RightWingDeathBogan

The Beauty of Technology.

2012-01-19T22:23:00.002+11:00

These guys have brought together so many different facets of technology to create a thing of beauty.

Classical music and sleek, sexy racing cars burning up lots of fossil fuels, brought to you by the power of teh interwebz.

Does it get any better?

I think it does.

Happy Birthday To The Not Angry Black Woman

2012-01-18T21:23:00.005+11:00

Friend --

Michelle's birthday is today -- and I think you'll agree with me when I say she's a pretty special woman.

So I hope you'll take a moment to sign her card before we deliver it. You can even leave a note if you'd like:

http://my.barackobama.com/For-Michelle

After all, everyone loves hearing from friends on their birthday. And the year ahead is going to be a tough one, so I know this card will mean the world to Michelle.

Thanks,

Jill

I think everyone should take time out to say Happy Birthday to the First Not-Angry Black Woman of the USA.

After all, she deserves it.

According to Jill Biden that is.

Mind you, the amount of mail I get from Team Barry asking for donations or subscriptions is phenomenal.

So, I signed, just to see where the links would take me, and wouldn't you know it?

Another(!) site asking for donations.

I was going to donate $10 and see where the site would lead me to next, and if it would accept payments from Oz, but I'm a legal US citizen (although not a natural born one and thus ineligible for the Presidency. Not that stopped our mate Barry), so that would defeat the purpose.

I wonder how many foreign donors he'll be getting this year? And will Michelle give up the belts as a birthday gift to the rest of us?

Ah, Post-Modern Culture. You've Got To Love It.

2012-01-15T20:21:00.005+11:00

I've been spending far too much time on facebook lately, and it most definitely interferes with, oh, near everything. It's handy for watching what's going on in the world, as I have an eclectic group of 'friends' consisting of family, workmates, friends, acquaintances, and random people I've come across and like their comments.

Unfortunately, though, there are so many people out there who are truly clueless and have no inclination to find a clue.

(Language alert)

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Mr.A What does that have to do with anything?..

You've completely changed the topic, from a pathetic car park spot that FYI. Was never around when you were in nappies, what 14 years ago?

A "Parents with Prams" spot is just ridiculous and pointless, No matter where it is located. They are stupid. Do you even have a proper child harness? That is bolted from the sides aswell as the front and back?

Mothers of this generation are pathetic. Getting money off centrelink because you feel you NEED it. Getting your own "carpark" because you feel you NEED it. Bullshit, You need nothing.

If you can't survive without all the hand outs, you should have kept your legs closed in the first place.

Babies are a beautiful thing, But stop fucking whinging. 30 years ago there was no 'Baby Bonus.' and frankly it shouldn't be around now.

Too many high school drop outs without a high education/skills are having kids. If you can't support a 3rd person (or 2nd in some cases) than don't do it.

You ask your mothers if they struggled when they had you. They didnt get $400 a fortnight, They didn't have there own spot.

You've all got it easy and you STILL feel that you feel the need to whinge about everything? Fuck off. Mothers in the 21st century get life easy.
Friday at 11:53 · UnlikeLike · 1
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Mr.A And thats the truth.
Friday at 11:53 · LikeUnlike
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nilk And [Mr.A] wins today's Awesome Award! Girls u bin pwnd lololol!
Friday at 12:44 · LikeUnlike
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Ms.Y Lol [Mr.A] wins the biggest cunt award n [nilk] whatever mate
Friday at 13:21 · LikeUnlike · 4
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Mr.P What do I win
Friday at 13:33 · LikeUnlike
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Ms.EA Haha I don't even hav the time or energy to justify any of that.. All I'm gonna say is I've worked full time for the last 10 years and get maternity leave none of us are relying on centrelink at all but Keep living in your fairy tale world guys lol oh and [Mr.P] it's called multitasking.. I can hold a bottle and type at the same time.. Can u be working down a hole on fb.. Don't think so! Catch yas I've got way better and more important things to do :) losers lol
Friday at 13:33 via Mobile · LikeUnlike · 1
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Ms.EA [nilk] no real woman would agree like u hav.. Especially family u piece of shit!
Friday at 13:36 via Mobile · LikeUnlike · 3

This exchange was precipitated by a facebook status of Ms.Y consisting merely of:

To the old fart thar parked in a parents wit prams can u not read stupid mole

Ms.Y is indeed known to me personally, and is a young mum in a stable relationship with her child's father.

She's also a prime example of where our post-christian, post-modern world is headed.

This is the next generation, raising the one coming after.

The first exchange is only a snippet of a thread that is currently standing at over 150 comments. I've contributed two. After being called a piece of shit by someone who doesn't know me, but I'll be meeting in person in a couple of weeks (*snicker), I withdrew from the debate.

As the saying goes, you don't want to wrestle with a pig because you get muddy and the pig enjoys it.

So it goes with the young things of today.

In a slightly different direction, over at GoV, Paul Weston has written a series of essays on how to destroy a country. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

Both are quite timely, particularly Part 2, as it deals with the breaking down of traditions and morality in what we once considered normal society. One of the reasons I got called a piece of shit (excuse the language) by Ms.EA is because a)I agreed with the young men's views that a slightly wider carpark at the shopping centre is ultimately nothing to get up in arms about - it's a carpark! - and b)I suggested that one of the lads might like to visit The Spearhead. I couldn't resist stirring the possum with that one.

The shaming language came out with a vengeance, and the young men were derided as being useless, unworthy and having no right to talk about parents' situations since they weren't parents.

I was tempted to suggest that if that was indeed how they felt, then the girls should have no right to deride the men for the work they did.

The excerpt above is quite interesting to me when you look at the language and grammar used, and the fact that as a female who supported a position against the group (herd?) I wasn't a 'real woman'.

News to me, but what would I know. I mean, I'm only 44.

The better grammar came from the males, too.

Another exchange from a completely different social group on facebook:

Mr.G
Tim Tebow, its great to see the god you hold so dear is spending his "almighty time" helping you play football rather than curing world hunger or cancer. Theres a lord & saviour I can respect! Are you THAT self absorbed & have that little respect for your own god you honestly feel he is focused on your sporting career. Rather than doing something genuine to benefit mankind? You sanctimonious religiotard prick!
LikeUnlike · · 6 hours ago near Melbourne ·
8 people like this.
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Mr.F lmao he kicked Tebow to the gutter mate lmao Pats 42 Tebow 10 :))wonder what the excuses will be now
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike · 2
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Mr.T ummmm... who the hell is Tim Tebow?
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike
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Mr.GQB for the Denver Broncos in the NFL. He is a complete jesus loony. Home schooled, hate filled, says prayers about 500 times ever game. Does pro-life ads on TV. To coin a phrase "the whole 9 yards". Check him out on Youtube. He is hilarious!!!!!
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike · 1
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Mr.TAh cool. Phone google no workies right now, cheers :)
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike · 1
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Ms.ND Quarterback for the Denver Broncos, and an out-there christian fundie.
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike · 1
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Mr.GThis is ahis dads website. Its as funny as Land over Baptist.
http://www.btea.org/aboutus.asp

Are we feeling the love yet? Mr.G is quite vocal in his opposition to islam and sharia, but I don't know that he could be considered 'tolerant' of other views. As an atheist, he's also vocal in his opposition to christianity.

Somehow, other religions don't come in for the same sort of bashing as christianity.

Of course, while I appreciate that there are reasons for his dislike of the Church in any denomination, his comments often go what I'd consider the bounds of decency.

Another contender for Champion of Western "Civilisation" goes to the originator of this remarkable comment, Laughing hard as the Muslim convert to Christianity woman's body is found, and Muslims converted to Christianity husband is arrested .... once a Muslim, always a Muslim!

This is in response to the news that a man had confessed to murdering his wife and hiding her body. The family are Iranian, have been in Australia for over a decade, and had converted to christianity.

These atheists, and assorted new agers are supposedly on our side. They supposedly support the ideals of Western Civilisation, but such glee in the face of such an atrocity does not bode well for us.

As usual, christianity is so often accused of being the reason we are in such straits. Comments over at Paul Weston's piece have the usual claims that christians have opened the way for today's problems. As commenter Columnist says,

But Christianity IS a deeply flawed religion.

Christianity commands having a large family, but forbids wars of conquest. This explains the hypocrisy of the West; constantly following a cycle of expansion and guilt. Christianity is inherently unstable.

Christian monogamy means that conquered people are wiped out. Not only men, but also women and children are killed.

So basically all pathologies of the West, both the atrocities AND the guilt about it, are inherited from Christianity.

There is so much wrong with this comment it would take a couple of essays to deconstruct it, but let's just look at one segment. Christian monogamy is Bad according to our commenter. Ohhhhh-kay.

I guess promoting a stable family unit, ensuring that lesser, beta-males, have the opportunity to marry and raise a family (if one man has 4 wives, and the culture also favours things like honour-killing, doesn't that reduce the pool of available females for all men?). Several women competing for the attention of one man leads to jealousy and a lack of trust and respect for all family members.

Yeah, I can see how monogamy is a bad thing.

A closer study of christianity shows that actually it's not that bad a thing to base a society on, and there are serious atheists out there who agree with me. These are rational people like Circe who was a regular contributor to the Australian Islamist Monitor.

Unfortunately, I don't think there are enough non-christians out there who are willing to study the historical foundations and accept that.

Too many years of soft cultural Marxism have blunted the sharpness of our thinking, and on days like today, I honestly don't have any answers.

Youth who have no concept of respect or courtesy for anyone yet demand it for themselves, secular activists who demand respect and want islam out yet demonstrate a wanton, and offensive disregard for the 'other' even if they are members of their own circle but happen to believe in a christian God.

They've sipped enough of the pc-kool aid to shy away from making too many offensive comments about other religions.

This fact saddens me, but also gives me hope. If the enemy, whoever or whatever it is, is so hellbent on wiping out the impact of Christ and His teachings, then maybe there's got to be something to it.

I wonder how long it will take before the likes of Mr.G, and Columnist can recognise that possibility.

I don't expect people to believe like I do, but just do some homework and learn the real, unadulterated history.

The TMI Files. Art Attack.

2012-01-02T17:56:00.003+11:00

Just for Dan, who comments on Magilla's remarkable ability to spin a yarn.

While I agree with the Bulwer-Lytton analogy, the thing to remember is that she is 9 and he was..... a lot older.

Anyway, she's also a top-notch artist. Particularly where political hacktivism could be concerned.

She's been picking up the propaganda from school quite nicely, but also seeing through it as in the case of her school friends who are not allowed to wear shorts in summer because it's against their religion. "It's not fair in summer, and the boys are allowed to wear shorts."

Who on earth thinks that kids are stupid? They're little sponges and will soak up more than you expect.

Especially in the schoolyard where they see the double standards that are being applied around them.

This is not a comment on the school policy, by the way. The school is very accommodating of the differing cultures in our area of outer-eastern Boganland, and I've only had to make any comments to the teachers a few times (once for 'Japanese people are evil because they kill and eat whales in Preps, and then earlier last year to suss out the level of politically correct crap to be fed to the kids on a trip to see penguins at the Aquarium.)

Back to the art, however.

This is my current favourite.

Note the attention to detail - even the armpits are hairy. The look of fear on the face of the creature facing its imminent demise along with that of its home.

What's not to love? Greenpeace should give my girl a job.

Mind you, after watching that ad, I think I'm going to have to buy shares in Nestle.

The TMI Files. Magilla's Tale Of The Big Mistake.

2011-12-22T07:51:00.003+11:00

I've not commented recently about life with Magilla as she's getting older, and there are the ever-present privacy concerns. She's still marvellous and keeping me on my toes, she's still giving out lots of hugs, and she's developing into a mighty fine writer, as you will see below. (A previous effort of hers is here.)

This is posted with permission, and she's watching me type this. :) Any comments will be forwarded onto the author, who is currently 9 years and 5 months old.

Enjoy. I did.

The Big Mistake.

One blustery night a boy (who was my brother) made a drink that would turn you into a MONSTER!!! He didn’t know that would but it did. It happened to him. He put livers, warts, boggers, eyeball juice and spit. It was HORRIBLE!!! I was about to be sick!!! Then I saw him pick up the yucky drink and I was so close to stopping him drinking it but he did.

He had warts all over him, his spit was green, his eyes were runny also his livers were humongous and his boggers were pink in his left nostril and purple in his right. I screamed out “NO”!!! Then we heard foot-steps. It was Dad. He said “What are to doing down here in the basement all alone in the dark?!” My brother said to me “Go!” I said “What about you?” He said “I’ll go out the window.” So I quickly ran the other way out of the basement. Dad came in and he saw some feet go out the window and he saw a disgusting drink on the table. He was sick and he made a big mess on the floor.

My brother roamed the garden, this way and that thinking of a way to change him back to normal. A few minutes later Mum came running outside because dad told her that there was something out there. She shivered from the coldness of the air, and then she saw a little monster in the front yard. I heard a loud shriek coming from mum. I knew that she saw him.

Mum quickly ran inside to get a knife. He quickly made a new drink. It had nectar, flowers, sugar and intentions. It worked!!! He was normal again!!! When she came back outside she said “Oh!!! It’s you dear!!!” My brother said “I was the little monster you saw. I will tell you all about it inside.” Mum said “Ok then, but have a hot chocolate while you are telling us.” “Us?” said my little brother. Mum said “Yes us. Henry!!! Suzan!!! ” So my little brother told us the whole story. No one in my family made a drink that would turn you into a monster again.

This is, as the kids say, totes awesome!

Austrian Press Agency Doesn't Release Press Release. So We Will.

2011-12-20T06:39:00.005+11:00

Excuse me? Media services, paid to release announcements and invitations.... aren't doing their jobs?

In Austria, yes.

Wiener Akademikerbund
(Viennese Association of Academics)
Schlösselgasse 11
1080 Wien

Mohammed and Aisha
Hearing date in Appeal of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff
Invitation to Press Conference

On February 14, 2011, Islam expert Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was sentenced to 120 "daily fines" or two months imprisonment for alleged actualization of the offense described in §
188 StGB (denigration of religious doctrines). She has appealed this verdict because she believes she made only correct statements about the doctrine of Islam, and she never intended to offend the feelings of the adherents of any religious community.

In the course of her introductory seminars on the subject of the "Fundamentals of Islam," referred inter alia to the fact that the founder of the religion, Mohammed, had sexual relations with a child. Among other things, the court supported its verdict by reference to the fact that European ruling dynasties in the Middle Ages also sponsored "child marriages." From the point of view of freedom of expression as well as freedom of inquiry and on the principle that
speaking the truth must never be criminalized, this verdict can be called disastrous. There is in fact no question that Mohammed's sexual intercourse with a nine-year old girl is confirmed in all relevant Islamic sources.

What will succeed--truth or the abuse of justice to further a desire for cultural-political change? The appeals commission will respond in reference to the court-imposed penalty at 9:00 P.M.on December 20,, 2011 in the regional appeals court of Vienna (Justizpalast, Schmerlingplatz 11). This is the reason for our invitation.

Where: Rooms of the Akademikerbund, Schlösselgasse 11, 1080 Wien

When: 11:15 P.M., December 20, 2011

Inquiries: Mag. Christian Zeitz

If you ever met Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff under normal circumstances, you'd probably think she's just a nice, average person and it would be a pleasant enough occasion.

Just don't mention the elephant in the room. We all have one (in my case I have a stack of elephants, but that's just me) and hers is islam, and she's been in trouble with the so-called authorities in Austria now for discussing islam and the example that Mohammed sets for modern muslims with his marriage to the child Aisha.

This is troublesome because as everyone knows in these days of ultra-pc, minorities can't be upset or offended. Some minorities will hold rallies, some will hold vigils, some will go on the rampage.

And some people who hold positions of weight prefer not to upset minorites.

In this last case, opinions that are held to be undesirable can be prosecuted in a breathtaking miscarriage of justice. When the State is used to enforce a political opinion rather than the Law, then you're on the precipice of tyranny.

You've started tumbling over when the organs of the media, those institutions whose purpose was supposed to be the dissemination of information and advertising, refuse to issue your press release in time for your press conference.

Don't want to upset the wrong people, you know.

Nice little country you've got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

We can't call it a democracy any more because in Euroland there is no more democracy.

The voice of the people isn't heard, and it doesn't matter where you stand on the Continent or even in the Anglosphere, it seems.

From the demonisation of the EDL in Britain, to Fjordman in Norway being painted as the reason for Anders Behrig Breivik's going on a murderous rampage (conveniently forgetting that Breivik's "manifesto" speaks of wanting to kill people for 9 years. Longer than Fjordman's been writing) and now Mrs. Sabaditsch-Wolff has an appeal before the courts and she can't publicise her own public comments about it.

In case you missed it, she's the lady found guilty of pointing out that Mohammed's marriage to Aisha is the basis for many muslim men marrying girls - some pubescent, some pre-pubescent.

It's the reason the Ayatollah Khomeini lowered the legal marriage age to 9 for girls when he took over Iran 30 years ago, for example and it's no secret.

She has appealed her guilty verdict, because what she said is true.

The appeal hearing is today, from 9-11am CET (Central European Time) which is around 5pm my time. She's having a press conference after it, and was wanting to publicise that event.

However, the Agency that charges for the service of actually advertising your press release and invitations in this case.... didn't.

Well, just not in anything resembling a timely fashion, and therefore missing the so-called news cycle.

But, as has been seen in the recent past, we no longer need these organs of the State Opinion Promulgators. We can make our own news, and publicise our own conferences.

For those in Austria, in Vienna, get yourself down to the room of the Akademikerbund, Schlösselgasse 11, 1080 Wien, and watch the unravelling of democracy in action.

Oh Noes!1!! Teh Evil West Strikes Again!

2011-12-18T21:17:00.006+11:00

Actually, us Westerners aren't that evil as a species. People tend to be people, and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and mindsets.

That said, there has been a propensity for Western Civilisation to be rather more prolific in the arts than most other cultures.

The heights to which our architecture, and music for example have soared are - as biased as I probably sound - incomparable.

Again exposing my bias, our religious works in particular are beyond compare.

The pyramids in Egypt are amazing, the terracotta soldiers of China likewise, but how on earth can they compete with something as sublime as the Sistine Chapel?

A friend (hi, Merilyn!) sent me a link with the following blurb:

Here is an amazing bit of technology that you would never see in person, as you would NEVER be alone in the room. It is ALWAYS VERY CROWDED and of course you can't see Michaelangelo's artwork close up as you can here. This is especially spectacular if you have a large high-definition screen! Too many details to view on an iPhone.

TO VIEW EVERY PART OF THE MICHAELANGELO'S MASTERPIECE, JUST CLICK AND DRAG YOUR ARROW IN THE DIRECTION YOU WISH TO SEE. In the lower left, click on the plus (+) to move closer, on the minus (-) to move away. Choir is thrown in free. MOVE THE ARROW AND YOU WILL SEE EVERY PART OF THE CHAPEL.

This virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel is incredible. Apparently done by Villanova at the request of the Vatican .

I'll admit that I've never before taken a good look at the Sistine Chapel. It's been one of those things in the background of my life. You know the sort - we've heard of Pompeii and its destruction by Mount Vesuvius, for example, and I still remember years ago as a youngster Mum taking us kids into the Gallery to see an exhibition of casts taken of the victims.

This, however, is in a completely different category. An homage to God and His Creations that took years to finish, and still holds us enthralled centuries later.

From Sacred Destinations:

The Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, from whom it derives its name, in 1475. It was designed to be - and still is - the pope's chapel and the site of papal elections. The Sistine Chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin on August 15, 1483.

In 1481 Sixtus IV called to Rome the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli and the Perugian Pietro Perugino to decorate the walls with frescoes. Luca Signorelli may have also been involved in the decoration. The fresco project took only 11 months, from July 1481 to May 1482.

The Sistine ceiling was originally painted by Piero Matteo d'Amelia, who included a star-spangled sky. But in 1508 Pope Julius II della Rovere commissioned Michelangelo to repaint the ceiling.

Michelangelo was called away from his work on the pope's own tomb and was he not happy about the change. He had always insisted he was a sculptor and was contemptuous of fresco painting. The result are glorious depictions of human bodies that could only be created by a sculptor, and the project Michelangelo hated so much (at least at first) ironically became his most well-known work.

Michelangelo was asked to paint the Twelve Apostles and a few ornaments on the ceiling of the chapel. But as he began work on the project, Michelangelo conceived grander designs and ended up painting more than 300 figures.

He worked on the project between 1508 and October 31, 1512, in cramped conditions high on a scaffolding and under continous pressure from the pope to hurry up. The project would permanently damage the artist's eyesight.

Hmmm. Now what was it I was thinking of doing before getting distracted by the wonderful voice of Tori Amos? Oh, that's right. I should be checking out the Sistine Chapel some more!

Separated At Birth. Norwegian Edition.

2011-12-18T19:42:00.002+11:00

While everyone looks at Anders Behring Breivik and sees either a murdering madman or a caculating psychopath, I see something extra.

Rugrats.

The TMI Files. The Betatudes.

2011-12-02T21:19:00.004+11:00

Magilla has a few mixed cds of favourite songs, and one fun, perky song is by Guy Sebastian.

He came to prominence a few years back on Australian Idol. I've never watched the show, so can't compare the competition, but he won in 2003. He's been floating around ever since, and has a nice voice, and his subject matter doesn't appear to be smutty.

That last bit is the important bit for me. So many of the latest songs just leave me cold, since I tend to listen to them with my parent ears on. Especially with Magilla now being 9 and, as she tells me constantly, a Big Girl. She's not little any more, so I have to make sure I treat her like the grown up she is.

Of course, if she wants to carry on like a toddler I'm happy to treat her like one. :) She comes good in a hurry when that happens.

In the meantime, though, back to Guy.

According to his bio on wikipedia, he's doing well with his music, he is a christian (from an evangelical AoG church), and has also taught singing at a christian school.

He is famously chaste, which is unheard of in this day and age, and provides great role modelling for young people who so often develop their attitudes via the music videos they watch.

I just have one slight issue, though.

His niceness is just too...well, nice.

Like It Like That lyrics found at elyricsworld.com

This song is boppy, the lyrics are relatively harmless, but it's pure betadom.

I can cope with it, though, because it's not his other song, "Never Hold You Down."

Now that is Ultimate Betadom.

With lyrics like:

I've listened to sweet love and no need for me love
But some dreams don't come true
Coz I know your kisses are on the wish list
Of another lover who wants to
Believe he is the only one you let drive your car
But we all knew how this would play out,
Long before the game started

I am left gobsmacked.

The music is nice and laidback, I like his voice, but I just want to grab him by the shoulders and shout, "Where's your game, man? Where?" I don't want my daughter mooning about listening to a whiny boy.

There doesn't seem to be much on offer for tweens these days, and when I revisit songs from my youth back in the long distant past (yeah, 1980s!), I can pick the sexual innuendo that I never noticed at the time.

The fact that I didn't pick it up then gives me hope that Magilla won't grasp it now where the songs of today leave nothing to the imagination.

It's just that the modern imagery is so blatant. *sigh*

I think we'll stick with Weird Al.

JihadWatch Comes To Town.

2011-11-28T21:12:00.002+11:00

PJG has written a guest post over at JihadWatch about Robert Spencer's vist to Melbournistan.

I've known PJG for quite some time now, and we've attended the occasional demo together, so I'm happy to agree with what s/he has to say. Rather than rehash that, I'll add my observations of the evening. (This is your opportunity to rush over to JW and read the report!)

I found the evening to be wonderfully refreshing. Yes, of course Vickie did have to read out a long-winded legal disclaimer, and there was some amusement at her suggesting basically that in the interest of the public interest, we're going to discuss things that are not supposed to be discussed. If you think you might be offended, or if you've come here with the intention of accusing Robert and the Q Society of inciting hatred and hurt feelings then you know where the door is.

That is, of course, my paraphrasing. Vickie is much more diplomatic in that situation than I would be, and it is shocking that in this day and age, in Australia, we are forced into this defensive posture.

Unfortunately, with our draconian laws having claimed several scalps, with Andrew Bolt's being most visible.

The less visible are the likes of QC Peter Faris who has removed himself from public commenting and so many others I know who have been looking over their shoulders before speaking for too long now.

Robert spoke freely and with gusto about the encroachment of sharia norms on our own culture. The extent to which this has occurred is always shocking when you stop to consider the small, incremental steps that have been taken, and what they actually signify.

From the separate toilets for muslims at LaTrobe University - which a friend tells me have been there for years and years and are kept clean by the muslim students in poor comparison to the toilets used by non-muslims - to the City of Monash spending money to put a privacy screen around a public swimming pool so that muslim women can swim without any prying eyes on them.

Needless to say, that last one is going to cost more than anticipated.

These are the most visible symptoms of sharia regulations entering the mainstream, but they are by no means the only ones. Our wonderful 'blasphemy law', also officially known as the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act of 2001 (go read that one, too), has been used primarily against christians, and while it may be worded in a neutral manner, people really aren't that stupid.

Everyone knows who it's there to shackle.

And it's not those who agree with the current, Leftist paradigm.

