Apathy

Blogging? Writing? Deleting?


... I cannot be arsed, really.

The gist of it

Thomas DiLorenzo
I disagree with that, and I just—

Harry Jaffa
No, you’re wrong. [Laughter.]

Thomas DiLorenzo
I think you’re wrong.

Harry Jaffa
You’re just wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

From the recent Independent Institute debate on "Lincoln – Hitler or Pericles?"

Quote for the day

"My view is that materially egalitarian liberalism is not really a form of liberalism at all. It is a socialist corruption of liberalism. Liberal egalitarianism properly concerns the equality of political power—none has a natural right to rule, and unequal political power requires special justification and special limitation. In terms of the material resources we command, liberalism is concerned that we are equal in the sense that everyone’s liberties have genuine value—are not “merely formal”—and this is a matter of people having enough to develop their capacities and to realize their meaningful ends. Property, rule of law, civil society, and free exchange in a well-functioning price system—backed up if necessary by minimal means-tested welfare and educational assistance—is the best way to make sure everyone has enough." --- Will Wilkinson.

On this day

62 years ago.

Sad thing about the Slovak National Uprising is that after the war it was, as was indeed anything of value, appropriated in its entirety by the communist regime and the legacy of this historically unique event with advancing years thus became irrevocably tainted for many Slovaks. But the fact remains that with this act the Slovaks had at least partially managed to redeem their past sin of allegiance with Nazi Germany and managed at the very last moment to join with the winning side of the civilized world (excluding the Soviets, of course).

Nationalist frictions, the fucking series

You might say, "Oh you’re no fun anymore". Please do.

Runaway nationalist tension is just like a Medusa rearing its ugly head out of a Pandora’s Box that fell out of a Trojan horse. Or something. I was never very good with mixed metaphors. Anyway, after two Slovak dim-witted hooligans attacked a student for her apparent crime of talking Hungarian on her cell phone, the Hungarian PM felt the urge to edify us with a little speech:

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany condemned an increase in "atrocities" against ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia on Saturday after a girl was beaten and robbed in a Slovak town.
Gyurcsany called a press conference after the ethnic Hungarian girl was attacked in Nitra, western Slovakia, on Friday after being overheard speaking Hungarian on her mobile phone.
The attackers forced her to take off her shirt and wrote "Hungarians go back to the other side of the Danube" on it.
Gyurcsany called on Slovak premier Robert Fico to condemn what he said was rising xenophobic and anti-Hungarian rhetoric in neighbouring Slovakia, and a series of "atrocities".

Strong words. If a simple act of hooliganism is an "atrocity" then what was Darfur?

Slovak Prime Minister Fico meanwhile remains on holiday. After all he is, to steal a joke from Stephen Colbert, just like a portable vacuum cleaner. He needs to recharge his batteries before he can suck again. Jan Slota, who so gladly took on his shoulders the role of the MacGuffin in this Mitteleuropäisch farce, let him self be heard (thus negating his message instantly) that he or his nationalist rhetoric can’t be blamed for the rise in mutual hostility having not uttered a "palatalized F" in the past four weeks. No need for that, it is already well established that the stench of his stupidities is hanging in the air, lingering as a badly digested paprika.

Both sides should probably strongly condemn these and every other possible actions driven by chauvinist antipathy on both sides (without any "buts", "maybes" and "who-started-its"!), but remembering very well that every word politicians utter, every gesture they make, only encourages the lower elements – they feel gratified to be acknowledged, to be discussed, and for once in their pathetic lives they feel important. Then what would be really welcome from these tribal posturing and ceremonial waging of fingers is a true moment of respite where both sides drink a nice steaming hot cup of STFU.

And I think I shall set an example, starting now.

UPDATE 28.8.2006 22:10

And while the Hungarian hordes are mounting their crook-legged ugly horses pressure to the tune of Polovetsian dances the Slovak PM Robert Fico dilly-dallies insists he is not to be berated by the Hungarian PM on how to react to extremism, then denounces the extremist incidents and the Slovak ethnic-Hungarian politicians who are "fostering nationalistic feelings and trying to capitalize on recent incidents".

