Monday, August 30, 2010




... to be an agnostic,
but to be an outright atheist when it comes to the bible, the tora, the koran, the book of mormon, the veda, the guru granth sahib ... or some south pacific tribesman's revelations about prince philip ...

... ein agnostiker sein,
aber ein ausgesprochener atheist, was die bibel, die thora, den koran, das buch mormon, die veden, den guru granth sahib betrifft ... oder die Offenbarungen irgendeines südpazifischen Hinterwäldlers über prinz philip ... 

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Devil on Duty


In recent articles highest circulation German newspaper Bild calls Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinedschad „der Irre von Teheran“ (the Madman/Lunatic of Tehran, see example1, example2).
Before, Saddam Hussein had been dubbed „der Irre von Bagdad“ by German journalists. Still before, Slobodan Milosevic was the recipient of this title (among other most hair-raising such as Monster, Sociopath or Butcher of Belgrade. The vocabulary of war propaganda is relatively stable for short periods of time. To call a foreign Head of State a lunatic is an old feature of war mongers among the news- and statesmen (see Morelli's principle 3) - the devil on duty. In recent years certainly George W. Bush has been the devil on duty par excellence, any good search machine displaying a huge load of results when searching for „bush devil“.

Morelli's Principle 3 of war propaganda -„The Devil on Duty“ - is certainly not to be understood as saying that each demonizing of a politician is done with the intent to invade his country but rather the other way round: having the intent to potentially starting a military conflict goes hand in hand with demonizing mostly one political leader (instead of a whole population) of the opponent.

Most famous, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on 20 September 2006 during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, when, after recommending Chomsky's „Hegemony or Survival“ at lenght, referring to G.W. Bush:




The case gave rise to an extra enty at wikipedia. The whole speech with English voice-over U.N. Interpretation can be watched at the U.N. Webcast service (only with Real Player, the devil's between 02:28 and 03:17).

Knowing about the various hegemonic U.S. undertakings and propaganda against Venezuela under Chavez, his application of „the devil on duty“ becomes more coherent (but not more rational).

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

God's Own State: Russia

Boiko the Great
News agency Reuters reported last week "Russian dairy to dismiss women over abortions". The story is about Russian "oligarch" Vasily Boiko-Veliky announcing his orthodox fundamentalist staffing policy in an interview. His dairy "Russkoye Moloko" was "established  to promote the revival of the Orthodox church in Russia" by applying new rules: no new employees having previously performed abortion, a wedding ultimatum for the unmarried (living in sin) until October 14 , ... and the wildfire catastrophy in Russia this summer being a punishment for sin but improvable by suggested weddings. (Back to the old days of spell and counter-spell)


Boiko-Veliky (his artist name meaning "Boiko the Great") is not the only Russian business man or politician (which often comes to the same thing in Putin's Russia) carrying his prayer-book . Putin himself embraces and propagates "traditional confessions" - as he called Russian Orthodox Church. And as with Yeltsin's tennis club - which anyone had to visit in order to get acquainted to him and make some money, it almost comes down to an obligation in todays Russia to expose oneself as a believer, not unlike for U.S. politicians in order to win elections. No TV-event without orthodox priests.

German Sterligoff
Another Russian business man, German Sterligoff, showed similar fundamentalist attitudes towards labour and politics. In a talk  together with Boiko the Great and some journalists of radio station "Echo of Moscow" he expressed his religious redneck views as shown by the following Question-Answer excerpt [translated by a member of base 2014].

Interview in Echo of Moscow

Question: What shall we do with all the godless people, gays and lesbians?

Sterligoff: As it is written by apostle Paul "there shall be blood on their heads" [this quotation is rather known by Leviticus 20:33: "If a man has intercourse with another man in the same manner as with a woman, both of them have committed a disgusting perversion. They shall be put to death by stoning", comment by base2014]

Question: Are  there gays and lesbians mentioned explicitly?

Sterligoff: Yes, it said specifically about men having intercourse with other men.

Question: So, they ought to be killed?

Sterligoff: Yes, unconditionally.
----------------------------
Question: German, do you exercise birching?

Sterligoff: Birching whom?

Question: Children?

Sterligoff: Yes sure! It's written in the holy scripture: "you are an enemy to your son if you spare birch for him" ... It's important to do it with love. Because, if you punish your children with anger, it humiliates them - ...

Question: Do you birch your employees?

Sterligoff: No, I don't. When it comes to abortions - since already 15 years it has been forbidden [in my firm]  - I pay no salary to those who kill children. I don't have such female employees.

Question: Does that mean that your employees are aware of this precondition?

