Actually, Rudyard, I think minutes are more forgiving than you claim*

[oursin]

Somehow these claims that OMG people are only protesting part-time (the article itself is fairly reasonable, the opinions therein quoted by certain self-appointed pundits not) seems to me to resonate with that poster and its suggestion that cancer researchers are on the job 24/7 that I posted about last week.

Y O Y do people have to throw everything into a particular pot to demonstrate the seriousness of their commitment?

I wonder if L Mensch assumes that if people don't give huge amounts to charity they might as well not bother or are just faking their concern? (And on the issue of charity, does she also critique the kind of posh philanthropy involving huge pricey events for the glitterati at which one suspects a good deal of moolah expended goes nowhere near the actual deserving cause in question?)

The widow's mite may be minor in itself, but enough people giving mites probably amounts to rather more than whatever the self-promoting Pharisee put in.

In my young day in the Upper Palaeolithic when what people were protesting was The Bomb, nobody considered it particularly remarkable that people marched when they had time to.

And as for the Starbucks coffee, cannot help thinking that were there a freetrade coffee stall serving caffeine to the campers, she would also be pointing and mocking at that?

*[S]ixty seconds' worth of distance run might involve necessary downtime recharging as well as frenetic activity.

Comments

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Yes, that opinion didn't go down entirely well on Have I Got News For You.

[legionseagle]

I've never actually seen Ian Hislop look so obviously as if he was disgusted to have to sit next to someone as he was with her. It was almost as if both him and Merton felt she was so appallingly vacant she wasn't even worth the effort of satire.

[liseuse]

The looks on their faces were priceless. I don't think I have snickered that hard at HIGNFY in a really really long time.

[lexin]

I felt a bit sorry for everyone else on that show, to be honest. She was hopeless.

[serriadh]

If you find Ian Hislop is arguing against you, and for the hippie ineffectual guardianista protesters *sneer* *superior*, then you are categorically on the wrong side.

I think Louise Mench is that particularly annoying type of (Oxbridge-educated?) vacant who is just clever/well-educated enough to think she's cleverer than everyone else.

[legionseagle]

Christ Church, unsurprisingly.

[serriadh]

*shocked*

anglophilic curiosity again

[auroramama]

What is the stereotypical Christ Church graduate like?

Re: anglophilic curiosity again

[legionseagle]

The stereotype of Christ Church (or "the House" as some people call it) is that ringing the fire alarm at 3am during term-time is likely to prevent the conception of the Tory cabinet of a half-century later.

[mme_hardy]

Hislop actually said that. I have Women's Issues with HIGNFY -- as the Guardian pointed out, Mensch took one of the rare seats allocated to women, no doubt because she's pretty -- but damn, was I happy to see those two vicious tongues directed at her. "Don't talk to me, you have a hint of espresso on your breath!"

BTW I watch HIGNFY faithfully and buy the DVDs as they exist. My Issues are easily overcome if I'm laughing.

[forthwritten]

Recent mutterings are that the "heat-sensitive" equipment may be poorly calibrated as people/heat-sources were seen to disappear when they entered tents. I do like a sprinkling of methodology!fail on top of a fail sandwich.

[mme_hardy]

Speaking of which, I was genuinely shocked on The News Quiz when Matthew Parris explained that of course IQs didn't change during the lifetime because nobody he knew at school had changed a bit. The ice-bound certainty that People Like Us were the only people was breathtaking.

Oh. I just looked at his Wiki entry. Never mind.

[mme_hardy]

I'm pretty sure that Mothers Against The War went home (and probably paid their babysitters, disqualifying themselves from having opinions.)

It's been interesting watching the various party lines against Occupy. They seem to have mostly given up on "anti-Semitic" and are now focusing on "trust-fund liberals".

[libskrat]

FFS. If they WERE protesting full-time, the complaint would be "don't those slackers have REAL WORK to do?"

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I think that one's in there too. Who needs logic, after all?