I am becoming quite fond of my little corner of Schiphol airport. I have put up my Christmas cards and a few bits of tinsel. I now have a boarding card for the 0800 to Manchester. This is the sixth boarding card I have had. It is very hard to understand why, time after time, they don’t know a flight is cancelled until some time after it was due to leave and all the passengers have queued at the gate for hours.
Of course, Manchester is a lot further from Ramsgate than Schiphol is, so even if the flight atually goes, this represents rather dubious progress.
Happy New Year everybody.
Remarkably, KLM delivered my lost luggage, including my laptop, at 9.30 pm on New Year’s Eve. At that time a pretty lively party was already in full swing,much improved by the presence of a great many beautiful young women, mostly from Latvia. I am not sure why; my life as ever consists of a bewildering succession of chance encounters with really nice people. I am in the fortunate position of being able to say that Nadira was the most lovely of all, without indulging in dutiful hyperbole.
It was an extremely happy Christmas. Having my mum, both my brothers and all my three chidren together was as great as it was rare.
We have been through the laptop in lost luggage discussion before. The problem is that my shoulders dislocate at the drop of a hat, and I travel without hand luggage to avoid an accident.
2011 is going to be a very important year for me. particularly the first quarter. A number of crucial events are going either to set me up financially for the rest of my life, or result in real distress and failure. At present I have reason to be very optimistic. I am also very absorbed in my life of Alexander Burnes, which I hope will help establish a serious academic reputation.
The Portuguese edition of Murder in Samarkand has sold unexpectedly well in Brazil. The translation of the Turkish edition has just been finished.
I hope to do a Wikileaks retrospective in the next couple of days. Just a quick thought on the case of the poor young gardener in Bristol. Of the Jill Dando case, long before Barry Bulsara’s succesful appeal I blogged that this appeared to be a miscarriage of justice in which the police had fitted up the local weirdo.
Despite not being enamoured of landlords in general, I fear the same dynamic is at work in Bristol, albeit Chris Jefferies is much more intellectually capable than Bulsara. My instinct is that the police have picked up on Jefferies for being camper than a boy scout jamboree and archer than Trajan.
Jefferies’ release on bail has me worried that there was nothing against him other than the “He’s a weird one, guv” instinct of some not very bright cop. The case needs to be closely watched as history shows that the powers of the police to make the evidence fit the suspect are considerable.
Mark Golding: “I’ll keep a lid on the ribbing next time you post a vid ‘somebody’ – your 11:14 post proves the mustard – bless you for digging down that far on Mark Stephens the man who recently shut the door in my face and will live to regret it.”
Well, good for Mark Stephens!
I see now that your antipathy for WikiLeaks is based on a personal slight you felt towards someone who may only have er…mistaken you for a loony.
I hope you have informed Iran.
Where’s Craig Murray? Is He home yet?
I have been talking about You In America…
Now You Might Think I am a Drunken Pleb from Oldham – But You Inspired Me when I Read Your Book –
Murder in Samarkand
(In The Maldives)
I Thought FFS
You Are For REAL
So I Said This Tonight
Just on Alternet – I Don’t SPAM
dreoilin is an Irish Girl who I guess is about the same age as me. I very occasionally have exchanged views with her on Craig Murray’s website over the past couple of years or so…(Craig Murray deletes nearly everything I write when I am not suggesting he should be do something else on his wedding night)
You should read Murder in Samarkand
Its a Thriller – page turner – and its all true – well so far as I can tell. Craig Murray has backed it up with absolutely loads of evidence as The British Ambassador who said NO YOU CAN’T DO THAT
TORTURING PEOPLE BY BOILING THEM ALIVE IS NOT ALLOWED
So The British Government Fired Him…
I think she may work for Amnesty International or something close…
I kind of really like dreoilin because she can cut through all the bullshit and doesn’t take anything too seriously…
On Craig Murray’s website you get all the characters under the sun and some of them are exceedingly intelligent and well informed and its like you are having a serious conversation at the highest levels – nearly as good as Alternet was a couple of years ago…
So I said this in response to dreoilin
dreoilin,
I already understand your point, and I am trying to maintain the little threads that still exist in my memory of British Justice actually doing what it was set up for in the first place…
But AJ Hill’s “Sin”, even if he was aware of all the legal niceities of the UK justice system – may have actually been successful…
So far as I am aware, and I have not followed this closely – all the accused “Muslim” Terrorists were found innocent and released
It is only the Whisteblower that was jailed – although his “Trial” has not yet even come up – despite his extradition from Ireland.
