Image: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/GettyImages.
Note to terrorists. If you’re trying to make a political point, don’t waste time with bombs and guns and violence.
There’s a much more effective way to threaten the very fabric of the civilisation. Get your boobs out** and run around. Even better, hurl yourself at expensive trinkets held so dear by the hierarchy. The panic on the faces of those paid to look after them hints that it might be a surprisingly rich vein.
Yulia Tymoshenko waves to supporters from her prison cell. Image via huffingtonpost.
Rumours that several nations are considering a boycott of EURO 2012 games to held in Ukraine have given rise to questions about the role of politics in sport once again. At the beginning of May it was reported that Austria would not be attending fixtures held in the country as they were “concerned … about the prison conditions of the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.” Yesterday, the BBC confirmed that the venue set to host the final, the Olimpiysky stadium in Kiev, has received just 50 bookings for VIP seats.
Tymoshenko was jailed last year after a trial condemned for being politically motivated.
Continue reading “Yulia Tymoshenko & The People’s Republic Of Sport”
A woman reacts with shock as she advised that her green jacket will offer no protection from the long arm of the law. Image: via the Telegraph.
The RSPCA have been accused of pursuing a political agenda after pressing charges against four members of the Heythrop hunt – which in the past has enjoyed the patronage of David Cameron. Vanessa Lambert, Richard Sumner, Duncan Hume and Julian Barnfield are all accused of hunting with dogs in contravention of the 2004 Hunting Act. Aside from Cameron, the hunt enjoys the support of such luminaries as Rebekah Brooks and Jeremy Clarkson.
The Countryside Alliance, who, according to their website act in the interests of rural people, said:
The RSPCA’s decision to bring such a huge prosecution is a blatant political attack on hunting and an abuse of the court system.
To clarify (just in case any of you reading this are as stupid as the Countryside Alliance thinks you are), they believe it’s an abuse of the court system to prosecute a crime. Does that mean if everyone puts on red jackets and posh accents before committing a crime, they can then dismiss their prosecution as “bad law” and away with it?
Well, it’s no more illogical than the argument that killing animals is a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, I suppose.
Image: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images.
No one is more aware of the power a single photograph can wield than Massoud Hossaini. His shot of a twelve year old girl screaming in the immediate aftermath of a Kabul suicide bombing was awarded a Pulitzer Prize yesterday, but while it’s obviously an honour, one wonders whether this particular award might be something of a poisoned chalice too.
Continue reading “The Pulitzer Prize: Sipping From The Poisoned Chalice”
The News of the World, perhaps I lost sight of. Maybe because it was so small in the general frame of our company.
Rupert? Might I politely suggest you’re looking in the wrong direction? Despite your best efforts, it’s looking increasingly like the nasty beast you euthanised has resurrected itself in the warmth of your sunny blind spot, doubled back and is just about to take a huge chunk out of your backside.
Rumour has it, James just suffered a fairly serious mauling. Are you next?
A still of a Tibetan protestor featured on a Students for a Free Tibet leaflet. Not shocking enough, apparently. Image via deccanchronicle.com.
Once the dust of the Twin Towers had settled over Manhattan, the photos of the missing pinned to fences had curled at the corners and the thrill of watching planes repeatedly crashing into buildings had given way to guilt, September 11th became an abstract arena for those of us not directly involved to explore the dark recesses of our minds.
What had it felt like to be in one of the buildings when a plane hit? To realise that the stairwells and elevators were out of service? To unconsciously move closer to windows as wisps of smoke drifted under doors and through ventilation shafts, while all the time, the concrete and steel structure containing you shifts and moans from it’s fatal wounds?
How awful must it have been in there for jumping to be a better option?
David Cameron has much to fear from the influence of this man. And not just because of the quality of his moustache. Image: REUTERS/Gaston Brito.
I’ve been writing nothing but observations on US politics recently. Posting about the same subject repeatedly is frowned upon in the blogosphere, so I was devastated to realise all those years of study had gone to waste.
I dutifully set about locating an engaging story about UK based interests, only to discover that more or less the only thing I’d missed during my transatlantic travels was another argument over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. You know, the one that’s been going on for almost 30 years now.
Continue reading “Hearts, Minds & Moustaches: The Falklands War 30 Years On”
Marie Colvin, who lost an eye in Sri Lanka after a shrapnel wound. Image: Reuters/Daylife.
Marie Colvin, Sunday Times journalist and the only reporter from a British newspaper in Homs, Syria, has been killed in a rocket attack. She and her photographer, Remi Ochlik, who also died, were in a house that came under shell fire and died when trying to flee.
Whatever your view on media outlets being ’embedded’ in conflict zones, this is truly terrible news for anyone who appreciates a desire to tell the truth about a situation regardless of personal danger, and truly great journalism.
RIP, Marie. May we continue to be inspired.
Image via Jezebel.com
… just imagine what would happen if this got passed. To confirm, this handwritten note states the following:
… any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.
If you think this is an amusing gag designed to scare the bejesus out of men who spend a little too much time on their own in the shower, please avail yourself of the proposed ‘Personhood Bill’ in Oklahoma.
Continue reading “The Personhood Bill: You Think Jails Are Overcrowded Now?”
In the centre of this photo is the WM3’s Damien Echols. The guy on the right is the father of one of the boys Echols received the death penalty for murdering in 1994. It was taken at the Sundance Film Festival, where the latest documentary about the highly controversial case was being shown last weekend.
Regardless of whether you believe John Mark Byers’ latest claims that he believes Echols and his co-defendants Jessie Misskelley Jnr and Jason Baldwin are truly innocent of the crime, or like many, you think it’s a smokescreen to prevent suspicion to fall on him once again, this photograph would never have been taken if Echol’s punishment had been imposed.
Which is pretty sobering.
Kelly Welles 