Posts Tagged ‘debate’
“God is on OUR side…”
Here’s what that got me thinking … some new posters for some classic movies including this: During the first and second World Wars, both (all) sides told themselves they had God on their side. The Armed Forces had padrés and priests in place, performing their pastoral duties and administering their religious services and last rites […]
How liars deal with a challenge
Rachel Maddow telling the truth to Bill O’Reilly … gee she’s good at this stuff! Spot the pattern: Rather than contribute to a debate about ‘the facts’ Maddow asserted about him and Fox News, (e.g. ‘This is why what she’s saying is wrong…’) Bill O’Reilly merely whacked Maddow’s sincerity (‘you have to be kidding’) and […]
The rush to certainty …
A WHOLE lot of wisdom in one bite-sized blog post from Dave Pell, internet superhero: That’s an apt description of the new national pastime: Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and making determinations and judgments without a full set of facts. When confronted with the realtime web’s constant flow of incoming information, who has time for […]
Never argue with an idiot …
… People watching may not be able to tell the difference.” So, I made a brief comment, mainly about a bloke (perhaps) being misquoted and (perhaps) inadvertently being caught up as window-dressing for someone else’s selling machine. He came out slugging and justifying his position. Defending his ‘reputation’ with legend-in-my-own-lunchbox slogans, bristling. It reminded me […]
Now that’s what I call ‘news commentary’!
Steve Jobs defeats Bill Gates/Darth Vader and becomes the new Dark Lord harnessing mystical powers of the Force while laughing maniacly … oh boy, it’s good. Here’s an ‘artists impression'(?) of how Apple dealt with Gizmodo editor/receiver of stolen iPhone prototype Jason Chen: Watch the video at YouTube. Thanks to John (“My linking to these […]
Lying, my dear boy, just compounds the crime …
A while ago I posted a few thoughts: Potshots from behind a mask of anonymity are, by definition, cheap, saying in part… Internet anonymity has also clearly been abused by what I call cardboard cut-outs and glove puppets who pop up in online communities to anonymously denigrate their “enemies” without declaring their allegiances (or building […]
Helen Thomas interview
Helen Thomas is the 89 year old White House correspondent who ‘retired’ over her comments that ‘Jews should get the hell out of Palestine’, leave the ‘occupied’ land, and ‘go home’ to Poland, Germany and America. (Yikes! Jon Stewart had a take you can see here via Huffington Post.) But this interview in Vice magazine […]
On the courthouse steps
My own meagre experience is that a court date focusses the mind of the ‘offending’ party. ‘Out-of-court settlement reached on the courthouse steps’ has acquired cliché status. So it seems to have been with Cabinet Minister Nick Smith who (finally, after five years) issued an apology to a company suing him for defamation over ‘incorrect’ […]
Keeping things in perspective
A nice bit of (historical) perspective, and reminder just how truly corrupt the Nixon administration was … No, this isn’t “Watergate” (and never will be) Republicans have fantasized about a Democratic “Watergate” for decades. Can they still remember the real thing? by Joe Conason | Salon.com As Conason points out, shallow comparisons are often trotted […]
Get it off your chest, I say. It’s better.
From an interesting article about the soon-to-be-released first volume of Mark Twain’s full autobiography — which he instructed not to be published for 100 years after his death (which is now): “There is a perception that Twain spent his final years basking in the adoration of fans. The autobiography will perhaps show that it wasn’t such […]
Stephen Fry on the joys of swearing
I agree with this: “The kind of people who say swearing is the sign of a poor vocabulary, usually have a pretty poor vocabulary themselves.” — Stephen Fry. That said, I’ve seen the real ‘shock’ effect an outburst of hot, emphatic ‘foul’ language can have on people, including kids — but it’s the intent and tone, […]
Ranting and raving? Oh yes, but sooo right!
I had lunch with my good friend Graeme today after he picked ‘the best song ever written’ on National Radio … and he hadn’t yet seen this absolutely wonderful recent rant and rave, telling-the-truth criticism of Glenn Beck by The Daily Show’s acerbic commentator, my hero Lewis Black …
Hello, Jason? Asperger’s doesn’t equal ‘sociopath’
OK, so we all know Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has a reputation for being treacherous and a bit of an arse, but this reference by Jason Calacanis to Asperger’s syndrome seems like sloppy labelling to me … otherwise, it’s an interesting opinion piece. A little self-indulgent, but that’s part of Jason’s recipe. Last year, when […]
True or false doesn’t seem to matter to liars
This is a really good essay about dishonest argument — which is one of my bugbears, as we have discussed before. It’s about US politics, but many of the points apply to the business of selling as well. Salon’s Gene Lyons examines the tactics deceivers use — repeatedly telling bare-faced lies or claiming the exact opposite […]
Dean Letfus: the reputation he deserves?
Someone emailed me a link to an article by property economist Gareth Kiernan of Infometrics in which he sets out to debunk (pull the legs off) arguments proffered by some self-proclaimed ‘property experts’ like spruiker Dean Letfus in defence of the tax treatment of property investment. …So I don’t buy into the whole “social service” […]
