SurlyPundit

2003-04-07T11:53:00.000-04:00

New Address! Go here!

2003-03-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

This was bound to happen: Yoko Ono says John would be against the war if he were still alive.

He might well have, although he would be 62 now--for a man as prone to sudden and radical changes of mind and heart, twenty-three years is an eternity. This is someone who couldn't decide "if you're talking about destruction" to "count me out" or "in." At 40, when he died, he was already living more for himself and less for the political cause of the day.

"Ono, who lives in New York, said although the September 11 terrorist attacks were sad, they did not warrant retaliation." Three thousand violent murders aren't sad enough to warrant retaliation? What is? Does this mean we should let Mark David Chapman go free? John loved New York City, by the way ("Que Pasa New York"), and even said he regretted "passionately" not having been born in America. It's quite possible--given his refusal to forgive even his Aunt Mimi and best friend Paul McCartney--that he wouldn't be willing to overlook such an immense act of violence against a city and people that he loved.

John was an unpredictable guy, and he was never as naive or fanatical as Yoko--or to put it more charitably (to her), he was more easily disillusioned. Listen to Plastic Ono Band or read Lennon Remembers. 9/11 might well have shaken him enough to realise that war is sometimes the only answer available.

Or not. I think it really is impossible to say, and Yoko shouldn't imply otherwise for the benefit of her own agenda. Her remarks about John would only hold true if he had been cryogenically frozen in the early seventies.

2003-03-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

Oh, Onion. If only you were around in 1943 to sneer at FDR for not going into battle himself...

2003-03-25T09:33:00.000-05:00

Tayseer fled Gaza to Tulkarem on the West Bank, but there too he was eventually arrested. He was forced to stand in sewage water up to his neck, his head covered by a sack filled with feces, and then he was thrown into a dark cell infested with insects and other creatures he could feel but not see. ("You slap one part of your body, and then you have to slap another," he recounts.) During one interrogation, police stripped him and forced him to sit on a Coke bottle. Through the entire ordeal he was taunted by interrogators, jailers, and fellow prisoners for being a homosexual.

Who was doing this to him? The Palestinian Authority.

2003-03-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

Saturday's Globe cartoon:

And yes, it's already received a complaint.

2003-03-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

Letter from the principal of my university...I'm not sure this could be more vague if it tried.

Dear Members of the Queen's Community:

Current events in the Middle East reinforce the importance of the values of respect, freedom of expression and support for community that we share at Queen's. Some students, faculty and staff on our campus will be affected directly or indirectly by unfolding events in the coming weeks and months. I ask that departments and other units be aware that these individuals and others may need our support. As a
community, we need to help those who need assistance, include those who are feeling anxious or isolated, and value the rights and feelings of others.
Important help numbers for students, staff and faculty are listed below. If any difficulties or questions arise, please be sure to seek assistance and advice.
[lists of various school resources]
...
I thank you for your cooperation.

Dr. William C. Leggett

Principal and Vice-Chancellor

Queen's University at Kingston

To what are you referring, Principal Leggett? Am I really out of the loop? Should I start reading the Journal?

2003-03-23T13:27:00.000-05:00

Iraq Relief Efforts: reputable charitable organisations.

American Red Cross - Iraq Response
American Jewish World Service (helps victims of all religions)
ShareLife (associated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto)
Salvation Army (known for helping U.S. troops and their families)

2003-03-21T20:17:00.000-05:00

New Victor Davis Hanson article--takin' out the trash.

2003-03-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

Mean Mr. Mustard reports from the frontlines of Berkeley:

These demonstrations are simply an example of a small minority angrily foisting its will on the majority, out of unquestioned fervor and absolute spite. In short, it's one big ideological circle jerk, where lots of people completely convinced of their own complete moral superiority exult in the chance to demonstrate their radical credentials to the world and feel nice and warm and important while doing it.

Have fun with your self esteem-boosting performance art, you pricks. I'll be hoping you don't get run over by an understandably ticked off motorist.

But not hoping too much.

2003-03-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

Frank understands: don't mess with Rummy. Or Texas. And definitely don't mess with Rummy if he's in Texas.

2003-03-21T17:56:00.000-05:00

U.S. Marines Rip Down Saddam Portraits - and the Iraqis are glad to see the allies.

Link via Rachel Lucas.

