USA under martial law?!

This is just a quick post. It will get updated as soon as I do find more leisure to (hopefully) write a proper one. Meanwhile: Enjoy ... if you can.




H/t Little Nicky who on Bock's site offered this link. Thanks for that.

Iran: Mullahs banned from mosques*

Tehran - Iranian clerics have been banned from appearing in prayer rooms and mosques because they are said to promote a culture of fear and intolerance, according to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

The measure was announced on Monday and reported by Iran's official news agency Irna.

Ali Reza Karimi, director of the ministry's press and disinformation department, said the ban included the use of Iranian clerics with overseas Farsi language satellite networks.

He urged to respect the ruling to safeguard what he calls national dignity.

Ah, sorry, this is the news of another day.

But now:

Tehran, 7 July (AKI) - Iranian artists and athletes have been banned from appearing in commercials because they are said to promote a culture of consumerism, according to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Continued here.

* Sorry. Just noticed that the check-correct-title- surveillance failed. The responsible person was immediately sentenced to ten seconds of severest swear-boarding.

Good for bilateral relations

Berlin police have found a body that is probably* that of a missing Russian artist who had been condemned by the Orthodox Church for an exhibit in her homeland. The death was an apparent suicide, police said Friday.

Anna Mikhalchuk, [unfortunately not English entry, yet - sj] who moved to Berlin in November, has been missing for three weeks. She created a stir in Russia with an 2003 exhibition that the church considered blasphemous, and was tried and acquitted by a Moscow court on charges of inciting religious hatred.
To be continued here.

Apparently!! I see.

In German - although most Germans would not know :) - there is a big difference between scheinbar (only looks like being true/a fact) and anscheinend (it looks very much like; thus seems quite probable).

This allows the conclusion: Apparently Anna Politkovskaja committed suicide by shooting herself into her back.

Thanks for having me.

* Meanwhile according to Spiegel online (German edition), Anna Mikhalchuk has been identified by her husband, the Russian philosopher and author, Mikhail Ryklin.

If the Games fail ...

"International companies are ignoring basic human rights in return for business opportunity, while the Communist party is offering profits in return for continued control of the internet and the ability to intimidate dissidents."

"The collusion of these two kinds of ugliness means that there is no way for western investment to promote freedom of speech in China, and that in fact it greatly increases the ability of the Communist party to blockade and control the internet.”

“You are helping the Communist party maintain an evil system of control over freedom of information and speech."

Three core statements from an open letter to yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang quoted by the Financial Times - almost 30 months ago, October 18th, 2005.
Its writer: Liu Xiaobo, Chinese intellectual human rights activist who accuses Yahoo of betraying its customers and supporting dictatorship by providing information on journalist Shi Tao to Chinese authorities.
Full article here.

Of course, Mr. Liu who had the pleasure of several years being spoilt by 'his' leaders' unlimited love - in prison - would be delighted by the increasement of voices demanding a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing, wouldn't he?

Hm, and that's what he said according to a yesterday published Spiegel-interview:

"That wouldn't be a good way to punish China. If the Games fail, human rights will suffer. The government would stop paying any attention to the rest of the world. I personally think: We want the Games and we want human rights to be respected."

And what do you think?

Prisoners in Freedom City

'For five articles they sentence him to 3,5 years in prison. Our daughter will be four years before she will see her father again.' Two sentences spoken by Zeng Jinyan that I do remember from the interview she gave two days ago, after her husband, Hu Jia, had been sentenced.

At the end of the interview Zeng Jinyan is waving back towards the camera.

She has entered that part of Beijing where the Hu's have a flat: Freedom City.

Lovely name, isn't it? Almost as lovely as The Place of Heavenly Peace.

But who am I but a 'misinformed malicious Western blogger'?

Let's watch some videos, documenting how intensively Mr. Hu the leader of the leaders and thus General Secretary of the CPC Central Comitee lets care his best men for the safety and freedom of an unemployed father aged 34 and his family, never giving up the hope these black sheep may find back on the left path.

Here we go:

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 1 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 2 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 3 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 4 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 5 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 6 / 7)

Prisoners in Freedom City (part 7 / 7)


In this sense: The peace of the night.

The Bastards of Beijing *

Quoting from China Daily - March 17th, 2008:

Chinese citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech by the nation's Constitution, Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, said on Saturday.

"Citizens have the rights to express their ideas under the legal system, which includes suggestions to and criticisms of the government. These rights are protected by law and by the Constitution," Zhang said.

