There is nothing more dangerous than a cunning fool.

Do you read the great demotivational posters at dispair.com.  It’s a great website selling little pearls of wisdoms and mocking all those motivational posters you see around.  You know the ones ”Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.”  Or “You can soar like an eagle” to which the demotivators poster says “Eagles are like leaders – we don’t have any here either”.  My favorite is

“MISTAKES: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others”

With it is a picture of a sinking ship (http://www.despair.com/mis24x30prin.html).   And this was what I thought when I saw this headline

“British man Sean Murphy shoots off own finger with shotgun to remove wart”

Can you believe this headline!  I know, where are the commas???  Commas are the cornerstone of civilization and understanding – the difference between a man-eating shark or a man eating shark.  But I digress.  All in all Sean used a novel method to remove his wart and to be fair he certainly did remove it!  That and his middle finger.  OK, we have all been there haven’t we?.  A few beers and hey suddenly this seems like a great idea.  But no, in the cold light of day, after his court appearance on firearms charges, he said, "The best thing is that the wart has gone, it was giving me lot of trouble."

OK so my point here is that there is nothing more dangerous than a cunning fool, a variation on the “nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talent fool”.  And I would like to suggest to you that we all should be thankful for such people and here’s why.

While these fools might occasionally take some poor unfortunate victim with them more often than not they take themselves out - out of the gene pool. Usually you will find a record of their enterprising demise at the Darwin Awards website (http://www.darwinawards.com/).   By removing themselves they are making the rest of the world a safer place for the rest of us.

That is unless you know one, or worse are one…….

Link to the news story. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/06/16/2011-06-16_british_man_shoots_off_own_finger_with_shotgun_to_remove_wart.html

The Geeks shall inherit the Earth.

 So says the bible. OK, it might have referred to some shifting looking crowd known as the “meek” but you know spell checkers these days, especially if you read this blog!  God probably wrote geek but the celestial spell checker mucked it up. So now that’s straight the reason for todays topic was a few weeks back it was International Geek Pride Day.  In celebration Modis surveyed 1000 Americans about geeks (link at bottom).  Apparently 2 out of 3 people aged 18 to 34 considered being called a geek a compliment, and 82 per cent of all people thought it was more acceptable to be a geek today than it was 15 years ago.  And nearly twice as many prefer to be called a “geek” (41 percent) instead of a “jock” (22 percent).

Jocks, who peak sometime before high school graduation end up paying for their sporting prowess with arthritis or worse.  Don’t tell me Lance’s man berry cancer wasn’t from all those “vitamins” to didn’t take.   And all those concussions aren’t going to help you win “MIllionare”.  Of course some of this change in attitude has been helped by any number of billionaire geeks like Bill “Micro$oft” Gates or Steve “Reality Distortion Field” Jobs. 

So be nice to geeks people – you’ll be working for them one day.  And no, geeks are not driven to succeed because of the rigor and stress of survival at high school.  

I leave you with this – no matter what, don’t go through life wearing a red shirt.  If you don’t get it your not in the geek club yet

http://www.modis.com/about/press-room/article/?art=20110523_1&type=pr

The Minister for Stupidity

As you know we here at the Mad Musing bureau try and keep a level head and offer a calm and discerning perspective of the world.  This is so you, the little people, can take in the searing insight and mind-blowing changes to your worldview that this blog may bring. 

However, today’s topic is politicians and we feel the calmness leaving us, leaching out holes left in our brain by the utter absurdity of what these people say. Listening to politicians is of course a practised art as these folk speak a strange language.  Words are said but there is no meaning and little sense can be made of it.  You see they have invented an oratory that is simply breathtaking in its ability to say nothing, convey no meaning nor offer any clue as to a viewpoint or opinion.

"and then I had this brilliant idea...."

What has brought us to this point of indignation?  It is the Honourable Stephen Robertson, Queensland’s Minister for Energy.  Having failed spectacularly at being Minister of Roads and Health it was hoped Energy would be a safe place for him. Not much happens there really.  Its using the well known principle "If people don't know what you're doing, they don't know what you're doing wrong."


Well those in Queensland will be well aware that last week the Minister approved a 6%  price increase in power.  And the reason….wait for it….was because consumers hadn’t used enough power over the summer!  Truly jaw-dropping logic and right out of the “Yes Minister” playbook.  You young folk should really watch this truly insightful BBC satire from the 80s. According to the minister power companies needed to reclaim the cost of last years infrastructure costs.  And thoughtless consumers had had the gall to not use enough of the sparky stuff. 

OK, so lets think about this. What did the minster think last years 13% increase was actually for?  Yes, you guessed it. They said it was for infrastructure. Where did that money go one might ask? Looks like double dipping to me. Umm he also conveniently forgot to mention the huge government campaign this summer to turn off our air conditioners as we had thoughtlessly gone out and purchased a swag of them thinking how nice it would be to be cool this summer.  Apparently this was going to ruin our power system, the sky was falling, etc.  Maybe we should claim the government gave all of us bad advice and should ask to be reimbursed!

This is truly a piece of stupendous idiocy but sadly no surprise from this minister or government.  This is the same government that privatised water and told us to use 120L a day during the drought only to put up the price of water vastly. Even if you use none-at-all. We really are mugs. 

The trouble with government today is there are many people with the power to stop things happening but nobody with the power to make things happen. Government has the engine of a lawn mower but the brakes of a 747.  (paraphrased from Yes Minister).  It is true here too with the current US federal government budget negotiations.   I think living in Madison has me all up in arms.  I blame Governor Walker of Wisconsin.  Why not, every else does!

Ill leave you with another Yes Minister piece of advice.   "The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it's been officially denied."