Here is the beginning of the new year and summaries are born. I give a little mix from them:


1. Geov Parrish
2002 media follies
The most overhyped and underreported stories of the year.
"As a result, two-thirds of Americans in a recent poll were reported to believe that Iraq was responsible for 9/11. That's a combination of a cynical and extraordinarily effective propaganda campaign, and corporate reporters not doing their job -- or at least, not the job they're supposed to be doing."
And so on. I think, this bloke wrote this well; all follies are in the row.
Well, and I attach an old, but good map to this article.


2. This retroCRUSH guy was not lazy to collect the most irritating things of the previous year and added a photo to the articles.
(I was surprised, that W are just on the 20th place.)

I'm always amazed, although by this stage you'd think I'd know better, at the stupidity, the patheticness and the pointlessness of e-mail Spammers. This morning, for example, I received an e-mail the subject line of which read, and here I quote, "Hi Scragends, I haven't seen you in ages..."

The word "Scragends" should have been a giveaway I guess. I can only assume that most people get similar e-mails that read 'Hi Julie4592' etc. Naturally I opened the e-mail excitedly, in the hopes of rekindling a long lost romance or meeting up with a forgotten relative who was about to kick the bucket and leave me tons and tons of money, only to discover instead that I could now save thousands of $$$ on my mortgage.

One major point here. If I was stupid enough, moronic enough and uninformed enough to consider that moving my mortgage from my current British lender to some unknown, Internet Spammer-hack tied up to the American market, even then I wouldn't consider switching to somebody who had cack-handedly tricked me into opening their crappy e-mail by pretending to be an old school colleague that I'd lost touch with. Seriously, if this was their way of getting my attention then what the hell would they get up to with my money?

I'm now off to check this afternoon's mountain of 'Increase your Penis Size' and 'Lose Weight Now' e-mails. And JoeBloggs397@Hotmail.Spam.Con had better watch out.

p.s. The snow on the Cumbrian Mountains across the bay this afternoon looks extremely Christmassy and inspiring. Unfortunately my nose has now turned blue from standing in the icy cold wind and the snot has frozen in my nostrils. I'm thinking of inventing a nose-mitten and sewing the holes up in the knees of my denims before my legs drop off.

       

Who looks best in khaki?

Tough call, but at least neither of these chocolate soldiers is going
to get his smart clobber mussed up by being within coo-ee of the action.

Wonder which of the fresh faced lads behind Dubbya will look best in a body bag?

A big smallpox on both their houses.

Passing ironic to see Dubbya in dress ups he seemed reluctant to don in the past.
"If it comes to war, this generation of Americans is ready." Bush said at Fort Hood.

The gung ho Commander in Chief wasn't quite ready when it was his turn a generation earlier.


Interesting/awful ststastistic stsatistisc startisstix facts and figures.

AMERICAN DEFENCE SPENDING

Peter Hartcher had an excellent piece in the Weekend Australian Financial Review about American defence spending. The most amazing statistic was that America represents 5 per cent of the world population, 25 per of the world economy and 50 per cent of global defence spending.

George Bush is looking for $700 billion next year which is more than the annual Australian GDP. But a lot of this is being paid for by debt as George Bush is taking the US deep into deficit.
SOURCE.

Dear ...

Bush addresses troops, declares readiness for war.

oh dear ...

Britain to send 20,000 troops to Gulf.

oh dear!

US warship to return to Fremantle, Australia.

Brian me old china, pass me whatever's left in your bottle.

Latest News: George W. Bush today rallied his subserviant, arse-licking, don't-ask-questions-just-follow-orders warriors together at Fort Bastard (or wherever it was...hey, I'm drunk so I couldn't care less) calling on them to "Stand firm against possible/probable difficult times ahead." Not half as difficult as the poor bastards in Iraq are about to experience, I bet. Apparently America now plans to 'LIBERATE' Iraq...as opposed to bomb the shit out of it and steal its oil reserves. Who says that America has fucked up the English language, eh?

What I'd like to know is who's going to liberate the rest of the world from America? Adding insult to injury, Dubbya went on to proclaim that the whole world was sick and tired of Iraq's refusal to disarm. The whole World? Surely America is the only country in the capitalist west where the majority of the population want to bomb Iraq? Are Bush and his cohorts still that ignorant that they believe America to be the only cuntry (sic) that actually matters? (Rhetorical question.)

And so begins a new year...same old crap, same old rhetoric, same old politics, same old gallbladder. One pork pie too many tonight. I knew it was a mistake buying a party pack of Melton Mowbray. Three tumblers of whiskey short of a coma. Normal service has been resumed.

A completely unbiased review of The Greyminster Chronicles, as uncovered at Barnes and Nobel. com...I swear I did not pay Mr Steventon any money, send him any illegal photographs of Ulrika Johnson in the nude or offer him any of my rare bone marrow for his up and coming transplant.

John Steventon, a Cartoonist who loves great Sci-Fi, December 30, 2002.

Funny and completely original!

I am very picky about what I read, and cannot stand the ordinary or predictable. Fortunately, I found some of Brian Hughes' early work some years back, which is completely original Science Fiction. This book is very formidable, but well worth any price. It contains all but one of Brian's novels, and all of his short stories that take place in the fictional small English town of Greyminster, a town that has seen it's glory fade into the past. Here the working stiffs and pensioners do their best to survive each day, which is even more difficult than normal considering that Greyminster is a nexus of oddities and strange occurances, where Robots from outerspace visit, and evil Overlords from alternate futures try to rearrange the Space-Time continuum to their own advantage! These are delightful tales, with some recurring characters and landmarks that become as real as your own hometown by the time you finish the book. You definitely want more, and thankfully, Brian continues to write. I would call his writing a cross between Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and Red Dwarf, but this would be a disservice, since Mr. Hughes is definitely in a class of his own. And yes, Brian has written the foreword to my recently published comic strip collection, and is now a close friend of mine, but this review is totally unbiased. I first met Brian as a fan, and a fan I remain. I truly enjoy these stories!

I have never met this man, despite his insistence to the contrary, but already I can see that Mr Steventon of Happy Glyphs. Com is a sincere and decent chap with none of the buggered-up, bitter sensibilities that certain so-called readers from Dublin and/or wombat-shaggers from Victoria have.