Some more insights in the latest events in Israel vs Hisbollah.

I very much appreciate that LinkTV offers us westerners some detailed insights and translations into the situation.

Israel has been making serious threats against Iran’s nuclear program in recent weeks. But one has to wonder: when Israel bombed Saddam’s power plant they didn’t make a huge public announcement - they just dropped the bombs.

Iran’s threat to cut of international oil supply with a naval blockade doesn’t strike me as very smart either. Why punish your customers when you yourself defied the international community.

When you think $140 for a barrel of oil was expensive - just wait … when these idiots start another war in the Middle East the price could easily double. Petrol and food prices will skyrocket and there will be even more starvation and food riots.

If this happens Iran and Israel can very proud of themselves.

Let’s hope the next winters will be warm and mild.

BBC News: Gun T-shirt ‘was a security risk’

This guy was denied his flight, because of the very T-Shirt he is wearing on the photo above. How can a comic character be a threat to public security?!

Oh, the stupidity!

It’s not Miss Liberty who awaits you in the United States of America - it’s someone from Homeland Security waiting to take your prints and a nice snapshot of your terrorist face.

Welcome to America!

Here is a troubling image: Chinese soldiers carrying monk robes - why? I am pretty sure they are not going to a fancy dress party or converting to Buddhism. So why are these guys haven ALL shaved heads (short hair is normal in the military, but all freshly shaved?) and carrying these robes?

I wouldn’t be surprised if China would be pushing the truth on the propaganda front to make the monks looks as like “aggressors”.

Does anyone know the story behind this?

All American presidential candidates always reinforce that national mantra of a strong defense and military against all these evildoers out there. The US spends more on defense and espionage than the rest of the world COMBINED.

But there is little or no reflection that the most expensive security and military apparatus has totally failed to destroy Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and Al-Quaeda. Instead America has helped with it’s bad policies and military failures to drive young Muslims in droves to suicide squads and terrorist groups all over the world.

So if Americans really want change - change your military doctrine, reduce the amounts of “security, intelligence agencies - and bases all over the world. If you do that you could CHANGE the current miserable state of your education, social systems and crappy state of your infrastructure.

Change would mean getting rid of that insecure bunker mentality - and accepting that no super weapon can stop hate. Friendship and diplomacy can make friends and sympathy - and this will protect you much better in the long run.

Osama is only dangerous, because people support his cause or are willing to look the other way.

Hmm, he obviously he can run and hide - pretty well. It is odd that the global war or terror seems to have forgotten the world’s top terrorist.

Click image for closer look.

Apart from the many unsolved questions of 9/11 and mysteries surrounding this even - this is one amazing image.

I am a big fan of Frontline and it many great documentation - not only because you can watch so many great reports online. This one is important, because it shows what really happened at Abi Graib and HOW it happened. I still can’t belief that Rumsfeld is still in Office and this Gonzales guy got even a bigger job.

I hope that one day they will be brought to justice, like Osama or any other terrorist - because what Rumsfeld ‘allowed’ was political terrorism - nothing else.

Please go and watch it.

Since religious zealots are so en vogue these days here is a reminder of a good old tradition: stoning. A cruel punishment for the eager masses to participate. Since more and more people are calling for tougher punishments for all sort of crimes and even anti-social behavior they should remember WHY we developed a more human system of imprisonment and punishment in the west.

A legal system that is not based on religious rules, nor morals based on any Gods. And the notion was to regard criminals still as fellow citizens - and not as ‘bad apples’ that had to be destroyed or locked away forever.

I think the mob should do the dirty work themselves and have the images burned into their souls - so they never forget.

First dig a whole for your victim.

Call some friends, find some stones - and let’s begin …

It should be said, that stoning is a slow process - it takes some serious battering to kill someone - and watch their agony.

Stoning is still used in some countries.

