Support Harry’s Place Blogburst

Support Harry’s Place Blogburst

Harry’s Place, a UK blog dedicated to promoting the ideals of freedom and democracy, is being sued by Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, which has been linked to Hamas and the Islamic Brotherhood, both terrorist organizations. The blog reports that Mr. Sawalha, according to the BBC…

"master minded much of Hamas' political and military strategy" and in London “is alleged to have directed funds, both for Hamas' armed wing, and for spreading its missionary dawah”.

In their revelation of the impending lawsuit against them leveled by Mohammed Sawalha, they write:

Mr Sawalha claims that we have “chosen a malevolent interpretation of a meaningless word”. In fact, we did no more than translate a phrase which appeared in an Al Jazeera report of Mr Sawalha's speech. When Al Jazeera changed that phrase from "Evil Jew" to "Jewish Lobby", we reported that fact, along with the statement that it had been a typographical error.

Mr Sawalha has been the prime mover in a number of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood associated projects. He is President of the British Muslim Initiative. He is the past President of the Muslim Association of Britain. He was the founder of IslamExpo, and is registered as the holder of the IslamExpo domain name. He is also a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque….

…Mr Sawalha says that the attribution of the phrase "Evil Jew" to him implies that he is "anti-semitic and hateful". Notably, he does not take issue with our reporting of the revelation, made in a Panorama documentary in 2006, that he is a senior activist in the clerical fascist terrorist organisation, Hamas.

It looks like Harry’s Place is going up against some pretty top-notch lawyers on this one, and they’ve got guts, but as the post goes on to say:

If Mr Sawalha persists in attempting to silence us with this desperate legal suit, we will need your help.

We won"t be able to stand up to them alone.

This is why we've started this blogburst, to get the word out that we won't let members of Hamas or any radical terrorist group censor us or any of our fellow bloggers.

If you’d like to add your site to the blogroll, simply email us at admin@neoconstant.com, and include your site’s URL.

Then copy and paste this entry into one of your posts. Future posts will be emailed to you. Thanks, and don’t forget to head over to Harry's Place to show your support of their freedom of speech!

WE SUPPORT HARRY’S PLACE

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Crime pays: Getting away with terror at British taxpayers' expense

Pictured: Smiling preacher of hate Abu Qatada enjoying an £800,000 home and a life of benefits


The Daily Mail refers to Abu Qatada, the "preacher", as Al-Qaeda's "ambassador to Europe." As if al-Qaeda was a diplomatic service. You're looking at Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

Of course he's smiling. Look at what he's getting:
1. He can't be extradited to Jordan "because his human rights would have been breached."
2. He lives in a $1.6 million house.
3. He receives $100,000 in (British) government benefits.
4. He's under house arrest but meanders freely.
5. Supposedly he's on disability receiving $300/week for a back injury but can carry a knapsack in public. He's not worried that anyone would jail him for fraud.
6. His "45-year-old wife is said to be entitled to child benefits, income support, housing and council tax credits which exceed £800 each week." (that would be approx. $1600.) Plus, "The family is also said to pick up around £210 in income support."
7. AND he gets a tax break: "the couple is exempt from paying the £2,283 yearly council tax bill on their home."

This photograph of the smiling al-Qaeda operative telescopes to the rest of the world the message that the UK officially has signed a suicide pact.

Via Memeorandum: Terrorist Dream Job: Al Qaeda Ambassador to Europe

Not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from Britain since the 7/7 terror attacks, for the simple reason that their quisling allies run the country.

This really is the end of Britain.

Crossposted



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Noon roundup: WaPo realizes Bush didn't lie, the al-Khaiwani verdict, and more

The Anchoress has an excellent post, WaPo: Bush "substantiated by intelligence", where she quotes from this article, 'Bush Lied'? If Only It Were That Simple

On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates."

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president's statements "were substantiated by intelligence information."

On chemical weapons, then? "Substantiated by intelligence information."

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information." Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? "Generally substantiated by available intelligence." Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."

As you read through the report, you begin to think maybe you've mistakenly picked up the minority dissent. But, no, this is the Rockefeller indictment. So, you think, the smoking gun must appear in the section on Bush's claims about Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to terrorism.

But statements regarding Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda "were substantiated by the intelligence assessments," and statements regarding Iraq's contacts with al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." The report is left to complain about "implications" and statements that "left the impression" that those contacts led to substantive Iraqi cooperation.

The bottom line:

But the phony "Bush lied" story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.

THAT is the real issue.

Stephen Hayes has More on Rockefeller's Feculent Senate Report from today's NY Sun editorial
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Jane Novak posts that today is The Worst Day for Press Freedom in Yemen as journalist Abdul-Karim al-Khiwani has been sentenced to six years' hard labor in jail.

