Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0330281216/qid=1135991348/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-7664529-1372749?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

In 1983 Douglas Adams and John Lloyd created "The Meaning of Liff". The idea behind the book was that there are many situations in life which we instincively know and recognize, but for which no words exist. However, there are words everywhere in the country, sitting up above the ground on road signs pointing to places. The book was a comedy attempt to get those words into general usage in English. This has worked to a limited extent. I once overheard a shopper in Tescos in Richmond-Upon-Thames complain to her husband "this trolley has a Motspur" while I was in the check-out line one day.
One of the cool features of the 1983 original was the use of the pocket diary size for the book, which made it more of an overt reference guide instead of a conventional book.
Unfortunately, Adams and Lloyd tried to create follow-ups to the original book ("The Deeper Meaning of Liff" etc. etc.). These suffered from not being as funny as the original, and also from being published in a more conventional book layout.
So, as a gift for 2006, here are some words chosen at random from "The Meaning of Liff":

Affpuddle (n.)
A puddle which is hidden under a paving stone. You only know it's there when you step on the paving stone and the puddle shoots up your leg.

Curry Mallett (n.)
A large wooden or rubber club with which poachers dispatch cats or other game which they can only sell to Indian restaurants. For particularly small cats the price obtainable is not worth the cost of expending ammunition.

Glentaggart (n.)
A particular kind of tartan bag, made exclusively under license for British Airways.
When waiting to collect your baggage from an airport baggage claim, you will notice that on the next claim there is always a single solitary bag going around and around uncollected. This is a Glentaggart, which has been placed there by the baggage handlers to take your mind off the fact that your own luggage will shortly be landing in Vladivostok...

Iping (vb.)
The increasingly anxious shifting from leg to leg you go through when you are desperate to go to the restroom , but the person you are talking to keeps on remembering a few final things he wants to mention.

Kalami (n.)
The ancient Eastern art of being able to fold road-maps properly.

Little Urswick (n.)
The member of a class of children who most inclines a teacher towards the view that capital punishment should be introduced in schools.

Motspur (n.)
The fourth wheel on the supermarket trolley that looks the same as the other three, but which renders the trolley completely uncontrollable.

Nad (n.).
Unit of measure, defined as the distance between a driver's outstretched fingertips and the ticket machine in an automatic car park.
1 Nad = 18.6 cm

Pelutho (n.)
A South American ball game. The balls are whacked against the wall with a stout wooden bat until the prisoner confesses.

Trispen (n.)
A form of intelligent grass. It grows a single, tough stalk and makes its home on lawns. When it sees the lawnmower coming it lies down and pops up again after it has gone by.

Link: http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/002789.html

Link: http://www.fortbendnow.com

...I think it is time that we enacted bans on other unBiblical activities for the sake of consistency. This opinion piece from Fort Bend Now explains:

I am so thrilled that Proposition 2 passed and brings in to law a ban on gay marriage. I very much look forward to the other bans that will soon be added to our Texas Constitution.
Soon all extramarital affairs will be banned by our Constitution. After all, God made Adam and Eve to be married, and did not intend for spouses to have mistresses on the side. I am pretty sure this goes on, maybe even with some of our politicians. I wonder why they have never enacted a constitutional ban about this? And while we’re at it maybe we should use the Biblical form of punishment for those caught in adultery. Let’s just stone them all to death.
Soon we will no longer have to put up with those pesky interracial marriages. In Biblical times it was against God’s law for people to marry outside their faith, race or culture. Once we enact the new law, we will have no more Hispanics marrying Africans Americans or Asians marrying Whites. And certainly there will be no Christians marrying Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists or other. It is better that we all keep to our own kind, right? Certainly we don’t find strength in diversity, do we?
While I am thinking about it, it was not Biblical for women to read the Bible, work outside the home or to vote. I guess soon those things will stop too, because I know our government is very concerned with keeping things Biblical. I suppose we will all soon be working 6 days a week with only one day a week to rest.
I know these laws will soon be passed because those acts, like homosexuality, are unbiblical. And, if they aren’t passed very soon, then our legislature, and our voters, would simply be discriminating against homosexuals because they can’t deal with the thought of other people being different from them. And I’m sure that can’t be the case with the intelligent people of this great state. Or maybe…just maybe, should we quit mixing politics and religion and let the two be separate the way the Founding Fathers meant them to be?

Beth Armstrong
Missouri City

Link: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/12/28/bc.fbn.bills.unhappyfan.ap/index.html

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the "herd" mentality of some affiliated groups of humans. Earlier this season, the Detroit Lions security staff began confiscating signs and threatening to eject ticket-holders from home games because some of the signs were communicating suggestions that the Lions might like to consider firing GM Matt Millen instead of allowing Millen to keep firing coaches.
Now the Buffalo Bills are doing the same thing, as this article explains.
Note to NFL franchises: If your fans (most of whom pay you significant money for tickets and other purchases) are pissed off because you cannot assemble a winning record, don't piss them off further by attempting to shut down their right to protest the quality of your product. You may be entitled to do it, but that doesn't make it right or smart. Elementary common sense tells me that if you have pissed-off customers, you might want to be trying to mollfy them instead of further alienating them. Just a thought...
The Bills and the Lions would be better advised to apologize to the fans for their crappy product, and to devote more energy to fixing it, instead of picking on their customers.

Link: http://mediamatters.org/items/200512230006

...without a small compendium of some of the more jaw-droppingly idiotic, bigoted, stupid comments made by media figures, politicians and commentators so far this year. Here we are...

May the deity or deities of your choice be with you this festive season.

Cheers!

Here is a nice posting about the view from Canada about current (rather strained) relations with the USA, from The Well:

1. As a small, middle-of-the-road non-power the corruption stakes are
more personal and monetary, not multinational, militaristic, nor
religious. End-of-days types have a hard time pursuading us about the end
times when it's blowing snow and -40 in January. Our military really
does need to have bake sales to cover its needs. And the emergence of
China? What, ANOTHER imperial, arrogant oversized power with
questionable civil rights claiming eminence? Sigh. Not AGAIN. We
started with the French, then the British, then you guys. Next!
2. We watch you guys, see where you crash and burn, and instinctivly
think to ourselves "DONT DO THAT!!!!".

So thanks for the heads up folks. Too bad you're trying to take us
with you.

Link: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1134774611281&call_pageid=968332188854

I have been unable to find any sensible comment about the Iranian president's recent anti-Israel speeches, since all that was reported were the usual denunciations.
However, here is an interview with an Iranian-born Jew who actually offers an explanation. Short summary: there is a (sort of) method to the madness.

...is that many people have become hopelessly polarized in their thinking and their opinions. There are relatively few blogs and discussion forums where civilized discourse is the order of the day. Many web sites seem to be populated mostly by shills whose minds are not so much closed as welded shut. Anybody who does not toe the party line at those sites is banned in short order, often accompanied by insults and rude remarks. If most of the people hanging out at those sites were children of mine, I would be raking them over the coals for peurile immaturity and demanding that they actually grow or acquire a functioning brain.
So, it is actually a pleasant surprise to find sites such as this one, where most of the discussions seem to actually involve humans with a functioning brain which is connected to their keyboard fingers.

Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article334476.ece

One of the challenges that has consistently been downplayed by many of the more involved (and optimistic) parties to the Iraq occupation is the fact that Iraq is not a "country" in the accepted sense that we in the West understand a country to be. It was manufactured out of three separate regions as part of a regional carve-up by the Great Powers after World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq is basically still those 3 regions, which have always been wary and distrustful of each other.
The sheer monstrous (and superficially unifying) nature of Saddam Hussein's rule over Iraq tended to overshadow this reality, in much the same way that Josep Tito's rule over Yugoslavia after World War II contrived to make that country look like a monolith to the outside world, when it was really a collection of mutually antagonistic religious and ethnic groupings. We know what happened there after Tito was not there any more...
This article shows that the most disappointing (but sadly predictable) result of the elections thus far in Iraq has been the marginalization of all of the non-sectarian parties, with sectarian and narrowly religious parties winning most of the votes. This does not augur well for the new Iraq. I am not optimistic that Iraq can actually survive as a "country" in the Western sense.