Just a reminder that Tangled Wed Radio goes to air tomorrow evening at 8pm GMT.

As previously trailed, we’re covering three topics; Political Correctness, The EU and the leaving thereof, and the Burqa – should we be banning Islamic garb in the UK.

Remember to make sure YOU have your say – PHONE IN to 001 646 652 2582. It costs a cent per minute.

If you prefer to just leave a comment, I’ll be opening a thread before we go to air and I will read as many out as possible.

The strength of ATW is YOUR participation - so hit the dial tomorrow night and share your thoughts with the world. C’mon – I dare you…..!

Prince Charles might be attacking the fast food industry but the Pope has been asked to bless a sandwich.

Vatican officials have confirmed that KFC have asked for the Pope’s blessing on their new “Fish Snacker Sandwich” which, Kentucky believe, will be “ especially popular on Fridays”.

Being a good Protestant, I think I’ll pass thanks

We live in an age that likes to appear cynical. It now seems naive to point out that the only thing that big business cares about is big bucks. And if you object that certain products demean girls and women, well, you are considered a prude. But it needs to be said, because simply saying ‘So what?’ is costing the childhood of a generation".  OK . Well said .  But frankly i dont see the harm a doll itself is.  The doll’s clothing reflects what kids perceive as cool and hip as does the spin off merchandise kids clothing.  She should probably apply that thinking to the root of it all – the trash that is circulated by mass media in conveying what is cool and hip which is acceptable: 

Apparently its  ’empowering‘  for the likes of knickerless Britney and all the spin offs to hump the floor dressed as a schoolgirls.  I feel the same way about the female chauvinist pigs who perpertuate this myth and image as i do about their male counterparts who openly indulge it (thinking of some girating idiot on MTV holding his crotch and calling girls hoes, here, not the cabbie who calls me  ’darlin’ ..which is to twist Mikes expression would be PC gone bezerk).   What’s with knickerless Britney, Paris Hilton and some dirty internet footage, Jordan and her boob jobs, Abbey Titmuss and Rebecca Loos celebrated as celebs for doing nothing more than shagging someone famous?  I am pretty fed up with Nuts, Zoo, Maxim, Loaded and a variety of soft porn boys magazines that set girls up on the cover like a couple of grinning bimbos (which the models themselves seem to buy into, unquestioningly, and babble on about being ‘empowering’)  sold as mass consumer ‘pop’.   I dont think it makes me a prude.  Course you want to look cool, feel good about yourself and your image and a lot of what i would consider ok and fun might not be what others think is acceptable.   In the early 90s i dressed up in some tres raunchy clubbing numbers and had a blast.  As did my friends.   I dont think, maybe, we were so much influenced by something  because it wasnt mass culture. It was fun and it was unique.  Noone was dictating it to us and were old enough to know what we were wearing.  Trends are supposed to come and go though.  But one trend seems to be sticking.  Isnt it a worrying when its repackaged as ‘empowering’ and some 60% of little girls want to be glamour models or lap dancers? The result of that stat is a target market for unscrupulous business. Im just not sure where and how you draw the line?  And what about boys.  They are sexualised just as early. 

The first issue of Loaded had Gary Oldman on the cover and set out with good intentions (around about the same time i think as the Spice Girls and Girrrrl power). It didnt take them long to figure out what sells.  I just read that magazine sales of mens magazines are in decline in the UK as the shift moves to the internet (mag sales in the US of the same remain strong). New media that is as good as it is bad.  Two thirds of all internet searches are for porn – which gives you an idea of what is on the net and accessible unless you’re vigilant.  Virtual sex games and their ads, trailers and free downloads could just as easily become a kids sex education.  You can say dont buy, switch off, ignore etc but in this day and age id wager that is becoming increasingly hard to do.  Whats to deflect it? Where’s the balance with some ‘better’ role models that the media will buy into?

*as i was writing this the 23 year old uni student on work experience here took a look at this and agreed she feels the same way too. Phew!

