No "cycle of violence" - moral equivalency reporting

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is. Winston Churchill. 

Once again we had Reuters, the BBC, NY Times and Agence France-Presse spewing the pithy, but inaccurate, term "cycle of violence" to refer to the recent butchering of an Israeli family (which included the decapitation of  a 3 month old baby girl, stabbing the heart of a 4 year old, and throat slitting of an 11 year old child) the firing of more than 70 advanced missiles at civilians over 3 days and a murderous bombing in Jerusalem. Apparently, Israel's mild response in directly targeting those in the act of committing these and other atrocities, yet leaving alone those who incite, abet and otherwise provide support and succour to the terrorists, is a contributory factor to a "cycle". 

It is morally wrong to refer to a cycle of violence when talking about deliberate attacks on the civilians. 

It's quite simple how to stop a cycle, you brake. Thus, no terrorist attacks, and there will be no need for Israel to stop terrorists and no attempts by Israel to stem the flood of missiles from Iran and its proxies to Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc., etc.  There is no equivalence between fighting evil, and the evil committing horrific acts. 

The US is still in Afghanistan, although not allowing NATO's soldiers to fight a war to win, still in Iraq and now aimlessly bombing Libya, all derived from the 9/11 attack by Saudis and Egyptian hosted by the ruling theocrats of Aghanistan, the Taliban. The US and all democracies should be fighting evil such as the Taliban, Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi Duck, and not require the blessing of the dictatorship dominated UN. A UN that voted for Hezbollah to have a seat on the Security Council, and not Canada. The cause should be freedom, and if some peoples prefer to live in pre-medieval mindsets with modern weapons, make sure that they never turn the modern weapons against democracies. 

Terrorism is actually more akin to an engine of violence. You may have the machinery, but until the fuel is provided by those who justify the  horrific acts, pay for the missiles, guns and explosives and find violent and hateful people to murder, then the engine sits quietly. The more fuel you provide, the louder the noise gets and if too much is provided, then the whole engine, and everything in and around it, gets blown apart. 

The worst offenders for revision of history and justifying terrorists as activists and militants are the BBC and New York Times. I am sick to my stomach of their reports that expressly detail Arab casualties, whilst not detailing the number included in the calculation who were confirmed terrorists hiding and firing from the midst of their supportive population. The reports only give a generalized account of Israel's casualties, all of whom were civilians. It does not mention the estimated 10,000 Israelis maimed in terror attacks and who need prothesises, psychological and medical care for all of their senselessly blighted lives. Then quotes are provided first to terrorist groups and the proven liars speaking for tyrants, and given equal, if not more credence, than those statements issued by open democracies.

It seems insane, but the BBC and New York Times practise this form of insidious perversion better than any other outlet. Imagine the BBC giving Hitler equal air time during World War II in the interests of being fair and reporting all sides. The current BBC administration would do just that, and the UK's Channel 4 actually gave over its Christmas Day message to the wannabe Hitler of our age, Iran's Ahmenijad, in place of the British Queen. Moral decline demonstrated by moral equivalency. 

The leading and biased reporting has been encapsulated in one remarkable op-ed by UK MP, Louise Bagshawe. As far as I am aware, she is Catholic, has no Jewish constituents to speak of and no history of speaking about Israel prior to this article. And yet, it is a remarkable indictment of what the BBC's coverage of  Israel and in fact, the broader Middle East, has become. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8402973/A-family-slaughtered-in-Israel-doesnt-the-BBC-care.html

It's time for reports to express the truth, and not a lazy and convenient adopted political truth. 

I hope I am wrong but I have a gut feeling that Iran are about to get a nuclear break-through of some sort very soon, because in recent years Hamas and Hezbollah have stepped up their attacks to divert attention from such advances. These attacks have not got nothing to do with "peace process" or lack thereof, because the Arab economy in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria prior to 1948) is doing really well. One has  never seen so many high-end Mercedes, BMWs and Audis, as there are being driven in that part of the world. I don't think even the dealerships have so many. 

In the Arab Israeli conflict, there can only be 2 outcomes. One, the Arabs continue their incessant attacks until they finally triumph and Israel, Jews and democracy disappear forever from the Middle East, and ultimately the world. Maybe there will be some crocodile tears in Europe, maybe not.  Depends if Europe will be speaking Arabic of Farsi by then. Alternatively, if Israel wins its war with terror, and that is a big "if" given the forces of evil arrayed against it, then both parties may move forward to a better future, and again as per Winston Churchill in a different setting, to "

move forward into broad, sunlit uplands". 

I know who I will be supporting. 

Church of Nativity - guest writer - World Heritage Site

Should the Church of the Nativity be a World Heritage Site? Of course it should. However, a friend wrote much of the paragraph below on the current aim of the Palestinian Authority to use the designation for political purposes. Given the desecration over time by the Palestinian Authority of Joseph's tomb, the historic blocking of access to Rachel's tomb and the tombs of the Patriach in Hevron by Jordanians of all non-Muslims,  to  go alongside the Buddha destruction in Afghanistan, the Cordoba church (now mosque), oppression and murder of Copts...etc., etc., it does not seem that putting the Church in the care of the Palestinian Authority would ensure religious freedom for future generations. Let's not forget the desecration of the Church by the PA's thugs in 2002, when Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigade terrorists trashed the place whilst holding monks and nuns as shields.  

How ironic that the Palestinian Authority is initiating an application to UNESCO to designate the Church of Nativity, birthplace of Jesus, as a World Heritage Site. When surrounding Arab nations attacked Israel in 1948, the last thing the Arabs were concerned about was the preservation of sacred religious sites. The British trained and commanded Arab Legion of Jordan ethnically cleansed Jewish civilians out of their holy Old City of Jerusalem and destroyed numerous holy sites including 69 synagogues, amongst them the 250 year old Hurva Synagogue. The reality is, all holy sites in Israel, including the birthplace of Jesus, are most secure in the hands of democratic Israel and the world does not require the UN or the Palestinian Authority to legislate this protection.

You are what you believe

There has been ongoing correspondence in national newspapers regarding self-decribed Messianic “Jews”, who are claiming to be Jews by virtue of the fact that they mimic some Jewish practices whilst holding Christian beliefs. This appears to have generated some confusion, but I can clear up the mess because the situation is quite simple.

If a Protestant converts to Catholicism, then they are now Catholic.

If a Hindu converts to being a Muslim, then they are now Muslim.

If a Sikh converts to Buddhism, then they are now Buddhist.

If one converts to another religion, that is now your religion. If one believes Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, accepts him as your personal saviour and worships as such, then one is a Christian. It does not matter what religion your ancestors practiced, your religion is what you now believe and practise. The Jews for Jesus organization created in the 1970’s to target Jews for conversion, fully encapsulates the argument in its very name; case closed. So, hopefully Jews for Jesus will now change their name to reflect what they should be proud to be, "Christians hoping to proselytise Jews for Jesus". Not as catchy, but accurate.
I suppose you can create an entirely new religion in the manner of Scientology and the Moonies, but at least they have the grace not to claim that they are representative of another religion. They are their own religions, as per the definition being belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.

Lord knows what to do with the religious classification of atheists though.

Happy 2011? I don't think so.

Happy 2011? Although I wish 2011 to be a happy, peaceful and successful year for the world, unfortunately, I have my doubts and fears. I believe that this coming year will be a dangerous year for democracies and freedom everywhere, and I hope that I am wrong. I don’t want to be too much of a “downer”, yet I must be a realist.

The first and over-riding danger that will face the planet is that 2011 is the year that Iran will obtain fully functioning nuclear weapons. Just writing that sentence sends a chill down my spine. It does not matter how advanced these weapons will be, but the terrorist network that roams from Tehran, through Europe, across Asia and now into South America will enable some delivery system for a death load.

The second danger is Obama’s continuing appeasement of terrorists and tyrannies at the expense of democratic allies of the US. This has been the case since his election, although he was hamstrung somewhat in 2010, as he struggled to make every basic economic mistake he could whilst sticking to his ideological goals of reshaping American society in his graven image.

This is the year to be very afraid, because in spite of Obama’s economic malfeasance, the US economy will recover somewhat. It has simply dropped too far, too quickly for there not be a bounce and public spending will be at a level high enough to enable a claimed recovery. Not co-incidentally, this will be in time for the beginning of the new Presidential election season.

Timing is everything and in August 2011, the rumours are too strong to ignore that the US will succumb to reward terrorism, and under Obama’s direct instructions, will vote for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the heartlands of Judeo-Christian history. This is bad on so many fronts.

Firstly, it proves to terrorists that it does not matter how ludicrous the basis or hate inspired is your cause, if you stick at it long enough, revise history long enough, the world will go along with it. It also helps to have oil money on your side.

Secondly, there is no reason for a fellow democracy to side with the creators of global terrorism to create an anti-democratic theocratic clan ridden misogynistic and homophobic country at the expense of a democracy that has been forever plagued by attacks upon its citizenry. The current Obama administration encourages violence by refusing to even request that the PLO/PA refrain from anti-Semitic incitement yet arranging for Lt General Dayton to train a terrorist army in waiting, whilst euphemistically calling the heavily brigades a "police" force.

