Wednesday - February 22, 2006

Oil And Water

Oil and water don’t mix. That’s a fact. If you don’t believe it take some cooking oil, pour it into a glass half full and fill the rest with water. The two ingredients immediately rush to get away from each other. Before you panic, I’m not going to go into a dissertaion on chemical valences. It’s only a metaphor. A metaphor to illustrate how two societys can be so polar opposite that there can never be an assimilation between the two. Take Saudi Arabia and the United States, for example.

The Saudis have been exporting the radical Muslim preachings of Wahabbism for over a century, increasingly so in the last thirty years thanks to oil money. Wahabbism basically says that if you’re not a Muslim then you just don’t count ... infidel. It is a fundamentalist approach to Islam and is the root of the current jihad movements and terrorism. The majority of terrorists on 9/11 were Saudi citizens. The mastermind, Osama Bin Laden, was a Saudi. All of this hatred funded by oil. Which doesn’t mix with anything much ... except fire.

This is why the Muslim world is so enflamed right now. The Saudis are ultimately responsible and for them to cry to us that they’re “misunderstood” is specious at best. Yes, they have sided with us on occasion ... when it suited them or was to their benefit. The bottom line is the kingdom is a closed society with medieval concepts of law and government, personal freedom is non-existent, women are second-class citizens and 99% of the wealth in the country is concentrated in one family. Compare that to the US and you see what I mean by polar opposites. Which is why we can never wholly trust the Saudis or their intentions. After all, oil makes fire ... and water puts out fire ...

Saudis Bemoan Poor Image in U.S.
February 22, 2006, 4:37 AM EST

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP)

On Sept. 11, 2001, Sonia Puopolo, an American Airlines flight attendant, lost her life when terrorists, four of them Saudis, hijacked her plane and slammed it into the World Trade Center in New York. Last week, Puopolo’s daughter Tita Puopolo spoke to a conference packed with Saudi business leaders and asked them to try and repair something else that died in the attacks: the U.S.-Saudi friendship.

“Many people ask me, ‘Why would you visit Saudi Arabia after what happened to your mother?’” said Puopolo, speaking at the Jiddah Economic Forum in a black abaya and headscarf that slipped from her blond hair. But Puopolo said her mother, a former ballet dancer who was 58 when she died, told her to “leave the world a better place” than she found it.

Puopolo’s gesture of reconciliation was a rare occurrence for Saudis, who have watched with growing alarm as the kingdom’s image in America has plummeted. Although the two governments remain allies, the kingdom’s elites say the country has been unfairly and relentlessly bashed by U.S. lawmakers, ordinary people and some media, who call the country a haven for religious extremists where oil revenues bankroll terrorists.

President Bush was seen by Saudis to be piling on last month, when he called in his State of the Union speech for an end to the United States’ dependence on Mideast oil. At the conference last week, many Saudis asked how it was possible that a country that, in their view, has adopted so much of the American way of life—especially American fast food, cars and education—could find itself so reviled.

“People here are a bit perplexed by what they’re seeing in the United States. We know what it’s like over there. We lived in the U.S.,” said Omar Ziyad, chief operating officer of Gulf One Investment Bank. “The way we’re being portrayed in the media over there—it’s not the reality.” Many Americans, of course, see wide divisions between their society and Saudi Arabia’s, which forbids the practice of any religion except Islam and demands strict segregation of the sexes, including barring women from driving, many jobs or even traveling without a male relative’s permission.

Ziyad, speaking flawless English in his white dishdasha robe, also said there was “no factual basis” for allegations that Saudi oil money was funding terrorists. U.S. Treasury Department investigators have in the past accused Saudi charities of funding al-Qaida. But they have said recently that the kingdom’s efforts to crack down on such funding is succeeding.

Americans had good reason to be angry with Saudi Arabia, said Rachel Bronson of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. Saudis’ confrontation with terrorism in the country wasn’t spurred by the Sept. 11 attacks that targeted the United States, but rather by the al-Qaida attacks inside the kingdom that started 18 months later, said Bronson.

Until the kingdom itself came under attack, the Saudi government was in denial about its role permitting the growth of extremism in the country, she said. Now, she said, Saudi leaders accept some responsibility. Ziyad and others argue that Saudi Arabia has spent much of its oil wealth to fight al-Qaida-linked extremists who have killed Westerners and Saudis in several attacks since 2003.

