Dad faces manslaughter charge | The Courier-Mail
A trial in a very tragic case is underway in Queensland:
RYAN Brooks, 18, arrived home after a late night out with his mates and asked his mother Cheryl to get him up early for work, and then disappeared into his bedroom.
Later, he went to the fridge to get a drink of cold water and took a mouthful of clear, odourless fluid from an unmarked glass spirit bottle.
Within moments he was screaming for his mother and writhing. The liquid he had swallowed was industrial-strength cleaner used to rinse beer-lines at the hotel where his father, Ian Francis Brooks, worked as a janitor.
Ryan died 2½ weeks later, during emergency surgery at the Ipswich Hospital from massive internal bleeding. Four years on, his father is being held criminally responsible and yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to the manslaughter of the youngest of his two sons on February 24, 2002.
Criminal offences which are based on negligent or reckless behaviour with unintended effects have always made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. Some cases clearly call for criminal charges (eg, a driver who loses control while hurtling down a street and hits a pedestrian.) But when the victim is a loved member of the accused's own family, it raises the question of the value of prosecuting the accused if he has already gone through anguish over what happened. The defence will surely be playing on this, and I suspect that the jury will find it a difficult call. After all, I can see the counterargument that it would not be appropriate to abandon all cases where an accused shows sufficient grief.
Of course, if he is convicted, his personal anguish (assuming he has some) will no doubt be heavily relied upon in a plea in mitigation before punishment is decided.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Calling all benevolent time travellers
I've been posting quite a lot recently, rather to the detriment of my normal work.
The pace may need to slow a little in the lead up to the end of the financial year, unless my new scheme for how to make money from this blog succeeds.
All I need is someone from the future with access to next week's Australian lotto numbers, and a method of emailing information back in time, to provide the winning numbers for next weekend's Gold Lotto. Powerball, or any other mid-week Lotto numbers are also acceptable; I am not fussy.
If you are reading this in the future and are wondering "why should I benefit this particular jerk out of all others," well, there is no especially compelling reason, other than I have a family to support, no family riches coming my way, and have provided you with a way to test your machine. Maybe you could just email anyone, but how many people would take this seriously unless they had invited it? (Well, maybe I would try it once, but I am gullible.)
Of course, if you find out not only the winning numbers, but also who won (if it is not me) then I don't know that this scheme will work. I don't want to create any unnecessary splitting of universes. Also, don't go trying to email yourself in the past: if that worked, everyone would try it and (after a week or two of thousands of people sharing top prize) the whole lotto idea would be shelved permanently.
No, this is something you have to do benevolently to a single recipient.
So, go to it. Please send all winning (Australian) Lotto numbers to this temporary email:
2mc2ljfk3i3mqi0@jetable.org
Readers will be advised if and when I appear to have proved information can flow backwards as well as forwards.
For readers interested in time travel generally, this 1991 article by Hans Moravec is pretty good.
Also, people who have access to future information via methods such as spirit communication, ganzfeld experiments, etc, are welcome to submit numbers.
The pace may need to slow a little in the lead up to the end of the financial year, unless my new scheme for how to make money from this blog succeeds.
All I need is someone from the future with access to next week's Australian lotto numbers, and a method of emailing information back in time, to provide the winning numbers for next weekend's Gold Lotto. Powerball, or any other mid-week Lotto numbers are also acceptable; I am not fussy.
If you are reading this in the future and are wondering "why should I benefit this particular jerk out of all others," well, there is no especially compelling reason, other than I have a family to support, no family riches coming my way, and have provided you with a way to test your machine. Maybe you could just email anyone, but how many people would take this seriously unless they had invited it? (Well, maybe I would try it once, but I am gullible.)
Of course, if you find out not only the winning numbers, but also who won (if it is not me) then I don't know that this scheme will work. I don't want to create any unnecessary splitting of universes. Also, don't go trying to email yourself in the past: if that worked, everyone would try it and (after a week or two of thousands of people sharing top prize) the whole lotto idea would be shelved permanently.
No, this is something you have to do benevolently to a single recipient.
So, go to it. Please send all winning (Australian) Lotto numbers to this temporary email:
2mc2ljfk3i3mqi0@jetable.org
Readers will be advised if and when I appear to have proved information can flow backwards as well as forwards.
