RUSHDIE HORROR: LET’S FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO WRITE!
This isn’t a fantasy … now Rowling in death tweet fears over her sympathy for Rushdie
JK Rowling has received a death threat following her reaction to the horrific attack on Salman Rushdie in New York.
Rowling, aged 57, sent screenshots to Twitter of a message from a user who said “don’t worry you are next”.
It followed Rowling tweeting she felt “very sick” after hearing the news and hoped Rushdie would “be OK”.
Latest statements said the police are investigating her fears.
The horrific stabbing of Rushdie is being seen as a brazen attack on the freedom of writers to investigate things that others hold in their hearts and souls. Just like lifestyle, religion, politics, doctrine and beliefs.
Booker-prize winning author, Ian McEwan, said it “represents an assault on freedom of thought and speech”. Stephen King said the attack was “horrifying”.
Sadly, it has emerged that writer and campaigner Henry Reese, who had been due to interview Mr Rushdie at the event, suffered a head injury. Henry is the co-founder of a non-profit organisation that provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of persecution.
Rushdie was about to give a speech about how the US has served as a haven for such writers.
The novelist was forced into hiding for nearly 10 years after The Satanic Verses was published in 1988. Many Muslims reacted with fury to it, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad was a grave insult to their faith.
The Satanic Verses investigates a short text reputed to have been included in the Qur’an at the suggestion of Satan rather than by divine inspiration when Muhammad was issuing authentic verses.
But as writers, it is our job to investigate boundaries and draw conclusions on the walls of our man-made borders.
We need to be able to write about the tracts of human fears.
Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the liver, the back, the neck and the face on stage in front of hundreds of people in New York city.
He is now recovering and is talking to visitors.
Salman Rushdie over thirty years metamorphosed from being a rather irritating pundit with a poet turn of phrase into a world renowned writer – an academic in bottle-bottom glasses and a scraggly beard – then a cause celeb and a prisoner inside his own world and ours.
Then he became the victim of a murderous attack.
Today he is a survivor. And a hero to all of us who want to write the truth.
The suspected attacker was identified by police as Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey. He was charged on Saturday with attempted murder and assault. Matar and his family hails from the south Lebanon town of Yaroun, said its Mayor Ali Tehfe.
#rushdie #rowling #king #islam #newyork
Why Salman Rushdie is a bloodied role model for freedom of expression
The horrific stabbing of Salman Rushdie is a brazen brooding attack on the freedom of writers to investigate things that others hold in their hearts and souls.
Just like lifestyle, religion, politics, doctrine and beliefs.
All these things are the buzz in our blood. We are pack animals, afraid in the dark, who need these metaphorical fences and boundaries to keep us in – and the enemy out.
And as writers, it is our job to investigate these boundaries and their creators, even lampoon them, draw conclusions on the walls of our man-made borders.
We need to be able to write about human fears.
Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the liver, the back, the neck and the face on stage in front of hundreds of people in New York city.
The reason? An old man and a religion had decided that he should die because he had written The Satanic Verses.
The Satanic Verses investigates a short text reputed to have been included in the Qur’an at the suggestion of Satan rather than by divine inspiration when Muhammad was issuing authentic verses.
Because of his thoughts and interpretation of these verses he became the victim of a fatwa. He had become a rebel with only a narrow path to the future.
And that fatwa haunted him for more than 30 years. And like cancer to a smoker, almost inevitably, one day the horror of the past rose and wrapped its dark clouds around him.
Salman Rushdie, over thirty years, metamorphosed from being a rather irritating pundit with a poetic turn of phrase into a world renowned writer – an academic in bottle-bottom glasses and a scraggly beard. Then he became a prisoner inside his own world and ours.
A few days ago he became the victim of fate.
Today he is a survivor. And a hero to all of us who want to write the truth.
JOIN ME IN WRITING A FEW WORDS OF THANK YOU BELOW TO ALL WRITERS WHO STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT…
DYLAN POINTS THE FINGER AT NEW MASTERS OF WAR AS PUTIN KILLS THE LAND OF HIS FATHERS
Bob protests about hell in Ukraine
The European leg of Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is ready to roll. And will this stint again contain a major protest about Putin’s insane war on the land of his fathers?
On the first night at the Arizona Federal Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona he dropped Early Roman Kings and replaced it with Crossing the Rubicon.
The song is normally accepted as being about Julius Caesar taking his troops across the Rubicon River in 49 BC. The journey began a bloody war.
The new message of protest was clear as it wound round the auditorium in its slow blues guise.
Bob, like so many of us, was a victim of Cold War propaganda.
In Chronicles, he wrote about how children in small-town America were taught to see Russians as a threat.
