BBC, Anti-americanism and the need to not step too far outside the circle

The audio grab linked below is of a BBC Radio 4 broadcast from Friday 20 January was brought to my attention by a comment on the excellent Biased BBC blog. The programme is called Feedback, and featured quite an exchange between BBC News Justin Webb, Stephen Sackur, and caller from northern Ireland whos cackles went straight up at the mere and singular mention by Webb that Americans may throw their hands up in the air at anti-Americanism.

It begins about 30 seconds in.

This need to apologise by Webb heard at the end is a simple example of why state broadcasting has built-in problems: he actually MUST be all things to all people if they pay their TV tax. State ownership means that there will always be millions of thumbs in the pie.

One writer's bipolar disorder

Le Monde’s André Fontaine is jonesing for a bipolar world with Europe as a pole, and possibly an axis. The error is a simple one made frequently: when corrupt little state A in Europe deals with corrupt little state B, they think this is a model of international relations because everyone must agree to play by their rules.

What should they do? Go take a nice little nap.

An amazing leap of putting words into someone’s mouth while trying to slip in some tongue – and at the same time inflating the actual influence and meaning of a ruminant Europe and a spittle-shooting France:

«In his new year’s message Chirac explained to us all that France could draw on it’s ability to deal with everyone. But he took care to not mention in his homilies that followed the victory of the bipolar world which came at the great cost to the monopolar world of the American president and his friend Tony Blair. Europe, firmly held in hand by the Franco-German alliance, was of course to be one of the principal poles for it.

Generally, George W Bush, strongly moderated his arrogance which had characterized his first term, and this explained the pause in the constant criticism that he gets from every direction, and especially from the North American Press

Time is changing things and the veracity of the old proverb should be further noted – that closeness breeds contempt. It’s not just Iraq or Afghanistan, there’s the cerebral hemorrhage of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, which dashed the hopes which those remarkable changes had caused.»

The delusions are startling.

Stick it in and break it off

"I wanted to burn the Louvre. I'd do the Elgin Marbles with a sledgehammer and wipe my ass with the Mona Lisa. This is my world, now. This is my world, my world, and those ancient people are dead." French artist, Kader Attia, reproduces Arabic calligraphy using riot police nightsticks abandoned in the streets during last year's riots.

Size matters

The land of the freeloader vs. the land of the freeloader



Compare and contrast.

Up shits creek ...

... without a paddle policy.

... and while your at it, shut your piehole with a buttplug

"To not like" does not equal "phobia". Faudrait le dire aux tarloose.

Hall of Plame

Most of them are America’s Most Wanted, but also Europe’s most coddled.

If a normally fluffy Sunday paper supplement can figure it out, why can’t the EUtopians and their cherished nit-wit paesans?

Stating the obvious ...

... is much like flogging a dead horse.

"In France . . . the very existence of America is a mystery and a scandal."

It's logical to deny that there is a Clash of Civilisations when your countries capital is surrounded by enemy forces just on the other side of the periph'.

It's not like he was sincere about it

Trouble among the chocolate makers fudgepackers ... and Old Europe is all aflutter.

Kaput!

Wikipedia Germany forced to close shop.

Cultural revision’s sloppy seconds

Debra Saunders:

« When social conservatives argue that legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to legalized polygamy, same-sex marriage advocates either laugh or sneer. It's a scare tactic, they say. It'll never happen.

Last year, however, as Canada legalized same-sex marriage, Prime Minister Paul Martin commissioned a $150,000 study to debunk the polygamy argument. Big mistake: The study confirmed the scare tactic by recommending that Canada repeal its anti-polygamy law.»

What then of the reverse, when polygamous marriages made outside of a country must be recognized by multiculturalism proponents who are ridden with guilt? The effect is simple – misused human rights laws will do something much worse: dissolve sovereignty of legal systems by imposing laws from foreign legal systems into domestic ones without legal argument. Phooey – if that’s the case why even HAVE legal deliberation? Why not just casually dispose of habeas corpus and common law in the interest of “progressivism” while you’re at it...

Crossposted on Marxist Byproducts

Can you imagine the scandal if cowboy Bush were to hold a speech like this?

As Joe has noted, Chirac held a speech about the possibility of France unilaterally starting hostilities (presumably without UN approval), and not any kind of hostilities either, but nuclear warfare…

Forget that wishy-washy Zeropean multiculturalism

The Danes have rediscovered their Viking roots, and are resisting ...

Serguie still fighting the war against law and order

Syrians still resorting to dial-a-mob tactics in Lebanon

It’s painfully obvious that the anti-American card is the last line of defense for the Syrian proxies in Lebanon. Hizballah calls for Egyptian and Saudi intervention to slow down, complicate, and stem the popular tide against the deal they made with Lebanon’s neighboring oppressor, (regardless of who they want you to think it is) and with a history of not just paying splodeydopes, but also paying flunkies to get a crowd of students out to back them.

While it’s always still accepted to continually flog anti-American without ever having to explain it, the opposite is also apparent, and the sources of their fear are plain to see: they know who’s really looking out for them. Hint: they aren’t trying to excite mobs with anger and emotionalism.

It’s also worth a look at who to the west doesn’t want to see anything change, and is dialing-up mobs elsewhere.

A shred of proof that he isn’t always drinking the bong water

«Jacques Chirac has hinted that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons against any state that carries out a terrorist attack against France.

The French president said France must be able to hit hard at a hostile state's "capacity to act".»

Granted, he said this while pandering to submariners for their affection or their votes, but when he’s beyond the reach of a society given to bi-polar bouts of self-contempt and occasions of hubris, he shows a clear, un-PC-ified understanding of detterence and to some extent conflict management. By no means would it allow the west to live with terror organizations or government-proxy terror groups having WMDs as the BBC seems to hope for, but it would give them something to think about.

They might gage his intestinal fortitude, and start laughing when they realize that he would probably never retaliate in that fashion, but it's a start - perhaps a steady return to a better and more realistic concept of their own national exceptionalism.

Just as the Israelis learned to make the cost of Jewish blood high, and the balance struck by Ike and Khrushchev, the deterrent and not the drumming circle is what makes the peace.

Is Scott Burgess the Roaming Gnome? We report, you decide.

For those of you familiar with the advertisements, the frequency of leisure lizard Scott Burgess’ vacations have me convinced that he’s the Travelocity Gnome. In fact I think that the very quotable sounding “G.” prefix to his name is a silent plea to give away his cover.

Heavens me, even their/his appearance awes one in his deceptive skills. What’s more is that I believe I actually saw Scott electrocuting himself with an electric razor creatively improvised from a vintage Ronco appliance in a Motel 6 in Saskatchewan. I shudder at how he would mutilate himself with a Pocket Fisherman.

Talk about a commenter that needs to get schtupped

To address a commenter’s cheap shot, we offer you this from blogshares.



We’re actually worth imaginary billions, just like the ‘gotcha’ style imagined wisdom of the comment.

Have a nice day. I think it’s time you got back to you little children’s crusade.

Chirac's Greatest Popular Success in 10 Years as Head of State

Among the 11,536 persons who, in an online poll, were asked the question, "what is Jacques Chirac's biggest success" in ten years as a head of State, 69% answered

the rebellion against the United States regarding Iraq.

Those more than two thirds of all respondents amount to over seven times the next largest result (none of the other possible answers went above 9%), but needless to say, this is all about the French showing friendship for "nos amis les Américains" (and offhand, none of the "oh-it's-only-about-Dubya" respondents seems to have made a big deal about the fact that wording has the "insurrection" not against George W Bush but against "the United States")…