Around the traps

The notion of Aussies' taking revenge on stingrays is just too precious. I picture a pack of mulleted Rambo fans, grunting "you took one of ours, now we're striking back".

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Having admitted that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, Bush turned to another lie. This one is that leaving Iraq would be a triumph for Al Qaida. The lie is somewhat disguised and most Americans probably won't grasp it. It's that the "insurgency" in Iraq is directed by Al Qaida. It isn't and never has been. At a stretch, one could claim that leaving Iraq would be a victory for the Sunni resistance but there would be many other ways to characterise it too.

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I am not going to whine about Leeds' start to the season, because it's just too depressing. What I'm going to whine about is Soccernet's presentation of league tables. I know that ESPN is American but what kind of fuckwit writes a football league table WLD? It's perverse. I keep thinking "lot of draws for Leeds", before I realise, with a sad, wry smile, that those are defeats. Against rubbish sides.

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When I read Philip Pullman, an excruciatingly boring and pompous man, joining a crowd of doomsaying nannyists in telling us that childhood is vanishing because of junk food, junk TV and junk computer games etc etc, I feel like buying the kids a packet of fish fingers and a Playstation.

It wasn't better in the good old days. Our parents were clueless and mostly damaged us. We were lucky to survive our childhoods. Yes, we had more fresh air and did more bicycling than the butterballs we're producing, but we were generally poorly educated and poorly equipped for a world that our parents understood no better than we understand ours.

All that this kind of outpouring does is make it harder for parents. Now on top of having to figure out how to feed, clothe and entertain our littlies, we're forced to feel guilty about not creating a perfect environment that probably no child has ever enjoyed.

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When you live in a glass house, don't throw cluster bombs. It's impossible to claim that you have the right to defend yourself against savage terrorists, if you are in fact the biggest, most savage terrorist on your block.

It's curious too how "operational reasons" prevent the IDF from admitting that it had used weapons that anyone civilised would abhor, yet they never prevent it from discussing in great detail what the "other side" does and what it uses.

And is wanting to avoid opprobrium actually an "operational reason"? What reason could there be? Are the IDF afraid that Lebanese civilians will wear chem suits to avoid a slow, agonising death next time Israel visits?

posted by Dr Zen @ 9:43 am