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December 31, 2004
Eclectic link dump #2
How to fix your Mom's computer. You know how it is; all us drivers are mechanics, right?
Every end-of-year list you are likely to need and some good news from FOXNews. I'm sure it's all true.
Technorati - New Year's Resolutions 2005: Read blogger resolutions and add your own.
Photos and Videos from the aftermath of the Asia Tsunami
Eyewitness accounts via Guardian Unlimited
Briton in Sri Lanka: I surfed the tsunami
Comparing the death count from the Tsunami to the deaths at the World Trade Center
Westboro Baptist Church: "Thank God for Tsunami & 2,000 dead Swedes"
Won't somebody please think of the (white) children?
Gadflyer - WSJ, Washington Times capitalize on tsunami tragedy: Note how 'stingy' is in quotes in the first graph and 'the United States and other Western nations' is not. That's because Egeland referred to 'wealthy states' and 'donor states,' but at no time did he single out the United States. In fact, when a reporter asked Egeland to name the countries he believed to be "stingy," he pointedly declined to do so (you can stream the 48-minute press conference with RealPlayer and see for yourself).
Note also how the dreadfully wounded and maligned Bush administration is forming its own aid coalition, as the U.N. obviously can't be trusted to run the show.
New York Times - Are We Stingy? Yes: The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35 million, and we applaud Mr. Bush's turnaround. But $35 million remains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid. According to a poll, most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent.
Independent - Blair refuses call to convene G8 summit: Mr Blair's support for the UN is in marked contrast to President George Bush's announcement yesterday that a core group of donor countries - the US, India, Australia and Japan - would co-ordinate the effort. The US belatedly added the UN to that group last night.
Oh my God! Do I actually spy a pair of testicles? (Aaaand moving Right along...)
Guardian - A state of chaos: George Bush has purged the last of his father's senior advisers, handing over control to his neocon allies.
Greg Mitchell - Some Readers Want to Lock Up Al Neuharth: Apparently, it is now an act of treason to offer an editorial opinion on the Iraq war that goes against the conventional wisdom.
Curse the liberals and their callous attacks on magnetic ribbons!
OK, I'm done. Avery Ant and his One Minute Rant should carry you over into the New Year. If not, the following should keep you out of trouble...
Stuff:
De-metricate some road signs
Help to sabotage some IKEA posters
View some photographs from the Arkansas State Prison (circa 1915-1937)
Psst! Wanna buy a watch?
Music and Video:
Dancing Transformers!
Narcolepsy explained in song
Get jiggy and downright weird with Darth Vader
I Am a Liberal (read more about this last movie here)
Posted by Manic at 9:56 AM | Comments (1)
Carriers & Barriers - Condoms, AIDS and the HIV Virus
Thanks to this reworked tract by Jack Chick and this pamphlet from 'Truth' For Youth Teh Kids now 'know' that the AIDS virus is so small that it can pass through teeny-tiny holes in latex condoms.
Summary:
- The assertion that AIDS/HIV can pass through latex condoms is a false one; a lie based on cherry-picked/misinterpreted science, pseudo-science and - in some cases - studies that simply don't exist.
- A life-or-death medical problem is clearly being used to push a moral agenda.
- Studies focusing on science are being suppressed; education based on religious belief is being pushed.
- Granted, abstinence is the only 100% effective way to avoid STDs, but this 100% figure is based on the assumption that abstinence itself is totally reliable. Catholic priests have trouble with abstinence; teenagers are far more prone to a breakdown of willpower.
- Abstinence-only education results in teenagers not being educated in the correct use of condoms, so when a willpower-failure occurs, condoms are used improperly or not at all.
- There is no proof whatsoever that condoms allow passage of HIV/AIDS. Granted, there is the possibly of imperfections, but the risk of not using condoms or using them improperly is far, far greater (see above).
Further Reading:
Pros & Cons - Voices on the Church's Condoms Policy
Bush on Condoms and AIDS
The Silver Ring Thing - The Lies of Denny Pattyn
Guardian - Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids: The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which HIV can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk... In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids."
BBC - Sex and the Holy City: Panorama has travelled across four continents to talk to those directly affected by the Pope's conservative teachings on sex. The team has discovered that the Catholic Church - contrary to mainstream scientific opinion - is claiming that condoms have microscopic holes in them which allow the HIV virus through. The World Health Organisation has condemned this view as dangerous.
LA Weekly - Bush's War on the Condom: But in May (2002), at the U.N.'s Special Session on Children, Bush formed an unholy alliance with Iraq and Iran - you remember, two-thirds of the "axis of evil" - to successfully eliminate from the official declaration any references to the right of the world’s children to "reproductive health services and education," including condoms for HIV prevention... Bush (also) threatened countries with trade and aid reprisals if they didn't toe the no-condoms, abstinence-only, anti-abortion line in the vote to weaken the U.N.'s commitment to providing life-saving information to those young women... And, here at home, Bush - under the direction of political commissar Karl Rove - has been systematically placing HIV-prevention efforts into the hands of the Christian right - which is pushing the censorious line that abstinence before heterosexual marriage is the only permissible form of HIV-prevention education - and putting condom opponents i
Posted by Manic at 9:39 AM | Comments (4)
December 30, 2004
Climate Change, Tsunamis, and The Rapture
Oh, you are so going to love this...
From Joel Makower: A neocon climatologist... has condemned "environmental experts busily creating links between the recent tsunami and global warming" (thought no such claims are being made). Others are busy blaming a lack of an early-warning system (see also) on a funding drain caused by - you guessed it - those same global warming fantasists.
Louis Hissink: This is due to presumably a lack of funding to earthquake science etc, since most science funds are being directed to "Global Warming". So in an extremely peverse way, one could blame the death toll on the Global Warming lobby and the IPCC... In Short, the tragic loss of life from this latest natural catastrophe, would have been far less if funding for the geosciences, in preference to climate, had been greater. Putting it bluntly, the Greens and their fellow travellers must accept responsilibility (sic) for the loss of life on December 27, 2004 from the tsunamis of that day.
Louis also suggests that "a meteor impact off Sumatra" may have been the driving force behind the tsunami. Presumably because this ties in cosily with your average Rapture theory concerning big-ass rocks falling from the sky (more here, here, here and here).
Not that big-ass rocks falling from the sky don't fit into my own world-view. I blogged a small concern about them just yesterday. But I can tell you 100%-of-fact-and-for-true that a meteor did not cause this tsunami. Not because I'm so arrogant that I think I can predict God's every move, but because I know the difference between a meteor and a meteorite.
I won't insult these people quite so much as to insist that creationism is a fantasy... but I would like to point out that they're creating fantasists out of thin air. But why is so much effort going into the painting of environmentalists as fantasy-driven nutbags? Well...
Bill Moyers: Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right - the rapture index.
Grist Magazine - Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment: Today's Christian fundamentalist politicians are more politically savvy than Reagan's interior secretary was; you're unlikely to catch them overtly attributing public-policy decisions to private religious views. But their words and actions suggest that many share Watt's beliefs. Like him, many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed - even hastened - as a sign of the coming Apocalypse.
Remember; it's the scientists who are fantasists. Quite possibly evil ones, at that. (PS - This recent tragedy is all part of God's plan as predicted in Revelations. You can track this and other new items that relate to Bible prophecy here.)
