In the ‘offending’ scene which already caused audience walk-outs mainly amongst Christians when it was premiered almost three years ago, King Idomeneo produces the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed from a bloody sack, and displays them on four chairs.
Fascinating that they don’t fear offending followers of Jesus, Poseidon or Buddha.
“We must be careful that we do not increasingly shy away out of fear of violent radicals,” Merkel told the Hannover Neue Presse. “Self-censorship out of fear is not tolerable.”
Which will be equally fascinating news for those who regularly condemn Europeans for being lily-livered appeasers.
(By the way - Idomeno is set in Crete. I’m going to Crete in a few days. Which is why posting this has, oddly, put me in a holiday mood).
The US House of Representatives passed an amended bill last night on how they should treat detainees in the US war on terror. Or, to put it another way - how much they can torture people.
John McCain proposed an amendment which weakened some of the original bill’s more outrageous elements, but it’s still a pretty revolting bill, authorising ‘interrogation methods’.
These methods include sleep depravation, exposing inmates to extreme temperatures and simulated drowning - also known as ‘waterboarding’.
All we heard we arguments why it was politically damaging to argue against the McCain compromise, or whatever. It really doesn’t get any more craven than that. I don’t care what anyone says, or how they justify varying levels of torture. Torture is torture and what the Senate did is a betrayal of our fundamental human values.
Neither am I. Aside from the pure repulsiveness of this bill, it’s suffers from being just plain dumb. This bill does nothing more than hand a spectacular propaganda victory to the United States opponents.
War on Terror: The Boardgame is just about to hit the streets in England. The aim of the game is world domination, with ‘terrorists’ fighting against ‘empire builders’.
Predicatably, people are upset - particularly those who survived terrorist attacks:
“If someone had told me that barely a year after the London bombings someone would create a board game like this, I wouldn’t have believed them. It is beyond belief,” said Jacqui Putnam who was injured during the suicide bombings, which killed 52 commuters in the British capital.
“The idea that it can be reduced to a board game … amazing. And they announce the release on the anniversary of 9/11!” she said.
The decision to release it on the anniversary of 9/11 was certainly crass and, doubtless, the game itself will be too.
But, when it really comes down to it, I can’t see much of a difference between this game and Risk. Or any PC wargame.
Mr Merabishvili [Georgia’s Interior Minister] said the detained Russians and Georgian citizens had been collecting information on Tbilisi’s relations with Nato, as well on its sea port and railway infrastructure, opposition parties and army.
“Today we neutralised a very serious and dangerous group,” he said.
Russia’s chief of army staff Yuri Baluyevsky, quoted by Russian news agencies, said the move was “sheer lawlessness”.
I must confess, the situation in Georgia is beginning to worry me. Both sides seem to be ratcheting up the tension, with no real thought of the long term consequences.
I think events to date have been little more than posturing - and I certainly can’t believe that either side wants to push the other too far. But, all the same, I’m beginning to get the feeling that, sooner or later, someone’s going to miscalculate, and spark of a conflict that neither side really wants.
Update 28/9: Georgia have upped the stakes by surrounding the Russian Army HQ in Tbilisi, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the building. They’re demanding the surrender of a Russian intelligence officer - Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Pugachin.
Afghan leader President Karzai, at a recent meeting with President Musharraf of Pakistan, handed over the telephone number, address and GPS number of a Mullah Omar. An intelligence coup?
“Intelligence, to be effective, should be immediate. Nobody, no target sits there waiting for you (for) three months. If you give telephone numbers, which are three to six months old, this becomes ridiculous. And this is exactly what happened,” Musharraf said. “He gave these numbers to me when he came with his intelligence boss on a presidential visit.
“I said, ‘Is this your sense of intelligence that you were waiting for a presidential visit to hand over this file of numbers to me? That you couldn’t pick up the telephone and tell me there is this man on this number, and we get word of it?’”
Ouch. Musharraf’s autobiography, by the way, is out on Monday. Expect more embarrasing revelations of his dealing with world leaders.
When a British Major criticised the air support he was receiving in Afghanistan - “utterly, utterly useless” - it unleashed the predictable response from analysts of condemning the treasury, and questioning whether Britain should really be in Afghanistan at all.
“The aircraft that we have are awesome, but they are too awesome, they are too fast, too high speed. The older technology, the A-10, is far better than the new technology, Antenori said.
