Peter Kerr, proprietor of the Bitchin' Monaro Guide, offered the useful suggestion that, since this blog tends to be heavy on the linkage, I should have one of those javascript thingies where you tick the little box and then when you click on a link it automatically opens in a new window. I decided this was a good idea, so did a quick hunt around some free javascript sites, and the result is I've now added the little checkbox thing to the page just above the top post. Use it wisely.

Peter also sent this fearful link. Actually, I saw the Acropolis Now DVD for sale a few weeks ago, but hadn't seen this site. It was a... revelation.

posted by James Russell | 7:59 PM

Mark Joseph on Lifehouse in particular and Christian rock in general.

Whatever the complex sociological reasons, white rock stars distanced themselves from Christianity and, if they did have any connection to it, either hid it or else embraced Old Scratch to the point that nobody would think to ask what church they attended.

What about U2? Or Bob Dylan (at least from about 1979-81)? There's also a whiff of "if only he'd accepted Jesus etc" to it which I dislike when the late Mr Cobain is mentioned. But his argument that Christian performers need to not keep defining themselves as a separate category is worth considering...

posted by James Russell | 5:43 PM

Piers Akerman has lunch with the enemy.

SEEKING the truth about Islam, I had lunch in Lakemba last week with Keysar Trad, the most quoted Muslim voice in Australia.

I'll bet he was shuddering all the while at the thought of lowering himself like that, much like that episode of The Simpsons where Mr Burns runs for governor and has to have dinner with the Simpsons for publicity. And did Piers learn anything, other than that his Penguin Classics version of the Koran is considered to be faulty? Well...

If the Penguin Classics edition of the Koran (first published in 1956) is the favoured bedside edition for the terrorist classes and hasn't yet been subjected to a fatwah, then it must be. Now.
If it is responsible for the mayhem in the world – the publishers boast "over a million copies sold worldwide" – it should be withdrawn from sale immediately.

He's right, you know. What we need right now is a good old-fashioned book burning. Piers can get the fuel and the wood for the fire, and I'll get the books. Hell, I'll even throw in some other books Piers won't like, such as the majority report from the enquiry into the "children overboard" affair.

But honestly, just look at what he's saying. He's gone beyond just saying things I disagree with to things that are actually stupid. The "terrorist classes" wouldn't be reading the Penguin Classics edition. They'd be reading it in the original Arabic. Quite apart from the fact that bin Laden et al wouldn't need an English translation of the Koran, the common perception is that the Koran cannot really be translated—this is the position taken even by translators of the book—and the original Arabic text is the only word of Allah and the only text that can be used officially. And a "fatwah" (sic) against it? What sort of "legal opinion based on religious reasoning" against it would he like? Perhaps Piers would also like to declare a jihad against it, since he evidently feels he's being clever using Islamic terms like that. And then he ends with this:

Later, he recommends I read Muhammad Asad's difficult-to-find 1984 edition of the Koran, published by Dar al-Andalus Limited, of Gibraltar.
Well, Mr Trad, the next lunch will be on me.
I'll ask at Elizabeth's Secondhand Book Shop, but what I really want to know is who's putting all the poison in the Koranic poetry, and when will young murderers around the world stop masquerading as Muslims?

I don't get it. Is Piers actually saying that there's a difference between the Islamist terrorists and your average Muslim in the street? Cos the tenor of the rest of his piece somehow doesn't give me that impression. Here's something else he says in this article:

Armed with my well-thumbed Penguin Classics edition of the Koran, I wanted to discuss the increasingly widely held Western view that, tragically, terrorists claiming to be acting in the name of Islam have been making a lot of the news lately.
(That qualification is necessary because other explosive people also claiming to be Muslims are quick to write to the newspapers these days to point out that terrorism is not an Islamic practice.)

