Living in Fear

I heard on the new tonight that the local airport authority here in Hong Kong is going to get in line with the security theatre prevalent in the US and ban the transportation of all liquids in the cabin.

This is completely stupid, and indicates how much people will give in to fear in order to feel safer.

If some random bunch of terrorists could make a bomb capable of taking out an airliner from two 100ml tubes of otherwise innocuous liquids, they'd have made a scientific breakthrough on a par with that of the Manhattan project. They wouldn't need to blow up a single flight, they could just put Exxon out of business!

This is nothing but security theatre: giving the appearance of increasing security but not actually doing it.

Posted by dave on 28 February 2007 at 01:42 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

TVB Bias

I was watching the news as usual last night, where the latest smirking speech by the drooling chimp in the white House was covered.

As usual in these cases, a few words from a token Democrat were shown. Last night it was Hillary Clinton saying "He's showing us nothing new".

so far, so ordinary, but then, the reporter for TVB news contradicted Clinton and *defended* Bush's speech by saying something like "But that's not true. He proposed Health Care reforms and lessening dependence on foreign oil".

Since when is it the job of a reporter to issue judgments like that?

(Anyway, Clinton was right: Health care reforms and lessening dependence on foreign oil have been a drum the Democrats have been beating for years. And Bush's health care reforms are ridiculous - they're a minor tax-break, which will have almost no impact for most of the 45 million Americans with no health insurance.)

TVB News seems to be going downhill faster and faster these days. But at least they got rid of David Nye, The Anchor Guy.

Posted by dave on 25 January 2007 at 08:54 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Trans-Pacific Cables

Looks like last night's Earthquakes near Taiwan have knocked out internet communication across the Pacific! I can resolve sites in Hong Kong, but nothing else!

Update: PCCW et al are predicting another two days of poor internet connectivity and phone lines. I was talking to family via iChat earlier on and that was almost unusable. (Oh woe is me, my full screen internet teleconferencing is only working intermittently!) Where I'd normally have my upstream transmission at 400+kbps, it was down to about 30-40kpbs, with poor latency. (packets arriving out of order, lots of audio lag, etc).

I'm getting many sites resolving now, but loading them takes a while. It seems like it's hard to initiate a connection, but once you're there it works ok, albeit slowly. Some sites, particularly east coast USA sites seem to be still unavailable.

Hopefully things will get back under control within five days and then email will self-recover. (Sensible mail-servers allow a site to be out of action for about five days before giving up on it. It's a very resilient protocol.)

Posted by dave on 27 December 2006 at 13:41 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

More Security Theatre II

U.S. puts machine-guns on Great Lakes coast guard vessels:

For the first time since 1817, U.S. Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes are being outfitted with weapons - machine-guns capable of firing 600 bullets a minute. Until now, coast guard officers have been armed with handguns and rifles, but the vessels themselves haven't been equipped with weapons.

Because, you know, any threats the US is exposed to are not exacerbated in any way at all by shoving guns in people's faces and insisting they they have to right to project force wherever they damn well like.

Posted by dave on 06 December 2006 at 13:12 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

More Security Theatre

I see from Bruce Schneier's blog, that the US TSA No-Fly List is being investigated by CBS "60 minutes": Bruce Schneier: No Fly List.

This part caught my eye:

"Gary Smith, John Williams and Robert Johnson are some of those names. Kroft talked to 12 people with the name Robert Johnson, all of whom are detained almost every time they fly. The detentions can include strip searches and long delays in their travels.

"Well, Robert Johnson will never get off the list," says Donna Bucella, who oversaw the creation of the list and has headed up the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center since 2003. She regrets the trouble they experience, but chalks it up to the price of security in the post-9/11 world. "They're going to be inconvenienced every time … because they do have the name of a person who's a known or suspected terrorist," says Bucella. "

Robert Johnson? Robert Johnson, the Blues Musician? I can see why you wouldn't want him to fly; hehad a "Hell Hound on my Trail!". Perhaps it was his song about a Terraplane:

Bush: "It's like terra, on a plane! heh-heh!"

But probably they mean Robert Johnson the Democrat? Can't allow the political opposition to travel, now can we?

Posted by dave on 09 October 2006 at 07:53 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Five years on

Five years ago yesterday evening, I wandered into the bedroom to turn on the TV. I can't remember now exactly what show I was expecting to watch: perhaps ER, the X-Files or The Fugitive. When greeted with the sight of the WTC on fire, I thought it must have been some attempt at Reality TV, like COPS or something. "This looks really real", I thought, "Hats off to the SFX guys."

I wandered out to the living room to, perhaps to get a beer or to see why the Mah-Jongg game had gone quiet. Four Chinese ladies frozen in the act of playing Mah-Jongg and staring at the TV indicates that an event of world-shattering proportions has occurred. I glanced at the TV showing one of the Cantonese channels, expecting to see some pop star coming out as gay, or something of that nature, but it was the same picture as on the English channels, just with a commentator shouting about airplanes, fire, and America. (There was more, but my Cantonese wasn't up to it.)

I went back to my office and started checking the news. *Nothing* was resolving. Every news website I knew was swamped. This was before I had broadband, so slow responses were to be expected, but not *nothing*.

Back in front of the TV, I flicked from channel to channel. Death and Destruction. Death and Destruction. Death and Destruction. Horse Racing. What? ATV World were still showing the horseracing from somewhere, with two frantic Aussies trying to squeeze in what news they could between the races.

Posted by dave on 12 September 2006 at 23:06 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Rightwing Astroturfing

From this morning's SCMP:

Only time will tell

The new film, Death of a President, panders to an underclass which contemporary liberalism shelters but should abhor: the revanchist political left, with its marked intolerance towards opposing viewpoints and its too easy acceptance of the unworthy side of politics ("Bush assassination drama set to spark controversy in Britain, US", September 3) The film's portrayal of US President George W. Bush being assassinated amid a sea of hateful protesters is offensive and corrosive to democracy. Leftist elements of the self-centred 1960s generation seem to resist the simple truth that mutual respect and compromise are de rigueur in any healthy democratic nation.

They would also reject out of hand comparison with the detractors of Abraham Lincoln, who began his presidential term being pelted in his railway car but ended it as a murdered icon.

Yet President Bush's resolve in confronting terrorism may well come to be seen by history in a similar light and his domestic opponents judged accordingly.

As they await history's verdicts the left shouldn't leave it to time and the Grim Reaper to rescue them from intolerance and vulgarity.

RON GOODDEN, Atlanta

The usual right wing stuff and nonsense about everyone picking on the poor beleagured conservatives who are just trying to do their jobs in the face of constant persecution. Notice the projection:

...the revanchist political left, with its marked intolerance towards opposing viewpoints and its too easy acceptance of the unworthy side of politics...

when it's the Republicans who hold closed door rallies, require loyalty oaths and are being arrested and tried for corruption left (hah!), right and centre (hah again!).

And also note the implied comparison with Abraham Lincoln:

They would also reject out of hand comparison with the detractors of Abraham Lincoln, who began his presidential term being pelted in his railway car but ended it as a murdered icon.

When I see a letter from a westerner who doesn't live in Hong Kong in a Hong Kong newspaper, I always wonder why they're writing it. When the subject matter of the letter has nothing to do with Hong Kong and everything to do with US internal affairs I wonder why it even gets published.

A Google Search for "Ron Goodden" turns up almost nothing but letters to editors pushing various GOP talking points:

And so on (and on, and on).

So, is this astroturfing? Is this person paid to send out all these letters pushing a single point of view? Or is he just a right-wing idiot with too much time on his hands?

The post on Making Light: Further instances of astroturf in blogs shows that there are organisations which pay for this sort of propaganda. See also AntiAstroturfing.

UPDATE: TNH has linked to me here: Astroturf and disinformation: some guy named Ron Goodden.

And Chris at Ordinary Gweilo spotted the letter as well.

Posted by dave on 10 September 2006 at 14:23 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (2)

September 11, 2001

About five years ago today, some members of a group which used to be funded by the CIA to throw the Soviets of of Afghanistan were sitting in their cave[1] watching the unfolding events on CNN. As the WTC towers went down, there must have been cheers and shouts of "Allah hu Akhbar!", etc.

And after the cheering? Well, I fancy it went a little like this...

(Note: translated from Arabic to English or thereabouts.)

[Osama]: "Now Lads, Calm down! Calm down! We should all be like Abdullah over there and pray that our mission went well, like. Abdullah, lead us in your prayers!"

[Abdullah]: "Ohshitohshitohshit, we're all gonna die ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod... Uh what Osama?"

[Osama]: "Weren't you prayin' like?"

[Abdullah]: "Sort of. I mean, we're all dead men right now, right? We've just bloodied the nose of the great Satan and they'll stop at nothing to avenge this deed. Their 'special forces' will hide under rocks in the desert eating nothing but stones and scorpions just waiting for one of us to pass by. They'll invade the countries our brave martyrs came from and punish everyone there for this action. We have brought destruction on our Women and Children!"

[Osama] Thinks for a moment: "You're right! There's only one way that any of us will be alive this time five years from now."

[All]: "What's that?"

[Osama]: We need Allah to turn all the leaders of the Great Satan into idiots. You know, make them invade Afghanistan in a half hearted fashion, refuse to take action against Saudi Arabia and Egypt (where most of our martyrs came from), then invade a country which we all hate (and which isn't even Islamic!)...

[All]: "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest Saddam's armpits!"

[Osama}: "...with not enough troops to do the job properly. Then they should attempt to win Arab hearts and minds by torturing ordinary Arabs, thus radicalizing them and winning us more converts. Also, we should pray that all of their most senior officers should be such a bunch of religious extremists that even we in Al-Qaeda would be embarrassed to know them, and that almost their entire army should behave in such a way as to make even the lesser Satans hate them."

[Abdullah]: "Bloody hell, Osama, I mean, God is great and all, but isn't that asking for a lot?"

[Osama]: "Well, It's a million to one shot, but it just might work. RIght lads, five minutes to wash up, then I want to see you all back here on your knees praying to God that they American President is a moron.

(or the Islamabad Hilton)

Posted by dave on 09 September 2006 at 18:52 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Gel-Filled Bras

According to the latest travel guidelines, we are all now encouraged to pack a gel filled bra before we get on an airplane.

I'm wondering precisely where I'm supposed to find a gel-filled bra the next time I fly to Australia. There ain't no Victoria's Secret shop in Hong Kong International Airport.

Perhaps this is a plot by the Bush administration to increase the turnover of the Victorias Secret chain. Are we about to start seeing them near the check-in desks of all major airports?

It'll also enhance the revenues of divorce lawyers world wide as husbands try and explain precisely why they were travelling with a bra not in their wife's size.

Posted by dave on 21 August 2006 at 00:26 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Tonight's theory

The theory that is mine: Both George W. Bush and Tony Blair lost their luggage when flying on a commercial airline at one point and are now determined to crush commercial air travel.

Either that, or they both have shares in executive time share private jets and want to destroy the competition.

Posted by dave on 18 August 2006 at 22:14 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Fear Mongering

As this thread on the recent terror alert at Heathrow on Making Light ably points out:

This threat is bullshit. You are being lied to. This alert happened on the day that it did for simple political reasons. Jack Ried wants his liberty stripping bills to pass in the UK. Dick Cheney desperatly need to keep Congress from seriously investigating him. That's why Bush and Blair talked about this Sunday, and Dick Cheney called the UK on Monday.

