The final paragraph in the newest C Hitchens article.

That last point, however, brings me to my own closing observation. It is a moral idiot who thinks that anti-Semitism is a threat only to Jews. The history of civilization demonstrates something rather different: Judaeophobia is an unfailing prognosis of barbarism and collapse, and the states and movements that promulgate it are doomed to suicide as well as homicide, as was demonstrated by Catholic Spain as well as Nazi Germany. Today’s Iranian “Islamic republic” is a nightmare for its own citizens as well as a pestilential nuisance and menace to its neighbors. And the most depressing and wretched spectacle of the past decade, for all those who care about democracy and secularism, has been the degeneration of Palestinian Arab nationalism into the theocratic and thanatocratic hell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, where the Web site of Gaza’s ruling faction blazons an endorsement of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This obscenity is not to be explained away by glib terms like despair or occupation, as other religious fools like Jimmy Carter—who managed to meet the Hamas gangsters without mentioning their racist manifesto—would have you believe. (Is Muslim-on-Muslim massacre in Darfur or Iraq or Pakistan or Lebanon to be justified by conditions in Gaza?) Instead, this crux forces non-Zionists like me to ask whether, in spite of everything, Israel should be defended as if it were a part of the democratic West. This is a question to which Israelis themselves have not yet returned a completely convincing answer, and if they truly desire a 60^th, let alone a 70^th, birthday celebration, they had better lose no time in coming up with one.

Last night I thought about writing something about the BBC documentary series Wild China that has just started its six-episode run. But events in China have taken a catastrophic turn in the form of a very wild natural event that is reported to have resulted in the deaths of thousands.

Unlike in Burma, the Chinese authorities are known for their skill in dealing with natural disasters such as the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Sichuan province early this morning. Let’s hope that all goes well with the emergency effort, and there are no aftershocks that take further lives.

The first episode of wildlife film producer Phil Chapman’s documentary broadcast yesterday was superb, and I’m looking forward very much to the rest of the series. The dead tree edition of the Radio Times this week describes the film as “sumptuous”, and for very good reason. Chapman says that there was a lot of negotiation involved between himself and the Chinese state broadcaster, which is ever wary of foreigners. Says Chapman:

Our greatest misconception of the country is that it’s military-dominated, industrialised, trashed, with a cowed population. Well, it just isn’t like that. China’s a big, beautiful country, with amazing people, most of whom don’t give a shit about Beijing or politics. I was expecting a much more guarded, fearful society, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Once you’re in, it’s hard not to fall in love with the place.”

It sounds like the kind of place I should see for myself. What Chapman says is no doubt correct, and those of us who spend much time criticising China for its state capitalist dictatorship would do well to remember this and keep a sense of perspective. Totalitarianism is a complex beast.

I want a t-shirt made up with this image — it will enhance myself as a thing of beauty when worn.

respec - madfuckker

I am narf tired oot by all the highfalutin political activism that is blogging I am.

I want one of these to ease the strain.

Where do you buy a horse from?

Heine’s famous quotation, “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings,” has had a fresh outing in the wake of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the public burning of books by the Nazis. Today, Islamist militias in Iraq are showing that they can eclipse even the Brownshirts in brutality. They have skipped a stage. They don’t bother with destroying art - they are killing artists.

In November Seif Yehia, 23, was beheaded for singing western songs at weddings, and painter Ibraheem Sadoon was shot dead as he drove through Baghdad. In February Sunni fighters killed Waleed Dahi, 27, a young actor, while he rehearsed for a play due to open at the Jordanian National Theatre this month.

These chilling words came from a spokesman:

‘Acting, theatre and television encourage bad behaviour and irreligious attitudes. They promote customs that affect the morality of our traditional society.

I suppose beheading is a moral act then.

One of the things tyranny fears most is art. It is the anti-imperialism of the mind, expelling the totalitarian occupation force of the official ideology. Instead, it offers rational thought and human emotion - truth and beauty. It is on the front line.