October 31, 2009
The Resort
"I was six when I arrived. I definitely remember that much and the island... the island I arrived at, it was crumbling away. There was nothing left here. No jobs. Everyone was leaving out into that... thick fog... and then it was like I said, that's when they came. They came and they built it; they built the Resort."
More by George Thomson "heavily based around J.G.Ballard's writing, the film La Jetee, and other good things" here. Astonishing work both visually and in the sound design... The Resort Documentary is by turns heart wrenching, menacing and perceptive in equal measure.
A shameful conquest of itself
A great yawn of surprise is the most I can muster at the news Her Majesty's government has decided the Royal Navy can make do with one aircraft carrier. Don't count on it. One down, one to go.
It is too late for the navy to renege on contracts to build the two carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, due to go into service in 2016, and the Prince of Wales, due to follow in 2018. Although the second carrier will be built, it will be used as an amphibious commando ship, with only helicopters on board instead of JSF aircraft.
The move will leave the navy without a carrier when the Queen Elizabeth goes into refit, leaving open the possibility that it might have to borrow one from the French navy.
Related: Red China, meanwhile, is building a real navy. Thusfar, they seem as determined not to make use of it as the rest of us.
Imaginetics: The New Pipe-Dream Of Modern Mental Make-Believe
Fictionology offers real hope to any left confused or depressed by the complexity and rigour of Scientology.
"Scientology can only offer data, such as how an Operating Thetan can control matter, energy, space, and time with pure thought alone," McSavage said. "But truly spiritual people don't care about data, especially those seeking an escape from very real physical, mental, or emotional problems."
McSavage added, "As a Fictionologist, I live in a world of pretend. It's liberating."
Amen to that, my fictional brother.
October 30, 2009
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun, 1805-1810
William Blake, 1757-1827.
Dartmoor
If you have never had the opportunity to visit Dartmoor you may find it added to your itinerary after viewing a film by James Watson.
It now has a special place in my heart, love it!
A great and enduring heresy
Hilaire Belloc: The Great Heresies - Chapter Four - The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed.
Not that it is much of a stretch to say much the same of Christianity. Even so, best read the whole thing.
Related: A magisterial piece, The Protestant Heresy. One of many revelations comes toward the end and with it an understanding of the decline of the Protestant West.
This was the general cause of the Protestant decline, but its action was vague and hard to grasp; on the causes of that decline we may be more concrete and certain.
For one thing the spiritual basis of Protestantism went to pieces through the breakdown of the Bible as a supreme authority. This breakdown was the result of that very spirit of sceptical inquiry upon which Protestantism had always been based. It had begun by saying, "I deny the authority of the Church: every man must examine the credibility of every doctrine for himself." But it had taken as a prop (illogically enough) the Catholic doctrine of Scriptural inspiration. That great mass of Jewish folklore, poetry and traditional popular history and proverbial wisdom which we call the Old Testament, that body of records of the Early Church which we call the New Testament, the Catholic Church had declared to be Divinely inspired. Protestantism (as we all know) turned this very doctrine of the Church against the Church herself, and appealed to the Bible against Catholic authority.
Hence the Bible - Old and New Testaments combined - became an object of worship in itself throughout the Protestant culture. There was a great deal of doubt and even paganism floating about before the end of the nineteenth century in the nations of Protestant culture; but the mass of their populations, in Germany as in England and Scandinavia, certainly in the United States, anchored themselves to the literal interpretation of the Bible.
Now historical research, research in physical science and research in textual criticism, shook this attitude. The Protestant culture began to go to the other extreme; from having worshipped the very text of the Bible as something immutable and the clear voice of God, it fell to doubting almost everything that the Bible contained.
It questioned the authenticity of the four Gospels, particularly the two written by eye-witnesses to the life of Our Lord and more especially that of St. John, the prime witness to the Incarnation.
It came to deny the historical value of nearly everything in the Old Testament prior to the Babylonian exile; it denied as a matter of course every miracle from cover to cover and every prophecy.
That a document should contain prophecy was taken to prove that it must have been written after the event. Every inconvenient text was labelled as an interpolation. In fine, when this spirit (which was the very product of Protestantism itself) had done with the Bible - the very foundation of Protestantism - it had left nothing of Protestantism but a mass of ruins.
Your glorious palaces are hospitals set amidst cemeteries
The incoming head of Canada's security services excoriates much of our Establishment for glorifying terror suspects as "quasi folk heroes." That makes two reasons to vote "Conservative" in the next general election.
"Many of our opinion leaders have come to see the fight against terrorism not as defending democracy and our values, but as attacking them," he told a meeting of security experts.
A "loose partnership of single-issues NGOs, advocacy journalists and lawyers" had to a certain extent succeeded "in forging a positive public image for anyone accused of terrorist links or charges", he added.
Fadden, 58, is a senior bureaucrat who served as a security and intelligence adviser to the government from 2000 to 2002.
October 29, 2009
England sighted
The Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight Village on the Wirral* hosts glass negatives - an Edwardian family album - recently discovered in an attic. One suspects a further examination of said attic would produce an enchanted wardrobe leading to another country where, somewhere to the south, my grandparents are children.
Follow the link for time travel.
* Say this five times fast and you shall find yourself transported to the Wirral.
Holes in Earth's defences
A high altitude explosion reveals the Indians and the Chinese have some work to do getting the planet's asteroid defences in order.
On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.
