Thursday, September 15, 2005

"Us" Killing "Them" vs "Them" Killing "Them"

When Muslims are killed by non-Muslims, Muslim organisations protest.

When Muslims kill Muslims, as in Sudan or Iraq, the same organisations stay silent.

When a white person in Britain kills a black or Asian person, it's headline news - especially if the victim is a decent, upstanding member of the community. As I wrote a while back "the only times you hear in the media about a black kid with good grades and school attendance is when his poor mother's asked to come and identify the body. Stephen, Damilola, Kieran".

You could add poor Anthony Walker to that list. But some good, decent black kids don't even make the BBC local news.

Imagine a couple of black girls sitting in a parked car, when it's surrounded by a gang of white youths. One of the girls gets out to remonstrate and is stabbed to death.

It would be all over the news. There'd be protests and vigils. BBC News 24 would show the memorial service live, as it did for Anthony Walker.

Ruth Okechukwu, aged 18, was killed last Sunday and the story has sunk without trace.

Pastor's daughter Ruth Okechukwu, 18, was murdered after being repeatedly knifed in a 'cold-blooded' gang attack. She suffered wounds to the wrist, hand, throat and fatally to the heart.

Ruth and a friend were sitting in a parked car in Peckham when it was surrounded by a gang of six or seven youths. She is believed to have been stabbed when she got out to remonstrate with the youths.

A 16 year youth has been arrested and is being intervened by detectives at a south London police station.

Historic First As Statue Of Disabled Person Unveiled

Once upon a time, if you wanted to see a naked lady with no arms you'd have to go to the Louvre. If you wanted to see a naked, pregnant lady with no arms you'd have to go to places like this (possibly not work-friendly).

Now we can all rejoice that you can see one in Trafalgar Square.

Ms Lapper, who was born with shortened legs and no arms because of a congenital disorder, has travelled to London for the ceremony. "I’m very excited about it. This is history in the making," she said.

"Never before has someone with a disability - let alone someone with a disability who is naked and eight months pregnant - been put in such a public place and portrayed in such a positive way."


Tragically Ms Lapper appears to be not only disabled, but blind. Or ignorant. Or both.

It's easy to miss, I know. But Trafalgar Square is dominated by a 180-foot column.

With an 18-foot statue on the top.

Of a man missing an eye and half an arm.











(this post is also peripherally relevant)

For The Full SBBS Story ...

See Crooked Timber's comments.

(and apologies for the foul language so beloved of academic lefties. Maybe it's what the "working classes" do. Or something.)

Specialist Subject - The Bleeding Obvious

Men who experienced a downward social shift were four times more likely to feel depressed than men who improved their social status, whereas there was no marked difference in the mental health between women who moved up or down the social ladder, according to research from Britain's Newcastle University.

Women in the study were actually twice as likely to be downwardly mobile but generally avoided the depression and poor psychological wellbeing shown by men, the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health said.

The researchers used the occupation of the head of the household as the marker for social status and surveyed men and woman born in 1947 in the industrial town of Newcastle in north east England.

"It's possible that this reaction is typical of this post-war generation, where the man expected to be the main breadwinner of the household and took a significant knock to his self-esteem when he was not able to achieve this," said one of the study's authors, Dr Mark Pearce.


Reuters




"You are just like all women. They are ever content to build their lives on any incidental position that offers itself; whilst men would fain make a globe to suit them."

Thomas Hardy, The Return Of The Native

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

King Offa and Islam

At gunpoint I'm forcing the kids to read Churchill's 'History Of The English-Speaking Peoples', having totally given up hope that history as taught at a State comprehensive will teach them anything at all.

Churchill notes with interest how the powerful Mercian king Offa (of Dike fame) had coins struck from an Arabic die (Islamic civilisation was approaching its zenith), overstruck with 'Rex Anglorum' (king of the English), and used as tribute to the Pope in Rome.

The Arabic inscription on the die said 'there is one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet' !

Band - And Banned

What ? John Band's packed up ?

Me no understand. John seems upset that his commenters have 'lied, cheated, twisted and bullied'. 'You've won' he says. But I assumed that the whole point of his blog was to wind people up into a 'robust debate'. Which he did with a great deal of style and humour, if a bit too much bad language for my taste.

A typical post might be headed "If you believe X then you are a ***** who should have his **** toasted over a slow fire". And then he complains about the comments !

I've obviously got John wrong all these years. It seems the toilet-mouthed iconoclast I thought I knew was but the outer carapace of a sensitive soul, longing for love, acceptance and community but besieged by a commenting army of loons, right-wingers and dsquared.

As Thomas Hardy rightly said of Tess, "continual dropping will wear away a Stone - ay, more - a Diamond." This day there's a gaping hole in the Blogring of Britain, where a precious if somewhat tarnished jewel once shone.







John recommends commenters to jump ship to, among others, Matt Turner, who banned me from commenting a year or two back. Matt doesn't seem too chuffed by the recommendation.

I'v also been banned from Thinking Anglicans, a fine site, but run by people who, like so many on the liberal left, believe in diversity of everything - except opinion.

However I can be truly Christian in my response. It is as good a site for CoE news as any in the world, and I recommend it unreservedly to anyone who wants to know what's going on in the church. The slow suicide of Anglicanism is displayed and described in minutest detail, and even those who want to preserve the Chuch, like the saintly Peter Akinola of Nigeria, are allowed to present their arguments in their own words. Only in the comments boxes do you get a the full effect of "we believe in tolerance, love, and the acceptance of difference - and anyone who doesn't think like us is a hate-filled bigot who should be cast into the outer darkness."

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Liberal Left Has Fit Of Daily Telegraphs

Rioting ? Secondary picketing ? Otherwise breaking the law ?

"Just a moment, sir, are you a member of a designated oppressed class as defined in Section 21 of the 1998 'People We Like' act ?"

"Well, I'm a fox-hunting Ulster loyalist who owns a haulage company."

"Gay ?"

"Nope"

"Black ? Lesbian ? Disabled ? I must say you don't look like any of those - not that I'm stereotyping, of course"

"Sorry"

"Your secondary picketing - is that related to Gate Gourmet ? Animal experiments ?"

"Fuel protests"

"Then I'm afraid, sir, that under the act I'm not empowered to look for root causes for your violence, sir. It's just rampant lawlessness - rampant, I tell you ! The TUC don't want to know about your picketing, either. I am however empowered to give you this."

SMACK !

"Owww, that hurt ! I'll tell Liberty about this !"

"You go right ahead, sir, but I think you'll find they're all occupied defending people who want to trash American Air Force bases. Civil liberties aren't for the likes of truckers, Christians, England football supporters and other low-life".

"What about England cricket supporters ?"

"Fascist !"

Sunday, September 11, 2005