Posts Tagged ‘debate’
TSA – Help you make it to your flight
It’s amazing what can enter popular culture. And how quickly. Now, because of a widely-perceived image as voyeurs (at the very least) and molesters, staff of the US Transport Safety Authority TSA are copping quite a bit of flack. Their heavy-handedness (pun) with ‘pat down’ searches of all sorts of citizens — kids, paraplegics, nuns, […]
Let’s be reasonable…
Here’s a sign from the San Francisco satellite rally of Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, inspired, I think, by a line he delivered on The Daily Show. I think it’s just brilliant. In my dealings with those with whom I strongly disagree about things that are important to me, I make a real effort […]
Bruce Sheppard — closing thoughts?
This looong blog post by Bruce Sheppard is worth reading in its entirety. Part of it reflects on the baby boomer ‘inter generational wealth transfer’ conspiracy promoted by Bernard Hickey et al. A bunch of kids were born in the 1950s mostly, and as a result nappy valleys appeared all over the western world, schools […]
Being Glenn Beck
There’s a REALLY interesting profile on Glenn Beck in the NY Times magazine. Totally worth reading. – P
OMG is the ‘inter-generational wealth transfer’ meme gaining currency?
The cover of the current North & South magazine features a young bloke wearing Jed Clampett-inspired depression couture with the headline: Ripped off by baby boomers? / The Broke Generation / or a bunch of wingers? I haven’t read the article yet, but it probably has some roots in the same ideas Bernard Hickey promulgated […]
What you say ‘No’ to
Sometimes the ‘opportunity’ isn’t worth the cost. Earlier this month there was some discussion about Apple and Facebook not agreeing terms for co-operation… … both Facebook and Apple had spoken about integrating more closely with the new iTunes social network Ping, but Facebook asked for “onerous terms that we could not agree to” regarding Facebook […]
Paul Henry: gracious in victory
So, in keeping with my general policy of confronting and directly answering criticism, here’s a response… OK, that’s actually what I said (sorry to quote myself) but it seems Paul Henry subscribes to the same philosophy. Henry’s acceptance speech at the Qantas Awards is worth watching (video below the fold) because his delivery is almost […]
BBC – ‘The Interview’: Tony Blair
I listened to this interview twice last night (as a podcast). I was impressed with Blair and his argument, I have to say. I always thought he was a great communicator, but didn’t expect to be struck, even inspired by his reasoned resoluteness and his thoughts about the challenge of radical Islam and Iran’s […]
Mr Phil Jones: re-heating cold horseshit
Ugh. I’ve just been slimed (again) by a man I personally regard as a dishonest and obnoxious bully-boy. So, in keeping with my general policy of confronting and directly answering criticism, here’s a response: (Only read it if you’re actually interested … OK?) It was a case of ‘speak of the devil’ — A couple […]
Playing along
One evening a little while ago I was driving home and encountered a Police ‘booze bus’ breath-test checkpoint. Cars queued up in a funnel pattern set up with cones and flashing lights … when it was my turn, the police officer reached in through my car window, held the breath screening thingy in front of […]
An apology? … Oh, that’s all right then.
Here’s how Bob Jones’s publishers handled incorrect information asserted as fact … … which is a bit different to how Gareth Morgan handled ‘a mistake in the book that must be corrected’ in the first edition of his After The Panic. I occasionally ask readers to clarify any matters of fact that may be inadvertently […]
Tall poppy syndrome: last refuge of the scoundrel?
Is a claim of ‘tall poppy syndrome’ the last refuge of the scoundrel? (Yes, I know that’s supposed to be patriotism. But how about it? Or perhaps it could be claims of religious virtue?) Here’s a typical definition of the ‘syndrome’ … Tall poppy syndrome: a social phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are […]
Refusing to step on the slippery slope …
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s speech about the city NOT outlawing a mosque near ‘ground zero’ World Trade Center is being hailed as one of his finest hours. New YorkDaily News: He’s usually a technocrat, and often comes across that way, but today’s speech was a stirring declaration of principle. Key passage, quoted around the world: […]
