Yellow Stars In The UK?

I recently pointed out the recent trend in the UK of boycotting Israel in support of 'Palestine' despite the fact that one is the regions only democracy, and the other is governed as a one party Islamic state.

This story of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge getting caught up in the politics of boycott illustrates the issue nicely. The choir had been due to attend at St George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem after they had been invited to sing in both locations by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem.

But the London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign wrote a letter, signed by just over 200 people (yes, as many as that), asking that the choir cancel its tour of Israel or risk, in their words, "appearing indifferent to Palestinian suffering". The spokeswoman for this tiny organisation Betty Hunter, says that the choirs tour, is "surprising and shocking" which she said "promotes Israel as a normal state rather than one which represses Palestinians".

In a right minded society that would have been the end of the matter, but then the one party and profoundly undemocratic Palestinian Authority joined in. According to the reports the PA asked the Bishop of Jerusalem to withdraw the invitation for the choir to sing in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and then 'banned' them from entering 'ene masse'.

This sort of 'pressure' by small, one issue (and usually blinkered) pressure groups would be easily resistible in normal society but when its in the general 'Anti-Israeli' atmosphere of the left-wing in the UK then its much harder for PC groups such as the Anglicans and Universities to resist them.

I might add as an another illustration of this growing (and shameful) trend, the decision of the UK government to use UK food labels to distinguish between goods from 'Palestinians in the occupied territories' and 'produce from Israeli settlements', is little more than an Anti-Semites and boycotters charter. Somewhat disingenuously the Labour government said that it was 'opposed to a boycott of Israeli goods', but that 'the settlements posed an obstacle to peace'.

The Future Of Anti-Semitic Labelling?

For shame ............ its sad that the left wing want to finish the job of the Nazis, and maybe we should just put a yellow star on the food labels?

The Drugs War - More Bad News

This graph produced by the UNODC shows some selected types of crimes

and the interesting thing is that while most of the crime types have stabilised or fallen, drug related crimes have doubled in the last decade. If ever proof was needed that illegal drugs cause the most misery in the world, then its surely this simple fact.

This blog doesn't have a magic solution but has noted the fact that the drug traffickers are winning (or at least not losing) the war, and this observation is supported by the same UN organisation reporting that huge amounts of heroin and cocaine were being traded by "terrorists and anti-government forces" to fund their operations and is transforming Africa into a major crime hub.

US Airliner Attack - UK Connections?

It being the holiday season I was laying low on my blogging, but the news that a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has tried to blow himself up on a US airliner has forced me from my inertia.

Sadly he's not the first Muslim to attempt to blow up an airliner and he probably won't be the last, so its not that which drew my attention, no what interested me was the fact that the bomber appears to have been led down the path of 'radicalisation' while studying in the UK.

He was a well supported and regarded student at Imperial College London until 2008, but during or after that period, his father became sufficiently disturbed by his sons views, for him to allegedly report his son to the US authorities.

The bomber is reported as being denied a UK visa this summer when he attempted to claim student status again for one of our numerous 'bogus colleges' and that should surely have raised some alarm bells .....

I would suggest that the authorities should take a close look at the contacts he made and the mosques Mr Abdulmutallab attended while in the UK, as well as those abroad because it can't just be a coincidence that a well regarded student, should end up as a wannabe suicide bomber attempting to use the same chemical explosive method as Richard Reid the British 'shoe bomber' who attended the Finsbury Park mosque (run by Sheikh Abu Hamza).

Although the evidence suggests his radicalisation took place in Lome before he came to the UK, and later in the Yemen where he went to 'study', it seems unlikely that while in the UK he didn't come into contact with either extremist literature or Imans.

Broken Britain Vl - A Christmas Tale

It appears that Fagin's are back in the UK with this story of young children being dropped into the hatches of charity recycling banks, to steal second-hand clothing meant for the third world.

"They are putting a person into the hopper, usually a child, into a dark metal bank not knowing what's in there.... " Sue Ray the Oxfam spokeswoman said. She added that said the donations were "desperately needed" by shops and appealed for people to take bags directly into branches.

Is this a sign of increased poverty in the UK, or the work of 'gangs' from Albania / Roumania etc?

Who can tell, the story doesn't speculate, nor give more details.

So all I can say is that like the petrol stealing from farmhouses last year, its a new low in the UK.

The Next Y2K Bug?... 19th Jan 2038

I read somewhere recently that there is potentially another Y2K (Millennium) bug coming up.

The original problem was caused by the old fashioned data storage methods that meant that many older systems stored dates as two-digit numbers instead of the four digits needed to display years as four digits. e.g. 99 instead of 1999. This meant that when the year 2000 approached it would show as '00' (which could be 1900 or 2000) and humanity would end or so it was claimed.

So vast amounts of money were spent to prevent this catastrophe and many mainframe systems were upgraded (I was involved in this exercise) however this fixing didn't address the fact that many Unix systems (including the Linux Kernel), continue to count time as starting from midnight on 1 January 1970, which means other analogous situations can arise in the future.

For instance, the article stated that on January 19, 2038, at 3:14:08 am UTC (Coordinated Universal Time - based on International Atomic Time), the number of seconds since 1/1/1970 will be too great to be stored in the 32-bit number used by these older Unix systems. In other words instead of computers thinking it could be 1900 instead of 2000, the computers could think its 1970 again instead of 2038 and the world will end (again).

Fortunately the more modern Unix systems mostly use 64 bits to represent integers, so the problem is not likely to be major, but in some ways that means there may be more surprises than we would wish, simply because no one will investigate the possible impact. Old 'legacy' systems are usually disregarded simply because they will never be upgraded, and only one member of staff (who is due to retire soon) understands what they are doing.

So be warned ......... the 19/01/2038 bug is coming our way!

The Great (Underground) Wall Of Gaza

First there was the Chinese who had a Wall, then Hadrian built one, then the Germans had to have one and finally (or so we thought ) the Israelis had to have one.

Now however it appears that the Egyptians are building one as well, but with a difference, its wholly underground.

Yes, in order to stop smugglers arming the Hamas fighters in Gaza, the Egyptians (aided by the US ) have bulilt a wall thats 18meters 'high' but underground.

It's not expected to stop all smuggling (certainly not for weapons), but will certainly be a major deterrent against casual smuggling.

Amr Khaled - The Islamic Billy Graham

Some might think that I am unduly harsh on religions, especially Islam and the Anglicans, well I am as happy to point out any of the positives of religious belief as well, when I see them.

For instance, who in the West would have thought that in the Islamic world there are lots of Muslim "TV Evangelists"? I'll be honest and admit that if I had thought of it at all, I would have assumed that they would be stern hard-men (Khomeini style), calling for all Jews to be cleared from the Earth, and for the West to burn in hell.

Which just goes to show that you can be completely wrong. It appears that TV Evangelism is sweeping the Muslim world and is generally more 'liberal' (with a small 'l') than the Mosque based mullahs. The 'Billy Graham' of Muslim Evangelism is Amr Khaled, an Egyptian who naturally has had to leave his homeland because the local Mullahs don't approve i.e. his safety is at threat.

The secret of Mr Khaled's success is that he uses the local vernacular (as opposed to 'classical') Arabic, and appeals to the young directly by wearing casual suits and clothes, unlike traditional preachers. His success has spawned copycat local preachers, all of whom emphasise personal conduct and social responsibility as the hall marks of being a good Muslim, rather the ritualistic approach and recitations from the Koran in traditional preaching.

"It's a bit like the reform in Christianity in the Middle Ages. You move away from external authority to the individuals role in interpreting texts, in finding his or her way in life." says political scientist and writer Ezz El Din Shoukri.

As long as the message is peaceful, tolerant and modernising, then I for one applaud this trend .... although I doubt that it be them who influence the future of Islam.

You Tube Sensation "Panic Attack!"

Fede Alvarez's short film "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack!) .....

 

Giant Robots Destroy Montevideo

...... featuring giant robots invading and destroying the capital of Uruguay, is a YouTube hit.

 

Britain Shows What Side Its On

If ever there was any evidence needed of which way the wind is blowing in the UK then surely it was the fact that a UK court issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have attempted in the past to have Israeli officials arrested under the principle of universal jurisdiction which allows 'war criminals' to be arrested anywhere.

• October 2009: Former military chief Moshe Yaalon cancelled a UK visit because of the threat of arrest.
• October 2009: Filed attempt to raise warrant against Defence Minister Ehud Barak. Court ruled he had diplomatic immunity (strangely this reasoning apparently doesn't apply to Foreign Minister Livni?).
• September 2005: Arrest warrant issued for a former head of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip Gen Doron Almog. He got warning before disembarking from an aircraft at Heathrow Airport, and he never left the plane and flew back to Israel.

Obviously the activities of Hamas or the PLO, or the Sudanese President don't count as criminals in the same sense.

Allegedly many Senior Israeli figures are warning of what they see as an increasing anti-Israeli (or Pro Islamic) bent in the British establishment.

This follows a similar decision earlier in the year when the UK government tried to block a Dutch MP entering the country because of his views on the dangers of radical Islam, which didn't match those of the UK government i.e. such as Lord Ahmed, a Labour Peer who was the main complainant.

Geert Wilders was eventually let in to the UK, but with much ill grace from the Government, and hounded by protesters who would surely have been arrested if they had been from a different background.

However there appears to be something of a trend developing despite a history of Pro Israeli support from British Politicians in the past, but according to Dr. Zvi Shtauber (Israeli ambassador in London 2001-2004) this support is changing.

Broken Britain Part V

As part of an occasional (and very depressing) feature of this blog, I post some story or other that seems to illustrate all that's gone wrong in the UK.

This latest post concerns a story that the BBC web site seems to have missed (odd considering that fact that their radio stations are leading with it). It concerns a kidnap victim, Mr Hussain, who managed to escape and with his brother capture one of his kidnappers Walid Salem (who has 50 past convictions), giving him something of a beating in the process. It is this beating that is at the heart of the issue, as the 'victim' is said to have been brain damaged by it.

Munir Hussain, chairman of the Asian Business Council, was praised by a judge for his “courage” in defending his wife and three children from an attack — but was then jailed for the violence of his response. One of his kidnappers was spared a jail sentence.

The judge told them: "It may be that some members of the public, or media commentators, will assert that the man Salem deserved what happened to him at the hands of you and the two others involved, and that you should not have been prosecuted and need not be punished.

If persons were permitted to take the law into their own hands and inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting justice take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse.”

Regardless of whether Mr Hussain and his brother went too far or not in this instance, and I think 30 and 39 months far too long, I still think the judge has completely missed the point ....... a 'civilised society' is where the citizens are confident that the law works to protect them and their families. Where the police turn out and capture criminals, and the courts will administer a form of justice that is seen to be fair by the victims.

That has gone in the UK, and a 'civilised society' has collapsed under a 'liberal', criminal rights orientated law and order system, which offers a revolving door justice system, in which the system is as liable to prosecute the victim as the criminal.

The 'brain damaged' criminal is now in police custody again, after being charged on suspicion of credit card fraud.

The judge in this case Judge Reddihough should take a moment to consider whether the 'damage' Mr Salem is said to have suffered was anything like as bad as the defence suggested, if he was able to apparently continue his criminal career immediately after Mr Husain was convicted.

Mr Hussain and his brother have appealed.

Another Foot In Another Bishops Mouth

Once the Church of England (CoE) gets going, it can't stop sticking its collective foot in its mouth.

Rowan Williams

Last year Rowan Williams suggested that elements of Sharia Law should be incorporated into UK law, and got slated into an apology. Now the Reverand Stephen Venner, the Church of England’s new Bishop to the Forces to the armed forces has had to apologise over comments he made in the Daily Telegraph about how the Taliban could be admired for their "conviction to their faith".

The Tiger Is Still Red In Tooth And Claw

The Chinese have stopped playing nice since the Olympics and President Clinton's stupidly short sighted declaration that 'Human Rights' should not be allowed to interfere with relations with China.

This report from the BBC's correspondent details how far from moving slowly towards democracy as the liberal left like to suggest, China is in fact retrenching communist hegemony's over both law and the state.

The Chief Justice, is Mr Wang Shengjun is a party apparatchik who has never been to law school. The slow (and many hoped irreversible) court and legal reform reforms, that had established some concept of the rule of law and primacy of the state constitution, have been cancelled at a stroke, by Mr Shengjun telling China's judiciary to reject the concept of independent courts.

Instead they have been told that they should consider Communist Party interests first, then the people's interests, and finally after all else, constitutional law.

The effects on China have not necessarily been the supine acceptance of this situation that maybe the Chinese Communists expected, with a certain degree of mass resistance

• On the island of Xiamen protests to stop a chemical plant being built near their homes;
• In Shanghai it was the threat of a new railway line that caused the protests;
• In Guangdong, a protest against a planned waste incinerator.

And in each case it was the middle class, those newly rich, those who had apparently benefited from the party's rule, who were taking to the streets. With little or no faith in the courts, the protesters have little choice but to take direct action, if they dare.

Don't let anyone tell you that China is 'like us' (unless their a North Korean), because they are not.

Goal Of The Season?

Wigan Athletic’s Maynor Figueroa scored what will likely be the goal of the season during Wigan’s 2-2 draw away to Stoke City on Saturday.

For comparison, here are David Beckhams two long range 'specials'.