Speaking of Yemen, Over half of women who marry in Yemen are under 15 years of age (h/t the Baron)
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Snapped Shot has a display of Government insurance, government efficiency that may be heading our way.
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Top Talent Scout for Obama Tied to Subprime Lender. Who sent him?

Richard Fernandez comments on growth of the Obama-Rezko connection and quotes from Salon,

After law school, Obama went to work for the firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland. During Rezko's stint in ghetto rehab, Davis Miner represented three community groups in partnership with Rezmar. Through them, the law firm helped Rezko obtain $43 million in government funds.

At last week's debate in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton stung Obama for "representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum-landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

If Clinton was trying to stick Rezko on Obama, that was the wrong line of attack. At Davis Miner, Obama did a total of five hours of legal work for Rezko, under the supervision of more-experienced attorneys. Obama didn't really become tight with Rezko until he ran for the state Senate, in 1995. Rezko, who can spot a comer, was first in line with a check. The day the campaign started, Obama received $2,000 from two of Rezko's fast-food businesses. Eight years later, when Obama was campaigning for the U.S. Senate, Rezko hosted a fundraiser at his suburban mansion.

Richard points out that

Apart from being a slum landlord, Rezko has also been accused of trying to take control of a $40B Illinois teacher's pension fund so that he could loot it.

The world of Chicago politics and international intrigue seems to loop around. Not only was Tony Rezko tight with former Saddam moneyman Nahdmi Auchi, guess who put up bail money for the pizza magnate? Aiham Alsammarae.

The Chicago Sun Times reports:

A former Iraqi official and ex-international fugitive helped spring Tony Rezko from jail earlier this month, putting up homes that comprise nearly one-third of the $8.5 million in property and cash securing Rezko's bail, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae — a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 — are part of a long list made public in Rezko's case Friday following a Sun-Times request.

Don't tell me: they weren't that way when Obama first met them...
Brutally Honest has All Obasms all the time



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Marvels of government-provided healthcare: Cardboard nurses

A couple of years ago I posted on the disastrous French healthcare system. Bad as it is, at least the French haven't resorted to the British healthcare's latest gimmick: CARDBOARD nurses.

Yessiree... cardboard nurses. Life-sized cardboard cutouts with voice boxes nagging telling people to clean their hands. The real problem is that bacteria-caused deaths are on the rise.

And how did that cardboard nurse program work out, you ask? Expat Yank has the details.

Maybe next time they'll come up with cardboard cutouts of Clive Owen or maybe Bear Grylls and see if people pay attention.



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This morning's must-read

I'm lagging behind on work and will be posting more later, but for now, read Why is nobody interested in how the British Empire abolished slavery worldwide? (via Belmont Club commenter johnclubvec - emphasis added):

Why is this successful, heroic and admirable story so little known?

Probably because abolition was initiated by evangelical ('born again') Christians - and these people are not popular among the liberal and leftish commentators who are most-often concerned with issues of slavery nowadays. And - although legislation and treaties were important, and although many abolitionists and abolition societies were pacifists (eg. Quakers) - in practice, world slavery was abolished by coercive force deployed my a major world power. This is an uncomfortable fact for moral activists to swallow.

Read the rest: while the essay is on slavery, it is completely relevant to our times.

More blogging later today.



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Ken Livingstone looking for a new job

Friend of Hugo Chavez does not think he will win the mayoral race.

18 Doughty Street has a series of videos on Livingstone's other friends.

Gateway Pundit has more on Ken's loss.

UPDATE
London bridge is falling down.

This just in:
Boris Johnson poised to become London Mayor as Tories seal local election success

Boris Johnson is preparing to be unveiled as the new mayor of London later today following Labour’s collapse across Britain in the local elections.
Senior Conservative sources said they would be “gobsmacked” if Mr Johnson did not win the mayoral contest and even Downing Street aides appear to have conceded that Ken Livingstone has lost. Confidence of a Tory win was boosted after one bookmaker announced it was paying out on a Boris Johnson victory hours before the official result is expected later this evening.
...
Winning the London mayoral contest is expected to cap an historic electoral win for the Conservatives with David Cameron’s party on course for more than 44 per cent of the national vote. Labour is now expected to finish with as little as 24 per cent, humiliatingly pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats on 25 per cent.

Good-bye to Red Ken
Break out the champagne!



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Mind-boggling news of the morning: Pirates can claim UK asylum

What in the world is wrong with Britain?

Pirates can claim UK asylum

THE Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.

Warships patrolling pirate-infested waters, such as those off Somalia, have been warned that there is also a risk that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain.