Justice by the sword
Just as I begin to wonder if I might be publishing the Daily Mail of Canadian blogs - politically incoherent, prurient and alarmist - yet another instance of the real world pushes me further over the edge.
“Little Rats of Tepic” is a Mexican homebrew "torture film" briefly posted to YouTube showing the enhanced interogation of five burglars by incensed locals. In Mexico, vigilantism has taken the place where justice is meant to stand.
Lest our progressive betters mistake the lesson: This is not about Mexico. This is what happens anywhere when the Establishment is either incapable of or unwilling to enforce the law.
In the latest case, the five teenagers were abducted after they allegedly robbed a house in the town of Tepic in the Pacific state of Nayarit.
The boys — all students of a local high school — were taken to an abandoned building where they had their heads shaved and then were beaten by fists and rifle butts and threatened at gun point, as shown on the video. One of the torturers is heard on the film saying he is the man whose house was robbed.
It gets worse.
Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raids
Several of these gentlemen are "of Ontario, Canada".
"We want to know what happened," said Bagby. "We had no inkling of any kind of criminal activity. This is a complete shock to all of us."
The others charged are:
• Mohammad Abdul Salaam, also known as Gregory Stone, 45, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and sale or receipt of stolen goods.
• Abdullah Beard, also known as Detric Lamont Driver, 37, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Abdul Saboor, also known as Dwayne Edward Davis, 37, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Mujahid Carswell, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, 30, of Detroit and Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Adam Ibraheem, 38, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Gary Laverne Porter, 59, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
• Ali Abdul Raqib, 57, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Mohammad Alsahi, also known as Mohammad Palestine, 33, of Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Yassir Ali Khan, 30, of Ontario, Canada, and Warren, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.
• Mohammad Abdul Bassir, also known as Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams, 50, of Ojibway Correctional Facility with conspiracy to commit federal crimes, sale or receipt of stolen goods, mail fraud, supplying firearms to felons, possession of weapons by a felon, and altering or removing motor vehicle identification numbers.
• A.C. Pusha, charged in a separate complaint late Wednesday with conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods.
October 28, 2009
Black Madonna of Częstochowa
"The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is a holy icon of the Virgin Mary, that is both Poland's holiest relic and one of the country's national symbols."
Good enough for the Gammas
Canada gears up for H1N1 with GSK's Pandemrix, a "swine flu jab" with adjuvants made by GlaxoSmithKline. Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 vaccine including an adjuvant, or booster, based on a German trial involving 130 adults.
Ooh. German medicine. Sounds high tech.
Are we reassured yet?
Because what I want to know is if Canada's Health Minister will get the same flu jab as the rest of us or, as in Germany, whether Canada's people will get one vaccination and Canada's Establishment will get another.
Commercial harassment
A French court has convicted Scientology for fraud, fining the French office over $900,000 for the "commercial harassment" of potential cultists. Pity they could not also convict potential recruits for their gullibility. But then I expect $30,000 of moronic Scientology crap is its own reward.
The perfect man for the job
Spiegel interviews Charles Krauthammer, "the leading voice of America's conservative intellectuals" on Barack Obama, the Brazil of politicians.
Krauthammer: Because Europe, for very understandable reasons, has been chaffing for 60 years under the protection, but also the subtle or not so subtle domination of America. Europeans like to see the big guy cut down to size, it's a natural reaction. You know, Europe ran the world for 400 or 500 years until the civilizational suicide of the two World Wars. And then America emerged as the world hegemon, with no competition and unchallenged. The irony is America is the only hegemonic power that never sought hegemony, unlike, for example, Napoleonic France. Americans are not intrinsically imperial, but we ended up dominant by default: Europe disappeared after the Second World War, the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991, so here we are. Of course Europeans like to see the hegemon diminished, and Obama is the perfect man to do that.
Related: Thomas Sowell calls it Dismantling America.
...
Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?
Also related: Doctor Zero on the leftward momentum of history. Depressing stuff unless we consider we are one conservative administration away from an abrupt change of direction. A real conservative administration does not have to do anything more than turn off the taps and that leftward momentum - dependent as it is on grants and make work and regulatory shelter extorted from the tax payer - would hit a reality based wall and get a real job. That said, the left need not worry; we are unlikely to ever see a conservative administration.
Dalekettes
The best costumes ever.
Closely related: Lingerie Lightsaber Fight (also via My Disguises).
October 27, 2009
The Conversion of St. Paul (1601)
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1571-1610
Faith no more
YouTube runneth over with Christopher Hitchens proselytizing for skepticism but this has proved no bar to the release of Collision
And that right there is why Hitchens is worth the price of admission and why so many evangelicals pay the man the respect of taking him on in debate.
White people keep out
The BBC calls them "no go for white people" in Oldham. I prefer the technical term "colony" though "beachhead" or "foothold" would do just as well.
Read the report if you have the stomach: True to form, the Beeb cannot cover a story about religiously motivated violence and segregation without blaming the victim - "Unlike their parents they will not tolerate being victims of racism." - or proffering an apologetic for the perps - "Many Asian youths say they take the law into their own hands because they have no confidence in the police." On that last point, if nothing else, we might find common ground.
Moscow clad in snow (1908)
I would be grateful if a better educated Flea-reader might identify the accompanying music. Prokofiev?
Renan Luce: Repenti
Renan Luce - Repenti At Le Grand Journal 10-03-2008
Uploaded by batav3. - Watch more music videos, in HD!
October 26, 2009
Cross and cathedral in the mountains (1812)
Caspar David Friedrich: 1774-1840.
What are you going to do about it
Melanie Phillips musters the appropriate scorn for Labour's stealth policy of social (and electoral) engineering through mass immigration. As a "Canadian" I can hardly muster the appropriate surprise.
It was therefore a politically motivated attempt by ministers to transform the fundamental make-up and identity of this country. It was done to destroy the right of the British people to live in a society defined by a common history, religion, law, language and traditions.
It was done to destroy for ever what it means to be culturally British and to put another 'multicultural' identity in its place. And it was done without telling or asking the British people whether they wanted their country and their culture to be transformed in this way.
Spitefully, one motivation by Labour ministers was 'to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date'.
Related: They say if you're lucky enough to be Irish, then you're lucky enough. IrishCharmer84 asks: Do we agree with Ireland's Anti-Leprechaun Emmigration Policy?
ChloeM replies.
SmellyPete has the last word.
Think about the power of iWatch
The Los Angeles Police Department harshes everyone's buzz with a spot for an anti-"terror" neighbourhood watch promotional spot. I hesitate to offer an opinion as everything about this story - the program, the stupid name for the program, knee jerk reaction to the ad and, of course, the ad itself - is so cliché-ridden as to defy comment.
"If you see, hear, or smell something suspicious, report it. Reporting is easy. Use the web or the phone," the speakers state. "A single report can lead to actions that can stop a terrorist attack. Think about that. Think about the power of that. Think about the power of iWatch."
Follow the link for the ad itself; think George Orwell meets Benetton. If I had been in it, I would have wanted to play "the white guy" rocking on the power of iWatch.
Saving a place
I used to work in book stores; this scene is all too familiar.
“No, that’s fine, I’ll find it myself. I’m going to look around a bit first”
Now off to Life in 3D. Trust me, you are going to love the punchline.
Robert Anton Wilson on the acceleration to 2012
Asked 'What do you see coming along up to 2012', he answered:
"In Leary's terms, I think about one-third of the West now understands the neuro-somatic circuit, and some techniques for activating it. I think that's going to reach fifty to fifty-one percent pretty soon - and that will be a major cultural change. I think more and more understanding of the neuro-genetic and meta-programming circuits are coming along.
"It's very obvious that quantum physics, parapsychology and all the work they're doing attaching brain scanners to Yogis and Zen masters means we're going to learn a great deal about the non-local quantum circuit. I think the history of mysticism has been sort of like a bunch of firecrackers with two or three going off every century. With the LSD revolution it became two or three every month and now it's moving up to two or three every week. I see a real acceleration in consciousness, just like in technology."
October 25, 2009
GeForce 9500GS Graphics Card Replacement Program for HP & Compaq Desktop PCs
If, like me, you purchased an HP Pavilion desktop computer thinking, "hey, that printer at the office worked most of the time" you may have experienced the same irritation I did upon hearing the desperate rattling sound of a defective fan cowling.
Do not be fooled by the linked instructions: Let us assume the on line interface will not take your CT number and Manufacture number on the first pass. The helpful telephone helpers will not only need the CT number and Manufacture number (circled in the linked instructions) but will also need your HP part number (not circled in the linked instructions). If you do as HP's instructions direct, you will have to shut down your computer and pop it open again on the phone to get the missing factoid. Best get that HP part number while you have it open the first time.
Here is the good bit in case you are not already having fun. Provided your particular defective part is covered, HP will then ask for your credit card number - or the defective video card - before shipping you a replacement. The manufacturer screws up but will charge you 65 dollars if you do not return their defective video card within 15 days of the (supposedly) working replacement arriving via UPS. This for me is the bridge too far.
Ahem.
Dear Hewlett Packard:
When I have dropped a couple thousand dollars for your defective piece of crap, you might do me the courtesy of shipping me my replacement graphics card fan cowling with an apology, not a bill for the replacement. You can expect an invoice for my labour.
As to my loss of productivity, we will call it a wash; I will bill your karma instead. With luck anyone reading this post will think twice before purchasing a Hewlett Packard desktop computer. And, once I have forwarded this post to Hewlett Packard, it is remotely possible HP will smarten up, apologize for the inconvenience and find some way to make it up to their customers for the trouble.
The strongest common characteristic of BNP supporters is pessimism
Charles Moore on the grievances ignored by the Establishment that give life to the British National Party.
Nick Griffin made one good point on Thursday night. After he had been mocked for speaking about the "indigenous" people of Britain, he countered that Jack Straw et al would not dare mock Maoris or American Indians for insisting on their indigenous status. Why shouldn't British whites, he asked, do the same?
The answer, of course, should not lie in giving group rights to any race or tribe, but in offering a reasonable degree of hope to all citizens of our country.
Moore's solution hints at the underlying problem. Now the BNP offers a bantustan vision of the English and the other primitive tribes of the British isles, there is no political movement in the UK that does share the apartheid/multicultural thinking that got us into this mess.
Treat everyone equally before the law? Nobody has told Moore that sort of dead white male thinking went out with the 18th-century.
Update: Peter Hitchens says we have likely been present at the birth of a stab-in-the-back myth. Though in this case, I would say the Establishment chose a stab-in-the-face approach.
Communication, Some Do's & Don'ts
With so many new words on their way to the Memory Hole it can only mean the latest Newspeak dictionary has arrived. First for the fire is the expression "evenin' all". It would not do to confuse the stupid about the time of day.
Confusingly, staff are also barred from using the word "homosexual", for which they are instructed to use the term "gay", while they are warned against using the phrase "straight", and told to say "heterosexual".
