July 2005
normblog: Apologists among us
It needs to be seen and said clear: there are, amongst us, apologists for what the killers do, and they make more difficult the long fight that is needed to defeat them.
Separated At Birth: Mark Steyn and Mustafa Setmariam Naser
One is a conservative defender of religion who identifies with an arid little country in the Middle East, and the other …
normblog: Not the World Bank 2
Good to see that many of the Guardian's readers reject John Vidal's revolting apologia for Robert Mugabe, and are evidently unpersuaded that the Zimbabwean leader is being unfairly 'demonised'.
The Smirking Chimp
Daniel Ellsberg: 'I wrote Bush's war words — in 1965'
June 2005
Boris Johnson: Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
In trying to create a new offence, of incitement to religious hatred, I believe the government is on the verge of an almost mediaeval repression of free speech.
Harry's Place: Looters
The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.
The Virtual Stoa
Call me old-fashioned, but I don't much want to think about Theresa May and orgasms. (I don't think that I wanted to know that John Major made Edwina Currie feel "sticky", either.)
normblog: Lovely lovely Ludwig Van
Beethoven bollocks forces Norm to get 'vulgar'
May 2005
Stephen Pollard: Click, click, click. If only saving half the world from poverty were so simple
It’s much easier to publish pictures of Kate Moss, and to parrot the same old nonsense about the evils of free trade which we have heard for years from those who prefer to act by clicking their fingers rather than engaging their brains.
John Lombard: You have no idea how much I hate Bush
Update: I have a new blog now. I will actually do the politics stuff on it but it'll be mixed with other stuff.
AndrewSullivan: Now - World Domination!
Christianism is now, for some of its fringe adherents, a full-fledged political ideology, aspiring to world domination. Just like Communism. And Islamism.
Stephen Pollard • We are wrong, and we must pay
How fantastically Orwellian! The government has not taken enough of our money to spend on propoganda so that we have our minds changed.
April 2005
normblog: The who's who of the Iraq war
The Guardian didn't print this letter but you can read it here
iand.net: Google Local & Maps
Finally a UK version has been launched. Google Maps and Google Local provide high quality maps, directions and addresses for all things local.
Stairs of Great Britain: a dismal failure
Thank you to the Vatican for doing the world no favours. Our last ray of hope can only be that Ratzinger is a closet homosexual/sexual health expert/liberal who has, for his whole life, pretended to be otherwise just so that he could become Pope and then
BackwordMe
We invade bad old Saddam for being a murdering torturing bastard, but China’s too big to take on militarily, so well pay them to take over our industries. You know it makes sense.
normblog: Poverty and security
...the need to fight world poverty is an urgent, a crying, a shaming, moral imperative. But it's not the same issue as what are the needs of military security and defence.
AndrewSullivan - Daily Dish
CORNYN RETRACTS: Good for him. Just ignore the blather about being taken out of context. He wasn't. He contributed to anti-judicial emotionalism; and he has retracted his inflammatory remarks.
AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish
Could we have a vegetative Pope suspended indefinitely in this state? Yes, we could. Maybe we will.
March 2005
Civitas Blog: Gypsies and Legal Equality
We used to take it for granted that everyone was equal under the law. Not so. Since the Human Rights Act, if you can hire a clever lawyer and find an activist judge, you may be above the law.
Mike Jones: The 18½ Minute Gap
Number of prisoners who have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, mostly from "violent causes": 108. Number of POWs who died in North Vietnamese custody during the entire Vietnam war: 114.
normblog: Mañana
A Spaniard in conversation with an Irishman: 'In Spanish we have a word "mañana". Do you have any word like that in Ireland?' 'Yes, but nothing that conveys the same sense of urgency.'
An Englishman's Castle: Miss Information
England was founded in 753 BC by the master race, marked by bad teeth and an addiction to crumpets. The national sport of England is Making up Oscar Wilde quotes while eating pie.
3quarksdaily: Does an e-bay model of borrowing spell the end of traditional consumer finance?
by 1 otherThe promise of Internet commerce has been easing matching, lowering search costs, allowing new entrants access to larger markets by de-territorializing them, this model of consumer borrowing is new & perhaps the beginning of a real revolution in finance
The UK Today
On issue after issue we see too many Labour MPs who appear to have sold, if not their souls then at least their principles in exchange for what? Nothing of lasting value. Were their principles really so weakly held, the power of government so corrupting?
