The Sydney Morning Herald revives the Koran in the toilet?

The Saturday Sydney Morning Herald print edition ran an article on Guantanamo Bay attributed to Con Coughlin from the Telegraph in London.

This line from the Sydney Morning Herald (sorry, no link seems available) caught my attention:

It is during incidents such as this that the guards have responded in controversial ways, such as the infamous incident of a Koran being flushed down a prison lavatory. But the guards are under instructions not to retaliate.

Strange, I thought, wasn't it well established that this was, at most, an allegation that the Pentagon strongly denied? Indeed, I was correct. In fact, when I searched the Telegraph to find the original article, I first found this one from last year, which notes that :

Southern Command said the inquiry had found five cases of "mishandling" of a Koran by US personnel, but no evidence it had ever been flushed down a toilet....

In the statement, Brig Gen Jay Hood, commander of the Guantanamo prison, said the inquiry found "no credible evidence" that a member of the military joint task force at Guantanamo ever flushed a Koran down a toilet. "The matter is considered closed," he stated.

Well, that Con Coughlin guy must be very slack, I thought, forgetting that his own paper reported how this was only ever an allegation hotly denied by the Pentagon. Furthermore, in this current climate of, shall we say, high excitability by Muslims, this is one allegation you don't lightly revive. (The Telegraph article I just quoted also noted that "at least 16" people had died in Afghanistan during rioting related to this story.)

But then I found the original Con Coughlin article which the SMH reprinted. Here is what the Telegraph web version actually says:

It is during incidents such as this that the guards have responded in controversial ways, such as abusing the Koran (the famous incident of a Koran being flushed down a prison lavatory is alleged to occurred during one such confrontation.) But fearful of a repetition of the prisoner abuse that occurred at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, the guards are under instructions not to retaliate.

"We have investigated 15 allegations of abuse against the camp guards," said a Guantanamo official. "Only five of them have been upheld, and the appropriate action has been taken against the guards."

For your convenience, the parts in bold are those left out by the SMH. What a difference an editor can make, deleting all reference to the words "alleged" and "investigation".

Of course, it is possible that the SMH lifted an earlier version of the article which appears now on the Telegraph website. I am not aware of any quick and easy way of checking.

But if that is not the explanation, this would be a pretty appalling example of editing designed to re-establish a hotly disputed and inflammatory allegation into fact.

UPDATE: In last night's version of this, the quote from the print version of the SMH was given as referring to "the famous incident"; but on re-reading the post this morning, I am pretty sure (without having the print paper with me at the moment) that it was actually "infamous incident". I have therefore amended the post, but will double check later today. Doesn't make any real difference to the issue.

Some housekeeping

I have fixed up some bad links I added recently over at the side.

Careful readers may note the addition of a very subtle "donate" button at bottom of the side bar. My fantasy as to how I become rich from this is that a millionaire who loves cats and has a schizophrenic son will read here about a possible treatment based on treating him for toxoplasma infection. The son is accepted for research project, and cured, and grateful millionaire gives blog writer a great deal of money in thanks for bringing this obscure bit of news to his attention.

Hey, we all have our fantasies...

Of course, even non millionaires are invited to compensate me for not doing my work bills while I blog during the day.

I also want to point out that a post which I consider important, the lengthy one about scientists possibly causing the earth's disappearance through the creation of thousands of mini black holes at the CERN particle accelerator, has now slipped off this front page. If you have not done so before, please read it, especially if you know any physicist type who is prepared to look into the arguments and not instantly dismiss them.

I really enjoy blogging, and because of this it has become very distracting at work. I must reduce the time I spend at work looking for stuff that I think is worth adding here. In particular, I do need to do some serious catching up on sending out bills.

I therefore intend no posts to here, if I can avoid it, for the rest of this week. I hope the world does nothing too interesting in that time.

Would a simple "yes" or "no" be too much to ask for?

AskPhilosophers.org

I found the above site via Philosophy Now, the only philosophy magazine I see at any newsagent.

The idea is that you can submit any question and one or more of a team of philosophers may try to answer it.

Of course, being male, one of the first sections I went to was on sex. The first question was about sex with animals. Guess what - the philosophical jury is still out on that one. Typical.

Update on Cats and Schizophrenia

Imperial College London - Scientists find stronger evidence for link between cat faeces and schizophrenia

I missed this update last month on the research that is indicating that at least some cases of schizophrenia are caused by cats. (Or at least toxoplasma gondii, which cats carry.) I have posted previously on this - my lengthiest post is here.

Dr Joanne Webster added: "By showing that drugs used to treat schizophrenia affect the parasite T. gondii, this does provide further evidence for its role in the development of some cases schizophrenia. It may be that anti-psychotic drugs work partly by parasite inhibition, and this could lead to new medicine and treatment combinations."

The researchers have already begun human clinical trials using anti-T. gondii treatments as adjunct therapies for schizophrenia with researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

A new (and previously unexpected) type of therapy that even helps a relatively small percent of sufferers would be a big advance.

Yay for Firefox

Security Fixes Come Faster With Mozilla

I must get around to putting one of their buttons on here one day.

Incidentally, I have put a link on this site to Sourceforge, which is a great site to go looking for open source software in all sorts of categories. While I guess no "hard core" gamer would likely bother with open source copies, I don't fall into that category, and free stuff for kids doesn't have to be perfect.

For myself, I have have found some open source astronomy and space simulation programs very good indeed.

Ritalin dangers

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Ritalin heart attacks warning urged after 51 deaths in US

From the above story:

Ritalin, extensively prescribed to calm hyperactive children in the UK, should carry the highest-level warning that it may increase the risk of death from heart attacks, US experts recommended yesterday.

There have been 51 deaths among children and adults taking drugs for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in the US since 1999. Yesterday the UK licensing authority, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said nine children had died in this country among a smaller population on medication. They declined to reveal the children's ages because of the possibility of identification.


This will soon be a big story in the Australian media too, given our fondness for the drug.

A post to Huffington Post I can agree with

The Blog | Gabriel Rotello: Huntington: 1 - Reformers: 0 | The Huffington Post

It's on the Cartoon Wars, and I don't think I disagree with anything it says. Maybe the first time ever that has happened.

Unhappy Lefty Enclaves

Welcome to the angst-ridden inner west - National - smh.com.au

The above article from the Sydney Morning Herald looks at why inner West Sydney, which is a very safe Labor area, comes up as the unhappiest place in Australia.

Anthony Albanese thinks it is because they all care too much:

The MP, Anthony Albanese, said the malaise of his constituents could be explained partly by their sense of compassion: "Most of them don't know anyone who voted for John Howard - or so they think - and they're frustrated," he said. "They can't believe there are people in Australia who don't support asylum seekers. Combine that with high mortgages, two working parents, a lack of child care, stress and lack of time, and it affects the quality of their life. "There's also a lot of inequality, with many indigenous, overseas-born and poorer people at the Marrickville end of the electorate - though often they can be the happiest."

That bit about the insularity of young Left leaning voters rings very true. As is the bit about their inability to believe anyone could disagree with them. This is all a part of many on the Left's rather "precious" belief that their version of morality in action is the only rational one.

Just in time for Valentines Day

The Australian: Marriage rollercoaster mostly downhill [February 13, 2006]

I am not sure how seriously to take this study, but I am pretty sure there have been similar ones with slightly different results.

(I thought I had read that some scientists believe that the timing of marriage breakups is related to the average time it takes children to become somewhat independent of parents - around 5 to 7 years. I could be wrong, though.)

A Mark Steyn moment

Toon-deaf Europe is taking the wrong stand

Tim Blair has already extracted a bit from the above Mark Steyn column, but the concluding paragraphs are more important:

"The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.

But then it's patiently explained to us for the umpteenth time that they're not representative, that there are many many "moderate Muslims.''

