2010 sri lankan holiday calendar

given the large number of people who visited and downloaded this information and probably found it useful last year, i am giving below sri lankan holidays for year 2010 according to the calendar published by department of government printing.

if you want the holidays in ical (ics, icalendar), csv, or html, formats, which you can import into calendar/time management software, then you can download the files from this drop.io drop. (make sure you select the 2010 ones.)

i blogged about what think about the number of sri lankan holidays sometime ago (basically imo holidays are good for economy as long as they encourage people to spend. so i want less poyaday holidays and more secular holidays and long weekends)

unlike last year, there are no 6 day long (or 5 day long) weekends in 2010. longest is the 4 day wesak weekend in may.

thursday, january 14 - tamil thai pongal day *†‡
friday, january 29 - navam full moon poya day *†
thursday, february 04 - national day *†‡
saturday, february 27 - milad-un-nabi (holy prophet's birthday) *†‡
sunday, february 28 - medin full moon poya day *†
saturday, march 13 - maha sivarathri day *†
monday, march 29 - bak full moon poya day *†
friday, april 02 - good friday *†
tuesday, april 13 - day prior to sinhala and tamil new year day *†‡
wednesday, april 14 - sinhala and tamil new year day *†‡
wednesday, april 28 - adi wesak full moon poya day *†
saturday, may 01 - may day *†‡
thursday, may 27 - wesak full moon poya day *†
friday, may 28 - day following wesak full moon poya day *†‡
friday, june 25 - poson full moon poya day *†
sunday, july 25 - esala full moon poya day *†
tuesday, august 24 - nikini full moon poya day *†
friday, september 10 - id-ul-fitr (ramazan festival day) *†
wednesday, september 22 - binara full moon poya day *†
friday, october 22 - vap full moon poya day *†
friday, november 05 - deepavali festival day *†
wednesday, november 17 - id-ul-alha (hadji festival day) *†
sunday, november 21 - il full moon poya day *†
monday, december 20 - unduvap full moon poya day *†
saturday, december 25 - christmas day *†‡


* public holiday
† bank holiday
‡ mercantile holiday

while full moon poya days are not officially designated mercantile holidays, they are called "common holidays applicable to all employees"

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update on 25th january 2010
tuesday january 27, 2010, was declared a public and bank holiday by government today. it is the day after presidential election. it is not included in downloadable calenders.

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merry christmas to you all! feel it! + christmas movies i watch

indi padashow says "it feels not like christmas". wtf? is he nuts?

yes spirit of christmas is a subjective thing, but that blogger always writes like a 'civilized' tourist in native drag for a photo op, observing and commenting on 'barbarian' sri lankan customs. that is why he has a long record of getting all things sri lankan wrong; from fight against terrorists down to christmas in sl. that is why he thinks there is a competitive election going on when everyone who is connected to the soil knows that it was a walkover from the start and after the irresponsible lies/gaffes of fonseka a boring old trashing. but i will save those thoughts for another post.

this is about christmas.

as regular readers of this blog know i was brought up as a roman catholic. i call myself an atheist simply bc i am unable to believe in god, rather than bc i have any antipathy towards the church or any love or respect for irrational inconsistent confusions of fellow atheists. people i live with, friends with, or in love with, have always been catholics for the most part.

from my point of view this one of the best christmas seasons i have lived through. iow indi padashow is nuts.

parties, carols, shopping, baking, decorating, cards, school holidays for kids (of my partner), wrapping presents, and thousands of other things are already past or on going. there will be mass, opening of presents, visiting and receiving relatives, cake, more parties, eating and drinking, games, to come. all round good cheer.
btw we do our little bit to spread it to everyone.

suburbs i live around are choked full of ppl and lighted up. driving is impossible.
as always this is the best season for businesses (even in mostly buddhist sri lanka). btw as i have written before, i welcome unabashed consumption and commercialism; "world will be boring and poor (literally) if not for the rampant consumerism of this season".

happy holidays, christmas, and a new year to every one!

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christmas movie tweets

as followers of my twitter know i have been watching christmas movies (alone, with others, or with kids,) in past week or so. i haven't finished them yet. but wanted to gather the tweets into one place. i may update it with later tweets.
term 'christmas movies' used loosely. i don't intend to define it.

