Don't Mess with the Zohan: Who Wants to See it With Me? (No takers here.)

I'll treat you to hummus after the show!


From The Atlantic.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan is the worst movie I've ever seen, though it was better than Munich.

Okay, I liked it. So what? Who doesn't like a hummus joke? Or 37 hummus jokes? It turns out that Michael Chabon also thought it was the worst movie he's ever seen, and he enjoyed it very much as well. Since we were e-mailing about it anyway, I thought I would send him a series of questions. Here are his answers:

Jeffrey Goldberg: Do you like hummus?

Michael Chabon: I would say that, in fact, I relish hummus.

JG: Isn't hummus really delicious?

MC: Yes, but what I like most about it is that, for all its deliciousness, it has managed to stay humble.

JG: Was Zohan the worst movie you've ever seen?

MC: Certainly in the last two weeks. No, wait, I forgot about Get Smart.

JG: Do you think that Zohan is a 21st century Ari Ben-Canaan? Do people in the 21st century know who Ari Ben-Canaan is?

MC: What a depressing thought. Is there anybody else who feels that it might be best if we just started the 21st century over again? No question that, in retrospect, Zohan suffered from a distinct lack of Eva-Marie Saint.

JG: Are Jews in Hollywood more comfortable now with their Jewishness than they were 30 years ago?

MC: Are there Jews in Hollywood?

JG: And if yes, is this necessarily a good thing?

MC: I am sitting here trying to think of recent Hollywood films that might be seen to reflect their Jewish creators' increased comfort with their Jewishness. What I see is an increased degree of comfort with Jewishiness. That's probably not a bad thing.

I mean, hummus toothpaste, that had me laughing. My wife (born in Israel), and me. Nobody else in the theater (Emeryville, matinee) was really laughing about the hummus toothpaste.

JG: Do you know any Israelis who are obsessed with hacky sack? Because I don't.

MC: You mean apart from Tzabar Regel, gold medalist in hacky sack at the 2005 Maccabiah?

JG: Was Zohan a Zionist movie, or a post-Zionist movie, and, does it really matter?

MC: To the degree that it appears to suggest that Jews and Arabs can never live in peace anywhere but in a mythical neighborhood of downtown New York City, I guess I would definitely be inclined to classify it as "post-Something."

JG: What do you think of tehina in your hummus?

MC: I welcome its presence, as a grace note.

The Gay I Grew Up With

At public school, aside from the '-Ass,' this was the sense of the word 'gay' I grew up with. This is I think the first time I have seen this sense used outside of primary school. All hail The Onion.

School Board Adopts Gay-Ass Uniform Policy
LOS ANGELES—Seeking to reduce incidents of student violence and insubordination, the Los Angeles Unified School District voted 9-3 Monday to institute a gay-ass uniform policy. "We feel these lame uniforms, with their dorky ties and dipwad school crests, will help create a school environment more conducive to learning," said LAUSD board officer Jefferson Crain. "We foresee fewer outbursts when students are forced to walk around in these retardo suits."

Bush Says He Still Believes Iraq War Was The Fun Thing To Do

The Onion has the scoop here.

My Future?

The Rarely Seen Backside of Mount Rushmore

I far prefer the term Knickers in a Twist: Stay Tuned

CD Sales Down, LP Sales Up

CD Sales Down, LP Sales Up

While sales of CDs fell 17 percent between 2006 and 2007, sales of LPs rose 36 percent in the same period. What do you think?
Young Woman

Tammy Parnell,
Loan Officer
"I think at this point people are just fucking with the record industry as a whole."
Young Man

John Bamford,
Building Inspector
"LPs may be nice for the audio tourist, but wax cylinders have a warmer, more natural sound."
Black Man

Carlos Feinglass,
Systems Analyst
"If there's a better format for listening to hissing, popping, and crackling than on a cumbersome yet fragile 12-inch piece of vinyl, I'd love to hear it."

Great Photo for A Blessedly Short Film Festival

Must See!!! The Countefeiters at the Mount Pleasant Cinema

From Wikipedia:

The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) is an Academy Award winning 2007 Austrian/German film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. It fictionalizes Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by the Nazis during the Second World War to destabilize the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England currency. The film centers on a Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon Sorowitsch, who is coerced into assisting the Nazi operation at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The film is based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak typographer who was imprisoned in 1942 for forging baptismal certificates to save Jews from deportation, and later interned at Sachsenhausen to work on Operation Bernhard.[3] It won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008 for Austria.

And the Mount Pleasant Cinema is wheel chair accessible. Just call beforehand. My vote for best flick of last year.

I've Been Missing the Colonel Since He Came Over to the West Side

From the BBC:

Gaddafi attacks Obama on Israel

Libya's leader has strongly criticised US presidential candidate Barack Obama for saying Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel.

Col Muammar Gaddafi said he was either ignorant of the Middle East conflict or lying to boost his campaign.

...

Referring to him as "our Kenyan brother", Col Gaddafi also said Mr Obama might suffer from an inferiority complex because of his African origins.

The issue of race could make Mr Obama's behaviour "more white than white people", Col Gaddafi suggested, rather than acting in solidarity with African and Arab nations.

...

However, Col Gaddafi's defiant and famously politically incorrect rhetoric returned when talking about Mr Obama towards the end of the speech.

"The statements of our Kenyan brother of American nationality Obama on Jerusalem... show that he either ignores international politics and did not study the Middle East conflict or that it is a campaign lie," he said.

"We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites."

...

