 |
| Blog |
 |
| Archive |
|
|
|
|
| Blog |
| To find an archived article, simply click on Index and scroll the subject titles, or do a Ctrl-F search |
TALLRITE BLOG
You can write to me at
blog2-at-tallrite-dot-com |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “Ill-informed and Objectionable” Comment by an anonymous reader | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For some reason, this site displays better in Internet Explorer than in Mozilla Firefox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
July 2008 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ISSUE #179 - 20th July 2008 [380+501=881]
Click here for PDF Version of Issue #179 (730 kb) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Americans Outsource Their Oil and Pollution You hear plenty of hot air from Westerners worried about the outsourcing of bits of their industries to cheaper locations - call centres go to Bangladesh, manufacturing to China, software development to India. This is said to destroy jobs in the West, though the the evidence is that by bringing down costs in this way Western companies can become more competitive, expand their markets and end up increasing their employment, albeit in different jobs (higher tech and higher paid) from before. At the same time, we Westerners fret about the low pay, poor working conditions and, especially, inferior environmental standards practiced by the faraway outsourcees. For example, you have only to mention pollution to think of China's one-a-week new coal-fired power stations. If you've outsourced your manufacturing to China, you've also outsourced that coal-dust. It is curious therefore that there is one area where the West, particularly America, seems singularly relaxed, even eager to outsource its business despite the very severe pain it is causing at home and the increased environmental risks abroad. For America has not done much in the way of developing and increasing its energy production capabilities for some three decades. The last refinery was built in 1976, the last nuclear power plant in 1978. Though it's true that exploration and production have continued, oil reserves and production have nevertheless steadily declined since the early 1970s and now stand at 22 billion barrels and 5 million barrels a day respectively (from 35 and 9½). Its energy shortfall has therefore had to be met by imports, mainly of 10m b/d of oil plus natural gas meeting some 4½% of energy needs. These imports are just another form of outsourcing - getting foreigners to do the work for you. In this case, most of the foreigners are Arabs and Africans, operating to lower technical and environmental standards than Americans, and charging outrageous global prices for the privilege - $145/bbl at time of writing. For America is competing with the rising demands of the emerging giants of India and China for whatever oil is on the market. Moreover, much of that oil money bonanza is falling into the hands of Islamic enemies in the Middle East, the very people who want to destroy Israel and the West. Other massive chunks are going to Russia and Venezuela, countries which also hate the freedom-loving democracies. America imports such huge quantities of oil only because of its failure to develop its own energy potential. However this is not for geological but for man-made reasons. America still has plenty of resources to explore and develop, notably across the vast expanse of Alaska, in coastal waters and off the continental shelf, with potential to produce over a million barrels a day. The US Geological Survey believes that Alaska alone contains oil measured in the billions of barrels.
This is so far from the truth as to be laughable. When Western companies are in charge, serious pollution occurs only through sabotage, while the rare incidents of minor pollution (a few barrels) are quickly cleaned up. The pictures you see of oil mess are either many decades old like this one taken in 1905 Ohio, or the result of someone taking a hacksaw to a pipeline, or are the responsibility of non-Western companies. America's environmental lobby, aided and abetted by the Democratic party, are mainly responsible for putting such vast swathes of America off limits to oilmen, in the mistaken believe that they are somehow preserving the world's environment. But in so doing, they are merely outsourcing and ballooning the pollution problem to other parts of the world with lower environmental standards. And at enormous cost to the American people in both money and potentially security.
This chart illustrates how great is the wasted acreage, the No Zone, and it doesn't even show all of Alaska's waters. And remember the effect is to enrich America's enemies at Americans' expense. If Barack Obama sticks to the Democrats' party line and continues to support the No Zone, that's another reason he will lose in November. And if he flip-flops on this as he has so recently flip-flopped on several other matters, can Americans really trust him? Hattip: John Dixon And he's touchy too ...
