[history in the making] country spread

For the first time in a very long while, the U.S. has surged ahead of the U.K. in my country spread of visitors. Another very noticeable thing, for me, is that I usually have a spread of countries as long as your arm - places like the Greater Antilles - but today it's quite narrow.

Canada was understandable because of the Vancouver post.

Have to say I'm delighted because, with a natural U.K. readership of this blog, this thing won't last but still - it looks kinda neat for now. Plus the chart was saved before most Brits woke up this morning.

[antarctic stayovers] see the ice melt

The Ritz Lockroy, Antarctica

Have you ever considered it?

Close to 30,000 people are expected to descend on Antarctica to observe penguins, seals and seabirds this year - about four times as many as 10 years ago. Tourists who pass through on vast liners without going ashore bring the total to 37,000.

With all the global warming, the Hilton Antarctica and Radisson Vinson Massif are just a melted glacier away. You can book now at:

Antarctic Stayovers

Dodgy Tours

Third cubicle on the left [between 23:00 and 23:15]

Heathrow Terminal 2 Western Toilet block [men's]

England

You won't be disappointed ... at first. Rumour has it that they're running Summer Stayovers in the Arctic Circle, just off Lappland.

[airlines] your credit card is their pleasure

Ready and waiting for you, suckers

Nothing's sacred any more:

Four employees from the American low-cost carrier JetBlue and a New York city corrections officer, have been charged with stealing credit card numbers from several airline passengers.

Investigators began looking at the group after one traveller, rushing to catch a flight, accidentally left his credit card behind at a JetBlue counter at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Three of the suspects are JetBlue customer service agents. One was a flight attendant.

You - er - ever used a credit card with an airline, by any chance?

[ukdp watch] wednesday edition

UKDP quotes a Tory spokesman about the mystery UKIP member who wasn't:

"She is not a member of UKIP. She was but has resigned. She is a loyal and committed Conservative and has been all the way through. There is absolutely no question of her having misled the people of Worcester."

A loyal member who joined another party. Interesting.

[mp3 clips from russia] 55 seconds of james

Doesn't anyone [sob, sob] want to [sniffle, sniffle] listen to my audio clips I prepared and [bawls his eyes out] I prepared them for you and hoped [sniffle, sniffle] that you'd tell me if you [slowly recovers his cool] like any of them? [Smiles his cutest smile for the reader]

Reader 1 responds: Of course I do, James - right away! Whatever was I thinking?

Reader 2 responds: What audio clips?

Reader 3 responds: From Russia? You're kidding, right?

[ukdp watch] tuesday edition

UKDP not so long ago uncovered Buddhagate:

I thought the story about Bolton Fire Brigade giving away hundreds of free deep fat fryers to Bolton residents in a bid to eradicate chip pans from the Lancashire town was daft enough. But that was before I read about The Armed Forces Buddhist Community Conference.

[tony's ten] mr e gets stuck into him

Absolutely no one can do the tongue in cheek, the irony and the explosive ripost like Mr. Eugenides. Top bloggers get their traffic from consistent blogging of high quality and that's the situation here as Mr. E reviews Tony's Ten years.

Must not be missed.

[blogfocus tuesday] special bumper may 1st edition

The first surprise is that this Blogfocus is going out so early. I have the weight of proof-reading hanging heavily on my mind in my day job and not even a Soviet holiday today will allow respite from this. So let's get down to it.

1 I love film buffs like Keith Demko, at Reel Fanatics, who are capable of this sort of thing, without drawing breath:

The story of Magneto, however, is just cool. Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz. He meets Professor Xavier when the good prof. is a soldier liberating the concentration camp.

Magneto hones his powers by hunting down and killing Nazi war criminals who tortured him, and his lust for vengeance turns Xavier and Magneto into enemies. It's hard for me to see how Goyer could screw up a story this good, but it's certainly been done before. And, for my money, the world needs more movies about villians.

2 Here's a young man going places. The rugby union and Jeeves & Wooster fan, Rob Marrs, has a blog I've only seen for the first time today but he seems to have his finger on the pulse and one would almost think he blogs like one of the old hands. On Scotland returning to the Union, for example:

Without wishing to be a spoilsport, whilst an independent nation does, of course, have self-determination I would wager that the good people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland would want to have a say on allowing Scotland back into the Union - especially as Scotland would most likely return to the Union only because independence had failed spectacularly.

3 Outside Story, the English conservative with the eerie, other-worldly blog, has his own answer on the Scottish question:

Indeed, England should agitate for independence. I believe that if someone were to go back through my archives they would find my views have changed several times since beginning this blog. What has caused me to settle on the most extreme solution - total break-up - is the realisation that political unions are a negative-sum game.

We sometimes believe that the Union is a zero-sum game. That England's loss is equal to Scotland's gain. Politicians like us to believe that unions, such as the EU, are a positive-sum game. That by working together we are all better off.

The reality is far different.

4 Flip Chart, who stays mum about his identity,does not stay mum with his wisdom, in this case, on the subject of "passion":

Passionate is one of those inflationary words used by people who are just trying too hard. When business people say ‘passionate’ they really mean enthusiastic or, at best, excited. But these words have been around for a while so by saying ‘passionate’, people think they are going one better. Rarely do they stop to think about what passion really means.

Most dictionaries define ‘passionate’ as “having or dominated by powerful emotions” or something similar. If people really were passionate about a new brand of toothpaste, or a project management methodology, they would be psychotic.

I am not passionate about many things. I save my passion for important stuff, like helping my family and friends, defending people from bullying and abuse or for issues of principle like freedom of speech. How could I ever be passionate about making money for shareholders or partners?

5 Johnathan Pearce has been around since the dawn of time and is there a blogger who does not know of Samizdata? The Blogfocus is not only for new blood - it's also a showcase of old blogs for blogger newbies who still might not know. Johnathan asks how far journalists should be permitted to go in entering homes to pursue a story:

In my own hazy thoughts on the matter, I tend to take the view that the public interest test has to be very rigorous indeed, ie, life has to be at stake. It is not enough to say that "X is a famous man who is interesting to lots of people" sort of yardstick.

It has to involve the exposure of murderous, criminal behaviour by the person(s) being investigated to justify breaking into a private home or breaching a confidential document.

6 Norman Geras himself has been around since the dawn of Euston and some say, even earlier. Norm is right on the money with this scathing comment about THAT cricket tournament fiasco:

It wasn't only the end of the final game that was a farce. A tournament that takes nearly 50 days to get two semi-finalists up against one another, but can't be so arranged as to ensure that they get a full complement of 50 overs each per innings when they meet - now, that's a farce.

7 Paul Burgin looks back nostalgically at the dawn of the wonderful 10 years of Tony and follows this piece with a list of all Tony's achievements over those ten years. Thanks goodness we have Paul to put us straight:

I remember going back home (I was at a friend's house) at about 5:30 in the morning, seein a glorious sunrise (in fact, looking out of the window, we have some lovely weather now) and it felt like a new dawn. And what a wonderful ten years it has been.

Admittedly there have been some awful moments, but like any marriage it has it's ups and downs. Hopefully we have instituted a pace of quiet reform that, should the Tories ever get back in, they will find difficult to dislodge.

8 The boffin and excellent blogger, Peter Cruikshank, asks; "What would be the implications if the server was hosted in China or Singapore?" and his answer is, in part:

Sites outside the EU (or the UK, or Scotland) have different attitudes to privacy, libel and what it is permissible to debate. Obvious example: the Nazi’s various holocausts of WWII - it’s illegal to deny it in France or Germany, but up for debate here and in the USA.

The USA has a different attitude to discussion of sex or race than many EU countries, so a debate between UK residents on a UK subject that happens to be hosted in USA (or NZ) could suddenly have the plug pulled. Alternatively, the BNP could use a USA hosted site to express political opinions that are illegal here (incitement to race hatred etc - in fact I have a feeling they have).

