[runways] race and gender equality

Just had to link to this one, which you've no doubt already seen. As I put in the comments section:

"Sigh!"

[irish jokes] and jewish and australian and ...

Chukchi in Russia's north

There is still one Irishman joke Jams enjoys because of the sting in its tail:

An Irishman was looking for work in London. He goes to a building site where the Foreman says to him that he can have a job if he can answer this one simple question: "What is the difference between a girder and a joist"

The Irishman looks the foreman in the face and says: "That's simple. Girder wrote Faust and Joist wrote Ulysses."

It's said that nationalist jokes spring from irrational fear of or ignorance of another nation. Sometimes they just reflect arrogant pride in one's nation being superior to all others and target the most backward or vulnerable. In Russia, the Chukchi are the standard target but they do get their revenge:

A Chukcha and a Russian geologist go hunting polar bears. They track one down at last. Seeing the bear, the Chukcha shouts "Run!" and starts running away. The Russian shrugs, raises his gun and shoots the bear.

"Russian hunter bad hunter, however", says the Chukcha, "Now you haul this bear ten miles to the yaranga yourself!"

In Russia, the use of "odnako" or "however", is the usual way jokers identify the Chukchi, a bit like the Jewish "already".

Let's not even start on Jewish or blonde jokes.

[food supply] plus water equals power

Don't want you to worry or anything:

The government officials who are supposed to protect America’s food supply are not certain what has made almost 1,000 people ill in the last three months. At first it was raw tomatoes that appeared to be tainted with a rare form of salmonella. So, consumers avoided tomatoes, and the tomato business suffered mightily.

Health officials are still worried about tomatoes, but they’ve also raised concerns about jalapeño peppers. Or perhaps cilantro. Or maybe some brands of salsa. Somewhere. Meanwhile, people keep getting sick.

Seems to me that:

1. There are a lot a scare tactics being used on the populace just now, perhaps to soften us up for the main play down the track;

2. Food plus water supply equals a whole lot of power in a few hands. Joseph in Egypt springs to mind.

No Clue has a nice take on the food issue at her site.

[bloghounds] daily report is at the site

Today's report is up and you're welcome to pop over and look.

[tuesday quiz] who said these things?

1. The good thing about them is that you can look at them with the sound turned down [of the Spice Girls].

2. The chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

3. Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, is a rose.

4. When I split an infinitive, G-d damn it, I split it so it will stay split!

5. Curtsey while you're thinking what to say. It saves time.

Clues

Musical groups, famous with libertarians, philosophy, hard-boiled detective, children

Answers, as usual, require you to highlight below

George Harrison, the Independent, 1997; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776; Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily, 1913; Raymond Chandler, to a proof-reader, 1947; Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1872

[bloghounds] things moving along

We can say the steering committee is almost in place and will be calling for members in the next few days, once the infrastructure [mailing list, site etc.] is in place.

Some quite legitimate questions have arisen and need to be answered. These are my answers on my site but there will be a group statement on the actual site later.

[Speaking for myself, there was and is no intention of taking over BP though it would have been good to have been one of the steering committee and then retire. As someone said, it was testing the climate of opinion only.]

Purpose - the reason we felt that this group was needed was, roughly speaking, that people have demonstrated that they do like to be part of a respected group identity - there is resistance to losing that, they do like a happy, cheerful environment and one other thing...

As one of the founder members of BP, I can say there were errors made. The membership intake was indiscriminate in the middle of 2007 and that's where the problems sprang from [BNP issue etc].

The only way to overcome problems of that kind is to legislate, create a plethora of rules, rewrite them to meet changed circumstances etc. Someone within BP said that it could all have been prevented by firm but friendly entry requirements in the first place, where everyone both knew and accepted the few rules [see the criteria here]then it becomes relatively smooth sailing, give or take diversity of opinion from then on.

It does appear that already, in one day, people are seeing that there need not be a conflict of interest here.

In the end, whichever way you cut and dice it, it comes down to two choices - completely unfettered entry and then there is no way various people can be prevented from acting as they wish or else you run with restriction at entry point, after which it is just as unfettered and anyone can say anything but being of a certain nature, it's probably going to be a good atmosphere in a boisterous way.

The notion of carefully reviewing membership at point of entry meaning dull membership without spine is really rubbish. The names I've seen so far are not noted for their compliance and would reject any sort of control as anathema. Yet they're great bloggers.

And there are eight members of a blog-diverse steering committee all giving their opinions. There is a lot of give and take in that and certainly my own feelings and prejudices form only one eighth part of the total opinion and I know that at least three of these would be averse to anyone riding over the top of them.

Also, the message coming through loud and clear from the e-mails is that patient and sure is the way to go.

That's as it should be.