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TALLRITE BLOG
You can write to me at
blog2-at-tallrite-dot-com |
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| September 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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ISSUE #161 - 30th September 2007 [430]
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Seatbelts: The Difference Between Funerals and Hospitals A car races along a four-lane freeway at 120 km/hr (75 mph). It encounters a sudden instability. The car careers towards the central reservation, bounces off it, twists around and eventually comes to a halt, a write-off of course. It strike no other vehicle in its terminal paroxysm.
Paris France in August 1997; Monasterevin Ireland in August 2007. In Paris, Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi and the (drunk) driver Henri Paul, were all unbelted and all died. Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana's (useless) bodyguard, in the front passenger seat was the only one in a seat belt and he survived. I call him useless because he not only failed to ensure Diana was belted up, but allowed an intoxicated man to drive her - and his sole job was to protect her life. In fact Diana never wore a belt when she was a back-seat passenger, as TV images repeatedly showed. The sudden instability they encountered was a white Fiat Uno whose back left wing their Mercedes clipped whilst overtaking. The Monasterevin accident
involved my brother and some of his family.
I recount this incident solely to highlight what most of us surely already know. Seatbelts save lives. For this reason alone - and certainly not to satisfy legislation - we should always wear them in every vehicle every time and ensure that everyone else in the car also wears them. Moreover, an unbelted occupant is a lethal hazard not only to himself but to the other belted occupants because in a crash his body will be thrown around the inside of the car like a missile, breaking people's necks and other bones. Seatbelts really do mean the difference between a funeral and a hospital.
Six Inconvenient Truths about Slavery in the US Much is said and written about the shame of slavery in America, and how modern-day white Americans should apologise to their modern-day black compatriots. Rubbish, and for six reasons.
I wish I had thought up this list, but I didn't. It's culled from an excellent article by columnist, author and talk-radio host Michael Meved, which I would recommend.
Rugby World Cup Shirt-Championship
For someone like me, it's the only show in town, six weeks of glorious rugby that come around only every four years. Click on the logo - also at the top right above my blogroll - to get the current scores, points and rankings, which I am updating in (almost) real time.
And then you have two of the so-called big boys, England the current world champion and Ireland ranked sixth in the world.
It so happens that both nations have the same proud sponsor, O2, a phone company. It's ponying up £12m to back the England team and perhaps half as much as again for the Irish. I am sure O2's shareholders thought these were very astute investments at the time, though they're not so sure today. But O2 has accorded England and Ireland the opportunity to mount a separate competition, one that they can actually win, to be known as the Rugby World Cup Shirt-Championship. These are their entries:
Cry your eyes out, New Zealand, you haven't a hope of winning this one.
Two years ago, I wrote a piece, Dissing the Haka, pondering why the opposing team just stands around respecting the farcical pantomime instead of, say, ridiculing it. In the current World Cup, their opponents still allow these teams to play their silly ritual and thus start the rugby feeling all charged up like warriors of old. But I've just come across this clip where one team, once upon a time long ago, stood up to the Haka. Ireland in 1989.
But the rugby bosses were so outraged by this effrontery that such presumptuousness was never again permitted. “It's just not cricket”, they said. D'oh!
Week 161's Letter to the Press Only three letters over the past month or so, and none of them published. I am obviously losing my touch.
- - - - - - - - - - I R A N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Iran ... is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. ... Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel ... Iran is sending arms to the Taliban. ... Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes. ... Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust ... Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere ... We will confront this danger before it is too late.” George Bush,
speaking to Quote: “It is necessary to prepare for the worst ... the worst, it's war, sir.” French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner recognizes the danger posed by allowing Iran to continue developing its nuclear bomb unmolested.
He later backtracked saying he didn't mean what he
seemed to imply - - - - - - - - - - I R A Q - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “You see Sunnis who once fought side by side with al Qaeda against coalition troops now fighting side by side with coalition troops against al Qaeda. Anbar is a huge province. It was once written off as lost. It is now one of the safest places in Iraq.” George Bush in Anbar province on a surprise visit Quote: “Day after day, hour after hour, they keep the pressure on the enemy that would do our citizens harm. They've overthrown two of the most brutal tyrannies of the world, and liberated more than 50 million citizens. In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year ... “Like our enemies in the past [Japan, North Korea, North Vietnam], they [Islamicists] kill Americans because we stand in their way of imposing this ideology across a vital region of the world. This enemy is dangerous; this enemy is determined; and this enemy will be defeated ... “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people’, ‘re-education camps’, and ‘killing fields’ ... “It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] will remain in his position - that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship ... “The greatest weapon in the arsenal of democracy is the desire for liberty written into the human heart by our Creator.” George Bush addresses US military veterans of foreign wars Quote: “[My] government has been active in fostering national reconciliation ... US officials should think first before criticising [my] administration ... This sends messages to the terrorists that the security situation is weak and the political situation is not strong. These are negative messages, encouraging the terrorists” Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki Quote: “On our fundamental rights if we have to make a choice between Boston and Berlin, then the Green Party looks to Berlin.”
Eamon Ryan, Ireland's Green party
Minister
Why do you never see a Rightwing green party,
- - - - - - - - - - I R E L A N D - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Ireland is a coarse place with a sad history where the natives are obsessed by money”
Christian Pauls, German Ambassador to Ireland, Quote: “[If they fail to hold an EGM] Ryanair could then convene the EGM itself and any cost incurred by Ryanair must be discharged by Aer Lingus and deducted from Aer Lingus' director fees. I can envisage booking out the Four Seasons or perhaps the Shelbourne Hotel with a free bar for the Aer Lingus [shareholders who attend], with the Aer Lingus directors personally meeting the expense. One can but dream.”
Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary, - - - - - - - - - - O T H E R - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Don’t worry, Mummy. I will give it back to you one day when I am king.”
As reported by Tina Brown, author of
“The
Diana Chronicles”, Quote: “Mal de George”
French satirists' version of the
“mal de gorge” (sore throat)
excuse
One of the most frequent questions addressed to
US Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to
“disorderly conduct”
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to Tallrite Blog “Ill-informed and objectionable as always” Comment by an anonymous reader |
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Still
on rugby, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all insist on performing, prior
to their every game, what they call a Haka, a kind of girly war dance which
is not unlike Michael Flatley's infamous
Now, for a little [Light Relief]
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Gift Idea |
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Good to report that as at
FREED AT LAST, |
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BLOGROLL
Atlantic Blog (defunct) Blog-Irish (defunct)
Jihad
Religion
Iona Institute
Leisure
Blog Directory
My Columns in the
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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 |
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After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition, |
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