Freedom of "The Press"

After Israeli marines enforced the blockade against Gaza, I wasn't surprised to be awakened from my reverie by the sound of left knees jerking in newsrooms all over New Zealand. The Press however was particularly egregious and unprofessional in its coverage of the event. Have a look at today's coverage for the latest example. Quoting professional useful idiot (more on him later, I don't use that term lightly) Mike Treen, Christchurch's paper of record informs us that:

"One commentator said that [on Monday] Israel successfully turned its war against Palestine into a war against the world in targeting a flotilla of people who were clearly peaceful and which contained hundreds of people from different countries," Treen said.

"It just brought home to people in a way they didn't understand before that the occupation turns the Palestinian people, and Gaza in particular, into an open prison which they control."

Got that? "One commentator said..." Is it usual journalistic practice to use a third hand unattributed quote? Sounds more like sloppy, lazy, anything as long as it fits the anti-Israel narrative, reflexively left wing scribbling.

And Mike Treen? This is the man who supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so I think we can see where he's coming from.

The Predictable Lame Reaction

As Mark Steyn relates in this post to The Corner on NRO, the authorities are reacting in the predictable manner to the Detroit Weenie Bomber...by imposing more restrictions on everybody else. To Steyn's words, I would add only that these measures are aimed not only at increasing the perception of security at the expense of the reality, but at doing so in an exquisitely politically correct manner. What needs to happen here, at least until Zoroastrians and Anabaptists get into the suicide bombing business, is--let's all say it together now--PROFILING. Young Muslim men don't get to fly without a very extensive questioning and search...period. Inconvenient for the very silent majority of believers? Yep.\

Then clean your own house.

Australia 1, Terrorists 0.

This is why you want the Aussies with you in a fight. They never give up. Well done mates. I hope the bastard didn't hurt himself running away.

Cleaning up the planet, one scumbag at a time.

Tame Iti and Terrorism?

I haven't commented yet on the raids and arrests around New Zealand and the cries of terrorism. That's because no one except the police and the suspects knows what really went on, and they aren't saying. A few things strike me immediately about this:
1. Terrorism? I can't find where anyone in the police actually said anything about terrorism or terrorists or the Suppression of Terrorism Act, nor where anyone in the police has referred to Tame Iti or anyone else as a terrorist. That seems to have come exclusively from the media and politicians responding to something that the police never said.
2. The "Just Minding Our Business" Defense. Sorry, but if you're stockpiling weapons, ammunition and Molotov cocktails, we want to know why.
3. Biculturalism Strikes Again: State mandated biculturalism has never worked anywhere that it's ever been tried and it won't work in New Zealand. Once a "culture" (and just how does one decide what is Maori culture and what is not?)is designated as separate and immiscible, the next logical step is cultural separatism followed by political separatism. That way lies Balkanization in the literal sense of the word.
4. Just how far do Maori want to wind back the clock? Again the logical progression of the grievance culture is that iwi start feuding about who did what to whom in pre-European days. Shall Ngai Tahu be required to pack up and move back north?
5. Pita Sharples (as opposed to many of his colleagues) rarely says anything grossly stupid. However saying that the arrests have set back race relations 100 years is nonsense. Why isn't it Tame Iti's seditious conduct that has set back race relations 100 years? Further, does Dr. Sharples mean to imply that Maori that get a pass on serious criminal conduct because of historical grievances? Again, that way lies real terrorism.

Will Gordon Brown Be Churchill or Chamberlain?

Britain's Islamofascists have welcomed Gordon Brown to Number 10 with a right kick in the balls and a spit in the eye as well. Two large carbombs in London, mercifully discovered and disarmed, and a firebombing at Glasgow airport. And what's missing from the MSM reporting? Any suggestion whatsoever that the obvious suspects could be responsible. "Everything is on the table" said the Independent. Yep, could be the Irish, animal rights activists, fox hunters, disgruntled Anglicans, anti-monarchists. Why, it could have been YOU, citizen. Bollocks.

Two "Asian" men are in custody in Glasgow. I'll wager large sums that they're not Korean, Japanese or Sri Lankan. I'll wager still larger sums that they're not Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, or Zoroastrian. I'll wager pretty much everything I've got or hope to have that one or both has some variant of the word "Mohammed" in their name.