The Foreign Office has advised that pirates sent back to Somalia could have their human rights breached because, under Islamic law, they face beheading for murder or having a hand chopped off for theft.

Rather than allow the pirates to accept the consequences of their actions, the British government decides to accommodate criminals while discrediting their own armed forces. What a disgrace.

Update
More from the Baron.



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UK: Polygyny now a good reason for speeding

Now official: polygyny is an accepted excuse for tearing down the road at twice the speed limit:
Muslim is spared a speeding ban so he can drive between his two wives

Mohammed Anwar said a ban would make it difficult to commute between his two wives and fulfil his matrimonial duties.

His lawyer told a Scottish court the Muslim restaurant owner has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow - he is allowed up to four under his religion - and sleeps with them on alternate nights.

He also needed his driving licence to run his restaurant in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.

Airdrie Sheriff Court had heard that Anwar was caught driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone in Glasgow, fast enough to qualify for instant disqualification.

Anwar admitted the offence, but Sheriff John C. Morris accepted his plea not to be banned and allowed him to keep his licence

He was going 65 miles an hour on a 30 mile zone, but it's OK because, as his lawyer says,

"He has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow and sleeps with one one night and stays with the other the next on an alternate basis.

"Without his driving licence he would be unable to do this on a regular basis."

Make it one for my baby, one for my other baby, and one more for the road.

I wonder if a non-Muslim woman polygamist would be allowed to speed because of her two husbands...

Meanwhile, TigerHawk posts about the latest fare on Indonesian cinema.



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Today's Sarko news watch: a wedding, a photo, a trip

It didn't take long, but Cecilia remarries after Nicolas Sarkozy divorce. She married the guy she was with in 2005:

Mr Attias, 48, was the Moroccan-born Jewish lover Miss Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, left her ex-husband for in 2005, only to return to Mr Sarkozy's side in the run-up to the French presidential elections last year.

I probably ran into her at the time. One day I was in New York walking down Fifth Avenue by one of the hotels. There were a couple of guys with cameras across the street, and on the same sidewalk. Suddenly they all picked up their cameras and started taking pictures of a woman wearing jeans and a white shirt who had just come out of the hotel with a man by her side. The following Thursday, I saw the photograph of the woman on the cover of the latest Parish Match. But I digress.

Cecilia's wedding was held at the Rainbow Room on the Rockerfeller Centre's 65th floor and featured singers from the Harlem Gospel Choir, and was preceeded by a three-day celebration involving dinners and a trip to see the Broadway musical Mamma Mia. Somebody must like Abba, but the musical has a wedding theme.

Christies is auctioning nude photos of Sarko's current wife, Carla Bruni. I'm not sure why these photos come as any surprise to anyone.

In more serious news, Sarko raises prospect of snubbing [the Olympic] opening ceremony over crackdown in Tibet; additionally,

An official from France's state television company said the broadcaster would likely boycott the Games if coverage was censored.

Today Sarko ls for 'Franco-British brotherhood' as state visit begins

In an interview, Mr Sarkozy said that it was time to reinvent the cross-Channel relationship from the strategic co-operation enshrined in the entente cordiale to become one of genuine closeness and "hand-in-glove" warmth.
...

Launching a charm offensive designed to realign French foreign policy, Mr Sarkozy told the BBC via a translator: "Whoever the British leader may be he will need others, other Europeans.

"And how can we do without your strong economy, your language which is the most spoken language throughout the world — do without your defence, which is the most significant in Europe? I want a new Franco-British brotherhood."

Times on Line has a feature on the trip, Sarkozy state visit: follow it live here

Sarko renewed France's commitment to NATO in Afghanistan,

He emphasised France's commitment to the Nato-led alliance in Afghanistan, saying that his country had no intention of pulling out troops and may even be prepared to send in more.


"In Afghanistan what's at stake, it's part of our battle against world terrorism," he said. "Do we need a new strategy in Afghanistan? Perhaps. Placing more trust in the Afghans themselves? The answer is yes.

"Is the only response in Afghanistan a military one? Obviously not. Does France intend to pull out? Obviously not.

"We have to see how long we are prepared to stay...If all the terms and conditions are met, why not send in more troops?"

The Sarkos will be in the UK for thirty-six hours.

Unrelated, but of interest, Maria sent A Guide to the French.



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Racism, explored and exploited from the UK

Siggy just brought this article to my attention:
Obama victory will prolong US racial divide, says British equality chief

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country’s first black President.

Let's take a brief look at this gentleman's occupation: he's "equality chief".

Would it be too harsh to say that he has a vested interest in perpetuating inequality, since otherwise there would be no point for his high-placed position in the bureaucracy?

