Why WikiLeaks is right about journalism
Posted by barry at
4:34 PM on July 16, 2010
On 14 July 2010, a fluff-journalist called Stephen Moss padded the void-like pages of the Guardian with an interview with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, who made the following interesting comment:
'"Journalism should be more like science," [said Assange]..."As far as possible, facts should be verifiable. If journalists want long-term credibility for their profession, they have to go in that direction. Have more respect for readers." He likes the idea of a 2,000-word article backed by 25,000 words of source material, and says there is no reason why you can't provide that on the internet.'
The 'proper' press has fallen far behind in this regard. One can attempt to provide the reader with objectivity in the manner Assange recommends, but I'll give you an example of a method more often employed by journalists. On 26 June 2010, Brian Boyd of the Irish Times wrote a profile of Assange, but hack Boyd, wanting to seem 'objective', apparently thought the best way to do it was to just make stuff up! Boyd wrote about the WikiLeaks video released in April:
'...a classified military video showing a helicopter attack in Baghdad that resulted in 12 deaths - it shows the murder of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters reporters, according to Wikileaks. The US military disputes the claim and says it is investigating the incident.'
Although Boyd's scribbling appears on the internet, it does not link to the video for the readers to make up their own minds ('We trust Boyd! We trust Boyd!'), then paradoxically he writes in a tone so nondescriptive and unrevealing that it suggests he is the only person on Earth who has not seen the video. Where his imagination kicks in is where he states that the US military 'says it is investigating the incident'. No, the US military never said that, and they are not investigating (if they did say that, where's the link to their statement, Boyd?). If you look at, say, the Telegraph on 6 April 2010, the military position is actually this: 'The Pentagon acknowledged the authenticity of the video but a spokesman insisted the video did not contradict the official finding [in 2007] that the helicopters' crew acted within the rules of engagement.' This is what's been reported everywhere so I was quite surprised by Boyd's 'breaking news'.
In a hamfisted, clownish endeavour to treat Assange and the Pentagon even-handedly, Boyd came up with the sentence, 'the US military disputes the claim and says it is investigating the incident', a total fiction, and if the US military really did say it is investigating, mea-frakking-culpa, but I'll apologize when I see the primary source, the goddam evidence! Otherwise, I will continue to pontificate from where I am standing, imagining this creature Boyd as some lazy drunk slumped in a darkened corner of the Irish Times office, leaning back in his swivel chair, one hand up his rectum and the other typing away at a keyboard with fat fingers, getting his quota of fluff written for the day, while his half-asleep editor keeps an eagle-eyed appointment with the oul' internet pornography.
Assange (rightly in my opinion) had a go at fluff-Moss: '"I think it's an international disgrace that so few western journalists have been killed in the course of duty, or have been arrested in the course of duty. How many journalists were arrested last year in the United States, a country of 300 million people? How many journalists were arrested in the UK last year?" Journalists, he says, let other people take the risks and then take the credit. They have been letting the state, big business, vested interests get away with it for too long, and a network of hackers and whistleblowers hunched over computers, making sense of complex data and with a mission to make it freely available, is now ready to do a better job.'
Have others effectively taken over the investigative job once done by journalists? Is all the stuff hitting the news desks now just so much second-hand info, investigated by someone else? What kind of people are writing for the papers, anyway? Anyone who has ever written a press release (I have) has often been amused to find it appearing in the press word for word! What's up with the press these days? Look at a broadsheet like the Irish Independent, offering inane celebrity gossip alongside so-called serious news: why can't they take themselves seriously, if they're a broadsheet? It's like going to a restaurant and looking at a menu that offers venison, roast duck etc., but it states 'We also offer shit, straight from the toilet'. Why all the fluff and padding in newspapers? Why all the '100 best quotes from spaghetti westerns' and '100 ways to discreetly fart in company'?
Assange's prediction for the future: '"For the financial and specialist press, it'll still look mostly the same - your daily briefing about what you need to know to run your business. But for political and social analysis, that's going to be movements and networks. You can already see this happening."'
| Comments (1)Brendan Gleeson's 'At Swim Two Birds'
Posted by damien at
9:46 AM on July 14, 2010
'A talking cow? With a gavel? Are you serious?'
Occasionally, just occasionally, you get a piece of news that that genuinely cheers you up. And sometimes, just sometimes, you get a piece of news so great that you and the rest of the Blather team have a collective nerdgasm.
It would appear that Blather.net's patron saint, the venerable Flann O'Brien, is set to ride again with the news that Brendan Gleeson has lined up a stellar cast for his directorial debut - an adaptation of Flann's greatest work, 'At Swim Two Birds'. The cast is reported to include Cillian Murphy, Colin Farrell and the increasingly God-like Gabriel Byrne. Jonathan Rhys Myers is also reported to be attached.
It's news like this that makes life worth living.
Watch this space for more news.
Read 'Shameless Hijack' - the story of how Blather.net got its' name.
| Comments (0)Barry Kavanagh's radio show can be heard online anytime you feel like it
Posted by barry at
6:30 PM on July 1, 2010
Now stored on Soundcloud:
Barry Kavanagh presented SuperSoniskSommer on Oslo's RadiOrakel FM 99.3 on 29 May 2010.
The set list was:
SuperSoniskSommer theme distorted remix by Barry
Dacianos - Sabina
Dalek - A collection of miserable thoughts laced with wit
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Tattoo
Masselys - Freak in the Mirror radio edit
Rowland S Howard - Life's what you make it
Mark Steiner - Torn
Blixa Bargeld - Somewhere over the rainbow
Hanny - Aller Mest
Center of the Universe - I know the meaning of life, but I won't tell you
Negativland - Christianity is Stupid
Negativland - Theme from A Big 10-8 Place
Negativland - Drink it up
Add N to (X) - Metal Fingers in my Body
Thanks to Katharina who was my technical supervisor.
| Comments (0)Kevin Myers' Downfall
Posted by damien at
4:25 PM on June 21, 2010
'Hope the Judas cunt chokes on his modh coinníolach...'
Continue reading "Kevin Myers' Downfall"
| Comments (0)Global crackdown on truth: WikiLeaks' Assange goes into hiding
Posted by barry at
2:13 AM on June 19, 2010
'Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has gone into hiding, fearful of arrest by U.S. authorities, an Icelandic parliamentarian confirmed Friday. "He's just been following events in the U.S., and State Department press conferences and so forth, and they have been trying to get hold of him," Birgitta Jonsdottir, a close supporter of Assange in the Icelandic Parliament, said... Jonsdottir said the Icelandic Parliament last night "unanimously" passed legislation that would create an "international safe haven" for national security whistleblowers.'
- from Jeff Stein's Spy Talk, which is now published by the Washington Post. (Article dated 18.6.10).
| Comments (0)'The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks'
Posted by barry at
1:44 AM on June 19, 2010
Yo, listen, I've just stopped by Blather's Arctic office for about 12 minutes on my snowscooter, I've got to be elsewhere double quick fast, or else Santa will die and there'll be no Christmas, but while on blather.net I want you all to be following this story, so for those of you who aren't... all I'm going to do is link to it:
'The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks'.
| Comments (0)Patternicity
Posted by damien at
11:46 AM on June 18, 2010
(photo by Cennydd, used under a CC license)
"Patternicity: the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningless and meaningful noise" - Michael Shermer
Continue reading "Patternicity"
| Comments (0)Pareidolia
Posted by damien at
8:51 AM on June 8, 2010
(image by Nuco, used under a CC license)
From the kindly bots at Wikipedia:
Pareidolia (pronounced /pærɪˈdoʊliə/ pa-ri-DOE-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.| Comments (0)
Friday Choon: Peter Gabriel's 'Mercy Street' by Elbow
Posted by damien at
9:00 AM on June 4, 2010
From Peter Gabriel's 'Scratch My Back' project, this is Elbow's version of Gabriel's Mercy Street, from the 1986 album So.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: Peter Gabriel's 'Mercy Street' by Elbow"
| Comments (0)Japan: officially, property of the USA (updated)
Posted by barry at
1:07 PM on June 3, 2010
'Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has apologised for not keeping an election promise to move a US military base from Okinawa. Mr Hatoyama travelled to the island and met local governor Hirokazu Nakaima.Like many locals, the governor is opposed to the US presence and said the prime minister's decision would be "difficult to accept"... Last month, nearly 100,000 people staged a protest on the southern island, demanding that the base be removed. Islanders have been angered by incidents involving US troops based there, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl...'
Update 1 June 2010: Japanese PM resigns over failure to move US base.
Gavin Kelly's 'Avatar Days'
Posted by damien at
9:47 AM on June 2, 2010
'What happens if Dublin is invaded by zombies?'
Utterly, utterly wonderful! Irish film maker Gavin Kelly's Avatar Days. As featured in the Guardian.
Continue reading "Gavin Kelly's 'Avatar Days'"
| Comments (0)Man With A Movie Camera
Posted by damien at
2:25 PM on June 1, 2010
From Wikipedia:
Man With A Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors[2], by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova who helped with the process of deleting and adding new frames into the film.
Continue reading "Man With A Movie Camera"
| Comments (0)Database to be Erased
Posted by barry at
8:28 PM on May 28, 2010
At last it's time to take a long, luxurious shit all over David Blunkett's political grave. The new government of the UK has announced the end of ID cards, the national identity register and biometric passports. New Labour's dream of turning the UK public into tagged cattle has failed.
'All the data currently held on the national identity register will also be destroyed within a month of royal assent.'
Read: ID cards scheme to be scrapped within 100 days, Guardian, 27 May 2010.
Highlights from the struggle for liberty on Blather.net:
The Right Honourable Jacqui Smith MP Drowns.
Alan Johnson: Back Door Man.
How to Forge Biometric Identification.
UK Government Secrets Found in Pub Car Park.
'The loss of rights and freedoms in the UK...the neglect by the Labour government of Parliament and due process'.
Biometric Fingerprinting is Killing Music.
Friday Choon: 'Couldn't Get It Right' by Climax Blues Band
Posted by damien at
2:39 PM on May 28, 2010
(image by jrbrubaker, used under a CC license)
A 70's gem for you this week, from the Climax Blues Band.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: 'Couldn't Get It Right' by Climax Blues Band"
| Comments (0)Remember that Blather.net Declared Jihad?