UPDATE: from Kung-Fu Monkey:

To be honest, it's not like I'm a brave man. I'm not. At all. It just, well, it doesn't take that much strength of will not to be scared. Who the hell am I supposed to be scared of? Joseph Padilla, dirty bomber who didn't actually know how to build a bomb, had no allies or supplies, and against whom the government case is so weak they're now shuffling him from court to court to avoid the public embarassment of a trial? The fuckwits who were going to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches? Richard Reid, the Zeppo of suicide bombers? The great Canadian plot that had organized over the internet, was penetrated by the Mounties on day one, and we were told had a TRUCK FULL OF EXPLOSIVES ... which they had bought from the Mounties in a sting operation but hey let's skip right over that. Or how about the "compound" of Christian cultists in Florida who were planning on blowing up the Sears Tower with ... kung fu?

Posted by dave on 11 August 2006 at 23:55 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Robert Newman's History of Oil

Rober Newman's History of Oil is a fascinating look at the real reasons behind war in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Posted by dave on 07 June 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Wish you were Gore

Wish you were Gore.

Via The Sideshow

Posted by dave on 06 June 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Approval Ratings

This is interesting: George W. Bush's Approval Ratings over time:

Bush approval graph

(my shadow adding thingy doesn't do quite what you'd expect with a largely transparent image....)

Via Daily Kos.

Posted by dave on 05 June 2006 at 18:36 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Yes Sir, Mr. President

And now, a message from the President.

Heh, George W. Bush, Baseball Commisioner. And I bet he's doing a heckuva job on that.

Posted by dave on 17 May 2006 at 21:33 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Another Wingnut

I am a great fan of Science Fiction. It used to be that there were a great many authors whose works I'd look forward too with great anticipation.

Then many authors got blogs.

When you can see a favourite author's real political positions, it can really open your eyes. It can also profoundly affect the way you think about their works.

Take Jerry Pournelle, for example. Now, I knew that he was a conservative, and probably quite right-wing. But, during the lead up to the Iraq War, he was clearly opposed to the notion that America should even have an empire. I had a lot of respect for that. Pre-emptive wars are not conservative at all.

After the invasion? He polished up his jackboots and got straight in lockstep with the party-line. I suppose I should have expected it — he was always in very tight with Republican administrations — but it was quite jarring to go from "Well, I guess the guy has his own biases" to "has the man no capacity for critical thought?".

(Of course the utter disaster which was the sequel to The Mote in God's EyeThe Gripping Hand — which was so full of basic errors put me off the combined writing of Niven & Pournelle anyway.)

So, fast forward to this morning, when I'm checking out Daily Kos, and I see a link to this excresence: April 2006 Message from Dan. It's from Dan Simmons, the author of such fine works as Hyperion, and The Hollow Man, and it proclaims that this "War On Terror" the American Right are conducting as an excuse to give Tax Dollars to Halliburton is really a war for the survival of "The American Way" against "Radical Islam". It states that Canada and England will end up as Islamic Shari'a states, presumably because they're insufficiently devoted to the Republican Party.

Dan Simmons, you're a gibbering loon.

Posted by dave on 14 May 2006 at 20:46 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Neocon Astroturfing

From Sunday's SCMP:

China's chance to do good

Your editorial "China can help reason prevail in Iran dispute" (April 30) seemed more concerned with US threats than with Iran's obvious ambitions.

That's probably because the USA is the one threatening Nuclear War and Invasion. I must have missed the part where Iran had a history of invading smaller countries for economic reasons, especially oil.

This, in a nutshell, is an outlook shared by the United Nations, the European Union, China and Russia. All these parties have demonstrated that they will not stand up to Iran. Their rhetoric is no more than a tool to pacify the US.

Deep in our collective hearts, we all know that only the US stops tyrants and terrorists carrying out diabolical schemes that would result in a world none of us would like to live in.

No, Mr. Sarway, The US does not do that. The US seems quite happy to build up tyrants when it suits American interests. Also, I seem to recall many Americans were eager to supply at least one set of terrorists with arms and money. (I'm referring to the drug-dealing, kidnapping and bank-robbing organisation known as the IRA.)

Iran has had previous regimes destabilised by US forces and I'm sure has a very jaundiced view of America.

As China rises, it can afford to put altruism above economics and weigh in on the side of good.

If it did this, not only would Iran end up not armed with nuclear weapons but China would be on course to true superpower status in a world sorely in need of another "good guy".

CHARLES SARWAY, New York City

Source: SCMP.

"Weighing in on the side of good" apparently means agreeing with whatever George Bush says, does it?

Wake up and pay attention, Mr Sarway. The current brouhaha over Iran's ability to make teaspoons full of slightly enriched uranium has nothing to do with whatever Iran is doing. It's about the absolute belief that America has to control all the oil in the world.

(Irrelevant Aside: I wonder is this the same Charles Sarway of Jolie Intimates?

Posted by dave on 08 May 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

The Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/29.html#a8104:

"Colbert complained that he was "surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides - the president's side and the vice president's side."

Also, from Editor and Publisher:

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. ”This administration is soaring, not sinking,„ he said. ”They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg.„

via many places, but Making Light originally.

UPDATE: they just covered the dinner on the local news (TVB NEWS), and only covered the Bush impersonator, not Colbert. Afterwards, one of their announcers referred to the clip as "making fun of Bill", proving once gain the world-class nature of news in this city.

UPDATE2: YouTube: Colbert Roasts the pResident.

UPDATE3: torrent.

Posted by dave on 30 April 2006 at 18:06 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Earthday

Happy Earth Day!

Posted by dave on 22 April 2006 at 21:52 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

An Inconvenient Truth

Eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore’s personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way. The film is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry.

Source: An Inconvenient Truth

Posted by dave on 21 April 2006 at 23:57 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

W. stands for War.

Seymour Hersh's article about the Bush plan to start a nuclear war with Iran:

There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change. Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has challenged the reality of the Holocaust and said that Israel must be ”wiped off the map.„ Bush and others in the White House view him as a potential Adolf Hitler, a former senior intelligence official said. ”That’s the name they’re using. They say, ‘Will Iran get a strategic weapon and threaten another world war?’ „

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that ”a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.„ He added, ”I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’ „

The New Yorker: THE IRAN PLANS by Seymour Hersh.

Posted by dave on 17 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

W. Stands for Wacko

One of the things that happens with a person like Bush, is that he becomes a compulsive and congenital liar. And lying is a complicated thing also, in that, as a liar like he is, he believes what he says is true. He lies ultimately to himself. So, when he said the other day that he never made a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, and that he never made a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and that he doesn't know where people get these ideas, it makes me think he believes it when he says that, and that's what's very disturbing. It's as disturbing as if he were just a basic liar.

Source: George Bush Is a Very Destructive Man; He Needs To Be Removed From Office

Link spotted on DailyKos.

Posted by dave on 16 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Iran Can Now Make glowing Mickey Mouse Watches

Excellent commentary from Juan Cole:

Despite all the sloppy and inaccurate headlines about Iran "going nuclear," the fact is that all President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday was that it had enriched uranium to a measely 3.5 percent, using a bank of 180 centrifuges hooked up so that they "cascade."

...

What is really going on here is a ratcheting war of rhetoric. The Iranian hard liners are down to a popularity rating in Iran of about 15%. They are using their challenge to the Bush administration over their perfectly legal civilian nuclear energy research program as a way of enhancing their nationalist credentials in Iran.

Source: Juan Cole: Iran Can Now Make glowing Mickey Mouse Watches

(Via Making Light.)

Posted by dave on 14 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Mutual Assured Dementia

Billmon: Mutual Assured Dementia:

In other words, the current hegemony of American influence and ideas (backed by overwhelming military force) would be replaced by an overt dictatorship based - more or less explicitly - on fear of nuclear annihilation. U.S. foreign policy would become nothing more than a variation on the ancient Roman warning: For every one of our dead; 100 of yours. Never again would American rulers (or their foreign counterparts) be able to hide behind the comfortable fiction that the United States is just primus inter pares - first among equals. A country that nukes other countries merely on the suspicion that they may pose a future security threat isn't the equal of anybody. America would stand completely alone: hated by many, feared by all, admired only by the world’s other tyrants. To call that a watershed event seems a ridiculous understatement.

Source: Billmon: Mutual Assured Dementia

Posted by dave on 13 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Rampant Corporatism in New Orleans

Seen on Yahoo! News:

NEW ORLEANS - A showdown may be looming over a free wireless Internet network that New Orleans set up to boost recovery after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the city.

...

The system uses hardware mounted on street lights. Its "mesh" technology passes the wireless signal from pole to pole rather than through Wi-Fi transmitters plugged directly into a physical network cable. That way, laptop users can connect even in areas where the wireline phone network has not been restored.

That's a really clever way of doing it. Simple, practical and cheap.

Hundreds of similar projects in other cities have met with stiff opposition from phone and cable TV companies, which have poured money into legislative bills aimed at blocking competition from government agencies.

...

Bills to allow New Orleans to keep the network operating full-time at 512 kbps failed during a recent special legislative session. Several similar bills are pending in the current regular session, but Meffert says city lobbyists give them little hope of passage because of opposition from the telecommunications lobby.

"We've been told in no uncertain terms those bills are going to get shot down," Meffert said.

So something which is helping to rebuild the city is being threatened so that large corporations can make more profits.

David Grabert, a spokesman for Cox Communications Inc., a major telecommunications provider in New Orleans, said the company backs the state's Fair Competition Act, which would end the city's legal authority to continue operating the system at full speed after the state of emergency ends.

"We believe the Fair Competition Act was established to provide safeguards for private industry," Grabert said. "Efforts to repeal it do raise concerns."

BellSouth Corp. says it does not comment on pending legislation, but its regional director for southern Louisiana, Merlin Villar, denies the company's trying to shut down the city's system.

"The law does not prevent New Orleans or any other local government from providing Wi-Fi service," Villar said in a statement.

Source: Big Easy May Face Showdown Over Internet

Right, so it's all about fair competition, not about profiteering, huh? If it were really about competition, the Telcos would just provide a faster Wifi service and win customers from the city's slower service that way.

Posted by dave on 07 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

W. Stands For Worst President Ever

Some letters to the Editor in Stars And Stripes, a US military newspaper:

Bush’s sorry legacy

Three years after ”shock and awe,„ now it’s called ”the Long War,„ just as the CATO Institute in 2003 said it would be.

Last month, President Bush casually informed Americans that troops would remain there past his second term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2009, and not a moment too soon. What a disaster Bush will leave Americans when calculating the costs of his generational commitment to ”democratize„ the Middle East. Columbia and Harvard economics professors estimate the U.S. invasion/occupation of Iraq through 2010 will cost taxpayers $1 trillion, minimum.

In ”The True Costs of the Iraq War,„ Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University professor of economics) states, ”One cannot help but wonder: Were there alternative ways of spending a fraction of the war’s $1-$2 trillion in costs that would have better strengthened security, boosted prosperity, and promoted democracy?„

And spared lives? Clearly, but at a loss of billions in contracts to Halliburton/KBR, Bechtel and the Carlyle Group, of which George H.W. Bush is senior adviser. If it weren’t for war, the Bush family empire would be bankrupt. Self-enrichment is why Bush and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair were determined to launch an invasion against Iraq. That’s why Iran is next.

Bush has said that he wouldn’t be in Iraq if not for a good reason. Bush isn’t in Iraq, and neither are members of his family. Some soldiers are on their third deployment and wish to be liberated from stop loss. Bush likely won’t initiate a ”front-door„ draft before the elections, which means more troop deployments until help — a new Congress and commander in chief — arrives.

Bush’s policy of touting peace and democracy while dropping bombs on oil-producing countries and promoting crony capitalism in an America deteriorating into a feudal backwater will be Bush’s legacy as the worst president in U.S. history.

Michele Winter

Würzburg, Germany

Source: Letters to the Editor for Monday, April 3, 2006

Well said that woman!

