Natalie Solent |
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Politics, news, libertarianism, Science Fiction, religion, sewing.
You got a problem, bud? I like sewing.
E-mail: nataliesolent-at-aol-dot-com (I assume it's OK to quote senders by name.) Back to main blog RSS thingy 
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Monday, August 11, 2003
Not all Muslims participated! I spend a lot of time saying, let's stop pussyfooting around over the issue of the Islamicness of the Islamic fanatics who would enslave the world if they could. That's why it's particularly important for me to register that the headline to this Times story, "Police foil Muslim plot to bomb tourists in Spain," is crassly phrased. It wasn't a Muslim plot. It was far less of a Muslim plot than Guy Fawkes' little scheme was a Catholic plot. It was a plot by Muslim fanatics. If there was any news today, I don't know about it. You want 1,000 words on puppy poopy, I'm your gal. While on the subject of gun writing, shooting enthusiasts worldwide will lose no time in reading IMAO’s confident technical exposition on the many types of firearm It spoke to exactly my level of expertise. I cannot but feel that the death-dealing industry is letting its standards slip. Recently I was shocked to observe that one of my husband had acquired a magazine for one of his shooty things that was, get this, made of see-through plastic. Excuse me, that is not cool. If it had been the other sort of magazine it would have been Hello!. I've got water pistols that look more lethal. He muttured some rubbish about being able to see how many bullets you’ve got left. Ha! Does he think that just because I played with my overlocker instead of watching Die Hard for the fifteenth time I am ignorant of these things? That Bruce Wilkinson chap can keep calm and keep count in any crisis, and anyway the Plot will supply one more bullet when needed.
Peter writes: Re "... or the 00s (zero-ies? noughties?)"I like it. A few years ago I read Hell, I Was There, the autobiography of renowned shooting writer Elmer Keith. I was much taken with the way he described events in his early years on what still was recognisably the frontier as taking place in "nineteen and five" or "nineteen and six." Here's another speaker from the same era who said it the same way. Sunday, August 10, 2003
The good old bad old days. Quite a good article by David Aaronovitch saying no, the fifties weren't a golden age is spoilt by the addition of a randomly chosen insult: And I am increasingly suspicious of those who, from Left or Right, want to go backwards. Aren't they the same people who are always moaning? Don't they regret the passing of the days of stoicism at the same time as complaining about one inch of snow, one inch of floodwater or three days of heat?Nope. They aren't the same people. Complaining about the weather and nostalgia for the fifties correlate negatively, if at all. And I don't see why we must have either the 50s menu or the 00s (zero-ies? noughties?) menu. Why not pick the best bits from both?
Drat. That was meant to be my sign off line, and now I've spoilt it by thinking maybe improved technology does make certain types of community impossible - it's well known that the ease of modern transport is a factor in rising crime, for instance: the perp's in the next county before the alarm stops ringing. And it's easier than it was to get away from unsuccessful relationships rather than fix them.
Saturday, August 09, 2003
Two minutes is about as long as I can stand in this room, which faces south. Here’s some speed blogging from the furnace. Pinochet. Cuthbertson, Crozier, Goldstein, me. Marriage. Micklethwait, quoting Lileks. Bachini comments. Also Breen, quoting Kamm.
