NOT FUNNY

I was being a bit flippant about the way this whole slavery thing is going down in the news. No more after Rageh Omaars frightening programme last night. I certainly looked at the two silks I bought in Varanasi in a different way. Seeing the fear on the faces of Sudanese and Yemeni kids being arrested and rehabilitated in Saudi, or the horror of child prostitution from the mouth of a sixteen year old cambodian girl- slavery still exists.

I'm of an age now when I am not utopic for change anymore, neither do I want to be resigned about the state of things. To me it is all about what happens. Ian Paisley has proved things can still change. Even watching on TV I still couldn't quite believe it, and in the end it was all down to water bills.

JIMBOWATCHIN

Do watch Uncle Jimbo's Thursday prefly

WHICH HITCH WENT WHICH WAY

Just watched Peter Hitchens on TV. Very good stuff. His encounter with George Mombiot was the escence of this theory I am on about the disolution of traditional "left and right" being our way forward. I would disagree with his conclusions about Cameron in that if Cameron has had a genuine personal change of heart in terms of environmental issues, if only in the last eighteen months and he then goes on to try and educate the blue rinse brigade this can only be a good thing. We would get to see results were he elected- same as the other side. Whether its just "vote winning" doesn't matter.

Also I would disagree with Hitchens final conclusions that the country is strongly governed only if two opposites clash strongly. Whenever I watch the house of commons on TV my first though is always "Right. Fuck this. Lets try something else."

SORRY

I've never really got the notion of responsibility for your ancestors evils. I'm not responsible in any way for the slave trade. If I had to say sorry, it would be only the English half of me which should have to admit responsibility so I would be half sorry.

I suppose Tony Blair can't say "sorry" for the same reason those responsible for the Bopal disaster can't officially apologise, in that if they apologised they would become culpable legally and therefore open to claims of damages.

In other "Apology news" I totally missed The "IoS" backtrack on their ten year campaign for Cannabis legalisation. Maybe I was too stoned to notice. I don't really understand this either.

From the printed edition:

A report published in The Lancet last week showed how cannabis is more harmful than drugs such as LSD and Ecstacy- but less so than Alchohol and tobacco

But are the IoS calling for Alchohol and Tobacco to be reclassified? No. So Skunk is ten times more powerful and undoutably linked to addiction and scizophrenia but are they calling for the legalisation of normal home grown ganja and hash? No.

Anyway, I'm sorry. Alright?

BARRY MOVES ON

Chief Superintendent Barry Norman is moving on after four years as Islington's Borough Commander. He is leaving to take up a new and challenging role in Violent Crime Directorate.

Mr Norman's time at Islington has seen an 18% drop in crime on the borough. His proudest moments have been the re-opening of North London Mosque, Finsbury Park and overseeing the introduction of community policing throughout the borough.

In an interview for the Islington Gazette, Mr Norman said, "Working with the local authority to get the Finsbury Park mosque open again was probably top of the list.

"It's no longer this iconic place people associate with the difficult things with young Muslims. It's just another community centre and that?s a fantastic achievement.

Do read about my encounters with Barry outside the mosque here

SUICIDE BOMBERS ON THE DANCEFLOOR

Security at Goa beaches is on high alert after the reports about possible terror attack of Al-Qaida in Goa comes to media. The DIG of the Goa police assured the tourists about the security measures in the state.

Notably, there are reports in foreign media that Al-Qaida militants could attack Israeli citizens traveling to Goa around Christmas and New Year.

In the wake of terrorist attack on Israeli citizens, Israel’s National Security Council’s counter-terrorism headquarters has issued a warning to their citizens to avoid
Goa this season.

ALL MEDIA

Firstly Mickey's Gathering of Eagles vid which ends with some nice singing and people shouting "USA!!"

I've also come across another side of the Abu Izadeen vs John Reid story:

To finish with, here is some fantastic Islamic comedy from Australia:

PEACE AND CUPCAKES

Excellent. This is snti-war protesters and anti-anti-war protesters taking the opportunity to communicate with each other. You gotta start somewhere innit?

UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo didn't let me down:

Mickey and The Eagles

...watching thousands of Soros-funded astroturfed moonbats in their parade of scum and villainy across Washington...

...seeing thousands of patriots, some barely able to walk, many still scarred outside and inside from their heroic efforts to defend our country during conflicts past, took a little of the edge off...

...People drove through ice storms to get there, because they believed it was their duty to support the troops who are putting their lives on the line every single day to defend us...

Here is Mickey in more depth

Thousands upon thousands turned out despite freezing temperatures and hairy travel conditions. We met bikers who drove up all night from Huntsville, Alabama; a retired NYC firefighter who arrived here at 2am; college students who traveled from Massachusetts; a Vietnam veteran's wife who bought plane tickets at the last minute from San Francisco;

LOOK AT MY FACE

I thought this lovey comedy stuff would be crap, I couldn't have been more wrong. Catherine Tate had been building up to this (Tate and David Tennant) but it was still remarkable, alongside Ricky Gervais' sketch with Bono and Geldof etc, really amazing comedy.

MICKEY WATCH

Here is Mickey preparing for a big day out. I'm looking forward to seeing the footge both sides take from this occasion. I'm all for protesters and veterans speaking to each other.

Also watch the Gathering of Eagles press conference.

Oh and here is Uncle Jimbo and his pet wolf doing an excellent moobat saftey video

CLEANSE OUR SOULS

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a “remaining military as well as political mission” in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military.

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive

Bloody fantastic doco. I remember Stephen Fry's famous disappearing act but didn't realise it was such a long time ago. In this doc he's managed to interview a broad cross section of people, some famous friends others not but all with valuable insights into this condition.

The most beautiful part was when he interviewed a lady who used to be a manager of B&Q with her kids. Even the youngest was fully engaged in the discussion of their mother, all thought their mother had a precious gift.

It all made so much sense to me. It was so funny hearing all the different stories of people "going off on a mad one" chasing various goals which made sense to them at the time. He went through various peoples attempts at a cure, Richard Dreyfus spoke about Lithium, a London doctor said she took 2g of cod liver oil a day. I was suprised no one mentioned meditation or acupuncture as they are the only things which have helped me for any length of time.

BLUE PETER BENT?

Say it isn't so! Blue Peter? Blue Peter??? That bastion of childrens entertainment I grew up watching???

It happened in November 2006, when kids were asked to call in to guess a celeb who had donated a pair of shoes for the Shoebiz Appeal charity fundraiser.

A computer problem stopped calls getting through to the studio so a staff member asked a child visiting the studio to pretend to take part.

The child won the competition, which CBBC bosses said will now be re-run.

It was probably just an innocent cocaine related mistake.

FOUND ON MYSPACE

Clicking through some Myspace links I found the writings of Snake Mannn who is a jewelry designer.

What losing really means is: We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorist to attack us, until we were neutered and submissive to them.

We would of course have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see, we are impotent and cannot help them. They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us.

do go and read the whole thing.

RISE

I've blogged about Levitation before, someone has finnaly put a couple of their gigs on Youtube. One of the best live acts I ever saw.

FOUND MY BRAND

I almost bought a 335 copy a while back. Sort of wish I had now..

I borrowed my neighbours Antoria and its brought back all the memories of the Westone Rainbow I used to borrow maybe 16 years ago. I like the jangly edge of these things and the hissy feedback though this sunburst is a bit garish for me.

Coalition of the unwilling?

Among Jordanians, Syrians and Iraqis, a growing sense of outrage that the rest of the world has washed its hands of this problem; that Britain and America in particular, have turned a blind eye to the fallout of their endeavour in Iraq.

"It's really the height of hypocrisy, countries that were instrumental in fighting this war, initiated this war, fought this war and that through their botch-ups have created this chaos in Iraq today these countries are refusing to receive refugees coming from Iraq...

...Sweden has a relatively generous asylum policy; more than 80,000 Iraqis have already settled here; now word's got out among the new wave of exiles, Sweden's been deluged. Last year it accepted half of all the Iraqis smuggled into the European Union.

NO SHIT

via Chosen Man

President Bush has already proposed giving Pakistan $785 million (£400 million) next year, including $300 million for its military. This threat comes after four months of rising US exasperation, since Musharraf struck controversial deals with some of the tribal leaders on the Pakistani side of the border. If they halted the transit of “foreign fighters” (al-Qaeda and Afghan Taleban) then Musharraf would withdraw Pakistan’s army from their territory. US and British officials agree that this hasn’t worked.

SINS OF THE MOTHER

Hey, its genuinely nice to see our opposition leader David Cameron taking to Youtube. So nice I managed to say so three times on his channel webcameronuk although I'm not sure how long my comments will stay up when he sees the video I dedicated to him. When I was a kid, Thatcher, Tebbit et all were Satan, no question. This Tory-lite with a touchy feely new leader still takes getting used to.



Considering his channel is backed by a national Political party I'm competing fairly well in terms of Youtube viewers and comments. I always thought the internet would become a great leveller, but then again I don't think the average elderly Tory has even heard of Youtube.

Mr. Camel and I discussed a while back what it would take for us to move to the right, the left being such a miserable abject faliure over here. I often wonder if we would see a shock Tory landslide if they decided to legalise cannabis at the last minute. Not likely says David here, though I heard a Tory on Question Time speak favourably of the RSA report.

The film Bulworth was on TV last night. If I had a chance I'd vote Bulworth every time. So would everyone, so how come we can't? Joking (and fiction) aside one day we are going to have to see beyond factional politics and find something which works for everyone and that'll involve talking. Everybody talking. Thats a revolutionary idea no?

RSA pdf here

Bulworth electable wisdom below:

Post 9/11 Refreshment

The message below says: IF you like this then pls pass on the link - I need your help since almost ALL RADIO/ TV refused to play this cos it was deemed 'too controversial' - I don't know what the fuss is about but would appreciate your help.

I think this guy was in the "Road to Guantanamo" movie.

A Disturbance in the Force

I've known Claudio a while, he tried the same thing I was doing on Hamza et al with Bakri's posse and met one of the British suicide bombers who did the Tel Aviv "Jakes place" attack.

Here is an article of his about the Taliban.

Hamid said the Afghans and the Arabs have a common enemy, but don't necessarily like each other. He described the Arabs as firebrand Islamists who don't obey orders and are obsessed with martyrdom. "They won't stop shooting even when they are told to. And they always write messages home before a battle -- they get ready to die. I know them well, and I don't like them; they just don't trust Afghans."

The fighters are confident about the conflict's outcome. "The American troops move slowly, they carry pounds of body armor and equipment," Hamid said. "You can't win if you can't move on these mountains. Their helicopters are the only real danger for us, but we have learned how to hit them, even without Stingers...

...He would not answer questions on the presence of al Qaeda's leaders in the region. But the Konar-Nuristan triangle, including the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, is thought to be the most likely hideout for bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a number of other key figures.

"You must understand," Musa Khan said, "that one Arab is worth 10 Afghans in terms of religious zeal. They truly hate the West and all Westerners, without exception. They would never allow the press on these mountains. They are not fighting our war, but their own personal jihad. Protecting their own people and achieving martyrdom are their first priority."

Claudo invited me to go with him to Afghanistan a while back but I'm just not up for any of this warzone stuff. Its interesting seeing the (long standing) difference between Afghans and Al-Qaeda Saudi's. The only people I ever got any real hassle from in Finsbury park were Saudi's.

I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle last night. Hilarious. I'm off out to buy a 4X4 now. No seriously I spent a lot of time slagging my Republican buddies when they used to go on about this. I thought the people they interviewed were very interesting and they explained everything well. No one I was watching it with could wait till it finished to start debating about it so I have no idea what I reckon about it all.

WHATS WRONG WITH ANNE?

I see from Mr. In Texas' blog Ann Coulter has even managed to piss off US Conservatives now. If she started drinking lots of whisky and smoking crack she could relaunch herself as some sort of risque comedian maybe. I've never been particularly offended by her.

