In the World of The Blind...

I decided to "follow" a well known preacher of radical Islam on twitter. It turned out that he was too busy making appearances on TV to tweet much, so I "un-followed" him again.
It was a pointless exercise apart from flagging up my name to the intelligence services. I'm sure they have a profile of me anyway and I have nothing to worry about. They're there to protect me, right?

I considered contacting the radical Islamist to try and establish if he condoned, or condemned, the murder of Lee Rigby. I decided against it.

Despite the normal emotional reactions to the events in Woolwich, there are reasons why my sensible side urges me not to cover this in too much depth.
My self imposed rules of engagement, discourage me entering into either side of a dialectic, and it is a dialectical argument!
If I were to write about my thoughts and feelings, I could risk either arrest by the authorities, or retribution from militant Muslims. Its just not worth it. There are too many pitfalls. It's not even my battle to fight, specifically.

So ill get back into the box again, where I can barely make out the image of the world around. That's loud enough and bright enough for me to contend with. In the meantime there may be some cogitation going on which might hit the keyboard for an airing, or it might not.

Deterring The Already Dead

This article by Laurent Murawiec, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Illustrates why the fight against all kinds of religious fanaticism is impossible.
It also helps to explain why Christians believe in "taking up their cross daily", 

 

Deterrence works because one is able credibly to threaten the center of gravity of the

enemy: the threat of inflicting unacceptable losses upon him, whether in a bar brawl or in
nuclear escalation. The calculus deterrence relies upon is:

is it worth it?

 

Is the Price/Earning Ratio of the contemplated action so hugely negative that it would wipe out

the capital? Deterrence works if the price to be paid by the party to be deterred hugely
exceeds his expected earnings. But deterrence only works if the enemy is able and willing
to enter the same calculus. Read More here...


 

Abu Qatada's Bail Conditions

This is from a few days ago. How dangerous do we consider this guy to be?

I imagine that even with these conditions imposed upon him, he is happy to still be in this country and not extradited to Jordan.

 

 

 

 

Abu Qatada is being released under some of the strictest bail restrictions possible under English law.

The full conditions, published by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, are as follows:

• Electronic tagging and reporting to a monitoring company
• Fixed address
• 22-hour curfew, with permission to leave home for a maximum of one hour twice a day
• Police and others permitted to enter and search his home
• No travel ticket or papers
• Ban on leaving a small area in his neighbourhood, set out on a map that he has been given
• Banned from attending a mosque
• Banned from leading prayers, other than those in his own family
• He must not publish any statement
• Nobody can enter home other than family, his lawyers and Home Office officials or children under 14
• Any other visitor must be vetted by the Home Office
• He cannot make any arrangements to meet anyone outside the home without permission
• If he meets an acquaintance by chance, he must make his excuses and leave
• No meeting with 27 named individuals, some of whom are in prison
• No meeting with anyone who is held on the new form of control orders known as TPims (Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures)
• No mobile phone
• No internet connection
• No computer kit that can be connected to the net
• Visitors may not use a mobile in his home
• He may only have one bank account
• He may not hold any bank or credit card not connected to that account
• He may not transfer money out of the UK
• He may not help others buy, sell or obtain computer equipment
• Any educational course or training must be approved by the home secretary
• Any job must be similarly approved