Monday, December 17, 2007

Brief newslets

Turkish warplanes targeting Kurdish rebels bombed villages deep in northern Iraq today, killing one woman and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.

But it’s okay, because it was done “with the implicit approval of US occupying forces in Iraq.”

Hang on — no it’s not okay, because the US didn’t approve it at all. But it would’ve been okay if they had...

And singer and songsmith Dan Fogelberg has died of prostate cancer, aged 56.

Meanwhile another singer and songsmith almost as well-known as Dan, Chris de Burgh, will become the first Western artist to play a gig in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Incidentally, something about the chorus of Chris’s song, ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman’, has always bothered me...

Don’t pay the ferryman!
Don’t even fix a price!
Don’t pay the ferryman
Until he gets you to the other side

I mean, what halfway competent ferryman would even contemplate getting you to the other side before first fixing a price that reflects market realities? And would any rational agent even want to be ferried by a person so lacking in basic commonsense?

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Before anyone starts, let me just say it was the Turks who brought the US into this, not me.

18/12/07 10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re Dan Fogelberg: I found a YouTube video of one of his most enduring songs, There's A Place In The World For A Gambler.

It's a little repetitive, consisting solely of a gramophone record going 'round and 'round on a turntable, with the original pops and clicks preserved on the soundtrack.

'Interesting' idea for a music video, I guess. Perhaps I'll do a music video of Led Zeppelin with footage of my cd player ticking over the seconds.

18/12/07 10:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As I am aware that both you and Father Park have celestial interests I thought I'd pass on the following bit of news:

Yes, UFOs do exist, Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The comment by chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura drew laughter from reporters at his regular briefing on government policy.


Sounds like the Japanese have already bought the appropriate rings for their telescopes... :)

19/12/07 12:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seems to be a global consensus emerging here:

In the United States election campaign's most startling revelation yet, a Democratic congressman running for president said he once saw a UFO over the home of the actor Shirley MacLaine.

Dennis Kucinich was asked during a Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday about the claim in a book by MacLaine, quoted in US media in advance of publication.

"I did," Mr Kucinich said, to laughter from the audience. ...

"It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something," Mr Kucinich said during the debate by seven Democrats hoping to win the party's nomination to run for president next year. ...

19/12/07 12:48 AM  
Blogger Father Park said...

Yes, that UFO - over Shirley MacLaine's home - was Andrew Peacock parachuted out of the Liberal Party.

19/12/07 10:54 AM  

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