And Jim Miller scores, with some great Orwell quotes on anti-Americanism half a century ago.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Let's celebrate the summer! I haven’t had a Moppets & Martyrs Calendar entry for simply ages. LGF has several years' worth. To be strictly accurate, some of them don't qualify. Merely dressing up the tots in warlike gear doesn't count: you have to want your children dead to get that coveted M & M slot. But Palestinian parents have come up trumps again, and there are several worthy entries. Those kids dipping their hands in red gloop to reenact a lynching didn't quite qualify, but what a splendid effort they made, eh? Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Solidarity with the workers of Scarborough? That indefatigable foe of imperialism, Dave Dudley, has written an inspirational account of his soul-searching as to where a true son of the Revolution can get a sun-tan without guilt. The safety god demands lies as his offering. Today I went to the regular Wednesday viewing for tomorrow's sale at our local auction house. This isn't the posh sale but what they call the 'general' sale and everyone else the 'Thursday junk auction.' The catalogue (priced at 50p) bears this message: IMPORTANT NOTICE CONCERNING POST-1950 FURNITURE.The first thing to understand about this is that it is bullshit. The guy who wrote it knew it was bullshit and the people who read it know it is bullshit. No-one on God's good earth buys a 1970s armchair as a work of art, or if they do they probably bought it as a job lot with California from the Emperor Napoleon in the next bed. Nor does one buy a 1981 reproduction oak coffee table (slight surface damage) for one's office, not if one wants to keep one's creditors from panicking. You know, the calling of auctioneer has not always had the best press, but this outfit has always seemed respectable enough to me. Been going a long time, too, right back to the days of monthly horse sales, which implies that they didn't make too many enemies in and around a small market town. And now they have to tell stupid lies and we have to pretend to believe them. The Harlot's cry from Street to Street Shall weave Old England's winding Sheet, said William Blake, but I'm not sure the legal disclaimer isn't weaving it faster.
For a moment, while I posted this rant about the evil of Ryanair over at Samizdata, I forgot how hot it was. Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Possible puppy picture. John Weidner of Random Jottings has kindly said he will post a puppy picture I emailed him. I know, I ought to learn to do it myself, but this is quicker. Besides, my brain has turned to mush. UPDATE: Definite puppy picture - but it's at the new Random Jottings at http://www.randomjottings.net/
Oliver Kamm's deconstruction of Beatnik Salad's praise of the Baader Meinhof gang is much more than a fisking; it taught me plenty I did not know. For instance the small but fascinating detail about the difference between "fraction" (as in Red Army Fraction) and "faction" in revolutionary politics. Kamm also quotes an article by Paul Berman on the political evolution of Hans-Joachim Klein, a German would-be revolutionary who was sent to train in an Arab country: Klein did not specify which country. But wherever it was, he was not happy. He found himself in a military training ground where, in one part of the camp, European leftists singing left-wing songs received their anti-Zionist military training, and, in another part, European fascists singing fascist songs received their own anti-Zionist military training.I doubt Mr Kamm's post will change the attitudes of its intended recipient. It was not lack of background knowledge that caused the author, 'Ryan in Manchester', to write as he did; it was lack of human sympathy for people who can be placed in enemy categories and morbidly swollen sympathy for people who can be placed in progressive categories. Incidentally, the post above complains that it was arrogance for Oliver Kamm to put his hostile comments in his own blog instead of in the comments box. Why? That's what Oliver Kamm's (or anyone else's) personal blog is for, to bring together the author's thoughts on all sorts of subjects, at least half of which will be sparked off by someone else's post. That's the deal on offer at the Oliver Kamm shop. In this post on his Culture Blog, Brian Micklethwait talks about personal versus theme blogs in a much less controversial vein. Some estimable commenters don't have their own blog but prefer to flit from place to place leaving their views wherever they go - which is good luck for the other blogs thus pollinated, but the downside is that there is no central place to go to find their stuff.
Nor is there anything wrong in Kamm rendering himself "untouchable" by not having comments. So long as he doesn't stop Ryan speaking as he pleases he is under no obligation to allow himself to be touched. Someone likened having comments on your blog to having a permanent party, open to all, taking place in your living room: some people might thrive on it, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to keep some space as your own. And you have to continually tidy up after the guests, even when you don't have to eject them bodily. When I started blogging, back in the Jurassic i.e. November 2001, comments software was unheard of. (Eee, back then we dinna even have permalinks.) You just sent someone an email saying "I have commented on your blog", or trusted that they were one of your regular readers. This is still the way I do it. There were and are certain advantages: comments are fewer but longer than if someone just pops off a quick note of approval or disapproval in a comment box. Also you don't have to learn scary computer stuff or pay any money, and the site is quicker to load.
As it happens, what with the advent of Laptop, the kids being home for the summer holidays, and the non-political writing I do from home, I am beginning to feel a little overwhelmed with the number of comments received by Biased BBC, where I serve as letters editor. At the outset it was me who suggested not having comments software over there, fearing a deluge of junk deliberately designed to gum up the works. I may have to eat my words. Encouragingly, Iain Murray and Patrick Crozier have both said that their fears when opening comments pages have not come to pass. Yet I still feel that this blog is by definition my show and I want to keep control over who else gets to be a guest exhibitor, so to speak.
UPDATE: I just finally got to read the comments to Beatnik's Salad post, which were taking a long time to load for some reason. Jackie D of Au Currant says what I said but better.
UPDATE AND BOO-BOO ALERT. Oops. Jackie D whose comment I just mentioned and The Green Fairy, to whom I initially attributed the comment, are poles apart. My explanation is that it was rather difficult to tell at first glance whether the attribution referred to the text above or below. Pathetic excuse, I know. Regard the link to the Green Fairy's site as a special gift bonus. Take a look at http://semiskimmed.net, more formally known as "The Sporadic Chronicles". Or a ferocious beast belonging to a mate of the editor will bite your nose off. On a similar subject: Jay Cantor (cat person) writes Natalie, Natalie! How awful of you! You got a (obviously little, cute and adorable) PUPPY and you don't blog a picture! Or even a link! How cruel! How else now are your legion (well, regiment anyway) of blogosphere fans going to able to gurgle, coo and go AWWWWW with you over the new baby? Please correct this a.s.a.p. THE BLOGOSPHERE NEEDS TO KNOW!!!Why don't I post pictures? Because I haven't the faintest idea how. You can all write in telling me, if you like, and weeks from now when I have stopped going into a state of nervous prostration every time the little beastie tenses his rear leg muscles, I will do something about it. He is awfully sweet though. To prevent our innocent puppy being upset by hate mail from enraged cat people (unlike the tolerant Jay Cantor) I shall conceal his real name on this blog and refer to him as "Laptop." Why this name? (1) He fits on a lap quite nicely (2) that's the other thing we could have had for the money.
Another possible name came up in e-conversation with Captain J M Heinrichs. I'd blipped him an e-mail apologising for my lack of response to a couple of his and he said I feared the Anathema, and was contemplating the steps required to avoid such. On hearing of the new resident chez les Solent, I knew I was merely being overlooked, possibly ignored, but such has been my life; I am stronger for it, really I am.If only I'd called him* Anathema I could have had the pleasure of saying, "Anathema sit." (Not my pun. I think it's one of Terry Pratchett's.) *The puppy, I mean. I was not present at Captain Heinrichs' naming. Though, come to think of it a "Captain Anathema" would certainly strike fear into the hearts of Canada's enemies.
Evil tidings from modern Britain. There were two disturbing letters to the Telegraph yesterday. The correspondence had started when the British Ambassador to Germany said that our obsession with WWII was causing German visitors to be insulted in the street. Here is the first letter, from Maciej Pomian-Srzednicki, who, jjudging from his name, might have cause to know about nationalist abuse. He says that the victims are not just German; the yobs are not fussy about their prey: These incidents are a sign of our inability to prevent the gradual disintegration of order in our society, and are not a consequence of deficiencies in the teaching of foreign languages, an idiosyncratic sense of humour and biased history teaching.He's right. The yobs goading schoolchildren are the direct descendants of the mobs who followed Titus Oates. Old Adam is never put down. He is always ready to break out again whenever society's guard is down, as it has been these last forty years. In contrast I think the American author of the second letter, V L Mahoney, is quite mistaken about the motivations behind at least some of the abuse his family has suffered. If someone were to perform a study across this country, it would soon emerge that anyone from a foreign nation is stereotyped because of their cultural, physical or linguistic differences. Obviously at a moral level those who insult Germans or Italians for their nationality and those who insult Americans for theirs are the same. However the groups of people doing the insulting were, I would guess, quite different. The people "educated enough to know better" will not stereotype "anyone from a foreign nation," only Americans, Israelis (increasingly) or white Africans (decreasingly). With anyone else they will exercise an almost painful sensitivity. It's political, of course, and as far as they are concerned it's not insult it's political education. Sunday, August 03, 2003
Bjørn Stærk has two excellent posts. One is about the lack of repentance by and excoriation of all the Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao-worshippers of the 70s: Focus on the extremist minorities, on [Norwegian far left political grouping] AKP (m-l)'s support for Pol Pot and other surrealisms, is necessary and just, but risks taking the place of a harder, more important task. Who said what and why isn't as important as staking a new course away from the blast zone of the whole damned era, a course that rescues feminism from the feminists, environmentalism from the environmentalists, global awareness from the anti-globos, the fight for peace and democracy from the neo-pacifists. One that emphasizes individual liberties against paternalism, and knowledge, curiosity and honesty against ideology and dogmatism. The course already exists - we've been working at it for more than 2000 years - but we have to choose to rejoin it.The post below is about Jessica Lynch, and the way the Norwegian papers pretend that they are revealing secrets the US papers will not. Saturday, August 02, 2003
This is the last post I shall ever write with a free mind. I can feel the irrestistible pull of an all-enveloping mind control making inroads into my every synapse. A fundamental overturning of my identity is taking place, in its own way as irrevocable as giving birth. Nothing will ever be the same again. People talk about the two paradigms being able to coexist, or even to flourish together. Foolish delusion! True devotees surely know that there can be no compromise with them.
