ITV finally gets something right.

Today, I noticed that finally, ITV1+1 shows the correct region. Until recently, in the South West of England, you couldn't guarantee that every programme that aired on ITV1, would air 1 hour later on ITV1+1. That was because whilst our ITV1 region is Westcountry West, our ITV1+1 region was Wales, and there were several notable differences. Regional news was different and there were minor variations in the schedule.

Now, we have the right region on ITV1+1, Westcountry West, on both Freeview and Sky. Knowing ITV's past history as well as I do, and having only heard about changes happening on the Sky platform, I was half expecting to find ITV1+1 had been changed to Westcountry East on Sky, and to still be Wales on Freeview. Thankfully, ITV managed to surpass my low expectations, so congratulations ITV for managing to do that.

Unfortunately, I have even less expectation of ITV doing anything that would make me think they would be getting anywhere close to providing a proper regional broadcasting service.

Andrew Breitbart 1969-2012

I got the surprise of my life just now when I had an alert pop up to say that Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger and web site publisher, had died at just 43.

First off, I didn't know he was so young. He always looked to me like he was in his mid to late 50s.

I don't think there was a single issue that I agreed with him on, but none the less, my thoughts right now, are with his family. They have lost a father, and a husband.

Breitbart's company has issued a statement that is up on the Breitbart.TV website.

In Memorium: Whitney Houston 1963-2012

Four songs to post here as my tribute to Whitney Houston.

First, her contribution to the growing list of olympic anthems, from 1988, One Moment In Time.



Onto my top 3 choices, and at Number 3, from The Bodyguard, The Queen Of The Night.



At Number 2, a song with a very different feeling about it, compared to most of her other work, from 1993, It's Not Right, But It's Okay.



But my Number 1 choice, in all honesty, was never gonna be a hard one. It is the song she is best known for. Originally the song was a minor hit in the early 1980s for Dolly Parton. It was reorchestrated and given a new vibe for Whitney Houston. From The Bodyguard, her big worldwide number one hit, I Will Always Love You.



Rest In Peace, Whitney.

Thoughts on the weekend's news

Shocked to hear of the death of Whitney Houston, she was only 48, and seemed to have gotten over the darkest time in her life. I will be posting some of her music here on Viewpoint, as a tribute later.

Other thoughts...

Felt Luis Suarez behaved like a petulant child on Saturday at the Liverpool v Manchester United football match. FA should charge him with bringing the game into disrepute after all the petulance he showed, all the way through the match, despite his goal. Apologies the day after do not make much difference when the world was watching your petulance on display.

David Cameron and Andrew Lansley are digging themselves into a pit at the moment. Neither want to conceed that the NHS reforms they've put forward are the wrong way forward. Torbay had the right idea, putting social care and health care together under one trust. The right ideas were already out there, if they could have been bothered to look. Andrew Lansley should resign.

8 more arrests this weekend in the scandal between journalists and Metropolitan Police officers. 5 of those arrested, were journalists from the Sun. Murdoch, rather too quickly for my liking, came out to announce that he was committed to continuing to publish The Sun. Give it 3 months. I think we may be seeing a different kind of tabloid from Murdoch coming out soon. One that won't be so obvioously biased, presenting itself as straight news with opinion limited to the opinion columns. In fact, the bias will be more subtle, but it'll still be there. Then the Sun will close.

Interesting that 4 current employees from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 83% owned by the state, have been arrested in a tax fraud investigation. HMRC say that the arrests concern the individuals financial affairs and are not related to their work at the bank, but surely, they cannot handle their own financial affairs without resorting to fraud, does that mean we can trust that they won't employ fraudulent methods in their work for RBS? I don't think so.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, says that Christianity is facing a gradual marginalisation. There are hundreds of religions out there, some very real like Shinto and Buddhism, and some that only really exists in the minds of the believers, such as the Jedi religion. To claim that any one faith should be dominant over all others, is a very dangerous statement to make. Tolerance of all faiths, should be the watchword here.

Overseas, Mitt Romney pulled off a very impressive but unexpected double. He won the Maine Caucuses, which Ron Paul had been expected to win. He also won the straw poll at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where it had been expected that Rick Santorum would do well. Conservative Republicans may not be fully behind Romney, as they seem to have the opinion that only a Conservative is truly electable, instead of totally unelectable, but if they don't get behind Romney, they don't stand a chance. Why do you think that Democrats have been pushing for Santorum or Gingrich to become the nominee? Neither one has a hope against Obama, it would be an easy victory for Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, with the right VP candidate, probably Ron Paul, would be a much tougher challenge.

Showcase 2? No Showcase here.

When it comes to Television, there are certain inalienable facts that are clear to everyone.

1. It is not a cheap medium to produce. Even the cheapest shows cost upwards of £10,000 per episode to make and some primetime shows are upwards of £100,000 per episode. Thus any programme made will often get repeated airings on as many channels as they reasonably can, even if it's for no other reason than to justify the expense.

2. The medium is driven by ratings. If a show is not doing well, then it tends to get canned or at best, moved into the Friday Night death slots, or out of primetime. Even shows that go out overnight need to perform with the available audience, what little of it there might be.

With that said, let me say this.

As I write this post now, Showcase 2 on Sky Digital channel 203, is showing for about the 60th time since it first aired as a live event on New Year's Day, the 2012 London New Year's Day Parade.

Yes, this was a live event, airing on the Information TV network of channels, on New Year's Day. During the first week of the year, it got heavily repeated. Not a great move but understandable. They wanted this event to be seen by as many people as possible. But since then, it has aired every day, at least once per day, usually on Showcase 2 at 1am. Previously, they had been showing The Landscape Channel.

We are now into February, and they are still showing this New Year's Day Parade, everyday on Showcase 2 at 1am-4am, and it is scheduled for at least the next 7 days.

I have just one thing to say to Information TV, owners of Showcase TV and Showcase 2.

Stop Showing It.

It was a time-sensitive event when you first showed it. Now it's stale and out of date. Get it off your channels. Put something a little less uninteresting on, like The Landscape Channel.

In fact, why don't you guys work with The Landscape Channel to have them broadcast 24/7/365 on Sky and Freesat. I'd prefer 24 hours a day of natural landscapes and instrumental music, over a lot of the crap we currently have, and I'm sure others would feel the same way too.

Neil Cavuto: John King was right to ask the question.

I don't normally agree with the FOX News hosts a lot, but I do agree with Neil Cavuto on this.

Skyscrapers does not equal prosperity?

You'd think that a skyscraper being constructed means that economic prospects are looking good. But that might not be the case.

The Guardian, The Independent, and a number of other websites around the world, are all reporting the findings of a study by Barclays Capital.

According to that study, there is a link between the building of the world's tallest skyscrapers and the crashes in the stock and property that followed them.

This is not the first time I have heard of this phenomenon.

In an audio presentation that I have come across from 2003, Dr John Demartini mentions exactly the same idea.

And with China and India, two of the "BRIC" nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), both building a lot of skyscrapers, this seems to indicate that we in the so called "developed world" have not much more than a couple of years to turn our recessions around and start growing again, before India and China go into recession. Best case scenario; we have 5 years before this happens. Worst case scenario; 2 years.

Jean Byrne: RTE's Weather In Leather

I have previously posted about a UK weather presenter Joanna Rice who was nicknamed The Weather In Leather.

Well it seems that Joanna has some competition for that title. RTE has a weather presenter by the name of Jean Byrne, who seems to have taken up Joanna's mantle.

I present the following videos as evidence...







...and as further evidence that she enjoys dressing up, here she is in a silver lame dress...



Hmm, I wonder if she is single...

Sources, Stories and Motives: When will websites learn?

I am constantly amazed that in an era when we are supposedly more aware and more discerning about many things, including where we get our news, that a website would take an obviously suspect report and back it up.

News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.

Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.

It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.

What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.

If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.

NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.

This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.

People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.

D2 Jeans: Administration and Saving stores

This is surprising news to me. I had heard nothing on the news about this chain, so I was surprised when I turned up the story. It seems that for the second time in 2 years, the chain D2 Jeans has entered administration.

The chain came out of the collapse of Fosters Menswear chain back in the 1990s, mixed in with another separate chain of jeans stores. In fact, in Truro, the D2 store replaced the Fosters Menswear store in exactly the same location. It had looked at first like a rebranding, but a closer inspection revealed the store content was quite different.

About a couple of years ago, around the time of the previous entry into administration, that store shut. A new shop opened up a few doors away, after another chain, Wallis, decided to close their stores and moved their Truro operation into the same shop as BHS.

Now thew chain is in administration again, but this time, the Truro shop won't be closing, as that shop, along with Penzance, Newquay, Barnstaple and 16 others, have been bought by Blue Inc.

Blue Inc is another chain of stores that has predominantly mens fashion, with some women's as well. We'll see if this chain does any better.