For readers interested in time travel generally, this 1991 article by Hans Moravec is pretty good.
Also, people who have access to future information via methods such as spirit communication, ganzfeld experiments, etc, are welcome to submit numbers.
Funny
Instapundit.com -
Glenn Reynolds explains in an amusing fashion why he is not a moderate:
My ideal world, in which, as I've said before, happily married gay couples have closets full of assault weapons, isn't exactly "moderate."
Glenn Reynolds explains in an amusing fashion why he is not a moderate:
My ideal world, in which, as I've said before, happily married gay couples have closets full of assault weapons, isn't exactly "moderate."
Monday, June 19, 2006
Curiouser and curiouser
Diary of Kovco's death dream - National - smh.com.au
The circumstances of his death certainly sound much stranger than expected.
The circumstances of his death certainly sound much stranger than expected.
On blogging in Saudi Arabia
Saudi women unveil opinions online | csmonitor.com
As you might expect, the internet (and blogging) are tightly controlled in Saudi Arabia:
Deeply conservative, Saudi Arabia is among the most restrictive countries in regard to Internet access in the world, with most traffic going through a central hub at KACST in Riyadh. The biggest number of sites blocked are pornographic sites, followed by sites that discuss drugs, religion, and terrorism...
One female blogger (http://www.classic-diva.blogspot.com/) said that she was stopped from using the Internet at home for several months after her conservative brothers grew suspicious about why she was spending so much time online.
"I've been blogging since April 2005. It's a way to vent out my frustrations and to write," said Jo, who asked only that her first name be used. "My family knows that I have a site, but they don't have a concept of what blogging is."
Saudi families care so much about the welfare of their daughters, it's touching. (Sarcastic tone required for that sentence.)
As you might expect, the internet (and blogging) are tightly controlled in Saudi Arabia:
Deeply conservative, Saudi Arabia is among the most restrictive countries in regard to Internet access in the world, with most traffic going through a central hub at KACST in Riyadh. The biggest number of sites blocked are pornographic sites, followed by sites that discuss drugs, religion, and terrorism...
One female blogger (http://www.classic-diva.blogspot.com/) said that she was stopped from using the Internet at home for several months after her conservative brothers grew suspicious about why she was spending so much time online.
"I've been blogging since April 2005. It's a way to vent out my frustrations and to write," said Jo, who asked only that her first name be used. "My family knows that I have a site, but they don't have a concept of what blogging is."
Saudi families care so much about the welfare of their daughters, it's touching. (Sarcastic tone required for that sentence.)
Sunday, June 18, 2006
A lukewarm Pixar
The New Yorker: The Critics: The Current Cinema
I saw Cars today, with kids in tow. (Does that count as a pun?)
Like all Pixar films, it's pretty to look at, although The Incredibles was much better and exciting visually in my opinion.
Overall, it is just a so-so movie. The script is not as funny as most Pixar outings; the characterisation is weaker than it should be; it is a clever concept, but not delivered with much charm.
I agree with most points made by Anthony Lane in his review above. For those interested, I would rank Pixar films roughly as follows:
Excellent: Toy Story, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, A Bug's Life
Overrated, but not at the bottom of the heap: Finding Nemo
Not very good: Toy Story 2, Cars.
I saw Cars today, with kids in tow. (Does that count as a pun?)
Like all Pixar films, it's pretty to look at, although The Incredibles was much better and exciting visually in my opinion.
Overall, it is just a so-so movie. The script is not as funny as most Pixar outings; the characterisation is weaker than it should be; it is a clever concept, but not delivered with much charm.
I agree with most points made by Anthony Lane in his review above. For those interested, I would rank Pixar films roughly as follows:
Excellent: Toy Story, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, A Bug's Life
Overrated, but not at the bottom of the heap: Finding Nemo
Not very good: Toy Story 2, Cars.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
An appalling murder
Sister stabbed to death for loving the wrong man - Britain - Times Online
You have to read this to believe it:
A BUSINESSMAN is facing a life sentence for stabbing his sister to death in front of his two young daughters in a so-called honour killing.
Azhar Nazir, 30, and his cousin, 17, used four knives to cut Samaira Nazir’s throat and repeatedly stab her after she fell in love with an asylum-seeker from what they saw as an unsuitable caste.
