Del.icio.us links for August 6th through August 13th:
- Chris Morris: Ths absurd world of Martin Amis – Look, I’m busy. I’m writing a script and I won’t be disturbed. Except that because I’m writing about terrorism and Islam, I keep being distracted by Martin Amis. He prowls the thickets of my research like a demented flasher. Sometimes Christopher Hitchens pops up, too, and flashes along with his friend. They rail against Muslims. They’re obviously daft. But people take them seriously.
Tags: chrismorris islam islamophobia racism britain comedy - How the socialistic collectivist totalitarian NHS ate my hamster – In the drive to crush Obama’s extremely modest healthcare proposals, much of the US health industry and the Republican right have struck on the original idea of saying that any offense against the holy profit is both foreign and communist. Hence, the debate becomes a spurious, contrived contest not between the actual proposed changes and the actually existing system, but between America and the UK.
Tags: healthcare medicine socializedmedicine private insurance NHS UK USA - Rose-tinted tentacles » The Girl Who Wanted To Be God – Every videogame has a villain. Not every one has a villain like Shodan. Not every one has one which… well, let’s show her at her best.
Tags: games pcgames systemshock shodan blackisle villains writing characters - Ukulele Jeff on MySpace Music – This dude is brilliant. He’s covered a bunch of punk songs on the ukelele. Bonus points for the super upbeat cover of ‘Die Today’ by Off With Their Heads.
Tags: band music hotdamn! - Retro Stefson on MySpace Music – Awesome band from Reykjavik, really good fun.
Tags: band music - dj. flugvél og geimskip on MySpace Music – Minimalist Icelandic electronic pop musician.
Tags: band music - Kill or cure? – Help to make sense of the Daily Mail’s ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it.
Tags: health medicine science journalism media UK funny dailymail - My plan to save newspapers – Some simple means of easily “tossing a penny in a cup” for the internet is required. Everyone knows it; no one’s managed to crack it. Sure, there are systems such as PayPal (familiar to anyone who’s used eBay), but they’re fiddly and boring. What’s needed is something universal and user-friendly. But more than that, it should be fun.
Tags: internet micropayments media charliebrooker reading newspaper - BOOST on MySpace Music – Good scrappy, scruffy, noodly punk rock band.
Tags: band music - LENIN’S TOMB: Somalia and Africom – The 21st Century scramble for Africa is taking us to some very strange and ugly departures. The US estimates that in six years, a quarter of its oil will come from Africa, but the trouble is that – as the establishment Committee on Foreign Relations complained some years back – China is doing a good job of getting its foot in the door. So, America responded by forming Africom, initially as a subdivision of Eucom and then, by October last year, as an independent command. Just on the off chance that anyone doesn’t get this, Africom is specifically charged with running military operations in 53 African states. That is it’s job. It’s formation consolidated a conscious drive to increase military intervention into the continent.
Tags: africa africom imperialism war militarism USA empire oil strategy - The “End of Politics” Delusion – “You have my express permission to kick the next person — especially someone advocating the embrace of radical forms of technological advancement — who tells you that they wish nothing more than to get rid of, move beyond, or otherwise avoid “politics.” Kick them hard, and repeatedly. They have adopted a profoundly ignorant and self-serving position, one that betrays at best a lack of understanding of human nature and society, and at worst a malicious desire to preemptively shut down any opposition to their goals.” Libertarianism is dumb.
Tags: libertarianism politics endofpolitics fallacy logic escapism futurism - Recent Rise In International Disputes Traced Back To Cute U.N. Tour Guide – NEW YORK—A recent spate of diplomatic conflicts around the globe has been linked to the hiring of an attractive tour guide by the United Nations, sources at the international organization’s headquarters reported Monday.
Tags: funny humour satire UN politics - Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder – A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”
Tags: blackwater mercenaries pmc fraud warcrimes massmurder racism crime iraq USA middleeast corporatism