tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34932212011-10-25T00:24:55.970ZBrendan O'NeillBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comBlogger841100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-814002802002-09-10T11:37:00.000Z2002-09-18T16:50:30.000ZThis site is old news. You can visit my new site here. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-811437452002-09-04T15:53:00.000Z2002-09-04T16:17:33.000Z 4 September 2002---------- America's mixed metaphors: US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld doesn't buy Iraq's conciliatory gestures towards the West. On 3 September 2002 he described Saddam's offer to allow UN weapons inspectors into Iraq as little more than a 'dance', and accused the Iraqi leadership of playing the UN 'like a guitar'. 'You'll find at the last moment that [Iraq] will withdrawBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-810346482002-09-02T16:18:00.000Z2002-09-04T16:16:57.000Z 3 September 2002---------- 'Do we really still have to prove that Saddam is a threat for international stability and peace?' asked an exasperated Condoleezza Rice, America's national security adviser, as she tried to convince European nations that 'a campaign against Iraq is an extension of the war against terror'. According to Rice, if Europe really stood shoulder to shoulder with America in Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-808316332002-08-28T17:38:00.000Z2002-08-28T18:17:04.000Z 28 August 2002---------- A friend of mine points out that my slacker post now looks ironic, as I've been rather slack with my blog. True - but I've been incredibly busy. Things will be back to normal next week. In the meantime, check out my interview with the editor of Jane's Military Digest, who claims there can't possibly be a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. As for what's going on in the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-806184972002-08-23T16:17:00.000Z2002-08-28T18:16:45.000Z 24 August 2002---------- It was National Slacker Day the other day - and in protest I worked my butt off. I hate slackers. I really do. There is something about their spoilt, privileged indifference to the world that brings out my suppressed Army Major tendencies. If there was ever an argument for bringing back the draft, it would be as an attempt to shake these lazy losers out of their Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-805212552002-08-21T13:51:00.000Z2002-08-25T11:05:57.000Z 21 August 2002---------- America really wants to attack Iraq; Bush junior desperately needs to succeed where his father failed; and Rumsfeld craves an invasion to make up for the debacle that was Afghanistan. But the US authorities seem beset by uncertainty and confusion on whether, when and why to attack Saddam. How come? The US authorities have been tearing themselves apart over how and whenBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-804793772002-08-20T16:05:00.000Z2002-09-03T09:02:31.000Z 20 August 2002---------- There's more porn for those in the West who like to sound off about the savages 'over there': this time in the shape of unfortunate Nigerian woman Amina Lawal, who is due to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock. Last month it was the story of a young Pakistani girl getting gang-raped on the orders of a tribal council that got some people 'over here' foamingBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-803590692002-08-17T15:17:00.000Z2002-08-20T17:30:18.000Z 17 August 2002---------- Of frogs and Iraqis. A couple of weeks ago, one Benjamin Kepple was horrified when I said I had killed frogs and kittens as a child. 'Dude. What the fuck?!', he wrote. '[T]here are certain things in this world that are just wrong. Wanton cruelty to defenceless animals is one of them; you just don't do that. It's malicious. It's uncivilised. It's evil.' Now I discover Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-801364002002-08-12T13:32:00.000Z2002-08-17T16:49:02.000Z 12 August 2002---------- After much consideration, helped along by a strong dose of 'pacifist theatre' here in Edinburgh, I have decided that I am not anti-war. Don't get me wrong. I am as opposed to imperialism and Western intervention as I have ever been. But today's anti-war movement seems to be driven more by fear and cynicism than by anything positive or life-affirming - and I want no partBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-798041372002-08-04T12:16:00.000Z2002-08-04T13:35:32.000Z 4 August 2002---------- I'm on holiday again, for the next two weeks. First I'm going on a sightseeing, sunbathing, skirtchasing trip to Venice, and then I'm taking a working holiday in Edinburgh (it's Festival time again) - where I'll be reviewing plays and speaking at some events. If any of my readers are around, I'm speaking at C Cubed theatre on the Royal Mile on Saturday 10 August and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-797780042002-08-03T17:37:00.000Z2002-08-12T14:49:22.000Z 3 August 2002---------- Many are reporting the story that the Taliban and al-Qaeda had started to fall out before President Clinton's bombing of an al-Qaeda training camp in 1998 brought them close together. According to The Times: '[J]ust before Mullah Omar’s order to oust the “arrogant, publicity-seeking” bin