Working on the picture being worth a thousand words concept, Pundit Kitchen (from the ICHC team) encourages reader submissions. It does tend to lean leftish, which doesn’t bother me, but if it bothers you then leave a link to contrarian PolMacros in comments. Here follows an assortment (image heavy, so unfriendly to dial-up (sorry):
Archive for the 'Levity' Category
It’s been almost three weeks since we had a good condemn. Here’s a twenty sixth open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except the old Beverly Hills 90210. And particularly Kelly. Although you can condemn the new 90210. If you find it worthy of condemn.
The festival of kitsch is franchising:
“Having brought the European version of the Eurovision Song Contest to the Middle East and North Africa, we are now delighted that viewers across Asia will enjoy one of the best established entertainment shows in the world,” said Eurovision TV’s Bettina Brinkmann.
Asia’s version will start in 2009, and involve competitors from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
I note that while Asia lets us play soccer against them, there’s no sign of letting us in to this contest. But it’d be so good for the contest! Just think, Asiavision 2010 rolls around…and from the Beijing Egg, Australia gives Asia…the Chaser crew… 
Post of the day from Lyn Calcutt at Public Opinion.
These guys have too much time on their hands? Or the most pressing public issues of the day are related to positions adopted in the late 1960s on Suharto’s crimes in Indonesia?
Accy raises an interesting concept.
Whichever party the Nats decide to deal with, they likely won’t enter into coalition. They’d guarantee supply, but otherwise keep their options open. And given the Nats’ likely control of both houses, it would possible for one of those options to be to get legislation passed without the help of the government. Meaning ministers forced to implement legislation they voted against.
Unlikely, sure. But wouldn’t it be fun while it lasted? And what other wacky scenarios can people think up before boring reality kicks in again?
It’s September so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty fifth open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except Angela Desveaux and alt.country singers from Canada. Although you can blame Canada for blameworthy stuff.
I had written him a letter,
Or email, to be precise.
The tone was less than friendly,
And the premise not-so-nice.
Still I knew no harm could come to me –
‘Twere a trifle, in the end;
The distribution list was small,
Mostly just my friends.
But as I hit send — alas! over
The day was cast a pall,
The ominous realisation:
I had sent it — “Reply All”.
Continue reading ‘Dear Everyone,’
There was an interesting discussion on this post on the whole “what is different about blogs and MSM “blogs” theme” with George Megalogenis recently. I generally agree with those who argued that whatever takes place on the bulletin boards of the News Limited and Fairfax online empires, it ain’t blogging. Even the reference to commenters as “bloggers” is jarring to anyone who was actually around the blogosphere before the media tried to appropriate it. It’s the lingo, dude! That’s just a small sign of something different going on, but a significant one. Another is evident from Megalogenis’ blog today.
My concern is not what you argue but how you go about it.
My mind is open on pretty much every issue. It’s what journalists do for a living: keep their minds open in the hope that they catch the next new idea out there.
Sadly, what a significant minority of my bloggers do is begin their posts with an assumption that everyone who disagrees with them is a “moron”.
Here’s why those posts grate: My job as a journalist is to assume that the person who disagrees with me doesn’t know what I know. To increase the sum of their knowledge, I can only tell them what I know on their terms, in their language. Which must begin with an assumption that I am not better than my reader.
Continue reading ‘The mote in your own eye: civility, community and the MSM online’
It doesn’t seem like all that long ago, but it’s been half a month since we had a good condemn. Although there’s been a bit of condemnation about the Lympics. So it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty fourth open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except La Femme Nikita. Well, you can condemn Michael. But not Nikita, Edward Woodward or Coldplay tracks.
[Via The Global Sociology Blog] Here’s something fun for a Sunday evening. This website enables you to select any day of any year going back to 1892 and find out what the top song on the (American) charts was. It’s suggested that you find out what the hit of the moment on your birthday was. Mine’s “Love is Blue” by Paul Mauriat and his orchestra. I don’t know if there are any quasi-astrological influences on your future destiny, but anyway…
It’s well known that grammar stoushes can get a tad heated.
A very curious article in the Boston Globe reflecting on punctuation wars surrounding the semicolon, with the tag line “the punctuation mark that makes men tremble”, shows something rather interesting about language in use aside from its ostensible casus belli: how quickly heated arguments lead to the invocation of gendered abuse.
Consider this:
Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don’t use semi-colons.
And Kilpatrick, in a 2006 column, restated those sentiments at a higher pitch, calling the semicolon “girly,” “odious,” and “the most pusillanimous, sissified, utterly useless mark of punctuation ever invented.”
Nevertheless, the semicolon has been suffering. Paul Collins, in a recent Slate article, cited a study showing “a stunning drop in semicolon usage between the 18th and 19th centuries, from 68.1 semicolons per thousand words to just 17.7.”
You’d think a victory like that would satisfy the anti-semicolon crowd. But no, they keep worrying that those girly, prissy, hermaphroditic punctuation marks will somehow infect their sturdy prose. If semicolons are masculine enough for Melville and Irving, why should they unsettle Barthelme and Vonnegut? Are today’s male writers just more insecure than yesterday’s about the manliness of their vocation?
The typical order of business for most people when Google Street View came to Australia seemed to be:
But given the extraordinarily comprehensive coverage, another possibility came to mind. Can Street View replace the need to take one’s camera to show off a place you’ve visited?
The Evolution of Dance. Amazing routine.
Find more memes you missed back in the ancient days of Internets yore at the Internet Memes Timeline. There’s explanations for the ones you see around all the time, and even use, but may not know their origins.
Well it’s August so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty third open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except feminism and feminists.
Continue reading ‘I won’t add my condemn to your condemn XXIII’
Extra marks if you can work in any Irate Queen, postmodern time stream, Pirate Queen and/or peg leg motifs:
The prize? Your chance to clearly articulate the Liberal Party’s position on climate change.
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