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Read More16Oct04 — 1
Politics
15Oct04 — 6
How Old?
Nearly all teenagers lean to the Left of course, but, if their precocious vocabulary is anything to go by, the ones the Sun-Sentinel has gathered together to comment on the US Presidential debate seem to have been taken from various South Florida academies for the gifted: “Although this debate proved to be the most entertaining, […]
Read More14Oct04 — 4
‘Blogger Completely Unable To Reach Instant Conclusion
I believe that, where it exists as a punishment for unlawful killing, the death penalty deters some potential murderers. I believe that, perversely, it can also make those who have already killed more likely to kill again. I believe that states should not execute their citizens. I believe that culpability for a crime should depend […]
Read More14Oct04 — 1
Unintended Consequences
Many Americans see in Tony Blair the leader they cannot elect. Many also feel the same way about Arnold Schwarzenegger and are campaigning to make it possible for California’s “Governator” or any naturalized citizen meeting certain requirements to be permitted to become their president (subject to the other usual conditions). At least one commentator here […]
Read More12Oct04 — 25
But Is It Art?
SUE FROM BBC LOCAL RADIO: I’m standing in the grounds of an ordinary central Cambridge apartment block where local resident Damian Counsell has found himself at the centre of a controversy following his construction of a sculpture he has called, somewhat provocatively even he must admit, “You Bet Your Sweet Ass It Was In My […]
Read More11Oct04 — 3
Electioneering
Bob Geldof defends Blair and Brown against accusations that their campaign of assistance for the developing world is just an election stunt. It’s understandable that a populist stance like theirs should inspire cynicism. Everyone knows there are too many easy votes in helping out the fuzzy-wuzzies in Africa.
Read More10Oct04 — 4
The Unfreeing Of The American Press
The Anonymous Economist has emailed me this New York Times article which says something important about the state of the USA’s institutions: “Last Thursday, a federal district judge ordered a New York Times reporter, Judy Miller, sent to prison. Her crime was doing her job as the founders of this nation intended. Here’s what happened […]
Read More09Oct04 — 4
Blood On His Hands
“From the crowds that hailed New Labour in 1997 to the despair of Kenneth Bigley is a vast emotional distance.” —editorial in The Independent, 09Oct04 This week, the same Tony Blair who had promised “Decapitation, decapitation, decapitation” at the 2000 Labour Party conference finally made good on his chilling promise. Standing before an endlessly looping […]
Read More04Oct04 — 0
My Patriotic Duty
Harry “Chase Me Ladies” Hutton wants to be Britain’s top Nazi. So far, he is only fourth. PooterGeek possesses terrifyingly high levels of Google karma. My blessing is all that stands between him and the status he craves. Arise, Sir Harry, and welcome to your place at the head of the British National Party.
