How much can happen in four days?

I’m beginning to feel sorry for John McCain. Emphasis on ‘beginning’.

Much as I would dread seeing him elected next week, I do think he’s a decent person underneath the layers of spectacularly negative campaigning. I want to believe that wasn’t so much him as his campaign people. And I don’t even want to start on the Palin thing. So at what point do you excuse the means to justify the end – did McCain let it all happen because someone convinced him it was the only way to win?

Of all races, it seemed at the beginning like this one could have avoided ‘going negative’ (excuse me if I drift into an alternative West-Wing reality). But when that line was crossed, it has to be said they both jumped in there with both feet. I would maintain that McCain’s ads have been significantly more negative and for that matter more dishonest, but I’m not sure if that’s even the point anymore.

There came a point in the Bertie-is-a-big-thieving-liar fiasco when you couldn’t help but feel a small bit sorry for him. He did do a lot of good work (something about the North?), but for a lot of people, and a lot of biographers, his final mark on the political map will be how and why he exited stage left. It strikes me that the same thing may be happening to McCain now.

But like I said, I’ll start feeling that pinch of sorry for him next Wednesday when I’ve heard him concede.

Sense or Censorship?

I’m still confused about what happened with the whole Brand & Ross malarky.

It’s one thing to sack or discipline presenters who mess up. And if you decide they have messed up enough to deserve that, then go right ahead and ‘allow them to quit’. If you’re doing it because they did something awful live on air, and half the country complained, then fine, bite the bullet, run with it.

If you do it after a recorded show, and half the country complain, then okay, maybe fire a producer too.

If you do it after a recorded show, two complaints, a week passes, certain other media outlets build themselves a bandwagon, and then lots more people complain? Dodgy ground all round… swampy even.

But by the logic of this timeline (some things the BBC does get very right, sometimes…) both Ryan Tubridy and Tommy Tiernan will be in serious trouble by the middle of next week…

One letter worthy of one four-letter word

A letter in today’s Indo from a learner driver once again raises the ridiculous notion (and it is, truly, ridiculous) that we all have a fundamental right to drive and goes on to suggest that it is unlawful of driving testers to deny so many people this right.

As a learner driver who has over the past 12 months or so developed what can only described as a pathological fear of driving because of the way other drivers treat those of us idiot enough to keep our L-plates up (and that’s what I thought the letter was going to be about, for the record), I would like to respond.

By saying that this notion of driving as a right is pure, unadulterated C-R-A-P.

Nobody… NOBODY… has the right to operate a piece of machinery capable of causing so much destruction.

Nobody.

If you didn’t pass the test several times, then maybe you’re just not a good or safe enough driver to be allowed out on a killing machine where a child could as easily run out in front of you at any moment.

And again, I say that as someone who lives in an area where not having access to my own car basically cuts me off from the universe, who would dearly, dearly love to have my full driving licence.

Suggesting that it is your right to be able to plough someone down is bordering on the surreal.

British films (or not)

There may never be a polite conclusion to the debate around what constitutes a ‘British Film’ and what doesn’t. Luckily the British Independent Film Awards have their own criteria though I’m not entirely convinced by them.

Once again the questions rears its head as both Hunger and In Bruges have been nominated for B.I.F. awards this year – see RTE’s rather neutral and the Belfast Telegraph’s rather less neutral(?) reporting for more details. In the case of Hunger, whatever the lineage of the director/writer and the funding issue, it seems like asking for controversy to put a film about Bobby Sands in the list of British films.

So what makes a film Irish, or British? If an Irish film was produced as Gaeilge, would that qualify it as a foreign film for the purposes of BIFA nominations? And what about actors – Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are nominated for best actor awards. Does that make them suddenly British actors? And is that a case of ‘Westlife were British every time they got to number one in the charts’ syndrome, or is it a simple case of accepting nominations and awards where they come and nothing further?

Don’t you just love blog posts that are actually a big list of questions with no answers?

Cat amongst economic pigeons

Call me crazy, but isn’t this the exact reason that non-Irish banks shouldn’t have been included in the Irish banks guarantee?

It seems ludicrous that any bank, here or elsewhere, gets to choose between two or more guarantee options and can pick which one(s) will work best for them and/or their customers and shareholders?

I’m confused

Okay, so Messrs Ross and Brand got in a bit of trouble, which has become a big bit of trouble since certain PR people got involved.

But I’m confused.

I thought the problem was that Brand claimed to have slept with Manuel’s granddaughter. But she just did a radio interview saying that was true. So. Eh. The issue is the harassment? Fine. Then let’s stop talking about random model-wannabe who happens to have hired Max Clifford maybe?

Covering books

Book Ninja ran a competition for readers to redesign book covers and came up with these.

Guardian photo galleries has a summary of them here.

Personally, I’m troubled and upset by the On The Road cover. Deeply upset.

A model comment on modern society

BBC Magazine Monitor (which is fun anyway) does a lovely ‘quote of the day’ function which has thrown up a fairly unexpected bit of wisdom from… a former X-Factor winner? Is that allowed?

“We have gone on a journey from Plato to enlightenment via Milan Kundera and we have ended up very aptly with Kerry Katona”

-Will Young, in an Oxford Union debate on Modern Celebrity.

Linkedness

Previously mentioned updatery of linkage has begun and will conclude (hopefully) in the coming hours.

Sticking strictly to blogs and websites I read on an (almost) daily basis, and in doing so am realising how many of my former favourite blogs have died and/or been killed off in the last few months. Sad really. Damn those people with their ‘real lives’..

Youth Voting

Yesterday, in a radio report from a Palin rally, a supporter who sounded quite young himself was asked whether or not he thougth McCain could win the US presidency next Tuesday.

His response was a little worrying

(I’m paraphrasing here)  – “Sure thing, as long as the young people don’t vote we should be fine”.

Now, I can understand a McCain supporter identifying a demographic that his candidate has not connected with and hoping they forget to vote. If an Obama supporter said “I hope right-wing christian fundamentalists don’t come out to vote” that too would be understandable from that person’s perspective. But while it seems strange to hope certain demographics don’t vote, it seems somehow more sinister to actively hope young people don’t engage with the political process.

In this country we do have a big problem with young people voting. Anyone who says young people don’t care about politics is, frankly, talking nonsense. But the fact remains that year after year the numbers bringing whatever level of interest they have as far as the polling booth remains staggeringly low. Unarocks was right to point out that TDs don’t care how loud students yell, because as long as it’s just students they know they’re not losing votes.

In that context it’s amazing to see how Obama’s ground campaign has really harnessed the youth vote and gotten people thinking, and talking, and, hopefully, voting. The fact that Family Guy writers are adding their voice and begging young people to come out and vote says a lot. Admittedly this is because of the partisan assumption that right now, a young american voter is a voter for Obama, but that’s not exactly Obama’s fault.

I wonder what it will take to get young people voting here. Rock the Vote (I’m not linking, sorry) didn’t work. That being quite the euphemism right there. Youth branches of the major parties don’t seem to channel their potential into getting the rest of the young voters out. So will the under 24s listen to Ruairí Quinn and take the fees fight to their local TDs? Is that enough to get students to vote? Or will it be the fear of graduating straight into a dole queue if they even get that far?

Interesting times, as they say…