This entry was posted on
Friday, September 30th, 2005 at
9:43 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.
Stephen Green – the self-proclaimed ‘National Director’ of Christian Voice (i.e. one man in a shed with maybe a thousand newsletter subscribers) was on Question Time last night. He said many ridiculous things but, most importantly of all, he established that – in his tiny little mind – freedom of speech only applies when you’re criticising the government. More here (see comments) at Media Watch Watch. Also check out this reference to the legacy of Mary Whitehouse that made me laugh like a drain. Poor old John Beyer… he’s clearly been out-done in the religious nutter stakes.
Marketing focus group confuses ‘blogging’ with ‘dogging’. This may explain some funny looks in recent meetings.
Hit-and-run propaganda! Why is the Home Office holding a public roadshow on ID Cards in secret? So they can claim the ID Cards scheme has wide public support, of course. Watch this report from BBC Bristol. Some excellent work by NO2ID.
Note to self: start election campaigns on new sites with at least 6 months lead time
Heh. They got me. Channel 4’s upcoming ‘adult’ channel is a channel for adults. I am really, really, really, really looking forward to seeing The Daily Show on a regular basis. Click here to see some of what you’re missing.
More lies and ‘values’ from the coalition… our ‘intervention’ in Iraq did not provoke terrorism, but releasing more photos of abuse in Abu Ghraib will provoke terrorism. I love that ‘picking the wound’ comment from Gen. John Abizaid. He should complain to his bosses, who delayed their release, thereby ensuring that this creates the image that ‘this is the sort of stuff that is happening anew’. Oh, they also either ordered the torture or created an environment in which it was seen as acceptable, but we’ll let that pass for now because that would lead to the obvious conclusion that the Bush administration itself provokes terrorism. (Damn, I was trying to avoid that.)
Meanwhile… see what happens when you go beyond the one word ‘nonsense’
Also, read about the biggest story under the rug at the moment… U.S. Troops trading pictures of dead Iraqis for access to a porn website.
First reported in foreign press and the blogosphere in late August:
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/09/the_next_abu_gh.html
http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005/08/what-noble-people-what-noble-cause.html
It took a month before it finally began to filter into the mainstream western press:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2005-09-21/news/news.html
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050920glaser/
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/international/middleeast/28site.html
And then it was all over within days (well, hours, really):
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/28/web.photos/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5308836,00.html
That’s how it works, folks. Nothing gets done until the mainstream dares to report it… and then nothing gets done. Until, of course, the mainstream dares to challenge it.
Here are some folks who are unhappy about that:
http://jamesb3.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/27/18648/3633
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/09/corpsesforporn.html
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/09/goryphotosforpo.html
