The Ranter welcomes the Social Democracy webring
We have been invited to join the Social Democracy webring.
Read More The Ranter welcomes the Social Democracy webringBlogroll: Gregorian Rants, Life in the Crescent
The Ranter welcomes two new blogrollers, Gregorian Rants, and Life in the Crescent. Thanks.
Read More Blogroll: Gregorian Rants, Life in the CrescentI think I’m going to give up Radio 5
Why? Because it scares me. Because it endangers my mental health by inducing me to snarl and grrr at the babbling noisebox in my living room. Because it makes me feel fascism is coming soon. No, this is not the beginning of a counter-I Believe in the BBC campaign. It’s not the reporting or the…
Read More I think I’m going to give up Radio 5How to have a constitutional crisis: advice!
1. Somebody has to be unnecessarily arrogant. 2. Someone else has to be unreasonably stubborn. 3. Both have to develop severe target fixation. 4. The whole must involve the institutions society sets up to prevent these occasions. 5. Stir. So – all these have now been followed, and we have a crisis! Now, the Ranter…
Read More How to have a constitutional crisis: advice!Ballet, war and blogs
“Ballet is the one form of theater where nobody speaks a foolish word all evening—nobody on the stage at least. That’s why it becomes so popular in any civilized country during a war.” Edwin Denby, Dance Writings from Dual Loyalty. Very wise. I wonder if, had he heard about this, his attitude might have been…
Read More Ballet, war and blogsThe Iraq Communications Group, Valerie Plame and something called WHIG
Does anyone remember something called the Iraq Communications Group? It was the team of spindoctors and spooks chaired by Alastair Campbell in the run-up to the war with Iraq that – depending on who you believe – either did or didn’t sex up the dossiers. After all, Ali C stated to the Foreign Affairs Committee…
Read More The Iraq Communications Group, Valerie Plame and something called WHIGMassacre in Iraq – is this the first shot of the civil war?
Link The terrorists – and I mean terrorists, no Robert Fisk fastidiousness with language this time – are back in town. At least 140 dead in two attacks on mosques on the holiest day in the Shia calendar, one in Baghdad and one in Karbala. Hard not to read the symbols – Karbala, the holy…
Read More Massacre in Iraq – is this the first shot of the civil war?How the great power blackouts happened..
Interesting article, if a little techy, on the giant power failures in the USA last summer and their cause – the gap between the engineering realities of the electricity system and the tortuous attempt to impose a market system on it. Basically, the problem was that the marketisers saw the system as a large number…
Read More How the great power blackouts happened..US Transportation Security Administration follow the Ranter
Reuters – US to station inspectors at foreign airports Well, I proposed the establishment of British security controls on British aircraft and shipping in US ports right here on the blog not so long ago, in response to the regular US-inspired security scares. But it seems to have become US policy to do the opposite…
Read More US Transportation Security Administration follow the RanterUS airport security staff “X-ray own brains”
9NEWS.com – Story Some of the Transportation Security Administration’s highly trained security screeners have taken their zeal for total security one step further by apparently attempting to make sure terrorists were not hiding in their heads. Or something. “The Transportation Security Administration is not saying exactly who x-rayed themselves or when because of privacy reasons,…
Read More US airport security staff “X-ray own brains”