Saudis say they, too, are victims of al-Qaida, and believe they still get little credit for their crackdown. “We are suffering from terrorism,” said Sager Nadershah, 38, a manager at the National Commercial Bank in Jiddah. “A member of my family was killed in Saudi Arabia by a bomb. Why should we support terrorism?”

Speakers at the conference here say the Saudi image has withered, in part, because no one dares speak up on the kingdom’s behalf. Some pointed a finger at what they called pro-Israel bias by Jewish writers or politicians in the United States.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/22/2006 at 09:09 AM   
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Less Filling

The problem with Middle Eastern Muslims is they take things way too seriously. They never take the time to chill out and try to get along with anyone. In other words, they’re just too damned sober. Otherwise, they’d realize just how stupid they look to everyone else on Planet Earth. Selling “near-beer” in Palestine is just another example. Memo to Paleswinians: For God’s sake, people! Let us ship you a couple million cases of Guinness and let’s all kick back and relax, OK?

See? That was easy. Now that I’ve solved the Mideast crisis, I’ll start working on more difficult things like .... figuring out how to get double doses of Prozac to every Liberal Democrat in the US. I’m afraid beer won’t help them ....

Palestinian Brewery To Launch ‘Hamas’ Non-alcoholic Beer
Feb 21 9:38 PM US/Eastern
WEST BANK (BREITBART)

Like any good entrepreneur, Palestinian beermaker Nadim Khoury knew that adaptation would be key to his brewery’s survival under a government led by the Islamists of Hamas. So anticipating the hardliners’ rise to power in January’s general election, Khoury decided to develop a new product—a non-alcoholic microbrew brandished with a label that coordinates perfectly with Hamas’s trademark color.

“I figured why not have a green label so it will match?” said Khoury, who runs the Taybeh Brewing Company, the only brewery in the Palestinian territories. “All customers will notice the green for the Hamas flag.” The alcohol-free version of Taybeh beer, with a label inscribed only in Arabic and whose name means “delicious,” is to be released this summer and will target the “local market,” he said.

Non-alcoholic beer is already popular in a number of conservative Gulf Arab countries which officially ban booze sales. The lucrative market potential was highlighted by a deal four years ago which saw Egypt’s largest brewer of “near-beer,” Al-Ahram Beverages, bought by Heineken for 280 million dollars.

Khoury says he will start small with his new beer, maybe only a few hundred bottles at first, but he has big dreams for his brewing factory in the hilltop village of Taybeh, a historically Christian town of about 1,300 people near Ramallah in the West Bank.

A sense of homeland pride and the family’s ability to invest more than one million dollars spurred Nadim, who was born in Taybeh, to return after two decades in the United States in order to build the brewery shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

Now in its 11th year of business, Khoury said the brewery sells the equivalent of about 1.2 million pints per year, though its peak output was more than twice that in 2000 prior to the outbreak of the second intifada against Israeli occupation. Violence was bad for business, and the intifada brought a wave of harsher regulations in many Palestinian cities.

Khoury hasn’t been able to sell his beer in the Gaza Strip for years, since militants torched the home of one of his distribution outlets and radical Islamists effectively made selling alcohol impossible throughout the crowded territory. But Khoury hopes attitudes will change with his new non-alcoholic beer.

- More near-beer fear here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/22/2006 at 08:01 AM   
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What’s Up, Doc?

- “Toonaphobia” by Cox & Forkum

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/22/2006 at 07:17 AM   
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   Tuesday - February 21, 2006

Biker Buddies

Reverend Fred Phelps is a piece of work. He and his congregation at the Westboro Baptist Church make the Democrats look positively sane. The man is a loon and it’s a wonder God hasn’t slapped a lightning bolt down on his ass yet.

What we’re talking about here is the polar opposite of the Liberals’ embracing of the homosexual lifestyle and ramming it down everyone’s throat. Phelps thinks homosexuals are evil and God is punishing us by killing US troops overseas because there are so many homosexuals in our country. I kid you not. I have never felt so alone, stuck in between these two groups of insane people. I object to the Liberals’ homosexual agenda but I positively detest Phelps.

