Libanon-krigen, 2 måneder senere

Det hænder, man finder glemt guld når man går sine gemmer igennem. Selv om det måske ikke direkte er guld, er dette indlæg et eksempel på det: oprindeligt skrevet for et par uger siden forhindrede tekniske vanskeligheder dengang at jeg fik det online, og derefter slog min notorisk hullede hukommelse til. Endelig genfundet får i det nu alligevel:

Engang imellem giver dele af den danske presse mig kvalme. Søndag kunne vi med The Independent som kilde høre Politiken skrige, at Israel måske havde brugt atomvåben i Libanon. Og nej, det er ikke noget jeg selv finder på.

Bombede Israel med beriget uran i Libanon i sommers?

Det spørgsmål stiller engelske The Independent, efter at Den Europæiske Komite for Strålingsfare har dokumenteret radioaktiv stråling i jord, der blev kastet op i to bombekratere i Khiam og At-Tiri, hvor nogle af de hårdeste kampe fandt sted.

Strålingen kan have to forklaringer, siger videnskabelig chef i komiteens engelske afdeling, Dr. Chris Busby.

»Den første mulighed er, at der kan være tale om et nyt lille atomfissionsvåben (atombombe, red.) eller et andet eksperimentalvåben.

Og skidt så være med, at Independent selv afviser det som utroværdigt og foretrækker den åbenlyse forklaring, at der er tale om panserbrydende ammunition med forarmet uran. Alt gælder for at sværte Israel til - før har vi for eksempel fået historierne om, hvordan Israel brugte klyngebomber og fosforbomber i Libanon. At Israel udelukkende brugte dem mod militære mål bliver ikke nævnt.

Som sådan kunne man sige, at Politiken bare gør sit job med at formidle nyheder, men beskyldningerne om at Israel har atombombet Libanon stiler spørgsmålstegn ved dette. Det faktum at Hezbollah ikke er genstand for samme opmærksomhed er også interessant. Historier, der ikke når Politikens sider er blandt andet, at Hezbollah også brugte klyngebomber - vel at mærke udelukkende mod civile mål - eller at Hezbollah brugte årene op til krigen til i stor skala at forsyne almindelige villaer i civile boligområder med raketramper (fra Washington Post):

The activity upon which Hezbollah had embarked was conversion of private homes into mini-military sites from where it could easily target Israel's civilian population. Cloaking itself as the protective shepherd, Hezbollah effectively prepared an unwitting Lebanese civilian flock as sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered in furtherance of its own war-fighting capabilities.

Long before hostilities erupted on July 12, Hezbollah construction teams had gone out and modified numerous Lebanese homes. Sometimes with, but most the time without, the homeowner's permission, workers began adding on a large, single-function room. These rooms were unique for, when completed, they lacked an essential element of all rooms -- a door. Each room was sealed shut -- but only, and immediately, after an object was placed inside.

Often homeowners and neighbors did not know what exactly was entombed within the room as the object's insertion and the subsequent sealing of the room normally took place at night -- with the object always kept under wraps.

The residences Hezbollah selected for these unsolicited "home improvements" were chosen for their proximity to the Israeli border. When the fighting started after Tel Aviv responded militarily to Hezbollah's July cross-border raid, resulting in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and the capture of two more, the purpose of the covert home improvements became evident to the owners -- though many were destroyed by Israeli air strikes before they could be activated.

When war erupted in southern Lebanon, designated leaders of Hezbollah combat teams received envelopes, each containing an address of one of the modified homes. The team quickly deployed to its assigned location, immediately breaking through an exterior wall of the sealed room. Each envelope contained aiming and firing instructions for the object prepositioned inside the room before it was sealed -- a surface-to-surface missile atop a launcher. After removing part of the room's roof to allow for unobstructed flight and on command, the team was to fire the missile, raining death and destruction down upon Israel's civilian population.

En anden nyhed, der mig bekendt ikke er nået frem til den danske presse er, at Israel efterhånden har identificeret 440 dræbte Hezbollah-militsmænd ved navn og adresse, og at det reelle antal dræbte Hezbollahi´er nok er omkring 700 - et tal der for den sags skyld også bekræftes fra Libanesisk side. Mere fra den første kilde:

Israel failed to kill Hezbollah's top members, and the organization continued to function throughout the war.

But Hezbollah lost more than 500 men, even though it confirmed only some 60-odd killed. Israel identified 440 dead guerrillas by name and address, and experience shows that Israeli figures are half to two-thirds of the enemy's real casualties. Therefore, Amidror estimated, Hezbollah's death toll might be as high as 700.

Hezbollah had an array of long-range Iranian Zelzal missiles, 220mm and 302 mm Syrian-made rockets and Fajr 4 and Fajr 5 missiles all with ranges of over 30 miles.

But Hezbollah failed to strike deeply into Israel because the air force knocked out more than 150 launchers. Many were knocked out in a pre-emptive strike, some on the first night, and others when Israel hunted them down. It developed a system of spotting launchings and destroying the launchers within less than five minutes.

It failed to stop the Katyusha rockets, with a range of six to 24 miles. Ninety-five percent of the rockets that hit Israel were 122mm Katyushas. Almost half hit the northern Israeli towns of Naharia and Kiryat Shmona.

Eventually ground forces entered southern Lebanon and forced the rocket launchers to be on the move, so attacks were less accurate. Fewer than half the launchings hit "real targets," but on the whole the fact Hezbollah kept firing as many as 240 rockets day was "a great success for Hezbollah, a great failure for us," Amidror said.

Hezbollah also launched three unmanned drones, each carrying 45 kilos of TNT. Their range was enough to reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and they are "very precise." But one crashed into the sea because of a technical failure and the air force downed the two others, he said.

Israel also had the upper hand in battles on the ground, he maintained. "There is not one example where Hezbollah succeeded in stopping the ground forces," providing the Israeli troops had clear missions. There were, however, many instances in which the missions were "blurred," he said, tacitly criticizing the military command.

Hezbollah made extensive use of anti-tank rockets, firing more than 1,000 at Israeli tanks and infantrymen.

Amidror said those rockets hit fewer than 50 tanks, penetrated fewer than half. In each tank that was penetrated one soldier was killed. It upset many Israelis, but militarily was "nothing to write home about."

The Rafael armaments development authority has built a system that dissolves incoming rockets and can reduce by 50 percent to 90 percent the chances tanks would be hit. But prior to the war the army did not buy the system because it was very expensive, Amidror said.
He maintained the war "exposed clearly" the relationship between Hezbollah, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization, and Iran and Syria.

Iran invested some $1 billion to $2 billion in training, financing and arming Hezbollah, and from Tehran's perspective the war was "a great failure." Eighty percent of the rockets that hit Israel came from Syria, and that included the most sophisticated Russian-made anti-tank rockets.

"We told the Russians, 'Don't sell it to the Syrians, it will move to Hezbollah,'" Amidror said. The Russians said, 'Don't worry' and the rockets did reach Hezbollah.

"We found the serial numbers and we showed the Russians," he said.

Kina ved at løbe tør for kinesere

Godt nyt til danske arbejdere, der er rædde for at deres jobs bliver flyttet til Kina: Kina er ved at løbe tør for kinesere til at tage dem. Under hovedhistorien er der yderligere godt nyt til miljø-mafiaen (Kina vil ikke blive lige så rigt som den vestlige verden, og ergo ikke have samme forbrugsmønster) og geopolitikere (Kina bliver ikke helt den samme trussel man har frygtet). Fra Middle East Transparent:

It may be surprising to know that China, the world’s most populous country, whose economic boom has largely depended on the advantage of having a huge supply of low-cost workers, faces labour shortages. Studies conducted recently show that China’s problem of worker shortage, which first appeared sporadically in 2004, has now become a more persistent one. The problem has pushed up wages at a time when costs of manufacturing goods are already rising due to increases in energy prices. This is likely to weaken Chinese-made products’ competitiveness on world markets, and force investors to move to lower-cost countries such as India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.

Chinese factories had to raise the minimum wage this year by as much as 30 percent to between $70 and $85 a month. With this increase, the largest in a decade, a worker in China today is paid 30 percent more than his counterpart in Vietnam for example.

The shortage of workers is most acute in the country’s export regions, namely the Pearl River Delta, which feeds into Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River Delta, which funnels into Shanghai. For example, it was officially reported that the city of Shenzhen, on the Hong Kong border, alone faced a labour shortage of about 300,000 workers this year. Commenting on the issue, a Chinese human resources expert said that a few years ago, millions of young people were still flooding into Shenzhen to search for any job at any wage, and factories did not need to put up advertisements to recruit workers or tempt them with incentives and benefits. He added: “Now we put up a sign looking for five people, and maybe one person shows up”.

Factors contributing to making a country with a population of 1.3 billion have a labour shortage of nearly two million people according to an estimate are numerous.

First, demand on workers has enormously increased in recent years, owning to the vast expansion of industrial, construction, and services sectors.

Second, low wages, tax cuts, and long-working hours have all pushed a large number of migrant workers to quit their jobs in the booming coastal provinces and move back to their farms in western provinces. The government’s decision last year to eliminate the agricultural tax has fuelled the trend.

Her skal jeg måske tilføje, at dette tiltag er en del af det kinesiske diktaturs forsøg på at berolige land-befolkningen, der de sidste år har været kilde til tiltagende uro.