And another on the subject of how it's "unpatriotic to criticise the God-King, President":

...

I also remember talking with my division chief in late 2000 who stated to me and others that he was afraid of only one thing in that election: that George W. Bush would win the popular vote but not the Electoral College. He said if that happened, he expected the military to ”step in„ and set things right. He reacted with indignation when I informed him that such talk was treason and he questioned my loyalties. Not surprisingly, he did not advocate armed insurrection when what he feared did happen, only not to the guy he was supporting.

If criticizing the administration is wrong now, how many were guilty of doing it during Clinton’s administration?

Michael Williams

Baghdad

...

Source: Letters to the Editor for Monday, April 3, 2006

(Found via DailyKos.)

(Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship.)

Posted by dave on 06 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

"We Are not OK"

I read in the newspaper delivered to my hotel room on Saturday, that "New Orleans is Doing Fine!". I'll try and track down a link, but the paper was The Australian, a Murdoch rag. The gist of the article was that New Orleans was now up and back in business after Katrina.

When I got into the office, I noticed that Making Light was linking to "We Are Not OK" by author Poppy Z. Brite:

1. Most of the city is still officially uninhabitable. We and most other current New Orleanians live in what is sometimes known as The Sliver By The River, a section between the Mississippi River and St. Charles Avenue that didn't flood, as well as in the French Quarter and part of the Faubourg Marigny. In the "uninhabitable sections," there are hundreds of people living clandestinely in their homes with no lights, power, or (in many cases) drinkable water. They cannot afford generators or the gasoline it takes to run them, or if they have generators, they can only run them for part of the day. They cook on camp stoves and light their homes with candles or oil lamps at night.

...

9. Cadaver dogs and youth volunteers gutting houses are still finding bodies in the Lower Ninth Ward...

...

It's quite powerful stuff, and well worth reading if you want to know what the place is like after Katrina.

So which to believe? The right-wing rag or the author who lives in New Orelans? I guess you know the answer to that one already.

Posted by dave on 03 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Effects of Global Warming

Here's a great use of Google Maps to show the effects of global warming and the rise in the sea levels.

Hong Kong with 14m rise. (click on 'Flood SAT', there's no maps for HK.)

What's surprising to me is how little Hong Kong island is affected. Victoria Park, Tamar and a lot of the reclaimed land to the north of the island is gone, but Central, Wanchai, Causeway and North Point are pretty unscathed. Kowloon, though is inundated.

I've nearly always lived on higher ground in Hong Kong, and I'm certainly going to keep it that way!

(Via the ever-wonderful Making Light.)

Posted by dave on 02 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Da Vinci Code Debunked

I've mentioned before how I think Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is complete rubbish. Here's the Catholic Church's take on it:

Da Vinci Code novel a mess, US bishops say

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Los Angeles

US Catholic bishops have launched a stinging counter-attack on the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, ahead of the release of Ron Howard's film version in May.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops produced a new website disputing key claims made in Dan Brown's novel that are likely to be included in Howard's movie, starring Tom Hanks.

"The Da Vinci Code' is a mess, a riot of laughable errors and serious misstatements. Almost every page has at least one of each," the bishops wrote on the website Jesusdecoded.com.

"What this novel does [is] ... ask people to consider equivalent to the mainstream Christian tradition quite a few odd claims. Some are merely distortions of hypotheses advanced by serious scholars who do serious research. Others, however, are inaccurate or false," the site claimed.

The bishops said the site was aimed at providing "accurate information on the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity prior to the release of the movie".

It offers articles written by theologians, media commentators, art experts and others that "provide background and also reject speculation and inaccuracies about Christ and the origins of Christianity", the bishops said.

Monsignor Francis Maniscalco of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York denied that the website was a knee-jerk defensive reaction.

"Reporters have asked whether even a best-selling novel can seriously damage a church of 1 billion believers. No, in the long run, it cannot. But that is not the point. The pastoral concern of the church is for each and every person," he said.

Brown's novel, which has sold nearly 40 million copies worldwide, hinges on the theory that Christ married Mary Magdalene and that they had children.

Posted by dave on 17 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Google Mars?

Google Mars!

Viking 1

The Google Blog entry.

Posted by dave on 14 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Illegal Tactics

...And things are going so well in Iraq too, huh?

Griffin said he believed US soldiers had no respect for Iraqis, whom they regarded as "sub-human".

"You could almost split the Americans into two groups: ones who were complete crusaders, intent on killing Iraqis, and the others who were in Iraq because the army was going to pay their college fees," he said.

"They had no understanding or interest in the Arab culture. The Americans would talk to the Iraqis as if they were stupid and these weren't isolated cases, this was from the top down.

"There might be one or two enlightened officers who understood the situation a bit better but on the whole that was their general attitude. Their attitude fuelled the insurgency. I think the Iraqis detested them."

Source: British soldier quits army, accuses US troops of illegal tactics in Iraq

Posted by dave on 13 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Chinese Gov't Sets Up Blogs for Lawmakers

Chinese Gov't Sets Up Blogs for Lawmakers

In one posting, National People's Congress delegate Zhou Hongyu wrote that serving in the legislature is a way to "fulfill my duty and be a better deputy."

"I hope to collect the wishes of the people, listen to their will and experience the people's lives," wrote Zhou, a representative from the southern province of Hunan who advocates education reform.

The patriotically named "Strong Country Blog" is run by the People's Daily, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party.

Posted by dave on 07 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

When Americans No Longer Own America

When Americans No Longer Own America

The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.

(via)

I'm sure the "Global Free Trade at all costs" brigade will tout the "success" of free trade by showing that large multinational companies make a lot of money by outsourcing everything except top management to third world countries without reflecting on the human cost of this "success". They're not 'Free Traders', they're 'Cheap Labour Conservatives'.

Cheap-labor conservatives like "free trade", NAFTA, GATT, etc. Why. Because there is a huge supply of desperately poor people in the third world, who are "over a barrel", and will work cheap.

Source: Cheap Labour Conservatives

Personally, I'm in favour of "Free Trade", but not "Free Trade at all costs". I don't believe that a corporation should be allowed to massively profit from driving local farmers out of business, or laying off first world workers to recruit sweatshop labour to make their products.

Posted by dave on 05 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Shark Spies

Military scientists in the United States are developing a way of manipulating sharks by remote control to turn them into underwater spies or weapons.

Engineers funded by the Pentagon have created electronic brain implants for fish that they hope will be able to influence the movements of sharks and perhaps even decode what they are sensing.

Source: Independent: Pentagon develops brain implants to turn sharks into military spies

Now all they need to do is attach some lasers...

Posted by dave on 02 March 2006 at 08:37 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel Redux

In his Monitor column on 14/02/06, Jake Van Der Kamp argues that the real reason for the Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel is to remove Shenzen's stranglehold on Cross-Boundary revenues:

Imagine yourself a senior Shenzhen government official. You happen to sit astride the chokepoint of road access to and from Hong Kong and you and your mates in the Guangdong provincial government have a great deal of authority over who will be allowed through and who will not.

It is the ultimate in toll booths and you have so tight a control over it that you do not need to stick out your hand directly at an actual cross-border toll booth. You can collect your money in much more refined ways.

For instance, you can control the issuance of cross-border vehicle licences and keep them in such short supply that the prices or rents for them go way up.

...

The study estimates that the sting for road haulage across the border is $1,200 a trip. It is no wonder that our port is under competitive strain. We are not talking peanuts here.

One of the reasons the Mainland (and Shenzen in particular) can get away with profiting from Hong Kong is that we're probably the richest city in China. Mainland Chinese want to make as much money as possible from anything to do with Hong Kongers, and I think they tend to view us as not really part of China.

But on this issue, the bridge vs tunnel cost is $60bn vs $6billion. Is the total saving worth paying a little extra to Shenzen? We're going to pay the 'sting' anyway, and it's highly unlikely that Zhuhai will charge much less than Shenzen, so why risk huge environmental damage to Lantau and line Gordon Wu's pockets with taxpayer money when the Guangdong government will provide us with almost as good a connection for far less money?

Given that Zhuhai knows Hong Kong truck drivers (and associated companies) will pay $1200 to go via Shenzen, there's no way they're going to charge less for a shorter route to the Western Pearl River Delta. I can easily see it being more, and the reason being quoted as "well, you're saving four+ hours over having to drive via the Humen bridge".

The 'Market Price' in this case will be how much *additional* squeeze can be put on Hong Kong truck drivers to take a shorter route. I do not for one second believe that the Zhuhai authorities will selflessly forego the extortion fees they see Shenzen collecting from Hong Kongers.

('free-market? What free market? It's all heavily entrenched interests trying to distort the market as much as possible in their favour. Ideologues who think that there's some kind of 'invisible hand' which will magically make business fair are deluded. There is no real free market in Hong Kong for these kinds of things.)

Posted by dave on 20 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Darth Cheney Strikes Again

So, Dick Cheney shoots down a member of his own hunting party. Metaphor?

From Daily Kos Poster thereisnospoon:

Source: Daily Kos: It's the Metaphor, Stupid!: Cheney story bigger than you think

In this case, Cheney and friends were killing innocent creatures who were trapped in a pen with no hope of escape.

Overeager, Cheney hunted with a shoot first, ask questions later mentality, and managed to strike his own partner, and send his friend to intensive care.

It later appears that Bush and his situation room (or so they said) had no idea what was going on on the ground there. They waited an entire day to even report the story, even though they obviously knew what happened. Hell, someone else had to force them to report the story, because they sure weren't going to unless they had to.

The official story then has Cheney blaming the victim, saying it was the victim's fault he got in Cheney's way.

It starts to become clear there was a pretty big hush-hush coverup job about it, but that the truth couldn't help but get leaked, despite the Administration's best wishes. There is even speculation that Cheney was possibly intoxicated, and not using his best intelligence before he started shooting.

And, of course, they couldn't afford to admit the truth, because the truth would probably be an impeachable offense.

Source: Daily Kos: It's the Metaphor, Stupid!: Cheney story bigger than you think.

Some other links on the subject:

Posted by dave on 14 February 2006 at 19:50 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel

SCMP: Tunnel bid could sink cross-delta bridge plan, from the SCMP:

An underwater tunnel between Zhongshan and Shenzhen has been endorsed by the Guangdong government, and experts say the project could scuttle the long-awaited Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge.

...

A tunnel was widely seen by Guangdong academics and officials as a better alternative to the expensive and controversial Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, and would make that project redundant, said veteran China observer Johnny Lau Yui-siu.

"It would be cheaper and easier to build. The Guangdong government has set aside money for the project. If it goes ahead, I fear the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge will no longer be necessary."

Supporters of the project say the tunnel, which would probably land in northwest Shenzhen - has many advantages over the bridge. It would cost 6 billion yuan to build, compared with $60 billion for the bridge.

And about bloody time too. The Hong Kong - Zhuhai- Macau Bridge (HZMB hereafter) is a ludicrous boondoggle intended to waste huge amounts of taxpayer money by giving it to Gordon Wu's Hopewell Construction company. (Time: The Ties that Bind.)

There are many things that are ridiculous about the bridge:

Lantau Landfall

Landfall on the Hong Kong side would be on Lantau Island, bringing heavy freight traffic into unspoiled wilderness, destroying historical sites, etc. This is allegedly to allow freight access to the north Lantau Port areas and the airport, but seems to be anexcuse to pave the entire northern coast of Lantau Island

Weather

The bridge would be adversely affected by regional weather (Typhoons and high winds), which would shut the bridge down for weeks every year. Currently, bridges in Hong Kong are closed during Typhoons. The western side of the Pearl River Delta seems to be hit by more Typhoons than Hong Kong, so I'd expect more adverse impacts from the weather.