Update: It occurs to me I have not used the word "England" in this post. Might as well get some mileage out of the name while I can.
No Mr. Bond, I want you to die
The life expectancy of British nuclear experts at the United Nations just took another dive (via Mark Steyn).
No suicide note but no suspicious circumstances either, at least according to the UN. But this is the best part.
Dick Van Dyke, Sally Howles and the kids: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
I liked England better when it had flying cars and there were Rube Goldberg machines to help with breakfast.
October 24, 2009
Two Minutes Hate unplugged
Question Time becomes an add for the British National Party as the BBC sets up Nick Griffin to be martyred. This is an own goal for democracy, an affront to Britain's working class and a harbinger of worse to come.
If Nick Griffin is the monster he is made out to be - and let's face facts, the BNP is nothing if not an exercise in self-parody - and it if it is in any sense the place of the BBC to vet the political choices set before the public, it would have been far better to invite Griffin to Question Time in its ordinary format and let the man flounder in the policy subtleties of postal strikes and the like.
Variability is one of the virtues of a woman
This Liaison Dangereuse promotion is posted with a grateful tip of the hat to a Celtic Warrior Queen.
Powered by liaison-dangereuse.com
Two Minute Hate backfires
British National Party leader Nick Griffin appears on Question Time and is (of all things) martyred for his trouble. The circularity of leftist firing squads, etc.
After all, the BBC, which is utterly in thrall to the left-wing agenda of the majority of its staff, has contributed hugely to the rise of the BNP through its systematic censorship over the years of any coverage or debate on the biggest wave of mass immigration in British history.
Update: One fifth of electorate consider voting BNP.
The YouGov poll, taken hours after the BBC show aired, indicates that 22% of people in this country would ‘seriously consider’ voting for the far-right party in an upcoming election.
Let one thousand words bloom
Remember to never cede the moral high ground to a progressive; for all the posturing, they do not have a leg to stand on. A case in point is this useful primer on socialism and the environment.
This is how they made my monitor, my speakers, my keyboard, my mouse, my shirt, the chair I am sitting on and so much else so cheaply. That and forced labour, obviously.
October 23, 2009
The end of a peaceful and politically stable Canada
World War II veteran Dick Field considers each blow of the cultural wrecking ball that has done more harm to Canada than the Nazi war machine ever managed. Too much to excerpt (though I shall try): Read the whole thing and forward it to everyone.
The preponderance of French speakers lived in Quebec and they cared not at all for the equality of French and English; they wanted Quebec as a nation of French speakers.
Ways of making you talk
A "high-profile" coalition motley of music artists including members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Roots (?) protest the use of their music to torture jihadi detainees.
Would they were so considerate of the rest of us.
Other musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Tom Morello, formerly of the band Rage Against the Machine, also expressed outrage.
"The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," Morello said in a statement. "We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."
Two suggestions: Substitue R.E.M.'s music for a looped tape of Micheal Stipe talking about the environment - hell, a looped tape of Michael Stipe talking about the plight of Guantanamo detainees - and we could have a game changer for intelligence gathering. Failing that, substitute the current mix tape for a link to my Ghost of a flea MySpace music page; just doing my bit for the war effort.
Silicon Israel
A large proportion of the world’s genius resides in Israel.
Hijacked Chinese bulk carrier arrives off coastline of Somalia
Details are sparse a hijacked Chinese ship arrives off the coast of Somalia. Now for a test of Red China's mettle.
October 22, 2009
Battlestar Babes: The Plan
I looked at this Girls of Maxim Battlestar Galactica photo set and thought to myself, hey, guy, I bet what works for Maxim will work for the Flea.
Content warning: Gratuitous video; underboob.
Once more, with gushing
Joss Whedon is set to direct an episode of Glee.
(Hat tip to the Sister of the Flea.)
Remind me again why we went to war for Kuwait
Kuwaiti women will be thrilled to learn they are now entitled to their own passports and to travel without the prior consent of their husbands. Sadly, this counts as progress for Kuwait, a cretinous little country with little to recommend it.
Our allies.
October 21, 2009
October 20, 2009
India's strike envelope
India's defence establishment is reportedly "baffled" by Red China's concerns regarding the Agni-V ballistic missile.
I don't think they are genuinely baffled.
So, conceivably, Agni-V will be capable of being swiftly moved closer to the border with China to substantially enhance its strike range into the country. What has exercised China is the fact this will bring even its northern-most city, Habin, within the missile's strike envelope.
Good.
Giorgio Armani Spring 2010 Ready to Wear
Spring 2010 is looking safe and samey. I don't think any of the big design houses have a clue what to do with a major recession; most appear to be keeping their heads below the parapets. I can't say much for Armani this time out but this is at least a step up from phoning it in.
October 19, 2009
Too depressing to report
A British special forces soldier is facing war crimes charges over claims he threatened to shoot a Taliban prisoner during interrogation.
If it was an episode of 24 the same people would cheer.
Too good to be true
Scientists claim the giant atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being jinxed from the future to save the world.
They say their maths proves that nature will "ripple backward through time" to stop the LHC before it can create the God particle, like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
“One could even almost say that we have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in an unpublished essay. “He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
Tongue, one suspects, firly in cheek.
Too late for goodbye
An illegal immigrant was allowed to stay in Britain because he had a cat, it was revealed yesterday.
Immigration judges ruled that sending him back home would breach his human rights by interfering with his family life.
