United States

Mixing It Up

You won’t be surprised to read that I thoroughly approve of miscegenation. One day the whole world will be beige. There will be no war, all corner shops will sell five-spice, and no one will be able to make a buddy movie featuring a funny black sidekick. It always made me smile that the genome […]

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Tandem For Sale

As announced prematurely back here by Jackie, here’s news of this month’s celebrity break-up. (But, according to the cover of one of the sleb mags in the newsagent’s George Clooney and Teri Hatcher may be involved in merger talks—denial here.)

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The American Disease

I would happily sign the Economist‘s editorial today on US healthcare myself (but for that paper’s irritating misuse of the word “America”). Many ‘Bloggers with an unthinking fetish for “market solutions” would do well to give it and the associated special report a scan: [N]owhere has a bigger health problem than America. Soaring medical bills […]

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But What Do You Do All Day?

Sorry about the thin posting so far this week. I’ve been busy. Surprisingly, considering it covers those strange games Americans play, there are items in The Onion’s sports review of 2005 that even Brits can find funny. I missed their “World’s Emotionally Strongest Man” report when it first appeared last September: During the show’s premiere, […]

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I’m Condi. Fly Me.

Hi! Welcome to the CIA Airlines check-in desk. Could I ask you to itemize your hand luggage as you place it on the belt, sir? Er, one holdall of shoes, running gear, and toiletries; one suitcase of casual clothes; one suit carrier containing three identical black suits and ties with matching Ray-Bans; one attaché case […]

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The End Times

You might have guessed from the thinness of posting here that I am busy at the moment, but the Anonymous Economist recommends this (non-free) editorial from the New York Times. I extract the first five and last three paragraphs: IF you believed Tom DeLay then, you no doubt believe now that the deposed House majority […]

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Cha Cha Cha

Here’s someone who is even more offensive about minorities than I am. And she’s funnier. And I bet lots of people want to sleep with her. If you’ve got a Quicktime player on your computer, you must watch the trailer for Sarah Silverman’s new film.

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Blamestorm

There’s been some interesting debate on the ‘Blogs I read about the slinging around of blame in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Before hosting a more-heat-than-light comment scrap, Harry’s Place has posted a couple of extended contributions from readers, one broadly critical, one trying to put events in context. Yesterday Norm drew attention to a […]

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Says It All

Who Knew? has a telling post. Imagine: you have invested your life savings in a multinational corporation, who would you choose to run, respectively, its US and UK arms: Bill Clinton and Tony Blair or George W Bush and John Major? Whatever happened to the Right’s ability just to manage serious stuff competently?

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Why Carl Hiaasen’s Imagination Doesn’t Have To Work Too Hard

Currently these are the top five most popular stories on Florida’s Local6 news Website: Giant ‘Blue Bird’ On Roof Upsets Neighborhood Killer Bees Found In Louisiana Cops: Man Fabricated Hitchhiker’s Death To Make Wife Leave Giant ‘Bra Fence’ Sparks Controversy Woman Allegedly Sells Sexual Favors To Elderly For $4 [LUNCHTIME UPDATE:] Noteworthy headlines in the […]

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A Lie

BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme five minutes ago in its report on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of The Bomb: “In the United States there was a steely determination to triumph [in the war] in the Far East by whatever means, at whatever cost.”

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Life And Death In Daily Mail World

Okay, so this post links to an article in the Telegraph, but work with me here. Celebrity newsreader and reality TV ballroom dancer Natasha Kaplinsky has had some difficulty selling her house. This fact opens a piece about other nice middle-class people [British definition] trying to flog their own or their parents’ respective gaffs in […]

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The First Valley Girl In Space

This, however, is not only not one of my spoofs; it isn’t a spoof at all. It’s a direct quote from a New York Times article about the Captain of the next Space Shuttle mission: Capt. Wendy B. Lawrence of the Navy looks at her first space shuttle flight in 1995 almost as a vacation. […]

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Not McPassingOff

Usually I only knock McDonald’s when they are particularly nasty and stupid. It warms my heart to know that a company that beat them in a case you’d have thought McDonald’s would win hands down are, four years later, is still selling East Asian fast food under the cheeky name “McChina“.

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A Case For Dylan

This morning (whilst looking for something else of course) I stumbled upon this post entitled “Even Dylan Hates Hippies” from the ‘Blog the zoo last year. I thought I should share an extract with you (and not even the bit containing the phrase “Rasta wannabe”): Earlier this week Bob Dylan released his memoirs, and in […]

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Hero Of The Revolution

I’m surprised that The Independent didn’t suggest one hundred thousand cheering Georgians had mistaken George Bush for George Galloway: “Addressing a 100,000-strong crowd in Freedom Square in Tbilisi yesterday, Mr Bush said the November 2003 uprising that toppled the country’s former leader Eduard Shevardnadze had been an example for Ukraine, Iraq, Lebanon and other countries […]

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Democracy, Whiskey, Busty

You can thank Judith for this shocking example of US cultural insensitivity: “the almost unthinkable personification of everything the people we’re fighting hate: hot blond Christian white girls, not too smart and seductively dressed, ready to dispense justice and the American spirit while leading a sexy attack, thus confusing the enemy into masturbating instead of […]

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My Fellow African-Americans

One evening during my recent week off ‘Blogging I was working with the radio on and heard an advertisement for 1 Xtra, a (relatively) new digital radio station extending the celebrity-/booze-/shagging-obsessed tabloid youf franchise of Radio 1 to Britain’s blacks. The ad’s female voiceover trailed a “documentary” about Condoleezza Rice with the words, “She has […]

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And Your Point Would Be?

First the BBC turns against you, then Ted Kennedy snubs you: Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said: “Senator Kennedy has decided to decline to meet with Gerry Adams, given the IRA’s ongoing criminal activity and contempt for the rule of law.” She said the events surrounding the death of Mr McCartney underscored the need for IRA […]

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Old News

In the year 2000 a mysterious stranger journeyed from the future to tell us about his past. His name was John Titor and this is his story. (Despite his supposed online notoriety, it wasn’t until now that I had even heard of him.)

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The Last Outpost Of Traditional Rule

The ever-temperate front page of The Independent screams, “IS LEBANON WALKING INTO ANOTHER NIGHTMARE?” Without a copy to hand, I think you can imagine the name and the roseate visage that make up the byline beneath the headline. Because the Indie charges for access to the online version of its output I can only quote […]

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Catching

Scientific American writes about EpiSims, a program that simulates the spread of an infectious disease throughout a population, taking into account the social interactions of the people within it. [via Slashdot] This is a good time to point out that I conflated a couple of different issues when I rambled about the spread of HIV […]

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