Monday, July 07, 2003
The Murdoch papers have decided that ID cards are a good thing, so are putting the point of view out accordingly. The Sun version, for people who like their words small, is:
WHY should anyone object to having an ID card? Being able to establish who you are can be very useful. And it will help fight crime. Only those with something to hide — like crooks, terrorists, fraudsters and benefit cheats — should worry. And that’s the whole point.
Oh, if only we lived in a world where The Sun's POV was anything like reality. Actually, scratch that horrifying thought. In the grown-up papers for clever people, The Times Editorial says much the same thing in a more roundabout manner:
The civil liberties case against ID cards is a feeble one that belongs to a more innocent age. Today’s terrorists are internationally mobile, moving in and out of countries on false passports.
Obligingly the Times has already shot itself in the foot. 'International terrorists' like those that flew planes into tower blocks had all their paperwork in order. They have time and patience. If there is any point to having an ID card, the next suicide bombers will be found to already have them.
Illegal workers using stolen National Insurance numbers may be the mainstay of the black economy but they are often exploited and shift the tax burden onto those working in the legal economy.
Riiiight. A truck pulls up somewhere on a foggy morning. "We need a dozen people for work." Barks the driver. Twelve shapes step forward and hand over their false NI cards and bogus P45s.
The law-abiding have nothing to fear from ID cards. The criminal, the terrorist or the illegal worker does.
Wow! I've been here before!
Law-abiding folk would carry their ID cards and produce them on demand. An international terrorist or illegal immigrant, however, would be long gone.
Ah yes, the old "Purpose of visit?" "To main, destroy and lay waste to your country!" "Aha!" ploy.
The news article from The Times has a bit more detail on the mechanics of the plan, such as people get to pay for the pleasure of losing their rights, creating beaurocracy and completely failing to crack down on any of the illegal things that Blunkett claims this card will achieve. From elsewhere I've heard this is because Gordon Brown feels strapped for cash after Tony's 'Boy's Own' adventures in the desert and also knows what a pointless move this is. It is worth noticing which Government department will swell if this were to happen (Kids! can you guess? Two words...).
Each card will contain biometric data, such as an image of a person’s iris or fingerprint.
Which will lead to some genuine sci-fi on the streets, as people get stopped and their heads pressed against a flatbed scanner as police try to identify whether it is them or not. Biometric systems do not yet and are thought to not for a while work in any meaningful way for more than small groups of people. Plus the fact that if these systems were to come into force whereas today's scally will just nick your wallet tomorrow's thief will also saw of your hand or take an eyeball.
The government will hold information about the population on a central computer database — a move that will further alarm civil liberties groups.
So this will be a database that police, doctors and just about anyone who can find an excuse for it will be able to access it. And it will contain personal information about citizens, including things like medical data? I'm not a criminal individual but I don't want this information on a system that anyone could hack into. And I hope no-one's going to suggest that somehow this will be an unhackable system. It's got to be used by the police remember, it'll have to be simple. Far from wiping out identity theft as the Times opinion piece would have us believe this will increase it. Because criminals, they aren't nice people you know. They don't stop doing something because it's illegal. In typical New Labour 'trying to please everyone' fashion Blunkett says later on that the card won't even hold that much personal information, which begs the question of why bother? Why make an ID card that doesn't do anything? Where's the point where a ID card has just enough info to say you are who you say you are but then has too much information about who you say you are?
Blunkett says... "The consultation exercise showed strong public support for a card scheme"
Factually incorrect. Even Beverley Hughes eventually admitted that this wasn't the case, so she really should have mentioned this to her boss. Perhaps he didn't see that memo?
As ever, the downloadable STAND report says all these things in a much better way than I can, in an easy-for-Government-officials-to-ignore Word document.
The real news for the papers should be 'Communist in Power in Government!', as Blunkett obviously would like to emulate the totalitarian regime of the U.S.S.R.
WHY should anyone object to having an ID card? Being able to establish who you are can be very useful. And it will help fight crime. Only those with something to hide — like crooks, terrorists, fraudsters and benefit cheats — should worry. And that’s the whole point.
Oh, if only we lived in a world where The Sun's POV was anything like reality. Actually, scratch that horrifying thought. In the grown-up papers for clever people, The Times Editorial says much the same thing in a more roundabout manner:
The civil liberties case against ID cards is a feeble one that belongs to a more innocent age. Today’s terrorists are internationally mobile, moving in and out of countries on false passports.
Obligingly the Times has already shot itself in the foot. 'International terrorists' like those that flew planes into tower blocks had all their paperwork in order. They have time and patience. If there is any point to having an ID card, the next suicide bombers will be found to already have them.
Illegal workers using stolen National Insurance numbers may be the mainstay of the black economy but they are often exploited and shift the tax burden onto those working in the legal economy.
Riiiight. A truck pulls up somewhere on a foggy morning. "We need a dozen people for work." Barks the driver. Twelve shapes step forward and hand over their false NI cards and bogus P45s.
The law-abiding have nothing to fear from ID cards. The criminal, the terrorist or the illegal worker does.
Wow! I've been here before!
Law-abiding folk would carry their ID cards and produce them on demand. An international terrorist or illegal immigrant, however, would be long gone.
Ah yes, the old "Purpose of visit?" "To main, destroy and lay waste to your country!" "Aha!" ploy.
The news article from The Times has a bit more detail on the mechanics of the plan, such as people get to pay for the pleasure of losing their rights, creating beaurocracy and completely failing to crack down on any of the illegal things that Blunkett claims this card will achieve. From elsewhere I've heard this is because Gordon Brown feels strapped for cash after Tony's 'Boy's Own' adventures in the desert and also knows what a pointless move this is. It is worth noticing which Government department will swell if this were to happen (Kids! can you guess? Two words...).
Each card will contain biometric data, such as an image of a person’s iris or fingerprint.
Which will lead to some genuine sci-fi on the streets, as people get stopped and their heads pressed against a flatbed scanner as police try to identify whether it is them or not. Biometric systems do not yet and are thought to not for a while work in any meaningful way for more than small groups of people. Plus the fact that if these systems were to come into force whereas today's scally will just nick your wallet tomorrow's thief will also saw of your hand or take an eyeball.
The government will hold information about the population on a central computer database — a move that will further alarm civil liberties groups.
So this will be a database that police, doctors and just about anyone who can find an excuse for it will be able to access it. And it will contain personal information about citizens, including things like medical data? I'm not a criminal individual but I don't want this information on a system that anyone could hack into. And I hope no-one's going to suggest that somehow this will be an unhackable system. It's got to be used by the police remember, it'll have to be simple. Far from wiping out identity theft as the Times opinion piece would have us believe this will increase it. Because criminals, they aren't nice people you know. They don't stop doing something because it's illegal. In typical New Labour 'trying to please everyone' fashion Blunkett says later on that the card won't even hold that much personal information, which begs the question of why bother? Why make an ID card that doesn't do anything? Where's the point where a ID card has just enough info to say you are who you say you are but then has too much information about who you say you are?
Blunkett says... "The consultation exercise showed strong public support for a card scheme"
Factually incorrect. Even Beverley Hughes eventually admitted that this wasn't the case, so she really should have mentioned this to her boss. Perhaps he didn't see that memo?
As ever, the downloadable STAND report says all these things in a much better way than I can, in an easy-for-Government-officials-to-ignore Word document.
The real news for the papers should be 'Communist in Power in Government!', as Blunkett obviously would like to emulate the totalitarian regime of the U.S.S.R.
Sunday, July 06, 2003
Found this poll about post-sex change surgery and people's opinions of that surgery. Now, admittedly, an amazing nineteen votes are no guideline to the feelings of a community, but I'm starting to look around for more authoritative information. I've occasionally wondered about sex-change surgery, as a teen I went through a period of thinking this was what I needed, however I can to the decision that this wasn't in fact the case long before I got in the position of talking to anyone about it.
However, I've often wondered about people that go through that, for the various degrees of 'that', from simply taking hormones to full sex-change surgery. Because, if people feel, stronger than I did, that they were born in the wrong body, I wonder how many of them feel that whatever surgery or treatment they go through is solving their problem. Because at it's most advanced state sex-change surgery is a misnomer, just very specific cosmetic surgery (and arguably specific genital mutilation). An MtF doesn't have periods or have to worry about pregnancy, an FtM can't (as far as I'm aware) get a spontaneous erection. So, what is it that turns someone from being a pre-op person who feels they are the wrong gender inside to a post-op who is happy that they may outwardly resemble the gender they believe they are? Does something like the Real-Life Test distract people in to believing that appearances are all?
However, I've often wondered about people that go through that, for the various degrees of 'that', from simply taking hormones to full sex-change surgery. Because, if people feel, stronger than I did, that they were born in the wrong body, I wonder how many of them feel that whatever surgery or treatment they go through is solving their problem. Because at it's most advanced state sex-change surgery is a misnomer, just very specific cosmetic surgery (and arguably specific genital mutilation). An MtF doesn't have periods or have to worry about pregnancy, an FtM can't (as far as I'm aware) get a spontaneous erection. So, what is it that turns someone from being a pre-op person who feels they are the wrong gender inside to a post-op who is happy that they may outwardly resemble the gender they believe they are? Does something like the Real-Life Test distract people in to believing that appearances are all?
Join us, join us...
Hmmm.
Farmers. Shop Keepers. Students. Eagle Scouts. Fishermen. Mechanics. Milkmen. Postmen. Carpenters. Teenagers. Thirty-somethings with children. They were all our brothers and they suffered and died for our freedom and for the freedom of a seemingly ungrateful nation (France).
I wouldn't mention it except that Patrick is talking about the Normandy landing in WW2. I don't think the French were particularly ungrateful at that time that the Allies were coming to free the country from the Nazis. Still, if he wants to compress sixty years so that the attitude of some of the French today can be mapped onto their parents and grandparents that would mean that it's only a few weeks since Saddam originally took power and Donald Rumsfeld wouldn't have arrived home from selling arms to Hussein in the 80s.
Farmers. Shop Keepers. Students. Eagle Scouts. Fishermen. Mechanics. Milkmen. Postmen. Carpenters. Teenagers. Thirty-somethings with children. They were all our brothers and they suffered and died for our freedom and for the freedom of a seemingly ungrateful nation (France).
I wouldn't mention it except that Patrick is talking about the Normandy landing in WW2. I don't think the French were particularly ungrateful at that time that the Allies were coming to free the country from the Nazis. Still, if he wants to compress sixty years so that the attitude of some of the French today can be mapped onto their parents and grandparents that would mean that it's only a few weeks since Saddam originally took power and Donald Rumsfeld wouldn't have arrived home from selling arms to Hussein in the 80s.
Went to traid with Plums yesterday when we went down to Brixton. Have tended to be a bit disappointed with the shops since first going to the Brighton branch last year and finding a wonderful detourned Adidas T-shirt. As it was, their 'original' stuff was rather crap, but I did find a Placebo t-shirt, not one of the mythical 'Slackerbitch' t-shirts which were possibly only available during their first tours, but a very nice 'Slave' one instead.
Alastair, God and the Devil. Ahhh, hurrah for Terry Jones.
Yay to Plums who has leant me her copy of the latest HP book, but I'm fairly sure I now know who dies. Join me in 766 pages to see if I'm right...
A surprising political story, Tony Blair has warned that the BBC report claiming the government "sexed up" the Iraq weapons dossier was "as serious an attack on my integrity as there could possibly be". It doesn't make sense, I wasn't aware that a coward who has consistently sucked up to a foreign power, allows them to build bases in his country that has no benefits but instead makes it more of a target and for whom human rights are just excuses to use when all the others have run out HAD any integrity.
More proof that only masochists would be gay AND CofE... Gay priest Jeffrey John will not take up the post of Bishop of Reading.
Saturday, July 05, 2003
You're Gangsta Bitch Barbie. You're tough and you
like it rough, and of course you like to pop a
cap in any wiggers ass.
If You Were A Barbie, Which Messed Up Version Would You Be?
brought to you by Quizilla
Brendyn, 26: "I have been trying for years to be straight, it doesn't work. I don't believe in bisexuality, it is a subtle way of saying that they are gay. Just because you do both doesn't mean you don't prefer one. When people hear that you are bisexual it is easier for them to accept."
