Thoughts for Easter 532


We are off to spend a chilly but picturesque Easter at Kyle of Lochalsh. I shall be taking a total break from thinking great thoughts until Tuesday. I shall also again wonder why in my youth chocolate Easter eggs easily came apart into two neat halves, whereas nowadays they are fused and have to be smashed.

If you want to hear me on somewhat more serious subjects, this was my conversation early this week with Michael Greenwell on prospects for Independence, the banality of evil and a few other topics.


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532 thoughts on “Thoughts for Easter

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  • Tony_0pmoc

    If you end up doing a job – like that – which is only likely to happen cos – well you had a nice mum and dad – and we took you traveling – since the moment you kids were born…and you learn as you grow up…

    How did you get your first job…in South America…providing an Internet TV Station..when virtually no one had done that before anywhere…

    Did you understand the language in Ecuador…and how come it was in Peru…You don’t understand a word of Spanish – do you??

    If you end up doing a job like that – there is no way you can have any knowledge or interest in the data that is flowing through your pipes..

    If you keep paying your bills…then the service will continue…My Son is very Patient…but he is not in debt to them…

    They owe him a lot of money.

    Its the way to be.

    Pay or get Cut Off.

    Tony

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Thanks, people, for your solidarity and your intelligent and timely comments.

    I wrote the material below yesterday, before the bombing and mass murder of Pakistan Christians, incidentally mainly children and women, in Glasgow’s twin city, Lahore. Glasgow-Lahore: twinned in death this Easter. I see now that it has been reported that the dead man’s family in Glasgow have been advised by police to keep their identities hidden and to say nothing for fear of retribution. Twinned cities.

    *********

    What occurs to me is, if this had been a white supremacist killing a Muslim, there would have been demonstrations, shouting and screaming and so on. We would be likely to have seen the usual ‘suspects’ stomping around speaking to camera. We would have heard much about “Islamophobia”.

    Instead of which, we’re being advised by these same people “not to jump to conclusions” and so the damage limitation exercise begins.

    Well, one needs to see what emerges. However…

    Really, this supremacist ideology needs to be rooted out of Pakistani culture – Pakistani diasporic culture too. Today, it’s Ahmedis, tomorrow, Christians, then Shias, then everyone. This is what has happened in Pakistan since the mid-1970s.

    All those people on social media who leap to proclaim, “Islamophobia!” at the drop of a niqab every time someone says anything they don’t like, are silent just as they are silent about such events in Pakistan/Syria, etc. They play it down. they shut up. They collude. And the next murder is permitted.

    It’s not enough to hold candlle-lit vigils. There needs to be action.

    1) Removal of all Saudi/UAE/Islamist funding from all institutions in the UK.

    2) Removal of all those from positions of power who espouse Salafism.

    3) A clear public statement of solidarity with the Ahmedi community from all mosques and other relevant institutions.

    4) Public condemnation of the assassination of Goverrnor Salman Taseer. He was assassinated for suggesting reform of the Blasphemy laws in Pakistan and for publicly supporting a Christian woman who had been condemned to death under those same laws. When his family protested, his son was kidnapped and held for several years.

    5) Condemnation of the persecution of Christians, Shias and Ahmedis in Pakistan itself.

    6) Public condemnation of the supremacist ideology known as Islamism/ Jihadism/Islamic Fundamentalsm/clerical fascism – viiolent or non-violent – as with other forms of supremacism, the distinction is pretty much academic, as one is enabled by the other. We would not baulk at condemning, say,the BNP, the NF, the Front Nationale in France or the EDL even though neither officially espouse violence – because we know what they are and we know what they lead to: Anders Breivik and the mass murder of kids in Norway.

    7) A clear and unambiguous statement that Ahmedis are Muslims.

    I can predict now that none of this is going to happen. Partly because at some level, over the last 40 years, too many people have been brainwashed by clerical fascist ideology. And partly because any figure who publicly makes the above seven statements in the previous paragraph seriously risks being murdered.

    This is Britain, my friends. Today.

    • Habbabkuk (defend reason, combat cant)

      An excellent post, Suhayl.

      But you are right – little or none of that will happen.

      What will happen, though, – I guarantee it – is

      (1) a deafening silence from the habitual “defenders of human rights” aka haters of “fascist, genocidial, concentration camp creating Israel” and (2) the usual screeching from our resident Knutters Guani, Fedup……

      • bevin

        Talking of ‘deafening silences’ so is Robert Fisk today:

        “The biggest military defeat that isis has suffered in more than two years. The recapture of Palmyra, the Roman city of the Empress Zenobia. And we are silent. Yes, folks, the bad guys won, didn’t they? Otherwise, we would all be celebrating, wouldn’t we?

        “Less than a week after the lost souls of the ‘Islamic Caliphate’ destroyed the lives of more than 30 innocent human beings in Brussels, we should – should we not? – have been clapping our hands at the most crushing military reverse in the history of Isis. But no. As the black masters of execution fled Palmyra this weekend, Messers Obama and Cameron were as silent as the grave to which Isis have dispatched so many of their victims. He who lowered our national flag in honour of the head-chopping king of Arabia (I’m talking about Dave, of course) said not a word….”

        Not a word. No doubt the Infowarriors are currently preparing a new round of sanctions against Russia (and a new consignment of weaponry for Riyadh to forward to ISIS and Bandar’s other bands of brothers) to punish Syria’s defenders for wrecking Palmyra.
        But for the moment, the lies have stopped. Over to you Habbakkuk: staunch those tears for your allies in ISIS and remind us about those barrel bombs again.

        • fedup

          Bevin here is the latest from the Western sponsored “moderate opposition” AKA Daesh et a, this time in Yemen another country that is currently being levelled to the ground in the good old traditional fashion of the imperial US, of course through their proxies the al saud pederasts;

          Isis ‘crucifies Catholic Priest on Good Friday’ after Yemen kidnapping

          Mr Uzhunnalil is believed to have been taken from a retirement home in Yemen during an attack by Islamic extremists on 4 March.

          The “moderate opposition” AKA Daesh/Isis/Isil/etc. having killed sixteen people then kidnap the Indian priest for some theatrical entertainment; crucifixion on good Friday! I fear at this rate the Lions may come to pass as the next instruments of death in this necon version of Alice in wonderland world .

          ==========

          The other day I forwarded that Muslims are being treated worse than the Jews back in the early twentieth century to which the usual apologists retorted; there are no laws passed to discriminate against the Muslims, and where are the concentration camps, obviously the luminary involved has not had the time to read whilst “contributing” on this blog.

          “No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim”: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Rohingya problem
          and
          A Countryside of Concentration Camps

          As you are aware the historical amnesia afflicting these operatives; is only concerned with the ancient history and pays little attention to the current waves of persecution of the Muslims and in fact finds their persecution quiet deserving of the Muslims misdeeds and religious beliefs. As you have seen on this thread. After all once the IS standards of evil have been set up and held by ye olde ancient Nazi, there is no need for further exposure of evil deeds, hence the the record holders can remain to hold onto their mantel of the supreme evil.

          Although the same culprits in years to come will claim the role of defenders of the Muslims under the onslaught of hatred and persecution.

    • Alcyone: Thank you Suhayl for expounding; agree with Habby, excellent post

      More later, after morning chores.

      Very important topic. Hope more will join in, including Craig and Clark (hope you’re well?!).

