| 6 April 2007
Quote of the day
From this comments thread, where Billy Beck jousts with some freedom-hating zombies, culminating in this exchange:
Beck reminds me of Bernard Goetz.
Posted by: mudkitty
Yeah, well, you remind me of Shirley Temple without the gravitas.
Posted by: Billy Beck
Bwehehehe.
Your compulsory viewing for the day
Sesame Street......as directed by Martin Scorcese.
...and after you've watched that, check out Kermit the Frog singing "Hurt".
Definitely not safe for work.... or kiddies.
Where not to ride a bicycle
Insane Kiwi Rob Thomson, riding from Korea to England on a recumbent bicycle, decides to detour through the Anzob Tunnel in Tajikistan.
Oy vey.
Crocket
This Cricket World Cup has been outright harmful for the sport. Dull cricket, empty stadiums, the murder of Bob Woolmer, a tedious itinerary.
In the modern world where cricket needs to do everything it can to sell itself against other sports, the whole event has had all the atmosphere and gravitas of a high-school athletics carnival.
For the sake of the sport, all future World Cups should be held in the UK or Australia. Have a round-robin between all the teams, with a maximum of a day's rest between the games for each team. Then go straight to the semi-finals. No more than two associate countries.
Run the bloody event as the intense competition it should be, and not some bullshit, elongated cash cow for the ICC.
Communists are such lovely, caring people
The Communist Party of Australia sticks up for...... get this.... Robert Mugabe:
Zimbabwe a justified response?
According to the Western media spin, the reason for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on the opposition is due to the fact that his government is inherently authoritarian, greedy for power for power's sake, and willing to do anything from stealing elections to cracking skulls to hang on to its privileged position.
This is the typical slander levelled at the heads of governments the US and UK have trouble with, from Milosevic in his day, to Kim Jong Il, to Castro, Hugo Chávez and Mari Alkatiri among others.
Another view is that the government's authoritarianism is an inevitable reaction to circumstances that are unfavourable to the attainment of its political (not its leaders' personal) goals. Mugabe's government came to power at the head of a movement that sought political independence for Zimbabwe (formerly colonial Rhodesia). It aspired to reverse the historical theft of land by white settlers. That the opposition would be fierce and merciless to the liberation movement was inevitable.
The sociopath who wrote this has his own blog, where there's much more Mugabe-blowing on display.
"We're all gonna die!!!!!"....again
My libertarian chum Alex Robson sends me an e-mail:
Tex,
Here is an interesting set of predictions:
"Many hot-earth men believe that global temperatures will rise by at least 3.8 degrees (F) by 2020, given that the volume of carbon dioxide is doubled in the next fifty years. If this happened, ships could well sail the entire Arctic Circle, and the melting of the polar ice caps could cause the sea level to rise by 200 to 400 feet. London and New York would vanish. So would Rome, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Marseille, and hundreds of other cities. Trees would grow in Alaska and Siberia; cattle would be raised on what was once tundra...
...There is, too, the possibility that the oceans might not be able top cope with the the increased gas. If that happened, oysters, clams and other shelfish would die out. Coral reefs would crumble to nothing, and the ecosystems of many Pacific Islands and the Australian barrier reefs would be destroyed."
Al Gore? Nope. Sir Nicholas Stern? Nope. The IPCC? Nope.
It's from a book (p 71-73) I'm reading called "The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age".
It was written in
1977.
It is a fascinating historical document. Even though it was written 30 years ago, it all sounds so familiar, doesn't it? It even pushes the claim that there is a "scientific consensus" that the earth faces massive cooling. It cites CIA reports to bolster its case.
On the bright side, according to the global warming predictions of the "hot-earth men" made in the 1970s, we only have 13 years to wait until France vanishes under water.
It's amazing how every generation of greenie apocalyptoids end up looking a lot like Hal Lindsey.
Well, maybe it's not so amazing: there are still people who take Paul Ehrlich seriously. I guess being a windbag with a serious case of the vapours gets you a captive audience.
One of those Q&A listy thingies
Stolen from Kimmy:
1. What, in your experience, was the most overrated movie of all time?
So many choices, so I'll say one of the following:
Citizen Kane
2001
Forrest Gump
As Good as it Gets
Gone With The Wind
Anything with Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne
2. What was the most overrated album?
Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
Sounds like a bad recording of a drunken studio jam session. An absolute pile of shit.
3. What is the most overrated book?
Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
4. What is the most overrated blog?
Drudge and Pajamas Media.
5. What was the most overrated television show?
Carnivale. I think it's overrated, not bad. It's still way ahead of the general sewage of TV.
6. What would you call the most overrated magazine?
Rolling Stone. Three decades of beatnik whinging.
7. Who was the most overrated classical composer?
All of them.
8. Who is the most overrated pop songwriter?
John Lennon.
9. What is the most overrated genre in any form of art?
Same answer as Kim: Ballet.
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