Dimitri, 39: "I don't believe in bisexuality, you are either gay or straight. Sometimes in the right situation you can appreciate someone's personality and you can have sex with this person but I don't know if that will make you bisexual."
Stephane, 27: "I don't think people can just turn straight from gay. I don't believe in bisexuality. I don't have any bisexual friends."
Some morons, interviewed in the 4th July issue of the Pink Paper.
Dimitri, 39: "I don't believe in bisexuality, you are either gay or straight. Sometimes in the right situation you can appreciate someone's personality and you can have sex with this person but I don't know if that will make you bisexual."
Stephane, 27: "I don't think people can just turn straight from gay. I don't believe in bisexuality. I don't have any bisexual friends."
Some morons, interviewed in the 4th July issue of the Pink Paper.
You represent... hope.
You're quite a daydreamer and can be a hopeless
romantic. You enjoy being creative and don't
mind being alone at times. You have goals, and
know what you want in life... even if they are
a little far fetched.
What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla
Yet another Harry Potter piss-take, but very funny...Harry Potter and the Amulet of Tears.
Meanwhile in the Guardian, In defense of boys.
From the This is a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl department...
A leading HRT specialist says that he has prescribed male sex hormones to female politicians to help them "compete" with men.
The fuck?! There had been reports of successful women in big business suffering male pattern baldness and higher rates than 'normal' of testosterone but this is the first time I've heard anything about women doing it deliberately. But I think I'll remain sceptical about this until there's proof, someone willing to come forward and say they've done it and why.
A leading HRT specialist says that he has prescribed male sex hormones to female politicians to help them "compete" with men.
The fuck?! There had been reports of successful women in big business suffering male pattern baldness and higher rates than 'normal' of testosterone but this is the first time I've heard anything about women doing it deliberately. But I think I'll remain sceptical about this until there's proof, someone willing to come forward and say they've done it and why.
Friday, July 04, 2003
Bum clouds. Plums is up enjoying herself at Pottymouth and I conspicuously aren't. I am the archetype for people who didn't enjoy and misbehave themselves when they were younger so have no stamina for it now. And I'm only 27. So, after visiting The London Bisexual Group (more about them tomorrow), she headed off to meet up with people who can actually stay out late and I came home. Actually, the problem is not so much that I don't have stamina, it's just that I do need my sleep, which tends to mean more going to bed early than sleeping in late as come the morning I can be a fantastically light sleeper who will wake if a sparrow yawns half a mile away and then won't get back to sleep. Yesterday I discovered a rather unpleasant reaction to the Pils they serve at the Crown, having ended up back there while trolling around town with Plums, so didn't get to sleep until about four or five a.m., then waking around nine. If I'd had a good night's sleep last night I probably would have been more or less okay to go to PM tonight.
Double however, the reason I'm writing this now is that I feel fantastically wide awake. Trains were stopping at Hampstead due to a problem with the line so I had to venture on to the night-busses. I got off at Camden only to find to my surprise that there were no buses going to Golders Green (which, being a fairly large bus station in that area I would have thought would have been a cert). Instead I had to get a bus to Hampstead (doh!) and change there for Golders Green. Once there I found that the tube was running between Golders Green and Edgware (and they thought the problem at Hampstead was about to get sorted out) so was able to make the rest of my journey as per normal. So, I came home, and now this pathetic shark is going to bed.
Double however, the reason I'm writing this now is that I feel fantastically wide awake. Trains were stopping at Hampstead due to a problem with the line so I had to venture on to the night-busses. I got off at Camden only to find to my surprise that there were no buses going to Golders Green (which, being a fairly large bus station in that area I would have thought would have been a cert). Instead I had to get a bus to Hampstead (doh!) and change there for Golders Green. Once there I found that the tube was running between Golders Green and Edgware (and they thought the problem at Hampstead was about to get sorted out) so was able to make the rest of my journey as per normal. So, I came home, and now this pathetic shark is going to bed.
Just been to see Charlie's Angels 2 with Plums. Ridiculously fun, with jokes about pubic wigs and John Cleese as Alex's father thinking she's a call girl. At no point do the laws of physics make an appearence but frankly, who cares? It's a shame that Bill Murray couldn't turn up for this one, his replacement is rather bland and doesn't have much to do. It's only at the end when we have a moral moment that it sags but otherwise a great couple of hours.
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Oh-kay... in one of the weirdest newspaper articles of the year The Daily Mirror probes the occult significance of David Beckham's '23' shirt. (With thanks to Plums.)
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
And unsurprisingly, her latest article Marriage lite, anyhow sex and the biological bazaar, isn't much better as she attacks gays and lesbians.
But children are increasingly being regarded as commodities, illustrated by the repellent story of the lesbian couple who are expecting a baby conceived using sperm bought from an internet site, and who are interviewed in this paper today. (emphasis mine).
Marriage is a legal commitment to a permanent and faithful sexual union. But what will be the responsibilities of a registered gay partnership? Since any residency qualification will either be minimal or non-existent, couples will be able to register transient or unfaithful relationships and still collect the jackpot. Because I'm sure many gay men will be wanting to campaign next for the right to gay bigamy to allow them to marry anyone that they sleep with only one-off or a few times so they can have all the rights that they will be entitled to. This also ignores the fact that perhaps a man and a woman might want to marry purely for the benefits they get.
One American study of 156 gay couples, for example, revealed that only seven had maintained sexual fidelity; another found that 43% of gays had had sex with 500 or more different partners, and 28% with one thousand or more. Wow! 312 queer people, out of a worldwide population of how many?
And finally, Thus, the pregnant lesbian conceived through sperm bought from an internet website called Man Not Included. Given the devastating effect of fatherlessness upon children, such behaviour is reprehensible. So, as far as Phillips is concerned, nothing in the world can replace a father for a child, not even another woman.
But children are increasingly being regarded as commodities, illustrated by the repellent story of the lesbian couple who are expecting a baby conceived using sperm bought from an internet site, and who are interviewed in this paper today. (emphasis mine).
Marriage is a legal commitment to a permanent and faithful sexual union. But what will be the responsibilities of a registered gay partnership? Since any residency qualification will either be minimal or non-existent, couples will be able to register transient or unfaithful relationships and still collect the jackpot. Because I'm sure many gay men will be wanting to campaign next for the right to gay bigamy to allow them to marry anyone that they sleep with only one-off or a few times so they can have all the rights that they will be entitled to. This also ignores the fact that perhaps a man and a woman might want to marry purely for the benefits they get.
One American study of 156 gay couples, for example, revealed that only seven had maintained sexual fidelity; another found that 43% of gays had had sex with 500 or more different partners, and 28% with one thousand or more. Wow! 312 queer people, out of a worldwide population of how many?
And finally, Thus, the pregnant lesbian conceived through sperm bought from an internet website called Man Not Included. Given the devastating effect of fatherlessness upon children, such behaviour is reprehensible. So, as far as Phillips is concerned, nothing in the world can replace a father for a child, not even another woman.
Phew! I thought I was going to find myself agreeing with a Melanie Phillips' article (Human rights are not for men) when she helpfully threw in these few sentences.
David Blunkett suggests that in new cases when women go to the police and accuse her partner of battering her, the man will get thrown out of their property, pending an enquiry. The way will thus be clear for a woman who has tired of her man to get the police to evict him, without the tedious irrelevance of having to ‘get someone through a court’.
And, on the subject of reports of violence in relationships, For unmarried partners present vastly more risks of physical abuse to both adults and children at home than do married couples. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive but is Phillips suggesting that the best way for a woman to deal with an abusive partner is to marry him?
Unsurprisingly this article was written for the Daily Mail that traces all social ills back to either the Emperor Windrush or giving women the vote. The first sentence is typical of their 'any change that isn't the reintroduction of capital punishment is a change for the worst' attitude. The slant of the piece is alarmingly anti-women, a later paragraph admits that women get injured but again seems to imply that it's far more important that some men may also get injured and not report it. Phillips seems to imply that domestic violence, especially against women, isn't that big a deal. I agree with her that giving anonymity to the accusers is a concept that should be carefully weighed up, as with the rape case I mentioned a week or two back, I think it's got to be either both or neither.
And on a purely nasty personal point, can anyone look at the picture at her homepage and tell me what small dead brown animal she's got on the top of her head?
David Blunkett suggests that in new cases when women go to the police and accuse her partner of battering her, the man will get thrown out of their property, pending an enquiry. The way will thus be clear for a woman who has tired of her man to get the police to evict him, without the tedious irrelevance of having to ‘get someone through a court’.
And, on the subject of reports of violence in relationships, For unmarried partners present vastly more risks of physical abuse to both adults and children at home than do married couples. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive but is Phillips suggesting that the best way for a woman to deal with an abusive partner is to marry him?
Unsurprisingly this article was written for the Daily Mail that traces all social ills back to either the Emperor Windrush or giving women the vote. The first sentence is typical of their 'any change that isn't the reintroduction of capital punishment is a change for the worst' attitude. The slant of the piece is alarmingly anti-women, a later paragraph admits that women get injured but again seems to imply that it's far more important that some men may also get injured and not report it. Phillips seems to imply that domestic violence, especially against women, isn't that big a deal. I agree with her that giving anonymity to the accusers is a concept that should be carefully weighed up, as with the rape case I mentioned a week or two back, I think it's got to be either both or neither.
And on a purely nasty personal point, can anyone look at the picture at her homepage and tell me what small dead brown animal she's got on the top of her head?
At random intervals over the last fortnight I've been reading Issue One of something that bills itself as Smoke. A London Peculiar which I picked up at Gosh (excerpts here). Predictably, some of it is good (I especially like the article on Rimbaud and Verlaine), some of it variable and some of it awful. But anything that gives failed pop-star Dickon Edwards space to write about the time he visited Stringfellows isn't all bad.
However, it looses points for what seems to be the hot term of the moment (i.e; it's been around for ages but I've just noticed it), psychogeography. Fuck off! It's just walking about!. there's nothign wrong with walking about, why do you need to come up with some poncy term to disguise it? You don't 'penetrate the inner mysteries' of the Edgware Road, you walk along it, and there's nothing wrong with that! It's like if I said I was an 'nformation manager', after five minutes I'd have someone say "no you ain't love, you're a librarian!" and they'd be right.
Psychogeographer= A self-loathing walker.
Smoke= worth a look, if not necessarily to buy.
However, it looses points for what seems to be the hot term of the moment (i.e; it's been around for ages but I've just noticed it), psychogeography. Fuck off! It's just walking about!. there's nothign wrong with walking about, why do you need to come up with some poncy term to disguise it? You don't 'penetrate the inner mysteries' of the Edgware Road, you walk along it, and there's nothing wrong with that! It's like if I said I was an 'nformation manager', after five minutes I'd have someone say "no you ain't love, you're a librarian!" and they'd be right.
Psychogeographer= A self-loathing walker.
Smoke= worth a look, if not necessarily to buy.
All that Chris Morris stuff about on-line paedophiles using soundwaves to interfere with children come's a step closer... Engineers in the Virtual Reality Laboratory at the University at Buffalo have developed a new technology that transmits the sensation of touch over the Internet. (Via the Smartmobs website.)
So, bad weather has had it's traditional effect on Wimbledon and Tim Henman will have to wait until tomorrow to crash out of the tournament. It's the same every year, blah blah plucky Brit, blah blah he's playing the best game in his life, blah blah I think this might be the year he makes it, blah blah and he's out. Then the papers insist he was robbed and that his opponant used some devious trick like invisible mind-control rays fired from his eyes and it wasn't anything to do with Henman not being that good a tennis player.
"This is a big event but he is used to it. He has the experience of playing a lot of huge matches here."
Yep, all that experience of losing at about this point every year will have him prepared for tomorrow.
But here's an amusing article about why tennis and Tim are both rubbish anyway.
"This is a big event but he is used to it. He has the experience of playing a lot of huge matches here."
Yep, all that experience of losing at about this point every year will have him prepared for tomorrow.
But here's an amusing article about why tennis and Tim are both rubbish anyway.
Just when it seemed that there was no-one in the world less suited to be any kind of world leader we have Silvio Berlusconi who has become Italian Prime Minister purely so he could pass a law that said that politicians couldn't be arrested and put on trial for misdeeds they might have done while they were merely a media magnate in Italy. At least Dubya will only have to worry about the faint danger of being put on trial for his many crimes after he leaves office. Anyway, now Italy, and therefore Berlusconi, holds the Presidency of the EU for six months. And what is the first thing he does? Calls a German MEP a Nazi. Smooth.
But looking on the BBC Talking Point on the issue I came across this weird POV:
I am very interested in seeing how Mr Berlusconi fares. He is already being criticised before he has even begun, and surprise surprise, it's because he has a different view about certain things than France or Germany ie his relations with the US for one. Yet again, anybody who has a different opinion from the French and Germans is deemed unsuitable and subjected to a hate campaign to try and turn people's opinion away from him and back to what the French and Germans deem suitable ie what is best for them and not the EU as a whole. Stick to your guns Mr Berlusconi and don't be put off from what you think by the selfish acts of others.
Alec, England
I think that if you check and actually listen to the news Alec you'd find that the fact that if he weren't in power he'd be in jail, combined with the 'Nazi' crack is the real reason why he's being 'criticised before he's begun'. Unless it's a hate crime to point out how one of the ultra-rich has twisted the law for his own ends I hardly think it's just because he supported the US in their campaign to flatten Iraq.
But looking on the BBC Talking Point on the issue I came across this weird POV:
I am very interested in seeing how Mr Berlusconi fares. He is already being criticised before he has even begun, and surprise surprise, it's because he has a different view about certain things than France or Germany ie his relations with the US for one. Yet again, anybody who has a different opinion from the French and Germans is deemed unsuitable and subjected to a hate campaign to try and turn people's opinion away from him and back to what the French and Germans deem suitable ie what is best for them and not the EU as a whole. Stick to your guns Mr Berlusconi and don't be put off from what you think by the selfish acts of others.
Alec, England
I think that if you check and actually listen to the news Alec you'd find that the fact that if he weren't in power he'd be in jail, combined with the 'Nazi' crack is the real reason why he's being 'criticised before he's begun'. Unless it's a hate crime to point out how one of the ultra-rich has twisted the law for his own ends I hardly think it's just because he supported the US in their campaign to flatten Iraq.
Last year I bought a new computer. I brought it home, set it up, it did use Windows XP and I had Office 2000 on it, but everything was lovely. It had an update function on it which foolishly, I used. I'm sure that's why now my Outlook Express often crashes when I'm writing e-mail (especially if I have to cut-n-paste) and Media Player seems to have completely forgotten the concept of Autoplay. Anyway, I'm currently downloading some more updates, in the hopes they'll fix the faults the previous updates caused. If you never hear from me again you know that Bill Gates has taken another victim.
Grrr. Just because we started Summer off so early this year doesn't mean you can bring Autumn in at the start of July! I know my rights! I want my sun!
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Bloody hell, I turn over for 'Newsnight', I catch the last few minutes of 'Today at Wimbledon' and all I can think is "What the hell is that thing on Boris Becker's head?!"
OK, here we have a story about a difference of opinion. At the current All the Rage column the last item is about a new DC comic book called 'The Outsiders'. It links to this page at another comic book site where they get their summer intern to review it. The Summer intern has both little knowledge of comics history and is a girl. Therefore, when she admits to not liking the book and has a variety of reasons, things get a little tense. Because this is the world of comics, and everyone that disagrees with her (including the guy writing the column at All the Rage) is so obviously trying not to say "But you're a girl! You smell of wee! And your tits are too small too!".
However, look for the post by 'Barrage' about a third-way down that first page which makes some very good points about the industry today based on the interns review.
However, look for the post by 'Barrage' about a third-way down that first page which makes some very good points about the industry today based on the interns review.
I do enjoy glancing at the Talking Points Memo every now and then because, though he's often talking about American political stuff of little interest from over here in England it's nice to find a decent Conservative, unlike certain other people who unashamedly pepper their articles with every inaccuracy and false argument going.
Another Labour minister attacks the BBC and humourously makes use of unattributed sources within the BBC. If I knew that they had the trati drilled out of them before they get selected I would think the MP was being ironic to make a point.
One of the most amazing traits of the US administration is it's barefaced cheek, as it threatens cutting financial aid to countries that won't sign an agreement not to send US citizens to internation Criminal Courts at the same time as it's still trying to get hold of war criminals in places like Croatia. And say Saddam Huseein turned up in Syria, would the US accept it if Syria refused to turn him over? Of course not. But this isn't just a Bush thing, Clinton was the first US President to come up with the idea of US treaties to save it's citizens. But it just shows that, in the crunch, Bush really doesn't trust God to look after his country.
Did some more writing and cleaned the flat today and still feel a bit depressed. I think it's because even I'm aware of what utter crap I'm writing. It's any old nonsense at the moment and I guess I can't persuade myself that I'll come back to it later and rewrite it so that it's a half-decent story.
If you work for one of those companies where your job is to cold-call people at home, here's a tip. If you find the person who's name you are calling amusing, don't giggle after saying it. Such rudeness is unlikely to win you any commision. And, while we're at it, the people that cold-call to try and persuade you to buy a new fitted kitchen. Why?! How do these businesses survive in todays economic climate? Surely a new kitchen isn't a spur-of-the-moment decision? Surely you have to WANT to have a new kitchen and then you pop out to MFI or Homebase or wherever and start looking at best deals and such like. You don't just say yes to someone who's just pissed themselves laughing at your name down the phone? If you are one of these people then hello. I'm offering a service where I'll change your kitchen. Basically, you give me £1200 and I'll come and shit in your fridge. Please e-mail me, I'll answer you in order of how much your name amuses me.
Monday, June 30, 2003
Ali C out of news for one day as another minister put's foot in it. Oh this gets more and more funny. Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter that has sent Alistair Campbell over the edge with regards to the 'dodgy dossier' story is now threatening to sue a Labour Minister who foolishly said that Gilligan was lying outside of the Houses of Parliament (if he'd said it inside, he'd have Parliamentary immunity). Maybe they'll get together and have Gilligan's threat to labour cancel out Campbell's threat to the BBC and everyone can live happily ever after.
This article is about the fuss over the memorial that will be built to remember the victims of the 11th September attack on the WTC. With the greatest of respect to the relatives of the victims, I think the most positive thing to be no memorial, that everyone involved instead concetrates on the future. Any monument will be forever linked to the death of many many more foreigners as part of the crusade these events started. Already we have had the mere memory of these people co-opted by Bush and Blair to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq, a monument at Ground Zero will allow Bush or those who follow him a cheap emotional shorthand to justify whatever barbarism they want to engage in. A new carpark may be inelegant but will deprive them of a cheap trick.
Watched Donnie Darko today. Every time I see it it affects me more and more and I find the ending sadder and sadder. The most underated film of last year, if you haven't seen it yet then do so now!
I'm feeling pleased with myself that, despite the bad weather keeping me indoors so I couldn't do a walk if I'd wanted to, I did manage to get some writing done. It was real blood from a stone work today, trying to drag the words from brain to screen (if I wrote a novel that read like a blog I might have a bit more success, though I suspect from reading some other peoples work that I'm not the first person this thought has occured to). Part of the reason for my epic slowness is my brain's refusal at times where I get stuck to let me move on and come back to it, or to slap some rubbish down to tide me over. It insists on making me write as though this is the final and perfect draft, even though I know I'll be coming back later and changing the entire thing.
So, now the people that, a few months ago, were suggesting that I look into working with the Goddess Oschun are telling me not to try to contact her directly but go through an intermediary figure and wait for her to give me the nod. Gee, thanks guys. Sort of like the magical equivelent of waiting until the firework goes off in someone's face before saying to them "oh yeah, stand well back." But I suppose this gives a possible magical reason for why when I asked her for help with the whole hayfever thing it had zero effect and I had epic sneezing sessions.
New rights for gay couples. And I never thought I'd be saying these words but I find myself agreeing with Peter Tatchell. I've never been that supportive of gay marriage but only because I find marriage an outdated institution in which many people involved are going to church for the first time in years. However, the fact is that we have the ridiculous situation where a byke who is in a relation with someone of the opposite sex would get more advantages if they had that ratified than if they were in a relationship with someone of the same sex. If we have to keep marriage it should be with the religion taken out, or as an optional add-on to what has for many years practically been a legal institution. And as a legal institution it should cover everyone equally, not only queers and straights, but also those who don't want to marry.
Wait, I think I see the flaw here...
Wait, I think I see the flaw here...
Went shopping yesterday, bought a new Illig skirt from the wonderful people at Kate Lehav at Camden Lock. Mmmmm.
Then went to The Crown in New Oxford Street where I ill-advisedly proceeded to get absolutely rat-arsed. This was due to turning up about an hour early and started drinking to dull the pain of the barpeople having Avril Lavigne on their CD player. But from what I still remember, a great time was had, Flyboy has produced a little printed version of the Jenny Everywhere strips he's done with the absurdly talented Nelson Evergreen. Stop him and buy one!
Then went to The Crown in New Oxford Street where I ill-advisedly proceeded to get absolutely rat-arsed. This was due to turning up about an hour early and started drinking to dull the pain of the barpeople having Avril Lavigne on their CD player. But from what I still remember, a great time was had, Flyboy has produced a little printed version of the Jenny Everywhere strips he's done with the absurdly talented Nelson Evergreen. Stop him and buy one!
Sunday, June 29, 2003
And annoyingly the weather report says it's going to rain for most of the first week of my fortnight off work. It's not fair!
Finished watching the Bjork Volumen II videography. It's interesting that the videos for her fourth and, to my mind, dullest album Vespertine are pretty dull in themselves. 'Hidden Place' has a camera tracking around her face while computer graphics make her cry a strange fluid which she then swallows, it wouldn't be so bad if this dramatically changed each time, or builds to something, but it doesn't. 'Pagan Poetry' spends half the video as an interesting abstract graphic montage based on what looks like a topographical rendering of Bjork's body, which is must more interesting than the other half, which is her getting her body pierced. And 'Cocoon' has her as some kind of mannequin that sprouts red ribbons from her nipples which them proceeds to wrap her up. Whop-de-doo.
But the 'All is Full of Love' is probably my favourite video ever, Bjork as two sex droids, one being built as the song starts, the other arriving at the chorus to give her her final examination. It's just a bit of a shame that the director, Chris Cunningham, doesn't have enough ideas to stretch out what is a short video and has to drag in a rather bizarre ejaculation metaphor.
Hmmm, did I say 'ejaculation'? That's going to get me some weird Google referrals I think...
But the 'All is Full of Love' is probably my favourite video ever, Bjork as two sex droids, one being built as the song starts, the other arriving at the chorus to give her her final examination. It's just a bit of a shame that the director, Chris Cunningham, doesn't have enough ideas to stretch out what is a short video and has to drag in a rather bizarre ejaculation metaphor.
Hmmm, did I say 'ejaculation'? That's going to get me some weird Google referrals I think...
'Tis the season... Berlin Pride. I have to make sure I find the dates for the London one, if it hasn't happened already, so I can make sure I avoid it completely.
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Lesbian couple having baby with donated sperm. No, I don't see why this is a story either.
It was an intensely depressing experience watching Blaming the Jews on Channel 4, presented by David Aaronovitch. Pretty much the article I linked to a week or so back over 45 minutes, looking at the state of Arab Anti-Semitism. The first ten minutes pretty much set the scene for the show as he met the wife of an Islamic cleric who's been sent to prison in this country for inciting racial hatred against the Jews. Hopefully his opinions and arguments are better than hers as she believes that Jews control the media because Rupert Murdoch is Jewish. When Aaronovitch points out that he isn't, it turns out that she thought he was because she thought he was Robert Maxwell's son. Aaronovitch then twists the knife by pointing out that Murdoch is a fine Scottish name.
