Uncategorized Blog

It’s not easy being a liberal in these times. Tolerance of other cultures is not a popular concept when there are fanatics out there that have declared war on us. Recent events like the riots in Nigeria over Miss World have lead a lot of bloggers to demonise Islam as a whole with an attitude that smells strongly of racism. I’ve criticised Bigwig of Silflay Hraka for this rant, which I felt crossed the line – that sort of talk gives the green light to the racist troglodytes to come crawling out from the rocks under which they’d been hiding.

On the other hand, it’s impossible to pretend that there’s nothing wrong with large parts of the Islamic world. Body and Soul has posted a lot of food for thought recently, including this.

I read an interview some time back with Kanan Makiya, a professor of Middle East studies at Brandeis and an Iraqi dissident, who said that part of the problem with Islam in much of the Arab world today is that Arab intellectuals abandoned it — and that left religion in the hands of imbeciles. I think there’s something to that. (I also think we’ve got a similar problem in this country — although obviously on a much smaller scale — with the decline of the old mainstream churches and the growth of both dumbed down smiley face religion — the kind you find in a lot of popular religious books — and, well, the imbeciles and thugs, Falwell and worse.)

What’s not so clear is what we should do about it. I’m not at all convinced at the warblogger’s arguments – that we should go in with all guns blazing to make the Arab world safe for western consumerism, and do to Islam what we did to the Aztecs. Nor am I convinced that half-a-dozen different regional conflicts are really part of one big war. On the other hand, to do nothing to defend ourselves against the fanatics isn’t an option.

I feel obliged to quote this from The Road To Surfdom.

As to Americans lacking irony: well, what could be more ironic than a nation that prides itself on its rugged individualism, its frontier spirit, its can-do resourcefulness and its tolerance of diversity, and that is also the place where every olive on every supermarket shelf is already pitted, where every movie has a happy ending, where hamburgers are produced with communist comformity, and where Paul Wellstone was considered a radical lefty?

You can read the whole article here

From Inside Europe: Iberian Notes – the two most culturally arrogant nations on earth, the USA and France, slug it out! (Link from Sasha Castel).

Thanks to Pagan Prattle for the link to this Denver Post article.

Christians throughout the United States are praying this week for the resurrection of a Silverthorne toddler.

The child’s family began their own prayers, which led to the establishment of a national prayer chain, last Sunday. Zion Jungck died in an accident at the family home that day when a filing cabinet fell on top of him while he played in the living room.

The boy was pronounced dead at Summit Medical Center, and embalmed early last week.

The Jungcks, whom Zion’s father Paul said are Charismatic Christians, then brought his body to their Silverthorne home. There, they began to pray.

The reason so many mainstream Christians are suspicious of Charismatics has a lot to do with the antics of fringe people like these.

They may say “these things happened in the Bible”, but I don’t remember reading that Lazarus and Eutychus were embalmed.

“It’s much safer for your reputation when your child dies to bury your child, do the conventional thing,” he said. “I’m sure people who don’t understand would look at us and say: A, we’re in denial, and B, these people are just whacked.

Well, I’m going to say it. They’re in denial, and these people are just whacked.

If you’re going to pray for these people tonight, pray that they accept that God has called Zion Jungck up to heaven, and that they stop damaging Christianity’s reputation like this.

The People’s Republic of Seabrook notices British attitudes towards the relationship between Tony Blair and Emperor Bush

It seems that Shrub has a new pet, and the British public is none too amused. Especially since most Britons see Shrub as a greater threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein.

It would seem that all that saber-rattling doesn’t playing well overseas….

Maybe, but maybe not. I hope that Blair is playing a more subtle game, and using his influence to act as a restraint, balancing the Dr Strangelove types in the Bush camp like Richard Perle. America has acted with remarkable restraint, given the beliefs and ideologies the hard-right.

