Much obliged to a commenter at Gary Younge‘s Guardian column condemning Labour for enabling the BNP, for this link to a job ad from that very same newspaper:
See, Gary, there’s your problem right there….
Comment of the Day
Comment of the Day: Canada edition
Nicked wholesale from James Nicoll:
Dr. Henry Morgentaler, famous women’s rights activist, to be named to Order of Canada.
Further comments are unnecessary.
Comment of The Day
At the Grauniad, on a critique by columnist Charles Arthur of a singularly asinine article by Kevin Kelly of Wired, in which Kelly compares the human brain to the internet:
CSClark
Comment No. 1194701
June 30 13:48Taking it seriously for a moment why, in the numbers at the bottom, does he yoke all data devices together but not all human brains?
But it’s probably a mistake to take it seriously. The numbers are, I suppose, wowifying on their own, for the easily impressed, but to turn them into an argument for ‘We are headed toward a singular destiny: one vast computer composed of billions of chips and billions of brains, enveloping the planet in a single sphere of intelligence’ seems to me like finding it amazing that if you laid 36,000 Statues of Liberty on their end it would reach the moon and deciding on that basis that sculptors are actually working on a space programme.
See? The internet’s not even as clever as a lone Guardian commenter …
Comment of The Day: Fashion Victim
Maybe this commenter to Charlie Brooker’s latest column about Ascot hats is a trifle overinvolved. But is he right, is the thrill gone?
supercereal
Jun 23 08, 02:20am (about 7 hours ago)
I’m actually really disappointed in you, I used to look forward to getting the guardian every Monday just to read your column, I’ve been a fan for a long time, since I was working a crappy minimum wage job in a newsagents putting myself through college and on my break I’d read your column on the back of G2 with the yellow cartoon, it was really witty and insightful with original ideas. I got into the Guardian because of you and now I get it every day. I live in Ireland and don’t get whatever channel screenwipe is on, so I tracked all the episodes down online and really like them, I don’t buy papers on weekends, but I track down your screenburn column online, that’s how I got into the guardian website last year and now I check it every time I’m online.
It’s two o’clock in the morning, and the only reason I’m online is to see your column before it’s in tomorrow’s paper.
I’m not just a casual reader, I’m a big fan, I was really happy for you when you got upgraded to a proper column inside G2….the reason I’m telling you and the whole internet this, the reason I registered just to post this comment, is so that you know I’m not just some dickhead taking potshots, like just saying something like [Charlie you silly monkey, i like hats, LOL, u are gay.]
I couldn’t give a fucking toss about hats, and to be honest I really don’t care what you think about them. Your columns have gotten progressively worse over the last few months, you’re just getting god damned lazy, so shape up or shut up cos it’s just depressing, you were one of the ones who told it like it is, you were one of the good ones, but now you’ve become one of the mob of tittering twats you despise, you don’t seem to have anything original to say any more. I won’t ever pick up the paper on a Monday with any sort of expectations of any kind about your column, I’ll still read it…along with the rest of the paper, but I won’t turn to that page in G2 first or I won’t be disappointed when they have a stand-in, you’re just another boring columnist with nothing to say…that’s all I have to say really. You’ve probably realised this the same as I have, you know deep down that you don’t have it any more, that you’re just phoning it in. You know when you write a bad column and you don’t need a stranger like me to tell you.
That’s all, just to let you know you lost a fan, I’m sure I’m not the only one, I’m not trying to be harsh so you’ll kill yourself in the bath with a lady razor or anything, I just feel that I’m not alone in this opinion and had to say something, I wanted to do it earlier but I couldn’t give you any more chances, I nearly did it last week (what a pile of balls) but this week was the last straw…bye.
Was it? Was it really? Was it really?
I came across Brooker’s loopy, Mr Angry viciousness through TVGohome. He has said what we all think but lack the eloquence to say about the crap being fed to us by the media, like a foul-mouthed suburban Chomsky but without the charm and with even stupider hair. Brilliant. Now he’s become what he despises, a lazy insider who phones it in for a fee. Yes, I know that’s always been his schtick, but when did he start believing in it?
I suppose this is all part of the accelerated lifecycle of writer stroke tv personalities in the New Media. How long has Brooker been a cult? About five years, all told, including the 2 years or so bubbling under online, and reaching a high point with Nathan Barley.In meeja whore terms that’s ancient. Ah well, live by the sword….
There’ll be another Angry Hip Young Person along in a minute anyway. Next!
Comment of the Day: Memorial Day special
Mikey on Memorial Day in the context of the War On Iraq:
We got memorial day. A day where we could look at our fighting men through the misty lens of history and honor their sacrifice, all the while understanding their secret complicity. But maybe, just maybe, on balance, there was enough good to offset the brutality and domination.
Now we got Iraq. Coming, as it does, on the generational heels of vietnam. How are we to approach this thing? What honor have we earned? How can we thump our chests and weep for our fallen, when they died for a meaningless crime, when the wounded and the damaged and the broken still walk our streets, still struggle in our communities without support, when the families are shattered and broken?
Somebody needs to tell me how to do this Memorial day. I don’t think LOLVets works. Frankly, it pisses me off. But I’m just me. But I don’t want to worship our “heroes” either.
Sure. They did the best they could. This criminal idiocy wasn’t their idea, and it was set on their shoulders to accomplish an unspecified goal in an unspecified amount of time for an unspecified reason. They fought for their honor, they fought for their colleagues, they fought ’cause it was their job.
And now they have to come home, with the memories of the dead civilians, the ruined country, the crimes and the pointlessness in their heads. And home is a place where people lament the cost of filling the SUV, of taking that Disneyland vacation, of trying to get that promotion at the bank.