Thoughts for 9/11

I suggest that there are fundamentally two kinds of (non state sponsored) terrorist. The first kind is exemplified by the Red Army Faction or the Red Brigades; rootless, disaffected young people with no popular support beyond the loonier fringes of academia. This kind is easily dealt with by conventional police methods.

The second kind is more common and quite different in that it has a considerable constituency and a legitimizing idea. It doesn’t matter that the idea is fanciful and not rooted in any kind of historical reality as long as it appeals to enough people. Irgun had the idea that Palestine rightfully belonged to the Jews, the IRA had Ireland, “a nation once again” and Al Quaeada has the restoration of the Caliphate.

This second kind of terrorism simply can’t be beaten by police/military means. Despite politicians’ inevitable claims that there can be no negotiation with terrorists, eventually negotiation takes place. That’s why we have a State of Israel and a Northern Ireland Assembly. Unfortunately this doesn’t usually happen without a few decades of bombings, assassinations, executions, torture and detention without trial because politicians are apparently incapable of learning from their own or others’ mistakes.


So, my message to those who think that the “War on Terrorism” can be won by escalating violence and repression is that they would do better start thinking about a political accommodation with the Islamic world and a real, viable settlement of the Palestine issue. The alternative is more attacks of the 9/11 variety and further erosion of civil rights in the vain hope of increasing security.

(no subject)

Happy birthday lilactime!!

The lemur's birthday

So yesterday we celebrated lemur_catta's xxth birthday. Most of the day was spent lazing around playing with the bengals and being generally goofy before heading out for dinner. We didn't want to go anywhere expensiveposh and dressy so we ended up at The Real Jerk (no sniggering at the back there). It was exactly what we needed. The food was excellent; oxtail and jerk pork for madame, rundown shrimp for me, both with rice and peas and coleslaw. The drinks were just as good; really good rum and ginger beer and Fuller's Porter, I don't know anywhere else in Toronto you can get Fuller's. That alone will have me going back. The music was soft reggae, the service was friendly and one of the Nomads' 1st XV was working that night and came along to say hello. All in all a rather pleasant evening.

Culinary post

Because we dined out last night, tonight was my chance to cook birthday dinner for the lemur. We had:

Thick coconut beef curry
Shrimps stirfried with chillis, garlic and basil
Spinach stirfried with chillis, garlic and bean sauce
Cucumber relish
Coconut milk lemon soup with mushrooms and fishballs
Rice
Marynissen Gewurztraminer 2000

Roll on Thailand!

This one's for glitterboy1

Today's Torygraph crossword....

Two pairs of braces (5)