*Sigh* I have always maintained that there is nothing wrong with this country/region that a healthy dosage and distribution of Xanax could not solve.

Pluto, we hardly knew ya

And good riddance! What sort of self-respecting planet is smaller than our moon and has an eccentric, oblong and untidy orbit!? But most importantly, The Planets Suite has the numbers correct once again! Gustav Holst, this is for you!

This good news for our Solar system and all classical music lovers via Chicken Yoghurt.

Quote for the day

"Why taunt me? Why upbraid me? I am merely a genius, not a god." --- Nero Wolfe, in Fer-De-Lance (1934) by Rex Stout.

Nationalist frictions, contd.

Here we go again.

Finally, our most unfortunately very own Ján Slota has achieved international recognition, though only in Hungary (Slovak link):

Here are Hungarian football fans holding signs, displaying an exemplarily non sequitur with their matter-of-fact call for coitus regionus, which has hardly anything to do with an all-Hungarian football match. Oh, and Ján Slota must die, apparently, no word of whether he has to. No matter, plus we must all die anyway, though this notion may probably dismay a Hungarian football fan. Reportedly another sign stated that all Slovaks will forever be slaves to Hungarians or words to that effect. Well they ain't gettin' me slavin off on no paprika plantation...

One assumes that the matches must be quite boring when fans have to entertain themselves with these folkloric displays of group stupidity. Otherwise we would have seen only "Go Avars!" signs or whatever affectionate epithets they have for their beloved football clubs. But we shouldn’t really be surprised when it comes to sports fans. There are a surprisingly high number of idiots among football spectators. One might even propose a correlation, though not exactly a causality. After all, one is not a climatologist.

Thank god these things happen; or I really don’t know what I would have blogged about! Probably would have had to spend the evening with a Rex Stout novel.

Update!

"Stephen Colbert must die!" signs soon to follow.

Diplomatic speak

Rarely does one have a straightforward understanding of what is being said in diplomatic speak. That’s why the recent sequence of events involving Iran is so invaluable. We won’t need any Rosetta stone for this Champollionesque enterprise, not even a cheap diplo-lingo decoder ring.

When Iran says:

Iran's Ambassador to Romania, Aliakbar Farazi, met with vice speaker of the Romanian Senate Theodor Melshkanoon Monday and stressed development of bilateral ties.

The two sides expressed consent over the expansion of mutual cooperation in different sectors.

It means:

Romanian oil firm says rig attacked by Iran

Romanian oil firm Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) said on Tuesday one of its offshore rigs in the Gulf had reported coming under fire from an Iranian military ship and being boarded by troops.

Now that’s what I cal an expansion of mutual cooperation!

Fico in Iraq

Lenin fled to Finland for safety. Our prime minister on the other hand knows no fear. He flew to Iraq! And what a fun fieldtrip that was! Look at the giddy kids in their new fancy dresses:


PM Fico in the middle - not fazed by his large helmet – with foreign minister (l) and defence minister (r) as his beaming flanks.


Still in uniforms - No time to lose, we mustn’t let the Iraqi PM waiting, protocol be dammed!


Back in the hood: press conference at the airport in Bratislava, still in their military attire. Socialists just love uniformity.

Expect a new fashion trend to be described soon at men.style.com.

Lemuel goes to a concerto

Yesterday, when the air was ripe with manure as nearby farms decided that this windy day would be especially suitable to spread dung on the fields and plow it into the ground and odorously remind those city denizens with illusions of grandeur about Bratislava’s status of a metropolis that it’s still more of a large village than a real city, I set out to have a bit of culture for me as well. And although I generally agree with Mr Micklethwait on not bothering going to concertos, especially since my anti-social and misanthropic tendencies would spoil any enjoyment of the music, I decided to give it a try. If no other at least for therapeutic reasons. Opportune moment arrived with a new classical music festival in Bratislava - Viva Musica! Festival. Of its programme, yesterday’s offer seemed most enticing.

