Good News

Good News

>> MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2011

Because of my writings on this blog I am honoured to receive a regular email newsletter called ‘Good news From Israel’ . It’s compiled by Michael Ordman who is now a contributor to JPost. Israel’s acheivements and innovations are too numerous to mention, and far more newsworthy that the Israel-related stories that have to be negative to qualify for a mention on the BBC. So here is a link, and here is another. Check them out, BBC. You might learn something.

QUITE INTERESTING

Here's John Lloyd, producer of BBC quiz show QI, at a recent sustainable energy awards ceremony. He begins with a couple of gags before giving his audience what it really wants to hear - some classic end-of-civilisation eco-bullshit hyperbole:

"Unless ideas like these get heard, by the twenty-second century there isn't going to be any one here to hear about them. All these tsunamis and twisters we're seeing, these volcanoes and floods and earthquakes, they're not a kind of giant snooze alarm suggesting that it's nearly time to get up and do something about it. They're a fire alarm, and it's not a test."

So, mankind must adopt sustainable energy to prevent its annihilation due to tsunamis, twisters, volcanoes, floods and earthquakes. OK, I know the eco-zealots have already made tenuous claim to tornadoes and floods for their cause, but is it the case that tsunamis, volcanoes and earthquakes have now been declared acceptable in the realm of mainstream climate change propaganda? Lloyd is after all the producer of a show based around the theme of obscure facts, so maybe he knows something the rest of us don't. Perhaps we really do have to turn off our kettles to prevent tsunamis. Or perhaps Mr Lloyd has spent far too long interacting with smug like-minded luvvies in the media bubble (eg Richard Curtis) to realise when he's talking crap.

OPEN THREAD

We're onto to the tenth page of comments on the last open thread so it's probably time for a new one.

FREI'S TO GO...

... but things will stay the same. Matt Frei's final edition of Americana before leaving the BBC gave him the chance to talk - once again - with one of his "favourite Washingtonians", the Palin-hating conspiracy nut Andrew Sullivan. It was everything you'd expect from a BBC discussion on US affairs - Sullivan asserted (without any contradiction from Frei) that Donald Rumsfeld is a war criminal and that the highly partisan nature of politics in Washington is pretty much all the fault of the Republicans (who really should move to the left like Cameron's - ahem - Conservatives). Their chat finished with some inevitable mockery of Sarah Palin. Of course Frei's departure won't change a thing at the BBC (I noted in the comments that one of the first tweets sent by new Washington correspondent Adam Blenford after he started his new role was an approving link to Sullivan's Daily Dish blog). The ongoing crusade against the American Right [cue scary music] continued this morning on the Today programme when Jim Naughtie discussed new BBC hate-figure Michelle Bachmann with Mark Mardell. The BBC's North America editor, on-messageas ever, took the opportunity to mention a three-month old gaffe from the prospective presidential candidate. Isn't it amazing how these BBC US correspondents seemingly can dredge up every mistake ever made by any Republican of any note and yet never report a single one of the many verbal embarrassments from the mouth of Obama who is, y'know, actually president? (My favourite recent one - Obama last month describing the "Teutonic shift in the Middle East". Imagine the fun the BBC would have had with that one if it had been Bachmann or Palin. Instead, nothing.)