In a stunning reversal, the Ford Foundation has admitted it erred in funding anti-Israeli Palestinian groups and has vowed to establish tough new guidelines to stop its funds from being used for anti-Semitic activities anywhere in the world.Sounds like an obviously good idea to me, but the Foundation seemed to need a bit of prompting to make the change. An in-depth investigation by the JTA and Congressional pressure finally did the trick.
How can you do a program that purports to study why British people are so hostile to President Bush – without taking note of the state broadcaster’s role in creating and magnifying that hostility?Anyone got an answer to that?
Let us pull ourselves together and hear it for good manners. Courtesy is the cement of democracy, the discipline of open debate. It enables strong government to remain at peace with dissent. A state visit is supposedly a marriage of pageantry and good manners. Let us keep it that way.Jenkins goes on to trace the roots and meaning of the ‘special relationship’ and he celebrates the ties that bind our two nations. At the same time, he criticizes the Bush visit and makes clear his opposition to US action in Iraq. I don’t share his views but I think it’s admirable that he’s able to express them in such a civilized fashion.
Dear President Bush,Charming.
I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood, with my compliments.
This useless-looking move [by Kasparov] confused most of the commentators, but to anyone with extensive anti-computer chess experience it makes perfect sense. The rook protects the f2 pawn, a potential weak spot, but why would you protect something that isn't being attacked?
The reason goes into how computers think. Its brute force calculation can only go so deep, even with four super-fast processors. Black's only possible source of counterplay in this position is to push its f-pawn and open up an attack against the area around the white king, f2 in particular.
If X3D Fritz's search, usually running 12-20 half-moves deep, ever reaches a position in which it sees success in such an attack it will put such a plan in motion. On the other hand, if it cannot reach a favorable position in its searches it will never play the initial moves required. With the rook on b2 protecting f2 already, the potential weakness of that critical square is somewhat hidden from the computer's search.
X3D Fritz can't just play it anyway like a human would, knowing that everything else is useless. A machine has to receive a positive evaluation from its search to play a move and always plays the move that gives it the best evaluation. Since X3D Fritz sees no danger here for itself it is content to play moves that do nothing, but don't cause any negative effect either. It twiddles its virtual reality thumbs. Any human would say, "I have to do SOMETHING."
The anti-war movement has coincided with a high level of public disengagement from politics. The marches against invading Iraq - including the million-strong demo in Hyde Park in February 2003 - were not the new radical moment in British politics that many claimed. Rather, the anti-war movement has been more like a collection of individuals expressing their frustration with politics and politicians.A traditional English mob. How quaint.
What makes Fisk conspicuous is his self-righteousness. The content and style of his writing proclaim that in his own eyes he is not really a reporter but the repository of truth. Other journalists are not up to their task; they are ‘nasty little puffed-up fantasy colonels’, warmongering collaborators of the wicked American–Israelis. He alone has the calling and the courage to reveal the evil rampant everywhere. Woe, woe, saith the preacher. Fisking is evangelical missionary work.It’s full of well-deserved criticism.
If you're reading blogs today and want a jumping-off point, this is the place to start. Mesdames et messieurs - le Cul-De-Sac!Start clicking!
To me, the rise of Nazism will always evoke gatherings of Socialists and Nationalists, putting aside their differences to unite the forces of their hates of individual liberties at large and the global ambiance of a dark sun rising over a murky dawn: no clearly defined threat - not yet - but a sheaf of gloomy harbingers that makes you wonder what the day will bring.Go read the whole thing.
The rise of Nazism, as seen when it happened, was probably nothing more than uproarious crowds assembling and revolving around negative concepts, and cheering at the harangues of populist speakers. A bit theatrical, a bit violent but so many people found their deceptive ideas so appealing, that the visible violence was probably disregarded or minimized.
Friends of the Earth says the decision to allow more ships due to be scrapped to dock in the UK is creating an environmental threat. Two US vessels have already arrived, and now permission has been given for two more to stay in the UK.Environmental campaigners seem capable of believing pretty much anything, as long as it doesn't come from a government source.
Peter Mandelson, MP for Hartlepool where the ships are destined to be broken up, says the fears are based on "misinformation". Campaigners believe toxic chemicals and asbestos on the US ships pose a risk.
The truth is that some environmentalists (remember there are many shades of green) are not living in the real world and they are starting to be a serious threat to the UK economy. I wonder how much of the protest about these particular ships is because they are (Heaven forbid!) American and were once used to service the American navy? Our rationality about America has now gone out to march with the barmy brigade.And, while you’re over at Philip’s place, you might also want to check out his Greenspeak-English dictionary. It’s a hoot!
It's really bad here. […] After 22 years in Surrey we're looking to move to America.I hate to admit it, but Mac and I are thinking of doing the same.
A clarification here, the vaunted sense of British fair play means fair play just for the British. When ruling the world, we were entirely justified in sending gun ships up Chinese rivers to support the opium trade and would have very miffed if some Yankee upstart had been going around shouting “no blood for dope” at Disraeli. Burger-scoffing surrender baboons in the war against yellowism, John Bull would have said. Jingoism? We invented it.The British might have invented jingoism, but they forgot to patent it.
I have yet to meet an American who regards Iraq as anything other than ‘the asshole of the universe’.I was so animated by Hastings’ remark that I called a few people and asked them what they thought. As a result, I can say that most Americans I’ve spoken to don’t think Iraq is ‘the asshole of the universe’.
The questionnaires, sent to Scottish firms by EU statistical agency Eurostat, did not allow kiltmakers to register the national dress as men's clothing.Priceless.
Instead, they were told to fill in how many kilts they had sold in the space provided for women's skirts.
