On one hand I give you Margaret Atwood, esteemed author, who today suggested that Canada should set up a dictat-o-meter.
While Atwood delivered her dictat-o-meter suggestion with humour, it was only after she warned: “The tools for repression and control are multiplying very quickly. Our government: What happened to ‘open and accountable?’ … What happened to democracy?”
and
And she did not spare the current government any pointed criticism, saying they had turned into one that’s all about “airplanes and jails. “The airplanes are useless against the real foes we face, which are scarcity and inequality.”
As for the jails, who will fill them? she asked. “Is it a case of build it and they will come?”
She suspects what they’ll do to fill those jails is just lower the criminal bar so they will have enough people to fill the jails. And then they can say, we told you so.
“Is the big idea really to bankrupt the social welfare system … by spending all of our money on planes and jails?”
Read more here.
And then we have wee Benny. Ah Benny. Dealing with the really serious issues of our time.
Finally, finally, endorsing, OMG, condoms. CONDOMS!!!
Oh. But only for male hookers? Male hookers.
Pope Benedict says condom use may be justified in some specific cases, such as when a male prostitute is trying to prevent HIV infection, in a new interview that has the pontiff deviating from the Catholic Church's line on contraception.
There is such a richness of comedy in this proclamation that I simply can't add any more.
Oh the humanity.
And who would you rather have dinner with?
In this case it's very easy to choose, isn't it? Although if I had dinner with his holiness I'd pop him over the head with his own staff if he brought it. I wait for him to take his miter off, of course.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely no difficulty in picking! Even if I do take exception to M.A.'s refusal to believe that her works are science fiction ;-)
ReplyDeletei thought the crime rates where down ?...looks like you and i are on the same page on a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteI've loved Margaret Atwood since The Handmaid's Tale. As for that fella in Rome, apparently he still doesn't know that women exist.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to eavesdrop if the two of THEM had dinner together...
ReplyDeleteWho would I dine with? No-brainer obviously. The interesting thing is the Pope's submerged homophobia. The intention presumably is to save the saintly straights from nasty diseases spread by the agents of abomination.
ReplyDeleteSometimes life in the 21st century seems like a Monty Python sketch.
ReplyDeleteI'd give my ticket for dinner with Benny to Christopher Hitchens or some other vocal skeptic, who'd be much better at it than I would.
I hereby pass my dinner date invite with Benny to Stephen Hawking!
ReplyDeleteNora:
ReplyDeleteI'd say you'd never have to resort to physical violence. a good intellectual combat would be called for. Not that he'd ever listen to a woman.
Jo:
yes she is amazing, isn't she? the handmaid's tale is already here.
Twain:
Way way down. But I think you know what they're preparing for. A sample was the G20.
Marcia:
Well, we're rated further down the scale than male hookers that's for sure.
Pauline:
Now you're on to something!
Nick:
Oh I'd say he's on the other side of that coin - and I think that's what you mean? His only phobia is women.
T:
Televised. Absolutely.
XO
WWW
GM:
ReplyDeleteI was thinking he and Stephen Fry who may be like 2 peas in a pod when it comes to thorough disdain for women. Nah, too good for Benny.
I'd say Margaret herself would be a terrific bet, she'd chew him up and spit him out and look for more.
XO
WWW
no worries about the snow LOL, those are last years pictures. right now we just have a pretty dusting :)
ReplyDeletePhew, Twain, I was terrified of disappearing NB!
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
I think I'd lose my appetite if I found myself in the same room as Ratzinger.
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