More? video of an actual modern stoning (not recommended as family entertainment)

BBC News: article, international reactions and images

President Pervez Musharraf has stepped on the brakes and clamped down on the country. Pakistan has seen a lot of political turmoil in it’s short history - today’s situation is nothing new.

Will we see a peaceful solution? Hardly. Will we see more bombs and violence from militants and fundamentalists? Certainly. Some countries are on a hard and long road to Democracy. Let’s hope that the Islamists don’t take over the country, it’s nuclear weapons and huge military.

“The American Christian fundamentalists are nothing like the Taliban.”

The Taliban used football fields to execute people. They enforced stoning and other cruel laws of the Sharia. They suppressed women, they disliked music, drugs and movies - all that fun stuff. A terrible regime of orthodox believers. Agreed the Taliban were terrible.

American Christian fundamentalists so far haven’t killed anyone - their actions are within the law of the land. Physical violence isn’t anywhere near the Talibans bloody actions. So the American fundamentalists are ‘better’ then their afghan counterparts?

Measuring a society or group just by their usage of physical violence is a bad and not very precise tool.

The basic concept of fundamentalism is that their version of ‘reality’ is the only truth that is acceptable. Anything else can (maybe) tolerated, but never accepted.

Visit www.americanfundamentalists.com to view the image in a larger size - and learn some other stuff as well.

But acceptance of plurality is the most important cornerstone of our modern democracies. This very acceptance is shown in the rule of law that everyone is the ’same’: we all have the same rights, the same obligations - although we are different individuals and by no means the same.

Religions fundamentalists and modern states both have laws and rules, which more or less make sense. But the very difference is who made the law: either they are eternal, because they were made by some God or they are in constant development, because they are made by man and still adapted, expanded and changed.

This also shows a very basic psychological element of the fundamentalist: with a rule set given by your eternal Overlord you have a ‘perfect’ and static system to live by. Not much surprise there. Very different to a pluralists society that continuously changes itself. Although your life might be difficult at times you at least know with a fundamentalist mindset what is right or wrong.

We are right! We are right! We are right!

Here we encounter another problem with fundamentalists: anything that is ‘wrong’ according to his/her believe basic system has to be changed. These people are on a holy mission. Now this is very contrary to ‘in the name of the people’ when you want to change society ‘in the name of the Lord’.

In a Democracy you need the consent of the majority, you need to agree. In a fundamentalist system there is nothing to agree on, no need for debate or even change. Anything that comes from the Lord is not open for discussion. This is especially explosive when a Priest or any other Leader ‘claims’ to speak the Lord’s words. How do you ask God if that person is really his Prophet? You can challenge any law, policeman and politician in court, but again there is no discussion with the word of God.

Lets come back to our American Christian fundamentalists. They are much smarter then the Taliban. They won’t use physical violence to change society - they simply change the laws so society has to adapt. Instead of accepting plurality they use lobbyism, votes and money to enforce only their fundamentalist views.

This is one of the greatest weaknesses of Democracy, that it’s very openness to change and populism allows it’s own destruction. Once again it is important to mention the Hitler lesson (Newsflash: Orangeguru says Christians are Nazis). He was voted into power and slowly abolished democratic laws one by one with popular consent until there was only ‘ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer’ (one people, one country, one Führer).

How the erosion of American pluralist consent is progressing can best be documented by the fierce fight about ‘intelligent design’ and abortion. Slowly the fundamentalists ideas are introduced and cemented into popular opinion as the only truth in small steps. I especially admire the propaganda and rhetoric’s to actually use pluralism to enforce fundamentalism: hey, why don’t you teach ‘intelligent design’ - it’s just another form of science?!

Abortion is wrong / terrible for other reasons - not because your God said so.

But the war on abortion speaks even louder: here pressure groups have been working for decades to enforce their mostly religious point of view onto American society. On PBS.org is an excellent documentation ‘The last abortion Clinic’ that show you how fundamentalist lobbyism can work wonders against pluralism.