Third, Beijing’s recent policy of closing the income gap between the urban rich and the rural poor through developing the economies of poor inland provinces and launching housing and infrastructure projects has created many jobs. As a result, young workers from the countryside are less willing to leave home for booming areas in search of a better life.

Fourth, unlike China’s old generation, whose members sought employment without proper education or skills, members of the new generation are more ambitious and would rather first develop their skills or have university degrees in order to avoid jobs that are harsh and pay little. This can be supported by the increasing number of university students. Last year, for example, over 14 million Chinese students joined local colleges and universities, up from 4.3 million in 1999.

Fifth, China’s one-child policy, which was implemented in 1979, has turned it into a country of more old and less young people. This is most acute in Shanghai, China’s model of economic prosperity, where the age group of 60 and above is expected to account for 30% of the population by 2020. Because of this policy, the number of Chinese aged 15-19 will decline by 17 percent in five years, to about 103 million from 124 million today, according to a report.

Dette er igen kun en del af Kinas rigtigt store problem: mens landet har reddet sig selv fra "befolkningsbomben" ved sit et-barns-politik, så fører samme politik til en "ældrebombe", der siger spar to til den vi har i Danmark, især fordi overgangen skar langt mere drastisk end vi har set i Danmark. Fra Chinas Underpopulation Problem i Slate:

The advantages of investment in China are well-known. Less well-understood is a looming demographic challenge that could undermine China's ability to grow rich before its population grows old. Emerging-market investors in search of an alternative should note that India faces a demographic challenge of its own.

Recent reports from researchers at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs suggest that China's workforce may begin to shrink sooner than we thought. According to Deutsche Bank's analysis, the percentage of working-age Chinese in the population (those aged 15 to 64) will peak around 2010 at 72.2 percent. Over the next 40 years, that number will fall steadily to just 60.7 percent, according to U.N. forecasts. The steep drop is due in large part to China's one-child policy, first implemented in 1979. Also, many Chinese retire before they are 64; China's current retirement age is 50 for most women and 60 for most men.

There are two reasons this shift will put considerable strain on China's economic performance. First, the country's explosive economic growth over the last several years is due mostly to its plentiful supply of cheap labor. When the working-age population begins to drop five years from now, China's appeal to international investors may begin to fall as well.

Second, by 2050, every 10 Chinese workers will support seven Chinese who are too young or too old to work, according to Goldman Sachs. Even that projection is based on the optimistic assumption that the central government will soon persuade its citizens to work until they are 64. The Deutsche Bank study includes a warning from the International Monetary Fund that the transition from the current pension system to a more sustainable one could cost developing China $100 billion, not including the financial burden on local governments.

The population is aging in Japan and in many European countries, as well, but these states are already wealthy. The financial stresses on China, where the average per-capita income remains a fraction of those of developed states, will be much more difficult to bear. Then there are the health-care costs. No one can forecast with confidence what it will cost China to care for the 265 million citizens who will be over the age of 65 by 2020. The worst of the crunch is many years away. But the new reports suggest that the shrinking of China's labor force will begin by the end of this decade.

Andy Mukerjee citerede Helen Qiao for hvad der er Kinas - og måske vores - reelle problem i en artikel på Bloomberg.com:

Helen Qiao, an economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Hong Kong, posed an interesting question this week: ``Will China grow old before getting rich?''

Qiao's research shows that China's dependency ratio -- the number of people too young and too old to work divided by the working-age population -- will start rising at the end of this decade and approach 50 percent in 2030, from less than 40 percent at present, making China as gray as Japan was last year.

By 2050, every 10 Chinese workers in the age group of 15 to 64 will support a total of seven younger and older people -- a dependency ratio of 70 percent.

An aging society may be an inevitable part of demographic transition, though ``what makes China's case unique is that the sharp rise in dependency ratio will arrive earlier in terms of per capita income level relative to other countries,'' Qiao says in her report.

In 2030, China's annual per capita income will be a little more than $11,000 measured in current prices, compared with almost $36,000 in Japan last year, according to Goldman Sachs's estimates. South Korea's dependency ratio will approach 50 percent in 2025, with its citizens earning $52,000 a year.

Der er dog andre ting, der sætter grænser for Kinas vækst. Den oprindelige artikel fra Middle East Transparent igen:

China’s dilemma, however, is not confined to the shortages of unskilled or semi-skilled workers. In addition, both public and private companies are having trouble finding enough talented employees and highly skilled labour to fill junior and senior managerial and other posts. The evidence can be derived from a decision last month by the Shanghai municipal government to hold job fairs in North America in an effort to attract expatriates and overseas Chinese professionals to work in the city.

According to a recent study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute, Chinese firms seeking to expand abroad and continue growing in the years to come will need up to 75,000 internationally experienced leaders. Currently, only 5,000 such leaders are available in the country. Local universities must be held responsible for this, given its failure in producing more graduates capable of working successfully in world-class-companies and brilliantly serving the fast-growing domestic economy. Among the 1.7 million students who graduated in 2003 from over 1,500 local colleges and universities, only a few hundreds had good English and practical experience- a requirement of most multinational firms.

Illegal indvandring, tre elefanter og et mariachi-band

"Show it, dont tell it" er en journalistisk hovedregel, men den virker åbenbart også fint i politik. I hvert fald har den republikanske kandidat Raj Peter Bhakta demonstreret, at den er åbenbar mulighed når det drejer sig om at skabe opmærksomhed om et emne.

Emnet han valgte var indvandring. Indvandring er ikke kun et varmt emne i Europa (eller Mali, for den sags skyld), men også i USA - især da USA er ufrivilligt vært for 10-15 millioner illegale indvandrere. En stor del af problemet er, at USA ikke er så gennemkontrolleret som Europa, hvilket gør den amerikanske sydgrænse notorisk hullet. Det er her, historien starter (fra Brownsville Herald):

“The elephant never made landfall into Mexico, but I tell you something, he could have made 15 laps back and forth, but no one showed up,” said Raj Peter Bhakta, a former star on the NBC show “The Apprentice,” who also is a Republican candidate for the 13th District U.S. House of Representatives seat in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Three elephants, two African and an Asian, were taken out to a ranch near Boca Chica beach to perform, the 31-year-old Bhakta said.

He was in Brownsville to raise funds with friends and decided to get a first-hand look at border security while he was here, he said.

In Brownsville, he witnessed half a dozen men swim under one of the international bridges “with complete immunity” which in turn prompted him to take the immigration issue to the next level.

Bhakta decided to see if he could get an elephant accompanied by a six-piece mariachi band across the river.

According to his Web site, he is in favor of “sensible immigration reform” and supports a border fence, local law enforcement assistance with immigration laws and the use of the National Guard troops to help the U.S. Border Patrol.

“To my surprise, the band played on, the elephants splashed away, and nobody showed up,” Bhakta said of the stunt. “I’m astounded.” ...

He said he was “staggered” by what happened on Tuesday and was planning on sharing the story with his potential constituents.

“If I can get an elephant led by a mariachi band into this country, I think Osama bin Laden could get across with all the weapons of mass destruction he could get into this country,” Bhakta said.

The mariachi band was not immediately available for comment.

Russerne er ved at dø ud

Fra Los Angeles Times kommer en 3-delt serie om den russiske befolknings-implosion, der ifølge formanden for det russiske parlaments overhus vil føre til et fald i Ruslands befolkning fra 142 millioner idag til kun 52 millioner i 2080. Fra "A Dying Population", den første del:

Welcome to Kstinovo, population one.

Antonina Makarova, 78, spends her days watching news and soap operas in her peeling wooden dacha, the only inhabited structure in two lanes of sagging cottages that once were a village. Her nearest neighbor, 80-year-old Maria Belkova, lives in adjacent Sosnovitsy, population two. But she can't hear anymore, and all in all, Makarova finds the television better company.

"All the houses here were filled with people. There was a cheese factory. But now everyone else has died. God has taken care of them, and he's still making me suffer," Makarova said. "Even the thieves have disappeared."

The Tver region, along the upper reaches of the Volga River 130 miles north of Moscow, is dotted with more than 1,400 villages such as Kstinovo labeled nezhiloye — depopulated. Since 1989, the number of people here has shrunk by about 250,000 to about 1.4 million, with deaths outnumbering births more than 2 to 1. ...

Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world's fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution.

In addition, abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000. An estimated 10 million Russians of reproductive age are sterile because of botched abortions or poor health. The public healthcare system is collapsing. And many parents in more prosperous urban areas say they can't afford homes large enough for the number of children they'd like to have.

The former Soviet Union, with almost 300 million people, was the world's third-most populous country, behind China and India. Slightly more than half of its citizens lived in Russia. The country has lost the equivalent of a city of 700,000 people every year since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, only partially offset by an influx of people from other former Soviet republics.

A country that sprawls across one-eighth of the globe is now home to 142 million people.

The losses have been disproportionately male. At the height of its power, the Soviet Union's people lived almost as long as Americans. But now, the average Russian man can expect to live about 59 years, 16 years less than an American man and 14 less than a Russian woman.

Sergei Mironov, chairman of the upper house of Russia's parliament, said last year that if the trend didn't change, the population would fall to 52 million by 2080.

