Harry's Place

Where's the Beef ?

The three day siege at Scotland's secret bunker has ended today with an arrest.

The linked BBC report fails to tell us the name of the troublemaker though. Grampian TV have no such qualms:

The departure of a police van with Ronald MacDonald inside marked the end of a bizarre siege.

Was this the scary looking clown's 'cry for help' over Salads Plus ?

Life imitates trashy art?

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Running Dogs of Capitalism

(Total credit-- or blame-- to Wonkette.)

Who knew that Buddhists could be so aggressive?

Buddhists: peace-loving, sweet, filled with Universal Compassion, right? Not if you interview the Dalai Lama and - while damning the rape of Tibet by the Chinese tyranny - also ask him some questions as if he was, you know, a human being and all.

I have been wading through hate mail all week. Here's one of the nicer e-mails, from somebody called Anna Churchill:

Just in case you are the type who gets off on raising
ire by deliberately writing twisted and irrepsonsible
portraits of those you interview-- remember that this
time you have stepped over the line and have shown
yourself to be an incredibly small minded (and as the
Dalai Lama noted--greedy and fat) ugly and stupid
person. When the world is being hacked to bits by just
such a sensibility as what you have now demonstrated
to be yours--you had to swing your dull little blade
with the rest rather than take advantage of your
position and the privilege to communicate to a mass
audience to say something intelligent and sustainable
you chose instead to smear the page with the usual
excrement of commercial, cheap, mean and stupid
sentiments.

How utterly contemptable that the Independent has
caved to political pressure [Eh? Does she think the
Chinese embassy has been on the phone, or what?] to present a deliberately
viscious and ignorant feature on the Dalai Lama. If
speciousness could be thought to have a nadir (and
this would be tautological) it would be exemplified in
Hari's bizarre accusations that the Dalai Lama
INHERITED the sensibility of a one or two thousand
year old system and then had the unmitigated gall to
not only REFORM IT but has refused to resort to
violence to defend it against its wanton destruction
by the Chinese--(where is the ever whinging Mr. Fisk
when you need him) which by so doing would violate
the most fundamental philosophical tenets of that
state's raison d'etre.

Those who choose to be subjected to such scum
suckingjournalism usually read the Sun or the Mail. I
don'texpect to have to pay 55 pence to be offended by
such rabid garbage...

If Mr. Hari or the managing editor had the
balls to face me as a member of the Independent's
reading public--I would beat the crap out of the both
of you. As one who has inherited the Western mantle of
feeling outrage at injustice I sure as hell would not
demonstrate any of the compassion for your venality
and ignorance that would be accorded to you by someone
such as the Dalia Lama. And THAT is why we need more
humans like the Dalai Lama and a regard for the
contribution being made to the world's collective
conscience and consciousness by Tibetan Buddhism...so
that we can all learn to resist wanting to beat the
crap out of arrogant, irresponsible shits such as Mr.
Hari and the editor who commissioned the article--
thereby making one more gesture towards helping to
elevate the human condition.

But the Dalai Lama hardly needs me to defend him when
he can turn on his heel at the end of such a rude
encounter and out quip the best of them with his hint
to Mr. Hari that Mr. Hari is no more than a smug and
inlfated glutton. And of course Mr. Hari's smug and
inflated sense of himself is proven by his inclusion
of the Dalai Lama's remark into his article.

Oh, and here's another Buddhist charmer, called Dom from Oxford:

You're encounter with the Dali Lama confirmed everything that I have come to expect of your one dimensional drivle I find stained on my copy of the independent. Regardless of whether you though yourself to have a greater relationship with 'truth' than the Dali Lama or not, the very least you could have done is at least attempt to disguise it! I talked to various people about your article, as I was shocked by the cringe inducing potency of self righteousness, and found them all to be in agreement that you had suceeded in making a fool of yourself.

As a man who is such a 'warrior of tollerance', I find it quite amazing that you consider Buddhism to be something that appeals to 'trendy westerners'. Buddhism is of course a wonderful religion that spans back about 2500 years. The fact that it doesn't match your tastes of course means that it is of course a moral tyranny, a means of mass conformity and control, or a route to self hatred and sexual repression. Or not perhaps?

Even when you tried your hardest to focus in on the 'bad' aspects of the Dali Lama you failed. Are you really that narcissistic to believe yourself to be in the same intellectual league as such a tallented being as he is? Do you really have such confidence in your wisdom to take on a genius of our time? For just in case you hadn't realised I will admit you have intellectual abilities, but you are so far of a genius! His replies although obviously bastardised for your trying to make yourself sound clever, still came up on top of yours.

