Why Our Politics Is Rubbish

Stuff like this. We have a political class that seems to genuinely believe that the working population is nothing more than a giant ATM to hit every time one of them has some goofy notion or pet project to push.

Danger! Yoofs At Work

Thanks to Lurker in the comments, here's today's encounter with the Murderers Of No Appearance. Clearly, another case of Hymn Rage. Plus, bonus points for the spectacularly uninformative video clip.

Isn't One Europe More Than Enough?

The worst thing about the Obamamessiah is not the lousy policies, it's that he just doesn't get America itself. Obama's whole objective seems to be to take the Great Experiment and turn it into... well, this.

Clarke = Prescott

Never mind Cuddly Ken Clarke's Euro fanaticism, the real problem with him is what he says about the snobbery of the Metropolitan elite.

Here we have a fat, lazy, arrogant, obnoxious, blustering slob, and the MSM praises him to the skies for his ability to reach out to the man in the street. Uh, OK.

Say, when was the last time any of these people ever met anyone out here in the real world?

Of course, the other reason why the MSM loves Clarke is for his outstanding record of throwing the right under the bus. Any nominally right-wing politician can be hailed as a principled maverick just as long as he denounces actual conservatives, but as soon as he comes up against the left.... well, ask John McCain how that works.

Hey, if Ann Widdicombe had ever dismissed ambulance crews as merely 'professional drivers', you wouldn't have to wait for some goofball on a blog to remind you about it. That'll be the 'common touch' the MSM keeps hailing Clarke for.

The Spoils System of Child Care

Hey, if conservatives are the evil ones, how come it's always liberals behind stories like this?

Like I keep saying, these people are telling us who they are. None of their usual excuses apply here. Social workers aren't being required to make a judgement call or act quickly on inadequate information. They've just sat down in a nice, climate-controlled room and decided to destroy a family to make some absurd political point.

Hmmmm... if the mid-forties are too old for a woman to raise a young child, I guess there's nothing down for Leo Blair. On the other hand, the grandmother in this case does have diabetes, which means that if the kids are ever trapped by a giant avalanche of icing sugar, she won't be able to eat her way through to them. Mind you, it would be embarrassing if liberals themselves had spent years inventing bogus concepts like 'ageism and 'ableism' to try and pathologise people who think a sixty-something epileptic may not be the best choice of recruit for the Bomb Squad.

Ah yes, victimhood poker - is there anywhere it doesn't apply? If only this couple had restricted themselves to fatuous lawsuits against gyms for not hiring them as aerobics instructors, liberals would be making movies about their brave fight against discrimination, but as soon as they got in the way of the Special People, they were under the bus.

Which brings me neatly on to that other group of charmers exposed by this case: pretendey-conservative professional gayers. These people have spent years claiming 'we just wanna be friends!' so how come they aren't all out in the streets chanting 'not in my name'? I guess the 'conservative gays' must be tied up in a meeting with the moderate Muslims?

See, this is the point. There were plenty of reasons to oppose the gay adoption movement, but the key one, the thing that was repellent above all else about these people, was their enormous sense of entitlement. They were arguing about their right to be given kids in care as though young children were some kind of government freebie they were being cruelly deprived of. All this is just the logical extension of that world view.

No Bias Here!

Tonight ITV are going show a drama about an event in July 2005. Use your skill and judgement to guess which:

1. The July 7 bombings


2. The search for the July 21 bombers
   


3. The shooting of St Jean the Martyr
   

OK, that is kind of obvious. Folks escaping from the burning wreckage of a tube train deep underground or cops in a race against time to track down fanatical bombers? No potential for good drama there, but a dramatisation based on the transcript of an inquest - now that's entertainment!

Really - that's the other thing about media bias. It's not just annoying on political grounds, it also leads to some really terrible TV. At least Winston Smith only had to put up with two minutes of hate, our MSM keeps it up 24/7. After all, just what is the point of all this? This isn't bringing an obscure corner of history to life - few events in recent history has been covered as extensively as Stockwell. Ditto, the left has spent years - literally - trying to leverage this case into a broadcast condemnation of da pigs (and failing, utterly) This drama has nothing to add to the debate except another opportunity for the left to indulge in masturbatory cop hating.

As ever with questions of MSM bias, it's worth stating that yes, there should be a place for full-on political commentary, just not when it's trying to pass itself off as impartial and any vaguely right-wing commentary results in a firing.

Victim in Chief

Ann Coulter has a new book out and it makes a great point about one of the strangest perversions of modern culture. In less than two generations we've gone from a society which celebrates the guy who scores the winner in the FA Cup Final to one that celebrates the guy cruelly robbed of his chance to play for Chelsea just because he's a paraplegic.

The ultimate in liberal victimhood worship though is the Obamamessiah. The left spent years fantasising about Bush being assassinated, but as soon as The One was elected, they switched to Obama murder fantasises. Of course. Just because their loony messiah is the most powerful man on Earth doesn't mean he still can't claim victimhood, albeit pre-emptively.

Say, Did Something Happen Today?

Given the MSM's coverage today, it's a wonder they didn't just borrow a line from 'Flash Gordon' and announce 'all beings shall make merry under pain of death'. On the plus side, this does mean the week after the death of Princess Di is no longer the stupidest moment in modern pop culture.

The BBC in particular rose to the occasion, with even the regional news managing to feature interviews with various race hustlers claiming to be inspired by 'The One' - although none apparently inspired enough to get a job in the private sector.

By the way, in case you're wondering: no, none of these Obama-supporting blacks gave any, specific policy-based reasons why they supported him and, no, that wasn't commented on either.

Of course, the left's sudden respect for racial block-voting is only as weird as their decision that, actually, dissent isn't the highest form of patriotism after all. Apparently, everyone in the world wishes The One well in his mission to screw up America.

Whatever concessions Obama makes to political pragmatism, he is still - as exemplified by his 'bitter, clingers' line - an outright Marxist. At the least, Obama's vision of America is just Europe with better movies. Why would anyone on the right want him to succeed?

Still, on the plus side, at least the Obamamessiah has managed to restore America's position in the world.

Barackopalyspse Now!

Two hours on BBC1 dedicated to the Coronation of the Messiah! Now that's why we pay our licence fee.

Why The Left Doesn't Like To Talk About It

Islam, that is. I guess the only way to defend something like this is to stop people finding out about it in the first place.

The Left's New Policy: Don't Mention The War

Actually, that was kind of the old policy too. Still, this is a particularly goofy new twist. Yep, critics of the Religion of Pieces are 'non-violent extremists'. So Mark Steyn is just like Mohammed Atta, except for the 'flying airliners into buildings' thing. Also, your family doctor is just like Harold Shipman, except for the whole morphine thing.

Not only is Brandon's point ludicrous on first principles, it doesn't even make sense on its own terms. When Hazel Blear's talks about 'non-violent extremist' Muslims, she's employing achingly PC phraseology to describe those Muslims who fully support terrorism, but aren't actually indulging in it right now. On the other hand, if the left had evidence of Melanie Phillips supporting mass murder, they'd presumably have mentioned it already.

Then again, the whole article reads like a warning about the dangers of riding a bike without a helmet. Jimmy the Dhimmi complains about people referring to Muslims collectively, y'know, kind of like this:

Senior Muslims have warned ministers that some young people could turn to extremism and violence, rather than conventional protest and pressure, because of the Gaza war.

They say ministers have not done enough to explain the UK's position and to help communities sideline jihadist recruiters.

Or perhaps not. Note too that this is no ordinary humbuggery. Leftists are perfectly happy to talk about 'Muslims' collectively when talking about their views on specific policy issues, like exterminating the bacillus of International Jewry bringing peace to the Middle East. All the right does is assume that Muslims follow Islam. True, some nominal 'Muslims' may not actually swallow it whole, but then I bet some members of the Vegetarian Society enjoy a sneaky bacon sandwich, but that doesn't mean we need hours of agonised debate over the meaning of 'true vegetarianism'.

This is what I keep saying. You want to understand Marxism: read Das Kapital. Nazism? Try Mein Kampf. Islam? Nope - you need some wacademic to stop by and explain how the Koran doesn't actually mean what it says. This is why liberal dhimmitude always ends in calls for restricting free speech: Islam does not do well in the light of day.

Liberals In Hell

They just won't know who to support in this story.

The One Already Reviving US Businesses

Is there nothing the Obamamessiah can't do?

This Is Great

On second thoughts, this would only really work if at the same time you had the Elphaba Centre for Social Justice calling for schools to reach out to the Necromancy community.

Another Guy Who Doesn't Understand Islam

Like I keep saying, when the MSM wants to know what ecoloons believe, they interview an econut, when they want to know about animal rights kooks, they interview one of them, but when it comes to Muslims? No, then they interview some liberal, atheist wacademic.

Then again, you kind of see why they have to do this: when ever an actual Muslim breaks through the MSM's wall of noise it's never pretty.

See, this is the thing. For all the left likes to rant about 'right-wing extremism' and a 'culture of bigotry', it always turns out to be the left that appoints lunatics to important positions:

As a former chairman of the influential Muslim Safety Forum and the current head of its counter-terrorism work-team, he works with the Home Office, senior police officers and the Security Services trying to combat extremism.

Liberal dhimmitude: now officially beyond parody.

You Mean It Wasn't The Jews After All?

Guess the recession can't be too bad: the BBC is spending shed-loads of cash to deal with a fictional threat. Hey, everyone knows the whole 'terrorism' thing was invented by the CIA so Big Oil can invade the Amazon rainforest and steal their fish.

Well, either that, or it's the perfectly legitimate expression of genuine grievance by Muslims appalled by events in Gaza/Iraq/Afghanistan/Thailand/Russia/India/Chile/the asteroid belt. Why would peace-loving people like that attack a TV station? It's not like they just want to kill Infidels, right?

The whole thing is an exercise in humbug:

A BBC spokeswoman said today: 'This has always been part of the plan for the redevelopment. I cannot say more than that - we never discuss security matters unless we can make political capital out of it in which case national security can go to Hell.'

Actually, I think that last bit was kind of implied more than said, but if the BBC can report on people would say, then that's good enough for me too.

The scheme has emerged as the BBC continues with an £800million revamp of the Broadcasting House site, complete with a new nine-storey glass and stone extension.

What happened to a BBC that looks like Britain? We're in a depression and these guys are spending money like a footy player with a day to live. If they need black lesbians on the staff to report properly on black lesbian issues, how can report properly on an imploding economy when they're living the dream?

Climate Change Claims Another Victim

Well, specifically, attempts to stop climate change. So, in case you've lost track of the score, that means more people have now been killed by ecofreaks than by actual climate change.

I guess these things happen when you let these things fall under the control of uncaring Big Businesses who put profits before people.

Oops:

Cllr Wiltshire said: 'We are sympathetic to the concerns of our leaseholders but the council does spell out the detail of the financial obligations imposed upon a lessee in the terms of each right-to-buy lease.'

Huh? Did they really include a paragraph warning that owners might find themselves stung by huge bills to pay for the ridiculous obsessions of pampered, metropolitan neurotics?

But who runs a council that could harass a 91 year old deaf/blind women surviving on pension credits? Why, yes, it is one of Call Me Dave's Nu Caring Tory councils. Who'd have thunk it?

Muslims Condemn Extremism....

.... specifically, they condemn Prince Harry's extremist language. The folks who saw heads off, blow trains up and fly airliners into buildings? Not so much.

See, this is the thing. Liberal straw men to the contrary, no one's demanding that random taxi drivers and restaurant owners denounce terrorism. We're simply pointing out that the alleged moderates who turn the volume up to 11 over trivial garbage like this, never manage anything like the same kind of full-throated condemnation when the issue is actual murder.

And Another Thing...

Like I said last time, the femiloon's claim that the average British male has suddenly become more rape-y is garbage but, in her own, whiny, victimhood obsessed way, 'Cath' has hit on a genuine cultural phenomenon. Yes, negative attitudes to women are becoming more common amongst young men, but what's with this:

It's no good teenagers being told that sexist attitudes are wrong if they then go home and see their dad treating their mum like a skivvy, or sitting around making disparaging remarks about women with the Sun's Page 3 open on his lap and porn playing out on the TV screen.

Huh? I thought the femiloons claimed this is how men behaved all through the Fifties - aka the Worst Decade Evah! - anyway. Surely they're not saying their mothers had it better than them?

Nope, it's not men that have changed, it's women. As JulieM says:

It’s presumably ok if they see Mum trading in ‘boyfriends’ like some trade in cars, or little sis trotting off to school dressed in the finest Ann Summers can supply, I suppose?

Well, yes, that's exactly what the femiloons are saying. Feminism is the belief that women have the God given right to behave like pigs while avoiding the consequences. Consider the central sacrament of the feminist cult: isn't there something just plain goofy about an ideology built around killing off the young?

This is where I part company from Mark Steyn - and yes, I am sure he'd be devastated to hear that - the West's demographic disaster isn't solely down to vacuous, yuppie scum couples preferring to act like kids rather than raise them. There just aren't enough SWPLers out there to take all the blame. Ditto, there was never a Golden Age when young men behaved like responsible adults. Again, it's the women that have changed. It's the success of the feminist doctrine that slutting around is the path to empowerment, and the corollary that marriage and commitment is practically the same as slavery, that have slashed fertility rates in the West. And that's not even the worst of it.

Don't think feminism means women sleep around indiscriminately. On the contrary what happens is that given the choice most women flock to 10-20% of socially dominant 'bad boys'. In effect, what we end up with is what the brilliant blogger Whiskey calls 'soft polygamy', whereby most women prefer to 'time-share' a small pool of alpha males, while Joe Average is shut out. In other words, feminism leads to exactly the social arrangements that have made the Islamic world such a fine example of social progress.

The big difference between the Islamic world and the West is that polygamy here is driven by female choice. In effect, the average guy has been kicked to the kerb by the female of the species. Femiloons like 'Cath' celebrate this as evidence of enlightenment even while bemoaning the perfectly predictable consequences. In effect, 'Cath' and pals want women to 'defect' from the sociological game of prisoner's dilemma but for men to keep 'cooperating'.

Not going to happen. In fact, the wheels are already coming off.

In a sign of the times, "Otaryman," a comic-book series about a less-than-driven salaryman, has become one of this year's surprise hits. In the book, the protagonist passes his days worrying about his colleagues' files spilling onto his desk rather than trying to impress bosses. "He just plods along (in) life, and has very small ambitions," says Makoto Yoshitani, the series's 28-year-old author. "I think people my age find that comforting."

Yowser! And that's in a proverbially productive workforce. Sure, there are a multitude of factors behind it, but Whiskey points out one big one:

But buried between the lines is the nugget that Japanese men, the younger ones at least, no longer believe that wealth and power that is achievable from a Salary Man job will lead to a family. This is the natural outcome, perhaps, of women's increasing power and status in society.

Ditto, this sort of thing makes much more sense once you look at it in context. Why should a guy like that have realistic goals? The economic benefits of working the type of job he could get vs unemployment has been eroded (thanks welfare state!) while the effects on status of becoming another wage slave selling out to The Man are questionable at best (thanks black community leaders!). Becoming a sports star might be unlikely, but if it pays off you can be one of the 10-20%, and if it it doesn't, at least it won't leave you feeling like a chump.

Short summary: feminists have destroyed the social contract on which our society was based and we're now in uncharted waters. Their big problem is that the feminist movement's vision of a society where women shrug off the old restraints only works providing that the beta male Atlas doesn't feel the same way. Whatever happens next, I don't think 'Cath' and her pals are going to like it.

Sudden Rise In Cases Of Plague, Cannibalism, Zombie Attacks And Bad TV

Uh oh - the femiloons are on the war path over this.

Not really!

Actually, it's this.

No, that's not right either. Amazingly enough, it turns out to be British women that are really huge victims. Personally, my favourite bit was this:

Last year, 3,500 pupils were suspended for sexual misconduct, 260 of whom were still at primary school. Their behaviour ranged from sexist name-calling, graffiti and verbal harassment, to inappropriate touching, sexual assault and rape.

Say, it's a good job a bloke didn't try to bracket together 'name-calling' and 'rape' - ol' Cathy might have self-immolated. If there really is an epidemic of violence against women, why do the femiloon feel the need to bulk up the figures by lumping in naughty words?

For a bunch of folks who keep yammering about 'zero tolerance' it's noticeable that the femiloons fold like a row of tents every time their crusade brings them near a potential conflict with the rest of the left. All of which is by way of saying that you will never get a femiloon speculating on just why the attitudes found in the first two links above are becoming more prevalent in Britain. Instead, we get artfully spun phrases like this:

The rise in gang culture obviously plays some part in this... when young people themselves were asked where all this was coming from, popular culture, song lyrics, the media and the internet came top of their list.

Now, I'm not going to try to argue causation, or to call for rap music and MySpace to be banned, but...

Say, who's in these gangs anyway?

Clearly, what we're dealing with here is Molesters Of No Appearance. Meanwhile, femiloons are anxious to blame it all on a bogus pathology in the wider culture, but not actual, specific cultures that really do approve of sexual violence.

The bottom line is that, as ever, the femiloons are only interested in sexual violence in so far as it be can spun into a broad-brush indictment of British society in general. They're so obsessed with claiming sexual violence is endemic in Britain - a kind of original sin - that they'll not only inflate the number of victims, they'll even go so far as to whitewash truly pathological cultures.