To me it seems more like a jab at Mr Obama than at Republicans, which is what he thinks too. His spokesman Bill Burton proclaims that “most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive; and we agree”. [So do I, but that's why I like it.] But Mr Obama protests too much. His self-love makes him look ridiculous. It never much troubled him when his beloved pastor of 20 years the Rev Jeremiah Wright kept preaching about God damning America, America inviting 9/11, America inventing aids to kill black people and so forth But he nearly went ballistic when Rev Wright said, in response to Mr Obama's public repudiation of Rev Wright's racist rants, “he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician”. In other words, Mr Obama - the candidate of hope, change etc - is just as opportunistic as any other sleazy politician. To Mr Obama this self-evident truth was “a show of disrespect to me ... [insufficient] concern for me ...” When his wife Michelle was called to account for broadcasting her apparent lack of pride in her country, he said “if they (Republicans) think that they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful. Because that I find unacceptable”, though notably he never - unlike many Americans - found his wife's public utterances unacceptable. His supporters have set up a special site, Fight the Smears, to counter the negative stories about him, even the ones that are true (eg as the son of a Muslim he was automatically born a Muslim). Contrast this self-absorption and ultra-sensitivity with the moron George W Bushitlerhalliburton. He has been relentlessly, mercilessly ridiculed, lampooned, belittled, cartoonised, insulted, libelled for the past seven years. Michael Moore's anti-Bush movie Fahrenheit 9/11, riddled as it is with personal invective and nastiness, is but one of the more egregious examples of the public Bush-hatred that has become the staple of liberal American commentary. Another is the movie “Death of a President” that has him assassinated, seemingly by an Arab, to widespread approbation among many audiences. Yet how often has W issued a complaint? Not once in all his presidency. He just stands up and takes the punches and keeps smiling. Smiling. Now that's another thing the touchy, narcissistic Sen Obama doesn't indulge in much outside set-piece rallies. It might puncture his self-importance.
Why Is Egypt Imprisoning 1½ Million Gazans? Arabs frequently proclaim their brotherhood and solidarity, and it has sometimes led to improvements in the lot of the ordinary Arab. Even then, however, its is often expressed in stirring words rather than concrete action. For instance, the Arab League pledged $717 million to help its Palestinian brothers as part of the current so-called Middle East peace process, but has so far disbursed only 21%, compared with the West which has already delivered 60% of its promised $835m. Solidarity is much more robust when it is about driving Jews into the sea, whether through the Arab brotherhood of 1948 which attacked Israel (and lost) the moment the UN gave birth to it, or when in 1967 Egypt's Gamel Abdul Nasser briefly reunited almost the whole Arab world to wage war on and be defeated by (in just six manic days) the hated Zionists. Indeed, throughout Israel's sixty years of existence it has faced pretty much constant harassment and low-level attack from its Arab neighbours, interspersed with hot wars which they never win and which The general rule seems to be that Arab unity in the cause of Arab betterment results in Arab betterment at least to some extent. But the far more popular Arab unity in the cause of Jew annihilation merely result in further loss of land, opportunity and privileges.
Just last week there was a news story about the Israelis preventing Gazan students from entering Israel in order to take up scholarships in America and Europe. “Collective punishment” some called it. But as quiz show hostess Anne Robinson would be quick to point out, a chain (or fence) is only as strong as its weakest link. This is where Arab brotherhood should kick in, because the south-west of Gaza borders not on Israel but on the former occupier Egypt with its 74 million fellow-Sunnis. But this border, with only one check point (Rafah) is sealed even tighter than the Israeli side. Except that is for the numerous tunnels that permit weapons to be “smuggled” in to Gaza whilst the Egyptians turn a blind eye. Rather, the Egyptians ensure that neither people nor normal trade may easily cross the border; nor may scholarship students. Arab solidarity is limited strictly to weapons to be deployed against Israel (with which Egypt nevertheless has a peace treaty).
Rafah is no longer Anne Robinson's Weakest Link. The unanswered question is why? Why is Egypt imprisoning 1½m Gazans? Do the Egyptians fear and hate their Palestinian fellow-Arabs that much? For make no mistake, it is Egypt which holds the key to the Gazan's incarceration or freedom. The Israelis at least have the excuse of fighting existential hostility and terrorism.
