Sunday, February 1

The Taliban actually get a bum rap

Very amusing. I quote:

Their peaceful takeover of Swat has not been appreciated. They began small, as many of you might still recall, but there was no mistake that they were ahead of their times when they made driving compulsory on the right side of the roads instead of the left. Most people thought it was a loony thing to do in a country which is not exactly famous for its traffic sense–well, other than heroin traffic, where of course the whole belt is into serious enterprise. When the Taliban insisted that everyone drive on the right they were telling us that having driven on the left side for 60-plus years, all we had to show for it was Asif Ali Zardari. You can’t ask for a larger bum deal than that.


Accepted that the overnight switch caught drivers unaware. There were pileups reported from Malakand to Kalam and beyond, but that’s hardly anything to lose your shirt over. Anyone who ever visited that valley must know that there is no such thing as a number plate on any vehicle. For some reason the law-abiding and God-fearing folks who ply vehicles up and down the valley have been waiting for years to be sanctioned a number plate so that they can pay their taxes like all good folks. Instead, they have had to make do with number plates like AFL 007 or APR 008 or X34Y (or such equally exotic letters) which no one quite knows the meaning of. As for allowing nature to take its rightful course and men to sport luxuriant beards–a move that has elicited a fair amount of criticism–what is wrong with that? We have all known that man is the only animal that has to suffer the mortification of shaving every day. There can be no worse start to the day. Banning razors and blades and other such useless and decadent tools is a step in the right direction–notice: not left, but right.

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Quote of the Day:
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
--Dorothea Brande


Quote of the day:
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. - Doctor Who

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