Must resist. Must remember our glorious motto, Feles regunt, canes salivant. To those who have already succumbed to the madness, I hurl defiance! In the dying moments of my former identity I write these last, desperate words:
Friday, August 01, 2003
Iain Murray thinks a bill before parliament is daft. It would criminalise public snogging by under 16s. The Cowboy thinks it's not just daft but downright frightening. "Please don't mug me today, I've got the entire payroll in this briefcase." According to the Scotsman the latest Fringe show Osama like it hot wasn't. On Wednesday, after being confronted by a scrum of journalists and being dubbed a "talentless git", the comedian decided to ask newspapers not to send reviewers for the first few performances.Which is why I think it would be nice if you didn't click on the link. Mean old Uncle Robert! Still from the Telegraph, Mugabe has said that his relatives can only have one confiscated farm each and not the three or four they are accustomed to. A British family have been arrested, beaten by police and given a ludicrously inadequate trial in Greece, oh what a surprise. Their crime appears to be 'being the same nationality as lager louts'. Oh, and the even more heinous crime of coming to the attention of the authorities at a well-timed moment for some politician's populist campaign. In other words, the same sort of thing that would cause Deep South police chiefs of a few years back to arrest any passing black when a crime had been committed. The good news is that the Greeks can't come and arrest you for being the same nationality as lager louts. Yet.
But don't worry! Here's what the Home Office FAQ page has to say to reassure us. Doesn't the example of what has happened to the Greek planespotters demonstrate the dangers of relying on other EU Member States' criminal justice systems? Wednesday, July 30, 2003
No, I don't know why there's a big and growing blank above the top post on my blog, or what I can do about it. Do you? Send me an email with "Solution to the blanketty blank" in the title if you do. UPDATE: Ha! The problem has now apparently been solved. I used the oldest method known to man: magic. Immediately I mentioned the problem it disappeared. This works on cars too, "Honestly Fred, it was rattling fit to burst before I took it in for you to look at."
FINAL UPDATE OK, I know what's wrong and I'm going to cure it. Thanks to all those who wrote in. Val-e-Diction has provided what amounts to a short course in Chile's recent history, drawing on works by right wing and left wing authors. One of the comments describes it as 'epic.' Allende's continuing role as an icon of the left gives this post particular relevance. Coincidentally, this post from Normblog mentions Allende. "That earlier September 11" he calls it, which coming from a writer who is quite clear about the evil of September 11 2001, shows how strong the Allende icon is. Norman Geras is committed left winger, a man who can address his readers as 'comrades' without any irony that I can see, but despite the gulf between us, I felt his defence of the Iraq war was strong and to the point - particularly in its healthy elevation of the moral above the legal.
Incidentally, we libertarians claim, with some justice, that we are unfairly ignored in mainstream political discourse. Conservatives make the same claim, and it is often true for them too. But the two groups who really have cause to complain about neglect by the media are Ulster unionists and the internationalist left. I mean internationalist in the Spanish Civil War sense; I can't think of a better term at this late hour.
