BBC Question Time on 9/11

Here is the BBC Question Time about 9/11 (aired September 13, 2001) :

You may have heard mention of it or seen it at the time. It is … interesting. The BBC director general at the time said of it :

 he “would like to apologise to the viewers who were offended by it”.

He added that it was an inappropriate programme to broadcast live just two days after the suicide attacks on America, and should have been recorded and edited.
…
The BBC’s Media Correspondent, Nick Higham, said there was a recognition in the corporation that the audience could have been more representative of wider opinion.

Besides the shouting and jeering from the audience, there are a few points I’d like to highlight. Note the number of people (including the panelists) who attribute their own hobbyhorse as the cause of 9/11. Also, note some curious rhetorical techniques on display.

At about 21:29 (in the first clip), a guy says American & British aircraft flying over the skies of Iraq and Yugoslavia have done so in defense of Kurds, Iraqi Shia and muslims in Kosovo and is promptly jeered and shouted down. The counter arguments seems to be “You have no idea!”,  the idea that the only acceptable way to frame it is as killing muslims and that asserting things repeatedly makes it true.

At about 21:25 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says to applause “I have been stunned by the way Americans are so shocked at how many people really truly detest them around the world.”

Speaking for myself, I don’t care if someone detests Americans. Oh, imagine the burden it must be to forever be wondering who a majority of Namibians consider to be their Super-Best-Friend-Forever. Treating global politics like high school cliques really doesn’t seem like the best way to determine policies.

Below the fold is parts 2 & 3 of the video and a transcript.

Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

Are moderate Muslims in the same boat, effectively, as climate change deniers?

Recently, the frollickingmole over at Tizona addressed the stoppage of the live cattle trade export to all Indonesian abattoirs after about 11 or 12 were found to be killing the animals in horrific circumstances.

Indeed, what we saw a few weeks ago was horrendous. (graphic content warning)

But back to mole’s post, and he put up a video of how an abattoir works in the West.

Sure, it’s still certainly not for the squeamish, but perhaps can be likened to Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Supersize Me.

That put many of us off McDonald’s for a bit, but isn’t it good if (that!) there’s some bacon lying around in the fridge (not that I want to cook it just this minute)?

That porcine video was indeed a bit different to what we all saw on 4corners. Very surgical, clinical.

So what’s all this have to do with terrorism, Islamic radicals, moderate Muslims, and (caused-by-humans) climate change, and its deniers?

Read more of this post

Im astounded and befuckled!

I had seen this video before but hadn’t been interested enough to watch it. I finally did and it has exploded my preconceptions of an everyday annoyance/safety device.

Traffic lights, everyone knows they are a necessary evil right? But we all endure because it would be worse without them right…..?

Watch these 2 vids and have an almost LSD-like expansion of your consciousness…

Me, while watching this...

Ht: The UK Libertarian

* Befuckled is a specalist medical term used by the charming lady who trained me as a medic. It comes when a student is in a profound state of befucklement and has hit a dead end. Once you work the problem out you cease to be befuckled or in a state of befucklement and become unbefuckled. Befucklement is a natrual stage in the process of learning.

I apologise if the terminology is a little advanced…..

Slightly over the top eh?

 

From the Guardian, a slight bit of hyperbole regarding Winston Churchill’s teeth. 

“These are the teeth that saved the world.” 

We shall Bite them on the beaches...

 

I can see it now… 

We shall go on to the end, we shall bite in France,
we shall bite on the seas and oceans,
we shall bite with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall bite on the beaches,
we shall bite on the landing grounds,
we shall bite in the fields and in the streets,
we shall bite in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.” 

   

UK election game changer

Wow, theres no words for how bad a gaffe Brown just made.

Set up for the traditional “nice old lady” interview with a bunch of cameramen around. He was lacklustre but competent. Then he drove away….

With a microphone on…

Abusing the old lady….

Heres the whole interview, if you want just the end of it skip to the last 20 seconds or so.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid69900095001?bctid=81636194001

This link here goes straight to a guardian page with just the excerpt in question

But does he live in a barn?

A 66-year-old man pleaded guilty today to having sex with a horse and a donkey.

Joseph Squires appeared at Leicester Crown Court charged with buggery of a donkey between February 2 and February 5, 1999, and buggery of a horse between March 15 and 18, 2004.