"the shop around the corner"(1940). charming, funny & touching, but well grounded not cloyingly sentimental 4.5/5
btw "you've got mail" (1998) is a remake of "the shop around the corner". while not terrible,it is imo very much inferior. 3/5


'miracle on 34th street' 1947 original in b&w. classic! what more can i say? 4.5/5
'miracle on 34th street' 94 remake on tv. should really show much better 1947 original with edmund gwenn, maureen o'hara & natalie wood.


watched "it's a wonderful life" for nth time . 4.5/5 no need to say more.
talking about "it's a wonderful life" > a 1991 article by jimmy stewart about the film & frank capra http://tinyurl.com/ylem9vg


watched "bishop's wife" for the 1st time. enjoyed it very much. 4/5.



'a christmas carol'-1938 version-short,pointed & nicely put together.1984 ver-fleshed out & real. both 4/5


'christmas in connecticut' starring barbara stanwyck et al. forgotten how hilarious it is. 'moonlight snow and a cow' 4/5

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'rebel without a cause' screen test of james dean, natalie wood, and sal mineo + corresponding scene from movie

rebel without a cause is a movie i love. i have watched it countless times. i am also a fan of both james dean and natalie wood.

so i was glad to see this youtube video (uploaded by blumoon531. thanks!) of a screen test of three man actors; dean, wood and sal mineo. it is actually two tests, second one runs for few seconds and has no audio.



in the next video (uploaded by jimmysgirl. thanks!) you can see the actual (much improved) scene corresponding to the first screen test. the video contains most of the initial 'abandoned mansion' sequence of the movie and is 7 min long. screen tested scene starts at about 3.35 and continues almost to the end (in fact uploader has edited out few seconds of the sequence at the end and replaced it with few seconds a kiss from a little later).



note: second video has very low audio. if your speakers/earphones at maximum volume don't help, you might try downloading and playing it in a media player; after few minutes, audio becomes normal quality and remains so even on replay. no idea why.

for those who don't know already, all three actors in these videos died prematurely.
james dean, famously due to a car accident, at age 24, even before this film (2nd of his only 3 feature films) came out.
natalie wood, from drowning at age 43.
sal mineo was stabbed to death at age 37.

of course you can find lots of clips from movie, as well as fan made tribute music videos on youtube. there are even copies of the atrocious original trailer. i don't think full movie is there. i don't recommend watching the movie (or any other movie) on youtube if you have not seen it already. it deserves better.

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degenerate bloodless shell of unp

for what does united national party (unp) stand for?

unp still sits at the center of one of the two huge webs of patronage relationships that act as arteries of political life in sri lanka, but there is no blood running in those arteries. it has fallen so low that it cannot even field a candidate of its own for presidency and resort to beating up probably hostile journalists covering its meetings.

once, unp used to be a standard center right party.

but is it now?
let's examine

unp for free markets and capitalism?
in 1977, then unp administration opened the economy. some unp governments have engaged in privatizations of nationalized institutions and liberalizations of markets. all good, and in right direction imo.

however, nobody in current unp, least of all its leader ranil wickremesinghe, has the courage to stand up and defend those things, or more broadly capitalism and free markets, based on principles. there is certainly no margaret thacher in unp. at most unp will say, that we are being forced to open up markets due to globalization or that world bank/imf conditions demand that we do this or that liberalization or privatization.

nobody in unp is willing to say that free markets, open trade, and less government, are benefits in themselves and we should adopt such polices anyway without being forced to do so.

in fact last unp government (2001-2004) even implemented anti market polices, such as imposing a guaranteed price for buying paddy which led to all sorts of market distortions and over production. leading to inevitable protests (including suicides) by farmers at both harvest seasons. current non unp administration has thankfully let this policy slide out of sight. does anyone remember when the last farmers' protest was?

under imf prodding last unp government did put a blanket freeze on government hiring but did not have the courage to admit it was doing so (let alone try to reduce the number of public servants). such half baked actions only make government even more inefficient in that blanket freeze prevented needed ppl from being hired, while wasteful overstaffed departments kept on being so.

there were many such half baked actions on the part of that unp government. half baked bc they were not based on a well thought out coherent philosophy.

current administration of course is not pro liberalization. one does not expect it to be. it was elected on an anti liberalization platform. unp now in opposition, has not been able to make a coherent case opposing policies expanding government and subsidies. in fact there has been no opposition on its part to such polices.

we cannot call present unp a center right party when it comes to economic issues.

unp on national defense
on national defense unp is more akin to a loony left fringe party than a center right party (governing united people's freedom alliance(upfa) is very much to the right of unp here) .

this is the main cause of unp's unpopularity.

