text:
Identity Politics, Free Speech, and the Future of worldwide Liberalism
For those of you who haven't been following the Allah cartoon flap too closely, Frontpage has a nice thumbnail timeline of the controversy to date that includes this editorial commentary:
[…] Islam is not a race; the problems with it are not the product of fear mongering and fiction, but of ideology and facts—facts that have been stressed repeatedly by Muslims around the world, when they commit violence in the name of Islam and justify that violence by its teachings. Noting, as some of the cartoons do, that there is a connection between the teachings of Muhammad and Islamic violence, is simply to manifest an awareness of what has been repeatedly asserted by Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Abu Bakar Bashir, and so many others.
"As it grows into an international cause célèbre, the cartoon controversy indicates the gulf between the Islamic world and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of speech and expression. And it may yet turn out that as the West continues to pay homage to its idols of tolerance, multiculturalism, and pluralism, it will give up those hard-won freedoms voluntarily.â€Â
The free world should be standing resolutely with Denmark, ready to defend freedom of speech. Insofar as it is not defended, it will surely be lost.
Michelle Malkin has also been closely following the flap over Danish free speech vs hardline Islamic prohibitions on iconography, which has taken on—to western sensibilities—the nature of ironic farce, culminating in calls to "Free Piglet" [see also, Chris Muir]. Sadly, though, not everyone finds humor in a situation that essentially has jihadists demanding the infidel surrender his ungodly crayons and inks, demands that have escalated into threats of death—and have become a propaganda tactic being used by some jihadists to gin up a war against the Danes.
A grass-roots response to "Buy Danish" has sprung up all over the internet. [See Michelle's roundup here; petition here]
Of course, not everyone is outraged; after all, where there's an Other involved, there is sure to be a western elite offering some twisted and moderately exculpatory "explanation" for such cultural behavior as threatening cartoonists with beheadings and suicide bombings.
For this, we need look no further than France—generally quite nationalistic, but also, unfortunatly, increasingly frightened by the threat in their midst. From MSNBC, "Editor fired after publication of Islam cartoons":
The Paris newspaper France Soir has fired its managing editor after the daily printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked rising protests and boycotts in the Muslim world.
The daily confirmed that owner Raymond Lakah had fired Jacques Lefranc on Wednesday evening after a tumultuous day on which German and Spanish dailies ran the controversial cartoons that first appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.
Angered by the drawings, Palestinian gunmen jumped on the outer wall of a European Union office in Gaza City on Thursday and demanded an apology. Masked gunmen also briefly took over an EU office in Gaza on Monday.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods and bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities, and have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East.
The publication by French Soir drew a stern reaction from the French Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters that press freedom could not be called into question but urged restraint: "The principle of freedom should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance, respect of beliefs, respect of religions, which is the very basis of secularism of our country.â€Â
The issue is sensitive in France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people.
Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of "these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims.â€Â
Multiculturalism means never having to say your're sorry…
Reaction in Middle East countries has been scathing.
"In the West, one discovers there are different moral ceilings and all moral parameters and measures are not equal,†wrote the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
"If the Danish cartoon had been about a Jewish rabbi, it would never have been published.â€Â
Sure. But as commenter Kyle points out, "If a Jewish rabbi had spawned a death cult responsible for the death of tens (hundreds?) of thousands over the centuries, then that analogy might not ring so false.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Riyadh considered the cartoons an insult to Mohammad and all Muslims. "We hope that religious centers like the Vatican will clarify their opinion in this respect,†he told the state news agency SPA.
In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shiite Hizbollah said the dispute would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.
"Had a Muslim carried out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, then those low-lifers would not have dared discredit the Prophet, not in Denmark, Norway or France,†Hizbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims in 1989 to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam in his book "The Satanic Verses.†Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.
Predictably, we are simply seeing an Islamic version of identity politics finding its rhetorical niche: western deptictions of the Other are inauthentic and are to be demonized—though, with the death of Edward Said and the subsequent and extensive real-world cartooning (pardon the pun) of Said's position of cultural ownership over individual ethnic narratives (one propagated by fierce proponents of identity politics within the academy, often out of blinkered idealism, often out of a cynical recognition that such a philosophical paradigm greatly expands areas for "study" and lends to the new champions of these area studies the label "experts" in the various new ethnic identity studies "fields"), this argument is taking on more tangible and extreme manifestations.
The results, of course, are predictable—and some of us have noted for years that such a political endgame was a necessary feature of the philosophical underpinnings of a movement that grants autonomy of self-definition (free from the legitimate checks of "external" criticism) to individual groups who, once they pulled resources and settled internecine battles over what was to be the estabished cultural narrative, would be able to use the widespread "enlightened / academic" acceptance of the multiculturalist premise itself as very potent political and cultural weapon, one that culminated in the peculiarly dangerous sociopolitical situation in which cultures were allowed to define their own rules of authenticity (and so, by extension, could exclude based on behavior or internal dissent), as well as lay claim to persecution when the Other dared criticize the group's established narrative.
And with this claim of persecution came the justification for "fighting back" against "intolerance" that dared question the established wisdom of the group under critical scrutiny—a critical scrutiny that, conveniently, was now deemed inauthentic by philosophical design, and with the imprimatur of our own western academic "experts" in the field.
Orientalism (in the sense Said envisioned it), in short, has become a convenient de facto intellectual totalitarianism—one that, when combined with our western history of guilt over colonial adventures, manifest destiny, imperialism, cultural hegemony, and our status as the world's sole hyperpower, provides a powerful liberal (in the non-partisan sense) impulse for granting autonomy, and for promoting a soft cultural relativism.
Unsurprisingly, this whole philosophical movement—insofar as it was based first on essentialism and then, once the group could be defined down through blood, to the excommunication of apostates to that essentialist narrative after the battle over defining the official ethnic and political narrative was internally decided—was destined to end in a will to power. Which is what happens when universalism—even in its softest and most agreed upon form (for instance, it could simply be a contractual, contingent universalism, to satisfy the sensibilities of post modernists)—is discarded in favor of the notion that individualism (the base point at which human universalism as an ideal is at its strongest, the point that Bush has cleverly made over and over again in his speeches) is to be surrendered to collectivism (the point at which the will of the most powerful within the group is always ascendant, and where apostacy, which we might call disagreement, is a legitimate offense), comes to mimic a kind of individualism by united front: "The Arab Street." "The Jihadist." Etc. These are types taken as individuals.
The way to fight back against such an historical drift toward a postmodern conception of a world defined by warring narratives vying for itinerate temporary ascendency (what is commonly called relativism, though the concept is not by nature evil) is to discredit the underlying mechanisms that allow them to form, take root, and aquire justification through intellectual means (be those means the academic acceptance and defense of the underlying premises, or the political and public policy adoption of the lessons offered by such defenses).
Britain (and other western European countries, Denmark among them) is learning firsthand the failures of such a philosophical paradigm; consequently, the Brits are left with vast swatches of London and its environs as essentially mini-autonomous countries who, though their inhabitants are granted legal claim as British subjects/citizens, are by an other measure in distressingly large numbers enemies of the state—often latent, but always potentially active. Which is wny it is no surprise that many terrorist experts fear that the next wave of terror will come from the westernized radicalism such poorly-considered social experimentation has wrought.
For its part, France has tried an ultranationalist approach—but one that has backfired because its attempts to assimilate were never more than lipservice; instead, they have created a caste system that is obvious both by the geography and the national attitude of the French in discussions of the plight of their internal problems [Mark Steyn has done interesting work on this].
So far, the US has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls facing European countries who have themselves for years relied on immigration and a folding in of former colonial subjects to keep their economies running. Part of our success, such as it is, has been the separation by ocean and distance of the immediacy and ease of immigration. But for the most part, our major success in keeping the "American" identity singularized (which is to say, "diverse" but united under its diversity) has been a commitment to assimilation—though over the past 30 or so years, the "melting pot" metaphor that was so crucial to the success of America has been doing battle with the mulitculturalist alternative of the "quilted" America, on country where balkanization is misguidedly, in my opinion, presented as a celebration of diversity rather than called what it is: a measure of dividing us up along ethnic and religious lines as a way to push identity politics and, from a cynical political perspective, to create ready-made groups to whom politicians are able to appeal.
Because let's face it: it is more difficult winning the fidelity of 280 million individuals than it is to win the fidelity of ethnic "leaders" (who bargain for promises, power, influence) and who then direct their followers how to vote. It's a form of lazy electoral outsourcing that, in this country, both parties are guilty of indulging in—though the modern conservative / libertarian movement often argue vehemently against the kernel precepts that enable it, while many progressives embrace the pragmatism of the political marketing convenience and pre-made collectivism these precepts have already prepared the groundwork for.
Longtime readers of protein wisdom will note that my own thesis is that philosophical and public policy missteps emerge from a fundamental (though popularized) misuse of the way language is "designed" to function. For more on that thesis, see, for instance, here and here.
See also Strata-sphere, Two Babes and a Brain, Hyscience, Real Clear Politics, Kathleen Parker
(h/t Terry Hastings, Kyle)
update: Brian T sends along two additional Wretchard posts worth reading.
Note: I forwarded this post along to several bloggers covering the cartoon kerfuffle; so far, I've received no responses. Which, I'm beginning to think it's time to take Tbogg's advice and just stick to the cutesy quips and staccato sentences. Not only do blog readers prefer such formulations—but I'm told, too, that the chicks really dig it.
See also, Brussels Journal (h/t Tom Pechinski)
Comments (60)
I dunno. You used some pretty long sentences there. As such, I have no choice but to conclude that you are a moron. Q.E.D.
Because let's face it: it is more difficult winning the fidelity of 280 million individuals than it is to win the fidelity of ethnic "leaders†(who bargain for promises, power, influence) and who then direct their followers how to vote. It's a form of lazy electoral outsourcing that, in this country, both parties are guilty of indulging inâ€â€though the modern conservative / libertarian movement often argue vehemently against the kernel precepts that enable it, while many progressives embrace the pragmatism of the political marketing convenience and pre-made collectivism these precepts have already prepared the groundwork for.
This is a very powerful observation which very succinctly explains why liberty must remain ever-vigilant.
And for God's sake, Jeff, keep it up. The proponents of Theory have to be made to recognize the fact of the water in which they swim. It doesn't matter how sophisticated or consistent with internal logic a new way to bundle sticks is. In the end it's still a fasces. And fascism is as fascism does because fascism does as fascism is, a la the frog and the scorpion.
It is worth noting that this is certainly not the first timean image of Mohammed has been publically displayed, nor the first time such an image has been less than flattering.
However, it may be the first time that Islamic leaders have seen such an image and had the political/propaganda savvy to play the hate card to attempt to shut it down. They are learning the leftist American game faster and better than those who invented it.
When that painting, 'Piss Christ' was completed, I didn't catch any fatwa's in the local church bulletins.
I think those jihadists just need to lighten up and quit being so supersensitive. Yesh, like a gaggle of wailing, katana waving old women; they are.
Jeez, Jeff that post is tboggdignanian., long enough to drive off the hardiest of tbogg's readers.
I, myself, will be visiting a Dane Decor this weekend and buying something woodish.
Brilliantly argued, Beck. Here, here.
Jeff's point was that collectivism turns on Positive Law [pssst: that's law you make up, as in posit], and not Natural Law of the more American creeds of individualism. To the extent that Europe embraces crazy-wack-a-do philosophy, multi-culti collectivism, they serve no greater ends but tyranny of the strongest faction, because no greater law exists.*
So blame the multi-culti idiotarians for tolerating the intolerable and for righteously marching out their puritan anti-hypocrite hordes to defend freedom of speech by severely circumscribing it.
Thanks, morons. Now please go play in traffic, and leave the West to unfuck itself from the "arch-competitive, moral-capitalist" liberal mooks who have worn out their welcome.
*Also, if no greater law than society exists to bind them, murder could be a matter of the eye o'the beholder. And slavery could be a virtue, thus treating men as property, by definition again without universal rights.
The strange thing about Islamism is that, while the other major religions don't believe (or act as if they believe) that nonbelievers are obligated to follow their tenets, Islamists evidently do believe that nonbelievers are (or ought to be) as bound by Islam as they are themselves. The strange thing about the West is that there are so many going along with this notion.
It's a curiously modern alternative to conversion at the point of the sword: as long as you're willing to act Muslim, maybe they'll let you live.
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com (Belmont Club's current location) has some interesting posts up on the subject. Wretchard isn't a laff riot like our fine host here, but he's mighty deep.
I loooove the term "crazy-wack-a-doo." Thanks, V!
TW: All eyes are on Europe.
Not to state the obvious, but the once-sacred freedom of speech—especially for pornographers and obscene gay rights parade goers—will likely be the latest leftwing sacrificial lamb on the altar of capitulation to radicalism. Only in the bizarre world of leftist politics will porn addicts and nancy boys one day join Danish grandmothers in a joint ideology.
(At least for as long as it takes for the Left to find another impossible, relativistic contradiction to rub the world's nose in. Nicely said, Vercingetorix.)
tw: A member of Hilary's Socialist Liars Party…
Thanks, morons. Now please go play in traffic, and leave the West to unfuck itself from the "arch-competitive, moral-capitalist†liberal mooks who have worn out their welcome.
…working to fuck the US even as the EU wises up. (Hey, '08 is closer than you think.)
Of course we'll soon see the moral equivalency argument that American Xtians are no better..that they, too, protest being mocked.
A conservative advocacy group accuses NBC of "hitting back" at the Christian community in an upcoming episode of "Will and Grace."
The April 13 episode will mock the crucifixion of Christ, the American Family Association said.
"Call your local NBC affiliate and ask them not to air the April 13 episode of "Will and Grace," AFA said in a message to supporters.*
But this is a no brainer—it's bullets and beheadings v letterwriting and phone calls.
It's a curiously modern alternative to conversion at the point of the sword: as long as you're willing to act Muslim, maybe they'll let you live.
No, not act Muslim, but dhimmi. If you agree to live as a serf, surrendering rights to property, dignity, self-defense, and speech, then you may live and worship for as long as the Muslim masters feel it benefits them.
…the cartoon controversy indicates the gulf between the Islamic world and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of speech and expression.
Where are all those people mocking Chimpy for saying "they hate our freedom?" Cause, you know, it looks like they really do.
…If you agree to live as a serf, surrendering rights to property, dignity, self-defense, and speech, then you may live and worship for as long as the _________ feel it benefits them….
Isn't it funny how "Democratic leadership" would also fit in this sentence so appropriately?
Well, it's really not that funny.
Yeah, I've been following it. How can you not? It's the whole Islam vs. The West fight in a nutshell. Lots of seething and threats on the Jihadi side, mostly bemused horror on the civilized (or non-barbaric) side.
The whole "no graven images" stricture has been carried way to far in Islam, IMNSHO. They're unhappy that their prophet has been pictured.
The commandment is against "graven images" of FALSE GODS, you nitpickin' twits. Get a freakin' grip.
Tough shit if you're offended. I'm offended by muzzie jihadi pricks cutting off "infidel" heads, and I think my offense has a lot more validity than some pre-civilization ban on cartoons, but that's just me. YMMV.
The odd thing is this, most newspapaers in America publish cartoons that are much more insulting to American Christians and American Soldiers every week. When Americans complain the response is simply "tough." Yet these same newspapers have been very careful to avoid this controversy or show the Danes any support at all. Why is that? Is it simply cowardice? Are they only willing to "confront" people they know won't hurt them? Or is it exactly what Jeff is pointing out. That they have twisted speech and its uses into such odd pretzels that, in their world, free speech no longer truly exists.
Sorry about all those clauses in that last sentence. Let me distill it down. "BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!!!"
Which, I'm beginning to think its time to take Tbogg's advice and just stick to the cutesy quips and staccato sentences.ÂÂ
My guess: You make "classical liberal" arguments in a language that's owned by the "radical" (i.e. institutional) side of "liberalism" (which it isn't). This doesn't work (much).
Non-neocon Republicans just don't talk like this (and when the neocons do…let's skip that), libertarian types don't pay enough attention to these softy "humanities" things (their arguments are moral-intuitive or policy-wonky (the fuckers are hopeless, seriously)), and lefties who fancy themselves liberal are offended (they'll just insult you, feminist style ("That cute little Republican thinks it's people!") or Derrida style (cf. the Foucault memorial speech he gave which consisted of 50% his saying he would never be so vile as to continue one side of an argument with a corpse, and 50% his continuing one side of an argument with a corpse (imperious territorial assholery, I'm saying))).
There's no audience for this.
That's why it's good.
(And only one of the sentences is confusing (first mention of Said).)
Hey, most of us in the Vast Right-Wing Religious Conspiracy have already decided to give the Britney/W&G thing a pass. I mean, 1) Britney, 2) you actually have to express a thought or idea to commit blasphemy, 3) W&G is so 3 years ago. It's why almost none of us got exercised about Brokeback Mtn, though some in the media tried to manufacture Christian upset. I mean, who cares? It takes a little more to épater the bougiousie these days, Hollywood!
I can honestly say that Islamic extremism is a subject I would Ted Rall would tackle with the full force of his "talent."
Just before taking a vacation in Iran, ideally.
BoZ —
You're right, re: the first Said sentence, which e was missing its second half. Fixed.
"Which, I'm beginning to think its time to take Tbogg's advice and just stick to the cutesy quips and staccato sentences. Not only do blog readers prefer such formulationsâ€â€but I'm told, too, that the chicks really dig it."
Not all blog readers.
Long sentences just had a pretty long century, but yours may be painfully necessary.
Another "see also" for ya, Jeff:
Jeeez, Jeff. You posted at 1330, and it's 1540. Some people have day jobs, and I was taking a nap.
I'm in the NyQuil phase of beating the flu, so all I can offer is this South Park episode featuring "he who shall not be seen"…
Amazing post Jeff. Cheers! (tilts back NyQuil cup)
I think that the big advantage American culture has when it comes to the war of ideas is that it is extremely assimilative of other cultural ideas that work. Americans are free to take a look at other cultural ideas (anywhere from artistic schools to whole sets of ethical values), adopt the ones that work, toss the ones that don't, and move on.
Less competative cultures (such as France) insist on cultural purity… no foreign words in the language, restrictions on foreign artistic content, etc. This keeps the culture pure, but when cultural offerings of other cultures filter through they're all the more powerful. If all you had access to was French films, you'd probably be satisfied with what you have. But when the American films show up, which have taken an influx of ideas from Chinese, Japanese, British and other artisitc schools, then the local stuff may not satisfy, and the local consumers may start to rebel.
Islam seems to be the extreme limit of cultural purity in the modern world, with many sects of Islam insisting on rigid cultural purity in many different aspects of life, and insisting on spreading that purity to others. In the short run, this gives Islam-as-culture a short-term advantage in that one can enforce uniformity across a wide group of people, and this allows leaders great control as long as viable alternatives to Islam do not stand. The Danish newspaper cartoons, like Israel, stand as a direct challenge to the self-declared superiority of Islamic culture.
Further adding to the cultural conflict is the internal conflict between strains of American culture. My observation has been that American culture is so vast that at least at the superficial level, two Americans easily may have very little in common culturally. My hobbies, interests, tastes in food and clothing, politics, spiritual beliefs, etc. may be completely different than my next door neighbor.
In my opinion, the American Intellectual Left is waging a cultural civil war by proxy, seeking to expand their own subculture while restricting American subcultures they don't like. They protest fast food chains in Europe not because of the globalization, but because they don't like fast food anywhere. If it was American-vegan restraunts being torched, they'd be up in arms. 'Anti-Americanism' is, to some degree, a product of American culture. They dislike assimilation because it doesn't produce enough liberals.
Civilis, you give me hope:
Islam seems to be the extreme limit of cultural purity in the modern world, with many sects of Islam insisting on rigid cultural purity in many different aspects of life, and insisting on spreading that purity to others.
Does that sound like any Evil Empire of recent history? The roots are different, but the goal is the same: cultural purity, as you say. And we beat them with a combination of:
* overwhelmingly dominant pop culture – remember how "Coke and Levi's won the Cold War"?
* insidious infiltration of their culture – remember all those tourists who'd smuggle the aforementioned Levi's into the USSR in their luggage and sell or give them away to Soviet citizens?
* *ahem* frankly superior stuff
* and of course, demonstrable willingness to fight.
We have all of these going for us right now. Yes, yes, the pendulum can swing, a certain stripe of Muslim youth can join with a certain stripe of Muslim cleric to reject Americanism or whatever you'd care to call it as impure and actively polluting… but "[f]ully 86 percent of Iraqi households reported having satellite TV at the end of 2005," according to Karl Zinsmeister here.
TW: I won't start planning the victory ball yet, but I'm smiling.
Glad I sent this post of to some of the big sites on the right. I'd hate to see it languish while more important stories (BREAKING: LEFTY POLITICIAN CALLS RIGHTY POLITICIAN "DUNCE") are driving the political discussion.
Question: when the blogosphere begins looking like the O'Reilly Factor, is it time to bow out? Or maybe just switch to an oldies or light rock format?
Light rock, I love the Eagles…or Supertramp or whatever it was they all called themselves.
Islamic extremism. Redundant.
Short, Smart-assed Posts = Peppermint Schnapps
Long Posts = 8 course feast
I gots to have both.
TW: asked
As in: Not that anyone asked me.
* overwhelmingly dominant pop culture – remember how "Coke and Levi's won the Cold Warâ€Â?
* insidious infiltration of their culture – remember all those tourists who'd smuggle the aforementioned Levi's into the USSR in their luggage and sell or give them away to Soviet citizens?
* *ahem* frankly superior stuff
Hey, I've been advertising beer, bacon and porn drops in the mideast for some time now. Give those folks a taste of what they're missing, and the 72 virgins will lose a bit of their appeal, methinks.
Christ. I hate the fucking Eagles!
Ditto, man.
Hey, I've been advertising beer, bacon and porn drops in the mideast for some time now. Give those folks a taste of what they're missing, and the 72 virgins will lose a bit of their appeal, methinks.
There's something else I forgot to add that you reminded me of. "They" have to be able to achieve that American dream, or at least believe that its possible. This isn't a matter of zero-sum economics, but of repressive governments. They might not want beer and pork rinds specifically (I don't have a particular desire for either myself). They want a better future for their kids, be it in materiel posessions, freedoms, anything. Then someone in authority says "everything will be better if Israel dies! Go kill Israelis!" and they do.
Where the left-wing goes wrong is they spend too much time assigning blame, and when they're not doing that, they're complaining that the solution is not perfect. I'm an engineer. Perfect is impossible. You have to settle for good. As long as its better and improving, it works.
What might be best in the short run is for the people who want a better life to decide that its the mullahs and imams and petty dictators that stand in between them and a better life, and that the people are capable of overcoming that roadblock to prosperity. We may be halfway there in Iran (I hope).
I Support Denmark
In it's struggle for Freedom of Speech.
I am #425
"Which, I'm beginning to think its time to take Tbogg's advice and just stick to the cutesy quips and staccato sentences. Not only do blog readers prefer such formulationsâ€â€but I'm told, too, that the chicks really dig it.â€Â
Actually, this chick vastly prefers your intellectual and linguistic gymnastics, thank-you-very-much.
btw, there are many portraits of Muhammed in Islamic tradition, but he is depicted as a blank cut-out or his face is veiled, hiding his features.
umm…the big problenm with Islam is evolution (heh). As an ESS (evolutionarily stable strategy) it has very strong organic unity–it is hard for mutant strategies to invade. But it will happen eventually.
Consider the bad old days of the RCC–the religious guild burned heretics at the stake and put the heathen to the sword. But the strategy set of the RCC has undergone evolution–the RCC had to become more modern and flexible or become extinct. Islam will evolve also, and hopefully in time to avoid Wretchards Three Conjectures.
