Now, that is a wild one! Peaches Geldof – yes, that one! – says she is a member of the Church of Scientology and a few years so already.

Wow, who had known that. Good luck to you!

Obviously new people who can FRO come and go – and there will be occasion to give some monthly gongs, and even to update some FRO candidates to legendary hall of fame status – but these lot will take some shifting:

1 Thatcher (the evil old witch seems determined to outlive me but i’m clinging on for that sweet moment of rejoicing)

2 Blair (the mercenary toad)

3 The Spice Girls (and all their little clones)

4 Pete Waterman (the devil)

5 Nigel Havers (it’s a personal thing)

6 Carole Malone (her arrogance knows no bounds, nor does her arse)

7 David Cameron (the queen’s cousin ‘twice removed’ – it’d be twice inserted if i met him)

8 Alex Salmond (the baldy wee bauchle)

9 The remaining Geldofs (Bob and the talentless freeloading slags)

10 Bono (the patronising cunt)

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

FRO Trivia: Below you will find 2 pictures of number 6, Carole Malone. One is before and one after makeup, but which is which?

You Decide…..

Hmm, brief hiatus there.

Well, what’s been going on? Stephen Gately went on a massive bender…and didn’t wake up…..the perils of ‘glory holing’ in Majorcan nightclubs??

Nice to see his former bandmates dropping everything to fly out there. For what? Hmm, would that be to get their faces in the press? Let’s face it, three of them are about to witness the remains of their careers go up in smoke. Just as soon as the cremation can be arranged, anyway. I reckon even the most rabid of moist pantied scream-agers would recognise the three backing singers on the street. Now that the reunion tours are scuppered, what’ve they got left? Louis has the X-Factor, and Ronan’s got whatever it is he does, other than cultivate bland. But Paddy, Mick and Dave??? They are the real victims in all this. Maybe DEC could have an appeal.
—————-
Give us your fuckin money….as Sir Bob never actually said, but maybe he would if he could get a face to face with our MP’s. Not content with being caught snuffling at the trough, the buggers now have the cheek to complain about having to pay some of it back. Oh, how they laughed as we complained about the retrospective tax rises they brought in a time ago. Now the boot is on the other foot, they squirm like stuck little piggies.

Philip Colbert, designer of The Rodnik Band showed his latest collection among the masters of painting in the national gallery during london fashion week. his guerilla fashion show was organized with an army of nine models which invaded the prestigious gallery on the saturday afternoon.

Philip and his troop of models invaded the many rooms of the gallery dressed in his fantastic printed collection and bowler hats to match. among the models were also the public that were part of the show, all, of course, wearing matching bowler hats. the spectacle caused a stir amongst the security and visitors at the gallery, being suddenly ambushed by a single filed army of Rodnik modernity, intrigued by the show, hidden mobiles became unleashed and the gallery floor became the unassigned photographers pitt.

my first collaboration with philip was photographing Peaches Geldof for his line with Energie. after that was a feature about himself shown in the magazine Let Them Eat Cake (pg. 62) where we did the shoot in the Oral Gallery in west London, again, his collection was amongst contemporary artists, so is that considered an installation now?

it was great to see his new collection and even better to see it shown in such a way, filled with stressed out security, surprised visitors and an art twist collection.

i’m just waiting to see what happens next from The Rodnik Band.

i love you Pix!

Out of the way Das Fritz, Geldof is coming through

A flash message communicated to the Admiralty early this morning gave a thrilling message. Captains Bob Geldof and Roger Taylor had won a fantastic naval victory of Ibiza in the Balaeric Islands, defeating Count Leopold Bismarck in open combat.

What were two wrinkly rock stars doing taking on the Kreigsmarine in the Mediterrainean? Well it was all for charity.

At the Ibiza Regatta earlier last week the two were appointed Captain of the sailing yachts Alexa and Tiger Lily.  Up against them was Count Bismarck in Bushido, determined to avenge the loss of the ship named after his ancestor, to the British navy.

Das Kapitan was totally unprepared for the sudden fog

The battle at sea was long and fierce with Geldof and Bismarck giving no quarter.  Finally in a display of sheer balls-out seamanship Geldof sailed dangerously close to the rocks, and far off course, to cut across the bow of Bismarck.  The two ships drew level and boarding parties fought tooth and oar.  In the end it was Geldof who won the day and Bismarck congratulated him on his sportsmanship.

At the after-party a large cheque was signed and much champagne was drunk as the two toasted their success as the ghosts of Drake and Nelson applauded wildly.

Land of hope and glory, mother of the free.. erm.. la la

Un articolo di Giorgia Scaturro > www.wired.it

Hey Mr Berlusconi, mentre si sta preparando ad accogliere gli altri leader del G8 a L’Aquila senta questo:
“L’Italia ha tenuto fede solo al 3% delle promesse fatte all’Africa al vertice di Gleneagles del 2005. È come prestare 10 sterline ad un amico e poi averne indietro solo 3. Quando per te da quei soldi dipende qualcosa di più di una birra, si rompe la fiducia. Che legimmità hanno questi imbroglioni di tenere il G8 in casa loro quest’anno? Come osano?”

Insomma, non usa mezzi termini Bob Geldoff alzando lo sguardo dalla sua zazzera arruffata. A Londra seduti insieme a lui ci sono gli altri paladini della lotta alla povertà e le malattie in Africa, come il Nobel per la pace Desmon Tutu e Bill Gates. Un coro per presentare il DATA Report 2009 dell’organizzazione One sugli ODA (Official Development Assistance), ovvero il rispetto dell’impegni presi nel G8 di Gleneagles di aumentre gli aiuti all’Africa, e svergognare il nostro paese, che, risultato ultimo nella classifica insieme alla Francia (al 7% di rispetto degli impegni) starebbe sabotando il progresso fatto nell’Africa Subsahariana.

