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20. august 2006
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Jules Crittenden argues we've received a French lesson:
French is the traditional language of diplomacy. Diplomacy is the art of saying one thing while doing another.
In recent weeks, France stepped forward to act as a broker of peace in Lebanon. “Act” is the key verb in that last sentence, as it now would seem that the only other verifiable part of the sentence is “in recent weeks.”
To correctly parse that sentence, one must understand that when France suggested it wanted to broker peace in Lebanon, it did not necessarily mean “broker” or “peace” or “Lebanon” in the way we might understand those words. The same is true when France further suggested it wanted to “lead” a “strong” “multinational” “force” there.
As I've said, I have no problems with the French not wanting to be there, and complaing about unclear orders of engagement. But wasn't the UN Security Council resolution that formed the basis for the UN mandate essentially a French creation? France knew well the world expected a strong French force on the ground. If it did not intend to honour that expectation, maybe we should have been told earlier.
However, as fun as French-bashing is, I have to say the real lesson here is that European countries pay lip-service to the UN, but have no intentions of actually fulfilling any obligations. The UN has become a living myth, something that is alive simply because all these politicians pretend to believe in it.
8:46:32 PM 
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Robert Tait in the Observer writes about the good tastes and sensibilities of Iran's rulers.
Ariel Sharon, the incapacitated former Israeli Prime Minister, is wearing an SS uniform. A man with Jewish side locks is depicted as a vampire drinking from a container marked 'Palestinian blood'. An Arab figure is impaled to the ground by the absurdly long nose of a man in a black hat characteristic of orthodox Jews and marked 'Holocaust'.
At their worst, the images conform to lurid western stereotypes of Iran as a hotbed of anti-Semitism, as evoked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the Holocaust as a 'myth'.
They are among the results of a competition run by the country's biggest-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, to find the 'cleverest' cartoons satirising the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis in the Second World War.
The competion has drawn around 750 entries from all over the world, according to the organisers.
Link via email.
2:51:51 PM
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Hopefully Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey has a very solid self-esteem, not only an extremely inflated sense of her own attractiveness, because she's going to need it. She made a post on her blog telling that
I am a very high-quality woman.
You see, she knows she is pretty, because was "rated more attractive than 86% of the women on Hot or Not." I wished I made this one up. You probably need an "IQ tested at 145" to think that is going to impress anyone!
She then went on to berate the delusional guys who had hit on her without knowing their proper place in the universe (ie, somewhere under the soles of the shoes of her highness).
I realize that some of you will find this post depressing because you’ll realize that you don’t qualify as a high quality man and thus won’t be able to get a high quality woman.
Ace of Spades thought Miss Paisley Passey needed to be put down a few notches, and he did a rather unique, and well deserved, picture fisking. An absolute must read. Miss Paisley Passey gets what she deserves, on behalf of all the poor guys who have been so unfortunate as to meet her arrogant self.
11:47:01 AM
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Holiday passengers refused their flight to take off before two Asian men, believed to speak Arabic, were removed from the plane.
British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed. [...]
The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her.
Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches.
Initially, six passengers refused to board the flight. On board the aircraft, word reached one family. To the astonishment of cabin crew, they stood up and walked off, followed quickly by others.
The Monarch pilot - a highly experienced captain - accompanied by armed Civil Guard police and airport security staff, approached the two men and took their passports.
Half an hour later, police returned and escorted the two Asian passengers off the jet.
The two men were cleared and returned with another plane.
Fear makes people do some stupid things.
11:29:44 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.09.2006; 05:00:25.
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