Lady Godiva of the Tea Party

If Lady Godiva lived today she would happily be part of the Tea Party, perhaps the only mass, influential movement for a smaller government and lower taxes in the world.

Lady Godiva

by 

John Collier

c.1897

Her story is remarkable as recited by Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), an English chronicler of the 13th century-

The Countess Godiva, who was a great lover of God's mother, longing to free the town of Coventry from the oppression of a heavy toll, often with urgent prayers besought her husband that, from regard to Jesus Christ and his mother, he would free the town from that service and from all other heavy burdens; and when the Earl sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and always forbade her evermore to speak to him on the subject; and while she, on the other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her husband on that matter, he at last made her this answer: "Mount your horse and ride naked, before all the people, through the market of this town from one end to the other, and on your return you shall have your request."

On which Godiva replied, "But will you give me permission if I am willing to do it?"

"I will," said he.

Whereupon the Countess, beloved of God, loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the whole of her body like a veil, and then, mounting her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the marketplace without being seen, except her fair legs, and having completed the journey, she returned with gladness to her astonished husband and obtained of him what she had asked, for Earl Leofric freed the town of Coventry and its inhabitants from the aforesaid service, and confirmed what he had done by a charter.

The Lady Godiva technique is unlikely to work in a country suffering under a corrupt, venal administration. She would be arrested for immodesty while those indicting her would carry on shamelessly with looting the nation.

The Countess' husband could be embarrassed into doing the right thing. Manmohan Singh is no Earl Leofric.

Dr.Zhivago in Persia

It's a heck of an important story -just like an epic film with heroes in desperate peril and villains of the cruelest sort. But it's all real -yet we hear so little about what is going on in Iran.



Michael Ledeen-

It looks like February 11th will be the most violent confrontation to date.  The regime is taking unusual measures to put down the promised demonstrations.  In many ways it resembles the “Chinese solution.”  First, an unprecedented mobilization:   120 trains and something like a thousand buses have been deployed from as far away as 250 kilometers from the capital.  They will be used by the Revolutionary Guards and Basij to bring tens of thousands of paid “volunteers” to Tehran.  These will consist of entire families (dependent on the regime) to counter the Green Wave.  Each family gets $80 for the day, plus free food.  The regime is aiming at 300,000 thugs in the streets.  The Greens don’t think the numbers will be that high, and in any event they expect ten times that number of protesters, upwards of three million increasingly angry people, demanding freedom and justice.

Shades of Dr.Zhivago.But where is the coverage? Can we have a little less of Obama-palooza and some more of Iran?

The knife twists -but does it hurt?

I'm beginning to doubt if Richard North is a nice person. First he and Christopher Booker wallop Rajendra Pachauri just when he is back from Copenhagen,all weak and pooped from trying to save this sinful world, and so least expecting a blow. Now North twists the knife-

Not only has Dr R K Pachauri, chairman of the UN's IPCC been developing a very significant portfolio of private interests, evidence is mounting that he has been carrying out his business activities for these organisations under the guise of his UN duties, and charging the expenses to the UN.

This has emerged in part from an official document published by the IPCC Secretariat late August 2008 in response to public questions about Pachauri's "carbon footprint" arising from his globe-trotting activities.

Under the title "Outreach activities carried out by the IPCC Chairman", covering his itinerary for January 2007 to July 2008, the main purpose was to reassure the public that, while engaged on UN activities he had indeed flown many miles, in each case the UN had paid "carbon offsets" for the flights – details of which were listed against each "official" engagement.

However, unwittingly, this document has revealed more than either the UN – and certainly Dr Pachauri – had intended. It provides effective proof that, on more than one occasion Pachauri was indeed using UN funding for his own commercial interests.

One egregious example of this comes on 7 July 2008, when – in amongst his 443,243 miles flown in the 19-month period - Dr Pachauri is recorded by the UN as having travelled 1,432 miles from Abu Dhabi, where he was attending the Zayed Future Energy Prize Award, to visit Delhi for what is officially described as "Visit of Basque delegation to TERI".

There, he meets José Antonio -Tontxu- Campos Granados, Minister Of Education, Universities And Research and Esther Larrañaga Galdos, Minister Of Environment And Land Use Planning, both from the Basque Government. No other business is recorded that day, or at all until 14 July when, at the UN's expense, he flies 3,446 miles to Vienna for a UN ceremony.

However, while the UN records this as official business, the Basque delegation is perhaps unaware of this. On one of its own official websites, it records that the delegation visited the TERI offices to meet its Director General, Dr RK Pachauri, in order to sign a collaboration agreement between TERI and their own research institute, the Basque Institute Centre on Climate Change (BC3) – which had only been set up the previous April.

---------------------------------------

Another "partner" to the programme is, incidentally, the University of East Anglia, home of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of Climategate fame.