unp let all sri lankans down by not supporting efforts to defeat terrorist liberation tigers of tamil ealam (ltte). when terrorists deprived and threatened freedom, human rights, democracy, and justice of sri lankans of all communities, unp chose a policy of appeasement.

it adopted an immoral peacenik 'peace at any cost' position advocated by foreign (and perhaps terrorist) funded ngos wholesale, even while bloody murderous consequences of appeasing terrorists was apparent to all. it remained obstinate when government under mahinda rajapaksa showed that trying to defeat terrorists with violence, if need be, was both moral and pragmatic. instead several unp leaders tried to belittle the glorious achievements of the military. they have yet to abandon these polices or issue retractions for their statements.

public's distrust of unp position on these issues is well deserved.

ethnic grievances
unp once had a solid base among minority communities due to historical reasons, rather than bc of any credible attempt to address their (very real) grievances. rise of race/religion based parties is a telling indicator of unp's short comings in both articulating and addressing those grievances. now these (let us be frank, bordering on racist) parties (thankfully split in to factions) determine unp policy in these matters. unlike upfa, unp has been unable to stand up to more extrme demands of these parties when it needs their support. so much so that unp was unable to field candidates for jaffna and vavuniya local council elections earlier this year.

in other words, unp does not have a policy on how to address any ethnic grievances that still exist. its policy will be determined by factions of ethnic parties supporting it. pretty pathetic and not reassuring to voters (like myself) who like to see an end to race based policies of any kind.

other issues
in all other issues unp has not taken any coherent stance.

its foreign policy seems to be 'kowtow non stop to west and hope for best', rather than for a policy of building fruitful relationships in sri lankan interest in all parts of the world,esp in asia.

its corrupt politicians rail against government's corrupt politicians, not convincing anyone why we should exchange their lot for present lot.

it wants 'good governance' through implementation of 17th amendment, with its independent commissions to govern various things (public service, police etc. etc.). even though last unp government deliberately failed to implement it. (for the record, i am no fan of 17th amendment. imo it is an undemocratic, unworkable, loophole ridden, bureaucratic, money wasting monstrosity, but i better keep my thoughts on that subject for another post).

defending traditional values and culture is a staple of center right parties, but unp (or rather its leader) seem to be quite clueless about sri lankan culture or its values.

unp doesn't have a policy on various civil liberties one way or other. btw ranil who is 'gay' (i am against simple categorizations of sexual orientation hence quotation marks), as whole of sri lanka knows, doesn't have the courage to admit the fact, hiding behind an obviously fake marriage.
etc. etc.

internal democracy
not only has the party not stood up to protect sri lankan democracy, it has a deplorable record of internal democracy.

in latest example of this, last week it expelled some of the leading members from internal party positions due to their vocal opposition to unp decision to back non unp candidate general sarath foseka as presidential candidate.

as i have pointed out before, move to back fonseka benefits ranil wickremesinghe. after the almost certain defeat of general, ranil will be able to keep on as party leader till next election. (if he was the candidate and got trashed, there was a chance of him getting the boot). his association and acceptance of current unp's support and conditions will be part of the main reason why general will lose.


to conclude
ranil wickremesinghe led unp can no longer be considered a center right party with any kind of coherent philosophy. it is drifting without ideas or a vision.

this bloodless degenerate shell now function purely as a political vehicle for its leader, rather than as a living proponent of a political philosophy palatable to sri lankan voters.

of course unp still sits at the center of a web of patronage relationships, but without blood those arteries will die out eventually.

sarath fonseka's campaign (and his defeat), may transfer some blood to keep them alive for a little bit longer, but to revive the beast more direct and drastic action is needed. to start pumping blood again, at the very least, unp has to get rid of ranil, and it has to uncompromisingly stand for something that public wants (hopefully capitalism and robust protection of rights and interests of sri lankans from all threats internal or external) , rather than what its leader wants and what some of his out of touch sycophants in colombo wants.

this paralysis and inaction of almost half of sri lankan polity is bad for the country, bc upfa or its leader will not face any credible check on its/his power. it is not wise to always count on goodwill of unchecked power.

unfortunately, there is no chance of unp reviving anytime soon.

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sunday post: a scene from "children of a lesser god"

i love this movie, watched it again last night. while the plot outline is a bit formulaic, the characters and the acting make it exceptional, resulting in memorable scenes like the one below.

marlee matlin deserved her best actress oscar (on her debut film and she is the youngest ever to win) . william hurt, piper laurie were also great.



this scene was uploaded by one disclem. thanks.