Phillips believes that

guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites

Let's ignore, for the purposes of this post, that Barak Obama's own mother is a middle class white. I don't expect Phillips considered this fact when making his assertions.

The United States waged the most deadly war in its history to abolish slavery. The struggle for human rights in the United States continues to this day to ensure that every person has equal rights under the law.

Additionally, most of the middle class whites in the USA are descendants of people who immigrated from other countries AFTER the emancipation proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, or whose ancestors had arrived shortly before the Civil War, for instance, the Irish fleeing the potato famine of 1847.

None of those whites were in any kind of situation to own much property, never mind property in slave states, much less slaves.

So I'd like to ask Phillips, why should middle class whites feel any guilt over transatlantic slavery? How many middle class whites have even one ancestor who owned a plantation or worked in a trade associated with the transatlantic slavery trade?

Are there more important issues than "middle class white guilt over transatlantic slavery" to those very same middle class white prospective voters in this year's Presidential campaign?

Phillips continues,

"If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don't have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities," he wrote.

Record numbers of voters of every ethnic background are participating in the Democrat primaries and caucases, most of them white. Does Phillips sincerely believe they would not want to live next door to Obama but would gladly have him as Commander in Chief?

In Phillips's mind, Bill Cosby is a "sad and lonely figure". Cosby has laughed his way to the bank by being Bill Cosby, but let's not tell the "equality chief".

The "equality chief" believes that ultra-successful people like Bill Cosby and Oprah get there by "not making an issue of historical racism if their own race is not used against them". Phillips probably didn't have cable TV the day Oprah grilled Mark Furman over the coals during the OJ Simpson trial.

Of course, being in charge of an Equality and Human Rights Commission blinds you to the achievements any member of any minority may attain out of their own merit. The blacks who achieve, according to Phillips, do so only through cashing in on white guilt,

Mr Phillips said that there was no "British Obama" in part because the black British community was much smaller and therefore less likely to produce such high-achievers, and because "Black Britons can't bring centuries of white guilt to bear with the devastating impact that African-Americans have done for two generations?.

What does that mean, that to the "equality chief", a black Presidential candidate is one sign of "devastating impact"?

Perhaps Phillips is embarrassed. Alvaro Vargas Llosa, writing at The New Republic (that arm of the vast right wing conspiracy),

In Europe, one senses a quiet shame. The left, which loves to criticize the Unites States for its imperial foreign policy and its discrimination against blacks and Hispanics, is not really saluting Obama. There have been few gushing articles in Italy's La Repubblica or France's Le Monde. And by sending the message that it might be ready to elect an African-American, a part of mainstream America is showing the industrialized world a more open-minded attitude than the United States usually gets credit for. This is particularly embarrassing in socialist Europe. Contrast the attitude of those white Americans who are ready for a President Obama with the conditions that have led France's North African immigrants to riot on the outskirts of Paris. And have the Scandinavian countries ever generated anything comparable to Obama among the minorities who are tended to so generously as long as they don't make too much noise?

As long as he's secure his job, it probably doesn't matter.

UPDATE
Here's Erik Svane's letter to the IHT from June 20, 1997

As I wrote in letters to the editor to the Washington Post and the IHT 10 years ago (where it says "the/American president" below, I wrote "Clinton" at the time):

I should like to know on behalf of whom, exactly, America's president should apologize over slavery. I myself, like the majority of today's U.S. population, am descended from immigrants who arrived after the turn of the 20th century and therefore have nothing to do with the treatment of blacks on the plantations (or that of Indians on the plains, for that matter).

As for Americans living at the time slavery existed, over twice as many whites lived in states where slavery was illegal and where it had been so, for the most part, since before the French Revolution. The president can hardly apologize for the South either, since most whites even there — two thirds of them, to be precise — did not own a single slave.

Maybe the president should apologize for the planters and slaveholders? But they inherited the system they dwelled in, and although they certainly did little if anything to change it, in what way are they more guilty than the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and other European nationals who introduced it in all their colonies (including, of course, the future United States) and whose only reason for not introducing it onto the European continent proper (as well as the North of the future U.S., needless to say) was the absence of a propitious climate?

And how, finally, are the above-mentioned whites more guilty than the African tribes whose warriors raided neighboring villages to sell their enemies to the Europeans?

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Remember that BBC paintball outing?

Last December I posted that the Beeb, rather than taking the trouble of finding law-abiding British Muslims that have completely integrated into society, and have them discuss the issues of the day at a nice restaurant, decided instead to take a few acussed terrorists paintballing on February of 2005, paying for the privilege.

All in the name of fun, while filming their program Don't Panic, I'm Islamic.