But when he then travels to Palestine it does get depressing. The Palestinian Education Minister claims that the Jewish people 'exaggerated' the suffering they underwent during the Holocaust, indeed Holocaust denial is a part of Arabic Anti-Semitism (along with a belief that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is true). A school teacher says that the Jews themselves were responsible for the rise of Hitler and one of his students cheerfully says that there can never be peace between Israel and Palestine.
However, although he makes some passing remarks to the state of Palestine under constant siege by the Israeli Army, Aaronovitch comes perilously close to suggesting that this is all the Palestinian's fault. He finds moderate Muslim voices in Egypt or Britain, but not in Palestine. And while there are plenty of shots of Palestinian pop videos inciting Muslim youth to rise up against the Israeli invaders no mention is made of what is said and done in Israel. Opinions of those in the Palestinian government are singled out, Sharon is not mentioned once.
At no point does Aaronovitch really go for 'why is this happening', because that would possibly indict the Israeli government too. Racism and Anti-Semitism have always historically thrived where people are poorly educated with a low quality of life.
And they really should have banned the use of allegory when writing religious books. If Fred Phelps can read 'love thy neighbour' as meaning 'hate all fags' and Muslim scholars can read seemingly innocent paragraphs as really meaning a Jihad against Jews then we're going to have conflicts that can't be solved until we decide to turn our back on God for the good of mankind.
But when he then travels to Palestine it does get depressing. The Palestinian Education Minister claims that the Jewish people 'exaggerated' the suffering they underwent during the Holocaust, indeed Holocaust denial is a part of Arabic Anti-Semitism (along with a belief that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is true). A school teacher says that the Jews themselves were responsible for the rise of Hitler and one of his students cheerfully says that there can never be peace between Israel and Palestine.
However, although he makes some passing remarks to the state of Palestine under constant siege by the Israeli Army, Aaronovitch comes perilously close to suggesting that this is all the Palestinian's fault. He finds moderate Muslim voices in Egypt or Britain, but not in Palestine. And while there are plenty of shots of Palestinian pop videos inciting Muslim youth to rise up against the Israeli invaders no mention is made of what is said and done in Israel. Opinions of those in the Palestinian government are singled out, Sharon is not mentioned once.
At no point does Aaronovitch really go for 'why is this happening', because that would possibly indict the Israeli government too. Racism and Anti-Semitism have always historically thrived where people are poorly educated with a low quality of life.
And they really should have banned the use of allegory when writing religious books. If Fred Phelps can read 'love thy neighbour' as meaning 'hate all fags' and Muslim scholars can read seemingly innocent paragraphs as really meaning a Jihad against Jews then we're going to have conflicts that can't be solved until we decide to turn our back on God for the good of mankind.
Hmmm, exactly two and a quarter hours until I'm on holiday...
When I was at school I was always rather blase about holidays, especially the six week one we got every summer (and which I found out years after I left school was a hangover from the days when parents would have pulled their children out of school to help with getting the harvest in if they hadn't had the time off anyway). By the end of the holiday (signified by my birthday at the end of August) I'd be getting bored and restless, almost looking forward to returning to school.
Holidays are wasted on those not in full-time employment < G >!
When I was at school I was always rather blase about holidays, especially the six week one we got every summer (and which I found out years after I left school was a hangover from the days when parents would have pulled their children out of school to help with getting the harvest in if they hadn't had the time off anyway). By the end of the holiday (signified by my birthday at the end of August) I'd be getting bored and restless, almost looking forward to returning to school.
Holidays are wasted on those not in full-time employment < G >!
You Have the Power to Turn Things to Stone!
What's Your Magic Power?
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Heh.
It's been done many times before, and often by people with some talent for animation but The Empire Strikes Back Versus The Village People may raise a titter or two. (Pilfered shamelessly from B3ta)
You've got to love The Rockall Times... Very fabric of society threatened by appointment of gay Satanist dope-smoking Bishop.
Court Won't Hear Antiabortion Activists' Appeal. What's worrying is that several appeal judges were trying to insist on the anti-abortion activists right to freedom of speech when several doctors who'd appeared on their posters had been killed. If the judges were concerned about upholding the protesters freedom of speech perhaps they could do something to uphold the doctor's right not to get shot for doing their job?
OK, the only way to totally bugger up the anti-abortionists who see nothing morally wrong about killing an adult is to pass a law that states that all doctors who are qualified to perform abortions are legally unborn children. Anti-abortionists who then try to kill these doctors are then killing unborn children, which means that the other inbred morons in their group would then have to kill them, for having killed unborn children. Indeed, as anti-abortionists are legally unborn children and so therefore by dint of loony doctrine pure and perfect they are not 'performing' an abortion as such. as studies have shown that sometimes one unborn foetus destroys the other (by absorbtion but what the hey). I haven't yet heard of Christian activists blockading day care centres because while a foetus Little Timmy denied the right to life of what would have become his twin brother.
OK, the only way to totally bugger up the anti-abortionists who see nothing morally wrong about killing an adult is to pass a law that states that all doctors who are qualified to perform abortions are legally unborn children. Anti-abortionists who then try to kill these doctors are then killing unborn children, which means that the other inbred morons in their group would then have to kill them, for having killed unborn children. Indeed, as anti-abortionists are legally unborn children and so therefore by dint of loony doctrine pure and perfect they are not 'performing' an abortion as such. as studies have shown that sometimes one unborn foetus destroys the other (by absorbtion but what the hey). I haven't yet heard of Christian activists blockading day care centres because while a foetus Little Timmy denied the right to life of what would have become his twin brother.
Supposedly US proposes world peacekeeping force although I thought we already had at least two organisations available already NATO for Europe and the UN for the entire world. So should the headline perhaps read 'US proposes world peacekeeping force which the US would control'?
You'd have thought that when a country was actually asking for US intervention they'd be steaming in there all eager... Liberians demand US intervention. Which I'd initially misread as 'Librarians demand US intervention'...
After several months where it's taken almost an entire week for DVDs I order to turn up from Play.com the two I ordered on Wednesday night turned up this morning, right before I have to go to work. So I have a copy of Bjork's Volumen and also Donnie Darko which I can't watch until this evening. I mean, that's only ten hours away, I can wait that long surely...
Friday, June 27, 2003
Damn Flux for linking to an MP3 of Prince's 'Electric Chair' from the Batman soundtrack album. Because now I want a CD of that album so badly, and not in an arch and knowing ironic way. But then I also managed to watch an entire episode of 'Will and Grace' today without starting to feel myself turning heterosexual out of sheer disgust*, so I'm obviously very, very ill.
*All right, it has many good lines in it, but even so there's just something disturbing about it, you know?
*All right, it has many good lines in it, but even so there's just something disturbing about it, you know?
Finally, Galloway issues writ against the Telegraph but will not be drawn on why he's waited so long.
BBC to Alistair Campbell; "Hey pal, can yer mother sew?"
And this evening hundreds of Scotsmen are looking into their pints and going "Ye' can never trust a Campbell..."
The BBC's response to TakingtheMichael Ali.
What's worrying is that this could all spiral off down Tangent Street into a big discussion over journalistic ethics and we'll all forget about that pootling little matter of whether the Government lied it's arse off.
And this evening hundreds of Scotsmen are looking into their pints and going "Ye' can never trust a Campbell..."
The BBC's response to TakingtheMichael Ali.
What's worrying is that this could all spiral off down Tangent Street into a big discussion over journalistic ethics and we'll all forget about that pootling little matter of whether the Government lied it's arse off.
[The Ageless Project is] ...sending the message that the personal, creative side of the web is diverse and ageless. If you have a personal, non-commercial website (that's original) and don't mind sharing your date of birth, you might help us prove the point.
Well, I seem to be struck out from entering my blog on the grounds of the ads Blogger bungs at the top of the page and the staggering lack of originality in what I write, but otherwise it's a nice idea. When they say that they are 'trying to prove the point' I do wonder, who to?
Well, I seem to be struck out from entering my blog on the grounds of the ads Blogger bungs at the top of the page and the staggering lack of originality in what I write, but otherwise it's a nice idea. When they say that they are 'trying to prove the point' I do wonder, who to?
Supreme Court Strikes Down Gay Sex Ban.
"The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," [Justice Antonin] Scalia wrote for the three. He took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.
"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals."
In complaining that the court had taken sides doesn't that suggest that Scalia believes that a court's job is to be partisan and prejudiced against certain sections of the community, in this case the queer community? Isn't it supposed to be equal justice for all?
"The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," [Justice Antonin] Scalia wrote for the three. He took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.
"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals."
In complaining that the court had taken sides doesn't that suggest that Scalia believes that a court's job is to be partisan and prejudiced against certain sections of the community, in this case the queer community? Isn't it supposed to be equal justice for all?
OK, so on this computer I've only got an ugly big window in which I can write this, but I can't see my recent posts without opening a seperate window. I hope this isn't going to be the new look Blogger because it looks like the playschool version, for big clumsy people or pre-schoolers to use. Of course, it could all be a ploy by management to stop me blogging at work...
Always on the lookout for librarians who blog, here's Gyrfalcon who is American and studying librarianship at university in San Francisco, to which I'm tempted to scream "get out, get out while you still caaaaaaaaaaan!"
Ahem.
Ahem.
It only started today so there isn't much by way of content yet, but this blog on a 'foreigner's perspective of living in Vietnam' could turn out to be very interesting.
OK, with the Order of the Phoenix- Who Dies Spoiler Calender set at four days I've possibly been spoilt by some brat while innocently googling. Of course, I may not have, and the only way to verify this for sure is to actually look and see the context. Gah!
Hmmm, there's a Hogwarts-style RPG/Blog here. Not sure it's particularly in character though, as the person playing Draco doesn't seem to have said anything himself for ages, and another character has just swore. And it doesn't appear to be slashy...
Strange how it suddenly becomes extremely important to the Government to get an apology from the BBC over claims that Alistair Campbell 'sexed up' the dodgy dossier only when Alistair Campbell has to appear before a Commons committee to talk about it? BBC scorns Campbell deadline for apology over Iraq allegations. I'm not aware from what reports I've read that TakingtheMichael Ali said anything particularly interesting at the enquiry so I'm wondering what he feels he has to bury underneath this big show of outraged innocence.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Oh those scamps at the Daily Mail and their pretending to be sickened and outraged at Princess Diana coming back from the dead for X-Statix. Perhaps you'd also like to read one of their related articles, such as 'should this comic be banned' or 'I gave Wills a kiss'.
If you're thinking of voting on banning the comic, it's currently at 75% supporting the 'it's all harmless fun' POV. And I assume the discussion on this article has been colonised by people hearing about it at other comic-related sites, as it's either supporting the comic or at the least freedom of speech against the idea of banning it.
If you're thinking of voting on banning the comic, it's currently at 75% supporting the 'it's all harmless fun' POV. And I assume the discussion on this article has been colonised by people hearing about it at other comic-related sites, as it's either supporting the comic or at the least freedom of speech against the idea of banning it.
Did another rune reading today. Same deal as last time. This is what I got:
What do I need for my life right now?
1. Overview: Mannaz-The Self, reversed
Begin by being clear with oneself. Rather than relying on others look inside for the enemy of progress. You will recognise the outer enemy as a reflection of what is within.
2. Challenge: Ansuz-Signals
The Divine is at hand. Explore the depths, the foundations of life. But first you must nourish yourself before you can nourish others.
3. Course of Action: Eihwaz-Defence, reversed
If there is an obstacle in your path, consider that a delay may prove beneficial, do not be eager to press forward, for this is not the time. Patience. Wait. Prepare.
The three cards suggest that I should consolidate and wait, which is pretty much what I've been doing for the last twenty seven years. Is this telling me what I should do, or what I want it to tell me to do? Mannaz would suggest I'm at the start of something and due to sloth I suppose I'm still very much at the start of the personal transformation I envisioned in Winter, and the other cards would suggest that I shouldn't look at making much more progress yet, but look at consolidating what has changed so far. And what have I changed so far? All I've really done is, I think, merely opened myself back up to stuff I've accepted over the years but tended to forget about. I suppose it's a mental kick to keep me doing the NLP, which I was reading with some irritation today.
If I do the magical thing and take doing that competition as a sign, plus the two ones above (ie; do whatever I feel like as long as I can come up with some half-assed excuse) I could also claim Gebo Partnership which has no reverse option anyway and suggests that a partnership of some type is at hand, either physical, mental or spiritual. Blum suggests that at it's highest level it's a realisation of the posibility of union with the Divine. Not that I particularly accept that God's got anything to do with my life. But Gebo signifies the gift of freedom from which flows all other gifts, which is atheistic enough for me.
What do I need for my life right now?
1. Overview: Mannaz-The Self, reversed
Begin by being clear with oneself. Rather than relying on others look inside for the enemy of progress. You will recognise the outer enemy as a reflection of what is within.
2. Challenge: Ansuz-Signals
The Divine is at hand. Explore the depths, the foundations of life. But first you must nourish yourself before you can nourish others.
3. Course of Action: Eihwaz-Defence, reversed
If there is an obstacle in your path, consider that a delay may prove beneficial, do not be eager to press forward, for this is not the time. Patience. Wait. Prepare.
The three cards suggest that I should consolidate and wait, which is pretty much what I've been doing for the last twenty seven years. Is this telling me what I should do, or what I want it to tell me to do? Mannaz would suggest I'm at the start of something and due to sloth I suppose I'm still very much at the start of the personal transformation I envisioned in Winter, and the other cards would suggest that I shouldn't look at making much more progress yet, but look at consolidating what has changed so far. And what have I changed so far? All I've really done is, I think, merely opened myself back up to stuff I've accepted over the years but tended to forget about. I suppose it's a mental kick to keep me doing the NLP, which I was reading with some irritation today.
If I do the magical thing and take doing that competition as a sign, plus the two ones above (ie; do whatever I feel like as long as I can come up with some half-assed excuse) I could also claim Gebo Partnership which has no reverse option anyway and suggests that a partnership of some type is at hand, either physical, mental or spiritual. Blum suggests that at it's highest level it's a realisation of the posibility of union with the Divine. Not that I particularly accept that God's got anything to do with my life. But Gebo signifies the gift of freedom from which flows all other gifts, which is atheistic enough for me.
"Aisha! I'm confused!"
"Aisha! I'm vibrating!"
So, after a morning where it rained, if briefly, to an afternoon of blistering heat. I spent a lot of it on the back step, exposing as much skin as I could without risking someone phoning the police to complain of indecency or the RSPCA to inform them a whale had somehow made it this far inland and trying anything to get rid of the corpse-white pallor of everywhere except my sunburnt arms.
Anyway,
what number are you?
this quiz by orsa
But who is number one?
Still, you've got to laugh haven't you? (You'd think I'd be snide about this news didn't you? What kind of monster do you think I am? But if I might suggest that we temporarily honour the old Indian custom of the widow throwing herself on the husband's funeral pyre then I'd be extremely grateful)
"Aisha! I'm vibrating!"
So, after a morning where it rained, if briefly, to an afternoon of blistering heat. I spent a lot of it on the back step, exposing as much skin as I could without risking someone phoning the police to complain of indecency or the RSPCA to inform them a whale had somehow made it this far inland and trying anything to get rid of the corpse-white pallor of everywhere except my sunburnt arms.
Anyway,
I am the number 2 I am friendly _ |
this quiz by orsa
But who is number one?
Still, you've got to laugh haven't you? (You'd think I'd be snide about this news didn't you? What kind of monster do you think I am? But if I might suggest that we temporarily honour the old Indian custom of the widow throwing herself on the husband's funeral pyre then I'd be extremely grateful)
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Grrr! It's a hot and sticky afternoon and I have to work. I also want to scoff ice-cream and sweets though they don't do me any good at all and just make me fat with decayed teeth. So, I turn to Weebl and Bob to cheer me up (from The Everyday Happenings of Weebl) and it works. Hurrah! Now I won't need to kill anyone.
Finally, the proof the world has been waiting for that Saddam was doing naughty things and needed to be stopped.
Princess Diana died on the morning of my 21st birthday. Which, as presents go, was pretty impressive. And at the time, what with the unphotogenic and distant Prince of Wales wanting to marry an even less photogenic horse, the Royal Family was seen as distant and worse still, possibly an anachronism. What a difference a few years, two old women dying and a jubilee make. Now Russian bloke touches woman is considered newsworthy. Meanwhile all the news services are more than happy to continue giving free publicity to a tedious Edinburgh fringe performer who, if his performance on telly the other night is anything to go by, fancies himself as a 'cultural terrorist' a la Chris Morris but doesn't bother with being funny at any point.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Important and useful travelware for American tourists, the American Apology T-Shirt.
How's your web-fu? In this thread on Barbelith we're trying to find slash fiction based on the 'Left Behind' series. That's the 'Left Behind' series which tells the story of what happens when the world finds itself lighter to the tune of several million cretins when 'The Rapture' disappears all the 'true Christians' on the planet. Now, the characters are nicely two dimensional already, so it can't be too much of a stretch. Now, on a net which gives us Roy Orbison being wrapped in cling-film and political slash surely someone has written something, somewhere out there? Please email me if you find it.
This article from Counterpunch would have us believe that Librarians in the US are all too happy to play along with the FBI when it comes to restricting American citizens freedoms under the guise of homeland security. But I got that while googling to find out what librarians have been up to to try and thwart the investigations. Certainly nothing may be going on at the official level of the American Library Association but at the ground level of individual library services people are standing up for citizen's rights. And someone has got to.
I think I've found the perfect website to balance the organised-librarian side of my soul with the vaguely disorganised-freedom loving side of my soul. It's the Anarchist Librarians Web!
SPIRIT is your chinese symbol!
What Chinese Symbol Are You?
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As you can see from this I have the perfect qualifications to be a 13-year-old girl. All I need in the glittery eyeshadow and I'm there...
He's one of the greatest cartoonists ever! Alright, it's a tiny exageration but I did grow up reading Marvel UK comics, so what do you expect? Check out the links to Combat Colin on Lew Stringer's Strips and Scripts page.
Have your latest drunken conversations about sci-fi telly been missing that vital pizazz? Have you exhausted all the possible mindless bitchery inherent in arguing about the sexual orientation of characters ("Yeah, Han and Leia may get married, but Chewbacca's still going to be the guy he flies off with next morning!")? Can you no longer raise a titter by quoting famous lines of dialogue but including the phrase 'with no clothes on' afterwards ("ET phone home... with no clothes on." "Luke, I am your father... with no clothes on.")? Then why not argue about when shows Jump the Shark.
Monday, June 23, 2003
And, to counter linking to a Philip Pullman interview earlier, here's the Real Live Preacher's blog. Includes this interesting entry.
From today's Guardian: The United States Government: Taking the 'Non' out of Non-Governmental Organisations.
Flyboy links to this brilliant interview with Philip Pullman, author of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which are damn fine books.
And while we're on the subject. Due to not being a enormous fan of her work and the fact that I've got about a dozen books to read, as I mentioned a few days back, I'm not buying the latest Harry Potter book straight away. Maybe in a month or two, maybe I'll wait for it to magically appear on my birthday (31st August if you want to take note). So, perhaps we can make a game of this. I'm not going to intentionally look out for spoilers. Do you think I'll make it to my birthday or the day I break down and buy it, which ever comes first, without having someone thoughtfully spoil for me as to who the 'beloved character' is that dies?
And I love how next to each other on the BBC NEws website we have Rowling's 'guilt' at Potter wealth and Harry Potter author JK Rowling has filed a $100m (£60m) lawsuit against the New York Daily News after the tabloid published details about the plot of her latest book. Yeah, I know, it was probably her agent, not her, but $100 million for revealing something when the book was coming out the very next day? And I think the figures prove her sales weren't affected by this leak.
The library copies started moving in the system today and are on the way to the first people who reserved them (in most of these cases as far back as Christmas). We've ordered 62 copies of the childrens version and 40 of the adult. So far there are 99 reservations for the children's version and 32 for the adult. Some staff who got their own copies on Saturday have either read or nearly finished it. It's like the Matrix Reloaded, all over again...
And while we're on the subject. Due to not being a enormous fan of her work and the fact that I've got about a dozen books to read, as I mentioned a few days back, I'm not buying the latest Harry Potter book straight away. Maybe in a month or two, maybe I'll wait for it to magically appear on my birthday (31st August if you want to take note). So, perhaps we can make a game of this. I'm not going to intentionally look out for spoilers. Do you think I'll make it to my birthday or the day I break down and buy it, which ever comes first, without having someone thoughtfully spoil for me as to who the 'beloved character' is that dies?
And I love how next to each other on the BBC NEws website we have Rowling's 'guilt' at Potter wealth and Harry Potter author JK Rowling has filed a $100m (£60m) lawsuit against the New York Daily News after the tabloid published details about the plot of her latest book. Yeah, I know, it was probably her agent, not her, but $100 million for revealing something when the book was coming out the very next day? And I think the figures prove her sales weren't affected by this leak.
The library copies started moving in the system today and are on the way to the first people who reserved them (in most of these cases as far back as Christmas). We've ordered 62 copies of the childrens version and 40 of the adult. So far there are 99 reservations for the children's version and 32 for the adult. Some staff who got their own copies on Saturday have either read or nearly finished it. It's like the Matrix Reloaded, all over again...
I would be willing to pay money for someone to kill the Manic Street Preachers.
No, really, I would.
Purely because they've refused to do the decent thing themselves and die, and are working on a new album that's going to be 'short, direct and really melodic', so back to the Radio 2 MOR fodder of This is My Pretense of Being a Working Class Lad from the Hills When In Fact I'm Actually Living in Cardiff With a Flat I Vacuum Everyday, Tell Me Yours then? But what really irritates me is that their b-sides album is going to be called Lipstick Traces, which is a brilliant book on Punk, Dada and Situationalism (here) and doesn't deserve to be sullied by the implied association.
No, really, I would.
Purely because they've refused to do the decent thing themselves and die, and are working on a new album that's going to be 'short, direct and really melodic', so back to the Radio 2 MOR fodder of This is My Pretense of Being a Working Class Lad from the Hills When In Fact I'm Actually Living in Cardiff With a Flat I Vacuum Everyday, Tell Me Yours then? But what really irritates me is that their b-sides album is going to be called Lipstick Traces, which is a brilliant book on Punk, Dada and Situationalism (here) and doesn't deserve to be sullied by the implied association.
Anyone in desperate need of a good novel should look up Breeder's Box by Timothy Murphy. I found it second-hand down in Camden in January then left it languishing in my 'to read' pile for ages, wondering exactly why I'd bought it. Then, when I could put it off no longer I started reading it a few weeks ago. And it was amazing!
It's the story of three siblings in their twenties, the eldest the artist Jess, an adopted Puerto Rican child, the middle the mercurial and fierce girl Flip, and the youngest the gay pianist and narrator 'Tigg'. Although the story centres around the six months that Flip started and ran a club called 'The Breeders Box', the story takes in their lives, as they grow up, go to school, and move in with one another in a Manhatten loft. With an unusual closeness that occasionally succeeds only in dragging them apart sometimes worrying their friends they always gravitate back together again as they approach the sixth month anniversary of the club.
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed both Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex and From Caucasia With Love by Danzy Senna when I realised it was another 'growing up in America' story I was eager to read it, and it didn't disappoint. We see the slow maturing of the characters and Murphy surrounds them with a colourful cast of exotic aunts, slimy schoolfriends, clublanders and and patient partners. We do have the de regeur drag queen with AIDS character and, unless I forgot a paragraph earlier in the book one of the lesbians suddenly turns out to have a drinking problem but otherwise this is an exciting book that carries you along. If I have a quibble it's that the last chapter seems a bit uncertain, as the story is told in flashback to nearly a decade before and things have changed a lot in the mean time Tigg now seems completely different to the person he describes at the end of his reminiscing. But that's a minor point. And a knowledge of clubbing is not needed to enjoy the book either. I mean, I enjoyed it.
