Film, media and art links
Malcolm McLaren has died.
Lot of interesting post-tv C20th history now available on C-Span.
Islamist group threatens Somali radio stations to stop playing music. Somali hip-hop artists are hitting back with rap.
Following the media trail of a story about a Palestinian teenager not killed by Israeli forces after all (or by anyone else).
About the unpleasant viewing habits of young jihadis. See.
Suggesting that there has been a “closing of the conservative” mind the US as a result of new communication technologies. Arguing that the US left has more groups, so more different groupthinks. Suggesting the issue might be more geography, funding and the Iraq war.
A prominent blogger changed his politics and suddenly what words mean changed too.
Robert Fisk has some sharp words for the desire to have a “safe, positive space” at a university:
Over the past week, the Canadian press, while piously rejecting Coulter's ravings, has been asking whether Muslims are the only protected species on planet Canada. And, more to the point, questioning the provisions of human rights legislation in Canada's provinces which dispense with the presumption of innocence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As one Ontario professor complained, "To human rights types, the political right has no right... What you say might cause offence, and we can't have that."
Meanwhile, a review of Robert Fisk’s latest book:
The book contains a deplorable number of mistakes. Some are amusing: my favourite is when King Hussein's stallion unexpectedly "reared up on her hind legs". Christ was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Napoleon's army did not burn Moscow, the Russians did. French: meurt means dies, not blooms. Russian: goodbye is do svidanya, not dos vidanya. Farsi: laleh means tulip, not rose. Arabic: catastrophe is nakba not nakhba (which means elite), and many more.
Other mistakes undermine the reader's confidence. Muhammad's nephew Ali was murdered in the 7th century, not the 8th century. Baghdad was never an Ummayad city. The Hashemites are not a Gulf tribe but a Hijaz tribe, as far as you can get from the Gulf and still be in Arabia. The US forward base for the Kuwait war, Dhahran, is not "scarcely 400 miles" from Medina and the Muslim holy places, it is about 700 miles. Britain during the Palestine mandate did not support a Jewish state. The 1939 white paper on Palestine did not "abandon Balfour's promise" (and he was not "Lord Balfour" when he made it). The Iraq revolution of 1958 was not Baathist. Britain did not pour military hardware into Saddam's Iraq for 15 years, or call for an uprising against Saddam in 1991. These last two "mistakes" occasion lengthy Philippics against British policy; others may deserve them, we do not.
Being fisked in the Guardian, embarrassing.
The Wikileaks release of footage of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq has got somewhat more complicated: not a lot of civilians carry around RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades). With claims of about 20 minutes of the video being missing, a reporter who was there puts the day in perspective. More useful comments here. A particularly trenchant critique. (What sort of person drives an unmarked van with two children into an active military engagement?) More. (Why were Reuters cameramen wandering in an area of intense fighting with armed folk? So they could get some good pictures.)
Lot of interesting post-tv C20th history now available on C-Span.
Islamist group threatens Somali radio stations to stop playing music. Somali hip-hop artists are hitting back with rap.
Following the media trail of a story about a Palestinian teenager not killed by Israeli forces after all (or by anyone else).
About the unpleasant viewing habits of young jihadis. See.
Suggesting that there has been a “closing of the conservative” mind the US as a result of new communication technologies. Arguing that the US left has more groups, so more different groupthinks. Suggesting the issue might be more geography, funding and the Iraq war.
A prominent blogger changed his politics and suddenly what words mean changed too.
Robert Fisk has some sharp words for the desire to have a “safe, positive space” at a university:
Over the past week, the Canadian press, while piously rejecting Coulter's ravings, has been asking whether Muslims are the only protected species on planet Canada. And, more to the point, questioning the provisions of human rights legislation in Canada's provinces which dispense with the presumption of innocence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As one Ontario professor complained, "To human rights types, the political right has no right... What you say might cause offence, and we can't have that."
Meanwhile, a review of Robert Fisk’s latest book:
The book contains a deplorable number of mistakes. Some are amusing: my favourite is when King Hussein's stallion unexpectedly "reared up on her hind legs". Christ was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Napoleon's army did not burn Moscow, the Russians did. French: meurt means dies, not blooms. Russian: goodbye is do svidanya, not dos vidanya. Farsi: laleh means tulip, not rose. Arabic: catastrophe is nakba not nakhba (which means elite), and many more.
Other mistakes undermine the reader's confidence. Muhammad's nephew Ali was murdered in the 7th century, not the 8th century. Baghdad was never an Ummayad city. The Hashemites are not a Gulf tribe but a Hijaz tribe, as far as you can get from the Gulf and still be in Arabia. The US forward base for the Kuwait war, Dhahran, is not "scarcely 400 miles" from Medina and the Muslim holy places, it is about 700 miles. Britain during the Palestine mandate did not support a Jewish state. The 1939 white paper on Palestine did not "abandon Balfour's promise" (and he was not "Lord Balfour" when he made it). The Iraq revolution of 1958 was not Baathist. Britain did not pour military hardware into Saddam's Iraq for 15 years, or call for an uprising against Saddam in 1991. These last two "mistakes" occasion lengthy Philippics against British policy; others may deserve them, we do not.
Being fisked in the Guardian, embarrassing.
The Wikileaks release of footage of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq has got somewhat more complicated: not a lot of civilians carry around RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades). With claims of about 20 minutes of the video being missing, a reporter who was there puts the day in perspective. More useful comments here. A particularly trenchant critique. (What sort of person drives an unmarked van with two children into an active military engagement?) More. (Why were Reuters cameramen wandering in an area of intense fighting with armed folk? So they could get some good pictures.)