Reaction to the departure of David Milliband in the media was mixed. The Guardian/BBC axis treated it like the death of Nelson Mandela, whereas Peter Oborne in the Telegraph described him as a greedy failure. I suspect the wider populace collectively shrugged, if they noticed at all. I fancy one or two front benchers in [...]
Posts under ‘Society’
What I did at 8:30am…
At 8:30am I was shoveling from the council gritter into a wheel barrow. Now I don’t mean the kind of crappy ball-jobbies that lilac-shirted maker of crap vacuum cleaners (give me a Henry) James-Bastarding-Dyson designs but a proper agricultural wheel-barrow. One that I had just previously tipped-out of snow and something vaguely organic that I [...]
Israeli Elections 2013.
The balance of power will be held by a political party headed by a television presenter (the son of a another media type) who has promised everything (education, health, housing) to everybody - and who is known (even to his actual supporters) as “Pretty Boy”.
Anyone want to explain how Representative Democracy is a good thing?
In a hole in the ground…
…there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted [...]
The opposite of camouflage.
Almost all serious warships defend themselves with CIWS guns and missiles and also with chaff and flares. Tanks trundle around firing off smoke to confuse IR seekers. Aircraft also deploy chaff and flares and have done since at least Operation Gomorrah - the RAF’s complete destruction of Hamburg. It was codenamed “Window” at the time. [...]
Question time ~ where are you politically?
Confession; back in the dim and distant days of my youth, when politics was something I first became aware of, I was a socialist. I quite happily believed that the state should organise society ‘fairly’ and coercive taxation was absolutely fine to that end.
To be fair, I was just finishing my time in a state [...]
“Darwin Award” Is Barely Adequate
Down below, Paul has written a post about the “fall of the Moron civilisation”, and a very good post it is too. It describes how a certain South American civilisation, facing the invasion of the Conquistadores, responded by, er, killing their own people and setting fire to their pyramids, which turned out not to be [...]
My best CD…
… I am listening to “Panic of Girls” but without a shadow of doubt the best set of tunes laid down by man, woman or beast was Blondie’s “Parallel Lines”. Epic. I may never have believed in God but dear sweet fuck I have always believed in Harry and Stein (and Infante and Burke). My [...]
The moral panic that runs and runs…
… and takes on many forms.
I recall as a very small kid there was a moral panic over Space Invaders and that was over thirty years ago. Ever since this panic has periodically risen like a zombie on you didn’t put enough (virtual) ordnance into. Computer games have been blamed for almost everything: addiction and [...]
More Gun Crime…
One of the most remarkable things I ever did see on TV News was a vigil for victims of gun-crime held in Manchester. I think it must of been some sort of anniversary of some young lad being shot and deaded in a South Manchester pub. Sounds tragic doesn’t it? I mean he was like [...]
Telegraph Comments and Cultural Defeatism.
I wrote this a while back and left it for some reason. But reading this has made me dust it down…
This story in the Telegraph isn’t very interesting (way to blog Nick!) but the comments are astonishing. They read like something from the Third Reich.
vonmises (yeah right!)
Chips in with this…
Fascinating report. It gives [...]
Jeremy Clarkson - my thoughts
Following Clarkson’s recent outburst much Sturm und Drang has followed.
I have just one thing to say on it (I should have said this earlier perhaps but I was curious to see if I’d read it elsewhere…)
I haven’t so here goes.
Jeremy Clarkson is a very wealthy man who writes books and newspaper columns so [...]
How times change…
In 1997 the BBC telethon “Children in Need” released this charity single that went straight to #1 and stayed there for three weeks - the song was everywhere. My mother even bought the CD single.
Yup, Lou Reed’s song “Perfect Day”. These are the opening lyrics…
Just A Perfect Day,
Drink Sangria In The Park,
Try drinking sangria [...]