Anden del, "For the Sick, No Place to Turn" handler om det russiske sundhedsvæsens kollaps, mens tredje del - "The Future Looks a Lot More Diverse" - omhandler muslimernes tiltagende andel af befolkningen. Et par smagsprøver:

Today's Russia includes seven predominantly Muslim regions. Ivan the Terrible conquered the first of them in the 16th century; the final pieces were small republics in the Caucasus with complicated names such as Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan — the very places where Moscow now is battling Islamic insurrections.

Russian identity still is primarily cultural, remaining closely linked to the Russian language and the Orthodox Church. And the overall proportion of ethnic Russians has slipped only slightly, shrinking from 83% of the population to 79.8% over the last decade.

Demographic trends suggest that the decrease is likely to continue. Although most experts are skeptical, a former U.S. government expert on Russian nationalities recently predicted that Russia would have a Muslim majority within 30 years.

In addition to its own Muslim population, Russia is home to an estimated 10 million illegal immigrant workers from the largely Muslim former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The city of Moscow has swelled to 10.4 million people, and one-fifth of them are Muslims. The Russian capital has the largest Muslim population of any city in Europe.

Along Moscow's wide boulevards, minarets rise next to the onion domes of Russian Orthodox churches. Across the country, there are 8,000 mosques, up from 300 in 1991, when Soviet strictures on religious observance were lifted. Markets more often than not are run by immigrants from Azerbaijan. Construction sites would come to a halt if not for low-paid workers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Russian authorities have started a campaign to convince a nation historically hostile to foreign migration that its economic development, and perhaps its survival, depends on its opening its doors.

The Kremlin in July announced that it would try to attract as many as 1 million Russian-speaking immigrants from former Soviet republics by offering citizenship and other benefits, particularly to those willing to settle in underpopulated regions. The government also has proposed legalizing 1 million or more migrant workers, many of whom undoubtedly will be Muslim.

President Vladimir V. Putin, realizing that the country's survival is at stake, has exhorted the public to embrace a multicultural society. He has stepped up prosecutions for hate crimes. Recently, he launched a bid for Russia to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the premier political league of Muslim nations.

"Russia must be for Russians, Tatars, Mordovians, Ossetians, Jews, Chechens, for all our peoples and for the entire Russian nation," Vladislav Y. Surkov, the Kremlin's top political aide, told students in February.

The response in some quarters has been violent. About 50 Asians, blacks and other minorities died in racially motivated attacks across the nation last year, including a 9-year-old African Russian girl who was stabbed in St. Petersburg in March.

In August, riots broke out in an industrial backwater town of 35,000 people near the Finnish border after a bar fight between ethnic Russians and Chechen migrants left two Russians dead.

Soon after, an estimated 2,000 Russians turned out at a rally to complain that corrupt officials in Kondopoga were "selling our town to aliens," a reference to the estimated 200 Chechens who have a large presence in markets.

After the rally, a mob set fire to the restaurant where the fight occurred, as well as to the central produce market and several kiosks, stores and cars owned by immigrants.

UPDATE

Tjetjenien bringes op som et eksempel i artiklen adskillige gange, blandt andet fordi anddelen af Tjetjeniens befolkning, der er russere er styrtdykket fra 27% til under 4%, i hovedstaden Grozny fra 60% til under 4%. Forklaringen er overraskende:

Chechnya's demographic picture is changing, in large part because of the casualties and ethnic separation resulting from two wars. Researchers think as many as 55,000 civilians have been killed, 35,000 of them ethnic Russians.

Dette sætter umiddelbart klagerne om "folkemordet på Tjetjenerne" i et noget andet perspektiv.

UPDATE II:

Fra optøjerne i Kondopoga. Russiske demonstranter knalder ruder i et tjetjensk tilholdssted:



OMOM (de russiske sikkerhedsstyrker) rykker ind, efter at demonstranterne har sat ild på bygningen:

Poster Girl

En smuk sang midt i al den sædvanlige tvære venstredrejede propaganda i musiker-branchen - Australske Beccy Cole:


UPDATE:

Måske skulle jeg nævne, at sangen er skrevet som svar til en fan, der skældte hende ud fordi hun hen over Julen og Nytår 2005-2006 var i Irak for at underholde de Australske og andre koalitions-styrker der. Så giver den lidt mere mening. Mens jeg er igang, så er "Digger" det australske ord for deres soldater, som vi kalder vores for "Jens´er".

Beccy Coles hjemmeside: beccycole.com.

Mutation

18. oktober kunne den danske presse (for eksempel JP) fortælle os, at vi vil udvikle os til to foreskellige racer: en overklasse af høje, smukke, kreative Radikale, og en underklasse af grimme, dumme dansk folkepartister (mit ordbrug, ikke mediernes). Historien blev præsenteret som en ny videnskabelig rapport, men var reelt bare et PR stunt i anledning af Bravo TV´s 21 års fødselsdag (det oprindelige essay kan findes her, og en kritik af det her).

Det betyder imidlertid ikke, at evolutionen er noget der kun har regeret i fortiden.

For nogle år siden (det må have været i 1999 eller 2000) kunne man i fjernsynet se serien "Prey", der handlede om hvordan der mellem os havde udviklet sig en ny menneskerace, og hvordan den nu var igang med at udrydde os. Den nye menneskerace så udadtil ud som os, men var stærkere, klogere, havde seks livmødre (!) så kvinderne kunne have seks graviditeter undervejs ad gangen, og var generelt nogle ret så overlegne typer.

Dengang kunne kan trække lidt på smilebåndet af det (mutationerne var også udløst af drivhuseffekten), men at menneskeracen jævnligt muterer og skaber grobund for nye racer (som for eksemel Neanderthalerne og vores forfædre Homo Sapiens udviklede sig væk fra hinanden) er fakta. Et par eksempler:

1. En rumænsk kvinde føder i 2005 to tveæggede tvillinger med to måneders mellemrum. Årsag? Hun har to livmødre, noget der åbenbart er tilfældet for én ud af 50.000 kvinder i verden har (Kilde).
2. Efter et biluheld i 1994 opdager læger en gruppe af mere eller mindre nært beslægtede mennesker i USA, der op til otte gange så solide knogler som "normale" mennesker. Én har haft problemer med at få opereret sin hofte: "He's had several failed hip replacements because they can't screw the prosthesis into his bone," Insogna says. "It's too hard."(Kilde)
3. I 2004 opdager videnskabsmænd i Tyskland en 4-årig knægt der har dobbet så megen muskelmasse som sine jævnaldrende, og halvt så meget kropsfedt. I en alder af 4 kan han holde 3½-kilos vægte ud fra kroppen i strakt arm. Mutationen der gør det muligt er et gen der blokerer for produktionen af et hormon der begrænser muskelvækst, og som han åbenbart har fået fra morens side af familien (Kilde).

Den samme mutation som hos drengen var allerede blevet spottet flere år før hos både mus og kvæg. En mutation, der endnu ikke er blevet set i mennesker, men til gengæld hos mus er de såkaldte X-mus, der kan regenerere hele led eller enddog vigtige organer som hjerne, lever og hjerte. Intet taler mod, at samme mutation ikke også skal kunne finde sted hos mennesker.

Selvfølgelig er der dog også en bagside til medaljen: Den rumænske kvindes krop er ikke reelt indrettet til at have to livmødre, så under den første fødsel fik hun åndedrætsbesvær; familien med de stærke knogler har som sagt problemer med påskruede proteser, og er desuden så tunge at de har problemer med at svømme, og muskel-knægten tror videnskabsmændene måske engang i fremtiden vil få problemer med hjertet. Tilsvarende er X-musenes evne til at regenere organer grundet i at de ikke danner arvæv. Det gør det muligt at blive ved med at omforme legemet (feks genvokse et lem), men gør dem til gengæld også til nemmere ofre for infektioner.

Hvad DR2 ikke havde lyst til at fortælle

I går kunne man på DR2 se den indiske dokumentar "Final Solution", der fortalte om optøjerne i Gujarat-delstaten i Indien i 2002. Eller rettere: den brugte anledningen til at køre et standart-angreb på højrefløjen og "religiøse (skægt nok aldrig muslimske) fundamentalister", hvilket ikke er så overraskende, taget i betragtning at manden bag - Rakesh Sharma - hører hjemme på den radikale indiske venstrefløj, og financieres sammesteds fra.

DR vælger at lade instruktøren selv komme til orde i stationens omtale af dokumentaren via en del af hans "Director´s Statement":

- Mens jeg lavede denne film, opdagede jeg chokerende paralleller mellem Indien i 2002-2004 og Tyskland i 1930'erne. Statsstøttet folkemordsagtig vold mod muslimerne i Gujarat og de efterfølgende konsekvenser, adskillelse i skoler, ghettoisering i byer og landsbyer, den officielle opfordring til økonomisk boykot og de hindu-nationalistiske angreb på intelligentsiaen. Hvis ikke had- og intolerance-politikken bliver udfordret og stoppet, kunne det meget vel blive forløberen for det 21. århundredes Endlösung, den endelige løsning.

