Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.
General BBC-related comment thread!
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Archduke
Watched your 11:13 link with interest.
Please understand that you have witnessed as big a piece of propaganda as anything the BBC can come up with.
Propaganda to be effective must have a large element of truth about it. The more truth the better. It is the whole truth that is missing that actually counts.
Obama is a creation of the ruling elite. His policies are that of a typical CFR member. The same CFR that the current US VP has often been the chairman of.
The CFR and other Roth, Rock and Papal non party political, non ideological, therefore non democratically organized and sponsored secretive cabals such as The Bilderberg group, The Club of Rome and The Royal Institute for International Affairs decide general and specific long term national and foreign policy. Not the Democrat, Conservative Labour or Republican parties leadership. All they decide is presentation, style, MP’s wage levels and colour of tie.
Therefore it is not our elected representatives that have caused this economic calamity. Democratically elected politicians are simply well rewarded actors and FALL GUYS.
If the banking establishment headed up by no more then 13 mainly European families do not plan or desire wars, there simply would not be ANY, at all, anywhere, worth mentioning.
Likewise cruel economic meltdowns, bloody revolutions and murderous genocides.
Playing the blame game is nothing more them pointless fun unless there is a serious attempt to get to the very top of the pyramid from which all big and truly evil world events originate.
The world is run like a pyramid shaped CORPORATION. With a lot of people at the bottom and only room for one on top. Elected politicians are not even close to the top. It really is not at all difficult to work out who this person is.
Fortunately the only corporation I work for is my own. One thing I do know is that I do exactly what I order myself to do without question or I would have to ask myself to leave.
This is difficult as you can imagine.
However this is the same way large corporations work. The larger the business gets the more anonymous becomes the place where the real orders are coming from. Until the point is reached when hardly any one working for the company on any level knows who is actually making the BIG important decisions at all, never mind why.
Is it the foreman, the managing director, the chairman of the company, the chairman of the companies holding company, the chairman of the holding companies bank, the banks central bank, the central Banks chairman, or the person who gives the orders to the chairman of the central, bank. Which for sure is not Gordon Brown or anyone else the BBC ever mentions.
Or indeed, is it the person, Pope or being that gives the directives to the person that gives the orders to the central banks?
Bush McCain Clinton and Obama are plainly jumped up monkeys in smart expensively tailored suits. To believe that the destiny of the world is REALLY in the hands of people like these two must be frightening. It would be more so until one work out who really does have the future of the planet in the palm of their bloodied hands. At which point it is best to just start praying for salvation.
Obama may have another problem on his hands – McCain now has the full support of Rush Limbaugh.
Test.
Sorry, having trouble getting a post previewed let alone published again.
Are there words that shut Halo down?
Peter | Homepage | 01.10.08 – 6:48 am | #
It usually tells you at the top of the window why it wouldn’t accept the post. I had this problem earlier and didn’t see the message in bold at the top of the screen. It refuses posts that either have too many links or too many line gaps as far as I know – there may be other reasons.
Out on the blogsphere (now the only area of the media where genuine investigative reporting is carried out), the roots of the current banking problem are being discussed in depth.
EU Referendum, for example, has a post today which nails part of the problem firmly on the EU, and in particular, the Basel Agreement, a directive which – it is claimed – has prevented banks lending to each other because of unrealistic mandatory valuations of assets.
There is evidence on the BBC website that there is knowledge of this, with postings in response to stories by Robin Peston explaining the problems generated by Basel and its severe potential impact.
Yet has this found its way into more general reporting by the BBC? Not at all. This is because the BBC never attributes major problems to the EU, even when it is patently obvious. As EU Referendum points out, it’s the perennial ‘elephant in the room’.
Robin: I haven’t seen much mention that a lot of what the fat one eyed jock is doing (and Ireland) may be against EU law.
Council of Europe, and the uncritical report of BBC: making a Guantanamo out of Paddington:
“Human rights concern over 42 days”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7645191.stm
No mention of the human rights of ordinary British people against the threat of Islamic jihad attack. No suggestion that the Council Of Europe should keep out of UK security matters.
