Where every day is red-nose day.

Treating it like what it is, people living under communism have always been either prisoners, or prisoners of the madness of the state. Romanian writer and playwright Matéi Visniec puts it in context for us is a novel published this past summer called The History of Communism as Told by Mental Patients

From the editor’s foreword:

It was Moscow in 1953, a few weeks before Stalin died, the director of the Hospital psychiatric ward invites a writer to remain among the “patients” and asks them to rewrite, at their level of understanding, both average and severe, the history of Communism and the October Revolution. He was convinced that this “therapy” could cure some of his patients. Matéi Visniec plunges us in the fuzzy universe of these psychiatric hospitals where real patients and jailed opponents of the state display their nature in their own ways. It shows us once more that whatever the circumstances, man cannot live without concepts of utopia... at the risk of sinking into horror when he tries to put the ideas into practice.

The European past meets the European present: the home truths invented out of comfort and conformity haven’t changed one bit:

In the 1960s I was still a young kid living in the USSR. The available literature led me to believe that in the United States it was an era of romantic class struggle, moral battles, and massive heroic protests against American imperialism. In the USSR we also had massive rallies against American imperialism. They were meticulously organized by the Party apparatchiks. Attendance was mandatory because nobody in the right mind would join them voluntarily.

- with thanks to Walt

Perchance to feel:

More than 600 BBC journalists led by the director general, Mark Thompson, joined vigils for kidnapped Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston across London this afternoon.

Some 500 staff left their desks at Television Centre while 100 World Service members demonstrated their support at Bush House.

Fearing for their lives, European Union monitors stationed at the Rafah Crossing that connects the Gaza Strip and Egypt have asked the defense establishment for help in drawing up escape routes from Gaza...

...The third proposal, which was accepted by the EU monitors, was to make a dash for the Gaza security fence that separates Israel from Gaza, where they would be rescued by the IDF.

"They want to know that we will help them escape if the need arises," the defense official said. "Their concerns are understandable if you take into account the large number of threats they face."

In fact the red light has always been on. neo-luddism for thee, but not for me:

Trudie Styler, wife of Sting and self-styled eco-warrior, recently took a helicopter to travel 80 miles from Wiltshire to Devon, a journey that would have taken less than two hours by train.

The father of Alan Johnston, the BBC Gaza(n) journalist who has been missing for a week made an appeal for his saying: “that’s no way to treat a friend of the Palestinian people,” using any appeal possible, but forgetting that a journalist is not supposed to befriend the subject of their reporting. The BBC announced that they suspect that it’s just an armed gang looking for some money, and finally admitting that these kidnappings are frequently undertaken by factions as a means of harming one another, which hardly sounds like a simple ransom scenario.

Around the web, other scattered points are made of this matter, but not too loudly. As unsurprised as near-east watchers are, they certainly wouldn’t want to see any harm come to Johnston, even if he did report for the same World Service that spent an hour referring to Valerie Plame simply as “Valerie,” and reported he claim that her very being was a secret, and that she was some sort of highly placed operative who simply didn’t know that it was wrong to recommend a biased spouse to a position where he could do a political hatchet job against their countrymen.

As for Johnston, the BBCeye blog takes up the BBC on their ‘cause’ quoting former PA Information Minister:

"We are opposed to the kidnapping of foreign journalists who serve the Palestinian cause."

"We are opposed to the kidnapping of foreign journalists who serve the Palestinian cause," he added.

Or if you allow me to paraphrase: Don't touch our journalists who support us.

Israel's refusal to enter into a deal with Monsieur Chiraq was probably the best Israeli decision of the whole war.

French President Jacques Chirac told Israel at the start of the war in Lebanon that France would support an Israeli assault on Syria, it was reported on Sunday.

Army Radio reported that in the message, which was delivered by Chirac to Israel via a secret channel, the French president suggested that Israel invade Damascus and topple the regime of Bashar Assad. In exchange, Chirac assured Israel full French support for the war.

According to the message delivered from Paris, Syria was responsible for the flare up in the North and encouraged Hizbullah to attack.

On the anniversary of the Madrid bombings, a jihadist cell found it germane to celebrate by threatening Germany and Austria, (yes, Austria,) with retribution for thinking unapproved thoughts, and not pulling a Zapatero: letting terrorists dictate their terms.

A message to the governments of Germany and Austria

In the name of Allah the humble by heredity and merciful, Joy to those who follow in the path of righteousness. The Caliphate channel correctly brings to you a message to the governments of Germany and Austria, the following people threaten you safety, but not by their own actions: the noble among you must remain vigilant and respect the will of the people before it acts, or acts on behalf of their allies, we ask a question: what does Germany gain from sending 2275 troops to support NATO to defend Bush’ lies? What does Germany gain from Bush’s promises? The German government lied to her people when they told them that participating with NATO troops is intended for reconstruction!

Their big lie was just a statement to get their soldiers to go to Afghanistan, and to prevent terrorist attacks in Germany!
Their first lie to get soldiers sent to Afghanistan was that they were just their for reconstruction was a lie that the whole world could see through. The German media reported more about the ways in which the soldiers were actually there more for security. The whole world saw pictures of them with skeletons and skulls.

The second lie to get your soldiers to go to Afghanistan was to say that it would prevent terrorism at home.

To that, Ayman Al-Zawahiri said: “Security is a double edged sword! If we’re safe, you’re safe. Only then is it possible for you to be safe. And when we will live in peace, it will then be possible for you to live in peace. When we’re attacked and killed, it will be definite that with Allah’s permission we will attack and kill. That is just retaliation, otherwise find understanding when you finally can understand.”

The participation of Germany in the war of the Loser States of America... [ed.: this is an un-funny play on words between Verlierer (loser) and Vereinigte (United, as in ‘United States’)] ...against Islam and Muslims will all be for nothing other than risk threats at home in Germany. Then the allies will have to set it straight after they experience the same thing their allies did, then the German troops in Badakhshan and Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan will not be safe from the Mujehedeins of Al-Queda and the Taliban.

For some time Mullah Dadu Allah has been warning that Taliban operations were underway in northern Afghanistan.
Oh, German government! Germany has a strong economy, and was until not long ago a wonderful land! Why would you want Bush and his cronies take that away? Isn’t it obvious that your economic interest worldwide is at risk? Isn’t it obvious that our Mujehedeins will conduct operations in your country? By helping America, those they call terrorists will be motivated to attack you, thus you risk you own safety.
What we propose is that you remove your soldiers from all muslim lands, and withdraw your support for Bush and his people, and then your interests will be safe.

And to Austria we say: your soldiers in Afghanistan are not much of a threat to us as you display your support for Bush and his cronies. The truth that the Austrian government has withheld from you is that these soldier were attached to NATO, even though it is a neutral country, and not part of that alliance! How can you be a neutral country, a military power, and go along with their alliance? How can one be a neutral country and support America against the muslims?

Austria was and still is one of the safest places in the world. Your people face no struggles, and their future is bright. The country relies mainly on summer and winter tourism, which brings in pleny of revenue. When world gets out that there are security threats, and Austria goes on the Mujehedein’s list of enemy states, this business will end. We blame this on the new Social Democrat government that spoke of fairness and public safety for not pulling their soldiers out of Afghanistan, and for listening to Bush in his war against all muslims. Thereby Austria has risked...

- With thanks to Liberal in Austria
for the tip-off, where you can also readily see that the
first comment to the post was “yeah, so what?”