Mmmm fruity

The Fruit Salad Tree Company of Emmaville, NSW, Australia sells trees that have up to six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them.

* Stone fruits which grows peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots and peachcots
* Citrus which grows a winter and summer orange, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruits, tangelos and pomelos
* Multi-apples only
* Multi-nashi fruit only
The Fruit Salad Tree can be grown in the ground as for normal fruit trees, or in pots for those people with very limited space. Instead of having numerous different trees with more fruit than your household can consume there is only one tree with all of the fruits ripening naturally over a period of months. There can be more than one variety of an individual fruit on a tree, thus extending the picking time.

Fruit Salad Tree Company

Thanks to Boing Boing for the spot.

I've been getting quite pissed off recently at the way several politicians (current and past) - no names, no pack drill - have set up companies to receive all income other than parliamentary salaries. The usual form of explanation when questioned is that these politicians claim that they personally draw no monies from these companies and that the companies pay just expenses.

Please note that I believe this means that the company will pay for perfectly legitimate expenses that otherwise the MP would have to pay for out of taxed income if he was not operating through a limited company. Thus the company could pay for 5* hotels for him to stay in while on speaking assignments, for first class air fares to engagements abroad, for chauffeur driven cars to UK events and so on. All of these would be 'legitimate business expenses incurred in the course of providing the services of xxx MP' and thus allowable. The company could pay for his food while on speaking assignments too. If the company is VAT registered (and it almost certainly would be) much of the VAT could be reclaimed as well.

Nice work if you can get it and so many ex-Labour cabinet ministers seems to be able to get it.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that people shouldn't try and minimse their tax liability, after all Lord Clyde, the judge in a case brought by the Revenue against a "tax avoider" in 1929 said:

'No man in this country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or to his property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel into his stores.  The Inland Revenue is not slow – and quite rightly – to take every advantage which is open to it under the taxing statutes for the purpose of depleting the taxpayer’s pocket. And the taxpayer is, in like manner, entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Revenue.'

However when the same MP criticises others for tax-avoidance, the cry of hypocrisy seems hard not to make.

Chuka Umunna waffling and Ed Miliband panicking

I particularly enjoyed Jeremy Paxman's skewering of Ed Miliband's lie on the 'millionaire tax cut' from 4:10. Do the Labour party really think the public is that stupid? One major mistake by Jeremy Paxman, on what basis is Chuka Umunna deemed 'highly intelligent'? Why would anyone trust the Labour tossers who got us into this economic mess with the levers of power ever again? Meanwhile when a Labour politician starts wobbling his lips, trying to sound affronted that anyone would think so badly of him, I am reminded of Tony Blair's protestations that he was a 'pretty straight guy'. So this video of Ed Miliband speaks volumes. I have almost no doubt that Ed Miliband has assets less liabilities of over a million pounds, what h is worth as a person would be quite a lot less, I wouldn't give you tuppence for him. Thanks to Guido Fawkes for the video spots.

Casino banking to blame?

http://www.fcablog.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/casino-bank-scaled.png

Dhimmism

'The Swedish home furnishings store IKEA has airbrushed women from photos in the Saudi version of next year's furniture catalog, the Swedish newspaper Metro reports today.

Metro compares the deletions to Soviet censors who used to airbrush out "state enemies."

In Saudi Arabia, where women must be covered in public and are not allowed to drive, it is not forbidden to depict women in advertising, but strict guidelines are followed, particularly regarding the depiction of very much skin.

In one page of IKEA's standard catalog, a mother is shown brushing her teeth in the bathroom beside a young son. Behind them, in a typically warm IKEA scene, a husband is drying a second child with a towel.
In the Saudi catalog with the identical photo, the mother's image has been deleted.

On another page, women having dinner with a man in the Swedish catalog vanish in the Saudi version, with their images replaced by an empty table.

Metro notes that even a company's female designer is deleted on a page with three male colleagues.

IKEA released a statement expressing regret, saying, "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values," the Associated Press reports.'

Note that there was not much flesh on display in the above Swedish advert but if Ikea feel they should pander to Islamic prejudices then that's a matter for them and their consciences. But there is a word for their actions - dhimism. Thanks to USA Today  for the spot.

The Islamic view of non-Koranic knowledge

As a certain Caliph said of the Library of Alexandria, if the books contradict the Koran then they are blasphemous and should be destroyed. If they agree with it, then they are redundant and should be destroyed. 

The religion of tolerance?

Crick’s picks: Keith Vaz and the doorstep challenge | Michael Crick on Politics

http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/cricks-picks-keith-vaz-and-the-doorstep-challenge/1735

So is Neil 'curry house brawl' Kinnock also an apologist for Hobsbawm who supported Stalin and excused the murder of 20million plus? Am I alone in being disgusted by the British left?

Odd the heroes some people have

I challenged Richard Burden...

I was not deemed worthy of a reply but then I have been challenging Richard Burden about his 'pro-Palestinian' views. He hasn't replied to this either.

It is interesting that Richard Burden thinks that Eric Hobsbawm is worthy of praise, this being a man who:
' .. in 1994, in an interview with Canadian author and politician Michael Ignatieff on British television, Hobsbawm responded in the affirmative to the question of whether 20 million deaths may have been justified had the proposed communist utopia been created. The following year, when asked the same question on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, that is if "the sacrifice of millions of lives" would have been worth a communist utopia, he replied: "That's what we felt when we fought the Second World War". Hobsbawm has similarly argued that, "In a period in which, as you might imagine, mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still have been worth backing".