Laden, President Clinton launched a missile strike on Afghanistan and Sudan in Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-797431962002-08-02T18:19:00.000Z2002-08-03T17:59:54.000Z 2 August 2002---------- This is a disgusting story. Two teenage boys in the UK have been charged with animal cruelty, after they caught about 40 toads, took them to a garage, and mutilated them. They pulled off the toads' legs and chopped off their heads, and left them to bleed to death. The disgusting bit? That these boys have been dragged through the courts, humiliated, shamed, and found Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-796917862002-08-01T15:53:00.000Z2002-08-02T18:19:49.000Z 1 August 2002---------- What is the real reason that America and Britain are threatening to bomb Iraq? Forget all the talk about weapons of mass destruction (even US officials are having trouble believing that one); or the ridiculous idea that Saddam is a threat to the Western world (all the evidence suggests that post-Gulf War and sanctions he is weaker than ever). And get over the nonsenseBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-796415402002-07-31T14:21:00.000Z2002-08-01T16:05:15.000Z 31 July 2002---------- US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims that air strikes alone won't be enough to destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, because the weapons sites are 'deeply buried' and 'highly mobile'. Deeply buried and highly mobile? How does that work? Apparently, the weapons factories are not always deeply buried - they sometimes cunningly disguise themselves as trailers. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-795928672002-07-30T13:13:00.000Z2002-07-30T13:51:39.000Z 30 July 2002---------- Liberals and lefties couldn't oppose a war if their lives depended on it. Luckily for them, it's usually only other people's lives that depend on it. I arrived back from my five-day break to hear that opposition to America's planned invasion of Iraq is 'hotting up'. Apparently, commentators, left-wing politicians, anti-war groups and potential new archbishops of Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-793898222002-07-25T12:44:00.000Z2002-07-30T13:48:06.000Z 25 July 2002---------- I won't be posting again until next Tuesday, as I'm off to Portugal to see the mighty Radiohead in concert. In the meantime, you can read my latest article on Iraq here - or check out the rest of spiked for some cutting edge commentary. Go to Cursor for a daily dose of interesting articles, or to Dack for the latest on the war on terror. (Speaking of Dack, read this Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-793562212002-07-24T18:19:00.000Z2002-07-31T15:28:45.000Z 24 July 2002---------- 'We don't know if bin Laden is alive', says a Times of India headline, reporting that US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld 'said the United States still did not know whether Osama Bin Laden, held responsible for the 11 September attacks, was alive or dead'. 'He's either dead, which is fine from our standpoint', said Rumsfeld, 'or he's alive and for some reason has Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-793041042002-07-23T15:09:00.000Z2002-07-23T15:14:23.000Z 23 July 2002---------- It's good to see a growing number of Irish weblogs. Letter to Slugger O'Toole provides pithy summaries of the news from Northern Ireland - the perfect stop if you can't get your hands on all the Irish papers. Fenian Ramblings provides a more...well, rambling view of Irish news, from a (guess what?) Fenian perspective. The Badger's Radio Weblog is very well-written and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-792654672002-07-22T18:24:00.000Z2002-07-24T18:26:41.000Z 22 July 2002---------- Digging up the dead. The Irish Republican Army's apology for killing and injuring non-combatants over the past 30 years evoked some predictable responses. Unionist politicians said it was 'too little, too late' (which is fast becoming the most grating cliche in modern politics), while the British government cautiously welcomed it as a 'good sign'. The IRA was simply Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-792177622002-07-21T13:21:00.000Z2002-07-22T09:56:49.000Z 21 July 2002---------- Today's Observer reports on the rise and rise of 'terror sex'. Apparently, New Yorkers have been having more (daring) sex since the 11 September terrorist attacks, as Amy Sohn of New York magazine explains: '11 September did a mix of two things. It made some people want to settle down, have children or look for a mate. There was a surge in internet dating straight Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-791109222002-07-18T16:35:00.000Z2002-07-22T09:44:51.000Z 18 July 2002---------- Tony Blair is often accused of being President Bush's obedient little poodle. Throughout the Royal Marines' disastrous stint in Afghanistan, Blair was lambasted by his critics for 'fighting America's war' and following Bush's orders. Now, as Britain and America plan to attack Iraq, the Daily Mirror says Blair is 'sleepwalking towards a terrible crisis', and advises him toBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-790660342002-07-17T15:06:00.000Z2002-07-23T12:10:00.000Z 17 July 2002---------- Some people seem to believe that there really is a 'war on terror' - a clear-cut campaign launched by Bush and co to rid the world of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other anti-Western terrorists. There is no such thing. Instead, there is a scrabbling around for someone or something to fight against - a war with ever-changing aims that is uncertain what it is fighting against,Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-790176972002-07-16T13:47:00.000Z2002-07-16T13:48:38.000Z 16 July 2002---------- AN OPEN LETTER APOLOGISING TO THE PEOPLE OF IRAN FOR THE WEBLOGGING COMMUNITY'S PATRONISING POOP They are not politicians, they are not generals - hell, most of them are not even journalists. They can send no diplomats or troops to help you - which is a shame, because they really believe that American diplomats and troops are just what you need as you are clearly Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-789748362002-07-15T15:02:00.000Z2002-07-18T18:24:12.000Z 15 July 2002---------- I've been called a wanker, a windbag, a po-faced git, a troll, a masochist, a dork, an asshole, a whiner, a fanatic, insufferably pompous, egotistical, arrogant, and stupid. Why? Because I dared to criticise the Blogosphere. You have been warned. ---------- New police crime figures for England and Wales claim that crime has risen by about seven percent over the past Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-789379182002-07-14T16:29:00.000Z2002-07-14T17:04:36.000Z 14 July 2002---------- Dr Weevil responds to my post on bad blogging, by arguing that 'If you're going to criticize bloggers for bad writing and bad spelling, you should first make sure that your own prose is beyond reproach'. From someone who can't even spell the word criticise, this is a bit rich. Of course I jest - but there is a serious point here. The two things Weevil picks me up on are Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-789016392002-07-13T12:52:00.000Z2002-07-14T17:03:30.000Z 13 July 2002---------- In the UK, a new unholy alliance is emerging between traditional Tories who oppose joining Europe and the old 1980s left-wing brigade who don't want Britain to adopt the Euro. Alternative comedians like Ben Elton and Rik Mayall may have spent their formative years ridiculing their Tory rulers, but now both sides see eye-to-eye over the Europe question. Former Boomtown Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-788610782002-07-12T13:03:00.000Z2002-07-13T22:56:22.000Z 12 July 2002---------- That's it, I must speak out. I can hold my peace no longer. After two months of maintaining a weblog - which involves some degree of reading and engaging with other weblogs - I am shocked by the Blogosphere's often poor quality of writing and its celebration of pithy opinion over considered judgement. The irony is that while many talk up blogging as a challenge to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-788398622002-07-11T23:39:00.000Z2002-07-15T15:58:10.000Z 11 July 2002---------- The Bush administration's contradictory statements about the size and strength of al-Qaeda get more embarrassing by the day. Listening to Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld and co, it's hard to work out whether al-Qaeda is everywhere in the world or nowhere on earth, a big military operation or a pisspot outfit, arch enemy number one or yesterday's news. One day we're told that Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-787849892002-07-10T18:01:00.000Z2002-07-12T00:38:30.000Z 10 July 2002---------- The videoed beating of 16-year-old black youth Donovan Jackson by LA police officers is being compared to the beating of Rodney King in 1991. 'Rodney King 2', says a headline in today's UK Mirror, reporting that Jackson was 'battered by a white policeman in a savage repeat of the Rodney King outrage'. 'Donovan was slammed face down against the police car before [the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-787806732002-07-10T16:10:00.000Z2002-07-10T18:52:21.000Z 8 July 2002---------- Who is this al-Qaeda that everybody speaks of? For some, al-Qaeda is still a big bad threat to the West, using its underground networks and underhand techniques to plot America's overthrow. For others, al-Qaeda (or 'bin Ladenism') is dead, having destroyed itself in its most infamous and outrageous act - the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. To others, Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-786633202002-07-07T23:50:00.000Z2002-07-07T23:58:40.000Z 7 July 2002---------- There have been a flurry of media revelations recently about America's plans to attack Iraq. The New York Times reports, 'An American military planning document calls for air, land and sea-based forces to attack Iraq from three directions - the north, south and west - in a campaign to topple President Saddam Hussein, according to a person familiar with the document'. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-786286632002-07-06T22:26:00.000Z2002-07-08T17:33:51.000Z 6 July 2002---------- Everyone is theorising over what drove Mohamed Hadayet to open fire at Los Angeles airport on 4 July. Was he acting on behalf of al-Qaeda? Was this a terrorist act - or was he driven more by hate and general craziness than anything political or militant? In the midst of all this, one important factor is overlooked. When US authorities spend months warning Americans that Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-785504372002-07-04T14:45:00.000Z2002-07-06T23:45:19.000Z 4 July 2002---------- Regular readers will know that I'm no fan of American imperialism, that I don't stand shoulder to shoulder with President Bush, and that I think the war in Afghanistan has been a flat-out disaster. So you may be surprised to hear that I don't go along with the left's anti-Americanism one jot. As Americans celebrate their Independence Day, some left-wingers have taken the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-785073482002-07-03T13:57:00.000Z2002-07-04T18:53:08.000Z 3 July 2002---------- Many webloggers are linking to this sordid story about a Pakistani girl who was allegedly gang-raped as punishment for her brother's flirtations with a girl from a higher social class. A Pakistani tribal council, offended that the boy in question had dared to walk to school with one of its girl members, apparently ordered that the boy's sister be raped 'to avenge their Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-784255812002-07-01T17:54:00.000Z2002-07-01T20:41:08.000Z 1 July 2002---------- Breaking reports claim that a US bombing raid has killed or injured ‘more than 120 people’ at a wedding party in southern Afghanistan. According to a BBC report, ‘A witness from a village in Uruzgan told the BBC there had been an overnight air raid on a wedding party which left scores of people - many of them women – dead’. The US military admits that ‘it dropped bombs inBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-783815382002-06-30T13:41:00.000Z2002-06-30T13:55:46.000Z 30 June 2002---------- The cracks in the British/American alliance against terror are getting bigger and bigger. Today's Sunday Telegraph reports that 'senior officials in Prime Minister [Blair's] office have launched an astonishing attack on America's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'eda fugitives'. Apparently, senior officials told the Telegraph that 'troops carrying out Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-783200072002-06-28T17:40:00.000Z2002-07-03T15:10:12.000Z 28 June 2002---------- Many on the left and in the anti-war movement have spent years demanding more Western interference in the Middle East. Now they have got what they wanted, and I hope they're happy. President Bush's speech on 24 June 2002 illustrated who calls the shots in the Middle East. He declared that the Palestinians must get rid of Yasser Arafat before there could be democratic Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-782316022002-06-26T17:59:00.000Z2002-06-26T18:52:46.000Z 26 June 2002---------- The story about Iraq storing dead babies' bodies so that it then can parade them through the streets in propagandistic mass funerals has united everyone from gore merchants to right-wing journalists to supposedly left-wing bloggers. Many have latched on to the dead baby claims as evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime is wicked beyond belief, and probably in need of a goodBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-781498672002-06-24T21:56:00.000Z2002-06-28T18:22:46.000Z 25 June 2002---------- The biotechnology debate is often reduced to a black-and-white clash between the allegedly anti-science sceptics (like Francis Fukuyama) and the allegedly mad scientists who dream of a superhuman future (like Gregory Stock). But is this the fault of the debaters and authors themselves, or are their complex views being squeezed into convenient, easy-to-understand pigeon Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-781027572002-06-23T19:23:00.000Z2002-06-23T22:30:26.000Z 23 June 2002---------- Eamon from Boston emails in response to my piece on the war in Afghanistan, saying: 'I know you believe in human rights, so I fail to understand why you do not support the removal of the Taliban - a regime that couldn't even spell human rights.' Now leaving aside the question of whether the Afghan war was really about defending human rights, which I deal with here, the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-780608702002-06-22T10:48:00.000Z2002-06-25T15:07:04.000Z 22 June 2002---------- This new weblog looks promising. It's called 'Letter to Slugger O'Toole' (winning the prize for best blog title hands down) and covers 'Northern Ireland politics and culture'. It contains comprehensive daily breakdowns of Anglo-Irish news and views, with links to major Irish newspapers and news sources. I wonder if the blogger behind it is 'drunk as a rule'...? --------Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-780197712002-06-21T10:19:00.000Z2002-06-22T23:21:36.000Z 21 June 2002---------- Mission? What mission? The UK Royal Marines have finished their stint in Afghanistan, and the Guardian is not impressed. 