Round-up

1. Here's a piece at the ominously titled "Race In the Workplace" website in which a woolly self-righteous liberal explains how we should respond to a racist joke. The most important part of it, we're told, is that we should not do anything to damage the working relationship between ourselves and our "racist" colleague. But inside we're allowed to hate them. Feel the tolerance.

2. Norway's health authority has admitted to racism in the ranks of its emergency services after widely publicized case involving a severely injured dark-skinned foreigner. The admission follows on the case in which medics called to attend to a dark-skinned immigrant injured in an Oslo park on August 8, had refused to help him and left him lying on the ground.

Of course, no one should take this as meaning that the WHOLE Norwegian health authority is racist. And I strongly urge against any initiatives being set up to teach "diversity" to every Norwegian ambulance crewman.

Time For Some Laughter

Round-up

1. Jews in Melbourne feel physically unsafe due to rising violent anti-Semitism.

2. There is not too much fundamentally wrongheaded in this article about the concept of a "racist bone" - that is, people of the older generation passing down their racism to the younger generation. But I did take major exception in particular to the first paragraph:

"Is there such a thing as a racist bone? You hear the saying a lot – “He didn’t have a racist bone in him” – and it’s usually associated with someone who has murdered someone else. In all honesty, it’s usually associated with some white someone murdering some black someone. So it begs the question – is there a racist bone?"

Here the author seems unwilling to consider the fact that there may also be a "racist bone" among black people. Why is this? Does the author subscribe to the tired PC assumption that only white people can be racist? Does she believe that racism is genetically woven into white people rather than black or any other race?

Islam Round-up

1. "Islamophobia" and the defamation of Islam are the most conspicuous forms of racism and intolerance today, and a global U.N. conference on racism planned for 2009 should come up with practical solutions to deal with them, an Islamic bloc representative told a preparatory meeting in Geneva yesterday.

Of course. What race is Islam, again?

2. This opinion piece rehashes the multiculturalist dogma and disparagingly quotes a few right-wing American shock-merchants such as Ann Coulter to make the case that Muslims are the most hard-done-by people in America, and probably the world. It also makes the baffling claim that the mainstream media ignores cases of discrimination against Muslims. Spare me.

This line caught my eye, though:

"The most deafening silence comes from liberals and conservatives who seek true understanding and espouse American values of human rights, freedom and tolerance for multiculturalism"

Apart from the multiculturalism bit, most critics of Islam DO care about the "American values of human rights, freedom and tolerance" - that is why they are opposed to an ideology which is totally intolerant of all but itself, and denies basic human rights and freedom to women and religious minorities. But if you're a multiculturalist, even such blatant human rights abuses and intolerance by Islam pale in comparison to the cardinal sin of suggesting that our culture may be better than another.

Coming Soon...

Several months ago I wrote a piece about Islam, explaining why it is not a Religion of Peace. Looking back on it, it was fairly rushed, generalised, and, unfortunately, contained a few errors, too.

Which is why I'm gonna try it again next week. Next Monday I will publish the first of six articles which look in detail at the aspects of Islam which jihadists use to justify their actions. Such examinations of the actual motives and goals of Islamic terrorists are alien to the mainstream media, who continually pretend that the "terrorists" who kill innocent people today don't share any common ideology, and that those who do are "twisting" what their religion actually teaches. My intention with these articles is to bust these kinds of myths, and to call for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to examine these issues honestly and come up with positive ways to deal with them.

The first of the six articles will look at some key incidents in the life of Islam's Prophet, Muhammad, that resonate among his followers today and inspire jihadists to commit violent acts in imitation of him. Tune in this time next week to read it.

Round-up

1. Channel 4 is axing Celebrity Big Brother (about time) because of the Jade Goody incident. Imagine that: axing a whole show just because of one innocuous incident that happened last season. While I am glad that such tripe has been removed from the airwaves, Channel 4's reasoning is pathetic and politically correct. A great shame from a channel that has produced such excellent and un-PC documentaries as The Great Global Warming Swindle and the Dispatches episode about Islamic hate-preaching in mosques.

2. The co-creator of hit BBC1 drama Life on Mars has revealed that politically incorrect character DCI Gene Hunt was given a make-over prior to filming because he was deemed to be too racist. One example that was in an early draft script but never made it to the screen was the character referring to the Caribbean barman at the bar frequented by Hunt and his police squad as "chalky".

