MR regulars will by now recognise the initials of commenter PF.  He, like us all, has followed his own unique path here, involving in his case a brush with the theatre of the absurd as he explains in this, his first post ...

GW

Anti-racism has a new star and spokesperson in the person of Antony Medley, a man who embodies in himself some of the noblest aspects of that so noble movement.

Antony’s entire world is anti-racism, a fact he first made clear to us all in his landmark video, Racism is Ignorance.  Here, Antony layed out his philosophical justification for an aggressive, even potentially violent, new kind of anti-racism: “I’m not racist, but I am racist against racists.”

Eventually, his video provoked such a strong response from both fans and detractors alike, he was positively compelled to produce another one.  Well, obviously he had to placate his expanding fanbase somehow and “correct” those sinners on the right.  In large part, his second video repeated his earlier work.  But at least it bore a more concise title: Racism Ignorance.

Unlike many anti-racists Antony didn’t simply block commentors who disagreed with him.  True to his messianic spirit he actually engaged them in open debate on his Video Comments sections.  This duly attracted determined proponents from both sides of the ideological fence, producing threads of 100+ entries - sufficient for the clearest understanding of the issues under discussion for anybody who wanted it.

Antony probably did not want it.

READ MORE...

On the video the low, rich tessitura lights up the inevitable appeal to unity, Kenyan coffee on a cold, dull morning.  The easily thrilled contemplate the realisation of a dream of four decades of another young Democrat god in the White House ... and a first

second black president after Bill Clinton.  Obama the Handled, the Manufactured has entered the race for the nomination.

He will divide America like no other, which I presume to be a good.  Should the nationalist American, then, hope that Hillary so scares the cattle he actually wins the nomination?  Should the hope even be that he strides to victory on November 4th next year over a prostrate John McCain (or Rudi Giuliani)?

Don’t ask me.  I come from a country that hasn’t yet so lost its sense it will contemplate a half-African, half-Moslem unknown in Number 10.

This evening Dispatches, the best current affairs programme on British television, is airing an investigative report into the practise of Islam in Britain.  Should be worth watching.

The C4 website explains:-

UNDERCOVER MOSQUE

A Dispatches reporter attends mosques run by organisations whose public faces are presented as moderate and finds preachers condemning integration into British society, condemning democracy and praising the Taliban for killing British soldiers.

Prime Minister Tony Blair recently described tolerance as ‘what makes Britain Britain’ but in this extensive investigation Dispatches reveals how a message of hatred and segregation is being spread throughout the UK and examines how it is influenced by the religious establishment of Saudi Arabia.

Dispatches has investigated a number of mosques run by high profile national organisations that claim to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with other faiths. But an undercover reporter joined worshippers to find a message of religious bigotry and extremism being preached.

He captures chilling sermons in which Saudi-trained preachers proclaim the supremacy of Islam, preach hatred for non-Muslims and for Muslims who do not follow their extreme beliefs - and predict a coming jihad. “An army of Muslims will arise,” announces one preacher. Another preacher said British Muslims must “dismantle” British democracy - they must “live like a state within a state” until they are “strong enough to take over.”

READ MORE...

I came across this story in the Mail on Sunday today.  It is very sad - the pain of a mother whose nineteen year old son disappeared without trace two years ago while on a journey in Cambodia. 

It’s a story that we hear rather too often now.  Not enough attention - in fact, probably no attention - is paid to the causes, and to the potential great peril in which we blithely place our most treasured possessions, our children.

I blogged about it in February of last year, following the killing of a young British girl on the beach at Koh Samui in Thailand.  In the Mail article today, the mother of the missing boy has been made to understand in the cruellest way:-

Now, when I hear mothers blithely planning their teenage children’s gap years, my stomach churns. As they muse over the exciting challenges and mind-expanding experiences offered abroad, I want to scream: ‘No, no, no.’ Are they totally blind to the potential dangers?

... as I’ve discovered, travelling around Europe is utterly different to backpacking around one of the most deprived areas of the world, where drugs are rife, foreigners are exploited for their money and life is cheap. If parents could see the truth - as I’ve been forced to - they’d think again.

