May 31, 2010
The Hobbits are just rustic English people
English Russia calls it a Russian Lords of the Rings. It is actually a Russian translation of The Hobbit. Mikhail Belomlinsky's illusrations are the draw for those with no Russian; his adapted map is particularly charming.
May 30, 2010
Education
John Noonan explains the need to modernize America's nuclear forces is pressing.
Why Castro is Bad, Lesson One
The guy who posted this calls it propaganda. I call it a winning liberal campaign platform.
May 29, 2010
You win some, you lose some
Israel's split with Turkey deepens and UPI's Gaza staff writers are on the job explaining it is all Israel's fault, Israel is to blame and how Israel is in a lose-lose situation of its own making. Objectivity!
Meanwhile, in the world of adults, the Indo-Israeli Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM) has been successfully test fired in Israel.
India and Israel: Disparate cultures united by a sense of humour.
Approaching space object 'artificial, not asteroid' says NASA
"Too small for a proper mothership at ~10m, though."
Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and subsequently tracked by NASA's asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
I won't spoil it for you.
Mattel Tommy Burst TV
Lest any wonder Araby reckons the desolation of Christendom is ripe for colonization and plunder, this relic of the 1960s is a pointed finger of accusation: You! You the vaginafied of the West! Look upon this child's toy of the inexcusably recent past and gawp at the rack of manhood!*
* man·hood (măn'hʊd') n. 1. The state or time of being an adult male human.
May 28, 2010
Error is the force that welds men together
I am enjoying Leo Tolstoy's "What Then Must We Do?" (pdf) It is like a DNA test for whatever passes for the mitochondrial DNA of Leftist memes.
Take this gem closing Chapter II, for example.
Written like a man who has had two coats given to him. If he had earned even one coat, he would have known better.
The ante
South Korea may be considering a naval blockade of North Korea. Though I am not certain The Chosun Ilbo quite understands the ramifications of the term in English.
Teen Werewolves
And speaking of hideous, soul-scarring nerd shame.
Some distancing behaviour from the comments.
It will be funnier 20 years from now when these kids will vehemently deny they were ever into this. Its this generations bellbottoms and platform shoes.
Posted 05/25/2010 at 07:24:09 PM
Reply
telezombie replied to skrag2112:
I don't deny being a punk during the 80's and 90's. It's something I'm proud of to this day.
Posted 05/25/2010 at 08:50:08 PM
Reply
ZeroCorpse replied to telezombie:
Me too... but then, I think there's a big difference between punk/alternative/goth style of the late 70s to early 80s, and walking around in Hot Topic rip-offs of that style while adding fake dog tails to the mix and declaring yourself a "werewolf".
-
I feel the same way about these kids that I did about the "vampires" who co-opted punk/goth style and ran around drinking V8 and playing "Vampire the Masquerade" as if it were real to them.
-
Posers with no creativity. Come up with your own style, kids. Don't keep borrowing from the true (1st generation) hippies, punks, and goths who are all at least 36 years old right now.
-
I hate disco, but at least the disco generation came up with their own (ugly) style. Gen Y and later seem to be caught in a loop where they keep borrowing from punk, goth, and hippie styles. (But at least they're not borrowing from disco).
Posted 05/27/2010 at 05:57:55 PM
Josh Dubovie: That Sounds Good To Me
Bookmakers have branded Josh Dubovie’s That Sounds Good To Me the worst Brit entry in Eurovision history. I am not certain this celebration of nothing deserves the kudos.
May 27, 2010
Not nuked enough
Clinton offers China proof the North Koreans attacked and sank South Korea's warship. I would ask "why bother" but that would not cover the mind rending futility of the gesture. You will understand why momentarily.
Meanwhile, my point. That being this Japan Today poll: Who do you think was behind the sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26?
From the most recent comment:
And this from a guy who thinks the U.S. government knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
We are playing chess, they are playing go
I have no idea what I mean by that but it sounds sufficiently yellow peril-ish to introduce yet another problem a pro-American President would have had to address: China's control of a number of strategic mineral resources has become obvious.
The US and the rest of the world have relied on China for nearly all of their rare-earth supplies. But China has been curtailing its exports in recent years, conserving the elements for its own manufacturers. That has prompted fears of an impending shortage in the West.
Counter protest
"Palestine" House will lead an anti-Israel protest on Sunday May 30 during PM Benyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Toronto.
For more information on the JDL counter protest call 416-736-7000 or visit us at jdl-canada.com
Reminder: The young lions of "Palestine" House in Toronto demand another Holocaust for Jews and offer sexual violence toward uppity women (as demanded by their anti-Bible).
Good-hearted lads
Philippe Ridet profiles Italy's right of centre Northern League, many of whose concerns will look familiar to Canadian conservatives (via Gates of Vienna).
Time and again Western electorates have demonstrated they will support a genuine conservative platform whenever our Establishment betters have the nerve to offer us one. But unless things change dramatically and soon we are living in the last generation where the numbers could support a conservative platform. After that we will have to cross our fingers enough Chinese and Indians have arrived to present a workable coalition against the local arm of the caliphate.
Rik Mayall: Noble England (World Cup Anthem 2010)
The last refuge of English patriotism is found in sentiment.
May 26, 2010
If you don’t like my education budget, find a new job
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Feminism
A "Saudi" woman opens fire on Arabia's religious pollice.
"She shot at the officers to distract them and allow the man to escape instant detention," said Sheik Mutlak al Nabet, a spokesman for the religious police in Ha'il. He added that the unnamed woman's husband has filed an official report, asking for his wife to be punished and stripped of her Saudi nationality.
All Saudi women should be so lucky.
The difference between tolerance and surrender
Rick Barber for U.S. Congress.
May 25, 2010
Blogger admits affair
I guess it is time to come clean about me and Belinda Stronach.
It's a conflict of interest/editorial honesty/mea traffica culpa kind of a deal.
A place where there is no reason
Under the American electoral system, Michael Savage and Jo from Florida both have votes that count the same. While in Canada, Michael Savage would considered too right ring for the Conservative party and Jo from Florida would have tenure.
Except for all the others
Elizabeth Scalia describes the Left's enthusiasm for dictatorsip. In the United States.
It is the ultimate fantasy of the narcissist. And we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on “remaking America.”
Here's a thought: The worst generation in the history of the world is about to retire. Now they need the retirement benefits "they paid for" I wonder how much of the bloated helping state they are willing to part with in order to fund their twilight years. Thinking of just one example among many here, if the Baby Boomers are true to form - and you know they will be - it is all too easy to imagine countless Grievance "Studies" departments shut down in the name of economy. Having gutted the natural sciences and any teaching of classical values, fat tenured salaries in the Studies departments are the only low hanging fruit remaining in the universities. Well, that and a (not so small) industry of counselling and support services. By contrast, those departments teaching skills sought by employers - and therefore by parents and students - should weather the last great crest of Western demography. Somebody has to pay for all the rest.
Those who cannot remember the past
Would be bloody lucky if this meant a repetition of the Protectorate. A couple decades of Cromwell could sort out England for the next few centuries.
The poll of 18- to 24-year-olds found that 45 per cent of young Britons did not know Nelson led the British to victory at the Battle Of Trafalgar, and 28 per cent thought that Trafalgar was part of the English Civil War.
Indeed, 15 per cent thought that Oliver Cromwell led the British forces against the French and Spanish navies during the Napoleonic Wars.
By contrast, many young "Britons" know Uthman was murdered while at prayer.
If there must be trouble
Let it be in my day that my child may have peace (via Vlad Tepes).
May 24, 2010
A cunning linguist
Now considering the etymology of the word "philology". But not very carefully.
Thanks to Community Channel's "Clip Art Makes Everything Sh*t", I am now familiar with Hot For Words, not your ordinary philologist.
Severed Heads: Hot With Fleas
Hat tip to Ben.
In 1994 a 3D version was made on an Amiga using Imagine. Since then the video has featured knives and forks travelling through a reflective space. Every few years another version was made for live shows at the time and each slightly improved the rendering quality. This version was made for a live show in Brisbane in 2007 and was rendered in Cinema4D. It's near identical to the version shown in Belgium in 2005 - just recalculated for 720p.
