Sunday, December 31, 2006
PEACENIKS SAD
Alex Robson emails:
Damn you for mentioning Al Gore on your website again. My house was flooded tonight by a rain/hail storm in which an entire average month’s worth of rain fell in about 30 minutes. I may have to emigrate to Tuvalu.
Despite the damage, I was immediately cheered up by this classic Bob Ellis article.
That rain may have been Bob’s tears for Saddam (he previously was upset over damage to Saddam’s yacht). Also made weepy by Saddam’s execution is Melbourne leftoid Jeff Sparrow, currently organising a vigil in support of Jew-hating Taliban member and al-Qaeda trainee Mohammed Dawood.
CORRECTION: Jill Sparrow, sister of Jeff, is organising Dawood Day. My apologies.
NYE OPEN THREAD
Begin the countdown to 2007, now only 19,000 seconds or so away. Have a great night; see you next year.
WAN SMILE APPRECIATED
At least Saddam went out with dignity, reports respectful Robert Fisk:
All condemned men face a decision: to die with a last, grovelling plea for mercy or to die with whatever dignity they can wrap around themselves in their last hours on earth. His last trial appearance - that wan smile that spread over the mass-murderer’s face - showed us which path Saddam intended to walk to the noose.
In fact, Saddam went out babbling like an idiot:
I destroyed the enemies of Iraq, and I turned Iraq from poverty into wealth.
Say it swingin’, pal. Terror groupie Fisk also reveals:
Like Donald Rumsfeld, I have even shaken the dictator’s soft, damp hand.
You sure it was his hand, Bob?
BIN LADY
It’s been quite a journey for Jessica:
When the aptly named Jessica Root was 4 or 5 years old, her mother, Keli Solomon, took her to the Earth Day celebration in Central Park. In grade school, she dressed up for Halloween one year as a recycling bin.
That was only the beginning for Garbage Girl, who now works in TreeHugger.com’s elite video propaganda unit:
Root’s first project is a contest called Convenient Truths—a logical next step from Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.’’
What TreeHugger wants people to do is submit a one-minute to two-minute video showing how they’re reducing their own carbon footprint and thus slowing global warming ...
Root said the videos could be about something as small as carrying groceries in reusable cloth bags. They could also be about something as grand as an architect’s plans for a solar home.
"They could be about composting,’’ she said. “They could be about changing the filters in your air-conditioner.’’
They could be about alternative fuels; nitro-methane, for example. I might submit this, which demonstrates a DIY method of carbon wheelprint reduction.
YEAR OF MOTOONS
Dave Barry’s year in review:
Internationally, the big news comes from Denmark, center of a mounting furor over some cartoons, published the previous year in a Danish newspaper, which depict a prophet whom, in the interest of not offending anybody, we will refer to as Fohammed. This upsets several million of the prophet’s followers, who request a formal apology from the newspaper, greater sensitivity to their religious beliefs, and, where necessary, beheadings. Eventually everybody realizes that the whole darned thing was just a silly misunderstanding.
Read whole thing; v. funny. In the Age, those Chaser fellows are also review-minded:
In Denmark, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to explore the topic of censorship. It ended up proving censorship’s virtues when the Muslim world exploded in anger over the perceived blasphemy. The images were first published in Australia on Tim Blair’s blog; disappointingly, he was not among the casualties.
OWNERSHIP RETURNED
Discount barrister Jeremy Sear, whose sites were last week subject to an extreme Lamberting, has now had them restored. To celebrate, Jeremy immediately gets something completely wrong.
UPDATE. Caught in an error, Jeremy initially posts a correction (after prodding from his readers). Then he removes his correction and simply re-writes the post to cover his tracks. This guy could give lawyers a bad name ...
UPDATE II. Jeremy’s fan is unimpressed.
ISLAND BORN
Attention, Geoffrey Lean: got a brand new island for you. And Mr Bingley would like you to sing his pretty song. In other toasty-globey news:
Sure, it could lead to famine, extinctions and the submersion of much of Florida - but it’s great for Walt Parkin’s golf game.
"I love global warming,” Parkin, 56, of Whitehall, said Friday afternoon, at Moon Golf Club. Cars clogged the club’s four-row parking lot at 2 p.m. as Parkin packed up his clubs after playing 18 holes with friend Bob Stroup, 64, of Green Tree. Parkin said he usually stops golfing in October, but “I’ve gone out five or six times” since then this year.
Vicious monster. He should be playing ultimate frisbee.
(Via Gravelly)
Saturday, December 30, 2006
FAKE RANGER IN REAL JAIL
Terry Lane’s favourite US serviceman is in custody following assault and court order violation charges. Happy New Year, Jesse Macbeth! (Click for an earlier item on Mr Lane.)
HUNDREDS CHILLED
John Edwards mentions global warming ... and the Al Gore Effect kicks in immediately:
Over a year ahead of the nation’s first presidential primary, so many voters turned out Friday to hear Democratic hopeful John Edwards’ call for a new spirit of American activism on problems ranging from poverty to global warming that hundreds were left standing outside in freezing temperatures.
Outside? In freezing temperatures? Let’s hope they have coats to keep them warm.
"TOO MANY RATS"
Leftoid Clive Hamilton demands massive immigration cuts:
Rarely in our history has a federal government pursued such a high level of immigration as the Howard Government. Each year about 130,000 new migrants arrive on our shores and a third of them decide to settle in Sydney. The Government plans to increase the numbers.
The pressures from the influx are tempered by the efflux of thousands of Sydneysiders leaving the city each year, mostly heading north, driven out by declining amenity and house price inflation. The fact that John Howard, who has gained re-election by exploiting Hansonite xenophobia, has presided over a record inflow of foreigners is an irony little remarked ...
