Our Commie nutters

The South African Communist Party (SACP) lost all relevance a long time ago. Whatever their contribution to the downfall of apartheid, it is arguably purely of academic value today; their only leaders of note also passed on like that curse that once stained the history of this country.

The SACP of today are communist in name only. Oh, sure they rant and mutter about socialist bullshit, but they’re all filthy liars who indulge with pleasure on the fruits of capitalism. If they were left to stand on their own feet, they would wither and die, and stink up the place even more than they do now. Which is why they cling so desperately to the unholy union with the ANC, another organisation which is now totally bereft of all its humanist credentials of the past.

One might be tempted to view their relationship with the ANC as parasitic, but that’s mostly not the case. Picture two drunken louts staggering around together, locked in shoulder embrace, and you’re closer to the truth. They actually compliment each other in the vilest possible ways.

From time to time, SACP spokesnutters feel obliged to remind the people (or more accurately, the unwashed masses) of their presence in society, as an organisation and an alliance partner of the ANC, by uttering or demanding (more often demanding) something so utterly stupid, that it leaves people cringing. However, cringing usually turns to fits of laughter, when it brings relief and a distraction from the horror of yet another truly offensive act from the ANC, which occurs with frightening frequency.

Their latest call is one worthy of some kind of award. These nutters are now demanding that legislation be enacted to protect the dignity of the South African President. If anything, legislation is sorely required to have our President hanged by his testicles, and left dangling for the rest of his miserable life, over the stinkiest long-drop in existence. And while we’re at it, all communist neanderthals should be made to suffer the same fate.

I get goosebumps…

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken by Voyager 1 from a distance, at the request of cosmologist Carl Sagan.

Subsequently, Sagan was inspired to write a book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future In Space and utter some of the most profound words in sciencedom [from Wikipedia below].

I hope you’ll enjoy this video with an amazing animation sequence, that keeps the voice and memory of Carl Sagan alive; it gives me goosebumps just listening.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Who Will It Be, Obama or McCain?

The culmination of a long, and what is arguably the most interesting Presidential election campaign in recent times, is at hand. On 4th November, 2008, Americans go to the polls and the world waits with baited breath…

Will Americans write a bold new chapter in the history of the United States of America by returning Obama to the White House, or will narrow-minded conservatism triumph once again? Come November, 04, will America have its first non-white President or will the White House remain aptly named?

We, the people of the world wait to celebrate with you, America. Please do not disappoint us.