Comments on An honset (sic) opinion from a Malay about Malays, showing what happens when you socially engineer a populace to believe that all non-politically correct comments about race/religion are racist/offensive/seditious:

Gary: I thought Tomorrow.sg does not publish Racist blogs?

I don't think a Malay discriminating against the rest of the Malays shouldn't be deemed as non-racist. Rather, it's racist plus the biggest insult of all is that it comes from within.

Lynnylchan: The whole point of it is that it comes from within. If members of an out-group can't criticise, and even members of an in-group can't criticise, at this rate no one is allowed to criticise anyone else, and we all go to hell in a handbasket.

Me: I'd like to point you to a racist book written by Dr Mahathir called "The Malay Dilemma"

Have fun reporting him to the police for sedition.

sieteocho: There's this thing called the n-word effect. When black ppl use the n word on each other, they usually take it as a joke. But when somebody not black uses it on them then it's racist.

You might as well call Lu Xun a racist for writing Ah Q.

abcde: seriously you are just being immature and making something out of nothing at all. broaden up your mind and read more books man. if every Singaporeans are like you then there will be no frank debates and exchange in Singapore. stop being so narrow minded for god's sake.

stay clear of criticism? then how does the society gets better?

dun tell others your a singaporean i duno you.


shsuya: Its one thing to be "brave" and speak out against your own race. Its yet another thing to be critical without realising that you are the very statistics you quote. And not a single opinion, suggestion or hint at an effort to improve the situation, or to correct the situation. If you are not part of the solution, then certainly you are part of the problem.

Me: If you're not with us, then you're against us.

visceral: do we intend to seek out racism where it was not intended? Lets just stick to one witch hunt at a time

Merv: But of course, according to you, the solution might be to quell all discussion about the problem so that everything is swept under the proverbial carpet.

Anonymouse: once again, an observation immediately slammed for being racist. even if he airs his views, he's not allowed to without offering solutions? everything has to laid out clearly or else he better not speak?

and if a member of the outgroup speaks up, its racism, and if a member of the group in question speaks up, it's also racism, then nobody can speak up without being killed anymore is it?

readers need to have a bit more maturity.

Anonymous Coward444: The abovementioned blogger is making a judgment about a group based on his experience with members of the group. Is that really racism? To me it's only bad if you prejudge a person without giving him/her a chance to prove his abilities. Like not hiring someone because of his age/race/gender.

Saying that this blogger is racist is like saying that Singaporeans who, with well meaning intentions, point out Singapore's problems, are traitors.

Teen pregnancies, drugs, school drop-outs, these are problems that plague every community and every country. If everyone realises the problem like this blogger is doing and asks honest questions that will convince those within his sphere of influence to do something about it, the world would be a better place.


kutu: if all this is said by a chinese, ta da, someone will cry RACISM

"Gary" also got deservedly toasted by the person who wrote the original entry.


Someone on the above: "i also no head to think liao. apparently stupidity is harder to understand than a cheem journal paper"


The OED:

Racism: a. The theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race. b. = RACIALISM.

Racialism: Belief in the superiority of a particular race leading to prejudice and antagonism towards people of other races, esp. those in close proximity who may be felt as a threat to one's cultural and racial integrity or economic well-being.


I think they have a good definition there, but they left out a belief in the inferiority of one or more particular race (without correspondingly believing another is superior to the others).

Also, a lot of the comments on the post (both on Tomorrow and on the original site), as the author noted, prove the author's original point.


Some people do make the valid point that perhaps race is being conflated with social class or income level, so there is a problem of omitted variable bias. Nonetheless, although race and/or culture should not be essentialized, neither should they be dismissed out of hand (the problem, once again, of a false dichotomy); it does not take a sociologist to see that prevailing culture and attitudes can and do affect people.

Race is also a much more potent rallying point and common denominator than social class - leaning on race consciousness is more viable than rousing class consciousness; fostering class consciousness was so difficult, Lenin had to invent his own theory.

In addition, if one looks at the problem from the perspective of social class/income level, one touches upon another thorny issue, and can be castigated for playing class politics and the politics of envy.

***

ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up!

DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.

ARTHUR: Shut up!

DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed!

ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!

DENNIS: Oh, what a give away. Did you hear that, did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see him repressing me, you saw it didn't you?

Having missed STRIP last semester, I was curious to find out what a Science bash was like, and so I went down with a trusted associate to have a look at Dare 21". In short, it was disappointing (and not just by my standards).