The raytracing here takes a very long time as there are apparently infinite reflections inside the space. Actually there's about 8 bounces - even then each frame took as long as 12 minutes to create.
May 23, 2010
Ezekiel 38:7
Scenes from Israel's 4th Annual "Turning Points" National Home Front Command Exercise.
The exercise is aimed at improving national preparedness and responses of the home front to emergencies. The exercise will improve cooperation between the various organizations and institutions and prepare them for different emergency scenarios.
The exercise, taking place for the fourth consecutive year, was scheduled and planned in advance as a part of the IDFs 2010 training plan. This exercise is an additional measure taken by Israel to prepare the public and the local authorities for emergency periods.
An unhappy Germany
Theodore Dalrymple offered a strategy for the resurrection of German nationalism. Now Victor Davis Hanson runs with the ball.
Nor should it. I am a great admirer of Germany, as it happens. The trick is to develop a natural, confident nationalism in place of the disintegrating nullity that is European citizenship. Past internationalist efforts to nullify the German character have tended to foster the worst of that which they would supress. In Germany, as anywhere, we must consider the return of the repressed.
It isn't that work or the status quo. It is that work or Götterdämmerung in an Islamic Germany or a new, nuclear armed Nazism.
For a less alarmist take, consider Whiskey's prophecy of a Greater Switzerland.
To think we can change the Earth
An email making the rounds (hat tip to the Father of the Flea).
The current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland, since it first started spewing volcanic ash, has, to this point, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet. Not only that, this single act of God has added emissions to the earth estimated to be 42 times more than can be corrected by the extreme human regulations proposed for annual reductions.
It's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up til midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your Landcruiser and speedboat, going on vacation to a city park instead of overseas, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your $1 light bulbs with $10 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just the past week. The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in the past weeks has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast carbon. And, those thousands of jobs you helped move to Asia with expensive emissions demands on businesses...you know, the ones that are creating even more emissions than when they were creating our jobs, well that must seem really worthwhile now. And I do wish that there was some kind of silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western U.S.A. will start in about 2 months and those fires will negate your efforts to reduce carbon emissions in our world for the next 2 years.
So, grab a beer, give the world a hug, and have nice day!
May 22, 2010
"My opinions are morally valueless" says Dalai Lama
Not in so many words but with greater clarity.
"Still I am a Marxist," the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader said in New York, where he arrived today with an entourage of robed monks and a heavy security detail to give a series of paid public lectures.
"(Marxism has) moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits," the Dalai Lama, 74, said.
The next time Obama puts the Dalai Lama out with the trash will be satisfying. Though now these two frauds are singing from the same sheet I expect he will receive a warmer welcome from the Obama White House in future.
When Tibet finds its Jefferson, I will support the liberation of Tibet.
Static Revenger & Richard Vission ft. Luciana: I Like That
Crank 'er.
May 21, 2010
The commodification of tragedy
Toward the end of an extensive interview with Vice magazine, Bret Easton Ellis offers details about his forthcoming collaboration with Gus Van Sant on The Golden Suicides.
Not my take on the story but then I don't know any more about the truth of the matter than does Ellis; his version is at least sympathetic to Theresa for all it makes her out to be a bit crazy (which, in fairness, at least in one sense was my impression).
Here is the revolting part. Sadly, Hollywood will only love when you are dead and beautiful. Yes, Theresa was beautiful, but there was so much more to her beauty than being "hot".
[Ellis] The Scientologists. And then she began to build this huge narrative as to why she wasn’t successful in the film industry. I’m haunted by it. I don’t know why it resonated with me so much.
You explained it pretty well. It was the relationship that you’d been having, and your experience with The Informers. That could really put you in a place where the Blake-Duncan story would hit you hard.
And they were hot.
They were hot. Yeah.
Literally, this is how it sold with one of the producers, to get financing for it. “Who wants to see a movie about two people who kill themselves?” And then the other producer said, “Well, they were hot.”
Oh, fuck.
And he said, “Really? Well, where’s the pictures of them? Ah. Yeah.”
May 20, 2010
Cyclopean
The London Olympics mascots are revealed.
