No, really. WTF?

February 16th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Chris, in Justins comments:

Tony Blair

Laureates 2009 – 2009 Present Leadership
Anthony Charles Lynton (Tony) Blair, former British Prime Minister, is one of the most outstanding statesmen of our era.

From the time he assumed leadership of the British Labor Party in 1994 until he stepped down as prime minister in 2007, he showed exceptional intelligence and foresight, and demonstrated moral courage and leadership.

Having led a demoralized and struggling party to power in 1997, Blair exercised a pragmatic approach, strong conviction and personal charisma to lead his country in a period of remarkable economic and cultural growth. He helped broker an agreement between Unionists and Republicans in Northern Ireland; he engineered, against all odds, the policy that resolved the crisis in Kosovo, and he was one of the architects of transforming Britain’s position in the EEC. It was the Kosovo crisis in particular that transformed Tony Blair into an international leader on the basis of his steadfast determination and morally courageous leadership.

Tony Blair has consistently asked the important questions and thought deeply about the interconnected world of the 21st century. Early in his prime ministership, he came to two beliefs that guide him to today: first, that it is a mistake for the world to wait for America to solve all of the tough questions, and second, that there are some things a state may do within its borders that justify intervention even if the actions do not directly threaten another nation’s interests.

Upon stepping down as Prime Minister, Blair was appointed as the Middle East Quartet Representative. As envoy for the united Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, his goal is to bring stability and peace to the Middle East.
Throughout his career, Tony Blair has acted on the basis of what he believes to be right, a hallmark of leadership.

See what I mean? WTF?

Update: This isn’t Chris’s view, it’s the citation for the Dan David Prize. Just thought I’d make that a bit clearer.

The Sun: defending its’ reporting

February 16th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

I’ve got a new post up at The Sun Lies.

It’s about the Suns’ defence of it’s Baby P reporting.

Happy Valentines day?

February 14th, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

Well? Was it? What did you do then?
Buy your misses an overpriced bunch of roses? Or did you take her to your third choice restaurant because you lunched it and left it too late to get a table at the better gaffes? Were you seduced into paying over the odds for a some monkey metal and a piece of glass because some advert told you your beloved will be over the moon about it?

Me? Fuck all. I soon put a stop to that.

I show my wife I love all year round and don’t need to be told when to buy her a present.

Guardian in ‘terrorist conspiracy’ Shocker

February 13th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Bartholomews Notes on Religion:

Jeremy Reynalds has now published an extraordinary second piece on the Glen Jenvey affair, in which he points out that the Guardian employs as a columnist Faisal Bodi, who has “denied Israel’s right to exist”. Bodi has links with Ummah.com (allegedly), and so he may have been “Abuislam”. The Guardian therefore published the article questioning Jenvey in order to protect their columnist. Really – it’s that weird

Now with added emotion!

February 13th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

The Sun:

HEARTBROKEN TV star Lorraine Kelly has told of her agony over the murder of her local Big Issue seller.

Tragic Paddy McDade was found in his flat last month in what police described as a “particularly brutal” scene.

Now GMTV favourite Lorraine has paid tribute to the 37-year-old who worked outside Dundee’s Marks and Spencer store.

The Scottish Sun columnist said: “I used to buy my Big Issue from Paddy whenever I was in Markies.”

Speaking to the mag, she added: “He was always so cheery. He’ll be sadly missed.”

Heartbroken? Agony? Lorraine must’ve known Paddy very well to be in such grief, otherwise Lorraine would just be ‘shocked’ or ‘saddened’.

Could the Sun be exaggerating their columnists feelings?
The Suns’ piece says ‘Speaking to the mag’ so nobody at the Suns’ office has spoken to Lorraine and the piece has been lifted wholesale from The Big Issue…

Lorraine spoke of her sadness when she heard of the death of Paddy McDade, who used to sell the magazine outside Marks and Spencer in Seagate.
“I used to buy my Big Issue from Paddy whenever I was shopping in Markies,” she said. “He was always so chatty, optimistic and cheery even when the rain was hammering down. He will be sadly missed.”

Ah, ‘sadness’. Ms Kellys’ heart is still in tact, spared of agony for someone she barely knew. The words she spoke in the Big Issue are pretty stock for a celeb that had a passing acquaintance with someone.

Thanx to the Sun, though, she has a couple of extra emotions added and viola, Lorraine seems more sensitive and caring and so, when she writes her column, you know she’s not a hard nosed woman, but is writing from the heart and has our best interests in mind.

Cross posted at The Sun Lies.

Qualified by association?