I am nineteen and utterly aware of my ignorace, and although I can't remember your age I believe it to be in the late twenties. Please grow up, your not a man of the people, your not a genius, you are Oxford graduate from a comfortable background trying to tell everyone how the world works (and failing, everything to do with the Iraq war you go wrong, and on some level you know it (I'm sure Bush is glad for people like you though)).

As for the disabled children, you might find it hard to concieve of things outside of your politically correct conditioning that I am sure you think yourself to be elevated from. But, that is another persons culture and just because it contrasts with your own does not mean it is false. I happen to believe in karma although I do not expect anyone else to, I try to respect other peoples beliefs and never aim to alter them. Look at people like Nietzsche's lives and then you may perhaps get an understand of this concept. Eminem will suffer greatly in the years to come, suicide from his part would not suprise me in the least.

Lastly if the Dali Lama did actually say that thing about you having two bellies he was right. You like 99% of all other fat people should stop whinging and lose that wieght, and you can lose your depression you are so proud of also. Self pity and self love go hand in hand, and you could do with getting rid of both of them.

Dom

I guess these guys did something really bad in a past life to deserve me...

Reagan and Communism: the myths

Reagan's record on Communism is being misrepresented this week. Yes, Reagan played a small role in precipitating the collpase of that hideous tyranny. His hard - and just - line against the Soviet Union seems to have pressed the Politburo into selecting the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev rather than another conservative like Andropov. This set in train the reforms that finally killed Lenin's deformed baby. He deserves credit for his limited role in this achievement.

However, it should be pointed out that the idea he had a concerted plan for the collapse of the Soviet Union is absurd. No serious historian accepts this right-wing fantasy. And there are other, greater problems with Reagan's anti-Communist record. The President lumped all independent third world liberation movements into his war on Soviet tyranny. Thanks to his disconnection from the grey hues of reality, everybody who opposed US policy became in his – and Middle America’s – mind somehow a Soviet stooge. This led the President to illegally back – to name just one – the fascist Contras in Nicaragua who murdered over 30,000 people in their attempt to overthrow the democratically elected Sandinista government. Reagan’s toughness on the Soviets warped into the liquidation of democratic development in Central America. Those societies have still not recovered from Reagan-funded butchery. He also counted pro-American tyrannies as "on the side of ‘freedom" – including Apartheid South Africa and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Ah, the beauties of freedom for Iraqi Kurds and South African blacks.

It also needs to be remembered that, having helped bring down Soviet tyranny, the crusaders in the Reagan Revolution then destroyed Russia over again. It was Reaganite government-haters who inspired and designed the IMF ‘shock therapy’ program imposed upon the rubble of the Soviet Union. The result is now beyond dispute. Robber barons seized the nation, bought up the ‘free’ press, starved the state of money to pay for health and education, and life expectancy for the average Russian actually fell below[ital] the dire levels of the late Soviet Union. Russia is now - as a result of this imposed bout of Thatcho-Reaganism – turning back to a tyrannical and authoritarian leadership. No, it's not as bad as the Stalinist Soviet Union (although the genocidal war on Chechnya is worthy of Uncle Joe), but that's hardly much of a comfort. So yes, Reagan played a significant role in winning the Cold War – but it was his philosophy that made us disastrously lose the peace.

Donkeys in the Desert

Supporters of the Democratic party serving in Iraq have organized their own political group called Donkeys in the Desert, The New Yorker reports.

There is no shortage of politicization within Coalition circles in Iraq, to be sure. In the middle of the marble palace that serves as C.P.A. headquarters (and that will serve, at least temporarily, as part of the U.S. Embassy, beginning next month), there is a painting of the World Trade Center towers—whose relevance to Operation Iraqi Freedom remains a matter of bitter contention. Stratcom, the Coalition press office, is staffed by a number of former Bush campaign workers. One Donkey reports chafing at a colleague’s remark, “I’m not here for the Iraqis, I’m here for George W. Bush.”

“A lot of Republicans walk around talking Republican stuff,” [Kael Weston, the founder] said. “We call them Palace Pachyderms.”

The Donkeys have written to John Kerry urging him to visit Iraq; I hope he takes them up on it.

Despite the political differences, Weston said, “I think we’re pretty happy that Kerry has at least demonstrated that it is a complicated situation in Iraq, and not just a case of ‘Get out tomorrow.’”

I support this

http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/

Doctor Feelgood

UK Health Secretary Doctor John Reid put things into perspective yesterday with a speech which will leave patrician do-gooders fuming.

Mr Reid said that the middle classes were obsessed with giving instruction to people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and that smoking was not one of the worst problems facing poorer people.

