The Irate Dog

THE IRATE DOG HAS MOVED HIS DOG HOUSE

2011-03-01T01:04:00.000Z

FIND THE DOG'S NEW HOME AT: http://theiratedog.blog.com The Irate Dog, its posts, comments etc. have all been moved over to Blog.com. There will be no further posts submitted to this blogspot.com version. THANKS!

Colonel Gaddafi refuses to quit and stands firm

2011-02-23T09:45:00.000Z

Latest in a string of struggling undemocratic regimes across the region, Colonel Gaddafi, unelected leader of Libya, remains defiant to the end according his speech broadcast by the world's press yesterday. His speech, which lasted more than an hour, would be kindly described as a rambling mess with frequent and unbelievably long pauses between topics as Gaddafi checks his script. He said that

They're Falling Like Dominoes

2011-02-18T23:19:00.002Z

Or are they? In recent days and weeks the world has seen protest after protest in countries all along Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East including in Egypt and, most interestingly at the moment, Bahrain. But apart from showing everyday people in the West that these countries exist, what does this actually mean? Is it, as many of us (I'm sure) are hoping, the beginning of a trend? The

Mubarak makes the U-Turn of the Century!

2011-02-12T08:59:00.000Z

HOLD IT! Stop the presses! Despite stating categorically in his speech to the nation on Thursday evening that he would not be stepping down or aside until the next election (9 months away) the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday gave up his post as Premier of Egypt. All powers now rest with the Egyptian Military's High Council in what is being called a "transitional period". World

Egyptian President Refuses to Stand Down

2011-02-10T21:37:00.000Z

Hosni Mubarak, the besieged Egyptian President, has tonight refused to stand down from the country's top office. His reasons included his belief that he should be present to oversee a peaceful transition of powers from himself to a democratically elected government. This is several miles below the expectations of the Egyptian protesters now gathered in Cairo and Alexandria along with city after

Egyptian Government tries to move on, Protesters say No No.

2011-02-10T00:59:00.000Z

If you have a blog, I challenge you to write a post updating your readers on the Egyptian situation at least once every two days. I will be doing the same. Yes, it's official. The Egyptian protesters have managed to keep their civil disobedience going for 16 consecutive days. Rock. On. President Mubarak and his government have been attempting, since the weekend, to resume "business as usual".

Politics: "Financial Turmoil" if cuts were scrapped

2011-02-07T10:27:00.000Z

My country's Chancellor of the Exchequer (that's Finance Minister to most other countries) George Osborne has said that if he stood up in parliament today and announced he was to abandon his plans for public spending cuts then "within minutes Britain would be within financial turmoil". It's the sad duty of this blog to agree with the Chancellor. There would be financial turmoil if he did a U-turn

Special Post: Egyptian Unrest

2011-01-29T01:28:00.000Z

It's 01:15 and I have to be back awake in six hours to go to work but this blog's dry spell has gone on quite long enough. Who needs sleep anyway? In limbo zone between awareness and sleep I found myself perusing the BBC and CNN front pages - both were littered with references to the civil unrest currently sparking in Egypt. It is hard to imagine the country being on such a knife's edge when I

Special: Tony Blair faces Iraq Inquiry for the Second Time

2011-01-21T11:14:00.000Z

Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is this morning facing the Iraq Inquiry for the second time. He has been recalled to help fill gaps in his previous evidence. To watch the inquiry live please click here. Points to look out for: The Effect of 9/11 on Iraq Early meetings with US President George W. Bush The secrecy surrounding the early military planning

This is getting ridiculous

2011-01-19T08:47:00.000Z

If you follow this blog religiously (which I hope you don't) then you'll have noticed a certain slacking in the frequency of posts. There were very few over the weekend and only a couple since then. On top of that I did change the Charity of the Week on Saturday which means AMUR is halfway through its second week in pride of place on my blog. The reason is my life. I work for most of the weekend

Jan 18: China Doesn't Need the USA Anymore

2011-01-18T09:41:00.001Z

This isn't particularly up to the minute news, but, the USA and China aren't very good friends at the moment. There's a surprise. President Barack Obama came into office pledging to improve relations with China. In a bizarre twist of American egocentrism Obama made the same mistake the majority of his country's citizens do. He thought that American was at the heart of everything and served as

WLW: White House Weekly Address 15/1/11 - The Shooting

2011-01-16T08:06:00.003Z

This week President Obama begins, of course, with the shooting in Arizona. This is a very shoot address today. For the little while that I've been following these addresses to the American public I have begun to see a trend. The Weekly Address is, I think I am right in saying, a new initiative that came when Obama did. I is, again I think I am right in saying, designed to make his

Jan 15: BP signs its first deal since the spill

2011-01-15T08:58:00.000Z

International oil company BP's chief executive Bob Dudley has just signed an agreement with Russian national oil company Rosneft to "explore potentially huge deposits of oil and gas in Russia's Arctic Shelf. The deal includes BP taking control of 9.5% of Rosneft's shares and Rosneft taking 5% of BP's and has been hailed by Bob Dudley as a uniquely historical event - the first time that any

Thought for the Day: Big Government? Small Government? (14/1/11)

2011-01-14T17:01:00.001Z

Thought for the Day Today's thought for the day deals with what is quite possibly a fundamental core of all politics. Does a country need big government? Or small government? There are advantages to both. If we sat down with a right-wing redneck and a left-wing liberal they'd both equally be able to simultaneously flaunt the pro's to their respective viewpoints and denounce the belief's of

Jan 14: Labour Party Comfortably win By-Election

2011-01-14T09:10:00.000Z

A by-election in the Oldham East by-election has seen a comfortable win for the Labour Party (formerly in government) with a majority of more than 3,500 votes. The incumbent Labour MP Debbie Abrahams held her own against her Conservative and Liberal Democrat competitors with the Lib. Dems. rustling together 31.9% of the vote and the Conservative vote falling by 7,000 votes to 12.8%. Just a

Thought for the Day: Obama's visit to Tucson, Arizona (13/1/11)

2011-01-13T08:55:00.006Z

Thought for the Day Below is a video from America's NBC news. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy This video is President Obama's visit to Tucson, Arizona where a political gathering of their Congresswoman and her constituents was taking place when a legally armed gunman opened fire on them. You, or I, can say what we like about the Americans but man, do

Jan 12: Australia isn't the only place flooding you know...

2011-01-12T10:31:00.003Z

Just yesterday I wrote that the Australian Floods were bad, sure, but would have stopped being a big international news story days ago had the country been a poorer, less economically developed one. Today I can tell you I was right. Look at this screen shot I took of the BBC World News front page... What do we have front and centre? The Australian Floods. But what else did you notice?

Jan 11: Thought for the Day

2011-01-11T14:48:00.001Z

Thought for the Day I've been thinking. Which is always good when it comes to the Thought for the Day segment. You know those Dipping Birds, like the one here: Well, the way I understand it, you can start this toy off and it will continue to "drink" the water for ages, right? It's all to do with the momentum of the water in its back end and the motion of the swing and other such physics etc.

Jan 11: Brisbane, Australia is Told to Empty after more floods

2011-01-11T11:38:00.001Z

On January 3rd I wrote a post on the flooding in Australia. The story is nowhere near finished. The BBC reported this morning that the people of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland and third largest city in Australia has been urged to evacuate. A large section of the city (65,000 homes and businesses) are expected to be underwater soon. The city's mayor said "Today is very

Jan 10: Thought for the Day

2011-01-11T00:08:00.001Z

Thought for the Day Today's Thought for the Day is on games, video games on consoles to be precise. Games like the newest Halo game, Halo: Reach bring in upwards of $200 million on the first day and the latest in the Assassin's Creed series, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, sold over a million copies within a week of its release. So my question is this. Why is it only socially acceptable for

Charity of the Week: 9th-16th Jan 2011

2011-01-10T11:45:00.003Z

A couple of days ago I wrote a post on the Siberian Tiger and its dwindling numbers in the wild due to Poaching of skin-hunting. Today, it is my pleasure to announce The Irate Dog's second 'Charity of the Week'. I mentioned that other names for the Siberian Tiger included the Caspian and Amur Tigers. Well, this week's charity is a Russian-British charity called 'AMUR'. It was launched with the

Jan 10: Undercover cop switches sides!

2011-01-10T08:23:00.000Z

It's Monday, a weekday, again so here goes the second week of The Irate Dog's jam-packed schedule for you. Let's get straight into this morning's proceedings with the News. Tonight, the BBC's Newsnight (10:30pm GMT, BBC2) programme will be going into more detail about the following news story. A court case, due to start today, against six green campaigners has been dropped by the

Special: 50 Key Events of the Naughties

2011-01-09T08:23:00.002Z

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {letter-spacing: 0.0px} The last decade, from the beginning of the year 2000 to the end of 2010, have been a riveting ten years. Technological advances are likely to be cited when humanity asks itself what the 'Naughties' were all about

WLW: White House Weekly Address 8/1/11 - Tax Cuts Kicking in.

2011-01-08T23:12:00.001Z

Welcome to the second edition of this new segment. I'm going to pretend it's been a week since the last edition even though I only thought of the idea yesterday and only commented on Obama's last Weekly Address yesterday and his second one of 2011 came out today. But no matter! We will continue. Take a look at this: The President is pleased to report 12 straight months of increasingly strong

Jan 8: 2011 with The Irate Dog's first week.

2011-01-08T20:47:00.000Z

Personally I think this first has gone well, but this post isn't supposed to be a trumpet-blower - I want to know what you, my valued reader, think. I want to know what you like and what you don't like and I'll even consider new ideas if you want to suggest any. "2011 with The Irate Dog" has been running now for just over a week. There's been a blog a day with new segments coming at you from