While waiting to go in, I noticed that there were lots of JC girls milling around Orchard Road. Maybe they wanted to try their luck, but were underaged and anyway probably measured 42 inches from top to bottom and so didn't qualify for free admission.

I was speculating about how much they'd have to jack up the ticket price by to cover the cost of free entry for girls who wore 21 inches or less, but figured so few would qualify that the effect on ticket prices would be negligible.

Along Orchard Road, there were walking billboards advertising the bash, but what I found more intriguing was that there was a girl hanging around and helping out one of the walking billboards who was presumably part of the organising committee. Although she was wearing a flared tube top, she was also wearing jeans, which struck me as curious, since she was not even making a token attempt to hit the 21" target.

After some dillying and dallying, I managed to persuade my trusted associate to help me take a picture as photographic evidence of this curious juxtaposition while I queried the lot of them on it (more on the lack of said photographic evidence in this entry later). In response to my queries, the people milling around admitted that it was a gimmick. I said they couldn't jolly well expect people going for the bash to Dare to wear less than 21 inches if they didn't either, showing that they didn't believe in their own gimmick, and they replied that "we choose not to" participate in their own gimmick.

On entering China Black, I noticed that almost everyone, even the girls, was in jeans. I asked my trusted associate, "Why is everyone in jeans? They don't even make an attempt," and he replied, "Welcome to Science". I also didn't see any girls with freaky hair, but then I don't think Science bashes are promoted that way.

I am given to believe that most bashes have some sort of program, which helps to move the night along instead of letting participants mill around, get wasted and pick each other up at their convenience. Dare 21" did not have one, however, so I was left to my own devices as to how to entertain myself.

At 10:25pm, I surveyed the scene and found that the club was mostly filled with guys, and not that fully at that (those who came later were probably coming to club rather than for the bash itself). At 10:40pm, I did another survey and counted perhaps 3 girls who might pass the 21" test (one of which was wearing a jacket so I wasn't sure, but my educated guess was that she stood a good chance of qualifying, sans jacket). I'd actually brought a secret weapon - a length of measuring tape, and was contemplating when and how to use it. However, all the girls who seemed to stand a chance of qualifying were escorted by possessive-looking males, and lacking a gang of groupies to shield me (my trusted associate, though loyal, would not be sufficient to guard against the fury of an oversexed boyfriend and is a self-declared pacifist to boot), I decided not to test the power of male jealousy when amplified by loud music, a dark environment, booze and a strange request. This phenomenon also puzzled me, because I thought (and have and had been told) that people went clubbing to pick people up and to be picked up, so going with a significant other would defeat the point.

Some people then started squeezing onto an incredibly small platform ("sticking together like goldfish defecation") and gyrating their hips. How this was supposed to be a form of dancing I couldn't tell, since there was no space for them to do anything except shake their arms in the air and grope each other. My trusted associate then proclaimed that: "Science people wouldn't hit the dance floor... Those that we saw just now are probably not Science students."

At about 11pm, I took another round around the place and counted 7 girls who might meet the 21" criterion. However, half of them didn't look like they were from NUS students, let alone from Science. I also ran into a familiar face who suggested, when I lamented my lack of skill at discretely taking photographs in clubs, that I wait till everyone was drunk before pretending to know people and aking photographs of them, but unfortunately I judged that having 2 trusted associates would not be sufficient protection against a club full of irate Science guys.

A while later, I was sitting on a couch passively observing the scene, which wasn't changing much save for the number of participants increasing, when the boyfriend of the girl in the flared top whom my trusted associate had taken a picture of stormed up to me and started shouting. He said that "a building is public property. My girlfriend is not public property", and so he was very upset and demanded that I delete the photograph. Recognising that argument with him would be futile, as with a SAF regular, I deleted the photograph, despite the lack of local laws against taking photographs of people for non-profit purposes in public without their permission (only France, I'm told, mandates that one ask for permission before snapping). So I suppose the moral of the story is either to set up CCTV cameras in the name of "security" or to disappear after taking your photographs, at least if you are outnumbered by the irate parties demanding deletion of your snapshots. I hope that recollections of events are not private property as well; I don't think I've been so indignant since Slavery. His friend was quite apologetic though, to his credit (the friend, not him).

After this incident, my mood was understandably soured, and anyway the normal club crowd was filtering in, distorting my observations, so when my trusted associate got bored and suggested that we scoot, I barely hesitated before leaving the denizens of the club to their "fun". I mused about what he should do the next time I came up with a stupid idea such as this, and he said he would hit me in the ass, and I heartily agreed.