UPDATE: Mickey takes it all a bit serious here. What is wrong with her? She needs to chill out. I mean Bill O'Riley can't help it but Mickey's got money. Shes got a happy little family. I think she needs to experiment more sexually. If she experimented a bit more sexually she'd probably just give up the whole Conservative thing, move to Hawaii and smoke dope. Coulters actual speech is here. Whats wrong with that? It's comedy. People are laughing. Whats the big deal? She is sort of funny in a rightwing way. She'd be funnier if she drank whisky and smoked crack. She's a bit scrawny though innit?

RIOT?

I'm pretty sure Beth who posted this used to be a regular commenter over at Sparkle's blog. To me this is really disturbing and misdirrected. I thought that about anarchists who focused their energy on fighting the Police over here. If you think you are right, alienating ex-servicemen is pointless. I'm not sure of the truth behind it all.

FOUND on DC Indymedia, a post by "A":

People who are planning a black bloc, youth bloc, SDS bloc or something like that should announce it so more than 10 people can join in and make it worthwhile.

And this reply, by "dylan":

bring some paint so we can spray the wall.

For those who haven't been following along, the demo "A" refers to is ANSWER's "March on the Pentagon."

And the wall "dylan" wants to spray paint is the Vietnam Memorial.

from the comments

Didn't one of their spokesmen state there were no plans to vandalize the Wall, and such concerns were right wing mythmaking?

From a seattle Policeman

THEY COME PREPARED TO DO BATTLE and they are well-organized.Seriously, it’s not just bandanas over the faces, they have BMX or hockey pads and protection on under their clothes, they bring improvised weapons like D-Cell batteries in socks, flammable liquids in unmarked water bottles, etc.; stuff that can be quickly assembled or disassembled into innocent components carried by multiple persons.

If their target is the Memorial, they will likely create a diversion to get the police away from the Memorial. If they want the Gathering of Eagles folks away, they will create a physical confrontation with them in one area, hoping to draw the rest over and then they’ll hit the unprotected area. If you’re protecting an area, stay at that area. When your adrenaline gets going, you’ll want to go help, DON’T DO IT. The Eagles need to have people free from protection assignments to respond to these diversions so the Memorial is not left unprotected.

They use cell phones, hand radios, police scanners to keep their people informed. They will have folks on bikes or skates so they can move quickly from one spot to another (unprotected) spot.

Of course if you want to see how Seattle Police have behaved...



As I say, I'm not sure of the truth behind all this. I have heard the Police in the US are more violent than over here and I should imagine Black Bloc are more violent too. Symbolic violence achieves nothing in my opinion. Oppressive businessmen and women are laughing.

PS-The original post on some US indymedia site is more enlightening. When you scroll down you'll see our old friend Mickey Malkin has waded in.

ABU HAMZA ARRESTED

This is a new edit. I still have a lot of unused footage up my sleeve. I was really suprised when I heard Hamza was arrested. As he had been preaching every friday in full view and not hiding the idea that he was in anyway dangerous seemed farfetched.

I headed to Belmarsh. The original blog I wrote about it is here.

MARTYRDOM

This is one thing I'll never understand. Not so much the act of martyrdom, but why those who preach it get to stay alive. To me they seem like "coatholders" just the same as George Bush, the diference being of course that these guys are holding the coats of children.

PALESTINE

A neighbour of mine, Matt has just got back from Palestine. He's been blogging his trip here

Jenin is split in two; Jenin city and Jenin camp (dating back to 1953). The theatre is located in the camp - a network of narrow winding lanes navigating around haphazard concrete houses across the hill side. Images of young men (either drawn stylized or photos) holding large guns - martyrs - are all most the only images on the streets. Some are lit up almost as shrines, others are faded posters on shop front shutters. The imagery is pervasive; for it to be normal is as far alien to me as anything else I have ever seen. But yet for the residents normal is what the martyr has become.

hal·le·lu·jah

Bong Hits 4 Jesus-

Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, on matters ranging from the death of White House Counsel Vincent Foster to the Whitewater real-estate transaction, and ultimately the Monica Lewinsky scandal, has found a new mission:

To help school districts punish students who even joke about marijuana, even outside of school hours and off of school property.

High school students in Juneau, Alaska held up a banner that read, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as the Olympic torch was being carried past, in order to be caught on television cameras.

What is he complaining about? A lot of effort went into making that sign..