In addition, Mr Gaddafi suggested Mr Obama's comments may have been informed by a fear of assassination by Israeli agents, "the same fate as [former US President John F] Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel's nuclear programme".

Big Brown Seen Leaving Belmont Carrying Large Sacks Of Cash

Big Brown Seen Leaving Belmont Carrying Large Sacks Of Cash


NEW YORK—Shortly after finishing in last place in the Belmont Stakes Saturday, Big Brown was reportedly seen leaving through the back exit of the Belmont stable locker rooms carrying several shopping bags stuffed with cash, which the 3-year-old colt placed into the back seat of his Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe. "I could hardly tell it was him because he was wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes, and a long trench coat, but I remember thinking he was so tall he had to be one of the athletes," said horseracing fan Jason Larson. "Still, I didn't figure it out until I saw the 'Big B' vanity plates on his car." According to numerous witnesses, Brown spent five minutes urinating on the windshield of trainer Rick Dutrow's car before driving off erratically at high speed.

Once Again, Canada on the Cutting Edge of Stupidity (HT: JPK

Have highlighted my favourite bits.

Controversial copyright reform to be unveiled Thursday

David George-Cosh, Financial Post with files from CanWest News Service Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

After months of delays and speculation, the federal government is set to unveil its controversial update to the Copyright Act of Canada Thursday.

According to a press release, Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner are set to introduce the legislation during the morning Parliamentary session. Both ministers will deliver brief statements and answer media inquiries shortly after the tabling of a bill to amend the Copyright Act.

Reports have also indicated that the two ministers will unveil the Copyright Act under the slogan "Made In Canada Copyright Reform" during a scheduled press conference.

The new Copyright Act has been updated to reflect the growth of digital media and is said to include a number of contentious provisions including:

-- A $500 fine for each illegal file shared online

-- Making it illegal to unlock cellphones or copy music from protected CDs to iPods

-- Forbidding the right to copy "time shifted" shows onto personal video recorders if flagged by broadcasters.

The Conservative government was set to introduce the new bill this past December but later decided to withhold introducing new legislation following an outpouring of protest by online grassroots organizations across Canada over fears the bill would fall in line with harsh U.S. copyright laws. For example, the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes all acts of circumvention an infringement unless subject to a specific exception.

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who has been a harsh critic of the government's stance on copyright legislation, condemns the U.S-styled approach Minister Prentice and Mr. Verner have taken in tabling the new bill.

"While it is clear that thousands of Canadians are waiting for the details of the bill, they don't need to wait until tomorrow to know that when Industry Minister Jim Prentice stands before a podium proclaiming this to be a ‘made in Canada' solution, the reality is that he did not take the time to ask many Canadians for their views," he said.

"The heart of the legislation, which will have a negative impact on consumer rights, privacy, and education, is better characterized as "Born in the USA.'"

Although it is unclear how the copyright bill will be enforced, observers have said enforcement could be aided if Canada signs on to the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), to be tabled next month at the G8 summit in Japan.

The agreement, which was recently published on a Web site known for disseminating leaked documents, would require Internet service providers to police the content that travels over their network. According to the four-page document, ISPs could be required to filter pirated digital files and reveal the identities of customers suspected of infringing on copyrighted material.

The Copyright Act has not been amended since 1997 although prior attempts to draw it in line following the ratification of the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms Treaty have failed.

What I love about the above is how 1.) Geist is once again the go to guy for the contrarian point. And two, how he somehow elides this made in Canada stupidity with the US. In any event, it ain't gonna happen. If China can't control the internet, what chance does Canada hold? And, really, do we want a Great Internet Wall of Canadistan?

HT: JPK who doesn't blog nearly as much as he ought to.

You Have to Love America

Somehow the self-assuredness of these people to engage in such activities I find very admirable (if not the activity, though it would, undoubtedly, be fun.)

The 2008 Democratic Primary in 8 Minutes

Some of the time Bertie is Brilliant, Othertimes an Idiot (Can't Decide Here)

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
Bertrand Russell

I take it all back... God Exists!

Six Day War - Call For Destruction of Israel

How Do You Know When Someone From West Virgina Has Been Using Your Computer?

There's whiteout on the screen!

62 Years ago

Quote du Jour

Fran Lebowitz

"I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not."

Big Brown Lost, While Casino Drive Was Scratched

So I was wrong about Big Brown at the Belmont today.
The owners of Casino Drive, the 2nd favorite, had the grace to scratch Casino Drive from the card. Not so with the owners of the Big Brown. While Big Brown looked unhurt, there's no way he should have run with that hoof.

How Do You Say Goodbye To 1.4 Billion US$ in 1 second and Not Work in the Financial Markets: Crash A B2

They say it was moisture.
Lucky, these Area 51 specials are mainly used in the desert?

It Really Is True that England Sent Nazi Germany Disinformation to Have their Bombs Land in the East End Rather than the Posh West End

More news here.

Big and Brown Big Brown Will Win Belmont and Triple Crown (8:48 est)

Today's the Belmont, and while I think it is usually a bad strategy to bet on the out and out favourite -- particularly with the terrible odds and resulting minuscule payout -- I think Big Brown is going to win.

Summer's Here

Only in Korea

Only in Korea

Having Been Doing A Little Research on a Painted Turtle We Aquired: Here's their life cycle

More here.

Bloody Orkney, Never Been, Probably Now Never Will

Bloody Orkney

Bloody Orkney

This bloody town's a bloody cuss
No bloody trains, no bloody bus
And no one thinks of bloody us
In bloody Orkney.