Just to make clear, and getting back to the Chile issue, I have no sympathy with that torturer Pinochet. I don't think his support for capitalism had much to do any love of liberty or trust in human beings to be the best judges of their own interests - though I will grant that as I learn more about Allende I have no choice but to regard Pinochet as less culpable than I once did. Less culpable, but still culpable. As far as I'm concerned it's a testimony to the correctness of free-market policies that they work even when bad men operate them The Speculist is a new blog with an interest in the cutting edge of science, and nice and nasty stuff we might be getting in the future. The little slogan under the blog title is just so cool. Remember I praised Tony Sewell's contribution to the Guardian debate on black youth, where he was arguing with Lee Jasper? Well, reader Kevin Richardson has heard him speak: ...One particular point: he reckoned that black children as young as seven start to realise that their teachers are a bit afraid of them, being reluctant to act firmly in response to bad behaviour for fear of being labelled racist. This possibly contributes towards the culture of It's very belated e-mail night at this blog. Back on 22 July a sharp-eyed reader wrote: To answer your questionIncidentally, I try to quote reader's names as they sign themselves within the body of the message. In other words even if I know their name from pressing the "Details" bit in the header, I don't use it unless they do. This caution is because the results of quoting someone's name when they wanted it kept secret are worse than the results of not quoting it when they wanted it quoted. Obviously, if I get it wrong, let me know. Getting back to my original question, Robert Hinkley suggested this link if you wanna see hearts bleed for Uday: BBC Talking Point.
Damian Penny said that he couldn't bear to excerpt any one paragraph from this survey of anti-semitism by Jack Schwartz, it was all so good. I can, just: The critical tactic in carrying out an anti-Semitic agenda is to attack the Jewish people at its strong point — where, ironically, it is both most exposed and most vulnerable. In the Middle Ages and beyond, the target was the Court Jew who had the ear of the ruler; during the Inquisition it was the Cristianos Nuevos — the Spanish Jews who had thrived after their conversion to Christianity. Under Hitler it was the entrepreneurial and professional classes who were the first victims of Nazi boycotts and exclusion. And today it is Israel, the most powerful symbol of Jewish national resurgence in two millennia.But like the man said, you simply must read the whole thing. Tuesday, July 29, 2003
A rusty bicycle has appeared in our local pond, plus a whole load of other junk. Why? Here's one possible reaon. OK, I'm really sorry about the mail. I never did catch up after my illness. If you are wondering why I have not responded to your e-mail, it's almost certainly just my general disorganisation, plus the summer holidays and the stern yet joyful challenge of learning about my new overlocker. Or it could be because I hate you and this is the first step in my master plan for your destruction. Iain Murray has uncovered an unelected cosmopolitan cabal, linked by ties of shared ritual and common history, and engaged in ceaseless activity to gain disproportionate influence on the political life of this country. I'm a member. Sunday, July 27, 2003
Das Überlocker. Enough of politics, I have got me an overlocker. It cost more than my last car but two. These beasties are to proper sewing machines what the microwave oven is to a proper oven - the quote comes from Jan Saunders of Sewing for Dummies fame, and it's true. An overlocker can't do some things that a proper sewing machine can but it does its more limited range of tasks much faster and, once you have one, the change in the relative cost in effort of each action inevitably changes the whole style of cuisine, sorry, sewing. For benighted readers who do not know what an overlocker is, take off your T-shirts. Yes, very nice. Now turn the T inside out and look at the seams. They were sewn, bound and cut in one operation by an overlocker. The fluffy, softer thread used is distinctive, and overlockers are better at not distorting stretchy fabrics than an ordinary sewing machine is. In the opposite direction, they are also better at not puckering up thin, fray-prone "brittle" fabrics. I have already had the guts to make a child's dressing-up cloak from some ridiculous shiny stuff that I had kept for years waiting for the day when I got my Black Belt. This machine - a Janome MyLock 644D for the hordes of sewing-geeks who infest this blog like swarming locusts* - is actually my second machine. My first one cost twenty five quid second hand for a machine that would have cost sixty new. Counting twenty-five quid as the cost of a lesson in what not to buy, that was money well spent. Where my first machine was plasticcy this one is heavy and even the plastic is posh heavy plastic.
