Saturday, October 07, 2006

[fiorina] they were down on me as a woman

Hewlett-Packard CEO for six years, her style inflamed critics and after her financial results fell short, she was dumped. In her memoirs ''Tough Choices'', Fiorina says she was unfairly scrutinized as a woman in business and unproductively opposed by people who feared the big changes she had to make at HP. Besides her $21 million severance pay, she began 2006 with 850,000 HP shares - a stake that size is worth $31 million now. Her name emerged last year as a candidate for World Bank president. Fiorina has advised President Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on tech policy; she won praise for defining a new vision but generally she is considered to have fallen short on day-to-day operational matters, unlike Mark Hurd. Under her, HP's stock sank 56 percent. Her view? ''I feel incredibly blessed,'' she said. ''I am an unexpected success story to myself.''

[sunday blogfocus] two issues today for the price of one

Evocative, atmospheric & historic

Today there are two separate issues – those veils and expanding one’s blog-base. Issue One: Those Veils This is one which has surely run its natural course, having been commented on by just about everybody and yet it still won’t go away. Now CNN has weighed in: British newspapers on Saturday backed cabinet minister Jack Straw after the political storm sparked by his remarks that veils worn by Muslim women harmed community relations. What bloggers said here.

[anna politkovskaya] careful where you point the finger

Yes it's terrible that Anna Politkovskaya was killed but there are just too many unexplained aspects. The western press leapt on the story and even Wikipedia immediately updated. Now isn't this interesting? The incident which the cloak 'n dagger west wants to link to this - the 2004 poisoning - needs to be kept separate. Yes they were trying to kill her but who were? She was going to Beslan to negotiate hostage release. Her thoughts on the issue did not emerge until afterwards. On top of that, do you really think Putin is going to risk this, knowing full well how the west will view it? And why doesn't he then do the same to EchoMoskva, often far more critical than Anna. As I said, there is much more to this than meets the eye, so no one's in any position to point fingers yet.

[mystery blogger] watch out tomorrow

This man signed off one of his recent posts with: and an all-new Sunday Service blog roundup. See ya. I shall visit with interest.

[the departed 2006] reviewed by victoria alexander

Sensational. Before, Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio, Damon, and Walherg were movie stars, now they are “Class A” actors. With a first rate script by William Monahan (adapting Hong Kong smash thriller “Infernal Affairs” – I tried watching it twenty times but couldn’t keep track of who was who), Scorsese delivers exactly what you want: Highly stylized, and vicious-glamorous, characters. The script is funny, witty, and dangerously smart. You expect DiCaprio and Damon to be good, but you can’t wait for Mark Wahlberg to turn up. Scorsese … uses Jack Nicholson … selectively. The excitement never lets up and Scorsese’s love of vicious criminals is mob opera. The only weak link is police psychologist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). This is DiCaprio’s movie, Damon has scenes that seem tailor-written for him and I even loved the background players. Victoria Alexander masauu@aol.com Good to see Matt Damon at it again.

[la présidentielle 2007] les trois candidats du parti socialiste

Le Figaro dit: Le Parti socialiste a enregistré les candidatures de Ségolène Royal, Dominique Strauss-Kahn et Laurent Fabius pour la présidentielle de 2007, donnant le coup d'envoi de plus d'un mois de campagne interne. Réunis en conseil national à la Mutualité, à Paris, les 305 membres du parlement du PS ont recueilli les vœux des candidats en lice, qui seront départagés le mois prochain par un vote des militants. Lors de leur intervention à la tribune, les trois ténors n'ont épargné ni la droite ni, à mots plus couverts, leurs adversaires à l'investiture.

[baby names 2] a great responsibility

Did you catch Baby Names 1? This is part 2 of a collection of 20 interesting names which couples [or single parents] gave to their babies. Do you know the babies' names?

11. Angelina Jolie/(Adopted)
12. Paula Yates/Michael Hutchence
13. Frank/Gail Zappa
14. Victoria/David Beckham
15. Sarah Ferguson/Prince Andrew
16. Angie/David Bowie
17. Gloria Jones/Marc Bolan
18. Mel C/Jimmy Gulzar
19. Courtney Cox/David Arquette
20. Victoria/David Beckham


Answers here.

