If At FIrst You Don’t Get It Right Try, Try, Try Again!
This seems to be Harold Camping ‘s motto as he says he’ll do his calculation again for the end of the world according to the BBC.
It will actually be his fourth time. He is also quoted as saying. “I’m not a genius, and I pray all the time for wisdom!”
Obviously, you’re not praying enough Harold! But perhaps if there actually was a God, he didn’t give you too many of those little grey cells. So you definitely, aren’t his chosen one?
If you want to get an objective view on Harold Camping read this web page.
Well perhaps not! I’ve just read some of the other pages on European-American Evangelistic Crusade.
Strauss-Kahn Reporting in the United States and France
I have read this enlightening report on Bloomberg about the difference of the reporting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York, in the United States and France.
Here’s a typical couple of paragraphs.
For the U.S., the public’s right to know about an arrest is paramount, while in France the privacy — even of a criminal suspect — takes precedence.
“For the moment, the French media has been very restrained” in avoiding saying or writing anything to imply guilt, said Dominique de Leusse de Syon, a member of Strauss- Kahn’s legal team. “The problem is the images, whether they convey Mr. Strauss-Kahn as guilty.”
In other words anything goes in France, if you are French.
After all, the French published any old tosh they could find about Princess Diana, when at the time several high-profile French politicians were as crooked as a hurling stick.
Strauss-Kahn may indeed be innocent, but then seeing the allegations that have appeared in respected newspapers, he doesn’t appear to hsve been a saint in matters sexual.
Bedbugs In New York
Two stories from New York catch the eye today; Bedbugs bite into the US economy and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The latter of course would have like to be a bedbug, but didn’t go about it in the right way. As he was one of the most important of the wunch of the great and good trying to sort out Greece, we’re all going to pay for his indiscretions. I do hope the man gets a sentence in jail, even if it is less than what the prosecutors seem to be demanding, as he seems to be rather a serial whatsit and we don’t want people like him in public life, if all the stories are true. After all, how can he make a proper decious, if all he’s thinking about is the next legover.
But then the French see things differently and the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair could all lead to some serious problems between the United States and France.
What is so stupid about all this, is that several times in my life, when I’ve stayed in top-class hotels alone, I’ve been offered serious ladies by the staff for my pleasure by the concierge or other staff. I’ve never taken them up on their offer, as I’m not that sort of person. I say person, as once in the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston, I was having a late night drink and talking to the barman, as one does, when he discretely fixed-up the lady at the other end of the bar, with someone twenty or so years her junior. All it took was one quick phone call on his part. And this was in a pre-mobile age. That lady incidentally was French and the barman said she was a regular customer.
So the French do do things differently.
America Doesn’t Learn
America’s fight against crime and terrorism inside the country never seems to learn from its mistakes or build on things that have been proven in countries like the UK, Israel, Sweden, Germany and many others.
The worst home-grown example of terrorism in the United States was the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma. It could be argued that if proper security precautions had been taken at the building, that things might have been different. In its piece on the bombing, Wikipedia contains this.
As a result of the bombing, the U.S. government passed legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. From 1995 to 2005, over 60 domestic terrorism plots were foiled due to preventive measures taken in response to the bombing.
So after various incidents in the years preceding the bombing, won’t these precautions taken.
Simple precautions, such as we’ve had on UK flights for years might have prevented some if not all of the perpetrators of the September 11th, 2001 attacks of even getting on the planes.
In the late twentieth century, I was always amazed at the lack of airline security in the United States. In the end the good people of New York and Washington paid the awful price.
And then there are guns! The United States has the highest rate of gun crime and murder of any f the so-called civilised countries. There are now reports that those with guns are so irresponsible that many of America’s mammals are disappearing.
So what does the United States do?
It discloses that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on a train to mark the 10th anniversary of september 11th, 2001.
Surely this small fact is a challenge to all of those idiots out there, looking for their five minutes of fame.
Be vigilant of course, but don’t give them ideas!
Always Listen to the Taxi Drivers
Taxi drivers are usually those who know most about what is going on, although it does often come over with a certain slant.
So should we take too seriously, an interview I heard on the BBC, where a reporter talked to taxi drivers in Bradford? To a man, they said the United States was the terrorist.
America’s Gleeful Vengeance
Osama Bin Laden was a truly evil man to many, or was he just someone who saw an opportunity to make a name for himself and just took it in a very evil way.
In some ways it is a pity he is dead, as he should be in a Court of Law on trial for his crimes. And when after due process, if the verdict was guilty, he should have not been given a death sentence.
We have had enough martyrs that have inspired evil movements in history. They’ve inspired some good ones too, but I can’t see this happening in Bin Laden’s case.
At least though Osama bin Laden is dead and we won’t get the sort of speculation that we did after the Second World War about whether the truly evil Hitler was really dead.
Incidentally, I have read somewhere that Hitler’s biggest fear was that he would be captured and exhibited in somewhere like a zoo. He would have been tried at Nuremburg and if found guilty would have been executed. Judging by the way we have dealt with the various African, Croatian and Serbian war criminals, who have been found guilty at The Hague, we have moved on in the last sixty or so years.
But has America, where the death penalty is still a major part of the punishment system, as it is in Iran, China and North Korea?
I am also rather worried about the almost gleeful celebrations in the United States. This is sending the wrong message around the world and in my view it is rather disrespectful to all of the good people killed in the attack on September 11th, 2001 and all the other attacks inspired by Bin Laden. I know we celebrated in a similar way after the Second World War, but that was only after the war against Germany and Japan had been brought to a conclusion. We have not completely defeated the terrorists.
It will be interesting to see how Muslim groups and people around the world react to Bin Laden’s death.
I will be holding my breath, but hoping that the good Muslims who just want to get on with their lives in a peaceful manner have more effect, than those who want to carry on Bin Laden’s evil ideology.
As Rachel Harvey has just put it on the BBC, “Bin Laden may be dead, but his ideas are not.”
The Royal Family was Well-Advised
The Queen as we all know finds that nearly all her travels or events are accompanied by extreme weather. But as least her family seems to have been well-advised in their choice of date for the Royal Wedding. The forecast is showing a grey morning with perhaps a shower, but it all clears up for the ceremoney and the ceremonials afterwards.
You can also argue, that their choice of date has been good for the Americans. It seems most of them are over here and have thus missed some of the worst and most dangerous storms in living memory in the Southern States.
The Anonymous Widower 