One recurring theme from Robert Spencer's talk was that we are the inheritors of the greatest, most amazing civilisation the world has ever seen, and he is correct.

Western civilisation gave us human rights, gave us universal suffrage, the greatest leaps forward (sorry, Mao, but your Leap was backwards) in terms of literature, art, music, science, engineering, scholarship and the building of social cohesion (to use a politically-charged descriptor) and just about any other field you can name.

If you want to look at terrible things, well we've also managed to develop terrible engines of war, but to counter-balance that we have Rules of Engagement that take into consideration the possibility of innocents being harmed.

These advances did not happen in a vacuum, and Robert reminds us of that. Our collective Australian, American, Canadian, French, Italian, British, Western identity is worth remembering and celebrating.

Okay, apologies for the digression, but it was necessary when we consider what is taught in our schools.

As was pointed out during the Q&A session after Robert's talk, the audience was composed predominantly of older people. How could we engage the younger generations in fighting against what is happening with the slow and stealthy chaining of our country by islamists and their enablers?

Well, that's something that life will pretty much have to sort out. Older generations have been complaining about the younger ones forever! The ancient Greeks also complained about how the youngsters of their day had no respect, or honour, or idea of what was proper. Nor would they fight for it.

Growing up tends to help in that department, and when you have children of your own, you also grow up that much faster.

In any case, people are waking up, and it's up to us to help them along their path to enlightenment. We talk to people. We can write letters, we can send emails, attend interfaith gatherings to learn more and share more.

When we become engaged, we can accomplish more than we realise. That's the beautiful synergy of our existence.

One person is not merely one person.

One person is a powerhouse who can rev up a room full of strangers, who come together to hear him speak.

One person can provide a focus, an inspiration to the rest of us to get off our backsides and do more.

As I said over at Gates of Vienna nearly exactly 12 months ago:

....What can one person do?

I gave her my card, and my email, and let her know she’s not alone, and she’s not imagining things, and it’s okay to be angry.

She may be one person, but so am I, so are the readers here, and so are many, many others who don’t read blogs but still read the signs.

God bless Robert Spencer for his work, his passion and his knowledge. His enthusiasm definitely fired me up - it's very easy to get disheartened in this game, and it can become easy to find excuses for not blogging as often as I should.

So what will you be doing for the rest of the war?

crossposted at VladTepes.

Birmingham Blogged Live Pt 2

2011-10-30T00:03:00.012+11:00

Part one is here.

[12:05AM]
The muslims have showed their true colors and has kicked off
LikeUnlike · · about a minute ago via BlackBerry · facebook

EDL Support Group
Speeches are just about to start and it is estimated that there are around 1200 present
UnlikeLike · · Share · 5 minutes ago · facebook

[12:23AM] @EddBauer Edward Bauer
Fighting starting, drunk #edl kicking off against police. yfrog.com/o0za2oij

(I do find it interesting that there is not a whole lot going on. There is the above photo captioned that fighting has begun, but that photo could be of pretty much anything. I've noticed before that EDL demos are relatively non-violent in a remarkably disproportionate way compared to the wailing and gnashing of teeth that precedes them. If we look back to the riots earlier in the year, the EDL weren't party to those, and yet their signatures were written in blood and burning buildings.)

[12:28AM] @MrSimonPowell Simon Powell
"Gary Glitter would love Sharia Law". Can any experts on either Sharia Law or Gary Glitter explain that to me? #EDL #confused
(LOL. Confused is correct.)

[12:33AM]@NemesisRepublic Nemesis Republic
RT @EddBauer: Car turned round to escape #edl demo, because of bottles being thrown, now is blocking road. yfrog.com/h3rn2zuj

(This is another of my new best friend Edd Bauer's photos.)
[12:45AM] @EddBauer Edward Bauer
The police cordon at the #edl demo yfrog.com/kga6vcmj

(Who is being cordoned???)

@WeAreTheBrits We Are The Brits
I see the rancid ultra violent far left filth of the #uaf are being kettled by the Police as the #EDL patriots hold their peaceful protest

[12:51AM]#EDL members at pub getting tanked up on foreign booze #hypocrites and #racists
(Now Martin did tell me they were meeting at an Australian-themed pub, but for goodness' sake, this makes them racists now? Talk about clutching at straws.)

[12:56AM] @RichardBurdenMP Richard Burden
Been to show support @ #Brum community protest against #edl. Had look @ EDL rally too. Hate filled & stomach churning #brumisbetterthanthat
(Good to see local pollies out amongst the constituents. Of course, considering that there are a lot of people who prefer sharia to the Law of the Land in Birmingham, I guess he can't be seen to have any sympathy with the EDL's message. Not that I suspect he has any.)

[1:06AM]EDL Support Group
Muslims tried to get in to the EDL demo area but were quickly dealt with by the Police. Fireworks were let off by EDL members but again was dealt with by Stewards. Demo is now over and everyone is starting to get bussed out but intelligence has been received by the Police of plans to attack coaches by the Muslims
LikeUnlike · · Share · 10 minutes ago · facebook

[1:10AM] @EddBauer Edward Bauer
This is not 1,200 ppl, #edl demo far lower numbers than #edl report. They spent most of time in pub. yfrog.com/gzad0mxpj

And a couple of screen shots to round it out:

Because nothing says tolerance and compassion like wishing spontaneous human combustion upon someone with whom you disagree.

I'm glad I'm a member of the Evil Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, because none of the dreadful bigots I associate with would ever say anything like that.

I think I'll stick with supporting the EDL.

B-B-B-B-B-Blogging B-B-B-B-Birmingham.

2011-10-29T22:39:00.016+11:00

Today, the EDL are demonstrating in Birmingham.

Birmingham has a rather large muslim population, and while I knew there was a demo coming up, I've been occupied (not #occupied) with fun things like cleaning the fishtank and introducing Magilla to the Khan Academy. I hadn't thought of liveblogging until my good friend Martin called me up this morning.

Anyway, the demo is about to start (it's nearly 11pm saturday evening here in Melbournistan), so let the liveblogging commence:

[10:40PM]update Muslims are being held back by the demo point, police presence is not they great, got a feeling this could turn nasty soon... ps love it lol bring it on

Others disagree with this summation:

SO News|SellyOakNews
Heavy and very well organised police presence in town for #EDL March #Birmingham
16 minutes ago via UberSocial

[10:58PM]@yellamob Eddie Bitches
More police than #EDL. #birmingham twitpic.com/77j3jt

[11:11PM]The police have said if we fly our flags we will be arrested. England has sharia police
LikeUnlike · · 43 minutes ago via BlackBerry · facebook

[11:13PM]emailing coach companies about their involvement with the violent #EDL. http://abccoachhire.co.uk & http://supremecoaches.co.uk identified today.
1 minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply twitter (nice to see that freedom to conduct your business how you choose is still highly valued amongst the Left.)

[11:15PM]Rosie Pushka https://www.facebook.com/EDL.EnglishDefenceLeague.NS?sk=wall&filter=1 << anyone in touch with people at the demo, can you tell them to look at Mark McCourt's post-saying they have 'infiltrators' within MDL taking closeup photos of MDL leadership
13 minutes ago · Like facebook>
(the EDL having people amongst the counter-protesters has been noted a few times on twitter, and has spread to the MDL - Muslim Defence League - page. Whether they actually have infiltrated the counter-demo or not, it's still a good way to tie them up in knots looking over their shoulders. Of course, the fact that they often try to infiltrate the EDL doesn't seem to strike them as providing a justification for a return of the favour, but logic has never been a strong suit of that way of thinking.)

[11:20PM] EddBauer 3 mins 20 secs ago Twitter
'Hunters' coaches busing #edl into #brum, ring the number on the back of coach and complain. yfrog.com/nupoyoejtwitter

[11:24PM] @SabbyDhalu Sabby Dhalu
Fab CWU black workers against racism, fascism + discrimination #UAFBrum #EDL yfrog.com/nzjulgpj twitter (good to see the unions getting in on the act. One minor question, though. Is there a white workers union?)

[11:36PM]And here's a small exchange that couldn't happen here in Oz (just ask Bolta):
@Giltinann Lewis Giltinan
@rhiwbafc edl are a bunch of racist uneducated thugs

@rob1988ander rob anderson
@Giltinann @rhiwbafc their blacks and Asians in edl I'm of mixed background so what's fascist or rascist about #EDL

@edlnews EDL News
@rob1988ander there are very few black and asians in the #EDL and if you really are mixed race, take a long hard look at yourself

[11:40PM] @everythingedl Everything EDL
One of the banners from todays #EDL protest. How come they know so much about what goes on inside Mosques, anyway? twitpic.com/77jwj8

(because they probably saw Undercover Mosque, and heard Erdogan's words.)

[11:44PM] BirminghamPress
@BirminghamPress BirminghamPress
14.40 #edl entering Centenary Square.

Plea for calm in Birmingham EDL and UAF protests

A PLEA has been made for calm during two rallies which are due to be held in Birmingham today.

The EDL is holding a protest in Centenary Square, whilst a separate community event organised as a counter-reaction to the EDL will take place in Chamberlain Square.

Strict conditions have been placed on both events, but police, community leaders and councillors are still appealing for everyone taking part to keep it safe.

Asst Chief Con Marcus Beale said they had spoken to all the organisers and reminded them about their safety responsibilities.

“We want people to feel reassured and in response to community concerns, we will be staging a large-scale operation,” he said.

“We do not welcome this protest as we recognise that many people feel anxious about it being in the city so soon after the disturbances in August. Like them, we believe that our resources would be better placed in neighbourhoods tackling the crimes which matter most to local people.

“With that in mind, we urge people to go about their normal business and not allow the protest to affect them or undermine Birmingham’s reputation as a harmonious city with many different cultures living alongside each other in peace.” Lozells and East Handsworth councillor, Waseen Zaffar, wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May asking her to intervene and ban the protest, but failed. He said his concerns were not confined to the far-right EDL, but also about the counter demonstration planned by the Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

“I have in the past supported UAF activity and may support their future activities,” he said.

[11:54PM] @OldFatherKong Old Father Kong
Aug 21, London. Hezbollah march through London. No counter demo by the left shocker #tcot #israel #edl #tory twitpic.com/7768nd
(A little bit of perspective. I'm sure everyone is shocked! and stunned!)

[12:01AM] @glitterylou Louise Sian Gibbard
good luck to all #uaf comrades fighting (peacefully!) the racsist, fascist thugs of the EDL in Birmingham today. Who's streets? Our streets! (Why is literacy so hard to come by these days?)

ESW Liveblogging In Vienna.

2011-10-28T20:21:00.004+11:00

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is currently sitting in the plenary in Vienna, attending the confab about "Confronting Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims in Public Discourse".

She is also pretty much a lone voice in the wilderness that is public discourse in Austria when it comes to going against the current view, and seated with mainly men and mainly muslim ones at that when her views and travails are so widely known has to be challenging.

But... she is nothing if not brave, and more than capable of speaking up if she deems it fit.

I've offered to do a bit of a liveblog for her since she can't be here doing it herself (one of the bonuses of global timezones, I guess).

Well, off to a flying start with the first speech being somewhat uninspiring (direct quote:"[7:16:29 PM] this is terrible")

crossposted at VladTepes.

Update 1: the conference is to be based upon a forward-looking approach, with recommendations to require work of all stakeholders. Intolerance and discrimination can be overcome only with the co-operation of everyone, and of course, intolerance of islam goes hand in hand with racism.

It is fueled by stereotypes and prejudices, including the identification of terrorism with islam.

It is these sorts of biased views that led to "recent events" in a very tolerant country, and therefore intolerant speech should be avoided because words can do harm.

Finding a fair balance is hard.

Is freedom of expression absolute? When is it necessary to restrict it?

International standards do not provide answers.

The criminalisation of hate speech is a threat and can impede robust debate in a robust society.

OSCE stresses the protection and promotion of freedom of expression, stresses the role of education in shaping the attitude of young minds. Educators must combat these stereotypes.
[yup. get them while they're young and malleable...nilk]

Update 2: Mr. Omer Orhun, advisor to the Secretary General of the OIC is the next speaker.

[first speaker] identifies intolerance as a problem, what to do to confront instances of this?

There are two points in the field of public discourse:

Political rhetoric - responsible politicians must underline the importance of correct and unbiased discourse.

The media - a positive role in promoting harmony; what is expected of responsible journalists? Media can play a negative and divisive role in projecting messages, and governments must assist the creation of media self-regulation [not very self-regulating in that case, is it?..nilk]

The manifestation of islamophobia in Western Europe and Northern America has the potential to fuel anti-muslim incidents and violence.

The role of the media in preventing hate crimes needs to be explored.

Underlining by the OIC: Respect for cultural diversity.

Differences should not lead to discrimination.

Principles of tolerance lie at the centre of the human rights system. Closely linked to mutual respect, which is based equality and dignity.

Update 3: (same speaker)
Regard for principles of tolerance, democracy, are essential safeguards of tolerance and non-discrimination [apologies for the redundancy ~ just cribbing from skype here..nilk]

More and more people believe that a clash of civilisations is inevitable, and this attitude threatens the international environment.

Mankind must join forces to resist playing one culture against another[umma anyone?..nilk]

With respect to islamophobia, OSCE prefers "intolerance and discrimination against muslims," but we need a definition.

It is a contemporary form of racism, an unfounded fear of muslims and islam and is an affront to the human rights and dignity of muslims.

1. we must address manifestations of islamophiba
2. analyze current occurrences of stereotypes against muslims
3. share good practices and gather set of recommendations to prevent and respond to manifestations od intolerance against muslims
those are concrete measures (the above 3 points)

[First speaker] states that Jesus was born in Palestine. [sigh. here we go again...nilk]

Just in time for a break before the first session.

Update 4:The First Session.

He Lives! (Unedited Today VG Article - GoV Mirror)

2011-10-25T09:14:00.004+11:00

Today’s edition of the Norwegian newspaper VG published an essay by Fjordman. The text, however, had been significantly redacted by the editors of VG without the author’s consent. To set the record straight, the complete article is reproduced below in English. This is a mirror of Gates of Vienna, and the Baron has the Norwegian version.

Just as we did several weeks ago, we aim to overcome the stifling censorship imposed by the Norwegian media by spreading this essay as widely as possible. To help the cause of free speech, please mirror it on your blog or website.

We intend to demonstrate once again to the Norwegian newspapers that we can reach a wider readership than they can.

Introductory note from Fjordman:

This is my most recent Norwegian article as it should have appeared in print. Today VG, the largest national newspaper in Norway, published this article in the paper edition, but they also cut out a couple of vital paragraphs without my knowledge or approval. My essay was not over-long, and I stayed within their normal limits.

The missing paragraphs referred to the fact that Mohammed had sex with a nine-year-old child (Aisha) and that modern Islamic theologians such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi support this policy today because it is a part of Mohammed’s Sunna, his personal example. Journalist Elisabeth Skarsbø Moen and others deleted this, accidentally-on-purpose. They also deleted my suggestion that NRK TV dare not show a drooling Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a wheelchair telling Muslims that pedophilia is OK, in contrast to the parody of me they have been broadcasting.

Why did they cut this out? Fear, plain and simple.

I composed this essay in response to Anders Giæver, who writes regular commentary for VG and has slimed me several times for my alleged “paranoia” about Islam and Muslims. So VG can harass me for having paranoia about pro-Islamic censorship, and when I reply they censor me with pro-Islamic censorship.

Fjordman Lives On

by Peder Jensen, also known as Fjordman

Translation: Cecilie, aided by Fjordman.

A commentator at VG (Verdens Gang, Norway’s largest national newspaper), Anders Giæver, has attacked me multiple times in his columns in that newspaper. On the one hand he describes me disdainfully as an average Norwegian, but also adds that I am “one of the most central promoters of Islam-hatred and Muslim-paranoia in Europe.”

Who has decided what constitutes paranoia? Mr. Giæver has read hardly any of the writings of Bat Ye’or about Eurabia, nor Robert Spencer’s website Jihad Watch, and has probably not understood what little he may have read. He is incapable of disproving a single factual piece of information I have published, nor my statement about Islam being impossible to reform or fit in with Western civilization. The only thing he has to show for himself, therefore, is personal attacks.

It is true that after the terrorist attacks of July 22nd I was exhausted. When I appeared in VG under my real name I seriously contemplated giving up my career as a writer. However, after the situation has calmed down a bit and I could think things through, I have decided to continue with undiminished force.

Right from the beginning I have been saying that terrorists, whether they come in the shape of Islamic Jihadists or Anders Behring Breivik, should not be allowed to decide what a free society can or cannot discuss, and I meant that. If that is the case, they should not to be allowed to dictate to people who are critical of Islam and mass immigration, either.

I will definitely not accept that the mass media should be allowed to threaten or harass me to make me shut up.

If one day I should stop my activities it will be through my personal choice, not one dictated by Anders Giæver, Marie Simonsen or other media bullies.

In its ethical guidance the “Vær Varsom” (“Be Careful”) poster, the Norwegian Press Association gives a person the right to reply to statements uttered about him in the press. I will in the future actively exercise this right, which means I will be more visible than ever.

If Norwegian newspapers refuse to publish my essays I will publish them on the Internet at Gates of Vienna, both in English and in Norwegian, as examples of press censorship. My book The Curious Civilization will also be published as planned in 2012.

The Islamic Council of Norway, which is coercively sponsored by native, non-Muslim Norwegian taxpayers, receives guidance from the European Council for Fatwa and Research about whether they should be for or against the death penalty for homosexuals.

The Council is headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi has among many other things boasted openly that Muslims will soon conquer Europe, and has praised the Nazi Holocaust.

Representatives for Jonas Gahr Støre’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have met members of the Brotherhood for talks in Oslo.

The author Walid al-Kubaisi describes al-Qaradawi as being “more dangerous than bin Laden” and describes how he issues fatwas ruling that it is allowed (halal) to marry children. I refer to the article “Islam and marriage with minors.” Muhammed himself married Aisha when she was only six, and consummated the marriage when she was nine and he was 54 years old (Bukhari 7.62.64). This has become part of his Sunna, or personal example, to be followed for all time.

In February 2006 a delegation was sent from Norway to the Middle East to beg for mercy from the mighty Yusuf al-Qaradawi because of the Mohammed cartoons. This was supported by the Norwegian government of PM Jens Stoltenberg.

Qaradawi then demanded a legal ban on criticism of Mohammed, the founder of Islam. This would imply submission to sharia law and that Europe and the Western world would from now on be under Islamic rule. That is what the international conflict over the Danish cartoons was really about.

Thomas Seltzer, a host of NRK3, has shown a caricature of me as a paraplegic writer in a wheelchair. I suppose this makes me Norway’s answer to Stephen Hawking, which I take as a compliment. Alternatively, one could be lead to believe that people in wheelchairs are slavering idiots, which is not particularly tasteful.

The difference between a humorist and a bully is that a true humorist makes fun of the powerful, not the weak. Seltzer does not dare to show a drooling Qaradawi in a wheelchair telling Muslims that pedophilia is OK.

I don’t take this very personally, given that Mr. Seltzer can scarcely be taken seriously. However, it does annoy me that he can force others to sponsor this through TV licensing, whether they want to or not.

Among the most important things one can do to get a more open debate in Norway today is to cancel all public funding for the press, as well as put an end to NRK [the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation] in its present form.

A Norwegian Mirror. The Rule of Law After 7/22.

2011-10-24T20:13:00.002+11:00

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, which refused Fjordman’s first right-of-reply article, has accepted his second submission. Many thanks to Kepiblanc for translating it into English. The original Norwegian version, which has just been published at Aftenposten, is at the Gates of Vienna.

The Rule of Law After 7/22

by Peder Jensen, a.k.a. Fjordman

I know that some people dislike me, which they are perfectly entitled to do. Yet it is important to remember that a civilized country ruled by law must function regardless of personal likes or dislikes. My unpleasant encounter with the Norwegian police raises fundamental questions regarding the handling of witnesses in major criminal investigations. You can still be interested in these issues even if you disagree with or dislike my writings.

Furthermore, it is meaningless to hold well-documented texts responsible for the actions of a disturbed person. Assuming that we take “psychological accountability” seriously, we should also hold those accountable who distribute the Koran — which very explicitly encourages violence against non-Muslims — and thus make them co-responsible for countless actions of Jihadist terrorism around the entire world. Is this happening?

In his terror manifesto, Anders Behring Breivik quoted numerous different people from all over the world, obviously without their knowledge or approval. Being quoted by persons one has never met is something beyond one’s control, but since I was the only Norwegian among those quoted there I realized that I sooner or later would have to discuss this matter with the authorities.

I first contacted the Norwegian Police Security Service [PST] by physically knocking on the door of their headquarters in Oslo. However, they didn’t want to talk to me and told me to send them an email instead. I suppose the security services have coffee breaks, too. Judging by the newspapers one could get the impression that the police were actively seeking me out, yet neither the police nor the press had the slightest idea who I was until on August 4th when I knocked on the door to Manglerud Police Station, accompanied by Knut Ditlev-Simonsen from the law firm Staff. As far as they were concerned I might as well have been Mickey Mouse.

Although I was not legally obliged to do so I answered most of their questions. The only form of indirect contact I have ever had with Breivik is that both of us posted comments on the website Document.no. It is true that he tried to contact at me some point in 2009 and sent me a handful of emails. As with everything else he said to others prior to his atrocities, they were hardly spectacular or sensational and contained no hint of future terror actions. Furthermore, I was totally uninterested in meeting with him. Apart from that, I don’t know anything about Breivik. Absolutely nothing.

After some hesitation I voluntarily gave the police access to my telephone log, which must be considered to be a very friendly gesture by a person who is not charged with anything and who himself knows that he was not involved in the criminal actions. Virtually the only one of the police requests that I turned down was giving them my computer, which I considered to be too serious a violation of my privacy. I was then physically followed by several police officers and forced to hand it over.

It was Bård Dyrdal, leader of the program for questioning witnesses after the 7/22 terror attacks, who announced the use of force against my person, supported by police attorneys Christian Hatlo and Pål-Fredrik Hjort Kraby. “He had the status of witness and we got a long and fair explanation from him to the questions we had,” Kraby told NRK [Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation].

This is correct. I held the status as a witness both before and afterwards and have never been suspected of or charged with a criminal act of any kind. For the record, after having studied all of my communications for several months, the police informed me by email in October that I am still not suspected of anything.

When Dyrdal announced that I would immediately be escorted by half a dozen police officers to my flat in order to search through my books, movies, photos, kitchen equipment and dirty laundry for hours and hours he declared that there was a lot of pressure in this case, which probably means that the police let the mass media dictate their actions in the case against Behring Breivik. There was no objective, professional justification for what they did to me.

They also confiscated a suitcase with clothes and socks that contained no electronic equipment at all. At a time when far too many rapes and other serious crimes remain unsolved in parts of the country one has to wonder whether it is the right decision by the police to spend several months on studying the socks of a person who has no criminal record .

There is absolutely nothing on my PC that could possibly connect me to the terror attacks. The only thing there that might be of interest to the police authorities — and then to the PST more than the regular police — are contacts I have with peaceful individuals in many countries who do not like Islam. This means that the Norwegian police disregarded all common legal procedures in order to confiscate a PC that can be used for nothing other than conducting illegal political surveillance.

The police justified their actions against me by using something called a third-party search [tredjemannsransaking], which would imply that evidence of Breivik’s terror attacks should exist in my flat and that there was a danger that this evidence could be lost or destroyed. This is ridiculous. I had contacted the police myself and answered their questions for many hours precisely because I had nothing to hide. Besides, at this point two weeks had passed since the terror attacks, plenty of time to get rid of any evidence had such evidence existed in the first place, which it didn’t.

I have never before heard of any Western democratic country where a voluntary witness who himself contacted the authorities, who was described by the police as being cooperative, who has no criminal record, did not know the perpetrator, and on top of everything else was nowhere near the crime scene when the crime took place have his apartment ransacked and his computer equipment confiscated.

When I told Lars Hedegaard of the International Free Press Society what kind of treatment I had been given as a witness, he responded that it reminded him of the situation in totalitarian states, like the ones we are all too familiar with from the twentieth century. “If someone had told me a few years ago that the free and proud Norway which we Danes admired during the German occupation would end up like this, I would have considered them insane.” Harsh words from a neighbor, and damaging to Norway’s international reputation.

If my case is not disputed, I fear that it may create a dangerous precedent. Worst case scenario, it could imply that the police can from now on ransack the apartment of citizens they dislike, especially if they say something Politically Incorrect, and confiscate their computer equipment, camera and clothes without charging them of having done anything criminal whatsoever. If this happens, we no longer have a crime police; we have a thought police. Do we want a society like that?

If Aftenposten Won't Post, We Will.

2011-10-12T06:39:00.002+11:00

A mirror for Fjordman*.

Editor’s note: The following article was a response to a piece in Aftenposten that likened Fjordman to a Nazi. The paper denied him his statutory “right of reply”, so he is publishing his prepared response here and at other online locations instead.

The Norwegian version of this article was published previously here. Many thanks to our Norwegian correspondent NA for translating it into English.