BONUS BLOGGER: We wind up today with Benedict White, whom I'm hoping will allow me to claim as "one of our own" and here's his take on 7/7, who knew what and could MI5 have done anything:

Two of the July 7th bombers turned up on the radar of MI5 during the surveillance operation, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. They did some surveillance on them, but decided that they were only involved in credit card fraud. This meant that of the 50 people who were on the edge of the investigation, 15 were followed up closely but these two ended up being in the "desirable" category.

Obviously hindsight being what it is that was an error. What concerns me though is that this information was not passed to any other agency for any sort of follow up, either before or after the main arrests.

When The New World Order Falls On Its Own...

you get the Conrad Black trial.

It would be just gorgeous if Black's lawyers made all those former Hollinger highballs sweat in front of the cameras and answer questions, the kind demanded of them by laws only really intended to be used on the little people, about just when and where they had met with King Con.

I have often said that I don't really have much time for Mark Steyn, currently hunched like a gorilla over a wireless laptop in a Chicago courtroom trying to rewrite history in real time, but Black's Bearded Bamboozler has done us all something of a service by referring to the evidence of the forgetful Marie-Josee Kravis. She doesn't seem to have, ahem, acquitted herself very well.

On April 27 he wrote that,

"A couple of years back sur le Continent, I attended a panel of Euro-bigwigs moderated by Mrs Kravis. She was cool, confident, brisk, assertive, at ease with foreign ministers and chairmen of multinationals. I wanted to ask a question from the front row, and I well remember her letting me know I’d caught her eye: the merest soupcon of a raised brow, and a nod of her pen in my direction."

That 'panel' was very probably Bilderberg 2003, held in Versailles.

They were both alleged to have been there. The only British politician paid from my taxes, our taxes, to serve us (and by extension not to attend unreported meetings with leaders of other governments and business executives, under the auspices of a body to which the United Kingdom is not bound by any treaty) who was alleged to have attended that gracious gathering in the shadows was Kenneth Clarke.

If Patrick 'Bulldog' Fitzgerald were smart he'd offer Black immunity in return for the dirt on Henry Kissinger, the myopic Zarathustra once reported to have said,

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order [referring to the 1991 LA Riot]. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond [i.e., an "extraterrestrial" invasion], whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the world government."

And that would be worth the price of a discount air fare to Chicago.

Then again, Steyn would probably want make a musical out of it...cripes...

[old poll down] new poll up

Old poll

Politics and religion should be kept separate

# fully agree 55%

# one can try to separate 16%

# they're interwoven 29%

31 votes total

Comments [read from the bottom up, for chronological order]

Posted by Dave Petterson in reply to Peter on May 1, 2007 at 9:07 am.

At the level government should be working there is no requirement for religion. I believe in minimal government. Of course current government thinking is to interfere in everything. That seems to be where religion comes in.

Posted by Peter on May 1, 2007 at 8:52 am.

If you try to exclude religion from politics, where does that leave the Christian Democrats in Germany, the Netherlands and many other European countries? Much better to have a democratic outlet for people who have religious values - so long as they accept the right of secularists/atheists to disagree!

Posted by Dave Petterson in reply to Lord Nazh on April 26, 2007 at 6:59 am.

Agree.

Posted by Lord Nazh on April 26, 2007 at 3:19 am.

We should not be driven by anti-religious zealots either.

Posted by Dave Petterson on April 25, 2007 at 5:43 am.

There is nothing to stop us picking the best bits from religion and making them law because they make sense but we should not be driven by religious zealots.

Posted by James on April 25, 2007 at 2:07 am.

Depends on the religion, really. In the case of Christianity, they are, by definition, separate in theology but interwoven in terms of social commitment to one's fellow man and woman.

