5216
Ohrwurm:
The BBC has suspended Robert Kilroy-Silk after he branded Arabs "suicide bombers, limb amputators and women repressors".
"Apart from oil - which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the West - what do they contribute? Can you think of anything? Anything really useful?... No, nor can I...
"We're told the the Arabs loathe us. Really?... What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on 11 September and then danced in the hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders?"
-----------------------
So much for free speaach!
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 10:45:25 am)
Froupie:
they do a nice kebab.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 10:45:58 am)
Froupie:
i mean head on a stick.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 10:46:34 am)
Myk Murphy:
well, most arab intellectuals express a sense of shame that their culture hasn't advanced at all since Saladin. 700 years of stagnation due in large part to the shotgun marriage of theology and civil law. even today, most of their internal social debates degenerate into platitudes of faith, hoping that all of their social ills will disappear if they would only be better muslims.
but yes, the kebabs are wonderful.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 10:54:13 am)
Myk Murphy:
mr kilroy-silk was impolitic, but his reasoning is simply what many people think but won't say. asking "why should we placate today's version of the Flat-Earth Society?" is not unreasonable. it's not bigotry or hatred that makes the educated classes take a long, hard look at arabs today. the west may have played a hand in stunting modern development in these lands by supporting the oil elites, but that argument runs thin. oiled and non-oiled lands in the arab world are backward.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:00:18 am)
Decoy:
Those zeros were pretty clever, I have to admit.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:00:43 am)
:
Three Polish divers are facing a police investigation for possible illegal fishing and animal abuse after a news photo showed them plying a freshly caught pike with champagne at an outdoor New Year's party.
"They may have committed offences of poaching and maltreating a fish," Maria Niedziolka of the National Fishing Authority said, which notified police of the incident.
The picture in Nowa Trybuna daily showed three frogmen neck-deep in a lake, with one of them tipping a bottle of cheap Russian bubbly into the fish's open mouth.
One of the divers told news agency PAP that they had found the pike half-dead and wanted to "restore it to consciousness by treating it with champagne".
It was not clear whether the fish survived.
Police said it would not be needed as evidence in the investigation.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:03:30 am)
Myk Murphy:
yeah, i'm fond of all the numerals. five is my fave.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:04:02 am)
Decoy:
With enough money and leisure time anyone can be artistic. And necessity is the mother invention. Frankly, I don't see much of either from the arab/muslim worl. Someone please enlighten me?
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:04:29 am)
Decoy:
Murphy, I should have known you were a base-fiver.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:04:59 am)
Be a better Muslim:
101 new ways to worship Allah.
New and improved! Now with more prostrate groveling.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:08:50 am)
Froupie:
the muslim/arabic art that i've seen doesnt interest me very much, mostly because it seems to be based on religion which bores me. i'm sure there must be some good stuff out there, somewhere.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:08:59 am)
Decoy:
My objective sensibilities for art tell me there must be, too. I need someone to show me. Is the only one Salmon Rushdie?
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:10:06 am)
Froupie:
no there must be many more, probably very underground which is not surprising.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:10:48 am)
Froupie:
i have nothing against the arab world, its just extreme religious zealots who i cant tolerate, and not just the muslim ones.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:11:54 am)
Decoy:
Good point. Maybe President Bush can bring a whole new school of art to light through his efforts. Very forward thinking of him.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:12:13 am)
Decoy:
Any zealot is a bad zealot.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:12:30 am)
Ohrwurm:
I agree with the religion bit. Never love anything that tells you how to love it back.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:13:02 am)
Froupie:
its true. i had a zealot grandmother, she was insane. when i was little she took me to church and forced me to hand over my pocket money to the salvation army. my mum was furious when she found out.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:13:20 am)
Decoy:
Cheers.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:13:24 am)
Ohrwurm:
I hope Bush writes the manifesto for this new art movement, that'd be a great read.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:14:17 am)
Decoy:
Yeah, Zealots are always poor.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:14:22 am)
Froupie:
bush, write?
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:14:44 am)
Myk Murphy:
any edgy or modern expression, be it artistic, journalistic, etc. is alternately crushed or hidden from view. a stalinist closed society, in varying degrees depending on who's in charge where. the overriding emotion is "pity", from my point of view.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:15:08 am)
Ohrwurm:
Does he have a dictiphone? Cheney maybe?
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:15:14 am)
Decoy:
"Manifest Art, the Rebirth of Mideastern Culture by George W. Bush." Literally
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:15:24 am)
Froupie:
when she died my zealot granny actually had left behind a small fortune, she left it all to the church.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:15:27 am)
Decoy:
Ahhh, they all scribble with charcoal in the basement. You'll see,
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:16:05 am)
Ohrwurm:
"My Crusade for Muslem Art" by GW Bush
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:16:17 am)
Decoy:
The Church! And they did good with it? Did you get a receipt?
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:16:33 am)
Froupie:
pfft, who knows.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:16:55 am)
Decoy:
Pffft, exactly.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:17:03 am)
Froupie:
do you ever get a receipt from church? i doubt it.
(Fri Jan 9, 2004 - 11:17:25 am)