But you can still read the paper that was to be delivered and see if you think its hate speech. University of Leeds have taken the cowards way out and cancelled the speech by Matthias Kntzel. Its good to see that UK universities are bastions of free exchange of ideas now isn’t it? Via Harry’s Place.

The recent Channel 4 programme – perhaps one should say “Hatchet Job” – on the Prince of Wales had my temper above the explosion point. I have seldom seen such a biased and one sided load of garbage. The makers went out of their way to dredge up every silly and possibly unfortunate event in the man’s life, sometimes going back years – and then repackaged it to make it appear that this was a “new” piece of evidence.

Face it, they just want to drag the man down. Those of us fortunate enough to have met him have discovered that he is intelligent, cares very deeply about a number of things, and believes that he has a duty to flag up things which are likely to impact in a negative way upon this nation and its peoples. Yes, he certainly did say that he wanted to be “Defender of Faith” rather than “The” Faith, and I would disagree with him strongly on that, but it does recognise the fact that we are trying to live up to our (undeserved) reputation for tolerance. Let’s look at some of his very real and very positive achievements for a change instead of raking over the now very tired ground of his supposed “failures”. I’ll go further, lets look at what his detractors have done for the nation that matches or outweighs his contribution.

Yes, there you have them. Most of them have contributed nothing of any lasting value – in fact the opposite. And that is why they hate him so passionately and seek to destroy him.

We live in a society that hates anyone who stands above the common herd. It is a tennet of the Labour and New Labour mantra. Anyone who stands out must be destroyed so that they don’t make the rest of us look mediocre. Well, lets see these detractors set up the Trusts he has and do the work he has managed through them in uplifting the people Blair and Co have done their best to keep down. Let’s see some of the luvvies provide any sort of leadership on any issue – and I would admit that here the Prince has not had the opportunity to demonstrate that publically.

Being heir to the throne of this nation is not a sinecure, it must be one of the most difficult burdens to bear. But let’s get something else straight – the so-called extravagance is not funded by the taxpayer as the C4 programme and the press love to insinuate. It comes from his own pocket and yes, they are deeper than yours or mine, but why should that be seen as some sort of crime? Blair’s pockets are a lot deeper than mine will ever be and so are those of every one of the Prince’s detractors.

Finally, for the love of God let’s put the lid on the “Fairy Princess” idolatry that the press keeps reviving. She was a pretty face, not the Saviour of the World, the nation or the monarchy and she was manipulative in the extreme. It is time to put aside the idea that she was somehow so much better than he was, in fact, if she had not died when she did I am pretty sure she would have been sunk in a scandal so ugly the same people who currently hold her up as some sort of saint would now be howling for her head.

Give Prince Charles a chance, he is neither stupid nor insensitive – and he is a far better man than all of his detractors will ever be.

Last week it was envirofascists trying to prevent people flying away on holiday; now its road-safetyfascists attempting to ban satillite navigation in cars. They think its distracting. This is not surprising considering the ban culture the UK now suffers under. No doubt this are the same type of meddlers who would have supported banning car radios back when they were invented. These people need to get a life and butt out of everyone elses.

The trouble is all these losers have been bouyed by the banning of smoking in bars and restaurants. This rights grab from private business has encouraged authoritarians to try to prevent people from doing things in their private cars (well we know most of them hate private cars in the first place) and even in their homes.

Recently I was told that Stephen Hawking thinks that the reason we have not been contacted by any superior space faring race is that they have all blown themselves up at about the same point in development as we have reached. Well, that has certainly refueled the “Unilateral Disarmament” debate. Why is it that in the face of all evidence to the contrary, the morons who support the idea that if we, the British people, give up all our weapons, everyone else will do so too? They tried it in the 1920’s and 30’s and look where that got us all. They have been trying to disarm us since 1945 – and very nearly succeeded – proclaiming that we would be “better red than dead!” Now they think that if we surrender our defensive capability, that the likes of Iran and every other funny bunny regime will give up their ambitions to overthrow our society and the imposition their idea of Utopia. Funny how much that resembles the “International Socialist” (Read Communist) dream of the 1930’s which gave rise to the Fascist regimes and such edifyingly “peaceful” events as the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, most of the wars of the twentieth century were triggered by “Socialist” Utopian take overs of nations, most of whom are still recovering from the effects!

It is edifying just how many of Blair’s Cronies jumped ship so that they could vote with the rest of their ex-hippie, pot-smoking “Peaceniks” against the retention of our nuclear deterent. All the usual garbage about how much more we could spend on the NHS, Education and all their usual hiding places and gravy trains – if only we didn’t spend it on defence was trotted out and given front page airings by our sh*t stirring press. Considering that we spend less per capita on defence than any other EU nation and certainly less per capita than any one of the states threatening to blow us away if they get the chance, I find this posturing in Westminster absolutely sickening. At least – for this occassion – sense seems to have prevailed in Westminster and we are, it seems, to build the next generation submarine fleet and missile/warhead system. However, any bets on how the Civil Service will do its utmost to delay the project, ensure it runs at least twice the original amount over budget and then blame the military? Watch that space.

For the “Peacenik” lobbists, here is a small piece of uncomfortable fact. Once something has been removed from Pandora’s Box, it cannot be put back again. Once nuclear weapons were built and used they can never be “disinvented”. They are a fact of life and we now have to live with that – throwing away our capability as these idiots wish to do is sheer lunacy in this unstable and morally bankrupt age.

Tacitus wrote almost two thousand years ago – “Si vis pacem; para bellum”. It is as true today as it was then.

He who seeks peace; is prepared for war.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

Not exactly the normal fare for this blog but I have been asked to review a site for address labels. Having a look round there seems to be a decent selection and quite a good price for them. For those of you that still send letters it might be a good idea to order a few of these for yourself. Visit the site and take a look. This post is sponsored.

I recently got an iPod, which meant that I had to iInstall iTunes so that I could load my iMusic (iPromise, I’ll iStop doing this iSoon) onto it, or at least that subset of same which iTunes deems acceptable. Apart from that (and the earbuds—how on earth do you keep them in? Duct tape? Crazy Glue? Roofing nails?) it’s a pretty cool gadget, the first Apple product I’ve bought. Even the packaging is nicely done, and it’s possible to open it up without mortally wounding oneself with a utility knife.

Coincidentally, I happened across Maddox’s rant (Warning: Language) about Apple. Funny stuff, but also informative, as when he takes a closer look at iTunes’ EULA (End User’s Licence Agreement, that mainly-unread piece of legal gibberish that you’re required to check off on before you can load most commercial software).

I can just imagine Osama in his cave somewhere, clicking, clicking, clicking on iTunes and failing to:

a) find his latest podcast; or,

b) build a atomic bomb.

the blog québécois

When it comes to picking a new LCD or Plasma TV things can get bloody confusing rather quickly. The trouble is that some makers are not terribly forthright about their devices and you can find yourself with something that is not quite wht you wanted. Personally I am holding back on getting either a LCD or Plasma TV until I am sure they have sorted the technology out. This post is sponsored.