HAMMER TIME

 

‘YOU WILL SEE WHY 1984 WILL NOT BE LIKE 1984’

‘With more than a nod to George Orwell’s novel 1984,the advert warned of a future where soulless drones unquestionably soak up the words of their dictator who speaks to them from a large screen. Moments later a gorgeous nameless heroine in red shorts and a white tank top comes running down the aisle with a hammer in her hands while apparently being chased by the thought police.

She hurls the hammer at the screen just as “Big Brother” is telling the faithful “we shall prevail.”

 

I’m still waiting.

 

WSJ 2003 Michael Gonzalez:

The BBC has been described as Orwellian, because of its unequaled role in shaping perceptions in Britain.

‘The BBC has been described as Orwellian, because of its unequaled role in shaping perceptions in Britain. This is one reason the government of Tony Blair has taken the broadcaster to task over its biased coverage of the Iraq war and its aftermath. But George Orwell also warned us about the dangers the BBC presents in other important ways.

Orwell recognized that Britain’s chattering classes have a suicidal habit of flirting with appeasement. Other great British thinkers have also seen this–not least those who, despite having a healthy mistrust of nationalism, realized that an elite estranged from feelings of patriotism represented a threat.

That the BBC has become the home to this elite today is a tough judgment to pass, and the BBC does many great things. Its non-news documentaries are excellent and its comedies – from “Fawlty Towers” through “Blackadder” to, most recently, “The Office” – are brilliant in a way that few American sitcoms dare to be.

Still, it is important not to close one’s eyes to what else the BBC has become, particularly since the corporation and its journalists are themselves blind to it. The BBC refuses to admit that its coverage of the lead-up to war, of the conflict and its aftermath, has been tendentious; that it has relentlessly pushed the agenda that the war was wrong. The last straw was its claim that, against the wishes of the intelligence agencies, the government had inserted into a dossier on Iraq the assertion that Saddam Hussein had the ability to deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.

The BBC’s Andrew Gilligan quoted a source – who turned out to be the scientist David Kelly – as criticizing the government. Kelly later refuted how his comments had been portrayed by Mr. Gilligan to a parliamentary committee. Then Kelly committed suicide. Now the BBC has to either admit that it misquoted a mourned scientist or call him a liar.

That’s the scandal in a nutshell. What led to it is the BBC’s all-out campaign to validate its world view. Because the mass graves and accounts of torture by Saddam’s regime are too real, the BBC has grabbed onto the fact that WMDs have not yet been found to justify its animosity toward the liberation of Iraq. And this animus sprang from the consensus that the West is always wrong.

As Conrad Black, owner of the Telegraph newspapers, wrote in a letter in the July 26 Daily Telegraph: “The BBC is pathologically hostile to the government and official opposition, most British institutions, American policy in almost every field, Israel, moderation in Ireland, all Western religions, and most manifestations of the free market economy.”

Lord Black added: “Though its best programming in non-political areas is distinguished, sadly it has become the greatest menace facing the country it was founded to serve and inform.”

This is not hyperbole. The BBC can be a formidable foe. It has, in its own words, “the most widely watched national news bulletins in the UK.” Thus when the BBC decides to manufacture a story, or ignore another, it forms reality for millions in Britain and world-wide. It gave a demonstration of its muscle July 25, when it ran (and ran) with a scoop that Mr. Blair’s director of communications, Alastair Campbell, was about to quit because of the Kelly scandal. That dominated headlines for days.

Mr. Campbell is a powerful man, and his imminent departure would be news. But his resignation (still to be confirmed) also validated the BBC’s position. Also news, however, was the fact that the same day as the Campbell scoop the BBC had changed its mind and requested that Parliament not reveal testimony Mr. Gilligan had given on the scandal. In telling contrast, the evening’s bulletin did not report these facts.

Quite how the BBC’s news department got to this juncture is difficult to parse. Journalists are overwhelmingly left of center to begin with. But there’s more to it than that. BBC journalists are part of the self-appointed elite. In London, home of the global avant-garde, they imbibe the latest anti-Western ideologies and platitudes at the dinner parties where they sup.

No man was better than Orwell at diagnosing the ills that have led to the state of affairs that Lord Black so eloquently describes. In “Notes,” Orwell wrote: “In societies such as ours, it is unusual for anyone describable as an intellectual to feel a very deep attachment to his own country. Public opinion – that is, the section of public opinion of which he as an intellectual is aware – will not allow him to do so. Most of the people surrounding him are skeptical and disaffected, and he may adopt the same attitude from imitativeness or sheer cowardice.”

Through its declarations the BBC reveals itself to be unaware that some people think of it in this manner, let alone that it might be true. It is a testament to Britain’s genius that time and again heroes have emerged from unlikely places to slay the nihilism of the intelligentsia. Whether there are any out there to battle with it today remains to be seen.’

 

If You Love The Amish You’ll Just Adore The Muslims

 

 

This is an interesting programme from the BBC about the Amish in the US.  It is interesting in its own right but you cannot help wondering if there is a message buried in there somewhere.  Every BBC programme now comes prepacked with a message….about climate or stimulating the economy or the joys of Islam.

The Amish are pretty fundamentalist followers of their particular version of Christianity as taken strictly from a German language Bible.  Flouting certain customs or rules can get you thrown out of the community….they are however totally opposed to any kind of violence…..“A gentle, quiet, peaceful people.”

It is quite possible, or probable, that this was intended as a foil to deflect criticism from Islam and its oppressive and extreme nature….‘Look everyone Christians are just as intolerant and at times as mad and oppressive as you think Muslims are….so don’t criticise Islam!’

Truly we can say that the Amish are our brothers and sisters.

 However there are some differences….Christianity being a real religion of peace…nowhere in Christianity does it command you to make war on unbelievers or to kill non-Christians or to take slaves and loot in the name of God….or to respect women as you would respect your best cow.

Nowhere does Christianity tell you to kill or whip adulterers or to kill gay people or to cut bits off people for crimes.

Christians have certainly done things in the name of God but these really were ‘perversions’ of the religion unlike in Islam where they are encouraged.

The BBC is yet again trying to muddy the  waters and present Islam as something it is not….and continue the pro Muslim proselytising with this from Michael Portillo which is nothing but outright Muslim propaganda from the State Broadcaster.

It’s a funny old world…when the Jews have been under attack for 60 years and defend themselves the BBC pillories and demonises them, when Muslim terrorists blow up half of London or head off to Iraq to blow up other Muslims there are undercurrents of praise and a quiet  glorification of their actions.

 

 

 

 

 

How’s That Stimulus Doing Then?

When the latest British GDP figures were about to be released the BBC treated us to frequent doom laden warnings of what they would contain…and when they were released John Humphrys called them ‘apocalyptic’ having fallen 0.7%.

(However since the Coalition took over the GDP figures have only fallen a total of 0.3% overall.)

 

The USA has just released its figures…no fanfare of catastrophe from the BBC, in fact very little comment at all….none on Today or on the news(on the radio).

What was revealed?

Growth in the US economy slowed in the second quarter to an annualised pace of 1.5%, as consumer spending eased.

The 1.5% annual pace in the second quarter is equivalent to 0.4% quarter-on-quarter growth.

Note….no comparison with previous figures showing by how much the economy has slowed until right at the very end…… whilst figures that were revised upwards have been highlighted in the first paragraph.

So what were the previous quarter’s figures?   Two percent…..so GDP fell 0.5%…….must be very close to Humphrys’ ‘apocalypse’ surely?

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2012,
(that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

That is the first paragraph of this…..funny the BBC miss out that very salient point!

Note also that when Balls  & Co say that the economy was recovering when they were booted out of office and it is the Coalition’s policies that are dragging the economy under perhaps the BBC would like to ask them to explain how the same pattern of economic activity occurred in the US:

The new estimates show that economic activity fell by 3.1 percent in 2009 and then rose by 2.4 percent in 2010. The government previously reported that activity fell by 3.5 percent in 2009 before rising 3 percent in 2010. The estimated pace of growth in 2011, 1.8 percent, remained basically unchanged. It was previously reported as 1.7 percent.

 

Another question…..just how is that STIMULUS doing for Ya?

THE JOKE ISN’T FUNNY ANYMORE?

A B-BBC reader writes to me;

“This is about the Greek triple jumper who was expelled from the Olympics for making a joke about Africans (mosquitoes from Africa have been coming to Africa; she tweeted that ‘at least the West Nile mosquitoes will have some homemade food.’) The BBC writes the following about the tweet and Greece generally:

“Golden Dawn party has soared in popularity, entering parliament for the first time in its history. So calls are growing louder here for Greece to show its other face: open, welcoming and tolerant… Voula Papachristou’s expulsion will be seen as an example of that.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18987678

An athlete is expelled from the Olympic games, probably the pinnacle of her career, for making a joke. And this is praised as an example of tolerance. Talk about Orwellian doublespeak!

Banning someone for making a joke you don’t like – the BBC’s definition of tolerance…”

THAT FREE SYRIAN ARMY…

When it came to removing Saddam, the BBC were to the fore in the Stop the War movement. When  it came to removing the Taliban, the BBC were to the fore in urging restraint. But when it comes to Syria, and Assad, they are to the fore in demanding his head. BBC support for the so called “Free Syria Army” is blatant and Today had yet another report from those BBC embedded with Al Queda the Free Syrian Army. It strikes me that the Assad thugocracy and those who oppose him are equally repulsive and I am unsure why the BBC thinks that we have a dog in this fight. The entire Arab Spring meme seems to be the driving force here with the BBC knee jerking into presuming that Islam is benevolent once it gains power despite all the evidence to the contrary.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY WATCH!

The BBC do like to provide a platform for Professor Mona Siddiqui, the Professor of Islamic Studies and Public Understanding at Glasgow University. She is a regular contributor to Thought for the Day and this morning she was on to talk about how we should react to great tragedies. In particular she referenced how Norway has responded to the Breivik killings one year on compared to how the US has responded to the “Batman” shootings at Aurora. You see the Norwegians have responded by reinforcing their pacifist ways, their refusal to change their liberal spirit. Americans, by contrast, have responded to the slaughter in Denver by…..gasp…arming themselves in defiance of Obama’s words of wisdom. I suppose the Professor has never stopped to think that Breiviks rampage could have been cut short if Norwegians took a more American attitude towards guns. Still, anything that makes those red necks in the US look bad will always win a favoured place in Thought for the Day on the BBC.

FLAG DAY…

BBC also in overdrive this morning to highlight the mistake made in Glasgow last night when the South Korean flag was flown by mistake at a Ladies football game featuring North Korea. I think the BBC reaction to this has been entirely disproportionate and if ever there was a Nation that we should not be apologising to it is the tinpot but nuclear armed despots of North Korea. Far too much hype afforded to this small incident and one trusts that when the BBC makes mistakes in the days ahead, as we all do in life, these too will be given headline prominence by the State Broadcaster.

ROMNEY – THE MILD RACIST…

Oh dear. Seems like the BBC have decided that Mitt Romney is a waycist! There was an absolutely DISGRACEFUL interview on Today this morning with   Stacy Hilliard, who worked on Mitt Romney’s campaign to become a Governor in Massachusetts.  With Billy Bunter look-alike Mark Mardell also putting in his pro Obama tuppence worth, this was a pure attack piece and I felt sorry for Stacy who at one point seemed to want to stop the “interview”.  Justin Webb was suggesting that Romney was playing the race card against Obama by referencing Anglo-Saxon heritage and when Stacy said that Romney hoped to rebuild the traditional alliances that Obama has chilled, again Justin launched into attack mode. The interview took place @7.21am but there is no link to it. However this was a pure hatchet job and as pro Obama as anyone could imagine. The BBC should be utterly ashamed of themselves for this. I hope Team Romney remember it.