Month: January 2009

There are idiots in this world, and then there are total morons:

The man who added more than a soupcon of embarrassment to the presidential election, and probably did as much as Sarah Palin to wreck John McCain’s chances, still seems hellbent on making an utter fool of himself, this time in Israel.

Samuel Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as “Joe the Plumber”, has arrived in Sderot, a town in northern Israel that’s received more than its fair share of Palestinian rockets over the years. He’s now working as a reporter for some way-out TV network no-one’s ever heard of.

Wurzelbacher’s first observation on arriving in Sderot was that he had “rarely seen such suffering”.

“The people of Sderot can’t do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in. I’m sure they’re taking quick showers. I know I would.”

Presumably, use of the word “rarely” means he has seen such suffering before? Back in Toledo, Ohio, perhaps?

I have some advice for Joe the Plumber: take a trip to Gaza City. They have no showers there. In fact, they have no water at all, or food, or power. Instead they have plenty of mortars, missiles, white phosphorus bombs, tank shells. They’re so plentiful they drop out of the sky continuously – far more than the rockets that fall on Sderot.

No-one wants to live under the threat of death from the sky, be it Israelis in Sderot, or Palestinians in Gaza, and it’s not Wurzelbacher’s fault that he’s a total moron. It’s truly not his fault. He was indoctrinated into believing all the guff poured out by successive American governments, taught for years in American schools, and spewed forth ad infinitum by the media mouthpiece.

If you’re an averagely-intelligent being, capable of thinking for yourself, the chances are you’ll reach an age where such indoctrination is analyzed and rejected. With total morons that never happens. They just keep on swallowing the same old same old until the day they die.

Has Joe the Plumber ever asked himself why the Palestinians keep firing primitive rockets at Israel, when they know the retribution will be mighty? Has he ever bothered to learn of the hardships imposed on the Palestinians, over many years, by successive heartless and vindictive Israeli governments? Does he know the Gaza Strip is a worthless piece of land twenty-five miles long by seven wide, surrounded by barbed wire on three sides, and the sea on the fourth? Is he aware that everything needed to sustain life has to be trucked in from outside, and the outside is Israel, the check-points are Israeli, the decision whether to let one and a half million inhabitants live or die, is an Israeli decision?

Does Joe the Plumber even care that for three weeks the Israeli military has been bombarding what is in reality a huge refugee camp, where every square mile houses, on average, 8,500 people. Over one third of them are children. In reality, of course, the main centers are much more densely populated, as much of the Strip is scrub and desert.

Joe the Plumber knows none of these things. If he did, he probably wouldn’t care. Joe the Plumber’s a team man. He’s decided which team he’s going to support and nothing, nothing, will ever cause him to alter his allegiance.

In his own words:

“When someone hits me, I’m going to unload on the boy. And if the rest of the world doesn’t understand that, then I’m sorry.”^[1]

Israel is Joe the Plumber’s team. He’s going to ensure the world knows he’s their greatest fan.

Samuel Wurzelbacher takes the prize, as an all-American, total and utter, moron.

^{“Joe the Plumber berates Israeli press for not being patriotic enough” Guardian, January 12th 2009}

The war in Gaza is over. At least, it would seem that way to anyone tuning in to the BBC World News or NBC Nightly News tonight, hoping for some uptodate coverage.

Headlines were all George W Bush, and him daring to admit the “Mission Impossible” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln was perhaps a mistake. Oh, and he wouldn’t be sitting on a beach somewhere in a wide-brimmed hat and Hawaiian shirt when he leaves the White House, because it’d be no fun now he’s given up the booze.

Still, everyday in office was a joy, which is more than can be said for the dead, the dying, and the bereaved he leaves behind him.

Despite the US and UK media being apparently oblivious to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, other news sources are less obsessed with this aging war criminal and mentally disturbed bigot reaching the end of his tyrannical reign of power and making feeble excuses to justify his heinous acts.

From the excellent website, “Gorilla’s Guides” comes evidence of white phosphorus used by Israelis on civilians, just as the Americans did during the battle for Fallujah, in Iraq. Use of the substance in this way is barred by the Geneva Conventions, but who gives a tinker’s cuss about those anymore?

