Am feeling very jittery… about another country’s election. That is WEIRD. And tragically, OUR TV IS BUSTED. I’ve asked the technician to hurry along fixing it but we wil be without it for TWO DAYS! So I'm going to miss everything. Thank goodness for live results on the internet, is all I can say ( Read more... )

Hello invisible blog friends, it’s been ages! Steve and I just got back from two weeks in the US, and are just about over our jet-lag. We arrived home to find the vege garden growing triffid-like and our little house just as we left it. And let me tell you, I’ve never been so glad to come home. I have a bit of a love affair with the USA - the mad ( Read more... )

Oh Sarah Palin, for the love of all that is GOOD AND HOLY.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g6h1fK1yrnh6Tqp-SAGxAmFgDf1QD946JAPO1

This just takes the gateau.

(I have a big post for tomorrow about the trip, but I just can’t get over this!)

I have been hugely amused by the American presidential race in the last couple of weeks. Obama’s choice of Jo Biden was a complete no-brainer, in a smart way; young black man with little foreign-policy experience chooses for running mate… old white man! With LOTS of foreign-policy experience! Quel surprise ( Read more... )

If you have 37 minutes free, this is just about the best way you could spend it this week. This speech of Obama's dealing in part with the racist comments by his former pastor is something I think everyone should watch, and it's relevant completely apart from the fact that he's running for President. Politics is inherently manipulative, but this, ( Read more... )

Had a very cool weekend. For a start, it was Steve’s and my FIVE year wedding anniversary on Friday (FIVE!) which means that we’ve been together for 8 ½ years which is a LONG time. To celebrate the unending monotony of married bliss, we went to the French Café, where I ate snails for the first and possibly last time. The first three were fine till ( Read more... )

One of the most interesting thing about our trip to the States was talking politics. Even the die-hard Republican we stayed with pretty much admitted that she shouldn’t have voted for Bush. Even more interesting is the fact that many Americans, especially the young, get their political knowledge and commentary, not from C-SPAN or CNN but from ( Read more... )

I saw the most amazing music video last night. It literally gave me chills. It was the Greenday/U2 collaboration “The Saints are Coming”. The song’s great, but the video was just spectacular. It’s basically scenes of Hurricane Katrina overlaid with fake news subheads like THOUSANDS OF TROOPS DIVERTED FROM IRAQ TO HELP KATRINA VICTIMS. Overlaid on ( Read more... )

For some reason I find myself almost obsessively interested in the outcome of today’s US Congressional elections. I’m not sure why, but it just seems that today will be the barometer of what America is really thinking as regards Bush. He's not part of the election, but sure as eggs it's all about him. I can kind of understand his re-election - ( Read more... )

Oh dear. I’ve just listened to yet another mud-slinging spitball-throwing rude-gesturing Question Time cacophony. I’m feeling horribly sorry for Margaret Wilson at the moment - although the fracas makes for fascinating driving-home listening, it’s painful when it comes to the feeble responses of the Speaker. I can’t help remembering Jonathan Hunt’s ( Read more... )