Som sådan standard-propaganda fra venstrefløjen. DR2 vælger imidlertid kun at vise os en del af et hele. Her er resten:
´
Post-911, we live in a world where politics of hate and intolerance has gained mainstream acceptance, even grabbed centrestage. The right-wing seems to be tightening its stranglehold across Europe and USA, a nationalism being fuelled by the anti-immigrant/anti-Moslem rhetoric. The ‘War on Terror’ dominated the electoral discourse in the US presidential elections, with both candidates promising to hunt ‘em and kill ‘em better than the other. In a world where it has become legitimate to use fictitious intelligence to justify the bombing of innocents in Iraq, where it has become acceptable to launch precision bombs and rockets against non-“embedded” journalists, where shameless politicians divide up oil wells and farm out reconstruction contracts for their $ 36 million bonuses, where babies are killed and mutilated as acceptable “collateral damage”, where suicide bombers and terror attacks claim hundreds of innocent lives, we face a challenge greater than ever before.

We have earlier lived through many dark periods in history, often justifying our barbarism by using similar rhetoric. Hate, despair, destruction and tragedy can not possibly help create harmonious societies and a democratic world.

During the making of this film, I noticed shocking parallels between India 2002-2004 and Germany of the 1930s - State-supported genocidal violence against Moslems in Gujarat and its continuing impact – segregation in schools, ghettoisation in cities and villages, formal calls for economic boycott of Moslems and attacks on intelligentsia by right-wing Hindutva cadres.
Unchecked and unchallenged, the rapid rise of politics of hate and intolerance could very well be the forerunner of a 21st century Endlosung – the Final Solution.

Den venstreradikale lyrik er selvfølgelig ikke fuldstændig uden hysteriske beskyldninger om, at alle er som nazisterne, og at alt er Holocaust. Problemet opstår, når beskyldningerne bliver konfronteret med virkeligheden. Til at starte med blev optøjerne for eksempel startet af en muslimsk pøbels overfald på et tog fuldt af hinduistiske pilgrimme, hvorunder 59 hinduer brændte ihjel. Dertil kommer, at 254 af de 1044 mennesker, der blev dræbt under urolighederne, var hinduer - hvor dokumentaren ellers påstår, at optøjerne var ensidige, med hinduerne som de über-onde nazister, der massakrerede "over 2500" muslimer.

Mit propaganda-o-meter giver kraftige udslag.

Hvis man selv skulle have lyst til at lide gennem 2 ½ times venstreradikal propaganda, så kan den ses gratis online på Google Video.

"Liguster-racisme" fremmer integrationen

De sidste par dage har medierne kunnet fryde sig over to undersøgelser, der udpeger danskerne som "intolerante". En af sagerne er en rundspørge DR har foretaget blandt ejendomsmæglere, hvor resultatet er at "I 13 ud af 14 amter har ejendomsmægler oplevet negative reaktioner fra danskere, når de viser boliger frem til folkmed anden etnisk baggrund". En kernekommentar er at finde i BT i artiklen "Danskerne er liguster-racister":

- Det er jo de velintegrerede, der flytter ud fra ghettoerne, siger han og advarer samtidig om, at hvis ikke boligejerne tager sig sammen, så kan det skade integrationen.

Den udtalelse vil jeg gerne vende på hovedet: hvis det er de velintegrerede der flytter ud, så efterlader man jo netop ghettoerne som etniske enklaver fra fremmede lande, rensede for alt der har med danskhed at gøre.

Og hvordan fremmer det lige integrationen?

Kampen mod terror gør fremskridt

Fra gårsdagens Berlingske, nogle velvalgte ord fra professor, dr. jur. Jesper Lau Hansen:

Dækningen af nyheder fra Irak er påfaldende ens og trist: vi taber kampen mod terror. Det gælder også efterretningsrapporten National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) og seneste meningsmåling fra PIPA. Men i amerikanske medier kan man også se sagen med andre øjne.

Det primære budskab i NIE er faktisk, at al-Qaeda er hårdt ramt af krigen mod terror, og deres evner til angreb er reduceret. Anti-terror indsatsen har altså virket. I stedet for den samlede modstander, som al-Qaeda var, er der opstået små uafhængige grupper. De er vanskeligere at opspore og dermed bekæmpe, men de udgør ikke den samme trussel som al-Qaeda.

NIE slår fast, at det vil styrke terroren, hvis vi opgiver og trækker os ud. Bush har altså ret i, at Irak er den centrale front i kampen mod terror.

NIE bekræfter også Bush-doktrinen om, at det ikke er Vestens handlinger, der skaber terrorister, men de mange diktaturer i Mellemøsten, og at terror kun kan bekæmpes ved at ændre de forhold, som skaber den.

Europa prøvede i årevis at betragte terror som et rent politianliggende, og mange opfatter det stadig som en sofistikeret strategi og ikke blot som den magtesløshed, det reelt var. For terroren fortsatte jo, indtil østblokken brød sammen.

Vi slap billigt fra ikke at gøre noget effektivt ved terrorismen, men vi var også heldige at kæmpe mod terrorister, der blot ønskede at gøre Vesten til en arbejdslejr; ikke en kirkegård som nutidens terrorister, hvilket giver mindre plads til fejl.

NIE oplyser, at den muslimske verden vender sig mod islamisterne. Ikke bare kæmper de for en streng islam, der støder folket fra sig; deres grusomhed over for andre muslimer vækker stadig større modvilje. Selvom antallet af terrorister vokser, konkluderer NIE, at de stadig udgør en yderst beskeden del af den muslimske befolkning. Vores kamp mod terror har altså fremprovokeret en vækst i antallet af modstandere, men samtidig tvunget dem til at bekende farve, hvorved de har mistet opbakning i den brede muslimske befolkning. Vi er ikke ved at tabe kampen mod terror, tværtimod.

Fra PIPA-målingen omtales kun, at et flertal af irakere ønsker vores tropper ud. Men det nævnes f.eks. ikke, at et stort flertal af irakerne fortsat finder, at befrielsen har været alle ofrene værd, at de støtter den folkevalgte regering, eller at de støtter et samlet Irak. Det nævnes heller ikke, at det nye flertal for tilbagetrækning skyldes en øget tro på hærens evne til at bekæmpe terrorister som al-Qaeda, der afvises af mere end 90 pct.

NIE peger på, at Irak er terroristernes foretrukne emne ved rekruttering. Nogle udlægger det sådan, at krigen styrker terrorismen. Men allerede bin Ladens krigserklæring fra 1998 brugte Irak som begrundelse, fordi landet blev sultet af sanktioner, og Clinton havde lige bombet. De vil altid finde på en undskyldning, Irak, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palæstina eller paven.

Hvis medierne virkelig er bekymret for, at Irak bruges til rekruttering, burde de undlade at fortie de positive nyheder. For de modtagelige sjæle i danske indvandrermiljøer, som søges lokket til terror, gør det da en stor forskel at høre, at krigen ikke var en aggression mod muslimer, men en befrielse af dem. For nylig fik en dansk officer rosende omtale af briterne, fordi han med sine mænd havde forhindret en massakre på en landsby. Nyheden var gemt inde i avisen; den burde have dækket forsiden.

Hvad er det egentlig, medierne vil opnå med deres negative selektion af nyhederne? Skal vi virkelig betragte befrielsen af Irak og indførelsen af et demokrati, der støttes af et massivt flertal, som en fiasko? Og skal vi i stedet betragte Darfur, hvor vi passivt står på sidelinjen og ser et folkedrab udfolde sig, som en succes? Skal vi hellere hylde det gamle Europas hang til appeasement, hvor diktatur ikke er noget, man bekæmper, men noget man handler med, og hvor alt er til salg? Skal vi afsværge os brugen af militære midler, der har forhindret Irak i at få a-våben og skræmt Libyen fra at forsøge, og i stedet forlade os på det diplomati, som hverken kunne hindre Nordkorea eller Iran i at få dem? Skal vi fremover deponere vores moralske dømmekraft hos et FN, der er gennemsyret af korruption og ineffektivitet, og hvis bærende princip er, at selv det værste diktatur er ligeværdigt med et demokrati? Hvis det ikke er målet, så lad os få lidt flere nuancer.

PIPA-målingen Jesper Lau Hansen henviser til kan ses her. Sammenlign eventuelt (som førnævnte meningsmåling fra september gør) med den tilsvarende måling fra januar i år her.

UPDATE:

NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) - eller i hvert fald de de-klassificerede dele af den kan læses her.

Ungdomshuset og den smarte strategi

Når selv folkesocialister kan se det forkastelige i de autonomes anti-demokratiske kamp for at stjæle andres ejendom, så har de autonome et problem. Fra Information via Thomas Lønbæk:

Vennerne fra Ungdomshuset har en selvforståelse, der går ud på, at de ser sig som repræsentanter for noget revolutionært anderledes end det etablerede samfund. Men i virkeligheden er deres demonstrationer en march for at få lov til at være klienter i det offentlige ligesom alle andre. De unge fra Ungdomshuset er således noget af det mest repræsentative for det etablerede samfund. I stedet burde de lære af Faderhuset. Det er en lille sekt af folk, der ikke beklæder fremtrædende positioner i samfundet. Alligevel er de i stand til at mobilisere økonomiske og menneskelige ressourcer til at skaffe sig sit eget hus. Så kan de være helt sig selv. De er autonome.

