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- 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
My little, personal dash of the interweb, devoted to my crazy world and all aspects of my stupid life. Including coming soon the famed List of Enemies!
Thursday, July 31, 2003
I'm going to try and blog again now, as I feel I have been neglecting blog duties. However the structure has fallen from my life since I came home and I can't really remember anything any more. On Tues I went to nick's for mmmmm curb. Lots of fun, then Yesterday was Dev-birthday, enjoyed the hulk, put off by Dev's women hating and Haley’s retrograde societal step. For those who aren't aware of it Haley used to be bi and now isn't. This I just cannot understand - as a bisexual you double your potential partners and by giving up on women you abandon your chance of getting good hygiene, dress sense, good taste, interior decorating, shopping, emotional sense, etc without having a sham marriage with a gay man. Someone may need to explain this to me. Langley party is tonight and I'll endeavour to blog again after that. While I remember in the intervening period since last blog England have been very poor at cricket, currently we're 120 for 8, Jolly Poor Show.
It's just not cricket, the T.
It's just not cricket, the T.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Go read nickblog, Go now. GO, JUST GO DAMMIT!
http://www.nstoker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blog/
That's that taken care of, The T
http://www.nstoker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blog/
That's that taken care of, The T
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Must apologise again for current poor blog performance, home computer (with internet) is overutilised and I'm constantly overstimulated and so on. I may be beating the rest of blogspace to the punch on this but blogging in detail about Scarlett's party (last night) this soon seems unwise. Suffice to say that a good time was had by most, most of the time - then Aaron punched a wall and shouted, sneg cried then Scarlett cried I don't think the wall cried but my people-sense tells me that this isn't relevant. I managed to get supremely hammered so could do nothing (but still couldn't stop myself remembering), dev was wacky as usual and nick managed, though very biffed did a good of saying schtop, calm down to sneg. Not sure how this will be received so will disappear again for now. For more authoritative accounts check other sources.
The T
The T
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Ok I never posted 'bout transport and I'm not gonna post now since I'm shattered. I promise that I will blog soon though.
Not like anyone even notices (or that enetation would let me find out), The T
Not like anyone even notices (or that enetation would let me find out), The T
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Experience should have told me not to post again before I get responses, But If I'm anything at all, it's stupidly persistent.
Not much to say today so I will just use this as a trailer for the upcoming transport feature (fuelled by my rage at my 80 minute late train {and they put me in the quiet coach, I said NOT IN THE QUIET COACH BASTARDS!} and the constant failures of everything - track, signals, trains, basically the whole shebang). Though at least I got the chance to have a good (though frequently interrupted convo with Aaron and listen to some serious Radiohead. I'll also take this opportunity to publicise http://dean2004.meetup.com, I'll discuss this further on my return on sat but I think that since the US president is by far the most powerful guy in the world, we should try our hardest to everything we can to get Dubya out and someone decent like dean In.
This has been a T trailer (due to budgetary cuts you'll have to picture the gratuitous nudity, explosions and plot teasers yourself ["Jack - I'm love with you!" "But Yusuf, you're dead!" "Believe me it only makes it better!" and so on]
The T, rolling on.
Not much to say today so I will just use this as a trailer for the upcoming transport feature (fuelled by my rage at my 80 minute late train {and they put me in the quiet coach, I said NOT IN THE QUIET COACH BASTARDS!} and the constant failures of everything - track, signals, trains, basically the whole shebang). Though at least I got the chance to have a good (though frequently interrupted convo with Aaron and listen to some serious Radiohead. I'll also take this opportunity to publicise http://dean2004.meetup.com, I'll discuss this further on my return on sat but I think that since the US president is by far the most powerful guy in the world, we should try our hardest to everything we can to get Dubya out and someone decent like dean In.
This has been a T trailer (due to budgetary cuts you'll have to picture the gratuitous nudity, explosions and plot teasers yourself ["Jack - I'm love with you!" "But Yusuf, you're dead!" "Believe me it only makes it better!" and so on]
The T, rolling on.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
I don't know how much time I’ll have to post today since I have to travel to beastland in an hour and a bit. But here's trying none the less. I know I said I would do transport next (like anybody even notices, sulk) but since the Fabians report (see here: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/comment/0,9236,999053,00.html) on the monarchy came out today I'll tackle constitution affairs today instead. Anyways
My Manifesto, Part 2: Constitutional Affairs
- I am a Monarchist, I have no qualms about admitting this and hopefully no should be shocked, but I do believe in the concept of constitutional monarchy. Partly this is because I like the pompous traditions and stupid ceremonies but partly because I feel the distinction between citizens and subjects is largely empty in this case. However I agree with the Fabians that the crown estate and duchy of Cornwall held by the monarch and P.o.W. respectively in trust for the nation should be nationalised and made open to the public as far as possible (excepting private residences).
- I also feel that the executive functions of the monarch - declaring war, signing treaties, naming ministers, etc. would be better off residing in an elected head of state. Not so much a president as a CEO to the monarch's chairman. As for the Monarch's power to name prime minister's it would be far more sensible to formalise this as the will of parliament by vote after an election likewise the choosing of election dates should either be set by law or decided by parliament.
- This has taken less time than I expected so I’ll conclude by stating why I'm not a republican in greater detail. Europe is pockmarked with monarchies turned republics, Germany, Italy, Greece and most famously France and very few sitting monarchies. All that remain are similar, qualitatively to the U.K. now and to an extent to what I propose. Though Norway, Sweden and Holland's monarchy are of course characterised by more liberal monarchies than Britain's in keeping with the character of the nations. Crossing the Border from Sweden to Finland (monarchy to republic) you don't suddenly become freer. In fact I would say that republics are if anything less free, since the executive (presidents usually) is far more powerful and a lot less abashed about using that power, one just has to look at America or France to see the personality politics writ large. Finally I have to say that my heart yearns for the ludicrous an arcane (and largely inane) ceremonies - the trouping of the colours, the changing of the guard state parades and so on. I find these both amusing and strangely satisfying. I know this makes no sense but I have to go.
May edit this for sanity at a later date, the T out.
My Manifesto, Part 2: Constitutional Affairs
- I am a Monarchist, I have no qualms about admitting this and hopefully no should be shocked, but I do believe in the concept of constitutional monarchy. Partly this is because I like the pompous traditions and stupid ceremonies but partly because I feel the distinction between citizens and subjects is largely empty in this case. However I agree with the Fabians that the crown estate and duchy of Cornwall held by the monarch and P.o.W. respectively in trust for the nation should be nationalised and made open to the public as far as possible (excepting private residences).
- I also feel that the executive functions of the monarch - declaring war, signing treaties, naming ministers, etc. would be better off residing in an elected head of state. Not so much a president as a CEO to the monarch's chairman. As for the Monarch's power to name prime minister's it would be far more sensible to formalise this as the will of parliament by vote after an election likewise the choosing of election dates should either be set by law or decided by parliament.
- This has taken less time than I expected so I’ll conclude by stating why I'm not a republican in greater detail. Europe is pockmarked with monarchies turned republics, Germany, Italy, Greece and most famously France and very few sitting monarchies. All that remain are similar, qualitatively to the U.K. now and to an extent to what I propose. Though Norway, Sweden and Holland's monarchy are of course characterised by more liberal monarchies than Britain's in keeping with the character of the nations. Crossing the Border from Sweden to Finland (monarchy to republic) you don't suddenly become freer. In fact I would say that republics are if anything less free, since the executive (presidents usually) is far more powerful and a lot less abashed about using that power, one just has to look at America or France to see the personality politics writ large. Finally I have to say that my heart yearns for the ludicrous an arcane (and largely inane) ceremonies - the trouping of the colours, the changing of the guard state parades and so on. I find these both amusing and strangely satisfying. I know this makes no sense but I have to go.
May edit this for sanity at a later date, the T out.
Monday, July 14, 2003
I don't really have much to say today, so this will be brief. I will invite readers to view the DofI in Tvision though, here: http://firefly.sparse.org/~mrt/cgi-bin/t.cgi?field=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.denofiniquity.blogspot.com. Today is far too hot to achieve anything what with all the evil sunlight. What really annoys me about the present heat wave is the revolting cheerfulness of TV news and weather people about it - what's so good about heatstroke and skin cancer. Bastards. I've stumbled across Leeds’s graduation day today; it's like finding a weird green-robed cult surrounded by people in posh suits and expensive dresses. People keep looking at me for daring to lower the tone in my own university, so I scuttled away here. There may not be another post this week because on weds / Thurs I'm visiting Beastness and on Friday my dad arrives and on sat I move. There will definitely be one by Sunday though. Will gather more new and return soon, hopefully with fully functional vision.
T’ing it like an outhouse door in a strong breeze, The T
T’ing it like an outhouse door in a strong breeze, The T
Saturday, July 12, 2003
I was going to post today about seroxat but I managed to accidentally delete it cut and pasting into word and it was too traumatic to repeat. I'll recount it to those who really want to know in person when I return in a week.
The T Out.
The T Out.
Thursday, July 10, 2003
There's definitely something galling about being away when people don't notice it. Anyways. I thought I didn't have much to blog today, but a lot has occurred tome since my arrival in the compy lab. First things first, I'd really like to accede to your request Mr Dev but I'm (very uncharacteristically) not really very angry about anything at the moment. Perhaps people should post suggestions of things to inspire my hulk-like rage on a marmot (though giving the poor take-up of past marmot polls, I'm not holding out much hope, Grumble grumble). Have just discovered just now through the medium of Dan savage that James Joyce was a fart fetishist. This is I find very unsettling, especially since many people I know (my dad included) really like Ulysses. If anyone wants to go disgust themselves they can look at Joyce's dirty letter here: http://www.theonionavclub.com/savage.php?savage_id=28. Have just posted to Barbelith in response to a very rare dodds-based agreeance, it can be seen here: http://www.barbelith.com/underground/topic.php?id=13063#post244392. Perhaps if my eyes weren't too fucked to read Dodd's last post I might have something to be angry about, it usually works. The calmness of my mood is beginning to freak me out particularly since I have been bothered by lingering Seroxat side-effects of late - If you want to letter bomb / pipe bomb / plain old bomb anybody today make it GlaxoSmithKline Or GreatBigCockSuckingMotherFuckers As I prefer to call them, I hope they all die in a big pit of lava and toasty hot owl love!. Ahh yes, this was what rage felt like. Was bothered by Platt yesterday, and though I'm frequently the one defending Platt I have to say that he really came off as a fatuous self-absorbed fuckwit yesterday to be brutally frank I had to listen to him whine for ages and his career plans sounded like shit. If you read this Platt - I know it's dishonourable to post this behind your back but it minimises the chance of you ever finding out about it, thus providing a relatively risk free way to let of steam.
Still needing more rage,
At the feast, beware the Dwarf,
The T
Still needing more rage,
At the feast, beware the Dwarf,
The T
Monday, July 07, 2003
As a quick last note, Up to this post I have written 8709 words in 24 days, giving 362.875 words a day or just over fifteen an hour which works out as just about one every four minutes. it';s like a really long and interminable conversation full of awkward silences that you can't get out of. Yay!
Droning On and on, like Ariston, The T
Droning On and on, like Ariston, The T
Another day another meaningless blog post when most people still haven't seen the last one (or 7). Oh well that's the way life goes when you blog more often than your readers. First things first, mad props to the Aaron for the bookish present I started reading it this morning at work (thus scaring the parents as the last thing I was reading was Harry Potter). Since Aaron may not see this I ask you to repay him from me by doing whatever he asks of you if he asks you to do something in the next week. (cryptic, non?). Also thanks go to Dev for the vanilla coke inspiration, (mmm vanilly) Have been perusing the lists for most popular baby names in the U.S. male ones are all biblical - Nicholas, Andrew, Daniel, Christopher and so on (sneaky nod) though perplexingly Jacob is no 1 (I would prefer Noah [no. 35] or Ezekiel). For girls names they all almost seem to begin with a vowel especially A suggesting that parents of girls gush so much at names that they can't get past the A's in the baby name book, again a bad name scores highly with the god-awful Madison at no. 2. I think the upshot of this is that there will be some very angry children in 15 years. In the lower reaches of the names list is Aaron at 44 just above Isaiah and angel (scary isn't it?) Elijah is 41, Caleb is 35, Zachary is 19 and Tyler is 14. Someone should just put down all American Parents or give their Children binary designations it'd be less cruel. In the Girls top 50 Mackenzie, Makaylah and Destiny all jump out (43, 50 and 34 respectively) as do the ghastly Savannah and Paige (40 and 49) apart from that the girls list is mostly all right. I quite like Logan and hunter for the boys but the whole list is mostly ghastly (Jacob has been no. 1 since 1999) and especially horrifying given that vast range of immigrant cultural backgrounds I’d much rather be Piotr or Jan or Antonio but then I'm not a Bush Voter. I suggest A web Poll for best Boys and Girls Names (put 3 for each). If we can whittle it down to a shortlist of popular favourites I'll post a poll on wookoo group. I'll start the Ball rolling with Ezekiel, Zebedee and Weebl for the Boys and Zara, Lara and Trotsky for the Girls)
Message Ends, The T.
Message Ends, The T.
Sunday, July 06, 2003
If this post doesn't appear today (Sunday) then it means I've been sidetracked by going home to watch 24 and 6FU. Just thought I'd recount some of my odd thinkings. Will recount weekend visit details later. First off, my dev-based daydream that some of you may have heard already. The scene is a full ice hockey stadium (big plastic seated amphitheatre around faux ice filled to the gunnels with what are almost certainly Canadians). Suddenly music starts - it's the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom... typey music played at baseball matches before the pitcher pitches. But every beat is the word dev, the music ends with the customary fanfare at which the crowd cheers dev and dev comes out of the tunnel. Odd, no?
Next up is weird musings on the train back from Newcastle. Not all of you know that once I was quite a promising mathsmagician. This is because it left me with few scars except for my love of maths-based humour and knowledge of the fabled game of maths darts. Clearly though it has some impact on my daydreams. I was reading about numbers and thought what if Jesus had been a mathematician? To this end I have re-imagined a biblical miracle and invented a faux-parable.
First off the feeding of the five thousand. In this jeebass feeds five thousand hungry people with only 2 fish and 1 loaf of bread and still has food left over by feeding people through the power of sharing (or something). however this is a misremembering of the situation, He actually used his power of Powers. He did not have 2 fish but 2¹³ fish and not 1 loaf but 1X10¹º loaves giving him 8192 fish and an awful lot of bread making feeding fish thousand people child’s play, yet I am sure you will agree still a considerable achievement. In my Parable Jesus appears to the richest man in the world and asks him why he does not give all his money to charity as it will not make happy. The man replies that he can buy anything he wants in the world even happiness since he can buy women and cars and anything his heart desires and also salvation through giving to the church in return for prayers, confessions and a free pass to heaven. Jesus says that if he can do this he will be able to do a simple task for him, three man replies that he can do anything with his money. Jesus tells him to fill a chess board with pennies and he will keep the money and give it charity, the man sneers and replies that it is easy and small change to him. Jesus says you must place one penny on the first square then two on the next four after that and so on, if he cannot do this he must give all his money to charity and dedicate his life to good work, the man replies that if he wins Jesus must personally bless him a\and guarantee him a place in heaven no matter how sinfully he lives, Jesus agrees and the man begins. He places one penny on the first, then two, then four by the end of the first row he one dollar twenty eight on the square and the end of the next row he has 327 dollars on the square, at the next row's end he has 83n thousand dollars on the square and he has run out of cash, but determined to beat Jesus at his game he gets out his chequebook and presses on. By the last row he is writing cheques for millions of dollar and at the last square he rings his banker who tell him that he doesn't have 64 000 000 000 000 000 dollars left to give. At this Jesus sweeps all the money into his satchel and says "if you cannot even fill a chess board with your money how could you hope to fill something as big as the Human heart?"
Not bad for a first attempt I think.
Piously, The T.
Next up is weird musings on the train back from Newcastle. Not all of you know that once I was quite a promising mathsmagician. This is because it left me with few scars except for my love of maths-based humour and knowledge of the fabled game of maths darts. Clearly though it has some impact on my daydreams. I was reading about numbers and thought what if Jesus had been a mathematician? To this end I have re-imagined a biblical miracle and invented a faux-parable.
First off the feeding of the five thousand. In this jeebass feeds five thousand hungry people with only 2 fish and 1 loaf of bread and still has food left over by feeding people through the power of sharing (or something). however this is a misremembering of the situation, He actually used his power of Powers. He did not have 2 fish but 2¹³ fish and not 1 loaf but 1X10¹º loaves giving him 8192 fish and an awful lot of bread making feeding fish thousand people child’s play, yet I am sure you will agree still a considerable achievement. In my Parable Jesus appears to the richest man in the world and asks him why he does not give all his money to charity as it will not make happy. The man replies that he can buy anything he wants in the world even happiness since he can buy women and cars and anything his heart desires and also salvation through giving to the church in return for prayers, confessions and a free pass to heaven. Jesus says that if he can do this he will be able to do a simple task for him, three man replies that he can do anything with his money. Jesus tells him to fill a chess board with pennies and he will keep the money and give it charity, the man sneers and replies that it is easy and small change to him. Jesus says you must place one penny on the first square then two on the next four after that and so on, if he cannot do this he must give all his money to charity and dedicate his life to good work, the man replies that if he wins Jesus must personally bless him a\and guarantee him a place in heaven no matter how sinfully he lives, Jesus agrees and the man begins. He places one penny on the first, then two, then four by the end of the first row he one dollar twenty eight on the square and the end of the next row he has 327 dollars on the square, at the next row's end he has 83n thousand dollars on the square and he has run out of cash, but determined to beat Jesus at his game he gets out his chequebook and presses on. By the last row he is writing cheques for millions of dollar and at the last square he rings his banker who tell him that he doesn't have 64 000 000 000 000 000 dollars left to give. At this Jesus sweeps all the money into his satchel and says "if you cannot even fill a chess board with your money how could you hope to fill something as big as the Human heart?"
Not bad for a first attempt I think.
Piously, The T.
Sorry, dear blog readers. I realise now that I was being a bit impatient hoping for such a quick response. Will try and be more patient in ftuture. Will blog properly again when back in Leeds.
The T
The T
Friday, July 04, 2003
*** THIS IS AN ANDREW SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***
I'll say this again because either people wern't listening the first time or I just meant to tell them and didn't actually do it, though it could just be that noone but salty and manuel read this any more. Anyways. Please post to as many active angries threads as you can, this way conversations take shape on the blogspace. Also if you read, please leave a comment, it doesn't have to be big ,or erudite, or witty, it doesn't even have to be constructive or positive. "Fuck off" or "Good post" would be acceptable to me. When people read and don't post it's like stealing my thoughts, or shoplifting from a library - shame on you! An empty marmot space is like a slap in the face to me! As Manuel was saying, this is a blog market system, I blog, you read and in return give feedback. Don't risk wrath, comment today!
*** THIS CONCLUDES THIS ANDREW SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***
I'll say this again because either people wern't listening the first time or I just meant to tell them and didn't actually do it, though it could just be that noone but salty and manuel read this any more. Anyways. Please post to as many active angries threads as you can, this way conversations take shape on the blogspace. Also if you read, please leave a comment, it doesn't have to be big ,or erudite, or witty, it doesn't even have to be constructive or positive. "Fuck off" or "Good post" would be acceptable to me. When people read and don't post it's like stealing my thoughts, or shoplifting from a library - shame on you! An empty marmot space is like a slap in the face to me! As Manuel was saying, this is a blog market system, I blog, you read and in return give feedback. Don't risk wrath, comment today!
*** THIS CONCLUDES THIS ANDREW SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***
Thursday, July 03, 2003
I know I'm tempting fate posting 3 times in one day, with an extra comp. lab visit in between (I'm compensating for Vice city withdrawal, ok? we can't all have exciting fulfilling lives). Just went to see Bruce almighty and was pleasantly surprised. Jennifer Aniston was good (see her in The Good Girl, it's a diamond in the rough), though Jim Carrey was annoying as he often is - he was trying to play funny and straight at the same time and it didn't really come off. Morgan Freeman on the hand was excellent as ever, playing the role he was born to play: God. He brought much needed gravitas and blackaliciouness to a role too associated with Charlton (keep your mouth on me, you damn dirty ape!) Heston. He was surprisingly believable for a being the proof of whose existence would deny itself. However, I feel I'm slipping back into the cycle of over-emoting at films, for those not familiar with this particular one of my many afflictions, it basically involves me crying at films because the people are happy or in love or dead or something. Naturally this is discomfiting for me, being angry was easier to deal with. I can see why the Pianist and Schindler's list make me cry but crying watching Dawson’s creek has to be evidence of profound internal collapse. Now I realise this is a fairly awkward post dealing with things that none of us really want to talk about, so I'll just say it here and not trouble any of you with it in person. It's often felt at times lately, particularly when my results came that I'm falling apart at the seams but stronger before and with no reason. I fear that unless some unexpected happiness befalls me soon, I may soon be back on the therapy train. Given the divine nature of the film, I was left pondering prayers / wishes. I drew up 3 (anyone who laughs at these will die an especially painful death).
1) To find happiness with some else and know it when I see within a year.
2) That every person will have the right to democracy and self-determination in twenty years.
3) That my computer will be nice to me.
An intriguing mix of big, small and fatuous. If anyone is willing to share their own silly wishes, I'd be glad to compile a post for It., Email them to his2aja@leeds.ac.uk or mister_t@ballsofsteel.co.uk and I'll see what I can do. Anyways Before I go sleep, I had an idea for the weekend, it goes thus: Our small band of blog commentators - Mr Denis and Guinan, Dev, Nicos, Saltair and that damn tweedy should undertake a joint visit to the Baltic and then place our artistic critiques online. I think it would an interesting exercise in comparative perception. If this weekend is too soon we can do it when I return in 3 weeks.
I know I blog too far, too often,
The T
1) To find happiness with some else and know it when I see within a year.
2) That every person will have the right to democracy and self-determination in twenty years.
3) That my computer will be nice to me.
An intriguing mix of big, small and fatuous. If anyone is willing to share their own silly wishes, I'd be glad to compile a post for It., Email them to his2aja@leeds.ac.uk or mister_t@ballsofsteel.co.uk and I'll see what I can do. Anyways Before I go sleep, I had an idea for the weekend, it goes thus: Our small band of blog commentators - Mr Denis and Guinan, Dev, Nicos, Saltair and that damn tweedy should undertake a joint visit to the Baltic and then place our artistic critiques online. I think it would an interesting exercise in comparative perception. If this weekend is too soon we can do it when I return in 3 weeks.
I know I blog too far, too often,
The T
For once A non yay moment - readage seems to be slipping or I may just update too often who knows. Anyways those loyal few (Thank you, Saltair!) still reading, please feel free to marmot onto previous posts, many represent ongoing threads and I'd always like feedback on specific posts. Nothing much to say apart from my impending return and attendant spoons visit so I will bid you adieu again. Will try and stay away longer next time.
Sulkily The T
Sulkily The T
I give you the mega - post as my first step towards achieving my ambition of becoming the leading commentator in this little blog town. Mr Denis has the philosophising, Salty has the Art, Dev has the sweet, sweet angst, Dodds brings the crazy and Nick as ever sets the tone and is generally our God. Where he leads we follow, hopefully into green pastures and not the valley of the shadow of death.
Cordially, The T.
Cordially, The T.
I hope this post lives up to the hype, as I am very tired and hobbled by having broken my glasses rendering me semi-bl'indish. This will have some pretty important things I want to say and I don't want to mess up by being tired and unable to see. First up kitton and me had an enjoyable time drinking Belgian beers, eating Chinese food and watching fawlty towers and ER. On the way down to the railway station, Ben and I were talking about politics and the north east assembly and what my manifesto would be if I stood as an independent candidate. Anyways on the bus we got started talking about the armed forces and cluster bombs and ended up talking to this guy who'd been in the army and seen cluster bombs up close and had been at Srebrenica (this represents perhaps the most shocking instance of British and UN troops standing by in the face of atrocities since WWII) and Kosovo. He'd really seen some terrible stuff, which I had already heard mostly but hearing first hand is good. But yet, as I said to kitton afterwards I still want to join the army. Therefore as the first taster part of what I hope will be a permanent page of what I stand for I present -
My Manifesto: my plan for the armed forces.
- Scrap our nuclear deterrent. Today we possess sufficient weapons of mass destruction to annihilate much of human life on earth without any foreign help. These submarine- borne nuclear weapons are so horrific that to use them would be an atrocity against mankind, any situation where there use would be necessary would be one in which we had already failed as a nation and to resort to nuclear threats is a morally bankrupt choice. We no longer live in a world of nuclear power politics, these weapons have no benefits and pose very real risks if they were to fall into the wrong hands and cost a great deal of money to maintain. Therefore we must decommission and destroy our entire nuclear stockpile and most of nuclear fleet along with all nuclear weapons research and production facilities. This would be a concrete step towards making the world safer. All that should be maintained is secure storage until nuclear waste no longer poses a risk to human life and employment for nuclear researchers within the civilian field of nuclear power research to prevent them selling their skills to nations such as Iran, North Korea, Etc. who want to gain nuclear weapons.
- Rationalise Defence Spending. Right now our armed forces are based on completely unrealistic notions of European wars and wars against other developed countries. It should be abundantly clear that these possibilities are not going to occur any time soon. Therefore we are wasting money in maintaining and buying things such as our large fighter fleet equipped to fight other high - tech planes. We should concentrate spending and increase in those areas off tangible use in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations and on operations such as the Iraq war, Kosovo and Iraq aiming at ousting dictatorial regimes in developing countries (we can do nothing about powerful dictatorships such as China or North Korea or vicious superpowers such as the US or Russia).
- Peacekeeping Regiments. In light of our current needs, it seems ridiculous that almost all our infantry regiments are trained for the primary purpose of combat. As part of what must be a concerted drive to widen the range of people who join the army, new regiments should be founded to primarily carry out peacekeeping and humanitarian work, they would be combat trained but this would be a secondary role, subordinate to other methods such as conciliation. The effectiveness of this hearts and minds approach can be seen in places such as Basra in Iraq and Basilan in the Philippines (see below).
- Higher Ethical Standards. As a powerful country on the international stage, Britain has a responsibility to be a role model of good conduct by its armed forces. In light of this we must: ban the use of cluster bombs and other munitions that caused indiscriminate and massive damage and which effectively act as land mines due to unexploded bomblets; curtail high-level bombing since at great heights it is impossible to tell civilian and military targets apart and accuracy falls below acceptable levels; set higher standards of general conduct in terms of the treatment of civilians, respect for essential services such as health, power and water and general compliance with the Geneva conventions on war crimes.
- Vastly Restrict Arm Sales. Currently we operate on a system where it must be proved that a country will misuse weapons before an arms embargo is begun. I feel should we should take the opposite tack - until any country can prove that it's record on human rights, and the conduct of its armed forces is whiter than white and that any sale of arms will not increase regional tensions we should not sell them arms. This rules out the US, China, Russia, almost all of Africa and the Middle East, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and indeed almost all of the world. However it is not acceptable to maintain British jobs by giving brutal regimes better tools to carry out genocide and internal repression.
While some of this may seem obvious, please bear in mind that this will not be read solely by a left-wing audience.
Moving on, we've had a lot of rain in Leeds lately, which obviously has pleased me no end. While everyone lese has been moping about miserably in the succession of drizzles and downpours I have been luxuriating in weather as it was meant to be. Mmmmm damp. I have also recently moved flats into a new and bigger Palatial Love Estate (ask Luke), with two floors and a bath - yay for immersion! I have been surprised at how well I've handled this change - moving house is supposed to be very traumatic time for all people let alone autists. Undoubtedly not having to acclimatise to new people for the time being has helped. This has also brought home to me that I am really very happy living on my own and that solitude suits me. Sorry Peeps, but I'm just not the social type, people (I don't consider myself to be in this category, I'm more like a pork-based computer) seem to be far too complicated, illogical and confusing and cause as much pain as they do happiness. IO will however be coming home, to peopleness on Friday for the weekend and will be back for the rest of the summer on the 23rd / 24th of July. On Friday night I will be in 'Spoons and hope to see you all there.
My computer has been on the blink lately and is denying me my fix of GTA: Vice City. I seem to be curse - every computer CD drive I have ever owned has quickly ending up screwing me. Oh well. In spite of this I still realised, while watching a documentary on the Ultra - Luddite "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski that I am overwhelmingly in favour of technology and the progression of science. To me harping on about the threat posed to man by machine is merely giving in to fear. If we wish to destroy ourselves we can and have achieved it quite easily without the aid of nukes and weaponised germs. Conversely technology has allowed us to live longer and generally happier and healthier lives. I need hardly point out that without modern medicine me, nick or Luke would likely not have survived this long.
My sleep pattern continues to deteriorate: I sleep during the day and play computer games and watch TV at night. While this would normally be admirable for me, it makes working morning shifts hellish and minimise any possible telephonic contact with the outside world. It does mean that I get to watch late night documentaries though and is helping my skin return to its natural sallow corpse shade.
On the topic of TV, yesterday I watched what is probably the funniest half hour of television comedy ever produced, the Germans from Fawlty Towers. Vignettes such as the talking moose head, the major's speech and the "don't mention the war finale had me paralytic with laughter for almost the entire half hour. I had forgotten just how funny fawlty tower is and also how good laughing feels, not having to care about everything for a while, pushing out the misery and having a good belly chuckle. Most amusing indeed. I complimented this with the West wing, in an episode where President Bartlet suspected Russia of giving Iran the Nuke and eulogised about the social reform policies of FDR. President Bartlet represents a leader who is almost everything people want in a leader, passionate, moral, wise, tolerant, honest, and plain-spoken yet vastly intelligent, someone who is unafraid to speak from the heart and live by his principle, a veritable Solomon in our age of spin and focus groups. It makes me wonder how long we will have to wait for a real-world politician who speaks his mind and is passionate about his principle and unafraid of voicing his convictions. Politics is not and cannot be just about bread and butter issues, it about how we see ourselves and how we see the world, someone like Blair who is proud of his lack of principles represents a moral void in a world much in need of guidance.
I'll conclude this megapost by talking briefly (as trailed) about Afghanistan. Yesterday Jack Straw visited Kandahar in southern Afghanistan where he was quite rightly heckled by local leaders incensed at the complete lack of follow-up attention that the west has given Afghanistan. After the promise of billions after September the 11th, Blair and bush should be ashamed that Heroin cultivation levels have risen tenfold and brutal autocratic warlords have begun to reassert the authority they held prior to the Taliban. While the yoke of Taliban oppression has been removed, allowing women more freedom, repression is still commonplace and getting worse not better. This was not what I and many other expected when we rejoiced at the fall of the Taliban, the Islamic world's answer to the Nazis, this was not what the people of Afghanistan expected and it is not what they deserved. All people deserve freedom and if we are serious about doing good in the world we must fight for the freedoms with money and commitment not empty promises. It is ridiculous for Dubya to restrict UN peacekeepers to a ghetto round Kabul while US backed Tyrannical warlords (many alleged war criminals and former Taliban leaders) go around carving personal fiefdoms and rolling back progress. If the world is ever to cease to hate the West we must stop letting them down.
Thoughtfully, Webmister T
Incidentally this totals almost 2000 words, Jeez, who knew?
My Manifesto: my plan for the armed forces.
- Scrap our nuclear deterrent. Today we possess sufficient weapons of mass destruction to annihilate much of human life on earth without any foreign help. These submarine- borne nuclear weapons are so horrific that to use them would be an atrocity against mankind, any situation where there use would be necessary would be one in which we had already failed as a nation and to resort to nuclear threats is a morally bankrupt choice. We no longer live in a world of nuclear power politics, these weapons have no benefits and pose very real risks if they were to fall into the wrong hands and cost a great deal of money to maintain. Therefore we must decommission and destroy our entire nuclear stockpile and most of nuclear fleet along with all nuclear weapons research and production facilities. This would be a concrete step towards making the world safer. All that should be maintained is secure storage until nuclear waste no longer poses a risk to human life and employment for nuclear researchers within the civilian field of nuclear power research to prevent them selling their skills to nations such as Iran, North Korea, Etc. who want to gain nuclear weapons.
- Rationalise Defence Spending. Right now our armed forces are based on completely unrealistic notions of European wars and wars against other developed countries. It should be abundantly clear that these possibilities are not going to occur any time soon. Therefore we are wasting money in maintaining and buying things such as our large fighter fleet equipped to fight other high - tech planes. We should concentrate spending and increase in those areas off tangible use in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations and on operations such as the Iraq war, Kosovo and Iraq aiming at ousting dictatorial regimes in developing countries (we can do nothing about powerful dictatorships such as China or North Korea or vicious superpowers such as the US or Russia).
- Peacekeeping Regiments. In light of our current needs, it seems ridiculous that almost all our infantry regiments are trained for the primary purpose of combat. As part of what must be a concerted drive to widen the range of people who join the army, new regiments should be founded to primarily carry out peacekeeping and humanitarian work, they would be combat trained but this would be a secondary role, subordinate to other methods such as conciliation. The effectiveness of this hearts and minds approach can be seen in places such as Basra in Iraq and Basilan in the Philippines (see below).
- Higher Ethical Standards. As a powerful country on the international stage, Britain has a responsibility to be a role model of good conduct by its armed forces. In light of this we must: ban the use of cluster bombs and other munitions that caused indiscriminate and massive damage and which effectively act as land mines due to unexploded bomblets; curtail high-level bombing since at great heights it is impossible to tell civilian and military targets apart and accuracy falls below acceptable levels; set higher standards of general conduct in terms of the treatment of civilians, respect for essential services such as health, power and water and general compliance with the Geneva conventions on war crimes.
- Vastly Restrict Arm Sales. Currently we operate on a system where it must be proved that a country will misuse weapons before an arms embargo is begun. I feel should we should take the opposite tack - until any country can prove that it's record on human rights, and the conduct of its armed forces is whiter than white and that any sale of arms will not increase regional tensions we should not sell them arms. This rules out the US, China, Russia, almost all of Africa and the Middle East, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and indeed almost all of the world. However it is not acceptable to maintain British jobs by giving brutal regimes better tools to carry out genocide and internal repression.
While some of this may seem obvious, please bear in mind that this will not be read solely by a left-wing audience.
Moving on, we've had a lot of rain in Leeds lately, which obviously has pleased me no end. While everyone lese has been moping about miserably in the succession of drizzles and downpours I have been luxuriating in weather as it was meant to be. Mmmmm damp. I have also recently moved flats into a new and bigger Palatial Love Estate (ask Luke), with two floors and a bath - yay for immersion! I have been surprised at how well I've handled this change - moving house is supposed to be very traumatic time for all people let alone autists. Undoubtedly not having to acclimatise to new people for the time being has helped. This has also brought home to me that I am really very happy living on my own and that solitude suits me. Sorry Peeps, but I'm just not the social type, people (I don't consider myself to be in this category, I'm more like a pork-based computer) seem to be far too complicated, illogical and confusing and cause as much pain as they do happiness. IO will however be coming home, to peopleness on Friday for the weekend and will be back for the rest of the summer on the 23rd / 24th of July. On Friday night I will be in 'Spoons and hope to see you all there.
My computer has been on the blink lately and is denying me my fix of GTA: Vice City. I seem to be curse - every computer CD drive I have ever owned has quickly ending up screwing me. Oh well. In spite of this I still realised, while watching a documentary on the Ultra - Luddite "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski that I am overwhelmingly in favour of technology and the progression of science. To me harping on about the threat posed to man by machine is merely giving in to fear. If we wish to destroy ourselves we can and have achieved it quite easily without the aid of nukes and weaponised germs. Conversely technology has allowed us to live longer and generally happier and healthier lives. I need hardly point out that without modern medicine me, nick or Luke would likely not have survived this long.
My sleep pattern continues to deteriorate: I sleep during the day and play computer games and watch TV at night. While this would normally be admirable for me, it makes working morning shifts hellish and minimise any possible telephonic contact with the outside world. It does mean that I get to watch late night documentaries though and is helping my skin return to its natural sallow corpse shade.
On the topic of TV, yesterday I watched what is probably the funniest half hour of television comedy ever produced, the Germans from Fawlty Towers. Vignettes such as the talking moose head, the major's speech and the "don't mention the war finale had me paralytic with laughter for almost the entire half hour. I had forgotten just how funny fawlty tower is and also how good laughing feels, not having to care about everything for a while, pushing out the misery and having a good belly chuckle. Most amusing indeed. I complimented this with the West wing, in an episode where President Bartlet suspected Russia of giving Iran the Nuke and eulogised about the social reform policies of FDR. President Bartlet represents a leader who is almost everything people want in a leader, passionate, moral, wise, tolerant, honest, and plain-spoken yet vastly intelligent, someone who is unafraid to speak from the heart and live by his principle, a veritable Solomon in our age of spin and focus groups. It makes me wonder how long we will have to wait for a real-world politician who speaks his mind and is passionate about his principle and unafraid of voicing his convictions. Politics is not and cannot be just about bread and butter issues, it about how we see ourselves and how we see the world, someone like Blair who is proud of his lack of principles represents a moral void in a world much in need of guidance.
I'll conclude this megapost by talking briefly (as trailed) about Afghanistan. Yesterday Jack Straw visited Kandahar in southern Afghanistan where he was quite rightly heckled by local leaders incensed at the complete lack of follow-up attention that the west has given Afghanistan. After the promise of billions after September the 11th, Blair and bush should be ashamed that Heroin cultivation levels have risen tenfold and brutal autocratic warlords have begun to reassert the authority they held prior to the Taliban. While the yoke of Taliban oppression has been removed, allowing women more freedom, repression is still commonplace and getting worse not better. This was not what I and many other expected when we rejoiced at the fall of the Taliban, the Islamic world's answer to the Nazis, this was not what the people of Afghanistan expected and it is not what they deserved. All people deserve freedom and if we are serious about doing good in the world we must fight for the freedoms with money and commitment not empty promises. It is ridiculous for Dubya to restrict UN peacekeepers to a ghetto round Kabul while US backed Tyrannical warlords (many alleged war criminals and former Taliban leaders) go around carving personal fiefdoms and rolling back progress. If the world is ever to cease to hate the West we must stop letting them down.
Thoughtfully, Webmister T
Incidentally this totals almost 2000 words, Jeez, who knew?
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Just a quick post to say that I will be unleashing my awesome weighty blog wrath soon. i would be doing it now but I must go and drink with kitton. Topics to be covered include Afghanistan, rain, the unabomber, fawlty towers, sleep and my recent geographical relocation. Will probably appear in the very wee hours of tonight / tomorrow morning.
L8rs, Webmister T
P.S. nick reply to angries below.
L8rs, Webmister T
P.S. nick reply to angries below.