THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
No subject is unsuitable for
comedy. In life, comedy occurs naturally, as it should, in
the most appalling of circumstances. The horror is turned
up to 11, then suddenly somebody seems to have grabbed the
snake that has us cornered And dangled it by the tail to
show how stupid it can look, even at its most threatening.
And if the snake escapes and takes us all in the end, we
had a moment of relief, didn't we? People complain that
joking about serious subjects is "making light"
of them. Isn't that a good idea? Comedy lets the air out
of the bully's tires.
—Peter
Baynham
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.26 pm, 15 January 2007►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Q:
What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?
A:
Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The
reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for
taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army
General) Tommy
Franks was brow-beaten and...pursued
warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long
term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own
staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.
We
have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented
internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and
the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the
third world war, all for their own personal policies.
Q:
What is the cost to our country?
A: For
the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we
destroyed whatever credibility we had...And I say
"we," because the American public went along
with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out
of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now
on.
Our
military is completely consumed, so were there a real
threat—thankfully, there is no
real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one,
we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad
thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with
Iran or with Venezuela.
The
harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more
than 2,000 [now
3,000—Ed.]
American kids that have been killed. Tens
of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed,
[but] no one in the U.S. really cares about those people,
do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has
been a horror, and this administration has worked overtime
to divert the American public's attention from it. Their
lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall
apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath
and the harm that it's done just to what America stands
for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.
Q:
What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney...
A:
(Interrupting) That's
Cheney's pursuit. The only reason anyone
tortures is because they like to do it. It's about
vengeance; it's about revenge; or it's about cover-up. You
don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world
knows that. It's worse than small-minded, and look what it
does.
I've
argued this on Bill O'Reilly and other Fox News shows. I
ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you
want someone that the American public pays to torture?
He's an employee of yours. It's worse than ridiculous.
It's criminal; it's utterly criminal. This administration
has been masters of diverting attention away from real
issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes
torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is
torture, period. And (I'm saying this as) a man who has
been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I
know it, and all of my mates know it. You don't do it.
It's an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture
say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a
ludicrous argument...The Saddam Husseins of the world are
not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution
saying what's legal, and what we believed in. Now we're
going to throw it away. [Compare to
"Of course the Germans began it, but we do not take
the devil as our example," Marquess
of Salisbury—Ed.]
Q:
As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did
some of the most hair-raising things to protect your
country, and to see your country behave this way, that
must be...
A:
It's pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good
and the decency of the American people, and they're
starting to see what's happening and the lies that have
been told. We're seeing this current house of cards start
to flutter away. The American people come around. They
always do.
—Command Sergeant Major (retd) Eric
L Haney, interviewed
by David Kronke, Los Angeles Daily News,
26 March 2006
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.19 am, 11 January 2007►
BLOGROLLING
I've made some changes to the blogroll, the better to
serve you, my loyal readers. Actually, that's not really
true. This site serves as my home page, and the links
usually point to my regular sources of edification and
amusement. I never intended the blogroll to be a list
of stuff you must read, but if you find my choices
useful for your own pursuits, all the better.
My friend Kevin
Steel has been added near the top. I wish
he would write more (for free), and I could (and do) say
the same of my friend Sarah
Kelly, who has gone MA and MIA.
Reversing its previous policy, most of the Daily
Mail ("arguably the best newspaper
in the world"—Alan
Partridge)
is now available for free. This means access to not only Peter
Hitchens's Sunday column but also to many
other fine columnists, including Stephen
Glover. According to Wikipedia,
"The stereotypical Daily Mail reader is
characterised as an insular, homophobic, aspiring
middle-class conservative who lacks the intelligence to
read the broadsheet equivalent the Daily Telegraph
and is stuck in the past." A fair enough cop, one might think (except for that intolerable
locution "homophobic"),
but the Telegraph is no longer the paper it
was. It disgraced itself over Iraq and is now committed to
disgracing itself (and boring its readers silly) by
banging the drum for war against Russia. Telegraph
refugee Peregrine
Worsthorne is another new linkee.
The Google News back door into the Globe and Mail
has closed, so say goodbye to Rex Murphy. Rick
Salutin survives, as his columns are
reprinted on Rabble. Reversing its previous policy,
Scotsman columnists have disappeared behind a
subscriber wall, so updating Allan
Massie's entry has become a challenge. But
the Independent
seems to be free again, so Richard
Ingrams (who fled
there after the Observer disgraced
itself over Iraq) may now be read in full.
I've also added Alan Partridge co-creator (and sworn
enemy of the Daily Mail) Armando
Iannucci, whose televised
works have consumed and astonished me in
recent months. (He fled from the Telegraph to the Observer.)
The reason why there are so many British columnists on my
blogroll is that they put their Canadian and American
cousins to shame. (They're paid accordingly, too.) A
column should be like a communication from a witty friend, not
clichés shouted through a megaphone. Or so it seems to me.