[motoring] new mini-estate

The Mini wagon will launch in late 2007, but the company says creating further models may be too much of a stretch. The BMW-owned company announced production plans for the bigger Mini earlier this year in Detroit, saying it would be modelled on that show’s Mini Traveller concept car. Vice-president Mini brand management, Dr Kay Segler, revealed : “I want to stress that the Traveller concept is really only a concept. It is not a pre-communication of the car which comes.” Speculation that the actual production wagon will feature ‘coach’-style rear passenger doors like the Mazda RX-8. No-one denied the vehicle could have six doors in total: four passenger doors, plus double ‘barn’-style doors at the rear – as a retro reference to the Mini Traveller and Countryman wagons of the ’60s. Engines will include two new BMW-PSA 1.6-litre units as well as a new Peugeot HDI diesel.

[blogbattle] stephen pollard and oliver kamm

Stephen Pollard and Oliver Kamm are the two gentlemen through whom I came to blogging in the first place and therefore I have a respectful admiration for both. So when I see a little tiff between the two, it’s more than interesting. Stephen began with this and Oliver answered with this, to which Stephen replied with this. My spurious comment left on Stephen’s blog indicates that I think both are being a little precious about the whole thing. It matters that one addresses another correctly and respectfully but how far can and should this be taken? Of course, both honourable gentlemen will claim it's in no way a tiff and to keep my nose out of it but still ... it's hard to resist, isn't it? And should I be writing Mr. Kamm and Mr. Pollard? Would this upset the egalitarian blogosphere?

[g-mail] open letter to neocon, samantha and others

There’ll be those who will be delighted to know I can’t e-mail them and I can think of one or two UK sphere bloggers for a start - using the g-mail domain, that is. Every other e-mail system on the planet accepts my e-mails without the least problem but g-mail has decided that an unusual amount of spam is coming from me and rejects all letters [including replies to your mails]. Therefore, to the people who have mailed me and feel I’m being rude in not replying, I can only say I can’t reply until you unblock me with g-mail. I'd personally like to know how 5 to 10 e-mails a day constitutes spam [my maximum was 18 one day]. I'd like to know why they said an unusual amount of unsolicited mail was coming from me. When you send an e-mail to a fellow blogger, must he solicit it first? Is this how you operate? So who solicits the solicitor before that? Or is Google just the most inefficient company on the planet?

[condi] can’t quite get a line on this woman

Some women who get lucky – Michelle Malkin and Condoleezza Rice are two who spring to mind – are puzzling. At least Rice has some class but you can’t help feeling she’s boxing out of her weight range in the Middle-East. Plus she’s a woman, which doesn’t exactly go down with the Muslims. To quote the excellent Times article: It is no surprise that Condoleezza Rice didn’t manage to fix the crisis in the Palestinian Government. Most of her effort was devoted to propping up Mahmoud Abbas … but the obstacles he faces are not budging. More worrying was the cool response she received from the US’s Arab allies. She went in search of “moderate Arabs” and found instead an irritable chorus chiding her ... They sent her back to her starting point telling her that, in their part of the world, all roads lead to the West Bank. That rebuff may hurt Rice, coming at the same time [that many] blame her for some of the Bush Administration’s worst mistakes. And so on. Can you see Clinton or Kissinger finding themselves treated that way?

[world culture] how do you fill in a spare few hours

Sex and drugs and rock ’n roll sang Ian Dury in the 80s. I was thinking yesterday about the sort of thing you’d do with a few hours on your hands to kick about and not wishing to spend money and how it varies country to country. If we pass over drinking and leave the ubiquitous rumpy-pumpy to the end of the article and if we leave aside what we’re doing right now – blogging - what do people do with their time [or more correctly – what did people do which I can remember]? More here.

Friday, October 06, 2006

[middle-east] not the place for a woman

Question 1 – would you want to be a woman? Question 2 – would you want to be a Muslim woman? Question 3 – would you want to be a Muslim woman in Mosul? A recent spike in attacks on women has forced many in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to retreat into their homes or resort to armed escort by relatives and tribal guards. In recent weeks, Mosul residents have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of female corpses found throughout the city. Alaa al-Badrani said her friend, a school principal, was kidnapped from her home in the Bakr district of the city by an armed gang. Her body was found with her throat slit in a construction site in the same district. On September 28, despite the advent of Ramadan, Zuheira, a young housewife, was found dead with a bullet to the head in the Gogaly suburb, north east of the city. Salim Zaho, a neighbour, said: "They couldn't kill her husband, a police officer, so they came for his wife instead … very tragic. Nice place.