And concludes:
[I]f the kinds of failed state/ peacemaking conflict represented by Afghanistan are indeed a future norm, the same Western militaries that are rethinking their wheeled patrol vehicles may also wish to rethink the balance and composition of their air assets. In order to provide the support required by their troops on the ground, “new” items like “Bronco” type forward air control aircraft (currently under US consideration) at the low end, purpose-built aircraft like the A-10 or lighter options like options like the Brazilian Super Tucano et. al., and even light gunship aircraft may be necessary, in order to handle forward observation and light precision attack roles properly.
The Treasury won’t like it - buying a whole new set of planes is going to cost money. But it’s something that needs to be done. We need to accept that a great deal of the missions undertaken by British troops over the next couple of decades will involve ground combat against insurgents. They are not - usually - going to require Top Gun style dogfights against highly skilled Soviet pilots.
While the Harrier and Eurofighter are able to play both air combat and ground support roles, they are expert in one, and amateur in the other. Far, far better for the British government to invest in two experts.
Catherine Sanderson, the woman behind Petite Anglaise has apparently just netted a two book deal with Penguin - worth a cool £400,000. Colin Randall, at the Telegraph Blog, has the scoop.
No one likes talking figures on these occasions, but I have reason to believe the contract is worth in the region of £400,000 and that more may end up going her way from deals with America and the rest of the world.
An eventual film also seems a strong possibility.
Not bad for the Yorkshire lass who, only a few months ago, was wondering how she would ever keep up payments on the flat she was buying, having been summarily dismissed from her job at an English accountancy firm.
Kudos to her - it’s a great blog, and she deserves every penny. But I kind of get the feeling I’m in the wrong blogging niche…
Bloomberg news agency reported that she said “Well, that’s a lie” when she heard the chancellor saying it had been a privilege to work with Tony Blair.
ITV apparently reported much the same story. Cherie has now denied saying anything but, presumably, someone somewhere has the tape…
The nation that dispensed with ideologies and frankly stated that it wanted power would…at once find itself at a great and perhaps decisive disadvantage in the struggle for power. [Hans J Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations pp98-99]
Next Pai:
Nazi Germany’s quest for lebensraum that set off World War II, the Communist bloc’s anti-imperialist cry and the West’s banner of feedom during the Cold War are in this sense similar to the contemporary Islamist agenda. Hitler’s grouch was that the German people were denied the “living space” that they were entitled to, the Islamists’ bone is that the West is denying them their rightful place in the global power structure.
I don’t think I’d disagree with the basic thesis, although little things like ideology tend to have a habit of overheating things, leading events to run out of the control of their supposed puppetmasters - the state.
The No2ID folks have just run this advert in the press. Too cowardly to actually say the ‘H’ word in the advert, they’ve drawn a barcode moustache on Tony Blair’s face.
The do grudgingly admit that Blair isn’t Hitler on their website, but not many people will see that - instead, they’ll see the full page picture of Blair in their paper with a funny barcode moustache and they’ll think - ‘oh my God - Tony Blair looks just like Hitler’.
Godwin’s law is more usually applied to blog comment threads that have grown so entrenched that people have abandoned debate in favour of insults, and have run so low on insults that the only option that remains open to them is to compare their opponent to Hitler:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
So, lets just quickly recap the state of political debate in our mighty country:
Hitler thought ID cards were great.
Tony Blair thinks ID cards are great.
Hitler killed millions of people.
Tony Blair… um, didn’t kill millions of people.
But, whatever. Tony Blair’s just like Hitler.
I tell you what, the government sure didn’t waste their money when they paid for me to read for a degree in politics.
So now we know: Richard Branson doesn’t read the Guardian. On Thursday, it published an extract from my book showing that there are no foreseeable substitutes for aviation fuel (kerosene) that don’t currently cause more harm than good. A few hours later, Branson announced that he would be investing £1.6bn in technologies intended to reduce climate change. First among them would be alternative fuels for aircraft.
He singled out biofuels as a promising opportunity. While pure biodiesel can be used to run a car engine, it cannot be used in jet planes at a higher concentration than roughly 10%. This is because its “cloud point” is much higher than kerosene’s.
As I posted in the comments to George’s article, I couldn’t discuss the science of aviation fuel with either George or Richard - at least, not without looking rather unintelligent. But I think I can safely say that, if Richard Branson is investing £1.6 billion in the research, he’s got something interesting in mind.
And what’s this about?
