Ok time to take a break from the usual subject matter of the blog to draw your attention to some totally excellent upcoming films for the Christmas season:
First is the new Disney version of A Christmas Carol which you can find a link to below: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/achristmascarol/#/christmas_present/videos/
Jim Carey provides the voice of Scrooge in this 3 D, beautifully animated film, I saw a clip in the cinema and it looks beautiful and gets a Marcyg must see!
Next up is a film only pointed ut to me by my little bro yesterday and we are going to have to wait until 2010 to see it on the silver screen. Entitled The Wolfman and starring Benicio Del Toro in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as his father the film looks whicked! If, of course, you like scary movies!
http://www.thewolfmanmovie.com/
Check em out, at some point we will have to have a serious discussion about the mega film of the decade:
http://www2.avatarmovie.com/
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
BNP Nazi message is simply attractive!
I just watched Newsnight, there was a panel of people discussing why it is that the white, working class feel so let down with mainstream politics that they are voting BNP. A panel of intelligent politicians and social commentators had actually fallen into the BNP premise right from the outset.
The question they were asking "why are white people voting BNP?" is a BNP question in and of itself as it evokes an instant 'us' and 'them' mentality. Now they are playing the BNP's game and have segregated white rights away from everyone else's, talk about society, about benefits and jobs and economics FOR WHITE PEOPLE obscure the obvious, obscure the same thing that got the Nazis into power, the fact that it is so beautifully seductive, so deliciously easy to point the finger and blame someone else, anyone else for your own problems!
So when the BNP come a knocking and tell you that the reason you are out of work is because there are people with a different colour skin, or a different accent who are also living in your country, or your city or your council estate then you don't ever have to face up to your own faults, your own failings. You have an excuse to not get a job, an excuse to live on benefits.
When politicians start talking about how the white man has been let down by policies that allow immigrants to make a fresh start in this beautiful country I start packing my bags!
The question they were asking "why are white people voting BNP?" is a BNP question in and of itself as it evokes an instant 'us' and 'them' mentality. Now they are playing the BNP's game and have segregated white rights away from everyone else's, talk about society, about benefits and jobs and economics FOR WHITE PEOPLE obscure the obvious, obscure the same thing that got the Nazis into power, the fact that it is so beautifully seductive, so deliciously easy to point the finger and blame someone else, anyone else for your own problems!
So when the BNP come a knocking and tell you that the reason you are out of work is because there are people with a different colour skin, or a different accent who are also living in your country, or your city or your council estate then you don't ever have to face up to your own faults, your own failings. You have an excuse to not get a job, an excuse to live on benefits.
When politicians start talking about how the white man has been let down by policies that allow immigrants to make a fresh start in this beautiful country I start packing my bags!
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Oh Dear Mr Goldstone
I haven't thought very much about the Goldstone report, the conclusions were predictable the indignation expressed by Israel at those results more so. I am not surprised that the recommendations have come from a Jewish judge nor do I feel that he should have turned down the UN when he was asked to investigate this. We cannot on the one hand claim that excessive identification of Jews with Israel is antisemitic and on the other argue that all Jews should feel an instinctive need to identify with and aid her.
A report issued by the UN was never going to be uncritical of Israel, Palestinian civilians were killed and the inquiry was the decided upon action that the UN took. All armies kill civilians in wartime, this is why wars are bad things to make every Israeli soldier fear that he will be arrested is tantamount to finding all soldiers in all armies guilty of war crimes.
What we are moving towards is finding all war a crime and any act of war to be something that is a punishable offence by an international court. I welcome this as I think would any sane individual, the only thing that I can't understand is that if this truly is the case and the UN member states regret so much the deaths of innocent civilians then why are the five permanent members of the Security Council composed of states that are themselves causing the very same "war crimes" and human rights violations that Israel stands accused of.
China, Russia, UK, USA and France, not one of those countries isn't wither currently occupying at least one country that it has taken by force of arms or, in the case of Russia fought a war of aggression against a neighbour within the last twenve months.
Surely the precedent this sets will ensure that members of their own militaries will now have to run for legal cover themselves?
A report issued by the UN was never going to be uncritical of Israel, Palestinian civilians were killed and the inquiry was the decided upon action that the UN took. All armies kill civilians in wartime, this is why wars are bad things to make every Israeli soldier fear that he will be arrested is tantamount to finding all soldiers in all armies guilty of war crimes.
