Crazy vs Religion
The Irish Times religious affairs correspondent seems like a nice enough chap and a decent writer/journalist too. He and Seán Moncrieff had a pleasant chat on Newstalk during the week, ranging over Catholicism, Christianity, the history of the Jews in Ireland, etc. Most entertaining.
Then Patsy said something which made me drop my monocle [...]
Casanova – Begins With C, Ends With 'You're Fired'
You've probably heard of the ongoing 'fruit-bat fellatio' case, where a UCC academic is in trouble because of extreme prudery. A behavioural science lecturer mentioned a humorous, but nonetheless scholarly, fruit-bat study to a female colleague and was immediately done for sexual harassment.
By some chance I'd already [...]
I'm a great fan of David Norris's, and not simply because he's 'entertaining.' As long as I've been on the planet, he's been a tireless campaigner for social justice and human rights. And he does a great after dinner speech (I've heard a couple).
He is also a fierce debater and possesses a towering intellect and [...]
Poe's Law states:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.
And from our time spent hanging out at the Rapture chatrooms we know that the corollary is also true: Some fundamentalist claptrap is so over the top [...]
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Ever since I came across the comedy of Louis CK I've been more and more impressed with the development of his style. He is perfecting the art of being likeable while saying the most outrageous things.
There are a great many clips of his available on YouTube. From a bitty set of his in 2004 (with [...]
You may be familiar with the death of Grigori Rasputin (yes, yes, 'Ra Ra Rasputin: Lover of the Russian Queen' courtesy of Boney M). According to the disputed account of Prince Felix Yusopov, still a good read, Rasputin, having survived numerous assaults throughout his life, was finally lured to a dinner where Yusupov and his [...]
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Horrific reminders
It sounded like a great table quiz question–what was the greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster before the attacks of September 11th?
I puzzled over this for a while, thinking about war zones, bombs and hostages but eventually, thanks to Armistead Maupin bizarrely enough, I had an eureka moment: Jonestown.
With figures [...]
Riccardo Patrese pulls a terrible stunt on his poor wife, who to be honest looks like great fun. But I don't know how many other husbands would get off so lightly for this.
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