I have mused before about the weird double-standards of the left who use 'Nazi' as a term of abuse to close down debate and would never allow any praise of any aspect of Adolph Hitler, yet will defend aspects of Soviet Russia or Mao's China.

A funny promo for a serious cause

ToplessFemaleTrampolingWorldChampionships.com has a lovely video showcasing the man with the best job in the world...


This matter is something that is quite close to me. I had a breast cancer scare a few years ago and have lost two female friends to it over the last few years. So whilst male breast cancer may be rare, 300 men are diagnosed with it in the UK each year. Visit the site and remember:

'Some possible early warning signs and symptoms:

A lump in the breast area – mostly painless Swelling of the breast A sore or ulcer in the skin of the breast Oozing from the nipple (Blood or otherwise) An inny nipple Lumps under the arm These symptoms may be nothing, but let your doctor decide. Don’t worry He or She has seen it all before. Chances are its nothing, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.'

Matthew Le Tissier - Football Genius and more

What Matthew Le Tissier was famous for.


And also a less well known talent...

Ed Balls and the BBC

The BBC are faithfully reporting Ed Balls' call for a stamp duty holiday. Can I just remind the Labour party and, their propaganda arm the, BBC of the history of stamp duty rates.

13th March 1984

• Up to £30,000 - 0%
• Over £30,000 - 1%

20th December 2001

Due to the recession the Chancellor Nigel Lawson increased the threshold to stimulate demand.

• Up to £250,000 - 0%
• Over £250,000 - 1%

20th August 1992

As demand grew the rates were put back to the original figures.

• Up to £30,000 - 0%
• Over £30,000 - 1%

16th March 1993

The threshold was increased as the average house price increased.

• Up to £60,000 - 0%
• Over £60,000 - 1%

8th July 1997

A new Labour government saw an easy way to raise additional taxes so introduced new higher bands.

• Up to £60,000 - 0%
• Over £60,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 1.5%
• Over £500,000 - 2%

24th March 1998

Less than a year later the rates were increased again.

• Up to £60,000 - 0%
• Over £60,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 2%
• Over £500,000 - 3%

16th March 1999

In the follow years budget the rates were increased again.

• Up to £60,000 - 0%
• Over £60,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 2.5%
• Over £500,000 - 3.5%

28th March 2000

And again at the budget in 2000 where they stayed for many years.

• Up to £60,000 - 0%
• Over £60,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

17th March 2005

The based threshold was raised in this budget.

• Up to £120,000 - 0%
• Over £120,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

23rd March 2006

The threshold was again raised in this budget but by just £5,000

• Up to £125,000 - 0%
• Over £125,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

3rd September 2008

The threshold was again raised often referred to the stamp duty holiday due to the credit crunch.

• Up to £175,000 - 0%
• Over £175,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

Rates as from 1st January 2010

The threshold was cut back to the original amount prior to the stamp duty holiday rates.

• Up to £125,000 - 0%
• Over £125,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

Current Rates as from 25th March 2010

In a pre-election budget the Chancellor Alistair Darling announced a new threshold for first time buyers to stimulate demand.

• Up to £250,000 - 0% (first time buyers only)
• Up to £125,000 - 0%
• Over £125,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 - 4%

Rates from April 2010

A new rate is introduced for homes over £1,000,000

• Up to £250,000 - 0% (first time buyers only)
• Up to £125,000 - 0%
• Over £125,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 and under £1,000,000 - 4%
• Over £1,000,000 - 5%

Rates from 1st January 2012

The first time buyer rate is taken away.

• Up to £125,000 - 0%
• Over £125,000 and under £250,000 - 1%
• Over £250,000 and under £500,000 - 3%
• Over £500,000 and under £1,000,000 - 4%
• Over £1,000,000 - 5% 

Now Labour call for a stamp duty holiday?

The aftermath of the Ryder Cup

Wow!

I desperately needed an early night last night but once I started watching the Ryder Cup I just couldn't turn off. I ended up watching it in bed with the sound on 1, my head on the pillow and Mrs NotaSheep snoring alongside me. I must admit that when Martin Kaymer won on the 18th I did a silent fist clench, mouthed "Yesssssssssssss", then turned off the television and tried to get some sleep.

Ryder Cup singles day is one of my favourite sporting days and this year's was one of the best. Judging by the volume of my shrieks through the evening, Justin Rose's monster put to win the 17th was the biggie.

A final thought for such as Denis MacShane, this was not an EU team is was a Europe team.

The Islamic war on Christianity in Africa continues

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/component/k2/item/107968-child-killed-in-explosive-attack-on-church-in-kenya-bomb-explodes-near-north-nigeria-islamic-school

Ed Miliband is Wallace...

http://twitpic.com/azsqpn

It's odd who the BBC will give airtime to and who they will not

The BBC's attitude to Climate Change is that the science is settled and therefore sceptics need not be given airtime. Oddly they are happy to give 7/7 conspiracy theorists all the airtime they want.

The Express (not my paper of choice and no stranger to conspiracy theories itself) reports that:

'A CONTROVERSIAL new BBC documentary which claims the 7/7 bombings were carried out by the Labour government to extend the war on terror was branded “ridiculous” last night.

The allegation is one of several extraordinary claims about the suicide attacks in which 52 people died at the hands of Islamic terrorists in 2005.

Furious MPs and security experts criticised Conspiracy Road Trip, which is presented by a comedian and will air on BBC3 tomorrow night. “The premise that these terrible attacks were carried out by the government is ridiculous,” said Patrick Mercer MP last night.

