Go here if you feel up to it.

Via: Dean

One of the many titles in “open letter” to Muslims from a Saudi Islamist. This letter also includes some Koranic verses encouraging Jihad, for those who remain unconvinced.

I haven’t read Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird for a long time, and it’s surprising how much of the plot I’d forgotten.

Especially the burning shark, the pirates, and the flying galleons. You doubt me?

Warning: SFX and general zaniness.

the blog québécois

Today marks the Anniversary of the UN resolution establishing the state of Israel. Israpundit has launched a Blogburst to mark the occasion….of course the UN picks today to do International Solidarity with the Palestinians. 181 was probably the last time the UN did anything positive for the Jews, and it seems they have been regretting it ever since. Below you will find the complete post.

Today is the anniversary of the UN vote on resolution 181, which approved the partition of the western part Palestine into a predominately Jewish state and a predominately Arab state. (It is vital to recall that the UN partition plan referred to western Palestine, to underscore that in 1921 the eastern part was ripped off the Jewish National Home by the British Government and handed over to the then Emir Abdullah.)

Bruised and bleeding, Israel prevailed nonetheless. May our sister-democracy thrive and flourish.

Hear, Hear!

First off, Andrew Coyne does a wonderful job at skewering “statistics” in support of helmet laws. I have always been against them, needless to say.

Meanwhile BestofMe is up over at Gary’s. Next week is this particular link-fest’s first anniversary.

The Carnival for the week is up.

SP has a very funny Bin Liner gag.

Mike reports on a very sad case of a whistleblower who has suffered unjustly for his actions.

Ghost is a very cruel Canadian…he found a browser based Warcraft

Tim, as well as several other Canadian bloggers including Paul, are reporting on sightings of Canadian moonbattery. Most amusing is the fact that several of them got the Swastika the wrong way round…and thus made it a positive symbol.

Not that American moonbats are being ignored, John Hawkins has a Worst of DU stupidity.

And finally I was completely rubbish with my Dead Pool picks this year maybe I will do better next year.

Penis Cravats?

It seems some on the left in Scotland are actually having to admit this. Surely this is a sign of Blair’s impending doom? The mostly unflappable David Farrer almost fell off his seat in response. I have, to be fair, heard a few “Blunkett’s worse than Howard” quips from the soft-left…but Blair worse than Maggie? Now that is a new one.

Via: Silent Running

Birger has pointed me towards the following blogs who are covering the situation:

Ukraine Revolution

Neeka’s Backlog

Le Sabot Post

Murray over at Silent Running has become quite a dab hand at making things from metal. He has his own forge and is doing a rather good line in arms and armour. Well his skills are not only in weapons of war, but in homes as well. Well that is as long as you are a gnome. If you always wanted the perfect Christmas gift for yourself (if you are a gnome) or for the gnome in your life, Murray has a special deal for the season.

As Mater said when she read the post: I am gnome the wiser.

Still time to get your nominations in for the ” target=”new”>2004 Weblog Awards (they shut down at midnight EDT tonight). Voting should begin on Dec. 1 or thereabouts.

You don’t have to be a blogger, and you can nominate anyone you want, including yourself (if you are a blogger). And you can use a pseudonym if you feel like it.

I myself am up for Best Canadian Blog, which is kind of funny, in a pathetic, tragic sort of way. I mean, last year I was nominated in one of the lower-ranking Ecosystem categories and finished 11th or 12th. How I’ll do against the likes of Colby Cosh and Damian Penny is not something I’m terribly optimistic about.

Just in case, sure, I got a permit for the victory parade and I’ve booked the banquet room at Karl’s Kwality Pizza Emporium, but it’s really just a lot of false bravado. I wonder if those deposit fees are refundable?

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Michele has written one of the best reviews of the book I have yet seen. I agree with her sentiments 100%.

The Buick Terraza (yes, I know it’s actually a minivan).

the blog québécois

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You’ve got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that’s why they read your posts as often as they can!

