Day: January 11, 2003

“I Helped Gary Glitter Molest Young Cambodian Boys”

Apparently pedophiles — including Gary Glitter — are using lax law enforcement in Cambodia to seek refuge in that country. Glitter had been secretly living in Cambodia until April and was then kicked out. But now, there’s reason to believe he may have returned there.

Given the recent spate of ridiculous ads that anyone who smokes a joint or drives an SUV funds terrorism, where are the ads linking attendance at sporting events that play that nauseating “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” with pedophilia?

I just want to see an ad with some big fat shirtless white guy covered in blue and orange body paint at a stadium saying, “I helped Gary Glitter molest young Cambodian boys.”

How about it Arianna?

Zimbabwe Hitting Bottom

Thirty-four people were arrested in Zimbabwe this week after food riots in two area, including a riot in front of a grain depot at Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.

If you’re a second rate dictator with a famine and food riots on your hands, how do you deal with it? By arresting the opposition mayor of Harare, Zimbabwe’s largest city. (If you had a different idea in mind, you probably need to brush up on remedial dictation).

The mayor was charged with holding a public meeting to discuss municipal issues. In Zimbabwe it is illegal to hold a public meeting without getting prior approval from the state.

If only Mugabe was as good at provisioning food as he is at wrecking Zimbabwe’s democracy.

Source:

Zimbabwean Opposition Politician Detained By Police. VOA News, 11 Jan 2003.

Food Riots ‘A Sign of More to Come’. Financial Gazette (Harare, Zimbabwe), January 9, 2003.

Franklin-Covey and Downloading Software

One of my pet peeves is when I actually have to order software that arrives through snail mail. Give me a download or give me death (well, okay, maybe I’m not that extreme). Franklin Covey really takes the cake in this department for frustration.

Franklin Covey makes a planning program called (oddly enough), Franklin Covey Planning Software. I was looking for a good PIM and read some good reviews of their package. So I went to the Franklin Covey web site and they have an option where you can download a fully operational version of teh software that expires in 30 days. Then after 30 days, you either have to pay for it or it becomes unworkable. That’s a pretty standard arrangement — except at Franklin Covey.

So I used the software for a few weeks and even though it’s a bit on the expensive side, I was prepared to buy a copy. Except, even though you can download the 30-day expiring version, you can’t buy and download a non-expiring, licensed version. You have to order a physical copy of the program and have them ship it to you.

And how long does that take? Who knows since the product is backordered. No thanks, I’ll just go elsewhere.

Cannabilism Accusation Against Congolese Rebels

The Associated Press is reporting that a United Nations human rights team will report that Congolese Liberation Movement and the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National used rape and cannabilism to pacify civilians in the round robin of carnage that is the Congo these days (well for the last 25 years or so). According to the AP,

“The team interviewed victims as well as witnesses of atrocities who spoke of cases of wholesale rape, of looting … and also cases of forced cannibalism,” said Patricia Tome, the U.N. spokeswoman in the Congo.

. . .

Tome said the investigators sought out Pygmies, who went deep in hiding in the forests there.

She did not elaborate. However, a Catholic cleric in the province, Monsignor Melchisedec Sikuli Paluku, told The Associated Press that rebels forced the Pygmies and others to eat human flesh. Some Pygmies taken prisoner even were forced to eat parts of their own bodies, he said.

Just what the world needs — Lord’s Resistance Army style insanity spreading to other corners of Africa.

Source:

Congolese tell U.N. investigators of cannibalism, rapes by rebels. The Associated Press, January 11, 2003.

Fixating on Michael Moore?

Henry Hanks points to this post by far left cartoonist Tom Tomorrow in which Tomorrow is shocked that James Lileks wrote of Michael Moore,

I donÂ’t hate Michael Moore, I pity him – heÂ’s going to die in 15 years of a massive coronary on a cold tiled bathroom floor, awash in the blasts of his emptied bowels, his autopsy photos posted to The Smoking Gun’s new 3D holographic photo section.

I certainly wouldn’t write something like that, but its rather mild compared to the sort of things regularly posted at Left wing sites like Common Dreams or the publications that Tomorrow’s cartoons appear in.

But what I really find fascinating about Tomorrow’s comments is this tidbit,

I understand that a lot of right-leaning bloggers have a particular fixation on Michael Moore–but this is really disturbing, even within that context.

This is the flip side of what passes for left wing media criticism.

On the one hand, if everyone just ignored Moore, this would offered as proof positive that right wing blogs are an echo chamber where no dissenting views are aired.

On the other hand, if people actually take the time to quote from and comment on Moore, well just lookee here — that’s a bonafide fixation.

The real irony of right wing blogs is that they give far more exposure to far left wing ideas than does the mainstream media (in much the same way that until recently far left writers tended to give libertarian-style political ideas more exposure than the mass media does — if only to criticize such ideas), but to people like Tomorrow this is Not Necessarily A Good Thing(TM).