Fuck Israel: The Massacre of Children Goes On

The bodies of dead Lebanese children are piling up, we stand by and allow this to happen whilst our leaders chatter.

The very worst amongst us justify the actions of Israel as a reasonable response, these same idiots talk of Hezbollah hiding amongst civilians but fail to realise that there is little use in a human shield if the aggressor doesn't respect it. Israel has no problem with killing civilians, men, women, children, the bodies of the dead pile up.

This is an act of genocide, a war crime, an atrocity.

The latest disgusting episode that shames us all: the second Qana Massacre that took place on the 30th July 2006, 55 Lebanese civilians killed including 27 children in a shelter. For those that don't know, Qana is the place where, according to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus performed his first miracle, the turning of a large quantity of water into wine at a wedding feast.

Look at the following images and then do something, I know I am.

Fuck Israel.

I Went Out, Got Drunk, It Was Emotional...

This is me with my good friends Tom and Eva.

This is what I look like after 3 Sambucas, 5 pints and 3 screwdrivers.

Not too bad.

This is Eva again and Nicola who was also out with us, it was a good night.

Israeli/Lebanese Coffin Counter

Current Figures: Israel: 51 UN: 4 Canada: 8 Lebanon: 600

Visual aid is here.

This is a picture of Israeli children signing missles that are used to kill Lebanese children.

The Birth of Tragedy

"Oh wretched ephemeral race, children of chance and misery, why do ye compel me to tell you what it were most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of all is beyond your reach forever: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best for you, is quickly to die."

I've just finished re-reading my favourite philosopher's first major work, The Birth of Tragedy and the above statement profoundly touches me, once again Nietzsche cuts to the very essence of human existence with his fluid, beautiful language. It somehow seems to ring true in the current world environment.

He also offers some wonderful insights into art that seem particularly relevant to the actor's trade, especially concerning the spectator's perception of the work:

"Thus all our knowledge of art is basically quite illusory, because as knowing beings we are not one and identical with that Being who, as the sole author and spectator of this comedy of art, prepares a perpetual entertainment for himself."

Nietzsche is of course talking about God but this stands true for the perceptual divide between creator and spectator and the decision whether to guide/assist/support their understanding of the vision or whether to disrupt/deceive/destroy their appreciation. There is a third way: abivalence to the spectator's efforts to achieve union with your vision, a path seemingly chosen by much modern art.

As always Nietzsche provides a wonderfully choice quote:

"We talk so abstractly about poetry because we are all bad poets."

He also talks in some detail about 'transformed beings' ie: the actor becoming immersed in the character and losing oneself (in this case the unity of the chorus, which in my experience as a performer is incredibly powerful as many become just one, as if connected by some intrinsic sense of humanity and physical/physiological bonds formed in the mists of time) and all social markers being discarded in this trance like state.

One section really struck me in relation to the current worldscape, it is where Nietzsche blames Socratic culture for the creation of optimism (for me, the United States of America is the nation of optimism) and his words resonate powerfully with what is happening around us:

"Optimism, with its delusion of limitless power! Well, we must not be alarmed if the fruits of this optimism ripen, if society, leavened to the very lowest strata by this kind of culture, gradually begins to tremble with wanton agitations and desires...Let us mark this well: this culture, to be able to exist permanently, requires a slave class, but, with its optimistic view of life, it denies the necessity of such a class...There is nothing more terrible than a barbaric slave class, who have learned to regard their existence as an injustice and now prepare to avenge, not only themselves, but all future generations."

How prophetic is this, of the world we have made and that the US is a personification of? That is a world built unrealistically on the idea that everything is possible, that you can achieve that dream with optimism and hard work. This is simply an untrue and as Nietzsche points out this breeds a resentful underclass, that can not only be seen in the 36 million US citizens living in poverty but the whole countries that regard their very existence as an example of injustice.

The haves and the have-nots.

The gap grows wider.

HELLO! ARE YOU LISTENING? THE TWO SOLDIERS WERE IN LEBANON!

So, as the rest of the globe fails to thrash out a ceasefire plan and the Israeli government takes this as tacit approval of their war crimes, can I just remind you that the whole pretence for this act of terror was the abduction of two Israeli soldiers...trouble is the Israeli soldiers were in Lebanon.

Here is a full list of sources that corroborate this but the history of IDF build up in the area and the carrying out of missions on the border clearly marks out the classic tactic of provoking the enemy into a conflict it can ill afford.

Here is an ambulance bombed by Israeli forces:

Here is a dead Lebanese child:

Lobby whoever you have to lobby and take a part in trying to end this bloodshed, as our leaders stand by and waste precious time as more innocent people die.

Peace be with you all.

Holiday Snaps As Israel Bombs The UN

Parga's main harbour

Me looking a right nob

Marie and I: blurred clarity

A terrifying Greek stuffed waiter

A poster advertising a hot clarinet outfit that was in town

Parga's largest nightclub

One of Marie's excellent tuna salad sarnies

Parga's main beach

Onto more important matters then...

I woke up this morning to discover that Israel had bombed a UN base, killing four peacekeepers and also attacking the UN bunker as they tried to rescue their dying colleagues; this is on top of repeated attacks on UN positions by Israeli forces. No wonder Kofi Annan believes this is a deliberate policy on behalf of Israel. Now imagine if any other nation in the world was carrying out such a policy, what would be the response? Actually scratch that, what would be the response of the only two nations that are backing the actions of Israel? The excellent front page of The Independent sums it up nicely...
The US/UK/Zionist pact is free to carry out whatever acts of aggression, violence, torture and repression that it sees fit; yet punishes other nations when they try and utilise similar means to achieve their aims. This is the hypocrisy at the heart of the world order and this hypocrisy means that the rest of the globe will be against us; leading us into perpetual conflict.

By the way, the two Israeli soldiers where actually in Lebanon when they were captured but more on that tomorrow...

I Go Away For a While and Zionists Are Killing Arab Children

In spite of all the dead children that have been killed by the Israeli military, I was going to post a few pictures of the holiday to lighten the mood but Blogger is being a total shit and not letting me.

Still recovering from a wonderful holiday and when it lets me you shall have some images but until then I'm off to bed and rest and to formulate a post on the war crimes being carried out in both Iraq and Lebanon but some stuff to kepp you going...

UK people want Blair to stand up to Bush...about fucking time and we'll see if the murder of children makes Tony decide to find the fire in his belly or whether he is totally morally bankrupt.

Some good news: Political Moose is back and is linked again, so please visit, Mark really is a great political blogger and a lovely chap. Also linked is a blog that provides updates on Israeli aggression in Lebanon, so go and read the facts please.

Before I go I'd like to make it clear that we should stand up to Zionist agression and that Hezbollah is not a terrorist group but rather a genuine force for change against the US/Israel axis of evil.

Oh and a jockey headbutted a horse which is quite funny if a little cruel, video here.

To Greece!

Off on holiday, back on the 24th, hope Parga is as beautiful as this photo makes out...
Until we meet again dear readers!

The Big Adventure: The Trailer

This is work in progress but click here for a lovely taster of what the final film could look like, you can even download it to watch again and again in the privacy of your own home.

HURRAH!

Any comments, you know where to put them...under comments...

Here is a picture that will haunt not only your dreams but your waking hours...

Don’t Mess With Texas

I’m picking up my analysis of why America is so conservative from where I left off, how Texas shaped Bush Jnr and thus shaped American political policy.

Texas is America in distorted miniature: huge, diverse, full of optimism, self-confidence, materialism and braggadocio. It is a place where you make something out of nothing and where high levels of violence (whether state approved or not) sit next to high levels of religiosity.

It’s size means its occupants take a ‘slash and burn’ attitude to its natural resources, sheer size also fills it with an arrogance, an arrogance born out of excellent economic growth stemming from their sense of buccaneering capitalism; this in turn creates a lively and fruitful environment for the risk taking entrepreneur. Risk taking is not just the modus operandi of the private sector, government is also run in such a manner, Bush (as governor of Texas) pre-empted his time in the White House with swinging tax cuts that left the Texas legislature in 2003 trying to plug a $10 billion hole; one can’t help but feel that whoever takes over in the White House will face a similar dilemma.

Texas, like America, is a champion for the go-getter but an enemy of the weak, with low taxes, weak trade unions, a shoddy public sector and a non-existent welfare system: extreme wealth lives next to extreme poverty.

What remains of the welfare state is ran by churches, evangelical churches at that, who have also infiltrated Texas’ prison system and take a major role in correcting prisoner’s behaviour through the word of Jesus Christ (President Bush’s favourite philosopher…I kid you not).

And then there is the violence, not only is Texas a military hub for the US (with the second largest army base in the country) it also has inordinately high murder rates whilst having the most prisoners on death row, never mind the volume of people who are actually killed through this form of state approved murder.