Odd Design

A Y-shaped Bridge?! (Look at the map on that page and note the lack of a connection on the Macau/Zhuhai side. There's intended to be one leg to Zhuhai and one to Macau.)

No Rail Link

There's no rail link. There will only be vehicular access, and the bridge is primarily intended for freight. Currently, it takes about an hour to go from Hong Kong to Macau by Ferry. It's 25km from Central to the airport, 29km for the bridge and a few km between the airport and the landfall point, so probably 60km in total. You're not going to be able to do that journey in less than one hour, not with Hong Kong traffic, CIQ, heavy freight traffic, etc. So there's no time-saving for passengers, purely for freight, which would no longer have to go around the Pearl River Delta.

No Time Saving

As mentioned above, there'd be no real time saving from HK to Macau. Also, because of where the traffic from Hong Kong would enter Guangdong, there'd be little in the way of appreciable time savings to Guangdong and other cities around the delta.

Freight Only

Heavy vehicles cause much more damage to a road surface than light vehicles. When calculating highway maintenance costs, a reasonable estimate of the damage to the surface would be the vehicle tonnage multipled by one thousand (or ten thousand in Australia). To build a bridge to take these loads and not have to close it for maintenance every year, and also to allow for the inevitable increase in heavy vehicles sizes is just going to cost more and more. Also, the final design will be heavy and unattractive. A tunnel doesn't have to be light and elegent and can be built to take heavier traffic.

I note that there's already a HK Government Project Management Office: HZMB Project Management Office Telephone Directory. This probably means that there'll be a tremendous loss of face if the project has to be cancelled. This is inevitable in this sort of situation, but what tends to happen in Hong Kong is that face must be preserved even at an astronomical cost to the taxpayer.

Note: some placenames (Macau, Lantau) in this article are spelled in accordance with Hong Kong standard practice. Some of the linked articles spell these placenames differently (Macao, Lantao). This is in accordance with Mainland (PRC) standard practice.

Posted by dave on 13 February 2006 at 11:08 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Bush Squirms

Bush Squirms George Bush had an unpleasant dose of reality the other day at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King's wife, as ex-president Carter and Civil Rights Leader, Reverend Joseph Lowery, a long-time friend of the King family, eulogized her and attacked the policies of the current Administration. They both commented on current administration policies such as illegal wire-tapping as well as the apalling reponse of the crony-burdened FEMA to the Katrina Hurricane:

Lowery:

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

Carter:

"The struggle for equal rights is not over. We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, those who are most devastated by Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

Of course, the American Wingut press-corps are aghast that anyone could dare to speak the truth to King George:

From MSNBC's "The Situation", hosted by Tucker Carlson:

So why, when you can at any time, from your pulpit or any other place, attack the president‘s policies, why would you use a funeral to needle the president about weapons of mass destruction? Why there today?

Tucker Carlson: Interview with Rev. Lowery

This shameful wingnut gibbering from the New York Post:

Jimmy Carter may or may not have been the worst president of the 20th century - history will have the final word on that - but his disgraceful performance yesterday at Coretta Scott King's funeral marks him as the most shameless.

Maybe of all time.

New York Post: Carter: Still No Clue

And it's not just the Americans: The Brisbane Courier-Mail (a Murdoch right-wing rag):

US President George W. Bush turned up to Coretta Scott King's funeral yesterday only to be targeted by speakers mourning the loss of the first lady of America's civil rights movement.

Political Posturing at King Funeral

Thankfully, not all of the Fourth Estate are craven Bush apologists:

President Bush almost never hears criticism to his face. Certainly not in public.

But yesterday, at the widely-watched funeral of civil rights icon Coretta Scott King, a fidgety president had no choice but to sit quietly and listen as several speakers reproached him for not having learned the lessons that King and her martyred husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spent their lives teaching

Washington Post: The Captive President

This Modern World:

Face it conservatives, Coretta Scott King was a liberal. While civil rights heroes like the Kings were leading a non-violent struggle for equality, your political heroes were finding new ways to court southern racists away from the Democratic party. The Republican journey to victory was fueled by the votes of bigots, so it’s a little late in the game to start acting like you have the right to speak for the leaders of a movement you fought against.

This Modern World: Stealing Coretta

From the New York Daily News:

LITHONIA, Ga. - President Bush changed his schedule at the last minute to attend Coretta Scott King's funeral. It might have been a mistake.

Not only was he overshadowed by the Bill and Hillary show, but several speakers, including former President Jimmy Carter, aimed sharply pointed darts at the commander in chief as he sat squirming on the dais.

NY Daily News: Funeral speakers hammer W

Posted by dave on 09 February 2006 at 12:32 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Depictions of Muhammed (pbuh)

There's been a lot of incendiary rhetoric about a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)* recently. See Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy)

Mahablog: Taking The Bait. (Via.)

This, IMO, gets to the heart of why the Right Blogosphere is obsessed with this story, the way they were obsessed with the recent French riots. They want a holy war against Islam. They are itching for it. Not that any of them would volunteer to fight, of course

Whatever: Prioritizing the Idiots

People with the right to free speech are not obliged to cave to people who demand that the world has to be their way and their way only, even as they are obliged to be respectful of those who are respectful of those freedoms.

Flogging The Simian: Muslim Cartoon Controversy What the Media Isn't Telling You.

So what triggered this? Well it takes a blog to explain it. What CNN and the other traditional media failed to tell you is that the thousand gallons of fuel added to the fire of outrage came from none other than our old pals Saudi Arabia.

The Religious Policeman: Prams, Toys, Rattles and Dummies. (Via above.)

....don't be under the illusion that two editors coincidentally thought this would be a Good Idea. Saudi newspapers may occasionally show little acts of independence, but when it comes to the big things, like sacking editors, or targetting other countries, the government is still very much in control. And the government ordered a diversion. So for "We are angry at Danish cartoons" read "Don't talk about the Hajj stampede".

To my mind, the last link explains what's really going on. Or was going on. I think the invented outrage the Saudis wanted to distract from their own shortcomings has raged out of their control:

And, of course, it's playing right into the hands of those in the US who want to go to war with Iran. Visions of crowds of Muslim Fundamentalists burning flags and attacking embassies can easily sway the all-too suggestible American public. Hmmm, Saudi Muslims are Sunni, Iranians are Shi'ia, and the Sunnis hate the Shi'ia. Excuse me while I go get my tinfoil hat on...

But I'll leave the last word to UrsulaV: UrsulaV's Live JournalL

Since everybody else has to have an opinion about Muslims, cartoons, Danish newspapers, and depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, I'm going to tell you mine.

Everybody involved's a freakin' moron.

* - PBUH is an acronym of "Peace Be Unto Him"; see here for an explanation. That article says that it isn't strictly correct, but the Saudi newspapers used to use it all the time when I was there.

Posted by dave on 07 February 2006 at 10:26 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Energy Addiction

Here's an interesting diary on Energy Addiction, from Daily Kos.

Posted by dave on 06 February 2006 at 02:43 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Robber Barons

Tom Legg, over at Dai Tou Laam notes two incidents of the US Justice Department putting pressure on banks doing business with countries that the Bush Administration doesn't like.

I thought these right-wing Bush following types loved free enterprise? I mean, here they are criticising a company for making money in a country they consider to be evil, while:

  • Dick Cheney supported South Africa during Apartheid and opposed the release of Nelson Mandela; (link)
  • The Bush Administration does business wih Uzbekistan, where they boil dissenters alive; (link)
  • Both are oilmen, and very closely associated with Saudi Arabia, a country which makes Iran look like Amsterdam.(link)

So it's OK if they make money in a country which isn't liked by most of the world, but it's wrong for anyone else to do so. Hypocrites.

Posted by dave on 06 February 2006 at 02:03 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Some links (US Politics)

Peter Daou notes that the Pro-Bush Media Bias Blowing Rightwing Minds. (Via.)

Furthermore, the fallacy undergirding the "liberal media" myth is that any negative coverage of the Bush administration is considered media "bias" despite the fact that with the administration's many screw-ups, it's amazing there's anything positive to say.

Bush Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports (Via.)

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

Woman ejected from State Of The Union Address for wearing a t-shirt. Whatever happened to the First Amendment? (Via.)

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?"

MSNBC Report: Antiwar mom, representative's wife removed from State of the Union.

Posted by dave on 02 February 2006 at 12:48 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

More on Google.com.cn

According to Paul Butin, Chinese Google filter only works if you can spell.

google.cn image search for Tiananmen: Gate of Heavenly Peace.

google.cn image search for Tianenmen, Tienanmen and Tiananman: Tanks, tanks, more tanks.

(via.)

Posted by dave on 31 January 2006 at 13:17 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Google in China

Google officially comments on their decision to censor search results from www.google.com.cn: Google in China.

It's pretty much what I expected they'd say, but this is an interesting bit:

And yes, Chinese regulations will require us to remove some sensitive information from our search results. When we do so, we'll disclose this to users, just as we already do in those rare instances where we alter results in order to comply with local laws in France, Germany and the U.S.

Now, the reference to France and Germany is that local laws in those two countries prohibit certain materials relating to Nazis, White Supremacists and other scum.

Just what restrictions are in place in the U.S.A.? It turns out (following a quick google.com.hk search), that:

(See the full article here: Localized Google search result exclusions.)

You can see the full list (assuming that Google reports everything) of excluded items here: ChillingEffects.Org.

Posted by dave on 30 January 2006 at 22:40 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Avian Flu

There's been more news of dead H5N1 infected birds in Hong Kong. This brings the grand total of cases to two wild birds.

Remarkably, and quite unlike the SARS era and the recent WTO coverage, the media isn't attempting to whip things up into a panicked frenzy. Perhaps they've taken the large amount of criticism over the WTO reporting to heart. Or maybe they just haven't found a bio hazard suit to fit Emma Jones yet, like that silly stunt with the TVB reporter in the crash helmet at the WTO frontlines. (Tom Grundy, the guy in the chicken suit.)

Given the enormous impact of the whole SARS fiasco on the Hong Kong economy, I wonder would the news media jump on an Avian Flu bandwagon quite as quickly as they played up SARS? SARS turned out to be no more dangerous than any other form of pneumonia, but the WHO declared it a potential pandemic and we all know what happened then. I know people who sent their kids to distant relatives in other countries, or who left Hong Kong with the clothes on their backs, never to return. Meanwhile, several countries refused to accept travellers from infected countries, and there was a massive hit to Hong Kong's economy which we took years to recover from.

Posted by dave on 30 January 2006 at 14:35 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: , , , ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Bush denies reality

Not that this is surprising, but the anti-scientific bias of the Bush Administration is revealed again in this article on DailyKos. Bush to NASA Climate Scientist: Play Ball on Global Warming!

Global Warming is not a controversy these days; it's a very well accepted scientific fact. There are those who try and deny the growing evidence; but for some reason they seem to be either paid by the oil industry (like VPOTUS Cheney) or Right-Wing Regurgitators[1].

[1] You know the type: constantly parroting the latest talking point from whatever right-wing source their wingnuttery stems from. In email, they're the kind who pass on every chain email they ever get and get upset when they're debunked. They believe whatever is the craze of the month, even if it conradicts last month's nonsense.

UPDATE: Other links (because I know some will immediately reject any link to DailyKos):

Posted by dave on 30 January 2006 at 00:21 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Google

Local blogger Glutter is featured in this BBC article (Chinese bloggers debate Google) about the way Google is censoring search results on google.com.cn.

(Hmmm, I can't use google.com.cn, I guess it's a China only service, and Hong Kong doesn't quite count.)