2003-03-21T09:47:00.001-05:00

Last link via LGF, by the way.

2003-03-21T09:47:00.000-05:00

More embarrassments to the antiwar cause: San Francisco protesters stage a 'vomit in'. Now what the fucking fuck is this? I don't even want to know how they were making themselves vomit, especially if it was like the scenario in Stand By Me.

2003-03-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

Dude, fuck you and your war! Let's see how big you are when I draw on the money!

2003-03-18T14:49:00.000-05:00

Iraq Rebuffs Bush Ultimatum as War Preparations Accelerate - words cannot express my astonishment.

2003-03-17T22:44:00.000-05:00

DB's Medical Rants links to this story, which suggests the "mystery outbreak" may be a strain of the flu.

2003-03-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

Daily Yomiuri On-Line says "Wash your hands, or your kids will die."

2003-03-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

This is the best piece of radio ever created.

2003-03-10T01:35:00.000-05:00

N. Korea Test-Fires Missile Into Sea of Japan (washingtonpost.com) - God have mercy on oyour souls whoever is reeading this for news. I 'm totally drunk and indulging in Western pleasuere reight noght.

Beatles music + alcohol = damn fine, people

2003-03-10T01:09:00.000-05:00

Don't you know it's gonna be all rightt?

Christ I'm spp drunk... take that Iszlamists! I love it!!\

Well you knoqw we'd all love to change your head,,,

Youi'd better feree your mind instead

2003-03-07T17:37:00.000-05:00

Which Euroweenie are you?

Brought to you by
No Replacement For Displacement

2003-03-05T02:02:00.000-05:00

Ahh, Mark Steyn. Eases the pain.

If Mr. Chrétien wanted to articulate the views of the overwhelming majority of his party and a slightly smaller majority of the Canadian people, he'd take the Franco-Belgo-German line: no justification for war, inspections are working, we need to give them more time to work even better, at least a year, maybe three, etc, etc. Instead, since last spring, we've had a tortured straddle, in which the government has gone to such lengths to avoid having to take a position that it's now moved the entire Armed Forces out of town. The army's going to be spending the Iraqi war in Afghanistan so that, in the event that George and Tony knock on the door and ask if the Princess Pats can come out to play, Jean can say sorry, they've gone to their aunt in the country for the summer. Would he have turned the Yanks down flat? Or would he have cut our boys in? The beauty of this solution is that we'll never know! It's an ingenious solution -- if you think the job of the government is to punt the great issues of the day.

And the reason for the punt is just abject submissivity to the Americans. Not principle, not a real desire to help but misgivings about the cause itself, nothing.

Now, on the subject of Carolyn Parrish's uneloquent "I hate those bastards" remark, I started a post but it swelled to Whittle-like length, so I'm going to rewrite and expand--you'll see it tomorrow or the next day. I'll explain to all you Americans why we make remarks like Parrish's. It'll be fun! See you then.

2003-03-04T01:03:00.000-05:00

Bat Yeor reviews Mordechai Nisan's Minorities in the Middle East. Too good to quote piecemeal, but I will say that it throws a good curveball at multiculturalism by pointing out the distinct minority cultures (Kurds, Alawites, Copts, Jews, Berbers, Druze, Christians, etc.) which are muffled, threatened, or in danger of extinction by Arabist Muslims. Imperialism ahoy!

2003-03-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

Couple weeks old, but still crispy: Israeli novelist Amos Oz (The Same Sea and Fima, to name two of his books that I read and loved) has a thoughtful anti-war article. Don't say I never linked to one. He thinks that removing Saddam won't do the job, and might make things worse--I disagree, but I definitely see his point. And I do agree when he says the "cure for radical Islam is moderate Islam", which has been the lesson in the West with Christianity. I would emphasise moderate, individual Islam, for the reasons Steven Den Beste outlines here.

And a big ipse dixit to Howard Fienberg for finding the Oz link first.

2003-03-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

Norma Khouri's book Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan is reviewed in today's Globe & Mail, by Mary-Lou Zeitoun. Now, I'm not going to say Zeitoun is preaching moral equivalence here, but...oh hell, yes I will. Let's look at a quote:

"According to Khouri, honour killing has its roots in the Code of Hammurabi and Assyrian laws of 1200 BC, which declare a women's chastity to be her family's property. This was an ancient way of controlling female reproduction to ensure patriarchal lineage. It is exacerbated by the Islamic precept that women are not capable of controlling their sexual urges.

