Personal political view challenged (0)
Posted 14 January, 2008 in Humour
I may currently be a libertarian but this makes me want to sign up with Fred Nile.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23032131-23109,00.html
Masturbators come together in Copenhagen
HOT on the heels of San Francisco and London, Copenhagen is to host a masturbate-a-thon in May which organisers hope will help break lingering taboos about self-love.
Pia Struck Madsen, a sexologist in the Danish capital, said her goal was to see men and women from all backgrounds join an event that promised “pleasure, relaxation and sexual self-discovery”.
“Masturbation is positive, safe and an erotic alternative,” she said ahead of the event on May 31, to take place at a yet to be decided venue with separate rooms for men, women and those who don’t mind mingling.
The original masturbate-a-thon took place in San Francisco in 1998, with participants raising money for good causes.
The placard waving, police bashing, weed-worshipers may protest about it… (0)
Posted 11 January, 2008 in Humour
Been done elsewhere but too funny to miss.
The placard waving, police bashing, weed-worshipers may protest about it, but it’s nothing a few blasts from a water cannon can’t fix. They could do with a wash. And if they’re still too unAustralian to chop a few chops for the rest of us, send them to Nauru. The refugee processing centre has plenty of palm trees they could hug………..
YouTube link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPGSs56lZEQ&eurl=http://www.sutcliffe.com/blog/?p=90&preview=true
Weekend at Bernies…for real!!! (0)
Posted 10 January, 2008 in Humour
People often consider it weird when I tell them I don’t read fiction and that I haven’t read a fiction book in 15 years. I generally don’t feel the need to retreat into fiction or believe it’s particularly valuable as a vehicle to explore ideas. That’s not to say it hasn’t been used in this role very effectively; Ayn Rand’s work being an excellent example. I simply believe that the real world is much more interesting and is just as diverse as anything the most imaginative writers can produce. When you consider the fact that things like the event below have actually happened in a first world country, in one of the largest cities in the world, then fiction can’t even compete as far as I’m concerned.
As they say, only in America. Surely this shit happens in other parts of the world? Is the reason we always hear of this stuff coming out of the US simply the social diversity, high level of individualism and media saturation within America?
Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests
Even for the once-notorious Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, it may have been a first: Two men were arrested on Tuesday after pushing a corpse, seated in an office chair, along the sidewalk to a check-cashing store to cash the dead man’s Social Security check, the police said.
When Virgilio Cintron, 66, died at his apartment at 436 West 52nd Street recently, his roommate and a friend saw an opportunity to cash his $355 check, the police said.
…..
Their sidewalk procession had already attracted the stares of passers-by who were startled by the sight of the body flopping from side to side as the two men tried to prop it up, the police said…….. While the two men were inside the check-cashing office, a small crowd had gathered around the chair. A detective, Travis Rapp, eating a late lunch at a nearby Empanada Mama saw the crowd and notified the Midtown North station house.
Bizarre.
Short documentary on why the UK sucks and the US rules (0)
Posted 6 January, 2008 in Humour, Politics
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0KhGJyayM
As much as I find Jeremy Clarkson a very entertaining guy and a great presenter (although, in truth, a pretty average motoring journalist), this very ordinary effort to send up all the US as a gun-toting redneck hicksville wasteland really only serves to reveal the true differences between the homeland of the presenter and the location of the documentary. One is still a free county where a ‘rugged’ individualist can actually do what they want in their own backyard, and the other is full of euro-wusses who try too hard to be all sophisticated and who can’t actually do anything without a myriad of government approvals and political correctness checks. One has hope for a future and the other is too far gone to be saved. Now, I’m not saying ‘Billy Bob’ is the epitome of the ideal man. But I am saying that any culture that mocks individualism, self-reliance, resilience and personal freedom probably doesn’t have all that much going for it.
What Clarkson would do well to remember is that he has made a very comfortable living out of promoting a macho-ish culture where he is the rogue who operates politically incorrect machines in an irresponsible manner - in fact, this is the essence of him bagging out the Toyota Prius. What he’s got with ‘Billy Bob’ is someone who does that better than himself. So I don’t know if it’s ironic or just simply sour grapes that he chooses to mock this guy and the US gun-totin’ God-fearin’ good ole boy culture this guy reflects. Either way, as entertaining as it is, it’s a bit of a cheap shot at the US.
(BTW: this rant aside, I think Top Gear is a great show.)
History of the Liberal Party by Dr John Hewson (0)
Posted 30 December, 2007 in Humour, Politics
Sure it’s tongue-in-cheek. But it tells you pretty much everything you need to know!
Quote of the day (1)
Posted 27 December, 2007 in Humour, Politics
Found on a diesel engine performance site, of all places:
A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right!
A half-truth, I suppose.
Taxation should be considered as a fee paid for services rendered. The problem people like me have with taxation is that:
1. You have no choice whether you are going to buy the services or not;
2. You don’t get sent a bill based on what you consume; the guv’mint takes a sliding percentage of what you earn under threat of force and then skims, as surreptitiously as possible, whatever transactions you make with the remaining funds - mafia extortion style; and
3. Then they give some of your own money back to you and behave like they’re giving you something bought with wealth they’ve created themselves.
Yay! Enviro-freaks drive themselves to extinction! (2)
Posted 26 November, 2007 in General, Humour, Philosophy
Via Tim Blair, it appears environmental nutcases are refusing to breed in order to “protect the planet”.
Hey, no problems with that. You go, girl!
A similarly minded young man adds “Sarah and I don’t need children to feel complete. What makes us happy is knowing that we are doing our bit to save our precious planet.”
And what makes healthy people like me jump for joy is that people like you aren’t breeding! Yay!
Of course, our enviro-knobs don’t comment on any deeper issues, like whether the human race should exist at all, or whether a limit of one child per couple would reduce the population to an ‘acceptable’ level, or what an ‘acceptable’ level is and why, or why humans have any less right to be on the planet than other forms of life. You see, you have to take these questions as an act of faith; extreme environmentalism is religion, after all.
Our first nutjob adds “Having children is selfish…………….”.
Damn straight, you crazy biatch! As any Objectivist will tell you, that’s precisely why you should do it. A more perfect reflection of yourself is the productive person’s greatest reward and a wonderful way to delight your soul! It’s also one pleasure that these freaks definitely don’t deserve!
Natural justice, you might say.
Brothers and sisters, let us share from the book of Milton Friedman! (0)
Posted 22 November, 2007 in Humour, Philosophy, Politics
It’s time to testify! I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I figure y’all need a little churchin’ up on the Gospel of the Free Market!
Milton Friedman on corporations says,
corporations have no social duty,
except to those who own their stock…….
…..so if you want your freedom,
let the corporate seize the day,
there really is no better way,
let’s privatise, choice is the way,
let corporations run our schools,
let the free market make the rules…………
……….and freedom to choose says Friedman,
or you will lose says Friedman…………
A palindromic song (0)
Posted 19 August, 2007 in Humour
This is just too clever not to get put in the archives: a song in the vein of Bob Dylan with every line a palindromic sentence. I think it’s quite old, but I’ve never seen it before. Excellent geek humour.
(via Tim Blair)
Further research reveals this song is ‘Bob’ by Weird Al” Yankovic. Does anyone know the relevance of the Jews in the background of the clip? Is it because Bob Dylan was Jewish, and this Weird Al’s tribute to him? (I always throught Weird Al himself was a Jew, but Wikipedia indicates otherwise).
Threat to former leaders of the free world exposed here (0)
Posted 27 June, 2007 in Humour, Diary
One of the best aspects of my current job is working with a team of engineers. In my former engineering roles I’ve generally been working as part of a large team of disparate professionals, or been the sole engineer on a larger team of gunslingers and pilots (who take themselves far too seriously and rate themselves far too highly at times). When you put engineers together, or probably any group of technical people, a certain dynamic tends to ensue. Two aspects of that are great conversations on the most disparate and unusual subjects, and what I refer to as ‘geek’ humour.
Today’s ‘left field’ topic was the unusual way the roles of US government departments seem to be grouped. The best example would have to be the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Other than the fact that these things can be a lot of fun when put together (and even more fun when combined with motor vehicles, preferably hotted up utes), can someone tell me why these things would be combined in the charter of a single government department? (I’m guessing something to do with prohibition….but why are they still grouped together?) And the US Department of Homeland Security being the ‘Department of Just About Everything’ except what would appear to be the dominant agency in these matters, being the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Anyway, as Aussies we can’t fathom the nuances and historical legacies of those crazy Yanks. However I think we stumbled onto something thus far overlooked.
The United States Secret Service is in charge of keeping the President safe, as we all know from numerous Hollywood movies. In what would appear to be another unusual grouping of roles it is also responsible for protecting US currency against counterfeiting and fraud. As such, it was part of the US Department of Treasury until 2003 (when it became another arm of the Department of Homeland Security). As we all know, Treasury is responsible for designing and printing the currency of the US. Now consider what features on that currency: US Presidents. Now what happens to old and rare currency when the person on it dies? It goes up in value, of course. Conflict of interest potentially undermining the leadership of the free world…………….I’ll let the reader decide!