Harry Phibbs makes some interesting points about the BBC in the following article: “Can words be reclaimed? Harry Phibbs considers whether the term “right wing” is beyond rescue”

Here is one point from the article:

Often one hears the term “to the right of Genghis Khan.” The Tory Euro MP Dan Hannan took issue with this in a recent letter to The Spectator when he wrote:

I’d have thought Genghis was a clear-cut leftie. His tactic, on conquering a tribe was to liquidate the aristocracy and elevate the lower orders. He was a proto-Europhile, mingling his subject clans so as to prevent the development of a national identity. Where modern socialists want to use the education system to cut high achievers down to size, the Khan was more literal, forcing his vassals to walk under a yoke and decapitating those who were too tall. He was even an early metricator, organising his soldiers according to a decimal system. Genghis can be considered right-wing only in the BBC sense, as a synonym for “baddie”.

Is the bbc even capable of reporting without intertwining it some outlandish slam against the U.S. and American conservatives?

YES.. How many times do I have to say it. BBC is working hard to turn the UK against the US. They have already done so for the majority of Brits.

As a former resident of Colombia for 20 of my short years on this earth…

Thanks for that post. I’m always heartened by how pro-American the Colombians that I have met in America are; especially when I think about how difficult the American Left have (are) making it for the good people of that great nation to put the FARC away for good.

I recommend Kate from A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective for consistently accurate and entertaining analysis of everything LatAm; especially Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. She’s Bogotá born and Connecticut raised.

There’s actually a really good Wikipedia entry on the origin of these terms:

The terms Left and Right have been used to refer to political affiliation since the early part of the French Revolutionary era. They originally referred to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France, specifically in the French Legislative Assembly of 1791, when the king was still the formal head of state, and the moderate royalist Feuillants sat on the right side of the chamber, while the radical Montagnards sat on the left.[1] This traditional seating arrangement continues to be observed by the Senate and National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic.

Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum were the attitudes towards the ancien régime (”old order”). “The Right” thus implied support for aristocratic, royal, or clerical interests, while “The Left” implied opposition to the same. At that time, support for laissez-faire capitalism and free markets were regarded as being on the left whereas today in most Western countries these views would be characterized as being on the Right. The earlier “left-wing” politicians were advocates of laissez faire capitalism[citation needed] and the “right-wing” politicians opposed it, until the early nineteenth century when anti-capitalism gained favour among the leftists due to the rise of socialism. Despite this, the left-controlled French National Convention decreed numerous economic interventions during the Revolution, including price controls (enforced under penalty of death),[2] forced loans on those with incomes exceeding 1000 livres, and the abolishment of the Paris Stock Exchange and all joint-stock companies.[3]

In Great Britain at that time, Edmund Burke (now generally described as a conservative)[4] held similar economic views to this first French Left.

Nonetheless, he strongly criticized their anti-clericalism and their willingness to turn to mob violence for support and to overturn institutions of long standing. Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France criticized the Left as excessively rationalistic and disrespecting of the wisdom of tradition.[5]

he was the target of an assassination attempt that left his body riddled with gunshot wounds

…but does he have slide scars on his thumb (right thumb of course)?

On June 20th, 2008 at 6:50 pm, DBNinKY said:
Is the bbc even capable of reporting without intertwining it some outlandish slam against the U.S. and American conservatives?

Ummm, no.

just another example of a lousy journalist doing a lousy job of researching and telling a story. is it that they are so entrenched in left is good and so if anyone is against the left it must be bad and be ‘right wing’????

i am so disgusted with the media’s inabiltiy to research and provide a comprehensive story from that research!

but, this right winger is so glad this guy is in jail, the creep of a drug lord.