Quote of the (last) month

With apologies to Julia who runs her own consistently good feature…

I want to make it clear that I am not calling liberals fascists. There’s a big difference. A fascist would invade Poland. A liberal would just whine about Poland being homophobic and try to get it fired.

Left is the new Right

Somebody’ been crumbling in the big bits over at Leftworld this last week. They’re beginning to sound like, well…us.

Via Julia, I’m obliged to point out that the one thing that’ll send me rushing off to the shower every time to swarfega myself after a good strong scouring with bleach and wire wool is the thought of being surrounded by the same planetary atmosphere containing this person’s breath:

Instead of which, Ann Sumner – who is 42 years old – says, “I’m really disappointed, everyone has been talking to me about the sentence… if anything people have been telling me they think the sentence was too short… As far as I’m concerned she has admitted the crime now she should be doing the time.”

Fuck her. I hope she dies, preferably in a great deal of pain.

And then there’s the “Gays shouldn’t mix with Christians” spiel:

“Elton’s actually a pretty good gay and he’s done a lot for the causes, but this is kind of gross,” said Musto toward the end of the interview. “I was waiting for the transformation where he was going to sprinkle fairy dust on Rush and he would either come out of the closet or be gay positive. That hasn’t happened, so Elton’s just a whore,” he said.

Don’cha just love that You belong to your designated identity group, body and soul, in perpetuity message?
Why did the West Africa Squadron and Union Army bother to do their anti-slavery thing, I wonder?

  

Just when you can imagine a Leftist’s brain reaching for the ejector seat toggle because it can no longer stand being inside the same head as the mind that thought that one up, it seems to slump down in utter despair at the next little gem.

Here’s that immortal Immigrants go home to where your ancestors were murdered in their millions schtick.

Veteran White House Correspondent Helen Thomas has provoked a storm in the US after saying the Jews must "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany or Poland.

And finally, there’s the singing giraffe story from the good old Beeb.

Actually from Biased BBC Sue and Biodegradable, and ultimately contextualized by Oyvaygoy, it’s that old global revenge killing plea beloved of all liberal humanitarians everywhere:

Lauren Booth put in quite a performance at an Israel-bashing demo in London at the weekend. She described Mark Regev as “an Israeli killer Zionist” and said that if she hears his voice again she’s “going to vomit”. Thanks for sharing, Lauren.

She shrieked: “You wanna know something? I don’t care about Israel’s security.” At least she’s honest. She also declared: “The world should take up arms against Israel, right now, in revenge for this attack.” Then came a swift attempt at a backtrack. “By arms… by arms, let’s get it straight… we will march…our arms…are marching.” Whatever.

I've watched wildlife documentaries where things that swarm in the delicate ecosystems at the bottom of tropical caves were less creepy.

But, thank God, it’s still the Right that swims in racism and hate.

Glad to see good old solid pinko moral reality’s back, aren’t you?

Reality…and the Platypus Lords of Rheged, of course.

Cognitive dissonance 101

When I first read this article, having Googled for the text of President Obama’s Berlin Wall speech, I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t a wicked (and wickedly funny), all-time best Right wing spoof of some Left Liberal’s obsequious paean to The One. For me this was like a dream come true: except, obviously, without all the lesbians..

It turned out not to be so. Someone’s actually getting paid by the shareholders of The Boston Globe to write this reality-free garbage.

But I have promised not to fisk at least once a week, (which I’ll fulfil today), and I’m sworn to saying something positive about a Right wing point of view each week (which in this case means it’s enough to say that no-one on the Right wrote unqualified tosh like this about Ronald Reagan during the first year of his presidency or for much later as far as I know,) and… besides, some of you have been very creative and responsive lately.

So let’s not fisk it at all.

Let’s instead accentuate the positive, shall we, and show up something that isn’t a non-sequitur; or isn’t flatly gainsaid by some other part of the piece; or an outright lie or - better yet - that doesn’t match this particular gem’s combination of mendacity, hypocrisy, more mendacity or the dramatic irony of what a crock each part of it is compared with the rest of the article or to the little circle of firelight that we call reality…

“At critical points in the 2008 campaign, Obama boldly defied conventional wisdom about fund-raising, organizing, message strategy, and crisis management.”

The candidate who had “The Audacity to Win’’ - as chronicled in the new book by his campaign manager David Plouffe - is a president with the audacity to wage war with a pre-announced date for winding it down.

