Jus' another one, barman...

[caddyman]

So let’s see, what has attracted the old attention today then?

Initial annoyance at the fact that I couldn’t get hold of my usual copy of The Times was compounded by the discovery that not only is the Independent more expensive, but that its “advanced” sudoku is actually rather easy. Clearly there is a difference in expectations between the two sets of readers. And to think twenty years ago, at the height of the Fleet Street wars and the move to Wapping, the bulk of The Times’ journalists defected to the Indie en masse. For a fortnight, three weeks it was a great paper.

I don’t really like the Independent; dunno why I bought it. The only thing it has going for it is that it is better than The Guardian which is an exercise in champagne socialism, leavened with self delusion and smug self-satisfaction. I could have picked up the Daily Telegraph, but since that is the last remaining broadsheet in the country, I find it hard to read, having lost all my broadsheet-reading skills over the past couple of years.

So that leaves the Daily Mail, the shunning of which is surely self-explanatory and the Daily Express which plays the Dandy to the Mail’s Beano.

Anyway, lumbered for the day with the Independent, I see that Mel Gibson is blaming alcohol for his recent bout of anti-Semitism. Well, I guess you can transfer the blame for anything to something else these days. “I drink too much and it made me hate the Jews.”

Yup, I’m convinced. I'll buy that bridge, now.

Stupid git. He drank so much he forgot that racism isn’t something likely to win you any friends. I haven’t liked the man for years anyway. He’s made one film too many where the British – particularly the English – are irredeemable bad guys, and he doesn’t mind how much history he has to bend (or plain make up) to get that idea across. That’s another form of racism. Now, by exposing himself as anti-Semitic in an industry with such powerful and influential Jewish representation, he may just have cut his own throat. Or burnt his bridges or some other such colourful metaphor.

Let’s hope, shall we? Then I can rest easy knowing that I’ll be increasingly unlikely to see a new movie with him in the starring role.

Hurrah!

But if I do, I don’t want to read about it in the Independent.

Comments

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! I knew you were fabulous - I can't stand him. I rate him slightly above K. Reeves, in terms of sheer foam-at-the-mouth irritation value - if for slightly different reasons.

I'll get back to my interesting pieces of rock now....

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Keanu may not be an actor of any sort whatsoever, but he's not a bad guy, as I understand it he quietly gives huge amounts of his salaries to charity and spends a lot of the rest looking after his disabled sister.

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

it's the actor part that bothers me....
I make no comment on him as a person!

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

As an actor, Keanu is poo. So is Cameron Diaz.

Both, however, seem quite nice in real life, if they have such a thing.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

"I haven’t liked the man for years anyway. He’s made one film too many where the British – particularly the English – are irredeemable bad guys, and he doesn’t mind how much history he has to bend (or plain make up) to get that idea across. That’s another form of racism. Now, by exposing himself as anti-Semitic in an industry with such powerful and influential Jewish representation, he may just have cut his own throat. Or burnt his bridges or some other such colourful metaphor."

It seems like just deserts, especially as the completely fictional crimes perpetrated by the English in 'The Patriot' were based on Nazi warcrimes because the film makers decided we needed to seem more evil.

[failing-angel.livejournal.com]

Hollywood History strikes again.

Bless 'em (repeatedly, with a hammer)

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

My parents recently stopped buying the Times- Dad said that it had become far too fawning over Blair etc and as he's always been a conservative that didn't go down all that well!

I don't read any of them- I want news unpolluted by the political views of the writer; but at the same time I'm not so naive to think that's an easy thing to come by.

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

Ooo I like biased news...so long as I realise it. People are fabulously...human.

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

Well that's true! Maybe I just want the choice, so that on days when I'm not feeling that aware I can go for the straightforward stuff!

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

The Independant is the only paper I can tolerate.

Oh and everything you say about The Guardian is correct, it's the smuggest (probably not a word but I prefer it to 'most smug') thing ever written by human hand.

[failing-angel.livejournal.com]

I tend to read the Grauniad mainly for the supplementary articles - when it comes to news I rely on Auntie.
The Torygraph can be worth a read, but only in small doses; The Times is very good for masquerading as a broadsheet (as long as it doesn't involve anything linked with Murdoch's interests - so that's China ignored for a start); Indie - I grew away from it.


As for Gibbo - I'll confess a hefty slice of schadenfraude here, and do wonder about the comments made about him when 'Passion of JC' came out. But am wondering what is he supposed to have said.
To be honest, I can forgive his 'The Patriot' toss, not least because it's Hollywood history, ergo Britain has to be evil and at fault all along the way.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about the Guardian. I used to read it but it is full of smug tossers worried about why they can't get their cosseted offspring to eat mung beans. It is to class-consciousness what Peter Beardsley is to glamour modelling these days. Now and again I’ll take the Morning Star, just to be seen, but I always feel a bit stung shelling out around 60p for about sixteen pages. Marxism is fine but a bit of value for money doesn’t go amiss either (what a hypocrite). When I bother getting a paper (which is rare these days) I usually end up with the Independent, even though it’s pretty similar to the Guardian these days. What’s a bloke to do?

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

"smug tossers worried about why they can't get their cosseted offspring to eat mung beans"

*applause*

I find the supplements particularly grating. Apparently a mother can get lonely home teaching little Helena and Lysander, but what's a parent to do when Red Ken is suggesting that the little darlings catch the bus. Obviously without the protection of mummy's SUV the poor creatures would get squashed flat whilst simultaneously being preyed upon my pedos immediately upon leaving the family abode. Not to mention the germs.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

The poor dears could never get buses, there are smelly people on those who might upset Lysander's dust mite allergy!

The supplements really are so full of it. That people who can spend £800 on designer water butts or fly repellents actually exist and that trees have to die to give them 'lifestyle guides' in a newspaper makes me sick.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Sir, may I shake you by the hand! Splendid!

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Every nation has been rotten in the past, including the Brits, the Jews and the Yanks. Our forefathers all deserved a waggy finger for one thing or another. Still, for Mr Gibson to talk out of his bum like that is unforgivable, until we realise that we ourselves have made unforgivable social gaffes from time to time. My own foot goes in my gob almost every day.

Actually, I like the chap. And Keanu Reeves too. And anyone who accuses Mel of being anti-semitic in The Passion misses the point (and hasn't read the bible). So there. Ner.