Signs that civilization is about to fail (part II)

So a respected contemporary of mine thinks the world is not about to end and everything is just fine.  A quick scan of the BBC World News page today yielded some of these delightful news nuggets


The Dow Jones index fell 7% and suffered its biggest ever one-day points fall, ending 778 down.

Ivorians tried for mass poisoning

The leaders of Austria's two far-right parties have hailed the results of snap general elections, which saw their support doubling since the 2006 polls.

What would financial Armageddon look like?

Child bodies found in US freezer

So in summary, everyone's broke, people are so desperate to make money they'll happily dump lethally toxic chemicals directly into a public water supply, Austrians can't see the harm in voting for the far right (what could possibly go wrong this time?), the BBC editorials sound like a pitch for another Mad Max sequel, and people are killing their kids and stuffing them in next to the frozen pork chops. Apart from that everything is fine and dandy. Well tomorrow, I'm stocking up on canned food, replacing the back porch stairs with a retractable ladder and then I'm going to stay upstairs and live off cats milk till it's safe to come out

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Reasons why Africa is better to live in than North America (part I)

OK, so I know I'm going out on a limb here, but bear with me. First let's take a look at this similar scenario being played out in two very different places.

A law that landed a Florida teenager in jail for having sagging jeans that exposed his underwear is unconstitutional, a judge has decided.

Never mind the fact that walking aroond with your Calvin Kleins showing is about as classy as having a car on bricks in front of your house, what the fuck does the Constitution have to do with punishing teenagers who think it's cool to walk around dressed like a mentally subnormal gangbanger who can't operate a belt?

Look again at the picture at the top of this entry. I know what you're thinking. Pull 'em up you tool. Sometimes the law needs to save us from ourselves. Contrast the above with this charming story from Uganda:

Uganda's ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned - because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents.

I agree! Who hasn't nearly mowed down half a dozen pedestrians because they were distracted by the ...um scenery. He goes on to say,

"What's wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally," he said.

He's right. Most of us are weak mentally. We can't trust ourselves to keep our eyes on the road. Nanny state, did I hear you say? Pah! What we need is more restrictions on what we wear, not less. Hats off to the Ugandan Ethics Minister and a question to the US government - Where's our Ethics Minister?