Miss Nazir, 25, had rejected suitors lined up to meet her in Pakistan and had been summoned to the family home in Southall, Middlesex.
The father, also called Azhar, Nazir and the youth launched the attack and at one point dragged her by her hair back into the property....
Miss Nazir, a businesswoman described as “strong-willed”, was heard to shout at her mother, Irshad Begum: “You are not my mother any more.” She was then held down as a scarf was tied around her neck and her throat was cut in three places. Nazir’s daughters, aged 2 and 4, were screaming and were splattered with blood. Police fear that they were ordered to watch as a warning to them...
The amount of blood on the children suggested that they were only feet from the attack. A neighbour spotted Miss Nazir’s bloodstained arm emerge momentarily from the front door before she was dragged back inside and the door slammed shut.
You have to read this to believe it:
A BUSINESSMAN is facing a life sentence for stabbing his sister to death in front of his two young daughters in a so-called honour killing.
Azhar Nazir, 30, and his cousin, 17, used four knives to cut Samaira Nazir’s throat and repeatedly stab her after she fell in love with an asylum-seeker from what they saw as an unsuitable caste.
Miss Nazir, 25, had rejected suitors lined up to meet her in Pakistan and had been summoned to the family home in Southall, Middlesex.
The father, also called Azhar, Nazir and the youth launched the attack and at one point dragged her by her hair back into the property....
Miss Nazir, a businesswoman described as “strong-willed”, was heard to shout at her mother, Irshad Begum: “You are not my mother any more.” She was then held down as a scarf was tied around her neck and her throat was cut in three places. Nazir’s daughters, aged 2 and 4, were screaming and were splattered with blood. Police fear that they were ordered to watch as a warning to them...
The amount of blood on the children suggested that they were only feet from the attack. A neighbour spotted Miss Nazir’s bloodstained arm emerge momentarily from the front door before she was dragged back inside and the door slammed shut.
Squealing lefty piggies
Half apologies for the heading, but as my readership drops off over the weekend, I may as well ratchet up the rhetoric.
Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, Robert Manne and Mike Carlton both take great umbrage at Keith Windschuttle being appointed to the ABC Board.
Carlton says this:
The naming of the loopy polemicist Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC is the most hilarious appointment to public office since the mad Emperor Caligula threatened to make his horse a consul of Rome.
More a case of the Left simply smarting from quite a lot of success Windschuttle has had in his critical review of their academic work. (Windshuttle's work may also not be perfect, but the characterisation of him as "loopy" just doesn't gel with his writings and the media interviews I have seen.)
Laughably, Manne writes this:
Will Windschuttle at least tolerate the expression of views contrary to his own? To judge by his recent writing, he will not. In a recent lecture in New Zealand, Windschuttle launched a standard
neo- conservative attack on the "adversary culture" of the left intelligentsia. In this lecture radical Muslims were characterised as "barbarians outside the walls who want to destroy us", whose sinister work was aided by left-wing intellectuals, representative of "the decadent culture within".
So how would you characterise "radical Muslims", Robert? As fellows who would just like to invite us in for a nice cup of tea and a chat about our differences. And is there any doubt that if a strong "conservative" morality did dominate the West that the radical Islamists would not be quite so perturbed about the "decadent West"?
Oh poor delicate Friends of the ABC; to have one more person on the board who doesn't agree with the Lefty slant of the ABC will just be the biggest crisis.
As I have said before: it is not the job of the government funded national broadcaster to be primarily Left leaning in order to "even up" the right wing leanings of any commercial radio, TV or print network. A government funded national broadcaster should attempt an even handed approach that does indeed give ample opportunity to the Right to present its views without derision.
In fact, over the last couple of years, I have been pleased that in TV political commentary, The Insiders makes a good attempt to even up the left leaning commentary. On Radio National, Michael Duffy's "Counterpoint" is also an admirable attempt to bring a modicum of balance. But these shows are but one hour a week each, when (for examples):
* Phillip Adams gets 4 hours of radio a week (and, I believe, a sizeable production team) to push his agenda every week.
* The other day I heard Bush Telegraph, a Radio National show that is presumably designed to cover issues relevant to rural Australia. Guess what they were covering: gay marriage. They made it "rural" by interviewing a lesbian mother in Atherton in Queensland. The host made it perfectly clear that he agreed with gay marriage as a concept.
