George W’s Palace

While Bush’s Government builds what is purported to be the biggest diplomatic outpost on earth, Iraqi families suffer water shortages and power cuts and are forced to wait in line to fuel their cars.
Although $22 billion has been spent, Baghdad’s infrastructure still operates at pre-war levels. Out of 150 planned medical centres only six have [...]

The End Of The World News

I stumbled upon these words of wisdom from the fingertips of my good friend Mike E over at the Open Container Speedway:
‘If you want to understand why the end of the world is about to happen you really must watch Fox News. Make note of who advertises. Never buy their product again. And remember: For [...]

Hopeless in Gaza video

We live in constant fear.
Why did they break my things, all my toys?
Our children can’t even live.
We don’t know how to live.
[The Israelis] want these people cleansed from this area.
The psychological condition is one of the dimensions of the conflict that is not widely understood.
This is the reality of life in Gaza. Would you be [...]

Mirza Tahir Hussain: a long wait for “justice”

Mirza Tahir Hussain is to have his death sentence commuted by President Musharraf (click source). This is great news. However, questions remain.
Why did it take Musharraf so long?
Will Mirza receive any compensation for the eighteen years of his life that were taken from him on the strength of an unsafe conviction under a dubious legal [...]

America’s Lost Highway

LIKE GEORGE W’S
WAR ON TERROR
A MOEBIUS STRIP
IS A TWO
DIMENSIONAL SURFACE
WITH ONLY ONE  FACE.
A MOEBIUS STRIP REPRESENTS INFINITY.
WHEN YOU CUT A MOEBIUS  STRIP (Afghanistan) IN HALF LENGTHWAYS 
YOU GET A DOUBLE MOEBIUS STRIP (Afghanistan + Iraq).
IF YOU CUT IT AGAIN YOU GET A TRIPLE STRIP (Afghanistan + Iraq + Iran) AND SO ON INTO INFINITY.
WHEN YOU RIDE A MOEBIUS STRIP IT’S LIKE GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING (Vietnam) IN SPACE ON A ONE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE: YOU MUST CONTINUE AND CONTINUE AND YOU WILL NEVER CROSS YOUR STARTING POINT AGAIN.
LIKE [...]

Mirza: “Murder by a thousand cuts”

Yesterday (October 18) the session judge in the case of Mirza Tahir Hussain issued a fresh warrant for the Leeds man’s execution. According to Adiala jail authorities Mirza’s family were informed that he would hang at 06:30 am November 1st, a date which would have coincided with a visit to Pakistan by a member of the [...]

Israel, America and the phony war on terror

“God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he was sent to us by God to save Germany”: Hermann Goering, speaking of Hitler
“Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you [...]

The eleventh hour

In a few hours (October 1), British Time, it will be my birthday. It may also be the last day on earth for Mirza Tahir Hussain.
It seems appeals to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during his presidential visit to Britain have fallen on deaf ears.
Musharraf alone has the power to commute Mirza’s sentence but he “brushed [...]

Tom Engelhardt: the facts on the ground

“In all-too-real worlds beyond our reach, everything tends toward permanency. Whatever the discussion may be, whatever issues may seem to be gripping Washington or the nation, whatever you’re watching on TV or reading in the papers, elsewhere the continual constructing, enlarging, expanding, entrenching of a new global system of imprisonment, which bears no relation to [...]

A belated piece on that Pope thing

The other day I’m having a drink with a friend and she starts on about the Pope thing and I tell her: “Yeah, I read the speech but I didn’t write anything about it.”
Actually, I read it very closely with a view to doing just that but, as an atheist, concluded that there was really nothing to [...]