[Addendum: When I left at almost 12, the organisers were downstairs. A friend who left at 2:30am said he saw them sitting downstairs at that time, and someone who left at 1am saw them doing accounts. So even the organisers didn't believe in their own bash.]

(I actually have a few photos from this ill-advised expedition, but to prevent my trusted associate's corpse from appearing in a gutter in Science on Monday, as well as more irate people complaining that they/their significant others aren't public property, I won't post them)

The following is written in my personal capacity, and is not representative of the views of Tomorrow.sg as a whole. I feel like I'm writing a minority opinion for a court judgment.

Tomorrow's policy is that it has no policy

Tomorrow.sg was started because the editors were bored and decided to contribute something to spice up the local blogsphere. On my part, I thank those who have shown support over the last months, as well as those who have taken the time to provide feedback and suggest improvements, even if such criticism is not always well received. As with any project, it is inevitable that we run into difficulties along the way.

Many look at the star power behind Tomorrow.sg and have high expectations, but really, one should not expect too much - the editors are just normal people (well, mostly). We disagree, we are biased, we make mistakes, we have offline lives (no, really! The cat needs to be fed, the grass cut, the baby burped and so on) and we're not getting paid for this. We do what we can - some editors more than others, depending on time constraints, real world commitments, dispositions and differing interests in various aspects of running the site.

A lot of readers project their hopes onto us, and view the site as a one-stop hub for Singaporean bloggers: a place where they can say anything they want without censorship or being knuckledusted, and are disappointed when we don't live up to them. However, as our "About Us" page reads, our mission statement is to: "[try] to bring together interesting blog posts and other Internet content about Singapore or by Singaporeans", and we note that we have no agenda, so this projection is not quite justified, even if it has a seductively romantic aura about it. Perhaps the tagline, "Bulletin of Singapore Bloggers", can be misleading and make the site sound seminal or authoritative. However, as a fellow editor once opined, we are more like "a bunch of not-terribly-organised fellas doing this for our own reasons, who even contradict ourselves now and then".

With regard to the occasional confusion, Tomorrow.sg does not have a Constitution or SOP: in some respects, we make it up as we go along, and since we work like the WTO (consensus), it can take a while; as one editor commented: "to even get the editors to be decided on where to eat lunch would be a minor miracle". Editors do not invoke the power of the High Council in their comments, especially since we are a diverse bunch, with different visions, ideals and dispositions. I apologise if many people got the wrong idea, or if some editors seemed to speak authoritatively for the rest.

Also, it takes 2 editorial votes to publish a post, but editors can revoke their votes, whether the original votes were cast by accident, mistake, or whether the editor changed his mind on reflection.

And so this is roughly how things stand, at least until we lurch to the next crisis. There are many questions raised by the community which unfortunately cannot be satisfactorily answered, but this is how it is; our policy is that we have no policy. I may not agree with the other editors' silence, but it is their prerogative, and I cannot issue official press statements without the approval of the rest.

MUAHAHAHAHA!

NO ONE CAN MAKE FUN OF ME NOW.

Offline messaging in the Windows Live Messenger beta is not very well implemented: you can send people offline messages, but if they are using a program that only supports an older version of the MSN protocol (eg Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger 7.x), the messages don't seem to be delivered. And you're not told that they aren't, so the offline messages essentially disappear into the abyss.

[Addendum: I sent someone using MSN 7.5 an offline message and later he got it, albeit when I was online. Others also received the offline messages while using MSN 7.5 (and when I was offline), so maybe it works most of the time.]

Hell, I sent one of my accounts an offline message using another account, and it didn't go through (I used the Windows Live Messenger beta to connect to both), so that tells you something.

I also suspect it is harder to sign on to Windows Live Messenger-enabled passport accounts with third party clients, but I haven't gathered any information on that yet besides limited anecdotal data.

Also, MSN 8 is, if anything, even more bloated and ad-filled than MSN 7.x - something I would normally think impossible, but after seeing what happened between MSN 6.x and 7.x, hardly a surprise. A-Patch for MSN Messenger goes some way towards solving this problem, as far as that is possible while still using MSN native.

In any event, I have 4 0 Windows Live Messenger beta invites to give away to the first 4 people who leave a comment on this post with their email addresses. Priority will be given to those whose email addresses/nicknames I recognise (eg Those who have commented here in the past).

Our driving test is too ridiculously strict, so when some people pass they disregard both the important rules as well as the unimportant rules.

It's just like how making overly-unrealistic New Year resolutions inevitably results in them going unfulfilled. (The Economics of New Year’s Resolutions)

Or, for that matter, how if you villify pot and kids find out it's harmless, they won't believe you when you say Ice makes your teeth fall out, and go on to take it as well.

Incidentally, I passed with 8 points: 4 for veering off course, 4 for 3 additional reverse movements required for parallel parking (1 was free - apparently I went too far in at first), 0 for failing to look at a junction (it was free) and 0 for failing to check the blind spot twice (both free too).

[Addendum: Brother in law: "i think it is ludicrous to deduct points for making additional movements for parallel parking. these testing people have never parallel parked on a slope in San Francisco."]

Of the 16 people in my detail, only 3 watched the safety video in the timeslot. I guess I was lucky (first attempt, too).

The school is very cunning. In the room where they screen the safety video, there's a notice advising new drivers to drive with someone more experienced for a while. And then they offer supplementary courses for expressway and town driving, and parking without poles and in multistorey carparks. Considering that most of their instructors look very young (in contrast, it seems there've been no new private instructors since 1985).

Tym: Congrats. Join the adult world in endangering lives everywhere! (and people call *me* cynical)

"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool." - Jane Wagner

***

Someone: I bought a pair of headphones, but they're too big. damn
my ipod ones BROKE

Me: how old is the ipod

Someone: about 8 months
the screen is cracked
it dropped a tiny distance onto the ground, and it was IN A BAG. And I was like, wtf?

Me: is it a nano?

Someone: no
it's a mini
Nanos are too thin... my friend stepped on hers and the screen totally gone case
at least my screen still works
it just isn't so aesthetically pleasing

Me: yeah well
defective apple merchandise

hahahaha
nanos suck
they scratch if you breathe on them

Someone: I heard about that. I hate it when people put cases on their ipod... I mean the reason why you buy an ipod is because it's ultra thin....

But my mini is scratched a little on the sides, but I don't care. (:
I can just touch it up with a painty pen

Me: ... women

***

A-Patch for MSN Messenger - this goes way beyond Mastaline's MSN 7 Universal Patcher, and works with Windows Live Messenger too!



Pity about the Islamic ads, though, or I'd have donated.

***

If there have been a lot of religious links lately, it's because someone keeps sending them to me, and I find them sufficiently interesting to post.

The high cost of losing our religion - "What is increasingly obvious is that, in the midst of the excitement and turmoil, those driving the social change of the 1970s failed to seriously understand the power of religion as a social force... Now we are reaping the legacy of their mistakes, with the conservative wings of the evangelical and pentecostal churches gaining in size and influence, and the more progressive wings of Protestantism, like the Uniting Church, seriously diminishing in stature and voice."

Seminal questions - "Much of the discussion is sadly reminiscent of the old Christian debate about the number of angels that can dance on a pinhead, but sex is only one part of the problem. The current fashion for online fatwas has created an amazingly legalistic approach to Islam as scholars - some of whom have only a tenuous grip on reality - seek to regulate all aspects of life according to their own interpretation of the scriptures. It is much harder to find any discussion on Muslim websites of matters that some would say form the basic substance of religion, such as the nature of love and spiritual experiences."

I am now soliciting for fellows to laugh at Science people because I am very hip and happening engage in some investigative journalism with me and a trusted associate this Friday.

Someone: "take plenty of pictures yeah
wear a wig and a pushup
it'll be social satire
a commentary on the objectification of women and exploitation of sexuality"


Someone: how about something more politically correct
like experience the uniqueness of science bashes

Me: I eschew political correctness haha
damnit I was looking at my archives. I used to be more abrasive
I must've mellowed

Someone old age

Me: yeah
so sad


"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

Maybe the first time you get outraged, but later you either laugh or cry.

And there's only so much outrage you can express about a certain issue before sounding like a broken record.

POCM > Pagan Ideas > Miracles

"There's an orthodoxy to this. You're not supposed to say "They made 'em up;" on account of it points out that the stories aren't true. Of course, so does "myth," but orthodoxy has a way around that. "Myth" is good. "Myth" is "how people express meaning," etc.

The handy thing about "myth", said orthodox-ularily, is that it changes the focus to the social meaning of the miracles and away from whether they really happened. Don't want to talk about that—cause they made them up.

Exactly why does myth have meaning? Why aren't myths just ridiculous stories made up by credulous primitives? Are the moral and spiritual principles myths supposedly represent so weak they can't be said all on their own? I don't know. Ask your professor.

