tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56139702011-06-12T21:27:01.450+10:00ChittleBlogMiscellaneous musing from Chris Chittleborough,
Australian farmer's son, computer programmer and
chronic information junkieCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1107859715140001472005-02-08T21:16:00.000+11:002005-02-08T21:48:35.140+11:00Condi knows NFL Football
The Washington Post has a nice article about Condoleeza Rice’s longtime love for ‘football’ and her deep knowledge of it. It ends with her prediction for the Super Bowl: Patriots by 3 after a late field goal by Adam Vinatieri. She got the margin exactly right, and Mr Vinatieri did kick a field goal in the last quarter. Is that impressive or what?
(I put football in CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1107483730671279502005-02-04T13:23:00.000+11:002005-02-04T13:22:10.670+11:00It is said that the bards of ancient Britain kept troublemakers in line by threatening to write satirical poems which would destroy their reputations. (Like most of the things said about the bards and druids of pre-Roman Britain, this claim originated with a bunch of upper-class Englishmen in the 18th Century who, um, read too many soppy romances.) But really, can you imagine any alpha male beingCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1094296742416140132004-09-04T20:59:00.000+10:002004-09-04T21:19:02.416+10:00Michael J. Totten wrote:
Why, oh why, did the Democrats have to pick Kerry? I voted for Kerry in the primary, too, but it wasn't my fault. By the time the primary election rolled around in my state the only choices remaining were John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich, and Lyndon effing LaRouche. Do those of you who had early primaries have any idea how irritating those choices were? Next time, think aheadCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1088007720920253842004-06-24T02:01:00.000+10:002004-06-24T02:22:00.920+10:00Bio-engineered crops: a complex topic?
There's an interesting blog post on genetic engineering and intellectual property at a blog called Download Aborted. (What a great name!)
I posted the following lengthy comment there:
1. Using Percy Schmeiser as an example is a Really Bad Idea, because anyone who is ever worked with a canola crop knows he lied in court. Canola seeds are little black balls; CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1088006172284612722004-06-24T01:51:00.000+10:002004-06-24T01:59:51.450+10:00I'm back ...
Why no blogging for so long? (1) Illnesses. (2) Looking after my brother's farm while he recovered from a Golden Staph infection. (3) Moving 400km from Melbourne back to the family farm. (4) Unplanned changeovers to a new computer.CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1062603704683500652003-09-04T01:41:00.000+10:002003-09-04T01:42:09.766+10:00"The world cannot be at war since war is wrong"
I found this gem amongst a dense (so to speak) thicket of childish lefty trolling in the comments on this item from Tim Blair's blog.
We seem to have a failure to communicate here. In fact the two sides are existing in different worlds and cannot understand the other.
For one side the world is at war. Or, more accurately, militant Islam (supported CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1062603634628984962003-09-04T01:40:00.000+10:002003-09-04T01:41:14.333+10:00Fear of the Future
Michael Totten has posted an article entitled The Graphic Left which has attracted a lot of comments, including this, from "Lancer":
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are critical in this war. But it is going to be a long war, likely into the 2020s given the demographics of the region.
We could not put pressure on Pakistan while we needed their support in Afghanistan. A favorable CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1061904157784413262003-08-26T23:22:00.001+10:002003-08-26T23:22:37.800+10:00Why Tony is angry
Still on One Nation: Why did Tony Abbot put so much effort into fighting them? Because David Oldfield co-founded One Nation while purporting to work for Abbot, in his electoral office. His paychecks came via Mr Abbot, but he was starting up his own party which would compete directly with the Liberals ... when Abbot found out about his, he was extremely angry. Looks like he CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1061904139945286652003-08-26T23:22:00.000+10:002003-08-26T23:22:20.080+10:00Why Tony is angry
Still on One Nation: Why did Tony Abbot put so much effort into fighting them? Because David Oldfield co-founded One Nation while purporting to work for Abbot, in his electoral office. His paychecks came via Mr Abbot, but he was starting up his own party which would compete directly with the Liberals ... when Abbot found out about his, he was extremely angry. Looks like he CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1061903548825935012003-08-26T23:12:00.000+10:002003-08-26T23:18:26.966+10:00Stupidity and Ignorance
In all the recent media coverage of Pauline Hanson, I have only found one journalist who addressed the obvious question:
Why did Oldfield, Etteridge and Hanson structure One Nation as a tightly controlled corporation rather than as a proper political party?
The answer should be blindingly obvious to anyone who knows anything about Australian politics: to keep the League ofCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1061902720451912462003-08-26T22:58:00.000+10:002003-08-26T23:00:14.563+10:00About One Nation
Is it compulsory for Australian political bloggers to say something about Pauline Hanson
and David Etteridge getting 3 years in jail for fraud in setting up One Nation?
Nah, surely not ... but I'll say something anyhow ...
If you want to know anything about One Nation beyond the media's prolific but shallow coverage, read Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip (Allen & Unwin, CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1061469062343086682003-08-21T22:31:00.000+10:002003-08-21T22:35:50.560+10:00I'm not dead
... I've just got a lingering case of the 'flu. (Ab)normal blogging will resume when I recoverCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1060682880021583972003-08-12T20:08:00.000+10:002003-08-12T20:58:33.820+10:00Michael Totten's blog has an excellent discussion going on in the comments on this article.
Why is this worth pointing out? Well, political discussions in which people from a variety of political positions make thoughtful contributions are extremely rare. I know, because I've been looking for them ... All too often, comments on politics degenerate into bad-tempered tribalism — for instance, lotsCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1060437150052640422003-08-09T23:52:00.000+10:002003-08-09T23:55:46.576+10:00A Loss of Control?
Here's something Bob Bunnett wrote in a comment on one of Tim Blair's posts:
PS: By the way, one of the reasons I reckon why so many leading left ideologues are shrieking with impotent rage about our deplorable lack of “morality” is that they have lost the capacity to exert control through shaming.
I have commented on this before but, before Howard, dissent against elite leftCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1060437021964105332003-08-09T23:50:00.000+10:002003-08-12T20:28:32.966+10:00Ugliness we should not ignore
Some people on the left of politics have accused politicians such as John Ashcroft and John Howard of being “right-wing extremists”. Such claims would be instantly and universally laughed at if people knew anything about the hateful and hate-filled world of the genuine far right. (Why do the mainstream Australian media pay so little attention to these whackos? If youCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1060244019617862852003-08-07T18:13:00.000+10:002003-08-09T22:25:17.353+10:00A Genuine Conspiracy
Do you get sick of all the conspiracy theories around these days? So do I. Nevertheless, here's another one, about a sinister right-wing plot to take control of a significant fraction of the Australian government. Only this isn't just a theory: it really happened. My father helped defeat it.
The plotters were a secretive group called the League of Rights. They are basically CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059623815995105432003-07-31T13:56:00.000+10:002003-07-31T13:59:54.446+10:00About This Blog
(I'm still learning how to drive Blogger. Can you tell?)
I started this blog to get practice in writing reasonably good English in a reasonably short timeframe. It's a bad sign when even a clumsy paragraph takes an hour to write ...
I intend/hope to publish a series of programmer-friendly articles about Unicode, possibly including:
A Short History Of Computer Character Sets
CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059623249691861352003-07-31T13:47:00.000+10:002003-07-31T13:53:52.920+10:00About My Surname
Frequently-uttered Answers:
1.Chittleborough.
That's Cee Haich I
Double-Tee
you'll need to write smaller
Ell Ee Bee
write really small
Oh Arr
really, really small
Oh You Gee Haich
2.Yes, it is a long name.
3.English. From Norfolk, actually.
According to the late Reverend Colin Chittleborough, my seventh cousin ((I loved writing that)), "Chittleborough" is a modernised form of "CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059557912025585892003-07-30T19:38:00.000+10:002003-07-30T19:49:29.860+10:00Had to Happen
Before Harry Potter and Hoggwarts, there was another series of books featuring
an adventurous English schoolboy ...
Now you can read the story of
Molesworth at Hoggwarts online!
(Molesworth is the hero narrator of Down With Skool, How to be Topp, and Molesworth's Guide to the Atomic Age, all by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle.)CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059557309996179112003-07-30T19:28:00.000+10:002003-07-30T19:28:29.993+10:00Chris Muir is back!
And Day by Day is in top form.
Speaking of great daily comic strips, Get Fuzzy has been particularly good lately.
CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059144522088900672003-07-26T00:48:00.000+10:002003-07-26T00:48:41.966+10:00Our Leaders Weren't Honest About Iraq
Were George W. Bush, John Howard and Tony Blair honest and forthcoming concerting the intelligence they received about Iraq?
No.
And that's a good thing.
For a national leader to be open and forthcoming about most intelligence information would be stupid, because it would destroy the source of that information.
Worse than that: our leaders usually cannotCWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613970.post-1059140421021864112003-07-25T23:40:00.000+10:002003-07-25T23:40:21.040+10:00The End of an Era?
Since the 17th century Treaty of Westphalia, international politics has been governed by the principle of national sovereignty as the "prime directive". (That Treaty arose out of the horrors of the Thirty Years War. There is a science fiction novel, "1633" by Eric Flint, which conveys those monstrosities quite well.) This developed into the idea that moral principles that CWChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396775360621300955noreply@blogger.com