What we are moving towards is finding all war a crime and any act of war to be something that is a punishable offence by an international court. I welcome this as I think would any sane individual, the only thing that I can't understand is that if this truly is the case and the UN member states regret so much the deaths of innocent civilians then why are the five permanent members of the Security Council composed of states that are themselves causing the very same "war crimes" and human rights violations that Israel stands accused of.
China, Russia, UK, USA and France, not one of those countries isn't wither currently occupying at least one country that it has taken by force of arms or, in the case of Russia fought a war of aggression against a neighbour within the last twenve months.
Surely the precedent this sets will ensure that members of their own militaries will now have to run for legal cover themselves?
Saturday, 17 October 2009
The Beautiful Game
Every friday night we get together, those of us that are good at the game together with those of us that are bad. Some people come and don't even play, others leave the moment they lose their chips. Raising and calling, bluffing and folding, buying in too often or refusing to bet when their instincts tell them they should.
I don't like sports, football is 22 guys chasing a ball around a field and cricket is an excuse to be bored for the day, but poker is more than running, more than chasing a ball and certainly more than what colour top you wear.
Poker is not a team sport, when you play poker you are playing for yourself. You win or lose depending on your own skills and weaknesses, you play for no trophy and without fans celebrating your every move. Poker is the game of the loner, the game for the one who loves the adrenaline rush, who takes the chances and who minimises them. Who is the one who throws his stack in the middle even when he knows he's lost, who is the one who bets heavy before the flop only to whither away when called. Who is the one who wins with the worst hand and who loses with the strongest and most importantly who can I bully and who never bluffs, who is going to call me and then raise me and....
All this is irrelevent now, the game that started in my parents kitchen and wound its way around from table to table in kitchens, dining rooms, apartments and houses around North London the game that couldn't start until the weed smoke clouded around the lights or until at least three games of pro evo had been won and lost by four people at a time. We can't play until one of our number is on the verge of walking away due to the lateness of our start and until 7 of our number are too stoned to open their eyes fully.
The game finishes at four and the blinds go up whenever we decide that they need to. Winner takes the most but second gets something too, the buy in started off at a fiver a time but went up to ten when we all started working and realised we could afford it.
The beautiful game, the real reason to look forward to the weekend, the reason to leave friday night dinner as soon as possible and get back to the flat. That is the game that has died, it had its place, it had its time and was fun while it lasted, with the routines and the people who turned up early and those who turned up late, those who were excited to play and those who allowed themselves to be persuaded to buy in...every week.
But now after years of fun the game is dead, through growing family commitments, people moving away and the suckers unwilling to keep pumping in the funds friday night poker is no more, may the memories live forever
I don't like sports, football is 22 guys chasing a ball around a field and cricket is an excuse to be bored for the day, but poker is more than running, more than chasing a ball and certainly more than what colour top you wear.
Poker is not a team sport, when you play poker you are playing for yourself. You win or lose depending on your own skills and weaknesses, you play for no trophy and without fans celebrating your every move. Poker is the game of the loner, the game for the one who loves the adrenaline rush, who takes the chances and who minimises them. Who is the one who throws his stack in the middle even when he knows he's lost, who is the one who bets heavy before the flop only to whither away when called. Who is the one who wins with the worst hand and who loses with the strongest and most importantly who can I bully and who never bluffs, who is going to call me and then raise me and....
All this is irrelevent now, the game that started in my parents kitchen and wound its way around from table to table in kitchens, dining rooms, apartments and houses around North London the game that couldn't start until the weed smoke clouded around the lights or until at least three games of pro evo had been won and lost by four people at a time. We can't play until one of our number is on the verge of walking away due to the lateness of our start and until 7 of our number are too stoned to open their eyes fully.
The game finishes at four and the blinds go up whenever we decide that they need to. Winner takes the most but second gets something too, the buy in started off at a fiver a time but went up to ten when we all started working and realised we could afford it.
The beautiful game, the real reason to look forward to the weekend, the reason to leave friday night dinner as soon as possible and get back to the flat. That is the game that has died, it had its place, it had its time and was fun while it lasted, with the routines and the people who turned up early and those who turned up late, those who were excited to play and those who allowed themselves to be persuaded to buy in...every week.
But now after years of fun the game is dead, through growing family commitments, people moving away and the suckers unwilling to keep pumping in the funds friday night poker is no more, may the memories live forever
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Where is the Israel I know?
