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Napoleon, Lenin and Nick Clarke.
Three people who changed the world in which we live,not always for the better.Plans must now be made for a future without them ,but the problems we face are not insurmountable.We still have the rest of the BBC.
Clerics mull female circumcision
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6176340.stm
This is where the BBC’s policy of ‘equivalence’ gets us:
“The practice, which typically involves surgically removing the clitoris of a young girl, has been criticised as an infringement on the rights of women and a threat to their health.
Parents who support the practice argue that it helps prevent promiscuous behaviour in their daughters. ”
Just read this trash.
QT panel tonight
Denis MacShane – Labour, ultra-Europhile
Sayeeda Warsi – Conservative.
Sarah Teather – Lib Dim
Esther Rantzen – not a politican. Beeboid.
Polly Toynbee – Beeboid Guardianista.
so we have
left wing : 3 , right wing 1 and Esther Rantzen – ex beeboid ,so i make that
left wing 4 , right wing 1.
Knew Sarah Teather quite well at university (very close friend of my girlfriend). She was a bit wet then, certainly not anyone I would trust to make a decision that would affect my life. How anyone elected her I can’t possibly imagine.
conservative rep has just come out against the iraq war – and quite strongly too.
so i guess that makes it
left wing 5
right wing 0
esther rantzen – comes out in favour of toppling saddam.
ok. thats makes it left wing 4 right wing 1 – so the “thats life rep” is doing the right wing view now.
Did anyone watch the State Within tonight? I’m still watching simply for the grim fascination of how bad it will get (and even our mate JR is on side on this). Tonight went into even more OTT anti Americanism – with Americans perpetrating massacres in their thinly veiled version of Kazakhstan, point blank shooting young Muslim girl, posing as ‘evil Muslim terrorist’ as a cover to blow up Western citizens (pretext for war of course). Torturing poor Hispanic with electric drill. And plenty more in that vein. It’s all so one dimensional (so bad it’s nearly a send up of the left) that hopefully people have been turned off. On the other hand it must be feeding all the worst ‘joos and americans did it’ conspiracy theories.
esther rantzen is tearing chunks out of Toynbee. good on her.
Not going to bitch about question time. Because I’m sure a lot more people will do a far better job in the morning.
I just need a little help with my maths skills?
You see the BBC shouted out this the other month?
Huge rise’ in Iraqi death tolls
An estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 who might still be alive but for the US-led invasion, according to a survey by a US university
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6040054.stm
The BBC even went out of its way in which to promote that and other high (let’s get this straight I think even 1 death is too high) death counts are reliable figures for the people who have died since March 2003.
Now lets look at today’s headline;
Baghdad car bombings ‘kill 160’
A wave of car bombs and mortars in Baghdad’s Sadr City district has left about 160 people dead and more than 200 injured, Iraq police have said. It was the most devastating series of attacks in Iraq’s capital in a single day since the US-led invasion in 2003.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6177356.stm
Note the emphasis on “most devastating series of attacks in a single day since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Ok so as a round figure lets say 4 years have transpired 365 x 4 (plus an extra day)= 1460 + 1 = 1461 days. Now lets double today’s most devastating death toll 160 x 2 = 320
So 320 (deaths a day) X 1461 = 467520 deaths.
Even using the hyper inflated figures (and the extra 4 months) I come out with a death toll that is approx 1/3 less than the figures the BBC trumps as the cause célèbre for the invasion of Iraq.
I’m sorry I’ve only got O’level maths and O’level statistics but somehow I can’t get to the figures the BBC champions.
Any BBC clones wish to comment?
The BBC and flogging a dead horse.
I don’t wish to seem ill feeling or even a pregnant female fish. But just what is the Bobby Moore with the BBC promoting the death of Nick Clarke on almost every forum it can find.
Politics, he’s there
Entertainment, he’s there
Front page, he’s there.
Uk, he’s there
Have your say, he’s there.