The Been was so far above the panic stage that

Nasreen Suleaman, a researcher on the programme, told the court that Mr Hamid, 50, contacted her after the July 2005 attack and told her of his association with the bombers. But she said that she felt no obligation to contact the police with this information. Ms Suleaman said that she informed senior BBC managers but was not told to contact the police.

That is, A BBC producer failed to give police information that would have helped track down the July 21 bombers.

Hamid, by the way, referred to himself as Osama Bin London. On Tuesday he was found guilty of training men in secret camps in the Lake District and New Forest to prepare them to fight abroad, including the four failed suicide bombers of 21 July 2005.

UPDATE, Thursday February 28:
More on Osama bin London and British Terror Training Camps



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"High taxes and Government interference are driving people away."

While the adoring crowds applaud Obama for blowing his nose, ignoring his economic plan (h/t Instapundit) which would raise everybody's taxes unless (perhaps) you are a senior making less than $50,000/year, let's take a look at what happens to a country when the professional and tech people have to pay taxes through the nose while wages remain uncompetitive:

Biggest brain drain from UK in 50 years

Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus for almost 50 years.

There are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly-skilled university graduates, say the researchers.
...
No other nation is losing so many qualified people, it points out. Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate.
The term brain drain was coined in the 1950s following the mass emigration of scientists and other experts to America. Tens of thousands of people also left the country to escape the industrial unrest and high taxes of the 1970s.

Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: "Ten years of Labour has re-created the brain drain. High taxes and Government interference are driving people away."

Keep that in mind when you vote.



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Global warming may save lives, my first Yorkshire pudding, and other Sunday items

Via Barcepundit, the Brits are saying that Global warming 'may cut deaths':

While summers in the UK became warmer in the period 1971 - 2003, there was no change in heat-related deaths, but annual cold-related mortality fell by 3% as winters became milder - so overall fewer people died as a result of extreme temperatures.

And why is this?

Rather than physiological changes explaining our ability to adapt to rising temperatures, the report puts this down primarily to lifestyle alterations - our readiness to wear more informal clothes, for instance, and the shift away from manual labour.

Yes, folks, people are... adapting!

Wonders never cease. People are adapting out on their own, without the government having to tell them to.

Here in the USA when old people retire they move to hellishly hot areas like Phoenix, Dallas and Miami while the EUropeans are worrying that heatwaves (where the temperatures remain in the 90s - what constitutes a balmy day in the Phoenix summer) will kill 15,000 elderly and disabled.

In state-run medical care, that sort of thing happens when all the doctors leave on vacation, the hospitals have no air conditioning, and the relatives abandon the elderly.

Even then, We should be shouting this from the rooftops: far fewer people are dying because of the temperature than in the past. Milder winters are far more important than hotter summers in achieving this.

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The first time I went to England it was unseasonably warm. That was in 1979 when global warming was not yet fashionable (and back then there was even talk about the upcoming ice age), but I coped.

I had planned on going with a friend from work, but she chickened out at the last moment because Lord Mountbatten was killed by a terrorist bomb a couple of days before our departure. I had already spent my hard-earned money on the plane ticket and reservations, so I went by myself.

I had a great time.

No, I didn't stay in London to watch the funeral procession. The streets were impossibly crowded and the wait was very long, so instead I went on a day trip out of London. That was the first time I had Yorkshire pudding.

I love Yorkshire pud. It's not American-like pudding. It's good, though.

A few years later on another trip to the UK (which included parts of Scotland and Wales) I had one of the best meals of my life in York: roast leg of mutton, Yorkshire pud, and white aspragus. Oh, that was good.

I still remember it.

Yesterday the WSJ had Gordon Ramsey's recipe:
For the Yorkshire pudding:
4 large eggs
1½ cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons vegetable oil (or beef drippings)

In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, flour, and salt. Blend until well combined and place in the refrigerator until ready to use (allow to rest for at least 30 minutes).

Put 1 teaspoon of the oil (or beef drippings) into each section of a 12-hole Yorkshire pudding tray or muffin tray and put into the oven on the top shelf until very hot, almost smoking. As soon as you take the tray from the oven, pour in the batter to three-quarters fill the tins (it should sizzle) and immediately put back into the oven. Bake until the Yorkshire puddings are well risen, golden brown and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes. Don't open the oven door until the end or they might collapse.

While I don't like Ramsey's outbursts in his TV shows, this sounds Good. The rest of the WSJ article includes his recipe for Roast Beef With Yorkshire Pudding & Red Wine Gravy, and Sautéed Cabbage With Caramelized Onions.

That should keep global cooling at bay.
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This week's WSJ's 5 Best satires on academic life, picked by Roger Rosenblatt:




I must admit that I'm not too fond of the genre and found the characters in Lucky Jim tiresome. After all, how much can you say about academic travail in English departments? But I might give Nabokov a try.