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still no explanation or retraction from dinidu de alwis

have never blogged about dinidu de alwis here before (bc he never has anything interesting or original to say), but since he attacked me in a blog post today while leaving out most of the facts, here is the full story for anyone interested (why?) and for any future reference.

in the last blog post in his old blog he falsely attributed a quotation on me. i asked for an explanation and a retraction.

he provided neither (so typical of certain kind of person).
just as tellingly, while attacking me today, he never refers to my demand.

anyway to continue,
he also deleted his old blog (which notoriously celebrated the terrorist air attacks) the same day i asked for an explanation. when asked why he deleted the old blog, he said in an email that his employment contract prevented him from blogging under his name. he has given other explanations to others. furthermore his new blog is linked to his twitter which is in his name. ( btw in spite of all that, i am not linking to his new blog bc of what he said in email, but interested readers can easily find his blog by a simple search and two clicks using his own links)

as everyone who read this blog knows, i don't give up when i am falsely attacked (unlike him it seems; he goes to a doctor! but then, he is never attacked falsely and probably never had anything of worth to defend )

so once in a while when he blogs, esp ( but not necessarily) when he assumes an air of objectivity or moral superiority, i do post comments asking him not to be a liar. he of course censors them (as he has a right to do in his blog). but his patience ran out and he decided to publish my comment yesterday and turned bitchy (with some help from padashow blog. oh my!).

i replied accordingly (guess how nice i would be when padashow is involved!) . he published some of the replies and posted a blog post, attacking me (lol), and basically asking to be left alone in his (public!) blog. he says he will censor my comments, when he has already done that all along. (as he has a right to do, as i said before)

btw he in his attacks perhaps unwittingly (though given that he stoops to borrow even from padashow blog, i doubt that) almost repeats what morquendi said in his last attacks on me in 2006. look what that did to morquendi! i am still here, blogging, he is where?

that's the whole story.

i am still demanding and waiting for an explanation and a retraction.

btw no 'hugs' until then. :-)

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ps

he calls me an anonymous blogger. in fact my real name is on display here (in non text format) . and i give (and have given) it to anyone who asks for it. why i don't want it displayed in text format, i have explained where it is displayed.

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sarath fonseka's biggest political problem

i think this image/cartoon by lanakarising blog point to what will be general sarath fonseka's biggest problem if and when he tries to contest and win elections. and why he will lose.

sarath fonseka will be at the mercy of ppl pictured and their ilk. not exactly ppl who who did anything to free sri lanka from terrorism or stand up for human rights, democracy, justice, or freedom. in fact most of them were active appeasers and/or supporters of the tamil tiger terrorist pussies during the time they were killing us sri lankans. they also denigrated the effort to defeat terrorists. most of them are on record doing all that.

• is the general going to hold hands and make love to them on political stage now?
• is the general going to do as they wish and agree to their conditions (ranil as pm, revoke emergency, give tna, jvp cabinet posts, end exec. presidency, tna accepting fonseka’s stand on tamil issues ) to gain power?

voters will know and will react appropriately.

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juxtaposition and attempted conjunction of what general so far stood for, with its exact opposite on political stage, sure would make for some exceptional political cartoons.

here are some not so exceptional ideas of my own for cartoons.

• general getting his hands smeared with blood of his own former soldiers while shaking hands with mano ganeshan
• ranil wickremesinghe hand puppeteering the general from behind (hopefully this will not be censored ).
• general dressed in red drag shouting inane marxist slogans with tilvin silva.

if general tries to win elections with support of ppl like those he will deserve derision and will lose.

on the other hand, he does not have an independent political organization of his own, purged of these jokers. it will take time create one from scratch or to take over unp and get rid of stinking baggage. that is why i expected him to take his time, but he seems to be in a hurry (though of course he has not confirmed he will run for office, as yet.)

too bad for him that old proverb "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush" is still valid.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

sarath fonseka fantasy of unp and real reasons behind it

sunday times headline reads "opposition’s common candidate: gen. fonseka; consensus reached among unf parties; jvp support also sought". that heading will certainly sell lots of papers (good for a paper) and create false impressions (not so good) .problem- general (who is still chief of defence staff) has not committed.

sole evidence to support the story; general has not given a straight answer when questioned by an "english daily " (which? when?). btw to be "common candidate" jvp must be in agreement not just being "sought".
(island has more balanced and grounded story on the same issue. it is clear which paper to choose when you want real news)

commonsense would deem controversy as a bit premature; no general, no jvp, and even no election.

the date for presidential election has not been set as yet and full term only ends in 2011 december.

so why would a paper owned by opposition leader's uncle positively proclaim that general fonseka not ranil wickremesinghe is the next common opposition presidential candidate on rather flimsy grounds?

i will contend that real reason is yet another attempt at spin by unp leader in order project some(any!) hope of winning before possible elections to revive grassroots and prevent further potential pre election defections. all spin, no (or meagre) substance.

politics in sri lanka, real story
to understand this, you have to know how politics in sri lanka works and how the mind of opposition leader works.

sri lankan politics do not run on ideology (except when it comes to fringe parties) but on patronage relationships.

grassroots of a political party or a local politician works for it/him hoping for a return (jobs, contracts, protection, etc. etc.). what i am referring to here is not general election promises to general public made in manifestos of political campaigns, but specific promises and commitments to specific individuals or groups, most of them not made public.

politician and party is expected to deliver once in power. this is also why we see lots of crossovers (almost all from opposition to government) between elections, as politicians try to get access to means of dispensing patronage. even democratic minority community parties operate on same principles (that is why they always join government if they can) .

if the party or politician fails to get power and so fail to deliver patronage his stock with grassroots decreases. decrease will accelerate with each actual and potential failure. only way to keep grassroots committed and prevent crossovers is to create a credible hope that one will win the next election.

unp now
united national party (unp) will get walloped in the presidential election held in the near future (with the usual loser as candidate). unp must also face the possibility that parliamentary elections (due by march 2010) will be held before presidential elections. unp facing a walloping there as well.

they know that ppl in general know this. they know that their possible grassroots supporters know this. a grassroots activist for unp must necessarily face a life of great personal sacrifice way in to the future with zero payback, if he remains loyal. predictably there aren't many (unp organization in recent provincial council elections was so pathetic that main upfa candidates almost completely ignored them in some electorates and concentrated on fighting among themselves).

so ranil must create hope out of thin air to get grassroots to commit, get political donors to risk money, etc etc .

that is where general comes in.

general outlook
general sarath fonseka who is very popular, obviously has political ambitions. and as such a very good candidate. this is a good thing.

but i would be surprised if he commits to politics now (though it is not impossible), given the risks involved; running against a currently popular incumbent president, running with no control over ones' own campaign, losing, and ruining his chances forever; when he can wait and win.

his best course of action is to force upfa into absorbing him with future possibility of being its presidential candidate after mahinda rajapaksa.

barring that, to remain independent and wait out mahinda's popularity and enter politics few years down in opposition side on his own terms through a party he controls instead of under a party controlled by a different person. he should be able to either gain control of unp after ranil loses again or create a different coalition and then force ranil out of unp.

either way he has a very good chance of replacing mihanda buffalo if he waits.

i personally think he doing just that; waiting and elbowing to position himself in both upfa and opposition for future (rather than for an election in the near future).

i could of course be wrong, but in that case it would be the general himself who will lose in the long term.

ranil's game
on the other hand ranil cannot wait. he has to do something now, so he is trying his best to rope in fonseka or at least create the illusion of getting him (in which his uncle's newspapers are aiding).

using fonseka (+ an absurd coalition of marxist jvp and right of center unp bc of fonseka) he hopes to get unp grassroots to show some life and prevent crossovers before the next presidential and/or parliamentary elections will be announced.

in addition,
he probably hopes to make mahinda rajapakse delay the elections (bc of expected more robust contest with fonseka as opposed to a walkover over ranil). buffalo is unlikely to fall for this. if he waits till end of full term, it will be for different reasons.

ranil also hopes to spin that mihinda backed down from presidential election due to fear of losing, if only parliamentary elections are announced as they must be before march 2010.

this last is probably his main expectation. by creating the illusion that fonseka is on unp side (even if he has made no commitment) the possibility of him contesting in 2011, will be enough to give some hope of a payback for those supporting unp parliamentary candidates and for preventing some crossovers before the elections.

let me be clear, ranil does not expect fonseka to win if he is the opposition presidential candidate.

he is just fighting for his own political survival as unp leader in case of elections. he wants to revive the unp grassroots for parliamentary elections to prevent another dismal showing, and then hope to remain in control of unp after fonseka loses (or if there is no presidential election )

that is his game. very short term and very selfish (as he has a right to be)

but others have a right to realize and act based on what he is up to, in order to advance their own agendas.

results
if fonseka falls for ranil's trap, unp will revive in the short term and get better than expected results in parliamentary elections (though not win).

but as ranil expects, general will lose the presidential election, making the general damaged goods with no political party for cover. (btw if a real possibility of sarath foseka winning emerges once election campaign gets underway, expect to see ranil's uncle and other of same ilk working against fonseka as the same ppl did against gamini dissanayake when he was the unp candidate in 1994). ranil will remain head of unp for another six years in opposition.

that is why general should wait and position himself both within upfa and outside instead of falling for the trap.


