A Timely Trek

Not bad at all.

Hat-tip: http://padawanpooh.livejournal.com/453720.html (which has some other stuff too...)

"According to political analysts, the road ahead for President Gore is not an easy one."

I didn't expect to see this:

DEC 8 2008: WASHINGTON—In an unexpected judicial turnaround, the Supreme Court this week reversed its 2000 ruling in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore, stripping George W. Bush of his earlier political victory, and declaring Albert Arnold Gore the 43rd president of the United States of America.

Evil.

I assume that this story in the Telegraph last week was true:

Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary has branded Christmas "evil" in a sermon posted on the internet.

The lawyer, who recently praised the Mumbai terror attacks, urged all Muslims to reject traditional Christmas celebrations, claiming that they are forbidden by Allah.

The 41-year-old shocked Christians and even those of his own faith by branding yuletide festivities as "the pathway to hellfire".

Choudary, who is chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, ruled out all celebrations, including having a Christmas tree, decorating the house or eating turkey.

In the sermon posted on an Islamic website, he said: "In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas.

"Many take part in the festival celebrations by having Christmas turkey dinners.

"Decorating the house, purchasing Christmas trees or having Christmas turkey meals are completely prohibited by Allah.

"Many still practise this corrupt celebration as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus.

"How can a Muslim possibly approve or participate in such a practice that bases itself on the notion Allah has an offspring?

"The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.

"Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire. Protect your Paradise from being taken away – protect yourself and your family from Christmas."

Choudary is Principal Lecturer at the London School of Shari'ah and a follower of the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Earlier this year, he led a meeting at the heart of the area where the liquid bombers lived, which warned of a British September 11.

Well, he's a perfect example of the opposite of what Liberal Democrats believe in, isn't he? If so, it would be good to see a bit more condemnation from the Lib Dems of this sort of thing.

All I can say is, it's good to see that many Muslim families are apparently having turkey dinners - that's their choice, they should be free to do it.

We have to make sure that Mr Choudary continues to lose the argument- and isn't allowed to win through fear and intimidation.

I Might As Well Eat A Lot Jump

For those who'd like to know what major rock bands expect from a venue, have a look at this on the Smoking Gun website.

It's what Van Halen required..... and it's over 50 pages long.

Hat tip : Andrew Sullivan.

8 Years Old Today

The American political site Talking Points Memo is 8 years old today.

Colin Powell Sheds A Tear

A very sober man gets a little emotional....

"It was like New Years Eve.It was like Millennium New Years Eve".

He Didn't Vote For Obama Today

It's a tale that you should read here. It should warm your heart...


And there's someone else with similar thoughts here.

If You've Ever Wondered What An American Ballot Paper Looks Like.....

You can download one from Vermont, together with nearly 40 pages of candidates statements, here

8 pairs of candidates for President and Vice-President
6 for Congressman
7 for Governor
4 for Lieutenant Governor
3 for State Treasurer
4 for Secretary of State
3 for Auditor of Accounts
4 for Attorney General


Only 3 candidates for Auditor of Accounts. Not so glamorous as the other positions, maybe?

I notice that the sitting Congressman, Peter Welch, is standing for re-election as a Democratic/Republican. Huh?

Meanwhile, two of the candidates for governor stand out. One, Mike Bethel, because he seems to be an interesting guy "I am a 57-year old resident of Bennington living on disability income. I use a wheelchair, but I don’t consider myself disabled. Over the last several years, I have been an advocate for the poor, for children, and for working Vermonters"

The other, and the worst choice for me, would be Cris Ericson, who is standing as an independent for the US Congress and governorship and makes Sarah Palin look solid and knowledgeable. Ms Ericson wants to legalise cannabis but launches an anti-semitic rant about how certain doctors treat people and adds "Is Osama Bin
Laden laughing at Vermont in his cave? Is George Washington rolling over in his grave?"

However if I was a Vermonter I would probably do the more straightforward thing and vote for the Democrat candidate for governor, Gaye Symington.

Hat-tip : Volokh Conspiracy

A Month of Bad News.....

Is it just me, or is the news over the last month been a bit more depressing than usual? I don't even mean the economic situation, or global warming. I've just seen too many stories about species extinction , religious conflicts, inhumane governments and even steps to giving robots powers to control humans....

Global, Oct 6th:

Nearly a quarter of the world's land mammal species are at risk of extinction, and many others may vanish before they are even known to science, according to a major annual survey of global wildlife.

At least 1,141 of the 5,487 known species of mammal are threatened, with 188 listed in the highest risk "critically endangered" category. One in three marine mammals are also threatened, according to the five year review.

The "red list" assessment, conducted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), involved more than 1,700 experts in 130 countries, and confirms the devastating impact of forest clearing, hunting, fisheries, pollution and climate change on the populations and ranges of the world's most studied class of animals.

Ivory Coast, Oct 17th:

The population of the endangered West African chimpanzees in Ivory Coast has fallen by about 90% in less than 20 years, a study has suggested.

Researchers found 90% fewer nests than a similar audit carried out in 1990, which suggested the chimp population had crashed from 12,000 to about 1,200.

Increased levels of deforestation and poaching were likely to be main factors for the decline, they added.

Details of the survey's findings appear in the journal Current Biology.

Ivory Coast, thought to be one of the last strongholds for the species (Pan troglodytes verus), was believed to be home to between 8,000 and 12,000 individuals.


India, Oct 19th :

Hundreds of Christians in the Indian state of Orissa have been forced to renounce their religion and become Hindus after lynch mobs issued them with a stark ultimatum: convert or die.

The wave of forced conversions marks a dramatic escalation in a two-month orgy of sectarian violence which has left at least 59 people dead, 50,000 homeless and thousands of houses and churches burnt to the ground. As neighbour has turned on neighbour, thousands more Christians have sought sanctuary in refugee camps, unable to return to the wreckage of their homes unless they, too, agree to abandon their faith.

Last week, in the worst-affected Kandhamal district, The Observer encountered compelling evidence of the scale of the violence employed in a conversion programme apparently sanctioned by members of one of the most powerful Hindu groups in India, the 6.8-million member Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - the World Hindu Council.


Afghanistan Oct 20th:

Taliban militants have stopped a bus travelling on the Afghanistan's main highway, seized about 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia's fighters carried out the attack in the country's south and that they had killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus. However, Afghan officials said no soldiers were aboard and that the militants had killed civilians.

The bus was travelling in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Kandahar city.

USA, Oct 24th

"The latest request from the Pentagon jars the senses. At least, it did mine. They are looking for contractors to 'develop a software/hardware suite that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject ... Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots.'"

Iraq. Oct 25th:

The full scale of the persecution of Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became apparent last night when the UN's refugee agency said about 13,000 had been hounded from their homes this month - more than half of the city's Christian community.

The UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said it was sending aid to thousands of Christian refugees fleeing Mosul after a three-week campaign of killing and intimidation. About a dozen Christians have reportedly been killed in the recent violence, prompting many members of the community to seek sanctuary in churches and homes in outlying villages, or in Syria. "Many left with little money and need help," said Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman, in a briefing from Geneva. Christian neighbourhoods had been bombarded with threatening phone calls, letters and messages pinned to doors for months, but the killing began a few weeks ago, he said.

Zimbabwe, Oct 26th:

Mr Mambo's wife Mary was one of them, diagnosed with a kidney ailment and in desperate need of treatment which he could easily afford.

But in the cruel and surreal world of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe the devoted husband could not withdraw his savings from the bank in time to pay doctors for the care that could have saved her life.

The hospital told him that he had to make a Z$20 million down payment before they started treatment (the equivalent at black market rates of around £7.20) - but the banks have a withdrawal limit of just Z$50,000 per day. Then he was told to buy drugs from private pharmacies to save her at the cost of Z$30 million. By the time he got special clearance from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, hyperinflation had forced up the cost of the drugs to Z$50 million.

On Thursday she died as he knelt beside her bed. But his agony wasn't yet complete. He had to transport her body back to their hometown of Chinhoyi, 80 miles away, where their three children were waiting, this time at the cost of $40 million.

"The doctors have been criss-crossing this place, watching her waste away without care," he said. "She was not a candidate for death, I have my money in the bank but they have been cruel enough to deny me access to that money."

Mr Mambo's tragedy was barely noticed in Parirenyatwa Hospital, named after the nation's first black doctor. That man's son is now the Health Minister, David Parirenyatwa, a Mugabe crony who has been accused of orchestrating violent attacks against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change

Wouldn't It Make Elections More Interesting If Everyone Could Vote For Themselves?

A true story from Minnesota in Politico:

A woman questioned the accuracy of the certified election results for president in 2004. It turns out she wrote herself in as a candidate for president of the United States. The Secretary of State’s office informed Joy Elaine Pendergast that her “single vote was counted, reported, canvassed and certified according to Minnesota law.” Unfortunately, the deadline for an official recount had passed. When I checked the results, indeed, a single write-in vote for Joy Elaina Graham-Pendergast is recorded in Minnesota’s official election results for 2004.

An Intelligent Assessment of The American Election

Not by a politician, but by a physicist - Alan Scott from Wisconsin. It's worth listening for seven minutes to hear his sober non-partisan analysis.


This is part of the VoteforScience You-Tube challenge

Clegg And Blue Touchpaper

Although it's in my blogroll, I don't actually look at the Light Blue Touchpaper blog very often. It's from security research scientists at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory.

But I did have a look this week and what do I see? "

Liberal Democrat leader visits our lab

This week, Nick Clegg, leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party, and David Howarth, MP for Cambridgeshire, visited our hardware security lab for a demonstration of Chip & PIN fraud techniques.

They used this visit to announce their new party policy on protections against identity fraud. At present, credit rating companies are exempt from aspects of the Data Protection Act and can forward personal information about an individual’s financial history to companies without the subject’s consent. Clegg proposes to give individuals the rights to “freeze” their credit records, making it more difficult for fraudsters to impersonate others.

A party leader visiting a lab? Make's a pleasant change from reading about creationist US politicians, doesn't it?

At Fifty : Favourite Politician That I've Met

When I was about 16, Rayleigh Liberals invited Clement Freud to our town to speak and I wandered along to listen.

Only about 15 people turned up, but Clement spoke at ease and with aplomb, and I asked a question (though I can't remember what it was). He shook my hand after the meeting and I took his photo. I was still a young Heathite Conservative back then.... it took a while for me to realise that he was on the cover of Band on The Run (see my previous post).

So he's my favourite Liberal MP that I've ever met (with Ros Scott being my favourite baroness). I still enjoy listening to him on Just A Minute.

I like his story about how he got elected:

"Politically, I was an anti-Conservative unable to join a Labour party hell-bent on nationalising everything that moved, so when a by-election occurred in East Anglia, where I lived and live, I stood as a Liberal and was fortunate in getting in. Ladbrokes quoted me at 33-1 in this three-horse contest, so Ladbrokes paid for me to have rather more secretarial and research staff than other MPs, which helped to keep me in for five parliaments."

And about his family :

During his time as a Member of Parliament, he visited China with a delegation of other MPs, including Winston S. Churchill, a grandson of the wartime leader of the same name. Freud noticed that the Communist Chinese hosts regularly gave Churchill larger, or higher status, accommodation than him. Tactfully he enquired why and was told it was because of the status of Churchill's namesake. Freud observed that this was the first time ever that he had been 'out-grandfathered'

One Day To Fifty - Some Favourite Music

Three songs that bring back happy memories, with a couple of versions of each...

Playing this on my cassette player when I was getting ready to go out as a teenager....






Playing when I got up on my first election day.....





And this has been played a lot ever since I got married..... in a happy way...

Two Days To Fifty: Favourite TV

Here's a series I always used to enjoy watching - pity there weren't more episodes made.

The show is "Shoestring" starring Trevor Eve. After having a mental breakdown he has become a "private ear" for a local radio station.....

This particular episode is called "Circle Of Uncertainty".




And then there was the justly famous Hill Street Blues - I remember watching this in the house I shared when I was a student....