22. april 2005

Pope condemns Spanish gay marriage law. Film at 11. Spain's lower house has passed a gay marriage law, and BBC News immediately connects the predictable Vatican condemnation to the new pope. Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals. The article, however, nowhere mentions any statement from the pope himself! Obviously, he is opposed to this new law, but it is another Vatican official who preaches the party line: The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous. [...] Interviewed in the Italian newspaper, Corriere de la Serra, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said the Church was making an urgent call for freedom of conscience for Roman Catholics and appealing to them to resist the law. He said every profession linked with implementing homosexual marriages should oppose it, even if it meant losing their jobs. We will, I suspect, see most Spanish catholics eventually give this the same consideration as the ridiculous ban on contraception. The Beeb also makes a funny little gaffe: Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. I'm quite sure they still permit a man and a woman to marry, fears from social conservatives notwithstanding. 9:22:26 PM    comment []  trackback []

Britain polls BBC News has a very usefull poll tracker for the upcoming UK elections. The Conservatives started running from behind, and are now finding themselves even further behind, if we are to believe most polls. It's not easy to beat Tony Blair. 8:51:07 PM    comment []  trackback []

Anti-terror case starts in Spain A large court case against terrorist suspects begins in Spain, including cases against three suspected al-Qaeda members who are accused of helping planning the 9/11-01 attacks. Prosecutors want the three men to receive more than 60,000 years in jail - 25 for each of the more than 2,000 people killed on 11 September 2001. The rest of the defendants are charged with belonging to a terrorist group. They include a journalist from the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera, Tayssir Alouny, who interviewed Bin Laden after the attacks. Legal proceedings against terror suspects have been a mixed bag, to put it mildly. Spain now has a chance to get the first actual convictions in the worst terrorist attack in history. Judge Baltasar Garzon has brought charges against 41 suspects, of which 24 now stand trial. One of the other charged is Osama Bin Laden. 7:17:01 PM    comment []  trackback []

A miracle in rock Skeptico is convinced the salt stain in a Chicago underpass is not the Virgin Mary, but Keith Richards! 4:45:21 PM    comment []  trackback []

Mordechai Vanunu in his own crazy words In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu released detailed information about Israel's nuclear facilities and programmes through The Sunday Times. He was quickly lured away from England in a classic Mossad 'honey trap,' kidnapped from Rome to Israel where he was convicted of treason. He was released after 18 years, but there are still restrictions on him. There is now a mounting popular campaign in Norway to invite the convicted traitor here. Minister of Local Government Erna Solberg has refused an application, since nobody can apply for asylum from outside the country, but the leftist campaign continues. Our press has been viciously anti-Israeli for decades, and its veneration of a fruitcake like Mordechai "Israel killed JFK" Vanunu is hardly a surprise. The Norwegian daily Dagbladet has conducted a "net meeting" where Vanunu has been answering questions from common Norwegians (in something resembling English; browse down). Apparently, this is a violation of his release conditions. However, I doubt Israel has much to lose from having Vanunu on the loose unedited. The man comes across as a rambling, illiterate hater of Israel and Judaism. Here are some statements, all written by Vanunu, for whom I trust English is not a first language. Apply SICs generously. Brackets are mine. Israel is no more democracy. Israel is an apartheid racist state. Israel are destroying the democratic system from the inside and exporting this policy to US and Europe. When asked how much the Times paid him, and why he didn't leak the information through the IAEA or a NGO: How much the Mossad pay you? Are you Christian Zionist? Come, become Israel citizen. Other statements: I think if I was a Jewish the Israelis and US would have loved me very much and received me as a hero in all the world. But, because of my Christianinty the Israelis trying to destroy my image and deny me celebrating my freedom. Yes, Israel continues to be much more barbaric, crazy horror state. The result of nuclear weapons in Israel. About NWs: the Israelis want to keep their nuclear weapons monopoly in the ME, and I did the best act to end it.  I am a Christian and no-one hate Jews. All the world now respecting any human being. All Europe have all kinds of minorities. There is no more anti-semitisim. Terrorism is not a real threat. About US, we are now in the new century, post Cold War and we need to have new world order. [...] Next, we need all the world to be free from nuclear weapons to take from every superpower their nuclear weapons. That is the only way for new world order, governed by the people, by the United Nations for the people, and not for any State. My view, it [to obtain nukes] was decided in 1950s as an act not to go for peace but to trust power and to impose on the Palestianians and the Arab world this Israel Jewish aparteid state. Instead of making peace and receiving back the Palestinian refugees. Now they say for defence. But defence of this racist state. Jews should accept respect jesus teaching,values,and the new testement as good asthe old bible. we must betray lies cheating,may you are paid by Mosad agentes israel the danger for peace,in the past and now. israel can use them [nukes] ,any time.if they have them they will use them. I will write abook about life in prison. He will need a very good editor. PS: And in Britain, academics boycott two Israeli universities: Members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) decided to suspend all links with Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities. They were complicit in a system of "apartheid" towards Palestinians, delegates at the AUT's council heard. The votes, and lack of debate, have been condemned by pro-Israel groups. [...] Sue Blackwell, an English lecturer from Birmingham University, said: "Most Israeli academics serve in the army's reserve forces. "Most support the state's suppression of the Palestinians or at least don't speak out against it." It's breeding in the ivory towers. PS 2: This reminds me that the Norwegian Socialist Left (SV) party, at its annual conference some weeks ago, forced the hosting hotel staff to remove oranges because they were made in Israel (Norwegian article). There is a clear danger SV will be part of the ruling coalition after our election in September... 2:16:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

- Burma used chemical weapons There are credible reports that the Burmese government has used chemical weapons against its own people: The Burmese military dictatorship used chemical weapons against ethnic minority guerrillas this year, an international human rights group said last night. Christian Solidarity Worldwide said Burmese forces mounted a month-long artillery barrage against a border post held by Karenni soldiers at Nya My, close to the Thai town of Mae Hong Son. Rebels quoted by the organisation said it culminated with a shell that released a cloud of pungent yellow smoke. Martin Panter, the organisation's president, who interviewed five of them, said: "These are soldiers with 15 to 20 years' experience. This was not something they had experienced before." Within minutes they were "extremely distressed", some with their skin blistering, two vomiting blood, two more coughing it up and four unable to walk. "They were more or less bed-bound for a week," Dr Panter said, and lost between 11lb and 22lb each over the following four weeks. While examining the soldiers this month, he used a questionnaire devised by the Jane's specialist information group to try to identify what had affected them. He said: "I think it was a cocktail of chemicals: blister agents such as mustard gas, neurological agents such as sarin and pulmonary agents." The runners-up category for the axis of evil is getting crowded. 12:38:15 PM    comment []  trackback []

You paid what??? Good question: Who Pays $600 for Jeans? And the answer is, apparently, fashionable women who are very conscious about their behinds. 12:32:02 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.05.2005; 01:55:56.