memes – Page 2 – The Yorkshire Ranter

October 18, 2009 by yorksranter 4 comments

that’s not noise, that’s the sound of freedom – oh, by the way, I voted Libertarian

Libertarianism, by which I mean yer bog standard comments thread North American subtype, is irrational. This struck me in the context of this post of Charlie Whitaker’s, which was of course criticised by the local libertarian in the usual terms. First of all, let’s define terms; the standard set-up of modern right-libertarian arguments is based…

August 2, 2009 by yorksranter 0 comments

police and thieves

Bruce Schneier and Jason Sigger, usually sensible sources, both mock a study by some thinktank or other which raises the supposed possibility of hackers “using the Internet to start a nuclear war”. As they both point out, the possibility of anyone getting access to the actual command and control firing chain with metasploit is so…

May 15, 2009 by yorksranter 0 comments

I am troll, hear me roar!

Is tragic diva SNLI cracking up, ask friends? “Creepy obsession” with blogger raises old rumours about starlet; Max Clifford is holding on line one. “He’s very good with colours”, says Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security. “Everyone around here relies on him for style tips before their TV appearances. I’d never…

May 9, 2009 by yorksranter 0 comments

still no war with Iran

Iran war watch; Pat Lang quotes a Ha’aretz story about the Israeli air force practising long-range missions towards Gibraltar as preparation for an attack on Iran. The original is here. The first thing that is interesting is that this story has been repeated at regular intervals for some time. In fact, I believe it’s been…

April 12, 2009 by yorksranter 0 comments

the science of drivel

The impact of terrorism; new research demonstrates that people who survive terrorist attacks think more highly of themselves. Terrorism causes arrogance. Meanwhile, I enjoyed this Bartholomew’s Notes post, in which a self-made terrorism expert who is currently doing the Nazi-memorabilia circuit with his Barack Obama-is-a-foreigner act turns out to have been a pusher of 1990s…

February 8, 2009 by yorksranter 1 comment

peck!

I am in awe of this. Surely this must be some sort of brilliant artistic prank? Where is Chris Morris? The story behind it is that he’s a simulated refugee in an event held during the WEF. Many jokes are of course possible regarding the fact that the people pretending to be refugees are themselves…

January 12, 2009 by yorksranter 1 comment

no-one ever gets the truth from plastic man

Reduced blog; I’ve been working on a version of FixMyStreet for Symbian S60 devices. If you want snark, how about this? I always thought that the BMW not-minis were telling in themselves. Objects are an ideology made manifest. The original Mini was a minimal car, one designed to be even cheaper than the ones sold…

October 28, 2008 by yorksranter 0 comments

the crucial cannibal vote

I grinned at this comment at the Stiftung: “Joan Walsh, are you telling me, really telling me here, now, on TV, that because Charlie Black worked with this Savimbi guy, this so-called Reagan ‘freedom fighter’ in Africa who is alleged to have been a cannibal, are you really telling me that this means Team McCain…

June 15, 2008 by yorksranter 3 comments

one intelligent soldier

Said Sir Michael Rose, speaking at the SAS passing-out parade in 1979: One intelligent soldier can achieve more than a fleet of B-52s. There’s some debate as to whether that statement could be applied to Rose himself, but I doubt many would disagree with it. David Davis apparently agrees. His resignation from Parliament should be…

June 1, 2008 by yorksranter 4 comments

Indecent behaviour at a police station, TPCA 1847

This essay by Ian McEwan in the Guardian Review shows precisely why the Decent influence on British intellectual life is so damn depressing. You may think, and I would say the AaroWatch crew are guilty of this, that they are just a bunch of wankers left behind with their blogs after history moved on. But…