* Stephen Crittendon got another run as morning host on Radio National last week. He is completely incapable of hiding his left sympathies, and I always have to grit my teeth when his completely biased questions are asked.
Having said this, I agree with Gerard Henderson in his (5 minute!) segment on Radio National on Friday. Namely, the board won't actually change anything anyway, as it cannot directly affect the management of the ABC. So there is not point in complaining about the politicisation of the Board in any event.
Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, Robert Manne and Mike Carlton both take great umbrage at Keith Windschuttle being appointed to the ABC Board.
Carlton says this:
The naming of the loopy polemicist Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC is the most hilarious appointment to public office since the mad Emperor Caligula threatened to make his horse a consul of Rome.
More a case of the Left simply smarting from quite a lot of success Windschuttle has had in his critical review of their academic work. (Windshuttle's work may also not be perfect, but the characterisation of him as "loopy" just doesn't gel with his writings and the media interviews I have seen.)
Laughably, Manne writes this:
Will Windschuttle at least tolerate the expression of views contrary to his own? To judge by his recent writing, he will not. In a recent lecture in New Zealand, Windschuttle launched a standard
neo- conservative attack on the "adversary culture" of the left intelligentsia. In this lecture radical Muslims were characterised as "barbarians outside the walls who want to destroy us", whose sinister work was aided by left-wing intellectuals, representative of "the decadent culture within".
So how would you characterise "radical Muslims", Robert? As fellows who would just like to invite us in for a nice cup of tea and a chat about our differences. And is there any doubt that if a strong "conservative" morality did dominate the West that the radical Islamists would not be quite so perturbed about the "decadent West"?
Oh poor delicate Friends of the ABC; to have one more person on the board who doesn't agree with the Lefty slant of the ABC will just be the biggest crisis.
As I have said before: it is not the job of the government funded national broadcaster to be primarily Left leaning in order to "even up" the right wing leanings of any commercial radio, TV or print network. A government funded national broadcaster should attempt an even handed approach that does indeed give ample opportunity to the Right to present its views without derision.
In fact, over the last couple of years, I have been pleased that in TV political commentary, The Insiders makes a good attempt to even up the left leaning commentary. On Radio National, Michael Duffy's "Counterpoint" is also an admirable attempt to bring a modicum of balance. But these shows are but one hour a week each, when (for examples):
* Phillip Adams gets 4 hours of radio a week (and, I believe, a sizeable production team) to push his agenda every week.
* The other day I heard Bush Telegraph, a Radio National show that is presumably designed to cover issues relevant to rural Australia. Guess what they were covering: gay marriage. They made it "rural" by interviewing a lesbian mother in Atherton in Queensland. The host made it perfectly clear that he agreed with gay marriage as a concept.
* Stephen Crittendon got another run as morning host on Radio National last week. He is completely incapable of hiding his left sympathies, and I always have to grit my teeth when his completely biased questions are asked.
Having said this, I agree with Gerard Henderson in his (5 minute!) segment on Radio National on Friday. Namely, the board won't actually change anything anyway, as it cannot directly affect the management of the ABC. So there is not point in complaining about the politicisation of the Board in any event.
The new lunar lander
Son of Apollo
You might have noticed the Air & Space Smithsonian magazine currently in newstands in Australia has a cover story on the new lunar lander being developed. (I always like the covers, but don't buy the magazine often.) The story is on line (link above.)
You might have noticed the Air & Space Smithsonian magazine currently in newstands in Australia has a cover story on the new lunar lander being developed. (I always like the covers, but don't buy the magazine often.) The story is on line (link above.)
Friday, June 16, 2006
Cat out of the bag
Iran would 'use nuclear defense' if threatened | Jerusalem Post
From the story above:
Iran's defense minister on Thursday vowed that his country would "use nuclear defense as a potential" if "threatened by any power."
Speaking following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Hassan Ali Turkmani in Teheran on Thursday, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar emphasized that Iran "should be ready for confronting all kinds of threats."
Teheran has denied accusations by the US and its allies that Iran was seeking uranium enrichment technologies in order to develop nuclear weapons, saying its program was only meant to generate electricity.
