“Uni students get fired up over Greiner's smoking role,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald:
The appointment of former NSW premier and tobacco industry representative Nick Greiner to a position at Sydney University was untenable, protesters said today.
Wow! A protest! Young people speaking out! More than 170 words later, we learn just how many of these impassioned idealists had confronted the nicotine pusher.
About 40.
Wonder what the cutoff point is at which a “protest” is considered non-newsworthy ... 30? 20? Six? One activist and a puppet?
We backed a winner with this guy. Jake Ryan phoned this morning to offer an astonished thanks to everybody who contributed to the Beer Fund, and he turns out to be funny, clever, and completely overwhelmed by the generosity shown to him. Your Beer Fundage could not be going to a more appreciative person.
(Luckily, he also turns out to be among the tiny percentage of Australians who like beer. The decision not to run a Frozen Yoghurt Fund is vindicated.)
The speech that led to all this was, he says, totally spontaneous, although he was careful not to become too aggressive: “The federal police were nice guys, but they warned me that if I jumped the fence [between the spectators and the accused] I’d be going home in a coffin.”
He’s back home in Queensland now, making plans to spend $1,355 with his mates on a monster night out. Photographs are promised. Send Jake a note. And here are all the people who donated, and whom Jake wants to thank:
Sarah H., Michele, William M., Sean S., Kevin, Daniel R., Michael H., Erik Z., Barbara S., Bernie Slattery, John D., Robert T., Jan S., Damian Penny, Ernie G., James L., Kristin D., William T., Ronald M., Debra L., Scott Wickstein, Jake D & Miss Noosa, Tim A., Chris U., Mark S., Oscar Jr., Ken B., Steve B., David L., Ricky Dardenne, Scott W., Ian F., John Y., Roger Bournival, Michael S., Charles H., Kevin M., Professor Bunyip, Gordon K., Ed F., Silent Running, Jim C., Ward A., Michael B., Charles Austin, Andrew M., Jack Strocchi, Gary S., John H., Gary Gravett, Scott S., Paul Bickford, Maurice T., Benjamin R., Andrew Lloyd, Robert A., Michael L., Tony the Teacher, Hedley T., Michael Jennings, Stephen S., Paul S., James W., Brian J., Robert R., Matt C., Silflay Hraka, Guy H., Gerarde A., Ricky D., Stephen S., Charles N., Matthew K., Zsa Zsa, Michael Gebert, James M., Ian F., John S., William B., Andrew M., and Josh Crockett, who variously hail from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Philadelphia, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Kentucky, New Jersey, Wyoming, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, New York, California, Texas, Virginia, Alabama, Nevada, Florida, Missouri, New Zealand, England, Canada, and Hong Kong.
Lots of people didn’t provide an address. Apologies to any slighted states/nations/principalities that participated in the Coalition of the Beering, and my personal thanks to all who supported this little idea. Beer 1, Terror 0.
Hey, Sydney bloggers, blog readers, and cyber stalkers! This Friday is the Fourth of July, so head for the Nelson Hotel in Bondi Junction to:
a) celebrate the USA's history of excellence, or
b) condemn the Great Demonic Hegemon.
I’m not sure if I’ve got everybody’s politics correct there, or even if everybody linked is actually in Sydney. Who cares? Bring your bitter prejudices, personal issues, and credit problems to the back bar of the Nelson (232 Oxford St., Bondi Junction) and everything will be made better. Let’s start at ... oh, 8pm or so?
Dinesh D'Souza, who emigrated from India to the US, lists ten great things about his adopted land, including this:
Newcomers to the United States are struck by the amenities enjoyed by "poor" people. This fact was dramatized in the 1980s when CBS television broadcast a documentary, "People Like Us," intended to show the miseries of the poor during an ongoing recession. The Soviet Union also broadcast the documentary, with a view to embarrassing the Reagan administration. But by the testimony of former Soviet leaders, it had the opposite effect. Ordinary people across the Soviet Union saw that the poorest Americans have TV sets, microwave ovens and cars. They arrived at the same perception that I witnessed in an acquaintance of mine from Bombay who has been unsuccessfully trying to move to the United States. I asked him, "Why are you so eager to come to America?" He replied, "I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat."
D'Souza’s points about anti-Americanism recall certain loser sectors of the Australian populace. Speaking of annoying the antis, WogBlog has dicovered a fine Italian site, about which the Wog observes: “Gotta have pallone of steel to call your blog I Love America while you are living in the Bel Paese.”
Agence France Presse journalist Josette Michy-Giraud warns Merde in France to “stop writing in English”:
to begin with stop writing in English and stop sucking off the Brits and the Americans they have enough power as it is! One must criticize one's country that's important, but to denigrate constantly does not make any sense, just apply for American citizenship, things will go much quicker! You are knocking yourself out when all you have to do is get a green card!
Josette: just stop writing! Other brief items:
•The NSW Carr government is reissuing fines from decades past, including ancient (and already paid) dangerous dog penalties.
•Katherine Hepburn has died at 96.
•And another man whose arm became trapped has decided to remove the limb.
A show that will never bomb, no matter how many infidels are surrounding the studio:
A satellite channel has offered Comical Ali a lucrative deal to host a current affairs show.
Abu Dhabi TV has asked Iraq's former information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf to move to the United Arab Emirates to work for them.
One TV executive said: "He would be like your Jeremy Paxman."
Evil Google discriminates against the stupid:
It was a Left-wing political activist from Texas, Daniel Brandt, who started it, noting that his website – a database of news clippings and facts he had been creating since the 1960s on a list of 100,000 public figures – was coming up only sporadically on Google searches.
The effect, says Brandt, is a vicious cycle: with a low PageRank, your site may not be crawled and therefore will not appear in Google's index. The result: no links from other sites and a perpetually low PageRank.
"In other words," he says, "the rich get richer, and the poor hardly count at all. If you don't get on Google and people don't know about you, there's no point in maintaining a website.
"This is not uniquely democratic, but uniquely tyrannical. It's corporate America's dream machine, where big business can crush the little guy."
So start your own Google, Daniel. Make it search for sites nobody wants to read!
With friends like these ...
One of the world's best-known terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s has written a book lauding the man suspected of masterminding the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez, praises Osama Bin Laden's "shining" example in a selection of writings from his prison cell in France which went on sale on Thursday.
A convert to Islam since his imprisonment for three murders, Sanchez preaches "revolutionary Islam" - which is the title of his book - as the new, post-Communist answer to what he calls US "totalitarianism".
I look forward to the Jackal’s lecture tour. What’s that? He’s in prison until he dies? Too bad.
What the hell was 7.30 Report host Kerry O’Brien thinking? At the conclusion of a segment featuring young Harry Potter readers, old Kerry had this to say about one pre-teen Potter fan:
I don't know how Harry scrubs up at 15 but Judith Torzillo isn't bad for 11.
The Sydney Sun Herald’s Rachel Browne mentioned O’Brien’s creepy comment in her Sunday column (no link available). For the benefit of US readers, “scrubs up” is Brit-Australianese for “looks”; such a remark usually refers to a person's attractiveness or desirability. Imagine Dan Rather describing an 11-year-old as “hot”.
To make matters worse, an earlier segment on the same show covered a grisly pedophilia case. Viewers were unhappy:
“I would like to say that I think the comment by Kerry O'Brien regarding how well the 11 year old girl interviewed for the Harry Potter sequence 'scrubbed up' was totally inappropriate and offensive. This is not the way that one of Australia's pre-eminent media personalities should be seen to regard an 11 year old child.”
“Expressing an explicitly sexual assessment of the appearance of an eleven year old girl with the implication that she looked much older than her years is more aligned with the thinking of a pedophile than a well adjusted adult.”
“I think I have just witnessed the biggest faux-pas ever by Kerry on tonight's episode of the 7.30 Report. The show opened with a shocking story about paedophilia and one man's struggle for justice. Then to close the show after the Harry Potter segment, Kerry utters: 'I don't know about Harry Potter at fifteen, but Judith (Forgot surname) scrubs up pretty well for eleven.' For God's sake, I think we at the very least deserve an explanation of that comment, and the context in which it was meant.”
Over to Media Watch for its verdict. Was O’Brien’s remark in context?
The Independent’s Kathy Marks reports from Melbourne on the death of gangster Jason Moran:
Some observers believe his killing was retaliation for the murder of Victor Pierce, shot dead outside a supermarket last year. Pierce was an associate of Frank Benvenuto, gunned down in 2000. The theory is that Pierce blamed the Morans and shot Mark as payback. Jason then murdered Pierce - and was killed himself. The other suspect is a rival amphetamine manufacturer who survived after being shot in the stomach, allegedly by the Morans, over a £160,000 debt.
Whatever the reason, Jason knew he was a marked man. He changed addresses frequently and varied his routine. His only regular activity was taking his twins to football training. He would have felt safe there; killing people in front of children is regarded as bad form, even by gangsters.
The flouting of that code has shocked Melbourne's most hard-bitten characters. Kath Pettingill, matriarch of a renowned crime family, said: "It's not on. It's a sad world if it comes to that."
Great reporting, Independent. Kath isn’t just the “matriarch of a renowned crime family”. She’s the mother of Victor Pierce, who you mentioned in the previous paragraph. She’s also kind of sweet, in a deadly sort of way. Hi, Kath!
Official Bush War Machine™ comedian Dennis Miller continues to taunt the deserving:
He had a special barb for one candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has questioned the Iraq war, comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who followed a policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II.
"He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain's name on his right forearms, he's never going anywhere," Miller said.
Bush, whose own comic timing is often misunderestimated, loved it:
"I spent an amazing couple of hours with Dennis Miller," Bush said during his Los Angeles speech after Miller's routine. "He keeps you on your toes."
He added: "I was also honored to meet his wife, Carolyn. Like me, he married above himself. It may not be all that hard, in his case. But I'm proud to have his help."
Lennie Lower’s riotous Here’s Luck somehow avoided being listed among Australia’s top 40 books. The Sunday Telegraph’s Paul Pottinger, justly incensed, is now campaigning for Lower’s recognition:
With Lower rights holder Tom Thompson planning to belatedly republish Here's Luck around Lennie's centennial on September 23, moves are afoot to bludgeon the great and worthy into formally recognising one of Australia's most neglected scribblers.
Pat Sheil is the Presiding Chief Petty Under-Secretary of the Lennie Lower Centennial Organising Committee, which is leading the push to have former hack Bob Carr unveil some form of official plaqueand kick off what Lower would have no doubt have called "a quiet, respectable turnout".
In any event, the occasion will not be allowed to go unnoticed. Watch this space.
Good work. Fans of the book, by the way, will recognise the source of a certain pundit’s online persona. Here’s to Stanley!
Seems to me that this might almost be a form of discrimination:
An Oxford University professor has provoked outrage by rejecting an application from an Israeli PhD student purely because of his nationality.
Andrew Wilkie, the Nuffield professor of pathology and a fellow of Pembroke College, is under investigation after telling Amit Duvshani, a student at Tel Aviv university, that he and many other British academics were not prepared to take on Israelis because of the "gross human rights abuses" he claims that they inflict on Palestinians.
"As you may be aware, I am not the only UK scientist with these views but I'm sure you will find another lab if you look around."
Like the one Dr. Mengele used to run, for example. Meanwhile, via the Jerusalem Post:
The London Times reports that after the BBC broadcast its provocative documentary Israel's Secret Weapon on its World Service channel, Israel has broken off contact with the venerable broadcasting organization known as "Auntie".
Israeli officials will refuse BBC interviews, impose visa restrictions, and be decidedly unhelpful to the BBC at road blocks and Ben-Gurion Airport.
"The BBC will discover that bureaucracy can be applied with goodwill or without it. And after the way that they have repeatedly tried to delegitimize the State of Israel, we, as hosts, have none left for them," Daniel Seaman, director of the government press office, told The Times.
He said that Israel has come to believe that the overall BBC attitude towards Israel is "verging on the anti-Semitic".
"We decided that we had to draw a red line rather than just complain about a consistent attitude in which successive BBC programs attempt to place us in the same context as totalitarian, axis-of-evil countries such as Iraq and Iran," Seaman continued.
The BBC should have been booted after its reporting on the Jenin non-massacre.
The Beanie Baby Hero Bear looks like he got his face all slashed. Probably in a knife fight with another drunken Beanie.
And in other sporting news, Damian Penny reports on the hateful bigotry in international ping-pong.
Congratulations to Albania, the latest region to qualify for the Amazon Deforestation Comparison World Cup:
The deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon, the largest stretch of forest in the world, has increased by 40% in the past year, according to preliminary figures released yesterday by the Brazilian government.
Almost 10,000sq miles (24,000sq km) of virgin forest - an area the size of Albania - were lost.
Previously deforested, burned, farmed, threatened or otherwise dicked-with slabs of Amazon have been described as equal to the size of New England, the size of Denmark, the size of France, twice the size of France, the size of Belgium, the size of two Belgiums, half the size of Belgium (“Belgium” is a global standard for Amazon measurement, apparently), eight times the size of the urban sprawl of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, the size of Maryland, nearly the size of Israel, ten times the size of Costa Rica, four times the size of Portugal, the size of
Britain and France combined, and the size of Italy.
Each year, the Amazon loses an area almost the size of Washington State, land the size of Portugal, an area of rainforest the size of Brazil, a chunk the size of Connecticut, forested acreage the size of Poland, and an area equivalent to the size of Rhode Island.
Who will be the first to write that the Amazon has lost an area of rainforest “equal to the size of the Amazon”?
It’s taken a couple of months, but the honourable member for Baghdad has finally put his money where his big fat Saddam-kissing mouth is:
The controversial anti-war MP George Galloway yesterday issued high court libel proceedings against the Daily Telegraph over a claim that he was in the pay of Saddam Hussein.
Should be fun.
Chatting to a senior journalist here a while ago. He was surprised to learn that George W. Bush’s academic record was comparable to intellectual titan Al Gore’s; like many people, journalists or not, he simply assumed that Dubya didn’t have no schoolin’, and ain’t never got no degrees or nothin’.
It sometimes seems that journalists are desperate to reinforce this idea. A case in point: recently Dmitri Piterman, president and wannabe-coach of Spanish soccer team Racing Santander, told a writer that he was qualified to instruct the team despite not having a coaching certificate. "There's a dork out there running the most powerful country in the world without a qualification to his name,” he told the journalist. “And you want me to have a diploma to run a football team?"
The line was picked up by ESPN, and then by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter FitzSimons. It went from Spain to the US to Australia ... entirely because it was wrong.
In an event previously unknown in the history of modern airtravel, a person has been searched at an airport:
The spiritual leader of Australia's Muslim community was subjected to a "humiliating" search by customs officials at Sydney airport this week, his spokesman said today.
He had cleared customs when, waiting at the baggage carousel with a travelling companion, he was taken by a customs official to have his bags comprehensively searched.
I can’t find a single case of this ever happening before. Google turns up nothing, no matter what combination of words I use. Has anyone else heard of this mysterious “airport security” deal?
Read all about the Clue by Four legal dispute that’s ripping the Internet apart!
P.J. O’Rourke on Hillary Clinton’s Lumbering History:
If you plan not to read this summer, "Living History" is just the book. Hillary Clinton's new memoir is more than 100,000 pages long. At least I think it is. There are only 562 page numbers, but you know how those Clintons lie. A mere ream of paper could not contain the padding that has gone into this tome. Hillary--with the help of at least six ghostwriters--nails the goose of a manuscript to the barn floor and force-feeds it with lint.
We are informed, for instance, that Jackie Onassis was once, herself, a first lady and later married a Greek shipping magnate. We learn how a chief executive walks to the podium to deliver a State of the Union speech: "The president greets members of both parties who, by tradition, sit on opposite sides of the aisle." Even Hillary's grief over the death of her dad is padded: "My father would not be at the table vying with Hugh and Tony for one of the drumsticks or asking for more cranberries and water-melon pickle, two of his favorites from childhood." And then there are the fulsome tales of official junkets--unimportant, uninteresting, uneventful, and unending. "I had given a lot of thought to how Chelsea and I should dress on the trip. We wanted to be comfortable, and, under the sun's heat, I was glad for the hats and cotton clothes I had packed." And I was glad for the scopolamine transdermal patch.
UPDATE. Stephen Romei in The Australian has an entirely different view of Hillary’s book. No link is available, but these few lines of his review should be enough:
The insider's story of a White House fixed in its ways after the Reagan-Bush years is told with wit and grace ... Some see Living History as the opening shot in the Hillary 2008 campaign. For what it’s worth, I think they’re right and I hope she wins.
He doesn't even know yet who her opponent will be.
A bunch of us in a bar the other night. We meet a babe wearing a miniskirt and boxing shoes.
As a noted fashion expert, I commend this look for both hotness and practicality.
Canadian Mark Steyn is no longer published in Canada. What are dey tinking up dere? Anyway, given the laws of supply and demand, this should push Canadian sales of Steyn’s terrific Face of the Tiger into Harry Potter territory. My copy - sent by a great friend in Oxford, many thanks - includes a note from Steyn that indicates he’s been paying close attention to Australia’s media ownership dispute. Fairfax would profit from his cunning plan.
Tiger isn’t for sale in Australian bookstores (there’s so little space, what with all the Pilger and the Noam) so click on the link above to get your copy. You need this book.
Imagine the future uses of this device:
Mark Grasmueck can see underground and, without hardly anyone noticing, he has been peeking below downtown Miami.
Grasmueck, 36, has developed a device that he slowly and methodically pulls backward like a reverse lawn mower, each time targeting a four-inch strip of ground.
A particularly sophisticated form of ground-penetrating radar, the device visually slices the earth into fine layers. When reassembled, the exquisitely thin images create a movie that takes the viewer on an underground tour.
According to archeologist Robert Carr, “He produces what appears to be an X-ray movie of what's below the ground. It's like the greatest science fiction film you ever saw. Nothing like this has ever been done in the history of archaeology.” Think of what the Ground-O-Scope™ might find beneath the streets of London, say, or Athens.
Did you know that it’s dangerous to mock the United Nations?
The federal government's United Nations bashing was today attacked as hypocritical and dangerous.
Labor said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was suffering from amnesia, former Australian ambassador to the UN Richard Butler said he was displaying breathtaking double standards and the Greens said his approach could make Australia a regional mini-imperialist outcast.
If Labor, Butler, and Brown all oppose this, it is almost certainly a sound notion deserving of our complete support. Let’s see what Downer has to say:
Mr Downer, citing Rwanda and Kosovo, said yesterday that Australia was more interested in results than in preserving the multilateral principle embodied in the "behemoth" UN or the notion of sovereignty.
What’s not to like?
Rumour is that ABC presenter Tony Squires has quit and moved to the Seven Network. Nothing online to support this yet, although the story has apparently been around since midday yesterday.
More sackings at the ABC yesterday, too. The place is in a little bit of trouble right now. Don’t believe claims that it’s all to do with budget cuts, by the way. If the ABC can afford to pay Phillip Adams $120,000 per year, it doesn’t have budget trouble.
In other TV news, Comical Ali has returned to the screen:
The once-defiant former Iraqi information minister appeared humbled and evasive in a TV interview aired today, describing the fall of the Iraqi regime to coalition forces as an "earthquake" and refusing to blame Saddam Hussein for the war.
Hire him, ABC!
(First Ali link via Matt Howell.)
I won't be back here for several hours, so go nuts. Comment, editorialise, suggest, rant, hector, or abuse. Post new dance steps. Propose to a stranger. Defame your own family. Up to you.
The presence of US troops in Sydney on their way home from the Gulf inspires the Sydney Morning Herald’s Malcolm Knox to unburden himself:
With the Imperial War Machine in town this past week, it's been tempting to exercise a democratic freedom and make some lame but satisfying gesture, such as vomiting on a marine's fatigues (you've seen that camouflage? they'll never know!) or murmuring a sinister "Yankee go home" or "Sure you didn't leave the oven on?"
Malcolm is being funny! Funny Malcolm. Of course, many of those who served endured much worse than journalist vomit. Say, witnessing fellow soldiers being killed, for example.
I don't buy the whole "Hate the War Love the Soldier" thing. Everyone is following orders, be it the marine saying "Yassuh" to his superior, Dick Cheney saying "Yassuh" to Halliburton and the rest of the big oil club, or George Bush saying "Yassuh" to Dick Cheney.
Or Malcolm saying “Yassuh” to Yasser and the rest of the murdering scum he would elevate above any representative of the West.
So I was about to make some profoundly ineffectual statement to a group of marines toting Gowings bags down Market Street when something struck me that changed my mind.
A fist, hopefully.
Did anyone notice how young these people are? They are children. (Which explains, for a start, why American soldiers are so good at killing themselves in combat: a 21-year-old male can turn a Daihatsu Charade into a weapon of self-destruction.)
The next time anyone accuses me of making light of the deaths of Hamas terrorists, I will refer them to this paragraph. If it’s OK for a peacenik like Malcolm ...
Seeing how young these soldiers are, a half-forgotten history lesson came to mind. A fight between nations is only one way of defining war. Seen differently, the real losers in war are the people who get killed, from both sides, so wars are waged by rich old men using poor young men as fodder.
Here we go. The war in Iraq was just the latest version of WWI, etc ...
In World War I, vainglorious old industrialists and monarchs managed to see off a whole generation of young working men. When you look at the lists of Americans who have died in Iraq, they're dominated by under-25s and sub-corporals. I don't see many victims of their commander-in-chief's age, nor many who went to Yale.
Nor, in Iraq, were entire generations (from either side) “seen off”. In fact, future generations may have been saved.
So there are reasons to sympathise with soldiers. We're sore at being lied to? Imagine how they feel. If anyone is the victim of propaganda, it's the young, trusting soldier.
We are indeed sore at being lied to, Malcolm. So quit it.
The other way of looking at imperial wars - rich white nations protecting and extending their economic interests to keep the poor 80 per cent of humanity under the heel - also softened me towards the marines. If neo-imperialism is a crime, aren't we all complicit? If those trained killers aren't defending my liberty in Iraq - an absurd notion - they are, ultimately, defending my lifestyle, where I can duck out and grab clothes and toys manufactured by slaves and food subsidised by a wealthy state ripping off impoverished trading "partners".
At this point, I’m about to vomit on myself. Our toys are made by slaves?
So we and the US marines are equally innocent or equally guilty. Either way, unless we're willing to renounce the fruits of our outrageous good fortune, we're all in the same aircraft carrier.
Malcolm knows little about Australia, much less issues beyond these shores. Still, he eventually admits to a grudging affection for those bloodthirsty US warpigs:
Another reason to like them was the contribution of First Sergeant Hessler and Gunnery Sergeant Anderson, who gave a motivational speech pepping up NSW for their State of Origin victory. Apparently they impressed the Blues with their tales of courage from Baghdad.
Now courage is an absolute value, so next year why not go major league and get inspiration from soldiers who are defending their very homes, with hopelessly outdated equipment, on starvation rations, lacking body armour, vulnerable from air attack like fish in a barrel, and haven't been paid in months. That's real courage.
Saddam’s courageous troops. Bravely dumping the corpses of children into mass graves.
Hooray for them. Hooray for Malcolm Knox.
Your quest: to create the cutest image in the world.
This is the cutest so far. Or maybe this is. No, wait; this. Or possibly this.
Damian Penny is posting on the babe daughters of dictators. Don’t forget the babe granddaughters!
(Note: not safe for work, allegedly. Where do you people work, by the way? A nun shop?)
Strom Thurmond has died at 100.
No announcement yet on whether he plans to quit politics.
"Ill chip in on the beers," wrote Brian J. "Is there a donation fund?" asked D. At that point was born the great Jake Ryan Beer Fund, now in its final day. The amount raised so far: $A1,331.43
"No B.S., no high-minded rhetoric, just money for beer," writes contributor Josh Crockett. "This is how a charity drive should be run." Thank Brian J. and D. for the idea, Josh. And major league donors like Kevin and Kristin, among many others, for making the amount so huge.
Note: no cash will be diverted to unrelated healthcare facilities:
Mr Ryan says the Red Cross's allocation of public donations to other causes is a kick in the teeth to victims.
"Hundreds of people that I know on the Gold Coast that have donated money, not only to the Bali victims but to my brother and myself and the guys at the Sharks, only to have Red Cross go and throw it into a tuberculosis clinic out in the middle of nowhere," he said.
"We find that really insulting.
"People donated it for the Bali victims and that's where it should go."
The cheque flies Jake’s way on Monday.
As Navin Johnson used to say: “The Lord loves a working man, and don’t trust whitey”. Aboriginal academic Darren Godwell lashes out at white government folks and their “house nigger” enablers:
The house nigger has moved from government-issued horse to government-issued desk. They pride themselves on ministerial invitations to barbecues, appointments to boards and reference groups. They know their place. Blackness without offence. Coloured company free of the challenges of difficult questions. The house niggers do great damage. Their presence legitimises seven years of policy without substance.
White privilege asserts its right to dictate the boundaries and issues in indigenous affairs. House niggers readily support this exercise of privilege. When the minister uses phrases like "Indigenous people I've spoken to say ..." or "Indigenous people around the country tell me ...", it's worth asking who these nameless, faceless, unrepresentative boosters are.
It’s also worth asking who Darren Godwell - despiser of house niggers, foe of white privilege - is. Here’s a picture. Godwell is on the right.
BBC special correspondent John Sweeney in the latest Spectator:
I accuse John Pilger of cheating the public and favouring a dictator.
Read the whole, damning thing.
(Via Damian Penny.)
According to German scientists, “Monkeys can link certain sounds with facial expressions”.
Well, duh.
Two would-be Palestinian suicide bombers were shot dead today attempting to infiltrate the Jewish state from the West Bank, an Israeli military source said.
"The two Palestinians were on their way to carry out a suicide attack inside Israel," the source said. "A bomb expert is currently defusing the explosives found in the two large bags the killed terrorists were carrying," they added.
Were. Past tense. Good.
Oh, great. After I’d paid the deposit and everything:
Australia's first supercar, the Holden Monaro-based HRT 427, will not go ahead, doomed by a cost blowout that saw the ambitious project shelved yesterday.
The car, to have been built by Holden Special Vehicles at Clayton, was tagged as Australia's answer to the best Porsche and Ferrari had to offer. But it was deemed too expensive.
Via the SMH:
Lleyton Hewitt is the "dumbest" ever Wimbledon winner, says former champion Ted Schroeder.
"Hewitt may not be the worst-ever Wimbledon champion but he is certainly the dumbest," said Schroeder, 82, the 1949 Wimbledon champion.
"He has no idea how to get out of a scrape or change his tactics to suit the conditions.
"He just continues to hit the ball as hard as he can. And what can be more dumb than that?"
Answer: Lleyton Hewitt’s advertising campaign for toilet paper.
The oppressive Blair regime again aims to stifle dissent:
Alastair Campbell unleashed an extraordinary onslaught on the BBC yesterday for lying, bad journalism and having a hidden agenda against the war with Iraq. Tony Blair’s communications director turned a rare public appearance intended to defend government handling of Iraq intelligence into a ferocious attack that startled the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
He said that he and Tony Blair had demanded an apology — and would go on demanding it — over persistent BBC reports suggesting that the Government had asked the intelligence services to “sex up” their report last September on the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons — particularly by suggesting that they could be deployed at 45 minutes notice.
“I simply say in relation to the BBC story — it is a lie,” he said, adding that in the run-up to the conflict “there was an agenda in large parts of the BBC . . . there was a disproportionate focus upon the dissent, the opposition to our position.
I like this Campbell fellow. And in response:
The BBC said last night: “We do not feel the BBC has anything to apologise for.”
It regretted that Mr Campbell had chosen to accuse it of lying.
”The BBC” said? ”It” regretted? Is the BBC some form of cyborg, capable of speech and rudimentary logic functions? Does it have emotions? Who instructs it? What does it eat?
It’s usually little trouble to locate a counter-stereotype; a black nerd, say, or a spendthrift Scot. A lazy Chinese student. A polite English shop assistant. A charismatic Belgian, a warlike Frenchman, a quiet Italian - they’re all out there.
But can someone please find me a leftist with a fucking working sense of humour and direct this unique being to my comment boards? The current lefty voices here are almost parodies of the modern “don’t run with scissors” socialist. I put up a post asking for examples of speeding; the lefties counter with tales of road crashes. Laugh at an Iraqi moustache? How unfair to mock someone’s appearance! We raise some cash so a survivor of terrorism can have a party; some fun-sucked sourpants says that a war widow is more deserving.
(Note to whoever that idiot was: we can raise a thousand bucks. That we can do. But the tens of thousands sought by the war widow? Sorry, pal; you’ve got “blog” confused with “gigantic government department”.)
And don’t even get me started on the howling drone who complains about context whenever I fail to post the entire damn text from wherever I’m linking to. Just hit the link, fatso. It won’t kill you. Those headlines about cancer links do not refer to HTML coding. Your pancreas is safe.
The Left’s energy is these days apparently directed towards running around placing warning stickers on everything, or slathering institutional grey paint on anything bright and shiny. You people are boring as hell, and if you don’t fire up I’ll sack the lot of you and hire a whole new team of commenters from a cheap comment-making sweatshop in Taiwan who’ll work for next to nothing because they know if they complain I’ll sell their other sisters into prostitution just like I did to Mee Ling.
Understood?
Lester Maddox has died. Peter Jennings on the US ABC network just presented a brief report; it mentioned that Maddox was a high school dropout but neglected, so far as I could tell, to inform viewers of Maddox’s party affiliation:
Lester G. Maddox, 87, a Georgia restaurateur who drove blacks from his business with ax handles and parlayed the resulting publicity into political power, becoming in 1967 the state's last openly segregationist governor, died June 25 at a hospice in Atlanta after a fall while recuperating from intestinal surgery. He had pneumonia and prostate cancer.
Gov. Maddox, a Democrat ...
Could be that the ABC mentioned this and I missed it. Anyway, whatever wretchedness old Maddox caused during his lifetime, he at least inspired one of my favourite Randy Newman tunes.
Even the courtroom cops like Jake Ryan:
He said he was not told off by the Australian police in the court after his outburst at Samudra.
"As soon as I got out, I asked whether I had done the wrong thing," he said. "They were pretty supportive actually.”
The Jake Ryan Beer Fund now stands at $A1,179. Bloggers and writers who’ve contributed include The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Toth (“A few bucks from an office looking out on Ground Zero. Hey, Jake -- my sentiments exactly”), Charles Austin, Silent Running, Jack Strocchi, Roger Bournival, Silflay Hraka, Michael Gebert, Brian J., and the great Damian Penny. Apologies if I’ve missed anyone, but my inbox is crazy with the donations.
Many contributors want to send Jake a message. From Ernie Gudath: “I'd really like to shake Jake's hand, but this is the best I can do right now. I've got a Cooper's Sparkling Ale on ice to drink in his honor. (I need to thank Tex for putting me on to that - that's one righteous beer!)”
Prolific website commenters Jake D. and Miss Noosa “wish Jake Ryan and his family and friends the best and we hope in time you can rebuild your lives after this tragedy. Terrorism will not defeat us.” Fellow commenter ZsaZsa “takes great satisfaction from donating US$10 to help keep Mr Ryan in beer.”
Matt Crowe hails “Jake the Aussie anti-terror poet warrior”. Matt, by the way, was in the nightclub on the night of the blast, and missed the bomb by just 15 minutes.
From Barbara Skolaut in Richmond, Virginia: “Tell him thanks for me, too. And if he ever gets to the States, the beer's on me.” And Ward Anthony van der Veer has an idea: “Do you think we could get some beer into Imam Samudra as well? It may kill off those defective brain cells which cause him to think strange thoughts, like ‘Allah wants me to kill innocent people’.”
Via AAP:
US authorities in Iraq have been forced to change the name of the planned Iraqi armed forces, after learning that the orginal title they came up with created an unfortunate acronym in Arabic.
The planned force was originally entitled the New Iraqi Corps, whose initals in English produce a colourful Arabic synonym for fornication.
This is why I almost always avoid mowing down nests of rabbits:
Two men who mowed over a nest of rabbits, killing some of them, and another who cleaned the mower developed a rare disease known as rabbit fever, US authorities said.
The federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has launched an investigation into the incident.
The disease, also called pneumonic tularemia, is generally treatable with antibiotics but can lead to pneumonia.
Samples from John Hawkins’ v. funny interview with Ann Coulter:
"Communism is like vegetarianism in that it's actually not very healthy for most people but leftists continue to defend it because it seems like the thing to do."
"Ozzy Osbourne has his bats, and I have that darn 'convert them to Christianity' quote."
"Please buy your children a copy of my book before they are old enough to vote."
Something is wrong in Jasperwood, and if it stops James Lileks writing his Bleats (or anything else), Mossad-level vengeance must be deployed. Ken Layne, Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan and Jim Treacher are on the case. Treacher received this almost-reassuring note:
Most everything is fine, and what isn't will be soon. And this has nothing to do with my job vs. my website, as some are speculating. Nor is this Moxiesque in any way.
We might learn more when the next Bleat is posted, in three hours or so. Then we’ll know if it’s time to turn green and enormous and monosyllabic and start smashing people. Hulk want Bleat!
UPDATE. It’s not happy news, but nor is it catastrophic:
Short version: my wife was sacked.
If this forces Lileks to write more for money than for fun, so be it. I’ll buy.
More rage and heartbreak in Bali:
Another Australian spectator at the trials of the Bali bombers left the court in distress yesterday, saying he wished only for the suspects to be executed.
Louie Zervos, 32, of Sydney, wept outside the court after watching the trials of Mukhlas, the alleged overseer of the Bali bombings, and his alleged trusted lieutenant, Imam Samudra.
Mr Zervos's sister, Louiza, of Marrickville, and his two cousins Dimmy Kotronakis, 27, and Elizabeth Kotronakis, 33, both of Blacktown, died in the blasts on October 12. The three were bridesmaids who had joined the bride and groom on their Bali honeymoon.
Mr Zervos, seething with anger, said he had come to Denpasar with his friend George Giannoulas to represent the families who had lost loved ones. He had ignored pleas from his family not to travel to Bali because of the perceived danger.
"I just want them to die," Mr Zervos said of the suspects. When asked what his objective was in coming to the trial, he would not elaborate. Flanked by Australian Federal Police, who have watched him more closely than any other spectator, he then said through pursed lips: "Most people probably know what my goal was."
I can guess. And I wish he’d had a chance to achieve it.
UPDATE. Today Louis Zervos confronted the accused bombers with photographs of the women who were killed. This is what Sumudra screamed as he left the court:
"With Mecca, with the Kabah, Muslim people, destroy Christians, destroy America, destroy Jews."
Just as Phillip Adams predicted, the US military-industrial complex has commenced planting WMD evidence:
Three U.S. officials told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that an Iraqi scientist who was part of what Saddam called his “nuclear mujahadeen” had led intelligence officials to a barrel in the back yard of his home in Baghdad, where they found plans for a gas centrifuge and components of a uranium enrichment system.
Yeah. Sure they did. Right.
Edward Said meets Rachel Corrie’s family. There’s too much stupid happening in this article to highlight any primary examples, except for Red Ed’s observation that suicide bombing “does much more harm than good”.
No kidding, Ed! Pray reveal the good achieved by suicide bombing!
If you believe this, I’ve got a bomb to sell you:
Hamas has agreed in principle to halt attacks on Israelis for three months but is seeking support from other armed groups before a formal announcement, an Islamic Jihad group leader said today.
Hamas officials in Gaza would not confirm the report, but there have been growing signs that a truce is near. Palestinian sources said they expected a formal truce announcement by the militants by Friday, possibly issued in Cairo.
Will it be an explosive announcement?
Russell Wardlow has all the recent t-shirt controversies completely covered.
And more. A $10 donation to the Jake Ryan Beer Fund from Mark Skoog in Danville, Illinois, has moved the grand total above the $A1000 mark.
Early yesterday, when the Fund was running at about $800, I received an e-mail from Todd McKenzie, a director of the private member All Coast Employees Society Inc. in Broadbeach, Queensland. He generously offered to turn on some beer and BBQ for Jake’s football club in sufficient amount to raise overall donations to a grand. Now he’ll have to charge people so he can lower donations to that figure.
I’ve got a feeling he’ll put on something big regardless. Updates to follow.
In the meantime ... how damn great is this? I expected we’d raise $300. Maybe $500. That we’re able to send a cheque to Jake for more than $1000 - after only a couple of days of online campaigning - is astonishing. Australia’s national newspaper has picked up on the story:
When young footballer Jake Ryan did his block at the alleged Bali bombing field commander Imam Samudra in Denpasar and called him "a f---ing dog", he hit a chord with many Australians. Web blogger and occasional columnist for The Australian Tim Blair on Tuesday launched a "Jake Ryan Beer Fund" on his website with the object of raising money to buy the expressive 22-year-old a few coldies when he returns from Bali. As of yesterday afternoon $1000 had been electronically lodged in the account – promising that Ryan and his mates at the Southport Sharks football club will have more than enough moolah for a big night out.
They surely will. Cheque to be posted Monday, so as to allow much time for Jake and his team to plan a huge Friday night.
Via the Washington Times:
A special U.S. intelligence team in Iraq has searched a half-dozen graves and more than 40 locations in Iraq but has not found missing naval aviator Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, defense officials say.
A team of about 40 intelligence officers dedicated solely to the search for Capt. Speicher, who has been missing since his F-18 jet was shot down over Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, is continuing to hunt for the pilot.
If they can’t find him, it will prove that Capt. Speicher never existed.
To achieve peace in the Middle East, George W. Bush must first solve the issue of Sammy Sosa’s bat. The Palestine Chronicle explains, sort of:
Americans often boast about how much better we are than the people of the Middle East, but in the past few days we've seen some strange things that raise serious questions about American morality and ethics. American baseball "great" Sammy Sosa may have lied and intentionally cheated to achieve his record-breaking homeruns, using the wrong bats. And Martha Stewart, who has been the icon of mainstream Americanism, has been indicted on charges that she used insider information to profit on some stocks. And we look back and see American icons who have done the same in the past, former President Richard M. Nixon broke the law and resigned from office. Predecessor Bill Clinton lied about his sexual affairs. So why shouldn't Arabs be skeptical about the sincerity of President George W. Bush ... ?
Makes sense to me. Of course, that could just be the narcotics.
Justin Webb, the BBC’s Washington correspondent, recently attended the annual dinner of the American Radio and Television Correspondents Association, which was addressed by Vice-President Cheney. Where was the BBC’s table?
Next to the lavatories and the emergency exit.
Ha ha!
Weirdly, the story attached to this headline doesn’t once mention abortion:
Killing unborn children may be outlawed
Apparently new legislation is to be considered in New South Wales following the death last year of an unborn baby following a car crash. The person who caused the crash wasn’t charged with any major offence because in NSW a foetus is not considered to be a child.
Abortion is legal in NSW under what is known as the Levine ruling. Seems that a new law “relating to a criminal act causing a child, capable of being born alive, to die before it has an existence independent of its mother," could alter things. Or not; I’m no lawyer, so I don’t know. Are the words “criminal act” sufficient to distinguish between abortions and unwanted deaths?
Jenin, Jenin, a bunch of Palestinian propaganda recently broadcast on Australia’s SBS network, was produced by Iad Taisir Taher Samodi. Command Post has an update on Samodi’s latest project:
Iad Taisir Taher Samodi was killed on June 23, 2002 in the village Yamon, while trying to resist arrest. Three cell phones, a gun and ammunitions were discovered on his body. Thirty pipe explosives ready to be used for attacks were subsequently found at his house.
Special effects! Those were all just for special effects! Meanwhile Arab Film Distribution provides an alternative ending to this story:
On June 23, as Israeli forces besieged Yamun, Samudi was shot and killed as he was leaving a military-closed area with three friends.
New Iranian blogger Amir -- one of many now posting from the land of the soon-to-be-free, several of whom are linked by Jeff Jarvis -- tells an ominous story of black Land Cruisers:
The police has two different specially marked vehicles. There are white and green Mercedes Benzes that can be spotted in the streets daily. There are also Black Toyota Land Cruisers that can be spotted only on special days.
Due to the increase of the instability of the society over the past few weeks first the number of the green Mercedes Benzes increased and as it got more chaotic more of the black Land Cruisers were also spotted. It is evident that most of young people are more afraid of the black Land Cruisers than the green Mercedeses. there reason for that is the Land Cruisers can hardly be seen in the streets and they only come out when the situations are very severe.
The reason for this change is mostly psychological rather than physical. The main purpose of the police force for this change is to create and intensity and fear among people and to keep themselves in a high position in society.
The English isn’t great (it’s still way better than my Farsi) but the message is clear. And “special days” is brilliantly ominous.
Five days in the desert will make a man thirsty:
He sparked a major search after going missing in the outback for five days, but the first thing 31-year-old Benjamin O'Connor wanted when he walked up to the roadhouse bar was not food, but a beer.
"He just walked in and looked like he was in a pretty rough way," publican Shane Able said today.
"He didn't bother to order anything to eat, he just asked for a VB, threw it back pretty quick and then started asking people at the bar if he could get a lift to Alice Springs.”
Could Europe get any more rulebound?
Advertisements that affront "human dignity" by demeaning women would be prohibited under proposals being drafted by the European Commission.
Television programmes would also be censored to ensure there was no promotion of gender stereotypes.
Tabloid newspaper Page Three pictures would also be threatened. Most forms of gender discrimination - either for or against women - would become illegal, affecting welfare benefits, education and health insurance.
And these people worry about Ashcroft. Please.
You readers rock. More than $A825 has now been donated to Jake Ryan - that’s eight hundred and twenty five delicious, frosty beer-buying dollars from readers in Australia, Asia, the US, and Britain. I’ll keep the Beer Fund rolling until Friday, then send a cheque to Jake care of his football club.
Blogger doners will be linked in the next update. Massive thanks to everybody who has so far contributed. Now for some Jake reaction from Malaysia:
As a Muslim, I am very glad and proud of what Bali bomb victim Jake Ryan did, even if it breached the official conduct in court.
Good on you Jake – that Imam Samudra extremist deserves to be shouted at with the worst of language and even more.
Using Islamic terms for the wrong purpose to confuse people about Islam not only paints a bad name to the religion but also to Muslims the world over.
He and his gang should be given the harshest of punishments.
Shamsul Khairuddin
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
What he said. Follow earlier Beer Fund reports starting here.
An exchange of glances was today characterised as the making of “goo goo eyes”, wire services report.
The phrase was employed despite both parties to the exchange being adults. It is believed to be the first time “goo goo eyes” has been published since a William Kincade quote sickened readers last month.
Kincade is being held by authorities at an undisclosed location.
Another Australian airlines security lapse:
A Qantas flight from Perth to Singapore was delayed after a passenger reportedly was found to have a box-cutter in a seat pocket.
All 233 passengers were removed from the aircraft and re-screened, a Qantas spokeswoman said.
She would not confirm an ABC radio report that a passenger was found to have a box-cutter stowed in a seat.
Hmmm.
The war isn’t over, despite everything thus far achieved:
Six British military police were killed in Iraq, possibly in an incident in a local police station, and eight British soldiers were injured in a separate incident in southern Iraq, Defence Minister Geoff Hoon said.
"Initial information suggests that they may have been involved in an incident in the police station," Hoon said, adding that he could not confirm any other details.
I am not in custody, I am roaming free like the gazelle, no force can constrain me:
US troops have arrested Iraq's information minister under Saddam Hussein, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf - dubbed Comical Ali - at a roadblock in a Baghdad suburb, a media report claimed today.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington. But Britain's Daily Mirror claims the ex-minister, dubbed Comical Ali for proclaiming the defeat of US forces even as they moved into Baghdad, had been hiding out at a relative's house watching satellite TV.
The report said he was caught on Monday night.
"He has some serious talking to do...this time," a senior coalition source was quoted as saying.
Fantastic! So far a total of $A372 has been raised for Jake Ryan, Australia’s foremost anti-terror spokesman. News Ltd’s Cindy Wockner files an update:
Mr Ryan's mobile telephone was running hot, victims and families at home congratulating him for doing something no Australian had yet done.
"If anyone thinks it is the wrong thing, put yourselves in our shoes," he said yesterday. "He is one metre in front of you looking you in the eye and screaming out, what would you do? I've got no regrets at all."
Nor should he have. Meanwhile the BBC and Radio National place Jake Ryan where they believe he should be placed - at the very end of reports about how cruelly accused Bali bombing mastermind Ali Ghufron was treated by police. Who exactly is the victim here?
Jake Ryan lost his right heel, had other people's bones embedded in his legs and shrapnel pierced his abdomen. He was on crutches for four months.
So donate, if you haven’t already.
See here, here, and here for earlier Beer Fund reports. Now hit the PayPal on the left. Mention that your donation is for Jake. Let's try for $500, at least.
What is this thing called "sleep"?
Falling asleep after sex is common. But sleeping during sex?
Medical researchers have discovered an intriguing condition, sexsomnia, in which people who are asleep proceed to initiate sexual activity with their bedmates.
Look at the peaceful peace protester. Imagine him pulling this crap somewhere other than peaceful Australia.
A 25-year-old Filipino man has been stabbed dead for singing a Frank Sinatra classic out of tune during a birthday party.
Maybe you live in Noosa Heads. Maybe you’re an excellent food thrower. Check it out:
Local lad David Williamson has seduced not just Australia's only two Booker prize-winners, Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally, to speak at the Noosa Longweekend, starting Friday, but also that angry old leftie John Pilger. And isn't Pilger's presence causing the sand to fly among the denizens of Brisbane's far north shore. Leonie Palmer, long-time Victorian exile and restaurateur, says there are more than a smattering of Noosa devotees who hold firmly to the Auberon Waugh view of the campaigning journalist and can't believe the invitation. Nothing like a bit of controversy, she admits, but as the host of a "breakfast with Pilger" in her riverfront establishment, she's hoping she won't be mopping up German cheese tart for hours if the food starts to fly.
Direct hit wins a prize!
Andrew Wilkie has lately been hailed as a voice of reason against Australia’s rampaging warlust. Andrew Bolt investigates:
Andrew Wilkie sells himself as the spy who couldn't be fooled over Iraq. He's the one spook who didn't buy what he calls the Howard Government's "fairytale" and "exaggerations" about the threat of Saddam Hussein.
But when I go through the only secret report that Wilkie ever wrote about Iraq as an Office of National Assessments analyst, I wonder just who fell for a "fairytale".
When I note the risks Wilkie then warned of - horrific chemical attacks by Saddam, "mass panic" as refugees fled his biological weapons - I ask who indeed "exaggerated".
Indeed? Indeed.
Mentioned in the latest Continuing Crisis column for The Bulletin: Harry Potter, Sidney Sheldon, Jackie Collins, Gretel the Enchantress, happy pro-war people, various website commenters, Bob Brown, J.K. Rowling, Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko, Jenson Button, and the homeless parking ticket conspiracy.
Hans Blix reveals another of his formerly hidden agendas:
Dr Blix, speaking after his last official function before retiring as chief UN weapons inspector on 30 June, also praised the Australian scientists who went to Baghdad before the war, to help search for Iraq's weapons. "They were excellent," he said.
"We had lots of staff from Australia, very competent staff. Australia is one of the most active (nations) on non-proliferation, maybe because you are producing yellowcake and uranium, and you have a sore conscience."
Yeah, that's us, Blixy. All guilty and sore. Now go away.
This is getting good; we’ve now raised $A178 for Jake Ryan, Australia’s voice against terror. More beer cash will be needed. Jake is, after all, Australian. So are his football club teammates.
The current news.com.au main site has a picture of Jake in court, and an update on his impromptu speech. Here’s another shot. Femme readers, what you say?
Bloggers who’ve donated so far include Tony the Teacher, Andrew Lloyd, Paul Bickford, Professor Bunyip (via a mysterious third party, to conceal his Bunyipish identity), Ricky Dardenne, Scott Wickstein (who donated rum money, in the interests of cultural diversity), Oscar Jr., Gary Gravett, and Bernie Slattery.
See here and here for earlier Beer Fund reports. Now hit that PayPal on the left. Mention that your donation is for Jake.
Roast Beef is waiting ... waiting for a sign.
The New York Post’s Page Six column reports:
Barbra Streisand is back on her soapbox. The diva is urging "blacks and Jews" to unite in order to defeat President Bush. "I have reflected a great deal over the years about the need for dialogue and unity among various minority and progressive communities," Streisand writes on her Web site. "The presidential primary process is underway . . . keep in mind that the end goal for all of us is to elect a Democratic president . . . With a shared history of oppression and slavery, as well as a common ingrained culture of social justice, Blacks and Jews, over the years and still today, have been natural allies . . . “
You’ll notice she doesn’t demand the Democrats field a black or Jewish candidate. Run, Condi, run! Force Barbra to vote against her “natural ally”!
Sales of whiner wine continue to fall:
A study by Information Resources Inc. published in Wine Spectator showed that between April 21 and May 18, sales of French wine in the United States fell by 26.2 percent in terms of case volume, and by 27 percent in dollar value.
CNN/Money reports sales have sagged even in metropolitan areas where there was more opposition to the Iraq war.
Another wine vendor put the blame on the economy and the higher price of French wine.
"I think it's a holdover from the economy," Ray Thompson, manager of S&S Beer and Wine in Dallas, told CNN. "Basically, people are buying less expensive wines. They're switching to more Australian and domestic wines."
And sticking with them, apparently.
Man, Washington Times ed-at-large Arnaud de Borchgrave lays it on thick. The Washington Post has details of his Saddam interview request:
He told the Iraqi leader 2 1/2 years ago he hoped such a sit-down "would lead to a reappraisal of American policy toward Iraq."
In a Jan. 11, 2001, "Your Excellency" letter -- recently retrieved from Iraqi intelligence files -- de Borchgrave said he could "guarantee" that an interview with him "will have worldwide resonance as well as two entire newspaper pages in The Washington Times, the newspaper of choice of the Republican establishment."
In the letter, de Borchgrave reminded Hussein that he "had the honor of interviewing you" as a Newsweek correspondent in the 1970s.
De Borchgrave has a point when he says that you don’t get interviews by abusing people, but please ... some dignity or something.
This acceleration monster was trapped by his own handiwork:
A Staffordshire county councillor has been caught speeding - with the mobile speed camera he bought for the local police force.
Robert Marshall had paid for the detector with money given to him by the council to spend on good causes.
He was caught doing 42 miles per hour in a 30-miles per hour zone but said he was glad to know the equipment was working.
Lying bastard.
(Thanks to Rob Corr.)
In today’s CapitalR blog, Alan RM Jones writes that the author of the celebrated “Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy!” line was “an Iraqi everyman's Rousseau, extolling a Jeffersonian declaration for the divine Rights of Man, a veritable Tom Paine. All right, already. I'll cut the crap. He was just saying 'Let the good times roll!' But it turns out Mr al-Jefferson party animal was close to the mark”:
As America's first president and one of its canniest early entrepreneurs, Washington liked a sip of cinnamon whiskey -- and he distilled his own. More than that, he started a thriving business selling a raw, clear liquor made from rye and corn.
"Two hundred gallons of Whiskey will be ready this day for your call, and the sooner it is taken the better, as the demand for this article (in these parts) is brisk," Washington wrote in a letter to his nephew in October 1799.
Donations are already rolling in to buy an Australian hero a drink. Just indicate somewhere in your PayPal message that the donation is for Jake, and it will be forwarded to him via his football club. Any donations from businesses will be rewarded with free ads at this site, and donations from bloggers will get you a link. Bernie Slattery, way to go!
(Regarding free ads: 60,000 hits a week here. Value, huh?)
UPDATE. The Beer Fund has already raised about $A80 - and every cent will go entirely to Jake. This isn't some bogus Red Cross deal! Blogger links will be posted tonight.
The entertaining virtual War of the Moxies may have led to a sinister real-world problem. Well, more than a problem. Moxie Pop, accused of stealing Moxie.nu’s identity, has now lost her job. Jim Treacher explains:
A week ago today, the president of her company got a fax from a blocked number, claiming to be from a potential client who would never do business with a company that employed someone like her. She wasn't allowed to see the fax, and that's all the HR person would tell her when she was made aware of it last Thursday. She was fired that same day, without even a chance to clean out her desk. She's still in shock, but she's trying to find out the details of the fax, whether there's any way to find out who sent it, and what she can do about it.
Jim makes many sound points in his post, mostly along the lines of “Calm down, you freakin’ morons! What the hell, someone has a similar name? Let’s all kill each other then!” And so on. By the way, the person who sent that fax? You ain’t right. Anybody who supported such an extreme response? You ain't right neither. But you know that. The unusual feelings you are experiencing now are called "guilt" and "shame".
Mapchic’s controversial announcement shocked her family:
I will never forget when one of my cousins actually burst into tears when I said out loud “I am a Republican” at a Thanksgiving dinner when I was in college. Another cousin, who is a university poli-sci professor, told me that I was not really a Republican – I was just confused. I was forced to get up from the table and get my membership card for the College Republicans out of my wallet to pass around the table to demonstrate to my horrified relatives the reality of my political affiliation.
Tell of your own family’s reaction to terrible conservative confessions. Bonus points for fist fights, decade-long feuds, being written out of wills, etc.
It’s another record for Lleyton Hewitt:
Hewitt became the first defending Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round since tennis turned professional in 1968.
Here’s Phillip Adams on April 16:
Make no mistake, if the US can't find those chemical weapons in Iraq, it'll smuggle some in and plant them.
Andrew Wilkie anticipated the same thing:
Interviewed by Richard Glover on ABC radio in Sydney on April 15, Wilkie went so far as to suggest the US just might "plant" some significant WMDs in Iraq post bellum.
Joint apologies are expected any year now.
Imam Sumudra, accused of organising the Bali bombings, did his usual “Allahu Akbar” shouting thing in court yesterday. This time an Australian injured in the attack shouted back:
Jake Ryan, 22, rushed towards the accused and shouted, "You're a f---ing dog, mate, you're going to die, you f---".
Mr Ryan, of the Gold Coast's Southport Sharks football club, said after yesterday's incident he had been frustrated at being unable to make eye contact with Samudra throughout the 4½ hour hearing.
"I just wanted him to look at us, just once," Mr Ryan said.
"He started shouting, so I tried to shout over the top of him. He definitely knows who I am now.
"When he started shouting, I thought, 'you f---ing smart arse - I'll have you.'"
I am compelled by a primal Australian force to seek out Jake Ryan and buy him at least 10,000 beers.
UPDATE. Buy Jake a drink! Simply hit the PayPal button on your left and include “Jake Ryan Beer Fund” somewhere in the message. I’ll forward all donations to Jake via his football club, or you may donate directly at this address:
Southport Australian Rules Football Club.
Corner Musgrave & Olsen Avenues
PO Box 1610
SOUTHPORT, QUEENSLAND, 4215
Michele at A Small Victory posts childhood memories of her sister:
She is the one who wrote several songs with me when we formed our fake band, Pond Scum. My favorite song was:
Save the whales
Save the whales
Send your money
Through the mail
Keeping with the theme, my fake band is called Blobfish.
A friend whose late father was a drinking pal of Mordecai Richler sends news that Quebec's language stasi, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française, has told the Sir Winston Churchill Pub in Montreal to get French:
After a recent spot check by one of its investigators, the government agency placed the Sir Winston Churchill on a list of 31 establishments it says are contravening Bill 101, the law the Parti Québécois created to ensure that the French language remains the first-use language in the province.
"It's their attitude," complained Gerald Paquette, a spokesperson for the provincial agency.
"If you were in Toronto, and everyone answers you first in French and not English, what would you think? We're not zealots; we don't want to exclude English. But French should be first. When you meet a waitress, they should first say, `Bon jour', not 'Good day.' They can go to English after the French, but that is not what they do at The Sir Winston Churchill."
We really need more laws to regulate the order in which words are spoken. These, for example, are clearly in the wrong order: Gerald fuck go yourself.
Richler, who died almost two years ago, beloved by Anglos and loathed by many hard-core Québécois nationalists for his caustic essays, immortalized the bar and its waiters in his book Barney's Version. He often took to his stool at Winnie's to talk to reporters about the PQ's authoritarian streak.
As the son of his old drinking mate writes: “In Bosnia and Kosovo we called this 'ethnic cleansing' and sent in B-52’s.”