I believe that. I've met plenty of "moderate Muslims" in Jordan and Iraq and the Gulf states. But, as a reader wrote to me a year or two back, in Europe and North America they aren't so much "moderate Muslims" as quiescent Muslims. The few who do speak out wind up living in hiding or under 24-hour armed guard, like Dutch MP Ayaab Hirsi Ali.

So when the EU and the BBC and the New York Times say that we too need to be more "sensitive" to those fellows with "Behead the enemies of Islam" banners, they should look in the mirror: They're turning into "moderate Muslims," and likely to wind up as cowed and silenced and invisible."

Just for a bit of colour

I saw someone demonstrating Corel Painter last week, and decided to play around with some much simpler software that came with a tablet I brought to play with last year. (Graphics tablets, even a little cheap one like mine, are a lot of fun.) The above picture is meant to be an "oil painting", but on here it sort of just looks like a grainy photo. (It should look a little better in a larger version if you click on it.) Corel Painter, though, really does a good job of letting you make an oil painting from a photo. (You have to do the paint strokes yourself, not just a "one click" choice.)
Update: I originally had different version of the picture here, but I have improved it and replaced with the one above.

More on the Cartoon Wars

It really is impossible to not comment on this matter, especially as I saw further demonstrations on SBS news tonight (which apparently took place after Friday prayers around the globe.)

Especially if you have never seen the Arab world's history of appalling cartoons of Jews and Israel, I suggest you have a look at an excellent post at The Thin Man Returns. It deals with the issue purely pictorially, and they have done an excellent job.

Of course, Tim Blair has been keeping track of the commentary from the press, and I have not felt a need to repeat what he and others have covered. However, I don't think he has linked to Matt Price's piece in the Australian today, which was quite personal and therefore more interesting than some of the punditry.

Last Wednesday, Philip Adams on Radio National interviewed Robert Fisk about the issue. Unfortunately, there are no transcripts of that show available; you have to listen to a recording of it on the Web. In the following recollection of the show, I may not be perfectly precise with the words, but I am confident it is generally accurate.

As shown in some appearances last year on ABC's Lateline, Fisk has become terribly rambling in the way he answers interviewers questions. He was at his worst with Adams.

Adams read out to Fisk an email that he (Adams) had received from a listener which made the point that it appeared that Europeans should be concerned that Muslims want to undermine the separation of Church and State which Europeans had to fight hard to achieve, and only achieved relatively recently in historical terms.

Fisk's response was a long ramble about how in Lebanon (he lives in Beirut) he is able to get on quite well with all the Muslims he has to interact with (including his maid, who was cooking his pizza lunch) and people he works with and knows on the street. He really went on and on about this, as if politeness demonstrated to a white male in Lebanon really answered the issue.

Then, towards the end of the ramble, Fisk stated that Muslims and Christians in Lebanon cannot marry. They have to go to Cyprus to do that. And he mentioned that the Lebanon Christian minority (although at 30-something percent, a pretty big minority) are badly discriminated against. (I presume he meant in other ways, but he gave no detail).

I immediately thought - "doesn't this support the letter writer's point?". But of course, Adams is notoriously sympathetic to Fisk's view of the world, and made no challenge at all. In fact he ended with a comment along the lines "so it is not an appropriate time to be bringing up Huntington's garbage about clash of civilisations." To which Fisk replied "exactly Uncle Phil [he definitely used the term "Uncle Phil"]..and I am glad you said 'garbage'".

(For the US take on religious based discrimination in Lebanon, see this link. They obviously don't view it as all that dire [perhaps especially for a Middle East country], but it is clear that the political and judicial system, with its ties to religion, is still a million miles for the separation of church and State that was the point of the email read to Fisk.)