and, there are things we could be doing to help the evolutionary process….
Islam seems to be the extreme limit of cultural purity in the modern world, with many sects of Islam insisting on rigid cultural purity in many different aspects of life, and insisting on spreading that purity to others.
Not to quibble, but I would say that rather than cultural purity, what the Islamists seek is a virtue society. Likewise, the left also seeks a virtue society, merely predicated on a different definition of virtue. Osama doesn't see it as "freedom" for women to expose their hair; rather, it's a sin. Likewise, the left doesn't see it as "freedom" to get rich; it's a sin. It's also why both of them hate the United States, the basis of their common cause, such as it is.
Go to http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech1
to sign a petition supporting Denmark.
It's also why both of them hate the United States, the basis of their common cause, such as it is.
Now that is a meme I have written about time and time again! In the words of Robert A. Heinlein.
Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire
So far, the US has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls facing European countries.
I dunno, maybe as to Muslims, but in CA at least we have huge areas that are separate countries. And, one by one, these isolationist "communities" are failing economically as well as socially, and CA is going broke trying to fix it. It's a powder keg.
Oh, and NBC and CNN have declined to show the cartoons "out of respect" for Islam. Bow down before your new overlords!
Wonder what brave "Koran flushing story" Newsweek will do? The cartoon story is at least true.
Mr. Goldstein,
Alive! I congratulate you on presenting this masterpiece. This type of writing and thinking is the best validation for the interweb.
[t/w] dense: This work is so dense it is going to take me a few days to deconstruct it, bringing it to life over and over again.
what i really think.
after all, i usta be a barmaid.
Courtesy of the Most Gracious and Pussillant Khan of Gene Expression.
Not to quibble, but I would say that rather than cultural purity, what the Islamists seek is a virtue society. Likewise, the left also seeks a virtue society, merely predicated on a different definition of virtue.
There's no reason it can't be both at the same time. My point about Islam is that for almost everything it holds the belief that 'if it isn't part of our culture, it's crap.' The American left-wing subculture has the virtue that it is superficially mulitculural; that, at least for little things like clothing styles and food choice, it's willing to allow and even encourage diversity and experimentation.
The trap the left-wing subculture seems to have fallen into is that they have come to believe as an immutable doctrine that non-American/non-Western cultural products are automatically good merely because they are different. They have a disdain for American/Western cultural products (at least those that are not left-wing, and especially those associated with the right-wing) because they are traditional. This ignores the virtue of whether the cultural products are actually better.
and also, as a quasi-scientist myself, i am forced to at least make the token objection to you linking hyscience=junkscience.
sure, lotsa people got taken in by the schiavo effect last year, but they didn't pretend to be science blogs before and after they did it.
…is the blogverse's over-the-top mockery and satire hurting our cause with moderates?
If it is, can we still consider them moderate?
If it is, can we still consider them moderate?
well, my point is they won't be.
look…this is a standard fundamentalist tactic, inflame the populace, destroy the middle ground , and drive the moderates into the extreme camp.
this is memetic warfare.
if you look at what Calculator said, and Big Pharoah, they are muslims and they hate the way Muhammed is portrayed, but they don't advocate putting the west to the sword over it. But if you look at stuff like Dr. Rusty's fatwa contest, that might push moderates into aligning with the extreme faction.
I think, the initial cartoons were sort of healthy for Islam in general, forcing people to think, a change vector, a way for Islam to mebbe start evolving. but perhaps some of the stuff i've seen at lgf (i'm a huge fan of lgf, btw) and jawa is playing right into the hands of the fundamentalists. after all, the fundamentalists made some more offensive fake cartoons they have tried to pass off as part of the original set.
i would just like us to be more subversive in the meme wars, and more considerate of the moderates' faith. thass all.
"The economy of hatred"predicted just this back in '02. Noteworthy in that paper is the idea that leaders will fan hatred if it advances their cause, which is certainly relevant to this case.
and, i don't mean to say that the concern over the muslim world's reaction to the cartoons isn't justified in some sense.
but, umm, from my sailing lessons growing up on Lake Michigan…
Here lies the body of John O'Day
who died defending the right of way
he was right, dead right, as he sailed along
but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong
we can be filled with righteous indignation over the muslim reaction to the cartoon flap, or we can try to understand it and use it.
My point is, if a Muslim is more outraged over the cartoons than the true outrages that inspired the cartoons, I don't think they were moderate to begin with.
…this is a standard fundamentalist tactic, inflame the populace, destroy the middle ground , and drive the moderates into the extreme camp…
I understand this concern, but why must the moderates go to the extreme camp? Why not migrate away from it? And if we are going to get the reformation/enlightenment movement that Islam desperately needs, it seems to me clearly delineating the battle lines is a logical first step.
mojo had a really good point yesterday: muslims simply need to get over it. It would be really cool if every newspaper in the modern world ran those cartoons. Sometimes, when some folks get irrationally intolerant, the best thing you can do is get in their face with it. We can tell them that they're going to run every week until they give up their ridiculous 14th century illiterate goat-fucker interpretation of their otherwise great religion.
a different perspective from Dafydd ab Hugh.
i don't think the west really understands the concept of faith.
Faith is a real, living concern for moderate muslims.
Kinda like christianity was during the burning of the albigensian heretics and the War of the Roses.
like Dafydd says–
But they're not dealing with a modern, civilized religion; there aren't many "Moslem Methodists," as I noted back in September. One needn't always rush to do whatever one has the "right" to do; a bit of circumspection is often in order. In this case, shouldn't somebody ask "is this the right time and place for a war, and is a cartoon the cause under whose banner we march?"
moderate muslims shouldn't have to abrogate the principles of their faith to evolve. we put up with Jehovah Witnesses not dancing, and Mormons not drinking. Portraiture is haaram in the Qu'ran–shouldn't the moderates be allowed to practice their faith? Saying they hate the cartoons, like Big Pharoah and Calculator, is not the same as saying thay are going to kill someone over it.
B Moe, what i see here is actually that the west is pushing moderate mulims into the extremist camp. They are all lumped together with the fanatics and fundamentalists. You just did it yourself.
By attacking Islam unilaterally you fuse the moderates with extremists.
look what mojo said.
"get over it". They can't. It is part of their faith.
I'm with Nishizono – I woke up in the night in a cold sweat about the fact that I'd blogged on this subject but had forgotten to note that I don't advocate disrespecting any religion's peaceful teachings. (I'm for disrespecting the common def. of "jihad" as much as possible, but not picturing Mohammed is harmless, and a convention I think the West could and would live with, generally, if we weren't threatened with harm for breaking it. Reverse psychology…) It's the fact that some radical Muslims appear to believe that non-Muslims must also adhere to fundamentalist Islamic teachings that makes the uproar unacceptable, and is the basis for my Havarti-and-ham purchase today.
Free speech and free press are fundamental parts of our common "religion," values for which we are willing to fight and sometimes to die (pace Dafydd), so – who knows? – the Archduke might be expiring as we speak.
TW: We're sitting eye to eye and daring one another to blink.
I'm not pushing anybody anywhere, I am calling them out. I don't have time for a big post now, I will try to explain more later.
Which, I'm beginning to think its time to take Tbogg's advice and just stick to the cutesy quips and staccato sentences. Not only do blog readers prefer such formulationsâ€â€but I'm told, too, that the chicks really dig it.
Glad I sent this post of to some of the big sites on the right. I'd hate to see it languish while more important stories (BREAKING: LEFTY POLITICIAN CALLS RIGHTY POLITICIAN "DUNCE") are driving the political discussion.
Question: when the blogosphere begins looking like the O'Reilly Factor, is it time to bow out? Or maybe just switch to an oldies or light rock format?
It depends on your idea of the 'sphere, your audience and your purpose.
For example, if we imagine the 'sphere to be an endless magazine rack, the "big sites on the right" would be like Time or Newsweek—if either was conservative. It seems possible to me that such outlets have a perception of their audience and their purpose that excludes pieces that contain sentences like:
Unsurprisingly, this whole philosophical movementâ€â€insofar as it was based first on essentialism and then, once the group could be defined down that way, to the excommunication of apostates to the official narrative of the essentialist who won the internal battle over defining the official ethnic and political narrativeâ€â€was destined to end in a will to power.
Perhaps the more popular sites underestimate the intellect of their audience. Perhaps not. Perhaps they have made the judgment (consciously or not) that shorter and simpler blog posts are preferable due to the nature of the medium, i.e., reading text from a screen is more taxing than ordinary print. Perhaps they have become as fixated on the moment-to-moment gyrations of the daily news to the point that they have no time or concentration to look at the big picture of what is a war of ideas.
Perhaps these factors combine to push bloggers in the direction of effective propaganda, by which I mean the categorization of information into categories such as: (1) Why we are the good guys; (2) Why they are the bad guys; (3) What we must do now to advance, etc.
The issue then becomes one of Jeff's purpose. I like a lengthy thinkpiece, but (returning to the mag rack metaphor) I am in a distinct minority in reading journals that publish them. At law school, people are taught a form of trial advocacy based on the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" model. When the 'sphere was small and Internet usage was more rare, the audience was probably more educated and elite. As it moves to being more of a mass medium, it can be expected that the audience will be less educated and elite. Please note that I'm not condescending; I'm merely noting that most people do not know who Foucault is (or Said, etc.) let alone the perverse influence he has had on society. It's simply outside the experience of most people. For similar reasons, I would be lost at a site debating esoteric theories of quantum physics (despite the fact that it is important subject).
If Jeff wants more linkage from bigger sites, it seems likely that he would have to find a way to take sophisticated philosophical arguments and boil them down without dumbing them down. Jeff does at least two things extremely well here—the serious, philosophical pieces and the short, funny sharp pieces. What he generally does not do here (so I have no way of knowing whether he would do it well) is the middle where aspects of each could combine. I admit that doing such is not an easy task, so Jeff would have to decide whether that would make blogging too much like work.
An alternative strategy would be to promote to the bigger sites the short, funny items in the hope that people will discover the site and stick around for the deeper pieces.
Jeff knows I like his blog and have put my money where my mouth is. I like Protein Wisdom as is. My intent here is not criticize. To the contrary, I'm writing because Jeff seems a bit discouraged, so I wanted to lay out some of his options.
I see a glimmer of hope. Grand Ayatolla Ali al-Sistani has come out and stated that the Muslim community is as much to blame for any distortion of Islam's image. He seems like the only sane voice in that community at the moment, and one that they just may listen to.
Brian, that is very encouraging.
Soon it will be the tenth day of Musharrm (feb 9) the feast of Ashurra, when all devout shi'ia should make pilgrimage to Najaf, to the Shrine of the Imam. For thirty years Najaf has been closed inside Saddam's Iraq, so there is a great desire for the faithful to go to Najaf this year.
Perhaps Sayed Ali al-Sistani will have an opportunity to speak to many, many shi'ia on this issue.
"get over itâ€Â. They can't. It is part of their faith.
No. No no no no no.
My God, Nishizono, what are we talking about here? "Respect." "Heresy." "Offense." "Faith." "Jihad."
In the non-abstract world these are merely thoughts. Thoughts, bouncing around in the brains of people. They don't exist outside of anyone's skull, and to that extent they're not real.
They're just thoughts in people's minds, and anyone can change their minds. Some may choose to and some may choose not to, based on whatever other thoughts they have, but anyone can change their minds. You think you are somehow respecting them by deferring to their faith, but the truth is you are infantalizing them.
Courage for free speech is the highest form of patriotism because without it, there can be little else than the slavery of domination over ideas, ideals, and actions.
There cannot be democracy without free speech, and any attempt to harness the thoughts of the public for silence is the false but invisible imprisonment of the person.
Women and children being seen but not heard is the embrace of such false imprisonment.
Intimidation methods to prevent free speech that exist at work or at leisure is the intimidation doctrine of tyranny.
Only free speech can offset evil, or the tyrannical use of men's minds against them for particular benefit. There is no other reason to prohibit free speech than to create a climate where some are free to think and act, while others are forced to remain silent.
Without free speech, there can be no democracy.
Only free speech can separate reality from insanity.
Pingback: Blaming the "Blame the Left First" Crowd


