Thursday, February 21, 2008

LYNCHING IS BACK ON THE AGENDA Firedoglake: "In a discussion of recent comments made by Michelle Obama, Bill O'Reilly took a call from a listener who stated that, according to 'a friend who had knowledge of her, Obama is a very angry', her word was 'militant woman'. O'Reilly later stated: 'I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels - that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever - then that's legit. We'll track it down." So, America's lynching belt 'guru' is getting ready for some good old traditional handwork. Hallelujah! God Bless Murka! Oh well, Murka is, after all, a country where they shoot presidents. No big deal. 11:06:00 AM

THE TELEGRAPH PUT ITS FOOT IN IT, AGAIN The Telegraph has become England's worst scandal paper. If there is a way to link Auchtermuchty to suicide or Wodehouse to Stalin, you can find all the contentious details in the Telegraph. Telegraph: "Mr Yronwode ... Along with two peculiarly named people, Calle Dybedahl and Karin Spaink, he has been identified as one of the internet's leading suicide gurus." Of course, even those names are thorns in the delicate conservative flesh of the Telegraph. The Telegraph knows how to push their views in the best agitprop style and they know how to whip up the hysterical frenzy. You drop the word 'guru', point out the 'peculiarity' of some names, and then start fantasizing about how those awful foreigners are responsible for what they call the 'wave of suicides' in Britain. Always blame those bloody foreigners. Now let us see what a decent paper writes about all this. Times: "Let's get real. There is no evidence of any youth suicide epidemic in Britain. New official figures show UK suicides among men aged 15-44 down from a high of 2,951 in 1998 to a low of 2,264 in 2006. The rate of suicides also fell, from 24 deaths per 100,000 young men to 17.7 per 100,000. Among women aged 15-44, suicides are down from 733 in 1998 to 565 in 2006, with the rate falling from 5.9 deaths to 4.4 per 100,000. We are often told that suicide is 'the biggest killer of young men'. But then, they rarely die of anything. Of course one suicide is too many - so is one false story about an epidemic that can panic the nation. Since there is no youth suicide boom, it follows that we should stop trying to pin the blame on some fashionable cause. The reasons why a young person takes such a shocking step are often too personal for catch-all theories. One attempted suicide told The Times that: 'I had terrible acne and thought I'd never have sex. It was that simple.' There is no simple cure-all for the few suffering such depression." 10:51:15 AM

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