Take It As Red

I've been quite busy this week one way and another, what with work and taking a dewy eyed American physicist on the red-light/coffeeshop/museum tour of Amsterdam, so have not blogged much. Nevertheless the world has still turned, so here's a quick roundup of the week's events and my reactions to them:

Prince Harry and the Swastika: (And doesn't that sound like the new JK Rowling title?) So, an overprivileged, sloppily educated, motherless and badly brought up semi-adolescent dresses up as Rommel. Same old same old, a thick as a brick aristocracy who have no idea of history or how ordinary people think. Media go wild, big fucking deal. What's the real story? Since the Murdoch press has been deprived of its rightful prey, ie the story behind Harry's real parentage, they'll take anything they can get. The media has been gunning for him for a long time. I wonder whatever came of that 'People' attempt to get a DNA sample?


Kos, MyDD and that whole payola thing:

Sigh, the American left shoots itself in the foot again. Yes, the WSJ lied, and continues to lie that you took money from Dean for favourable blogging. It's a lie got up by the Republican noise machine, as always, to divert attention from the whole Armstrong Williams, ace black commentator, taking taxpayers money to push Bush policy thing - any idiot can see that. But again, the lefty blogopshere sucumbs to the bait and switch operation they have fallen for so many times before. The alleged story, that Kos and Jerome of MyDD were paid consultants for Howard Dean's campaign, has been common knowledge since the campaign and was declared prominently on both blogs. Dean staffers are also on record as saying the consultancy fees were for form, not content. This 'story' only continues to run because the left bloggers are letting it.

Note to lefty bloggers: shit or get off the pot. Kos is a lawyer. So sue the fuckers for libel, and name O'Reilly, and Fox as co-defendant with the WSJ. Every time they republish the lie it's defamation. It's not as though the evidence isn't there. Keeping on blogging about how badly done-by you've been merely keeps the story alive. If it's money that's the issue, I'm sure we can all help. And it's not as though there's no precedent: a Boston judge is sueing a reporter for libel for reporting that he told a 14yr old rape victim to 'get over it', a libel repeated, surprise surprise, by O'Reilly and Fox.

"Murphy, who claims he never said ''tell her to get over it," has sued the Herald and four of its writers for libel. The case is scheduled to go to trial on Wednesday.

Citing more than a dozen articles, Murphy accuses the newspaper of waging a ''malicious and relentless campaign" that has destroyed his personal and professional reputation. He also plans to use statements a Herald reporter made on television to prove his ''malicious state of mind" in writing the articles.

David Wedge, the main reporter on the story, said on Fox's ''The O'Reilly Factor" three weeks after the story ran in the Herald that Murphy had made disparaging remarks about other crime victims, not just the 14-year-old rape victim.

When host Bill O'Reilly asked Wedge if he was sure Murphy said the rape victim should ''get over it," Wedge replied, ''Yes. He made this comment to three lawyers. He knows he said it, and everybody else that knows this judge knows that he said it."

Wedge later said in a deposition that only one of the lawyers heard the comment firsthand and the other two just repeated it to Wedge. The prosecutor who claims to have heard the comment, David Crowley, said in his deposition that he recalled Murphy saying the words ''get over it," but couldn't remember the judge's exact quote."

They have form for this sort of thing. For once, can someone on the left stand up and fight for themselves properly instead of just bleating about it ineffectually on their blog?

Titan and Huygens:

This is where I get all "Oh wow!" while feeling incredible liberal guilt about the cost and what that money could have done for the poor. But on the other hand, Oh wow! Pictures of Titan's surface! Look!

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