Category Archives: Politics

Blog Post o’ the Day: The Court Interpreter

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Another post I got from repeatedly hitting "Next Blog," which sounds like a dreadfully time-consuming way to find material, but generally pays off within five clicks. You'd be surprised and, if you're a sour old puss like me, heartened, to see how much talent and spirit there is out there.

A snippet from The Court Interpreter's story on the mild-mannered Mexican and the sinister tendencies of some who hold power over such men.

For a split second I felt powerful and the sensation quickly turned into something unpleasant and I enjoyed explaining to him that he didn’t owe me anything. He looked grateful, thanked me, and quietly walked away.

And then … you hear about stories like these…

Cafe Society…or is that “Barista Society?”

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You just never know what glamorous star you'll run into at a MediaBistro party!

Gannon!!! OMFG!!! IT'S GANNON IN THE FLESH!!!

Dubai: Land of Laughs

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I'm not an American, but from time to time I can't help but feel bad for the poor buggers, like when their president tries to sell their ports to people like this. Mind you, I like people like this, but I wouldn't be selling my ports to them; there's the ones you date, and the ones you take home to momma and sell your ports to, and these are not the latter. Wisdom and good times from a Dubai taxi driver, via Gridskipper.

Cabbie: Where are you from?
Us: Washington, D.C. in the United States.
C: You know George Bush?
U: (polite laughter) No, we’ve never met him.
C: You know Osama Bin Laden?
U: (slight discomfort) No…. We’ve never met him either.
C: Do you want to meet him?
U: (wondering where he’s going with this) Um… no. (sincerely hoping that we’re not on our way to see him right now)
C: I want to meet him very much.
U: Uhhh… Really? Why?
C: So that I could turn him in to the United States and gets lots and lots of American dollars. (hysterical guffaws)
U: (relieved smiles) Oh, okay.
C: No, I couldn’t do that. They would kill all my family. (another explosion of hilarity)
U: (polite but uncomfortable laughter)

Hitchens and Fry and Blasphemy, Oh My!

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Hitchens LetusprayChristopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry, together again for the first time!!!

I love both of these tubby old coots as writers and currently loathe them both as human beings (isn't that always the way with the ones we once loved?), so I was delighted to find, on the Guardian Culture Vulture blog/dumping ground, their blasphemy debate from last year at the Hay Festival. No transcript available, of course, because that would be uncharacteristically bloggy, but here's the MP3. Right click, save, savour. If I'm being uncharacteristically ambitious, I may actually write a transcript, but at 78 minutes running time, don't be holding your breath!

One of the most talked-about events at last year's Stephen Fry, Bright Middleaged ThingGuardian Hay Festival was the Blasphemy Debate, chaired by Joan Bakewell and inspired by the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, which had been announced in the Queen's Speech the previous month. The speakers at the debate were the actor and writer Stephen Fry and the journalist Christopher Hitchens, and their frequently heated discussion covered issues of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, multiculturalism and orthodoxy…

Your Canadian Tax Dollars at Work…for Americans

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All Hail our Yank OverlordsHere's an interesting post from BoingBoing.

It seems the Canadian Census, that genius organization which employed me for part of last year until they decided to change the terms of employment mid-stream (if I could afford a car, would I be working for you for $12 an hour sweetheart?) allows you to fill out your census forms online.

Using only American software.

Actually, given that it's the Federal Guvmint, we're lucky they didn't insist we print out PDF's, scan them, and send in Bitmaps. Shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell them; they might think it's not too late…

Statistics Canadian [sic]– a Federal agency — is conducting a national census that Canadians can participate in via the Web, but only if they use Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Apple's Safari. Free and open browsers like Firefox are explicitly excluded. There's two jaw-dropping elements to this story: one, that the Canadian government requires Canadians to use American software to complete the national census; and two, that they require all kinds of high-tech crapola to fill in a survey

All hail our Yank overlords.