Tuesday, April 25, 2006
COMPUTER TEACHER FACT-CHECKED
J.F. Beck presents a Tim “Deltard” Lambert triple-play.
SAID IT BEFORE HE DIDN’T SAY IT
No wonder Thomas Jefferson himself said: “Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism.”
The Jefferson Library:
There are a number of quotes that we do not find in Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence or other writings; in such cases, Jefferson should not be cited as the source. Among the most common of these spurious Jefferson quotes [is]:
* “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
(Via Paul Zrimsek)
STEYN BEATEN
Mark Steyn! Crushed! By a major Australian intellectual!
I don’t believe I was ever aware that Aussie prof John Quiggin had launched a competition to demonstrate I was a congenital liar, but apparently he did back in 2002, indignantly objecting to my “lie” that Australia, Spain, Italy and co were “on board” for an America-led Iraq invasion without UN authorisation.
Yup, he certainly nailed me on that one.
Beware of Quiggin, neo-con hegemonsters. This Australian Puce will surely bring down all of us.
AWESOME STAT HIGHLIGHTED
Another shocking employment revelation from the Sydney Morning Herald:
Almost one in five workers under 26 is unhappy with pay and conditions ...
The glass is greater than four-fifths full. That’s as good as empty to the SMH.
Monday, April 24, 2006
ANZAC DAY
Australian and New Zealand troops mass on the beach at Gallipoli.
SMH NOTES DOWNSIDE TO RECORD EMPLOYMENT
On the eve of Anzac Day, the Sydney Morning Herald found a war theme to illustrate this screaming front-page lead on Australia’s employment killing fields:
More than 310,000 Australians aged under 25 have suffered work-related injuries or diseases over the past 10 years, almost equal to the number of Australians killed and wounded during the first and second world wars.
So a work-related dislocation or cut is comparable to being killed or wounded in combat. Work is hell.
Another 500 young workers were killed in the 10 years - an alarming toll compiled by the Herald using the national workers’ compensation database.
The Herald will be kicking itself when it realises how similar is this alarming toll to the number of Australians killed in Vietnam. Chance missed, kids.
PROBLEM LIKE MARIA
From the Chicago Sun-Times’ photo archives, highlights of which are available in a fine new book:
The bewildered-looking fellow is federal marshal Stanley Pringle, who has just served a summons on shrieking Maria Callas in 1955. Press agent Danny Newman had earlier alerted local media.
UPDATE. Richard McEnroe:
Wait a minute! This touchstaff, this common catchpole, got screamed at by Maria Callas—FOR FREE?!
What a bargain!
BELIEFS STATED
CBS columnist Dotty Lynch goes all Beatlemania over “tall and proud” John Kerry:
Kerry may be reflecting a new boldness on the part of liberals to come out and say what they believe and to reclaim the moral high ground on patriotism.
So Kerry wasn’t saying what he believed when he ran for President. (Which was noticed at the time.) Good luck reclaiming the moral high ground, Senator Nancybike.
UPDATE. Another Bush opponent says what he thinks:
“It feels like a slap in the face having President Bush come here on Earth Day,” said Curtis Harding, 24, who grew up in St. Helena and lives in Sacramento. “I could go yell somewhere else, but people would think I’m crazy.”
Harding said Bush’s policies are harming the environment, and added that “when a bomb goes off, that has a huge, indirect effect on global warming.”
Especially when he bombs polar bears.
(Via Josh)
FEUDIN’ FUNDAMENTALISTS
Osama versus Hamas:
He also criticised the Palestinians’ Hamas-led government for breaking what he said was a taboo against “joining infidel assemblies” and entering parliament.
Hamas versus Osama:
A call attributed to Osama Bin Laden for Islamic holy war in Sudan and other Muslim states has been disowned by the Sudanese government and Hamas ... Hamas official spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency his organisation was “interested in good relations with the West”.
UPDATE. More from Osama, who now has sources:
The holy verses of the Quran and the holy prophetic teachings have all clarified the need for according love, respect and obedience to our prophet. Allah, the Almighty, has made it a taboo to offend him, saying in the Quran those who harm Allah and his messenger would be damned and severely punished.
It was also confirmed by an authentic source that prophet Muhammad said no one could be faithful until he loves me more than he loves his parents, his sons and all other people. Therefore, the Umma has reached a consensus that he who offends or degrades the messenger would be killed.
Name that source, Osama! Was it a sock puppet?
MORE WORKPLACE TRAUMA
Meet Business Week bigshot Charles S. DuBow, who ain’t happy with the copy desk. I hope we are clear on this.
BIG MO
Today’s Anzac Day march in Darwin has been cancelled in advance of Cyclone Monica:
Darwin is preparing to weather the most intense storm ever seen in Australia’s northern waters, with winds of 350 kilometres an hour at the core of cyclone Monica.
The category 5 storm is less than 400 kilometres from the Northern Territory capital.
Mr Bingley’s pre-emptive prayers may already have had an effect; according to this forecast, Monica could be weaker than feared by the time it sweeps by south of Darwin. Here’s hoping.
(Via J.F. Beck)
UPDATE. Fark headline: “The last time anything named Monica blew this hard, it tore apart a nation.”
SMOKING CEREMONY CONDEMNED
Man has cigarette. Academic loses it.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
EMISSIONS DOWN, BEARS DROWN
Things are getting better:
Since 1970, carbon monoxide emissions in the U.S. are down 55%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Particulate emissions are down nearly 80% and sulfur dioxide emissions have been reduced by half. Lead emissions have declined more than 98%.
But somehow this is only making things worse, as the NY Times reports:
Polar bears are drowning; an American city is underwater; ice sheets are crumbling ... the rate of warming from the 1970’s until now has been three times the average rate of warming since 1900. Seas have risen about six to eight inches globally over the last century and the rate of rise has increased in the last decade.
I blame this on decreased carbon monoxide, particulate, sulfur dioxide, and lead emissions. For the sake of all the drowning polar bears, let’s get those pollutants up!
AMIS FAMILY SECURE
British novelist Martin Amis worried big time about nuclear war 20 years ago:
Suppose I survive. Suppose my eyes aren’t pouring down my face, suppose I am untouched by the hurricane of secondary missiles that all mortar, metal and glass has abruptly become: Suppose all this. I shall be obliged (and it’s the last thing I feel like doing) to retrace that long mile home, through the firestorm, the remains of the thousands-miles-an-hour winds, the warped atoms, the groveling dead. Then—God willing, if I still have the strength, and, of course, if they are still alive—I must find my wife and children and I must kill them.
As Mark Steyn points out, Martin isn’t nearly so concerned about molten eyeballs these days. Possibly he should be.
PERSONAL QUAGMIRE CONTINUES
Will John Kerry ever find a Vietnam exit strategy?
Those who disagree with the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq face the same scornful charges that they are unpatriotic as Sen. John Kerry did 35 years ago when he spoke out against the Vietnam War, the Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday.
“I have come here today to reaffirm that it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong. And to affirm that it is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a president who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a war in Iraq that weakens the nation,” Kerry said to a standing ovation Saturday at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall.
Possibly those ovating were Republicans, delighted that Kerry is thinking hard about running in ‘08.