Johann Hari: Violence Against Gay People Can – and Must – Be Stopped
THE INDEPENDENT: The answer lies in changing the culture of two institutions - schools and the police

The fight to win legal equality for gay people is almost won in Britain – yet the taste of champagne has been tainted by an unexpected dash of blood. In the past few years, gay people have finally begun to exercise the same rights as their straight siblings, yet there has been a sharp surge in violence against us.

In London, recorded homophobic attacks are up by 20 per cent. In Glasgow it's 32 per cent; in Liverpool it's 40 per cent; in Greater Manchester it's 63 per cent. James Parks is only the latest face to be kicked in by this trend: last week, the off-duty police officer left a club in Liverpool with his boyfriend and was lynched by a group of 20 teenagers who smashed his skull and left him close to death.

In a recession, violence always rises, and violence against minorities rises more. Attacks on Muslims, Jews, and black people are also spiking across Britain. But recorded violence against gay people has shown the most extreme rise. Last year, an 18 year-old hairdresser in Liverpool called Michael Causer was sleeping on a friend's sofa after a party when he was woken up. A witness testified that a group of teenagers yelled, "You little queer faggot!" They said they were going to cut out his body-piercings with a knife, and started burning his legs with a lighter. He was found bleeding to death later, dumped in the road outside, after having his head smashed in with a hardback book.

At the trial, one of the 19-year-olds tried for the murder said he was acting "in self-defence" – against a smaller, seven-and-a-half stone boy with no history of violent behaviour. A witness said that during the attack, he had yelled: "He's a little queer, he deserves it!" Yet the jury found him not guilty.

What can we do to stop this surge? The answer does not lie in new laws; these attacks are already highly illegal. It lies in changing the culture of two core British institutions that are still tolerating anti-gay bigotry – our schools, and our police service. >>> Johann Hari | Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Guy Bechor: Obama Doesn’t Get It
YNET NEWS: US president seeking instant Mideast solutions that show his ignorance

When I read that President Obama will call for normalization of ties between the Arab world and Israel at the early stages of his “peace plan,” I shrugged. Yet when I read that he intends to settle the Palestinian refugees in the Arab states they currently live in, and grant them monetary compensation, I was amused.

These are pipe dreams, just like the “Arab democracy” vision of his predecessor that collapsed loudly and brought disaster to the region. This is a rookie plan of an intern who believes that the Israeli-Arab conflict can be resolved with a quick and arrogant gesture. It is clear that whoever came up with this plan lacks understanding of the history, demography, and mostly the fears of the region.

Arab states will never renounce their demand to send back Palestinian refugees to Palestine, that is, to the State of Israel, and some of them, maybe, to the Palestinian Authority. Why? Because these are holy issues.

These refugees define the aspirations of the Arab world, its politics, and its article of faith; this is something that one does not renounce. The demand for returning the refugees is the only common denominator connecting Hizbullah and the Christians in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it’s worth more than gold.

The Arab political establishment wishes to realize the “right of return” not for the sake of the Palestinians, heaven forbid, who are hated in most Arab States, but rather, in order to weaken Israel, destroy it from within, and sink it in the sea of returning Palestinians.

For the Arab world, this is not about the fate of the “Palestinians,” but rather, the fate of the “Palestinian problem,” and these are two separate issues: They hate the Palestinians, but admire the Palestinian problem. They hate the refugees, but admire their right of return. The Arab states have not been maintaining the refugee problem for more than 60 years in order to renounce it. >>> Guy Bechor | Monday, June 22, 2009

The Arrogance and Ignorance of Obama

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Ignorance Rules in Birmingham City Council!
THE TELEGRAPH: Apostrophes in street signs have been banned by a council because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar.

From now on, no sign produced by Birmingham City Council will contain the punctuation mark.

Debates over whether Kings Norton really should be King's - or even Kings' - Norton may rage on, but they will be useless.

And nearby Druids Heath - which was never actually home to one, let alone many, druids - will never take on the possessive, no matter how furious local apostrophe advocates become.

The council said the move had been taken for the purposes of consistency and to avoid costs and confusion over whether place names should ever take an apostrophe.

However the decision was described as "absolute defeatism" by John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society.

"This is setting a terrible example," Mr Richards said. "It seems retrograde, dumbing down really. All over Birmingham, and in other cities, teachers are trying to teach children correct grammar and punctuation. Now children will go around Birmingham and see utter chaos."

Mr Richards suggested the move could prove to be the first step towards linguistic anarchy. "If you don't have apostrophes," he said, "is there any point in full stops, or semi-colons, or question marks? Is there any point in punctuation at all?" >>> By Jon Swaine | Thursday, January 29, 2009

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Are We Mad? Every Organ of the State Now Seems Intent on Protecting Those Who Would Destroy Us
MAIL Online: The picture on today's Mail Online website says it all. Abu Qatada, wanted by Jordan for involvement in terrorist attacks, strolls down a London street, carrying groceries paid for by the British taxpayer.

Beside him, on a mobile phone, apparently acting as a go-between, is Yasser Al-Sirri, wanted by Egypt for aiding an assassination attempt in 1993 of the then Prime Minister with a car bomb, which instead killed a young girl.

Both these men despise the country that is sheltering them. To Qatada, it is the duty of Muslims to kill non-Muslims. Al-Sirri refers to the 'impotence and criminal nature' of the British government.

Well, he's right about the impotence. The decent people of this country want hate-mongers like these thrown out, but the Government seems powerless.

Between the human rights industry and a judiciary that appears more concerned about perpetrators than victims, foreign extremists are a protected species.

In the case of Qatada, the immigration authorities, the police, the security services, the judiciary and the politicians have been almost criminal in their failure to deal with a ruthless fanatic.

Abu Qatada arrived here in 1993 on a forged passport. This did not bother the immigration service, who accepted his claim that he would be tortured if he went home to Jordan so they gave him and his wife and five children asylum.

Why? Did no one run a check on him? There was ample evidence of his extremism but no one bothered to look for it.

Supported by state benefits, Qatada began preaching in local mosques his blood-thirsty anti-Jewish and anti-Christian messages and calling for Muslims to kill non-Muslims.

Because of a toxic mixture of political correctness and ignorance that seems to pervade all our dealings with Muslim extremists, the police were ignoring the rants of even the most incendiary preachers, so Qatada spread his poison undisturbed. Are We Mad? Every Organ of the State Now Seems Intent on Protecting Those Who Would Destroy Us >>> By Ruth Dudley Edwards | September 3, 2008

CITIZEN WARRIOR:
The Wahhabi Invasion of America >>> By Mark Silverberg / Hat tip: AlwaysOnWatch

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