Thirdly, the destruction of religious freedom for Jews and Christians for the benefit of a contrived Islamic “history”. The US will support the stripping away of the ability of a religion to freely visit its holy places in peace. No longer will Jews be able to visit the Tombs of the Patriarchs, Rachel and Joseph, Shechem or a thousand other places resonant from the Bible and places in which Jews lived until ethnically cleansed by Transjordan (now Jordan) in 1948. Already, since the idiocy of Oslo 1993 and the dumping of the PLO mafia over the local Arab population, we have seen the harassment of Christians in the regions vacated by Israel to the PA and the severe reduction in their numbers.

And worst of all, US support for division of Jerusalem and the handing over of the site of the Jewish Temple wholly to the whims of the Wakf. Again, in support of ethnic cleansing of Jews from the area because Jordan managed this odious feat for 19 years out of more than 3,000 years of Jewish attachment to the entire city.  Obama and his cronies deny the right of Jews to build homes on Jewish owned land in their historic capital. Land and building freezes which the PA had never demanded prior to Obama's instigation. In spite of the fashioning of world wide support for such an evil idea of another ultimately theocratic Muslim tyranny, the US erstwhile allies will understand that this means that the US cannot be relied upon.

Bizarrely, Obama can only win on a personal front from such a stance though. It solidifies the radical left wing support of his party for the revised history, although why the left-wing support is congealing around a movement that stands for everything against supposed left wing values is beyond me. Note that August 2011 when this effective creation of a new Muslim state is expected to happen will be just before Obama baptizes himself in re-election fever. He will ride the coat-tails of the economic bounce and his “peace” credentials, and the fact that the Republican party currently has no credible candidate to replace him.

Obama’s craven cowardice in the face of the threats facing freedom will not be reported as appeasement, until the pages of history are turned decades from now, hopefully in a democracy somewhere.

Unfortunately, the only moral leadership in the world appears to be that of Canada but it is not a country big enough to lead the free world, and the morality is largely being borne by a minority government. Australia is not far behind, but between them, these two countries only call on a population of approximately 50 million souls. The UK is effectively bankrupt, both in moral standing and funding, driven there by the delinquency of a social welfare state that expanded beyond the capacity of society to pay for it or impose any duty or judgment on those making ever-increasing demands. The rest of a Europe dominated by Germany and France are hardly placed to take moral leadership on any front, never mind that they are struggling to stay afloat economically, each with their own welfare demands.

Iran is laughing at all this, so is the axis of Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, whilst Turkey will continue to plan to get what it can get from Europe whilst lurching into the Islamist worlds. You may have noticed that I not mentioned Al Qaeda, and this is because it has metamorphosed more into an inspiration than a truly organized terrorist group. It is still operational with the Taliban across Afghanistan and Pakistan, but its true offensive operations are limited to that neighbourhood. Nonetheless, it serves as a recruiting call to many across the globe who ascribe to the same belief system, and who are prepared to act without significant material support. It used to be said that an army travels on its stomach, but this new force is an army travelling on communicating its hate-filled beliefs.

Once Israel is effectively terminated this year, does any rational person truly believe that this will end the clash of civilizations? How goes the rest of the free world when good has been framed as bad, and true evil assisted in reaching its declared goals? All questioning lost to what is deemed to be political incorrectness if it does not fit into a pre-determined revisionism, and castigation for those who read contemporaneous history books and remember what really happened. The question is where next, and as the Soviet Union fell, so will America be believed to be ripe for a fall. No country seeking to compete with the US has no reason to stand in the way of this, as it seeks to replace the US hegemony. The US could have been a power for good, instead it is withering away from inaction in the face of an evil spread.

Obama will be remembered as the President who not only appeased but sided with fiction and terror, and set back freedom for many in the world, not only in this generation. In future years, he will be seen as Chamberlain is now. A man trying to do his best in good will but failing, or refusing to see, the evil that besets the world. Earth is about to get a lot more dangerous this year.

Those who practice freedom of thought and action should be truly afraid of 2011. Happy New Year.

I hope I am entirely wrong.

Toronto's next Mayor - what is at stake on October 25

Toronto will elect its next mayor on Monday October 25, 2010. There are 3 head line candidates, of which only 2 have a chance of winning. I have heard all of them speak live and these are my conclusions.

The 2 candidates with a chance of winning are Rob Ford, a current councillor, and a Liberal Party insider, George Smitherman.

Rob Ford - you get what you see. Someone hard-working, committed to his word with rough edges. He plays hockey and gets into fights on the ice, drinks beer and has smoked weed. In other words, a typical Canadian, which has not go down well with the media elites in Toronto. He is not a great speaker, but his content is clear and straight-forward, and always attempts to do what he says. You may not like his ideas (I do actually), but like Margaret Thatcher, there will be no ambiguity about what he aims to do.

And Smitherman, who should be regarded as the Liberal Party's poor choice to support when they had Rocco Rossi. However, it is all about internal connections on that front. When speaking, Smitherman came off as smug, mouthed some platitudes and like a good career politician simply did not answer the relatively easy questions asked, but went off at tangents. It was surprising because the questions were right along his sweet spots of art & culture, Pride and transit, and the audience was probably most skewed towards him at the outset. All candidates were asked about Toronto funding for the gay Pride parade in light of the inclusion of the anti-Semitic QAIA group, yet Smitherman was only concerned with the effect on the gay community, not the fact that city money was supporting hatred of a minority. Because some in the gay community happen to be racist, the issue of funding became complicated for him and even though they are taking tax-payers' money, it is up to the gay community to sort out. I cannot imagine Smitherman thinking that a homophobic group wanting to join the Santa Claus parade that receives city funding should be allowed to do so in the interests of free speech, nor that the determination of the homophobic group should be left to Santa Claus, his reindeer and the elves. Rob Ford, to his credit, said the issue is not complicated and that property tax-payers money should not go to any group, parade or institution which includes hate-speech in its programs.

It seemed to me that Smitherman thought he had already won the election from the way he spoke. He had an air of arrogance about his pseudo-intelligent responses befitting a career politician. So I looked into his background achievements and I just don’t see a track record of competency.

When Smitherman was the Minister of Health, there was the eHealth fiasco over which he had control and cost Ontarians approximately $1 Billion for a system that does not work. On October 21, the Ontario Auditor-General released a report finding great fault with the sole-sourcing of contracts at the Ontario Ministry of Health, leading to over-priced and inefficient service when Smitherman was Minister of Health. When he was in charge of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, we had numerous scandals with the lottery sellers stealing prizes from the rightful winners and no investigation, never mind action, was ordered by Smitherman. Smitherman was Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's deputy, a man who promised no new taxes in his manifesto and literally on the day he took power instituted a health tax of nearly $1,000 per year per person. He called it a fee, not a tax, so that was alright with the electorate when re-election came round. It was also alright with the electorate when a winning campaign that bordered right on the edge of racism was used to attack equal school funding for minorities. We also have Smitherman's time as Ontario Energy Minister pushing for green energy with solar energy rebates to big businesses who can afford to put in such panels (i.e. Ikea) at approximately 5.5 times the cost of current electricity costs. I must admit, I do not know much about Toronto's time with Barbara Hall as its mayor and Smitherman as her deputy, but I do hear that she was not missed when she went. That is also reportedly a time when Smitherman was a "party drug" addict for 5 years, whatever a party drug is. Whilst we may forgive that faux pas of 5 years, do we really need to forget that someone who represented the city's interests during that period was high?

In summary, Smitherman has proved his incompetence at various levels of provincial and municipal politics. He is a career politician and has had no accountability for his failures. To me, he appears to have rightfully earned the nickname of "Slitherman". Can Toronto afford another incompetent mayor for 4 years and still retain a decent quality of life?

That is what is at stake on October 25.

$Wayne$ $Rooney$

Not much comment needed on this saga. As I mentioned before "it is purely about money for him and his agent". Either way, his gangster related agent wins. A transfer fee commission now, or a bigger transfer fee commission later as a longer contract has been signed together with a renegotiation fee.

Still worry about Rooney losing it completely and doing a Gazza.

Spoke too Sooney

Looks like I spoke too soon regarding Wayne Rooney's travails, and it has emerged that he wants to leave the football club that has nurtured the raw talent acquired from Everton. If he wants to leave Manchester United for footballing reasons, then it is incomprehensible, although common sense is not one of his strong-points. He has won more trophies in a few years at United than most top-flight professionals win in their whole careers. There are only a handful of top class, truly great global clubs, these being Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan. At this time, only Real Madrid could afford his wages, yet he would not fit into their current playing system. Inter have Benitez at the helm for the moment, so that is not a good idea if one wants to have a successful footballing career.

So, we are left with the conclusion that he needs to leave the UK for an undisclosed reason, or more likely, it is purely about money for him and his agent. Agents earn more from transfers than renegotiating contracts. Who can afford his wages? Probably 3 clubs only... Real Madrid, Chelski and Dubai City. Who could he possibly win things with? Only Real Madrid and Chelski. Yet he could still earn phenomenal sums of money as the figurehead of Manchester United and win more European Cups and Premier Leagues.

At only 24, he should have his best playing days to come, although he has already been a professional for 8 years, so he could have already peaked. Yet there is a tragedy waiting to happen if he is guided by persons who do not have his footballing career at the forefront. Whilst it is true that he will only have a short career and money is a consideration, failure and being a bit part supporting player at another club will not provide extra income in the long term. It is hard to analyse what has happened and what is going through his head now, however, the danger is that he will end up being a Gazza, who thrilled for a short time but ultimately wasted his talents at smalller clubs than his skills deserved.

Hopefully, Wayne will come to his senses, but in the current football world where money corrupts, I fear not.