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An antidote to the fashionable hooey
Let's see. 10,380 violent attacks since 9/11 by Islamic jihadists who justify their actions on the basis of Islamic texts and teachings.
How many violent attacks since 9/11 by Christian zealots who justify their actions on the basis of Christian texts and teachings? Uh, none.
Major attacks: 9/11. 7/7 in London. March 11, 2004 in Spain. The Bali bombings. Several major attacks in India. Scores of thwarted plots. By Islamic jihadists.
Major attacks and thwarted plots by Christian supremacists? Zip.
As I explain in the book, this kind of talk by Gregory Green is not just stupid, although it is certainly that. It is dangerous, because it diverts our attention from the reality of the situation we're in, and interferes with sober analysis of what we can and must do to defend ourselves.
"Alumni artists prove anything but atrocious," by Robin Roup in the University of South Florida Oracle (thanks to James):
At first glance, Everyday Atrocities looks like a terrorist organization with a taxidermy hobby. However, it is actually a faculty focus exhibition in the Contemporary Art Museum.From the look of Gregory Green's pieces there is confusion as to whether he promotes or opposes violence. This is because all his pieces models of explosives. Green grew up in Europe in the height of the Cold War. His work, he said, is influenced by this time in his life where he and everyone around him lived in constant fear.
Most of his pieces are not displayed like traditional art pieces. A model pipe bomb lies on the floor in the corner with barely any lighting. A Bible with an explosive inside sits prominently in the center of the room. Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts. Green said his intention was for the pieces to be provocative and somewhat scary. As long as no one is truly frightened by them, he said, his pieces are still legal under the Patriot Act.
For this self-important twit to suggest that the Patriot Act has anything to do with his insufferable little "artworks" is just more self-aggrandizing paranoia.
Posted by Robert at January 20, 2008 7:44 AM
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The Bible Bomb. Yeah right. Please tell me no-one in their right mind will take this oaf seriously!
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 20, 2008 8:04 AM
Artsy types like, Gregory Green, will often say or do anything , no matter how asinine, to remove (and thus elevate) themselves from the perceived gross mundanaity the surrounding society. I know: I come from a fine arts background. His thought processes are no more than this and thus he can make moronic associations between Christian fundamentalism and bombs. It’s all nonsense pure and simple.
Posted by: descendantofacrusader at January 20, 2008 8:23 AM
Well, the brief of the 'artist' is not to think, after all, but to feel. And clearly many 'artists' do nothing except feel. Let this brave iconoclast, this fearless questioner and pricker of consciences, deface a Koran rather than a Bible, and put it on public display.
I wonder if Robin Roup though to ask Green for actual names of these 'Christian extremist groups'. Perhaps Andrew Sullivan can help them out.
Posted by: Dane at January 20, 2008 8:25 AM
I wonder why Green feels that he needs this.
Isn't the global warming hoax not already enough of a diversion from the war against islam?
at January 20, 2008 8:32 AM
Dane
Well, the brief of the 'artist' is not to think, after all, but to feel. And clearly many 'artists' do nothing except feel.
Hummmm? I would add more properly artists do in fact 'think' but more in terms of a 'sensual' rationality.
Posted by: descendantofacrusader at January 20, 2008 8:37 AM
"self-important twit" -- You're too kind.
Posted by: Goob at January 20, 2008 8:43 AM
Bonus hyperlinks w/ an image of the Bible desecration @ my LGF post;
USF Jihad Update: Bible desecration = terrorist chic;Posted by: Terp MoleAlumni artists prove anything but atrociousCheck out what the “artist” did for John Waters’ home... Unabomber terrorist chic-- charming.
Everyday Atrocities looks like a terrorist organization with a taxidermy hobby. However, it is actually a faculty focus exhibition in the Contemporary Art Museum.
From the look of Gregory Green's pieces there is confusion as to whether he promotes or opposes violence. This is because all his pieces models of explosives. Green grew up in Europe in the height of the Cold War. His work, he said, is influenced by this time in his life where he and everyone around him lived in constant fear.