(Hat tip to Bill, describing them as the "final nail in the coffin of a once-proud British Empire").
2 Thessalonians 2:15
A top Arizona utilities official has warned Los Angeles it risks having its electricity cut off if it wants to boycott Arizona.
Driving in the third person
Rooster Teeth make their lives more like GTA IV.
Embedded video after the bump.
May 19, 2010
The resistance
Saudi woman beats up religious police officer who stopped her for walking with a man. Three cheers, etc. but there is more.
'People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years,' Saudi human rights activist Wajiha Al Huwaidar told the Media Line news agency.
'To see resistance from a woman means a lot... This is just the beginning and there will be more.'
If only Canadians could find it in themselves to confront our own blasphemy police in precisely the same terms.
No sympathy
Spiegel carries images from the Trolley mission, six days of aerial reconnaissance documenting the effectiveness of the Allied bombing campaign in Germany.
Missing from Spiegel: Any sense Germany brought this ruin upon itself.
Facebooks
Death masks of the rich and famous.
May 18, 2010
Exactly
Miss Oklahoma USA supports the rule of law
Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard: "I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America. So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."
May 17, 2010
Thinkable
Former diplomats and generals have been wargaming a confrontation between Israel and Iran. Nothing new in itself except now the Israelis assume Iran will be armed with atomic weapons by 2011.
"Iranian deterrence proved dizzyingly effective," Eitan Ben-Eliahu, a retired air force commander who played the Israeli defence minister, said in his summary of the 20-team meeting
And if you think that's depressing, read on.
How long do you think it would have taken the Roman Empire to nuke Persia if Rome had the bomb and Persia was about to get the bomb?
Rome lasted a thousand years. We won't make the next fifty.
In related news: American Jews don't care about Israel.
Here's a thought: My plan to return to Britain and establish an English tribal area/reservation/bantustan is probably not going to work out short of a Crusade to retake the islands. A more realistic goal is an English homeland in Judea and Samaria (the whole Lost Tribe business, you see). We descendants of Oliver Cromwell would make excellent neighbours for Israel.
Furthermore: I have come to believe Israel might need India but I no longer believe Israel needs the United States. Take Israel's new stealth technology, for example. Since the West has started handing out medals for sparing jihadis, I take it we won't need this sort of military advantage in future. Best not let it fall into the hands of European caliphs in any event.
Not any more.
Meet the Black Fox Active Adaptive IR Stealth System, created by Israeli start-up firm Eltics Ltd., a company that produces electronic warfare systems in Ashkelon. The new technology can make a helicopter, tank or ship, vanish into thin air.
Optimism
Theodore Dalrymple offers a strategy for the resurrection of German nationalism.
Russian navy captures and destroys a pirate mothership
Memo to Somali pirates: Stay away from the Russians.
May 16, 2010
The swerving logic of the English mind
Surplus to requirements and more Monty Python than James Bond - despite the Ian Fleming connection - but World War II strategic headfake Operation Mincemeat still stirs in me a sense of loss and nostalgia where once there was patriotism and a love of my fellow Englishmen.
Too much to excerpt properly. The following is for flavour.
Extinction event
If any other tribe were being hunted to extinction, I would have something to say about it. I can hardly remain silent now for all this particular genocide is popular in Canada's polite company.
Negligent
I gather there are people shocked to learn the Soviet Union planned a nuclear attack on China in 1969. Swayed by the Americans, they didn't attack China.
But this is the actual shocking news.
They could have stopped the spread of atomic weapons and chose not to. So much for civilization. We will get precisely what we deserve; millions dead in a fire lit by chanting Persian maniacs.
Shagged by a rare parrot
In which at least two traditional English virtues are demonstrated.
May 15, 2010
Mikhail Gorbachev
Another murdering fuck celebrated by the left.
Lukyanov reports that the real number of casualties on Tiananmen Square was 3,000.
Gorbachev: We must be realists. They, like us, have to defend themselves. Three thousands . . . So what?
More atrocities we aren't meant to care about at the link.
Guess who's coming to Seder
Kathy Shaidle: Victim.
Freedom of speech for the CJC but not for thee or me.
