This quote is shamelessly stolen from another blog that stole it from another article. But it is great anyway (or even because of).

The US is a country that believes passionately in freedom, ingenuity and free enterprise. It has produced only two dozen kinds of cheese (some of which are excellent copies of French and British cheeses). However, if you walk into any American supermarket, you will see that the US has produced more than 50 kinds of peanut butter. They all taste the same but they have radically different labels.

France is a country that is overtaxed and over-administered by a suffocating bureaucracy. It has somehow managed to create 176 (or 258 or 1,000) different kinds of cheese, all of which are subtly different from one another. A lait cru (raw milk) camembert, eaten at just the right moment (when there is only a thin layer of dry cheese in the centre) is one of the great achievements of humanity. Ditto roquefort; and St-Nectaire; and cantal; and chaource; and so on and on (and on).

According to the Wall Street Journal book of political and economic orthodoxy, the American Way produces enterprise, variety and choice. The French Way produces stultification. Cheese defies that ideology. No wonder that cheese-eating is a term of insult for American right-wingers.

If we are being offered a choice between a cheese-eating civilisation and a peanut-butter-eating civilisation, I am with the cheese-eaters. Post-September 11, US politics ? and even US journalism ? seems to be going the way of peanut butter. There is room for endless freedom of choice between labels. The contents of the ideas are not allowed to vary.

OK, I’ll stipulate that I am in a massive bad mood (iced driveway late video phone line in office dead and probably more), but I still think that this rant delivered as a footnote on a discussion of whether browser sniffing is a good or bad thing is just a freaking riot.

There’s plenty of “we need to deploy technology X, which only works in MSIE6/Win at 1024x768 on a Dell computer with a flatscreen 17” monitor, a colour depth of 32million and a colour temperature thingy of 9300k, after being freshly degaused and blessed by a Catholic priest, while the memory of chanting at a tabby cat is fresh in the user’s mind.” But the reason is usually /not/ that technology X is vital, but rather that technology X is some stupid, ill-advised abomination concocted of so much unnecessary small text, JavaScript and Flash to the point where the average user has an epileptic fit and dials Jakob Nielsen’s phone number involuntarily. Ahem. Issues… many issues…

Ok, we tried this once before with no winner. Here is the deal. The war is basically inevitable now. So when will it start? You can pick one day, only one, so make it good.

The Final Pool

Dan Quayle: “Mars is essentially in the same orbit… Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.”

George W. Bush: Bush backs alien evidence

Once again Senator Robert Byrd tries to talk some sense into his fellow senators. I find it quite sad that he is getting so little attention.

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences

I love it when things like this happen. Click for more.

In a bout of masochism, I’m pulling together a list of “accomplishments” of the Bush administration. Feel free to add.

• Worst job market in 20 years
• PATRIOT Act
• PATRIOT II proposal
• Threatening the future of NATO
• Destroying trans-atlantic relations
• Economic policy criticized by economists

Ok, that’s enough for now. There are obviously more things to be thankful for. Add your own.

House, Senate agree to prohibit citizens’ e-mail surveillance

I just hope it makes it past Shrub’s desk now.

A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled that it is legal for the state of Arknsas to force a death row inmate to take anti-psychotic drugs so that he is sane enough to be executed. huh?

NYTimes Article This really makes me think about my feelings regarding the death penalty in general. In principal I am not opposed to a death penalty and in some instances I definately support the idea. I have always felt that for a certain class of crimes death is an acceptable punishment. I feel that it does act as a deterant for one group of potential criminals, and for the group that it can’t deter, at least the taxpayer isn’t paying to house and feed them for the rest of the criminal’s life.

But this case is just an example of how messed up the system has gotten. In practice I think the death penalty system in the US has completely come apart and no longer works. I’m not sure what this does to my opinion on the issue.

So add your thoughts. Maybe you can change my opinion. (And that doesn’t happen all that often, so don’t let it pass you by.)

I’m losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

I think this will help. I’ve got some shifty-eyed neighbors I want to deal with.