Thursday, May 31, 2007
PROMMISE MADE
Hillary visits Silicon Valley, and pledges:
“As president I will increase support for basic and applied research, by increasing the research budgets of the National Science Foundation the Department of Energy Office of Science and the Department of Defense.”
Increase the federal spelling budget while you’re at it, Hillary. Check that version of “tomorrow” …
VIEW COLOURED
The New Republic’s Paul Berman on hostility towards Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
Something like a campaign against Hirsi Ali could never have taken place a few years ago. A sustained attack on an authentic liberal dissident crying out against injustices in remote parts of the world and even in the back streets of western Europe, a sustained attack that appears nearly to have erased the mention of women’s oppression and the struggle for women’s rights from discussion - no, this could not have happened yesterday, except on the extreme Right.
This is a new event. This is a reactionary turn in the intellectual world.
And it’s coming from the likes of lefty feminist Kim, who writes about a woman mutilated as a child, in accordance with tribal Muslim custom:
Her view on Islam is too much coloured by her own experience …
Not much you can really say about that, is there?
UPDATE. Aaron emails: “You said there’s not much more to say about Kim criticizing Hirsi Ali. Frankly, sure there is.”
IMAGINE NO POSSESSIONS
Lefties; they’re so materialistic.
UPDATE. Our lefty friend explains humour:
It’s a bit like that tedious old joke about why don’t they make planes out of the material used in the black box; it relies on the listener completely lacking the most basic reasoning skills. They don’t make planes out of the black box material because they’d be ridiculously heavy and no-one would be able to afford air travel.
PATH NOT EMBRACED
A high-quality recruit is sought:
Accused terrorist ringleader Abdul Nacer Benbrika has made contact with Carl Williams in prison and tried to convert Melbourne’s notorious gangland murderer to Islam.
Mr Benbrika, who is charged with directing a terrorist organisation, approached the baby-faced, drug-dealing assassin hoping he would embrace the path of the prophet Mohammed.
Williams declined the invitation.
SERIAL CHILLER STRIKES AGAIN
Strange coldness in Argentina:
Power was rationed in parts of the Argentine capital and four people died from exposure as autumn temperatures dipped below freezing across a wide swath of Argentina on Tuesday morning.
Energy officials briefly limited power to some Buenos Aires neighborhoods, imposed natural gas restrictions on small- and medium-size industry and restricted some gas supplies to neighboring Chile.
Whatever is causing this? An explanation lies in the nation mentioned above; people, behold the still-powerful juju of the Gore Effect.
EGOS ABOVE PEACE
Cindy says sayonara:
Sheehan also slapped the anti-war movement on her way out, writing, “I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.”
Hmmm. Just like the leftoid blogosphere.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
BOTTLE OF SHAME
Sharp-eyed reader ilibcc observes that, while Tim Flannery and Margaret Fulton sat around for four hours swapping inanities (“Breathing is a very intimate thing for me,” says Tim) and acting virtuous for buying produce grown within a kilometre of the seller, they also scarfed down a bottle of San Pellegrino mineral water - flown in from Italy:
UPDATE. The prosecution rests.
5000 YEARS OF SNOWMOBILES
Reuters reports:
Global warming has made life more dangerous for Inuit in the Arctic as they increasingly fall to their deaths through thinning ice sheets while hunting seals and polar bears.
Delegates at a climate change conference in Belize said today that many Inuit had died in recent years because their snowmobiles and sleds crash through the ice during hunts.
“My people have been hunting on the ice for 5000 years but now you risk death around every turn,” said Nicodemus Illauq, from the Inuit town of Clyde River in Canada said at the conference in Central America.
Earlier snowmobiles - the 3000BC models - were evidently lighter. Nice that global warming is making life safer for polar bears.
DR DUCK
A note from James Waterton:
Earlier last month, I visited the War Remnants museum in Saigon. Pretty much as you’d expect - the victors write the history, of course. Amongst the propaganda and genuinely interesting exhibits, there was a display of posters created by the various socialist Solidarity-with-North Vietnam movements from around the world. Check out the Australian lefty effort:
I couldn’t help but notice that the Australian Left is still using the same visual gags forty years later - making the “S” in U.S. a dollar sign! How witty!
Progressives generally aren’t. Speaking of ’Nam-era Australians, Michael Leunig is now Dr Idiot:
Australian Catholic University will award celebrated newspaper cartoonist and National Living Treasure, Michael Leunig with its highest honour, Doctor of the University (Honoris Causa), at its annual Melbourne graduation ceremony for Arts & Sciences students this Tuesday 28 May ...
