The Pravada in Manhattan

A commentator on the incredibly biased coverage of the American elections by the MSM-

Whatever credibility the NYT could claim as a reputable news organization died with this election campaign. While The Gray Lady has never been known for hiding her affections, she had at least kept up appearances. Now, she no longer even bothers to conceal her bias and even the pretense of journalistic integrity has been cast aside. The same holds true for most of the other major news outlets–newspapers and networks that once prided themselves on their role as truth seekers and reporters of fact, protectors of a great public trust. Do they realize the extent of their betrayal–or more importantly, what this compromise of institutional principle will eventually mean? No, not yet. Remember Pravda, the Party news organ of the USSR? Some of those Pravda reporters must have longed for the day when they could actually write the truth, when they would no longer be apparatchiks purveying agitprop but real reporters doing real work, speaking truth to power. I doubt those miserable Soviets could imagine a journalist in a free country giving away such a beautiful responsibility willingly, happily, knowingly. I find it hard to believe, myself, but here it is.

The New York Times has since long become a house organ of the American left(which is as rabid and loony as our own Indian left). It is a worrying thing that many Indian publications(like the Hindustan Times) carry NYT reports as if they were objective, honest reporting. Because of this we Indians are being ill-served by the Indian media as all we get is a slanted version of the facts in foreign news.

But then the Indian MSM is as clueless and one-sided as the western one, as this blog has tried to demonstrate time and again.

Dhimmi BeeBee

BBC is dhimmified, says David Vance. But, hey, we have known that for years.

From the LNC Quote Shop

David Warren-

It’s when you no longer know where your milk comes from, let alone where you got your opinions, that you have become over-urbanized.

The whole article is well worth a read.

(hat tip- Mark Steyn)

Who lost the Global Warming?

Seen on Drudge today-

From the LNC Quote Shop

Greg Gutfeld-

Progressives - hilariously- still promote income redistribution. They see your paycheck as public property. They call this social justice - more code for "you're screwed."

Guru Dutt and Bhagat Singh

The lovely Mrs. LNC noticed this immediately(so much for my roving artist's eye): the similarity in the appearance of Guru Dutt and Bhagat Singh-


I think Guru Dutt would have made a fine Bhagat Singh on film.

Also at the same bookshop-small minds think alike(translation: two totalitarians find the same unimaginative title for their autobiographies)-

"The campuses are.............. now the least free part of our society"

This is interesting and disturbing-

The Coming Obama Thugocracy
Michael Barone

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people's faces. They seem determined to shut people up.

That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.

Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.

Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.

These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can't abide having citizens hear contrary views.

To their credit, some liberal old-timers -- like House Appropriations Chairman David Obey -- voted against the "fairness doctrine," in line with their longstanding support of free speech. But you can expect the "fairness doctrine" to get another vote if Barack Obama wins and Democrats increase their congressional majorities.

Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC's Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don't want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.

Then there's the Democrats' "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions' strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees' homes -- we know where you live -- and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.

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Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

Read the whole thing.

This bit so important that it cannot be emphasised enough, so I will repeat it -

The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

How true.
(emphasis mine)

The Durga Puja ends finally

The Durga Puja ends finally with thousands gathering at the banks of Yamuna, Delhi to immerse the Durga idols.
More photos here.

Unfortunately not very far from where I was, a tragedy was taking place-

At least nine persons were feared drowned during immersion of a Goddess Durga idol into the Yamuna at Burari here on Thursday

For some reason the religious gatherings in India too often end up in an accident.

Bastards!

The cowards who call themselves Indian Mujahideen go about killing innocents again-

20 killed, 90 injured in 5 blasts across Delhi

source

They targeted one of my favorite spots in Delhi -Connaught Place and especially the Central Park which is a refuge to many a couple in love. I saw one such couple badly injured on TV.

Bastards!

James Hansen supports vandalism

 

Global warming guru defends vandals and eco-terrorists in courtroom. I am not surprised.

More here-

Britain’s astounding retreat from reason is now legitimizing anarchy.

and here-

NASA scientist Hansen is proof that green and intimidation are never far apart.

When film critics attack

So I suppose they do not like to be disturbed at work. They transform themselves into a THWACKER!

Is Obama calling Sarah Palin a pig?

Is Obama calling Sarah Palin a pig? Many people think so, including those at the Obama speech. Some don't. And some think that it is McCain who is being insulted as a pig!

McCain campaign protests.

