Friday, July 29, 2005

Billionaires, Bigots, and more decline of a Bastard.

Usually when I'm in town, or any old shop really, I have a look at the various newspaper headlines and front pages. There are usually some containing, or conveying extremely racist, bigoted or misogynist shite, from the usual suspects.

But then I saw this one. The Daily Express gave us Bombers Are All Spongeing Asylum Seekers.

I was kind of dumbstruck with disbelief, horror, and vague amusement. What on earth?! (And in any case, wisdom seems united that there is no e in the word - it is sponging, not spongeing).

Great news this evening that the man who has brought himself to my attention for absolutely deserved slating, mocking and hatred - otherwise known as (when I'm being polite) Kilroy, has resigned from the leadership of his own party!

Oh yes, Veritas (the party for the vain and crass) is even more of a failure than was already obvious. Ha. The Guardian, amongst others, gives us the full and frank humiliation.

In possibly even stranger news, JK Rowling is now the UK's most powerful woman. She has overtaken Cherie Booth (whose husband is the Prime Minister... sounds so much better than the PM's wife!). In the latest list of the world's 100 top women compiled by the U.S. business magazine Forbes, Mrs Harry Potter comes 40th, Cherie B has slipped to 62nd, and Queenie comes a mere 75th. Mary McAleese (Irish President) is 21st, and the overall most powerful woman in the world is Condoleezza Rice. Hmmm. Others near the top are Oprah, and Bill Gates's wife Melinda (or should I say Melinda, whose husband is Bill Gates).

All of that led me, quite unexpectedly, to a 2005 list of billionaires. A rather ridiculous number are from the US, and certain European countries come up again and again. And it's not just because it's easier to be a billionnaire in America than in the UK (because $billion is quite a lot less than £billion), because the total wealth of each individual on this list is listed in dollars, for whatever reason.

3 comments:

Garry Nixon said...

Good post. Funny, I was wondering just the other day what that bastard Kilroy was up to. It's interesting that there's total cross party support amongst his fellow East Midland MEPs for his getting the Order of the Boot. They must be sick of the sound of him on the flight to Brussels!

'Spongeing' is interesting, too. Clearly, it's misspelt. Glad to see the Express's journos are semi-literate as well as wankers.

The only time that the 'e' can be retained when the noun becomes a gerund or verb is, surely, as per 'Trainspotting', 'shiteing', to retain the original Scots pronunciation from the noun (= 'shite' rather than standard English 'shit'). All the same, it doesn't look quite right.

anne said...

Och, what do you expect from the Express!
Q. How do you confuse Express readers?
A. Tell them the natural predators of paedophiles are asylum seekers.
Sick but makes me laugh.

carla said...

I noticed the "spongeing" thing as well. Gud editores are hrd too fynd.

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