The ugliness that spewed on our TV screens from Fallujah did not just appear there by magic. Nor did it come from major media having crews around Iraq, for they are far too afraid to venture outside their little protected zones of comfort in Bahgdad. Laughing Wolf has asked the correct questions, and, from his knowledge of the business of reporting, constructed the most likely answers, which, to JFM seem equally as appalling as the story, itself.

Once again, the media have covered themselves in filth and ignominy.

Conservative journalism in a poor state. The Telegraphs often wishy-washy, confused editorial line contrasts with the Guardian/BBC’s unwavering adherence to Socialist anti-American/Israeli ideals.

Even that perennial fiasco The Independent has seen circulation climb, with its particular brand of madcap loony-Leftism.

The Spectator has gone into sad and steady decline under Shirley Temple look-alike B. Johnsons editorships. Sure hes everyones favourite toff eccentric, however the magazine is predictable, unchallenging, and largely reliant on hacks currently writing columns for the dailies. Rather than inspiring Conservatives to take up the call to arms and wrest Britain from the slippery clutches of Socialism, it has fallen to the familiar and banal whingeing of over-exposed Fleet Street regulars.

The Mail and The Sun proudly express Conservative views on immigration, taxes, race, and policing held by the majority of Brits. While the Telegraph and Spectator dither and waffle, these tabloids display their assets like a proud streaker on the first day of the football season.

I like Boris, a fine writer, MP, talk show host, and mop-head; let the Speccie pass into the hands of a brave editor.

The Telegraph needs a kick up the journalistic backside. Its circulation has fallen with a plonk below 1 million with timid, dumbed-down writing, while pro-American rags, the Daily Mail and Sun sell 2 and 3 million, respectively.

Brits are Conservative by nature, despair collectively at our imminent descent into Euro federalism, and seek an alternative to incessant defeatist BBC Liberalism. These two organs of the C party need get off the sofa and get into fighting shape for the election ahead.

In other words, they need a good hand-bagging.

George Will has a very nice summary commentary on Richard Clarke and where he should be placed in relevancy to the United States’ war on terrorists.

Former Sen. Slade Gorton, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, asked Clarke whether there was “the remotest chance” that acceptance by the Bush administration of all the recommendations Clarke made four days after President Bush took office would have prevented Sept. 11. Clarke said: “No.” So what makes Clarke strident — his self-description — is his belief that the Iraq War was a tragic blunder, arising from the president’s monomania about Saddam and draining resources from the war on terror.

The rest of the column is a good read, so go RTWT !!

The man who canned Dr Who gets BBC Chairman. Nuff Said.

Linux Developer Gets Laid

Philadelphia, PA - In news that is sure to excite the Linux community, long time Linux developer Todd Stanton got laid.

“I still have trouble believing it myself,” said Todd. “I was doing some coding when my power supply blew. Instead of pulling out the spare like I usually would, I decided to head down to Best Buy to check out the new DVD releases. Nothing new was out, so I bought another copy of ‘The Matrix’ since the one I had was pretty worn out. Turns out the checkout girl was a Matrix fan too and well one thing led to another.”

Word spread rapidly on message boards and on IRC. “It’s pretty irresponsible of him and shows his lack of dedication to Linux and the open source movement,” said Fred Simpson. “If others try to emulate this behavior then a lot of projects could get derailed.”

Others like Gary Wilcox were glad to hear the news, “We’re tired of all those Microsoft developers shoving their Win-Ho’s in our face. Now we can tell them about Todd. Who’s laughing now?”

Some developers are also excited that this may increase their chances of getting lucky, but most are being realistic. Walker Crandall said, “We thought we’d all be doing the hokey-pokey after Bill Fitzsimmons got some during the LinuxWorld Conference in 1999. We were fooling ourselves. Nobody got nothing.”

This is the third such occurrence for Linux developers since 1991.

From a funny site, BBspot.

A lot of techie humor but you don’t have to be a Webhead to get it.

Incidentally, techie humor writers get laid even less than Linux developers.

Last weekend saw a bit more work on the ole’ band material. A part-time member of the band (Leather Clad Stud-Muffin) laid down a few vocals before he went back to Stanford the next morning. To wind down, the three band members played Nuclear Proliferation until we passed out. Alas, the afternoon was dampened a bit by England’s piss-poor performance against France in the 6 Nations. Nevertheless we accomplished a few things as well as a good post-delivery to airport of LCSM band planning brunch in Wimbledon village. The bistro we went to served the biggest burgers I have ever eaten, causing a “food coma” in both John and I. We were able to discuss final plans for this weekend and anon. Most interestingly, John, our musical director/polymath, has let me loose to write more lyrics. I hope to produce some more by the time I see John on Saturday morning (!?!).

This weekend finds the UK based band members gathering chez John for a serious session in the studio. Tom, John and I plan an entire weekend of recording, while Saph will join us on Sunday afternoon to lay down some more vocals. She has the dubious honour of raising us all from slumber to get back into the studio. The plan is to produce at least three full songs for a demo disc. There are numerous parties nibbling at the edges of this scheme expressing interest in us. It will be nice to have solid to play for anyone seriously interested in us (there are several such people). I look upon this weekend with equal parts anticipation and trepidation. With each step we become more serious and it can be quite disconcerting at times.

On Tuesday I gave a 10 minute impromptu speech on the similarities between an election campaign and running a rock band (candidate & rock star as well). I was a last minute addition to line-up for the most recent Speakers Club, a vaguely Tory version of Toastmasters. I have spoken three times to this lot as one of their guinea-pigs for analysis and this last time was the most successful. What is most interesting is that this was my least prepared speech, in fact I came up with most of it in my sleep on Sunday night. I had more positive comments from the audience this time than any other. I enjoy these outtings as it allows me to keep my speaking skills up and it allows we to practice my breathing for performance. (We are not miked.)

In a bizarre twist I will have to be up early this morning to do BBC3 TV’s “Bush for Day” filming. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. It could either be total pants or something rather interesting. It does mean waking up before 9 and worse, having to go into a sports bar!

OK, you’re quite aware that there is almost no stupidity that Westminster is
incapable of, so let me keep the local news round-up brief:

Via: ASI

Kurdish Zionist traitors?

If you are so inclined to read on be my guest. Must have read better in the original Urdu.