Whatever the finer details of the arrangement with the Basques might have been, however, what is amply clear is that their official visit to Delhi on 7 July to meet Pachauri in Delhi had nothing whatsoever to do with UN business – and everything to do with Pachauri's personal position as Director General of TERI.

For that, at UN expense, Pachauri took a 1,432 miles from Abu Dhabi to get to Delhi and then a 3,446-mile trip to Vienna, totalling 4,878 miles. The direct route from Abu Dhabi to Vienna is 2,637 miles, with Pachauri's private business adding over 2,000 miles to his journey.

----------------------------------

In most jurisdictions, this kind of deception is regarded as theft and most employers treat gross misuse of expenses as a sackable offence. For the gifted and so far untouchable Dr Pachauri, however, this seems to be just another perk of the job.

Read the whole thing.


There are simply too many revelations now out for Pachauri to continue at the helm of the IPCC.Even if we assume that he did not amass a fortune(a big if) using his influence inappropriately, his conflicts of interests are glaring and undeniable.The excuse that he did it for TERI, a non-profit, does not wash. Top-notch non-profits are a very far cry from some local outfit of salvation army type misty-eyed stragglers.They have lavish offices all over the world and their budgets run in tens and sometimes hundreds of millions.Their top honchos are wined and dined and awarded in the highest places and palaces.

The big non-profits are the new elites.

Pachauri lives the life of a king - king of influence. He may sleep on a hard bed and get by on broccoli and water(not bottled water, I hope) and otherwise live the life of a saint -though I doubt it, it is all irrelevant.His game is power,his drug is the adrenalin rush of trying to save the planet by remaking it drastically in the image of his dharma -radical environmentalism.He is the Guru of the World. Presidents and prime ministers seek him for his "wisdom", as he seeks them to impart it.It's heady stuff.

That is why he appears testy and flustered when confronted firmly- as North and Booker have now done.

The heat is on(and I don't mean global warming) -the challenge is not to let it cool down, or the most dangerous man in the world will get away.

Yipee yo!

Oh, wow! I'm on EUrerendum, one of my favorite blogs-

Thanks, Richard!

I wholeheartedly recommend his excellent book(written along with Christopher Booker)-

Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth

Not to be missed is the Chapter 14, Saving the planet.It's so good I wish Richard North would just post it online -as a pdf perhaps, or at least large excepts from it.

Do buy the book-


Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth at Amazon.

(Disclosure in fine print- if you do click on the above link -as you should- and purchase this fine book, a very small percentage of the sale will go to support Liberty News Central. This helps keep us alive. Thanks.)

LIBERTY NEWS CENTRAL- best plums of freedom

After much pain and tribulations, the LIBERTY NEWS CENTRAL portal is now fully online. It as- as the blurb says- a site of the choicest handpicked news and views for freedom lovers, with daily updates.

I have attempted to give it an oldish,nostalgic about the 19th century kinda archaic look  - so it is in black, gray and white as if in an old journal that might well have come out of a small town out in the wild west. Here are a couple of screenshots-

LIBERTY NEWS CENTRAL -header

LIBERTY NEWS CENTRAL

However like a sharp tickle of lemon in a drink, there is color but with a twist. Do check it out. And regularly.

And if you like it, please consider supporting it with a small donation -although we won't mind a large one either.

Donate via Paypal

As if to say ‘Amen’ to the second last post here, Junk Science has put out ‘WANTED’ pictures of CEO’s attempting to make a huge killing off the global warming alarmism. As they say in India –behti ganga mein haath dho rahen hain.

 

"American workers, taxpayers, consumers, families, and businesses are all gravely threatened by Waxman-Markey," says Milloy. "As explained in the WANTED posters, these CEOs have teamed up with America-hating green groups to lobby for legislation that would make energy dramatically more expensive and eviscerate the American dream and standard of living, while not accomplishing any positive for the environment," Milloy added.

The CEOs featured in the campaign are executives with companies belonging to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP,http://www.us-cap.org), a gang of large corporations and Park Avenue environmental groups that have joined forces to lobby for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax bill.

Discovering Sauvik Chakraverti

I met Sauvik Chakraverti many years ago when I was more closely involved with the Liberty Institute, one of the few pro-liberty organizations in India.

I did not interact much with him but his fiesty arguments in a loud(very loud), booming voice and his professed fondness for nautch-girls and ganja left an impression that still lingers.

It is only today that I discovered he has a blog, ANTIDOTE –and a very good one; colorful and no holds-barred from my first read.His own chosen emblem on the blog is a ganja leaf. A sample from his latest post, A Democracy Rigged By And For Nikammas -

Anyway, the sudden demise of the main opposition party to Chacha Manmohan’s populist excesses is worthy of note. This, when it is quite apparent that the Congress is also devoid of genuine political leadership. Chacha is a baboo, Sonia is a housewife, and Rahul is a non-entity. It is amazing that the UPA has a second term in office, and this undoubtedly has a lot to do with the fact that the BJP has gone down the drain.

