He said 'Jehovah' !

The Berslusconi 'controversy' is being plugged by the BBC and others for all it's worth - about 5p in my opinion. I know comparing a political opponent to the Nazis is a 'debating' tool copyrighted by the liberal left, but surely what's sauce for the Green Party goose, who started the handbagging by comparing one of Berlusconi's supporters to a Nazi, is also sauce for the Forza Italia gander ?

But Berlusconi is a BBC target only bettered by GWB and Georg Haider (who once said that Hitler built a lot of autobahns or something equally outrageous). A year or so ago the R4 current affairs series 'Crossing Continents' devoted a sympathetic programme to the 'radical left' in Italy, and how they were reacting to the Berlusconi administration.

OK, put aside the fact that a sympathetic Radio 4 programme about how the 'radical right' were responding to Schroder in Germany or Blair in Britain is about as likely as a Woman's Hour feature entitled 'Back In The Kitchen Bitch'. What was amazing was the omission of perhaps the most noteworthy response of the 'radical left' - the shooting dead by the Red Brigades of two advisers involved in drafting employment legislation with which the left disagreed.

Imagine (without smiling please) that Combat 18 had shot dead Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens. Could you really see any news organisation worth its salt discussing the response of the 'radical right' to Blair's government and not even mentioning it in passing ?


Straight Outta Compton (Warning - Link is Parental Advisory)

Serena beats Venus.

If people who talk about 'the cycle of deprivation' were right, that the poor will inevitably stay poor and those born in the ghetto are destined never to escape, we'd still be living in caves and banging rocks to make fire. After all that's what our relatives were doing a few millennia back.

Comtpton's more famous for rappers like Dr. Dre and Ice T. and for its industrial-scale violence and drug abuse than for tennis, yet these girls learned on public courts - though they did have to sweep the glass off first. Obviously they must have talent - but how many other talented kids stay in the ghetto ?

"His wife Oracene said tennis and other matters ranked a distant third on the Williams' list of priorities -- behind religion and family".


The Walrus Of Love - R.I.P.

Harry Hatchet says it all - Respect. That man had Luuuurrrrvvv enough and to spare. As a BBC correspondent said 'Heaven has gained a rather large angel'.