Sunday, January 14, 2007
Linkathon
Simon Munnery has a blog. Yay!
You Park Like an Asshole. Being a pedestrian I must admit I'd prefer a website called 'You Drive Like a Twat' with an 'And You Cyclists Are Traffic Light Ignoring Bastards Too' subsection but I'll take what I can get.
Starship Sofa. Podcast discussing science-fiction authors. The Alfred Bester episode is the only one I've listened to thus far, but I did enjoy that. Sigh, maybe if I quit work I can watch all the TV shows, read all the books, see all the films and listen to all the podcasts I want to. Anyone want to support me in a life of leisure?
What Should I Read Next? Apparently, if you've read a Neil Gaiman book you should read all the Narnia books. How likely is it that people will have read Neil Gaiman and not read the Narnia books beforehand?
< disengage literary snobbery >
Jen Wang. Lovely art, I especially liked Touchfood.
Polly Borland's Alison Goldfrapp gallery.
Doomsday clock advanced closer to midnight next wednesday. I've got a job interview on wednesday morning, so that's some news that'll put me in the right frame of mind. "Why should we give you this job?" "Why should you give me this job? It's pointless really, we're all doomed..." [via Slashdot]
The next Star Trek film will be young Kirk and Spock. Did these jokers learn nothing from Enterprise ? Or is this some scientific endeavour to see how far turned in on themselves they can go? Take a leaf from Doctor Who guys, go boldly where you haven't gone boldly before, rather than those places where everyone before you hung around.
Steve Jobs heralds new wave of street crime. ‘We’re confident that this phone is so sexy that opportunistic criminals will be unable to prevent themselves from knocking owners to the ground before wrestling the device from their hands and running off down the road.’ External testicles proves ‘unintelligent design’. ‘Why would anyone intelligent put something as sensitive as testicles in a little sack on the outside? Surely this proves the concept of ‘Unintelligent Design’?'
Top 100 Fundies Say The Darndest Things Quotes. I am a bit troubled. I believe my son has a girlfriend, because she left a dirty magazine with men in it under his bed... "I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie"... "If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James --- your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right." [via Link Machine Go]
Sling.
You Park Like an Asshole. Being a pedestrian I must admit I'd prefer a website called 'You Drive Like a Twat' with an 'And You Cyclists Are Traffic Light Ignoring Bastards Too' subsection but I'll take what I can get.
Starship Sofa. Podcast discussing science-fiction authors. The Alfred Bester episode is the only one I've listened to thus far, but I did enjoy that. Sigh, maybe if I quit work I can watch all the TV shows, read all the books, see all the films and listen to all the podcasts I want to. Anyone want to support me in a life of leisure?
What Should I Read Next? Apparently, if you've read a Neil Gaiman book you should read all the Narnia books. How likely is it that people will have read Neil Gaiman and not read the Narnia books beforehand?
< disengage literary snobbery >
Jen Wang. Lovely art, I especially liked Touchfood.
Polly Borland's Alison Goldfrapp gallery.
Doomsday clock advanced closer to midnight next wednesday. I've got a job interview on wednesday morning, so that's some news that'll put me in the right frame of mind. "Why should we give you this job?" "Why should you give me this job? It's pointless really, we're all doomed..." [via Slashdot]
The next Star Trek film will be young Kirk and Spock. Did these jokers learn nothing from Enterprise ? Or is this some scientific endeavour to see how far turned in on themselves they can go? Take a leaf from Doctor Who guys, go boldly where you haven't gone boldly before, rather than those places where everyone before you hung around.
Steve Jobs heralds new wave of street crime. ‘We’re confident that this phone is so sexy that opportunistic criminals will be unable to prevent themselves from knocking owners to the ground before wrestling the device from their hands and running off down the road.’ External testicles proves ‘unintelligent design’. ‘Why would anyone intelligent put something as sensitive as testicles in a little sack on the outside? Surely this proves the concept of ‘Unintelligent Design’?'
Top 100 Fundies Say The Darndest Things Quotes. I am a bit troubled. I believe my son has a girlfriend, because she left a dirty magazine with men in it under his bed... "I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie"... "If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James --- your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right." [via Link Machine Go]
Sling.
Labels: art, cars, comedians, Fundamentalists- Christian, humour, podcasts, science fiction, Simon Munnery, Star Trek, Weapons of Mass Destruction
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Finally! We've found them! Two men have been arrested over having the chemicals necessary to manufacture explosives, links to an extreme race-hate group and literature, along with a rocket launcher and 'a nuclear biological suit' (I think the journo means a protective suit of the kind used by nuclear or biological scientists). You'd think this would be splashed over the nations newspapers, after all, two dozen people got arrested a month ago because it was thought they were going to blow up planes flying to America (how many of those have been released now? I lost track).
Only, the two guys are white. The extreme group is the BNP. So the news barely gets picked up by local papers whilst the national news concentrates on Jack Straw wanting to see Muslim women's faces. The Sun, that bastion of support for anti-terrorism legislation (remember their huffing and puffing about the Bill to allow police to hold suspects without charges longer?), hasn't touched this story. Why?
On the Jack Straw story, it does seem as though everyone is arguing about what they think they've heard rather than what he's said. It seems to me that it's perfectly reasonable for Straw to ask a woman wearing the Niqab or a Burqa if they would mind removing it when they speak with him. I've not seen anything anywhere that says that he refuses to speak to or help his constituents if they decline. What is wrong is the attempts by him and others to turn this into a larger issue of being a stick with which to beat the Muslim community for not integrating into British society. Watching Newsnight last night I saw a white woman, who looked to be in her mid-fifties, indignantly saying something along the lines of "They've come to our country, we've accepted them, so why shouldn't they integrate with us?" (emphasis mine) Where do you start? The fact that British-born Muslims wear these clothes too? The fact that if 'we' had truly accepted 'them' then 'we' wouldn't care what 'they' wore? You could spend hours unpacking the wrongness in that one bigotted statement of belief.
In the end it seems people are more willing to read about two Asian lads who had the temerity to want to fly home by plane than two white men who were prepared to cause some genuine harm.
Only, the two guys are white. The extreme group is the BNP. So the news barely gets picked up by local papers whilst the national news concentrates on Jack Straw wanting to see Muslim women's faces. The Sun, that bastion of support for anti-terrorism legislation (remember their huffing and puffing about the Bill to allow police to hold suspects without charges longer?), hasn't touched this story. Why?
On the Jack Straw story, it does seem as though everyone is arguing about what they think they've heard rather than what he's said. It seems to me that it's perfectly reasonable for Straw to ask a woman wearing the Niqab or a Burqa if they would mind removing it when they speak with him. I've not seen anything anywhere that says that he refuses to speak to or help his constituents if they decline. What is wrong is the attempts by him and others to turn this into a larger issue of being a stick with which to beat the Muslim community for not integrating into British society. Watching Newsnight last night I saw a white woman, who looked to be in her mid-fifties, indignantly saying something along the lines of "They've come to our country, we've accepted them, so why shouldn't they integrate with us?" (emphasis mine) Where do you start? The fact that British-born Muslims wear these clothes too? The fact that if 'we' had truly accepted 'them' then 'we' wouldn't care what 'they' wore? You could spend hours unpacking the wrongness in that one bigotted statement of belief.
In the end it seems people are more willing to read about two Asian lads who had the temerity to want to fly home by plane than two white men who were prepared to cause some genuine harm.
Labels: BNP, British National Party, Muslims, terrorism, United Kingdom, Weapons of Mass Destruction
Monday, September 11, 2006
So, I've heard that today's some kind of anniversary yeah? Wait, don't tell me, let me guess... It's your birthday right? Hey, looking good, not a day over... not a birthday? Wedding anniversary? Between Tony Blair's face and George Bush's arse? Hmmm, five years, I believe that's wood... Not a wedding anniversary? But I'm getting close right?