Now it could be that Branson’s money will help develop a new source of biofuel - algae grown in ponds in the desert for example, or waste products from crops and forestry. If so, that’s something we should welcome, while remembering that it can’t comprise more than 10% of his fleet’s fuel. The problem is that we need to cut carbon emissions by 87% by 2030 in every sector - aviation included - and there’s no conceivable way in which a change of fuel could do this, especially if the number of flights keeps growing.
Monbiot’s condemning Branson because the carbon emissions he may save from cutting aircraft emissions won’t be enough to save the entire world?
Give the guy a break. One man can only do so much…!
Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of one of Italy’s main Islamic organisations, the Islamic Religious Community […] expressed a fear that the Pope’s comments demonstrated a “Christian Catholic exclusivism” - a belief that Catholicism was superior to other religions.
In the words of Rebecca, who sent me the link - “He’s the POPE for gods sake - if he can’t think Catholicism is a superior religion, then the world has truly gone nuts”.
I remember all too well how difficult it was to work up the courage to attend university as a 24 year old mature student, but at the same time how excitied I was at the prospect of embarking on a new stage in my life. Wondering if I would fit in, make friends, pass my exams; and at the same time looking forward to the chance to study the things that fascinated me, to be the person I really wanted to be.
Today is my Dad’s first day at university. I can only imagine how it feels for him.
But one thing I know for certain is - I’m proud of you, Dad. Work hard, and have fun.
POLICE have agreed to consult a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests. Members of the panel will offer their assessment of whether information police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the consequences on community relations of a raid.
Now, perhaps I’m missing the point here, but shouldn’t the police be able to figure out whether the evidence they have warrants a raid all by themselves?
And, if the police are so uncertain of the evidence on which they choose to make their raids that they feel the need to get reassurance from the community - well, they probably shouldn’t really be considering the raid in the first place.
The Sunday Times profiles the Somerset cricket team of 1981, which brought together Ian Botham, Viv Richards, and Joel Garner into the most spectacular one day team of its time.
“We were a wonderfully varied group of players, with university graduates, salt-of-the-earth players from Somerset and some superstars,” recalls allrounder Vic Marks. “Temperamentally we were better suited to one-day cricket because we had players who could turn it on rather than grind it out day-in, day-out, which is what you have to do to win a championship.”
Each member of the team, which won five one-day trophies in as many years, is profiled. Including the mighty Dennis Breakwell, who taught me to bowl when I was nine.
CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t…I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..
WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…
CLINTON:…
WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?
CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked: Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked: Why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know…
Clinton certainly has very little to be defensive about. Prior to 2001, terrorism just wasn’t a global issue. It maybe should have been, but when virtually no ‘experts’ around the world managed to identify terrorism as a major threat, it would be unfair to condemn the previous US administration for not pouring resources into fighting it.
The full interview airs tomorrow on Fox. I’m sure it’ll be available on the internet within minutes, so we’ll see how he performed in the context of the entire interview.
Britain is to get a brand new internet tv station covering news and politics. 18 Doughty Street - which will broadcast for four hours each evening - promises to “break the mould” . Here’s the trailer:
Having just watched the trailer myself, I must admit, I found it difficult to muster much enthusiasm. Dull, but worthy, was my immediate reaction.
I would be happy to see a new non-mainstream tv news channel, though, so I am keen to see how it develops. And, yes, I’ll happily eat my words if I turn out to be yet another cynic with a blog.
Vladimir Rakhmankov, the editor of the online publication “Kursiv,” went on trial on September 21 for running an article with the headline “Putin as Russia’s phallic symbol.”
Rakhmankov faces up to a year of jail time (also known as ‘corrective labour’) or a fine.
Clearly their budget was too tight for them to afford both a map and a shoehorn:
Two Egyptian citizens have managed to violate the Russian state border by digging a tunnel under the barbed wire fence with a simple shoehorn. After getting lost on the territory of Poland the Egyptians performed the trick for the second time and got back to Russia to face arrest.
The Interfax news agency quoted the Russian Prosecutor General’s report as saying that the two men were aiming to get to Western Europe via Russia. They obtained a tourist visa and flew to Moscow from where they hitchhiked to the Polish border.
This post brought to you by the Mosnews Appreciation Society.
War on Terror: The Boardgame is just about to hit the streets in England. The aim of the game is world domination, with ‘terrorists’ fighting against ‘empire builders’.
The No2ID folks have just run this advert in the press. Too cowardly to actually say the ‘H’ word in the advert, they’ve drawn a barcode moustache on Tony Blair’s face.
