September 28, 2006
Actually, I'm a little underwhelmed
Only 34%?
Besides, I'm more olive than white...
September 25, 2006
You can tell the quality of a movement by the intelligence of its supporters
Check out these idiots.
(via Tim Blair, who notes that the sticker on the old lady's sign says "STOP DICTATORSHIPS NOW. SUPPORT A CALIPHATE". Ay....)
September 23, 2006
Another great Australian export
Oliver Kamm takes on Pilger, Australia's very own Chomsky-ite.
Pilger is well known for the extravagance of his rhetoric and his emotive presentation. But these are less serious deficiencies than the way he treats historical sources. Perhaps it is because he believes so strongly in the notion of official deceit that Pilger disregards historical inquiry when forcing his prespecified conclusions. But whatever the reason, that's what he does, and that's what deprives his work of any redeeming characteristic.
Ouch.
UPDATE: On the topic of Chomsky, this is the best parody I've ever seen on the man.
Chomsky and Zinn discuss the Lord of the Rings.
Pipe down, rub-a-dub!
Woe betide any Muslim who tries to step off the plantation and express...you know, reasonable views
A Bangladeshi Muslim journalist arrested in the past for advocating ties with Israel now faces charges of sedition, a crime punishable by death in Bangladesh, and will likely be put on trial by the end of the month, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Why the fuck people living in the Indian subcontinent think it is sedition to propose normalising ties with a country that's never been hostile to you is a very good question, left unanswered.
Torquemada had nothing on these guys.
Elsewhere, Charles Krauthammer looks at "tolerance".
Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well...
"How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it" is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation...
In today's world, religious sensitivity is a one-way street. The rules of the road are enforced by Islamic mobs and abjectly followed by Western media, politicians and religious leaders...
Islam, of course, spread with great speed from Arabia across the Mediterranean and into Europe. It was not all benign persuasion. After all, what were Islamic armies doing at Poitiers in 732 and the gates of Vienna in 1683? Tourism?
Maybe they got lost during one of their many peaceful missions spreading the word of God.
September 21, 2006
Noooo!!! Hamster!
Top Gear presenter seriously injured in car accident.
Who will keep Jeremy Clarkson sane now?
September 19, 2006
Arrr
Mateys, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Here's a disturbing video for all of ye.
Holy Overtones of Paedophilia, Batman!
Arr....
September 18, 2006
Call me violent? I'll kill you!
Here's a hint kids, if someone calls you a bully, it's not real mature to go and prove it to them.
Never mind, I'm sure they'll grow up someday. After all....everyone else did.
....more here....
The pain, the pain
If that looks familiar to you, you've spent way too much at YTMND.com.
Drugs. I'm going to say drugs.
Tastes like Teen Spirit
Thirsty? Why not try some refereshing Cocaine.
September 17, 2006
2 Prophets Enter, Only One Leaves!
It's religious smackdown....
Man, they really slam Hubbard!
But heck, nothing wrong with that...
September 16, 2006
With Poor Translation Comes Wisdom
Bootleg copy of V for Vendetta has a bit of a "whoops" moment with its cover blurb:
"V for Vendetta is a poorly paced and spectacularly disjointed rehash of Orwellian themes."
Sounds awesome!
The Malaysian "Superbabies 2" bootleg is even funnier though.
Not Smart Enough?
Either this is bullshit, or I'm a lot dumber than previously though.
High IQ scores may do more than separate geniuses from those of lesser intelligence, they could also be an indication of how much clever people are likely to suffer from hangovers.
Can't be right. I've suffered through some excruciating hangovers in my day. Good lord, I wouldn't want to see how bad they'd have been were I total dumbarse.
But, then again...
The researchers suspect people with high IQ scores suffer fewer hangovers because they respond better to advice not to binge drink.
Ah.
September 06, 2006
Hail, ye of the mighty thetan
Apparently Suri Cruise does exist!
Hmmm....doesn't look much like Tom "I'm nuts" Cruise though.
....Could it be?
Hmmm.....
On a slightly related note, Hubbard and Scientology were most certainly the insipiration for Batlin and the Fellowship from Ultima VII.
See for yourself.
September 04, 2006
September 01, 2006
Lord of the Geeks
Behold, my first published piece of writing!
Uhhh....sort of. I wrote the official backstory for this very, very minor Star Wars character.
Still, cool enough to warrant a minor nerdagasm, for sure....
For those uber-Geeks interested in this sort of shit, you can read the "behind the scenes" bit on my other blog.
Religious Dumbshittery for the Weekend
Let's end the weekend with some good old fashioned religious buffoonery.
First up, the chief Catholic exorcist has condemned Harry Potter.
For God's Sake. Have any of these people even READ the books?
"Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil," says Father Gabriele Amorth, the Pope's "caster-out of demons".
Ahuh.
The books contained numerous positive references to the satanic art, falsely drawing a distinction between black and white magic, he told the Daily Mail in London. In the same interview, Father Amorth said he was convinced that Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were possessed by the devil.
Moving right along....we get this
Pinocchio, Tom Sawyer and other characters have been converted to Islam in new versions of 100 classic stories on the Turkish school curriculum.
"Give me some bread, for Allah's sake," Pinocchio says to Geppetto, his maker, in a book stamped with the crest of the ministry of education.
In The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan is told he cannot visit Aramis. The reason would make the author, Alexandre Dumas, turn in his grave. An old woman explains: "He is surrounded by men of religion. He converted to Islam after his illness."
Tom Sawyer may have shirked his homework, but he is more conscientious with his Islamic prayers. He is given a "special treat" for learning Arabic words.
Other books altered include Johanna Spyri's Heidi and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
The clumsy insertions by Islamic publishing houses have caused controversy in Turkey, which has been a strongly secular state since the 1920s.
I don't know what's more pathetic - not having enough "Islamic" literature for your children to read that you have to alter non-Islamic stuff, or just the fact that you can't bear to have your children read something that might introduce them to ideas outside the religion they were born into.
And to think, Ataturk tried to get Turkey to find an identity outside Islam - nice to see his work seems to be being undone.