Posts by Robert Fox
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<quaote>But the idea that a minority Islamic community = sharia law in Europe is lame. </quote>
Absolutley. Its just a worry that there are dansgerous nutters out there who are so alienated that they cant see the wood through the trees. One theory that kind of makes sense even though it is a generalisation of course, is that muslim boys brought up by their parents to expect a place at the top of the social heirarchy (little muslim princes) struggle to cope with rejection and racism in a secular society and feel that muslim women in particular have gained so much more freedom than them. Fundamentalism is appealing to them as a way of regainining their natural status. This is just an observation but while I worked at South Bank Uni in london which had the highest ethnic student cohort of any british uni, it was obvious that the Asian women students seemed to be flourishing and embracing western fashions and values where as a large percentage of asian Men appeared withdrawn and struggled with their courses. The Islamic society was a constent cause for concern with the Union and University authorities because of its radicalism. (Zacharias Mouusaui was a student while I was there btw.) -
That sure has all the hallmarks of Al Queda alright.. Personally, I'm with the guy who says those vehicles were designed as warnings, not bombs, and were addressed directly to the gay pride movement
All though in these times it is difficult to dispel any conspirocy theory I think it is quite far fetched to think that this was directed at Gay Pride. Old Compton St would be the obious place to park a car bomb to attack the Gay community. It would also be a huge ramping up of violent activity by the Anti Gay brigade. Remember the london nail bomber was a member of the BNP and didn't only target gays he targeted ethnic communities Brixton and Brick Lane as well. When people use the term Al Queda it can give the impression of a well organised network of extremists working in unison. Although these guys may have received overseas funding for their bomb making, their only other link to Al Queda may just be as an inspitational force.
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Dont panic Mr Manwaring, Dont Panic!! Dads Army is deeply ingrained in the British psyche I can tell you!!
Hassan Butt has nailed it there. Anyone from London knows that it has always attempted to be a city of coexistence. The tensions on the fringes between establishing immigrant cultures and subsequently generated subcultures are what makes it such an exciting place to live. For fear of sounding too much like an unreconstructed hegelian marxist, violent urban unrest followed by consensus has typified the historical development of this great city and other British cities for that matter. Its a concern however that 2 and 3rd generation british Muslims still feel alienated enough to identify with medieval models of islam to the extent that they will blow up felow civilians to furhter their cause. As it has been rightly pointed out, its one thing for Muslims to understand that the secular west can liberate them from conservative theology and offer a better life, but its difficult to argue the cause of the secular west when it is being controlled by Christian Zealots who seem intent on ramping up a blood feud. -
Forgive me if I'm wrong as I'm no expert but I always thought that the British government interviened on black wednesdayby raising interest rates to get punters to buy stirling so that it could prop value of the pound up. The fundamental problem was that Major overvalued the pound before entering stirling into the fixed rate ERM. It appears to me that Bollard and just about every economist in NZ seems to think that the Kiwi Dollar is artificially high and the bank is buying Us Dollars to drive the KD dollar down. The only thing it has in common with the british experience is that it is a central bank intervention and that's about it. Also the central bank here is politically independent unlike the bank of england in 1992. I'll never forget the look on Norman (the badger) Lamonts face as he announced that his attempt to rectify major's f*ck up had failed. The Tories lost the confidence of the city from that momnet on.
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Your mate Scott Young is obviously a big fan of Withnail and I. On their angsty pissed trip to the lake district the desperate neurotic drunken thesp Withnail (Richard E Grant) proposes to change his name to Donald Twain.
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To me, freedom is to being allowed.
Yes but freedom is also abused by knuckleheads
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If kids get succesfully stopped from hooning around in their own cars, what's going to happen? Chances are they might start stealing cars and racing those - cheaper than building one and risking getting it confiscated.
Joy riding and hooning in your own car a two different levels of lawbreaking. Are the chavs that nick cars (in the UK)from the same kind of social demographic as the majority of boy racers in NZ? Car theft is a step beyond what most NZ boy racers would contemplate I reckon.
there's enough evidence to support that it's simply not the right time in your life to be doing something so risky as driving a car, so the government should make it easy for parents and say, kids are not allowed to drive one.
The paternalistic european in me agrees with this idea however in rural parts of NZ the car is the only form of transport kids have to get around and this is probably a major factor in the driving age remaing so low.
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Classic moral panic stuff here I reckon, but that doesnt stop me getting pissed off when dickheads in a suped up motors with fuck off exhausts go haring past our house at 3am. Generally though the worse drivers on the road here are the baby boomers in suv's trying to deal with the fact that there's a whole lot more traffic on the roads than 20 years ago by driving their Tanks down the middle of the road and expecting the traffic to part before them like the red sea. As a Londoner I find the whole boy racer sub culture very provincial, uncreative and boring and my sympathy is subsequent diminshed as a result. Either that or middle age is just turning me into mean spirited old git.
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So why are we worried about an invasion of Iran then? It would take a miracle to get the go ahead from congress in the current climate. I suppose getting the Israelis to do it by proxy like in lebanon last year would be the obvious answer.
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I'm not persuaded by arguments that people like Bolton or even Cheney are out of the loop now. Bush is far to wilfully stupid not to be influenced by these nutters or anyone else in earshot who wants to tell him what he thinks about Iran.It seems that negative public opinion is lost on Bush in the fag end of his administration as he's shown with his surge strategy in Iraq. The only hope with Iran is a significant revolt against the president by the US military. Simon like I said earlier there is a difference between editorial content and hard news. Coughlan's pieces have rightly been reportedthe rather toothless PCC who I bet are quite reluctantly investigating his indescretions. That Bolton piece is hidden away from the main web page so maybe its yesterday's news already