Archive for the ‘Politics & Culture’ Category
I was almost rooting for you after hearing all the shite the Israelis have been pulling today, but I’m back to thinking each side is as cuntish as the other now. Thanks for setting me straight.
The news is all in a tizzy today about the fact that a documentary featuring an assisted suicide is airing on Sky Real Lives tonight, and various anti-euthanasia pundits have been trotted out to do interviews during the course of the day. Many of their objections were ludicrous.
Dr Peter Saunders thought we might “start to believe in a story that there is such a thing as a life not worth living”, which sounds like nonsense to me. If I’m a 12 year old Tutsi girl with nothing to look forward to but my tits and feet being hacked off before I’m raped to death, well, I’m pretty sure I’d take a cyanide capsule if I had it. Sometimes there’s just no possibility of hope or joy left in life. Ask anyone who’s ever lived in Doncaster.
The worst was hearing the normally smart and compassionate Lady Ilora Finlay, who today, unfortunately, was merely compassionate. She said “This programme is broadcasting something which is very private, which is someone dying and which is illegal in this country”.
When I first heard Lady Finlay’s comments on The Today Show they were bracketed by recorded opinions from the suicide in question, Craig Ewert, and his wife Mary. Both were, if not enthusiastic, then stoic and sure about their desire to see the details of assisted suicide in the public domain. Lady Finlay seems to think she’s a better judge of what should remain private in their lives than they are.
She also objected on the grounds that the documentary was showing something “illegal in this country”. This in spite of the fact that documentaries featuring illegal activities (both in the UK and abroad) are ten a penny. I don’t recall hearing Lady Finlay sound off when “A Very British Gangster” was aired, or about the constant reruns of “Police, Camera, Action” and “America’s Drunkest Cops” for that matter.
All a bit of a storm in a teacup really, but I’m surprised the anti-euthanasia contingent couldn’t come up with anything better. The argument against could be pretty much summed up as “we don’t like it”, which is a shame because it’s a big enough subject to have a proper debate about.
I doubt that argument will happen in my lifetime though. It strikes me as being like the debate over decriminalisation of cannabis and other soft drugs: something 80% of people think makes sense but no politician could consider because 20% of the remaining 20% would start a fucking civil war.
As I write this Mumbai is burning and I’m seeing 20+ text message sized updates a minte from people on the ground via Tweetgrid Mumbai. I wish it was something less horrific so I could rejoice in the whole citizen journalism/Little Brother thing, but as it stands I just feel sick.
A follow up to yesterday’s post on the leaking of the BNP’s membership, which has led to no end of giggles to be had from the news and intertubes today. My radio alarm clock woke me by blaring Nick Griffin’s voice at me which is hardly a pleasant experience at the best of times, much less at seven in the morning.
I was soon cheered by Griffin’s flailing around and trying to present the leak as some kind of PR victory for the BNP though. Perhaps Griffin should tell that to the BNP member who posted “I’m also on the list, what the fuck is going on? I could lose my job”. Just one of thousands of such comments posted on far right blogs and forums in the past 24 hours.
The day provided further lulz when I got in and found out that I was on the BNP member’s list! I think of myself as being fairly liberal so this came as something of a surprise to me. While I do get drunk enough to do things like order stamps on the internet my vodka fuelled browsing faux-pases rarely extend to joining far right political parties.
It turns out I’d been fooled by a friend using BNP List UK. I could be a bugger and play the same trick on you (the site inserts your own details in to a fake BNP member’s DB) but I’ll spare you that moment of cold panic and send you right to the page where they explain how to play this BNP prank on a friend.
So that provided a little excitement with the morning coffee, then it’s back to the news. Around lunchtime news of the first sackings started to come in – told ya – and by mid-afternoon BNP members in high places had been pinpointed all over the country. There’s even a number of Google Maps projects showing BNP memvers around the country, though I wont link to any of them directly…I might think BNP members are cunts but I don’t think they deserve the dogshit (and potentially petrol) that might come through their doors after this leak. Not most of them, anyhow.
I wish mainstream parties would have such epic screw ups more often. It’s made for a very entertaining day.
The entire membership list of the British Nationalist Party has been released on line, El Reg reports. At the time of writing the list can be viewed here. Quite simply the funniest thing to happen to a fascist organisation since Hitler shot himself in the head.
Laughing at the misfortune of others isn’t a very hippy kind of thing to do, but title of this blog notwithstanding I’m not a very hippy kind of person. I must admit this news put a big grin on my face, not least at the thought of the deluge of spam now heading it’s way towards nationalist inboxs. That’ll be hassle enough but when friends and neighbours start outing them the chuckles will really start. As for the various policemen, soliders and other public servants on the list, good luck making it to Christmas without losing your jobs 