We encourage as many blogs as possible to mirror these posts. Our goal is for more people to read this article than if it had been published in Aftenposten, as Fjordman originally intended. The Norwegian MSM will discover that they no longer control the flow of information to the public. We will demonstrate that the “new media” can do a better job of disseminating news than the newspapers can.

Here follows the translated text of an essay that the newspaper Aftenposten has now refused to publish. According to the ethical guidelines of the Norwegian Press Association, one has the right to reply to accusations put forward about oneself in the press. Aftenposten, a few days before I went public with my real name, posted a notorious article about “Islamophobes” such as Robert Spencer, Bat Ye’or and myself (Fjordman) where we were presented as the new wave of right-wing extremism. The photos in the print edition were particularly nasty, where I was put next to Vidkun Quisling, Anders Behring Breivik and several neo-Nazis who are convicted murderers. I think they owe me for that. They were very close to a libel suit back then.

I sent them this essay a few days ago (as Peder Jensen, of course) for review. They rejected it. I’m not going to claim that it is the best text I have ever written, but I think it is at least as well-written, well-researched and logically coherent as the countless mediocre and easily-forgotten essays that very same newspaper has published about racist white Islamophobes and right-wing extremists.

I was first told that the text didn’t match the title. I think it does. I linked it to the Nazi sympathies of Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and showed how the authorities and the mainstream media have appeased the real Nazis of our time. However, they wanted me to remove the second part. I refused, and argued that the examples I had used were relevant. The same journalist then changed tactics and stated that my arguments were not new and had been used before. I suppose that means that Aftenposten will reject all future essays about Islamophobia or xenophobia, since most people have heard those arguments hundreds of times before, if not more. Somehow, I doubt that will happen.

Aftenposten asked me to remove the reference to my upcoming book The Curious Civilization from the text because this could be seen as a commercial of some kind. I admit that was indeed part of the reason why I put it there. That is the one change that I would have been willing to make to the text, to cut out that particular reference. Also note that they didn’t dispute a single factual claim that I wrote in the essay. I can easily document all of them.

The bottom line is that one has the “right to reply”, but apparently only as long as the journalists agree with your reply, which isn’t very helpful. I can accept being rejected if I simply don’t write well enough. I am not claiming that every single text I write is a masterpiece. Perhaps this one isn’t. But I cannot live with being turned down because of ideological censorship, and will not rewrite an essay to please those doing so. Perhaps I am wrong, but I personally sense an element of that motive here. If that is indeed the case then I will not accept it. That is why I started blogging in the first place. I therefore publish the text here to highlight censorship in the press.

Are Critics of Islam the Nazis of Our Time?

by Peder Jensen, also known as the writer Fjordman on the Internet

On the 30th of July of this year, Aftenposten printed the article “They are the third wave,” in which they harassed people such as Bat Ye’or, Robert Spencer and myself. The illustrations in the printed edition were particularly appalling. One was shown a picture of Bat Ye’or, and on the next page a picture of the convicted Nazi traitor Vidkun Quisling. This is extremely tactless, especially considering that the Nazis were responsible for the genocide of about six million Jews and the fact that Bat Ye’or is Jewish. Besides, Aftenposten‘s own historical relationship with the Nazis is far from pretty.

The message that is now being presented in the mass media after the atrocities committed by Anders Behring Breivik is that critics of Islam like myself are the Nazis of our time. But is this true? The Nazis were national Socialists, even though many people would now like us to forget the second part of their ideology. I have personally never heard of a totalitarian movement that could not also be partially described as Socialist. Is it a coincidence that a disproportionate number of Western converts to Islam are neo-Nazis or Marxists? Do they share a common totalitarian DNA?

In 2008, Marte Michelet from Dagbladet startlingly enough made common cause with Islamic organizations, Communists and neo-Nazis in favour of a new, large mosque in Cologne. German neo-Nazis regard Islamic organizations as allies in the struggle against “Jewish-Zionist dominance.” This did not lead to critical remarks from other media in Norway. There is more inbreeding in the Norwegian press than amongst Pakistani cousins.

As I mention in my upcoming book on European culture, The Curious Civilization, Muslims have a choice between Mozart and Hitler, and often choose Hitler of their own free will. In sharp contrast to the East Asian passion for European Classical music, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf was number two on the bestseller list in the allegedly moderate NATO member state Turkey as late as in 2005. The book is still popular in parts of the Arab world.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, grew in parallel with the Nazi movement in Europe and was inspired by this in addition to Islam. Their leader Mahdi Akef has reassured his followers that Jihad “will smash Western civilization and replace it with Islam, which will dominate the world.” Akef stated in 2007 that if Muslims are not able to achieve this in the near future they are “obliged to continue Jihad [holy war to expand Islamic global rule], which will lead to the collapse of Western civilization.”

The Islamic Council of Norway, which is being funded by native Norwegian taxpayers, receives guidance from the European Council for Fatwa and Research about issues such as whether or not to support the death penalty for homosexuals. The Council is led by the powerful Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi, who supports marriage with underage children, has openly boasted that Muslims will conquer Europe, spoken in positive terms of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis, and suggested that the next mass murder of Jews will come at the hands of Muslims. As Walid al-Kubaisi points out, the Brotherhood has a big influence in many countries, the West included. Representatives of Jonas Gahr Støre’s Foreign Ministry have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood for talks in Oslo.

In 2007 under the government of Jens Stoltenberg, Norway was the only Western country to recognize the Palestinian government that was then led by Hamas. The ideology of Hamas has many similarities with Nazism. This move was widely applauded by the Norwegian press at the time. People within the governing parties and the political Left wanted to support such a government financially, which would imply that Norwegian taxpayers had to fund terrorists.

In September 2011 the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) asked the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard to leave Norway because they feared that an assassination attempt would be made against him. According to Islamic sources, critics of Mohammed were killed by his followers. Given that his personal example, or Sunna, which along with the Koran constitutes the teachings of Islam, this remains a valid principle to this day. Those who want to kill Theo van Gogh or Geert Wilders are therefore acting in full compliance with traditional Islamic theology.

This is described in Halvor Tjønn’s surprisingly realistic Norwegian biography of Mohammed. Ibn Warraq, author of the book Why I Am Not a Muslim, is a man who was born in Pakistan but has to write under a pseudonym in order to avoid the death penalty for apostasy. Islam is the only religion on Earth that prescribes death to those who criticize or leave it.

Thomas Seltzer, a host on NRK3, has presented a caricature of me as a multi-handicapped writer in a wheelchair. I presume that this makes me the Norwegian equivalent of Stephen Hawking, which I take as a compliment. Alternatively, one could imagine it to be an insinuation that people in wheelchairs are drivelling fools, which is not particularly tasteful.

The difference between a humorist and a bully is that a true humorist makes fun of the powerful, not the weak. Seltzer can ridicule people like me because he knows that we will not assault him, but he does not dare to show a drooling Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a wheelchair explaining to Muslims that paedophilia is OK. By so doing he has himself indirectly admitted who the real successors to the Nazis in our time actually are. I can inform him that genuine neo-Nazis do not like me at all and have circulated rumours on the Internet for years about me being an Israeli agent because of my clear pro-Israeli line.

Some people might assert that I, who stretch the boundaries of freedom of speech, should put up with as much. Perhaps. The difference is that citizens do not have to pay for my writings. Through the TV license they have to pay for what is broadcast on NRK, whether they want to or not. In an age when a heavily left-leaning press looks like as a wall-to-wall carpet of Multicultural propaganda, one has to ask why. Hundreds of thousands of Norwegians are fed up with the fact that those who are deeply concerned for the future of their children because of a mass immigration that is unprecedented in human history are harassed by their own press corps and labelled as extremists, racists and Nazis.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has spoken in favour of more openness and democracy after Breivik. One of the most important things one could do to get a democratic debate going in Norway is to remove press subsidies and to abolish NRK in its present form. The question is whether the Labour Party is willing to do this as long as NRK constitutes an integral part of the Left’s grip on power.

*here in Australia, free speech is effectively no more, particularly after the success recently of a case against the conservative commentator, Andrew Bolt. It has become increasing apparent to me that I have the right to say anything I like, so long as it parrots the pc Party line, and I've noticed over the last 5 years or so since I began actually paying attention to the world around me that there are things that Must Not Be Said.

When good friends tell me not to take a particular pathway while out to dinner in a deserted restaurant, then we're in trouble.

When a media outlet can vilify a person who has done nothing wrong, for the thoughtcrime of writing something that - again - does not fit the prevailing narrative and refuses him the right of reply, then it's time to step up.

In my case, stepping up means I'm more than happy to mirror anything Fjordman wants to write.

I'm sure I'll get called the usual nazi scum and racist bigot, blah-de-blah and all the rest but guess what? Those who call me that usually have no concept of what Freedom and Democracy are all about.

I'm happy for them to air their opinions, because they only demonstrate how bereft of solid logic and reason they are. Telling me I'm wrong is one thing, demonstrating it is another altogether and where the enemies of Freedom (a quick shout-out to the #occupybrainspace herd) fall down.

At least if I'm in dialogue with a person I don't shout them down in an infantile attempt to drown out their position.

That wouldn't be civilised.

Where's Big Counterjihad When You Need It?

2011-10-10T20:52:00.003+11:00

Over at Gov and Vlad Tepes a call has gone out for assistance.

The remarkable Fjordman is in somewhat straightened circumstances, so a few of us are helping put the word out for him. He hasn't had a blog of his own for years, although that has not stopped his productivity.

What did slow him down, however, was the Norwegian gunman Breivik naming him (among others) as being a bit of an inspiration*. I personally think that Breivik's 'manifesto' is a load of tripe. Breivik talks of christianity, say's he's not one, and yet gets wheeled out as being a fundamentalist christian. As someone who is into Extreme Popery, I call bullshite.

In the meantime, and along with everything else, Fjordman has now pretty much lost everything - job, home, country. I've got a cat he could have, but that's no use when there's nowhere to keep it.

He does have a few (for him) words over at Vlad's which I'll paste here:

Hello from Peder Jensen alias Fjordman. I will continue writing under one name or the other and hope to publish several books in the next year and a half, but after the Breivik case in Norway, which I got mixed up in against my will, I no longer have a job and I am also moving out of my old flat in Oslo, which I already left weeks ago. There are always some costs involved in moving to a different location and creating a new life somewhere else. If you have enjoyed some of my essays in the past I would be grateful if you donated a few bucks this time. Think of it as a Fjordman Relocation Fund. Just mark the donations as being for me and I will get it via Vlad’s fine website.

Thank you, and thank you for all the support and kind words I get from long-time readers.

Peder

This is not quite a twilight bark - more a twilight blog.

*very interesting review of Breivik's 'manifesto' by someone of the left-persuasion. I'm not sure she's read the Reliance, or the hadiths or the Hedaya, but that's only to be expected. A few weeks with HuT might help her with a few things. Like the fact that muslims believe that sharia law is Allah's Law for all men for all time, so whether she agrees with it or not is irrelevant.

That's not conspiracy theory, neither is it conspiracy that a man has been hounded out of his home for writing some hard-hitting essays that focus on the Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation.

We're just not supposed to mention the islamists because we're not allowed to hurt feelings.

Please check out the post over at VladTepes, and if you can donate money to assist Fjordman, please do. If you can't, then linklove and prayers are most welcome also.

crossposted at Tizonas

Matthew Would Like To Say A Few Words.

2011-09-30T19:23:00.005+10:00

Tundra Tabloids posted an article recently about something that happened over in England.

My mate Martin Brennan has been staying with a fellow called Matthew Stiddard. Martin was deported from Australia officially due to a breach of visa, but seeing as Martin had never been in trouble with the police nor had any notification from DIAC about any visa irregularities, I wonder if that was really it.

That's for another day, so we'll leave that for now.

Matthew was interviewed by VladTepes, and I've also gotten to know him. He's starting to get a bit of a profile now, and he's concerned that there might be some misconceptions floating around with respect to his current police.... challenges... and what's happening with the leadership of the EDL.

For the record, Matthew has never made any comment about why the police would be interested in Martin. In conversation he has made it quite clear that it's not a path he would like to travel down.

I'll let him speak for himself*:

My Story

On the 9th of April 2011 I made a video called Intifada on the request of the then leader of the Jewish Defence League and it went live on the WWW, shortly after this I started receiving threats of violence through my letterbox to the sound of nazi scum, fascist and many unpleasant four letter words, I took no notice of this and threw the letters in the bin, thinking that they were just words to scare me off. Then at the beginning of May that year I received a letter saying 'fascist c**t, you are next' doing what I always did throwing it in the bin only to be awoken two days later at around 1.30am to the sound of my windows being banged and being told that my Landrover Discovery was on fire and that the flames were lapping over my bungalow.

I hear you asking how did they find out it was my video, someone put their name to my video claiming that they did it, in a group on Facebook which at the time was filled with trolls (left wing nut jobs), what this person didn't realize was that I always show my new video's to a couple of people just before they go live, a sort of pre-screening well these people jumped to my defence and said it was not his claim but mine and gave my full name. My profile picture on Facebook is of my two dogs and at the time I had the name of the village were I lived, being of only 200 homes it wasn't hard to find me especially when you have a large number of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) 10 miles up the road in Exeter. Stupid I know.... since then I have had to be aware of what is around me and I have had to keep changing my routine when it comes to walking my dogs.

I have made 15 video's all together 2 for different divisions of the English Defence League (EDL) and 2 for my fellow Australians, the rest was for myself highlighting different aspects of islam.

22nd of September 2011

On this morning at 8am BST police officers entered my home and immediately seizing my laptop and a number of mobile phones belonging to myself and Martin (who is currently staying with me while he sorts himself out) and was visiting his friends near London at the time. They even tried taking two musical CD's by a band called Anglo Saxon thinking it was something to do with right-wing extremist propaganda. The police went into my bedroom and headed straight for Martin's bag were he has clothing and his passport and documents of who he is and his deportation information. Two police officers spent between 40 and 60 minutes looking at these documents taking information from the documents and on two occasions taking his passport and other documents outside to make phone calls, only one can guess why they did this. They searched every corner of my home including the garden and the allotment up the road. I was then arrested due to medical grounds which have nothing to do with my chosen path in standing against the worldwide jihad movement. I was then taken to the police station to be formally charged.

On arrival I had to be signed in and give over my details, I was asked if I had any religious beliefs or special food requirements, my reply was...

'I do not eat any halal food or any halal certified foods' in return the police officer sad 'I am being serious' in which I replied 'does it look like I am f**king joking....No halal' was I rude, arrogant or stupid in saying this or was I, a man for standing by my principles.

The police then had 6 hours to go through my laptop gaining access to my video's, articles, resources and the many anti-jihad blogs and websites that I have stored on my laptop. I was then interviewed at 6pm BST firstly about my arrest connected to my medical condition which I believe was a poor excuse to enter my home. They then turned to other matters concerning my involvement in the counter jihad, they seem to know all about my video's, my youtube channel, the demonstrations I attend around the country, my web activities and the fact that I look through council planning applications for mosques and islamic community centres so I can then pass them on to a lawyer, so he can fight to stop them being built. I replied that I had not been arrested for this so I do not have to answer your questions the whole interview lasted around 9 minutes.

This investigation is still on going, in other words they have nothing on me and want to try and find something. I was released at 9pm to answer bail on the 7th of November were I will find out if I am going to be charged with racial and religious assault and/or exciting racial hatred.

Wednesday the 28th September 2011

At around 10am on this morning I had a visit yet again to my home but this time by the Police Intelligence Unit (PIU) wanting to ask me some questions. On entering my home they asked if Martin was here on replying no he is visiting friends they (PIU) made contact with another officer on his phone saying 'it is okay' a few phone calls were received to make sure they were safe I mean what can I do with the ill health I have towards officers of the British police force.

They seem to have a lot of intelligence not just on myself and Martin but the whole off the EDL within the South West of England, but, it also seems that the intelligence they have is all jumbled up and they are trying to cross the T's and dot the I's like having a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of bake beans without having the picture.

They were asking me what positions people held, how the divisions were set up, they asked what my links were to other groups, did I know this person or that person and as with every question came the same answer I don't now anything or anyone. They asked what my links were to the EDL and I said that I have no links to the EDL I work for myself in exposing the true nature of Islam. They asked what involvement Martin had I replied 'that he has had no involvement since being in the U.K apart from going to a couple of demonstrations' one being the counter demonstration on 9/11 against Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) one can only speculate why they asked this maybe they are interested in what is on his phone as this was the only phone that they have not had access to. I do believe that we will all find out what is on his phone over the next few days. If I did and I mean IF I did know anything then I would rather do 10 years in prison than help was my final reply to the above questions.

They even asked if I knew anyone within the groups of the UAF and MAC 'they are the enemies why would I know any of them' was my reply. The question was then put to me that if I knew of a terrorist attack on the U.K would I inform the police my reply 'I do this to protect my country of course I would, you think that I would allow them to do this to my country'. This question seems a little bizarre as if I would just sit back and turn a blind eye to an on coming attack on my homeland.

After getting no where with the questions the real insult came, they offered to pay all my expenses to travel all around the U.K to demonstrations and in return to supply them with intelligence. As if I would turn on my brothers and sisters who are the only people brave enough to stand against the onslaught of radical Islam and the Islamists that are hell bent on destroying my beautiful country and all the hopes and freedoms that she gives. I did by the way refuse this offer

Like I said to the officer I do not pay any money for membership to the EDL, I am not a member of the EDL, I understand why they do what they do, I even have the same concerns as the EDL and have shown my support for them by turning up at a few of their demonstrations and I will always show support to the volunteers of the EDL but this does not mean that I am a member of the EDL. What I do I do for myself and to show people the truth with what is really going on.

I have had threats of violence, been followed and had my Landrover Discovery set on fire by the left-wing nut jobs that plague our country, the police even know the group responsible to a degree, yet no arrests or questioning to these people have been made to date and I am the one that finds myself in police cells while my laptop and phone has been seized and getting visits from police intelligence.

That is all I have to say and hope that there is enough information there for you also here is a link to my youtube channel.... http://www.youtube.com/user/13matlee?feature=mhee the video titled the false prophet is not mind I just uploaded it for a friend as youtube wouldn't let him put it on his channel.

Matthew

One thing to think about here is that while the EDL has many members, there are also many more who identify with it although they do not join. We have had the same experience here with what I call the 'fledgeling' Australian Defence League.

I attended the recent BDS anti-Max Brenner (what's racist about hot chocolate?) with some friends, and there were others there who likewise felt a need to witness the growing anti-semitism in our country. I was sent a link to a photo that claimed to be of 2 ADL members, and one other person of indeterminate origin.

I was the only person there who has ever identified as being with the ADL, and I wasn't in the photo. The others are friends who happen to agree with me that fascism of any sort, whether doled out by socialists, ageing commies or those who are determined to push an islamist agenda, is not welcome.

My friends are like Matthew. They make their stands in their own ways, and not necessarily by waving a banner.

This is a war with many fronts, and Matthew knows it.

*edited only to add links.
crossposted at VladTepes.

Remembering And Re-Posting September 11.

2011-09-11T08:13:00.002+10:00

originally posted here and at Tizonas.

While many people died in the atrocities in 2001, we tend to remember most the Twin Towers falling.

Many of us watched it happening in real time, even myself here in Melbournistan, Australia.

Seven years after the event, the enormity of it is something that never leaves; perhaps that really was the end of history as we know it, rather than the year 2000.

For someone with the gift of the gab, this is one that renders me nearly speechless, and so I will just leave you with a comment of the frollicking mole's from Tim Blair's old blog:

I saw people jumping and never considered it suicide. It was a choice between the auto-de-fe of the islamists or the quick death of their own making.
They made a CHOICE not to die by burning, I only hope they closed their eyes and thought back to when they were 5 and could fly....

In the interests of tolerance, diversity and multiculturalism, and for those who think that America (we) deserved 9/11:

I hope you fucking rot in hell.

God bless America and her martyrs.

(crossposted at Tizona's)

postscript.

Thank you, Bosch, for you have the pictures when I'm stricken dumb.

Tommy Robinson: A Patriot And A Martyr.

2011-09-07T05:59:00.004+10:00

The English Defence League has just issued the following statement about the imprisonment of their leader, Tommy Robinson:

Tommy Robinson: A Patriot and a Martyr

A martyr is someone who suffers for a cause. And Tommy is most definitely someone who has suffered for his.

He is currently in a cell in Bedford Prison, having broken his bail conditions in order to attend the EDL demonstration in Tower Hamlets. There were many good reasons why we chose to demonstrate in Tower Hamlets, and Tommy simply felt that he could not sit idly by whilst the movement he founded took to the streets to protest against the formation of Britain’s ‘Islamic Republic’ (not our words, but those of a “very senior figure in the Tower Hamlets Labour Party”).

Ever since the EDL was founded we have found ourselves battling against politicians, but we have also sought to maintain a commitment to peaceful protest, respect the role played by the police, and never seek to undermine the law of the land. Tommy’s decision to break his bail conditions was therefore far from an easy one. It was not a reckless decision, but one made with a full appreciation of the likely consequences.

Tommy judged that the right to free speech, the right to peaceful protest, and his duty to speak out against the tyrannical influence of radical Islam, outweighed the court’s decision to place such strict limitations on his freedoms; a decision lent weight by the European Court of Human Rights’ rulings on the right to freedom of assembly.

He judged, quite rightly, that in breaking his bail conditions he would treated far more harshly than we have seen radical Muslims treated. He was certain this would send a clear signal to anyone concerned about freedom of speech or about the influence of radical Islam in this country, that our freedoms are under attack, and the government, the courts, and the media are yet to wake up to the threat. In the worst cases, they’re even complicit in this attack on freedom.

If anything, the fact that Tommy will spend the rest of the week in prison just confirms what many of us will have suspected for a long time: that the charges against him are motivated more by politics than they are by the desire to see justice done. That makes them all the more suspect.

On June 24th, Blackburn Magistrates Court heard that on April 2nd 2011 Tommy had assaulted a man at a demonstration in Luton — a charge he denies. The court granted bail, but subject to the following conditions:

* He must not knowingly organise, travel to, or participate in any march, demonstration, protest or similar.
* He must not send any article, letter, fax or email that seeks to promote or publicise any match, demonstration or protest in the open air.
* He must report to Luton Police station every Saturday between midday and 2pm.

Until the Tower Hamlets demonstration on September 3rd, he had dutifully complied with these restrictions — restrictions that are far more extensive than the ‘control orders’ placed on suspected ‘hate preachers’ or other Muslim radicals. Added to the threats he and his family have received (threats that the police thought serious enough to issue Osman warnings), the suffering that he has had to endure over the last few months may be easily imagined. It is hardly surprising that he feels let down by the legal system that the EDL have pledged to protect from radical Islam and from the creeping influence of Sharia Law.

In Tower Hamlets Tommy made a very clear statement:

“When you let me out of court with any bail conditions that restrict my democratic right to oppose militant Islam, I will break them the minute I walk out of that court room.”

The question then becomes: is Tommy Robinson being held captive because he has dared to challenge the authority of the court (in the way that radical Muslims and supporters of Sharia Law do every day), or because he dared to challenge the government’s view that we should engage with, appease, and even fund militant Islam?

What is more dangerous, the possibility that Tommy Robinson may inspire people with similar restrictions on their freedoms to violate their bail conditions, or that his example will once again underline the fact that the government’s counter-extremism strategies just don’t work?

Tommy handed himself in to Luton police after the Tower Hamlets demonstration, but soon after was re-arrested on orders from Scotland Yard: a clear sign the government has played a role in deciding how the law ought to be applied.

Tommy has been targeted not for what he has done, but for what he represents. He represents thousands of ordinary people who know that they’ve been lied to. They don’t suspect, they know. They know that radical Islam isn’t restricted to a few fanatics. They know that radical views are a problem across the Muslim community in Britain, and across the Muslim world. They know that in order to put an end to Islamic extremism we need to look at the causes, to take robust action, and to engage in an open public debate about what those causes are and what those actions should be.

They know that it is ridiculous to refer to Islam as ‘the religion of peace’, given that an overwhelmingly disproportionate number of terrorist acts are committed not just by Muslims, but by Muslims who justify their actions with verses from the Qu’ran, and who cite the example of Mohammed as their inspiration.

They know that they have been fed a politically correct understanding of Islam that is designed silence dissenting voices and prevent what we believe to be much-needed criticism of the Muslim Community’s continued inability to tackle radical Islam.

At times this can lead to frustration, and tempers flare on either side. But there’s one thing we do know about the people of this country; and that is that together we actually form a remarkably tolerant society. We have a proud history of respecting the rights and freedoms of individuals, and whilst safeguards must always be put in place, there should be no reason to suspect that even the most vitriolic criticism of the causes of radical Islam would result in unfair discrimination or divided communities.

But treating people like idiots, and demonising the dissenting voices, will lead to division. When the debate is reduced to nothing but a constant exchange of insults, it’s time to consider what action can be taken to change the way we go about things.