Here is Dick Cheney with the same quote-

Display of fascism by the Obama team

Peel away the mask of 'concern for the poor' and you find that just about every leftist is at heart a thug.

And Obama is a leftist- ultra-leftist.

Is this display of fascism a preview of what could be in store under the Obama administration?

From the LNC Quote Shop, item no.1

Richard Littlejohn in an excellent article-

The Left seems to be gripped with some kind of political penis envy of America, which can be assuaged only by sucking up to tyrants and dictators.

IPCC gives out gas

How did they get there without emitting greenhouse gases?
"a small part of the delegation from the International
Panel on Climate Change accepting
their award in Oslo for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize"

They didn't give a fig about the planet.
Or their own doomsday warnings about greenhouse gases.
Or their own chairman's advice(not that he follows his own counsel).
They had to fly, so many of them, all that distance, to receive the Nobel Prize.
How many tons of deadly CO2 went into the atmosphere to satisfy their vanity? Hundreds? Thousands?
But they didn't care.

They had to have their moment of fame even as the planet groaned in agony, wounded to the heart by the treachery of the most loyal.

When the cop betrays his trust to the public and becomes a gangster, he is morally more perverse than other criminals.

Similarly the scientists who have taken upon themselves to save the planet shall be judged more harshly when they transgress this trust.


Sometime in the near future when, as we are told, Bangladesh and Tuvalu are underwater, when Al Gore's 20 foot walls of water are terrorising Shanghai and Calcutta, when enormous hurricanes caring not to observe the laws of physics are shredding LA, when trees have become deranged psychos, and Gaia is standing on her last legs(mmmm, are they long legs?)- then the dying humanity with it's last breath will utter curse and damnation forever upon the souls of these corrupt guardians of the planet who sold out the earth for a few moments of self-glory.

In brief -If I were to summarize the above in one sentence then this would be it-
If the greenhouse gases are such a mortal danger to the planet and mankind, then why are the IPCC members and it's chairman flying around so much?

(image from Margo's Maid via Andrew Bolt)

Pachauri to us commoners-Shut up and starve for the planet while I have my caviar

This is ironical, to say the least-

If the UN has its way, you'll be spending more time in the office and less time on a plane.

At a meeting in the UK this past week, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, a climate scientist with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), strongly urged businesses to cut employee travel, and to fill the void with video conferencing.

Of course, Pachauri (Mr.30,000 feet)didn't mean to include himself-

Where I’ve failed is my impact with regard to air travel. I tell people I was born a Hindu who believes in reincarnation. It will take me the next six lives to neutralize my carbon footprint. There’s no way I can do it in one lifetime!

It would be funny but for the fact that he and his merry band of Global Warming Doomsdayers are trying to shut down the very life blood of the modern civilization -affordable, plentiful energy.

No wonder he was the unanimous choice for the 1st LNC Green Hypocrite prize.


Update -

I should have added this gem-

"As for me, I'm going absolutely crazy travelling (laughs). I can only accept 5 to 10 percent of the invitations I receive, but even that is enough to keep me flying continuously. This doesn't make me feel very good but the message has to be spread."(Pachauri in an interview)

I suppose the message cannot be spread by video conferencing he demands of everyone else. At least Gaia should be thankful that he's turning down 90-95% of the invitaions.

Did I mention hypocrite?

(emphasis mine)

Monckton vs. Littlemore Debate audio

The much anticipated radio debate between Christopher Walter(the Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley), a global warming skeptic and Richard Littlemore, a global warming alarmist took place just a while ago on the Roy Green show on the Corus Network.

Despite the 24X7 saturation coverage of this issue by the media, mostly in scary, apocalyptic terms, there actually has been very little of a face to face debate between those who fervently believe in man-made climate change and those who are skeptical of it in one way or another.
Here is the debate in four parts(note-the fourth part is listener's phone-in's)

If for some reason you are not able to play the audio or any part out of the four then visit the podcast page here(part 1), here(part 2), here(part 3), here(part 4), or here(main podcast page).

An interesting discovery from the debate and the post-debate conversation(in part 4) was that the moderator, Roy Green himself and some of the listeners who phoned in were more open minded about the issue than the highly-paid millionaire hacks of the mainstream media whose job it is to be objective.

Well worth a listen.

Update- The AGW alarmists at the Littlemore's site, desmogblog, are not pleased with his performance and were going into panic during the debate. A sample-

...at the moment it seems Littlemore's being led around by Green and Monckton. Take back control! Take back control!