If you like the academic satire genre, you'll probably have a good laugh reading the very prolific Alexander McCall Smith's trilogy about Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology:

Smith catches perfectly the mentality of those who resort to high-culture mental masturbation as a means to fame in some circles.
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Today's shoes: Wellington boots.
For some reason the local stores are carrying them in different prints and colors. I own a pair of classic wellies because I needed them a while ago, but I don't really understand the fad. Here they are, in case you do:

I did see a couple of farmers in the UK wearing the classic wellies.
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Pat has the Presidents' Day Weekend Carnival of the Insanities.



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The Taliban's depths of depravity

One may think that the Taliban are a distant threat, that they're on the wane, and on and on, but the evil of the Taliban is alive and well.

Jawa Report's post on Most Shocking Video Ever: 12 Year Old Taliban Boy Beheads Man. Pray for the child in that video.

Now, I haven't watched the video because,

How bad are the Taliban? I thought I had seen horrible videos produced by al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Islamist organizations. I'd seen the depth of their depravity when they beheaded Daniel Pearl. Experienced what I thought was the highest form of righteous indignation possible when they murdered dozens of other hostages. Felt like I knew what wrath was.

None of it even comes close. The images we posted earlier were bad. Add video and sound of a child---a child--slowly hacking away at a man's head while he lives on.....no words can describe it.

Strongest possible content warning: Proceed with extreme caution!

It's so bad that there was some debate amongst ourselves whether to show it or not.

When the Jawa guys tell you that, you better believe it.

The video was made by the Taleban themselves, who also videotaped themselves burning hostages alive. Muslim hostages.

Also at Jawa, there are now 5 convictions on the plot to behead a Muslim veteran of the Iraq war. of course, they wanted to film the beheading.

Meanwhile in NYC, far from reality, the NY Times gets its knickers in a bunch because US blinfolded prisoners in Iraq.

(h/t Larwyn)


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Note to the Archibishop: British women are already suffering from Islamic law

COE Archibishop Rowan Williams declared (click on link for audio file) that integrating some aspects of Sharia law was inevitable in Britain.

Today Joan Smith explains that British women are already suffering from Islamic law (h/t Alcibiades):

As soon as you look at the actual operation of religious law in this country, the picture looks less rosy. Even if the Archbishop didn't have in mind barbaric punishments such as stoning women to death for adultery, there is plenty of evidence that sharia courts are a means of consolidating patriarchal power in societies where Muslim women have begun to demand the same rights as men. The Department for Work and Pensions recently made an astonishing decision to pay state benefits to Muslim men for each of their wives, as long as the marriages were contracted legally abroad. Bigamy is illegal in Britain and the spectacle of the Government colluding in the practice of polygyny – not polygamy, for Muslim women cannot have four husbands – is a signal that ministers are losing their moral compass on the subject of women's rights.

We are only just beginning to realise the extent of violence against women from ethnic minorities. Last week, Commander Steve Allen, who leads for the Association of Chief Police Officers on honour-based violence, gave evidence to the Home Affairs Committee. Responding to a question about whether forced marriage and "honour" crimes are under-reported in this country, Allen responded with a single word: "Massively". He believes the real level of violence might be 35 times higher than the number of cases (around 500) reported each year to the police and the Foreign Office forced marriage unit.

If a woman is running away from her parents or a violent husband, mosques and sharia courts are not the obvious place for her to turn to get justice. The Centre for Social Cohesion study contains a startling insight into attitudes in one British mosque, reported by Mohamed Baleela, a team leader at the Domestic Violence Intervention Project in Hammersmith, west London. "Last time I talked about marital rape in a mosque," he said, "I nearly got beaten up. Because we said that the law makes it illegal to rape your wife, someone got up and hit me because he was ignorant of the law."

The most powerful argument, that all people in a country are subject to the same laws - indeed, that the rule of law applies to all - appears to be lost to the Archibishop, but not on Smith, who also points out that

indeed the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2003 that sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy and European values. Secular law protects people's right to practise their religion, but it also protects them from aspects of their faith which are unjust and oppressive.

Too bad the Archibishop and his followers can't seem to remember that; as you can listen in the above audio clip, he actually dismissed the European Court of Human Right's decision.

Most disturbing of all, Williams believes that the law should be shaped by "individual affiliations" and "individual loyalties", and believes that "a law that says that there's a law for everybody and that's all needs to be said" is "a bit of a danger".

So long, rule of law.



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Iraq's Parliament Passes Major Reconciliation Law, and other rainy afternoon items

Iraq's Parliament Passes Major Reconciliation Law

The provincial elections and powers law was bundled together with the $48 billion 2008 budget measure and another that grants limited amnesty to prisoners being held in Iraqi custody.

