More drama!

Conditions: Sunny, with clouds.

Borat.

Heard about this? A british comedian is pretending to be an immigrant from Kazakhstan for the purposes of selling a movie featuring his character. He portays Kazakhstan as a stone-age era nation, where the people are very cliched ass-backwards peasants. Now the real joke is that Kazakhstan (the actual Kazakhstan) is so worried about people taking this guy seriously that they've started a huge worldwide ad campaign to counter this film. I submit that they should be doing the exact opposite. In the same way Australia cashed in on Crocodile Dundee's success, the Kazakh tourism industry should be making adverts about how people can come to their country and relax in their medievel-style villages. Churn your own butter (good for the abs)! Tote your own water buckets (good for the legs)! Only five american dollars for a horse and a guide. Of course then you show the five-star hotels they'll be staying in at the end of the ad, reinforce the parody of the advert. The point is to roll with the joke, rather than make it seem you've got something to cover up.

Link to Erlan Idrissov (a Kazakh) worrying about the movie


Clintonian.

Scandal breaks over a Republican senator who apparently had a physical relationship with a 16-year old page (essentially an intern). The actual scandal though is in the details of how long the Republican leaders knew about this and said nothing. Columnist Sidney Blumenthal says in an article that Republican leaders knew about Foley's preying on pages since at least 2001. Nixon said once that it wasn't the crime that killed you, it was the coverup. With the senate elections looming, this is one story the Right wing desperately did not want out of the closet.

Blumenthal's article at The Guardian.


School shooting.

What is this, the third in a month? No, in a week! Autumn really sucks. Did you know someone actually asked why the shooter who walked into an Amish school house didn't get picked up by the metal dectector? Bad taste, perhaps, but I do wonder if the Amish comfortable with modern hospitals, ambulances and emergency helicopters?


State of Denial.

Which is the title of Bob Woodward's new book where he ...shockingly reveals that the ...Bush administration ....lied about .....the war .....in Iraq and ....and they ...ZZzzzzzzzz....




Bathurst!

Well it's that time of the year again. We stand on the brink of weekend full of couch-sitting, food-eating and TV-watching. Oh, and this time there's a race on. Ha, see what I did there? I kill me. Anyway, the great race is on again this weekend, and it'll be a blast. Did you know I went there once? My advice: it looks better on television, if a little flatter. With the unfortunate passing of Peter Perfect, the trophy has been named in his honour, which is better than getting a chicane named after you. It looks to be a tougher fight for the Holdens this year, as the Fords are in better form so far but you never know.

Peace out.