This is not the state of play today, it is how things were two years ago, when the EDL first formed. We were fed up of radical Islam and we were fed up of inaction. But we were also fed up of how the criticism of radical Islam was suppressed, and how only someone educated at the right university, or with the right qualifications in ‘community cohesion’, or with a job at the BBC, was allowed to criticise Islam.

We began giving a voice to legitimate criticism. We were quick to make clear that we reject all forms of extremism, and we worked tirelessly to ensure that the EDL attracted only decent, well-meaning supporters by taking every opportunity to explain what we stand for. At every stage, Tommy has led from the front.

We have worked hard to disprove those critics who would call us ‘racists’ or ‘fascists’, but these criticisms keep coming. At some point you have to consider that these repeated accusations (or insults, as they have become), say more about the name-callers than they do the accused. But it would not be fair only to lay the blame at the opportunistic agitators of the far Left. Beyond the obvious falsehoods, (the accusations of ‘Islamophobia’ or Nazism, for example) there are slightly more subtle slurs that are employed by far more respectable members of the political and media establishments.

Recently, Scotland Yard’s National Co-ordinator for Domestic Extremism, Adrian Tudway, wrote in an email to an as-yet-unnamed Muslim group:

“In terms of the position with EDL, the original stance stands, they are not extreme right wing as a group, indeed if you look at their published material on their web-site, they are actively moving away from the right and violence with their mission statement etc.”

This is not the first time, he has made similar points, and yet we’re willing to bet that most of the country’s national newspapers and television channels will ignore the words of one of the country’s foremost experts in domestic extremism. We’ll continue to see the EDL referred to as a ‘far right’ movement, without there being any explanation of what this means, or any evidence for the views that might be ascribed to us.

But perhaps the most important piece of advice given by Adrian Tudway was as follows:

“I really think you need to open a direct line of dialogue with them that might be the best way to engage them and re-direct their activity”

Dialogue is exactly what we have been hoping for, but not dialogue that will only be permitted on politically correct terms. We want to represent the legitimate concerns of our supporters, and we want them to be listened to. If legitimate concerns exist outside of what is considered to be politically correct, then the problem is with the political establishment, not with the ordinary people who we represent.

In his now infamous ‘multiculturalism has failed’ speech, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, seemed to recognise this. But what has he done to distinguish the coalition government from the previous government? The same old stratagem that saw criticism of radical Islam restricted, presumably in a naive effort to win over ‘moderate’ Muslims, is still in full force. Rather than winning over what the government presumably sees as ‘potential radicals’, continuing with Labour’s failed approach is just emboldening radical Islam by effectively outlawing the only effective means of changing a whole community’s outlook: gradual, pervasive, peaceful, and effective social pressure.

To defeat radical Islam we need would-be radicals to realise that they have little hope of success. When their most effective critics are imprisoned by the state, it is not difficult to see why radical Muslims flock to ‘soft touch Britain’.

The answer (or at least the start) should be simple: support freedom of speech, and permit and encourage legitimate, fair-minded criticism. British Muslims must feel the need to change their community: to root out and destroy the extremism that continues to give them a bad name. This must be achieved not through intimidation or violence, or as a result of prejudice, but by dialogue, and by mutual understanding. But it must be a discussion that proceeds on the shared understanding that we live in a liberal democracy where everyone’s freedoms should be respected, not in an authoritarian state all must repeat the party line or face being demonised or even deprived of their freedom.

Only the Prime Minister can really set the agenda for addressing the threat posed by radical Islam, and that is why Tommy Robinson recently challenged David Cameron to a live debate. So far, David Cameron has failed to articulate a confident anti-extremism strategy. He should listen to Adrian Tudway, and he should listen to the people of Britain — people who know that Islamic extremism is by far the most dangerous form of extremism we face, and that attempts to make it ‘just another form of extremism’ are counterproductive and dangerous. But he should start by recognising that Tommy Robinson is a political prisoner.

Perhaps Mr Cameron would care to visit Tommy in Bedford Prison, or perhaps he’ll wait until he is freed. Either way, if he recognises that at the root of the Labour government’s failures was the refusal to speak with what he loves to call ‘the Big Society, then he would be incredibly foolish not to accept the offer to engage with this country’s leading anti-extremism organisation.

In the meantime, Tommy has begun a hunger strike to protest against his treatment. When he is finally released, he faces another court appearance on September 29th, where it is possible that he will be served with an ASBO preventing him from joining a protest for three years. Evidently the government does not want the EDL led by a man who has done so much to safeguard our movement’s commitment to peaceful protest and just criticism of radical Islam.

In support of Tommy, the EDL will be conducting ‘flash demos’ up and down the country calling for his release. Tommy has asked for all demonstrations to abide by the following rules:

* We must maintain our commitment to peaceful and lawful protest. Tommy’s rights may have been taken from him, but for now at least the rest of us are free to peacefully protest. There should be no need for the police to make any arrests.
* We must ensure that demonstrations do not cause any disruption or inconvenience to the general public. Their support is critical, and we must not forget why it is that we demonstrate — to help safeguard our communities.
* We must make sure that the public are aware of why we are protesting, and not be afraid to engage with critics. Anything you can do to spread the message is of great help. The more people we speak to, the more realise that EDL supporters are just ordinary people trying to do the decent thing.

It may be worth considering focusing your demonstrations around police stations or government buildings, but we’ll leave that up to each division and to each individual who wants to help make a difference.

If the government and the media continue to throw insults rather than allow for a public debate, if they continue to refer to the EDL as a ‘far right’ organisation, in spite of the evidence and in spite of the expert opinion to the contrary, then they will have contributed to divisions and to the breakdown of community cohesion. An open and honest debate is needed not only to help formulate the means by which Islam in Britain can be reformed, but to prevent frustrations (on either side) from spilling over into violence.

Given the past failures, the government, the media, the police, and the Muslim community all need to prove that they are committed to protecting freedom of speech and defeating radical Islam. To do so they should join us in calling for the release of Tommy Robinson. Until they do, their silence will continue to reverberate through the patriotic blood of this nation, and fuel our calls for continued peaceful protests.

We are not all martyrs to the cause, but the government will soon learn that we are all Tommy Robinson.

Witnessing History.

2011-08-29T21:32:00.006+10:00

I get asked why I blog, why I talk to people and why I continually wade through the muck of modern decay.

I get asked why I put up with being called all sorts of names. After all, it can't be pleasant, and it's far from a delightful way to spend the day.

Why not let someone else make waves (not that I do much wavemaking - more like the occaional miniscule ripple).

Well, who else is going to do it? Who else is going to speak up for those who are too apathetic, frightened, inarticulate or just ignorant? I don't see too many others raising their hands.

My photo from a couple of years back made it into the papers again last week, with the comment,

Islamic Council of Victoria spokeswoman Sherene Hassan said Muslims were outraged by the placard and strongly condemned it at the time.

"These kinds of messages of hate are appalling and the fact that a child was involved makes it even more contemptible," she said.

Actually, Sherene, no they weren't and no they didn't. It was a lass flogging some socialist rag who got the woman to take it down. I was too busy going for the police. In a situation like that, I'm the Enemy, and it could have gotten real nasty real quick. Better to let the Law deal with it.

Kudos to the unknown young woman, though.

As for a child being involved, that's no big deal.

How about this for size?

We have the fellow at 1.58 shouting 'Death to you, by Allah,' followed by a bit of praise to Bin Laden, and then the usual calls for bombings, and death, and taking your wives as war booty (yes, he really does say that).

Oh, and remember the Khayber. Not that anyone ever knew who they were before 9/11.

Watch carefully, because at 3.29 you'll see someone's brought his little tacker along. I guess you could call that a teachable moment.

Here's another teachable moment:

The decorous young muslima at 3.25 shows a remarkable amount of tolerance with her cries of 'go back to the ovens!'

I wonder if she truly understands what she's demanding? An old saying springs to mind: be careful what you wish for.

You might get it.

crossposted at Vlad Tepes

Western Complicity in the Rape of Boys in the Islamic World.

2011-08-12T21:17:00.005+10:00

Recently and with much regret, the Australian Islamist Monitor ceased publishing.

The excellent writers at the Islam Monitor have not all hung up their keyboards, however, and Circe has written an incisive report on the rarely discussed position of boys in islamic societies.

Western complicity in the Rape of boys in the Islamic world.

Do we have any standards anymore? Do we stand for anything at all? What happened to the rights of the child or are they also suspended when Islam is involved? After all we say nothing about Islam’s legalised child marriage and sex with little girls or its violence to women and children and we never mention the rapes, murder, persecution etc against non-Muslims? Western soldiers fighting in Afghanistan look the other way as young boys are sodomised by Muslim soldiers, interpreters and war lords and this is passed off as a ‘cultural difference.’ Such violence against boys is certainly not limited to Afghanistan but seems spread across the Islamic world and has reared its ugly head in Australian detention centres.

Islam may kill ‘homosexuals’ but homosexuality is regarded as an affectionate/loving relationship between men while the rapes or other abuse of males for means of subjugation or humiliation are not a problem. Islam’s text that is filled with loathing for women and the segregation of males and females creates the distorted social, emotional and psychological environment that breeds this unacceptable abuse of young boys or weaker males. Note: this is not a criticism of homosexuality as practiced by consenting adults in an open society where men and women are equals and can mix freely for this is not what is going on in the main in the Islamic world.

We have known about the rape of boys in Afghanistan (north, south, east) for a long time – “Afghanistan must do more to end an age-old practice of young boys being kept as sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons,” claimed the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy. She went on to note that the practice, called "bacha bazi" -- literally "boy play" – is the secret everyone knows with comments that it’s been around for 1000 years so why do we want to raise it now..... (My pet Jawa 2008)

Indeed throughout the Arab/Islamic world sex with boys has been common. Many great Arabic poets glorified homosexuality with boys eg Abu Nuwas 'O the joy of sodomy! So now be sodomites you Arabs…Turn not away from it-therein is wondrous pleasure. Take some coy lad with kiss-curls twisting on his temple and ride him as he stands like some gazelle standing to her mate .-A lad whom all can see girt with sword and belt not like your whore who has to go veiled…..Make for smooth faced boys and do your very best to mount them, for women are the mounts of devils! (Perfumed Garden and Thousand and one nights Abu Nuwas- cited in Circe 2007 Islam’s lust and loathing of homosexuality )

And let’s not forget those immortal youths there to serve the Muslim male in paradise –

***Koran sura 56.17-18 They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine ........

***Koran sura 52.24 And there shall wait on them (the Muslim faithful males) young boys of their own, as fair as virgin pearls.

***Koran sura 76.19 They shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth, who will seem like scattered pearls to the beholders.

If they aren’t for sex why are they so erotically described?

Dancing Boys and the sexual abuse of children:
The "bacha bereesh," or boys without beards, may dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.
"Every boy tries to be the first. They are dressed in women's clothes, have bells on their feet and have artificial breasts," said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern town of Pul-e Khumri. (Reuters 2008)
"Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome and good-looking boy," said a former mujahideen commander, who
declined to be named. (Reuters 2008)

The article describes men who prefer boys to their wives and the rape of young boys.

Ahmad Jawad, aged 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years. "I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner," he said. Asked what he would do when he got older, he said: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys." (Reuters 2008)

While some clerics may demand stoning for sodomy, the abuse of boys continues. Islamic text demands death so the victims of such acts dare not tell –
*** Abu Dawud Book 38, Number 4447: Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.

***Abu-Dawud Book 38, Number 4448: Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.

Sharia Law p 17.3 p 665 The Prophet (allah bless him and give him peace) said -- (1) “Kill the one who sodomises and the one who lets it be done to him” … and this is reiterated in Laws o12.0-12.6 (fornication, sodomy) while Law o24.9 p 638 (Testimony) requires 4 male witnesses prepared to testify to the act - (Reliance of the Traveller).
(note other punishments recorded in text refer to those involved being burnt, thrown from a high place or having a wall pushed onto them to crush them. Circe 2007)

We can easily see that the sexual abuse of young boys in private or in a group would go unpunished.
The victim of such abuse (like raped females) would be subjugated, shamed and humiliated and would not mention the abuse yet at the same time the practice is widespread and culturally acceptable. Do victims recognize that they are being abused as indeed the violence done to their body and psychological health is substantial abuse?

But of great concern is the fact that western groups turn a blind eye to what is clearly the sexual abuse of children and young teenagers by Islamic men.

Some Canadian officers serving in Afghanistan told subordinates to look the other way when Afghan soldiers and local interpreters sodomized young boys, says one of Canada's leading human-rights lawyers. (Westhead [B] 2008)

Former Canadian soldier Tyrel Braaten said that during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006, he witnessed Afghan interpreters bringing young boys inside buildings at Forward Operating Base Wilson, a remote Canadian base outside Kandahar. The boys were then sodomized by the interpreters and Afghan soldiers, Braaten said. (Westhead [B] 2008)

“The boy was no more than 12. He wore a wig, lipstick and perfume and was dressed in a flowing robe when an Afghan interpreter escorted him to the entrance of the Canadian base in remote Afghanistan.
The bombardier was bewildered. He asked another interpreter standing next to him who the boy was. The interpreter shrugged that the boy was one of "the bitches."
"I said, `What do you mean?' and he made the motion with his hips, like you know," said Braaten, 24. "I remember saying, `Are we on Mars? Does this s--- go on all the time?'"……
Braaten said he heard the boy's cries from the building…..(Westhead [A] 2008)

Such events occurred regularly and soldiers struggled to deal with it.

Asked why soldiers would have permitted interpreters to bring boys within the FOB's perimeter, one soldier who served at Wilson in 2006 said, "When there are hostiles all around you, the last thing you want to do is pick a fight with an interpreter you really don't know at all who holds your life in his hands." (Westhead [A] 2008)

Other Canadian soldiers have complained to chaplains and military medical personnel that officers told them not to get involved because the sodomy was tantamount to "cultural differences." (Westhead [A, B] 2008)

Theoretically Canada could be charged with ‘crimes against humanity’ for allowing such acts to take place on their bases even though the abuse was perpetrated by Afghani Muslims!! Is the US, Britain, or even Australia also ‘looking the other way?’

"It's common knowledge that young boys are used in this way in Afghanistan," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "It's the great dichotomy of Afghanistan. Homosexuality is treated as a cardinal sin, but it's still common for men to have sex with boys." (Westhead [B] 2008)

"I think (Western soldiers) look the other way about a number of things, like opium production and warlordism. They are looking the other way on almost everything." (Westhead [B] 2008)

It’s the same in the south today–2011
British forces were advised by a military study that paedophilia is widespread and culturally accepted in southern Afghanistan. Older, powerful men boosted their social status by keeping boys as sexual playthings and the practice was celebrated in song and dance, a military study claimed. (Foxnews 2010, Farmer 2011)

"boys are appreciated for physical beauty and apprenticed to older men for their sexual initiation" ... (Farmer 2011)

British troops have also talked of their disgust at police or militias keeping young boys as hangers on. (Farmer 2011).

Pre-pubescent boys are widely admired and boy play ('bache bazi') is known throughout Afghanistan. A study by the US military found Pashtun men have sex with men and boys, admire males and shun women socially and sexually but reject the homosexual label!

In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually -- "because they were not homosexuals." (they claim they got it by mixing green and black tea!! --- and were reinfected as they ignored the medics warning!)

According to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification." (Foxnews 2010)

When explaining to a local man how to impregnate his wife, the loathing for women was obvious –
"When it was explained to him what was necessary, he reacted with disgust and asked, 'How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean, when one could be with a man, who is clean? Surely this must be wrong.'" (Foxnews 2010)

One of the country's favourite sayings, the report said, is "women are for children, boys are for pleasure." (Foxnews 2010)

Clearly western troops in Afghanistan cannot change this long practice of the abuse of boys BUT such abuse should never be allowed on any military base under western control. It should also be made plain that we regard the sexual use of children as unacceptable and criminal and such abuse MUST be reported to the UN, human rights groups or any group in the country involved with the human rights of children –though one doesn’t hold out much hope of the OIC controlled UN actually doing anything!
Obviously far more security is needed on bases to prevent children or young teenagers being brought into the base or we are indeed complicit in this vile rape of children.

Such abuse is not limited to Afghanistan but is widespread across the Islamic world.
Pakistan:
At least 95 percent of truck drivers in Pakistan consider indulging in sexual activities during their rest time as their main entertainment.
Chairman of the working group examining the abuse of children, Dr Muhammad Tufail , said though having such a relationship with women is also very much prevalent at such spots, drivers prefer young boys, as they are easily available and are cheaper as compared to women.
The main reasons quoted for the participation of the boys were poverty (43 per cent), harsh school environment (20 per cent), physical abuse at home (10 per cent) and the desire to learn a marketable skill (22 per cent).

In its recommendations, the study urged the government to officially acknowledge the sexual exploitation of boys, so that policies, reforms and legal provisions could be formulated to protect boys from this menace. (ANI)(Indiavision 2010)

Sexual abuse of boys is endemic in madrasses: On his hospital bed last week, 16-year-old Abid Tanoli sat listless and alone, half of his body covered by burns that all but destroyed both his eyes and left his face horribly disfigured....

The boy refused to have sex with a cleric, his teacher at a religious school or madrassa in Pakistan.

Abid, who was 14 at the time, told neither parents nor friends what had happened because, he said, he was ashamed. A few days later, as he played with his brothers and sister at home, he said that his religious teacher - accompanied by three associates - broke into the house, bolted the door and threw acid over him, screaming: "This should be a lesson for your life."

Religious authorities pressed the hospital to discharge Abid and offered his parents money to withdraw the charges. His father moved to a secret location for his safety.

It is the first such case to be brought against a Muslim cleric and threatens to expose a scandal of sex abuse within Pakistan's secretive Islamic schools. (Ansari 2004)

Lawyers and campaigners against the sexual abuse of children say that it is not uncommon in Pakistan, especially in the segregated surroundings of the country's estimated 20,000 religious schools, but cases involving members of the clergy are rarely - if ever - exposed.

"They are either hushed up and sorted out within the confines of school, or parents are pressurised not to report the incident to the media as it would give religion a bad name," said Zia Ahmed Awan, the president of Madadgaar, a joint project of LHRLA (Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid) and Unicef, the United Nations children's fund.

Jordanians in East Timor --congratulations to the Australian trooper with moral integrity.
AUSTRALIAN soldiers drew arms to protect themselves from Jordanian peacekeepers after a Digger blew the whistle on other Jordanian soldiers' sexual abuse of East Timorese boys.
Corporal Wratten, who was working at a fuel dump in the enclave, was told by a group of children that Jordanian soldiers had offered food and money in exchange for oral sex and intercourse.
The allegations involved East Timorese minors, all boys, the youngest of them just 12 years old.

"Wratten informed PKF (peacekeeping force) that he had been receiving complaints from local children about Jorbatt (Jordan Battalion) abuse," said a senior UN official who was based in Oecussi at the time.

"A Jordanian officer in HQ informed Jorbatt that he had ratted on them. Wratten and his guys manning the helo (helicopter) refuelling pad in Oecussi town started getting threatened.
"There was one occasion where Aussie Steyrs were pointed at Jorbatt and Jorbatt M-16s pointed at Aussies."

The board of inquiry found in its report that Jordanian troops regularly offered food and money in exchange for sexual favours from women and boys, including the procuring of prostitutes from across the border in West Timor.
It found it was highly probable that widespread sexual misconduct had occurred after the Jordanians took over from the highly regarded Australian paratroop battalion in early 2000. (Dodd 2005)

Australia:
Sydney's number one rating mid morning radio show host,2GB's Ray Hadley,dropped a bombshell on his show (April 20, 2011) reveling he had been contacted by an “insider” at the illegal entrant detention center at I believe he said was Christmas Island. The Insider claims that the detainee's are demanding and receiving large numbers of Condoms.
In the instance referred to by the insider, the inmate population is 400 males only, what do they want condoms for ?
Well unfortunately a lot of “unaccompanied “ young boys are mixed in amongst the inmates, and are reportedly being used by older stronger males in the same way young boys are used for homosexual sexual acts in many of the Islamic countries they ran away from. (Aussie News and views 2011)

And it isn’t only young boys who need to fear as we saw from a riot on Christmas Islam where 13 were injured –
While the catalyst is believed to be tension between Afghan Hazara boys and the protective fathers of girls in the centre,...(Gordon 2011)

Hence our daughters are also endangered as evidence both in Europe and Australia so clearly shows yet several of these so-called youths were released into ‘community care’ – our ‘community?’

Just recently in Bendigo , Victoria, Australia a Bendigo woman was raped by 7 ‘refugees.’ The seven males, some with the name Mohammad, aged between 14 and 21 came to Australia as refugees from Sudan or Afghanistan. (Akerman 2011).

In Norway in 2010 in all the solved ‘assault-rape’ cases, the perpetrators were Muslim (Hoft 2011) - likewise in Oslo in 2006, 2007 and 2008 100% of the known rapist were Muslim (Sennels 2010) and a report reveals that in 83 of 86 rapes between 2005-2010 the perpetrator was ‘non-western’ in appearance and often ‘asylum seekers!’. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_rHFKRwv5Y&feature=player_embedded#at=77)

Nicolai Sennels (2010) notes the twisted sexuality produced by Islam and the devastating impact this has on the abuse of both Muslim and western women and the fact that Muslims brought up in any Muslim ‘culture’ develop a mindset that makes them unable to assimilate into western society (Dymphna 2010; Struening 2009) .

But who is looking at the abuse of boys within Islamic enclaves in the west as Muslims bring their practices with them and such practices can be hidden in the closed enclaves and homes?

Stop looking the other way:
Not only do we need to stand against the religious and cultural attitudes and practices of Muslims which lead to the abuse of females and young males (and infidels) in the Islamic world but we need to ensure it doesn’t continue HERE and the only way to do that is to STOP bringing these people into Australia (or the western world in general).
How much evidence do we need to show that Islam is utterly incompatible with our western values and ideals and that Muslims are unable to assimilate into our culture because they are brainwashed into the unacceptable religious ‘culture’ of Islam.

It’s time to STOP looking the other way. It’s time to loudly condemn the unacceptable behaviour of Muslims towards children, females and infidels in the Islamic world and in the WEST!

References:
* Akerman , Pia. ‘Mum raped by seven as her kids slept nearby.’ The Australian January 15, 2011 12:00AM http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/mum-raped-by-seven-as-her-kids-slept-nearby/story-e6frg6nf-1225988024595

* Ansari, Massoud. ‘Acid attack on boy who 'refused sex with Muslim cleric.' 8 Feb 2004 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/1453786/Acid-attack-on-boy-who-refused-sex-with-Muslim-cleric.html

* Aussie News and views: ‘Australia: “Insider” dumps a load, on Asylum seekers massive use of Condoms in MALE only Detention Centres.’ Thursday, April 21, 2011: http://aussienewsviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/testbbbbbb.html

* Circe: ‘Islam’s loathing and lust for homosexuality’ : 18/10/07 Australian Islamist Monitor
http://www.australianislamistmonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1109&Itemid=63

* Dodd, Mark. ‘Australian Soldiers draw arms on Jordanian "Peace Keepers"
March 21, 2005 The Australian (No longer stored)
*Dymphna. ‘Islam Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry’ 5/08/2010
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/05/islam-means-never-having-to-say-youre.html#readfurther

* Farmer, Ben. ‘Paedophilia 'culturally accepted in south Afghanistan.' The Telegraph 22/2/11
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8257943/Paedophilia-culturally-accepted-in-south-Afghanistan.html

* FoxNews. ‘Afghan Men Struggle With Sexual Identity, Study Finds.’
Published January 28, 2010 | FOXNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/28/afghan-men-struggle-sexual-identity-study-finds/

* Gordon, Michael. ‘13 injured in Christmas Island riot.’ The Age March 1, 2011 http://www.theage.com.au/national/13-injured-in-christmas-island-riot-20110228-1bbrc.html
* Hoft, Jim. ‘The Religion of Rape… ALL Norwegian Rapists in 2010 Were Muslim’ June 29, 2011, http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/06/the-religion-of-rape-all-norwegian-rapists-in-2010-were-muslim/
* IndiaVision. ‘95 percent of Pak truckers 'indulge in sex with `boy' helpers.'
Friday - Feb 19, 2010, 06:43pm (GMT+5.5) http://www.indiavision.com/news/article/national/28116/#ixzz0qFfULMOY
India Vision an informative site on India:

* My Pet Jawa: ‘Abuse of Afghan Boys’ July 11 2008.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/193262.php

* Reuters: ‘Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords’ 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/11/19/us-afghan-dancingboys-idUSISL1848920071119?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

* Sennels, Nicolai. ‘Sexual abuse widespread among Muslims’ HRS 5 February 2010
http://europenews.dk/en/node/29775
* Struening, Felix. Danish Psychologist: “Integration of Muslims in Western Societies is not possible” EuropeNews 31 March 2009
An Interview by Felix Struening http://europenews.dk/en/node/21789

* Westhead , Rick (A): ‘Chaplain says senior officer aware of rapes by Afghans’
Published On Sun Dec 14 2008 South Asia Bureau South Asia Bureau . http://www.thestar.com/Article/553558

* Westhead , Rick (B): ‘World court inquiry sought in Afghan rapes’ December 15, 2008 www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/553770

Text:
* http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/
Koran, Hadith. Has a lot of text though ‘diluted’ for western consumption with missing sections. Note translations and numbering particularly numbering of hadiths can vary considerably. Bukhari is more consistently numbered than other hadith sets.

