Robert Mugabe is an excellent example of someone who I loathe and despise, despite the fact that he also annoys a great many right-wing idiots.

"Comrade Mugabe is an anti-colonialist hero to many [people on the left]. He got his lifetime pass long ago – and he’s been using it for a very long time".

Bullshit. I’ve read *nothing* from anyone on the left defending Mugabe. Indeed, organisations that That Type Of Right-Wing Idiot despises, like the UN, NGOs and the BBC, are precisely the ones that have been raising awareness of Mugabe’s evilness and attempting to provide aid so that his mad policies kill fewer people.

Perhaps more to the point, it’s these idiots’ pet Stupid, Lying That It Was Humanitarian But Actually Slaughtering Tens Of Thousands Of Iraqis War that has discredited the concept of humanitarian military intervention for a generation.

If we were to send Western troops to Zimbabwe, Sudan, or indeed *anywhere else*, the countries’ leaders and their neighbours and allies would immediately scream that we were attempting another Iraq-style war of colonisation, and that tens or hundreds of thousands of people would die.

Worse still, this would be the most logically sensible conclusion to draw.

"In the face of a danger that the left, the Church of England, much of the establishment, the press and the French denied really existed, a lone voice told the truth unashamedly again and again until events forced the rest of the nation to listen. This brave politician faced public obloquy and collapsing political popularity, until he was proved right, when he became the most popular prime minister in recent memory". – Andrew Roberts in 2003.

Wonder what he’d say now? One of a) "yes, you’re right; I was a twat and we shouldn’t have invaded" or b) "Err, Ba’athist terror, mass graves, babies in incubators, lying Lancet lefties, err, everything thought he was a threat, err, 9/11, Madrid, beacon of democracy, eight million voters, purple fingers, err, schools and hospitals, err, not as many as before we invaded but that’s the terrorists’ fault, err, better quality of life, except that it isn’t… oh fuck it, I just feel manly when we bomb people", I reckon.

(quote via Jamie)

Of course, we all know George Galloway is a bit of a wanker. But anyone who angers frothing right-wing maniacs so much that they write this kind of hilarious drivel must be more of a force for good than for evil.

Mr Galloway, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability. Mr Poosh, I salute your absolute fucking insanity.

Apparently Britain *isn’t* a hotbed of dhimmitudinous Muslim-coddling, after all – at least judging by Sheikh Ali Tariq Ahmed’s job-hunting experiences under his own name, and under the name of Daniel Jacob.

Top quote: "If you want to find a job when you are out of work and a Muslim, then change your name and it will happen more quickly. Believe me, I know".

Can all the "our culture is being destroyed by Jihadis, and there’s no such thing as Islamophobia" merchants please shut the fuck up now?

(via insaniac B-BBC commenter Pete_London, who seems to be blaming the Beeb for running the article rather than himself for being a bigot)

Are you bored? Do you fancy doing some kind of moderately cryptic puzzle based on public transport? I’ve made [*] a new Tube stations quiz to go with the one that’s been doing the rounds for a while (Excel required for both).

Otherwise, here are some pictures of attractive young women:

[*] By "made" I mean "found the question list, worked out the answers, and then formatted it into an Excel quiz". All finding via the excellent Going Underground site.

A while ago, Meaders described "Timbeaux"’s comments on this SBBS thread as "the unarmed kamikaze approach to debate… Not so much being savaged by a dead sheep, as seeing someone punch themselves repeatedly in the face. It is painful to watch".

With that phrase in mind, I recommend you have a look at the comments by "Pete" on this Harry’s Place post.

I just saw a black girl greet a white, male acquaintance with a cheerful shout of "Hello darkie". Does that count as postmodern?

Don Marti has some an interesting ideas – I recommend his piece on DRM. Unfortunately, he’s also a member of a club that only seems to exist on the Internet: the Blinkered Linux Evangelists.

He says, "In the 1990s, did customers want overpriced UNIX from bickering vendors or stable-any-day-we-promise Windows NT? Sorry, neither one works for us. Support Linux, please. Or on-line services. AOL or Compuserve? We’ll take the Internet, thanks."

Indeed. Imagine how strange it would be to live in a world where AOL was the online service with the most subscribers, or where Windows NT and its derivatives had the highest operating system market share…

You need to read Jim Bliss’s article on peak oil, and you need to read it now.

I’m sceptical that the engineering facts he points out (the big one being that global oil output has almost certainly peaked) lead to his conclusions about the certain collapse of Western capitalism. However, it’s undeniable that a) we need to seriously change what we’re doing and b) we need to do so Right Now.

Increasing fuel tax tenfold across the EU and spending the money on new nuclear power stations would be a bloody good start (*and* it would piss off all the right people, which is always a bonus). Better to wean ourselves off car culture gradually, rather than watch all aspects of society collapse when suddenly the cars won’t go.

Unfortunately, that looks rather unlikely to happen (see the "piss off all the right people" point above). I recommend alcoholism and drug addiction as a coping strategem (and possibly the acquisition of a 50-year supply of canned food…)

Why the hell do we waste time and money prosecuting joke cases like this one and this one?

Anyone who suggests that computer hacking is in any way a Serious and Important Threat that we should Take Seriously will be mercilessly mocked and jeered in the comments.