"I categorically deny that I spat at anybody. I have never done this in my whole career on the pitch ..." (Cesc Fábregas)

"Mentira, mentira ..." (Manu Chao)

Ehud Barak pontificates -
“The Israeli Army is the most moral in the world."

An Israeli soldier speaks -

“What’s great about Gaza — you see a person on a path, he doesn’t have to be armed, you can simply shoot him. In our case it was an old woman on whom I did not see any weapon when I looked. The order was to take down the person, this woman, the minute you see her. There are always warnings, there is always the saying, ‘Maybe he’s a terrorist.’ What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood.”

Relax, everyone! The New York City police are really on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.

"A[n] inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission cleared the Met of any wrongdoing over the arrest."
Yet they've paid Babar Ahmed £60000 in compensation for the beatings he received,and for the insults to his religion. Why? Is this another case of the PCC being a complete waste of public money? No wonder so many of their staff have resigned. Will there be an enquiry about how the PCC got it so badly wrong? No.

Patrick's Day
A poem from the Irish -
I do not know of anything under the sky
That is friendly or favourable to the Gael,
But only the sea that our need brings us to,
Or the wind that blows to the harbour
The ship the ship that is bearing us away from Ireland;
And there is reason that these are reconciled with us,
For we increase the sea with our tears,
And the wondering wind with our sighs.
(tr. Lady Gregory)

More -
Sagairt óir is cailís chrainn
bhí le linn Phádraig in Éirinn;
sagairt chrainn is cailís óir
i ndeireadh an domhan dearóil

Golden priests and wooden chalices
in Ireland in Patrick's time.
Golden chalices, wooden priests
as the wretched world stands now.
(tr. Thomas Kinsella)

Mr. Kim Ryley, chief executive of the Hull City Council - that's the man who tells the people we elect what they can and can't do in our name - earns £2000 per annum more than the Prime Minster of our proud nation. Not bad, eh?

We used to pay a bloke a tidy sum to sell the world on the delights of Kingston upon Hull; publicity officer, or some such title. I don't know if he's still on the payroll, he certainly keeps a low profile if he is. The great thing about this bloke was he wouldn't live in Hull, preferring a billet somewhere in Lancashire, which suggests to me that his heart wasn't really in his job.

Sign on a florist's stall in town -
HANG IN BASKETS

Damned CIA, they've been reading my blog. I ought to charge them a consultancy fee, but I suppose they'd claim that the argument that Israel has only 20 years of existence remaining stems from their own research and intelligence-gathering. I call it plagiarism.

"Home Office minister Vernon Coaker, who initially said the response had been 'proportionate', later apologised to MPs after it emerged the 70 police officers he claimed had been injured in clashes with protesters had suffered unrelated ailments - including bee stings and a toothache."

"The confiscation of the camp's supply of soap was justified by police 'because protesters might use it to make themselves slippery and evade the grip of police', the report says."

And this from yesterday's Telegraph -
" ... more than 1,000 serving police officers have criminal convictions."

" ... no fewer than 77 serving officers have convictions for violence and 96 for dishonesty."

I had to reproduce this letter, from today's Guardian, in full -

Your story about the chimp set me thinking (Report, 10 March). We are told that "forward planning takes considerable cognitive skills, because it requires an animal to envisage future events it will have to deal with". Perhaps we could borrow a few of these chimps to work in the FSA, the Bank of England, or the Treasury where their forecasting skills might come in useful.
Paul Twyman
Birchington, Kent

A poem to the author Julian McLaren-Ross (1912-1964) that I chanced upon yesterday. I'm not sure if it is permissible to reproduce it in full so I'll just quote a few lines and point to it. This is my kind of poetry, nothing abstract or vague about it, no need for interpretation. Author, David Collard -

We love your tales of squaddies, spivs and chancers;
Of clots and colonels, pukka sahibs, drunks;
Of chaps in digs, of salesmen, tarts and dancers,
How some are decent types and others skunks.

...

You fabulous, bibulous arch self-inventor -
With cane and dark glasses and camel-hair coat.
Seductive, productive, intransigent mentor
To thinkers and drinkers and this pisspoor poet.

I note appreciatively this reference by Angry Arab to Christopher Hitchens and his tall stories -
" Hitchens seems to want to be a part of every occasion, like Woody Allen’s Zelig."

There is a Hitchens Watch website for those who, like me, are fascinated by the great man's posturing, http://christopherhitchenswatch.blogspot.com/

STS Bulletin no.19
Our BBC local radio station has a daily feature called "Mad World". This is usually a snigger at regular right wing targets, health and safety, human rights, "political correctness". It probably goes down well among those types who decry the "nanny state" but are currently demanding that the government pays their mortgage.
Anyway today's story was about Leicestershire County Council fitting "sat navs" to lawn mowers. However, a statement by a council representative made it obvious that these devices are no such thing. They are instruments for spying on employees; checking on their whereabouts and the time they take on jobs (though he didn't say so in so many words). The use of the term "sat nav" is clearly a cover-up. Needless to say it fooled the bloodhounds of the British media. Have a laugh and move on to the next silly story.

"American and British diplomats have thus made explicit efforts to build links to the Sharif camp. "Pragmatism is the order of the day," said one UK diplomat."

So Zardari is to be removed.
I'm assuming Karzai is on the way out too, as I heard a BBC report on Afghanistan that called his government "corrupt". The BBC doesn't speak of foreign leaders in this way without a signal from above.

"Who the [expletive deleted] does he think he is? Who's the [expletive deleted] superpower here?"
Bill Clinton, after a lecture from Netanyahu. Let's hope Hillary gives the Yahoo a kick in the beitsim for old times' sake.

DOG BITES MAN, no.14

"Revealed: police databank on thousands of protesters"
They're journalists and they didn't know. Didn't they suspect?

Same newspaper has an article on a blacklist operating in the construction industry. Information about potential employees could be bought from a cyberstalking outfit called 'The Consulting Association', or 'Son of Economic League', run by one Ian Kerr. He's been shut down by the data protection people. Big deal! Now what about the people whose lives he's ruined? Let's hope that they can find out if they are on the list, then those who are can sue this snake, and the blackguards who bought his services; Balfour Beatty, Keir*, Wimpey, etc. - recidivists all.

* Recte 'Kier'

A good time was had by all.
The party for rich people who want more of our money.

"Despite the wealth in the room, little money was raised on the night and instead the organisers launched a campaign to persuade the Treasury to provide a 50% tax break for donations to the UN millennium development goals."

