The tragicomic presidency of George W. Bush, in his own words

Funny or sad? bbbpbbppppttttt…

I would say sad before I said funny…

“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”

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Colin, you shall be remembered

Colin McRae is dead.

Another motorsport legend goes out, not in a blaze of glory on the racetrack, but in a helicopter accident which also killed his 5-year old son and two family friends, one of whom was a young lad as well.

I don’t remember the first time I heard about Colin McRae, but I certainly remember eagerly scanning the World Rally Championship highlights for  ‘Colin McCrash’, who  seemed to be able to set the world on fire with a normal-looking street car on wet, gravelly roads. It’s a pity his run of success wasn’t longer, but he did get to enjoy his fame and fortune, which I certainly didn’t begrudge him.

I’m sure that many folks will be firing up their rally console games this week and in months to come and remembering fondly all the antics, crashes and wins  of Colin…I certainly will!

Here’s to you, Colin!

I am sick of hearing about Diana, Princess of Wales.

I am so tired of hearing about Diana and her death. Yes, she is perhaps the most famous person to have died in a car crash in the last 25 or so years, but NO ONE else I know at work is the least bit interested in the concerts (which just happened a month or two ago!), the specials, the articles, the papers, the magazines, the books, the clothes or anything at all. So why does it come up every month? Does anyone else care less than me and pretty much everyone I know?

At the time Di was really active with her good causes I was thinking ‘that’s great, good job’, but since the car crash it’s been all about the supposed conspiracy, the controversial books and more. There’s a whole industry of Diana that has been built up and shows no signs of slowing. If, tomorrow, Paris Hilton ran over Lindsay Lohan while Britney held a gun to her head and then the car went over a cliff, maybe that would dominate the news and we could all get sick of that, but eventually things would come back around to Diana.

Just so you know, I’m not heartless. I give to charities at work – at least a few quid a month on average, plus I’m a continuing member of the National Trust & English Heritage. I”ve donated to PBS. I used to be a member of the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy and a couple other environmental groups. I give to a different charity every month for a year – the RSPCA and Trust for the Blind in the past. I buy the RSPB pins and things. I shop at Oxfam. I donate my clothes instead of selling them. I buy fairtrade whenever possible. I’m also considering a trek on the Coast to Coast path for charity.

edit: Here’s a picture I snapped last Friday at my local Costco, just to show you the overall shove-it-down-your-throat level of Di-love we get here:

original here