The fact that he didn’t have a ménage á trois with both the horse and the donkey, in theory, makes him slightly less of a pervert than I had originally assumed from the headline but the difference doesn’t seem discernible.

He also faced charges of damaging property – relating to the two animals on the same dates.

Squires, whose address was previously given as Overpark Avenue, Leicester, was due to stand trial but pleaded guilty to all four counts at Leicester Crown Court today.

Defence counsel Amar Mehta told the court Squires had no previous convictions and was of previous good character.

Requesting he be released on bail, he said: “The defendant does not have a stable address ….”

Potemkin lives.

First a little background, the term “Potemkin village”, refers to Catherine the Greats tour of her lands, when her royal favourite Field Marshal Potemkin constructed fake thriving towns along her route of travel. Heres a Wiki.

The UK, yesterday.

Fast forward a few hundred years and it appears parts of the UK think it was a great idea.

Fake businesses are to be used to lessen the impact of the recession on high streets in North Tyneside.

According to the story the council has a large number of shop fronts empty due to lack of businesses to run them. Now call me old fashioned but I would have thought the priority for the council would have been attempting to provide a pro-business environment, maybe something as radical as offering a 5 year holiday on council rates, free advertising, rents paid for you for 6 months, or a number of other forms of assistance for real businesses.

But no, whats better than that? Fake shopfronts.

Fake bloody shopfronts, Jesus wept, the best a group of councilors could come up with in response to an economic crisis is the North Korean solution. Where was the councillor who stood up and said “You know, now I think about it, this really is an incredibly stupid idea”.

The government-funded project involves colourful graphic designs featuring a range of different shop types, which are either taped inside the windows or screwed to the fascia so they can be removed and reused as required.

Karen Goldfinch, chair of Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade, said: “It’s an excellent way of promoting how a unit can be used, perhaps inspiring new businesses to come into the town.”

Fake shops for fake people? Well if pedestrian traffic drops a bit more in those areas perhaps they should use the same wonderous logic and place mannequins in the street to simulate people? Or off er fake money to spend at the fake shops?

Seriously, just when you think youve seen the stupidest ideas possible something like this comes along and lowers the bar even further.

HT to: Anna Raccoon

More Proof that God Hates Al Gore: Mini Ice Age Coming

Well, I’m convinced by things lik this that God hates all the eco-tard Warministas.

“The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in
summer by 2013.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.”

Too funny. Here in the northern hemisphere, England has been frozen solid, Florida is having it’s coldest temperatures since the ’80’s, and even here in south Texas the lows are in the teens (F).

UPDATES:

1] The Pope is a Climo-Tard

“VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI has denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a new climate change treaty by saying world peace depends on the responsible safeguarding of God’s creation.
Benedict issued the admonition in a speech Monday to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican.”

2] Florida Suffers Apocalyptic Freezing

More on Bing’s tip.

“MIAMI — Freakish cold weather continued to grip the southern United States, with snow flurries spotted around Orlando and a record low set for Miami, and forecasters said Sunday that more of the same was expected…

On Saturday night, a temperature of 35 degrees set a record that had stood since 1970, said Joel Rothfuss with the National Weather Service in Miami.

He said a record low of 37 degrees on Monday, which was set in 1927, could also be broken, with the forecast saying it would drop to 35 degrees again.

For the first time in at least 30 years, Miami Metrozoo shut its doors because it was too cold. Atlanta’s zoo was closed because the trails were iced over, officials said. Temperatures in Atlanta stayed around freezing over the weekend. The average high for Atlanta is in the 50 degrees (around 10 Celsius) with lows in the 30s (around 0 Celsius).”

It would be funny, but it’s a real disaster.

“Breen said his Florida town, which raises everything from tropical birds and fish to organic produce and palm trees, was holding on to the little that was left from the cold.

“Everybody is just wiped out. It’s that bad,” he said.”

OK, now can we get back to our gasoline and coal powered lives, please?

Climate Rage: The Bottom Has Fallen Out of Copenhagen

The continuing saga of Climategate has finally dropped both boots on Copenhagen, as The Times of London has pronounced the gathering a funeral.

“Exactly a fortnight from today, the United Nations climate change conference opens in Copenhagen. Its purpose is (or was) clear: to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012…

Mr Brown’s Copenhagen objective will, happily, not be achieved…

[T]he scientific basis for global warming projections is now under scrutiny as never before. The principal source of these projections is produced by a small group of scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), affiliated to the University of East Anglia.

