'Nother Solent

The judgement of history.

John Weidner provides the minority report. And I'd add that the Royal Navy covered itself with glory under the good old system of prize money.

Take another look

at the post below. Some of you will bridle at any diminuition of its harshness. I am going to add a softening note in a minute, but, still, I don't think there's a lot wrong with it. Various opinion polls show that a majority of Palestinians support suicide bombings of civilians like this one - I'll track down the link in Daimnation if anyone wants to argue. Therefore the use of the general word "Palestinians" is justified. When Hamas and Al-Asqua claim that the people are with them in their struggle, they speak the truth. Our history books are full of passages saying that the Germans or the British or the Indians massacred people at this or that site, so there should be no objection to statements that the Palestinians massacred people at this or that bus shelter.

The fact that Palestinians habitually celebrate the deaths of innocents, including children, is well chronicled in words and photographs in LGF. I picked Nablus because this was the town with the best publicised public delight at the destruction of the World Trade Centre.

I would say that if you pick a randomly chosen Palestinian, the odds are greater than with any other people on earth (except perhaps the Rwandan Hutu, unless that's been beaten out of them since 1994) that he or she supports the massacre of innocents. I say so only because more than half of them say they do, loudly, proudly and often. Again I would say that if you pick a randomly chosen Palestinian, the odds are greater than with any other people on earth (with same possible exception as before) that he or she supports the genocidal extermination of their enemy race, although here I would guess that the percentage supporting wholesale extermination is much lower than that which merely(!) supports the killing of large numbers and the expulsion or subordination of the rest. It seems a reasonable and sober guess, in the light of their own statements, that the percentage of Palestinians supporting extermination of the Jews is at least as high as the percentage of Germans supporting it in the Nazi era. The main difference between the two groups lies in the presence or absence of power to carry out their desires.

Little sign so far of that promised softening of my heart, you may be saying to yourselves. Here it is: I generally share the modern squeamishness about group judgements. They cannot be avoided if we are to make sense of the world in our limited lifespans, but, of course, it is in individual souls that good or evil is decided. Furthermore as a Christian I must believe that all individuals are capable of redemption, and as an observer of the world I see that is true for groups as well. I don't have a strikingly high opinion of the Germany of 2002, but it is a million miles from the Germany of 1944.

And now we come to the thought that started off this post. I don't like group judgements, particularly racial ones. I am usually fairly careful to slip in some qualifier to avoid them; "present-day Palestinian culture is full of hatred for Jews" rather than "Palestinians hate Jews." Why didn't I this time? Answer: because of the post about Robin Page further down the page. It made me think, "**** you, tranzis, see how you like this."

That is the usual effect of the suppression of free speech.

Another day

, another Palestinian massacre. Many schoolchildren killed, so much to celebrate in Nablus.

So this is what they mean

by "hate speech." Telegraph columnist arrested, held in cell, for saying the rural minority should have the same rights as blacks, Muslims, and gays. Not, mind you, more rights than blacks, Muslims and gays, but the same rights.

I did not know we had fallen so far. Remember the line peddled by Blunkett that these powers are to be used against thugs and Nazis - you can trust us to act with discretion, old chap - the innocent have nothing to fear - remember that as you read this:

Mr Page duly attended the meeting with two officers, but when he refused to answer questions without his lawyer present he was arrested and taken to Cambridge police station, spending 40 minutes in a cell.

He was told that he would have to stay there overnight if he wished to wait for his lawyer to attend, and so eventually agreed to be interviewed without him.

Now is the time for the world to fall silent at the mighty power, the zen-like subtlety, the laser-guided precision of my awesome forensic intellect.

This business everyone's getting so excited about, of whether the criminal or society is to blame? Bit o' both, I reckon.

Diana Mertz Hsieh updates me via her blog on the issue of Aquinas, Aristotle and the Nature and Classification of Lies, and via e-mail on the names issue: "I don't mind being in the "Names Which Are A Pronounciation Minefield, So Watch Out" category with Bellesiles, so long as that's the only category we share! :-) And I must admit that having the last name "Beautiful Islands" is better than my last name, which is half a thank you (hsieh hsieh)!" It's not just Chinese that produces such patterns; this family has a surname that is half a farewell.

Dunno when you'll get to read this. Blogger publishing is temporarily unavailable. Why can't it be spatially unavailable, then I could drive somewhere else and publish from there?

Stop the presses!

I wuz wrong. Once-sinful man has forsaken his wicked ways in at least one place on this earth, namely the State of Illinois. There is no crime in Illinois. I know that's true, because why else could the cops spare men and squad cars to harass home schoolers? Read all the articles listed below the factual panel to see an astonishing story of malicious officialdom. I found the link via Bedblog and Samizdata. (Which will hit 400,000 today. Be there.) I see Brian hasn't yet got the hang of contriving that his own blog and Samizdata should re-inforce each other with the correct mix of modesty yet effectiveness. In other words, he still has some modesty in the mix. Be more shameless, Brian, you're making me look bad.

News, news, yer actual news.

Little of it good, I'm afraid. Venezuela's going down. The same issue of the New Zealand Herald that had the Chavez story also has this cartoon which leads me to suppose that NZ's decision in May 2001 not to have a combat air force any more because once-sinful man had forsaken his wicked ways may have been judged premature. As a young contributor to the opposition National Party's defence forum put it some five months later:

I'm a 16 year old New Zealander. I am sick and tired of the labour government especially them scrapping the airforce. We're an island nation, if anyone's going to attack us its gonna be by either air or sea, and our army cant fly, and cant swim that well so what are we gonna do? The airforce could take out ships and planes.

What if Terrorists like Osama Bin Laden captured an Air New Zealand plane and were gonna fly it into the sky tower or something? Seen as we have no airforce what could we do? Throw rocks at the plane? If someone was gonna kill thousands of people in a plane like September 11, in New York, what could we do about it?, Ring up Australia and ask them to shoot it down?

I'm back

, but still a little pressed for time. So, what do I need to catch up on?

Dawson Speaks and Inappropriate Response have both celebrated blirgdays in the last few days. When I started blogging I naively thought that everyone except me had been doing it for ages. "What," you say, "couldn't you tell they hadn't from the absence of archives?" No, because I hadn't yet figured out archives. I just assumed that all these folk must know their way round Hogwarts and play for the Quidditch team because they all looked so authoritative when flicking their wands to dismiss boggarts, poltergeists, cornish fiskies and other pests. It took me quite a while to figure out that some of them were ickle firsties just like me. Dawson has a vintage anniversary post, covering apologetics, corn bread, and reasons to love Israel. Then there's an intensely detailed review of Blanchard's Does God Believe in Atheists? which, as a review should, tells us about a good deal more than the book.

Only I was brought up short by these lines a little way above: "Not to whine, but w/o some fundage, this blog goes dark Thursday at midnight. Hosting fees and all. Not to fear, we'll prob be back in a month if this happens, but it ain't been raining pennies from heaven here..." So I shall be visiting the tips jar when I've posted this, to help ensure the spaghetti recipe comes my way. (Not, alas, that I would do it justice. My husband does the proper cooking in our house, as he is one who thinks nothing of watching tenderly over a simmering pot for an hour in case it bubbles wrong or something. I'm more your doigts de poisson avec pommes frites style of culinary artist.)

Above that, there's a picture of Moira Stern, the harpist, who before her marriage was known as Moira Breen. Now before you rain down compliments on Inappropriate Response for Moira's modesty in not revealing her talent as a musician, be advised that that would be an inappropriate response - they are different people. (Though for all I know, Inapp's Moira may also be a musician.) You'll just have to rain down compliments on her for something else.

Meanwhile over at Junius, Chris Bertram has returned to the fray with this post responding to mine responding to his... He describes himself self-deprecatingly as a "wishy-washy social democrat," which had my ever-distractable mind wondering about the origin of the term "wishy-washy." Chinese laundries? I shall have to think up a more substantive response later. No, not about wishy-washiness, about the role of the state. (Very quickly: homogenization? Hah! Baby, you don't know you're born. It's the force of state law that enforces homogenized solutions onto education, housing, even freaking bananas for the love of mike...)

Finally, Thank you, Israpundit, for appointing me one of the Israpundit sites of the week. I'm proud to be listed in the company of Asparagirl, Oxblog, GedankenPundit and Mind over What Matters.

No blogging

for a couple of days, as I have to do mighty deeds. May I leave you in the hands of singing superheroes with sauce dispensers for heads. If you want to see who to blame, follow this link.