"... The only glitch came after word got out about the tax idea, and a group of protesters from the Tax Justice Network and War on Want gathered outside the hotel and shouted 'Make poverty history! Tax the rich!' as the guests arrived."

"The Durand Line was demarcated by the British and signed into a treaty in 1893 with the Afghan ruler Amir Abdur Rehman Khan. The treaty was to stay in force for a 100-year period. According to Afrasiab Khattak, a political analyst, the areas from the Khayber Agency Northwards to Chitral, however, remained un-demarcated.

"This disputed land was legally to be returned to Afghanistan in 1993 after the 100 year old Durand Treaty expired, similar to how Hong Kong was returned to China."

Concern is being expressed in various quarters about the viability of the nation of Pakistan. It is an ersatz nation, like the state of Israel. It was cobbled together as a secular state for Indian Muslims, and there we have one inbuilt tension, secular/Muslim. Twenty-four years after it's foundation the detached part of the nation, East Bengal, "East Pakistan", had gained its independence following a bloody "civil" war, and become the state of Bangla Desh. The Baloch in the west have fought unsuccessfully for their independence. Pakistani Baluchistan is a province under virtual occupation by the Pakistani army.
Then there's the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). This region has always had a degree of autonomy, but now the district of Swat has been, to all intents and purposes, been ceded to the Taliban. Why not go the whole hog and cut the whole province loose. It should by now be part of Afghanistan, so let the Afghans have it. Whis will weaken the Taliban in Pakistan while doing the right thing. Whether or not the Afghans want the NWFP in its present lawless state is irrelevant. If they refuse to accept the gift then the Pathans should be allowed to create their long desired Pukhtunwa and sort out their own problems.
If common sense prevails Pakistan will then cut Baluchistan loose and withdraw from so-called Azad Kashmir. Its leaders could then concentrate on consolidating the remaining provinces into a real nation, while clamping down on the religious fanatics, militias and terrorist cells that poison the body politic and threaten stability. Then there's the corruption, croneyism and nepotism to deal with.
Alas, none of this is going to happen. The army for a start would not stand by and allow it. It would make alliances with other threatened bodies, including the always useful terrorist gangs, some of whom the army helped to bring into the world, then sustained.
Allah, Army, America. Pakistan is doomed.

Cricket, according to the Islam Pasand, is unislamic. So is buggering little boys but that does not stop them. Or maybe in their perverted version of Islam buggery of children is permitted. An adult who submits to buggery, however, must die. These were the people the CIA used to finance and train in their war against the Soviet Union. Child rape or communism, which is more acceptable? Check with the CIA.
Though, if I lay my cards on the table, I'm inclined to see cricket as an unnatural act.

STS Bulletin no.18
"Community protection"
means
The UK surveillance state.

"A joint Home Office and police report recently found 80% of CCTV pictures are of such poor quality they cannot be used for detecting crime, and a police surveillance expert estimated last year that just 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV."

... but where would the companies who make programmes for digital TV be without them?
(via Obsolete)

From yesterday's 'Independent' -
"Members of the highest-ranking American delegation to tour Gaza were shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade against the Hamas-ruled territory included such food staples as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste."
...
"Yet since the end of the war in January, according to non-government organisations, five truckloads of school notebooks were turned back at the crossing at Kerem Shalom where goods are subject to a $1,000 (£700) per truck 'handling fee'."

On the 11th February I wrote -
"I read that the Israelis charge something like £100 on every wagon-load of humanitarian aid passing through their checkpoints. It sounds credible, considering that they are trying to starve the people of Gaza to death, but I'd like to find some support for the claim."

Now I read -
"And while a conference with the stated aim of helping reconstruct Gaza is subverted by efforts to prop up the PA, the Israeli government, in the style of a banana republic, is shaking down aid convoys going into Gaza. Each truck of humanitarian aid is forced to pay a $1000 'handling fee' — unless of course it’s determined to be carrying 'luxury goods' such as macaroni, in which case it isn’t allowed to enter."

Worse than I was led to believe.

Addendum: more on this -
"Israel continues to block goods on trucks from entering Karni, the one border crossing point with sophisticated security screening equipment and the capacity to handle up to 750 trucks per day. Sufa crossing, which can also accommodate trucks on a smaller scale, also remains closed. Instead, Israel requires all trucks to enter through Kerem Shalom, located near Gaza's southern tip, where every item on trucks must be unloaded, inspected, repackaged and reloaded, with a "handling fee" of US$1,000 per truck."
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/28/israelgaza-donors-should-press-israel-end-blockade

The Guardian reports that Blair has said that Israel must lift the blockade on Gaza. What I heard him say on Sky News was that Israel should allow more aid into Gaza. Not the same thing. Was the Guardian reporting a different interview, or were they misquoting?
I heard that Blair's priority was to "stop the violence coming from Gaza", which was the kind of thing I was expecting from him. He didn't let me down.
It turns out that the whole visit was a photo oppportunity, doubtless arranged by Tel Aviv in an attempt to give their creature some credibility on the world stage. He spent just an hour outside of his comfort zone, just inside the border at a place that was relatively unscathed by the blitzkrieg. He didn't meet any representative of the elected government, of course (verboten). He didn't meet any individual shorn of a limb or two. He didn't meet anyone grieving for slaughtered children. But the TV cameras recorded him in Gaza.
What of the remark about Israel easing the blockade? Did he stray from the script?

I imagine a discussion in Tel Aviv -
Tony: This remark about the blockade, do you really want me to say this?
Mark Regev: Yes, it's to show that you are your own man.
Tony: (gulps) My own man - er - I don't know if I can pull that one off. Can't you fix me up with an earpiece?
Regev: (sotto voce) Oy vay! Why didn't we hold out for Bill Clinton?

The other Clinton has promised $600 million to try to rehabilitate Israel's kapo on the West Bank, Abu Sallama. The people of Gaza will only get a sniff of this if they oust their preferred representatives and embrace the collaborator - some choice.

Where am I?
I was just doing a search for something I'd written and was pointed to a site called "Technorati". I'd seen the name on blogs but didn't know what it was. I assumed it was some sort of technical aid or advice site.
Anyway on the page I found a couple of references to my blog, but also an intriguing piece of information (or misinformation?). It seems that someone or something has a list of blogs in order of popularity, and I stand at number 2,506,937 on the list. Phew, the dizzy heights! My head is reeling.
The missing datum, of course, is the number of blogs being tracked, as the procedure is called. I looked Technorati up on wikipedia to find a figure of circa 27.7 million pre-2006. It seems that after Technorati claimed to be tracking another 56 million facebook blogs things get a little murky.
So what am I to make of all this? Nothing I suppose. It's just that it's better not to know that you are a statistic in yet another database, otherwise you begin to ask questions like "Why?". Well somebody reads this stuff, if only one or two people, but if a person starts to think about that a person is liable to get a little self-conscious.

