THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
What if, I
used to ask, we could import 500 million Martians with an
average IQ of 150 and terrific work habits? Would that be
good for the country, and, if the answer is “Yes,”
then what do you mean by country?
-- Thomas
Fleming
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.48 pm, 30 November 2005►
FOUR
BLOGROLL ADDITIONS
Three
clever young reactionaries: Daniel
Larison, Michael
Brendan Dougherty and someone who styles
himself Glaivester.
This is what the world needs now: more clever young
reactionaries.
And I've
added the National
Post website. I'd refused to link to it
before not so much because I didn't like the rag, although
it's always been a disappointment, but because its site
was worse than useless. Now, after a redesign, it's hardly
ideal -- come on Aspers, when the Dirty Digger speaks,
you'd best listen -- but visits no longer induce
Tourette's.
Kevin
Michael Grace, 1.31 am, 30 November 2005►
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY (SPECIAL PAUL WELLS TAKE NOTE EDITION)
I will now
let you into a secret. Not only do most voters not have
the slightest knowledge of or interest in policy; the
majority of politicians do not possess it either.
-- Alan
Watkins
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.58 pm, 29 November 2005►
MIA
Sorry to be
so underperforming
of late. (Or ever.) Welcome back, my friends, to the sob
story that never ends.
Actually, I
can report a caesura in this epic of woe. A very
nice (though bearded) fellow has just gifted me a new
computer, and when I say "new," I mean new out
of the box, not one cannibalized from old parts and
augmented with new ones. My old "new" computer
(circa 2000) suffered from critical, undiagnosed power
supply fluctuations which corrupted and then crippled hard
drives in March 2003, July 2005 and November 2005. And
when not imitating a doorstop, my old computer would
stubbornly refuse to boot and/or crash with appalling and
cruelly-timed regularity, thereby disappearing 98%-completed
stories, blog posts, etc.
I won't
pretend that continuing computer failures are the primary
source of my crippling malaise, lo these past three
years -- catastrophic failures in employment, familial
relations and eros are at the top of that hit
parade -- but they didn't help. One hears tell that
whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger, but I must
register the strongest disagreement.
So: "In
an interstellar burst,/I am back to save the
universe." Just as well, as my recent hand-to-mouth
lifestyle (dread word!) can no longer be sustained. That
is, I've sold all the books I can bear to flog and any
bookshop from Victoria to Sidney will deign to buy.
(Twenty cents on the dollar for softcovers, 10 cents for
hardcovers.) My library is now so depleted it resembles
A&B Sound's classical musical department. (Inside
joke.) I've also sold about 100 DVDs at a slightly less
(just slightly, mind) misery-inducing loss. I've no
"rock" music CDs left to flog, having dispensed
with them two years ago, but my "serious" music
collection remains untouched. I'd rather starve than part
with the latter, and I have. Auberon Waugh said, "A
man without possessions is scarcely to be distinguished
from an animal," and I've been feeling quite bestial
enough as it is, ta muchly. Never more so than when the
rent is due, and I imitate the jackal, weasel, magpie or
wolverine, as needs be.
Which is
how I find myself now, praying for the monthly airbag that
will leave me born again. If all goes well, I can't
promise "nonstop bloggarrhea," only that The
Ambler's universe will unfold as it should.
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.48 pm, 29 November 2005►
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
It is very
good that there be yellow Frenchmen, black Frenchmen,
brown Frenchmen. They prove that France is open to all
races and that she has a universal mission. But on the
condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise,
France would no longer be France. We are after all
primarily a European people of the white race, of Greek
and Latin culture, and of the Christian faith. Try to mix
oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. In a moment they will
separate again. Arabs are Arabs and French are French. Do
you believe that the French nation can absorb ten million
Muslims, who perhaps tomorrow will be twenty million and
the day after forty million? If we adopt integration, if
all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered as
Frenchmen, what would prevent them from coming to settle
in mainland France where the standard of living is so much
higher? My village would no longer be called
Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, but Colombey-les-deux-Mosquées!
-- Charles
de Gaulle
Reviewing Free French commandos: C'était quelqu'un!
Kevin
Michael Grace, 2.48 am, 28 November 2005►
FROM
MASON TO BRUNO: AN OLD JOURNAL WON'T EVER LET YOU DOWN
Words of love, so soft and tender
Won't win a girl's heart anymore
If you love her, then you must send her
Somewhere where she's never been before
-- "Words
Of Love," The Mamas & The Papas
(John Phillips)
Kevin
Michael Grace, 1.41 am, 28 November 2005►
