After concerns raised by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting), the New York Times changes its tune: NYT October 30: “drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers’, forming a two-mile wall of marchers around the White House. The turnout startled even organizers, who had taken out permits for 20,000 marchers.” NYT October 27: the “thousands” of demonstrators were “fewer people… than organizers had said they hoped for.”
So I couldn’t get a copy of the Sunday edition of the New York Times yesterday – which nearly ruined my weekend. [Justine: “You failed to mention that your way of getting the paper yesterday morning was to stay in bed and hope that your girlfriend was going to find one in her non-white-yuppie neighborhood.”] Scanning through the San Francisco Chronicle, the article about the peace march in San Francisco listed a turnout of 40,000 – fairly big. But then the article lists the turnout in other cities round the world – 8000 in Berlin and 300 in Tokyo. Now these numbers would technically constitute a disaster for protest organizers – two countries, the only ones listed being coincidentally ones that the US has been to war against, could only muster a handful of protesters. So why mention these two cities? There were other marches this weekend – three times…
“Gideon Burrows asks why British government representatives are at this year’s Sofex arms fair when countries known to be ‘sponsors of state terrorism’ – such as Iraq – are also there” The right to fair arms
“Dija heya tha onea baht…” I find it depressing that there is an overwhelming bias to the right amongst bloggers. People like wit and levity and left wing writing has a tendency to appear whiny and over sincere. The PJ O’Rourke’s can scoop up all the laughs, ‘cos lets face it, they can afford to be frivolous and decadent. But there are plenty of precedents for left wing humor, from Swift to Michael Moore, so where are they all in weblog land. (oh – and please don’t forward any libertarian examples, I’ve just eaten)
As if things weren’t already complicated enough for the cerebrally challenged Bush administration, the North Korean’s admit to telling porkie pies, and have been working on a nuclear weapons program while the US has helped them build power reactors. The main problem, however, is that cash starved North Korea has shown willingness to sell some of its more threatening weapons technology. “The Bush administration has relayed information to U.S. allies in Asia that North Korea has tested key parts of the intermediate-range No-Dong missile in Egypt. Officials said tests were designed to determine whether North Korean components and technology could help complete missile programs in Egypt and other Middle East countries.” Middle East Newsline –
Clayton Cramer who describes himself as ‘I’m a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older)’ says “Oh, you mean the laws don’t work when criminals want guns?” to somehow explain that Britain should not be so restrictive with guns. Well Clayton, even with the terrible increase in crime in the UK, gun related homicide rates are still 150 times less than in the US.
Do a favor for the safety of your children and drop the illusion.
Britain strips power from Catholic-Protestant hands, resumes sole control of Northern Ireland
So runs the headline in the Boston Globe. It may be the fault of Sinn Fein, but the Brits look bad here. However it’s the reaction of the Unionists that is worrying and they are going to become more and more of a problem for the UK government, with or without the indiscretion of Sinn Fein. As the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland wanes due to the higher birthrate amongst Northern Irish Catholics, the Unionists will increasingly be on the defensive and will be likely to overreact in future, if they are not already.
So why can’t the European Union do anything about this? We’ve had the predictably useless role of the UN in sectarian control in Bosnia, so admittedly the idea doesn’t leap out of most politician’s mouths – but hell, lets at least call the federalists bluff, lets see if ‘Europe’ can take a neutral but useful role – allow and force the UK government to relinquish control. And while we’re at it, lets take the whole bloody mess to the European courts – why hasn’t anyone challenged the Protestant marches through Catholic areas as ‘incitement to racial hatred’ which is illegal under European directive.
And there are those that would accuse Bush of spending too much…
According to WordNetDaily, the self proclaimed US government waste tracker
‘In other words,’ as Jeffrey Birnbaum of Fortune magazine says, ‘the war on terror is being used as a ruse to justify all sorts of spending.’ He points out that 2000-2003 spending