Via: Ghost

Last night yours truly, Jon P, and Birger headed off to the new Marquee (now next to the Empire Theater in the West End) for an invite-only gig by Elefant. The gig was opened by two non-descript navel-gazing bands (described as music for Guardinistas by Jon P), and then we were treated to Elefant. There is a great buzz about this lot as they are supposed to be the next big thing in the indie-tinged pop world. Well, from what we saw last night, don’t expect much, live, at least. It was patently obvious the lead singer was absolutely hammered, even struggling to stand-up, and Birger swears he was singing to backing tapes. There were instances of his voice coming out of the speakers while he wasn’t singing or even near the mic. (It is, of course, possible that he was on an impressive delay, but one has to wonder.) The band was a mess and was completely under-whelming; so bad was the gig that quite a few people left early. It is really hard to overstate how rubbish this lot were, despite the fact the bands before them were no great shakes either.

There was one positive thing about the night, besides the free beer at first, it was nice to be in the new Marquee. It’s a pretty decent venue with the audience perpendicular to stage. The venue has 5 floors with a bar and mini-stage on the top floor. The bar upstairs is uber-trendy and fairly dear. Russian beer seems to be the beer of choice at the Marquee, and at over 3 a pop don’t expect a cheap night out. It is good to see the Marquee club back in central London.

After the gig we retired to have a nice chinese meal…the highlight of the evening.

If Tim Blair is the answer, the question isn’t worth asking. I had a certain amount of time for him until not that long ago, but no longer.
. . .

And although I’ve indulged momentarily in that sort of nonsense myself (blog bile awards before I got bored by the concept), what I really think is that awards are contrary to the whole spirit of blogging.

This is from a post on Tim Blair’s blog a couple of days ago and is a quote from another Australian blogger named Ken Parish, who sounds like a preemptively-sore loser, if you ask me. (When someone says, “It’s not about the awards,” it’s about the awards.) I’ve taken the liberty of eliding Mr. Parish’s remarks, as he tends to use bad words. You can read the original here.

What caught my attention, though, was an update that Tim made to the post:

Why is Hedy Fry posting at Ken’s site as Dude?

This will take a bit of explanation for non-Canadian readers. Hedy Fry (webpage here) was a cabinet minister in the Chrétien government (Secretary of State for Status of Women and Multiculturalism—a politically-correct hack, in other words) who racked up six bumbling years in that position before being demoted to the backbench for one particularly egregious piece of race-baiting in March of 2001. I’ll leave it to Herman Goodden of the London Free Press to summarize:

The mighty SP has posted on an event we can be pretty sure will be jam-packed with talk of nothing but peace, love, reconciliation, unbiased understanding, and intellectual honesty.

Whilst these kind of views are, unfortunately, to be expected from many on the left and academics (a bit tautologous I realise), some may be surprised at the number of Jewish and Israeli speakers. Such gushing apologetics helps assuage their self-loathing and are futile attempts to out-hate the haters in a bid for acceptance. Moral masturbation, if you will. The trouble is, whilst it may feel good, it is ultimately unfulfilling. They will hate Jews/Israelis/Zionist conspirators etc whatever, and these self-haters only make themselves look foolish. At least Jewish/Israeli pride of identity elicits a grudging respect, even if we/they are still hated for what we/they stand for.

SOAS is (in)famous for its Arabist and anti-Israel tendancies, yet, ironically, it is where the Jewish Music Institute is based (and which sponsored a gig the other week of a fantastic Israeli jazz-fusion group Third World Love).

Pollard has posted a rather amusing Jewish joke.

Time for the obligatory post wishing Americans a Happy Thanksgiving.

Eh, that’s rather lame, isn’t it? So I’ll just say that, if you’re in the mood for a holiday turkey, John Podhoretz serves up a lovely one in The Corner:

Oliver Stone’s Alexander, which opens today, isn’t just bad. It’s Springtime for Hitler bad. I haven’t guffawed this hard since I saw Airplane for the first time 24 years ago. This is one of the colossal catastrophes of all time. At a screening on Monday night, during the death scene of Alexander’s lover Hephaiston, people were screaming with laughter as Alexander made a big speech while, behind him in soft focus, Hephaiston went into a conniption fit and croaked. Plus, Angelina Jolie plays Alexander’s mother like she was Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. It’s almost worth seeing, but don’t, because if you’re like me and want to see Oliver Stone utterly destroyed for his artistic and political crimes, you will make sure not to contribute to the box-office coffers of what is sure to go down in the annals of moviedom as Heaven’s Gate with rampaging evil elephants (no, I’m not kidding).

I think I’ll wait for it to come out on video.

the blog québécois

An interesting collection of MPs and celebs held a press conference to launch a private-members bill calling for Blair to be impeached. What is most amusing is the collection of MPs who signed the motion that ranged from “friend of Saddam” George Galloway to Tory MP John Gummer. The nationalist parties are represented there too, but curiously Lib-Dem leader Charles Kennedy was not one of them. Needless to say Jenny “I would be a suicide bomber” Tonge was there with with bells on. This does not have a chance in hell of getting anywhere but is an interesting piece of parliamentary theatre.

An interesting review of the new Kennedy assassination game in Slate:

After playing JFK Reloaded for a couple of hours, I have to give Traffic credit for the game’s unbelievably precise physics. Every bullet bounces around with a super-realistic trajectory, behaving in the incredibly complicated way that bullets do. Sometimes I’d hit the back of the limo and the bullet would careen forward, smashing the glass; other times it would embed itself in the metal. After each round, the game lets you view the scene in a dozen different ways, including the classic Zapruder film angle or even from the perspective of a camera mounted on the limo. Then you get a 3-D model of the limo that you can rotate however you want, with the bullet trajectories traced in freeze-frame. As a physics simulation, it’s remarkable.

But as an experience? It’s nauseating.

Like the writer, I don’t have a problem with shoot-’em-ups (apart from being generally lousy at playing them) but I think I’ll be passing on this one.

the blog québécois

Update: Gnotalex’s fellow Canuck, Colby Cosh, has a copy of the game and is not impressed.

The legendarily foul mouthed, but essentially loveable bad boy rocker Ozzy Osbourne has had a tough time of it in recent months, what with his recent awful quad bike accident which nearly killed him, and now, as has been widely reported, a burglary at his Buckinghamshire mansion. Ozzy and his wife Sharon disturbed the intruders, and at one point Mr. Osbourne grappled with one of the burglars, getting the thug into a headlock, before the intruder got away, apparently injured. Good. Alas the Osbournes appear to have lost zillions of pounds of jewellery.

A number of celebs have been robbed in their homes in recent months, including the popular TV presenter, Cilla Black. Of course, since the Tony Martin affair there has been a groundswell of resentment against the way in which homeowners have been prevented from being able to defend their homes. I get the feeling that a political party that stands up for ageing spinsters and wildman rockers to defend their turf will reap the rewards at the polls. So come on Tories, show us what you are made of and make the defence of property a key manifesto item.

I hope the Osbournes recover from this latest ordeal. I get the feeling that Ozzy is made of stern old stuff. I love the old nutter and was very upset to hear about his latest troubles.

As I have said before, my ole’ mate, Leo, has written a book about the history of Witchcraft. He has also released a short trailer for the book.

It’s got a Jay Leno theme, and it’s called the Symphony.

Those of you that are interested in a wee bit of fiction should head over to the latest round-up of blogger’s stories.

The Bonfire is up as well, go smell its crackling goodness. The lads at Catallarchy have posted their thoughts on the basketbrawl, as well as Michele.

Oh and Ben is back from holiday with a few thoughts about the slug-fest for good measure.

The Carnival is up for our enjoyment.

It seems the Greeks are wee bit upset about the fact that Alexander is being portrayed as bi-sexual in the new movie.

David on the other hand, has sent me some damning news from Germany.

More from retards r’ us, this time its the turn of non-Americans to hold up stupid signs. Anyone surprised quite a few of them are Canucks?

