And Now For Something Completely Different: Brian Cox Gravity

You learned the theory in school, but you never really believed it, well I didn't anyway.

Until that was, Brian Cox came along with this demonstration of the Isaac Newtons.

And it still takes some believing, even as you witness it. 5mins

Yes Mark, the Prime Minister is a Disgrace

Yes Mark, the Prime Minister is a disgrace.



"Vigilant Guardians" a timeless rant from the artiste.



A quieter reflection on the Sun and its readers.

Isabel You're a Star

That's not star attorney by the way.

The Lost World Of Mitchell And Kenyon with Dan Cruickshank

I had, in a previous post, bemoaned the vandalism visited upon Blackpool's Victoria pier, (North) by the then Borough Council of the day. Inasmuch as they stripped the old girl of her magnificent Victorian ironwork and replaced it the very worst of Twentieth Century Modern.

It was only by chance, earlier today, that I stumbled upon the first clip which gives us a hint of former days of elegance and grace. To say nothing of the popularity of the pier and the resort in general.

And as things do, that led to me posting the The Lost World Of Mitchell And Kenyon, early, everyday film of everyday life, that be good luck and good fortune fortune, remains with us today.

Victorian Britain - Seaside Holidays

Thanks to uploader Mr Allsop

~ ~ ~

The Lost World Of Mitchell And Kenyon

The series showcases films made by Mitchell and Kenyon, lost for almost a century, rediscovered in 1994 and restored by the BFI. Most of the films are simply records of life, sport and culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

Dan Cruickshank presents and narrates the series; in addition, descendants of some of the people featured in the original films provide commentaries upon them; and (in what many critics considered the series' weakest feature) scenes from the life and work of filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon are dramatized in speeded-up form like incorrectly screened silent movies (although the actual film excerpts are shown at the correct speed.

With sincere thanks to uploader Kay Dee.

The Lost World Of Mitchell And Kenyon

A little bonus, pictures from the streets in London of the 1876-1877 Depicting the good old days.



Thanks to uploader MarcM77

Taking The Piss Abducted Child Issue

Like I said, nobody takes the piss like the English. Well it is, if we include a dim Scouser and a mealy-mouthed Scots git, in the same category.

Oh! and the media of of course, we should never forget their part in this little pantomime.

Oh! and the boys in . . . p'raps not, no need to mention those lads. Is there?




A tip of the hat, HiDeHo4

"Kill Anything That Moves" American War Crimes in Vietnan - Democracy Now

I was my original intention to carry this post on in the same vein as this recent Democracy Now offering, specifically, the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Kmher Rouge in Cambodia. The principal cause being, as I'm sure many of you are aware, the illegal bombing (back to the Stone Age) of Cambodia by Nixon and Kissinger.

But having watched two documentaries on the subject, sourced from the only place you can if you want the truth of the matter, John Pilger.com, I do have to say, I found it all so terribly dismal and not a subject that I felt I could readily offer up to a reader.

But what I have done as an alternate over this last couple of days, is to watch a series of 1983 Pilger interviews all under the generic title of The Outsiders. Of the nine interviews on offer, I watched eight, the subject matter of one of them not appealing to me by any means, and of the eight I offer up four, and present them in no particular viewing order.

I hope you enjoy.

But firstly.

"Kill Anything That Moves": New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam

Two of the leading figures nominated to head President Obama’s second-term foreign policy establishment have their political roots in the Vietnam War. If confirmed, Chuck Hagel will become the first Vietnam War veteran to head the Pentagon, while John Kerry will helm the State Department after becoming one of the most prominent veterans to oppose the Vietnam War upon his return from duty. Although Vietnam is far behind them, Kerry and Hagel will now have to contend with the longest-running war in U.S. history: Afghanistan. We’re joined by Nick Turse, managing editor of TomDispatch.com and author of the new book, "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam." The title is taken from an order given to the U.S. forces who slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese civilians in the notorious My Lai massacre of 1968. Drawing on interviews in Vietnam and a trove of previously unknown U.S. government documents — including internal military investigations of alleged war crimes in Vietnam — Turse argues that U.S. atrocities in Vietnam were not just isolated incidents, but "the inevitable outcome of deliberate policies, dictated at the highest levels of the military." transcript

The Outsiders: Jessica Mitford 26 minutes, as all

983. John Pilger interviews author, journalist and political campaigner Jessica Mitford

The Outsiders: Wilfred Burchett

1983. John Pilger interviews Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett

The Outsiders: Martha Gellhorn

The Outsiders: Martha Gellhorn from John Pilger on Vimeo.

