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U.S., Allies Weigh Punishment for Russia

danielledehoffman — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:16:10 +0000

WASHINGTON — Scrambling to find ways to punish Russia for its invasion of pro-Western Georgia, the United States and its allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club of wealthy nations and canceling an upcoming joint NATO-Russia military exercise, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

But with scant leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures, such as boycotting Russian-hosted meetings and events, that may have little or no long-term impact on Russia's behavior, the officials said.

With the situation on the ground still unclear after Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to military action in Georgia, U.S. officials were focused primarily on confirming a cease-fire and attending to Georgia's urgent humanitarian needs following five days of fierce fighting, including Russian attacks on civilian targets.

"It is very important now that all parties cease fire," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The Georgians have agreed to a cease-fire, the Russians need to stop their military operations as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop because calm needs to be restored."

At the same time, however, President Bush and his top aides were engaged in frantic consultations with European and other nations over how best to demonstrate their fierce condemnations of the Russian operation that began in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, expanded to another disputed area, Abkhazia, and ended up on purely Georgian soil.

"The idea is to show the Russians that it is no longer business as usual," said one senior official familiar with the consultations among world leaders that were going on primarily by phone and in person at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where alliance diplomats met together and then with representatives of Georgia.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe confidential conversations among the leaders of other nations, said European and other leaders have been blunt with Russia that it must withdraw its forces. Russian leaders have said they do not plan a long-term occupation, the official said. The official was not specific about whether Russia has offered a timeline for withdrawal.

"People are saying, 'You know you cannot stay,"' the official said. "We have been hearing from Russia, 'We don't want to stay."'

For now, the Bush administration decided to boycott a third meeting at NATO on Tuesday at which the alliance's governing board, the North Atlantic Council, was preparing for a meeting with a Russian delegation that has been called at Moscow's request, officials said.

On the table for future action is the possible cancellation or U.S. withdrawal from a major NATO naval exercise with Russia that is scheduled to begin Friday, the officials said. Sailors and vessels from Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. were to take part in the annual Russia-NATO exercise aimed at improving cooperation in maritime security.

The exercise, which is being hosted by Russia this year, began a decade ago and typically involves around 1,000 personnel from the four countries, the officials said.

In the medium term, the United States and its partners in the Group of Seven, or G-7, the club of the world's leading industrialized nations that also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, are debating whether to effectively disband what is known as the G-8, which incorporates Russia, by throwing Moscow out, the officials said.

Discussions are also taking place on whether to revoke or review the May 2007 invitation to Russia to join the 30-member, Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which consists primarily of established European democracies, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have yet been made and consultations with other countries involved are still under way.

Bush spoke on Monday and Tuesday with fellow G-7 leaders as well as the heads of democratically elected pro-Western governments in formerly Eastern bloc nations, some of which are among NATO's newest members and have urged a strong response to Russia's invasion of a like-minded country.

On Monday on his way home from the Olympics in China, Bush talked with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. He then called Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the White House said. On Tuesday, he spoke with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Rice, who returned early to Washington late Monday from vacation to deal with the crisis, held a second round of talks with foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries in which they were briefed on European Union mediation efforts led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Tuesday with Medvedev in Moscow.

"They believe that they have made some progress and we welcome that and we certainly welcome the E.U. mediation," Rice told reporters at the White House.

Later, Saakashvili told reporters that he accepted the cease-fire plan negotiated by Sarkozy.

Despite the flurry of activity, there was still uncertainty about whether Russia had in fact halted its military action in Georgia, with reports of continued shelling of civilian and military sites.

The State Department on Tuesday recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Georgia in a new travel warning, saying the security situation remained uncertain. It said it was organizing a third evacuation convoy to take Americans who want to leave by road to neighboring Armenia. More that 170 American citizens have already left Georgia in two earlier convoys.

Just hours after Bush said in a White House address that the invasion had "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world" and demanded an end to what he called Moscow's "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence, Medvedev said he had ordered an end to military action.

Brought to you by Danielle Hoffman / Christine Nadonza, Reuters

Max Mosley: "Er zijn gays in de Formule 1 en dat is nu OK"

Benjamin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:59:15 +0000

Max Mosley, voorzitter van de Internationale Automobielfederatie (FIA) zegt in het Brits tijdschrift Autosport dat er altijd al homo's werkten in de Formule 1 en dat is nu zo goed als geen probleem meer. Mosley maakt die uitspraak in de nasleep van een SM-schandaal waarin hij verwikkeld was.

Life after the scandal: First interview with Max Mosley , Jonathan Noble, Autosport, 06.08.2008
"Grown ups just don't care. They say it is none of my business and couldn't care less. There have always been people in F1 who are homosexual and now it is pretty much okay."

Nochtans is nog geen enkele F1-rijder uit de kast gekomen. Geruchten zijn er voldoende. Jarno Trulli, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Ralf Schumacher zouden niet vies zijn van de herenliefde. Ook Lewis Hamilton en wijlen Ayrton Senna kregen te maken met speculaties over hun geaardheid.

