Cherie Blair is a Misunderstood, Persecuted Saint

or, "A quick and dirty lesson in spin"

I haven't had much to say about Cherie's talk at the Ange. We haven't finished with it yet, so it wouldn't be a good idea for me to talk about it much. But I have to say one thing, I have never witnessed such a magnificent display of minutely orchestrated damage control in my life. It was a miniature political masterpiece, so kudos to Mrs. Blair and her friends at the Ange.

And it works. Given that Tony and Cherie are known in Britain as the King and Queen of political spin, I would like to offer the following as an example of the kind of damage that can be done:

More women leaders needed at the Vatican, says Cherie Blair

and

Is Blair really pro-choice/pro-abortion?

No! I don't want to go to J-School...

it will make me stupid.

In 2007, The Canadian Federation of Students conducted a task force on the needs of Muslim students in Ontario and found that discrimination against Muslims in university contexts is systemic. The Ontario Human Rights Commission contends that since the attacks of September, 2001 Islamophobic attitudes are becoming more prevalent in society and Muslims are increasingly the targets of intolerance. A recent poll confirms that negative feelings towards Muslims are on the rise in Canada. Thirty–six percent of respondents across the country expressed anti-Muslim sentiment, compared to 27 percent a year ago.

The CFS? Oooohhh yeah. That CFS.


Can we have a new "phobia"? How about "journophobia"?

Islamophobophobia?

Journalists, our intellectual and moral superiors...

...as Kathy likes to say.

Wow. Way to not bother looking up anything at all, guys.

Good one.

"The Vatican"...right.

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 29 (UPI) --

The Vatican

[errr...who is it exactly, who has issued this command?]

has warned Roman Catholic priests against using language in their parishes that might offend gay and lesbian worshipers.

Priests have been told by their bishops not to assume that every parishioner is heterosexual, The Daily Mail reported Saturday.

"Remember that homophobic jokes and asides can be cruel and hurtful -- a careless word can mean another experience of rejection and pain," bishops said in a memo about how priests can be more welcoming to gays.

Still, some activists say efforts by the Catholic Church to be more tolerant of homosexuality is undercut by Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to gay marriage.

But English gay rights activist Peter Tatchell said the leaflet represents a "positive initiative" that could help gay Catholics and their families, the newspaper reported.

"It's sympathetic, understanding message is a big improvement on the past homophobia of some Catholic pronouncements on homosexuality," he said.

Flash!

"Pope reaffirms existence of God, a position that has driven millions of people away from the faith."

Do these people know how stupid they sound?

They can't still be waiting for the Great Enlightenment in the Church, can they?

We've had that.

It's called "the United Church".

Fluttering

I heard about this on the BBC Radio 3 newsnippet this morning. I have to say, I just shrugged. I've no idea why Christians still attach themselves to the Anglican thing. People are just funny I guess.

Anyway, I was just glancing at Uncle Di's brief coverage where he says, "The UK media are reporting that two gay priests (Anglican) were married last month in England, provoking the predictable journalistic flutter, and a call from the African episcopacy that the Archbishop of Canterbury take steps."

It just reminded me of something.

I lived for a brief time in Canada's arctic. Well, "sub-arctic" technically, and what most people don't understand about the north is that the winters are actually way more fun than the summers. Sure, it's cold, but that's why God gave us Gore-Tex and eider ducks. And wolf pelts. And ski-doo boots.

And guns.

Winter was the time you got to go out and shoot things to eat a lot, which I discovered is incredibly fun.

My family had ten acres of Crown Land (in the days when you could still get Crown Land) that was mostly wooded, next to the river. We did a number of interesting things there: cleared trees and kept huskies and raised bees in the summer. But in the winter it was fun to hunt ptarmigan there.

Now, ptarmigan (no, you don't pronounce the p) are God's dumbest creatures, and as such, I would say, proof that we are supposed to eat meat. They spend the winters scratching through the snow with a specially developed claw, to get at the seeds and buds of the plants. They tend to convene in little ptarmigan social clubs in clearings in the woods, all happily scratching and pecking away. You and your .22 just have to come quietly up to the edge of the trees and settle in. After a few minutes, though they know you're there, they start to ignore you and go back to pecking and scratching.

Then you just pick them off.

You'd think, wouldn't you, that you couldn't get too many by this method. Maybe a couple of shots, before they all went somewhere less hazardous for lunch. But you'd be wrong.

Ptarmigan are dumb as a bag of fluffy-footed hammers. You shoot one, it keels over in a messy heap and all its friends flutter madly about for a few seconds. Then they settle down and start pecking again, as if nothing had happened to Charlie.

Same as when Fred gets it. And George and Hank, and Jake and Tom. If you are having more than two people over to dinner, you could sit there and finish off the whole lot and they wouldn't get the hint.

Anyway, it just popped in there. Journalists fluttering insensibly around like Ptarmigan, soon to be distracted by a new patch of dried berries and seeds.

Six of one...

Hey, am I the only one who's noticed that the Telegraph is just basically the Daily Mail with longer words?

The lady at the newsagent's agreed. She carries Private Eye, but I've not looked at it yet. P.E. was great in the 60's. I hope it hasn't changed.

Water now known to fall out of sky as "rain" - study

Sometimes the headlines make me laugh.

Birth order affects how adults treat kids: study

Dear Mainstream Media

Once again, Steve has, to borrow his own expression, hit the ball out of the park.

A letter from a blogger to the traditional print media:

On the other hand, while you hate to admit it you benefit from my know-how and my friends in the digital landscape. If you can just let your guard down for a minute (and I know you’ve been hurt) and listen to me, I can teach you things. I can show you how to reach people who are put off by your façade of confidence and invulnerability. You need to just be yourself, and stop trying to be something you’re not. Sometimes you’re just so set in your ways. Please don’t take it the wrong way, but the world doesn’t owe you a favor. As you grow older, you lose some of your appeal. It’s natural. But I still think that you have something to offer that’s beautiful.

Boris' new haircut and the British press

There's something weird about the British political press.

Or maybe there's something weird about Boris Johnson (more likely).

I was in Chester this afternoon, doing some banking and shopping and had an opportunity to read this week's Spectator over my fish n' chips and mushy peas. Reading Tamzin Lightwater's little columnette, she mentioned Boris Johnson's new haircut as a political setback. A joke, of course.

But just now, putting "Boris" and "haircut" into Google News, what do I get but no fewer than four articles, at the Times and the Independent, on the would-be London Worshipful Lord Mayor's new do.

Well, OK, not actually about his hair, but it's in there in each one.

"predominantly with immigrant backgrounds"

Racist!

Fascist!

Islamophobe!

I so enjoy my career in media studies.

COPENHAGEN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Bands of youths set fire to cars,
buses and schools in Denmark on Saturday, the seventh night of rioting and
vandalism in the capital Copenhagen and other Danish cities, police said on
Sunday.

Four youths were arrested in the capital for suspected arson and at least 24
fires were reported across the country. Several youths were detained in
Denmark's second city Aarhus in Jutland, and in Odense on Funen island.

"It is some of the same groups that have roamed the city for the last couple
of nights," police operations leader Preben Jorgensen told Reuters while
inspecting fire damage at Tingbjerg School in the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Hundreds of cars and a number of schools have been vandalised or burned in
the past week. Police could give no reason, but said unusually mild weather
and the closure of schools for a winter break might have contributed.

Authorities have arrested dozens of youths, predominantly with immigrant
backgrounds.

Police said that Saturday night was calmer than earlier in the week.

Social workers said an alleged plot to kill a Danish cartoonist for his
drawing two years ago of the Prophet Mohammad might have fuelled the riots.
Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon on Wednesday in protest against
the plot.

Ten Danish lawmakers cancelled a four-day trip to Iran on Saturday, two
days before their departure, after Iranian protests about the republication
of the cartoon.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee
dropped the trip after the Iranian parliament demanded an apology because
Danish newspapers had reprinted the cartoon, one of several whose
publication two years ago caused outrage in Islamic countries.

Most Muslims consider depictions of the Prophet Mohammad offensive.

Authorities arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent on
Tuesday for planning to kill the cartoonist, and 15 Danish newspapers
reprinted his drawing on Wednesday in protest against the alleged murder
plot. (Reporting by Martin Burlund, editing by Tim Pearce)

USA Today Wins the Prize

"Demonstrators", apparently, burned down an elementary school


in Vaerloese north of Copenhagen, Thursday.

"In some cases, firefighters said they were hindered from putting out the fires by rock-throwing youths."

17 youffs have been arrested to date.

Speaking of boilerplate

Do you think it might be possible, some day in the future, for a journalist to write a story about cloning that does not mention:

Parkinson's n' Alzheimer's disease
Dolly the sheep
Dr. Hwang Woo Suk

(Sometimes it's a bit dull, that's all, to read the same thing over and over...)

Warren makes me laugh

These days, however, we are known as “content providers.” This fits well with what I explain to persons met socially, who ask what I do. “I help to fill the spaces between the advertisements in the newspapers.” ... “But what do you really do?” ... “I told you.”