L’Italia nel 2005 si era impegnata a stanziare come ODA lo 0,51% del reddito lordo entro il 2010 e dello 0,7% entro il 2015. Dal rapporto emerge che rispetto al target 2010 – di 3,528 miliardi di euro -, nel 2008 il contributo ODA dell’Italia è stato di 1,089 miliardi, nel 2008-2009 servirebbe un aumento di contribuzione di 1,219 miliardi ma il valore stimato sarà sotto di 251 milioni.

Alla fine del 2008 il debito dell’Africa è stato sgravato per 92,8 miliardi di dollari, ma con la crisi economica globale 11 paesi che erano sul punto di cancellare il proprio debito potrebbero regredire.

A Gleanegles era stato promesso il raddoppio degli ODA al 2010 con obiettivi di sviluppo nei settori della sanità, educazione, acqua e agricoltura. Ad oggi i fondi stanziati dai paesi del G8 ammontano solo ad un terzo degli aiuti aggiuntiva promessi all’Africa, con Italia e Francia responsabili dell’80% dell’ammanco. Il tempo stringe per rispettare le promesse e il prossimo G8 dell’Aquila sarà cruciale.

“Dobbiamo raggiungere altri 14 miliardi di dollari per completare le promesse. Gli aiuti stanno andando soprattutto in educazione e sanità e si tratta di attività quantificabili – ha detto Bill Gates co-presidente della Bill e Melinda Gates Foundation – con ogni miliardo che si aggiunge al Global Fund possiamo curare un milione di persone. I vaccini che ora sono diventati disponibili in Africa hanno già salvato oltre 3 milioni di vite”.

Quest’anno il Fondo Monetario Internazionale prevede che la crescita economica dell’Africa passerà da un 6,7% al 1,7%.

“I contadini più poveri che subiscono gli impatti peggiori dei cambiamenti climatici hanno bisogno di aiuti per migliorare raccolti e produttività. I paesi scandinavi e l’Olanda sono i più coraggiosi in questa sfida alla povertà e anche la Spagna ha fatto degli aiuti all’Africa una priorità”,  dice il fondatore di Microsoft che con la sua fondazione sta promuovendo la ricerca sull’HIV e sta lavorando per sradicare Polio e Malaria.

“Che obblighi abbiamo di aiutare altre persone così lontane da noi che non non vedremo mai?” chiede Geldof,  “Come mai la persona che attraverso la tecnologia ha creato l’economia moderna,  ha deciso di dedicare tutto il resto della sua vita ed il suo patrimonio a questa missione?”.

“Perché la povertà è una condizione empirica che può essere rimossa, e deve essere rimossa – conclude il cantante attivista – perché la nuova architettura dell’economia globale è collassata proprio perché il 50% delle persone che vivono con meno di 2 dollari al giorno non ne facevano parte.

Il messaggio è forte e chiaro, da Londra alla Farnesina, nelle orecchie degli otto ministri dello sviluppo che l’11 e il 12 giugno sono riuniti in preparazione del Summit dell’Aquila (8-10 luglio).

Aquí os traemos un completo reportaje con las mejores imágenes de la 62ª edición del festival de cine de Cannes. Por la ciudad francesa han desfilado estrellas de todo el mundo, entre las que han vuelto a destacar habituales como Michelle Yeoh o Hofit Golan, pero tambien otras que no lo son tanto entre las que resaltaremos la presencia de Elizabeth Banks. En la serie fotográfica se recogen las diferentes alfombras rojas que hemos podido ver durante estos días, pero también se cubren las increíbles fiestas que han rodeado al festival.

Natacha Amal

Michelle Yeoh

Georgina Chapman

Elizabeth Banks

Michelle Yeoh

Princesa Clotilde de Saboya

Devon Aoki

Alessandra Martines

Aishwarya Rai

Eva Longoria

Chiara Caselli

Elizabeth Hurley

Barbara Mori

Hofit Golan

Kerry Washington

Devon Aoki

Michelle Yeoh

Ivana Trump

Abbie Cornish

Diane Kruger

Donatella Versace

Dita Von Teese

Michelle Yeoh

Elizabeth Banks

Michelle Yeoh

Monica Bellucci

Peaches Geldof

Valeria Marini

Asia Argento

Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele

Hofit Golan

Hilary Swank

Julia Voth

Dita Von Teese

Kerry Washington

Afef Jnifen

Peaches Geldof

Hofit Golan

Elizabeth Banks

Dita Von Teese

Laura Morante

Juliette Binoche

Kerry Washington

Sophie Marceau

Hofit Golan

Phoebe Price

Isabelle Huppert

Hofit Golan

Elizabeth Banks

Sarah Marshall

Robin Wright Penn

Elizabeth Banks

Natasha Poly

Hofit Golan

Eva Herzigova

Robin Wright Penn

Hayden Panettiere

Inge Theron

Rachel Weisz

Valeria Marini

Tamara Beckwith

Martina Stella

Anna Mouglalis

Victoria Silvstedt

Evangeline Lilly

Malin Akerman

Tiziana Rocca

Michelle Yeoh

Tiziana Rocca

Joss Stone

Ok, this probably goes against my rules, but i will somehow try to link this to graphic design to validate the reason for posting this. My own reasons? I am a HUGE Fan. So you may know Chester French from their song “she loves everybody”, and one of the members of the band MAX Drummey Married Peaches Geldof in Vegas…then they split. They are signed to Star Trak music entertainment, no introduction to that label needed.

Their single she loves everybody is available to buy on Amazon (not available in the UK iTunes store unfortunately) here which is my favourite and includes two club banging remixes. Also available as a digital download here for £1.69.

Their Album has also just dropped, its called Love the Future, again, in the UK we cant get it on itunes but is available as a digital download or CD on amazon here.

However, i know the word FREE is like a word people tune their ears to and when they hear, it they jump, i mean we are students (some of us), it is the credit crunch so i understand. There is something free mixtape album called “Jacques Jams vol 1: ENDURANCE” that chester french has released to the world, boasting collaborations with Solange, Common, pusha-t, laddy gaga, pharrell and many more. 24 Tracks all fro FREE!

