ISTBO

Due to the ever increasing amount of information presented to us as news, the results of enquiries or experiments, or new discoveries that is in fact The Bleeding Obvious with added salt, sugar and artificial colouring and preservatives, I have decided to formally and officially start the Institute for the Statement of The Bleeding Obvious I mentioned yesterday.
ISTBO's purposes are as follows:
To recognize and celebrate The Bleeding Obvious as landmarks in the vast sweep and flow of information.
To expose The Bleeding Obvious as what it is when it is presented as new information.
To State the Bleeding Obvious when it has been missed.
To grade the level of under- or over-statement of The Bleeding Obvious when and where ever it occurs.
To attempt to follow the pattern of The Bleeding Obvious and thus make Obvious Predictions.

This is to be achieved by awarding an ISTBO award on the blog to any statements that strike us as Glorious Obviousness, Martyred Obviousness, or Cleverly Disguised Obviousness, awarding an ISTBO Grade from -10 for total understatement to 10 for total overstatement, and making an ISTBO Statement when we believe something Bleeding Obvious has been left unsaid. On a more spiritual level I recommend The Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite as the philosophical manifestation of the ISTBO philosophy (see Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time), for is it not written 'If you pick at it it will not get better'?

Therefore those engaged in the observation and award giving process are ISTBO Inspectors, and those who slyly conceal obvious information in less obvious forms, or make money from the statement of the obvious are ISTBO Agents. Join today! And please report all incidents of ISTBO related activities to the comments section. I'll be making IDs next time I can get at a decent printer. To get you in the mood, here are a few awards:

To New York Dog magazine: a CDO Award for putting Nicole Richie on the cover.

To the Conservative Party: a CDO for hiding their policy on weaseling out of everything connection us to Europe behind Immigration for two whole days AND a GO Award for "It won't be illegal, because we'll change the law."

To Tony Blair: An ISTBO Grade 10 for: "Education, Education, Education" and "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" etc etc etc and a IG-10 for "we will not oppose an injunction on fox-hunting."

To the US government: a CDO for hiding their foreign policy in a diesel car advert "Hate something, change something......"

For is it not written, "I think, therefore I am thinking"?