Archive for October, 2007

October 31st, 2007
Of auditors and ambassadors
by John B

Craig Murray is the UK’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan. He’s an excellent exposer of evilness in ex-Soviet extremities, and was one of the main figures behind the campaign to stop Alisher Usmanov gaining control of Arsenal. In short, he’s a good man.
However, he’s not a man who should really be writing about financial statements. At [...]


13 Comments



October 24th, 2007
Proportionate, just and sane
by John B

The War Against Terror has reached a new high-point:
A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court. The 17-year-old, who was arrested in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire on Monday, was given bail after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. It is alleged he had a copy [...]


6 Comments



October 13th, 2007
Conversing not culture-warring
by Larry

Norman Geras has written a response to my post about Richard Dawkins. This is my reply to him.


4 Comments



October 10th, 2007
Culture-War not Conversation
by Larry

Britain’s top political commentators last week descended on Richard Dawkins with all the careful analysis of a flock of vultures.


28 Comments



October 10th, 2007
A new verb: to usmanov
by Phil Hunt

I’ve just invented a new word:
usmanov /’us mÉ™ nÉ’v/ verb to unsuccessfully attempt to stifle undesired content on the Internet by taking legal action against websites where the content appears, with the result that the undesired content becomes more widespread and better known. [named after Alisher Usmanov, a Russian/Uzbek billionaire who did this regarding allegations [...]


2 Comments



October 4th, 2007
A quick thought on ID cards
by Larry

Most of the concern about the government’s proposed ID card scheme stems not from the cards themselves, but from the enormous pool of centralized information which would underlie them. Plenty of suspicious minds believe that this is actually the real purpose of the plan.
But if Gordon Brown wants access to a vast system of interlinked [...]


6 Comments