Playground tactics on all sides

I've just twigged why London's congestion charge is coming in this Monday (February 17th - which I always thought was a strange date to introduce it; the third week of February). Schools' half-term is next week --> less traffic on roads in any case --> cue lots of news stories on Tuesday reporting how much the London traffic has reduced since last week.

I think my cynicism levels are a little shocking for someone my age. But not extreme! There was a quote a few weeks ago from someone implementing the scheme, and she was promoting it, listing all the benefits and so on - she said that "traffic levels will be down to summer holiday levels in six months". Six months from February 17th. Which is the middle of August. Which is in the middle of the summer holidays.

Made me grin, anyway :)

The Empire Strikes First

Good god. More repulsive than the Guernica news story of last week, here's another article (from the New York Sun) that truly disgusted me, written about the New York peace march that was due to be taking place on Saturday:

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly are doing the people of New York and the people of Iraq a great service by delaying and obstructing the anti-war protest planned for February 15. The longer they delay in granting the protesters a permit, the less time the organizers have to get their turnout organized, and the smaller the crowd is likely to be. And we wouldn?t want to overstate the matter, but, at some level, the smaller the crowd, the more likely that President Bush will proceed with his plans to liberate Iraq. And the more likely, in that case, that the Iraqi people will be freed and the citizens of New York will be rescued from the threat of an Iraqi-aided terrorist attack.

[ . . . ]

So the New York City police could do worse, in the end, than to allow the protest and send two witnesses along for each participant, with an eye toward preserving at least the possibility of an eventual treason prosecution.

It makes me feel sick to realise that some people really do think this way. And here's the first reaction to the above, from Spinsanity. There has been no apology from the New York Sun. The peace march has been banned, by the way, on the ruling of a federal judge, although it looks like a large number will march anyway.

On a similarly disturbing note, and same topic: "US lawmakers are threatening to take retaliatory action against France, Belgium and Germany for their opposition to US policy towards Iraq."

Anger with the French and German stand has led some US congressmen to call for a trade boycott of French products and the withdrawal of some US troops from Germany.

[ . . . ]

[Donald Hunter] said that the House would now strongly back the plans by the Bush administration to reduce the number of US troops in Germany from the current level of 71,000. "Anything we can do to hurt them without hurting us, I will support," said Republican congressman Peter King.

[ . . . ]

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, J Dennis Hastert, has asked Congress to consider banning French exports of wine and bottled water on health grounds. He says that some French wine is clarified using bovine blood, so that Americans could be at risk of getting BSE or "mad cow" disease.

[ . . . ]

Orders at the French cheese website, fromages.com, which gets 80% of its business from the US, have dropped as the site as received many e-mails from angry customers. "Because of the current position your government is taking on not supporting the U.S. at this time regarding Iraq, we are not going to support France in any way," one e-mail said.

Crossreference from The Guardian: "US cheese boycott creates a stink for French"

All of this has completely stunned me. Just how much of these fucking playground tactics do they think they can get away with?

The answer to which, of course, is all of them. Because they are who they are, the popular kids with a vindictive streak, they can throw tantrums and bully everyone else into doing exactly what they want.

Sorry for all that - I've tried to stay off this topic so far, but I really got angry about it. To make up for making you read through all that (see, I'm considerate really ;) here's some light relief (although, in deference to the whole of this post, it's on the same subject) :

If You're Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq
by John Robbins

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq.

If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq.
If we think that someone's dissed us, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections,
Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions,
Bomb Iraq.

It's pre-emptive non-aggression, bomb Iraq.
To prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq.
They've got weapons we can't see,
And that's all the proof we need,
If they're not there, they must be,
Bomb Iraq.

If you never were elected, bomb Iraq.
If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq.
If you think Saddam's gone mad,
With the weapons that he had,
And he tried to kill your dad,
Bomb Iraq.

If corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq.
If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq.
If your politics are sleazy,
And hiding that ain't easy,
And your manhood's getting queasy,
Bomb Iraq.

Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq.
For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq.
Disagree? We'll call it treason,
Let's make war not love this season,
Even if we have no reason,
Bomb Iraq.

Hasn't it grown?

In other news...(I would have included this in the last post, but the filk seemed like a pithy sign-off ;)

NASA have generated some baby photos of the early universe:

Everybody say, "ahh..."

Explosive situation

Excuse me, but oh shit.

Police have arrested a man carrying a live hand grenade at Gatwick Airport and evacuated one terminal. All flights out of the north terminal were suspended after the man - thought to be a 37-year-old Venezuelan - was detained under anti-terrorism laws.

Notice the part where it says that his baggage was searched after he arrived from Colombia. So there was a live grenade on the plane throughout the flight. Am I overreacting when I say that really, really scares me?

I've been feeling a bit subdued and deep-down worried all day really - probably something to do with the fact that I'm going to fail my P5 mock exam tomorrow - and getting more appalled and sickened by the whole US/Iraq situation (as evidenced below) and I happened to read Wil's latest blog entry which sounds like it was written in the same mood that I'm in at the moment. I love that I can just go and read through the blogs on my regular blogroll and find something that really resonates with how I'm feeling, something that cheers me up, and something that leaves me glowering in mock-hurt national pride.

I love the internet. But I'd better go and start revising now for that exam...