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July 15, 2005
Papal Bull?
dave
12:17 PM
Comments (0)
Oh great - it appears that Pope Adolf Benedict thinks that Harry Potter is unchristian.
Pope disapproves of Harry Potter, letters suggest - Yahoo! News
BERLIN (Reuters) - Pope Benedict believes the Harry Potter books subtly seduce young readers and "distort Christianity in the soul" before it can develop properly, according to comments attributed to him by a German writer.
At least the Vatican also disapproves of The Da Vinci Code, a truly execrable piece of twaddle.
July 12, 2005
Britons proceed as normal, Yankees hide.
dave
10:27 AM
Comments (0)
U.S. tells troops to stay out of London after bombs - Yahoo! News
LONDON (Reuters) - All 12,000 members of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Britain have been banned from visiting London because of last week's bombings, newspapers reported on Tuesday, and one daily slammed the decision as "timid."
It's pathetic, that's what it is. It's also pretty much indicative of the whole US Goverment line since 9/11: "You should all be terrified of terrorists! Hide! Strike back randomly and ineffectively! Panic!" If you're terrified of terrorists and you drastically alter your lifestyle to cope, aren't you just giving into the them?
July 03, 2005
It's time to meet the muppets...
dave
02:27 AM
Comments (0)
Atrios skewers CNN's talking heads in this post comparing Novak and Valenti to Statler and Waldorf.
May 02, 2005
Mission Accomplished?
dave
09:21 PM
Comments (0)
You know, it was two years ago today that George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.
April 20, 2005
Pope Adolf the First
dave
12:44 AM
Comments (6)
Well, it's official -- right wing nutjob Josef Ratzinger is the new pope. The cultists in Opus Dei must be happy -- they're probably dancing a little jig in their jackboots.
It should have been Arinze, if only because all the real conservatives would probably have left the church or had their heads explode at the prospect of a black pope.
UPDATE: Some more links:
"We can expect no reform from him in the coming years." he said. "Even more people will turn their back on the Church."
January 26, 2005
Liberation of Death Camps
dave
01:04 PM
Comments (0)
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Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps.
On Making Light, We Never Knew takes apart the myth that the world was ignorant of Hitler's plan.
January 25, 2005
Europe vs America
dave
01:26 PM
Comments (0)
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Europe vs America, by Tony Judt.
As a consequence, Americans live shorter lives than West Europeans. Their children are more likely to die in infancy: the US ranks twenty-sixth among industrial nations in infant mortality, with a rate double that of Sweden, higher than Slovenia's, and only just ahead of Lithuania's—and this despite spending 15 percent of US gross domestic product on "health care"
via the Sideshow.
November 13, 2004
The Concidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11
dave
02:20 PM
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TrackBack
Rigorous Intuition: The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11
Via Making Light::Particles.
November 04, 2004
Four more years of this shit
dave
11:19 PM
Comments (3)
TrackBack
It's all very depressing. Just when you think that the majority of Americans are normal, rational, thinking people, they go and do something moronic like vote for George W. Bush.
After all, he's only bankrupted the country, destroyed the army, and vastly increased the exposure of the USA to terrorism by invading a country which had nothing to do with September 11. He's only presided over widespread violation of the Geneva Conventions, the handing over of 380,000 tons of high explosives to God-knows-who, the trampling of the US Constitution(see Guantanamo Bay) and alienated just about every ally that America has ever had.
He claims to be a born-again Christian, but he lives in some sort of Old Testament world with smiting and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Leviticans, I believe those sorts of hypocrites are called.
I fully expect to see the USA invade Iran before next summer. I expect to see the US army resorting to a draft of some sort by next year. Civil liberties will go further down the toilet and I'm more than half expecting to see the 22nd Amendment repealed, so that Georgie can be president for life.
October 25, 2004
760,000 Lockerbie Bombings
dave
11:36 PM
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760,000 Lockerie Bombings. That's what the incompetent and illegal US invasion of Iraq has unleashed upon the world by allowing the looting of 380 tons of high explosive from Baghdad. Still, as long as the Oil Ministry was secure, everything was ok, no? If not, why did they try and cover it up for 18 months?
More Links:
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1227564.htm http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/25/iraq.explosives/
- http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/10/25/iraq_explosives_missing041025.html
Why 760,000 Lockerbie Bombings? That's becuase just one pound of high explosives can take out a jet aircraft. The amount of high explosive stolen from Baghdad was 380 tons, or 760,000 pounds.
October 08, 2004
Bush's Resume
dave
03:43 PM
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October 06, 2004
Sith Mind Tricks
dave
02:56 PM
Comments (1)
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Darth Cheney attempts to use his Sith powers to control young Jedi Edwards. (Picture snarfed from dailykos.com.)
UPDATE: This picture is displaying oddly, and <br /> doesn't help, so I need to add more text to make it look better.
I noticed on the TVB news tonight that they repeated a few of the RNC talking points, especially the 'first they were for the war, then against it', line, which is a misrepresentation of what really happened. Also, they showed a selection of clips which made John Edwards look bad, and then quoted Fox News to show that he only had a narrow lead. Now, it's no surprise that the American news channels are completely partisan — they're largely owned by conservative corporations after all — but I'd've expected better things from the Hong Kong news corps. While the local news corps are shamelessly partisan, they are usually so in favour of China, not necessarily the American Right. Perhaps they couldn't be bothered interpreting — or even fact-checking — the canned reports they buy from the wire agencies.
October 05, 2004
TVB Oddities
dave
09:29 PM
Comments (1)
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I'm sure I just saw a trailer on TVB, one of the four terrestrial TV channels available in Hong Kong, for the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and Lieberman. Um, that was like, four years ago. Try and keep up with current events guys!
UPDATE: Picture added! This was taken with my el-cheapo digital camera from the TV screen, so the quality is terrible, but you should be able to see what's going on.
Funny Clip
dave
08:52 PM
Comments (0)
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A Funny Look at the recent Republican convention. Via Daily Kos.
Update: There's a comment by the author of the clip here. Via The Sideshow.
Another Update: I'm trying the Trackback thing to invisible elevators just to see if it works.
September 04, 2004
Hong Kong Politics
dave
11:27 AM
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As a registered voter in Hong Kong, I've been trying to find out as much about the varoius candidates in next Sunday's LegCo elections as possible. This isn't always that easy when you don't read Chinese. Previously Hemlock's guide to the Candidates has been one of the few points of information available.
This morning, number one daughter presented me with the contents of the mailbox, including the very same pleading and begging brochures so masterfully snarked at by Hemlock, above. In numerical order...
Stability to Advance Democracy, Harmony to build Tomorrow. Voting ticket number 1 will get you the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, where 'betterment' means 'doing whatever Beijing wants'. It's an attractive leaflet, with some biographical information in English, but all of the policy information is in Chinese, if it's there at all. These guys are the party of shamelessly sucking up to Beijing and Hong Kong becoming just another Mainland city. Ironically, a vote for them would convince Beijing that Hong Kongers can be trusted to vote for only officially approved candidates who toe the Central Government line, and is thus more likely to bring about Universal Sufferage in the election of the Chief Executive than anyone else.
Serving HK, no fear, no favourRita Fan, thoughtfully sends out a detailed policy document in English. This glossy document not only illustrates the depth's of Ms. Fan's political platform, it also clearly shows a woeful lack of graphic design. Having three or four different fonts on the same page produces and effect much like a ransom note, while the sea of faded background images and muted colours looks like somone recently acquired a Mac and is a big fan of Miami Vice.
Vote for the "Bull" Say no to C.H. TUNGTicket No. 3 represents Tsang Kin Shing, Bull. Other than encouraging farmyard animals to attack our current Chief Executive, his policies remain unclear, as there's no English text apart from email addresses and such like. Just going by the pictures, he appears to all for burning things, wearing t-shirts with slogans, and using a microphone like Freddy Mercury. He also portrays himself as a bit of a superhero, or maybe he's supposed to be one of those Wu Xia warriors we see on TVB every night. Looks more like one of those Mexican Wrestler politicians to me.
Where are the democrats?I haven't received any bumph from the democratic party yet.
GIVE ME FIVE - HONG KONG SURE WINAre all the other candiates too exciting? Do they have views which are too strongly held? Would you prefer to vote for a nice dull looking person in a grey suit? Then Kelvin Wong Kam Fai on ticket number 5 is your only man. His 'brochure' — and I use that term very loosely here — is a single sheet of A4 printed in black and white. Apart from a return to Chinglish, as his slogan can attest to, Kelvin's policy platform is exclusively in Chinese. Looks like a bit of a Young Conservative though, which is more than enough reason to not vote for him.
Give Hong Kong a Fresh StartTicket number six represents Cyd Ho and Audrey Eu, both rather attractive Chinese ladies of a certain age. 50, it says on the candidate information sheet I received from the government. I haven't received anything from the ladies as yet.
August 28, 2004
Terrorism
dave
01:01 PM
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Avedon, over at The Sideshow, has a good post on Terrorism:
But the real answer is that Europeans didn't just "put up with it" - they treated terrorists like the criminals they were and didn't allow them to completely disrupt their way of living. They did not suddenly get behind an excited drive to gut their treasuries and impoverish their countries and their people by setting off half-cocked on some stupid permanent state of war that would wipe out the very civil liberties and trust in law that made their nations worth living in to begin with.
July 01, 2004
G. W. Bush: Deserter
dave
12:44 PM
Comments (4)
So, the Shrub really was a deserter after all!
Read the whole thing. Via Orcinus
June 18, 2004
More Politics
dave
12:20 AM
Comments (0)
Scary stuff:
June 17, 2004
Iraq and Al Quaeda
dave
12:50 AM
Comments (0)
So now it's official: There was no credible link between Al Quaeda and Iraq. I wonder how those lockstep right-wing liars will try and spin this one?
I note that Cheney is spewing more lies.
June 09, 2004
Ronald Reagan
dave
10:26 PM
Comments (0)
The Gipper has finally passed on, after ten years of a slow death with Alzheimers. As a man, may he rest in peace.
As a president, may he be remembered as the initial sponsor of fundamentalist Islam in Afghanistan, massive national debt in the USA, and the advocate of wholescale treason and illegal warfare on the part of the USA.
I don't have much good to say about him, but, in comparison to George Bush, at least he sounded convincing when he was talking, and at least he could deliver a speech. The current hagiography about Ronald Reagan just makes the Smirking Chimp sound like a brain-damaged, illiterate and inarticulate moron. Oh, wait a minute...
And also in comparison with the Shrub, at least when Ronald Reagan got an easy gig during a war, he actually did his job. Unlike the shrub, who couldn't be bothered turning up for his Vietnam-avoidance stint in Austin, Ronald Reagan turned up for his acting gigs and maybe his propaganda movies were even useful to the war effort.
(God, I never thought I'd be nostalgic for the reign of Ronald Reagan.)
May 28, 2004
Al Gore's Speech
dave
12:11 AM
Comments (0)
It's a good 'un:
Go read the whole thing. Remember when America had Presidents, not a Junta.
May 23, 2004
Terry Jones
dave
12:19 PM
Comments (0)
Terry Jones, writer, film director, actor and Python has something to say about Bush:
(Link found via The Sideshow.)
May 13, 2004
Some Advice
dave
01:31 PM
Comments (0)
Riverbend, an Iraqi lady in Baghdad, has some advice for the American Empire:
May 09, 2004
Orcinus
dave
07:46 PM
Comments (0)
Orcinus is a site well worth reading regularly. He's just put up a great article on the state of the news media.
May 02, 2004
May Day
dave
01:32 AM
Comments (0)
Excuse me while I sing loud Billy Bragg songs in yer ear to celebrate May Day.
I was a Miner, I was a docker...
May 01, 2004
Mission Accomplished?
dave
12:04 AM
Comments (0)
It was one year ago today that the unelectable miserable failure, Preznit Dubya declared Mission Accomplished.
April 30, 2004
Mom and Apple Pie?
dave
01:41 PM
Comments (0)
US Soldiers torture Iraqi Prisoners.
US Marines execute an Iraqi to the cheers of fellow Marines.
Some Questions for the 'pResident'
April 12, 2004
US Tactics Condemned...
dave
11:08 AM
Comments (0)
US tactics condemned by British officers, from the Telegraph is a pretty scathing indictment of what's currently happening in Iraq, and how much of it is self-inflicted by the Americans.
There's more discussion of it by juan Cole and BillMon at Whiskey Bar.
April 11, 2004
Operation Ignore
dave
01:52 PM
Comments (0)
Operation Ignore, from Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right looks at the real anti-terrorism policies of the Bush White House.
April 05, 2004
The Daily Kos thing
dave
01:23 AM
Comments (0)
I've added a navbar link to a site I read regularly: The Daily Kos. (A good over view of the current faff about Kos.)
Basically, Kos expressed an opinion about the four mercenaries that were recently killed in Fallujah. (BBC, Guardian) The hysterical Right Wing Slime Machine went into overdrive and started getting his advertisers to withdraw their advertising.
If you're in Ohio, go vote for Jeff Seemann. He seems to make sense.
March 26, 2004
Romanes Eunt Domus
dave
12:07 AM
Comments (0)
In a perfectly appropriate rebuttal to the anti-semitic pornography which is the latest movie from Mel Gibson (his father is a raving loon), Monthy Python are re-releasing the Life of Brian, still one of the funniest satires ever.
March 25, 2004
Republican Astroturfing
dave
12:00 PM
Comments (6)
TrackBack
From today's South China (Unlinkable) Morning Post SCuMP, comes a letter from Angelo Paratico, a regular letter writer to the SCuMP.
I wish to comment on the article "Bush is savaged by former aide for record on terror" (March 23).
My impression of remarks by Richard Clarke is that he is bad-mouthing his past employer to settle old scores and sell a few copies of his book. In so doing, he is disclosing state secrets and damaging his government's reputation, for which he should be prosecuted.
That President George W. Bush asked to investigate a possible link between Iraq and 9 /11 was reasonable. If Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted to bomb Iraq - as mad as this may seem today - it was emotionally understandable from the perspective of 9 /11.
ANGELO PARATICO, Cheung Sha Wan
This bears all the hallmarks of Republican Astroturfing: regurgitating Republican Talking Points as letters to the editor of various local journals. This is intended to make the public believe that there is widespread support for a particular idea, as they keep hearing it repeated time and again. In this case, the idea is the standard one: Slime every critic of the administration and attack their patriotism.
I note that in this case, they don't seem to be attacking on the facts at all, just maligning Clarke personally. Ad Hominem attacks are a sign of a very weak argument.
Further Update: A good definition of Ad Hominem can be found here. A good definition of Astroturfing is here.
Update: I've removed the links to Angelo's name because he doesn't like google pointing people here. Unfortunately, I can't change Google! The google search result may go away over time. Another Update. I've put the links back. This is my site. If you disagree with content here, you can excercise your right to reply in the comments.
March 24, 2004
A great post
dave
01:31 AM
Comments (0)
Avedon Carol has a great post up on her sideshow. Read Maniacs & Lying Liars - again and again.
January 21, 2004
Now that's what I call an Ice Beer!
dave
06:12 PM
Comments (1)
Russian army rescues kegs of beer.
January 12, 2004
Some Political Links
dave
01:16 AM
Comments (0)
As seen on Brahm's Bones: Bush In 30 Seconds - some short and poignant political advertisements against the Shrub.
Some WMDs found in Iraq only they're all at least 15 years old and leaking and predate the first Gulf War.
Gulf War II planned eight days after GW Bush took office. See also Talking Points Memo.
"We will go to the moon and then Mars", says Bush, although "We shall strip NASA of any other programs and then give control of NASA to the Military" might be more accurate. also on
December 30, 2003
FBI Issues Alert Against Almanac Carriers
dave
03:23 PM
Comments (0)
As seen on Yahoo!...
This is possibly one of the stupidest alerts in a very long line of stupid terror alerts. What's next? Arresting people for being able to read? For reading the wrong books?
"He was carrying a copy of the Qu'ran, your honour."
"Clearly Guilty. Send him to Guantanamo bay."
Update: There's a great discussion of this over at Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Site. (Have I mentioned how much I like that site?)
December 19, 2003
Just when you think the world may not be that weird after all...
dave
09:30 AM
Comments (1)
As seen on the ever unlinkable SCuMP this morning:
Michael Jackson became a member of the Nation of Islam shortly before he was formally charged with child molestation yesterday, the New York Post tabloid reported.
Jackson's first scheduled court appearance in January was also delayed by a week. His passport would be returned to allow him to travel to Britain, sources said yesterday. The change in plans to arraign Jackson, 45, on multiple counts of child molestation came as prosecutors were poised to file formal criminal charges against the star in Santa Maria, near his Neverland ranch in California.
The newspaper quoted sources as saying Jackson became a member of the black Muslim organisation led by Louis Farrakhan on Wednesday night.
"The King of Pop is re-styling himself Jacko X," the tabloid said.
Mr Farrakhan's organisation would not comment. Fox News reported that Jackson's brother, Jermaine, brought Mr Farrakhan's chief of staff into Jackson's inner circle as "a bodyguard".
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, just in case you don't know, is military slang for "What the heck is going on here?"
December 12, 2003
Oil firm 'overcharged' US in Iraq
dave
09:47 AM
Comments (0)
Oil firm 'overcharged' US in Iraq. Yet more crony-capitalism.
Join in the Google™bombing meme: unelectable
December 10, 2003
The Environment
dave
06:15 PM
Comments (0)
There's an excellent article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr about the environment and the way the Bush administration is rolling back years of progress. Crimes Against Nature: By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
November 25, 2003
Eid Mubarek
dave
11:04 PM
Comments (0)
Happy Eid, or Eid Mubarek to any Muslims who read this. Judging from this post at Riverbend, Eid seems a lot like Chinese New Year.
Eid, to anyone who doesn't know, signifies the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. It's more or less the Muslim equivalent of stuffing your face with Easter eggs after Lent.
Shrub Time
dave
10:54 PM
Comments (0)
Apparently, the Queen of England is none too happy with Bush damaging her Shrubs.
November 13, 2003
HK Bloggers Meet
dave
01:30 AM
Comments (0)
Simon's big idea is to have a HK Blogger Meetup. It sounds like a reasonable idea, but some of those involved probably value their privacy. There is, for example, no way the Shaky Kaiser would ever want his real face plastered across a thousand blogs. Neither, I'm guessing, would Conrad (of gweilodiaries.com fame) like to be identified.
There are those of us who have their 'real' identities on their blogs, like Phil (FlyingChair.net), Randall (BigwhiteGuy.Com), or Yan (glutter), or me (and I'm sure there are others I haven't included). But some people's diaries go out of their way to avoid mentioning who they really are. Whether for political or personal reasons.
I'm not knocking Simon's idea of a get together — I'm all for it — I just do think that some of the folks there might be a little worried about their real-life identities being linked with their blogger ids.
And my vote's for somewhere in Wanchai.
Edited to fix some spelling. Taken down for a bit while I thought about it, and put back up again.
October 24, 2003
ClusterFest
dave
09:54 PM
Comments (0)
Phil nailed it. The HarbourFest is really a ClusterFest.
Heads really need to roll over this. Unfortunately Jim Thompson of AmCham is probably immune and Mike Rowse is Mr. Teflon. We can probably expect to see some junior flunkies sacked for agreeing with their bosses.
October 18, 2003
Slacktivist
dave
11:36 PM
Comments (0)
There's a good article about the worst aspects of Fundamentalist Christian Theology over at Slacktivist: http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2003/10/left_behind_is_.html.
October 16, 2003
The Chinese Space Program
dave
11:49 PM
Comments (0)
I'm sure you've all seen in the new how the Chinese Space Program has put a man in space. Looking at a log of American sites, I see comments like "but we did that forty years ago!". Well, that's true, however, the American space program has been in decline for thirty years. What's been done seriously since men walked on the moon? Pissing about in low Earth orbit with an unwieldy craft and no vision, that's what.
My prediction: The next time an American walks on the moon, he'll be able to go somewhere there to have Chinese food.
October 08, 2003
The Governator
dave
07:50 PM
Comments (0)
Well, what can you say? I mean, who needs politicians who might actually know what they're doing? American Politics just seems to get dumber and dumber.
October 07, 2003
The Leak
dave
09:57 PM
Comments (0)
It never fails to amaze me how right-wing Americans will ignore the facts in a given situation and insist that Bill or Hillary Clinton did much worse. It's like some sort of collective brain disease.
Let's see. Currently, someone in the White House betrayed the cover of an undercover operative, Valerie Plame. This is not a rumour, this is a fact. Even Bush has admitted it. This is a criminal offence, with a ten year jail term attached. Meanwhile they're being investigated by an Attorney General appointed by the Bush Administration; they're submitting their documents, but they'll be reviewed by their own counsel for two weeks before being handed over. This is the same party who screamed blue murder until an independent investigator was appointed for Clinton? (Who was guilty of having an affair, not leading his country to war and alienating almost every single ally.)
Iraqi WMD's
dave
12:28 AM
Comments (0)
Let's see - a summary of the Kay report is that the Iraqi's had some dirt, which they could possibly have cultivated to make something nasty. What's next? Evidence of large and pointed sticks?
September 30, 2003
Valerie Plame Affair
dave
01:01 AM
Comments (0)
Well, those squirming liars in the White House have outdone themselves this time. Not only have they committed treason by naming a Covert CIA operative, they appear to be completely unable to tell the truth. Check out Talking Points Memo on PlameGate.
Hopefully this is the first in a long line of events which will lead to the entire Bush administration languishing in the clink for crimes against humanity.
September 24, 2003
Blogs
dave
04:50 PM
Comments (0)
Baghdad Burning is a blog by a young Iraqi lady. It's well written and horrifying all at the same time.
September 21, 2003
Project Censored
dave
12:41 AM
Comments (0)
Project Censored's Yearly Report - interesting reading.
September 19, 2003
Terrorrism
dave
01:58 PM
Comments (0)
I had a thought a while back (don't laugh, it does happen!), but have only got around to putting it somewhere public now. Look at this table of events:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 11, 2001 | World Trade Center Attacks |
| October 12, 2002 | Bali Bombing, Indonesia |
| November 13, 2003 | ? |
| December 14, 2004 | ? |
Each attack a year and a day after the one before. I think I'm staying home on November 13 this year.
September 18, 2003
Politics
dave
01:43 AM
Comments (0)
I've been trying to read a few of the better political blogs recently. While these are mostly American blogs, there are a few others. One thing which amazes me is the comments sections. After a few comments, any discussion of political issues will be drowned out by gibbering right-wing nutjobs. And I'm not talking about those with politics to the right of mine, I'm talking about the "KKKlinton killed Vince Foster", or "Hillary is the AntiChrist", or "if you don't toe the Republican line, you're a traitor to America". It's quite scary how much this happens. And it's stifling discussion. It is impossible to have a political discussion in a public forum without gangs of trolling Freepers (so named because the congregate on the absurdly right-wing FreeRepublic.com, and no, I'm not linking to them.) turning up and spewing hateful nonsense everywhere.
September 08, 2003
Interesting Article
dave
02:22 PM
Comments (0)
There's an interesting article from Saturday's Guardian Newspaper. It does smack of conspiracy theory a lot, but it also sounds somewhat plausible.
Found on Charlie Stross' Blog.
August 15, 2003
Army of One
dave
01:12 PM
Comments (0)
Nope, can't resist: Army of One - a look at the Bush Administration's treatment of the Military. As seen on Making Light, among other places.
August 13, 2003
Massive Cluelessness in Hong Kong
dave
01:25 AM
Comments (0)
Last Week, a local fashion shop www.izzue.com (Can you say 'dot com is dead dude?') showed off their new fashion collection with a dominant Nazi motif. Yep. As you can image everyone has come down on them like a ton of bricks. They still don't seem to realise just what an enormous mistake they have made. I can only point you at BigwhiteGuy.com, who has covered this in greater detail than I could. Check out Randall's Coverage of the whole affair.
July 16, 2003
And now the beanpole!
dave
09:39 PM
Comments (0)
According to a news flash, Anthony Leung has just resigned too!
Hong Kong Politics
dave
08:21 PM
Comments (0)
Regina Ip, otherwise known as Broom-head on account of her hairstyle, has resigned. "Oh, don't worry, just trust us..."
She was the Minister for Security and Oppressing the Peasants, or something like that. This is shortly after recording the biggest drop in popularity of any politician ever in Hong Kong. Her modus operandi was to try and introduce legislation which would make it illegal to criticize the government, then say "oh don't worry, just trust us, we'd never use the law to our advantage..."
Next to go is probably Anthony Leung, who failed to declare a luxury car purchase just before he changed the law to increase the tax revenues on, you guessed it, luxury car purchases.
Let's all wish them both a nice, big Phillip Wong (i.e. drink a little wine and give them the finger).
July 14, 2003
Rhubarb! Rhubarb!
dave
08:46 PM
Comments (0)
Another 20,000 or so people demonstrated outside the Legislative Council building last night, calling for democracy and the direct election of the Chief Executive. Meanwhile, Beijing is denying that anyone Chinese officials have had any long talks with Democratic Party members from Hong Kong. I get the feeling that they're embarrassed that Tung has been so ineffective.
July 10, 2003
People Power
dave
12:12 AM
Comments (0)
Well, the people of Hong Kong have spoken again: 50,000 protested outside the Legislative Council building last night in a peaceful protest against Article 23 and Tung Chee Hua. There's a strong movement now to bring in direct elections for the Chief Executive instead of the current method of selection by Beijing.
Interesting times, to be sure.
July 07, 2003
Political Future
dave
12:53 AM
Comments (0)
It looks like Hong Kong's political future will be decided by Beijing after the spineless gimp known as Tung Chee Hua has decided that he's incapable of decisive comment.
What's really irritating is that it looked like Beijing were quite happy to let the first post-colonial administration run its course and do its thing without interfering. I honestly get the impression that Beijing are embarrassed that Tung Chee Hua's government are such a useless embarrassment. I think they would have preferred that Hong Kong went like Taiwan with fisticuffs in LegCo every day and people squabbling on the street: "Hey, I'm for Anson Chan!" "*SMACK!* Martin Lee for Chief Exec!"
As it is, we got the worst of Hong Kong: clueless people promoted to management because they're Chinese and not offensive.
July 02, 2003
Update to protest
dave
12:04 AM
Comments (0)
The police are quoting an attendance of 350,000, while the organizers say 500,000. This makes it the biggest demonstration since the marches against the Tienanmen Square crackdown in 1989, when one million people marched.
The March seemed to wind up about 9:30 pm, so it took over six and a half hours for all the people in Victoria Park to get to Central.
And Tung Chee Hua has been quoted as saying that none of the marchers need to worry because the legislation won't be used to crack down on this. What a clueless twit.
In other news, some pro-Beijing organization held a festival (also in Victoria Park - that was dumb) to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the handover. From what I could see on the TV, the attendance seemed to be a lot of confused looking old people wandering around and playing some silly games in market stalls, like 'throw the ball and get a prize anyway', or 'pin the tail in anything, dear, and there's a sticky bun for you'.
July 01, 2003
The people are speaking
dave
06:34 PM
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As I type, Victoria Park is chock-a-block with protesters against Article 23, and the front o the march has been accumulating at Government House since about 4pm. From the TV, I can see that Hennessey Road is full of people marching, and that road is six lanes wide. There is a solid queue of people at that density all the way from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Government House in Central. This is an incredible number of people, far in excess of what was expected. The trams are stopped, the busses can't move, and the Chinese Premier ran away this morning before having to see real civil unrest.
I fully expect to see the pro-Beijing spin machine spewing more rubbish in the next few days, even though it was discovered that they were falsifying grass-roots support. (Hmmm, that sounds a bit like Microsoft's Astroturfing.) They'll say that, even if One Million People marched, that six million stayed at home. (I honestly don't think that a demonstration any bigger than the one today would be feasible in Hong Kong - it's looking like the last protesters won't be at Central until much later tonight.
June 15, 2003
Whoops!
dave
09:53 PM
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GW Bush flung from a Segway. First the pretzels, and now a Segway - is everything ganging up on Dubya?
June 03, 2003
More Songs
dave
11:00 PM
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Just saw an ad on the TV for a compilation CD of hopeful songs, the proceeds of which go to some charity. The songs are meant to show the indomitably spirit of Hong Kongers. They include "We shall overcome (someday)", and "Always look on the bright side of life". That last is the one from the "Life of Brian", you know, the one they sing when they're all nailed to crosses about to "draw their terminal breath". I don't think Hong Kong's quite that bad yet, but maybe someone knows something I don't...
May 31, 2003
Shame
dave
12:43 AM
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I meant to say this a while back: I am deeply ashamed of the actions of the Government of the Republic of Ireland in refusing to allow Hong Kong's Special Olympics athletes to attend the Special Olympics being held in Dublin, while allowing businessmen form SARS affected regions to come and go. Did someone put Aine Ni Chonnail of the Immigration Control Platform in charge of the country?
May 29, 2003
Annoyed
dave
11:40 PM
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I'm annoyed. I started making bread tonight in my usual fashion and the dough has refused to rise. I even tried adding some extra yeast to the mix. My bread making powers are gone! Must be all the Red Kryptonite at work!
In other news, I note that the US is planning to build execution facilities at Guantanamo Bay, so that they can execute the prisoners they've held there in contravention of the Geneva Convention. And we still haven't seen any Weapons of Mass Destruction.
May 03, 2003
The British Military
dave
02:09 AM
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I was browsing some blogs earlier on and came across a post suggesting that the British Military were the best thing since sliced pan.
Now, I just can't agree with that. I have been abused and threatened by moronic thugs from the Black Watch. Friends of mine lived in a place (Aldershot) where they couldn't leave their flat at night because the local military liked to beat up everyone. (I used to shop in a motorcycle shop in Aldershot where they were glad when they heard my accent: it meant I would actually pay for what I wanted and I wouldn't trash the place.)
Of course, that's the current Military. When I was living in London, I met very many men who'd served in the Second World War, or Suez or even the Gulf. I remember talking to men who'd flown Spitfires in WWII or even just laboured in London, cleaning up the aftermath of the V2s. Without exception, they were Good Men; they fought when required but they didn't think that it was required of a man to always be at war. "We fought against that Mr Hitler until we beat him", said one man, "and then we went back to our normal jobs, because, letting him make us into non-Englishmen meant that we lost the war".
Sure, "Dad's Army" is funny, but it's also very serious: Fat bank managers were fully prepared to fight Hitler on the beaches and on the street corners, with whatever help they could get. The Nazis would never have conquered England. At most, they would have killed everyone in it, but they would never conquer it.
It's kind of hard to respect a military when they are barred from most pubs for fighting. It's hard to respect a military when they have a reputation of being racist. It's impossible to respect a military when, the last time you met one, he had to restrained from killing me because I sounded Irish.
Really, there's a very small subsector of English society which is extremely racist and arrogant. These guys almost always colour the impressions of everyone else no matter where they go. Most people aren't like that - it's only a very small minority, but they all colour the view of outsiders. And being the arrogant twits that they are, they usually don't see that their actions have any effect on others. They are true sociopaths in every sense of the word.
April 16, 2003
More War ranting
dave
12:00 AM
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So, if Bush decides that war on Syria is justified because he says they might have chemical weapons, where does it all end? I hear that Hong Kong has this really smelly Tofu, which is certainly a weapon of mass nausea...
I can just imagine the last speeches, just in time for the elections of 2016, for Bush's 5th straight term: "And so, my fellow Americans, those evil Canadians to the north speak Fren-, sorry, Freedom, that language of people who disagree with us. And they may have nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons. They certainly have one biological weapon, one vicious, inhumane and thoroughly unamerican weapon. Roll it there, Colin, show these fine folks the pictures of innocent Americans laid low with that evil Canadian Poutine..."
April 15, 2003
Election Hypocrisy
dave
12:00 AM
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Apparently the United States is expressing concern over the lack of direct elections here in Hong Kong. Pretty rich for a nation who's current president was decided, not by a vote, but by a court. And what about all those closed-source proprietary voting machines being brought in? I'm guessing it'll be a Bush win in 2004, by a bigger margin than ever seen before in a US Presidential election.
I was in Dymocks, the bookstore, just now and I noticed a biography of Laura Bush. The back cover described her as the 'perfect first wife and first mother', and lauded her stunning advice: "hug your children". Revolutionary stuff. I was glad I was wearing a mask.
April 14, 2003
Syria Next?
dave
12:00 AM
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On the local news tonight, there was a report that George W. Bush has started claiming that Syria may have chemical weapons? What?!? Does he think he just has to say it, and then he can do whatever he wants? He also implied that some senior Iraqui's have taken refuge there. Is this lunatic planning on attacking every nation in the Middle East except Israel?
April 13, 2003
Baghdad Museum Ransacked
dave
12:00 AM
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Yahoo! News - Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum. I'm sure Rumsfeld will come out with more of his smug comments about this being just another consequence of the Iraqi's being liberated.
"Freedom's just another little word for nothing left to loot"?
April 10, 2003
More bull from China
dave
12:00 AM
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The official statistics from China still say that almost no one there shows any sypmptoms of Atypical Pneumonia. Journalists from Hong Kong who escorted a Shenzen Victim to a local hospital report that shenzen hospitals are packed full of sick people, all wearing masks and that anti-contagion measures are being taken to keep reporters away from the hospitals. i.e. The problem is China is far, far worse than they're willing to admit. Don't forget: in Hong Kong, the 1000 people infected to date all were infected from one man. In the Mainland, they've had hundreds of people, each as virulent as the one who landed here. They're talking about super-infectors: single cases responsible for infecting up to one hundred others. Should we believe that the mainland has the contagion under control?
Of course not. The Chinese central government is once again lying to cover up hundreds or thousands of deaths. They would rather infect the world than admit that they did something wrong. Once again, the Chinese concept of 'Face' is shown to be moronic, stupid, and self defeating.
March 31, 2003
War wibblings
dave
12:00 AM
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Meanwhile, it's looking like the war in Iraq is not going according to plan. Well, not according to Donald Rumsfeld's plan, where all the Iraqi's line up in the desert and either surrender or cheer for the conquering, sorry, liberating troops. (Here's a hint guys, if you're trying to liberate a country, don't go raising your own flag in place of theirs.) Now that it looks like the Iraqi's are going to fight for their country, I think Iraq will become a meat grinder of a war. As soon as the house to house fighting in Baghdad starts, we'll see C-130s loaded with body bags. Will this be political suicide? I'm sure that The Shrub and his cabal will not get voted out - they seem to be very good at swaying American Public Opinion. Did you know that over 50% of Americans believe that the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi? (15 of the 19 were actually Saudi Arabian.)
March 28, 2003
More Bush Rants
dave
12:00 AM
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Apparently the Shrub is annoyed that the press aren't whole heartedly in favour of whatever he wants. Honestly, what does he want? Grovelling worship? Even the worst five presidents ever (Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, and Richard Nixon) didn't expect completely uncritical fawning from the press.
March 27, 2003
War
dave
12:00 AM
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Also, the US Army has awarded reconstruction contracts in Iraq to Halliburton with no bidding. Vice President Cheney used to work for that firm, and apparently, they still pay him a retainer fee. Perhaps they should just admit that they're bribing the US government? They should change their national motto: to "USA: The land of the Fee and the home of the Bribe"
February 02, 2003
Columbia
dave
12:00 AM
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"We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth"
-- Robert A. Heinlein
January 01, 2003
Great Link
dave
12:00 AM
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Here's a great link from Channel 4: Between Iraq and a Hard Place. Needs RealAudio player, though *spit*.
September 11, 2002
ATV
dave
12:00 AM
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In a massive break from their usual greed and incompetence, ATV, the second (and very distant second at that) TV channel here are actually showing the 911 remembrance. Last year, while the attacks were still going on, they kept showing live horse-racing. (They have to broadcast a certain amount of English-language television, and they think three hours of live horse-racing a night with a few Aussies commentating on it counts.)
July 12, 2001
What About Ye?
dave
12:00 AM
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Politic
Hey ho, it's marching season. Sing 'The Sash', beat on your drum and have the usual fun and games.
Watched 'Michael Collins' last night, the film by Neil Jordan, that is. Rousing stuff and some great performances, but not the most historically accurate of movies. Amazingly, all of the accents are ok, although this shouldn't be surprising as most of the actors are Irish. Even Julia Roberts manages to keep her accent in one place.
I've rearranged some of the site to make things quicker to download - long files have been split up, that sort of thing.