Read More30Sep04 — 4
Class President
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 More30Sep04 — 11
Willkommen in der Schweiz II
As a follow-up to this, right now I am listening to BBC Radio 4. They are broadcasting a documentary about Switzerland. The narrator has just told me that one third of the Swiss (that’s one third of the 80 percent of residents who have citizenship) voted for a party that produced a poster showing the […]
Read More28Sep04 — 12
Willkommen in der Schweiz
Even if you, your father, and your grandfather spent their entire lives in Switzerland you do not automatically qualify for Swiss citizenship. The Swiss voted any change in this and their other naturalization laws down this week. This report on the vote is graced by a poster used in the referendum campaign. The poster shows […]
Read More27Sep04 — 0
Return Of The Genome
Saturday’s Telegraph magazine’s weekly Social Stereotype invented a media-friendly academic called “Damian”*, so it’s perhaps not the best time to tell you that I’ve been commissioned [dahling!] to do the cover story for an upcoming edition of geek glossy Linux User. It will be an update of this piece about the human genome project(s) that […]
Read More24Sep04 — 0
Utter Genius
I ache to do a Boris Johnson parody, but it is impossible. There is no second-form-at-Greyfriars phrase I could write, no bonkers opinion I could put forward that wouldn’t leave people thinking “that’s probably just a quote from the man himself”. I bet even Craig Brown thumps his head against his writing desk in torment […]
Read More22Sep04 — 0
Backbone Found
The other shocking Today Programme interview this morning was with the normally gelatinous Charles Kennedy, who somehow managed to take a harder line than the BBC on the apparent release of the scientific head of Iraq’s biological weapons programme in an effort to placate murdering terrorists. He even used the words “murder” and “terrorism”. Perhaps […]
Read More21Sep04 — 7
‘Blogging With The Enemy
And now long overdue thank-yous to a couple of Tories. Thanks to Anthony Wells, who, I think, is political secretary to Michael Howard. He linked to my post asking Labour voters what it would take to get them to put a cross in the Conservative box. Thanks are also overdue to Backword Dave who drew […]
Read More21Sep04 — 10
Impeach Boris Johnson’s Hair
Backword Dave links to Boris Johnson’s ‘Blog which, like so much else about him, I’m not sure isn’t a pisstake. The real issue is of course his coif. It is not so much that it is silly (though the arrangement of the strands is at odds with reality): it is rather that all the wigmaker’s […]
Read More20Sep04 — 1
Facilitating Empowering Networks
I am a member of The British Association. This excellent organisation exists to link scientists in the UK with the untrained laity. The Cambridge branch has stopped holding meetings because of lack of activists to organise them. Everyone in this town can manipulate partial differential equations and sketch out a timeline of the Precambrian anyway. […]
Read More08Sep04 — 1
A Fast Show Reference
“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 More08Sep04 — 0
Fit To Print
On my doorstep this week, I picked up a pile of Labour leaflets that I will be delivering around my patch [thanks, Allan!] and I also picked up a copy of the Liberal Democrat’s “local” “newspaper”, Cambridge Herald. [I make no apology for the ‘Blogtastic scare quotes.] This publication’s factual news reports by members of […]
Read More07Sep04 — 26
A Catholic Sociologist Writes
And 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 More06Sep04 — 0
“I Didn’t Spend Six Years At Evil Medical School To Be Called ‘Mr Evil'”
Everything 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 More05Sep04 — 19
Today’s Headlines
Further to Eric’s observations, I bring you the main frontpage banners from England’s Sunday papers. The Independent on Sunday: “Inside School Number One: the full horror of Russia’s 9/11” The Sunday Times: “Terrorists hid bombs weeks ago” The Observer: “The Last Goodbye” The News Of The World: “322 DEAD” The Sunday Telegraph: “Russian school death […]
Read More04Sep04 — 1
Churchill’s Record As Orator Safe From US Vice-President
ABC 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 More03Sep04 — 1
They’re Coming To Take You Away
The 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 More02Sep04 — 18
What Would Make You Vote Tory?
I’m winging it even more than usual this evening because I have lots to do, so apologies for this post being particularly loosely thought out—it’s coming straight off the top of my head out to the keyboard and it requires you lot to do the hard work for me. I’m not hopeful on either count. […]
Read More01Sep04 — 4
People Of Colour
I’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 More31Aug04 — 0
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
George W. Bush: one group of proud Americans can at last reveal the truth about his record.
Read More30Aug04 — 4
Mark Thatcher: A View From The Right
[Eric the Unread draws our attention to one way that evidence might have been gathered against Mark Thatcher.] A commenter at PooterGeek suggested that my assessment of Mark Thatcher’s contribution to civilization to date might be biased by my instinctive antipathy towards the Thatcher family. For the sake of balance I have collected some opinions […]
Read More29Aug04 — 0
Humphrys. Again.
The man is such an easy target that sometimes I wonder why I bother. This is, after all, someone who unselfconsciously assembled an article complaining about bad writing from a collage of clichés. Then I hear him on the radio and I have to take another swipe. This weekend Humphrys was slagging off television today, […]
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