Last week an apparent hacker obtained access to their computers and published in the blogosphere part of their internal e-mail traffic. And the CRU has conceded that the at least some of the published e-mails are genuine.

Astonishingly, what appears, at least at first blush, to have emerged is that (a) the scientists have been manipulating the raw temperature figures to show a relentlessly rising global warming trend; (b) they have consistently refused outsiders access to the raw data; (c) the scientists have been trying to avoid freedom of information requests; and (d) they have been discussing ways to prevent papers by dissenting scientists being published in learned journals…

[W]hat is clear is that the integrity of the scientific evidence on which not merely the British Government, but other countries, too, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, claim to base far-reaching and hugely expensive policy decisions, has been called into question. And the reputation of British science has been seriously tarnished. A high-level independent inquiry must be set up without delay.

It is against all this background that I am announcing today the launch of a new high-powered all-party (and non-party) think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (www.thegwpf.org), which I hope may mark a turning-point in the political and public debate on the important issue of global warming policy. At the very least, open and reasoned debate on this issue cannot be anything but healthy. The absence of debate between political parties at the present time makes our contribution all the more necessary.”

UPDATE: Viscount Monckton weighs in.

“This is what they did — these climate “scientists” on whose unsupported word the world’s classe politique proposes to set up an unelected global government this December in Copenhagen, with vast and unprecedented powers to control all formerly free markets, to tax wealthy nations and all of their financial transactions, to regulate the economic and environmental affairs of all nations, and to confiscate and extinguish all patent and intellectual property rights.

The tiny, close-knit clique of climate scientists who invented and now drive the “global warming” fraud — for fraud is what we now know it to be — tampered with temperature data so assiduously that, on the recent admission of one of them, land temperatures since 1980 have risen twice as fast as ocean temperatures. One of the thousands of emails recently circulated by a whistleblower at the University of East Anglia, where one of the world’s four global-temperature datasets is compiled, reveals that data were altered so as to prevent a recent decline in temperature from showing in the record. In fact, there has been no statistically significant “global warming” for 15 years — and there has been rapid and significant cooling for nine years.

Worse, these arrogant fraudsters — for fraudsters are what we now know them to be — have refused, for years and years and years, to reveal their data and their computer program listings. Now we know why: As a revealing 15,000-line document from the computer division at the Climate Research Unit shows, the programs and data are a hopeless, tangled mess. In effect, the global temperature trends have simply been made up. Unfortunately, the British researchers have been acting closely in league with their U.S. counterparts who compile the other terrestrial temperature dataset — the GISS/NCDC dataset. That dataset too contains numerous biases intended artificially to inflate the natural warming of the 20th century.

Finally, these huckstering snake-oil salesmen and “global warming” profiteers — for that is what they are — have written to each other encouraging the destruction of data that had been lawfully requested under the Freedom of Information Act in the UK by scientists who wanted to check whether their global temperature record had been properly compiled. And that procurement of data destruction, as they are about to find out to their cost, is a criminal offense. They are not merely bad scientists — they are crooks. And crooks who have perpetrated their crimes at the expense of British and U.S. taxpayers.

I am angry, and so should you be.”

Read the whole enchilada.

UPDATE II: Senator Jim Inhofe (R- OK) wants The United States Senate to investigate “Climategate”:

“Today, I will discuss something else – scientific integrity and how to improve it. Specifically, I will discuss the systematic and documented abuse of the scientific process by an international body that claims it provides the most complete and objective scientific assessment in the world on the subject of climate change – the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.”

Listen to his call-in to a conservative talk radio show.

“Now that was four years ago; so we knew they were cooking the science back then…”

The cat is out of the bag, and he’s pissed.

Get Gore to Debate Monckton: CEI Shows Al the Money

Notorious coward, fat man, carbon emitter, multi-gazillionaire… and Manbearpig, Al Gore, has steadfastly refused to debate Lord Monckton on Global Warming Climate Change, so CEI has a plan: Show Al the Money!

Spread the word!

H/T Iain Murray

Al-Albion update, Uk gets shariah courts.

From the Times online

ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

  

Well hes been proven 100% correct, nice one England.

