"The agents of sovereign wealth funds"
Hahahahahahaha! The man clearly does not have a fucking clue what he is talking about. Although the fact that he has somehow got it into his head that "sovereign wealth funds" are mysterious shady entities or some such is probably a good lead indicator that something pretty entertaining is in the works.
Meanwhile, Chardonnay Chap was apparently right - Nick had filed his copy too early to really say anything about Rowan Williams apart from this squib:
"All in all, Rowan Williams seems a more deserving target for mass protests this weekend. Say what you will about Scientologists, but at least they haven't come out against the emancipation of women and equality before the law."
which, (ironically in context) is pretty clearly libellous, but I doubt Dr Williams will bother suing.
Meanwhile, Chardonnay Chap was apparently right - Nick had filed his copy too early to really say anything about Rowan Williams apart from this squib:
"All in all, Rowan Williams seems a more deserving target for mass protests this weekend. Say what you will about Scientologists, but at least they haven't come out against the emancipation of women and equality before the law."
which, (ironically in context) is pretty clearly libellous, but I doubt Dr Williams will bother suing.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 2/10/2008 06:16:00 PM
17 Comments:
Nick is being really lazy at the moment - the bin Mahfouz thing has been done in more or less every single issue of Private Eye over the last 6 months.
Also the conclusion makes no sense:
Today's anti-Scientology protesters may seem obsessive. Although they promise to be non-violent, their planned raids could turn nasty. But they understand better than bowdlerising judges and appeasing archbishops that the freedom to speak, argue, examine and satirise is the best defence against all the cults that seek to indoctrinate and subjugate our fellow citizens.
Scientology is a bete noir for the Decents (see the myriad inconsequential posting on HP about it) but all the same Nick seems to be arguing that freedom of speech and 'raiding HQs', which there is curiously little about despite a weird list of websites, are the same thing.
I'm fairly confused by the discrepancy between how Nick treated Martin Amis's 'adumbration' of making Muslims inequal before British law (not to mention his 'suggestion' that 'feminism cost us Europe') and Rowan Williams's far more guarded comment on the subject of the equality of Muslims before the law.
But lest we forget, Martin Amis is a 'serious novelist' and as such is clearly the intellectual superior of Rowan Williams, DPhil, who in addition to a very successful theological and clerical career is also a noted poet...
Mmmm, I'm not sure I would agree that being a poet is a qualification for having one's political views taken seriously.
[reaches for Very Large Book Of Stupid Things Said By Poets, employs heavy lifting gear...]
Is it possble that Rowan Williams is also a 'comedian'?
What i meant was that Nick's sole criterion for Amis's importance, and the idea that his bonkers ravings should be taken 'seriously', is the fact that he's a novelist. Evidently poets are of a lower order. I don't think either novelists or poets should have their views taken seriously purely on the basis of their being poets and novelists - it's just odd that Nick is happy to take Amis's suggestions of treating Muslims unfairly in the eyes of the law 'seriously' but not Rowan's. For me, as well, Williams's statement was a much more obvious 'thought experiment' than Amis's.
OK, got you, that seems fair enough.
Although they promise to be non-violent, their planned raids could turn nasty.
this is so ridiculous because the scientology protests really are just a bit of a joke. The real aim is not to seriously harm the co$ but to generate media coverage and getting some lulz out of doing so. Just look at the sites behind them:
http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Main_Page
Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind.
That should be on page one of Justin's book. Yeats was an Irish Senator and he was still totally bonkers.
Actually, there's an even better test of Nick's faith in the political acuity of poets: Harold Pinter. Definitely highbrow; Nobel Prize winner; and loathed by the Decents. (I'd rather read Pinter than Amis any day.)
Anon in the second comment, I'm not sure Rowan Williams did defend Muslims' equality before the law. He did say that he didn't like the idea of one law for all.
"Although they promise to be non-violent, their planned raids could turn nasty."
How can 'cyber-raids' be anything other than non-violent? Nasty, perhaps, but given the target not much of a worry.
I get the feeling that Cohen has drifted into that twilight zone of 'not even wrong'.
"Is it possble that Rowan Williams is also a 'comedian'?"
He was good in Blackadder.
Anon in the second comment, I'm not sure Rowan Williams did defend Muslims' equality before the law. He did say that he didn't like the idea of one law for all.
Evidently my 'Orwellian plain style' has deserted me - that was the point i was trying ot make, that both Amsi and Williams have 'suggested' that Muslims not be treated equally in the eyes of the law - only Cohen is happy enough when Amis does it in an arguably far more sinister way.
Does Pinter's doggerel count as poetry? Great playwright, but as a poet...
I actually take the minority view on this one - I find Pinter's plays dull and confusing, but "We blew the shit right back up their asses" is a fantastic line of poetry.
It's the punchline I like:
Now I want you to come over here and kiss me on the mouth.
Anyway, it's a lovely thought for Valentine's Day. Has anyone considered taking their beloved to a restaurant and reciting it?
Also worth pointing out that, in his occasional attacks on the ex-Revolutionary Communist Party, Nick seems to have little problem with the fact that ITN sued a tiny magazine and its publishers into bankruptcy. Oh well.
One of the best things ITN ever did, I though. If only someone would do something similar to Spiked, the Institute of Ideas, Sense about Science, etc.
Ah, because obviously every group we disagree with should be disbanded by the courts.
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