Posted by barry at
9:33 PM on May 27, 2010
You may recall that back in January, Heinrich Bivouac, head of PR at Blather.net, declared jihad. This was to see if he'd get arrested by the keystone cops and have the quiet English cricket pavilion he owns stormed by the SAS. The context of this was a Mr Paul Chambers joking in a casual way on Twitter that he'd blow up an English airport because his flight might get cancelled, and he was then arrested by lazy, Twitter-addicted, paranoid, Menezes-shooting, stupido police detective idiots. Well, now it seems the UK's courts are full of dunderheaded, pudding-brained time-wasters as well, because he's been found guilty and fined! The fact this even went to trial shows utter contempt for the public and commits the British sense of humour to the infamous ash-bin of history. Alas, poor jokes, I knew them well! You can follow this disaster on Twitter. There is also a Twitter Joke Trial Fund to help Mr Chambers remove the jackboot of the state from his face. No attempt has yet been made to arrest, question or prosecute Heinrich Bivouac, yet we wish you to be aware that his and Blather.net's jihad continues in earnest, and the threat grows!
| Comments (1)Barry Kavanagh's radio show is back
Posted by barry at
8:42 PM on May 26, 2010
Hi there... once again I'll be presenting a chaotic soupy-brained music show on Oslo's radiOrakel 99.3, from 2pm (that's 1pm GMT) to 3pm (2pm GMT) on Saturday 29 May. Can be heard online too. I'll try to get the whole thing on soundcloud or something after the fact, for those of you who'll miss the outpourings of genius when they happen. Pray I live till 29th May, it'll be great.
| Comments (0)Blather In Getting Something Right Shocker
Posted by damien at
3:46 PM on May 22, 2010
Continue reading "Blather In Getting Something Right Shocker"
| Comments (0)Friday Choon: 'Mister Sun' by Fun Lovin' Criminals
Posted by damien at
9:21 AM on May 21, 2010
'We be doing this, we be doing that, we be getting down'
A glorious summer choon for you, 'Mister Sun' from the new FLC album, Classic Fantastic.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: 'Mister Sun' by Fun Lovin' Criminals"
| Comments (0)The Cunt Colouring Book
Posted by birdbath at
8:55 PM on May 18, 2010
Found in a second-hand San Francisco bookstore.
Continue reading "The Cunt Colouring Book"
| Comments (0)Queen to appoint Avram Grant as Prime Minister
Posted by birdbath at
1:56 PM on May 7, 2010
Avram Grant meeting with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II this morning
[LONDON] Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly furious with Parliament's inability to form a government or appoint a Prime Minister is, according to Westminster gossip, considering appointing Avram Grant as an interim PM.
Continue reading "Queen to appoint Avram Grant as Prime Minister"
| Comments (0)Gordon Brown leaves "parting gift" at 10 Downing Street
Posted by birdbath at
11:33 AM on May 7, 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown pictured this morning at Downing Street
[LONDON] In a move anticipating a possible Tory challenge to the sitting Prime Minister's right to stay in number 10, Gordon Brown returned to Downing Street this morning to run his knob around the rim of all the mugs in the kitchen. 'The bastards will never know which ones they are' an aide declared, before pausing to urinate into a nearby kettle.
Continue reading "Gordon Brown leaves "parting gift" at 10 Downing Street"
| Comments (0)Flower Given Police Protection
Posted by barry at
12:27 AM on May 7, 2010
'If senior officers deem it suitable, special CCTV cameras will also be deployed around the site in the next few days to relay footage direct to police headquarters, where the orchid can be monitored around the clock.'
Ah, at last a real story gets into the papers, in the Independent.
| Comments (0)Aliens: predators II
Posted by barry at
3:00 PM on April 30, 2010
Lengthy piece in the Guardian following up on the Hawking warning against the potential disaster of humanity meeting space aliens: Is Stephen Hawking Right.
The article also goes into the topic of some forms of life here on Earth:
"In our naive and parochial way, we have named these things extremophiles, which shows prejudice - we're normal, everything else is extreme," says Ian Stewart, a mathematician at Warwick University and author of What Does A Martian Look Like? "From the point of view of a creature that lives in boiling water, we're extreme because we live in much milder temperatures. We're at least as extreme compared to them as they are compared to us."
Ireland's Mix Tape Amnesty
Posted by damien at
11:09 AM on April 28, 2010
Following on from the recent controversial statements of intent from Minister Dermot Ahern, Detective Inspector Cooney outlines the thinking behind 'Operation Mixtape Amnesty'. Eminently sensible if you ask us.
Continue reading "Ireland's Mix Tape Amnesty"
| Comments (0)Okinawa: GO HOME America
Posted by barry at
9:00 PM on April 25, 2010
'Nearly 100,000 people have attended a rally in Japan's southern island of Okinawa demanding that a US military base be moved off the island. Under a 2006 agreement with the US, the US Marines' Futenma base was to be moved from the centre to the coast. But demonstrators want Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stick to an election pledge to remove it completely.' - BBC.