Finally, Mark
Bourrie's invaluable Warren
Kinsella Archives have been revamped and
extended. The Titus Oates of Canadian journalism could not
have found a more deserving memorial. Now if only someone
would do the same for Canadian journalism's Sammy Glick,
King of the Road Ersatz Levant.
Alan Partridge with a good friend
Kevin
Michael Grace, 3.56 am, 10 January 2007►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Combining regular income, stock
options, pension and a golden parachute, [overpaid Home
Depot CEO Robert] Nardelli received $274 million for six
years of work. That's $34,250 an hour. That's about
3,000 times the hourly wage of a Home Depot worker. That's
$275,000 per day – five times as much per day as
the typical American family earns in a year. Good
management is of value to a company's shareholders:
skilled corporate officers should be well paid. But
there's a difference between "well paid" and
something akin to looting. Why isn't Nardelli's $274
million, taken from the shareholders, simply viewed as
embezzlement? Home Depot stock fell from $43 to $41 under
Nardelli's tenure, a 21 percent drop when calculated for
inflation. The CEO cannot control a company's stock price,
and excessive emphasis on stock price creates a temptation
to cook the books. But it's absurd to think that
shareholders can get hosed under a CEO's watch, and for
that the CEO deserves $274 million. The Home Depot board
offered Nardelli the terms that led to the $274 million.
Boards of directors have a self-interest in overpaying
CEOs, because many board members are themselves CEOs who
know their own pay will rise if other CEOs' pay rises.
With Nardelli's $274 million, CEO overpay has reached
runaway levels. What the Home Depot board did was
perfectly legal, and that in itself is a scandal. The word
for what many public-company CEOs and their boards are up
to should be: embezzlement.
—Gregg
Easterbrook
Nardelli: Nice work
if you can leave it
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.45 am, 10 January 2007►
ONE LAPTOP
BOMBARDIER'S SWEET RIDE
So Ersatz Levant drives
a Hummer. Why I am not surprised?
'In a world where SUVs have begun to look like their
owners,'
what's wrong with this picture? (click here
to find out)
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.55 am, 9 January 2007►
CRUM BUM
Whenever I read something like this,
I am seized by the irresistible compulsion to fly to
Königsberg or Kaliningrad or whatever it's called now,
disinter Immanuel Kant and put the boot in. Hey, I got
your categorical imperative right here, pal.
Kant: Good news for busybodies, bad news for everybody
else
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.45 am, 9 January 2007►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Somewhere in this nation,
perhaps on a Midwestern university campus, or toiling on
the receiving dock of a Best Buy store, there are sharp
young people who are not failing to notice the stupendous
economic injustice that saturates the system as it is
currently running. These young people may emerge as the
Dantons, Robespierres, and Saint-Justs of the 21st
century. It's not a happy prospect.
Today, the
New York Times reported that a new
hyper-exclusive resort for the "ultra-rich"
called Unlimited Speed is being developed in Georgia
(where else?) featuring a private NASCAR-quality race
track where Goldman Sachs bonus boys and other such
grandees can get their rocks off. They'd better fortify
the place well. They'd better put a wall around it with an
electrified fence and a death strip, because otherwise,
sooner or later, if the regulatory authorities do not act,
some very pissed off and energetic young Americans are
going to steal into places like this and deal out some
rough justice.
—James
Howard Kunstler
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.23 am, 9 January 2007►
THINGS YOU LEARN FROM
WIKIPEDIA
Armed
and Famous is the title of a reality
television series that will premiere January 10, 2007, on
CBS.
The series follows five
celebrities as they train to become reserve police
officers for the Muncie,
Indiana police department, followed by
graduation. After that, the celebrities will go on patrol
with the same training officers who traditionally ride
with new officers.
The series stars Erik
Estrada, La
Toya Jackson, Jack
Osbourne, Trish
Stratus and Jason
Acuña (a.k.a. "Wee Man" on Jackass).
On December 5, 2006, the
celebrities were officially sworn in as reserve officers.
Monkey
tennis, anyone?
Kevin
Michael Grace, 2.18 am, 2 January 2007►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Once the idiots were
just the fools gawping in through the windows. Now
they’ve entered the building. You can hear them
everywhere. They use the word “cool”; it is their
favourite word. The idiot doesn’t think about what it is
saying. Thinking is rubbish, and rubbish isn’t cool.
Stuff and shit is cool. The idiots are self-regarding
consumer slaves, oblivious to the paradox of their uniform
individuality. They sculpt their hair to casual
perfection. They wear their waistbands below their balls.
They babble into handheld twit machines about that cool
email of the woman being bummed by a wolf. Their cool
friend made it. He’s an idiot, too. Welcome to the age
of stupidity. Hail the rise of the idiots.
—From "The Rise Of The Idiots"
by "Dan Ashcroft," in Nathan
Barley (Charlie Brooker, Chris Morris)
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.22 am, 2 January 2007►