...

The programme sourced the conspiracy theorists from the internet and university campuses.
One contributor, Jon, tells presenter Andrew Maxwell: “The British Establishment did it. We needed this excuse to continue this war – 7/7 was an excuse.”

Another theorist, Tony, said: “There could be a business element [to the bombings].” He added: “They [the terrorists] were hired as patsies, hired as part of a training drill as actors.

Unbeknown to them, there was a secondary operation going on.” The theorists also suggest the government lied about the time the train carrying the bombers left Luton for London, and that a homemade bomb could not have caused the devastation.

Further allegations surround the apparent absence of CCTV footage of the bombers at Tube stations, while a newly converted Muslim woman claims not enough was known about the bombers to suggest they were terrorists.

At the end of the programme, three of the conspiracy theorists change their views. Series producer Riete Oord said: “The claims are out there on the internet. There are people with these conspiracies, 9/11 is also obviously a huge one, 7/7 follows on from that.'

It is strange what conspiracy theories the BBC will allow on their channels and what they won't. I know plenty of people who believe that there is documentary evidence that Labour deliberately increased immigration to the UK as a political and sociological act, will the BBC give them airtime?

Labour isn't learning

The Conservatives have gone negative with their latest poster campaign. I approve as the public need to be constantly reminded that the current Labour leadership were at the heart of the last Labour government, the government that destroyed the UK's economy.

Sky's James Bond trailer

Marking the first time in UK history all the Bond films will be available to enjoy in one place, in HD, on demand and without ad breaks, Sky Movies 007 HD launches on 5 October 2012. Uniting all six Bonds in one exhilarating car chase sequence using footage from Dr No, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, The World Is Not Enough and Quantum of Solace, Sky Movies' seamless sequence features all of the Bonds as portrayed over the course of the franchise by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

A proud goat saved by a pig?

Footage from a petting zoo where a goat gets into difficulties and is saved by a pig, how embarrassing.

Barack Obama's foreign policy disaster

At least someone is pointing out the Barack Obama foreign policy failures. The pro-Obama bias in the US media is disgusting, just as the pro-Labour bias at the BBC in this country is.

Two lucky lorry stories

This is the luckiest lorry driver in the world, video from Russia I believe.


This is a less incredible story but does involve Boris Johnson...

Oh dear, how sad, never mind - People just aren't interested in Gordon Brown

The Telegraph report that:

'A press conference by the former Prime Minister at the United Nations in New York was cancelled this week when not enough journalists turned up to hear him speak.

Mr Brown, who has recently been named the UN special envoy for global education, was at the United Nations General Assembly delivering a speech about a new UN initiative to put more children through school.

He was scheduled to address reporters at 4pm on Wednesday to discuss the project, but unfortunately when just one journalist - a reporter from the Daily Telegraph - arrived for his briefing.

As the former Prime Minister stood in the background, a message was played on the loudspeaker reminding the media that Mr Brown was due to speak.

 At about 4.20pm another message was played over the public address system informing the media that Mr Brown’s press conference was cancelled.'

As of now, not a mention on the BBC; I wonder why?

Why should you vote for Obama?

This Cleveland voter knows why she's going to vote for Barack Obama - Apparently for the free phones...

"Everybody in Cleveland, low minorities, got Obama phone. Keep Obama in president, you know. He gave us a phone, he gonna do more... You sign up! If you on food stamps, you on social security, you got low income, you disability…"

Is what this lady saying correct? Are phones being given away?

It seems that being a sheep rather than a goat is 'normal'

'This Japanese video shows 32 metronomes set rocking on a wobbly surface. They begin in a state of chaos, and as they feed motion into the table, they begin to influence one another, until, 4 minutes later, they attain synchrony.'

I see myself as the pink metronome front row on the right... But will I too eventually have to march to the same beat as everyone else? Thanks to Boing Boing for the video spot.

How rich!

In all the fuss over Mitt Romney's tax returns and what percentage of earnings he paid in tax, including or excluding his charitable giving, a couiple of things caught my eye. First that the Democrats Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, the man who claimed Mitt Romney hasn't paid taxes for ten years on the Senate floor because "someone" told him that was the case, is refusing to release his own tax returns. The second is just how rich some of these members of the US Congress are. RollCall has a list of the richest 50 members of Congress:
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) $305.46 Million
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) $198.65 Million
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) $140.55 Million
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) $85.81 Million
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) $83.08 Million
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) $79.11 Million
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) $72.09 Million
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) $56.80 Million
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) $41.78 Million
Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) $36.67 Million
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) $36.49 Million
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) $28.58 Million
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) $26.43 Million
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) $24.79 Million
Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.) $23.78 Million
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) $21.73 Million
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) $19.63 Million
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) $19.09 Million
Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) $17.41 Million
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) $15.57 Million
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) $14.95 Million
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) $14.47 Million
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) $14.34 Million
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) $13.69 Million
Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) $12.34 Million
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) $12.00 Million
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) $11.60 Million
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) $10.75 Million
Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) $10.33 Million
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) $10.20 Million
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) $10.06 Million
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) $10.05 Million
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $10.01 Million
Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) $9.53 Million
Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) $9.17 Million
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) $9.01 Million
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $8.95 Million
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) $8.94 Million
Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) $8.93 Million
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) $8.81 Million
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) $8.41 Million
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) $7.69 Million
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) $7.65 Million
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) $7.48 Million
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) $7.10 Million
Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) $6.94 Million
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) $6.72 Million
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) $6.47 Million
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) $6.28 Million
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) $6.14 Million

Staggering, I wonder how many British politicians would get close to these levels of wealth. Maybe Tony Blair really did want to Americanise British politics.

