The strogest man I ever knew was my father - he never raised his voice or his hand to anyone.
Tough act to fo;;ow - never found his like which is, I think, why I am alone today.
What sean Connery and his like don't appreciate is that vio;ence never changes anyone's point of view. it just shows an inability to simply agree to differ.
Happy birthday to the UT for tomorrow, i still have no net at home so won't be able to attend - but i will be there in spirit in my most audacious and provocative party dress.
(Well done to Montana for keeping the place together another year.)
I find it difficult to judge the volume of my voice, when I'm provoked, let alone the force of my slap. Measured anger/reaction is a challenging idea.
I'm in the walk away/scroll on by camp - it's a matter of mental survival for me. If I reacted every time I came across something that provoked me......I'd go fucking nuts.
Deano, that's Laurie. She's currently a 78-year-old Bangladeshi grandfather of 23, who sells pickles to support his family. Look out for Lol Penz's new article on CiF next week, 'My Pickles & Me'. [Regular pickle updates available on Twatter].
Morning all.... off to work today after nearly 2 weeks with no jobs coming my way (if you have to go away for a weekend or do anything, you don't get any work offered)
Anyway, Happy Bidet for tomorrow UTers... like Jay - mine will be a virtual attendance as I have to work... :(
Eddie - Lolz - the 78 yr old Bangladeshi Grandfther hehehehehehehe!
Pass the sick bucket.... just on a C5 prog by accident and Tamara Ecclestone - daughter of billionaire Bernie on a Vanessa chat show, talking about moving into the new £43 Million, yes that's £43 Million quid house folks, which has 6 bedrooms...... and about how she 'needs to prove herself' - the fucking idle rich trying to justify their disgusting lives.... beyond parody.
Thanks for your condolences t'other day. Got over the shock a bit now, but still v. sad.
Hope Miss Heidi continues to improve. The youngster Lurcher, Logan, my sister's new pooch, is likewise, very nervous... rescued from a place with tons of dogs inc. huge Rottweilers... poor little bugger ;(
LaRit - one of Ecclestone's fucking daughters justified moving from a £XXm house (to £XXXm+a lot) on the grounds that now she had a dog she needed a garden and there weren't that many houses with suitable sized gardens in London( Chelsea)!
You see that Abramovich (he of Chelsea fame) had to disclose his assets to the Russian authorities.... but forgot to mention his personal Boeing Airliner and the largest Private Yacht in the world (worth £660+M) but he did remember to include under the 'Transportation' heading a Volkswagen worth £13K max!
My walk away from slapping philosophy .....does not extend to these cunts - I would be happy to slap the Ecclestone girls and Roman before I pulled the leaver and watched them dance on a rope end.
Thaum, Lolpenz has just been to Paris to plot student revolution, MarinatedInEffluence is in Costa de Sol doing his Gabriela-y-Rodrigo-meets-Whigfield remixes. I'm guessing a continental liaison to discuss feminism and Uganda.
I have no proof of any of this, but news of any resulting offspring will appear first on 'MightyInErectness News [Catalan Edition]' or on Penny's blog, 'Me Me Me'.
Hola amigos. Unfortunately unlikely to be around this w/e, so you all have a blinder ! Mrs BW has potential job offer in Oxford, so we're going over to scope it out.
Any messages for the Bullingdon Club while we're there ?
LaRit - am planning on getting two jack russels in near future. Have pencilled in the names "Asgaard" and "Kevin".
I'm interested to find out what the US media reaction has been to the Wisconsin strikes.
Heartening stuff as the Unions appear to have finally grown a pair in the face of Tea Party Governor Scott Walker's budget cuts and anti-Union laws.
It appears thousands of public sector workers from teachers to the police have gone on strike and occupied the Capitol building and even the State Democrats are showing some mettle.
What has the media coverage been like? I assume it'll only be Fox screaming about the Communist Revolution on the doorstep.
Interesting link someone put on welfare thread, Families without Fatherhood - I have only read the editors intro and foreward, they are not that much about fatherhood but largely about "blue socialism" versus the modern intellectual, or "egoist" socialism - worth a read, by Norman Denis and George Erdos.
Dont know what the actual documents like yet as havent read it yet, but forewords are interesting.
This People's Panel wheeze is rather excellent. Notice that usually the contributors are people you've never heard of, who've only posted a handful of times in the last few months, if ever.
As MutinyInEgham proves, give a man a fish and you feed him for day, give him a big shiny blue Cunt sign and he posts for a year. A lot.
So do the math. Say you give someone 200 words to mumble on a topic you've just pulled out of your arse (most PPs are about little or nothing) and you can squeeze in 5 contributors each week.
That contributor can then tell their mates that they 'write for The Guardian' and they've got a prefect's badge to prove it. And if you've got it, wave it about a bit. Irregular poster now becomes regular, say 5 posts a day on average. So the new regular will post about 1,500 times a year, with time off for good behaviour. 5 contributors a week means about 250 new contributors a year. 250 x 1,500 = 375,000 extra posts a year.