I used to go Gliding at Derby and Lancs Gliding Club which was nearer to Sheffield – where he comes from than Sutton Bank that is in Yorkshire.
My wife has just told me to leave a Generous Christmas Present For The Milkman
I said he’s a hero…
She said – well I think he may be a Milklady actually
I am now confused – cos the person who came back with a limp to deliver a sack of spuds in the snow – after his milkround was definitely a bloke.
Normally he turns up at around 5:00 am before we have gone to bed.
Do you think £10 is O.K.?
The binmen are Twats and They Are Getting NOWT off Me This year…
Though She will Probably Go Running After Them in Her Nightie Wearing No Knickers If Its Been My Lucky Night…
SXeXm dripping Everywhere
Tony
You think back about your life and you think about some of the things you have done…
Now my wife actually gave up her ticket so another of her friends could go…
So there is this old fool taking all these 15 year old kids male and female – friends of my daughter to Wembley Arena…
And we were right up in the Sky.
I have a bit of a muscular problem so I just had one pint of beer – but to be honest the band were absolutely fantastic…
The Audience sung it all at Glastonbury – so I thought it was a nice introduction to my daughter’s Best Friends most of who’m had never been to a big Rock Concert Before
Just Look at The Kids Singing Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmK6IEDnvAk
Tony
I Personally Think It Is Incredibly Important that we set our little birds free – so that they can learn to FLY…
Now this can happen in many different ways – and when they fall down you always have to be there so they can mend their wings….
But I never realised that we would see so little of her…
She started University Last Year…
She is now in her second year…
Hardly seen her since – except for few days in the holidays…
She keeps flying back to her new home – her Univerisity Town…
Now when we let her Fly off – we gave her a good start – thinking she would spread it over the entire 3 years and not spend it all in the first….
So the Second Year is Much Tougher…She say’s Dad…
And I say – but you can’t have spent it all???
And so she comes out with all these sob stories..and we visit her…
And her home actually seems O.K. – and all the sewage has been cleared up from the fact that all the girls put far too much toilet paper down the toilet – and the shit comes back….
Still she is asking for more…
And I ask more what????
So I give her a bit – amd her Mum gives her a bit…
And she realises…
I am Fucked Now…
There is No Way I am going To Give Up My Friends at University – and The Degree I am Doing
So I have to not only Get a Job – I have got to keep it….
So She Has Been Working Really Hard – Stacking Shelves Overnight – and Earning More Than The Minimum Wage…
So She Asks Her Brother To Pick Her Up at 9pm on Christmas Eve – and Take Her Back On Boxing Day – So She Can Continue Earning MONEY The Day After…
Lazy Cow
Her Brother’s Car is Fucked – She’s Crashed Her’s…
So Guess What I Will Be Doing on Christmas Eve
She Has Got MORE BALLS Than Almost Anyone I Have Ever Met In My Life…
My Little Girl Just Turns Up In The Middle Of These “RIOTS” and Takes Fucking Photos Of Policemen in Their Riot Gear and Protestors With Their Smiles and Sunflowers
Tony
Well, he may indeed be some kind of Commie but Lenin’s got a good write-up of the Assange case.
There’s been so much simplistic and fatuous nonsense written about the Assange case that it’s nice to see someone with a more nuanced and considered opinion.
He also skewers Naomi Wolf for her risible piece in which she belittled rape allegations and calls out WikiLeaks and Counterpunch for their association with Israel Shamir and that tosser Gilad Atzmon.
In particular some of the commenters here who have been giggling at the very idea of having sex with someone while asleep should read this bit:
“You can’t start fucking someone while they’re sleeping and then take a lack of explicit protest upon awakening as consent. If the allegations were true, then the allegation would be one of rape, not of consensual sex. I have never had much time for Wolf’s particular brand of entrepreneurial feminism, her shilling for right-wing Democrats like Bill Clinton and Al Gore, or her alarmist (now ridiculous) putsch-auguring in 2008.”