Bush cannot survive on fundamentalist support alone. Indeed, he would be royally screwed if people took the time to absorb just how much of a fundamentalist he is and what the possible consequences might be...
Guardian/Observer - Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us: Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world... The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
Please do note that Bush's version of national defence involves the illegal invasion of a country with no links to terrorism (until the US went charging in thereby creating a terrorist's playground). And a road-map to peace in the Middle East, of course...
Village Voice - Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move: While the language of apocalyptic Christianity is absent from George W. Bush's speeches, he has proven eager to work with apocalyptics - a point of pride for Upton. "We're in constant contact with the White House," he boasts. "I'm briefed at least once a week via telephone briefings... I was there about two weeks ago... At that time we met with the president."
Guardian - Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power: What makes the story so appealing to Christian fundamentalists is that before the big battle begins, all "true believers" (ie those who believe what they believe) will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during an event called the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation which follow. The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. This means staging confrontations at the old temple site (in 2000, three US Christians were deported for trying to blow up the mosques there), sponsoring Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, demanding ever more US support for Israel, and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/ European Union/France or whoever the legions of the antichrist turn out to be.
Of course, these articles come from evil leftists (see: 'fantasists') who support the terrorists, so the information is not to be trusted.
Posted by Manic at 8:58 AM | Comments (2)
December 29, 2004
Murdoch: Fox-watching and Xmas Xtras
Come the New Year, I'll have to get around to building the early stages of The Anti-Murdoch Network. The Sun-watching blog may be held up by the general election, but I appears we already have some worthy Fox-watchers in place...
News Hounds - We watch FOX so you don't have to!
More on the War on Christmas...
Bob Ben from Insert Joke Here has a close-to-final round-up of War on Christmas links which leads us to A Suggestion for the Season and Bob Piper notes here that Ann Coulter has the following message on her webshite: To The People Of Islam: Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!
BNP Chairman Nick Griffin takes the ball and runs with it on his Christmas video, blaming "Neo-Marxist political correctness and Islamic fundamentalism" and stating that the (obviously very real) attack on Christmas has been getting worse year-on-year, and that this year has been "particularly bad" - so much so that "we are becoming dhimmi in our own land."
He goes on to state that Council Tax and mortgage schemes unfairly benefit Muslims and warns you that his people "see what's going on at the low level, in the streets and in the martial arts class.... and there is a significant section of the young Muslim population preparing for war against the people of this country" (and unless it's nipped in the bud, it could lead to civil war).
Posted by Manic at 9:44 AM | Comments (4)
Rumsfeld's Flight 93 slip
World Net Daily - Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane 'shot down' in Pennsylvania, contradicts official story: Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been questions about Flight 93, the ill-fated plane that crashed in the rural fields of Pennsylvania. The official story has been that passengers on the United Airlines flight rushed the hijackers in an effort to prevent them from crashing the plane into a strategic target - possibly the U.S. Capitol. During his surprise Christmas Eve trip to Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to the flight being shot down - long a suspicion because of the danger the flight posed to Washington landmarks and population centers.
The full transcript is here, just in in case you want to check that your tinfoil helmet is functioning properly.
Latest:
Moonie Times - Rumsfeld sparks conspiracy theories
CNN - Pentagon: Rumsfeld misspoke on Flight 93 crash
More
Related:
MSNBC - The Final Moments of United Flight 93
How Did United Flight 93 Crash?
More
Posted by Manic at 9:37 AM | Comments (1)
The Asian Tsunami
When something global happens, turn to Blogdex. Today it's full of useful quake/tsunami references, the bulk of which are presented here alongside a few extras I found along the way:
Someone has already set up a blog at tsunamihelp.blogspot.com with "news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts."
The folks behind this have also dumped and sorted a Wikipedia database to enhance the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake entry.
Command Post has collated a list of donation links. Speaking of which:
Asia tsunamis: Red Cross Red Crescent to launch 50-million Swiss franc appeal in largest emergency response in modern time (more at redcross.org).
Animation of the spread of the Indonesian tsunami
Hi-res satellite images of Kalutara, Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami hit
CNN - Donations to tsunami relief 'generous,' U.N. says: The United Nations' emergency relief coordinator said Tuesday that the international response to the tsunami catastrophe in southern Asia has been "very generous" despite earlier comments in which he called some nations "stingy."
Sounds to me like a perfect oppurtunity to attack the U.N. - but please note: The U.S. State Department said an additional $20 million in aid will be added to the $15 million the United States has already pledged for nations hit by the tsunamis.
So that's $35 million in total. Bush's inauguration will cost $30-40 million. Not including security. Stingy? Naaaah....
WorldChanging - What if there were a tsunami and nobody knew?: There's two possible explanations for this story. One is that Myanmar, with 1930 kilometers of coastline, numerous fishing villages and huts on stilts along the coast, and a common border with Thailand - where over 1500 are reported dead - miraculously escaped the effect of the tsunami. The other explanation is that Myanmar's famously secretive military government hasn't wanted to reveal the extent of the tsunami damage to the outside world... and especially to their own citizens.
Also...
Washington Post - Tsunamis' Toll Might Have Been Lessened - Experts Cite Lack of Warning System: The real tragedy, many experts acknowledged yesterday, is that thousands of lives in countries such as Sri Lanka, India and Thailand could have been saved if an early warning system similar to one that exists for the Pacific Ocean had been in place. U.S. officials said that they wanted to warn the countries but that there was no mechanism to do so.
Telegraph India - Experts jolted out of slumber: India could have had two hours’ advance warning that a wall of seawater was heading for its eastern coastline if the Indian Ocean region had a network of stations to predict the behaviour of tsunamis. But no such network exists because scientists believed there was no reason to create it.
*cough*
Asteroid scare exposes flaws in early warning system
First Strike or Asteroid Impact? The Urgent Need to Know the Difference (more here)
Latest News:
BBC Reporters' log: Asia disaster
All related news stories from The Independent
Dead still being uncovered as tsunami toll climbs toward 60,000
Some Blogagge...
Eugenics in a disaster zone
George W Bush to announce War On Nature
Isn't that already underway?
UPDATE - Photoshop: Bush claims tsunami justifies War on Nature
UPDATE - Read this sign. Please note that it doesn't say anything about para-sailing.
UPDATE - Thai newspaper documents government attempt to kill tsunami warning
UPDATE - See also... Climate Change, Tsunamis, and The Rapture
Posted by Manic at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2004
Last-minute stocking-stuffer
An inspiring true story for those of you who are stuck in the office this afternoon.
Chin up. Things could be worse.
Posted by Manic at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)
A Merry Christmas from Bloggerheads
I thought long and hard about what I was going to post for Christmas (well, 20 minutes at least).
It just didn't seem right to switch my brain off, point to a few happy/ironic links and be done with it. A message of hope also seemed misplaced.
Bush won. And the (by now very confident) right controls the majority of the bandwidth.
Frankly, it's all going a bit tits-up, but us leftist/elitist/secularist/socialist peaceniks - the very model of political correctness gone mad - have been significantly marginalised with the help of media owners such as the lovely Mr Murdoch. (We're all a bit barmy, in case you hadn't noticed. We seem to think that greed, fundamentalism and extremism are the main dangers facing us today. Our problem is that we don't appreciate the complicated nature of world politics. Happily, this can be solved if we approach matters in the simplest terms of Good Vs. Evil.)