--
some political commentators are fond of describing ranil as a master of political tactics but that is not supported by evidence
ranil's previous attempts at short sighted manipulation of political expectations to advance his own ambitions were dismal failures (in 1994 and 2004) when both gamini dissanayake and chandrika kumaratunga outplayed him.

let's see whether buffalo and general follow in their footsteps.

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difference a few words make! arrested for internet threats or offensive remarks? + sanjana hattotuwa's silly spin on this

a person named gayan rajapakse was arrested by police for threatening mahinda buffalo yesterday. note the word "threat".

however some ppl chose to report the cause of arrest as "offensive and defamatory comments regarding the president and the secretary of defense". same newspaper (mirror) website in another report filed shortly after, which gave more details like name and hiding place of the person arrested, reported "arrested on charges of having used the internet to threaten president mahinda rajapaksa and defence secretary gotabhaya rajapaksa". also note that the suspect was produced before matale magistrate, who remanded him till 6th .

first storysecond story

i am including the screen captures (click to enlarge) in case the story disappears from mirror website.


i personally think it is rather stupid to arrest all ppl who threaten the president. though there is nothing wrong in police investigating all threats of violence.

given we don't know the exact details of the case and severity of the threat, all we can wish for is that the correct legal process is followed. and that seems to be happening.


what happens when obama is threatened
meanwhile it is worthwhile to to note how ppl who "threaten" the president of usa are treated.
these stories pop up almost every other week. i am just posting a few (most recent and some connected to internet and absurd) .

• airport guard accused of threatening obama
• man arrested and held without bail for "sending racist, profanity-laced e-mail threatening to kill president barack obama and his family."
• facebook poll on killing obama was investigated and juvenile responsible was not arrested bc he was deemed not threatening.
• man arrested after two threats were posted on the internet.
• secret service and police investigates man for “abort obama, not the unborn” bumper sticker.

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now how do you think terrorist parroting former peacenik ngo crowd is spinning this?
well most of them were enjoying the sunday peacefully. they will no doubt do their paid spin job today or tomorrow (today being poya)

but sanjana hathutuwa treats his hack job on behalf of racists who support tamil tiger terrorists with a passion and ignores holidays. he will not let any opportunity to smear and slander sri lanka pass. so here is a screengrab (click to enlarge) of what he wrote in ict4peace blog which like the racist hate mongering groundviews blog is run by himand a comment thereof course anyone with sense can see what he deliberately but stupidly left out. (btw notice how he comments on his own post. lol). he is as always ignoring the facts that does not suit his agenda.

i posted a comment pointing out his "cleverness" in not clarifying it was a threat not just offensive remarks that caused the arrest. but i doubt given his past intolerance of opposing views whether it will pass the censorship this time.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

sunday post : litany of the saints

today is all saints' day, hence this youtube video.
i tweeted another video of litany of the saints (litania sanctorum) earlier today but this one ( uploaded by one coilette3004 on october 30, 2009) is imo better. both recorded during funeral of john paul II.

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calling all conspiracy theorists: conspiracy theory needed to explain why "sinhalese government" want to hold "tamils" in "concentration camps"

sanjana hattotuwa (groundviews/infoshare) will give not 1 but 2 cameras for a successful conspiracy theory that explains why "sinhalese government" want to keep "tamils" in "illegal" "concentration camps"/"gulags" "indefinitely". furthermore since such a prize was deemed to be unethical and seem pander to selfishness, he would also donate big macs to next "tamil" "hunger striker" in britain protesting "sinhalese" government's treatment of tamils. by participating you can be both selfish and selflessly help the "cause" at the same time.while others mainly from formerly peacenik ngo community ranging from sanjana hattotuwa to indi.padashow have more or less accused government of wanting to keep "tamils" in "concentration camps"/"prisons" "indefinitely" they have failed to answer the question "why?". what does "sinhalese government" expect from this massive and expensive effort to keep 300,000 "tamils" in "gulags"?