A white teenager has been executed by a bunch of Asian boys in Scotland. because he is white. Surely this should be a big story? Well the BBC have not reported it south of the border, but Melanie has.

Guido learned via the Gray Monk of a peculiar move in the Home Office. Not being one to take things entirely at face value, he has checked with some other sources embedded within the Halls of Shame called Queen Anne’s Gate – and it has been confirmed. The male toilets in that monument to folly have been emasculated. The urinals have indeed been enclosed and taken out of use. What strange line of reason or logic has given rise to this?

Not only has this been the case in QAG, but it is also carried over into the new office block – no doubt changed from what was originally installed at great expense – and the men’s “facilities”, as my informant delicately calls them, are urinal-less. The motives behind this are unclear to my informant; speculation is that it is considered demeening to some religious groups now being recruited to the staff to have to stand and relieve oneself “exposed” to the gaze of other men. The other, and perhaps more sinister reason suggested is that it is the first step towards a “unisex” approach. This has already been tried in several of the worst run NHS hospitals – with predictable results! The claims of harrassment, attempted interference, and other highly inappropriate behaviour are strenuously denied or simply swept under the nearest carpet. The victims are more or less accused of “provoking” their attackers. Notably, of course, the Civil Servants responsible for this disasterous policy are, when in need of medical care, safely ensconced in the nearest BUPA Hospital. Not for them the indignity of mixed sex wards or shared toilets. That is for the bourgoise, the despised taxpayers, and their collective families.

There is another strand to this. It is the declared intention of the now embedded feminist “equalities” officers in every Whitehall department – and my informant warns that this is a serious political agenda – to inflict, through recruiting targets and “filtering” of applicants, a balance of 50% female and ethnic minorities in the upper management and across all lower grades, to all white males. This has already been exposed in other forums, and Guido is aware that the London Fire Brigade (again, my embedded spies!) has targets for “feminization and ethnicity” which are so stringent that it will mean no white males being recruited for the next ten years. It may well be that this position will be reviewed in the light of the recent settlements in the Staffordshire Brigade – settlements made to avoid having this sham exposed in court – to silence two men who had taken the Brigade to a tribunal for unfair selection and discrimnatory promotion practice. The full story is revealed on this website ...... it makes very worrying reading.

These are fightin’ words (and assorted alphanumeric characters). There’s (quite catchy) music by the German band Rammstein.

the blog québécois

All, it seems, is not as Mr Blair and his coterie of nasty, little-minded oiks would have us believe. The ban on fox hunting has absolutely nothing to do with the suffering of the fox as the various undercover members of the Labour Funny Bunny Wing would have us believe. It has everything to do with “Working man an’ ‘is whippet racing, beer suppin’ versus the nasty toffs” than anything else. No less a person than an aide to the Country Side Minister, has been unable to contain his pride at this great “victory” for the “masses” over the “minority” who have ruled this country and made it great to everyone’s benefit, but who, to quote the ignoramus aide, “have tried to keep people like him in their place.”

An argument, if ever I heard one, for a cull of the political classes! If this is the sort of mindset that is now in power, we have a duty to the world to remove it and erase it from the gene pool.

It would certainly seem to Guido that the problem for the last century or so is that the steady rise of the political class, that is, those who have never actually successfully done anything other than be Union Representatives, Town, Borough, County, and City Councillors, moving up to Members of the various Quangos and Assemblies before landing in the well-buttered pews of Westminster, is the single most damaging thing to the aspirations and advancement of the “masses”. I was once told by a political analyst whose intellect and ability far outshone those he observed that the sign of the true dictator was the one who used “masses”, “people”, “working classes” and “class” while pratling about “democracy”, “upliftment”, “job creation” and “freedom”. Beware, he said, the man who uses these terms in stating his intentions – he is a liar and a thief, come to steal liberty, oppress all who dare to disagree with him, and to destroy all opportunity except for those in his circle of confidants.

Doesn’t that sound remarkably like the system now in operation in this country?

Coupled with the steady rise of career politicians – and most of the Labour Benches are stuffed with men whose only connection with the working classes may be their origins, it is certainly not connected with their current status and/or incomes – is the increase in the numbers of Civil Servants, who, as I have remarked before, have become a dangerously unaccountable and powerful political force in their own right. This is not good for the supposed democratic process; indeed, it may well be the death of it.

The Fox hunting ban is merely the thin end of a very large wedge. Labour is famous for its use of greed and envy in promoting its communist agenda. What has been lost on these inner city coffee-swilling yobs is that the Hunt (and Guido is not a rider or a hunter) is now not the preserve of the wealthy alone. The local hunt has more “working men” and I really do mean men and women who worked damned hard for every penny, most at blue collar trades, than it has Landed Gentry. In fact, the local Master of the Hunt is a builder. You don’t get much more “Working Class” than that!

This obsession with Class has been fostered by the Labour oiks in their effort to promote themselves as the “party of the people”. Well, hopefully more of the electorate will start to see through the sham. This is not a “party of the people”, this is an old fashioned, 19th Century party of rebellion and Marxism. What they refuse to see is that communism, Leninism, and Marxism included, has failed everywhere it has been tried, and it fails always for the same reason – it benefits only the small ruling minority and places everyone else in chains.

The Medieval version of the Labour Party vision was the King and Nobles dictating how everyone else lived. The modern vision is the wonderboys of the Blair Cabinet and the Civil Servants dictating how everyone else lives. At least under the Medieval Kings I had the chance to find another Master. Under this shower of useless and parasitic shite I do not.

The truth is now out. Damn the fox – get the huntsman! Who will be next? The motorist? The householder? The Pensioner? The ordinary citizen who fails to vote Labour? If Gordon Brown has his way, it will be all those who earn a living – for depriving him of the opportunity to dictate how much they earn.

Time to eject them and show them exactly who is the ruler around here.

Dodgeblogium is participating in this worthy cause as part of the Blogger challenge.

We finally managed to get 3 of the core members in one place on Saturday and managed to actually produce something useful. After a wee bit of kerfuffle as John tried to find Rob’s place via car, we managed to finally meet. The musos had a wee jam for a while to get warmed up, then we moved on to an adapted cover of “Teenage Dirtbag”, now called “Mid-Age Dirtbag”. It will probably only be trotted out live, but still it’s good for a laugh. After that, we got John on the ole’ acoustic guitar and Rob on the acoustic bass to work on our song “Whiskey & Westminster”. Then it was off to the kitchen for John on guitar, me on pen & paper and singing. The nice thing is that we managed to finish both songs in a final form. It lasted until right before my last train. Good thing is that John now knows where Rob lives, and we have discovered that we can jam away quite happily at Rob’s house. If you combine this with all the logistical stuff I have managed over the last few weeks, we seemed to have refound our momentum. So it’s upwards and onwards…I don’t know about the other guys, but I can’t wait until next Saturday.

Update: My side-project, called ostensibly Odd Man Out, is moving along as well. We shall be doing music that is just a tad bit darker and heavier than G.o.D.’s music.

Hmph. Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities has done gone and nominated yours truly for Best Canadian Blog in the 2004 Weblog Awards. Curse you, Jeff! This means I’ll have to spend the next month actually writing stuff instead of sinking into boozy decrepitude, as is my cherished Xmas tradition.

I have therefore reciprocated this hostile act by also nominating Jeff for Best Canadian Blog. Er, scratch that. He’s not even Canadian, so I had to put him in the Best Culture Blog category. ‘Cause Jeff is down with culture.

At least he demonstrates a disturbing familiarity with Days of Our Lives, which is “culture” of sorts, I guess. He probably even knows who Susan Lucci is. So there.

the blog québécois

Anyone seen Kilroy-Silk lately? Amateur video from a shopping centre somewhere in the East Midlands?
Credits to EUrophobe for finding this.

Shoggoth.net have published an interview with me, one of their “featured writers”.