tes bpodcast

been some time so here's an update:

- went to see Springsteen on Sunday. Amazing. 2-1/2 hours of non stop rock and roll plus most of the new Rising album. Fouth time I've seen him. Can't think of any reason why I wouldn't go again
- also The Beggar's Opera by Broomhill Opera at Wilton's Music Hall. An astonishing spectacle - just as good as Carmen last year. Go and see
- United get worse and worse. Another really bad 1-1 draw.
- Thomas Stewart, one of the best business writers around, has become editor of the Harvard Business Review
- The new series of The Sopranos is on E4 on Thursdays at 10pm - straight after the repeat of The Office on BBC Choice. Can Thursday nights be any better than that?

I'm back and this time I'm 45 ...

Halfway to 90 after a weekend of eating, drinking, turkish bath and watching possibly the worst United performance ever with Veron displaying a lack of authority not seen since the days of Ian Ure. Now in detox mode.

Great piece by Christopher Hitchens re Iraq etc in WashPost

Proud to be Welsh

Well I'm no more Welsh than I am Peruvian, but it was fantastic to watch Wales beat Italy tonight. A wonderfully deserved victory. contrast England's pathetic 2-2 draw with a former Yugoslavian provice. pathetic.

L'Italia prima rimonta, poi si arrende as they say in Italy

Jim Seymour
There are very few technology writers who you really want to read. Jim Seymour was one of them and he died last week after surgery. he was very fat, scruffy, funny and super smart. Used to write a column for Thestreet.com who have done a very nice tribute to him

Here we go again

Silly old me thinking that the Bali bombing would make post 911 critics realise how barbaric these people are. Nope, it's still the US's fault - for not solving Palestine, for concentrating on Iraq, for being the US. If only the US was more understanding, if only we reached out to feel their pain.

I dont think so; most of these struggles throughout history have been a long and painful game of the oppressed group bombing their way to the conference table - from the colonial fights through South Africa and Ireland. These people are different. They dont want to come to the conference table. yes they want a free Palestine, but thats not an end game - that is rather an annihilation of Western open society; in Asia a fundamentalist Islamic nation from Bangkok to Bali.

Two fantastic counterblasts today: Clive James in The Guardian and David Aaronovitch in The Independent

Come on Wales

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Wales walloped Italy tomorrow night?

Not only because they have Ryan Giggs but also because the team is managed by Mark Hughes, a long time hero and the last of the great thighs-like-treetrunks centre forwards. I always suspected that Hughes was rather smarter than people made out and his success as a manager confirms that.

He was also wonderfully petulant and sveral times was sent off for infantile fouls. I saw that happen onceat Highbury about 10 years ago in the last quarter of a totally grim 0-0 stalemate. I suspect he got bored, knowing he'd never get past Adams etc etc, so he simply kicked some Arsenal defender up the arse and took an early bath.

Turns out the game is on S4C. Maybe I should ordre it on Sky Digital for the evening?

Shouldn't we be taking Kuta more seriously?

Why havent the markets fallen further? See my article on Citywire

The fundamentalist Afrikaner universitry in Pochestroom used to ban dancing on the ground that it could lead to sex. Joke was they also banned sex standing up because it could lead to dancing. That's just about the mentality of the extremist muslims who blew up the bar in Bali. Even the Afrikaner hardliners, so loathed by the left, never resorted to that.

The bombing in Bali is too terrible for words. One effect is to wake up the weedy knee jerk left response who say the terrorism of 9/11 was a response to the vileness of the US and that by giving these evil people a nice big bear hug then they would stop.

As was obvious to anybody with any sense, it was far more than that; it was an intolerance of anyone and anything that violated the tenets of the most fundamental type of Islam. If blowing up 3,000 people in the WTC didn't prove that, massacring 180+ Aussie (and other) young people having fun in a Bali disco surely does.

This is my new weblog. More to follow.