Running with the crowd

Lord Hutton about the Birmingham Six:

"If the six men win, it will mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats ... That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, 'It cannot be right that these actions should go any further'."
Danny Morrison - My report on Lord Hutton - The Guardian

I think that is the mindset of many people in the media as well about many things. "It can't be true, so if we want to be responsible journalists, we have make sure that the truth prevails". They have stopped asking questions, because they have a firm view of the world, they "know what is going on", because they start to believe what they themselves have written.

It is a human reaction, I guess. If everybody is running from the furry animal, one does not question what the intentions of that animal are and runs with the crowd. And while in prehistoric times, this behaviour was vital to our survival, in modern times it is lethal and not right for a responsible journalist.

We, the people, have the right to don't give a damn

Reading a bit on Wikipedia about Lord Hutton really makes me wonder what's going on and why most people don't seem to give a damn...

Famous for 15 megapixels: Faith in Accidents

In un(?)related news: England is building an army of bees to take over the world.

Haha

NPR : Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers

Ok, I can see a point that the US needs to build a fence to keep out the illegal immigrants, if the companies hired to build the fence couldn't be stopped to use illegal immigrants. I still think it is stupid, but hey, it is the US.

(via fefe, in German)

Dead man don't sing

Ok, so I’m wrong

For almost 10 years now, I’ve been waging a war against retrospective term extension. My simple argument has been that copyright is about creative incentives, and you can’t create incentives retrospectively.

I now see I am apparently wrong.

As reported yesterday, there was an ad in the FT listing 4,000 musicians who supported retrospective term extension. If you read the list, you’ll see that at least some of these artists are apparently dead (e.g. Lonnie Donegan, died 4th November 2002; Freddie Garrity, died 20th May 2006). I take it the ability of these dead authors to sign a petition asking for their copyright terms to be extended can only mean that even after death, term extension continues to inspire.

I’m not yet sure how. But I guess I should be a good sport about it, and just confess I was wrong. For if artists can sign petitions after they’ve died, then why can’t they produce new recordings fifty years ago?
Lawrence Lessig

News from the Terror War!

Britain stops talk of 'war on terror' | Politics | The Observer

Everything is connected

I am not a fan (or even very interested) in these Princess Di conspiracy theories. Well except for the slightly interesting Kashoggi connection of Dodi Al-Fayed.

This could change now.

US bugged Diana's phone on night of death crash | UK News | The Observer

One more reason to use Polonium

Seems like I have forgotten one motive regarding the Polonium 210 killing.

'For anybody looking to kill an individual using nuclear material, polonium- 210 would be the radioactive isotope of choice'
Nuclear poison: the deadly trade | The Observer

Well, for anybody having the money to spare. And for anybody wanting to create a scare of nuclear material floating arround and ending up in the hand of terrorists. No sir, we are fighting a Terror War, we wouldn't want to add any fuel to it, would we?

Officials from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston and Porton Down, the government Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, will today continue studying samples of the radioactive material extracted from the tablecloth of the sushi restaurant where Litvinenko ate the day he died.

No, nobody building atomic weapons for the British government would interested in creating a scare of a "dirty bomb", no sir. After all, weapons makers don't profit from an ongoing war and would not be interested in creating something that could be perceived as a threat. A threat that the government would need to act on. No sir. And no, the created threat by Iran is not a reason to modernize nuclear weapons and transfer a shit load of money from the state to private companies.

No on disputes that Litvinenko had mustered his fair share of enemies. Some were dangerous, others less so, yet whether light can ever pierce the fog of claim, counter-claim and smoke and mirrors that characterise this case is hard to predict.

Truer words have never been written in a newspaper.

To be honest, I don't care why and by whose hands this guy died. But I do care what governments all over the world do. And if we start to investigate every death, say in Iraq, with the scrutiny we currently see regarding the Polonium 210 case, we would not have a problem with unemployment. In fact, if we would go and investigate every death in Iraq with this attention of detail, you could hire every African and solve the problems of this forgotten continent.

Idi Amin, Yasser Arafat, Ronald Regean, Augusto Pinochet

All dead, all dead.



And soon Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro. Who is left? Marget Thatcher, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar al-Qaddafi?

I'm afraid, despite a new Miami Vice movie and war in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq, the eighties are over.

It is always the same...

What is so attractive about Hamburg? Ok, wrong question, I have moved here and I like it. "It is a city like no other". But before I start to ramble about the touristic qualities of my current hometown, I shall rephrase my question.

What makes Hamburg attractive for dubious figures?