It is acceptable for people to criticize preparations for the Olympic Games or express their complaints, he added.

Zhang made the remarks in response to questions raised by foreign media at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing legislative session.

Marvellous, isn't it?

Well, the next sentence starts with a 'But'.

Back? Did you also see the portraits of nine leaders? Fine. Just keep these in your mind. Especially the one of the leader of the leaders, the General Secretary of the CPC Central Comitee, Mr. Hu Jintao.

End of the beforegoing.

Mr. Hu has been sentenced to 3,5 years in jail!

Ah, no. Not the General Secretary of the CPC Central Comitee.

Mr. Hu Jia.

Why would Mr. Hu Jia be sentenced, although he is not the General Secretary of the CPC Central Comitee?

Well, as one could - for certain reasons - not rely on Western newspapers, I do again tend to rather trust on the phare of journalism, the China Daily.

Back? Let's recapitulate then:

'Hu spread malicious rumors, and committed libel in an attempt to subvert the state's political power and socialist system.'

How did Hu, 'libel the Chinese political and social systems, and instigate subversion of the state, which is a crime under Chinese law'?
By 'two website articles' ... 'published [...] on overseas-run websites'.

In other words: 'An unemployed father aged 34 and the holder of a college degree' by 'spreading malicious rumor' tried to find oversea-allies to knuckle down his fellow countrymen - roughly one billion Chinese.

And here comes the moment to remember the portraits of nine leaders. Especially the one of the leader of the leaders, the General Secretary of the CPC Central Comitee, Mr. Hu Jintao.

Obviously these gentlemen do not only suffer from mental inferiority, but also are heroic cowards who fear 'an unemployed father aged 34 and the holder of a college degree'.



* How could this happen? I had just started to write a review of 'The Bastard of Istanbul' by Elif Safak. While writing the title suddenly the Olympic Games in Berlin ... err Beijing came to my mind, and thus the little faux pax seems to have happened.
Of course, I do distance myself from the title. Never would I call mighty criminal and corrupt cowards who suffer from mental inferiority bastards.


Postscriptum:

Ah yes, as the phares of China's daily journalism did not mention (surely due to a lack of space), I do allow myself to add:

Mr Hu Jia has a wife, Zeng Jinyan (24), and a two months old daughter.

But that's completely a different post.

Le petit verbicide struck again

Julian Le Grand has struck again. This time the 'leading Government adviser', i.e. without being elected being paid by the United (?) Kingdom's taxpayers calls for alcohol ban in supermarkets.

Surely le petit verbicide will call his latest effusions again "libertarian paternalism".

And what would I do? Sentencing the 'nasty little control freak' to severest swearboarding in the devil's kitchen?

No. Variatio delectat. Longrider, take over.

Milliband's spreading democracy militarily

The United Kingdom's foreign secretary, David Miliband, will today set out the clearest exposition yet of Labour's recast foreign policy when he will argue that mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan must not cloud the moral imperative to intervene - sometimes militarily - to help spread democracy throughout the world.

He will warn that the rise of China means that the world can no longer take "the forward march of democracy for granted", and that Britain must unambiguously be on the side of what he describes as "civilian surges" for democracy. Continued here.

Interesting that the Milliband would mention China, but not Zimbabwe, isn't it?

Well, having received my Valentine's Day present by reading the world's most intelligent and peace-loving leader saying '"Prosperity and peace are in the balance", I shall neither write this man suffers from stupidity and megalomania nor comment his words, but leave this to Archbishop Cranmer, in whose piece you will find following nice anecdote, which I shall soon - in a other context - find the opportunity to recall:

'When Sir Charles James Napier [in the India of the early 19th century] was confronted with Hindu demands for a lifting of the ban on suttee. And the general famously replied: ‘You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.’

And now's your turn, His Grace.

Hurray! They're not capitulating

Within hours after a plot to murder Kurt Westergaard was foiled, yesterday Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten republished the cartoonist's drawing of Mohammed which is depicting the Muslim prophet with a bomb under his turban.

And again I do regret that - not listening to Tetrapilotomos' advice - I did not found factories in which I could let produce flags on demand in all those countries in which pious philanthropists would encourage their (sic) people to give evidence of how peace-loving and tolerant their religion is.

Instead of presenting pictures showing burning flags and / or well educated humanitarians holding posters with slogans such as Death to / Kill /Massacre / Slaughter those who insult Islam" and or "Europe you will pay, your 9/11 will come", I do allow myself to recommend reading following essay by Henryk M. Broder which is an excerpt from his book Hurra! We're capitulating.

Ah, well, and due to a recent occurrance here another piece by the same author: Shariah Is for Everyone!

Tripling the tribute

Neither I'd forget José Carrasco.

Seems it's a night I do remember some special people, representative for lots of courageous journalists.

Take it as a tribute to all those who had, have and will have the courage to speak out against injustice and totalitarism of any kind.
I am not sure, if I had been or would be such courageous.

The Peace of the Night.

... and by the way ...

... 104 days before Hrant Dink got murdered, on October 7th, 2006 and thus - again: by the way - coinciding with the anniversary of Vladimir Putin's birthday, Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated.

Since, they say, the inquiries are running at full speed.

And what next?

As you might be able to imagine I had a very pleasant time between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Example: While I'd be busy with one of my gifts – a mortar – Tetrapilotomos would read to me out of his present: “Nietzsche für Boshafte”; in English the title might read “Nietzsche for malicious (readers)”.

Well, today, I was just extremely busy with preparing a Rucola pesto, out of the blue I heard my closest friend saying, his voice maliciously purring:

”By the way, Sean, may I congratulate you and your comrades-without-arms on your exorbitant blogospheric triumph in 2007, and may I ask what country's people you are going to freeing this year?”

And when I turned round, my brows forming a question mark:

“Last year you freed Burma, didn’t you?”

My right hand clasping the vessel I was just about saying something like ”And this is a mortar, and you are a mortal”, but in this moment Tetrapilotomos smiled:

”No offence, Sean! Just a tiny piece of sarcasm. Read this."

The rest was silence.

Swearboarding for Saudi Machos

Yesterday, by scroogling Lord Ahmed and Fethullah Gülen in order to find articles in which both gentlemen would be mentioned I did again stumble over something completely different: this one month old article.

And again I felt the almost untamable wish to at least let the judges and everybody (!) responsible for enabling such "legal practice" know the myriads of curses, maledictions and swear-words my closest friend and I have been collecting, so far.

Yes, deeply I did regret that once I promised myself to keep contenance when blogging.

End of the beforegoing.

Today, what a surprise, one could read this.

Relief for the woman, yes.
But did the news calm my furor? Not at all.

And so, in a few minutes, after having fallen into the feathers and having put the head on my pillow I shall hopefully get presented the same dream I enjoyed the night before.

The King of Saudi Arabia, his complete entourage including judges and clergy being sent from the desert into the devils' kitchen where they are getting preferential treatment: Heaviest swearboarding which would not end before these ... hm ... these gentlemen would promise with immediate effect to veil their faces up til infinity and walk four steps behind their wives when lugging the shopping bags.

The Peace of the Night.

There is still hope

Ladies, gentlemen,
friends,
readers and leaders beyond authority,

what a marvellous week we had, Tetrapilotomos and I,
he brightened the earth, I polished the "Why" [sic: not the "sky"]

In other words: I did some research.

And the few hours Tetrapilotomos and I shared we spent watching an old spider
weaving its net and then waiting for its prey.

End of the beforegoing.

Such tiny questions, and what reactions. :)

Common-purpose-net,
gateway-303.energis.gsi.gov.uk,
gateway-202.energis.gsi.gov.uk;
to cut it short: Quite a few leaders beyond authority vistited my blog since October 29th.

As I know, my frequent readers and my friends will let dispense lenity;
therefore, some lines exclusively for leaders beyond authority:

It's not easy to make a living. You may have a family. Therefore I am happy you have found a job that fits your abilities. Last not least, undoubtedly you are just fulfilling your order
[which, by the way, most war-criminals would say when being accused of atrocities].

Indeed, my heart rose like a falcon up to the sky when noticing that one member of your team of leaders beyond authority would even check the label "Omnium". A real connoisseur. Chapeau!

I hope you enjoyed widening your horizon at the expense of British tax-payers, although I am sure with a little more organising ability at least one of you could have checked the books and within minutes sent me the answers, at least the one for question b.

Ah well, nobody is perfect.

Now you read my advice which is, of course, free of charge - as I wish to disburden your tax-payers - I am waiting with burning patience, though.

Yours sincerely . . .


And now - not to leave you lost - some facts for you, dear regular readers:

a) The leader beyond authority visiting via Common-purpose-net just stayed 1 min 56 secs.

b) afterwards I got visitors via the mentioned GSIs and some other enthusiasts; one (?) would even stay for more than nine hours [although I hope there was a shift changeover; it's not good for one's eyes to be online such long].

