KickIdle.com Blog

James’ latest Screed takes on a moronic Euro-weenie editorial written in an Alabama Olive Garden. Read it, then link it.

To quote this article:

In cased you missed it, the Office of National Drug Control Policy spent $3.5 million dollars on Super Bowl commercials earlier this month. The ad campaign will continue into the months ahead.
. . . . .
That leaves cocaine — and Colombia. Indeed, virtually all of the research and statistics tying drug use to terrorism in the Super Bowl ads and on the campaign’s accompanying Web site center around Latin America and Mexico.
. . . . .
The problem is that Colombian military officials have long been in cahoots with right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for the murder, kidnapping and mass slaughter of Colombian citizens. They aren’t as bad as the drug traffickers themselves, but they’re bad enough.
The carnage got so bad that in 1999, Congress required the president to assure congressional leaders that Colombia had taken significant and convincing steps to eradicate ties between its military officials and terrorist paramilitary groups before any further disbursement of aid. But the situation has not improved much since.

Read it all. After all, this is your money at work.

Charles Paul Freund explores the role of crass consumerism in liberating people from authoritarian societies in this article on Reason Online. The people of post-Taliban Afghanistan sought out haircuts, clean chins, and Western-style movies, much to the distaste of some Western elitists. Freund shows why we should be glad to see them making such choices. Popular culture is all about meaning, expressing your self and your view of the world. The West isn’t victimizing Afghanis with it’s popular culture — as Freund explains it:

Because you can’t export meaning the way you can export anti-aircraft Stingers.

Everytime we find underground “counter-culture” groups resisting an authoritarian regime, we’ve found a people who are capable of freeing themselves from that regime.

Febuary was the second month of serious work on KickIdle.com – Blog. It was also a month of astounding growth. There were over 1700 page views and 516 visits. While I know it’s nothing compared to the likes of Glenn or the Samizdata, it’s still a wonderful feeling. Thanks to all those who’ve visited, and a warm “Hello” to the international visitors from Canada, UK, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, Austria, France, Finland, Mexico, Japan, and Spain. Thanks are also owed to the Samizdata and HokiePundit for the perma-links and ensuing referrals.

I remember the ride at Epcot Center in Disneyland (or Disneyworld? Whichever is in Florida) where the little automated children from around the globe sang “It’s a small world after all…” as a testament to how we’re all alike, despite our differences. But I still have a really hard time understanding the mindset of someone like Turkish Health Minister Osman Durmus:

Turkey has overturned a controversial law that forced schoolgirls suspected of having premarital sex to undergo virginity tests.
The government issued a decree banning forced virginity tests after five schoolgirls tried to commit suicide by taking rat poison.
. . . . .
Durmus also caused controversy when he rejected foreign blood donations after the devastating earthquake that shook north-western Turkey in August, 1999, killing more than 20,000 people.
He claimed the donations would “pollute” the victims.
Durmus also refused to send Turkish blood samples for a proposed international blood bank for leukaemia victims, saying “foreigners will unravel our genetic codes.”

That last bit about the blood and genetic codes makes me think of the rogue Air Force General Jack Ripper in Dr. Strangelove:

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I– no, no. I don’t, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first… become… well, develop this theory?
General Jack D. Ripper: Well, I, uh… I… I… first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue… a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I… I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh… women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh… I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I… I do deny them my essence.