[russian bombers] where, asks iceland

The flight tower at Keflavík airport was seemingly unaware of two Russian bombers that flew through Icelandic airspace last Friday. This is claimed by Hjördís Gudmundsdóttir, press officer of the Icelandic Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCAA) … who says that the DCAA only registers aircraft that have their radars on and this is not always the case with military aircraft. Gudmundsdóttir admits that communications with radar stations have been somewhat lax since the departure of the US military, but says that the Icelandic airspace is just as secure as it was before. It just doesn’t detect planes with their radars off. This is all.

[kurzum] experten erwarten atomtest am sonntag

Die Hinweise auf einen baldigen Atomtest in Nordkorea verdichten sich. Fachleute rechnen damit, dass bereits am Wochenende ein Nuklearsprengsatz unterirdisch gezündet werden könnte. Der Weltsicherheitsrat drohte Pjöngjang Konsequenzen an, sollte die Atombombe detonieren.

[baby names] a great responsibility

Zappa girl grows up

Naming our baby must be approached seriously because the child will then spend the rest of his/her life either living up to it or living it down. Do you know the names which these responsible parents gave their progeny?

1. Frank/Gail Zappa
2. Paula Yates/Bob Geldof
3. Mia Farrow/Woody Allen
4. Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin
5. Julia/Jamie Oliver
6. Demi Moore/Bruce Willis
7. Paula Yates/Bob Geldof
8. Arlyn/John Phoenix
9. Madonna/Guy Ritchie
10. Helen Baxendale/David Eliot

Answers here.

[google] to possibly take over you-tube

Google own my blog, they own practically every ad source on the majority of our sidebars and now they are in talks to buy YouTube, for around $1.6 billion. According to the Wall Street report, this is still just a rumour, an approach. It’s a vexed issue but I see some light in it – it will make the interface with Blogger easier perhaps. Perhaps not.

[oil & gas] katie sings in the leg of a troll and lives to tell the tale

Don’t say I never bring you cutting edge news. Georgian-Irish Katie Melua set a world deep-water record by performing a concert 994 feet under the North Sea at the bottom of a hollow concrete leg that helps support the Troll A offshore platform, about 55 miles off the coast of the western Norwegian city of Bergen, the Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said. Craig Glenday, editor of The Guinness Book of Records, confirmed the record for 'the world's deepest underwater concert performed in front of an audience.' Melua's Internet site said there was extensive training for the concert, 'including escaping through the window of a submerged helicopter.' These sorts of things are milestones in our lives, wouldn’t you agree?

[brett lee] to play and hope or not to play and wait

Tim de Lisle reports that Brett Lee has confirmed that he would definitely play in the first Test against England rather than be with his wife Liz at the birth of their first child, due on the eve of the match. "We've said right from the start, which is credit to the person that Liz is, I will definitely be playing,” Lee said. "I'm hoping and praying that it either comes early or late. To me, cricket is important, but family is the most important thing in my life. Hopefully I can be there for both.” Interesting dilemma and one need not be a cricket devotee to appreciate it. What would you do? Play and hope or not play and wait?

[veils] er ... what's the problem here

Forgive me but am I a tad stupid here? I've read Bryan Appleyard; I've read the other bloggers, I've read the MSM on the issue. Er ... why would Jack Straw order a woman to remove her veil? Is she concealing weapons or something? As supposedly pro-Jewish and pro-British and pro-Right, maybe I shouldn't be questioning this but I don't see the actual problem with the woman wearing what she wants, unless it constitutes a security risk, of course. If the Hassids want to wear their regalia or the Masons wish to wear their aprons, what's that to us? Let the Scots wear their kilts - what seems to be the problem?

[in brief] thought for the day

Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point. [1944]

[opec] why plead – why not pressure

Can’t believe Sam Bodman, the US Energy Secretary, pleading with a cartel. Even though it’s known by all and sundry that the west is in this and other cartels’ pockets, still, it doesn’t do to be seen to be in the pockets. Opec’s price went from $72 to $54 and so Saudi and others wish to up the anti by reducing production by 27.8 million barrels. If things continued as they have, Brent crude would fall below $50 per barrel by the third quarter of next year. So what? That would be a neat gain for the motorist and for industry, so why aren’t the G8, for example exerting enormous pressure behind the scenes on Opec and other cartels? It’s the law of the jungle – refuse to buy and they’d soon cave. But it will never happen because there’s a] no spine in the current G8 governments and b] the cartel boards and administrations are interwoven anyway.

[immigration] here's a more simplistic solution

David Rennie, in the Telegraph, writes of Geoff Hoon’s theory that the immigration problem can be solved by upping development aid to Africa, thereby narrowing the income gap. Rennie concludes: But it is humbug, and wilfully misleading. Why? Because the gap between places like sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe is so vast that incomes could be multiplied 10 times in Africa, and it would still be well worth people’s while to head north. But I feel there is also the factor of the distribution of the aid to consider, i.e. it’s pocketed by the politicians. By all means give aid, they say, as they line their palaces with gold. What about changing the policy within Immigration and enforcing it at point-of-embarkation and entry?

[new sites] is it an epidemic

Everyone’s opening new sites – is it something in the water? DK’s and P-G’s are here. This latter is so select it can only be entered through a labyrinth. The former was perhaps necessary, given his impressive tax proposals, seemingly more digestible without the swearing.

[sam brett] error or altruism

Just posted a comment on Sam's site, not to be published, complaining that her g-mail, like the UK q-mail, is rejecting me as a spammer and that this was the only way to reach her. I also added she might like to view her revamped interview and these 1, 2 & 3. Suddenly I noticed a surge of interest from Melbourne, Australia, everywhere else a steady trickle and wondered. Sure enough, the 'not to be published' letter had been published and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. Maybe I've just met a few new Melburnians. If so, welcome. Now on the question of q-mail and g-mail, [presumably the same company], I should like to state that I'm not a spammer. Truly. Also, noticed the Weagles took out the Big One by a point. When's a Victorian team going to take it?

[laura bush] two views of a demure librarian

At the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, 2005, George Bush was on his feet delivering the night's main number when the First Lady glided to his side. "Not that old joke - not again," she said to him and as Mr. Bush slid back to his seat, she addressed the gathering: "I've been attending these dinners for years and just quietly sitting there," she said. "Well, I've got a few things I want to say for a change . . . George always says he's delighted to come to these dinners. Baloney. He's usually in bed by now. I said to him the other day, 'George, if you really want to end tyranny in this world, you're going to have to stay up later.' Nine o'clock," she went on, "Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep and I'm watching Desperate Housewives." Silence in the hall as she continued.

[sanctity of marriage] common sense in the usa

Is this picture heartwarming or sickening for you?

A state appeals court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage Thursday, ruling 2-1 that only the Legislature or voters can change California's traditional definition of marriage. "Courts simply do not have the authority to create new rights, especially when doing so involves the definition of so fundamental an institution as marriage," First District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice William McGuiness wrote for the majority. Thursday's ruling follows decisions against same-sex marriage by high courts in Washington and New York. Some states have amended their constitutions to thwart legal challenges by gay activists. The high court of Massachusetts is the only top state court to have ended a ban on same-sex matrimony and this is the state homosexuals should flock to if they wish to indulge in this thing.

[love & all that] the burden of expectation

The best advice I’ve heard came some years back from a man whom many regarded as happily married but who questioned this, saying that they’d had their ups and downs like any couple. But that didn’t wash as the two of them were clearly tuned into each other and the advice he gave was, ‘Leave your ego and your shopping list at the bedroom door.’ Cut to today and this little sketch by Samantha, quoting another blogger: "When I met up with him, all the chemistry was there. I loved the kisses, hugs and the strolling around hand in hand. So romantic ... so after a few drinks all [was] going well until we [got] into bed. That's where I ran into trouble...nothing. No chemistry, no passion. I couldn't believe it!! I … lay awake all night wondering what the hell went wrong. Don’t know if it was significant but her sudden change from 1st person plural to 1st person singular was indicative.