Kurds, who operate from a semiautonomous region in the north of the country, insisted on the unusual legislative maneuver because they feared getting double-crossed on a deal that maintained their 17% share of the national budget.

The provincial law calls for new elections in all Iraq's provinces, except those in the Kurdish region, on Oct. 1. The newly elected councils will then elect an executive committee and appoint a governor, the top provincial official. The law calls for the provinces to work with the United Nations on how the elections will operate and whether candidates will be selected by parties and voted on as a list or be listed on the ballot individually.

Most importantly, the measure would allow provinces to band together into regional governments that would begin making many decisions that now lie with the authorities in Baghdad.

In today's Iraq Update, the US Embassy in Iraq stated

the Provincial Powers Law represents an important step toward framing the balance the Iraqi people seek between central government authority and the strengthening of local governments. In passing this landmark law, Iraqi legislators have reached an historic compromise.

--------------------------------------------------------------------Via Maggie's Farm, what gun licensing leads to:

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The Archbishop's Tale, told in Middle English:
Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte

"Unfortunately, some are excited about the Archibishop's proposal:

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For peaceful purposes,
Last week the Mullahs inagurated their space program by launching a rocket.

This week Iran Puts Uranium Gas in Centrifuges.

For peaceful purposes.
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Cold?

Very.
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Marty Beckerman says that when he was at CPAC only black man I see over the course of the day cleans the restroom.

Obviously he missed the exhibit hall, since the first booth you found as you walked in was for Black Republicans Group. And then there was the presentation by Rev. Le Roy Thomas, Why Blacks Think Conservative, But Vote Liberal, and Angela McGlowan's book signing, and the folks from the Congress for Racial Equality, and a number of other things that I missed.

Next thing you know, Marty's going to say that there were no Puerto Ricans at CPAC...
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A little over two years ago Wolcott called me a rightwing blogger bouncing off the padded wall. Siggy, on the other hand, got called a hacky quack.

I'm jealous. What does a woman have to do to get a catchy handle in this town?



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UK: "Don't teach children patriotism"

Yesterday I posted about the survey of British teens that showed that 23% of the respondents thought Winston Churchill was a myth. Churchill, who lead the British through its darkest hour, hasn't been dead for fifty years.

How does that ignorance come to be? One of the reasons might be found in this article (h/t No Pasaran), 'Don’t teach children patriotism'

Patriotism should be avoided in school lessons because British history is "morally ambiguous", a leading educational body recommends.

History and citizenship lessons should stick to the bare facts rather than encouraging loyalty to Britain when covering subjects such as the Second World War or the British Empire, the Institute of Education researchers said. Teachers should not instill pride in what they consider great moments of British history, as more shameful episodes could be downplayed or excluded.

Like leaving out Winston Churchill, along with Hitler, Gandhi, Stalin and Martin Luther King, perhaps?

At least someone's oferring some perspective,

However, 19 per cent of teachers and 16 per cent of teenagers thought schools should support patriotic views when expressed by pupils.The historian Tristram Hunt said of the institute's report: “I think it’s a very immature approach to the topic. The point is not whether history was right or wrong from a 21st Century liberal-left perspective. It's about teaching students to understand the mindset and context of our forebears.

“The real problem isn't that our children are being indoctrinated with patriotism, but that they don't know enough British history."

The slave trade, imperialism and 20th century wars should be taught as controversial issues while students are deciding how they feel about their country, the report says.

Labour is doing one grand job of educating this generation, indeed.



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Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll

I just found this at Memeorandum, and decided to post the entire article:
Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll

LONDON (AFP) - Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.

Gina Cobb comments,

It's frightening when gaps in basic knowledge become this great. How could any adult not know how England held on, rallied, and prevailed in World War II? How could the story of World War II be understood without knowing of this man, who warned of the threat posed by Adolph Hitler, was ignored until after the threat became real, and then fought against difficult odds for Britain's very survival?

How? By lapsing into post-modern, politically-correct curricula where anything Western is devalued, by getting rid of civics learning, by making people believe that patriotism is immoral, by insisting that students "feel good" rather than adhere to rigorous standards, and by a myriad other ways.

Mankind's natural inclination is to remain comfortably stupid. Real learning takes real work. Real learning in Western societies also has to be guided by humanistic and Judeo-Christian values because those are the values on which they are founded.

Kim at Wizbang links to Betsy's post from last summer describing how the Brits have destroyed their history curriculum.

Gina also links to this article, Muslim schools to conduct own inspections

In a controversial move, they have won the right to appoint their own Ofsted-style inspectors. A new independent watchdog has been set up to be more "sensitive" toward Islamic education.