The ex-Communist and reformed smoker (is that the right way round ?) also set out in his speech his preferred strategy for improving the health of the masses:

Mr Reid also said he wanted to find a new way to involve the ethnic minorities and working class in their own health, including by opening health care centres in shopping centres, or by using health advice from football clubs. "We need to find places where people work, that are more accessible, more identifiable for them, less preachy, less hectoring, less dictatorial, then we may achieve success in the field of public health," he said.

Did anyone challenge him?

Via Michael J. Totten comes a chilling photo from last weekend's ANSWER-sponsored demonstration in San Francisco, demanding immediate withdrawal of all U.S. and foreign troops from Iraq and supporting "the Palestinian people's struggle against colonial occupation, including the right to return."

(I suspect ANSWER's estimate of 20,000 demonstrators in DC, LA and San Francisco is vastly inflated.)

Of course there are people who would insist that the fellow holding the sign is not necessarily antisemitic. After all he doesn't necessarily want to smash the Jews, he only wants to smash their state. How could any Jew possibly take that personally? And I'm sure that if some of the MediaLens chatterers had the chance, they would have advised him to change "Jewish" to "Zionist."

In response to those who would accuse him lumping all demonstrators with the sign-holder in the photo, Michael writes:

Plenty of nice people attend peace rallies, I know that very well. I think they’re a bit naďve, but they mean well. They’re decent people. And because they’re decent and well-meaning people I’d like to see them kick the guy in the picture out of their parade. I bet they would do just that if he put a sheet over his head, and he might as well.

PS - I don't attend "pro-war" rallies. If I did and I saw a guy with a sign that said "Smash Muslim States," I'd call him out on it. And if that guy wasn't being challenged by the rest of those in attendance, that would be the last time I hung around that crowd. I'm not asking anyone to do anything I wouldn't do myself.

Parable

First some economic news.

Median compensation for chief executives at the largest U.S. companies rose 27 percent in 2003, according to Reuters. That represents an increase from $3.6 million-- on which the typical CEO was scraping by in 2002-- to $4.6 million.

In the same year the median wage for full-time workers (adjusted for inflation) actually declined 0.4 percent. And for the lowest 10 percent of wage earners-- those who can least afford to lose any purchasing power-- the loss was 0.7 percent.

In news from the entertainment world, Marc Peyser of Newsweek writes about the new season of the reality TV show "The Simple Life," starring rich girls Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton:

...Through the magic of reality TV, Nicole and her friend Paris Hilton find themselves with no money, no credit cards and their pink trailer home running on empty somewhere in Florida. "What can we sell?" asks Paris. "A $100,000 watch?" Quicker than you can say "money shot," the ladies pull into a gas station. Nicole and her skimpy sundress go to work. "We just want to know if we can borrow, like, $5," she coos to a sunburned guy in a T shirt. He reaches for his wallet a bit too quickly. "You know what? Keep the five. I'll do you a favor. I'll take the 10." Of course she gets it—and more, from every grease jockey in sight. "You're good at this, Nicole," Hilton says. "This could be your new job."

Apparently Mr. Peyser finds this stuff hilarious. To me it looks more like a parable.

Trouble Ahead

This is not looking good for Zimbabwe.

President Robert Mugabe’s government announced plans today to nationalise all Zimbabwean farmland after forcing more than 5,000 white farmers off their properties in an often-violent redistribution programme.

“In the end all land shall be state land and there shall be no such thing as private land,” Land Reform Minister John Nkomo said.

Government did not intend to “waste time and money” in disputes with farmers whose land had been seized, regardless of what legal documents they held, Nkomo said.

Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, now suffers acute shortages of food, hard currency, petrol and other imports. United Nations crop forecasters predict the country will produce only half its food needs this year.

Yvonne Ridley speaks

From the Respect website, an account of a meeting featuring MEP candidate Yvonne Ridley:

...Yvonne began addressing the audience with a comparison of her time as a Taliban prisoner to the horrific pictures of Iraqi prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison.

"I have been seeing the images of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and all I can say is that I thank Allah I was captured by the 'most evil brutal regime in the world' than by American soldiers" she told them.

Would Ms. Ridley be thanking Allah if the Taliban had arrested her for, say, adultery? I don't think she'd be in a position to thank anyone.

Yvonne was arrested by the Taliban and placed in prison as a spy after she had entered the country as an undercover reporter for The Express newspaper. She was eventually released unharmed and returned to Britain only to discover that elements in the media and the US/UK governments would have preferred her to have returned dead so that people would have been more sympathetic to the war on Afghanistan.

Which elements would those be? Can anyone provide names?

Reaganism's dark side

Writing in The Washington Post, Marc Fisher gets at why I could never warm up to Ronald Reagan.

As Fisher explains, Reagan's famous "sunny optimism" had a dark side: namely a maddening obliviousness to millions of his fellow citizens suffering due to hard luck, personal failures or (as is often the case) some combination of the two.

Those of us who never quite got the adoration that Reagan engendered couldn't get past his seeming blindness to the homeless and the jobless and the lost. Reagan freed Americans to believe that looking out for number one was morally and socially okay, that a happy and consuming middle class would lift up those below.

But what came out of those years was an ever-wider gap between the incomes and experiences of the haves and the have-nots.

I haven't been an Oliver Stone fan recently, but I thought his movie Wall Street was the iconic film of the Reagan era. And Michael Douglas's famous line from that film is what Reagan's social and economic philosophy-- stripped of its pious aphorisms and dubious anecdotes-- amounted to:

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

Well Lindsey?

The Greens, the Lib Dems, Labour and even the Tories are backing a proposal for a Gay Museum in the capital.

No word yet from Respect's Lindsey "Shiboleth" German.

The Dalai Lama called me fat.

What next? Being called a minger by the Pope? Being told I have crap shoes by the Chief Rabbi?

Quiz Time

The occupation of Iraq led to some hairy moments this Spring. The press and the blogosphere debated how we had ended up there. Some blamed a lack of nation-building experience on the part of the US Army or their heavy-handedness dealing with Iraqi people, some pointed to local resentment at widespread unemployment and the lack of basic services, others wondered how peaceful things could be in a country where most adult males owned an AK 47.

Psychologist Dorothy Rowe writing in an article about the different male and female responses to fiction thinks she has a better understanding of the political and social dynamics of Iraq than Bush with all his useless old advisors and spies.

To read fiction you've got to have a certain suspension of disbelief, you've got to be able to enter the imagination of another person.' Rowe suggests that, as well as providing a sentimental education, novels offer unparalleled training in mind control: 'If George Bush had the faintest clue about what goes on inside people he would have known that the Iraq thing was going to be a disaster, but he doesn't understand that other people see the world differently

Well, that's him told. But which novel would he have found the answers in ? I'll leave it to readers to suggest answers.

East End Offset

Harry's Place contributor, tobireg points out in a post here that the Socialist Workers Party is selling off East End Offset, its long standing - and I thought, quite successful - commercial printing operation. E.E.O. used to print some well known titles, including Private Eye: which I imagine was a deal brokered by Lord Caradon's son, old Salopian Paul Foot. It does not print it now.

I remember being told a lovely story about E.E.A being commissioned to print the sorts of calendars that you see in the offices of garages. The workers - so the story goes - were not impressed by the calendars, and needed to be persuaded by the Hon. Paul Foot that printing the Buxom Beauties Calendar 1984 was essential to the success of the revolution.

However, the post which tobireg mentions points out that E.E.A. do not print in full colour, and therefore I'm forced to admit that this story must be apocryphal, which is a pity.

What may or may not also be nonsense is the suggestion that E.E.A. is being sold to balance the SWP books:

Similarly, the launch of RESPECT has led to some wear and tear on the SWP. Although there were special meetings open to all members to discuss RESPECT, there was no internal bulletin produced in this period, so competing opinions were not enfranchised. The tactical decision to ban Socialist Alliance candidates in the June elections was not even discussed with SWP members on the SA national executive - yet I believe this has proved counterproductive in demobilising a wider layer of SA activists who would otherwise have been active building both the SA and RESPECT.

I therefore suspect that the SWP are pulling out of printing and selling the premises just to balance the books.

As a footnote, why is the Muslim Association of Britain endorsing Ken Livingstone over Lindsey "Shiboleth" German?
Hat tip: RespectWatch

Questions of Sovereignty

Glaswegian provocateur Niall Ferguson argues in today's Guardian that Iraq won't be getting full sovereignty on June 30th:

We know that full sovereignty is not an option. President Bush has made it clear that he intends to "maintain our troop level at the current 138,000 as long as necessary" and that these troops will continue to operate "under American command". This in itself implies something significantly less than full sovereignty. For if the new interim Iraqi government does not have control over a well-armed foreign army in its own territory, then it lacks one of the defining characteristics of a sovereign state: a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence.

He then goes on to explain the nuts and bolts of the proposed relationship between the Iraqi government and the coalition forces:

After June 30, the role of the US-led forces will be subject to "review" either after a year or "at the request of the transitional government of Iraq". The secretary of state, Colin Powell, helpfully translated that to mean: "If they ask us to go home, we will go home." In the second draft of the resolution, that departure is fixed to occur no later than 2005.