So where's the hope when we're so visibly getting our butts kicked?
For hope, we must turn to the terrorists. Their greatest weapon is fear. This fear is further enhanced by governments that wish to exploit the threat for their own ends. These ends they seek and the means they use to reach them increase the threat of terrorism. That's how, with a few planes and bombs, the few have crippled the many.
For hope, we must turn to the Bush administration. They developed and maintained a massive swing to the right by using fears of an equally massive swing to the left.
For hope, we must turn to Tony Blair. He stays in power and is able to enact right-wing policies because he exploits the fear of a return(!) to right-wing government.
Can you see the hope yet? It is in there, you just have to look for it.
These. Machines. Are. Run. On. Fear.
And there's your hope, right there.
You still can't see it, can you? But that's because you're failing to hang onto it. That's because you're failing to use it.
Hope lies in numbers. Using hope can build numbers. And you're looking at the machine you should be using to build those numbers right now.
Obviously we're all heathen scum - so most of us won't have been to church for a while - but you may be familiar with a small fellowship exercise used at many a Christian gathering. Basically, you look to the people around you, find a stranger or two, and shake their hand. Or hug them. It depends on how full of the Holy Spirit you are. (This exercise works especially well at Christmas-time, as there as so many strangers attending church.)
Today, I looked up a few new blogs and I've offering them a hug/handshake via hyperlink. I urge you to do the same.
Meet timx. In this post he explains why he blogs. I was pleasantly surprised to find in this post a link to another blogger who already happened to be on my huggy-kissy list...
Meet Disillusioned Kid. He's a man of strong opinion who peppers his thoughts with links to relevant posts/articles. A technique you may well be familiar with.
Meet Exoplanet. His beliefs appear to be similar to mine, but on his blog he cuts back on opinion and primarily documents news items of interest.
Meet Samir, Eileen, Katie and Leanna. Their blog is kind of like a mid-point between Disillusioned Kid and Exoplanet. There are many news items of interest, but each post is enhanced with an opinion.
Meet Amber. She's currently serving in Iraq. Her moral is low, but she does find time for levity of sorts.
Meet Bizkitz. He works for the disadvantaged and has just returned from serving in Iraq. Recently he has pondered on the unique relationship between Bush and Blair and expressed concern over "aggressive projection of American interests".
So there you have it. I'm all hugged-out.
I wish you all the very best in the coming days, I hope you enjoy your toys and - as always - I would ask that you not consume more than is good for you.
Posted by Manic at 8:19 AM | Comments (3)
December 23, 2004
SWPP crosses the language barrier again
See some nice Turkish people appreciating the Star Wars Photoshopping Project.
Moments like this make me feel this good.
PS - Happy Festivus. We shall now pause for The Airing of Grievances...
Posted by Manic at 6:12 PM | Comments (0)
Torture: 'Bad Apple' defence falls to bits
Washington Post - War Crimes: Thanks to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of foreign detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA - truths the Bush administration implacably has refused to acknowledge. Since the publication of photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in the spring the administration's whitewashers - led by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld - have contended that the crimes were carried out by a few low-ranking reservists, that they were limited to the night shift during a few chaotic months at Abu Ghraib in 2003, that they were unrelated to the interrogation of prisoners and that no torture occurred at the Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds of terrorism suspects are held. The new documents establish beyond any doubt that every part of this cover story is false.
At this point I would like ot remind you that even Nixon managed a second term, but....
Posted by Manic at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)
White Stuff - last call
You have hours - mere hours - in which to cut, shape and document a tree for White Stuff:
White Stuff White Christmas Competition
Seems to me that it's a perfect use for all those scraps of unused Christmas wrap (or shredded government documents).
(Unless, of course, you've yet to wrap your pressies... or even shop for them. In which case my heart goes out to you and you are officially excused from entering.)
Posted by Manic at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
Satan Claus strikes again!
The Ultimate Insult brings us another big fan of Santa, who writes: You ever noticed how easy it is to transform "Satan" from "Santa"? Just move the "n" to the end. And presto! "Satan" appears... Hmmm... An internet Google search on "Satan Claus" [not Santa Claus - but SATAN Claus] found over 1,700 hits! Obviously, there are many that tie the two together. The rearranging of letters (called anagrams) to hide secret names or words has long been practiced in the occult.
Posted by Manic at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)
Tony Blair: Choking the memory hole
Guardian - Beith condemns Whitehall email destruction plan: The Cabinet Office has instructed staff to delete all unimportant emails after three months, insisting the move is just "good computer maintenance" and the timing a coincidence.
Independent - Shredded: Hundreds of thousands of government documents: Hundreds of thousands of secret Whitehall files are being shredded before the public gains the right to see them under the Freedom of Information Act on 1 January.
Guardian - FOI reports and resources is likely to be extremely useful if you're thinking about making a request for any scraps that will be left come January.
Posted by Manic at 9:27 AM | Comments (1)
Rupert Murdoch and the 'War on Christmas' Campaign
As with their backing of the illegal invasion of Iraq Rupert Murdoch's media outlets appeared to magically act as one this year with a corporation-wide assertion that The Left were attacking Christmas.
The general thinking is familiar. Murdoch wishes to assure the frightened masses that the only alternative to the current (massive) swing to the right is an equally massive swing to the left - where Christians will be persecuted or assimilated and everybody will take turns to hug Osama bin Laden. Because that's been our evil plan all along. We pretend to care about your liberties so we can destroy them. And we pose as lovers of peace because we're in league with the terrorists. That fact that we hate Jesus/Santa should be proof enough of that. (Oh, and it's those filthy liberals who have a dark agenda and overwhelming control of the media. Never forget that.)
You can be sure that somewhere inside the News Corp machine a memo was circulated in late November prompting what many outlets presented as a spontaneous campaign. (Because, damn it, those all-powerful liberals had gone too far this time!)
I for one would like to see that memo, but for now I'll settle for the creation of a single overview of the campaign.
Below are a few links I've gathered to show that Bill 'Hardcore' O'Reilly was well on the case. Below those are the entries I made when tracking the Save Our Christmas campaign run by The Sun newspaper in the UK.
Essentially, this post is designed to act as a starting point for those researching information on Rupert Murdoch's and the 'War on Christmas' Campaign and as a contact-node for others who were concerned enough to collect data on individual aspects of it.
If you know of any suitable links, comments or similar/better overviews, simply get in touch and email them to me or make a comment below.
Cheers all. And Merry Christmas.
Bill O'Reilly:
FOXNews - Christmas Under Siege: The Big Picture
New York Daily News - Christmas haters have an agenda
Salon.com - The Grinch who saved Christmas
FOXNews - Somewhere Jesus Is Weeping...
Search Media Matters for 'War on Christmas' for more.
The Sun:
Dec 9 - The Sun: All your Christmas are belong to us
Dec 10 - The Sun backs Santa Claus backing The Sun
Dec 13 - The Sun: taking Christmas on tour
Dec 14 - The Sun: staying on-message
Dec 15 - The Sun: 'Tis the season to be sarky
Dec 17 - The War on Christmas is global
Posted by Manic at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)
Banned Aid - a healthy response to Band Aid 20
Banned Aid (moderately NSFW) should bring a little joy to your heart.
