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A paradigm for reading news and following events that should really become more popular. Triangulation. That grab the same story from several feeds and see what is reported and emphasized and more importantly, what is *not* reported in the story in question.
In our case we have the instance of Hakimullah Mehsud either being allegedly dead or really just doing fine. The answer depends on whether you look at the report from the CBC, or the report from English Al-Jazeera.
The CBC says:
“The militant leader’s death would be an important success for both Pakistan, which has been battling the Pakistani Taliban, and the U.S., which blames Mehsud for a recent deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.
The army’s disclosure came shortly after Pakistani state television, citing unnamed “official sources,” reported that Mehsud died in Orakzai, an area in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region where he was reportedly being treated for his injuries.
“We have these reports coming to us,” army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press. “We are investigating whether it is true or wrong.”
Versus
Al-Jazeera:
“There has been a call to a local television station and Qari Hussein, a senior commander of the Pakistani Taliban, is said to have denied reports of the death of Hakimullah Mehsud,” Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said.
“There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Hakimullah Mehsud is dead, but there is also some suspicion because there has been no video message to prove that he is alive.”
The AFP news agency reported that a senior Taliban spokesman had said that Mehsud was “alive and safe”.
Now, it is hard to evaluate who has a more accurate reports, as who has information about the sources. We have to base much of our news on the veracity of sources that we cannot easily verify.
So is the Taliban leader alive or dead? Who do you believe?
“Afghan President Hamid Karzai suffered another political setback Saturday when his country’s parliament rejected most of the candidates in his second attempt to form a cabinet.
Ten of the 17 nominees were rejected by Afghanistan’s lawmakers. The seven given parliamentary approval included Karzai’s longtime national security adviser, Zalmay Rasoul, who will be foreign minister.”
Are we even surprised anymore about how the farce we call a democracy in Afghanistan? We went to bed with the Warlords and now they want their slice of the rewards. The CIA puppet Kharzi is deadlocked between his ‘international obligations’ and the fact that he needs to punch the tickets of the miscreants that keep in power.
“As well, parliament approved a new justice minister and a new minister — a woman — charged with the Work and Social Affairs/Martyred and Disabled portfolio.”
Well, look some hand-waving and gestures of ‘equal opportunity’ to appease the Western media. The colonial government we are trying to establish in Afghanistan is not even credible right now, will this change anytime soon?
Most likely, not.
Thanks to Jake Tapper from abc’s blog Political Punch for the story.
Pat Robertson on Haiti:
“And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.
“They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the 3rd and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil.
“They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’
“True story.
“And so the Devil said, ‘Okay, it’s a deal.’
Wow, way to minimize a natural disaster. The Haitians deserved it for consorting with the devil.
Look no further for an explanation as to why Religion needs to be relegated to the dustbin of history.
Robertson’s handlers issued a ‘clarification’ later:
“[…] His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. […]”
Whoa..good save.
“Two more churches and a Catholic convent school in Malaysia have been targeted by arsonists, amid a row over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.” – reports Al Jazeera.
Yet another example of the extremes people will embrace to protect their magic men and silly books.
“Four churches in the Kuala Lumpur area have been hit by firebombs since Friday, leaving one badly damaged with its ground floor gutted, and prompting Najib Razak, the prime minister, to promise to crack down on race crime.”
All this for the horrible crime of using the word ‘Allah’. Like it has some sort of special meaning. Well, I guess it does if you are religiously deluded.
People wonder why I take such a strident anti-religious position. A good deal of my animosity springs from incidents such as this. When simply using word can get your church firebombed. This is not rational behaviour.
Human beings have trouble thinking rationally at the best of times. Religion adds fuel to ignorance and rigidity of thinking making incidents like what happened in Malaysia possible.
I have several online newspaper subscriptions but the headline from the UK’s The Independent caught my eye.
//
“Teenagers risk death in internet strangling craze”
What? Is someone target youth maliciously? A stalker, some miscreant after the children.
Hell no.
It is a a toxic meme that has apparently gone viral.
Just check out all the ‘related videos’. How absolutely bug frakking crazy do you need to be to do this sort of stupid shite? Very..and it is spreading, so says the Independent:
“The problem has been increasingly acknowledged in the United States, Canada and France but campaigners warn that Britain is turning a blind eye. The craze is spreading on the internet largely without the knowledge of adults.”
So what is going on? What is the trick?
“Known by a variety of names from funky chicken to space monkey, the “game” involves hyperventilating or squeezing the carotid artery in the neck for a few seconds to achieve a high. Constricting the artery cuts blood flow to the brain; when the pressure is released, the resulting rush of oxygen causes the high. Experts say it is most prevalent among high-achieving adolescents who do not want to get in trouble by taking drugs or drink. The practice is different to autoerotic asphyxiation because it is not done for sexual gratification.”
So choking oneself is being done because all the cool kids are doing it. *sigh* Another not so brilliant moment in the Digital Age.
“Two Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers close to the northern border of the besieged Gaza Strip.”
Al Jazeera grimly reports that another two lives have been snuffed out. In Canada our war dead are commemorated with media attention and ceremony. In Gaza, another two dead does not make headlines in the international press. the contrast and compare analysis infers much about the value of human life of us versus official enemies.
“Palestinian witnesses said that the men were collecting scrap metal when they were killed late on Saturday, but Israeli officials said they were fighters trying to launch rockets into Israel.
”]
The deaths came just days after Israel distributed leaflets warning the 1.5 million Gazans not to come within 300 metres of an internationally condemned border wall.”
How nice. It is your land, but don’t you dare tread on it.
Plus Gaza was still reeling from the recent 22 day Israeli military offensive. 1300 Palestinians dead, 13 Israelis dead.
The injustice continues.
Majority of Karzai cabinet nominees rejected
The Associated Press
Afghanistan’s parliament has dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai by rejecting 70 per cent of his nominees for a new cabinet.
The Saturday voting in which 17 of 24 nominees were turned down confronts Karzai with a severe challenge as he tries to get his second term in office into full swing.
Not really surprising, but the first comment I saw on the post was near perfect. Here it is, thank you ‘appraiser from Ontario’:
“Karzai is widely viewed within Afghanistan as an American puppet. It should be no surprise that most of his choices for cabinet have been rejected.
There should be riots in the streets over the blatant corruption and ballot-box stuffing that has ocurred. But having hundreds of thousands of NATO troops and various other U.S. friendly foreign mercenaries on Afghan soil tends to dampen dissent. The entire situation is a complete fraud, propped up by the imperial war machine that is America.”
I don’t think I could have said it better myself.
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