He wrote: “One of the things we were trained to do was to hide and take cover under our desks when the air-raid sirens blew, because the Russians could attack us with bombs,” he wrote. “We were told that the Russians could be parachuting from planes over our town at any time. These were the same Russians that my uncles had fought alongside only a few years earlier. Now they had become monsters who were coming to slit our throats and incinerate us.”
And in so many ways this is the scenario coming out of the Ukraine now as so many old men – and women too – take to the streets armed often only with anger, pride, fear and ancient guns.
Dylan stood up with them to be counted.
Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. Following a series of vicious violence against Jewish people, in 1907 his paternal grandparents emigrated there from Odessa, then part of the Russian empire, now in Ukraine.
Bob Dylan! One more pride of Odessa,” read a large billboard standing in front of City Hall in the Black Sea port
Good on him…
#BOBDYLAN #MASTERSOFWAR #PROTEST #UKRAINE #EUROPE #ROUGHANDROWDY
THE DAY THE MAN IN BLACK CAME BACK
PLAY VID – INSIDE
Ozzy Osbourne came out of the shadows of Parkinsons and major surgery and rocked his hometown.
Ozzy, a little unsteady but determined, marked the end of the Commonwealth Games. He performed ‘Paranoid’ with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Tommy Clufetos and bassist Adam Wakeman.
The 73-year-old rocker recently underwent major surgery was simply Ozzy – and in good voice – as he showed again that old rockers should never fade away …
GOOD ON YA OZZY!
#ozzyosborne #brum #blacksabbath #commonwealthgames
‘DON’T KEEP IT ALL IN THE FAMILY (COURTS)’ SAYS LAW BOSS
Now even they admit justice is failing alienated parents…
Written by Andrew John Teague
England and Wales head of the Justice division Sir Andrew McFarlane. States 20 per cent of cases shouldn’t be in the family courts.
Sir Andrew has also spoken of the harm family courts cause to children due to long court hearings.
Sir Andrew where have you been?
Who will jump on looking for the muller, the pounds and the pennies?
Three years in family court certainly did affect our daughter.
And no doubt many many other children …
For over six years I have banged the drum for the forgotten children.
In 2019 Sir James Munby spoke of the review into family courts being independent.
It was anything but.
Interestingly, the statement he made referred to the forgotten children. Just like the likes of cafcass who play bat and ball with children’s lives making mistakes along the way.
Now we see Sir Andrew realising that he has no grip on the situation.
Failings cause the child abuse, delays allow the non-accidental psychological injury in the children..
The statement by Sir Andrew that the family courts should be the last resort…
How is it possible?
I have heard 1000s of parents who stated before court the ex-partner said “you want contact take me to court”… Any but last resort from the outset clear it’s the only port of call.
Absent parents have often tried every other way.
Risking their liberty and case before it even starts by trying to contact their ex for contact. They will have tried mediation often been rejected by the ex immediately or later Of course this all has an affect on child.
I don’t need a PhD or a judge to tell me what we’ve seen it lived through our daughter.
Our daughter got what she wanted due to me fighting for her. Yes it did have a cost and for sometime after I have to spend time helping her through the anxiety the worry the stress.
To those behind the family court I was the easy target (so the genuinely thought) Bullying me terrorising me threatening.
All the time knew there was a little lost forgotten soul who needed her daddy. Through the lows and highs it was a struggle for her.
Broken court orders really affected her anxiety beyond belief. No surprise when there was 14 broken orders…
Forgotten children, forgotten and broken by a system that should be protecting them. Thank you Sir Andrew McFarlane for highlighting what we all ready know.
How is this for a question:
WHAT DO YOU INTEND DOING ABOUT IT?
It’s time for change within the whole system process and methodology. Contact denial is killing parents and potentially children as they get older. To all parents grandparents family partners and friends #keeponkeepingon none of what goes on is your children’s fault they are the pawns in a wicked evil game.
I’M SO PROUD TO BE ARCHIE’S MUM
Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old who had been at the centre of a legal battle between his parents and doctors, has died.
His mother, Hollie Dance, said: “Such a beautiful little boy, and he fought right until the very end.”
She said she was “the proudest mum in the world” as she spoke outside the Royal London Hospital in east London, where he died.
Her son’s life support was withdrawn earlier on Saturday.
He died at 12.15 BST, Ms Dance said, adding: “I’m so proud to be his mum.”
Archie had been in hospital since being found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex, in April.
He suffered severe brain injuries and needed life-sustaining support, including mechanical ventilation and drug treatment. He never regained consciousness.
Ms Dance earlier said she had done everything she promised Archie she would do.
#archie #archiedead
Judith, we’ll never find another you …
WHAT A CONTRIBUTION, WHAT A LOSS
Judith Durham has died at the age of 79 after a battle with lung disease.