[sudan] perhaps pictures tell it better

Musa Hilal, alleged Janjaweed leader, making a political point and two children’s drawings of the alleged rapes, mutilations, murders and burning of villages which followed. Of course, children’s testimony can be discounted, can’t it? Musa says he's innocent and either way, he was only following governmental orders.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

[world leaders] is cheney too sick to run the white house

The list is endless: Washington - 1747 diphtheria, 1749 malaria, 1751 smallpox, 1751 tuberculosis, 1752 malaria, 1755 dysentery, 1757 dysentery, 1757 tuberculosis, 1761 malaria, 1761 dysentery, 1779 quinsy, 1784 malaria, 1789 carbuncle, 1790 pneumonia, 1791 carbuncle, 1798 malaria, 1799 epiglottitis; Wilson, in August 1919 … complained of headaches and sleeplessness. He collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado. The trip was cancelled and Wilson returned to the White House, where he suffered a stroke. From that time on the President was incapable of carrying out his duties; [Stalin] was … a sick man - the enormous strain of leading the Soviet war effort had taken its toll, and he suffered a stroke in autumn 1945 … He was all too aware of his failing powers, and this made him all the more likely to intervene, with potentially devastating effect, in the political process; South African President Thabo Mbeki was rushed to hospital in 2004, after experiencing breathing difficulties as he addressed a rally; and now - Vice President Cheney has coronary artery disease but he has no clinical symptoms. Contrast this with American leaders who were indeed sick. President Kennedy’s Addison's disease, Eisenhower’s major heart attack and Roosevelt’s coronary disease. Should Cheney retire though, for the good of the nation?

[far-east] north korea looking down the barrel

North Korea can have a future or it can have nuclear weapons but "it cannot have both", the US said, as staunch ally China warned "no one is going to protect" the regime should it go ahead with atomic tests. Beijing's ominous caution breaks a longstanding policy of avoiding criticism of Pyongyang, and leaves the Stalinist state without the support of its sole powerful friend. "I think if North Koreans do have the nuclear test, I think that they have to realise that they will face serious consequences," China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said. The rebuke spells trouble for North Korea, which faces a relatively united front against its nuclear aspirations, in sharp contrast to the fractured reaction to a series of missile tests in July. At that time, China accused Japan of overreacting in calling for sanctions. We’ve said a lot of hard things about China but this is a positive at last. Please read l’Ombre’s piece on Korea today if you haven’t already done so.

[le chiffre] summary of his mi6 interview

Not the most rivetting interview ever but here goes anyway: Danish actor Mads Mikkelson as le Chiffre, the new Bond Baddie, who gets to work on Daniel Craig’s goolies. Do you think it's true that in a James Bond film, the hero is only as good as the villain? It's partly true … We're not trying to do something different for the sake of doing something different, we're just trying to do what is in the script. So, we can't look back that much. But this is a legendary film series, so there is a big weight on our shoulders. More here.

[teflon ken] if this is justice, i’m a banana

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has won the quashing of his four-week suspension from office for likening a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration guard. Mr Justice Collins said the suspension would be overturned, regardless of whether or not the mayor won his appeal against the Adjudication Panel for England's finding that he had breached the Greater London Authority's code of conduct by making the jibe. The judge said: "I have made it clear the suspension will be quashed whatever I decide on whether the Panel's finding was correct." So the precedent is that whatever Ken says, he must go free.

[university] possible solution to world conflict

Sadly, few will read and even fewer link to this account of what I saw today and which I found quite moving. A room full of Muslim, Christian and Jewish girls and mixtures of all of these had had five topics to choose from and one they chose to discuss was: In our city, the young people at least get on well, no matter what religion. So why not in the Middle-East? The responses to this question were quite surprising, minus Katyusha rockets. Please read what the girls said here.

[health] the rich and the dead

1] On the Stumbling and Mumbling web site, there was, some time ago, an interesting piece about money versus happiness:

I know bankers who work very hard and earn a lot of money. They know that more wealth will not increase their happiness as much as more leisure would. Nevertheless, they keep working. They prefer money to happiness.

2] Agatha Christie also put these words into the mouth of one of her characters:

"He's got on wonderfully in the world and naturally he wants something to show for it but many's the time I wonder where it will all end. It's like a runaway horse," said Lady Coote. "Got the bit between its teeth and away it goes. He's got on and he's got on and he’s got on until he can't stop getting on. He's one of the richest men in England - but does that satisfy him? No, he still wants more. He wants to be - I don't know what he wants to be! I can tell you, it frightens me sometimes!"

- from “The Seven Dials Mystery”, 1929

3] This is a true story, from 2003. A business client was sitting, sipping on a tea with me, and he ran his hand over the back of his head. He was clearly stressed out and then he proceeded to tell me about his partner who had died two days earlier.

‘Forty-nine and an old man before his time. And I look at myself and wonder whether I’m next.’

He was.

[cosmos] the day passes so quickly

A new class of planets that whiz through their orbits in only 10 hours has been discovered by astronomers who found 16 planets outside the solar system and believe there could be six billion Jupiter-sized planets in the Milky Way. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found that five of the newly discovered planets are extremely fast and have not been found in any nearby searches. Called ultra-short-period planets, they appear to be, like Jupiter, low-density gas giants that orbit stars smaller than our sun in less than an Earth day. The shortest orbit lasts only 10 hours. The findings will be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

[rant] quality of the person

Have you noticed the quality of the writing on some of these blogs? That’s just half the story though. I suppose I am situated in the British blogosphere, though I try to appeal to North America and Europe too … well, the antipodes and some Japanese and Singapore and Indian friends too … oh, and my former USSR … well, let’s not get into that. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that it’s not just how well they write [that’s a given – just look at their blogs] but what damned fine characters many of them are. Just had an e-mail from one chap you all know who’s very concerned with children’s manners and upbringing and the tone of his letter was … well … this is one very nice chap. And I have an overwhelming desire to have an ale with these lads [Ellee too] and chew the fat over various issues and yet I’m stuck over here, pleasant as it is. Oh well … sorry … just a little morning rant.

[gruzia] slap on the wrist, nothing more ...yet

Don’t worry too much about this business. Gruzia tried a bit of sabre-rattling and Putin responded with sweeping economic sanctions on Tbilisi, cutting postal, air, road, rail and sea links, after earlier recalling its ambassador and evacuating some Russian personnel. It also cut military ties with Georgia on Tuesday and said it would only remain in contact on matters regarding the withdrawal of two Russian military bases there. "I would not advise anybody to speak to Russia in the future using the language of provocation and blackmail," Putin said at a meeting in the Kremlin with leaders of the parliamentary factions. Grist for the mill, the stuff for the troops. On one side - a nation of multi-billion dollar oil reserves and a dormant but still heavily armed military. On the other [look at the photo] a nation of orange exporters, damned good wine and poverty. It's all grist for the mill, this rhetoric, stuff to give the troops. If Gruzia pulls its head in, all will be fine again. If it pulls its head in, that is. The ball's in its court.

[north korea] this is what we're dealing with

All round the world there is a demonstrable and measurable rise in the sabre-rattling from dictators of emerging nations gunning for respect. It is no accident. First look at the language in this statement: The U.N. Security Council agreed in unofficial working-level consultations on Wednesday to work out a chairman's statement urging North Korea not to conduct a nuclear test in line with a draft submitted by Japan, officials said. However, the member countries have failed to reach a final agreement on the draft, and are set to resume working-level talks on Thursday. Contrast that with this statement from the Baekdu Boy: "General Kim has declared that not even a tiny concession will be made to the imperialist US invaders, our arch-enemy," said a broadcast on North Korean state television. Kim, who never speaks himself in public, said that if the US took "revenge", it would mean "all-out war". "It is not empty talk for the DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] to respond with revenge to any revenge by the enemy and with all-out war to an all-out war," the TV said. Fairly clear, one would think. And for what this rush to be tin gods in their respective regions? Or a better question: who is the catalyst of all this seemingly simultaneous global action? Maybe it's just total coincidence.

[in arabic] message to our arab friends

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

[bienveillante ira] je ne suis pas croyant

L’IMC note qu’en 2003, l’IRA possédait l’arsenal le plus vaste et le plus sophistiqué d’Irlande du Nord. Elle estime que le processus de désarmement entamé en 2005 a été mené à bien. « Aucune arme n’a été acquise ou développée depuis lors», et « la petite quantité d’armes conservées est le fait des petits groupes locaux en dépit des instructions du commandement », déclare le rapport. L’IRA n’a été impliquée dans aucune fusillade dans les douze derniers mois. Si certains membres de l’IRA ont manifestement acheté des maisons et des terrains grâce aux butins de leurs actions criminelles antérieures, l’organisation a cessé d’en organiser, affirme l’IMC. «Pas vrais» dit James Higham. Suivez.

[vox day] uncanny sense of cutting to the chase

Vox Day has a strange haircut. He has some strange prejudices and an interesting way of putting things. And yet there are things to love about the man. For a start, he detests Michelle Malkin. Secondly, he usually hits the nail on the head, as in this ... And while I'd love to see Democrats impeach George Bush, they won't do it even if they take the House and Senate. Never forget that these jokers are all on the same team, Bush has just done their heavy lifting for them... Never a truer word was spoken.

