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IanBannen

Listed below are comments made by IanBannen between Friday, 20th June 2008 and Tuesday, 21st October 2008.

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Colin Powell's America 11:16am on 21 Oct 2008 52 Allmymarbles

It is on the record books that apostasy is punishable by death in the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Mauritania and the Comoros. IF you were so long in the middle east, how many converts away from Islam did you meet?
Colin Powell's America 02:01am on 21 Oct 2008 To those mentioning Iraq, can I just point out that those doing the killing are "fellow" Muslims, and it would be these people in charge if the Americans pulled out. Many countries, including Iran, have the death penalty for conversion out of Islam. No religeous freedom there!
A dose of realpolitik 8:25pm on 17 Oct 2008 When the EU was the only economic game in town, sanctions had some influence. Unfortunately Russia now has pots of oil money, and is happy to prop up dictators from Venezuela to Khazahstan so EU sanctions were only counter productive.
Too much paperwork 00:48am on 30 Sep 2008 Send all the eurocrats and euro MPs home for a year. Assuming Europe survives (and I think it just might) then at least there is no more red tape generated.
Save our Strasbourg 2:51pm on 23 Sep 2008 Actually I thought yesterdays blog was fascinating. Re. the Strasburg situation, isn't about time that the French realise that the EU isn't their private fiefdom anymore, and there is no point in having two sites. In fact, given that English is so widely spoken, why not have only one official parliamentary language as well?
Bulldozing and bullying? 03:29am on 12 Sep 2008 If I was the Irish PM I would be suggesting that other countries have a referendum. France and Holland come to mind, as they have already voted against this treaty once. With a guanteed UK rejection he would soon have quite a few friends in the playground.
Reactions to Obama's 'lipstick' comments 11:15pm on 10 Sep 2008 Of course the whole thing is silly, but it somehow satisying to see the Democrats speared by exactly the sort of political correctness they have been promoting for years.
New story for China? 01:28am on 23 Aug 2008 Good article. China has organised a fantastic Game, so congratulations to them. But, it is a Communist dictatorship and so inevitably will use sporting success to boost its own internal standing, just like the Soviet Union used to do. Or East Germany. Secondly, school books in China are full propaganda of how China was humiliated before the Comminusts came along, though they are strangely silent on the (worse) sufferings during the Mao period. This is why China has a "victim" culture.
Latin fancy lights my fire 00:59am on 21 Aug 2008 Typical FIFA, they have way, way to much influence over football and only seem to care about defending their status. Thankfully they gave way over this and we have had some fantastic matches. Great article!
Ireland questions EU course 12:45pm on 20 Jun 2008 Maybe Cowen is just very smart. If the Irish had voted yes he's Europes Golden Boy. Now they voted now, Ireland gets concessions they didn't get before. It's win-win. I wish Brown was as clever!

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