På Spunken har nai samtidig et forslag til, hvilken strategi Faderhuset bør vælge, hvis det venstredrejede flertal i Københavns borgerrepræsentation gennemfører den lokalplanændring helt for de autonomes skyld, der nu er blevet fremlagt:

Man skal i den forbindelse huske at en lokalplan ikke udløser nogen handlepligt. Der står således Faderhuset frit for at lade huset stå tomt såfremt de ikke er interesseret i at udnytte lokalplanens rammer.En endnu smukkere strategi ville efter min mening nok være at lade dem sidde i huset på et erhvervslejemål, og efter et års tid lave en regulering til markedsleje. Lad os se dem spare sammen når huset kommer til at koste 1000 kr. pr. em2…

Ny profetkrise er afblæst

Fra Politiken:

Der har været stille om DFU-tegningerne herhjemme de senere dage, og i den muslimske verden er opmærksomheden hos befolkning og medier stort set hørt op.

Under sidste Muhammed-krise blev der dræbt op mod 200 mennesker, denne gang ingen. Forskellen? Sidst valgte en flok islamiske imamer, vi har været så dumme at lukke ind i landet at hidse verden op mod Danmark. Denne gang har de undladt det.

Kina vil måske støtte et kup i Nordkorea

Grunden er dog ikke folkemord-ved-sult på en million koreanere, kaste-system eller eutanasi-programmet beskrevet her på bloggen i forgårs, men simpel ærgrelse over, at Nordkoreas atom-ambitioner kan få Japan, Sydkorea og Taiwan til at bygge deres egne atom-arsenaler. Fra The Australian via Captains Quarters:

THE Chinese are openly debating "regime change" in Pyongyang after last week's nuclear test by their confrontational neighbour. ..

The Chinese Government has been ultra-cautious in its reaction. However, since Monday, Foreign Ministry officials have started to make a point of distinguishing between the North Korean people and their Government in conversations with diplomats.

Ahead of yesterday's Security Council vote, some in Beijing argued against heavy sanctions on North Korea for fear that these would destroy what remains of a pro-Chinese "reformist" faction inside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"In today's DPRK Government, there are two factions, sinophile and royalist," one Chinese analyst wrote online. "The objective of the sinophiles is reform, Chinese-style, and then to bring down Kim Jong-il's royal family. That's why Kim is against reform. He's not stupid."

More than one Chinese academic agreed that China yearned for an uprising similar to the one that swept away the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 and replaced him with communist reformers and generals. The Chinese made an intense political study of the Romanian revolution and even questioned president Ion Iliescu, who took over, about how it was done and what roles were played by the KGB and by Russia. ..

The balance of risk between reform and chaos dominated arguments within China's ruling elite. The Chinese have also permitted an astonishing range of vituperative internet comment about an ally with which Beijing maintains a treaty of friendship and co-operation. Academic Wu Jianguo published an article in a Singapore newspaper - available online in China - bluntly saying: "I suggest China should make an end of Kim's Government."

"The Chinese have given up on Kim Jong-il," commented one diplomat. "The question is, what are they going to do about it?"

Hinting at the options, Chinese online military commentators have exposed plots and purges inside North Korea that were previously unknown or unconfirmed. They have described three attempted coups that ended in bloodshed. In 1996, the Sixth Field Army was planning to revolt but the scheme was betrayed by a new commander. One or two plotters got away but Kim Jong-il's personal guards arrested senior officers and the Sixth Field Army's political commissars.

On March 12, 1998, Kim suddenly announced a martial law "exercise" in Pyongyang and there was gunfire in the streets of the city. The Chinese later learned that two ministries were involved in a coup attempt, and that more than 20 ministerial-level officials were killed after it was crushed.

In October 1999, a company of the Third Field Army rebelled in dissatisfaction over grain distribution during the nation's prolonged famine, which may have killed a million people.
There are rumours that Kim's eldest son, Jong-nam, is estranged from his father and living in the Chinese capital, where he enjoys a reputation as a capricious imbiber of whisky. A younger son, Jong-chol, has emerged as heir apparent.

Meanwhile, some of the North Korean elite are seeking their boltholes in China.

Xin Cheng, an estate agent in the high-rise district of Wang Jing, which is popular with resident South Korean businessmen, said many high-ranking North Koreans were buying property there.

Mere om forholdene i Nordkorea her.

Pallywood: Mediemanipulation på "højt" plan

Fra The New Republic Online, Richard Landes med How French TV fudged the death of Mohammed Al Durah:

In September 30, 2000, images of 12-year-old Mohammed Al Durah and his father--cowering behind a barrel at Netzarim Junction, in the Gaza Strip--circulated globally, along with a claim that they had been the targeted victims of Israeli fire. If Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount two days earlier had sparked riots, these images triggered all-out war. The ensuing horror and outrage swept away any questions about its reliability. Indignant observers dismissed any Israeli attempt to deny responsibility as "blaming the victim."

But, by 2002, two documentaries--one German, one French--raised troubling questions. The raw footage from that day reveals pervasive staging; no evidence (certainly not the most widely circulated tape offers evidence of Israeli fire directed at the barrel, much less of Israelis targeting the pair; given the angles, the Israelis could scarcely have hit the pair at all, much less 12 times (indeed the only two bullets that hit the wall above them came from the Palestinian side, inexplicably 90 degrees off target); there was no sign of blood on the ground where the father and son reportedly bled for 20 minutes; there was no footage of an ambulance evacuation or arrival at the hospital; there was no autopsy; and none of the dozen cameraman present filmed anything that could substantiate the claim that the father and son had been hit, much less that the Israelis had targeted them. These documentaries had limited exposure, in part thanks to France2's refusal to run the one by a sister station in Germany. But they did spark a demonstration in Paris outside the France2 offices by citizens outraged to discover that so horrendous an image may well have been a fake.

The demonstrations apparently ruffled feathers. Some writers lambasted France2's coverage--most prominently Philippe Karsenty, who called for Al Durah beat chief Charles Enderlin and France2 chief Arlette Chabot to resign, and, in response, Enderlin and France2 itself--using the same law invoked against Emile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair--have accused three critics (including Karsenty) of "striking at their honor and respectability."

Now, four years later, the lawsuits are finally coming to trial in Room 17 of the Palais de Justice in Paris. The three suits (one for each defendant) come in rapid succession--September 14, October 26, and November 30--with judgments four weeks following each hearing. And, in at least two of the trials, I, a medieval historian, have been asked to testify.

I have become involved for two reasons. First of all, I noted almost immediately that Palestinians and anti-Zionists, insisting that Israel killed the boy on purpose, used Al Durah in a way familiar to medievalists--as a blood libel. This was the first blood libel of the twenty-first century, rendered global by cable and the Internet. Indeed, within a week, crowds the world over shouted "We want Jewish blood!" and "Death to the Jews!". For Europeans in particular, the libelous image came as balm to a troubled soul: "This death erases, annuls that of the little boy in the Warsaw Gherro," intoned Europe1 editorialist Catherine Nay. The Israelis were the new Nazis.

And second, when I saw the raw footage in the summer of 2003--especially when I saw the scene Enderlin had cut, wherein the boy(allegedly shot in the stomach, but holding his hand over his eyes) picks up his elbow and looks around--I realized that this was not a film of a boy dying, but a clumsily staged scene.

On October 31, 2003, at the studios of France2 in Jerusalem in the company of Charles Enderlin and his Israeli cameraman, I saw the raw footage of Al Durah from the only Palestinian cameraman who actually captured the scene on film--footage France2 still refuses to release for public examination. I was floored. The tapes feature a long succession of obviously faked injuries; brutal, hasty evacuation scenes; and people ducking for cover while others stand around. One fellow grabbed his leg in agony, then, upon seeing that no one would come to carry him away, walked away without a limp. It was stunning. That was no cameraman's conspiracy: It was everyone--a public secret about which news consumers had no clue.

But the real shock came when I mentioned this to Enderlin, who said he trusted this cameraman. "They always do that," he said. "It's a cultural style." So why wouldn't they have faked Al Durah? "They're not good enough," he said. A year later, the higher-ups at France2 made the same remark to three French journalists who also noted the pervasive staging: "You know well that it's always like that," they said.

I tried unsuccessfully to interest the mainstream press in this obvious fakery, but nobody was interested. "I don't know how much appetite there is for this material here," one person at a major studio told me. So I made Pallywood (Palestinian Hollywood)--a video-essay showing the dishonesty and the still-more-astounding Western complicity in using this footage to inform us about the Middle East. Then I made a follow-up, Al Durah: The Making of an Icon (and soon, Icon of Hatred). I established a website, The Second Draft, where I posted the movies along with my evidence so that, unlike France2, people could check my sources. And now the accused have asked me to testify.

Why did they want me? In trying to dismiss my first testimony, the plaintiff's lawyer wondered, "what does he know about images? He's a medievalist." Well, I know about the power of images, of narratives, and of forgeries, and especially blood libels. And, since my first book, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History, was about a set of forgeries that continued to fool historians for decades even after a critic revealed them as fakes in the 1920s, I also know something about the difficulty of getting specialists to acknowledge they were duped.

But this image goes beyond blood libel and anti-Semitism, beyond blackening Israel's image and whitewashing Palestinian violence. Al Durah became the icon not only of the Intifada, but of global jihad. Within months of the incident, bin Laden came out with a recruiting video that featured extensive Pallywood footage and highlighted Al Durah. Months later, Pakistani jihadis killed Daniel Pearl, interweaving Al Durah's image into their tape of the execution.