Previous polls [Bag pointed out I hadn't given the results but this was because so few responded]

U.S. interest - would a North American Alliance and open borders:

# solve the ethnic issue 0%

# exacerbate existing problems 75%

# neither 25%

4 votes total

Comments [read from the bottom up, for chronological order]

Posted by Lord Nazh on April 18, 2007 at 11:39 am.

Dave, its' not even a good idea 'in theory'.

If we wanted a NA country, we should have taken Mexico and Canada in the 1800's

Posted by Dave Petterson on April 18, 2007 at 7:24 am.

To be honest I don't really know enough to comment.

But, that has never stopped me before so here we go.

I have never seen anywhere that amalgamates lots of fundamentally different opinions and societies that works out by making a more efficient society. Itll just be a NA equivalent of the EU and either dominated by the US or made insignificant by the US when it does not go the way the US wants to.

Like all these things, a good idea in theory.

Posted by Lord Nazh on April 17, 2007 at 4:24 pm.

Instead of having one and a half great nations (ha Canada and Mexico needing to become more, we'd have a full continent of underpaid people with not enough to live on.

Posted by James on April 17, 2007 at 1:59 pm.

The North-American Alliance is truly evil - there's a lot of other baggage attached to it. It would make matters worse.

Brit interest - if all parliaments fully devolved within a loose sort of union, would this be:

# a good thing 50%

# a bad thing 38%

# no opinion 13%

8 votes total

Comments [read from the bottom up, for chronological order]

Dave, I didn't answer - I only read and learnt.

Posted by Dave Petterson on April 20, 2007 at 12:24 pm.

My Lord, I thought James would answer this but he is clearly busy making up some more quizzes.

In the UK there is currently a bit of controversy because the current government, spit, is in the process of setting up regional parliaments. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, three of the four subcomponents of the UK. England is not getting one as this would make the main government superfluous and, according to our wonderful government, we dont need one. So we have a parliament for the entire UK with certain things delegated down to Scottish, Welsh and NI parliaments leaving England, the largest component without a regional voice. Similar in a way to how Washington DC is not a standard state.

This gives rise to a major political issue. It means that these assemblies can legislate for their own areas and allow things denied in England. The Scottish and Welsh MPs vote in the main UK parliament with the government for things that do not impact them or their constituents. Current issues are the NHS and Schools where treatment, deemed too expensive for England, are prescribed in Wales and Scotland and School Top Up Fees are only charged in England.

When you hear the phrase The West Lothian Question this is what it refers to. It is making a lot of English people very unhappy as they end up funding the other areas while being deprived of certain facilities.

As a slightly different, but linked fact, our main political players are made up mainly by people from Scotland. Thus the people in England don't even get to vote for them and the people that do get additional funds and facilities from us to keep them happy.

All in all it makes for interesting times.

Posted by Lord Nazh on April 19, 2007 at 4:21 pm.

I would vote on this one, but I have no idea what you are getting at.

Do you mean all the countries in the EU dissolve parliament or what? Of course i don't need to vote in this one, but I hate not knowing things

Posted by Dave Petterson on April 17, 2007 at 5:14 pm.

James, Sorry I took too long last time. I do visit daily.

Back to the poll. I do have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I don't like the fact that they are taking a large cut of the pie and they are used to enforce laws here that don't apply there. On the other I think that we are stronger together. Just needs to be on different terms. The bonus is that a split, albeit unlikely, would screw Labour forever. That alone makes it worth it.

Posted by James on April 17, 2007 at 1:58 pm.

I'm coming round to Toque's way of thinking.

New poll

You find $10000 in the street. Do you:

# hand it in to the authorities forthwith

# hand it in to the media, guaranteeing coverage

# invest it then give back the principal later

# invest it of yourself and posterity

# blow it and binge it away

# squirrel it away

# burn it in an act of anti-capitalist defiance

# contact the owner, Gates and negotiate a deal

# use some and give back the rest

# pay off your blackmailer

# hire a hitman to take out your blackmailer

# some other variant … comment below

Please have a go at this one in the sidebar.