I chipped in mainly because I thought "credibility-obsessed Sun journalist Dominic Mohan" should make an appearance.
Posted by Manic at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
Shameless plug for Paul
Own It - free intellectual property advice for London's creative people.
Posted by Manic at 9:13 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2004
ID cards: Don't worry, I'm sure it will all turn out fine
All we have to do is sit back and let our elected representatives do the right thing. Right...?
Europhobia - More on ID: Following yesterday's post, there have been a few more responses to the government's attempts to peer into every aspect of our lives. This will, after all, be dragging on for ages...
Posted by Manic at 5:26 PM | Comments (0)
Eclectic link dump #1
Santa! I want!
Santa? (gulp)
Here's a top-notch Matrix animation, a lovely message from Dave, a page by someone who's Proud to be an American, some classic tobacco ads and a bunch of cool portraits (click on any location to hit the mother lode).
All done? Good. Then let's go outside and write our names in the snow.
Posted by Manic at 5:07 PM | Comments (0)
News Corp declares War on Christmas
Mr Pot? There's a call for you on Line 2 from a Mr Kettle...
Bloody great isn't it? Murdoch's outlets undertake a global attack on the left, who they charge with taking the Christ out of Christmas, but the cards coming out of Wapping say Seasons Greetings instead of Merry Christmas and - instead of having a Christmas Party - News Corp holds a Caribbean Holiday Celebration.
Posted by Manic at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
Behzti
Ben comments on the play at a Birmingham theatre had to be cancelled following violent protests from Sikhs. This will lead you to this excellent post at Harry's Place and news that the play's writer has gone into hiding following death threats.
Posted by Manic at 10:37 AM | Comments (2)
Budd Inquiry: No favours, just lacking a conclusion
BBC - Calls for fresh Blunkett inquiry: The Tories and the Lib Dems are calling for a second inquiry into the fast-tracking of a visa application for David Blunkett's ex-lover's nanny. Sir Alan Budd found a "chain of events" linked Mr Blunkett to Leoncia Casalme's indefinite leave to remain application, but he could not say exactly how. Tory leader Michael Howard said "many questions" were left unanswered.
Mixed interpretations of Budd inquiry
Guardian - Worm in the Budd: The Home Office is either a poorly run department or else a department run by people with poor memories. These seem the only conclusions to be drawn from Sir Alan Budd's primly titled "inquiry into an application for indefinite leave to remain" - aka the David Blunkett affair - which was published yesterday.
Posted by Manic at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
50 squid White Stuff vouchers up for grabs
One day left. Get to it.
Posted by Manic at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
Attack on Mosul
Please excuse me for restricting my comments to a single picture. I may add more links as the day goes on.
Bush insists: 'Life in Iraq is better than under Saddam'
Blair pays surprise Baghdad visit
Reporter's log: Blair in the Middle East
Rocket attack on U.S. base kills more than 20
Hell in the North
Military was building bunker to replace tent hit in deadly rocket attack
Mosul death toll rises to 26
56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake
Bush sees hope in Iraqi election
Bush vows to pursue Iraq mission
Ten more years?: And, against a backdrop of continuing carnage, The Independent has learned a cross-party group of MPs has returned from Iraq convinced British troops may have to be deployed there for at least another 10 years.
And so the fight of Good vs. Evil goes on...
Pentagon Interrogators 'Impersonated' FBI- E-Mails: Defense Department interrogators impersonated FBI agents at the Guantanamo Bay prison to avoid being held accountable when they used "torture techniques" on a prisoner held there in the U.S. war on terrorism, according to FBI e-mails made public on Monday. Another FBI e-mail made available in the same package said that President Bush had issued an executive order authorizing a series of harsh methods for interrogations. The White House said no such directive existed and Justice Department and FBI officials echoed the denial. The documents were made public by the American Civil Liberties Union which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act.
FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques
FBI Agents Allege Abuse of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay
Washington Monthly comments here.
UPDATE - Oh, go on, then. One more picture for lunch.
UPDATE 2 - Back to Iraq 3.0 - Suicide bombing?!: I'm just stunned that insurgents were able to get inside and do this. This also makes the debate over whether the still-under-construction concrete dining facility was behind schedule moot. A concrete roof wouldn't have made a whit of difference. This was an attack from inside. How was this allowed to happen?
ADDED BONUS - A picture of Donald Rumsfeld actually signing his name and a Christmas message from the White House (nsfw).
Posted by Manic at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
BoyOBoy - Give Me A Weapon Of Mass Affection
Bwhahahahahahahahaha! This is pure genius. (Link goes to official site. 12.7 Mb Quicktime video opens in pop-up window.)
UPDATE - Also worth seeing; the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer.
Posted by Manic at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
Another big believer
Meet Ray Dickenson. He too wishes to bring to your attention the secret elite behind the BBC.
Posted by Manic at 9:28 AM | Comments (1)
We are now officially in pre-election mode
Myself, I've been in pre-election mode for weeks now... but today it's official. The Telegraph is predicting a snap poll, but the most likely date still appears to be May 5.
Ooh, here's an interesting quote...
Independent - Blair to ditch election campaign battle bus: Mr Milburn said the campaign will be "anchored" in the economy, and will promote optimism over cynicism.
And that nice Mr Campbell will be on hand to help.
FYI, the project I'm working on will most likely go live in early January. I'm sure it will be of enormous help to Mr Milburn.
Posted by Manic at 9:22 AM | Comments (1)
ID Cards, Abu Hamza and welfare fraud
BBC - ID cards plans pass first hurdle: An attempt to derail the government's controversial plans for identity cards has failed in the House of Commons. In the first Commons vote on the scheme, MPs voted by 385 to 93 to give the bill a second reading.
Here we go on the slow but steady sleep-walk to a police state...
Guardian - Voluntary scheme is prelude to compulsion: The new home secretary, Charles Clarke, warned MPs yesterday that the government would bring in compulsory identity cards once a voluntary system had been accepted by the British public.
Independent - Party leaders humiliated by ID card revolt: The huge scale of abstentions by both the Tories and Labour will be acutely embarrassing to Tony Blair and Michael Howard, who both pitched their personal authority behind the ID cards plans.
That may very well be, but - myself - I mostly see a lot of good men doing nothing.
No matter. Tony will get his ID card system, and today The Sun is there to explain why it's so important that he does.
The Sun - Strong stance: It is good to see strong leadership from Michael Howard over ID cards. He ignored the protests of some Tory backbenchers - and the doubts of several shadow ministers - to give his party's backing. By doing so, he spoke for the majority of Tory voters, for a poll shows that 80 per cent of them believe we should have ID cards to combat terrorism, illegal immigration and welfare fraud. Howard says the threat from terrorism is so great that it would be irresponsible to dismiss any plans put forward by the police and security services. The weak willies on both sides of the Commons should take note. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke rightly pointed out that ID cards will help to make each of us feel safer at no real cost to civil liberties. His opponents who talk about human rights forget the most important one of all: The right to live in peace. The question all the doubters must answer is this: Have you got a better way of fighting terrorists?
Yes, well you've got me there. We must make sacrifices in order to show terrorists that they can't mess with our way of life.
And it's just the terrorists, but welfare fraudsters this system is designed to defeat - so it's no surprise to find Sun favourite Abu Hamza on the front page today, as The Sun reports he's milking the welfare system in order to fund terrorists. Or something.