The silliness of this is touched upon typically briefly later in the article:

Mr Pharoah described it as a slightly "bizarre conclusion" that the sexist and homophobic elements of the character were found to be acceptable while only racism was "a step too far".

He suggested that this may have been because "two wars had been won" - meaning homophobia and sexism are at a point in UK culture that they can be featured, albeit carefully, in TV drama - but that racism is still a taboo subject.

The conclusion is indeed bizarre, but then Mr. Pharoah goes on to give a completely cockamamie reason for this political correctness, which doesn't actually explain anything. Since when have homosexuality and sexism not been taboo subjects? And whoever fought, and won, any "wars" against such things? He doesn't explain WHY racism should still be a taboo subject and other controversial things shouldn't, or how removal of this taboo status could be achieved.

He then also lets loose with this stinker of a line:

Mr Pharoah also admitted, when asked in a Q&A about whether letters had been received about the character's actions, that he had been unhappy with the way the Daily Mail had made DCI Gene Hunt a "pin-up".

"He became the pin-up boy for the Daily Mail for a few weeks and that was deeply disturbing," he said. "They lost the irony... they knew exactly what they were doing."

The unspoken connotation here is that since the character is a racist (among other things), that therefore makes him extremely popular with the Daily Mail, which apparently shares the same vices. Any examination of the Daily Mail's "lionisation" of Hunt, however, clearly reveals that they appreciated the character's hard-hitting stance towards crime, and his ability to give criminals what they deserve and put them behind bars. This is in stark contrast to the current lily-livered PC police force, which is afraid of doing pretty much everything. But given such a chance to demonise the "evil right-wing" Daily Mail, the folks at the Guardian are hardly likely to shirk the chance, are they?

And Another Welcome Back

Yes, I am back again after my second holiday in two months (some get the luck...). This time I've been on a cruise around the Mediterranean. The ship was superb and we visited some marvelous, and famous, places. I think it's some achievement when I say that - in the space of one week - I saw the Roman Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the race track of Monaco. Not bad for sightseeing. The only problem was...STINKING WEATHER! I understand the weather's been pretty awful here in Blighty while I was away, but the Mediterranean climate was only marginally better (I blame all that global warming...ahem...). Much of the time it was cloudy and overcast, and on a Menorcan beach yesterday it rained! Still, I had a lovely time and would love to do something like that again.

On an unrelated note, while I was there I read and finished the second Deathstalker saga by Simon Green. I reviewed the first series here a while back, and heartily enjoyed it. This trilogy continues and completes the story and brings everything full circle. While I found it to not be as good as the first series, it still has its moments, including some absolutely mind-blowing twists and revelations towards the tail-end of the trilogy, coupled with Green's trademark humour and wit. Deathstalker has actually become my favourite sci-fi series. While many people will see it as pure popcorn fun (which is what it is and what it was primarily intended to be), I actually ended up finding it to be quite emotionally engaging. I would recommend it to anyone.

So that's it for now. Normal race-related blogging will resume on Monday. See ya around.

Off On Hols Again!

I won't be around for the next week and a bit because I will be on my SECOND holiday of the year, this one with my family (and completely free for me!). So, even though I didn't post yesterday, there won't be any more until next Monday, probably.

Just a warning to all my readers. You can go back to not existing now.

Round-up

1. This guy has written a long piece in which he argues that reverse racism - or positively discriminating in favour of blacks and minorities over whites - is completely justified because blacks used to be persecuted. This bizarre line of reasoning doesn't seem much interested in having everyone be treated equally regardless of race or colour, and his attempts to make comparisons with the Jews are extremely crooked.

2. Time magazine thinks baseball umpires are racist. The writers of the report think that anomalies in decisions made on 1% of pitches is an obvious sign of racism. Ludicrous.

Round-up

1. Young people from ethnic minority groups in Scotland believe some actions by the police amount to racism, according to a new report.

Well, they would think that, wouldn't they?

2. Does lurking racism affect the workings of our major institutions - government, the judiciary, medicine, and education? No, but someone thinks it does.

The "unconscious racism" test mentioned in the article may be similar to this one I wrote about a couple of months ago. It wouldn't surprise me if such studies were just as full of spurious science as that one.