A more exhaustive analysis of what's censored is shown in this article: What Google Censors in China, found on news.google.com.

Posted by dave on 27 January 2006 at 11:32 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

39% of Britons believe in Creationism

Britons unconvinced on evolution, says the BBC, based on a survey of Britons with regards to Evolution.

(via.)

Over 2000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and development of life:

  • 22% chose creationism;
  • 17% opted for intelligent design;
  • 48% selected evolution theory;
  • and the rest did not know.

Intelligent Design is just another attempt by the US Fundamentalists to force Creationism, and hence their fundamentalist agenda into public schools.

It has nothing to do with a basically theistic, but also scientific view of the universe. i.e., that some sort of Supreme Being created the universe and it runs on observed and testable scientific principles.

Science tells you How The Universe Works; religion tells you Why The Universe Is, (according to your flavour of religion and need or desire to be so told, of course).

The fact that it's becoming a mainstream belief in Britain is worrying. Religous fundamentalism is an evil thing. A requirement to believe that sheperds 3,000+ years ago could write a detailed scientific account of the formation of the world is clearly nonsense. To insist that people must believe it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is a sure sign of fanaticism. To insist that it should be taught in lieu of actual science is a major step towards schools which don't actually teach but merely indoctrinate their 'students' (or victims) with propaganda.

It also has another impact: teaching kids the 'scientific method', i.e. that a theory can be tested with an experiment and verified, is clearly dangerous to a fundamentalist regime. The notion that everyone can test out the theories for themselves and prove that they work removes power from the pulpit and gives it back to the people. After all, I don't need to believe or trust in a science teacher about gravity; I can test it for myself with a stopwatch, a stepladder and a stone in a simple experiment. Even though I may be critical of the teachers lessons, I can easily prove or dispove them for myself.

Suppose, for example, that a travelling Science Teacher comes to my town and insists that the acceleration due to gravity is 5 metres per second per second. I can take a stop watch, a stepladder and a stone and disprove his claims in, oh about enough time for a rock to accelerate at 9.81 metres per second per second and for me to calculate that rate.

To insist that I shouldn't be allowed to question the roving Science Teacher is to deny the scientific method. To deny the Scientific Method is to deny personal choice while insisting that taught beliefs are inherently correct and must be followed without reflection. Fanaticism, in other words.

Posted by dave on 27 January 2006 at 00:37 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (2)

Big Al's Speech.

Al Gore makes a speech in which he rightly accuses The Shrub of illegal spying on Americans. (via.)

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment’s notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens’ right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore vital in our current circumstances that immediate steps be taken to safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by the intrusive overreaching on the part of the Executive Branch and the President’s apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law.

It sounds like Big Al is winding up for another Presidential Run in 2008. Well, he won the last time, but never got to take office thanks to a packed Supreme Court and Republican Corruption in Florida.

Best of luck to him if he does run - I'm rooting (although not in the Australian sense!) for a Gore/Clark ticket.

Posted by dave on 17 January 2006 at 22:24 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

A worldview based on lies

Iraqis thankful to US

I wish to comment on the article "The two faces of America", by Michael Chugani (December 23). Perhaps he could have saved a lot of space by saying "I hate President George W. Bush".

The America envisioned by the liberal (left-wing) media, of which Chugani is a charter member, holds that social conservatives are leading the country down the "wrong" path and that President Bush is the devil incarnate. Those who hold this mindset are so blinded by their hatred for him and conservative values that they will twist the facts to fit their view. They say that Guantanamo Bay is a "gulag", when, in fact, the detainees eat better than the men and women serving in Iraq; that American political and social conservatives are evil, when never has so much American aid been offered to so many people. To the best of my knowledge, no one in American custody has been beheaded, raped or tortured.

His reference to neoconservatives is particularly disturbing, as it is code among the political left for politically conservative Jews. This thinly veiled anti-Semitism is repugnant. The premise that America uses brute force indiscriminately is without basis. It is terrorists who do this.

While in America, Chugani obviously did not catch the news. Or he would have witnessed 70 per cent of eligible voters in Iraq taking part in the third election within the space of 15 months, rejoicing in their first steps in participatory democracy.

Contrast his mindset to the reaction of Iraqi citizens. This is best summed up by an elderly Iraqi woman, who said: "I thank America and President Bush. Everyone who doesn't like what America and President Bush have done for Iraq can go to hell."

His assertion that the US media is mostly compliant with President Bush is laughable. Many daily news feeds from the US are, by and large, a rant against him and a recitation of what is wrong with America.

GARRY HUNT, Mid-Levels

Here's a man who's very name is rhyming slang and who is a gibbering exponent of the right-wing echo chamber. I can't allow anyone who utters such nonsense to escape into anonymity.

Posted by dave on 27 December 2005 at 14:06 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

The Somme, Wanchai.

The South China Untrustworthy Morning Post (SCuMP) is at it again: http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZDLIQJRGE.html.

Doctor on riot beat recalls the drums and the silence

MARY ANN BENITEZ

It was quiet in Gloucester Road on the night of December 17 - too quiet - with the silence broken only by the sound of distant drums.

...

During Saturday's clashes and their aftermath, in which the team put into practice the concept of "tactical medicine", Dr Chan said they saw minor injuries such as cut hands and head wounds. They prioritised the 137 injured - all men except for one female officer - and sent them to hospitals as planned."

...

Dr Chan said they were fully equipped like any emergency room, with plenty of medicine - 1,000 Panadol tablets were handed out.

They prepared 10 bottles of special detergent to counter pepper spray. Just two bottles were used.

Ludicruous over the top reporting - they're trying to portray the WTO scuffles as a pitched battle, with medics in the trenches., when all that happened was some minor first aid and doling out pain-killers. Hospitals in uncivilised places like London or Newcastle probably get more serious trauma every night after the pubs close.

Posted by dave on 24 December 2005 at 12:27 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (2)

Protests

This is bizarre: I'm watching the news on TV which is covering the Protest Riots down by the convention Centre and the sound of Police Sirens is threatening to drown out the TV!

Current reports are that teargas has been used and there have been a lot of pitched battles in the streets. The TV coverage has been a little eager to proclaim a riot all week, but this looks pretty serious.

Currently having second thoughts about popping down to the Wanch to see Black Seraphine later on.

Posted by dave on 17 December 2005 at 19:44 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

WTO Fuss

There's been a lot of fuss over the WTO Ministerial Conference which is currently being held here in Hong Kong. The powers-that-be have been predicting Dooom and Glooom all round. Riots in the Streets, massive property damage, etc. There's been very little real drama at all, apart from some street theatre by Korean farmers, who staged short arranged battles with the Hong Kong Police.

There's been a surfeit of fawning media coverage, and plenty of lies from Government. Apparently Hong Kong was a 'sleepy fishing village' 50 years ago. Rubbish. Hong Kong was founded as a trading outpost of the British Empire when the Qing dynasty Emperors wanted the Brits out of Guangzhou. The Portugese had the western side of the Pearl River, so the British took the deep harbours and safe anchorages of Hong Kong. The city has been a trading outpost since 1841, and a haven for refugees from China since the revolutions in 1917, 1949 and 1967.

One thing which has been very obvious, however, is the dishonesty of the Hong Kong media. They've been portraying this whole week as a complete breakdown of law and order in Hong Kong. Television news has been reporting on the chaos and disorder when it's clear from their own pictures that there's little more than a small handful of protestors being anything other than perfectly orderly.

One reporter from the SCMP, Annemarie Evans, referred to Lockhart Road as "riot scarred" in a piece on a charity event in Wanchai. However, it isn't normally journalists who choose the headlines, so it's the editors of the SCMP who are peddling fear through lies, rather than Ms. Evans.

Posted by dave on 15 December 2005 at 12:51 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

What's Wrong With Libertarianism

Here's an interesting takedown of Libertarian philosophy: http://www.zompist.com/libertos.html.

Via: Making Light

Posted by dave on 14 December 2005 at 00:02 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Learning from the Shrub

There's been quite an amount of fuss in the Australia media recently about Howard's proposed new terror laws. And now, there's a Vague Terror Alert to demonstrate the need for immediate removal of civil rights from everyone. What a coincidence. Maybe he's learning from the Bush administration's fake terror alerts on the New York Subway?

UPDATE: There appears to have been An Actual Terror Plot in planning, so fair play to the Aussies for stopping that in it's tracks, if indeed there was a plot. It's kind of difficult to tell from the local news how real the threat was as most of the Headlines on Sky/Fox are full of heavy-handed right-wing gibberish. Reports of 'Bomb Making Materials' are everywhere, but that could just as easily mean sacks of fertiliser as well as crates of C4.

Posted by dave on 03 November 2005 at 06:28 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

2001-9-11

Four years ago today, the largest terrorist attack of modern times on the continental USA happened in the middle of Manhattan. Two large buildings came tumbling down, thousands of people died, and the US vowed revenge on whoever had done it.

(Day 1461 And Counting.)

Osama Bin Laden, a wealthy scion of a Saudi Construction company and his terrorist organisation Al Qaeda (The Base) appeared to claim responsibility for the attack. One of his demands was that American troops should get their pigskin boots off of Islamic land, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but a general departure from the Middle East was mentioned too.

Today, Osama Bin Laden is still at large or unaccounted for. Al Qaeda is still at large and recruitment is boosted by the war in Iraq. However, American troops no longer desecrate the sacred sand of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with their boots. USA 0; Al Qaeda 3.

Saddam Hussein, the Strong Man of Iraq, is no longer in power even though he had no connection to the events of 11/9 or Al Qaeda. In fact, he was opposed to the sort of Islamic theocracy favoured by Al Qaeda. It now looks increasingly like the new state of Iraq is going to be a theocratic state under Sharia Law. USA 0; Al Qaeda 4.

The US appears to be trying to establish 14 permanent bases in Iraq, which would be a point for them, I guess, if they weren't making such a mess of the whole thing.

Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers came from, and which finances many Madrassas or fundamentalist islamic schools is still a big trading partner with the USA, and still supplies much oil. Exactly how good a trading partner they was highlighted earlier on this year when the current President of the USA was seen holding hands with him whilst walking amongst the flowers on his Texas 'ranch'.

Posted by dave on 11 September 2005 at 23:19 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Papal Bull?

Oh great - it appears that Pope Adolf Benedict thinks that Harry Potter is unchristian.

Pope disapproves of Harry Potter, letters suggest - Yahoo! News

BERLIN (Reuters) - Pope Benedict believes the Harry Potter books subtly seduce young readers and "distort Christianity in the soul" before it can develop properly, according to comments attributed to him by a German writer.

At least the Vatican also disapproves of The Da Vinci Code, a truly execrable piece of twaddle.

Posted by dave on 15 July 2005 at 12:17 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Britons proceed as normal, Yankees hide.

U.S. tells troops to stay out of London after bombs - Yahoo! News

LONDON (Reuters) - All 12,000 members of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Britain have been banned from visiting London because of last week's bombings, newspapers reported on Tuesday, and one daily slammed the decision as "timid."

It's pathetic, that's what it is. It's also pretty much indicative of the whole US Goverment line since 9/11: "You should all be terrified of terrorists! Hide! Strike back randomly and ineffectively! Panic!" If you're terrified of terrorists and you drastically alter your lifestyle to cope, aren't you just giving into the them?

Posted by dave on 12 July 2005 at 10:27 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Live 8

It was Live 8 Over last weekend. There was no coverage on any Hong Kong television coverage apart from some very brief mentions on the evening news. We had Live Wimbledon instead of our Saturday and Sunday night movies, but not a peep of Live 8. Why?

