Bartholomew's Notes

Wikileaks has published a “Strictly Private and Confidential” letter it has received from British libel specialists Carter-Ruck concerning its re-publication of newspaper articles Nadhmi Auchi. However, I wouldn’t advise linking to it or discussing it too freely; it includes the warning that Wikileaks is “incurring liability” for hyperlinking to a Pentagon Report which has been “discredited” and to an article origjnally published in the Washington Times.

Carter-Ruck warns Wikileaks that unless it removes the offending material, Auchi “reserves the right” to bring a libel action in England. In some ways it would be nice to finally have a case which establishes once and for all whether hyperlinking does indeed incur liability, or whether an English High Court judge can grasp the technical pointlessness of such a restriction (except when a url itself contains a libellous statement). It would also be a good chance for the USA to showcase its new legal protections for US-based writers and publishers facing British libel actions.

Meanwhile, calls for libel law reform in the UK are getting louder, despite my pessimism of just a few days ago; today there was an adjournment debate in the House of Commons. Liberal Conspiracy reports:

The debate was initiated by Labour MP Denis MacShane, with support from Lib Dem Norman Lamb and Tory Michael Gove, (Gove is, of course, still a working journalist for the Times, and Denis MacShane is a former officer of the National Union of Journalists who regularly writes in the national media.

MacShane expressed his concern over libel tourism, which he described as ‘an international scandal which shames Britain’. He also proposed a ‘small claims court’ system for libel which would limit the amounts of fees totted up by lawyers in defamation cases, saying ‘the object [of defamation proceedings] is to gain correction and an apology, not to create a racket for lawyers’.

The idea of libel being settled as a “small claim” is one that I have strongly advocated. Another crucial reform, it seems to me, is to introduce a “public figure” distinction, as exists in the USA. This would include the sub-definition of “limited-purpose public figure”, who

is one who (a) voluntarily participates in a discussion about a public controversy, and (b) has access to the media to get his or her own view across.

That’s important for investigating the backgrounds of those involved in politics and political activism; it is unacceptable that someone who shoots off in a public debate on a subject can suppress discussion of controversial politically-related events in their past, as has happened more than once in the UK over the last couple of years.

Hopefully someone will raise these issues at the up-coming English PEN and Index on Censorship public inquiry into libel legislation.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From the New York Times:

Is it libelous to falsely report that someone is not circumcised?

That question is at the heart of an unusual lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Brooklyn recently against Centropa, the Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation, an oral-history project, based in Vienna and Budapest, that focuses on Jewish life and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the lawsuit, John F. Singer, 49, of Queens, claims that Centropa published an online interview in 2005 that quoted his mother saying that neither of her sons had been circumcised as infants. Mr. Singer asserts that he told the center’s director, Edward Serotta, that he was, in fact, circumcised as an infant, and that Mr. Serotta approved the publication of the article containing the incorrect claim anyway.

A footnote in Leonard B. Glick’s 2005 Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America gives some background as to why Singer might feel cut up about this (p. 292-3):

In an analysis of talmudic regulations pertaining to men with damaged or incomplete genitals (called tumtum), [David] Kraemer in [Reading the Rabbis, p. 123]…shows that, in the minds of the rabbis, “the uncircumcised male, like the tumtum, is a person of ambiguous sexual identity…One who is uncircumcised is not only not fully Jewish but also not fully male…the uncircumcised Jewish male is not only barely a Jew – he is also, from the Jewish perspective, barely a male”.

In nineteenth-century America, Rabbi Abraham Rice ruled that (p. 143):

Such a boy or man was to be regarded as an alien…He could not be counted in the quorum of ten men (minyan) required for public prayer, and he and his neglectful parents were to be regarded as apostates with no share in “the world to come.” Only a hemophiliac whose two brothers had died after circumcision could be excused.

Contemporary physicians added the supposed detail that “pathological impulses originating in a long ‘irritable’ prepuce could travel everywhere from feet to brain” (p. 161).

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Despite the recent exposé of children suffering in Africa due to witchcraft accusations and the subsequent outrage, there are still some true believers. One has just left a comment, suggesting that even I might be a witch. Over to Idongesit Elijah Okpombor (links added):

Yes Richard. I have read your reply to my mail some time ago. Well richard, some adults do prompt children to confess witchcraft, but not the child I told you about. She was not prompted to do so. The mother was tested and confirmed to be HIV positive alongside other ailments. When she was not responding to treatment, they decided to yield to the conditions the little girl gave and the woman came up alive. Now, Richard, I’m not writing this to convince you that children can be witches. I do not need to convince you for it to be true. Your not believing it does not change anything.

Something else you should know is that, children do not learn witchcraft. it is a possession in the spirit that a child contracts in many different ways, the most rampant being from edible products. You may not agree with any of these. At least, I know that the environment you find yourself has made you extremely ignorant of this.

Well, you say there are no child witches in the UK, Japan, etc. Richard, there are. That you’ve not heard of any yet, as rampant as it is in Africa, does not deny their existence. And You know something, witches always try to get people to believe that they do not exist, so they can perpetuate their secret wicked acts. And the way you sound, are you sure you aren’t one?

Filed under: Uncategorized | 26 Comments »

Those of us who have looked across the Atlantic for a beacon of hope against oppressive UK libel laws will be disurbed by a new case. The Institute for Justice reports (links added):

In perhaps the most striking example of a disturbing national trend, Dallas developer H. Walker Royall has launched a lawsuit spree to silence any media or public affairs commentator who dares expose his [alleged] attempted abuse of eminent domain.  Similar suits have been filed in Tennessee, Missouri and elsewhere by developers and governments looking to silence critics of eminent domain for private gain.  

Royall worked with the city of Freeport, Texas, to try to condemn a generations-old shrimp business owned by the Gore family to make way for a luxury marina.  The project became the subject of the book, Bulldozed: “Kelo,” Eminent Domain, and the American Lust for Land, authored by veteran legal journalist Carla Main…After journalist Main wrote her book exposing the [alleged] Freeport land grab, Royall sued her as well as her publisher, Encounter Books, for defamation.  He even sued nationally renowned Law Professor Richard Epstein who wrote a blurb for the book’s dust jacket.  When someone reviewed the book, he sued him.  When two newspapers published that review, he sued them.

“Eminent domain” is known in the UK as “compulsory purchase”. Libertarian conservatives dislike it on the grounds that that it allows big government to infringe private property rights, although liberals will surely share concern that governments would prioritise the wishes of developers over less-powerful land-owners. And everyone will hopefully be equally appalled that libel law is again being used as a response to criticism.

As Ed Brayton notes, conservative libertarian attorney Timothy Sandefur has some commentary on this:

This is an absurd violation of freedom of expression. Mr. Royall is clearly a “public figure” under the Supreme Court’s decisions in cases like Gertz v. Robert Welch and New York Times v. Sullivan, which means he can’t use accusations of libel to shut down criticism of him. But I suppose if you have contempt for private property rights, it isn’t hard to also have contempt for freedom of expression. Mr. Royall’s lawsuit is an outrage: a clear violation of the First Amendment, and a frivolous abuse of the legal process.

Our friends at the Institute for Justice have taken on the defense of Ms. Main and Prof. Epstein…

That’s nice, but what if Main and Epstein had not been able to secure the support of this organisation? Royall’s claim may be “absurd”, but such a strategy could still cause someone a lot of misery and stress – even in America.

Incidentally, the “public figure” distinction is one basic reform we could do with in the UK. But momentum for reform is slow  in the UK; and while in the USA we see true libertarians opposing the use of libel laws in the name of free speech,  in the UK right pseudo-libertarians are quite happy to make libel action threats themselves to shut down debate.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

James M. Hutchens’ Christian Zionist “Jerusalem Connection” has sent out another e-newsletter, this time promoting an article by Michael Freund, founder of  Shavei Israel. According to Freund:

More than five centuries after the expulsion and forced conversion of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry, the results of a new genetic study might just spur a return of historic proportions to Israel and the Jewish people. In a paper published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, a team of biologists dropped a DNA bombshell, declaring that 20% of the population of Iberia has Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

…The finding that 20% of the population of Iberia is descended from Jews will likely take Spain and Portugal by storm…Imagine if just 5% or even 10% of Spanish and Portuguese descendants of Jews were to return to Judaism. It would mean an additional 500,000 to 1 million Jews in the world.

I can see why Freund would enthuse over this, but it’s less clear why a conservative evangelical like Hutchens would want to promote the idea of “500,000 to 1 million” Portuguese and Spaniards embracing a religion other than Christianity. Such are the mysteries of Christian Zionism.

Meanwhile, if Freund is keen to find more recruits for his DNA-and-soil nationalism, he could look closer to home; as Israeli (anti-Zionist) historian Shlomo Sand recently argued in Le Monde:

Then there is the question of the exile of 70 AD. There has been no real research into this turning point in Jewish history, the cause of the diaspora. And for a simple reason: the Romans never exiled any nation from anywhere on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Apart from enslaved prisoners, the population of Judea continued to live on their lands, even after the destruction of the second temple. Some converted to Christianity in the 4th century, while the majority embraced Islam during the 7th century Arab conquest.

Of course, that doesn’t preclude the possiblity of some dispersion in the centuries after 70 CE, for various reasons. For instance, as I discussed just a few days ago, there was some adverse climate change between 100 and 700 CE.