The bloody folk are bloody mad
The bloody roads are bloody bad
Good night the bright is bloody sad
In bloody Orkney.

Oh bloody crows, Oh bloody rain
No bloody kerbs, no bloody drains
The council's got no bloody brains
In bloody Orkney.

The bloody things are bloody dear
A bloody bob for a bloody beer
And is it good? No bloody fear
In bloody Orkney.

The bloody dances make you smile
The bloody bands are bloody vile
It only cramps your bloody style
In bloody Orkney.

The bloody flicks are bloody old
The bloody seats are bloody cold,
You can't get in for bloody gold
In bloody Orkney.

No bloody fun, no bloody games
No bloody times. The bloody dames
Won't even give their bloody names
In bloody Orkney.

There's nothing greets your bloody eye
But bloody sea and bloody sky
Roll on the mob! we bloody cry
In bloody Orkney.

It's Amazing What You Can Find When You're Really Looking for Two Sunken Nuclear Subs

The story is here.

The 1985 discovery of the Titanic stemmed from a secret United States Navy investigation of two wrecked nuclear submarines, according to the oceanographer who found the infamous ocean liner.

Pieces of this Cold War tale have been known since the mid-1990s, but more complete details are now coming to light, said Titanic's discoverer, Robert Ballard.

"The Navy is finally discussing it," said Ballard, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett and the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration in Connecticut.

Ballard met with the Navy in 1982 to request funding to develop the robotic submersible technology he needed to find the Titanic.

...

Ronald Thunman, then the deputy chief of naval operations for submarine warfare, told Ballard the military was interested in the technology—but for the purpose of investigating the wreckage of the U.S.S. Thresher and U.S.S. Scorpion.

Since Ballard's technology would be able to reach the sunken subs and take pictures, the oceanographer agreed to help out.

He then asked the Navy if he could search for the Titanic, which was located between the two wrecks.

Once Ballard had completed his mission—if time was left—Thunman said, Ballard could do what he wanted, but never gave him explicit permission to search for the Titanic.

The Thresher and Scorpion had sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean at depths of between 10,000 and 15,000 feet (3,000 and 4,600 meters).

The military wanted to know the fate of the nuclear reactors that powered the ships, Ballard said.

This knowledge was to help determine the environmental safety of disposing of additional nuclear materials in the oceans.

The Navy also wanted to find out if there was any evidence to support the theory that the Scorpion had been shot down by the Soviets.

Ballard's data showed that the nuclear reactors were safe on the ocean bottom and were having no impact on the environment, according to Thunman.

The data also confirmed that Thresher likely had sunk after a piping failure led to a nuclear power collapse, he added. Details surrounding the Scorpion are less certain.

A catastrophic mishap of some sort led to a flooding of the forward end of the submarine, Thunman said. The rear end remained sealed and imploded once the sub sank beneath a certain depth.

"We saw no indication of some sort of external weapon that caused the ship to go down," Thunman said—dismissing the theory that the Russians torpedoed the submarine in retaliation for spying.

...

With just 12 days left over in his mission, Ballard began searching for the Titanic, using this information to track down the ocean liner. He speculated that the ship had broken in half and left a debris trail as it sank.

"That's what saved our butts," Ballard said. "It turned out to be true."

...

"The Cold War is over," Ballard said. "I'm no longer in the Navy."

And Atlee Would Know?

"Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking."
--Clement Atlee

Tagging Snails

From the innercitysnail blog.

Hitch v. The Rabbi

Julia Neuberger, rabbi and Lib Dem peer asks Christopher Hitchens, journalist, critic and author
Q Why are you so angry about religion? Don't you think your very fervour - and certainty - make you just like the religious extremists you profess to despise. And where's the room for doubt in your analysis?
A Oh Christ, not this one again. Anthony Grayling puts it definitively out of its misery in Against All Gods, reprinted as his contribution to The Portable Atheist (ed. C Hitchens) entitled Can an Atheist be a Fundamentalist?
If I may, I will borrow his conclusion: "Any view of the world which does not premise the existence of something supernatural is a philosophy, or a theory or, at worst, an ideology. If it is either of the first two, at its best it proportions what it accepts to the evidence for accepting it, knows what would refute it, and stands ready to revise itself in the light of new evidence. This is the essence of science. It comes as no surprise that no wars have been fought, pogroms carried out or burnings conducted at the stake over rival theories in biology or astrophysics."
Clear? It's not a matter of "room" for doubt. The whole analytical method of humanist materialism is based on scepticism. We take nothing on faith. Imagine what a fortune could be made by a palaeontologist who unearthed human bones and dinosaur bones in the same layer of sediment. I will bet my house that this discovery will not be made, but my bet is not entirely, or at all, an article of belief. It is, rather, a conviction based on the study of evidence.
As to the manner in which I express myself, it rather depends on the antagonist. I'm normally renowned for my patience and good humour, but I admit to being easily bored and, when I come up against, say, a self-righteous rabbi, can be tempted to succumb to sarcasm. I think that may be where your confusion arises. Oh, and I do not "profess" to despise religious extremists. I really do despise them.

Quoeth the Raven

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
-- Calvin Trillin

Very Cool Ap

Shell Script for Google.
http://goosh.org/
Type H and you'll know what I mean.

Groove Holmes!!!

Info here.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" exclaims Watson.

"And what do you deduce from that?"

Watson ponders for a minute.

"Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?"

And Holmes said: “Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent.”

