Ian Paisley showed his true colours yesterday in bizarre attack on Brian Cowen, Minister of Foreign Affairs, which I’ll quote:
“Somebody told me the other day that the reason his lips were so thick was that when his mother was bringing him up, he was a very disobedient boy. So she used to put glue on his lips and put him to the floor and keep him there, and that has been recorded in his physical make-up.”
and he went on
” Yes, away with him. If he wants to use his lips to better effect, he should do it somewhere else and do it with people of similar physical looks.”
Ian Paisley is head of the Democratic Unionist Party he obtained his ‘doctorate’ from Bob Jones University which has connections with, you’ve guessed it, George Bush.
Ian has a fascinating website, where I learnt a new insult ‘ye Popish pettifoggers’ which, rest assured gentle reader, will be my insult of choice from now on.

After my own most wanted cards it seems I’m not the only one with playing cards on their mind. Gatt.org have a US regime change deck which also has Cheney as the ace of spades and there’s also a deck of 55 most wanted looted Iraqi artifacts

Separated at birth : Madonna and Patty Hearst?
There was an interesting post to Metafilter the other day showing pictures of defaced madonna posters in London – but the control-geeks over at Metafilter deleted it before I could bookmark it (what is their problem) – so if anyone can send me the url I’d appreciate it!

Stina Nordenstam’s new album will be called The World is Saved it’s apparently available on import from Japan but I don’t know if that is really the new album or not, there is still no word on it’s official release date.
File this under useful Portals to Hell in the UK
MTAA those quintessential New York net artists have a kind-of-blog on their site full of all the goings-on of New York net artists – ahh the glamour of it all.
Since I quit the Rhizome list I miss finding out how the other half lives.
Arte Red net art guide from Spanish newspaper El Pais is back online. It went subscription-only when the El Pais site did but I met the authors, Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana, in Barcelona earlier this year and they told me they were fighting to make it an exception – looks like they won.

I’m going to be on a panel at the database seminar Saturday – 12.15 -1.30 – talking about Digital Dialogs: Digital Art and the Public . It looks like it’ll be an interesting day so come along if you can.

British soldiers being welcomed by nationalist residents in Belfast in 1969. Now that all ended well didn’t it!
An interesting page on a previous colonial adventure in iraq.

The Irish Antiwar movement have had their domain name suspended, the site is still available here they haven’t been given a clear reason why but it certainly stinks.
So now that the dust is settling where are the weapons of mass destruction or this that one of those things we’re not allowed to ask?

Boys and Girls is the type of TV show that takes your breath away – just when you thought TV couldn’t get worse they come up with a show like this. But it turns out that it has a use after all when the winner was recognised as a fugitive wanted for a hit and run in Wexford, was arrested and awaits extradition.

Britian’s most senior policeman John Stevens has reported (after 15 years and three attempts) into collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The report concludes that that British army intelligence and police officers in Northern Ireland actively and deliberately colluded with loyalist paramilitaries to murder Catholics in the late 1980s. The report also says its inquiries were obstructed by police and army officers, and vital evidence was concealed and destroyed.
This report, severe as it is, is widely seen as a coverup in Northern Ireland and victims’ families have demanded a full judical inquiry into the affair.
To paraphrase this in today’s terms the British Government used terrorist murder gangs to murder opponents of the regime. Does this not make Britian a terrorist rogue state?
Reports from The Irish Times, The BBC, and edited and full text of the report in the Guardian and from RTE news a special feature on the Dirty War in Northern Ireland.

Greg Palast author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:
The Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons and High Finance Fraudsters will be giving a short speaking tour in Ireland this Easter Sunday (Galway) and Monday (Dublin). Highly recommended!
More information here