There was never a time when independent travel to Asia or Africa was safe.  But in the age of Empire, travelling Britons enjoyed a certain privilege and authority.  No doubt, they fully exploited their position, and made no bones about demanding deference from the natives.  Sahib might have seemed insufferably boorish to us from a modern perspective.  But his status offered a certain protection that today’s starry-eyed One-World egalitarianism absolutely does not.

And then there is impressionableness.  The Mail story reveals that the missing nineteen year old was not on a trip during his gap year.  But it was his gap year that caused him to take off again.

Though Eddie came back safely from his gap year, he found it impossible to settle. Three weeks after starting university, he secretly withdrew £3,000 from his bank account and booked a flight to Bangkok.

So his gap year had not equipped him to return to the rigours of full-time study, as advertised on the can.  Here’s why, probably.  The fearless stupidity of youth.

I don’t really know what one should do about all this - save to make sure that these big kids understand something that might protect them from real life.  One can’t ask the educational authorities to be responsible in what heady expectations they engineer - they are all One-World fantasists anyway.  Nor can one turn to the travel industry for help - too self-interested.  That leaves government, and they are all liberals too, and the FO has some very pressing reasons for keeping the local pols sweet.  No wonder there are those among our children who wind up alone in some not-so-picturesque Third World shithole, learning when it’s all too late that naivety and hedonism are not universal values.

I see you are seriously worried now about losing the Scottish Parliamentary Election on 3rd May.  Very percipient.  Even if Scottish Labour is still the largest Party you will certainly lose your majority at Holyrood.  That will leave you depending on the LibDem’s electoral performance.  The SNP, of course, will make whoopey with the Conservatives.

Who, then, will have the numbers?

Well, happily your party is in decline - and it’s an historical decline, rooted in the poorly performing Scottish economy and a leader at Holyrood who is thoroughly despised.  The SNP is already neck-and-neck with you in the polls, and Alex Salmond is more popular than ever.  Your one ace might have been the 2004 boundary changes that saw you, Gordon, switch constituencies from the now defunct Dunfermline East.  And it’s true, they could hit the Tories very hard.  But, amazingly, the same projection reveals a potential cost to Scottish Labour of 10 seats.

All-in-all, it’s just too tight to call.  But let’s not let that stop us.

READ MORE...

Some highlights for this week:  Earliest “out of Africa” frontierists didn’t resemble Africans… Israelis attempt a bad version of my idea... Israelis prepare to use nukes… Virulent drug-resistant staph turns out to be sexually transmissible… 2000 year old blond mummy found with mythological pictures and tools in the Altai mountains… Hormone mimicking chemicals in food changing child sexual development… Photos of offshore windfarm construction… Massachusetts community prints its own money with local backing from banks… Cheap desktop rapid prototyping machine…

READ MORE...

“Idiocracy” is now on DVD and all I can say is Wow!

Well, maybe a mite more than that…

READ MORE...

The audio project will go on line in the next few hours, all being well.  Soren and I have had to re-record our interview.  It’s not nearly as good as the original we did several weeks ago now, but shorter and more pertinent to the website (and some of the people involved in and around it).  To be honest, I was not that motivated second-time around.  Anyhow, the point is to get the project rolling.  Some well-known and significant names and, no doubt, all the regular MRers - including, I hope, some of our very fine commentariat - will be featured in the coming months and, one must hope, years.  Soren will be interviewing.  This is his baby, not mine - and I will take this opportunity to thank him for his tremendous enthusiasm and not inconsiderable courage.  Live or, more accurately, unscripted interviews are not easy.

There may be an issue with the sound frequency on the first interview, and it may afflict the streaming audio more than the mp3.  This is a trial run in which lessons are being learned, so please extend us a little goodwill at this stage.

Each show will be announced on the main page with an entry like this.  The comment thread will be here, not on the audio page. 

That’s it.  We wait for the EE technician to put the button on the side-bar.