Archive for the ‘Idiots’ Category
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17
Oct
2009
Don’t hold your breath for tolerance.
In the past week, Stephen Gately, former member of Irish boy-band Boyzone, died. Jan Moir of the Daily Mail wrote an incredibly repulsive article on the subject and Charlie Brooker responded indignantly.
Meanwhile, a Ugandan minister of parliament has proposed legislation to enforce a penalty of death for the “offence of aggravated homosexuality.”
Well then.
11
Jun
2009
Is this some kind of sick joke?
From BBC News:
John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono has been given a lifetime achievement honour at Mojo magazine’s awards in London.
Mojo chief editor Phil Alexander, who hosted the event, praised Ono, 76, as “a huge influence on modern music”.
Bollocks.
5
Jun
2009
This is what Obama is up against
Max Blumenthal writes: On the eve of President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis and American Jews about their reaction to the speech. We encountered rowdy groups of beer sodden twenty-somethings, many from the United States, and all eager to vent their visceral, even violent hatred of Barack Obama and his policies towards Israel. Usually I offer a brief commentary on my video reports, but this one requires no comment at all. Quite simply, it contains some of the most shocking footage I have ever filmed. Watch it and see if you agree. (This video was removed from the Huffington Post on the grounds that it had “no news value” and “did not move the conversation forward.”)
Joseph Dana, one of the co-creators of the video above, has written the following to explain why he and Max Blumenthal made the video, and what he thinks it shows:
It’s about entitlement, stupid.
Max and I went on to the streets of Jerusalem at ten o’clock on a Wednesday to ascertain the feelings of the young population about Obama’s upcoming speech in Cairo. As is often the case, the streets of central Jerusalem were not filled with native Israelis but American Jews. Doubtlessly anyone who has visited Jerusalem has encountered the droves of American Jewish kids that are sent to Israel to study for a period of time from Teaneck or Westchester. We asked people a simple question, “What do you think of Obama and Israel?” Most of the people that we talked to were dual American Israeli citizens. The answers in this video reflect the education and worrisome perspectives that many American Jews harbor towards Israeli politics. The sense of entitlement that the American Jewish community has when it comes to Israeli policy is on full raw display in the words of these young adults.
Based on our interviews these people were from high socio economic backgrounds and had developed thoughts about current Israeli politics. The question is why more journalists are not covering this story. All you have to do is walk the streets of Jerusalem and you will find dozens of people that harbor the same beliefs. As a resident of Jerusalem, I can say that the people represented in this video are not members of a fringe group or simply drunk college kids. These people reflect the sentiments shared by many people in this country and this city. These people and their families are the core of the opposition to meaningful peace between Israel and her neighbors. This is what Obama is up against.
1
Jun
2009
The assassination of George Tiller
Yesterday, an abortionist in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller was shot dead outside the Reformation Lutheran Church in the city. The BBC has a good op-ed piece on violence in the abortion debate:
While many pro-life organisations have come out and condemned the killing on Sunday, the fact remains that violence and intimidation have remained a constant thread in the history of the modern-day movement.
According to data gathered by the National Abortion Federation, a pro-choice group, there had been at least nine killings in anti-abortion protests, 17 attempted murders and 400 death threats.
Bombings and arson attempts of abortion facilities also happen on a regular basis with cases often reaching double figures every year.
The most famous was probably the Christmas Day bombings which targeted three clinics in 1984 with the perpetrators dubbing them a “birthday gift for Jesus”.
More reading material of a distinctly more repulsive nature is available in this blog post on Carnal Nation, in which the author has used Twitter for its only sensible purpose: mining public opinion. Gathered there is a collection of “tweets” from a fringe-group of pro-life nutjobs who, ironically, celebrated the assassination.
They would seem to be also supporters of the death penalty, which would make one doubt the creedence of their claim that they believe every life really is sacred. Or perhaps their flawed logic is simply the product of having been brought up to believe fundamentalist dogma, and they see no logical contradiction.
In any event, here are some of the tweets:
No need to pray for George Tiller. We know he went straight to hell!!!!!
Tiller the Baby Killer is finally dead….God took care of what needed to be done….
the killing of tiller the baby killer was JUSTICE, not murder.
All very Christian and forgiving, don’t you think? It’s worth noting that the overwhelming majority of tweets from both sides of the abortion debate expressed horror at the assassination of Dr. Tiller. Indeed, the last tweet linked above seems to be from a particularly screwy individual, who also appears to be a proud racist.
So, these people aren’t in the mainstream, but the Internet acts as a veritable megaphone for their idiocy. The effects on their lives is predictable, as “the stupid, bigoted comments people used to make at the water cooler now get preserved for future employers to find using Google.”
But what effect does this have on the rest of us? Comment and phenomena like this will always be sought out to satisfy a kind of morbid curiosity many of us might have. Is there the chance this will result in it becoming more acceptable and popular?
16
May
2009
Don’t do this.
There’s a special place in hell reserved for people who take the complete piss at gigs by doing things like this:
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Radiohead – Nude (Live at 93 Feet East, London, 2008-01-16)
Well handled by Thom, though, I must say. Reminds me of the Autechre bootleg, Live @ Lees Palace (2008-04-12), a fantastic bootleg in quality and setlist, almost ruined by some stupid bitch who keeps screaming and talking in the left channel… Or the drunken idiots who kept coming up to the bootlegger at Aphex’s 2008 Oxegen Festival gig.
It’s more excusable in the last two cases, but even so — what do you go to a gig for? To experience, enjoy and dance to the music? Or to scream into your poor, resentful friends’ ears any banal shit that comes into your thick head?
16
May
2009
In pursuit of the perfect body
A recent paper in The Lancet, an English medical journal, describes the adverse effects of steroid abuse. A striking case study in the paper is that of a 21-year-old amateur bodybuilder who arrived at a clinic in Dusseldorf, Germany with severe acne on his chest and upper back.
He was a constant user of anabolic-androgenic steroids, of which acne is a side effect — as is damaged sperm and shrunken testicles, both of which he also possessed.
Potentially NSFW photos of the severe damage done to his chest can be seen here.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find all three images equally repulsive.
11
Apr
2009
The Nation (The bleedin’ state of ye)
Easter weekend is here, and after a day of government-enforced abstinence from drink what better way to waste a few moments than by breaking open a can of Dutch, and having a gander at what tonight could possibly have in store for us:
Classy stuff. You don’t find a great night like this on the continent, I tell ye.
More of the same here.