Clever. I suppose the alternative would be fresh ideas, perspectives and topics, but this is so much easier to do.
"I suppose the alternative would be fresh ideas, perspectives and topics"
Now just hold your horses, sunshine, do you have any idea how much work that would require? Its not like they have thousands of readers telling them what to cover, what not to cover, what to investigate, what to ignore, who to commission, who not to commission...
Ignoring your readership is not as easy as it sounds, Eddie.
There is another benefit which accrues to CiF when they hand out the Signs of Shame for the credulous to hang proudly around their necks.
They know that if they are to retain their sudden special status, they had better mind their Ps and Qs.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons for de-cunting MakebelieveInEnchantment.
If the Guinness Book of Records winner of the highest number of meaningless posts of such magnitudes of stultifyingly super-boringness could lose his magic blue token of wonderfulness, it could happen to anyone.
Perhaps that was why he kept publicly bleating and pleading with JezzaBella to open his emails.
Maybe they were little tear-drenched hiccuppy shrieks of disbelief that he had become persona non grata in the softly pastel realms of CiF.
After all, he head done his bit, so why was he so easily being kicked in the teeth and publicly humiliated?
Perhaps it was just an accident, though.
They probably didn't even notice him occupying the space at floor level, cringing abjectly and licking their shoes.
The problem is that it's all about teh clickz. If Hanman doesn't keep things on an upward curve, she's bollixed. The People's Panel is a decent ruse, that plays on people's vanity to draw them in and keep them there. Elsewhere, not so lucky.
The sound of feminist four-part harmony throat singing isn't half as good a conversation-starter as Bindel suggesting a cull of menfolk to keep the numbers down. In fairness, they did try something newish with the expansion of the European coverage, but they appear to bumped into a big brick wall of Who-Gives-A-Fuck. Which is a shame, as MubarakInEgypt would have been in his element, bilingually rapping with Bruppet about high culture and low deeds amongst the Johnny Foreigners.
It's tricky, right enough, but remember that the Graun is operating within its own rigid, self-defined worldview, where 'pushing the envelope' is having someone in the mailroom from UCL. In Guardianland, the liberal motto is 'I will defend to death your right to agree with me.'
A truly liberal CiF would have articles from revolutionary communists on Tuesday and screeds from EDLers and BNPers on Wednesday. They'd be torn to shreds and ripped a fresh one of course, but that's kind of the point. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. As it is, the articles operate within the confines of the Islington Dinner Party Test. Would it be acceptable to say this over the feta cheese and would you be comfortable with the person saying it being at the table?
It's all very establishment. Lolpenz is flavour of the month because she's a patently careerist revolutionary with an iPad who makes the right noises and will be house-hunting in Notting Hill and lunching with New New Labour ministers before her twenties are out.
Anyone who really did want to bring the whole rotten edifice down would make them shit their pants from stem to stern. Meanwhile look out for Bidisha's new book about picking olives and figs amongst the rustic folk in Puglia. Puglia, also known as 'the new Tuscany'. It's difficult sometimes to credit just how close to self-parody the average Guardianista often sails.
The revolution is just an organic food market away.
Hi Peter, yes that one's being passed around the Micks as we speak! I wonder if the same logic applies to Britain. Should a true anarchist vote Tory on the basis that it's creating chaos and tearing apart the very fabric of society? It'd make for an interesting GE 2015: Vote Conservative. The country's half-way beyond fucked. Let us finish the job we started.
"Cameron and IDS keep repeating the total lie that there are millions on benefits for life, so I feel justified in repeating this.
Look at the graph in the link below. It clearly shows a consistent fall in long term unemployment over the preceding decade until 2009 (when the economic crisis hit) from 3.9% to 0.3%.
In short, just 4,220 people have been unemployed for 5 years or more.
Is this indicative, as both Cameron and IDS claim, of a breakdown in moral responsibility resulting in 'benefit claimants for life', which should 'no longer be an option'?
Are they being truthful when they say the Welfare Reform Bill is to address this breakdown, and to encourage the long term jobless to to take work?
The dissonance in their claims and the reality is surely apparent to all but the most tribalist reader. Their reason for this bill is a sham. The figures do not show what they claim, not remotely.
When pressed about this, the DWP responded that they want to get people into long term jobs. A noble ambition, but instead of cutting benefits for the poorest, wouldn't it make more sense to address this concern to employers, and the trend for short term temporary agency work that is fuelling the benefits to low paid work cycle?
How are temporary jobs the fault of the unemployed?
Will the Guardian be so kind as to put some of these issues to Cameron and IDS when they get the chance. So far, their round of the media has resulted into photo-ops and propaganda opportunities.
Their avowed aims, and their excuses for undertaking this vast, expensive remodelling of the Welfare State is simply not supported by the figures and the facts.