(PS: I should add that while I think this is of historical interest, I believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be resolved by focusing on human rights rather than poring over ancient history)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Hal Lindsey is on top form at WorldNetDaily:

It was hot air all along

When Al Gore first published his tome, “Earth in the Balance” in 1990, few people, if any, believed in global warming. It was a trendy cause; after all, who wouldn’t want to help save the planet – especially if America is the problem.

…Unfortunately, now that Al Gore has convinced the U.N., the Democrats, Barack Obama (and even John McCain, if it would have helped) that catastrophic global warming presents a very real threat, actual, real climate scientists with slide-rules and computer models are starting to inundate us with facts.

About 650 of them from around the world have joined Stanley Goldenberg, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA, who wrote in a report to the IPCC: “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.”

It’s still the end of the world, though – the Bible predicts that in the Last Days people will believe in untrue things like global warming:

Jesus said that in the last days, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.” 

That is pretty much the exact description of the Doctrine of the Global Warming True Believers.

Gore’s failure can be contrasted with Lindsey’s far more successful efforts at predicting the future. A blog called Paleo-Future reminds us of Lindsey’s opus The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, which contains gems such as:

The alignment of the planets will cause weather pattern shifts. (p. 28)

UFOs are real and, “demons will stage a human spacecraft landing on earth.” (p. 33)

Communism in the U.S.S.R. will overtake American dominace on the world stage. (p. 81)

The U.S. itself will be “taken over by communists.” (p.132)

The U.S. could be “destroyed by a surprise Soviet nuclear attack.” (p.132)

The U.S. could “become a dependent of the 10-nation European confederacy.” (p. 132)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

I am pleased to introduce a guest post by Leo Igwe, executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement – RB

Some months ago, a British film-maker drew my attention to the plight of children in Akwa Ibom State who had been accused of being witches and wizards and thrown out of their homes by their families and relatives. In August, I travelled to the city of Eket to meet with these kids and the individuals helping to look after them, to find out how my organization could offer help and support.

First of all, I met with Luckyimoh Inyang of Stepping Stones Nigeria. The UK branch of his organization is raising money to support these children. Mr. Inyang told me how they had been rescuing children who had been beaten, burnt and brutalized by their own parents, and he took me to a school block and a football field which some of these children had taken as their home. They sleep there at night and roam the streets during the day in search of food. We also met some of the kids on the streets, who were carrying plastic bags filled with rice, garri and soup. Mr. Inyang told me that was how the children were trying to survive: donations were not enough, so some of them try to support themselves by taking left over food items from ceremonies, even though they are sometimes physically attacked when they do this. The children looked sick, malnourished and unkempt.

After meeting with Inyang, I went to see Mr. Sam Ikpe-Ituama of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network. Sam and his wife manage a camp where some of the kids live. Sam had been taking care of these children in his house, but eventually he had to set up the camp, with a school and a dormitory, to accommodate the increasing number of child victims. Right now the camp has over 130 children; most of them are less than ten years old. I interviewed some of them and they told me about their horrible and traumatic ordeals. Two girls described how they had been chained to a window for days, before being starved, beaten and thrown into the bush to die by parents and relations who accused them of causing diseases and death in the family by bewitchment. Other kids explained how they had been taken to churches and subjected by pastors to various forms of torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment, all in the name exorcism and deliverance. Most of the children had scars on their bodies. Some were still nursing wounds which they sustained in the course of this terrible experience. I was totally shocked and dumbfounded by what I saw. Particularly, I was stunned to hear that many of the kids had been in the camp for over three years. It was obvious that the local authorities had neglected and completely ignored this tragic situation. I was told that some officials of the Akwa Ibom State Government had visited the camp, but that nothing had been heard afterwards. So the camp and children were surviving on the limited donations they were receiving from overseas.

So I was delighted to hear that on November 4, the documentary Saving Africa’s Witch Children was broadcast in the UK, on Channel 4. This documentary has brought to the attention of the world the pain, agony, abuse and trauma which these children have suffered and endured over the years. It has exposed to the world the intellectual anomie, cultural darkness, social stagnation, moral decadence and primitive mentality that prevail in Nigeria as a result of ignorance, poverty, superstition and religious fanaticism. It has also demonstrated graphically the greed, thievery, mischief and charlatanism of pastors and other men and women, who deceive, debase, defraud and degrade human beings in the name of God. Witch-hunting is history in the western world, but in Nigeria and in Africa it is an ongoing experience.

Now, the question is: How do we save these children?

First of all we need to raise money to support them and provide them with basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and education. The children need medical care, counselling and rehabilitation programs. The government of Akwa Ibom State must wake up to its duties and responsibilities. The police should investigate and ensure that parents and the persons who perpetrated these atrocities – including the pastors who aided and abetted these criminal acts – are adequately punished.

