It’s been a bad week for the high and mighty of Russian politics. First New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft accused Vladimir Putin of stealing his 2005 Super Bowl ring (you’re a brave man, Robert), then the Guardian revealed that the British government bugged Dmitry Medvedev (as well as everyone else) at the 2009 G20 submit [...]
About AA Birch
An anti-stereotypical Brit abroad. Blogger to the few, Tweeter to the many.Author Archive | AA Birch
A Brit’s View: Snowden Not Welcome in Britain
No prizes for guessing which side of the fence the UK falls on when it comes to Edward Snowden. He is not welcome. But then he probably knew that already, especially if he cared to look at the hullabaloo surrounding the Embassy of Ecuador and Julian Assange (odds are still available on the Australian leaving [...]
Spying on Citizens, Does Anybody Out There Care?
I hadn’t thought much about the Guardian’s exposé since it was published last Wednesday. My attention has been thoroughly geared towards the exploits of my fantasy baseball team this weekend, and in particular Yasiel Puig’s opening-week heroics for the Dodgers. Sport is my life, aside from a few hours a week when I sit down to [...]
A Brit’s View: Downing Street Looks on During Hacking Case
Vaguely good news for Downing Street today as former Director Of Communications for Number 10 Andy Coulson pleaded not guilty on two counts of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office. The former News Of The World editor also entered a plea of not guilty concerning his alleged role in phone hacking while at the [...]
A Brit’s View: An Affair Bigger Than Major/Currie, Let Twitter be the Judge
No, this isn’t another “cash for questions” victim, although there have been further implications on that front since last I wrote. This is instead the affair coming out of 10 Downing Street that is so big, so huge, that the Mail On Sunday can only print the story without naming names. Apparently it is bigger [...]
A Brit’s View: Tory MP Resigns Following “Cash For Questions” Sting
I thought we’d gone back 15 years when I read the words ‘cash for questions’ and ‘Tory MP’ in the same sentence yesterday. A quick check of the calendar assured me I was awake and that I wasn’t dreaming, it was just the Conservatives that were living in the past. That sounds familiar (see some [...]
A Brit’s View: More ‘Terrorism’ as Reprisal Attacks Begin
The atmosphere in Britain has been slightly tense since the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday afternoon. Following the ‘terrorist’ incident, which involved two British Muslims hacking the off-duty British soldier to death, reprisal attacks against Muslims have been coming thick and fast. Thankfully nobody has gone down the ‘eye-for-an-eye’ response route just yet, [...]
A Brit’s View: Panic on the Streets of London?
I’ve made jokes in the past about how dodgy a place Woolwich is. I have friends who lived there for a while, albeit in the very fake ‘Woolwich’ by the river. There was no denying where the poor, run down Woolwich finished and the new, rich, slightly fake section started. The dividing line was, and [...]
A Brit’s View: Riots in Sweden Paint a Different Picture
There’s rioting in Europe, and I know what you’re thinking. ‘Big deal’, ‘this isn’t news’, ’why don’t they let true democracy do its thing?’ I’ll stop you there as these riots are slightly different. They are happening in Sweden. That’s the Sweden which is in the top five of all categories imaginable for measuring a good life. Education, [...]
A Brit’s View: Women Squeezed Out as Beeb ‘Moves On’
As the BBC continues its attempt to right the ship following the (Sir) Jimmy Saville fallout a further victim has emerged from the child abuse scandal wreckage, that of women in the boardroom. It’s an unusual thing for the Beeb to get ‘wrong’ in the modern era, especially considering the organization’s reputation for being full of “Communist [...]
Prince Harry Sober and Clothed, Shock Horror
I caught part of the TV news this morning. That was a mistake. I hate the news, especially commercial TV news. Give me the BBC or PBS any day. Unfortunately it was CNN this morning, which was covering Prince Harry’s jaunt to America. I use the word jaunt as it seems to fit with the [...]
A Brit’s View – Operation Yewtree Bingo; A Craze Waiting to Happen
Operation Yewtree Bingo. It was inevitable really, with the internet the way it is. Pick a few celebrity names, write them on a card/type them into Twitter, and cross them off when they are arrested for alleged sex abuse. The game might not be widespread yet, but as the number of arrests continue to rise in the [...]
A Brit’s View: The Saville Avalanche Effect is Well Under Way
Nothing has quite usurped the Jimmy Saville sex abuse revelations, not yet anyway. But the Saville case has caused an avalanche of allegations against members of the entertainment industry in Britain, which today yielded its first guilty plea. Stuart Hall, until recently a respect octogenarian whose work on BBC TV and radio spanned more than 50 years, [...]
A Brit’s View: Stupidity Meets Idiocy in Failed Bomb Plot
What do you get when you cross one form of stupidity with another form of idiocy? In Britain the answer is a failed makeshift terrorist attack. The foiled bombing was due to happen last summer. The court case is going on this week. The details are quite bizarre. Now I don’t want to dumb down [...]
A Brit’s View: Cameron takes a Bite out of Suarez
Luis Suarez was at it again on Sunday. Unless you’re a soccer fan you probably don’t know who he is. Let me point you towards him biting an opponent, racially abusing an opponent (although the evidence was sketchy), gaining a reputation for cheating while playing, punching an opponent, and finally, to round things off nicely, biting another [...]
