The best bit is at the end

Ever since Washington, where Rudd cooly dropped the acronym CSBM (confidence- and security-building measures) during an address to foreign policy wonks at the Brookings Institution, collecting examples of what Rudd calls “geek talk” has become a trip favourite.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest, where Rudd spoke of war in terms of establishing and measuring performance benchmarks, the ABC’s Louise Yaxley asked him whether the leaders had streamlined the rules of engagement that apply to the NATO soldiers.

“You mean RoEs,” said Rudd.

“Yes, I mean rules of engagement,” said Yaxley.

At the Grove, Rudd’s acronym use hit near-fatal levels as he rattled off – always without explanation – EWS (early-warning system), RTP (right to protect), CCS (carbon capture and storage), and IFIs (pronounced iffeys, international financial institutions).

The ripper came when he chaired the session on climate change, reminding each speaker to keep their contribution to three minutes. When the first speaker easily exceeded three minutes, Rudd tried to crack a joke as he warned Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, who was up next: “Jens, if you go beyond three minutes, your ODA goes up 0.1 per cent.”

No one laughed or said anything, either because it was possibly the unfunniest joke ever told or it took a good while for everyone to work out what ODA meant (overseas development aid).

You can read the piece in its entirety here.

“Right now, the moment you say Muslims, people tend to think these guys are fanatics who are always praying and have beards. That’s wrong because the majority of Muslims are not like that. We have to demolish this image – the stereotyping of the Muslims who are currently all seen as religious people.”

To order to combat the destructive stereotypes identified by Dr Ali — beards, praying, etc. — young Muslims might consider attending an exciting new Muslim Leadership Training program in order to attain the necessary skills and experience to operate under the proposed model. Here is a short promotional video for the program:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Small wonder the Archbishop of Canterbury announced, just 24 hours later, that he wants sharia law in Britain. He was mocked, of course, but come on: Muslimism lets you throw apple cores onto the grass verge and swim with the dolphins and make telephone calls without having a Scottish man grunting and moaning in the background. Plus, we’d have the added benefit of being able to dismember shoplifters.

Also, though I have only a scant acquaintance with the Koran, I’m fairly certain it contains no call for motorists to be fleeced, hounded, mocked and, worst of all, held up on purpose by a swarm of power-crazed traffic wombles.

Here, Here! Anyone who has experienced a Riyadh street in a high performance car will know what freedom truly is. Jeremy Clarkson’s full piece is here

“Give it tomorrow, give it a year. We will hit back 10 times harder,” said Ronni, leader of northern gang ASAD or Arabian Soldiers Arab Defenders.

Let’s face it, nothing says “tough guy” quite like a paisley handkerchief wrapped cowboy-style around one’s face. And Ronni is one of the most menacing monickers for a gang leader since Tookie burst on to the scene.

But, in an Austrolabe exclusive, we can reveal for the first time the other members of the feared Arab Soldiers Arab Defenders:

(Source: Wiggaz.com)

Click here to view the embedded video.

(via The Other Cheek)

An Australian student on trial for throwing a snowball at a co-worker was simply being playful and was not guilty of assault, his lawyer told a US court today.

Authorities in the state of Colorado say Andrew Thistleton, 21, hit Michelle Oehlert with the snowball at the Copper Mountain ski resort on February 4, where they had worked together at ski hire shop.

To borrow from Boris Johnson:

No, the voices we need to hear now belong to Australia’s vast, sensible American majority. If Australian Americans speak up decisively and loudly against this lunacy, then they can achieve two good things at once. Their arguments will be heard with respect in Colorado, since they cannot be said to be founded on any kind of cultural imperialism, or to be actuated by anti-American sentiment.

More importantly, a strong protest by Americans living in Australia against the treatment of Mr Thistleton would help to contradict the growing ranks of pessimists and leftists – the people who say that the real problem is America, the country itself.

There is a body of commentators who say that we are deceiving ourselves about the scale of the problem. America, they claim, is not the fault of a few extremists.

These people claim that difficulties we are experiencing are intrinsic to the country itself – because it is in essence a country of war, unreformable, medieval. I think they are completely wrong, and they can be proved wrong.

In the last six months, the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police have made great improvements under the guidance of 1st Battalion The Irish Guards.

Extensive footage of the crack Iraqi army training under the guidance of the Western armed forces over the fold.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Peter Faris, QC explains the “logic of the situation”:

1. It cannot be denied that (whatever the number) that there are some terrorists in Australia.
2. All or some of these terrorists are Muslims.
3. Thus there are Muslim terrorists in Australia.
4. A number of Australian Muslims support Islamic terrorism, to a greater or lesser extent.
5. All these terrorists and supporters live in the Austsralian Muslim community.
6. It is difficult if not impossible to identify in advance exactly who are terrorists and supporters.
7. Accordingly, as specific identification is impossible, all Australian Muslims must be treated with suspicion.
8. If all Muslims are treated as possible suspects, then there Civil Rights will inevitably be curtailed (in various ways).
9. These limitations are not the fault of the “racist”, mainstream Australians. It is the fault of Muslims themselves by permitting terrorists to live unidentified amongst them.

But, how many angry Muslims are there really in these protests?

Well, even Christopher Hitchens doesn’t believe there are too many of them:

I have actually seen some of these demonstrations, most recently in Islamabad, and all I would do if I were a news editor is ask my camera team to take several steps back from the shot. We could then see a few dozen gesticulating men (very few women for some reason), their mustaches writhing as they scatter lighter fluid on a book or a flag or a hastily made effigy. Around them, a two-deep encirclement of camera crews. When the lights are turned off, the little gang disperses. And you may have noticed that the camera is always steady and in close-up on the flames, which it wouldn’t be if there was a big, surging mob involved.

In fact, there are so few of them that one familiar face — like the legendary Green Helmet Guy — keeps showing up in the protest footage each time around.

According to the caption that was assigned to this photo, the man in this picture is a”Kashmiri protester” shouting “pro-Pakistan slogans” at a funeral procession held near Srinigar on June 19th, 2007.

Here he is again. This time demonstrating against Pope Benedict on September 15th, 2006:

Here he is in February 2007 protesting against Israel, September 2006 protesting the execution of a prisoner by Indian authorities, and here he is protesting against the Danish cartoons.

And finally here he is participating in a protest against the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie last week.