Pegasus and Cupid were ancient myths too. You ever hear anyone blather over brie and Chardonnay about their inner meaning? No, you haven't. "Myth" is maybe one part "how people express meaning." The other three parts are a way to deal with sorry made up Christian miracles without giving up on Christianity. There, I said it, and I feel better."


Wow, I admire Greg's tenacity and determination. After at least 7 years, he's still working on the site, and digging up reams and reams of quotes and evidence until, as he puts it so well:

"there is no reasoned, reasonable analysis to get you there. You believe the miracles were God's magic? Fine. But you can't then claim the authority and dignity and believability of science and reason. You're standing on the side of the room with the naked Hottentot and the stone-age cannibal Aztec."

"In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language." - Mark Twain

***

Today's Today headlines (as on the website):

"Make jail mandatory for NS evaders

Standing up to stare hate down"


How ironic.

[Addendum: Someone observed that those in favour of more lenient penalties were the younger MPs, who'd been slaves before, while those pressing for harsher penalties were older MPs, who hadn't.

Draw your own conclusions about the "very strong support" we have for slavery - people support it so much that they want everyone else to go through it.]

***

Someone on Dune:

"Admittedly, much of my disaffection for Dune probably stems from the fact that I could never quite wrap my head entirely around what was supposed to be going on, or why. I'm supposed to accept that all this hullaballoo is on account of the spice melange, a vastly potent substance that gives the human mind the power to transcend space, time and death. If so, then the administration and supervision of this resource as presented in the book seems, to put it mildly, whacked-out in the extreme. Every single power bloc in the Empire relies absolutely on melange, and yet the Emperor seemed entirely content to entrust a relatively unsupervised, squabbling assortment of petty backstabbing officials to guarantee the availability of this precious source of all life and commerce, instead of turning Arrakis into the largest Sardukar garrison in the universe and living there himself. Somehow I think Renaissance politics would have been significantly different if Milan was the only place in the world that gunpowder could be made."

I prefer the Book-A-Minute summary:

"Frank Herbert: I'm lots smarter than you are. I challenge you to understand evenone of my paragraphs!

Reader: Gee, Frank Herbert is smart. I can't even find the plot.

THE END"

***

School where Chinese is compulsory - "A leading public school is making Mandarin Chinese compulsory for new pupils in recognition of the country’s growing economic influence. All 140 boys and girls entering Brighton College from September will study the language alongside a more traditional fare of French, Spanish and Latin for at least a year."
Ugh.

My Little Secret LLC - "It has a computer chip inside that produces CD quality sound to let you customize and maximize your personal experience. It’s a revolution that’s been a long time in coming. No pun intended."
This is quite creepy.

XUL Apps > Tabbrowser Extensions > Advantage and Disadvantage - "Less maintenancibility by huge codes: Virtually, now no one can update TBE codes, excluding me. Its codes are like as entwined spaghetti. Many unknown bugs are maybe there, many known problems (with unknown reasons) too... My opinion: First, I'm the primary-targeted user of TBE, and I'm still using TBE"
Heh heh

"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph." - Shirley Temple

***

Me: I consider views without prejudice as to who they come from. Yes, even ***... [I don't] label all who disagree with me or who have critical thoughts as enemies.

Someone: it's a rare talent of yours really

***

In Utrecht, it is compulsory to do either Economic Methodology or History of Economic Thought an an elective. I guess they want their students to know what they are doing, instead of us, who only do the maths.

[Addendum: We do actually have such a module here, but I don't think it's been offered recently, and I doubt many people do it since it restricts one's options for Honours year modules.

MFM in the comments:

"I am often slightly disconcerted by the way in which econ majors at the U of C seem to be nothing more than applied mathematicians who are nevertheless inferior to actual math majors."

Me: I haven't done any electives, but I hear there's less maths than the core modules
so we actually have to know what we're doing

Friend at U of C: fuckit
my elective is hard math.]


Economic Methodology

Contents
The course is about the methodology used by economists in their attempt to build up a body of reliable knowledge. Methodology, or philosophy of science as it is often called, deals with questions about the nature of reality (ontology), the way we acquire information (epistemology) and the way we structure this information into bodies of knowledge (methodology in the narrow sense of the term).

Now the students have been confronted with many theories of different kind for almost three years, it is time to look back and critically ask a number of questions about the quality of the acquired knowledge. The mission of this course is focused on answering the following questions:
• Why does philosophy matter?
• What are the main approaches in the philosophy of social science?
• What are the principal philosophical approaches applied to economics?
• In which way did economists deal with their problems so far?

Learning objectives
At the end of the course the student is able to:
• identify methodological foundations of economic theories;
• critically analyse economic texts;
• deliver comments from a methodological point of view.

***

The Coral Content Distribution Network - A comment on Tomorrow.sg gave me the idea that it could be used to bypass net censorship. Ooh.

Japanese Comedy The N word family - I suspect it's a satire on how so many Americans get so ridiculously outraged about people calling the Japanese "Japs" due to guilt about World War II racism, when they themselves don't care; many blacks call each other "nigger", yet many white Americans consider that extremely offensive because of their guilt about slavery and segregation.

News from Ma-laysia - Draw of durians may be waning these days - "A survey by an International Islamic University of Malaysia academic found a majority of respondents eating less durians last year than the year before."
Wth. I also want to conduct this sort of study.

As they build more toilet cubicles for women, I wonder why they're allowing for moral hazard in the first place: why not just get them to finish up faster? Just as clothes expand to fill available cupboard space, I'm quite sure the time spent in the toilet will lengthen in response to increased capacity.

Breakthrough - The Sword of the King - "You have no reason to fear in 2006! And The Sword of the King is a beautiful reminder of that promise! This sword is a replica of the sword of the legendary King Arthur... Display this specially crafted sword in your home as a reminder that this is your year to walk in complete fearlessness, according to Isaiah 41:10!"
Excalibur as a Christian symbol?! Personally I would vote for giving them ploughshares.

Closing the doors of limbo: Theologians say it was hypothesis - "Many Catholics grew up thinking limbo -- the place where babies who have died without baptism spend eternity in a state of "natural happiness" but not in the presence of God -- was part of Catholic tradition. Instead, it was a hypothesis -- a theory held out as a possible way to balance the Christian belief in the necessity of baptism with belief in God's mercy. Like hypotheses in any branch of science, a theological hypothesis can be proven wrong or be set aside when it is clear it does not help explain Catholic faith."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Preaching a Gospel of Wealth in a Glittery Market, New York - "New York has long been acquainted with prosperity preachers, having given the world the Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the indefatigable man known as "Reverend Ike." Reverend Ike, a religious broadcasting pioneer who favored gaudy suits, fancy cars and aphorisms like, "the lack of money is the root of all evil""
Wah, blasphemy. I have faith that apologists can make white black.

OBJECTIVE: 4 Kidz with Lambuel! - "Hey, Habu... How many gods do you have? Habu says: 'I don't know... I lost count!' Wouldn't you rather have just one God who loves you a bunch than a bunch of gods that don't love you at all? Jesus loves everybody, even the unsaved like Habu! Remember to pray for Habu and others like him that they may find Jesus and accept Him into their hearts!"
Parodies get subtler and subtler by the day, as the real world gets more and more insane.

"Live" With Bambi - "An evening relationship helpline show helmed by the ditzy Bambi, a host who dishes relationship advice with no professional knowledge whatsoever. Her callers are almost always clueless men, because well, quite simply they don't know any better. In this short film, we tune in on how she helps 3 guys with their problems ranging from 2-week relationship failures to sweaty palms."

Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye - Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds - "Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny."

Japanese video promoting "Imagination" - This reminds me of the Chinese proverb about the insane granny who was putting the iron rod to the grindstone just to get a needle. All these people must've taken mercury to live longer, but it only gave them brain damage.

Chinese New Year’s Songs - "Just when you thought that Christmas songs in department stores were irritating, check out these Chinese New Year’s songs - all in perfect English, but extremely odd. I recorded from a hokey departmenty store near my apartment on my Zen Micro, so don’t complain about the quality."

Rowan Atkinson - Hell - "I saw someone request more Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean), the man of dry humor, so here he is onstage ... acting as the Devil. This stand-up is from sometime in 1988."

***

Quotes:

[On slacking by doing honours year modules on exchange] I like to shortchange myself. It's my favourite hobby.

F maths - no. Maths - F - yes.

[Me: Do they all look freaky {at bashes, like how people promoting bashes look?}] It's okay to look freaky, but you must look freaky in a good way. They look freaky in a bad way. Like they just fell into a dumpster and came out blue-black.

[Girl to her friend: You need to lose weight.] Did you just say I need to lose weight? You're such a bitch!

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." - Cyril Connolly

***

This one's priceless: Jeremy Clarkson annihilates the Perodua Kelisa

"Joy of joys! The Broad Ear (sic) Kelisa that I ordered earlier is now ready for collection.

