According to the BBC, Iran has test fired nine missiles, including a new missile with the capability of hitting Tel Aviv. Is Iran trying to provoke or trying to deter? This wont deter, it will scare - and scared Israel is more likely to strike. Ahmadinejad may want war, because he isn't very bright. However, I doubt that many in Iran are happy about this move.
I fully expect the so-called "peace movement" to hold instantaneous protests at Iranian embassies, burning Iranian flags and calling for Iran to stop threatening its neighbours. Look forward to seeing some protest in Roseneath in Wellington for example.
Wont happen though will it?
The so-called "peace" movement never ever protests against militarism by anti-Western states, like Iran, North Korea or Russia. Yes remember those protests? The so-called "peace" movement is uninterested in peace, only surrender and disarmament.
It will be exceedingly dangerous if there is an attack on Iran in self defence - but given the choice between that and a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, it is no choice at all. Since 1979 Iran has been consistently the most pernicious influence in the Middle East, providing financial, military and spiritual succour to terrorists there and elsewhere (the IRA included at one time). It is a thoroughly vile and despotic regime. The preference has to be that Iran backs off, Ahmadinejad is displaced, it opens up its facilities for inspection and it backs off from its Islamist imperialism.
Blogging on liberty, capitalism, reason, international affairs and foreign policy, from a distinctly libertarian and objectivist perspective
10 July 2008
09 July 2008
The party of moaning New Zealand
Cactus Kate posts on the vileness of NZ First coming to the fore again, with Peter Brown warning that Asian immigrants should "fit in".
Fit in to what? What is this fucking migrant himself think HE is doing picking on migrants from cultures that believe more in education, hard work, self sufficiency and family than HIS one?
So what should they fit into?
The tall poppy syndrome?
The "why doesn't the government" talkback mediocrity that demands that life be made better by the government fixing it?
The narrow minded pig ignorant personality cult followers that demand no accountability for their cult leader between elections, but think he's wonderful every 3 years?
No Mr Brown, you should go home - you and your party have done more harm to positive values of entrepreneurship, looking outwards, applying reason and personal responsibility than most Asian immigrants ever could. After all Mr Brown, what ethnic group has disproportionately low levels of welfare claims, imprisonment and high education achievement?
Yes, can't have people like that can we, because those who can actually read, get a degree and run a business aren't likely to vote for a populist personality cult led nationalist party are they?
Fit in to what? What is this fucking migrant himself think HE is doing picking on migrants from cultures that believe more in education, hard work, self sufficiency and family than HIS one?
So what should they fit into?
The tall poppy syndrome?
The "why doesn't the government" talkback mediocrity that demands that life be made better by the government fixing it?
The narrow minded pig ignorant personality cult followers that demand no accountability for their cult leader between elections, but think he's wonderful every 3 years?
No Mr Brown, you should go home - you and your party have done more harm to positive values of entrepreneurship, looking outwards, applying reason and personal responsibility than most Asian immigrants ever could. After all Mr Brown, what ethnic group has disproportionately low levels of welfare claims, imprisonment and high education achievement?
Yes, can't have people like that can we, because those who can actually read, get a degree and run a business aren't likely to vote for a populist personality cult led nationalist party are they?
58 years on - a little more truth from Korea
The Korean War, so closely following World War 2 was a particularly heinous affair. Intense propaganda from both sides shrouded the truth, and the truth was that at the time both North and South Korea were led by blood thirsty butchers. Both of whom were more blood thirsty than their allies of Red China and the US led UN forces. The North Korean side was particularly brutal, keeping some POWs in tiny holes standing vertical where they could kick heads at ground level.
However the truth of how the southern side acted has always been somewhat hidden. The North of course proclaims endless atrocities committed by the US side, which of course creates much doubt about the truth behind it. However, according to the NZ Herald, South Korea now has a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has revealed that a blind eye was turned as the South Korean regime executed 3500 political prisoners. Furthermore as many as 100,000 suspected leftists were killed in the first weeks of the Korean War. Whilst these slaughters were carried out by the Syngman Rhee regime, the US largely ignored or was modestly critical. The ends do not justify the means, and North Korea was not thwarted by slaughtering suspected South Koreans en masse - it was thwarted by concerted military action.
None of this should give sympathy to North Korea or credence to most of its claims of "atrocities". We probably will never know the extent of those. However, it is important to know what was done by our ally in the name of freedom. South Korea has grown, changed and become a free and open society for the past 20 years. North Korea need not be described. It doesn't reflect badly on either South Korea or the USA today, but it is worthy of remembering. South Korea can face its demons with bravery, and maybe just maybe one day North Korea may even start.
However the truth of how the southern side acted has always been somewhat hidden. The North of course proclaims endless atrocities committed by the US side, which of course creates much doubt about the truth behind it. However, according to the NZ Herald, South Korea now has a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has revealed that a blind eye was turned as the South Korean regime executed 3500 political prisoners. Furthermore as many as 100,000 suspected leftists were killed in the first weeks of the Korean War. Whilst these slaughters were carried out by the Syngman Rhee regime, the US largely ignored or was modestly critical. The ends do not justify the means, and North Korea was not thwarted by slaughtering suspected South Koreans en masse - it was thwarted by concerted military action.
None of this should give sympathy to North Korea or credence to most of its claims of "atrocities". We probably will never know the extent of those. However, it is important to know what was done by our ally in the name of freedom. South Korea has grown, changed and become a free and open society for the past 20 years. North Korea need not be described. It doesn't reflect badly on either South Korea or the USA today, but it is worthy of remembering. South Korea can face its demons with bravery, and maybe just maybe one day North Korea may even start.
08 July 2008
A broadcasting policy
If I were Broadcasting Minister.
Step 1: Sell TVNZ - give away 51% of the shares to the public, sell the other 49%
Step 2: Give away shares in Radio NZ to the public. Allow it to sell advertising, sponsorship or subscriptions.
Step 3: Abolish NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho.
Step 4: Give away Maori TV and radio, and Pacific Island Radio, and Access Radio by giving away shares to all New Zealanders.
Step 5: Abolish the Broadcasting Standards' Authority, regulating broadcasting on the same basis as publications.
Step 6: Convert broadcasting frequency management rights into full blown property rights.
Note, all to be completed or commenced within one parliamentary term.
The state should not own or control any of the means of communication with the public.
Note, you'll never ever ever hear any serious balanced debate about abolishing public broadcasting on Radio NZ - which, of course, destroys any of their claims for being balanced and presenting all points of view.
Step 1: Sell TVNZ - give away 51% of the shares to the public, sell the other 49%
Step 2: Give away shares in Radio NZ to the public. Allow it to sell advertising, sponsorship or subscriptions.
Step 3: Abolish NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho.
Step 4: Give away Maori TV and radio, and Pacific Island Radio, and Access Radio by giving away shares to all New Zealanders.
Step 5: Abolish the Broadcasting Standards' Authority, regulating broadcasting on the same basis as publications.
Step 6: Convert broadcasting frequency management rights into full blown property rights.
Note, all to be completed or commenced within one parliamentary term.
The state should not own or control any of the means of communication with the public.
Note, you'll never ever ever hear any serious balanced debate about abolishing public broadcasting on Radio NZ - which, of course, destroys any of their claims for being balanced and presenting all points of view.
Who are the perverts?
Australian PM Kevin Rudd is in a squawk because of Art Monthly magazine publishing a picture of a girl of 6, nude, on its front cover. It isn't child pornography, in fact it isn't even erotic - well unless you count the fact that MANY things are erotic to a tiny minority who have specific fetishes. The range of human fetishes is almost infinite, but by no measure was a crime committed in having her pose in this non provocative, non revealing pose.
However it is telling when both the Australian PM and the conservative Liberal opposition both join the same chorus of outcry at the image, including wanting to ban taking photos of naked children. Expecting fully a witch hunt of the girl and her family. The girl in the photo is now 11 and yet doesn't feel exploited. You see her mother, Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou took the photo.
The girl clearly has more courage than Rudd or the vile little weasel who leads the opposition, Brendan Nelson, by saying SHE is offended because Rudd said "he can't stand" the image of her. Too right. The image is rather beautiful in its own right/
A picture of her today with her family, and the photograph in the background is here, courageously on the Sydney Morning Herald website.
The image is not sexualising her - the naked human body is not, by its very nudity, an invitation to be sexual. The understandable fear parents have of their children being abused has been exaggerated to a phobia about children being seen. It is a phobia that means teachers are thought suspiciously if they give an upset child a hug, especially male teachers. It is a pernicious blend of an ultra conservative belief that the naked body is by nature sinful, and feminists who see exploitation and rapist men at every corner.
The image wont incite a child to be abused. How many children who have been abducted were naked at the time? The people sexualising Olympia Nelson are Mr Rudd, Mr Nelson and the henpecked Hetty Johnston, whose minds are filthy enough (or politically corrupt enough) to have decided that this little girl is a corrupting influence that needs covering up. Next there will be calls to make it illegal for fathers to see their daughters naked, or adults to be alone with any naked children (I mean parents here, after all there is plenty of evidence that much child abuse happens at home!).
Olympia hasn't been exploited, by her or any reasonable objective measure - it's about time that politicians and do gooders shut up and left her family alone. There is plenty of real child abuse going on in Australia, it's just not as easy to find, not as easy to "ban" and not as easy to get outraged about.
However it is telling when both the Australian PM and the conservative Liberal opposition both join the same chorus of outcry at the image, including wanting to ban taking photos of naked children. Expecting fully a witch hunt of the girl and her family. The girl in the photo is now 11 and yet doesn't feel exploited. You see her mother, Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou took the photo.
The girl clearly has more courage than Rudd or the vile little weasel who leads the opposition, Brendan Nelson, by saying SHE is offended because Rudd said "he can't stand" the image of her. Too right. The image is rather beautiful in its own right/
A picture of her today with her family, and the photograph in the background is here, courageously on the Sydney Morning Herald website.
The image is not sexualising her - the naked human body is not, by its very nudity, an invitation to be sexual. The understandable fear parents have of their children being abused has been exaggerated to a phobia about children being seen. It is a phobia that means teachers are thought suspiciously if they give an upset child a hug, especially male teachers. It is a pernicious blend of an ultra conservative belief that the naked body is by nature sinful, and feminists who see exploitation and rapist men at every corner.
The image wont incite a child to be abused. How many children who have been abducted were naked at the time? The people sexualising Olympia Nelson are Mr Rudd, Mr Nelson and the henpecked Hetty Johnston, whose minds are filthy enough (or politically corrupt enough) to have decided that this little girl is a corrupting influence that needs covering up. Next there will be calls to make it illegal for fathers to see their daughters naked, or adults to be alone with any naked children (I mean parents here, after all there is plenty of evidence that much child abuse happens at home!).
Olympia hasn't been exploited, by her or any reasonable objective measure - it's about time that politicians and do gooders shut up and left her family alone. There is plenty of real child abuse going on in Australia, it's just not as easy to find, not as easy to "ban" and not as easy to get outraged about.
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