R C Metcalf, PhD, knows the erotic power of a polysyllabic adverb and harnesses it to denounce the “diversionary tactics” of public unbelievers, and to, er, divert their attentions to those damned Muslims: The new atheists are a tumescent bunch, unquestionably articulate, yet consummately misguided. Their incendiary rhetoric can’t help but stir the emotions of […]
Read Morea bitch, currently residing at a fine Welsh bed-and-breakfast establishment[click image to enlarge it] There’s a discussion going on over at Chris Dillow’s place about whether or not guest house owners should be allowed to discriminate against gay couples. Whatever is implied by Chris’s musings on the matter, markets are not the solution to this […]
Read Morethe middle of nowhere[click image to enlarge it] [A dirt track in Wales exactly seventy-five miles from the nearest Starbucks. POOTERGEEK is laden with three cameras, several lens bags, and a tripod. He is trying to open the gate to a field full of sheep by pressing a London Transport Oyster card against the hinge […]
Read MoreFor a long time now the Philippines have been net exporters of strangeness. If you can’t watch YouTube videos on your computer then you’ll just have to imagine 1 500 orange-jumpsuited prison inmates recreating Michael Jackson’s Thriller. [Thank you, Dee.]
Read MoreDismissing David Cameron and his gang as “toffs” is feeble, but I’ve noticed a few commentators refining that line lately. The Spectator blog points at Trevor Kavanagh, Political Editor of The Sun—there’s a job—claiming that the workrate of the Cameroonies compares unfavourably with that of either the Blairites or Brownites (as recounted by Alastair Campbell), […]
Read MoreI hope you are as appalled as I was by Dave’s mocking the frustrated devotional efforts [YouTube video] of the sincerely religious.
Read MoreIt is an important day for Britain. Since the abrupt collapse of our manufacturing base, our economy depends heavily upon fictional characters. Together, Lara Croft, James Bond, The Teletubbies, Simon Cowell, and Harry Potter now account for 43 percent of GDP. From time to time, J K Rowling dials 141, calls Buckingham Palace, and mutters quietly: “I […]
Read MoreOver the past few days I’ve been busy. I’ll continue to be so over the next few days. Here are quick links to some of the things that have caught my eye lately. Following up my recent post about David Cameron, not only were the voting slips in yesterday’s Ealing Southall by-election labelled “David Cameron’s […]
Read MoreA couple of years back I planned a new running scenario on PooterGeek: Tora-Bora-nation Street. The idea was simple: Tony Blair and the rest of his family would drop into the local Corrie-style corner shop from time to time and I would depict their developing relationship with the new proprietors—with the Blairs unaware that the […]
Read MoreYou’re watching a movie and Bruce Dern: or Brad Dourif: appears on screen. What’s your next thought? “Oh he’s going to turn out to be a sympathetic, mentally stable, all-round mensch of a character.” “Hey, here’s Uncle B: twenty-four-hour party person and master of benign slapstick!” “If, some time before the end of this reel, […]
Read MoreYesterday morning, I walked out of the building that my flat is in to find that the telephone box immediately outside it had been marked with words along the lines of: HEY NIGGAZ KKK 4 ME in six-inch high black letters. Today I was going to write a post about it—not an “end of civilization […]
Read MoreDamian: [T]he impression I get is that Norm is more forgiving of Eagleton’s errors of reasoning than he should be Norm: Damian leaves an impression about my viewpoints that I feel I have a right to comment on. Damian: I’d happily place a bet with Norm on which of the two of them will be […]
Read MoreA couple of weeks back I attended one of the two “reasonably smart” evening occasions that PooterGeekers kindly invited me to in response to my appeal so that I could test out some wacky lighting techniques. This was photographing various Latin American performers at a Cambridge college ball. I’m sure you’ll agree such a setting […]
Read MoreFurther to Anthony’s latest post about the execution of the head of China’s Food and Drug Administration, this week’s Alanis Morissette Award goes to the Beijing Public Security and Statistics Bureaux. From Reuters, via The Scotsman: A Briton who has spent years trying to convince foreigners that China is not as repressive as Western media […]
Read MoreI write short posts. Much goes unsaid. I often write ironically. Some subjects are better approached that way; or it’s just more fun for me to tackle them sideways. What I do say, I say in plain English in the hope that my words at least are clear to everyone who reads them. Reading Norm […]
Read MoreThe Israel Ministry of Tourism would have you believe that the tiny Mediterranean state is a hip young place full of sunkissed, lean ‘n’ lovely twenty- and thirtysomethings, alternately running high-tech start-ups and hanging out on the beach playing frisbee with their gay friends. But the country has a dark underbelly. If you want to see it […]
Read MoreI’ve observed before that there are good reasons to criticise Cherie Blair, but it’s revealing that those aren’t the reasons why most people in the media criticise her. It’s worse than that: they hate her—and for the oldest human reason of all: she’s “not one of us”. Cherie Booth was a poor north-of-England Catholic girl […]
Read MoreNorman Geras is disappointed by Terry Eagleton. You have to wonder how closely Norm’s been reading Eagleton’s output over the past few years decades.
