This week's round-up

Looking back over the past week, I realise that I've hardly done any political/current events blogging. It's partly because I do try to think before I post politically, and I've had very little time this week, having been travelling on business. And of course, I have been a bit distracted while trying to deal with the insane Hertz and Bradford & Bingley in their attempts to &*%$£$& me.

There was a little bit of current events commentary though:

The Vol-in-Law did a little bit about the insane removal of employees' pig paraphenalia from Dudley Council in the West Midlands, UK. I'm personally sick of appeasing the imagined sensibilities of populations who couldn't really give a toss if you have a piglet kleenex box on your desk. Of course this may be good news for Dudley - after all they were previously only known for the Black Country Museum and the wallaby slayings at the Dudley Zoo. Anything's got to be better press than unruly youths kicking baby wallabies to death.

And of course, there was my post of earlier this evening on voting rights and prisoners.

I did do some off-the-cuff commentary on some others' posts of interests - namely No Quarters post on the little art project that went terribly wrong, Bob Krumm's coverage of the non-coverage of the suicide bombing attempt at an Oklahoma football game. And finally I commented on a piece at Six Meat Buffet about new vacancies at Al Qaeda (and no, it's not a vacancy which arose as a result of what I describe in the immediately preceding sentence) Of course, Preston took it all the wrong way and called me an appeaser.

Here's what went down:

Smantix of Six Meat Buffet's post:

I don’t know if this will cause a shortage of video bloggers in the Nashville community but al-Qaeda is looking for a few good men, and maybe - a special lady. al-Reuters gives us the lowdown on the international classifieds:

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat said on its Web site this week that al Qaeda had “vacant positions” for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active.

But for the discriminating videographer who dares to ask “show me the virgins!” - you may be let down.

Asharq al-Awsat said the advert did not specify salary amounts, but added: “Every Muslim knows his life is not his, since it belongs to this violated Islamic nation whose blood is being spilled. Nothing should take precedence over this.”

Don’t be discouraged kids. What they lack in medical and dental, they more than make up for in their severance package.

______


My comment:

Hey, is that position London based? I do have a day job, but I assume that the hours are negotiable, work can be done from home, etc, since one of my neighbours used to have that job. (I think he’s still awaiting extradition to the US)

I don’t know much about radical Islam or video editing, but I’m a quick learner.

Preston of 6MB's response:

That would be perfect for you, Vol Abroad. Especially so, given your eagerness to join the rest of the Brits in appeasing those who would be employing you. I say go for it!

*Keep in mind that once you’re done, your head will have to go too, infidel.

Hey, man - that's not very nice. The Vol Abroad appeases no one. Maybe you guys are the only ones allowed to joke about Islamofacism and blowing up mass transit over at 6MB.

BTW, here's my post about my neighbour who used to have that job (though he was more of an entrepreneur, freelancer type). How appeasing is that?

And let me apologise in advance if I'm taking it the wrong way - I've been having a hard time with the whole Bradford & Bingley, Hertz thing.

...and finally

My only other post on 'current events' was on the snake and gator thing down in the swamp (why can't UT learn some lessons from this snake - well, except for the stomach exploding, head getting chewed off bit).

That produced quite a bit of keyword search related hits this week, usually some combination of snake, gator, explode. My favorite search query was:

snake explodes after gator dinner

I wish I'd thought of that title

Update: actually I did post about the Conservative party conference, but totally overlooked that. Guess that goes to show how well they're doing these days, and I tend to support them.

Update 2: there is actually Children's BBC coverage of the snake v gator rumble in the Everglades called Snake explodes after gator dinner.