Tony Blair is taking a huge gamble – if the Bush administration decides to stick two fingers up to the UN and Blair still backs unilateral US action, we’re going to end up isolated in Europe. And one of these days we’ll need European allies when the US decides to do something nasty (can you say “Steel tariffs”? Banana wars?) to us.

I hope I live long enough to read the Cabinet minutes when they’re published in thirty years time. They’ll make fascinating reading.

This is probably going to offend somebody… (Link from Body and Soul).

Scott shares some PETA anecdotes. Sometimes I wonder if PETA is a Republican conservative front, with the intention trying to discredit the left and environmental movements. It’s one way of explaining their loonyness.

Haven’t got any of these for ages; perhaps my habit of forwarding them to the Fraud Squad might have discouraged them.

MR JOHN OKONKWO

Dear Friend,

I am MR JOHN OKONKWO, Bank manager, Long Term fixed Deposit Dept, of Safe Trust Bank Lagos Nigeria. I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.

On June 6, 1999, An American mining consultant/contractor with the National mining corporation, MRS ANN BARBARA MYERS made a numbered time (fixed) Deposit for twelve (12) calendar months, valued at US$25,000,000.00(TWENTY-FIVE MILLION US DOLLARS) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to her forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from her contract employers, the national mining corporation that MRS ANN BARBARA MYERS died from an automobile accident. On further investigation, I found out that she died without making a (WILL) and all attempts to trace her next of kin was fruitless.

I therefore made further investigation and discovered that MRS ANN BARBARA MYERS did not declare any kin or relation in her official documents, including his Bank deposit paper work in my Bank. This sum US$25,000.000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. According to our National Law, at the expiration of 5 (five) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Nigerian government if nobody applies to claim the funds.

Consequently, my proposal is that I would like you to stand in as the next of kin to MRS ANN BARBARA MYERS so that the fruits of this old woman’s labour will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials. This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full name and address so that an Attorney will prepare the necessary documents and affidavits which will put you in place the next of kin. We shall employ the service of an accredited Attorney for the drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents and the of probate/administration in your favour for the transfer. A bank account in any part of the world which you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ration of 60% for me and 40% for you.

There is no risk at all as the paper work for this transaction will be done by the Attorney and my position as the branch manager guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you are interested, please reply immediately via jhno@email.ro Upon your response, I shall then provide with more details and relevant documents that will help you to understand the transaction.

Please observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country.

Awaiting your urgent reply

Best regards,

MR JOHN OKONKWO

Apparently these scammers are the main source of business for Cyber-cafes in Lagos, Nigeria – they’re filled with young men pretending to be relatives of deposed dicators, or in this case, crooked bank managers. I guess that somewhere there are people with the right combination of stupidity and greed to fall for these scams.

Marxists’ Apartment A Microcosm Of Why Marxism Doesn’t Work. Now I want to see an apartment full of tinfoil-hat Libertarians.

Or what about an apartment of Tories? They’ll all be arguing and plotting against the apartment’s leader!

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | New party heads for Turkey victory

Turkey’s outgoing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has conceded defeat, after early results showed none of the three ruling coalition parties managed to win the 10% share of the vote to get into parliament.

With over 60% of the ballots counted, the recently-founded AK party has more than 34% of the vote.

The latest projections of seats in the new parliament give AK a massive majority – just a few seats short of the two thirds needed to change the constitution.

Now I know I’m a bit of an electoral systems geek – when I was a kid I used to hold mock elections with pets and stuffed toys as candidates. At the age of about 13 I understood how to conduct a count using the Single Transferrable Vote system. But surely any system that gives a party with just over a third of the popular vote the best part of a two-thirds majority in parliament can only be described as ‘fundamentally broken’?

Not that the British system is a lot better; I’ve always been a supporter of electoral reform. We could see something equally strange next time round if the Tories continue their current decline.

I shall leave the implicatitions of the electoral success in Turkey of a supposedly Islamist party to the pundits.