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Grand Island Man Sentenced to 188 Months for Possession of Firearm
|U.S. Attorney's Office October 13, 2010
United States Attorney Deborah Gilg and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Grand Island Police Department and the Tri-City Drug Task Force announce the following information for the attention of the media:
Event Triggering this Release: The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, Chief United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska, sentenced Edwin Javier Chamul today to 188 months' imprisonment, five years of supervised release to follow, and a $100 special assessment following Chamul's conviction for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Chamul was arrested by the Grand Island Police Department on October 25, 2009, following an investigation of a drive-by shooting at a residence in Grand Island, Nebraska. The police found Chamul near a parked pickup truck. Inside the pickup truck the police located a .22 caliber handgun and a .22 caliber rifle with a barrel of only 12.5 inches in length.
Name of Defendant: Edwin Javier Chamul
Age: 25
City of residence: Grand Island, Nebraska
Crime(s) Charged and Potential Penalty (A CHARGE is merely an accusation and every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty): Felon in possession of a firearm, at least 15 years and possibly up to life imprisonment, at least five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and a $100 special assessment.
Specific Location of Alleged Crime: Grand Island, Nebraska
Location of Arrest: Grand Island, Nebraska
Alleged Dollar Loss/Type and Quantity of Drug:
Others Charged in Same Scheme:
Relevant Dates:
Date of Alleged Crime: October 25, 2009.
Federal Arrest Date: December 22, 2009
Date Complaint Issued:
Indictment Returned Date: December 16, 2009
Initial Appearance Date: December 22, 2009
Plea or Trial and Date(s): Chamul pled guilty on July 19, 2010
Sentencing Date: October 13, 2010
Next Court Hearing Type and Date:
Assigned Magistrate Judge: The Honorable Thomas D. Thalken
Held without Bond, or Released from Custody: He was held in federal custody since his arrest on December 22, 2009.
In Continuous Custody Since: October 25, 2009
Assigned District Court Judge: The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon
Initials of Assigned AUSA/Preparer of THIS Release: MM