So, is there such a thing as an American Taliban? Yes, there is! The methods might be different, but their attitude is very much the same. Most of all over the recent years we can see the ‘just anger’ and aggression against anything liberal and pluralistic getting fiercer and fiercer.

And it’s that religious righteousness I am most afraid of.

BBC News: Guilty verdicts over Madrid bombs and The Defendants and The Legacy

Politics has been served, justice … maybe. Even in times of terror the normal justice procedures have to be respected and followed. Spain had the sanity to treat this as normal as can be done - since the Spaniards are used to terrorism from ETA for many years.

Europe can only keep it’s human face and values if it doesn’t give into the culture of fear. No matter if the terrorists are from the PLO, Red Brigades (in Germany and Italy), ETA, IRA or Al-Queda.

But many European countries used 9/11 and the following attacks to introduce new Anti-Terror legislation. Politicians in every country love opportunities to grab even more power.

BBC News: NATO plans more Afghan resources

On one side I am really pissed off that NATO has to clean up America’s act in Afghanistan - since most resources have been sent to Iraq. But I think it’s worth the risk to TRY to make Afghanistan a normal country after several decades of war - even by using force to secure the country against the Taliban.

But I have to say that NATO has to try harder - look at some of the troop contributions stated in the BBC article. Austria just three (3!!!) fucking soldiers? Switzerland (not part of NATO) has two - wow! I am sure the Taliban are really scared of your mighty army knifes?

Germany has been unwilling so far to engage in any serious combat - they have focused mostly on rebuilding. The brunt of the fighting has been done by Canadians, Dutch and Americans (click links for some YouTube war porn).

I find it highly strange and fascinating that some of the darkest visions about the future come from Britain: 1984, V for Vendetta and Brave New World. We consider British society as one of the most liberal and ‘free’ societies on earth - still nightmares of total state control and suppression seem to haunt the British mind. It is also true that Britain has more camera watching it’s citizen then any other country on this planet.

I suspect it’s all connected with the good old class system, the terrible human conditions of the industrial revolution and elitist games. As much we may think of Britain as in Jane Austin terms, witty games of the upper class, there was always a dark and big underbelly in British society. Achievements like the Magna Carta and many modern democratic rights were only granted to the upper class (very much like in the rest of Europe).

We can’t lower our standards.

But since British society was also the first to experience the industrial revolution - it was also the first to encounter the horrors of this new era in human history. Terrible slums with unbelievable conditions, smog everywhere and extreme poverty. Certainly this has happened in big cities before - like in good old Rome. But never to such an extend.

And it was set in contrast to the Age of Enlightenment - new ideas about human rights and social equality. No surprise that Karl Marx (who lived for some time in London) and many other socialist thinkers were deeply influenced by the conditions of the new working class in Britain.

The British Empire of course had an ugly history of colonialism and brutal suppression. Almost any uprising was bitterly crushed. Only a few countries like America escaped the Empire by use of revolutionary force.

George Orwell started his writing career as an investigative reporter. He lived among the poorest of the poor and exposed the social dark side of this new industrial world in his great book Down and Out in Paris and London. But also his book ‘The Road to Wigan Pier‘ digs deeper into the dirt. Both books shocked Britain.

Victorian society slowly woke up to these truths and started to change. But only after social unrest and several waves of infectious diseases threatened their lifestyle too. But also revolutions first in France and later Russia ‘helped’ the upper class to see the need for change.

Oh look Charles, this is really shocking! Those poor people …

Without such minds like Karl Marx and George Orwell Britain might have never developed to such free society (yes, socialism was a big influence in the UK - although Maggie Thatcher cleared most of it out). So every country needs smart system critics as well as pressure from the street and money willing to make changes. Social development doesn’t come for free and doesn’t ‘just’ happen.

The evil image of an totalitarian society as the twin of a great society might be a good way to keep people and politicians on their toes.

The world media and it’s viewers hardly seem able to follow more then five events at a time. The war in Chechnya is still on, freedom fighters or terrorists (depending on where you stand) still try to kick Russia out of their country.

