Blair ‘said he would stand down’

Right now, very little could make me happier than to find out for sure that this extended speculation, as well as the attacks from the Tories, are as a result of Tony Blair’s misjudged attempts to manipulate the press. It still seems much more likely to me than the speech timing being a coincidence, particularly under Alistair Campbell’s grid system… And I was disgusted to read that Alistair Campbell is being rehired to play a role in the election campaigning. How can anyone vote for such a dirty party? There’s hardly anyone left who hasn’t spent at least some time on the scrap heap.

Lewd, licentious yet lovely

If anyone was offended by Jerry Spinger: The Opera, then they are over-sensitive. It did not, as the Christians claim, mock anybody’s religious beliefs. Yes, it featured Jesus in a nappy singing that he might be a little bit gay, and out of context that does sound terribly offensive. And yes, it did contain an awful lot of swearing. But it was clearly not mocking religion, it was mocking the absurdity of Jerry Springer, and similar TV shows, and mocking the elitism of opera.

It did this through hyperbole. What more ridiculous situation could there be than a TV argument between Jesus and the Devil, moderated by Jerry Springer? That isn’t insulting to religion, it’s insulting to the over-grand self-importance of American talk shows. A provacative talk show host cannot reunite heaven and hell any more than an eleison can be based on the name of a talk show host. Both are hilariously absurd – and anybody who doesn’t respect Christian teachings simply wouldn’t get the joke.

The whole thing is a bit excessive and extreme, but that’s the point. The church should be embracing cultural formats that poke fun at quick-fix TV solutions to life’s problems, not shunning them. Unless, of course, their apparent faith is so weak that they believe that their religion is one of those quick-fix solutions. In which case, they deserve mocking.

It was an excellent opera, both musically and ideologically, and I heartily congratulate the Beeb for being brave enough to go ahead with it.

The art of swearing

It would help me a lot in the struggle to retain my sanity if people would kindly wait until they have seen Jerry Springer: The Opera to comment on it. And as for the Christian complaints, doesn’t Christianity forbid prejudice?

The reason I chose this particular piece to link to was purely for the following quote:

The Sun – headlines yesterday included “I had sex with chatline girl – and her boyfriend” – doesn’t always spring to mind as custodian of the nation’s morals, though it does insert asterisks in swear word so readers are not shocked by full-frontal contact with missing vowels and consonants.

I’ll be watching tonight and, no doubt, commenting on it at some point.

And, as a side-note, if you’re wondering about The Guardian’s position on swearing after its criticism of The Sun:

We are more liberal than any other newspaper, using words such as cunt and fuck that most of our competitors would not use.

The editor’s guidelines are straightforward:

First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend.

Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes.

Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it.

Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a copout.

Ask Belle a question (Guardian)

Just an update on the earlier post about Belle de Jour: The Guardian are now looking for people to put their questions to Belle, the responses to which will be posted on their site next week.

Use of sex to sell alcohol is criticised

Of course: We all know it should be the other way round.

Big Brother: 50K bribe sex shocker! (DS:BB)

Even Channel Four wouldn’t be this pathetic and exploitative. If they refuse to market BB Condoms and Alcohol because they’re worried that it would play into the critics’ hands, then there’s no way on Earth on they’re going to offer money for sex. Besides which, common sense says they wouldn’t be that stupid.

Nice to see that the Daily Mail likes Big Brother again. Can’t imagine what made me think they didn’t like it. Oh, maybe it was this. Or this. Or this. Or one of the hundreds of other articles where they said just that.

From feminist sister to Big Brother housemate (Guardian)

So Germaine Greer is on Celebrity Big Brother. That should certainly make it interesting. According to this particular article,

Producers hope that she will have a similar presence on the show as journalist Janet Street-Porter in the recent I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! injecting an element of quirkiness.

If so, then the producers will probably be disappointed, as Greer is actually sane. She’s also very good at making sensible arguments, case in point:

Analysing the phenomenon further, she said: “Reality TV is not the end of civilisation as we know it it is civilisation as we know it.”

Go Germaine.

Brown and I united, insists Blair (BBC News)

A very good use of an apparent disadvantage here between Brown and Blair. Without this clash, their speeches (and therefore their agendas) wouldn’t have got nearly such wide coverage. And the clash doesn’t really damage them, it’s always been fairly clear that there’s a rift of some kind between Blair and Brown and this just adds fuel to the speculation. A very Blairite media manipulation, if you ask me.

I’ve been using the beta version of MSN Messenger 7 for a couple of days now, and I think it’s rather good. There are no particularly huge changes, but I do quite like the addition of Winks and Nudges (though the novelty may wear off soon).

Anyway, it’s definitely worth a click.

This is a good thing. Free AntiSpyware software from Microsoft. And, we are told, AntiVirus software is on its way too. Perhaps Microsoft are becoming more responsibly, cuddly, and caring.

If you choose to click the link above, please be aware that it might take a few tries to actually work – it seems Microsoft is somewhat overloaded with hits at the moment (unsurpisingly), so you might get a 404 error.