In the same sentence, speaking of irony, Hamilton condemns Howard’s “Hansonite xenophobia” then describes immigrants as “foreigners”. Worse, Hamilton actually wants Australia to adopt a “policy of zero net migration”, which puts him squarely in One Nation territory. Or beyond; imagine the outrage if Pauline Hanson ever linked immigration to sexually-abnormal rats:
A famous experiment in the 1960s found that when too many rats are forced to live in a cage of a given size they soon display abnormal behaviour including hyper-aggression, failure to nurture young normally, increased mortality, abnormal sexual patterns and infant cannibalism.
Immigrant Phil Gomes responds:
If guys like Hamilton can’t provide solutions beyond that of a depressing world view of locking down the city and the country and throwing away the key, they should shut the hell up and get out of the way.
JUSTICE DAY
The Age on Saddam Hussein’s judicial lengthening:
If justice was done, it wasn’t seen to be done.
Really? Could’ve sworn I saw justice being done right here. More from the Age:
The last thing the US needs is another anti-American Middle East martyr. But that was what we got yesterday.
Sydney’s Iraqis don’t seem too enraged:
Sydney’s Iraqi community erupted into celebration in Auburn the moment news broke that Saddam Hussein was dead.
Taxi driver Ayad Laftah, 37, of Yagoona, whose father and brother were killed under the dictator’s regime, burst into cries of “Allah Akbar”, waved his arms and threw sweets into the air.
Holding back tears he cried: “At last, justice for my father and brother."
Car horns rang out across Auburn as news spread.
"I had to grow up without my father because, one day in 1981, he just disappeared,” Mr Laftah said. “The same with my brother, Jewaad. He was just 21 ... To hear Saddam has been executed makes this the happiest day of my life."
Mr Laftah has been in Australia for 16 years after arriving as a refugee.
Fairfield Heights pharmacist Abdul Hamady described yesterday as “justice day”.
Click for earlier Justice Day news.
LANE NO TWAIN
Terry Lane, somehow still employed, absolutely destroys one of the best-known quotes of modern times:
Mark Twain, or someone else, once said: “We all grumble about the weather but nothing is done about it.” Which made us laugh because we knew then that nothing could be done about it. Well, it is no longer so funny. Now we know that there is something we can do about it ...
But can something be done about Lane?
UPDATE. Paco presents other famous quotes and sayings mangled by Terry Lane:
• “Honesty is one of the better policies.”
• Nathan Hale: “I regret that, countrywise, I have a maximum of one life to give.”
• Queen Victoria: “That’s not funny!”
• Harry Truman: “If you can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, go into the living room.”
• Winston Churchill: “I have nothing to offer, but blood, toil, tears and perspiration.”
UPDATE II. Jim Treacher:
• “Every 60 seconds there’s a baby that’s born who will grow up to be naive.”
Ross:
• “Jesus burst into tears.”
Kiwinews:
• “Was his father the same way? Because the fruit of the apple tree rarely hits the ground at a distance from the trunk.”
• “You can lead a horse to water, but Wronwright stole the lake.”
• “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and maybe get some headtilts, tops.”
CraigC:
• “A suture promptly rendered saves the square root of 81.”
• “All things are equanimous as they relate to both emotional relationships and armed conflict.”
Grimmy:
• “We have nothing to fear except for those things that make us afraid.”
• “Now that it’s winter, no one is very happy.”
Donnah:
• “Good grief, Miss Molly.”
• “Winning’s not everything, but it’s at the top of the list.”
• “Run out the clock for the Gipper.”
• “One if on foot; two if in boats.”
Blogagog:
• “Early birds have to eat worms.”
• “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your country can do for me.”
• “Mr. Gorbachev, paint that wall!"
Reese:
•"Charlie don’t windsurf!”
Kyda Sylvester:
• “Half a loaf is better than sliced bread.”
Trainer:
• “Shall I compare thee to July 27th?”
Jack Lacton:
• “A bush in the bird is worth two hands.”
Ushie:
• “It’s only popular music with a simple beat, played by a quartet or perhaps a quintet, but I am fond of it.”
Eeniemeenie:
• “One small step for a man - one giant leap for conspiracy theorists.”
As Spiny Norman says: “What’s truly amazing is Lane gets paid good money to write that mush … and you guys produce better for free!”
UNIDENTIFIED ISRAELI OBJECTS
Human Rights Watch finds Israel guilty of attacking two Lebanese ambulances (please read the whole thing; my takes on this case may be accessed here). Problem is, as even HRW admits, the evidence for their finding is a little scant:
HRW cannot conclusively state which missiles were used in the attack on the ambulances, because our researchers did not find diagnostic shrapnel or missile parts at the scene, and because of the experimental nature of some missiles used by the IDF.
Can’t find any missiles, or even traces of missiles? Must be because ... they’re Magic Jew Ordnance! Zombietime has a very detailed examination of HRW’s claims, including data on several missiles HRW suggest may have been involved. Al Hamatzav and Michelle Malkin also weigh in, as does Allah Pundit.
QUOTE SEASON CONTINUES VII
The Media Research Center presents its massive annual quotefest, including this, from Bill Maher:
Failing to warn the citizens of a looming weapon of mass destruction — and that’s what global warming is — in order to protect oil company profits, well, that fits for me the definition of treason.
And from NBC’s Matt Lauer:
Earth’s intricate web of ecosystems thrived for millions of years as natural paradises, until we came along, paved paradise, and put up a parking lot. Our assault on nature is killing off the very things we depend on for our own lives ...The stark reality is that there are simply too many of us, and we consume way too much, especially here at home.
YEAR THE MONGERS FEARED
It’s been a bad year for climate fearmongers, reports Lubos Motl. Also a must-click: the top ten junk science moments of 2006.
(Via Garth Godsman)