* The Noble Quran: endowment for allah’s sake from the custodian of the two holy mosques......King Fahd Complex. Supplied free from the government of Saudi Arabia.

* Reliance of the Traveller: A classic manual of Islamic sacred law. In Arabic with facing English Text, commentary and appendices edited and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller Al-Misri, Ahmad ibn Naqib; Amana publications Maryland USA 1994.

crossposted at Vlad Tepes blog.

The Swedish Witch-Hunt.

2011-08-04T19:43:00.004+10:00

A mirror for Gates of Vienna.

If anyone was still wondering about the contours of post-Breivik Scandinavia, the following piece of nastiness should provide a hint of what lies ahead.

As I said last night, at this point it doesn’t really matter whether the atrocities in Norway were a “false flag” operation, or simply an opportune moment for the Socialist establishment to cripple the European resistance to Islamization — the outcome is the same. The Left has now found the longed-for albatross that it can hang around the neck of every politician or activist who has ever criticized Islam.

In Sweden the main target of opportunity is Sverigedemokraterna, the Sweden Democrats, who entered parliament for the first time in the most recent election. They are the only significant party in Sweden that opposes mass immigration, and they, like so many others, were mentioned in Anders Behring Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto.

Long-time readers are familiar with the Ekeroth brothers, Ted and Kent, who are staunch in their resistance to Islamization, and have been involved in Counterjihad events all across Europe during the past four years. This makes them fair game for the guilt-by-association lynch mob that is now raging through the Swedish press.

A Swedish reader sent us this brief note, with a link to an appalling photo:

The witch-hunt is on. The Lund artist Dan Park has now presented this:

The text says “My name is Ted and I’m a representative of the municipal assembly in Lund and I like Anders”.

This targets both Ekeroth brothers, since the text refers to Ted but the picture is of Kent.

Stand up for the Ekeroths! Public figures who are being smeared need to be defended.

And indeed we will stand up for the Ekeroths. I know Ted and Kent, and this is a vile, demonic slander.

And it’s standard operating procedure for the Socialist Left. This is simply what they do. There is no behavior too low, no depth to which they will not sink, in an attempt to destroy their opponents. We all know that.

The massacre in Norway has presented them with an unprecedented opportunity to finish us off. They will have the help of the media and the government in their efforts, which makes our counteroffensive an uphill battle.

Yet it must be fought. The fact that our opponents are devious and totally unprincipled opportunists should not deter us from vigorous resistance.

Ted and Kent Ekeroth are not just men of peace. Nor are they simply advocates of peaceful change through democratic means.

They and other members of Sverigedemokraterna are in constant danger of physical attack from the “anti-fascists” of the anarchist left, who have mounted violent assaults on SD members in the past with knives and other deadly weapons. These thugs operate with impunity, with the tacit support — if not the outright collusion — of the Swedish government and the police.

Opposing the Islamization of Sweden is a serious business. It can even get you killed.

That’s what makes this smear-by-Breivik so deeply ironic and utterly sordid.

Stand up for the Ekeroth brothers. Stand with Sverigedemokraterna!

A Weaponized Madman.

2011-07-24T19:54:00.002+10:00

A mirror for Gates of Vienna.

This is from our Portuguese-American correspondent João, who lives in a major city on the West Coast. As Dymphna reported last month, he has educated himself in terrorism-related matters, and learned Arabic so that he could frequent a mosque and discover what was really going on inside.

His latest report concerns yesterday’s bombing and massacre in Norway, and what may possibly be gleaned from the available information:

Baron, this is truly a tragic event. My prayers go out to the Norwegian people. This man is obviously a monster.

Since yesterday I have been putting my analytical thinking cap on overdrive, and here are my personal thoughts.

1. Nativist violence of this type is extremely rare — .01% if we look at the events of the past twenty years.

Violent groups in my estimation may be arranged in the following in order of importance — Islamic, independence movements (Palestinians, ETA, Kurds, Tamil Tigers), leftist (Bader Meinhof, Red Brigades), and very rarely a Nativist.

Norway has no violent groups of Native Norwegians. This recent event in Norway will fall into the rare one-off McVeigh category.

There are no violent “anti-Muslim” groups in Norway. At the moment we cannot assign Anders Behring Breivik to any part of the counter-jihad. He is truly a “Lone Wolf”!

2. From the open source material it appears that this man bought six tons of fertilizer to make the explosive vehicles he used in downtown Oslo. Ever since Oklahoma, merchants have been vigilant about reporting such purchases to the authorities immediately. Did this happen?

And what did the security forces do with this info?

With this kind of purchase he should never have left the store without someone asking him some questions. What did the Norwegian authorities know and how quickly did they act?

3. My private observations about the level of sophistication in this plot are as follows:

This would require sophisticated bomb-making training to pull off this kind of precision.

Where was he trained? In a training camp, over the internet? This kind of knowledge requires hands-on training, not a correspondence course.

Someone trained him, and why didn’t the authorities know about this? Did someone drop the ball and let a “Lone Wolf” develop under their nose? It’s hard to believe!

My overall view is that Anders Behring Breivik is what we might call a “weaponized madman.”

A weaponized madman is what happens when you take your run-of-the-mill homicidal man and weaponize him by giving him the ability and support to scale up his mayhem.

How and by who whom was he weaponized? These details should consume our energies till we expose the truth.

Since 9-11 we have seen 10,000 Islamic acts of terror, and now we have one mad white guy. Logic dictates that we put our resources into the greater threat.

Where is the greater threat? In a once-every-sixteen-years phenomenon, or the recurring act?

Good security professionals should use this logic.

Who's Afraid of the KKK?

2011-07-18T20:56:00.001+10:00

Sergio Redegalli is someone we've met before.

His 'Say No To Burkas' mural provides endless cause for griping among the lefties where he lives, and he has had to repaint it dozens of times so far.

The definition of insanity is, of course, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

In Sergio's case, those who object to his painting continue to deface it, and he - in defiance of them - simply repaints it.

They do the same thing, and get the same results.

With a few little changes now and then.

How about a black KKK outfit? Will that offend people? It shouldn't. After all, it's a complete body covering in black.

It's the way someone may wish to present to the world, so who could possibly object?

I guess we'll see on this one.

Stay tuned....

crossposted at vladtepesblog

Of Capping And Clubbing. "Racists" In The House.

2011-06-23T20:24:00.006+10:00

Vlad Tepes posted this video earlier, but it bears revisiting.

I'm a member of the Australian Defence League group on facebook, and the poster mentioned, Australia IsDying happens to likewise be a member. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at this news report, but I honestly found it rather ho-hum.

Those involved with the counterjihad - regardless of what form - get called a racist sooner rather than later purely because of the opinions they express. It doesn't matter if there are facts, and reports, and personal experience to back up these opinions, we're still racist.

Just for the record, islam is not a race!

And so, many people continue to hang back and watch from the sidelines. After all, why get involved when you're only going to get abused?

This is how a fascist state begins, with the silencing of the People.

With legislation here in Australia being remarkably restrictive in terms of public discourse (and even private discourse - ref Andrew Bolt and the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, the Racial Hatred Act, and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilites Act in the state of Victoria), it's amazing that any opposing views are allowed at all.

Oh how silly of me, they're not, and so 40 people can stand in a public space and say, "By the way, we don't want sharia in our country", and be vilified for it.

Who wants to be on the receiving end of that?

I don't, and I do get tired of being called a fascist, nazi, neo-nazi (which could split the sides of the real hardcore neo-nazi I met a few years back), racist, ignorant bogan. So I just agree with it and then say, "okay, so what's your argument?" Usually there is no argument.

It's not that there's some gigantic conspiracy happening, it's that there are lots of little people who have an unrealised yearning for control. They have very little meaning in their lives, so they find it in groups like the Socialist Alliance, the Unions, the university groups who get out and protest at the drop of a hat rather than studying, and all over facebook.

Sure there will always be undesirable elements in every group -- especially on facebook where you can hide behind anonymity. You can only see what's available there for you to see, unless you go into hacker mode and try to get behind every profile there.

Who has time for that?

Not the politicians. They've got their portfolios to run, their constituents to work for out in the real world. Tehy don't have time to hang out in cyberspace; they have more worthy things to do.

And as for for comments on the ADL facebook group being racist/evil/discriminatory/whatevah - most people don't actually agree with those sort of comments.

Most people also don't comment on facebook groups either. They just look in and see what's happening.

There are a lot of people who do, however, and they are not supportive of Australian culture at all. They would be quite happy, for example, to tattoo 'climate change denier' on the arms or forehead of those who don't agree with AGW, or drag an Andrew Bolt to court because he hurt their feelings, or indeed, wave a screen cap of a mainly anonymous facebook group as a club to your opponents in State parliament when you should be doing the business of the government.

"Racist" has lost its efficacy. Sure it's having the intended chilling effect on some people, but others like myself just say, "yeah and?" It means that real examples of discrimination and abuse based purely upon race are not accorded the attention they deserve, and many, many regular Australians learn that their views are not respected.

All this does is lead to civil unrest of the kind we had at the ADL Melbourne demo when 40 people were surrounded and abused by several hundred opponents while the police effectively did nothing.

Police re-inforcements were requested when it started getting hairy, but they never arrived until it was over.

Two older ladies were physically struck, but that's okay - they're racists, and they obviously deserve it.

Just like politicians in the New South Wales legislature deserve to be pilloried for being "friends" on facebook with someone hiding behind a pseudonym.

crossposted at Vladtepesblog.

New Mosque? Time To Lawyer Up.

2011-06-11T20:02:00.006+10:00

In my line of work, such as it is, I meet a lot of people from around the world. One of these is Mr. Gavin Boby, a lawyer who specialises in building applications.

If you want to build something or don't like the idea of a potential development, then he'd be one of the people you want to talk with. He knows the by-laws, the regulations, and how to deal with the authorities.

That's what he does.

What makes him a bit different is that he's now set up a foundation to offer his services pro bono (that's FREE for those of us who didn't go onto tertiary education) to help people campaign against the ever-increasing proliferation of mosques.

If you think I'm joining in the chorus raised by Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna, you'd be correct. I've known this man for a few months now, but he's finally ready to go public with his Law and Freedom Foundation, and word of his mission needs to go out.

When it comes to the islamisation of our Western societies - Australia, North America, Europe and especially the UK, the mosques are often a beachhead.

(While this is also applicable in non-Western societies such as Thailand, the legal foundations are not the same, hence Mr. Boby's particular training would not necessarily be as practicable as in our world.)

We're not supposed to talk about things like this, but as we've seen locally with the Alma Rd Community House cum masjid, it starts small, and will nearly always end in tears.

Usually infidel tears.

Now I'm sure the lefties are about to start screaming racist, fascist, nazi (which no longer holds that sting that 'racist' is also losing due to overuse) and all the rest of the hyperventilating that they excel at, but I suggest they have a look at the world they live in.

Where mosques start up, then in creeps sharia law with its attendant ills.

Quite apart from the basics like noise pollution from the call to prayer, the traffic congestion as more and more of those who submit to allah move in, the falling property values and the rise in crime and general disrespect to the natives of whatever stripe, the area becomes known as a bit of an islamic enclave.

For example, I live in the outer suburbs of Melbournistan, and even though it's within staggering distance, I stay out of Dandenong and refuse to swim at the Oasis swimming centre. I'm not alone in voting with my feet and my wallet.

I don't like seeing women in niqabs pushing overflowing shopping trolleys while their husbands just hang around watching them load the groceries into the back of the van. I understand it's a cultural thing, but I don't like to see it, so I don't shop there.

It's the little things, and they lead to bigger things, such as public demonstrations of piety that are designed to make a statement to you, the audience rather than being a quiet personal relationship with their god.

Mr. Boby believes that it's time to step up and take the battle to the courts before it ends up on our streets.

If we stand against the incursion of mosques in our neighbourhoods then we are supporting our culture*.

I'll let Mr. Boby speak in his own words:

Why am I doing this?

I’m a British planning lawyer. I deal with planning permissions (I think that’s ‘building permits’ to you!), helping people pursue or oppose planning applications.
I’ve set up a the Law and Freedom Foundation to help neighbourhoods oppose planning applications for new mosques. If there’s a planning application for a new mosque or phoney ‘cultural centre’ in your area, then I will help you oppose it. First, helping you to get up the campaign, and secondly putting forward the legal argument to the authorities.

I’m doing this for 2 reasons. One, it has to be done. And two, no-one is doing it.

Why does it have to be done?

To be honest I’d be happier reading poetry than tangling Islam – tell a lie, I’d be happier stir-frying my own lungs than tangling with Islam – but it has to be done. The threat to freedom and law posed by the islam, nurtured by the self-serving lawlessness of political elites, threatens everything. Freedom on its own may not be enough to make you happy, but everything else is based on freedom which the tide of islam threatens to destroy.

That tide, and the institution of brute force that sharia represents, also threatens law. This point is dull, and often forgotten, but without law the big ones eat the little ones and everyone lives in poverty – just look at the average Islamic capital.
Hence the Foundation is about Law and Freedom.

Mosques are an essential element of islamisation and, therefore, have to be resisted. Mosques are command and control centres, as in Mohammed’s day, and are today since every muslim must follow Mohammed’s example as the ideal man. They are also the centre for ‘hijra’ or expansion by migration, as with the original hijra to Medina where Mohammed became a politician and warlord, and where he set up the first mosque. He planned battles, and blessed and dispatched troops for offensive war, passed death sentences and praised his executioners from that mosque, and it is a template for all mosques today.

Why isn’t anyone doing it?

Fifty years from now there will probably be a lot of boring theses written as to why political leaders adopted such happy faced passivity about islam, and the debates can get arcane. But the fact is that self-serving and lawless elites are doing all they can to encourage it.

Mosques are not only permitted but encouraged, with authorities bending the rules to nurture islamic institutions, handing out money to them, and offering land on the cheap.

This is treacherous to the values – freedom and law – upon which western civilisation, the most towering and humane in history, has been built. And it is callously indifferent to the lives of the working class neighbourhoods being swept over by Islam.

What I hope to achieve by it?

First to slow the tide of islamisation, second to stop it, and third to reverse it.

And to do this in three ways: by winning cases; by instilling confidence in people to resist; and by putting authorities on notice that they can’t get away with acting unlawfully.

The first two are more or less self evident, but the third is important. I see no way that British authorities can justify their petting of islam. A skim read of the bloodthirsty Koran will tell you that promoting islam falls way short of the bundle of hate speech laws that European governments emanate, and which they use as the racism fasces to beat down opposition to their pet program. It hasn’t yet occurred to them that law applies even-handedly, and not just against the people they find inconvenient. Governments need to know that the law applies to them, and that aiding and abetting is a crime. And that they will one day be held accountable if, as seems unavoidable, they are breaking the law.

Authorities need to know that the wind is shifting, and that when it has blown away the politically correct fog, they will be left in full view.
We will accomplish this. We will not allow self serving elites to let us down. Every Councillor, every Local Authority official, every politician will jump to inform himself how the law will apply to him once the PC immunity has worn off, and they’re in the cold like of day.

They have a choice to make and we intend to force them to make it.

Considering the hash the current crop of politically correct magistrates and lawyers are making of our countries, it's about time that somebody took them on.

Mr. Boby is prepared to do that for those in the United Kingdom, and we in the United Kaffirdom should be prepared to support him in any way we can.

He knows what our culture is, and he's fighting for it against those who think that we're just racist nazis. Not that islam is a race, and not that Hitler didn't like islam as a religion.

*And for all of those who seem to forget that there IS actually a Western Civilisation, take some time out and enjoy Sir Kenneth Clark's excellent series.

crossposted at Vlad Tepes'.

Irony Attack. Freedom In Stuttgart Now Optional.

2011-06-04T21:47:00.004+10:00

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

So a rally in support of Israel that was originally slated for tomorrow has been banned by police.

Why? Because the police, who are supposed to uphold the law, have admitted that they can't protect those who go against the anti-semites and islamofascists.

(A report from Robert Spencer here.)

There are so many things I could say about that, but finding the right words is sometimes rather difficult.

I'll let Matt and Trey speak for me.

I believe that the feral socialists and islamists will see this as a victory and ramp up their tactics of oppression.

They can do that, but also realise that those who are against them will also stand up in greater numbers.

History Be Damned In Our Schools.

2011-06-01T22:01:00.006+10:00

What if someone held a protest and (almost) nobody came? Would anybody hear it?

Well, yes. I heard.

Press Release - May 19th 2011 at 12:05am
Gunnedah South Public School First Fleet protest on 2 June 2011

A protest action in support of the First Fleet has been called in Gunnedah, NSW for 2 June 2011. The protest is to be outside Gunnedah South Public School at 12 pm where a petition signing will take place.

The demonstration has been called in response to the principal Emma Jeffery refusing to accept a gift from the Morris family of a print of Algernon Talmadge's "The Founding of Australia" which depicts the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by Captain Arthur Phillip on 26 January 1788.

Convenor Nigel Morris says his family have been attending the school since it first opened; his name and that of his 3 aunts, his father and two brothers are all engraved in commemorative pavers that were laid for the instituition's 50th anniversary. He says his great great grandfather Fredrick Hunt was born in the town in 1873, and that two roads in the area carry the name of his people.

"To tell me they can't accept our gift because the frame carries a plaque with the name the artist ascribed to his work is right out of this world".

Mr Morris says he will seek a message of support from the local state MP Kevin Anderson.

I came across this a week ago, and found it quite astonishing that a school principal would refuse the gift of such a painting.

Apart from it being a nice painting, the occasion it commemorates is Australia Day. The day we celebrate the founding of our nation. This is not just any old day.

There are the usual activist ratbag elements who prate on about "Invasion Day" annually, and who call for the day to be scrapped (although I reckon they'd be happy to keep the public holiday) or the date to be changed.

After all, we can't be celebrating the day our nation was actually, like, you know, founded.

For those not in the know, January 26th, 1788 was the day that the English flag was raised on the soil of what was then considered terra nullius, land owned by nobody and therefore open to all comers.

Captain Arthur Phillip, leading the First Fleet of 11 ships carrying convicts, soldiers, sailors and settlers, did the honours, and was our first Governor.

The black armband view of Australian history paints this as your standard evil, oppressive, Western colonialist takeover, even though there were other cultures doing exactly the same thing at the same time.

So Mr. Morris offers to his local primary school (Prep to Grade 6 - ages 5-12) a copy of the painting above.

Press Release - May 10th 2011 at 12:05am
School bans the First fleet

First Fleet, Gunnedah South Primary School, Emma Jeffery

Nigel Morris, a former student of Gunnedah South Public School, has had a copy of Algernon Talmage's "The Founding of Australia" which he had donated on behalf of his family returned by the principal Emma Jeffery. The stated reason was that affixed to the wooden frame is a plaque inscribed with the title.

"I'm stunned. For the school to say it cannot accept my gift because it displays the name the artist attributed to his work is right out of this world".

Mr Morris says he has written to the P&C association asking the members to make representations to the school executive to overturn the ban on the First Fleet and that he also plans to appeal to his local state member of parliament.

I emailed Ms. Jeffery myself and received no reply. Since I do note on correspondence that it may be published on my blog, she had notice that I might write about this.

Dear Ms. Jeffery,

On facebook this evening I was referred to a press release about your returning the gift of a painting to the person who donated it.

http://www.prsafe.com/new_press_releases/view/2694

I want to write a blogpost about this, and would like to ask for your position on this matter.

The reason given for your refusal is that you objected to the title of the picture (The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788).

There is now also a protest planned against your action, because it was seen as quite insulting by Mr. Morris.

This is of concern to me, down in sunny Melbourne, because I'm a descendant of a convict on the First Fleet (he was on the Scarborough), and rather proud of that. I tell my daughter that she has a strong history in this country, with her First Fleeter, and the miners who came over from a little village in Cornwall to land in Melbourne during the gold rush and then make their way to Clunes and beyond - all the way out to Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie for the mining.

My family has been in this country since 1788, and fought for it in two World Wars and Vietnam.

I suspect you will have children in your school who also have roots stretching so far back.

According to your school website, "..students learn about history, geography, civics
and citizenship. They investigate their personal and community identity, and gain an understanding of their nation and its place in the world. They learn to participate effectively in maintaining and improving the quality of their society and environment."

Does this history not include an apolitical appraisal of the founding of our country? It is an established fact that the First Fleet landed. We can't get around that.

I honestly don't understand why such a painting would be seen as inappropriate in a school setting. From a viewer's perspective it's a good painting.

From an historical perspective, the subject matter is something that took place - Captain Arthur Phillip did land, and did raise the flag.

There is a lot of history that is not being taught in our schools - the founding of our great country is not a subject that should be neglected. Knowing where we come from is just as important as knowing where we are going.

If we don't know who we are, then we cannot build that much-vaunted social cohesion that the politicians talk about.

Thank you so much for reading this far, and I hope to hear from you about this.

Regards,

[my name]
aka nilk
http://rightwingdeathbogan.blogspot.com

ps. please note that I do occasionally publish correspondence on my blog. If you would prefer that this remain in confidence, please let me know within seven days and it will remain so.

Thank you again,

[nilk]

There has been a deafening silence from this principal, but I suspect she is only following the syllabus for students in New South Wales:

The development of values and attitudes underpins learning and teaching in Human Society and Its Environment. Values and attitudes related to social justice, intercultural understanding(pdf), ecological sustainability(pdf), democratic processes(pdf), beliefs and moral codes and lifelong learning are incorporated into the outcomes and content of this syllabus.

Moral education is incorporated through the development of values and attitudes in this syllabus. General religious education is incorporated into the syllabus to assist students to understand the role of religion and spirituality in communities and societies and in the lives of individuals. Parents need to be made aware of this component and the ways in which it is incorporated into teaching programs.

In addition to the learning experiences in this syllabus, it is recognised that school, class and community events and practices contribute to the development of knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes in Human Society and Its Environment.

The content presented in this syllabus is inclusive of all learners. It incorporates gender, Aboriginal, citizenship, multicultural, environmental, work and global perspectives, and encourages the inclusion of studies of Asia where appropriate. It also recognises the importance of concepts that will support
reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, such as the recognition of spirituality and shared heritage.

This syllabus recognises the central place of language in shaping and defining culture and identity. Human Society and Its Environment includes the study of languages other than English, which gives students opportunities to study the world through the medium of language, learn about languages and learn to use them. All students have an opportunity to develop an awareness of languages other than English in this key learning area. Learning another language enhances students’ abilities to communicate, increases their cultural awareness and cross-cultural understanding, and assists them to develop a greater understanding of their own language and culture. Schools may choose to introduce programs in languages other than English to meet the needs of students, or to utilise available resources. Aboriginal languages should be offered in negotiation with traditional language owners.

I've added a few links that I think are pertinent to the situation Mr. Morris has found himself in.

Emma Jeffrey had to return the painting. To display it in a prominent position, say in the lobby next to Kevin Rudd's sorry proclamation would be a reminder of a proud history that her syllabus does not recognise.

School is no longer about facts. It is no longer about teaching children how to think, although there are teachers out there who are indeed more concerned with this.

It is more about teaching them what to think.

I see this in my own daughter with some of the things she brings home from school. One of my favourites is still the one about "Japanese people are evil because they kill and eat whales," closely followed by "white people are mean to black people."

Neither of these statements are anything she should be covering at school. It doesn't matter what subject the children are learning, the environment should be free of the political correctness that is so stifling our society.

Actions like Ms. Jeffery's are completely explicable in a cultural marxist context, and unfortunately to be more anticipated.

To be considered also, however, is that actions like the demonstration Mr. Morris staged today, will likewise be more expected.

Less than half the people the Police Commissioner was told to expect turned up betweeen the appointed times at Gunnedah South Public School today, but more signatures were received then projected, at 26. Some people were too scared to be there on the day and would only presign before the event, and then some only with their initials or a pseudonym, and putting their address as simply Gunnedah.

So, not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Mr. Morris, I salute you.

You didn't fit her narrative, but you sure fit mine.

crossposted at Vlad Tepes' blog

Bill Warner's Cliff Notes On Islam

2011-05-29T21:09:00.002+10:00

Take 13 minutes, please.

There's a lot of information packed into this video from the recent Cornerstone Church event "A Warning To America."

It was sponsored by the Tennessee Freedom Coalition from whom I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more.

I'm emailing them tonight to reserve my copy of the dvd.

info@tnfreedomcoalition.org

Sharia In Oz? Well I Never!

2011-05-29T00:23:00.004+10:00

So a couple of weeks back we have the Australian Defence League's first stand against sharia in Australia.

Next come the news reports that muslims don't think that we should be worried about that sort of thing:

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the group was provocative and wrong to believe that most Australian Muslims wanted to bring in sharia law.

"It's of great concern that anyone is out there trying to disrupt the peaceful social fabric of Australia," he said.