Earlier this month Britain's £12 million a year National Children's Bureau issued 366 pages of guidelines to kindergartens to clamp down on three-year-olds when they choose to reveal what nasty little racists they are by, for example, saying “yuk” to foreign food. Neither do racist babies with their “name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships” escape the NCB's righteous ire. Nurseries are, quite rightly, instructed to report the horrid little tykes to the local council who will presumably administer appropriate punishments and maintain lifelong records for the protection of victim minority groups far into the future. After all who wants to hire someone who has been documented as a proven racist ever since he was a toddler? For some reason, however, Beijing is now moving in the opposite direction by kow-towing to grown-up sports fans of similar racist tendencies. These Olympic-watchers would be the kind of despicable racists who don't hesitate to say “yuk” to a bowl of Jack Russell ragout or a Doberman steak, thereby expressing their contempt of Orientals, particularly Chinese and Koreans, for whom such dog meat delicacies are part of their rich cultural heritage. But rather than condemn these odious foreign racists, the Beijing tourism politburo is going to pander to them and has issued an edict ordering all restaurants to remove dog meat from their menus for the duration of the games. They are thereby emulating the grovelling behaviour of the Seoul city council during the Olympics in that city back in 1988, when dog meat was likewise removed from the city's menus for the same fawning reason. The one part of China where, Olympic games notwithstanding, dog meat is already banned and has been for over a century is Hong Kong, thanks to the British colonialists. Many would see this as a further example of racist suppression of native customs in the name of white imperialism, but actually it's not. The reason the British rulers banned dog meat was because of the manner of killing the dog. In order to ensure the meat is tender, succulent and sweet, the unfortunate creature must be beaten slowly to death with sticks, his heart to the last valiantly pumping blood around his rapidly bruising body. For some reason, the Brits found this practice sickening, and by now so do the native Hong Kong Chinese. So if you are at the Olympics (which as I argued earlier I hope you aren't), know that any dislike of dog meat is due to your moral superiority rather than your racist tendencies. Unlike those racist little kids saying “yuk” to a plate of curry back there in Blighty.
Issue 179’s Comments to Cyberspace A trio of witterings over the past fortnight.
- - - - - - V A T I C A N - - - - - - Quote: “I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering. I would like to ... acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious [order members] in this country [Australia].”
Pope Benedict XVI in a speech to
It is the first time a pope has apologised - - - - - - C H I N A - - - - - - Quote: “China's greatest Communist icon, chairman Mao Zedong, will be dropped from six million new 10 yuan [93 €urocent] banknotes to mark the Olympic games.” The People's Bank of China, its central bank.
Oh joy! Chinese Communist authorities finally sense some
embarrassment But there humanitarianism doesn't stretch to Tibet ... Quote: “We must clean out the monasteries and strengthen the administrative committees. After that we will absolutely control them [the Buddhist monks].” Lie Que, China's head of propaganda in Tibet, - - - - - - E U - - - - - -
Quote:
“Ireland will have to vote again on Lisbon.”
It hasn't taken long for French
president Nicolas Sarkozy,
We will watch with amusement Quote: “I am convinced that [Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty] was not simply because they wanted to keep the Nice Treaty!” Mr Sarkozy, based on no evidence whatsoever.
Hello-o-o-o! Bonjou-ou-ou-our! Quote: “I see idiots all day long. You can’t imagine the amount of idiots I have to see.”
Mr Sarkozy shows his irritable side You can be sure that the Irish are part of his list. Quote: “A Member of the European Parliament earns on an average more [at €14,727 a month] than the German Chancellor Frau Merkel and one wants to hide this from the electorate. Therefore, one obviously must get rid of reporters investigating this.”
One-man crusader Hans-Peter Martin, MEP from Austria,
His remark was in response to this
video clip
One of them, Ireland's Kathy Sinnott, threatens the reporter,
The expenses are not for hours worked
Later, consumed by embarrassment, she
explains with touching sincerity,
Yeah, right. - - - - - - U S A - - - - - - Quote: “Children without fathers in their lives are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They also are more likely to have behavioral problems, to run away from home, and to become teenage parents themselves.”
A welcome defence of fatherhood by Barack Obama Quote: “I want to cut his nuts off.”
Unrelated to the preceding quote, He “apologised” when/because he realised he had been filmed. Right-wing radio chat-show host Rush Limbaugh has an amusing take. - - - - - - S L A V E R Y - - - - - - Quote: “I think in football there's too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere.”
Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA,
“I completely agree with the FIFA president”
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| See the Archive and Blogroll at top left and right, for your convenience | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ISSUE #178 -5th July 2008 [449+481=930]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
In Mugabe's Zimbabwe, Words Kill We have all been shocked and horrified by the recent goings-on in Zimbabwe. In his desperation to cling to power at all costs during the “election” process of the past few months, its despot Robert Mugabe has starved, beaten and killed Zimbabwean citizens for the affront of not supporting him. The run-off “election” alone has seen a further hundred murdered, thousands beaten and tens of thousands evicted from their homes. And the violence continues even though Mr Mugabe was now “won” an umpteenth term as president. He is clearly bent on punishing and destroying anyone who ever had the temerity to vote or speak against him. Of course, the man has form.
Throughout all this criminal mayhem there have been continual calls from the international community for Mr Mugabe to moderate his behaviour and observe democratic norms. Travel bans and similar piffling sanctions have been applied. All to no effect. And in the past few weeks he has happily travelled to Rome and Egypt for conferences. (Surely a kidnap and rendition could have been arranged?) We are supposed to be encouraged now because the UN Security Council is for the first time “discussing” the latest “election”, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu have condemned it, and even the 53-strong African Union (31 of them non-democracies) have mumbled some vaguely critical words. Radio, TV and newspapers in the West continue to bleat about the need for sanctions, talks, negotiations, compromises. Tosh, all tosh. Words and mild slaps have been going on for years. If they were ever going to work they would have done so by now, at least to some extent, but they haven't. Mr Mugabe has made it abundantly clear that he will never leave office - that “only God” can remove him. And this is wise because his lifestyle if not life will be in immediate danger the moment he steps down. In 2002, Ian Smith, the country's last white ruler, laid down a challenge: “If Mugabe and I walk together into a black township, only one of us will come out alive. I’m ready to put that to the test right now. He’s not”. Only direct military action - not words, not sanctions - will remove him and only the West has the military capability. It won't be difficult (though no doubt many will scream “illegal war”). In 2000, British prime minister Tony Blair deployed a crack task force to Sierra Leone, which in just six weeks defeated rebel forces who had been waging civil war for nine years. A few months later, he sent in a handful of plucky SAS and SBS commandos who dramatically rescued a dozen military hostages from a different group of rebels deep in Sierra Leone. These two decisive actions were instrumental in turning the country into one of the African Union's 22 democracies, persisting to this day.
Having handed the administration to Morgan Tsangvarai, whom no-one but the Mugabe clique doubts was the winner of last March's presidential election, the invading force should then rapidly withdraw. This would allow the international community to provide the support it has already promised to help rebuild the shattered country. No Iraq style occupation should be envisaged. In Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwe, words kill, because by achieving nothing they permit and encourage him to continue his murderous rampage. Thus those who foreswear military action should just remain silent. Because such people are ipso facto on the side of Robert Mugabe. I am not.
A column similar to this post appeared
Amnesty's
Strange Approach to Human Rights Violations On 10th December 1948, in one of its first major acts, the General Assembly of the then three year old United Nations adopted and proclaimed, unanimously, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year therefore marks its sixtieth anniversary. The Irish Section of Amnesty International is already “celebrating” the occasion. This includes a series of rather abstruse (to me) essays appearing in the Irish Times linked to various Articles of the Declaration, starting with Article 1 about all humans being born fee. Irish Amnesty also publishes its own foreshortened version of the declaration, notable mainly for its factually-incorrect, politically-correct, grammatically-incorrect confusion of singulars and plurals, eg “Everyone is born free and has dignity because they are human”; also it's not “because”. 25th June was also apparently designated as an “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture” involving rallies, speeches and so forth. I pricked up my ears, however, when two days later I happened to hear a six-minute radio broadcast by Amnesty's executive director, the very articulate Colm O'Gorman, a courageous man noted for his crusade against Ireland's clerical sex abuse of children, of which he was once an unfortunate victim.
The broadcast, which I have recorded here, is centred solely on human rights violations allegedly perpetrated on a teenager called Mohammed by - who else? - the United States. We are told he was an innocent Chadian refugee alone in Pakistan who was arrested in a mosque, tortured and beaten by the Pakistani authorities, handed over to the Americans, tortured and beaten further, put on a plane to Guantanamo, tortured and beaten still further, and by implication this treatment is continuing to the present day, seven years on. Some of the claims are preposterous.
Not only is no evidence provided to support any of the allegations, but we are asked to believe that Mohammed, in the midst of his perpetual torture, was able to tell Amnesty all about it in detail, down to his broken tooth. Perhaps this was during some of those thrice-a-day shackle-free meal breaks that so help to pass the time. If there is one thing Guantanamo is noted for (other than permanent torture of all inmates, of course), it is that it is the world's only prison camp where guests, thanks to their 4,000-5,000 daily halal calorie intake and exercise facilities, systematically put on weight and muscle, enjoy modern dental and medical care and get every opportunity to study. Deaths have been very few - three suicides and one cancer case - which is a better record, percentage-wise, than the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague which couldn't even keep Slobodan Milosevic alive during his trial for crimes against humanity. Yet even if the abuse stories were all true, it seems perverse for Amnesty to select for its campaign Guantanamo, with but some four hundred detainees, as the epitome of human rights violators, whilst ignoring others who consistently demonstrate far greater expertise in the violation department, in terms of both quality and quantity.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, every year the Western world wilfully slaughters seven million of its own people, but this practice is protected - if not encouraged - by the law, because the innocent sufferers are not only voiceless and voteless but haven't yet exited the womb (what a difference a few centimetres down the birth canal makes). Five times more are similarly are killed in the developing world. But since Amnesty is now an enthusiastic advocate of abortion, it sees no need to complain about these wanton mega-deaths. So why does Amnesty Ireland, in celebrating the UN Declaration of Human Rights, choose to remain silent when there is such a fecund reservoir of the world's monstrous human rights violators from whom to choose? Why pick on little Guantanamo where there may be or may not be some violations, but in any case not even a thousand inmates have ever enjoyed its hospitality, of whom none have been killed? In fact, as this photomontage shows, this is part of global Amnesty campaign. We all know the answer, of course. The monstrous violators are given a free pass because they are anti-democratic, not white and - especially - not Americans. Like any spoiled teenager, Amnesty loves to be seen as brave by rebelling against a strong and (mostly though not alwasy) righteous adult, safe in the knowledge that this will have no adverse consequences. But its juvenile antics do nothing to better the lives of the many millions who truly suffer from egregious human rights abuses. Like many do-good outfits that have been around for a long time, Amnesty has allowed itself to become morally corrupt if not bankrupt. It should be abandoned by right-meaning people, or at least ignored. There are plenty of other worthy NGOs to support, GOAL for instance.
Reflections on Ireland's Lisbon Treaty Referendum Ireland's Lisbon Treaty Referendum campaign was a fascinating exercise which helped me clarify my thoughts about this (deliberately) complex document. As I wrote earlier, I found it distinctly weird, not to say a bit uncomfortable, to find myself, as a Naysayer, on the same side as odious organizations such as Sinn Féin, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, the Socialist Workers Party, which are singularly devoted to the destruction of Western society and the capitalism that has made its people wealthy and free. On the other hand if they wanted to vote No, I didn't really care about their reasons. I was happier to be associated with more business-oriented Naysayers such as Libertas or Catholic outfits such as Coir or the much-reviled newspaper Alive!. But some of the objections to Lisbon raised by these various establishments were in fact reasons that I would be happy to vote Yes, to the extent that you might believe their reasons were well founded.
So yes, anything that encourages Ireland to defend itself and its people (look at that shameful 0.9%) is to be welcomed. And it should he paid for by cutting back on health and education since they are less important than ensuring everyone stays free and unkilled. Ending Ireland's military neutrality should also be welcomed, because it is utterly amoral to regard Western democracy, liberalism, freedom and culture as being indistinguishable from the various degrees of autocracy and thugocracy that are their alternatives. In all cases of conflict, Ireland should take the side of the freedom-lovers and not remain neutral. Many Naysayers fear that Lisbon would open the door to untrammelled free trade and competition and the tear down protectionist barriers. Also that privatisation of national health and education services could be fostered. If only this were true, since the inevitable result would be improved wealth, health and schooling for citizens, I would be sorely tempted to join the YESsirs. However, you don't need Lisbon to bring any of these virtues into effect. Countries can do it on their own if they have the will to. That's the beauty of democracy - government by the people for the people. And that points to the fundamental flaw in Lisbon - that it can oblige states to do stuff that they and/or their citizens don't want to. In the interests of law-making efficiency, there are some sixty areas where national vetoes will be replaced by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). The whole and only point of QMV is to be able to force through future measures against the wishes of particular states. Inevitably, Ireland will sometimes be such a state, and since, moreover, its voting weight will be cut by two-thirds whilst Germany's will be doubled, why on earth should Ireland agree? The EU already makes something in the order of 70-80% of the laws EU residents obey. Last year, for example, it passed 177, whereas the Irish parliament passed 85 and Westminster just 36. Germany's former president Roman Herzog, noting that 84% of his country's laws emanate from Brussels, questions “whether Germany can still unreservedly be called a parliamentary democracy”. Yet by making this process even easier through QMV, Lisbon will facilitate even more law-making, often unwelcome. Who wants that? Where's the benefit for individual countries such as Ireland, effectively reduced to provinces or counties? Why can't they make their own damn laws? Then there is the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This unelected body will become the final arbiter on practically everything, demoting national supreme courts to second place. It is anyone's guess how it might in the decades ahead interpret Lisbon, deliberately riddled as it is with loose language, ambiguities, contradictions and cross-references, a veritable lawyers' nirvana. The issue here is that such decisions will no longer be part of a country's sovereignty, can lead anywhere and are irreversible. The campaign has clarified my thinking. I am more against Lisbon than ever, but now for just two overriding reasons - QMV and the CJEU. These create a wholly different EU, far distant from its citizens, and one that must never be allowed to come into force, regardless of what other laudable conditions Lisbon might contain.
