Babies are sooooo cute… Says mum…

Spotter

Prince Harry and the contest to be outraged:

“Every age has its pieties, which may not be assailed — because they secure the power of the powerful.”

It’s also worth noting that some of the self-appointed spokesmen who lined up to lambast Harry for his remarks are throwing stones from inside the glass houses of extremism. The BBC’s round up of reactions to the prince’s remarks, for example, includes quotes from the musician and “activist” Aki Nawas, who called for Harry to be thrown out of the army. This is the same Aki Nawas who, a couple of years back, released an album glorifying suicide bombers (the lyrics to one song practically constitute a bomb-making manual), praising Osama bin Laden (he also likens the al-Qaeda leader to Guevara, which actually makes perfect sense to me but upset some commentators on the left), and attacking the “immorality” of the West.

More,and Nawas is not the only one.

Sooty And Weep: The Top Ten Royal Family NicknamesPrince Harry’s Shame: Hal’s Admits To Having A ‘Paki’ Friend
The Prince And The Paki: A Love Story

Via Jamie, LA Times, who got it from TMZ.

A tongue-in-cheek idea? Maybe, but it might actually be worth doing.

Spotter, Michelle.

Che Guevara and other poster boys for pap:

I wish that Mr. Soderbergh and Mr. Del Toro could live in Cuba, not as the pampered VIPs that they are when they visit today, but as Cubans do, with no United States Constitutional rights, with ration cards entitling them to tiny portions of provisions that the stores don’t even stock anyway, with chivatos surveilling them constantly. How long would it be before Mr. Soderbergh started sizing up inner tubes, speculating on the durability and buoyancy of them, asking himself, could I make the crossing on that? How long before Mr. Del Toro started gazing soulfully at divorced or widowed tourist women, hoping to seduce and marry one of them and get out? Only then could they see why this insipid, frivolous and pretentious movie they have made is nothing less than an insult to millions of people, who really do live like that, and who’ve lived like that their entire lives.

- David Thompson.

Arab Israeli journlist KHALED ABU TOAMEH on how Hamas leaders lost face:

Moreover, the IDF operation has sent the entire Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip into hiding. When and if Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and senior leader Mahmoud Zahar emerge from their hiding places, they are likely to face criticism for abandoning their people during war.

The fact that Haniyeh and Zahar chose to hide out of concern for their personal safety has severely undermined their prestige.

Germans. Fields. Germans in fields:

Brendan O’Neill on how a satire on Stabucks and Israel spawned a conspiracy theory that saw a London branch of Starbucks attacked by anti-war/pro-Hamas/anti-Israel/ Hamas FC hooligans etc, protestors:

Many of the claims about ‘Zionist coffee’ and a link between Starbucks and the Israeli military spring from a letter allegedly written by CEO Howard Schultz. Dated 11 July 2006, and titled ‘A Thank You To All Starbucks Customers’, Schultz apparently said that ‘with every cup you drink at Starbucks you are helping with a noble cause’: ensuring the ‘continued viability and prospering of the Jewish State’. Schultz seems to say that the $5 billion donated by America to Israel every year is ‘no way near enough to pay for all the weaponry, bulldozers and security fences needed to protect innocent Israeli citizens from anti-Semitic Muslim terrorism. Corporate sponsorships are essential [too]’. Schultz thanks Starbucks customers for helping him to raise ‘hundreds of millions of dollars each year’ to support the state of Israel (8). This seemingly Starbucks-damning letter has been on the internet for two-and-a-half years, and it now underpins much of the current anti-Starbucks, pro-Gaza protesting. It has appeared on anti-war websites; it has been cited as evidence by those spreading the ‘Boycott Starbucks’ SMS; Daily Egypt, an English-language paper in Cairo, says that ‘Egyptians and Arabs [have been] circulating emails’ containing the Schultz letter (9).

However, the ‘Schultz letter’ is a hoax; worse than that, it’s a piece of satire that has been accepted by some people as fact. The letter was written, not by Schultz, but by Andrew Winkler, an Australian-based ‘anti-Zionist media activist’ of German origin. It was published as a parody of Schultz, and clearly advertised as a parody, on the anti-Zionist website ZioPedia on 11 July 2006. Winkler later wrote: ‘The Howard Schultz spoof letter has caused quite a bit of a stir… Howard Schultz never wrote that letter, I did.’ (10) Yet now it has become something like a modern, internet-shared version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: a hoax document supposedly written by a Jew which is cited by some people as evidence of Zionist wickedness.

File under: Beyond parody. Via. And here.

Arianna Huffington takes in the Gitmo leavers:

So the word on the street is that during his first week in office, Barack Obama is going to close Gitmo, the vacation spot for would-be bombers and enemy combatants in the war on terror. This is probably a good thing, I suppose – although there has been no mention as to where we`re going to put the folks currently residing there. My previous suggestion –that they take up temporary housing in Arianna Huffington’s posh mansion and other assorted celebrity households - has been ignored. Since many of the prisoners are Muslim – this strikes me as horribly racist.

Gut

John Dickerson on Obama:

Each new president is a work in progress as his policy is matched up to his rhetoric. But Obama seems particularly unpredictable. Pragmatic is becoming the word of his presidency the way change and hope were the words of his campaign… The left and the right don’t quite know what to make of him. He is, as John Heilemann wrote in New York magazine, a party of one.

Via

Talking about my generation - and his:

Heterophobics at work:

Here is a Google map that allows you to find your way to the homes of people who donated money to Prop 8 in California. It’s damn creepy, is what it is. What could possibly be the use of this kind of information, presented in this way? It’s intended to intimidate people into not participating in politics by donating money. Do that, and you’ll end up on some activist group’s map, with hotheads being able to find your street address on their iPhones.

Or this…

Michael Yon may sue Michael Moore for using one of his photographs:

My attorney may have to file a lawsuit against Mr. Michael Moore.  In May we contacted Mr. Moore, through his counsel, about Mr. Moore’s unauthorized use of my work on his website.  He did not respond.  My attorney has written again.  If Mr. Moore and his counsel continue to ignore our correspondence, we will proceed with a lawsuit.

Just accredit the image and apologise - or is there soemthing more to this?

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss…

Michael Oren works both for the mdia and the IDF. Can the two be exclusive:

The confusing roles of citizen, soldier, historian and spokesman make Oren an erudite advocate, yet he is often represented as an analyst. Perhaps there are places where you can be both, but not in wars.

Adrian Monck has more

The Brit Blog round up:

Over 50,000 protest in London against Israel’s murderous cynicism, Cat, Fridge Magnet and Jimjay who also has another collection of blog links at the end of his post. More on Israel vs Hamas - A happy ending, I don’t think so.

Are you one of those contributors to Wikipedia who feels so infuriated when somebody comes along and chops and changes all your long carefully thought out words, the end result might be better than you think claims one of the writers.

Book reviews this week - From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience: The Transition Handbook . Several bloggers are promoting online sales of Craig Murray’s book The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. If like myself you are wondering what’s so special about the book, you just have to buy it to find out.

Read on

ISRAELIS Use Baby-Seeking Technology, says Hamas:

Spotter

Anorak reader June spots Sooty, the Black Prince…

Labout list - an independent Labour blog run by the, er, Labour Party, Genius!

Jim Pickard in the FT wrote…