’Jihad TV’ Set Up to Mock Coalition Forces

Image courtesy of BBC

BBC: An Iraqi satellite TV channel has started to air Hidden Camera Jihad, a video compilation of attacks on US-led coalition forces in Iraq that has appeared on internet message boards since late 2006. Iraq 'jihad TV' mocks coalition (more)

Mark Alexander

Mother’s Day Flowers
I should like to remind my visitors that your patronage of the following flower sites help keep this Weblog going. Why not buy your flowers for Mother’s Day from Florabunda, Maple Flowers, Le Jardin en Fleurs, or Einfach Gold ?

For internationalflower order, click Florabunda International.

Obviously, I don’t need to remind you that you can support this Blogspot by purchasing my book, too. It is widely available online, and in many bookshops. For example, it can be bought herein the United States, here in Canada, here in France, and here in Austria and Germany.

Thank you for your support, and Happy Mother's Day!

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy gibt Deutschland Priorität und trifft Merkel gleich nach seiner Amtseinführung

Photo von Nicolas Sarkozy und Angela Merkel dank Google Images

SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: Sarkozys erster Tag als französischer Präsident wird mit einem Abendessen in Berlin enden: Unmittelbar nach seiner Amtseinführung steigt er ins Flugzeug und besucht die Bundeskanzlerin in Berlin.

Der neue französische Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy wird bereits am Tag seiner Amtseinführung am kommenden Mittwoch zu einem Treffen mit Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel nach Berlin reisen. Die Kanzlerin werte dies als außerordentlich starkes Zeichen für die deutsch-französische Freundschaft, sagte der stellvertretende Regierungssprecher Thomas Steg am Freitag in Berlin. Sarkozy trifft Merkel gleich nach Amtseinführung (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Gay Bishop to ‘tie the knot’ after 18 year wait

Photo of Gene Robinson courtesy of Google Images

CNN: MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) -- The openly gay Episcopal bishop at the center of the Anglican Church's global battle over homosexuality said Thursday he hopes to enter into a civil union with his partner next year.

But New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson added that he wants to hold separate religious and legal ceremonies to set a precedent for how marriages and civil unions are performed in the United States. Gay bishopplans civil union with partner of 18 years (more>

Mark Alexander

Siniora Denies Arab States Want to Wipe Israel Off the Map

Photo of Fouad Siniora thanks to YNET NEWS

If Arabs don’t want to wipe Israel off the map, then why do so many Arab-Muslim countries, for example Saudi Arabia, refuse to recognize Israel on the maps and globes they use? Israel is so frequently torn out (leaving a hole in the map), or is quite simply blacked out with a marking pen. ©Mark Alexander

YNET NEWS: In New York Times editorial Lebanese prime minister urges Jewish state to strive for comprehensive solution based on revived Arab peace initiative; says last summer’s war in Lebanon proved that ‘military action does not give the people of Israel security’

“The Arab states are not seeking to wipe Israel off the map; rather, we are seeking the legitimate goals of an armistice, secure borders and the ability of all of the region’s people to live in peace and security,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a New York Times editorial published on Friday. Arabs don’t want to wipe Israel off map, Siniora says (more)

Mark Alexander

Pope to canonise Friar Galvao
BBC: Up to one million people are set to gather in Brazil to watch Pope Benedict XVI canonise the country's first home-born saint, Friar Galvao.

The open-air mass at an airfield in Sao Paulo marks the highlight of the Pope's first visit to Brazil, the world's most populous Catholic nation.

On Thursday, the Pope told thousands of young Catholics at a rally to avoid the "evil" of abortion and to stay chaste. Pope to laud Brazil’s first saint (more)

Mark Alexander

The Election of the Turkish President
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Turkish presidents, traditionally, are elected in parliament -- but parliament has just voted to give that decision to the people. Behind the reform is an old conflict between Muslims and Turkish secularists. Parliament Votes to Let the People Decide (more)

LE FIGARO: Les islamistes turcs jouent le peuple contre l'armée

Mark Alexander

M.le Président en vacances

Photo de ‘Mastercabin’ de Paloma grâce à Google Images

LE FIGARO: Le récent séjour de Nicolas Sarkozy, fraîchement élu à l'Élysée, a fait couler beaucoup d'encre pour son caractère ostentatoire. Mais l'organisation des vacances des chefs de l'État a toujours été un casse-tête pour concilier confort et image. Retour dans le temps. Les vacance de M. le Président (encore)

LE FIGARO: Politoscope : les Français "pas choqués" par les vacances de Nicolas Sarkozy

Mark Alexander

Keine Minarette für die Schweizer
SPIEGELONLINE: Vor den Wahlen im Herbst appelliert die rechte Schweizerische Volkspartei an die Stammtische im Hinterland: Sie fürchtet die Einführung der Scharia in der Eidgenossenschaft - und fordert deshalb einen Bann von Minaretten.

