Via Foreign Policy, comes this story of Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia:
Despite having served for years as a distinguished Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb reportedly cannot receive accreditation as Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with his credentials, and everything to do with his name — which, in Arabic, translates to “biggest dick”:
According to this article, he most recently served as High Commissioner Designate of Pakistan to Canada, where of course his name wouldn’t have been a problem, because in Canadian, ‘biggest dick’ is translated as ‘Stephen Harper’.
In the meantime, however, we close with the inevitable Monty Python skit:
It’s posts like this that make me realize one of the best blogs you can read right now happens to be written by a 90-year-old man. It’s also why I’m not overly panicked about stories like this.
Why is he a Douche-Nozzle, you ask? Well, he is Republican, and that’s always a good indicator. But no, Chambliss climbed into the lead by his performance at this week’s Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell‘ policy’ when he predicted that repealing DADT would lead to
“alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art” in the military
Good heavens, Mercy no – not Tattoos!! Why, what could be next? Actually, why don’t we let Bill Murray explain it to us:
But, really, why shouldn’t we believe Senator Chambliss? Just because Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefsfavours repealing it? After all, what’s Adm Mullen got that Senator Chambliss doesn’t? Well, let’s see:
Distinguished military service, raft of medal, a Vietnam Tour – what have you got again, Saxby, old chum?
I’m sending the following question to the CBC via their comments page:
Hello,
I frequently contribute stories of interest to a close friend’s blog. Occasionally, I snip a quote from one or more news sources, including the CBC, and provide a link to the original source (and accreditation if available). Sometimes I have something less than flattering to say about the article’s content, as I may disagree with the author’s point of view on the subject. Does your new copyright infringement policy make such blog posts technically illegal? Is it the snippet quoting that CBC objects to, or the occasionally disagreement over the content? I’d hate to get the blog owner in financial or legal trouble over a snippet, thinking that “fair use” applied. I’d especially hate it if it happened because I voiced disagreement with a CBC columnist or management. Perhaps I should ensure that any and all links to CBC articles are eliminated from my blog posts to avoid any issues. I’m sorry for any internet traffic my humble posts may have inadvertently sent to the CBC in the past.
No, this isn’t about parking. They are still hopelessly braindead about the residential peninsula.
This is about tax reform! Council voted against a regressive overhaul of the tax system last night, hopefully killing the “fee-for-services” model once and for all. The municipal tax base is currently based on the appraised value of property, so people who own property (and tenants, through rent) pay taxes based on how valuable their property is. They wanted to change this system to a “service-based” system, which would see million-dollar mansion owners paying the same property taxes as thousand-dollar trailer owners, assuming provided services were the same.
Presumably this tax reform process was started to reduce the tax burden on rural property owners who own houses similar in value to urban- and suburbanites, but who don’t get much in the way of city services (homes with no bus service, properties that have their own well water and septic rather than city water and sewer systems, etc.). Also, the changes were presumably supposed to help out those property owners who have seen their property values grow enormously (>200% in some areas) even while their own income has only grown a tiny amount. Cost of living salary increases of 1-3% don’t help out much if your property tax assessment jumps 200% over 10 years.
Regardless of these issues, the tax reform before council was designed to reduce the burden on mansion owners while increasing it on the middle class family home owner. More equitable approaches to eliminate the lack of service to rural areas within HRM would presumably include rebates or zoning rules, rather than a flat fee-for-service system. The runaway property values could be dealt with by basing tax assessments on the owners original purchase price of the property. One could index tax assessments upwards based on cost-of-living increases rather than relying on real-estate booms and busts to reset assessments. New work done on old properties which increase their market values would have to somehow be included into this.
Anyway, I’m sure Tim Bousquet at The Coast will have plenty to say on this in tomorrow’s print and online issue. And he’ll be way more knowledgeable, clear, and thorough than me.
Even the New York Times has taken notice that the Canadian history magazine, The Beaver, has been forced by changing times to change its name to the less snicker-worthy Canada’s History. The article notes that, although the source of much schoolyard humor for decades, it is the advent of the Internet – and the inability of students to search websites with ‘Beaver’ in the title, which is not entirely unreasonable – which has necessitated the change.
They chose not to use my suggested title, “Big Titty Milfs”
Although this is the kind of story that kind of makes you chuckle a bit, it makes you wonder what magazine titles will be re-examined, or outright forbidden, by the dreaded double entendre:
Bald PussyMonthly, the magazine for owners of those freaky looking hairless cats;
Tits & Ass, a combined publication for lovers of specific types of birds and of donkeys;
Student Nurses in Latex, a specialty magazine for Nursing students, reminding them about proper sterilization techniques;
Naughty Catholic Schoolgirls Annual, the magazine dealing with the psychology of young women, approximately 17 to 25, who attend Catholic schools and who have encountered trouble with the law;
The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number. Trijicon’s rifle sights use tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, to create light and help shooters hit what they’re aiming for.
Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, one of the company’s most advanced models, include “JN8:12,” a reference to John 8:12: “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Praise God in all His glory! I got me one of them Godless Heathens in my sights!
Posted by dan 