A few days ago I mounted an article in which I outlined why I would not be voting DUP. Some of the comments it generated suggested that I should endorse another party or an independent anti-agreement candidate.

I respect the views of those who believe that one should always use their vote. But I am of the opinion that this election is not democratic.

The choice which people face in this election is, I feel, very much akin to that in Eastern Europe when it was dominated by the Soviets.

The people could vote but they could only vote for candidates from one party. The election result was predetermined before a single vote was cast.

On March 7^th the voters have a “choice” between four main parties all of whom advocate the same government – a coalition in which all of them will have places as of right.

On the other hand, I could vote Alliance who would like to be part of the aforementioned government but won’t get enough votes to secure an executive position.

In what other country would a preparation for government committee meet long before an election is even called?

Where else in the world could all the main parties be sure that they would have a place at the cabinet table given any conceivable result?

Our forefathers didn’t die in two world wars for this.

They died to prevent those who used violence to impose their will upon free peoples from achieving political power.

This election, on the other hand, has only been called because the Prime Minister is “convinced” that all the main political parties in Northern Ireland are prepared to share power with those who killed and maimed in order to further their objectives.

Why don’t I vote for the anti-agreement candidates?

Well, as we all know there is no such thing as an anti-agreement DUP candidate. All “Democratic” Unionists standing in this election have signed a resignation letter which can be triggered as and when the leadership sees fit.

On the other hand, I could vote for one of the half dozen Bob McCartneys.

The fact that Mr McCartney is running in so many constituencies detracts from the very serious points which he is making about the Belfast/St Andrews Agreement.

Mr McCartney is saying many things with which I wholeheartedly agree but he has allowed himself to become the butt of jokes by standing in so many constituencies.

The parallels with Rainbow George are inescapable.

So I’m not going to vote in this election – it’s an affront to democracy.

One of the BIGGEST LIES in current Northern Ireland politics is that “the constitutional position is settled.”

Both the DUP and UUP like to pretend this – and openly declare so in their election literature. But they are either fools or knaves to suggest this and here is a little light on the subject.

The UK MSM wants John McCain as the GOP Presidential candidate next year. Of course they would prefer it if a Democrat wins the race for the White House – Hillary or Obama will do nicely -but McCain is their fall-back candidate. Why? Because he is on the far-liberal side of the Republican Party.

So imagine their consternation at the news that Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, is opening a lead of up to 20 per cent over his declared rivals among likely Republican primary voters.

Naturally the UK MSM choose to portray this as "causing consternation on the right " of the GOP – pretending that "Right-wing"supporters are shocked  – yes, shocked -that the more socially liberal Giuliani is doing so well. Rubbish. It’s the UK MSM which is shocked.

If issues like gay-marriage and abortion were the primary issues facing the US then they might have a point – but we are AT WAR with militant Islam and we need a President who is very clear on THIS central point and who can show REAL LEADERSHIP on the issue. I believe this is Rudy’s BIG strength – it is why I shall support him – and it is why I believe he can win the White House next year. We need a leader – not a follower of shallow defeatist MSM liberal values.

As you have probably gathered by now, I don’t think much of the main Unionist political parties.

However, William McCrea’s statement on Sinn Fein/IRA and criminality in my view deserves to be both highlighted and commended.

Dr McCrea asked Mitchell McLaughlin if he still believed that the murder of Jean McConville was not a crime.

Mrs McConville, a mother of ten young children, was abducted by the IRA in 1972 because she helped comfort a dying soldier who had been shot just outside her front door.

Her body was not uncovered until 2003.

Just two years ago, McLaughlin told RTE that while the murder was “wrong” it was not a “crime”.

Surely Dr McCrea’s statement demands an answer.

If Sinn Fein/IRA still hold this warped view of what constitutes criminality then surely their claimed support for the rule of law is, as Dr McCrea puts it, “a nonsense”.

