#3
I don't know the technicalities of making a link in the index of rantburg recipes this site is more complex these days.
But I would like to submit to you a very satisfying and nutritious soup.
I would like to call it
The Mother of all Ramadans
not because it's the best but because that name is not taken and I like the mother of all.... joke as it hasn't been around for a while.
Mother of all Ramadan soup:
1) get a couple of good size hambones from the butcher. Also get about 1kg of bacon bones
2) simmer them for a good 4 hours in a large saucepan/soup pot. Put just enough water to cover the bones
3) add dried barley/split pea soup mix
4) add vegetable stock, a bit of beef stock, salt and pepper, 1 large chopped onion OR 1 chopped leek
5) simmer for another hour
6) add (chopped) 1 large parsnip, 1 large swede (taking out some of the bacon bones for room if necessary). Add about 4 carrots and half a celery bunch (about equal quantities).
7) simmer for another couple of hours. Keep tasting. As necessary add stock, maybe a teaspoon or two of gravy mix (helps thicken).
8) enjoy, freeze portions for eating later in the week.
#4
anon1, I think the link thingy to the recipe master index is some sort of Zenster deep black magic. You'd be well advised to stay as far away from even thinking about it as possible. ;-)
Shipman, may I borrow your Cubans some time? It's useful to have someone to kick when I forget the key step again.
#7
Sorry, tw - I was just making light of Ship's post. The pit is where BBQ began, so I trespassed on truly hallowed (hollowed? lol) ground there. Apologies, heh.
#8
He giveth education with one hand, and taketh it away with the other. *sigh* Someday I'll be so knowledgeable that I won't be so gullible, .com. At least it wasn't one of the comments that, when I ask, I'm told I really don't want to know.
#13
Hello all! Dear Trailing Wife, thank you, I hear and obey. I am very easily confused so I will stay far, far away from that technical wizardry.
Now parsnips are a root vegetable shaped like a big white carrot only bigger, longer and fatter up top/skinnier down the bottom. They are very tasty in soup.
A swede is a funny round sort of a root vegetable with a reddish skin (peel it off) and the flesh inside is hard and yellowish. You can get pretty big ones. Also nice in soup. They give a really lovely flavour only subtle, so you need to really pack the soup with as many as you can fit.
Bacon bones are smaller than a big ham bone. They are very salty but don't give the soup much body.
Ham bones are really long. They are the bones left after the butcher slices the ham off.
In Australia we probably call vegetables different names than what they are in the US.
#14
Oops I am being completely devastated by technology today, this time it was my computer: the cursor jumped up right as I was typing and i didn't see!
Please NOTE: don't pack your soup with Swedes, pack your soup with Ham Bones: they are the subtle taste that you need to pack. You only need one swede!!
"Rutabaga" (from dialectal Swedish rotabagge) is the American term, while "swede" is the term used in much of England. Its common name in Sweden is "Kålrot" (Cabbage root). It is also known as the "Swedish turnip" or "yellow turnip". To the Scots, the Irish, and some of the Northern English it is called "turnip", or colloquially, especially in Scotland, "neep"the vegetable known elsewhere as a turnip being called a "swede" or a "white turnip" in Scotland. In the US, rutabagas may also be called "yellow turnips." In Atlantic Canada, white turnips are relatively unknown, with rutabagas being known simply as turnips.
½ Pound Ground Beef (15% fat content or less)
½ Pound Ground Pork
½ Pound Ground Veal (extra beef, pork or sausage may be substituted)
3 Scallions (include both white and green part)
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Eggs
1-2 Cups Coarse Fresh Breadcrumbs (panko may be substituted)
1 Large Yellow Onion
½ Cup Heinz Ketchup or Chili Sauce
¼ Cup Chopped Parsley
½-1 TBS Salt
¼-½ TSP Cracked Black Pepper
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce (or more)
Dash of Crystal Hot Sauce
Dash of Cayenne powder
Optional:
Italian or country style sausage may be substituted for the ground pork. Other spices like paprika, celery powder or oregano may also be used. Garlic or onion powder may be substituted for faster preparation although the flavor will not be as intense.
Sometimes one or two hard-boiled eggs are buried in the meatloaf's interior. Instructional notes for this technique are provided below.
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350-400F. Mix the meats together in a large mixing bowl. Grate the onion into pulp and crush or mince the garlic finely and add. Blend in the chopped parsley, minced green onions plus the spices, salt and pepper. Separate the eggs and beat one white with two yolks until creamy. Add the beaten egg to the meat mixture along with half a cup of the breadcrumbs. Knead until completely blended.
