Seriously! Bad words never hurt anyone, and you don’t make reality go away by closing your eyes and ears (and other people’s mouths). Everybody fucks and shits and women have cunts. Interestingly, on The Daily Show last night, they replayed part of C-SPAN coverage from the Goldman Sachs interrogatories. “shitty” was bleeped out, but “crappy” and “crap” wasn’t. Oddly inconsistent,… Read more →
We all know media and politics engender mass hypocrisy. We probably expect it and therefore put up with more than we should. Once again, it’s the razor sharp mind of humorists that are good for exposing this. John Stewart is one of the best in this area, and he’s come up with a piece of reporting that needs to be… Read more →
Apparently, French eat until they aren’t hungry but Americans eat until the plate is empty or the TV show is finished; ie. Americans use external cues to decide how much to eat, rather than deciding for themselves when they should stop. I must say that I’m not surprised. The more media-driven, and accustomed to being lead by the nose by… Read more →
No, not me. I don’t take trains much any more. Anyway, I can’t imagine that much paranoia in Australia yet. The incident happened in America (where else?) and is reported here. Basically, a Japanese tourist with very little English language skills was asked by a train conductor not to take photos of the countryside for national security reasons (!??!). At… Read more →
I just finished reading the story of an American cyclist who had a very nasty run-in with Minneapolis police last September. He was tasered and jailed after questioning the reason for being told to get off his bike when leaving the St. Paul airport. According to his story, he was falsely accused of taking a swing at the officer when… Read more →
Who might that be? You might say Lord Downer, but he only want to be the white Tiger Woods when he leaves politics. The title actually belongs to Condaleeza Rice. The following story is about her visit to Australia during the Commonwealth Games: Upon arrival in Melbourne she asked the Consulate General if she could have her photo taken with… Read more →
This story deserves more traction… Greg Palast has again been part of uncovering more about the skullduggery in the White House. It turns out that Rove and company are bad typers and mis-sent 500 or so emails to an address at georgewbush.org instead of georgewbush.com. These emails were then sent on to Palast who has reported on them. Unfortunately the… Read more →
According to a poll conducted by a coalition of US tourist groups, %70 of travellers entering the USA are more scared of US officials than criminals or terrorists. According to this article, the PR problem is big and getting bigger. “We are citizens of a country regarded as one of the closest allies the US has,” frequent British visitor Ian… Read more →
A poetry professor from Pennsylvania explains the story behind a call about a suspected terrorist on campus. Basically he (a dark skinned man) was recycling manuscripts and some idiot from the ROTC called the police. It’s a shame that the university didn’t fully support their employee, either. It’s unfortunate that all Americans get tarred with the loony brush these days,… Read more →
I just came across an article that states that the Bush administration has 150 – that's 10% of the staff – who are graduates from Pat Robertson's law school. Yep, you read that right – Pat Roberton's law school. Of course, it's described as "lowly rated" and "recently accredited": the school was founded in 1986 as the CBN University Law… Read more →
This article reminds me of Jello Biafra describing his run-in with rednecks on Give Me Convenience of Give Me Death. Apparently there have been 142 attacks last year on homeless people in the states, a 65% increase over the previous year. These appear to be perpetrated mainly by gangs of bored youths. Of course, this is the personal side of… Read more →
A San Francisco Chronicle writer has a nice line of invective. This article discusses the fact that 13% of Americans hav no clue what global warming is. In it, he writes the paragraph: Nor am I speaking of your average Bush-lovin’ bobbleheads who appear to get their worldly information by way of licking the stuff found on the bottom of… Read more →
More bullshit from the US government… The US AG has tried to defend the denial of Habeas Corpus rights by saying that: “There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,†Stephen Colbert also has a cute commentary on this – “exact words” – likening Gonzales to Greg Brady (from the Brady… Read more →
Catching up on some RSS feeds, I came across this! American politics is in a race to the dregs. Katherine Harris, one of the people who stole the Florida election for Dubya, is quoted as saying that God did not intend the US to be a nation of secular laws, and that the country’s laws would be “legislated sin” if… Read more →
Having looked at The Onion again for the first time in ages for the last post, I had a look at the home page and saw the following: Flustered Bush Misses Air Force One Flight It’s not funny if it happens to anyone else, but the thought of George Dumbya being treated as any other passenger and struggling to pass… Read more →
America’s finest news source has some comments from air travellers about the lifting of the almost total ban on liquids: “The ban was a necessary precaution. We have to be willing to make these kinds of sacrifices if we’re going to prevent scientifically impossible terrorist attacks.” I haven’t checked The Onion in a while, and it’s good to see that… Read more →
should never mix. Here are some interesting quotes from the top of the latest ICH newsletter: Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this:… Read more →
Avi Ruben, a computer scientist specialising in security and privacy, and noted for his analysis of electronic voting in America, has written his report from his second year as a polling booth worker. The whole article is a scary little story, but the following quote exemplifies the problem, I think. While the technology is in the hands of a company… Read more →
Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger – recently emigrated to America, if I recall correctly – has written about his recent experience in an American airport. He turned up to the airport in a t-shirt that read “we will not be silent” in both English and Arabic. Maybe it was a both brave and stupid act, but I applaud him for… Read more →
While the guy behind the following rant sounds a bit like an out-and-out US imperialist, his general thrust is spot-on. We’ve become a civilisation of scaredy-cats. From our playgrounds, where we pull out slides in case the kiddies get a bit of a bump, to our airports, where we make mothers drink from babies’ bottles, we’ve let ourselves be terrorised…. Read more →
