Shire Network News is so called because the man who started it, "Tom Paine" hails originally from New Zealand, which did such a great job of looking exactly like Tolkein's Shire in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. This week's show is hosted from New Zealand by well known Kiwi blogger Murray, whose work you can find at Hitting Metal With a Hammer. And no, he is not related to Gimli. As far as we know. Gimli's just nowhere nearly as aggressive and warlike as Murray. This week's guest is Dr Walid Phares, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Middle East history and politics, global terrorist movements, democratization and human rights. He speaks to us about the Hizbollah intimidation of the government of Lebanon, and whatever happened to the amazing disappearing Bush doctrine. In Blog News this week, Muslim radicals show maximum respect to the fearsome UK constabulary, is Barak Obama's mysterious middle name actually "Neville", we ask why Londoners are confused as to why some guy can get stabbed to death in broad daylight in Oxford St, what length the Yorkshire Ripper's sentence ought to be (and should it be measured in years or length of rope) and Murray tells the rest of the world why they should use New Zealand as a horrible example of what happens when a government actually believes in global warming and signs Kyoto. We have our regular chat with Evan Sayet and you can pre-order his new book on Amazon. And Meryl Yourish is along to make fun of someone's name. But he deserves it. Tags: tom paine · murray · meryl yourish · evan sayet

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This week's guest is Patti Patton-Bader, founder of Soldiers Angels, which organises a surprisingly vast array of methods by which you, the ordinary civillian at home, can show real support for the troops. Whether it be by sending care packages, baked goods, blankets and cards, providng practical assistance for soldiers families, assisting chaplains with their work, or even organising voice-activated laptop computers for wounded soldiers, Soldiers Angels can help you to help the troops. Go visit www.soldiersangels.org. You will also find news there of the Mom of the Year award that Patti received on Mother's day in the US. In Blog News this week we talk about Sheik Ali Al-Faqir's appearance on Al Aqsa TV as reported by Memri. Apparently main stream opinion in Islam is that the whole world should be conquered by Jihad. What a surprise. Obama thinks there are 58 states in the US. It's all over the blogs. For video of Jeremy Bowen under fire (and not by Israel either) you can look at the BBC site. This week we have a contribution from Doug Payton. He's terribly worried by the changes in the weight of the standard Kilogram. We have our regular chat with Evan Sayet and you can pre-order his new book on Amazon. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · doug payton · evan sayet

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This week week we conclude our chat with Prof Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal . As we approach the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the modern state of Israel, Barry joins us to talk about his latest reprinting of "The Israel Arab Reader". The book provides over 300 original source documents and gives a massive amount of background into the Israeli Arab struggle. In Blog news this week we cover such delights as the BBC's new advert to remind people in Britain that they can go to jail for not paying up their Telly Tax. Biased BBC has the video. The Wall Street Journal has more about the "Hostile" environment at Dartmouth. Our own Meryl Yourish brought to our attention the disgrace words of Tom Levitt. You can read more here. We have our regular chat with Evan Sayet and you can pre-order his new book on Amazon. Meryl Yourish is talking about the reason Israel needs a strong army and air force. It's not complicated, Jews just don't think the UN is up to protecting them. The version of Hatikva I play at the end of the show can be bought as part of the boxed set linked to here. Do consider it, the rest of the performances are terrific too. We have been nominated for an award. Oh dear. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · meryl yourish · israel · evan sayet