Al Quaeda (courtesy of the Onion) denies 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

Bin Laden Sends Belated Threat To Israel For 60th Birthday

JERUSALEM—In an unexpected act that Israeli president Shimon Peres called "thoughtful," al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sent a belated threat to Israel Monday in honor of the Jewish state's 60th birthday. "Old fart!" read the front of the card in a font designed to look like ancient stone tablets. "Did you actually think I would forget my favorite infidels on their special day? Celebrate while you still can, dirty Zionist dogs!" bin Laden wrote under a caricature of a grinning al-Qaeda member wearing a birthday hat and a suicide belt, preparing to board a bus full of Israeli citizens. A visibly moved Peres told reporters he would return the gesture by sending a bouquet of a dozen F-15Is fighter jets to Lebanon next week.

Something's fishy?

This reminds me of the old Herman Cartoon where the restaurant owner tells the cook that it would probably not be best to name his new Salmon dish after his girlfriend Ella.

Irish Joke of the Day: 'A farmer named Seamus had a car accident.

A farmer named Seamus had a car accident.

In court, the lorry company's hot-shot solicitor was
questioning Seamus.

'Didn't you say to the Police at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine?'
asked the solicitor.

Seamus responded: 'Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just
Loaded my favourite cow, Bessie, into the...'

'I didn't ask for any details', the solicitor interrupted. 'Just
Answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident,
'I'm fine!'?'

Seamus said, 'Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road....'

The solicitor interrupted again and said, 'Your Honour, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the police on the scene that he was fine. Now several weeks after
the accident, he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud.
Please tell him to simply answer the question.'

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Seamus's answer and
said to the solicitor: 'I'd like to hear what he has to say about his
favourite cow, Bessie'.

Seamus thanked the Judge and proceeded. 'Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favourite cow, into the trailer and was driving her down the road when this huge lorry and trailer came through a stop sign and hit my trailer right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurt, very bad like, and didn't want to move.
However, I could hear old Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.
Shortly after the accident, a policeman on a motorbike turned up. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, and saw her condition, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.

Then the policeman came across the road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, 'How are you feeling?'

'Now what the F*ck would you say?'

Quote of the Day: Incidentally, it is not quite true that Chechens do not use the Russian expression, 'xxxx your mother!'

Incidentally, it is not quite true that Chechens do not use the Russian expression, 'xxxx your mother!' when speaking to each other; but they only do so when speaking in Russian—in which language, among Russian men (thanks partly to generations of military service), it has become so common under Soviet rule as to lose all meaning. Spoken in Chechen, I was told, this would indeed be a killing matter.

Quote of the Day

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
Nikita Khrushchev

The curious thing about this quote is that the politics of which K. speaks was really quite absent when K. reigned.

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás Revisited

There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good.

Stephen Colbert

From Russia (I think) With Love

You Have to Love The Star

You Have to Love The Star, or not as the case may be.

Today, The Star, on the front page no less, runs a borderline anti-semitic, anti-zionist (and I know the two are different, but explain that to the anti-semites) story about a play based on the tragic tale of Rachel Corrie who died underneath a bulldozer in Gaza. You can find the story here. The article is terrible in so far as it recounts the mostly true tale of Ms. Corrie's unnecessary death, anti-semitic in so far as it suggests that the play has found difficulty in staging because of 'Jewish' elements in theatrical authority that find it distasteful, self-congratulatory as it has found a venue in Toronto which of course is above such things, but ultimately wonderful in this terrific sidebar (the last paragraph of which I draw your attention--the rest speaks for itself.)

Timeline: The Corrie story

After Sept. 11, 2001: American activist Rachel Corrie (above) becomes involved with peace groups in her hometown of Olympia, Wash.

Early 2003: Travels to Gaza with International Solidarity Movement.

March 16, 2003: Corrie, 23, is killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza while trying to block the destruction of a Palestinian physician’s home.

April 2005: My Name is Rachel Corrie premieres at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London to enthusiastic reviews. Actor Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner, features editor of The Guardian newspaper in London, put together the one-woman play from the diaries, letters and emails of Corrie.

February 2006: New York Theatre Workshop chooses to “indefinitely postpone” its planned U.S. premiere. The theatre’s artistic director, James C. Nicola, cites concerns expressed about the play by leaders in the local Jewish community. Rickman accuses the Theatre Workshop of “censorship born out of fear.”

April 2006: A private reading of the play is held behind closed doors at the University of Toronto for fear of outside agitation. None occurs.

October 2006: An independent commercial production of the play opens off-Broadway with minimal protest. It runs through December.

November 2006: Martin Bragg, artistic producer of CanStage, announces he will be mounting the play in his next season, calling it “the kind of story we need to be telling in our theatres.”

December 2006: Faced with opposition from Jewish members of his board, Bragg cancels plans to produce the play, claiming he found it “dull” when he finally saw it onstage in Manhattan.

August 2007: Theatre Panik announces plans to stage the play at Tarragon Extra Space beginning May 2008, directed by Kate Lushington.

March 16, 2008: An Arabic-language version of Rachel is performed for the first time in Haifa, Israel, on the fifth anniversary of her death. Corrie’s parents are in the audience.

If you were to turn the tables -- it was for example an anti-Islamic play and you wanted to stage it in an Islamic state -- in no way would it stand a chance of passing the official censors and not raising the ire of the local clerics. In Israel, and in Arabic the play can be staged because Israel, in Karl Popper's terminology, is an 'open society,' while its neighbors, also in Popper's language, are the enemies of 'the open society.' This is not to say that Israel is not without its faults or does not have blood on its hands, but Israel is the only state in the Middle East where such agit-prop against the state in which it is staged (and, arguably, is a result of) can be shown.

