Quote of the day

I've been reading Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Bait and Switch and came upon this quote.

"...from the point of view of the economic "winners" - those who occupy powerful and high-paying jobs -  the view that one's fate depends entirely on oneself must be remarkably convenient.  It explains the winners' success in the most flattering terms while invalidating the complaints of the losers."

Hindi ko lang maintindihan yung mga Pilipino na nakatira sa Pilipinas, nakikita nila yung kahirapan ng kanilang kapwa, pero ganito pa rin ang pag-iisip.

Pangit ng Globe DSL

Putang -ina, every 5 minutes bigla na lang kaming na disconnect sa Globe.  Business line pa man din ang binabayaran namin.  Putang-ama nila.

6 months

Atheist convention in the Philippines

xkcd: Science Mnemonics

Hitchens - free speech

Saw this from Dispatches from the Culture Wars with this terrific quote

"Now to this proud record they can add that they finally had the courage finally to face their past and lock up a British historian who’s committed no crime except that of thought and writing. And that’s a scandal. And I can’t find a seconder usually when I propose this, but I don’t care. I don’t need a seconder. My own opinion is enough for me and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, at any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get on line and kiss my ass."

In a better place

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Remembering Hitchens

I join a lot of people today who mourn the death of Christopher Hitchens,  he influenced a lot of people and like all good writers made me jealous of his gift.  Like a lot of people outside of the US and Britain, I only grew aware of Hitchens' existence with the advent of the internet,  before that, I did not have any means to read his writing.  Fittingly enough, I first became aware of him because of his pro-Iraq war writing.

As a Filipino,  I was against the 2nd Iraq war because my country has been subject to the US routinely running roughshod over the sovereignty of the Philippines.  So,  the protection of every nation's sovereignty is very important to me.  Hitchens' argument for the war though is different from those of Bush and co.,  he was arguing that if we as people want to protect the human rights of Iraqi's, the best method will be to remove Saddam. 

I liked that Hitchens presented a different framework for viewing the Iraq war.  I love people who challenges my perception of the world.  He did this and did it with such masterful use of words.

He will be missed.

Good luck to the ICC

Normally, I would like to see Sen. Santiago out as soon as possible, but right now, I would rather she exit the Senate after the RH bill is passed.

I don't understand lawyers

This PDI story quotes IBP general counsel Ramon Esguerra saying

"We still hear the call to oust the Chief Justice, and to a certain extent, the other appointees of the former President… We view the populist move for the ouster as mob-inspired and… with some reservations, as… extraconstitutional."

I can't understand how using verbal reproach and now impeachment which are both constitutional make the ouster call for the Chief Justice extraconstitutional.