The decision comes despite concerns some private Muslim schools are already failing to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

Of course this raises concerns, which appear to go ignored:

Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons schools select committee, told MPs last month local councils were finding it "difficult to know what is going on in some faith schools - particularly Muslim schools".

Britain is facing home-grown terrorists and is possibly opening the door to homegrown, self-supervised madrassas, all in the interest of "helping to promote integration". I can not fathom what logic process the British bureaucrats used to arrive at that conclusion.

How ironic that Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".

UPDATE
The Telegraph article states that the survey asked 3,000 Brits in their teens. Considering how the history curriculum was destroyed, this is not surprising.



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Would you like some fries with that?

McDonald's serves up 'Diplomas'

McDonald's has won approval to offer courses which could form part of a qualification at the standard of A-levels or advanced Diplomas.
The fast-food giant, airline Flybe and Network Rail are the first firms to be approved to offer the Level 3 courses.

It means students could combine units from in-house courses with others to obtain the new Diplomas, which combine practical and theoretical learning.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said this did not mean standards would fall.

Promises, promises ...

Not surprisingly,

Last week, four out of 10 university admissions tutors in a group of leading universities said they would not accept students who had taken the new Diplomas which are being introduced next autumn.

For an explanation of the British educational system, see Wikipedia

(h/t Siggy, who just posted the ultimate shopping list)



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"Don't treat the old and unhealthy", and the Sunday items

The government giveth, the government taketh away:
Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.
...
Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

Fertility treatment and "social" abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.

I wonder what the American abortion-on-demand crowd would say to that.

But don't expect the British hospital doctors to want to look after you when you are old and ailing:

One in three said that elderly patients should not be given free treatment if it were unlikely to do them good for long. Half thought that smokers should be denied a heart bypass, while a quarter believed that the obese should be denied hip replacements.

Richard Fernandez posts about the survey and comments,

Those unwilling to trust that there is meaning to universe can still hope there will be beds available at the NHS or compassion in the heart of a bureaucrat.

Small wonder that 70,000 patients have had to go overseas for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs.

The poor, and those who are too sick to travel, have no choice at all.

GM Roper had a few questions,

Do we tell the poor who tend to have more physical illnesses than more wealthy folk "Sorry, your poor choices of food, tobacco, alcohol, fill in the blank have made treatment for you impossible?"

Do we tell the elderly that "Sorry, your age makes you a poor candidate for open heart surgery?"

Do we empty the nursing homes because some of those patients won't ever get better?

Do we pull a Terri Schiavo on our handicapped because afterall, most handicapps are life long?

The fact of the matter is, that eventually choices must be made because as one commenter at Tom Smith's article noted it is either on the front end with insurance or on the back end with national health care. And, despite the Democrat pie in the sky dreaming, we cannot possibly provide all health care to all people in the country at any reasonable cost.

Cuban health care is an apartheid system where even Castro had to get a foreign specialist for his surgery. Even the Washington Post is documenting the failure of the Cuban health care system.

Another thing that those who praise the "free Cuban health care system" don't want you to know is that the medics regularly have to come to your house and go through your personal effects searching for evidence of your personal habits, such as the drugs you take, whether you smoke, and what you drink. How many Americans would be willing to even contemplate the thought of having a government employee violate their privacy for the sake of "free" health care?

But what about France, you ask? On March 18, 2006 I posted a list of links from the BBC on how the French health care system fails its patients. (you might have to go to the March 2006 archive and scroll down).

Health care is not free: as The Anchoress said,

There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. You pay for it, yes, with taxes, but also with incremental decreases in personal liberty.

Who is responsible for triage?

This week's WSJ's Five Best books, on the challenges of living with illnesses, selected by Laura Landro:




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The film about the very ill Edith Piaf has received 11 nominations at France's Cesar film awards.

I hope the beautiful Marion Cotillard wins the Best Actress award at the Oscars, the Cesars, and the Baftas. She was sensational.

I reviewed the movie last July. Here's the trailer


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Instead of shoes today, handbags:
Why 'It' Bags Are Out
Luxury bags fall victim to their own success; exclusive over ostentatious

Instead of one hot, recognizable style, retailers this spring will be pushing a variety of styles and brands, many of them lesser-known. Intermix, a high-end New York-based retail chain, is making a big push for handbags from labels such as Zagliani and Lanvin. Scoop is stressing Jamin Puech, Whiting & Davis and other relatively unknown, expensive brands. For spring, Henri Bendel is picking up LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton's brand Loewe, which is popular in Asia but hasn't been widely sold in the U.S.

I own Coach stock, so here is a suggestion,

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Send Little Miss Attila to CPAC! Here's how
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The Carnival of the Insanities is up!



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