Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Uprising


Hamza Ali al-Khateeb was a 13yo boy arrested by Syrian authorities during a demonstration. His body was returned to his parents only when they signed an undertaking to not reveal or comment upon the manner of his death. They refused to keep silent, and have presumeably been arrested to suffer a similar fate.

The family released an horrific video detailing the extent of the boy's injuries which include numerous cigarette burns, bullet holes in his knees, a shattered jaw and a broken neck. The Syrian government thugs then cut off his penis, before killing him.

Hamza on Facebook

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hickups



An item in the SMH today caught my eye when it described the audience at the Sydney Writers' Festival as 900 credulous fools. The speaker was the notorious David Hicks, an Australian incarcerated and tortured at Guantanamo Bay, and he was given a standing ovation.

The Sydney Writer's Festival seems an unlikely gathering point for 900 credulous fools, but that's how the author of the piece, Ted Lapkin, describes them. Ted, bless his cotton socks, works for the authoritative-sounding Institute of Public Affairs, which according to that pinko publication Wikipedia, is an advocate of free market economic policies and by sourcewatch.org (anti-tobacco, so probably another commie front) as "a right-wing, corporate funded think tank based in Melbourne."

Interestingly, the name John Roskam is linked to the IPA, for whom he writes. In an article titled Turning up the heat on climate change alarmists he quotes one Professor Bob Carter numerous times. Turns out Carter is also a member of the IPA.

Corporate-Funded indeed. Listed among its contributors are ExxonMobil, BHP Billiton, Phillip Morris, Murray Irrigation Limited, and Visy Industries.

The IPA has published articles "critical of scientific research on the dangers of passive smoking" and "adopts a position of climate change scepticism".

These are the real climate change tragics.

And as for David Hicks - well, I wasn't at the lecture and I've not read the book, but when the good guys use torture on the ones they call the bad guys...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Public_Affairs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Carter

Postscript Feb 1202
An article in the SMH mentions that sensitive documents unwittingly revealed by US conservative think tank The Heartland Institute list among those it has made payments to include Australian scientist Bob Carter.