Score this one for the skeptics-

I'd have to say that Monckton "won" the debate. He came across as more prepared and had answers at his fingertips, whereas Richard appeared to verbally stumble on occasion. I agree completely with the point Richard made that it is difficult to properly discuss the science in such a format. That being said, my take would be that a number of newcomers to the subject would easily be inclined to side with Monckton and Mr. Green because of the eloquence of Monckton (not realizing that you can be eloquent but still wrong).

No wonder the alarmists so often refuse to debate the skeptics. Even the Imperial Lord Master of Global Warming,the Ever Wise Al Goracle, is wary of this pesky band of rebels.


Update 2 - Richard Littlemore admits defeat

Update 3 -The Heartland Institute has the transcript of the debate

Update 4 -UH-OH! This blog has been struck by the great BOLT of lightening!

Update 5 -This is actually an appeal. While several sites have donate buttons, somehow I never got around to it. However you may help this blog (and me!) by purchasing one of my artworks. This will not only help in keeping this blog going (one of the few anti-alarmist sites in this part of the world) but also encourage good art, help me fight the post-modern ugliness that struts itself as 'High Art' and help me chuck my lifetime STAR ASS card.(STAR ASS =STarving ARtists ASSociation). You may get my perspective on art at What the Heck is Art? You may browse my art works here and buy them directly through me or through India Art Collectors. OK, sales pitch over.

In India politicians commit murder in all but name

This is as good as murder-

Ambala : The nationwide protests by the VHP over the Amarnath land row have claimed the lives of innocent civilians who were denied crucial medical aid due to the disruption of normal life by the protestors. Shocking apathy displayed by VHP Protestors in cities like Ambala and Kanpur claimed the life of more than one.

A 60 year old heart patient in Ambala suffered a massive attack early this morning - but as his son's efforts to take him to a hospital were in vain- crucial time lost as he couldn't get his father urgent medical help due to the protests. Similar is the case in Kanpur- where a 22 year old boy who got accidentally electrocuted died after his family could not rush him to a hospital. Protestors refused to allow the family to pass the blockade- resulting in the death of the youth.

At around 9:00 am 60 year old Gaindaram complained of chest pain. Immediately, his son rushed him out of the house- hoping to get him to a hospital. However, it was not to be. At about 10 km from Ambala, on the Mullana-Ambala road the vehicle in which they were travelling was stopped by protestors. The heart patient’s son pleaded with the VHP protestors to let their auto go but his pleadings went unheard. Gaindaram's condition worsens, but the protestors refuse to let son cross the blockade. Finally, Gaindaram dies in his son's arm and he was declared dead upon arrival at Saket hospital in Ambala.

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The protestors of various organizations, including VHP and BJP, did not allow the ambulance to move ahead despite requests from those accompanying the victim in the vehicle; the sources said adding that lack of timely medical aid resulted in the old man's death.

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This of course not the first time politics over a crisis has claimed innocent lives. In August last year (2007) - a traffic jam stood between a 4 yr old boy Rahul and life saving medical treatment. It was two political parties Congress and the BJP in Shimla blocked roads in a spat of their own. The child's mother made desperate pleas to let her son’s ambulance pass. But they fell on deaf ears. She lost her son to political posturing.

Read the whole thing.

A question -what is the state going to do about it
answer -nothing
Another question -will anybody be arrested and punished?
answer -don't be stupid

The same venal set of people who care not a fig about the life of innocents run the Indian state also. A change of government in India simply means one gang of goons in place of another.

Here political fortunes are made on the blood of the common people. Remember this when the ugly mug of some political hack or minister appears on TV preening about his/her concern for the common man.

Turkish journalists attacked in Georgia

Turkish journalists getting shot at in Georgia, apparently by the Russians-





Update- more journalists hit in this invasion of Georgia-

Dutch television journalist was killed Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori

A Georgian television reporter named Tamara Urushadze. She was reporting from Gori when she was shot, apparently by a sniper

A reporter for Israel's Yedioth Ahronot newspaper, Zadok Yehezkeli was apparently hit by Russian army fire while covering humanitarian aid efforts.Video here.

Winston Featherly-Bean, an Alaskan serving as editor of a small English-language newspaper in war-torn Georgia, was among four journalists shot by combatants in a northern province on Friday.........two of the journalists were killed, the reports say.


