sign this petition

or at least check out the links:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=119389495&blogID=437257985

Whatever you think of Pat Condell, you must accept that this move by the government makes no sense at all even in the short term, selling out a large number of women for a few bloody, grubby votes in the dubious name of inclusion, multi-culturism, political correctness and fear.

I'm all for a society composed of people from different places and cultures, but I cannot sanction - even by lack of action - laws that sycophantically and systematically deny people justice deliberately and bare-facedly, all the time cowering under some excuse of anti-racism, sacrificing already vulnerable people in a shotgun approach to garnering votes.

And neither should anyone else.

Please sign the petition. I can't imagine what good it will do, but I doubt it can do any bad.

Edit: Youtube has seen fit to remove the video for unspecified reasons (breaking the user guildines, but Pat wasn't told which ones or why). You can download the video here instead. Nothing in Pat's video could possibly be offensive to anyone who wasn't deliberately choosing to be offended. The video has been taken down due to a totally warranted fear of reprisals and a completely unwarranted fear of causing offense. Stupid and cowardly.

Further edit: Youtube has reinstated the video, with the explanation:

"YouTube is a platform for expression of all kinds. Our Community Guidelines prohibit speech that promotes or encourages hatred or violence towards certain groups or individuals, and the video was flagged by our community on that basis. Upon further review of the context of Pat Condell's comments, we've reinstated it."

This is excellent news: claimed offence at some material is never sufficient grounds for censorship. Inciting violence - as stated in Youtube's explanation - is, and Pat doesn't do that in this video or any other. He doesn't pull his punches and nor should he have to. Hopefully this incident will encourage him to keep up his good work

Islamic clerics kill children

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/30/nigerian_officials_try_to_contain_measles/8384/

I can't fail to notice that the UPI's interpretation of this story as seen in their headline differs somewhat from mine.

Islamic clerics (the article is careful to add 'fundamentalist' to avoid retribution) have been urging people to boycott measles vaccinations, claiming that the programme is a plot by the west to make Muslim girls infertile. I can only assume that their reason for doing this is to create ill-feeling and paranoia against the west in order to strengthen their grip on the populace. And presumably they don't care that the immediate result is the death of (so far) 165 people.