Read MoreI left The Observer on the shelf at the supermarket yesterday because it had another load of bollocks about MMR and autism on the front cover. Around the blogosphere, people who A) know some science and/or B) can be arsed to use Google show the newspaper’s science editor how to do his job: lizardoid Eustonian […]
Read MoreHere’s a nice coincidence. Up at The Weekly Standard Website there is a piece by Frederick and Kimberly Kagan about the strategies being used by Coalition forces in the war against terrorists in Iraq. It’s interesting. Kieran Healy at Crooked Timber sneers—on the reasonable grounds that Frederick Kagan is obviously not a disinterested commentator, and […]
Read MoreI think I should write a script that automatically generates a post linking to Shamer’s latest review of Question Time every week.
Read MoreHere at PooterGeek we love reality mags. If I had to compile a list of British Women I Have Met Who Will Never Appear In One then new media guru Suw Charman would be in the top ten, but she’s the sort of girl who probably plugs her MacBook Pro into an Infinite Improbability Drive to […]
Read MoreI took my time noticing it, but in this blog post Tim Almond fisked a particularly stupid article about the iPhone and gave a more accurate assessment of the significance of the device. And this was a good spot too.
Read MoreAlso at that party the other day, one of the Young People told me that Passenger, featuring Richard Brincklow on keyboards, are high up on BBC Radio 2’s playlist. The next day, one of my spies inside the Passenger camp also passed on to me a delicious factoid. Whenever Richard and I write or perform any music […]
Read MoreI was at a birthday party yesterday evening and had to explain this one again to a fellow guest: They hated us long before “Iraq”. Here’s a step-by-step by Martin In The Margins and another reminder from Oliver Kamm.
Read MoreSome new blogs on the roll here: Vic, Brighton & Hove resident and occasional PooterGeek commenter, has her own place now, called The Stopping Service. On the political side of things, I’ve mentioned Conservative Home here before and both Political Betting and Polling Report are also well worth dipping into. Lastly, I have added Martin […]
Read MoreI listened to Gordon Brown’s first Prime Minister’s Questions as actual Prime Minister yesterday. If you put the substance of the “debate” aside (as the laws of contemporary British journalism require all commentators to do) then David Cameron made Gordon Brown sound a bit rickety. The good thing for our democracy is that, before most […]
Read MoreIf you are seeing the text of the PooterGeek header image as two sets of the same letters overwriting one another then hit “reload”—that’s CTRL-SHIFT-R on a proper Web browser and F5 on Internet Explorer—and it should sort itself out. If you are then still seeing double then upgrade to Firefox.
Read MoreI caught up with wongaBlog this morning. I enjoyed this post about Jonathan Edwards’ reflections on his conversion from Christianity to atheism. It’s all downhill from here, Jonathan. Believers might be wrong, but believing often makes for happier and more successful people; and I enjoyed this marvellous rant about anti speed camera campaigners. My apologies […]
Read More
Recent Comments