, of course, but allow me to offer the following interpretation of just what it is these leftists are proposing.
Plot synopsis: Margaret Thatcher succombs to dementia; becomes liberal.
That has the ring of truth to it. If she lost her mind, she would agree with them. I could not have put it better myself.
The real Margaret Thatcher: The Left fears the truth. That is all you need to know; everything else is commentary.
In this case, they were right to fear the messenger of the truth, delivered by God to save and protect England in her twilight hour. She was a terror to them, the Iron Lady of the Western world.
Would that we should see her like again.
She was right.
This is what a conservative looks like.
The sickness unto death
Jeffrey Goldberg has a conversation with Christopher Hitchens about cancer and God.
Video at the link.
Also featured: Martin Amis.
Existentially related: A word from Sören Kierkegaard. Hitchens would not agree the conclusion, not even agree the premise; but being the man he is, he would surely appreciate the dialectic.
Thus it is that despair, this sickness in the self, is the sickness unto death. The despairing man is mortally ill. In an entirely different sense than can appropriately be said of any disease, we may say that the sickness has attacked the noblest part; and yet the man cannot die. Death is not the last phase of the sickness, but death is continually the last. To be delivered from this sickness by death is an impossibility, for the sickness and its torment . . . and death consist in not being able to die.
This is the situation in despair. And however thoroughly it eludes the attention of the despairer, and however thoroughly the despairer may succeed (as in the case of that kind of despair which is characterized by unawareness of being in despair) in losing himself entirely, and losing himself in such a way that it is not noticed in the least -- eternity nevertheless will make it manifest that his situation was despair, and it will so nail him to himself that the torment nevertheless remains that he cannot get rid of himself, and it becomes manifest that he was deluded in thinking that he succeeded. And thus it is eternity must act, because to have a self, to be a self, is the greatest concession made to man, but at the same time it is eternity’s demand upon him.
Update: Welcome New York Times readers. You shall find much here to infuriate you.
Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924)
Have to love those proletarian revolutions spearheaded by... the monarch. Such is life on Mars. Or "green" England.
Though the main focus of the story is the daily lives of a small group of people during the post-war Soviet Union, the enduring importance of the film comes from its early science fiction elements. It primarily tells of a young man, Los (Russian: Лось, literary Elk), traveling to Mars in a rocket ship, where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders, with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.
August 06, 2010
Welcome to the front lines
Saif Cathum faces thirty-five charges after a search finds IEDs in an Ottawa home.
The war is here. And those who have not swords can still die upon them.
Exit question: Is this the same Saif Cathum who was injured fleeing the police in 2003?
Think of the expense saving his life. We haven't finished paying yet.
Update: Moose and Squirrel ask after the inevitable.
A prayer for the stoic
Anderson Cooper interviews Christopher Hitchens. Tough to watch.
Video at the link.
Here, the thoughts of a Roman and a man (but I repeat myself).
- Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations - Book Nine
Dong Feng 21D
China's long rumoured carrier-killer, an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) might not be vapourware.
SinoDefence has a DongFeng 21 development history. China Military Report has DongFeng 21 pictures and commentary.
Update: Welcome Times of India and Eurasia Review readers. Please feel free to have a look round while you are here.
Two further updates: Ry of Castle Argghhh! writes with a link to Arms Control Wonk - "DF-21 Delta: Some Early Thoughts" - and comments thusly.
That's not to say that the impact of such a thing won't be disproportionate to the actual utility, as such things usually go, neh?, since it'd only be a fool who thinks he can sail blithely around in that part of the world since the weapon hasn't been proven with war shots(and that may be the longest---possible run on-- sentence I've written this year).
I'm just not on board with the Gary Brecher aka War Nerd view on this (why have carriers? Carriers are for losers. Everyone should go for subs!).
For anyone not familiar with Gary Brecher's argument: "This is how the carriers will die".