Poor Scottish Muslims

"Racist" incidents across Scotland have soared following the attempted terror strike on Glasgow airport on June 30 this year. The idea is that those intolerant Scots have made a connection between Muslims and violence (which is totally unfounded, of course) and are thus being hostile to local Muslims.

Now, no one should be targeting innocent Muslims for hostility and verbal/physical abuse, but I wonder, how much are these Scottish Muslims doing to allay the violent image their co-religionists have created of Islam, and to prevent jihadists from making new recruits among their number? How much are they REALLY doing, and what does it entail?

Blacks Need Better Role Models?

A new report says that young black people need to find better role models, as all too often the best they have are rappers who glorify violence and the gun culture.

I don't disagree with this, but the report also suggests that poverty is to blame. Aside from the fact that blacks in these ghetto-like areas seem to do very little to make life easier for themselves, money isn't the real problem. The problem is the breakdown of the family unit within their society. The amount of single parents and teenage pregnancies is soaring. These traditional values used to be a big part of the black community and it is not surprising that when they are in decline, the society is, too.

CAIR Slanders Robert Spencer...Again

After recently making false claims about Robert Spencer on Fox News the other week, the Council on American-Islamic relations is at it again...attempting to defame him. This time they have posted a PDF document on their website which claims to expose Spencer's "lies" and reveal that he is in fact a conniving hatemonger.

As Spencer himself says at Jihad Watch:

"There's just one problem: as Mary McCarthy famously said about Lillian Hellman, "Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the." This windy hit piece even gets my name wrong, and if there is even one true statement in it, I haven't found it yet.

By posting this ludicrous piece, CAIR has signed on to the contention that Hugh Fitzgerald and I are one and the same -- which will come as quite a surprise to all the people who met us both at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Restoration Weekend last year. CAIR has likewise signed on to the pdf's most glaring leap of logic: it contends both that I secretly support Osama bin Laden and the global jihad, and at the same time that I think all Muslims are terrorists who want to kill Americans. Can't have your cake and eat it too, Ibrahim."

Becoming A Minority

White people are a minority in almost 1 in 10 American counties. Black and Hispanic people are outnumbering the white population in once white-dominated areas and increasing numbers of residents are complaining, according to reports. Experts warn that the spread of immigrant communities from cities to the suburbs and beyond is fuelling resentment.

Greg Letiecq, who campaigns against illegal immigration in Prince William County, Virginia, said: "It's not about ethnicity, it's not about race. It's about lawful behaviour versus unlawful behaviour." But illustrating a prevailing resentment, he added: "It's the folks who come in and try to maintain the culture of the country they came from. They don't seem to embrace the American culture, the English language, the social norms of American culture."

Such statements will no doubt be construed as "racist" by liberals, who don't seem to think this kind of thing is a problem.

Given that whites are becoming a minority in these counties, do you think local authorities will enforce positive discrimination in employment and services to make it easy for them, as they do when other races are in the minority? Seems unlikely, doesn't it?

Round-up

1. A Congolese student is asking for the banning of a 1931 Tintin book in which the character visits the Congo, because it is "racist".

I absolutely agree with the book's publisher, which said that it "must be seen as a document of the time. In his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Hergé reflects the colonial attitudes of the time. He depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period." Should it be banned? I don't think so, but I can see how it could be offensive to the Congolese. Although as always with these things I wonder, do they have to be so thin-skinned? Does it really upset them THAT much that nearly eighty years ago someone drew some pictures which stereotyped their people? Seems an over-reaction to me.

2. The Finnish government are looking towards zero tolerance of discrimination in the implementing of immigration policy, stepping up action against racism and promoting good ethnic relations. "Even a racist joke meets the criteria of racism", said one of their politicians. Apparently the new immigration policy programme puts the focus on multi-culturalism and anti-discrimination measures. It is committed to "promoting good ethnic relations and preventing discrimination based on ethnic origin".

Stuff like this always sounds noble, but more often than not such measures are generally unnecessary and, as in this country, promote a suicidal hatred of a population's own culture and creates more division than it solves as immigrants are let in uncontrolled with no assimilation or integration. We'll see how such socialist policies work out for the Finns.