Sterligoff: Yes, during our interviews I ask everyone if they have performed abortion or not. As a rule, they don't lie and answer openly. It's such a question where it's hard to lie.

Question: But you haven't issued any printed directives on this topic?

Sterligoff: No, everybody simply knows it. It's self-evident because it's scary to work with a murderer of a child. Because you don't know - since he/she had managed to kill a child - ... The same applies to men, bacause some of them force their broads to perform abortion.
----------------------------------------
Question: This is a very important moment for me, because I have to understand that this political correctness which we all curse all the time and which exists in Europe as well as in the U.S. ... Maybe the time has came for us to adopt certain provisions or to initiate their adoption?

Sterligoff: I'm convinced that we have to adopt all your laws based on the holy scripture.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Some More Provocations



Best Time of Her Life
Slightly perverted female Israeli soldier exposes her power over blindfolded hand-cuffed Palestinian prisoners in pics on Facebook (this is one interpretation). Officer Eden Abergil's photos will undoubtedly cause a huge outrage, especially in the Arab world - one more provocation.  At the time of posting, this was not available in German speaking online news.
see also France24


Few Days Before - Holocaust Mockery
Haaretz reports: Iran launches cartoon website aimed at questioning the Holocaust, giving the link to a website and stating first that Iran had launched it and later on that the site would be "financed by a non-governmental cultural foundation" - but without giving any source. The European Jewish Press, more carefully, said that "the website is hosted on an Iranian server and, according to media reports, is sponsored by a non-governmental cultural foundation". However, the cartoons are designed for an immense provocation on Jewish side.


Could both events be "state provocations"? Or, more guardedly, products of systematic war propaganda? One might easily be inclined to say so in the case of the Holocaust Mockery. But was Officer Abergil really that stupid to think of no consequences when publishing those photos on one of the world's most frequented social networks?

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Egypt's Cyber Dissidents

German GEO 08/2010 reports about Egyptian bloggers. The Report entitled "Cyber Dissidenten. Demokratie 2.0" tells stories of various internet publishers bullied and/or tortured  by Mubarak's henchmen - the Egyptian police. (German mp3 coverage here)
Various Egyption bloggers - men and women - are introduced and their sufferings, fights and achievements briefly touched:

Wael Abbas - blogger - http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com

Karim el-Beheiry -  blogger - http://egyworkers.blogspot.com/

Ahmad Gharbeia - programmer and blogger from Cairo coaching other bloggers, often in internet security - http://ahmad.gharbeia.org/

Gamal Eid - Egyptian lawyer frequently defending bloggers, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) - www.anhri.net; Gamal Eid is mentioned in this Amnesty International report: EGYPT MUST DROP CHARGES AGAINST THREE ACTIVISTS

Noha Atef - concentrates on (in her own words) " the daily experiences of citizens [..] with the Egyptian ministry of interior [...] which continues to protect the perpetrators and to deny victims access to justice" - http://www.tortureinegypt.net

Nora Younis - blogger, the hero of the "Black Wednesday, 25-05-2005" - http://norayounis.com/

Hossam el-Hamalawys - Marxist, reports of the miserable working conditions in Egypt - http://www.arabawy.org/

and others. If only 5 of these mentioned would meet offline in some Cairo café, bazar or some other public place, they could be arrested by the police due to the fact that Mubarak rules the country under emergency law since 1981. "If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear—never to see them again—you send them to Egypt" Robert Baer once said. The US financially and militarily support the Mubarak regime as the US Departement of State eagerly and proudly admits on its website (see section "U.S.-EGYPTIAN RELATIONS").

Monday, August 9, 2010

Statistics Garnished With Bible Verses

Israeli Newspaper Haaretz reported on 16.07.10 that according to a poll Most Americans would back Israel attack on Iran. According to TIPP, a polling unit belonging to TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, it is stated there that 56 percent of Americans would support an Israeli strike to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. But a visit to TIPP's blog shows that the poll results are presented as simple coloured diagram without any further explanations except a poor number of adults interviewed ... and the real source: Investor Business Daily (IBD). But above all, it should be noted that the diagram comes equipped with a bible verse from the Hebrew Qohelet [the Preacher] or Book of Ecclesiastes (its latinized derivation, verses 3:1 - 3:8) as part of a text of crude war propaganda.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose," the Book of Ecclesiastes says. "A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing ... a time of war, and a time of peace."

 The author of the text is stated as the Investor's Business Daily Editorial.

PS:  The  Investor's Business Daily Editorial complained about Obama's health care reform 1 year ago that ""people such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless".