Oh btw here is our site on iSound. Check it out we are in their Battle of the Bands.

Growing Old Disgracefully on iSOUND.COM

LGF has their head’s email. Go on you know you want to do it!.

Oh and internet jihad site Ya, Mohammed; MEMRI reports.

I suppose that we should not be at all surprised that, in the same week that our wonderful caring and cuddly Prime Minister and his Minister for Pensions announces that they will not, under any circumstances, assist the 85,000 people whose pensions have vanished up the Swanee due to fiscal chichancery by the treasury, bad management by fund manager’s and the stupidity of a set of laws which allow employers to use the pension contributions to fund board room follies, to find the Leader of the Commons slipping out (presumably hoping that it was a “good day to bury bad news”) just before Parliament rises for their long Easter hols, the news that the taxpayer is going to have to dip into our pockets to fund their pensions. Again. We already fund 24% and this is apparently to rise by yet another 2.8% to something of the order of 26.8% in order to provide the self serving and totally undeserving denizens of Westminster with the pensions they have voted to themselves. The mouthpieces at Number 10 are quick to bleat that “it isn’t an increase in pension, just a stabilisation of the funding!”, but they also fail to point out that MP’s have just given themselves yet another pay rise that beats inflation!

As we used to say in the days when we still had a navy rather than a coastal defence squadron, “I’m alright Jack, I’m inboard!”

Well David T is keeping em’ honest or at least exposing what their constitution really says.

And do you know there is a Ummah Cymru?

For their cowardly behaviour over a magazine with the Mohammed Cartoons therein. I agree with Dale Amon. We as keen supporters of free speech and expression abhor Border’s actions. I have written to the bookstore chain to express our disgust.

There is a site dedicated to this called Boycott Borders which I daftly deleted from the comments.

contactmusic.com:

HARRISON FORD hates the internet, because it means anyone can spread malicious gossip about him. The actor, who plays a computer-security specialist in his latest film FIREWALL, sees a need to censor his words to avoid being misrepresented online. He says, “The worst thing about the internet is that anything and everything is up for grabs. How can that be, when I limit my public conversations to about once every couple of years? “Any kind of rubbish goes on the internet and it can have a f**king life of its own.”

Oh my gosh. I immediately went to the Internets to find out what kind of nasty things people were saying about Harrison. Not much, beyond the standard industry bumpf. I did, however, find the “target=”new”>Harrison Ford Paper Doll page and I gotta agree with his concern: If the wardrobe is at all accurate, he dresses like a blind Hawaiian pimp.

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John Hawkins has a 13 point FAQ on the subject.

Yahoo/Associated Press:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban rebels launched a large-scale attack on a coalition military base Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, killing an American and a Canadian soldier but losing 32 of their own in a fierce American-led retaliation.

The fighting was the deadliest in months and reflected a growing intensity of militant attacks after the Taliban warned of a renewed offensive this year, more than four years after the hard-line militia was ousted by U.S.-led airstrikes. More than 3,000 British troops are readying to take control of the volatile area.

“Over the last five or six weeks there have been various proven attacks mainly at night by the Taliban on that base, but I think it is fair to say this is the largest we have seen thus far,” British spokesman Col. Chris Vernon told reporters in Kandahar.

The battle was sparked late Tuesday when Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan supply convoy as it returned to the remote forward operating base, killing eight Afghan soldiers, Vernon said.

U.S. and British warplanes and helicopters were called in to provide close air support and a Canadian quick reaction force was sent from Kandahar to the base, where a small contingent of American and Canadian soldiers are based alongside Afghan troops in the Sangin district of the southern Helmand province.

Oh, nooooo—the dreaded Taliban perennial “Spring Offensive” has begun!

Somehow I doubt that the Coalition forces are shaking in their boots.

The truth is, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have got one trick in their arsenal, and that’s using suicide bombers and IEDs to create havoc. Considering that they mainly manage to blow up civilians, it’s probably not that productive in the long run, either.

If the Taliban want to show their prowess as soldiers, I’m sure our guys will be delighted to oblige them.

The truth is, these guys fight like morons. One of the big problems U.S. Special Forces had in the early days of the Afghan War when they were directing the air campaign and liaising with the Northern Alliance was in convincing their erstwhile allies that it wasn’t “unmanly” to fire from a prone position and to take advantage of cover; this contrasted from the more typical Afghan tactic of shouting Allahu Akbar! (or its local equivalent) while dancing around in the open and wildly firing their AK-47s from the hip.

Though such romantic flourishes might have had some psychological value while fighting against other morons, it doesn’t work too well against professional Western armies, who have a phrase for it: Target practice.

Only a 16:1 kill ratio? They must have been brushing up on their trick shots. No doubt their commanders will be having a word with them.

• Note: The Hindu Kush is in fact several hundred miles to the north and east of where this battle took place. I had an alternate title—“Kicking Ass In The Khyber Pass”; but alas, the Khyber Pass is the major route through the Hindu Kush, so that was kind of off the mark, too. Plus, I would never be so vulgar.

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Chiselling little crook is the term Ken used to describe the new American Ambassador. Well at least he didn’t call him a filthy Jew or something similar. One of Harry’s commenters speculates if Ken’s choice of three words might be a tad anti-semitic as well…not that he has a history of that or anything.

Telegraph has made it views on Ken rather clear. I like this line about the Reuben saga.

If Mr Livingstone had dared to tell a West Indian to “go back to Africa”, he would be facing criminal charges.

What double standards? Where?

Update: On tonight’s Newsnight he justifies his racist comments as he doesn’t care whom he offends. “The Jewish Chronicle has persecuting me for 30 years.”

Still no there yet so…could you lot do us a favour? If you have access to iTunes US you can request our tunes. What you need to ask them for is Growing Old Disgracefully’s Cry Freedom: Rough & Ready EP.

The case of Mr Abdul Rahman, and Afghan convert to Christianity opens a very interesting window on Whitehall and our Civil Libertarians who are so keen to protect known and convicted crinminals and terrorists from facing the music in countries with a death penalty or a reputation for beating up suspects until they confess. The Gray Monk has written an interesting little piece in which he asks several important questions about this – and the immigration officials who were so happy to send this man home to a country which has a death penalty - for converting to any religion that is not Islam!

It is no thanks to either our Foreign Office, the Home Office Immigration Department or indeed any of the various civil liberties lawyers and organisations who will, at the drop of a hat, leap to the defence of mass murderers and terrorists hiding out in Britain, that Mr Rahman will not now, apparently, be subjected to this law. It is thanks to the intervention of the US President and several other world leaders, evidently our own was too busy securing loans from his cronies with a fancy for an ermine lined robe to be bothered. That, and of course, they would not want to upset the fine upstanding and fully integrated Muslim community who vote for them would they?

After all, the man must be, as Islamic law requires, either without a soul and therefore worthy of death, or mad. No one in the minds of Blair and his apostates believes in this God business anymore – and they have spent so much time portraying Christianity as evil, untrue and inferior to evry other religion that we should not be at all surprised that they are not interested in the sheer bigotry the Islamic countries practice.

It probably has something to do with oil and gas supplies anyway – nothing to do with religion really.

A great man has passed. I met the man on at least one occasion. He was a nice as he was focused on his job.

Good collection of stuff for you to hear and enjoy.

Bark if you like this carnival and there is a new Ovi out.

The Carnival of Cordite this week is a two parter: a retrospective & this week’s.

Britbloggers have their collection ready for your perusing.

John Hawkins has interviewed Claire Berlinski about her book Menace In Europe.

And we got stories for you to read as well over at the Storyblogging carnival.

The Vain Carnival is up for the week.

The newest issue of the The Individual; with tributes to Chris Tame and Paul Anderton is available for download.

It was raining and rather poor press coverage. (No doubt they stayed away because it was a bunch of people not likely to riot.)

I rather love this Momickey poster.

Thanks to my bandmate Rob for this collection of shots.

Samizdata has more coverage of the event. David T has posted on the rally at Harry’s Place. Oh yes: check out the SWP drones trashing the rally.

Loads more pics on the Nordic Blog. And more pics here.

Busheyspon reports:

“Ah, delicious irony. At a demonstration for free speech, a few idiots in the crowd still insisted on shouting down some of the speakers. Still, it was never going to be a straightforward event that brought together Peter Tatchell and the Freedom Association!! This weekend’s demonstration in London attracted I’d say about 700 people – the poor weather didn’t help – but being there made a serious point: people are not going to be intimidated by Islamist or Christian or Sikh fascists who all believe they have the exclusive right not to be offended. Well, screw them. Everyone there shared the Voltarian belief that people should have the right to say what they want, not matter how disagreeable. It was good natured, lots of Danish flags and well-thought through banners. There were a couple of cartoons on display – at one point, the police took someone to one side because an Iranian had “been offended”. Indeed, PC Plod was in good attendance, and half of them seemed to be filming the demonstration. Clearly, gathering evidence for their next prosecution under the Let’s Suck up to the Religious Extremists Act 2006. One demo ain’t going to stop the thought fascists – but it was a start.

Update: An Iranian has been arrested for carrying the Mohammed Cartoons at the rally. Didn’t take them as long as it did last time did it?

The cops in France need real bullets instead of paint. Oh, not really news but…French youths are rioting.

You are a freaking illegal alien and you are now bringing LA to a slow-down because American lawmakers think you should be help accountable for being an illegal. Even better you protestors are flying Mexican flags. Surely if you are so proud of being Mexican they should go back there? You don’t like the law of the land and you are an illegal from another country. The best solution for all is that you sod off home.

* We are only a few days away from the March 31 deadline of our signature program: our IHS Summer Seminar series for students and recent graduates. We’ve designed two sets of seminars with conservative or libertarian participants in mind: our Liberty & Society seminars, and Advanced Studies in Freedom.

• libertarian.org. This site, which will also be debuting soon, will present a variety of resources for those interested in liberty such as book and film recommendations, interviews with famous libertarians, ways to get involved, and daily highlights from the best of libertarian blogs.

Its on behalf of Guillermo Farias Hernandez. and the blogburst is here. Found out about this worthy cause via Dean.

Wired:

Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

You know, I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I’m nominally Catholic, though not particularly religious. I nevertheless think that the above model of events is no less fantastical and requires no less a leap of faith than the idea that the universe was conjured up out of fairy dust by The Big Guy With The Beard.

So, while waiting for the physicists to knit together their superstring theories, I might be inclined to revisit Pascal’s Wager. Hedging my bets, as it were.

Penses, Section III, #205:

“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to me? Memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis.” [Wisd. of Sol. 5. 15. “The remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day.”]

the blog québécois

Please give em’ some of your eyeball time. After all they were nice enough to sponsor me.

Labour isn’t wicked – but it’s doing just what the Nazis did. I am guessing they will get a few complaints about this article.

My pirate name is:

Black William Flint

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. Like the rock flint, you’re hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you’re easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Found via Murray

National Review’s The Corner has been a gold mine this week for kitschy music videos. Here’s Bing Crosby and friends (Englebert Humperdinck, Gwen Verdon, Dick Shawn, Bobbie Gentry) crooning their way through a Beatles medley.

I have no idea who this woman is—just sit back and let the outstanding production values wash over you.

Ditto with this guy. I think it’s probably from a losing entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Or possibly a winning entry. It’s tough to tell at times.

It’s not like The Corner caught all the good stuff. Look what I found here.

And Leonard Nimoy “singing” The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. I ask you, how much would you pay for entertainment like this?

Okay, that was a rhetorical question.

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I have a new story on Temple of Dagon as well my latest column over at Blogcritics.

Straight? Unhappy? Alas, a happy-clappy group sued as they didn’t see any humour in it.

SearchPercent

big breasted women1304.4 %
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andrew ian dodge582 %
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big hooters

In a wonderful bit of English understatement: happy-clappy terrorist-empowering moron Norman Kember’s wife said:

He was a bit silly.

Going to a country whose religion demands a death sentence for apostasy as an evangelical Christian is an interesting choice. Luckily no SAS men were killed rescueing Norman and his fellow idiots.

Will you? Found via Samizdata.

The march’s website can be found via this link.

NB: I pulled a muscle in my calf and have a hard time standing up right now so a rally in Trafalgar Sq wouldn’t be bright.

Tachell will be there: even though he does not like the Libetarian Alliance or the Freedom Association.

Now you don’t even have to leave this fine blog for a minute to get your daily fix of hot gaming action!

This, as I see it, maximizes the chance that, blundering around this fine blog in search of more hot gaming action, someone will accidentally click on one of the damn Google ads, thus fattening my bank account by an average of $0.12.4781¢.

That is the theory, at any rate; and if Google asks, you didn’t get the idea from me.

Click on Play and use your cursor keys to steer your little cube thing to freedom, or at least the next level. Warning: A few distinctly unbusinesslike sounds.

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