TM Must Reads
IN AN amazing interview with the Guardian on Sunday titled, appropriately, “Michael Douglas on Liberace, Cannes, cancer and cunnilingus,” the movie star does the biggest public service message for HPV and sexually transmitted diseases that’s been done in a generation. The Internet exploded with shock at what was taken as a revelation. It’s like thinking giving head to a man infected with HIV won’t leave its mark, too, though that’s more commonly talked about.
But your individual circumstances and mine should not hide the fact that there is an ideal and optimal family arrangement whether we in our own lives can meet it. – Erick Erickson, in “The Truth May Hurt, But Is Not Mean” AFTER BEING blasted for his patriarchal grunt, Erick Erickson now gets very defensive. How can you tell?
Ms Garraway, 46, is fronting a campaign to encourage young women to think about fertility and giving birth much younger than “her generation”. As part of the campaign, Ms Garraway spent a day being transformed into a heavily pregnant 70 year-old by Adrian Rigby, a prosthetic make-up artist, to “shock and provoke debate about how old is too old to have a baby”. [UK Telegraph] LOOKING at relationships, I find it telling that casual writers on the subject give marriage advice that hinges on bringing back the feminine mystique years and suggesting marrying younger would solve the problems that only better and smarter choices can conquer.
“Having mom as primary bread winner is bad for kids and bad for marriage.” – Erick Erickson IT HAS become a conservative chant lately, the latest from Erick Erickson. “War on men” from Suzanne Venker, Megan McArdle saying women should marry younger, they’re all attempting to resurrect Freud’s biology is destiny.
THE 21st century world offers ways to tweak your appearance, or alter it altogether, with women finally able to combat directly the comparison that’s always been around. Men look distinguished as they age, while women look old, unattractive, or to use Rush Limbaugh’s favorite comment, who wants to look at a woman with wrinkles? The 2012 plastic surgery statistics are out and the American Society of Plastic Surgery tells the story.
The real question about Hillary is this: When people take a new look at her in the coming years, will they see the past or the future — Mrs. Clinton or Madam President? – Maureen Dowd IT’S A classic front page from Huffington Post, coupled with a post by Jason Linkins, which details what’s been going on.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy “Here’s what nobody is telling you: Find a husband on campus before you graduate. Yes, I went there.
“Norma Rae is a survivor and for the first time in her life she’s got a chance to become something more… a winner.” – Promo for “Norma Rae” CRITICS like Anne-Marie Slaughter, but especially Maureen I-Love-My-Pearls Dowd, and others [most of whom didn't read the book or do their homework] who are blaming Sheryl Sandberg for being a billionaire Ivy League graduate, while accusing her of letting corporations and government off the hook, are missing a major point.
Great sex doesn’t always just happen. Sometimes, it takes a little planning, especially if — like many Americans — you’ve been in a bit of a sex rut. Do some prep work by turning your bedroom into a love nest: Make the bed (with new, or at least clean, sheets), tidy up, light a candle or two, and queue up a sexy playlist on your iPod.
“You Don’t Own Me” PSA -Official from You Don't Own Me on Vimeo. WHO DOESN’T know the song “You Don’t Own Me,” sung by Leslie Gore? The movie First Wives Club helped to reignite the relevancy of the song.
“Last night I interviewed Jill Stein the presidential candidate for the Green Party on this show. And I confess right now, I should have asked her to just get out of the race.” – Jennifer Granholm, “The War Room” [Current TV] THE ARGUMENT Jennifer Granholm makes above is a tactic that no longer fits the times.
“With that drum magazine, he could have gotten off 50, 60 rounds, even if it was semiautomatic, within one minute,” Chief Oates said. [New York Times] IN THE GAPING MAW of our leadership vacuum stands Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates, whose resolve, vulnerability and humility inside the vortex of a man made hell revealed what nobody in Congress or either political party has shown in decades. Leadership without regard to anything but his own duty to the people, which included the cops in the eye of volcanic carnage.
*updated below* So much for keep calm and carry on, what Joe Scarborough proclaims to be his motto. It was the weirdest one-on-one back and forth with a high profile talking head imaginable. It makes high school look mature.
**UPDATED** Would we be any worse off with Stephen Colbert as president? I doubt it. Politifact has watched the video “(repeatedly!
Despite rising public concern about the federal budget deficit, Americans favor keeping Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are rather than taking steps to reduce the budget deficit (by 60% vs. 32%). – Public Wants Changes in Entitlements, Not Changes in Benefits This is starting early, so it’s time to revisit the facts.
“If we can prove that a biological attack originated in a country that attacked us, then all bets are off.” – Sect. Hillary Clinton Women can do it, too.
The interview with Obama by George Stephanopoulos wasn’t nearly as contentious as the interview with the Edwardses. No Republican talking points from Stephanopoulos yesterday, like when he accused Edwards of abandoning the troops with this beauty: “Do you think the Democrats should be saddled with the idea of completely cutting off funding for the troops?” Or this one: “You know, a lot of Democrats still in the Senate think that your position here is cynical political theater.
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