Vital Statistics
Not being one who does subscribe to the 'blogs as popularity contest' school of thought, I don't tend to pay a great deal of attention to my traffic logs. I'm occasionally intrigued to see my referrers, and search terms are always good for a laugh, but the actual numbers don't hold much interest.
However, I thought I'd take a look at which of the newly-selectable stylesheets is proving the most popular*, and while doing so, I suddenly noticed something.
Even without today's traffic, March has proven to be the busiest this place has been (in visits), ever. There've been more than a fifth again the number of visits than the previously busiest month, which was August last year. Not to mention one hundred additional referrers (I can't get at all of those just at the moment, but I will.
So what happened? Did lots of people suddenly discover me a month ago and add me to their recommended reading lists?
*It's the default, by the way. Followed by Barber Shop, Red Nose Day, The Blues, The Greens and Negative in that order (though note that the last three have been around less time than the others).
Absolutely Fucking Outrageous
I've been generally quiet on the subject of the war since it started, feeling unequal to offering judgements on much of what we're seeing, and also increasingly unable to view the situation with equanimity owing to family circumstances.
But....
Today's Sun carries a front page story (massively) headlined 'Proof', which details the destruction of an 'Iraqi terror camp'. According to the publication (which I will absolutely not credit with the description 'newspaper'): "The discovery of the base was seen as proof that Saddam Hussein IS directly involved in terrorism in Britain."
The article then goes on to describe the findings at the camp, which was operated by the group Ansar al-Islam, and quote 'terrorism experts' and 'intelligence experts' in discussing the possible uses of the Ricin that it's alleged was found there.
Several minor details, however, seem to have passed right by the Sun 'journalist', possibly the most significant of which is that Ansar al-Islam, linked as it is to al-Qaeda, strongly opposes Saddam Hussein's regime. The BBC at least took the trouble to point out this fairly basic fact, together with the detail that so far, no Ricin actually has been found there. The Independent also points out that Mullah Krekar, the Ansar al-Islam leader has frequently denounced the Iraqi leader.
I'm not stupid enough (and certainly not naive enough) to be surprised by agendas in reporting, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a lack of outright lying.