The possibility of a few laughs is a small price to pay to keep that finger away from the button. Image: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America.
If the office didn’t include overall control of “the button“, the capacity to turn slow burning conflicts into global disasters through poor admin and the requirement to understand, or even have heard of the word ‘diplomacy‘, it would be quite fun to elect Mitt Romney as President, wouldn’t it?
Images: Getty Images Europe.
Great opportunity, blah blah, blah… affirm public faith in self as Prime Ministerial candidate…. blah blah…do not make a massive tit of oneself. Do not make a massive tit of oneself. Do not make a massive tit of oneself.
Right. Ready.
Continue reading “Readers Digest: I Am Boris Johnson’s Brain”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn prepares to leave the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel last night. Image: VALERY HACHE/AFP/GettyImages.
You’d imagine that resigning from your job as head of the International Monetary Fund would be enough to assuage those who doubted your veracity when you were accused of raping a chambermaid, wouldn’t you?
But no. Even though the allegations were dropped because the chambermaid was careless enough to be illiterate and an African immigrant, effectively rendering her a non-person, Dominique Strauss-Kahn had to sacrifice his political aspirations too. No one, not even a man of his self-confidence and power could seriously expect to undertake a presidential campaign in his native country without journalists excitedly surfing the tsunami of allegations that follow him in lieu of a wake.
Until recently, Big Dom was able to rely on his wife for comfort and support, but even she’s left him now.
Still, it looks as though he’s just about bearing up, doesn’t it?
While the Clint Eastwood ‘conversation’ with an empty chair has prompted much hilarity and derision to be directed at the Republican National Convention in Florida, there’s a darker thread running through this story.
It’s not so much the fact that shoving an eighty-two year old man onto a stage in front of millions and expecting him to successfully reprise a role he played over thirty years ago implies the Republicans ideas department is run by idiots. We could have figured that one out for ourselves. But appointing a man who is entirely associated with firearms, killing and rightful vengeance in the cultural psyche as some sort of figurehead for your party? Just days after yet another high profile fatal shooting on the streets of America?
And there was me thinking the right wing don’t understand irony.
Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe.
Coverage of Boris’s adventures at the Olympics threatened to overwhelm the sporting competition at times.
He had enjoyed himself thoroughly and yearned to revisit the thrilling heights of the cable cars and zip wires during the Paralympics.
Image via wired.com.
British people realised some time ago that guns in the wrong hands are dangerous. Over the last few decades, we’ve made it our business to insist that successive governments gradually relegate those who enjoy killing things for fun to parts of the island that no one really cares about or would think to visit.
Mainly sink estates in London, Birmingham and Manchester and the countryside.
Continue reading “America’s Oxymoron Sets Off UK Crap-O-Meter. No One Killed.”
Rachel Corrie. She’s the one with the megaphone and the hi-viz vest, in case you couldn’t spot her. Image via ibtimes.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
The above photo shows US activist Rachel Corrie standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer as it tries to demolish Palestinian homes in Gaza in 2003. Later the same day, Corrie was killed after being crushed by, you’ll never guess what… an Israeli bulldozer.
Having spent the last nine years seeking justice for Rachel’s death, her parents brought a civil claim against the Israeli Ministry of Defence for negligence, but this morning an Israeli court ruled that the state of Israel was not responsible for her death, that it was a regrettable accident but had taken place during ‘wartime actions‘ while Corrie was “protecting terrorists in a designated combat zone.” Oh, and the bulldozer guy didn’t see her.
It’s difficult to work out which of these myriad excuses is most offensive to her memory. But if you’re one of those who feel that the whole thing would never have happened if she hadn’t been there, think about the quote above. If a young woman from Washington believed in a cause so strongly she was prepared to put her life on the line for it, the least the rest of us can do is pay attention.
Bad things can happen when you’re not looking.
Todd Akin. Ripe for a legitimate head slapping. Image: REUTERS/House of Representatives.
First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
In light of Congressman Todd Akin’s comments during an interview about abortion on Sunday, it’s only fair we warn him about ‘legitimate head slapping‘. This is a involuntary reaction similar to that experienced by women who are being raped, but instead of the body “shutting that whole [pregnancy] thing down“, what tends to happen is that the arms of people presented with dangerous, ill-informed remarks tend to rise and issue a number of sharp slaps to the back of the offender’s head until they stop talking.
Honestly, it’s proven. I’ve seen it happen.
In case you’ve been looking for me, my support of the FEMEN movement, the Free Pussy Riot campaign and the government & corporate accountability that the existence of Wikileaks provides, now dictates I can only leave the house dressed like this.
It might look peculiar, but I can assure you I’ve worn more ridiculous outfits out in public. I’m confident I can pull it off.
Images via facebook.
A half naked woman chainsawing a bit of wood? I’m a bit disappointed that FEMEN couldn’t come up with something a little more provocative to voice their support for Pussy Riot, aren’t you?
Continue reading “FEMEN: Provocative Enough For Pussy Riot?”
Kelly Welles 