Well now – looks like the "pragmatists" are being given the upper hand in the Bush administration these days. I read that the United States announced yesterday that it would participate at an “ice-breaker” regional conference in Baghdad alongside Syria and Iran — both pariah states with whom President Bush refuses to have direct talks.

Although officials confirmed that the US was ready to attend the conference on the future of Iraq next month, there was confusion last night about whether it would sit down around a negotiating table with Syrian and Iranian diplomats. 

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, did not rule out bilateral contact, saying:

“We’ll see. The focus is on Iraq. The Iraqi Government is convening the meeting. We look forward to attending it. At this point I’m not going to try to predict what direction the discussions might take, the interactions might take.”

The US idea that Iran and Syria will bring stability to the region is surreal and it strikes me that the Bush regime has entirely lost the Middle East plot. Condi may be in the ascendancy but the Bush doctrine lies in tatters. We are now with those who are against us. Wonderful.

The idea that schools should select pupils based on academic criteria is unacceptable to liberals. It’s so unfair. It’s discriminatory, they moan.

So what do they come up with as an alternative? That’s right – a lottery to gain entry to school.

Places at some popular secondary schools in Brighton are to be allocated by lottery – the first time a council has backed such a change. The move by the Labour-run local authority comes as 200,000 children may miss out on their preferred school this year. Brighton and Hove says the new system will give more children a better chance of getting into popular schools.

Government is completely destroying education. It has removed academic ability as the criteria for entry. It has then dumbed down the curriculum. It has then indulged the radical egalitarians by insisting all kids are equal and all must have prizes. And now it ensures that a child can only get to a given school by lottery.

Is this an example of what George Orwell described, in his bleak masterpiece of literature "1984", as "doublethink"? -No, not quite, but it’s something similar, I feel sure. "Doublethink" meant the ability to simultaneously hold and accept two opposing points of view, such as "the stars are little bits of fire a few kilometres away", and "the stars are huge suns, billions of miles distant". To say one thing for one purpose, then to immediately state the other thing for another purpose, and to eliminate from your mind the very fact that you had even contradicted yourself. No, this is not quite the same thing, but it is related. What I am looking for in this instance is a "Newspeak" word which means "to completely agree with a statement, yet simultaneously to completely disagree with it".

What in the name of jumping blue blazes am I babbling on about this time?  OK, I’ll come directly to the point: I’m on about THIS news report, and more specifically, my reaction to the words of an official who was asked to comment on the situation.

The substance of the story: 

Rioting has broken out at a young offenders’ institute in County Durham for the second time in three days.
A wing at Deerbolt, near Barnard Castle, was taken over by inmates on Tuesday evening, a spokesman for the Prison Officers’ Association said.
Another wing was destroyed by about 40 inmates on Sunday. Four prison officers were injured in the eight-hour riot.

…and the words of the official, which have produced this strange "doublethink-esque" reaction in me: 

Steve Cox, national vice chair of the Prison Officers Association, said: "The fact that there have been two serious disturbances in the space of 48 hours has got to indicate that there is something drastically wrong in that institution." [....] "There has got to be something seriously wrong to cause prisoners to act in that way."

There’s the thing that is bothering me. Yes, I absolutely and wholeheartedly agree with Mr Cox that "there is something drastically [and seriously] wrong in that institution, to cause prisoners to act in that way." I’m struggling with this intellectual paradox.  Because, you see, even though I could have used the exact same words myself, something bothers me. I don’t know, call it a hunch, but somehow I "feel it in my bones" that when Mr Cox refers to "something [being] seriously wrong", he actually means something completely different to what I would mean, if I said the same words. Hence Mr Cox and I find ourselves in total agreement, yet at the same time in total disagreement. Isn’t language a funny thing?

(PS, if you’re still at a loss as to what I mean by all this, then try deleting Mr Cox’s word "cause" from his above quote, and replacing it with the word "allow", and the mists might begin to clear).