Nightwish - Dark Passion Play: The Review

Towards the end of last week I downloaded a promo copy of Nightwish's upcoming album, Dark Passion Play, and have spent the weekend and the last couple of days listening to it. My conclusion: it's a good album, but it's not as good as I expected, not as good as Once and not as good as they are capable of. One of my main complaints is the lack of bombastic orchestral lines which made Once so brilliant. Moments such as the orchestral part of the intro to Dark Chest of Wonders and elements of Ghost Love Score are surprisingly lacking here. The fact that the album is so dark in comparison to the uplifting sound of most of the previous albums also makes it an unusual and different experience.

On the plus side, there are no problems with new vocalist Annette; she has a good voice and performs well in many of the songs. No criticisms there.

Below is a brief track-by-track analysis:

THE POET AND THE PENDULUM - Songwriter Tuomas billed this as his best ever song. I think it's good, but not great. The intro is exceptional and as good as anything on Once. The first four minutes in general are very good. After that, it's a bit hit-and-miss. There's a really cool dramatic violin part about seven minutes in, but apart from that it's nothing special. Also, the last four minutes of the song (which is fourteen minutes long in total) are a guitarless ballad, which to me seemed unnecessary. A good song, but not everything I thought it would be.

BYE BYE BEAUTIFUL - A song very much like Wish I Had An Angel, with a slight techno edge and bassist Marco singing the chorus. At least as good as WIHAA, maybe better.

AMARANTH - The first single. Catchy. One of the few happy songs on the album.

CADENCE OF HER LAST BREATH - The third fairly straight song in a row; much darker and heavier than I expected. Slight nu-metal influences. Another "good but not great" song.

MASTER PASSION GREED - A very angry, heavy song with some surprisingly blunt lyrics. It doesn't have as much headbanging appeal as Romanticide or Slaying the Dreamer, though, and the structuring is rather random; it jumps about between different parts haphazardly and messily, and some bits are totally unnecessary. Could have been better, but did have a cool orchestral bit at the end that reminded me of James Bond.

EVA - Your typical rock ballad. A nice song, nothing more, nothing less.

SAHARA - One of the best intros on the album, which goes on for much longer than you expect. Egyptian-themed, but not as obviously so as Tutankhamen from their first album.

WHOEVER BRINGS THE NIGHT - This song was written by guitarist Emppu, and is a fairly straight rocker with a dark edge. His songwriting inexperience shows through as this is one of the album's weaker efforts. The vocal parts are decent but there is no real good instrumental/guitar work to hold the interest.

FOR THE HEART I ONCE HAD - The straightest, poppiest song on the album; a typical gothic rock track.

THE ISLANDER - Written by Marco, this is a catchy, folky acoustic track reminiscent of Jethro Tull.

LAST OF THE WILDS - An awesome instrumental and one of my favourite tracks on the album. Riverdance with electric guitars. Celtic instruments vs. guitar solos. Exceptionally good fun.

7 DAYS TO THE WOLVES - An epic and powerful song with a good guitar solo and bridge instrumental section. Perhaps the ending goes on for a bit too long but this is a minor criticism.

MEADOWS OF HEAVEN - A soft ending to the album. The first few minutes are fairly nondescript but towards the end the guitars and orchestra blend with a gospel choir to produce a powerful climax.

In summary, this is a good album. It's just not a brilliant one, and not one that matches up to the, admittedly very high, standards Nightwish set for themselves with Once. The removal of the bombastic orchestras is somewhat puzzling since the orchestra for this album was bigger than the last one. But I recommend listening to it a few times before you make any final judgments. It grows on you.

Laughing At Racism

A Mexican company called NACO - that word itself being a derogatory term in Mexico - is printing T-shirts which are designed with slogans that mock the reputation the country is getting across the border. So they're essentially not taking racism too seriously and are in fact laughing at themselves.

It's nice to see that some "persecuted" minorities are able to manage it.

Jade The Bigot

Believe it or not, some people are STILL going on about the whole Big Brother Jade vs. Shilpa episode. Consider this piece of invective from the Sunday Mirror.

Now, there are many reasons to dislike Jade Goody. But this racism stuff has gone past the point where anyone should care. She has apologised for her actions; leave her alone - pity her if you must, but stop exhaling precious breath on an incident which is long gone, and does not prove anything except how uneducated and uncultured the woman is - something we all knew anyway. Take a lesson from how Shilpa Shetty herself dealt with the incident: with dignity and forgiveness.