And the 'famous' one!

Life On Mars? I'm Betting Yes

The evidence continues to mount that there is still organic life on Mars.

Whilst not definitive, each piece of evidence points at the possibility but as a group its becomes even stronger.

Recently, I blogged on Methane on Mars coming from one of two sources:

1. The first is geochemistry.
2. The second is biology.

Well evidence suggests that biology is still a strong possibility, with the news that Meteors are not cause of the methane.

As the study co-author Mark Sephton says. "As Sherlock Holmes said, eliminate all other factors and the one that remains must be the truth. The list of possible sources of methane gas is getting smaller and excitingly, extraterrestrial life still remains an option".

How I hope to be alive when the first life on another planet is found, and yet another set of planets have been found this week.

Hell TV Has Arrived .... In Saudi Arabia

Still on things you can't make up.

Hell TV Has Arrived

Saudi TV channel 'Awtan TV' has decided that its female presenters cause too much deviant thought amongst the red-blooded males of Arabia by showing their faces, so .............

 

Religion For Oddities, Foreigners and Minorities

Sometimes you can't make this stuff up.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has accused the government of treating religious faith as "an eccentricity, practised by oddities, foreigners and minorities".

This from the head of a church, in which a sexual minority is allowed to overturn 2,000 yrs of Christian teachings in order to accomodate their preferences, and effectively expel the silent majority ....... how odd is that?

Church Falls Apart Over US Gay Bishop Vote

This weekend the Anglicans took another step towards the breakup of their communion with the appointment of yet another US lesbian Bishop. I have been following this process with some interest and a lot of laughter over the last few years, and yet even I am still surprised at the willingness of this organisation to rip itself apart, just because a sexual minority group insist on changing the Christians beliefs to justify their sexual inclinations.

I mean, why can't they simply open their own church with their own interpretation of the Bible, or isn't that the point? Is it really just an attempt to take over an established church organisation from the inside? ....... a church traditionalist clergyman, Rev Kendall Harmon of South Carolina, told Associated Press: "This decision represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching". In other words, only the US Episcopalians and UK Anglicans in the whole Jewish, Christian (and Muslim) world, chose to interpret the Torah/Bible in this manner.

I just can't help thinking that the 'tail is wagging the dog', and that the Anglicans are allowing these 'sexual terrorists' to emotionally blackmail them into handing over the church and its establishment.

What are they arguing about?

Well, a small but vociferous gay group within the Anglican Communion claim that the Bible doesn't really condemn homosexuality. That in fact the words of

• Leviticus 18:22 "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination" or a bit later in
• Leviticus 20:13 "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads".

don't really mean what they appear to clearly say.

Although as I am an atheist, and what a supernatural being called Jehovah (or Odin for that matter) is said to believe about sexuality is at best a moot point to me, apparently the Church 'Liberals' have argued that these, and other Bible / Torah apparent references to homosexuality are not the strict prohibitions against homosexuality that they appear to be, but are in fact apparently just to stop Jews sleeping with Canaanites (who I assume were all homosexuals - no wonder they disappeared).

Another bunch argue that in some convoluted argument, that what it really means is that the verses 'in no way prohibit, nor do they even speak, to loving, caring sexual relationships between people of the same gender' ............ really? I must be looking at the words in a strange way i.e. not squinting, and then ignoring every one of them.

So they are ordaining homosexual clergy, against the wishes of the majority of the Communion in Africa and elsewhere who strongly disapprove.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, a man who appears totally out of his depth on this issue, has said that the move raised "very serious questions" for both the Episcopal Church in the US, and the Anglican Communion as a whole...... Hmm, ah well, if the C of E wants to let itself be hijacked and destroyed, that's their business, but it is funny that PC has so tied their hands, that the majority have to leave the church in splits, with the minority left in charge.

Benito's Brain

Recently I posted on the whereabouts of the remains of Adolf Hitler, and the demise of Stalin. So my attention was immediately drawn when in one of those strange coincidences that we all encounter, a story surfaced this week that Benito Mussolini's brain and other physical remains had been stolen for sale on the Internet.

Benito's Brain Gone Missing ....

With the initial price requested for the material at 15,000 euros ($22,000; £13,000), the listing, on EBay, was said to include images of a wooden container and ampoule's of blood. EBay, said that the listing was removed within hours.

So there you are, Hitlers bits could be anywhere (probably lost), Stalin's embalmed and buried in a wall, and Mussolini's parts were offered up on EBay, and Hirohitos got a state funeral.

