Well that admission in The Times came as a total shock to me. Not the fact, as we knew it to be here in Britain, but the admission. This is really gonna make things sticky for a lot of politicians on both sides of the pond. Ted Honderich mentioned, and I recall, Labour used to claim “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. Will it use the same adage now with respect to terrorism, and be “tough on terror, tough on the causes of terror”? Then it will have to do some serious self-examination.

Ona related issue, Blair’s in town and there are cops everywhere. I wanted to join the protest marches on the weekend, but I’m more of a “I support you in my thoughts from my armchair” kind of revolutionary. The town centre is nice and quiet without cars. Apart from people shouting and the like.

is the name of a philosopher who was presenting his views on the cause of terrorism yesterday on Channel Five’s programme ‘Don’t get me started’. The main tenet of his thinking are that all of us have a “moral responsibility” thereby arguing that the events of 11/7 in London and other activities can be blamed partly on Western activities in the Middle East. Something I think is quite obvious. However his arguments were put in a wholly philosophical context, which was very refreshing and different to the regular emotion-laden brawls we hear on these issues. He examined what he called “neo-Zionism”, and called some politicians (yes, the famous double act Bush and Blair) “The Real Friends of Terror”. I was really impressed by the content and ideas behind his arguments.

Of course next week there’s going to be the Jewish refutement of this argument, because they can’t allow Western support of Israel to be named as a cause of terrorism.

A Chinese guy was bitten by Gu Gu the Panda in Beijing Zoo. He admitted to having had four jugs of beer before clambering into the enclosure. While attempting to hug the sleeping panda, he got bitten in one leg and then the other. So he retaliated promptly by biting the poor thing in the back. “It’s skin was quite thick”, according to him. He also said he’d seen pandas on telly and (and this is the killer line) “they seemed to get along well with people.”

There’s a great exhibition on at Central Library. Ok, it’s not ‘great’ but very interesting. A selection of some of the front pages of the Independent newspaper from the past 20 years. Funnily enough, Ali was going on about the newspaper just the other day, about how the front pages were cool, and the paper was Independent. I mean not just the name, which is Independent, but actually Independent.

What happened to making funny songs by changing the lyrics like MAD comics used to do? For example, this remake of a song sung to the tune of Wizard of Oz.

“We’re off to see your gizzard, that wonderful gizzard of yours.

Whatever a man may want from his gizzard you’ve got in that gizzard of yours

If ever, oh ever, a gizzard there was that gizzard of yours is one because

because x 5

Because of the wonderful things it does”

Can be sung on any gizzard-related celebrations.

Apparently it cost her $25 Million to risk her life in a Soviet-era Soyuz rocket. Still, I’d go. Space tourism is getting so much more accessible, I’m only about 13,342,600 pounds short. Fingers crossed, if I don’t go down to the pub this month.. You can read more about Anousheh Ansari’s trip to the International Space Station from other sources, so I’ll just give you a link and that’s my job done.

Sad to see United lose to Arsenal yesterday, even with all the big names on the pitch. It was definitely a game I was expecting them to win, and perhaps they were too relaxed as well.

My whole body aches from badminton today; after celebrating Helen’s (my new neighbour’s) birthday on Saturday and my new neighbour (and ex-driving instructor) Ben’s house-warming on Friday-Saturday, I could barely drag myself to the sports centre. But once I get going I enjoy it so much that pain is banished from my mind. I’m paying for it now though, can’t move a muscle, especially the well-hidden ones. Helen’s bf Sam is an untouchable bastard with his left-handed smash, and I think we got some important tips from him to move up a notch. Adam’s started his job in London today, so badminton is going to slip into a new post-Adamic era.

I see ‘business’ practices are returning to their norm in Moscow. Andrei Kozlov and his driver were gunned down outside a sports stadium yesterday. Kozlov (the root of this word is Kozel = Donkey) was a stubborn reformist, and in his position as Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Central Bank was making life difficult for other ‘bankers’ by investigating the tangled knot of Russian banking and trying to introduce transparency and accountability. Two words that Russian ‘bankers’ inevitably have problems pronouncing. Kozlov’s still alive, though the driver wasn’t so lucky.

 P.S. Kozlov’s just died too.

Thanks to Ioannis and Tinks for commenting on the previous post. I deliberately posted the journalist’s view without commentary to see if it made the same sense as it did to me.

Regarding Tinks’ comment, I think it is necessary to draw a line here, albeit a rather sketchy one, between learning from remembering and remembering something for the sake of remembering.

I think it is important for us to remember the World Wars because of the famous adage by Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. I believe the actions of today should be informed and tempered by our knowledge of the past, and therefore see the necessity for painful reminders of our capacity for violence and brutality.

However, I fail to see any learning involved with the remembrance of the more recent events. I do see a lot of dramatisations of the last minutes of people, and not much analysis paid to the contributing factors and social significance of events. Just a lot of scaremongering. Perhaps not enough time has yet passed for people to dissociate themselves from the emotions and try to approach this more analytically.

This is not quoted verbatim, but is the gist of what a columnist said yesterday on radio (BBC2)

Commemoration and grief are private things, and should not be allowed to be used by politicians to serve their own ends. Since when has it become necessary for newscasters to ‘remember’ what happened? This is not news but a paltry attempt at justifying their desire to show the pictures and wallow in the feeling all over again. It serves no positive purpose.

Today’s word on my ‘Calendar of Forgotten English’ was “Bibliobibuli”. Obviously ‘biblos’ is ‘book’ and the ‘bibuli’ has the same root as ‘imbibe’ I guess. And it is Ali’s argument which he uses when I quote something from a book that he can’t repudiate.

“I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey and religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing”.

-H. L. Mencken, 1956

Ok, so after having narrowly survived being mangled by a boy-racer, yesterday I headed off to Ioannis’ to moan about the state of affairs on the roads today. I had decided to report the guy to the police, so I used Ioanni’s Internet connection to look up the nearest station. The police operator had told me that this would be Platt Lane Police Station. And sure enough, the police website http://www.gmp.police.uk/ confirmed this, as well as showing me a handy map to locate it. Imagine my surprise when, after circling the area on my bike for a bit, I’m told by a shopkeeperess (whom I called “mate” because she looked rather boyish) that the police station had been closed down. Evidently the police themselves were unaware of this, so I hope they don’t try to lock criminals up in the library next to it now.

The shopkeeperess, obviously being privy to secret information, told me the nearest station was Greenheys. So I pedalled along on a hot day, intent upon getting this sorted. I arrive at Greenheys to find the station locked up, because it was a Sunday, and criminals don’t do Sundays I suppose. I was starting to swear when I spotted a yellow telephone to be used if the station was locked. So thus I got the chance to listen to a recorded voice for 15 minutes before I got through. To a person who could do no better than to tell me my nearest enquiry desk was in Stretford, or I could “Come the next day”!!

And police figures show crime is going down. I’m sure incidents of crime reported are going down thanks to their handy new prevention measures!!

Almost got ran off my bicycle/death trap on the road today by a “white male driver, age 20-25, in a green hatchback either Rover or Vauxhall, licence number Whiskey – Niner Eight Seven – Tango Charlie Alpha”. I felt very good reporting this to the police in my best C.I.D Detective Inspector voice. Now I’m wondering whether it’s worth the extra effort going to the police station to file a report.
Badminton’s back on!! I’m in a mood to take everybody to the cleaners.