Sim-O

Guardian…

European leaders have embarked on a mammoth effort to forestall the ruin of the single currency at what was seen as the most important Brussels summit in years, with France, Germany and the leaders of the eurozone lined up against David Cameron and his campaign to extract a price in return for agreeing to Europe’s new “fiscal compact”.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said the two-day summit was the EU’s last chance to save the euro. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the central figure pushing a new punitive euro regime, voiced confidence that a satisfactory deal would be reached. Cameron insisted he wanted a “fair deal” for Britain and warned he would not hesitate to veto Franco-German proposals unless he got something in return.

Tough-talking Cameron. Showing them foreigners who’s boss, eh?

In what was seen as a warning on behalf of Germany and France, Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and chairman of the Eurogroup, told Cameron to back off or face the prospect of being sidelined by a new treaty forged simply among the 17 eurozone countries.

Does he really think that all these countries that are directly affected gonna not implement what they think they need to because some jumped up, shiny headed, PR man from Britain thinks it’s a bad move for his tiny country?

The Eurozone, those countries that use the Euro currency, are the majority. 17 out of 27 countries. This summit is about saving the Euro, not bringing closer integration or forwarding the European project. This is not about us. It’s about them.

Cameron hasn’t got a chance, what-ever happens he’s fucked, at home or abroad and he’s just carries on like nobodies noticed.

Via D-Notice2012 (the blogger formerly known as D-Notice) I hear that the Bahrain government is going to sue the Independent for publishing stories about anti government protesters being shot by police, torture, being in the pocket of Saudi Arabia, etc. Y’know, the usual Middle East dictator/ruling royal family past-times and hobbies.

My first reaction was “good luck with that”, but then I remembered our courts aren’t the most sensible at times, especially when a foreign government (and one that is now in the Saudis’ pocket) is concerned.

D-Notice notes that UK local governments can’t sue in English courts, so foreign one shouldn’t be able to either. It looks like they’re gonna try, though.

If Bahrain does get to court it’ll be for libel, I presume and so the onus will be on the Indie to prove what it says is true rather than Bahrain to prove otherwise. This, I’m guessing shouldn’t be too hard for the Indie to do seeing as a) it isn’t just the Indie saying this stuff and b) the Bahrain government has singled out Rober Fisk as the main reporter responsible and Fisk has a reputation for being bob on with this type of thing.

But does Baharain really want to go to court, or is it, more likely just trying to scare the Indie/press?

Bahrain has much more resources than the Indie and so could drag this out and cost the Indie so much that it hashas no choice but to capitulate, after all, if this did get to court and the judgement went against Bahrain, it could open it up to charges of war crimes or crim against humanity (or whatever) and end up with arrest warrant being issued against it’s leaders for the International Criminal Court (or whatever the place is called).

Would that threat if the ICC scare the Bahraini officials? I doubt it.

My second reaction was ” WTF? hasn’t this guy read the British press?”

The “Publications director-general and acting press and external
media director-general” Nawaf Mohammed Al-Maawda has…

called upon all media to observe accuracy and objectivity and project the true image…

Hahahaha! In the British press?! Like I said, good luck with that one.

Old Holborn posed an interesting question to his MP and I wondered how my MP would answer.

So I asked her…

Dear Ms Blackwood,

You’re my Member of Parliament Let’s be honest, you’re not there to represent me or my wishes, that’s why you joined a political party.

You won the election, even though most people in the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency didn’t vote to be represented by you in Parliament so now I’d like to ask you a very simple question.

How do I withdraw my consent to be governed by you?

I’ll assume you believe that the population are governed by consent and not force, so how do I withdraw mine? You see, I don’t want anyone to represent me in Parliament. I want to be free of other people assuming responsibility on my behalf, making laws on my behalf and raising taxes on my behalf. I want to be free of all the Statutes and Acts you guys spend your days creating “on my behalf”, “with my consent”.

I’m not an anarchist or a troublemaker, I’m just asking you a simple question.
How do I withdraw my consent to be governed?

Or MUST I be governed and taxed? I know if I refuse to pay whatever taxes you decide are in my best interests, you will put me in prison, I know if I refuse to abide by whatever laws you decide are in my best interests, you will put me in prison and I’ve decided, actually, that’s not a very good deal. Not in “my best interests” you might say.