From the story above:
Iran's defense minister on Thursday vowed that his country would "use nuclear defense as a potential" if "threatened by any power."
Speaking following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Hassan Ali Turkmani in Teheran on Thursday, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar emphasized that Iran "should be ready for confronting all kinds of threats."
Teheran has denied accusations by the US and its allies that Iran was seeking uranium enrichment technologies in order to develop nuclear weapons, saying its program was only meant to generate electricity.
This is Modern Art
Let us pray at the Church of the Missing Head - Comment - Times Online
A funny/serious criticism of what passes for Art in Britain now:
There is no reason why anyone even vaguely familiar with the risible modus operandi of the contemporary art world should be surprised at what happened to David Hensel’s sculpture of a laughing head entitled One Day Closer to Paradise. He submitted it to the academy but, in the course of transit, it got mistakenly separated from its plinth. The empty plinth was judged on its own merit to be worthy of exhibition, while the sculpture itself was rejected.
Sounds hard to believe, but it seems to be serious.
As the article then explains:
When, in 1917, Marcel Duchamp handed down his great commandment that, henceforth, anything can be art, he unwittingly kicked off a new religion. He supplied generations of talentless students (and professors) with a charlatan’s charter. The brainless fanatics of this simple creed are now teaching in every art school in the country. Indeed, we’ve been suffering this intolerant and prescriptive orthodoxy for decades because, under the auspices of the new faith’s high priests at the Tate and the Arts Council, this religion, state-funded needless to say, runs all aspects of contemporary art on our behalf. ....
For those of us who are completely baffled by the decisions of the State Art religion, the Arts Council has recently supplied a handbook called Culture Matters. In its pages we are informed that, to qualify for Arts Council support, art must be “challenging”, because the Arts Council only believes in something called “Challenging Contemporary Art”. It sees its job not as promoting excellence across the whole range of contemporary styles but only in that corner that it deems “challenging”.
A funny/serious criticism of what passes for Art in Britain now:
There is no reason why anyone even vaguely familiar with the risible modus operandi of the contemporary art world should be surprised at what happened to David Hensel’s sculpture of a laughing head entitled One Day Closer to Paradise. He submitted it to the academy but, in the course of transit, it got mistakenly separated from its plinth. The empty plinth was judged on its own merit to be worthy of exhibition, while the sculpture itself was rejected.
Sounds hard to believe, but it seems to be serious.
As the article then explains:
When, in 1917, Marcel Duchamp handed down his great commandment that, henceforth, anything can be art, he unwittingly kicked off a new religion. He supplied generations of talentless students (and professors) with a charlatan’s charter. The brainless fanatics of this simple creed are now teaching in every art school in the country. Indeed, we’ve been suffering this intolerant and prescriptive orthodoxy for decades because, under the auspices of the new faith’s high priests at the Tate and the Arts Council, this religion, state-funded needless to say, runs all aspects of contemporary art on our behalf. ....
For those of us who are completely baffled by the decisions of the State Art religion, the Arts Council has recently supplied a handbook called Culture Matters. In its pages we are informed that, to qualify for Arts Council support, art must be “challenging”, because the Arts Council only believes in something called “Challenging Contemporary Art”. It sees its job not as promoting excellence across the whole range of contemporary styles but only in that corner that it deems “challenging”.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
More on Islam and violence
Islam: A religion of peace?
Found via Little Green Footballs is the article above from a Canadian paper that seems to take a pretty objective look at the question of just how much justification you can find in the Koran (and other Islamic material) for modern day Islamic violence.
It's a good read.
Found via Little Green Footballs is the article above from a Canadian paper that seems to take a pretty objective look at the question of just how much justification you can find in the Koran (and other Islamic material) for modern day Islamic violence.
It's a good read.
The sort of cases family court lawyers have to put up with
My Way News - Mom, Dad in Court Over Son's Circumcision
CHICAGO (AP) - Groups opposed to circumcision are watching the case of an 8-year-old suburban Chicago boy whose divorced parents are fighting in court over whether he should have the procedure.
The child's mother wants him circumcised to prevent recurring, painful inflammation she says he's experienced during the past year. But the father says the boy is healthy and circumcision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.
"The child is absolutely healthy," the father said during a break in a court hearing on the matter Wednesday. "I do not want any doctor to butcher my son."
