Carl's Maundering Blog

Here's one from the venerable Spike Milligan:

Bazonka

Say Bazonka every day
That's what my grandma used to say
It keeps at bay the Asian Flu'
And both your elbows free from glue.
So say Bazonka every day
(That's what my grandma used to say)
 
Don't say it if your socks are dry!
Or when the sun is in your eye!
Never say it in the dark
(The word you see emits a spark)
Only say it in the day
(That's what my grandma used to say)
 
Young Tiny Tim took her advice
He said it once, he said it twice
he said it till the day he died
And even after that he tried
To say Bazonka! every day
Just like my grandma used to say.
 
Now folks around declare it's true
That every night at half past two
If you'll stand upon your head
And shout Bazonka! from your bed
You'll hear the word as clear as day
Just like my grandma used to say!

I don't understand it either, but I like it...

Ever since my in-laws introduced me to Emo philips about ten years ago, he has been one of my favorite comedians. Today I found this somewhat serious article written by Emo, which was published at the website of the British newspaper The Guardian last September.

It's an excellent persuasive essay urging Britons to defeat their government's "intention to outlaw 'offensive' religious jokes." I don't know much about that misguided effort (I haven't looked for a weblink or any other reference about it), but I thought the sentiment was rather poignant, especially given the disagreements and even violence over the Mohammed political cartoons in Denmark in February. On that subject, Emo demonstrated an astounding four months of prescience:

Such a law would be a bad idea, for the simple reason that jokes are how we humans avoid violence. Jokes are our safety-release mechanism. Sure they can sometimes be offensive. So can burps. But if you ban them even worse results happen. And believe me, if someone tells a joke that truly offends, he or she will be punished for it. That's one area for sure where the government can take it easy and relax.

Actually, I always thought burping is considered polite in most middle-eastern cultures. But the furor over the Danish cartoons made me wonder if Emo underestimated the punishments the "truly offended" might imagine. Governments and publishers certainly weren't very relaxed about it. I think those taking offense might have been wiser to regard the Danish drawings merely as smelly belches dissipating in the breeze.

Anyway, Emo even used the article to repeat a joke about my relgion, a good joke about coffee that I hadn't heard before. Maybe I should have found it offensive (there are in fact a few of his jokes that I do find offensive), but no, this one made me laugh.

I usually enjoy reading Orson Scott Card, both his fiction and his politically oriented columns at The Ornery American. But his recent essay -- What Is This "Crime," Really? -- is a disappointment, full of bad analogies, false assumptions, and straw man arguments. He paints defenders of national sovereignty and the rule of law, among which I count myself, as bigots, which I certainly am not.

Fortunately, here's a much more thoughtful essay on the issue of illegal immigration. Somebody using the handle "croak" posted this link in the forums on the Ornery website (and was promptly castigated for doing so, for some kind of arbitrary procedural faux-pas): Seeing Today's Immigrants Straight. Excerpt:

The proponents of amnesty have manufactured an artificial crisis. They say that it is imperative to legalize the millions of illegals here now, so that the illegals can come out of the shadows. In reality, the minor inconveniences imposed by illegal status are nothing more than what the illegals bargained for.

The best analysis and exposition I have read so far regarding the skirmishes between Israel and Hizballah is this column by Orson Scott Card.

I took care to frame the battles as "Israel versus Hizballah," not "Israel versus Lebanon." Those claiming that Israel is playing the role of terrorist and Lebanon as victim are sadly incorrect. The Lebanese government has demonstrated that it isn't capable of restraining Hizballah's terrorism against Israel, so it's a good thing that Israel will.

The current series of posts and photographs at Little Green Footballs of pro-Hizballah protesters around the world is also enlightening.

So is this Alan Dershowitz quote at Brutally Honest.

Spat may be too tame a word for this situation. Here's what I understand is happening:

One of the blogs I like to read occasionally, Protein Wisdom, is suffering under a couple of denial-of-service attacks. This is on the heels of some pretty nasty comments aimed at PW's proprietor, Jeff Goldstein, by a psychology department lecturer (adjunct professor) at the University of Arizona named Deborah Frisch.

The report at Euphoric Reality suggests that the situation is a lot more serious.