The Eternal Gaijin

As the week drags on, the reports dribble in about photography continuing is inexorable slide into illegality in the UK. It's little wonder that Mrs Gaijin is talking about packing it in an moving to Spain. I'm half willing to learn Spanish and go. Combining this sort of thing with my hair-trigger indignation will not be pretty. UK photographer chased down and detained for taking pix at fun fair - Boing Boing Bill sez "Curly, a blogger and photographer from South Shields (in NE England) was pursued by police after they received an emergency 999 call from someone who saw him taking photos in a funfair where children were present. He ended up showing his pics to a policeman in order to be allowed to leave." The original blog post is here: Sex pictures shock! « Curly’s Corner Shop, the blog! Curly taken for a ride Did I mention something about being taken for ride in my last post? Well I was, but I never imagined that a trip to the Ocean Beach Pleasure Park in South...

The surge is working so violence is up and we can't leave. If the surge had worked violence would have been reduced and we wouldn't be able to leave. The level of discourse related to violence in Iraq is pathetic. Somewhere out there, though, is Robert Pape, doing the actual stats and work showing that most of what you know about suicide bombing is wrong. Foreign Policy Watch: It's the Occupation, Stupid Writing for The Independent, Robert Fisk notes that the Iraq invasion has spawned an incredible spike in suicide attacks. Since the war began, some 1,121 Muslims have blown themselves up. "On several days," Fisk writes, "six even nine suicide bombers have exploded themselves in Iraq in a display of almost Wal-Mart availability. If life in Iraq is cheap, death is cheaper." The numbers are particularly surprising, given the history. Between 1980 and 2003, there were 'just' 315 suicide attacks by terrorist groups around the world. In the past f...

This is what needs saying more often. Time to fight security superstition | Technology | guardian.co.uk The Met's latest poster campaign urges Londoners who spot "unusual" activity to ring the police and let them know. Examples include someone taking pictures of CCTV cameras or acting out of the ordinary. After all, these are dangerous times, and we all must be vigilant. Contrast this for a moment with an earlier dangerous time: the Blitz. Bombs rained down upon London on a near-daily basis, killing, maiming and laying waste to whole neighbourhoods (one American friend recently described a trip around east London where his hosts pointed to every car park and said, "Of course, that was bombed in the Blitz" – and came away with the impression that Hitler had dropped car parks on Hackney). Back then, the government's message to the people wasn't "Take your shoes off" or "place your liquids in this bag". Instead, King George's pri...

Nothing's going to change until next January. Psychologists quit professional association over member involvement in gov't torture - Boing Boing Crooks and Liars » Bush Vetos Anti-Torture Bill, Says Torture One Of “The Most Important Tools In The War On Terror”

First, let's be really clear from the outset. I am not reflexively anti-war. I skew peace over fighting in most cases, but there is a case to be made for war. To paraphrase Gwynne Dyer , being anti-war is tacitly saying that the current global situation is the best of all possible. War can be needed to upset the apple cart and put something better in its place. That does not mean being a war monger, nor supporting the neo-con agenda and its muscular projection of American power abroad. It also doesn't mean I can't be reflexively anti- this-war. This was an unnecessary and wasteful distraction from the real issues involved in terrorism and sub-state ideological violence. So here's a run down of the useless waste during this trip down the rat hole. Foreign Policy In Focus The Iraq Quagmire U.S. military killed in Iraq: 3,973 Number of U.S. troops wounded in combat since the war began: 29,203 Iraqi Security Force deaths: 7,924 Iraqi civilians killed: Estimates range from ...