It's the story of three siblings in their twenties, the eldest the artist Jess, an adopted Puerto Rican child, the middle the mercurial and fierce girl Flip, and the youngest the gay pianist and narrator 'Tigg'. Although the story centres around the six months that Flip started and ran a club called 'The Breeders Box', the story takes in their lives, as they grow up, go to school, and move in with one another in a Manhatten loft. With an unusual closeness that occasionally succeeds only in dragging them apart sometimes worrying their friends they always gravitate back together again as they approach the sixth month anniversary of the club.
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed both Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex and From Caucasia With Love by Danzy Senna when I realised it was another 'growing up in America' story I was eager to read it, and it didn't disappoint. We see the slow maturing of the characters and Murphy surrounds them with a colourful cast of exotic aunts, slimy schoolfriends, clublanders and and patient partners. We do have the de regeur drag queen with AIDS character and, unless I forgot a paragraph earlier in the book one of the lesbians suddenly turns out to have a drinking problem but otherwise this is an exciting book that carries you along. If I have a quibble it's that the last chapter seems a bit uncertain, as the story is told in flashback to nearly a decade before and things have changed a lot in the mean time Tigg now seems completely different to the person he describes at the end of his reminiscing. But that's a minor point. And a knowledge of clubbing is not needed to enjoy the book either. I mean, I enjoyed it.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
David Aaronvitch lost me for a while with his support for the attack on Iraq, but now he's written a worrying article about how a militant Islamic group are using the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' as 'proof' of Jewish wickedness, here.
This is especially scary after watching the Correspondent program on BBC2 this evening about the post-invasion Iraq. Scared of the effect bodybags coming home might have on the American psyche (especially as the media over there seem to have been telling everyone that now Saddam is gone all the Iraqis love the invading Americans) it seems orders have come down to stop the Americans doing little more than drive around in their tanks. So, several months after bombing stopped the infrastructure of the country is still completely fucked. And the Shia majority, who want an Islamic state, seem to be the only organised political groupout there. Of course, the Western world may count itself fortunate if an Islamic Shia government take over, as there are more right-wing Muslim groups operating.
It's television shows like this that make me doubt whenever governments talk about invading Iraq for the good of the people. Neither the US nor the UK seem to have done anything to prepare to be ready to organise medical relief and food and water shipments to the country when they knew that to get rid of Saddam those would be the very things they'd have to destroy. They have no excuse of not knowing about the state of the country, this was one of the imperatives for going. There's no running water in Baghdad apparently, and though violence is up, hospitals lack the means to treat them.
I wonder how long it took the World War II allies to ensure the surviving Germans in Berlin had basic food and water needs seen to after the war? I will have to investigate tomorrow...
This is especially scary after watching the Correspondent program on BBC2 this evening about the post-invasion Iraq. Scared of the effect bodybags coming home might have on the American psyche (especially as the media over there seem to have been telling everyone that now Saddam is gone all the Iraqis love the invading Americans) it seems orders have come down to stop the Americans doing little more than drive around in their tanks. So, several months after bombing stopped the infrastructure of the country is still completely fucked. And the Shia majority, who want an Islamic state, seem to be the only organised political groupout there. Of course, the Western world may count itself fortunate if an Islamic Shia government take over, as there are more right-wing Muslim groups operating.
It's television shows like this that make me doubt whenever governments talk about invading Iraq for the good of the people. Neither the US nor the UK seem to have done anything to prepare to be ready to organise medical relief and food and water shipments to the country when they knew that to get rid of Saddam those would be the very things they'd have to destroy. They have no excuse of not knowing about the state of the country, this was one of the imperatives for going. There's no running water in Baghdad apparently, and though violence is up, hospitals lack the means to treat them.
I wonder how long it took the World War II allies to ensure the surviving Germans in Berlin had basic food and water needs seen to after the war? I will have to investigate tomorrow...
Well, that ecosystem thing is good for something as it's pushed me in the direction of Jill Matrix's blog which I've had a chuckle reading for the last twenty minutes.
Here's something to cheer Patrick up. Before the Jewish World Review folds due to lack of money, why not read one of it's columnists, who puts forward the novel treatise that America is perfect because some other countries aren't.
"Umm, what is up dood? We are down with the kiddies and this happening 'blogging' malarky, oh yus! Why, I ought to pop a cap up yo' ass, yes indeedy!"
The BBC is hosting a 'Blogging in Brazil' page. All fine and dandy. They've sent a reporter to Brazil to travel along the São Francisco river, following the trail of Sir Richard Burton. Ver' good. But if the page in question is anything to go by, it's not going to look any different to any other BBC webpage. Plus there's the little matter that the first entry posted today has a dateline of, um, tomorrow. Maybe it will look better when there is more than one entry, but at the moment it looks little more than a typical BBC report, with the 'blog' keyword dropped in to sound like they're up-to-date on current trends. What about a group-blog for the foreign correspondents around the world, so they can talk about their day-to-day lives and local stories that normally get hidden away at the end of 'From Our Own Correspondent' type shows? That's something I'd like to see.
The BBC is hosting a 'Blogging in Brazil' page. All fine and dandy. They've sent a reporter to Brazil to travel along the São Francisco river, following the trail of Sir Richard Burton. Ver' good. But if the page in question is anything to go by, it's not going to look any different to any other BBC webpage. Plus there's the little matter that the first entry posted today has a dateline of, um, tomorrow. Maybe it will look better when there is more than one entry, but at the moment it looks little more than a typical BBC report, with the 'blog' keyword dropped in to sound like they're up-to-date on current trends. What about a group-blog for the foreign correspondents around the world, so they can talk about their day-to-day lives and local stories that normally get hidden away at the end of 'From Our Own Correspondent' type shows? That's something I'd like to see.
The BBC are rescreening Edge of Darkness on BBC4, starting tonight.
Checking out the fragrant and lovely Patrick Prescott's blog for last Monday, it seems he's a bit pissed off by the BBC 'America on Trial' program. Bless...
Saturday, June 21, 2003
You come from Dark Water. You are solitary and
find peace in yourself, or maybe you're
turmoiled but pull off peace.
Where Did Your Soul Originate?
brought to you by Quizilla
Yeah, I 'pull off peace' all the time. Tony does consider himself to be a man of peace after all...
Found a cheap copy of Horses in Tower Records today. Yay me!
So, explain to me again what the mistake was? TV graphic labels Bush a fascist.
Anyway, I was down at Westminster today. Yeah, I have been sleeping with Tony Blair for several months now. It's just sex, no love, but of course for some six months now his doctors have realised his entire body is just locked into East Coast time and won't be shifted. And since the time in 1985 where we were saved from Ronald Raygun launching thermonuclear death against the USSR only by some quick thinking and sucking from George Bush Senior it has been policy in the Western World for all political leaders to have some means of sexual relief when they need it. George W. Bush has Lassie, after she retired from making the films, though due to quarantine laws would have to make do with David Blunkett's guide dog should he ever come over here.
So, I tend to arrive at around 11:00 am. Typically the Premier of our country is walking around in his star-spangled jock-strap rather quickly. I either dress up as George the Big Butch Cowboy or Margaret the Stern Headmistress, depending how agitated he is. He's the bottom if I'm George, if I'm Margaret we have a S/M session first (I tie him up, agree a 'safe' word then after the nipple clamps go on tell him I think 'safe' words are for little girls) and then he's still the bottom afterwards. I don't mind all this but sometimes he's unable to come unless he has a Diana impersonator in the room or an Iraqi orphan telling him how grateful she is that he's ridden her country of the evil barbarous regime of Saddam.
When he's spent I leave quietly through the garden exit. I don't get paid but when my time is up I'll get a knighthood, a third-rate university library named after me and a wish. And so in the Queens Speech next Autumn you will hear that a Bill will be passed to make it legal to libel Lord Archer of Milton Keynes in anyway you want, the stupid knobheaded lying fucker.
So, I tend to arrive at around 11:00 am. Typically the Premier of our country is walking around in his star-spangled jock-strap rather quickly. I either dress up as George the Big Butch Cowboy or Margaret the Stern Headmistress, depending how agitated he is. He's the bottom if I'm George, if I'm Margaret we have a S/M session first (I tie him up, agree a 'safe' word then after the nipple clamps go on tell him I think 'safe' words are for little girls) and then he's still the bottom afterwards. I don't mind all this but sometimes he's unable to come unless he has a Diana impersonator in the room or an Iraqi orphan telling him how grateful she is that he's ridden her country of the evil barbarous regime of Saddam.
When he's spent I leave quietly through the garden exit. I don't get paid but when my time is up I'll get a knighthood, a third-rate university library named after me and a wish. And so in the Queens Speech next Autumn you will hear that a Bill will be passed to make it legal to libel Lord Archer of Milton Keynes in anyway you want, the stupid knobheaded lying fucker.
{sigh} It didn't improve. The defense and their witnesses pretty much tried to defend Blair by trying to change things so they were the prosecution for a program called Saddam Hussein on Trial. Sadly towards the end the actual prosecution started going that way as well.
I'm not particularly impressed by these ... On Trial programs. Each witness only gets a couple of minutes for each side and is allowed to get away with the most fallacious arguments that, if this were a real court of law, they would get severely admonished for (and both sides were guilty of this to a certain extent). I would prefer a longer program, where evidence isn't curtailed to make way for car ads, and where some effort is made to make sure the witnesses treat the exercise as a real trial.
I'm not particularly impressed by these ... On Trial programs. Each witness only gets a couple of minutes for each side and is allowed to get away with the most fallacious arguments that, if this were a real court of law, they would get severely admonished for (and both sides were guilty of this to a certain extent). I would prefer a longer program, where evidence isn't curtailed to make way for car ads, and where some effort is made to make sure the witnesses treat the exercise as a real trial.
The red mist descends...
I'm watching Tony Blair on Trial on Channel 4 and the two people 'defending' Blair from charges that he lied to the British people have been staggeringly rude to the first two prosecution witnesses, preferring to attack their credibility or intelligence rather than what they've done. And yes, they have tried to imply that the two witnesses wanted Saddam Hussein to stay in power and so therefore enjoy torturing children when they're not on TV.
I just hope Clare Fucking Short doesn't turn up...
I'm watching Tony Blair on Trial on Channel 4 and the two people 'defending' Blair from charges that he lied to the British people have been staggeringly rude to the first two prosecution witnesses, preferring to attack their credibility or intelligence rather than what they've done. And yes, they have tried to imply that the two witnesses wanted Saddam Hussein to stay in power and so therefore enjoy torturing children when they're not on TV.
I just hope Clare Fucking Short doesn't turn up...
Friday, June 20, 2003
To veil or Not to Veil. An interesting article comparing the experiences of women in Turkey and Iran and the veil's place in politics.
I was going to say 'well that answers that' with regards to the Galloway story, but that would be untrue. this article on the Guardian website confirms that the Telegraph do stand by their story, but they also say they have not yet received a writ from Galloway over their article. And in the article Galloway talks about how he's going to persist with the CSM writ because they've damaged his good name but does not say anything about the Daily Telegraph. So why hasn't he sued them?
On June 18th everyone's favourite Auntie mentions Julie Birchill and how it's great that she pisses off 'right on men'. On June the 19th, Flyboy writes a blistering attack on Burchill and pretty much every opinion she's ever held. It's brilliant. Go read.
(And if they could both fix their archives so I could link to the articles direct? Ta.)
(And if they could both fix their archives so I could link to the articles direct? Ta.)
Virgin Mary 'seen in US hospital'. Why do we never get the headline 'Generic Religious Character seen in Church'?
Christian Science Monitor apologises for libelling Galloway. It's not clear from the article whether these are the same documents that the Daily Telegraph used for a similar attack on Galloway, it remains to be seen whether they will withdraw from the pending action or bluff it out.
In a surprising development Democrats rediscover backbone as their leading contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination launches an attack on George W. Bush saying he misled everyone. Is anyone over there listening though? Amongst those that don't believe that there necesarily are WMD it doesn't seem to matter because Saddam was a nasty piece of work. Still, maybe Bush should squeeze in just one more invasion to make sure he doesn't get caught short like his pappy?
