An apology...

To Laban Tall mainly - I emailed him when I started the blog, as his was one of the blogs that inspired me, asking if he would be kind enough to link to me. He replied that he had already done it - what a guy!

Anyway he has now dedicated a post to this blog. Just when, after a decent start, I have had no posts for 3 weeks! Bad form on my part I know but when I started the blog I thought I would be in my, completely unchallenging, job for a while at least (Hence plenty of time for blogging!) then out of nowhere a great opportunity dropped into my lap. So for the last 2-3 weeks I've been too busy in the day job to really read into anything interesting and then post on it.

I doubt I will have the time in the near future to make a decent fist of a general blog like this (I'd be up for being part of a group blog like Biased BBC though - making irregular postings would be possible, anyone want me on board?) so I guess this is now in hibernation. If you feel the need to read my comment's I carry out SAS style raids on Sheffield Forum's General Discussion page most weeks...

Greenpeace to Protest Siberian Forest Fires...

...or not as the case will almost certainly be. They're probably planning to put up some posters somewhere berating the usual suspects for "Global Warming" and Pollution.

Well, this is very interesting indeed.



It shows carbon particle levels in the atmosphere and although you can see smallish amounts over industrial areas the worst offenders are forest fires in Siberia (By far) and grassland fires in southern Africa.

Don't expect to see this on the front page of the Independent any time soon...

ME 262

This is quite something:



I can't imagine what it must have been like to see that in World War 2 for the first time - bloody scary I would guess. It must have been like us seeing an anti-gravity craft, the next generation of technology just appearing from nowhere.

Seems to have been done by EADS, the European defense company - well they have to have some use I guess... Seems I had duff information. From the comments comes this link to the American manufacturers. Cheers.

Fox News UK Launches...

Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie's (Among other's I guess) venture looks interesting. A web based political (Right wing(ish)) TV station called 18 Doughty Street broadcasting live and recorded programmes for 4 hours an evening I believe.

Check it out as it launches soon!

Freedom of Speech?

The leader of the Minutemen group was invited to Columbia University by the College Republicans to speak at a lecture. No chance of that actually happening when a bunch of looney leftist students can come up with a crappy chant!



See LGF for more.

Interesting Observations from an American Ex-Pat..

Very interesting post here on Arab culture.

I've seen these sort of comments made elsewhere by people who have actually lived in Arab/Muslim countries (Michael Totten for example) and this list seems to cover all the bases.

Worth bearing in mind when reading the sort of stuff you see on LGF from MEMRI and you can't quite believe the subtitles!

Col. Jeff Cooper RIP

I'd never heard of him before reading about his death here. It seems I was missing out. I read some of his columns for a Gun magazine from 1993 and then the last few months, found here, and think I would enjoy everything he ever wrote.

His words on Liberty are a perfect example, great stuff.

"We are annoyed by the assumption on the part of certain public figures that the citizen should be able to prove the need for the citizen to acquire a means of protecting himself. The citizen's personal needs are no business of the State. Liberty, when in place, grants the right of the citizen to do what he chooses, as long as he does not stamp on the rights of others. Nobody needs caviar, or a pleasure boat, or opera tickets. Whether or not he wants these things is no business of the State. On this side of the prayer rug, the Jihadies do not see it that way. That seems to be the main reason they have declared war upon us."

Things that make you go "Hmmmm"

The big issue of the week in America right now is the National Intelligence Estimate that has been leaked in part (Pessmistic bits) then some parts were released by the Bush Administration (Optimistic bits). Seems to be the usual partisan bickering basically but one thing did amuse me.

The Democrats and Left in general jumped on the negative parts that were leaked as they were a great stick to beat Bush with (Mental image of the week there...). However this document is the combined musings of 16 US Intelligence agencies. The same agencies whom the Left have been calling incompetent for 3 years for getting the WMD intel wrong.

Old story I guess, a source is impeccable when it supports your position and junk when it says something you don't like. Another small example of political hypocrisy to add to the ever growing pile...

Back in the blogging saddle...

I'm back from holiday and will see how I get on blogging again. Hopefully a couple of things a day will grab my eye.

I have a decent post bouncing around my head regarding the attitude of my esteemed local council's employees that seems to sum up New Labour's Britain rather well. It will also allow me to use a couple of Hayek quotes I read in The Road To Serfdom - knew as soon as I read them (On the 8 hour flight to the US) that they were perfect.

On a side note that is quite an amazing book - articuluated the views I already held in a wonderful fashion. May have to check out that Cafe Hayek blog now....

Going on Vacation...

Nothern Monkey is off on holiday. Terrible timing for me to start my blog a week ago I know but when you gotta go, you gotta go...

Back in 2 weeks!

The truth will out

These little anecdotes sneak out every now and again from an "insider" to confirm our suspicions.

At the ASI blog:

"Some of the most left-wing journalists I know pay school fees, or intend to do so. Other bus (or taxi) their children to a covertly selective state school, while making a fuss about how they didn't 'go private'. I can think of only a handful who chose a conventional council comprehensive."

- Peter Wilby, former editor of the New Statesman (Times Educational Supplement, 28 July 2006)

I struggle to think of a single subject the average vocal leftists isn't a hypocrite on.

Pc Plod strike fear into criminals with latest swoop...

From the Register:

Pc Mark Akers, of Tameside Police, said: "Instead of just accepting that he had been caught travelling above the speed limit, Moore decided to blow the camera apart. He obviously thought that by destroying the main camera he was destroying all the evidence. But a combination of hard work and the latest technology led to his conviction."

Good news the Police stop a dangerous, explosive using criminal!

Ahh not really:

Craig Moore, 28, of Thorne, Doncaster, was caught on camera in Mottram Road on 14 August last year while driving a work vehicle. Later that night, he returned with a quantity of thermite (a powdered mixture of aluminium and iron oxide) which he used in his job as a welder. A recording later recovered from the Watchman's hard disk drive showed a Ford Transit approach and stop, then leave just before a shower of sparks heralded the camera's demise.

And the really scary bit?

Unfortunately for the perp, police were able (to) tap into the Transit's tracker device, which showed it had "arrived in Hyde, stopped on Mottram Road and then returned to the Doncaster area, where it was parked outside Moore's home address".

The future is here...

Facts + BBC Spin = Lies

Even when the facts are staring them in the face they can't help lying where George W. Bush is concerned.

Have a look at this graph:

Then take a look at the Alt text (Apoligies for quality, blogger is screwing up the image) :

Hmmm "his rating dips and then soars after 9/11" you say? Have a look at the red line signifying 9/11 on the graph, it's some time after the rating started to "soar".

Another one to add to the ever growing pile over at Biased BBC.

Two Fingers for Freedom

Nice to see this story about the Freedom Tower at the WTC site in New York. I would have liked to see a V-shaped pinnacle, although the meaning would probably be lost on our American cousins!

You've got to laugh...

Via LGF I see Hezbollah are whining about German troops being part of the UN force in Lebanon.

The juicy quote is this:

“Our reservations are regarding the German demand to search boats as they enter Lebanon,” Hezbollah member of parliament Hussein Haj Hassan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday. “Such a demand stands against the sovereignty of Lebanon.”

And yet an Islamist terror group running the country south of the Litani river isn't against the sovereignty of Lebanon at all. How silly of me to think there was any hypocrisy on show here...

1938 Redux

Via the Englishman I read a summary of a poll in the Times this morning which starts me off on a depressing footing.

Moreover, three fifths (62 per cent) agree that “in order to reduce the risk of future terrorist attacks on Britain the Government should change its foreign policy, in particular by distancing itself from America, being more critical of Israel and declaring a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq”. Women (66 per cent) and Liberal Democrat voters (74 per cent) agree with this view particularly strongly.
Nonetheless, a similar proportion of voters (63 per cent) believe that “Muslim extremists hate democracy and the Western way of life, and if Britain’s foreign policy were different they would find another excuse for their terrorist activities”. This is a widely held view, backed by two thirds of Labour and Tory voters, but only just over a half (53 per cent) of Lib Dems.

The highlighted parts should be no surprise, I'm surprised they managed to take their head's out of the sand long enough to answer the questions.

The numbers that confused me were that although 63 per cent...believe that “Muslim extremists hate democracy and the Western way of life, and if Britain’s foreign policy were different they would find another excuse for their terrorist activities" we also read that 62 per cent...agree that “in order to reduce the risk of future terrorist attacks on Britain the Government should change its foreign policy, in particular by distancing itself from America, being more critical of Israel and declaring a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq"

I'm confused, 63% say "They are hate filled extremists hell bent on killing us all whatever we do" yet 62% say "Lie back, think of Allah and do whatever they want us to". Those numbers mean there are a fair percentage of people who hold two wholely incompatible beliefs.

I couldn't get my head round this, then I realised it was staring me in the face..."Liberal Democrat voters"

Asking for it

I'm sure you will have heard about the tragic incident yesterday in which a British man was murdered in Jordan. However if you read the story in the Times you would have seen this little gem:

Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, Times Correspondent in Amman, said that the attack came amid rising antagonism towards the West.

"There is mounting frustration on the streets of the Arab world with the West, especially with the United States and Europe, over its perceived bias on the Middle Eastern conflict, Iraq and Lebanon," she said. "It is putting pressure on moderate Arab governments to revisit their politics and limiting their ability to manoeuvre."

So in other words it was their fault for being Western and under the false impression they would be welcome in Jordan.? Nice.

P.S. On a side note I told my girlfriend "If you ever hear someone shouting "Allahu Akbar!" you run without thinking about it. Always seems to be the soundtrack to terror...

Blood on their hands.

Just read EU Referendum's post on the Nimrod crash in Afghanistan. As it points out this tragedy may have not have happened if the British armed forces had been properly equipped. In that situation the Nimrod would have been over the Gulf doing what it's meant to, maritime patrols. RAF UAV's should be buzzing over Afghanistan and Iraq not manned jets.

The story sparked a memory and a short google later I found this.

RAF Pilots Flying American UAV's

An RAF unit based in the Nevada desert is conducting highly secret operations against Iraqi insurgents and Afghan guerrillas using unmanned, powerfully armed American Predator aircraft.

Great idea in itself but really we should have our own UAV control centre somewhere in the English countryside controlling a fleet of British UAV's. You can draw your own conclusions on the cost benefit analysis (Amount of good PR vs £'s) that was probably carried out before they decided to send a few of our guys over to the US instead of actually spending some money on a genuine capability for once.

Yet more smoke and mirrors from New Labour ends up with coffins at Brize Norton...

10% of young British Asians would kill their Sisters/Daughters...

You might have seen the BBC story about young British Asians attitudes to honour killings.

Apart from the obvious response to this, yet more shaking of the head if you’re like me. (How many more of these types of surveys do we need before someone in power realises something is seriously wrong?). There was a quote, perfectly reasonable if somewhat hollow, in the story that made me think.

Dr Aisha Gill, a lecturer in criminology at Roehampton University,
told BBC Five Live that convincing the Asian community that honour killings were
not acceptable was the right approach.

"[The government should]
send out a clear message, an unambiguous message that such violence against
women will not be tolerated."

Hmmm let’s see what that sentiment could look like in another context.

Dr John Bull, a lecturer in History at Manchester University, told BBC Five Live
that convincing the Muslim community that terrorism was not acceptable was the
right approach.

"[The government should] send out a clear message,
an unambiguous message that such violence against innocent people will not be
tolerated."

Two issues here.

Firstly, I’d say something like that would be condemned by the usual suspects like MPAC, MCB, MAB etc as an example of a racist attitude blah blah blah. So far so boring. But have a look at that first quote again.

I thought that leftists believed all cultures were equal? Isn’t Dr Gill’s attitude a classic example of “breathtaking Western arrogance and hypocrisy” © The Independent? Looks to me like if you have the right background (Female, minority, academic) you can say pretty much what you want…and isn't that exactly what the Left set out to defeat 40-odd years ago?

EU Referendum > Mail on Sunday

An example of the reason I finally decided to start my own blog here. The Mail on Sunday have "borrowed" the scandal EU Referendum have uncovered the the past few months regarding the armoured (Or not as you will see) vehicles the British Army are being forced to use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sadly they are months behind the curve on this and have therefore missed out on the opportunities for applying pressure to shame the Government and MOD apparatchicks into making major and swift changes to the procurement process.

On issues like this blogs are where the action is - we'll see if I can get involved in the good fight too!

First proper post....

...and it's just a tiddler. Especially considering my readership of 1!

Anyway sometimes you know something's the right thing to do to improve the situation in a particular area. But you can't think of an example of it in action sucessfully to use in an argument/debate?

Well James Bartholomew posted the full draft of an opinion piece from the Daily Express the other week and that provides just that for welfare reform. Read this and you will have a handy intellectual stick to (metaphorically) beat the next person you hear say "The welfare state is wonderful..."

Here we go...