Arrgh ye scurvey dawgs…

It’s that special day once more when international barriers to communication are broken down with the aid of an offensive stereotype!

And with the aid of this handy translator you can instantly turn such phrases as “yes, it’s international talk like a pirate day again”, into the much more… err Buccan stupid “aye, ’tis international talk like a gentleman o’ fortune tide again.”

I have to go dry out my swash now before it buckles.

You can’t have too many animal friends.

But it’s very easy to suddenly have one too few.

Shadow, friend of John at Castle Argghh has gone on ahead.

Pope refers to historical Muslim violence…

Muslims react… well violently. Well there’s a shock.

Having decided to deliberately take out of context Pope Benedict XVI’s quoting of a Byzantine Emperor, Muslims the world over are having a repeat performance of their violent reaction to Denmark’s exercise of free speech.

The Pope is being burned in effigy and various usual suspects are DEMANDING he apologise.

Here’s a news flash for you, you have a history of violence, you waged aggressive religious war against the West for generations and got your asses kicked all the way back home. This is The Pope, GOD’s Vicar on Earth, not bloody Martin Smith from Croyden.

Time you started showing some respect rather than demanding it based on your own twisted claims of being the ONLY valid religion because the last time you pushed your luck this far it got really really messy.

This man is literally revered, you don’t go round burning his likeness with impunity.

I DEMAND that New Zealand Muslim representative apologise for the gross disrespect shown the Pope by the actions of their co-religionists without delay, qualification or reservation.

UPDATE: In an appaling further case of poor and irrelsponsible journalism TV3 is describing the Popes condeming of violence in the expansion of relgion (both Christian and Muslim) as an “attack on Islam”. They have also atributed the quote he used as an example to him as his own words. This is not only factually inaccurate its is deliberately decpetive.

It would be resonable to make the conclusion that the Clark governments continued anti-Christian stance leads TV3 to think it is acceptable to promote anti-Christian attitudes and intolerence.

This is worthy of a complaint the BSA I’m thinking.

Lets ask the RIGHT question for a change.

Should Trevor Mallard resign for bringing parliament into disrepute?

Previous bad behaviour by others is not a defence.

Discuss.

Thought for the day.

There is another group other than politicians who by mutual and unspoken agreement do not get into personal attacks on each other for reasons of mutual self preservation.

Journalists.

Shame bloggers aren’t in the club eh guys?

Ferdy the Cat makes an astute observation.

He has a point.

Shalom kitty!

Auckland zoo has a new resident just in from Israel.

Oz the Sumatran Tiger was settling in today and no word yet on whether or not Keith Locke is going to demand that he be removed because Oz is actually two Mossad agents in a tiger suit.

Why don’t you go and feel him up for a zip there Keith?

Fine holiday fun for the whole family.

Can you guys not get ANYTHING right?

Yes I’m looking at the MSM again.

In this case TV1. Did you know that today is the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and that 2,000 New Zealanders died during the battle, more than on Gallipoli?

No. Not “no” as in “I didn’t know”, “no” as in “wrong, incorrect, false, not right”.

Quite literally I leaned over and grabbed Chris Pugsleys work off my bookshelf and flipped it open to the back.

I already knew the rough numbers of over 8,000 involved, with in excess of 6,000 casualties with over 2,500 dead.

The exact numbers are: 8,556 served on Gallipoli, 4,752 wounded (many multiple times) and 2,721 dead, of which1,669 have no known grave and 252 were buried at sea.

OK, this is very elementary fact checking, if you can’t be arsed doing it (all 90 seconds of it) then DON’T make shit up! This is your damn job, if this is how bloody poorly you do it with the simple things, how really really bad are you at the important stuff?

Have I finished my rant? No. Same “no” again as in “nope, still going”. Having seen the piss poor effort on this story so far, I went off and searched the archives for the individual files of all the soldiers from New Zealand who died in France and then counted them… oh no wait I didn’t, I googled “new zealand casualties battle of the somme”.

Not “2,000″ killed, although I note that Scoop as reported as this. It is in fact 1,560 killed.

So I’m now assuming that everything I’ve just seen on TV1 news is CRAP.

So hard to work out why people are not watching you any more isn’t it. I don’t even bother with 3 anymore unless I want to see a hyperbole encrusted tirade against the evils of Don Brash, George Bush, Israel, whatever the legend in his own mind Campbell has a hard-on for this week.

You guys suck! Any idiot in pajamas in his living room can do it better. (As it happens I’m not well today so I’ve been in bed all afternoon.)

Friday Night Free For All

Well so much to talk about isn’t there kids.

Here’s some perspective from the web going public…

Yesterdays top search on HMWAH was “trevor mallard is scum”.

Todays top of the list by far is “helen clark rumor”. Please preface your wild speculation with something like “in my opinion” so I can get some distance between you me and summons.

And worth noting that this tactic by labour has FAILED as miserably as their policies with 70% of Kiwis (including the bulk of labour supporters) supporting his continued leadership of the National Party.

Labour pretty much gets to take WHATEVER comes from here on in however I would direct you to Dons comments should you seek direction…

“Guys, I strongly believe that we should not respond in kind to the comments about my personal life which Labour threw in my direction in the House last week. “We don’t want to descend into that kind of politics. I therefore ask that none of you refer, directly or indirectly, to any of the gossip/rumours about the private lives of any other politicians, or their families. It is pretty clear that the public do not like this stuff, and even if they did we should stay away from it - it can only distract attention from the important issues which should be our focus.”

Wiseguy.

I have been watching this for the umpteenth time, but still this episode is some of the best TV ever made, no matter how cheesy.

Also, Jonathan Banks is some of the best actors out there, and yet he is barely ever seen at all.

Which reminds me: what the hell happened to Kevin Spacey?