There's is no evidence whatsoever that people are turning down jobs in anything but tiny, insignificant numbers, and 'sponging' off the state as 'a lifestyle choice', yet both Cameron and Osborne repeat these claims at every opportunity, ably assisted by their friends in the media.
I used to know a dog called Colin ;) (I like the name Kevin!)
I used to hate Jack Russells because of their reputation as snappy little gobshites, but they've grown on me over the years... I like the Parson's ones wid longer legs. One 'round our way who is very cute and gruff... the name's Paddy ;) It's taken him 3 years to realise I'm 'friend' not 'foe' and not bark at me. Love him to bits.
Incredible tweets coming out of Libya - impossible to verify anything though, saying the east of the country from Benghazi to the Egyptian border is now 'free'.
Heard the desperate pleas from a guy in Bahrain about casualties and chaos in the hospitals on News on R4 and the next bloody item was fucking Dave and the Clugg 'battling it out' about bloody AV....
Chekhov- it worked when I just tried it! Was tired of being spam-foldered so getting lazy, new try--- PrincessCC
The video on the Channel4 from RedMiner is wicked. The journo giving Lord Fraud a hard time-- " Disabled people calling me and saying they're terrified" ...here
It is looking very ugly Boudican. Lots of tweeting from Libya and the protestors have got this website and radio station up in Benghazi (radio in Arabic only as yet)
The USA has vetoed an Arab sponsored resolution at the UN Security Council condemning Israel for building settlements in disputed areas on the West Bank.Says it all really!I support the right of Israel to exist within its pre 1967 borders but building settlements on the West Bank is out and out provocation.And by vetoing this resolutionthe USA has made a bad situation just that bit worse.And a binding resolution to this deep rooted problem just that much harder to find.
what a respectable family we are ! Back early cos we had childern with us. Because my son married into local family we have over 100 people 'belonging' to us. I am still trying to work oput how I became auntie to over 40 children. To solve the problem I am 'Lella' to them all.
Paul - Now you begin to understand anger about Gaza and WB Palestinians. How can they be free and self determining when US blocks every move to save their land ?
Our support for the Ps is marked down as Antisemitism - totally untrue as if it were the Israeli people being robbed and starved of essentials we would be speaking out on their behalf.
The settlements are much more than provocation - they are theft and the burying of aspiration of the Palestinian people to have their own independent homeland.
Wearing a sweater with pompoms on the end of the draw ties .
Dogge is convinced pompoms are there for his entertainment - and nibbling to destruction if only he can catch them. Every time I move - they move - Dogge responds determined to catch and subdue them.
Bloody hell, if I have to watch or listen to anymore fricken politicians spouting total and utter bollocks, I fear that my TV and radio might have their obsolescence advanced quite rapidly.
The Irish anarchist someone linked to above probably had the best idea.
Instead of fighting these cunts, why not let them just get on with it?
After all it's going to be shit anyway, so why not give them enough rope?
The whole AV debate is a red herring and Dave and Nick taking different sides is just another ruse since both of them know it won't make a blind bit of difference either way but they think it makes them look like they are doing something in the quest for the holy grail of "democracy"
How the fuck did we end up with two fuckwits who would get laughed out of a sixth form debate running the country?
Wouldn't you have thought, with the Arab world in ferment and new revolutionary governments forming in Tunisia and Egypt, that the UN Security Council might have had more pressing things to discuss? I think that also says quite a lot, no matter how stupid the Israeli settlement policy is.
Happy Birthday "UT"! One of the few things that have maintained my sanity over the last couple of years. Long may this site continue and thanks to Montana for all her hard work for keeping it going.
And thanks to you all who have contributed; this site has been a revelation for me and I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you IRL and not been disappointed!
The attempt by the PA to get overall condemnation for the settlements has been long in the making - with the US promising to use their veto running in tandem.
Obamama's sweet words on election must be ringing hollow in many Arab ears.
Resolution to the WB argument must be , at least, seen on the horizon. the unrest in the Arab world will not be placated by the US veto - so many problems for millions in several countries in the region. The west needs to keep out of it - particularly where they have investment and national interest.
We cannot defer every problem, every instance of injustice and cruelty until all other problems are solved - this reasoning leads to deadlock and nothing gets solved. It simply maintains the rotten status quo.
From Al Jazeera: "US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told council members that the veto "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity. While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said.
Of course we can't defer every problem, or every instance of injustice and cruelty. But Palestine seems to be the only instance of injustice and cruelty that is brought before the UN for ritual condemnation.
What is the Security Council position on Egypt or Tunisia? Where are the calls for peace in Libya and Bahrain, the resolutions calling for the governments of these countries to cease firing on unarmed protesters?
Israel is used too often as a distraction by authoritarian Arab governments.
i agree - the Arab gvts. are as much to blamee for the Palestine situation as the west.
I still believe - however placatory the US words may seem - that this was a chance for the US to stand up for what is right.
Too often meaningless words of sympathy, hypocritical words expressing outrage are used to delay the implementation of justice. All too often they are just a cover for national interest.
Israel Palestine attracts a lot of concern for several reasons - the main one being UK and US interest and complicity. I have no quarrel with the Israel people at all - I do take issue with their gvts, both present and past. Israel Palestine is one of the major rifts in geopolitics and needs healing.
I too wish the UN would do more to address misrule in many places - Burma, Zimbabwe, the plight of the Rroma in EU. The list is longer than my arms. This does still not make it right for the US to use their power of veto in this case.
The people of both Israel and Palestine would benefit from a genuine peace settlement.
I do realise that if all settlers were to be withdrawn very qickly this would create huge problems - including the possibility of civil war in Israel. The first step is to stop expansion in the WB and E J'Salem and get rid of the Jews only roads and the checkpoints. This would create confidence in the possibility for peace and give US some credibility as a peace broker.
Morning all! Love today's quote.
ReplyDeleteThe strogest man I ever knew was my father - he never raised his voice or his hand to anyone.
Tough act to fo;;ow - never found his like which is, I think, why I am alone today.
What sean Connery and his like don't appreciate is that vio;ence never changes anyone's point of view. it just shows an inability to simply agree to differ.
Sorry hitting ; instead of l this morning!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to the UT for tomorrow, i still have no net at home so won't be able to attend - but i will be there in spirit in my most audacious and provocative party dress.
ReplyDelete(Well done to Montana for keeping the place together another year.)
And good morning Annetan.
Jay I'll repost your "greetings card" on the chosen celebration day.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we'll open a book on the colour of your party dress........ a little black thing by any chance?
.......and another good morning to A42
ReplyDeletePaul - habib had a point.
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to judge the volume of my voice, when I'm provoked, let alone the force of my slap. Measured anger/reaction is a challenging idea.
I'm in the walk away/scroll on by camp - it's a matter of mental survival for me. If I reacted every time I came across something that provoked me......I'd go fucking nuts.
regards
laters dog walking calls.
Elementary ?? - you back for the celebration tomorrow??
ReplyDelete"a little black thing by any chance? "
ReplyDeleteProbably something more garish, yellow and green satin perhaps, with blue lace...
This film may get me to the cinema
ReplyDeleteDeano - walk on/scroll on by much the best policy.
ReplyDeleteJay LOL! I'll wear my sun glasses ;)
Hello visitor from Bangladesh !
ReplyDeleteMorning all.
ReplyDeleteRe Sean Connery: the provocation he cited was 'woman refuses to shut up even though I've decided the discussion is over'. NOT a slap.
Hello to sartrecastic (last night) - nice to see you here!
Thauma - yeah - what part of 'If you think discussion is over - walk away from it' Does he not understand.
ReplyDeleteThe arsehole appears to think he has the divine right to BE right because he has a Y chromosome.
I should add that possessing two X chromosomes doesn't confer that right either!
Deano, that's Laurie. She's currently a 78-year-old Bangladeshi grandfather of 23, who sells pickles to support his family. Look out for Lol Penz's new article on CiF next week, 'My Pickles & Me'. [Regular pickle updates available on Twatter].
ReplyDeleteMorning all.... off to work today after nearly 2 weeks with no jobs coming my way (if you have to go away for a weekend or do anything, you don't get any work offered)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Happy Bidet for tomorrow UTers... like Jay - mine will be a virtual attendance as I have to work... :(
Eddie - Lolz - the 78 yr old Bangladeshi Grandfther hehehehehehehe!
Pass the sick bucket.... just on a C5 prog by accident and Tamara Ecclestone - daughter of billionaire Bernie on a Vanessa chat show, talking about moving into the new £43 Million, yes that's £43 Million quid house folks, which has 6 bedrooms...... and about how she 'needs to prove herself' - the fucking idle rich trying to justify their disgusting lives.... beyond parody.
ReplyDeleteKeep 'em coming Rapid - you and Duke have had some great posts of late!
ReplyDelete'My Pickles & Me' - fucking inspired!
Deano:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your condolences t'other day. Got over the shock a bit now, but still v. sad.
Hope Miss Heidi continues to improve. The youngster Lurcher, Logan, my sister's new pooch, is likewise, very nervous... rescued from a place with tons of dogs inc. huge Rottweilers... poor little bugger ;(
Are LolPenz and MaggotInEcuador actually the same person?
ReplyDeleteLaRit - one of Ecclestone's fucking daughters justified moving from a £XXm house (to £XXXm+a lot) on the grounds that now she had a dog she needed a garden and there weren't that many houses with suitable sized gardens in London( Chelsea)!
ReplyDeleteYou see that Abramovich (he of Chelsea fame) had to disclose his assets to the Russian authorities.... but forgot to mention his personal Boeing Airliner and the largest Private Yacht in the world (worth £660+M) but he did remember to include under the 'Transportation' heading a Volkswagen worth £13K max!
