Speaking of Derren...
AL Kennedy says "it's as if my whole country has woken up tattooed and married to Derren Brown - there was this guy, he came up to us, seemed a bit dodgy but harmless, gave us a whole load of patter and the next thing we knew, we're all sharing responsibility for amputations and rapes and epidemic terror and blowing up a wedding singer and riding on a 70-year-old lady as if she were a horse".
I missed that show - seriously, let me know if they repeat it; it sounds exceedingly cool. Although I do now understand the 700 complaints.
Posted by John B on 6/4/04 5:16:52 PM Permalink
A list to fisk
One day, assuming I acquire a week or so to do so, I'm planning on answering Patrick Crozier's list of 100 state failures.
Should anyone else want to have a go, the fish-barrel-shooting-ly easy ones should be 18, 19, 21, 25, 26, 27, 32, 41, 42, 44, 47, 49, 51, 60, 62, 63, 67, 68, 70, 77, 85, 88, 89 and 90. Although if you're feeling particularly brave, I'd recommend 22, 23, 33-36, 40 and 48.
I'll concede 72 right away, however.
Posted by John B on 6/4/04 7:39:43 AM Permalink
Juvenilia
Since it's Friday:
1) Derren Brown describes himself as a master mentalist. Indeed, you'd have to be a bit of a mentalist to shoot yourself in the head on national telly.
2) Is "fuck from both sides" a commonly used synonym for (I'm guessing) double penetration? If not, why do I get several visits a week courtesy of Googling onanists hunting for FFBS pictures? Or is it all the same Googling onanist, who gets off on the extreme sexiness of my writing (and occasional exciting pictures)?
3) Is it possible to be a serious political commentator, given the fundamental unseriousness of the current political landscape?
4) Here is a picture my girlfriend made:
Posted by John B on 6/4/04 4:20:45 AM Permalink
Echelontastic
Just as well Joe Strummer's dead, otherwise I'm sure they'd be coming for him too.
Posted by John B on 6/3/04 5:21:44 AM Permalink
Insert stem pun here
Unlike most of the nonsense I talk on SBBS, I actually know a bit about stem cell research, have spent several months a few years ago reading up on it and interviewing people involved.
As a result, I can't even be bothered to deal with the lunacy of the latest "stem cell research debate". There is no fucking debate. It's not even the clash of a scientific-rational worldview and a mystic-superstitious one, since the mystic-superstitious types who shrill-y protest against stem cell research in the US are far too hypocritical to also protest against IVF...
The only interesting debating point I've ever seen raised "against"(-ish) stem cell research is that people suffering from degenerative neural disease don't actually suffer, so we shouldn't necessarily view their apparent distress as a serious criterion in our medical priorities (thanks to Tom Stoneham, who sadly now only blogs about smartphones rather than interesting things, for that one).
Posted by John B on 6/2/04 7:36:18 PM Permalink
Mea culpa
I was apparently wrong about which Islamic fundamentalist regime controls the US presidency.
Matthew Yglesias sets me, and everyone else to rights.
Posted by John B on 6/2/04 7:19:54 PM Permalink
Voting
I've just voted (hooray for postal voting!)
In a display of my maturity and fitness to vote, I voted for my neighbour and the two candidates with the silliest names.
Boringly, but fortunately, they were also the ones who came closest to my ideological views (not very, but never mind).
Update: disappointingly, my neighbour didn't kindly offer to look after my ballot paper.
Posted by John B on 6/2/04 5:11:34 PM Permalink
Hahahahahaha
Go here (link may not work because Blogger is rubbish, in which case scroll down to "Saddam and 9/11") for an impressively creative definition of "growing body of evidence".
(if you can't face the wingnuttery, "growing body of evidence" here means "the Chalabi lies we all knew about, the AQ leader we didn't shoot or arrest in Kurdistan, and another recital of the Chalabi lies we all knew about").
Posted by John B on 6/2/04 9:47:51 AM Permalink
I'm shocked, shocked
The US administration appears to be declassifying secret documents to suit their political goals. That's really not the kind of behaviour I'd expect from the leaders of the world's finest nation and the frontline fighters in the War against Terror.<br><br>Then again, it's exactly the kind of behaviour I'd expect from GWB and his cronies. Go figure...</p> <p><small><i>Posted by John B on 6/2/04 9:19:06 AM <a href='full_post.asp?pid=203'>Permalink</a></i></small></p> <p><a href="full_post.asp?pid=203#comments">Write a comment</a></p> <h2>Hungry? Eat these eyeballs</h2> <p>Zoe Williams comes up with a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1228579,00.html">significantly better</a> electoral campaigning strategy for the Tories than the current one.<br><br>Interestingly, her criticisms really aren't that different from those voiced by right-wingers - and while she's entirely taking the piss, she's also right. Limp attempts to portray Tony Blair's government as failing to deliver aren't going to work, because the government hasn't really failed to deliver. <br><br>The reasons Labour has lost popularity have everything to do with loss of trust in the government and in Mr Blair, and not very much to do with the noticeable improvements in the NHS, the railways, the crime rate and the education system (with the Iraq debacle a symptom, not a cause, of the distrust). <br><br>As a result, the parties that are gaining ground are mostly the "if you vote for me at least it'll piss off all those Westminster tossers" crowd, whether Gallowayites, swivel-eyed loons, or fascists. Few BNP or UKIP supporters genuinely believe in those parties' aims [1], but they think that Labour and the Tories are cynical, unprincipled liars [2].<br><br>In this context, "vote for us because while we won't actually change anything, at least we're not that sanctimonious grinning twat" is probably the most compelling slogan on offer.<br><br>[1] Exception: some UKIP supporters are probably stupid enough to believe the claim we could easily move from the EU to the EEA, and that within the EEA we would be able to avoid applying EU standards to almost everything we do.<br><br>[2] It's slightly amusing in this context that the leaders of the minority parties are far more cynical, unprincipled and deceitful than any of the big three.</p> <p><small><i>Posted by John B on 6/1/04 9:54:26 AM <a href='full_post.asp?pid=202'>Permalink</a></i></small></p> <p><a href="full_post.asp?pid=202#comments">Write a comment</a></p> <h2>Fish fish fish fish fish</h2> <p>Open letter to Europhobics:<br><br>The reason the British fishing industry is in trouble is because there are hardly any fish left, because we've fished them almost to extinction. To avoid actually reaching extinction, we impose strict quotas on fishermen.<br><br>If the EU were to cease to exist tomorrow, this would not bring the miraculous reappearance of the fish.<br><br>Thankyou.</p> <p><small><i>Posted by John B on 6/1/04 8:20:54 AM <a href='full_post.asp?pid=201'>Permalink</a></i></small></p> <p><a href="full_post.asp?pid=201#comments">5 comments</a></p> <p><a href="default.asp?show=all">Click here</a> to view all posts (may take a while to load...)</p> <td width="29%" align="right" valign="top" class="sideBar"> <h6>Recent posts:</h6> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=211">Speaking of Derren...</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=210">A list to fisk</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=209">Juvenilia</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=208">Echelontastic</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=207">Insert stem pun here</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=206">Mea culpa</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=205">Voting</a><br> <h6>Recent comments:</h6> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=201#comment176">john b</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=201#comment175">ed</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=201#comment173">john b</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=199#comment172">john b</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=201#comment171">ed</a><br> <a href="full_post.asp?pid=199#comment170">Leo Caesius</a><br> <div class="SideBar"> <h6>General news:</h6> <a href="http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/HOME?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME">AP</a><br> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/">BBC News</a><br> <a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a><br> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">Guardian</a><br> <a href="http://www.reuters.com/">Reuters</a><br> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/">Telegraph</a><br> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">Times (NY)</a><br> <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/">Times (UK)</a><br> <h6>Business news:</h6> <a href="http://www.breakingviews.com">Breaking Views</a><br> <a href="http://www.datamonitor.com/all/news/">Datamonitor</a><br> <a href="http://www.ft.com/">Financial Times</a><br> <a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance.jhtml">Reuters Finance</a><br> <a href="http://www.wsj.com/">Wall St Journal</a><br> <h6>Brit-based bloggage</h6> <a href="http://4glengate.net/" title="Marxists sneak in at the top of the alphabetical list">4glengate</a><br> <a href="http://anthonywells.typepad.com/anthony_wells/" title="Now in glorious Moveable Type">Anthony Wells</a><br> <a href="http://www.afterimages.co.uk/backword/" title="Miraculously timely leftism">Backword</a><br> <a href="http://beatniksalad.typepad.com/" title="Not the stupidest blogger alive">Beatnik Salad</a><br> <a href="http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog" title="Exposing stupidity about drugs. 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