The Sound of a Probe Landing on Mars

Click here.

jet bike,75 MPH Maddox new pulsejets on ebay

Can this Country Have No Colour At All?

STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER

May 26, 2008
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement:

“Earlier this evening, I accepted the resignation of Maxime Bernier as
Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Last night, Maxime Bernier became aware that he had left classified
government documents at a private residence earlier this spring. I
became aware of this security breach late this afternoon.

The documents in question have been returned to the Government of Canada
and Mr. Bernier deeply regrets this error.

I have asked Minister David Emerson to take on additional duties as
Minister of Foreign Affairs on an interim basis. I have also asked
Minister Josée Verner to take on additional duties for La Francophonie.”

A copy of Mr. Bernier’s letter of resignation is attached.




* * * *


The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister
Room 313-S, Centre Block
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6


Prime Minister,

This is to inform you that I am resigning my post as Minister of Foreign
Affairs, effective immediately.

I informed you late this afternoon that last night I became aware that I
had left behind classified government documents at a private residence.

Prime Minister, the security breach that occurred was my fault and my
fault alone and I take full responsibility for my actions.
I have asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
to conduct a thorough review of the situation.

Thank you for the trust you have shown in me. I will do everything I can
to serve the government well in my capacity as Member of Parliament.

Yours truly,


Maxime Bernier

Russell's Why I am not a Christian

Bertie's essay can be found here. It's worth a read just to realize how quaint old defenses of atheism are, as compared to the new defenses by Hitchens, Dennett, Dawkins, et al.

Mars!

There is really something quite peculiar about Nasa's search for life beyond this planet. I am not a great fan of space exploration. It seems a very costly and dangerous endeavor. However, when it comes to probes -- which are both cheaper and do not endanger people -- is a little different. Nonetheless, why is it that all space exploration has to be justified by the search for life. Are not the odd geometrical areas in the above enough?

Finally, Some New Chicken Jokes

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

___________________________________



BARACK OBAMA :

The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE!
The chicken wanted CHANGE!



JOHN MC CAIN:

My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage
In cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.



HILLARY CLINTON :

When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road.
This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! --
That every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road.
But then, this really isn't about me.......



DR. PHIL :

The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must

First deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes

After the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is

Help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT'

Problems before adding 'NEW' problems.



OPRAH:

Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he

Wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn

From his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to

Give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and

Not live his life like the rest of the chickens.



GEORGE W. BUSH :

We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to

Know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is

Either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.



COLIN POWELL :

Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image

Of the chicken crossing the road...



ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:

We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been

Allowed to have access to the other side of the road.



JOHN KERRY :

Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it!

It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken ' s

Intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it




Lou Dobbs :

To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.



MARTHA STEWART :

No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a

Standing order at the Farmer ' s Market to sell my eggs when the price

Dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider

Information.



DR SEUSS :

Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the

Chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.



JERRY FALWELL :

Because the chicken was gay! Can ' t you people see the plain truth? '

That ' s why they call it the ' other side. ' Yes, my friends, that chicken

Is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we

Boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal

Media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like ' the other side.

That chicken should not be crossing the road. It ' s as plain and as

Simple as that.




BARBARA WALTERS :


Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the

Chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it

Experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its

Life long dream of crossing the road.




BILL GATES :

I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but

Will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check

Book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new

Platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% .........

Reboot.



ALBERT EINSTEIN :

Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the

Chicken?



BILL CLINTON :

I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of

Chicken?



AL GORE :

I invented the chicken!



COLONEL SANDERS:

Did I miss one?



DICK CHENEY :

Where's my gun?

Unfortunately, this Will not be a Storm in a Tea Cup

Amazing, watch about 1:55 in.
I don't believe for one minute that HC meant that the same fate that met Robert Kennedy will meet Obama and as a result she will win the democratic nomination. But this is certainly not how it will be understood. A monumentally stupid gaffe.

Great Article on the Russian Computer Attack on Estonia

The PDF is here. And it was all over a monument.

Global-Social-Positioning System To Help Lost Drivers Avoid Poor People

Hindenburg Zeppelin Circles Manhattan Island

I never knew how big the Hindenburg was, less than 10 meters shorter than the Titanic and could travel at 80 mph. In the clip above, the Swastikas on the tail fins have been swapped for Iron Crosses. They were circling New York waiting for better weather in New Jersey.

Google Tip of the Day; Tracking Your Dome

Track how long it's been since your last mullet-mod. More info here:

Somehow Whitman Sounds Just as You Imagined He Would

A wax recording from 1860.

America

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love..."

HT: AS

A Gay Bomb?

Widely Played, But I Like It: Bill O'Reilly Flips Out — DANCE REMIX

So God Does Is Dice?

Letter to Eric Gutkind (partial)
Albert Einstein (1954)
Translated from the German by Joan Stambaugh...

... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the priviliege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.

Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, ie in our evalutations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and `rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things.

With friendly thanks and best wishes

Yours, A. Einstein.

Absolute Genius!

China Earthquake 7.8 [2008/05/12]

Watch the gold fish around 5 minutes in. Could be much worse than Burma. What will be interesting to see is if China handles it any better.

