Disqus - Latest Comments for Nosemonkey

Re: Blogging as a depressing exercise

Nosemonkey — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 07:09:29 -0000

I have yet to see a single online discussion about the middle east that hasn't descended into wild accusations and hissy fits within the first few comments. Same with The War Against Terror as a whole. Which is precisely why I usually try to avoid writing about the damn things.

Which is, most likely, why my visitor rate has dropped to about 10% of what it was when I was briefly all terrorism news, all the time. (During which time I had a post devoted to my dhimmitude on Little Green Footballs, which was fun. The fact that it was at about 1pm on 7th July 2005 and my "appeasement of islamists" was due to my telling someone off in the comments for suggesting mosque burning as an appropriate response seemed not to matter one jot to the rabid racist rascals across the pond...)

Re: Censoring on behalf of Muslims

Nosemonkey — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:13:48 -0000

"liberals who censor" - by my definition of the word "liberal", that's an oxymoron...

Re: Blasts in Mumbai

Nosemonkey — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:45:40 -0000

Any news on reputable relief funds yet? A few had been set up within hours of the 7/7 London bombs - even if none of them were exactly efficient and many have yet to channel money through to the victims.

Sad to say, I imagine that Israel's decision to invade Lebanon will shunt this well and truly off the news agenda after just 24 hours. As it is, British coverage has already started to shift to "human interest", with reports on "how British Indians have responded to the news", rather than reporting the news itself...

Re: …. how does this infidel fing work?

Nosemonkey — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 05:14:48 -0000

Ha ha ha!

*wanders off to convert to Islam*

Re: News worth reading

Nosemonkey — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:59:29 -0000

Why did the WTC collapse? Sod that - the more important question is how can any of you believe that a metal object weighing several hundred tonnes can fly through the air at 400 miles per hour to hit the WTC in the first place? It simply DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! My computer weighs far less than that, but when I threw it out the window it feel straight onto the patio - there's no way it would make it across the street, let alone several hundred miles to slam into the side of a skyscraper.

Re: Overdue thanks to some people

Nosemonkey — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 04:40:38 -0000

"Political heavyweight"? Moi? If only I had the salary to go with it...

Good work with this place though, old boy - you wouldn't be getting the links if you weren't doing something readable and worthwhile. The internet's a meritocracy - especially if you get your baps out.

Re: Film on Islam’s attitude to homosexuality

Nosemonkey — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:14:27 -0000

"Christianity in particular is not as disgustingly misogynist as Islam"

Eh? Not now (mostly), but how long has the CofE had female clergy for? Has the Catholic Church had women clergy yet?

How about the millennium and a half (at least) in which women throughout the Christian world were kept in a subordinate position, largely based on the Bible's descriptions of the first woman being responsible for man's fall (underlined innumerable times throughout with untrustworthy women - Delilah etc.)? How about that because of this male-dominated, Biblically-supported western European society women were not even granted the vote in Britain - dominated by what is supposedly a "reformed" version of Christianity - until less than 90 years ago?

(And as an aside, why did European culture shift from the Greek/Roman acceptance of homosexuality towards a revulsion of it during the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire? Simple answer - the rise of the Church.)

Most Christian countries have now moved on from the repression of women, granted, and have mostly made at least some progress towards gay rights - but have they moved on BECAUSE they are Christian? Doubtful - because otherwise surely they would have done it centuries ago?

Re: Hizb ut-Tahrir caught with pants down

Nosemonkey — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:12:31 -0000

That was odd - some kind of alternate username stored in my autocomplete...

Re: Hizb ut-Tahrir caught with pants down

Nosemonkey — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:10:32 -0000

The UCL thing is bizarre. That university was set up on an entirely secular basis, and any kind of religious recruiting/worship is banned there under rules more than a century old (it doesn't even have a chapel or church attached to it). Via the Student Union there are religious societies, but they always used to be fairly strictly controlled. The one exception when I was there (a few years back now, way before any of the recent unpleasantness) was the Islamic Society, which - technically in breach of university rules, but with the assent of the Union - took over a room every week for prayers.

So the thing that gets me - and sod the allegations of nutty types recruiting - is why the hell did UCL ever deem the Islamic Society a special case in the first place? It's the one university in the country with a ban on all religions, and a ban for entirely liberal reasons. Very odd...

Re: Are blogs the new clips? | Martin Stabe

Nosemonkey — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 07:37:13 -0000

I've been pondering this myself recently. I'm thinking of applying for a new dayjob on another magazine - do I include the blog on my CV or not?

Plus points:

The blog's gone down fairly well since I started it, and has got some recognition from respectable mainstream sources.

I've written some good pieces for it, even though they are never really planned, and usually spur-of-the-moment first drafts.

Minus points:

Via my Blogger profile they can see my other blog, full of swearing and offensiveness, where I let off steam.

I've written some utter rubbish on my main blog as well.

The unplanned nature of most of my posts means that there are usually flaws which, in professional writing, I would have edited out before submitting.

The fact that I post at all times of the day would immediately suggest to any potential employer that I don't devote my entire working day to my job.

In short: tricky...

Re: UK views dominate EU memes | Martin Stabe

Nosemonkey — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:22:37 -0000

Yep. Sounds pretty much spot on to me - I'll occasionally read some French newspapers and blogs, but my language skills are shaky at best. It's hard to keep track of what's going on in all those many places where I can't understand the language. And while I'm moaning about not being able to read things, why the hell does the FT have to have a subscription site? Cursed people doing things for money... It seems to have a lot of useful things to add to the EU debate, but I never get a chance to read 'em.

Good spot.

Re: Apply to be a Today programme blogger

Nosemonkey — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 05:05:18 -0000

Hmmm... they all seem to be doing this - the Times is after free labour and all, and there are a couple of others to boot.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-15109...

I guess this is what happens when you slice editorial budgets...

Re: Two wasted years

Nosemonkey — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 05:43:37 -0000

Just noticed this - somewhat odd - you started just one day after me... Then again, I didn't post much (at all) for the first 18 months, and there are over 6 million blogs in the world, so I suppose it's not actually that amazing...

Re: British blogs: mass medium or elite opinion-leading?

Nosemonkey — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:01:21 -0000

Hits through being linked by Channel 4 - about six.

Hits through being linked by the Guardian's Newsblog - about twenty.

Hits via being shortlisted for the Guardian's weblog awards - about twenty extra a day for about a week.

Hits via being linked by Instapundit - about nine hundred one day, five hundred the day after, two hundred the day after that.

Make of that what you will. But you are almost certainly right that the way blogs (in this country, at least) are likely to have an impact is via extant "opinion-formers" picking up on them - and then usually ripping them off without credit.