My walk away from slapping philosophy .....does not extend to these cunts - I would be happy to slap the Ecclestone girls and Roman before I pulled the leaver and watched them dance on a rope end.
Sorry to hear of your employment problems.
Thaum, Lolpenz has just been to Paris to plot student revolution, MarinatedInEffluence is in Costa de Sol doing his Gabriela-y-Rodrigo-meets-Whigfield remixes. I'm guessing a continental liaison to discuss feminism and Uganda.
ReplyDeleteI have no proof of any of this, but news of any resulting offspring will appear first on 'MightyInErectness News [Catalan Edition]' or on Penny's blog, 'Me Me Me'.
Logan Lurcher - great name for a dog LaRit
ReplyDeleteHola amigos. Unfortunately unlikely to be around this w/e, so you all have a blinder ! Mrs BW has potential job offer in Oxford, so we're going over to scope it out.
ReplyDeleteAny messages for the Bullingdon Club while we're there ?
LaRit - am planning on getting two jack russels in near future. Have pencilled in the names "Asgaard" and "Kevin".
PS Thanks for the updates RapidEddie. V useful.
ReplyDeleteBW, Asgaard is fine. Not totally sold on Kevin. I was thinking more Cuchulainn or Dudley.
ReplyDeleteMontana,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to find out what the US media reaction has been to the Wisconsin strikes.
Heartening stuff as the Unions appear to have finally grown a pair in the face of Tea Party Governor Scott Walker's budget cuts and anti-Union laws.
It appears thousands of public sector workers from teachers to the police have gone on strike and occupied the Capitol building and even the State Democrats are showing some mettle.
What has the media coverage been like? I assume it'll only be Fox screaming about the Communist Revolution on the doorstep.
Dudley Moore ?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking more Dudley near Birmingham. Other fine names for Jack Russells could therefore be Dunstable, Stourbridge or Thor.
ReplyDeleteMore bonkers news from the US.
ReplyDeleteSouth Dakota considers bill in which murdering abortion providers could be 'justifiable homicide'.
Rachel Maddow's take on resistance to Walker's policies. Maddow also gives a glimpse of the right-wing media reactions to the demonstrations.
ReplyDelete" Other fine names for Jack Russells could therefore be Dunstable, Stourbridge or Thor."
ReplyDeleteMade I laugh. Laters
Wolf R. Hampton
ReplyDeleteInteresting link someone put on welfare thread, Families without Fatherhood - I have only read the editors intro and foreward, they are not that much about fatherhood but largely about "blue socialism" versus the modern intellectual, or "egoist" socialism - worth a read, by Norman Denis and George Erdos.
ReplyDeleteDont know what the actual documents like yet as havent read it yet, but forewords are interesting.
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs03.pdf
This People's Panel wheeze is rather excellent. Notice that usually the contributors are people you've never heard of, who've only posted a handful of times in the last few months, if ever.
ReplyDeleteAs MutinyInEgham proves, give a man a fish and you feed him for day, give him a big shiny blue Cunt sign and he posts for a year. A lot.
So do the math. Say you give someone 200 words to mumble on a topic you've just pulled out of your arse (most PPs are about little or nothing) and you can squeeze in 5 contributors each week.
That contributor can then tell their mates that they 'write for The Guardian' and they've got a prefect's badge to prove it. And if you've got it, wave it about a bit. Irregular poster now becomes regular, say 5 posts a day on average. So the new regular will post about 1,500 times a year, with time off for good behaviour. 5 contributors a week means about 250 new contributors a year. 250 x 1,500 = 375,000 extra posts a year.
Clever. I suppose the alternative would be fresh ideas, perspectives and topics, but this is so much easier to do.
"I suppose the alternative would be fresh ideas, perspectives and topics"
ReplyDeleteNow just hold your horses, sunshine, do you have any idea how much work that would require? Its not like they have thousands of readers telling them what to cover, what not to cover, what to investigate, what to ignore, who to commission, who not to commission...
Ignoring your readership is not as easy as it sounds, Eddie.
RapidEddie
ReplyDeleteThere is another benefit which accrues to CiF when they hand out the Signs of Shame for the credulous to hang proudly around their necks.
They know that if they are to retain their sudden special status, they had better mind their Ps and Qs.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons for de-cunting MakebelieveInEnchantment.
If the Guinness Book of Records winner of the highest number of meaningless posts of such magnitudes of stultifyingly super-boringness could lose his magic blue token of wonderfulness, it could happen to anyone.
Perhaps that was why he kept publicly bleating and pleading with JezzaBella to open his emails.
Maybe they were little tear-drenched hiccuppy shrieks of disbelief that he had become persona non grata in the softly pastel realms of CiF.
After all, he head done his bit, so why was he so easily being kicked in the teeth and publicly humiliated?
Perhaps it was just an accident, though.
They probably didn't even notice him occupying the space at floor level, cringing abjectly and licking their shoes.