Maar een coming-out? Nog niet. Wellicht spelen commerciële en politieke factoren. F1-rijders willen sponsors en dus hun zitje niet verliezen en de Formule 1 racet ook in homo-onvriendelijke staten zoals Bahrein.

Continued backing for Gordon Brown

1dada000 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:11:21 +0000

Over the weekend three important cabinet members in Gordon Brown's premiership, Chancellor Alistair Darling, Leader of the House of Commons Harriet Harman and Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham all voiced their support for Gordon Brown.

Skills Secretary Mr Denham speaking on BBC One, said that Mr Brown had a "profound understanding of what this country needs."

"We knew what Gordon's strengths were when people like me nominated him and supported him, and it was his profound understanding of what this country needs," he said, adding that it falls to cabinet to get that message across.

"Anything that gets in the way of all of us as a team putting that message across effectively is a distraction from what needs to be done, and is in danger of letting David Cameron win by default."

Speaking in the News of the World, Harriet Harman said that the party needed someone who had the ability to see Britain through the current economic downturn.

"Gordon Brown is the right person for the job," she said.

Meanwhile his Chancellor Alistair Darling praised the prime minister's "determination and strong purpose".

I personally do not see why Labour backbenchers such as Geraldine Smith and Bob Marshall-Andrews have emphatically called for the removal of David Miliband from the Labour government. Regardless of whether Miliband had an ulterior motive for stating that the party was "determined" to be clear about its values, and ensure a "real choice at the next election", in his article in the Guardian, he has at least spoken about the problems Labour face and their vision for the future- something which Gordon Brown has failed to address.

Maybe they should ask themselves if they should even be representatives for Labour if they are calling for the removal of members rather than sticking together in such unprecedented circumstances.

It is an absolute shame at the problems that Labour face. Labour are clearly the best political party to represent the United Kingdom. In the House of Commons, Gordon Brown constantly counters opposition and Liberal attacks by highlighting the achievements of the Labour Party in the last decade. The fact that he also repeats it, makes us forget its huge significance.

To put it into perspective if it was not for the Labour Party, there would be no National Minimum Wage Act, let alone its increase from a mere £1.20 to now £5.52.

Just think of a country with no means of universal health care for all. The majority would not earn anywhere near enough money to fund private health care on a regular basis and the effects of this are pretty self explanatory.

While unemployment may be rising now, Labour helped to take it to a record low and get people from different walks of life to work and back to work.

Gordon Brown's weakness is that he may not look like what many think is a glamorous person or sound like the most exciting person in the world sometimes, but I know that he cares greatly about everyone in this country.

Brown's ten years and two months as Chancellor of the Exchequer made him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history, where his notable achievements were "the longest ever period of growth", making the Bank of England independent and delivering an agreement on poverty and climate change at the G8 summit in 2005.

While the Conservatives may flying in opinion polls and David Cameron is calling for an election that he would win convincingly right now, what is it that the Conservatives have to offer. They have not touched on policies and how they will solve them. It is very easy to attack someone for their mistakes in dealing with someone, but ultimately you look equally as incompetent and stupid when you provide no real answers yourself.

What a disaster if a party would come into power merely because of the misfortunes of another.

I find it interesting how Gordon Brown was named as a workaholic politician who does not get much sleep. David Cameron tells Gordon Brown to "take a holiday and spend more time with his family" but on the basis of this I can only see a man who is interested in his country. Maybe a Prime Minister Cameron would abandon cabinet meetings and go off to the beach.

There is another reason why Gordon Brown does not travel abroad for his summer holidays. Because he is on hand to respond to any problems and act as the Prime Minister he is. It was not only last year when his response to handling of a summer of floods and terror attacks left him riding high in the polls.

Gordon Brown's decision to abolish the 10p tax rate, the credit crunch, the long running Northern Rock debacle and his policies on gas guzzling vehicles have proved very unpopular along with the increasingly difficult economic times and enough to give break even the strongest of a hearts

There has been talk that Brown is set for a secret cabinet meeting in the Midlands and I would advise him to please sit down and think carefully of strategies towards problems we face that voters will appreciate and hlep him win back votes from Labour voters. They are flocking from the nest to alternative political parties new such as the Tories and he must win them back to stand any chance of winning the now not so distant election.

Come the Labour conference, he must lay out in explicit terms a manifesto of what separates the Labour Party from the rest.

Over the weekend, Sir Alan Sugar advised Gordon Brown to "kick out" members of the government failing to support his leadership and I totally agree with him.

If Labour backbenchers such as Geraldine Smith and Bob Marshall-Andrews want to condemn the party then they should switch allegiances. Labour does not stand for people like this and should not welcome them, backbencher or a cabinet minster.

Meanwhile, former US president has given his support to Gordon Brown, saying the prime minister has a "big brain and a good heart".

Speaking on today's BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said anyone would find it "difficult to maintain a very high level of popularity" amid economic troubles.

He added: "I think anybody would find it difficult to maintain a very high level of popularity when average people are having the problems they are having today in the UK and the US with the soaring price of gasoline and the cost of living going up.

"I wouldn't predict Gordon's demise too quickly. I think he is just in a period where circumstances have got the British people appropriately concerned about how to get from day to day, week to week.

"The only advice I would give him is that he has got a big brain and a good heart - he just needs to apply them both to working through these issues as best he can and trust the politics.

"Just trust the people to, at whatever time he stands for election, to make a good judgement. You get one of these jobs - the best politics is to do the job."

It is now time for Gordon Brown to stand tall and keep his eyes and ears wide open.

Homofobie in de sport = homofobie in de wet

Benjamin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:16:39 +0000

FIA-voorzitter Max Mosley: seksuele voorkeur onbelangrijk bij uitoefening beroep

Voor Max Mosley, voorzitter van de Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), maakt het niet uit of iemand homo is, zolang hij zijn werk goed doet. De 68-jarige Brit doet deze uitspraak in de nasleep van SM-schandaal rond zijn eigen persoon.

Mosley werd door tabloid News of the World beschuldigd van SM-seks met hoertjes. NOTW filmde hem terwijl hij en de prostituees een 'nazi-strafkampscène' in het Duits naspeelden. Hij gaf toe met de vrouwen SM-seks te hebben gehad, maar ontkende de nazi-ondertoon. Mosleys vader Sir Oswald Mosley was een Britse fascistische leider in het Interbellum.

De FIA-president trok naar de rechter en kreeg gelijk. NOTW werd veroordeeld en moet een boete betalen van 60.000 pond.

Homoseks niet meer illegaal?

Woensdag vertelde hij journalisten dat de tijden veranderd zijn. Als voorbeeld neemt hij homoseksualiteit. Tot in de jaren '60 was sodomie in het Verenigd Koninkrijk strafbaar, nu niet meer.

Mosley to focus on green issues , Jonathan Noble, Autosport.com, 30.07.2008.
"The truth of the matter is this – that no grown up person gives the slightest damn about what other people do in their sex lives. It is not even a subject for discussion. It used to be 50 years ago that if someone was gay then it was a big drama. In England it was illegal and you could go to prison. But all that is now finished – people don't care."

Helaas is Mosley te optimistisch. Homoseksualiteit is nog in 80 landen strafbaar. Soms riskeren homo's de doodstraf. En dat belet sportlui ook hun coming-out te doen.

In verschillende landen ijveren homobewegingen voor de aanvaarding van holebi sportlui in de ploeg, bij de concurrenten en in de fans. Een terecht en nobel doel, maar het uitblijven van coming-out van internationaal bekende topsportlui heeft minder te maken met de mentaliteit in de ploeg en bij fans dan met pragmatische problemen.

Kleine wereld

De wereld is klein geworden. Overal ter wereld worden grote sportevenementen georganiseerd. De Grote Prijs Formule 1 van Bahrein, wilrennen in Qatar, tennis in Dubai, rally in Kenia, voetbal in Afrika…

Sportlui genieten niet van diplomatieke immuniteit.

Om in de Formule 1 te blijven, een voorbeeldje. Bahrein wil homovrij worden. Stel dat een F1-piloot zijn coming-out zou doen. Zou hij dan nog een visum krijgen? Niet zeker. En welk team zou een rijder aantrekken die niet overal kan racen? De carrière van de coureur zou snel voorbij zijn. Dat risico kunnen topsporters niet zomaar nemen. De koninklijke familie van Bahrein is by the way voor 30% aandeelhouder van McLaren-Mercedes. Zouden Ron Dennis & co nu een homoseksuele piloot kunnen aantrekken?

Dus, Mister Mosley. Niet overal is homoseks wettelijk toegelaten. Misschien moet u daar met organisatoren van Grote Prijzen over praten. U kan erover meespreken. In het heetst van de storm was u ook niet welkom in Bahrein.

Er zijn holebi's in de sport. Absoluut, kan niet anders. Maar high profile coming-outs zijn niet meteen te verwachten. Niet alleen de fans, de ploegmaten en de sponsors spelen een rol in die overweging. Ook de wet. En die is nogal dwingend.

Benjamin

A Triumph For Privacy

cosmodaddy — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:39:16 +0000

Max Mosley's father was the wartime fascist party leader Oswald Mosley. Max Mosley is the president of the International Automobile Federation, has a thing for sado-masochistic sex with hookers and got secretly filmed frolicking with five of them. Scandal rag News of the World decided his private life was somehow our business, even though his private life and sexual preferences had and have no bearing on his ability to do his job. They say:

The FIA has a global membership of almost 125 million. It encompasses all creeds, religions and cultures, and the members have a right to expect their elected leader and most senior representatives to maintain standards in both his professional and private life so as to maintain the dignity and respect for his office and the organisation, the richest sport in the world.

How does any electorate gain the right to determine an elected representative's private life? I don't get that you see. On the surface it's the same as the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair - sure the guy's a sleazebag (in that case you knew before he was even elected), but did that private, consensual sex affect his ability to do his job? No. Sure he was cheating on Hillary but that's their problem surely? Is that not the same with the Max Mosley affair, or was there something deeper going on? Former Archbishop Lord Carey said:

"If a politician, a judge, a bishop or any public figure cannot keep their promises to a wife, husband, etc, how can they be trusted to honour pledges to their constituencies and people they serve?”

“This is a bleak, deeply-flawed ’anything goes’ philosophy. It is also dangerous and socially undermining - devoid of the basic, decent moral standards that form the very fabric of our society.”

I fail to see how Max Mosley's private behaviour affects the fabric of society, unless of course Carey's attacking the sex itself. What a surprise it would be for the former Archbishop of Canterbury to be campaigning against sexual practice he's simply prejudiced against. From the government's first attempt to equalise the gay and straight ages of consent, instead of siding with equality, he chose instead make a moral judgment on sex which was already consensual for heterosexual partners and sided with his bishops who:

stress(ed) that sexual relationships legislation should "set an example of what is good and be rooted in sound moral values".

"Pressures are at work to legitimise any and every lifestyle irrespective of any difference of value and quality between them," said the statement.

"These pressures should be resisted."

Except he and they were wrong, and gay sex at 16 and 17 hasn't turned out to be any more dangerous for society since 2000, than equally consensual S&M sex is now. NOTW continued however in the same vein as Carey:

His activities were not "Carry On" style hanky-spanky parties, as his legal team argued.

They were brutal, repulsive and depraved, as the evidence in the case revealed.

The beatings were violent and blood was drawn after Mosley was relentlessly whipped with a birch. Prostitutes were subjected to simulated rape.

He beat girls' bare bottoms with a leather strap and barked "I zink zey need more of ze punishment." He counted out the blows and then a prostitute performed a sex act on him. He also had full sex with one of the women.

Before that, he played out a bizarre scene where he had his genitals inspected and measured, his bottom shaved and had his hair searched for lice.

This was all consensual. That our 'moral guardian' George Carey and champion of 'family values' News International (seen page 3 of The Sun recently?) don't like it really is tough. If he'd raped any of the prostitutes then he should be in jail, if he'd done this in the workplace he should be (maybe) fired, but neither was the case. Maybe the point wasn't even the sex. Maybe it's his name:

Mosley won his high court action against the News of the World on Thursday after Mr Justice Eady ruled there was no public interest in the story, and that there were no Nazi connotations in what Mosley was doing.

Cute. Their 'public morality' argument was really just a smokescreen to try to link Max with his father, to suggest that fascist Oswald bred a Nazi son. And now they've failed, they're now making straw man arguments which don't stand up to the most basic tests of logic:

What, for instance, would your response be if your child's teacher enjoyed inflicting pain on others and took part in S&M orgies with prostitutes ?

Wouldn't you want to know?

Don't you have a RIGHT to know?

Or the Cabinet Minister and the Archbishop caught indulging in their dark, secret sexual fantasies?

I don't care about teachers' sex lives if they're private and consensual. I don't care about Cabinet Ministers' sex lives, unless they use them as weapons. Michael Portillo jumped on John Major's 'family values' bandwagon in the 90s for cheap electoral gain, even though he was a closet bisexual. Sure that was in the public interest, because he was pretending he was something other than what he was to the detriment of others - not the case with Max Mosley. I'm pleased with his huge damages victory and that he's going to sue them and others for libel. This unfettered presumption that the media can intrude without consideration into people's lives has got to stop - surely each individual case has to be weighed up on its own merits rather than saying there's either an unrestricted or no right to privacy?

The News of the World is proud of its tradition for investigative and campaigning journalism

Our Sarah's Law campaign has pioneered 14 new pieces of legislation to give the public more protection and information of convicted paedophiles in the community.

There is no newspaper in this country more repellent than the News of the World. Proud of its tradition of ruining people's lives, intruding into private matters which aren't anyone's business, and starting moral panics for the sake of profit more like. Papers like the NOTW are, more than any other non-governmental organisation, responsible for the culture of 'protection' which I've blogged about a bit recently. And their 'Sarah's Law' campaign did this:

Vigilante groups, mainly composed of parents incensed at the idea of having convicted paedophiles living in their area, mounted angry protests outside the suspected sex offenders' houses. Two men accused of child sex offences committed suicide and four innocent families fled their homes in Portsmouth after gossip and rumour wrongly identified them as harbouring paedophiles. Violence flared in Plymouth and Whitely, Berkshire. Innocent men mistaken for paedophiles were targeted in London and Manchester.

Max Mosley's own final word:

"The News of the World stole my image and my dignity. I feel very strongly that some newspapers literally ruin people's lives and more has to be done to stop this."

Couldn't agree more.

Max Mosley sues News of the World for libel

Paul McNally — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:00:13 +0000

Press Gazette: Formula One boss Max Mosley has confirmed he is to begin libel proceedings in Britain following his privacy victory against the News of the World last week. (more...)

So, does Lord Carey think the "News of the World" was right that exposure of Max Mosley's private likes and habits is "in the public interest"?

David Davis — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:24:11 +0000

David Davis

I want humans to become better people, and I want them to want to be that thing. I want them to not have to want to read scurrilous crap, about the sexual leanings of other people, printed by "news papers". That they want this stuff merely opens doors for supposed "moralists", which is to say:- stalinists in disguise, to operate controls. My objective is best served by freeing education from the State's control. Search many earlier posts about education here.

Now, I wouldn't so sado-masochism if you paid me. (Nor "oral" sex for that matter, whatever that strange and tautologous concept might be.) Or to be spanked, like poor old Sir Max Mosley, in a sexual context? Nah. The "News of the World" , described as a "news paper", thinks that one person's private delights ought to be displayed "in the public interest". Yet, a person described as a "retired archbishop" (does he stop believing in God then, when he "retires" - a strange this for a "man of God" to do, I would have thought...retire?) thinks that such "news papers" ought to be allowed to go on supplying suppurating pus for people, robbed by the State of the ability to make informed judgements, to drink.

I'm not so sure as "Lord" Carey is.

People's sexual and fetish habits become the property of others in a society where other people have nothing better to do than to want to know about them, for (what is called in Liverpool) "a laff". This comes about because all other ways to stimulate the brain and mind, such as reading 1950s engineering textbooks on lathe operation, or practising with a reproduction Long-Bow, or learning how to build and drive a computer-aided 5-axis-milling-machine, have been taped off.

It is also reasonable to suppose that what someone wants to get up to in his (or her) bedroom, with or without one - or many - girls (or men) to help, and whether these are paid to help or not, is his (or her) private business. It was obvious to a child of six that a "public interest" defence by the NoW would fail.

Even in a free market, I for one would prefer that "there is no market in the gap" for stories like this, notwitstanding that I would make _no law_ to make publishing them an offence. I would, as I said, prefer that _people_ should find them both uninteresting and intrusional, such that there would be no reason for a "news paper" to publish such a thing.

The solution of course is better people. Perhaps we libertarians will also have to dissolve them and elect another? Perhaps revolution is harder than it looks?

Lord Carey Wades In For His Paymasters

kevinboatang — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:20:16 +0000

I've just been reading about how Max Mosley will now sue everyone in sight for deciding to publish his private life. Good. In turn, Lord Carey, the former Archbish of Canterbury has waded in to the row, saying that it is a harmful ruling (against the News of the World) that will harm free speech and morality.

Lord Carey writes for the News of the World.

So basically, a former leader of the Anglican church has decided to take the shilling of Murdoch and launch into an attack on the courts of this land.

Surely using his position in the Lord's would be better for all involved?

He is entitled to his views of course, but by announcing them in the rag in question he has utterly undermined his argument. You have to ask yourself: has he taken the bag of money from the NOTW to fight their corner and abuse his position, or is he so naive as to think that writing this article in this paper has no impact or consequence?

Either way, to my mind, he has reveled himself as having poor judgement.

One of his main points is that if a man cannot stay faithful to his wife and the vows he made, how can he stay faithful to his duty of office. What complete rubbish. Every monarch for centuries has had strings of lovers, countless MP's have had affairs and been pefectly able to do their jobs.

And Max Mosley is the head of the FIA, not exactly leader of the free world is it?

What the man did was not illegal, it is a matter purely for his conscience and it is for him to answer the judgement his wife, children, family and friends will lay at his door. It is not up to the tabloids to do it for him.

And it is certainly not the job of an old bastard like Carey, useless at Canterbury, has now apparently sold his soul to the media and is a puppet for their vested interests.

Mosley Wins A Just Victory

kevinboatang — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:04:51 +0000

I was a tad surprised, but not for long, at The Sun's lead article yesterday about Max Mosley winning his court case against its sister 'paper' the News of the World.

By paper, I of course mean rag that is used to clean toilets.

Their claim was that it was an attack upon freedom. Utter rubbish. A prostitute secretly films a grown man taking part in sexual activity that is completely consensual, in private, and then publishes the story, stills and film of the incident.

That is an attack upon freedom. Their week defence that it was somehow in the public interest fell on deaf ears. They even tried to claim that a man such as max Mosley who partakes on a regular basis in such activities should expect to be outed at some point.

I do not agree with the silencing of the media, but it is stories like this that damage the British media beyond repair. There is simply no justification to intrude upon a person's privacy in this way.

It is of no interest, other than cheap titilation of the cornflakes, what a rich, powerful or famous person does in their bedroom. If he was raping children in Borneo then fine, but he wasn't.

Hopefully this case will make the gutter press in this country think before they ruin someones life, but I doubt it.

News of the World and Privacy

Clive Soley — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:58:07 +0000

I received an interesting phone call from the News of the World the other day asking if I would be prepared to go on the media and argue against the need for privacy legislation! I am opposed to a privacy law as I have explained elsewhere and it was clear to me that the News of the World knew they were about to lose the Mosley case.

They had guessed,quite correctly, that I would be critical of the invasion of Mosley's privacy as in my view it did not involve any over riding public interest. The sexual activities involved was between consenting adults and was in private and I see no case for press invasion.

I told them I would be prepared to go on the media and argue against privacy legislation but that I would also say they were wrong in this case. They accepted that.

There was a time when I was battling for better protection for the public from inaccuracy in the press when no newspaper, let alone the News of the World, would have asked me to defend them. Times must have changed!

Pain. Worth it?

maveodarsden — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:47:20 +0000

WORLD NAZIS SPLIT RUDELY

LONDON, BERLIN, PATAGONIA & DACHAU - 24 July 2008 - Neo-Nazis throughout Europe, Asia, The Middle East and North, Central and South America, including Patagonia - expressed shock, regret and not a little sadness today at the news that Formula One boss “Mad” Max Mosley was awarded a record £60,000 in damages after winning his privacy case over claims he took part in a “sick Nazi orgy”.

High Court judge Mr Justice Headly Lamarr (and you may ask yourself why) sided with Mr Mostly in his action against the News of the World, which published pictures of him indulging in a sado-masochistic sex session with five hookers, four birches, three blunt razors, two cans of quick-acting, stain-free Zyklon B automatic dishwasher pellets (”Insert ONLY from above and step back”) and a plastic partridge in a pear tree shaped dildo.

In the sleepy Bavarian village of Dachau, 83-year-old horse butcher, Adolf Hatler (Ed. Names changed to prevent being sued) said it was another sad day for Nazism in general. “You’d think after 63 years we could go back to living a normal life without shame and not fear the justice system ignoring our God-given Human Right to hobbies and games that have been handed down to generations of Bavarian Catholics.”

Eva Brown (Ed. Names changed…etc.) now 87 and a mornings-only Berlin library-cleaning lady, waxed nostalgic and a football-pitch-sized wooden floor. “I’m too old now to participate but I fondly recall in 1945 as the Russians entered Potsdam spraying sweet-smelling lavender-scented Zyklon B insect repellant on Dr. Joseph Googles and his wife who were already in a state of heightened excitement at the thought of being captured copulating in full military regalia.”

One-time Bayern Munich “Mittelstuermer” Franz-Josef Hitler (Ed. Names changed…etc.) reached on his iPhone 3GB in remote Patagonia was less sanguine. “Thank the Lord we out here are safe from prying journalists, after-all they only got Eichmann when the blithering idiot went to see The Godfather because he’d heard Robert Duvall was his spitting image. But I would appreciate an email with the online address for the bird-shaped dildo. That sounds like fun.”

Formula One “Obersturmbahnfuerer” Mosley (Ed. Only some names changed…etc.) himself seemed torn between two birchings about the record sum awarded him. “Just because I’m the son of Britain’s last Fascist Leader willing to announce his allegiance to Nazism in public doesn’t mean to say I actually enjoy wearing concentration camp kit, having my pubes shaved with a blunt razor, being screamed at by hookers pretending to be prison guards, and Jews at that, inserting Zyklon-B capsules from below without rubber gloves and not stepping away and anticipating somewhat fearsomely four agonising hours of “The Partridge” In fact I don’t enjoy it at all. That’s the whole point. It’s the humiliation that’s the most fun. Like I’m getting standing here outside the court talking to you “Arschlochers!”

mosley spanks news of the world! film at 11!

the national evil — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:53:48 +0000

Yep . . . again with the blurries.

File under “the National Evil, keeping you updated on the goings-on in the seamy underworld of hardcore S&M sex orgy-related lawsuits” . . .

Remember this post from last week? Well, Mr. Mosley has won his privacy case against the nefarious News of the World (of Red-Hot Depravity) to the tune of $120,000 in damages—which, sadly, is only half as many pounds. Ye Gods!—Evil remembers people joking that “If you take a thousand bucks to Mexico, you can live like a king!” Soon that’ll be the case with our former British overlords. For shame.

Back to orgy news. From CNN:

[T]he main point out of the decision was that public figures' sex lives were out of bounds unless a hypocritical element could be proved. For example, a politician who was campaigning on a moral platform while violating those morals in his private life.

The Evil, plotting his own meteoric rise to worldwide fame, wholeheartedly endorses this interpretation. Especially since his own tastes run toward the most diabolical, twisted acts imaginable; the only he could introduce a “hypocritical element” would be to cuddle a kitten. Not a sex kitten. A real kitten. A cute one. In a nurturing, non-sexual way. So that works out pretty well for the Evil, opening heretofore forbidden avenues of depravity to his always-smoldering imagination. (Those kittens are doomed! Dooooomed!)

Hmm. Scratch that last paragraph.

At the heart of the matter is this:

News of the World editor Colin Myler said he believed the story was one of "legitimate public interest and one that I believe was legitimately published," PA reported.

There is an insidious logic that has taken hold of our media, and it revolves around that oh-so-slippery term, “public interest.” The interpretation that seems to have taken root in Western society is quite literal: whatever the public finds interesting. Again and again you’ll hear media types and their paparazzi dogs defending their invasive practices by this logic. Perhaps we should ban the term “public interest” entirely, replacing it with . . . jeez . . . the “public good”?

As in: this information must be imparted for the good of the public. For example, the hypothetical (cough, cough) politician described above. You need to know about these things in order to make an informed voting decision; you do not, however, need to know what Brangelina’s babies look like. (Unless of course they say screw it and sell off the pictures.)

Please note that this is the first, and possibly only, time the Evil will endorse anything “good”.

Enjoy the weekend. If possible, defend your privacy like a mother bear protecting her cubs.

So, Sue Me

dorothyzbornak — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:45:18 +0000

Homewrecking hussy Sienna Miller's not too happy about British newspapers printing pictures of her cavorting with a married man. According to People.com, the actress is suing photo agency Big Pictures and News International, publisher of the "News of the World" and "Sun" newspapers. The pictures showed her topless with married actor Balthazar Getty ("Brothers and Sisters") off the Amalfi coast.

I'm sorry, but you know what honey? Karma's a bitch and she's tired of your ass hopping from man to man, breaking up families (Getty has 4 children with his now estranged wife) and causing trouble. How about you take some time off from dudes and just focus on your career? Cause lord knows, it needs some help.

Foto: dochter zwangere man Thomas Beatie heet Susan Juliette

Benjamin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:34:47 +0000

Thomas Beatie, de transseksueel die van een dochtertje was bevallen, heeft beelden van Susan Juliette verkocht aan de media. People Magazine betaalde 300.000 dollar voor de beelden (ca. 200.000 euro). Ter vergelijking: beelden van de tweeling Pitt-Jolie is zo'n 11 miljoen dollar waard.

Beatie vertelde ook dat de bevalling 40 uur had geduurd.

Coffee Break - Glastonbury 09, Winehouse, Monkey opera, Sienna lawsuit, Fox protest & more...

webescape — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:03:58 +0000

Glastonbury 2009 tickets to go on sale this October Festival-goers will be able to reserve their place for a £50 deposit then pay the full amount on April 1 2009, or face a £10 charge if they choose not to go through with the sale.

The REAL image of Amy Winehouse that Madame Tussauds didn't get This is the real Amy Winehouse not captured by Madame Tussauds in their wax-brushed image of the troubled star.

Monkey the opera opens in London Gorillaz pair Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's opera 'Monkey: A Journey To The West' opened at the Royal Opera House in London last night (July 23).

Sienna Miller sues tabloids Sienna Miller has taken legal action against The Sun, The News of the World and photo agency Big Pictures, over those infamous photos taken of her on holiday with Balthazar Getty.

Batman star stays silent in Spain Batman star Christian Bale has greeted fans at The Dark Knight's Spanish premiere, but refused to comment about being questioned over assault claims.

Protesters denounce Fox News as racist Protesters gathered on Wednesday outside Fox News Channel to denounce what they claim is its racist campaign coverage, including a pundit who called Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a terrorist.

YouTube ranter Tricia Walsh-Smith can't stop talking Tricia Walsh-Smith just can't keep her mouth closed about divorce as she declares 'victory' over ex Philip Smith.

Abuzată la 14 ani my ass.....

alexenescu — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:45:01 +0000

Acuma să mă ierte Dumnezeu dacă greşesc dar nu cred povestea asta nici în ruptul capului.

Să vă povestesc şi vouă, aşa ar fi frumos....

Gabriela Irimia, jumătatea Cheeky Girls face declaraţii "înduioşătoare" în tabloidul britanic "News of the world". Aceasta susţine că a purtat în pântece copilul parlamentarului Lembit Opik, cu care de altfel a fost cuplată o bună perioadă de timp. "Corpul meu a fost prea tânăr şi nepregătit pentru o sarcină, aşa că am avortat". Ooof, mă doare sufletul

Ia fiţi atenţi că povestea e şi mai traumatizantă. Ea de fapt nici nu ştia de sarcină. Acum o lună i s-a făcut foame şi a cumpărat de pe stradă nişte cartofi prăjiţi şi când a ajuns acasă i s-a făcut aşa un răuţ....

Ptiu Doamne, dacă ar şti toate fetele tinere care rămân însărcinate fără să vrea, de proaste ce sunt, că în loc să se ducă la clinică să avorteze, ar putea să mănânce cartofi prăjiţi...

Şi tragedia continuă. Iubitul ei (parlamentarul) nici n-a ştiut. O să afle acum din presă. Va fi distrus. Cariera lui terminată. Casa se va dărâma, pantofii i se vor rupe. Cred că se va sinucide.

Şi mai am. Aflăm în continuare că vedeta Cheeky a fost agresată, abuzată, obligată la diverse, chiar din fragedă pruncie, la 14 ani.

Mă gândesc. O fi descoperit maică-sa că nu mai e virgină şi i-o fi zis că a fost violată.

Sunt rea. Îmi dau seama. Numai că e un lucru cunoscut că fetele au intrat într-un con de umbră. Nu că ar fi fost vreodată cu adevărat vedete. Dar mă întreb: chiar atât de disperate să fie încât să apară în presă cu nimicuri d-astea de doi bani.

Şi mă mai gândesc că dacă ai trecut cu adevărat printr-o experienţă traumatizantă în viaţă, o ţii pentru tine nu o spui unei lumi întregi.

Să vedem ce ziceţi şi voi.

Of Mosley and the NSDAP

fangxianfu — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:59:41 +0000

This is, of course, the news that Max Mosley is a fiend and a cad.

Dylan Moran put it best (at about 5:30) when he said "Ohh, the shame of it! How could he!? How absolutely dreadful! I'd never do that! I've never had the chance, but I would never ever do that!"

I'll come back to the Nazi connotations in a moment, but first let's just assume that he really was doing something absolutely dreadful. So what?

Whatever took place in this hotel room happened between a group of consenting adults. Who cares what they got up to? I really don't think that public interest is a decent defence here, because when are anyone's consensual sexual habits in the public interest? A man might enjoy being stood on, being shat on, weeing in people's faces - it's nobody's business but his own and the person he's doing it to. If the News of the World win this case, it's going to be a sad, sad day for British privacy law.

Secondly, Nazism. I think there's a lot of mileage in Nazism as a fetish. The Nazis stood for industry, martial power, overwhelming force, skilled engineering and expert piloting. A finer set of sexual metaphors would be hard to find. Rule 34 dictates that there's a fetish for everything else, so why not Nazism? I can think of worse things to fetishise - it's not like the Nazis are a hot issue some sixty years after the end of the war. Why is having a fetish for being a prisoner (from which it's not much of a stretch to prisoner of war, and who's the first military that'd spring to the mind of someone of his generation?) so abhorrent that not only is it in the public interest (which I'll touch on in a bit) but that organisations the world over felt the need to force him to resign?

Which is another thing that annoys my tits off. Something bad happens, some high-powered person has to resign. How the arseface does that work? The killing of Jean Charles De Menezes is a good example - I recall how there was tabloid speculation that Ian Blair, of all people, was going to resign! Ridiculous given that he had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting, regardless of the outcome. Or when Angus Deayton was sacked after an incident similar to Mosley's. The only thing he was presenting at the time was Have I Got News For You. I could understand if he was a kids' TV presenter, because that's a bad message for children - but HIGNfY is a very adult show, hosted by adults and watched by adults. Sacking him for something he did in the privacy of a hotel room is just idiotic. It's just like Dylan says; people are so quick to jump on the abuse train to get as far away from the wrongdoer as they can.

And finally, even if we accept that Mosley did have a Nazi-fetishist romp and even if we also accept that that's a very bad thing and that he should lose his job over it: where exactly do you draw the line? There's nothing actually illegal about having sex with Nazi intonations, so that can't be it. So which fetishes are allowed and which aren't? Is there a list you're given when you become a public figure? Scat is allowed, but only if you're the one doing the shitting? Bondage is allowed, but only when the ropes are tied to your hands and the implements are improvised, rather than purpose-bought? Clearly, this way lies madness.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it says more bad things about the timbre of the critics' sex lives than it ever could about Max Mosley.

I've just written six hundred words, when really what I should be saying is this:

Shut the fuck up about people in the public eye doing things they shouldn't. They can do what they like as long as it's private, consensual and legal.

MAX MOSELY: CONSENTING NAZI HOOKER SEX IS HARMLESS

larkny — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:49:06 +0000

Readers of News of the World and those interested in British politics or psychologically-perverse sex, have likely heard about Max Mosely, head of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.

A few months back, a video of Max was released by News of the World where he was partaking in an orgy with prostitues dressed as Nazis. He is currently suing the tabloid and testified today that he can "think of few things more un-erotic than Nazi role play.'' (perhaps, Jewish, Gypsy or Non-Aryan role play?)

"I fundamentally disagree with the suggestion that any of this is depraved, fundamentally disagree with the fact that it is immoral," he said. "I think it is a perfectly harmless activity provided it is between consenting adults who want to do it, are of sound mind, and it is in private."

To make matters worse, Mosley's father, Oswald Mosley, founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932 and friendly with Hitler. It also doesn't help that on the audio tape you can hear one of the women yell, when beating him, "But we are the Aryan race, blonds."

Not like that proves anything.