Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Good quote from the ever interesting Abu Muquwama


"Although democracy is often touted as a solution to conflict, that is not quite right. Democracy is, by its nature, a system designed to invite and encourage conflict over power and resources. It does so for a reason: conflict is good. It drives competition, innovation, and progress. But democracy only serves these purposes if conflict is kept within peaceful bounds. This requires a commitment among the parties to democratic norms--that is, it requires losers to accept their losses (and vow to compete, peacefully, another day), and it requires winners to not seek to permanently exclude the losers. The danger in Iraq at the moment is that democratization is a work in progress, and escalating political conflict is occurring within a fragile state just starting to recover from civil war. In a country of 27 million people in which every household owns an automatic rifle and (nearly) every political party has its own militia, what are the prospects that this competition will stay within peaceful bounds?


Dr. iRack expects some fireworks in the months ahead."

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Not really a blog, and terribly politically incorrect, but this had me in stitches this morning:


The Top 25 Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians


I've been told some of you are unable to enjoy such wit and humour due to workplace internet nazis so I've taken the liberty of pasting a couple of entries below.


#22 Robert Redford

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/redford.jpg

He Is:


Actor. Director.


Looks Like:


The head of Women's Studies at Community College of Denver.




#17 Masai Oka

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/masi2.jpg

He is:


Actor. Time Magazine whiz kid. Reported I.Q. of 180 (same as cast of Carpoolers).


Looks Like:


An author of a paper stating sex with a man is, by definition, a hate crime.




#3 Ricky Gervais

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/gervais.jpg

He Is:


Comic. Writer. Actor. Creator of the hugely popular The Office and the somewhat less popular Extras.


Looks Like:


Someone who moved to Aleutian Islands with social worker partner and is studying to be a priest in the Anglican Church.

  • 1 month later...

Liking this, a sort of Snopes for Historians


http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/


Used this morning to debunk the hundred years war - two-fingered salute link, long bows were big and would have taken 3 fingers.

The sharper eyed among you may spot what prompted me to think of my childhood crush, Chloe Ashcroft.

I read quite a few 'alternative news sources', which can be great for rumours, hearsay and different points of view.

I love the ones by people who experience things, there was a wonderful insightful blog by an officer in the Met, until they shut him down.


The good ones are few and far between, and particularly the punditry blogs you have to take with a certain pinch of salt if not outright disbelief, though that doesn't necessarily mean they're not worth reading for different reasons.


So it's good to see some of the better ones actually doing what journalists seem to do a little less often these days, and get off their arses and find stuff out for themselves.


Here's a as good an analysis of the Darfur conflict as I've read, by Abu Muquwama's Londonstani.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Jon Swift's interpretation of Palin's comment:

I loved Pro-America:Soccer Moms ----- Anti-America:Soccer


Pro-America ----- Anti-America

--------------------------------------

Republicans ----- Democrats

Small towns ----- Cities (except for Ground Zero in New York)

The South (except northern Virginia and the parts of Florida where liberal New York Jews live), the Midwest (except for Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin), the West (except for the Pacific Coast and Colorado), western Pennsylvania ----- The East (except western Pennsylvania), the Pacific Coast, Colorado, parts of the Midwest that have turned against God, northern Virginia

Christians (except for Unitarians), Neocons ----- Liberal Jews, Unitarians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other atheists

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader ----- Saturday Night Live

Country music (except for the Dixie Chicks), Christian rock ----- Non-Christian rock, hip hop, electronica, classical, jazz, folk, blues, salsa, reggae, bossa nova, sea shanties, etc.

Hank Williams, Jr. ----- Hank Williams, Sr.

A six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon ----- A venti soy milk latte

Iceberg lettuce ----- Arugula

American Idol ----- Project Runway

American Carol ----- A Christmas Carol

Homeschooling ----- Daycare

Regent University ----- The Ivy League

Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush ----- Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton

Leaving Gs off the ends of words ----- Pronouncing ?nuclear? correctly

Soccer moms ----- Soccer

Professional wrestling ----- Olympic wrestling

A wide stance ----- Coming out

Shotgun marriages ----- Gay marriages

SUVs ----- Hybrids

Twilight ----- His Dark Materials

Chronicles of Narnia ----- Harry Potter

Conservapedia ----- Wikipedia

Pregnant teens who keep their babies ----- Teens who use birth control

Intelligent Design ----- Interior design

Seven houses ----- One house you can?t afford

Anger ----- Compassion

Myspace ----- Facebook

Godtube ----- Youtube

Abstinence-only sex education ----- Biology

The Rapture ----- Global Warming

Fargo (the accent) ----- Fargo (the movie)

Guns ----- Lawsuits

Death penalty ----- Abortion

Waterboarding ----- Skateboarding

Talk radio ----- NPR

Aspirin ----- Socialized medicine

Dr. Phil ----- Oprah Winfrey

Anna Nicole Smith ----- Princess Diana

Supreme Court cases whose names I can?t remember where Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas are in the majority ----- Roe v. Wade

William Buckley ----- Christopher Buckley, Lord Buckley

Sexy librarians ----- American Library Association

Robocalls that interrupt your dinner ----- Polls that interrupt your dinner

Legacy admissions ----- Affirmative action

Second Amendment ----- Ninth Amendment

G. Gordon Liddy, Eric Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh ----- The Weather Underground

Social Darwinism ----- Theory of Evolution

Signing statements ----- Legislation

Joe Lieberman ----- Colin Powell

Pakistan ----- Spain

Stephen Baldwin ----- Alec Baldwin

Red Dawn ----- Dawn of the Dead

White ----- Black

  • 4 weeks later...

