After reading Anthony’s piece about Google bombs, I couldn’t resist a peek at “Jew Watch”, the anti-Semitic conspiracy site that came so high in searches for the word “Jew” that the civilized world had to displace it with a Google bomb. Their front page story (complete with photo of the recently deceased) is—I kid you […]
Read MoreOne 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 […]
Read MoreThe UK government has rejected the proposal by Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality that, in the hope of tackling consistent academic underachievement by that group, black male pupils be taught separately for some subjects. The Department for Education and Skills says it would have “negative effects”. Today a spokesperson from […]
Read MoreDespite years of renting I have never encountered one of those “NO DOGS, NO BLACKS, NO IRISH” signs that used to pock the British landscape. Everyone who knows me will, however, have heard my Mrs Turpey story. They can skip everything up to the last paragraph. I was working for the university in Oxford in […]
Read MoreNorm’s latest two posts are magnificent.
Read MoreI might have to consult Will of A General Theory Of Rubbish. I’ve been trying to complete a post about Michael Howard, but I’ve run out of profanities.
Read MoreThe Independent Radio News report on 96.9 Chiltern FM at four o’clock: “11 Britons are among the dead.” [Recording of northern Irish bloke recounting his experience] “—journalist Blahdy Blah on the earthquake in south Asia. In [Thailand] alone, eight Britons died. Others are on their way home to emotional reunions.” Don’t the media just love […]
Read MoreI watched The Incredibles with the Anonymous Economist earlier this week. It is superb. See it. The movie takes a strong philosophical line on the question of unusual excellence and the way contemporary institutions, especially educational ones, do their best to smother it: “When everyone is special, no one is.” This quote encapsulates the underlying […]
Read MoreFOX Sports has a story about racist chanting by the Spanish crowd during the England-Spain Under-21s friendly yesterday. This relevant snippet is appended: “The 66-year-old Spain coach admits he made the comment about Henry. He says it was not meant as a racist remark but was to motivate Jose Antonio Reyes, Henry’s Arsenal colleague, who […]
Read MoreThey certainly weren’t irresistible today, but Arsenal, at their best, still astonished. There were times when they made Man Utd look like an infants school team in midfield; shame they couldn’t finish anything. The simple truth is you can’t afford to make a mistake like Sol Campbell did at Old Trafford. Man U’s talent and […]
Read MoreCourtesy of The Motley Fool: An Englishman, a Scotsman, and a Nigerian are sitting in the maternity ward of a hospital waiting for the births of their respective children. They are all very nervous, pacing, fidgeting, and fretting. Suddenly a nurse bursts through the double doors saying, “Gentlemen you won’t believe this, but your wives […]
Read MoreOn trains this weekend I have been mostly reading other people’s newspapers. Turn to page 47 of someone else’s Saturday Guardian magazine and gasp at the advertisement for skin whitening cream illustrated by a fair-skinned mixed-race couple kissing.
Read MoreHarry “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 MoreAs 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 MoreEven 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 MoreI 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 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 MoreWhite Russian wins 100m; Black Americans demand recount. South Korean feels similarly as World notes gymnastics judges can’t do sums. To balance the pictures of attractive women around here lately, here’s a link to the BBC’s gallery of Britain’s “oarsome” gold-medal winning rowing crew. And, for all persuasions, there’s always Yahoo’s slideshow of toned, tanned […]
Read MoreClaire emailed me this entry for the anti-Semitism Olympics. If you can only stomach an abbreviated version, Norm picked it up too.
Read MoreAs an “adorable half-caste African”, I have been far too slow to ‘Blog this one. The Guardian dents what could have been a funny, understated report by resorting to this clumsy smear: “[Princess Michael] was born Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, daughter of an Austrian father with connections to the Nazi party.”
Read MoreOur Man in Washington sent me a typically thoughtful email about the differences between US and UK attitudes to party politics the other day. I want to write about what he said in it at some length—with my “serious” hat on—but that requires concentration and some work-free time. Right now, I need to consult you […]
Read MoreAt least coloured people have the community-spiritedness to make their status as such more-or-less obvious, thereby sparing innocent bystanders unnecessary unpleasantness and their enemies the inconvenience of having to mark them out with little stars—or bigger swastikas. (The photo accompanying that article reminds me that it would have been helpful to all the budding neo-Nazis […]
Read MorePeople who love English because the language can be precise and powerful can't protect it from people who love English because they love the sound of their own voices speaking it. Words like “disingenuous”, “chaotic”, and “appalling”, for example, have distinct and useful meanings. To the journos and pub bores and politicians they have become […]
Read MoreThere's an important post about the latest developments in the Darfur region of the Sudan over at Black Triangle.
Read MoreI should explain my last 'Blog entry for American readers. In the UK, “Asian” is generally taken to mean South Asian, coming from the Indian subcontinent—for example Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi—so I had to use “Oriental” to refer to my being mistaken for Singaporean or Chinese, say. “Far Eastern” tends to be used to describe […]
Read MoreSorry for the thin 'Blogging; I'm still moving the furniture around in here, though I did take a break earlier this evening to visit our local cheap-and-cheerful Chinese restaurant. I have just paid in advance at the counter. The girl behind it looks at me quizzically. I smile. “Are you British?” she asks. “Yes, I […]
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