Long time Flea-readers will know I am pro-sub, but submarines cannot project power - and prestige - and carriers can and do. That said.... Describing the DF-21D as a harassment weapon, J.E. Dyer's discussion of the challenges faced by China's missile designers is not the main question. We should rather be thinking in terms of how an ASBM will be deployed tactically alongside other weapons systems to make life difficult for a carrier and its escort group to do what they have been deployed to do. Busy the group defending itself to the point it cannot project power: In this way lies "senility" for carrier-based power projection.
August 05, 2010
Deep-sixed
On the one hand The Deep was plotted by an artarded octopus with a hammer. Who was also technical consultant. And written by Simon Donald and Paul Rutman. Who are women.*
On the busier hand Minnie Driver is a submarine commander. WIN!
Hello! I'm sorry, I'm just not having that. And she's doing very little to convince me to change my mind. She's impulsive and emotional, scatty, hello darling, mwah mwah, and dressed all wrong. She's a rubbish commander too, makes some really bad decisions.
Which is an accurate assessment but which is also all you need to know about The Guardian. They don't get anything.
* Watch the show and tell me I'm wrong.
Update: Mwah mwah in action! (Episode 1 recap, hence spoilers.)
Ruh oh
The next bubble set to burst.
In Chinese, the characters for "unpredictable" and "blindingly obvious" are the same. True fact.
The American Form of Government
The difference between a democracy and a republic should be obvious to most Flea-readers. Even so, potentially useful to forward to your leftist relatives. We must confront and defeat the chaos of democracy.
Update: Democracy. Such a bad idea.
For example: Journalists - Our moral and intellectual superiors.
Who can kiss my ass.
Polish mineral waters: The debate continues
Am drinking Nałęczowianka, high in calcium and magnesium. Yet somehow the nagging feeling I should be drinking Cisowianka remains.
August 04, 2010
The Topic of Cancer
A report from Christopher Hitchens from unfamiliar country.
All too familiar to some of us.
A warning: Upsetting stuff related by a master of prose.
God bless you, Mr. Hitchens. I know you don't see it this way but you are still doing the Lord's work.
The gentlemen do battle: The Chap Olympiad
This 2009 iteration of a most excellent sporting event is brought to you by the 418th issue of the Steynian, Canada's premiere blog round up.
Directly related: The 6th Annual Chap Olympiad 2010 with a hat tip to the inestimable Five Feet of Fury.
August 03, 2010
Company Jasmine: Women of the IDF
If feminists cared about the rights of women, feminists would support Israel.
As to male Flea-readers with a prurient interest. Shame. Shame on you... sorry, what was I saying?
Also: Anyone making smart comparisons to bread crusts gets such a smack in the punim.
Birds of Tokyo: The Saddest Thing I Know (official 3D HD version)
I know I have some 3D glasses kicking around somewhere (hat tip to Ben, who sees in 3D naturally due to a physical deformity).
August 02, 2010
Reagan tells Soviet jokes
Oh bless.
And a reminder of the 1964 Republican National Convention. God bless.
Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle
Glenn Hockton, 19, who is now home from a seven-month tour of duty with the Coldstream Guards in Helmand Province, was on patrol when his rosary suddenly fell from his neck.
His mother Sheri Jones said today: 'He felt like he had a slap on the back. He bent down to pick up his rosary to see if it was broken. As he bent down he realised he was on a landmine.'
His great-grandfather's story at the link.
By contrast: British soldier forced to leave England with family for safety.
And with this news, England has died. Not with a bang but a whimper.
Happy Simcoe Day
Tereza Frank: Luna
Evgeniya Vlasova: Budu Silnyeye
Armia: Armia-sverxy
Петр Листерман: продает Группу Голливуд
NikitA: Mashina. Set speakers to 11!
August 01, 2010
This blog is now about Karen Gillan
Thank you for your cooperation.
I should probably mention neither of these first two are remotely safe for work. Or polite company.
Also, I haven't worked out how to get around YouTube's embed restrictions. Working the problem.
More for me then.
We feel so much safer, there’s no racism here
Says a 19-year-old unauthorized migrant who moved to New Mexico from Arizona last month.
If the people of New Mexico agree with him, they deserve him.
It's working.