Our Middle East peace (sic) envoy has finally made it to Gaza. The Israelis gave him the laissez-passer but ordered him not to talk to any Hamas representatives. What will the multi-millionaire war criminal have to say to the people of Gaza? I imagine it will be something along the lines of "You brought it all on yourselves you nasty terrorists, and there's more to come."
There's also news that the UK government is going to donate £20 million towards clearing up the Israeli-created shambles in Gaza. That'll be £20 million more than the Israelis will donate.

"The world has laid low, and the wind blows away like ashes
Alexander, Caesar,and all who were in their trust;
grass grown is Tara, and see Troy now how it is.
And the English themselves, perhaps they too will pass."
(Anon., Irish, 17th century?)

I heard on a news programme (Russia Today) that Oleg Deripaska has debts that are greater than his total assets. So, in effect he's poorer than me. However he still counts as a billionaire and has access to limitless credit. Nobody dare start calling in the IOUs as in probability they won't get all their money back, so they keep throwing money at him to stop him going under. A sort of Micawberist approach I suppose. We may be in the gutter but we're looking up at the Canary Wharf Tower.
I've never been able to figure out how the global economy "works". Now I'm beginning to wonder if anybody has really got a handle on it.

Give to the rich to help the poor? An idea worthy of Bono(Marina Hyde)

Some quotes -
"Mehta enlisted the Nobel prize winning economist Sir James Mirrlees to come up with a plan to address the shaming statistic that Britain's richest 20% donate 0.8% of their income to charity, while the poorest 20% give 3%."

"One suspects Mirrlees is a Nobel economics laureate much in the same way that Henry Kissinger is a Nobel peace laureate."

"Depressingly, Mirrlees and Mehta have already been granted two meetings with the Treasury, at which they insisted the scheme should be extended to those whose tax affairs are offshore, in effect allowing the use of UK taxpayers' money to be directed by tax exiles - and giving them tax relief for the privilege."

They are trying to get tax cuts for people who don't pay tax. How is that going to work?

Ms. Hyde adds a new word to my vocabulary of contempt - fauxlanthropy

I'm grateful to that chevalier d'industrie, Sir Fred Goodwin, for showing us who is really running this country. The elected government demands that he give back some (some, mind you) of the public money that he's rewarded himself for overseeing the biggest cock-up in the history of British money-grubbing. The good knight's response, "Away and keich!"
The British people are now in possession of this heap of debt, as they own over 80% of the shares. But here's the best part, they are non-voting shares. So the people saddled with this massive burden will not be able to do anything to stop the board members from continuing to award themselves big pay rises and juicy bonuses.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?

I confess to having been moved by Gordon Brown's words on the death of Ivan Cameron.
Yet here was a man I dislike, speaking of a child unknown to me, the offspring of a man I despise.
I have to warn myself, this is a politician speaking, so there is always a subtext. I recall Claude Cockburn's unspoken question when interviewing politicians -"Why is this bastard lying to me?"
A gent going by the name "Sabretache" places Brown's words in a wider context -

Genuine sorrow is the only humane response to the news of the death of Ivan Cameron and, like the Prime Minister, I too offer sincere condolences to David and Samantha Cameron on their tragic loss.

But watching Gordon Brown's statement in the Commons yesterday I could not help but note that, in the strange, cocooned, self-righteous and self-absorbed moral universe we inhabit in this country, some children are more precious and some parents' 'unbearable sorrow' more worthy of empathy than others.
Brown said:
"Every child is precious and irreplaceable and the death of a child is an unbearable sorrow that no parent should ever have to endure."
Quite so; but where were his words of condolence about the preciousness of the 450 children so recently killed by the Israeli military in Gaza? Or the unbearable suffering of their parents? and all in the worthy cause of self-defence we are told - so that's alright then.

Frankly, the grossness of the double standards make me sick.

I saw the film "Gomorra" last night. I was wondering - do Italians need sub-titles to follow the dialogue? The Neapolitan dialect was so thick as to sound in places like a grunted code. It was probably laced with some impenetrable argot - who knows? The only time intelligible speech featured in the dialogue was during contract negotiations in Venice. Otherwise the actors could have been speaking any language.
I have a question about this film. How could it have been made without the tolerance, if not the co-operation, of the Camorra clans it was depicting? We are informed that three of the actors have since been arrested and charged with Camorra linked offences. I know that Saviano tells us in his book that the Guappi are obsessed with gangster films, and imitate the behaviour and the language they see and hear on the big screen - but taking part in a film that exposes their murderous organisations?
In fact, when I read Saviano's book, I was surprised at how well the organisation ("sistemi") came out of it in areas such as business efficiency, prompt delivery, decent pay levels, care of prisoners' families. Apart from the bloodletting the Camorristi were depicted as successful and fairly benevolent capitalists. According to Saviano all the top Italian fashion houses rely on the Naples crime organisation for manufacture (contracted out) and transportation.
It is not strong-arm tactics but efficiency and competitive pricing that keep outfits like Gucci and Armani in partnership with the Camorra.
It is said that, unlike Hollywood products like the "Godfather" series, "Gomorra" does not glamorise the gangsters or depict them as in some way honorable men. I think that's true, but nonetheless it may serve the purpose of the organisation by showing it as powerful and invincible, and as an integral part of the Italian economy. I'm sure they got something out of the deal as they allowed the film to be made on their territory.
Saviano is supposed to be in hiding from the Camorra. Perhaps so, he named the gangs, their bosses, their spheres of influence and of business activity. The film is not so specific.

Addendum, 23.2.09: I've found out that "Gomorra" did have subtitles for Italian audiences -

Gomorra, il film di Matteo Garrone premiato a Cannes, tratto dal libro di Roberto Saviano, è interamente recitato in dialetto; un napoletano strettissimo, incomprensibile senza l'aiuto dei sottotitoli in italiano.

(La Stampa,30.5.08)
I also read that there were discussions between the film makers and the camorristi before filming began, but haven't learned yet what what was on the agenda.

Damian Hirst - no talent, lots of money.

Cartrain - copies the work of a talentless turd; not much hope for him as an artist. No hope for him as a money-grubber, when he hands over his few quid to to the loathsome bunco-artist.