I moved to Hamburg by taking the night train to Hamburg, arriving in Hamburg on September the 10th, 2001. It was quite an interesting first week at work. As my employer has rented an appartment for me, I had some time to look for a flat in Hamburg. And boy, while I was searching for something to rent, the police was searching for something, well, to search. For unknown reasons some people have decided that Hamburg was a base camp for an operation that should shock the world.

The fun I would have had, if I had rented the appartment of Atta. But I was lucky, as the Marienstraße is on the wrong side of the river Elbe. The police searched some other houses too, one about a km from my current flat, but I guess it was the typical alarmismus you see with the police.

Before 9/11, the worst you could rent was the flat of Fritz Honka, who has killed at least four people and hidden body parts in his flat. When people complained about the smell of decaying flesh, he blamed it on foreigners who have moved into the house and "are using strange spices when cooking". Yeah, blame it on the Arab, a game that seems familiar.

So, after the connection of 9/11 with Hamburg, it seems no surprise to me, that I was a couple of times quite near to the Erzbergerstraße 4 just last week. Strange, really strange. But as most of Polonium in Hamburg can be found in tabaco (which should be true for London as well) I am not worried. See this study about Polonium 210 in Polish cigarettes, it sounds strange but I am not making this up...

And it is still true: Don't buy music from the majors

IGN: RIAA Petitions Judges to Lower Artist Royalties

He says, he says, he says

A German citizen, who says he was put on a CIA plane and flown to Afghanistan where he says he was tortured for five months, is back in the U.S. this week to appeal the dismissal of his lawsuit against the former head of the CIA George Tenet and other officials.
The German Citizen's Lawsuit Alleges Human Rights Abuses by Tenet - Blotter

As far as I know, these things HAVE happend, the US HAVE admitted that he was renditioned. Well, they have not admitted that he was tortured, but nobody in history has ever admitted that he uses torture. Maybe Vlad the Impaler, but except for him...

The mother of all conspiracy theories

I don't understand much about global economics, but I always asked myself how a nation can continously accumulate debt. I mean, if I take a credit, I have to pay it back some day.

This doesn't seem to apply for a nation. "Mr Bush, pay back the debt by friday or we will distrain Florida!" Can you imagine Germany selling Bavaria to the Japanese to pay back their credits?

Well, I think the plan is that the nations will never pay back the money the owe. Some people say that a crash is coming. Peak Oil, Dollar Dependency, US deficit, Economic Cycles, you name it. And what happens usually when a crash occours? A super-giga-hyper-inflation! Problem solved!

Well, not excactly, because there is still the problem that the people might not react that well to a crash of the economy. So, what does a responsible politian do, if he knows that the shit will hit the fan? He gets ready. And this would explain why democrats all over the world have turned into stalinists and are converting their nations to "controlled democracies". We will need to control all those unemployed and hungry people when the Dollar goes for a crash dive. Better start building those internment camps now.

Ah, the good old dream of a just despot.

And there is one more thing that might fit into the big "Shit&Fan" conspiracy theory: States all over the world are selling their "crown juwels". "Hey mate, wana buy a Hospital? Prime condition and I make you a special price." Two reasons would explain this: First, the politicians are buying time, just like I did when I was unemployed and sold everything I could live without. And secondly, the state will get all this stuff back with ease after the crash.

Now, I could be completly wrong, as I said, I don't know much about these things and it is getting quite late. But to me, this would explain certain things, much better than what I have heard so far.

In related news: TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK - New York Post

(via fefe, in German)

Compare yourself!

Comparison of the US with the USSR
(Well with regards to Peak Oil, but who cares)

Comparison of the EU with the USSR

And only in German:
Comparison of the EU with the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation by the German minister of the interior. By the way, he received 100.000 DM by an arms dealer. (See here for details about the Holy Roman Empire)

(via fefe, in German)

Lawyers - Our Doom

Can you make up this kind of shit? This can't be true, can it?
Cruel and Unusual: 25 Years for Taking Own Pain Meds | The Huffington Post

Ex-Chief of US Gulag new Chief of NATO

SHAPE News: Supreme Allied Command Europe changes hands - 7 Dec. 2006

It is the same as in the US, they are moving these cronies arround like rooks.

Learn spelling in Cyrillic!

I have been thinking about this a bit lately and this post by Stef stirred up some Polonium thing within me.

Well, whoever killed Litvinenko wanted to spell out this message:

1. We have lots of money and access to dangerous things.
2. We are from Russia.

Number one is obviously true, but number two, I am not sure.
Let's see, round up the usual suspects.

Our prime suspect is:

Putin

If he would wanted to send a message to Berezovsky, he would have done just that, maybe send one of those cultural attachés you can read about in books by John le Carré.

If he wanted Berezovsky dead, B. would have been hit by a lorry, drowned in the Thames river or crashed in an airplane by now. Putin was head of the Russian secret service and has certainly access to it now. And certainly they can kill someone without spray-painting "From Russia with Love" on the dead corpse and a couple of British Airways airplanes.

So, I think we can safely exclude Putin.

Of course, there is a chance that this is exactly the reason why Putin did it. (Sorry, need to take my medication now - Ah, that feels better).

We come to our second contestant:

"Forces" within Russia

Well this seems much more likely. Someone who goes way back with L. and has a axe to grind with him. Or even some one who wants to pin it on Putin.

The more I think about the whole "Pin it on Putin" game, the more I am thinking about who is having a jolly good time pinning it on Putin:

"Forces" within the UK

Well, here we have it.

Just like Major Renault in Casablanca, who is shocked to find out that gambling is going on in Rick's Cafe Americain, so is Captain Blair to find out that Putin may be behind bad things.

Why the sudden change in attitude towards Russia and Putin? I don't know. Maybe the Russian-German pipeline and a Russian threat about the prices of energy? Who knows. This certainly looks like a "We have pretty good relations, it would be a pitty if anything bad happend to them" moment.

I feel sorry for the runner-up in our "Who framed Roger Putin" contest, but I don't think our American-Three-Letter friend has to do anything with this whole affair. The americans don't even seem to be interested beyound their initial reaction to everything "That is just like that Bond movie I have seen, that is sooo cute when he saves his life with that defribilator and first asks the girl if she is alright!"

Did I miss anybody important? Well, maybe the Islandians did it, but then again not. Who knows.

Drug Killings and White Houses

Now, as a result of documents disclosed in three separate court cases, it is becoming clear that his murder, along with at least 11 further brutal killings, at the Juarez 'House of Death', is part of a gruesome scandal, a web of connivance and cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush.

The House of Death | The Observer

Buy our Remix

Try making your own remix and die. After all, this is not your culture.

Boing Boing: Beatles mashups -- by the Beatles!

I related news: Gordon Brown says 'Mashups are the future'

That sort of thing

Broadcaster Sir David Frost, one of the top names lured to Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel, made sure the station had no Al-Qaeda links before signing up, he said.
...
"I deliberately checked it out, with the government and with Washington, that there were no links with Al-Qaeda, for instance, that sort of thing," he told the Guardian daily on Wednesday.

Frost checked Al-Jazeera for terror links before joining - Yahoo! News UK

You never know with these towelheads, do you?

Thank god (the Christian that is), David checked with *THE* instance on Al-Q "the government and Washington". After all, it is Washington who invented Al-Q.

I haven't seen much from David, but I guess with quality journalist-actors like him arround, we can rest in the safe knowledge that journalism will have the facts that blend best with the current official conspiracy theories.

Don't miss next weeks episode when David calls No. 10 Downing Street and finds out that Putin is bad person. Honestly.

(via Telepolis, in German)

Something different

What is missing while wading through all those 9/11 conspiracy websites is a portion of critical distance. 'You are either with us or with them'. But the world is not that simple. And there is a lot of bushshit information on both sites. So, to get some perspective I recommend reading some of this.

I specially recomment this one:
Debunking 911 - WTC 7

Do I know now what happened to WTC 7 on 9/11? No. But I know that there are people who are interested in finding out what happened on 9/11. Unlike the US government or senate. And that tells us a lot.

Ah, what a gem

A truely interesting website.

Edward Jay Epstein's Home Page

Believe whatever you want to believe, but this website is nicely done.

While driving down memory lane...

... we come to Tora Bora, the mystical place under the hill. Ah, these were the times when we could believe in bondesque super villians who threatended the world from an undergournd high-tech bunker. Where are the Stavros of today?

I guess the postal system is to be blamed when movie scripts addressed to Hollywood, CA, end up in Washington, DC, or when the script for the BBC series "Ricin, TATP, Liquids: How Arabs kill us" end up in police stations in the UK.

This really seems to be a global trend, 'inteligence' agencies and the police all over the world are turning into those little dolls that tell you anything as long as you pull the right string.

I guess, it is globalistion to be blamed ...

(I would like to provide you with a good link the the German train "bombers" of Cologne, but I can't find a good English article that shows how these wanabe-bombers could ignite a fire with gasoline and a burning torch. The only english articles are like these and I doubt that this translation does help...)

Ah, Gopher

Does anybody here remember gopher? I was told that the university of Delft had a very hot gopher server running... Ah, what warm and fuzzy feeling.

Index of gopher://gopher.quux.org/1/Software/Gopher