your theory must answer that question bc others have failed miserably (so miserably that they are reduced to censoring "nuts" asking "why?" whenever they say this.) you must help stop their misery.

are the "tamils" going to be killed in a genocide? or sold in to slavery perhaps?

let your imagination run wild in order to effectively counter "propaganda" by "sinhalese government".
government claims that, what it calls "welfare villages", are required to house internally displaced persons (idp) until, damaged infrastructure is rebuilt (you know roads, schools, and police stations, etc.), land mines are cleared, and what they call "tamil tiger terrorist murderers" who have infiltrated are screened out. yes, nobody dedicated to the "cause" believes any of that; after all ltte selflessly developed infrastructure, never laid a mine, and all of them were martyred with their sainted leader. that, as sanjana hathutuwa testifies daily, is the holy truth . but remember average person is an idiot and easily misled by the might of highly competent "sinhalese government's" propaganda machine; look at the election results.

so help provide the "why"! help likes of sanjana hattotuwa to face that question "why" unflinchingly in future!

in addition to providing a comprehensive answer to the "why", the successful theory must follow the guidelines below. (read any post in groundviews.org or indi.ca on the subject, and observe how scrupulously they follow these guidelines.)

• ignore the legality of camps and their similarity to others camps for displaced people in emergency situations. you must try to make it appear that they are illegal by calling them "illegal" repeatedly and referring to ppl there as "imprisoned".
• you must always refer to what sri lankan government call "welfare villages" as "concentration camps". or if it is impossible to make the analogy given the total dissimilarity between say nazi concentration camps and these, you should refer to them as "camps similar to ones where united states government interned japanese americans during world war II", or "internment camps" for short. never mind that here too there are no similarities. most ppl have no idea about american incident, and you are free to assume that those who fall for conspiracy theories like this will not bother to check the accuracy of this analogy.
• you must not refer to the fact that hundreds of thousands "tamils" in east were resettled by the "sinhalese government". ignore the fact they too lived for months in "internment camps" before being resettled. you must completely ignore those camps and ppl, bc making any comparison will be counterproductive to success of conspiracy theory. follow the great example of indi.padashow who once railed against government for existence of 600,000 displaced in east (in reality fellow-traveler-for-the-cause, indi exaggerated, it was less than half of that), but who now deliberately ignore the government's resettlement of vast majority of them so that he can rail against government for keeping 300,000 displaced in camps in north. selective amnesia is a must for any self respecting conspiracy theorist.
• you are free make use of your imagination to exaggerate, or simply make up, the sufferings of "tamils" in these "internment camps". you can say they are malnourished (ignore all facts pointing otherwise and lack of food riots etc.); you can say they have no medicines ( ignore that there is no record of any above average incidents of disease, or any outbreaks of epidemics, so common in other emergency camps) , you can say there are abuses of all kinds (you don't have to substantiate any of them) , exaggerate the flooding ( ignore that it was minor and all those affected were quickly given shelter. do not refer to the fact that thousands of sri lankans outside the "camps"who were more severely affected by flooding (in this case and annually) would count it lucky to receive even half of the care given to those inside. etc etc.)
• you must not refer to active involvement of various united nations agencies in the management and funding of these "illegal prisons" as in other camps around the world from italy to africa . you have to ensure that questions like the following do not pop up in minds of consumers of the conspiracy theory; "if they are illegal and sinister, why is united nations paying for them?". while ppl receptive to such theories are on average ... idiots, that is no guarantee that such questions will not occur even to them.
• you must refer to ppl in camps as "tamils" without any qualifications and imply this is the fate of all tamils in sri lanka . on no account should you refer to millions of other tamils living in sri lanka who are not "imprisoned ".
• sri lankan government should be always referred to as either "sinhalese government" or "sinhalese dominated government". fact that majority of freely elected parliamentarians from all minority communities in sri lanka are in government should be ignored. do not even mention the "traitors" in tna once closely associated with our "departed comrades" and other militant groups, but now cooperating with government.
• you should make sure to imply that motives of people in sri lanka are primarily defined by their race. you must imply that almost all "sinhalese" support the "genocidal" intentions of government, while tamils always support of "freedom fighting" tamil tigers. try to generate sympathy for people like sanjana hattotuwa, a sinhalese ( as he keeps on repeating) "branded" as a "traitor" by "sinhalese" for supporting, believing in, and parroting "tamil tiger freedom fighters".
• on no account should you imply that ppl opposed to ltte have motives other than "genocide" of "tamils". ignore or if possible denigrate their other stated motives; such as support for a realistic sustainable peace (achieved by defeating an armed criminal gang), bringing justice, ensuring human rights for all (including right to life), giving everyone ability to freely elect representatives to sri lankan democracy, etc. etc .