The suffering is still on, but unless the Chechnyan Rebells stage another bloody incident hardly anyone will notice.

Mr Putin stop this war!

So Mr Bush is threatening war again - against another ‘evil’ country. Iran is producing weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorists. Deja vu anyone?

Yes, Iran is run by a theocratic upper class that suppresses democracy, woman’s rights and free speech. Yes, Iran’s economy is down on it’s knees - if it weren’t for all the oil money (thanks for the high prices to the Iraq war) the country would be unable to sustain itself. Yes, Iran supports terrorists and is working on nuclear weapons. But so many countries push ahead their strategic interests, allies and defences.

But NONE of these facts gives ANY other country right to invade it or threaten it with a military attack to take out some of it’s ‘evil’ assets.

Let’s look back in history: the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was supported both by the British and Americans and he supplanted a democratically elected president. It was the bad regime of the Shah that caused the people to raise up and kick his butt! Instead of supporting the people’s revolution the Americans fought it (more details here).

Once the mullahs were in charge the Americans supported their enemies like Saddam Hussein. During the VERY bloody Iraq vs Iran war the US supplied arms and military intelligence. The Iranians didn’t loose the war, because the used massive amounts of suicide bombers (mostly teenagers).

Anyone surprised that the people of Iran consider the US of A their biggest enemy?!

But the people of Iran suffered under the Shah and now under the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. Maybe some day there will be a another revolution and maybe the people of Iran will get it right this time and find the right balance that suits their culture and needs.

But the Iranians should change their society - not someone else.

Wikipedia: Iran

BBC News: Can the World stop Genocide?

A short essay over at the BBC about the mechanics or Politics in face of Genocide and Mass Murder. Interesting and frustrating at the same time.

The UN was founded to stop and prevent wars.

Often I criticize your country, your government and even the whole of American society. Am I guilty of blatant Anti-Americanism?

No country is perfect - and hardly any remaining lonely HyperPower can be perfect as well. I think all countries are guilty of stupidity, selfishness, hypocrisy and nationalism. More vital societies are guilty of violence, terrorism and imperialism as well. China, Iran, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia are far from perfect.

But even when you Americans feel attacked by protestors in Baghdad, Berlin or Tokyo - know this: we pay attention to you, because we care. Friends do watch friends. And friends tell friends, when they think something is wrong or could be done better. And even your enemies might spot a truth about your country and shove it into your face. Nobody is perfect.

We hated Nixon, we loved the King - but who didn’t?

You would be amazed my dear Americans how many of your friends watch your internal politics very closely. Every US election is an important topic for almost any other country. The person who runs America is handed a global leverage. If your country makes big decisions the rest of us face it’s consequences as well. If your banks go bust - some of ours do too. If your economy gets shaky, ours wobble as well. If you attack someone, we also become targets, combatants and allies. America you don’t stand alone - you are deeply connected with your friends and your enemies.

Many people from so called industrial nations have traveled to your beautiful country, watched your movies, listened to your musicians, ate your food. We love American culture and sometimes we despise it. Hypocrisy? No, we don’t have to love and consume everything you produce - and you don’t love and consume everything of your own culture as well. We all choose what we like and we all find something stupid about our own cultures as well.

Culture? Imperialism? Americanism? Or simply a cheap and easy way to eat that appeals to everyone?

The Age of Enlightenment is the foundation on which American was built and Europe was transformed by it as well into a modern society.

We share the same admiration for rule of law, equal rights, freedom of religion, separation of power, social justice, human rights, capitalism, democracy and consumerism. Most countries on this planet aspire to follow that path - because it is so far the most ‘humane’ form of government we humans have created. Plus globalization transforms us all - brings us closer and makes us more the same.

In Tehran young girls have almost as many nose jobs as girls in LA or London. There are polish Country and Western singers, there are German Cowboy and Indian festivals and there is a McDonalds at almost every major street on this planet. American Idol is a British invention, Japanese people are crazy about Baseball and the best Cricket Players are Indians and Pakistanis.

We all laughed about Borat - because every culture has it’s own hypocrisy, oddities and funny bits. 

The credo of the future is Mix & Match. We take bits and pieces from each other’s culture and blend it with our own local affairs.

America has so much to offer the rest of the world.

Remember that my dear Americans. Remember all the good stuff you have developed and you can share with us. Remember that community and progress were always your greatest strengths. Remember to make friends and share the fruits of your civilization as we shall share ours with you. In the end there is only one planet and one people.

We love you America!

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz in power since 1959. Has led his country into isolation and missed the chance to open his society after the fall of communism in the late 1980’s. Although the US is also to blame for the decades of useless embargo it’s mostly Mr Castro’s fault that Cuba is such a miserable place.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe running or better ruining his country since 1980. Great work! It has fallen from being Africa’s high ranking food producer to a starving and terribly poor country. He hunted down gays, disowned white farmers and wasted huge amounts of foreign aid with his cronies.

Kim Jong-il is since 1994 continuing his fathers work of starving and killing his own people. While neighboring South Korea and China have made huge progress his country spiraled downwards. But at least he became a world famous atomic bomb salesman and movie collector. Well done little man.

Muammar al-Qaddafi - self proclaimed leader of Libya since 1969. Sponsored terror on his people and the west for decades. Although he finally succumbed to American pressure and military power his country is still in ruins. Economic reforms are badly needed although it is rich in oil. His family and cronies have a total grip on the country. The rule of his laws is harsh, there is no political culture nor any official working opposition.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud current King of the House of Saud, which is running the richest and most depressive country in the world since 1744. The House of Saud teamed up with Wahhabism - an especially conservative brand of Islam to sanctify it’s hold on power. The country riches are mostly given to the huge royal family - according to Wikipedia around 25.000 people. The Saud tyranny and grip on power is supported by the US since 1945. Most islamic terrorism is funded with Saudi money as well as manpower. Osama bin Laden is the most prominent example. Saudi clerics are among the fiercest in the region and they can rely on the official religious police to see their rules empowered.

Did I miss anyone? I am not sure to include Iran, since it’s people to continue so much to oppress themselves. So I consider it more like a fascist state with changing players at the top. Suggestions welcomed!

BBC News: Iran president in NY campus clash

I am not a big fan of Mr Ahmadinejad, but I am also not a big fan of Hypocrisy. It takes some guts to follow an invitation to ‘discuss’ political issues with a crowd of people who are fiercely aggressive and hostile to you.

Can anyone imagine Mr Bush flying to Tehran and having the same talk with Persian students? Nope.

If the Head of a foreign nation comes to visit you - you should show him some manners and courtesy - even when you consider him an enemy. He was democratically elected. He has certainly very different and sometimes odd opinions about History and current affairs - like Bush. He of course pushes his countries agenda and supports his allies (like Hamas) - like Bush supports Israel and many other nations. He pays for some freedom fighters bombs and guns - just like the US does.

Yeah, I’ll give a foreign Head of State some shit …

The USA won’t impress him nor the world by insulting him and treating him without the courtesy his position demands. And you hardly score any points for being more civilized.

I also saw the 60 Minutes interview done by CBS - and it was rather insulting too. I wish they would interview their own President and politicians the same way.

I am all for speaking truth to power, but you have to do a bit smarter, otherwise it simply sounds like a simpletons whining and leashing out at complexity.

Foreign politics is a complicated subject. That is why diplomacy was invented. And it should always be done by smart people.

Hello gun nuts! have a look at Iraq to see what happens when everybody has a weapon and insists on defending his civil rights against others.

Separation of power is not only essential for the government - also for the people. You give away your (fire) power to settle disputes by civil, peaceful and legal ways.

Bullets don’t create democracy, the rule of law does.

Evening Standard UK: Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras,