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WEATHER FIXED

England is normal:

After the heaviest April snowfall for 20 years, freezing temperatures and a series of heavy downpours, forecasters are predicting a return to old-fashioned British weather - spring showers followed by a wet and warm summer.

Robert Fisk’s opinion is keenly awaited.

[Forecaster Dave] Britton said present conditions were not consistent with the warmer temperatures predicted by global warming models.

That’s two years in a row that the models have been wrong. The only model who’s reliably wronger is Naomi Campbell.

UPDATE. The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke meets Fisk - who turns out to be (surprise!) a ranting loon:

On he goes: unrelenting, furious, pernickety and labyrinthine in argument. Every anecdote involves three dusty side alleys, every explanation three historical examples ...

It is worrying that he refers to himself repeatedly in the third person. ‘Have you read any Fisk?’ he asks me on the telephone before I land in Beirut, a question that is insulting on so many levels. And now I’m here, he keeps calling himself ‘Mr Bob’. Oh, well.

Mr Bob is a big fan of Osama bin Laden: “He says things [Arab] leaders will not say. He articulates injustice.” But not of the Lebanese: “The Lebanese are dangerous people.”

Posted by Tim B. on 04/16/2008 at 12:56 PM
  1. It is worrying that he refers to himself repeatedly in the third person. ‘Have you read any Fisk?’

    Well, if you were Fisk, wouldn’t you use verbal subterfuge to make people think you weren’t he?

    Posted by paco on 2008 04 16 at 01:14 PM • permalink

  2. 30 years in the Middle East, and Fisk still sounds like he should be wearing jodhpurs and a pith helmet and carrying a horse crop, eh, wot?

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 04 16 at 01:28 PM • permalink

  3. The answer to the question “Have you read any Fisk?” is, “no, I can’t stomach that shit, Blair reads it so I don’t have to.”

    Posted by Latino on 2008 04 16 at 02:57 PM • permalink

  4. “Have you read any Fisk?”  No, but I’ve read a lot of fisking!

    Posted by rabidfox on 2008 04 16 at 03:27 PM • permalink

  5. So I clicked the Naomi Campbell link, and not only are there no pictures but

    A Caracas newspaper said Campbell was wearing a “revolutionary and exquisite white dress from the prestigious Fendi fashion house” when she hugged Chavez and declared: “I’m not here to be political.”

    No, dear, of course not, there’s plenty of other reasons for you to be in Venezuela.  But even THAT’s not the biggest irritant here.  What tee EFF is up with that kid in the insurance ad, glaring at me like he’s fucking Huey from fucking “Boondocks”?  To whom the hell are they trying to sell insurance with THAT approach?

    Posted by formerly Huck Foley on 2008 04 16 at 03:58 PM • permalink

  6. Fisk has long been a longwinded and tedious moron. It’s good to know that things haven’t changed.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 04 16 at 05:04 PM • permalink

  7. Fisk likes to call himself a ‘contrarian’, but do we really want Fisk’s ‘contrarian arguments’ on Global Warming?

    Posted by Barrie on 2008 04 16 at 05:57 PM • permalink

  8. My favorite line in the article:


    “Fisk’s long-suffering driver, Abed, was right: one day with him is like a month with anyone else.”

    HEE!

    Posted by debi L. on 2008 04 16 at 06:48 PM • permalink

  9. A friend of mine divides people into loons and buffoons.  He maintains the former are always more interesting than the latter.

    On that basis, I believe Fisk must more accurately fall into the latter camp.

    Posted by JJM Ballantyne on 2008 04 16 at 07:01 PM • permalink

  10. #9
    Waterloon Waterloon where will you meet your Waterloon
    Every Fisk has his day everybody has to pay everybody has to meet his Waterloon
    Now ol’ Fisk was not the first in history with an model he was tempted and deceived
    Just for spite the OBL made him take a bite
    And that’s where ol’ Fisk met his Waterloon

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 16 at 08:17 PM • permalink

  11. Unfortunately, the weather in France has not been fixed, and real estate agents are complaining about it.

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2008 04 16 at 08:42 PM • permalink

  12. Radio thismorning was depressing.
    With the melting ice sheets and melting glaciers we’re going to be in real trouble, the ocean will probably rise more than 1.5 metres… I can’t find a link, I was distracted by a house passing me on the road (first the police made us get off the road).

    Meanwhile, Garrett’s at it again with the plastic bag banning - and the states are merrily joining in.

    Posted by kae on 2008 04 16 at 10:24 PM • permalink

  13. At least the 2020 summit has been “fixed”.

    Posted by kae on 2008 04 16 at 10:25 PM • permalink

  14. #12
    google news
    Lists the usual suspects. Including Rooters(tm)10kae(tm)

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 16 at 11:38 PM • permalink

  15. #14
    Thanks Stacks, that’s the one.

    RebeccaH, are you SURE we’re not doooooooooooooooooooooomed?

    Posted by kae on 2008 04 16 at 11:54 PM • permalink

  16. “The answer to the question ‘Have you read any Fisk?’ is, ‘no, I can’t stomach that shit, Blair reads it so I don’t have to.’”

    I strongly second that sentiment.  I literally can’t make it through more than a sentence or two of most of that junk.  Tim must have an iron constitution.

    Posted by kcom on 2008 04 17 at 12:34 AM • permalink

  17. “Have you read any Fisk?”

    No, but I stepped in some once.

    Posted by Michael Lonie on 2008 04 17 at 12:54 AM • permalink

  18. “Have you tried the Fisk?  I hear it’s a little off tonight.”

    Posted by the wolf on 2008 04 17 at 08:51 AM • permalink

  19. #16

    I literally can’t make it through more than a sentence or two of most of that junk.  Tim must have an iron constitution.

    I assume he reads it for the endless unintentional comedy.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 17 at 10:30 AM • permalink

  20. #17

    I wonder if The Independent offices have signs in the hallways reading: “Please don’t step in the Fisk”...

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 17 at 10:32 AM • permalink

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