For clarity, we turn to Page 3... where Zoe (23, from London) thinks Muslim cleric Abu Hamza should not get any more handouts. She says: "He has some nerve threatening legal action. Here's a man who is accused of very serious crimes. There would be a public uproar if he got any more cash.
1. Didn't you know? If you're accused of a serious crime these days, you're more or less convicted. If you ever get a trial, that is.
2. Yes. A public uproar. Like the one in January where they managed to get just under 1% of their readership to 'vote' Abu Hamza out of the country.
Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Benefit fraud...
No2ID - FAQ - Will an identity card help eliminate benefit fraud?: The government has not provided evidence to support such a claim. David Blunkett went so far as to dismiss the significance of identity fraud in welfare, advising Parliament "benefit fraud is only a tiny part of the problem in the benefit system". The majority of fraud on the benefits system is through under-reporting of income, or non-reporting of financial and family circumstances. Benefits agencies worldwide agree that false identity is not a key issue.
Posted by Manic at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)
December 20, 2004
Evil, Santa, Evil Santa, and lots about the Interweb
Look, kids! It's Santa.
Michael Jackson's Thriller in Lego. The server is getting a hammering; your mileage may vary.
I took these two ideas and made a picture for you (see right).
Time Magazine's Person Of The Year is... George W. Bush. (Well, he's accepting it on behalf of Karl, anyway.) Also from Time; 10 Things We Learned About Blogs.
Blogs are analysed. Google Suggest is dissected. Gollum is diagnosed.
Prepare the tinfoil: The Real Reason the Government Won't Debate Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization.
Prepare to return to earth: A Taste of the System.
Aaaaand, prepare to waste the next 5 hours: The Guardian lists their "100 most useful websites".
Not on Blogdex, but they did catch my eye today:
The 12 days of Christmas Fire Safety is totally compelling. I'm sure the kids will love it, too.
I heartily recommend DEADhost for all your server needs.
And I'm far more likely to use this real estate agent now I've seen all the people they've helped.
Finally...
Conservatives Take on Christmas Cause: Emboldened by their Election Day successes, some Christian conservatives around the country are trying to put more Christ into Christmas this season.
Posted by Manic at 6:09 PM | Comments (1)
Curse us and our woolly thinking
I get emails most days. Some are worth sharing; others aren't.
This one is most definitely worth sharing, and was sent in reaction to I Believe In The BBC:
----- Original Message -----
From: XxxXxxxx@aol.com
To: manicATbloggerheads.com
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 11:19 PM
Subject: BBC
> THE BBC IS AN ELITIST ORGANIZATION,THAT EMPLOY'S ONLY
> FELLOW ELITIST'S(THEY ONLY HIRE IN THE GUARDIAN)
> THEY IMPOSE AN ILLIGAL POLL TAX ON EVERY BRITISH
> HOUSEHOLD.
> THOUGH THEY HAVE A DIVERSE(THOUGH ELITIST)WORKFORCE,
> THERE IS NO DIVERSITY OF OPINION.
> THAT'S ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BBC.IT
> WILL ALL END ONEDAY
Yes. We are all working class victims of the rich. Curse the elitists and their control of the media!
Posted by Manic at 9:33 AM | Comments (2)
It's hard to imagine a greater nightmare...
Woman charged with killing an expectant mother and cutting 8-month-old baby from victim's womb
Woman in court over baby cut from womb
Is this the kind of thing that happens when there is no governing moral standard? Where does this scant regard for the sanctity of life come from?
Posted by Manic at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)
Better get those FOI requests in quick, boys and girls....
Independent - Civil servants are ordered to delete millions of emails: Tony Blair was savaged over his commitment to new freedom of information laws yesterday as it emerged that civil servants are being ordered to destroy millions of emails less than a fortnight before they will become publicly accessible.
Can you say 'memory hole', boys and girls? You can? How joyful. Welcome to my world of wooly thinking.
Posted by Manic at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)
The War on Christmas: How it goes global
A quick answer to an important question.
Posted by Manic at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)
ID Cards: Charles Clarke steps up to the plate
Charles Clarke makes his case via Rupert Murdoch's Times newspaper...
Blair Times - ID cards defend the ultimate civil liberty: I believe that some critics of our proposals are guilty of liberal woolly thinking and spreading false fears when they wrongly claim that ID cards will erode our civil liberties, will revisit 1984, usher in the “Big Brother” society, or establish some kind of totalitarian police state.
Damn it, when will us naive peaceniks and naysayers just try to see things their way? As The Sun points out today; The Government is rightly pressing ahead with the scheme which will cut crime, fight terrorism and curb illegal immigration.
This must be done for our own protection (freedom is slavery) and only weak-minded fools ask questions about it (ignorance is strength). I do wish people would cut it out with Orwellian references, which quite obviously have no bearing here.
Posted by Manic at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)
It puts its bag on its head and it gets into the truck...
Guardian - Ban on hooding of war captives: Defence officials are secretly preparing to ban British forces from placing hoods over the heads of prisoners, a method which became notorious because of the treatment of Iraqi detainees.
Welcome to British custody. Please excuse us as we strip you of your identity; it makes it easier for soldiers to treat you as an object. Now please lie down for your pre-interrogation kicking.
I direct you once again to The World Press Photo Of The Year that almost nobody has seen for some strange reason and Something Funny Happened On The Way To Abu Ghraib.
Posted by Manic at 9:07 AM | Comments (0)
Support the troops!
BBC - Rumsfeld faces Iraq letters row: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has pledged to personally sign letters of condolence to the families of American soldiers killed in action. He spoke shortly after his admission that he had used a machine to sign letters to relatives of more than 1,000 troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For some reason I'm reminded of this quote from The Simpsons...
"They let me sign checks with a stamp, Marge! A stamp!" - Homer Simpson, Trash of the Titans
Posted by Manic at 9:06 AM | Comments (0)
The 'protection' of our liberties via indefinite detention based on 'reasonable suspicion'
Please excuse the shameless link-dump....
Independent - Severely disabled, mentally ill: the truth about Broadmoor 'terrorist' emerges: He is known to the outside world only as "P". Nearly two years ago, he was arrested without charge and imprisoned as an alleged foreign terrorist - an al-Qa'ida sympathiser who threatens Britain's national security. But P is now in a mental ward in Broadmoor secure hospital, one of four men arrested as suspect terrorists since September 11 who have suffered a severe mental collapse. And he is an alleged terrorist who has no arms.
Guardian - Is a pair of boots all that stands between 11 untried detainees and their liberty?: It all hung on the boots, or more precisely when a boot is simply a boot and when it might be construed as a terrorist weapon. This weekend, with the government still reeling from a judgment by judges in the House of Lords that a key plank of its terrorist legislation is unlawful, The Observer can reveal full details of the allegations, which critics say 'are flimsy' at best, against the 11 Arabs who have been held for three years in Britain's highest security prisons, Belmarsh in south-east London and Woodhill near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.
Guardian - QC for detainees quits over terror law: A leading QC plans to resign from the panel of barristers representing terrorist suspects held without trial today, saying last night he expected others to follow suit in protest against a law he called "an odious blot on our legal landscape". "I would be surprised if I was the only one," said Ian Macdonald QC, one of the special advocates given security clearance to represent detainees before the special immigration appeals commission (SIAC).