1983. John Pilger interviews Martha Gellhorn, the American novelist, travel writer and journalist considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century

The Outsiders: Costa-Gavras

1983. John Pilger interviews political film-maker Costa-Gavras

http://johnpilger.com/videos

Royal Babylon: Our Jaundiced Monarchy

Needless to say, I wouldn't have posted a seventy minute documentary had I thought it not worth watching.

This is an investigative poem about the criminal record of the British Monarchy. Heathcote Williams has devised a form of polemical poetry that is unique, no-holds-barred personal and political. It is a great collection of facts that most people are unaware of.

Can we go on bowing and curtsying to people who are just like ourselves? We begin to wish that the Zoo should be abolished.

That the royal family should be given the run of some wider pasturage – a royal Whipsnade. Will the British Empire survive?

Will Buckingham Palace look as solid in 2034 as it does now? Words are dangerous things remember. A Republic might be brought into being by a poem.

The Criminal Record of the British Monarchy
An investigative poem
by Heathcote Williams

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”
Voltaire

In 1840, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon the first self-declared anarchist, defined anarchy in ‘What Is Property’, as “the absence of a master, of a sovereign”.



In the year of the Queen’s Jubilee tourists peered as usual
Through the railings of Buckingham Palace,
But her fairy-tale was fading; the fairy queen’s wings were being clipped
By the Sex Pistols putting monarchy in their sights.

“God save the queen,” they sang, “it’s a fascist regime.”
And the song’s hook-line became a new anthem;
Disturbing to clutches of flag-wavers lining the streets
And horrifying to Middle England and the Daily Mail.

The Sex Pistols proclaimed, “She ain’t no human being,”
And their subversive posters for the record
Placed the band’s salacious name right across the Queen’s lips
And they masked her eyes with two spidery swastikas.

Full poem/transcript

Two Short Films: Nation of Exiles - Cables from Kabul

I watched these two short films yesterday, I thought I might share them with you.

Nation of Exiles

A short documentary examining the civil unrest in Iran following Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June 2009, and the role of social media in the Green Movement. Featuring Columbia Professor of Iranian History Hamid Dabashi and Poynter Institute’s Ellyn Angelotti.

A characteristic of a strong and legitimate government – Islamic or not – is that it is capable of respecting all opinions, whether they support it or oppose it. This is necessary for any political system, in order to embrace all social classes and encourage them to participate in the affairs of their nation, and not dismiss and repulse them and, therefore, increase their numbers (the opponents) every day. I am afraid that because the regime is considered a religious government, such acts of its officials will lead to the loss of people’s faith in their religion, and will hurt Islam.

The present circumstances and problems that have been created after the elections have astounded the people and made them pessimistic (about their government). They expect the officials, based on their moral and religious teachings, to be neutral and demonstrate their honesty by protecting people’s rights, particularly about such an important issue (the elections). It is expected of the government to find an acceptable and reasonable response to people’s demands, and by using the right approach eliminate people’s pessimism and doubts.

Nation of Exiles from Percival Mosaedi on Vimeo.

Cables from Kabul

Watch a first-hand account of the widespread corruption; get an inside look at the drug trade, rampant child sex abuse, and ever-present Taliban control. All these elements make Afghanistan one of the most frightening and unstable places on earth.

We touch down in Kabul and are treated to Taliban hospitality on the first night: a suicide bomb at a neighboring hotel interrupts a pleasant night’s sleep.

After kicking around pieces of the suicide bomber with local kids, we meet General Farooq Assas, head of the Afghan National Police Force, the kids who are being trained to police the country. At the end of the day, we drink moonshine with an ex-Mujahideen who has a thing for young boys. And they said Kabul would be heavy.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cables-from-kabul/

Popcorn: The Real George Orwell & 1984

Two of six parts: Biographer DJ Taylor profiles Eric Blair for The South Bank Show in 2003.

Full 1984 John Hurt/Richard Burton movie below.








Tribune Columns of George Orwell - 1943 to 1947

First of all, a message to English left-wing journalists and intellectuals generally: ‘Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for. Don’t imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of the Soviet régime, or any other régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency. Once a whore, always a whore.’ 1 September 1944

The Facebook Sins of The Sons: Iran Arrests Father For Son's Facebook Posts

Iran seizes father for son's Facebook posts
by Jannie Schipper
2 July 2012



An Iranian student in the Netherlands says his satirical posts on Facebook have led to the arrest of his father in Iran. Yashar Zamaneh fears his father will be executed. ‘I never thought they would lay a finger on him,’ Yashar told Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

On the satirical web page ‘Campaign to remind Shi'ites of Imam Naghi’ http://www.facebook.com/Emam.Naghi (If the link won't work for you, paste this into address bar. http://www.facebook.com/Emam.Naghi ) contributors comment on religious, political and social topics. Not everyone is a fan, says Yashar. ‘We wanted to break the taboo on religion. Many people in Iran have strict religious views and do not tolerate laughing about faith. But we don't insult anyone; we just want people to be more open-minded. In Europe, jokes are told about Christianity and Judaism.’

Yashar joined under his real name, but within a few weeks he began posting anonymously. That appears to have been a costly error. ‘We didn't realise the site would become so popular,’ he says. ‘And I thought: I'm in the Netherlands, so they won't be able to trace what I write back to me.’ Yashar is studying International Business Management at the Dutch university in Eindhoven. Since enrolling in 2009, he has been home to visit Iran twice. He applied to the Dutch government for asylum in February this year.

Cyber security
‘I never planned to remain in the Netherlands and I was never politically active in Iran,’ says Yashar. But after he began posting on the Facebook site he quickly noticed threatening signals. ‘Spies were setting up false profiles on the site and using them to gather information on active members.’

In May, the Iranian authorities showed up at Yashar's parents’ home. ‘It appears that his father is being held by the security wing of the Revolutionary Guard,’ says UK-based Iranian human rights lawyer Shadi Sabr. The guard set up a cyber intelligence unit three years ago and ever since they have been going after internet activists, Sabr explains.

Threat of execution
‘The Revolutionary Guard are the worst,’ says Sabr. They are known for producing false confessions which are then used to convict perceived enemies of the regime. The lawyer believes Yashar's father will be charged with financing anti-Islamic activities. ‘That could get him the death penalty,’ Sadr adds.

‘My father has nothing to do with it,’ Yashar says. ‘He merely paid for my studies in the Netherlands.’

‘We are seeing that more and more often. People are being punished via their family members,’ says journalist Lida Hosseini Nejad of Radio Zamaneh, a Farsi radio station in Amsterdam. She points to a recent case of Iranian BBC journalists whose families are being put under pressure in Iran.

Yashar says his father telephoned and pleaded with him to provide the Iranian authorities with passwords and other information. But he refused, ‘because they would have arrested my father anyway.’ He says Teheran is wrongly accusing him of being the manager of the critical website. ‘But the manager is in Iran, at least he says so. We don't know each other personally,’ says Yashar. ‘I asked him by e-mail to shut down the site but he says that won't help my father.’

No consular help from the Netherlands
Lawyer Sadr is calling on the Dutch government to do all it can for Yashar. The foreign affairs ministry in The Hague tells Radio Netherlands Worldwide it is still trying to verify Yashar's story through EU member states' representatives in Teheran. The ministry says it has received no official request for aid from Yashar or his family. Because he is not a Dutch national, the ministry says, the Dutch embassy does not have the authority to lend his family consular assistance.

