Blogs

On and On and On and On….

Blogs, Comment of the Day, Democratic (in)action, liberalism, Pointlesss centrism, Socialism, US politics
Published on 2 Comments on On and On and On and On….

on and on and on....

Which is better, New US Left or Old US Left? Bit of a pointless question, in light of the fact that what America considers ‘left’ is, by international standards, pretty right-wing and at best gradualist in tendency. So the spirited yet essentially empty discussion going on over at the News Blog re a blogspat between Max Sawickyand Steve Gilliard is being conducted somewhat in the manner of two bald men fighting over a comb.

The argument goes like this (and I’m paraphrasing madly): Max said the New Internet Left is just a money sucker for the Democrats, and Steve replied that Marxism is boring, Marx is irrelevant and the Old Left were a bunch of a hippie nutters who were dangerous with it, who set back the left’s cause for generations, and who should just shut up and let the New Blogging Vanguard get on with it.

But both fail to lift their eyes above the American horizon, both fail to notice that the Left is an international phenomenon and neither acknowledge that the use of modern technology as a tool for political organisation is not confined to middle-class reformist Americans. (I get the impression that in their heart of hearts they think the ‘free’ market will sort it all out if only the Dems can get elected. Then things can go on as normal and they won’t have to change their comfortable lifestyles at all. Change the system? Why… that’s crazy revolutionary talk!)

Both Gilliard and Sawicki seem to have internalised the reformist view that US voters just need to get rid of Bush, fiddle round the edges a bit and everything’ll be fine and dandy and politics can go on as usual.

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A New Beginning

Blogs, Meta
Published on 1 Comment on A New Beginning

Welcome to the new, improved Prog Gold. We’re still settling in, most of our stuff is still in the movers’ boxes, we can’t quite find that coffee machine we sure we had packed in one of the boxes marked “kitchen”, but will probably end up in one marked “garage” or “bedroom” and the whole thing still needs a lick of paint, may be some re-arranging of furniture and the like, but for the moment we got a new roof over our heads, we’re open for business and ready to par-tay!

Now to get Republic of Palau to actually move out of her old room…

I am The Egg Man, He Is The Walrus

Blogs, Media, Wingnuts
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Can’t say I’ve been mistaken for Jeff Goldstein lately but I know what Blood & Treasure means.

The long-entrenched media gatekeeprs don’t like it constantly getting it shoved up ’em and it so it pays them to classify bloggers as The Mob.

not in my etc, etc…

I wish people would stop talking about blogging as though it was some kind of coherent movement. I don’t want to be associated with assorted rightwing hacks and propagandists just because I happen to use the same means of electronic vanity publishing. Blogging is developing as a means for professional media to find better and cheaper commentary, which is why so many opinion mongers don’t like it. It’s also a means of expanding the beachhead for the world of propaganda and private facts. In the first instance, it’s the writing, knowledge and research that counts. In the second, you get recourse to pseudo egalitarian reasoning: I must be right because I am part if the brotherhood of the blog. As a rule of thumb, anyone who justifies their arguments or motives at any stage by referencing themselves as a blogger is almost certainly talking shite.

That’s my justification for sitting here in pyjamas and dressing gown at 4 o’clock in the afternoon up the spout then.

Read more Media, Blogs, Blogging, Internet, Domestic wibble

Another Attack Of the Blog-Vapours…

Blogs, Wingnuts
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One might almost find it too convenient.

Why are people at all surprised that a proven boor has made such a heavy-handed, cheap and worst of all unfunny attack on Firedoglake‘s Jane Hamsher?

That his broadside’s couched in the crudest sort of personal insult that the sort of sad pathetic man whose journalistic goals have included the production of online soft-porn would use shouldn’t be that shocking, surely?

After all, as the man himself once said, over at Dr Mrs. Ole Perfesser’s place:

vanderleun said…

Actually, she’s probably doing all right with this material. As a former editor of Penthouse I can tell you that the market for material concerning “mature” women is vast and varied. It has been for some time. Down in old Kentuck, they’d say “Horses for courses.”

12:52 AM

[My emphasis]

Whatever else, Vanderleun knows his markets: this latest outrage’s all over the posher side of USanian leftish blogosphere like a rash, nicely eclipsing discussion of what the new Democratic Congress will do.

Shorter G. VderL : “Result!”

Read more: Internet, Blogs, Blogging

Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time The Day We Went To Little Chef?

Blogs, Zionism
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I was at a bit of a loss as to which of Ellis Sharp‘s recent posts to feature today, though I had to feature one because he’s been so good recently.

I was tempted by the wit of his Shakespeare conspiracies post, but in the end I plumped for this one, as I have a soft spot for Little Chef and he’s pricked my nostalgia. Little Chef’s where we used to stop to have cherry pancakes on the way home from the beach at Thurlestone on fading honeysuckle-scented summer Sunday evenings when my sons were small.

So without further ado:

It’s marvellous news that Israeli property firm Arazim has helped saved the ailing chain of Little Chef restaurants for the nation. The Sharp Side has obtained exclusive access to Arazim’s future plans for the chain. These are:

1. All land within a radius of 100 miles of each Little Chef will be seized by troops and tanks under the slogan “After 2000 years, Little Chef comes home.” All residents will be evicted and their homes bulldozed. Businesses will be seized. There will be no compensation paid. The land will be used for car parking and homes for Little Chef employees.

2. Little Chef does not discriminate. However customers of a swarthy complexion may be restricted to the fried egg menu and asked to eat in the Portaloo at the back, next to the waste containers. This is for security reasons.

3. Children who do not finish their meals, who play with their food, or who throw buns will be shot. Little Chef anticipates around 300-500 child fatalities in its first year of operation. The Blair government has agreed to supply free rifles and automatic weapons to all Little Chef employees.

4. All dissatisfied customers will be referred to by the BBC as ‘militants’ and ‘rogue elements’.

5. Visitors who call by just to use the toilets and who leave without buying even so much as a cup of coffee will be pursued down the motorway by a helicopter gunship and blasted from the face of the earth. Little Chef also strongly advises that no customers using wheelchairs attempt to patronise the chain.

6. The exciting new ‘traveller’s menu’ will consist of (i) sliced melon starter (ii) spaghetti and chips with optional grated cheese topping (iii) Black Forest gateau (iv) complementary cup of Nescafe. The ‘kid’s fun menu’ will consist of (i) toast (available cold or lukewarm with optional toppings: marmite, minced pilchard). (ii) bowl of icecream (flavours: Cape white or Venetian mint).

Bon appetit!

No change there, then.

Little Chef’, whatever their ownership may be, will still always be better than the supposed ‘services’ I once stopped at off the M5 just outside Exeter where I watched, boggling, as a slatternly teenager poured a sachet of Cup-A-Soup into a bowl, topped it off with hot water, gave it a perfunctory stir and tried to charge me two quid for what the menu described as ‘a delicious steaming bowl of homemade soup’. The kid’s fun menu sounds quite pleasant in comparison and I’ve always liked toast.

Read more: Little Chef, Motorway services, Zionism, Nostalgia