And this is not even close to being the least rational policy endorsed by the British government. Before breakfast.
October 18, 2009
Generation Y's first recession
As news arrives only 46% of Americans aged 16-24 have a job, BusinessWeek offers tips for young people surviving their first recession.
Potentially handy: Penelope Trunk on motivating Gen Ys in the downtown (because threatening to fire them and hire someone else would be too easy).
Think about it: Baby boomers protested Vietnam by taking to the streets and violating laws. Gen Y protested Iraq by playing by the rules and electing Obama. Gen X invented grunge music and jeans at work. Gen Y is making the Beatles hip again—and they love to dress up for work. Gen Y is conservative, kind-hearted, and they follow the rules. Of course they are like this: The world has treated them well.
Gen Y just wants what their parents want for them: a good job, a stable family life, and a life that has meaning. Baby boomers told Gen Y that the most important values were contributing to the greater good and always learning. And Gen Y believes that.
If by "conservative", we mean "statist" and "risk averse" then our definition only needs to add the word "Canadian" and you are describing the way we rock conservatism north of the border (i.e. badly). Yet another example of the legacy of the Worstest Generation at work.
Boot boy tactics
The Crown uses its police powers to harrass native protesters; accusing the protesters of "boot boy tactics" in the process. The math: 60 protesters from the Welsh Defence League square off against 200 pro-Sharia protestors and their police allies.
But the WDL denied being racist and called Mr Hain's comments "nonsense".
Strategery
The Republic of China (Taiwan) has carried out its largest ever missile test, following two weeks on from Red China's national military parade.
President Ma Ying-jeou, who has been criticised for being too friendly with China, was among the observers of the exercise, the paper said, citing a "reliable military source".
The test came after China, which has vowed to take back Taiwan, celebrated 60 years of communist rule on October 1 by parading high-tech weapons including intercontinental ballistic missiles through the streets of Beijing.
October 17, 2009
Advice to a young conservative
Kathy Shaidle mentors Conor Friedersdorf. I will cut to the punch line.
Then 5 or 10 years from now, if you are a very, very, VERY lucky man, you will take it out, read it again -- and finally have the answer to your own question.
October 16, 2009
The power of positive thinking will kill you
And an excess of self-esteem will not make you happy claims sociologist Barbara Ehrenreich in Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
Harmless enough, you may think, but what makes the advertisement suddenly sickening is when the car passes a load of sheep on their way to the abattoir - they are all nodding their heads cheerfully in time to the music.
Yes, I know it's a joke, but there is still the implication that if you look on the bright side you, too, will be able to have a glamorous VW like the man in the ad, and, even if you're on your way to be slaughtered, a positive mind-set will make that jolly, too.
It won't. Indeed, this pre-occupation with thinking positively, with self-esteem and with the conviction that our thoughts somehow shape our futures is actually a dangerous obsession that leads not to happiness and fulfilment but rather disappointment and failure.
Much as I suspected.
Mondotek: Alive
It's Friday, yo. I think the rule is if you work in an office you have to crank this.
Ever dream this man?
No. But I have seen FlashForward and think the idea has legs and wish I had come up with whatever this is viral marketing for. Just speculating here; I would much rather This Man were legit. I think sleep research is inherently creepy... (hat tip to Agent Bedhead).
From January 2006 until today, at least 2000 people have claimed they have seen this man in their dreams, in many cities all over the world: Los Angeles, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Tehran, Beijing, Rome, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, New Dehli, Moskow etc.
Update: Now with viral video (and another hat tip to Agent Bedhead).
The time has come to smell the Hope
Auto-Tune the News #9: Nobel. health care. United Nations.
October 15, 2009
Neither racked by guilt nor enslaved by passion
Robert Harris cites a debate in the Roman Senate dated December 5, 63BC - and the words of Caesar, Cicero and Cato in particular - by way of comparison with the moribund, kleptocratic technocracy at Westminster. I shall life his Cato quote but with a different target in mind.
It is long pat time we set aside our guilt and our passions and turned instead to ancient custom.
'Our liberty and lives are at stake! At such a time does anyone here dare talk to me of clemency and compassion?
'Do not imagine, gentlemen, that it was by force of arms that our ancestors transformed a petty state into this great republic. If it were so, it would now be at the height of its glory, since we have more subjects and citizens, more arms and horses, than they ever had.
'No, it was something else entirely that made them great - something we entirely lack.
'They were hard workers at home, just rulers abroad, and to the senate-they brought minds that were not racked by guilt or enslaved by passion. That is what we've lost.
Read the whole thing for context. Or pause to consider the news, the effect will be similar.
A "cultural group" in their own country
"White boys" are doing worse than any other cultural group in Britain's education system.
They plan to pump millions into predominantly white areas to help improve education of young people, end benefit dependency and cut off support for far-right political groups.
Note to "the left": Having learned that with violence and the threat of violence comes millions of pounds of largesse, do not expect the white working-class to turn from far-right political groups when it is the existence of the BNP, the EDL et al. that has prompted said largesse. Here is the nadir of the progressive re-branding of apartheid as multiculturalism. Punish individual achievement, reward identity group affiliation and appease the hard men long enough and sooner or later even the English working class will join the party.
There is, however, a difference. Continue to punish the white middle class and you have every element in place for Weimar Britain and its aftermath. "Racist" football hooligans are not the problem. The problem comes when the middle class decides enough is enough and the football hooligans act as the strong arm for the leafy, suburban acceptable face of fascism.