Baffling concepts to the Western mind, but before we get into the fruitless "You're evil," "No, you're evil" debate going on between fundamentalist Americans and Arabs, it may help to remember that Western culture is not unaccustomed to these ideas. Patriarchal lineage in Canada is still ensured by the female traditionally taking the last name of the man she marries or by giving his name to her children.

Jesus, I've heard enough! This business of allowing women to symbolically rename themselves if they so choose has got to stop before we start telling Arabs what to do. What the fuck is wrong with this person? The other examples she gives are also verbal: we call women we don't like "sluts" and "whores"; Eminem makes money by pretending to have murdered his wife. Zeitoun sermonises, "While we may be thankful that legally sanctioned murder of women does not exist here, we all need to take responsibility for the fact that this global pathology of distaste toward women creates the environment that enables honour killing to exist." So...because English contains some sexualised derogatory terms for women, Arab men are forced to kill their daughters. Or, to be more charitable to Zeitoun, because the hatred of women is embedded in our society (albeit in some fairly toothless forms), men have to kill their daughters.

This may be true--I don't know what kind of shit flows around in the Collective Unconscious and maybe the men who would kill their loved ones for honour aren't in a position to resist the primordial urge. So the fuck what?

Here's what pisses me off: there was no need for a paragraph like this to be in a review of a book against honour killing. The equation is pretty simple: Vigilante murder for perceived crimes against purity = bad. And yet Zeitoun couldn't write this review without taking a swipe at Western culture, which is of course just as bad (or worse!) than any culture we might be tempted to judge. Calling your nasty boss a whore differs from stabbing her forty times in the face--but only in degree, not in kind.

Now, to see the same book discussed by an anti-idiotarian, read Margaret Wente's editorial.

2003-02-26T16:31:00.000-05:00

Latest Headline: Saddam vows to die in Iraq. Can do, buddy. Glad you've moved on to the "acceptance" stage of what Elizabeth Kubler-Ross calls "Dealing with a Terminal Dictatorship".

2003-02-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

Dixie Flatline has a great piece on the Palestinians--Mean Mr. Mustard pointed it out, and I feel the need to supply you with an unnecessary "Me too!"

I looked at this alien culture, a nation of people outside comprehension, and I was disgusted. These are the victims? These people dancing in the streets, songs and candy, as 3,000 of my people died? A bond-trader’s secretary, jumping to her death, holding hands with a man she’s never met, desperate for some common humanity moments before her death. And they sing and chant and watch television, joy and celebration at the plumes of smoke over New York skyline.

How could I feel anything but anger, revulsion, a desire to see the lot of them under the gun? Frustration then, at Israeli restraint. Hammer them, Arik, hammer them from the air and on the ground and with everything you have. Hammer them until the death cult is exterminated, until Jenin and Nablus and Ramallah are rubble, until the cancer is exterminated in the ruins of its host. Hammer them until the pain is so much that they submit, true surrender, and then peace can be discussed. The peace of the victor, imposed upon the vanquished.

But then, when passion has cooled: is this right? Can I look upon the Palestinians without consideration, without context, without even a rudimentary attempt at understanding? And I decide, no, it is not. I cannot judge them like this, with a violent, angry heart.

Worth reading, all of it.

2003-02-26T14:10:00.000-05:00

Bernard Loiseau, familiar to anyone who's read James Lileks's The Gallery of Regrettable Food as the chef who put marshmallow cream on toast, has apparently committed suicide over a bad review. You'd think since he was once forced to use marshmallows in a recipe for the Campfire corporation he'd be innured to that kind of thing, but maybe that just made him more sensitive. I recognised his picture immediately in the paper--he hasn't changed a bit.

The book is worth buying just for that "chefs and marshmallows" bit, by the way, even if you've read the site completely.

2003-02-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

A commenter on Kuro5hin proves that it's not only nutball Islamists who are anti-Semitic, irrational crazybots:

You sure the hell ain't getting much "truth" and "word of God" on TV or in church; thank the so-called Jews if you want, since they are the ones dictating our intellectual diets. Only in America would RAp and Sex be glorfied. Our founding Fathers would roll over in their grave at the effect that foreign influence has gained in our political system, how easily elected politicians have turned it's "Christian Nation" roots to the "gospel of cash", and successfully pitched it to the majority lost souls wondering America, the Gospel of Money.

