Former BBC insider speaks out on bias

A former BBC insider is writing a book on bias at the BBC.

The BBC is like America's PBS, but much, much worse. Like PBS, the BBC uses taxpayer money to brainwash the populace with leftist propaganda. PBS, however, has a pretty small budget and isn't watched by many people. The BBC, on the other hand, has a massive budget and a large audience, both inside Britain and around the world.

What's worse is that the BBC is funded by an outrageous annual TV fee of £126.50 ($234) that must be paid by anyone who owns a TV. That's more than some TVs cost in the first place! And you have to pay even if you hate the BBC and never watch it.

The fee is enforced by TV Gestapo vans that drive around with equipment that can detect TVs inside your house. The TV Gestapo can then enter your house to find illegal TVs. I am not making this up. It happened to some close friends of mine when I lived in London.

UPDATE: Helen corrects me in the comments below. Apparently, the vans' detection capabilities may be fake, and citizens technically have the right to refuse entrance to the TV Gestapo. I would think, though, that many people are not sufficiently aware of or confident in their rights to resist the TV Gestapo. I know that my friends were led to believe they had no choice in the matter.

HT: Polipundit.

Yes!

Bolton got past the panel!

Boring!

... as Homer would say.

I'm out of contact with the world in an undisclosed tropical paradise, and the world stops! I check e-mail and news and nothing has happened: no action on the filibusters, no action on John Bolton, and only a couple firecrackers at the British Consulate in New York.

If the world can't be more interesting than this, I may have to return to poolside pina coladas.

Stupid Belgian tricks

Belgian doctors are trying to bill the U.S. Embassy for treating an Iraqi girl.

I can't top Alarming News's response:

How about this: We'll pay the Belgians' medical bills when they compensate us for saving them from Hitler.

Doesn't Belgium have socialized medicine? They wouldn't discriminate against immigrants or visitors, right?

Missiles for China: OK. Space tourism for Britain: no way!

Your government at work: technology export rules are hindering Richard Branson's efforts to launch a space tourism company using technology licensed from American aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan.

Under the Clinton administration, big Democrat donor Bernie Schwartz and his company, Loral, gave missile technology to communist China, and walked away with a slap on the wrist. But Burt Rutan can't help Richard Branson, a citizen of America's closest ally, build a space bus for rich tourists?

HT: IPFreely.

The filibuster solution

TigerHawk has a great solution to the Senate showdown over filibusters: make the filibusterers actually filibuster! Jack Kemp proposed the same thing last year.

Under the current rules, obstructionists in the Senate can block a vote on anything without actually having to stand up and filibuster. If they were required to argue their point for hours on end, they might think twice about using the filibuster so often.

HT: Instapundit.

John Kerry won't go away

I've had a few offline comments about the Kerry clock from PoliPundit on the top of my blog. People think that Kerry is old news and irrelevant, so there's no point beating a dead horse by leaving the Kerry clock up there.

I would like to agree. Everyone knows that Kerry is a pathetic joke whose 15 minutes of fame are up. Everyone, that is, except John Kerry. He still believes the Democrats will trust him to carry the standard in 2008. After all, he was such a compelling candidate in 2004!

No, the Kerry clock stays on the blog until the delusional Senator Kerry either signs the 180 or stops pretending he's a legitimate candidate.

I used to have a visceral revulsion to Hillary Clinton. John Kerry, however, is succeeding in making her look not only moderate, but also competent and electable. The longer Kerry stays around, the better Hillary's odds in 2008.

HT: PoliPundit.