In der Schweiz findet im Herbst die Parlamentswahl statt - und deshalb ist jetzt schon der Einfallsreichtum der Partei-Manager schwer gefordert. Vorneweg sorgt wieder die Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) für Aufsehen - mit dem Ziegenbock "Zottel" als Wahlkampf-Maskottchen, der aus dem Stall des Landwirts und Abgeordneten Ernst Schibli stammt. Schweizer Politiker wollen Minarette verbieten (mehr)

Mark Alexander

”Zenployment”- the New Work Trend
THE TELEGRAPH: Millions of workers want to quit the rat race for a job in the slow lane by the age of 45, research revealed yesterday.

On the day that Tony Blair announced his resignation at the age of 54, a study found that more that than one in two Britons wanted a second, more compassionate career for the last two decades of their working life.

The country's bosses could be facing a rash of resignations from fortysomething employees who aim to put satisfaction before success. Millions want to quite the rat race (more)

Mark Alexander

The Republican Party is in No Partying Mood

Photo of Bush in sober mood courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: A "sobered" George W Bush was told by Republican allies yesterday that his party would desert him if the situation in Iraq did not improve dramatically and he continued to keep troops there.

For a White House where bad news is often branded as defeatism, the 90-minute meeting with 11 centrist Republicans was remarkably blunt as they told him that there had to be discernable progress by September. Republicans warn Bush he risks being deserted (more) By Toby Harnden

TIMESONLINE: Bush begs for more time as Republican revolt gathers pace

LE FIGARO: Le soutien de Bush s'effrite chez les républicains

Mark Alexander

Taking the 'New' Out of 'New Labour' - unceremoniously

Photo of Blair ‘the Showman’ courtesy of Google Images

THE TELEGRAPH: Labour set the stage for a new era under Gordon Brown yesterday by unceremoniously dumping Tony Blair's "New Labour" brand within minutes of the Prime Minister delivering an emotional and stage-managed resignation statement.

As Mr Blair admitted that he had not always lived up to the public's high expectations when he entered Downing Street a decade ago, the "New Labour, New Britain" logo - the defining symbol of his leadership - was removed from the party's website and replaced with plain "Labour" and the red rose symbol.

The move emphasised the determination of senior Labour figures to regain hundreds of thousands of traditional supporters who have come to associate New Labour with a betrayal of the party's values. Mr Blair launched the name at his first conference as leader in 1994 at the start of a relentless programme of modernisation. The end of New Labour (more) By George Jones and Toby Helm

Telegraph Leader: Tony Blair's exit was gracefully done, though the seven-week farewell tour that is to follow will surely test everyone's patience.

This peerless political showman delivered a speech that was perfectly pitched and refreshingly free of maudlin sentiment.
Yet what was most striking about the swansong was its defensiveness, underscored by his rather plaintive assertion that "hand on heart, I did what I thought was right" as he apologised for the times when he had "fallen short". It struck an elegiac note in counterpoint to his predictable roll-call of New Labour "successes". A great showman – but an average statesman (more)

Mark Alexander

Frightening Thoughts About the Possible Future of Islam in Britain
With many thanks to Jim Ball, number one radio personality in Australia, for bringing this seriously good article to my attention:

DAILY MAIL: This week has been another terrible one for those of us who want a society in which all races, religions and cultures mix to their mutual advantage and enrichment.

On Tuesday, five men were sentenced to life in prison for plotting to use a huge fertiliser bomb in what would have been the UK's largest mass murder.

Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Salahuddin Amin, Anthony Garcia and Jawad Akbar - first and second generation immigrants - responded to the tolerance of the British people by trying to kill as many of them as possible.

Is it absurd to hope that the exposure of their evil after a 13-month trial which cost an estimated £50 million has finally provided the wake-up call that this slumbering country so badly needs?

Or will we continue to allow the politically-correct lunatics to stay in charge of what is becoming an asylum?

I'm one of those old-fashioned immigrants to this country who feels passionately grateful, is proudly British (as well as Irish - having been born in Dublin), and believes that immigrants have more duties than rights.

And, further, that one of those is to adjust to British society rather than expecting it to adjust to them.
However, one aspect of contemporary British society which I refuse to adjust to is its weakness in the face of the enemy within.

In my many conversations with like-minded people about the threat that radical Islam poses to the British way of life - and, indeed, to European civilisation - we frequently end by despairingly agreeing that the West seems intent on committing political and cultural suicide.

When we look starkly at the demographic statistics, the wimpishness of our Establishment in the face of the threat, the perversions perpetrated by political correctness and our own passivity, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that within a couple of generations, Islam will be in control in Europe. Will Britain one day be Muslim? (more) By Ruth Dudley Edwards

Mark Alexander

Opinion: A N Wilson on Blair
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: A little over a decade after he came in as the young hope of a New Britain, Tony Blair is a figure vilified and loathed by his own party and disliked by people in Britain at large.

