Crapitalism

Guess who's about to launch his next surefire "bestseller"?

Antony Loewenstein's new book on "Vulture Capitalism" will be launched at that well-known centre of literary excellence, the Addison Road Community Centre.

The event is sponsored by Reverse Garbage. Honestly, this is too easy...

Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state. And yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres. Mining companies pillage precious land in developing countries. Struggling nations are invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar. 

When dollars invade!

As his site history shows (in no less than 500 places), Antony is desperately attempting to make "Vulture Capitalism" a term for which he is given credit.

• If vulture capitalism could be defined at Florida Atlantic University ...

  Australia reinforces vulture capitalism on compliant Pacific island ...

  The democratic challenge faced by vulture capitalism

  Vulture capitalism shifts gear in Afghanistan

  What rampant vulture capitalism looks like in Afghanistan 

etc...

Unfortunately, just as Fetch isn't going to happen, neither is Antony's attempt. You see, the term "Vulture Capitalism" has existed in another meaning for over a decade and Antony didn't bother doing his research before he started writing. What's new?

Lucky it wasn't a cartoon...

Syrian hackers recently demonstrated that famous Islamist brand of humour and hacked The Onion.

The Onion responded, by taking the piss out of them.

DAMASCUS, SYRIA—After hacking into The Onion’s Twitter account earlier today, members of the Syrian Electronic Army confirmed that the organization simply wanted to have a little fun before soon dying at the hands of rebel forces.

Baby Boom

It has often been said there will only be peace when the Arabs love their own children more than they hate the Jews.

Here's what the Palestinian propaganda sheets ran:

Israeli medical error causes a child from Gaza to lose his four limbs

 

Al Qassam website- Gaza- Palestinian citizen from the city of Khan Younis in the  southern Gaza Strip revealed that due to a medical error committed by one of the Israeli hospitals, his child has lost his hands and feet.

Abu Ahed Farra, 37, said that their suffering has begun when his youngest son Mohammed, who was born in August 2009, started suffering from continuous diarrhea.

He said that doctors in Gaza were unable to diagnose his illness, so they moved him to an Israeli hospital, where he remained more than eight months hospitalized.

Notice how they moved him to an Israeli hospital? Can't you just feel that "apartheid"?

Oh, and here's what actually happened.

 In his short life, Palestinian toddler Mohammed al-Farra has known just one home: the yellow-painted children's ward in Israel's Tel Hashomer hospital.

Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed's hands and feet were amputated because of complications from his condition, and the 3 1/2-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned him, and the Palestinian government won't pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather."There's no care for this child in Gaza, there's no home in Gaza where he can live," said the grandfather, Hamouda al-Farra.

Read it all for an insight into the sick society which has festered in Gaza.

Concentration Lacking

A letter in today's Age:

How ironic is our award to Raoul Wallenberg while we run our own concentration camps for asylum seekers. Perhaps one day we will award a similarly brave advocate. 

Janice Florence, Preston

I'm pretty sure none of those Wallenberg saved from the concentration camps would have risked their lives trying to get into them.

I could also be mistaken but I'm fairly sure that the Jews of Nazi-occupied Hungary weren't faced with Pilates , movie nights or beauty therapy.

The Age has lost its mind.

The Anti-Clover

Love this guy:

One of the more gruesome parts of running for office is answering a constant stream of questionnaires from special interest groups that verge on push-polling. Peter Burkinshaw, a candidate for this week's British local government elections, has decided to tell it like it is.

"Would you agree that creating very high-quality cycling routes to encourage new people to cycle offers by far the best cost-benefit ratio for transport improvements that facilitate growth of the city and surrounding areas?" he was asked in a cycling survey leaked to the Guido Fawkes blog.

"You are asking for benefits paid for by other road users," came the reply. "I would prefer more car parks." A response to a question on policing read: "Cyclists are by far the most undisciplined road users. On several occasions, I have had to stop or dodge cyclists riding through red lights when crossing at pedestrian crossings. More police attention to cyclists would be useful."

A question on cycleways was met with: "This proposal amounts to theft from the people who pay to use roads and the benefit given to those who don't."

That was only warming up. Queries on specific projects were answered: "Only if cyclists pay for it," and "Again, only if you don't expect everybody else to pay for it." But the bluntest response came to a "What do you intend to do about cycling signs?" question: "Nothing."

Outstanding.

Failed Journalist Offers Tips

Antony Loewenstein helpfully offers some "Reporting tips for Murdoch’s Australian over Palestine, BDS and Gaza"

He then goes on to reprint the entire article (normally behind a paywall) adding little by way of rebuttal other than mentioning a few politicians who bought tickets and then changed their mind (probably after waking up sober). A robust Fisking this ain't.

Perhaps The Australian should offer aspiring journalist Antony some tips on what constiutes Fair Use and what is simply plagiarism.

He closes with a typically sneering reference to:

"the Israeli spokespeople who claim to be “journalists” at the Murdoch rag".

I believe the correct term is "employable".

Sit at the Back (of the class)

In today's Australian:

Oh, the irony of Tony Abbott criticising Melbourne University for allowing an Islamic event with segregated seating to take place (Campus "leaping back to dark age", 27-28/4)! 

The Catholic Church does not allow women to participate in leadership. At the last papal conclave, women would have been happy with segregated seating if they had been allowed into the room. 

Jakki Trenbath, Earlwood, NSW

In her rush to condemn Tony Abbot for his religious beliefs, perhaps she might have asked how he'd act were he invited to Friday night prayers at a mosque. Of course there would be no problem.

Oh the stupidity of a woman who couldn't tell the difference between an organised religious event held in a sacred location (the papal enclave) and a political meeting (a lecture on Islamic Jihad in Syria) held at a largely taxpayer-funded university campus. 

Suck it, Syrians. No Journos for You.

Some (ahem) 'journalists' never even travel to Israel before writing a book about it. Other journalists and 'activists' love going to Israel. Why?

Tal Dror:

I asked them once this one clichéd question that always comes to mind – "So why Israel of all places? Why not Syria? Egypt? Russia or China?" One of them put on a serious face. "Are you insane?" he asked me. "These are all extremely dangerous places!"

It's also about the beer at the end of a long day.

As Dror notes, that's why you'll have wall-to-wall coverage if an Israeli soldier smacks someone in the face. Whereas if a Syrian is merely shot in the street, nobody even notices.

Read it all.

Uncovered Meat 2013

Sheik Hilali a few years ago:

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

 "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

And of course when such a 'problem' occurs:

"and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".

This week one such judge in London demonstrates:

Three men who abducted a vulnerable 13-year-old girl from the streets of London and forced her to become their sex slave have been jailed.

His honour:

"All three of you treated her like a piece of meat and passed her about"

Mohammed Sheikh, Hamza Ali and Suran Uddin were all convicted of trafficking and sex offences.

I wonder if police were looking for a possible motive? 

Advice to Obama

After the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, President Obama had this to say:

"We still do not know who did this or why," he said from the Brady Press Briefing Room, cautioning people against jumping to conclusions. "But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this, we'll find out why they did this."

Who cares?

Enough with trying to find the 'root cause' and justify the unjustifiable. Enough!

'If only I could understand my attacker's feelings...'

Maybe Obama should also give the terrorists their own state and billions of dollars in aid money.

Good Versus Evil

Perfect.

Lefties who said we shouldn't celebrate Osama bin Laden's death as he was a human being, now dancing in the streets over Margaret Thatcher's passing.

Cracking Good Read

Antony Loewenstein on Australia's future:

Australia has a long history of romanticising the individuals who make a fortune selling our natural resources, regardless of the cost to the environment. Gina Reinhart, profiled in this stunning New Yorker piece, is part of this tradition, pushing tax-free, economic zones and advocating low wages so she makes a killing. It’s vulture capitalism on crack

It's Rinehart, as noted within the "Stunning New Yorker piece" Antony apparently didn't read.

This is not the first time Loewenstein has struggled with a woman's name.

See? Antony is not a one-trick Israel-hating pony. He can make embarrassingly basic errors about other topics as well!

Today it's "vulture capitalism on crack". Previously:

as corporations are systemically raping Papua New Guinea; it’s disaster capitalism on crack with little oversight

Antony appears to be addicted to "crack":

Christian Zionism on crack over Israel
 
The American media and race relations on crack, smoked by Rupert 

Privatisation on crack

Orwell on Crack

And of course:

Israel’s PR strategy is so shambolic and useless, one wonders if it’s been designed by a bar-mitzvah student on crack

Say what you want about crack-addicts Antony, at least they can write.