He concludes:
“But instead of looking at that, we’ve been lured into an argument wherein the defenders of Wikileaks are tearing at one another’s throats over these rape allegations. This is all the more absurd because it’s completely unnecessary. It’s obvious that there has to be an investigation of these claims, that Assange must answer questions and give evidence in circumstances that guarantee his safety, and that the attempts by the US government to thwart the Wikileaks project through intimidation – by mistreating Bradley Manning and targeting Assange – have to be resisted. The casual dismissal of rape claims doesn’t help that. And all of this is patently obvious.”
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2010/12/assange-allegations.html
If you don’t know what the Student Protests are About Yet…
Well The Students Are Fighting For The Education Of Their Younger Brothers and Sisters….
And They ALL WANT TO ROAST ALL THE LIBERAL MP’s ON A BONFIRE
STARTING WITH THEIR FACEBOOK FRIENDS WHO COMPLETELY BETRAYED THEM
So Fuck OFF
Tony
“I agree with toy and MJ, tony hill had the balls to get off his backside”
Oh God! What an image!
Tony Opmoc, what are you swigging back on tonight?
Theodore Dalrymple also has a good comment on WikiLeaks.
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon1202td.html
I think this is a concern that has been somewhat understated.
Essentially his piece is merely descriptive and I think we can but adopt a Knutian stance given the extent to which technology will inexorably lead to more of a WikiLeak effect.
angry, you are just a soft fanboy of some culture you think is going somewhere…
you are an Irrelevance to what is going on
Are you male or female gay or muslim or jewish – do you think anyone gives a fuck about your pathetic rantings on Craig Murray’s website…
I am talking REALITY Here
I don’t Know what is Going To Happen Next…
But I Know Things Are Going To Change
Do You Want Me To Show My Photography I Took of The Gleeming Spires of Oxford – some from The Inside…
Do You Want a List Of Professors????
What The Fuck Do You Know?
You Obviously Have Very Little Connection To LANCASHIRE ENGLISH CULTURE
I Bet You Have Never Even Been To OLDHAM
Tony
Most of The Students Are Actually Vegetarians – Well Some of Them – And They are Soft and Gebtle Most Of The Time and Just Like Shagging Each Other Really And Doing The Kinds of Stuff That Students Have Been Doing Through The Sands of Time…
So I Think Vince Cable is Fairly Safe With Regards To Being Roasted LIVE Over The Spit On The BONFIRE
I don’t think they would Torture Him…
But If They Were REALLY HUNGRY
Well He’s Got More Meat On Him Than Tony Blair – and I Can’t See Them EATING PURE DEVIL
But No One Likes Being Betrayed The Way The Liberals Betrayed The Students
They Have All The Voting Records
In Fact They Are Actually Quite Intelligent…
They Actually Got To University – Unlike Some Of The Thick Elite’s Children Who Couldn’t Pass The Test
They Realise that they want to Change The Game So That The Stupid Kids of Politicians and Wankers Can Get In
Tony
I did a Google Search
I Came Up With This
Motorhead-Eat the Rich
I see to remember there is an entire Movie about it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45WnW0ASFY
Isn’t it amazing about Sex on Fire wimping out of playing tonight…
When that kind of stuff has happenned at gigs I have been ti – people just get on the phone – have you got a spare amp mate – or a spare vocalist, guitarist or drummer…
The show always goes on
You simply do not let the punters down
I saw all these kids before they were famous
I think it maybe Lemmy’s 65th Birthday today or very soon.
I thought he was as old as Dave Brock and Nik Turner
Tony
“angry, you are just a soft fanboy of some culture you think is going somewhere…
you are an Irrelevance to what is going on
Are you male or female gay or muslim or jewish – do you think anyone gives a fuck about your pathetic rantings on Craig Murray’s website…”
This is written by Tony Opmoc!
Tony Opmoc’s pathetic rantings about “pathetic rantings”!
“I don’t Know what is Going To Happen Next…
But I Know Things Are Going To Change”
How profound!
Moncler Man jackets
dreoilin you dumb fuck, megrahi never did the lockerbie, you twat everyone knows that
That’s what I said, genius.