Re: Hiroshima Photos (Weird)

Photos of Hiroshima from the Robert L. Capp Collection

NOTE: The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University contains ten photographs purportedly showing the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. Mr. Capp was assigned to the occupation forces outside Hiroshima after World War II. According to to Mr. Capp's oral history (available along with the photographs in the Robert L. Capp collection), he found these photos among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside of Hiroshima. Since making these photographs publicly available, I have received reliable proof that at least two of these photos are actually of the 1923 Kanto earthquake. While I cannot speak for the entire collection, this evidence raises doubts about all of the photos and raises the strong possibility that the identification provided by the Hoover Archives is incorrect. I take full responsibility for my own failure to take additional steps to verify that the original archival designation was correct. I have removed the photographs until and unless their source can be verified by further research.

HT: M2

Gotta Love the Junta: Generals Putting Their Names on Foreign Food Aid in Burma (not Myamar)

Ugly, but completely predictable story, here.

Myanmar junta hands out aid boxes with generals' names

Sat May 10, 3:08 PM ET

Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

Despite international appeals to postpone a referendum on a controversial proposed constitution, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country. With voters going to the polls, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals including junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

Sometimes I am Embarassed to be a Canadian: Mark Steyn on Trial

Nice oped here.

A miserable quote or three:

We do not envy the Canadians. They have entrusted to their government a power Americans never would, and they follow it into foolishness.In the week of June 2, a body of bureaucrats called the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will call on the carpet author Mark Steyn. A bellicose champion of the West, Steyn predicts in his new book, "America Alone," that Muslims will swarm over Europe, ban alcohol and put women in veils. Maclean's magazine printed an excerpt that outraged Islamic Canadians, who complained to human-rights tribunals in Ottawa and the provinces.

...

British Columbia now bans all words and images "likely to expose a person ... to hatred or contempt" because of race, religion, age, disability, sex, marital status or sexual orientation." This sounds like a libel law for groups, except that libel is a misstatement of fact that damages an individual reputation. In the United States, for a public figure to be libeled, the false statement has to be made maliciously or recklessly.

...

Racial harmony in Canada would have been safer had the question never become official.

There are extreme sports and then there is....

HT: AS's MHB

Military Parade at Red Square, Moscow (May Day 1941)

Le plus ce change, le plus ce meme chose

More info on today's fun here.

Hillary's Downfall

The Burmese Cyclone From Above

Harrowing Photo Essay of the Aftermath of the US Nuclear Attack on Hiroshima

The photo essay can be found here.

It's a strange thing, but when I think of Hiroshima I think of pictures like the one above, a photograph denuded of the bomb's effect on the citizens of Hiroshima and, if you are like me, a long hard look at the photographs above are a necessary correction to this odd lacunae. The story behind how it is that these harrowing photographs are only available to the public now is also very much worth a read. Israel's bombing of Syria's nascent atomic weapon facilities looks all the more prescient.

HT: AS

Sound Familiar: Hitler's Plans for War on America

HT: AS

Some Secret: A Public Tour of Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Site

Photo essay here.

Nice Piece on Ansel Adams in NYT: HT JPK

Ansel Adams

Austria's Greatest Tragedy? I Think Not

From the letters section in today's National Post.

Austria's Greatest Tragedy?
Re: Man Traps Daughter For 24 Years; Kept In Dungeon, Bore His Children, Police Say, April 28.
Much has been said over the past few days about "Austria's greatest tragedy ever." Twelve years ago I stood at the Mauthausen concentration camp with my father, a former inmate of the camp, and I also wondered how among the many farms surrounding the camp not one was able to identify what was going on in their midst for so many years during the war.

Furthermore, Mauthausen was surrounded by other concentration camps, including at least one death camp, from where my father was liberated after spending weeks burying Jewish victims.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day and I challenge the Austrian people to finally admit that this was in fact the greatest tragedy in the history of their nation.

Marvin Stenge, Montreal.

After all, this is the Country where Hitler was a German and Mozart an Austrian. I did once have the opportunity of visiting Mathausen. It's truly frightening how the horrors of the past can be so sanitized by the weather of 50 years. More info on just how bad Mathausen-Gussen and the smaller satellite camps can be found here. It is true that Nazi Germany did invade Austria, but they were not exactly met with much resistance. Even today, the famous Vienna Synagogue that survived the war -- it was to be made into a museum -- there are no signs leading to it, and both my friend Adam Sandler, who speaks fluent avrit (modern Hebrew), and me with a last name like Rabin, were unable to get past the Israeli security.

Email of the Day (Name of the Guilty and the Guilty Bastard's Wife Changed)

Dear Louise,
Would you please remove my email address immediately and substitute it with my wife XXXXXXX’s email address: XXXXXXX@sympatico.ca for all correspondence including this one.
Thank you very much,
Jack Arsehole

What precipitated this bizarre and less than kind note was an introductory email by Louise to the parents of the children that are on the soccer team that Louise and I are coaching. Now what to make of this? Surely, a father might be interested just a little, wee bit in his son's soccer? Or if he felt so strongly (and why does he feel so strongly?) could he not just forward it on to his wife and ask that his wife be included on subsequent emails? And no, it's not that the fellow's email account is so precious or secure that mere soccer mail was unsuitable. It is in fact, as you can see, a domestic sympatico account. Also, this is that this family (his wife?)asked Mooredale to use for soccer correspondence.

Not Quite Sure of What to Make of This (Leave Comment)

You Would Think Bush Would Want to Keep a Backup, (in the style of Borat) 'Not!'

Great story here about how the Whitehouse have just happened to misplace something on the order of 5 million emails over the course of Bush's presidency. Will Hillary go back to Lotus Notes, I wonder?

