[litvinenko] russia would like to chat with berezovsky

The altruistic BABs in one of his happier moments

Sure they would love to chat to him:

“Russia's top prosecutor said his office wants to question fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky [in a ] probe of ex-security agent Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning death, Russian news agencies reported today. He added that British police want to return to Moscow to carry out further investigations.”

And in those words you have the whole game plan.

[mystery man] you'd better find out

Just who is this man? Is he a good man? Will he make our lives better? Or not?

[comments] what is the etiquette regarding these

My computer, a little like Imagined Community’s, plays up and does very strange things and so I don’t read much into situations like not being able to access Jackie Danicki’s site, for example. The Englishman knows of my difficulties and many is the time I can’t post comments on his site. But when the page reappears after a few anxious moments, I know all is well.

The Last Ditch has a tricky comments system. Once you’ve commented and the page reappears, it gives no indication of whether the comment has gone for approval or not. Then it’s a wait to discover whether it ‘took’ or not. So, as I say, I don’t read too much into it.

I’m known for being a little ‘left field’ in some of my ideas and probably in some of my comments and yet I hardly think they’re malicious or fail to meet standards of decency. About the strongest comment I ever left was a few minutes ago on Westminster Wisdom, predictably, on Christianity.

So when I begin to detect a real problem on certain blogs – two of the Blogpowerers in particular, one of whom I know visits me often - I wonder how much it is a technical glitch and how much rejection of the comment. One of these fine bloggers uses moderation, the other not. This raises the question of blog-etiquette.

I was given to understand, by people such as Stephen Pollard, Tim Worstall and Chris Dillow, in my early blogging days, that 1] one always linked and 2] one didn’t reject someone’s comment unless it was offensive or attacked another commenter in an unacceptable way [other than arguing the point, of course].

I suppose I took these rules to heart and the result is my comments section which all can view. And let’s face it – it’s a little dispiriting if one’s comment has been rejected.

One of the Blogpower blogs I visited earlier, without moderation, had me open-mouthed. Though I’d commented on three of her posts yesterday and had gone back and re-read those posts afterwards, seeing the comments in place, nevertheless, this evening the comments had mysteriously been spirited away and some posts were registering zero.

This was mildly upsetting. Particularly as I can’t see how the comments were not constructive. Well, people will do as they wish on their sites but surely there’s some sort of etiquette governing this?

[la france] experience may tell in the end

Sorry to quote the Guardian but:

Ali Ammar told the French Socialists’ presidential candidate that the Bush administration suffered from “unlimited dementia". He also attacked what he called modern-day “nazism" in Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post, Ms Royal was unfazed. “I agree with a lot of things you have said, notably your analysis of the United States,” she replied.

I’m reasonably certain the French populace won’t be beating a path to my door to ask my opinion on whom to vote for, but it seems to me a bit like this:

Sarkozy: Good looks, experience, battle-hardened, orthodox views, predictable pollie
Royal: Good looks

[coincidence] a touch of light romance

Do you believe in coincidences?

I mean, apart from the obvious ones such as George W. Bush, Anthony C.L. Blair and John W. Howard, respectively, putting their countries onto emergency powers footing, [here, here and here].

Or pushing ID cards onto an unwilling public [here, here and here], in an era of relative peace and prosperity for their respective countries.

No, I mean coincidences like this and this and this, for example.

Or take today, for example. I came out of the Ministry to go home, then decided to go back in, to the attached café to eat big. There’s a lady I’ve had my eye on for some time and guess what? She was standing at the entrance, speaking on the mobile, alone, she hadn’t eaten, my regular table was free and so I write to you now quite chipper, as we might say and not even the direness of the world’s events can conspire to make me slit my wrists, [at least not for another hour or so].

Which brings me to the next point about the chemistry between men and women. What is it about a pretty woman that makes the blood circulate so swiftly, straightens the back, pulls in the paunch and puts one on one’s best behaviour?

[questionable taste] epitaph competition

In a Welland, Ontario cemetery:

Here lies all that remains of Charlotte,
Born a virgin, died a harlot.
For sixteen years she kept her virginity,
A marvellous thing for this vicinity.

Here’s another one:

Here lies Lester Moore.
Four slugs from a forty-four.
No Les
No More.

And another, which makes one pause:

Here lies the body of John Round.
Lost at sea and never found.

Here’s another good one.

And here’s mine:

Here lies Higham, he outlived most;
Never had time, always burnt his toast.
As his friends passed away, still he pressed on
Until one day, he too was gone.

If you can write your light-hearted entry, you could be in the running for a day’s trip, for one, to your choice of destination – Basra, Grozny, Mogadishu or anywhere you’d care to choose, in the Sudan.