May 14, 2010
Intelligible death threats, please
A plea from the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! Facebook page administrator.
Hat tip to Gordon.
Our best bulwarks
Pantomime: Near bankruptcy, the Greeks are to provide France and Germany with billions in arms sales from the money they are lending Greece.
In earnest: Japan is to establish a naval base in the Gulf of Aden.
The facility, intended to boost the fight against Somali pirates preying on vital shipping lanes, will be Japan's first foreign military base since World War II.
Condemned
Peter Hitchens explains Britain's new Con-Dem government is to the left of New Labour.
...
But what of my cavilling foes - whose case always seemed to be based on the idea that a Tory victory at all costs was both possible and desirable, without any reference to what sort of government it would bring? Did they either want or predict the Cameron-Clegg civil partnership? Are they pleased at what has taken place, now they have got it? Are they pleased by the enthusiasm that Mr Cameron shows for lashing his party to the Liberal Democrats, quite possibly forever?
Fine young cannibals
New Zealand's Prime Minister makes a joke, offends all the right people and inspires the following reaction from the negotiator representing his opponents.
Good. Nor should he.
Information wants to be free
Epic Boobs Girl's latest attempt to end her meme has been quashed.
May 13, 2010
Kanellos
Kanellos the Greek protest dog makes another appearance.
Chung Kuo
Commander James Kraska, JAGC, U.S. Navy, serves as the Howard S. Levie Chair of Operational Law at the U.S. Naval War College and Senior Fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute claims China is set for naval hegemony.
Sobering: Commander James Kraska's "How the United States Lost the Naval War of 2015" (pdf).
I am still pro-carrier, mind you.
Elsewhere in Middle Kingdom news: China's first man in space has said that Chinese astronauts eat dog meat to keep their strength up as they orbit around the earth.
Among the ruins
No word on the relative weight of dhimmi votes.
Half of young people do not recognise Winston Churchill and he will be forgotten in 80 years.
Following the pattern, researchers projected the rough date when the leaders would no longer be recognised, with Churchill's demise predicted in 80 years' time.
Expect him to be villainized before he is forgotten.
Lady Sovereign: My England
The education system has failed Lady Sovereign. She has no notion the English drink spirits, apparently.
May 12, 2010
Do-It-Yourself Radicalization
Funny, these are my precise feelings toward England.
My propaganda was called "The Lord of the Rings". For my thoughts concerning Orcs fouling the Shire, see The Battle of Bywater.
Women of the world, unite
You have nothing to lose but your veils: The plain speaking Christopher Hitchens.
Do the math
Nearly 27% of Arab men and 65% of ultra-Orthodox Jews don't work, government figures show. The non-employment rate for ultra-Orthodox men has tripled since 1970, Ben-David said.
...
Today Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox together make up less than 30% of the population, but they account for nearly half of school-age children. If trends continue unchecked, Arab and ultra-Orthodox children could make up 78% of Israeli classrooms, recent studies have shown.
Let's face facts
Gabriel Malor: Let's face it; Leftism has always relied on a certain ignorance.
* 51% believe that mandatory licensing of professionals (i.e., reducing the supply of professionals) doesn’t increase the cost of professional services.
* Perhaps most amazing, 79% of self-described Progressive believe that rent control (i.e., price controls) does not lead to housing shortages.
May 11, 2010
Mohammad Cartoonist Lars Vilks assaulted by jihadis
Note all the "nice" people who sit and do nothing as an artist is assaulted by chanting thugs. Note the police ready to issue parking tickets to barbarians.
They used to hang corsairs in the old days.
Not to worry: We are about to remember the hard way.
Via Blazing Cat Fur.
Update: My thoughts to the letter.
, pour encouragement les otres or however that goes.
I don't think it's going to happen in Sweden.
Directly related: Mark Steyn on the Canadianization of America. Americans: Fight it with your words before all you have left are your bullets.
Frank Frazetta, R.I.P.
The most influential fantasy artist of all time, Frank Frazetta has died at the age of 82.
Also: Guillermo del Toro, Neal Adams and John Milius remember Frank Frazetta.