My, aren’t you the brave one, hiding behind your monitor as “anon”.
Take your muck elsewhere, hero.
Angrysober,
Og course you are wrong – I’ll leave the personnel attacks to you Angry…
– but thanks for the Syrian link – that was useful.
Now to the unholy alliance of angrysoba and this communist clown.
“You can’t start fucking someone while they’re sleeping and then take a lack of explicit protest upon awakening as consent.”
Why not?
It’s only in the world of radical feminism and other authoritarians that all sex acts must be contracted in advance. That’s the ultimate logic of their stupid argument.
It’s not the two women who are making rape or sexual molestation allegations against Assange. It’s the radical feminist prosecutor and her mate the pro American Swedish member of parliament, both of whom have an interest in even further extending Swedish sex law.
This Swedish prosecutor is such an arrogant scumbag that she overides the wishes of the two women and says that she alone will decide whether offences have been committed or not. The women don’t know enough about Swedish law to make the decision because they’re not jurists, she claims. That’s how stupid it all is.
As with all authoritarians they want to take control of all aspects of a person’s life.
Assange should just tell this scumbag Swedish prosecutor, her pro American politician mate and all their ilk to go fuck themselves with a thick stick, and then get the fucking hell out of people’s lives!
If a man finds a sleeping woman who is not a sexual partner and has sex with her, I think that is probably rape. If the man and woman were already sexual partners, and especially if they’d been having sex only hours earlier, I think that probably isn’t rape. If the accuser wants to drop the charges, I think the charges should be dropped.
MJ, do you have a good link about the charges and circumstances regarding A J Hill? I tried some searching, but could only find comments from supporters. I didn’t find any mainstream coverage at all.
Maybe Julian Assange has value as “a piece in the game”. Right now, the UK have him. The US want him very much. What is that worth, in the currency of governments? If Sweden can get hold of him, what’s he worth to Sweden?
The UK wouldn’t have legal custody of Assange but for the charges raised in Sweden, so maybe it’s a sort of “joint custody”. Have the UK and Sweden, together, started negotiating for anything from the US recently? Australia could be a player, too.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/05/the_new_world_o.html
In most jurisdictions, it’s only rape if there is penetration without consent.
Neither woman is making any allegation for the purposes of criminal prosecution that consent was not present.
The only people seeking to make that allegation are this Swedish prosecutor and the hordes of dim feminists and other assorted authoritarians who dislike Wikileaks.
As Assange said in his interview with Humphreys, the women are victims too.
Their story is being used for political purposes, for feminist political purposes in Sweden domestically and more generally abroad and also for the political purposes of those who wish to gag Wikileaks.
That’s the story that’s playing out, though you’d be hard pressed to find it in most accounts.
When was it ever any other way?
Here’s Jaclyn Friedman and Naomi Wolf debating the allegations against Assange at DemocracyNow:
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/12/20/part_iifeminists_debate_on_the_sexual_allegations_against_julian_assange
I thought Friedman came across as neurotic, at least part of the time, and seemed to forget that Assange has been charged with nothing so far. Nothing.
It also seems to be the case that the European Arrest warrant was effectively abused in this case, to drag someone to Sweden for questioning. Someone who hasn’t even been charged.
The problem there is that Naomi Wolf is an intelligent feminist with a depth and breadth that the dim-witted sisters on the make will never achieve.
Here’s another article and discussion about the problems of the Swedish approach to sex crimes:
http://www.lauraagustin.com/is-rape-rampant-in-gender-equal-sweden
I believe that the warrant against Assange is a political game, but what are the other elements in the deal or negotiation?
dreoilin: yes. What I want to know (and would have tried to find out if I wasn’t up to my neck) is how far normal procedure has been followed if at all. If J Assange was J Smith, Aussie citizen, in the same circumstances, what would be the usual form? This could be it, of course, apart from the publicity.
dick the p^^^k are you getting a kick out of discussing the niceties of rape and sex? Leave off!
Naomi Wolf discusses just how unusual this case case is and that it’d never see the light of day but for the Assange connection.
This site looks at that issue and other ironies in Swedish sex law.
http://www.lauraagustin.com/is-rape-rampant-in-gender-equal-sweden