Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Trust. But verify

Ya gotta love the intelligence establishment. As the Syrians rolled out of Lebanon with the promise to nosepoke no longer, and to take their apparatus of espionage with them, Lebanese officials were were being advised to believe that they would do just that. with the caveat - just check and make sure they don't double back or leave exploding cellphones.

Is a man's word no longer his bond? Guess not.

Frankly the whole things seems to have bee a little easy to me.

Lebs: "I say, please leave."
Syrs: "okeleedokellee. Just give us a chance to have a last wee before we get into our tanks."
Lebs: "There's some cake left over. Wanna take a doggy bag?"

And then they stand chatting for half an hour at the border post before finally realising they're going to miss American Idol on TV. And then they bugger off.

I predict mischief, mayhem and soap in the next couple of months.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Now all we need is Bill Gates' email address and we're sorted

benedictxvi@vatican.va

xin zhong

Look at this window; it is nothing but a hole in the wall,

but because of it the whole room is full of light.

So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.

Being full of light it becomes an influence

by which others are secretly transformed...

The Tao gathers in emptiness alone.

Emptiness is the fasting of the heart

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Prophet Muhammad's Birthday

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Muhammad, happy birthday to you.

Heh, heh. That should put the wind up George W and his buddies.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Eggs Benedict XVI

No surprises this time round. Our man in V-Town (the good cardinal Rat Josephsfinger) had even been given odds of 7-2 by the bookies. Is there a papal tote?

What it means of course, is that the Catholic Church remains firmly mired in its own backward bullshit. And by this I mean that the interpretation of the "Word of God" is unlikely to change in the near future. Our only saving grace (pun intended) is that he's old, and thus will no doubt be on his merry way before too long.

Digressing slightly...I'm conversing with a friend via IMS as I write this piece, and she raises an interesting thought: How do the jews feel about the fact that the new pope is a German?

Now there's wafer for thought.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

An African Pope?

Ha! Lets get real. The Catholic establishment doesn't even pretend to be liberal, let alone pay the kind of lip service that many other institutions do, while remaining ultimately conservative.

Nosireebob. This is a church that has so far refused to acknowledge the fact that we are living in the 3rd millennium; even the initiation of female priests causes the Cardinals to shake at their gartered and frocked knees.

More on this as I become more opinionated.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

This is just weird

I was reading Krisjan Lemmer in the online version of The mail & Guardian when I came across this article:

Lemmer is the first to admit that he’s a sucker for urban legends about subliminal images hidden in logos. So Oom can understand why the Zimbabwean secret police would be taking a look at the new logo of the Zimbabwean Cricket Union, as was reported this week. The manne were divided as to whether or not it spells “MDC”: the C is back to front and the chicken head confuses the issue, but when you’re sniffing out subliminal propaganda, you can’t be too careful.

Monday, April 04, 2005

And the choir played on

Well, the old bugger finally popped his clogs. It's been mighty interesting to get the usual slew of "useful" information via the media re the death of the pope.

As revolutionary as he was, and as beloved to all as he was, I feel that he fell short in several important areas; his stance on things like AIDS, contraception, same sex marriages and women in the clergy were old fashioned at best. Some have even said that he was stuck somewhere between the 13th and the 15th centuries. I agree.

I wonder if the next guy will manage to drag the Catholic Church kicking and screaming into the 16th Century.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Corrupt News Network (CNN)

It's been a great years for the media. First we waved (pun intended) goodbye to half of Sumatra. Even the war in Iraq had to be put on the bck burner for a while, while this happened. The the Schiavo case leapt into the public eye. Now the pope seems to be heading towards the light.

No wonder we have things like the Olympic Games and World Cups and tennis matches. If it weren't for these rallying points, it would all be murder and mayhem.

But back to the pope. He's been shot at and wounded. Had pipes stuck in him. You name it. And yet he's till with us. This reminds me of something I once heard about the so-called holy men - god obviously doesn't want them either.

The raspberry is dead. Long live the raspberry

So Terry Shiavo finally died, 13 days after the machines that go ping had pung their last.

When I first heard that big W had flown from his ranch for the express purpose of enacting a bill that would allow Terry's parents to fight yet another round in the battle for her life, I certainly didn't expect the story to get so big.

As the thing unfolded I found it hard to know which side to take.

In the blue corner; the husband - probably doing the right thing. Terry had been a veggie for 15 years, over which time her brain had literally dissolved away to almost nothing.

In the red corner; the parents, egegd on by the usual ill-informed, screaming pressure groups that seem to make up "polite" society these days. They couldn't even get a decent banner together.

But enough of that.

The thing I really wanted to talk about: Once she had kicked off her mortal coil, we saw Terry in various videos that had been shot at various times during the last year or so. IN these videos, one almost got the impression that she did have moments of understanding. Quite sad really.

So maybe the god-botherers had a point. But what these idiots always fail to do, is see anyone else's point of view. What if she was concious at times? And what if she hated being a veggie? I certainly wouldn't want to live like that.

What if her apparent attempts to communicate had been to say "end it now?"

The trouble with people who think they have all the answers is that they never leave room for questions.

Perhaps they should read more John Donne.

And finally, it's ironic that in death she's probably made more of a mark then she ever would have in life.