The Seekers singer died in Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after suffering complications.
She made her first recording at 19 and rose to fame after joining The Seekers in 1963.
The group of four became the first Australian band to achieve major chart and sales success in the UK and the United States.
They sold an incredible 50 million records.
And their hits included The Carnival is Over, I’ll Never Find Another You, A World of Our Own and Georgy Girl
In her home state Victoria, Premier Dan Andrews said Durham had conquered the music world both in Australia and overseas.
He said: “With her unique voice and stage presence leading The Seekers, the band became one of Australia’s biggest chart toppers.”
Arts minister Tony Burke added: “Once, the best known Australian voice was Judith Durham’s.
“With The Seekers and solo Judith earned her place as an icon of our music”, he added.
“What a contribution. What a loss.”
#JUDITHDURHAM #DURHAM #OZ #THESEEKERS #1960S
ARE YOU THE CHEATING, LYING, ALCHY, POT-ADDICTED, JOBLESS, DEAD BEAT PARENT YOUR EX AND THE COURTS TELL YOUR CHILDREN YOU ARE?
Parental alienation is the subject nobody but its victims want to talk about.
Police don’t want to be involved in this intense conniving dishonest and cruel form of child abuse.
And the CSA, social workers, family courts and CAFCAS just see it as tick-box problem with the added ‘joy’ of being a big earner for them all.
There has always been money in misery.
In the last two years it has been particularly difficult to find any real mentions of PA in the national, regional and local media. On the surface journalists don’t give a damn and see people like me – and you – as dead-beat dads, the tabloid catch-all, along with being violent, jobless, alcoholics and drug addicts.
That’s what they’ve been told and sometimes it is difficult to change entrenched attitudes.
You see, people who leave the family home for whatever reasons are demonised by everybody from your ex to your child, from your granny to your neighbours. And this can just be a barometer of public opinion which informs your decision-making.
So, to the reason for writing this … I am a professional writer, broadcaster and journalist, trained and accredited. And because of what happened in my life I have investigated story after story – and published them – almost like a beacon in the night.
And here at The Society we will continue to expose the pompous uncaring arrogance of alienating parents, social workers, judges and the downright ignorant.
SOME DREAMS ARE MADE OF IRON AND STEEL, OTHERS ARE SIMPLY GOOD ON THE TRACKS
FAUX TRAINS COMING FOR BOB THE MODEL STAR
Connaught boss Paddy brings Dylan’s work to his Chateau Kingdom in Provence
Moston, Manchester 10, for whatever reason, was my life’s hometown. Grimy, dark, dreary and rainy.
I don’t remember too much about it really, it was such a long time ago…
As a child though, I do remember listening to the trains in the rain at midnight. Stars were twinkling and I was all ready to hitch a dream-ride.
The trains were off in the distance but I could hear them, mournful whistles, click-clack of tracks, ‘faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches’
Yep, dreams of iron and steel. The world frozen inside television windows.
Trains used to be the past heading in to the future.
And now Bob Dylan’s train has literally stopped off in Provence, southern France, and is parked a the bottom of hotels boss Paddy McKillen’s garden.
Bob’s biggest sculpture to date – made out of wheels, cycle parts and tools – is called Rail Car, and is a permanent exhibit at Château La Coste, a 600-acre sculpture park.
Trains are part of his past, says Dylan. Rail Car represents the illusions of a journey rather than the “contemplation of one”.
Bob, coming up 81 years old, said: “The train represents perception and reality at the same time… all the iron is recontextualised to represent peace, serenity and stillness.”
He also spoke of the piece’s “enormous energy”.
Bob’s metal artworks were first shown to the public in 2013 when a set of iron gates called Mood Swings were exhibited at London’s Halcyon Gallery. 
Dylan hails from Hibbing, in Minnesota which is home of one of the largest open iron ore pits in the world. said: “I’ve been around iron all my life, ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country, where you could breathe it and smell it every day.”
Château La Coste is the brainchild of Irish businessman Paddy McKillen, it is not just a working vineyard producing biodynamic wines, tasting facilities and a clutch of restaurants, galleries and more. It is also home to a range of ambitious architectural bonnes bouches from some of the greatest names in the profession.
The sculpture is a WIIX 723 double-door boxcar which was used to transport paper rolls for Willamette Industries, a lumber company based in Oregon. Work on the sculpture started during summer 2019 in Los Angeles by engineering teams from both France and the US. It was later disassembled, crated and shipped to the Château, where it will reside permanently.
And now Bob’s Rail Car has made it to its final destination, the rolling and thundery landscape of Provence.
#bobdylan #slowtrain #provence #france