The Passion of the Christ, with a Benny Hill soundtrack. Yep, this is offensive. I’m not a Christian and it offends me. (Okay, I laughed a bit at the start.)

But imagine if it had been Islam at the butt end of the joke? While the “Benny Hill Passion” is offensive, I doubt it will cause riots.

Normally, I don’t think much of Mark Steyn’s columns, but I found this one kind of fascinating. And if there’s any truth to the stories of the non-coverage of hate crimes in France, deeply frightening. It does lend credence to the hypothesis of William Bennett and Alan Dershowitz that the press is failing us, and not only because it has given the Bush Administration a pass on so much bad behaviour.

Travel Writer Martin Martin presents Holy Crap! (circa 1695, slide 2)

• Isle of Islay
• Known for its peaty usquebaugh or “water of life”
• Also have usquebaugh-baul: “perilous water of life.”

Travel Writer Martin Martin presents Holy Crap! (circa 1695, slide 3)

• 184 proof
• 92 percent alcohol
• two spoonfuls can paralyze you.

Travel Writer Martin Martin presents Holy Crap! (circa 1695, slide 4)

• powerful enough to affect all members of the body
• you know what I mean.

Mark Reyneir, Manager Bruichladdich distillery presents: A bit of fun (circa now, slide 5)

• making 184-proof again
• ten years ’till done
• not to be taken with any other medication
• keep away from open flame.

Inspired by:
Distillery to revive 184 proof whiskey

I’d like to break away from the arms-length satire for a moment and ask, are we heading for trouble?

(Damn, even when I’m not trying to be sarcastic, it comes out that way.) A quick mine of The Skwib blogroll found some grist for the depressing notion that our consumer lifestyle is untenable, both in terms of what its doing to the planet and what it does to us as human beings.

First off, via the Rev., we read this long piece from Joe Bageant, which is a dispatch from the American Class war. Bageant quotes Charles Eisenstein’s The Ascent of Humanity:

It is a mistake to think that we live ultra-specialized lives and somehow add another ingredient called “community” on top of it all. What is there really to share? Not much that matters, to the extent that we are independent of neighbors and dependent on faceless institutions and distant strangers. Real communities are interdependent. Never in all history has there been such a lonely, inauthentic civilization.

Essentially, this is a meditation on the destruction of the American middle class as an incubator for community. And lest the Canadians reading this feel smug, we have enough in common in terms of our consumer culture that you will feel uncomfortable, perhaps even sad. Continue reading…

Thanks to all for running these carnivals. As a host of the Carnival of Satire, we know it’s lots of work.

The Carnival of the Insanities has an easy-to-read format, and fun links.
Funny Stuff from the Conservative Cat.
The Best of Me Symphony at the Owner’s Manual.
The Storyblogging Carnival at Doc Rampage.

Jurassic Mammalian Park

Instead of “sparing no expense” Hammond decides to populate his theme park with Jurassic mammals, including the impressive proto-beaver. A snippet of dialog:

John Hammond: All major theme parks have had delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked, nothing.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: But, John. But if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t nibble your bum. That beaver is dynamite!

In lieu of doing something original this week, we have decided to rip off Despair.com to introduce this week’s Carnival of Satire. Enjoy.

Achievement

You can do anything you set your mind to, when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.

SquirtCheez found a Housewife Upset to See Sports During NBC’s Olympics Coverage. People skiing is crass. They should be falling. Tumbling. Breaking things.

Mistakes

It could be the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning for others.

Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane’s Notables has some more Dick Cheney humor with Faking Contrition – Song Parody.

Despair

It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black.

Big Cajun Man (aka Alan) at Canadian Financial Blog reminded us the brilliance of the demotivation poster, with Work: Despair Inc. Strikes Again. Continue reading…

Spectre haunts Europe (slide 1)

• Not Engles and his “GIT issues”
• Communism
• Unholy alliance against it
• Overthrow capitalism

.

Socialism (slide 3)

• Abolition of land ownership & inheritance
• Progressive income tax
• Universal education
• Everyone gets a funny hat.

Cool stuff (slide 6)

• No bourgeois families
  • (Teenagers will probably still be angry)
• “Community” of women
  • (Free love)
• Beer for lunch

Inspired by: Publication of Communist Manifesto, Feb. 21, 1848

Behind again! Thanks to the following Carnivals for including The Skwib recently:
Carnival of the Godless
Carnival of the Insanities
Best of Me Symphony
And a special thanks to the Friday Ark for including us in the “exceptions” category!

And on Wednesday, check out the Carnival of the Vanities, ably hosted at A DC Birding Blog, and the Carnival of Crazy.

We’re a bit rushed around The Skwib this week, so we’ll get straight to the posts, starting with Elisson at Blog d’Elisson who has inked up a classic in Cartoon Jihad.

Joan Conde at Mamacita sets it and forgets in in Nominations for The Popeils: 2006 Infomercial of the Year Awards.

Lordsomber at The Pungeoning has Good Advice: Look Both Ways.

J.R. Kinnard at Don’t Floss With Tinsel presents ‘Garden of Eden’ Stirs My Bloodlust

Ferdinand T. Cat at Conservative Cat takes this Deadeye Dick thing to its logical conclusion in Cheney Invites Dean on Hunting Trip.

Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane’s Notables has a lyrical time of it in Cheney Misfires — Big Time! & Other Political Verse. Continue reading…

We missed telling you about the Bonfire of the Vanities, hosted yesterday at The Cigar Intelligencer. This is the carnival where people make fun of themselves, and the host helps.

For today, go check out the original, the Carnival of the Vanities, hosted by A Financial Revolution. And don’t miss the Tangled Bank. This carnival is chock full of science-y goodness, and is ably hosted by Kete Were; I enjoyed this humorous take on how scientitians celebrate V-day.