Home Office bows to the somewhat inevitable, accepts most public responses were anti-ID cards. Well that's getting somewhere. From the tone of the article it merely looks as though the Home Office is now merely regrouping and trying to work out how to bring in ID cards when it's own research shows the public are against it.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
On My 'To Read' Shelf (or, A Blatant Attempt to Make Me Seem More Interesting)
Michael Marshall, 'Straw Men', China Mieville 'The Scar', Jeffrey Eugenides 'Middlesex', Alan Moore, 'Promethea Book 3' and 'From Hell'. These are all rereads as I tend to try and reread stuff at least once before it goes on my bookshelves.
Various 'Alan Moore- Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentlemen' Got it today in Gosh! and was browsing through on the train home. There's a hell of a lot of stuff in there, including the Sim/Moore discussions on 'From Hell' and Moore's beliefs. Thank god I can clear that off my hard-disk.
Steve Wilson 'Chaos Ritual'. Can't remember how I got this and to be honest, I tried reading it once and wasn't that interested, I think it's for someone who's into chaos magick a lot more than I am (ie; hardly at all). So next time I donate books to Oxfam or the local jumble sale, someone is going to be in for a shock.
Carol Bowen 'Vegetarian Microwave Cooking For One and Two'. Despite my unashamed membership of the meat-eating classes, it looked like it fulfilled my two main criteria for a cookbook, 1)Simple and 2)Quick. One of these days I really must get round to using it.
Margaret Crosland 'Simone de Beauvoir'. Liberated it from the book sale at work. I have no idea if it's any good or not, just taking a chance as one of my many, many projects is to increase, well, to gain some knowledge of the history and development of feminism.
Michael Marshall, 'Straw Men', China Mieville 'The Scar', Jeffrey Eugenides 'Middlesex', Alan Moore, 'Promethea Book 3' and 'From Hell'. These are all rereads as I tend to try and reread stuff at least once before it goes on my bookshelves.
Various 'Alan Moore- Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentlemen' Got it today in Gosh! and was browsing through on the train home. There's a hell of a lot of stuff in there, including the Sim/Moore discussions on 'From Hell' and Moore's beliefs. Thank god I can clear that off my hard-disk.
Steve Wilson 'Chaos Ritual'. Can't remember how I got this and to be honest, I tried reading it once and wasn't that interested, I think it's for someone who's into chaos magick a lot more than I am (ie; hardly at all). So next time I donate books to Oxfam or the local jumble sale, someone is going to be in for a shock.
Carol Bowen 'Vegetarian Microwave Cooking For One and Two'. Despite my unashamed membership of the meat-eating classes, it looked like it fulfilled my two main criteria for a cookbook, 1)Simple and 2)Quick. One of these days I really must get round to using it.
Margaret Crosland 'Simone de Beauvoir'. Liberated it from the book sale at work. I have no idea if it's any good or not, just taking a chance as one of my many, many projects is to increase, well, to gain some knowledge of the history and development of feminism.
LOL...
Friend #1: "David Beckham has just signed to Real Madrid."
Friend #2: "Real Madrid? Is that the paramilitary wing of Provisional Madrid?"
Friend #1: "David Beckham has just signed to Real Madrid."
Friend #2: "Real Madrid? Is that the paramilitary wing of Provisional Madrid?"
Had a great time today, met up with Mononoke outside the British Museum, while I was waiting just slowly frying in the sun and watching tourists pass by, some American couple wanted to take a picture of the husb/boyf standing next to me for some reason. Must have been my Illig skirt I was wearing. Anyhow, we spent a couple of pretty pleasant hours in the British Museum, we had a look at the English/Celtic/Germanic stuff from thousands of years BC, Mononoke really wanted to see the Egyptian stuff but by then we were both tired and hungry so did little more than zip through (some of it was inaccessible anyway, they were testing their fire suppressent system or something). But I will definitely be returning at some point in the summer to check out all the things I missed out on today.
Never ones to be afraid of taking an idea that wasn't really amusing in the first place and then hammering it into the ground until even Richard Dawkins says "Look, I'll give up this whole meme business, recant and become a good Catholic, just for logic's sake SHUT UP!" NewsMax now gives us The Deck of Hillary Clinton. I mean, has she announced she intends to run for President yet? I may have missed that item on the news, all I heard was that she wasn't going to run in 2004. So, until she does announce she intends to run, she's not actually lying about wanting to run is she guys?
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
'Roe' (of Roe vs. Wade) calls for abortion to be banned.
This seems to be a rarity, a report that doesn't mention 'abortion' and 'fundamentalist violence' in close proximity. Is it actually possible to have a rational public debate on abortion any more? It seems to be one of those topics that automatically shifts people who get involved in to one of two fundamentalist camps and I don't think either side has particularly acquited itself with any honour, although I don't recall the pro-choice group going round shooting priests.But at least the anto-abortionists have found a woman willing to stand up against abortion, makes a change from men talking about what men or women shouldn't do. We really need to work on prosthetic wombs and in utero transplants so the men can have the dilemma for themselves: "You want the thing to live? Then you give birth to it and raise it!"
This seems to be a rarity, a report that doesn't mention 'abortion' and 'fundamentalist violence' in close proximity. Is it actually possible to have a rational public debate on abortion any more? It seems to be one of those topics that automatically shifts people who get involved in to one of two fundamentalist camps and I don't think either side has particularly acquited itself with any honour, although I don't recall the pro-choice group going round shooting priests.But at least the anto-abortionists have found a woman willing to stand up against abortion, makes a change from men talking about what men or women shouldn't do. We really need to work on prosthetic wombs and in utero transplants so the men can have the dilemma for themselves: "You want the thing to live? Then you give birth to it and raise it!"
I wonder if those papers that were a few weeks ago were talking about how shameful it was that John Leslie had been atrred with the epithet of 'rapist' when there was no proof will reverse their direction again with news that Leslie is being charged with two counts of indecent assault.
Woman raped in Brighton pub toilet, attack videod on mobile phone. What the report doesn't make clear is whether the person with the phone was one of the rapists or an onlooker that didn't do anything.
And because often it's only tourists that can invigorate me to explore my city, tomorrow I'm going to the British Museum with Mononoke from Barbelith, to see all the bits I didn't see last time.
It's come as something of a knock to my self-image to realise that in the last two days I have been doing really dull repetative tasks and doing them pretty well. There's been the usual stock weeding, but also the sending out of letters to the public. Each time some IT person boasts of how you can automate simply everything these days a task comes along that can't be automated. Such as these letters. They need to be sent to a specific sub-set of library users and we can't set the system to generate them automatically, so I had to spend yesterday creating the list of people and today writing their name and addresses on letters to them. At least then I get to pass them on to someone else who then has to copy their name and address on to envelopes in which they will be sent out.
The worrying thing is that it has been a nice task in some ways, requiring as it does pretty much zero brainpower on my part. But to find I'm almost enjoying this, rather than the satisfaction of some hugely complicated enquiry on behalf of a user shows somewhat where my talents really lie.
The worrying thing is that it has been a nice task in some ways, requiring as it does pretty much zero brainpower on my part. But to find I'm almost enjoying this, rather than the satisfaction of some hugely complicated enquiry on behalf of a user shows somewhat where my talents really lie.
Someone called 'Sautter' emailed me to let me know that ze 'come[s] if you put it in my p00per?'. Sadly Hotmail prevented me from learning how ze achieves this, or what it is. Maybe the 'it' is what Ginger really is? However, if I finance this person, perhaps with the money I'll be getting from helping that nice Deputy President of Nigeria embezzle money out of his own national bank, we could be on to a winner here!
The What The World Thinks of America program was interesting last night. The America the program concentrates on is Corporate and Govermental America. Although the samples asked in each country were rather small to be considered truly representative, and the fact that nowhere near any country was included (which they acknowledged themselves as a weakness) there were still some interesting results. Even though there were countries that generally thought that the US was a good place very few polled people felt that it's recent actions had increased world safety and that it was one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Typically Israeli pollees voted in everything supporting the US and Jordani pollees voted in everything against the US. What I found interesting is that the American's polled tended to agree that they were arrogant. I wonder if, whereas in most countries arrogance is seen as a negative thing whether in America it is seen as either a positive or justified emotion.
Check the BBC webpage for the program.
Check the BBC webpage for the program.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Just finished reading White Apples by Jonathan Carroll. I don't know if when a book is released in paperback that's the literary equivelent of straight-to-video but if it is that's grossly unfair to the writer and probably is more of an reflection on the UK publishers putting this out nearly a year after it was available everywhere else.
To be filed under 'magical realism', divorced businessman Vincent Ettrich finds out one day that he died several weeks previously, but has been brought back to life. Reunited with his ex-girlfriend who is pregnant with their child he must be ready to teach it the lessons he learned while dead, lessons that, like the time he spent dead, he no longer remembers. And when you're faced by events and beings outside the realm of human experience, who do you trust?
This book zips along at a fair speed, never getting too wrapped up in events. Carroll has largely dropped the need to pepper each page with witty aphorisms and instead concentrates on the characters. It's less dark than most of his previous novels, not much that's going to chill you but some delightful moments, such as when he travels in time and sees his parents together on the night he was conceived. And the ending, traditionally a difficulty in past Carroll novels is handled well here, though it did seem to me as though he wasn't sure himself how to end it so enginered a device scant pages beforehand, but it doesn't stick out that badly. If you want something light to read between two heavy books give this a go, very enjoyable.
To be filed under 'magical realism', divorced businessman Vincent Ettrich finds out one day that he died several weeks previously, but has been brought back to life. Reunited with his ex-girlfriend who is pregnant with their child he must be ready to teach it the lessons he learned while dead, lessons that, like the time he spent dead, he no longer remembers. And when you're faced by events and beings outside the realm of human experience, who do you trust?
This book zips along at a fair speed, never getting too wrapped up in events. Carroll has largely dropped the need to pepper each page with witty aphorisms and instead concentrates on the characters. It's less dark than most of his previous novels, not much that's going to chill you but some delightful moments, such as when he travels in time and sees his parents together on the night he was conceived. And the ending, traditionally a difficulty in past Carroll novels is handled well here, though it did seem to me as though he wasn't sure himself how to end it so enginered a device scant pages beforehand, but it doesn't stick out that badly. If you want something light to read between two heavy books give this a go, very enjoyable.
Steve Bell on yesterday's Press Complaints Commission story.
How dangerous is a 'realistic possibility'? Is it more dangerous than an 'unrealistic probability' or a 'concrete fantasy'? Dirty bomb only a matter of time, says MI5.
Jack Straw has stuck his head above the parapet to distance the UK from the US with regards to the handling of Iran saying the British position is 'one of constructive and conditional engagement with the government of Iran'. He doesn't say anything to rule out military action but things like this suggests he doesn't want another conflict.
Of course, if Dubya, and therefore Tony, decide that all they want for Christmas is two Gulf States remade in the US's image, will Jack Straw resign a la Cook, will he swallow his conscience or will he decide that actually war is a jolly spiffing thing that we don't have enough of these days?
Of course, if Dubya, and therefore Tony, decide that all they want for Christmas is two Gulf States remade in the US's image, will Jack Straw resign a la Cook, will he swallow his conscience or will he decide that actually war is a jolly spiffing thing that we don't have enough of these days?
Looks like hearings are starting on both sides of the Atlantic over their Goverment's conduct in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. A senior US senator says he has evidence that the CIA deliberately withheld crucial information from the UN arms inspectors deployed to Iraq while Ex-ministers attack weapons claims at the inquiry that Tony and Alistair aren't going to be giving evidence at.
Meanwhile, Poll suggests world hostile to US. All in preparation for this program tonight.
Meanwhile, Poll suggests world hostile to US. All in preparation for this program tonight.
Aah, rain sweet rain...
Well, the stench, whatever it was, has gone from work. Which has improved now that we're more or less free of the GCSE and A Level students and now just have the uni lot for another week or so.
And I'm wondering whether my writers 'not-so-much-block-as-complete-disinterest' was due to a mix of work stress and hayfever, now that both seem to be lifting I'm starting to see both the road ahead and have some inclination to follow it.
It was the last episode of season two of Enterprise last night on telly. Not really a story, more of a set-up for the next season. I've quite enjoyed Enterprise thus far, not the best sci-fi but there have been some good stories dotted about here and there and though it of course looks better than the original series it hasn't yet really violated it's spirit by having baddies that are a lot more advanced than anything seen in DS9 or Voyager.
Well, the stench, whatever it was, has gone from work. Which has improved now that we're more or less free of the GCSE and A Level students and now just have the uni lot for another week or so.
And I'm wondering whether my writers 'not-so-much-block-as-complete-disinterest' was due to a mix of work stress and hayfever, now that both seem to be lifting I'm starting to see both the road ahead and have some inclination to follow it.
It was the last episode of season two of Enterprise last night on telly. Not really a story, more of a set-up for the next season. I've quite enjoyed Enterprise thus far, not the best sci-fi but there have been some good stories dotted about here and there and though it of course looks better than the original series it hasn't yet really violated it's spirit by having baddies that are a lot more advanced than anything seen in DS9 or Voyager.
Monday, June 16, 2003
I've been proof-reading a fellow Barbeloid's work-in-progress over the weekend, it's annoyingly good. American Gods forcibly cross-bred with series 2 of The Invisibles somewhat. Makes me feel guilty that I haven't done any work on my masterpiece for around a month, and then before that only at the rate of about a thousand words a month for several. It's not that I've been too busy to do it as such, but I've just completely lacked any desire to write and have had enough other things to distract me. With the crop of Sky spring-scifi shows coming to the end of their seasons in the next week or few I should be able to free up some evening time to force myself to do some writing, or failing that editing of stuff wot is already rote at.
Of course, what I could probably do with is a nice sleek shiny laptop so I can go and sit in the park and write whilst watching the sun go down and smiling benevolently at the children playing football and the teenagers setting fire to dogs. On my days off I could go and sit there all day, and see my laptop melt in the heat and fuse with my legs...
Of course, what I could probably do with is a nice sleek shiny laptop so I can go and sit in the park and write whilst watching the sun go down and smiling benevolently at the children playing football and the teenagers setting fire to dogs. On my days off I could go and sit there all day, and see my laptop melt in the heat and fuse with my legs...
Some parts dumb, some parts funny, The Incredible True Facts of Space.
MP's considering new guidelines for acceptable behaviour by the press. This will probably have less than a snowball's chance in hell of going through as it is, due to the fact it would hamper the companies that work for Tony's friend, Rupert. But it would be nice to dream. But it's a bit dodgy as it suggests that people read newspapers to be informed about current events. Does anyone read The Sun or The Daily Mail because they want to know what goes on in the world around them?
Gah. It's now officially 'ludicrously hot' and the entire library smells of rotting fish. I thought it was me at first, until someone reassured me that it was the entire place. It's probably the drains that got blocked and we're getting some sort of blowback. Lovely.
Anyway, found to my surprise that I have one of these as I thought only special people who could be bothered to spend ages programming them got them. I'm especially interested in the 'recommended reading' link, I have been reading Oblomovka already (it's verr gut) and will now have to check out the rest to see how exactly unlike me they probably are.
Anyway, found to my surprise that I have one of these as I thought only special people who could be bothered to spend ages programming them got them. I'm especially interested in the 'recommended reading' link, I have been reading Oblomovka already (it's verr gut) and will now have to check out the rest to see how exactly unlike me they probably are.
The Times would have us believe that police will run internet after terrorist attack. Of course, all the Times journalists still write with quill pens and then hand them on to people who type them up neatly and put them on the Interweb, Times journalists are all back in the 19th century somewhere and wondering why no-one is coming up from downstairs when they pull the bell cords. Alternatively, if this is true then when the UK is attacked then the British police are going to take over The Onion and The Rapture Index. The British Empire will rise again! Woot!
Sunday, June 15, 2003
It's deja vu all over again.
At some point in the past I've linked to reports about the return of Taliban-like Islamic behaviour in Afghanistan and how there is a danger of women's rights being curtailed again. Of course, no-one cares about Afghanistan any more. This report suggests it's starting to happen in Iraq too.
At some point in the past I've linked to reports about the return of Taliban-like Islamic behaviour in Afghanistan and how there is a danger of women's rights being curtailed again. Of course, no-one cares about Afghanistan any more. This report suggests it's starting to happen in Iraq too.
War may have killed 10,000 civilians, researchers say. Believe what you will. I just wanted to draw attention to this paragraph:
Lieutenant Colonel James Cassella, a US defence department spokesman, said the Pentagon had not counted civilian deaths because its efforts had been focused on defeating enemy forces rather than aiming at civilians.
Great! So civilian deaths don't matter. So presumerably, if (and I think this needs stressing as even now we don't have proof, IF) Osama Bin Laden was behind the September 11th WTC bombing he should have put out one of his home videos saying "I don't understand why everyone is so worked up. By our reckoning we didn't kill anyone that day because our target was Hank Jones and it turned up afterwards that he'd slept in because his alarm clock didn't go off. Grrr!" Then he could have shaken his fist at the screen and gone back to his day job of trying to kill Penelope Pitstop.
Lieutenant Colonel James Cassella, a US defence department spokesman, said the Pentagon had not counted civilian deaths because its efforts had been focused on defeating enemy forces rather than aiming at civilians.
Great! So civilian deaths don't matter. So presumerably, if (and I think this needs stressing as even now we don't have proof, IF) Osama Bin Laden was behind the September 11th WTC bombing he should have put out one of his home videos saying "I don't understand why everyone is so worked up. By our reckoning we didn't kill anyone that day because our target was Hank Jones and it turned up afterwards that he'd slept in because his alarm clock didn't go off. Grrr!" Then he could have shaken his fist at the screen and gone back to his day job of trying to kill Penelope Pitstop.
Ahh, the traditional Sunday morning Blogger collapse. Is it just me that this happens to, or does everyone find they can't post here on a Sunday morning? You would have thought someone at Blogger HQ would have noticed this happens weekly and I don't know, do something about it? Anyway, had my parents come over for Father's Day. I managed to find a FD card that neither assumed that I was a four-year-old boy that idolised his father for taking him to football or a pre-teenage girl who wears skimpy t-shirts that have the Maltesers logo changed to say 'Cockteaser' without any understanding of what it means. Instead it told a short and humorous story about how when I was watching Dad I was always taking notes, mainly fivers and tenners. Buh-doom boom. Actually, I never had to take money from my Dad like that when I lived at home, I found beating up pensioners got me much more money.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Just finished watching the BBC2 documentary on George Orwell. Lacking the kind of archive material that normally pads these things out the producers took the step of making some, then ageing it in much the same way that Portishead put crackle on the ancient samples they recorded only the day before. Orwell was played by Chris Langham, who is one of those people who is seen in a fair number of things but you can never remember his name. And I think it's a remarkable piece of film because with regard to his most famous works, 'Animal Farm' and '1984', it explicitly states how the former was initially supressed because it was not wished to insult our Soviet allies, until it was politically safe to do so. But the film ends with Orwell making clear the latters message about how totalitarianism can exist anywhere and how to prevent the future of mankind being that 'boot stamping on a human face - forever' means for humanity to rise up.
It's a message the Western world needs to remember now. The love the people feel for Big Brother is for the most part genuine, because he has saved them. Is it such a great leap to imagine he has saved them from terrorists flying planes in to their buildings, or from foreigners with chemical weapons and nuclear weapons which are somehow worse than their own chemical weapons and nuclear weapons? Orwell saw the British give up their freedoms to fight Germany, now we see Americans loose their freedoms to fight a more amorphous and ill-defined threat. Orwell's message is a warning from history.
It's a message the Western world needs to remember now. The love the people feel for Big Brother is for the most part genuine, because he has saved them. Is it such a great leap to imagine he has saved them from terrorists flying planes in to their buildings, or from foreigners with chemical weapons and nuclear weapons which are somehow worse than their own chemical weapons and nuclear weapons? Orwell saw the British give up their freedoms to fight Germany, now we see Americans loose their freedoms to fight a more amorphous and ill-defined threat. Orwell's message is a warning from history.
'To some, Taarna is a one-dimensional, overly endowed sex object dressed in a dominatrix outfit... To me, however, she far surpassed this shallow image, and I perceived in her certain qualities which, in my opinion, cause her tale to eclipse all of the others. Hence, I have constructed this encomium to Taarna, and have set out the elements which influenced my views... Although she is not real, because of what she stands for--justice, courage, and perseverance in the face of extreme adversity--Taarna holds a very special place in my heart.
Some times you learn more than you want to know. "No, it's not because the artists gave her big tits, honest!"
Some times you learn more than you want to know. "No, it's not because the artists gave her big tits, honest!"
Ha ha ha, the fuck I am...
You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
And I have much better taste in clothes than his silly long coat/robe ensemble. Why, only today I'm wearing a short-sleeved shirt over my combat-webbing covered skirt and DMs. I look like middle-management on a day out at Torture Garden.
I'm thinking about my hair. My Mum always said that I had lovely long thick hair that many women would kill for but I was never really happy with it, going through my 'long down the back' days and my 'short bleach-blond' period. At the moment I do nothing, just attack it with the elctric razor each month to stop it from getting that long, aiming for a grade 2 or 3. I'm wondering about going bald for a while, or maybe bald with a thick stripe of hair down the middle of my head (I'm currently thinking Courtney DandyWarhols Taylor-Taylor's hairstyle in the 'We Used to be Friends' video is either the best or worst haircut in rock since Tiger were a going concern). I guess I'll have to consult my Brighton fashion-expert before any decision is made.
You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
And I have much better taste in clothes than his silly long coat/robe ensemble. Why, only today I'm wearing a short-sleeved shirt over my combat-webbing covered skirt and DMs. I look like middle-management on a day out at Torture Garden.
I'm thinking about my hair. My Mum always said that I had lovely long thick hair that many women would kill for but I was never really happy with it, going through my 'long down the back' days and my 'short bleach-blond' period. At the moment I do nothing, just attack it with the elctric razor each month to stop it from getting that long, aiming for a grade 2 or 3. I'm wondering about going bald for a while, or maybe bald with a thick stripe of hair down the middle of my head (I'm currently thinking Courtney DandyWarhols Taylor-Taylor's hairstyle in the 'We Used to be Friends' video is either the best or worst haircut in rock since Tiger were a going concern). I guess I'll have to consult my Brighton fashion-expert before any decision is made.
My 'eat sensibly and don't just scoff sugar and lard' diet is already under strain from the outbreak of summer making it medically necessary for me to consume Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream all the time. But if Tim-Tams really are widely available in this country and not just the Australian Shop in Covent Garden I might just have to say 'bugger it' and look forward to spending the rest of my life spherical, rather like Violet in 'Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory'.
| Disorder | Rating |
| Paranoid: | Low |
| Schizoid: | Low |
| Schizotypal: | Moderate |
| Antisocial: | Low |
| Borderline: | Low |
| Histrionic: | Moderate |
| Narcissistic: | Moderate |
| Avoidant: | High |
| Dependent: | High |
| Obsessive-Compulsive: | Low |
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! -- | |
Hah! Just shows how you can't diagnose at a distance.
I neither care about nor particularly understand football, especially when it comes to the intricacies of managing it, so when Mark Lawson starts pontificating in the Guardian about Beckham possibly leaving and trying to cast it as some reverse Oedipus/homophobia thing Fergie sees Beckham as a threat to his birthright, ego and sexuality I can't help but laugh. What about all that post-match 'all boys in the shower' stuff then? Perhaps we can persuade one of the young footballers to wear a t-shirt that says All Football is Homosexual and cut the legend 4- Nill into his arm?
Otherwise, the headline Father Ted: 'Fergie hasn't spoken to David in months' did make me laugh and wonder a) whether they were employing a psychic at Guardian HQ, and b) what an Irish priest would know about English football.
Otherwise, the headline Father Ted: 'Fergie hasn't spoken to David in months' did make me laugh and wonder a) whether they were employing a psychic at Guardian HQ, and b) what an Irish priest would know about English football.
Now on the Blogger front-page... buy lots of crap from the Google shop. I mean, 'I Feel Lucky' pants, this would be your wacky earth humour yes?
Friday, June 13, 2003
You'll need a half-decent connection, but let's get Nekkid!