Befriend the far and attack the near
The People’s Daily, official newspaper for Red China's Communist Party, and the English-language Global Times, a propaganda vehicle run by its information department chose the same time to intensify anti-India rhetoric; during a visit to China by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
The remarks come a day after China said it was “strongly dissatisfied” with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which China still has claims on.
A suggestion: It is still a good idea to give the USS Kitty Hawk to India. And if my American cousins were lead by a real president instead of a student council president it is remotely possible it might come to pass. As it stands, expect more aid and comfort to America's enemies and for India to get thrown under the bus.
Irony, thy name is "realism": Al Qaeda takes a less nuanced view than that advanced by China's foreign policy, its alliance with Pakistan soon to proove just as profitable the Chinese as it has been to Americans.
John Barry: On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Main Title
Quite possibly the most awesome thing ever recorded. John Barry is God.
October 14, 2009
Letting the freak flag fly
With the latest news of the commodification of the deaths of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, Tony Lang poses an excellent question.
I can think of one, actually; that within days of hearing (from a journalist asking questions, no less) Theresa Duncan had committed suicide, I wondered who would be first to cash in on the story of their tragedy. Congratulations, Nancy Jo Sales. You win.
With a big boo hoo for Kate Coe.
A prayer for David's Israel
The Flea's implacable commitment to republishing material that is even more of a downer than I manage on my own means I cannot ignore Fenris' "So long, Israel" much as it pains me (via Blazing Cat Fur).
Not so fast, suggests commenter Nancy.
Pray she is right, by all means. And by "pray" I mean stand up and do something.
October 13, 2009
German, early 19th century
The winds of memory (?) waft me back to 1998, a year I was in London and would have had no difficulty borrowing £12,000 for Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress.
Now a growing number of leading art experts agree that it is almost certainly by Leonardo da Vinci and could be worth about £100 million.
I am sorry to say "Kill Hitler as a baby" has lost pole position in my hypothetical time travel itinerary with "Step on prehistoric butterfly" falling to third place.
Update: Mr. Ash via email. Touché!
And besides, everyone kills Hitler on their first trip:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/010295.html
In their turns, to tyrants fall
First verse: Nato commander warns of conflict with Russia in Arctic Circle.
Second verse: Chinese ambitions may be to give its carrier air wing an air-to-surface role from the outset.
Third verse: Cutbacks for both the Royal Navy and the RAF.
Bin Laden family values
According to his first wife, Najwa, life with Osama bin Laden was a life "where women are never allowed outside the house, 12-year-old daughters are married off to 30-year-old al Qaeda fighters, pet dogs are used for target practice and the biggest household fight is over whether Islam allows refrigerators."
For all the talk of gassing dogs and procreation as an arms industry, the (minor) revelation this devil enjoys the BBC is my favourite. It reveals more than just the bi-polar disorder of Osama bin Laden; it reveals the bi-polar disorder of the West.
Gresham’s law of culture
Theodore Dalrymple asks "What’s Wrong with Twinkling Buttocks?", observing "the bad drives out the good, unless the good is defended" (via The Steynian).
My secular friends never understand the point - having never been taught it (explicitly) and having been taught by the Franfurt School to reject it (implicitly) - until I explain how and why Frodo failed in his quest. The light turns on.
Related (and with another hat tip to the increasingly indispensible Binky the Elf): It’s Only Anti-Social - In Britain, the seriousness of an offense depends on who the victim is.
Gloss in the margin: That Mitchell and Webb Look and the Good Samaritan.
October 12, 2009
In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself - nature does it for you
Either it is me or it is a sign of the times. I have wrestled with this post because I honestly cannot decide if this revelation counts as news.
Dr Adlene Hicheur, 32, has confessed to talking over the internet with the North African branch of the terror organisation about attacks on 'Western targets', according to officials in France where he was held last week. Hicheur, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, worked for the CERN nuclear research laboratory near Geneva and had also worked at the top secret Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England.
Enumerated Powers Act
I remain in awe of the Constitution of the United States of America; divinely inspired for all it is routinely ignored.
Why? Because the Democrats in Congress will not allow it.
This bill would not be necessary if the Democrats would simply follow their own rules. House Rule XIII (3)(d)(1) requires:
"Each report of a committee on a public bill or public joint resolution shall contain the following: A statement citing the specific powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution."
That's right. The rules of procedure in the House of Representatives already require that every bill or resolution cite the constitutional authority for the proposed legislation. This rule is routinely ignored.
Mary J. Blige: The One
In which Mary J. rocks the gated voice thingee.
October 11, 2009
This party's not for learning
As the Tories met in Manchester, Peter Hitchens notes their current concerns are largely problems of their own making. This one goes double for Canada's stealth conservative Tory MPs; so eager to attend freedom of speech events, so reluctant to have the Prime Minister catch them doing it.
And they too are responsible for the creation of the GCSE exam, the one which asks questions about sausages. Also for the destruction of most of the grammar schools, which provided the sort of state education Mr Gove’s do-it-yourself ‘free schools’ will fail to offer, if any of them actually get opened.
In 18 years of government, they didn’t have the guts to end the subsidies which continue to create fatherless families each year by the thousand, the real, central threat to marriage, the family, social stability, morality and order.
They took us into the EU in the first place, then into the Single European Act, then into Maastricht. Now, their contortions over the EU constitution are a device to hide the fact that, much as they like to bang on about Europe in Opposition, they will be its keen enforcers in government.
None of this has actually changed. They won’t apologise for or renounce any of these errors. It is the same party.