    • John Spencer-Davis

      Suhayl Saadi,

      As far as I can see, you began your remarks on this thread about this incident with the following:

      “For those still in denial about these clerical fascist supremacists and for those who seek to minimise the threat they pose,”

      and,

      “Is anyone listening to what I am saying here, or is it just not fashionable, or too difficult, to protest against Islamist Supremacist violence? If he’d been killed by, say, an Israeli settler or a White Supremacist, would there have been similar reticence?”

      And you’re still at it.

      Beginning that way will have got people’s backs up immediately: who are you, exactly, to tell people what they should think, or how they should choose to distribute their energies? In my opinion, you would have been a lot wiser to set out objectively what had happened, and how you felt about it, and invite people to join with you in abhorring such an act.

      I get no sense that many people on here are in sympathy with authoritarianism in Islamic countries or with people who murder out of religious prejudice. I do get a sense that they are independent-minded, and don’t like being punched with aggressive allegations that they are hypocrites and apply double standards. A more conciliatory approach would get a lot better results.

      • Alcyone: JSD, who the fuck are you....

        …to tell Suhayl how to write or address people here?

        There is context to what Suhayl is saying. If you don’t ‘get it’, STFU.

        BTW, have you had a response from Craig about your ‘formal’ complaint of Habby? LOL! You’re an intelligent guy, but confused about how you expend your own energies.

        I give full credit to Macky when she observed in earlier days that she “wasn’t sure about you”. One of her more astute observations.

        • Habbabkuk (cast out your inner devils)

          Agree with every word of that, Alcyone!

          Re JSD’s formal complaint about me, I believe Craig printed it out and used it for his next No.2. Sensible bloke, Craig – and economical as well. 🙂

      • Alcyone: Has JSD finally dispensed with his trademark "Kind regards"?

        Is this blog degenerating? [TIC] 😉

    • Laguerre

      “What occurs to me is, if this had been a white supremacist killing a Muslim, there would have been demonstrations, shouting and screaming and so on.”

      I was trying to think of a single example where that has happened, and I couldn’t think of one. So you’re just setting up a straw man . Unfortunately I don’t have as much spare free time as Hab does to think up clever witticisms, and can’t seriously reply, but you’re conflating a lot, and omitting others.

      • Alcyone: Any observations about the Lahore killings? No?

        You did have on the Brussels massacres, didn’t you? Forget, if my memory is failing me.

      • Habbabkuk (defend reason, combat cant)

        I think Alcyone us telling it exactly as it is.

        There was something similar about Syria in here fairly recently.

        When the UK Parliament gave the go ahead for limited, targeted bombing in Syria (all of two or three planes to be involved!) there was a huge outcry on here (and elsewhere).

        When the Russians started bombing on a much wider scale, however…….silence (and where no silence, approval and approving contrasts with the bomblng carried out by others).

        **************************

        As for free time, Laguerre, well, some have it and others don’t. Others work (allegedly) but still seem to have ample time to respond during the day and in real time (that faker Lysias refers). That’s life.

        • bevin

          “When the UK Parliament gave the go ahead for limited, targeted bombing in Syria (all of two or three planes to be involved!) there was a huge outcry on here (and elsewhere).

          “When the Russians started bombing on a much wider scale, however…….silence (and where no silence, approval and approving contrasts with the bomblng carried out by others).”

          Half truths again: the great difference between Cameron’s bombing campaign and Russia’s was that Russia’s was co-ordinated with and agreed upon by the government.
          Quite apart from the fact that that make Britain’s campaign illegal under international law and a defiance of the UN, it also meant that, had the British campaign actually amounted to anything beyond the huffing and puffing of the League of Empire loyalists (Tory and Blairites branches) and their plastic patriotism, it might have done considerable harm to the Syrian Army’s advances. It might have impeded the liberations of Aleppo, Palmyra and Raqqa.
          And that is precisely what it was intended to do: to prevent the Syrian forces from liberating their country from forces sponsored by the UK, the US and its allies.

          It is as clear as it can be: those, such as Habbakkuk, who support US policy in Syria are acting on behalf of ISIS, Al Nusra and the other 55 varieties of jihadi militias.
          It would be surprising if they did not support them: they supported them in Chechnya, Bosnia, Kossovo, Afghanistan and they support them in Yemen.
          Their crocodile tears about the deaths in Lahore contrast ill with their complaisance over similar massacres of Christians and shiah in Syria and Iraq.

          • Habbabkuk (rejoice-Karadzic got 40 years)

            “..the great difference between Cameron’s bombing campaign and Russia’s was that Russia’s was co-ordinated with and agreed upon by the government.”
            ______________________

            Bombing is bombing, Bevin, especially in terms of the misery it causes.

            You do agree that bombing causes misery, don’t you, Bevin?

            I could have sworn I’ve seen you posting to that effect.

            Of course, that may have been before the Russians started bombing…..

          • lysias

            The past few days, I’ve noticed that Associated Press reports on Syria appearing in the Washington Post refer to “Syrian government forces”, not “Assad regime forces”. I guess the West is now at war with Eastasia.

    • fedup

      Saadi you just cannot help yourself can you?

      Although you have for a change sat down and composed a coherent and at times thoughtful notions, yet again you have taken a detour into the realms of absurd.

      1- Why should you thank anyone, especially knowing that some of those in agreement with you have their own axes to grind and are busy extirpating any and all Arabs and Muslims out of existence in their rush for the constitution of eretz zionistan? Any standard issue citizen would abhor the loss of life due to any factor included for the political/sectarian reasons/causes.

      2- Your use of “clerical fascism” do you mean to tell me you are also condemning the extremist Jewish Rabbis in this statement? Further does a label concatenating a political concept and a religious concept convey that religion is politics or politics is religion? Or is it designed to heap derision on the religious concepts by equating them with a vile political notion? Your frequent use of this phrase somehow does not clarify your intent for it’s use?

      3- I have emphasised over and again there are seventy eight million illiterate Pakistani citizens whose only access to any kind of learning is through those provided by the religiously affiliated “schools”*. Also I have pointed out that the power structure of Pakistan is centring around a weak and corrupt central government, that is supported by the feudal elements in that country combined wit the approval of an army that has been mostly trained in an equivalence of the school of Americas.

      4- Furthermore, I have time and again pointed out that the religious leaders are appointed through a convoluted mixture of convenience for the government and those tapped by the al saud/Qatari NGOs that only promote the Salafist based value systems that is a reactionary and politically supine concept evolved from Hanbali, Sahfei sects and passed as Islam, with a great deal of emphasis on the words of the sheikh (as in the case of paramilitary Daesh), or imam (as in the case of “civilians”)** in either case the great emphasis on the destruction of any historical facet (this is due to misinterpretation of idolatry) effectively creating an induced historical amnesia in the followers leaving them open to be “guided” by the “wisdom” and imperatives of the sheikh/imam concerned who is trained in the Salafist schools.

      5- To validate the above, the case of the “Lal Masjid” (red mosque) attack by the Pakistani government forces circa 2007 that effectively put the relevant unruly clerics out of circulation. That is despite the fact that in the past the same place was used to indoctrinate it’s recruits that later became to be known as “Taliban”, in a bid to fight the soviet invasion of Afghanistan and used to enjoy the patronage of various Pakistani ruling dignitaries.

      6- You have briefly touched on the persecution of the religious minorities such as Christian, Shia, Ahmadi, by the elements of the Hanbali version of Islam mixed with the imperatives of the Salafist imperatives exported by al saud pederasts. However this is not for any reason other than denouncing the Muslims, because as the set out tents so far indicate this persecution to be more political than religious. Simply put it is a kind of macabre copyright or patent protection measure by the relevant religious actors to protect their own market share of the believers and the financial proceeds thereof.

      7- The constant harangues of “religious supremacists” is it to denote the zionist influence on Judaism too, or is it an inversion and an attack on Muslims alone, by labelling them “religious supremacists”? To further crown this turd of a notion you then go ahead and start whataboutary; what if a white supremacist had attacked and killed a Muslim? Your jaundiced world view condemns anyone who calls on you to explain or defend your position, thus attributes the “religious supremacist” label and presto you can carry on rest assured that your world view is safe and sound. What are you? A recruit of some secret service indoctrinated to the nth degree?

      8- In your rush to produce your manifesto of what should the Muslims be subjected to, you have had a little oversight of the fact that how on Earth are the seventy eight million illiterate Pakistanis to be educated and made aware?

      9- Your manifesto can be compared to the rest of the aggressive drivel that is directed at the Muslims in the religious wars that are being promoted for the sake of continuation of the US empire regardless of its stark failures, and shortcomings that have proved its policies are no longer that of construction but destruction. As we stand today we can see the remnants of the Roman empire in places like Palmyra, however comparing the US empire in contrast we find the bomb craters of the American empire in the same neighbourhood, or the destruction of whatever was left of the Roman constructs at the hands of the savage vandals sponsored by the US empire to set the world ablaze in an orgy of wanton destruction for the sake of permanence of promotion of its only economic model that has empirically failed over and again.

      10- You then rightly conclude that your notions will not be making any difference, not because you are talking load of bollocks, but because of the “clerical fascism”, to this then you add an ending worthy of any BNP rally; “this is Britain today” oh well get ready for applause form the same known zionist shills who will lap up the rousing denouncements of Islam and Muslims.

      In conclusion, you seem to be mixed up and caught up in a purgatory of not being a Pakistani, nor being a Brit. occupying an in between no man’s land and desperately trying to gain acceptance in the lands beyond where the Brits can identify, and picking up the worst of habits of denouncing the land of that Pakistanis identify with. Your generalised sweeping statements are akin to those of the ignorant souls whom have no idea of the nuances involved and the possibilities and the potentials of the human species.

      You want to stop the violence, no need to Islam bash start the campaigning for a comprehensive political sea change of US none interference in sovereign countries affairs and the fact that there are more than one way of running an economy, ie no longer the Am way or the highway doctrine, and instead live and let live.

      * sessions of teaching in the mosque in between the worship times, or a ramshackle shack provided by a devotee.

      ** Both of which are calling fora caliphate that needless to point out will fall upon the shoulders of the keeper of the two mosques the al saud pederasts. Not a bad investment to become the de facto ruler of the Islamic world for an expenditure of few billion of petrodollars.

        • fedup

          The sate of your mind Saadi. You are far too mixed up! You don’t fit into any of the two worlds and have ended up in a kind of purgatory/in between if you will. Just read what you have written and digest what you have written. Even the gentle John Spencer-Davis could not hold his pen and pointed out to you that you are not the source/bringer of the ultimate truth, in your denunciation of the “deniers”

          Today the teachers have come out objecting at being a part of the secret police and it transpires that every week two incidents of “extremism”* are being reported to the authorities. Yet you fail to see that “prevent” is eating away at our own liberties by the simple excuse of the “bad Muslims”. Surprisingly the same Muslims who were there and never were a problem until after the fall of communism and the need for the rise of a new bogeyman. That it is all the rage in the current neo McCarthyism. Religion bad that is Islamic religion bad, while the zionist shills cheer you on , zionistan is busy setting up interfaith dialogue with the addled brainwashed evangelicals whose sole preoccupation is to facilitate rapture through helping zionistan to wreak havoc on Earth.

          * what are the implications of such reports on the lives of the reported? How will this in years affect their progress in their jobs, housing, getting loans and credit cards?

          • Suhayl Saadi

            “You don’t fit into any of the two worlds”, Fed Up.

            And who exactly defines these ‘worlds’? You??

            So, they are two separate worlds, are they? Separate development? Like apartheid?

            This actually is the Ur tablet of your world view, isn’t it, Fed Up. You think that brown people should be Natives-with-a-capital-N. ‘Natives’, that is as defined by you, a Great White Saviour.

            Have you stepped outside your door and taken a brief glance at contemporary Britain? You protect – you seem entirely comfortable with – clerical fascist whose link with ‘Britain’ is, well, tenuous. to say the least, yet yet you assert that I somehow am not British.

            You just said that I am not British, Fed Up. That makes you pretty much on a par with, say, the BNP, or the NF. Or indeed, with Can Speccy. They too believe in ‘separate development’. That is their official policy and it appears to concur well with yours.

            This is where the truth comes out, Fed Up.

        • fedup

          To clarify every week two incidents of “extremism” per school amounting to four thousand reports every year. At this rate all of the Muslim population resident in the UK will be reported at some point.

          • glenn_uk

            “At this rate all of the Muslim population resident in the UK will be reported at some point.

            Not for some considerable time going by your figures, don’t worry. The arrival rate is likely to be well over 4000/year, and according to this there were an estimated 5,200 recruits in 2011 alone:

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_Kingdom

            Even if there were no newcomers or recruits, it’ll take 2,700,000/4,000 = 675 years for all of them to be “reported”. And what will they do with all those reports, exactly?

    • Rehmat

      The attack was claimed by Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP), a terrorist organization.

      Just as CIA created Al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Free Syrian Army and Daesh/ISIS – it also created TTP in 2004, after recruiting Abdullah Mehsud in Guantanamo Bay concentration camp. Primarily, TTP was a CIA-Mossad Black Ops. But due to its heavily religious content, Saudi-funded Darul Uloom Deoband India and RAW joined in as ideological patrons. Slowly, CIA withdrew to Drone warfare only, using TTP assets as spies against Afghan Taliban. RAW and Mossad took over anti-Pak ops of TTP.

      “Pakistan is important. For years, the CIA and other intelligence organizations have been in Baluchistan sneaking in and out of Iran blowing things up. How much of that is CIA and how much is Mossad, nobody knows for sure. This is another terrorist organization, called the ‘Jundallah’. Like the PKK in Turkey and the ‘Tehrik-i-Taliban’, the terrorist group making life in Pakistan a living hell, the Jundallah get all the money, weapons, training, transportation and maybe more, much more, they need to fight covert wars against the targets of Tel Aviv,” Gordon Duff, senior editor Veterans Today wrote on September 3, 2010.

  • nevermind........

    Completely agree with your six point plan, Suhayl, and lets go that one step furthetr with point 7)
    An immediate stop to the indoctrination of children in faith schools, the supremacy begins there, by amplifying one religion above all others, the procrastinations claiming that all religions are taught in x or y school.
    What a terrible loss to all those families, and yes, nothing much will happen in response bar some drone attacks from great height.
    What a terrible Easter this turns out to be for all those who celebrate the beginning of spring.
    And a bonny Easter to you too Brian, we are currently being pummelled by katie, she’s blowing right above our heads.

    • fwl

      Perhaps a dialogue about religions and all their diverse forms and variations might assist and asking why in their orthodox forms do both Christianity and Islam appear to insist on their founders being the ultimate and final prophet..

      • Alcyone: Wrong question, fwl! What is religion?

        “Religion is an action in which all our total energy is demanded. Every other action is fragmentary, it is only the religious mind, the religious activity, the religious comprehension or understanding or an insight, that can bring about, I feel, a total inward revolution which is so utterly necessary. I mean by religion not all that is going on in its name – the sects, the gurus, the drugs, the experiences, the circus that is going on in temples and churches and mosques and all the rest of it. I do not consider that religion at all; they are merely play-acting, fanciful, romantic, sentimental things that have no meaning at all. Really they are nonsense! And we mean by religion not belief, not rituals, not accepting authority, not trying to discover or experience something other than what we want, but rather a religion is the gathering of our total energy so that the mind can comprehend, be in it as it were, so that our actions are never fragmentary; our actions, our daily relationships, our whole way of life is whole, not broken up. To me that is religion, and to go beyond it, to go beyond the structure of thought.

        […..]

        So we have to observe obviously, not only our lives but also what is going on around us – the misery, the conflict, the violence, the extraordinary sense of despair, the sorrow, the meaningless existence that one leads. And to escape from that we resort to all kinds of fanciful, sectarian beliefs. The gurus are multiplying like mushrooms in the winter – or in the autumn – all over the world. They are bringing their own particular fancy, their traditions and imposing it on others; that is not religion. That is sheer nonsense, traditional acceptance of what has been, what is dead and put into different words and different circumstances. So it becomes very important, it seems to me, not only that we must bring about a change in the world outside us, but also a total revolution psychologically, inwardly. That seems to me the most urgent and necessary thing. That change will bring about naturally and inevitably, a change in the social structure, in our relationship, in our whole activity of life.

        So the first thing, it seems to me, is the act of observation, to observe, to observe without the observer. We will go into this because it is quite a difficult problem. To observe, not as an Englishman, or a Hindu or a Buddhist, or a Catholic or a Protestant, or an American, or a Communist, or a Socialist, what you will, but to observe without these conditioning attitudes, to observe without the traditional acceptance, to observe without the ‘me’ interfering …”

        Read more at:
        http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=1139&chid=843&w=religion%20conflict

        • fwl

          Alcyone,

          Did Krishnamurti support Toon? Did he chant Black and White Army against a back beat of Toon Toon? Did he address people as you addressed JSD?

          Do you remember what Jesus said when his disciples asked him about what to eat and not to eat? It’s not what goes in that defiles you but what comes out ie what you say and how you emanate.

          I mentioned earlier that we are all pissing in an online pot. Our bodies our feelings and our minds all produce waste. We should try to dispose of such matter discretely.

          Of course our minds can produce wonderful fine matter, which is worthy of expression.

          Maybe its best to be silent when such fine matter is not being produced.

          This may sound critical, but its not meant that way.

          • Alcyone

            You didn’t answer my question: Are you sure this Jesus guy existed?

            I haven’t the foggiest on what you’re going on about ‘Toon’. Who that?

            As for, Krishnamurti, stop being lazy, after 3 days of total rest; go and do your own research!

            IF, you’re serious, I can help you (just my Nature 😉 ), but it doesn’t appear that you are.

          • Alcyone: Why are you on here fwl?....

            If what you want is silence?

            Are you showing yourself up as just another confused oaf?

            I told you earlier, you have already wasted 3 and a half days of your ‘Easter’ weekend!

            Can’t you end every cliche? Or do you want to waste the rest of your life too?

            This may sound critical, but it is not intended to be.

            Kind regards

          • Alcyone: Loon, loon is what i say!

            Are you talking to yourself, fwl?

            Inner voice or monkey-mind?

          • Alcyone: No compassion for fools!

            It’s brilliant to watch people losing the plot in public!

          • fwl

            The point is that you are rude to Tony and JSD whilst professing the need for civilisation and inner experience. You are being hypocritical. Toon Toon Black and White Army is the Newcastle chant. It is at football matches that one hears chants enquiring who the F someone is. That’s fine. That’s football, but you are someone who proffers the advice of Krishnamurti. Doesn’t it strike you as a tad hypocritical?

          • Alcyone: Good Lord

            Did we really want/need to ‘know’ this:

            “Toon Toon Black and White Army is the Newcastle chant. It is at football matches that one hears chants enquiring who the F someone is.”

            Thanks, now that you confirm your level as a fool, enough said.

            As my good friend Habby would say, you’ve had enough attention from me for the day, maybe even the year. See you next ‘Easter’! And meantime don’t forget to study the St Thomas Gospel a little further. LOL

  • nevermind

    The attack by Jamaat Ul Ahrar was directed against the Pakistanis Government, just as the bombing of army barracks, a retaliation for the army’s campaign against the Taliban.

    As it turns out there were 15 women and children amongst the 70 dead sofar identified, but the playground was used by everyone, it was a cowardly attack similar to the two attacks on two catholic churches roughly a year ago when 15 people died.
    Religious skullduggery and extortion can only happen when people are uneducated and kept in that state via repression. But it is enough to be blasee about the lack of Government control over fanatics as we can see in this country were religious nutters are favoured by ministers and as long as they pay up, buy our arms and go shopping in Oxford Street this Government will not move an inch.

  • fwl

    Easter Monday thought:

    What did Jesus mean when he taught:

    “Be a passer-by”

    Gospel of St Thomas

    • Alcyone: Sure this Jesus guy existed, in the first place?

      Afraid, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

      Don’t waste the rest of your ‘Easter’ holiday! 😉

  • Mark Golding

    Islamic state can be conceived as a ‘soup’ of chaos akin to the beginning of creation where the water of nature is replaced by a greed for material and power.

    IS architects want confrontation in a do-or-die eleventh hour attempt to rebuild their pyramid of potential and influence.

    It makes good sense therefore in light of what we have seen and heard in Pakistan, in Syria, in Iraq and Palestine to avoid an eclectic fight with ISIS using any mix of the wave of arguments that benefit agreement and peace being, false-flag, ISIS exists because the west armed Sunni jihadis, provoking civil war, Turkey and Saudi Arabia nurturing, the Iraq war cause and effect, Libya intervention and social dislocation and poverty.

    To avert war and chaos we are denying in reality, a construct that a fix is only really posed for three countries that have the power diplomatically and militarily to take significant action: Britain, France and the US. It is these entities that forged dominion after World wars and it is these sovereignties who are the harbingers of superiority.

    • fwl

      IS require fear publicity an enemy finance and weapons. Withdraw these and they weaken.

  • Alcyone

    Listen to the voice of this living angel sing to the tune of his own sitar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrVXpJgeAg

    Shujaat (Hussain) Khan, son of the great Ustad Vilayat Khan (sitar maestro) who I was lucky to see in concert at the Royal Festival Hall just before he died, aged 76.

    Thoughts with family and friends of those gruesomely slaughtered by the bastard-savages in Lahore.

    Will this generate as much outrage and discussion here, or in Europe generally as did the Belgian massacres?

  • Republicofscotland

    The Ministry of Truth, never fails in spewing its fear mongering propaganda.

    “Media academic Dr John Robertson has been tracking TV news coverage of Scottish politics for the last three months, as BBC and STV position themselves for the coming Scottish Parliamentary campaign. Eleven weeks in, and in the same week as parliament was dissolved so that the official campaign can begin, he presents his interim summary.”

    “Even after this fairly short time of 11 weeks – or 55 broadcasts – a pattern has emerged of a very strong tendency for Reporting Scotland, by contrast with STV, to present a very negative picture of Scotland and it’s politics, health, social services, policing and other issues. This can be read as an attempt to create a climate of dissatisfaction amongst the electorate.”

    http://newsnet.scot/?p=116695

  • Republicofscotland

    Thoughts on the persistent murdering of Christians in Pakistan.

