There is nothing British about the BNP

See my previous essay on this odious, disgusting, racist party. Also see this site. Plus these BNP chaps think that their party is snow white (pun intended), but look at their member list. Typically low brow criminal sorts fill the party. Just some examples…

Name

Conviction

Position in the BNP

Ian Hindle

Statutory rape of a minor.

Member.

Andrew Wells

Statutory rape of a minor. Engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a minor.

Member.

Lockhart Kneen

Racially and religiously aggravated harassment. Distributing racist materials.

Ran an operation selling BNP magazines.

Martin Glasgow

Racially aggravated assault.

Chesterfield BNP fund holder.

Anthony Weeks

Racially aggravated assault.

Member (Darlington).

Andrew Kendall

Racially offensive behaviour.

Supporter.

Shaun Jones

Verbal assault.

Supporter (Wales).

Dominic Bugler

Possession of an imitation firearm. Two-year ASBO for violent and drunken behaviour. Eviction.

BNP candidate for Pelsall ward, Walsall.

Robert Bennett

Gang rape. Affray.

Oversaw BNP leafleting campaign in Oldham 2002.

Jamie Sedgewick

Racially aggravated verbal abuse of a police officer.

Member (Morden).

David Copeland

Mass murder.

Active member.

Robert Cottage

Possession of explosives. Conspiracy to cause and explosion (not proven yet).

Member and former council election candidate.

David Enderby

Assault.

BNP Councillor (Redditch).

Richard Mulhall

Four counts of benefit fraud.

BNP Council Group leader. Political agent for winning BNP candidate Adrian Marsden. The BNP won Mixenden ward at Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire in a 2003 by-election.

Robert McGlynn

Shouting racist abuse.

Activist (Swansea).

Allen Boyce

Incitement to possess explosives.

BNP supporter (former National Front Remembrance Day parade bugler).

Angela Clarke

Resisting arrest.

Former BNP councillor.

Luke Smith

Violent disorder and other violent offences.

Former BNP Burnley councillor.

Stephen Bailey

35 charges of criminal damage. 19 charges of arson.

BNP activist (Lincoln).

Roderick Rowley

Making, distributing and possessing obscene images of children.

Former BNP candidate (Coventry).

Karl Hanson

Possessing heroin and crack cocaine.

Former BNP candidate in Huddersfield.

Terry Collins

Year-long campaign of terror against Asian families in Eastbourne. Possession of bullets. Racially aggravated criminal damage.

Member (Eastbourne).

Brian Wainwright

A campaign of hate mail against a local mosque.

BNP Parliamentary candidate for Hull.

Sri Lanka and the left

And good question. I quote:

Credit to Andy Newman of Socialist Unity for stating the obvious:

Recent report of war casualties in Sri Llanka suggest that the scale of killing is now much worse than we saw in Gaza at the beginning of this year.

To which the commenter logan responds:

I was on a bus yesterday, late afternoon, going past the HofP and saw large numbers of Tamils, but no banners from the left. If this is worse than Gaza why isn’t there a mass mobilisation?

Now you see why the Gaza/Israeli/Palestinian support leaves me cold and them open to accusations to anti-Semitism? Its not just the left. No British teacher association protests, nobody from the journalists association moaning, no lawyer associations pounding the desks. Nothing. Result? Clear and open anti Semitism. The various Muslim Association protests are also the same because more Muslims are killed in Sudan and nary a peep, but that is pretty obvious and the fact that they want to stand up when others kill them and sit when their own kill their own is understandable, they are religiously driven. But nothing explains the behaviour of the British political establishment other than pure and simple Anti Semitism.

Also see the comments, fascinating to see the guys trying to defend this indefensible position.

Relationship between supervisor and graduate student

Now this is curious indeed. Having now been through several of these relationships, both on the giving and receiving end, this story made me think. First the bald facts:

A state appeals court in Minnesota, however, last month rejected a disgruntled doctoral student’s attempt to stretch the boundaries of that relationship by claiming that a faculty member had a “fiduciary” duty to her arising from their adviser-advisee relationship.

The court, overturning a lower court’s finding and $60,000 judgment against the adviser, ruled that Sharon L. Bender, an adjunct faculty member at Capella University, had not wronged Mary Swenson, a former doctoral candidate in organizational psychology there, when she reported Swenson’s alleged plagiarism to the university. Although the two had collaborated closely on Swenson’s dissertation, and even discussed the possibility of “entering into a business relationship” to carry out their mutual ideas, a faculty member, by nature of his or her position, always has “adverse interests” to those of an advisee, the court wrote.