30 Rock back on the box tonight. At last, something worth turning the telly on for. Welcome back Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jack McBrayer, et al.
I'm hoping to see more of Jack Donaghy's family.

"Obama's first foreign trip" (Guardian headline)
My money was on Israel, but I was wrong.

I see that there's a British version of the US "Law and Order" TV series on the way. In this version the role of the District Attorney's office is taken by the Crown Prosecution Service. So they've already given the game away if the programme is true to life. If the suspect is rich or a politician all charges will be dropped; if a poor and powerless person the full force of the law will come down on them, and the tabloid press will be called in to blackguard them. A guilty verdict will ineviably follow.

"Gambaccini also condemned Moyles – who had audience of 7.3 million weekly listeners on average in the last three months of 2008 for his breakfast show – for his apparent homophobia towards the likes of singer Will Young, which he said merely reinforced negative stereotypes."

7.3 million, all of them, no doubt, included in the quarter of the population who believe that our planet is less than 10,000 years old.

Mr. Gambaccini should tread warily. He'll get the chop before the bigots.

"The US has gone too far with Guantánamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that," (Stella Rimington, blackmailer, perverter of the course of justice, and spy)
Doesn't need to, Stella, the Yanks are happy to do it for our secret police.
Does this stance coincide with Conservative Party policy? Is SR the Tory spokesperson on the surveillance state? She was certainly happy to commit felonies on behalf of Thatcher. Now, under a Labour government, she has developed a social conscience.

Cameron is going to free local government from the shackles of centralised bureacracy; those shackles forged by his patron saint, Lady Gaga. Ah! The Thatcher legacy, it rears its ugly head once more. Now, under a Labour government, it's all wrong.

The Blair War Crimes Foundation is collecting signatures -
http://blairfoundation.wordpress.com/signatories/

THE THATCHER LEGACY

A reality TV show about a woman dying of cancer.

850 workers sacked at an hour's notice. Some of them have worked for the firm for five years, but will, I suspect, receive nothing in the way of redundancy payment.

I'm sick of right wing commentators and truth twisters blaming all the ills of our society (for such an entity exists) on the "permissive sixties" or liberal do-gooders. Credit where credit's due. If it's down to the old witch and her coven don't try to pass the buck. Let's record the results of her mad career.
That last word is open to interpretation.

Fat Ali Usmanov tightens his grip on Arsenal and everybody's comfortable with it - well, everybody who has access to the media. Being a polite people we none of us wish to draw attention to Ali's record of violent crime.
Is he a fit and proper person to own an English football club? Of course he is, he's filthy rich.

Tony Blair, the Middle East Peace (sic) Envoy is taking a million dollar bribe from a Zionist organisation. A "pretty straight sort of Guy" would refuse such a sweetener, but Tone ...

A Faith Foundation washes dirty money clean. Hallelujah!

STS Bulletin no.17

Witness B was asked by Dinah Rose QC, for Mohamed: "Was it your understanding that it was lawful for Mr Mohamed to be transferred to the US authorities in this way?" Witness B replied: "I consider that to be a matter for the security service top management and for government."

Translation: "I was just obeying orders."
The old Nuremberg defence

How many descendants of Sigmund Freud are there in this country? How many of them are in positions of influence? How many of them are right wing shits?
I was just wondering.
I hate the paintings of Lucian Freud.

I owe Baruch Obama an apology. I'm sure he's waiting for one since reading my last posting about him (February 4th).
It seems that the gagging of the Britsh judges over torture at Guantánamo was not his idea. He made the demand in response to a request from our Foreign Secretary, Popeye Miliband. The reasoning goes like this: everybody knows that the Americans are torturers; most Britons aren't aware that we handed people over for torture and got access to the information they gave up (subcontracting the dirty work); so if our government's involvement comes out in court the press will have to reveal what they've been suppressing for years, that our secret police are torturers by proxy.
Up steps nice President Obama to cover Blair/Brown/Straw/Miliband's collective fundament.

The Special Relationship doesn't just exist in the British ruling class's imagination after all. That's an eye-opener for me.

"But what a feeder club the City has been, with Labour having given 23 bankers honours since 1997. Four of them scored life peerages, and seven were knighted. Three were made government ministers, two appointed to senior posts within Downing Street, 10 have been placed on eminent councils, seven on agencies and quangos, while just the 37 have been drafted in to head up taskforces, or sit on commissions and advisory bodies."

(Marina Hyde)
Now they all have to be weeded out before they cause further damage.

This gives me cause for concern -

"Goodwin headed up taskforces examining both the New Deal and credit unions."

Does this mean that the credit unions are doomed?

SAME DOG, SAME MAN
"No officers to face charges in De Menezes case

"Monsignor Ravasi said Darwin's theories had never been formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, pointing to comments more than 50 years ago, when Pope Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific approach to the development of humans."
(from yesterday's Telegraph)

I was attending a catholic school nearly sixty years ago, and we were taught then that evolution was the only sensible explanation of life on Earth. We were also taught that God created the universe, so I suppose the deity just sort of let things develop independently after opening the proceedings.

Another thing we were taught was that blaming the Jews for the death of Christ was a load of cobblers. The Messiah died for the sins of all mankind, so wherever he was born he was going to be topped. He chose to be born among Jews because, I suppose, he was a traditionalist, chosen people and all that.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when a Pope pops up sometime in the 1970s and declares that the Catholic Church no longer blamed the Jews for killing Jerusalem Slim. What could it mean? Had my teachers been filling our heads with heretical thoughts? Should I have been shouting "Deicide!" at Joe Hyam the barber?
I wonder if the Vatican has trouble keeping up with the rest of the Church Militant.

Over time I've developed my own ideas about where we come from and where we're going, and what we should be doing in the meantime. They don't involve much of that stuff we got at school, but you have to start somewhere.

Tony Blair’s failed attempts to secure peace in the Middle East have cost British taxpayers at least half a million pounds.
...
Middle East expert and author Avi Shlaim said: “No one takes him seriously. He said he’d reduce the number of Israeli checkpoints, but since he’s been there, it’s risen.”
Mr Blair is believed to have made £15million since leaving office, including book deals and speaking tours. Last night, he was unavailable for comment.

I've been trawling through my old postings (backblog?) for details of a poacher turned FSA gamekeeper demanding that the government put right the things that he'd done wrong. It was all their fault really for appointing such a useless, dishonest lump as himself (subtextual, of course).
It wasn't Crosby, so the FSA must be stuffed with such creatures.
Anyway, I didn't find it, but I came across this gem, and had to give it another airing -

Labour should celebrate "huge salaries in Britain" not question their morality, the business and enterprise secretary, John Hutton, will say tomorrow.

