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You are Schroeder!


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He claims that it is the right time for Tories to out themselves. Tories should no longer be ashamed of what they are.

Finally, in one place, the sham of “International Law” is laid bare, exposed to critical inspection and review, and not just found wanting but totally non-existent. Nothing to see here, people, move along, now! Even as Labour in the UK seeks, with all its might and fury, to remove The Sovereign from any substantive meaning, soveriegn nations are coerced, by means foul and fair, to believe that their individual soveriegnties are mere piffles any more.

Since fully 50% of the nations gathered under the ‘one world’ umbrella are not self-ruled but enslaved by tin pot dictators or thugocracies, having no respect for laws of any kind, this nonsensical use of the term “International Law” has to be seen for what it really is: IT IS NOTHING.

[ Hat Tip: NZ Pundit ]

HM has been the “brand label” on almost everything done by government in the UK for centuries, but Labour is doing its level best to eradicate Her Majesty from every last function, thus making everything a bunch of bureaucracies with ugly, stupid acronyms.

This is just the latest example, which has upset the people employed at the prisons: The removal of their royal association has angered prison officers, who are reluctant to break with a tradition that started in 1485 when Henry VII appointed the first Beefeaters. They formed the first “royal prison service”.

From July, the prison service is to be renamed the National Offenders’ Management Service (Noms). Although this change was announced last month, ministers indicated to prison officers at the time that the new service name would still be prefaced by “Her Majesty’s” and preserve all royal connections – that is now off the cards.

As a result, the royal crowns and the words “HM Prison Service” will be dropped from the uniforms worn by prison officers and replaced with the logo of Noms.

In addition, the white shirts and black trouser uniform worn by officers will be replaced by more casual garb, said to resemble tracksuits.

What a load of rubbish!

Colby outs himself as a Venom fan. A band that were so bad they were bloody brilliant. The sad thing is that quite a few people were inspired to form bands after listening to Venom; many of them actually took the band seriously.

Of course, we all know why Colby likes em’, because Cronos used to wear a hockey mask.

(I have no room to talk. I am currently listening to a live Wishbone Ash dvd to review and rather enjoying it. Plus, my band’s first complete song sounds like it’s either “new country” or Poco-esque AOR.)

How many of the bands in the Punk Against Bush thing are actually there for political reasons? It’s a clever marketing tool for unknown punk bands trying to make a name for themselves. Then there is always the fact that American punk bands get shit from so-called “proper” punks that they are not political enough. It is a great chance to suck up to the biggies of the punk scene in the US.

It will be interesting to see if this lot make one iota of difference…colour me skeptical. Of course, one wonders why they don’t just join Rock the Vote, as that is a front for the Democrats, anyway. And we all know how effective that was last time round.

Dean Esmay and his clan are having some major problems, not the least of which is an ill dog. Dean has been a good friend to this blog and me personally. I am sure I speak for all us at Dodgeblogium in wishing them all the best in getting out of their current situation.

Re: Could she be the smoking Gun?
Date: 27 February 2004

Sir – Could Katharine be the smoking Gun that will make the squalid American-British efforts to gerrymander war on Iraq into Bush’s Watergate? As Nixon fell, through bugging the Democrats, so should Bush fall, through bugging the Mexicans and the Chileans and everybody else.

From:
Dr Rupert Read, Senior Lecturer, School of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Dr Read is obviously some leftie muppet. I wonder if he realises that all of us who are Python fans snicker when we see his university’s name. The Python’s made up the name in order to have somewhere that taught daft courses like “Villiage Idioting” (there was professor, there, famous for his seminal work, Hello Sailor). One wonders how gormless the administration were to name their university (former poly) after a source of derision and fun. It is nice to see that villige idioting now has a new PC title.

Update: It seems that university is not a former poly and was founded in 1964. As I said in the comments, one has to wonder why the Pythons picked on it so often in their comedy. Thanks to Matthew for pointing this out to me.

“Canadian laws, as written and as defended by police, would make
criminals out of all of them. That is exactly what the government of the day doesn’t want. Laws exist to serve society, not to shape it. If many otherwise law-abiding Canadians want to smoke dope on occasion, without infringing on the rights of anybody else, the laws of the land should accommodate it…. Alcohol was once prohibited like marijuana is today, and now booze is sold in shopping malls. It’s time to admit that no amount of law enforcement can stem the tide of recreational marijuana use in Canada, and that it’s a waste of
taxpayers’ money to try.” (02/25/04)

Via: Rational Review

“Breaking the Da Vinci Code, for the time being at least, will require a preliminary stop in a Nashville federal court. The best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code, has sold more than 5 million copies, according to its publisher, Random House Inc. The novel starts as a Paris murder mystery. But as its thread unravels, it suggests a conspiratorial, alternative Christian history, one in which Jesus was not celibate — but was married to Mary Magdalene, who bore him a child. Nashville-based publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. says it is ‘in the
process of distributing’ a critique of the best seller by Dan Brown. And the title of Nelson’s upcoming book by Darrell Bock has a familiar ring: ‘Breaking the Da Vinci Code.’ When Random House got wind of that, it fired off a cease-and-desist letter.” I(02/26/04)

This bit of religious literalist silliness comes via Rational Review.

I haven’t seen The Passion of the Christ and I probably won’t — I’m not a big moviegoer — but it is certainly amusing to read critical reaction to it, which might be described as of the prissy schoolmarm variety.

Writing in The Toronto Star, Geoff Pevere called it a “lash-by-lash and nail-by-nail re-enactment” of the crucifixion. Pevere compared Gibson’s film to the recently remade Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then labelled it “fundamentalist pornography. What graphic sex is to the use of the body in hardcore porno, graphic violence is to destruction of the body of Christ in this Passion.”

The Globe and Mail’s Rick Groen’s echoed those remarks, saying the film is “is so obsessively and so graphically bloody-minded that it comes perilously close to the pornography of violence.”

I don’t know who coined that phrase, the “pornography of violence,” but I’d like to have him shot.

Pevere and Groen weren’t always quite so squeamish. Let’s look at their take on Quentin Tarantino’s splatterfest, Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

It seems that we are large enough to have a porn site in our name. Dodgeblog.com takes you to a hard-core porn site. And guess who discovered this first? Why, that well known fan of the permisive society, Cuthie of course!

Contrary to EU spin the substantive issues of concern surrounding the
Galileo satellite project have not been resolved.

Allowing other states to have control of this technology will be a major blow to Americas pre-eminence and will boost the military capabilities of potential enemies of the United States and its allies.

Comments are off for this post

This from CMU:

Sum 41 are facing a lawsuit from a New Yorker because they threw a hot dog at him! Apparently the band made a film of themselves fooling around for inclusion on the DVD that accompanied their 2002 album, ‘Does This Look Infected?’ That film included footage of the band heckling one Michael Sudore at a minor league baseball game – during the heckling they threw the aforementioned hotdog. The footage was included on the DVD without Sudore’s permission, and since discovering its inclusion he has apparently been experienced “psychological trauma”. In a somewhat ambitious lawsuit he is hoping to secure $6million in damages.

The lawsuit is based around a New York law which recognizes the unauthorized use of any person’s image as a violation of civil-rights law. The band and their label are yet to comment.

A Bloc Québécois motion to cancel Canadian participation in the U.S. missile defence system was defeated 155-71 in the House of Commons, but attracts 30 Liberal votes.

From the National Post (no link):

Liberal MP John Caccia said he was pleasantly surprised by the show of support for the Bloc motion.

“It shows there is a growing awareness of several major points: one, there will be a militarization of space by the U.S. administration; two, we have no enemy and, therefore, we need not to enter this scheme; three, if we do enter it, we will attract retaliation perhaps.”

From whom, Mr. Caccia? Our non-existent enemies? Do you refuse to lock your doors at night, for fear of enraging a prospective burglar?

Of course, the anti-missile shield will do nothing to protect Canada against its deadliest threat, until they can refine it enough to lock onto and vaporize individual politicians.

Maybe we could attach GPS beacons to briefcases stuffed with stolen taxpayers’ money? Just a thought.

Some people are sooooo idealistic they feel that superior to the rest of us mere mortals as to pass judgement on things they were NOT hired to judge, thereby endangering us. Since HMG failed to prosecute this case due to concerns about disclosing secret intelligence, she gets off scot-free, which is also not moral.

Unfortunately, when dealing with evil, not everyone is able to function as perfect specimens of perfect behavior. We have to tolerate some actions that are less than perfect in those people in order to save our lives. When she signed on for employment in such a place, she also signed on to the concept that she was working for an agency charged with providing us with protection. If she felt there was something “immoral” about the actions, the ‘moral’ thing for her to have done was to resign, for she knew she was subject to the laws governing secrecy but went ahead and broke them, anyway.

Remaining in place and breaking the law was highly immoral, but she fails to recognize that; some of us do!

“It used to be said that anti-Catholicism was the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. Today, anti-Semitism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. ... Here the term intellectual is used loosely, to denote not only people who think about ideas — about thinking — but also people who think they do. The term anti-Semitism is used precisely, to denote people who dislike Jews. These people include those who say: We do not dislike Jews, we only dislike Zionists — although to live in Israel is to endorse the Zionist enterprise, and all Jews are implicated, as sympathizers, in the crime that is Israel.” (02/25/04)

Via: Rational Review

“The [Canadian] government’s plan to decriminalize pot possession would free up millions of dollars and thousands of police hours, the latest statistics suggest. Police laid a record number of drug-related charges in 2002 and most offences involved marijuana, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. Seventy-five per cent of 93,000 drug-related incidents in 2002 involved pot. Almost three-quarters of those were possession offences, and more than half of those convicted were fined. ... The numbers highlight a rift between police, who support tight enforcement of pot laws, and more tolerant attitudes by the public, politicians and the courts.” (02/24/04)

Via: Rational Review

Please tell me this is a joke.

Even if it is a parody, as a concept it’s probably not too far off in the future. Think of athletes emblazoned with corporate logos, and I’ve already seen boxers advertising casinos, websites, etc., using (presumably removable) tattoos.

The guy described by W is not some fringe thinker, but one who is considered mainstream. Read and be sickened… to the core.

“It was a day for pomp and spectacle at the World Court Monday. Pomp, inside the oak-paneled International Court of Justice, where lawyers in wigs and waistcoats challenged the construction of Israel’s controversial separation barrier. Spectacle, outside the palatial court compound, where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators took opposing cases to the street with vivid displays of the heavy price they’ve paid for their bitter conflict. ... Twelve countries and two confederations of Arab and Islamic states are participating in the three days of oral argument that commenced Monday.” (02/23/04)

The fact the case has gotten this far shows just how daft the ICJ can be in the end. This is just another example of European anti-Israeli sentiment. It seems that many in Europe do not believe in Israel’s right to defend itself. My source at the recent European Democratic Students (the youth wing of the European People’s Party) event has confirmed to me that many main-stream continentals hold this view. The hostility to Israel is palapable and blatant. It is all disgusting and disgraceful.

This bit of daft international law schenanigans comes via Rational Review.

“The Senate will begin another debate on federal gun laws this week, and at least one issue may put it at odds with Republicans in the other chamber. A Republican-led bill to immunize gun makers from wrongful-death claims is expected to hit the floor tomorrow, but Democrats and liberal Republicans will propose an amendment to extend the federal assault-weapons ban, possibly setting up a showdown with the House. President Bush supports the assault-weapons proposal as well as the overall immunity bill. ‘With regard to the assault-weapons ban, he supports the extension of the current ban,’ White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. ‘On immunity, he doesn’t believe manufacturers of a legal product should be held liable for the illegal use of that product.’” (02/23/04)

Via: Rational Review

The BestofMe Symphony is playing for the week.

The latest torchfest is crackling away over at The Argus.

The Carnival is up in all its glory. Its a breastacular in a nod, I presume, to the Janet Jackson tit-a-lation scandal of a few weeks back.

And John at RWN has an interesting collection of right-of-centre bloggers dinner-guests from hell.

Meanwhile Aaron’s Blogopoly continues to gather pace. See if you can guess whose pieces are in the latest batch.

The Stanford Review has come up with a unique contest to attract interest. It is guaranteed to get the feminist’s knickers in a twist, the politically correct types in lather and a few interesting contacts.

As you would expect from Ms Amiel, it is an excellent and thought-provoking piece on the controversy surrounding Gibson’s epic.

The movie, which I have not seen, has provoked the ire of some Jewish groups. As Amiel rightly states, this outcry has probably assured the movie a decent box-office result. I think some Jewish groups have over-reacted. For it is true: Jews were partly responsible for the death of a fellow Jew, Jesus. How would they have known that he would be so venerated by so many people worldwide in future? There were plenty of prophets kicking around in those times (as there are now, if one looks hard enough), and Jesus was just one of many.

Jesus was crucified as a result of internecine squabbling over leadership of the Jews (at least one of his actions during his lifetime carried a death-sentence). His death is no less regretable than all those Christians (Templars, Cathars, Berbers, etc) who were killed by other Christian sects in the history of Christianity for their beliefs. It is, of course, ludicrous to justify two millenia of persecution of the Jews for “deicide”. For one thing, how in hell were Jewish leaders in the time of Christ to know that that he was the Mesiah, if in fact Jesus truly was? (As you can probably gather, I am yet to be convinced of this.)

Of course, it could be argued that Rome and then the Roman Catholic church pushed this line to avoid close scrutiny of the fact that it was, in fact, Roman soldiers that put Jesus to death. Never mind not wanting to admit that the books that are in today’s Bible were decided on by Emperor Constantine and a few hand-selected priests partly to make Constantine look good.

There seems to be a worry that a bunch of ill-educated rednecks, dragged to this movie by their pastor, will suddenly go on a killing spree. Last time I checked, the rednecks were not known for their grasp of Aramaic or Latin. (Alas, Gibson goofed here, they should have been speaking Greek, not Latin.) It might actually be a good idea to point out to some literalist Christians that Christ was in fact a Jew and a leader of a Jewish sect.

I think Jews have to worry far more about Islamo-kazis trying to kill them than they do over some knuckle-dragging Southerner fresh from seeing The Passion.

Johnathan Pearce sent me this gem. As someone who considers taxes a necessary evil and progressive ones to be immoral, I find this news revolting. I believe it is everyone’s duty to pay as little tax as possible. People have a moral obligation to keep as much for their families as possible. If they wish to help others they can give to charities, which are more efficient at actually helping people. Most of our taxes go to pay lackluster civil servants and other forms of bureaucracy. Waste in government is a major problem.

There is no moral footing for taxation; it is by definition immoral, if necessary in its most basic form. Taxation is organised theft, with the threat of punishment and confiscation of property instead of physical harm.

There are several forms of taxation preferable to the current form, one of which is a flat tax which I called for in Statism Sucks! Ver. 2.0. There should be a debate on the means of taxation, as well as how much it should be. In the end taxation has to be justified however high it is; using expressions like “moral” are unhelpful to the debate. The Roman Catholic Church should butt out and leave religion out of the issue of taxation, where it frankly has no place.

It seems like the debate over the Nader effect has already begun. I have always believed it inevitable that he would run, if Dean dropped out of the race. I don’t think that the Democrats did themselves any favours with a site encouraging its members to flood the Nader site with requests that he do not run. Nader is such an ornery cuss that this may have made it more likely, not less. Of course, the premise of the site, blaming Nader for Gore’s defeat was daft. The reason Gore lost is because he was a rubbish candidate who was unable to win his own state, much less important states like Florida.

Nader will attract the same vote he did in 2000. He gets the disgruntled left-wing Democrats who are not too keen on the machine politicians like Gore and Kerry. If Kerry gets the nod its is clear that Nader will repeat his performance of 2000. Whether or not he will be blamed for another Democratic Presidential loss is yet to be seen.

One thing is for sure, Nader’s appearance in the race will make things more interesting for political hacks. He adds a bit of spice to what looks to be a rather dull, if nasty, Presidential cycle. How many bets will be made on his percentage of the vote this time round?

“When 16 Republican [Oregon] legislators joined Democrats to pass an ill-fated tax boost last summer, there was talk that GOP lawmakers backing the plan could face reprisals during their re-election campaigns — even from other Republicans. As it turns out, no Republican lawmaker who has filed for re-election and endorsed the tax increase is facing a challenge from another Republican in the May 18 primary elections. But Libertarians say they hope to field November general election contenders against the 10 Republican tax-backing legislators who are up for election — eight House members and two senators.” (02/22/04)

This bit of news is from Rational Review. It is too bad that all states don’t have libertarian parties to keep Republicans on their toes. Unfortunately, in some states, like Maine, the Republicans and Democrats have banded together to make sure they have a lock by making the threshold for third parties way too high.

Via Ghost of a Flea

Oh here’s to my sweet Satan. The one whose
little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan. He’ll
give you give you 666, there was a little toolshed where
he made us suffer, sad Satan

I never paid much mind to the whole “Satanic message backward-masking” controversy. First, there’s no evidence that people comprehend, or are impelled to act on, “subliminal messages.”

Second, there’s no shortage of overtly Satanic lyrics in some genres of rock music.

Third, it’s not true that if you play “Revolution 9” off the Beatles’ White Album backwards, it sounds like the car crash that Paul McCartney supposedly died in.

It sounds like a car crash if you play it forwards, which was the usual case when Yoko got her sticky little fingers on things.

But this really is kind of spooky. It’s taken from Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and you can listen to it here.

JFM noticed that Andrew had posted one of his little short stories a few days ago…..today seemed a good day to mention that it has some interesting twists.