Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance
– G.K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 1925
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There’s more to the world than politics. Politics is a way to have paved streets and cops and firefighters show up when we call 911. It’s nothing more than that. – Commenter ‘Sunfish’ February 16th, 2007 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
 Most people have no idea how much damn maintenance and tender loving care a ballistic missile needs to remain operational. The frigging things are like a temperamental girlfriend (more likely to go off in your face than take you to the heavens). If I was forced to chose between standing 500 yards from the launch site of a Russian ICBM or within 500 yards of the intended target, I’d chose the target. – A pseudonymous commenter February 13th, 2007 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
Back in my day, the toms weren’t much to look at, but you look at these Polish birds in London these days and yer think, blimey, I’d pay money for that! – So said a London taxi cab driver the other day, starting off with what I had taken to be the preamble to an anti-immigration rant to a captive audience (me) but which turned out to be a hosanna to the value to the British gene-pool of the latest wave of mass immigration. He said because of the area he worked, he frequently picked up and delivered high class ‘courtesans’ to their place of gainful employ. February 10th, 2007 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
Spring onions are spring onions (or scallions). Aussies might have recently beat us at a pointless activity (it isn’t sport if you can do it in a chunky-knit tank-top) but they lag well beyond the Northern Hemisphere in the recognition of common-place veggies. And your water goes down the plug-hole the wrong way round… And that’s moral turpitude that is, not the Coriolis effect. – Commenter Nick M February 3rd, 2007 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Most of my old mates from Country Durham probably know how to download porn off the web (that’s what its really for after all) but I’d be willing to bet that to a man they think MySpace is where you part your car. – Commenter ‘Albion’ January 22nd, 2007 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Democratic Undergrounder 1: “Dude, Bush is a god-damn fascist. I asked everyone I know and like no one voted for him! Patriot Act, wiretaps made easier, locking up people in Guantanamo Bay without a trial… he’s like some whacked out Christian dictator!” Democratic Undergrounder 2: “Yeah man! It’s so good to see Chavez in Venezuela sticking it to Bush’s buddies in the oil business! He’s gonna make Venezuela totally free now! Democratic Undergrounder 1: “That’s right! Did you hear? He’s been given powers to rule by decree and now he can close down opposition newspapers, silence non-socialist radio stations and throw his political enemy’s asses in jail if they don’t do whatever his decree says.” Democratic Undergrounder 2: “Woah, cool! One day I hope we’re as free as that in the USA!” Of course, I am just imagining that discussion. I am sure nothing like that ever happened. January 20th, 2007 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
If the best we get by having a choice between a “democratically” elected Statist behemoth and a dictatorially selected Statist behemoth then we’ve got a major problem. So “scale” is important when discussing democracy. Granted local authorities can be corrupt as well, but the whole notion is to “set aside” bad government, not elect in a new batch of the same. In the end, the bigger the government, no matter how it is contrived, the more self serving and unresponsive it will be. The anti-federalists knew this, but lost out for the most part – Commenter ‘Brad‘ January 6th, 2007 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
New Year’s Day – Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving the road to hell with them as usual – attributed to Mark Twain January 1st, 2007 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
All governments, all people even, should be held to the same moral standards. If you allow it for Saddam or Uday, then you must allow it for Bush or Rumsfeld. If you forbid it for Bush or Blair, then you must forbid it for Saddam or Ahmadinejad. Anything else smacks of “you can’t expect any better of Middle Easterners”-style of racism, or at least cultural arrogance. Did Saddam lie about WMD? Does Bush rape women or imprison and torture small children? First set out what your standards of behaviour are, and when particular actions in response are justified, and only then consider the example set by particular nations. For if you pay more attention to Iraq than Tibet, say, people might be able to accuse you of being on the side of the tyrants, and your moralising protests no more than enemy propaganda. And you wouldn’t want that, would you? – Commenter ‘Pa Annoyed’ December 30th, 2006 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
December 26th, 2006 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph December 24th, 2006 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
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