I'm sorry but words fail me

The news that, as the BBC put it, 'Social services and police "missed opportunities" to stop the sexual abuse of young girls in Rochdale, a report into a grooming scandal has revealed.' has shocked but not surprised me. Political correctness has been made so important that the Police and other arms of the state are often too scared of causing offence to take action against certain 'minorities'.

The Times has been printing much more detail than the BBC has been reporting and some of The Times' reports have left me lost for words. Here are some extracts from The Times courtesy of Gates of Vienna:

Police went to a house outside which a father was demanding the release of his daughter, who was inside with a group of British Pakistani adults. Officers found the girl, 14, who had been drugged, under a bed. The father and his daughter were arrested for racial harassment and assault respectively. Police left, leaving three men at the house with two more girls.

Two terrified girls who were dragged into a car and driven to Bristol to be used for sex as part of a drugs deal phoned support workers to seek help… officers rescued them and returned them to Sheffield… South Yorkshire Police did not question them about the incident.

In two cases, police officers responded to missing persons reports but left the young women with the suspected abuser, concluding she was safe. When the parents attempted to intervene they were threatened with arrest and charged with breach of the peace.

A girl’s mother copied the names, addresses and text messages of 177 Asian men, including a police officer, from her daughter’s mobile phone after the 13-year-old went missing for five days. Police said that using the information would infringe on the girl’s and the men’s human rights.

In 2002, the confidential report of a Home-Office funded research project considered a series of Rotherham case studies. It criticised police for in all cases treating young victims as deviant and promiscuous while the men they were found with were never questioned or investigated.

Denis MacShane, MP for Rotherham, said he was appalled that in several meetings with senior South Yorkshire police officers to discuss internal trafficking ‘no one has ever revealed or even hinted at the important allegations made by The Times’…

Throughout this period, Rotherham council has failed to accept the role of ethnicity and culture in such group offending. Earlier this year, this newspaper revealed how the town’s safeguarding children board censored a report into the murder of a 17-year-old girl to conceal the ethnicity of the British Pakistani men suspected of using her for sex from the age of 11.

Some of the British police, the Crown Prosecution Service and local councils in parts of this country have followed the creed of political correctness, to such an extent that rape of young white girls was deemed less important than good community relations. Makes you sick, doesn't it.

Herbert Lom R.I.P.

The great Herbert Lom has passed away.














Here are some extracts from the Pink Panther films to remember him by.
Herbert Lom will be greatly missed, he also starred in one of my favourite films of all time - The Ladykillers...

David Cameron - Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you?

"Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain? Brave Hungarian peasant girl who forced King John the pledge at Runnymede and close the boozers at half-ten. Is all this to be forgotten?"..."

From "Twelve Angry Men" BBC-TV Series 5 of "Hancock's Half Hour"

The one hundred and sixty third weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's winner is the former Democratic Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, for this comment as reported by Free Beacon:

'Obama not ‘Best President’ for Israel - Unfair demands made on Israel while Hamas gets a pass'

Seriously "No shit, Sherlock"

Madonna endorses Barack Obama and makes a peculiar comment - NSFW language

Madonna tells her fans that they'd "better vote for f***ing Obama, OK?=" and then refers approvingly to the fact that with this President there "is a black Muslim in the White House". How odd...

Yom Kippur 39 years on

I remember Yom Kippur 1973, I was but a child and did not stay at synagogue all day with my father. I was at home sitting in front of the television when I saw the reports of war in the Middle East. For some reason I didn't say anything to my mum. Shortly thereafter we were all back at synagogue for the Neilah service. The congregation was shocked from its prayer by the phone in the rabbi's office ringing. Someone ran to answer it and admonish the caller for daring to call a synagogue on Yom Kippur. A minute or so later the news was broken to the congregation that Israel had been attacked on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. My claims that I had heard this on the news went unbelieved.

The Yom Kippur war was deliberately timed for when the Jewish state would be at its least prepared for an attack, with many soldiers praying rather than on guard.The combined forces of Egypt and Syria totalled the same number of men as NATO had in Western Europe. On the Golan Heights alone, 150 Israeli tanks faced 1,400 Syria tanks and in the Suez region just 500 Israeli soldiers faced 80,000 Egyptian soldiers. There are many places you can read a history of this war, including the run up to it. But what must be borne in mind at all times is that the Israeli armed forces and nation had to work to one simple equation: if they lost, the state of Israel would cease to exist. Thus, for Israel, it was a fight to the finish – literally "death or glory". Contrastingly, if the various Arab nations lost, they could survive for another day. I find the Israeli tactics pre the war interesting, this passage from Wikipedia gives you a flavour:

'The Israeli strategy was, for the most part, based on the precept that if war was imminent, Israel would launch a pre-emptive strike. It was assumed that Israel's intelligence services would give, in the worst case, about 48 hours notice prior to an Arab attack. Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and General David Elazar met at 8:05 am the morning of Yom Kippur, six hours before the war began. Dayan opened the meeting by arguing that war was not a certainty. Elazar then presented his argument in favor of a pre-emptive attack against Syrian airfields at noon, Syrian missiles at 3:00 pm, and Syrian ground forces at 5:00 pm "When the presentations were done, the prime minister hemmed uncertainly for a few moments but then came to a clear decision. There would be no preemptive strike. Israel might be needing American assistance soon and it was imperative that it would not be blamed for starting the war. 'If we strike first, we won't get help from anybody', she said." Other developed nations, being more dependent on OPEC oil, took more seriously the threat of an Arab oil embargo and trade boycott, and had stopped supplying Israel with munitions. As a result, Israel was totally dependent on the United States for military resupply, and particularly sensitive to anything that might endanger that relationship. After Meir made her decision, at 10:15 am she met with US ambassador Kenneth Keating in order to inform the United States that Israel did not intend to preemptively start a war, and asked that US efforts be directed at preventing war. An electronic telegram with Keating's report on the meeting was sent to the US at 16:33 GMT (6:33 pm local time). A message arrived later from United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger saying, "Don't preempt." At the same time, Kissinger also urged the Soviets to use their influence to prevent war, contacted Egypt with Israel's message of non-preemption, and sent messages to other Arab governments to enlist their help on the side of moderation. These late efforts were futile. According to Henry Kissinger, had Israel struck first, it would not have received "so much as a nail."'

It is fascinating that even in 1973 Israel had to wait to be attacked for fear of losing American support. In 2012 with Iran promising genoicide against Israel, the same strictures could well apply.

The Palestinian Authority are not Israel's 'partners in peace'

PA Chief Justice of Religious Court: Quran says Jews are evil

Dr. Tayseer Al-Tamimi, PA Chief Justice of Religious Court, and Chairman of Supreme Council of Islamic Law:
"Concerning the Jews, the Holy Quran says that they lack understanding, are void of wisdom, know nothing, violate agreements, etc. However, the Jews were known – it was known about them throughout history – that they make false claims, lies, forgery, slander, and fabrications, in order to justify their aggression, land theft, defilement of holy sites, appropriation of land, destruction of homes, murder of children, women, and the elderly
."

The Palestinian war with Israel is not due to 'occupation' but Islam

PA TV Friday sermon

"These new Mongols…the Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular… Our enmity with the Jews is a matter of faith, more than an enmity because of occupation and the land… Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. … The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them.'"

Jeremy Bowen's Rosh Hashonah Twitter Q&A

I've just been checking my records and I found that I never received an acknowledgement of my complain from the BBC re this matter.

This matter is something that I feel really deeply about so I have lodged another complaint, just in case the BBC have 'lost' the original.

Your Complaint

Type of complaint: BBC News (TV Radio Online)

What is your complaint about: BBC News Online

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19601920

Complaint category: Bias

Contacted us before: Yes

Reason for contacting us again: Haven't received a response yet

Reference:

Complaint title: Jeremy Bowen holding Twitter Q&A on Rosh Hashonah

Complaint description:

The BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, held a Twitter Q&A on Monday 17 September. This day was the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashonah, one of the 'high holy days' when all religious, and most only slightly religious, Jews spend the day in prayer at synagogue and this are not available to participate in such social media exercises. How could your BBC Middle East Editor hold a Q&A on a day when Jews in Britain would be unable to participate? I queried Jeremy Bowen about this and found his response quite offensive - 'yes I did know it was Jewish New Year. And I also know it doesn't stop quite a few Jews using social media!'. That is not an acceptable comment, the vast majority of Jews could not participate on a Q&A held on Rosh Hashonah and Jeremy Bowen admitted that he knew it was Rosh Hashonah. This is discrimination, plain and simple. Jeremy Bowen's anti-Israel bias is well known and indeed confirmed by the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust who published a report into three complaints about him in April 2009. The Editorial Standards Committee upheld three complaints against Jeremy Bowen on grounds of accuracy and impartiality. On Yom Kippur (the holiest day in the Jewish calendar) in 1973 the armies of Egypt & Syria, with support from elsewhere, attacked Israel, deliberately choosing the day when they hoped Israel's defences would be at their weakest. Is Jeremy Bowen simply following anti-Israel tradition?

Oddly I have yet to receive a response from the BBC with the all important Case Number, why not?

The benefit of being very light in weight

The diving squirrel...

James Hansen - Two views

The BBC describe NASA's Professor James Hansen thus:

'Prof James Hansen, the Nasa scientist who has done perhaps more than any other academic down the years to raise the spectre of catastrophic climate change. '

Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes introduced Hansen as “NASA’s top climate scientist, credited with the earliest and most accurate projections on climate change.”

Peter F at Watts Up With That recalls something interesting:
'I recall Hansen’s 1988 testimony before Congress in which he predicted a warmer climate by 1.2°C in twenty years. Here in 2009, the global average is only 0.17 to 0.22°C warmer than the 20th Century benchmark. He then had the audacity to publish a paper with himself as the lead author extolling the virtues of the accuracy of his 1988 projections. Looking back, none of his three scenarios came even within 50% of being accurate, yet the ya-hoos over at RealClimate.org insist Hansen was and is spot on.'

The truth is out there...

Marxists' Apartment A Microcosm Of Why Marxism Doesn't Work | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

http://www.theonion.com/articles/marxists-apartment-a-microcosm-of-why-marxism-does,1382/

The Sun predicts Internet Fail | Dave Schneider.co.uk

http://daveschneider.co.uk/2012/09/the-sun-predicts-internetfail/

The causes of Muslim outrage

It is odd what caused 'Muslim outrage' and what doesn't...

Barack Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood

Barack Hussein Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In case you, like the BBC, think that climate science is 'settled'

'In climate research and modelling, we should recognise that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.'

IPCC report, section entitled '14.2.2.2 Balancing the need for finer scales and the need for ensembles' Just wondered if important!

