Chris Bryant is pants

Via 'Miss Pontins 2007'  "We do not live in the world that they promised us"

I can't be arsed to post on the ludicrous fuss over the Oxford Union and its invitation to David Irving and Nick Griffith except to say that there is something bizarre about protesting that these two men are to be allowed to speak in a debate about...erm...free speech.

But bizarre is a term that one of the objectors, the MP for Rhondda, Chris 'Y-Front' Bryant, is all too familiar with. Listen to him debating with Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance and check out Gabb's email to Ms Danicki with some follow up thoughts.

Peter Tatchell is wittering on about this over at Harry's Place and is scandalized that someone with a history of promoting 'prejudice against Muslims', Nick Griffin,  should be given a platform to debate his ideas (even if the debate is about the concept of free speech and not about his views on Blacks, Muslims, Jews or homosexuals).

Someone like Tony Blair could, I'm sure, be invited to speak at the Union without attracting the opprobrium of Tatchell, Bryant and other moral worthies in spite of the fact that rather than 'promoting prejudice against Muslims' our Tone simply supported and facilitated an invasion and occupation that has ended up killing several hundred thousand of the poor bastards.

If you had just one lampost and one rope which one would you hang?

UPDATE:

Check out Luke Tryl, president of the Oxford Union, on 'Why I Invited Griffin and Irving'

And Frank Ferudi on 'Turning Free Speech into a Negotiable Commodity'.

UPDATE ll:

The debate went ahead eventually, after the obligatory chants and sit-downs (yawn).

Martin Mcluskey, from the Oxford University Students' Union, said: "What we are doing here tonight at the Oxford Union is putting them on a platform that will give them legitimacy and credibility. It is as if we are saying that we agree with what they are saying and that we think it is valid."  

And that's what an Oxford education does for you? What a complete fucking idiot.

bookmarklet

Jib-Jab Gord

Via Techcrunch comes details of a 3D avatar service that lets you add a face to movies. It's in beta and the execution isn't that great, not that I was able to save and download my little effort in the end anyway.

It did send me back to Jib-Jab though where they have a pretty slick 2D image insertion application which is great fun. Here's a couple I made using our great leader's mugshot. He looks spookily creepy in the second film. Is it me or does Gordon really LOOK mad? What is it about Labour PMs and eyes?





bookmarklet

Cash is King

denialism blog : Don't Give Your Friends Fees this Holiday Season!

There are many good reasons to give hard cash rather than a gift voucher/card this Christmas but a compelling one is that so many gift cards never get redeemed.
Best Buy is even counting unused gift cards as a source of revenue: "...in its fiscal 2006 annual report, the retailer Best Buy revealed a $43 million gain from gift cards that were unlikely to be used."
bookmarklet

Well, they would say that...

Obsolete: The UK National Defence Association and snouts in the trough.
If the way that five former chiefs of the defense staff stood up in the Lords yesterday and condemned the government for its failure to "adequately" fund the armed forces smacked of a campaign being got under way, then you'd most certainly be right. What few of the reports of their speeches has made clear is that all five Lords, Boyce, Guthrie, Craig, Bramall and Inge also share something else in common - all are either patrons or vice-presidents of the recently formed United Kingdom National Defence Association.
There's gold in them there wars.

bookmarklet

Nothing to do with me, mate!

Think Progress - Richard Perle: ‘I Don’t Believe I Was Wrong’ About Iraq
Appearing on Fox News on April 7, 2004, Perle said, “We’re making so much progress with most Iraqis that those who feel threatened by the progress are more devoted and more energetic than ever to try to destroy the progress we’re making.”




Lamposts and ropes come to mind whenever I see this slimy turd.

bookmarklet

Or is it it just crap?

Is modern art a left-wing conspiracy? | spiked
Ask a right winger who is in charge of the arts in Britain and they are likely to tell you that the arts are run by a liberal-left conspiracy - that the BBC, National Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Arts Council are all staffed by pinkos who generate propaganda in service of leftie causes. advertisement advertise on spiked But is all modern art left-wing, as they suggest?
bookmarklet

Lessons for Mr Darling

Mashable: Skype Encryption Too Tough For Ze Police
German police cannot decipher the encryption used by Skype, and they’re complaining about it. How can they monitor all those bad guys if Skype encrypts the damn data? It’s so unfair. “The encryption with Skype telephone software … creates grave difficulties for us,” said Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany’s Federal Police Office (BKA). Well, the thing about encryption is that it should create problems for those trying to decipher the message. That’s the whole idea. But, the German authorities aren’t really talking to Skype about this; in fact, since using spyware to collect information from a person’s computer is illegal in Germany, this is probably just pressure to legalize this practice.
bookmarklet

The fairer sex

Women Drug, Starve Boy

In interviews with investigators, each woman blamed the other
for leading the abuse, according the sheriff's office documents.
Suzette Stevenson, right, said that Jamie Lynn Martin didn't like
the boy because of his mixed race. Martin, left, countered in her
interview that Stevenson would keep the boy out of school
because she feared his teachers would notice injuries he
sustained due to their abuse.


Domestic partners Suzette Stevenson, 45, and Jamie Lynn Martin, 26, have been charged with aggravated child abuse after a 7-year-old boy illegally in their care escaped from the two women after they allegedly drugged him and left him in a car as they shopped for a Florida timeshare.

The boy, who is not a biological child to either woman, was allegedly tied by his wrists and made to stand in an upright position for hours at a time, forced to drink shampoo, was burned with cigarettes and had to urinate and defecate in a closet, according the Baker County Sheriff's Office documents.

The boy was born in 2000 in California. After his mother became involved in drugs, he was taken away from the mother and given to his father, Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson told ABC News. The father, who allegedly did not want to care for the child, gave him to an aunt, who was in a relationship with Stevenson. Dobson said that Stevenson then purchased an illegal birth certificate for the boy after his aunt, her domestic partner, died. "It's not legally sound at all in any way shape or form," he said. Stevenson then came to Baker County, Fla., in September 2005 to meet Martin, whom she had developed a relationship with over the Internet, Dobson said.

bookmarklet

End of the line

Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly
"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35. "Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population." While most parents view their children as the ultimate miracle of nature, Toni seems to see them as a sinister threat to the future. Sarah Irving (above) said "I realised then that a baby would pollute the planet - and that never having a child was the most environmentally friendly thing I could do."
Good job your mother took a different view. Have you considered the ultimate environmentalist gesture - suicide? And let's hope you never need care and attention from someone else's son or daughter in the future. Of course, logically, they could legitimately have one child between them which wouldn't even be enough to replace them both. A 50% reduction! On second thoughts perhaps it's best if they don't breed.

bookmarklet