Oil the interior of a glass loaf pan. Place a large sheet of waxed paper on a cutting board and spread the remaining breadcrumbs over it. Working in the bowl, form the ground meat into a large loaf shape. If you are including the hard-boiled eggs, now is the time to insert them. On a cutting board, form the meat into a loaf shape. Make two equally spaced two-inch deep pockets in the loafs topside and bury the eggs laying lengthwise with the loaf in the meat mixture. Close the ground meat over the pockets and proceed. Otherwise, just turn it out of the bowl onto the breadcrumbs and roll the loaf around until completely coated. Place the jacketed loaf into the bread pan and lightly press it into the correct shape. Avoid compressing the loaf too much as it will become dense and chewy during the cooking process.
Cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil and seal tightly. Place in preheated oven on middle rack. Periodically check the loaf and if it is submerged in drippings remove some but not all of them using a turkey baster. Leave some of the drippings so that the loaf will not dry out. After around twenty minutes or halfway through the cooking process, remove any excess drippings and coat the entire top of the loaf with the ketchup or chili sauce. Continue baking without foil until a nice crust has formed. By the time the loaf has finished baking all of the juices should run clear.
Remove the finished loaf from the oven and allow it to rest for ten minutes. Serve with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes and gravy. The drippings may be reserved and used to make gravy. Some variations describe a round loaf that is baked freestanding on a cookie sheet. When baking this sort of loaf, be sure to baste periodically with a mixture of beef broth and butter to prevent it from drying out.
Note: A traditional recipe calls for burying two peeled hard-boiled eggs in the loaf so that slices of egg are revealed in the portions when they are served. Be sure to cook the eggs rather soft so that they do not overcook while baking in the meatloaf.
For soft-cooked eggs, start them in a saucepan of cold water and bring to a full boil. Stir the eggs every few minutes as they reach a boil. This will help center the yolks for a more attractive presentation. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat slightly and allow them to continue cooking for three minutes.
Turn off the heat and wait for another five to eight minutes. Run eggs under very cold water or plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking process. This also makes them easier to peel. Crack and peel the eggs immediately then reserve for later use. If you open one of the eggs at this point, it should have a creamy, almost semi-liquid golden yellow interior.
8 Sliced Smoked Bacon
6 Slices White Bread (lightly toasted)
2-4 Slices Smoked Turkey Breast
2-4 Slices Smoked Ham
2 Leaves Iceberg Lettuce
1 Large Ripe Salad Tomato (avoid Roma or plum tomatoes)
2-4 TBS Hellmans Mayonnaise (once known as Best Foods)
Fry the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Blot the hot bacon with another paper towel to remove all residual grease. While the bacon fries, lightly toast the bread slices. This recipe works best with sliced oven-roasted turkey breast but deli-cut meats may be substituted. Lay out all slices of bread on a cutting board. Lightly spread each of them with the Mayonnaise. Place the ham, turkey and bacon each on different slices. Add thin sliced tomato over the bacon and turkey. If using mustard, cheese or onion, place that on the ham. Add leaves of lettuce to the turkey and bacon layers. Close the sandwiches with the ham and turkey facing each other and spear with a frill pick in four equal places. Cut on both of the diagonals and serve with potato chips.
Note: Most restaurants and sandwich shops only include turkey in a modern club sandwich. I find the hams flavor to be vital in making this a robust and satisfying luncheon dish.
#1
The UK MSM turds are on quite a roll today, a whole slew of idiotic hand-wringing or sneering pieces guaranteed to piss of any Jacksonian. This one was just too silly for words. I guess the whole frickin' world needs a civics lesson on how the Executive Branch of the US Gov't works.
#2
Oh, I almost forgot, what's especially noteworthy about this avalanche of inane articles is the "we're just observers" tone, as if the WoT and weapons proliferation is solely a US problem.
#4
One good point: Condoleeza Rice is a formidable force in her own right.
She is going to make a great President one day.
Bush in no tangle. Bush best President US has had for ages. Bush has done exactly the right thing: and for those that say he attacked the wrong dictator - balderdash.
Just because Kimmie is a threat doesn't mean Saddam wasn't also a threat. US dealt with Saddam, will deal with Kimmie as the threat requires.
#5
I seem to recall that we stopped listening to the Brits around 1776 or so.
Why start again?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/15/2006 11:51 Comments ||
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#6
She is going to make a great President one day.
No, she won't. And I do not say that because she is a single black woman of indeterminate sexual orientation. I take her at her word, I do not believe she is interested in being the President, nor is she interested in having her life placed under a microscope, any more than it has been already.
Could she do a good job? Well, no one really knows until they're actually in the office. But, she couldn't be any worse than many of the possible alternatives.
Well it's a hard world to get a break in,
All the good things have been taken...
*sniff* Michael Portillo
Across the globe many of the Wests hopes for a better world lie in smouldering heaps. The optimism that we felt when freedom swept across eastern Europe is now a distant memory.