Piers would probably have liked to add the word "Bullshit" after that sentence, except the sub-editor would probably have hacked it out. Consider also this excerpt from another op-ed of his from last week:

IT IS well and good for members of Australia's Muslim communities to denounce terrorism and claim in the local press that such murderous activity is un-Islamic, but they're telling the wrong audience.
We've heard it before – and, unfortunately, their declarations fly in the face of the growing, charred mass of evidence now accumulating in Bali's makeshift morgues, and in the historical record of the flattened World Trade Centre site, the rebuilt Pentagon, bombed Indonesian churches, holed ships and dead French, Germans, Kenyans, Tanzanians and others.

So either Piers has suddenly mellowed out somewhat in the last week or else he's displaying his mastery of irony in a way that I'm not picking up. Either way, I don't get it. And to be sure, Piers Akerman's stuff is not usually worth the effort of getting, but this one irritated me enough to go through in more detail...

posted by James Russell | 4:53 PM

The last will and testament of Osama bin Laden. "My collection of vintage biochemical weapons I leave to Saddam Hussein..."

posted by James Russell | 2:52 PM

Pravda explains how to defeat terrorism.

When the storm at the theatre where hundreds of hostages were held was over, everybody started thinking of what was to be done to the bodies of the killed terrorists. It is reported that a hot-line phone was active within the three past days, which people used to suggest ideas concerning dead bodies of the terrorists. An idea has come up to mind immediately: as was once done in Israel, it is suggested that dead bodies of Shakhids are to be buried wrapped in pig skins filled up with pig’s manure. This, as some Muslim theologians think will not let the terrorists into the vakhabit paradise.
This action made a really strong impression on religious fanatics in Israel; majority of people gave up the idea of terrorism acts for the fear to be desecrated after death.

Yeah, they're fucking terrified, all right...

posted by James Russell | 2:50 PM

Gladiators on the rise again in Rome. Plus ça change...

posted by James Russell | 2:36 PM

Proof that video games can be bad for you.

posted by James Russell | 2:35 PM

Deer invade McFood restaurant.

posted by James Russell | 2:34 PM

US Immigration strikes again. I'm sure I can't be the only person wondering why the US doesn't just close its borders completely so no one can get in or out at all. They seem so determined to make it so hard for people I wonder why they don't just shut down completely...

posted by James Russell | 2:23 PM

Ban on eating and drinking includes breastfeeding.

Ng Lai Ping was reading to her 22-month-old son in the Central Library when she decided he needed feeding.
About half way through breastfeeding she was approached by a member of the library's staff who asked her to go to the sick bay instead and gave her a leaflet on the library's ban on food and drinks.

Wonder which of the two they actually classified the breastfeeding under...

posted by James Russell | 2:18 PM

People aren't happy with the handling of the Moscow theatre siege.

The Russian government is facing mounting criticism over an operation to free 700 hostages held by Chechen gunmen in a Moscow theatre. The rescue mission left more than 90 hostages dead and at least 546 others have been hospitalised, many in serious condition from an unidentified gas used to disable the captors.

Yow. I know they said some of the hostages had been killed, but not THAT many. Still, I daresay they'll try and get out of it by claiming the Chechens shot them...

posted by James Russell | 2:12 PM

Jason Soon reviews Blinded By The Right. I've seen that about recently and had considered investing in it, but after Jason's review I'm not so sure any more. Shit, it's not like I have any room for more books in this place anyway...

posted by James Russell | 2:01 PM

Tim Blair visits the UN.

For an example of the latter, examine the UN's attempted tribute to the victims of September 11. It's a collection of 4000 drawings by children from all over the world, stuck on panels by Korean artist Ik-Joong Kang. It is cute and heart-warming and nice, and it has precisely nothing to do with September 11.
The children have simply drawn whatever they wanted to. Chalani, a Sri Lankan boy, contributed as his tribute to the victims a drawing of a robot chef. Another tribute came in the form of this ominous pledge, from young Umaru: "I would like to be President of Uganda."
Japanese children seemed to think that happy squids were evocative of September 11.

Yeah, letting kids take part in a memorial like that was heinous. Clearly the UN are worse than Hitler and must be eradicated from the face of the Earth like the scourge of humanity they obviously are.

posted by James Russell | 1:54 PM

Goddamn I hate daylight saving when you have to put the clocks forward...

posted by James Russell | 1:39 PM