The Economist was right when it said, “just bury it; the European Union can get along well enough without it”. Death to Lisbon. Long live the EU. And the €uro, by the way.
Garlic Is Good for your Health, Apparently
Five beautiful young women with high heels, long legs and short tunics smile happily as they pose beside what looks like a giant golden garlic, weighing a third of a ton, supported by three sturdy equally-golden cherubs. What can this all mean? It's obvious. Think rectum, think excrement, think embarrassment, think relief. This is a new, $42,000 monument, created by sculptor Svetlana Avakina and erected in the southern Russian resort town of Zheleznovodsk (meaning Iron Waters), in order to celebrate the Mashuk Akva-Term Sanatorium that you can see in the background. The stirring cry on the banner hung from the building gives the game away: “Let's beat constipation and sloppiness ... with enemas”. For yes, the Sanatorium and the town are inordinately proud of their enema industry. Hundreds if not thousands of the miserably bunged-up flock there throughout the year to get flushed out with “Iron Waters” from the local mineral springs. “An enema is almost a symbol of our region”, declares the braggart director Alexander Kharchenko. And the garlic? Not being Princess Diana, I am not terribly familiar with the intricacies of enigmatic enematic procedures. But if you are something like a 400 kilo gorilla I understand you get the pointy end of the garlic shoved up where the sun don't shine, lustily assisted by the five beauties in nurse's garb plus the three boy-angels. And then they connect the high-pressure iron-water hose. Hopefully the gruesome garlic is scaled down a bit for smaller, more delicate mortals. But you never know with Russians. The Americans are of course all pansies, so the biggest garlic they can manage seems to be a piffling half-kilo, and in red rubber not gold. Apparently enemas are good for your health and people actually part with their hard-earned money to submit to it. Beats me. Interestingly, over the past several years Zheleznovodsk has also become the site of an international hot air balloon festival. I wonder where they get the hot air, and if the two industries are related.
Issue 178’s Comments to Cyberspace Just a handful of contributions over the past month.
- - - - - - - - - - J I H A D - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “If waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”
English Journalist Christopher Hitchens after,
with incredible bravery, His ordeal has been captured on video. It's not nice. Quote: “If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective.”
Israel's Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz
contemplates - - - - - - - - - - I R E L A N D - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Ireland was wrong to hold a referendum, which is a tool for dictators ... It is up to the Government to determine how it could pass the treaty though either a new referendum or a majority in the Dáil.” Alain Lamassoure MEP, and a key adviser to French president
Nicolas Sarkozy, Quote: “The Irish disease is spreading. Everyone feels they can speak out now since the referendum. Ratification cannot be taken for granted anymore.”
Piotr Maciej Kaczynski, a research fellow Quote: “If you want to stay on your knees, by all means, I'd encourage you ... there [is] a very pretty girl on her knees there in front of me.”
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, at a press
conference,
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| See the Archive and Blogroll at top left and right, for your convenience | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Return
to Tallrite Blog As always, “ill-informed and objectionable” - Comment by an anonymous reader |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ah
yes, Gaza. The world blames Israel, the security barrier and its few
checkpoints for effectively imprisoning a million and a half Gazans,
Now, for a little [Light Relief]
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Gift Idea |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Good to report that as at
FREED AT LAST, |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
BLOGROLL
Atlantic Blog (defunct) Blog-Irish (defunct)
Jihad
Religion
Iona Institute
Leisure
Blog Directory
My Columns in the
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
What I've recently
But it's not
entirely honest in its subtle pro-Palestinian bias, and therefore needs
to be read in conjunction with an antidote, such as See detailed review +++++
BP's ambitious CEO John Browne expanded it through adventurous acquisitions, aggressive offshore exploration, and relentless cost-reduction that trumped everything else, even safety and long-term technical sustainability. Thus mistakes accumulated, leading to terrifying and deadly accidents in refineries, pipelines and offshore operations, and business disaster in Russia. The Macondo blowout was but an inevitable outcome of a BP culture that had become poisonous and incompetent. However the book is gravely compromised by a litany of over 40 technical and stupid errors that display the author's ignorance and carelessness. It would be better to wait for the second (properly edited) edition before buying. As for BP, only a wholesale rebuilding of a new, professional, ethical culture will prevent further such tragedies and the eventual destruction of a once mighty corporation with a long and generally honourable history. Note: I wrote
my own reports on Macondo +++++
A horrific account of:
More details on my blog here. +++++
After recounting a childhood of convention and simple pleasures in working-class Aberdeen, Mr Urquhart is conscripted within days of Chamberlain declaring war on Germany in 1939. From then until the Japanese are deservedly nuked into surrendering six years later, Mr Urquhart’s tale is one of first discomfort but then following the fall of Singapore of ever-increasing, unmitigated horror. After a wretched journey Eastward, he finds himself part of Singapore’s big but useless garrison. Taken prisoner when Singapore falls in 1941, he is, successively,
Chronically ill, distraught and traumatised on return to Aberdeen yet disdained by the British Army, he slowly reconstructs a life. Only in his late 80s is he able finally to recount his dreadful experiences in this unputdownable book. There are very few first-person eye-witness accounts of the the horrors of Japanese brutality during WW2. As such this book is an invaluable historical document. +++++
This is a rattling good tale of the web of corruption within which the American president and his cronies operate. It's written by blogger Michele Malkin who, because she's both a woman and half-Asian, is curiously immune to the charges of racism and sexism this book would provoke if written by a typical Republican WASP. With 75 page of notes to back up - in best blogger tradition - every shocking and in most cases money-grubbing allegation, she excoriates one Obama crony after another, starting with the incumbent himself and his equally tricky wife. Joe Biden, Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarett, Tim Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Steven Rattner, both Clintons, Chris Dodd: they all star as crooks in this venomous but credible book. ACORN, Mr Obama's favourite community organising outfit, is also exposed for the crooked vote-rigging machine it is. +++++
It is really just a collation of amusing little tales about surprising human (and occasionally animal) behaviour and situations. For example:
The book has no real message other than don't be surprised how humans sometimes behave and try to look for simple rather than complex solutions. And with a final anecdote (monkeys, cash and sex), the book suddenly just stops dead in its tracks. Weird. ++++++
It's chapters are organised around provocative questions such as
It's central thesis is that economic development continues to be impeded in different countries for different historical reasons, even when the original rationale for those impediments no longer obtains. For instance:
The author writes in a very chatty, light-hearted matter which makes the book easy to digest. However it would benefit from a few charts to illustrate some of the many quantitative points put forward, as well as sub-chaptering every few pages to provide natural break-points for the reader. +++++
The author was a member of Britain's V Force, a forerunner of the SAS. Its remit was to harass Japanese lines of command, patrol their occupied territory, carryout sabotage and provide intelligence, with the overall objective of keeping the enemy out of India. Irwin is admirably yet brutally frank, in his descriptions of deathly battles with the Japs, his execution of a prisoner, dodging falling bags of rice dropped by the RAF, or collapsing in floods of tears through accumulated stress, fear and loneliness. He also provides some fascinating insights into the mentality of Japanese soldiery and why it failed against the flexibility and devolved authority of the British. The book amounts to a very human and exhilarating tale. Oh, and Irwin describes the death in 1943 of his colleague my uncle, Major PF Brennan. +++++ Other books here |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition, |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