So, yeah, September the 11th 2001, or 'niynellevun' as the USians would have it. Grief's a weird thing, I didn't feel anything when my Nan died, my sister was almost hysterical at the end of the service and a few years ago refused to hear any conversation that included the inevitability of our parent's eventual demise. I suspect it's part and parcel of being a moody bugger, I don't tend to go much lower when something genuinely bad happens.
Of course, there's other reasons to distrust public mournathons. The wailing and gnashing of teeth following the death of Princess Di wrongfooted me as much as it did the royal family, I didn't understand how anyone could devote so much of their time to following someone else so intently, 'were they crazy?' I thought, 'I wouldn't do something like that'. The fact that many many times the number of people who died in the Twin Towers on that September day in 2001 have died in the rest of the world since, both those against the American imperialists, those for, and those unfortunate to have been caught in between. The Independent's figures make grim reading.
When passion drives policy it's a bad thing. Thomas Sutcliffe wrote an insightful article in the Independent in March 2000 asking why the parents of Leah Betts or Stephen Lawrence should be allowed to influence policy. When a situation exists where you think the passion is manufactured to drive policy it's worse. The Sun fakes passion as a matter of course. The overwhelming feeling I felt on the 11th of September 2001 was a sinking one that Bush and the neocons around him were going to use these poor dead people as an excuse to kill a hell of a lot more, I couldn't believe they genuinely felt sorrow, but knew that they couldn't show their smiles publicly.
So, sure, let's remember those who died on this anniversary. But let's remember all of those who died, Americans, British, Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans. Those that died in the Al Qaida attacks on this country, Spain, India and other parts of the world. Let us remember those who no longer walk upon this earth and those who do: Osama Bin Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri; Mullah Omar; Tony Blair; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Donald Rumsfeld.
So, yeah, September the 11th 2001, or 'niynellevun' as the USians would have it. Grief's a weird thing, I didn't feel anything when my Nan died, my sister was almost hysterical at the end of the service and a few years ago refused to hear any conversation that included the inevitability of our parent's eventual demise. I suspect it's part and parcel of being a moody bugger, I don't tend to go much lower when something genuinely bad happens.
Of course, there's other reasons to distrust public mournathons. The wailing and gnashing of teeth following the death of Princess Di wrongfooted me as much as it did the royal family, I didn't understand how anyone could devote so much of their time to following someone else so intently, 'were they crazy?' I thought, 'I wouldn't do something like that'. The fact that many many times the number of people who died in the Twin Towers on that September day in 2001 have died in the rest of the world since, both those against the American imperialists, those for, and those unfortunate to have been caught in between. The Independent's figures make grim reading.
When passion drives policy it's a bad thing. Thomas Sutcliffe wrote an insightful article in the Independent in March 2000 asking why the parents of Leah Betts or Stephen Lawrence should be allowed to influence policy. When a situation exists where you think the passion is manufactured to drive policy it's worse. The Sun fakes passion as a matter of course. The overwhelming feeling I felt on the 11th of September 2001 was a sinking one that Bush and the neocons around him were going to use these poor dead people as an excuse to kill a hell of a lot more, I couldn't believe they genuinely felt sorrow, but knew that they couldn't show their smiles publicly.
So, sure, let's remember those who died on this anniversary. But let's remember all of those who died, Americans, British, Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans. Those that died in the Al Qaida attacks on this country, Spain, India and other parts of the world. Let us remember those who no longer walk upon this earth and those who do: Osama Bin Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri; Mullah Omar; Tony Blair; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Donald Rumsfeld.
Labels: 11/09/01, Afghanistan, Fox, freedom, George 'Shrubya' Bush, Iraq, News International, personal history, The Sun, The War Against Terror, Tony Blair, United States, Weapons of Mass Destruction