In 2000, anyone told of Muslim plans to Islamicize the West laughed with scorn. It was the least of Western worries. Today, some have already given up Europe for lost; others see it in the balance; and others are finally awakening with shock to the radical shift in the balance of forces. And every aspect of l'affaire Al Durah is emblematic of why: from the Palestinian forces that staged it; to the Western mainstream press and the NGOs that presented it as news without asking hard questions (and that believed any subsequent Palestinian claims of Israelis killing children and resisted efforts at correction); to the Muslim world that turned it into an icon of hatred and a call to genocidal holy war; to the "leftist" revolutionaries who jumped on the jihad bandwagon in Durban, South Africa; to a public distressingly eager for "dirt" on Israel and unaware of the forces empowered by diffusing such poisons.

Three court trials, then--in which France2 seeks to bury any serious assessment of their coverage--are also trials of France's ability to defend her republican values against an Islamist onslaught that it seems ill-equipped to resist. And, as France goes, so goes Europe. (Would France have it any other way?)

The plaintiff at the first trial, on September 14, was Philippe Karsenty of Media-Ratings, the boldest of France2's critics. No one from France2 showed up. Its solitary lawyer had no witnesses, no questions for Karsenty's witnesses, and no comments about the evidence damning her clients. Her summation insisted on France2's honor and reputation, offered a letter of praise from President Jacques Chirac, and cast aspersions on the defense's witnesses.

Then the procureur de la republique (a court-appointed officer charged with assessing the case in the interests of civil society) gave her nonbinding opinion. She rebuked France2 for not addressing the evidence, for not showing their raw footage, and for not even showing up in court. She further admitted that, although Karsenty had impugned Enderlin's and France2's reputations, he had offered enough evidence to make such assertions a legitimate part of public discourse. Judgment on Karsenty's case is Thursday. Next trial: October 26. So far, the best coverage--surprise!--comes from the blogosphere.

Richard Landes´ to mini-dokumentarer; Pallywood: "..according to Palestinian sources":



..og Al Durah: "..according to Palestinian sources" II:



Læs eventuelt mere om al-Durah-sagen på Wikipedia (masser af links). Links til artikler om Pallywood kan findes sammesteds.

UPDATE:

Et eksempel fra Pallywood, via LGF:

On Tuesday, a Reuters cameraman was remanded to prison until trial for his part in rock-throwing attacks on security forces in Bil’in, where the separation fence is a constant target of protesters.

The cameraman, Imad Muhammad Intisar Boghnat, was arrested and charged as a result of violent riots in the Arab village of Bil’in, in the Modi’in region, on October 6, 2006. A videotape that the prosecution presented to the judge shows Boghnat encouraging and directing rioters in Bil’in to throw large chunks of rock at Israeli vehicles in such a way as to cause maximum damage. The accused is heard shouting, “Throw, throw!” and later, “Throw towards the little window!”

"Integration"? Jo tak - indtil folk ikke kan holde det ud mere

En kommentar fra Brussels Journal på det nyligt overståede lokalvalg i Belgien (via Angantyrs Hjørne - VB betyder Vlaams Belang, den flamske parallel til Dansk Folpearti):

On 10 September I wrote that European politics will swing dramatically to the Left in the coming decades, owing to the growing influence of an immigrant vote eager to retain and expand the welfare benefits. Another trend, however, is also visible.

While yesterday’s elections saw the VB stagnate in the cities the party won massively in the smaller towns and villages. This is likely to continue. While Europe’s cities and major towns turn Muslim and red, the countryside will remain indigenous and will become ever more “islamophobic” and hostile to the cities. The indigenous Europeans – at least if they can afford it – are moving out of the cities (indeed, they are fleeing them). As Filip Dewinter, the VB leader in Antwerp, said in an interview last month: “I am a realist. The number of potential voters for our party is declining year by year [in Antwerp, which has 460,000 inhabitants]. Currently a quarter of the population are immigrants. These people do not vote for us. Every year 4,000 indigenous Antwerpians move out and 5,000 immigrants move in.”

The former city dwellers have moved to suburbia, where towns such as Schoten saw their percentage of VB voters rise yesterday from 24.5 to 34.7%, and to rural districts such as Mol, which saw the VB grow from 13.1 to 21.9%.

Terrorkrigen er en æres-krig

Jonathan Rauch i National Journal, om skam/ære-samfundet, hvordan det at den islamiske verden er et sådant, mens den vestlige verden har udviklet sig til noget andet har produceret en situation, hvor vi simpelt hen ikke fatter hvilken krig/kulturkonflikt det er vi er i for tiden. Fra The Terror War is an Honor War:

The journalist-poet was speaking the language of traditional honor, a tongue that modern Westerners have largely forgotten -- to their peril, if James Bowman is right. In a recently published and bracingly original book called Honor: A History, Bowman -- a cultural critic and historian affiliated with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington -- argues that honor remains a potent force in world affairs, perhaps more potent today than in many years, because it is central to the liberal West's confrontation with militant Islam. If he is right, the terror war is really an honor war, but only one side knows it.

Boiling Bowman's richly nuanced 327 pages down to four paragraphs does the book a cruel disservice, but this is journalism, so here goes. Honor, for Bowman's purposes, means "the good opinion of people who matter to us." The basic honor code requires men to maintain a reputation for bravery, women a reputation for chastity. If a man is insulted, injured, or disrespected, he must avenge the offense and prove that anyone who messes with him (or "his" women) will be sorry.

The West's history is rich with traditions of honor, and equally rich with examples of its dangers and follies, among them the duel that killed the most brilliant of America's Founders. Singularly, however, the West has backed away from honor. Under admonitions from Christianity to turn the other cheek and from the Enlightenment to favor reason over emotion, the West first channeled honor into the arcane rituals of chivalry, then folded it into a code of manly but magnanimous Victorian gentlemanliness -- and then, in the 20th century, drove it into disrepute. World War I and the Vietnam War were seen as needless butcheries brought on by archaic obsessions with national honor; feminism and the therapeutic culture taught that a higher manly strength acknowledges weakness.

"Yet we are, in global terms, the odd ones out," Bowman writes. Outside the West, traditional honor codes remain strong, and nowhere is that more true than in the Muslim world. In the modern Islamic world, few share the West's view of honor as outdated and unnecessary. "The honor culture of the Islamic world predates its conversion to Islam in the seventh century," writes Bowman.

Islam overlaid itself above honor and, unlike Christianity in the West, did not challenge it. Today's militant jihadism takes the ethic of honor to extremes, fixating on manly ferocity and glorious vengeance.

Thus, Bowman writes, "America and its allies are engaged in a battle against an Islamist enemy that is the product of one of the world's great unreconstructed and unreformed honor cultures." Jihadism wages not only a religious war but a cultural one, aiming to redeem, through deeds of bravery and defiance, the honor of an Islam whose glory has shamefully faded. It aims, further, to uphold a masculine honor code that the West's decadent, feminizing influence threatens to undermine.

Whether or not Bowman has the whole story right, the prism of honor brings puzzling elements of the current conflict into sharper focus. Americans are baffled that Western appeals to freedom and prosperity get so little traction in the Arab and Muslim worlds. America's example as the "shining city on a hill" inspired liberalizing movements from Eastern Europe to Tiananmen Square; why should the Middle East be different? One answer is that traditional honor cultures value vindication over freedom and wealth. Militant Islamism and Baathist-style national socialism offer narratives of restored greatness and heroic resistance. Ballot boxes and shopping malls offer neither. If freedom brings humiliation, what good is it?

Most wars are waged between combatants who share similar honor codes or at least comprehend each other's honor codes. This time, there is no communication across the battlefield. To Americans, it is patently clear that the attacks of September 11 were acts of unprovoked aggression; in a traditional honor culture, however, violence to protect one's honor is just as self-defensive as violence to protect one's person.

Westerners are both revolted and puzzled by jihadists' willingness to kill non-Muslim civilians. In the post-honor West, the first rule of honorable combat is not to target noncombatants. From biblical times on down, by contrast, many traditional honor cultures have made a practice of killing and enslaving civilians, whom they regarded as enemies and spoils. In a primitive honor culture, the combatant-civilian distinction is less important than the boundary between one's own honor circle -- one's self, clan, tribe, or religious co-believers -- and outsiders, whose fate is largely a matter of indifference. Modern jihadism appears to have embraced this atavistic ethic.

Traditional honor, Bowman emphasizes, is about the reputation for bravery, not necessarily bravery itself. Maintaining reputation implies saving face by never admitting weakness. When Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, Iraq's information minister during the U.S. invasion in 2003, insisted ludicrously that Iraq was winning the war, "he was simply saying what it was incumbent on a man of honor to say if he was not to lose face by admitting a shameful defeat," according to Bowman.

More consequentially, Americans assumed, in 2002 and 2003, that Saddam Hussein would not pretend to hide weapons of mass destruction that he didn't actually possess. Why would he lie to bring about his own downfall? What seemed inexplicable to a post-honor culture would seem, in a traditional honor culture, too obvious to need explaining: Saddam was more concerned about saving face -- preserving his reputation for being fierce and formidable -- than about his office or even his life. Indeed, he could not feel otherwise and still count himself a man.

In the modern West, interest trumps honor (or subsumes it). We don't shoot ourselves in the foot to prove we're tough and fierce. Or, if we do, we expect to be ridiculed, not admired. If interest trumps honor, a country will swallow its pride in the face of a defeat or setback and make the best of its lot. For Germany after World War II (and for Japan, which was quick to adopt Western ways), getting rich was the best revenge.

In a traditional honor culture, that sort of pride-swallowing compromise may not be possible. Honor trumps interest (or subsumes it). The well-educated and talented Arabs of the Levant might today be enjoying the same prosperity and security as Spain or South Korea if years ago they had accepted Israel as a fact of life, made peace, and moved on. To Hamas and Hezbollah militants and their supporters, however, Israel's continued existence is a standing humiliation, and the debt to honor must be paid, never mind the cost.

Nor can militant Islamists settle with the West. When the post-honor West says, "Come, now, give up this foolishness, join our club, be free and rich," they hear something more like, "Be our poodle, sit at our feet, enjoy the fruits of capitulation." Admonitions that bellicosity accomplishes nothing miss the point, which is that the very act of fighting ("resistance") redeems honor and therefore accomplishes what matters most.

The West thus finds itself an unwilling, and in many respects unwitting, participant in an honor feud. Clashes of interest can end in compromise, but honor feuds proffer no logical end of destruction, as Shakespeare's Montagues and Capulets and Mark Twain's Grangerfords and Shepherdsons could attest. "There's no, to use a fashionable term, exit strategy," Bowman said in an interview.

Americans are naive if we assume that honor cultures yearn for freedom on our terms, and remiss if we underestimate their capacity for self-defeating belligerence. Although they are not strictly rational by modern Western lights, neither are they crazy. They are something else altogether: honor-bound.

Meget mere om konceptet hos Dr. Sanity ("Shame, the arab psyche and Islam" og "No Relation to Reality, Indeed"). En smagsprøve fra den sidste:

Interviewer: Is this what happens in reality?
Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: I have no relation to reality. I am talking about how things should be.
Interviewer: You are a religious sheik, from Al-Azahar University. You cannot say you have no relation to reality.
Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: Reality is a mistake, we must rectify it.

Lancet rapporten - manipulation med tallene så det klodser

For et par dage siden meddelte det tidligere velrennomerede britiske lægetidsskrift The Lancet, at det ville offentliggøre endnu en rapport der skulle lyve antallet af irakere dræbt i krigen dér højt nok op til at kunne afgøre det kommende amerikanske midtvejsvalg. Eller......det var sådan set ikke det, de sagde, men det de reelt gjorde.

Rapporten - der påstår, at 655.000 flere irakere er døde mellem marts 2003 og juni 2006, end der ville have gjort uden befrielsen - kan læses eller downloades her. Egentlig ville jeg selv have pillet den fra hinanden, men nu kom "real life" i vejen, så da jeg endelig kom tilbage til det var der allerede andre, der havde påpeget de fleste graverende fejl. Selv om jeg foragter dem for deres egne "kreative" bogføringsmetoder, så er den bedste debunking af den nye omgang Lancet-propaganda nok Iraq Bodycount´s. Den kan læses eller downloades her. Nogle konklusioner:

• Ingen har bemærket 90% af de dødsfald, Lancet påstår har fundet sted
• Mellem midt-2004 og midt-2006 er mindst 800.000 irakere blevet såret - men mellem 92 og 92% af dem har aldrig været i nærheden af et hospital.

Der er meget mere, men læs det hele selv. Til IBC´s kommentarer kan jeg tilføje mine egne bekymringer, især omkring deres udvælgelse af såkaldte "clusters" - steder, hvor de foretager undersøgelser af påståede og opfundne dødsfald.

1) Oprindeligt var planen, at der skulle have været 50 "clusters", men ifølge rapportens forfattere fravalgte de 3 af dem fordi de var foretaget forkerte steder på grund af "fejl-kommunikation". At disse tre "clusters" skægt nok lige er i de to fredeligste provinser i Irak (Dohuk i nord og Muthanna i syd), så man ikke behøver tage dem i betragtning er en tanke værd. I tilfældet Dohuk især da 2004-udgaven af rapporten ikke viste nogen stigning, men tvært imod et FALD på 80% i dødeligheden i de kurdiske provinser i nord. Ved at ekskludere Dohuk forøges med statistiske kunstgreb altså antallet at irakiske mer-dødsfald.

Samtidig er Lancet-folkene åbenbart ude af stand til at foretage simple subtraktioner. For at kunne forsvare at udelukke resultaterne fra Muthanna og Dohuk er de også nødt til at foretage deres undersøgelse uden at lade som om den er repræsentativ for disses befolkning - de er altså nødt til at lade den være repræsentativ for kun Iraks befolkning uden for de to provinser. Iraks befolkning sættes til 27.072.200, og de to provinsers til 1.387.300. Når forfatterne trækker de to tal fra hinanden får de imidlertid ikke 25.684.900 som enhver lommeregner jeg har kunnet komme i nærheden vil have det til at være, men 26.112.353. De overdriver altså der undersøgte områdes befolkning med ca. 427.000.

2) Den simple placering af "clusters" fører også til manipuleringer med data. Ideelt set burde hvert "cluster" repræsentere 546.000 irakere, så der for eksempel i den fredelige provins Wassit (befolking 938.700) ideelt burde findes 1,7 "cluster". Tilsvarende burde den krigshærgede Anbar-provins (befolkning 1.271.000) ideelt set have 2,3 "clusters". Sund fornuft ville sige, at så burde man runde Wassit´s 1,7 "clusters" op til 2 og tilsvarende Anbar´s 2,3 ned til 2. Forfatterne har imidlertid valgt at gøre det direkte modsatte: Wassit har kun fået én "cluster", og Anbar har istedet fået 3. Da hver cluster i tal-cirkusset repræsenterer 546.000 irakere betyder det, at voldelige Anbar pludselig repræsenterer 368.000 flere irakere end der reelt bor, mens fredelige Wassit repræsenterer 392.000 færre.

På nationalt plan betyder det simple statistiske kneb, at de krigshærgede sunnimuslimske provinser pludselig kommer til at repræsentere mere end én million irakere flere, end der reelt bor i dem. Den højere merdødelighed, rapporten finder i de provinser bliver automatisk projiceret over på den million irakere, der ikke er repræsenteret af den, og forøger det altså kunstigt.

3) En simpel ting, som IBC næsten også kommer til at nævne, er at de grundlag rapporten er bygget på er usandsynligt småt. Den påstår at have fundet lidt over 300 flere dødsfald mere, end man burde have kunnet forventet, og ekstrapolerer derfra til de påståede 655.000 flere døde irakere. Hvert dødsfald, forfatterne påstår at have fundet ganges altså automatisk med 2.000 for at passe i deres kram.

Ét eksempel: ét enkelt dødsfald, rapporten påstår at have fundet som offer for allierede luftangreb før befrielsen (i perioden januar 2002 - marts 2003), ganges automatisk med 2.000, og bliver lige pludselig til to tusinde irakere, som onde vesterlændinge har slået ihjel. Selv det venstreradikale US Bombing Watch, der tog Saddams hedengangne propagandaministeriums kommunikéer for gode varer, kunne kun finde 54.

Lancet selv, og de der har en interesse i at overdrive de menneskelige tab i Irak, slår meget på, at Lancet er troværdig og lader artikler gennemgå en grundig undersøgelse for om de er faktuelle, før de bliver offentliggjort. Taget i betragtning, at forfatterne til den nye rapport har nægtet reelt at dokumentere de dødsfald, de påstår de har fundet, og at Lancet tidligere har offentliggjort rapporter der har opfundet sine "ofre" kan man imidlertid trygt være skeptisk over for dette.

PS. Af almen interesse vil måske være den tidligere rapport om irakisk overdødelighed siden befrielsen, der blev offentliggjort i The Lancet i 2004. Den kan læses her.

UPDATE:

Appendixer, en forklaring af den anvendte "metode" i 2006-rapporten, manipulering med og udeladelse af andre undersøgelser, og en del selvfed belæring af verden om, hvordan man bedst opfører sig tilpads venstreorienteret i international politik kan findes her.

Yderligere et område, hvor rapporen manipulerer med virkeligheden, for øvrigt: dens "clusters" er udelukkende at finde i byer så de 24% af den irakiske befolkning, der lever i de fredelige landområder ikke er repræsenteret.

UPDATE II:

Kommentarer fra blogosfæren: Back Talk, Medpundit, Instapundit og Rants and Rayguns.

Arresteret for at ville tale engelsk

Daily Mail via LGF:

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

Codie Stott’s family claim she was forced to spend three-and-a-half hours in a police cell after she was reported by her teachers. The 14-year-old - who was released without charge - said it had been a simple matter of commonsense and accused the school and police of an over-the-top reaction.

The incident happened in the same local education authority where a ten-year-old boy was prosecuted earlier this year for calling a schoolfriend racist names in the playground, a move branded by a judge “political correctness gone mad.”

Codie was attending a GCSE science class at Harrop Fold High School in Worsley, Greater Manchester, when the incident happened. The teenager had not been in school the day before due to a hospital appointment and had missed the start of a project, so the teacher allocated her a group to sit with.

“She said I had to sit there with five Asian pupils,” said Codie yesterday. “Only one could speak English, so she had to tell that one what to do so she could explain in their language. Then she sat me with them and said ‘Discuss’.”

According to Codie, the five - four boys and a girl - then began talking in a language she didn’t understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher.