What a difference a year makes.

Personally I hope that Netanyahu gets the gig. The Palestinian situation cannot get any worse whoever is raining fire and brimstone on them. Anyway, they reckon it's the IDF, not the politicians, who are in control of genocide policy now, needing to make up for the Lebanese humiliation.
No, the Yahoo can't make things worse for the Palestinians, but he can make things a damned sight worse for the Israelis. He's a dyed in the wool neo-con. Benefit cuts, privatisation - let's hope he makes that war loving nation feel the pinch. And I hope he takes the Nazi Lieberman on board. Nail your colours to the mast, O Israel, organise some Nuremberg style rallies: learn to goose-step.

I read that the Israelis charge something like £100 on every wagon-load of humanitarian aid passing through their checkpoints. It sounds credible, considering that they are trying to starve the people of Gaza to death, but I'd like to find some support for the claim.

"I was there when the secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve came those days and talked to members of Congress about what was going on... Here's the facts. We don't even talk about these things.
On Thursday, at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to a tune of $550 billion being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two.
The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks.
They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic and there. And that's what actually happened.
If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.
Now we talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

US Congressman Paul Kanjorski (emphasis added)

One day someone will switch off the life support.

Crying all the way to the bank is not sound policy in these troubled times, so I imagine Mr. Scolari will be crying all the way to a safety deposit after Abramovich has bought back his three year contract.
Eventually Roman Arkadievich is going to cotton on, keep his manager, and sack the whole Chelsea squad - treacherous, self-serving malcontents.

So which mass murderer will be trying to form a government in Tel Aviv? And what ragbag of religious freaks, trigger-happy land grabbers and Judaeo-fascists will be taking over?
If ever there was a convincing argument against proportional representation it's Israeli government - tail wags dog.

I try to avoid mentioning products and services, unless adversely, on these pages, but I have to sing the praises of Aleksandr Orlov. He is a star. On rare occasions advertising people manage to amuse and not to annoy.
www.comparethemeerkat.com

Phil Brown, Hull City manager, on the transfer window -
"It is a destabilising period that creates a false market and allows non-footballing people to run the game."
He further calls it "a farce", and who but the parasitical agents and febrile hacks will disagree? I still don't know what was going on with the Arshavin business, only that he's now an Arsenal player.

"OBAMA AND THE POLITICS OF BOLLOCKS"
(John Pilger)

"On 31 January, unaware he was being filmed, Israel's ambassador in Australia described the massacres in Gaza as a 'pre-introduction' – dress rehearsal – for an attack on Iran."

"For Netanyahu, the reassuring news is that Obama's administration is the most Zionist in living memory – a truth that has struggled to be told from beneath the soggy layers of Obama-love."

Listening to the News Quiz today I heard something disturbing. A survey has revealed that one third of people in this country believe that God created the world less than 10,000 years ago, while less than a quarter believe in evolution.
I know that stupidity and gullibility are on the rise here, a result of an education system designed to produce unquestioning consumers rather than well rounded citizens, but I didn't realise that the rot had penetrated so deeply.
My only consolation is that I don't place much faith in surveys or in the people who conduct them, you pay your money and they produce your result. It's important to know on whose behalf the survey was conducted, but those figures ...

Another edgy* BBC "personality" has made a stand for bigotry in broadcasting. He's offended the disabled, he's offended the people of Scotland. If the idiots have taken offense then his show's ratings will plummet.

I now read that the gobshite has apologised, though it's not clear who to; the Prime Minister, the disabled, the Scots, the idiots?
The Guardian is running a poll asking if the gobshite should be sacked. Of course he should, along with everyone responsible for foisting the prat on the public - but he's safe.

* BBCspeak for gobshite.

"Everyone knows that there are things that you just do not say about the host newspaper, the owner, the editor, the advertisers, the government, the government’s allies. BBC journalists know what they should and should not say about Israel."
...
"Consider, for example, that it is an unwritten rule of corporate reporting that very ugly motives cannot be imputed to our government or its leading allies. They may err and blunder, but it is unthinkable that they would kill thousands, or millions, of people because it was in the best interests of elite power. It is unthinkable that they would deliberately kill the poor to terrorise other poor people to accept poverty. It is unthinkable that they would actively seek to promote violent conflicts because they have a monopoly on violence. It is unthinkable that they would seek to create enemies because doing so has multiple benefits in pacifying the domestic population, justifying arms budgets, and providing a rationale for attacking poor people overseas".

These quotes are from a piece on Mick Hall's blog (link), ex Medialens.

"We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich." (Mr. Peter Mandelson, 1998)

"Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today told the Royal Bank of Scotland it risked alienating the public by offering 'exorbitant' bonuses to its traders and senior bankers." (Independent, 5th February 2009)

... and the bankers said "We'd love to help you Mandy, but we're too busy helping ourselves. We hope you didn't deposit your £1 million payoff from the EU in one of our banks (snigger, snigger)."

THE STORY SO FAR
Three days in office Obama approves a bombing of targets in Pakistan that kills 20 people. The president is blooded, he's the right stuff.
Since then he's ordered the CIA to continue delivering prisoners to foreign countries for torture and execution.
Now he's ordered the British government to gag judges who are likely to refer to the US torturing Guanánamo prisoners.

Oh yes, CHANGE.
Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.

I have to quote Ehud Olmert's put-down of a political opponent, "When did he ever shoot anyone?"

I've just learned that yesterday was the centenary of the birth of Simone Weil - a strange lady, but one whose heart was in the right place, and whose loyalties were always to the poor and the disadvantaged.
There are some catholics who propose her for canonisation, but she was never a catholic. Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, was baptised a catholic, so he has more chance of becoming a saint than poor Simone.
On the same subject, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement has also been proposed for canonisation. Dorothy, who spent her adult life helping the poor and opposing war and injustice, may have been a catholic but she's definitely not going to make it into the communion of saints - unlike Jose Escrivá, friend of Franco and founder of Opus Dei; or Maximilian Kolbe the anti-semite.

Demands of Lindsay Oil Refinery workers, as passed at yesterday's meeting -

No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action.
All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement.
Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available.
Government and employer investment in proper training / apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers - fight for a future for young people.
All Immigrant labour to be unionised.
Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - including interpreters - and access to Trade Union advice - to promote active integrated Trade Union Members.
Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.