Independent - More lawyers threaten to quit over Belmarsh: The constitutional crisis provoked by the Government's refusal to withdraw anti-terror laws is expected to deepen this week with the resignation of more lawyers appointed by ministers to represent foreign terror suspects at secret hearings. Five barristers are considering following the lead of Ian Macdonald QC, who declared yesterday his intention to step down from the 19-strong panel of special advocates in protest at the Government's failure to recognise the House of Lords' ruling that indefinite detention without trial is unlawful.
Guardian - Labour must act on Lords verdict : The law lords declared this unlawful. 'Indefinite imprisonment... on grounds not disclosed is the stuff of nightmares,' said Lord Scott. Lord Hoffmann's excoriating analysis was: 'The real threat to the life of the nation... comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these.' Lord Bingham believed the act, in effect, discriminatory. In short, Mr Blunkett had overturned core principles of human rights. The government is now required to bring the prisoners to trial, which it says it does not want to do because of the sensitivity of the evidence, or release them.
Maggie Thatcher's Underpants - Try or Release Belmarsh Inmates: The government claims its about security yet we are not at war and there is no imminent threat - certainly no more so than when the IRA were blowing up buildings in London. Internment and the violation of personal freedoms is only justified under the most extreme circumstances and life in Britain today is far from that.
Peter Gasston - Grand Hypocrisy: Eight out of nine of the most senior law lords in Britain say the law is illegal - the boneheaded Blair government says it is not. They say the law is there to protect Britain - but isn’t our very own Guantanamo Bay a grand hypocrisy and an incitement to attack?
LNR - Law Lords damn New Labour's appalling terror laws: It's all so terribly odd. Here we are, ruled by the Labour government that we craved as respite from the Tories, only to find that it has morphed into an anti-democratic, insensitive, bulldozing, preening, Republican-lite oligarchy of shits.
Posted by Manic at 8:56 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2004
BBC funding crisis hits photoshopping output
UPDATE - Fool that I am, I thought I could do better.
UPDATE - Oh and B3ta's new comp challenges you to make greeting cards. I made this for Sun-readers.
Posted by Manic at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)
White Stuff Competition - only 6 days to go!
The White Stuff White Christmas Competiton is ticking over nicely.
The idea is that you create a tree (ideally from cardboard and not abandoned railway sleepers) and send in a photo. That's it, really.
If you want to join in, you have until next Thursday to check out the full competition details, create your tree(s) and send in your entry.
There are three 50-squid White Stuff gift vouchers up for grabs and - as always - I've set this up so I have nothing to do with the judging, so Bloggerheads regulars are welcome to enter without fear of favour.
Posted by Manic at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
Bush to invade Canada?
You've already seen this, yes?
OK, please don your tinfoil hats.... now.
Posted by Manic at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)
The War on Christmas is global
The Sun has backed off on their Save Our Christmas campaign. Perhaps Ben was right and the whole thing was meant to occupy minds that otherwise would dwell on the Blunkett affair. Or perhaps they're simply running out of ammunition. The best they can manage today is vandals who cut down a Christmas tree and some schoolchildren who have been banned from wearing tinsel around their neck. Instead, they're using a lot of space demonising Kimberly Quinn/Fortier (there's a large 'Fatal Attraction' centre-spread, casting her as a "wicked witch" out to destroy his career) and laying the grounds for Blunkett's triumphant return.
Then again, this link from Peter suggests that this is a seasonal - and global - event designed to use Christianity's greatest PR asset to demonise the left:
Metafilter - Annual airing of grievances
Then-then again-again, it could be both. Rebekah Wade isn't beyond multi-tasking in her role as Willing Servant of Evil.
More: Christmas with the Murdochs
Posted by Manic at 9:27 AM | Comments (2)
Detention without charge or trial: it stops you getting blowed up. For true.
"The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke." - Octave Mirbeau
Independent - Law lords condemn Blunkett's terror measures: Controversial anti-terror laws championed by David Blunkett in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks were dealt a devastating blow yesterday in a historic judgment by the House of Lords. Just hours after he resigned as Home Secretary, Mr Blunkett had to suffer the fresh humiliation of seeing one of his flagship policies being dismantled by the law lords.
They ruled that Mr Blunkett's determination to suspend the Human Rights Act and imprison foreign terror suspects without charge or trial was the "real threat to the life of the nation". The law lords' opinion, delivered by an eight-to-one majority, leaves the Government little option but to rethink its key policy on terrorism.
The key quote from Lord Hoffmann had me cheering at my television yesterday. Here it is in full:
"The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these." - Lord Hoffmann
The response from the government is that the law has been legitimised by lower courts, but this ruling by the Lords is irrelevant because - in the end - it is for parliament to decide. How joyful it is, then, that parliament is not weighted in favour of the man driving this hayride to hell and that MPs are free to decide and not prone to pressure from the whips. Or constituents whipped up into a fearful frenzy by the press.
Speak of the devil... here's the response from Rupert Murdoch. And by that I mean the unofficial response from Downing St. Please note that it yet again casts anybody who opposes Blair's policies as being crazy...
The Sun - Loony Lords: Day One of his new job and Home Secretary Charles Clarke finds out exactly what he's up against. Eight Law Lords make a ludicrous ruling that the anti-terrorism law passed after 9/11 is wrong. Lord Bingham declares that the law contravenes human rights because it discriminates against foreigners. It has clearly escaped his notice that al-Qaeda is largely made up of Saudis, Iraqis, Syrians, Jordanians and Afghans, not people born in Bolton, Bedford or Bournemouth. He then declares that holding terrorist suspects without trial is "disproportionate to the threat it is meant to counter". Is he potty? How could it be disproportionate to the destruction of London with a dirty bomb, or a chemical or biological attack that might kill thousands? Lord Hoffman makes the disgraceful claim that the real threat is not terrorism "but laws like these". Our new Home Secretary knows better than to listen to this piffle from the Lords.
Yes. I'm in total agreement. And when I grow up, I'm going to Bovine University.
Note the ever-present invocation of 11/9 (and please note correct formatting of date). Note that the threats they claim make draconian measures such as detention without trial totally proportionate have themselves been blown out of proportion by this government and by newspapers under the control of Rupert Murdoch.
But... but.. but.. have we forgotten that these men can go home at any time?
Go home to what? The threat of persecution, torture or perhaps death?
Sure. They deserve it. They're terrorists.
Oh, really? And where's your proof?
Guardian - Who are held, and why?
Here I should point out that you should not fall into the trap of saying things like; "I suppose the intelligence that condemns these men is as reliable as the intelligence that told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction"... as the real issue over said intelligence in that case was that it was not the intelligence at fault, but the US and UK governments corrupting, shaping, interpreting and cherry-picking intelligence to come up with the 'evidence' they required.
But...
This same corruption of intelligence can now lead to us receiving intelligence that appears direct, undiluted and reliable... but may very well have originated from the attachment of a car battery to a man's carefully oiled genitals.
Don't forget that evidence obtained under torture is admissible in our courts. Should these men ever get anything approaching the appearance of a trial.
Blair bleats constantly about the only justification he has left for the illegal invasion of Iraq... the importance of bringing democracy (and therefore stability) to the Middle-East. Presumably via the process of proximal osmosis.
