While I quite like the idea of a guaranteed parking space outside my home, I am troubled that local government will extend it’s regulatory tentacles into some aspect of my life that has not hithertoo been regulated. I have visions of officious, payed by comission parking attendants gleefully towing away the vehicles of my hapless neighbors.
Furthermore, I worry that CPZs will spread like a virus. When one neighborhood gets it, adjacent ‘hoods will feel compelled to CPZ, or else face a flood of vagrant parking. Has anybody done a study of the long term impact of CPZ on communities? I suppose the idea is that if we deny drivers the ability to park anywhere other than outside their home, then they will be tempted to leave the car and take a bike or public transport. If that were the idea, then they should come out with it - I might be tempted to support something that radical, however as it stands I fear yet another misguided covert tax.
I think by now, most of you will have grown utterly bored with my obsession with “Shelley The Republican“, however I cannot resist the notion that the current crop of “Anti-Blogs” which both sprang up at almost exactly the same time are front organisations for the STR crew.
Both blogs are written in the same inept and somewhat childish style, and they both seem to insist somewhat earnestly that the STR blog is not intended as humour. I think at least one of them has taken a disliking to me. Are the STR blog and it’s enemies collectivly intended as some form of post-modern satire? Well as you might expect this is something they all deny.
However, something does not add up. The only reason anybody knows about the two anti-blogs is because the STR site links to them both on their home-page. Furthermore, almost every post seems to carry an advert to discuss the content at one or the other anti-site. If the STR team really had it in for their anti-bloggers they would have removed those links long ago. Furthermore, the anti-bloggers are particularly unclear about their own motives.
Given that STR is more likely than not intended as a satire, surely somebody who was critical of the attitudes that STR is supposed to represent would play along with STR. On the other hand, somebody who was genuinely annoyed by it’s lampooning of right-wing values would most likely not pretend to be a liberal. Something does not add up!
Anyway, please see for yourself: 8for8, STR:Uncovered
Jon Ronson writes in the Gruniad’s online bloggy thing about Gary McKinnon, the hapless “uberhacker” who allegedly perpretrated the biggest cyber-attack into US Military computer systems… ever.
We have been told that computers literally packed in, melting into pools of bubbling molten fluid, or perhaps exploding into a puff of incandessent vapour. Not a shred of data survived the ravages of Mr McKinnon’s merciless hacking. If we are to believe the American allegations, his hacks were as damaging as a tactical nuke a data-centre.
Apparantly he was looking for secret evidence for a UFO conspiracy, and indeed nobody has managed to link him to any terrorist or revolutionary organisations… but thats not stopping a somewhat zany U.S. deparment of justice recomending that he faces a 70 year imprisonment.
As with the NatWest three (who had the good fortune of being able to employ a press-agent with their possibly stolen millions), the Crouch End One will face extradition under the somewhat imbalanced treaty between the U.S.A and dear old Britian.
I think what counts here is not so much wether the man is guilty or not, but wether British citizens (regardless of guilt or innocence) should be exposed to a foreign legal system when our local legal system is perfectly capable of prosecuting such cases.
Given that the crime was committed in the U.K., could he not be tried in the U.K.?
Apparantly there is a new principle which seems to have crept into our legal system: Spesifically that foreign nations seem to believe they have a right to try anybody if harm was caused on their soil, regardless of where the crime was actually committed.
I shudder to think what would happen if we extend this principle to certain members of our own government who may have caused substantial harm to vairous foriegn countries. Wouldnt it be awful if we had to extredite Tony Blair to Iraq to answer for war-crime charges?
How unbearable!
I admit that I have become addicted to reading to the absurd right-wing blog “Shelley the Republican“. Her almost daily rants have an almost crack-like addictive quality which on occasion cause me to drool and gibber in a combination of horror and delight. Never have fascination and revulsion been so closely linked in my mind.
It’s taken a great deal of courage to come out and admit my obsession with this tawdry site, dear readers, and I do hope that you will not think less of me now that you know that I am one of the hapless fools who fan Shelley’s flames propelling her to ever greater depths of truly awful writing - it does seem that there is no end to her stupidity?
Fortunately, there are enough Shelley-watchers to form a meagre self-help group. It seems as if my fellow bloggers have noticed this exemplar of conservative Christianity and are beginning to write perplexed, confused words about her site: For starters, Shelley now has an “Anti-Blog”, a site called “Shelley The Republican Uncovered” written by an anonymous person of uncertain motives who calls himself “The Spur”.
The other day, I also noticed what has to be the most insightful comment ever about STR.com - I’m not sure I agree with Evil Bender’s deconstruction of the site - I think he is crediting the authors with far too much intelligence.
Finally, when all else fails to stimulate, Technorati and Wikipedia always come through by providing the freshest STR related links. However did we do without this essential service?
Odd… I saw this aircraft flying high above Finsbury park as I frolicked and freaked around with my young neices and nephews. They concluded that it was a jumbo-jet, wheras I secretly knew it was a V22 Osprey. The question is, what on earth was this doing above London? As far as I know only the U.S. Air Force have these… shouldnt they be busy dropping marines on unsuspecting Arab villages?
This exciting food product has got me all weepy and nostalgic for Diana, the princess of hearts. They say her tears could cure cancer and her memory, her dreams live on…
I’m sure the people at Bernard Mathews meat products feel the same way…
I’m not a superstitious man. Except in the dark or whilst alone. If I were, perhaps I would consider my bike to be CURSED. The first time I rode it (home from the shop) I got a puncture. The next time I rode it I was run over by a transit van.
Anyway I fell off last Friday - hurting my ribs. It was a very low-speed and unspectacular fall, but I was winded and my ribs were bruised. Because you can’t take bikes on the Underground, I had to cycle home at low speed, groaning and puffing, and I had to spend Friday evening in Casualty. Even the smallest things hurt - breathing, lying down, flushing the toilet. I haven’t sneezed in days…