You are currently browsing the daily archive for November 11th, 2006.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, says Tehran will review its relations with the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unless Russia is successful in paring back a European draft resolution calling for sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, made the threat of reduced cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog not long after arriving in Moscow for talks on Iran’s nuclear policies.
A European resolution, drafted by the U.N. Security Council’s three E.U. members, proposes sanctions against Iran for defying an August 31 deadline to stop enriching uranium…
If Iran believes it is going to get away with this, they had better think again. For they won’t being dealing much longer exclusively with that soft-touch Bush and those even more vicious European negotiators: the Democrats are coming, and they have already warned:
To Defeat Terrorists and Stop the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, we will:..
…Redouble efforts to stop nuclear weapons development in Iran and North Korea.
So, Iran should bear that in mind: they are about to face being “redoubled”.
…Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, was found not guilty on Friday of inciting racial hatred during secretly filmed speeches in 2004.
Two senior ministers said the comments had upset most Britons and British Muslims needed reassurance that the laws would protect them…
The concerns over British Muslim sensitivities is of course admirable. But, remember, Griffins’s huffing and puffing was recorded secretly; as I understand it, he was tried for his comments at a “party” event. And that seems relevant, given the following:
…”Any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we have got to do whatever we can to root it out,” Chancellor Gordon Brown told the BBC.
“If that means that we have to look at the laws again, I think we will have to do so.”…
Really? Good. So that then also means the end of thoroughly public observances like this?:
IN SUSSEX, they celebrated England throwing off Catholicism with traditional bonfire night gusto yesterday by blasting effigies of the Pope to smithereens…
Not that anyone should be, but it’s quite curious how – especially given authorities’ dogged pursuit of political pipsqueak Griffin over his comments – we don’t recall anyone ever having been arrested over the likes of those yearly bonfire festivities in Sussex. Indeed, no secret BBC recording is even required. After all, everyone knows about them.
And speaking of the BBC:
…Lord Falconer later told BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? that the government had to show young Muslims that Britain was not anti-Islamic.
“We should look at them in the light of what’s happened here because what is being said to young Muslim people in this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam, and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not,” he said.
He said there should be “consequences” from saying Islam is “wicked and evil”.
So what does that mean? Well, based on that and on the likely future prime minister’s statement, it seems government policy is heading down the path of catering to the notion of ”Islamic exceptionalism”. So instead of educating new Muslim residents and recent immigrants what freedom of speech entails in a western democracy (particularly that you will often have to hear things said about you that you might not like, but that it is up to you to rationally and non-violently contradict such critiques), in England — officially a Christian country — Islam is evidently to be ringfenced.
That is astonishing; uttering words which may be interpreted as “anti-Islam” should lead to legal action? (One hopes Church of England officials bear that in mind.) But being anti-anything else is apparently to be allowed to slide. In fact, you may even throw big parties and blow off fireworks while (usually claiming you aren’t) being so.
It is almost the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month here in Britain. Shortly, there will be two minutes of silence. I just heard that even the radio station we have on in the background (Classic FM) will (quite appropriately) cease music and chatter for those minutes.
The end of WWI — November 11, 1918 — has become for us Veterans Day, encompassing the honoring of all our veterans. (There are now estimated to be around only 25 living U.S. WWI veterans.) Armistice day here is observed on the day, but official commemorations take place on Remembrance Sunday, tomorrow. Our participation in WWI was only about a year and a half, and while we suffered heavy losses given our short involvement, WWI resulted in the deaths and maimings of a large part of a generation of young British men.
If you want to see where America’s dead from that conflict now lie, you can actually look them up by individual state. Unlike now, when we repatriate our war dead, these never got home. This is where they will always remain.
UPDATE: November 12: Simply thought these two photos worth were posting:
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