Meanwhile, as I predicted when I first posted this, the question of whether Miss Shetty is in fact also a racist (and I don't believe she is) has never received the same media attention.

Round-up

Two ridiculous racism allegations today:

1. Religious newspaper claims 'Yemenites walk around with cloud of pungent odor' because of certain spices dominant in their cuisine. Two men of Yemenite descent demand apology and $11,500 in compensation.

"The characterization of the Yemenite sector through the smell of their sweat and the crass words used to describe that scent are outrageous and stain an entire, honorable community. The publication humiliated

the sector and made them the target of scorn and ridicule, it did so because of the color of their skin, their race and ethnicity and it has damaged their reputation," said the complainants.

Oh, come on! There is nothing in this article which either isn't true or isn't a simple statement of opinion: the writer didn't like the smell. To call it racist is beyond absurd, and so is the attempt to win money.

2. The Yellow Pages says it can not believe someone has found its latest television commercial racist. The advert which shows black hands doing the walking has been labelled as racist by The Herald's Sideswipe column.

The columnist says having black hands doing tasks for white people to an African beat is racist and rainbow hands should have been used instead. Yellow Pages marketing director Blair Glubb says the Yellow Pages' logo has always included a black hand and there's nothing racist about it.

I have not seen the ad but I agree with Blair Glubb that the charge is ludicrous, especially in light of the fact that, as he points out, the Yellow Pages logo has a black hand in it, and always has. And what on earth are "tasks for white people"? Are black people really this desperate to put down whitey these days?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - My View of Islam

Some bigoted Islamophobe is at it again; ranting about how evil Islam is. Vile, vile racism.

Wait a minute, this was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali? And she used to BE a Muslim? And she left the faith because she couldn't reconcile its traditions with her conscience? And because she is an apostate, she now faces death threats from Muslims who are following Muhammad's command that, "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him" (Bukhari vol.9, book. 88, no. 6922)?

Chances are it will be mostly ignored, then.

Welcome The Ghurkas

Given the unrestrained flow of Eastern European immigrants allowed into Britain in recent years, one would expect that the government would let any old Tom, Dick or Sergei into the country. But no, they are denying some people entry...

...and those people happen to be Ghurka veterans who have honourably served this country on the battlefield, and deserve to live here.

Talk about getting your priorities mixed up.

CAIR Slander Robert Spencer

If you want more evidence of how loathsome the Council on American-Islamic Relations are (aside from their numerous links to terrorism and their bully-tactics for silencing their critics), take a look at this video from CNN, which is about a recent incident in which someone put a Qur'an down the toilet, and is now facing TWO felony charges. Among the debatees is CAIR representative Ibrahim Hooper. Towards the end of the debate, he slanders Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer by attributing a comment from one of the site's readers to Spencer himself. He claims Spencer said that all Muslims should be killed.

In fact, the genocidal opinion was left in the comments field and Spencer immediately deleted it and banned the user upon finding out about it, as he has NEVER shared such extreme views.

But it gets worse when you consider the full implications. The comment was up on the site for about an hour before being deleted, and during that time someone from CAIR just HAPPENED to be looking at the website? Far more likely is that the comment was posted by a CAIR provocateur who deliberately did it in order so that Hooper could recite it on the news that night and try to damage the reputation of Jihad Watch. Such shenanigans aren't surprising to me. Such are the lengths this wolf-in-sheep's-clothing organisation will go to to slander their critics. Jihad Watch has experienced such things before. Disgusting.

And while we're on the subject of disturbing comments, still don't forget that Ibrahim Hooper himself once said: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future." - Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1993

Racism Evil?

The trailer for the new Xbox game Resident Evil 5 has caused some controversy because it is set in Africa, and the trailer depicts the game's (white) main character shooting black people who are zombies. The linked article quotes the hysterical reaction of a blog devoted to African women, but thankfully the article itself it a lot more reasonable. It points out that the previous Resident Evil games have taken place in different settings and not had black people as "the enemy", as well as disputing the idea that all computer games are created for impressionable young children.

It seems pretty clear to me that the reaction of the Black Looks blog is over the top and that this article is quite fair in its assessment. I would disagree that the trailer is going to give the game a bad reputation among those who are unfamiliar with the context and setting of the previous games - the violence and gore were always enough to draw complaints before.