GET IT HERE!

Now the Graphic design linkage.

1. The single “She loves everybody” comes packed in a CD sized Condom package.
2. The Jacques Jams mixtape looks cool
3. They are signed to Star Trak, owned by Pharrel, who endorses a jotta like website called artst “Welcome to Artst Guild & Gallery – the online community where artists meet, share work and collaborate. JOIN NOW and share your artwork with the world”

So tell your friends, share this on facebook, messenger, myspace, everywhere. Take care, see you all next week!

www.chesterfrench.com

(This post is constantly revised as it was written hastily.)

I decided that much of the time, the most value I could add would be to give you a feel for what it’s like in the press room, on that floor that you, watching at home, could see behind any TV presenter reporting live from the summit.

Of course, the press room itself is “behind the scenes” of the summit itself. The 22 leaders and their delegations were off in the Red Zone working out the detail of what was agreed and published. Only occasionally would red-lanyarded people wander into the press & TV area to be ambushed by crowds of bored journalists eager for a story. But what I’m sure you saw most of was well-crafted, polished presentations of those moments and the pieces to camera on the TV stage.

So I’ve three bits of video that show you what’s going on from another angle.

First, here’s Simon Berry getting ready to talk to Bob Geldof. We’d spotted Bob talking to our colleague Todd Lucier and Nick Booth had encouraged Simon to go round and talk to him too and show him the idea of colalife. Nick filmed the real substance of the exchange here but my clip tries to show that even when the people filming and being filmed are fellow bloggers, there’s some further enrichment to come from seeing how it was set up.

Sticking with Geldof, I captured a little of him being interviewed (by someone in the studio) for Channel 4 News (I think). He’s a great performer, as I noted when I saw him at Innovation Edge and you see here the point at which the feed goes live to him and he launches into his spiel. I think it’s good to see what’s going on right next to the camera – can anyone find a clip from C4 to compare with this?

Even when we were in the briefings with Brown and then Obama, pretty much the same pictures were being taken throughout – the great man, at the podium – I was as guilty of that as anyone. So finally, if you watched the Gordon Brown press conference on the telly, you’d have seen a few flashbulbs going off. This is what it looked like from the floor where I was kneeling next to the press photographers.

Here there is a post on the New York Times about a proposal by the rockstar Bob Geldof to invest for Africa 1 percent of the fiscal stimulus:

G-20 Dispatch: Interview with Musician Bob Geldof

and here there is an article on the same topic by himself:

Bob Geldof: The poor must be included in a global economy

La rockstar Geldof all’ Italia: non dimentichi l’ Africa

“This is rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of this country. A new generation of musicians are challenging war-monger politicians and their courtiers (Bono, Geldof, etc). I hope these songs prosper.” - Tariq Ali

This is an excellent video montage celebrating  punk history. It accompanies the new single from the super kool British band called, The King Blues.

Check out another video from this great group after the jump:

website: www.kingblues.com

photo by: del-fuego (via flickr)

It’s been one of those weeks. Time keeps flying and you wonder where it’s gone as you gratefully crumble into your 300 thread count sheets, blissfully happy you can shut out the world – if just for a couple hours.

A new website, too many meetings, Brussels traffic jams, dinners with friends and LeJaguar, early mornings, late nights, I feel as if I was the multi-tasking queen this week. 

I was reminded that you can have all the planning in the world, but most of the time it’s the spontaneous events that prove to be the highlights of the week.  Such was the case on St. Patrick’s Day.  Having spent the day running from one appointment to the next, I met a friend at the Irish Pub Kitty O’Shea’s to toast St. Patrick as we waited for our dinner companions.  A pint of Guinness, a pint of Kilkenny , sandwiched between revelers and Eurocrats, we shouted above the din and Irish folk music bellowing from the corner.  

Little did we know Bob Geldof and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso had been there only hours before as Geldof joked a couple pints might help speed up the Commission’s response to world aid..  Who needed planning? We were obviously at the place to be!

The IRA’s Knight in Shining Armour

Mary Jo Kopechne

Teddy Kennedy, the Prick of Chappaquiddick, is to be awarded an honorary knighthood by fellow New World Order loon Gordon Prudence Brown (proving that the filth will always look out for each other), for his alleged “services to the British-American relationship and to Northern Ireland.” He will not be awarded vast tracts of land for NuLabour to tax to Hell and sell by the pound to the overlords in Brussels.

The unelected Scottish buffoon Broon will announce the award formally during his address to both US houses of Congress. Grey Brown is even more respectful of the Boston Barfly than Kennedy’s fellow socialist terror supporter Jimmah Cahtah (TLC) was. As Jimmah said of Teddy: ”I don’t have to kiss his ass.” Even his own brother, John F. Kennedy, referred to Teddy as “the gay illiterate”.  (No doubt just an example of that famous Hibernian bonhomie.)

Dead R.U.C. policeman. Not knighted.

“Then they bury him with stars, and sell his body like they do used cars.”

The millionaire socialist Kennedy will join his fellow patriots Sir Heinz Alfred Kissinger (TLC), Sir Rudolph Giuliani, Sir Alan Greenspan, Sir J. Edgar Hoover, Sir Steven Spielberg, Sir Billy Graham, Sir Norman Swarzkopf Jr., Sir Wesley Clarke, Sir Colin Powell and Sir George H.W. Bush (TLC) in swearing allegiance and fealty to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and to her royal line. 

Sir Ted: “Comrade Gerry, I’ll shuck yer dick fer a wee glash uv whishkey … Hic!”

Gerry Adams: “Where’s me fockin’ knighthood?”

The decision to honour an IRA-supporter astonished Tory MPs. One frontbencher said: ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate. He hardly had the British interests at heart.’ Former Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe said: ‘It seems to me a bit of an odd choice [oh that wonderful English talent for understatement], but diplomacy has no bounds.’

Lord Tebbit, the ex-Tory Cabinet minister whose wife was confined to a wheelchair after suffering terrible injuries when IRA terrorists bombed the party’s conference hotel in Brighton in 1984, said the honorary knighthood was ‘wholly inappropriate’.

He said: ‘Edward Kennedy may never have said outwardly he supported the IRA but he certainly leaned towards extreme Republicanism. He was certainly no friend of the UK. This honour is wholly inappropriate on the basis of the sleaze attached to him after the crash at Chappaquiddick, let alone his support for nationalism in Northern Ireland. It cheapens the whole honours system.”

Interestingly, the Queen will be knighting a man who’s great friend defended the murder of her relative, Lord Mountbatten. Gerry Adams: “The IRA gave clear reasons for the execution. … As a member of the House of Lords, Mountbatten was an emotional figure in both British and Irish politics. … In my opinion, the IRA achieved its objective.” Well, that’s alright then. 

What can you expect from these revolting Royals? The only reason to keep this one on is because she’s a degree o two above the traitorous filth in parliament. But if Prince Taqiyya Big Ears takes over, all bets are off. It’s already been approximately 360 years and 35 days since a British monarch lost his head, and a time for every season under Heaven. 

Comrade Kennedy was an influential figure in the Northern Ireland terror campaign, capable of swinging Irish-American opinion as head of the Kennedy family and an Irish patriot. In 1971, the senator compared the British presence in Ulster to America’s involvement in Vietnam. He also called for the immediate withdrawal of the Army.

While Kennedy condemned patriotic British troops for defending law and order in their own land, his thoughts on the native security forces that his socialist terrorist comrade slaughtered are unrecorded; no doubt because he’d prefer to ignore such realities.

The Ulster Defence Regiment was intended to be non-sectarian. The UDR went operational in 1970 with a contingent of 2440 members, of whom 946 (39%) were Catholics. However, following a campaign of intimidation against RC members and their families, including being driven from predominantly RC areas, Catholic membership settled at around 3%. The first two recruits sworn in on February 18, 1970, were James McAree, a 19 year old Catholic, and Albert Richmond, a 47 year old Protestant. Private Sean Russell was the first Catholic UDR man to be killed by the IRA, on December 8, 1971, in his home in Belfast. 

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was to be 3,000-strong, recruiting 2,000 ex-Royal Irish Constabulary and 1,000 A Specials. Half of the RIC men recruited were to be Catholic,making up a third of positions within the force. Less then half the required number of Catholics came forward and the balance was made up with more A Specials, who continued to exist as a separate force.

Throughout its existence, republican political leaders and Roman Catholic clergy “urged” Catholics not to become police officers. In spite of this “urging” the RUC did attract some Roman Catholic members. These men were for the most part former members of the RIC, who came north as refugees from the Irish Free State. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these men retired over time, as IRA attacks on Catholic police officers and their more vulnerable family members meant that Catholic participation in the Royal Ulster Constabulary always remained disproportionally small. Notable brave exceptions include RUC Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan KBE, Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney, Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey, Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan as well as RUC Superintendents Kevin Benedict Sheehy and Brendan McGuigan.

Kennedy, adopting a godlike tone, and as contemptuous of British sovereignty as his comrades Clinton and Bush are of Serb sovereignty, claimed that Protestants who could not accept a united Ireland “should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain”, thereby denying Irish people freedom of religion, and denying any political rights to people who had been settled in Ulster since nine years before the Jamestown colony was established in the territory that became Virginia, 22 years before The Mayflower anchored in Cape Cod, and 186 years before the first Russian colony was established in Alaska.

By the bizarre formulation, “go back to Britain”, the oxygen thief seems to have meant the island of Great Britain, unaware of the fact that Ireland is also one of Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha. No doubt he is also unaware that the majority of protestants settlers in the Plandáil Uladh were Celts, being Scots, who had invaded Great Britain from Ireland. And either ignorant or disdainful of the fact that The Irish people of Northern Ireland exercised their right, under Article 12 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, to not be part of King George V’s Irish Free State.

Who cares about such historical complexities when you’re a self-righteous interfering arrogant drunk pontificating windbag homicidal terror-supporting bastard? In 1996 Kennedy welcomed the terrorist Gerry Adams to Washington.

The vile senilator, who has “served” the American people for 46 long years (but didn’t serve a two-month jail sentence as it was suspended), pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crime in 1969, following his role in the death of  Mary Jo Kopechne under what can best be described as suspicious circumstances, as Kennedy waited eight hours – long enough to sober up – before reporting the crash.

If Obama wants a free blowjob, and if Chris Matthews is otherwise engaged, Broon will be sure to do anything to please. Anything to avoid going “home”, where the very dogs on the street know what a pathetic joke he is. Better to be honoured in Congress than actually have to win an election in the EU’s formerly British territories.

Lawrence Auster on Gordon Brown:

If you thought of Dead Leftism, with everything those words imply, incarnate as a human being, you would have Gordon Brown. He’s so grotesque in so many ways I don’t like thinking about him. … The state of Great Britain is a grotesque monster, devoted to its own perversion and destruction, and led by zombies. Brown strikes me as, quite literally, a zombie. But people don’t see it. They don’t like his policies. But they don’t see that he’s a zombie. … I see dead people.

The constitutional status of Northern Ireland & The Republic of Ireland

Some comments from readers of the Daily Mail:

• You are jesting surely. Has Edward Kennedy actually done anything of account other than being a Kennedy.
  
• I wonder what foul things he’s done to be joined to the bunch of scoundrels currently “SIR” this or that.
  
• Great, another controversial nomination for an honorary knighthood. Why don’t we just scrap knighthoods instead?
  
• WHY?
  
• YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP !
  
• This man, the hero of Chappaquidick, gave comfort and encouragement to the IRA. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Northern Ireland situation, Edward Kennedy has always been the political enemy of Britain, as was his father. This just adds to the long list of “Sirs” who are either immoral, incompetent, dishonest, or all three. What is it about British governments that they are always sucking up to people who wish us nothing but harm.
  
• Who is Prudence snivelling upto now. Senator Kennedy sponsored and supported terrorism,  he gave succour to the IRA. Sorry I forgot Liebour under Tony B’Liar stopped the terrorists or rather gave in to them as well as giving massive amounts of honest taxpayers money it bought them (almost).
  
• What is Brown the Clown expecting to get in return? The Kennedy nomination for Brown being given charge of the World Bank? I wouldn’t put it past this parasitic traitor.
  
• At last! An honour for the Hero of the Chappaquiddick. Presumably it was awarded on the advice of Jeremy Clarkson and will be for Services to Motoring.
  
• This is an absolute disgrace and just shows how low Gormless will go to curry favour with someone, anyone.
  
• Help in Northern Ireland? He met with terrorists and gave them succour, he fought in the senate to protect convicted terrorists and escapees from extradition.
  
• His father wrote off Britain at the start of WW ll and fought to prevent the USA from entering the conflict (the arch isolationist thought they could avoid the war).
  
• Back to Ted, ask him what happened to MaryJo Kopekne at Chappaquiddick. How did he escape from the submerged car and she didn’t and what sort of man leaves a young woman to die?
  
• This man is a disgrace. … It is merely confirmation of the way that Labour has constantly and consistently debased and devalued our Honours System. Brown has continued exactly where Blair left off!
  
• This honour is undeserved; I smell Brown ingratiating himself with the American establishment.
  
• I guess everyone has forgotten Mary-Jo Kapetchne and Chappaquiddick then? Another disgrace knighted.
  
• Oh good idea give the hero of Chappaquiddick a gong.What a disgrace!
  
• That Sansford chap re cricket was given one as well  Does not mean anything does it?
  
• An ‘Honorary Knighthood for Corruption’ more like.
  
• I suspect the hand of Gordon behind this move, sucking up to the Democrats in America, friends of Obama and all that.
  
• NO,NO,NO,NO this man and his family have never been friends of the English and I have no doubt were supporters of the IRA. He also has the disgrace of Mary Jo Kepechne’s death hanging over him. This pathetic government will do anything to try to win a few votes with what they believe are “populist” decisions. Well this one will backfire and cost them votes!
  
• Unbelievable. From a family of dubious character and now rewarded with a knighthood. Might as well give one to bin laden for his work on Afganistan.
  
• If I could be so honored as to name the title as. “Sir Edward of Baccardi” or perhaps “Sir RumDummy of Chappaquiddick.” Who is running things across the pond anyway???????
  
• Absolutely disgusting and making a complete mockery of our honours system.
  
• If there’s one thing that appeals to a politician’s inflated opinion of themself, and in the process devaluating ‘historical tradition’, than personally ‘donating’ vast sums of money to international aid in ‘charitable donations’ [that is essentially taxpayers money] without first courteously telling Parliament of their covert intentions, then it’s deluded, backscratching politicians giving each other once revered ‘medals’ and ‘titles’ like confetti! Personal political opportunism and insolence of the first order, unelected ‘President’ Brown. 
  
• Hail the deluded arrival Brown’s Banana Republic!
  
• In the name of sanity,get this government OUT.
  
• What a worthless bauble a knighthood has become. Scattered around like Del Boy’s bling to shyster bankers, hug-a-tree pop stars and failed politicians. Anyone with an ounce of integrity and true honour would refuse such an “honour”.
  
• Why? – remember Chappaquiddick?
  
• I remember a news item some years ago when Kennedy visited Northern Ireland. He arrogantly approached a British Army patrol to say his piece. They said “Go back to your own country”. Kennedy replied “You go back to yours”, to which the British soldiers said with conviction “This IS our country”. Touche. The honours system in this country is an international embarrasment.
  
• Sorry, but he will always be the coward of Chappaquidic in my opinion.
  
• This guy was a great mate of the IRA and showed Britain as much friendship as his Nazi-appeasing Dad! You must be joking! You HAVE to be joking!!
  
• what a knighthood for a coward that runaway and left a young girl to drown in his overturned car when he crashed in a river,
  
• What up with his country?? This man and his family have been pro IRA all their lives and that dumb Scotman is giving him a Knighthood!
  
• This is a disgrace. Through much of the fight against the IRA this man was firmly in the IRA camp along wiyh many of his family. There is too, the death of a young woman which should have barred him from such an honour.
  
• Have people forgotten about Mary Joe Kapuchne?. Or do they hope we have?
  
• US Democrats will see through this toe-curling, buttock-clenching embarrassing attempt of Brown to ingratiate himself with them.
  
• Crawling to the Americans again!
  
• Is a coveted British title for his mentor Obama’s fee for accepting to see the Scottish chap who has managed to bring England to her knees?
  
• Why should HE get a knighthood? I don’t recall that he has ever lied to the British parliament or ruined the British economy. It doesn’t seem deserved.
  
• A knighthood for the Chappaquiddick Kid? Remember all those years ago in N Ireland, when our hero was shown on TV yelling abuse at a British soldier on peacekeeping duties? Only Labour could come up with this nonsense.
  
• Knighthoods – two a penny these days! Scrap the entire system as an outmoded concept.
  
• NO WAY does he merit any British so-called honour after his support for the IRA.
  
• Oh well they dole the things out to soap and pop stars too.The entire process has become a bad joke and the awards therefore are now meaningless.
  
• Why don’t they give one to Fidel Castro for his services to poor Cubans ?
  