'Mission unaccomplished: how 3000 crack British troops failed to find the enemy', said a Guardian headline yesterday, asking 'why after weeks of gruelling effort, untold millions of pounds of taxpayers' money and much government hype, was not one Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-779385512002-06-19T16:20:00.000Z2002-06-19T18:05:39.000Z 19 June 2002---------- Hands off Palestine - and Hands off Israel. With another devastating suicide bomb in Jerusalem, and further incursions by Israeli forces into the West Bank, we all desperately want to see peace in the Middle East. So why are radicals and left-leaning commentators calling for more foreign intervention, more US interference, and more outside pressure on Israeli and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-779273792002-06-19T08:53:00.000Z2002-06-21T15:20:51.000Z 18 June 2002---------- 'Do you like anyone anywhere?' asks Jane from Edinburgh, in response to my piece on why weblogging seems to be a largely right-wing thing. 'Are there any blogs you care for - or do you see them all as lost-in-the-Blogosphere has-been right-wingers?' Oh dear. My point about how some on the right seem to have retreated from the mainstream into the blogstream has been takenBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-778177032002-06-16T20:37:00.000Z2002-06-19T08:59:59.000Z 17 June 2002---------- Have you ever wondered why blogging seems to be a largely right-wing thing? From the big guys through to the small fry, the majority of bloggers seem to be right, hard right or off-the-scale right. When I first set up my website six weeks ago, there was a sense of surprise and even incredulity at the arrival of someone who wasn't right-wing, as if I had gatecrashed a Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-777785342002-06-15T15:27:00.000Z2002-06-15T16:56:14.000Z 15 June 2002---------- I don't normally comment on Andrew Sullivan's work. The way webloggers descend on his every word like vultures on a rotting carcass would mean putting myself in embarrassing company. But his essay on whether the Catholic Church is dying stirred up some childhood memories and thoughts about Catholicism that I thought were worth blogging. Sullivan describes his Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-777078502002-06-13T19:08:00.000Z2002-06-17T18:01:00.000Z 13 June 2002---------- 'This feels like democracy', said Abdullah from Kunduz, a delegate at Afghanistan's loya jirga, following Hamid Karzai's election as the Afghan head of state. 'Maybe it isn't [democracy] yet', said Abdullah, 'but we're getting there'. He's right that this isn't democracy - but he's mistaken if he thinks Afghanistan is 'getting there'. The development of the new Afghan Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-776586822002-06-12T16:40:00.000Z2002-06-13T19:32:44.000Z 12 June 2002---------- As Afghanistan's loya jirga drags on, complete with gatecrashers, mass walkouts and mad monarchs, it is becoming clear that the real power struggle is not between former warlords or interim government ministers, but between Europe and the USA. On the surface, the loya jirga might look like a Western attempt to facilitate tribally-correct peace talks and to work out who Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-776295702002-06-11T23:21:00.000Z2002-06-14T14:31:08.000Z 11 June 2002---------- Forget the 'dirty bomb' - this looks more like dirty tactics on the part of the Bush administration. There was no dirty bomb; there was no realistic prospect of a dirty bomb; and there was next-to-no possibility of a dirty bomb being detonated anywhere in the USA. Rather, the whole affair looks like a desperate attempt by Bush and co to deflect accusations that they have Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-775677882002-06-10T15:37:00.000Z2002-06-14T14:31:47.000Z 10 June 2002---------- Afghanistan's loya jirga, the grand assembly of tribal elders that will choose a transitional government for Afghanistan for the next 18 months, has got off to a bad start. According to the UK Guardian, the meeting 'has been delayed for 24 hours after more than 500 unexpected delegates showed up to take part': 'Organisers have 1501 names on the list of approved delegates;Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-774962702002-06-08T11:00:00.000Z2002-06-10T15:55:34.000Z 8 June 2002---------- The left is anti-war - but pro-imperialist. As the war talk and tension between India and Pakistan drags on, many in the anti-war movement are showing their true colours. They may be opposed to violence, bombing, shooting and bloodshed, but they're all in favour of Western interference in other states' affairs. In the name of avoiding all-out war between India and PakistanBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-774128862002-06-06T09:55:00.000Z2002-06-08T11:00:44.000Z 6 June 2002---------- According to Steve over at Daddy Warblogs, the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were 'acts of war' - and he chastises those on the left who refer to them just as 'crimes' or 'crimes against humanity'. 'A crime is a politically empty action', writes Steve. 'The intruder who steals your TV, or your car, or your wallet, is not attacking the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-773291182002-06-04T13:16:00.000Z2002-06-08T10:53:56.000Z 5 June 2002---------- I have always thought that one of the worst things about the 'Blogosphere' (God I hate that word, though it's not as bad as 'Blogistan') is that it is far too incestuous. There is far too much blog-on-blog linking and blog-v-blog debating, and not enough interaction with the outside world wide web. Some webloggers seem to have swallowed the hype about blogs 'challenging Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-773261642002-06-04T10:51:00.000Z2002-06-04T13:17:58.000Z 4 June 2002---------- How the peace process divided Ireland. Sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants is flaring in parts of Northern Ireland. On 3 June 2002, three people were injured in shootings as violence raged for the fourth night running in east Belfast. According to the BBC, ‘At one stage, up to 1000 people were involved in hand-to-hand fighting…[as] sectarian tensions Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-772900882002-06-03T15:46:00.000Z2002-06-08T11:02:36.000Z 3 June 2002---------- Another row is brewing over how many civilians have been killed in Afghanistan. Predictably, many on the left are talking the numbers up, claiming that thousands have been recklessly murdered by American bombs – while many on the right respond by saying ‘Not so’, cynically knocking the numbers down again. So instead of convincing political arguments for or against the war Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-772533332002-06-02T16:38:00.000Z2002-06-02T22:57:04.000Z 2 June 2002---------- Why does everyone hate Israel? From President Bush to the man in the street, everybody seems to have the same perception of Israel: that it’s a hardline, blinkered, intransigent state that refuses to give an inch on Palestinian territories, Palestinian rights, relations with Arab states, or just about anything. Israel is seen as an anachronistic imperialist nation, which Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-772161702002-06-01T10:55:00.000Z2002-06-03T15:48:04.000Z 1 June 2002---------- Jubilee celebrations have kicked off in Britain, as a nation half-heartedly celebrates Queen Elizabeth’s 50-year reign with street parties and other sorry spectacles. For readers who live in republics and democratic nations, I know it’s hard to believe that Britain - a supposedly modern country - still has an unelected head of state who got her job by virtue of being born Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-771797362002-05-31T12:03:00.000Z2002-06-01T10:57:12.000Z 31 May 2002---------- Last night I attended the London launch of Francis Fukuyama's latest book Our Posthuman Future. It wasn't your average book launch, where the author waxes lyrical about the content of his book before being asked polite and supportive questions by an audience of fans. Instead, Fukuyama was put on the spot by Gregory Stock and other eminent speakers, and by an audience of Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-771403522002-05-30T13:51:00.000Z2002-05-31T12:05:08.000Z 30 May 2002---------- A Short History of Britain's Role in the War on Terror. 17 March 2002: 'In we go - Royal Marines to wipe out al-Qaeda', declares the front page of the UK Sun. 18 March 2002: 'Expect marines to be killed', warns the Daily Telegraph. 18 April 2002: 'The question on all the marines' lips [is] "where are all the al-Qaeda fighters?"', reports the BBC. 19 April 2002: 'It's Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-770991442002-05-29T13:19:00.000Z2002-05-30T10:56:33.000Z 29 May 2002---------- 'The current tension and the build-up of military forces in Kashmir could all too easily spiral out of control into a conventional and then a nuclear conflict of a kind we have never seen before', said UK foreign secretary Jack Straw on 27 May 2002 - claiming that the consequences of such a war are 'all too easy to describe: death, destruction, disease and economic Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-770967342002-05-29T11:38:00.000Z2002-05-29T11:39:34.000Z 28 May 2002---------- Backchat special: On 17 May 2002 I asked, 'Is there such a thing as webloggers' protocol?', after a blogger told me to stop sending him email alerts about my site. His short, curt, rude message was 'stop the spam' - no greetings, no punctuation, no explanation, just 'stop the spam'. I've had a huge response. Iain Murray says, 'I'm shocked at this reaction to your Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-770184002002-05-27T09:46:00.000Z2002-05-30T13:54:57.000Z 27 May 2002---------- Today I emailed my good friends Mike and Rob over at Cursor to ask why they hadn't updated their site. 'Our European friends might not understand it's a holiday here in the States', responded Rob. This got me thinking. The relatively rare breed that is a British weblogger lives in a timewarp. Because the vast majority of webloggers (and indeed, most good websites ) are Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-769677722002-05-25T20:35:00.000Z2002-05-27T10:52:24.000Z 25 May 2002---------- Glenn Reynolds links to a number of anti-Israel petitions from around the world. The petitions give a glimpse into the changing nature of opposition to Israel. In the past, people tended to define themselves as anti-Israel as part of a broader anti-imperialism – in opposition to US and Western intervention abroad, whatever form intervention happened to take. Now, being Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-769227312002-05-24T13:41:00.000Z2002-05-27T10:53:06.000Z 24 May 2002---------- As Western politicians and commentators condemn India and Pakistan’s stand-off over Kashmir, and fret over the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse in South Asia, it’s easy to forget that the tensions in that region were exacerbated by the West’s ‘war on terror’. It was recent events in Afghanistan, and the tendency for states across the world to piggyback the war on terrorBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-769202632002-05-24T12:03:00.000Z2002-05-24T13:55:03.000Z 24 May 2002---------- Why the marines messed up. 