The father has help from a lawyer who is:
...an Atlanta attorney who specializes in circumcision cases.
I wonder if he advertises that in the Yellow Pages.
He [the lawyer] called the surgery "a bizarre American custom."
It is also one which could end recurring bouts of inflammation!
Good grief, if the mother can show the kid was taken to a doctor 5 time over the last year with this problem, what type of idiot father would fight this. (Seemingly, one who is under the sway of the bizarre anti circumcision groups that I have mentioned before in this blog.)
CHICAGO (AP) - Groups opposed to circumcision are watching the case of an 8-year-old suburban Chicago boy whose divorced parents are fighting in court over whether he should have the procedure.
The child's mother wants him circumcised to prevent recurring, painful inflammation she says he's experienced during the past year. But the father says the boy is healthy and circumcision, which removes the foreskin of the penis, is an unnecessary medical procedure that could cause him long-term physical and psychological harm.
"The child is absolutely healthy," the father said during a break in a court hearing on the matter Wednesday. "I do not want any doctor to butcher my son."
The father has help from a lawyer who is:
...an Atlanta attorney who specializes in circumcision cases.
I wonder if he advertises that in the Yellow Pages.
He [the lawyer] called the surgery "a bizarre American custom."
It is also one which could end recurring bouts of inflammation!
Good grief, if the mother can show the kid was taken to a doctor 5 time over the last year with this problem, what type of idiot father would fight this. (Seemingly, one who is under the sway of the bizarre anti circumcision groups that I have mentioned before in this blog.)
On having children
Why childless people hate me. By Emily Yoffe
This is a good, personal article about what happens when advice columnist Yoffe dares to suggest to a woman that she might want to re-think a decision to be childless.
This is a good, personal article about what happens when advice columnist Yoffe dares to suggest to a woman that she might want to re-think a decision to be childless.
Did they blow themselves up?
Shrapnel from beach blast not ours: Israel | The World | The Australian
This is a fascinating turn of events. One would hope that shrapnel evidence, examined by more international experts, would answer this definitively one way or the other.
On the whole issue of what goes on in Gaza, I must say that I find the Palestinian attitude non-sensical. The militants who spend all their time building and firing home made rockets into Israel don't seem to kill anyone very often. (That's not to suggest that the Israelis should ignore it. I can't imagine what it is like to live with the threat of a random missile coming through your roof at any time.)
But given that the Palestinians are so clearly outgunned by the Israeli response, which is targeted but inevitably kills civilian bystanders from time to time, why do they insist on continuing with the homemade missile campaign?
What is the Palestinian public opinion on this? Do they demand their authority take police action to stop the missile campaign that invokes the much more damaging response?
Do they all think that random acts of violence against Israel are worth it no matter what the consequences?
UPDATE: Possible progress in stopping the rockets reported today in the Jerusalem Post. What did it take? Just a threat of retaliation against the Hamas leadership directly.
UPDATE 2: just found this article in the CSM about the number of rockets that have been lobbed into Israel:
Less than a mile from Gaza, Sderot residents can easily make out the bucolic fields and houses of Beit Hanoun, the Palestinian village used by rocket launchers as cover. Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told reporters that since April 2001, some 3,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel, most of them at Sderot, killing five residents. The attacks have ravaged the Sderot's economy - and even started a small exodus. More would leave if they could afford it.
In recent months, the town has been averaging 80 rockets a month, an uptick from before the disengagement.
This is a fascinating turn of events. One would hope that shrapnel evidence, examined by more international experts, would answer this definitively one way or the other.
On the whole issue of what goes on in Gaza, I must say that I find the Palestinian attitude non-sensical. The militants who spend all their time building and firing home made rockets into Israel don't seem to kill anyone very often. (That's not to suggest that the Israelis should ignore it. I can't imagine what it is like to live with the threat of a random missile coming through your roof at any time.)
But given that the Palestinians are so clearly outgunned by the Israeli response, which is targeted but inevitably kills civilian bystanders from time to time, why do they insist on continuing with the homemade missile campaign?
What is the Palestinian public opinion on this? Do they demand their authority take police action to stop the missile campaign that invokes the much more damaging response?
Do they all think that random acts of violence against Israel are worth it no matter what the consequences?
UPDATE: Possible progress in stopping the rockets reported today in the Jerusalem Post. What did it take? Just a threat of retaliation against the Hamas leadership directly.
UPDATE 2: just found this article in the CSM about the number of rockets that have been lobbed into Israel:
Less than a mile from Gaza, Sderot residents can easily make out the bucolic fields and houses of Beit Hanoun, the Palestinian village used by rocket launchers as cover. Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told reporters that since April 2001, some 3,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel, most of them at Sderot, killing five residents. The attacks have ravaged the Sderot's economy - and even started a small exodus. More would leave if they could afford it.
In recent months, the town has been averaging 80 rockets a month, an uptick from before the disengagement.
Why Japan wants whales
Masako Fukui: Pro-whalers' stand hard to swallow | Opinion | The Australian
The above article appears to answer the puzzling question about why the Japanese government insists on having commercial whaling when all the evidence suggests that the Japanese public just doesn't care:
The problem is that although whales are mammals, Japan defines whaling as a fisheries issue. The kanji character for whale is a combination of two parts, the first being the sign for fish. Nearly all kanji characters for fish names, from snapper to kingfish, are of the same two-part design. So it's no surprise that Japan's diplomatic charge at the IWC is led by the Fisheries Agency, a rather stuffy and conservative government department compared with the more elitist and outward-looking Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fisheries Agency officials fear that if Japan backs down on whaling, it will also have to back down on other fisheries issues, such as tuna and salmon. That may sound like rampant paranoia, but history tells another story.
In 1982, when the IWC voted for the moratorium on commercial whaling, the US pressured Japan not to lodge a formal objection to the ban. Under article 5 (3) of the convention, any member state can opt out of binding resolutions simply by lodging a formal objection within 90 days. In return for compliance, the US granted Japan continued access to fish in US waters. But that was later revoked, mainly as a result of domestic pressures within the US, teaching the boys at the Fisheries Agency a valuable lesson: compromising is a bad idea.
Sounds a plausibe explanation to me.
The above article appears to answer the puzzling question about why the Japanese government insists on having commercial whaling when all the evidence suggests that the Japanese public just doesn't care:
The problem is that although whales are mammals, Japan defines whaling as a fisheries issue. The kanji character for whale is a combination of two parts, the first being the sign for fish. Nearly all kanji characters for fish names, from snapper to kingfish, are of the same two-part design. So it's no surprise that Japan's diplomatic charge at the IWC is led by the Fisheries Agency, a rather stuffy and conservative government department compared with the more elitist and outward-looking Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fisheries Agency officials fear that if Japan backs down on whaling, it will also have to back down on other fisheries issues, such as tuna and salmon. That may sound like rampant paranoia, but history tells another story.
In 1982, when the IWC voted for the moratorium on commercial whaling, the US pressured Japan not to lodge a formal objection to the ban. Under article 5 (3) of the convention, any member state can opt out of binding resolutions simply by lodging a formal objection within 90 days. In return for compliance, the US granted Japan continued access to fish in US waters. But that was later revoked, mainly as a result of domestic pressures within the US, teaching the boys at the Fisheries Agency a valuable lesson: compromising is a bad idea.
Sounds a plausibe explanation to me.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Let's invade Turkey
Turkey's anti-American pop culture. By Richard Morgan
Well, seems they are expecting it anyway. From the above
Slate article:
All last year Turkish bookstores were hard-pressed to keep the best-selling novel Metal Storm on shelves. The novel, written like one of Tom Clancy's international potboilers, depicts a U.S. invasion of Turkey in March 2007. Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld are characters, although the U.S. president is a nameless, nap-loving warmonger who defers most of his decision-making to fellow members of Skull and Bones. In the book, whose title is America's name for its invasion, the U.S. military swiftly bombs then overtakes Ankara and Istanbul (the U.S. president, who is also deeply evangelical, aims to restore Istanbul to its Christian Byzantine glory). ...
The Americans' motive is Uncle Sam's lust for the country's rich borax supply (Turkey is home to 60 percent of the world's borax, a mineral used in weapons, radiation shields, and space technology). In the second phase of its invasion, Operation Sèvres (named after the World War I treaty in which the West gutted the Ottoman Empire), the United States creates a Kurdish state and lets longtime Turkish enemies Greece and Armenia ravage what's left of the country. A lone Turkish secret agent counters by stealing a nuclear weapon and vaporizing Washington.