Uhh...yeah! Darn Jews!

2003-02-23T00:37:00.000-05:00

This is another good one from the Independent, a piece by Jack Straw calmly explaining the difference between protesting Vietnam and protesting Iraq. He gets it. Whatever else you might say about him, he gets it.

2003-02-23T00:34:00.000-05:00

From the Independent:

An increasingly cornered Iraq complained yesterday it might be signing its own death warrant if it obeyed a United Nations order to destroy dozens of missiles at the moment the US is poised to lead an invasion.

"They want us to destroy them at a time when we are threatened daily," said Owayed Ahmed Ali, the director of the Ibn al-Haithem plant, which produces the al-Samoud missiles, after another visit by UN weapons inspectors.

No! The...catch-22s...they're suffocating me!

2003-02-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

the friday five

1. What is your most prized material possession?
I have several odd little things which I'm proud of--one is a sistrum, another is a little blue glass salt-cellar with silver ornamentation on it, and another is a white china toilet from a dollhouse. They're quite useless, but I bring them everywhere when I move and never lose them (quite a feat for me). In terms of what item I can't live without and value most, I'm typing on it.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?
My dresser, which my grandfather built and hand-carved out of ashwood. Since my grandfather died before I was born, I don't really know how old it is, but it's definitely older than me. He also built our kitchen chairs and a few other things we still have.

3. Are you a packrat?
I am, but not as much as my parents. I buy useless things, and keep them too long, but I am capable of throwing things out. We have about a hundred boxes full of old model-airplane magazines of my dad's, dating back to the fifties. He has photographic chemicals in the basement that are older than me. My mother still finds my baby blocks in the drawers.

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
It's kind of a moot point for me, since I'm not even capable of keeping a house spic-and-span. I like things to be neat, but...I can't do it. The bathroom and the kitchen should be absolutely clean, though, or else things get nasty and out of control.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?
Ha! It's student housing! Are you crazy? Even at home, the only conceivable theme in the furnishings would be "eccentric Ontario old money fallen on hard times due to frivolous hobby spending".

2003-02-21T13:30:00.000-05:00

I just find this so cute: the CBC calls its coverage of the impending war Ultimatum Iraq. Doesn't have the ring of "showdown" or "countdown", does it?

2003-02-21T01:47:00.000-05:00

I also recently got an email from a very dear friend of mine at U of Southern Ontario City Which I Will Not Name. She's hanging with the Trotskyites and Lenin-Luvrs and Marx-Mackers now, and went to the antiwar protests on the weekend.

Anyhow, apparently the Canadian police are keeping a clandestine eye on the antiwar protestors. My girl says the cops started a conversation with them at a restaurant on the way home, asking where they'd been and who'd been there. Not interrogating, I understand, but asking all the same.

I know that she has problems distinguishing flirting from threatening behaviour, so I'm inclined to chalk it up to bored cops wanting to chat up some university chicks. Still, interesting tidbit.

And she wants Michael Moore to win an Oscar. Dear God, but this can certainly try a friendship!

2003-02-21T01:36:00.000-05:00

U.S. Bolsters Philippine Force, WaPo tells us, to root out militant Muslim group Abu Sayyaf.

Sounds like a pious idea, but can the U.S. spare 3,000 troops right now? I'm sincerely asking--my Canadian upbringing has warped my sense of military scale.

2003-02-21T01:34:00.000-05:00

I had a dream the other night that Saddam Hussein was following me and some friends. He was pretty short, and wearing khakis, but still I felt the need to say, "Excuse me, sir, please stop following us." And I think we lost him when we turned a corner.

This has no significance at all, but I do occasionally have dreams about world leaders. Saddam has also appeared as a guest speaker at a peace protest in one dream, proving that conservativism has penetrated even to my unconscious.

2003-02-20T16:02:00.000-05:00

Den Besteweighs in on "freedom fries" (which I find harmlessly amusing), and adds:

I'm afraid my generation is largely responsible for foisting this on America. The ultimate manifestation of this idiocy is "Imagine world peace", the idea that if enough people just think hard enough about something then it will magically appear without anyone actually having to do anything serious about it (like, say, fighting any wars along the way). Maybe so, but only if the tooth fairy can find time in her busy schedule to deliver it.

