Load o’ Ballog

Commenting on posts

Traffic to this blog has increased significantly over the past couple of months, although comments have not. Up to now, out of fear of spam, I have restricted comments to those who are registered.

However, as an experiment, I have lifted that restriction and anyone can comment now, whether they are registered or not.

Dear God…

I am reliably informed that holy water doesn’t actually burn the skin of sinners. Good to know.

Seeing as it can’t handle disease either, what’s it for?

Perception and Prejudice

It amazes me how even educated, rational people can be governed by their perceptions and prejudices.

I have an Irish accent. Granted I don’t sound like Colin Farrell or Liam Neeson (if you have ever heard their native accents), but that’s because there are lots of regional accents in Ireland. In Dublin, you only have to travel a few miles to hear a different accent.

So I have this colleague. He is a lovely fellow and both intelligent and educated. We get along very well and I respect his work. Yesterday he said asked me: “How come you don’t have an Irish accent?”

I was a bit perplexed. I replied that I do have an Irish accent. Then came the bit that surprised me. He insisted that I don’t.

I tried to point out that in trying to identify my accent as “Irish”, all he could do was compare it to his preconception of an Irish accent, which is probably based on whatever Irish accents (real and fake) he has heard on TV and in the cinema.

My colleague is from Africa, so I am one of the few Irish people he has actually met. Instead of adding my accent to his “database” of Irish accents, he insisted that I didn’t have an Irish accent.

I repeated that he simply hasn’t heard my Irish accent before.

He continues to insist. I continue to be amazed at how the human mind can choose to stick to its preconceptions in the face of contrary empirical evidence.

No insult intended!

Famed Insultant Rowan Manahan has contacted me to point out that he is not, in fact, a “self-proclaimed” Insultant.

By the way – I’m not “self-proclaimed.” That title was awarded me by a presentation skills client many moons ago. And I quote: “I can’t believe I’m paying you so much to sit there and abuse me. Hey! You’re an Insultant!”

I trust he prefers the epithet “famed”.

Holy water banned on Lourdes flights

It seems pilgrims have been banned from taking bottles of holy water onto flights departing Lourdes.

You’d think the attitude would be “The more holy water on a flight the better”.

Still there is a foolproof way airport authorities can check whether that plastic virgin really is full of holy water. Simply keep criminals shackled next to the security desks and when a passenger produces a bottle of water, sprinkle some of it on the criminals and watch it burn their evil skin.

And they say Americans don’t get irony!

So George W. Bush has made a speech in which he criticises Iran.

“Iran has long been a source of trouble in the region.”

What? Don’t want anyone muscling in on the USA’s favourite hobby?

“It is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”

*cough* Contras! *cough*

“Iran backs Hezbollah who are trying to undermine the democratic government of Lebanon.”

Speaking of trying to undermine democratically elected governments…

• Chile
• Nicaragua
• Guatemala (over fruit, for God’s sake!)
• Ecuador
• Dominican Republic
• Brazil
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Iran (!)
• And many more…

“Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent, and target Israel, and destabilize the Palestinian territories.”

And the USA funds and arms Israel, which illegally occupies Palestinian territories and has the blood of thousands of innocents on its hands. 

“Iran is sending arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which could be used to attack American and NATO troops.”

Erm, didn’t the USA help arm Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran? For that matter, didn’t they sell arms to Iran? I see flocks of chickens coming home to roost.

“Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes and pose no threat to their regime.”

Erm, didn’t US troops just release eight Iranians whom they arrested in Baghdad for being, well, Iranian.

“And Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.”

Erm, didn’t the USA/USSR arms race scare the bejeesus out of us all for decades? And isn’t the region already under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust because Israel has nuclear weapons?

I’m not for a second saying that Bush is wrong about Iran, but God! Pot calling kettle black or what?

Continue reading And they say Americans don’t get irony!…

Dear God…

What’s the story with pork?

Thank you, America

I was on the Tube in London recently and I saw a poster for some kind of event. The poster featured a quote. I don’t remember the precise wording but it was talking about England’s contribution to world culture and finished with the line “You know, something more than a hot dog.”

My assumption was that this was a dig at the USA, which is regarded by some as an uncultured country.

Now I’m not a fan of the USA’s military actions over the past few decades but it’s all too easy to bash the USA and its citizens. It’s all too common to describe them as fat and stupid. Well, OK, they’re fat. But I’ve never met an American I considered any more stupid than some of the Europeans I’ve met.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to list some of the people who are representative of the USA’s contributions to world culture, for which I think we should be grateful. Note that I don’t like all of these myself, but I recognise their importance.

• Miles Davis
• Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
• Noam Chomsky
• Al Pacino
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar
• Mark Twain
• Steven Spielberg
• Helen Keller
• Elvis Presley

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.

Musing #19

Did William of Occam ever cut himself shaving?

Moving Musings

I used to have a page on the ballog titled “Musings” as a place to collect random thoughts that pop into my head. I have decided to move these thoughts into a category called, strangely enough, “Musings” and post each one separately. If you want to see them all together, just click on the appropriate category on the right.