And then... we have Ikebal Patel coming out and saying, well, actually, we do want sharia here in Australia. Only a little bit of it, though. Just a smidge of sharia to make us feel more accepted.

In the meantime, we've got our very own version of Andy Choudary, the (not so) photogenic Shannon Conlon aka Ibrahim Siddiq Conlon prating all over the television that islam uber alles is what he's about, and he'll grab all the air time he can get to tell us what's good for us.

Especially if we give him $5000 for the privilege of being hectored by him.

(hint:yeah, he wants sharia)

Unfortunately for Ikebal Patel and Shannon, there was a bit too much scrutiny applied to this idea, and the talkback radio, letters to the editors and blogs showed that your regular aussies, and not a few immigrants themselves, don't want islamic jurispridence in this country.

So the Attorney General, Rob McClelland, had to come out and explain that:

"As our citizenship pledge makes clear, coming to Australia means obeying Australian laws and upholding Australian values," he said.

"Australia's brand of multiculturalism promotes integration. If there is any inconsistency between cultural values and the rule of law then Australian law wins out."

It's good to have public discussion on this, although it appears that Oscar Wilde was incorrect when he said that "the only thing worse than being talked about it not being talked about."

Looks like Ikebal's gone awol and the wagons are circling.

Hahahahahaha.

crossposted at Vlad Tepes.

Why I Heart Shannon.

2011-05-26T23:02:00.003+10:00

O' disbelieving enemy of Allah, read with two eyes; while you and your feral, racist, redneck, drunken yobbos are wasting your money drinking, gambling your money away, we are working hard, praying to Allah and preparing. The result is not in our hands nor yours but with Almighty God-Allah. you seem o forget that just north is the worlds largest muslim country who are also preaparing and many have pledged their loyal support to me and to Allah. We dont protest. We fight. Ibrahim Siddiq -Conlon

So my favourite out and proud "revert" - because some people can't just "convert" like everyone else - thinks that regular aussies are quite colourful. Just not in an approving way.

As usual, Shannon Conlon has to have his say, and in this case, rather than cheering for the deaths of our soldiers, he's threatening us with allah's wrath.

For someone who used to be one of us, he surely has forgotten where he comes from - as a self-identifying bogan, I will confess to not drinking to excess and preferring to use manners and niceness rather than being a total feral.

About the only thing he missed calling us was drongoes, but that's okay. I can fill in the spaces.

It's also entertaining to see his use of the word "redneck" in the same sentence as "racist". Redneck is racist language, but I guess those rules don't apply any more since he became one of the Best People.

These are, of course, the Best People who believe that sharia is the be all and end all for all our woes.

Wife looking a bit disobedient? You can beat her.

Son come out of the closet in all his glory? Throw him off the roof.

Cousin decides against islam and its attendent sharia? There's that death penalty again.

So what's Shannon's current bleat? He's not happy that the ADL is having a demo up in Sydney in a couple of months' time, and he's made sure that Martin Brennan, the leader of the ADL knows about it.

The beauty of modern (non-sharia compliant) technology is that now everyone else knows about it too.

Too bad for him that most of us aren't inclined to embracing sharia.

July in Sydney certainly won't be dull.

Wish I could be there.

Worried About Losing Our Community.

2011-05-19T07:13:00.003+10:00

Via Gates of Vienna, comes something that greatly concerns myself and many of my friends.

With David Hicks, Jihad Jack Thomas, and now the ubiquitous Shannon Conlon, I suspect quite a few more people should be concerned.

Including our so-called authorities.

Standing Against Sharia or, Free Speech in 'Melbun'.

2011-05-15T20:02:00.016+10:00

Yesterday was the first demo of the Australian Defence League. We were standing against sharia in Australia,at Federation Square in Melbourne, because it's about time that someone did and we're also rather partial to free speech.

Over the course of the past few months, I've had people ask me why on earth I'd bother being involved with any sort of rally. "It's not time." "It's racist." "You'll look just like those EDL thugs."

And, of course, "You won't accomplish anything."

Needless to say, there are also people who think that the mere idea of speaking out against the islamification of your country is "racist", but we already knew that and were expecting some opposition.

What began as a bit of a facebook group advertising as a "Rally Against Racism And Facism" (using the acronym RAAF, which I find rather offensive to our Air Force, by the way) ended up as a fullblown socialist extravaganza with those twin pillars of democratic Western Civilisation the Socialist Alliance and their fellow travellers the Socialist Alternative shouting into megaphones at us such rhetoric as, "Muslims are welcome, racists are not!" and "Fuck off, nazi scumbags! Fuck off, nazi scum!"

Well, yesterday we had people from other groups standing with us. They were not there as representatives of those groups; just as Australians who are concerned about the imposition of sharia requirements on our country and culture.

We were a small group, too. I've heard of estimates of about 100 people, but I would hesitate to go that high. I'd say 60 max, but I need to check more photos. A quick glance here will give you a comparison, and according to the HeraldSun, 40 was more like it.

I won't argue with that (much), because it was quite fluid with some people arriving later than others, and some leaving early. When it started getting physical, then some did leave.

This is understandable when you consider that the people who came were not professional or serial protesters like the opposition.

We are just ordinary people who are tired of having to pander to a particular minority.

We don't want halal meat(pdf).

We don't want special times at public swimming pools to cater to muslims who don't want to share with the kuffar, or window coverings to protect those precious petals from our evil gaze.

We don't want to have to hear about eid at christmas time, or all about how islam is wonderful. Tell that to the Royal Women's Hospital with its FGM unit. While FGM is not exclusively an islamic practice, the majority of women and girls who have suffered it are muslim.

We just want our Australia back.

The rally was supposed to start at 12pm, while the opposition were advising their start time as 11.30am, and it pretty much started around 11.40. There was jeering and catcalling, and the other side had more megaphones than we did, so we were pretty much shouted down.

Tolerance and rationality are not the strong suits of the socialist, anti-fascist[sic] left.

While most of our group held down the fort against all comers, I wandered around to take some photos and videos, including an aboriginal woman complaining about racism, and the obligatory old commie railing against the evils of capitalism.

What any of this had to do with sharia law is beyond me, but again... check your logic at the door before you enter.

This old Commie rattled on for about 5 minutes and managed digs at everything except the subject at hand.

Sharia law.

They got what they wanted.

They surrounded us. They abused us.

They were starting to get rough and aggressive when Martin called time.

(photo from here*.)

Martin Brennan did an excellent job leading our small group, and he held the line against the pushing and shoving from the socialists, unionists (your dues at work) and uni students.

The enemies of freedom can tell the world that they won, and that's fine.

It doesn't mean that they did.

It just means that they beat up on a bunch of ordinary Australians who were exercising their legislated freedom to say, "We don't want sharia in Australia".

*all other photos taken by nilk.

crossposted at Vladtepes.

Yazmina.

2011-05-07T13:17:00.006+10:00

First a disclaimer. This topic is painful to write and will be painful to read, particularly if you do have children. I apologise in advance for my tone, as I am trying to keep an emotional distance so I can make some sense of it.

My prayers are with Rachelle D'Argent, and those around providing her with the support she so desperately needs at this time.

m13.2 The necessary conditions for a person to have custody of a child are:

(a)uprightness (def:o24.4)(O: a corrupt person may not be a guardian, because child are is a position of authority, and the corrupt are unqualified for it. Mawardi and Ruyani hold that outward uprightness (def:m3.3(f)) is sufficient unless there is open wrongdoing. If the corruptness of a child's mother consists of her not performing the prayer (salat), she has no right to custody of the child, who might grow up to be like her, ending up in the same vile condition of not praying, for keeping another's company has its effects);

(b) sanity (O: since a mother uninterruptedly insane has no right to custody, though if her insanity is slight, such as a single day per year, her right to custody is not vitiated by it);

(c) and if the child is Muslim, it is a necessary condition tht the person with custody be a Muslim (O: because it is a position of authority, and a non-Muslim has no right to authority and hence no right to raise a Muslim. If a non-Muslim were given charge of the custody and upbringing of the child, the child might acquire the character traits of unbelief(kufr)).The Reliance of the Traveller.pp551-2[emphasis added]

One of the big problems with our multicultural paradise is that sometimes a culture has ingrained beliefs that just don't mesh with the Western Civilisation.

All over the news at the moment is one Ramazan Acar, who pleaded guilty to murdering his young child a few days short of her 3rd birthday.

I do a lot of reading on the situation of separated parenting, being in that space myself, and parents (men in this case) killing their children during a dispute is not unheard of. We have Arthur Freeman, recently sentenced for murdering his four-year old daughter Darcey, and Robert Farquharson, who was found guilty of driving into a dam and drowning his children Jai, Tyler and Bailey on the way back from an access visit.

What makes Acar's crime more heinous than those other two is the nature of the murder. He stabbed his daughter multiple times and then sent his former partner/fiancee text messages to tell her what he'd done.

That is something that you don't often hear of happening, but one of his text messages (via Prof Bunyip) is quite curious:

"U wanted to convert ma kid do it u wanted to lock me up I did it u wanted 2 b indapendant do it u take full custdy do it u wana kill me il do it wat eva makes u happy nw tel me"

As the Professor notes,

"What we have here is a wicked man who killed a child, in part to honour what he, and many others, believe to be the tenets of his creed. What we also have is a misogynist who thought his ex needed to be taught a lesson for acting “indapendant”.

What we also have here is a craven, cowardly media that insists on filtering the news rather than reporting it fairly, honestly and fully. Your opinionisers will go on at great length about Tony Abbott being a Catholic and how dangerous that makes him. But a Muslim butchers a baby and abuses his former partner for making her own way in the world and the silence is near-total. Maybe all the feminists were washing their hair that day.

But not to worry. This incident was all about social media, not Islam – at least not that you will read about, anyway.

Perhaps it isn't specifically about islam, but that does not negate the fact that under islam, a man is enjoined to keep his women in line a la the quranic sura and verse 4.34.

Sure the usual caveat of not all muslims are like that must be applied, but ultimately, there are enough that are who make it difficult for everyone. Infidel and believer alike.

Given the nature of the text messages and the knowledge that Acar posted on facebook that he was going to kill his daughter, given that he is muslim, Rachelle is christian and she may have wanted to convert their daughter to christianity, the script was written long before either of them were born.

As the mother is a non-muslim, she should not have custody of a muslim child. No ifs, ands or buts.

Here in the West, however, it's not so clear-cut. While the majority of the time in separations the mother has the main custody of children, it is becoming more common for there to be more equitable joint custody, or even for the father to raise the children.

It doesn't matter how Westernized this young man is, the facts are that he is a muslim, known to be a muslim, and therefore superior to a christian woman.

Perhaps Rachelle wanting his daughter Yazmina to be christian was the last straw for him.

As Dan over at Islammonitor says, "Better dead than with an infidel mother."

Crossposted at Vlad Tepes' blog.

The New Puritans Have Bolted.

2011-04-02T13:27:00.006+11:00

One of my favourite plays/movies is The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. I never studied it in school, so I never got to pull it apart scene by scene, line by line, and therefore learned to love it just as it is.

One thing that I did pick up along the way regarding this play is that it's supposed to be an allegory for McCarthyism and the rooting out of communists in America in the 1950s.

The fact that McCarthy was right is often overlooked or ignored, so "McCarthyist" tends to be seen as a derogatory term.

Now, here in Melbournistan, we have our very own witchhunt going on with columnist/journalist Andrew Bolt's head being in the noose.

His crime?

Well, according to the Racial Hatred Act, (yes, we actually have one of those.Who knew??) several of Bolt's columns back in 2009 offended a few people.

18C.(1) It is unlawful for a person to do an act, otherwise than in private,
if:
(a) the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend,
insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people;
and

(b) the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic
origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the
group. Note: Subsection (1) makes certain acts unlawful. Section 22
allows people to make complaints to the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission about unlawful acts. However, an unlawful act
is not necessarily a criminal offence. Section 26 says that this Act
does not make it an offence to do an act that is unlawful because of
this Part, unless Part IV expressly says that the act is an offence.

"(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an act is taken not to be done in
private if it:

(a) causes words, sounds, images or writing to be communicated to the
public; or

(b) is done in a public place; or

(c) is done in the sight or hearing of people who are in a public place.

Unfortunately, the fair State of Victoria is known for it's remarkably draconian vilification laws.

They never seem to be applied equally; Christians and Andrew Bolt seem to be the main targets, but that is no surprise living in our current climate of unease.

As Zenster* likes to say: there are a lot of skinless people living in our sandpaper world.

Which leads us to this week, where Andrew Bolt is on trial for effectively hurting people's feelings. As a layperson, with all the necessary lack of credentials in law, that's how I see it.

We do have a remarkable number of committees, statutory bodies and grants available for people of aboriginal descent, to the extent that it does sometimes feel (as a white person), that there is a separate civilisation living alongside mine.

There is even a section of the Magistrates' Court that is available only to those seen to be of aboriginal descent.

With all of this opportunity, and positive discrimination in favour of a small percentage of the population who have a different culture to the majority (2.5% of the pop at last census), you'd think that the last thing to worry about would be people getting upset by a few columns written by someone who's known to stir the possum with his opinions.

Let's face it, Andrew Bolt has upset plenty of people over the years, up to and including magistrates, so it's not like anyone would be surprised if his opinions are not universally welcomed.

It's interesting that so many people think that Bolt is so evil and racist.

It's also interesting that the prosecuting QC in this court case was able to suggest that Bolt's opinions are akin to the eugenics movement which led to the development of the Nazi Final Solution.

I guess the idea of "free speech" is rather amorphous, when QCs can play the nazi card with no apparent fall out, but questioning culture is a rather large and legally tricky minefield.

As Ron Merkel says, there's an "us and them" mentality, but only one side appears to be allowed to have it.

Then again, as Michael Connor notes:

Mr Merkel also said, “This case is not about free speech.”

*Zenster is a regular commenter over at Gates of Vienna.

Q Time.

2011-03-26T22:00:00.001+11:00

Last thursday (March 24th), there was a rather small meeting to officially launch The Q Society. This group is a very interesting one, and definitely to be watched, because they have been out there doing things rather than just talking, which a lot of us sometimes get accused of doing.

In this case, Q have gotten a petition up against the Marrickville council for their promotion of anti-semitism and sponsorship of the BDS campaign.

Now a lot of people don't realise this, but in Australia, local councils seem to be more concerned with what's happening overseas rather than doing stuff like, oh, collecting the rubbish, fixing the roads and school crossings. Municipal kind of stuff.

Not Marrickville. Hard Green/Left councillor Fiona Byrne wants to sanction Israel for their action in the Gaza region.

(I do rather suspect that this is yet more of the now commonplace new anti-semitism masquerading as righteous outrage, but what would I know?)

Q also petitioned the Port Phillip council about allowing a community house to expand its use by a muslim group for friday prayers. In an area that is predominantly non-muslim, this is a bizarre thing to do, but again, what would I know. We're talking about the Port Phillip council, and they've always been a bit left and strange. (In my opinion, of course)

So thursday's launch was not completely out of the blue.

Q Society Launch

As Vickie says, Q has hit the ground running, and already leaving a groundswell of opinion in their wake.

ACA link here.

Having met Vickie personally on a number of occasions, I can attest to the fact that she comes across as a ~~horribly scary extremist~~ thoroughly nice person.

She's also been getting out there, with the Australian Islamist Monitor interviewing her recently.

For a spokesperson, that's excellent to see.

On thursday evening, Martin King from A Current Affair was also there for a short time to interview a few people (not me, luckily!), and tape some of the talks.

Of course, he didn't get the talk he should have.

Q Launch SOS Campaign 2011

There are a lot of things going on here in Australia in the arena of creeping sharia - finance, education, food, amenities, and the ongoing issues with illegal immigrants. Not that we're supposed to call them that. Asylum seekers is the politically correct term.

The Q Society are focusing particularly on halal food in Australia and the current push for islam to be a part of the schools' curricula. Under the guise of "cultural" studies.

For a small but growing group they aim high.

When you consider that several speakers pulled out at the last minute because they were frightened of speaking out in public, there is a need for some sort of action.

These speakers were from Afghanistan, Sudan and Ethiopia, so you'd think they would feel safe to speak in our (supposedly) free society.

Obviously not.

The keynote speaker was Pastor Daniel Scot, of the infamous Catch the Fires case here in Melbournistan.

A highly educated and entertaining man, it's no wonder he was charged with quoting the quran in a manner that made people laugh. He has an exquisitely honed sense of irony, and he uses it well.

Another speaker was a Pastor who fled Pakistan in fear as a christian, and now has a ministry here in Melbourne, preaching over the phone and via skype to groups in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and even London!

It took him over two years of effort with the Immigration dept to bring his wife and children to Australia and out from the oppression of Pakistan they suffered as christians.

There are a lot more stories like these, but unfortunately they never seem to see the light of day.

With the Q Society getting the information on what's happening out, then with luck we'll see more.

As the saying goes, sunlight disinfects, and the Q Society are doing an excellent job of disinfecting some of the misconceptions about sharia.

cross-posted at Vladtepesblog

Christmas Comes Early To The Island.

2011-03-18T22:17:00.001+11:00

A bit of background:

Way, way off the north-west coast of Australia, closer to Indonesia than Oz, lies a little itty bitty speck called Christmas Island. It used to be considered Australian Territory on a par with the mainland until the "asylum seekers" and their enablers, the people smugglers and refugee activists, realised that if you got to Christmas Island and claimed asylum, you'd be afforded all the legal and other comforts you could ever want without having to get all the way over here.

So a detention centre was built there, to process claims, which was difficult because somehow, these "refugees" could make it to Indonesia from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so on, and get onto a boat, yet still not have any papers that would identify them.

This detention centre wasn't built to house more than around 600 or so people.

Under John Howard, aka the Evil Right Wing War Monger (the last conservative Prime Minister), regulations were toughened up and an exclusion zone was devised. So now you could get to Christmas Island, but you didn't automatically get Legal Aid or instant acceptance. Also introduced were Temporary Protection Visas, which did not give you all of the rights and benefits of a full Refugee Visa.

When John Howard was voted out in 2007, Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party became PM, and as a part of his platform, he promised to loosen up the harsh regime that Howard had instigated.

In 2008, he did so.

[/caption]

Bolta's graph outlines how since the laws have been loosened, there has been an exponential increase in boats arriving carrying illegal immigrants (or asylum seekers if you prefer).

There are currently over 2000 of these people on Christmas Island (with several thousand more on the mainland in detention centres and four-star motels), from several different nationalities.

If you spend enough time at Aussie blogs, you might come across a rare sighting of a commenter by name of The Frollicking Mole. The Mole has worked in the detention centres, and has had his say about it.

The Labor government's enabling of more people seeking to gain entry to Australia and the benefits that accrue upon acceptance as a refugee has led to the current rioting.

Especially since detainees are now being flown to the mainland to protect them from the violence.

Once on the mainland, they'll be pretty much right.

Not sure about the rest of us, though.

cross-posted at Vlad Tepes

What Does Annie Lennox Bring To Your Relationship?

2011-03-13T18:03:00.003+11:00

Stay by me,
And make the moment last.
Please take these lips,
Even if I have been kissed
A million times.....

Way back in a previous existence, I absolutely loved this song. Unfortuntely for this song, I still love it, but I now filter it through too many years of reading Roissy, The Spearhead and a bookshelf full of dead trees.

I recently sorted out my cds and put them into folders rather than having several boxes of them stashed in a corner of my bedroom.

Now I can just pick a folder of discs to put under the car seat and I've got even more choice on wheels.

While this is nice - I've got Bach and Vivaldi there - it has also re-exposed me to music I've not listened to in years.

Annie Lennox being a case in point.

Lyn87 has written on The Spearhead today about something he calls "Transactional Relationship Value", or TRV for short.

Basically, it's what do you and your potential new life partner bring to the table. (That's my reading of it).

It's quite a timely article as he posits that feminism has lowered the TRV for modern women, so men should be somewhat more wary when engaging with them.

Why timely? Well, over the last month or so, I've had several of my female friends telling me that feminism and feminists have made it all so much harder for women in general to meet a decent man to settle down with.

The men who have been feminised (emasculated?) at this current stage of our society often don't have respect for women, or they are considered wimps and boys - not men - by women in their lives.

However... there is a recent trend of my friends laying the blame where it deserves to be laid.

That is with 40-odd years of feminism.

The idea that gender is a social construct* rather than a physiological characteristic.

The idea that men and women are "equal", and should be treated the same, when in fact they are physiologically quite different.

The idea that children can get their (male) role models from teachers, Scout leaders, coaches, rather than biologically related men. (Civitas dealt with that one a decade ago.)

The problem with all these ideas is, of course, that they don't work.

All you have to do is look at the complaints about gender-raunch, the over-sexualisation of childhood, and girls behaving badly.

Songs like Annie Lennox's, when you deconstruct them, continue to promote the idea that women can behave any way they choose, and it'll all be okay.

Please take these lips,
Even if I have been kissed,
A million times.

Looking at where feminism has brought us; a time where women are more objectified than ever before and loving it, where women are rarely punished for heinous transgressions, my response now to those lines is:

Why?

Why would a bloke want to hang stay with a woman who is asks him to accept that she's been running around kissing every man and his dog?

What does she bring to the partnership? Can she cook? Iron? Change a fanbelt? Does she see things the same way as he does (within reason, biology willing lol)?
And can he be sure that if she gets bored or falls out of love with him she'll try to work it through rather than just run out?

If her lips have been kissed a million times, longevity doesn't seem to be her strong suit.

*please follow this link especially and read the post there. Then read the comments.

Unhide The Decline:Liveblogging Luton.

2011-02-05T23:06:00.002+11:00

Currently, the Baron over at GoV and Vlad will be liveblogging the EDL demo at Luton.

Of course, in the interests of social cohesion, the moderate (LOOK! A UNICORN!!)muslims have rolled out the welcome mat as we can see in this video from the other week.

Feel the lurve just pouring off the screen on that one. I'm sure that these guys are truly interested in... dialogue... right?

A Statement From Sergio Redegalli.

2011-01-27T20:53:00.001+11:00

Eeyore has previously posted an interview with Sergio Redegalli, the artist who painted a mural saying "NO" to burkhas. part 1,part 2.

Sergio has just released a statement:

STATEMENT FROM SERGIO REDEGALLI

Newtown has always been a safe haven for the unique varieties of people in Sydney. Newtown has always been, and hopefully will remain, a rich source of creative people. Newtown has for a very long time been an interesting mix of Australians coming from many different backgrounds, education and countries.

Newtown in the last 30 years has been on the leading edge for the creative arts, with many successful artists not just working in the area but committing to making Newtown their home.

This page is a step in clearing up some untruths spread about the ‘Say No To Burqas’ mural (‘the mural’) by a very small number of people.

THE ‘SAY NO TO BURQAS’ MURAL WAS PAINTED TO CREATE DIALOGUE AND TO HOPEFULLY ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO BE BETTER INFORMED ABOUT SOME VERY IMPORTANT ISSSUES CURRENTLY FACING AUSTRALIA TODAY.

As Australian Citizens we all have a duty to stand up and express ourselves on issues that are important to discuss and to do this always in a sensible and peaceful manner. We all have the right to express ourselves non-violently both verbally and creatively, via any form of media format without having to be fearful of physical abuse or vandalism to property.

There have been too many untruths made by people and groups who take very much care in not putting their names (as individuals as well as groups as a whole) to their beliefs.

Firstly, the ’Say No To Burqas’ mural has always and only been a starting point for debate and discussion, aside from graffiti and vandalism, it has never had the wording painted saying anything other than ‘SAY NO TO BURQAS’.

Point of fact, Islam is a Religious Ideology with its followers coming from many races all over the world and it is impossible to be racist towards a Religious Ideology.

Islam is more than a Religion; it is in fact a system of rule that guides all devout Muslims throughout their lives from the time of their birth to their death. Apart from its Religious element that most Western people understand the concept of, it also has a very clear and fixed set of legal rules, for almost every event in a Muslim’s life (SHARIA).It also has a political system within its structure clearly describing the aims, desired and results that would be the most beneficial for the expansion of Islam. I personally have discussed these sections with my Australian Muslim friends and I encourage anyone interested in understanding Islam to read more about the challenges facing Australian Muslims and the problems that they are facing because of minority groups who have extremist views that do NOT represent the greater Australian Muslim population.

Extremism does exist; every time any we fly overseas we are exposed to the measures that airport security under take to combat this risk. This year, the majority of Australian Coptic Christians had their Christmas celebrations cut short due to terrorism threats made towards them for their celebrations held on the 7th January 2011, after several Sydney Churches were targeted. (Terror threats sour Coptic Christmas services http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/07/3108477.htm?site=sydney). The list goes on.

One very important fact for all Australians to understand is that the burqa and niqab are not a necessary part of Islam. This ruling was made clear to all Muslims around the world by Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, the dean of al-Azhar university, when he stated that “full-face veiling (is) a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith”. (Egypt's highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women's veils, known as the niqab. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8290606.stm).

