I prefer the Old left
Read this the other day over at Daimnation and was struck by how far the left has fallen away...
"The left doesn't see because a lot of people, in their good-hearted effort to respect cultural differences, have concluded that Arabs must for inscrutable reasons of their own like to live under grotesque dictatorships and are not really capable of anything else, or won't be ready to do so for another five hundred years, and Arab liberals should be regarded as somehow inauthentic. Which is to say, a lot of people, swept along by their own high-minded principles of cultural tolerance, have ended up clinging to attitudes that can only be regarded as racist against Arabs."
I used to argue with a lot of people who used to tell me that we had no right to dictate to lesser developed countries what kind of society they should have. They had the gall to say that our society was just as corrupt and evil as the worst of the worst dictatorships...Therefore we had no right to insist that the third world clean up its act. I asked them how many of their relatives had been taken away in the dead of night, never to be seen again because they had spoken out against the government.
"Oh, it happens here," they'd crow smugly.
"Name me ONE person," I'd counter.
Of course they couldn't because they were full of shit. But the obvious truth didn't sink in past the rhetoric.
"The old-fashioned left used to be universalist-used to think that everyone, all over the world, would some day want to live according to the same fundamental values, and ought to be helped to do so. They thought this was especially true for people in reasonably modern societies with universities, industries, and a sophisticated bureaucracy-societies like the one in Iraq. But no more! Today, people say, out of a spirit of egalitarian tolerance: Social democracy for Swedes! Tyranny for Arabs! And this is supposed to be a left-wing attitude? By the way, you don't hear much from the left about the non-Arabs in countries like Iraq, do you? The left, the real left, used to be the champion of minority populations-of people like the Kurds. No more! The left, my friend, has abandoned the values of the left-except for a few of us, of course."
But, of course the new left can't be bothered: droning anti-Bush rhetoric is a lot easier.
I think it was K.I.T.T. actually...
Hasselhoff claims he had hand in Berlin Wall falling
David Hasselhoff has complained to museum curators after finding his photo absent in a collection of memorabilia about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I'm not making this up.
The actor and producer, who says he is working on a film version of TV series Knight Rider, claims he is partly responsible for the fall of the concrete divide.
I'm not making this up.
He said he felt he had moved people on both sides of the wall, although he admitted hardly any of the East Germans could speak English.
The East Germans were trying to bust down the Wall so they could put the dying animal out of its misery...who knew it was actually Hasselhoff torturing West Germans with his "singing."
Too easy
Warning: more Canadian politics a-brewing...
I could start hacking away, but I'll leave it short and sweet:
Sheila's still whining.
The former heritage minister and leadership rival to Martin — who has toyed with running for the New Democrats if she can't win in Hamilton — sees this as a sign of desperation. "It tells me that they think Tony can't win," Copps said.
...or that her own party REALLY can't stand her.
Hair Cut
So the two-year old BooBoo was taken to get her first hair cut today.
"What would you like today, BooBoo?" the nice lady asks as she sits in her kids chair that looks like a miniature train. (God this was SO much better than when my parents took shears to my hair...)
"I look like BUFFY!" she screams.
I'm expecting her to develop Vampire slayer powers at any moment...
States I've visited
create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
And most of those States I've only driven through.
via aka cooties
Snow snow and more snow
Bloody Hell! Talk about a ton of snow!
My muscles are giving me that "we're billing ya tomorrow" feeling after moving the 2 or 3 feet that piled up in drifts around the property. They formed due to the excessive winds that blew non-stop yesterday and today.
I thought that the For Sale sign had disappeared, but no: the wind was so strong it was blowing the sign horizontal so it was damn near invisible. Hadn't seen that before...
That's not gonna help sell the place.
Costanza Lives
Is Curb Your Enthusiasm the best sitcom on TV? I'm thinking the answer is YES!
Larry David IS George Costanza!
Gore Tolerance Dropping...
Something weird just happened to me.
Excessive gore on TV has disturbed me. I mean, I saw Dawn of the Dead at 16 and it bugged me for two days afterwards. Not for the gore and the flesh-eating zombie scenes (which did go on a little too long, but whaddaya expect) but for, ahem, it's social commentary. Spoiler (highlight to read): The zombies triumph, but only because one group of humans fuck over another group of humans to get at resources. I found that quite disturbing
I've seen a lot of gory movies in my time, with no lasting ill effects. Usually the gore is way over the top like Evil Dead or was way oversold and wasn't nearly as bad as was made out to be. Either way I wasn't disturbed.
Until today that is.
And what the hell did it you ask?
A MadTV skit.
Lemme say that again.
A MadTV skit.
It was a parody of those Snuggle laundry commercials, you know where the little teddy bear named Snuggle starts whoring fabric softener to the smiling mom-type so that her family will love her...
Only in the parody the mom was a rabid, foaming at the mouth, demon-fearing shrew who obviously never watched television. She proceeded to beat the hell out of the bear.
First with a tennis racket she brained him while he pleaded that he was only there to help. Then she spray bleached him and finally stabbed him through the heart and electrocuted him when the clothes hanger wire contacted and electrical outlet.
In my 20's I'd have found this sort of wanton violence hilarious. I still did, but it was tinged with unmistakeable dread that I couldn't explain.
"Why is this disturbing me?" I asked my lovely wife.
"I don't know, but I'm sure glad BooBoo is asleep and didn't see this." BooBoo is our two year old daughter, who has never seemed to be scared of anything on TV. And she's seen a lot of Buffy and Angel. And then it hit me.
It's the daddy thing. It's changed me. I'm always looking over my shoulder to see how what we're watching is effecting her (and her 7-month old sister, who stands in her playpen to get a better look at Elmo on Sesame Street) and that's making me uncomfortable about what I'm seeing.
Good Lord. Next thing you know I'll start using that channel lockup thing-a-ma-doodle to lock out The Movie Networks selection of really bad and tacky late night hard-core porn (not that I've ever watched it, except as a concerned parent making a careful evaluation of...of...of whatever the hell it is I'm evaluating)
Oh and how does the skit end?
Well Snuggle demonically recovers from the electrocution and is about to get vengeance when the Sheila Copps-like housewife dismembers his left arm with the dryer door. Snuggle disappears, presumably to lie in wait until her clothes are again hard and uncomfortable enough to warrant more fabric softening...
It is an end, but for how long?
Is this what happens to ALL parents?
Belinda
Daimnation! reports Belinda Stronach's website is up and running, but comments on how she needs to come out stronger on where she stands.
I'd like to know where she stands on the issues - and the fact that she has yet to release any policy platform isn't encouraging.
I agree.
And I also noticed that she has a link on the index to "Belinda's Blog" which is currently empty.
I hope that this will be better than our Prime Minister's lame attempt at keeping a weblog. Why even bother with this if you won't follow the forms? Blogging is a highly personal thing that can let you know the author very well. For a relative unknown in politics like Stronach, this could bridge the gap between her and her potential voters and really convey a message.
Or it could just fall flat and be totally boring.
Daimnation also echoes my other worries as well...
Eleven years ago, the PC party chose another little-known blonde as leader, and that mess is too depressing to discuss further.
UPDATE: Well that was fast.
She was asked for one single example of a "tough decision" she had made in her previous role as chief executive officer of Magna International, but she could not, or would not, provide one.
Ouch. That just reinforces the impression (unproved) that Daddy (Frank Stronach) was really running the show.
Bread and Circuses
If there's an issue I really don't give a damn about it's same-sex marriage.
Yet this issue is now being trotted out as a distraction in the new Conservative party leadership race.
Sure, play ball on the Liberal Party's turf of secondary issues.
I'd much rather see them talk about the economy. What they would do about the effect a 77-cent dollar is having on Canada's exports. Taxes. Ya know, the boring stuff. How 'bout a grand vision or two?
What have the Liberals given us in the last two years:
- a billion dollar debacle of a federal gun registry
- proposed legal pot
- strained relations with our biggest customer.
Honestly, I can't think of anything else the Liberals have done in over TEN YEARS in power.
The opposition can't stake out any better positions than this to attack the government? I'm looking for any credible excuse to vote against the Liberals.
Any excuse.
Before anyone accuses me of homophobia, I said that I really don't care about who marries who: I'm tired of this being considered the main issue confronting the country.
It isn't. It doesn't effect that many people and many other issues should take priority.
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