Contra-tenor Matthias Rexroth sang works of Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Friedrich Handel in St. Martin’s Cathedral.

After this long intro I forgot everything I wanted to say. Anyway, the most important thing: it was bloody wonderful. As I sat there, front-row view, I managed to endure all the idiosyncrasies of the public, their coughing, shuffling feet, murmur and concentrate on the music. And you can’t go wrong with Vivaldi and Handel and Matthias Rexroth’s voice gave me goose bumps. Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. But the performance was so great that I learned of a new quirk of mine. I dislike applause. Not only is long clapping painful but a long enthusiastic almost deafening applause tends to damage the delicate feeling of witnessing something beautiful. Indeed after listening to heavenly tunes the aggressive, boorish noise of hundreds of palms rhythmically stroking against each other is too sharp a reminder of the real world. What I needed was silence, but fellow attendees had only screams of "Bravo!" and standing ovations on their mind.

So it goes.

Anyway, I will go again on Saturday, when among others the work of my new found favourite and fellow citizen Johann Nepomuk Hummel will be performed.

My cracka homies

A must-see Smirnoff-sponsored spoof of rap videos: New England WASP rap. It’s the funniest thing I have seen since our prime minister’s last press conference – and this at least intentionally so.

(Via Tom G. Palmer)

Doctor Dishonoris Causa

The Czech Daily Lidove Noviny informs that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro can boast an honorary degree from the prestigious Charles University in Prague.

Fidel Castro received honorary doctorate of law for his "advancement of revolutionary law" and his contribution to "development of socialism and world progress". Fidel Castro, although "usually suspicious of formal traditions and rigid ceremonies", found that "customs, worldly formal ceremonies may bond with the deepest and most solid revolutionary motivations". Whatever. He received this honorary title during his visit to Czechoslovakia back in 1972:

Castro was granted not only the doctor of the law honorary title in Prague 34 years ago, but he also received the highest state decoration, the Order of the White Lion 1st degree. His visit should help improve bilateral relations with Cuba, which were harmed by the reform movement in then Czechoslovakia, crashed by the Warsaw pact troops invasions in August 1968.

Of course the University administration would be only too happy to strip the bearded bastard (©) of his honorary doctorate and erase this blemish from the past but unfortunately that isn’t in accordance with Czech law at the moment. Pity, that would have been a nice birthday present.

That is also why Charles University has halted the granting of honorary doctorates to living politicians to prevent such a situation from repeating in the future.

Now there is one wise policy.

Quote for the day

"That one can convince one’s opponents with printed reasons, I have not believed since the year 1764. It is not for that purpose that I have taken up my pen, but rather merely to annoy them, and to give strength and courage to those on our side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us." --- G.C. Lichtenberg.

Viewer’s digest of The Big Lebowski

If you’re a fan of the Dude, you’ll love this! In fact, you’ll probably want to hug it, kiss it and go to bed with it.

The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words?

The Dude: What the fuck you talking about?

(Via Candy in a Barrel)

Full frontal

How could I have forgotten this!? The most important thing happening last week and I totally forgot to mention it. Finally an occurrence that put Slovakia on the map of developed countries like no NATO, EU or OECD membership ever could.

Ladies and gentlemen, civilised nations, Slovakia has arrived! Please a round of applause for our first very own streaker! (NSFW - or not-safe-for-work, for the acronym-impaired crowd - although still not as gut-wrenching as this.)

Cue man in a dirty raincoat: "I havn't had enough of the permissive society."

UPDATE (12.8.2006, 19:21): Talking of naughty bits in the breeze, it seems that the Norwegians have riased the stakes considerably.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Among many other clearly right-wing concepts, our new plebeian government isn’t very keen on semantics as well. How else is one to understand the fact that the government manifesto approved last week by parliament proposes to introduce a "millionaire tax" which according to Prime Minister Fico should be paid by anyone who earns more than 50,000 SK a month. 12 times 50K does not a million make. I hope you believe me, after all mathematics isn’t just another right-wing construct. Though Fico’s coalition partners seem to think the limit should be set higher, I wouldn’t be surprised if the proposal went through unchanged.

Anyway, if you can spare a calculator, send them here, please. It will be much appreciated. What with all the new spendings the govermnet plans (just today for example Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek announced that the Slovak government is ready to buy back Italian Enel's stake in Slovakia's dominant power producer Slovenske Elektrarne) we really cannot afford to spend money on new calculators, even if our Bolshevik-in-chief is in dire need of a one. After all he is just a lawyer...

Anyway, you needn’t worry about our "flat tax" regime. This tax change will concern only persons, no company or foreign enterprise will be harmed during the making of this spectacle. And since only a limited number of people actually make more than 50K a month (and none of them voted for Fico anyway) it will still be a "flat tax" only with a slight bump, semantics be damned!

Tideland

Looks like Terry Gilliam has prepared another cinematic treat:

A few minutes into Terry Gilliam's new film Tideland, a nine-year-old girl cooks some heroin for her dad, who is sitting expectantly in an armchair. "Daddy's going on a vacation," he explains, hunting a vein for the needle. As he blisses out, his daughter helpfully takes the lighted cigarette from his hands and stubs it out in the ashtray. Gilliam likes this scene so much that he repeats it as if to underscore how much daddy is addicted to figurative vacations and how his daughter's domestic chores will never be over until daddy ODs.
…
For good measure, Tideland also includes a bedroom scene between a 20-year-old man with learning difficulties and a little girl; a rotting corpse that makes one relieved the film doesn't come in smell-o-vision; a harrowing train crash; the disturbing sequence in which a troubled taxidermist (played by Janet McTeer) guts and stuffs the corpse of a former lover and then lays out the mummified remains in a place of honour on the bed. There is even a talking squirrel, which for some is the most disturbing thing in the picture.

This I have to see! But given Slovak cinema distributors’ standards and promptness I’ll probably sooner see his Don Quixote.

(Via Chicken Yoghurt)

Nationalist frictions

The Slovak-Hungarian relations are an endless source of fun and games. A few emotionally unbalanced and intellectually challenged youths made a pathetic video where they burned the Hungarian flag and made statements generally offensive to Hungarians and all people who actually speak any good English. The video no longer seems to be available, which is probably good, since the snippets I have seen were so preposterously baaaaaad I would have to bang my head against the wall for at least good ten minutes to relieve embarrassment had I seen the whole thing.

The Hungarians, people who apparently only recently learned of this thing called Internets and possibilities it offers to all anonymous loonies were offended and made official complaints to the Slovak government requesting that something be done! This "diplomatic incident" has caught the Slovak diplomats with their pants down and official Slovak reaction has so far been a consternated diplomatic "Dude!? WTF!?"

I don’t know whether I am more bemused and embarrassed by the pathetic fuctards who made and appeared in the video or the unbelievably self-centred Hungarians who actually paid any attention to this and took umbrage (look what a nice new word I just learned!).

Of course, Slovak nationalists have already discovered the culprits, the consensus among the dimmer parts of the commentariat under this article has pinned this on an apparent "Hungarian provocation". So now you know!

Oh, Gods…!

UPDATE! (9.8.06 - 21:27): Investigation into the flag-burning festivities! Slovak Keystone Kops are on the job!

Kindertotenpropaganda

(Cue Kindertotenlieder by Gustav Mahler.)

Israeli soldiers returning from battle know their enemy: "They’re a bunch of terrorists. We are an army. We can never beat them completely because we have to obey certain rules. They operate from within civilian populations, and can do whatever they like. They don’t give a shit about these things."

But they sure give a shit about appearances. Today I read a few blogs to get acquainted with the mighty PR machine that is Hezbollywood.

So I got to know certain mysterious Mr Green Helmet who really likes his protective head-gear and habitually parades dead children around.

And who could forget the unluckiest multiple-property owner in Beirut and some of her epigones?

