Well I know Natalie has a substantial post below, and I do recommend you read it and follow the links (and comment), but I notice that we have a little watershed moment to mark: The BBC recognises the work of Biased-BBC. It’ll be interesting for those visiting from the BBC site (a site we don’t yet link to, for reasons I’ve never quite fathomed) to find their arrival anticipated by this post, but that’s the responsiveness of the web for you. Welcome, BBC readers! Yes indeed.
Regular readers here won’t be totally surprised as we’ve had a number of visits from Paul Reynolds where he’s volunteered his thoughts in the comments sections- and I recently recognised his progressive approach in a post here. The article linked above is his, and it is essentially a mix of praise and openmindedness concerning the benefits, current and potential, of blogs like this one. He also recognises the work of some of our friends, like USS Neverdock and the American Expat.
It’s a great read and I fully recommend it as it outlines many of the highpoints of blogging over the last year or two. It illustrates the manifold strengths of blogging, and I might take this chance to point out another case, with current relevance: the October publication of the original Jyllands-Posten cartoons in an Egyptian newspaper, as revealed by this blog here. The cartoons were published in full in the Egyptian newspaper Al Fagr- and guess what, no outcry! During Ramadan too, when religious sensibilities might be enhanced. So, er, when the BBC or another media organisation try to pin the current kerfuffle and violence on the intrinsic offensiveness to Muslims of the real Jyllands-Posten cartoons (as indeed they have- in an article quietly updated from the originalto acknowledge the fakes which have done the rounds too), they need to explain that- and I don’t think they could.
Grimer -> i have no idea why they play that game. i’d bet our Danish friends take a very dim view of it.
archduke
not really. communism was our enemy for decades. i’m not about to allow him or anyone else in the ‘back door’ and brainwash our people.
He and the rest of the Communist crowd operating out of No.10 under the guise of New Labour, can quite literally go to hell.
And i have no qualms or regrets about saying that.
also of interest:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=VS5HUEC4X0YWJQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/02/10/uflood.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/10/ixportaltop.html
Prescott’s plans will sink, quite literally, if the govt has the stupidity to push ahead building on flood plains….and they will be held to account.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/24ae539e-99d9-11da-a8c3-0000779e2340.html
good to see the economy is performing well? yeah right…pull the other one..
but i still go back to this Inheritance tax. Charging the families of those murdered by the suicide bombers in london last year this tax shows a complete lack of humility by the govt.
The USA said no inheritance tax after 9/11.
Why can’t the british do the same?
“With freedom of speech comes responsibility to not deliberately offend”
Nice soundbite. Utter ballcocks, of course.
Personally, I am offended that the MCB, MAB and various other advocacy groups are publicly offended by the UK’s relatively relaxed laws on freedom of speech.
Muslim pressure groups have a “responsibility to not deliberately offend me” and by claiming that some chap Mohammed must not be depicted or ridiculed in a cartoon, they offend my own deeply-held system of beliefs.
😆 Foste jogar à bola de saia??? 😆
I own a book called Satanic Verses. It is a lousy book. I bought it because it was burned in front of Bradford City Hall and the police did nothing.
Burning books is evil in Europe – Heinrich Heine the poet whose 150th anniversary is this yearonce noted:
“Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people”
Exactly as happened in Germany.
Burning a Danish flag is to insult The Cross. Only Heathen and Pagans insult The Cross.
Why do people in our society abuse our hospitality by attacking symbols of our heritage and core values.
If Primitivism is to be tolerated it can only be in cages.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4699716.stm
The BBC once again refuse to acknowledge the three faked ‘cartoons’. It’s as if they never existed. In the BBC, that’s probably true. They don’t fit the BBC’s line, ergo they don’t exist.
Archduke
Regarding the EUReferendum post on the Washington Post’s article on text messages, etc – this makes the BBC look rather silly when they trumpeted earlier this week that they weren’t going to publish the cartoons because 95% of people in a poll told them no. It was obviously an orchestrated result (95% of the UK population against freedom of expression? Only in the mind of the BBC), but they still swallowed it.
I thought the Satanic Verses was pretty decent actually Rick.
rob. has the bbc cottoned onto this, reported on wednesday…
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html
the cartoons were published in EGYPT in October, slap bang in the middle of Ramadan.
I thought the Satanic Verses was pretty decent actually Rick.
Cockney | 10.02.06 – 11:32 am | #
How much will you offer me for my hardback copy ?
theres more here , on another egyptian blog
http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/02/egyptian-newspaper-pictures-that.html
is it signed by the author?
get a load of this:
cartoon rage was planned in December, in Meccah:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/international/middleeast/09cartoon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
our friends the “saudis”, eh?
Insulting the Cross? The cross is so debased that I see it most often encrusted with diamonds or sparkly stones hanging around the necks of females nestling between two hillocks.
It is an item of jewellry, a fashion accessory. It is also an instrument of torture. If someone can wear a cross or a star of David, why stop there? I have a black baseball cap bought in the Russian Federation with a prominent hammer and sickle,in red, do you object? the press got in a lather when Prince harry wore a swastika why? It is an ancient heraldic motif and is seen in coats of arms.
The Swastika in Heraldry – examples of use before and after WWII The Swedish electric machinery manufacturer ASEA (now known as ABB, ASEA Brown Boveri) formerly used the swastika as their corporate logotype, but (naturally) changed it.
swastika is an old symbol from the baltic region. Finnish army used it 1918-1945 in their tanks and airplanes. So it was much before Hitler took it as a symbol of his ideas.
Swedish baron von Rosen gave finnish army’s first airplane and it had his symbols of luck — blue swastika — painted to both wings. Finns liked the logo and started to use it.
The Carlsberg breweries used it as one of their logos. If you get to Copenhagen, go look at the Elephant Gate. There are swastikas on the elephants.
A swastika can be found on a British World War I memorial in an Anglican churchyard (St. Thomas) on Chatsworth Raod, Derbyshire, England.
Fylfot: The Gammadion, an ancient symbol composed of four Gammas united in cross.
The cross causes death through torture similar to the strappado used in the inquisition, arms bound behind the back and attached to a rope and pulley which pulls the victim off the ground. The cross compresses the lungs as the weight bears down which can be overcome while you have the strength.
After
3 days the crucified were then hacked down and thrown to the dogs.
From Monday’s Today program
its the Omar Bakri “execute cartoonists” interview. worth hearing , just for Jim Naughties spluttering as his beeboid mind get frizzled due to logical contradiction p.c. overload:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_cartoons_20060206.ram
proof in the pudding
Blair this week reciting the “Red Flag” song, or whatever the hell its called…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
i note the article in question has now gone amiss….wonder why?
Way way OT –
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/02/06/bitesize_gcse/
BBC bitesize Revision.
“Five clicks later I was muttering ‘bloody hell!’, and soon afterwards ‘bloody, bloody hell!’, and after that I discovered I was writing this exposé.”
Quite funny. Enjoy.
That was me btw.
No Sarge, Prince Harry wore a complete uniform supposedly of troops who fought in North Africa.
Since we have Muslims here wanting cartoons banned in Denmark let us recall that Nazi regalia and books come from Canada, USA and Britain but the swastika or Hakenkreuz is banned in Germany.
Do people think Germans should have these items banned in Britain too ? This is precisely what the Muslims demand that the British Government legislate to ban things in Denmark which have not appeared here.
http://www.stm.dk/Index/mainstart.asp?o=6&n=0&s=2
Email support to Denmark
Rob -> that bbc bitesize thing is , err. enlightening, to say the least.
“An e-mail programme sending mail to many addresses at once”
wrong – its a PROGRAM
“Deleting files from a CD-ROM”
ha ha…
and who in gods name in the IT industry refers to “ICT systems”???
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/system/0ictsystemsrev2.shtml
Mustafa link to this
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
Ann Summers opens up new offensive on muslim intolerance (and sense of humour failure).
hmmm.. Rick, i dont think this is particularly wise right now…
x marks the spot..
http://www.stm.dk/Index/kontakt.asp?o=2&n=3&t=8&s=2&str=stor
hmmm … i’m liking Denmark more each day.
we’ve got Charles Clarke.
they have Lene Espersen
http://images.bt2.metropol.dk/292/292072/292072_large.jpg
good lord!
Well Archduke…..you have to decide when to nail colours to the mast.
When Islamic Jihad threatens us with terrorism at a rally in Gaza – I think it is time to turn off their welfare cheques and tighten security – if we boycott those who trade with these backwaters then they will learn how grinding poverty can be
“you have to decide when to nail colours to the mast.”
i have to admit i’m in awe of the Danish PM and his steadfastness,
whereas we have make do with the likes of this
spineless shit.
and indeed – why we’re forking out millions to people who want to kill us, when the Saudis have more than enough cash, is beyond me.
archduke – spineless indeed.
to quote him (Straw):
“….But what we have to recognise is that in a multi-religious, multi-cultural society every religion, not just Islam, has taboos and others from different cultures offend those taboos or ought to offend those taboos with very, very great reluctance.”
How exactly should this work?
It’s easy – each religion and/or ‘belief system’ and those who believe in a ‘non-belief’ system, or anything else should submit a list of their respective ‘taboos’ to the Foreign & Commonweatlth Office who will issue monthly updates of the current list of ‘taboos’, subjects that may not be discussed, drawn, printed etc may change from time to time blah etc……
I believe mice are running the galaxy. You should not draw mice. Or I will kill you. That is my ‘taboo’.
When is a ‘taboo’ not a ‘taboo’? Who is to decide?
His position is completely incomprehensibe, untenable and shameful for a UK foreign sec.
as archduke said – spineless.
its unbelievable how selective the bbc is. no mention of Chavez on his falklands comments
this article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4695482.stm
chavez is basically trying to stir up anti british sentiment regarding the falklands, its been on the cards for a while…
and yet
we have no Navy left to defend it
as reported by south american press.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060207-110713-9733r
put the 2 together, well you work it out.
Ian Barnes – good spot.
Does anyone think for a minute that Straw would defend the Falklands?
Straw has previous ‘form’ on repatriating countries against the will of its people.
Straw refuses to recognise Gibraltar referendum
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=267&id=809392002
Does anyone know what happened to Vladimir Bukovskys ‘Stop BBC Licence Fee’ campaign as the site has disappeared. Any advice on how to avoid paying my licence. I’m enraged by the British Broadcasting Caliphate.
Any advice on how to avoid paying my licence.
Adopt a 75-year old in your home
Whereas the Muslims pretend to be miffed by cartoons – the British are governed by cartoons
Another (in)famous rendition (Am I allowerd to use that word?) of the Red Flag was in 1976 when Heseltine picked up the Mace.
Hezza was reacting to the fact that the socialists had jumped up on the benches to sing the song as celebration for winning a Division. They had won by 1 vote by breaking a pair, a disgusting abuse of Parliamentary procedure and just the sort of thing the small-minded, grubby socialists would celebrate.
The Mace being the symbol of Parliamentary freedom, Hezza said that he picked it up and offerred it to the socialists ironically.
Of course, the MSM spun it as waving the Mace about like some sort of weapon and nobody mentioned the context in which it occurred.
i might have said this earlier, but i’m trying to kick off a google bomb campaign using this hyperlink and wording:
spineless shit
if there are others reading this with blogs, and agree with me, kindly add that link to your blogroll or permanent links section.
thank you.
if you think straw is spineless, get a load of this graphic – its a sign in a Carrefour supermarket
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4640/388/1600/Carrefour.jpg
This is the sort of thing thats made Danish PM Rasmussen a bit pissed off , to say the least:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/international/europe/10denmark.html
Yet again CNN World News is head and shoulders above parochial provincial BBC News. BBC News may just as well be California News. Arnie said this Arnie said that the opposition says this opposition says that. Murder in Frisco today blah blah.
yesterday the BBC news gives 15 minutes to an apparently bitter acquitted defendant slagging off old bill. if property is location, location, location, murder is motive motive motive.
Rick,
I am aware of what Germany bans, denying the holocaust is a criminal offence, but that goes with the German character, you give them rules and they stick to them. Ever driven in Germany? If so you will know that if you are in a right turning lane, marked in the UK with bendy arrow and choose to go straight on the traffic police fine you on the spot. German lorry drivers are a species of their own, “My right of way” was invented by them. When I was in Fallingbostel, incidentally, the drive to the camp is still laid with Jewish headstones, as the German authorities refuse to pave it over, squaddies who buy new cars live in fear of their wives nosing out at junctions by one inch and having the car written off by a passing German lorry driver who considers you are over the line. As for not wearing Third Reich uniform you don’t appear to have been to a drunken SS
sing along recently of war veterans.
Marvellous voices and harmony
CNN shows Danish protesters at a rally holding up “sorry” placards. The Kuwait TV video of abducted Jill Carroll is shown with her voiceover.
Iran at Friday prayers looks united not split as in western countries.
Do people think Germans should have these items banned in Britain too ? This is precisely what the Muslims demand that the British Government legislate to ban things in Denmark which have not appeared here.
Rick | 10.02.06 – 1:40 pm | #
Good point Rick, similarly an interesting European paradox will follow on from the Iranian retaliation with the proposed Holocaust cartoon competition. In Germany Holocaust denial, is a crime. Although Article 5 of Germany’s constitution, or Basic Law, enshrines the right of freedom of speech and of the press, a notorious paragraph that follows actually constrains press freedom. According to Udo Branahl, a professor of media law at the University of Dortmund: “The penal law code says Holocaust denial is a punishable offense….That ban limits press freedom and overrides the right to free expression in the mass media.”
So this Islamist retaliation could find itself facing a charge of incitement to racial hatred, libel and defamation of the memory of the dead in Germany. Could the BBC show these cartoons on BBC World? Germany isn’t the only European country to make Holocaust denial a crime. France, Italy and Austria have similar statutes on the books. David Irving is currently in an Austrian jail awaiting trial, although clearly he was free and unhindered to hold such views in the UK. Denmark clearly doesn’t, or they wouldn’t be so keen to come to an arrangement with the Iranian paper to publish these Holocaust cartoons at the same time. So if any of the cartoons that the Iranian newspapers or, indeed, the Arab European League, publish in future do attempt to ridicule the Holocaust, they may find themselves actually breaking the law in parts of Europe.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1896821,00.html?maca=en-tagesschau_englisch-335-rdf-mp
“I’ve spoken with a lot of Americans, and they don’t understand us,” said Wolfgang Wippermann, a professor at the Freie University in Berlin who studies Nazism and right-wing extremism. “I tell them, ‘In your country, drug dealers also go to prison; these Holocaust deniers are like drug dealers, but dealing in mental poison’.”
If we accept prof. Wippermann’s analogy, then those who ridicule the Holocaust, can be similarly looked upon as drug dealers dealing with mental poison in some way. It’s doubly ironic that the Islamist protestor Omar Khayyam was an actual drug dealer!
OT – Newsnight editor comments on the Anjem Choudary episode:
This website’s on fire
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4700976.stm
Ever driven in Germany? I
Sarge nicht nur das ! Ich arbeitete und wohnte in Deutschland, bin Deutscher Abstammung und vollkommen bi-kulturell
According to Udo Branahl, a professor of media law at the University of Dortmund: “The penal law code says Holocaust denial is a punishable offense….That ban limits press freedom and overrides the right to free expression in the mass media.”
Germany also has something Great Britain does not – a Supreme Court – Verfassungsgericht – and it decides in an appellate function whether penal law conflicts with the Grundgesetz.
German Law works on the basis of a Kelsennorm and is different in structure from English Law.
O/T.
I see Jack Straw has only worked in a ‘proper’ job for two years (1972-1974) and even then he was only a barrister. 🙂
Taking the mickey out of religion is called blasphemy in the West. It’s a victim less “crime” No one gets biffed stabbed or robbed. Is it a crime to hurt peoples feelings? If I support Arsenal, you support Chelsea you run down Arsenal I biff you I get arrested. Provocation is a defence but all that has happened is that feelings have been hurt so I reacted violently. You may not agree with tree huggers you upset them but they don’t rush to accuse you of defaming the green peace tribe.
I wouldn’t bet on extracting the pee from animal lovers though, it was because of their sensibilities about foxes that Parliament passing a law about it Daft or what what a roar up.
CNN News is slick and professional. Watching BBC News is toe curling. Sixth form giggling and point scoring appear the norm.
i thought CNN stood for Contains No News?
“OT – Newsnight editor comments on the Anjem Choudary episode:
This website’s on fire
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/progr…ght/ 4700976.stm”
regarding the bbc offering broadband editions of their programs , which is mentioned at the end, everything i’ve read about this says that they are limiting it to UK only users.
Which is just asinine – the folks who would use it the most would be British ex-pats ABROAD.
guess i got to find myself a UK web proxy so.