 

His take on dancing girls-

Take the case of dancers. A poor girl cannot dance and entertain clients in Mumbai – while all the page 3 actresses make their fortunes dancing on screen. There is some Principle of Law being flouted here – and I hope you see it. Where this Principle does not hold, there can never be Liberty. The Law, which is our safeguard, becomes instead a Tyrant: arbitrary, capricious, unjust.

At no time in Indian history has the nautch-girl been banned. The Mughals, the British, all the princely states – they all patronised them. But in socialist India they are banned – while weighty women talk of “reservations for women in politics.”

Well worth a visit, I think -again and again.

        (emphasis mine)

Right on dot-

via Instapundit

 

 

Update -

Grover Norquist on the 9/12 march-

Obama and ACORN fancy they are the community organizers. They should drop by and see what real outrage and real community organizing--without taxpayer subsidies or paid union staff in purple T-shirts--looks like.

Protesting statism

It’s a HUGE crowd –wow! Sick and tired of socialism!

 

9/12 Tea party rally in Washington D.C

Image via Instapundit.

Some signs seem to be targeted at Gautam Adhikari and like minded ‘racism’ whiners-

 

Gautam won’t like this one, no way -

Obama Joker poster artist found?

The image that has created a sensation on the web was, it seems, created by a Muslim student, Firas Khateeb, studying in Chicago.

 

Here’s his profile -

About khateeb88 / Firas Khateeb

← Photostream

I'm a 20 year old college student in Chicago studying engineering. My Kodak C743 can't do much but I still try (usually fruitlessly) to take decent pictures. For all the nice, clean, crisp pictures in my photostream, there are 5 blurry, out of focus, garbage ones that my C743 messed up lol. I really just enjoy playing around with Photoshop more than the actual picture taking.

About the TIME cover photoshop he says-

Obama the Joker

Not necessary indicative of my political views. But I do think hes not all he said he is. You can already sense he's backing off his claims of change.

The image is dated Jan 18,2009.

So far it does not appear that he is responsible for printing and putting up posters. I wonder if he could ever imagine that someone would use his image and create such a stir.

 

Update – This is curious:

User khateeb88 / Firas Khateeb of Flickr is using the same mugshot as the user Yusuf Basrawi is using on his facebook page. Are they one and the same?

Basrawi's Causes -

Close Guantanamo Bay Now!
STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS !
Stop Global Warming
WE NEED KHILAFA

 

I believe Obama is sympathetic to most of these causes!

Update -

received a mail a few weeks ago purpotedly from Mr. Barsawi. I asked his permission to post it here but received no reply then or since. However, just in case it is from the real Mr.Barsawi, I take the liberty of posting it here for the sake of putting things on record and because I do not wish to leave false impressions about anyone. Here goes-

 

“Youssef Basrawi

To: what.the.heck.is.art@gmail.com

To whom it may concern (editor/blogger @ "What the heck is art"),
My name is Yusuf Basrawi and I found that I was blogged about on your website (in the story of the Obama-Joker picture). I want to clear up the confusion before it gets me in any trouble, and I hope you are willing to hear me out.
Firas AlKhateeb is a friend of mine from school. If you want to find him on facebook, all you have to do is search him. You will also see I am friends with him. The picture I have on my profile is based off a joke of all of us friends boycotting him since this whole Obama-picture news came out. We, like everyone else did not know he created the picture before this; he himself didn't find out it was circulating until earlier this week.
If you would like to be added to my FB to see the history of all this---us friends making fun of him, and me putting the picture up on boycotting him, i'd be willing to show you. However, I would have to do that with a little bit of skepticism seeing that, not knowing who I was, you have taken bits and pieces of my profile and blogged about it already. Such as my causes/groups that I have joined (just like everyone else on FB who joins every other cause a friend sends them). I hope that isn't a way of spicing up a story that doesn't hold any ground.
So if you can, please take this post down, or at least, get rid of the 2nd part, which is the part referring to me. I would not mind if I had something to do with the Obama-joker picture, however, I don't, and I would hate for this to get me into unnecessary trouble. I'm sure you know what I mean as you blog on the public net, and probably face many challenges that relate to this.
Thank you so much for reading this far into  the email, lol..and again, if you have any questions, you can ask me..I just want to be disassociated with this story. If you have any questions regarding the picture, you can try to reach Firas.
-Youssef Basrawi

(email address withheld)”

Obama Joker Posters Popping Up

 

 

More on this at What the heck is art?