Bush has ran America very much as he ran Texas, only this time he has surrounded himself with an even larger array of Texan cronies to make him feel right at ‘home’.

So how could it all go wrong for the conservative movement?

Harold

Harold is an old man who goes to the theatre. He does not hear very well and his eyes are bad. Mostly he likes the people. He always sits at the front and claps in all the wrong places and yells out Marxist slogans during tender moments and calls the actors by their real names. (once he went to see a play where at one point a watermelon would roll out and surprise the audience, and he went back several times so that just before the watermelon would roll out he could yell: ‘Here come the watermelon!’ Things like that) Most people suffer Harold grudgingly and roll their eyes when they see him in line, but when he dies there will be a big award named after him: and everyone will want to win it.

Daniel MacIvor

Please Help Craig Murray

Craig Murray was formerly the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, until he took a stand over our use of intelligence obtained by torture and since that time he has been persecuted by my government who have been trying to silence him, since his departure from the Foreign Office.

You may remember the previous attempt to nullify Mr Murray when many bloggers, including myself, published the false threat from the government.
Now Craig Murray is under seige once more, as his lastest book, Murder in Samarkand, has just been published and inspite of the best efforts of the British Government to suppress it. In support of the points he makes in his book, Craig has published a number of documents online that the British Government does not want you to see, these can be found here and I urge you to read them all and learn about the UK and US sponsoring and supporting torture and violence in the false quest that is the war on a noun.
As expected, Craig received a letter (which can be found here) from lawyers acting on behalf of the Foreign Office demanding that he remove the documents from his website by 4pm Monday 10th July or he will be issued with a high court injunction.

The following thoughts are those of Craig Murray himself:

"I am sorry to trouble you, but believe that we now face a threat both to the Web and to Freedom of Information in the UK which must be challenged. The British government is arguing that government documents, even if released under the Freedom of InformAtion Act or Data Protection Act, cannot be published, on the web or elsewhere, as they remain Crown Copyright.

If you think about it for a moment, the government could thus cancel out almost the whole purpose of the Freedom of Information Act; information released would be just for the private use of an individual. Newspapers - or bloggers - could not publish it in any detail. If accepted, this extraordinary use of copyright could keep literally everything - everything - produced by government a secret.

The documents in question are the supporting evidence for my book, Murder in Samarkand, which has just been released. The government continues to claim my story is untrue. There is one important advance in all this. Up until now the government refused to acknowledge the documents were authentic. Now Buttrill's letter specifically acknowledges all of the documents and claims copyright over them.

Some are new to the web. Perhaps the most important is the chart of the changes the British Government insisted be made to the book. These are extremey revealing for what they admit to be true - for example, only minor changes are requested in the key meeting between senior officials on the legality of using intelligence from torture, at which it was confirmed that this is US and UK policy.

Perhaps still more revealing is the insistence on removal of the assertion that "Colin Powell knowingly lied" when he claimed that bombs in Tashkent were the work of al-Qaida. The British government insisted on removal not because it was untrue - as detailed in the book, they know full well it is true - but because it would "Damage UK-US relations".

It is on the face of it very strange that the British Government is going after me over the Copyright Act and not the Official Secrets Act. The answer is simple - under the Copyright Act there is no jury. A jury would never convict for campaigning against torture, and be most unlikely to accept that documents released cannot be published.

As the government know very well I have no money to pay a small, or even large fine, they can get the book and documents banned and me in jail without having to convince any jury of pesky citizens. How to fight back?Well, we must not let the documents disappear from the web.

Many Thanks, Craig Murray"

Please support Craig in any way you can, by buying his book or linking to the documents, thanks for your help.

Avoid London. Area Closed. Turn On Radio

One year ago today London was subjected to a terrorist attack.

7th July 2005.

Going back and reading my blog entry for that day and from the days following the attack (don’t forget the reprise on the 21st July) made me feel weird, sad, empty, pointless. A blog captures all the moments you experience, whether good or bad and going over them again feels like the digging up of a corpse.

Somethings change, some things stay the same. I still have no doubt that al-Qaeda had no involvement whatsoever in the attacks, the video conveniently released today only confirms my suspicions. Also there is no evidence of their involvement and plenty of evidence that points to an independent act of aggression; of young men being manipulated beyond their means.