An important reason for a law to be passed in Australia regarding all forms of full-face covering worn in public spaces, is that we live in a land where reasonable rules make more sense. We as Australians like being one united country, not a divided one. We have rules that we have all been following in the past, not because they are Law, but because they give all people a feeling of safety. Australians understand that taking off our motorcycle helmets in banks and other sensitive areas is a normal practise, that people walking the streets with their faces fully covered for no apparent reason is out of the norm.

Australians have worked very hard in creating a balanced and non discriminative society. Let’s not let our good will be used against the common good of all Australians. This issue is not about the clothing, it is about the direction of Australia, and the type of community we wish to live in, one that is clear about what is suitable in Australia and what is not. We have rules that clearly state that public nudity is not appropriate and creating rules that state that 100% full-face coverings in public spaces are not appropriate is just as balanced.

Some people may say it is the right of a woman to make a choice of covering themselves 100%, however I ask one very simple question, who is going to protect and allow for the freedom of choice to the next generation of young girls born into these family groups that will control all aspects of their dress code, education and the types of friends they will be allowed to know.

ADVERTISEMENT
Sergio Redegalli
Local resident and artist

cross-posted at Vlad Tepes Blog.

Coptic Consensus.

2011-01-20T21:39:00.003+11:00

The Coptic Christians in Czechoslovakia weren't alone yesterday.

In Sydney's Martin Place, several thousand Coptic Christians also turned out to protest against the persecution suffered by their fellow christians in Egypt at the hand of the muslim majority.

This persecution has been going on for a long time, but rarely receives any attention, let alone the amount it deserves.

Being in Melbournistan, I was unable to attend the rally. When I mentioned it to a workmate this morning I was asked, "Why bother? What purpose does it serve, what does it prove?"

Well, it proves that people (christians and non-activists) are starting to wake up to the fact that something is seriously wrong in our world.

It proves that people are willing to make a move on something, even if it is a relatively benign march a few blocks and then hear speakers on the topic.

When churches in Australia require protection akin to what synagogues and Jewish schools shamefully already have to deal with, then things are getting worse and not better.

As the Australian Coptic Movement Association say on their homepage:

Christian girls kidnapped, raped and forced into Islam! Homes burned down and businesses ruined! Christians murdered in bright daylight while the authorities stand by and watch! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Great to see the Reverend Fred Nile, long derided as some sort of bigot and buffoon, speaking in support of the Copts in Egypt.

Also David Clarke, Member of the Legislative Council, standing and speaking against islamic terrorism.

Let's not mince words here. Christians in Egypt are dhimmis.

My co-worker would do well to consider the plight of those in foreign lands; just because they are the other side of the world it doesn't mean that there aren't those here who think that we should be treated the same way.

Where Do Irrelevant Old Women Go To Flog Their Books?

2011-01-18T20:47:00.005+11:00

To the Zaky Mallah Show!

Seriously, this has to be seen to be believed.

Zaky Mallah, the first person to be charged under Australia's terrorism laws has his very own youtube channel. As an uncovered meat, I'm way, way over the other side religiously and politically, but his subjects are quite interesting.

Jan Murray is the subject of today's interview. She had a gig for a few years on daytime television on a show called Beauty and the Beast. It was a panel-based show with one bloke surrounded by "beauties" who all ranted at one another.

I wasn't a viewer of it, and never had much opinion of it.

But we're talking about Jan. Apart from B&TB, she's probably best known for what she did with her husband on his desk a loooong time ago, and now she has a book out.

I knew there had to be a reason as to why she'd be sitting in some suburban bar in the middle of the day talking to a young fellow with a video camera.

I understand that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, but come one, Jan, everyone gets that. Especially in this day of two-hour news cycles and wall to wall information overload.

I won't offer too much in the way of kudos to Zaky, because I doubt it would have taken much (anything?) for Jan to open up. I will say well done on providing us, the book-buying public, with a worthy addition to the list of what not to buy.

Her views on John Howard and how awful he is are most entertaining, especially considering he's been out of office for 3 years and counting. She wants her book to sell like hotcakes, while hoping that John Howard's ends up in the remainder bin.

Somehow, I suspect that amazon.com tells a different tale.

Not exactly a huge presence on the world stage, is our Jan.

I'm more interested in what I consider is the money quote:

4.31 Zaky:What's the three things that really... pissed you off from former Prime Minister John Howard?
4.38 Jan: Umm. Well as I stated, the refugee situation was terrible, the GST sucks.
4.44 Zaky:So you don't like the GST?
4.45 Jan: No I don't like the GST I think the rich should pay more tax than the poor, and we're all paying the same level, it's a flat tax. I don't like the GST.
[emphasis added]

At 6.16 in the video, a snippet is shown of her television show, and she declares that she's a socialist.

So I guess we'll see here down here in Melbournistan for the Marxism 2011 conference.

What a meeting of the brains trust that will be.

The idea of a flat tax rate is (to my uneducated mind) rather sensible. This way everyone is paying the same rate. If you spend more, you'll be paying more.

The idea that your rate of taxation goes up because you happen to save/earn more than your neighbour is counter-productive. Why would I want to make more money if I know it's going to get taken away from me?

As for the GST, she can bleat all she likes, but the bottom line is that Howard took it to an election and won.

He had that most elusive of creatures... a mandate.

If she wants to complain about this high rates of taxation in this country, she should look to all those Labor State goverments who refused to drop State taxes like Stamp Duty when the GST came in.

The deal was that the States got the GST in return for getting rid of those.

Ah, the Labor Party. Australia's favourite communists...... which takes me away from Jan and into RantyLand.

One thing for Jan to think about.

Relevance.

How relevant is she feeling if she's hanging out with former terrorist suspects? How relevant is she feeling if she's whinging about a man who's not been in the public eye for years?

How relevant is she feeling if her book sales are a mighty 7-8000 copies (7.16 on the vid) when John Howard's are just that much more?

I wonder when I'll see Jan in the remainder bin?

Now I Know We're Doomed!

2010-11-21T21:41:00.002+11:00

Colour me speechless.....

Happy Viewing Sunday.

2010-11-21T11:58:00.002+11:00

One of my all time favourite movies, and the best wedding scene... EVAH!!!

I'm thinking I might have to follow this one up with Anchorman.

And then some Blades of Glory.

The Green Power of Advertising.

2010-11-06T20:09:00.005+11:00

Well, not exactly. This arvo I wandered along to the rally to Replace Hazelwood.

So who, or what, is Hazelwood?

Well, Hazelwood is only one of our biggest electrical suppliers. They only supply around about 25% of our electical needs here in Victoria.

That's a heck of a lot of power, and currently two political parties here want to close it down.

The Greens want it shut down within a few years (if not sooner), the Socialists (well, the Socialist Alternative bit) also want it shut down, and in a brief straw poll of one of my mates down in that neck of the woods, it's 50/50 on whether the locals want Hazelwood to remain or not.

My mate reckons it's smelly and horrible and polluting, but doesn't know what to replace it with, and her daughter prefers it remain or be replaced with nuclear.

I'd be happy for it to be replaced with nuclear, but in the meantime, I'd like to ask the following questions:

What will it be replaced with?

How can the government, if it does shut down the power station, guarantee that prices won't go through the roof? (Okay, trick question, since the gov't won't do that)

What happens when hospitals, schools, kindergartens, restaurants, supermarkets and other suppliers of goods and services can no longer afford the power bills?
a)subsidies?
b)black outs?
c)power disconnections?
d)who cares?

I suspect that d) would be the answer that won't be spoken aloud. After all, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette.

And now for a bit of a picture of the show today.

The usual crowd of hippies and commies were out in small force.

And of course the obligatory giant papier mache head of Martin Ferguson.

So how many thousands of people went to this thing?

Apparently about 5000.

I went incognito on my own, because I wasn't too sure of what the mood of the crowd would be, and I only had a limited amount of time available.

I only went to observe, not to engage in any sort of dialogue. Not today. Since my views tend to be rather unpopular at Lefty rallies, it can get a bit confrontational and that's not a place to visit unaccompanied.

Plus I recognised an old commie from a rally a couple of years back.

Definitely not the time to engage!

Besides, quite a few people brought their kids along.

I guess that's one way to educate your child in the art of political activism.

(more pics here)

Cashing In On Che.

2010-11-02T15:41:00.003+11:00

What I think about Che.

In a timely bit of convergence (I have no idea what that means either, but it sounds good), the boyz at Hillbuzz discussed young people who are all about Che without knowing anything about him.

It's tiresome, and offensive that ignorant people think something looks good, so therefore they have to have it on a tshirt and advertise their coolness.

Grrrr.

As my friend the Colonel likes to ask those he sees sporting tshirts with Che's "iconic" picture on it, "So, you support killing children and firing squads, do you?"

It's entertaining, yet squirm-inducing, when he starts this line of interrogation.

Especially because so many do not understand what it is they're wearing.

Kind of like the young teen skater a decade ago who was wearing a tshirt with Jim Jones on it. When I asked him what it was about, he replied that Jones was some guy who killed a lot of people and was cool.

Riiiiight.

At least that youngster had a vague idea of what Jones was, but so many have no clue about Che.

He took one nice photo in his life, murdered many others, and cried like a little girl when he was captured by the Bolivian Army.

He's a money-spinner. He's a hero of the revolution, whatever that means. Heck, I'm still trying to figure out the Great Reformation, when the Catholic Church is still standing and we've got Pope Benedict up there. Remind me again what was actually reformed?

Same here with the idea of "revolution."

So often, it's an excuse for someone to get up and take command, to unleash their basest impulses and murder and extort.

Hello, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, and how's our mate Rob in Zimbabwe going with his little bit of revolutionary heaven?

I really do wish people would do a bit of study. In the meantime, though, we have unions who are supposed to be supporting our workers supporting dictators installed by revolutionaries instead.

Elisabeth Needs Some Support.

2010-10-25T20:47:00.004+11:00

Back in December, a woman few people had heard of was accused of "hate speech". Now, "hate speech" these days does seem to have legal definitions in some countries (like Australia, for example.

In the case of the woman, she was in Austria of all places.

Austria? They have "hate laws"??? When I think of Austria, I think of The Sound of Music, not mullahs, but it appears that over there also you can't say what you want lest you offend people.

It is, of course, a one-way street, as we here found with the Catch the Fires case a few years back.

It's okay for a supposedly learned man to liken uncovered women to meat left in the open for cats to take, but woe betide anyone who suggests that all is not well in the world of multiculturalism.

It's actually not all about the food and the costumes, even if it's marketed to the hoi polloi as such.

We've all heard of Geert Wilders - he's now even got his own tshirts (thanks, Bosch!) - but very few outside of the counter-jihad movement have heard of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.

Who is she?

Well, she's just another person who happened to speak out and say what people are thinking.

She doesn't like sharia; it's a threat to her culture and her way of life.

She doesn't like the way that some groups are intent on forcing her culture to kowtow to minority and pressure groups, to tolerate her social landscape being changed beyond recognition. (video at Harry's Place)

She doesn't really like islam.

Oh noes!!1! She doesn't like islam!! And not only did she think this thought, but she had the unmitigated gall to speak that thought aloud in a seminar about islam.

Hmmm. Shades of the two Dannys there.

There seems to be a trend where it's okay to say whatever you like, as long as you're parroting the Party line.

It's something that's going on all over the world, and while it's not just those who believe that islam must be propagated at all costs, even against the will of the people, the rabid greenies won't necessarily issue a fatwa or murder you on the street, as happened to Theo van Gogh.

In the meantime, however, Elisabeth is one of the few sticking their heads above the parapet and bearing the brunt of lawfare for those of us who either can't or won't stand up for our rights and our cultures.

Please support Elisabeth in her battle for the freedom to say what she wants without fear or favour.

Meet Vickie.

2010-08-02T20:04:00.004+10:00

Vickie is standing for the Senate in the current election, and has only recently stood up to be counted.

Since she's a Christian who is happy to tell people that she disagrees with sharia law, I suspect we'll be hearing quite a bit about her. She's already made the Australian Network News because of this:

A Victorian Senate candidate for the Christian Democratic Party says she wants to counter what she sees as the 'Islamisation' of Australia.

Senate candidate Vickie Janson says she supports religious freedom but Muslims need to integrate, and should not insist on exclusive facilities such as prayer rooms and toilets.

Ms Janson was speaking at the Christian Democratic Party campaign launch in the Victorian city of Bendigo.

She says the Federal Government is endorsing the Islamisation of the country.

"It's something that we can see in these government funded brochures, we see a presentation of Islam in our schools that just defies historical reality. You've got to question why would we be teaching these things in our school anyway, why would we be insisting upon a Muslim perspective."

This will no doubt upset a few of the luvvies because that doesn't sound very inclusive. She's got a point, though.

The Australian Islamist Monitor has done some investigation into the current push to include appreciation of islam in school curricula.

As I told my daughter's teacher, if they are going to include islamic studies, then I expect them to also include christianity, buddhism, hinduism, atheism and every other religion. It's about time the pagans got a shout out also, don't you think?

It was annoying enough when my girl came home in the lead up to Christmas back in Preps and asked me about Eid. Apparently they also talked about Hannukah, so I didn't make a fuss.

When it comes to sharia in Australia, Vickie has a handle on the topic, having spent years researching it in an effort to understand her muslim friends. What she learned also led to her writing a book about it, and obviously talking about it.

She's definitely someone to keep an eye on, and she's a lot nicer and more optimistic than I am - she's not even got a bodyguard!

(full disclosure: I have a copy of her book, and have started reading it, but am only a couple of chapters in.)

Electioneering Begins.

2010-07-30T22:18:00.003+10:00

While I'm unable to blog anywhere near as often as I'd like, it doesn't mean my eyes aren't still open.

Case in point my local member's scare tactics:

Now, if you're selling something, you want your message to be front and centre, no? Well the message is there alright in large letters. Tony Abbott coming soon?

Goodness, I certainly hope so.

Let's flip the card over and what do we see?

Ah, more of the old doom and gloom about how the terrible Libs will bring back Work Choices.

The only problem with this card is that it never mentions the ALP.

"Tony Abbott" gets in twice, and "Liberals"/"Liberal Government" scores four times.

That's not bad in 91 words.

Nowhere does it say, "Vote ALP", or "Vote Alan Griffin"

Most people don't read junk mail. The Godmother is an exception, which means that I get to have a look at what lands in the letterbox occasionally. We scan over the big print to see if anything invites us to look further, and sometimes, we get this muzzy little thing with doesn't tell us anything except to pay attention to Tony Abbott.

Now, I understand that the ALP can't really campaign on Julia's credentials, because her specific skillset (playing Brutus, wearing white suits in Women's Weekly spreads, mangling strine - who knew that was possible?) aren't what you want to be highlighting in a nasty electoral race.

However, you need to tell us who to vote for, Alan. At the moment, all I can see is TONY!!

Helen Ruddy Sings.

2010-06-26T00:14:00.002+10:00

Paul Keating, aka the Lizard of Oz, yet another unelected Labor PM, is another running scared of Tony Abbott.

Interesting that they dragged him out of retirement to bleat on about the threat of a Coalition led by Abbott.

Woody Woodpecker Runs Rudd Off The Rails.

2010-06-24T21:47:00.004+10:00

Soooo... Julia joins that illustrious group of female political leaders in Oz.

Such a shame that she wasn't actually elected, but it appears that that's an art that the women haven't learnt yet.

Let's see...

Carmen Lawrence, first Aussie State Premier of WA. Got the job after predecessor resigned.

Likewise Anna Bligh in Queensland and Joan Kirner, who put the finishing touches on John Cain's slash and burn premiership of Melbournistan.

Okay, so we've had women elected to run Territories as opposed to States, but in general, it's a pretty sorry tale for the political woman here.

I suspect that it's the Labor Party disease. All of these women, so many members of Emily's List, and they couldn't get elected to garbo, going on past and present experience.

Considering that the ALP is effectively a socialist organisation, it's no surprise. Merit doesn't have a whole lot of traction there, although bloodymindedness and pandering do.

Oh, and in case you don't believe that the ALP is not as supportive of individuals as you'd think in such an egalitarian environment of Oz, according to their own constitution, Julia and Co support:

(v) commitment to and participation in the international democratic socialist movement as
represented by the Socialist International; and
(w) recognition of the right of citizens to work for progressive changes consistent with the
broad principles of democratic socialism.

Personally, I wasn't aware that my country should abide by the rules of an organisation I disagree with and didn't elect.

I suspect that plenty of others are also unaware of exactly how far into our nation socialism has been spreading.

It's all rather tiresome and seriously gets my goat.

And as for the "Principles of Action"...

Principles of Action
4 The Australian Labor Party believes that the task of building democratic socialism is a cooperative
process that requires:
• constitutional action through the federal and State Parliaments, municipal and other statutory
authorities;
• union action; and
• ongoing action by organised community groups.

The Long March continues.

People vote Labor why?

Rabble In The Rain.

2010-06-05T19:50:00.008+10:00

NOT the cast of Glee.

While my immediate world is occupying most of my time, I still try to keep across what's happening in other areas. With the recent situation with the so-called Freedom Flotilla (the one where the peaceful protesters attempted to murder Israeli commandos), there is the usual carrying on about how Evil Israel is and Jews Are.

Accordingly, I figured there would be yet another display of chest beating and berating in Town, and I was right. MuslimVillage to the rescue. It's worth reading the thread for the comments more than anything else, particularly this gem:

**PLEASE BRING PALESTINIAN FLAGS, BANNERS, POSTERS**

Only my thought....but the above is never a good look and just causes a loss of support from the average person in the street. This isn't Palestine. It's much better IMO to fly Australian flags when protesting against something whilst on Australian soil.

Just my 2 cents.[emphasis added]

The idea that upsetting regular (read, non-leftarded, non-muslim, Aussies) might not be a good thing shows that over the last couple of years there are a few more of these Aussies getting pissed off.

We now need to make sure our presentations are kept on topic, and not derailed.

It was interested to note that for such a small turnout, relatively speaking, there were a few Australian flags there. Of course, in a sea of Turkish flags, with a couple of Hezbo flags and plenty of Palestine flags, they didn't do much good in the pr department.

Now my impressions...

Here outside the State Library in Swanston Street, the weather kept a lot away, so the turn out wasn't as large as the 4-5000 predicted, and there was a much larger police presence.

The police started arriving in numbers from about half an hour before the advertised start time of 2pm, and I did have a chat to a couple of them. They were polite and approachable, and didn't get offended at my comment about coming along to watch the rabble.

I met up with a couple of mates who contribute to the Australian Islamist Monitor, and one of them can get a bit ranty at times. He didn't get hit, though, which is a good thing.

I do believe the rainy weather put a damper on the aggro, since there was no sense of overt menace like there was when I went to the demo in Jan 09. It probably helped that I kept my mouth shut and smiled at people. I was quite open about taking photos, and wandered freely.

The signs were rather tame, although there were the usual misspellings,

appalling grammar attacks,

and visitations from car dealerships.

And, yes, to remind us to keep on topic, there was even a replica boat.

There was the usual assortment of speeches, from Green MPs, Trades Hall morons who declare that what Gaza needs (apart from No Jews) is help from the unions. That got a cheer, but I suspect that there were a few non-english speakers in the crowd who didn't quite get that bit.

Sheikh Fehmi, one of Victoria's very own go-to guys for the islam perspective spoke also. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention as I was busy wending my way through the crowd.

Interestingly enough, there was a call for 1 minute's silence, which never made it anywhere near a minute. After quiet fell, there was a request to express the rage about Israel's atrocities in boarding the Mavi Marmara. That, of course, was an excuse for a 45 second hate that Orwell would have been proud of.

After the talking was done outside the Library there was a march along Swanston Street, then up Bourke Street, to the other usual gathering place on the steps of the ~~Town Hall~~ Parliament House.

There were more speeches, more chants, the usual rants about wanting a free Palestine, Israel out, that sort of thing. It truly does get boring after a while, and I'm amazed at the patience of the police who have to tolerate it. I can walk away any time, and my companions and I didn't actually rush to follow the rabble up to the ~~Town Hall~~ Parliament House. We took our time, conversing on other things as well as the day's activities.

Back amongst the crowd, though, there was some interesting hectoring going on. I took some video with my camera - more for the audio than any great pictures, since I wanted to capture the usual allahu akhbar that appears at these things.

My favourite was the young woman who first labelled herself as a "Palestinian", and then went on to tell us how her family were kicked out of Jordan in 1967 and hadn't been able to find their way back home.(link to my vid.)

She then went on to demand that "our government" expel the Israeli ambassador, and show "our true Australian values."

Her irony meter seems to be a bit rusty.

There were quite a few ageing hippies, and plenty of socialists hanging around, not having lives to go to, I guess.

And there were plenty of muslims. The girls in hijabs with beautifully made up faces and tight, tight, jeans amused me as always - not real modest there, of course, but as an infidel whore, what would I know?

Last but note least, my favourite sign of the day:

Timing is everything.

These guys came along just as the procession left the Library, and I reckon that's a sign I can get behind.

[edited to amend Town Hall to Parliament House, with thanks to the pedantic anon in comments.]

Will Life Imitate Art Again?

2010-03-21T21:02:00.002+11:00

Via Big Government, we learn that Joe Biden has taken his foot out of his mouth so he can put the other one in while being interviewed by Jake Tapper.

Basically, as far as Joe is concerned, there's nothing to worry about because he's from the Government, as is Barry Obama.

Barry appears to be all in favour of taking over not just the banks, the health care industry (or at least the money involved in it), but particularly the insurance industry.

Joe supports this.

There are those wondering if it's actually legal for the government to dictate who can have what insurance.

I'm all for free will, myself, so I'd suggest that it's not a good path to be heading down.

For the same reason the Prohibition failed, you won't be able to completely control such an intangible as insurance. People vote with their conscience and their wallets, not always in that order.

I suspect we might see a few companies going rogue a la the Crimson Permanent Assurance, particularly with the excess bureaucracy in an already congested industry.

What Happens When Feminists Have Children?

2010-03-13T18:26:00.007+11:00

In a brief email exchange recently, a comment was made about older women being a bit more open to the idea that feminism isn't really all it's cracked up to be than younger women.

That's enough of a paraphrase, but it really jumped out at me for a couple of reasons.

a) It's a bit of a no-brainer, considering that I decided years ago that between the ages of 15-17 women don't have a whole lot of sense. The way I used to phrase it was: "our brains leak out of our ears and don't return until we're around 27".

Of course, 27 was a bit of a watershed year for me, when I woke up to a lot of things, including the fact I'd just spent 5 and a half years in a supremely unhealthy relationship.

I may not have been turned into a newt, but I did get better.

b)The Spearhead is also addressing when older feminists get a bit of a tap with the reality stick. Funny how that works - all those women who thought it was great to be provocative don't seem to approve when women 20 years younger behave the same way or worse.

c)Bolta comments this morning on the former women's magazine editor Mia Freedman.

Ms Freedman has gone from being in control of editorial content for a stable of magazines, to bemoaning the sexualisation of childhood. Funny how parenthood has a way of making you see things differently.

While Andrew points out the hypocrisy of her calling foul at this late stage of the game, I find it interesting that Freedman doesn't seem to have any sort of inkling of her own culpability in the raunch culture that she is moaning about.

A DECADE ago, Mia Freedman was one of the country's most powerful and provocative magazine editors. As editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Cleo and Dolly, she chased circulation gains with sexually explicit "sealed sections".

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Freedman, a mother of three who now runs the website Mamamia added: "I sense an enormous frustration and anger on my website . . . Women are angry because we feel like our kids are being bombarded with (sexual) things and you can't watch them 24 hours a day.

"What has occurred is that popular culture has been turbo-charged by technology and, as parents, we have absolutely lost control of what our children are exposed to . . . and I think that does change everything."

Parents, if your tween likes to read Dolly, then cut off the spending money and burn that magazine.

While it purports to be for mid-level and above teenagers, it is nothing of the sort.

I should know. I read Dolly every now and again to have a look at what the kids are reading.

Apart from a crap load of advertising and twee "articles" of a page about how to feel good about yourself, look good and have friends, there is also the "sealed section." Here are a couple of pages from the sealed sections of this month, and also from May last year.

In every edition I've looked at over the last year (and it's not been every month - even I can't handle that much crap), there has been at least one question dealing with something sexually explicit.

Perhaps a question about diseases, about what's normal, about, as in this example, peer pressure to get involved.

I have yet to read one response to the query suggesting abstinence might be a valid option. Instead, there is a lot of wishy-washy, warm and fluffy pap spooned out. Don't want to offend the readers, after all. The wee lassies are the ones who validate the advertising agreements.

The same happens with drug discussions. Sure, the drugs mentioned might be "illicit", but I'm still awaiting a description of the legal Acts that outline the consequences that could befall young people if they get caught breaking the laws on intoxicating substances.

I've had to go looking for information, but when it comes to the legal stuff, it's not exactly in plain sight.

Oh, wait... that's right, there is no real legal fallout these days, because kids under the influence of drugs are not in control of themselves (under the influence) and therefore aren't really responsible for their actions.

Therefore, if they're caught breaking and entering, or inflicting bodily harm on someone, they usually get a slap on the wrist.

Don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, of course.

Let's have a look at some of these great, insightful websites for young people about sex.

Clued up. aka All About Chlamydia. Nothing about considering being less sexually active.

Okay, that's enough for now. I have yet to see anything in girls' or women's magazines that definitively states that perhaps women and girls should consider being less sexual in dress and manner.

Maybe it's because I'm older (as suggested by my correspondent) that I find the continual emphasis on what is euphemistically called "raunch" rather than the smut-peddling it is offensive.

Maybe it's because it wasn't this bad 20 years ago and I wasn't looking for it.

Maybe Mia Freedman should have considered a bit more carefully about what influence she wanted to have on her magazines' audiences.

Mind you, it's not only girls who are the target - boys are too.

If I recall correctly, even Naomi Wolf suggested that when the market for female consumption grew too small, then men would be the next targeted. We can see that on television, in the magazines, movies and billboards.

It's a bit rich for women like Mia to start complaining about a part of the culture that she was influential in having adverse effects. She should have thought about that 10 years ago.

All the talk about how tv shows, movies and the like won't affect children's outlook is so much hogwash. If visual stimulation didn't have such impact upon us, then why on earth is there so much money involved in advertising? Let's face it, adverts are designed to persuade you to buy into a product. All those mini stories presenting products as essential to your sense of worth.

What's an old fully empowered feminist to do?

Hmmm. Maybe admitting the errors of their ways and working to correct the situation?

Nah, that would be like the Fat Cat losing weight. Ain't gonna happen.

*cue gratuitous cat snap.

No Spellcheck For Yahoos.

2010-03-13T18:18:00.003+11:00

I was just checking my email, when I noticed the news headlines....

So I followed the link.

I'm trying to bring up Magilla in a drub-free environment, but it's just not happening for me. Whatever has happened to the world?

Whatever has happened to spellcheck and editors, more to the point?

The TMI Files. What We're Listening To.

2010-02-27T18:14:00.003+11:00

We do have a rather diverse range of music here in Chez Bogan, and it's never dull.

One of the coolest things for me last week was at the parent/teacher meeting and I discovered that Magilla's favourite food is "junk." Her favourite tv show is "Werd Al Yankvich."

Her teacher was most disconcerted while I was trying not to fall off the chair laughing.

Me: LMAO
Teacher: Yes, she said that we love Weird Al.
Me: She did?
Teacher: Yes, I asked if she loved him, and she told me we love him.
Me: She's right. We do. We have cds and dvds. We've got a bit of a collection there.

This is her current Weird Al fave. (Sorry, embedding was disabled on youtube.)

I'll leave you with an all time classic song: Dead Puppies.

Official Statement Regarding The Abuse Of EDL Prisoners

2010-02-26T19:20:00.002+11:00

I've been asked to post a statement from the English Defence League.

For those who know of the EDL, start waving your pitchforks and screaming "RAAAAACIST" now. I'll try to look concerned. As a white person who happens to be rather proud of her culture, I can't be overly bothererd with your delicate sensibilities.

I've been called one of those in the past, but I still reckon my fave insult was when Irfan Yusuf called me a nazi over at AWH a few years back. He's probably forgotten, but I take it as a badge of honour. Godwin's Law invoked in my name - yay me!

Getting back on topic, however, for those who don't know, the EDL is one of the few known organisations in Britain standing up against the islamification of the country.

It's no secret that you shouldn't upset certain segments of the community - whichever Western country you're in. It's considered rude and possibly against the law.

People can and do get arrested over their opinions.

Just not everyone.

Now, to the statement:

To all EDL members

As you may well already be aware members of the English Defence League have been arrested and charged for relatively “minor” offences.

Members who are prepared to stand up against the rising tide of Islamofascism and its adherents are being “hung out to dry” by our weak politicians in the hope they can salvage much needed Muslim votes in order to retain governance. This is just another ploy to use the “Muslim block vote” so other parties are denied potential seats in the houses of parliament.

It has come to our attention that some EDL members who are currently serving short prison time are actually being targeted by imprisoned radicalised jihadist gangs, consequently they have been beaten and will continue to get beaten as prison authorities “turn a blind eye” to events unfolding under their very roof!

We the English Defence League condemn such apathy, such wanton ignorance or, more likely, deliberate targeting of EDL members!

EVERY prison has a “duty of care” for its inmates. Prisoners MUST be afforded protection from harm as that is their right. They cannot be discriminated against by virtue of their race, colour, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or political views.

EVERY human being, be they prisoner, detainee, terrorist or asylum seeker has the basic human right to be treated with dignity and respect. They have the right to food, housing, PROTECTION, education and assistance from the law. They have the right not to be exploited, tortured or intimidated. As a country we have agreed to abide by the European Convention on Human Rights, as a nation we have the Human Rights Act to protect us from those who would seek to harm us or prevent us from enjoying our civil liberties.

If the British prison system fails EDL members in ANY of the above mentioned points then we as a movement will relentlessly pursue EVERY avenue to secure their safety while serving prison time. Failure on the part of prison governors to ensure the safety of EDL members while in their care WILL result in the petitioning of government, liable governors, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and ANY other authority who are accountable for the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of inmates.

It is also worth noting that Prison service Order Number 1215 clearly states that……

“This PSO supports the delivery of the Performance Standards on Conduct and Discipline and the proper delivery of the Security Standard and all standards relating to the treatment of staff and prisoners.”

If prison staff have been found to be complacent, negligent or wantonly ignorant in the above regard then they themselves are in breach of a “Prison Service Order”

TheTMI Files. Communism For Children.

2010-02-08T22:29:00.002+11:00

Uh oh.

Me: No, I'm not going to bed yet. I just want to email some stuff to MP, and then I'm going.

Magilla: What sort of stuff?

Me: Never mind, it's stuff we were talking about tonight.

Magilla: But what?

Me: Oh alright. I'm sending her some stuff about communism.

Magilla: What's communism?

Me: It's a bit hard to explain, and you're a bit young.

Magilla: Tell me, please.

Me: (after much wracking of my brains) Well, communism is where the government thinks that everyone should have the same things, and will take some of your stuff away and give it to someone else.

It's where nobody is supposed to be better than anybody else, and everyone is supposed to be treated the same.

Magilla: That's dumb.

Me: Why do you say that?

Magilla: It just is. How can everybody be the same? We're all different.

Me: Yes, but there are people out there who don't care about that. They think that we should all be the same and treated the same anyway.

Magilla: But that's not right.

Me: Maybe not, but the people who like communism don't care about that. They think everyone should also be told how to think and what to say. If you run faster than everyone else, for example, then you are not supposed to be proud of that, because that might upset someone who isn't as fast, and that's not allowed. Everyone is supposed to be treated and seen the same way, you see.

There did follow a little bit more of the same - me trying to simplify my understanding of communism/socialism for the 7yo, but I was impressed with her initial reaction: That's dumb.

I don't know why some people treat children like fools and idiots at times. They are not stupid, they just don't have the tools to process information like we do.

Hence why we have to educate them rather than allow others to indoctrinate.

I'm going to introduce Magilla to the wonderful world of Australian poetry in short order, because she can tell me about japanese culture, and about how it's good to be skinny, but she doesn't know of Mulga Bill's Bicycle or The Drover's Wife.

I won't worry about Steele Rudd just yet.

I Love Justin's Dad.

2010-02-05T21:01:00.002+11:00

I've been on twitter for a few months now, but I'm not into it much. It's more something to dip into every now and then.

Until now....

The Godmother suggested I check out Shit My Dad Says.

As Justin's brief bio says,

I'm 29. I live with my 74-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says

After reading some of what his dad say, I love his dad, too:

"Pressure? Get married when you want. Your wedding's just one more day in my life I can't wear sweat pants." 5:58 AM Dec 11th, 2009 from web

"I don't need more friends. You got friends and all they do is ask you to help them move. Fuck that. I'm old. I'm through moving shit." 6:00 AM Nov 17th, 2009 from web

"You look just like Stephen Hawking...Relax, I meant like a non-paralyzed version of him. Feel better?... Fine. Forget I said it."

"Oh please, you practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to lazy before they use it." 3:44 AM Nov 2nd, 2009 from web

"Remember how you used to make fun of me for being bald?...No, I'm not gonna make a joke. I'll let your mirror do that." 3:15 AM Oct 15th, 2009 from web

Okay, I'll stop here, or else I'll just c&p the whole lot.

Go read it yourself.

There's a lot of fun and some wisdom in there.

2010-01-17T21:44:00.001+11:00

Favourite new motivational, shamelessly stolen from Crunchyroll.

Avatard Out. (Spoilers)

2010-01-17T20:29:00.006+11:00

Well, we've all seen the movie, and when it gets to the stage that 7 yo's (Magilla no less!) are seeing it in 3D, then I reckon we've hit saturation point.

For the record, I didn't take her to see it. It was considered to be less ruinous to her psyche than Jurassic Park which she first saw at a younger age.

JP is PG, and Avatard is M, but no matter.

In any case, what's done is done, and I guess the "Green Is Good" message is better for you than the one about "reconstituted dinosaurs will run amok and eat you."

Back to Avatard.

In case you couldn't tell, it's not exactly my favourite movie of the century so far. There have been lots and lots of reviews, which run the gamut of slobbering over James Cameron's sheer, awesomely amazing genius to those who felt it was a cliche-ridden hackfest.

You can guess which camp I've set my tent up in.

So why? When Magilla comes home and tells me it's "the best movie ever!" alarms go off.

I asked her what she learned from it... uh, not sure.

Okay, what did she like about it... it's so cool. The man gets to lie down in this thing and he gets to be an alien. And then he dies and comes back to life as an alien.

Remember that this is the child who came home from Prep telling me that Japanese people are evil because they kill and eat whales, and then comes home in Grade One to tell me that white people are mean to black people.

When comparing Jurassic Park to Avatar, with both of their attendant depictions of violence, first of all, in JP the violence was in context. There was no overt political message of "shock and awe", or fighting "terror with terror."

Also, there was no imagery reminiscent of the Twin Towers coming down, as with the home tree in Avatar.

I know the fanbois and greenies and liberals who believe that America got what was coming will claim that a tree falling sideways is not the same as two buildings falling in on themselves, but for me, it was the scene directly after the tree fell that was most pertinent.

The dust and detritus falling down, the dazed looks on people trying to escape, those are images that I carry with me from that night sitting up and watching towers fall down.

This is not viewing suitable for children.

Considering that most of our population these days consists of people who don't wish to grow up and think for themselves, or make their own concrete decisions, I guess that would mean a hell of a lot of people shouldn't be allowed to watch dreck like this.

I found the film's message to be overt. No need for any sort of subtext when it's all in your face, anyway.

The troops are supposedly ex-Marines, but there is near enough to no such thing (John Murtha excepted), so we can happily accept the troops as being actively serving.

The corporation, RDA, is paying the troops, so not only are they serving, they're also mercenary, which devalues the voluntary nature of the military in the US today.

The main protagonist's labelling of himself a being a dumb grunt is an annoyance when I consider the people I've known over the years from the US Forces (several branches) who are far from dense, and have provided me with plenty of different perspectives on so many issues.

There is actually more than one way to view the world, but unfortunately, James Cameron's comes with blue lighting.

Mind you, nobody - but nobody! - does blue lighting like Cameron. Titanic, The Abyss, Aliens, Terminator all had it in spades. Now, we have a whole world with lots of blue lighting, which glows at night. Even better!

Yes, the cinematography is fantastic, and I now want to see every film with this sort of picture, but how about something a bit more original?

Avatar has been variously called: Dances with Smurfs, Fern Gully in Space, Pocahontas in Space, and so on and so forth.

I've heard it likened to the star-crossed lovers from Titanic or the original and the best Romeo and Juliet, but in this case neither died.

Yes, the FX are fantastic, but Cameron's been Blowing Shite Up for decades now, so he's pretty good at it.

I'm also a fan of Blowing Shite Up, so that's one tick from me.

Apart from the cinematography and the explosions, there's not a whole lot else to go on.

The characters are less than two-dimensional. As RedLetterMedia explains in his 7-part review of The Phantom Menace (part 1 here), you have to care about the characters.

The score is composed by James Horner, but he's missing his beat here. It wasn't the best fit for the film. This is, of course, my own opinion, and it wasn't as bad a match as Morricone's score for Mission To Mars, another dog of a movie.

The Mission to Mars score is beautiful, but it just didn't sit right.

I did get a snicker towards the end when Our Hero flies in to Save The Day on the bloody great big orange thing that I can't remember the name of. The princess had sent him away in disgust, blaming him for the ruination of her tribe, and the minute he appears on the back of the flying monster, her reaction is what Roissy and co would call (excuse the crudity) "gina tingles".

The beta has become alpha in a big way! Shades of the 97lb weakling getting sand kicked in his face.

It's a no brainer in the evo-psych tests.

Look at Titanic, who do you prefer?

It's the same with Avatar. The Jake character is only considered as worthy by the princess when he toughens up and learns to beat the natives at their own games. Even better when he takes on the biggest flying nightmare in the sky, and then proceeds to marshal all the tribes and kick the humans' backsides.

It's a difficult film to recommend, because I think it is totally crapulous. But it looks beautiful, and while there are of course a few of Cameron's signature shots of people running through corridors (watch Titanic and The Abyss back to back if you don't believe me), it's something to behold on the big screen.

A lot of effort has gone into creating his brave new world. It's just a shame he wasted it on dodgy dialogue and cardboard acting.

Like Titanic, it's a perfect storm of a movie.

The Next Best 20 Minutes Of Your Life.

2009-12-13T22:12:00.003+11:00

I'm not real big on fiction these days, Terry Pratchett notwithstanding, and with a pile of books steadily growing, sometimes it can be difficult getting enthused about things.

My immediate reading matter is The Forsaken: An American Tragedy In Stalin's Russia. It is heartrending, and has reduced me to tears several times, and I'm still only 2/3 of the way through.

For those who think that communism, or any other sort of collectivism is a Good Thing, this is a good place to start your re-education.

Those with a bit of power or authority start exercising that because they know better than you, then that bit sort of gets bigger and bigger.

It can be seen here in a small way every day on my drive home.

I drive on the Eastlink, a toll road that is between 3 and 4 lanes across, and is beautiful to drive on.

The speed limit is 100, but a few too many years of draconian speeding laws and fines have left the driving public often a bit too timid to actually reach that level, and most days I am lucky if I get to 95.

I'll stop now, as that rant is for another day, and I leave you with the 1812 Overture.

I grew up exposed to a broad range of music, including both country and western, and this was an especial favourite.

Enjoy.

I did find the complete video on what looks to be the Russian version of youtube, but I don't read Russian and couldn't find any way to embed this.

Bring On The Republic.

2009-12-04T20:30:00.003+11:00

Over here in Oz, we don't pay a whole lot of attention to the ongoing machinations of the EU. There's enough happening here and in the Middle East without adding Europe to the mix.

That is, of course, a generalisation, but one that might need addressing.

I regularly read His Grace, the (formerly corporeal) Archbishop Cranmer. While I'm not anglican, Church of England or anything recognisable as a christian denomination (sort of lapsed catholic/baptist/becoming evangelical mongrel), he is an excellent source of news in Britain.

He noted on Dec 1, 2009 how the Lisbon Treaty came into effect, and one of its effects is to subjugate British Law to European Law.

What does that do for the Commonwealth? I've always been more than happy to be a part of our constitutional monarchy. With the Queen as our head of state allowing us a free rein in general, rubber-stamping even the most idiotic decisions by the parliament of the day, we still manage to keep a few checks and balances in there.

This includes Quentin Bryce and her junketing around Africa.

Where does our legal system fit in with EU law? As a member of a Commonwealth presided over by a Queen who is now presided over by the President in Brussels, does that make me subject to the EU?

I'm sure Rob Hulls would say yes, to which my response would be to tell him to stick it in his ear.

Not that he'd pay any attention as his agenda is more important than my thoughts. He's still got his Charter of Rights to push.

I've never been a fan of Prince Charles, I must confess, but I still never saw the need for an Australian republic.

Now, though, I'm seeing things rather more differently.

Can I have a republic, please?

The TMI Files. Magilla's Guide To Girls.

2009-11-26T19:48:00.004+11:00

It all starts off innocently enough.....

When I was younger, I always wanted to write the Great Australian Novel. Looks like Magilla is a bit of a writer too, although more non-fiction than I ever was.

Nothing wrong with a bit of biology, you say, and there is, of course, the school of thought that believes pre-schoolers should be learning the facts of life in explicit detail.

Biology was always one of my stronger subjects at school, and when I studied beauty therapy a hundred years ago, my anatomy and physiology teacher was also a nursing educator, so I learned the equivalent of first year nursing.

I was in my 20s, though, and not 7 years old.

At least she knows what a girl looks like.....

....although her spelling could probably use a bit of practice.

nb. for our American readers in the Oz lingo, a fanny is at the front, not the back. I made an executive decision early on that I wasn't going to fuss over politically-, gynaecologically-correct descriptions with my girl.

She has a bum (or bottom) and a fanny. She's also recently discovered her new favourite word of "buttocks". Yes, she knows what a vagina is.

I just don't see the need to overload a child with all that terminology.

Time enough for that later.

And look! She even draws buttocks!

Well? Do you know about girls?

I have to confess that I discovered this in her schoolbag when picking her up from after-school care a few weeks back.

I laughed so hard I cried, and my stomach hurt from laughing silently. I don't think it would have done for me to be bent over double in hysterics while we're in front of her schoolmates.

The poor lady who runs the place didn't quite know how to take this little booklet - the pages were all stapled together so that you could read it in order - but as far as I'm concerned, it's bloody fantastic!

And funny as all get out.

My daughter the author. You've gotta love that!

The Single Woman's Lament.

2009-10-22T21:02:00.000+11:00

First up, I didn't realise that it's been so long between posts. My bad and apologies.

Now, down to the serious stuff.

I was listening to Carole King in the car the other day. I'd not listened to her in ages, but felt like a bit of a change from Lady Gaga.

I've only just realised that "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" was written in 1960, and may not have carried the sexual overtones of today's society, but I still couldn't help contrasting my own mixed feelings about it.

Back in my early 20s, I felt the song was terribly romantic... she's giving herself to a man she's in love with, and wistfully asking if his reciprocation is more than wishful thinking.

When I listened to it a few days back, now in my 40s (OMG! I'm middle-aged!), my immediate response was to laugh at the naivete of the protagonist and think to myself, "Hell no, girlfriend, you're just another lay."

I guess you could colour me cynical, but if we take a look at today's world, the culture doesn't really lend itself to such romantic dreaming. Far too many people are out for what they can get, rather than thinking of anything like a "greater good".

Don't get me wrong, I was as selfish as the next person 20 years ago, and just as stupid, if I recall correctly. I wish I didn't recall at times!

Let's compare King's lyrics with a demonstration of the decline of Western Civilisation a la the debauchery that is Texts From Last Night:

Tonight you're mine completely
(979): Proposition. Sex. No words, no talking about it later. I just want you tonight.

You give your love so sweetly
(313): Also my back is semi rug burned and I'm holding you fully responsible.
(1-313): I would love to give you more rug burn

Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
>(267): Overheard: "his girlfriend fucks him with the lights off. It's not serious."
(716): lmfao. well really. it's not love if you cringe at the site of his anus.

But will you love me tomorrow?
(509): Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?
(860): Becoming a productive member of society?
(509): Sam. Come on.

Texts From Last Night is trainwreck reading to me - it has me in stitches, and also aghast at the complete lack of anything resembling shame or discomfort at behaviour that was once considered immoral and offensive.

The Walk of Shame is now something to snicker about with your friends. If you scandalize your family or neighbours it's no big deal. It's not like their opinions are actually important to the younger generations.

To be brutally honest, there are plenty of the older generation who are ignorant, rude and narcissistic also, but nowhere near as visible to the naked eye as the youngsters.

This absence of remorse is one reason why people find it so hard to find love.

When you have no respect for someone, when you don't care for anyone else's good regard, how on earth could you possibly care enough to "love" someone and commit to them?

There is a disconnect between a life spent in the ether and a life out in the real world, and to paraphrase the infamous Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that chook will be coming home to roost with a vengeance in a few years' time.

I know mine has.

As you get older, you get more set in your ways, more determined, and can become less flexible. If you're in the habit of going your own way regardless when you're younger, then it's going to be a heck of a lot more difficult to share your life and space with another person.

And that's not even getting to the emotional part.

When we choose to live in the purely physical sphere, rather than dealing with everything life throws at us; pain, shame, embarrassment, guilt, remorse, acceptance, sorrow, fear and a host of other uncomfortable shades of feeling, when we prefer to turn an experience that others in our vicinity would look askance at into something to celebrate, then we are metaphorically cutting ourselves in half.

So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?

The TMI Files. Confession Time

2009-09-29T19:40:00.000+10:00

I like Nickelback.

Sorry.

Sing A Song Of Socialism.

2009-09-26T21:03:00.003+10:00

All classes must be flexible in their schedules. Should [special occasions] take students out of class, they are not to be molested with any form of review or make-up work later; teachers are not to stress class attendance.

Michelle Malkin has been covering an interesting situation where back in June, a primary school had a performance by students singing about Barack Obama.

This performance made it into the public eye not too long after the furore about Obama giving a talk to the schools in America, complete with a study guide and suggested activites - which were promptly amended when parents got wind of it and protested.

Some schools allowed parents to opt their students out of the speech, while others did not.

A lot of commenters on conservative blogs are also bandying about a quote of Hitler's regarding children:

When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."
Adolf Hitler
Speech November 1933, quoted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer link to quotes page

Then we have the old saying, give me the child and I'll show you the man, and all the decades and centuries of experience where we all know that kids need a solid foundation in their earliest years to ensure the best outcomes in adulthood.

Once upon a time that would lead one to expect two biological parents (preferably married) working together for the good of the child's future, but even if some studies do lean towards that, that's still not seen as important in large sections of Western society. Some even see that particular idea as discriminatory, but that's a rant for another day.

In the meantime, schools have been adding their own messages about Obama's role in the world.

Having a school-age child and knowing how impressionable they are, I'm all for keeping politics out of the classroom. I've already had chats with Magilla's teacher about some of the readers she brings home from school. It's remarkable that her readers are often so inclusive of other ethnicities, to the extent that I sometimes wonder where the white people are. I just let that pass, though, as it's not something to get into a stoush over.

I look at some of the opinions that she brings home from school. This year, white people are mean to black people, and there was also a session provided by a mob called Family Life Vicoria, who according to the information provided by the school sound rather innocuous.

A closer look at their website sets off alarm bells for me, however:

Family Life Victoria acknowledges the diversity of families and through sensitive, dynamic and comprehensive sexuality and human relations programs

*supports and empowers families as the prime educators of their children
*models and encourages effective communication
*promotes an attitude to sexuality that encompasses the whole person

I don't think "sexuality education" is appropriate before high school if (if at all), and especially not for the littlest school members. That sort of information is my responsibility as a member of our community, not the school's, nor a third party.

At least the school does provide the opportunity to opt your child out, and from what Magilla had to say, a lot of parents took advantage of that. She told me that around half her class stayed away.

When schools are scheduling activities against parents' wishes, or without parents knowledge, or are involving children in political activism, as the video below would suggest, then to me that smacks of indoctrination.

As I've responded to people who disagree with me taking Magilla to church or espousing the idea that it's better for a mummy and daddy to be married, it's my job to indoctrinate her, not the school's, nor the television's, nor the books she reads.

I'm the one who will be held responsible for how she turns out, not anyone else. Regardless of who likes to put the message across.

The quote at the top of this post is from Education for Death:The Making of the Nazi by Gregor Ziemer. (Oxford University Press, 1941, page 17).

This book is one I stumbled across while looking for the lyrics of Der Fuehrer's Face of all things. There was a link on that page to a Disney short based on this book, and Amazon.com came to the rescue.

What is most eerie about the book are the parallels to today's education in America where it seems that nothing bad is allowed to be spoken of Obama.

It doesn't matter that he's blown out the budget in ways that have never been seen in American history.

It doesn't matter that he breaks treaties with allies.

It just matters that you Sing for Obama.

Oh well, I guess that makes it all okay.

The TMI Files. Let Them Eat Cake.

2009-07-26T20:28:00.003+10:00

Magilla loves Astro Boy. No question about it - she has for years. For example, about 3 years ago at church during the kids' talk, the little tackers were asked who was their favourite person in the Bible.

She put her hand up and declared to all and sundry that Astro Boy is the best one in the Bible because he saves everyone.

Okay, now she's 7 and knows a bit more about the Bible and Astro's place in it (ie not.)

Anyway, for her birthday, I wanted to do an Astro Boy cake. Do you know how difficult it is to find any info about one? I'll throw a few links in at the end, so that you can see the dearth of cakes out there.

In the end, I just found a set of little figures and asked the Godmother to decorate at will. Since she's a whiz at cakes, especially for children, she did a fantastic job. The cake is a packet mix (White Wings chocolate on chocolate), with smarties and the Astro figures as decoration.

Damn it's a fine cake!

Or it was - there aren't even any crumbs left.

Link to other Astro cakes here.