Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

The Norden is a documentary series where they take someone from the United States to visit Finland, Norway and Sweden and compare the way they do things. With predictable results.

Prisons

Police

Guns are a terrible idea; go Norway.

Religion

I think the paster here does really well. He is down with the Heavy Metal Mass, and it feels like with the room 666 they are just teasing him. Plus the Bible does hate gays. I do not agree with that, but it is in there.

One of the best things about receiving a “son and your fiancee” card from my parents was that it really reminded me of this Fry & Laurie sketch.

Cabinet reshuffle:

Howling Laud Hope’s speech:

Dancing during the pub crawl:

Halloween couples costumes. Many of these are just down-right scary. Which makes a change from the usual set of costumes you get on eBay for women: sexy police officer, sexy fire fighter, sexy horse, sexy donut, etc, etc.

What happens if you buy a load of food from McDonald’s, re-package it, and tell a bunch of foodies that it is organic food? Well, two people in The Netherlands did that, and it turns out they all say the food is delicious.

Probably best to turn the sub-titles on if you do not speak Dutch.

…until you have seen Darth Vader, on a unicyle, playing the bagpipes.

In the film A Few Good Men Colonel Jessep speaks the often quoted, though perhaps not very well understood, “the truth? You can’t handle the truth.”

I used to consider myself more right-wing in that I was (and still am) a libertarian. Though as I have grown older I have come round to more of a lefty socialist world view. However, my attitude towards the military has changed in the opposite direction.

As a libertarian I was anti-military. My view was that we should just let other countries get on with it and you should not be classified as a hero for taking government money to go murder black and brown people. Consistent with my libertarianism, though not a view in line with what many other people on the right would think, most of whom want to see aggressive military spending.

As a socialist, I am now not no so sure. If we are going to say that the machinery of governments should be used to maximise equality instead of liberty, then why should it stop at an arbitrary national border? Why insist that money be taken from the rich and given to the poor, while at the same time reconciling North Koreans to their horrible fate of oppression and starvation?

Of course one message to take away from this is that the whole left-right issues are not so easily pigeon-holed. But also, that the left-right view points are often inconsistent within themselves – the right do not want the state to interfere (except in the bedroom), the left do want the state to interfere (but not in the bedroom).

Back on the video though, it illustrates an important point. This issue is not an easy one. How do you balance the desire for peace with the desire for justice and liberty?