Before you decide that MY paying taxes is in the best interests of everyone else, remember that I was born a free man, not a labouring serf to whom you can dictate that half my labour must be used for the betterment of others, or else I will go to jail. That is akin to slavery or bonded labour, something made illegal in 1956 by the UN. I demand nothing of Government and in return, ask that it demands nothing of me.

Well, Ms Blackwood? Am I free or am I only free to attempt to choose my master who will inflict his laws and his taxes upon me in an election? In which case I am not free and my labour belongs to the State, regardless of which political party holds office. A bonded labourer if you prefer.

I await your response. Please don’t use the “you are free to find somewhere else to live” argument, I was born here, here I will stay, and am perfectly capable of governing myself thanks. So, how do I withdraw my consent to be governed by you or Parliament and NOT be thrown in prison by you? Am I free or am I trapped in what Conservatives used to call a “closed shop”? Am I merely your servant whilst you pretend to be mine?

I got this email from a relative. Any other day I would’ve just binned it but today, it really pissed me off.

In 1952 President Truman established one day a year as a “National Day of Prayer.”

In 1988 President Reagan designated the First Thursday in May of each year as the National Day of Prayer.

In June 2007 (then) Presidential Candidate Barack Obama declared that the USA “Was no longer a Christian nation.”

This year President Obama canceled the 21st annual National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House under the ruse Of “not wanting to offend anyone”

BUT… on September 25, 2009 from 4 AM until 7 PM, a National Day of Prayer FOR THE MUSLIM RELIGION was Held on Capitol Hill, Beside the White House. There were over 50,000 Muslims in D.C. that day.

HE PRAYS WITH THE MUSLIMS!

I guess it Doesn’t matter if “Christians” Are offended by this event – We obviously Don’t count as “anyone” Anymore.

The direction this country is headed should strike fear in the heart of every Christian, especially knowing that the Muslim religion believes that if Christians cannot be converted, they should be annihilated.

This is not a Rumor – Go to the website To confirm this info: http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com

Send this to ten people and the person who sent it to you!… to let them know that indeed, it was sent out to many more.

So I replied…

Hi [relative],

I hope you are well.

Could you please stop sending me this stuff, I’m not interested in this type of overhyped, usually racist, usually false, propaganda.

For instance, this claims that Obama cancelled the Americans National Day of Prayer. This isn’t true. The White House may not have hosted it as usual, but the observance of the Day of Prayer was not cancelled. There is a subtle, but importance, difference.

This “National Day of Prayer for the Muslim religion” (the Muslim religion more commonly known as Islam) is not connected to the White House or Obama at all. It was an independent event that was authorised by the Capitol Hill police just like any other event.

Obama is a Christian. Praying with another religion does not make him that religion. Many leaders of countries join worship with religions other than their own. So what’s wrong? Is he not Christian enough? Is he secretly a Muslim? Do you really, honestly believe that Obama wants to turn the USA into a Muslim nation ruled by strict Sharia law and all that entails? Is the leader of a country only allowed to make every members of that country feel a part of it?

The quote about Muslims annihilating Christians is ridiculous as well. Sure, there are Muslims that believe that, but then the vast, vast majority, especially amongst the Western living population of Muslims that think that is complete rubbish. The Bible has just as many calls for violence in it as the Quran.

Te US is a secular country. Everybody is free to do as they please within the law. The people that put together these emails do not want that. They have an agenda. They do not want equality before the law. They wish to discriminate because of religion and/or race.

I don’t mean to offend, and I am not defending Muslims or Obama, just a little sick of the hyperbole that certain groups push over an isolated incident, especially when two minutes can show that the incident has been twisted and exagerated.

Regards

As Libya is about to fall, with *air strikes* against the people, all David Cameron can think about is his mates in the boardroom…

Mr Cameron flew on to Kuwait, where he will deliver a speech making a “liberal conservative” call for widespread political reform in the region.

Since democracy often goes hand-in-hand with open markets, more freedom in the Middle East could deliver commercial opportunities for Britain, the Prime Minister will argue on Tuesday.