Typically, the New York Times, licker of the earlobes of the military-industrial complex, spinned the story with more than a touch of fantasy, their 'journalist' scribbling away wildly, pretending World War II never happened: 'The perception that Mr. Hatoyama has mishandled the relationship with the United States, Japan's longtime protector, has contributed to his falling approval ratings, which have dropped below 30 percent.' Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Longtime protector! Yeah, right. Remember that little war between the U.S. and Japan, hmm? The American military are in Okinawa as an occupier. Following a battle in Okinawa in which 200,000 people died, the U.S. military occupiers confiscated land from the people by force and stayed there. That is what happened. That's why the U.S. military is there, no other reason, so stop trying to make stuff up! And I doubt somehow that 'mishandling' the relationship with the 'protector' is the reason for Hatoyama's falling ratings. More likely it's because Okinawa hasn't been divested of the pointless and unreasonable foreign occupying military force already.
| Comments (0)Aliens: predators
Posted by barry at
8:37 PM on April 25, 2010
'Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens...he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. Prof Hawking thinks that, rather than actively trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials, humans should do everything possible to avoid contact.'
See also: '...former BBC News website science editor Dr David Whitehouse raised the possibility that transmissions from Earth could draw the attention of "malevolent aliens", were any to exist.' - BBC 6 August 2008.
| Comments (0)The Universe: tacky crap
Posted by barry at
11:40 AM on April 25, 2010
I was reading about 20 years of the Hubble telescope and came to the realization that the universe looks like a cheesy prog rock album cover from the early 70s. It looks like something hand-painted by a tasteless, wispy-bearded embarrassment on acid whilst he, she or it was listening to the boring, unnecessary meanderings of Pink Floyd.
Continue reading "The Universe: tacky crap"
| Comments (0)Killer Crabs (I Am Psychic)
Posted by barry at
3:23 AM on April 17, 2010
Yeah, yes, hi, listen, so there I was thinking, to myself, idly, 'what's happening with killer crabs?' not even knowing if they even existed, y'understand, but y'know, I'd kind of heard those two words 'killer crabs' put together at some point in my life, dunno when, but, so, anyway I typed 'killer crabs' into google and lo-and-lo and behold - the very same day I went looking for killer crabs they were headline goddamn news!!!!!!!!
Except it wasn't headline news that day. When I sobered up (actually, if the truth be told, it was when I got more drunk) I saw that the news 'story' was from 28 Feb 2004.
| Comments (0)The U.S. Senate wants more corruption and incompetence, not pesky whistleblowers!
Posted by barry at
4:05 AM on April 16, 2010
3 March 2010. 'FBI whistleblower Dr. Frederic Whitehurst issued a letter today strongly opposing the repeal of FBI whistleblower rights contained in the current Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372). This bill is currently being "hotlined" in the Senate, a process by which legislation can be passed by unanimous consent, without any formal debate or vote. In the 1990's Dr. Whitehurst blew the whistle on scientific abuses in the FBI crime lab. He won his cases and as a result, President Clinton signed an order protecting FBI agents who blow the whistle. The current Senate bill repeals the Clinton order and the law it was based on. It will result in the dismissal of numerous pending whistleblower cases, including that of FBI Counterterrorism Unit Chief Bassem Youssef.' Continue reading whistleblowers blog.
26 March 2010. Audio, explaining everything: 'National Whistleblowers Center's Stephen Kohn Taking on the Absentee White House on Protection for Whistleblowers', from Sibel Edmonds's Boiling Frogs site.
| Comments (0)Oooooooooooooh, Obama Mentions Israel's Nukes!
Posted by barry at
1:50 PM on April 15, 2010
U.S. President Obama says Israel should join the NPT, an unheard-of Presidential admission of the existence of Israel's nuclear weapons programme that we the citizens of the rest of the world all know about. This is occurring in the context of a majority of American jews supporting Obama's approach to Israel, while at the same time much of the U.S. Congress, many, many members of which receive campaign fund donations from the Israel Lobby, the mouthpiece of the Israeli government, do not support him. Who will win, the people or the politicians?
Read Obama: Israel should sign NPT.
| Comments (0)Iceland Re-imagined as the Land of Free Speech
Posted by barry at
1:04 AM on April 15, 2010
'In the aftermath of the financial crisis, openness has become a catchword in Iceland, along with the belief that everyone has not just a right but also a duty to know what the government is getting up to in their name. One response to this is the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (Immi), a proposal supported by all parties that aims to make Iceland a haven for investigative journalists and whistleblowers everywhere.'
Iceland - world's first free speech haven?
| Comments (0)Cryptome Definitively Supports WikiLeaks
Posted by barry at
10:30 PM on April 14, 2010
You may have read in the media (the Guardian, for example) that Cryptome.org has claimed WikiLeaks.org is a 'C.I.A. front'. This comes from a quote by John Young of Cryptome in an email from 2007 and Cryptome says the reporting of this is 'lacking context'.
Cryptome are also saying this:
'Characterisitcally, none of the authoritative ignoramouses quoting Young to smear Wikileaks talked to Young to get an update, haven't studied much Wikileaks material beyond the headlines, and would not stoop to the hard-labor of reading Cryptome. Cryptome attacked the Mother Jones smear on 8 April:
"The smears of Wikileaks are becoming excessive. Wayne Madsen has led the charge, now others are joining the nastiness. Mother Jones, of all muckracking mags which should know better, has published a particularly offensive smear of Julian Assange, cherry-picking remarks from those interviewed who surely said more than the article conveys."
