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Monday February 27, 2006

I did it my way..

Personal

"One pint to celebrate a nice day spent with my girlfriend."

Sure. In the real world that means staying at the pub talking, dancing and drinking until Frank Sinatra announcing closing time. Refusing fun would be a bad character trade wouldn't it? Fortunately cider doesn't quite make me feel as drunk as beer would after a similar amount of pints so I should have no problem waking up in the morning!

Theocratic prudes and nice guys

Anglosphere

George Bush is an evil theocratic prude stepping on our freedoms in the name of family values and religion. Or at least, that's how some people would describe the man. In my experience there is a tendency amongst those people to then add how Bill Clinton was such a decent, honourable President. What a nice guy!

Fair enough, under the Bush administration Congress did regulate porn with USC 2257's record-keeping requirements to make sure minors would not enter the industry. Never mind that ten years ago under the Clinton administration, Congress actually passed the Communications Decency Act in an attempt to outright ban not just obscene but also "indecent" speech on the Internet. Excuse my language, but shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits fart turd and twat that!

Also fair enough, the Bush administration does frequently express conservative family values which often derive from Christianity. Never mind that the cartoon wars resulted in Bill Clinton attacking blasphemy as we speak (while we still can). Andrew Stuttaford points out on The Corner:

Clinton embarrasses himself in Pakistan: "I strongly disagreed with both the creation and the publication of cartoons that were considered blasphemous to devout Muslims around the world because they depicted the Prophet."

Leaving aside the fact that the prohibition on depiction of Mohammed is by no means as clear-cut as Clinton pretends to think, we have to deal with the fact that Clinton believes that images that "offend" the beliefs of one religious faith should not even be created, let alone published.

...

That's wrong, wrong, wrong. No collection of beliefs, even if they do involve a deity, should be given special privileges and protections. And, Bill, if my free speech is your blasphemy, that's just tough.

Unfortunately these words will probably not prevent that the urban legend where Bill Clinton is a nice guy will live on for ever. Nor that special privileges for religions already exist.

Hitler and global warming

Anglosphere

We need something better than Kyoto, screamed scientists. Well, Dutch research of the Little Ice Age might just provide the answer:

Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study.

Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says.

The study also suggests that deforestation and overpopulation pose a bigger threat than CO2-levels. After all, it was the extinction of a third of Europe's pre-industrialised population that might have triggered a little ice age.

Maybe Hitler was just trying to help mother nature.

(Filed under Anglosphere as it's home of the two major opponents of Kyoto, the United States and Australia.)

Next day: Tuesday February 28, 2006 Previous day: Sunday February 26, 2006

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