In Joburg, it’s that time of year again. The cyclists invaded, took over the city, banned everyone else from the road, and had their private lycra-fetish party. Here’s what I think of that.

The sOccketball is an invention by a bunch of American college kids, aimed squarely at the sub-Saharan African market. It just got a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award. The problem? It’s useless, and the idea that Africans can’t look after themselves is supremely condescending. I explain why in today’s Daily Maverick column: Let’s return the beads

The laws about seat belts and motorcycle helmets are a direct infringement on your liberty by an overweening nanny state. This week’s column in The Daily Maverick stirred up a great deal of emotional response: Away with fascist seatbelt laws.

I got to thinking about the Sudan over the weekend; why Thabo Mbeki is there, and why anyone might care. My column for the Daily Maverick this week was the inevitable result: Tintin Mbeki in the Sudan

While the government talks tough about joining the currency war that has broken out as a result of the collapsing dollar (see my column at The Daily Maverick: Currency: the race to the bottom), I was thinking about the many other grand but ultimately futile ideas government comes up with to plaster over the cracks of past failures. Then I thought how nice it would be for everyone, including the ANC’s own constituency, if the government tried to do far less, but do it well.

In other news, some guy on the interwebs said I called for genocide, and proceeded to point out how barbaric that would be. I quite agree. Well, I would, if there was even a shred of truth in the words he put in my mouth: The algebra has a devil for a sidekick. Cute headline, though.

I keep meaning to respond to Michael Meadon’s critique of my position on global warming, but the real world keeps intervening. I’m busy writing about currency intervention, after a fortnight in which I simply had to tackle the topical and thorny subjects of Zimbabwean immigrants (give them citizenship, I wrote), as well as the National Health Initiative and the water crisis (about which I warned in 2008). Mr Meadon, I have not forgotten your post.

There was a bit of an outcry over a lawsuit brought by Gold Reef City against the television show Carte Blanche. It is certainly a large suit, amounting to some R47 million, but contrary to some views, this is not a threat to freedom of the press. On the contrary. If people did not have legal recourse against the media, the ANC would be justified in calling for a Media Appeals Tribunal. Read on, at The Daily Maverick.

Neuroses about food additives are far more likely to kill us than the scary-sounding chemicals themselves. Here’s a Daily Maverick column from last week (somewhat lighter and less controversial than its predecessor) in praise of MSG: That finger-licking, lip-smacking taste.

Government is forging ahead with a series of raids on defenceless consumers, with a green tax on everything that moves. Needless to say, I’m opposed, on a whole host of grounds: Green tax: another raid is coming

This was a hectic week in which I moved to a rather larger (if much older) house, while entertaining a tenacious bug that kept me coughing and wheezing. I did manage two columns, however, both in a way dealing with mobs.

The first, published at The Daily Maverick earlier this week, expresses my utter lack of sympathy with striking public sector workers. To paraphrase Mark Twain, it’s been the unspeakable in pursuit of the indefensible. Do strikers deserve anything? It got some attention in the mainstream media, resulting in a brief but entertaining interview on E-News yesterday morning.

Another piece of news that made me think of the mob is the ruling that grants South Africa jurisdiction over the domestic activities of foreign-based online casinos. In short, they’re now officially illegal. Punters, banks and carriers of advertising alike will be in the line of fire. The motive? Protecting government tax revenue, of course. The gambling industry used to be shaken down by mob bosses. Now, government bosses do it. They even call it protection. Protecting mob turf was published yesterday on ITWeb.

While everyone is saying all the right things, and making all the right arguments, they’re losing the battle on media freedom. As long as the ANC’s base remains unconvinced, it will side with the ANC, and the ANC will claim a legitimate mandate to push through draconian laws that will, in effect if not in intent, stifle a free media.

Read my Daily Maverick column on the subject here: Why the media will lose this battle.

Someone sent me a video that was supposed to convince me of the truth of global warming. It didn’t. At The Daily Maverick: Global warmism needs a fisking.