‘The Iranian government insists that I come explain what I have done,’ says Yashar. ‘But I won't do that, of course, because I know exactly what would happen. It wouldn't save my father, and I certainly wouldn't survive either.’ RNW

Yashar Zamaneh and his father

I don't suppose being sans beard helps his case any. That's life in an Islamic theocracy I guess.

If you want to know just how much Ahmadinejad is not of this world, watch this Channel 4 report from 2007. It's all of interest, there being much talk of nuclear self-determination among other things, but it is the bit starting around the 3:30 mark that lets you inside his head.

Second below is part of the speech that Ahmadinejad gave before the UN, the one he describes to the Mullah's at 3:30mins. Not critical viewing though, if you want to pass on it.

YouTube text: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the UN and spent a lot of his speech preaching. At the end of his speech he talked about the promise of a just world ruled by the "perfect man" and that this paradise was coming soon. That the perfect man would appear soon arriving with Muhammad and "Jesus Christ." Amazing how bold Ahmadinejad is becoming on this! He is all but speaking of it openly and no one seems to notice! This is important to understand when dealing with Iran. Ahmadinejad believes he is called by Allah to usher in his version of the Shiite Messiah, the 12th Imam, and the way to speed that process is to set the world on fire.

And below? well it takes all kinds I suppose!

YouTube text: Iranian leader Ali Khamenei inspects military foot-drills depicting Sword of Ali ripping through a Swastika desecrated US Flag and a Star of David. This military display came on the heals of the US Congressional vote denouncing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group and the resulting US economic sanctions against Iran.

It's The End of The World As We Know It with Chunky Mark

You'll get no sense out of me today, I've got me 'ead on.

Our Wonderful World: Whale Joy

Perfectly beautiful.

Humpback Whale Shows Amazing Appreciation After Being Saved

Caught in a huge amount of nets, this humpback whale was completely trapped. But these people on their boat took matters into their own hands and freed it, saving its life. The best part is the end when he shows amazing appreciation by taking them for a ride and jumping around.

Dennis Potter The Last Interview

Updated below.

It was afterall a rather light hearted program, never for a moment had I expected to find within, content that moved me the way it did. But that part of the program, Frost on Interviews, (UK only) that featured Melvyn Bragg talking about, and talking with, Dennis Potter (The Last Interview 1994) I found profound, inspirational, and quite moving.

It's at this point that I would normally say a few more words on the subject, but I can't, and for no other reason that I am posting the full interview sight unseen. Unusual I know, but I'm pretty sure it's a decision that will be without regret, watching for the first time, as you yourself may, here on this blog.

Though I can't give you an introduction, I an taking the liberty of employing one already writ, courtesy of Brian Edwards Media.

The Finest Television Interview Ever Recorded: Melvyn Bragg talks to Dennis Potter
Brian Edwards
February 7th, 2011

On 15 March 1994 Melvyn Bragg interviewed the playwright and television dramatist Dennis Potter. The interview was broadcast on the BBC’s Channel Four on April 5. Potter died of cancer two months later on June 7.

Potter smokes throughout the interview, holding the cigarette and lighter between the bunched fingers of his clawed right hand. Like his hero Philip E Marlowe, the mystery writer in perhaps his most celebrated work, The Singing Detective, the playwright had suffered for much of his life from debilitating and painful psoriatic arthropathy, a skin and joint disease which, in its chronic stages, formed lesions and sores over his entire body, partially crippling his hands and feet. He was eventually obliged to write with the pen tied to his wrist.

Beside his chair in the television studio he has a flask of morphine, which he drinks from at intervals during the conversation to control the pain.

All of this would make the interview remarkable enough. But it is the quality of what is said, of Bragg’s questions and Potters responses, which allows me to call this ‘the finest television interview ever recorded’. Much of a media commentator’s time is given over to criticism in the negative rather than the neutral sense of the word. I thought it appropriate to redress the balance a little by inviting you to watch this small screen gem. The YouTube version is in seven parts, each just under 10 minutes long.