I thought I'd take this opportunity, as I so often do, to talk about John Lennon. "Imagine" is not my favourite solo song of his--that would have to be "Mother", "I Found Out", or the Lennon Anthology version of "Goodnight Vienna". Imagine (the song and the album) was not one of John's favourites, either: he liked that it sold and that people liked it, but thought it was a sugared-over version of "God" (on the raw, passionate album Plastic Ono Band).

However, "Imagine" has become the song everyone thinks of when they think "solo John Lennon", and the ideals in it are what they think of when they think of him personally. I've said this before on Marybones, but that's not the case. He wrote "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine", sure--he also wrote bitter, angry songs like "I Found Out" and "Working Class Hero". He wrote "Steel and Glass", and "How Do You Sleep". He was not just a hand-puppet for peace, and most of all, he was never really a campaigner for literal, political peace. John never suggested serious alternatives to war, and was certainly not a non-violent person himself (although he went through some phases like that). Peace activism was performance art for him, a game or a costume. Yoko felt more strongly about peace, and she has been partially responsible for downplaying John's harder side since his death.

The fact that John's major contribution to peace was "Imagine" (or "Give Peace a Chance") is significant--he was always talking about ideas and concepts, ways of thinking rather than ways of acting. The litany of -isms in "Give Peace a Chance" strongly resembles the lyrics of "God"--I don't believe in this, I don't believe in that, I just believe in me. Both songs are negative: no heaven, no hell, no countries; everybody's talking about ..., all we are saying is ... . The peace that John was advocating was not appeasement of a dictator or diplomatic solutions to political problems; it was a paring away of ideologies and -isms until you're left with only yourself, your own desires, your own compassion for others and your own contempt for the selfish and cruel. It's internal, and imagining can make a difference in that kind of struggle.

John was disgusted with people who couldn't think for themselves, not least because of his own natural tendency to trust authority figures (Maharishi, Janov, Yoko) who then betrayed him in one way or another. Sometimes he acted as a mouthpiece for others (Attica State, Luck of the Irish), but inevitably he got tired of being erased by ideology and denounced it all. My point (and I do have one) is twofold:
1. Lennon was much more complex than the anti-war protestors who use his name, and his work deserves more consideration than it's getting, by hawks and doves alike.
2. Beliefs eventually swallow the believer. This does psychological damage which is hard to undo. It happened to John a number of times, so take his advice: think about the other side's ideas, imagine what it would be like if everything you count on were to disappear. If you're antiwar, play hawk for a day, and vice versa. And then, think about who you are underneath all those beliefs, and try to see the world without them.

2003-02-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

Chirac lashes out at 'new Europe' - Oh, man, I loved this story, if only for the last line.

Branding joint letters signed by Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic with EU members Britain, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Portugal, and by the so-called Vilnius 10 group of EU and NATO candidates "infantile" and "dangerous," Chirac said: "They missed a great opportunity to shut up."

That's my new favourite smackdown, right there. Way to be a diplomat there, Jacques.

2003-02-17T16:24:00.000-05:00

Matthew Spalding on Presidents on National Review Online - Sometimes I think conservatives are just as bad about PC as liberals. They get far, far too angry over issues of wording and insist that it's symptomatic of some larger breakdown in society. Matthew Spalding doesn't like it being called "Presidents' Day", because Washington deserves his own holiday or he doesn't want to honour liberal presidents or something. I kind of zoned out while reading the article, just like I do when someone up here says that "O Canada"'s wording should be changed to "we stand in readiness to non-violently defend thee" to avoid glorifying war.

Yeah, Washington should have his own holiday. Lincoln should have his own holiday. And I bet Matthew Spalding would still sleep in if Clinton got his own holiday. Why do we only get Queen Victoria's birthday? Why not the reigning queen? Why not Elizabeth I? Or Henry V? Why don't we just stay home all the time, pondering the greatness of our ancestors?

It's not an issue, so I wouldn't bother mentioning it, except for this paragraph: "Two members of Congress, Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md.), and Tom Tancredo (R.,Colo.), have had enough of this convenience. They’ve introduced legislation that would direct all federal agencies to refer to the holiday as "George Washington’s Birthday" and return Washington to his rightful place above all other presidents."