Meanwhile, at home, civil liberties, justice and democracy are subverted for the greater good. But only to a point. Tony Blair knows this is a slippery slope he's on, but he's confident that he can control matters.
And I'm sure we'll all sleep better knowing that.
SIDEBAR - You may have read through all of this and agreed with it, but still held the notion that at least Britain doesn't torture people. You may need to abandon that notion one day.
UPDATE - Lotsa discussion on this over at Europhobia and a charming follow-up outburst here.
UPDATE 2 - BBC - Anti-terror ruling: Your reaction (be prepared to weep in places).
UPDATE 3 - Independent - Belmarsh: a new affront to justice: The Government's refusal to withdraw its anti-terror laws has left Britain on the brink of a constitutional crisis that threatens centuries of hard-won civil liberties, it was claimed last night. Ministers were warned that their unprecedented defiance in the face of a clear ruling by the country's highest court has set the executive on a collision course with the judiciary.
Posted by Manic at 9:25 AM | Comments (4)
December 16, 2004
The best defence is to be downright offensive
Independent - Australia to impose 1,000-mile 'terror exclusion zone': In a controversial and possibly illegal step, Australia plans to intercept and board ships on the high seas if it believes them to be a terrorist threat.
What a clever idea. It's bound to ensure the safety of Australians and foster goodwill with neighbouring countries. That's why Johnny is George W. Bush's faaaaaaaaaayvrit deputy.
Posted by Manic at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)
Kerik spills his evil seed at Ground Zero
New York Times - Apartment Said to Have Been Scene of a Kerik Affair: An apartment in Battery Park City that former Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik secured for his personal use after Sept. 11 was originally donated for the use of weary police and rescue workers who were helping at ground zero, according to a real estate executive who has been briefed about the apartment.
Independent - Bush ally used Ground Zero rescue crew flat as a love nest: The murk surrounding Bernard Kerik, whose nomination to be homeland security chief by President George Bush fell apart a week ago, thickened yesterday amid reports he used an apartment that had been donated for use by exhausted 11 September rescue workers for conducting his extra-marital liaisons.
New York Times - Mystery Woman in Kerik Case: Nanny: One secret after another has tumbled out since the collapse of Bernard B. Kerik's nomination as homeland security secretary - an undisclosed marriage, clandestine love affairs, unsavory business ties and unreported gifts.... Yet six days after Mr. Kerik withdrew his nomination, citing "questions about the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ," the figure central to the scandal - the nanny - remains a complete mystery.
But you can be certain the nanny exists. Just as you can be certain that it's far better Kerik go because of a minor irregularity over an employee than for anything else he may have done.
Posted by Manic at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)
David Blunkett resigns... and topless women weep
Ahahahahahahahahaha! I knew it... I knew it!
Today, Page 3 lovely Katie (19, from Liverpool) gets her funbags out to express how utterly devastated she was to hear that David Blunkett had quit. She says: "I think it's terrible that a man who has done so much for the country has felt it necessary to leave public office. Blunkett was one of the few Home Secretaries prepaed to get tough on issues that matter to ordinary people - asylum, terrorism and law and order."
I agree. It's a great tragedy. Surely Tony Blair has established that it's not a resigning matter to inadvertently or (ahem) subconsciously influence civil servants and accidentally get the desired result.
No matter. The Sun is already busy building the rep of "crime-fighter Clarke" as they go about the messy business of the autopsy. The results of which are as follows:
David Blunkett was a man who cared too much. Loved too much. He was also a brilliant home secretary who tackled The Issues that matter most to Rupert Murdoch the public. Sadly, he had struggled through adversity only to be brought down in flames. Not because of any impropriety on his part, oh no... but all because of the vindictiveness of a bitter and twisted woman. One can't help but draw parallels to the story of the biblical hero Samson etc. etc. etc.
Posted by Manic at 9:18 AM | Comments (5)
December 15, 2004
Charles Clarke is the new home secretary
Guardian - Clarke goes to home office: Tony Blair moved quickly this evening to fill the political vacuum created by David Blunkett's resignation, appointing Charles Clarke home secretary and Ruth Kelly education secretary.
*sigh*
Oh well. I may as well get started...
Posted by Manic at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
Shark attack!
Also released today: Kitty Racers
Posted by Manic at 5:53 PM | Comments (0)
David Blunkett: it's all going tits-up
It seems such a shame after such a well-managed outing, but things don't look good for our loved-up (and beloved) home secretary.
Guardian - Blunkett tells how love affair 'went very badly wrong': David Blunkett yesterday broke his public silence on the affair that threatens his political career as concern grew among Labour colleagues that his short-term survival in office may be overshadowed by long-term damage to his reputation for sound judgment.
Independent - Blunkett is unbalanced and should quit, says Labour MP: David Blunkett appears "quite seriously unbalanced" and should resign as Home Secretary, a Labour MP said today. The call followed reports that under-pressure Mr Blunkett stunned Labour MPs by singing Fred Astaire's Pick Yourself Up at a Christmas party. Bob Marshall-Andrews joined fellow backbenchers in urging the Home Secretary to go after claims a second visa for his ex-lover's nanny was "fast-tracked".
(Cheers to Joe for the latter link.)
BBC - Blunkett sings of starting over: And veteran backbencher Gwyneth Dunwoody suggested the home secretary might ask if he was doing the job he was paid for properly... The pressure is certainly building on Mr Blunkett on a number of fronts... There is now widespread speculation in Westminster that next week might, one way or another, be crunch time for the home secretary.
1. I'll field that last one. I quote: "When a man loves a woman (he) can't keep his mind on nothing else."
(This is, of course, a double negative... so technically - in the view of Percy Sledge at least - Mr Blunkett isn't unable to keep his mind on the job.)
2. I'll save Private Eye the trouble: "To fast-track one visa may be regarded as a misfortune... but to fast-track two seems like carelessness."
3. This is all very strange. People who are on Blair's team aren't normally fitted up for a jacket with buttons in back. That treatment is reserved for people who leave his team. Like the 'somewhat peculiar' Robin Cook and that 'rather unstable' woman, Clare Short.
Are we watching Mr Blunkett implode before our very eyes... or have the liberal journalist scum learned a trick or two from our Great Leader?
UPDATE - Stick a pitchfork in him. He's done...
BBC - Blunkett quits as home secretary
Posted by Manic at 5:24 PM | Comments (6)
The Sun: 'Tis the season to be sarky
Today Page 3 girl Ruthie (19, from Kent) is outraged to hear a Christmas fan had been sent hate mail for putting up decorations. She says: "It should be every person's right to celebrate whatever religious festival they want, however they want - as long as it doesn't infringe on others."
A good thing she added that last bit, as this report eggs on those who may wish to celebrate Christmas by shooting PC leftists: The Sun warmed the hearts of locals yesterday with a Nativity scene - in Cold Christmas. The tiny Hertfordshire hamlet saw The Sun's Save Our Christmas campaign with a poignant play celebrating the birth of Christ. It was another blow to jobsworths who want to kill off our traditions. Resident Bill Parkes, 53, said: "The Sun's doing great. If politically correct officials try to impose anti-Christmas policies here they'd be sent away with a shotgun!"
What was that I was saying yesterday about Sun readers being unlikely to do anything stupid?