“Given Bender’s roles as adjunct instructor at Capella and as member of the committee assigned to assess Swenson’s academic paper, Swenson should have known that Bender had an independent obligation to Capella that at least paralleled, if not superseded, her obligation to Swenson as it regards the dissertation’s subject matter,” the judges wrote. “Bender’s role prevented her from being bound to act only for Swenson’s benefit on all matters.”

Like many graduate faculty advisers, Bender worked closely with Swenson, according to the court record, serving as an independent reviewer on her dissertation committee for several years beginning in 2001. Capella being an online university, they worked entirely via the Internet and telephone, trading drafts of Swenson's dissertation by e-mail and discussing the prospect of co-writing a book or otherwise working together outside their adviser-advisee relationship.

In 2003, though, the two clashed over who deserved credit for "abstract theoretical concepts" they had discussed, the court found, with Swenson creating a company to market the concepts and Bender presenting "modified forms" of the theories on a Web site she shared with other Capella students.

When Swenson's dissertation committee (from which she had dropped Bender) gave her a failing grade, she complained to Capella that Bender had stolen her intellectual property and "sabotaged" her degree; Bender, meanwhile, accused Swenson of plagiarizing. (Capella, the Minnesota court noted, left the plagiarism charges up "to the legal process," but concluded that Bender had acted unethically by developing a personal relationship with Swenson.)

Swenson sued in state court, and a lower court judge ruled that Bender had breached a fiduciary duty that emerged because of the "professional relationship of trust and deference" between students and teachers, her obligation as a member of her dissertation committee "to assist Swenson with her thesis," and the fact the student "relied heavily on Bender's knowledge and authority" in her research and writing.

I tend to disagree. A teacher’s first responsibility is towards her student and if required, the teacher should have released her knowledge to the student. This kind of argument left a bad taste in my mouth. A teacher is like God, they are not supposed to be grubby people like this. Despite the student saying that there is a fiduciary responsibility (there might be one), there is a much higher moral duty from the teacher to the student.

Technorati Tags: universities

Now rebirth of virginity has clerical backing

Sometimes these religious types simply take my breath away. It was already pretty bizarre that women were going about putting back a flap of skin just to satisfy a moron of a man who thinks that morality is tied up in that tiny flap of skin rather than in the mind. And paying for it. And then they have a bloody scientific medical name for the operation. And then you have a silly sod cleric who says that its fine. I quote:

Grand Ayatollah Sadeq Rouhani (Qom), has issued a fatwa permitting the operation. He has also recognised a woman's subsequent marriage as legitimate. This means that among followers of Rouhani a man can no longer claim divorce on the grounds that he was duped about his wife's virginity.

What a total crock.

Muslim Women May Defy Fathers' Wishes and Go to University

This is wonderful news indeed (Thanks Larry for the tip). I quote:

Beirut, Lebanon — Muslim women should be free to pursue a higher education no matter what their fathers say, according to a fatwa recently issued by the grand mufti of Egypt, a leading authority of Sunni Islam, according to The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper.

The fatwa, which is similar to a nonbinding legal opinion, was issued last week by the mufti, Ali Gomaa. It states that Muslim women whose fathers forbid them to attend university or college may disobey their fathers as long as it is in their best interest.

“If a father wanted to prevent his daughter from seeking an education and she wanted otherwise, then she is not obliged to obey his wishes in this matter … because obeying the father is an obligation but only under the condition that no harm comes of it to the child,” according to Mr. Gomaa’s reasoning, which is derived from Islamic jurisprudence.

“The harm that befalls a girl for not receiving an education is clear and known. If she abandons her college education, then she will miss a great deal of enlightenment about her religion and about everyday knowledge,” the reasoning continued. “She will have a limited awareness of the world around her as compared to … her educated counterparts in society.”

It is not clear how far-reaching the fatwa’s influence will be, as there are no clear statistics on how many Muslim women are prevented from enrolling at a university or college by their families. However, one sign that significant barriers to higher education continue to exist for Muslim women is the fact that 42 percent of women in the Middle East and North Africa are illiterate, compared with 22 percent of men.

Even in wealthy Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates — where more women than men attend university — there remain pockets of extremely conservative families that forbid female members to pursue a higher degree.

Mr. Gomaa issued the fatwa in response to a question from the Emirati authorities about a father’s right to prevent his daughter from attending a university or college.

More publicising would be good. More education for women please :).

Technorati Tags: Women,Islam,UAE