Poor Anastasia; The Remains of All The Czar's Children Have Been Found

This was a story, that so to speak, would never die.

Every few years, a self-styled Princess would surface calling herself Anastasia and laying claim to the Russian throne, having somehow been spared the vicissitudes of the Bolshevik Revolution, who shot the family in a basement, threw them down a mine shaft, and poured over acid over so as to hide the complete discovery of the crime for 90 years. I can remember in my lifetime at least 3 or 4 different claimants.

A parallel, but less known story, is that had the British Royal family invited the Romanoffs to England--Nicholas and George V were cousins, you can see the family resemblance in the photo above--, they, unlike 40 million others, would have escaped one of the worst regimes of all time. Alas, no such invitation was forthcoming and no such counter factual history made factual.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Scientific tests have confirmed that remains found in Russia last year belong to the last Tsar's male heir and his daughter, missing since the royal family were executed in 1918, officials said on Wednesday.

...

Bolshevik executioners shot the family in 1918 in the basement of a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg, 1,450 km (900 miles) east of Moscow. Attempts were made to destroy the bodies, then they were dumped into pits.

.

Full story here.

More Great Cold War Era Music

Cold War and Central Committee. Series. 4: Plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1941-1990. Woodbury, CT: Research Publications, 2001. 181 reels, 690 fiche (Media Commons)
This collection documents the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU from the Stalin era until the demise of the Soviet Union. During each plenum a team of stenographers compiled an "uncorrected stenogram" or verbatim transcript of the proceedings. However, speakers were permitted to revise and extend their remarks. These corrected versions, called the "author's copy," were then collated into the "corrected copy." After additional editing, usually with an eye to maintaining ideological consistency, the remarks were distributed to members of the Politburo, the CPSU Secretariat and members of the Central Committee as a final "edited copy." This publication contains nearly all versions - from uncorrected stenogram to edited copy - of Central Committee plenums. Of particular interest to scholars, the author's copies often contain the handwritten corrections of the participants as well as the inclusion of newly drafted remarks.

If you Look Really Closely, You Can See the Olympic Torch Passing Unmolested.

The amazing picture above shows the two Koreas at night. If you look really closely, you can see the Olympic Torch in the middle of darkness of North Korea.


North Korea welcomes Olympic torch

You have to love the article below from The Star.

KYODO/REUTERS

April 29, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PYONGYANG–North Korea mobilized tens of thousands of citizens yesterday to celebrate the Olympic torch relay in Pyongyang, the flame's first visit to the authoritarian nation.

Men in their best suits and women wearing traditional high-waisted dresses waved flags and paper flowers in the capital, greeting the torch like a visiting head of state.

Unlike some other parts of the relay ahead of the Beijing Olympics, everything went off without a hitch in North Korea. Only the most loyal Communist elite are allowed to live in Pyongyang, a showpiece city filled with monuments to the hard-line regime.

China is North Korea's main ally and a key provider of aid, and the torch relay was used to herald their ties. North Korea has condemned disruptions of the relay elsewhere, and supported Beijing in its crackdown on violent protests in Tibet.

Leader Kim Jong-il was not seen at yesterday's event, but he was "paying great interest to the success of the Olympic torch relay," Pak Hak-son, chair of North Korea's Olympic committee, said at the relay start, according to a report from Pyongyang by Japan's Kyodo News Agency.

"We express our basic position that while some impure forces have opposed China's hosting of the event and have been disruptive, we believe that constitutes a challenge to the Olympic idea," Pak said.

The torch began its run from beneath the giant red stained-glass flame that tops the 170-metre-tall obelisk of the Juche Tower, which commemorates the national ideology of "self-reliance" created by the late founding president Kim Il-sung, father of Kim Jong-il.

An attentive and peaceful crowd watched the start of the relay, some waving Chinese and Olympic flags, APTN footage showed. The ceremony was presided over by the head of Parliament, Kim Yong-nam. Kim passed the flame to Pak Du-ik, a former soccer star who played on North Korea's 1966 World Cup soccer team.

As the 19-kilometre relay wound through Pyongyang, thousands of cheering people lined the streets waving pink paper flowers and small flags with the Beijing Olympics logo and chanting "Welcome! Welcome!" Middle-aged women in traditional dresses danced and beat drums in one square, while young girls held red balloons and bouquets of flowers.

Security was far lighter than in most other cities visited by the torch.

The relay ended after about five hours at Kim Il-sung Stadium, where female marathoner Chong Song-ok used the torch to light an Olympic cauldron, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Later yesterday, the torch arrived to a warm welcome in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Carter is Outed by a Frenchie as the Anti-Semitic Peanut Farmer That He is

From the WSJ.

The Sad End of Jimmy Carter
By BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY
April 25, 2008

The problem is not that he is, or is not, talking to the Syrians – everyone does it to some degree.

It isn't that he went to Damascus to meet with the exiled head of Hamas – everyone, including the Israelis, will one day have to do that too, in accordance with that old rule which says that in the end it is with your enemies not your friends that you have to come to an understanding and make peace.

No.

The problem is how Jimmy Carter went about it.

The problem is the spectacular and useless embrace he exchanged with the senior Hamas dignitary, Nasser Shaer, in Ramallah.

The problem is the wreath he laid piously at the grave of Yasser Arafat, who, as Mr. Carter knows better than anyone else, was a real obstacle to peace.

It is that in Cairo, if we are to believe another Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, whose statement has so far not been denied, Mr. Carter apparently described Hamas as a "national liberation movement" – this party which has made a cult of death, a mythology of blood and race, and an anti-Semitism along the lines of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into the linchpin of its ideology.

The problem is also the formidable nose thumbing he got from Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, who, at the very moment he was receiving Mr. Carter, also triggered the first car bombing in several months in Keren Shalom on the Gaza strip – and that this event elicited from poor Mr. Carter, all tangled up in his small-time mediator calculations, not one disapproving or empathetic word.

The former president, it will be recalled, is an old hand at this sort of thing.

Going off track like this is not new for the man who 30 years ago was one of the architects of peace with Egypt, but who since then has not stopped vilifying Israel, comparing its political system to that of South Africa during apartheid, ignoring Israel's desire for peace, which is no less real than its errors, even denying its suffering.

A year ago, he told CBS that for years his beloved Hamas had not committed any terrorist attacks resulting in civilian casualties – this, a few months after the assassination of six people at the Karni Terminal, and the attack on Aug. 30, 2004, which killed 16 passengers in two buses in Beersheba.

And it is one thing to speak to CBS, and another to say these words, which are unofficial but have indisputable moral authority, to the belligerents.

It is one thing to say, in Dublin on June 19, 2007, that the true criminals are not those who proclaim, like Mashaal, that "before dying" Israel must be "humiliated and degraded," but those who would prefer that these charming characters be pushed out of the circles of power, sooner or later, with a distinct preference for "sooner." It is quite another to come over in person and put all one's weight behind the most radical elements, those who are the most hostile to peace, the most profoundly nihilistic in the Palestinian camp.

The truth is, if one wished to discredit the other side, to fully humiliate and ridicule the only Palestinian leader (Mahmoud Abbas) who at the risk of his life continues to believe in the solution of two states – if with a word one wanted to ruin the last dreams of men and women of goodwill who still believe in peace – one would be absolutely on the right track.

So what happened to this man, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

Is it the vanity of someone who is no longer so important, who wants a last 15 minutes in the spotlight before he has to leave the stage forever?

Is it the senility of a politician who has lost touch with reality and with his own party? Barack Obama, even more clearly than his rival, has just reminded us that it will not be possible to "sit down" with the leaders of Hamas unless they are prepared to "renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and respect past agreements."

Could he be suffering from a variant of self-hatred, or in this case a hatred of his own past as the Great Peacemaker?

All hypotheses are permitted. Whatever the reason, Mr. Carter has demonstrated an unusual capacity to transform a political error into a disastrous moral mistake.

Jimmy reads Rawls too, I understand. HT: KPF

There's Something Refreshing About a bad Review

A Belated Message from Anne Frank

Story Here

Notice the Lower Case 'P' in 'pope.'

Pope Makes First Papal Visit To Six Flags

EUREKA, MO-Benedict granted a private audience to dignitaries Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam at the Moose Burger Lodge in DC Comics Plaza.

I Am Not Quite Sure What The Following Picture Means, But I Agree: Boycott Beijing!!!

There was an excellent article in theThe NYT last week here arguing that it was Nazi Germany, with the wonderful mountain climber Leni, who engineered the same ceremony for the same reason: that China might take its place in the fascist sun!

The Relay of Fire Ignited by the Nazis
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: April 14, 2008
If you want to know how the Olympic torch really began its “Journey of Harmony,” as the Chinese call its current relay, if you want to see why the torch has had to pass through a human obstacle course composed of protesters, SWAT teams and police in San Francisco, Paris and London, then do not look to Tibet’s grievances against China. Look to the opening of Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film, “Olympia.”
In that homage to Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Games the origins of this ritual are revealed. Never before had a lighted torch been relayed from a Greek temple in Olympia to an athletic competition, let alone by thousands of runners trying to keep it from being extinguished.
So Riefenstahl creates the myth the Greeks never got around to telling, creating a filmic counterpart to the opening of Wagner’s “Ring,” in which an entire world gradually emerges from elemental fragments. The camera begins by surveying a misty landscape of ruins, of shattered pillars and overgrown grasses. Restless and circling, the camera reveals a Greek temple standing amid the stones. Heads and the bodies of Greek statues appear in an eerie erotic landscape. Under the sensuous caresses of Riefenstahl’s lens, a naked discus thrower comes to life, polished stone becoming muscular flesh. Another athlete prepares to throw a javelin, its trajectory leading toward a bowl of fire. Lighting the Olympic torch, another nude acolyte triumphantly raises it aloft like Wagner’s Siegfried displaying his sword.
Humanity is given its purpose; the relay begins. The torch is conveyed from one bearer to the next and ends in Berlin at a 110,000-seat stadium where it ignites an altar of flame. Through shimmering heat the sun itself can be seen, vibrating in sympathy. And Hitler salutes the cheering crowds.
This passing of the torch thus demonstrates a lineage of inheritance — a historical relay — making Nazi Germany the living heir to Ancient Greece. A claim was being staked.

sub Beijing for Berlin and 1938 for 2008 and I fail to see the difference.

If You Have Spent Any Time in Essex, No Explaination is Needed

HT: KPC

It Can Happens to the Best of Us: Bond car plunges into Lake Garda

Sad story here.

Sure: Two Jags John Suffers from Bulimia

Two Jags Prescott on bulimia battle

Yes. And as Pink Floyd conclusively showed, Pigs do Fly!

Vive le resistance conservatif

Compliments of JPK

The Cats Look Alive to Me

HT: KPC