    One has to note the strategic position of Pakistan, to see why no real action is taken against the slaughter of ethinc minorities, Christian’s in particular. Even after the killing of 65 Christians and the injuring of hundreds more, no real action will be taken to hunt down the perpetrators of such a henious crime.

    Pakistan is in my opinion a deeply religious and fanatical state, stuck in the dark ages, where blasphemy laws take precedence over judical laws and common sense. Indeed such is the depths of religious feeling, that many politicians have been brutally gunned down, for saying the wrong thing.

    The most powerful leader in the world President Obama, failed to come out and make a statement condemning the neferious actions of the religious zealots, in Pakistan, instead it was left for a Whitehouse spokesperson to orate the usual halfhearted “we strongly condemn these actions” routine.

    In my opinion, the murder of Pakistani Christians, and other ethnic minorities is tolerated by Western powers, in order to gain access to Pakistan and its strategic routes in and out of the region. The slaughter will continue, I foresee no end in sight.

    So the likes of Anon1 and his sidekicks should bear this in mind, the West will take no action, because it profits them not to do so.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Thanks, all, for engaging with this. Sorry, John Spencer-Davis, I didn’t mean to direct anything at you. I’m frustrated, really, with the lack of response of many Mulsim people to this killing and to the killing of Christians/Shias/Ahmedis in Pakistan with which it may be associated, as well as with the effective cover that consistently ha sbeen given to Far Right clerical fascists by some – not all, of course – on the Left/liberal part of the spectrum in the UK (in spite of the pleas from the left in Pakistan and elsewhere to stop doing it).

    RoS, yes, you’re about right wrt Pakistan. To be honest, there now is not that much the West can do about Pakistan; it’s become a self-perpetuating dynamic there. The damage was done in the 1980s or even before.

    • John Spencer-Davis

      Suhayl, it was very civil of you not to take offence, although none was meant. Thank you. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). If people use religious beliefs as an excuse to kill or oppress others, any sensible person, left or right, should surely be against that. I have followed the arguments of Christopher Hitchens (rest in peace) and Sam Harris, for example, for some time. I do not believe that hostile encirclement excuses religious cruelty and persecution, which should always be opposed with vigour.

  • nevermind

    ‘targeting Christians celebrating Easter’ is the Mantra of this latest massacre, a headline that only suits those who want to encourage religious violence and escalate it.

    That we have a problem with religious interference in Governments around the world is not to debate, that we indoctrinate our children with religious false morals does not come into it. Indeed our actions, the wickedness in using religion to push our neocon goals in the west is history.

    All religions are opium to the masses, one very true statement if there ever was one.

  • Republicofscotland

    Re my comment on the persecution of Pakistani Christians.

    The same formula to a certain extent can be applied to Saudi Arabia. A country that has a terrible human rights record, and a long history of barbaric executions.

    Yet the virtually omnipotent Western powers not only tolerate the actions of Saudi Arabia, they kowtow to it, by installing one of them as the head of the UN Human Rights panel. Which in my opinion is a painfully hypocritical thing to do.

    Strangely though, we do not hear a peep of condemnation of Saudi Arabia from the likes of Anon1 or his sidekicks.

  • nevermind

    what would happen to Scottish people, if religious persecution/sectarianism dies within 12 hrs.? Just imagine a Celtic supporter coming out of a job interview at the Sciotsman, smiling.
    Maybe it should be you who announces an end to sectarianism in the British isles, RoS, you would be the starting gun to stop religious interference and indoctrination at home.
    And when that is sorted we can make a start with the allies of the UK and their unpleasantness, their manipulating influences abroad and at home.

    • Republicofscotland

      “Maybe it should be you who announces an end to sectarianism in the British isles, RoS, you would be the starting gun to stop religious interference and indoctrination at home.”

      ________________

      Nevermind.

      Thank you for the vote of confidence, however religious intolerance I’m afraid will always be present, until people become better educated, and then learn to live and tolerate each others “peaceful” theological ideals, we have much to learn from each other, killing solves nothing, it only breeds hatred and thoughts of revenge.

      Unfortunately those with the power and a collective mind to do so, see war, and destruction as the way forward.

  • John Goss

    For anyone doubting the existence of Jesus (and I have met many over the years) there are many secular accounts. This well-balanced though admittedly Christian article contains 11 non-biblical accounts of the existence of Jesus. The Jewish ones are more anti-Christian as confirmed by the account of Mara Bar-Serapion (70AD) and the three Jewish accounts at the end. As well as these Jewish accounts it gives another eight secular mentions which is probably not complete.

    “What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.”

    http://coldcasechristianity.com/2014/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/

    It is interesting also that the Pontius Pilate is also mentioned in two of these accounts. For many years his existence was questioned and it was only a discovery in the ruins of a theatre in ancient Caesarea that carved his existence in stone.

    http://www.religiousword.com/2009/07/did-jesus-really-exist/

    Hope this helps the incurably prejudiced!

    • John Spencer-Davis

      I’ll take no position on the historicity of Jesus, but I will point out that your link needs to be read with a very critical eye. Just a couple of points, but they will show why.

      About the latest everyone can agree that Jesus was crucified, accepting for the sake of argument for the moment that he was, was 40 AD. Most of the sources given, although not all, were written some decades after that, and most of them attest not to the existence of Jesus but to the existence of his alleged followers, who believe this, that or the other about Jesus.

      The first non-Christian account quoted by your source is Thallus, as recorded by Julius Africanus in c. 221 AD. Africanus says that Thallus says there was an eclipse in Judea. That is all we know that Thallus says, assuming Africanus is correct. Look at what your source turns this into:

      “there are some things we can conclude from this account: Jesus lived, He was crucified, and there was an earthquake and darkness at the point of His crucifixion.”

      Oh, we can conclude this from Africanus saying Thallus said there was an eclipse in Judea, can we?

      Your source quotes Tacitus, writing more than seventy years after the alleged crucifixion of Jesus. Your source does not say that the authenticity of this particular passage has been considerably disputed by scholars. For example, early Christian historians Origen and Tertullian know the work of Tacitus and do not quote this passage. Clement of Alexandria, another early Christian historian, concerned himself precisely with non-Christian attestations to the existence of Jesus and does not quote this passage either.

      It also does not follow that if Pontius Pilate existed, then Jesus existed.

      Careful reading and a sceptical attitude are very important in matters of faith and history.

      • John Goss

        I agree it is important to be sceptical. As to me, I believe the Gospel histories at least as much as any other accounts, all of which mention Pontius Pilate. It is partly because of the Pliny account of Christian activity.

        ——————–
        Pliny the Younger (61-113AD)
        Early Christians were also described in early, non-Christian history. Pliny the Younger, in a letter to the Roman emperor Trajan, describes the lifestyles of early Christians:

        “They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”
        ——————-
        And this honesty, and the fact that they were so convinced they were prepared to die for their belief, and many did, they would not deliberately misrepresent or distort the teaching. The fact that there are discrepencies convinces me even more: numbers of loaves and fishes, for example. People are fallible. The basic truth and teaching is there. While researching Robert Bage I discovered that his son John died in 1783, not 1793. The mistake came from a visit by William Godwin who either misheard what Bage told him or committed the wrong date to memory when he recorded the meeting later in a letter to Mary Wolstonecraft. All twentieth century scholars got the date wrong. But the message was the same. He did die young. There was no deliberate attempt to mislead, either by William Godwin or later critics Harrison Steeves, Peter Faulkner, Gary Kelly, Vaughan Wilkins and a whole host of others 18th century literary scholars.