Most of his pieces are not displayed like traditional art pieces. A model pipe bomb lies on the floor in the corner with barely any lighting. A Bible with an explosive inside sits prominently in the center of the room. Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but [But, BUT!] Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts. Green said his intention was for the pieces to be provocative and somewhat scary. As long as no one is truly frightened by them, he said, his pieces are still legal under the Patriot Act.
No word from Megahed on the piece’s authenticity.
at January 20, 2008 9:01 AM
To correctly illustrate his obviously incorrect point about Christians committing as much violence as Muslims, he should have included, alongside the Bible bomb, a Quran ,also with a bomb in it.
Do you think he might have gotten a bit more publicity with that? Perhaps more than just a mention in the boring Oracle?
Posted by: cumulusnine at January 20, 2008 9:43 AM
But is it art?
See Jacques Barzun. See Roger Kimball. See Jed Perl. See the taste of the cultivated, and that includes all the artists, indeed struggling, in this country who cannot stand this kind of thing, cannot bear to hear of what Tracey Emin or Jeffrey Koons or Karen Findley or any of the others who represent a type, a dreary type, that can be found at every level, including that of the gregory-greens who simply affix the word "art" and "artist" to their enterprise, and some of them -- often the worst -- make out like gangbusters, with an uncultivated but credulous, "eager-to-buy-art-that-makes-a statement" clientele.
Such artifacts as that produced by the keenly-attentive-to-fashion Gregory Green, not to the history of art (in this he is hardly alone). Instead his work, inattentive to history and the truth (if he argues that the IRA was based on "Christian doctrine" he is full, bien entendu, of crap), belongs not to art but rather to something else, to the rich history (especially but not exclusively in this country) of the mountebank's come-on, as he offers to the gawkers (hell, those gawkers can be people who will shell out millions for Jeff Koons and his fellows, so why would the gregory-greens of this world not follow suit?) exactly what those gawkers think they want or need, that correspond to their prejudices, the patent-medicine that cures everything, and this particular patent medicine soothes the taker or viewer because it explains, or explains away, an aspect of the universe (Islamic terrorism, and the texts and tenets that prompt it), that would otherwise disturb, with its transparent attempt to assure one and all that "everyone does it [terrorism]" and "what's more, Christians do it worse."
Yes, the mountebank's come-on as he sells his patent medicine, the raree-show barker's woof-woof, or, for that matter, some may recall as fondly as I do, that very last scene in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," the one where Glenn Headley is leading a group of Australian tourists, who have left their cruise ship to visit a bit of the olive-and-ilex hills of the Riviera, and whom she is about to fleece, but first wants to invite the participation of fellow con-men Michael Caine and Steve Martin: "Alright, boys, let's go get 'em."
Posted by: Hugh
at January 20, 2008 9:45 AM
Elsewhere in wacademia this week, Tunisian professor of Arabic @ UOregon peddles the taqiyah of soft Islam;
No culture should attempt to impose its beliefs on anotherJihadWatch Flashback: "I want the Sharia law imposed in my country"
...Each culture and philosophy has its pros and cons. More important than criticizing another culture, no one should try to impose his or her beliefs on another. In a free (borderless) world, anyone can choose to live anywhere...
at January 20, 2008 10:10 AM
This guy Green should stick to art and leave the intellectual stuff to those more qualified.
I think it was Jesus who said, 'It is not what goes into a mans mouth that defiles him, it is what comes out of it'. Green soiled himself...
at January 20, 2008 10:14 AM
"but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts"
More delusional imagery from the "artsy" wacky left. There is no need for them to actually provide supporting facts for such statements, their "superior enlightenment" provides all the justification they need for their trash called art.
Posted by: SoteriA at January 20, 2008 10:21 AM
"This guy Green should stick to art..."
