At least the choice of Dominique de Villepin as new French PM will piss off the Yanks (who deserve to be thoroughly pissed off for their insane hypocrisy over civil aviation, if nothing else).
Sadly, this is the *only* thing in Mr de Villepin’s favour.
Christopher Hitchens may be, on some levels, a twat. However, my respect for him is strongly renewed following this exchange:
Female audience member Excuse me. I’m not usually awkward at all but I’m sitting here and we’re asked not to smoke. And I don’t like being in a room where smoking is going on.
CH (smoking heavily): Well, you don’t have to stay, do you darling. I’m working here and I’m your guest. OK. This is what I like.
IK Would you just stub that one out?
CH No. I cleared it with the festival a long time ago. They let me do it. If anyone doesn’t like it they can kiss my ass.
(Woman walks out)
The rest of the debate between Christopher and Peter Hitchens is worth reading, too.
Next time I hear someone suggesting that the reason liberals don’t want to hang, boil alive, and generally fuck up Antisocial Youths is because we live in gated suburban communities sheltered from the Real Concerns of the Working People, I’m going to find out where they live.
Unless the complainant lives somewhere more Real, Urban and Ungated than I (which I suspect to be unlikely), I’m then going to don a hoodie, break into their house, and cut their fucking head off while they sleep. How’s that for antisocial behaviour, you smug totalitarian wankjob?
Nosemonkey at Europhobia points out an amusing howler by Oliver Kamm (describing Gerhard Schroder as "the most feckless and unprincipled Chancellor in the history of democratic Germany", thereby implying that Hitler was principled and, err, feckful).
All very amusing. But not as amusing as the comments section, where an ignorant, arrogant, anonymous Kamm-ite wanker accuses Nosemonkey of all kinds of stupidity and ignorance on the basis of, err, nothing whatsoever.
I wonder if it’s the great man himself?
Harry Hutton says I’m a hooah. Harry Hutton is right; Harry Hutton can also go and fuck himself.
Scaryduck is also a hooah. However, his impassioned defence of the BBC is well worth a read. And apparently they’re scheduled to have their entire broadcast archive on line by the end of 2005, which would be (approximately) The Best Thing Ever.
Sorry for limited posting: my computer is currently in bits, and I’ve been too drunk over this weekend to put it back together. Anyway, here are some rough riffings on the weekend’s News…
Jacques Chirac will be rather fecked off today. Tony Blair will be rather pleased. Many pundits will radically exaggerate the impact of the vote. Europe will muddle on pretty much as it was before.
Say what you like about Bill Clinton, but at least he bombed Sudan instead of leaving the vile bastards who run it in charge. Their latest move is to arrest the director of Medecins Sans Frontiers for compiling a report on the number of government-backed rapes in Darfur. It’s a shame that the Iraq fuckup has permanently discredited the concept (in terms of both motives and ability to not make things worse) of Western humanitarian military intervention in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Oh, and Virgin Radio listeners are deaf, mad and stupid.
Email the Advertising Standards Agency with the following message:
"Please, please, please make the ‘Crazy Frog’ adverts go away and end the nightmare for me and thousands of others. I would more merrily listen to my own teeth being drilled with a rusty screw tip than endure one more repeat of that advert.
"Please, I can’t promise it won’t push me over the edge. Don’t let that forever be on your consciences."
(via Silicon.com)
Update: *don’t* do this – the ASA are (somewhat disingenously) interpreting such complaints as being about frequency rather than about content. Send an email pointing out how aesthetically offensive the content is instead…
Shorter USS Neverdock: "Why should we care about our troops torturing Muslims and desecrating Islamic symbols, when some Muslims torture Christians and desecrate the Bible?"
An actual quote: "Hollywood’s latest crusade movie rewrites history to make the Christians the bad guys". Like the way Schindler’s List rewrote history to make the Germans the bad guys, presumably. Another: "First we have to admit that we are at war and the enemy is Islam, distasteful as that is, it is accurate".
No, first we have to admit that you’re a fucking nutcase, and that the only reason not to oppose anti-free-speech religious protection laws is that at least they’d send a few wankers like you to Belmarsh…
Brilliant posts from John Cole and The Editors on the Newsweek/Koran-flushing, followed by general riffing about dishonesty and idiocy (in both cases). From the latter:
"If people say they are going to do something, and then they do it, and then they say they’re going to do something else, and they do that, too, and on and on, you should assume they’re going to do what they say they’re going to do. Even if they aren’t looking at you when they say it.
"Conversely, if they consistantly tell you they are going to do things they never do, it is worth considering the possibility that you’re a big, huge, gigantic, bitch. Even if they look you right in the eyes and say "freedom" every two seconds."
I’ve replaced the list of linked weblogs on my right: it now matches up with the feeds and categories in my RSS reader.
So if you’re not on it, this is either because I don’t read your site, or because I’ve forgotten to subscribe to it. If you think I should be subscribed to, reading, and therefore linking to, your site, then explain why in the comments.