• ‘Sir’ Edward Kennedy, ‘Sir’ Alan Stanford, ‘Sir’ Fred Goodwin, ‘Sir’ Bob Geldof. I think that we can safely say the knighthoods are completely useless nowadays. They may get you an upgrade on British Airways but, apart from that, they are a waste of time.
• This is the son of a man who hated Britain and did all he could to see it’s demise.  As for Ted, he and his family spent years helping the I.R.A. as much as they could. Now he is awarded a knighthood for it. WHY?
• Will the award commemorate Kennedy’s efforts in raising money for the IRA?
  
• How can Brown stoop so low as give Kennedy a Knighthood it just goes to show how vile the man is. Kennedy along with his ilk contributed to the IRA. The Man should hang his head in shame.
  
• Only Brown could come up with an idea like this. He is not just content with bringing this country to it’s knees he now sticking two fingers up to it. 
  
• I read this with total disbelief. The only service Kennedy ever provided to the UK, was that which he gave to the IRA. As a result of his support for the IRA, many of our soldiers were killed unnecessarily. It is an insult to ALL our soldiers who served and died in Northern Ireland – but this is what we have become accustomed to in NuLab’s Britain. Anything or anybody who is anti-British is given the governments fullest support! This award degrades all others, and indicates how low this government has sunk!
  
• Brown will honour anyone who opposes England and the English,thats how he will get his knighthood. This loser is still trying to impress.
  
• Excellent choice. Keep your diary clear, Sir Martin McGuinness.
  
• Why did the Queen agree? For goodness sake. Has everyone in the once GREAT Britain become lily livered? Will no one stand up and be counted?
  
• This is the Guy (an American) that asked a British soldier in Belfast “why don’t you go home?”. This government keeps sinking lower and lower.
  
• Brown had to do this…he is just sucking up the to Democrats.he’s hoping that Obama will put his arm around him. in other words he is paying for people to like him. Pathetic.
  
• People should now be very scared of this Government. It has completely lost touch with reality. Without a credible opposition I think anarchy is just around the corner.
  
• This nasty little man used Northern Ireland to shore up his popularity in America when it was needed. He and his shabby, bunch were opposed to the British in Ireland and openly supported the IRA. This nighthooh is an absolute disgrace. Only an equally shabby and misdirected Government could propose this.
  
• This must be the final proof that Brown has completely lost it. Kennedy was a confounded nuisance when in Ireland, insulting the squaddies who were doing a very tricky job. Mention his name in Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard and you will be in danger of being lynched. 
  
• He sided with the IRA and helped raise funds for these terrorists, as did hundreds of thousands of other Americans.
  
• Awarding a knighthood to an IRA sympathiser is probably the sickest joke that Brown & Co. have yet come up with.
  
• I suspect that because we didn’t get a chance to knight John for services to Marilyn Monroe we have to give it by proxy to the remaining brother before it’s too late.
  
• People who have done far more damage to this country have had it. As for Northern Ireland, well, he won in the end, didn’t he? To the victors the spoils, I suppose. He never understood the first thing about it, but that is not a peculiarly American fault.
  
• Hopefully he will kick the bucket and get his “reward” from a higher power that HMQ before he gets his bloody sandals on sovereign soil…..
  
• Of all the Kennedy’s, this one was the runt of the litter and should have been jailed. Rather than Knight him, drive the sword through his heart, it is well time we were quit of this disgraceful philanderer. Over Ireland I found Clinton less than delightful but at least he made an effort, this scum bag contributed nothing, the World will be well shot of him.
  
• I was so fortunate to nurse Lord Mountbatten in the late sixties when I was a student nurse). He was the very best of all men. The IRA murdered him years later, let us never forget the disappearances and assassinations, ever. 
  
• As far as many Americans are concerned terrorism started on 11th September 2001.
  

The British sheeple do seem quite displeased.

Some dumb Yank commented:

There were atrocities on both sides of this debate [yeah, that's how you know a "debate" is going on, by the attendant atrocities], but I will say that Americans [other than the Kennedys and Bushes and Powell and Spielbergs and such like] really don’t care much about Knighthood. You have to understand that we liken to a title of nobility, which our founders did not like. [Instead we have dynasties and moguls]. We’re all equal under God, from the Pope [I didn't know he was American!] to the Pauper [Obama's forgotten illegal alien aunt?], the King [Obama?] to the Servant [Monica Lewisnky?].

Sir Michael: ”Congrachilashins ma’e!”

Andrew Roberts: The obscenity of giving Ted Kennedy a knighthood

The decision to award an honorary knighthood to Senator Edward Kennedy shows Britain at its most masochistic, New Labour at its most cynical and – if he accepts it – Kennedy at his most hypocritical.

To bestow such a distinction on a man who has spent almost all his adult life profoundly opposed to the United Kingdom’s best interests also makes a mockery of the honours system.
…
Ted Kennedy’s father, Joe, who had made his money from bootlegging in the Prohibition era, became American ambassador to London from 1938 to 1940. As the U.S. envoy, he was an unrelenting appeaser and as unhelpful to Britain as it was possible to be in those perilous days, believing that Adolf Hitler was going to win the war.

Derided as a coward and known as ‘Jittery Joe’ for panicking when bombs were falling, his term as ambassador ended abruptly, along with his political ambitions, during the Blitz in November 1940 when he remarked: ‘Democracy is finished in England.’ Within a month he was forced to resign.
…
It is no exaggeration to say that Ted Kennedy did his damnedest to poison U.S.-UK relations over Ulster during the long decades in which he has castigated successive British governments. Rather than expressing any genuine commitment to peace in Northern Ireland, he would always play exclusively to his own Catholic-Irish voters in Massachusetts.
…
For the Queen to be obliged to honour this man is nothing less than an obscenity.

Let us look more closely at his record in relation to Ulster. In 1971, Kennedy likened the British presence there to the American invasion of Vietnam — a despicable analogy at a time when U.S. troops were using the poisonous chemical Agent Orange and napalm against the Vietcong.

He went on to state that the Protestants of Ulster ’should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain’. The fact that they had been in Ulster for 360 years — three times as long as the Kennedys had been in America — clearly passed him by. It was not until St Patrick’s Day 1977 that Ted acknowledged that the Protestants might be allowed to remain in their homeland.

In 1978, he successfully pressured President Jimmy Carter’s administration not to allow the U.S. to sell arms to the Royal Ulster Constabulary – sanctions which effectively equated Britain’s Ulster police force with repressive dictatorial regimes in Africa and Asia.

It was no coincidence that he raised the flag of Irish nationalism whenever his Senate seat came up for re-election. His call for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland in 1980 was condemned as ignorant grandstanding by the great Irish statesman Conor Cruise O’Brien, but it went down well in the Irish pubs in Boston where money was raised for the shamelessly pro-IRA fundraising organisation Noraid.

True to form, Kennedy blamed British ‘insensitivity’ for the 1981 hunger strikes led by the terrorist Bobby Sands in Belfast’s Maze prison, rather than the IRA for the continuing murderous strife in Northern Ireland.
…
At 12.45am on July 18, 1969, and with Mary Jo in his car, Kennedy – who had been drinking and partying – drove off the Dike Bridge connecting Martha’s Vineyard (where the Kennedys had their holiday retreat on America’s East coast) with Chappaquiddick Island.

He managed to extricate himself, walk back to his motel, complain to the manager about a noisy party, take a shower, sleep the night, chat to a friend the next morning, order two newspapers, meet his lawyers and finally report the accident to the police at 9.45am.

By then, however, his car had been spotted and Mary Jo’s corpse had been found by a fire department diver, Captain John Farrar, at 8.45am.

She had not drowned, but had survived in an air pocket inside the car, only to asphyxiate when the oxygen finally ran out several hours later. The brutal fact is that had Kennedy alerted the police earlier, Mary Jo might be alive today.

She was given no autopsy and Kennedy was not charged with drink-driving, but merely given a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. To this day, Kennedy has not apologised to Mary Jo’s family, and, of course, the tragedy did not for a moment affect his future rampant drinking and womanising.

Many questions about what happened at Chappaquiddick remain unanswered, for Kennedy – who was expelled from Harvard for cheating in his exams – has given contradictory explanations to some questions and refused to answer others.
…
‘If your name was simply Edward Moore instead of Edward Moore Kennedy,’ one Democratic rival for his Senate seat told him, ‘your candidacy would be a joke.’

Now, Labour, which is supposed to abhor nepotism, is about to reward the most egregious example of nepotism in America today.
…
Labour argues that Ted Kennedy aided, and was a great supporter of, the Northern Irish peace process and, therefore, deserves this honour — but, once again, let us look at his record.

It is true that he lobbied President Clinton hard in 1996 to award Gerry Adams an American visa (Adams promptly used his subsequent U.S. visit to raise money for Sinn Fein) and later to get him invited to the White House. But it is quite wrong to suggest, as the American historian Arthur Schlesinger does, that these initiatives ‘led to the IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday accords’.

These, in fact, only came about as a result of the IRA’s political and military leadership recognising that they had been defeated on the ground by 1996-98. All that these American invitations afforded Adams, apart from flattering his ego, was to lend Sinn Fein an utterly spurious respectability on the world stage.

Only after 9/11 [did] Americans discover on their own soil how loathsome terrorism truly is, and how far from a noble romantic struggle.
…
Gordon Brown wishes to ingratiate himself to the President by giving a knighthood to Obama’s political ally, using the Northern Ireland peace process as the excuse even though it is utterly inappropriate.

This knighthood is nothing less than a disgrace to the honours system.

Sir Bob Geldof: “Arrah! Y’eejit! Could tings be any more aizy? Yer lourdship dis, an’ yer lourdship dat, ’tis brillo. Me woif ran off widda reeeal rock star.”

Sir Paul David Bono Vox Hewson: “Good on ye! Oi’m a rich cont, yeraah!”

“Oo-er! Michelle’s arsie is yeeea big! Ah were reet thrilled an’ all. Wahay!!’

I find it bloody hard to sell myself.

In-between defragging my hard drive, I’ve spent most of today working on a suitable bit of blurb to help sell this record I’ve been working on.  In fact, I still haven’t done it.  It’s a gradually growing concern of mine, to be honest.  Success in the entertainment industry seems predicated on the level of zeal you have in your own abilities.  That’s pretty much the reason why All Celebs are Cunts.  You need a frankly ludicrous sense of self-entitlement to even get your foot in the door.  And you know what?  Sometimes that’s just want you want in your person on the telly.  You want that rapper to lyrically push that pram down the steps.  You want a cathedral-sized ego on your box, it makes them easier to spot.  After all, often the only solace in your arsenal when faced with the glittery hedonism of modern celebrity is that, yeah, they may have the money and fame and all manner of well-bred sexual organs at their beck and call 24-7, but I’m just plain better than they are.  I’m not a victim of self delusion; I know I’m a talentless git etc.  You know, that might be why people hate Bono and Geldof so much (aside from them being generally insufferable as musicians and personalities).  Not only are they rich…and famous….not only that….but they also…*hack, spit*….help to raise money…for charity?!  Who do they think they are, encouraging awareness of the AIDS epidemic in Africa like that? WANKERS!!  Saying that though, it’d be nice if they gave out of their own pockets more, instead of cajoling a bunch of ‘proles’ every year with a stick made out of sub-par comedy (he says, not having a clue how much they give to charity, although it’s almost certainly more than I do even by a relative standpoint).  

So anyway, it’s hard to see myself in the realms of success, which of course is the wrong perspective to have when embarking on any kind of venture.  Even though I’m not at all aiming for celebrity, much less the level of fame I described above, I still perceive success to be a freedom of sorts from the crushing mediocrity of my life.  I’m sure it would still be full of petty annoyances, travelling at night and needing more cash than I’ve got, but at least you have the escapism of art and the culture that surrounds it.  I’ve more or less been outside that culture for so long that I imagine it to be some kind of bohemian paradise, featuring great-looking people of all shapes and sizes, in a trendy New York penthouse sensually boning each-other while discussing Times New Viking or whoever.  In fact, if I’m brutally honest with myself, it’s probably that illusion of a lifestyle that spurs me forward.  I say illusion, but some people out there do get to live like that, don’t they?  Largely free from pain and self-doubt, indulging every vaguely creative whim in their synapses, all between copious bouts of sexy interclock.