-- from a poster above
You don't understand. That's not what he does. He's in business. He's an entrepreneur. Several hundred thousand people in this country call themselves "artists" and the same number call themselves "writers." With numbers like that, how do the good ones every make it? With great difficulty. The sheer amount of crap, and of those who produce, peddle, praise it, often overwhelms. And ignorant patrons who "want to buy art," and who range from the person who needs "something in blue" that would "look good over the couch" to the eli-broads and saatchis who pay extravagant sums for things their "advisors" and they themselves, now ridiculously sure of their own "taste," consider to be "cutting-edge art" and while the rewarded frauds smile and smile for Artforum, those who deserve attention and support become more and more disheartened and distressed, and with reason.
At least the Rich of Yore had better taste, or had better advisers. Look at what Duveen or Berenson advised, and look at the results, say, at the Gardner Museum, or in the collections of assorted railroad magnates, or meat-packing moguls, that ended up in the Metropolitan, or the Art Institute of Chicago.
Then look at what is in the "Eli Broad" or "Saatchi Collection." Look,and weep.
Posted by: Hugh at January 20, 2008 10:25 AM
"but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts"
Oh, really? Prove it, Green. My God you are dumb.
Posted by: darcy at January 20, 2008 10:25 AM
if he argues that the IRA was based on "Christian doctrine" he is full, bien entendu, of crap
by Hugh
Someone else in the exhibit focused on those who "wear headscarves for religious purposes" and included the KKK in her paintings. I wasn't aware that it was a religious dictate to hide your face as you commit crimes against your fellow man.
When pressed for more recent occurrences, the only one they come up with is Timothy McVeigh. Never mind that Christianity had nothing to do with his attack in Oklahoma City. Then there's the abortion protesters and those who murdered abortion doctors. Again, these people had no doctrinal basis for their actions, but that's irrelevant in the world of moral relativists.
Next we'll hear that MS-13 is a gang of "Christian terrorists"!
at January 20, 2008 10:35 AM
I'm 100% for freedom of speech (Free Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant!), but don't you cross a line into slander when you accuse communities of crimes that aren't even happening?
Or is it slander only if you lie about an individual's guilt?
It's clear that he knows what he's saying is false and feeding the mentality that, after all, we deserve to be bombed to smithereens.
at January 20, 2008 10:41 AM
HMMM Hugh, I suppose your right about the business aspect. If all art means is 'sell', then art has sold out to commercialism. Or many 'artists' have.
I am an artist, so to speak. I have no talent in my own opinion, yet I have been offered reasonably big bucks for my works, that are filled with iconography and symbolism, sort of Dali like. I don't sell anything. I don't paint or create sculpture for money. I will display, but not sell. If people want to see it, and they like it, great, but they cannot buy it. I guess that makes me sort of different from the business art people. I prefer not being one of the herd anyway... :)
at January 20, 2008 11:03 AM
Thank you, Hugh...
Here's a site I found about 3 years ago, while searching for "Master Drawing" books, courses, materials, it's called The Art Renewal Center. [I can't do HTML so you'll have to cut & paste.] Be forewarned, their site is VERY slow: http://www.artrenewal.org.
They have an online museum, and they feature folks they call their "Living Masters," living, breathing artists [in the true sense of that typically bastardized word] many of whom teach in their own studios or small private schools. The lost skills have been rediscovered and are [thankfully] being passed to a new generation. Here's the direct link to the "Living Masters" gallery pages: http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2003/Living_Masters/masters1.asp
Sadly, there are still no Living Master-teaching studios in my Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas region, but for other readers interested in home study, I heartily recommend checking out John Gordon's "New Master's" drawing course. [I'm currently working through it.] I found his site linked off a home schooling site, after YEARS of searching for the silver-bullet of art courses. http://www.newmasters.com/
Posted by: wholebrainer at January 20, 2008 11:05 AM
Gregory Green has been pushing his so-called art around for at least 15 years and with hardly a change in its presentation. It is usually referred to as "art on the edge" and in the past his so-called art has got him or the curator arrested . Green is part of that kooky art world that travels around with strange and provocative displays of which most of us could easily conjure up ourselves if we are so inclined IE, remember the crucifix in a bottle of urine
He even made a huge presentation on the unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Green is very anti establishment and left leaning. He would probably feel comfortable in one of those kooky parades in San Francisco.