Nipples in advertising

A Brazilian Toyota advert



Brrr Seasonal Ale from Widmer Brothers Brewing


mint Air Action Vigorsol

Oh dear Apple, not good at all

It would seem that Apple's ios6 mapping app is not only not as good as Google Maps but also not fit for purpose. Towns are missing, long defunct shops have reappeared, lakes have disappeared, airport runways are rather bumpy, the list is a long one. Here's a few examples.

Where's the lake in Hyderabad ?

Tarsdorf is actually about 3 km (~2 miles) away from Fucking.

Search for Manchester United Football Club and Apple shows you Sale United Football Club, a community team for ages five and above.

Basingstoke wasn't quite so rural the last time that I was there.

For more try this Tumblr site

Finally, proof that cats are better than dogs - hmmm

I await the response from the defenders of the dog...

In the dog vs cat debate I am neutral, I love both.

When Labour questions go wrong

Ian Lavery




Ed Miliband

The importance of the little qualifying words - part 1 - Polar ice

The BBC like to slip little qualifying words into their reports, words that slip by and when missed change the sense of the article. Here's an example, this report is headlined 'Record minimum for Arctic sea ice' but that's not the actual story. Here's what the report says:

'Arctic sea ice has reached its minimum extent for the year, setting a record for the lowest summer cover since satellite data collection began.'

'Since satellite data collection began' - so how far back does this record go? Let's see the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in 1957 (55 years ago in a few weeks time) but the data collection of polar ice started in 1979. So we have a mimimum sea ice level for 33 years. 

Here are some more extracts from that BBC report:

'Scientists say they are observing fundamental changes in sea ice cover. The Arctic used to be dominated by multiyear ice, or ice that survived through several years.

Recently, the region is characterised by seasonal ice cover and large areas are now prone to completely melt away in summer.

The sea ice extent is defined as the total area covered by at least 15% of ice, and varies from year to year because of changeable weather.

However, ice extent has shown a dramatic overall decline over the past 30 years.

...

Some ships have already been cutting their journey times by sailing a previously impassable route north of Russia.'

Fascinating and scary, well no. I wonder how much sea ice there was at the North Pole during the Medieval Warm Period, that's the period that warmists ignore when they show you world temperatures increasing due to man's technology.

But you don't have to go back that far to find less sea ice at the North Pole, Watts Up With That has some photos of nuclear submarines in open water at the North Pole in 1958, 1959, 1962, 1987 and 1993. Here's three of the many photos, take a look at the full set, they are fascinating.

1958

1962

1987


What is always fascinating at Watts Up With That are the depth of knowledge of the commenters. Here's one comment that I think should be compulsory reading at the BBC and every school who teach the science/religion of Man Made Climate Change.

'” Claims of unprecedented warmth and abnormal melting of meltic arctic ice are unfounded if we look at history;

1 The following link describes the ancient cultures of the warmer arctic 5000 to 1000 years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lithoderm/Inuit_culture

2 This relates to an Arctic culture thriving in warmer times 2000 years ago
From the Eskimo Times Monday, Mar. 17, 1941
The corner of Alaska nearest Siberia was probably man’s first threshold to the Western Hemisphere. So for years archeologists have dug there for a clue to America’s prehistoric past. Until last year, all the finds were obviously Eskimo. Then Anthropologists Froelich G. Rainey of the University of Alaska and two collaborators struck the remains of a town, of inciedible size and mysterious culture. Last week in Natural History Professor Rainey, still somewhat amazed, described this lost Arctic city.
It lies at Ipiutak on Point Hope, a bleak sandspit in the Arctic Ocean, where no trees and little grass survive endless gales at 30° below zero. But where houses lay more than 2,000 years ago, underlying refuse makes grass and moss grow greener. The scientists could easily discern traces of long avenues and hundreds of dwelling sites. A mile long, a quarter-mile wide, this ruined city was perhaps as big as any in Alaska today (biggest: Juneau, pop. 5,700).
On the Arctic coast today an Eskimo village of even 250 folk can catch scarcely enough seals, whales, caribou to live on. What these ancient Alaskans ate is all the more puzzling because they seem to have lacked such Arctic weapons as the Eskimo harpoon.
Yet they had enough leisure to make many purely artistic objects, some of no recognizable use. Their carvings are vaguely akin to Eskimo work but so sophisticated and elaborate as to indicate a relation with some centre of advanced culture — perhaps Japan or southern Siberia —certainly older than the Aztec or Mayan

3 This link leads to the Academy of science report of the same year regarding the Ipiutak culture described above
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1078291

4 This refers to the Vikings living in a warmer arctic culture 1000 years ago
People might be interested in reading a very interesting book about the Vikings called ‘The Viking world’. It is a very scholarly and highly referenced book running to some 700 pages and deals with all aspects of the Vikings. It is good because it does not have an axe to grind, but deals matter of factly with all aspects of Viking culture and exploration.
There is a large section on their initial exploration of Greenland, the subsequent establishment of their farms there, everyday life, how they gradually lost access to the outside world as the sea lanes closed through ice, a record of the last wedding held In Greenland and how trade dried up. It also deals with Vinland/Newfoundland and it seems that it was wild grapes that helped give the area its name, it being somewhat warmer than today.
This is one of a number of similar books that record our warmer and cooler past throughout the Northern Hermisphere. Al Gore wrote a good book in 1992 called ‘Earth in the Balance’ in which he explored the changing climate that devastated the civilisations in the Southern Hemishpere.
The book ‘The Viking World’ is Edited by Stefan Brink with Neil Price Published by Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 33315-3
I suggest you borrow it from the local library as it costs $250!

5 This refers to a warmer arctic 75 years ago recorded on Pathe newsreel by Bob Bartlett on the Morrisey during his journeys there in the 1920’s and 1930’s and reported in all the media.
http://boothbayharborshipyard.blogspot.com/2008/08/arctic-explorer-on-ways.html
Wednesday, 10th August 1932
The ship rolled heavily all night and continues to do so….
The glacier continues its disturbances. No real bergs break off but great sheets of ice slide down into the water and cause heavy seas. About noon, the entire face of the glacier, almost a mile in length and six or eight feet deep slid off with a roar and a rumble that must have been heard at some distance. We were on deck at the time for a preliminary report like a pistol shot had warned us what was coming. The Morrissey rolled until her boats at the davits almost scooped up the water and everything on board that was not firmly anchored in place crashed loose. But this was nothing to the pandemonium on shore. I watched it all through the glasses. The water receded leaving yards of beach bare and then returned with a terrific rush, bringing great chunks of ice with it. Up the beach it raced further and further, with the Eskimos fleeing before it. It covered all the carefully cherished piles of walrus meat, flowed across two of the tents with their contents, put out the fire over which the noonday meal for the sled drivers was being prepared, and stopped a matter of inches before it reached the pile of cement waiting to be taken up the mountain. Fortunately, in spite of heavy sea, which was running, the Captain had managed to be set shore this morning so he was there with them to help straighten out things and calm them down.”

The arctic has periodically warmed to greater amounts than today-there is additional data from the Royal society, The Hudson Bay co and many other sources illustrating that there seems to be a cycle of extensive warming every 80 years or so contained within a longer cycle of melt and cold. A tiny reduction in ice extent since 1979 ( A high point in ice levels) is of no consequence if you look at the historical record of this region
Tonyb'

The cherry picking of data and deliberate selection of start & end points for data comparison is an easy way to manipulate people's minds and is something that the warmists have been doing for years.

Interesting statistics

Via Google Statistics I have noted where the visitors to this blog come from:

United Kingdom	49%
United States	33%
Germany	6%
Australia	3%
Canada	3%
France	3%
India	2%
Denmark	1%
Russia	1%
Netherlands	1%

The UK and USA being top do not surprise me, nor I suppose that together they account for some 82% of my visitors. Bearing in mind my postings I understand the numbers for India, France, Canada and Russia, the others less so.

Interesting

When a central tenet of Islam is questioned the results are protests and violent demonstrations. When the BBC report a controversial claim that 'An ancient scrap of papyrus makes explicit reference to Jesus having a wife' there is little notice taken.

Is that the difference between being a temperamental teenager and being a mature adult?

Imagine the BBC publishing anything that might be seen as detrimental to the Islamic prophet Muhammad without lots of caveats, if at all?

Nick Clegg apologises - he's really sorry

Nicely done by The Poke. Who else was really sorry? Oh yes, him... Kin Jong Il (Team America version) - 'I'm so ronery'

How the media question US Presidential candidates

Main Stream Media to Mitt Romney: "Given that the opinions you expressed about our DEAR LEADER'S foreign and domestic policy are TRUE, but OFFENSIVE to US, your "Progressive Betters", tell us in specific detail ALL you would do to restore the Constitution, fix 100 years of Progressive bungling and interference in private economic affairs, and the willful handing of power to America's enemies. You have one minute to reply."

Main Stream Media to Barack Obama:
"What kind of Girl Scout cookie do you like best?"


Quite funny and also not too far from the truth. I found this comment somewhere yesterday but can't remeber where. Sorry, if it's yours please tell me and I'll credit you.

It wasn't me it was Jew

I have just found an interesting website - It wasn't me it was Jew - which lists 'All those absurd stories blamed on the Jews' . Take a look, it is fascinating how much we Jews are to blame for.

A sighting and notice of another to come...

UK Gold (Sky Channel 110) at 16:07, that part of that episode of The Good Life.Which means at 17:07 Gold +1 (Sky Channel 133) might be of interest.

What am I talking about? take a look here for details.

Oh OK it's Feleicity Kendal in all her glory, well one part anyway...

The video, 2:57 is where it gets interesting...

What is going on in America?

This is just  a short post as I don't have much time this morning but observingthe news from America is quite fascinating at present. The US media is so in thrall to Barack Obama that if Mitt Romney tells the truth, he then gets attacked for it. The 47% comment has been taken out of context and twisted into meaning something that it didn't. The missing minute or so of the secret recording has been explained away somewhat lamely but the media who worship at the feet of the Obamamessiah are not interested in looking at any story that is in any way on the side of the Republicans.

Meanwhile in Michigan Breitbart reports that:

'You want to clean up the voter rolls so only eligible citizens can vote? Don’t run for Secretary of State in Michigan, because voting rights advocates, labor unions, and Democrats will sue you. That’s exactly what’s happening to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who has claimed there are an estimated 4,000 noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. Johnson had championed efforts to have the state’s 7.34 million registered voters affirm their citizenship when they vote in November. In return for her actions, the labor unions and their cohorts are suing her. Johnson based her estimate on an analysis she did of 58,000 driver's licenses and state-issued identification cards which found 963 noncitizens registered to vote. 54 have a voting history and have voted a total of 95 times. By using these figures as a yardstick, as well as figures showing there are 305,000 noncitizens living in Michigan, roughly 5000 could be on the voter rolls. Johnson used the number of 4000 to account for children. In a rather strange coincidence, Johnson said that she could only survey one-fifth of the state because the Obama Administration would not give her access to more data. She also said she's been rejected by the Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security four times in her efforts to verify the citizenship of all registered voters. Now there’s a surprise. Democrat election attorney Jocelyn Benson, who ran against Johnson in 2010, whined: If someone is legitimately trying to misrepresent themselves as a citizen in order to interfere with our elections, then what's to say they won't misrepresent themselves a second time at the ballot box. Johnson knows the score: she believes President Barack Obama and Democratic county and city clerks are blocking her efforts to root out noncitizen voters, noting that 80 noncitizens are registered to vote in Macomb County, where County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh, who is a Democrat, won't let the citizenship question appear on applications to vote. Why in the world would any red-blooded American object to checking the eligibility of voters before they vote? Oh, wait – red-blooded American – there’s a phrase sure to turn the stomach of any liberal. '