And Republicans call Democrats wasteful? How is this going to do any concrete good? Why don't you allocate some tax dollars to history books for public schools, or better yet, trash the beaurocratic shit that tells teachers how much classtime to spend on Washington and how much to spend on underappreciated female legislators?**

** Note, I don't have a problem with female legislators, or with teaching about the achievements of minorities. However, when you're in school, you learn the major and influential first, then learn details and nuances and undervalued sources. This is common sense, and removing politicised curricula would ensure that more of it goes on in schools. I don't know how big a problem it is in the States, but it's a huge time-waster here in Canada. Save yourselves, Yankees, before it's too late!

2003-02-16T18:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a tarot fiend and deck collector, so this caught my eye: LEGO Tarot.

2003-02-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

By Jove, it's a fresh Bill Whittle. Clear your schedule.

2003-02-15T19:39:00.000-05:00

Reading week here in K-town, so things are pretty dead. Even the stores close up early when the students clear out. I'm staying in town, because I gots to have my high speed, and because (while I love them) my parents grate on me after a few days. I'm all spoiled by living on my own.

As John said, "I've got nothing to say, but it's okay." Good morning, good morning...

2003-02-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

So apparently we're going to Afghanistan, and not Iraq. I'm somewhat disgusted, although it is a nice duck-and-sidestep from Chrétien. It would have been better if he'd done it sooner--he wouldn't be so obviously trying to kiss up to Europe while not pissing off America.

I'd be for this mission completely, but it's a bad diplomatic move. I'm not going to get any "stick it to the man" points for saying this, but Canada ought to be loyal to Great Britain and America--Elizabeth is our Queen and America is our greatest ally. Besides that, Saddam is a bigger threat than a pack of cranky warlords in Afghanistan. Even if he weren't, it would make a big difference for us to say, "Hey, George, good luck with that whole Iraq thing. We're behind you all the way, no matter what those corrupt appeasers at the U.N. say, but our troops are going to stay put in Afghanistan."

Jean, I love you, man, but it's getting late and we've got to work tomorrow. When's that election, again?

2003-02-12T17:37:00.000-05:00

Mean Mr. Mustard has an exclusive look at how Europeans look at America.

2003-02-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

I was thinking long and hard about attending a presentation entitled "WHY YOU SHOULD BE A SOCIALIST", put on by the Queen's Socialist Society and advertised by posters featuring pictures of Karl Marx. I thought it might be good for a sarcastic article, but then I decided that I would rather spend that hour of my life washing my socks and half-assedly doing some readings on Russell's representationalism, and I never looked back.

2003-02-10T14:57:00.000-05:00

Well, today I got a sneeringly perfunctory letter from the Honourable Peter Milliken, thanking me for writing in support of a war in Iraq and letting me know that it won't change a damn thing. The PM "has not lent his support to unilateral American military action in Iraq", so despite my having voted for him, that's that.

And he sent some stupid photocopies from the Foreign Affairs website. Not that any of the other parties would treat me better, but the Liberals have had my last ticked ballot. Give me a Trudeau who understands that force is the only thing that works against terror, and I'll vote for you again.

Or at least someone with Trudeau's fashion sense and Bondian hauteur.

2003-02-08T23:03:00.000-05:00

'We've all been Bash-eared' - I can't help but wonder if this Martin Bashir is an ancestor of Julian's...

Honestly, I'm not sure I get why people suddenly feel semi-sorry for Michael Jackson--obviously it can't be pleasant to be such a big freak, and all that "money don't buy you happiness my son" business, but I have no sympathy for someone who names his kids Prince, Paris, and Prince II, and calls himself a good father. Forget the allegations of whatever horrible things he's accused of (I can't keep track of them all), the names alone indicate that something's wrong upstairs. They're not dogs, Michael. Don't (1) name them stupid things, and (2) name the third child after the first one. That's just confusing. [Yes, Vincent Van Gogh's mother did this, but only after the first Vincent died.]

As for everything else, Michael Jackson ought to have realised by now that (whether or not he agrees) the general public thinks he's a crazy moonbat pedophile. He gave the interview, knowing that, and knowing that journalists are really not people you should trust. It's not in a writer's nature to keep secrets, or to phrase things diplomatically when there's a sensational story to be told.