Foxy Knoxy Court Verdicts

A story that has generated much coverage in the UK and elsewhere, is that of the murder of Meredith Kercher, and the guilty verdicts handed down by the Italian courts to Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, who each face over 25 yrs imprisonment.

No doubt there will be much coverage of this story, so my interest is not in the case itself, but rather in the US reaction to a justice system that isn't theirs. I have even heard an American suggest that Americans could only get justice in the US.

All very sad, especially when if you look at the facts, the US often treats foreigners harsher than locals (including demanding that a UK hacker who has aspergers syndrome be transported to the US, to face up to 60 yrs ... yes 60 yrs i.e. 3 times the sentence that the Italian's have handed out to a US murderess), or demanding that people who have committed no crime in their homeland be deported to, or arrested in, the US to face 'justice'. e.g. We allow gambling web sites in the UK, but the US has had the CEO's of these legal sites be arrested.

I accept that in many countries there are causes for concern over the 'state run' legal systems, but Italy is not some third world dictatorship (well apart from the Mafia), and is even in the slow process of trying to prosecute its erratic leader Berlusconi (who is trying once again to change the law to avoid this) - his latest scam is to change the statute limits on some crimes to just 2 yrs, which oddly enough stops anyone prosecuting him ...... shockingly this also implies that he has something to hide from a period as recent as 2 yrs ago!

Anyway, my point is that for the US commentators to suggest that Ms Knox and her well connected Italian boyfriend didn't get a 'fair trial' or 'justice', is plainly ignorant or purely arrogant, but in either case inexcusable. The Italian system has the same flaws and check guards as any other (including the US - remember OJ Simpson?) and the various appeals will no doubt be exhausted.

Update: 03/10/2011 - If ever proof was needed that courts work outside of the US, then the fact that the Italian appeal process has just found her and her boyfriend not guilty (because of doubts over the forensic evidence), is it. That is a controversial decision according to many, in the US as well as Italy (the black  boy takes the rap, as one Italian commentator said), but evidence enough that Italian courts are not third world, and it will now be interesting to see if Ms Knox will flee to the US, and then refuse to come back if the Italian prosecutors appeal against the verdict?

My guess that is that she will refuse to return, and then the question of her guilt will be forever in the same storyline as the OJ Simpson verdict. She will also become a millionairess from the TV / Media and Movie deals she makes.


Where's The Justice For Meredith?  

Sadly the true victims of all this will be Meredith Kercher, who lies in a cold grave, with only her family to grieve over her, and 'Justice', which seems to have failed her and her family.

Who in the US cries over the injustice for her?

PPS: A straw poll at work (where this was the first topic discussed after the news broke), suggests that 4 out 5 people (and it was only 5 people asked), thought that Knox had a hand in the murder. Now that might be UK bias, but these aren't 'anti-american' lefties, so is possibly indicitive of the general feelings in the UK. 

15 Minutes Of Fame - TV Idiocy

Sticking to the Muslim world and their conspiracy theories (by moving from East Pakistan aka Bangladesh, to Pakistan) ....

Conspiracies Are Everywhere ...........

....where a lot of debate is being generated by the media and bloggers demonising the elected government, trying to convince their audiences of global conspiracies against Pakistan, led by the arch enemies, India and the United States, or insisting that the recent spate of suicide bombers around the country is being orchestrated by 'foreigners' (aka the CIA, MI6 or Mossad), rather than local militants.

Nothing odd about this in itself, as the whole Islamic world believes all of this crap (and indeed many other non Muslim conspiracy groups vie for attention world wide), but sadly for a country that is falling apart, nonsense such as this detracts from the dire problems that are actually fuelling the Taliban's support inside that country - the crumbling economy, joblessness, the rising cost of living, massive crime issues, and the complete lack of investment in health and education, or even the long-running insurgency in Balochistan province (which could break Pakistan apart).

So, why this blindness? Well it appears that the problem lies in the sheer number of media outlets in Pakistan. All apparently competing for a large, but often illiterate audience, by adopting 'shock jock' tactics, of ever wilder claims ......... a sad indication of the possible future of TV when anyone can make a programme (just look at 'reality TV' to see the Western route to the same destination).

Mein Gott, Ich Bin Ein Bangladeshi !

Yes, in Bangladesh, "Mein Kampf", Adolf Hitler's incoherent musings about a master race etc etc, are a big seller with the street sellers of Dhaka according to this BBC story.

 

The writer tries to find out why, but in typical PC fashion can't actually bring himself to admit the real reason, although they do force out the little line "because many bought the book to give it away as an Eid present."