Xenophobia my arse!

(Via Organised Rage)

Mandy ratchets up the blackguardry -

"We should keep our sights set firmly not on the politics of xenophobia but on the economics of this recession," (Lord Mandelson of the good ship Queen K)

The spirit of Julius Streicher lives on.

The working class
can kiss my arse
I'm only interested in the filthy rich.
(Lord Mandelson of that-awfully-common-place-in-the-North-East-of-England-whose vulgar-denizens-used-to-vote-for-me-ha-ha)

No British jobs for British workers.
David William Donald Cameron, PC, titular Lord Snooty)

Well at least they're being honest about it.

A letter from the Greek Socialist MP, Theodoros Pangalos, to the Israeli ambassador to Greece -

Dear Mr. Ambassador,
Thank you for the 3 bottles of wine that you sent me as season’s greetings. I wish to you, your family and everybody in the Embassy a happy new year. Good health and progress to you all.
Unhappily I noticed that the wine you have sent me has been produced in the Golan Heights. I have been taught since I was very young not to steal and not to accept products of theft. So I can not possibly accept this gift and I must return it back to you.
As you know, your country occupies illegally the Golan Heights which belong to Syria, according to the International Law and numerous decisions of the International Community.
I take the opportunity to express my hope that Israel will find security inside its internationally recognized borders and the terrorist activities against Israel territory by Hamas or anybody else will be contained and made impossible, but I also hope that your government will cease practicing the policy of collective punishment which was applied on a mass scale by Hitler and his armies.
Actions such as those of these days of the Israel military in Gaza remind the greek people of holocausts such as in Kalavrita or Doxato or Distomo and certainly in the ghetto of Warsaw.
With these thoughts allow me to express to you my best wishes for you, the Israeli people and all the people of our region of the world.

The backlash is gathering momentum -
"that's not the right thing to do and it's not defensible." Gordon Brown
"Strikes are never the way forward." William Hague; not for the employers he speaks for anyway.
Mandelson says "Get on your bikes!" Or on a ferry to the Continent.
On Sky News a hack was asking a union rep if the protest had been taken over by the BNP. That looks like the official line. "You are dupes of the far right" (media speak for neo-nazis).
Meanwhile, somebody named Pat McFadden has called in ACAS. So the cheap labour importers are going to sit round the table with union bureaucrats, and in a few months time they'll tell the men outside the gates what they've decided. I predict that their agreement will be something of a damp squib, but what the hell! The protests will have petered out, so - mission accomplished.

Let's get one thing clear, the BNP will not guarantee "British jobs for British workers". They cannot do any such thing, nor do they intend to. Their Fuehrer, the Welsh cyclops, has already assured British business that, should his party obtain power, they will not interfere in the market. Capitalism will be safe under BNP stewardship. Of course the BNP lie constantly, but their lies are designed to deceive the powerless, not to con the ruling class. Being a hierarchical and authoritarian organisation, they regard that class as an ally.
Nor will the Conservatives do anything different. They cannot - nor can, or will, the Liberal-Democrats. All of these parties are committed, like Labour, to the current deregulated, privatised, globalised economic midden. They will assure us that narrow nationalism, protectionism, isolationism are not the answer and will only make the situation worse.
The BNP, along with the crypto-fascist UKIP will (hypocritically)advocate just these policies, but the chances of them getting the opportunity to deliver on their promises will be slim in the extreme (mot juste). The BNP, should it achieve an electoral breakthrough, will continue along it's present route to the centre-right, divesting itself of the stormtrooper element on the way. This last will return to the wilderness and the true Nazi thuggery that is momentarily being contained by the dominant ballot-boxers.
So who will represent our disenfranchised British working class? As usual it has to be a do-it-yourself effort. The unions are there, but the full-timers will try to take the lead and head off any effective action. After all a strong rank and file threatens their places at the trough as much as it threatens employers and sell-out politicians. A strong rank and file movement, distrustful of union officials, and refusing to surrender direct action in return for fruitless negotiations and delaying tactics, is the only hope.
The signs of a fightback are already in the wind. The media are now calling the walkouts "wildcat", a favourite union-bashing term. Mealy-mouthed politicians "understand, but cannot condone". The lies, the talk of "extremism", are in the pipeline. Remember "the enemy within"?

"The reality is that EU directives and, even more so, British legislation have encouraged employers to exploit deregulated labour markets to play off one part of the workforce against another and drive down employment costs. Now that jobs are at a premium, organised workers in Britain are no longer prepared to put up with it and are ignoring anti-union laws to make their voice heard. So long as their protests continue to target employers and the government, rather than other workers, that will intensify the pressure on Brown to stop tinkering, come up with what is now long overdue: a serious programme of investment in public housing, infrastructure and transport to replace the jobs now haemorrhaging across Britain."

(Seumas Milne)
We can but hope.

Mick Hall writes on the walkouts on "Organised Rage" (See links)

"Hamas should be part of the Middle East peace process, said Tony Blair, former British prime minister and envoy to the region of the international quartet of powers, in comments published on Friday."

This from the peace (sic) envoy who has never met Hamas, and can't visit Gaza because the Israelis won't let him.

Investors in Northern Ireland's Presbyterian Mutual Society have got the begging bowl out and are asking the government to compensate them for their losses.
Surely the Lord will provide?
Or as Joe Hill put it -

Work all day,
Live on hay.
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

A recent obituary of one Cardinal Pio Laghi caught my eye - a catalogue of machinations on behalf of the far right, and against democracy. The Vatican is probably crawling with such individuals.

John Paul wanted US support for the practical assistance he was providing for the Solidarity trade union. Their cooperation spread wider than Europe, however. Laghi lobbied hard and successfully to obtain Reagan's support to cut US funding to development programmes that included provision of abortion. He also effectively tore up an outspoken anti-nuclear letter, drafted by America's Catholic bishops in 1983.
Most controversially, he conveyed to Washington that the Vatican shared Reagan's dislike of the democratically elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua. John Paul objected in particular to the presence in that country of three radical Catholic priests. Laghi was therefore privy to US efforts to undermine the Sandinistas.

...

In 1974, he was sent to Argentina. His six years there coincided with the worst excesses of the military dictatorship in what was known as the "dirty war". Many in Argentina believe that the church hierarchy supported the generals in their misrule, and that Laghi - who played tennis regularly with one of the leaders of the junta, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera - turned a blind eye to the murder and "disappearances" of thousands. "Perhaps I wasn't a hero," Laghi said later of his time in Buenos Aires, "but I was no accomplice."

"No accomplice" can be interpreted as not physically participating in the kidnapping, killing and torture.

Gabi Ashkenazi

On 27th December 2008, the suspect, as Chief of Staff, ordered the Israeli army to attack densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. For three weeks, 1,500 tons of bombs were dropped from the air on residential neighborhoods in Gaza and tens of thousands of artillery shells were fired from tanks. For 3 weeks, the army damaged and destroyed houses, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, water and electrical plants, killed more than 1,300 people, hundreds of them children, and injured about 5,300 people. Thousands of houses were bombed or shelled and 50,000 residents were made homeless, without shelter.

Prior to this, the suspect was part of a group, which implemented a siege on 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, denying them a regular supply of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity for 18 months.

According to international law, it is absolutely prohibited to bomb residential areas in a way that interrupts the lives of civilians; to carry out executions without trial, to collectively punish; to destroy or damage hospitals, schools and homes. The prohibitions against collective punishment were enshrined in the Geneva Conventions after the behavior of the Nazis in Europe during World War II when they destroyed entire villages to punish residents for sheltering the resistance. 194 countries agree with the prohibitions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In December 2008, a complaint was filed in the Hague against the suspect, on suspicion that he had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for ordering the siege of Gaza.

Description of the suspect: male, about 55 years old, black hair, olive skin above average height. The suspect is armed and could be dangerous.

My attention was drawn to the linked article ( 29 November 2005)by someone styled "indiscrutable" posting a comment on a Guardian article -

The BBC is often accused of an anti-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Middle East, and recently censured reporter Barbara Plett for saying she "started to cry" when Yasser Arafat left Palestine shortly before his death.
Fascinating, then, to learn that its director general, Mark Thompson, has recently returned from Jerusalem, where he held a face-to-face meeting with the hardine Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Although the diplomatic visit was not publicised on these shores, it has been seized upon in Israel as evidence that Thompson, who took office in 2004, intends to build bridges with the country's political class.
Sources at the Beeb also suspect that it heralds a "softening" to the corporation's unofficial editorial line on the Middle East.
"This was the first visit of its kind by any serving director general, so it's clearly a significant development," I'm told.
"Not many people know this, but Mark is actually a deeply religious man. He's a Catholic, but his wife is Jewish, and he has a far greater regard for the Israeli cause than some of his predecessors."

Craig Murray writes on BBC "impartiality" -

What is Really Happening
I watched BBC World News for a timed hour yesterday. In that time I saw:
Pro-Israeli (including US government) speakers - 17
Pro-Palestinian speakers - 2

Mentions of Hamas Rockets as reason for war - 37
Mentions of illegal Israeli settlements - 0
Mentions of Palestinians killed by Israel during "ceasefire" - 2
Mentions of Sderot - 12
Mentions Sderot used to be Palestinian - 0

If you don't believe me, try it yourself.

Greg Dyke, meanwhile has defended the Thomson crapout -
"Outside of Iraq, the single biggest issue that caused complaints was the coverage of Israel."
This probably means that the BBC is cowed by the Zionist propaganda machine.

The BBC - Impartial or immoral?

Well we all know the answer to that. The complaints are flooding in.

THE BBC SHOWS ITS TRUE COLOURS
The blue and white of Israel with a yellow streak overall.

A BBC spokesperson said: "Along with other broadcasters, the BBC has decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal to raise funds for Gaza. The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.

That's impartiality BBC-style.

Also -
No TV station is going to broadcast Saturday's Kettering v Fulham cup match. Nothing to do with the fact that the Kettering players wear shirts emblazoned with the words "Palestinian Aid".

"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
(Gerald Kauffman, M.P., in the House of Commons)

Listening to the news this morning I learned that 2000 Zimbabweans have died in a cholera epidemic. I'm still waiting to be informed as to how many Britons have died in the current flu epidemic.
I suppose that information will be made public in 30 years time.

I watched the re-enactment of the de Menezes killing (ITV1) last night. I don't know how accurate it was, I suppose much of it was based on police testimony to the inquest, so handle with care.
One thing became obvious; once the cops decide that you're their man everything you do is seen as confirming your guilt, nothing you do will shake that conviction. At one point J.C. got off his bus to enter a tube station. The station was closed because of the security alert, so J.C. walked away and got back on the bus to travel to the next station. "He's sussed us!" cried one observer. No need to look for another explanation.
The thing that really pissed me off about this programme was the amount of advertising that accompanied it, I estimated about 20 minutes in an hour. Diabolical! I don't often watch ITV1, like many others, so I wasn't prepared for the commercial overkill. Something else we have to thank the deregulators for.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said no complaints had been received about the Auschwitz joke but there had been five complaints about the gag cracked at pop star Will's expense.
She said: "Anyone who listens to the Chris Moyles Show will know he has an irreverent style."

Anyone who listens to this individual's turdfest will know that he is a homophobic, misogynistic (in fact, all-round) bigot. This is what the BBC calls "edgy". But there's "edgy" and there's EDGY; as the BBC producer screamed at Johnnie Walker, "Stop asking questions about the [Iraq] war!"
Anyone who listens to the man ugly people call ugly deserves to be defecated on from a great height, and the fat twat will oblige.

The Israelis have declared a ceasefire and an intention to withdraw from the killing fields, having achieved what they set out to do.
Now the stated aim was to stop the rockets directed at their communities, and they have singularly failed in this aim. So was there a hidden agenda? Of course there was; the plan was to slaughter large numbers of Palestinian men, women and children and to lay waste to a squalid patch of land peopled by those they have dispossessed, impoverished and, finally, starved. The plan was also to tell the world "We don't give a shit about the opinions of goyim. We are the Herrenvolk; live with it or die of it."

Bye Bye, Bush
Everybody's queuing up to have a pop at the poor fellow. Even the puppet, al-Maliki, has turned on his master; Saeb Ireykat of Fatah (Israel's clients); now Milliband criticises the war on terror. He says it was a mistake. It was a mistake from the start, Davy boy, when you and your party were all for it. So how are you going to clear up the mess you made? I suggest that you arrest Tony Blair and charge him with crimes against humanity. That will be a start.

STS Bulletin no.16

"Fog of War",
MarkRegevspeak for Israeli war crimes.

White phosphorus,
= Napalm
= chemical warfare
= war crime.

The linked article, from which the following quotes are taken, is by Uri Avnery, Israeli author and activist, a founding member of the independent peace movement Gush Shalom.