Why?

Now wouldn't I hide my light under a bushel, but this was amazing.
Such innocent tiny questions - which by the way occured while researching into something completely different - and such a traffic on my site?!

I mean, I did just ask [, didn't I?].

There is no reason to mistrust a charity - I repeat: a charity - with such a charming name, isn't there?

I have no doubt at all that a charity calling itself "Common Purpose" would intend nothing else but the best for humankind. In other words: I felt sure by doing a little research I should easily find reliable independent sources giving evidence of that all these leaders beyond authority are kind humans.

Unfortunately, up til now I could not find any reliable independant source telling something positive about Common Purpose.

Still, there is some hope.

The altruistic leaders beyond any authority are weaving their net in quite a few countries. And as when a boy I was lazy in learning vocabularies I do not speak as many languages as I should like being able to speak [today].
Therefore I asked some colleagues in various countries to find as much evidence as possible that Common Purpose is as charitable, humanitarian and philantropic as they are telling on their websites.
As soon as there is a positive feedback I shall let you know.

Meanwhile I can unfortunately recommend just websites where you would find nasty bloggers writing nasty things about Common Purpose.
To me it sounds like a conspiracy theory. But who am I to judge what is right, and what is wrong?

The best will be you take your time, read carefully and form your own opinion.

http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/11/2/3328667.html

http://thesocietyofqualifiedarchivists.blogspot.com/2007/09/common-purpose.html

The following five should be read one by one :

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2007/10/micro-control-oil-isis-and-lots-of.html

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2007/10/micro-control-2-how-to-recognize-it.html

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2007/10/micro-control-3-pinning-bstds-down.html

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2007/11/micro-control-4-some-eu-plans-for.html

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2007/11/micro-control-5-time-will-confirm-or.html


Well, and even the Devil in his kitchen has obviously "been aware of Common Purpose for some time and may well write about it at some stage". In the meantime, he offers to watch a video about "this rather sinister organisation".

Apropos "sinister": He did not use one of his favourite words which sounds like the name of a great German philosopher, and therefore I hope there is still hope.

Dum spiro spero.

PS:

Additional you may find shallow information about GSI (Government security net) here.

The Peace of the Night! :)

Dark matter happens

:)
Seems I decided in favour of the title heading my latest post, because my (sub-) conscience felt/knew that I should not waste a title as to be found above now, in order to just satisfy my sometimes strange sense of humour.

Indeed, and seriously, dear readers:

Dark matter happens

As to be seen above: Turkish readers visiting my blog are obviously not supposed to see my "visible" support for freedom of speech in their country.

Would you call this democracy, Mr. Gül?

Or would you call censorship an act of "libertarian paternalism", ordered by for common pupose?

The Impossible Fact

Tonight my closest friend out of the blue declaimed following poem.

To me it sounds like a variation of a poem by Christian Morgenstern,

But Tetrapilotomos claims it is by "a certain" McSeanagall.


The Impossible Fact

Usmanoff, rich, an aimful rover,
walking in the wrong direction
at a busy intersection
is run over.

"How," he says, his mood restoring
but without his wrath ignoring,
"can an accident like this
ever happen? What's amiss?

"Did the world's administration
fail in free speech's deprivation?
Did police ignore the need
for reducing bloggers' speed?

"Isn't there a prohibition,
barring internet transmission
of a mighty to a wight?
Were the nasty bloggers right?"

Tightly swathed in dampened tissues
he explores the legal issues,
and his shillings soon make clear:
Free speech not permitted here!

And he comes to the conclusion:
His mishap was an illusion,
for, he reasons pointedly,
that which must not, can not be.
[McSeanagall]


The (English version of) the Original (?)

The Impossible Fact

Palmstroem, old, an aimless rover,
walking in the wrong direction
at a busy intersection
is run over.

"How," he says, his life restoring
and with pluck his death ignoring,
"can an accident like this
ever happen? What's amiss?

"Did the state administration
fail in motor transportation?
Did police ignore the need
for reducing driving speed?

"Isn't there a prohibition,
barring motorized transmission
of the living to the dead?
Was the driver right who sped ... ?"

Tightly swathed in dampened tissues
he explores the legal issues,
and it soon is clear as air:
Cars were not permitted there!

And he comes to the conclusion:
His mishap was an illusion,
for, he reasons pointedly,
that which must not, can not be.