The US Senate debates the rises in petrol prices there, and the
“I think what the American consumer is saying is that filling up your gas tank shouldn’t empty your wallet” I don’t doubt that that’s what the American consumer is saying to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, but what is the environment saying? My guess? “Hey, get all these f**king American cars off me!”
Author: Anthony
Demokratische-Junge Quex
There’s an extraordinary book being advertised through a sponsored link at This Modern World just now. It’s a book called Why Mommy is a Democrat and the few sample pages available on the web site are unbearable – the sort of badly-crafted saccharine propaganda that would raise (rightly) shrieks of protest or howls of laughter if it was published by the religious right.
Do take a look at the sample pages. Apparently – and this is something of which I was previously unaware – Democrats make sure we are always safe, that children go to school, and that we all share all our toys. Unlike the nasty Republicans pictured in expensive schools, ignoring beggars, and presumably on one of the other pages eating a pauper’s child for breakfast.
It makes me both angry and sad that people want to fill their children’s minds with this dross. For God’s sake, show your kids some respect, damn it! Don’t indoctrinate your children with this ludicrous partisanship. Teach them to be kind to others and to respect democracy and fairness – then let them find their own politics.
Thus – the company with no clue
Just to mention the pain I’m going through trying to cancel my old Demon broadband service. Outsourced call centres, clueless stubborn staff, pointless bureaucracy AND a complaints email address that bounces back with ‘user unknown’. I’m betting their customer complaints are WAY down this quarter.
A profile of MySpace
A profile of MySpace in the NYT.
Pubs: Wenlock Arms, London N1
Off last night to the Wenlock Arms, an excellent beer pub in a fairly undistinguished side-street in North London. Winner of best real ale pub in North London for several years (though pipped at the post this year), it’s a proper local. Well worth a visit if you’re near the City Road.
Social signal failure
A strange mix of social signals on my train today. A rather well-
dressed young woman sat down opposite me, plonked a copy of Crime and
Punishment on the table, and then started devouring Best magazine,
featuring a lose 5 lb in 5 days superdiet, and more Jordan baby news
than you could shake a stick at. Perhaps I’m being an old snob about
Best magazine, but I would have thought the crossover audience for
real life stories and Dostoevsky was quite small.
The failure of Wikipedia
Transcript of a speech by Jason Scott.
Why blogs don’t help democracy
Because they reward people who rush to the extreme and ignore compromise, like Maryscott O’Connor.
No net for Hemel
According to the Register the town of my birth has run out of broadband connectivity. Whether this is due to rampant net use among the denizens of Hertfordshire’s premier alliterative new town, or just BT being a bit crap, we don’t yet know.
Citicorp building, NYC
The excellent Damn Interesting tells the story of the Citicorp building on Lexington Avenue, an imposing New York skyscraper, which due to a minor change of plan during construction, was almost blown down by the wind.