'Sham in Bagram', screamed the UK Mirror on 16 May 2002, reporting that the Royal Marines' mountain mission in Afghanistan had gone from 'farce' to 'fiasco'. 'Operation Snipe to flush al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from the Afghan mountains ended not with a bang but with a whimper', accused the Mirror, pointing out that '16 gruelling days after Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-768600202002-05-22T23:30:00.000Z2002-05-24T12:04:13.000Z 23 May 2002---------- Why shouldn’t third world states have nuclear bombs? Of course that headline is intentionally provocative – but there’s a serious point behind it. In every debate about nuclear weapons today, the assumption seems to be that civilised, trustworthy Western states can have The Bomb, but uncivilised, murderous third world states cannot. Why? Nuclear bombs have hardly been outBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-768467192002-05-22T17:18:00.000Z2002-05-22T23:31:54.000Z 22 May 2002---------- Francis Fukuyama has come in for a lot of flak since the publication of Our Posthuman Future, particularly in the weblogging world. Since ‘coming out’ as anti-biotech, Fukuyama has been accused of turning his back on science, denigrating the pursuit of knowledge, and generally giving up on modernity. It’s not hard to see why. When Fukuyama paints nightmare scenarios like Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-767917152002-05-21T08:47:00.000Z2002-05-22T17:18:49.000Z 21 May 2002---------- The shame of the left. At first it was just annoying – all the endless anti-Bush carping about what Bush knew, didn’t know, should have known, and failed to do. Some left-wing websites turned their entire content over to mocking Bush and revelling in the revelations that the administration knew something prior to 11 September. It was annoying because it suggested that the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-767556162002-05-20T13:21:00.000Z2002-05-21T08:47:45.000Z 20 May 2002---------- spiked editor Mick Hume puts the 'did Bush know?' fever into context in this morning's London Times: 'Was September 11 preventable? The answer, of course, is yes. All the Bush administration had to do to prevent those terrorist attacks was to close down the entire civil airline industry and evacuate all skyscrapers and government buildings (or, better still, empty the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-767191972002-05-19T10:07:00.000Z2002-05-20T08:30:00.000Z 19 May 2002---------- What is the end result of the 'Bush knew' debate that has swept America? An 'abundance of caution'. That's how FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman describes the current climate in which American officials have released information about possible al-Qaeda plans to blow up apartment buildings. Of course, the information is 'non-specific', 'uncorroborated', 'not specific as to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-766917052002-05-18T11:56:00.000Z2002-05-19T10:17:18.000Z 18 May 2002---------- The news that President Bush was warned before 11 September that al-Qaeda planned to hijack planes has been jumped on by his critics. What better captures his incompetence as a president than the fact he didn't act on such intelligence? What better illustrates his willingness to lie than his continuing claims that 11 September could not have been prevented? It's official: Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-766581882002-05-17T14:07:00.000Z2002-05-20T13:31:42.000Z 17 May 2002---------- Is there such a thing as ‘webloggers’ protocol’? Don’t get me wrong – the last thing I want are rules, regulations, do’s and don’ts telling journalists, webloggers or anyone else what they can and cannot write. But two weeks into my weblog I seem to have committed a faux pas - or have I? I used to think that one of the best things about blogging was the free flow of Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-766203132002-05-16T14:49:00.000Z2002-05-24T13:51:20.000Z 16 May 2002---------- Britain is heading for a full-on Fukuyama-fest. His new book Our Posthuman Future was serialised in the Guardian this week, to much debate and disagreement. It was a bit unnerving to see commuters on their way to work reading articles headlined 'Sorry, but your soul just died', where Fukuyama asked 'What will happen to political rights once we are able to breed some Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-765796902002-05-15T16:12:00.000Z2002-05-16T10:29:54.000Z 15 May 2002---------- As the Afghan war drags on, one of the most popular theories doing the rounds is that it's a 'war for oil'. 'It has nothing to do with terrorism, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban or the World Trade Centre', said journalist Firoz Osman in December last year. 