Fox News gets the slepping it deserves.

This is a clip from Fox News of Bill Clinton giving an interviewer a real going-over about whether or not he was to blame for all the ils of the world as they constantly infer. It's also worth remembering the statistics that show that although 50% of the American still think that Al Quaida was involved in the 9-11 attack, that rises to over 90% amongst people whose primary source of news was Fox. It is a channel created for brainwashing and rightwing propaganda.

Today's the day.

Or maybe not. Countering my twice-yearly excitement at the Arsenal-Scum
game is the prospect of 6 hours of recording Herbert Howells' Hymnus
Paradisi. It's no worse than a lot of other English choral music, but
when the harmonies are so ridiculously dense that you can be playing in
the wrong clef for a line, and when you do it right the next time it
sounds no better, you know there's something very wrong with the piece.

A Pathetic Display of Spite.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/doing_the_enemys_work.html

It shouldn't come as a suprise that nut-case rightwing Christians have started turning on people they should be supporting, but when they do it so unpleasantly. it really takes my breath away. The two Fox journalists who were captured and forced to convert to Islam under god-knows what kind of threats, have been condemned by a fellow journalist called David Warren. This evil little weasel says that they are unforgivable cowards for not allowing themselves to be murdered.

I wonder what goes through the obviously timy minds of people like Warren. Clearly he thinks that death is better than life, or he would applaud the captured men for convincing their captors that they had indeed converted. He clearly thinks death is better than life, as he gives an example of some Italians who were captured, one tearing his hood off before being shot, and comparing him favourable with those who begged for their lives.

I like to think that I would beg for my life in those circumstances, I would want to see my wife, children, family and friends again, and I like to think they would rather see me alive than dead. As my dad used to tell me when I didn't want to wear a high visibilty stripe to cycle to school, 'There's no point being a cool corpse', and frankly if staying alive means eating humble pie, and pretending to believe something I don't for a couple of days, then I'm all for it. I'm also all for courage, and those who place their lives in danger to accomplish real benefits for others are deserving of the highest praise, but there is no benefit or glory in dying for the sake of it.

Trouble is, with people like David Warren, they love the little baby Jesus far more than anyone who is actually alive now. Maybe the little baby Jesus doesn't argue with him, and point out his mistakes like real people can. Imaginary friends always were better for children and the feeble-minded.

Alternative Therapies

One thing I look forward to each week is the arrival of The Advertiser, our local free paper. The quality of the journalism isn't what draws me to it, nor the headlines like 'Hotel Dispute is Costing Council'. No, what I like are the classifieds at the back, particularly the, ahem, personal services. Not so much the escort ads, but the ones that try to come over as something else. This weeks best effort was the only entry in the 'Alternative Therapies' section.

Let-go and peace of mind in Christchurch.
Holistic/Full-body massage from qualified lady.
Naturists welcome.

Ignoring the hyphenated let-go, I love the coyness of Naturists Welcome. The love that dare not speak its name...

AAARGH!

I've been happily posting to this blog for the last week or so through googles blog comment plugin for firefox, only to find that since I 'upgraded' to Beta Blogger, it doesn't bloody well work, and all the posts have been lost. Bollocks. Needless to say, it's impossible to revert to the blogger that works. Double bollocks.

Mmm, breasts...

Celebrity Launches Own-Breasts Awareness Campaign

LOS ANGELES—Jessica Simpson said her breasts have received "dangerously little attention," in the last several years.

Powerful evangelical churches are pressing Kenya's national museum to sideline its world-famous collection of hominid bones pointing to man's evolutio

How depressing this is. Yet another example of religious leaders seeking to obscure the truth, essentially in order to protect their jobs. I've never quite worked out why deference is automatically given to people who are professionally religious. Surely people should be respected because of their body of work, or talents, rather than their ability to believe the unbelievable.