In an art exhibit in Chicago, one of his displays showed numerous bottles filled with a yellow liquid sitting next to a menu to make LSD in 1995.
In some of his previous edge art displays the bomb was located in a dictionary that opened to a page that defined the word anarchy.
Like so many of these edge artists, Gregory Green more than likely spends all his time in this edge art camp and more that likely never ventures beyond what he has been hanging his hat on for way to long.
One of my closest friends is a retired art professor and has attended presentations from these edge groups. He found a great deal of it to be sure trash and the explanations as to what some of it represents were so narrow that he became bored easily with it. He actually found much of it to be insulting to truly practiced artisans within the art culture.
Posted by: Mackie at January 20, 2008 11:15 AM
Come on Green. Show some courage and some conviction in your art. Rip out some pages of a Koran, put a bomb in it and place it right next to the Bible bomb. Then take your exhibition out on the road and personally attend all events. Let's see which group hands you your head on a platter.
Put up or shut up!
I think we all know why he didn't do that to the Koran. He knows who the terrorists are, but he is a coward.
He reminds me of the guy who lives in his mom's basement long after he should have gone out on his own. He gives mom crap about every little thing because he knows all he'll get back is unconditional love. Get him out to the local bar, and he becomes all meek and cooperative because he'll get his arse kicked.
Loser
Posted by: tjhawk at January 20, 2008 11:47 AM
Personally, I think art for money is bad karma...
I gold mine local rivers to make an honest living. It is very hard work and most men my age would have a heart attack just thinking about it. I could make a living off of art if I chose. It would be a whole lot easier. In my view easy is not always best. I would rather work hard than prostitute any talent I have for money. I charge for labor, talent is free. I guess that makes me out of the mainstream...good, the mainstream stinks.
at January 20, 2008 11:55 AM
duh_swami,
Where is this river? Heh
at January 20, 2008 11:59 AM
The rivers are easy to find, Northern California...
The secret spots though, are not easy because they are secret. SHHHHH. I will never tell...LOL...
at January 20, 2008 12:01 PM
"previous edge art displays..."
-- from a posting above about Gregory Green [hereinafter "Gr. Gr."]
So that's what it is. "Edge Art."
"Edgy." Edge Art that is called that because, ou see, it "edgy." It "pushes the edge of the envelope." By an artist who tells us that he grew up in Europe "living in constant fear."
Of this blustering bugiardo one might do a turn on Browning:
"Gr.-Gr, gurrrh! There go, my heart's abhorrence/
Paint your damned pisspots, do!"
"Art" forsooth! "Edge Art."
Posted by: Hugh
at January 20, 2008 12:21 PM
Robert,
It might be interesting to draw your attention to the Turkish terror movement DHKP-C. One of their members, Fehriye Erdal, is walking around in Belgium.
Though they are Turkish and therefor presumably muslim, at least nominal, their group is NEVER referred to as a muslim terrorist group as their ideology is marxist and they have nothing to do with Islam.
For me this is a proof that not all muslims who are terrorists are referred to as muslim terrorists. The link with Islam is made by the so-called muslim terrorists themselves.
Cheers,
Jan
at January 20, 2008 1:30 PM
Is green one of the people that inhaled!!!!!
sounds like it.
at January 20, 2008 1:36 PM
Wait, Green is correct. Christian fundamentalist groups indeed commit just as many acts. There's Hamas, the Presbyterian terrorist group led by the Right Reverend Ismail Haniyeh; there's Father Nasrallah, the Catholic terrorist in Lebanon, and we're all familiar with the Anglican maniac of Iran, Archbishop Ahmedinejad. The list goes on.
You people just want to ignore reality.
at January 20, 2008 1:52 PM
Shorter Gregory Green: "It's all about ME!"
