"A degenerate society is characterised by expansionism and imperialism"

(from "The Tao of Politics - Lessons of the Masters of Huainan")

the first thing that happens when US troops arrive, is the setting up of a local branch of al-Qaeda

There are good terrorists, and there are bad terrorists.
Our's are the good terrorists, and their's are the bad terrorists.
Every so often the terrorists swop sides.

waffle of the day (28th Aug 07)

"To be honest...." - David Milliband, UK Defence Secretary (BBC Radio 4)
(before talking a load of rubbish to avoid answering the question)

the USA has 16 intelligence agencies
hard to believe

UK road works to cost a thousand pounds an inch

the 51 mile M6 road widening scheme is estimated to cost twice the UK's total yearly aid budget to Africa

more roads - more cars - more pollution
good to see we've got our priorities right

"They will welcome us as liberators" - Dick Cheney

there are more English speakers in China than there are in England

"Our position is that there are two kinds of people in Iraq: not Sunni and Shia, Kurdish and Arab, Muslim and Christian, but those who are with the occupation and those who are against it."

- Abdallah Suleiman Omary (an Iraqi resistance leader)

the UK has 4.2 million CCTV cameras
this is more than the rest of Europe put together

why does the UK have the highest crime rate in Europe?

the first European country in modern times to ban smoking at work was Nazi Germany, as part of Hitler's campaign to eliminate smoking

now that the UK Government has got an opt out from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, it can proceed with plans to bring in detention without charge and trial without jury

the really dangerous people, the ones who do the greatest harm, are often the ones who are convinced they are doing the greatest good

some say we are overdue for a major plague, but even if it killed 99.999% of us we'd still outnumber gorillas -- more positively, there'd be a sigh of relief from most of the other animals (except cats and dogs), and it really would help with global warming

how about a leaving present for soon to be ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair?
such as a one-way ticket to Iraq

the young dream of what they will do when they are older
the old dream of what they did when they were younger

JS Bach's Brandenburg Concertos were sold in 1734 for €1
they were not published until 1850 (100 years after Bach's death)
they did not achieve their current popularity until the 1930's

New Labour has created 3,000 new criminal offences since 1997

no wonder UK jails are overflowing

it's 18 years since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil disaster and the company still hasn't paid the damages it owes

see http://www.exposeexxon.com

carbon trading? ha!

what is needed is not less people flying, but less planes flying

so why is New Labour planning to expand all the major UK airports?

Government climate control measures? ha!

just more spin from Blair

roll on Scottish independence - if the English are stupid enough to vote Blair back into office, they deserve all they get - but it's not really fair on Scotland and Wales

a UN study finds that the production of one complete computer and monitor takes 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals and 1,500 litres of water

(and that's before packaging and long distance distribution)

which is why each new operating system from Microsoft needs a higher spec computer

it's called planned obsolescence

a society motivated by profit is a society motivated by greed

liars, damn liars & politicians - example 37,752 - Tal Afar

March 2006 - President Bush: "a concrete example of progress in Iraq"

March 2007 - off-duty Shiite police slaughter up to 70 Sunnis in retaliatory killing spree

underlining the UK's committment to get rid of its nuclear weapons (as legally required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), £70,000,000,000 is being spent on replacing and maintaining the next generation of Trident nuclear submarines

so US goons torture this guy for 2 years, and then claim he's confessed to being a terrorist
- big deal -
torture me for 2 days and i'd confess to being bin Laden's mother

it is claimed that Exxon spent $16 million between 1998 and 2005 on 'disinformation tactics' to undermine climate change science

the UK's Health and Safety at Work Act came into force in 1974

since then 10,000 people have died at work but only 11 directors have been convicted of manslaughter

"It's not our fault" - Tony Blair (talking about the situation in Iraq)

well it's certainly not the fault of the two million people who marched thru Central London past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square in February 2003

"There is little for the great part of the history of the world except the bitter tears of pity and the hot tears of wrath."

- Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

about 40% of women murdered in the UK are killed by their current or former partners

96% of the the people arrested for terrorist offenses in the UK during the last 5 years have not yet been convicted

75% of the oil profits from Iraq are planned to go to foreign companies

every year 90,000 people die of infections picked up in US hospitals, and now joining in the fray is the new superbug hero -
Acinetobacter baumannii

It's not Bush and Blair's "war on terror" that worries me, so much as their war on truth

UK executive pay is increasing 17 times faster than average wage rises

trickle-down economics? sounds more like trickle-up to me

6,500,000,000 people wishing for peace on Earth
spend $1,200,000,000,000 a year on arms

every hour the world's population increases by 9,000 people;
each day the world's population increases by more than 200,000

no wonder there are so many wars over resources

Britain has spent UKP 12.5M on reconstruction contracts in Basra - whereas it spent UKP 14M refurbishing one of Saddam's palaces for use as the British consulate building
(which has now been evacuated following mortar attacks)

Blair claims it's essential that the UK has an independent nuclear deterrent - so how come it's not needed by Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil etc?

and if the UK really does need it, then surely Iran needs it even more?

"So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists." - Edward Said (1980)

if the function of the UN is to moderate conflict between nations, why is NATO fighting a war in Afghanistan? oil pipelines to Europe?

i've just removed my links to Al Jazeera -
their new site disappoints -
no Shujaat; culture and environment sections gone; bad design; bugs

if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

for the UK to achieve full democracy it needs proportional representation, an elected second chamber and an elected head of state

Tony Blair complaining about "poisonous propaganda"?

like the way he deliberately whipped up hysteria by claiming that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes notice, so that he had an excuse to send British troops to Iraq?

the success of the Democrats in the US election results is a signal of hope to the rest of the world that the excesses of the Bush administration are coming to an end

the US Government will refuse to admit there is a civil war in Iraq until after it has ended - then they will claim to have prevented it!

the rise in cancer and birth defects in Iraq has been attributed to US and UK depleted uranium weapons

another crime for Bush and Blair to be charged with

"I don't know there is a God."
- Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, BBC Radio 4, 31 Oct 2006

(if you need to find God, avoid religion and use entheogens)

there were riots in Hungary because the Prime Minister lied

amazing!

in the UK there'd be riots if the Prime Minister told the truth

Jesus of Nazareth said, "love your enemy" (Luke 6: 27-38)

he didn't say, "kill your enemy"

so why do Bush and Blair call themselves Christians?

because they are are part of a proselytising fundamentalism which stretches back to when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire - when Bush talked about a "crusade" in the context of sending his army to invade Moslem countries, that's exactly what he meant

"This War on Drugs originally started as a War on Religious Experiences, and it is nothing new..." – Jonathon Ott

the difference between prophets and their followers is that prophets think for themselves

having been labelled by the US President as "evil", North Korea appears to have chosen to develop it's own nuclear weapons rather than risk being invaded

Guantánamo Bay is the world's supreme symbol of injustice and the abuse of power

British arms manufacturer BAe Systems is developing a range of environmentally friendly weapons, including 'lead free' bullets (because lead bullets "pose a risk to people")

preachers teaching you about god
are like virgins teaching you about sex

"I will hate Americans for the rest of my life"

the US military has created a global network of overseas prisons, keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law

hypocrite of the week

war criminal US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

(he accused Iran of interfering in Iraq)

US scientists spent millions of dollars designing a pen that could
write in space

Russian cosmonauts were advised to use pencils

a single fill of ethanol for a four-wheel drive SUV uses enough grain to feed one person for a year

more than 100 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the last 2 weeks

in every country, those wearing uniforms get paid to kill with impunity

Smithfield Packing slaughters 32,000 pigs a day

if it slaughtered 32,000 dogs a day, there'd be a public outcry

i expect it's because they don't taste the same

having attempted to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure, Israel is now defending itself by arresting members of the Palestinian Government, bulldozing homes in Nablus and attacking the Gaza strip with missiles

the world's 16,000 commercial jet airlines generate more carbon dioxide than the total output of Africa

depleted uranium is 60% as radioactive as natural uranium

there's up to 650,000 tons in US hazardous waste storage sites

so they're using it to make shells and armoured tanks

requiem in pacem

the rare Desmoulin's whorl snail which infamously stopped work on the Newbury Bypass in 1996 has died out in the new home created for it after a High Court challenge failed

which two Middle Eastern countries have the most Jewish citizens?

Israel and Iran

US Kirkuk commander admits that reporters were attacked and cameras smashed - he insisted his troops respect press freedom

74 reporters have been killed in Iraq since 2003

the benefits of colonialism - part 237416

an estimated 125,000 Egyptians perished in forced labour
during the construction of the Suez Canal

"10,000 Palestinian prisoners... do not move anything, while 3 Israeli prisoners have shaken the world." - Ayman al-Zawahiri

Tony Blair is one of those politicians who sucks up to those more powerful than himself (Bush and Murdoch), and stomps on everybody else

and of course he gets his reward - a future of lucrative speaking engagements in the US and a job on the board of the Sun

---------------------

forget the New Labour jingles and spin - look at what they've doing -

* preventing the democratisation of the House of Lords

* selling peerages to raise money to keep themselves in power

* modifying legislation to allow rich donors to continue advertising harmful products

* attempting to privatise the health and education systems

* allowing UK airspace to be secretly used for transporting abducted people to countries where they will be tortured

* supplying money and arms to dictatorships

* supporting the overthrow of elected governments

* invading resource-rich countries

---------------------

"How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?" - Bob Dylan

*******************************

Lebanese Solidarity Appeal

news updates from Lebanon

Sanayeh Relief Centre

********************************

it's easy to spot the politically dangerous - they're the one who divide the world into people who are good (us), and people who are evil (them)

the black rhino may now be extinct

what a disaster! no more black rhino horn!

(from now on, rich sheiks will have to kill each other using daggers with handles made of plastic)

*******************************

the world would be a much more peaceful place if everyone changed their religion every five years

*********************

Japan and the USA have both invaded Korea within living memory - and no doubt they would like to retain the option of doing so again

perhaps that's why they're so opposed to North Korea's nuclear policy

the UK Government claims there is little demand for extended sunday trading, so they're restricting it to 6 hours a day

why should politicians have the power to tell people at what times they can and can't sell things to each other?

******************************

more than a quarter of a million killed in Iraq and Afghanistan

all because people believe their country / religion is best -
because they think they're right and others are wrong

what the world needs is more apathy

********************

i grew up being taught that a police state is a country where the Government uses its intelligence services to abduct and torure "enemies of the state" and then imprison them indefinitely without a fair trial

as in "extraordinary rendition" and Guantanamo?

***************************

Blair's Government has created 1000 new criminal offenses in the last 6 years, and there's thousands more in the pipeline - no wonder the UK has the highest prison poulation in Europe

***********************

why does the UK need a new generation of nuclear weapons?

so it can invade foreign countries without fear of retaliation!

*******************************

since the start of the moratorium on whaling more than 25,000 whales have been hunted and killed

(Norway is the only country that ignores the ban)

*************************

"The US policy is to treat all detainees humanely" - Pentagon

Iraqi prisoners held on 1 metre chains, fed on bread and water, with detainees' eyes being taped shut for up to seven days at a time

and then Bush wonders why the vast majority of people in the world consider US foreign policy the greatest threat to world peace

**********************

Thatcher's closure of mines in the 1980s means that the UK now imports coal from Australia, Colombia, Poland, S Africa and the US

*************************

so that's why Tony Blair is fighting for democracy in Iraq -

to defend the right of the Saudi Arabian government to rape and torture UK citizens

**************************

Bush and Blair's so-called "War on Terror" encourages the attitude that it is better to murder the innocent rather than risk sparing the guilty

(misquoting Voltaire)

***************************************

40% of the World Bank's aid budget went to consultants in 2004
- well it's good to know someone benefits from it

***************************

Israel's high court upholds a law barring West Bank Palestinians from living with spouses & children who are Arab citizens of Israel

i wonder if Heaven has a Jewish Quarter?

*************************

more than half the countries named by UN Watch as human rights abusers sit on the UN Human Rights Council

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

********************************

Tony Blair's orderly withdrawal from being Prime Minister looks as likely to happen as an orderly withdrawl of US troops from Iraq

*********************

Guantanamo Bay is one of the main reasons why the US lost their so-called "War On Terrorism". It showed the world that America was more interested in controlling the world's oil supply than in supporting freedom and justice for non-Americans.

************************

25 percent of Iraqi children between six months and five years old suffer from either acute or chronic malnutrition

and they still won't say say "Thank you George. Thank you Tony."

(so we'd better drop some more bombs on them)

********************

only 0.2 per cent of annual health related research is spent on pneumonia, diarrhoea, and tuberculosis

they account for 18 per cent of the global disease burden, but drug companies are not very interested in poverty related diseases because they mainly take place in third world countries where there are less profits to be made

****************************

adverse drug reactions are the fourth commonest cause of preventable death in the UK

***************************

60 years after the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
there are 30,000 nuclear weapons in place world-wide
(most of them American, aimed at the rest of the world)

***********************

Prime Minister's wife's haircuts cost Labour Party £7,700

it's good to know the union subs are going to a worthwhile cause

*********************

Great Britain is a monarchy with a hereditary aristocracy -
and UK troops invaded Iraq to bring about "democracy" ??

ha ha!

**********************

oil prices at $70 a barrel!
production costs constant!

the Iraq invasion means Bush and his oil cronies are raking it in

************************

sectarian violence has displaced 25,000 Iraqis in the last month

and Blair just grins, getting richer every day,
simpering "Yes Sir, Mr President" and "No Sir, Mr President"

**************************

so this is what "the fight for freedom and democracy" comes down to?

US troops shooting Iraqi women and children

- My Lai all over again

***********************

73 UK landings of suspected CIA rendition flights in the last 5 years

when governments conspire to facilitate the torture of suspects, they become the enemy of democracy and of freedom

**************************