And this is popular in a friendly, more or less Westernised, Islamic country. I wonder what the plots are in the best selling novels in Iran or Saudi Arabia.
(By the way, I didn't know that bit about Turkey and borax.)
Well, seems they are expecting it anyway. From the above
Slate article:
All last year Turkish bookstores were hard-pressed to keep the best-selling novel Metal Storm on shelves. The novel, written like one of Tom Clancy's international potboilers, depicts a U.S. invasion of Turkey in March 2007. Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld are characters, although the U.S. president is a nameless, nap-loving warmonger who defers most of his decision-making to fellow members of Skull and Bones. In the book, whose title is America's name for its invasion, the U.S. military swiftly bombs then overtakes Ankara and Istanbul (the U.S. president, who is also deeply evangelical, aims to restore Istanbul to its Christian Byzantine glory). ...
The Americans' motive is Uncle Sam's lust for the country's rich borax supply (Turkey is home to 60 percent of the world's borax, a mineral used in weapons, radiation shields, and space technology). In the second phase of its invasion, Operation Sèvres (named after the World War I treaty in which the West gutted the Ottoman Empire), the United States creates a Kurdish state and lets longtime Turkish enemies Greece and Armenia ravage what's left of the country. A lone Turkish secret agent counters by stealing a nuclear weapon and vaporizing Washington.
And this is popular in a friendly, more or less Westernised, Islamic country. I wonder what the plots are in the best selling novels in Iran or Saudi Arabia.
(By the way, I didn't know that bit about Turkey and borax.)
Useless research update
Press Release - 13 June 2006 University of Bath
“Understanding how children perceive celebrities like David Beckham and the other brands they encounter will help us to formulate better policies on responsible marketing to children,” said Dr Agnes Nairn from the University of Bath’s School of Management.
“We asked the children to tell us about the things they were most into, and were surprised to find that even amongst 7-11 year olds the most intense discussions were about celebrities.
“This says a lot about our celebrity-obsessed society and supports the idea that celebrities like Beckham have become branded commodities that are available for consumption.
“More importantly, though, is the role that Beckham plays as a complex cultural figure used by children to discuss moral values and understand ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
“This realisation could help teachers create engaging materials for PHSE classes. For example, ‘Let’s discuss right and wrong today’ may not be very appealing to children but, ‘What do you think about Beckham being sent off?’ would not only be guaranteed to get their attention, but would also stimulate important debates.”
“Understanding how children perceive celebrities like David Beckham and the other brands they encounter will help us to formulate better policies on responsible marketing to children,” said Dr Agnes Nairn from the University of Bath’s School of Management.
“We asked the children to tell us about the things they were most into, and were surprised to find that even amongst 7-11 year olds the most intense discussions were about celebrities.
“This says a lot about our celebrity-obsessed society and supports the idea that celebrities like Beckham have become branded commodities that are available for consumption.
“More importantly, though, is the role that Beckham plays as a complex cultural figure used by children to discuss moral values and understand ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
“This realisation could help teachers create engaging materials for PHSE classes. For example, ‘Let’s discuss right and wrong today’ may not be very appealing to children but, ‘What do you think about Beckham being sent off?’ would not only be guaranteed to get their attention, but would also stimulate important debates.”
Fake houses
Boing Boing: Electrical substations disguised as houses
This is a peculiar item on Boing Boing, about Canadian public utilities building fake house exteriors in the 50's and 60's to hide electrical substations.
Neat idea.
I often wonder why, at least in Brisbane, Telestra exchanges are often built like brick fortresses with hardly any windows. Wouldn't a little more natural light cut down the electrical costs a bit, as well making the building look better from the outside? Or is there some specific reason you don't want windows in a telephone exchange?
This is a peculiar item on Boing Boing, about Canadian public utilities building fake house exteriors in the 50's and 60's to hide electrical substations.
Neat idea.
I often wonder why, at least in Brisbane, Telestra exchanges are often built like brick fortresses with hardly any windows. Wouldn't a little more natural light cut down the electrical costs a bit, as well making the building look better from the outside? Or is there some specific reason you don't want windows in a telephone exchange?
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