Why, oh why did I mention cat blogs? There I was, trying to write a witty, satirical blog about religious politics, Art and Sophie Ellis Bextor but my fellow bloggers want to talk about their cats. Pamziewamzie wants us all to know that she has a cat blog. Unfortunately, she no longer has a cat. She does, however have a lot of libertarians telling her about property rights. Meanwhile, Span now has a sheep blog.
If there is one blog that managed to seamlessly integrate politics and cats, it was Shakespeare's Sister. For reasons of its own, the blog has been renamed Shakesville but the cats stay. Of course, it now ineligible for the Blogs Named After Songs By The Smiths blogroll.
While you are grazing at Shakesville, you really must read this tirade by Bill Maher about graduates of Pat Robertson's Regent University, 150 of whom work for the Bush Administration, "most of them young women with very little knowledge of the law, but a very strong sense of doing what they’re told. Like the Manson family, but with cleaner hair." Suddenly, Regent University is no longer proud of its achievement.
As it happens, Research shows that nine out of ten cats prefer the Smiths to any other band.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Political corrections gone mad
News from the Auld Country: The Scottish Christian Party wants to send medium security prisoners to Third-World countries to do their time, leaving the high security prisoners at home.
Is it just me, or is the most stupid idea ever? Hardened crims will be forced to endure tatties and neeps, while mediocre crooks will get holidays in the sun. Or, to put it another way, middling crims will be thrown into hell-holes in distant countries of which we know almost nothing, while vicious murderers will enjoy the holiday camp that is the modern high security prison. Will petty criminals commit worse crimes in order to get away from it all? Will menaces to society moderate their crime-committing to enjoy a foreign holiday? Who knows, but didn't this sort of thinking lead to Australia?
Is it just me, or is the most stupid idea ever? Hardened crims will be forced to endure tatties and neeps, while mediocre crooks will get holidays in the sun. Or, to put it another way, middling crims will be thrown into hell-holes in distant countries of which we know almost nothing, while vicious murderers will enjoy the holiday camp that is the modern high security prison. Will petty criminals commit worse crimes in order to get away from it all? Will menaces to society moderate their crime-committing to enjoy a foreign holiday? Who knows, but didn't this sort of thinking lead to Australia?
Guns don't kill people; Socialists kill people.
The inevitable response of many rightist blogs to the Virginia Tech killings has been to propose Chuck Norris solutions: lecturers with concealed handguns taking down the perp (which of course they could not do because of those pinko leftie restrictions on good honest citizens having guns). Somebody really ought to tell them that movies are not real.
I would say more, but I was rendered speechless by this comment from Tim Barclay:
I would say more, but I was rendered speechless by this comment from Tim Barclay:
The shooter is a socialist going on about rich kids. This is not the first time that despicable philosophy has been acted out at the barrel of a gun.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Word of the day - BoKlok
Some reading for you:
Date With IKEA
Having seized the market for affordable home furnishings in the past decade, the Swedish retail giant is now planning to provide the homes themselves. They've already built some 3,500 BoKlok dwellings across Scandinavia - and now they're coming to the UK.
Horse sense
"If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise."
My old school
It certainly has all the credentials to make us suspicious. The institute used to be hidden away in Portland Place, where it was run for much of its postwar history by Anthony Blunt. His first appointment, to be his deputy, was Johannes Wilde, a one-time Marxist who, according to the Courtauld's history, 'had been involved in the abortive Bela Kun coup d'etat in Hungary in 1919.'
Wim Wenders takes back Europe
All right, I might be exaggerating,but the heart of the matter remains pretty much true: our own myths don't belong to us anymore. Nothing forms our contemporary imagination so intensely,so specifically and permanently as cinema. But we are no longer in control.It doesn't belong to us anymore. Our very own and precious invention has slipped away from us.
Weiss trash
The poor of today watch television for half the day. These days, television producers even refer to what they call "Underclass TV." The new proletariat eats a lot of fatty foods and he enjoys smoking and drinking -- a lot. About 8 percent of Germans consume 40 percent of all the alcohol sold in the country. While he may be a family man, his families are often broken. And on Election Day, he casts a protest vote for the extreme left or right wing party, sometimes switching quickly from one to the other.
