General


“Russia has invaded a sovereign neighbouring state and threatened a government elected by its people,” [George W.] Bush said. “Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.” Source: CBC.ca

“Also … we want to make sure our Russian colleagues understand that the days of overthrowing leaders by military means in Europe … are gone,” he [U.S. Ambassador to the UN - Zalmay Khalizad] said. Source: UPI

(I guess the US gets off the hook in the UN by qualifying/insinuating they mean only in Europe)

Harbin Snow and Ice World

One day in the pavilion at Karakorum the Khan asked an officer of the Mongol guard what, in all the world, could bring the greatest happiness.

“The open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse under you,” responded the officer after a little thought, “and a falcon on your wrist to start up hares.”

Wrong!” responded the Khan, “To crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet — to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women. That is best.

- Harold Lamb – “Genghis Khan: The Emperor Of All Men”

yeah, that doesn’t react well with my politics, but after 50,000 years of evolution as a hunter it makes my blood boil; makes me want to drink fermented yak’s milk til I vomit and pass out, makes me want to go burning villages, stealing their gold, raping their women, chaining the remainder up as slaves, makes me want to leave the house and car behind and live in a hide covered tent on the steppes with my herd of horses and cattle just outside!

yeah! that is best!

cause deep down, we all know that as horrible and awful as those times were, as cruel and despicable as those men were… politics aside, they still understood honour, community and comradeship. Something woefully missing in today’s individualism with no responsibilities, abhorrent consumerism, obscene consumptionism and impotent “political correctness”.

if you blinked you might have missed the fact that Afghanistan is now a raging success…

it is now a model of democracy and freedom for South Asia, if not the world…

how do we know… well, just look!!

Everything goes better with...

Ann Coulter quotes

This woman is a rabid animal.

I particularly love these:

[Canadians] better hope the United States does not roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.

Fox News; Hannity & Colmes, November 30, 2004

Canada has become trouble recently. It’s always the worst Americans who go there. We could have taken them over so easy. But I only want the western part, with the ski areas, the cowboys, and the right wingers. They’re the only good parts of Canada.

Tay’s webpage
Tay on YouTube
Tay’s MySpace blog
Tay’s MySpace page

Lyrics
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I’m not saying no one should do business in Nuremburg… I’m not… it’s the past… and it’s best left behind…

but it’s still somehow funny that McDonald’s and Starbucks have places overlooking the Hauptmarkt (Market Place) where the early Nazi rallies were held and Burger King is opening (or has opened) a restaurant in the former Umspannwerk transformer building that powered the later Reichsparteitagsgelände (parade grounds).

fishy? well, maybe the Filet-O-Fish sandwichis … but likely not more than that…

but still… veddy veddy interezting…  ;-)

Valve’s Team Fortress 2

Weblogs ‘need content warnings’ Tim O’Reilly The code of conduct was drawn up by Tim O’Reilly Readers should be warned when they are reading blogs that may contain “crude language”, a draft blogging code of conduct has suggested

Source: BBC – Weblogs ‘need content warnings’

I’ve used the PICS system on various incarnations of my websites for years…

not self-censoring, but nothing wrong with providing a system so other people can self-censor…

hey… I don’t read Fox News or Bill O’Reilly, do I?

so why not allow people to block a site, from their kids or even themselves, that uses the word ‘fuck’ more than just a tad bit liberally… no pun intended… ;-)

frankly, I see no problem mandating that every website contain just such a header that PICS provides…

however, open discussion boards and public blogs, even moderated blogs, can’t predict what every person can or will say… maybe boards and public blogs should contain warnings that anything and everything may appear at some point…

I dunno… but making a moderator or owner of such sites responsible for the words and actions of others is entirely the wrong thing to do and wrong message to send…

would a house owner be held responsible for the graffiti scrawled on the side of their house? or a library for someone scrawling something objectionable in a library book?

that may not be the most apt analogy, but it is probably the best real world example there is…

you can’t compare a public blog or board to a newspaper… it can’t be held to the same content standards or legislation…

this is more than just about free speech, it is also about individual responsibility and not having others take ANY of that responsibility on themselves…

Frankly, I think this is just a ploy of O’Reilly to get his hands into something that up until now has been uncontrollable by big corporations… much, I’m sure, to their teeth gnashing chagrin…

it’s actually kind of insidious…

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