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TALLRITE BLOG
You can write to me at
blog2-at-tallrite-dot-com |
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| September 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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ISSUE #161 - 30th September 2007 [430]
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Seatbelts: The Difference Between Funerals and Hospitals A car races along a four-lane freeway at 120 km/hr (75 mph). It encounters a sudden instability. The car careers towards the central reservation, bounces off it, twists around and eventually comes to a halt, a write-off of course. It strike no other vehicle in its terminal paroxysm.
Paris France in August 1997; Monasterevin Ireland in August 2007. In Paris, Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi and the (drunk) driver Henri Paul, were all unbelted and all died. Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana's (useless) bodyguard, in the front passenger seat was the only one in a seat belt and he survived. I call him useless because he not only failed to ensure Diana was belted up, but allowed an intoxicated man to drive her - and his sole job was to protect her life. In fact Diana never wore a belt when she was a back-seat passenger, as TV images repeatedly showed. The sudden instability they encountered was a white Fiat Uno whose back left wing their Mercedes clipped whilst overtaking. The Monasterevin accident
involved my brother and some of his family.
I recount this incident solely to highlight what most of us surely already know. Seatbelts save lives. For this reason alone - and certainly not to satisfy legislation - we should always wear them in every vehicle every time and ensure that everyone else in the car also wears them. Moreover, an unbelted occupant is a lethal hazard not only to himself but to the other belted occupants because in a crash his body will be thrown around the inside of the car like a missile, breaking people's necks and other bones. Seatbelts really do mean the difference between a funeral and a hospital.
Six Inconvenient Truths about Slavery in the US Much is said and written about the shame of slavery in America, and how modern-day white Americans should apologise to their modern-day black compatriots. Rubbish, and for six reasons.
I wish I had thought up this list, but I didn't. It's culled from an excellent article by columnist, author and talk-radio host Michael Meved, which I would recommend.
Rugby World Cup Shirt-Championship
For someone like me, it's the only show in town, six weeks of glorious rugby that come around only every four years. Click on the logo - also at the top right above my blogroll - to get the current scores, points and rankings, which I am updating in (almost) real time.
And then you have two of the so-called big boys, England the current world champion and Ireland ranked sixth in the world.
It so happens that both nations have the same proud sponsor, O2, a phone company. It's ponying up £12m to back the England team and perhaps half as much as again for the Irish. I am sure O2's shareholders thought these were very astute investments at the time, though they're not so sure today. But O2 has accorded England and Ireland the opportunity to mount a separate competition, one that they can actually win, to be known as the Rugby World Cup Shirt-Championship. These are their entries:
Cry your eyes out, New Zealand, you haven't a hope of winning this one.
Two years ago, I wrote a piece, Dissing the Haka, pondering why the opposing team just stands around respecting the farcical pantomime instead of, say, ridiculing it. In the current World Cup, their opponents still allow these teams to play their silly ritual and thus start the rugby feeling all charged up like warriors of old. But I've just come across this clip where one team, once upon a time long ago, stood up to the Haka. Ireland in 1989.
But the rugby bosses were so outraged by this effrontery that such presumptuousness was never again permitted. “It's just not cricket”, they said. D'oh!
Week 161's Letter to the Press Only three letters over the past month or so, and none of them published. I am obviously losing my touch.
- - - - - - - - - - I R A N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Iran ... is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. ... Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel ... Iran is sending arms to the Taliban. ... Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes. ... Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust ... Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere ... We will confront this danger before it is too late.” George Bush,
speaking to Quote: “It is necessary to prepare for the worst ... the worst, it's war, sir.” French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner recognizes the danger posed by allowing Iran to continue developing its nuclear bomb unmolested.
He later backtracked saying he didn't mean what he
seemed to imply - - - - - - - - - - I R A Q - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “You see Sunnis who once fought side by side with al Qaeda against coalition troops now fighting side by side with coalition troops against al Qaeda. Anbar is a huge province. It was once written off as lost. It is now one of the safest places in Iraq.” George Bush in Anbar province on a surprise visit Quote: “Day after day, hour after hour, they keep the pressure on the enemy that would do our citizens harm. They've overthrown two of the most brutal tyrannies of the world, and liberated more than 50 million citizens. In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year ... “Like our enemies in the past [Japan, North Korea, North Vietnam], they [Islamicists] kill Americans because we stand in their way of imposing this ideology across a vital region of the world. This enemy is dangerous; this enemy is determined; and this enemy will be defeated ... “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people’, ‘re-education camps’, and ‘killing fields’ ... “It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] will remain in his position - that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship ... “The greatest weapon in the arsenal of democracy is the desire for liberty written into the human heart by our Creator.” George Bush addresses US military veterans of foreign wars Quote: “[My] government has been active in fostering national reconciliation ... US officials should think first before criticising [my] administration ... This sends messages to the terrorists that the security situation is weak and the political situation is not strong. These are negative messages, encouraging the terrorists” Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki Quote: “On our fundamental rights if we have to make a choice between Boston and Berlin, then the Green Party looks to Berlin.”
Eamon Ryan, Ireland's Green party
Minister
Why do you never see a Rightwing green party,
- - - - - - - - - - I R E L A N D - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Ireland is a coarse place with a sad history where the natives are obsessed by money”
Christian Pauls, German Ambassador to Ireland, Quote: “[If they fail to hold an EGM] Ryanair could then convene the EGM itself and any cost incurred by Ryanair must be discharged by Aer Lingus and deducted from Aer Lingus' director fees. I can envisage booking out the Four Seasons or perhaps the Shelbourne Hotel with a free bar for the Aer Lingus [shareholders who attend], with the Aer Lingus directors personally meeting the expense. One can but dream.”
Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary, - - - - - - - - - - O T H E R - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Don’t worry, Mummy. I will give it back to you one day when I am king.”
As reported by Tina Brown, author of
“The
Diana Chronicles”, Quote: “Mal de George”
French satirists' version of the
“mal de gorge” (sore throat)
excuse
One of the most frequent questions addressed to
US Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to
“disorderly conduct”
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to Tallrite Blog “Ill-informed and objectionable as always” Comment by an anonymous reader |
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Still
on rugby, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all insist on performing, prior
to their every game, what they call a Haka, a kind of girly war dance which
is not unlike Michael Flatley's infamous
Now, for a little [Light Relief]
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BLOGROLL
Blog-Irish (defunct)
Jihad
Religion
Iona Institute
Leisure
Blog Directory
Irish Times
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What I'm
N E W ! The book is meticulously researched, magnificently structured, beautifully written - and drips innocent Chinese blood from almost every one of its 971 riveting pages. Moa Tse Tung was obsessed with simply killing as many of his countrymen as he could by whatever means in order to maintain the remainder in such a permanent state of terror that the idea of turning on him would never even cross their wretched minds. He also starved peasants in their hundreds of millions in order to confiscate the food they grew to pay the Soviets for a gargantuan armaments infrastructure. Most terribly, Mao was absolutely right. He proved that terror is the most effective way of retaining power. Too many despots have tried to emulate him, but none with the same single-minded ferocity. Disgustingly, people name restaurants in his honour +++++
In that role, as Hitler's trusted operative, he recounts much derring-do, such as rescuing Mussolini from mountain top captivity, bluffing the then Hungarian strongman into surrendering, wreaking covert havoc on the Allied invasion of France.
Particularly moving is his account, from the German viewpoint, This page-turner of a book concludes with a forecast of the role of Special Forces in future conflicts, which has turned out to be surprisingly prescient. It was written in 1954.
The purpose of this
It
does so, But the book is spoilt by the introduction of a storyline which is sentimental and distracting. Much of it is frankly boring. You might enjoy the sex which is detailed and graphic, but it's unnecessary.
Also, the interminable, repetitive description, going on for over 40
pages, of being About 200 pages should have been edited out. +++++ Other books here |
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After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition, |
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