2012 — 18 April: Wednesday

It's not looking too promising for a walk this morning right now.1 But I still have a couple of hours before my final "launch" decision (as it were). Meanwhile, an overnight email exhorts me to take part in yet another campaign. Source and snippet:

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow companies doing business in the US to collect exact records of all of our online activities and hand them over to the US government, without ever notifying us that we are being watched. No warrant, no legal cause and no due process required.

AVAAZ.org


Does this actually surprise me? Don't be silly! The natural inclination of every democratic guvmint is to distrust its voters. The natural inclination of every non-democratic guvmint is to distrust2 everybody.

Today's dropped jaw... dept.

I confessed recently3 that not too many things shock me these days. Today's dropped jaw is provided by a bunch of people seeking to bolster their faith in invisible (some might even say non-existent) friends by suggesting the sinking of the "second-most famous ship in world history" — the Titanic — embraces "a fundamental principle of Christian civilization — that women and children are to be honored and protected". This principle is fine, but to attach it to a maritime loss is simply and utterly disgusting. (Link.)

What do you reckon?

World's top holiday spots? Natural wonders? Areas of outstanding natural beauty?

World data

Not exactly.

To them that hath...

One can generally rely on "Private Eye" to take the occasional accurate pot-shot:

Money talks

I've just waved Brian off after our planned walk lazily transmuted (given the high risk of rain) into a couple of hours or so with me watching him just browsing through part of the subset of books that is currently down here in the living room. He asked me to write down just three titles but — naturally — I forgot to hand him the scrap of paper before he left...

Here's hoping today's recent choice of snack lunch doesn't finish me off. It was a venison pâté and tomato sandwich of my own devising whose protein component was a mere two days past its suggested "Use by" date. As I munched, I was listening to a Beautiful South track called "Rotterdam (or anywhere)" which reminded me I know precisely one joke incorporating that name: "My sister stole my candies — I hope they Rotterdam teeth out". (Thank you, Reader's Digest of many, many years ago.)

Why can't I remember stuff that's actually worth4 remembering? :-)

What'cha got there, Mr Postie?

Another couple of dollops of North American culture for analysis? Excellent.

DVDs

That's me sorted for this evening :-)

I'm feeling vaguely...

... bookish — a common-enough response, I expect, when the rain is hammering down outside. So, prompted by an overnight email from my chum in distant Seattle, here's my "off the top of my head" list of tried and tested post-apocalyptic tales — some better than others, of course. Mind you, these are just the ones I can remember:

I have a sneaking suspicion this list dates me. Horribly :-)

Turns out "Dr Horrible" was pretty good, and "Being Elmo" is gob-smackingly awesome. Wow! My cheek muscles are aching from nearly-continuous smiling. Good set of extras on each DVD, too.

  

Footnotes

1  What with the rain, though it's actually brightening up as I type.
2  Even themselves! There's a section in Jonathan Lynn's lovely "Comedy rules" memoir that touches on a similar point. The incident in 1964 when the newly-appointed Home Secretary (Frank Soskice) rejected his own petition for a pardon for Timothy Evans — hanged, remember, for a murder he didn't commit. More recently, Alan Johnson (as an MP in 2007) tried hard to persuade the Home Office not to deport an asylum seeker, but (as Home Secretary in 2009) rejected his own plea.
3  The example was forced castration of minors in Catholic church care in Holland a mere 50 years ago.
4  Thomas Fuller: Almost twenty years since, I heard a profane jest, and still remember it. How many pious passages of a far later date have I forgotten! It seems my soul is like a filthy pond, wherein fish die soon, and frogs live long.