All this death of Libyan citizens at the hands trying to overthrow their dictator of forty years is still not quite physically sickening to Cameron, it’s just “quite appalling”. Still much less of a crime than giving prisoners the vote, which did make him feel all weird. Physically.

So now we have another notch in the David Cameron Scale of Horrible Things. Killing civilians with aeroplanes is not quite as bad a criminals voting for other, bigger criminals.

From 21st Century Fix…

This, via Dave Winer, came my way this evening:

US subpoenas Twitter, seeking information on WikiLeaks’ 635,561 followers. http://r2.ly/6ixh

The article he links to can be found here:

A Dutch investigative journalist blasted the US Department of Justice for requesting information on everyone following WikiLeaks’ Twitter account and everyone they follow.

So this doesn’t only mean that I now potentially form part of a US government criminal investigation. It also means – if I’ve understood the slightly ambiguous phrase correctly – that if by any chance I decided to follow you on Twitter, you, as the recipient of the attentions of someone who also follows WikiLeaks, may just as easily find yourself the object of the attentions of some random US National Security official who – at some time in the future – will end up sticking his or her legalistic nose in your electronic communications, bank details, personal associations and cloud data.

But not because you yourself followed WikiLeaks. Simply because someone else who followed you also followed WikiLeaks.

Talking of fucking stupid ideas, here’s another, also based on the colour of someones skin, from Mugabe this time…

Mugabe told Reuters the government would proceed with a plan for local blacks to acquire 51 percent shares in foreign-owned firms, including mines and banks, despite criticism it will hurt investment flows into the country.

It has always been our aim to have control of our resources … and I don’t think the private sectors of the Western countries would, in total, decide to stay away

Don’t you just love the word ‘aquire’. It could mean oh so many different things.

If that 51% share of froeign owned companies is to be bought by individuals, then not many, I imagine, zimbabwean blacks are going to be able to afford to buy into it (if ‘aquire’ does indeed mean ‘buy’ and not ‘steal’), which leaves just the elite that already have money, keeping the redistrubution of wealth from local resources in the already wealthy.

The term ‘local blacks’ does not mean owned by the state, which income from those investments could be put back into the infrastructure of the country for all, for say, transport, education and health. Although the white Zimbabweans would also benefit, much much more of the impoverished black population would benefit rather than a few of the not so needy.

Denying an opportunity for a section of the popluation on the basis of skin colour, well that’s just good old fashioned racism isn’t it.

Mugabes statement tells me that he is just after an easy buck for him and his mates.

Cunt.

For fucks sake…

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.
[...]
The military court cleared the soldier of illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and perverting the course of justice by asking soldiers under his command to alter their accounts of the incident.

Capt R’s lawyers argued that the “confirmation of the kill” after a suspect is shot was a standard Israeli military practice to eliminate terrorist threats.

The officer always followed standard practice, you see…

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.

In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post’s operations room and describes Iman as “a little girl” who was “scared to death”. After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot.

Is that also standard practice? Shooting into a suspected bomb to see whether it actually is a bomb or not?

Although the military speculated that Iman might have been trying to “lure” the soldiers out of their base so they could be attacked by accomplices, Capt R made the decision to lead some of his troops into the open. Shortly afterwards he can be heard on the recording saying that he has shot the girl and, believing her dead, then “confirmed the kill”.

Even though the girl could be a lure, the captain still move some of his men into the open. Is that standard practice, too?

Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child’s body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. “She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs,” he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. “The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face.”

He fired shots near, not at the girl? And she was shot 17 times? This man should be prosecuted for incompetence as well as murder.

Lost for words, I really am.

Via MsMaryViola

I just heard Jeremy Bowen on Radio 4 talking about the Palestinian/Isreali peace talks…

There is a religious war developing in what has been essentially a nationalist conflict. You can make a deal with nationalists, it’s much harder to deal with people that believe they’re doing gods will.

Oh? As opposed to people that believe god gave them some land?

Come on Jeremy, the Palestinians have been fighting against a religious justification for the occupation of their land for generations.

(Posted using my phone so, please, excuse the spelling)

An immigrant has become the Prime Minister of a country of immigrants.

If an Aboriginal person became Prime Minister, now that would be news.