I haven't bothered with a warranty. Or a full tank of petrol. And I've only got one day's insurance. But anyway, the time has come. I'm gonna go in there now - and pick it up.

And here it is: brand spanking new with, uh, 85 miles on the clock... check this out boys.

*Attacks Kelisa with a sledgehammer* That is for being the biggest load of unimaginative junk ever. This is just a white good. It's just built with no soul, no flair, no passion - like a fridge or washing machine, and this is for every time I've got a car like you, dawdling (?) around, just indicating left, and then going right.

*After smashing the car up* I wonder if you can ever get bored doing this."


Even funnier is the comments by irate Malaysians in the thread. They made racist comments, cursed in Malay, made fun of the UK car industry, called him names, said he was "sick", alleged that the "mat salleh" was trying to divide Malaysians, said he needed to see a psychiatrist (he probably does, for racing a boat to Oslo), impugned his integrity and character and, best of all, insulted people who thought the clip was funny.

Comments in the thread:

"i can't believe the type of clueless idiots one can find here. Note: I don't mean clarkson"

"There is nothing more to proton's and perodua's apart from an engine and a milo tin casing. There is nothing good about this car. I hope the preodua and proton management sees this!"

"This is precisely what makes clarkson such a fun watch - he is not politically-correct, he doesnt seem to really care if he alienates anyone, and thus he is throughly impartial. Which is key in his field. Look he trashes (literally and figuratively speaking) ANY make/ origin.. And if you think he is paid please. dont be naive. Integrity leads to credibility leads to his livelihood."

"he did the same against the Vauxhall Astra, brutalising it as a horrendous machine. General Motors did the right thing. They developed a better Astra, called in JC to give his comments and feedback and lo and behold the next incarnation of the Astra was a vastly superior machine."

"the average Malaysian aspires to Hondas and Toyotas. Why? Because the national car sucks and we shouldn't be afraid to say it nor demandbetter from the makers."

"Wow! You know what is amazing that so many people here are threatening bodily harm to another human being. Seriously whats wrong with you people? Does his attack on a mere car justify you guys trying to maim him? What gives you the right to hurt or kill another person? If you're god then well and good smithe him down with fire and brimstone for what you perceive is a great injustice. But you're not! Its this clan
mentality and vigilante behaviour that leads to more woes in this world. When law and order falls one of these days, i shudder to think i would be living with this same people, who may take to the streets like what happened in New orleans. The only reason these same people aren't killing anyone is because they are only afraid of getting caught. Keep you lori hantus at home and stop trying to kill people, this is real life and not some computer game."

"We Malaysians are arrogant lots. Believe it or not it's inside each and every one of us. We condemn people who criticise us. And we force everyone to be nice and swept the dirt under the carpet (and then talk behind the back). All talk cock and no action. That's what our government has been doing for a long time. If you all so much offended by it, why curse and talk only? Would it change anything? That's all that Malaysian always do. Condemn... Malaysian will never get to see a quality locally made care when most people still look at things with a short-sight, a narrow mind and over the top ego."

"it does reflect the vast majority of mindset of Malaysian. 'We' can laugh to other people but we'll retaliate when others laugh to us. 'We' couldn't even laugh to our selves. *Sigh* When will we ever grow up�. "

"I don't have the time of the day for people who can�t read, write or comprehend properly."


I wonder what he'd do to a car made in Singapore, if there was one. At least he'd have to think up a more imaginative way of taking out his frustration on it!

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Avenue Q - Everyone's A Little Bit Racist

Princeton:
Say, Kate, can I ask you a question?

Kate Monster:
Sure!

Princeton:
Well, you know Trekkie Monster upstairs?

Kate Monster:
Uh huh.

Princeton:
Well, he's Trekkie Monster, and you're Kate Monster.

Kate Monster:
Right.

Princeton:
You're both Monsters.

Kate Monster:
Yeah.

Princeton:
Are you two related?

Kate Monster:
What?! Princeton, I'm surprised at you! I find that racist!

Princeton:
Oh, well, I'm sorry! I was just asking!

Kate Monster:
Well, it's a touchy subject.
No, not all Monsters are related.
What are you trying say, huh?
That we all look the same to you?
Huh, huh, huh?

Princeton:
No, no, no, not at all. I'm sorry,
I guess that was a little racist.

Kate Monster:
I should say so. You should be much more careful when you're talking about the sensitive subject of race.

Princeton:
Well, look who's talking!

Kate Monster:
What do you mean?

Princeton:
What about that special Monster School you told me about?

Kate Monster:
What about it?