It's never ideal having foreign troops in your country but if you have the power to ask them to leave any time you like and a long-stop provision a year down the line it's got to be better than the deal this country had which had to wait forty six years before the Brits and Americans ceded sovereignty back to them:

March 1991 — "Two-Plus-Four Treaty" formally making Germany a sovereign state, enters into force

Some people are going to be making a big deal about the partial nature of Iraqi sovereignty in the next few weeks for their own purposes. It's worth remembering two things when they start their chorus. First, less than full sovereignty didn't prevent Germany from providing its citizens with the highest standard of living in Europe even if it was under military occupation for nearly half a century; secondly Iraq is going to get it's full sovereignty back twenty five times quicker than the Germans did.

Nobody likes hosting foreign troops especially when you don't have a veto on their operations but until a non-Baathist Iraqi police force and military are fully functioning the alternative scenario - rule by the angriest and best armed gangs - is one that few Iraqis are likely to wish for.

Once the means for protecting Iraqi democracy are in place and functioning we will be hearing a lot less about the likes of Al-Sadr and his gang of losers in the same way that the "ferocious Nazi resistance" dwindled to nothing shortly after the end of the second world war.

They don't like it up 'em Part Two

At last the press start to take a proper look at Respect, rather than just describing them as 'George Galloway's anti-war party' .

Not surprisingly the party that promised to change the face of British politics forever are spitting feathers again with the kind of statement that makes you check the website address to make sure you are not on the spoof site:

The pro-war and pro-occupation newspaper, The Observer, joined the Downing Street Chorus today with a series of false and defamatory allegations against Respect. Individual party members are taking legal advice with a view to serving writs on the paper.

They are also threatening to report the paper to the Commission for Racial Equality, although it is not clear why. It appears they are upset about references to Islamic fundamentalist support for their party:

‘There are no fundamentalists involved in Respect. This is the sort of nasty racist smear which fuels Islamophobia and attacks on Muslims, which I’ve experienced first-hand,’ said Respect’s West Midlands European candidate Salma Yaqoob. ‘Respect is a mainstream political party, it is not linked to extremism, religious or political and, indeed, the very groups which the paper would label “fundamentalist” oppose Respect and are calling for a boycott of the elections.’

She must be referring to al muhajiroun who believe voting is an affront to Allah.

But what about this Downing Street chorus against Respect?

I've searched long and hard on Google to try and find even a reference to Galloway or his party from Number Ten in the past weeks without any joy.

Never mind 'chorus' the Labour Party's website doesn't mention Respect whatsoever and the most recent mention of Galloway on the official Downing Street website is from over a year ago:

Asked the Prime Minister's view of George Galloway, the PMOS said it was no secret that the Prime Minister did not see eye-to-eye with Mr Galloway on many issues.

Its a witchhunt.

(Hat Tip: Respect Watch)

On Reagan

I'm not going to get misty-eyed about Ronald Reagan, although I feel sorry for him and his family for what they endured in his final years.

Among other things, my memory of what he did to the American labor movement is too strong; I was after all working with a number of labor unions in St. Louis at the time. His decision to fire striking air traffic controllers in 1981 sent a signal to employers throughout the country that it was open season on organized labor. In additon Reagan's appointees weakened labor rights and job safety and health standards.

On foreign policy he wasn't quite the champion of universal freedom he is sometimes made out to be. It was his administration, after all, which began cosying up to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. And he was pleased to support a number of brutal Latin American dictators, including Guatemala's Efrain Rios Montt.

Finally, call me a curmudgeon if you will, but I found his famous charm eminently resistible.

Still, and rather grudgingly, I can only echo Matt Welch's mea culpa:

...when the old fella said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" I laughed at his blustery naivete, as I did whenever he uttered the phrase "Evil Empire." Needless to say, I was wrong about that, and he was right, and I'm still ashamed about it.

"The road to dictatorships starts with clapping"

Omar at Iraq the Model translates from more posts by Iraqis on the BBC's Arabic website (he promises to make it a regular feature).

This is from Mohammed in Baghdad:

I believe that the sovereignty hand-over WILL happen, even if it needs several stages and this is just a matter of time. Dictatorship has gone forever and we’re not feeling sorry for that.

One last thing to say: we, in Iraq, have learnt the lesson and we’re not going to praise and clap to anyone and no one can force us to do so no matter what his place is. The road to dictatorships starts with clapping.

I like that last paragraph, and it reminded me of the grotesque incident Solzhenitsyn described so vividly in The Gulag Archipelago.