February 12th, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

Gimpyblog:

Derek Draper in a recent Guardian profile claimed to have a MA in Clinical Psychology from Berkeley, University of California. Guido Fawkes has been doing some digging and found out that Mr Draper has not been entirely honest. It turns out that Berkeley have no record of Derek Draper and, as The Guardian report today, he actually received his degree from a private institution, the Wright Institute, which does not offer full time degrees and has no affiliation with Berkeley, merely sharing a neighbourhood. Derek Draper admits that while the Wright Institute have no academic connection with Berkeley “I did have the use of the facilities at the Berkeley campus.”, but his use of the gents at Berkeley has not prevented him from implying that he studied there on his website.

Via

Update: In the interest of balance and fairness, Dereks’ response.

Preservation

February 12th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

Sudooli:

How am I going to protect my 4 decades of diary writing so that my kid’s kids can read them with the same interest I am my grandma’s? What happens when Twitter disappears. More importantly when it doesn’t give me access to all my tweets*. Or Flickr closes and I lose the photos therein? When the email I have sent over the last 10 years is consumed by the company I work for? What happens in 30 years when PHP and MySQL and Linux no longer exist?
…
How will my grandkids ever find out what I thought of their wedding day if Twitter is bought by AOL and completely buggered?

Details, details, details…

February 10th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Beau Bo D’or spotted the London Evening Standard setting their stall out on the Israeli elections, and then deciding to tone it down a bit.

They may have changed the headline from…

Israelis go to polls to choose between three warmongers.

to…

Israelis go to the polls in tight election race.

but the webmaster at the Standard forgot one little detail (click to enlargen)…

three_warmongers

Comparing like with unlike

February 9th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

I read a piece in Asian Voice at the weekend. It was sharing page 2 with Keith Vaz.

It reads…

What is a life worth?

Readers will remember that in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, our Kapil Dudakia in ‘Kapil’s Khichadi’ had discussed how our MPs had voted on the Mumbai EDM. Below is a comparison between EDM37 (Mumbai) and EDM585 (Gaza). It does make for some interesting reading

and the little box they have shows exactly that…

mumbai_gaza_edm_compare

The piece itself asks why so few MPs found the time to sign the EDM on Mumbai but did the one on Gaza.

The reasons why could be anything, from simply the Israel/Palestine issue being fashionable, or the ‘Israel lobby’ doing it’s thing to Mumbai being attacked by individual. A group consisting of, basically, criminals, not as in the case with Gaza, a nation state demolishing anothers territory.

The piece continues…

Interestingly the so called self proclaimed champion of the victims of war, George Galloway of ‘RESPECT’ Party failed to sign up to the Mumbai EDM. Even more interestingly he found the time to rush and sign the Gaza EDM. For a party called ‘RESPECT’ it certainly does appear to show any support or respect for the victims of Mumbai. Maybe this says a lot about Mr Galloway, his politics and his perception of right and wrong! So what does all this prove?

It proves nothing. If the wording of the EDMs had been printed would’ve shown…

EDM 37

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI (No. 2)
03.12.2008

Vara, Shailesh

That this House unreservedly condemns the terrorist outrage in Mumbai; offers its sympathies and condolences to the victims and families of victims of the attacks; and expresses its support and solidarity for the government and people of India.

A good, worthy EDM. But it’s also the second on the Mumbai attacks.

The first is EDM 36

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI
03.12.2008

Gardiner, Barry

That this House expresses its outrage and disgust at the terrorist attacks on Mumbai; is appalled and deeply saddened by the suffering of so many victims and their families; sends its wholehearted solidarity to the people of Mumbai and India; notes with pride the support and succour provided by the Indian community in the UK; and urges the world’s greatest democracy to continue to stand as a beacon of peace and tolerance in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.

(That in my mind is an even better EDM, but then, that’s just me.)

Now, for the Asian Voice piece to carry, the EDM on Gaza would have similar wording. Wouldn’t it?

EDM 585

DEC GAZA CRISIS APPEAL
26.01.2009

Burden, Richard

That this House is astonished by the refusal of the BBC and Sky to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Gaza Crisis Appeal; considers that the explanations given for this decision by BBC spokespersons are both unconvincing and incoherent; and draws attention to the fact that people wishing to obtain information about the Gaza appeal can contact the DEC by visiting www.dec.org.uk.

EDM 36 and 37 are condemning the attacks on Mumbai and EDM 585 is astonished at the refusal of the BBC to broadcast the DEC appeal. The EDMs are completely unrelated.

Maybe if the Mumbai EDMs had been about an appeal to help the victims that had been refused airtime or EDM 585, the ‘Gaza’ EDM, had been condemning Israel, or the Palestinians for that matter, then yes this piece would have some merit.

It doesn’t excuse or explain why so few MPs signed the Mumbai EDMs, but to compare it to EDM 585 like that smacks of jealousy at best, and at worst trying to imply racism of some kind.

Please love me

February 8th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

“Winning this competition would validate me as a person” – Carrie, on Paris Hiltons’ British Best Friend.

What. The. Fuck?

Seriously, that girl needs help.

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