I was about to put out a number of individual posts, but it is probably more worthwhile to include them in a round up:
Surprise, surprise, neofascist killer, Breivik took drugs before going on his murder spree.
I wonder if the chess playing Israeli boycotters will avoid the games of Boris Gelfand?
The singing neo-Nazi, Gary Marsden I’Anson, is on his uppers.
Whilst I had appreciated the level of uranium enrichment completed by the Iranian regime, the actual volume and size of the material, some 6 tons of UF6 enriched to 3.5 percent, was a shock to me. That is a lot of enriched uranium.
Searchlight on Journalist falls for EDL’s absurd claims.
Norm on How much more murder (in Syria)?
Racism in Lebanon from the Economist:
“THE multilingual, fashion-conscious residents of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, fancy their city to be cosmopolitan. But not everyone is welcome. Black people and foreigners from Asia and elsewhere in the third world who make up the bulk of migrant workers are often turned away from the city’s smarter venues. Conscious of the bad blood this can cause, Lebanon’s government has warned beach clubs against barring entry on the basis of race, nationality or disability.
But racism is unlikely to be erased overnight, either in Lebanon or in many other Middle Eastern countries where blacks are routinely looked down on. Racist taunts are often heard on Egypt’s streets, and in Yemen, darker-skinned people, known as al-akhdam (“the servants”), who make up perhaps 5% of the population, are confined to menial jobs and tend to dwell in slums. In Libya rebel militias often targeted darker-skinned people from nearby countries such as Chad and Mali and from countries further south, accusing them of being mercenaries of Muammar Qaddafi.
Filipinos, Sri Lankans and Chinese-Americans, among others, whisper of racist slurs both at work and on Lebanon’s streets. “When black or Asian friends visit,” says a young Lebanese professional, “I’m at the airport the moment they land to make sure immigration officers don’t ask inappropriate questions. It’s a disgrace.” “
When you next hear from an apologist for President Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Khamenei or how the Iranian leadership have been maligned and are not really racists then remind them of this statement from a senior Iranian military leader.
Taken from the Fars News Agency, my emphasis:
“Top Commander Reiterates Iran’s Commitment to Full Annihilation of Israel
TEHRAN (FNA)- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said threats and pressures cannot deter Iran from its revolutionary causes and ideals, and stressed that the Iranian nation will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end.
Addressing a defense gathering here in Tehran on Sunday, General Firouzabadi said that nations should realize the threats and dangers posed by the Zionist regime of Israel.
He reiterated the Iranian nation and Supreme Leader’s emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes, and noted, “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel.”
The top military official reminded that the Iranian Supreme Leader considers defending Palestine as a full religious duty and believes that any kind of governance and rule by anyone other than the Palestinians as an instance of usurpation.
Earlier this year, Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed in explicit remarks Iran’s direct involvement in the Palestinian and Lebanese confrontation with Israel, including the Lebanese Summer 2006 33-day resistance against the Zionist regime.
“Wherever Iran interferes, it announces it in a very straightforward manner. For instance, we interfered in confrontations against Israel, which resulted in the (Lebanese) victory in the 33-day war and (Palestinians’ victory in) the 22-day (Gaza) war,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing millions of Friday Prayers worshippers on Tehran University Campus in February.
“In future too, we will support and help everyone who opposes the Zionist regime,” the Leader underscored.
“The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God Willing,” Ayatollah Khamenei underscored. “
By chance, I found a piece by J. Christopher Pryor on racism within the Catholic Church, or more specifically, Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
Phil Groom had recently drawn my attention to the official position of the Church, but it left many questions unanswered, J. Christopher Pryor explains more:
Searchlight covered one of the SSPX leaders recently.
Asa Briggs on holidaying with Rupert Murdoch.
Corruption in the PA is nothing new but I was shocked by the amount accumulated in the Abbas family.
Rather than ‘neo-Nazi helper kicks the bucket’, the BBC says French philosopher Roger Garaudy dies. BBC News employs old fashioned English understatement and demonstrates an almost complete ignorance of Garaudy’s malevolent activities.
I can only guess how BBC News website might have covered Stalin’s demise “Short man with moustache dies in Russia”.
EJP is better but still too nice:
“PARIS (EJP)— Roger Garaudy, a French communist intellectual who denied that the Nazis used gas chambers to kill Jews during World War II, has died aged 98, officials said Friday.
The renowned intellectual came to prominence as a Holocaust denier with his anti-Zionist work The Founding Myths of Israel Politics in 1998, in which he disputed the fact that Nazi gas chambers were used to kill Jews during World War II, for which claims he was fined 120,000 francs ($18,000, €14,200) by a Paris court in 1998. He is reported to have died at his home in the suburbs of Paris on Wednesday morning.
“Intellectually he ended miserably in the lowest Holocaust denial,” said Richard Prasquier, president of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations.
He died on Wednesday in the Paris suburb of Chennevieres, local officials said.
His death was first announced by the website of the far right wing French political group Equality and Reconciliation, a further sign of how the once respected academic had become associated with marginal political factions in later life, since he began espousing revisionist theories in 1996. “
The ADL mentions him.
Elsewhere David Schraub looks at Alice Walker’s boycott of Herbrew. Michael Lerner gives his views too.
The recent election in Greece has produced a lot of comment but little insight, surprisingly the New Statesman’s Alex Andreou is the exception.
Andreou’s Exploding the myth of the feckless, lazy Greeks is good too.
SPLC’s Investigation, Lawsuit Expose Barbaric Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison in Mississippi is worth a read.
Finally, With or without foreigners, tourism grows in Tibet and Two Tibetan Buddhist Monks Protest China, Set Selves On Fire:
“There have been at least 34 immolations since March of last year to draw attention to China’s restrictions on Buddhism and to call for the return from exile of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Most have taken place in heavily Tibetan areas of China, but only one had occurred in Tibet itself and none in the capital.
Protests have become rare in remote Tibet and Lhasa in particular because of tight police security that has blanketed the area since anti-government riots erupted in Lhasa in 2008. “
Soupy One 