We heaved a sigh of relief when the American-Soviet nuclear weapons standoff, based on mutually assured destruction, was dismantled. Now North Korea, which may not be susceptible to any conventional theory of deterrence, has the bomb. Irans revolutionary Shiite government plans to have one too.
Americas role since the Soviet collapse as the worlds single superpower has brought it unforeseen difficulties. Its supremacy has bred resentment and defiance among both its enemies and friends.
We should certainly not be nostalgic for the bygone era of the two superpowers. The alleged stability of that age was dearly bought. Around the world many proxy wars were bloodily fought between communism and capitalism, and numerous vile regimes were propped up by the global rivals. In 1962, during the Cuba missile crisis, we were brought to the edge of global nuclear war, a position that is inconceivable today.
#1
What an absolute fool. Yeah, ok. So we are still in the mood to be nice. It's our Christian nature. So for this moron, it means he need not respect the power that we represent should we ever really feel threatened or thoroughly pissed off.
This is the same type of sap who befriends Grizzly bears or tigers. "See... isn't he cute, he lets me put my head in his mouth." He's my pet.
#2
In truth, it has been difficult for the US to strike the right balance. It has oscillated between being too passive and too aggressive and both extremes have had dire consequences.
So, do if I understand this correctly, the US should be like most of Europe...."passive-aggressive?"
#4
But since the end of the cold war Washington has not matched its monopoly of power with either humility or wisdom. Its foreign policy failures have been humbling. Intending to show that it could project power anywhere in the world, it has instead demonstrated the severe limitations of its military and diplomatic reach
we should be more like one of the snivelling Eurotrash countries? Foreign policy failures? Like letting the EU negotiate Iran straight to nuke weapons? Like letting China and Russia stop sanctions on Kim? Cowboy up U.S.! F*ck these hand-wringing pussies and drag them kicking and screaming into our reality
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2006 8:27 Comments ||
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#5
But since the end of the cold war Washington has not matched its monopoly of power with either humility or wisdom. Its foreign policy failures have been humbling. Intending to show that it could project power anywhere in the world, it has instead demonstrated the severe limitations of its military and diplomatic reach
People who live on military/defense welfare shouldn't preach to others who are doing the work and heavy lifting how to do their jobs. The combined GDP and population of the EU exceeds that of the US. Put up or shut up. Image your economy if the US Navy didn't provide secure sea lanes for the rest of the world's ocean going commerce. Now that is dark.
#6
When it expelled Saddam from Kuwait in 1991 it left him in power in Baghdad.
1. No one in the world thought that was the plan, at the time.
2. The UN mandate was to get Sammy out of the soverign nation of Kuwait, not to take down another soverign nation.
3. According to the Dueffler (?) report, Sammy HAD WMD's in 1991 and intended to use them if the coalition crossed the Iraqi border.
4. George H.W. Bush did it exactly right, including stopping abruptly after 100 hours when it was clear the Iraqi army was toast, but wankers can't accept that.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/15/2006 11:13 Comments ||
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#7
One reason we stopped then was that that was the point at which the large number of surrenders after horrendous casualty rates in the Iraqi army were identified and sent up the chain of command IIRC.
Had there been a clear mandate going into the fight to remove Saddam, they could have pressed on with fewer casualties for the other side. But without that mandate, Bush Sr. stopped the fight and many commanders such as Colin Powell were (rightly or wrongly in retrospect) glad he did.
#1
"He argues that an unknown indigenous hemorrhagic fever may have killed the bulk of Mexico's native population"
Stop right there. Call me when you have any actual proof.
They also may have been killed by little green men from outer space (though I'm betting against it).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/15/2006 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
Not that hard to believe, really. VDH, in his book "A War Like No Other", believes that an unknown hemmorhagic-like disease, originating somewhere in Africa, was responsible for the plague that struck down tens of thousands of Athenians during the Pelloponesian War.
The symptoms described by those around at the time do not match anything known today including plague, smallpox, or other known types of hemmorhagic diseases.
There's also a book with the rather alarmist title "The Coming Plague" which goes into depth regarding "emerging diseases". It's an excellent read though rather long-winded and dry in places (the story of the Marburg virus is especially fascinating).
In addition, there's a book on this little-known US animal disease research facility located on this little island back east somewhere (I forget currently having been up for the last 24 hrs both the title of the book and the name of the facility) that details some pretty scarey stuff (mostly in the name of alarmism and anti-animal testing as I recall).
The danger from emergent diseases should not be underestimated.
"Located about 1.5 miles off the northeastern tip of Long Island, Plum Island diagnoses and studies foreign animal diseases, and it is the only government facility in the United States that studies foot-and-mouth disease.