subset: commoncrawl


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home | media info | archive | supplier guide | registration | jobfinder | events | about us | contact
16 August 2012
Speedy fits Masternaut in more than a thousand vehicles
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Speedy Services, the leading provider of rental equipment and support services, is to fit fleet management technology from Masternaut in 1,220 of its vehicles across the UK.
The company says its priorities are to achieve improved customer services, improved collection and delivery times and reduced fleet cost.
Speedy featured in the last issue of m.logistics, where its walk-in Speedy ePOD self-service portal for customers collecting equipment was described in our "Keeping Track" section. With the telematics development it is turning its attention to the customers to whom it delivers.
It says the Masternaut system will provide real-time visibility of fleet operations, enhancing productivity and helping it to exceed customer expectations.
Fixed asset director Alex Trigg says that Speedy "needed to be absolutely confident" that the investment would result in a measurable improvement in customer service and reliability. "Ultimately, it's our customers who will determine whether this investment has been a success."
Speedy employs 1,200 drivers at more than 320 depot locations across the UK, and uses 3,700 workers, who are called colleagues.© Ivory Square Publications Ltd


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Re: new NC power cycles many timesd_meister Sep 30, 2011 5:12 AM (in response to tx96heather)
If you've installed an SD card, remove it and try the full power cycle. The SD card becoming corrupted on mine caused the same symptoms. Press the power button on the side until the pop-up asking about shutting down comes and goes and the unit is fully off. The timing on the power off pop up can be critical and the unit doesn't truly shut down if it's not pressed in time or the touch screen isn't perfectly responsive. Press the power button after waiting at least 30 seconds until the unit starts. If your problem isn't solved, return it immediately.
Re: new NC power cycles many timestx96heather Sep 30, 2011 9:09 AM (in response to d_meister)
I don't have an SD card in there. It's done this since I took it out of the box two days ago.
I have never gotten the pop-up about powering off. This morning it just kept rebooting for 20 min, and I couldn't make it stop -- it wouldn't even turn off... just kept rebooting. I held down power, n, and volume up for 15 sec, and it flashed yellow and restored to factory defaults.
It went into the same power reboot repition again. This time, I was able to get it to power off (but still no pop-up confirming power off). And when I turned it on, it came on correctly. I'll see if it turns on okay tonight. If not, it's going to have to go back.


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Pocket Gamer: Hundreds - the new ultra-minimalist puzzle game from Semi Secret Software - is not just about blowing bubbles and counting to 100.
Every now and again, you'll come across a secret message. Maybe it's a weird riddle, a series of alien glyphs, or an encoded transmission.
We thought you might appreciate some help in trying to figure these things out.


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Respiratory System
Respiratory Diseases of Cattle
Toxic Gases in Respiratory Disease of Cattle
Nitrogen dioxide is a major component of silo gas; in people, the disease associated with exposure to NO2 is termed silo filler's disease. Exposure of cattle results in respiratory distress and necropsy findings of atypical interstitial pneumonia. Treatment is empirical and includes diuretics, corticosteroids, and antibiotics to prevent pneumonia.
Zinc oxide is produced during oxyacetylene cutting or arc welding of galvanized pipes. These activities in closed facilities in which cattle are housed may result in toxicity characterized by respiratory distress. Lesions are similar to those described for atypical interstitial pneumonia. Treatment is as described for nitrogen dioxide toxicity.
Last full review/revision March 2015 by John Campbell, DVM, DVSc


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DOHA: The outgoing Nepalese Ambassador, Dr Maya Kumari Sharma (pictured), yesterday refuted media reports that she had described Qatar as an 'open jail' for workers or spoken to journalists from the Guardian newspaper and the BBC.
The reports are fabricated, Sharma told local journalists at her residence in the West Bay area in Doha. However, she admitted that she had met a group of Nepalese journalists six months ago but maintained that the meeting was unofficial.
She claimed that the Nepalese journalists had a "political agenda" against her, recorded the conversation without her knowledge and misquoted her in their reports. "I didn't give any interview to the Guardian or the BBC. They approached me, and I discouraged any interview, but they collected information from my embassy and wrote against the embassy and me," said Sharma.
"A group of Nepalese journalists had asked for permission to come and meet me, but I told them not to come, I told them that there is no permission from the Qatar News Agency, but I don't know how they came.
"They asked me for an interview, but I refused, then they left and came back after eight days — a woman and a man. This happened six months ago."
Sharma said her conversation with the journalists was edited to misquote her. "They kept the camera without my knowledge… They were talking to me casually but they were recording the conversation. They asked if Qatar was an open jail. Then I said yes but this is in your language (words) but in my words it's Khafala, the legal system here, we should respect the Qatari law… However, after the word 'but' they cut (edited the conversation)."
Sharma admitted she had been recalled by the Nepalese government due to the controversial media reports and said she would leave Doha on Sunday.
Around 400,000 Nepalese workers are in Qatar, mostly employed in the construction sector.
Asked if the controversy about Nepalese workers would stop more workers from Nepal coming here, Sharma, after a pause, said: "No, I don't think the Nepalese government will make such a decision."
However, she claimed that Nepalese workers here faced several problems, and said, "189 have died, a majority of them due to cardiovascular arrest, and 16 committed suicide last year, and it's a serious issue".
She said the issue had been taken up with H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.
"When I went to Wajba Palace for Eid, I spoke about the problems with Her Highness Sheikha Moza. I told her that so many Nepalese workers had died due to climatic conditions and workers cannot explain themselves to doctors as they cannot speak Arabic. Sheikha Moza listened to me seriously and asked me to come to her office, but I couldn't meet her as she was busy with foreign visits," said Sharma.
The ambassador stressed that relations between Qatar and Nepal were strong and Qatar had been providing a large number of opportunities for Nepalese workers.


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Jan. 6, 2010
California Head Coach Mike Montgomery
On the offensive struggles
I don't know what you want to call it. We were not very good. We didn't have any energy. They outhustled us to every loose ball, and they out-rebounded us significantly. I made a mistake. Nikola Dragovic was shooting 20 percent from three, and we tried to step off and he hit some threes. We didn't do a very good job rotating on that and that kept them alive for awhile. We just could not get anything going in terms of defensive stops, cleanly rebounding the ball, getting out on the break and getting some easy stuff. So we constantly had to play against the half court. We had a very difficult time moving the ball against the zone. We've got to solve that somehow. We're going to have to move some people in different spots so that the ball is moving a little quicker. Every time we tried to run something we put the ball down on the floor and tried to make a play individually. We went two of 17 for three, which is very uncharacteristic for us. Despite all that, we have a stop at the end and we're up one and the ball is right there, but we try to dribble it out instead of just grab it, and it falls right into (Michael) Roll's hands and he makes the shot. It's really disappointing. Sometimes I don't understand how we cannot treat a UCLA game as a big, big game in terms of coming out full of fire. We didn't seem to have that.
All and all, it's going to be something that will really hurt us in terms of the way that we came out and approached this game. It seemed pretty dead and we couldn't get the crowd going and rightly so, there wasn't much to get excited about.
On the bench
We challenged them off the bench, but you can't blame any of the guys off the bench for not coming in and trying to give us that energy. We challenged them in term of picking up Jorge's slack. I can't blame them. They came in and actually did a pretty good job. We just didn't get a real good performance from our starters.
On the aggressiveness
We never got into a one-on-one in the second half. That tells you something about your aggressiveness. You're settling for jump shots, you're not getting to the glass and you're not aggressive enough. In some respects we should have been up by 15 or 18 in the first half if we had done anything. We let them get in the second half and didn't do a very good job of getting to Roll. We got caught on some screens. We talked about getting through them.
UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland
On the game:
I think it's a great shooting gym, but it's not a great shooting gym from the foul line; only from three. I'm just really happy for our players. I thought (Tyler) Honeycutt's play on the boards was really big for us today. He did a great job for us there.
On the game-winning shot:
Honestly, at the end of the game on the last play, we were lucky. The bounce went our way. I'm just really happy for our guys. It was a big win for us, obviously, to win on the road against a very good team, which I think Cal is. We showed some resiliency and we showed some toughness not to give in. This is a huge win for us. As disappointing and as down as our last game was, I thought we showed some good bounce-back to come out here and win on the road against a very well-coached team.
On the offense:
We had good shots early in this game. I thought we did a better job with our shot selection, we just weren't making them.
On Jerome and Patrick:
I think they both (Jerome Randle & Patrick Christopher) are outstanding NBA prospects. The guy who really killed us today was (Theo) Robertson. He was fantastic. He's always played well against us. He seems to have our number.
UCLA Guard Michael Roll
On the game-winning shot:
We didn't get the ball on the first play and they made a good play. Then we got the ball up to Jeremy for a ball screen up top and Reed was open. He looked for Reed up top and the ball bounced around and Randle touched it and he bobbled it and I turned and shot it and it went in.