        While the earliest surviving gospels or fragments date from the second century (101 AD to 200 AD) there may be revelations which emerge in the future. (The Judas stone was not found until the early 1960s).

        I see nothing wrong with records going back 100 years or more. Much of the historical part of my thesis on Robert Bage relied on documents more than 200 years old, accounts like the diaies of Samuel Pipe Wolferstan. I did not discount the new details gleaned from them which added to the canon, nor did

        This may throw some light on the authenticity of the Gospels. Who knows. “Now we see through a glass darkly” said Paul, if you believe he said it.

        http://www.livescience.com/49489-oldest-known-gospel-mummy-mask.html

        • lysias

          The Pauline Epistles are generally considered to be considerably earlier, by a decade or more, than the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. First Thessalonians is usually considered the earliest of the Pauline Epistles, dating around A.D. 50. It refers to “the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1), and says of “the Jews”: “Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us” (2:15).

        • John Spencer-Davis

          I need to choose my words carefully here. I would like to know what contemporaneous evidence there is, outside the New Testament, that any alleged disciple of Jesus who knew him personally and was allegedly a direct witness to his crucifixion and resurrection was martyred for that belief. Can you show me any, John? Thanks.

          • glenn_uk

            No there isn’t, JSD. None whatsoever. The stories of Christ are an amalgamation of earlier myths associated with virgin births, miracles, followers, being raised from the dead and so on. The comparisons are rather startling. Have you watched the first part of the Internet(s) movie Zeitgeist?

            Incidentally, the Romans were great record keepers, as you say. Did the census which supposedly necessitated the travel of Joseph and Mary to Nazareth get recorded? (A strange census indeed which requires everyone to return to their birthplace, in order to be counted!)

            Let’s face it, all religions are utter nonsense – fairy tales for people afraid of the dark. Mumbo-jumbo designed for people who couldn’t understand why it got dark at night, and would have been baffled at how to operate a wheelbarrow.

            Shaking off a childhood-instilled delusion is not easy. It has been said, it’s impossible to reason someone out of a position that they did not reason themselves into in the first place. And show me one person that reasoned themselves into their religious delusion!

      • John Goss

        I did not discount the new details gleaned from them which added to the canon, nor did I accept blindly what had been written previously.

        • fedup

          John Never mind that shit, here is Ukraine

          ….. perform flight tests of the “repaired” jets before final handover. But the Ukrainians never allowed him to fly, using “bad weather” or “risk of flying over populated areas” as an excuse. Finally, when the jets were about to fly back to Croatia following the “overhaul,” the Ukrainians cited a “war situation” and instead returned them by truck in a disassembled form.

          Basically the crooks in Ukraine have been selling scarp at an extortionate prices to the Croat and now shit has hit the fan. These Mig 21 have no reliable log books of any sorts and the result is scrapping of all of them. Ukraine a gift that never stops giving!

    • MJ

      I don’t think anyone seriously questions the existence of Pontius Pilate, it’s the contention that he tried, convicted and crucified anyone resembling JC for which there is no evidence. The Romans were sticklers for keeping court records.

      And anyone who still cites Josephus in this context loses all credibility I’m afraid. The relevant passages were inserted centuries later and serious Christian scholars concede this.

      • John Goss

        “And anyone who still cites Josephus in this context loses all credibility I’m afraid. The relevant passages were inserted centuries later and serious Christian scholars concede this.”

        And who are these then?

        • MJ

          Even one of your own links states:

          “There is much legitimate controversy about the writing of Josephus, because the first discoveries of his writings are late enough to have been re-written by Christians who were accused of making additions to the text”

          He doesn’t mention that the earliest known manuscripts don’t have these passages at all. You’ll need to use google to explore this “legitimate controversy”.

          • lysias

            The Wikipedia entry Josephus on Jesus says nothing about early manuscripts of Josephus not having the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage about Jesus. The entry has references to early Christian writers referring to Josephus allegedly writing about Jesus: Origen (early 3rd century) and Eusebius (early 4th century), who refers to the very Testimonium Flavianum. As far as I can tell looking on line, the earliest manuscripts of Josephus are from the 14th century. There appear to be no early papyrus fragments of Josephus (which would be very unlikely to contain the small portion of Josephus’s work which is the Testimonium Flavianum).

      • Habbabkuk

        MJ

        “The relevant passages were inserted centuries later and serious Christian scholars concede this”
        _________________

        I second Mr Goss’s question, which you have avoided answering so far – who are these “serious Christian scholars”?

        Name a couple, please.

        Or perhaps our Transatlantic Friend?

  • Republicofscotland

    Re my previous comment.

    To be fair to the West, and to add some parity, Russia and China are also members of the Human Rights Council, the latter having a long and inglorious reputation for committing atrocities, on the Uiguars and Tibetans.

    Worringly both Russia and China’s membership of the HRC expires this year, which may wel, lead to more open aggression against minorities with both nations, and surrounding nations.

  • nevermind

    “worryingly both Russia and China’s membership of the HRC expires this year, which may well, lead to more open aggression against minorities with both nations, and surrounding nations.”

    I hope that this might stay conjecture, but as both have persecuted people as members of the HRC, there is no need to assume they will increase their aggression and/or persecution any further.
    Their membership, which imho. will be renewed as it is in their interest to stay one moral step in front of North Korea, rather than side by side. provides both with an open door argument in bilateral discussion world wide.

    And in return modernity will have an impact on their civil society, their habits and demands in future. Change will be inevitable, especially in China’s case, a very proud country that nevertheless could not withstand the powerful pressure of a popular mass uprising in in future. They must be s..t scared with anxieties about the possibilities of IT and social networking.

    Well worth a petition,
    China and Russia# ‘Renew your HRC membership’#.
    Maybe some twitteraty will take it up.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Reply ↓nevermind
    March 28, 2016 at 12:24

    ” ‘targeting Christians celebrating Easter’ is the Mantra of this latest massacre, a headline that only suits those who want to encourage religious violence and escalate it.”

    Well, targeting Christians celebrating Easter is exactly what happend in Pakistan. Shias and Ahmedis also have been targeted consistently during their religious festivals/ at their place sof worship in Pakistan. Christians have been atrgeted before as well.

    What others do with this information is another matter, but that fact is, it has been happening for a long time. It is real.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Just amazing that a troll attack on me which was provoked by Habby regarding the irrelevant murder of Dr. Gudrun Loftus has killed off all interest in another murder, that of SNP leader Willie McRae’s whose 31st anniversary is coming up in a fortnight!

    McRae had to be collecting information about Fortress Scotland which would be of great interest to the party in seeking independence, and to the Soviets in preventing its use in a surprise first strike on the USSR.

    The Isle of Skye had become the center of the Anglo-America secret war on Sweden which was expected to culminate in some kind of surprise which would so degrade its underwater deterrent in the White, Barents, and Baltic seas that Moscow would throw in the towel.

    Skye provided all the water needed for the American attack subs which would do all the dirty work of sinking the Soviet boomers and their protective killer subs in any non-nuclear showdown, thanks to all the sonar tips that HMS Challenger would supply.

    Thanks to information about the island, the Soviets would reduce the north of Scotland to rubble with its nuclear-armed SS-23 missiles which Gorbachev had falsely denied the installation of in order to destroy any NATO war-making if it pulled off some surprise.

    Skye had reduced the establishments on the Clyde to a definite secondary target.

    Of, course, making Scotland the first target in any showdown with an alleged expanding USSR would be of the greatest interest of like-minded leaders of the SNP like Jim Sillars.

    Wonder what he knew about Willie’s dossier, and thought about his assassination?

    • Trowbridge H. Ford

      Looks increasingly like McRae fell afoul with Hayward;’s people because of the contents of his dossier which showed that the Anglo-Americans were using the facilities around Skye to fabricate a ‘false flag’ attack on the Soviets which caught the SNP by surprise.

      First the Scotland Group 1985 was willing to see Willie thrown to the dogs over what he was claiming, but it changed it tune after it went on to assassinate Sweden’s Olof Palme, making out that the Soviets had done it, and hoping for its demise.

      When this didn’t work out, these Scots changed their tune in February 1987, making out the Willie could have been murdered, thanks to the arrest of Hayward and Forbes Cay-Mitchell in Sweden for alleged drug-runniing and Palme’s murder which forced it to acknowledge the probability of what it had never entertained the possibility of, much less writing eve obituaries about him.

      The SNP leadership since the 1980s has known all too well who killed McRae.

  • Republicofscotland

    Occasionlly the BBC’s World Service, runs a interesting and thought provoking programme, inbetween the constant din of propaganda. That is where I first found out about China’s unrelenting persecution of Chinese Christians.

    The Chinese authorities however have, stepped up their interventions against the Christian church, by trying to co-opt it. Unfortunately now in China many churches are state run, where so called “people’s party” representatives can cast a beady eye over the congregation.

    The states intervention, has led to a huge rise in underground churches springing up all over China, especially in the Zehjaing region. Over 500 or so underground churches have been destroyed, possibly more, with their Christian followers suffering terribly at the hands of the government.

    China’s ruling body, desperate to move worshippers away from the Catholic church, have renamed the Christian church, to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

    For those interested in reading more on the blooming of Christianity in China, and the co-opting of the church to suit the governments agenda, click the link.

    http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/china-making-over-christianity

    • fedup

      The Chinese authorities however have, stepped up their interventions against the Christian church, by trying to co-opt it.

      Have the UK authorities not co opted the church and introduced a whole new version of Christianity as in CE?
      To find a Catholic church front shop in the US giving it to the Chinese is a none event, won’t you agree?

      However it shows the entanglement of religion and politics despite the current “wisdom” to the contrary.

      • Republicofscotland

        Yes Fedup, I agree, to cdrtain extent that the church overall has, to an extent commercialised its faith. There’s a lot wrong with church and its overall aims.

        I recall reading awhile backed, about several Jesuit scholars/priests in South America, who wanted to change the church back to its founding prinicpals, which was to help the poor.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_for_the_poor

        Those Jesuit priests were brutality murdered, by proxy forces in the Salvadorian army trained in the USA, probably at the School of Americas.

        However we are free to follow our religious beliefs, (as long as it’s not hate speech) in the West. Chinese Christians have no such luxury.

  • nevermind

    Yes it is Suhayl, because education is not allowed to be impartial, because of interference and tribalism, an issue Pakistan has to deal with internally rather than relying on outside help which is not forthcoming.

    This tribalism based on families businesses and connections to fellow Pakistani members of the tribe abroad, living around the world, but keeping close ties with their elders at home, also keeps money flowing for conflicts, charity events, for example,a large school extension in Bradford, were Mullahs are invited to raise money for the communal cause, but were many leading people came together and raised money for other causes the mullahs were supporting.

    The massacre failed to kill only Christians, it has also killed Muslims, so the Mullahs who preach hatred and send this teacher of young recruits into martyrdom, from their position of knowledge, power and privilege, should also be held to account.
    I have the sneaking suspicion that the current state is the status quo the west is most comfortable with, chaos and division throughout the land, dependency on others and more control.

  • Thoughtcrime

    RoS, anent 12:56, don’t fret about Russia. They are subject to the UPR whether or not they sit on the Council, and their acceptance of independent international human rights review goes far beyond anything the USA would contemplate. Unlike the US, they have instituted national and local human rights bodies in compliance with the Paris Principles. Unlike the US, they accord citizen recourse to human rights bodies as a constitutional right. They have imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. They have acceded to more of the human rights instruments, and unlike the US, they interpret those instruments in good faith.

    http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=144&Lang=EN
    http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=144&Lang=EN
    https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/106/51/PDF/G1310651.pdf?OpenElement

    Compare the US counterparts of these records, and you see the US being dragged kicking and screaming toward protections that Russia has long since accepted.

    Acculturation is an important part of HRC membership. You let deficient countries on the Council so they learn by example not to shit on the rug. It’s crucial toilet training for laggards like Saudi Arabia and the USA. As the world’s most influential advocate of international rule of law, Russia doesn’t need it as much.

    • Republicofscotland

      Thoughtcrime.

      Thank you for those links, and your thoughts, on Russia and the HRC, as well as the USA’s position on the matter.

      I often feel that strict sanctions that are foisted on Russia, are a price it has to pay to remain free from much of Western bureaucracy.

    • Habbabkuk

      “They have imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.”
      ____________________

      and just hire a few assassins to kill dissidents on the street.

      • bevin

        “and just hire a few assassins to kill dissidents on the street.”
        Evidence? No matter. This troll regards Civil Rights as namby pamby constraints on the police. He sees the public killing of wounded Palestinians a bit of a joke and an example to us all.
        But suddenly gets the religion of human rights and the rule of law when it serves as a cheap building block in warmongering propaganda.
        The problem is that there is no evidence at all that the Russian government assassinates ‘dissidents’ whilst there is abundant evidence- in the form of boasts and video records that the Israeli forces regularly kill whomsoever they please plus anyone in the vicinity.
        As to the US government: well, tomorrow is Tuesday the day of the week that the Commander in Chief goes over the list of people selected for assassination by drone- an exercise which involves something in the order of five others killed for anyone-illegally and in defiance of US as well as International Law- selected for execution, without trial and without appeal.

  • Republicofscotland

    For those of you that have 50 spare minutes, I recommend you watch this undercover ITV documentary on Saudi Arabia.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZK_Jx8VQd0&time_continue=1071

    ****warning***** graphic beheadings

    Not only does it highlight the terrible atrocities carried out on its own citizens and foreign workers, it also highlights the country’s extreme poverty, and its religious police, who have a free hand to persecute whoever they wish to.

    However far more disconcerting is Wahhabism, which is taught to children from an early age. Part of those teaching informs the young minds that all Christians, Israeli’s and Shia Muslims must die without exception.

    Colonel Patraeus, and Colonel Kemp (respectively) claim that Saudi Arabia is a necessary evil in the region. I would say that with the vast wealth that the Saudi elite possess, it widens the dark and nerferious hand of Wahhabism, that is covertly now spread outside the region in question, and around the world.

    It may be that in the overall scheme of things, the spread of Wahhabism, is part of the plan, allowing Saudi extremism to grow under the watchful eye of forces closer to home. Every now and then the Saudi backed extremists, will act and a counter action by other forces will negate the action. Leaving the populus feeling secure under the watchful eye of our own forces.

    Problem, reaction solution, premanufactured to frighten and control the masses.

  • Thoughtcrime

    Yes, interesting, how the ECtHR seems to be in bad odor lately, with the Brits squirming out from under it and Russia evidently mistrusting it too. Who needs it? The root of their problem is the ECHR, which is a satellite’s subset of rights (no ICESCR or other core rights) that the US stuffed down Europe’s throat after WWII. Treaty bodies and charter bodies provide better oversight, and increasingly they can be backed up with ICJ judgments, now that the Court has set a precedent for considering individual human rights abuses. You can see the trend in the way NATO fights to keep ICTY documents away from ICJ. It’s clear which one’s the independent court.

    Sorry, Kempe, not in the mood for puerile whataboutery today. Maybe another time. That is of course how the BBC pedophiles train you to think about human rights. It’s a stick to beat your designated enemies over the head. You scrabble around for anything you can use to vilify your enemy, when you could just consult the UPR records for a comprehensive list of issues compiled from domestic and international civil society, recognized experts on treaty bodies, and the international community.

    http://www.upr-info.org/database/

    So give that a whirl. It’ll help you grow the fuck up.

    • Kempe

      ” That is of course how the BBC pedophiles train you to think about human rights. It’s a stick to beat your designated enemies over the head. ”

      They way you’re using it against the US you mean?

      If all you have to come back at me with is personal insults I guess I must’ve struck a nerve.

  • Alcyone: Say it with Music -- The calm after the storm

    [ Mod: Caught in spamfilter, timestamp updated ]
    —–

    Listen to the voice of this living angel sing to the tune of his own sitar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrVXpJgeAg

    Shujaat (Hussain) Khan, son of the great Ustad Vilayat Khan (sitar maestro) who I was lucky to see in concert at the Royal Festival Hall just before he died, aged 76.

    Thoughts with family and friends of those gruesomely slaughtered by the bastard-savages in Lahore.

    Will this generate as much outrage and discussion here, or in Europe generally as did the Belgian massacres? Reading JSD, Laguerre and fwl, doesn’t appear so.

    Kind regards!

  • bevin

    “During the 1960s, Belgium’s need for cheap labor and lax immigration policies set in motion a large number of migrants who would make their way to Belgium, particularly from Morocco and Turkey. Seeking to capitalize on the change in demographics, Faisal was able to secure a 99-year rent-free lease of the oldest mosque in Brussels, the Great Mosque of Brussels, and transform it through the monetary influence of the Muslim World League into an Islamic Cultural Center. Originally built in 1880, the building at the time had seen sufficient deterioration. Over an 11-year period, the Muslim World League funded the restoration process culminating in 1978 with its reopening, along with a fresh importation of pious, Gulf imams that began their Saudi-Wahhabi indoctrination. The Muslim World League has continually funded the Islamic Cultural Center in Brussels since the 1967 agreement, but exact figures are not known due to the lack of auditing and private grasp the kingdom keeps on its financial statements. However, over the past 20 years there have been glimpses into the makeup of the program. In 1997, the secretary general of the Muslim World League thanked King Faisal’s successor, King Fahd, for his continued support, indicating that the House of Saud had donated $1.33 billion in funding since 1962. In 2002, the Saudi newspaper Ain Al-Yaqeen published a detailed report on the extent of Saudi-Wahhabi support throughout the world noting, “the cost of King Fahd’s efforts in this field has been astronomical, amounting to many billions of Saudi riyals. In terms of Islamic institutions, the result is some 210 Islamic centers wholly or partly financed by Saudi Arabia, more than 1,500 mosques and 202 colleges and almost 2,000 schools for educating Muslim children in non-Islamic countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia.” Furthermore, a 2008 documentary titled The Qur’an by British filmmaker Antony Thomas put the estimate of Saudi-Wahhabi funding at over $100 billion within the last 30 years.”

    Always worth reading and particularly illuminating today:
    http://angryarab.blogspot.ca/

    • Republicofscotland

      Bevin.

      Thank you for that report on the spreading of Wahhabism, which one can only describe as a well funded dangerous ideology. I fear that Europe is now, infected by such extremism. One wonders though why the proper authorities would allow the growth of such a extreme form of Islam in the West.

      Unless of course from time to time, it suits their purpose.

      PS. I would’ve enjoyed the comment more, if paragraphs had been inserted, it’s rather unkind on the eyes trying to read such a large block of text. ?

    • Republicofscotland

      Bevin

      I plucked this paradoxical story from your link, then cross checked it with other links.

      “Otto Skorzeny, one of the Mossad’s most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s favorites, he received the Nazi’s highest honour, for rescuing the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

      On September 11, 1962, a German scientist vanished. The basic facts were simple: Heinz Krug had been at his office, and he never came home.
      The only other salient detail known to police in Munich was that Krug commuted to Cairo frequently. He was one of dozens of Nazi rocket experts who had been hired by Egypt to develop advanced weapons for that country.
      HaBoker, a now defunct Israeli newspaper, surprisingly claimed to have the explanation: The Egyptians kidnapped Krug to prevent him from doing business with Israel.

      But that somewhat clumsy leak was an attempt by Israel to divert investigators from digging too deeply into the case — not that they ever would have found the 49-year-old scientist.

      We can now report — based on interviews with former Mossad officers and with Israelis who have access to the Mossad’s archived secrets from half a century ago — that Krug was murdered as part of an Israeli espionage plot to intimidate the German scientists working for Egypt.

      Moreover, the most astounding revelation is the Mossad agent who fired the fatal gunshots: Otto Skorzeny, one of the Israeli spy agency’s most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s personal favorites among the party’s commando leaders. The Führer, in fact, awarded Skorzeny the army’s most prestigious medal, the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, for leading the rescue operation that plucked his friend Benito Mussolini out from the hands of his captors.”

      http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.711115

      Unsurprisingly Wiki fails to mention Skorzeny’s ethinicity, which could be a source of embarrassed to some regarding the circumstances.

      • lysias

        Skorzeny had been working as an adviser to Nasser. I wonder how he managed to get out of Egypt.

  • Mark Golding

    Balking on a direct meeting with the Kremlin, John Brennan unfolded another game plan to oust President Assad in a recent visit to Russia according to sources within the FSA. This maneuvering by the CIA head seemed to suggest a secret compiled list of Syrian government military and security officials guilty of war crimes will be presented to the United Nations while in parallel a UK/US positing a multilateral vision for a ‘war-torn’ Syria would include a reconciliation process and a “representative government that is going to try to address the grievances that exist throughout the country.”

    Smart Mr Brennan, yes – canny, no; your list is fallacious and attempts to hush money resources will fail – I know – ask Mr Putin.

  • Thoughtcrime

    Shempe, if you’re too lazy or dishonest to acquaint yourself with the source documents, then fuck off. Live your life as a propaganda victim. Your monarchy’s progressive degeneration and incapacity makes you harmless either way.

    • Habbabkuk (rejoice-Karadzic got 40 years)

      Kempe has got under your skin, hasn’t he! 🙂

      By the way, where did you suddenly pop up from, you bacillus?

  • lysias

    Interesting claim in “b”‘s latest piece at Moon of Alabama, Syria – How The Palmyra Victory Changes the Narrative:

    One important part of liberating Palmyra was the use of Russian electronic warfare equipment to interfere with electromagnetic signals around Palmyra. The Islamic State rigged the ruins with improvised explosive devices but was unable to remotely detonate them.

    One wonders if this technology can be used to neutralize the weapons, including nukes, of other powers, including Israel.

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