Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived
A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?
Update: seemingly not
Update: Oh yeah!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Moments in language
Melanie Phillips' latest post on the Spectator weblog is entitled "Another rancid dropping from the British camel corps". The phrase "camel corps" is meant to refer to pro-Arab British journalists. Is this acceptable? What would a parallel description of pro-Israel British journalists be, and can one think of one that wouldn't obviously be racist? I think this is eally quite disgraceful. Admittedly, I've picked it out of context, but the context is a bunch of other posts about defending intelligent design, ridiculing the possibility of global warming and accusing people of having an obsession with Israel.
Is this just unscrupulous nutpicking on my part? I don't think it can reasonably be so called. Melanie Phillips isn't a part-time blogger - her weblog appears on the site of the Spectator magazine, which has thus published the accusations that Sir Max Hastings has an "obsessive animus" against Israel and "a dysfunctional inability" to view Israel rationally. Her blog is listed alongside that of Martin Bright, Clive Davis and Alex Massie, all of whom are apparently happy to see their names alongside her (Alex Massie, in fairness, appears to regularly demur from her stranger outbursts and Davis rarely mentions other bloggers, but Bright, in particular, has described her as "worth reading" in the last two months). Although MMR denialism, intelligent design and the existence of a journalistic "camel corps" are all of them fringe views, Melanie Phillips is not a fringe figure. This is a bit worrying.
this item posted by the management 5/11/2009 11:44:00 PM
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