The Value of Friendship

I was browsing the Internet recently and I came across a video of habitual idiot Glenn Beck before he left fix...sorry....faux..nope..Fox News.

Watch the video here:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201105190035

Now the title of the video is:

Beck on Obama's Israel Speech: The President has "Betrayed our last strong ally."

So from that title I was expecting...no...hoping for at least some substantial argument from Beck. A detailed argument of why Israel is a stronger ally than the others, and why it is more valuable than the other allies. Then why Israel is the USA's last strong ally.

But then I watched the video and I was disappointed for all of ten seconds, whereupon I remembered it's Glenn Beck one of the Faux News morons and a logical argument is difficult for them even on a good day.

In the video Beck breaks down the list of allies of the USA. They are (according to him:)

Japan,
Great Britain,
France,
Germany,
Australia,
and Canada.

So his reasoning is;

Japan - Beck says they have been devastated by earthquakes and tsunami’s and perhaps they have. And he says the USA is helping them. Well that might also be true, however Japan is still very involved with the USA in terms of massive trade and no doubt the economy.

France - "Well, where they ever our allies?" Glenn Beck asks. Well loosely I guess, however one of the reasons he gives were the civil unrest incidents. Not really substantial. Sure Sarkozy might not be on best terms with Obama and the USA and neither might his opponents, however I wouldn't call that a substantial argument.

Great Britain - (My favourite one.) He says Britain has been "ravaged by socialism and political correctness" and "is on fire."
I wonder what his reasoning is to think we are being "ravaged by socialism?" And as for the political correctness, well anyone who knows about the media we have here knows that many or most of the stories about political correctness are completely exaggerated and come from the tabloids, many of which are right wing and biased.
The political correctness side is seriously exaggerated and anyone who knows anything knows that it is definitely not a reason to dismiss a nation which frankly has probably given the most as an Ally of the USA.
After all we have, as a nation, fought alongside the USA in two world wars, Korea, two Gulf wars and one in Afghanistan, not to mention many other conflicts around the world.
What do we have to do to be recognised as an equal? Or maybe we should just stop trying. Because frankly, if all that we have done is not enough then nothing ever will be. Especially in the eyes of the Americans, or maybe at least in the eyes of plebs like Glenn Beck.

“God Bless Great Britain but are we really an ally?” Beck asks. Umm, yeah we are. We are involved financially with the USA, with the markets, we have soldiers fighting in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Americans and did so in Iraq before then, and then in the Balkans before that, then Iraq again before that, and Korea before that. Really, does none that mean anything to him?

So at the end of the video he says that Australia and Canada are the only two allies that the USA has left.

Frankly if this is the attitude of Beck and people like him, and those who listen to him (whomever those poor unfortunate misguided people are) then I think it’s time we, as a country re-evaluated our “special relationship” with the USA.

MPAC and the Boycott

Whilst on my lunch break at work today I started idly browsing YouTube and somehow I came across a series of video's in which young Muslims (some or all of whom are of Palestinian origin) go into a supermarket and look for certain foods and certain products where the only available types are from Israel. These include such items as dates.
The organisation is called MPACUK, which is the "Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK." Their point is that by buying these items, people are fuelling the Israeli economy and therefore they are inadvertently supporting and funding the Israeli Defence force which commits a series of actions against Palestinians and Muslims which we often hear about in the news.

Here is the first video:





Now granted that woman shouldn't have reacted the way she did, it didn't help at all but she could have just been having a long day or a tough day, frustrated by many things. If this is true then this certainly didn't help. The last thing you want is further drama to hold you up and cause you further grief and something like this is certainly likely to provoke.

Now here are two more video's of a similar nature:









Ok so I hope you have had a chance to watch all three of those videos, now here is my opinion on this.
These people are obviously trying to make a point. They want to get the message across that people should boycott Israeli products because they believe that by buying products like dates it is fueling the Israeli economy and therefore their military actions which are often considered controversial.

They are most certainly going about this the wrong way. If they really wanted to make a point and make it heard and really bash some heads over this then they would go to the head office. They would make an amateur documentary about it where they actually try and get in contact with someone in the marketing department from those supermarkets and confronted them about it because that's where campaigning and media meets.
What they should not be doing is going into random supermarkets and stirring trouble in this way. By taking all the dates and other products from Israel off the shelves and taking them to the supermarket, to then say "oh look they are all from Israel, we don't want these" and to then just walk out doesn't do anything except inconvenience the little people who work at that branch who have no control over this whatsoever.
In at least one of those video's you see a manager being called, the manager of the store but even the branch manager wouldn't have much say over this. The most that the branch manager could do is report the incident and the objection of MPACUK to the head office but I am pretty sure that because the people from MPACUK decided to go down that route all they will get is a rather standard non-cooperative response from the head office.

What good does it do to target random branches of a supermarket? It does nothing. All it does is inconvenience the people who work there, and like you can see in the first video it inconvenience the other customers who if they are like me just want to get on and buy what they want and leave because unlike the people in that video from MPACUK, some people actually have lives and things to do. Not all of us can afford to spend time strolling into supermarkets to cause havoc and provocation in the most nonsensical fashion.

AND THEN.....then they have the audacity to claim it as a victory when they get outside. They get outside and they are smiling and congratulating themselves as if they have actually achieved something good and as if they have made their point so clearly. Also they seem to be under the distinct impression that they might have changed people's minds and maybe planted the seeds of thought on this matter into people's minds. Well I used to work in a supermarket myself and there were now and again wacky people who came in. None this wacky but still wacky, and I can guarantee you that after a few days those incidents were all but forgotten.
I'm pretty sure the people inside those stores whether they be employee's or customers had more important things to worry about so they probably forgot that incident within a few days, a week at most.

If you have read my post from a few days ago you might see I mentioned Keith Olbermann who was up until recently a political commentator on the American news channel MSNBC. He had a segment on his show called "Worst persons in the world" in which he would nominate three people because of things they had done and/or said.

Well once again if I were to have a similar segment I would nominate MPACUK, specifically the four or so people in those videos. Not because theirs was not a just cause, but because they did it in entirely the wrong fashion and in doing so they inconvenienced many people. They also made complete fools of themselves.

"You've just been MPAC'ed," what a farce.



Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtSl9L-GHlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSJRIC_rUFo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFD0HJIBo8

http://www.mpacuk.org/

Death of a terrorist

The news is that Abu Daoud, the mastermind behind the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972 has died.

During the 1972 summer Olympic games in Munich, Germany, members of the Palestinian terrorist group "Black September" entered the living quarters for the Israeli athletes in the Olympic village and took them hostage.

"By the end of the ordeal, the terrorists had killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and 1 West German police officer. Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers during a failed rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were captured, but later released by West Germany following the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa airliner. Israel responded to the massacre with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, as well as a series of airstrikes and killings of those suspected of planning the kidnappings."

And so the man who apparently organised the massacre of twelve people dies without remorse. No doubt he will be seen as a hero to some, but in my eyes he is a terrorist. Scum who used his men to launch a cowardly attack on a sporting event designed to bring nations together. To forget past woes and violence and to compete in sports.

He's scum, and he and his ilk always will be in my opinion.

Anyone thinking highly of him would be greatly mistaken. Despite the fact he said the intention was not to kill the Israeli atheletes but to use them as hostages for bartering and negotiations, the fact remains that the deaths did happen and as a result he is one of many with blood on his hands.

All I can say is, I am glad there is one less of his kind alive.



Sources:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/7871498/Abu-Daoud.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre