Busy today, but I thought you might like to see this exploding banana mask.

You heard me.

I often enjoy Nick Cohen’s writing, not least when he upsets his readers at the Guardian and Observer. Which he does again today:

For once, the postmodern theories so many [Democrats] were taught at university are a help to the rest of us. As a Christian, conservative anti-abortionist who proved her support for the Iraq War by sending her son to fight in it, Sarah Palin was ‘the other’ – the threatening alien presence they defined themselves against…

Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right…

Naturally, umbrage ensues.

Eco-hippies weep for fallen trees. “I want you to know, trees, that we care.”

Emotional Hippies – Crying Over Dead Trees – Watch more free videos

Hand me the gun. No, the bigger one.

(h/t, Clazy.)

When the parachute doesn’t open. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus.) // Your very own dinosaur suit. Frighten children, impress women. More. // Idhi oka idi le. Bollywood psychedelia. // Bicycles with enormous speakers. It’s a thing, apparently. // Stop-motion fireworks. // Stop-motion chalk. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // Water sculpture. // Bruce Mozertom’s underwater photography. (1938) (h/t, DRB.) // Japanese goblin shark. Does anything about it look… familiar? // Guinness and light. // Sun spots and climate change. // Sunglasses of the Sixties and Seventies. (h/t, Anna.) // Nigerian man to divorce 82 of his 86 wives. // The size of Africa. (h/t, Norm.) // Michael Jackson at 50. // Tube clocks. // Buildings of note. // A short history of anatomical maps. // Architectural jelly. // Geothermal energy projects. // Deodorising snowflake gun brings joy to consumers. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Ms Valaida Snow. 

Arabella Weir, whose leftist credentials have previously been noted, today shares her wisdom on parenting and education:

Weir’s definition of a “good, responsible citizen” will become apparent in due course.

Some might think of that as where ideology collides with actual parenting.

Actually, Ms Weir attended the hardly-rough-and-tumble Camden School for Girls, a voluntary aided school, whose alumnae include Emma Thompson and Eva Germaine Rimington Taylor. Arabella is, lest we forget, the daughter of former British ambassador Sir Michael Weir and not short of a bob.

State schooling is, one might suppose, entirely free of disabling and alienating effects, being as it is so ideologically sound.

Here, the “right thing to do” has a sacrificial air and seems to mean trading educational opportunity – say, in terms of motivation, class size and a culture of learning – for an approved and “representative” social mix, i.e. one which involves mingling conspicuously with those deemed “disadvantaged”. Thus one’s leftist credentials can be seen by passers-by. Is this really about doing the right thing? Or is it just a matter of admiring one’s own socialist credibility?

For shame. Parents must make sacrifices, you hear? Not for their own children, of course, or for their peace of mind, but for the Greater Good.