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BollywoodNewsWorld.com, Mr Perfectionist Aamir Khan is known for making family entertainers a la "Lagaan" and "Taare Zameen Par". The actor has, however, gone in for an image change this time with the bold "Delhi Belly" that releases this Friday alongside Amitabh Bachchan's "Bbuddah…Hoga Teraa Baap".
The film, made at a budget of approximately Rs.30 crore, is jointly produced and distributed by Aamir Khan Productions and UTV Motion Pictures and stars his nephew Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor in prominent roles. It is directed by Abhiney Deo, who previously helmed "Game".
"Delhi Belly" is about three best friends, Tashi Malhotra (Imran), Nitin Malhotra (Kunal) and Arup (Vir Das), who are not only flatmates but also partners in crime.
Tashi is about to get married in a month, but he still doesn't know if his fiancee is "The One" for him. On the other hand, Arup can't decide whom he wants to kill first – his girlfriend who has just dumped him or his annoying boss. And foodie Nitin doesn't know that eating a delicious tandoori chicken off a street vendor will give him the worst nightmare of his life.
All three are on the hit list of one of the world's most dangerous crime syndicates. How they escape the troubles of their life is what the film is all about.
According to Aamir, "Delhi Belly" will "destroy the image created in 10 years" as it is laden with explicit language and bold scenes.
The film was earlier supposed to star Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor, but the actor opted out and it went to Imran. Despite being a family member, Imran had to go through four screen tests before bagging this role.
Both Aamir and Imran have always maintained that the content of the film is for adults and not for kids – Aamir is, however, adamant that the film doesn't have any skin show. The film has been cleared by the Censor Board with an 'A' certificate without any cuts. Imran is also said to have done the boldest ever lovemaking scene in the film. Director Abhiney admits that the film is primarily for the urban class as it is 80 percent in English and 20 percent in Hindi.
Composer Ram Sampath has experimented with the music of the film and unusual lyrics, of which the song "Bhaag D.K. Bose" has become hugely popular among youngsters.
"Bhaag D.K. Bose" created a stir after it was revealed that the name becomes an obscene Hindi slang if sung in a loop.
After Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, Aamir is the latest to join the item song brigade with "I love you, like I hate you". The actor calls it a warning to actresses Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone. In the song Aamir pays a tribute to the disco era of Indian cinema of the 1980s.
Although the film releases with "Bbuddah…Hoga Teraa Baap", Aamir is unfazed and says he wishes that the megastar's film is doubly successful.


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Cyprus Holidays for 2012: Limassol, The Festival City
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Things unseen
Which is less likely: life after death or life after the Big Bang?
The NCAA basketball tournament ended on April 2 with a hardly surprising result: Players from No. 1 seed Duke cut down the net in the now-traditional victory celebration, with each player keeping a strand or two. I was cheering for No. 15 seed Hampton (the college that educated Booker T. Washington 130 years ago) to go all the way, but that's something for fantasy films.
Is the Resurrection that many of us will celebrate on Sunday a fantasy? It's a surprising occurrence, sure, but other events are far more improbable. To name a few: that an orderly universe exists at all, that earth is a place where life can exist, that complex organs such as eyes would emerge.
From a materialist perspective, the odds against our being here are enormous. John Blanchard's Does God Believe in Atheists? provides some of the numbers: He notes that Roger Penrose, who helped to develop Black Hole theories, estimated as one in one hundred billion to the 123rd power the odds of a Big Bang producing by accident an orderly universe as opposed to chaos.
Big Bang theorists argue that the universe one second after its purported start had to expand at a rate rapid enough to keep in check the gravitational attraction of galaxies. Stephen Hawking has noted that if the rate of expansion had been smaller by an infinitesimal amount, the universe would have collapsed.
Mr. Blanchard quotes useful analogies about the likelihood of the universe allowing for the existence of life: hitting a target an inch wide on the other side of the observable universe, or expecting a pole vaulter's pole to remain standing, poised on its tip, for centuries following his vault.
Of course, even if the universe by chance came out right for human purposes, we would need a livable home in space. Earth's size, distance from the sun, and rotational speed had to be just right. We need the air above not only for breathing but to protect us from cosmic rays and meteorites. We need light (but not much ultraviolet), heat (but not too much), and so on.
Does Christ's resurrection seem incredible? What about the origin of life? A chance of one out of 1,000,000,000,000,000 is considered a virtual impossibility, but when DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick calculated the possibility of a simple protein sequence of 200 amino-acids (much simpler than a DNA molecule) originating spontaneously, his figure was 10 with 260 zeroes after it.
Those who remember one past fad will appreciate British scientist Fred Hoyle's view of the odds against evolved life. "Anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the Rubik cube," he wrote, "will concede the near impossibility of a solution being obtained by a blind person moving the cube faces at random. Now imagine 10 to the fiftieth blind persons (standing shoulder to shoulder, these would more than fill our entire planetary system) each with a scrambled Rubik cube ... simultaneously arriving at the solved form."
Mr. Hoyle's best-known analogy has a tornado in a junkyard taking all the pieces of metal lying there and turning them into a Boeing 747. It would be amazing but possible for two pieces to be naturally welded together, and then two pieces more in a later whirlwind, but production of even a simple organic molecule would require all of the pieces to come together at one time.
Three decades ago Frank Salisbury of Utah State described the odds this way: Imagine one hundred million trillion planets, each with an ocean with lots of DNA fragments that reproduce one million times per second, with a mutation occurring each time. In four billion years it would still take trillions of universes to produce a single gene-if they got lucky.
During these recent decades, however, the odds have not inhibited the true believers in evolution-or are they true believers in avoiding at all costs the alternative? The late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov acknowledged that he did not "have the information to prove that God doesn't exist," but "emotionally, I'm an atheist." Aldous Huxley wrote of the philosopher trying "to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do.... We don't know because we don't want to know."
Do we want to know whether Christ rose from the dead? God provides the grace to believe in that, but note: Such belief requires less faith in things unseen than believing in atheistic macroevolution. Resurrection is an easy task for a God who created the entire world out of nothing. But believing in time-plus-chance explanations is like believing that the now-scattered strands of the championship basketball net will suddenly fly together and form a pristine net for the next tournament.
So, congratulations to NCAA champion Duke, but cheer the ascent of the King. He is risen, indeed.


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Processing Time - Orders typically ship in 2-5 business days. Transit via UPS Ground can take up to 6 business days. Braided and custom-made products may take 2 to 3 weeks for delivery.
Free Shipping to Contiguous United States - We do not ship to Alaska, Hawaii or the Caribbean Islands at this time.
Oversized items - Orders that ship freight may take up to 2 weeks from shipment date to be delivered. You will be contacted by the trucking company to schedule a delivery appointment.
Shipping to Canada - Orders shipping to Canada will be subject to a 15% shipping surcharge fee. The shipping surcharge does not cover duties, customs, taxes or brokerage fees which may be charged to you by the shipping courier at time of delivery. At this time we are not shipping to Yukon and the Northwest Territories in Canada.
- Style Number: D200AFGD38A
- Collection: Spectrum
- Material: 100% Wool
- Weave: Hand Tufted
- Styles: Contemporary Rugs
- Origin: India
- Returns: Returns Accepted Within 14 Days of Delivery.
Vacuum regularly as new wool rugs can shed yarn fibers for up to three months. Avoid direct and continuous exposure to sunlight. Do not pull loose ends, clip them with scissors to remove. Clean liquid spills immediately by blotting with cloth or sponge. For hard to remove stains, professional rug cleaning is recommended.
I have had this rug for under a week and it already looks worn. Not only does it shed horribly, but there are so many loose ends of yarn sticking out that I am having to take scissorso and cut them off. It has the appearance of a linted carpet. Not happy at all with this one and regret.RECOMMENDED: No.
Looks and feels great! For this price - it is an awesome pick!!!RECOMMENDED: Yes!
The rug is beautiful. I thought the background color was ivory, but it turns out it's gray. The big issue I've had is the "shedding".RECOMMENDED: Yes!
Out of 4 reviews
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NEN Man Denies Videotape Incidents
DAKOTA CITY (AP) - A 52-year-old Dakota City man is denying allegations that he videotaped female co-workers as they changed in a northeast Nebraska company locker room. Investigators say Larry Wolf's computer had dozens of video clips from the women's locker room at Solbar, a soy protein production company in South Sioux City.
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Separate but equal?
Interview | Islam expert Patrick Sookhdeo on efforts to radicalize Muslims in the West
Patrick Sookhdeo grew up in a Muslim family in Guyana (South America) but converted to Christianity in the United Kingdom. He directs the Barnabas Fund, which helps persecuted Christians around the world, and advises NATO and the British military on Islamic terrorism.
WORLD: A controversy has been brewing in Minneapolis-St. Paul over an attempt to get the government to enforce a Muslim American Society fatwa against taxi drivers transporting passengers who carry alcohol. Are there other such cases of the MAS or similar groups trying to impose Islamic rulings in the United States?
SOOKHDEO: Such incidents occur repeatedly in the UK, where one accommodation of Islamic law has followed another. That is not yet the case in the United States for the most part because the Muslim population is small, diverse, and rather spread out. But as the Muslim population grows, several elements are working for its radicalization. Within the United States, groups like the Muslim American Society (MAS), The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and others are working to advance Islam and to establish their own positions as religious authorities.
They are testing the limits of the larger non-Muslim community and its laws to see how much accommodation it will allow to Islamic law. There are examples of this across the United States, from the Girl Scouts to local school districts, community centers and public swimming pools, and governmental rules. And as we've learned in the UK and across parts of Europe, if autonomy is gained in one sphere, its hold is consolidated. Later, it will be extended and further concessions will be demanded.
WORLD: So a minor matter like a Minneapolis taxi driver requirement can be the beginning of a slippery slope toward a separate system of Shariah law?
SOOKHDEO: I think it can be considered as the beginning of a slippery slope. In the UK early demands were for the provision of halal food in schools and prisons, chaplains for hospitals, prisons, and the military, permission for female police officers to wear the hijab. Recently a demand was raised for the state recognizing Shariah family law. So obviously the stakes are raised ever higher.
WORLD: Is a Muslim woman not being allowed to wear a veil the same thing as a Christian not being allowed to wear a cross, or a Sikh a turban?
SOOKHDEO: In general, the veil is different to the other two symbols. While all can be seen as an identity marker, the veil is a much more radical statement of isolation and separation, as it hides the identity (face) of its wearer. It is important to note how far the debate has moved, and how the symbols of veiling have changed. For example, a recent article from the Arabic press implied that wearing the hijab was the minimum requirement for modesty, and the niqab (a veil covering the entirety of a woman's face except for her eyes) was normal. Not too long ago the hijab was little seen in most of the Muslim community, and it made for a dramatic symbol.
It is worth noting that the principle of religious freedom being advocated for by Muslims in Western societies who demand the right for women to wear the niqab or other veil is very often not extended to women within Muslim communities who do not prefer to be veiled. These women are often shunned and ridiculed within their own communities.
WORLD: Should Muslim women be able to have ID photos for driver's licenses with their faces covered?
SOOKHDEO: Photo IDs for driver's licenses, identification cards, and passports are meant, of course, to identify the individual. Without a representation of someone's face it is largely useless. Further, it would undoubtedly require something more intrusive in its place: a retinal scan, fingerprint, or even an implanted chip. By every measure of privacy and desire to keep governmental obtrusiveness to a minimum, such options are worse.
WORLD: What should integration for Muslim immigrant communities in the West look like?
SOOKHDEO: There would be equal rights and duties for Muslim individuals as citizens, but no special privileges for the Muslim community as compared with other religious communities.