A rare picture of CiF's very own Chief Political Analyst at work:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/18/belgium-separatism-not-answer
Not so much "Do you want fries with that?" as "Mayonnaise, brown sauce, red sauce or this stuff?"
Whatever it is, they seem to have it by the bucket-load - with handy siphon dispenser thingies.
Rapid - heh...heh...you're very cruel but you do cheer me up! I pray that I never end up as a subject for your wicked pen though.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone feels like offering some support to this young man it would be appreciated:
Alvin Gahimbaze
Just had google tell me they've noticed some unusual activity on my account. Has anyone else ever experienced this?
ReplyDeleteAl Jazeera reporting a massacre of protestors by army in Benghazi
ReplyDeleteAl Jazeera
Perhaps the pro-choice people should consider defining the killing of South Dakota legislators as justifiable homicide.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that it's all about teh clickz. If Hanman doesn't keep things on an upward curve, she's bollixed. The People's Panel is a decent ruse, that plays on people's vanity to draw them in and keep them there. Elsewhere, not so lucky.
ReplyDeleteThe sound of feminist four-part harmony throat singing isn't half as good a conversation-starter as Bindel suggesting a cull of menfolk to keep the numbers down. In fairness, they did try something newish with the expansion of the European coverage, but they appear to bumped into a big brick wall of Who-Gives-A-Fuck. Which is a shame, as MubarakInEgypt would have been in his element, bilingually rapping with Bruppet about high culture and low deeds amongst the Johnny Foreigners.
It's tricky, right enough, but remember that the Graun is operating within its own rigid, self-defined worldview, where 'pushing the envelope' is having someone in the mailroom from UCL. In Guardianland, the liberal motto is 'I will defend to death your right to agree with me.'
A truly liberal CiF would have articles from revolutionary communists on Tuesday and screeds from EDLers and BNPers on Wednesday. They'd be torn to shreds and ripped a fresh one of course, but that's kind of the point. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. As it is, the articles operate within the confines of the Islington Dinner Party Test. Would it be acceptable to say this over the feta cheese and would you be comfortable with the person saying it being at the table?
It's all very establishment. Lolpenz is flavour of the month because she's a patently careerist revolutionary with an iPad who makes the right noises and will be house-hunting in Notting Hill and lunching with New New Labour ministers before her twenties are out.
Anyone who really did want to bring the whole rotten edifice down would make them shit their pants from stem to stern. Meanwhile look out for Bidisha's new book about picking olives and figs amongst the rustic folk in Puglia. Puglia, also known as 'the new Tuscany'. It's difficult sometimes to credit just how close to self-parody the average Guardianista often sails.
The revolution is just an organic food market away.
Afternoon all...
ReplyDelete@Eddie, did you catch this true anarchist from Sligo explaining his voting intentions?
Vote anarchist!
Hi Peter, yes that one's being passed around the Micks as we speak! I wonder if the same logic applies to Britain. Should a true anarchist vote Tory on the basis that it's creating chaos and tearing apart the very fabric of society? It'd make for an interesting GE 2015: Vote Conservative. The country's half-way beyond fucked. Let us finish the job we started.
ReplyDeleteOr to paraphrase Fianna Fail: A lot screwed. A lot more to screw.
ReplyDeletePeter
ReplyDeleteGreat vid that - a good point, well made!
Egypt has opened RAfah crossing for humanitarian aid to enter. a good start.
ReplyDeleteOff out with family to celebrate my birthday.
Be good chaps.
Happy Birthday Leni
ReplyDeleteHave a great evening.
x
Study finds therapy and exercise best for ME
ReplyDeleteThis started on the frontpage, and has now been hidden on "Society". More dirty work from the DWP and its mercenaries...
Many excellent posts , link here to one of PrincessCC's --
http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/9624959
Happy Birthday Leni!
ReplyDelete@dave from france; your link doesn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteBTW; Happy Birthday Leni.
Happy Birthday Leni!!!
ReplyDeleteJust parking this from Redminer on "wadya":
ReplyDelete"Cameron and IDS keep repeating the total lie that there are millions on benefits for life, so I feel justified in repeating this.
Look at the graph in the link below. It clearly shows a consistent fall in long term unemployment over the preceding decade until 2009 (when the economic crisis hit) from 3.9% to 0.3%.
In short, just 4,220 people have been unemployed for 5 years or more.
Is this indicative, as both Cameron and IDS claim, of a breakdown in moral responsibility resulting in 'benefit claimants for life', which should 'no longer be an option'?
Are they being truthful when they say the Welfare Reform Bill is to address this breakdown, and to encourage the long term jobless to to take work?
The dissonance in their claims and the reality is surely apparent to all but the most tribalist reader. Their reason for this bill is a sham. The figures do not show what they claim, not remotely.
When pressed about this, the DWP responded that they want to get people into long term jobs. A noble ambition, but instead of cutting benefits for the poorest, wouldn't it make more sense to address this concern to employers, and the trend for short term temporary agency work that is fuelling the benefits to low paid work cycle?
