If you want some unequivocal thoughts on the significance of 9/11 and the case for for whupping Osama's ass then have a look at that day's posts and links on Bellicose Women.

Just read on Evil Pundit's blog that the Dalai Lama was subtly pro (or at least not anti) the invasion of Afghanistan. Such an inversion of the Buddhist stereotype reminded me of an experience I had quite a while back...

It was during my SNAG phase. If I wasn't bursting into tears of life-affirming joy I was hugging anything with a pulse. One day I saw a bloke with a shaven head sitting at a bus-stop. Certain that he was a follower of the Dalai Lama, I walked up to him and said, "Peace be with you, sweet child of the Universe!" and embraced him warmly.

But did he reciprocate? Nup. Whopped me right in the kisser!

I did the human version of the famous Hanna-Barbera "Yabbada-yabbada-yabbada!" It was then that I realised he wasn't a Buddhist after all. Was actually a neo-Nazi skinhead.

That old saying about books and covers and not judging finally made sense to me. It was the beginning of the end of my New Age, er, age. (And my first step towards acting my age.)

But back to the Tibetan leader's subtle endorsement of violence: With these comments on the public record, will he continue to be promoted as the embodiment of goodness and wisdom in the fluffy wuffy media? Or will we see a less reverential attitude towards him? Will be interesting to see...

Was going to post something last night about September 11 (it's now the 12th here in Oz), but couldn't get around to it until now. Part of the reason was that I was so damn pissed off - pissed off about how so many people still haven't twigged that what happened then was a truly terrible crime against humanity, and that the reflection on and remembrance of it is not egotistical and self-indulgent, but dignified and justifiable; pissed off that the puerile, incoherent, anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-thought, anti-civilization movement can still be so influential in this country.

And being pissed off, I tried to calm down. I sought to forgive the boneheads who think that America is the bad guy in this stoush. And I succeeded, I reckon. I have pretty much stopped attempting to convince people who can't understand that the War on Terror is justified. I know I'll never reach them, so I turn my attention to their good points. You can always find something - well, almost always.

I think this is what separates the non-fluff from the fluff. Non-fluffs are forever trying to calm down, while fluffs look for any reason to arc up. This is why there are still so many sad ol' Stalinists in our media who remain angrier about the sacking of Gough the Great Helmsman thirty years ago than the mass murder of thousands of innocent people just two years back.

Let's face it, if you actually enjoy being pissed off you're going to stop making sense pretty soon and probably stay that way forever. And being pissed off is what fluffy wuffism (and all fundamentalism, for that matter) is all about .

So, fellow non-fluffs, don't maintain the rage. Retain the (inner) sage. Just as the Seppos are winning the global war on terror, we are winning the cultural war on leftist stupidity.

(And when we finally achieve victory, then we can really shit on them from a great height! Er, in a sage-like way of course.)

As the second anniversary of the September 11 attack approaches, the media keep running stories on its historical significance, changes to the American psyche etc. One of the things I've noticed is that whenever it's mentioned, it's described more often than not as a "tragedy" or a "disaster" rather than a "terrorist attack" or "act of mass murder" - which are far more accurate descriptions. It's like calling suicide bombers "activists" - a habit which Tim Blair has pointed out repeatedly in his blog.

It seems that many reporters are careful not to offend the memory of those "magnificent nineteen freedom fighters" who gave their lives for such a noble cause.

Still on the subject of good blog directories and resources, here's another one.