The executive branch has proposed increasing the biosafety level at Plum Island over the past decade, but has faced local protests and opposition from New York lawmakers. Opponents have argued that operating a Biosafety Level 4 facility at Plum Island could endanger the local population, which includes the occupants of multimillion-dollar homes in the nearby Hamptons, and that the facility could be subject to a terrorist attack.
Plum Island has had well-publicized security lapses in the past, and it has recently been upgrading its security capabilities."
Not functioning on all cylinders currently, but brain cells and memory functions finally cascaded together properly.
Growing up in North Korea, Hyok Kang was surrounded by desperate people who ate grass and bark before they died. Yet pervasive propaganda made them feel lucky to be there
The first time I ate chocolate was when I was five years old. My grandfather had relatives in Japan who were given exceptional permission to visit us. They came like extraterrestrials with their arms full of presents and food. I remember waving tins of condensed milk and chocolate bars under my friends noses. I was a horrid little boy. It was 1990 and I didnt yet know what famine was. I wouldnt taste chocolate again until we escaped to China when I was 13.
In 1994, shortly before the death of Kim Il-sung, the Great Leader, the state food distribution system began to break down. Eventually, there was no more rice, no more potatoes. We moved on to vile food substitutes. Weeds, of whatever kind, were boiled up and swallowed in the form of soup. We picked these inedible leaves on the edges of the fields or the banks of the river. The soup was so bitter that we could barely keep it down.
Our neighbours collected grass and tree bark usually pine, or various shrubs. They grated the bark and boiled it up before eating it. And much good it did them: their faces swelled from day to day until they finally perished.
Not only food was scarce. Our teachers gave each of us collection quotas: maize leaves (for paper mills), copper and other metals and, during the winter, dung for fertiliser. We had to take six whole carts of faecal matter to the school, and not any old excrement: it had to be human. As it was frozen the temperature fell to -20C or -30C we used a pick or a hatchet to hack it from the back of the rudimentary outdoor toilets by each dwelling. In extremis, dog poo was tolerated as well.
#1
this sort of first hand account leaves you speechless
Posted by: john ||
10/15/2006 10:24 Comments ||
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#2
This reminds me of a tv reportage from a few years ago (in a leftist show, by the way)... with nork refugees being interviewed right at the border, after they've made it to China, and, when asked if they wanted to go to the USA, responded : "why would we want to go there? People are poorer there than in north Korea".
These were young men, with the stature of 12 years old south koreans.
* Sixty-five years old, Kim Jong-il wears platform shoes and sports a bouffant hairstyle to appear taller than his 5 feet 3 inches. Known as Dear Leader.
* Has been married three times. His last wife Ko Young-hee died in 2004. He has been living since then with Kim Ok, who had served as his personal secretary since the '80s. Has three children from his marriage, another 13 outside of it.
* Has a string of mistresses. Persistent rumours of young women being kidnapped in Japan to be his companions in luxury villas around the capital.
* Has a passion for cognac, particularly Hennessy VSOP. Drained 10 glasses of wine during his 2000 summit with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
* Loves food. Live lobsters were airlifted daily to his train that he took to visit Russia. Eats with silver chopsticks.
* Has a library of 20,000 Hollywood films. Had a South Korean director kidnapped in 1978 to build a North Korean film industry.
* Loves Mercedes Benz, and avid fan of cycling and basketball.
* Suspected to have organised the 1983 bombing attacks in Rangoon that killed 17 visiting South Korean officials, including four cabinet ministers. Allegedly behind the bombing of a South Korean airline in 1987 which killed all 115 people on board.
Posted by: john ||
10/15/2006 14:45 Comments ||
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#8
this sort of first hand account leaves you speechless
If all you feel is speechlessness, you obviously know nothing about the real situation in North Korea. When harvest time nears, "rice police" are stationed around the fields so that farming families will not appropriate any of the grain. Of course, this still happens because they only need to offer the soldiers some of the take.
Government theft of food aid is the least of the tragedies afflicting the North Korean people. If you have just eaten or have a weak stomach, you may not want to click on the links I have provided. Once a person truly comprehends the depths of Kim Jong-il's depravity, the only honorable response can be to advocate having him tried for crimes against humanity.
sickening. China is the one that makes this all possible, and the blame should clearly be laid at their feet
Regardless of their own domestic misdeeds, China's communist Mandarins must eventually be held accountable for the human catastrophe in North Korea. They alone have enabled Kim to continue with his depraved indifference to human suffering.
"If a funeral takes place during the day and the burial is performed that evening, the grave may be dug open and the body stolen before morning," said one refugee.
Describing horrific conditions that led to cannibalism, two former prisoners presented a picture of communist North Korea's notorious prison camps at a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Assist News Service reported.