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This week week's guest is Prof Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal . As we approach the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the modern state of Israel, Barry joins us to talk about his latest reprinting of "The Israel Arab Reader". The book provides over 300 original source documents and gives a massive amount of background into the Israeli Arab struggle. In blog news this week we cover the news that Israel bombed a North Korean built nuclear bomb fuel plant in Syria last September. Click if you want to see the full lyrics of Bob Dylan's Neighborhood Bully. The summing up of the US election race if from Red State Update. Genius. We found it via HotAir. We also have work from Meryl Yourish, Doug Payton and Damian Penny. Be sure to follow all their blogs. ------------------- If you enjoy this podcast,why not share it with your friends? Send a link to Shire Network News to anyone you know who might also get a kick out of robustly-expressed free opinion. Shire Network News is, of course absolutely free. Unfortunately, explaining that to the local phone company,the electronics store and all the others is not so easy. This iswhere you, the grateful listener can play a vital role,by hitting the tip jar button which you can find on the right of your screen. You can subscribe to SNN on Apple iTunes using the iTunes 1-clickbutton at the top of this post, or download it directly from the Blogmatrix site. If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com a link to which is also in the sidebar to the right. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · doug payton · damian penny · meryl yourish

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Our interview this week is with Kate McMillanof Small Dead Animals and Kathy Shaidleof Five Feet of Fury, two of the Canadian bloggers being sued by former Human Rights Commission employeeRichard Warman. Richard Warman has been caughtout by several Canadian websites using Canada's human rights machinery to make claims and collect money based onincitefulspeechposted on websites. Speech which sometimeswas posted by...Richard Warman, using various pseudonyms. In Blog News we look at the Hamasendorsement of Barak Obama. The audio clip we play is taken from the Powerline blog. We speak about theAustralian Labor Government's 2020 conference. You honestly don't want to read any more about it. For more on the weird Fatwa ofthe week,take a look at the reverential treatment the BBC give it. DougPayton is talkingabout the illegality of refusing to photograph Lesbians. Sounds like a sensible law to me. More details here. We have our regularchatwith Evan Sayet andyoucan pre-order his newbook on Amazon ------------------- If you enjoy this podcast,why not share it with your friends? Send a link to Shire Network News to anyone you know who might also get a kickoutofrobustly-expressed free opinion. Shire Network News is, of course absolutely free.Unfortunately,explainingthat to the local phone company, the electronics store and all the others is not so easy. This iswhere you, thegratefullistener can play a vital role, by hitting the tip jar button which you can find on the right of yourscreen. You can subscribe to SNN on Apple iTunes using the iTunes 1-click button at the top of this post, or download itdirectlyfromthe Blogmatrix site. If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com a link to which is also in the sidebar to the right. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · evan sayet · doug payton

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This week we continue a deep and meaningful discussion that ranges across the political spectrum. Douglas Murray andNickCohenjoin Tom Paine to disucuss the failures on both Left and Right to come to terms with a Jihadi threat. On the Right we have Douglas Murray, the director of the think tank, CentreforSocial Cohesion and the author of "Neo-Conservatism:WhyWeNeed It". From the Left, broadly speaking, as he's not on good terms with most of his former comrades just at present,isBritishjournalist Nick Cohen, author of "What's Left: How Liberals Lost their Way". This is the second of a two part disucssion and should not be missed. They explore the failing of the left and of partsoftheright to come to terms with the real enemy everyone is facing. You can find part one here. In blog news this week I talk about the "Free Speech in an age of Jihad" conference I attended. Atlas Shrugs has much more about it. Free Speech is now officially under attack, and as some of the Canuck Six are just private citizens with little corporatebacking, do please visit Small DeadAnimals and Five Feet of Fury And seeing as we'reliving in the 21st century with this her newfangled internet thingy, you can also buy the t-shirt. If you don't believe us about the banning of Jerusalem, the DailyMail has the story. We have our regular chat with Evan Sayet and you can pre-order his newbook on Amazon Meryl Yourish is also back on the show with a rant about Carter ------------------- If you enjoy this podcast, whynotshareitwith your friends? Send a link to ShireNetworkNews to anyone you know who might also get a kick out of robustly-expressedfree opinion. Shire Network News is, of course absolutelyfree. Unfortunately, explaining that to the local phone company, the electronicsstore and all the others is not so easy. This iswhere you, the grateful listener can play a vital role, by hitting the tip jarbutton which you can find on the right of yourscreen. You can subscribe to SNN onAppleiTunesusing the iTunes 1-clickbutton at the top of this post, ordownload it directly from the Blogmatrix site. If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com a link to which is also in the sidebar to the right. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · meryl yourish · douglas murray · nick cohen