'Cryptome spoke with Julian Assange by telephone on 11 April to offer support against the attacks on him and Wikileaks for releasing the Reuters staff murder video. In several recent interviews (one yesterday) Cryptome has stated Wikileaks is an exemplary success at getting banned information to the public and deserves wide emulation, with hundreds of sites needed to do what it does and to help guard against its smear and shutdown as a singular target. Also, that there are dozens if not hundreds of web sites providing information not available through self-anointed "reputable" media. The outrage Wikileaks has provoked indicates it is doing exactly what needs to [be] done to demolish the chokepoints of managed information flow by authoritative sources -- government, commerce, educational, religious, individual -- who peddle bombastic "context," "broader views," "verification," "authentication," "reputability," and the current favorite, "sources not authorized to speak" a comical variation on the spy's "if I told you what I know I would have to kill you," then spill gutloads of trivia...'
There is a highly recommended audio interview with John Young, 13 April 2010, which can be downloaded from The Corbett Report - Open Source Intelligence News (it is interview #152): 'The founder of Cryptome.org and veteran publisher of suppressed documents joins us to discuss what can be learned from the Wikileaks phenomenon, including the ways that information leaks can themselves be manipulated. We also discuss corporate complicity in government surveillance of the internet.'
See also 'Wikileaks: Surveillance, Suspicion and a Mysterious Video', Blather.net 5 April 2010.
Two Members of Bravo Company 2-16 from the WikiLeaks Video Speak Out against the War
Posted by barry at
9:28 PM on April 14, 2010
Two soldiers from Bravo Company 2-16, Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord, one of whom was actually in the WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' video (McCord can be seen carrying one of the injured children), are interviewed on the Civilian-Soldier Alliance website, a site that supports 'resistance within the ranks'. The audio can be heard or downloaded on the site.
Josh Stieber was also interviewed by Glenn Greenwald on Salon Radio (audio and transcript), on Democracy Now! (video, audio and transcript) and on Antiwar Radio (audio).
| Comments (0)Paradise for Paedophiles: the Rape of Afghan Boys
Posted by barry at
3:27 PM on April 13, 2010
'Bacha bazi is an old Afghan tradition of taking young boys, dressing them up like girls, and making them perform for older men in tea rooms, weddings, and other private venues. The boys are "owned" by single or married men who trade or keep the boys as concubines... the age-old ritual of man-boy predatory sex, which is obliquely condoned throughout Afghanistan because of a pervasive fear or indifference about prosecuting it on any serious level... has proliferated after decades of poverty, corruption, and a lack of enduring social institutions... poor families sell their children, and orphans are snatched off the street. They are the meekest, preyed upon by the strongest - the kind of wealthy, powerful men who have benefited most from the Western occupation and generous foreign aid.'
- 'The Rape of the Afghan Boys' by Kelley B. Vlahos, antiwar.com April 13, 2010.
| Comments (0)(Sigh) Flimsy and Sick NATO Cover-up, 2010
Posted by barry at
9:51 PM on April 5, 2010
*Sigh*
'US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims' bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times. Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The precise composition of the force has never been made public.The claims were made as Nato admitted responsibility for all the deaths for the first time last night. It had initially claimed that the women had been dead for several hours when the assault force discovered their bodies.'
Full article in The Times.
See also Glenn Greenwald: 'How Americans are Propagandized about Afghanistan'.
See also Gareth Porter: 'McChrystal's Support for Raids Belies New Image'.
See also Democracy Now! 'After First Denying Involvement, US Forces Admit Killing Two Pregnant Afghan Women & Teenager'.
| Comments (0)The Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay: one year on the lam so far!
Posted by barry at
2:10 PM on April 1, 2010
'In the hours after a monkey on the lam fell into a woman's pool and then swiped some fruit from her backyard tree, fans of the wily primate cheered it for avoiding capture.
"Go little monkey, go! No cages for you," wrote a guy named Jack on the "Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay" Facebook fan page.'
'The story has all the elements of the classic TV series and movie, "The Fugitive." There's a dogged pursuer, and a clever suspect who refuses to be caught. All it lacks is a one-armed monkey to play the role of the real villain.'
| Comments (0)Irish Catholic Church Sets Up Premium Rate Sex Line for Priests
Posted by blather at
11:31 AM on April 1, 2010
Well, Holy God. It's not often we hear news that truly gobsmacks us here at Blather High Command, but this week we've seen news that suggests that the Catholic Church is about to exit the dark ages:
DUBLIN: The Catholic Church in Ireland said on Thursday that it had opened a Vatican-backed hotline for sexually confused priests, in an effort to address the abuse scandals that have rocked the country over the last few decades.
The hotline, which will be staffed by retired nuns, and part-funded by the taxpayer and premium phone charges, aims to help relieve sexually frustrated members of the clergy of their burden, as well as steering them away from the sin of homosexuality, according to a spokesman for the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
Continue reading "Irish Catholic Church Sets Up Premium Rate Sex Line for Priests"
| Comments (0)Evil Blairite British Torture Regime for the Purpose of Beating Human Beings to Death
Posted by barry at
8:22 PM on March 21, 2010
'The latest documents emerged during the inquiry into Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel worker beaten to death while in the custody of British troops in September 2003. The inquiry is looking into how interrogation techniques banned by the Government in 1972 and considered torture and degrading treatment were used again in Iraq. Lawyers believe the new evidence supports suspicions that an intelligence unit - the Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT) which operated in Iraq - used illegal "coercive techniques" and was not answerable to military commanders in Iraq, despite official denials it operated independently.'
'...officers running the operation claimed to be answerable only "directly to London".'
Read the full report in the Independent.
| Comments (0)Have ye ever heard tell of the Hollyhill Poltergeist?
Posted by barry at
1:44 PM on March 19, 2010
'Twas the night of the nineteenth of March, 2010, when good and evil battled it out in the County Cork, at the site of a dreadful astral haunting, where time and space were bent into an incomprehensible shape so awful yer spine would flee your body out of fear.
'A SHAMAN will perform an exorcism on a council house tonight, amid claims that it is haunted by a poltergeist.The occupants of the house at Hollyhill on Cork's northside have fled, saying it is occupied by an evil spirit that is determined to keep them out.'
Ye can read more of this ghoulish tale in the forbidden tome of terror itself, the infamous almanac of blasphemy and paranormal conflagration, the Irish Independent.
Continue reading "Have ye ever heard tell of the Hollyhill Poltergeist?"
| Comments (0)Nestle: Palm Oil and the Orang-utan - viral video banned!
Posted by daev at
12:18 PM on March 17, 2010
News just in from Greenpeace in the UK, where a bunch of orang-utans have taken over Nestlé headquarters!
Nestlé, maker of Kit Kat, uses palm oil from companies that are trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction.
Continue reading "Nestle: Palm Oil and the Orang-utan - viral video banned!"
| Comments (0)American: The Bill Hicks Story
Posted by blather at
2:45 PM on March 12, 2010
First showing today at the SXSW festival.
Continue reading "American: The Bill Hicks Story"
| Comments (1)Whining Bishop with No Right to Complain Attempts to Pass the Buck
Posted by barry at
2:35 AM on March 11, 2010
Ah, the 'everyone else was doing it' excuse, the latest in a long line of self-pitying proclamations from the Catholic Church since they were caught red-cocked covering up systemic child rape in Ireland:
'CATHOLIC BISHOP of Elphin Christopher Jones has accused the media of being "unfair and unjust" to the Catholic Church through a concentration on the handling by church authorities of the clerical child sex-abuse issue."Could I just say with all this emphasis on cover-up, the cover-up has gone on for centuries, not just in the church... It's going on today in families, in communities, in societies. Why are you singling out the church?" he asked.' - Irish Times.
Oh, it's so, so unfair! Tell that to the victims, you dripping pile of shit. My tip of the day for Bishop 'Christ'opher Jones: face facts, your weird, mystical organization raped children, covered it up, and would not co-operate with the investigation into it. Now is the time to be wholly penitent, not whiningly self-pitying, you heartless fuck.
| Comments (0)The Power of LIES
Posted by barry at
11:12 AM on March 1, 2010
'Seven in 10 Americans believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons, according to a new national poll' says CNN.
This despite denials about the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is safeguarding all of Iran's nuclear material.
This also despite all of the United States' intelligence agencies consistently saying that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme (pdf).
Yes, it has been only politicians and their media who say Iran has a nuclear weapons programme. Iraqi WMD all over again, and the majority are falling for it. But now the IAEA has a new chief, Yukiya Amano, who may prove to be more compliant with LYING PROPAGANDISTS, as there is now, suddenly, a change in tone in the message coming from the IAEA, with a leaked report containing 'concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile' - but concerns based on what? 'Intelligence reports' from unnamed 'U.S. allies'. I wonder who they could be? And who leaked the report to the media? And who was behind the forgeries two months ago? Who wants war with Iran? Who, who, who? Oh, I'm racking my brains here.
| Comments (0)Moving Statues: Asdee, Co. Kerry, Ireland, 1985
Posted by damien at
11:10 AM on February 23, 2010
Another moving statues video to add to the collection.
Continue reading "Moving Statues: Asdee, Co. Kerry, Ireland, 1985"
| Comments (0)Obama-sponsored Nuclear Holocaust is One Step Nearer
Posted by barry at
2:26 PM on February 21, 2010
Reuters: 'Russia said on Friday it would deploy Iskander tactical missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave if it felt there was a direct European threat to Moscow...Poland's decision to deploy on its soil U.S. Patriot interceptor missiles as part of an anti-missile system in Europe has again alarmed Moscow. Warsaw said last month it would station the Patriot missile battery in the northern city of Morag, near Kaliningrad.' Read the full story.
Continue reading "Obama-sponsored Nuclear Holocaust is One Step Nearer"
| Comments (0)Victory for Facebook group worried about the Independent newspaper
Posted by barry at
6:24 PM on February 19, 2010
I joined a Facebook group called 'If Rod Liddle becomes editor of Independent, I will not buy it again.' and now it seems it has had the desired impact:
'Negotiations to install Rod Liddle as the editor of the Independent after its purchase by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev are understood to have ended yesterday...after MediaGuardian.co.uk broke the story about Liddle being lined up to edit the paper in January, there were protests from staff, politicians and readers. "He then went through this extraordinary campaign of hostility," a source said.Yesterday's meeting appears to indicate that Lebedev had a change of heart about appointing the Sunday Times columnist to the paper. "The liberal howl-around was so intense that he can't afford to alienate the Independent staff by appointing Liddle so he will appoint someone else," the source said.' Full story Guardian 19 feb 2010.
'Hostility'? 'Howl-around'? Well, live by the sword, die by the sword, Liddle. And I'm baffled that there are those who would accuse the 'liberal mob' for being bigoted against Liddle: the only thing we were 'bigoted' against was bigotry itself, and the Independent needs an editor similarly committed. Liddle is not suitable and there are so many top-selling hate rags he could work for instead.
It looks like we can now declare victory - and that's why I'm posting this, because it's an interesting media story to see such a campaign achieve victory - what else can be achieved in this way, I wonder? - but if you'd like to read more on who Rod Liddle is...
Continue reading "Victory for Facebook group worried about the Independent newspaper"
| Comments (0)The Moving Statue Of Ballinspittle Grotto (Ireland 1985)
Posted by damien at
10:56 PM on February 18, 2010
(image by thaths, used under a creative commons licence)
Continue reading "The Moving Statue Of Ballinspittle Grotto (Ireland 1985)"
| Comments (0)Irish people to charge Tesco €500K for fridge space
Posted by daev at
9:24 AM on February 16, 2010
€500,000: Every Little Helps, I suppose.
According to the Irish Times, British retailer Tesco is intimidating Irish businesses into coughing up large sums of money for the honour of being allowed to put their goods on Tesco's shelves. Sound insane? Well, what makes it crazier is that if you enter the hallowed halls of an Irish Tesco supermarket, there's lots of cheery signs telling you that they stock Irish goods. Yet....
The country's biggest retailer has been telling individual suppliers they must pay sums of up to €500,000 in order to have a presence in its 119 stores around the country, The Irish Times has learned.
Blather suggests that as a corresponding measure, Tesco customers should start charging the supermarket chain for its ongoing presence in the fridges of the Irish Consumer. Tesco makes about €250 million a year in Ireland, apparently about €124 per customer. Blather proposes that Irish Tesco customers start levying a charge of say €5 each time they spend €100 at a Tesco supermarket. That way Tesco can retain this crucial presence in the Irish market. Don't you just love the economics of it?
Blather has forwarded these suggestions to Tesco. We await their response.
The Irish Times: Irish suppliers claim Tesco seeks up to €500,000 to stock goods
| Comments (0)Herzog: Dazzle him with chocolate
Posted by daev at
3:44 PM on February 12, 2010
Brilliant. A young man named Laszlo Brauning breaks into Werner Herzog's film school.
Although I had gotten in, I soon learned that this would not be the twelve-student atelier that I had envisioned, but rather a fifty-person lecture. The weekend seminar would cost a whopping $1,450 that I didn't have, and after raising money for my feature I had no stomach to roll out another campaign.
At this point I asked myself: What would Werner Herzog do?
Well, not only does the Rogue Film School's syllabus include forging shooting permits, but I also heard Herzog once say he stole a 35mm camera from the Munich Film School because he "had a natural right to take it." It seemed like he was telling me to forge my way into his film school.
Key quoted quote:
"When Klaus Kinski is foaming at the mouth, raging at you for two hours and a half, you must dazzle him by biting into the last piece of chocolate that you have."
Read More: Going Rogue at Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School »
See also:
Latest Great Herzog Quote
Herzog goes to Antarctica, falls off Motorbike
The Shooting of Werner Herzog
Friday Choon: 'Give me Big Time' Peter Gabriel vs. Timbaland
Posted by damien at
10:45 AM on February 12, 2010
(image by Joi, used under a Creative Commons license)
A nice Friday mashup from Ben Double M. In light of the fact that this coming week sees the release of Gabriel's new cover-version project Scratch My Back, we're sure he won't mind this minor copyright contravention...
Continue reading "Friday Choon: 'Give me Big Time' Peter Gabriel vs. Timbaland"
| Comments (0)An 'Avalanche of Crap!' Senator Eoghan Harris on George Lee
Posted by damien at
1:53 PM on February 11, 2010
(Senator Eoghan Harris, earlier today)
This is a discussion from Eamon Keane's Newstalk radio show where he and Senator Eoghan Harris discuss the George Lee controversy. It's among the more hilarious things I've heard in some months with Senator Harris calling it like he sees it on women, Dublin south and men who don't fart.
Continue reading "An 'Avalanche of Crap!' Senator Eoghan Harris on George Lee"
| Comments (2)Ronald Reagan Jnr. takes Pamela Geller (Queen of the Birthers) to School
Posted by damien at
12:15 PM on February 11, 2010
(image by Nathan Jongewaard, used under a Creative Commons license)
Pamela Geller: ain't she a charmer?
Continue reading "Ronald Reagan Jnr. takes Pamela Geller (Queen of the Birthers) to School"
| Comments (0)More GUILTY
Posted by barry at
10:39 PM on February 10, 2010
Ah, the Binyam Mohamed case. We've reported before on his torture etc. and now I am happy to report that MI5 have been found GUILTY.
GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY.
'MI5 faced an unprecedented and damaging crisis tonight after one of the country's most senior judges found that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights, deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct.The condemnation, by Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, was drafted shortly before the foreign secretary, David Miliband, lost his long legal battle to suppress a seven-paragraph court document showing that MI5 officers were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed.'
- Guardian.
Let that be a lesson to all torturers and I hope now that there'll be no more of that carry on. David Miliband of the UK government should now do the right thing: write a letter admitting he is evil, and commit suicide.
See also: 'The court of appeal has highlighted the way our leaders have placed the suppression of torture revelations above citizens' welfare' - Guardian.
'Miliband loses...' - Independent.
| Comments (0)Obama Hasn't Given Up Plans for Global Nuclear Holocaust by 2015
Posted by barry at
6:25 PM on February 6, 2010
'Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015...'
To say the least. NATO missiles a few miles from Moscow, what a sensible idea that is!
Details about that in the New York Times.
Predictably, 'President Dmitry Medvedev approved Friday a new military doctrine identifying NATO expansion as a national threat and reaffirming Russia's right to use nuclear weapons if the country's existence is threatened.'
See the Reuters story.
And I say thank you, thank you thank you thank you Mister 'Nobel Peace Prize' Obama, for ending all life on Earth! O, thank you! Cheers! It's been a pleasure! Don't run for office on any other planets, by the way!
Idiot.
Relaxing Pagan Site Actually a Totem Pole of Cthulhu
Posted by barry at
6:14 PM on February 6, 2010
'Letters that lay undiscovered in national archives for more than 230 years suggest that Silbury Hill, the enigmatic man-made mound that stands between Marlborough and Beckhampton, may have originally be constructed around some sort of totem pole.'
Read the Long lost theory and let's raise Great Cthulhu once and for all!
| Comments (0)Friday Choon: '101' by Finitribe
Posted by damien at
11:58 AM on February 5, 2010
(image from Derekvon, used under a CC license)
A 1991 gem for you this week, '101' from Finitribe.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: '101' by Finitribe"
| Comments (0)Blather's Barry Kavanagh: the radio show (updated w/ playlist)
Posted by barry at
9:29 PM on January 29, 2010
Tomorrow I'll be presenting the music show Super Sonisk Sommer on RadiOrakel in Norway. You can listen online. The show's from 2pm to 3pm GMT+1.
Barry
Update:
The playlist
Super Sonisk Sommer jingle remixed by me!
Dacianos - Sweet Companion ('Gratis?' 2009) www.dacianos.com
Time - noiseimmemorial.blogspot.com (feat. Mark Dicker myspace.com/trenchergrind )
Anne Lene Hägglund - Big Men ('Bird Cherry Grove' 2010)
Dag Stiberg - Cracked Up ('Monolithic Time' 2010)
Bat For Lashes - Siren Song ('Two Suns' 2009)
Children & Corpse Playing in the Streets - New Bike ('Honey, I'm Home!' 2009)
Jæ - That I Shouldn't Have (EP 2009)
Sacred Harp - Elevator Endeløs (EP 2009)
Masselys - Freak in the Mirror (12" 2009)
Barry Adamson - It's Business As Usual ('Oedipus Schmoedipus' 1996)
Blixa Bargeld - Over the Rainbow ('Commissioned Music' 1994)
Thanks to Linda
| Comments (0)Friday Choon: 'Hall of the Mountain King' by Apocalyptica
Posted by damien at
3:58 PM on January 29, 2010
(photo by Rainrabbit, used under a cc license)
Yes, we know you've already had your Friday Choon, but in honour of the flood of new folk joining us on Twitter and on Facebook today, get yer ears around these guys. Utter legends.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: 'Hall of the Mountain King' by Apocalyptica"
| Comments (0)Friday Choon: 'One Night in Bangkok' by Murray Head
Posted by damien at
8:52 AM on January 29, 2010
(image by austinevan, used under a CC license)
It's 80s cheese week here at Blather HQ, which has seen Dave dancing about the boardroom in his Y-fronts to Erasure and Buggles. Me, I'm a man of more cultured tastes and have been listening to some genuine 80s gems, such as this slice of fried edam from Murray Head.
Admit it: as much as it makes you giggle, it makes you tap your foot.
Continue reading "Friday Choon: 'One Night in Bangkok' by Murray Head"
| Comments (0)Or just arrest him
Posted by barry at
11:34 PM on January 26, 2010
George Monbiot in the Guardian, 25 January 2010:
'In October I mooted the idea of a bounty to which the public could contribute, payable to anyone who tried to arrest Tony Blair if he became president of the European Union. He didn't of course, but I asked those who had pledged money whether we should go ahead anyway. The response was overwhelmingly positive. So today I am launching a website - www.arrestblair.org - whose purpose is to raise money as a reward for people attempting a peaceful citizen's arrest of the former prime minister. I have put up the first £100...'
Read the full Monbiot article and visit arrestblair.org.
| Comments (0)
