Issue #13

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ISSUE #13 - Monday, 20th October 2008

• Michael Tomasky, The Guardian
  "The Republicans have lifted the lid off their rightwing id"
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/20/commentanddebate-john-mccain-barack-obama
  
  DJR's gist: Tomasky is editor of Guardian America, and can therefore be assumed to view the world through glasses that are more than a little liberal-tinted. However, his description and analysis of the sheer lunacy and hypocrisy of the political and social positions being increasingly adopted by Republicans. "Anti-American"? Don't even get me started on the number of ways in which that's horsecrap.

• Sebastian Mallaby, The Washington Post
  "Bretton Woods, The Sequel?"
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/19/AR2008101901333.html
  
  DJR's gist: Europe, led by Sarko with GB alongside, has managed to bring about a global economy summit dubbed "Bretton Woods II". But as Mallaby points out, the analogy is at best erroneous - Europe is not recovering from the Second World War, and fixed exchange rates are anything but the order of the day. So what can this summit actually achieve? Well as this American columnist is keen to point out, a big step would be for "declining powers" like Britain and France to cede some of their power over institutions like the IMF to the growing powers of the developing world. Likely? I think not.

• Salameh Nemat, The Daily Beast
  "Why Iraq hates Biden"
  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-16/why-iraq-hates-biden-1
  
  DJR's gist: The Middle East doesn't like Joe Biden. That's the crux of this article, which essentially voices the opinion that because Joe Biden was in favour of a proposal to split Iraq into three sections - one for each of its ethnic groups - and thus avoid a civil war - he is not a popular figure in the Middle East. Ironically, John McCain and Sarah Palin are not disliked, because no one knows anything about them. Which begs the question - why hasn't Sarah Palin said anything about Iraq? Probably because she doesn't know where it is. Or even that it exists.

• Paul Krugman, The New York Times
  "The Real Plumbers of Ohio"
  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/opinion/20krugman.html
  
  DJR's gist: Fresh from become a Nobel Laureate, Professor Paul Krugman takes this opportunity to point out that, amongst other things, Joe the Plumber would definitely be better off under Obama than McCain, John McCain's policies would essentially continue those of George W. Bush - which has already proven to be disasterous, and that whatever today’s G.O.P. is, it isn’t the party of working Americans".

• Dom Joly, The Independent
  "'Clash of sticks' leaves me feeling left out"
  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/dom-joly/dom-joly-clash-of-sticks-leaves-me-feeling-left-out-966979.html
  
  DJR's gist: Dom Joly, star of the great television show that was Trigger Happy TV, takes this great opportunity to illustrate how hockey discriminates against left-handers. What's more, hockey seems to be doing the exact opposite of football - on the other side of the Atlantic, the former is very much a male sport, while the latter is for girls. In the UK, football is, obviously, for men, while hockey becomes increasingly grouped with netball and lacrosse in the category of "female sports". Interesting, but totally useless article.

• VIDEO: Terry Tate, YouTube
  "Reading is fundamental"
  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=07kO9TtHYzQ
  
  DJR's gist: Terry Tate is a hero - a trailblazer of the managerial philosophy that employs the "stick" over the carrot. This is his latest contribution to the world.

Issue #11

The Linkrod
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ISSUE #11 - Friday, 17th October 2008

• Hannah Strange, "Across the Pond", The Times
  "The Al Smith dinner: Vote for your comic-in-chief"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/uselections/2008/10/the-al-smith-di.html
  
  DJR's gist: The Times' US Politics blog provides video footage of both Barack Obama and John McCain "roasting" each other at the Al Smith Memorial dinner in NYC. Great speeches by both - a favourite from Obama saying "My name, Barack, is actually Swahili for 'that one'. My middle name came from someone who never thought I'd run for President". McCain made use of the Clintons, saying "Even here among all you proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't help thinking some of you may be supporting me. Good to see you Hilary!"

• Editorial, The Washington Post
  "Barack Obama for President"
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html
  
  DJR's gist: The Washington Post comes out in support of Barack Obama, highlighting both the successes of his campaign and the failures of John McCain's. Single most important factor? Surprise, surprise, it begins with a P, ends in 'alin' and makes George W. Bush look like a well-rounded intelligent politician.

• Hugo Rifkind, The Times
  "Beware of anyone called A.Nony Mouse"
  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/hugo_rifkind/article4958329.ece
  
  DJR's gist: Apparently Whitehall are getting worried about anonymity on the internet. In fact, a "Whitehall source" has gone as far as saying "“People have many accounts and sign up as Mickey Mouse and no one knows who they are... We have to do something." Yes, that's right - the quote came from a "Whitehall source". Double standards, anyone?

• Adam Boulton, Boulton & Co, Sky News
  "Purple ties that bind"
  http://blogs.news.sky.com/boultonandco/Post:213ce21f-9ea8-4945-8f3e-2fafa1ec340c
  
  DJR's gist: Sky News' Adam Boulton gets credit for fashion spot of the day, noting how Westminster's penchant for sky blue ties earlier in 2008 has evolved into one of deep violet. The PM, the Chancellor, and now the Foreign Secretary are all at it. New Parliamentary year, new fashions... obviously.

• Mike Harvey, Mousetrap technology blog, The Times
  "Punctuality is dead - so how late should you be for that dinner party?"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2008/10/punctuality-is.html
  
  DJR's gist: Being fashionably late has always been a dictum for anyone attempting for fit the vogue of "cool". However, evidence suggests that the ubiquity of mobile phones in modern culture now mean that so long as you let the host know you're on the way, it no longer counts as "late". Bad news for all those people obsessed with people keeping to time...

