| A hollow political economy?
Two different theories of history compete for our attention. One supports military rule, or stratocracy, and the other one supports peoples rule, or democracy. For simplicity, lets dub them Theories S and D.
Theory S argues that it was necessary to fire the Chief Justice because he was corrupt and out to derail the democratic process. It blames the attorneys for creating a mess which made the emergency inevitable. It argues that Musharraf acted in the national interest, not in his personal interest. Theory D argues that it was Musharrafs political ambition to continue as president for another five years that set in motion the disastrous chain of events which began with the decision to suspend the Chief Justice.
This duel between competing theories of history is not unique to Pakistan.
Category: Facebook
Between the Lines Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives Facebook's social pyramid schemers Posted in: General Social networking Facebook Guest post: Chris Matyszczyk laments the way some Facebook applications behave, creating what he calls "pre-pubescent pyramid selling." I have friends who seem to have a strangely close relationship with Facebook. Even though their profile says they are "in a relationship," they seem to spend a vast amount of time and mental space in living the social networking dream. The other day, two friends of mine sent me quizzes. One asked me to name movies from screenshots. The other wanted me to identify car logos (Flixster). It brought me an overwhelming two hundred seconds of fascination.
Three weeks until it begins anew
Don't get me wrong, I know some of the 80's bands, and artist that gain commercial success off of shows like American Idol, might be cheesey and cookie cutter, but that does NOT mean that they are not talented. Hell, Kip Winger is one of the cheesiest artist of all time (and he brought it upon himself by the way they marketed themselves, and their appearance in the 80's), but the guy is a seasoned studio musician with chops from hell, and if you've ever listened to some of his post-winger solo work (which I'm quite certain you haven't), he is a FANTASTIC player and songwriter. He just sold out and took the easy path. But he will go down in history in three memories. (1) wearing hot pink spandex in the ever creapy "seventeen" video, (2) Having the name of his band be on "Stuart's T-shirt" on Beavis and Butthead, and the Metallica guys throwing darts at his photo in the Nothing Else Matters video.
Clapton and Police play Park gigs
Eric Clapton and The Police are to headline this year's Hard Rock Calling festival in London's Hyde Park. Clapton will lead the first night of the two-day event and will be joined by special guests John Mayer and ex-girlfriend Sheryl Crow. The Police will top the line-up on the second night, with KT Tunstall and Starsailor also on the bill. The gigs are on 28-29 June with tickets on sale on 1 February. It is part of Hard Rock's Ambassadors of Rock Tour. 'Amazing' The concert will mark Clapton's first headlining gig at Hyde Park for more than a decade. "We are very excited about this year's Hard Rock Calling event as we have two amazing headline acts, following on the tradition from the past two years which saw Roger Waters, The Who, Peter Gabriel and Aerosmith perform," said Toby Leighton-Pope from organisers Live Nation.
Dan Turocy finds Fountain of Youth in Grey Panthers League
Initially, for Dan Turocy, it was another minor struggle to find a line last Wednesday afternoon in the GREY PANTHERS league. For some reason, he was off a couple of boards - opening with somewhat disappointing games of 158 and 178. Game 3 was a lot better. He opened with a turkey, extended that to a six-bagger, and then, all of a sudden, he had 11 strikes in-a-row. He told his rumbling tummy to settle down; he really wanted to shoot a three. He stepped on the approach, made his delivery, but was a tad off leaving three pins. But hey, he said, "a 297 is still one heck of a game and now I still have something to shoot for." Congratulations Dan, well done! Scores last Wednesday were decent. Big Al Howerton blasted a huge 222/624 series leading his team to a crushing 3-1 victory over the Dirty Old Men.
Surf's up in Manly as Steyne claims top prize
EVERY Sydneysider has their favourite patch of sand but, the experts say, this is the best patch. Manly's North Steyne has been declared the city's best beach by Keep Australia Beautiful, which measured each entrant against an encyclopedic set of criteria covering water quality, environmental and social standards and "friendliness". The group's fiercely contested annual clean beach challenge has grown to cover more than just littering. North Steyne has introduced recycled water throughout its surf club and beach toilets, put up multilingual safety signs and mobilised a small army of local nippers who zealously police rubbish collection. "When you have a six-year-old come up and ask why you dropped a plastic cup, you tend not to do it again," said Jo Cooper, a member of North Steyne Surf Club.
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