How are temporary jobs the fault of the unemployed?
Will the Guardian be so kind as to put some of these issues to Cameron and IDS when they get the chance. So far, their round of the media has resulted into photo-ops and propaganda opportunities.
Their avowed aims, and their excuses for undertaking this vast, expensive remodelling of the Welfare State is simply not supported by the figures and the facts.
There's is no evidence whatsoever that people are turning down jobs in anything but tiny, insignificant numbers, and 'sponging' off the state as 'a lifestyle choice', yet both Cameron and Osborne repeat these claims at every opportunity, ably assisted by their friends in the media.
http://www.channel4.com/news/welfare-reform-is-benefits-culture-a-myth
Bitterweed:
ReplyDeleteFrom this morning.....
I used to know a dog called Colin ;) (I like the name Kevin!)
I used to hate Jack Russells because of their reputation as snappy little gobshites, but they've grown on me over the years... I like the Parson's ones wid longer legs. One 'round our way who is very cute and gruff... the name's Paddy ;) It's taken him 3 years to realise I'm 'friend' not 'foe' and not bark at me. Love him to bits.
A soon to be Summer Song for Leni's birthday.....
ReplyDeleteThe wonderful Harriet Wheeler...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LENI - big hug and a kiss to you! xx
Incredible tweets coming out of Libya - impossible to verify anything though, saying the east of the country from Benghazi to the Egyptian border is now 'free'.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSheff:
ReplyDeleteHeard the desperate pleas from a guy in Bahrain about casualties and chaos in the hospitals on News on R4 and the next bloody item was fucking Dave and the Clugg 'battling it out' about bloody AV....
Chekhov- it worked when I just tried it! Was tired of being spam-foldered so getting lazy, new try---
ReplyDeletePrincessCC
The video on the Channel4 from RedMiner is wicked. The journo giving Lord Fraud a hard time-- " Disabled people calling me and saying they're terrified" ...here
La Rit
ReplyDeleteTerrible things happening in Libya - no one is covering whats going on there - there are no foreign journalists -
An invisible uprising
Rumour from France 24 that Ben Ali has snuffed it.
ReplyDeleteHi All
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Leni! Enjoy your day.
Sheff, you can read more about the Libyan revolution/uprising on antiwar.com. Looks like it could get ugly. I fear for the people, best to them.
It is looking very ugly Boudican. Lots of tweeting from Libya and the protestors have got this website and radio station up in Benghazi (radio in Arabic only as yet)
ReplyDeleteLive radio Benghazi
@dave from france; thanks, that link worked just fine.
ReplyDeleteAmazing picture of Friday prayers in Tahrir Sq today
ReplyDeletePrayers in Tahrir Sq
It seems that AlSaadi alGadaffi - the old despots son may have been detained by protestors in Benghazi
ReplyDeleteEvening all
ReplyDeleteThe USA has vetoed an Arab sponsored resolution at the UN Security Council condemning Israel for building settlements in disputed areas on the West Bank.Says it all really!I support the right of Israel to exist within its pre 1967 borders but building settlements on the West Bank is out and out provocation.And by vetoing this resolutionthe USA has made a bad situation just that bit worse.And a binding resolution to this deep rooted problem just that much harder to find.
Wikileaks release hundreds of new Bahranian cables Cables
ReplyDeleteHello again
ReplyDeletewhat a respectable family we are ! Back early cos we had childern with us. Because my son married into local family we have over 100 people 'belonging' to us. I am still trying to work oput how I became auntie to over 40 children. To solve the problem I am 'Lella' to them all.
Forgive spelling - 2 wines = 1 above tolerance level.
Paul - Now you begin to understand anger about Gaza and WB Palestinians. How can they be free and self determining when US blocks every move to save their land ?
Our support for the Ps is marked down as Antisemitism - totally untrue as if it were the Israeli people being robbed and starved of essentials we would be speaking out on their behalf.
The settlements are much more than provocation - they are theft and the burying of aspiration of the Palestinian people to have their own independent homeland.
I see our beloved gvt. is preparing to revoke licences allowing arms export to Bahrain.
ReplyDeleteAll red faced and cringing now that is is revealed that British tear gas and other bits and bobs were used against the people. Good..
About time we took a serious look at just who we are arming and how many people are being killed to fuel the profits of some British companies.
Champions of democracy ? Hah!
Happy Birthday young miss Leni.
ReplyDeletexx.
Happy BD Leni !
ReplyDeleteIf you're doing your usual NightOwl, the PrincessCC link takes you to DWP, CBT, etc...
Thanks to all for links, boudiccan for Antiwar.com which I needed reminding of.
Pat Buchanan is a bit neanderthal on some things, but good articles there on the ME.
NN all XX.
Hi Froggie
ReplyDeletehi Deano
I have a problem which you will understand.
Wearing a sweater with pompoms on the end of the draw ties .