Unashamedly, I’m still of the opinion that this was an attack orchestrated by our government against its own people (like 9/11) in order to solidify an alliance of the war on a noun. The facts stand as follows:

• the 7th of July had been designated a training day to re-create a terrorist attack on London’s transport network, amazingly simulations of terrorist attacks were happening at the exact same stations that were targeted.
• My goverment has consistently resisted the call for an enquiry into the events of 7/7.
• The ringleader of the group of bombers was Mohammed Siddique Khan and he was was on the payroll of British Intelligence..

This is what I think, the four young men involved thought they were taking part in a terrorist attack simulation for MI5, after all they had made none of the typical preparations of a suicide bomber because they thought they were coming back home. Nevermind the fact that character profiles of all the bombers has failed to turn up any of the usual evidence related to individuals who carry out these kind of attacks. And if you think that’s ridiculous, imagine that a few lives lost is nothing in comparison with strengthening the resolve of the people against a common foe.

Here are those whose lives were lost in the atrocity, my thoughts today are with their families.

Peace.

Welcome To Your New Job...

Drop Shadows Not Bombs

Cheeks turned me on to this great T-Shirt, I bought one and so should you.

I was looking through some images from the tour of Bouncers I did and I thought I'd put a few up for your enjoyment, they really capture the size and energy of the show.

Have a good Wednesday.

The Joy of Freakonomics

If you’ve not read Steven D. Levitts & Stephen J. Dubner’s Freakonomics then do so…now! Not only does it manage to make economics exciting, it also unpicks some urban myths and presents some excellent new truths; so to entice you to read it I’ll present some of the most intriguing stuff here, for your perusal.

On April 15th 1987 seven million American children disappeared but can any of you remember the mass abductions or homicides? Of course not, that’s because it was all about tax avoidance and that day marked the moment when you had to put the child’s social security number and not just list dependent children. So all the phantom exemptions vanished!

Did you know that US President Woodrow Wilson said of the Ku Klax Klan: “At last there has sprung into existence a great Ku Klax Klan, a veritable empire of the south, to protect the southern country”? Or that President Warren G. Harding was a fully paid up member of the KKK? But more importantly, did you know that the man who destroyed the Klan as a force in America was called Stetson Kennedy and he did it by getting Klan code words, imagery and quasi-religious terms into radio episodes of Superman; thereby demystifying and ridiculing the group and membership plummeted from 8 million down to a few hundred thousand.

I’m sure many of my American readers will remember the crime boom that the country was caught in throughout the 70s and 80s? It reached its peak in 1989 with violent crime alone having increased by 80% and you may also remember its steep decline that left experts nonplussed and foraging for answers and politicians clambering all over one another to gain credit. Do you want to know why crime fell so suddenly in the 90s?

Abortion.

On January 22nd 1973, thanks to Roe vs Wade, abortion was legal across the whole of America and thus women who knew that they couldn’t and didn’t want to raise a child could take matters into their own hands. In brutal terms, poor people could stop producing more poor people and as poor people are more prone to crime the crime rate fell. Thus, the first cohort that would have reached prime crime age in the early 90s simply didn’t exist. And guess what? The states that legalised abortion earlier (New York for example) saw the fall in crime earlier and states that oversaw more abortions saw a greater impact on crime statistics in direct correlation to the number of abortions.

I’ll leave that with you…

England 0 (1) Portugal 0 (3)

England are out of the World Cup and I'm crying. I'm not ashamed.

Once again it was penalties that destroyed us and once again we went out of a major international tournament to a bunch of cheating, useless fucking bastards.

Okay it wasn't just that, England's 4-5-1 formation didn't play to our strengths and we had Rooney sent off, which bizarrely meant that we were better and had more heart with 10 men than 11. All that backs to the walls stuff I suppose. Defeat on penalties is always bitter, especially when we out played them for long periods and also when they were such ugly, cheating victors.

Let's make this clear, Portugal player's dived so often and so grotesquely that it became a bad, unwelcome joke but the peak was Ronaldo, who not only tried and succeeded in getting Rooney sent off but also winked at his teammates when he managed to manipulate the situation. How fucking dare you, you wanker.

England played their hearts out, the defence, by a man, was exceptional and gave Portugal nothing. Owen Hargreaves was the man of the match and rightly so, he screened the back four and made surging runs, as well as hassling and breaking up all that the Portuguese could throw at him. Indeed, England played the basketball equivalent of a full court press and it worked in neutering the opposition.

Lampard let us down again, his confidence seems to be lacking but his fellow midfield colleagues made up for his quiet peformance but once again you can't put Rooney up front on his own and expect us to succeed.

I can't be arsed with any more analysis, it hurts because we lost, what does all the analysis matter? We lost, we lost, we lost...