Coming Home

I've been away for a week on a boat so I had absolutely no possibility or inclination to go on the interweb. No news, no blogs, no work, no nothing. It was a pretty depressing experience catching up, but as ever, Fafblog came to the rescue.

Looking at the date of my last post, I am wondering what the reason for the other three weeks of the non posting time was all about. Never prolific, I seem to recall I was laying off posting about 7/7 for a while fear of appearing tooo much of a twat.

Looking at the blogging about the latest events in London, I can, for once, confidently say I was wise.

Update: Much as it pains me to say it, but Ollie K here is a bit of an exception.

Well, Fucking Well

Does anyone remember the Union of Democratic Mineworkers? Thatcher's heroes in the struggle against the enemy within. Born in the coalfields of Nottinghamshire, they organised the miners who didn't believe that Thatcher was intent on shutting down the coal industry and were, many believe, one of the reasons the strike ultimately failed.

Anyway, the UDM is in the news again

I bet it brings a sentimental tear to the Iron Lady's rheumy old eyes.

Another Moonbat Guardian Columnist

Another of those green anti capitalistic scum has been given house room by the Guardian :

Climate change is one of mankind's greatest challenges. In the past 30 years world temperatures have increased by almost 0.5C. We cannot predict with certainty what will happen now, but the risk of abrupt climate change certainly exists. Human activity is increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to levels unprecedented in human history. If we do nothing, or next to nothing, those levels will continue to rise, progressively increasing the risk of runaway global warming.

There are those who say the risks have been exaggerated. To such people I say this: if we go your way and you are wrong we will save money in the short term but incur an immense penalty in the long term; if we go my way and I am wrong we will incur costs in the short term but with the reward of greener, cleaner technologies for saving and generating energy. Such technologies would improve air quality, avoid acid rain and reduce our dependency on imported gas and oil.

I wonder if the Kid will have some suitably withering riposte at his place or at the Edge of Corporate America's Sword.

Self Delusion of the Kamm Kind

Kamm on Hitchens on Galloway:

Christopher Hitchens gets the measure of George Galloway in today's Independent (link requires fee):

[H]e looks so much like what he is: a thug and a demagogue, the type of working-class-wideboy-and-proud-of-it who is too used to the expenses account, the cars and the hotels - all cigars and back-slapping. He is a very cheap character and a short-arse like a lot of them are, puffed up like a turkey. He has managed to fuse being a Baathist with being a Muslim sectarian and a carpet bagger in the East End - as well as a front for a creepy sub-Leninist sect, the Socialist Workers' Party. He's got the venomous riff-raff at one end and your one-God fanatics on the other. Wonderful. Just what we need.

Uncanny. This was exactly what I was thinking, and in exactly the same words.

Exactly the same words, Ollie Boy? I doubt it. Hitchens may well be, as Galloway sort of said, a booze raddled fat twat, but that would be a booze raddled fat twat who has a way with words. For Kamm to claim he thought exactly the self same words featured at the outset of this missive is to stretch the credulity of the reader to a veritable approximation of breaking point. Where, Oliver, are the passages of high minded circumlocution so beloved of your good self? Where can we find the gratuitous usage of words of the lengthier nature put in the piece to remind the reader of the massive intellect behind the work, and, one suspects, to reinforce and bolster the scribe's own high opinion of himself...

You know what I'm saying?

Sad Bastard Lives

When all's said and done, it's a pretty sad thing to do, keeping a blog. For a start, you don't have to be any good at writing to become popular and widely read and quoted. You just have to post alot, which leads a lot of shite people thinking they are the absolute dog's bollocks. The apotheosis of this phenomena is, of course, to be found across the pond, where bloggers have such a high regard for themselves, they fondly imagine they can make a difference in the real world. The really scary thing is that they are right.

Over here, things haven't reached such a pass yet. Being noticed by the Guardian doesn't count, and the only blogger to make any sort of impact on planet normal is a probably fictional whore. There are, however, some Brit bloggers whose life in blogland seems to be the only thing in their sad bastard lives of any worth and who seem to think that any of it matters. All the regular commenters and some of the contributors at Harry's Place fall into this category, as does the most boring man in Britain, aka Oliver Kamm. (It could be argued that Kamm has reached a level of influence akin to his American cousins in that he has actually notched up real world publication, but I find it hard to believe anyone other than residents of Bloggo Bloggo land would ever read him, so I will dismiss this line.)

The Kid Cuthbertson once nearly fell into this category, but of late he seems to have disovered real life. It may be too early to tell if he has realised blogging is just a slightly more cerebal form of the most popular online pastime of all, (what? Oh, sorry, this is the internet, I have to spell it out for the lowest common denominator - wanking at the computer) but his mates over at Biased BBC certainly haven't.

I would go on about this at some length, but I actually have a life.

Pots and Kettles

It has been evident for some time that Harry's Place has been taken over, Dr Who style, by aliens that seem a bit like real human beings, but which can't hold it together for very long without giving themselves away.

The latest display of a complete and utter inability to take on board what real people might think about them, is this fine post.

War Bores, Harry? This from the site that gives us a daily diet of Stopper Soporifics and George Bores? Ho fucking ho.

Fantastic

Forget the election. Did you see the latest episode of Dr Who? Fantastic.

Some Coverage of the Election - Not Many Interested

My posting on the issue of the general election is, I think you'll agree, an accurate reflection of the interest it is generating in the real world. I might be mixing with the wrong set, of course, there could be millions of people lapping up every last minute of the coverage and getting all hot under the collar about Iraq, liars, asylum seekers and such, but I doubt it.

It's probably a mixture of the inexorable rise of the Couldn't Give a Shit Party, the strong showing of the None of the Above candidates, coupled with the feeling that the result is a foregone conclusion anyway that has led to the even greater than anticipated level of voter apathy. Whether this will translate into the lowest ever turnout remains to be seen - the desperate depths that the Tory campaign has plummeted might stir up a few votes for them and will probably send many Labour waverers back into the fold.

As for me, my vote is one of those that hardly matters. My Labour MP is highly unlikely to be unseated, so CGAS and NOTA are as attractive as ever. I'll probably go Lib Dem, purely because their local campaigning has been first class and I once vaguely knew the candidate who struck me as an impressive individual.

And if that seems to you to be parochial, small minded and a waste of our precious democratic heritage, you're probably right.

Foolish Stuff 2

The Labour Party April Fool was, of course, this: Labour Pledges Affordable Homes For All

Foolish Stuff

Like The Prof and Backward Dave, (links on the sidebar) I got 8 out of 9 in the April Fool Story Quiz. I was quite surprised, really, 'cos I regularly have to check the date when I'm reading news stories. Typically, I can't think of an example right now, but next time I come across one, I'll post it. I'm confident it will be at least as barmy as the spaghetti tree, if not as elegant as the Republic of San Seriffe.