Editors blogg, he’s there.
His death isn’t major news. Yes his untimely passing deserved a comment and the Uk and maybe the editors spot would have done it. But bloody hell talk about flogging a dead horse.
The BBC news channel is there to tell the NEWS which it garners from North, East, West, and South. In house news at Bush house doesn’t count as major news. Remember BBC we pay you wages.
The BBC and flogging a dead horse.
I don’t wish to seem ill feeling or even a pregnant female fish. But just what is the Bobby Moore with the BBC promoting the death of Nick Clarke on almost every forum it can find.
Politics, he’s there
Entertainment, he’s there
Front page, he’s there.
Uk, he’s there
Have your say, he’s there.
Editors blogg, he’s there.
His death isn’t major news. Yes his untimely passing deserved a comment and the Uk and maybe the editors spot would have done it. But bloody hell talk about flogging a dead horse.
The BBC news channel is there to tell the NEWS which it garners from North, East, West, and South. In house news at Bush house doesn’t count as major news. Remember BBC we pay your wages.
pounce -> i noticed the “worst day since the yanks invaded” meme as well.
but weren’t the Karbala bombings worse?
ah yes – wikipedia to the rescue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoura_massacre
i also noticed that the 6pm news on radio 4 announced that a series of “appalling bombings” had killed lots of people.
“appalling” – as indeed it was.
but the bombings in london – well, we’ll just call it the work of “misguided criminals”.
thats not “appalling”.
How many more people died of Cancer yesterday without all this fuss? [deleted]
As it’s the death of one of their own that’s being reported it’s “Your Tributes” on (d)HYS not merely ‘comments’ ~ as it was for Milton Freidman and Robert Altman this week
Edited By Siteowner
Who says the BBC ignores Christians?
Sect at centre of NZ political storm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5410988.stm
This is so dull I could hardly stay awake reading it. In short the Kiwi opposition leader has resigned for some reason, and a small group of Christians (the ‘Exclusice Brethren’)is implicated. So the BBC puts it on the front page. Earth shattering stuff. But I rather suspect the point of it all is to get this in:
The Exclusive Brethren has been accused of pouring large amounts of money – reportedly close to the election budget allowed by a political party – into a clandestine publicity campaign that attacked left-wing parties and urged voters to take a moral, conservative line.
RE: Nick Clarke. Wow. You guys can be really unpleasant.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been championing a drive to banish unwanted Western cultural influences from Iran.
Eh? Who? What?
Spy camera warning for Iran women
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6178924.stm
Apparently Iranian men are a bunch of pervs:
Iranian women have been warned to be on the look-out for cameras hidden in places where they undress, such as fitting rooms, gyms and swimming pools.
Apparently they’re also a randy bunch:
Iranian authorities want to stop a wave of secretly-filmed pornographic DVDs hitting markets and internet sites … Correspondents say the release of pornographic DVDs of privately-filmed events is a growing trend in Iran.
Fine, but who are these ‘correspondents’? And what gives the BBC the right to speak on behalf of Iranians?:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been championing a drive to banish unwanted Western cultural influences from Iran.
Sounds like the BBC is taking orders from the mullahs.
Today program : Though for the day
Where does the BBC get these people from, they wheeled out Dr Giles Fraser(vicar of Putney) a self loathing Christian on TFTD, who was arguing that the cross was a symbol of empire, crusaders…….etc
Now if put on a self loathing Muslim that would be something new!!
“RE: Nick Clarke. Wow. You guys can be really unpleasant.”
I agree; the Radio 4 stuff about him is over the top but he was a real person with a real family.
With regard to Clarke though there was much repeating on Radio 4 of the phrase “without hectoring the person he was interviewing”. I wonder who they were comparing him with? Was it St James or Humphreys or Paxo, or all of them?
Connell
Last week comrade Fraser said this on Thought for Today:
“At university I thought Marxism was the Way, the Truth and the Life”.