Iowa Caucus: The early analysis

So far, 88& of precincts have reported, but I think the situation is clear enough for me to come up with my first analysis of the results.

No matter whether Rick Santorum technically finishes first or whether Mitt Romney does, neither candidate can really call it a victory. They've been statistically tied most of the way.

Ron Paul finishing third, just 4% back of the two front runners is very respectable. This could be the platform that Ron Paul has been looking for for years, and it is definitely his best chance of getting to the White House. It's probably also his last chance, as he is 66 now.

Newt Gingrich being placed 4th may not be what he was hoping for, but I'm not sure he'll think the result bad enough to force him to drop out.

Rick Perry coming in 5th, with about 10%. Normally that might be considered bad enough to force a candidate to drop out. But Rick Perry has fundraised a lot of money. Over $15million in fact. His ability to fundraise might just keep him in this.

For the other two in the race, their future seems surprisingly clear. Michele Bachmann in 6th with just 5%, seems destined to drop out. However, she is not known for being able to read the political tea-leaves very well. She may well try to stay in the race, to try and secure a Vice-Presidential nod from one of the other candidates, maybe trying to position herself as a Sarah Palin-esque type candidate, but better, with more experience.

For John Huntsman, in last place with a mere 1%, it is most definitely over. I imagine he will drop out of the race in the next 24-48 hours.

I imagine the next 24 hours will clear up the picture significantly, so I'll be coming back to this story again.

Welcome to 2012

Happy New Year to all my readers here at Viewpoint.

Here's hoping for a great 2012.

Music Monday: Destiny's Child - Independent Woman Part 1

Alyona: MainStream Miss on Black Friday

I got one more comment to make on this myself.

That woman thankfully turned herself in the next day. Conscience obviously got the better of her and good thing too. Violence against other shoppers, in any form, be it pepper spray, yanking it out of their hands, or any other form, should never be condoned or even considered remotely acceptable in society.

Violence is NEVER, EVER, acceptable.

Thom Hartmann: Politicians lying on corporate media

I hadn't been a big fan of RT. But in the last couple of years, they have upped their game significantly. At times they still feel like a Russian national broadcaster rather than an international broadcaster. But they launched a version of RT aimed at the US called RT America.

The channel features news and programming output from Washington DC during the US East Coast prime time. Amongst the shows produced for RT America is The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann. Thom is a liberal talk radio host whose radio show airs live on many stations across the US, such as WWRL in New York, from 3pm to 6pm ET.

At the end of The Big Picture, Thom presents a feature called The Daily Take. Yesterdays was about Mitt Romney's lie about a President Obama campaign speech from 2008, the previous presidential election.



This is why I always say be very careful just who you trust to give you your news. Many sources = better informed.

David Letterman: Top 10 Super Committee Excuses

Now this was really funny...

David Letterman Monologue, CBS Late Show, Nov 22 2011

Public Health Care Fight In Catalonia

Sometimes you find the most fascinating stories in the most unexpected places. EuroNews has been airing a report in their series called "reporter" about the fight against public health care cuts in Catalonia in Spain. The similarities between this situation and others in other parts of the world is uncanny, but so is the uniqueness of this particular situation. Here's the report.

SeaOrbiter

I have long believed that we should be exploring our oceans, as much as we are exploring space. Well, a new project is underway based in Paris that will help increase our knowledge of 2/3rds of oour planet. EuroNews has more on the SeaOrbiter.



I notice they are not referring to the divers as Aquanauts. I guess they think that would be a little naut-ty!!!

Cute Clip Of The Day: Baby elephant sneezes and scares himself.

I never knew a baby elephant could move so fast.

Music Choice: Nicole Scherzinger - Poison

Unable to watch the embedded video? Click here.

Bob Schieffer: Congress must stop making excuses and get down to work.

Ron Paul on Face The Nation

Strange to hear a Republican admit that 9/11 was the fault of the US Government.

Cute Clip Of The Day: Kitty play fighting with bunny

Strangely, the bunny doesn't seem very amused...

Dr John Demartini: Dealing With Depression.

Cute Clip Of The Day: Puppy sleep barking

Wonder what the little pup's dreaming about.

Viewpoint Sports: Blatter on Racism; Shake hands.

This is the video clip where Sepp Blatter, FIFA's gaffe-prone President, once again opens that golden mouth of his and sticks both feet in right up to the knee, on the topic of racism.



When your time at the governing body has been tainted by the whiff of a suspicion of corruption, and the stench of it pervades, then you really need to be very careful what you say.

Stealing Sex Toys and ladies underwear???

CTV News in Canada are reporting what has to be the craziest crime spree of the year in, of all the strange places, New Brunswick.

Someone has been breaking into homes and stealing sex toys and ladies lingerie.

There have been 11 reports so far, and the RCMP believe that some women may be too embarrased to come forward and report thefts from their homes.

Obviously this is someone getting their kicks, but what's the kick? Is it just the act of stealing, or is there some other reason why this thief is going after lingerie and sex toys? But more than that, this is someone who's planning this carefully. So they will not be easy to catch.

Occupy Wall Street.

Having been quietly observing the events in Zucotti Park, New York, across the United States and around the world in relation to the "Occupy" movement, it disappoints me to find that some of the politicians in the cities where these protests are happening have been strangely tone deaf about the movement.

Also, the media has behaved very strangely over the whole affair, at first trying to ignore the protests, then only begrudingly reporting when the police started to bring the violence to the protests. These protests were peaceful expressions of people's belief that too few people exercise too much power, a failed system. Yet, the media continued to portray these protests as anti-capitalist, which is taken to mean that the protesters wanted to replace the capitalist system.

I saw no inidcations that any of the protesters actually wanted to replace the capitalist system, rather they wanted to reform it so that unelected corporations could not buy their way into political power with politicians at the expense of the people who actually elect those politicians.

And now with the evictions of encampments from Zucotti Park; Oakland and the eviction notices served to the protesters in London, it seems the movement might be being forced out of its home encampment. But the Occupy Movement, along with it's British cousin, the Uncut movement, have both taken root on the net, especially on Facebook and Twitter, and now the movement is global, and is growing. Tone deafness like the kind displayed by local politicians like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will only feed the movement, not make it go away.

Keith Olbermann, on Current TV's Countdown With Keith Olbermann, highlighted other occassions when this has happened.



Below is the transcript of his "Special Comment".

"For the entirety of the life of our nation, democracy has been protected - not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it, but mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone, or destroy it.

The protests that ended the war in Vietnam reached critical mass only in 1970, when Governor James Rhodes of Ohio pounded on a desk at a news conference and called the student protesters at Kent State University un-American. They were not un-American, they were unarmed. And the next day, four were shot and killed by the National Guard and 10 days later, two more were killed at Jackson State.

Those protests had themselves only gone mainstream 20 months earlier, when Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago overreacted with mindlessness and sadism to the massing of demonstrators outside the 1968 Democratic convention and the whole world watched.

A century of the institutionalized, codified, legalized, pseudo-slavery that followed the real thing was fatally stricken only Governor George Wallace of Alabama used his inaugural address to promise, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Within two years came the marches on Selma and the atrocities at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And ten weeks after the first violence, the president had proposed the Voting Rights Act to Congress.

The mounting paranoia of three decades of scapegoating of - and fear mongering about - liberals, only ended when its last white knight self-destructed on the national stage of televised hearings, when Joe McCarthy questioned the loyalty of the US military and - towards one junior attorney - he revealed the depths of his cruelty and megalomania. And he revealed that - at long last - he, indeed, had no shame.

Pick any moment in our history - our history as a country founded by and invigorated by and re-invigorated by protests - and you will find men like George Wallace and Joe McCarthy and Jim Rhodes and Richard Daley. Go back further - to men like the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company or the officials who sent the police to the Haymarket Square and the troops to the Pullman town or John Brown or George Grenville, the British politician who had a bright idea about the American colonies, an idea called the Stamp Act.

American freedom has not flourished in spite of these morons of history, it has flourished because of them - because they overreacted, because they under-thought, overreached, under-understood. We owe them our traditions of protest. We owe them our freedoms. We owe them our very independence. None of them ever understood that - around these parts anyway - suppression always creates the opposite of the effect desired.

Such a man is Michael Rubens Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and - as of today - the most valuable, the most essential, the most irreplaceable man inside the Occupy movement.

Who else but a cliché like Bloomberg could take a protest beginning to grow a little stale around the edges and vault it back in the headlines, complete with mortifying scenes of police dressed as storm troopers, carrying military weapons, using figurative bazookas to kill figurative mosquitoes?

Who else but an archetype like Bloomberg could claim a group of protesters was making too much noise in a residential area and then choose to try to disperse them by bringing out LRAD audio cannons, machines that send painful waves of sound indiscriminately over the very same residential area?

Who else but a cartoon like Bloomberg could have become rich creating a multi-billion-dollar media and news company and then authorize illegally preventing reporters from witnessing police actions he claimed were utterly legal, and then authorize the arrests of four reporters at a church?

Who else but a human platitude like Bloomberg could have just gotten back from Jerusalem - and the dedication of a ten-million-dollar medical facility for which he generously paid - and then enabled the image of policemen seizing 5,500 books from the Occupy Wall Street library, and throwing them in a Dumpster as if the cops were book burners?

Who else but a hypocrite like Bloomberg could have overridden - by a backroom deal with the New York City Council - the results of two separate referendums, limiting those in his office to just two terms as mayor, so he could serve a third term? And then had police arrest, beat up and incarcerate a member of the New York City Council?

Who else but a putz like Bloomberg could have insisted protesters were not above the rule of law and yet - when the courts ruled he could not seize the protesters' tents and sleeping bags, nor kick them out of Zuccotti park, nor keep them from returning with their tents and sleeping bags - who else could have stalled for hours until he could find another judge to give him the ruling he insisted upon?

Who else but the epitome of tone-deafness that is Bloomberg could have better illustrated the fundamental issue of Occupy, when he puts the entire weight of the most people-driven city in the history of the Earth behind already-crushingly rich and their efforts to grab themselves still more advantages from those people and he, himself, is the 12th richest man in America?

Who else but a publicity addict like Bloomberg could have enabled the arrest of 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge and yet, two months later, frozen 20 square miles of New York City in gridlock traffic over two days, so somebody could film another goddamned Batman movie on the 59th Street Bridge? Leading to the inescapable conclusion that - if you want to tie up a little traffic during a protest for equality and freedom from corporate domination on a bridge in New York City - you will be arrested. But - if you want to tie up all of the traffic during a goddamned movie shoot for the financial benefit of corporate domination - the city of New York will embrace you and give you tax breaks.

Michael Bloomberg - no such a figure, no such a living, breathing embodiment of all that is wrong and all that is stupid in the establishment in this country could be ordered up from the works of fiction, or the casting calls of that goddamned Batman movie they filmed the weekend before he ordered the raid on Occupy Wall Street.

Obviously, Mayor Bloomberg, you should resign and your little bully of a police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, should go with you. You have overstepped all reasonable interpretations of your rights and responsibilities and you have made Americans and people around the world realize that you are simply smaller, more embarrassing versions of the tin-pot tyrants who have fallen around the globe in the past year.

But - as some of us first thought you might be, back on that fateful afternoon that sadistic cops pepper-sprayed four women who had already been trapped inside a police overreaction, and as we thought again the following weekend during the arrests on Brooklyn Bridge - Michael Bloomberg, you have now, indeed, become the symbol of the Occupy movement. You are ready to take your historic place with Mayor Daley and Governor Wallace and Senator McCarthy and Prime Minister Grenville and every other idiot who has made the fateful and fatal mistake of thinking that - just because he had power and money - that this was a nation in which everything has a price tag on it.

We need you, Michael Bloomberg. We need you to keep making these mistakes - tone-deaf, sensibility-offending, world-changing mistakes - like the pepper spray and the Brooklyn Bridge and the paramilitary assault on Occupy Wall Street last night.

Hell, Mike, the freedoms of this wonderful and transcendent nation - corrupted by the endless greed of you and the other dozen richest people in it, and the corporations who nevertheless have still managed to own you somehow - these freedoms will not be restored to us in just the next two years. I am endorsing you for a fourth term! Your nation needs you, Mr. Mayor! Occupy needs you!

Bloomberg now! Bloomberg tomorrow! Bloomberg forever!"

I think some sarcasm may have crept in there at the end...

Why is Creativity and Inspiration so Vital in Everyday Life?

Why is Creativity and Inspiration so Vital in Everyday Life?

This is a fascianting article, and right at the end, ask yourself the twelve questions. You might surprise yourself. I know I certainly was.

Donald O'Connor - Make Em Laugh

Time Marches On: The Buck Stops Here.

Friends of Old Time Radio group signs off for the last time.

Dr John Demartini: Stress keeps us from our full potential.

Radio Plymouth

The Resignation of Dr Liam Fox

Sky News, and BBC News Channel are reporting the resignation of the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox.

It’s about time he resigned!

He had previously acknowledged he had allowed the situation where people thought that his friend Adam Werritty was an advisor of his, when in fact he wasn’t even part of the government or the Conservative party.

He should have resigned when he made that statement.

But he didn’t.

He tried to hang on, he tried to defuse the situation, which we ALL knew was a time bomb just waiting to go off.

David Cameron could have shown some leadership, and basically told Dr Fox to go on Monday, when the preliminary findings where released.

But he didn’t.

He tried to keep his friend in government, despite it being clear that he had broken the ministerial code.

This government has shown contempt for  following process and has avoided trying to do the right thing.

Nick Clegg, now should show some leadership.

In the face of this scandal, and the revealations about Oliver Letwin disposing of government documents and correspondence with constituents in a public bin in a park, he needs to turn around and say to David Cameron, this…

“You and your party have shown a lack of respect for the processes of government.  As such, either you need to resign as Prime Minister, or the Liberal Democrats will walk out of this coalition and force a general election.”

This is a government that has brought itself into disrepute in record time.  It needs to be kicked out of office.

Marvel's Avengers: New Teaser Trailer

Viewpoint: 9/11 +10

Bob Schieffer: MLK memorial dedication & Hurricane Irene

Time Marches On: Crashing on the wrong side.

From Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Thursday 25th August 2011.

Viewpoint: Tony Blair and the England Riots

I don't agree with Tony Blair on a lot of things, but he made some good points in a column he wrote for the Observer.

Britain is not in a “moral decline”. That phrase has been a favourite of the right wing, since the days of Mary Whitehouse back in the 60s.

The police need the backing of the public at large and politicians. They have a tough enough job to do, without well meaning people undermining them.

But Tony Blair misses one key point, by talking about a social mainstream.

There's an old joke that goes “Now repeat after me, we are all individuals.” But the truth is that we are all individuals. And societies evolve over time.

The Goon Show was revolutionary when it first aired in the 1950s, now it would be considered tame.

We must make sure that we encourage respect in others, by respecting the differences in us all.

Links for Viewpoint: Weekly Edition - Epsidoe 3

CHBN Radio, Truro, Cornwall, UK
Ambitious About Autism

Major Political Upheavals in Britain and Ireland.

It’s been an odd day in the UK and Ireland.  Political turmoil seems to be the order of the day.

First off, all day in Ireland, ministers have been resigning from Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s government left right and centre.  Just before 5pm, Brian Cowen announced that a general election would be held in Ireland on March 11th.  Will be watching the TV3 News at 5.30 and RTE’s Six One news to see how the broadcasters over there will cover these developments.

Secondly, at around the same time, Alan Johnson has resigned from his position as Shadow Chancellor, and is to go back to the back benches.  Ed Balls has been named as his replacement.  Alan Johnson has given no details for the resignation, except for saying it was for “personal reasons”, which to be blunt is political speak that covers a multitude of sins.

This is gonna be an evening of following developments with much interest.

Viewpoint - Coastguard cutbacks

Viewpoint - Mrs Palm & The Christian Right

Viewpoint - The UK Spending Review, BBC & S4C.

CNN Fan is back

Turns out they were only moving servers, but with their site having been recently hacked and the memory of that still fresh, I did wonder if something similar had happened again.

Never mind, all back up and running now.

Dish Network vs FOX. On the digital battleground.

This one almost passed me by, so it's nice that I actually caught up with this story now. Dish Network is having a contretant with Fox over their sports and entertainment channels, so Fox News and Fox Business are unaffected.

This primarily affects FX, Fox Sports Net and National Geographic Channel. However, in about a month's time, Fox Television Network and My Network TV could well be affected as well.

Obviously, both sides have launched websites detailing their case. But in addition to those, I'd like to remind you of one thing.

Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns DirecTV, the direct opposition in the US Satellite TV market to Dish Network.

Murdoch likes people to think what he tells them to think. In that same area of satellite television, he owns Sky in the UK, Star in Asia and Foxtel in Australia. There are other subsidiary operations linked to those companies.

So Rupert Murdoch is used to getting his own way. The fact that Dish are standing up to him, is interesting. We will see how this story develops.

CNN Fan disappears again

The website cnnfan.org which is linked to the CNN Observations blog has once again disappeared mysteriously.

This time it happened at about 1923 GMT (2023 UK). It talks about the site having moved to a new location and that it may take up to 48 hours for your ISPs DNS servers to catch up. I'm dubious about the validity of this, and am watching CNN Observations for more details.

I will be tracking this story over the next few days.

Viewpoint - Conservative media domination