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The Naveen Jindal School of Management
Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Marketing (pmo140417)
The Naveen Jindal School of Management is recruiting to fill a tenure-track assistant professor faculty position in the marketing program. Applicants must either have a PhD degree or must be in the process of getting a PhD degree in marketing or economics or equivalent, and demonstrate a record of scholarly research. A research orientation of quantitative and/or empirical approaches is desirable.
Review of applicant material will commence immediately and continue until the positions are filled or the search closed. Appointments will be effective September 1, 2015. Indication of sex and ethnicity for affirmative action statistical purposes is requested as part of the application but not required.
Curriculum vitae (educational history, teaching, research and other pertinent work experience, list of publications and presentations), and the names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references should be submitted via the ONLINE APPLICATION FORM available below.
Posted on: Apr 17, 2014
Apply Now: Online Application
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If you do not receive the email (or need to recover lost instructions), please return to this page and resubmit your email address. Don't worry about creating multiple applications; the system will keep everything straight.
For help with the electronic application process, please don't hesitate to contact the Provost's Technology Group help line email@example.com or call us at +1.972.883.6969.


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Hello Kitty Tote Bag: Black Quilt
Item # 77475-201206
Store your essentials in this stylish black quilt Hello Kitty Tote Bag. This purse features... more details
Store your essentials in this stylish black quilt Hello Kitty Tote Bag. This purse features Hello Kitty's face sewn in among a quilted pattern design for a chic look.
- 12.5"H x 18.5"W x 4"D
- Quilted PVC leather with printed polyester lining
- Inside: 2 pockets and 1 zipper pocket
- This product is not machine washable. Wipe clean with damp cloth and air dry
Please review our terms of use for posting.
Displaying 1-2 of 2
Fantastic Bag
Plenty of room, very well made, durable. Lots of cute details in the hardware w/ bows and Hello Kitty zipper and braided handles. Sophisticated yet youthful! Must have for a busy on the go person.
big , lots of room, detailed, very nice , and love the handles


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I really like the Ultra Light, Big game bags by Caribou. They might be a bit more in cost than some of the other bags out there but they are awesome. They really clean up well and are like new when you are done and ready for your next hunt.
Here is a write up also as well on bag comparison on their site as well and also the tip on citric acid and such for game care.


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אנחנו בפייסבוק
Turkey's highest court ruled to lift twitter ban because it violates freedom of speech after Turkish PM blocked access to it,
News Agencies
Published: 04.03.14, 22:07 / Israel News
News Agencies
ANKARA -- Turkey's government lifted its ban on Twitter on Thursday -- a day after the country's highest court ruled that the block was a violation of freedom and must be restored.
Turkey blocked access to the social media website two weeks ago after some users suggested the government was corrupt. Prime Minister vowed to "rip out the roots" of Twitter for allowing the postings.
Related stories:
The government also blocked access to YouTube following the leak of an audio recording of a high-level security meeting discussing a possible intervention in Syria. The moves sparked international criticism and the ban was challenged in several Turkish courts. The Constitution Court ruled against the Twitter ban on Wednesday.
However, the high court decision was limited to Twitter. Access to YouTube remained blocked.
The leaks were posted on Twitter and YouTube in the run up to local elections on March 30, which gave Erdogan's ruling party a decisive victory.
Twitter welcomed the lifting of the ban and European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes tweeted that unblocking YouTube was a "good move for free speech."
Other European countries such as Sweden and Germany have also criticized the ban saying it is a serious violation of freedom of speech.
"What we are hearing from Turkey does not comply with what we in Germany understand as free communication," said Merkel's spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz. "It doesn't fit with our idea of freedom of expression to forbid or block any form of communication."
Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt even went as far as calling the ban "stupid". Bildt an avid twitter user said the ban "isn't working and also backfiring heavily."
Though the court's ruling was published in the Official Gazette early Thursday - a move that would normally give it immediate effect -- the government took several hours to reinstate access.
The apparent foot-dragging raised questions as to whether the government would flout the order, as it had done with a previous ruling by a lower court.
Despite the ban, many tech-savvy users, including President Abdullah Gul, had found ways to continue tweeting and posted videos on YouTube.


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NATO Missile Defense and the View from the Front Line
Kaya, Karen, Joint Force Quarterly
At the November 2010 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting in Lisbon, leaders of 28 nations gathered to chart the Alliance's future course. They identified three essential tasks for the Alliance going forward: collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security. (1) They adopted a new strategic concept that laid out the Alliance's defense doctrine and vision for the 21st century. This called for a NATO that is more agile, capable, and cost-effective and that is able to defend its members against the full range of threats.
The new strategic concept is meant to guide the Alliance during the next 10 to 15 years as it restructures its forces according to new threat perceptions. The concept assesses that the greatest threats will come from the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. It also recognizes that proliferation will be most acute in some of the world's most volatile regions. Based on this assessment, the concept foresees a significant increase in NATO's deterrence capability. One of the main tenets of that ambition is to develop a ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability to pursue NATO's core task of collective defense. The Lisbon declaration states, "We will ... develop the capability to defend our populations and territories against ballistic missile attack as a core element of our collective defense, which contributes to the indivisible security of the Alliance. BMD will be one element of a broader response to the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles." (2)
This is a significant shift. The former emphasis on protecting military units and facilities based on theater missile defense has shifted to the protection of NATO members' territories and populations based on territorial missile defense, signaling a broader, more comprehensive approach to security.
In addition to the Cold Warera threat of proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, NATO faces threats today that were not present during that era including terrorist activities, cyber attacks against communication systems, threats against energy security, and piracy activities along sea trade routes. What also makes these new threats unique is that they no longer originate with rational actors such as the Soviet Union and therefore cannot be easily deterred. They come from irrational actors--governmental or nongovernmental--who use asymmetrical tactics and are willing to die; thus, they are increasingly hard to counter. They come from actors who will not differentiate between military and civilian targets. NATO's incentive to establish missile defense systems and its shift from protecting military bases to protecting populations and full territories is meant to counter these threats.
This represents another major transformation within the Alliance's posture. The focus is shifting from deterrence by mutually assured destruction or extended deterrence to deterrence by denial. (3) The extended deterrence guarantee during the Cold War was meant to deter an attack on U.S. Allies with the message that such an attack would not be left unpunished, and would be met with nuclear weapons if necessary. In deterrence by denial, the message is that the United States and NATO will prevent an attack from reaching its target and, therefore, its political and military goal.
The Missile Defense Shield
President Ronald Reagan initially envisioned a missile defense shield project during the Cold War called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). SDI was to use space technology to protect the United States from a nuclear attack. However, this project caused a crisis between the United States and Soviet Union in the 1980s, and it was eventually abandoned due to cost and to important steps taken in nonproliferation.
During President George W. Bush's term, the project came back on the agenda, and this time protection from Iran and North Korea was the goal. …


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What is a good manual starring box for a 47 ford coupe.its a pretty tight fit with headers .some say a vega box .but it's only good for 2500 llbs or less I think.also I will be needing a steering column. What be a good donor column without paying big bucks for a for a after market one
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Stumble It!
A funny animal poem with lots of rhyming by Australian poet Graeme King - funny poems, sad poems, serious poems and romantic poems. Poems for children, nature poems and environment poems, flash poetry, fantasy poems, funny limericks and more
HULLABALOO at the
A hullabaloo
once ensued at Jerusalem zoo -
the head
keeper's son had made fun of the new kangaroo
who cried -
so a wide-eyed old owl then advised him to sue,
the damages
bill would be millions (or so said the gnu.)
A chimp with
a limp simpered in "I'm the lawyer" he said,
the silly
old billy goat judge simply nodded his head,
a dozen old
bison were chosen as jury instead,
with help
from a kelpie who claimed he was whelped in a bed!
The gavel
came down and a brown bear was really distraught,
that he'd messed with a test and deserved to be caught,
the keeper
was weeping - his cheating was beaten for naught,
a bevy of
evidence served up the verdict roo sought.
wallabies hollered hooray at the new guilty plea,
the judge
only budged with a nudge from an old manatee,
his verdict
was heard: he concurred with the smart chimpanzee,
"All beasts
must be free," he decreed, "and immediately!"
The meerkats
all cheered and then jeered at the reindeer who ran,
at the zoo
eagles flew and the pumas applauded the plan,
the jungle
had won and they'd all put one over the Man,
the monkeys
got drunk and the skunk sent a card to Tarzan.
The lions
were trying to fry up a victory feast,
as camels
and mammals came in from the south and northeast,
a speech was
unleashed by a silly old buffalo priest,
I'm guessing
his lesson was: "Never make fun of a beast!"
more of my
FUNNY POEMS here
Original pictures by Graeme King
©Kingpoetry2007 BACK to TOP
Social Bookmarking
- Please share my poetry with others