What he doesn’t realise is that, in reality, he still does.
There is no doubt about it. The UK is a nation of homeowners, rather than Napoleon’s fabled shop keepers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6065330.stm
The ‘UK’? Does the BBC no longer employ proof-readers or, more generally, the educated anymore? Is it now too bourgeois and middle class to actually have any idea what you’re talking about?
did i really hear Cameron going on about statist wealth redistrubtion on Today this morning – or was that just imagined because i had a few pints last night?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
How does the BBC brain deal with a rabid right wing fundamentalist?
To see how, tune in to the Today programme at around 8.30 am, where the BBC do their best to rubbish Ian Paisley. Make fun of his personality (mention spitting image), make fun of his faith (play recording of him singing hymn after recent election success, mention that in his belief system all catholics and non-believers are damned to hell), smear him by implying he has moral equivalence with the murderers of the IRA, and show how nasty he is by playing a recording of him saying that protestants are within their rights to kill IRA men who are undertaking terrorist acts. Got the picture now?
I know he isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the BBC need to be careful when they say things about someone that they wouldn’t think of saying about someone far worse (Gerry Adams?Abu Hamza? George Galloway?)
“RE: Nick Clarke. Wow. You guys can be really unpleasant.
Anon | 24.11.06 – 8:45 am |”
after their disgusting coverage of the Israel-Hez conflict this summer, all bets are off.
stuff them.
Interesting point by Oliver Kamm:
“My criticism of BBC journalism is that it is far too concerned with avoiding offence. Rather than being ‘biased’, as many critics (including my friend Stephen Pollard) charge, the BBC has the opposite problem of confusing the concepts of objectivity and equidistance.”
http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/
Abandon Ship
I agree with you about Nick Clarke. And many of the ‘tribute’ comments (particulary on WATO) were very barbed – lots of obvious (barely concealed) digs at Humphrys, Paxman and the culture of partiality. I never felt Clarke was part of that – probably why he got stuck at WATO and didn’t make it to the bigger ratings slots.
” Abandon ship! | 24.11.06 – 9:23 am |”
slugger o’toole has more background info on Paisey/DUP
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/heartbreaking-vista-causing-troubles-in-the-free-presbyterian-heartlands/
seems like they are having problems with bringing their electorate along with them.
there are also moves to begin integrating the northern and southern economies, via the backdoor of the EU, which of course the DUP are against on principle:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6086552.stm
By the way when I wrote ‘the State Within’ had a thinly veiled version of Kazakhstan I was getting my Stans in a twist. It should have been Uzbekistan. Still it doesn’t alter the crazed anti-americanism of this ridiculous drama.
QT last night
I only saw a bit of it but thought that Rantzen and McShane were fairly sensible. Toynbee is Toynbee. Then there was Teather and Warsi, which just goes to show that gender and ethnicity trump ability in the politics of today.
Some more stuff across ‘Le Manche’ not being covered by the Beeb, its a little long but well worth the read.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/11/goemail_from_fr.html#comments
One particular quote struck home though and I highlight it below –
I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: “First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me”.
Makes one think ??
self exploding grannies in gaza
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/11/grannies-for-gaza.html
“According to The Times and others, a grandmother became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber yesterday when she blew herself up in Gaza and slightly wounded two Israeli soldiers.
Fatma Omar An-Najar was the first suicide bomber to be claimed by Hamas for nearly two years. Its armed wing said she was aged 57, but her family said she was 68.”
first Hamas suicide bomber in two years
any mention on the bbc middle east page?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
err.. no.
well its not obvious… you have to go to the link titled
“palestinians die in gaza violence”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6176156.stm
its buried in there.
(turns out , as per usual, that the palis killed were all terrorists)
I also watched “This week” for the first time in a long time, and was pleasantly surprised that Andrew Neil still manages to provide a balanced show, including one or two good digs at the type of unthinking unchallenged lazy lefty comments normally so prevalent on the BBC.
I looked for the BBC’s take on the exploding granny from hell but couldn’t find any.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3331878,00.html
Not news worthy enough I guess.
Haven’t looked under the Scotland section though.
archduke
From Tim Blair:
Oldster Explodes
http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/oldster_explodes/
A Palestinian grandmother blew herself up in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding three Israeli soldiers, in the first suicide attack claimed by Hamas in almost two years. The mother of nine and grandmother of 41 became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber at the age of 57, approaching troops operating to curb daily rocket attacks, the army said.
Her son is delighted: “We are really happy. It’s a big operation. She told us last night that she would do a suicide operation. She prepared her clothes for that operation and we are proud. “‘I don’t want anything, only to die a martyr.’ That’s what she said.”
Max
Have you tried looking under ‘Plumbers’?
“including one or two good digs at the type of unthinking unchallenged lazy lefty comments normally so prevalent on the BBC.
Abandon ship! | 24.11.06 – 9:47 am | ”
saw that – his digs at that twat Richard Branson were particularly entertaining.
ironic isnt – Branson , a billionaire media mogul, crying like a baby because he cant get his hands on ITV…
theres nothing worse that a businessman who gets all the benefits of a free market and then , when it works against him, runs to the government. disgusting…
archduke : no, Cameron was trying to tell Humphrys that he wanted the voluntary sector to deliver more services than the state because they do it better. Humphrys didn’t understand this for a while and continued to question Cameron from the left (naturally) about whether the Tories would have spent the same on benefits as Labour (!). Humphrys then got on his class-war horse about city bonuses despite Cameron telling him that the problem to solve was the very poorest, and that Labour had failed. Humprhys comprehensively failed to pursue that line (ignored it really) and instead relied on his own theme of “rich getting richer” to drive the interview.
archduke
Yes, I couldn’t help noticing the whiff of hypocrisy in the air when Branson was talking.
D Burbage -> no wonder i missed what cameron was saying , what with Humphreys harrumping on top.
“voluntary sector” eh? sounds very much like Dubya’s policy over in the states – getting the churches, charities, individuals to get more involved in helping the poor.
here’s one example – the “donate a used car” tax break
http://www.outreachcenter.com/index.htm
Abandon Ship! – yes , “This Week” is worthy of a big compliment to the BBC. Well done Andrew Neil.
He was fantastic – he posed questions from all aspects of the media war “why didn’t _you_ buy YouTube?” which Branson ignored. He also pointed out that the net is where it’s at rather than old fashioned television. He also managed to ask fair and decent questions about Murdoch’s market moves using his clear knowledge of News International without “grinding the axe” so common of regular Beeboids.
“after their disgusting coverage of the Israel-Hez conflict this summer, all bets are off.”
True Archduke. But you can hardly pin that on Nick Clarke, given he was off sick at the time.
Pete_London
Nope, not under ‘plumbers’. Even not under ‘Health over 50’. Weird.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/health_over_50/
OTOH, this story made it to the Middle East main page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6177510.stm
A Palestinian who fought a legal battle to attend an Israeli university says the six months she has been given to study for her PhD is simply not enough.
It’s a shorter version of a much more extended and almost identical story from last month.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6087968.stm
The inhumanity of security obsessed Israel is simply unbelievable. It needs to be exposed repeatedly for maximum effect.
max:
I looked for the BBC’s take on the exploding granny from hell but couldn’t find any.
I pointed it out yesterday here:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/116402201700130784/#319006
and here:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/116402201700130784/#319008
Biodegradable
From your second comment it seems that it’s a deliberate ommision as I thought. This is what they do.
Talking of deliberate omissions, I found this on Harry’s Place:
Iranian Hardline Thinking: Messianism, Racism and Genocide
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/11/23/iranian_hardline_thinking_messianism_racism_and_genocide.php
If you’re interested in hearing what sort of things go through the minds, and come out of the mouths, of Iranian establishment hardliners, here’s a nicely illustrative piece.
Rahimian is “the head of the Martyr’s Foundation and the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, both quasi-government organizations run by hard-liners loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
The translation is from BBC monitoring, which is sadly not freely available on the web.
ME1-IRAN-ISRAEL-USA
Iranian cleric says Shi’is, Israel to fight over global Islamic government
Excerpt from report by Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) website
The leader’s representative in the Martyr Foundation has said: The Jews are the most stubborn enemies of pious people and the fateful war of mankind for the establishment of a worldwide government of Islam and the appearance of the Lord of the Age [the 12th Shi’i imam] will be between Israel and Shi’is. Addressing a conference on “Yesterday’s Palestine Eternal – Tomorrow’s Hezbollah Immortal” and talking about Imam Khomeyni and campaign against arrogant [powers], Hojjat ol-Eslam val Moslemin Rahimian stated the imam was the only person who openly and decisively talked about the annihilation of the Jewish people in the territory of Palestine, and added: The Jews and their allies consider Iran as the most stubborn enemy, and all Iranians are aware that the war between Hezbollah and Israel was the war of Israel against Iran, of course Iran in this context means Shi’ism and the pure Muhammadan Islam, and not exclusively the Iranian nation.
Pointing out that a ray of Imam [Khomeyni’s] presence in form of Hezbollah brightens the south of Lebanon, Rahimian stated: Israel, with 40,000 troops and advanced military equipment, could not withstand the 100,000-strong force of Hezbollah with its limited military resources, and in fact the 33-day war of Hezbollah was the first war against the illegitimate existence of Israel. Stating that all cases of economic, political and military corruption in the world are linked to the Jews, the leader’s representative noted: The main players of all economic activities in America are Jews, Zionists and even Christians with proclivity towards Zionism. Hollywood, as the main centre for propagating corruption and immorality of major investors in the world economy, are run by Jews or Zionists.
Talking about the 11th September incident, the cleric said: The majority of residents in the twin towers [used to be] Zionists or Jews, but after this incident it became [clear] that none of the victims was a Jew, and this clearly showed that the Jews had a hand in the incident [as published]……
Finally talking about Imam Khomeyni, Rahimian said: When the imam said the Shah must leave Iran, no-one believed such a thing would happen. But after 15 years [of struggle], the 2,500-year system of imperial tyranny was disbanded. As regards Israel, the imam said that Israel must be wiped off the earth, and his words, like those about the fall of the Shah, were now being realized.
So the BBC reports from a Tehran women’s hostel instead.
Oh now I really don’t think I cocked up the bold thingy then.
[Now fixed.]
Edited By Siteowner
jeremy vine – talking about the EU ruling about booze and ciggies right now. quite intersting – theme of the discussion is “what is the point of the EU if you dont have a single market?”
“Pete_London | 24.11.06 – 11:52 am |”
scarey stuff. and its exactly what Bibi Netanyahu has been banging on about for months now.
archduke
But hey, if we have a nuclear bomb then what right do we have to say they can’t have one?
Erm, sorry, I heard Kate Hudson of the CND (otherwise known as the SS20 Fan Club) yesterday on 5 Live. The sarcasm is long in wearing off.
In other news, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to some the Theologian of Terror:
http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/al_Qaradawi_report_20041110.htm
To the BBC, he’s a ‘leading cleric’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6176340.stm
From your second comment it seems that it’s a deliberate ommision as I thought. This is what they do.
max | 24.11.06 – 11:33 am
I’m surprised they didn’t run the full story with a headline like IDF kills elderly female suicide bomber.
Think about it, they try to insinuate that Israeli troops killed the bomber by throwing a stun grenade at her – as if she wouldn’t have detonated otherwise. Truly beyond belief.