A GEORGIAN journalist covering his country's conflict with Russia has been killed when a shell hit his car in Gori, an Agence France-Press photographer at the scene said

Are we allowed to laugh at Gandhi?

This Mahatma Gandhi joke seems to be at several sites but I have only just recently come across it.It is indeed funny in an intelligent way.

More similar jokes(some of them quite good) here.

What Indians need to hear about Russia

What Indians need to hear about Russia but won't-

EU foreign ministers meeting in emergency session today to discuss the situation in Georgia should begin by asking why it took the outbreak of war to focus their attention. They had no cause to be surprised. The warning signs had been apparent for at least a year, and the Georgian government had made strenuous efforts to raise the alarm. This time last summer a Russian jet violated Georgian airspace and dropped a missile north of Tbilisi in what appeared to be a botched attack on a Georgian radar installation. Russia denied involvement, but two separate independent investigations found otherwise. Despite this, Georgia's plea for diplomatic support fell almost entirely on deaf ears.

Whether or not the incident was planned in order to test international reactions to an escalation of Russian military action in Georgia, Moscow clearly took encouragement from the absence of a response. With western governments preoccupied elsewhere - not least with Iran, where they need Russian support for a negotiated solution on the nuclear issue - Russian strategists evidently concluded that they enjoyed a free hand in their "near abroad". In April, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be strengthening official links with Georgia's two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including opening formal relations with their political bodies and strengthening trade ties.

This only confirmed what had been apparent for several years - that Russia is actively supporting secessionist forces instead of respecting its mandate and behaving as an honest broker. But it ripped away the final pretence that its role in Georgia is one of peacekeeping. Other steps of escalation quickly followed. Russia moved 400 troops into Abkhazia under the pretext of working on a railway project. Russian planes started shooting down Georgian aerial drones. There was an increase in armed attacks by Russian-backed forces in South Ossetia, including a roadside bomb that injured six Georgian policemen and an attempt to assassinate the head of the pro-Tbilisi provisional administration of South Ossetia.

None of these incidents received much coverage outside the region, so the impression has been created that Georgia initiated the current fighting with an unprovoked assault on South Ossetia. This is quite false. It has surely been a big misjudgment on Georgia's part, but resort to offensive operations came at the end of a long period of rising tension in which Russia had done everything it could to stir up trouble and provoke a reaction.

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But complexity is no excuse for abdicating moral judgment in situations of this importance. If responsibility for the conflict is not a black and white matter, the picture is not uniformly grey either. By any reasonable measure, the impact of Russian policy has been uniquely destructive in generating instability and political division in the Caucasus. The events of the early 1990s notwithstanding, Georgia's treatment of minorities that have remained under its rule has been generally good. Whatever his faults, Saakashvili is no Milosevic - and wild Russian allegations of genocide have no independent support. Under appropriate international supervision, it would be perfectly possible to turn his offer of autonomy for Abkhazia and South Ossetia into a workable constitutional settlement that guaranteed the security and fundamental rights of people living those territories.

The problem is that considerations of this nature form no part of Russia's vision for the region. It talks about defending the people of South Ossetia, but the Kremlin's aims are geopolitical rather than humanitarian. It seeks to restore the sphere of influence it regards as Russia's birthright, which it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union (a "major geopolitical disaster", according to Putin). There is no place for an independent Georgia (or Ukraine or Moldova) in this mental picture. When Russian leaders talk about the benefits of "sovereign democracy", they are talking exclusively about their own sovereignty and not at all about democracy. The countries on their borders have no right to foreign policies of their own if they conflict with Russia's. This is especially true of energy supplies, where Georgia's role in maintaining the only east-west pipeline route free of Russia's monopolistic grip causes double offence. This is about the Kremlin's attitude to us, too.

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There are troubling signs in some of the victory statements coming out of Moscow yesterday that Russia may feel emboldened to impose a punitive settlement, perhaps by annexing territory. This is not something that the EU and its allies should be prepared to tolerate. As so often with bullies, the Russian government's behaviour disguises deep insecurity and a craving for respect. This makes it more susceptible to our opinions than we often think. Further aggressive steps against Georgia would certainly be a reason to reconsider whether Russia should continue to enjoy the prestige that comes with membership of the G8.

From an excellent article by David Clark in the Guardian.Read the whole thing.


Now this is something you won't hear, see or read in the India media unless by some fluke. Ask yourself why some opinions(or rather some kinds of opinion) are shut out from the Indian press.


(emphasis mine)