I make no apology for the photograph below. It’s sickening, vile, obscene – in fact, it’s every word you can think of that describes the foul depths to which man can sink in his treatment of his fellows. It’s may even be slightly worse than calling a fellow British soldier a “Paki”, though some UK gutter newspapers may not agree.

According to aid workers, this baby was killed in an explosion, then run over by an Israeli tank. It’s what “collateral damage” looks like:

More information is available on the Gorilla’s Guides website (link below)^[1], but the caption for this image reads:

A baby retrieved from Attattra, northwestern Gaza, where paramedics estimate 100s of calls to retrieve the injured and the dead have gone ignored due to Israeli troops occupation of the area. Despite Geneva Conventions, medical personnel are not able to reach the wounded, many of whom are critically wounded and will die due to the prevention of medical access. This baby, killed in an explosion, was then run over by an Israeli tank, according to aid workers who eventually retrieved the body.”

Unfortunately, these types of images have little effect on the George Bush’s and Ehud Olmert’s of this planet. They have larger visions, of national pride and conquering the world. You can’t do that without “collateral damage”. It’s why the United States of America deliberately refused to count the civilian casualties they inflicted in Iraq. Better to just bundle them all under the heading, “Collateral damage”.

I wonder if that’s what the parents of this tiny baby will have inscribed on its tombstone:

“Here Lies Collateral Damage – age 18 months”.

^{[1] “Baby retrieved from Attattra, north-western Gaza” Gorilla’s Guides, January 12th 2009}

Filed under: Collateral damage

Tonight, the NBC Nightly devoted three minutes to the Gaza crisis, and three and a half minutes to the shocking news that, three years ago, Prince Harry addressed his Asian army pal by the indelicate title of “Little Paki”.

What followed was a discussion on whether anyone capable of such gross behavior could ever be a suitable candidate for the throne of Great Britain.

My response is simple: mind your own business, America. In future, stick to criticizing your spoiled and immature Hollywood stars for their inane, and often insulting, behavior, and let the Brits concern themselves with their own Royalty issues.

Hypocrisy has become invisible to the American media. Use of the word, “Nigger”, even “Negro”, is considered vilely insulting, yet racism is alive and well and living in Oakland, California,^[1] Bellaire, Texas,^[2] and all points north, south, east, and west.

The term “Paki” is used frequently in Britain as a term of endearment between close friends, when one of them is of Pakistani origin. It’s no different from calling an Englishman a “Brit”, or an American, a “Yank”.

What the media has done for us over the years, is to highlight certain words and then demean them to a term of insult. Before long, those with an agenda jump on the bandwagon, and fuel the flames. One elderly man of Pakistani origin was interviewed on NBC tonight and readily acknowledged that “Paki” was a terrible term of abuse, and an insult to all Pakistanis. No-one asked him to define, why?

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare’s Juliet of Romeo, on learning of his family name, hated and despised by her own. In so doing she laid bare the hypocrisy surrounding the use of labels to spread hatred and fear. Labels that, of themselves, are nothing more than innocent words.

The word is not important. It’s the human sentiment behind the word that expresses everything. “Nigger” or “Paki” can be a term of great love and endearment between friends who know and respect each other. When Prince William used the latter term of his soldier-pal, it was obviously in this context.

Of course, such words can equally be used to express hate and disdain. In which case, it’s not the fault of the word, but of the human expression behind it.

In many parts of the world today, and nowhere more so than the United States, such words are demonized to the extent their lack of use is taken as a measure of success in overcoming racism and prejudice.

Sweep the words under the carpet, and the accompanying filth will go with it.

Unfortunately, one only has to read the headlines each day to realize the falsehood of such an assumption.

NBC News might serve its viewers better if it dwelt less on the endearment of a foreign prince for his friend, and instead presented the facts of racial abuse in a forthright manner; for example, one that focused more on ensuring public opinion demanded US police officers pay dearly whenever they use their uniform to vent racial prejudice, as in the cases cited below.

^{[1] “Oakland shooting fuels anger over police brutality” AP, January 10th 2009}

^{[2] “Bellaire police shooting unearths unease” Houston Chronicle, January 11th 2009}

Filed under: Naughty names