Dogge is convinced pompoms are there for his entertainment - and nibbling to destruction if only he can catch them. Every time I move - they move - Dogge responds determined to catch and subdue them.
The delight of dogs is their delight in life.
Barclays Tax Position should fuel a little more angst!
ReplyDeleteBW - any message for the the Bullingdon Tossers?
You bet tell 'em we're working overtime on spinning the ropes!
Chekhov/Frog2 - thanks for the links to redminer and PCC. I'd have missed them without your heads up.
Shaz - I sympathise.
Sheff - thanks for the insights.
Boudican - good to see you around.
"The delight of dogs is their delight in life."
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put Leni
Bloody hell, if I have to watch or listen to anymore fricken politicians spouting total and utter bollocks, I fear that my TV and radio might have their obsolescence advanced quite rapidly.
ReplyDeleteThe Irish anarchist someone linked to above probably had the best idea.
Instead of fighting these cunts, why not let them just get on with it?
After all it's going to be shit anyway, so why not give them enough rope?
The whole AV debate is a red herring and Dave and Nick taking different sides is just another ruse since both of them know it won't make a blind bit of difference either way but they think it makes them look like they are doing something in the quest for the holy grail of "democracy"
How the fuck did we end up with two fuckwits who would get laughed out of a sixth form debate running the country?
Happy Second Birthday the UT - best wishes to all who sail in her.
ReplyDeleteWell done Montana - your stamina is much appreciated and admired.
xx.
@Paul
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you have thought, with the Arab world in ferment and new revolutionary governments forming in Tunisia and Egypt, that the UN Security Council might have had more pressing things to discuss? I think that also says quite a lot, no matter how stupid the Israeli settlement policy is.
Seconding Deano Montana - can't believe it is 2 years since I first 'met' you on the Cif Valentine's thread.
ReplyDeleteAll love to you and Joe.
x
@Leni
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to you and your pompoms (for as long as they last)!
Happy Birthday "UT"! One of the few things that have maintained my sanity over the last couple of years. Long may this site continue and thanks to Montana for all her hard work for keeping it going.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to you all who have contributed; this site has been a revelation for me and I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you IRL and not been disappointed!
Peter
ReplyDeleteThe attempt by the PA to get overall condemnation for the settlements has been long in the making - with the US promising to use their veto running in tandem.
Obamama's sweet words on election must be ringing hollow in many Arab ears.
Resolution to the WB argument must be , at least, seen on the horizon. the unrest in the Arab world will not be placated by the US veto - so many problems for millions in several countries in the region. The west needs to keep out of it - particularly where they have investment and national interest.
We cannot defer every problem, every instance of injustice and cruelty until all other problems are solved - this reasoning leads to deadlock and nothing gets solved. It simply maintains the rotten status quo.
In this case I think Obama is wrong.
@Leni
ReplyDeleteFrom Al Jazeera: "US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told council members that the veto "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity. While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said.
Of course we can't defer every problem, or every instance of injustice and cruelty. But Palestine seems to be the only instance of injustice and cruelty that is brought before the UN for ritual condemnation.
What is the Security Council position on Egypt or Tunisia? Where are the calls for peace in Libya and Bahrain, the resolutions calling for the governments of these countries to cease firing on unarmed protesters?
Israel is used too often as a distraction by authoritarian Arab governments.
To be fair, there has now been a statement from an element of the UN: it's here. I haven't seen any coverage of this elsewhere yet.
ReplyDeletePeter
ReplyDeletei agree - the Arab gvts. are as much to blamee for the Palestine situation as the west.
I still believe - however placatory the US words may seem - that this was a chance for the US to stand up for what is right.
Too often meaningless words of sympathy, hypocritical words expressing outrage are used to delay the implementation of justice. All too often they are just a cover for national interest.
Israel Palestine attracts a lot of concern for several reasons - the main one being UK and US interest and complicity. I have no quarrel with the Israel people at all - I do take issue with their gvts, both present and past. Israel Palestine is one of the major rifts in geopolitics and needs healing.
I too wish the UN would do more to address misrule in many places - Burma, Zimbabwe, the plight of the Rroma in EU. The list is longer than my arms. This does still not make it right for the US to use their power of veto in this case.
The people of both Israel and Palestine would benefit from a genuine peace settlement.
I do realise that if all settlers were to be withdrawn very qickly this would create huge problems - including the possibility of civil war in Israel. The first step is to stop expansion in the WB and E J'Salem and get rid of the Jews only roads and the checkpoints.
This would create confidence in the possibility for peace and give US some credibility as a peace broker.
@Leni
ReplyDeleteI think our views are closer together than they might seem. It's a big subject, and a big problem, but far from the only one in the region.
My energy's run out for now - I'm sure we'll come back to this many times before we get to the peaceful resolution we both want.
Good night. Shame your birthday's over, although the UT's is just beginning.
Night Peter. Sleep well.
ReplyDeleteLeni x
Happy birthday Leni and UT.
ReplyDeleteRight, back to bed.