[the p-g] has he joined the select society

The Pedant-General in Ordinary appears to have a new blog and very nice it looks too. Are you select enough to visit and when you do, are you prepared to go through a registration procedure whose complexity was clearly suggested to the P-G by Bournemouth?

[foley] can one man’s folly destroy a party

Started to read this thing from MSNBC: Foley tips party into crisis with core voters. The latest scandal … could prove the "tipping point" for social conservative voters, already disillusioned with their party's congressional and presidential performance. According to a Reuters-Zogby poll on Wednesday, the Democrats have a clear lead over the Republicans in 11 of the 15 races and there are growing indications that the Democrats could also be in a position to win the six seats they need to recapture the Senate for the first time since 2002. "The mood among conservative voters in America reminds me of the atmosphere among British Conservatives in 1997 shortly before Tony Blair became prime minister," said Frank Luntz, probably the most influential Republican political consultant. "The level of incompetence and mismanagement by the Republican leadership has been so bad it would take an act of God to regain their momentum." Well maybe so but not just over Foley, surely? Can one man destroy a party?

[sam and the city] e-interview with samantha brett

It’s different for a girl. As teenage boys, I suppose we’re out there playing football and cricket or else are deep into our computers. We might even try to date a girl or eight. And a girl? If she’s the go-ahead kind, the offers have already been coming in for some time and she finds she’s interfacing, not just with the local boys but with the world in general, of all ages. She finds herself carving out a career and gaining experience all the while. Just such a girl is Samantha Brett, who has taken Australia by storm with her Sam and the City blog, new television spot and now the world is also sitting up and taking notice. Interview here.

[advertising] is this offensive to you

From the home of the bizarre comes this beauty:
A raunchy Lee jeans "Lolita-style" advertisement portraying a young woman in a sexually explicit pose has been ruled inoffensive. The Advertising Standards Board yesterday dismissed complaints about the advertisement – seen on billboards and in magazines – saying while it had sexual overtones, it was not inappropriate. The advertisement is displayed on a billboard at South Yarra railway station.
Comments by readers:

I'm offended by this ad. Why not advertise the quality of the product rather than use a woman to promote its sex appeal with such an obvious pose. [Posted by: Stephanie M of Kew 1:12am today]

Of course it's not offensive. What's wrong with a attractive lady promoting a product. I've seen far more offensive ads than that. [Posted by: Jason of Epping 1:05am today]

I know that drab station and such an ad would surely liven it up. [Posted by James of Russia 1:54 am today]

[peak hour] death on the tramlines stares us in the face

I’m not lying – I almost died just now coming home and what was more, the driver was a crazed madman hunched over the wheel, hands 10 to 2, with gritted teeth. I was late for work and did what we all do, went downstairs, stuck out a hand and phoom! Instant taxi. That was fine and the day progressed, haranguing innocent girls and drinking milk cocktails and then it came time for home. Peak hour. Mayhem hour. Major traffic lights out. No problem – mounting rutted footpaths [replete with pedestrians making their way home], carousing through gaps onto the tram lines at 120kph, whilst other cars left the road and joined us plus [and this is the truth] a tram following us and another coming the other way, lights furiously blinking and bell, ding, ding, ding. Then at the eight point intersection, total gridlock and my man actually wove his way through it. And you know why he did it? Because I offered him 100 roubles, well over the odds and therefore demanding full throttle service to get me home. Point of honour. You remember the end of Bourne Identity chase in Paris? This was faster.

[curmudgeon rising] never give a half-way reasonable speech

Fellow curmudgeon

I’m not in a good mood. Actually, I’m anything but gruntled. What started it was that speech I gave last week to help kick-start the new uni and tele got involved and I had to go to teas and dinners and things but worst of all, it appears I complimented the Minister for Education’s wife on her good looks by mistake [well she was a looker] and she decided to add me to a list for tomorrow and another bl--dy speech I don’t need and I can’t, ’cause I’d rather be here sipping a whisky, ranting at you [and my stats are down today] and I’ve just looked death in the face on the roads on the way home but that’s a separate post. And the thing is, I have absolutely no idea what they want me to talk about at this conference or what conference it actually is. My interpreter Leila just phoned and she doesn’t know either but we’ll still have a nice cappuccino and struedel tomorrow at the Pyramid before we find out.