"There is no one who can fill the space left empty by the passing of Frank Frazetta," Adams said Monday. "Few have studied Classic Renaissance oil painting, and applied it so successfully. Few can draw outward from deep within their gut; very few can actually paint and draw man/woman sexual allure; nearly none can tell a story with oil paint that lets you know what is actually in the muscle and sinew of the artist."
And: Check out some of Frazetta's artwork.
Jeremiah 31:35-37
Israel is prepared for war with Iran.
"There is no doubt that the technological capabilities, which improved in recent years, have improved range and aerial refuelling capabilities, and have brought about a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence," he told a conference of military officers and experts.
"This capability can be used for a war on terror in Gaza, for a war in the face of rockets from Lebanon, for war on the conventional Syrian army, and also for war on a peripheral state like Iran," said Yaalon, a former armed forces chief.
I love every connnotation of "peripheral" in that statement.
Selected not elected
Mark Steyn on the British electoral system.
If all the above doesn't sound terribly democratic, well, at least, Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs of Little Stitch-Up-On-Thames can still elect their Member of Parliament and know who they're going to get. As it happens, that's what the LibDems want to change — to some Continental-style "proportional" system. The way things are going, giving every voter a blindfold and a pin would make as much sense.
RTWT for the Sovietization of the Celtic economies.
Life in Weimar
And then: Virgins sell sex on reality show.
She added: "Technically I'm selling my virginity for money, technically that would be classified as prostitution, but it's not going to be a regular thing, so in my head I can justify that I'm not going to be a prostitute."
And then: When her husband and family found out, they got Ms Khatoon, 24, to lure the victim out of his flat, where concentrated sulphuric acid was poured over his head.
One witness said he looked like a 'cross between a zombie from a horror movie and the Incredible Hulk' after the attack last July.
Ms Khatoon and her husband Shakeel Abassi, 32, later disappeared in Pakistan and detectives said they now feared for her safety.
May 10, 2010
A majority of one
By way of complaining about the Porsche 911 GT3, Jeremy Clarkson expresses a number of opinions that used to be blindingly obvious. But cultures change. Or atrophy and die.
May 09, 2010
The Axis of Aquarius
Anticipate another round of tightening security measures as New Age terrorists harness the power of weapons grade homeopathy for evil (via Quotulatiousness).
‘It was only a matter of time before these people got hold of the material that they needed to make these bombs,’ said former UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, ‘The world is a much more dangerous place with the advent of these Weapons of Mass Dilution.’
The year of the vampire
With "Cullen" leaping 300 spots in the charts, Stephanie Meyer has changed the fashion for baby names.
These are baby names for white people, you understand, and so of diminishing statistical consequence. Flea-favs Sheniqua and, of course, Mohammed will most likely remain unaffected no matter the popularity of the Twilight franchise.
He never let friendship take precedence over his first love
In which Kathy explains something about writers by way of Christopher Hitchens and Martin Amis.
The Tatler ticket
A "conservative" attempt to rebrand its image, remake British politics and, above all, thwart the will of the people has failed. For the moment, at least. If the Liberal Democratics get any part of their wishes in a coalition government we should expect much more coercion along the same lines.
Drawn from diverse social backgrounds, they were younger and more likely to be female as David Cameron vowed to end the domination of ‘male, white, professional, grey-suited and straight’ MPs.
But an analysis of Thursday’s results suggests that some of Tory HQ’s favourite candidates struggled to overcome local resistance to the ‘rebranding’.
Time to elect a new people.
May 08, 2010
We the people
What Theodore Dalrymple says of Greece is true for the West and an inherent problem with representative government wherever the universal franchise is unaccompanied by widespread virtues such as honesty, self-control, providence, prudence, and self-respect.
Of course, to the Frankfurt School minded this is not a bug but a feature. Destroy the education system and criminalize morality and in a generation or two it is the rule of the mob (and they plan to rule the mob).
God how I miss her: Karl paraphrases Margaret Thatcher, “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Would England yet had a conservative party worth the name.
Related: Margaret Thatcher on socialism (never gets old).
Voices on the margin
With three per cent of the vote, the UK Independence Party may have cost the "Conservatives" as many as 15 seats.
Though I doubt it. Had I bothered to vote, it would have been for the UKIP or nothing.
He added: 'We are not responsible for the behaviour of the Conservative Party who rejected the offer of a deal. The voice of our supporters is important and massive and the only way to teach the Conservatives that is to hurt them.'
Also: Entries for the 2010 Steampunk Cake Contest are now in. Let the people decide.
Under the radar
Two blocks from the scene of the WTC massacre and smashed by falling debris, the Burlington Coat Factory is to be replaced by Cordoba House, a $100 million 13-storey mosque.
Note to New York city planners: Cordoba was liberated from its Muslim occupiers in the 29 June, 1236.
"I realize it's not all of them, but I don't want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11 and look at a mosque," said retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches - whose son Jim, a firefighter, was killed on 9/11.
"If you ask me, it's a religion of hate," said Riches, who did not attend last night's meeting.
Rosemary Cain of Massapequa, L.I., whose son, Firefighter George Cain, 35, was killed in the 2001 attacks, called the project a "slap in the face."
"I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground," said Cain, who also did not attend the meeting. "How could anybody give them permission to build a mosque there? It tarnishes the area."
Developing
As part of a brief but wide ranging question and answer session with the Financial Post, Niall Ferguson makes an important observation about Africa. And, not incidentally, about socialism vs capitalism.
Chinese capitalism is working better for Africa than decades of Western socialism.
A In the eyes of the Chinese, it is a place with a lot of commodities and very poor infrastructure, and the Chinese have figured out they can access the commodities if they provide the infrastructure. So, they have a pretty instrumental view of Africa. Given the West has a sentimental view of Africa, which is they want to [help with] water, give it aid, help Africans by giving them free malaria meds. And China, of course, thinks that’s absurd. They want to come in and buy stuff, give them highways in return. And right now that model is working better.
Q Working better for China or Africa?
A Working better for Africa. Just look at the growth rate. Africa is enjoying … rapid growth, and it is mostly on the back of sales of commodities and the improvement of infrastructure. By comparison, we’ve had 50 years of development aid and achieved less.
May 07, 2010
Helen Reddy: I Am Woman
The Flea: In solidarity with womanitude since 2002.
A heritage of pyromania
There is much else to consider in Politics?' "A New Hellenic Philosophy: Rise Up!" but one passage concerning Greek public service unions struck me in particular. Yet more evidence we must first dismantle our state bureaucracies if we are too recover our civilization and see to the watchtowers.
Call it a Crusade if you will.
Thugs associated with unions and deeply dysfunctional ideological movements clashing with first-responders so that firefighters are unable to rescue people trapped in burning buildings represents a civil atrocity of atrocious incivility. All are implicated; teachers, hospital workers, trash collectors, pensioners, construction workers and any number of other public employees.
Let the mandarins riot. Then let them starve. They have lost the mandate of heaven (via Blazing Cat Fur with more random furballs).
There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory
The Daily Mail reports the SAS launched a mission to rescue two of its men held hostage in Iraq against the orders of the Ministry of Defence.
There are men yet in England.
The astonishing edict drove SAS officers close to mass resignation, according to a hardhitting report by the Tory MP Adam Holloway, a former Guards officer.
The SAS Lieutenant-Colonel on the ground, believing that ‘politically motivated’ commanders in the UK were ‘unable to make rational and effective decisions’, sent in a rescue team anyway – fearful that within hours the captured men could have been spirited away or executed.
The rescuers blasted their way into the police station in Basra where the two soldiers were being held and saved them.
For which he should receive a medal Her Majesty's government is unfit to award him.
If you want peace
Oil has been discovered in the Falklands.
Shame about dismantling the Royal Navy. It might have come in handy.
Rockhopper Exploration today announced that it has made an oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin - the first oil find of an exploration programme in the Falkland Islands that has already pushed relations between London and Buenos Aires to breaking point.
Good musicians borrow
Great musicians are thieving bastards.
But sometimes, it's even more blatant than that. In fact, some of the most successful musical acts in history based huge chunks of their careers entirely on plagiarism. Like...
Disappointment in humanity at the link. The musician part of humanity at least.
Christina Aguilera: Not Myself Tonight (Official Unedited)
Hat tip to Jeff.
May 06, 2010
Just disgraceful
The budget deficit of the United Kingdom is set to overtake Greece as the worst in the European Union.
Because I forgot to celebrate Cinco de Cuatro
I am looking forward to Machete due to the awesome. But I am also looking forward to the day when I see a film that demonizes and revels in the murder of our political opponents instead of the usual hate propaganda and pornography of murder directed against white Christian men. For the moment, I know my place at the back of the bus.
From the comments:
Related: California high school students are lucky they were only sent home for wearing the American flag on Cinco de Mayo; in the UK or Canada they would have been charged with an hate crime.
"They said we were starting a fight, we were fuel to the fire," said sophomore Matt Dariano.
May 05, 2010
The apotheosis of posthumanism
Japanese engineers say they would prefer to send a humanoid robot to the Moon rather than, say, a Japanese person.
It's the future of Japan, really.
Attractive robots can be fascinating and stimulating it's true. For making babies, not so much.
Another humiliation
Under Italian criminal legislation, introduced during the 1970s to fight political terrorism, it is illegal to be seen in a public place with your face covered.
By contrast, keeping your wife indoors because your demon has convinced you your penis is too small is still completely legal in Italy.
Yesterday her husband said as a result he had no option but to stop her from going out. Unemployed Ben Salah Braim, 36, said: 'I just don't know where we are going to get 500 euros to pay the fine.
'We thought as she was going to the mosque she was OK to wear the burka. We knew about the law and I know that (the law) is not against my religion but now Amel will have to stay indoors. Posted by the Flea at 10:19 AM
The War on Freedom
Daniel Greenfield argues the only people who want the freedom to keep what they earn, write what they think, choose their own health care, elect their own leaders, read what they like and live lives apart from the great machinery of the state—are the White Male Oppressors.
What he says rhetorically I am quite happy to say literally. The rot set in with the Reform Act of 1832 with all too predictable.
Medical ethics in Ontario
Under Canada's provincial variety pack of state mandated medical insurance, you will not be shocked to learn it is often difficult to find a family doctor who can admit a new patient to the roll of their medical practice. In the United States it has been supply and demand, in Canada it has been and remains rationing and waiting lists.
With this in mind (and with apologies for my continued use of the passive voice), does anyone happen to know if it is legal - let alone ethical - for an Ontario GP to tell their patient that if he or she seeks a second opinion then he or she will be struck off the patient list at their practice?
If so, please feel free to comment or email. This is not an academic question.
May 04, 2010
The further pursuit of sanctions is tantamount to doing nothing
John Bolton says we should get ready for a nuclear Iran with "Saudi" Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and others likely to follow.
Unless Israel stops them. An act which would, perhaps ironically, save the lives of countless Arabs chanting for the death of the Jews.
May 03, 2010
Cordell Barker: The Cat Came Back (1988)
An inspirational for my brothers and sisters in the Canadian revolution.
May 02, 2010
Little Britain
Given Pakistan was a made up country less than twenty years old at the time "Pakistani" immigration started. the British people need to understant it is Mirpuris who have enriched British lives in ways illegal too numerous to recount.
Notes on Mirpur suggest a robust policy of Sikh immigration might be the specific.
Glee: Sweet Caroline
There is no good reason I should be the only one with this song stuck in my head.
May 01, 2010
M.I.A.: Born Free
Die, ginger! Die!
M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.
(Banned from YouTube, apparently.)
Why am I anxious about being English in England?
Maybe it's because I feel my culture no longer exists.
Capturing Somali Pirates: The First Person Shooter View
My favourite part is the way the gun tracks the shooter's head movements, a bit disconcerting considering my current Fallout 3 skewed worldview. Also, the hilariously simulated looking view of stair climbing.
I wonder if this is what reality looks like.
Tim Gunn on superhero fashion
"There is a problem by definition with fishnets."
"I would find especially in her nighttime prowling activities that to have this much volume of fabric behind you - I can understand the cape - it think it could be dangerous. It could get caught on an antenna."