Whether, & somewhat cynical
Fog in March Frost in May
Or so says the gardening guru on our local paper. As he's well into his 60s & has been living in the area for a looong time I see no reason to doubt him. As this morning the world looked kinda woolly & the foghorns are still going I guess that's one frost to look out for the month after next. Which could be interesting as the last we had in central Portsmouth was back during that cold snap in February. Mind your tomato plants now.
Or even weather the weather, which is what we generally have to do. It's been largely sunny the past couple of weeks, which is great. Bit overcast today, but that's fog for you.
On a less parochial level a Guantanamo Bay 'internee' has claimed responsibility for the 9/11 bombings. He's also claimed responsibility for quite a few other bomb attacks, including some which never came off. As conditions & treatment of 'internees' at Guantanamo Bay are not particularly up to Geneva Convention standards I begin to wonder about the legitimacy of these claims & wonder whether, given a while longer in the Cuban sun, he might not have admitted responsibility for Pearl Harbour too (or something).
OK, so he may well have done it all, or planned a lot of it. But when the administration admits to using torture of various kinds then one automatically begins to suspect 'confessions' - particularly when the President & his government have recently had a lot of bad press & aren't quite 'flavour of the month'. I told you, I get cynical sometimes.
Writing of governments becoming (even) less popular - apparently the British Parliament has voted in favour of renewing Trident. Even with 95 Labour members voting against the proposal & a lot of protesting against such things going on in the country. Hmmm, sounds like 'should we go to war in Iraq?' Cos that was more - 'to hell with what you think, it's happening!' w00t for Democracy! Would someone please tell me, against whom are these WMD supposed to be used? Sorry, but the current upcoming Superpower is China - are we going to pick fights with them? You can't use nuclear bombs against Terrorism. Quite honestly we'd prefer you not to use nuclear bombs at all, or have them.
Which reminds me, I got an email this morning from Tearfund, "A UN report last year said that half the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water-related diseases." & that's only for the people who can get to hospitals. There are thousands (millions?) more who don't. But it's easier to spend on weapons & swagger & bluster for ourselves than to improve the NHS here or to help others in other countries, isn't it? Why? (You may use both sides of the paper for your answer.)
Then thinking of voting etc. Apparently in a recent debate & vote it was decide that the new House of Lords should comprise entirely elected representatives. What price experience & a long view of things? Cos in recent years the House of Lords has been about the most Democratic part of government - even with the debate over how many of the more recent additions got there by having paid for the privilege. Ah well, part of the legislative process disagree with what the current ruling power wants? Then change it. Ok so we've a long way to go yet before the One party state & beating up Opposition leaders - see News from Zimbabwe this week, but . . .
Which had better be enough bile for one day. Maybe tomorrow I shall be less cynical.
Y'all have a good day now!
Or so says the gardening guru on our local paper. As he's well into his 60s & has been living in the area for a looong time I see no reason to doubt him. As this morning the world looked kinda woolly & the foghorns are still going I guess that's one frost to look out for the month after next. Which could be interesting as the last we had in central Portsmouth was back during that cold snap in February. Mind your tomato plants now.
Or even weather the weather, which is what we generally have to do. It's been largely sunny the past couple of weeks, which is great. Bit overcast today, but that's fog for you.
On a less parochial level a Guantanamo Bay 'internee' has claimed responsibility for the 9/11 bombings. He's also claimed responsibility for quite a few other bomb attacks, including some which never came off. As conditions & treatment of 'internees' at Guantanamo Bay are not particularly up to Geneva Convention standards I begin to wonder about the legitimacy of these claims & wonder whether, given a while longer in the Cuban sun, he might not have admitted responsibility for Pearl Harbour too (or something).
OK, so he may well have done it all, or planned a lot of it. But when the administration admits to using torture of various kinds then one automatically begins to suspect 'confessions' - particularly when the President & his government have recently had a lot of bad press & aren't quite 'flavour of the month'. I told you, I get cynical sometimes.
Writing of governments becoming (even) less popular - apparently the British Parliament has voted in favour of renewing Trident. Even with 95 Labour members voting against the proposal & a lot of protesting against such things going on in the country. Hmmm, sounds like 'should we go to war in Iraq?' Cos that was more - 'to hell with what you think, it's happening!' w00t for Democracy! Would someone please tell me, against whom are these WMD supposed to be used? Sorry, but the current upcoming Superpower is China - are we going to pick fights with them? You can't use nuclear bombs against Terrorism. Quite honestly we'd prefer you not to use nuclear bombs at all, or have them.
Which reminds me, I got an email this morning from Tearfund, "A UN report last year said that half the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water-related diseases." & that's only for the people who can get to hospitals. There are thousands (millions?) more who don't. But it's easier to spend on weapons & swagger & bluster for ourselves than to improve the NHS here or to help others in other countries, isn't it? Why? (You may use both sides of the paper for your answer.)
Then thinking of voting etc. Apparently in a recent debate & vote it was decide that the new House of Lords should comprise entirely elected representatives. What price experience & a long view of things? Cos in recent years the House of Lords has been about the most Democratic part of government - even with the debate over how many of the more recent additions got there by having paid for the privilege. Ah well, part of the legislative process disagree with what the current ruling power wants? Then change it. Ok so we've a long way to go yet before the One party state & beating up Opposition leaders - see News from Zimbabwe this week, but . . .
Which had better be enough bile for one day. Maybe tomorrow I shall be less cynical.
Y'all have a good day now!