I have just watched the video of an apparantly healthy Gilad Shalit discussing the time his parents came to visit him at his base in the North of Israel. I saw him holding a newspaper with the date showing that at the very least he was alive in September of 2009 you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ4LW2nwiiA&feature=player_embedded
he seems ok but the once powerful Israel seems to be impotent, it irritates me to see an Israel that has so clearly lost the initiative. Recently I read a book by the commando Muki Betser, the man who stood deputy to to Yoni Netanyahu, a man whose military career consisted of him participating in the golden age of Israeli special forces operations from the raid on Entebbe to operation Spring of Youth, when he, together with Yoni Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and a host of others went to Beirut disguised as tourists and assassinated the most dangerous Palestinian terrorist leaders in their homes.
One of Betser's operations was entitled operation Crate 3, the unit Sayeret Matkal kidnapped several Syrian officers with the specific objective of trading them for Israeli pilots being held by the Syrians. The plan worked, the Syrians were taken without a shot being fired and the three Israeli airmen were eventually exchanged with an embarrassed Syrian military.
This occurred in 1972, the operation was what is known as an "intelligence lead" operation, the commandos knew where and when the Syrians would be and they knew who they were likely to take. The rescue of Nachshon Wachsman a soldier from Orev Golani who was kidnapped in 1994
by Hamas and held in the village of Bir Nabala, a village just north of Jerusalem, again Sayeret Matkal was called into action. The house where Waxman was held was stormed rather than give in to the demands of Hamas the risk of a military operation was taken. The risks were high and this was proven when the terrorists killed Waxman and the commando leader as he participated in the operation.
The operation was intelligence lead, clearly it is necessary to know where the hostage is being held before an operation can be mounted to rescue him, it took the intelligence services the amount of time it takes for the information to be beaten out of the driver of the car that picked Waxman up to get a commando team to the location.
Going on past history I can only conclude that the only reason the Israelis haven't mounted a rescue attempt is not out of worry over casualty to the rescuers or fear for the life of Shalit while the operation is taking place but simply that the intelligence simply isn't there to pinpoint his position.
This begs the real question;
why not?
What has happened to the Israeli intelligence apparatus that after three years they have still been unable to find Shalit despite the considerable resources they have at their disposal?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ4LW2nwiiA&feature=player_embedded
he seems ok but the once powerful Israel seems to be impotent, it irritates me to see an Israel that has so clearly lost the initiative. Recently I read a book by the commando Muki Betser, the man who stood deputy to to Yoni Netanyahu, a man whose military career consisted of him participating in the golden age of Israeli special forces operations from the raid on Entebbe to operation Spring of Youth, when he, together with Yoni Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and a host of others went to Beirut disguised as tourists and assassinated the most dangerous Palestinian terrorist leaders in their homes.
One of Betser's operations was entitled operation Crate 3, the unit Sayeret Matkal kidnapped several Syrian officers with the specific objective of trading them for Israeli pilots being held by the Syrians. The plan worked, the Syrians were taken without a shot being fired and the three Israeli airmen were eventually exchanged with an embarrassed Syrian military.
This occurred in 1972, the operation was what is known as an "intelligence lead" operation, the commandos knew where and when the Syrians would be and they knew who they were likely to take. The rescue of Nachshon Wachsman a soldier from Orev Golani who was kidnapped in 1994
by Hamas and held in the village of Bir Nabala, a village just north of Jerusalem, again Sayeret Matkal was called into action. The house where Waxman was held was stormed rather than give in to the demands of Hamas the risk of a military operation was taken. The risks were high and this was proven when the terrorists killed Waxman and the commando leader as he participated in the operation.
The operation was intelligence lead, clearly it is necessary to know where the hostage is being held before an operation can be mounted to rescue him, it took the intelligence services the amount of time it takes for the information to be beaten out of the driver of the car that picked Waxman up to get a commando team to the location.
Going on past history I can only conclude that the only reason the Israelis haven't mounted a rescue attempt is not out of worry over casualty to the rescuers or fear for the life of Shalit while the operation is taking place but simply that the intelligence simply isn't there to pinpoint his position.
This begs the real question;
why not?
What has happened to the Israeli intelligence apparatus that after three years they have still been unable to find Shalit despite the considerable resources they have at their disposal?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)