Have to admire the chutzpah of the Palestinians! Apparently Tony Blair’s peace mission in the Middle East is doomed, doomed I say, because he is not prepared to…. confront the Israelis, Pali business and political leaders have warned.

Raising the standard of living in the territories is seen as crucial to providing disillusioned Palestinian youths with an alternative to killing Jews. But Palestinian leaders argue that such efforts are impossible without the removal of obstacles, such as Israeli checkpoints, which impede the movement of workers and goods within and in and out of the Palestinian territories.

Wonder has it occurred to these Palestinians that the REASON WHY the checkpoints are there is to prevent Palestinian savages blowing innocent Israeli men, women and children to pieces?   

As further evidence of the pernicious and deliberate undermining of marriage, Heterosexual married couples are no longer regarded as the "norm", the largest survey of social attitudes in Britain shows today.

Yes – Government support for gay couples and single parents, the rise in cohabitation and an official failure to support traditional marriage are said to have resulted in previously unconventional lifestyles becoming widely accepted. Imagine that!

The annual report by the National Centre for Social Research says marriage – once the bedrock institution of British society – is seen by two thirds of people as virtually indistinguishable from cohabitation. Only one in four people thinks married couples make better parents than unmarried ones, while a third believe that gay male couples are as capable of being good parents as a man and a woman.

The survey exposes the decline in the importance of marriage with the finding that most people see weddings as an excuse for a party rather than a public declaration of lifelong commitment.

So – we are now at the stage where, as Cole Porter put it, anything goes in Britain – and where all lifestyles and arrangements are considered equally valid. This is a triumph for the propagandist message of moral relativism pumped out day in day out by the MSM and beloved by all good liberals. Meanwhile, the COST of family breakdown costs Britain £24 BILLION a year and rising.

Maybe we just need more gay parents to take the strain?

There is jubilation amongst the usual suspects here in Northern Ireland at the news yesterday that Belfast is one of five UK cities to get a new health research centre to take the lead in solving problems like obesity and smoking.

Health Minister the lugubrious Michael McGimpsey said it had "the potential to improve the health of our population". He said "world-class" experts from a range of disciplines would be working at the facility in Queen’s University. Up to £5m funding over five years will be made available to each of the five centres.

What a waste of money. The way to deal with obesity is for people to eat less, eat better and exercise more. All the rest is waffle. As for stopping smoking, short of arresting anyone with a cigarette, I would have thought the risks were clear and the ban is in place so it is a matter of individual choice. In truth I see this as just more Nanny Statism, more people telling us how to live our lives. It is not the role of Government to make us healthy, each of us carries that individual responsibility for our own health.

Well folks, it tells you something about Islam in Britain when the visiting Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Barham Salih, says that the Mosques in Blackburn, England, have such an extreme message being preached that they would be BANNED in Iraq!

It is reported that  Dr Salih said:

"I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn. What I saw would not be allowed here in Iraq. It would be illegal."

Dr Salih, a Sunni Muslim, went to several mosques in Blackburn when he visited the town on the invitation of the then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in 2005.

Now, since Dr Salih is himself a Muslim, this criticism cannot be so easily deflected by the dhimmis out there and the question must be asked as to what sort of nightmare the British Government is storing up for us all by refusing to close down these centres for Jihad, these propagators of hatred?

I note that British Muslims have condemned Dr Salih. Who’s surprised? 

From  Yahoo.com    HT: Michelle Malkin

Washington D.C., January 22, 2008:  The sheer size of this pro-life crowd is astounding. Thousands came out to march in the freezing cold, to make their pro-life opinions heard and to mark the 35th anniversary of  Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.

And if it weren’t for talk radio and the internet, I would probably not  know about the annual Right to Life March.

Wandering around Google today, I stumbled on an essay written by a journalism student who had been present at one of the annual Right to Life marches. She wrote of her intense emotions at the sight of so many marchers. And she wrote of her strong belief in a woman’s right to choose abortion, and a citizen’s right to assemble and to protest.

She  wrote that she felt strong conflicting emotions when she realized that thousands of  marchers were expressing their opinion that a woman’s right to choose does not supercede an unborn’s right to life.  And she wrote that she wanted  to shut down the march and to deny the right to lifers their public protest of Roe v. Wade.

It was an interesting essay and notable for the student’s ability to be self-reflective. I don’t think this journalism student is alone; there is very little coverage of this event on the mainstream media.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman:-

“It’s astonishing the home secretary admits that after 10 years of a Labour government, our capital is a no-go area for women at night.”

On my bus route that would be from about 6.30pm onwards in Winter.  And where i used to live the gangs now have AK47s (see left for my old station in South London. Looks like an AK). I’ve said before (on the Boris post) that there are things I love about my Capital and things i loathe:- 

 Ellee Seymour asked a teacher she knows at Hackney Free and Parochial Seconday School about the area the Home Sec was discussing and gets a candid and eye-opening view on the violence. Ellee listed some of the incidents/ experiences the teacher encountered or heard about working and living in Hackney. (I have a friend who works as a teacher in a similar area. Add the continued threat of rape to female teachers to this bunch below and you get the idea). For example:

1). The front entrance of the school is cordoned off by the police; no one is allowed to leave the building, whilst police secure the crime scene. Two Turkish boys have used razor blades to slice the faces of two Vietnamese boys, who they had a vendetta with.

2). One of my students is sent to Feltham Youth offenders’ unit for sexually abusing younger girls and taking lewd photographs. …

3) One of my students has her face slashed with a compass, by a fellow student, on the neighbouring estate.

