More cartoonesk fiascos

Do not broadcast critical Islam movie, says Dutch foreign minister (Earthtimes, Thu, 28 Feb 2008)

Whether:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

has been correctly or incorrectly attributed to Voltaire, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen is betraying the principles on which our dearly won freedoms are founded. Furthermore, it is naive to expect that Islamist hypersensitivities are going to go away if everyone behaves for a little while. Another incident reported this very day:

Berlin Exhibition Closes after Muslim Threats (Spiegel, February 29, 2008)

Language lessons

Man who aimed to walk to India forced to quit (Telegraph, Friday 29 February 2008)

Briton makes shocking discovery: In France they speak French!

US patrol shoots Iraqi civilian

US patrol shoots Iraqi civilian (BBC News, Thursday, 28 February 2008)

Only one today? That's below their average.

www.iraqbodycount.org reports for January 2008:

JANUARY TOTAL: 767 CIVILIANS KILLED
36 by US forces, 1 by British forces

Innocent - but battling a DNA record

Innocent - but battling a DNA record (BBC News, Thursday, 28 February 2008)

The violation of human rights in the UK by retaining DNA samples of innocent people is apparently a matter of policy. There are many reasons to be sceptical of the present-day EU, but if it weren't for the European Court of Human Rights, what would protect us against the totalitarian aspirations of NuLabour?

Sudan protests at Danish cartoons

Sudan protests at Danish cartoons (BBC News, Wednesday, 27 February 2008)

Britain plays along with the EU when it is in its interest, and only then. This can be said of many British governments in the past as well as of 'public opinion'. With the growing pressure on Denmark, the past few days would have been the right time to share some of its burden, and demonstrate that the civilised world stands united to defend freedom of expression.

Germany's interior minister Schäuble has called for newspapers in all European countries to print the Motoons. Our newspapers should have done that earlier. Now it is too late. It is a contradiction in terms that a member of a government demands dissemination by the press of certain material in the name of freedom. After Schäuble's ill-conceived statement, it has become difficult to argue to the less sophisticated elements in the Islamic world that not governments but free individuals are responsible for publishing material that others may find offensive.

With the forthcoming publication in the Netherlands of the anti-Islam film by Geert Wilders (notably a member of parliament), also the Netherlands is bound to become a target of Islamist aggression soon, and I fear that it too will find indifference on this side of the Channel.

Fairy cakes

Man dies in cake-eating contest (BBC News, Sunday, 24 February 2008)

Cake-eating contest death warning (BBC News, Monday, 25 February 2008)

A few days ago, there was a report about a man killing himself by stuffing fairy cakes down his throat. Natural selection at work you would say, and that's enough silliness for one week. But now there is a second report about his friend warning the public against killing themselves by stuffing fairy cakes down their throats.

There are a million ways an idiot could inadvertently kill himself. If everyone in Britain reads the BBC News article, there are only 999,999 ways left.

This reminds me of another article:

Belly stud 'almost killed teen' (BBC News, Monday, 1 October 2007)

This was about a freak car crash involving belly button jewellery and a seatbelt. It may have been the first time in history this happened, and it may never happen again until cars are made redundant by teleportation devices. Nevertheless, it was deemed necessary to report:

"But Mr Beadle said his step daughter was determined to make others with piercings aware of the possible risks."

What is wrong with these people?

As all three articles are classified under the Wales section of BBC News, the odds are they were written by the same journalist with a screw loose, who thinks of himself as the saviour of all Britons, by warning us that living is even deadlier than we thought. Thanks, mate!

Quackometer is back

Quackometer is back on a new host!

See also: Quack closes Quackometer (mediawatchwatch, 22 Feb 2008)