ACU National Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan AO said Mr Leunig possessed the rare ability to demystify the human condition through his engaging cartoons, which were often challenging or thought-provoking, but always ultimately hopeful and positive.
“From his earliest days as a writer for radical press, to his current incarnation as a cartoonist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers and author of more than 20 collections of art, poetry and prayer, Michael Leunig has stirred the social conscience of Australians with his sometimes quirky, but always insightful drawings,” Professor Sheehan said. “Michael has the innate ability to challenge the worst of human folly through his colourful and irreverent art, while still expressing all the joy, fun and emotional poignancy of human life. It is this talent that led the Archbishop of Canterbury to refer to him as a ‘most penetrating spiritual commentator’.
“As with all artistic expression, Michael’s work is sometimes misinterpreted or misunderstood, but his champions far outweigh his critics.”
His champions outweigh his critics? We have a scientific consensus!
(Via Dr Jeremy H.)
HILLS FILLED
In your face, Gaia:
As a result of global warming, the hills are alive with the sound of a new concept: the four-season mountain resort. “Last winter, we saw a lot of buyers abandon the search for pure ‘ski-machine’ resorts,” says Joanna Yellowlees-Bound, chief executive of the mountain-property specialists Erna Low Property. “They started asking for destinations that offer a strong summer, spring and autumn experience as well as snow.”
Town halls and property developers are now working flat out to meet the demand ... Wherever you go in America and Canada, you’ll find mountain towns that are buzzing come July and August.
Global warming alarmism has caused year-round private jet journeys to high-end holiday zones. ROFL, as the saying goes.
SOUND PAINFUL
Friend-of-a-reader Amanda visits the Monaco Grand Prix and reports: “The sound was extremely painful without earplugs.” Understandable, considering how close to the action she was:
Whoa! Any closer and Amanda would be incorporated into that front wing. Monaco might be the last place spectators are allowed such access; when I first went to a motor race in Australia, we watched from a shallow grass verge on the main straight as cars shot by.
No fence. Spectators were noticeably alert to the possibility of something careering into our midst.
AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST LOSER (AND DAVID HICKS)
In February, before it was revealed David Hicks had actually put on weight during his Guantanamo holiday, we were told how gaunt and wretched he’d become:
They say a picture speaks ten thousand words. This new image of David Hicks — created by a world renowned face recognition expert — is a graphic illustration of the passage of time David Hicks has being left to languish in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Five years in isolated detention, without trial, leaps out in this image. It’s a ghost of the David Hicks we’re used to seeing, and one that reflects the accurate descriptions of his Australian lawyer, David McLeod, who has just seen him.
This picture has also prompted veteran journalist Ray Martin to publicly, and very powerfully declare, that he’s “ashamed to be an Aussie” over the Federal Government’s response to David Hicks, wisely asking “what has happened to the Aussie ‘fair go’?’
The picture lied. Is Ray Martin still ashamed? Fair go, Ray. In latest Hicks weight news:
Hicks jnr was in good spirits, chatty, much slimmer and with better colour than when Mr Hicks saw him in Cuba in late March ...
So now it’s good that he’s lost weight. This guy is worse than Oprah.
UPDATE. Judging by these pics, Bryan Law has been held in Gitmo for decades. The guy’s a one-man Pine Gap Four.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
WEATHER NORMAL
Reports last month suggested Britain would melt during summer:
It could be time to say goodbye to defining features of British life, like rainy picnics and cloudy sunbathing …
A diligent BBC researcher has discovered that yesterday was the coldest on record for a Test match in England. Temperatures dropped to 7.4C (45F), but it felt colder.
Meanwhile, Australia’s allegedly endangered ski fields seem to be doing just fine:
Victoria’s Alpine region is experiencing the best lead-up to the ski season since 2004, with heavy falls overnight …
“This is great considering it’s two weeks away from opening weekend,” [Mount Buller Resort marketing manager Amber]
Gardner said.
Remember, our planet is just five years away from climate change catastrophe.
THE QUICKEST BEATLE
Found on YouTube: a George Harrison song about Formula One.
TRIAL GOING WELL
Bryan Law - this site’s official leftoid representative - emails:
Hi Tim, I’ve just updated my Live Journal blog to gloat about how well our Trial is going. We’ve got a great gang together for fun and frolics in a town like Alice.
I think it might send your readers into a frenzy of revulsion to know that Late Night Live is doing a piece tomorrow night, the Age is doing a story, along with SBS Dateline and, its rumoured Al Jazeera International.
Ho Ho Ho, Merry Wholesomeness.
And your readers can find photos they’ll love to hate on the Indymedia links on my blog.
Ain’t activism grand?
Yes, Bryan. Yes, it is. Keep the updates coming!