…and that elephant left a steaming pile of crap called BBC-1 in the front garden and, in the back, another called Radio 4. The time for days of rage is at hand.
Anybody hear Ed Stourton (Ampleforth and Trinity College Cambridge) on Toady at about 7:15 laying into the chap from the independent schools association? He questioned the motives of parents who pay large sums to send their children to private schools so that they’ll in time become “little bankers”.
Here’s a bit more about the People’s Ed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Stourton_(journalist)
Leaving aside the fact that some people still regard a good education as something more valuable, in many different ways, than just a meal ticket, one wonders whether Stourton’s parents sent him to Ampleforth so that he could learn how to brace his trotters and stick his snout firmly into the telly-tax funded trough. Or maybe he doesn’t think of it that way?
Far be it from me to raise the question of hypocrisy, but his comments are of the same order as, say, presenting oneself as a leading Catholic commentator and then leaving one’s wife. Or having a go at parents who send their children to independent schools while sending one’s own children to Eton.
Totally agree with Robin, the net is the only place to find the truth.
I have never heard the Community Reinvestment Act mentioned on the Beeb or indeed any other TV channel.
And here’s an article that nails our current woes, be they social or financial, to the limp wristed leftie limousine liberals and their social engineering projects…
http://www.americanprowler.com/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13970
Jason:
Peter | Homepage | 01.10.08 – 6:48 am | #
Ta. I’ll look for/try that next time it happens (editing and then cutting and pasting still won’t get it to ‘take’, even on other threads)
It might also be ‘cos I is Mac’
Richard Branson is a loathsome, self-aggrandising, money-grubbing man who has spent his professional life doing one thing – seeking self-publicity and feathering his own nest.
So naturally, when the twerp – and his henchman, the equally loathsome, Will Whitehorn – push out a press release saying that he’s going to waste other people’s money on checking the extent of ‘climate change’, by sampling gases in the ionosphere, to the BBC it’s big news.
They’ve printed Virgin’s nonsensical outpourings on the topic more or less verbatim on their website – without, of course, anythin from anyone who thinks the whole enterprise is a total waste of time and space.
Robin,
Branson, love him or hate him, is at least a self made man.
Mailman
According to the BBC’s ‘reporters’ in South Asia- the likes of Barbara ‘tears at Arafat’s funeral’ Plett, Lyse ‘humanity of Taliban’ Doucet, and M.(for what)Ilyas Khan, etc., and other BBC propagandists there, all subsidised by UK licence-payers, – the REAL war in Pakistan and Afghanistan is not between the West and its allies against Islamic jihadists (Taliban and Al Qaeda).
No, for the BBC, the REAL war is between between US and NATO forces against the Pakistan and Afghan peoples.
So such BBC ‘reporters’ put their inevitable spin on their coverage like this:
“US drone ‘kills six’ in Pakistan”(PLETT)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7645368.stm
Robin | 01.10.08 – 12:15 pm | #
mailman | 01.10.08 – 1:51 pm | #
Whatever one’s views of him, his views do get a fair amount of top billing and hence do count.
Whilst knowing his history is always valuable, I’m most interested in what he is actually saying and/or doing, and the impacts these words or actions may have.
Robin, is there a link to this press release? I am afraid I find the BBC search a tad steam-driven at best.
Without seeing it I couldn’t comment, but I am guessing this is more support for ‘Virgin Galactic”, whereby billionaires and their mates (and pliant media remoras) get to have a Kodak moment atop a column of greenhouse gasses.
I am kind of losing count of the attempted eco-mitigations for this jolly on the part of the empire and its media fanbase, but there was the pushing planes to the takeoff and the bio-747 on the ground. Then there was using this toy to ‘transport’ vital goods to war-torn outposts in a hurry. Now is it possible that instead a G&T the next dot com whizz kid or noted physicist will get handed a straw and asked to ‘…check the extent of ‘climate change’, by sampling gases in the ionosphere.’ as it arcs through.
Please tell me that is not being given screen space!
I don’t know, but can’t balloons do this? Or if not, unmanned, smaller, cheaper and a lot less polluting rockets?
New line being pushed by Al Beeb and a possible story line for David.
COALITION.
As in Britain needs a COALITION of all three parties (lead by the Great Leader of course) to see us through this crisis.
Looks like even Al Beeb has woken up to the fact that Labour is done for and come up with a new way for the Great Leader to remain in power.
Niallster: I posted on this a while back. The BBC have been bigging up the Libdems for a while now.
I think they are hoping that if enough people vote Libedem they and Liebour can scrape enough seats together to keep the Tories out.
The BBC are missing one point though. In Scotland Liebour are going to get wiped out at the next election, so bang goes 50 seats. They will never make up that many seats in England and neither will the Liedems.
Forget local TV if you want to know what’s happening
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/janet-street-porter/janet-streetporter-forget-local-tv-if-you-want-to-know-whats-happening-947340.html
An interesting commentary from a one-time insider.
As it happens I have been served well by a local BBC system, which has included what I thought was the innovative introduction of an ISDN line, mic and headphones in a corner of a community centre that allows folk to conduct interviews without traipsing to the nearest city.
Local news, hampered by limited budgets, annoys more people than it serves.
However, I still remain concerned at the quality of reporting. Lack of money is not an excuse. If it can’t be done well, it should not be attempted.
And if the stories are not there, a bit more ROI analysis might be in order unless the aim is just to create more quango empires rather than worrying whether anyone pays attention.
Martin
They’ve only got 38 MPs in Scotland nowadays, soon to be 37. Maybe 10 after the next election. Rats already poisoned.
“Britain’s most hated civil servant”
Before you click the link, you get 3 guesses as to why..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7644630.stm
If you didn’t get it, the answer is in the third paragraph.
DV, here’s one especially for you:
HARBINSON CLAIMS BBC PROGRAMME WAS BIASED
DROMORE solicitor and Traditional Unionist Voice Vice-Chairman Keith Harbinson has branded the BBC Documentary ‘Breakout’ – about the 1983 Maze prison escape – “shameful”.
Mr. Harbinson said the fact the BBC saw fit to give airtime to “such ingratiating glorification of terrorism and murder” beggared belief.
“One can only imagine,” he said, “the untold hurt and distress that this has caused to the victims who lived through this ordeal and also the family of the Prison officer who was killed.”
Mr. Harbinson said too he believed the portrayal of the programme showed bias.
“Since the programme’s screening,” he said, “many have challenged the accuracy of allegations made by people like Bobby Storey, especially in connection with their recapture, but it would appear that the BBC did little to investigate these claims, or obtain a balanced view from some of the prison officers on duty that day who would have been only to glad to clarify the situation.
Sounds about right.
From Asian Tribune:
BBC- Promoting terrorism in Sri Lanka!
By Palitha Senanayake
… I was able to trace excerpts of an interview Priyath Liyanage, the Head of the BBC Sinhala (anti) service had with the ‘Divaina’ newspaper in April 2000. In a discussion with Nayanaka Ranvella published on the April 9th issue of the news paper, Liyanage maintains that BBC has no particular agenda as claimed by certain parties who are fond of ‘conspirator’ theories. “The fact that we broadcast in Sinhala does not mean that we should take the side of the Sinhalese. BBC is like an empty box (Pakis pettiya) where anybody can get on and say their piece”.
Then he goes on to say that,” Every organization has their own point of view. The Tamils have their view; the LTTE organization has its view; the Sinhalese have their view; even extremist rightist organizations like the ‘Anti terror movement’ and the ‘Sinhala Veera Vidhahana’ also have their own views; and we have to accommodate all those without the need to either adopt or exclude any one or the other.”
Sounds like a paragon of non partisan media integrity; but the discerning reader would notice that with that very statement the head of the ‘Sinhala service’ had said it all so subtly about what he adopts and what he excludes.
… It is indeed unfortunate that the head of the BBC Sinhala service considers such an innocent organization formed to counter the physical and economic threats to the Sinhala community as ‘rightists and extremists.’
National Movement Against Terrorism was also formed around 1995 to counter the propaganda generated by the pro LTTE activists to justify the killings and mayhem LTTE was enacting over the years. They organized demonstrations and other related activities to denounce the LTTE and counter their sympathizers who were white washing the LTTE crimes. They never carried out any attacks or harmful activities against any community and were against terrorism in general. Could any person call anti terror an ‘extremist activity’ unless he intends to project terror as a normal and acceptable activity?
On the other hand, the LTTE has been a killing machine from the day it was borne, killing Sinhalese Tamil and Muslims indiscriminately and ethnically cleansing areas they want to own up as their exclusive homeland. It is this LTTE that is referred to by the head of the BBC Sinhala service just as an ‘organization’.
… In response to another question as to why the BBC treats the Government and the LTTE on an equal footing, Liyanage states that, “Today’s rebel could be tomorrow’s state leader. For instance South Africa had an apartheid regime and Mandela was a rebel in prison.”
This signifies that this head of the BBC Sinhala service either does not know about Prabhkaran , the leader of the most ruthless terror group in the world or about Nelson Mandela , the internationally accepted icon who liberated the blacks in apartheid South Africa. Therefore for the purpose of enlightening this person the following comparison could be made between these two contrasting personalities.
Mandela is a lawyer and a community leader while Prabhakaran was a school dropout and a criminal from Velvettithurai.
Mandela was in prison for 27years arrested for ‘illegal exit from SA’ while Prabhakaran was a fugitive wanted for the worst crimes against humanity.
Mandela never killed anybody while Prabhakaran is known as the ‘Polpot in South Asia’ who killed his leader Uma Maheshwaran, his mentor Amirthalingam, his deputy Mahattaya and scores of Sinhala Tamil and Muslim civilians, deliberately targeting them for murder.
Nobody expects the BBC ‘Sinhala service’ to distort facts and figures to favor the Sinjalese because ‘being fair’ has been the hallmark of the Sinhalese upbringing. But when the ‘Sinhala service’ attempts to distort simple truths to promote terror such dubious agendas have to be exposed in the name of humanity. …
Over the years the BBC Sinhala service has been able to influence the Sinhalese in their way of thinking with such subtle propaganda. The purpose of this propaganda obviously is to make the Sinhalese apologetic about the LTTE crimes thereby making the Sinhalese more palatable to the devouring LTTE.
Sounds about right.
mailman | 01.10.08 – 1:51 pm | #
Branson, love him or hate him, is at least a self made man.
Apart from the benefit of his expensive education (paid, one assumes by his parents) and the address book he had when he left school (I think it was Stowe). Not to mention that his first Virgin venture was funded from an illegal purchase tax scam, which resulted in a negotiated settlement to avoid a potential custodial sentance.
Little wonder he is so popular with the BBC; like them he has lived off the taxpayer.
Mark,
I had quite a bit to do with Branson’s companies when working for KPMG.
He fails far more than he succeeds. One project I remember in particular was the Synthaxe a lunatic cross between a guitar and a synthesizer which cost millions.
However the point you always found was that although the Virgin name was plastered all over everything the funding structure was that someone else was paying the costs and if the product was a success then Branson took the lions share of the profits but if it was a failure it cost him nowt.
Nothing wrong with that. He is a gifted salesman but there are a LOT of investors who wish they had never met him.
MarkE,
What has his educational background got to do with it? Or is this simply a case that you despise him because he was fortunate enough to go to a good school?
Or would you have expected a child of what 12 years to stand up and say, mum and dad, I dont want to go to the exclusive school that can give me a good education, no, you must send me to a inner city london school where Ill be the only white face, english speaking child in the class!
Also, if you are going to throw an accusation around about some dodgy dealings, at least be so good as to include a link…otherwise, no link, it never happened 🙂
Mailman
Niallster,
Not sure what your point is, especially when you consider it was developed by a bunch of former BBC rediophonic workshop staff…OVER 20 years ago!
One would have though a better line of attack would be to go after BBC staff who probably developed the thing on BBC time!
Mailman
Mailman,
No particular point.
When I was involved the Synthaxe operation was being run from an office/factory unit in the country near Oxford. The staff were having a whale of a time traveling the world trying to loan the thing free to the worlds best guitarists.
Happy days.
Mailman:
“… no, you must send me to a inner city london school where Ill be the only white face, english speaking child in the class!”
Richard Branson was 12 in 1962. There were very few non-white, non-English-speaking pupils in those days.
“Also, if you are going to throw an accusation around about some dodgy dealings, at least be so good as to include a link…otherwise, no link, it never happened.”
How about this from Wikipedia (source not stated but Branson hasn’t disputed it) “In 1971, Branson was arrested and charged for selling records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock. He settled out-of-court with UK Customs and Excise with an agreement to repay the unpaid tax and fines. Branson’s mother Eve re-mortgaged the family home to help pay the settlement.”
My earlier point about Branson (which seems to have got lost in most of the subsequent discussion) was that the BBC website uncritically reported his latest idiotic scam, which is to use his so-called space missions to prove that climate change is happening,and how bad it is.
I, too, have had the misfortune to work for Branson and his cronies, which is why I brand him as ‘loathsome’. I know from personal experience.
The BBC’s job should be to subject such men to very close scrutiny when they report anything they do. But they don’t, because when it comes to climate change, they have taken leave of their collective senses.
For those who are keen to find the true nature of Branson and his financial chicanery, the Tom Bower biography (which he tried unsuccessfully to suppress) is an excellent chronicle.
Emphatically, it shows that he has one purpose in life: self-aggrandisement.
I only clicked on this because I have a certain disquiet regarding the purpose, activities, expenditure, ROI, accountability and, in too many cross-political quarters, odd appeal of many quangos.
George Osborne, look again – there are quangos in that cupboard
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/gerald_warner/blog/2008/09/30/george_osborne_look_again__there_are_quangos_in_that_cupboard
Then I read on. Including the comments. Funny what pops up.
This is digusting – they are willing bad news upon our troops and wishing to bad mouth at any oppurtunity:
SAS man ‘shot by British bullet’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/7646503.stm
I was lucky enough to serve with the full time TA squadron (R Sqn) of this unit in my time, after leaving the regular Royal Engineers.
Also, having a wide knowledge of operations in Iraq, I know that the insurgents often used 5.56 ammunition, usually stolen from the dead bodies of US troops.
The inside story, is that this lad was first in through the door and was hit from an upper balcony. The bullet entered above the armoured plate of his vest and bounce several times between the front and back plates inside his chest. He turned to his mates and said he´d been hit before dying shortly after (a fuckin hero) His father was also a long serving member of the Regiment.
And I have never heard any mention on the BBC of the Iranian made and supplied ammunition, that is killing our troops over there also.
and all the beeb can do is try to find some form of critisism
Thats perverse!
BBC six o’clock news. Panel of ten ubndecided voters discusing Camerons speech.
BBC only showed negative comments. Either the BBC are doing a bit of selective editing or their panel are more biased toward labour than the BBc is letting on.
The “bizarre” and frightening Christian Sarah Palin speaks about her gay friend:
http://www.gaypatriot.net/2008/10/01/sarah-palin-on-her-gay-friend/
I know, her apparent belief that being gay is a “choice” is stupid, and that will be the tree which obstructs everyone’s view of the forest. But what you’re really seeing here is the tolerance of most United Statesians, even the openly Christian ones.
The thing is, Gov. Palin is not a member of any official Church, and doesn’t obey any official dogma. If she were Catholic or Episcopalian, she would have to condemn homosexuality as a sin, and might have trouble being friends with a gay person for most of her life. Would Justin Webb or the rest of the BBC condemn her if she were Catholic or Episcopalian?
She has gone on record as saying that she won’t legislate according to any religious beliefs, and wouldn’t force other people to live according to her own beliefs. Her track record as a mayor and governor backs that up pretty well.
Contrast that with The Obamessiah who has stated openly during his campaign that he will seize money from certain corporations and redistribute it as he sees fit, and has suggested starting a Young Pioneers type of government-funded workforce for young people. His minions have also used fascist tactics to squash free speech during the campaign.
Yet, the BBC fears one and loves the other. How many homosexuals were openly tolerated in the church The Obamessiah attended for 20 years, BBC? How many openly gay people does he say are close – or even best – friends?
Once again, I will state that Gov. Palin’s belief about “choice” is incorrect, yet will be the sole reason why Beeboids – including those who lurk here and then dismiss all of B-BBC because of a few homophobic remarks – will still claim that this video clip proves that her religious beliefs make her unfit to serve.
Tim – Izhmash make a 5.56 NATO version of the 100 series AK ( I actually owned one myself until recently ) although I wouldn’t know if any were in use by the Taliban.
Izhmash did however sell a huge amount of rifles to the Libyans a few years back.
Finding ways to use ammo captured from the opposition is something guerilla fighters have been practising since the dawn of firearms.
I don’t expect the Beeb to examine any of this though, the nearest any of them ever got to military matters would be waving a Troops Out placard back when they were doing their peace studies degree.
More nonsense from the BBC in an attempt to distract from The Obamessiah’s lack of experience:
Palin: The great debater?
The theme of this article is that Sarah Palin is inexperienced and not knowledgeable about the issues. A huge effort is made here to lead the reader to understand that she simply isn’t qualified because of her lack of experience.
As I’ve said before, the necessity of experience and foreign policy knowledge of a VP candidate is a canard. It’s a non-issue dressed up as one, simply to distract from The Obamessiah’s severe lacking in this area.
Here are two key quotes, demonstrating that the BBC is in full denial mode, unaware of any irony:
“There were many times the third candidate and I would walk off stage and shake our heads,” Mr Halcro said. “It wasn’t policy it was populism.”
Which was what we’ve been saying about The Obamessiah.
“I don’t think anyone could have beat her,” Mr Halcro said. “It wasn’t about how much she knew about the issues. People didn’t care about her experience, they just thought, ‘This is the drink of water we need’.”
Does this sound familiar to anyone? But no, just remember the closing bit:
“Ten days ago, if you asked how important the vice-presidential debate would be, I would say intensely important because of Palin’s attractiveness across party lines,” Mr Parker said.
“But now with what is going on on Wall Street, I don’t think that her inexperience is going to play well.”
David,
I don’t want to knock this discussion off course but just wanted to respond to your statement that believing that gay is a choice is ‘stupid’.
Until they find a gay gene I would have thought that believing that it is a lifestyle choice was supported by the known facts.
Tim i agree with your post. On reading the headline I initially thought of a blue on blue incident.
However on reading the story It comes out in the wash that actually it
Tim i agree with your post. On reading the headline I initially thought of a blue on blue incident.
However on reading the story It comes out in the wash that actually it May have been a British bullet.
Bullet bBC?
They are rounds you merchant bankers. ‘Rounds’. Seeing as I was reading Pam 21 and Pam 5 today.
But back to the story. The bBC spreads this rumour that the Brits shot one of their own.
(A bit like how Frank Gardner was slotted by his religious kin)
When in fact one of own was murdered by one of the BbCs own.
(Anybody from the bBC who objects to the above please feel free to chase me up and sue me. I’ll ensure that I will make it worth your while to trace me. Allah akbar and all that jazz.)
The bBC traitors to the British nation.
“BS Alert: Polar bear hearing affected to due global warming?
From the BBC, a video report so absurd, you wonder if it is an April fools joke. The premise? Noise from excessive ice calving and cracking due to “climate change” would affect the bear’s hearing. I wonder what agency was gullible enough to provide a grant for this load of rubbish? Like polar bears have never heard ice floes cracking and calving before? Give me a break. Plus, the polar bear they are using for a test subject isn’t in it’s natural environment, it’s at a zoo and who’s to say this bear establishes a credible baseline hearing test? This is just unbelievable stupidity in the guise of bad science. What next? Hearing aids for polar bears? ”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/30/bs-alert-polar-bear-hearing-affected-to-due-global-warming/
pounce (correction):
“It comes out in the wash that actually it May have been a British bullet.
Bullet bBC?
They are rounds you merchant bankers. ‘Rounds’.”
To the general public they are ‘bullets’.
Anon wrote;
“To the general public they are ‘bullets’.”
Who said anything about the general public. The last i looked I wore green today. Hence my Pam 21 and Pam 5 quote.
Don’t worry, Pounce: the imaginatively named ‘Anon’ is the classic Beeboid who believes he speaks for the “general public” – with his head firmly wedged up his arse
I hear it’s snowing on Mars. Must be Climate Change.
Bloody yanks and their SUV robot probes!!!
Niallster | 01.10.08 – 6:48 pm |
Until they find a gay gene I would have thought that believing that it is a lifestyle choice was supported by the known facts.
Sorry, but there are scientifically proven influences on gender and sexual orientation other than genetics. For example, crocodilian gender is determined by nest temperature during incubation. Variations in womb temperature have produced male mice which exhibit mounting behavior towards other males. Light cycle fluctuations causes hermaphrodites in certain plants. Some fish species can swap their own gender when there aren’t enough of one or the other in their environment.
Further, how does a heterosexual male, for example, know why he is attracted to certain type of woman and not others? Surely there are plenty of tastes which might be considered “fetishes” which have nothing to do with selective evolution. Are those mere choices? There’s more and more evidence these days that all kinds of non-genetic involuntary pressures influence mating behaviors.
So far as I can tell, the only “choice” homosexuals make is whether or not to act on their desires. If that’s how we’re going to define “choice”, then it must follow logically that some people are born with those desires, and then “choose” to act on them. Which means that sexual orientation is something they’re born with, and not really a choice.
good speech by cameron today.
ok ok – i know his hands are tied by our real masters in Brussels. but he hit all the right buttons.
attacking political correctness was badly needed.. that’ll resonate beyond the hall to normal folks who are fed up to the back teeth with it.
pounce (correction):
“Seeing as I was reading Pam 21 and Pam 5 today.”
I don’t suppose many people here know what you mean by ‘Pam 21’ and ‘Pam 5’.
These beeboids are off the f*ckin chain….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7645743.stm
“On the philosophical level, it will be harder for it to argue in favour of its free market ideas, if its own markets have collapsed.”
Send the Beeboids to live in “free” Russia, or China for a few years, then we’ll see if it’s still apparently hard to argue in favour of the American idea.
nelson | 01.10.08 – 8:52 pm |
Is John Bolton – who has nothing to do with economics – the only source the BBC could go to for a useful quote on this subject?
And I suppose Paul Reynolds knows those who get their information only from the BBC will not be aware of the problems in European banks, and can go on pretending that it’s only the US who has to do this.
And in any case, this is a failure of government, caused by the failures of politicians, not of the free market system. The BBC doesn’t want you to know that either, and they’ll never admit it, unless it’s to blame Boooosh exclusively.
I have just watched the most biased (pro-Brown,anti-Cameron)piece of crap ever to grace my TV.The 10 o’clock bbc news brought in 10 Stafford ‘floating’ voters to assess David Cameron’s speech at the Tory conference.All 10 said they were not impressed,some hated it,the bulk blamed the Tories and especially ‘Thatcher’for all our ills.If these were undecided,neutral voters then I’m an Eskimo’s aunt!They were hand-picked,anti-Tories.This was blatant bias with no attempt at all to give a more balanced view.I am fuming!Something really has to be done about this bunch of shithouses.
nelson: Simply make the BBC earn their cash instead of acting like a bunch of criminals running a local protection racket. Then see them change their ways when their paychecks go down the pan.