My husband has kindly translated sewing geek language into Engineering: the overlocker is to the ordinary sewing machine what the vertical mill is to the lathe; you can do almost anything on a lathe including vertical milling - but a mill does the job so much better.
*but not in the swarming season. I.e. one or two mildly curious locusts might happen to amble by. Friday, July 25, 2003
No one seems to have paid much attention to the fourteen year old son of the late Qusay who died along with his father and uncle. I don't blame the US troops who killed him. In that culture, boys become men early, and I can well believe that he was firing at them - and bullets from a fourteen year old can kill you quite as dead as bullets from an adult. Furthermore it is, sadly, probable that he was trained to ruthlessness and quite possible that he was a murderer in his own right. (They say that Caligula's daughter was a monster of cruelty by the age of five, and no one is recorded as having mourned when a legionary bashed her brains out against a wall in the first hours of Claudius's reign.)
Still, it is a pity that he had to die too. Somewhere C S Lewis notes that the smallest act of kindness, or restraint from cruelty, on the part of a person raised to vice may count as much in the final reckoning as great heroism on the part of someone raised to virtue. I hope that in his short life he was not quite as bad as his family wanted him to be. Greetings, Samizdata readers: if you've come by while following Brian Micklethwait's link to me, the post of mine you are looking for is headed "If an opinion can't be shouted from the rooftops it will sure as hell leak out through the gutters" and can be found here. I didn't even know that US states had bond ratings. But the discovery that California's is two notches above 'junk' doesn't surprise me. Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Robert McNally has the mother of all links compilations on the subject of "the Brights". It's called "Tracking the Bright Idea", and it does what the name says. He writes, "The purpose of TTBI is to collect commentary both supporting and criticizing the Brights movement." Look here. John Costello writes: Surely you are not going to allow the French to determine the pronunciation of English words! Are you going to say 'Par-ee' as well? Non! Non, madamme! The proper pronunciation in English -- both the British and American dialects -- of Niger, both river and country, is"Nigh-gher." Stess on the first syllable. Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Read this fascinating debate between Dr Tony Sewell and Lee Jasper about black underachievement. Both are black; Sewell is an academic and Jasper a professional anti-racist. (Strictly accurate description.) I was really cheered by Tony Sewell's contribution - I think I had heard of him before, but had mixed him up with Thomas Sowell. I'm glad to discover that at least one British black writer is arguing passionately for a culture of responsibility: until now I'd only really come across American equivalents. Here's something he said: The real poverty that our children face is a poverty of aspiration - they have linked themselves with the prevailing anti-learning culture of their white working class counterparts. The sin that you commit is to give this "mentality" credence by reducing it solely to white racism. I was struck by one startling admission in Lee Jasper's response: Tony, Levels of racial inequality have grown in education, health, criminal justice and public sector employment over the last 20 years. This indicates that racism has increased over this time. The greatest weapon in the hands of an oppressor is the mind of the oppressed, and your blind refusal to correctly assess the impact of racism lets all white people off the hook.So after twenty years of vigorous coercive anti-racism, racism has increased. Maybe one day Lee Jasper will make the connection between his own daily work and its results. My husband's impression from schools is that racism of the crude kind is decreasing among children. Partly this is the result of the good use of anti-racist propaganda (please note that both adjectives and the noun in that sentence were chosen deliberately: racism is bad, being anti it is good and propagating that meme effectively is good - however much the anti-racist fanatics debase the coinage), and partly because more white children and more black and brown children share the same playgrounds and find that they get along OK, after all. People often do.
Yet racial inequality is increasing, according to Lee Jasper, who ought to know. I think the hook he is so keen to keep white people collectively skewered on has something to do with it. People on hooks are apt to be bad-tempered. People who consciously hold other people on hooks are apt to neglect opportunities for self-improvement. Yup. Gottem. How long you reckon before someone who didn't give a flying f*** about leaving them in power to torture and murder thousands of Iraqis starts moaning about due process? As I exulted my husband quoted John Donne with a hint of reproof in his voice. Any man's death diminishes me. Hum. Yeah. I really ought to hope that the murderous pair repented before they died. OK. I hope it. I just don't think it's terribly likely, and my mind is more on the suddenly improved prospects for the healing of Iraq.
