NEWS: SCANDAL! OUTRAGE!

27/05/2009

Unless you live in a neighbourhood where the spaghetti houses are painted on like the Road Runner’s coyote repellant caves or if witnesses to crimes in said neighbourhood never seem to see or hear anything, you probably have noticed the dash of scandal threatening to undo the entire system of parliamentary democracy.  Who would have thought that public officials would have the audacity to write-off homes and iPhones at the taxpayer’s expense?  Such brazen appropriation should be left to the realm of private business.
 

For the cynics out there, it is not merely coincidence that the scandal seems to be arriving on the tail end of the press’ centennial "give the opposition a chance" campaign.  

While most have busied themselves with cries for a revolution in British politics, the Independent’s Dominic Lawson warns of the threat posed to democracy by such extremist calls for the moral purification of Parliament. 

Who knows, scandal may even bring secret benefits.  After all, corrupt politicians do pose a great foil to the upright, law-abiding citizen in all of us.  Plus the Media Society may know a few flacks that could do a great clean-up job.

You will marry me!

Speaking of Potemkin politics, the enigmatic mystery wrapped inside a political scientist’s nightmare that is Kim Jong-il has test fired two nuclear missiles in his latest Risk-inspired move.  Commentators have mustered only consternation in response to the continued bizarre actions of the world’s only living Bond villain.

Chatham House’s Kerry Brown calls it a “chilling reminder of the last Stalinist state’s power.”  An expert for the New York Times likens it to a ham-fisted, pre-pubescent attempt to court the most popular kids in class.   Pravda is so bewildered that it sticks to the rather more certain world of ballistic missile mechanics.

Alasdair MacIntyre must be grinning from the grave.

Big Boys do cry

No one, let alone stop and start sport-loving North Americans, should be subject to the soul-destroying pain of relegation that is currently wracking Northeast England.  Unless, that is, you happen to be a sadistic Sunderland fan happy to finally pull one over on your bitter enemies.

While most football fans will only miss the stereotypical images of tattoo hewn, beer-swilling Geordies pasted on Match of the Day, Lee Ryder’s Blog on the Tyne provides insight into the immense psychological pain wrought during the Toon’s premiership death march.

MIA funds terrorism?

Those that think celebrity and politics should never mix, meet your worst nightmare.

Talent challenged slum pastiche auteur MIA has used every New Media medium imaginable, from Twitter  to Myspace, to lambast the Sri Lankan government’s war on the Tamil minority.

Scandal free

After all this scandal, it seems the only safe haven is the cold, rationality of Wolfram Alpha’s new “computational knowledge engine.”  

Out with the narrative bent of Wikipedia, in with the positivism gone wild style of Wolfram Alpha.

Always trust a Hal 9000. 
 

Ryan Mahan