I went to see The Ring 2 (review: same old formula, but quite scary, a half decent story, and a touch of wierdness — that’ll be the Japanese influence), and beforehand was an advert for MSN in which a guy was raving about how good this re-enactment of Jaws was but with bunnies and how it’s got all the classic lines but it’s only 30 seconds long, and you can find it by typing “shark bunnies” into MSN Search. So I did (except I used Google). Don’t miss also the Amy’s Diary section.

I also saw a trailer for a Steven Speilberg version of War of the Worlds. I always enjoy a good sci-fi aliens movie, but I have a prediction: This movie will be hugely hyped; it will actually be quite good; everyone will complain that it was over-hyped.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 10:10 AM EST

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I’m still here in California, slightly better at skiing and now fully recovered from Hummer Night.

Today I was tickled by this Ernest Benn quote:

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

on Guido Fawkes Blog, which is all about poking fun at politicians, which can only be a good thing. Guido has been keeping track of David Blunkett’s career, which includes working as an advisor to Indepen Consulting Ltd., some of whose clients, “possibly stand to earn billions out of ID cards and the information systems for the proposed central population register”. Coincidence?

Meanwhile over at Samizdata, we have the story of the man who wrote a book in Austria and faces up to two years in jail after being charged with blasphemy in Greece (but I’m sure the politicians who came up with the European arrest warrant had good intentions).

And in response to Jonathan Pearce’s article about eminent domain — the ability of the government to seize private property — Toolkien relates the story of a philanthropist who donated money to an arts project. So far so good, except the project was run by the city who used eminent domain to have local businesses demolished to make space for it. Toolkien notes,

It’s funny how a big businessman can throw his money around, put the government in his pocket, trounce the little guy, but if it is for Art the typical lefty howlers can’t keep the platitudes from rolling.

This got me thinking about a common argument for government regulation: that it stops big business ripping off the little guy. More often, though, the little guy is the small businessman, and the big guy is the government. Certainly here in the USA big businesses, far from ripping off the little guy, are falling over themselves to do everything they can for him.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 7:42 AM EST

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I haven’t had much time for blogging lately because I’m in California with work. My days consist of get up; go to work; work all day; work most of the evening; go out for dinner; go to the hotel bar; go to bed. Six of them, and then a day off on Sunday, when I’ve been lucky enough to go skiing once and hopefully will again tomorrow. See the photos!

California is quite possibly the best place on Earth. Where else is it more or less Summer all year round? Where else can you go to the beach one day and skiing the next? Everything is clean and new. Going out is cheap — in fact most things are cheaper than the UK, especially with the current exchange rate. Service is always friendly, accomodating and enthusiastic: just last night the hotel barman who was closing up when we arrived stayed open to serve us drinks, put out bar snacks and chatted away to us for an hour. And as for the Californian girls…

Okay, so it might be the taxingest, most lefty state of America but it still has far less government interference than in the UK. And in the USA there is at least debate about how big government should be instead of just how the spoils should be shared out. And I can go to the range.

Anyway, here’s an idea of some of the blogging I might have done if I hadn’t been otherwise engaged.

Brian Micklethwait wrote this Quote Of The Year:

I do not hate politicians because they have wives whom they cannot Stepfordise, brothers or sons whom they cannot keep from getting drunk, or because they sometimes get in a mess with their money. This is often the only stuff about these people that I do like.

Meanwhile, never fall into the trap of thinking that Chimpanzees are cute and cuddly. They are wild animals and have a capacity for brutal cruelty.

St. James lost all of his fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek and lips, and part of his buttocks. The terrifying attack lasted five to seven minutes

St James and La Donna Davis were visiting the pet chimp when other chimps attacked them. Their pet was not involved in the attack, but it’s worth noting that it was sent to live in the sanctuary after it “bit a West Covina police officer and chomped on a woman’s finger”.

Other news sources are reporting even more horrific injuries. According to ABC News: “His testicles and a foot also were severed”. The man is only alive because the attacking chimps were shot by the sactuary owner’s brother-in-law with a .45 calibre revolver. After reading all this there’s no way I’m ever going to go near a chimpanzee.

Talking of people being saved by guns, I can never understand it when someone goes on a shooting spree and no-one shoots back. Terry Ratzmann from Wisconsin shot seven people in a church, and no-one fired back even when he stopped to reload. If only it was widely considered a matter of responsibility to carry a firearm for the defense of oneself and others. If I could get a concealed carry license I would, for just this reason.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 6:26 PM EST

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Fox News has never been the BBC’s best friend. Tonight Fox is gloating over the fact that the BBC has broadcast a report “so one sided” that they have been forced to apologise. They reported a suicide bombing in Israel by showing the grieving of the bombers family, and no mention of the victims’ families’ suffering.

Seems like the typical BBC attitude to me. The story is not on the Fox website yet, but the BBC’s “correction” is online.

Footnote: While searching for those links, I found an article about a photo of a boy beaten up by Palestinians that was represented by the New York Times as a photo of a Palestinian beaten up by Israeli police. It gets better: “Even more remarkable is that Arab groups have adopted Grossman’s photo to use in their own propaganda campaigns”. Read the whole article, and check out the whole site.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 5:57 AM EST

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I’ve been watching Fox News in my hotel room this evening. I’ve heard all kinds of terrible things about how biased Fox News is and how this explains why Americans are so ignorant because they all watch Fox News. Fox definitely presents a more right wing point of view in its editorial. I think this is a healthy reaction to an otherwise mostly left wing media, but what about accusations that Fox News is not fair and balanced?

The news bulletins themselves are just like any other. They present the news, that’s it. They may be selective in what news stories they present and the emphasis each story is given, but I couldn’t spot any obvious signs of this in one evening.

I watched two programmes. Your World discussed various current affairs such as the US pension reforms and the effects of increased life expectancy, pharmeceutical regulation and the fate of US car manufacturers. What struck me was that most of the interviews were with CEOs of companies and business people. In other words, people who actually earn a living, rather than the usual rabble of politicians and activists I’m used to seeing interviewed on the BBC. I found this quite refreshing, especially on seeing one interviewee, James Glassman of Tech Central Station describe himself as a dyed in the wool libertarian. You could argue that the choice of interviewees was unbalanced, but for me in the UK, it was a rare chance to get firsthand the viewpoints of people largely unrepresented on TV interview shows. And the interviewer, Neil Cavuto, was polite but asked all the pertinent questions. He read out a charming editorial on the plight of a New York doorman in the snow.

The second show was Hannity & Colmes. At first I was slightly shocked by Hannity. He is clearly a Republican, perfectly towing the party line. His interview style is bizarre: he is very aggressive and constanly interrupts. But he’s balanced by Colmes, who takes the liberal side and is far more capable of coherent argument than Hannity. When discussing Jeb Bush’s plans to use public money to fund a Catholic abortion advice hotline, Hannity interviews the pro-choice campaigner and Colmes interviews the anti-abortion campaigner. All sides get their points across. It seemed fair and balanced to me.

As I type this another interviewer who has just been giving a hard time to a guy representing ACLU, who are suing Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly authorising torture, is saying, “I’m going to give you the last word. Thirty seconds, uninterrupted, to say whatever you want to say.”

One thing that counts against Fox News, though, is that all the female anchors have really big hair. There’s definitely something suspicious going there.

A couple of other things: I’ve noticed a few interviewees using the word ‘victocrat’. This refers to someone with a victim mentality, and presumably is a slur on Democrats. “Don’t be a victocrat,” is the advice of one interviewee on Your World. “If you work hard, surprise surprise, you’ll be successful.” And from what I’ve seen tonight, I’ll be surprised if Michael Jackson is found guilty. There seem to be too many problems with the prosecution’s case.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Reviews at 9:16 AM EST

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