One of these things is not like the others
David Axe considers Iran's motives for sending its navy out amongst the pirates and anti-piracy patrols.
To deter and interdict pirates, to remind the world it has a navy or to spy on the navies of the West as much as the pirates; all possibilities, yes. But there is another, and rather more obvious, possibility Axe does not raise: The Persians are there to support their corsair allies. Six of one, after all (via Information Dissemination, raising another possibility).
October 10, 2009
T.A.Z.
The Pirate Bay moves to a bunker complex the Netherlands.
The bunker is equipped with Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) shielding and Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (NBC) air filtration to guarantee that the servers they host stay up no matter what happens. As of this week it is also the new home of The Pirate Bay.
New catchwords, like deterrence and containment
Next week Israel and America will undertake joint military exercises.
US bunker buster MOP bomb gets $51m boost.
The 30,000lb (13,607kg) massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) is designed to knock out fortified sites buried deep underground, like those used by Iran and North Korea to protect its nuclear work.
How Iranian nukes would reshape the Middle East.
Hajj related: Charles Krauthammer on American exceptionalism (via Hot Air).
England jumps the shark
Time to turn out the lights.
The 'Internet Eyes' service involves players scouring thousands of CCTV cameras installed in shops, businesses and town centres across Britain looking for law-breakers.
Players who help catch the most criminals each month will win cash prizes up to £1,000.
October 09, 2009
Pilate washed his hands. If he had washed his old black heart he would have been all right.
Pious hypocrites amongst the environmentally correct? You could knock me over with a feather. Welcome to Annexia; land of high moral credentials and where low moral expectations are considered a virtue (via The Register).
But buying those same products can have the opposite effect. Researchers found that buying green can lead people into less altruistic behaviour, and even make them more likely to steal and lie than after buying conventional products. Buying products that claim to be made with low environmental impact can set up “moral credentials” in people’s minds that give license to selfish or questionable behavior.
Tahadiya, shmahadiya
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of former CBC-employees cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible* has happened.
According to the report, the television network is experiencing financial trouble despite its immense popularity. This is the second time Saban is negotiating with the Qatari emir.
* And by "terrible" I mean "this rocks". I mean, seriously, this is the way to do it.
"Israel does not worry me. Israel's neighbors worry me. I used to be a real leftist. I remember Arik Sharon coming here, to my house, a few months before Camp David, when he was still leader of the opposition. He told me there would be no deal because Arafat would not sign. I told myself that there was nothing to be done - these right-wingers were simply insane. I had no doubt that there would be a deal and the problems would be resolved. History proved that Sharon was right and I was wrong. In matters relating to security, that moved me to the right. Very far to the right."
October 08, 2009
One has the feeling they want to injure people, their intention is to kill
The German authorities try to come to grips with running battles on the streets of Berlin in the best way they know how; the solution, they believe, is to send in more social workers (via Atlas Shrugs).
I respectfully disagree. A whiff of grapeshot is the specific. Closely followed by an end to state benefits.
Exit question: Am I alone in thinking it is a bad idea to poke the Germans?
Lotte Lenya: Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
Mark Steyn on Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Marc Blitzstein.
To listen to twits like Klemperer, you'd think that Weill, torn between the devil and the deep blue rinse of Broadway matinee ladies, should have stuck with Hitler as the lesser evil. Better a death camp in the Fatherland than a camp death on Broadway.
There is no proletarian, not even a Communist movement, that has not operated in the interests of money
Spengler is at his gloomiest when addressing the economy.
Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates
Times Higher Education releases its global ranking of the world's top 200 universities. The news: Oxford clings on to the top five as Cambridge moves to second place behind Harvard. At eighteenth place, Canada's McGill University is our sole contributor to the top twenty.
October 07, 2009
Obama's hand not bigger than his face after all
Kathryn Jean Lopez points to a New York Times report about the art hanging on the wall of the Oval Office. In my forthcoming Manchurian Candidate reboot, our intrepid investigators* track the accession record of the piece to an art factor in Havana.
* He would have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky right-wing bloggers!
Unknown Pleasures
But for a spare £870 this large grey and black wool Joy Division cape with removable hood would be mine. For the win.
Via Coilhouse, with further details for anyone not getting the reference.
Related: Further to a recent request for more steampunk content... this guide to eleven sci-punks should come in handy. Now considering Mannerpunk.
Metonymy
Long suspected from the example of Chichen Itza's El Castillo, the Moon Pyramid's second example at Teotihuacan now suggests Mayan architects intended visiting footsteps to sound like raindrops.
The discovery of the raindrop "music" in another pyramid suggests that at least some of Mexico's pyramids were deliberately built for this purpose. Some of the structures consist of a combination of steps and platforms, while others, like El Castillo, resemble the more even-stepped Egyptian pyramids.
A minor quibble: While El Castillo is a Post Classic period Mayan construction, it is not clear what language was spoken at Teotihuacan. What is certain is that the Pyramid of the Moon predates El Castillo by centuries and that, if there is a direct relationship, it is Chichen Itza that owes the debt of influence.
The big news
Yesterday, Mark Steyn and Eza Levant testified before Canada's parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Committee. The subject: The Canadian Human Rights Commission (video of Steyn and Levant's testimony at the link).
A comment left by DavidL mirrors my reaction.
Several members seemed totally unprepared and quite oblivious to any of the current issues and instead held and defended the "party line" and trivialized anything you and Mark were saying.
Having so much of the questioning in French was, to a large percentage of the Canadian public, tantamount to having a partially closed hearing and just made the smokescreen that much thicker.
Only a couple of members of the committee seemed to have any grasp of the real situation and the atrocities being committed and seemed open enough to do something about it.
My gut feeling is that it would be easier to run through a vat of molasses in January than change the opinions of the majority of these members. Now I understand what Steven Harper is up against.
Nice work, Ezra and Mark; you are truly Great Canadians for persevering with this on our behalf.
Greg Weeks: One True Song
Waving a lighter over my head for SondraK. This one goes to eleven.
Rise/
to meet the dawn/
oh and sing/
the one true song/
Endless tacts/
entry contracts/
will burn your soul/
a bible black/
Some/
will try to hide/
oh some will run/
their ins outside/
before they'll rise/
to meet the dawn/
oh and sing/
the one true song/
Oh Lord/
where will we hide/
now that you/
have taken sides?/
I want to sleep
Also: Made.
October 06, 2009
Detroit is north of Canada
Note to "the left": Assume the man's tone, facts and motives all to be suspect. Please use reason to convince him he is wrong. Please suggest some rational course of action. It is a lot to ask, I realize.
Animal, vegetable or mineral
Jay Currie has ten questions for Jennifer Lynch, Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, when she comes before the Commons Committee on Justice and Human Rights (hat tip to Blazing Cat Fur).
That Mitchell and Webb Look: Bad Vicar
I am looking for this parish.
October 05, 2009
Human fish, swimming at the bottom of the great ocean of atmosphere, develop psychic injuries as they collide with one another
If Obama really was a Manchurian candidate, just what would he be doing differently?
Mr. Obama's slight is the first time a sitting president will not meet with the Dalai Lama during a Washington visit since President George H.W. Bush met with him in 1991.
High Noon for Israel
Matt Gurney sees three options for Israel: do nothing and hope for a miracle, hit Iran with a limited military strike or hit Iran with a pre-emptive nuclear attack. There. Somebody said it in print.
Not that the mullahs take Option 3 seriously. They should. In the end, even Quaker Amy Kane was prepared to sacrifice her principles and stand by her husband for all the rest of the town were cowards.
Related: Israel names Russians helping Iran build nuclear bomb. Clearly, the Russians have not thought this through.
“That is why it was kept secret. The point is not to embarrass Moscow, rather to spur it into action.”
Regarding fairy tales
In which Cheryl Cole reveals a tattoo I did not know about.
‘That's why it's called a fairy tale isn't it? It's not real,’ she said.
Annie: I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me
October 04, 2009
October 02, 2009
From The Commentaries Of Muad'Dib
Pulphope illustrates a parable of M'uad Dib. It is a nice job though I never grokked this one, if I'm honest.
The linked work credits the visionary John Schoenherr as an inspiration. I don't believe Schoenherr ever illustrated this particular parable so I have posted "Stilgar and His Men" as a point of comparison (via Warren Ellis).
A suggestion
All we are saying.
in so far as the government of Iran has funded and armed and continues to fund and army proxies to wage terror against the people of Israel;
in so far as the government of Iran is developing weapons of mass destruction and attendant delivery systems for the express purpose of the destruction of the state of Israel and the extermination of the people of Israel
a state of war exists between Israel and the government of Iran.
(Period.)
A further suggestion: Give war a chance.
Do not aim merely to destroy - let alone delay - the development and production of Iran's WMD industry. Aim to destroy Iran's ability to make war. At one time, for most of history in fact, this would have been a tall order. Not so in this instance. Iran is vulnerable in its (limited) capicity to refine oil and Iran’s primary oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf - Kharg Island - makes a tempting target. There is no need to target Iran's nuclear development and production facilities directly to cause serious problems for Iran's governing class or to pinch however many supporters they have remaining in the population at large.
Sure, oil prices will spike, terrorists will strike and there is the off chance that despite their recent restiveness Iran's people will support their government against external attack. So what. And especially to that last point. If the people of Iran cannot or will not overthrow their government thanks to the magic of Obama's diplomacy they are in no position to criticize the mullahs' next victims should these victims choose to defend themselves.
Another consquence of such an attack would be the opprobrium of the world's chattering classes. Consider it a bonus.
Existentially related: Iran's leadership believes Israel is bluffing. They may be right about that. But one thing they have got right for certain: There is an enormous difference between military strength and the kind of strength that matters.
Memories of the Future 1
October 01, 2009
I see what you did there
The Daily Mail spies trouble brewing between X Factor judges Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue; A double plus good observation if only for coining the term "Tron-esque".
Both videos see the X Factor judges posing in front of a black and white, Tron-esque, grid background.
There is only one way to be sure.
Between man and his fellow
Former legal advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Ruby Seibel argues for a lawfare counter-attack against "Palestinian" Authority officials.
"We too should be bothering those terrorists, filing motions against Syrian government officials suspected of torture, and pestering Arab representatives so that they too undergo the same kind of harassment we may have to face in the near future,” he suggested.
Goose-stepping into the future
Mainland China celebrates sixty years of communist dictatorship with flowers, fireworks and a parade.
Normally, I can't stand this sort of fawning, majestic history of the Ewoks lie but given the state of the Royal Mail one is pressed to disagree.
Rip Van Winkle à la française
François Desouche ponders the impressions of a man falling into a coma in 1978 and awakening in 2009.
Read the whole list.
The same for England: The sorry truth is we live in the twilight years of a social experiment that has failed.