Monthly Archives: September 2002

news values

Two retired MPs turn out to have had an affair in the 1980s. A still active politician (and MP) turns out to have ordered the murder of ten people in the 1970s. Which of these stories is news? Continue reading

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all the stuff

That I have been fumbling to say about the warhards is here Continue reading

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Satanan

Perkele! as my old Finnish workmate in the sawmill used to say. I found this almost perfectly incredible story while spending a happy sunday blog-rolling. It came through Teresa Hayden Nielsen, who I used to see around the Well. It … Continue reading Continue reading

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note from an old story

you know a piece of work is well started when you can see just how and in what ways it’s bad Continue reading

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The march in London

I was there, with wife and daughter; so were a lot of other people: the police reckon 150,000 and this is credible. Estimates of 400,000 from the organisers are not. They are simply plucked out of the air to match … Continue reading Continue reading

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these people are sick

But their sickness isn’t obvious. Continue reading

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feeling strange

One of those odd little moments of equilibrium in freelance life. I think I have done everything I should have for the moment: a profile and two book reviews for the Guardian; an enormous mass of book corrections and acknowledgements. … Continue reading Continue reading

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talking to morons

I wnet to get my hair cut yesterday and when I got home my wife and daughter laughed more usual. It turns out the hairdresser has done her best, with very defective materials, to give me a mullet. Behind my … Continue reading Continue reading

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oh shit

The only piece of hard information I ever got from Greil Marcus had to be this. Warren Zevon’s dying. Continue reading

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I hate libertarians

Because they always end up worshipping lawless power (and also becasue they’re arrogant little pricks). So Declan McCullough’s PR for the Cato Institute is a reliable source of irritaiton. Most recently, he found an economist to argue that Linux was … Continue reading Continue reading

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