"In order to survive, I ate rats, cockroaches and snakes," said Kang Chul Hwan, who was imprisoned at age 9 along with several family members because of the alleged political crimes of his grandfather. A prisoner for 10 years, Hwan said he was among many children detained for their parents' alleged crimes. He estimated that one-third died of malnourishment. "Children simply disappeared from the camp," he said.
"A woman who had just given birth was so hungry that she ate her own newborn baby," he said. "Brothers ate their own brothers in order to survive."
A true understanding of Kim Jong-il's criminal abuse should provoke nothing less than a sense of complete and total outrage. A special spot in everlasting hell awaits this ravening demon.
#9
Although Blairistans "state health distribution system" (NHS) has nothing on the NoKo "state food distribution system" it's run on the same lines and with similar results.
The starvation and brutalization of the people of N Korea is nothing new. The media never covers any of it. Ever. I've never heard boo about it except for an occasional pundit who throws it into a debate. So why is the MSM suddenly allowing this information to reach the general public. All of a sudden we are hearing about all of the horrors that have been going on for years. Why?
#12
I'm actually kind of serious about this. The MSM has never allowed talk of suffering in North Korea. It would be interesting to know why the MSM content managers suddenly are ok with all of these stories that have been held back for years and years.
#13
They haven't been held back, there hasn't been a demand.
The news is just like entertainment. It gives the consumer what they want to see and rents their eyeballs to advertisers in between. If it didn't it would go out of business as is the NYT. It's just that it takes a long time to run an institution into the ground.
#14
Sorry, I don't agree. I guess I no longer believe that our major news outlets are anything more than owned subsidiaries of the Dem party. I don't think that everyone in the News industry is in on some sort of conspiracy, I just think that the newpapers are owned by power players who control to a degree what is printed in them.
You can't tell me that over the last 10 years that the starvation of over 25 million people was never newsworthy. This story was just as interesting 10 weeks ago as it was 10 years ago as it is today.
The MSM is suddenly all over the horrors of Kim Jong. There is significance to that - I'm just not sure exactly what it is.
#16
Despite the harsh Neo-con rants detailing NK hoi-polloi "suffering", my basketball token gift to Kim, signed by some NBA clown, helped me cop a superb, jewel-encrusted broach for my collection. It is BREATHTAKING!
Amb. Mad maddie albright, klinton toad and eternal apologist psst...(Kimmie is cute. But I.M. still HOT for that sax-blowin' Bubbah Boy)
#17
haha. Very funny. But shouldn't that be a "left wing" conspiracy?
Call me crazy. But I think it odd that the only time the media focuses on horrific genocides like Darfur or Korea that it serves some sort of political purpose. We get non-stop Paleo plight - how is that entertainment?
#18
*IF* there was a conscious or unconscious decision to hold back stories which are coming out now, then I suppose you could attribute it to an attempt to prevent a military strike or sanctions on NORK -- i.e. these people have suffered so badly, how could you be willing to see them suffer even more in a war or with sanctions imposed?
I know, the logic is full of holes, but you asked for some scenario and that one occurs to me ....
#19
ahhh.. now that's got some potential! I had it backwards. I was thinking that negative stories would encourage action against NK, not the other way around.
#20
I stand corrected #17. The 'Skins lost to TN this afternoon (rightfully so) and I'm in my cups. No more nonsense; I'm shutting down to finish the latest Lee Child novel and go nighty-night.
#22
if it's any comfort, your loss cost me this week's football pool at work. Small comfort to me, believe me
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2006 19:47 Comments ||
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#23
Why are we just now hearing about it in the MSM? Think about the events of thelast couple of weeks and the rhetoric flying and now the UN sanctions. All this is the build up for the liberals and MSM (but i repeat myself) to bash Bush and any other right winger. This will spin from something has been ongoing to a direct result of the UN sanctions, demanded by the US. Bet on it.
#24
"You can't tell me that over the last 10 years that the starvation of over 25 million people was never newsworthy. This story was just as interesting 10 weeks ago as it was 10 years ago as it is today.
What was that about a chap named Duranty of the New York Slimes getting a Pulitzer Prize for denying the Stalinist imposed famine in Ukraine in the early 1930's?
[ChicagoTribune] Pardess Mitchell is watching her community crumble.
She and her husband have lived in Lake County for 16 years. They pay more in property taxes than they do on their mortgage. The tax bill is $15,000 a year on a house they bought for $227,000 in 2013.
"They're taxing us out of the neighborhood. They're pushing us out. They're pushing us out of our homes and communities," she said. "If it continues this way we'll have to leave."
A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll released Oct. 10 revealed nearly half of registered Illinois voters said they would leave the state if they could. Many have left already.
Take Alex Schmidt. He was born and raised in Illinois. He never thought his first child would be born a Texan.
But in May, Schmidt and his wife left Illinois for Houston. He said taxes drove them out. He couldn't take another hike in his property tax bill: It was $12,000 on a Highland Park home.
"As soon as I had to get a property tax attorney a light bulb went off," he said. "What am I doing?"
Outside Houston, the Schmidts live in a house 50 percent larger with a smaller property tax bill than their Illinois home. The schools are even better than what they left behind. And Texas doesn't have an income tax. So Alex got a raise.
Illinois has all those pensions to pay their retired government employees, not to mention wages and benefits for their current employees. Somebody has to cough up the necessary.
In Communist-ruled East Germany, they had a term for it: pre-emptive obedience. This meant guessing the future orders of the politburo and obeying them before they were issued. East Germany was thrown into the dustbin of history a long time ago. However, "pre-emptive obedience" is making a comeback in re-unified Germany and several other European countries.
It was based on "pre-emptive obedience" that the German Opera in Berlin decided to cancel its production of Mozart's Idomeneo after the managers decided that it might anger Muslims. The opera had already been shown in 2003 without incident and no Muslim group had called for it to be withdrawn. Thus, the managers were obeying orders that had not been issued.
A few days after the Idomeneo scandal it was the turn of French philosopher Robert Redecker to do a bit of "pre-emptive obedience" by going into hiding after publishing a newspaper column that some of his friends feared might anger Muslims. The fact is that quite a few Muslim writers have published essays more daring than Redecker's without going into hiding under police protection, thus resisting "pre-emptive obedience" of orders that might come from "Islamofascist" groups.
"Pre-emptive obedience" was also at work when the Whitechapel Art Gallery, one of London's major art exhibition venues, decided to withdraw a number of paintings by the surrealist Hans Bellmer. The reason? The management decided that the erotic paintings might "hurt the sensibilities of the Muslim community" which is strongly present in London's East End of which Whitechapel is a part. Again, no Muslim had seen the paintings or would have been able to interpret them as "an erotic assault on the Quran", let alone demand that they be withdrawn.
Thanks to "pre-emptive obedience", a wave of self-censorship has also hit the traditionally bawdy world of German carnivals. The Dusseldorf carnival, for example, has banned any gear that might appear "Islamic" and thus designed to "hurt Muslim sensibilities". A work by the Swiss sculptor Fleur Boecklin was also withdrawn from public view in Dusseldorf after it was branded "a misrepresentation of Islam as an aggressive faith".
Self-censorship for alleged fear of Islamic revenge has hit other areas of life in Europe.
In Spain, folkloric ceremonies and carnivals marking the expulsion of the Moors from Andalusia have been cancelled in all but a handful of villages, ending a 400-year old tradition.
In Germany, France and Britain numerous illuminated manuscripts of Persian poetry and prose have been withdrawn because they contained images of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and other historic figures of Islam.
In most European countries, an official black of list of books has emerged, containing works deemed to be "hurtful to Muslim sentiments". The list includes the names not only of such major European authors as Voltaire and Thomas Carlyle but also of Muslim writers whose work has been translated into European languages. For example, the novel Haji Agha by Sadeq Hedayat, translated into French and published in the 1940s, is no longer available. The novel Four Pains by Cyrus Farzaneh has also disappeared from French bookshops and libraries along with The Master by Darvish.
Last month a British publisher, acting on "pre-emptive obedience", cancelled plans to publish the translation of Twenty Three Years, a controversial biography of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by the late Iranian author Ali Dashti. Literary agents and book publishers have no qualms about admitting that they would not touch any manuscript that "smells like stirring the Muslims into a rage". One editor tells me that he has rejected at least 10 manuscripts in the past year alone because he did not wish to "risk controversy or worse" with Muslims. "I don't want to live under police escort," he says.
The American author and feminist Phyllis Chesler is still trying to find a British publisher, while her colleague Nancy Korbin has just lost her American publisher. In both cases, fear of angering Muslims is cited as the excuse for what is, in fact, "pre-emptive obedience".
The practitioners of "pre-emptive obedience" often claim they are acting in accordance with the best principles of multiculturalism.
"We wish to show respect for our Muslim neighbours," says a spokesperson for the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
While museums in Germany and Britain are hiding works that show images of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), Turkish and Iranian museums continue to display their tableaux containing his images.
Sometimes the imagined threat of "Islamic anger" is used for settling of scores that have nothing to do with Islam. In the Russian city of Volgograd (former Stalingrad), for example, there are no more than a few hundred Muslims. And yet the Russian government has just closed down the local newspaper based on the claim that it had hurt "Muslim sensibilities" by publishing a cartoon that shows Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) along with Moses and Jesus, watching some people fighting on television. The truth is that the local branch of the United Russia Party, the political mouth piece of President Vladimir Putin, had been trying to shut the newspaper for years. The supposed feeling of "Muslim sensibilities" is nothing but an excuse for an attack on media freedom.
Ugliest evils
The truth, however, is that blaming Muslims for censorship, one of the ugliest evils in any civilised society, is an insult to a majority of Muslims. The adepts of "pre-emptive obedience" see Muslims as childish, irrational and incapable of responding to works of literature and art in terms other than passion and violence.
The party of "pre-emptive obedience" violates one of the basic principles of the western societies, that is to say freedom of expression. And, that makes it harder for Muslim democrats to persuade their co-religionists that, rather than fear freedom, they should learn to benefit from it.
The party of "pre-emptive obedience" hurts Muslim interests in another way. By presenting Muslims as agents of censorship and intolerance, it incites the non-Muslim majority against them while presenting the most reactionary fundamentalists as the sole legitimate representatives of Islam.
Self-censorship in Europe also provides the despotic regimes in Muslim countries with an excuse for their systematic violation of the right to free expression. While Muslim writers and artists are fighting and, in some cases, even dying to defend their freedom of creation it would be a sad irony to see that same freedom undermined by the party of "pre-emptive obedience" in the West.
#1
By presenting Muslims as agents of censorship and intolerance, it incites the non-Muslim majority against them while presenting the most reactionary fundamentalists as the sole legitimate representatives of Islam.
Amir, you are splitting hair here. Truly modern muslims, BTW few and far between, find after some internal dialogue only one course of action: leaving Islam.
#2
I guess he missed the news about Hirsen Ali, Theo, all of the riots over the cartoons and the gang rapes. This from the same group that's always whining about how skeered they are eveytime someone give them a dirty look.
It would be comical, if it wasn't so serious, that Muslims are so 100% completely incapable of ever taking even the most eensy beensy bit of responsiblity for the violence and disruption they have injected into civilized society.
#1
"Like most of your kind, you have no allegiance or loyalty to your homeland, only to Mecca, and then you wonder why your countrymen distrust you. Farewell .and try not to blow up any trains today."
Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/15/2006 12:55 Comments ||
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#2
Man, that was a major thumping. This is a must read exchange.
Western Muslims better get used to this kind of conversation, because he is right when he says he is just writing what the rest of us are thinking.
Any Muslim reading this should understand that it is very disappointing to us that you can't grasp the most basic substance of this argument. We westerners are just now coming to terms with the fact that you are incapable of doing so.
Apologize for what? For pointing out that he created a religion whose holy book dismissed non-Muslims as infidels, and referred to Jews and Christians as monkeys and pigs? So far as I am concerned, our discussion is at an end. You have written nothing thoughtful or informative. You have merely excused the barbaric acts of your fellow Islamics; you have not indicated revulsion at their butchery. At the same time, I suspect that if I had written a piece attacking England, you wouldnt have been offended or defensive
#4
Muhammad never converted anyone to Islam by the sword. This is not my opinion, but is established fact. Islam being the newest and most influential of the great world religions, is also the most accurately documented in history, so there is simply no basis for what you are saying.
Bwahahahaha. I should have stopped reading right there. The poor man is arguing with a fool.
The defence secretary reduced hardened generals to quivering wrecks in his single-minded drive to achieve complete control of the Iraq war, says Bob Woodward
Posted by: john ||
10/15/2006 10:27 ||
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#1
Nice hit job, but it's all glittering generalities. I learned to identify this crap in the 7th grade. Aw, there, pooty pooty, Donny hurt your feelings?
#4
The siege of the Aztec capital by Cortez was a classical European operation. One only has to look at what happened in cities in Europe which experienced such sieges to understand the consequence. It should have not been surprising that in such an environment, one the Aztecs had very little if any experience with. Heck, as New Orleans showed, something even we dont have. Reduced food and water, contamination, dead bodies needing removal or become sources of disease, it all adds up to a very devastating point where, compounded by the stress brought on by the siege, a dormant pathology can take hold and ravage an unprepared population. This is not something new except in the minds of those who hold some halcyon attribute concerning the noble savage.
Hyper-reality seems to be dogging Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf nowadays. Otherwise, how do you explain these 'deadly' statistics: in the first week of October, there were three reported attempts made on his life, bringing the grand total of assassination bids on him to nine, from the time he grabbed power through a coup in 1999. But it seems that Musharraf, like the proverbial cat, enjoys nine liveshe's survived without sustaining even a minor wound. Now, like his innumerable critics here, you could smell mischief in this incredible coincidence and ask: are these assassination attempts engineered?
But first, the attempts on Musharraf's life last week. On the night of October 5, a powerful explosion rocked the Ayub National Park, Rawalpindi, a stone's throw from the Army House where the president lives. Twelve hours later, in the early hours of Oct 6, two 107 mm live rockets were recovered a kilometre from the President's House, his office. On October 7, securitymen recovered two more rockets, fitted with launchers and plugged to mobile phones, from a green belt along the Kashmir Highway, close to the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence. This is the highway the president takes daily to commute between his residence in Rawalpindi and office in Islamabad. Obviously, officials summarised, the rockets were positioned there to target the president's cavalcade and/or the ISI office.
Partly, last week's reported attempts on Musharraf's life test credulity because these weren't anywhere as serious as the bids on his life in late 2003, says Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Munawar Hassan. He explains, "In December '03, Musharraf's convoy was targeted twice by suicide bombers as his cavalcade crossed the bridge leading to Army House." Hassan says assassins are dogged in their approach, risking their lives to get close to their target to kill him. But the blast at Ayub Park wasn't anywhere in lethal proximity to Army House.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan points out other loopholes. For one, he says there's no explanation as to why live rockets fitted with launchers weren't or couldn't be fired. Second, Imran points out that initially Islamabad police chief Chaudhry Iftikhar described the October 7 recovery of rockets as "a successfully concluded mock exercise with two dud rockets hidden by the authorities to test the preparedness of their multi-disciplinary force". By the same evening, recalls Imran, Islamabad SSP Sikandar Hayat issued a statement saying that Iftikhar's statement had been a result of a misunderstandingand that the rockets were the purported weapons in an attempted act of terrorism.
Following these alleged assassination attempts, the security agencies arrested 200 labourers from the construction site of the Pakistan National Council of Arts. On October 10, the Islamabad police chief claimed to have arrested a college student from Rawalpindi on suspicion of Al Qaeda links and involvement in placing the rocket launchers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Imran refuses to believe that a college student could get hold of Russian-made rocket launchers, then smuggle it into Rawalpindi and Islamabad and fix them at sensitive spots in the high-security zones there. The cricket legend says Musharraf has failed to suppress the Taliban insurgency and deliver Osama bin Laden to the US. "These assassination attempts have been engineered by Musharraf to absolve himself of the blame for the failure to help America realise its goals," Khan told Outlook.
Adds Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former federal minister Jahangir Badar, "By stage-managing the recovery of live rockets, Musharraf actually wanted to rectify the mess created by his recent admission in Washington...that he didn't willingly align with the US, that he joined hands with the Bush administration post 9/11 after threats that Pakistan would be bombed back to the Stone Age. In other words, these stage-managed assassination attempts are aimed at winning back the sympathies of the Bush administrationand the West.
Some say the recovery of rockets close to the ISI headquarters was also aimed at bolstering the reputation of the intelligence agency. As former federal minister and central general secretary of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Zafar Iqbal Jhagra points out, "The recovery from close to the ISI building was meant to convey a message to the Westthat contrary to their oft-repeated allegations that the Pakistani ISI was aiding and abetting the Taliban, it was actually under threat from the same elements."
Doubts about the credibility of assassination attempts on Musharraf had been raised in some earlier instances as well. On March 23, 2002, it was said that terrorists armed with grenades and AK-47s had planned to storm the Independence Day celebrations in Islamabad's Parade Area and assassinate Musharraf. The parade, however, was cancelled because it was to take place on the eighth day of Muharram, the day of mourning. On December 6, 2002, two suicide bombers were ready to explode themselves while embracing Musharraf during the Eid-ul-Fitr prayers at Shah Faisal mosque in Islamabad. They failed to penetrate the security cordon around him. Three months later, on March 23, 2003, terrorists had planned to fire four missiles from Islamabad's Margalla Hills during the Pakistan Day Parade to kill Musharraf. However, the parade was cancelled after a tipoff about the planned attack. On April 26, 2003, a car laden with C-4 explosives parked close to the Karachi airport failed to explode as Musharraf's convoy swept by.
The fifth attempt, on December 14, 2003, though appears genuine: a jamming device installed in Musharraf's car prevented a bomb planted at the Jhanda Chichi Bridge from exploding as the presidential cavalcade sped past. In the sixth and the most lethal attempt, on December 25, 2003, two suicide bombers tried to ram their cars packed with explosives into Musharraf's convoy not far from the venue of the December 14 attack. In his autobiography, In the Line of Fire, the general says he prays that God grant him more than the nine lives of the proverbial cat. He'll need the extra lives. For, by his count, he's already exhausted all his chances.
Posted by: john ||
10/15/2006 15:09 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Michael Portillo
By AMIR MIR
Partly, last week's reported attempts on Musharraf's life test credulity because these weren't anywhere as serious as the bids on his life in late 2003, says Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Munawar Hassan. He explains, "In December '03, Musharraf's convoy was targeted twice by suicide bombers as his cavalcade crossed the bridge leading to Army House." Hassan says assassins are dogged in their approach, risking their lives to get close to their target to kill him. But the blast at Ayub Park wasn't anywhere in lethal proximity to Army House.