Posted by: Spiny Norman at January 20, 2008 1:56 PM
It is an inescapable part of the psychology of the artist to enshrine in their work what they consider to be important, interesting and beautiful. The things that move them. The things that characterize life. The things that are essential and defining.
They can't help it.
But having artistic talent is no guarantee of having spiritual talent, or spiritual strength or spiritual virtue.
You can be a pretty skilled artist and still be morally corrupt, mentally impoverished and spiritually depraved.
And it will show in your work.
Subtly or obviously.
It always does.
Posted by: joeblough at January 20, 2008 1:59 PM
Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts.
Apparently the thought did not occur to Green that if this were true, the exhibit would attract a crowd of Christian extremists who would bomb the building and murder him.
The thought didn't occur because he knows it won't happen.
Green is attempting to be an "artistic extremist". But his exhibit is self-contradictory and illuminates only a lack of talent, inspiration, and intellect.
at January 20, 2008 2:08 PM
Posted by: joeblough
You can be a pretty skilled artist and still be morally corrupt, mentally impoverished and spiritually depraved.Carlos Latuff?
You won't find a better example of artistic talent in the employ of a hateful and morally and spiritually depraved mind.
Posted by: Spiny Norman at January 20, 2008 2:12 PM
One has to admire Mr. Greens courage. He knows very well that some Christian terrorist group well likely issue a Fatwa against him for defacing a bible, yet he boldly put principle before fear when displaying his anti-Christian art work.
A real profile in courage!
Posted by: rational at January 20, 2008 2:17 PM
arghhhhhhh!!! The left will never cease their nutty campaign of anti-Christian defamation until they literally feel the sting of Islamists!
Don't they realize (the lefties) that their heads will be the first on the Islamists' chopping block?
Eurabia knows it all too well. I am sick of BBC International Radio explaining *DAILY* how to celebrate sundry Muslim holidays - I do not care! I've decided that Britain is a lost cause, and will therefore stop listening to this BBC drivel for good. I guess it's a matter of time until the Queen becomes the head of the "Islamic Order of Britain"...some absurd thing like that, correct?
Someone, anyone, please prove me wrong!
Thank G-d the USA will fight the good fight against Islamic domination. Let me rephrase that; at least I know individual Americans will fight, even if their government does not - say by doing something as abusurd as by selling BILLIONS of dollars of weaponry to Saudi Barbaria???
at January 20, 2008 2:44 PM
What's ironic about the phenomenon of "cutting-edge art" noted above (Gregory Green has been pushing his so-called art ...usually referred to as "art on the edge") is that while it may have had beginnings in actually counter-cultural movements, it no longer goes against the grain: Edge Art is cutting with the grain, not against the grain: it is conservative though its patrons and perpetrators think of themselves as radicals and revolutionaries. When Green cuts against Christians, he is going with the flow; to cut against Muslims would be truly to go against the grain.
This irony has something to do with the fact that Edge Artists feel "edgy" only when they are tilting against "the Man" and "the System" of their own society; and when you couple this fact with the non-white ethnicity of the vast majority of Muslims plus the 3rd World provenance and ambiance of their culture, you end up with powerfully inhibiting factors to the direction your "artistic blade" cuts. After all, no matter how "radical" and "edgy" you are as an Artist, to do anything "racist" would be unthinkable.
The other thing to point out here is that the paradoxically conservative counter-culturalism of Edge Art (particularly in the way they pride themselves on being "radical" when they condemn Christianity, the West, and "the Man" but utterly avoid criticizing Islam) is not just a phenomenon of some tiny minority of kooks who are subculture within the world of Art, but represents a broader thematic tendency among people in the Arts generally these days (actors, writers, artists, etc.)
Posted by: cantor at January 20, 2008 2:56 PM
As Rush Limbaugh once said, there is a simple definition of art. If I can do it, it ain't art.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at January 20, 2008 3:23 PM
Art Criticism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBHd3IywEE
at January 20, 2008 3:30 PM
...Christian groups commit just as many acts.