I am glad to see there are decent people like the Patriot Guard Riders who are willing to stand up to Phelps and his miserable minions and shield the families of fallen heros from these madmen. I sometimes wonder if freedom of speech is worth having to put up with people like Phelps. There has to be a way to silence madmen like him without giving up our freedom to say what we want. In the good ol’ days there was. It was called “tar and feathers” and usually sufficed to keep the noise from jerks like Phelps down to a minimum.

Motorcyclists Roll to Soldier Funerals
February 21, 2006, 6:11 AM EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP)

Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier’s funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters. They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.

Phelps believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs—explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq. The bikers shield the families of dead soldiers from the protesters, and overshadow the jeers with patriotic chants and a sea of red, white and blue flags.

“The most important thing we can do is let families know that the nation cares,” said Don Woodrick, the group’s Kentucky captain. “When a total stranger gets on a motorcycle in the middle of winter and drives 300 miles to hold a flag, that makes a powerful statement.” At least 14 states are considering laws aimed at the funeral protesters, who at a recent memorial service at Fort Campbell wrapped themselves in upside-down American flags. They danced and sang impromptu songs peppered with vulgarities that condemned homosexuals and soldiers.

The Patriot Guard was also there, waving up a ruckus of support for the families across the street. Community members came in the freezing rain to chant “U-S-A, U-S-A” alongside them. “This is just the right thing to do. This is something America didn’t do in the ‘70s,” said Kurt Mayer, the group’s national spokesman. “Whether we agree with why we’re over there, these soldiers are dying to protect our freedoms.”

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps and an attorney for the Topeka, Kan.-based church, said neither state laws nor the Patriot Guard can silence their message that God killed the soldiers because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals. “The scriptures are crystal clear that when God sets out to punish a nation, it is with the sword. An IED is just a broken-up sword,” Phelps-Roper said. “Since that is his weapon of choice, our forum of choice has got to be a dead soldier’s funeral.”

The church, Westboro Baptist Church, is not affiliated with a larger denomination and is made up mostly of Fred Phelps’ extended family members. During the 1990s, church members were known mostly for picketing the funerals of AIDS victims, and they have long been tracked as a hate group by the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

The project’s deputy director, Heidi Beirich, said other groups have tried to counter Phelps’ message, but none has been as organized as the Patriot Guard. “I’m not sure anybody has gone to this length to stand in solidarity,” she said. “It’s nice that these veterans and their supporters are trying to do something. I can’t imagine anything worse, your loved one is killed in Iraq and you’ve got to deal with Fred Phelps.”

Kentucky, home to sprawling Fort Campbell along the Tennessee line, was among the first states to attempt to deal with Phelps legislatively. Its House and Senate have each passed bills that would limit people from protesting within 300 feet of a funeral or memorial service. The Senate version would also keep protesters from being within earshot of grieving friends and family members.

Richard Wilbur, a retired police detective, said his Indiana Patriot Guard group only comes to funerals if invited by family. He said he has no problem with protests against the war but sees no place for objectors at a family’s final goodbye to a soldier. “No one deserves this,” he said.

On the Web:

Patriot Guard Riders: http://www.patriotguard.org

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 06:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Patriotism •  
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Air Force None

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 06:29 AM   
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A Jillaroo In The Billabong?

"A striking white dress with a floral pattern” and on rollerblades? WTF? You gotta admit though, this thief does have a certain panache, a definite sense of style and an outstanding fashion sense. An’ he probably has a few kangaroos loose in the paddock, eh, mate?

Cross-dressing Bandit
February 21, 2006
VICTORIA, Australia (HERALD SUN)

A bizaare gunman wearing a dress, roller-blades and brandishing a gun has stolen cash from a Bayswater bank.

Dubbed the Mrs Doubtfire Bandit, the “lady” rolled into the bank on Mountain Highway at 11.30am yesterday armed with a pistol.

He demanded cash and, after it was handed over, rolled out of the National Australia Bank branch and into the street at high speed.

Witnesses said the bandit spurned the more traditional balaclava and overalls, instead opting for a striking white dress with a floral pattern and a pair of leggings.

The look was completed by a black wig with a blue stripe. But witnesses told police his voice and facial features were clearly those of a man. Sen-Det Robert Dabb of the armed offenders squad appealed for witnesses to come forward.

“Someone out there will most likely have seen this person roller-blading around,” he said. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 06:02 AM   
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Ex Libris Fatuus

I found this at Neal Boortz site. It seems there is a new children’s book out that none of you will probably want to buy. In fact, no one should buy crap like this. Democrats have obviously slid down the slippery slope of sliminess too far when they start trying to indoctrinate young children before they even get to kindergarten. The picture below is from one of the pages in ”Why Mommy Is A Democrat”. Twenty five pages of pure propaganda that Joseph Goebbels would be proud of.

Carefully examine the picture below. It obviously raises a few questions. First of all, the baby squirrels are glad because “mommy protects us”. That is so wrong. In the real world, the baby squirrels would not exist, having been taken care of by abortions ages ago. Secondly, what kind of propaganda creep would feel the need to portray the real enemy of baby squirrels to be an ... elephant. Hmmm ... Oh well. What’s a little brainwashing between squirrels gonna hurt, eh?

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 05:23 AM   
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The Thrill Of Victory

Scenario: you’re a down-on-your-luck pickpocket in Turin, Italy. What are the odds that the next pocket you pick will belong to an Olympic athlete who can give you a twenty meter headstart and catch you without even breathing hard? This Olympic moment brought to you by one of Canada’s female hockey players. Who is 5’8”, 137 lbs of crime-busting cuteness…

Hockey Player Runs Down Pickpocket
February 20, 2006
(CALGARY SUN)

Gina Kingsbury is as fast on her feet as she is on her skates, especially when her wallet is stolen. The 24-year-old forward on the Canadian women’s hockey team ran down a pickpocket who took her wallet while she was shopping with her mother in downtown Turin late in the first week of the Games.

After buying souvenirs at an Olympic merchandise store, Kingsbury and her mother Marlise stopped at a pizza place and Kingsbury was placing her order at the window when the woman serving her started yelling and pointing. A man who had been standing behind her started running away.

“It just clicked that he had my wallet and I didn’t hesitate,” Kingsbury said. The 5-ft.-8, 137-lb. forward chased the culprit about 40 metres with Marlise running behind her loaded down with shopping bags. “I caught up to him pretty quick and put my hand on his shoulder and as I turned him he right away gave me my wallet back because I don’t think he wanted the public to see,” Kingsbury said.

“I was so stunned that I had my wallet, that I didn’t look at him, didn’t say anything, I just grabbed my wallet and walked away. I don’t know what I would have done if he didn’t give me my wallet.”

Kingsbury is relied on for her penalty killing and forechecking abilities on the Canadian team, which plays for gold today, so those skills came in handy.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 04:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Sports •  
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Nine Hours

_{Doug Marlette—The Tallahassee Democrat}

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/21/2006 at 03:22 AM   
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   Monday - February 20, 2006

Follow-Up On Spy Story

Reference Earlier Post: Another Spy Story (Posted: November 16, 2005).

Reader Charles Liu sends us this update on the spy story ....

Original charges against Chi Mak et al have been dropped. Government’s demand to withhold bail has been denied. It seems the prosecution lied on so many things, it’s beginning to smell like another Wen Ho Lee or James Yee:

- no classified document; not about weapons at all
- data was not encripted or hidden in music file; It’s zipped for size
- no such list from China asking for data
- map of Knolls Atomic Lab turned out to be a hotel map from an old visit
- wiretap showed Chi Mak had no interest in the broken down Mak ancestrial home in Hong Kong

With no charge to nail the sister in-law, the prosecution has trumped up a “fake marriage” charge, insinuating she whored herself out. Shame on us America:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=51289

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chi19jan19,0,6387915.story

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/20/2006 at 03:44 PM   
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I’m Here To Help

Sammy, ol’ buddy! You done come to the right place. Granting wishes is my main business. Yessiree! Now, you just sit tight, make yourself comfortable and give me a call on your cell phone (psst! somebody alert NSA! STAT!). Let’s talk about this, babe. You and me can do a little business, see? You don’t want to be taken alive and I can understand that.

It must be tough living in a cave, all banged up from American bullets and bombs and moving from place to place every night. I feel your pain, sweetie! And I’m here to help! Just give me a call right now and let’s have a long talk (Skipper to NSA: get the long ears on this bozo immediately and track it back, load up the Hellfires, GET MOVING, PEOPLE!). I can help you and you can help me. Yes, its’ a win-win situation. So pick up the phone and let’s get this deal working, OK. I can make sure you don’t get taken alive, boobie .....

Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive
Feb 20 12:33 PM US/Eastern

CAIRO, Egypt (BREITBART)

Osama bin Laden vowed never to be captured alive and said the U.S. military had become as “barbaric” as Saddam Hussein in an audiotape reposted on a militant Islamic Web site after first being broadcast last month.

In the tape posted to the Web site Monday, bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil. The tape was initially broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel.

Islamic militant Web forums often repost messages from al-Qaida leaders to ensure sympathizers can see them. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that last month’s tape was of bin Laden _ making it his first message in more than a year.

“I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don’t want to die humiliated or deceived,” bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape. In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, he said:

“The jihad (holy war) is ongoing, thank God, despite all the oppressive measures adopted by the U.S. Army and its agents (which has reached) a point where there is no difference between this criminality and Saddam’s criminality.”

Bin Laden also denied Bush administration assertions that it was better to fight terrorists in Iraq than on U.S. soil. “The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies,” he said.

The last audiotape purported to be from bin Laden was broadcast in December 2004 by Al-Jazeera. In that recording, he endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/20/2006 at 03:19 PM   
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USMC Rescue Mission

Meanwhile in the Phillippines, the US Marines are working disaster relief after the recent heavy rains triggered mudslides that killed over 1,800 filipinos. Interestingly, the Marxist rebels who have been waging a guerilla war against the Phillippine government have agreed to leave the Marines alone. Wise move ...

U.S. Marines Aid Philippine Recovery
February 19, 2006, 3:03 PM EST

GUINSAUGON, Philippines (AP)

Several dozen U.S. Marines dug through thick mud with Philippine search teams Sunday at the site of a massive landslide as the prospect of finding survivors faded. The men were part of a 1,000-strong Marine contingent aboard the USS Essex and the USS Harper’s Ferry, which sailed to the coast of Southern Leyte province after the Philippines asked Washington to divert some forces that recently arrived for joint military exercises.

Wearing camouflage, they hopped onto a bulldozer that carried them across a shallow stream and to the 100-acre stretch of mud that covered the farming village of Guinsaugon after the side of an neighboring mountain collapsed Friday. The men used shovels, like Philippine troops and volunteers, out of concern that heavier equipment could cause the unstable mud to shift dangerously.

“Safety is a big concern,” said Capt. Jeff O’Donnell of New Orleans, who said that, while his home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, “This is my first time to see anything like this.” The Marines had hoped to work through the night, but found their flashlights weren’t bright enough to cut through the gloom. By the end of the day, about 200 Marines were on the ground, with hundreds more expected to come ashore Monday.

Escorted by Philippine soldiers, a team of armed Marines surveyed the site earlier Sunday to determine how they could best assist recovery efforts. U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Edward Rushing spoke with the highest-ranking Philippine military officer at the scene, Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio, who said he would need mining equipment. The Americans also set up a water purification system and were working on another.

Some 1,800 people—most of the population of Guinsaugon—were feared dead in the landslide that followed two weeks of heavy rains. “It’s mind-boggling, it’s horrendous,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Manuel Biadog, a Filipino-American chaplain assigned to Marines based in Okinawa, Japan. Security is a concern for the Marines because communist guerrillas are active on Leyte island. The New People’s Army rebels, who have been waging a Marxist rebellion since the late 1960s, are on U.S. and European lists of terrorist organizations.

The rebels said Sunday they won’t attack the American troops, but warned them not to stray into rebel zones or commit provocative acts. “We are under the protection of the Philippine military,” said O’Donnell, the Marine captain. “We are only assisting the Philippine government at their invitation.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/20/2006 at 12:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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The Last Wall

The ChiComs are fighting a losing battle. They are doomed. Remember, you heard it here first. For a generation after WWII, this nation slept, tightly wrapped in the tentacles of Mao and his successors, going through one “cultural revolution” after another. Now, the sleeping giant is awakening but not thanks to Karl Marx. China is emerging as a world power thanks to its embracing capitolism, free markets and free thought - albeit in a limited way so far.

That is all about to change over the next five to ten years and the Communist Party in China has to be aware of it. The old leaders of the ChiCom Party seem intent on plugging the leaks of democracy into their country only until they die, thus preserving their power only a short time longer. It is too late even to withdraw into a shell as the Chinese have done in the past. No Great Wall will keep out the barbarian invaders this time ... for there are no barbarian invaders. 

The enemy of the ChiComs is an idea. An idea of freedom. Freedom to think and say what one wishes. Freedom to live without fear of one’s own government. Freedom to be as real (or as unreal) as one wants to be. The ChiComs’ problem is that ideas don’t tear down walls, defeat armies or sack governments - at least not directly. Indirectly though, ideas are more powerful than any invading army and freedom is the most powerful idea of them all. More powerful than kryptonite even ... which is why I say to the Chinese President ... Mister Jintao, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL ...

Reference Tool On Web Finds Fans, Censors
After Flowering as Forum, Wikipedia Is Blocked Again
Monday, February 20, 2006

BEIJING (WASHINGTON POST)

When access to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, was disrupted across China last October, a lanky chemical engineer named Shi Zhao called his Internet service provider to complain. A technician confirmed what Shi already suspected: Someone in the government had ordered the site blocked again. Who and why were mysteries, Shi recalled, but the technician promised to pass his complaint on to higher authorities if he put it in writing.

“Wikipedia isn’t a Web site for spreading reactionary speech or a pure political commentary site,” Shi, 33, wrote a few days later. Yes, it contained entries on sensitive subjects such as Taiwan and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, but users made sure its articles were objective, he said, and blocking it would only make it harder for people in China to delete “harmful” content.

Shi was hopeful the government would agree. When the site was blocked in 2004, he had submitted a similar letter, and access had been quickly restored. Since then, the Chinese-language edition of Wikipedia had grown, broadening its appeal not only as a reference tool but also as a forum where people across China and the Chinese diaspora could gather, share knowledge and discuss even the most divisive subjects.

But today, four months after Shi submitted his letter, Wikipedia remains blocked. The government has declined to explain its actions. But its on-again, off-again attempts to disrupt access to the site highlight the Communist Party’s deep ambivalence toward the Internet: The party appears at once determined not to be left behind by the global information revolution and fearful of being swept away by it.

Officials tolerated Wikipedia at first, perhaps because it seemed to be exactly what the party had in mind when it began promoting Internet use 11 years ago—an educational resource that could help China close its technological gap with the West, encourage innovation and boost economic growth.

But as the Chinese Wikipedia flourished, the authorities apparently came to see it as another threat to the party’s control of information, and an example of an even more worrying development. The Internet has emerged as a venue for people with shared interests—or grievances—to meet, exchange ideas and plan activities without the party’s knowledge or approval.

With 111 million people online and 20,000 more joining them every day, the landscape of Chinese cyberspace resembles a vast collection of new and overlapping communities. Although Chinese write less e-mail than Americans, they embrace the Internet’s other communication tools—bulletin boards and chat rooms, instant-messaging groups and blogs, photo-sharing and social networking sites. A popular feature of the Chinese search engine Baidu lets users chat with others who have entered the same keywords.

Studies suggest this digital interaction is changing the traditional structure of Chinese society, strengthening relations among friends, colleagues and others outside family networks. In a multinational survey, a much larger percentage of Internet users in China than anywhere else said online communication had increased their contact with people who shared their hobbies, professions and political views.

The Communist Party polices these emerging Internet communities with censors and undercover agents, and manages a Web site that it said received nearly a quarter-million anonymous tips about “harmful information” online last year. But the methods the party uses to control speech and behavior in the real world have proved less effective in cyberspace, where people get away with more, and where the government is often a step behind.

- More on Commie futility here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/20/2006 at 11:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Oppression •  
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Presidents Day

Today is a national holiday in which Americans celebrate two of the greatest Presidents this country had: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both were born in February. Washington on the 22nd (actually the 11th under the old Julian calendar which the US used at that time but that’s another story) and Lincoln on the 12th.

In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Act, which set aside the third Monday of February to honor both men. It is important to remember that Washington fought for the freedom of America and Lincoln fought for the freedom of all men in America. Since then, American Presidents have had to fight outside forces time and time again to keep us from being enslaved by madmen. Today is no exception. Remember ...

   

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/20/2006 at 08:56 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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