“I said ‘I’m not being funny, but can I change groups because I can’t understand them?’ But she started shouting and screaming, saying ‘It’s racist, you’re going to get done by the police’.”
Codie said she went outside to calm down where another teacher found her and, after speaking to her class teacher, put her in isolation for the rest of the day.

A complaint was made to a police officer based full-time at the school, and more than a week after the incident on September 26 she was taken to Swinton police station and placed under arrest.

“They told me to take my laces out of my shoes and remove my jewellery, and I had my fingerprints and photograph taken,” said Codie. “It was awful.”

PS. Codies konto på sitet Bebo.

Nationalsocialisme i praksis: Nordkorea

Fra Times:

THE North Korean regime’s obsession with racial purity has led to the killing of disabled infants and forced abortions for women suspected of conceiving their babies by Chinese fathers, according to a growing body of testimony from defectors. ..

Exiles in Seoul said Ri was now keeping a low profile, fearing retaliation by North Korean agents, who have assassinated foes in the South Korean capital before. But his account added to the evidence that the Kim family dictatorship is founded on mystical notions of Korean racial superiority rather than Marxism — a reality that explains its deepening estrangement from China.

Along the 850-mile border, North Korean women refugees have emerged with stories that speak of the regime’s preoccupation with “deviant” sexual relations and its predisposition to violence in dealing with them.

One such account came from a 30-year-old woman who calls herself Han Myong-suk. She escaped twice and reached a safe haven in an undisclosed third country within the past year thanks to Helping Hands Korea, an American Christian group.

She said she was sold by traffickers to a Chinese farmer near the Great Wall, and was five months pregnant by him when she was caught by the Chinese police and deported back to North Korea.

There she was held in one of three female detention centres, which have been identified in the towns of Sinuju, Onsong and Chongin. Her account was taken down by Tim Peters, an American Christian activist who founded the group.

“I defied the order to abort the foetus the prison authorities contemptuously called a ‘Chinese Chink’ and was badly beaten and kicked in my belly by a guard. His name was Hwang Myong-dong,” she said.

One week later, said Han, she was led to a prison clinic “where in a most blunt manner they extracted the dead child from my body”.

Han survived the depraved conditions of a labour camp for several years before her release and eventual second escape. ..

Choi Yong-hwa, 28, described how she was made to accompany a heavily pregnant woman, who had also been returned across the bridge from China, to a clinic where doctors induced labour. After the infant was born, Choi said she and other women stood by in disbelief as it was suffocated with a wet towel. The mother passed out.

A 66-year-old grandmother also testified to witnessing the deaths of babies at Sinuiju, two of them healthy boys born at full term. The first belonged to a 28-year-old woman called Lim. The witness was holding the newborn in a blanket when a guard grabbed him by a leg and threw him into a large box lined with plastic.

A total of seven babies — five born prematurely after labour was induced — were left to die in the box. Two days later the premature babies were dead. The two full-term boys were still blinking, although their lips had turned blue. A guard battered them to death with forceps, the witness said.

At the Nongpo centre in Chongjin, witnesses saw the “children of betrayers” tossed into a wicker basket, covered in plastic sheeting and left to die. One woman watched the killing of seven babies, taken from their mothers and left face-down on the ground within their view.

After two days the guards smothered any that were still alive. “Guards would say the mothers had to see and hear their babies die because they were Chinese,” the report said.

Velkommen til Folkerepublikken Korea. Nordkoreanerne forstår næppe dansk, men mon ikke folkene i Venskabsforeningen Danmark-Den Demokratiske Folkerepublik Korea er villige til at sende eventuelle kommentarer til mailadressen dk-korea@inform.dk videre?

PS. Sidste sommer kunne man se den radikale danske venstrefløj til og med SF omfavne folkemords-fans´ne i venskabsforeningen for i kor at bræge løs mod Bush. Efter rusen var sovet ud var der åbenbart nogle grimme tømmermænd, der meldte sig, og Kommunistpartiet Enhedslisten viste sig fornuftige nok (trods alt) til at komme med et ultimatum: diktatur-dukkerne fra venskabsforeningen måtte ikke være med til den traditionelle socialistiske strækmarch 1. Maj til Blågårds Plads. Enhedslisten fik sin vilje, men som reaktion valgte en serie andre kommunistiske partier og frontgrupper selv at trække sig. For interessens skyld er her tre af dem:

- Kommunistisk Parti i Danmark
- Danmarks Kommunistiske Parti marxister leninister
- Forlaget Demos

Islamisk had goes mainstream

I disse karrikaturkrise-tider er det måske på sin plads at give folk et indblik i, hvordan den islamiske verdens feber-fantasier om den onde vesterlænding er skruet sammen. Andre har tidligere vist hvordan islamiske karrikaturister og filmfolk fremstiller vesterlændinge som vampyrer, børnemordere og det der er værre til eget forbrug.

Efterhånden er de hadske muslimske fantasier imidlertid begyndt at trænge helt ind i vesten. Her traileren for en mere mainstream og high-budget version: den tyrkiske film "Ulvenes dal Irak", der blandt andet blev vist på den anden side af grænsen i den tyske biografkæde Cinemaxx. Filmen er komplet med amerikanske massakrer på muslimer og en jødisk doktor, der sælger døde irakeres organer til rige mennesker i London, New York og (uha) Tel Aviv.


Hvad der gør filmen yderligere bemærkelsesværdig er, at vestlige mainstream-skuespillere som Billy Zane og Gary Busey har kunnet få sig selv til at medvirke i sådan noget bræk. Mere fra Wikipedia og Internet Movie Database.

Flame Warriors

Til eventuelle politik-junkies og netnørder: Mike Reeds´Flame Warriors.

Personligt er jeg vel mest en Tireless Rebutter. I tidernes morgen lykkedes det en slovensk kammerat og mig at tredoble en diskussionsgruppes trafik i en disput med en italiensk ultra-nationalist.

Åh ja, de dage...

Iraks kommende opsplitning

Det er ikke længere kun kurderne, der vil splitte Irak op - nu har de islamistiske "oprørere" også funder ud af, at deres drøm om at genoprette sunniernes folkemords-diktaturet over hele irak er en dødfødt drøm. Fra CNN:

A Sunni insurgent coalition is calling for a separate Islamic state in parts of Iraq's capital and in other provinces with a large Sunni population, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site Sunday.

The group's spokesman said the separate state should include Baghdad and the provinces of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, Salaheddin and regions of Babil and Wasit.

On Wednesday, Iraq's parliament approved a law that would allow the country's 18 provinces to hold referenda on merging with other provinces to create a federal region.

But the legislation, backed by the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, was boycotted by the two top Sunni blocs, a secular party and two smaller Shiite movements -- the Fadhila party and Muqtada al-Sadr's group.

Sunnis oppose the creation of federal regions, saying a Shiite and a Kurdish region would each control the country's oil riches to the detriment of Sunnis -- who do not live in the oil-producing regions of Iraq.

Parliamentarians already have agreed on an 18-month moratorium before the merger process goes into effect.

UPDATE:

Et billede fra terroristernes foreslåede stat:

Multikultur fører til tillids-tab

Fra Financial Times, en artikel om én af guruerne inden for social kapital-teorien: Robert Putnam, forfatter til Bowling Alone:

A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists.

His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor. ..

The core message of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.” ..

When the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, they showed that the more people of different races lived in the same community, the greater the loss of trust. “They don’t trust the local mayor, they don’t trust the local paper, they don’t trust other people and they don’t trust institutions,” said Prof Putnam. “The only thing there’s more of is protest marches and TV watching.”

British Home Office research has pointed in the same direction and Prof Putnam, now working with social scientists at Manchester University, said other European countries would be likely to have similar trends.

Nu kan man som videnskabsmand selvfølgelig ikke offentliggøre ubehagelig research der påpeger et enormt problem, uden lige at understrege, at man selvfølgelig ikke mener, at der reelt skal gøres noget ved det:

Prof Putnam stressed, however, that immigration materially benefited both the “importing” and “exporting” societies, and that trends “have been socially constructed, and can be socially reconstructed”.

In an oblique criticism of Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, who revealed last week he prefers Muslim women not to wear a full veil, Prof Putnam said: “What we shouldn’t do is to say that they [immigrants] should be more like us. We should construct a new us.”

Så lær at leve med steninger, burqa´er, censur af religionskritik og køns-apartheid. Vi skal jo konstruere et nyt "os".

Ellers tak.

Hvis politik bare var SÅ underholdende.....

Amerikanske valgkamps-reklamer er - med rette - berygtede for at være smagløse, i hvert fald når de kammer over i tilsvining af modstanderen. Hvis nogen skulle være i tvivl, kan jeg afsløre, at det er tilfældet for begge de store partier, både Demokraterne og Republikanerne. Der er imidlertid grænser. Drudge rapporterer om reaktionen hos topfolk i det Republikanske parti, da Hollywood-produceren Ron Zucker (der indtil 2004 var demokrat) præsenterede sit bud på en valg-reklamefilm, der skulle vises i de sidste uger op til kongres-valget senere i år:

One GOP strategist said "jaws dropped" when the ad was first viewed. "Nobody could believe Zucker thought any political organization could use this ad. It makes a point, but it's way over the top."

Det kan godt være, filmen er "for meget", men ustyrligt morsom er den i hvert fald: