THEY need to listen well !
What THEY is that, you ask ?! London and Washington, D.C., that is! They hear naught but what the “insider bunch” tells them, but fail to hear the voices of the Iraqi people themselves. This has to change before the great battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis is lost forever. There will be no second chance.
JFM found that Andrew’s old friend, MommaBear, is trying very hard to have those voices heard where it will do some good, but it will take more than just this one post. JFM’s previous post had a somewhat similar thought, too.
Everyone who wishes that things turn out well in Iraq for all concerned needs to put a bit of effort into lending a hand with this endeavour that MB is trying to jump-start. If you have a blog, please pass the word along. If you know someone with some influence in the halls of power, please pass the word along.
Those voices must be heard.
Comments are off for this postPolitical Compass trounced
Everyone seems to be taking the sodding thing, including me. I wasn’t much impressed and neither was Colby Cosh. He has written a rather extensive peice on why its so rubbish. Give me the World’s Smallest Political Quiz anyday. It is more accurate to my eyes than the P.C. left-wing prejudiced silliness.
3 commentsBonfire posts
Bonfire of the Vanities is up for the week.
Comments are off for this postNot a Neo-Con, a Neo-Realist thank you very much
Based on your answers, you are most likely a realist. Read below to learn more about each foreign policy perspective.
Realist
Realists
Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision
Believe US power is crucial to successful diplomacy – and vice versa
Don’t want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations
Believe strong alliances are important to US interests
Weigh the political costs of foreign action
Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest
Historical realist: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Modern realist: Secretary of State Colin Powell
Via: Dean
Comments are off for this postVillage Idiocy redux
Ten years of Ofsted, and schools are still failing — one-third more than
last year, according to Ofsted chief David Bell.
If the government made fewer mistakes on its Jobcentre Plus and Disability
Living benefit pay-outs, it could save 8 million pounds, says the NAO.
1.4 million pensioners fail to claim council tax benefit, perhaps confused
by the paperwork. Well, we don’t want to make it easy for them, do we?
Ok, so its a couple of days old…
but it hasn’t been brought up here yet.
The bishop who suggested that homosexuals should seek medical help wil not be prosecuted. Thank goodness. Whilst many may not agree with his comments, they were merely an expression of his opinion, and clearly in no way meant to incite hatred or advocate discrimination. Why then were police called to arrest him at all, when down in London, hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax-payers money is being spent facilitating the delivery of hate-filled, anti-British, homophobic and anti-Jewish etc public sermons by Abu Hamza, which ARE INTENDED TO INCITE?
Even certain doyens at Indymedia think that the association of the Left with these Islamofascists has gone too far.
1 commentFlat Tax returns
“The flat tax is making a comeback. After being banished to the political wilderness after Steve Forbes made it the central issue of his losing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, interest is perking up again. One of the Democrats running for president could do himself (or herself) a lot of good by picking it up …” (11/10/03)
I worked on the Forbes campaign in 1996. I called for a flat tax (that has been fully costed) in my book Statism Sucks! Ver. 2.0 I would be happy to have a Democrat President candidate use SSVer.2.0 for their policies. I would be happy to advise one of them…for a small fee of course.
Via: Rational Review
Comments are off for this postSmoking pot won’t kill your political career?
“Not so long ago, the question presented an agonizing dilemma for politicians who committed youthful pot-related indiscretions: Admit having violated the law, and in so doing align oneself with the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll hippie counter-culture? Or lie about it, and hope to not get caught? In 1992, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton famously tried to have it both ways by saying he’d smoked marijuana as a student ‘but didn’t inhale.’ Eleven years later,
nobody batted an eyelash at the candidates’ frank responses.” (11/07/03)
Via: Rational Review
1 commentIn the Beginning, there was the Word
Dog of Flanders has coined (at least I assume it’s his coinage — I haven’t seen it anywhere else, and I’ve read a fair bit on the topic) a useful neologism for Islamic terrorists: Islamikazes.
(Or ~kazis. Whichever spelling you prefer.)
Much tidier and more euphonious than the alternatives — Islamofascists; suicide (or homicide) bombers; radical nutbars; Koranikovs (heh, I just made that one up myself), etc.
Islamikazes. Rolls off the tongue, it does.
I’m going to use it exclusively in the future, and if a few other people (which would describe my audience) follow suit . . . hey, we just might get it into the next revision of the OED.
Islamikazes. Write it on your hand, you’ll never forget it.
2 comments