Meanwhile in the House of Representatives I read in the Hill that:

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would essentially nullify many of the state-based voter ID requirements that Republican legislatures have enacted in the name of fighting election fraud.

...

Under the bill authored by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), voters in states with government ID requirements could sign an affidavit attesting to their identity in lieu of showing the mandated documents.'

Accross America similar attempts to clean up the electoral rolls are being impeded. Elements within the Democrat party are desperate to ensure that every last vote counts, whether that vote is legal, of an ilegal immigrant, someone who has left the state or even died. Then there is the matter of needing identification in order to vote. I covered this story a while back in relation to the last US Presidential Election, this year CS Monitor reports that:

'The Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowed a new voter ID law to proceed Tuesday, but it ordered the state judge who first OK’d the law to take a skeptical second look to make sure that, in the state's rush to provide IDs in time for the November election, Pennsylvanians aren’t being disenfranchised. The 4-to-2 ruling suggests that the state has acted in “good faith” to ensure that all eligible voters could cast a ballot, but also asks if the rush to implement the law ahead of the 2012 election would damage “liberal access” to the polls. ... Primarily Republican-led legislatures have passed a number of tougher voting restrictions in the past two years aimed at ensuring that only eligible voters cast ballots. But Democrats, civil rights groups, and the US Department of Justice have raised questions in other states, including Texas and South Carolina, and have alleged that the new laws are veiled and illegal attempts to limit access to the polls for key Democratic constituencies. Seventeen states currently have voter ID laws, but there are lingering concerns in former Confederate states that the rules fit a pattern of prejudice against the poor and minorities, who, on average, are less likely to have a state-issued ID.'

Hmmm, 'have alleged that the new laws are veiled and illegal attempts to limit access to the polls for key Democratic constituencies', well I can believe that the US Democrat party does, unoficially of course, consider illegals and dead people as key.

'Vote first, vote often' is a phrase that comes to mind here, a practice that has a long tradition in the US, per Wikipedia:

'The British newspaper The Times of 27 August 1859 printed a letter about the use of the ballot for voting in the United States, written by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. to his friend Lord Radstock. In the letter Dana reports:

Our experience has shown us that in the excitement of great popular elections, deciding the policy of the country, and its vast patronage, frauds will be committed, if a chance is given for them. If these frauds are allowed, the result is not only that the popular will may be defeated, and the result falsified, but that the worst side will prevail. The side which has the greater number of dishonest men will poll the most votes. The war cry, "Vote early and vote often!" and the familiar problem, "how to cast the greatest number of votes with the smallest number of voters", indicate the direction in which the dangers lie.

The phrase is also noted as the "much vaunted maxim" of the Tammany Hall political machine of the 1860: they used "repeaters", who were given five dollars and free liquor to go and vote for recently deceased voters. This process was depicted in the Martin Scorsese film, Gangs of New York where drunkards are forcibly shaved (to alter their appearance) and turned back toward polling stations to vote again.'

Meanwhile whilst US embassies burn, US diplomats are being killed and a wave of anti-American protests sweepsa across the Muslim world, including France and the UK, what is the US President doing? Breitbart reveals that:

'New information reveals President Barack Obama conducted interviews with entertainment magazines and posed for a photo spread last Friday as American embassies burned and 21 countries erupted into anti-American protests. Instead of spending precious time dealing with the developing crisis in the Mid East and with his foreign policy scheme in a total freefall, on Friday morning, September 14, Obama was giving an interview to the entertainment magazine People en Español and participating in a photo session with photographer Omar Cruz. This interview was not on his public schedule and was hidden from the public. Friday, September 14th was the same day that four flag-draped coffins of those killed at the U.S. Libyan embassy arrived at Andrews Air Force base. The interview came to public attention when individuals who work for the magazine tweeted about their visit after the event was over.'

I well remember the ridicule poured on George W. Bush for continuing to read to children as news of the 9/11 attacks filtered through. The story is still hugely popular on BBC satirical news programmes (such as The News Quiz). Somehow I doubt that Barack Obama's secret interview will raise any interest from Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steele or whichever other hard left 'comic' is on the programme tomorrow. However I am sure that Mitt Romney's 'secret' tape recording will faeture large, with no mention of the conveniently missing section. Thus I turn this article full-circle, how well-crafted!

On the streets of London, not that you'd know from the BBC

The first speaker is unintelligible, the second speaker from 1:15 is more understandable than the first but not someone you'd really want to have over for dinner. This video is from a demonstration in London earlier this week. Thanks to Daphne Anson for the video spot.

Boris Johnson blowing somebody else's trumpet for a change

From last year Boris Johnson trying and finally succeeding in blowing a note of the shofar, the rams horn traditionally used on Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur. For more on the usage of the shofar take a read of this.