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The Daily Bork: I can't see this guy helping things

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/i-cant-see-this-guy-helping-things.html

August 16, 2005. I can't see this guy helping things. What happens when you take a bigotted Englishman who gets revelation on an oil well and converts? A speaking tour of NZ by an intellectual dwarf that is supposedly going to help relations with Islam. Mr Green said he was taken aback by learning something from an Egyptian, because he had considered them inferior people. And, surprisingly enough, the conversion does not seem to have cured him of being a bigot. But just to round out the loon-fest,. Howev...

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The Daily Bork: "The enemies we make"

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/enemies-we-make.html

August 16, 2005. The enemies we make". Done With Mirrors has an excellent article. On caricaturing the "enemy" and the curious inversion that has taken place between WW2 and now. As the official organs of Western governments go more and more out of its way to avoid caricaturing, the film makers and commetators in the West have gone to the other extreme. The latest from Ted Rall, Ward Churchill, Steve Bell, or Michael Moore? Something from "Le Monde" or "Der Spiegel? Capra was reluctant at first to create...

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The Daily Bork: Sweden slowly tilting right

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/09/sweden-slowly-tilting-right.html

September 05, 2005. Sweden slowly tilting right. The Swedish opposition block makes further headway a year out from the polls. Reinfeldt "wins TV battle". Remarkable that the media, which is usually heavily Social Democrat, conceded victory to the opposition (for all that it's worth in televised debate). Unlike NZ, it seems being rude to the females is generally OK. Persson defended himself afterwards in an interview, saying he was just stretching his legs. Posted by Chefen at 8:59 pm. The enemies we make.

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The Daily Bork: Shopping malls, bastions of democracy

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/shopping-malls-bastions-of-democracy_16.html

August 16, 2005. Shopping malls, bastions of democracy. More stupid ideas from Keith. Westfield won't let enrolment stalls in their malls unless they pay a fee. Apparently this is highly undemocratic. Here's an idea. set up a stall outside the mall you cheapskate. How is it going to help the democratic process by imposing laws on businesses that they must allow "free community activities"? You're mad keen on wasting money on everything else, why not this? Or on the local marae, even if they don't want it?

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The Daily Bork: Return of the hack

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/09/return-of-hack.html

September 06, 2005. Return of the hack. Now why do you suppose it was written this way? The Rathergate affair culminated in the resignation of Dan "fake but accurate" Rather, indeed coined the term "fake but accurate", a spectacular achievement for a horde of readers. The sideways derision of PowerLine for "doing little more than ask the question" is selfevident, how could Time give them weblog of the year indeed? After handing Russell his arse on a plate. Ironically that was about the Plame affair w...

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The Daily Bork: We aren't for the other side, but we aren't exactly on your side either

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/we-arent-for-other-side-but-we-arent.html

August 16, 2005. We aren't for the other side, but we aren't exactly on your side either. The Guardian runs an article titled Give up your freedoms - or change tack. Blair's anti-terror measures are exactly what Bin Laden wants. With text that basically runs the same line you'll see round the traps, by one Saad al-Fagih who is described in the footnote as. Saad al-Fagih is a leading exiled Saudi dissident and director of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia. What concerns me is this. Sa'ad al-Faqih,...

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The Daily Bork: American public more clued than most pundits

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/09/american-public-more-clued-than-most.html

September 05, 2005. American public more clued than most pundits. Who'd have thunk it, average Joe Cowboy seems to be more level-headed than the mediasphere. Americans are broadly critical of government preparedness in the Hurricane Katrina disaster - but far fewer take George W. Bush personally to task for the problems, and public anger about the response is less widespread than some critics would suggest. Q and O have perhaps the most succinct round up. Posted by Chefen at 8:59 pm. Was it all worth it?

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The Daily Bork: Round the traps

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/09/round-traps.html

September 05, 2005. Rather than go into the details of the Katrina debate, plenty of other posts are doing that, or doing detailed fiskings of the loonier debators I give here just a few comments on the weekend's reading of the usual traps. In Sweden the pundits have been a bit annoyed. And " USA government on PR tour of the south. On the NZ front the usual suspects have been quiet until the overseas sites were in with their stories. The redoutable Brown has the favoured approach. Frogblog, doesn't inten...

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The Daily Bork: Cole-ture shock

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/cole-ture-shock.html

August 16, 2005. Our old friend Juan Cole gets a tongue lashing for getting the final word in on a debate. after the opponent has died. That'd Steven Vincent, who was killed in Iraq. Cole presented his piece here. Martin Kramer takes exception. In other words, Vincent got himself killed, out of ignorance. Implication: his journalism should be dismissed. Or does sole responsibility for their deaths lie with their killers and torturers? And if it does, why should Vincent be an exception? It is also an enti...

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The Daily Bork: It helps if you read the links you reference

http://dailybork.blogspot.com/2005/08/it-helps-if-you-read-links-you.html

August 16, 2005. It helps if you read the links you reference. I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't. But it's just too much fun. The New York Review of Books has Peter W. Galbraith's Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic. The new Harper's magazine has a wonderful essay by Bill McKibben; 'The Christian Paradox: How a Faithful Nation Gets Jesus Wrong'. The full essay is print-only, but there's an except here. Pogblog is calling it. One of the most important watershed moral upheavals of our generation.". Galbraith...