• Stephen Naughton, The Daily Telegraph
  "Surfing rat rides wave in Hawaii"
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3215660/Surfing-rat-rides-wave-in-Hawaii.html
  
  DJR's gist: Depending on whether you read the Telegraph article above, or the Times linked below, this story is either very suspicious and should be treated with utmost scepticism, or absolutely amazing are potentially revolutionary in teaching tricks to pets. A kid in Hawaii has produced photos of his rat surfing a tube. You decide.
  
  See also: Philippe Naughton, The Times - "Surf's up for rat-ical rat"

• VIDEO: John Oliver, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Comedy Central
  "Joe the Plumber's House"
  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=188619&title=joe-the-plumbers-house
  
  DJR's gist: John Oliver, hero of The Bugle podcast and member of The Daily Show's team of satirists, produced this classic clip from outside the home of America's newest and possibly worst celebrity. Just to emphasise that point, "he's already done more interviews than Sarah Palin".

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Joe the Plumber's House

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

• Daniel Finkelstein, Comment Central blog, The Times
  "What the economic crisis will do to Playboy models"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/10/never-mind-whet.html
  
  DJR's gist: Ground-breaking research on the "Environmental Security Hypothesis" has studied the essentials of Playboy Playmates over the last couple of decades, and compared the results with the economic climate of the day. There is a striking correlation - during good times men want smaller, more curvaceous girls. During lean times, they want taller, larger, and slimmer girls. Serious news, this one.

• Ed Gorman, Formula One blog, The Times
  "Not Fernando's finest hour"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/formula_one/2008/10/not-fernandos-f.html
  
  DJR's gist: After a year where he has managed to brush away a lot of the darkness that surrounded his image after a horrific 2007, the greasy swine that lives inside Fernando Alonso is back out again in the Press Conference before the penultimate GP of the 2008 season in China. It was here last year that the tragedy of tragedies befell Lewis Hamilton, and being the conniving swine that he is, there is little doubt Alonso will do everything in his power to attempt to achieve a similar result. Hopefully he'll blow up after 20 metres, and take out Massa in the process.

Issue #10

The Linkrod
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ISSUE #10 - Thursday, 16th October 2008

• Bagehot, The Economist
  "The riddle of Gordon Brown"
  http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12427804
  
  DJR's gist: Amid a collapsing global economy, almost unnoticed has been the manner in which Gordon Brown overturned his political position. Not long ago, he was a political catastrophe biding his time before the approaching and inevitable capitulation of his Government to the resurgent Tories. Now, he is a trail-blazing visionary taking a global lead in attempts to bring the credit crunch under control, with other world leaders seemingly following his every command and his actions gaining plaudits from Nobel Laureate economists. What's the story? Bagehot explains...
  
  See also: Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian - "Paulson tries again"

• Ross Douthat, The Atlantic
  "Tonight's debate"
  http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/tonights_debate.php
  
  DJR's gist: All that needs to be said about this is quoting the opening sentence: "In ninety minutes of crisply-moderated tedium, we learned exactly one interesting thing: That Barack Obama is almost eager to talk about Bill Ayers, and John McCain can barely bring himself to grind out the syllables necessary to make something vaguely approximating a point on the subject.

• Ben Macintyre, The Times
  "The white lie that keeps Barack Obama awake at night"
  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article4950484.ece
  
  DJR's gist: The "Bradley Effect" is a supposed trait in US elections involving African-American candidates where polls overestimate support for the Black candidate, due to voter intentions not matching their outward statements. That is to say, people say they'll vote for the black candidate in public, but in the privacy of the voting booth, they can't bring themselves to do it and bail. Democrats are hoping that evidence of this effect gradually fading proves correct, or else the world could be in for a very nasty surprise come 4th November.

• Cindy Saine, Voice of America
  "'Joe the Plumber' - Unexpected Star of US Presidential Debate"
  http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-16-voa59.cfm
  
  DJR's gist: So some chap called Joe Wurzelbacher is now famous across America and hero-worshipped by the same kind of nutcases who think Sarah Palin is a good idea for a Vice President, going by the name as "Joe the Plumber". His fame has come as a result of his name being mentioned a staggering 23 times in last night's final Presidential debate, as John McCain made a last-ditch effort to connect with the independent voters who are deserting his campaign. To the credit of Joe, this interview with him shows that he has a degree of substance behind his scepticism of Obama - it's just a shame that his name is already being seized upon by Sarah Palin - calling out to "Joe and Jane the Plumber". Probably "Sixpack" as well.
  
  See also: E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post - "What Joe the Plumber Can't Fix"

• Anita Hamilton, TIME Magazine
  "Google-Phone Review: Brains over Beauty"
  http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1850888,00.html
  
  DJR's gist: A review of the new "Android"-powered "Google phone" compares it to Apple's iPhone. Conclusion? The GPhone is probably better and technogeeks will love it... but the average "Joe Sixpack" will probably stick to the good looks of the iPhone... at least until Google's open-sourced software platform really begins to register with phone manufacturers.

• LATE ADDITION:
  CRACKED.com
  "20 Ways They Could Make Debates Actually Worth Watching"
  http://www.cracked.com/article_16707_20-ways-they-could-make-debates-actually-worth-watching.html
  
  DJR's gist: Despite being one of the most closely followed, widely participated and eagerly awaited Presidential campaigns of recent times, the average Yankee apparently still finds debates boring. CRACKED presents its ideas for how the format could be improved for entertainment purposes... (courtesy of Chouders the Vicissitudinous Ayatollah of Misogyny)