WANKERS!!

I read this poem in class seven years ago, and I still sometimes find the first verse stuck in my head.

On either side of the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road run by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil’d,
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower’d Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, ” ‘Tis the fairy
The Lady of Shalott.”

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair’d page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower’d Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror’s magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel’d
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter’d free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon’d baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn’d like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro’ the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d;
On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow’d
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
“Tirra lirra,” by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower’d Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river’s dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance –
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right –
The leaves upon her falling light –
Thro’ the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn’d to tower’d Camelot.
For ere she reach’d upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, “She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.”

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Anyone else think she looks like Peaches Geldof?

The holidays are approaching.  Everyone is creating their naughty and nice lists.  Next Friday, the day after we celebrate Thanksgiving, Americans will hit the malls and big box retailers to buy iPods and clothes, DVDs and stuffed animals, for loved ones and the Secret Santa exchanges and our children.  Some see it as a secular holiday, others celebrate the holiday in a religious context.

We are a lucky people. By the accident of our birth in this great nation, hope of a better future is always on the horizon – even in the darkest circumstances.

Twenty-four years ago Bob Geldof and Midge Ure drafted Bono, Sting, and other music industry luminaries to come together as “Band-Aid” to raise awareness of the famine in Ethiopia.  I was twelve.  At the time, I had already spent many a Halloween with my little orange box from UNICEF - collecting the change of my neighbors and watching my mother roll it up, then turn it in to my teachers.  I knew there were children without food, without water, without homes, without families to love and protect them.

I remember the first time I heard Geldof and Ure’s creation for the artists that combined forces to be Band-Aid.  It was just after Thanksgiving - my family and I were in the car, on our way to a school holiday program, when it first rang through the airwaves: ”Do they know it’s Christmas?”  I remember telling my mom to turn it up, we listened to the last half just sitting in the parking lot.  Our beautiful school, in the suburbs of Atlanta, was so clean, so perfect so fortunate were all of us.  Hearing that song fixed in my heart what the UNICEF box meant.

That as a human being – I had a responsibility to make the world around me a bit better place than it was when I arrived. The famine that inspired a news report, that moved Bob Geldof to write the song year in Ethiopia has passed… but since then, Africa has seen more tragedy.  Genocide in Rwanda.  Uganda’s child soldiers, the unknown children.  Blood diamond mines, across the continent where women and children are beaten, tortured, enslaved and mutilated.  Widespread preventable diseases like malaria kills thousands and thousands of children every year.  Somalia faces a crisis, again – famine is creeping in and Islamists threaten to end what little life there is to sustain.  Kenya has been ripped by violence.  More than a million people have died at the hands of Islamist butchers, the Janjaweed – who use Rape and Genocide in the name of Allah.

In 1984, I was the same age my daughter is now.  We do the same things I did with my mother.  The little orange boxes on Halloween from UNICEF.  And more: raising awareness and pointing kids to ONE.  Encouraging folks to wear RED clothes from The GAP and buy RED products, like the awesome U2 filled iPod.  Consuming info from DebtAidsTradeAfrica, Save Darfur, and especially The IRC.

I belive in the full funding of PEPFAR.  Truthfully, it is far cheaper – and has a long term upside – compared to another Bailout for the Big 3 Automakers.  I believe in the full funding of the Millennium Development Goals.  Earlier this year, the Pentagon launched AfriCom – and looking at the increased activity of pirates off the coast of Somalia, and remembering my friends who served in The Mog – and others who served in Rwanda… I wonder if our generation, Gen X, will get the opportunity to set right the mistakes and catastrophic failures recognized by some who came before us.  Not many. 

Most dismissed “Do they know it’s Christmas?” as a self-indulgent, ego-satisfying step of some in the music industry.  The truth is, I remember those voices.  When the single hit the stores, it charted at Number One.  It sold eight million copies world wide.  Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did not want to waive the VAT (tax) because why should the government give up it’s share?  Public outrage grew so quickly, Lady Thatcher acquiesced. And every cent of the three million copies sold in the UK went to famine relief in Ethiopia.  Many of us in Generation X were affected.  We remember the end of Apartheid too.  We also know that many of the problems in Africa have worsened.  The people neglected.  We are old enough now to take up that charge anew.  And we are, thanks to the leadership of folks like George W. Bush, whose legacy in Africa is unparalleled.  And Bono, Geldof, and few others.

Geldof went on to organize Live Aid – which harnessed I remember as well.  July 1985 – they raised roughly the equivalent of $245 million for famine relief.  They held a similar event Live Aid 20, in 2005.  There are so many avenues to help – there can be no more excuses. No more waiting out the clock.  If we believe, as a people, that we should be our brother’s keeper – then we don’t have a moment to waste.  The government can’t fix this.  Real men and real women – in government, in public life, and all of us that are private citizens, must reject the Starvation of Hope for Africa and her people. 

We must all work toward liberating Africa from its image, and reality, as the forgotten continent.

—Media Lizzy

Hey Pixie, is your Dad in?
… Do I sound like I’m from fucking Dublin?
… Well of course I’m not fucking Bono.
Yeah, umm just wondering if I could have a word with with your Dad.
… No I’m alright thanks, but I hear you can get a good price for that shit down Kings Cross.
… Alright, well just tell him that I love the track and yeah, Blue Mondays is shit, but hey! – We all have off days. Also tell him that this would be a real boys-on-the-town classic if he didn’t look like such a
FUCKING CUNT IN THE VIDEO.”