Green's use of the weaselly word "acts" takes him off the hook a little (he thinks)
He can claim he's only speaking of numbers of incidents. Trouble is, this would seem to equate holding a pro-life placard in front of an abortion clinic with bombing a subway train.
There are some who think "The difference is only a matter of degree"
I'd like to give them a 35 degree F bath.
Cute YouTube video, Hugh. I couldn't understand what the couple was saying, and yet, I could.
Those sheep in the pen spoke to me.
Put some red spots on some of them, and we'd have a real election year statement.
at January 20, 2008 4:02 PM
". . . but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts"
from the headline
Sure they do. But they're all covered up by the "vast right-wing conspiracy" so beloved by Slick Willy and Hillary. Everybody knows that the MSM, including the NY Times and CBS News, are controlled by Christian fundamentalist zealots.
at January 20, 2008 4:17 PM
The great 18th century English historian, Charles Gibons, said that one sign of the decay of a civilization is when Freakish in its art masgurades as originality.
Isn't that waht were talking about when we talk about Mr.Green's "provocative and somewhat scary insufferable little "artworks?"
at January 20, 2008 4:21 PM
In an amoral relativistic society, Green is pushing the edge. This is a good thing because more knowledge/enlightenment furthers understanding. Nothing is wrong or right. In fact, those that hold a different point of view are to be looked down upon because of narrow mindedness.
Isn't it curious that whatever directing the edge may be moving, it is alway away from virtue or good? I am not valuing virtue just noting the direction. So, by assuming the high ground of relativism they in fact pass judgment morally, on any alternate POV. This contradicts the core of their philosophy!
Luke 6:45
A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.
The real motive behind all of this is pride and recognition. Along with that fame and fortune. As much as they hate society they feel they need to be noticed. Remember the desire to have knowledge was an attraction in the garden.
Jer 17:9
The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
لوقا 6:45
شخص جيد تنتج من افعال حسنة طيبة القلب ، وينتج شخص شرير السيئات من شر القلب. كل ما في قلبك يقرر ما تقوله.
جيري 17:9
قلب الانسان هو الاكثر خادعه وياءسه الشرس. الذي يعرف حقا كيف سيئة ومن؟
at January 20, 2008 5:29 PM
As Solzhenitsen said:
"The line between good and evil passes through every human heart."
There's no need to wonder what side of the line the moral relativistic rabid secularists have chosen.
Posted by: Thanos at January 20, 2008 7:38 PM
God help me!
There are 4 Jehovah's Witnesses at the back door!
Hand me my Mac-10 and duck behind the bags of birdseed, quick!
Danged terrorists with their killer Watchtower pamphlets!
[Bursts of gunfire!]
Call the Moral Equivalency Police and reload, they're gettin' away!
Probably headin' back to Tora Bora.
(Or Intercourse, Pa. )
Posted by: profitsbeard at January 20, 2008 8:22 PM
Cantor: Thank you for your coherent and rational viewpoint on edgy, disaffected artists like Green. I got pissed off when I read the article and pretty much just called him a useless coward in an above post. It felt good, but was not very useful.
You provided an intellectual explanation about why Green should be thought of as a conformist wimp and not the brave radical of his tiny little imagination.
Your post generates a lot of thinking.
Posted by: tjhawk at January 20, 2008 8:52 PM
But the truth is that many people agree with this idea! I cannot tell you how many times I've heard people going on about how terrified they are of Christians and Christianity and yet refuse to say one word about Islam.
It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. And yet you cannot reason with them. Even offering a book like Robert's is of no use, because they *will not* read it. They *will not* listen to reasoned facts.
I am truly at my wits' end.
Posted by: Mo at January 20, 2008 9:20 PM
Christians acting like Taliban...So it begins
Scottish backpacker stabbed to death after creationism row
By Kathy Marksin Sydney
Published: 15 December 2007
A bizarre row about evolution versus creationism led to an English backpacker fatally stabbing a Scottish backpacker during a fruit-picking trip to earn money for their travels.
Alexander York, 33, from Essex, was sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail yesterday for the manslaughter of Rudi Boa, 28, a biomedical student from Inverness.
The incident happened in January last year at a caravan park in southern New South Wales, where York had become friendly with Mr Boa and his girlfriend, Gillian Brown. The Scottish couple had just arrived in Australia, and headed to Tumut, a picturesque town at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, to pick fruit.
Their neighbour at the Blowering Holiday Park was Alexander York, who had been in Australia since April 2005. The three of them got on well. On the night of Mr Boa's death, they had spent the evening drinking at a pub in Tumut, the Star Hotel.
Towards the end of the night, however, they became embroiled in the creationism versus evolution argument, and it escalated into a shouting-match in the pub. Mr Boa and Ms Brown were both adamantly opposed to York's Christian fundamentalist point of view.
Sentencing York in the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Michael Adams said: "Although this became perhaps a little sharp-edged, it did not really amount to anything.
"For some reason, however ... the offender's mood changed suddenly and he began to abuse Ms Boa and Ms Brown. There was no hint of a physical confrontation and what happened amounted to little more than a verbal contretemps."
The row had been defused by the time the backpackers left the pub separately, but all three were drunk, and tempers flared again after they returned to the caravan park.
Ms Brown told the court that York, who had been making dinner, attacked the couple outside his tent and delivered a single stab wound Mr Boa with a kitchen knife. York claimed he lashed out in self-defence after being attacked by Mr Boa.
He was found guilty of manslaughter but acquitted of murder, and ordered to serve at least three years in jail. The judge said he was giving him a relatively lenient sentence partly because of the accidental nature of the stabbing.
"I do not believe that he took aim, but rather thrust out," he said. "I think he knew that the knife was in his hand ... but he did not actually turn his mind to the potentially serious consequences of doing this.
"The offender's act was done impulsively and on the spur of the moment. I do not think the offender was aware of how seriously he had harmed Mr Boa."
The judge added that York was "a person of good character" and that the offence was "a complete aberration". York, unshaven and dressed in prison uniform, sat impassively as he was sentenced. Mr Boa's sister, Debbie, broke down when York was led into court, and during the sentencing.
A spokeswoman for the New South Wales office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said: "Justice Michael Adams QC took into account that part of the sentence has been served. Mr York is eligible for release in January 2009."
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article3253070.ece
Posted by: Kafir Nonbeliever at January 21, 2008 12:34 AM
Mo,
Even though I answered above in a philosophical way the battle is spiritual. The prince of this world has blinded those that quickly equate Islam with Christian. It does seem insane. I have pointed this out to people and their eyes glaze over as if you are talking in a language they don't understand.
That is the way it is for now. Keep talking without be obnoxious. I have heard, in the past, of people saying that even though they did not acknowledged I was right they though about it and changed their mind. Most are still in the dark.
John 14:30
I don't have much more time to talk to you, because the prince of this world approaches. He has no power over me,
2 Cor 2:16
To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume.
يوحنا 14:30
انا ليس لدي الكثير من الوقت لأتكلم معك ، لأن الأمير من هذا النهج العالمي. ليس لديه اي سلطة على لي ،
2 تبليغ الوثائق 2:16
الى أولئك الذين هلك نحن مخيف رائحة الموت والعذاب. ولكن لأولئك الذين يجري انقذت نحن الواهبه للحياة والعطور.
at January 21, 2008 12:37 AM
Kafir Nonbeliever-
Talk about cherrypicking an article to fit the theory...
Posted by: profitsbeard at January 21, 2008 1:12 AM
How can I get in touch with this Green geezer, I would like to find out about his research on his statement.
Posted by: marilyn at January 21, 2008 1:41 AM
Just to wash the taste of that fool Green out of our minds...here's a link to a page showing landscape paintings by a modern Australian painter, William Robinson (b. 1936) - notably 'Seascape with Morning Star'.
http://www.art.net.au/art-detail.asp?idImage=4831&idArtist=1297
I'm told he paints while listening to Bach fugues.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 21, 2008 2:25 AM
duh-swami -
think of it this way.
If you sold your work, every dollar spent on it(though you think it has no talent) is one less dollar to donate to terrorism or to bad art.
If you multiply these dollars....see where I'm going?
Your art could be a social service!
If you felt uincomfortable with this, you could always donate the money to a carefully-chosen charity.
at January 21, 2008 3:04 AM
When he says he is being "provocative, and somewhat scary" what he actually means is he is "I am trying to provoke a reaction from people who won't try and kill me".
He doesn't want to be provocative otherwise he would have put a bomb in a quran. And as far as Christians commiting as many terrorist attacks as islamists, he is just telling a huge lie, again, in order to be "provocative". He knows he is lying, we know he is lying. He must get his inspiration from Hitler.
What a loser.
at January 21, 2008 4:13 AM
carpediadem...You are right as far as money goes.
I have been told that some of my pieces could be purchased by private collectors, for big bucks.
This to me is a huge joke. I laugh out loud. The same thing happens when I look at one oz of gold in a dinky little vial...You mean, someone will actually give me $800.00 for 'this'?? Amazing. I look at my art piece and think the same thing. The world has gone nuts in more ways than one. Thanks for the advice though.
I don't claim my philosophy about this is perfect...
at January 21, 2008 9:22 AM
The nominal "offensiveness" (yawn) of Gregory Green's "art" is less important than WHERE it is currently being displayed-- University of South Florida.
This is the campus of convicted terrorism conspirator, Sami al-Arian... and (more recently) terrorism co-conspirators, Megahed and Mohamed.
It doesn't take an art critic to see the cynical motivation behind (New Yorker) Gregory Green's sudden obsession with a professorship at USF.
Posted by: Terp Mole at January 21, 2008 11:11 AM
"Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts"
What a Load of Lies!
Christians are instructed by God to preach the Gospel (Good News) to non-believers which allows them to exercise their own Free Will and choose to convert, or not to convert. Whereas Muslims are instructed by their prophet to preach their god, and if that person doesn't convert, to kill them; and Christianity's goal is not to control the worlds government, but Islam's is.
Violence for Muslims is a daily occurrence, and a sought after means to their ends. Christians don't burn and kill because someone made a slight against our God, because God can take care of himself, and in the end that person will have to answer to God. Whereas Muslims throw fits, spew hate, burn and kill, because someone mildly insulted their prophet, not even their god.
We as Christians don't target the innocent in the name of our faith, whereas Muslims believe that there are no innocents, thus all are fair game to their killings. Christians don't want to be at war with Muslims, we would rather preach to them and be at peace, and if we can't settle our differences, then we simply want to go our separate ways; but Muslims want to bring their war to us, purposefully trying to obliterate our way of life and our faith.
And Christians don't impose a barbaric legal system upon our believers and non-believes, we don't believe in honor killings, beheadings, or the cutting off of limbs for minor crimes, and we especially don't kill someone that may choose to convert to another religion.
Sounds like Green may be smoking way too much of the green stuff.
Posted by: champ at January 21, 2008 3:20 PM
Here goes another liar (green) who thinks everybody is stupid and will to listen to his blatant falsehoods that Islam is no worse really than Christianity. In reality, he's merely another idiot standing up for Islam for no good reason at all--certainly not a reason that will amount to any good.
I have news for this liar, since 9-11 there have 10,400 FATAL terror attacks perpetrated by Islam (and thousnads more and attempted attacks). There are 50 wars raging across the globe in the nakme of al-lah. Where exactly have Christians been committing thousands of deadly attacks? America? Egypt? france? China? Russia? South Africa???? Timbuktu????
Islamic doctrinal teachings per the Kuran teach Muslims to kill in the name of al-lah. For instance, "And when the forbidden months have passed, slay the unbelievers everywhere they are found..." (Surah 9.5).
In contrast the Bible offers the 10 Commandments written in stone among them is: "Thou shalt not commit murder."
Christian teachings do NOT support terrorism.
at January 22, 2008 11:34 PM
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