There is, however, one good legacy he bequeaths us, and we should not be ungenerous in recognizing it. That is peace in Ireland. Both sides in the Northern Irish dispute hate the English, and both have good reason to do so. This hatred was a substantial reason successive British prime ministers, many of them doing their very best to undo the mistakes of the past, got nowhere with the Irish.

But the hatred was only part of the reason. Another was the phenomenon of language. The Ireland of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams is a place where words bounce, and fly and sing, often meaning several things at once, sometimes meaning nothing at all. Expecting the various parties in Northern Ireland to negotiate with such solidly Aristotelian figures as Margaret Thatcher simply wasn't fair. Her word was her bond. Of course, both sides became entrenched behind barricades not only of barbed wire but of discourse.

Blair, however, is a boundlessly superficial person, and he was perfectly happy to swim about in the weird world of Irish politics where words could mean anything you liked. Most of his sentences would be untranslatable. They were even delivered in quite different accents, as though he was more than one person, which in a way he is. Blair: A player who never found his stage (more)

Mark Alexander

Mouvement démocrate, die neue Partei Bayrous in Frankreich

Foto von Bayrou dank Google Images

NZZ: Mouvement démocrate – Zunehmende Isolierung des Zentristenchefs
Als unabhängige «Gegenmacht» in der politischen Mitte Frankreichs hat der Zentristenchef Bayrou eine neue Partei unter der Bezeichnung Mouvement démocrate gegründet. Mit seiner Taktik droht er in die Isolierung zu geraten, da drei Viertel seiner bisherigen Abgeordneten sich von ihm losgesagt haben und im Regierungslager bleiben. Bayrou gründet neue Partei in Frankreich (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Saudi Arabia Web-Cam Girls Stripping Online for Free
Mark Alexander

Nouvelles cibles des employeurs: Les fumeurs

Photo grâce à Google Images

LE FIGARO: La discrimination à leur égard prend une ampleur sans précédent dans le monde du travail.

"L'égalité au travail: relever les défis". Dans son rapport publié jeudi, le Bureau international du travail (BIT) pointe surtout un défi de taille : celui de la diversification des discriminations. Dans son analyse, l’organisation internationale relève que les femmes, les jeunes, les vieux, les minorités ethniques, les handicapés, les malades du sida ou encore les homosexuels, ne sont plus les seuls groupes à être victimes de discrimination au travail. Que ce soit en termes de restrictions d’embauches, de brimades ou de salaires moindres. Les fumeurs, nouvelles cibles des employeurs (encore)

Mark Alexander

Rumblings of Discontent in the Kingdom: Saudi Women Start Agitating for More Rights

Photocourtesy of the BBC

KUWAIT TIMES: More and more Saudi women are speaking out against preachers in their country. Fatma Al-Faqih, a columnist at the daily Saudi Al-Watan accuses preachers (April 17) of "denigrating women" and "inciting discrimination against women." "Day in day out, our preachers flood us with accusations against women and beg men to defend the virtues of society that women corrupt," Al-Faqih writes. This "anti-woman culture", Al-Faqih continues, causes women to feel mentally and psychologically inferior, "like a quarrelsome child who must be constantly supervised, intimidated, and punished into performing her duties." Anti-woman culture (more) By Dr Sami Alrabaa

Mark Alexander

Was können die Briten in Gordon Brown als Premierminister Großbritanniens erwarten?

Foto von Gordon Brown dank Google Images

SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: Seit zehn Jahren ist Gordon Brown Finanzminister in der Labour-Regierung. Nun soll der Schotte Nachfolger von Tony Blair werden. Damit wird eine alte Abmachung eingelöst. Blair und Brown waren Nachbarn und Partner - und sind doch sehr verschieden.

Über den designierten britischen Premierminister Gordon Brown kursieren in London viele spöttische Witze. Einer der bösesten geht so: Er habe die Fähigkeit, jeden Raum zum Erstrahlen zu bringen - sobald er ihn verlasse. Bärbeißig, brummig, übellaunig - diese Worte fallen vielen Briten ein, wenn sie an Brown denken. Erst nachdem sich der Rückzug Blairs immer deutlicher abzeichnete, versuchte man in seinem Umfeld, den heute 56-Jährigen als lächelnden, freundlichen Mann zu präsentieren. Charmant wie eine Bulldogge, schlau wie ein Fuchs (mehr)

Mark Alexander

”Une semaine supplémentaire à Paul Wolfowitz pour répondre aux accusations de népotisme”

Photo de Paul Wolfowitz grâce à Google Images

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le conseil d'administration de la Banque mondiale a accordé une semaine supplémentaire à Paul Wolfowitz pour répondre aux accusations de népotisme dont il fait l'objet et qui menacent son maintien à la tête de l'institution multilatérale. La Banque mondiale accorde une semaine de délai à Paul Wolfowitz (encore)

Mark Alexander