I mean, come on, Michael! They call you Wacko Jacko! When you have this kind of reputation, you want to be really, really, really, really careful about putting any of these words or phrases together:
-boys
-bed
-Peter Pan
-"I love children"

I know you're not exactly Mr. Emotional Maturity here, but have some common sense. And now you're mad because the interview made you look like a depressingly psycho nutcase, which you are, and which you should have expected. Grow up, or at least pretend to.

2003-02-07T18:07:00.000-05:00

Jeebus, he's like a battered woman defending her drunken husband: Blix says Iraq appears to be 'making an effort'.

2003-02-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

Stephen Green rips into the cultural conservatives:

Americans are, in aggregate and per capita, the hardest-working, most efficient people on earth. And what makes us so? With all due reverence to Virginia Postrel, it is our dynamism. An inextricable part of a dynamic culture is one that endlessly recreates, reforms, and re-molds how we amuse ourselves. When you re-invent business, as Bill Gates and Michael Dell have done, and as almost no European or Japanese company has managed to do, entertainment is sure to follow – or perhaps even help lead the way. Porn helped bring us the cheap and fast internet, after all.
[...]
Is most of our culture crap? You bet it is. But 90% of everything is crap; at least our crap has a fresh stink, instead of the stink of ages.

2003-02-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

Russell Wardlow at Mean Mr. Mustard isn't having it:

Even if you brush off the dozens of items of solid evidence detailing Saddam's links to Al Qeada, even if you decide to live in a magical fantasy land where fairies and elves lurk behind every corner and the notion that Saddam isn't any longer trying to build a nuclear weapon to accompany his vast stores of chemical and bio devices is credible, even if you're sufficiently stupid to hold the crank idea that Saddam is not a dangerously increasing threat to the United States or the rest of the world, you still cannot deny that he has systematically, with every resource at his disposal, violated every one of the requirements laid down by the United Nations, requirements that were wedded to a specific and mandatory schedule of military action that would be taken against him should he not enthusiastically follow through with the UN's demands.

2003-02-07T02:03:00.000-05:00

Nice war argument at Captain Scott's Electric Love Bunker, as Scott gives one LaToya Baldwin a remarkably civil fisking:

It's sad to see the old, rotten chestnut of war begetting more war. Thankfully, Miss Baldwin can sit at her home or office and write this, free from fear of renewed war with Imperial Japan, the Nazis, the Confederate States of America, and the British Empire. You've heard it before, but it still isn't enough. Conflicts go on until they end or fade away. Keeping a conflict alive by non-commital acts of violence begets reprisals. Winning a conflict by utterly defeating an enemy ends it. That's it. No more violence. You win. Now, since Militant Islam isn't going to simmer and sputter and leave us alone unless we act, our only choice is to act, and act decisively before they get the chance to do the same to us.

2003-02-07T01:58:00.000-05:00

Fantastic article from Andrew Sullivan about gay groups doing shit that has nothing to do with gay civil rights. You would think it was obvious that such a thing is Not Cool, but no.

"The salient question is: regardless of what you think about the coming war, why on earth should a gay group take this issue on? The answer lies, I think, in a simple but often overlooked fact. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is not essentially a gay rights organization. It's a far-left organization with emphasis on gay rights. Its main goal is building a "movement" dedicated to the overhaul of American society on anti-capitalist, anti-male, and anti-white grounds."

I would submit that it's nowhere near as anti-male as it was in the seventies, and that there's always a rush to judgement whenever men or anti-feminists think (for example) that schools are trying to crush boys and their intrepid masculine spirits by making them sit still in class, the way they've been doing in schools for over a thousand years. Grow up. The left certainly does privilege non-white over white, and female over male, but I've yet to see very much outright hostility against men coming from mainstream leftist feminism. Subdued hostility, yes. (Exhibit A: mediocre female writers being required reading in basic English literature survey courses, and the "discussions" of the works, which always amount to discussing how much the author and/or female character was oppressed by inconsiderate men. Your humble blogger would say that this is fine in a social history class or the equivalent, but not in an English class, where Margaret Cavendish is being taught at the expense of Spenser and Milton. Oy.)

Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place tonight (this morning). I don't care.

2003-02-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Oh my effin' Christ--Hamas leader: Islamic group is ready to take over from Arafat.

2003-02-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

Mark Steyn wants us (meaning America) to quit the U.N. I wish, but it's not going to happen. It doesn't matter how useless, corrupt, and potentially dangerous (albeit through sins of omission) the U.N. gets, the vast majority of the public sees criticism/bashing of the U.N. as tantamount to saying things like, "Man, that Jesus was a real fucktard" or "You know what tastes good? Fluffy kittens, braised in a light cream sauce, with diced baby and fresh vegetables."

But after a successful war in Iraq, that might change, or at least there might be more reservations about the U.N.'s use among the general public. Pacifism is a luxury of wealthy, developed nations, though, and like a lot of luxuries, it's very popular.

2003-02-05T14:47:00.000-05:00

Rachel likes Tony! Rachel likes Tony!

2003-02-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

Donate the Power of Your PC to Fight Smallpox - if you're not already hooked up with United Devices (a SETI@home-like system that processes research data), think about it now.

2003-02-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

Reprinted from last week's Golden Words (humour newspaper here at Kweenz), because the jerks still haven't got the issue online:
--------------------------------------------------
An Argument for ending the sanctions against Iraq
Typed on a keyboard where the "E" is broken
Nowadays, all kinds of folks is talking about Iraq and how us ought to bomb it. Saddam is bad, folks say, and him ought to pay for his bad things against his own nation and against folks from additional nations too. But by punishing folks from Iraq and saying it's about punishing Saddam, folks from our nation would do a thing that is also bad.

Now, I'm not saying that Saddam is good. Far from it, in fact. But Washington's war on Iraq is not a war for, um...autonomy. Bush's campaign is not about our morals or political philosophy, nor is Saddam an actual guy who might ruin any of that. This campaign is actually a part of an ongoing war against Iraq that's, uh...it's continuing from that Gulf War.

From that war to now, sanctions against folks of Iraq by Bush's nation is producing all kinds of poor living conditions, contamination, poor folks, and pain. Not-guilty adults and kids is all dying, many from ills that folks could totally start curing if not for Washington's sanctions. Bush says it's about saving Iraq's adults and kids from Saddam, but in actuality, Washington's sanctions do all kinds of bad to such folks, and Saddam is not all that hurt by that.

So why a war? Various folks say that it's about oil. Many, for 1, say that it's about $ and not about what's right for all folks of Iraq. A group of folks say that Iraq's now a symbol to various oil nations, and Washington's sanctions is about showing folks what Washington can do if such nations go in opposition to Washington, which Iraq did. Or is it that war is just good for Bush's looks as "big guy" in Washington?

Who knows why with this war? But in any such justification, what's important is that not-guilty folks is dying, as Washington insists that it must fight Saddam to aid such folks. This is lying, and us folks must fight it.

Folks in our part of this world all has known horrors of bombing and killing. With 9/11 still in our minds, us all know pain of war. So how can us allow such pain to hurt folks in Iraq, or in any nation, in light of that? Uh-huh, Saddam is bad. But if a non-war solution is in sight, us cannot allow Washington to hurry to war.

Simply put, us is all humans.
With faith,
Miss Kingston Pn 1993
---------------------------------------------
This world is now a...um, it was okay but now it is good. Geez, that's hard.

2003-02-05T01:35:00.000-05:00

Australian PM loses no-confidence vote-- just when you thought some countries were going to behave sensibly...

John Howard and his Conservative-Liberal coalition were censured for deploying troops to the Gulf ahead of a possible war against Iraq.

Okay, sign of the times, whatever.

Mr Howard - a staunch US ally - has said the deployment of troops does not mean that Australia has decided to support any war with Iraq.

Well, what's this? Is he an American ally or not? Is he supporting the war or not? Does he care about what this says about his integrity or not?

Fortunately, like most parliamentary motions, a no-confidence vote doesn't make much difference in a long run. Labour may as well have called up Howard and said, "Hello, Mr. Howard? You're a stupidhead!"

2003-02-05T01:18:00.000-05:00

The finalists have been announced for the WTC replacement(s). And, uh, they both suck. You got your gigantic radio antenna, or your gigantic electrical pylon. Neither one is exactly the Parthenon.

2003-02-05T00:25:00.000-05:00

This blog is here until I figure out what's wrong with my hosting company for Marybones.com. Blogging is not an option. It is a necessity. Food, water, shelter, and blogging. Well, electricity, computer, internet, and blogging. I mean, that only makes sense.