Blog - 2005 Archive

Name: Muktar Said Ibrahim.
Sentence: Minimum 40 years.

Name: Ramzi Mohammed.
Sentence: Minimum 40 years.

Name: Yasin Hassan Omar.
Sentence: Minimum 40 years.

Name: Osman Hussain.
Sentence: Minimum 40 years.

Live 8, July 2005

• The Third World:
  • Summary - How to end poverty in the third world
  • Live Aid and the Ethiopian communist democide, 1985
  • Why is the Third World poor?
  • Left-wing Charities do not understand how to end poverty

The 10 best countries in the world

• The world's 10 oldest democracies

Sartre centenary, June 2005

• The western left's long history of support for tyranny

• The left in France - The cradle of late 20th century tyranny

Cafe Mao, June 2005

• The Chinese democide

• Laughing at democide

The "Koran desecration" hysteria, May-June 2005

• The Islamic street
  • The "Miss World" riots of 2002
  • The Newsweek riots of 2005

• The left is racist - It expects Muslims and non-westerners to riot and kill when "offended", and makes excuses for them, instead of treating them as adults.

Amnesty's lowest moment - The claim that America runs a "gulag", May 2005

• Human rights groups
  • Amnesty
  • Amnesty's lowest moment - They compare Guantanamo Bay to the Soviet gulags, where 40 million innocent people died.

Christian Aid Week, May 2005

• Left-wing Charities

• Christian Aid

France votes No to the European Constitution, May 2005

• World bodies:
  • The EU

Lebanon election, May 2005

• Lebanon:
  • The Lebanon revolution, 2005

• Iran:
  • Iran and Syria next
  • People of Iran, Syria and Lebanon, liberate yourselves

George Galloway wins Bethnal Green and Bow, May 2005

• Modern leftists:
  • George Galloway

• The Iraqi fascist "resistance":
  • The left's support for the Iraqi resistance
  • George Galloway
  • What is the Iraqi resistance?

UK election, May 2005

I could not get so excited about the UK election. Between Labour and Tory, the choice was just not as clear-cut as it was in the US election or the Spanish election or the Australian election or the German election. The Tories did their best to convince us that they'd be weak on defence, but I don't believe them. I think they'd be fine.

• On the one hand, I'm a great fan of Tony Blair, the great liberal internationalist who understands the post 9/11 world - but the problem is I don't like much of the Labour party. I worry that after Blair goes, Labour will revert to its old anti-American self. If only one could vote for Blair without voting for Labour.
• On the other hand, I like Tory policies, and I think most of the Tory party are sensible, but I was turned off Michael Howard by his shabby, second-thoughts opportunism on Iraq. Howard is an alienator of potential new Tory supporters like me. I far prefer Blair to Howard.
• So I'm happy with a third Blair win. Maybe now the Tories will realise the kind of things that attract conservative voters to Blair.

• Oliver Kamm sums up the election result: It's not quite a win, not quite a loss.
• It is interesting that Bush, Blair and Howard - the three leaders of the Iraq War of 2003 - all won re-election in 2004-05. Sure, the war was unpopular with some people. But the war's unpopularity has clearly been exaggerated. Much of the media bought into the "Bush lied. Blair lied." rhetoric. But most people didn't. They either supported the war, or opposed it but didn't care that much compared with other issues. The media's "Conventional Wisdom" version of history will forever portray this as an unpopular war. But the less dramatic truth is that it was not very unpopular.

I won "Best Overall Blog" in the Irish Blog Awards 2005 by the Freedom Institute (libertarian / neo-con group, formerly here and here).

The judges were Paul MacDonnell (Open Republic Institute), Paul Daly (Journalist) and Philip O'Sullivan (Freedom Institute).