His predecessor, George W. Bush, never lived down the “Mission accomplished’’ banner that hung across the aircraft carrier he landed on in May 2003. At the time of Bush’s now infamous photo-op, the conventional phase of war was over in Iraq. But the insurgency that developed afterward took thousands of American lives. The banner and the president in a flight suit declaring an end to major combat operations turned into a morbid national joke.

Last week, Obama used a West Point setting to essentially declare his mission accomplished before it even begins. He is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, with a vow to start pulling them out in 2011.

Now, that’s true audacity, and totally in keeping with candidate Obama’s willingness to continually roll the dice.

Plouffe’s book chronicles many examples of dice-rolling, from minor to grandiose.

When Obama decided to run for president, he gambled that the country was somehow ready to elect “an African-American man, born to a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, just four years out of the Illinois state senator,’’ as Plouffe writes. To get to the point of convincing voters that he was the right man for the times, Obama first had to gamble that he could derail Hillary Rodham Clinton, the all-but inevitable Democratic nominee.

At critical points in the 2008 campaign, Obama boldly defied conventional wisdom about fund-raising, organizing, message strategy, and crisis management.

He tackled the race issue head-on with a ground-breaking speech. He took an overseas trip that could have backfired in any number of ways; Plouffe calls the speech that candidate Obama delivered in Berlin “truly audacious.’’

“One of the fundamental truths of the campaign’s story, one that will always stick with those of us who went through it, is that we threw long,’’ writes Plouffe. “We refused to be defined by past electoral and American history, by what we were told we couldn’t do. We tried to see things simply as they existed. We refused to accept the story that many thought would be written for us and instead wrote our own chapter of history.’’

The gambles paid off. Obama won.

Now, after what we are told was long, thoughtful, gut-checking analysis, he is embarking on another kind of gamble. He is marching more American troops into Afghanistan and betting that he can order them to start coming home in time for his reelection campaign.

If Obama has any second thoughts in the months ahead, he can turn to Karl Rove’s laudatory opinion piece, published in the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Obama can win in Afghanistan.’’

Now, Rove represents an administration that really knew how to start and end a war, doesn’t he?

Obama’s problem is that starting war, or escalating it, is relatively easy. Ending war is hard.

Andrew Bacevich, a retired US Army colonel, Vietnam War veteran, and Boston University professor of history, said on the radio show “Democracy Now’’: “He seems to assume that war is a predictable and controllable instrument that can be directed with precision by people sitting in offices back in Washington, D.C. I think the history of Vietnam and the history of war more broadly teaches us something different. And that is, when statesmen choose war, they really are simply rolling the dice.’’

There it is again, the phrase that allowed a first-term senator from Illinois to shock the political establishment and win the war.

Rolling the dice.

If he loses this gamble, Obama could lose the presidency. Then again, Bush was reelected even after the “Mission accomplished’’ debacle.

But with this gamble, there is much more at stake than reelection: the country’s trust and the lives of its precious sons and daughters.

So its good, truthful, consistent, or hopeful points about the Obama Presidency are…?

Raw courage: the very stuff of liberalism

Stars attack BBC over Gaza appeal

THE BBC's best-loved stars from across north London have criticised the corporation's decision not to show an aid appeal from Gaza, but have urged against a planned boycott of the public service network.

Monty Python star Michael Palin, former newsreader Martin Bell, veteran comedian Warren Mitchell and BBC presenters Joan Bakewell and Esther Rantzen have all questioned the actions of the network.

I bet the question wasn’t; “Why, on this one occasion, are you not falling over yourselves to treat the ‘Palestinian’ people of Gaza as hapless victims of unthinking Israeli violence?”

This week the BBC and Sky refused to show the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group of 13 aid agencies who have been organising televised pleas for 46 years without interruption.

The local stars, also including writer Deborah Moggach, whose Anne Frank series…which proves that she and presumably publicity around the appeal and its recipients can’t be anti-Semitic...has just been shown on the BBC, and Only Fools And Horses actor Roger Lloyd-Pack, have slammed the decision but have fallen short of those, such as Oscar-nominee Samantha Morton, who said she would boycott future projects unless the BBC had a rethink.