The selfless gene
Exhortations to extreme selflessness are easy to parody, as not only unrealistic but also paradoxically self-serving insofar as the exhorter is likely to benefit at the expense of the one exhorted. Yet the more we learn about biology, the more sensible becomes the basic thrust of social ethics, precisely because nearly everyone, left to his or her devices, is likely to be selfish, probably more than is good for the rest of us.
Michael Frayn, philosopher
So the news that Frayn had done a whole book on philosophy was a cause of anticipatory glee. What’s more fun, after all, than seeing one’s colleagues skewered? But the skies darkened when a copy actually turned up in the mail. For one thing, it’s clear at a glance that this is no joke; it’s a book of philosophy, not a book on philosophy, and I can’t imagine an author who is more in earnest.
Robert Hughes, elitist
Hughes is, by his own rather defiant declaration, "completely an elitist, in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense." He is, "after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate, pretentious, sentimental, and boring stuff that saturates culture today."
Hannah and Emma
Are Dead (and Occasionally Read) White Males sentenced to such reductionism? Of course. Just not as much. And the tradition of both discovery and revival, from the resurrection of Melville by 20th-century critics to the recovery of Nietzsche by Walter Kaufmann from proto-Nazi caricature, falls into a longer, more zealous tradition of male scholars' expressing enthusiasms through historical rescue work, of spurring sufficient secondary-book tribute that some corner of a campus library ends up forever consecrated to one's "guy."
Date With IKEA
Having seized the market for affordable home furnishings in the past decade, the Swedish retail giant is now planning to provide the homes themselves. They've already built some 3,500 BoKlok dwellings across Scandinavia - and now they're coming to the UK.
Horse sense
"If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise."
My old school
It certainly has all the credentials to make us suspicious. The institute used to be hidden away in Portland Place, where it was run for much of its postwar history by Anthony Blunt. His first appointment, to be his deputy, was Johannes Wilde, a one-time Marxist who, according to the Courtauld's history, 'had been involved in the abortive Bela Kun coup d'etat in Hungary in 1919.'
Wim Wenders takes back Europe
All right, I might be exaggerating,but the heart of the matter remains pretty much true: our own myths don't belong to us anymore. Nothing forms our contemporary imagination so intensely,so specifically and permanently as cinema. But we are no longer in control.It doesn't belong to us anymore. Our very own and precious invention has slipped away from us.
Weiss trash
The poor of today watch television for half the day. These days, television producers even refer to what they call "Underclass TV." The new proletariat eats a lot of fatty foods and he enjoys smoking and drinking -- a lot. About 8 percent of Germans consume 40 percent of all the alcohol sold in the country. While he may be a family man, his families are often broken. And on Election Day, he casts a protest vote for the extreme left or right wing party, sometimes switching quickly from one to the other.
The selfless gene
Exhortations to extreme selflessness are easy to parody, as not only unrealistic but also paradoxically self-serving insofar as the exhorter is likely to benefit at the expense of the one exhorted. Yet the more we learn about biology, the more sensible becomes the basic thrust of social ethics, precisely because nearly everyone, left to his or her devices, is likely to be selfish, probably more than is good for the rest of us.
Michael Frayn, philosopher
So the news that Frayn had done a whole book on philosophy was a cause of anticipatory glee. What’s more fun, after all, than seeing one’s colleagues skewered? But the skies darkened when a copy actually turned up in the mail. For one thing, it’s clear at a glance that this is no joke; it’s a book of philosophy, not a book on philosophy, and I can’t imagine an author who is more in earnest.
Robert Hughes, elitist
Hughes is, by his own rather defiant declaration, "completely an elitist, in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense." He is, "after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate, pretentious, sentimental, and boring stuff that saturates culture today."
Hannah and Emma
Are Dead (and Occasionally Read) White Males sentenced to such reductionism? Of course. Just not as much. And the tradition of both discovery and revival, from the resurrection of Melville by 20th-century critics to the recovery of Nietzsche by Walter Kaufmann from proto-Nazi caricature, falls into a longer, more zealous tradition of male scholars' expressing enthusiasms through historical rescue work, of spurring sufficient secondary-book tribute that some corner of a campus library ends up forever consecrated to one's "guy."
Friday, April 13, 2007
Aqueducts
From a comment by Greg Bourke about a post on NZ Conservative.
Readers are also welcome to add their own favourite Catholic innovations to the list. I will start the list with Fascism. Anyone who has ever wondered why Fascism was strongest in the Catholic parts of Europe is invited to read Isaiah Berlin's Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism from The Crooked Timber of Humanity.
Lucyna at NZ Conservative has a different interpretation. She blames the Third Reich on the gays, having read a book called The Pink Swastika.
Catholicism gave the following to Western Civilization: The music notation system, double entry book keeping, champagne, Mendelian genetics, Copernican astronomy, the printing press, the hospital, and the university.Readers are invited to take issue with any of the above. For a start, the musical notation system is dreadful, as anyone who has ever had to deal with all those notes above and below the stave will attest. Double entry book-keeping was invented by merchants in 14th Century Florence, who may have been Catholics but then so was everybody. The Church had more than a few issues with the heliocentric model, particularly when Galileo got hold of it. Whatever involvement the Church had with the invention of the printing press they probably regretted: it led to Protestants and the Enlightenment. The university caused similar woes.
Readers are also welcome to add their own favourite Catholic innovations to the list. I will start the list with Fascism. Anyone who has ever wondered why Fascism was strongest in the Catholic parts of Europe is invited to read Isaiah Berlin's Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism from The Crooked Timber of Humanity.
Lucyna at NZ Conservative has a different interpretation. She blames the Third Reich on the gays, having read a book called The Pink Swastika.
Word of the day: caverage
It is just a typographical error in this revealing piece in Scoop on the Psychology behind George W Bush's decision-making, but "caverage" could be a useful neologism to describe genteel failure.
By the way, whatever happened to starkish? Apparently it is an adjective which was defined as "to exhibit a sense of proportion and good taste"; that sounds like verb definition to me, but then I don't work in PR. According to its promoters, it is synonymous with Bling, Maxamalistic and Paris Hilton. The word was created to promote some ghastly RTD enjoyed by the sort of people who use words like Bling, Maxamalistic and Paris Hilton. Despite the best efforts of Pead PR, it has not caught on. I wonder what happened to the drink.
Anyway, back on topic, the Pope has been ruminating about Science. Apparently His Holiness has written "Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection was not finally provable because mutations over millennia could never be replicated in a laboratory." Perhaps that is because we have not had laboratories for millennia. In any case how would one go about replicating a mutation? Perhaps His Holiness should look at the work of Gregor Mendel, who was, after all, one of the Pope's gang.
Meanwhile, while we are on the subject of curious beliefs, blogger Andrew Falloon clings to the notion that it was not the Exclusive Brethren who financed National's campaign but just seven members.
Elsewhere, No God Zone has a video of theological debate in a typical American home. Kids say the darndest things.
Finally, I note that a certain well-known media commentator has linked to a You Tube video at the end of his post for today. I wonder where he got that idea. I shall not be making accusations of plagiarism, since I stole the idea of this relaxed Friday round-up from him; in any case, not so many days ago Russell sent my readership stats skywards by linking here twice in one of his posts.
Here's something a bit more to my taste: the Only Ones performing Another Girl, Another Planet, which you may recognise from a Vodafone advert that is currently showing.
With thanks to Craig and to Edwin
By the way, whatever happened to starkish? Apparently it is an adjective which was defined as "to exhibit a sense of proportion and good taste"; that sounds like verb definition to me, but then I don't work in PR. According to its promoters, it is synonymous with Bling, Maxamalistic and Paris Hilton. The word was created to promote some ghastly RTD enjoyed by the sort of people who use words like Bling, Maxamalistic and Paris Hilton. Despite the best efforts of Pead PR, it has not caught on. I wonder what happened to the drink.
Anyway, back on topic, the Pope has been ruminating about Science. Apparently His Holiness has written "Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection was not finally provable because mutations over millennia could never be replicated in a laboratory." Perhaps that is because we have not had laboratories for millennia. In any case how would one go about replicating a mutation? Perhaps His Holiness should look at the work of Gregor Mendel, who was, after all, one of the Pope's gang.
Meanwhile, while we are on the subject of curious beliefs, blogger Andrew Falloon clings to the notion that it was not the Exclusive Brethren who financed National's campaign but just seven members.
Elsewhere, No God Zone has a video of theological debate in a typical American home. Kids say the darndest things.
Finally, I note that a certain well-known media commentator has linked to a You Tube video at the end of his post for today. I wonder where he got that idea. I shall not be making accusations of plagiarism, since I stole the idea of this relaxed Friday round-up from him; in any case, not so many days ago Russell sent my readership stats skywards by linking here twice in one of his posts.
Here's something a bit more to my taste: the Only Ones performing Another Girl, Another Planet, which you may recognise from a Vodafone advert that is currently showing.
With thanks to Craig and to Edwin
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Fiscal prudence gone mad
Richard Prebble is holding a user-pays book launch. According to Gooner at Sir Humphreys:
Who is doing the catering - The Mothers' Union? Does Mr Prebble not understand that we go to these events - book launches, gallery viewings, preview screenings - not just for the scintillating conversation, but mostly for the free booze and exquisitely catered food?
It's at 2.30pm, Sunday 15 April at Mecca Cafe, corner Nuffield St and Remuera Rd, Newmarket. It costs $16.00 which includes non alcoholic beverage, light sandwiches and cake.Cake, I welcome; somebody will have to explain to me what is meant by light sandwiches; non-alcoholic beverage: not for sixteen bucks.
Who is doing the catering - The Mothers' Union? Does Mr Prebble not understand that we go to these events - book launches, gallery viewings, preview screenings - not just for the scintillating conversation, but mostly for the free booze and exquisitely catered food?
The return of the Magnificent Seven
Oh dear, the Exclusive Brethren are angry again. The Government is working on plans to reform election spending and of course it is Political Correctness Gone Mad. The Brethren have wheeled out their seven spokesmen, who have made a statement to the Herald saying the plans are "designed to further defraud the democratic rights from the political process by effectively banning third-party campaigning while leaving the door open for Clark's allies to fill her election chests".
Quite how the Government can defraud the democratic rights from the political process is a mystery to political scientists and grammarians alike. But then, the Brethren are not voting folks, nor are they varsity types. What has them rattled is the following:
Quite how the Government can defraud the democratic rights from the political process is a mystery to political scientists and grammarians alike. But then, the Brethren are not voting folks, nor are they varsity types. What has them rattled is the following:
Negative third-party campaigning would be counted against a party even if it did not endorse it. Any third-party campaigning would be limited to a cost of $60,000 nationally, and would require the permission of the party it endorsed. Organisations such as unions or companies would be exempt if their messages were deemed to be communicating with members.A mere sixty grand; no wonder they are annoyed. At least they had the permission of the party they endorsed.
The Bash Street kids
Over at No Right Turn, Idiot/Savant discusses Tyndale Park Christian School, which has been breaking the law for the last fifteen years. The law says corporal punishment is banned in schools. The school says it obeys a higher law. Whatever happened to that old "render unto Caesar" thing, or does that just apply to taxation?
I could go on. Instead, I will note this from the school's Statement of Philosophy and Purpose:
Elsewhere in the news, it seems the campaign against the "anti-smacking bill" is doomed: Brian is joining it.
I could go on. Instead, I will note this from the school's Statement of Philosophy and Purpose:
Tyndale Park Christian School encourages the development of Christian character and attributes in the life of the children as they learn to relate to the world in which they live. Children will be equipped with a basis of evaluating right and wrong based on the teaching of the Bible.Clearly, this means "we will do what we want and find some passage of Scripture to justify our actions."
Elsewhere in the news, it seems the campaign against the "anti-smacking bill" is doomed: Brian is joining it.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
This is not a cat blog
Span has a cat blog. So has Eric. Idiot/Savant does not do cat blogs but has no problem with a cook blog.
Meanwhile, Rachel in Arkansas blogs about Godly guys. Nixie's got a cult. Newtown Ghetto Anger refutes evolution, while Bible Study for Atheists answers the Big Questions. Everything is Pointless blogs about everything while The Psychobunny Ranteth. The Pagan Prattle discovers the Swiss secret weapon.
In another part of the forest, NZ Conservative (yes, really) readers get worked up about Peter Cresswell's views on Christianity and Tony Milne's views on smacking.
Since this is the 101st (Airborne) Fundy Post, here are the 101ers. Yes, that is Joe Strummer singing and no, it is not a video but a slideshow; we didn't have videos back then. Ask your parents.
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