And when I think of the brides raped on their wedding day... No man is an island, but some men are extremely exposed peninsulas, and they dug the channels themselves. Just die already! I couldn't find a link for this one either, but on Radio 4's News Quiz yesterday it said that some safety officer at an old peoples' home had forbidden the residents to grow pot plants on safety grounds. Ostensibly he was worried they'd constitute a "tripping hazard", or maybe he thought the Venus flytrap would develop a taste for human flesh - but who cares about the official reason? The real reason is that it is pleasant to control other peoples' lives, the more so when one can reassure oneself that one acts from the most benevolent of motives. Pity the institutionalised old folks, though. Already forbidden dogs, cats, and sex as a solace for their declining years, now they cannot even care for a plant. Protected from dangerous flowering shrubs they can get on with staring at the wall undisturbed. Conveniently, their premature deaths from boredom and uselessness will not show up on anyone's safety statistics. This is our future. Zipp-a-dee-doo-dah, zipp-a-dee-day, My oh my, we got Uday... .... Or maybe it's all just another rumour. No link, 'cos my readers can click Google news all on their ownesomes.
I say tomayto, Monday, July 21, 2003
I'm back. And I have a pile, a teetering, intimidating pile fully two hundred electron-widths high of unread and undealt-with e-mail. I shall ignore it for now - and much of it forever - and get on with saying something. Just let me think a moment.
I suppose it's this. I missed the David Kelly suicide story, and now it has the insubstantial feel common to news that has the effrontery to exist without my validation. All I can think of to say now is: suicide is nearly always wrong. I'm sure the BBC behaved badly, just as I'm sure the Labour government spin machine behaved badly, but neither of them killed him. He killed himself. I'm sure the poor man felt harassed, pressurised, slandered - but he still had a choice and he made the wrong one. Several wrong ones, actually, starting with the decision to give "confidential" briefings to journalists at all. Nothing that could conceivably have happened to him had his leaks been made public in the normal way was worth killing himself over or causing that amount of pain to his family. Friday, July 18, 2003
Sorry for the gap in posting. Turned out that the lack of energy that I simply put down to the heat might actually have been caused by some sort of lurgy creeping through the defences of my immune system. I'm still a bit below par and suffering from earache and sinusy disgustingy thingies. Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
More French perfidy. In Touch, a radio programme for the blind and partially sighted, reported earlier tonight that the French blind football team are accused of fielding a sighted player. The 1960 Penguin Dictionary of Quotations - reprinted 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 (twice), 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 - and for all I know umptillion times after that - gives four quotations for Harry: - breed again such a king H. 154:254 and one for Hatchet: - did it with my little h. 410:7 ...and not a single one of them are any good for this. Unless he put a beaver on to write the article, of course. Or has been chopping up his fellow Guardianistas. He might have been; anybody might be provoked by Hugo Young on a day like this. Especially if wearing a beaver. *That Shakespeare. Overrated, I reckon. I tried saying "but H., H. 323: 17" in all sorts of dead dramatic voices and none of them sounded any bloody good at all. Long, long ago I was reading my new Brownie handbook. There were pictures of Brownies and Girl Guides from countries around the world engaged in helpful deeds. I enthusiastically told my mother (who, it belatedly occurs to me, perhaps did not fully attend to my constant stream of Junior One wisdom) all about one picture, of an African girl pounding grain. "We. Don't. Say. That," came her response in a very odd voice. I was confused. Why didn't we say that the picture showed a Niger Brownie? OK, so later I figured out that I had innocently said something bad. What I didn't figure out until - er, today, as it happens, was that even my corrected pronounciation of the word Niger was wrong. Being a Francophone country it's said Nee-zhair. Sometimes news junkies, who get their news from text, don't know stuff that ordinary people who watch the News at Ten do |