Of course where would the intrepid Hezballahees be without a little help from the media – a little photoshop-job here and here or a little false description of images there.

I don’t know, maybe it’s my inner Wittgensteinian instincts but I find this toying with the truth, these wilful distortions of reality more sickening than the war itself.

Sign of times

I thought I’d download a paper by one Terry Eagleton on Politics of Samuel Beckett, since that’s the sort of thing I do from time to time (plus I really, really like Beckett). There are days when I entertain the notion of reading some Marxist just for the fun of it. Indeed, I once even tried Wallerstein! But no one has so far surpassed Lenin in readability... Anyhoo, today was just one such day when overcome with excess benevolence I felt like I could read some (potential) drivel. So I attempted to download the aforementioned essay only to be stymied by a curious pecuniary request. The New Left Review website asked £3 for the article. Three fucking quid! Communists asking for money!? Talk about New Left! "For God's sake! What next? Where do they think we are? In Patagonia?" What’s this world coming to?

(Via PTDR.)

Quandary of the day

Things I would like to know:

How has Henrik Ibsen helped to shape China's modern development? Just asking.

Indignation kitsch

I still pause, once a day, to think about what happened and how it has changed my outlook on life.

I try to do that as well. Nothing better than to have quiet, calm sit in the toilet to think things over. Anyway the quote was Michelle Malkin on either the 9/11 or on the importance of regular defecation. But to answer her titular question – gee, as I can remember, about 12 hours later. What, too soon? Someone should tell the lady that making jokes could be just another form of self-defence.

(Via Blognor Regis)

Straight eyes for the query guys

Most of the people that happen upon this fair blog (fair, not fairy, mind you) are innocent Google-bys. So for your erudition, comfort, pleasure or entertainment or whatever drives you here my dear four regulars, here is a sample of queries that disembarked upon these unhappy shores some of the less lucky souls in the past 24 hours.

che was an idiot – no argument there

loosing energy – sorry, cant help, I already have none whatsoever

kofi annan treachery – Ah, yes, where to begin...

2006 annoying list – Ahem, I hope I am on it!

on a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero – truth that, but quite banal in a palahniuky way

indefinite divisibility

indefinite divisibility

indefinite divisibility

indefinite divisibility – ok, enough already!

title on process engineering thesis especially in abattoirs - this one was from Addis Ababa. I think that either explains all or even adds to the confusion.

fart in my general direction

as if we could kill time without injuring eternity! – ok, enough with the silly quotations already

rath macek incident – now that was classy!

lemuel – they know my nom de blog! Yes!

why music is boring school – I blame MTV.

fellowship 9/11 moore

70ties clothes – Kids, just say NO!

Anyhoo, this was a rather lame attempt to pass the time. Dustbury does this sort of thing so much better – the query-commenting I mean, not the lame time-passing, that’s my area of expertise actually. I even have a degree, somewhere.

Quote for the day

Stephenesque aka The American Erewhon.ist has a dictionary update:

Hezbollocks: (n and adj) tiresome nonsense blogged about the Middle East by those who really know nothing about it; Cf the Phoenician inscription "That papyrus is just a load of old Hanniballs."

Picture worth a thousand words

Shooty, Slovak cartoonist for the daily SME, yesterday, on Robert Fico’s proposed government programme that "aims to turn Slovakia into a social state while at the same time carrying out a cautious budgetary policy ... to fulfill unconditionally the Maastricht criteria for the introduction of euro in 2009".

7 samuraiettes

Here is yet another proof that the Japanese are a very, very cruel race indeed.

(Via Marginal Revolution)

Daily Pravda

"Slovakia's most widely read broadsheet", which means I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-feet pole, the daily newspaper Pravda was sold recently to the Daily Mail. Media savvy types can pontificate what this all, if anything, means. I am not even acquainted with the journalistic standards of the Daily Mail; all I know is that the DM itself is most likely „read by the wives of the people who run the country.” I think that at the moment that can be said about Pravda as well - that is unless the people who run the country at the moment and their spouses do read at all.