Good ‘Blog arguments are interesting because the participants are sophisticated enough to spare each other the usual faulty reasoning and informed enough not to quibble too much about the premises. Because of this, and because the ‘Blogoholics are less likely to be as simply tribal and cautious as politicians, debates on ‘Blog comments pages can, […]
Read MoreThis is a fun, skeptical report on the various genome projects. I didn’t catch it when it first appeared in Ha’aretz: ” The circumstances which led to a visit by the head of the U.S. National Human Genome Institute astonished scientists in Israel. Collins has received many invitations to participate in scientific conferences in Israel, […]
Read MoreHak Mao pleads a lack of eloquence, but she says all that needs to be said today. I’m with her all the way—though obviously I’ll need to learn a bit of Cantonese and find some undiscriminating women first.
Read More“Me, former President of the The United States, Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton? Alone? In a hospital? Surrounded by nurses? For five days? With my reputation? What were they thinking?” [Yanks go here for explanation.]
Read MoreAnd overcomes my prejudices. Everyone (many Guardian contributors, for example) who thinks that US politics is dominated by a simplistic Right-wing agenda, sponsored by fundamentalist Christians, should be made to read this New York Times article that the Anonymous Economist drew to my attention. (S)he also sent this snippet from a meet-the-people piece, “In an […]
Read MoreEverything else had failed. Ken Starr gathered together his life savings, remortgated his house, and hired the professionals to get mediaeval on Clinton’s ass: “AFTER ‘harvesting’ bypass vessels from their former president’s arms and legs, US surgeons will cut into Bill Clinton’s sternum with a circular saw. His ribs will be eased to the side […]
Read MoreABC News brings us the wit and wisdom of Dick Cheney: “It’s not only wildfires that shift with the wind,” Cheney told supporters Friday. “As westerners, the president and I understand the challenges that we face here in Nevada, especially when it comes to protecting residents from wildfires,” Cheney said here during his first post-convention […]
Read MoreThe hippies at Libra Aries are, I think, onto PooterGeek. Now they are choosing the books they put in their window specifically to vex me. Today’s volume is Alex Constantine’s Psychic Dictatorship in the USA. Of course it would be easier to mock if the Republican Party wasn’t seriously considering mental health screening for all […]
Read MoreI’m not a Wonkette regular, but I had to give a grim smirk at this little collection of photos from the Republican Convention. Thanks to Our Man In Washington.
Read MoreGeorge W. Bush: one group of proud Americans can at last reveal the truth about his record.
Read MoreInevitably I’m late to this, but here [via Slashdot] is the list of books Americans most often want to ban from their libraries. Nice to see Huck Finn still hanging in there in the nineties.
Read MoreVia Sgt. Missick, A Line In The Sand, I came to this short, fascinating, and hawkish piece by a military writer about the continuing fighting in Iraq. The author, Richard Hart Sinnreich, endorses the outlook ascribed to Ulysses S. Grant by one of his biographers: “He had no liking at all for the cruel weight […]
Read MoreGlobe-trotting teacher of English as a foreign language and funnyman ‘Blogger Harry Hutton puts me right over at Chase Me Ladies. It isn’t the Jooos who are to blame for the World’s ills; it’s the Joes. UPDATE: Ever alert, US Homeland Security bans Joes from flying. UPDATE UPDATED: Ted Kennedy is one of the main […]
Read MoreYou are the Santa Barbara District Attorney. One morning you wake up and find that you are to spend your day in the dock in front of Michael Jackson and most of the rest of the Jacksons, all of them dressed in white, while Jacko’s lawyer cross-examines you. When life gets this strange, you can […]
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago Italy beat the USA Olympic basketball team 95–78 in an exhibition match. On Sunday the USA lost 92–73 to Puerto Rico. Click here for an image of seven-foot beige people trying to make sense of the scoreboard [free New York Times registration]. Harry, of Chase Me Ladies, claimed that he […]
Read MoreGolan Cipel, the man at the centre of the sex scandal engulfing former New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey declared to the press today, “I am a straight Israeli.” He continued, “Many people in the World today believe that there is something unnatural about my nationality; some even refuse to believe that citizens like me […]
Read MoreWorst U.S. presidential election headline for, er, at least three days: “GAP WIDENS BETWEEN CANDIDATES ON IRAQ, PARKS“
Read MoreOne. Two. Three.
Read MoreCourtesy of my dad and this agency piece in the Guardian, the latest gem from George W: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,” George Bush told an audience of military brass and Pentagon chiefs. “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do […]
Read MoreIn the race to be weirdest family pop act of all time, the Trachtenburgs are driving a station wagon very fast. [Thanks to James “le goth” Arthur of Richard‘s film composition course. Requires RealPlayer.]
Read MoreOver at Who Knew?, Jeremy Brown commented as-it-happened on (Hillary's introduction and) Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic convention. He did it with the kind of wicked mockery that friends and sympathisers specialise in: “[Clinton is striking the right tone, somewhere between that stadium enthusiasm and the sound of an actual human speaking as if […]
Read MoreCourtesy of the Anonymous Economist, here's a short, sharp, myth-cracking article from the New York Times opposing a return to the draft in the USA: a professional soldier writes in praise of the professional soldier. Read it before it goes subscription-only.
Read MoreSome of my earliest memories are of watching Apollo missions on television. I used to collect PG Tips picture cards of the space race. At infants school, every day that I could, I wore a blue cardigan with an embroidered lapel badge saying “Junior Astronaut”. Even grotty little jpeg pictures like this still make me […]
Read MoreIn an effort to keep PooterGeek ahead of the rest of the 'Blogging competition I bring you a new feature: “Pooter's Futures”—stories obtained anything up to twelve months in advance using tachyon-based Web time-travel technology. Arafat Kidnapped By Arafat Following his refusal to accept his own resignation as Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat today took himself […]
Read MoreSo far, I've had five pieces of non-comment-box correspondence about the “Oliver Kamm Is Getting Sloppy” post. One, from a non-partisan US voter, might best be summed up as “ouch”. To which my answer is: if Oliver Kamm wants to go around beating up the idiots in school, he'll have to deal with it when […]
Read MoreYesterday, while snuffling through her head cold, my friend Judith was complaining on the phone about the depressing choice facing her in the upcoming US presidential elections, even (especially) as an ex-pat American. We know that every last vote counts. Like a lot of us 'Bloggish types, she wants a leader who will push for […]
Read MoreNow, in a dazzling demonstration of ninja 'Bloggology, I am going to link all three of my preceding posts with a single weird image. [Drumroll] I took this screen grab of an ad' that appeared while I was browsing the Washington political gossp 'Blog Wonkette a week or so back, but for technical reasons I've […]
Read MoreI don't know if it's because half of my best friends are Jewish, but every single time I see the cover of Bill Clinton's autobiography I imagine him shrugging his shoulders and delivering the title in a north London accent. For example: “My life! The girl has this einredenish that I loved her! And that […]
Read MoreHi. Tony here. My friend and colleague Damian has kindly let me onto his Interblog to say a few words to you, our allies and friends in America, on this special day. [Blokey twist of head. Adjusts tie. About-to-tell-joke half-smile.] Y'know, it seems only yesterday that I was practising the chords of Steppenwolf's “Born To […]
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