No matter. Let's get back to what is so obviously an incitement to religious hatred.
The online report is kind of light, so I'll also be quoting from the print version: A poison pen nut has bombarded a string of families with hate mail - blasting their taste in Christmas decorations. The anonymous critic, who signed himself The House Doctor, posted letters to five households, taking issue with their festive lights. He wrote: "Your neighbours have to look at this crap - have some dignity. We don't want to look like a council estate." The families, all on the Mickledales estate in Redcar, Teeside, received the identical notes last weekend. In them, their lights are branded "cheap, tacky Poundstretcher crap."
They finish by appealing for the House Doctor to come forward. I refer you again to yesterday's post for an idea of how that's likely to turn out.
You have to read between the lines to see the anti-religious sentiment, but what stares you in the face here is the evil of elitism (which lives right next door to leftism, don't you know).
Here, Ben is left wondering what this latest Sun campaign is supposed to distract us from but, myself, I see this as more of a seasonal opportunity. A made-up story designed primarily to boost flagging sales. And demonise (cue dramatic sting) The Left.
Posted by Manic at 9:15 AM | Comments (4)
Merry Christmas Virus - WORM_ZAFI.D
I just got a copy of this new worm in my Inbox, and even the latest update hasn't detected it as a virus. Do watch out for it.
UPDATE - BBC - Virus poses as Christmas e-mail
Posted by Manic at 9:12 AM | Comments (1)
There's one trial missing...
... but it's yet to take place, so that's OK.
Famous Trials (link via The Ultimate Insult).
Posted by Manic at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)
For the dedicated followers of facism
I want to share the following from an exchange in this Fark thread about a New York art exhibition that was closed because one of the works featured a George W. Bush portrait composed of monkeys. GoodDamon's comments need to be more widely read, IMHO.
cthu1hu kicked it off by providing:
The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.
GoodDamon responded with this:
Here's my take on how this applies to America at the moment, point by point:
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Absolutely describes the current state of affairs. Right now, the neoconservative movement has successfully associated disagreement with the government with hatred for America, and prods the Republican masses (most of whom are far more liberal than they realize, on an issue-by-issue basis) into frenzied shows of nationalism.
Point one: Check
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
The disregard of the jingoists in the United States for the plight of the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisoners (even going so far as to just call them "detainees") has been shocking. Worse, when either atrocity is mentioned, the people who would prefer not to think about them respond - almost without exception, in my experience - with "well, at least we're not cutting off heads."
The logical fallacy required to make that leap is also shocking, maybe moreso. Simply put, explaining away one bad thing by accusing someone else of something worse in no way negates or mitigates the first morally and ethically unsound act. Torturing people is wrong, and no amount of severed heads will make it right. Imagine the very worst, most vile thing the enemy soldiers in Iraq could do to other human beings, and it still will not excuse torture on our part.
Point 2: Check
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
In some ways, we now have the ideal "enemy" in terrorism. Terrorism never ends, it only abates. An enemy like that is, by its very nature, undefeatable in the military sense. If you can successfully unify the people of a country against such a nebulous enemy, and convince them that military responses are the only means to effectively dealing with said enemy, then you have a war that can functionally continue forever (at least until the people rebel, which historically speaking is almost inevitable).
Point 3: Check
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
The constant push to "support our troops" (which in practice translates into "support the civilians who sent them there") isn't worth expounding on much. It's become so prevalent in today's America.
Point 4: Check
5. Rampant sexism.
Sexism, while still a problem, was on the downswing until recently. Unfortunately, with the ongoing efforts to undo Roe vs. Wade, and the stances against birth control, the pendulum looks like it's beginning to swing the other way again.
Point 5: Check, but only conditionally. It's not as bad as it's been in the past yet.
6. A controlled mass media.
The greatest coup the neoconservatives won was in convincing the people that the corporate-owned, corporate-managed, and corporate-controlled media was somehow liberal. Imagine for a moment that the voting irregularities in Ohio and Florida had garnered the kind of widespread coverage that the flawed Ukraine vote was exposed to; Ohio's electors could never have voted, and Florida would currently be auditing and testing all their optical scanning machines. Heck, at the very least the fact that today was the day the Electoral College voted would have been mentioned somewhere prominently in the newspaper, and would have been a lead story all over TV. Instead, we were subjected to the Peterson trial.
Point 6: Check
7. Obsession with national security.
Oddly, the obsession seems to go hand-in-hand with an inability to actually do anything about national security. A lot of noise (and color-coded charts) are being made about this all the time, but if anything were actually done, anything effective, people would stop being afraid.
Point 7: Check
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
God help us (heh), for the first time in our history the religious nuts have a monopoly on all three branches of our government.
Point 8: Check
9. Power of corporations protected.
By any community standards, I cannot, as an individual, dump billions of pounds of industrial waste into my local water table. I would rightly be thrown in jail. Corporations can do this with impugnity, because the perceived harm to our economy if we stopped them would be so great as to devastate the country.
This is an artificial situation. The current corporate structures allowed in the United States are given the legal status of people without suffering the legal repercussions a person who acted in a similar manner would face. You cannot arrest a corporation, and our government has proven quite unwilling to use legal remedies that are available to it. I can count on one hand the number of large corporations that have been banned from doing business (jail time) or disincorporated (death penalty).
Point 9: Check, big time.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
As with sexism, things aren't as bad as they once were...yet. The efforts underway to dismantle the unions are starting to have an effect, though. We all know unions aren't perfect and are open to corruption, but they're the best solution we have right now, and we're beginning to lose them.
Point 10: Check, conditionally.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
This one makes me want to scream. How, how, how could the people of the United States, even a significant minority of them, have been convinced that intellectuals (smart people) are their enemies? I've heard several farmers on television decry the "intellectuals" who don't know what it's like to work out in the "real world." These people wear clothes manufactured using a smart person's methods, wear eyeglasses that a smart person created (and another smart person fit to their eyes), use cars and other internal combustion engine-powered vehicles invented by smart people (and in the case of Francois Isaac de Rivaz, inventor of the first reciprocating internal combustion engine, French-sounding smart people). They eat pop-tarts, use microwaves, and watch television. They wallow in the wonders that intellectuals have brought them, while deriding them for being smart.
Point 11: Check (and AAAAAAAAARGH!)
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
This is pretty traditional for the modern Republican party. The only major development recently is the push towards Biblical crime and punishment. It's an odd thing when more people appear on television to rant and rave about men making love to other men than to decry the current levels of violent crime.
Point 12: Check
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Two words: Tom Delay.
Point 13: Check, and 'nuff said.
14. Fraudulent elections.
Point 14: Check, and now I'm crying.
That's all of them. Two of them conditional, the rest... Well, I'd say we're currently living under a mild fascism. I say "mild" because none of the points above have reached the more extreme levels, yet. And most importantly, I'm still free to make this post, still free to hold these opinions, and even to scream them as loudly as I can. It's not to the point where dissent results in disappearance.
Of course, if I don't make any more posts tomorrow, you'll know that maybe we're past that point, too. ;)
Posted by Manic at 9:04 AM | Comments (1)
Torture: It starts with a bag on the head
Independent - Who killed Baha Mousa?: Baha Mousa, 26, was working as a hotel receptionist in Basra 14 months ago when British troops surrounded the building and arrested seven men. They were