UPDATE: Apparently, there was some coverage on ATV world, but who watches that? Apparently (according to a letter in yesterdays South China Morning Post), TVB flat out rejected any approaches to show Live8 coverage. Was it too political for them? Did their management think that it was too subversive? Or did they just think it wouldn't make them any money?

Posted by dave on 04 July 2005 at 20:16 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

It's time to meet the muppets...

Atrios skewers CNN's talking heads in this post comparing Novak and Valenti to Statler and Waldorf.

Posted by dave on 03 July 2005 at 02:27 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Mission Accomplished?

You know, it was two years ago today that George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.

Posted by dave on 02 May 2005 at 21:21 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Pope Adolf the First

Well, it's official -- right wing nutjob Josef Ratzinger is the new pope. The cultists in Opus Dei must be happy -- they're probably dancing a little jig in their jackboots.

It should have been Arinze, if only because all the real conservatives would probably have left the church or had their heads explode at the prospect of a black pope.

UPDATE: Some more links:

Bernd Goehring, director of German ecumenical group Kirche von Unten, said the election was a catastrophe.

"We can expect no reform from him in the coming years." he said. "Even more people will turn their back on the Church."

Posted by dave on 20 April 2005 at 00:44 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (6)

The Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation, the right-wing group that likes to proclaim that Hong Kong is the 'free-est' economy in the world, is sponsoring a Creationist 'Intelligent Design' function: http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev041905a.cfm . Further proof that whatever they say is arrant nonsense.

Of course, their proclamation of freedom is ably dissected at the Left Business Observer.

Posted by dave on 30 March 2005 at 17:12 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Liberation of Death Camps

Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps.

On Making Light, We Never Knew takes apart the myth that the world was ignorant of Hitler's plan.

Posted by dave on 26 January 2005 at 13:04 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Europe vs America

Europe vs America, by Tony Judt.

As a consequence, Americans live shorter lives than West Europeans. Their children are more likely to die in infancy: the US ranks twenty-sixth among industrial nations in infant mortality, with a rate double that of Sweden, higher than Slovenia's, and only just ahead of Lithuania's—and this despite spending 15 percent of US gross domestic product on "health care"

via the Sideshow.

Posted by dave on 25 January 2005 at 13:26 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Four more years of this shit

It's all very depressing. Just when you think that the majority of Americans are normal, rational, thinking people, they go and do something moronic like vote for George W. Bush.

After all, he's only bankrupted the country, destroyed the army, and vastly increased the exposure of the USA to terrorism by invading a country which had nothing to do with September 11. He's only presided over widespread violation of the Geneva Conventions, the handing over of 380,000 tons of high explosives to God-knows-who, the trampling of the US Constitution(see Guantanamo Bay) and alienated just about every ally that America has ever had.

He claims to be a born-again Christian, but he lives in some sort of Old Testament world with smiting and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Leviticans, I believe those sorts of hypocrites are called.

I fully expect to see the USA invade Iran before next summer. I expect to see the US army resorting to a draft of some sort by next year. Civil liberties will go further down the toilet and I'm more than half expecting to see the 22nd Amendment repealed, so that Georgie can be president for life.

Posted by dave on 04 November 2004 at 23:19 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (3)

760,000 Lockerbie Bombings

760,000 Lockerie Bombings. That's what the incompetent and illegal US invasion of Iraq has unleashed upon the world by allowing the looting of 380 tons of high explosive from Baghdad. Still, as long as the Oil Ministry was secure, everything was ok, no? If not, why did they try and cover it up for 18 months?

More Links:

Why 760,000 Lockerbie Bombings? That's becuase just one pound of high explosives can take out a jet aircraft. The amount of high explosive stolen from Baghdad was 380 tons, or 760,000 pounds.

Worst. President. Ever.

Posted by dave on 25 October 2004 at 23:36 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Bush's Resume

Bush's Resume.

Posted by dave on 08 October 2004 at 15:43 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Sith Mind Tricks

Sith Mind Tricks

Darth Cheney attempts to use his Sith powers to control young Jedi Edwards. (Picture snarfed from dailykos.com.)

UPDATE: This picture is displaying oddly, and <br /> doesn't help, so I need to add more text to make it look better.

I noticed on the TVB news tonight that they repeated a few of the RNC talking points, especially the 'first they were for the war, then against it', line, which is a misrepresentation of what really happened. Also, they showed a selection of clips which made John Edwards look bad, and then quoted Fox News to show that he only had a narrow lead. Now, it's no surprise that the American news channels are completely partisan — they're largely owned by conservative corporations after all — but I'd've expected better things from the Hong Kong news corps. While the local news corps are shamelessly partisan, they are usually so in favour of China, not necessarily the American Right. Perhaps they couldn't be bothered interpreting — or even fact-checking — the canned reports they buy from the wire agencies.

Posted by dave on 06 October 2004 at 14:56 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

TVB Oddities

Lieberman Cheney Vice-Presidential Debate

I'm sure I just saw a trailer on TVB, one of the four terrestrial TV channels available in Hong Kong, for the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and Lieberman. Um, that was like, four years ago. Try and keep up with current events guys!

UPDATE: Picture added! This was taken with my el-cheapo digital camera from the TV screen, so the quality is terrible, but you should be able to see what's going on.

Posted by dave on 05 October 2004 at 21:29 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Funny Clip

A Funny Look at the recent Republican convention. Via Daily Kos.

Update: There's a comment by the author of the clip here. Via The Sideshow.

Another Update: I'm trying the Trackback thing to invisible elevators just to see if it works.

Posted by dave on 05 October 2004 at 20:52 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Hong Kong Politics

As a registered voter in Hong Kong, I've been trying to find out as much about the varoius candidates in next Sunday's LegCo elections as possible. This isn't always that easy when you don't read Chinese. Previously Hemlock's guide to the Candidates has been one of the few points of information available.

This morning, number one daughter presented me with the contents of the mailbox, including the very same pleading and begging brochures so masterfully snarked at by Hemlock, above. In numerical order...

Stability to Advance Democracy, Harmony to build Tomorrow. Voting ticket number 1 will get you the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, where 'betterment' means 'doing whatever Beijing wants'. It's an attractive leaflet, with some biographical information in English, but all of the policy information is in Chinese, if it's there at all. These guys are the party of shamelessly sucking up to Beijing and Hong Kong becoming just another Mainland city. Ironically, a vote for them would convince Beijing that Hong Kongers can be trusted to vote for only officially approved candidates who toe the Central Government line, and is thus more likely to bring about Universal Sufferage in the election of the Chief Executive than anyone else.

Serving HK, no fear, no favourRita Fan, thoughtfully sends out a detailed policy document in English. This glossy document not only illustrates the depth's of Ms. Fan's political platform, it also clearly shows a woeful lack of graphic design. Having three or four different fonts on the same page produces and effect much like a ransom note, while the sea of faded background images and muted colours looks like somone recently acquired a Mac and is a big fan of Miami Vice.

Vote for the "Bull" Say no to C.H. TUNGTicket No. 3 represents Tsang Kin Shing, Bull. Other than encouraging farmyard animals to attack our current Chief Executive, his policies remain unclear, as there's no English text apart from email addresses and such like. Just going by the pictures, he appears to all for burning things, wearing t-shirts with slogans, and using a microphone like Freddy Mercury. He also portrays himself as a bit of a superhero, or maybe he's supposed to be one of those Wu Xia warriors we see on TVB every night. Looks more like one of those Mexican Wrestler politicians to me.

Where are the democrats?I haven't received any bumph from the democratic party yet.


GIVE ME FIVE - HONG KONG SURE WINAre all the other candiates too exciting? Do they have views which are too strongly held? Would you prefer to vote for a nice dull looking person in a grey suit? Then Kelvin Wong Kam Fai on ticket number 5 is your only man. His 'brochure' — and I use that term very loosely here — is a single sheet of A4 printed in black and white. Apart from a return to Chinglish, as his slogan can attest to, Kelvin's policy platform is exclusively in Chinese. Looks like a bit of a Young Conservative though, which is more than enough reason to not vote for him.

Give Hong Kong a Fresh StartTicket number six represents Cyd Ho and Audrey Eu, both rather attractive Chinese ladies of a certain age. 50, it says on the candidate information sheet I received from the government. I haven't received anything from the ladies as yet.

Posted by dave on 04 September 2004 at 11:27 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Terrorism

Avedon, over at The Sideshow, has a good post on Terrorism:

But the real answer is that Europeans didn't just "put up with it" - they treated terrorists like the criminals they were and didn't allow them to completely disrupt their way of living. They did not suddenly get behind an excited drive to gut their treasuries and impoverish their countries and their people by setting off half-cocked on some stupid permanent state of war that would wipe out the very civil liberties and trust in law that made their nations worth living in to begin with.

Posted by dave on 28 August 2004 at 13:01 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Iraq and Al Quaeda

So now it's official: There was no credible link between Al Quaeda and Iraq. I wonder how those lockstep right-wing liars will try and spin this one?

I note that Cheney is spewing more lies.

Posted by dave on 17 June 2004 at 00:50 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Ronald Reagan

The Gipper has finally passed on, after ten years of a slow death with Alzheimers. As a man, may he rest in peace.

As a president, may he be remembered as the initial sponsor of fundamentalist Islam in Afghanistan, massive national debt in the USA, and the advocate of wholescale treason and illegal warfare on the part of the USA.

I don't have much good to say about him, but, in comparison to George Bush, at least he sounded convincing when he was talking, and at least he could deliver a speech. The current hagiography about Ronald Reagan just makes the Smirking Chimp sound like a brain-damaged, illiterate and inarticulate moron. Oh, wait a minute...

And also in comparison with the Shrub, at least when Ronald Reagan got an easy gig during a war, he actually did his job. Unlike the shrub, who couldn't be bothered turning up for his Vietnam-avoidance stint in Austin, Ronald Reagan turned up for his acting gigs and maybe his propaganda movies were even useful to the war effort.

(God, I never thought I'd be nostalgic for the reign of Ronald Reagan.)

Posted by dave on 09 June 2004 at 22:26 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Al Gore's Speech

It's a good 'un:

Go read the whole thing. Remember when America had Presidents, not a Junta.

Posted by dave on 28 May 2004 at 00:11 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Terry Jones

Terry Jones, writer, film director, actor and Python has something to say about Bush:

(Link found via The Sideshow.)

Posted by dave on 23 May 2004 at 12:19 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Orcinus

Orcinus is a site well worth reading regularly. He's just put up a great article on the state of the news media.

Posted by dave on 09 May 2004 at 19:46 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

May Day

Excuse me while I sing loud Billy Bragg songs in yer ear to celebrate May Day.

I was a Miner, I was a docker...

Posted by dave on 02 May 2004 at 01:32 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Mission Accomplished?

It was one year ago today that the unelectable miserable failure, Preznit Dubya declared Mission Accomplished.

Posted by dave on 01 May 2004 at 00:04 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

US Tactics Condemned...

US tactics condemned by British officers, from the Telegraph is a pretty scathing indictment of what's currently happening in Iraq, and how much of it is self-inflicted by the Americans.

There's more discussion of it by juan Cole and BillMon at Whiskey Bar.

Posted by dave on 12 April 2004 at 11:08 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Operation Ignore

Operation Ignore, from Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right looks at the real anti-terrorism policies of the Bush White House.

Posted by dave on 11 April 2004 at 13:52 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Daily Kos thing

I've added a navbar link to a site I read regularly: The Daily Kos. (A good over view of the current faff about Kos.)

Basically, Kos expressed an opinion about the four mercenaries that were recently killed in Fallujah. (BBC, Guardian) The hysterical Right Wing Slime Machine went into overdrive and started getting his advertisers to withdraw their advertising.

If you're in Ohio, go vote for Jeff Seemann. He seems to make sense.