"Almost all the Western media initially repeated the official Israeli propaganda line. They almost entirely ignored the Palestinian side of the story, not to mention the daily demonstrations of the Israeli peace camp. The rationale of the Israeli government ("The state must defend its citizens against the Qassam rockets") has been accepted as the whole truth. The view from the other side, that the Qassams are a retaliation for the siege that starves the one and a half million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, was not mentioned at all."

"Immediately after the incident became known throughout the world, the army "revealed" that Hamas fighters had been firing mortars from near the school entrance. As proof they released an aerial photo which indeed showed the school and the mortar. But within a short time the official army liar had to admit that the photo was more than a year old. In brief: a falsification.
"Later the official liar claimed that 'our soldiers were shot at from inside the school'. Barely a day passed before the army had to admit to UN personnel that that was a lie, too. Nobody had shot from inside the school, no Hamas fighters were inside the school, which was full of terrified refugees."

"THE FAILURE to grasp the nature of Hamas has caused a failure to grasp the predictable results. Not only is Israel unable to win the war, Hamas cannot lose it.
"Even if the Israeli army were to succeed in killing every Hamas fighter to the last man, even then Hamas would win. The Hamas fighters would be seen as the paragons of the Arab nation, the heroes of the Palestinian people, models for emulation by every youngster in the Arab world. The West Bank would fall into the hands of Hamas like a ripe fruit, Fatah would drown in a sea of contempt, the Arab regimes would be threatened with collapse.
"If the war ends with Hamas still standing, bloodied but unvanquished, in face of the mighty Israeli military machine, it will look like a fantastic victory, a victory of mind over matter."

STS Bulletin no.15

Human shield,
Israeli for
civilian target

I note that Lucy Pinder is the first celebrity to be ejected from the Big Brother house. Just one question: who is Lucy Pinder?

Oh come on! The video is three years old. "Paki", "raghead" and "queer" were quite acceptable terms in 2006. And there was no malice. So if you're going to refer to the lad as James Hewitt's bastard please do so without malice.

From the current issue of "Private Eye" -
"According to the latest Foreign Office figures, Britain exported £18,847,795-worth of weapons to Israel in the first three months of 2008. This was a sharp increase compared to the £7.5m of weapons sales to Israel in in the whole of 2007."

Doing our bit for genocide.

"Saudi Arabia is very nervous: as is Mubarak. The Hashemites do what they do best in crisis and they lie: or they try to have it both ways. They conspire in private, and decry conspiracies in public. Israel may have crossed the thresholed when it could have made the Gaza attack into a political asset." (Angry Arab)

'Andrew Copson, director of public affairs at the BHA [British Humanist Association], said: "Reflective thoughts on the events of the day do not come only from people with 'a faith' so it is wrong for the BBC – which has obligations to its many humanist listeners just as to its religious ones – to exclude non-religious contributors from Thought for the Day.'
It's suggested that the BBC is rethinking its policy of suppressing atheist and agnostic opinion while forcing the opinions of people with all kinds of strange beliefs down our throats. We shall see.

Meanwhile the devil dodgers are up in arms about a slogan that reads "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life". They've had the gall to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. Forget about all the claptrap they display outside their churches. They demand that the Humanists prove their claim, but don't offer to disprove it. The fact that "probably" tells us it's an opinion, not a statement of fact cuts no ice with these fanatics. Don't question the existence of Big Daddy in the Sky, don't even think about it, just believe. And if you can't swallow the fairy tale, pretend to believe.

OBAMA SPEAKS
He is "deeply disturbed" by the events in Gaza. Oh! Why?

Meanwhile -
Gordon Brown says that a ceasefire depends on the Palestinians halting the smuggling of arms from Egypt.
Angela Merkel says that a ceasefire depends on the Palestinians halting the ... (etc.)
Peace Envoy Blair says that a ceasefire depends on the Palestinians ... (etc.)
Sarkozy tells Bashshar al-Asad that he should put pressure on Hamas to halt the ... (etc.)
What happened to Berlusconi? Did his script go missing in the post?

One question - what weapons? What is the source of this intelligence? As the Israelis have been preventing food, medical supplies and fuel getting to the people of Gaza they have resorted to smuggling these essentials from Egypt. Are these the weapons that the Israelis refer to?
Why can't those Palestinians lie down and die? Don't they understand that their struggle to survive is making the Israelis unhappy?

I had to laugh when an ITN reporter asked Blair if he would condemn the slaughter of civilians by the Israelis. Bomber Blair! Of course he wouldn't.

Peace Envoy Blair has spoken at last on Gaza killing fields. I haven't bothered to read what he said as I've already read what G.W. Bush said last week.

Hooray, hooray! Peace (sic) Envoy Blair has broken cover. He has been spotted listening intently to a lecture from Ehud Barak. He appeared to have nothing to say himself.
Now on to meet some Palestinians? Of course not, silly me! The Israelis have told him that the Palestinians are all terrorists, so they won't let him meet any - for his own safety of course.

Isn't it strange - the Israelis start a bloodbath to stop the rockets being fired from Gaza. They bomb, bomb, bomb; then swamp that little patch of land with thousands of troops. Result, the rocket launching continues.
Now let me think. Once the rockets are stopped the Israelis will have to find another excuse to slaughter Palestinians. As long as the rockets fly the killing continues. Will they ever take out those rocket-launching sites?

I see that the Israelis have located the Hamas HQ under a hospital. So the hospital is a legitimate military target. I can imagine the BBC reporting it - very sad, but it had to be done. Nasty Hamas, nice Israelis, etc.

STS Bulletin no.14

"By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people." (G.W.Bush)
Means
"Roll them tanks, Ehud, kill, kill, kill!"

Anybody seen peace envoy Blair?

(Nir Rosen)

"According to the latest figures the Israeli armed forces has 500,000 men and women under arms, Hamas has approx. 600-6000. Israel 3,501 tanks, Hamas 0. Combat aircraft, Israel 393, Hamas 0. Israeli defense budget, 9.5 Bn, Hamas total annual funding, 50 million for civilian and military projects. Israeli dead since bombardment began, military 0 civilians 5, Palestinian total, 408 dead, 44% of whom were women and children." (Organised Rage)

One man, George Bush, can open his mouth and stop the slaughter immediately. The fact that he does not tells us that he approves, and probably ordered it. I'm damned if I know why. Is it connected to his love of frying people when governor of Texas; his keenness to order air strikes on Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis? Is it pure unadulterated bloodlust? Does he wish to go down in history as another Pol Pot?