Gentlemen, start your engines: it turns out there are now more Muslims in the world than Roman Catholics.
I’m sure there’s some Code of Ethical Blogging constructed by a committee of the finest bloglords on the planet that instructs against quoting other people’s blog entries in full, but when the snark is this good, I feel [...]
Read Full Post »
Ah, the benefits of dithering. I’d intended to respond to Ruth Fowler’s recent piece by commenting that “whilst it works well as an honest, human, witty and well-written memoir/book plug, as a piece of social/political commentary, it’s hopelessly flawed.” Thankfully, events stopped me from posting and I had the chance to read the piece again, in [...]
Read Full Post »
Over at Popmatters, Eric Zimmerman goes on a road trip stalking The Hold Steady and muses about whether technology has stubbed-out the social function of rock’n’roll:
Technology has changed everything. Because the internet has replaced mainstream radio as a distribution medium, artists do not have to tailor their sound to a broad audience to get heard. [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Misc., tagged Misc. on March 31, 2008 | No Comments »
“I used to really hate my step-dad but now I just think he’s, he’s…”
“A bit of a dick?”
“No, no, I just think he’s… a bit of a knob really.”
Read Full Post »
This just about sums it up:
Beautiful day though.
The Shins
Read Full Post »
Posted in Misc. on March 28, 2008 | No Comments »
How to write a conservative article about education:
Redeeming features of higher education today are limited to: College Republicans; high-profile student-led attempts to return to a world of chivalrous dating, complete with trips to the drugstore for a 5-cent milkshake; low enrollment for a postcolonial studies class. If you see none of these things, then you [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Misc. on March 28, 2008 | No Comments »
Via Wonkette, who suggest that buying one of these might be the only way to avoid the Barack n’ Hillary deathmatch.
I don’t think I’ll bother buying one; knowing my luck, the only time I’m rocked by a bio-chemical attack will be when I’m out at the supermarket.
Read Full Post »
The case of Mehdi Kazemi and the general ill-treatment of asylum seekers in Britain seems to be provoking something more substantial than a few disgruntled grumbles. From the Independent:
Britain must radically change its immigration policy and end immediately the deportation of failed asylum-seekers who fear persecution in Iran, a group of leading peers will tell the [...]
Read Full Post »
25 years ago today, Ian MacGregor was named chairman of the National Coal Board.
I’m sure I would’ve felt differently had I been an adult 25 years ago, but with hindsight you could hardly fault the man for being good at his job. In decimating the mining population, MacGregor was only responsible for ruthlessly executing the will [...]
Read Full Post »
Now, this puts me in something of a predicament: either I’m too young, naive & drunk on the self-serving service of capitalism to know any better, or Seumas Milne is a paranoid left-wing dilettante who clumsily casts all those with whom he disagrees as badge-wearing advocates of corporatism, neo-conservatism and… well, general degeneracy.
‘Oh Neil, show some restraint,’ [...]
Read Full Post »
As someone who believes this country’s ‘Greatness’ depends upon its deeds rather than its outdated symbols, the way we treat asylum seekers makes me pretty ashamed to be British. I didn’t need a report to tell me that our treatment borders on barbaric, but the Independent Asylum Commission’s report (PDF) still makes useful - if incredibly [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Misc. on March 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Ariel Leve:
A few months ago I received a letter. “Dear Ms Leve,” it began. “Would you please be so kind as to ask your editor to remove your photograph from appearing with the column you write? It is the first thing I see on a Sunday morning when I am eating breakfast and it is [...]
Read Full Post »
Perhaps someone can put in an argument to the contrary, but I’m starting to wonder whether the recent clashes in Basra actually weaken the case for an immediate inquiry into Britain’s handling of the Iraq war. On the one hand, the government’s insistence that an inquiry might be damaging for the troops is pathetic Bush-esque bullshit, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Misc. on March 27, 2008 | No Comments »
For all the commotion about how our kids are all getting stupider (other people’s kids of course; no parent’s going to admit that their own kids are retarded), this poll of children’s reading habits is pretty reassuring. I read nothing but Match magazine until the age of 11, had a brief fling with Smash Hits whilst [...]
Read Full Post »
Via TPM, Gallup reports that 28% of Clinton supporters would vote for McCain is Hillary didn’t get the nomination:
Clinton supporters appear to be somewhat more reactive than Obama supporters. Twenty-eight percent of the former indicate that if Clinton is not the nominee — and Obama is — they would support McCain. That compares to 19% [...]
Read Full Post »