4) A group of our students throw a firework into a local Kebab shop, on their way home from school.

5) One of our students murders a boy from another school, outside Hackney Town Hall.

6)  A student tries to attack a technology teacher with a sharp instrument during a lesson, a few weeks later he is charged with the murder of a pizza delivery man.

7) One of my students on the estate is considered a geek and is violently beaten up by fellow students and residents. His family are then subjected to continued abuse and intimidation because they did not fit in. He has a police escort to take him home every afternoon, after school. The family decide to relocate to another borough in London.

8) I hand out resources to my students; a boy has a cut on the back of his neck. I ask him how he got it; he tells me his brother stabbed him.

9) Close to where I lived on Kenworthy Road, in the space of eighteen months there are two fire arms incidents, in which two men were shot dead.

10) One of my students, wears a knife vest under his shirt. The teaching staff refer to him as a ‘proper G’ – gangster. He turned up one day to my lesson with over two hundred pounds, which he then throws up into the air and shouts out, at the top of his voice “scramble!” Only one boy is brave enough to scramble around on the floor and pick the money up.

The truth is it’s not actually safe walking in Hackney at any time of the day, particularly when the school children are being released from school, this is when the most muggings occur, and it is for this reason that there is always a heavy police presence outside all of the schools and in particularly on Mare Street, near MacDonald’s, where a lot of the trouble seems to escalate. It’s a terrible admission on Jacqui Smith’s part, especially when she is responsible for reducing crime on our streets.

She concludes: These are areas where there is a total break-down of decent values, these places are run by violent gangs, who intimidate the local community, this is why people never come forward as witnesses to crimes, because they know what the consequences will be – they’re scared. There are twenty two different gangs in Hackney and because many of the children have either absent parents or parents that are simply incapable of looking after them, the kids turn to the gangs for support and for protection against other rival gangs etc.

(hat tip on Ellee’s post Marvin)

From The Times comments:-

I am a police officer, I have 26 years experiance most of it in South East London. The Home Secretary has admitted her fear but police still walk all the streets of London.  The ‘Plastics’ have had their wage rise but remember when they (2 of them) didn’t help a drowning person weeks later a police officer jumped into a swollen river to rescue a person drowning – that is the difference between police and others.  Either support you local police and remember we are not responsible for prosecutions or sentences (see HM CPS and judges for that) or fear the repercusions of trendy liberals.

——————————————-

Personally – I favour the death penalty for crimes like rape with GBH eg acid or where a father is beaten to death for standing up to thuggish behaviour.

Do i want to carry a gun? No thanks.

I noticed that the BBC has trotted out Tovalu, that perpetual poster-child of being a victim of rising sea levels this evening, to help advance the global warming agenda. We had claims that this small island group could disappear in the next ten years UNLESS the "international community" makes vast financial reparations to Tovalu.

Just a few thoughts. Tovalu has managed to survive for at least the last four or five hundred years WITHOUT any international reparations. And second, those rising sea levels. Problem is – since 1977 they haven’t been rising…as you can see from the attached data.

Just another scam. More BBC telling half the story and pretending it is impartial news.

Over on The Pub Philosopher, we read about another shocking racist attack in Yorkshire. Oddly enough though, this one has not made any national headlines. For some reason, it has not got beyond  the boundaries of Yorkshire. Mmmm.

It seems that there has been an increase in racial abuse and attacks against immigrants in West Yorkshire. This has been manifest in a campaign of intimidation by "local youths" in West Yorkshire, including window smashing, car vandalism and physical attacks.

Might it be the fact that the local racist thugs are Muslims and the immigrants are Eastern Europeans that has led to sealed lips on behalf of the national MSM?  The headline says it all "Angry Asians" – when are they ever anything else?

Here are some fascinating facts concerning contemporary Britain under the jackboot of the Labour Party.

When Labour came to power, there were extravagant promises of being "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."

So, ten years on, writing over on Unenlightened Commentary, Ross reveals that the MURDER rate for England and Wales has risen by 50% or so.  Impressed?

Well, if you need further evidence of what happens when charlatan socialists grab power, check out this graph which shows recorded violent crime in London. Note how it has rocketed since the turn of the Millennium. Whatever could have happened then? Oh yes, Ken Livingstone, the loathsome reptile who is Mayor of London, came to power.

So, the English and Welsh have seen the murder rate soar, and Londonders have seen violent crime rocket.

A change has gotta come. we’re dying for it. 

Boy, the no nukes crowd is going to freak out when they get wind of this.

As I scan the names authoring this report, I don’t see a single rabid, rightwing, neocon warhawk anywhere to be found.

In fact, one of them was appointed Chair of the Joint Chiefs by (gasp!) Bill Clinton.

Maybe at the next Democrat debate the moderator could ask Clinton’s boss what she thinks of this.

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west’s most senior military officers and strategists.

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".

Can you just imagine the reaction from the solons at the UN over this?

Just imagine. Their cravenly feckless approach toward Iran, the years of appeasement, could simply be washed away by the civilized Western world sobering up and taking the logical approach to the nuclear proliferation of rogue Islamic nations.

The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.

Such views and opinions–the desire to preserve mankind–are considered radical, and those who have such views are now afraid to even publicly express it.

"The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible," the authors argued in the 150-page blueprint for urgent reform of western military strategy and structures. "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

Read the rest.

Also at JWF.