More importantly long-term, we need to launch a nationwide campaign against superstition and belief in witchcraft. Nigerians should be told that witches are not real, and that witches and spirits are imaginary entities created by primitive minds during the infancy of human race to explain situations and issues they could not understand or resolve commonsensically. This campaign should be taken to all Nigerian schools, colleges and universities. It should be publicized over the radios and television, in the newspapers, in market places, in churches and mosques.

In particular, we need to check the activities of our so called pastors and other self styled men and women of God who use the Bible or Holy books to perpetrate and justify atrocious acts and human right abuses. These religious charlatans continue to act and preach in ways that reinforce the belief in witches and provoke acts of witch accusation, persecution and killing. This has been the driving force in Akwa Ibom State, and until Nigerians learn to reject superstition and irrationalism such tragedies will continue to occur.

In most cases pastors invoke the Biblical verse Exodus 22:18, which says “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live”, to justify their position,  so we also need combat this wave of Pentecostalism that promotes literal interpretation and blind faith in the “word of God”. To save the witch-children in Nigeria and rescue this nation from witch-believing forces, we need to get all Nigerians to exercise their common sense, reason and critical intelligence when practicing or professing their religion or belief. This is especially important when they are reading, preaching and interpreting messages and doctrines contained in their holy books.

(c) Leo Igwe 2008. Permission granted for non-profit re-publication, although please acknowledge authorship. The author asserts his moral rights.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

From Macedonia Online:

Romania’s withdrawal of the theory of evolution from the school curriculum could be evidence of a growing conservative tendency in teaching. Evolution has been removed from the school curriculum in a move which, pressure groups argue, distorts children’s understanding of how the world came into being.

…Meanwhile, in religious classes, pupils are taught that the world was created in seven [sic – should be “six”] days and God made plants on the third day and the sun on the fourth. Textbooks claim the first man was Adam, who was ‘made of ground’, and that Eve, the first woman, was made from one of her husband’s ribs.

The Education Minister, Cristian Adomnitei, claims that evolution remains “implicit” in the science curriculum, and Remus Cernea of Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience believes “lack of vision” is the reason for the changes, rather than Orthodox Christian machinations.

Back in 2006, I wrote about Alfa Omega, an American-lined neo-Pentecostal TV studio in Romania which promotes creationism in schools, and I linked to the station’s English-language website. That website has now disappeared, but can be accessed via Wayback. It includes the following, under the heading “CHRISTIAN EDUCATIONAL VIDEO-LIBRARIES FOR ROMANIAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS”:

 Main Thematics

Building the character of the young people

-This project may include Sunday schools, churches or Christian organizations that have educational activities for youth.

-To strengthen the influence of this project, the district departments of the Romanian Government and the Ministry of Education will be involved.

Raising the cultural level – by presenting the true values in literature, history, philosophy and music.

Enriching general knowledge: documentaries on nature, geography, science and technology.

Religious education, spirituality::

-the history of civilizations and religions

-creationism

-Christian values

-biblical teachings

Music, uncorrupted entertainment

Endorsements from teachers follow.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The BBC dusts off an archive recording of war-time British fascist John Gaster, who explains the real reason why Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936:

he had been entrapped and ensnared by the king watchers, who knew he was dangerous, and their instrument was one of a group of black magical osteopaths. The head of it was a quack doctor called Doctor Alexander Cannon. Original arrangements with Cannon had been established in Austria because [Edward] needed a dry out cure for addictive drinking. But bit by bit he had become immersed in a world of black magic and sexual yogic activities… Like a sling round the throat of Edward VIII and which in fact was the mechanism which made it possible for the establishment to dethrone him.

Alexander Cannon’s influence over Edward VIII is examined in a fascinating documentary on BBC Radio 4, which should be available online until Sunday. There’s also a summary here (Gaster, who from what little can be gleaned on-line was an unsavoury character, is misspelt by the BBC as “John Gastor”).

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From the UK Daily Telegraph:

Canadian leader suspends Parliament to keep power

Canada’s parliament was closed on Friday after Stephen Harper, the prime minister, succeeded in suspending it until the new year in order to avoid almost certain defeat in an imminent confidence vote…As constitutional scholars denounced the move, Mr Harper said he was going to use the time to think about the economy.

OneNewsNow has its own spin on that:

Canada’s conservative P. M. survives coup attempt

A Canadian pro-family leader says he’s very pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was able to avert a coup d’etat attempt by a left-wing coalition bent on ousting him from office.

…Brian Rushfeldt, executive director the Canada Family Action Coalition, says one would expect a coup attempt in developing dictator nations — but not in a 146-year old democracy.

The Canada Family Action Coalition is a creation of Victory Churches International, an international charismatic grouping founded by George and Hazel Hill in Alberta in 1979 – I haven’t been able to find any biographical details about the Hills prior to the establishment of their first church, and they are now based in California. Rushfeldt used to be Dean of the associated Victory Bible Colleges International.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »