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Bat Shit Crazy /  by Jose Barbosa

 

Batman: Then they decided to shoot me the face. Alfred: Shoot you in the face? Batman: Shoot me in the face. Thug #1: You should shoot Batman in the face! Thug #2: I'll shoot him, but... in the face? Thug #1: Shoot him in the face! Batman: Then he shot me in the face. Thug #2: I'm shooting him in the face!

An excerpt from  the 12 part comic series Batman: Odyssey which appears to be INSANE. Honestly, I think we've reached some sort of cultural singularity here.

Monday Musings /  by Jose Barbosa

The immediate explanation is not complicated and it is one familiar to most world leaders. The French economy is stalling, with unemployment stuck at 9.6%. The deficit does not equal Britain's, but its accumulated debt is just as heavy. The mood, says Socialist party spokesman Benoît Hamon, is despondent, especially among the young. "Graduates are doing jobs below their qualifications; young people owning their own property is unimaginable. They believe they will live less well than their parents and that the country is in decline."

Jonathan Freedland on the reasons for Sarkozy's diminishing popularity. As he points out it's a global situation; one that is being fought on the streets in the Middle East. As always leaders and despots should beware the young with no prospects.

He goes on:

Sarkozy's behaviour and temperament is simply unsuited to the grandeur of the office of president of the French Republic. He jogged wearing shorts on the steps of the Élysée Palace. On holiday with Carla Bruni he wore Ray-Ban sunglasses. He was photographed next to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, legs apart, poking at his mobile phone. He discussed "intimate" matters during a press conference. This is not how a French president behaves.

This will not come as a surprise to anyone, but I've heard similar criticisms of John Key, mostly that he's a "goon" and seems to be enjoying himself too much during serious occasions (greeting the crowds at Galipoli like a rock star springs to mind). But the concerns, as far as I can tell, seem to mostly reside with the left, grown used to years of Helen Clark's aloof stateliness. Unlike the French, apparently, New Zealanders don't like their leaders to float too much above the crowd and so Clark was considered "arrogant" and "out of touch" while Key is "a good bloke" and "accessible."

The Noble Cunntiballs, Part 1 /  by Jose Barbosa

CUNNTIBALLS: n. A traditional British yuletide decoration, usually hung on the hips of the household children, or debilitated elderly. The practice fell out of favour during the Thatcher years, but the term still persists in the everyday language of the blind milliners of Thackney Court as a term of endearment i.e. "Blessed be, if it isn't Maurice, my old cunntiballs (which I have deduced from the sound of your voice as I am blind and cannot make visual recognition)."

The modern collector is in luck as the demand for good quality cunntiballs is considerable, recently a quartet of  1951 Chamberlain Flacids went for £8 at a car boot auction in Chumsford.

The Manhattan Transfer /  by Jose Barbosa

Yet in the end, the Madison Avenue Mall was killed: defeated at the Board of Estimate in July 1973, five months before the end of Lindsay’s second term, by the joint efforts of the city’s taxicab industry and department-store interests, fearful for a loss of business from well-heeled cab-riding customers.

 

A short history by James Sanders about the journey to turn New York into an "adventure playground." Shades of the ongoing effort to close of part of Queen Street, which must happen sooner or later YOU'D THINK.

Wednesday Night Retweets /  by Jose Barbosa

After 9:30pm or so there's been a quick succession of interesting and worthwhile tweets and Facebook updates come chugging through the timeline. Here then are three of the best ...

Adam Curtis has posted straight from the BBC archives a film made by American Joseph Strick in 1966. It's essentially a montage of political rallies and meetings during that year's election and focuses on the people who heckle the buggers on stage.

Curtis is curious to find out if people still heckle and if they don't, why?

Is it that they have come to see their politicians as creatures who no longer have any ideas or vision, and who have absolutely no idea or understanding of what is happening in the world, so there is no point in heckling them any longer?

Or is it that we, the people, have no ideas and no understanding of the world ourselves? That we have no vision any longer of what the world could be like, or what changes we would like made - so we have nothing to say? And thus nothing to heckle about.

Although he doesn't write as such, I suspect he thinks heckling is no more; its absence indicative of how people seem to have shut themselves off from political engagement.

I think he's being wistful and nostalgic; not everything is the fault of individualism. The film, however, is a cracker.

Link. Via Kit Lawrence on Facebook.

Someone mentioned this to me today, but it took Giovanni Tiso linking to it on Facebook for me to find it proper.

I would say with stuff like this out there diplomats and officials can no longer bullshit each other, but I've yet to be left unsurprised about the levels of self-delusion us meat-bags can reach.

I also wonder if we can squeeze thirty years of alternative fuel research into the next two years? Hey, it's gonna be awesome finding out!

Michael Lewis investigates Ireland's economic disaster. The stupid title aside, some of this will make your mouth gape.

An Irish economist named Morgan Kelly, whose estimates of Irish bank losses have been the most prescient, made a back-of-the-envelope calculation that puts the losses of all Irish banks at roughly 106 billion euros. (Think $10 trillion.) At the rate money currently flows into the Irish treasury, Irish bank losses alone would absorb every penny of Irish taxes for at least the next three years.

Link. Via Noelle McCarthy

Another great investigation of the financial crisis (but this time in America) is this episode of This American Life, hosted by some of the team who do Planet Money.

Fortunately the end of all life is near.

Courtney Is Just AWESOME /  by Jose Barbosa

Courtney Laidlaw, 22, who lives near the two possible locations said, "We have become a society of bargain shoppers and having a Wal-Mart locally will definitely be beneficial.

"The small businesses that can adapt to the socioeconomic times that we live in will find a way to survive. Wal-Mart is just an alternative destination, not the only destination."

SOMEONE'S looking to make hygiene product department manager before they're 24.

Link