Wis[s]e Words – Page 639 – Ceci N'est pas Un Blog

Quickfire round

Published on July 2, 2002Leave a comment

Kip has reprinted an excellent article on Long Story, Short Pier he wrote in 1998 about why you don’t read comics. I don’t normally link to stories on the blogs in my sidebar (hopefully y’all read them already), but I’ll make an exception for this. For people familiar with the US comics industry it won’t contain any real surprises, but it’s good to see it neatly laid out again why the industry sucks so much.

Via Eschaton comes an article about how Microsoft Word bit Blair in the butt. It seems the infamous UK dossier on Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and how Saddam’s intelligence services tried to conceal them from UN inspectors still contained the revision metadata. In other words, it’s possible to see when it was revised and who did it. Oops.

Fantasy author Jo Walton talking about Amazon’s blurb for her new book:

I wouldn’t have said myself “You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw” because in fact it’s a whole lot like Trollope. Indeed, pretty much the only difference is that all the characters are dragons and eat each other.

Not a lot of difference indeed…

Gallowglass, a blog I really should put on the blogroll already, pays some attention to noted nutcase David Icke:

Icke, for those who aren’t familiar with him, has had a roller-coaster career. He came to public attention as a professional footballer, and then sports presenter for BBC. Icke went on to become national spokesperson for the Green party but had to resign shortly after he announced that he was the Son of God (job conflicts).

The Brendan O’Neill drinking game!

Published on June 18, 2002Leave a comment

Some people you can engage constructively with, others you should just mock. It’s in this spirit Wis[s]e Words proudly presents:

The Brendan O’Neill drinking game!

Requirements: a well stocked fridge or larder with your favourite alcoholic drink and access to O’Neill’s weblog: http://www.boneill.blogspot.com/. Then take:

One sip for each time Spiked online is mentioned

One sip for each time Brendan links to an article written by his boss, Mick Hume

One sip for each time Brendan links to a Spiked online article

Two sips every time he mentions “the left” or “lefties” as one undifferated mass

Two sips every time he compares Ireland favourably to England

Down the glass if he talks about or mentions “a climate of fear” or a similar phrase as
an explenation for, well everything.

Down the glass each time he castigates the left on a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” basis.

Drink the rest of the bottle if he can manage a whole entry without doing any of the above.

Data protection, the Internet and the European Parliament

Published on May 30, 2002Leave a comment

Damn, the European Parliament has just approved an EU proposal which will make it compulsory for ISPs to log and save all internet traffic of all their users. This so it can be used by the police or other security services in case they need to backtrack a suspect’s activity on the internet. Apparantely, this is also needed for national security reasons, to prevent September 11 style attacks on the EU.

It’s hard to fully state the stupidity of this decision. Privacy, including online privacy is a great good that should not be offered on the altar of “national security”, especially since I doubt this proposal will makes us the least bit safer. Think about the amount of data that will be gathered if this new directive will be put into practise. Think how difficult it will be to find anything useful in there and the possibilities for mischief. I don’t think everybody should be treated as a criminal because it just might help capturing a real criminal.

Bruce Sterling

Published on May 29, 2002Leave a comment

I love him, as a writer that is. Always thought he was far better then that poseur, William Gibson. He is what Neal Stephenson wants to be when he grows up. Sterling’s a cool hip technodude, so of course he Has his own blog. Also has his own “megalomanic but it might just work and at least it’s interesting” project for world improvement.

All of which is just a preamble to say that I’ve just read two of his novels, Heavy Weather and Involution Ocean together with one of Tom Holt’s comedies, Wish you Were Here. Made the usual sort of comments at the usual place, do take a look.

After that, you could do worse then download his 1992 non-fiction book about what happened when the Secret Service went on a
Hacker Crackdown.

Anti-semitism?

Published on May 28, 2002Leave a comment

You may have heard of Wim Duisenberg, the first ever president of the European Central Bank. You will probably not have heard of his wife, Gretta Duisenberg. Even I hadn’t, really, apart from her being “the wife of”. However, she is more then *just* Wim Duisenberg’s wife, as she’s herself involved in political activism. The Palestinian question has her special attention, so much so she took part in the big demonstration against the Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories on April 13th this year. For this demonstration she bought a Palestinian flag and walked with it in the demo. So far, nothing serious.

Her troubles began when she hung the flag from her balcony of her house in the posh Amsterdam Rivierenbuurt. Her next door neighbours, Ron and Rosa van der Wieken did not like this, especially when it became clear she wasn’t going to take it down soon. Understandably, since those neighbours where Jewish and had family living in Israel. To them, the flag was a symbol of “a bloodthirsty regime” [1] so they complained to Gretta. She however found this to be an overreaction: “Palestinians have to look at the Israeli flag and in the barrels of Israeli tanks every single day. In the freedom of Zuid-Amsterdam you must then not be so sensitive.” [1] Since Amsterdam-Zuid was also the place where during the War many Amsterdam Jews were deported to the camps, this did understandbly not sit well with her neighbours.

Then, when Gretta Duisenberg called on the van der Wieken to talk about the case, a fierce argument started up, during which she supposedly made anti-semitic remarks. Ron van der Wieken was supposed to have said that “she was a salon bolsevik” and “was partly responsible for what happens to his children. She from her side was to have said that “rich Jews” [1]were partly responsible for the repression of the Palestinian people.

So far, I would say, and so would most sensible people I hope that both parties were ummm not at their most intelligent so to speak. They let their politics and their emotions get the better of them. It happens, *i*’ve had it happen. But of course it didn’t stay with that.

The van der Wieken were not satisfied with the outcome and complained in an article in Het Parool, the Amsterdam evening paper. This was read by H. Loonstein, the chairman of Federatief Joods Nederland, who immediately pressed charges (presumably based on article 137 of Dutch criminal law which forbids discrimination and is overtly broad in its reach. Loonstein stated that Gretta Duisenberg’s remarks were “a classic anti-semitic image“: “making rich Jews responsible for the suffering of the world” [2].

If you ask me, slightly over the top. Yes, it is an anti-semitic stereotype, but that does not mean Duisenberg was antisemitic or even made anti-semitic remarks. But the most bizarre twist is still to come. To combat this anti-semitic behaviour, what did Loonstein also do? He pressed charges with the World Jewish Congress, requesting if Wim Duisenberg could not be declared a persona non grata in the US! This is not confirming an anti-semitic stereotype? Let’s call in extralegal pressure to be sure we win? Oy gevalt.

[1] These quotes are from the NRC article ‘Dát bedoel ik met joodse lobby’ (“this is what I mean with Jewish lobby”).
[2] These quotes are from another NRC article Aangifte tegen vrouw Duisenberg (Charges pressed against wife of Duisenberg).