We get reports from 'Back at Base' about how well the process is going of getting Iraqi troops and police to do their own dirty work. Bush says, and B.Liar yaps much the same, that we will not leave until they can look after themselves.
So, from the front line reports, it will be a hot night in winter before that state is achieved. If America is struggling with theivast resources, what hope do we have?
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Struggling to teach the unteachable
I think/hope that I lack the meanness of spirit to fully agree with my Guest blogger but he does make a point I can understand. I hope he is mistaken but he does have history on his side.
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Just publicity to distract too much attention?
Just to remind you what the various levels mean:Brown's new son has cystic fibrosis. Devastating news for any parent and it must be a double blow for them both after losing a child some while back. However, they are getting good treatment at an early stage which should postpone the day their son dies of his condition. It would be dreadful if they were forced to watch their child deteriorate in the face of medical assistance being withheld.
However, that situation is exactly what is happening to patients at the other end of the age spectrum. The committee which decides upon who gets what drugs and when they get them has ruled that the initial onset of Altzheimer's will not be treated with medication that can delay the progress of the condition. The practical result of this can only be that sufferers and their loved ones cannot hope for anything that assists in delaying the more distressing phases. And when they get to that dreaded situation, they may then be given drugs which hold them there. I can think of no more inhumane treatment.
Yes - I know I said today was a rest day but ............ I was never one for resting anyway.
What dragged me out of my torpor was this item on a tough love scheme. I am sure any American readers know of this guy and he did come to London earlier this year. I can quite understand he was not impressed!
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Tough guy sheriff
So, it's not enough that Iraq is going to Hell in a handcart. Now we have 'difficulties' in Afghanistan.
Bliar is asking for a bit more action from our nominal NATO allies down where the fit is hitting the shan whilst at the same time officials are saying that the Taliban have won and we should do some sort of deal with them. Whilst this is going on, we get the NATO Commander (speaking from the safety of the bunker under his desk in Belgium) saying what a wonderful job Pakistan is doing. I suppose that by comparison with the NATO troops, any sort of action seems wonderful – even inaction.
How the hell this can be called a coalition I know not. In the meantime, the troops at the sharp end carry on – underfunded, badly resourced, not appreciated.
Seems that the left hand here is not speaking to the right hand. We have a optimistic view from one minister and a bit of a downer from another.
What is a poor child to do in sorting lies from spin?
Read this - I can vouch for it as I have been there.
Think I'll have to speak to Norma about the conditioner she uses in the wash. It's making my eyes run, nose run and causes a lump at the back of my throat.
Those who saw live TV coverage of the Hunt Ban protest outside the Houses of Parliament some two years ago can rest assured that it was all OK really. The frenzied and indiscriminate beating of demonstraters by police was all justified. The high proportion of head injuries was all in keeping with police using the training they had been given in baton twirling. Those who were beaten were engaged in something we viewers never saw.
Leastways, that is the opinion of the Independent Police Complaints Commission set up to look into the way police (over) reacted. I just wonder who is pulling their strings. We have had their 'findings' into the hapless Brazilian shot dead at the tube station, the case of the man shot dead when "armed" with a table leg and now this. One hears that the law is an ass (and there have been a few funny verdicts there recently) but the Commission is not just an ass but also a donkey and all those other words one might get from a thesaurus.
This sort of result just further widens the gulf between citizen and police officer. Once the perception spreads that the police are not accountable, sympathy is lost. Cooperation ceases. The police recently changed from being referred to as a "Force" to a "Service". What I saw on my television was very much the actions of a "Force". Equivalent to the worst excesses of the French Riot Squads dealing with African immigrants. "Service" such as I viewed would not attract any gratuity from me.
Next July, 7th to be exact, this photograph in it's Wedding Album will be fifty years old. So much for Good Times never last.Authority cannot stand for any risk that the great unwashed might rise above themselves and is always on the watch for unrest amongst the peons.
If I say something in a blog that is actionable, action me. Do not set up some nebulous barrage of concepts that do nothing to tell me what I may or may not do in language requiring M'Lud in his horsehair wig. I will not be cowed by concerns of should I say this or should I not. I am a sentient being. I have a conscience. I will use my voice.
Doubtless, we will have the same politically correct deluge from those who think they know when it comes to showing any religious or socially-oriented reference to 25th December. Our Islamic friends might not like blah blah blah so we will ban it.
Here is a small foretaste of what one hotel in the - I assume - Islamic country of Dubai thinks about not upsetting people. My daughter is going on a business hospitality junket and I'll see just how many demonstraters turn out.
Just to balance my mentioning American police tactics, I include the IPCC report on the events around Westminster a couple of years ago.
I cannot find a video but I do have vivid memories of just how much the Met police lost it that day. Officers were lashing out wildly at anyone within range. They were leaning out full stretch over the barricades to strike people who were no threat but were pressed forward by the crowd behind them. The blows were unaimed - unaimed that is for what used to be the accepted striking points of shoulder and upper arm. This with the long baton and not the old short staff.
The fact that they have been cleared by their erst-while comrades on the Complaints Commission means nothing to me. I know what I saw. I know it was wrong. All police officers involved should thank their lucky stars.
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Take that!span>
Oh - My God!
As if we do not have enough on our plate to worry about.
The NY Times was so worried it sent me this earth-shattering news.
I am desolate.
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Which way to the fall-out shelter?
Just another comment on life abd the ways people invent to screw things up
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We don't allow that sort of thing here mate
I think I've mentioned that after some not very subtle bullying from Blogger Central, I switched to the new Blogger beta.
On the whole - satisfactory. We seem to have cleared out that bowel-freezing moment when one pushed 'Publish' and waited and waited and waited to see if the guys at BC were back from lunch to put the hard scripted words up in lights.
One change I think not for the better. With the spam-killing moderation of comments under the old system, I got an email telling me there was something to authorise. It does note up there are comments but in a rather quiet way on the Dashboard.
So, if you think I've taken against a comment when it has not appeared as swiftly as it should - fret not. It will. There are too few of you for me to risk getting anyone pished off.
The heady days of my swanning off to America in some luxury at the drop of a hat are gone.
Maybe just as well. The report I've guested seems to suggest that if the law does not get you - and I mean 'get you' some fifty times - then a 88 year old Annie Oakley will. I get the greatest amusement from contrasting how many police it took to kill the stag-party bridegroom to be with the Little Old Blue Rinsed Lady In Tennis Shoes who dropped three cops with a six shot revolver at night as they burst through her front door.
Flippant? Yes. If you took it seriously, one would have to cry.
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Knock Knock
Who's there?
Perlice
Perlice who?
Perlice let us in.
Well, looks as if someone has been reading my blog about how a revised Saddam may be the answer in Iraq. Don't quite know though about it appearing in the LA Times?
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Radical ideas sometimes pay off - don't they?
Here's a man who appreciates the joys of living in England. This stuff should be translated into many languages and made available at the places where refugees gather for their attempts to gain entry.
The King of Jordan warns that there could be three civil wars in the Middle East as we move into 2007. Whilst he does not yet have the gravitas of Hussein, he deserves attention. Jordanians are just as capable as any others in the region of going off the straight and narrow but he has steered his country well.
He sees the Palestine situation is key to peace in the Middle East. Even the most casual reader should be able to recognise this but one would have to be Superman to even begin to see where that solution lies. The leaders in Palestine seem unable to force any control on the extremists in their midst such that any agreement seems doomed even before the ink is dry on the paperwork.
Nice to know that a system that I am countless soldiers relied upon has a basis in science. We graded females by the number of pints one had to consume before finding her attractive. Many women were known as "20 pinters" and the identification and classification system could be extended as in "she is that 5 pinter daughter of the 20 pinter"
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Easy way to choose Miss World
Whilst wandering around a large chemists shop yesterday I made a mis-turn and found myself deep in 'womens' things' country. I have no problem being there other than concern that some fascist female will challenge me as a pervert. So, as I was preparing to maintain my nonchalent attitude I came across a shelf of milk pumps - their words not mine. Illustrations on the box showed just how these were to be used for the extraction of milk from the lumpy bits newly-delivered women have. OK - no problem. As a kid of seven, I used to milk cows and know how painful things can get for them if a milking is delayed. What I was not really prepared for was the small section in amongst the pumps for - electrical models!
Now this did throw me. Electric milking came into the cowsheds I frequented when I was about ten years of age. I was allowed to supervise and remove the cups but attachment was a strict no go area. It required firm and precise application of cup to teat. Just how some poor female is to get this right in the confines of her boudoir is just outsid even my fertile imagination.
Progress! Where will it end?
P.S. In an attempt to answer my own question, I ran a Google search. I came up with this article which suggests that the electrical revolution has gained such a foothold that manual expression is back in the Dark Ages along with collecting mistletoe at midnight. So, my question now is "What else have I overlooked?"
No secret that I do not see democracy ever getting to No 1 in Top of the Pops in Iraq. However, here is a suggestion that given time, it might happen.
My only concern is re the cost in lives and misery.
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Give democracy a chance to grow
The vagaries of justice are something that confuse many - me included.
So, here is a senior judge putting their side of the argument which makes things just so much clearer. Oh, it's pretty good use of the Queen's English as well which is nice to read after too much RUOKM8 stuff that gets around.
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The Judge speaks