If you’re unfamiliar with Potter’s work, Wikipedia or YouTube are both good places to start.

Enjoy! Brian Edwards

By the by, enjoy the three minute "parting shot" from Potter, I think you may find it quite amusing. Certainly topical.

Update:

What can I say; other than perhaps to parrot the words: ‘the finest television interview ever recorded’? But by concentrating on the 'interview' does that do disservice to the man? Most surely, for if nothing else, you bathe in Potter's remarkable essence throughout this fascinating, sixty some odd minutes.

Of all that past, and there was much, during this fleeting hour, I never felt more connected with a man as when he described his type of patriotism, for as you might know I don't do patriotism, but Potter described his love for this England, not for its flags and all the razzmatazz that people normally associate with, as Samuel Johnson put it: Patriotism, the last refuge of scoundrels, but a quiet almost unspoken love for this country ours, this England.

But no few words would be complete, particularly in light of what is transpiring at this very moment that I write, is Potter's scathing condemnation of Rupert Murdoch, and in other places during the interview other than the aforementioned 'parting shot.' Which is by the way, part of the main body of the interview, not the parting shot as the words imply.

File under: unmissable.

Update: Bollocks, video private. There are some miserable fucking cunts about, let me see if I can find a new upload.

Sorry folks, everywhere I've searched it comes up as private, I can't even find any files to download in order that I might up it myself. What a bummer.  

















Tip of the hat to HerefordMSV for the uploads.

Have I Got News For You Leveson Edition

Enjoy.

The Beautiful Mind of Professor Richard Dawkins

I suppose I should be content, that thanks to an upload by TheAikenHead I can offer the recent BBC production, Beautiful Minds - Professor Richard Dawkins to those of you outside the UK.

That discontent only brought about by being unable to bring you under similar circumstances, an embedded version, of a similar beautiful mind, that of Professor Andre Greim.

Consequently I can only offer a link, viewable only in the UK unfortunately, to Beautiful Minds Series Professor Andre Geim.

But that said, let it not detract for a moment, the pleasure of watching sixty minutes of the beautiful mind of Professor Richard Dawkins.

View below or with BBC iplayer.

And now it falls on me to watch the first program in the series.

Jenny Clack recounts how she overcame setbacks before she found and described a fossil which offered new evidence of how fish made the transition onto land. link

~ ~ ~

Professor Richard Dawkins reveals how he came to write his explosive first book The Selfish Gene, a work that was to divide the scientific community and make him the most influential evolutionary biologist of his generation. He also explores how this set him on the path to becoming an outspoken spokesman for atheism.

Just five minutes of Andre Greim's acceptance speech at the Nobel dinner.

Toward The Sound of Bullshit US Marines Latest Propaganda Clip

I can see it now, this will be the number one clip playing at every NASCAR race this year.

Where do we sign up solja boy? Fuck me! you couldn't make this shit up.

And even though I'm in danger of wearing it out, what better vehicle could there be for upping my 'America in one picture' graphic.

Don't be fooled by Afghanistan massacre: US Marines are saints says new army video

After the massacre of 16 civilians in Afghanistan, the US Army has released a new video to restore the true image of US marines as dedicated servants of humanity opposing tyranny and injustice.
By Robin Beste
Stop the War Coalition
17 March 2012

Within days of a US marine massacring 16 civilians in Afghanistan, the United States Marine Corps released this sensitive 60-second video, titled Toward the Sound of Chaos, to help remove any misunderstanding about the mission of US marines in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

In the words of the film's commentary:

"Where chaos looms, the Few emerge. Marines move toward the sounds of tyranny, injustice and despair—with the courage and resolve to silence them. By ending conflict, instilling order and helping those who can't help themselves, Marines face down the threats of our time."

To which Marine Staff Sgt. Kody Lindsey adds:

"When you show this video in towns where marines aren't stationed, it puts a positive image of the Marine Corps. Not only do we protect and defend the nation, we also protect and defend those who can't defend themselves."

Of course, the dead Afghans who were filmed in January 2012 urinating on the bodies of Afghans they had just killed, aren't around to appreciate the humanitarian principles of the US Marines.

But the video will help the Afghan people avoid getting the wrong impression from the pictures in February 2012 of US marines posing in front of a flag displaying the logo of the notorious Nazi SS.

And seeing the video will correct any negative views there are of the night raids, often carried out by marines, that terrorise on average 40 families each night -- countering, it is hoped, a NATO report which concluded, “The escalation in raids has taken the battlefield more directly into Afghan homes, sparking tremendous backlash among the Afghan population.”

The video won't only be welcome in Afghanistan, but also by the people of Iraq, many of whom may have a completely false image of the US Marines and their mission "to help those who can't help themselves".

Like the people of Fallujah, where in April 2004 US marines -- no doubt implementing their commitment to "ending conflict, instilling order" -- participated in the slaughter of 2000 Iraqis, including hundreds of women and children, the injuring of thousands more and the driving of hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Or like the survivors of the 24 civilians slaughtered in Haditha in November 2005 -- once again many of them women and children. The video will help clear up the reasons why only one of the marines responsible for this atrocity was ever brought to trial and he was only found guilty of "negligent dereliction of duty", receiving a rank reduction and pay cut but avoiding jail time.

Toward the Sound of Chaos is a welcome antidote to the rash of articles and comments suggesting that US soldiers are systematically savage who bring nothing but mass murder and destruction everywhere they are deployed across the globe.

It will restore the true image of US marines as dedicated servants of humanity "moving toward the sounds of tyranny, injustice and despair—with the courage and resolve to silence them".

However, if you're an Iraqi, Afghan, Yemeni, Somali, or Pakistani civilian who is not convinced by this message, your answer to the question which ends the film, "Which way would you run?", will be -- the other way, and quickly. www.stopwar.org.uk/

Good eh? I prefer Bill Hicks' version myself.

City of London Police - Corruption - Malicious Prosecution - Abuse of Office - Corporate Lackeys: Operation BOHAN

And that's just for starters.

And this is just a trailer, goodness knows what the program proper will throw up.

As the clip will reveal, the attitude and the actions of City of London Police can only be described as one thing, Naziism, and even though it's a term I seldom employ, that's exactly what they are, out and out Nazis and totally out of control. And let us not forget, this police force run amok, all under the authority of Home Secretary, Theresa May.

I shall be chatting with the victim of this case, plumber, terrorist, drug user, have I missed anything? Ian Puddick, a little later in the day, hoping he might shed more light on what kind of response, if any, that he has received from the Home Office over this scandalous abuse of police powers. And that abuse I add, at the behest of American company, Kroll. Nice huh! it must be all part of that special relationship we enjoy so much with America.

Chris Plumley Channel 4 Dispatches new film How Power Corrupts.

The film exposes institutional Police Corruption at City of London Police at senior level.

The film questions why officers from the Counter Terrorism Directorate made misleading statements in court under oath and the questionable relationship between City of London Police and elite global security giant Kroll.

The same Kroll whom effectively took control and lead COLP Counter Terrorism Directorate ‘Operation BOHAN’, an operation costing over £1,000,000 to censor Ian Puddicks website – www.policeexpenses.co.uk

The film will show documents used in court which name senior officers at City of London Police whom were only to happy to comply with Kroll’s requests to silence Ian Puddick.

Michael Wolkind QC interviewed for the film confirmed that Police Corruption is an issue that is rarely reported and that the public are not aware of how the Police behave in court.

Asked by Chris Plumley if in this case it was just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel, Michael Wolkind QC replied ‘it was a matter of looking in the barrel for a good apple’.

Detective Constable Colin Dawson Counter Terrorism Directorate told Ian, Operation BOHAN was instigated and managed at the very top of City of London Police

Police Corruption

Detective Sergeant John Christopher Ellis City of London Police Counter Terrorism Directorate told the court under oath that he found Class A Crack Cocaine/Paraphernalia throughout the property during a search of Ian’s property there were approx 14 other officers involved in the search.

However Sergeant Ellis when questioned on the matter, said that he forgot to confiscate the Cocaine/ Paraphernalia.

He (Detective Sergeant John Christopher Ellis) didn’t mention it to the other officers whom were with him, he didn’t make a note of it in his note book, nor did he tell his boss. He just remembered the finding the drugs cache whilst in court. (Ah so! not the sharpest chisels in the box are they?) www.policeexpenses.co.uk

Unrelated: Oh lovely Theresa Theresa May What Are You Getting Yourself Into?

Home Secretary Perhaps You Might Care To Review This: Re-Up

Rick Santorum Know Your Audience (of idiots)

Death by Clog

This is what you get when you don't have a critical audience, you can come out with any old shite you like.

I'll wager 99% of his audience don't even know where the Netherlands are.

What was it Amy Goodman said, Lack of Geographical Awareness?

Santorum Nostalgic for Abortions "in the Shadows," Warns of Euthanasia Increase

Will you try a few comments?

Hahahaha this guy is hilarious, what a cunt - Esanukkie

In the Netherlands we do not only kill our elderly, we also eat them. It's our national dish. You will be surprised how good it tastes with some fetus dressing. - 260033

Yes he is right they are beaten to death with wooden shoes. Its awful here Stay away. - luuk 441

I barely escaped such a terrible fate myself only this afternoon. I walked into the Albert Heijn without wearing my 'don't clog me to death' wrist tag. - Ferdinand1989

Classified as a typical american ignorant biassed half brain dead idiot - snarf1946

Is this man out of his mind? Only half of them. All of them. In the Netherlands we hunt them down with our rifles which you can buy on every corner of every street here. Is he really a presedential candidate this man? Unbelievable - hurkonides

NETHERLANDS GREEN IS PEEOPLEE! ~ Heallun

The Ninth Commandment, Mr Santorum. - Elmarby

Classified as a typical american ignorant biassed half brain dead idiot - snarf1946

I`m dutch i'll euthanise this man for free - edwinkarim

"America's Next Top Moron" - r29316

"it's all true, they give these bracelets out at birth and if you lose it well, you're fucked" - fort0r

More comments.

Rick Santorum Is a Twat

Fred Reed: Advice to a Generic Candidate

Advice to a Generic Candidate

Fred to Change Course of History
January 8, 2012

Last night on the lobotomy box I encountered yet another candidate for the presidency, a Mr. Santorum, threatening to make war on Iran. I can't decide whether the idea is more frightening than fascinating, or fascinating than frightening. I do suggest that the combined candidates do not have the military competence of a stuffed bear. Given that the principal business of the United States is war and preparation for it, do we want a martial analphabetic in charge? One does not let children play with chain saws. (From all of this I exempt Ron Paul, who appears to be sane.)

To save the republic, if any, from another routine military disaster, I offer the following thoughts.

To begin, I will ask the following questions of the candidates, and for that matter of Mr. Obama, and of the Secretary of Defense, a generic bureaucrat.

Can you explain: Convergence zones, base bleed, Kursk, range-gate pull-off, artillery at Dien Bien Phu, IR cross-over, Tet and queen sacrifice, Brahmos 2, CIWIS, supercruise, side-lobe penetration, seven-eighty-twice gear, super-cavitating torpedoes, phased arrays, pulse Doppler, the width of Hormuz versus the range of Iranian cruise missiles, DU, discarding sabot, frequency agility, Chobham armor, and pseudo-random PRF?

These, gentlemen, are the small talk of serious students of the military. Here I mean men like David Isby, author of such books as Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army for Jane's, which you likely have never heard of, or William S. Lind, probably the best military mind (though, or because, not a soldier), that I have encountered. If you are unfamiliar with them, and with the things listed above, you are unfamiliar with the military. Yet you campaign for possession of the trigger.

Perhaps a little humility, perish the thought, and a little self-examination might be in order.

Peering into your own depths, you will probably find that the humility does not come easily. In my decades of covering the armed services, I noticed among men a belief in their innate jock-strap competency regarding wars. Men who would readily admit ignorance of petroleum geology, ophthalmology, or ancient Sumerian grammar nonetheless believe that they grasp matters military. Usually they do not. In particular, they have an utterly unexamined belief in America's military invincibility.

Candidates should be wary of this. Instead, most of you propose ultimata to Iran as one would threaten a three-year-old with a spanking. You clearly think that the American flotilla would quickly thrash the impudent Persians with no unexpected consequences. Do as we say, or the fleet will teach you a jolly good lesson.

So thought Philip II in 1588.

A little reading wouldn't hurt. I would strongly recommend A Legacy of Ashes, by Tim Weiner, on the CIA, and We Meant Well, by Peter van Vuren, a former State Department guy on how Iraq actually works. You will be most surprised. I accept in advance your gratitude for these suggestions.

Once a candidate from the relative bushes gets elected, as may happen, he becomes a captive of Washington in about ten minutes. This too you should bear in mind. You will be briefed by the CIA, which will spin things so that you believe what it wants you to believe. The spooks will radiate lethal charm and speak with the assurance of a higher order of being. This will give you a sense of admission to a special tree house where everyone has a Captain Marvel secret decoder ring (two box tops and a dollar fifty). And, in Washington, you will have access to no other view. Gotcha.

You will be briefed by the Pentagon by generals with firm handshakes, steely gaze, obvious intelligence, and a convincing understanding of the world as consisting chiefly of threats. They are very good at this. You do not become a general without expertise with Power Point and the slick gab of a confidence man. Generals too are politicians. They will carry you along like a wood chip in a spring flood. And you will pay the price.

A powerful skepticism is here well advised. The belief that military men know about war is beguiling. It is their trade, is it not? Surely they must be authorities. Dentists know about dentistry. Soldiers must know about war. But how often when you go to a dentist do you return without teeth?

In fact career officers live in a mental world not well adapted to winning today's wars. You need to understand this. Theirs is a world of aggression seeking an outlet, of institutionally inculcated confidence unrelated to external reality, of suppression of dissent. Fatal bad judgement is common, and recently almost the rule. If you think this implausible, consider:

When the Japanese attacked Pearl, their military thought it would win, Yamamoto excepted. When the Wehrmacht went into Russia, it thought it would win. So did Napoleon. When the Germans attacked in 1914, they thought they would win, the Schlieffen Plan being infallible. When the Confederates shelled Sukmter, they thought they could win. When the French took on the Viet Minh, they thought they would win. When the Americans went into Viet Nam, they thought they would win. When they went into Iraq, Somalia, Beirut, Afghanistan....

And now you, our newly elected, fresh-caught president, contemplate a shooting war with Iran. Those who favor this idea will assure you that it will be short and sweet. Shock and Awe. Duck soup. A cakewalk. The Iranians will just take it, perhaps put up some slight and hapless resistance, and roll quickly over. Our airplanes, after all, say varooom and pow-pow-pow and boom.

Good luck. More

On attaining the Presidency; Bill Hicks sixty seconds.

Off topic, but I do love these few minutes of Bill Hicks taking the piss out of us Brits.

Chunky Mark on David Camerface

My original intention was to concentrate on choosing the clips of Mark McGowan (chunkymark) that centered around Mark's infatuation with our esteemed Prime Minister, David Cameron; henceforth to be known as Camerface.

But in deference to the multi-national cultures of those that visit here, I thought it might be a tad prudent to introduce you, the visitor, to some of Mark's less emotional diatribes first, before moving on to Mark's seemingly pet subject, David Camerface.

David Camerface a la Martin Rowson

And Mark McGowan isn't all rant, seems he's quite the activist as well. I think I shall have a wander though the rest of his vids, 861 of them, and see if I can find enough to make up a post featuring those. But I don't know yet if it will include his ''Ballerina Pig,'' performed outside Scotland Yard.