judges:
pilrukshi pissunnetti (not to be confused with dilrukshi handunnetti)
shamtvi boiled (not to be confused with sharmini boyle)
assman pathsekera (not to be confused with lakshman gunasekera)
balaka gandawardene (not to be confused with nalaka gunawardene)
screech scroor (not to be confused with shreen saroor)

anyway follow the guidelines and win the prize! and don't forget the big macs for the hunger striker!


note
i know that in the past some ppl ( notably david blacker "the novelist" lol) have demonstrated an inability to understand the meaning of posts like above. hence this note. do you get it now?

note 2
i have explained my real thoughts on idp camps several times elsewhere, but not in a post in this blog, so here is a brief,

i think screening for ltte operatives should be expedited and camps should be closed. ppl in them should be allowed to fend for themselves with no, or at most minimal, assistance. let them take their chances with failed infrastructure and land mines. government and other sri lankans are not obligated to provide welfare to these ppl over and above what others receive. i am in fact opposed to all welfare.

i think current sl government is acting in good faith but misguided. like all leftist governments they think they are doing good by trying to provide welfare to these ppl. they are wasting money in reality. they are unintentionally creating a dependant mindset, as they did with some victims of tsunami (few of those linger on camps even now to receive government welfare).

i also think that there is some individual corruption (always there when politicians and their appointees are allowed to spend public money), some purely political motives (to create a base for ruling party's political allies by "winning hearts and minds", and creating patronage relationships), and lots of red tape.

as such, i think sincere critics of these idp camps should focus on corruption, politics, and red tape involved, and ditch the silly conspiracy theories. no chance of that happening with insincere critics like sanjana or indi.

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southern provincial council election results online

according to tradition of this blog, i will publish the results of southern provincial council election held today on one page (updated as results are received).

all results will be linked to election department website, where you can find the official results with much more details if needed.

reportedly voter turnout was over 60%. ( in fact actual turnout exceeded 69%, high by any standard )
election and campaigning was mostly peaceful with hardly any incidents.

latest-
UPFA wins 2/3 majority, even with proportional representation.


last updated 0625hrs 10/11/09

southern provincial council

result	upfa	unp	jvp	other
hambantota
mulkirigala	38,420	14,833	6,245	365
beliatta	32,851	10,335	5,424	194
tangalle	51,969	13,053	8,811	275
tissamaharama	64,074	23,233	10,364	294
hambantota postal	5,647	937	890	17
-	-	-	-	-
hambantota final total	192,961	62,391	31,734	1,145
percentage	67%	22%	11%	0%
hambantota dist. elected seats (12)	8	3	1	-
-
galle
balapitiya	22,392	7,690	933	187
ambalangoda	34,260	10,890	1,505	136
karandeniya	30,932	9,606	1,662	109
bentara-elpitiya	40,299	13,454	2,379	228
hiniduma	47,372	16,200	2,560	205
baddegama	42,191	17,020	1,925	224
ratgama	34,449	11,564	1,596	134
galle	23,647	18,823	1,973	2,187
akmeemana	34,615	17,979	2,651	311
habaraduwa	33,258	14,555	1,975	149
galle postal	10,585	2,394	799	25
-
galle final total	354,000	140,175	19,958	3,895
percentage	68%	27%	4%	1%
galle dist. elected seats (23)	16	6	1	-
-
matara
deniyaya	40,706	12,079	2099	271
hakmana	40,025	11,251	2,644	461
akuressa	39,629	15,594	3,340	408
kamburupitiya	36,350	10,793	2,672	374
devinuwara	29,812	12,328	3,127	937
matara	29,770	17,966	3,647	482
weligama	34,955	13,287	2,449	2,872
matara postal	5,863	1,316	709	36
-
matara final total	257,110	94,614	20,687	5,841
percentage	68%	25%	5%	2%
matara dist. elected seats (18)	12	5	1	-
final full total	804,071	297,180	72,379	10,881
total percentage	68%	25%	6%	1%
total seats (53) (w/o bonus seats)	36	14	3	-
total seats (55)	38	14	3	-

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