This will make a few people happy http://counterknowledge.com/


"Dr Gillian McKeith

Widely derided as ?that awful poo lady? and stripped of her bogus qualification by the ASA, Gillian McKeith continues to be a menace to the public?s understanding of biology and nutrition through her ignorance. This year we laughed at her woes and we threw our hands up in despair at her obnoxious stupidity."


and here's Echan Deravy exhibiting near flawlessly rigorous historical analysis;

"[The Stone of Scone] was principally used as the stone on which Kings sat to become annointed [sic] monarchs and that is a ceremony that clearly has its origin in Pharaonic Egypt. It is thus highly likely that this stone was first carried to the distant shores of Spain and Ireland from Egypt, and then on to Scotland by Scota?s descendants. "


brilliant.

  • 9 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Not miserable at all! I feel the same and also want to complain to the council but not sure who or where best to aim it at? I have flagged it with our local MP and one Southwark councillor previously but only verbally when discussing other things and didn’t get anywhere other than them agreeing it was very frustrating etc. but would love to do something on paper. I think they’ve been pretty much every night for the last couple of weeks and my cat is hating it! As am I !
    • That is also a Young's pub, like The Cherry Tree. However fantastic the menu looks, you might want to ask exactly who will cook the food on the day, and how. Also, if  there is Christmas pudding on the menu, you might want to ask how that will be cooked, and whether it will look and/or taste anything like the Christmas puddings you have had in the past.
    • This reminds me of a situation a few years ago when a mate's Dad was coming down and fancied Franklin's for Christmas Day. He'd been there once, in September, and loved it. Obviously, they're far too tuned in to do it, so having looked around, £100 per head was pretty standard for fairly average pubs around here. That is ridiculous. I'd go with Penguin's idea; one of the best Christmas Day lunches I've ever had was at the Lahore Kebab House in Whitechapel. And it was BYO. After a couple of Guinness outside Franklin's, we decided £100 for four people was the absolute maximum, but it had to be done in the style of Franklin's and sourced within walking distance of The Gowlett. All the supermarkets knock themselves out on veg as a loss leader - particularly anything festive - and the Afghani lads on Rye Lane are brilliant for more esoteric stuff and spices, so it really doesn't need to be pricey. Here's what we came up with. It was considerably less than £100 for four. Bread & Butter (Lidl & Lurpak on offer at Iceland) Mersea Oysters (Sopers) Parsnip & Potato Soup ( I think they were both less than 20 pence a kilo at Morrisons) Smoked mackerel, Jerseys, watercress & radish (Sopers) Rolled turkey breast joint (£7.95 from Iceland) Roast Duck (two for £12 at Lidl) Mash  Carrots, star anise, butter emulsion. Stir-fried Brussels, bacon, chestnuts and Worcestershire sauce.(Lidl) Clementine and limoncello granita (all from Lidl) Stollen (Lidl) Stichelton, Cornish Cruncher, Stinking Bishop. (Marks & Sparks) There was a couple of lessons to learn: Don't freeze mash. It breaks down the cellular structure and ends up more like a French pomme purée. I renamed it 'Pomme Mikael Silvestre' after my favourite French centre-half cum left back and got away with it, but if you're not amongst football fans you may not be so lucky. Tasted great, looked like shit. Don't take the clementine granita out of the freezer too early, particularly if you've overdone it on the limoncello. It melts quickly and someone will suggest snorting it. The sugar really sticks your nostrils together on Boxing Day. Speaking of 'lost' Christmases past, John Lewis have hijacked Alison Limerick's 'Where Love Lives' for their new advert. Bastards. But not a bad ad.   Beansprout, I have a massive steel pot I bought from a Nigerian place on Choumert Road many years ago. It could do with a work out. I'm quite prepared to make a huge, spicy parsnip soup for anyone who fancies it and a few carols.  
    • Nothing to do with the topic of this thread, but I have to say, I think it is quite untrue that people don't make human contact in cities. Just locally, there are street parties, road WhatsApp groups, one street I know near here hires a coach and everyone in the street goes to the seaside every year! There are lots of neighbourhood groups on Facebook, where people look out for each other and help each other. In my experience people chat to strangers on public transport, in shops, waiting in queues etc. To the best of my knowledge the forum does not need donations to keep it going. It contains paid ads, which hopefully helps Joe,  the very excellent admin,  to keep it up and running. And as for a house being broken into, that could happen anywhere. I knew a village in Devon where a whole row of houses was burgled one night in the eighties. Sorry to continue the off topic conversation when the poor OP was just trying to find out who was open for lunch on Christmas Day!
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...