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Elvis was a very religious person and he wanted to attend Sunday services in the military chapel. However, it was decided that this was not advisable because of the that his presence would cause. The problem was that several hundred dependents of the military families who lived in the area were intense Elvis fans.
When Elvis was promoted to Specizalist 4, he was eligible to live off post. He rented a large home (called a villa) in the nearby town of Bad Nauheim. Every afternoon hordes of fans, mostly teenagers, were waiting for him when he arrived home from his duty. He usually stood in the door for a while and signed autographs.
Well, shops in nearby towns carried postcards and photographs of Elvis. They were already for sale before he arrived in Germany. Fans bought these cards and pictures of Elvis and asked him to sign them.
My young sons, Coleman and Donald, took advantage of this opportunity.
They went back and stood in line several times until they secured extra signed cards, most of which they traded at school for baseball cards, comics and other items.
One encounter I had with Elvis was certainly one to remember. My home base was in Butzbach, where I preached in my chapel and served the needs of the military and their families. I was often sent to Grafenwoht, a couple of hundred miles across Germany, for field duty with the troops in training. Grafenwoht was located in East Germany near the Czechoslovakian border. This had been Hitler's training ground for his troops.
I was billeted in the former German officers' club where Hitler's elite officers of the Luftwaffe were housed. Late one night I arrived in my Jeep after visiting soldiers in the field. My driver stopped to let me out at the entrance of the club. As I stepped out of my Jeep, unbeknownst to me, another Jeep pulled alongside.
The driver stepped out with his back to me and accidentally stepped on my foot. He jumped back, saluted me and quickly apologized. It was Elvis Presley! After a brief conversation, we went our separate ways.
Elvis was the Jeep driver for his company commander. He was well-liked by his fellow soldiers and asked for no special favors. He also declined to be assigned to special services because he felt this would be like 'show business' and not allow him to be a real soldier. Incidentally, soon after he arrived in Germany he bought a TV for the dormitory that he shared with several other men.
After my family and I moved back to the States, I was released from the Army. I moved to Memphis where I was called to be the editor of the Brotherhood Commission of the Southern Baptist Conversion.
I visited Elvis at his famous home, Graceland.
Also, I was a speaker at a youth service at Bellevue Baptist Church.
During my message I told about my encounters with Elvis in Germany, as I knew among these hundreds of young people there would be Elvis fans. At the end of the services, several teenagers came zto me asking questions about Elvis. Two young girls lingered behind to talk to me, they had a request -- they asked me to allow them to touch the foot that Elvis had stepped on.
And my wife, Sarah, had her own Elvis tale. She went almost every Saturday to a beauty parlor, Patricia's Little Sister, at McLean and Madison in Midtown. The owner had been Elvis's hairdresser. He traveled with Elvis to Las Vegas, Hollywood, New York and other places to do his hair for his shows and concerts. He told my wife about his adventures with Elvis and about meeting other famous people. One time Elvis dropped by the beauty shop and handed the owner the keys for a white, deluxe Cadillac. Sarah saw this car parked in front of the shop most of the time whenever she went to get her hair done.
Click the U.S. Army logo to go to our next page about Elvis Presley in the U.S. Army.
Elvis, The Army & Colin Powell
Photos - Elvis in the U.S. Army in colour
Rare Photos - Elvis Presley in the U.S. Army
Photos - Elvis In The U.S. Army 1958-1960
Elvis In The U.S. Army 1958-1960
Elvis, The Army & Colin Powell
3d Armored Division Co-Stars with Elvis


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Don't overlook weatherstripping
As cooler fall weather descends, homeowners should start preparing their homes for winter by checking the weatherstripping. Weatherstripping helps keep the freezing wind out, making your home more energy efficient. Weatherstripping around doors also prevents dirt and vermin from entering the home.
Over time, weatherstripping tends to become less effective, so you should check it annually and replace it when it loses flexibility. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends that property owners first detect air leaks (many leaks are easy to detect because you can feel the air entering your home) then assess ventilation needs for indoor air quality. All homes require certain amounts of fresh air. If you are worried about sealing your house too tightly, call an insulation expert who will use diagnostic tools in order to identify leaks and advise you on ventilation.
When working with a professional, it's important to ask him to help you determine the type of weatherstripping you should use. A good product should be able to withstand friction, temperature changes and UV rays, and wear and tear. Also, some types of weatherstripping are visible while others remain hidden.
Most common weatherstripping:
- Felt and open cell foam: This type of weatherstripping is considered easy to apply but generally ineffective against weather extremes and inefficient at blocking air flow.
- Flexible vinyl: Slightly more expensive, this variety holds up relatively well and resists moisture.
- Metal: Available in bronze, copper, stainless steel, and aluminum, these weatherstrippings last for years and can be matched to existing door hardware. Door sweeps can be installed at the bottom of a door and can have rubber or bristles to reduce the amount of air that can flow under the door when closed.
- Door-bottom edge: This stripping is available at most home improvement or building centers. But better quality stripping may be available in bulk quantities at reasonable prices through a commercial garage-door company.


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Travel to China on a family trip from Beijing to Hong Kong
Embark on a relaxed journey that takes in the highlights of vast, beautiful China. From the Great Wall and Shaolin's Kung Fu Masters to the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and the electric vibe of Hong Kong. Experience imperial relics, vibrant markets, a unique culture, a panda reserve and simply stunning natural playgrounds in this rapidly developing country. Incorporating great activities for adults and children alike, this trip makes for a fantastic family adventure to remember.
- Travel to China and walk through Beijing's ancient hutongs
- Be amazed by a death-defying acrobatic performance
- Wander along the Great Wall of China
- Practise Kung Fu with masters in Shaolin
- Come face to face with China's Terracotta Warriors
- Whip up Chinese cuisine in Yangshuo
- Go to a Panda research centre
Day 1-2 Beijing
Day 3 Great Wall
Day 4 Shaolin Temple
Day 5-6 Xian
Day 7 Terracotta Warriors
Day 8 Pandas
Day 9-11 Yangshuo
Day 12-14 Hong Kong
Meals11 breakfasts, 1 dinner
TransportMetro, Overnight sleeper train, Plane, Private Bus, Taxi, Train, Train (bullet), Tram
AccommodationHotel (11 nights), Overnight sleeper train (2 nights)
Included activities
- Beijing - Acrobat show
- Beijing - Forbidden City
- Beijing - Temple of Heaven Park
- Beijing - Tiananmen Square
- Great Wall - Mutianyu section
- Hong Kong - Victoria Peak & Tram
- Luoyang - Longmen Caves
- Shaolin - Kung Fu lesson
- Shaolin - Temple & Kung Fu show
- Xi'an - Terracotta Warriors
- Xi'an - Walking tour
- Yangshuo - Cooking school & market tour
- Yangshuo - Countryside bike tour
There are currently no departures for this trip.
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Important notes
Minimum age for children on this trip is 7 years old.
A discount of 5% applies on this trip to children 11 or younger at the time of travel.
Please provide Intrepid or your booking agent with a scanned copy of the personal details page from your passport at time of booking.
Trip notes
Want an in-depth insight into this trip? Your trip notes provide a detailed itinerary, visa info, how to get to your hotel, what's included - pretty much everything you need to know about this adventure and more.View trip notes


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In 2007 the future looked bleak for Ducati. With debts in excess of £30 million and with a product range that simply wasn't selling, it was quite possible that another famous Italian marque was about to go bust. And then along came the 1098
In 1995, while Carl Fogarty was ripping up the world's circuits on the 916 and winning his second WSB championship in a row, Ducati was in the shit. Ailing companies within the Castaglioni group, the then current owners, were sucking money from Ducati and a year later American venture capitalists Texas Pacific Group waded in with a load of cash and saved the day.
With fresh investment and new managers Ducati started to earn money again. Now jump forward 10 years to December 2005, only a month after the Desmosedici RR was unveiled, and the major shareholding was transferred to Italian investment company Investindustrial. With an amazing new roadbike on its way and the company back in Italian hands, from the outside everything looked rosy at Ducati.
Except that it wasn't rosy. Far from it. Ducati was going through one of its bleakest periods ever. In September 2006 they announced a loss for the year of £3.2m and worse still, an incredible debt of £32.5m. It seemed that the fat lady was warming up for a big Italian-style funeral. But then just one year later in 2007, Ducati posted its part-year results in September.
You wouldn't believe the numbers came from the same company. Instead of a £3.2m loss Ducati made a net profit of £12.2m from sales of £224.2m, up a whopping 44% on the previous year. What's more, Ducati's managers could now walk past the bank without wearing heavy disguise because from being deeply in the red the company now had £6.6m in its account. How did this incredible turn around in fortunes come about? One principal reason: the new 1098 superbike.
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