To be fair, I would not have called myself a fully paid up subscriber to the "clash of civilisations" idea either; but what is so fascinating about the cartoon controversy is that what should be such a trivial matter is pushing me (and I suspect most of the Western populace) towards that school of thought much more than, say, a moderate sized terrorist attack like that on the London Underground. The latter is easily put down to a handful of madmen, but the cartoon issue causes one to despair at how thousands or millions of Muslims appear so capable of manipulation by their religious and political leaders.

(Of course, Muslims are not uniquely capable of manipulation - the German populace paid the price for its decade of madness in the 1930's. But with Islam, it seems to have been stuck in a medieval mind frame for some long, there is no obvious way that a liberal enlightenment is going to take hold within a similar time frame that the mad German quasi-religious nationalism was dealt with.)

UPDATE: I have now found a Robert Fisk opinion piece in which he makes all the same points he made in the interview above (but without the ramble about how is treated politely in Lebanon.)

The similarity he draws to the controversy 20 or so years ago over "The Last Temptation of Christ" (or for that matter, "The Life of Brian") is vastly exaggerated. Those movies attracted media discussion, some angry letters to the editor, and (apparently) one death when one person (not a mob) set fire to a cinema. But thousands on the streets torching US or British embassies? Demands that the movie makers be killed? I didn't notice much of that myself.

(Incidentally, I thought "Life of Brian" was likely to have a worse effect on belief than "Last Temptation", but that is a discussion for another time.)

Both the reaction to, and the nature of, the insult perceived by the faithful was vastly different. I think most Westerners seeing the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in the turban would realise it just as likely can be taken as a dig against the militant side of Islam alone, rather than at Mohammed himself. Or indeed it may reflect a Western perception of Islam overall that moderate Muslims could have chosen to try to refute, instead of allowing their radical parts help confirm it by violent reaction, and entering into the freedom of speech argument in a way which indicated that they do have a problem with separation of Church and State.

I suppose the meaning or intent of the cartoon is ambiguous, but it is hardly as if the Muslim leaders who chose to use it to inflame anti western sentiment were going to go on a TV talk show with the cartoonists to discuss it.

Anyway, the other point is that Fisk really seems to be trying to have it both ways in his article. He denies that the cartoons have anything to do with a "clash of civilisations," while also pointing out that radical Islam (which he seems to agree is dangerous) is making inroads in government in the Middle East as a result of Western approved democracy. He indicates that many Muslims want more moderation in their religion (let's hope that is true), but does not the political ascendancy of the radical elements helps support the notion of a forthcoming "clash of civilisations"?

Update 2: Readers of Tim Blair would already have been directed to a very critical review of Fisk's recent book on the Middle East. I am somewhat surprised to find that the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald (in "Spectrum") has printed a shorter, but almost equally savage, review of the book (although this is actually a re-print from the Daily Telegraph). At the moment I can't find a link to it. But I have found one to the New Youk Times review. It is more sympathetic, but still finds many faults with Fisk's approach:

"Journalists are not automatons but sentient men and women, and the "extinction of self" that supposedly scientific German historians once preached is an illusion. And yet Fisk's brand of reporting-with-attitude has obvious dangers. His ungovernable anger may do his heart credit, but it does not make for satisfactory history. His book contains very many gruesome accounts of murder and mutilation, and page after page describing torture in almost salacious detail. This has an unintended effect. A reader who knew nothing about the subject - the proverbial man from Mars - might easily conclude from "The Great War for Civilisation" that the whole region is mad, bad and dangerous to know, which is presumably not what Fisk wants us to think. Nor does he much abet the argument by George W. Bush and Tony Blair that Islam is essentially a peaceful and gentle religion. Most of the Muslims met here seem cruel and crazy, exemplifying Shelley's line about "bloody faith, the foulest birth of time." "

Why stop at 100?

Aljazeera.Net - Leaders call for calm in cartoon row

From the above report:

"As Muslim protests over the cartoons subsided on Thursday, a Taliban commander in Afghanistan warned that 100 fighters had enlisted as suicide bombers and Denmark said it feared for the safety of its troops in Iraq."

These guys seriously need to get a life. So to speak.

The kindest cut?

news @ nature.com-Cutting the risk of HIV-Male circumcision protects both women and men from infection.

The above story suggests that, especially in Africa, routine circumcision could make a big effect on the HIV rates.

This will send the anti-circumcision crowd into a frenzy of denial. The absolute fanaticism with which circumcision is criticised by some groups is really amazing. There is even a lot of stuff (about 138,000 Google hits) on the web about foreskin restoration (a lot of stretching involved.)

All seems to me to be ridiculously out of proportion, especially as there would seem to be kinder ways of performing a circumcision now than the old ways. But medicine is the subject of fads and disagreements just as much as other fields of human endeavour, and in Australia I believe it is quite difficult to find a doctor who will do one now unless it is clearly medically needed.

Sounds like a trap for young players

Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Bhanged to rights

While stupid Australian youngsters can hardly fail to know that possessing drugs in Singapore or Indonesia is a quick ticket to jail or worse, it would seem that there may soon be plenty of room for confusion by those on the Contiki tour of Europe as they swing from Amsterdam to Italy.

A new anti drug zeal has gripped the Italian government, it seems:

"A vote in the Italian parliament yesterday means that a new, zero-tolerance policy on drugs is almost certain to become law within the next couple of months. With the aroma of defiantly smoked cannabis floating in the air outside, lawmakers approved a measure that abolishes the distinction between hard and soft drugs and makes possession, as well as dealing, a criminal offence...

Yesterday's bill re-establishes the concept, abolished in 1993, of a normal daily supply as a way of distinguishing between drug-users and drug-traffickers. The task of fixing precise quantities for each drug will be delegated to the health ministry.

Anyone caught with more than the permitted amount will be liable to between six and 20 years in jail. Those found with less also risk trial and conviction, but the penalties will be a lot less severe....

How the proposed new law will affect foreigners is still unclear, but the original draft proposals included a provision according to which tourists found with even a single ecstasy pill would have their passports impounded."

At least the food in Italian jails might be better than here.

Around the blogs

* Andrew Norton over at Catallaxy does a sterling job looking at the David Throsby booklet "Does Australia Need a Cultural Policy?" launched last night by Cate Blanchett. Of course, if Cate was involved, you could always guess that the document was going to be an anti Howard diatribe. It is, and a boringly predictable one at that.

I really think that the public mood for substantial government funding of cultural matters has swung more or less permanently against it.

* Mark Bahnisch helps disprove his own argument that lefty's do a have a sense of humour - honest- by agreeing with wacky humourist Mark Latham's complaint that the ABC was not taking the last election seriously enough. (I am paraphrasing here: that complaint was directed againt Micheal Brissendon having too much fun in his commentary pieces).

* Tim Dunlop has a calmer moment reflecting that issues that involve a "conflict of goods" can make it particularly difficult for consensus views to be reached in liberal democracies. He even mentions that this is why the wiretapping issue in America is not biting politically as much as some think it should. Makes sense. But he has written a string of posts (go find them yourself, it's late) in which he has carried on as if the wiretapping issue is obviously a horrible travesty, legal opinion on this is all going one way, and has a go at a commenter by saying : "But I certainly accept your implicit point that you have nothing useful to contribute except bluster, lies and partisanship."

Where did the nice Tim Dunlop go?

A story on Islam in Indonesia

The Jakarta Post - Padang mayor defends sharia as good for development

From the above story, (which is well worth reading in whole):

"Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar dismisses concerns about his mayoralty's gradual enactment of sharia, arguing that Islamic law is beneficial to development because it makes people more devout....

"Does religion hinder the government's effort?...It even helps it, right? So if I do something related to religion...so people are more devout...it will surely help improve morality, thereby boosting regional development as security will be assured, adolescent delinquency can be curbed and crimes reduced." "

But what exactly does this region require?:

" The mayoralty issued a bylaw in 2003 obliging junior high school students to be proficient in reciting the Koran, and since then has given an instruction on female students and civil servants to wear the headscarf in public, recommended crash courses in Islamic teachings during the Ramadhan fasting month as well as study sessions every Sunday morning for students.

Last month, it asked all mayoralty employees to pay alms from their monthly salary. "

So, it helps development by making its local government employees poorer?

And education wise:

" Like Padang, most cities and regencies have bylaws requiring the wearing of the headscarf by students and civil servants, as well as the ability to recite the Koran, beginning when they are young. Elementary school students who cannot read the Koran cannot move on to junior high, and people must be able to recite Koranic verses to marry."

Oh yes, this sounds just so helpful to economic development.

But note that there are objections to these developments:

" Academics and politicians have expressed alarm at the central government's inaction amid a flood of religion-based regional regulations with, they say, the potential to upset relations between religious groups, especially in encroaching on freedoms of minorities...

For Sudarto, director of Pusaka, a non-governmental organization promoting pluralism, the wave of regulations shows religion being manipulated by those in power"

This is all a worry.

The Economist on Hamas in Palestine

Palestine | To whom will Hamas listen? | Economist.com

A good article about the Hamas election win in the Economist.

From the article:

"Its campaign focused on domestic problems: corruption, lawlessness, unemployment. Its leaders talked mainly in slogans. The questions everyone is now asking are ones they simply did not expect to face. How will you form a government with no experience? Will you recognise Israel? Will your militias be absorbed into the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces? Will you implement sharia law? What concessions will you make to continue getting foreign aid?

They also highlight Hamas's internal differences. It decides things by consensus, and keeps its true leaders' identities secret, for fear that Israel will target them."

Reminds me of the Labor Party and unions here. Boom boom.

The King funeral

FrontPage magazine.com :: Cheapening Coretta Scott King's Legacy by Ben Johnson

I missed any TV news coverage of what happened at the memorial service of Coretta Scott King recently, but I noted that it had attracted a lot of comment from the Right over its "politicisation" by many of the speakers.

The above article gives a summary (from the Right's point of view) and it does indeed sound that it was taken as an opporunity to shaft Bush (who was in the audience) over every conceiveable current issue.

I like this bit of irony in particular:

"After the good reverend finished equating U.S. troops with terrorists – a section that drew a two-minute-long standing ovation at a funeral – Jimmy Carter tried his hand at it. Crying crocodile tears, Carter said everyday life became “difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps.” That, too, drew applause. (Later, the same crowd heartily cheered Ted Kennedy, whose brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, approved the secret government wiretapping that made the Kings’ lives so “difficult.”)"

Amazing.

Crustaceans to the rescue

ScienceDaily: Antarctic Krill Provide Carbon Sink In Southern Ocean

Today's second interesting story from Science Daily (above) is about how krill help reduce CO2 levels:

"Lead Author Dr Geraint Tarling from BAS says, "We've known for a long time that krill are the main food source for whales, penguins and seals, but we had no idea that their tactics to avoid being eaten could have such added benefits to the environment. By parachuting down they transport carbon which sinks ultimately to the ocean floor -- an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 35 million cars -- and this makes these tiny animals much more important than we thought....

Krill live in the open ocean, mainly in large swarms and reach particularly high numbers in Antarctica. The migrations that they perform (called Diel Vertical Migrations, DVM) are a way of transporting carbon to the ocean's interior because they eat phytoplankton at the surface and excrete their waste at depth. Antarctic krill can grow up to a length of 6cm and can live for 5-6 years. They are one of the largest protein resources on Earth and can be fished easily with large nets for human consumption.

There is enough Antarctic krill to fill the total volume of the new Wembley stadium 1500 times. Spread out on the floor, they would cover the entire area of Scotland. The total weight of Antarctic krill is calculated between 50-150 million tonnes. "

I hate to be the person to point this out, but I presume that if we had less whales eating the krill, it would help reduce global warming.

Don't tell the Japanese whaling commission about this!