'The need and greed for oil and gas are once again the source of misery and tragedy.' The anti-war group Peace, No War Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-765742432002-05-15T13:55:00.000Z2002-05-16T14:12:28.000Z 15 May 2002---------- Since he was shot dead on 6 May 2002, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn has been turned into a symbol....of everything and anything. He's become a symbol of the gay cause, a symbol of the far right, a symbol of tolerance, a symbol of intolerance. And his death at the hands of a cranky vegan has been turned into a symbol of our supposedly out-of-control and unpredictable times. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-765364502002-05-14T15:18:00.000Z2002-05-15T13:57:22.000Z 14 May 2002---------- The Western media seems to have missed a central point about the Likud Party's majority vote against Ariel Sharon's proposals on a Palestinian state. Far from indicating a return to intransigent hard lines of old, recent Likud debates show that the party's policies are far more fluid than some think. Prime minister Sharon suffered a ‘humiliating defeat’ at the hands of hisBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-764744182002-05-12T23:46:00.000Z2002-05-14T15:32:15.000Z 13 May 2002---------- Nothing better captures the gap between the Bush administration’s rhetoric and reality on the ground than Jimmy Carter’s visit to Cuba this week. On 6 May 2002, US under-secretary of state John Bolton made a speech entitled ‘Beyond the axis of evil’, where he added Cuba (and Libya and Syria) to the ‘axis of evil’ that already consisted of Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Then, Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-764630342002-05-12T17:01:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:07:03.000Z 12 May 2002---------- The many myths of Operation Anaconda. 'Operation Anaconda was a resounding defeat as far as al-Qaeda is concerned', said major-general Robert Fry, head of the British Royal Marines in Afghanistan, on 23 April 2002. 'The casualties [al-Qaeda] sustained were considerable', claimed Fry, 'and the fact that they have chosen not to appear in large numbers since then is evidence Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-764303492002-05-11T15:01:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:07:51.000Z 11 May 2002---------- It's been a weird week in Europolitics. On the morning of 6 May 2002, most European folk had probably never heard of Pim Fortuyn, a bald, fiftysomething, gay politician from Holland, who had outraged some with his right-wing views on immigration and integration (and others with his openness about being gay). But by the evening of 6 May - following Fortuyn's shooting by whatBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-764000522002-05-10T16:07:00.000Z2002-05-14T15:19:46.000Z 10 May 2002---------- I always suspected that my students’ love of Linux was more a pose than a genuine belief in Linux’s superiority to other operating systems. I teach online journalism and many of my students are fashionably anti-Microsoft. But none of them can ever tell me what is so special about Linux without delivering what sounds like a rehearsed speech on Linux’s ‘challenge to the normsBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-763236472002-05-09T00:31:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:09:20.000Z 9 May 2002---------- Whatever happened to 'Hands Off' – that anti-imperialist slogan that demanded no Western interference whatsoever in third world affairs? There was 'Hands off Vietnam', 'Hands off the Middle East', 'Hands off Ireland', 'Hands off Latin America' – the rallying cries of an anti-war movement that opposed the right of America, Britain, France or any other dominant nation to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-762813952002-05-07T23:36:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:10:16.000Z 8 May 2002---------- The news that at least 16 people have been killed by a suicide bomber in Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv rightly shocks us all. It also captures the now-degraded nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where neither side has anything left to fight for. Whichever side you happened to take in the past, the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis at least had a certain Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-762562082002-05-07T09:38:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:11:04.000Z 7 May 2002---------- European politicians and the media are at a loss over the murder of far-right Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. UK prime minister Tony Blair was due to go to Rotterdam today specifically to campaign against Fortuyn - now he is expressing his (in)sincere condolences and talking the murder up as a serious attack on democracy. Others are trying to work out what might have driven Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3493221.post-762016012002-05-06T01:18:00.000Z2002-05-13T00:12:07.000Z 6 May 2002---------- Nobody can be surprised that Jacques Chirac won a resounding victory in the French presidential elections - considering that the campaign had been reduced to a choice between the talked-up threat of rotten fascism as represented by Le Pen, and not rotten fascism as represented by Chriac. 'Fraud rather than hate, Chirac rather than Le Pen' said one of the placards in last Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17660769938780665807noreply@blogger.com