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This week we have a deep and meaningful discussion that ranges across the political spectrum. Douglas Murray and Nick Cohenjoin Tom Paine to disucuss the failures on both Left and Right to come to terms with a Jihadi threat. On the Right we have Douglas Murray, the director of the think tank, Centre forSocial Cohesion and the author of "Neo-Conservatism:Why We Need It". From the Left, broadly speaking, as he's not on good terms with most of his former comrades just at present, is Britishjournalist Nick Cohen, author of "What's Left: How Liberals Lost their Way". This is the first of a two part disucssion and should not be missed. They explore the failing of the left and of parts ofthe right to come to terms with the real enemy everyone is facing In blog news this week we look at the case of the 8 men accused of trying to blow aeroplanes out of the sky. Naughty,naughty if you jumped to the conclusion that this might involve Islam. We are also looking in to the sex scandal involving Max Mosley. You can do your own google search for the sex tape. Youdon't need my help. I cover a little personal trip I took to a conference in New York. Details can be found here. We have our regular chat with Evan Sayet and you can pre-order hisnew book on Amazon Doug Payton is covering more Obama magic and makes reference to flying penguines. You can see the BBC footage of these bygoing here. ------------------- If you enjoy this podcast, why notshareit with your friends? Send a link to ShireNetworkNews to anyone you know who might also get a kick out of robustly-expressed free opinion. Shire Network News is, ofcourseabsolutely free. Unfortunately, explaining that to the local phone company, the electronics store and all the others isnot soeasy. This is where you, the grateful listener can play a vital role, by hitting the tip jar button which you can find ontheright of your screen. You can subscribe to SNN on AppleiTunesusing the iTunes1-clickbutton at the top of this post, or download it directly from the Blogmatrix site. If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com alink to which is also in the sidebar to the right. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · douglas murray · nick cohen · doug payton · evan sayet

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For the second week, our guest is British MP for Wells, David Heathcote-Amery. In the interests of getting the show out, full show notes will follow in a day or so. This week's show features Meryl Yourish and our regular chat with EvanSayet. Be sure to take a look at their web sites from time to time. You can pre-order Evan's new book here at Amazon Tags: meryl yourish · tom paine · brian of london · evan sayet

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Our guest this week is British Member of Parliament for Wells, David Heathcote-Amery. He is talking to Tom Paine about theprecarious state of democracy in Europe with a new European constitution (in all but name) being rammed down the throats of anunwilling populace. In the first of a two part interview he covers his feelings for Europe and what he would form he would liketo see European co-operation take. Brian of London is back hosting the show this week. In blog news we cover the Church in North Carolina that doesn't thinkits right to teach crucification and resurrection to kids as part of the Easter story. More details here. It's hard not to laugh at a story when police are called in to investigate the alleged racism of a stuffed animal.A hate crime for a stuffed toy, yeah. In Melbourne a "priest" thinks that Easter shouldn't be a public holiday. I say "priest" but really.... moredetails here. We have a piece from both DougPayton and our regular chat with EvanSayet. Be sure to take a look at their web sites from time to time. You can pre-order Evan's new book here at Amazon ------------------- If you enjoy this podcast, why not shareit with your friends? Send a link to Shire NetworkNews to anyone you know who might also get a kick out of robustly-expressed free opinion. Shire Network News is, of courseabsolutely free. Unfortunately, explaining that to the local phone company, the electronics store and all the others is not soeasy. This is where you, the grateful listener can play a vital role, by hitting the tip jar button which you can find on theright of your screen. You can subscribe to SNN on Apple iTunesusing the iTunes 1-clickbutton at the top of this post, or download it directly from the Blogmatrix site. If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com alink to which is also in the sidebar to the right. Tags: brian of london · tom paine · doug payton · evan sayet

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