It should be unneccessary to point out the evils this will bring to the community at large, and specifically to women. But here goes anyway.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

  

So a group of religious men (and it will always be men), will make ruling based on Mohammed’s desert survival guide, and regardless of how unfair it is the existing courts system will back it to the hilt?

This is justice?

Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

  

Crap and bollocks, they are a method of ensuring religious control in a secular society. It is an act of extreme negligence that the government in the Uk hasnt legislated to close off this loophole. It allows disputes which should be managed by the courts in a unbiased manner to be open to abuse.

(there are quite a few youtubes on this subject…worth a look by itself.

More below the fold.

Orwell was a warning, not an instruction manual.

The sheer horror I felt at reading this news article surprised me. Yet half way through it I could literally feel my skin crawling and scalp tightening in revulsion. There have been few real life things which have filled me with revulsion as visceral as this “nice” article.

 http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/115736/Sin-bins-for-worst-families

It seems harmless enough, another initiative to “save the chiiiildren”, but its state control overtures must be resisted by all right thinking people, whatever their political leanings.

SIN BINS FOR WORST FAMILIES

The last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions...

 

More below the fold

Another 911 conspiracy

This one’s pretty creative…

Early this year, the National Archives released documents from the files of the 9/11 Commission, which were previously classified. Three of those documents, recently obtained by EIR, provide the “smoking gun,” proving the central role of Saudi intelligence, and the critical support role of British intelligence in the preparation, execution, and coverup of 9/11.

And with no links whatsoever, Jeffrey Steinberg is hoping you’ll believe it.

What an insult.

Brown’s Downfall

I’m sorry, but these subtitled Downfall YouTube videos just never get old for me. Major NSFW language (printed in the subtitles, of course).

Via Trasatlantic Politics.

An important election message from the British Labour Party.

Comical Ali scores his next gig.

 

As an addition to Agus’ post just how bad was the Labour result?

 

This bad

It may not have hit the mainstream news but you’ve got to chuckle that in St Ives Labour were beaten in the County Council elections by a candidate from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.

http://anallseeingeye.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-official-loonies-beat-doomed-labour.html

 

He didn’t win, but Lord Toby Jug, Cambridgeshire’s first Loony candidate, was celebrating his best ever result in decades of political campaigning by winning 566 votes – well ahead of Labour’s two candidates who finished last.

“It is a Loony landslide. Democratic loonyism has arrived in St Ives,” said Lord Toby.

“People in St Ives have voted for the sanest candidate.”

St Ives was won by the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats in second place.

Lord Toby won 6.23 per cent of the vote, ahead of Labour’s Richard Allen on 362 and Angela Richards on 343.

 

Check the all seeing eye blog link above for the full story.

Labour Meltdown in England

I hesitate to post this, because I really don’t know dick about English politics, but I’ve been reading about this expenses scandal for a few weeks, and England just had some elections.

In the US, red is conservative and blue is leftist, but in England it’s t’other way ’round. So, all of that blue is a good thing from the libertarian-conservative perspective (Though I’m betting England has no libertarians, since their conservatives seem leftist to American libertarians).

In any event, Brown has ministers resigning right and left, and Labour is obviously in full meltdown mode. Now, if only we here in the US could get our Democrats to suffer a similar fate.

“Worst. Prime Minister. Ever.

[Iain Murray]

It’s train wreck day for Gordon Brown. Not only has the map of England turned blue, but one of the Cabinet Ministers he’s just reappointed may have quit in the middle of his press conference*. In that conference, he expressed defiance, which means that there will either have to be a swift political assassination (like mass resignations from his new cabinet) or there’ll be a bloodbath Labour will take decades to recover from. Tune to Iain Dale or Conservative Home for the latest in what is proving to be great political theater.

*Rumors are circulating that the next reality TV hit will be I’m a Cabinet Minister, Get Me Out of Here!”

Perhaps one of our English denizens could add a wee bit of perspective? ~hint, hint~

The scandal with no name…

Caught “our” ABC news on ABC2 this morning.

For those who are unaware there is a huge scandal in the UK over MPs of all major parties shovelling money at themselves through “expenses”. In some cases well over their actual pay, including some rather lucrative real estate shennanigans.

 

This scandal has been reported/brewing for over a week now, with even the PM Gordon Brown caught with some questionble claims.

Ive been following this mainly through 2 excellent websites, so anyone wanting more details should have a gander at these.

http://www.order-order.com/ (this bloke actually had a major part in breaking the story)

http://devilskitchen.me.uk/ (excellent for a sense of the absolute outrage this is causing)

 

Its really that bad.

Up until today (so at least a week into the story) the focus has been on the Labour government ministers and their claims. Yesterday the first major story on the Tories (opposition) same abuse of the system came to light.

 

Guess when the ABC decided to run its first story (that Ive seen any major time devoted to) on the issue?

Then guess which party the member held up as a shameful example came from?

Then guess which party leader was shown apologising on behalf of everyone involved?

So if you guessed yesterday as number 1, Tory as number 2, and Gordon Brown as number 3 well done.

More below the fold

Russia Backs Return to Gold Standard

It’s sort of a modified, limited hang-out, but Russia is promoting at least a partial return to the gold standard for international currencies.

“Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin’s chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.

Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal.”

Too funny: Having money backed by real value is “radical.” No, it isn’t, it’s moral… but you can be sure the Russians and Chinese are not proposing this for positive moral ends, rather they have designs on taking advantage of the US mountain of debt that Obi-One has buried us under to weaken us economically. Still, I’m glad they brought this up, because it will strike fear into a lot of arrogant hearts, or it ought to.

If some countries return to the gold standard, international financiers and financial institutions will flock to those currencies and the US dollar and other unbacked fiat currencies will plummet into worthlessness. If that doesn’t worry you, it should. The US, GB, Australia and other western nations are in no position to return to the gold standard: Too much money in circulation and nowhere near enough gold to hitch to it.

Still, at some point this is going to happen, even if it takes a total global financial meltdown to achieve it… and it just might.

The choices will come down to this…

…or this.

It was good while it lasted

Mark Steyn’s take on where, thanks to all these new Vibey policies, America is headed.

In 1897, troops from the greatest empire the world had ever seen marched down London’s mall for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. Seventy years later, Britain had government health care, a government-owned car industry, massive government housing, and it was a shriveled high-unemployment socialist basket-case living off the dwindling cultural capital of its glorious past. In 1945, America emerged from the Second World War as the preeminent power on earth. Seventy years later . . .

Let’s not go there.

That said, the UK is still going OK. Key word is ‘mix’, you American folks. For instance, make health care more affordable but don’t totally socialize it, like say, Cuba has.

Cuban hospital providing universal healthcare: what can happen when healthcare is totally socialised.

McCain’s Perfect Choice for a Running Mate: Governor Sarah Palin

While most of the pedantic, two-dimensional, inside-the-box-thinking, conservative political hacks are touting Tom Ridge for the slot (Not a bad guy, but…), David Freddoso notes a far superior choice has been proposed: The Republican Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

I believe this is a truly inspired idea. Gov. Palin ran as an anti-corruption outsider, and handily defeated a corrupt and entrenched Republican political machine. Plus, at 44, she would almost totally wipe the “age issue” McCain has off the slate, and since Obama is only two years her senior, there is no way they could attack her for her youth and inexperience: She has much more executive experience than Senator Obama has.

Not to mention the fact that, she’s a gorgeous woman who exudes mass quantities of charisma…

and has a super-solid family life.

Dibs on the eldest daughter! LOL!

This inspired choice would allow McCain to actually capitalize on his “maverick” persona, as Gov. Palin shook Alaska politics to the core: She’s a charming, charismatic woman, but she can also play with the big boys and kick ass.

What say ye?

UPDATE: Things are looking optimistic!

UPDATE II: Welcome to all 4500 8000 40,000 in the past few hours (so far!) people visiting us from Google. We’re a fairly opinionated right-wing blog, and you might like to take a look at our “About” page. You might also be interested in our other coverage of Sarah Palin and whether she becomes a prospective Vice President of the United States. You can find this coverage here and here. Personally, I hope she does, but you can feel free to debate the idea in comments below. All first comments are moderated, but unless you either insult or use severe profanity (and I mean severe by my standards, which generally only means the C U Next Tuesday word or the implication that someone has had a rather enjoyable erotic experience with someone who has borne a child), however if you come up with a new one, I may simply delete your comment. I, and all other contributors to this blog are more than fair in what we permit.

UPDATE III: Nayr Drahcir, don’t bother even trying. You will not be published.

UPDATE IV: A lot of people must like Palin.

UPDATE V: More coverage of Governor Sarah Palin and a theme song here.

UPDATE VI: Funniest observation on the announcement yet: “Put Obama and Palin on a basketball court one on one. Winner takes all!”

UPDATE VII: [spot_the_dog] No, we do not have any pictures of “Sarah Palin + Naked,” nor do we have any of “Sarah Palin + Swimsuit.” In the past 24 hours, there have been 157 separate searches on this site for “Sarah Palin Swimsuit,” and 161 separate searches for “Sarah Palin Naked.” I repeat, we have no bathing suit, swim suit, bikini, or naked pictures of Sarah Palin. What kind of people do you think we are, anyway? 😉

UPDATE VIIa: [spot_the_dog] Ace has noticed a similar search phenomenon on his blog and has a theory…

UPDATE VIII: A well-rounded view of the selection of Sarah Palin for the Vice President Nomination can be found here.

UPDATE IX:  We got it!  YES!  Nude photo of Sarah Palin right here!  (C’mon.  You know you want to click.)

UPDATE X: Feel free to visit our main page and read the latest posts we’ve written.

British Apocalypse

Here’s a compelling read by Peter Hennessy and Richard Knight on the UK’s last line of defence – the nuclear-armed HMS Vanguard.

The weapons engineering officer then takes the trigger that will fire the missiles from a small safe above his console. It’s the handle of a Colt 45 pistol…

And then the weapons engineering officer squeezes the trigger to the most devastating weapon ever devised. It clicks softly.

‘One away,’ he says — and with that the missile would be gone. It cannot be destroyed inflight. It will travel too far, too fast for there to be any hope of interception. Once you hear that click, as one senior submariner told us, ‘you’re no more than 30 minutes from the end of the world’.

The Human Button, a show about all this will air on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, December 2 at 8pm with a repeat on Sunday, December 7 at 5pm. Note, times are London times.

HMS Vanguard

Meanwhile, in other Trident news from across the Atlantic, the US military is still pushing to have a prompt-global-strike system using their Trident missiles, albeit with conventional warheads. However, they’ve had to do a bit of wrangling “after Congress blocked plans to use conventionally armed Trident submarine-launched missiles armed with conventional warheads.”

Two British Comedians Eviscerate the Credit Crunch

I don’t even know who these guys are, but this is brilliant.

One of my motorcycle buds emailed this to me today. Anyone know these guys?

What the bloody hell is this?

Daily Telegraph AU

WHO the bloody hell do they think they are?

Britain’s, er, brightest newspaper brains are rubbing Sydney Olympics fans’ noses in the Poms’ medal glory today – while taking a pop at our Lara Bingle.

With the UK astonished that Britain won more medals than Australia in Beijing, bosses at London-based The Sun have hired a van to ram home the message in Sydney.

This could bring a whole new meaning to the term Mother country don’t you think, Brits?

British Deal With al-Sadr Betrayed Iraqi People. Charlie, don’t be pissed, I didn’t write it.

More at Pajamas Media/ Omar and Mohammed Fadhil

The news about a secret deal between the British and anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr did not come as a surprise to us. Britain’s war policy has been clear for the past several years: the country demonstrated no readiness to make sustained efforts in a prolonged war, nor did it act as a serious partner determined to win the conflict.

There are three aspects in this British betrayal. First, striking a deal with the enemy; second, selling an Iraqi city to the enemy of their Iraqi hosts and partners; and third, by not informing their American partners of their plans, enabling the U.S. military’s reliance on an untrustworthy partner — something the British military leadership turned out to be.

What’s worse — even assuming the “accommodation” was a thoughtful plan with good intentions — is that Britain upheld the deal even when the militias violated it. The militias did not renounce violence (attacks continued), and they did not switch to civil political activity. Still, the British didn’t take action.

To be fair, Britain deserves credit for being a good team member during the good days in the beginning of the war. They sent in some 40,000 troops and were enthusiastic about contributing to the quick collapse of Saddam’s defenses.

They sent the largest number of troops after the U.S. and celebrated the initial victory, showing themselves as allies of the U.S. But it looks like Britain wanted to share only the good days, nothing more. Things changed fast soon after. In fact, over the last two years, Britain has adopted a policy in Iraq that is opposite in direction to that of the U.S.