Posted by dave on 05 April 2004 at 01:23 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Romanes Eunt Domus

In a perfectly appropriate rebuttal to the anti-semitic pornography which is the latest movie from Mel Gibson (his father is a raving loon), Monthy Python are re-releasing the Life of Brian, still one of the funniest satires ever.

Posted by dave on 26 March 2004 at 00:07 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Republican Astroturfing

From today's South China (Unlinkable) Morning Post SCuMP, comes a letter from Angelo Paratico, a regular letter writer to the SCuMP.

I wish to comment on the article "Bush is savaged by former aide for record on terror" (March 23).

My impression of remarks by Richard Clarke is that he is bad-mouthing his past employer to settle old scores and sell a few copies of his book. In so doing, he is disclosing state secrets and damaging his government's reputation, for which he should be prosecuted.

That President George W. Bush asked to investigate a possible link between Iraq and 9 /11 was reasonable. If Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted to bomb Iraq - as mad as this may seem today - it was emotionally understandable from the perspective of 9 /11.

ANGELO PARATICO, Cheung Sha Wan

This bears all the hallmarks of Republican Astroturfing: regurgitating Republican Talking Points as letters to the editor of various local journals. This is intended to make the public believe that there is widespread support for a particular idea, as they keep hearing it repeated time and again. In this case, the idea is the standard one: Slime every critic of the administration and attack their patriotism.

I note that in this case, they don't seem to be attacking on the facts at all, just maligning Clarke personally. Ad Hominem attacks are a sign of a very weak argument.

Further Update: A good definition of Ad Hominem can be found here. A good definition of Astroturfing is here.

Update: I've removed the links to Angelo's name because he doesn't like google pointing people here. Unfortunately, I can't change Google! The google search result may go away over time. Another Update. I've put the links back. This is my site. If you disagree with content here, you can excercise your right to reply in the comments.

Posted by dave on 25 March 2004 at 12:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (6)

A great post

Avedon Carol has a great post up on her sideshow. Read Maniacs & Lying Liars - again and again.

Posted by dave on 24 March 2004 at 01:31 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that's what I call an Ice Beer!

Russian army rescues kegs of beer.

Posted by dave on 21 January 2004 at 18:12 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (1)

Some Political Links

Posted by dave on 12 January 2004 at 01:16 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

FBI Issues Alert Against Almanac Carriers

As seen on Yahoo!...

This is possibly one of the stupidest alerts in a very long line of stupid terror alerts. What's next? Arresting people for being able to read? For reading the wrong books?

"He was carrying a copy of the Qu'ran, your honour."

"Clearly Guilty. Send him to Guantanamo bay."

Update: There's a great discussion of this over at Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Site. (Have I mentioned how much I like that site?)

Posted by dave on 30 December 2003 at 15:23 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Just when you think the world may not be that weird after all...

As seen on the ever unlinkable SCuMP this morning:

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in New York

Michael Jackson became a member of the Nation of Islam shortly before he was formally charged with child molestation yesterday, the New York Post tabloid reported.

Jackson's first scheduled court appearance in January was also delayed by a week. His passport would be returned to allow him to travel to Britain, sources said yesterday. The change in plans to arraign Jackson, 45, on multiple counts of child molestation came as prosecutors were poised to file formal criminal charges against the star in Santa Maria, near his Neverland ranch in California.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying Jackson became a member of the black Muslim organisation led by Louis Farrakhan on Wednesday night.

"The King of Pop is re-styling himself Jacko X," the tabloid said.

Mr Farrakhan's organisation would not comment. Fox News reported that Jackson's brother, Jermaine, brought Mr Farrakhan's chief of staff into Jackson's inner circle as "a bodyguard".

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Continue reading "Just when you think the world may not be that weird after all..."...

Posted by dave on 19 December 2003 at 09:30 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (1)

Oil firm 'overcharged' US in Iraq

Oil firm 'overcharged' US in Iraq. Yet more crony-capitalism.

Join in the Google™bombing meme: unelectable

Posted by dave on 12 December 2003 at 09:47 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Environment

There's an excellent article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr about the environment and the way the Bush administration is rolling back years of progress. Crimes Against Nature: By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Posted by dave on 10 December 2003 at 18:15 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Eid Mubarek

Happy Eid, or Eid Mubarek to any Muslims who read this. Judging from this post at Riverbend, Eid seems a lot like Chinese New Year.

Eid, to anyone who doesn't know, signifies the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. It's more or less the Muslim equivalent of stuffing your face with Easter eggs after Lent.

Posted by dave on 25 November 2003 at 23:04 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Shrub Time

Apparently, the Queen of England is none too happy with Bush damaging her Shrubs.

Posted by dave on 25 November 2003 at 22:54 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

HK Bloggers Meet

Simon's big idea is to have a HK Blogger Meetup. It sounds like a reasonable idea, but some of those involved probably value their privacy. There is, for example, no way the Shaky Kaiser would ever want his real face plastered across a thousand blogs. Neither, I'm guessing, would Conrad (of gweilodiaries.com fame) like to be identified.

There are those of us who have their 'real' identities on their blogs, like Phil (FlyingChair.net), Randall (BigwhiteGuy.Com), or Yan (glutter), or me (and I'm sure there are others I haven't included). But some people's diaries go out of their way to avoid mentioning who they really are. Whether for political or personal reasons.

I'm not knocking Simon's idea of a get together — I'm all for it — I just do think that some of the folks there might be a little worried about their real-life identities being linked with their blogger ids.

And my vote's for somewhere in Wanchai.

Edited to fix some spelling. Taken down for a bit while I thought about it, and put back up again.

Posted by dave on 13 November 2003 at 01:30 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

ClusterFest

Phil nailed it. The HarbourFest is really a ClusterFest.

Heads really need to roll over this. Unfortunately Jim Thompson of AmCham is probably immune and Mike Rowse is Mr. Teflon. We can probably expect to see some junior flunkies sacked for agreeing with their bosses.

Posted by dave on 24 October 2003 at 21:54 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Slacktivist

There's a good article about the worst aspects of Fundamentalist Christian Theology over at Slacktivist: http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2003/10/left_behind_is_.html.

Posted by dave on 18 October 2003 at 23:36 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Chinese Space Program

I'm sure you've all seen in the new how the Chinese Space Program has put a man in space. Looking at a log of American sites, I see comments like "but we did that forty years ago!". Well, that's true, however, the American space program has been in decline for thirty years. What's been done seriously since men walked on the moon? Pissing about in low Earth orbit with an unwieldy craft and no vision, that's what.

My prediction: The next time an American walks on the moon, he'll be able to go somewhere there to have Chinese food.

Posted by dave on 16 October 2003 at 23:49 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Governator

Well, what can you say? I mean, who needs politicians who might actually know what they're doing? American Politics just seems to get dumber and dumber.

Posted by dave on 08 October 2003 at 19:50 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Leak

It never fails to amaze me how right-wing Americans will ignore the facts in a given situation and insist that Bill or Hillary Clinton did much worse. It's like some sort of collective brain disease.

Let's see. Currently, someone in the White House betrayed the cover of an undercover operative, Valerie Plame. This is not a rumour, this is a fact. Even Bush has admitted it. This is a criminal offence, with a ten year jail term attached. Meanwhile they're being investigated by an Attorney General appointed by the Bush Administration; they're submitting their documents, but they'll be reviewed by their own counsel for two weeks before being handed over. This is the same party who screamed blue murder until an independent investigator was appointed for Clinton? (Who was guilty of having an affair, not leading his country to war and alienating almost every single ally.)

Posted by dave on 07 October 2003 at 21:57 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Iraqi WMD's

Let's see - a summary of the Kay report is that the Iraqi's had some dirt, which they could possibly have cultivated to make something nasty. What's next? Evidence of large and pointed sticks?

Posted by dave on 07 October 2003 at 00:28 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Valerie Plame Affair

Well, those squirming liars in the White House have outdone themselves this time. Not only have they committed treason by naming a Covert CIA operative, they appear to be completely unable to tell the truth. Check out Talking Points Memo on PlameGate.

Hopefully this is the first in a long line of events which will lead to the entire Bush administration languishing in the clink for crimes against humanity.

Posted by dave on 30 September 2003 at 01:01 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Blogs

Baghdad Burning is a blog by a young Iraqi lady. It's well written and horrifying all at the same time.

Posted by dave on 24 September 2003 at 16:50 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Project Censored

Project Censored's Yearly Report - interesting reading.

Posted by dave on 21 September 2003 at 00:41 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Terrorrism

I had a thought a while back (don't laugh, it does happen!), but have only got around to putting it somewhere public now. Look at this table of events:

Date Event
September 11, 2001 World Trade Center Attacks
October 12, 2002 Bali Bombing, Indonesia
November 13, 2003 ?
December 14, 2004 ?

Each attack a year and a day after the one before. I think I'm staying home on November 13 this year.

Posted by dave on 19 September 2003 at 13:58 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Politics

I've been trying to read a few of the better political blogs recently. While these are mostly American blogs, there are a few others. One thing which amazes me is the comments sections. After a few comments, any discussion of political issues will be drowned out by gibbering right-wing nutjobs. And I'm not talking about those with politics to the right of mine, I'm talking about the "KKKlinton killed Vince Foster", or "Hillary is the AntiChrist", or "if you don't toe the Republican line, you're a traitor to America". It's quite scary how much this happens. And it's stifling discussion. It is impossible to have a political discussion in a public forum without gangs of trolling Freepers (so named because the congregate on the absurdly right-wing FreeRepublic.com, and no, I'm not linking to them.) turning up and spewing hateful nonsense everywhere.

Posted by dave on 18 September 2003 at 01:43 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting Article

There's an interesting article from Saturday's Guardian Newspaper. It does smack of conspiracy theory a lot, but it also sounds somewhat plausible.

Found on Charlie Stross' Blog.

Posted by dave on 08 September 2003 at 14:22 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Army of One

Nope, can't resist: Army of One - a look at the Bush Administration's treatment of the Military. As seen on Making Light, among other places.

Posted by dave on 15 August 2003 at 13:12 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Massive Cluelessness in Hong Kong

Last Week, a local fashion shop www.izzue.com (Can you say 'dot com is dead dude?') showed off their new fashion collection with a dominant Nazi motif. Yep. As you can image everyone has come down on them like a ton of bricks. They still don't seem to realise just what an enormous mistake they have made. I can only point you at BigwhiteGuy.com, who has covered this in greater detail than I could. Check out Randall's Coverage of the whole affair.

Posted by dave on 13 August 2003 at 01:25 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

And now the beanpole!

According to a news flash, Anthony Leung has just resigned too!

Posted by dave on 16 July 2003 at 21:39 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Hong Kong Politics

Regina Ip, otherwise known as Broom-head on account of her hairstyle, has resigned. "Oh, don't worry, just trust us..."

She was the Minister for Security and Oppressing the Peasants, or something like that. This is shortly after recording the biggest drop in popularity of any politician ever in Hong Kong. Her modus operandi was to try and introduce legislation which would make it illegal to criticize the government, then say "oh don't worry, just trust us, we'd never use the law to our advantage..."

Next to go is probably Anthony Leung, who failed to declare a luxury car purchase just before he changed the law to increase the tax revenues on, you guessed it, luxury car purchases.

Let's all wish them both a nice, big Phillip Wong (i.e. drink a little wine and give them the finger).

Posted by dave on 16 July 2003 at 20:21 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Rhubarb! Rhubarb!

Another 20,000 or so people demonstrated outside the Legislative Council building last night, calling for democracy and the direct election of the Chief Executive. Meanwhile, Beijing is denying that anyone Chinese officials have had any long talks with Democratic Party members from Hong Kong. I get the feeling that they're embarrassed that Tung has been so ineffective.