Princeton:
Could someone like me go there?

Kate Monster:
No, we don't want people like you-

Princeton:
You see?!
You're a little bit racist.

Kate Monster:
Well, you're a little bit too.

Princeton:
I guess we're both a little bit racist.

Kate Monster:
Admitting it is not an easy thing to do...

Princeton:
But I guess it's true.

Kate Monster:
Between me and you,
I think

Both:
Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race.

Princeton:
Now not big judgments, like who to hire or who to buy a newspaper from -

Kate Monster:
No!

Princeton:
No, just little judgments like thinking that Mexican busboys should learn to speak goddamn English!

Kate Monster:
Right!

Both:
Everyone's a little bit racist
Today.
So, everyone's a little bit racist
Okay!
Ethinic jokes might be uncouth,
But you laugh because
They're based on truth.
Don't take them as
Personal attacks.
Everyone enjoys them -
So relax!

Princeton:
All right, stop me if you've heard this one.

Kate Monster:
Okay!

Princeton:
There's a plan going down and there's only one paracute. And there's a rabbi, a priest...

Kate Monster:
And a black guy!

Gary Coleman:
Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Kate?

Kate Monster:
Uh...

Gary Coleman:
You were telling a black joke!

Princeton:
Well, sure, Gary, but lots of people tell black jokes.

Gary Coleman:
I don't.

Princeton:
Well, of course you don't - you're black!
But I bet you tell Polack jokes, right?

Gary Coleman:
Well, sure I do. Those stupid Polacks!

Princeton:
Now, don't you think that's a little racist?

Gary Coleman:
Well, damn, I guess you're right.

Kate Monster:
You're a little bit racist.

Gary Coleman:
Well, you're a little bit too.

Princeton:
We're all a little bit racist.

Gary Coleman:
I think that I would
Have to agree with you.

Princeton/Kate Monster:
We're glad you do.

Gary Coleman:
It's sad but true!
Everyone's a little bit racist -
All right!

Kate Monster:
All right!

Princeton:
All right!

Gary Coleman:
All right!
Bigotry has never been
Exclusively white

All:
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
Even though we all know
That it's wrong,
Maybe it would help us
Get along.

Princeton:
Oh, Christ do I feel good.

Gary Coleman:
Now there was a fine upstanding black man!

Princeton:
Who?

Gary Coleman:
Jesus Christ.

Kate Monster:
But, Gary, Jesus was white.

Gary Coleman:
No, Jesus was black.

Kate Monster:
No, Jesus was white.

Gary Coleman:
No, I'm pretty sure Jesus was black-

Princeton:
Guys, guys...Jesus was Jewish!

Brian:
Hey guys, what are you laughing about?

Gary Coleman:
Racism!

Brian:
Cool.

Christmas Eve:
BRIAN! Come back here!
You take out lecycuraburs!

Princeton:
What's that mean?

Brian:
Um, recyclables.
Hey, don't laugh at her!
How many languages do you speak?

Kate Monster:
Oh, come off it, Brian!
Everyone's a little bit racist.

Brian:
I'm not!

Princeton:
Oh no?

Brian:
Nope!
How many Oriental wives
Have you got?

Christmas Eve:
What? Brian!

Princeton:
Brian, buddy, where you been?
The term is Asian-American!

Christmas Eve:
I know you are no
Intending to be
But calling me Oriental -
Offensive to me!

Brian:
I'm sorry, honey, I love you.

Christmas Eve:
And I love you.

Brian:
But you're racist, too.

Christmas Eve:
Yes, I know.
The Jews have all
The money
And the whites have all
The power.
And I'm always in taxi-cab
With driver who no shower!

Princeton:
Me too!

Kate Monster:
Me too!

Gary Coleman:
I can't even get a taxi!

All:
Everyone's a little bit racist
It's true.
But everyone is just about
As racist as you!
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
And everyone stopped being
So PC
Maybe we could live in -
Harmony!

Christmas Eve:
Evlyone's a ritter bit lacist!


People need to learn to take a chill pill without shrilly accusing others of discrimination or bias at every possible juncture.

As for me, I'm not going to ask computing graduates for technical assistance next time. I know 2 who aren't very proficient at it, so that means not everyone is good at it, and I shouldn't assume one is!

If I see a Chinese Singaporean, I'm going to speak to him in Malay since I can't assume that he knows English or Mandarin (or that he doesn't know Malay).

I'm going to take stock market advice from my hairdresser instead of my broker since I can't assume one has a better grasp of the market than the other.