Monthly Archives: January 2007

Edmund Burke on power: quote o’ the day

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From the book The Orientalist, by Tom Reiss.

Lev concludes his indictment of the Soviet secret police by recalling Edmund Burke‘s indictment, in Parliament, of Warren Hastings, the governor-general of India. Hastings had been impeached on a charge of oppressing the natives, and argued in his own defense that his actions could not be considered illegal because he had been granted arbitrary power in India.
To this the British conservative and hater of revolutionary injustice – but also of all kinds of injustice, whether revolutionary or not – replied:

“My lords, the East India company have not arbitrary power to give him; the King has no arbitrary power to give him; your Lordships have not; nor the Commons; nor the whole legislature. We have no arbitrary power to give, because arbitrary power is a thing which neither any man can hold nor any man can give…
Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal.”

quiz: which Edgar Allan Poe poem are you?

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Not a whole lot to choose from in this quiz, but what the hell…it’s Shebeen Club day, I’ve got two job applications and a report do to before I go to bed, and I’m running around like a raven with my tiny birdie teeth ripped out. That’s a doubly-obscure reference, for those of you who think Poe is a waiflike Nineties singer.

You scored as Annabel Lee. Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe was dubbed as Lenore, Annabel Lee, and others in her husbands poems. She was his child bride who died when Poe was 38. He died two years later. this poem shows that love has an extreme importance to you, and even if that love stops, it never dies.

Annabel Lee
94%
The Sleeper
69%
The Raven
56%

Which Edgar Allan Poe poem are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Mad V: the message

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Remember the Challenge? Here is the Message.

From the comments section:

I must admit. I’ve seen alot of pathetic movements come and go like flies on youtube, but this one, in some odd way, has wrapped me around it’s finger. Sitting here watching this video make it easy to agree with the message, but when you get up out of your chair, and walk outside, that’s when it really counts. This message is something to carry with you to the end of your days and possibly even then some.

Very well done, V. Very well done.

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the faces of terror

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According to the Americans, this is what a terrorist looks like:

maher arar

and like this

Pretty hot for a terrorist, eh?

and like this

tiny toddling terrorist?

Well, you may say, better safe than sorry. After all, we don’t know what the kid had in her diaper, and the first two are kinda swarthy-lookin’.

And yes, fair enough, they do look kinda tan for, respectively, a Canadian and a Swede, but since Maher Arar was cleared of terrorism charges and released after spending two years of torture in a Syrian prison(Syria being the US’s favorite offshore torture facility), and since Prince Carl Philip of Sweden is in line for the throne of a major European monarchy, besides being a total hottie, to keep Arar on the no-fly list and to arrest and detain HRH CP in jail overnight for using his diplomatic passport and looking insufficiently regal seems a tad…well, overzealous.

Whereas we have no sympathy whatsoever for the three year old girl who threw a screaming tantrum while her flight was boarding, and who was thrown off the plane and banned along with her parents for “attacking a woman” (who happened to be her mother). If empowered to do so, I myself would unhesitatingly throw off a plane anyone I felt looked like they could at some point in the flight become flatulent, hog the armrest, throw a screaming fit, attack someone, discuss real estate or smokers’ rights, or chew with their mouths open. And I wouldn’t wait for the bloody plane to land, either. Softies!

So, with passport requirements stiffening, even for US citizens trying to re-enter their own country — don’t misplace yours. If it can happen to Swedish royalty, it can happen to anyone.

Well, OK, there is one difference between royalty and us little guys in this situation…

“I got the impression that he thought it was quite exciting,” said documentary film maker Folke Rydén, who was traveling with the Prince as part of the filming project.

Special bonus British terrorist:

Yeah, he just looks like trouble. It's the eyes...you can see it in his eyes

Jay Cowper, the tiny terrorist, the huggable hoodie.

The shop, which serves the well-to-do Huntington area of York, is only a five-minute walk from the family home but it was a cold and windy night so Jay was wrapped up in a brown Next jacket with a furry hood.

Mrs Cowper said: “No sooner had they got inside than the shopkeeper said to my husband, ‘Could you ask the little boy to remove his hood?’

“My husband said, ‘He’s only two and a half, I don’t think he’s going to rob you!’“

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it’s No Name-Calling Week, mofos!

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Poetic Insult, you maroonz! 

Indeed, in the topsy-turvey, through-the-looking-glass world which is New Jersey, it has been officially declared No Name-Calling Week.

Naturally, this set us to thinking, here at the ol’ raincoaster blog. It set us to thinking that this was a concept upon which we could improve. It, along with this post from TAN, well really it, the post from TAN, this post from Lori, and the proven fact that insults, ire, and sheer poopyheadedness generate more comments than reason or normalcy, set us to thinking that we could have some fun with the comments section this week.

It’s Name-Calling Week, fuckerz!

Do your best. Comments which do not include at least one name-calling incident and which aren’t of sufficient mind-boggling stone cold merit to earn a pass from me will have a point deleted from the commenter’s score. All commenters start with zero points, and you earn one for each insult. I, as the Price Waterhouse Cooper of the contest, am exempt and so, for obvious reasons, are serious comment threads.

May the worst mouth win.

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