A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside, under the eyes of her screaming parents.
The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A reporter has seen the whole scene, and addressing the biker, says: Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I have ever seen a man do in my whole life.
The biker replies: Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.
Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's papers will have this on the first page. What motorcycle do you ride?
A Harley Davidson, was the bikers response.
The journalist leaves.
The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed bring news of his actions, and reads, on first page:
Biker gang member assaults African immigrant and steals his lunch.
#2
The Sauds want jihadi action directed at correct targets: Israel, Kashmir (India), Shiites, Serbs.
Why on earth would the Saudis stop financing terror? Political leaders don't have the balls to utter criticism, let alone take action. Last I heard, the State Department labeled Saud' creation of a Shura' hate factory, as a democratic murmer.
There have been many very different reactions to Max Mosleys basement bunk-up. Some have been offended and some unmoved, but most people, since its so Carry On up the Khyber, have read the reports and sniggered.
Hmmm. I wonder if Im alone in having a bit of respect for the man. I mean, there he is, a 68-year-old pensioner getting it on with five girls in the middle of the afternoon. Fair play to you, fella.
I felt much the same way when I heard Prince William had put his chopper in Kate Middletons back garden. Oooh, there was a lot of harrumphing but come on, chaps. The mans a prince. All he did was borrow one of his grannys helicopters to drop in on the floozy. Wouldnt you?
David Cameron laid out a new set of guidelines last week to which all Tory MEPs must now adhere. They fill me with horror and dread because it means were soon to be governed by a bunch of people who go to bed at 10, only drink ginger beer, never try to look up their secretaries skirts and are quite happy to get paid £4.50 an hour. In short, were going to be governed by bores and failures.
Why is this a good idea? No one says of their friends, I chose them because they are all so kind to animals and they do good works. We like people who like to laugh, to have fun, to break the rules once in a while.
Trouble is, its hard to find people like that any more . . .
In the olden days Private Eye was full of stories about journalists whod ripped off their employers for 40 grand and been in bed with a hooker when the story they were supposed to be covering broke. Now, its just an endless parade of mild hypocrisy. Eighteen months ago the Daily Mail said this. And now its saying the exact opposite. So what.
The maelstrom of expenses fraud and serial shagging has become a gentle eddy of honest-to-God mistakes. And whatever happened to the long lunch? Today, whenever I order a glass of wine in the middle of the day, people look at me as though I might be a Martian. And thats before I step outside for a cigarette.
This brings me on to Amy Winehouse. Has it occurred to anyone that she might be having a jolly good time? In the 1950s and 1960s, before the world became so po-faced, the rich and the famous would gather in Mustique and the south of France for debauched, drug-fuelled orgies and no one batted an eyelid. Today we tut because Russell Crowe has thrown a telephone at someone. And look what happens when an Old Etonian tries to make some governmental alterations in Africa. Instead of a statue in Trafalgar Square he gets 34 years in the slammer.
Imagine if we had someone like Winston Churchill in power today. A smoker. A drinker. A man given to Herculean bouts of depression. Under a hailstorm of criticism he wouldnt last a week. Look at poor old Charles Kennedy. Gone now and replaced with someone who, I feel sure, would get a dopamine rush from taking his dog for a walk.
Its the same for all of us. You can be ostracised by your neighbours for putting your refuse in the wrong-coloured bin, you can have your car vandalised if it has four-wheel drive and last week there were calls for cyclists to be jailed if they attempted to enliven this ludicrous means of transport by getting a move on.
Worse, the town of Redruth in Cornwall has imposed a 9pm curfew on all under16s, which means that every 15-year-old boy must now be at home each evening with his parents watching Panorama. I fear the Cornish courts had better brace themselves for a massive increase in cases of matricide.
I look sometimes at the microcosm that is my own life and its terrifying. Because in recent years I have been criticised for bumping into a horse chestnut tree; Ive been called a berk, on the front page of a national newspaper, for using an iPod while driving. And only a couple of weeks ago I was blasted for enjoying a gin and tonic while at the North Pole.
Theres a constant bombardment for me to sit up straight, eat my greens, comb my hair. It drives me mad. Honestly. Next time James May and I are at a Pole, weve decided hes going to mainline heroin and Im going to shoot a baby polar bear in the face. For fun.
I fear for our future. I worry that bad behaviour is being erased from society, and that unless the trend can be reversed somehow well all have to go through life on the Planet Stepford, a rictus grin masking the boiling turmoil of desperation inside. I yearn sometimes when I encounter a neatly stacked pyramid of tins of beans to push it over. Dont you? Wouldnt it break the monotony of having to drive at 30mph and eating a wholefood fair-trade sandwich at your desk.
Recently Annie Robinson and I dreamt up a TV show that would serve as an antidote to the endless parade of hectoring and finger-wagging programmes we get today. Instead of running down the street after a cowboy builder whod charged an old lady a million quid to build a fireplace, we would go after the victims.
It was to be called Sucker and it would celebrate the ingenious while pointing the finger and howling with laughter at the stupid, the gullible and the fat. Never has the nation needed such a show more. And never has such a thing been less likely to get commissioned. Unless, of course, we could get Max Mosley to present it.
#2
And look what happens when an Old Etonian tries to make some governmental alterations in Africa. Instead of a statue in Trafalgar Square he gets 34 years in the slammer.
I hope I live long enough to learn the truth of that entire affair. Something tells me the "Old Etonian" was left holding the bag.
Link goes to the first of a set of 14 videos of Shane Smith's guided 'tour' of North Korea. I saw a highlight of this on CNN and tuned into the 'News to Me' show to catch the tail end.
He basically points out that N. Korea is the 'land that time forgot'.
Episode's 1,4,9, and 12 I found particulary interesting.
Personally I think all those North Korean people are going to be mightly pissed off when they find out what they have been missing on the outside.
Hey kids, VBS founder Shane Smith is going to be on CNN's News To Me this weekend at 7:30 PM, half-past midnight, and again at 5:30 in the morning both Saturday and Sunday to talk about his exploits in the People's Democratic Republic of Korea. If that doesn't sync up with your tubin' schedule you can also see the interview online at the link we just gave you sometime after Saturday night, we think.
SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean soldier gunned down a 53-year-old South Korean woman tourist who wandered into a military area at a mountain resort in the North in the predawn hours of Friday, a South Korean official said.
The woman identified by her family name Park, was killed in an incident that comes as ties between the two states have chilled since a new South Korean president took office in February promising to get tough with Pyongyang.
Park was strolling on a beach and entered a fenced-off North Korean military area near the Mount Kumgang resort, just north of the border on the east coast, and was shot in her torso and leg by a sentry, the official said.
South Korea will halt tourism to the resort from Saturday, Unification Ministry official Kim Ho-nyoun told a news conference.
...and the inevitable Norkie response
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) regrets the death of a South Korean tourist killed by a DPRK soldier but the woman should take full responsibility for the incident, a DPRK spokesman said Saturday.
South Korean government should take full responsibilities, make an apology to the DPRK and promise that a similar incident would never happen again, said the spokesman for the DPRK Guidance Bureau for Comprehensive Development of Scenic Spots.
#2
Watched all 14 of the episodes, couldn't stop.
I'm not familiar with Shane Smith, I suspect he was going to try to put the hippie, liberal spin on things until he saw how truly f*cked up Nkor really is. He took some real risks to make this, it's the most film I've ever seen out of NKor. Very interesting and worth the time to view.
Amidst the current brouhaha surrounding Charlie Rangel's cheap rent, it’s worth noting that the veteran congressman (since 1971) has a relatively piddling net worth of "$566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records." That's not much on Capitol Hill where Speaker of the House Pelosi is worth well in excess of 25 mill and a whole passel of senators (Kerry, Kohl, Kennedy, Clinton, etc.) are even richer. Hell, Rangel's not even worth half of Ralph Nader. Now I don't mean to justify rent cheating, if that's what he's doing, but the guy's 78-years old with 37 years in Congress and if all he's got to show for it is a million bucks, there's reason to think that, compared to his colleagues, he's a saint.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/13/2008 07:19 ||
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#1
Or too stupid to figure out the whole graft thing.
#4
And yet it has been long noted that on average, he submits bills to congress just for his tiny New York district, whose annual value would be worth over $500 billion. And even as chairman of the House Appropriations committee, only a tiny fraction have ever passed.
#5
Nah. Charlie knows the graft thing, and how to respond when questioned on it...
Congressman Charles Rangel was recently seen getting out of his Cadillac DeVille, which he leases for $774 per month. Then there was Congressman Jose Serrano, getting out of his Buick LaCrosse, which he leases for $317 per month. And how about this one: Congressman Gregory Meeks was recently seen waiting for Congressman John Conyers to step out of Meeks' Lexus LS460, which Meeks leases for $998 per month. All those leases are picked up by taxpayers through a little-known program available only to members of the House of Representatives.
Rangel: "I could probably find something for ... one of those red cars and then I think my constituents would say, 'With all the money that he gets, this is the respect he shows us?'"
"When I'm in New York, my car is my office. I use it to conduct Congressional business. It really pleases me that (my constituents) appreciate driving in a comfortable car, especially the senior citizens," Rangel said. "The car isn't just a vehicle for getting around; it's an important part of doing my job and my constituents appreciate it."
#4
The CIA - the organization that didn't see 9/11 coming, and that provided bad intelligence on Iraq. The organization that spent billions during the cold war spying on the Soviet Union and was SURPRISED by it's collapse in the 90's. Yeah, I'm so going to listen to advice from these folks.
By SALIM MANSUR
In How Democracies Perish published during the late Cold War years, Jean-Francois Revel, French political philosopher, offered a rich meditation that remains compelling in the post-9/11 world of Islamist terror and rampage against the West. Revel wrote about the paradox of democracy when facing an internal enemy -- as were the communists with their totalitarian agenda -- since his "right to exist is written into the law itself."
This is how Revel explained the dilemma: "Democracy can defend itself only very feebly; its internal enemy has an easy time of it because he exploits the right to disagree that is inherent in democracy. His aim of destroying democracy itself, of actively seeking an absolute monopoly of power, is shrewdly hidden behind the citizen's legitimate right to oppose and criticize the system."
In the post-communist world of Islamist terror, democracy in the West also is threatened by the misguided view of those individuals indicating readiness to accommodate demands generally advanced by Muslim mosque-based organizations.
The most recent example of such misguided view is the opinion offered by Nicholas Phillips, the most senior judge in England and Wales, that Islamic law or Sharia could be introduced in Britain.
Lord Phillips' opinion concurred with that of Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Neither of them, in offering their weighty opinions, took into account the reality of a large portion of immigrants, including many Muslims, making home in Britain after fleeing from Sharia-ruled countries of the Arab-Muslim world.
Lord Phillips expressed his views at a Muslim Centre in East London where a sprinkling of Islamists would have been present. He probably would not recognize an Islamist apart from a Muslim, nor -- giving him the benefit of doubt -- would he have been likely informed that the demand for Sharia in Britain and elsewhere in the West originates with Islamists deceptively indicating this is a commonly shared request of all Muslims.
Islamists residing in the West are agents of another totalitarian ideology -- Islamism -- that is more insidious than communism since it wears the mask of religion. Their push for Sharia is acceptable to individuals such as Lord Phillips and the Archbishop of Canterbury because, in upholding multiculturalism, they willingly suspend their critical faculties when it comes to dealing with other faiths and cultures, in particular Islam.
Sharia is a legal system derived from the Qur'an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, and devised by Muslim scholars more than a millennium ago to dictate just about every aspect of individual living and thinking. It is a closed system disallowing any innovation based on a modern reading of Islam's sacred texts, and it is violently at odds with liberal-democratic values.
The Islamist demand for introducing Sharia is strategically conceived to render Muslim populated areas in a multicultural Britain -- and similarly in other western democracies -- as Sharia-based enclaves set apart from the majority population.
The evidence of havoc Islamists have wrought across the Arab-Muslim world is overwhelming, and since Sept. 11, 2001, this evidence is daily news.
Yet a growing elite opinion in Britain, defying logic and history, has taken hold in support of Sharia while remaining unmindful of consequences and dismissive of the peril as Revel reminded of how internal enemies push their agenda to fatally weaken democracies.
#1
The problem is not in democracy, but in incorrectly defining democracy.
Democracy is not about freedom or liberty. They are just side effects. The biggest, most powerful, and undeniable advantage of democracy is efficiency.
Democracy is more efficient than tribalism, Sharia Law, Dictatorship, Royalism, Socialism, Communism, Bureaucratic Rule or any other system. As a basic tenet, it assumes that among the people, many people will be better at things than the leaders. No leader can be best at doing it all.
This means that it is the people that create, innovate, and adapt, and it is the leaders who must use their wisdom to manage what the people have done, for the benefit of the social contract.
Problems develop in democracy only when leaders assume that they always know better, and there is a break in the communication and execution of ideas from the people. The resulting decline in efficiency makes other forms of government appear more attractive.
Often this takes the form of factions that seek to usurp the voice of the people, and pretend to be their representatives to the elected politicians. In this way, factions strive to disenfranchise the public.
Importantly, a multitude of factions is not such a threat, because they tend to work at cross purposes, neutralizing each others efforts to usurp the public voice.
Ironically, democracy seems impossible, because it is decentralized authority. And proto-democratic systems can and do exist in other forms of government as well, which explains their durability in the face of democratic revolution.
But make no mistake, democracy continues its advance in the world, even when not called democracy.
"Democracy is not about freedom or liberty. They are just side effects. The biggest, most powerful, and undeniable advantage of democracy is efficiency."
This is backwards.
Democracy is the most efficient implementation or Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. IT is the effect of Liberty, not the cause.
Individual Liberty by definition must be the foundation for a truly democratic system. Otherwise you get the GDR and that ilk. Freedom first, THEN democracy.
#3
Tyrants can generate popular support. Hitler cultivated a personality cult, and people bought it. That is one reason why Nazism was outlawed under terms of occupation, after WW2.
The use of civil means to address jihad terror phenomenon, is madness. Frankly, jihad suspects should be put in a show cause situation where they would have to disprove accusations. Financing, advocacy, participation, arming, etc should warrant the death penalty. However, I would create procedural safeguards so that convictions wouldn't be based on mere accusation. I would also allow infiltration of mosques, planting of wire taps and easy video gathering.
- CHICAGO (AP) Comedian Bernie Mac endured some heckling and a campaign rebuke during a surprise appearance Friday night at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago, the 50-year-old star of "The Bernie Mac Show" joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.
"My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'" Mac said. "I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.'"
As the joke continued, the punchline evoked an angry response from at least one person in the audience, who said it was offensive to women.
"It's not funny. Let's get Barack on," a man shouted from the crowd, which paid $2,300 each to support the Illinois senator.
About 15 minutes later, Obama tried to smooth things over with a joke of his own.
"We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."
The incident drew response from Obama's campaign, which criticized Mac for his choice of material.
"Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement after the event.
Mac, a Chicago native, said he's a longtime Obama supporter and called the presumptive Democratic nominee a "man's man" while offering him advice for the duration of the campaign trail.
"People like rumors. They're going to say things like you was at the club with Lil' Kim, and you and Kanye West got into a fist fight," he said. "You can't get upset. You've got to keep hope alive."
Mac's appearance was Obama's first celebrity event of the evening. Later at a Lincoln Park nightclub, Obama spoke to a raucous crowd of music fans, who paid up to $500 per person to see a performance by Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy, and two other band members.
"Before these guys go, I want them to know that I had heard a rumor that they had suggested that I had nothing by them on my iPod," Obama said. "That is not true. I love Wilco."
#1
Nothing like reinforcing the notion that the Left has become dry and devoid of any type of humor.
Angry Marxism -- welcome to the Democratic Party Bernie.
#1
I'd love to see McCain do a press conference from the ANWR coastal plain. I'd also love to see the McCain staff to neglect to mention DEET to the press corps.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