Well done, that’s precisely one of you prepared to leave acting your career at the mercy of liberal Hollywood, ITV, Channel Four, and numerous other program commissioning organisations, and I expect there’s a whole department at the BBC devoted to excluding artists who make overtly Left-wing and pro-Palestinian comments from ever working at the Beeb again as long as they live, right? …

Ms Rantzen said: "I don't think death is discriminatory…especially when brought by missiles lofted randomly at Israeli towns and villages by Hamas. I’m certainly not going to mention at any point the great care that the Israeli forces take to avoid hurting non-combatants, nor the deliberate siting of Hamas terrorists and their resources where any counter-measures are certain to cause civilian casualties…and I would be delighted to give donations to the appeal provided the charities can ensure that the money goes to save lives.

Good for you. Obviously those of us who pay taxes to Her Majesty’s Government to pass on to the European Union and the United Nations to hand over to Hamas in a variety of ways might think something different.

"But I think it would be completely inappropriate to boycott the BBC.What with it being a major employer of ageing TV celebrities and all…I think that would be very self-important and none of us can know the full arguments put both to the BBC and Sky when they came to these decisions."And none of us are is getting any younger and who knows when That’s Life might be revived?

Hampstead Garden Suburb's Martin Bell agreed: "The BBC has made the totally wrong decision but I don't believe in a boycott - we need the BBC."

Pronounced in Standard Received English as ‘- I may still need the BBC’

Primrose Hill resident Joan Bakewell said she wasn't sure about sit-ins, boycotts or tearing up licence fees…or contracts, pay cheques, future royalties.. but did think the decision was wrong. So I hope I’ll be able to dine around Hampstead and Islington without the cut direct from my fellow bien-pensants."

The two-minute appeal was aired on all terrestrial channels on Monday night just before 6.30pm. A backlash then came from stars, who threatened to rule out appearing in BBC productions or paying licence fees.

‘Stars,’ plural…?

Despite the BBC and Sky's failure to show the film, the appeal has raised a record £1million. As Michael Palin pointed out: "The BBC's decision seems confused to say the least but,…I really like being a successful BBC travel writer. Lovely holidays I get to go on…as a result, this has been one of the most widely publicised appeals in recent years and anyone who chooses to contribute can do so without any difficulty.I would be more worried if I felt the BBC's coverage of the war was inadequate, but I think the BBC did a commendable job of trying to get stories out of Gaza…without asking any awkward questions or for corroboration from non-Hamas sources… despite the Israeli ban on the international press...which may have been related to the court-suppressed report of the BBC’s overwhelming bias against Israel over everything but especially about the Lebanon war."

Other stars said the corporation should go back on its decision and air the piece. Long-time Gaza supporter Mr Lloyd-Pack said: "The decision is a bad mistake. I have written to them and asked that they rescind on that decision.By not showing this appeal they are exercising support the other way. This is not about politics……though any BBC series showing the medical and psychological results of eight years of rocket attacks on Israel’s civilian areas would have been political..- the wrong kind of… people are dying."

South End Green resident Ms Moggach said: "I can't imagine why the BBC isn't showing it. They have shown these appeals for other war situations and what has happened in Gaza is terrible beyond belief."

Highgate's Warren Mitchell told the Ham&High the boycotters can at least be thanked for raising awareness: "I think the BBC should show it. This is a humanitarian thing and being Jewish I have a worrisome interest in the whole matter.

But not to the point of risking putting one particular Jew at odds with one of his most generous of employers.

"I'm sure the BBC won't care if some out-of-work actors…(poor souls, whoever they might be, but they won’t be me)…

… fail to pay their licence fee, but it does get a bit of publicity - even the Ham&High is writing about it."

So far, more than 20,000 people have complained to the BBC about its decision.

Out of 60,000,000.

From Ham and High here.

Many thanks to eagle-eyed DB in the Why Our Politics Is Rubbish post at House of Dumb.

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Joke of the Decade

From Wikipedia.

" The Howard League is a membership organisation and draws its members from all parts of society - from MPs, QCs, peers and academics, to students, prisoners and legal professionals."

"... all parts of society..."

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Raw Dead Plant Diet Week.
Day Five.

On a lighter note, my regular readers this week will both be pleased to learn that my diet is now approaching its triumphant conclusion. As the last remnants of the toxins typical of industrial-age food leave my body after five days of eating only raw fruit, vegetables and salad and eschewing all grains, starches and potatoes my mind has become clearer still.

It’s now plain that my belief - acquired yesterday after a mere 96 hours on 800 kCal per day - still left some room for error. In fact my annoying colleague proved not to be a Roswell Grey hiding underneath a terrestrial skin after all but was in fact a platter loaded down with scorched tuna steaks sautéed potatoes and salsa, followed by a generous serving of chocolate truffle torte and cream. I checked with Sir Rupert, King of the Pixies and the Vegetarian Society’s head of bacon, and they assured me that tuna steaks, Roswell Greys and colleagues at the Department of Hurt and Awful Nuisances are all root vegetables.

I must say that the empty desk opposite me looks rather sad and lonely with its hastily emptied and hastier-refilled drawers and all that fingerprint dust but I’m happy in the knowledge that I can recommend to you both four solid days subsisting on roots, nuts, and berries or, as it is more properly called ‘The State Retirement Pension, 2020 style, Gordon Brown Special Commemorative Edition.’

Old Sir Rupe also points out that my line manger, a lifelong Labour Party and Liverpool FC supporter is, in fact, a tuber corm or rhizome.

Goes nicely with Chianti, apparently.

Bon appétit.

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Celebs to Jews: Die kikes, die.

Thousands of protesters have voiced their anger at the bombing of Gaza in a series of rallies across the UK.

Anger which was wholly absent when rockets rained down on Israel over the past six years. On holiday were you?

The protesters - including the singer Annie Lennox and Respect MP George Galloway - marched along the Embankment in London to Trafalgar Square to call for an immediate end to the Israeli attacks.

Which, godlike, have come out of the blue, and which have no antecedents or history.

The demonstration in the capital was the biggest of at least 18 organised across the country.

Other rallies were taking place at Blytheswood Square, Glasgow; Bedford Square, Exeter; Princes Street, Edinburgh; Bristol city centre; Bold Street, Liverpool; Norwich Forum; Portsmouth's Guildhall Square; Queen Victoria Square, Hull; Tunbridge Wells town centre; Leeds Art Gallery; All Saints Park, Manchester; Grey's Monument, Newcastle; Castle Square, Swansea; St Sampson's Square, York; Morrisons, Caernarfon; Bradford city centre; and Sheffield town hall.

Wow. Must be right then. Eighteen.

The ‘thousands’ don’t seem to be that many and even the BBC mentioned the Countryside Alliance had a few more. Guess we’d better reinstate hunting to hounds and get out of the European Union, then, if the peepul have marched, right?

Former model Bianca Jagger and singer Lennox have backed the protests, calling on American president-elect Barack Obama to speak up against the bombardment.

Because if the Israelis stop, what do you think Hamas are going to do? Carry on rocketing as they did through almost all of the previous ‘ceasefires’, perhaps?

Speaking at a press conference in central London, Ms Jagger said: "I would like to make an appeal to president-elect Obama to speak up.

"People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."

You might consider asking Hamas to stop putting their war materiel in tightly-populated areas, and storing weapons in hospitals and mosques, but then maybe some Islamists might be mean to you, and it doesn’t do to annoy the head-hackers and daughter-baggers, does it Bianca?

Lennox spoke of her shock at watching scenes of the bombing on television.

Of course, we can hardly blame her for not being aware of the rocketing of Israel and the recent legalisation of crucifixion by Hamas and the persecution of Christians, can we, as the mainstream media rarely if ever mention such things, right? Not when the BBC are allowing Hamas propaganda from a front-man in an Islamist organisation which supports Hamas as if he were from the neutral Red Cross.

And it’s just too much work hard for a busy has-been-borderline-hanger-on-ex-celebrity to use fast and varied reference source to look up the context.

Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and comedian Alexei Sayle also added their support on Friday to the campaign to end the violence.

Would this be the Ken Livingstone who’s lionized and or/praised the IRA, Argentinian Junta and all kinds of Islamists throughout his varied career or the far Left? That Ken Livingstone?

Comedian Sayle said he was speaking out because it was important for Jewish voices to be heard.

Yes Alexei. You’re as Jewish as you’re Russian as I’m Welsh.

Also present at the press conference were the writer Tariq Ali, Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Mr Galloway.

Remember their names when Iran nukes Israel, or the Islamic Front (or whatever they’re going to call it) pushes the last Kibbutzim into the sea.

Why not just stick to the simple mass-flow bodily functions which are probably your only skills, and leave the moral deliberations to those who are capable of discerning the difference between attack and defence?

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