The Current Outlook

You might be interested in watching Channel 4’s Dispatches tonight, which is about the Government’s attempts at destroying British liberty.

Here’s the DigiGuide entry:

DOCUMENTARY: Dispatches
Channel: Channel 4
Date: Monday 27th February 2006
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
Duration: 1 hour.
Stealing Freedom.
Political commentator Peter Hitchens takes a look at how the recent avalanche of security legislation has affected the civil liberties of ordinary people in Britain. He argues that the government’s measures, designed to protect us from crime and terrorism, are in fact a menace to freedom and not a threat to criminals.

It should be interesting stuff and something to watch before the last episode of the series of Life on Mars over on BBC ONE. Can’t wait!

The new British non-aligned civil liberties website Liberty Central (set up by Unity of Talk Politics) has just been set up and running this Monday morning. Go, have a look, register, bookmark/remember, whatever.

Tim Worstall has the 54th Britblog Roundup up on his website. Go and have a read.

An appeal from the Catholic Church for New Zealanders to boycott an episode of South Park has resulted in a record audience there for the controversial cartoon.

Bwahahahahahahaha. Etc. Etc.

Ahem.

This story is music to my ears. The only thing that religious bigots will achieve by pouring scorn on something from the media (whether that be music, TV, cinema, computer games or anything else) is giving the item free publicity.

Good stuff.

My brush with the law at Heathrow reveals our intimidating relationship with the modern state

Well, this is a turn up for the books - liberty from this half-baked socialist rag. It’s a decent article, by the way - she’s got it bang on the money here.

Actor Joe Pesci has been told he will not face charges over allegations that he assaulted a member of the public.

No doubt Mr. Pesci could (and should) have worked out a better way to deal with Mr. Montenegro instead of smacking him one in the mouth but at the end of the day if this chap was such a ‘big fan’, why didn’t he leave Mr. Pesci alone to carry on with his lawful business if he didn’t want to be bothered?

A row between Catholics and media firm CanWest has escalated with the controversial “Bloody Mary” episode of South Park screening on television tonight, weeks ahead of schedule.

I think the episode is due to be aired an hour or so from now over in New Zealand. This episode of South Park was aired on American TV about three and a half months ago and that’s about the time I saw it (the Internet is a wonderful thing). It’s quite funny but what certain sections of religion - particularly the more authoritarian kind don’t seem to understand that the reason that so many like South Park is the way it’s disgusting and generally gross in order to get its point across.

…I’m back on my own machine with Internet access. Just USB and some other stuff to sort out now. There’s two weeks of blogs to catch up on but… I can’t be bothered, frankly.

Irish Blood, English Heart, Ulster Fry is a book written by Annie Caulfield, who was born and brought up in Northern Ireland but moved away when she was young to the London of the 1960s.

This book is basically about Northern Ireland away from the bullet and bomb stuff. It does discuss the Troubles and the political side of it but mainly it’s about the people she meets on a return trip to Ulster. It’s a funny and informative read and quite touching in some places. An entertaining page-turner.