Posted by dave on 14 July 2003 at 20:46 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

People Power

Well, the people of Hong Kong have spoken again: 50,000 protested outside the Legislative Council building last night in a peaceful protest against Article 23 and Tung Chee Hua. There's a strong movement now to bring in direct elections for the Chief Executive instead of the current method of selection by Beijing.

Interesting times, to be sure.

Posted by dave on 10 July 2003 at 00:12 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Political Future

It looks like Hong Kong's political future will be decided by Beijing after the spineless gimp known as Tung Chee Hua has decided that he's incapable of decisive comment.

What's really irritating is that it looked like Beijing were quite happy to let the first post-colonial administration run its course and do its thing without interfering. I honestly get the impression that Beijing are embarrassed that Tung Chee Hua's government are such a useless embarrassment. I think they would have preferred that Hong Kong went like Taiwan with fisticuffs in LegCo every day and people squabbling on the street: "Hey, I'm for Anson Chan!" "*SMACK!* Martin Lee for Chief Exec!"

As it is, we got the worst of Hong Kong: clueless people promoted to management because they're Chinese and not offensive.

Posted by dave on 07 July 2003 at 00:53 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Update to protest

The police are quoting an attendance of 350,000, while the organizers say 500,000. This makes it the biggest demonstration since the marches against the Tienanmen Square crackdown in 1989, when one million people marched.

The March seemed to wind up about 9:30 pm, so it took over six and a half hours for all the people in Victoria Park to get to Central.

And Tung Chee Hua has been quoted as saying that none of the marchers need to worry because the legislation won't be used to crack down on this. What a clueless twit.

In other news, some pro-Beijing organization held a festival (also in Victoria Park - that was dumb) to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the handover. From what I could see on the TV, the attendance seemed to be a lot of confused looking old people wandering around and playing some silly games in market stalls, like 'throw the ball and get a prize anyway', or 'pin the tail in anything, dear, and there's a sticky bun for you'.

Posted by dave on 02 July 2003 at 00:04 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

The people are speaking

As I type, Victoria Park is chock-a-block with protesters against Article 23, and the front o the march has been accumulating at Government House since about 4pm. From the TV, I can see that Hennessey Road is full of people marching, and that road is six lanes wide. There is a solid queue of people at that density all the way from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Government House in Central. This is an incredible number of people, far in excess of what was expected. The trams are stopped, the busses can't move, and the Chinese Premier ran away this morning before having to see real civil unrest.

I fully expect to see the pro-Beijing spin machine spewing more rubbish in the next few days, even though it was discovered that they were falsifying grass-roots support. (Hmmm, that sounds a bit like Microsoft's Astroturfing.) They'll say that, even if One Million People marched, that six million stayed at home. (I honestly don't think that a demonstration any bigger than the one today would be feasible in Hong Kong - it's looking like the last protesters won't be at Central until much later tonight.

Posted by dave on 01 July 2003 at 18:34 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Whoops!

GW Bush flung from a Segway. First the pretzels, and now a Segway - is everything ganging up on Dubya?

Posted by dave on 15 June 2003 at 21:53 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

More Songs

Just saw an ad on the TV for a compilation CD of hopeful songs, the proceeds of which go to some charity. The songs are meant to show the indomitably spirit of Hong Kongers. They include "We shall overcome (someday)", and "Always look on the bright side of life". That last is the one from the "Life of Brian", you know, the one they sing when they're all nailed to crosses about to "draw their terminal breath". I don't think Hong Kong's quite that bad yet, but maybe someone knows something I don't...

Posted by dave on 03 June 2003 at 23:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Shame

I meant to say this a while back: I am deeply ashamed of the actions of the Government of the Republic of Ireland in refusing to allow Hong Kong's Special Olympics athletes to attend the Special Olympics being held in Dublin, while allowing businessmen form SARS affected regions to come and go. Did someone put Aine Ni Chonnail of the Immigration Control Platform in charge of the country?

Posted by dave on 31 May 2003 at 00:43 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Annoyed

I'm annoyed. I started making bread tonight in my usual fashion and the dough has refused to rise. I even tried adding some extra yeast to the mix. My bread making powers are gone! Must be all the Red Kryptonite at work!

In other news, I note that the US is planning to build execution facilities at Guantanamo Bay, so that they can execute the prisoners they've held there in contravention of the Geneva Convention. And we still haven't seen any Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Posted by dave on 29 May 2003 at 23:40 (GMT +08:00)

Categories: ,

Permalink | Comments (1)

The British Military

I was browsing some blogs earlier on and came across a post suggesting that the British Military were the best thing since sliced pan.

Now, I just can't agree with that. I have been abused and threatened by moronic thugs from the Black Watch. Friends of mine lived in a place (Aldershot) where they couldn't leave their flat at night because the local military liked to beat up everyone. (I used to shop in a motorcycle shop in Aldershot where they were glad when they heard my accent: it meant I would actually pay for what I wanted and I wouldn't trash the place.)

Of course, that's the current Military. When I was living in London, I met very many men who'd served in the Second World War, or Suez or even the Gulf. I remember talking to men who'd flown Spitfires in WWII or even just laboured in London, cleaning up the aftermath of the V2s. Without exception, they were Good Men; they fought when required but they didn't think that it was required of a man to always be at war. "We fought against that Mr Hitler until we beat him", said one man, "and then we went back to our normal jobs, because, letting him make us into non-Englishmen meant that we lost the war".

Sure, "Dad's Army" is funny, but it's also very serious: Fat bank managers were fully prepared to fight Hitler on the beaches and on the street corners, with whatever help they could get. The Nazis would never have conquered England. At most, they would have killed everyone in it, but they would never conquer it.

It's kind of hard to respect a military when they are barred from most pubs for fighting. It's hard to respect a military when they have a reputation of being racist. It's impossible to respect a military when, the last time you met one, he had to restrained from killing me because I sounded Irish.

Really, there's a very small subsector of English society which is extremely racist and arrogant. These guys almost always colour the impressions of everyone else no matter where they go. Most people aren't like that - it's only a very small minority, but they all colour the view of outsiders. And being the arrogant twits that they are, they usually don't see that their actions have any effect on others. They are true sociopaths in every sense of the word.

Posted by dave on 03 May 2003 at 02:09 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

More War ranting

So, if Bush decides that war on Syria is justified because he says they might have chemical weapons, where does it all end? I hear that Hong Kong has this really smelly Tofu, which is certainly a weapon of mass nausea...

I can just imagine the last speeches, just in time for the elections of 2016, for Bush's 5th straight term: "And so, my fellow Americans, those evil Canadians to the north speak Fren-, sorry, Freedom, that language of people who disagree with us. And they may have nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons. They certainly have one biological weapon, one vicious, inhumane and thoroughly unamerican weapon. Roll it there, Colin, show these fine folks the pictures of innocent Americans laid low with that evil Canadian Poutine..."

Posted by dave on 16 April 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Election Hypocrisy

Apparently the United States is expressing concern over the lack of direct elections here in Hong Kong. Pretty rich for a nation who's current president was decided, not by a vote, but by a court. And what about all those closed-source proprietary voting machines being brought in? I'm guessing it'll be a Bush win in 2004, by a bigger margin than ever seen before in a US Presidential election.

I was in Dymocks, the bookstore, just now and I noticed a biography of Laura Bush. The back cover described her as the 'perfect first wife and first mother', and lauded her stunning advice: "hug your children". Revolutionary stuff. I was glad I was wearing a mask.

Posted by dave on 15 April 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Syria Next?

On the local news tonight, there was a report that George W. Bush has started claiming that Syria may have chemical weapons? What?!? Does he think he just has to say it, and then he can do whatever he wants? He also implied that some senior Iraqui's have taken refuge there. Is this lunatic planning on attacking every nation in the Middle East except Israel?

Posted by dave on 14 April 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Baghdad Museum Ransacked

Yahoo! News - Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum. I'm sure Rumsfeld will come out with more of his smug comments about this being just another consequence of the Iraqi's being liberated.

"Freedom's just another little word for nothing left to loot"?

Posted by dave on 13 April 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

More bull from China

The official statistics from China still say that almost no one there shows any sypmptoms of Atypical Pneumonia. Journalists from Hong Kong who escorted a Shenzen Victim to a local hospital report that shenzen hospitals are packed full of sick people, all wearing masks and that anti-contagion measures are being taken to keep reporters away from the hospitals. i.e. The problem is China is far, far worse than they're willing to admit. Don't forget: in Hong Kong, the 1000 people infected to date all were infected from one man. In the Mainland, they've had hundreds of people, each as virulent as the one who landed here. They're talking about super-infectors: single cases responsible for infecting up to one hundred others. Should we believe that the mainland has the contagion under control?

Of course not. The Chinese central government is once again lying to cover up hundreds or thousands of deaths. They would rather infect the world than admit that they did something wrong. Once again, the Chinese concept of 'Face' is shown to be moronic, stupid, and self defeating.

Posted by dave on 10 April 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

War wibblings

Meanwhile, it's looking like the war in Iraq is not going according to plan. Well, not according to Donald Rumsfeld's plan, where all the Iraqi's line up in the desert and either surrender or cheer for the conquering, sorry, liberating troops. (Here's a hint guys, if you're trying to liberate a country, don't go raising your own flag in place of theirs.) Now that it looks like the Iraqi's are going to fight for their country, I think Iraq will become a meat grinder of a war. As soon as the house to house fighting in Baghdad starts, we'll see C-130s loaded with body bags. Will this be political suicide? I'm sure that The Shrub and his cabal will not get voted out - they seem to be very good at swaying American Public Opinion. Did you know that over 50% of Americans believe that the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi? (15 of the 19 were actually Saudi Arabian.)

Posted by dave on 31 March 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

More Bush Rants

Apparently the Shrub is annoyed that the press aren't whole heartedly in favour of whatever he wants. Honestly, what does he want? Grovelling worship? Even the worst five presidents ever (Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, and Richard Nixon) didn't expect completely uncritical fawning from the press.

Posted by dave on 28 March 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

War

Also, the US Army has awarded reconstruction contracts in Iraq to Halliburton with no bidding. Vice President Cheney used to work for that firm, and apparently, they still pay him a retainer fee. Perhaps they should just admit that they're bribing the US government? They should change their national motto: to "USA: The land of the Fee and the home of the Bribe"

Posted by dave on 27 March 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Columbia

Jerry Pournelle's site.

"We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth"
-- Robert A. Heinlein


Posted by dave on 02 February 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

Great Link

Here's a great link from Channel 4: Between Iraq and a Hard Place. Needs RealAudio player, though *spit*.

Posted by dave on 01 January 2003 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

ATV

In a massive break from their usual greed and incompetence, ATV, the second (and very distant second at that) TV channel here are actually showing the 911 remembrance. Last year, while the attacks were still going on, they kept showing live horse-racing. (They have to broadcast a certain amount of English-language television, and they think three hours of live horse-racing a night with a few Aussies commentating on it counts.)

Posted by dave on 11 September 2002 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)

What About Ye?

Politic

Hey ho, it's marching season. Sing 'The Sash', beat on your drum and have the usual fun and games.

Watched 'Michael Collins' last night, the film by Neil Jordan, that is. Rousing stuff and some great performances, but not the most historically accurate of movies. Amazingly, all of the accents are ok, although this shouldn't be surprising as most of the actors are Irish. Even Julia Roberts manages to keep her accent in one place.

I've rearranged some of the site to make things quicker to download - long files have been split up, that sort of thing.

Posted by dave on 12 July 2001 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)

Categories:

Permalink | Comments (0)