Ticking Over

I'm still around - it's just that over the last few days I've been having some health problems, and have been tied up in myriad political issues. Here's a selection:

More Abu Graib torture. Horrific, barbaric and completely unsurprising. There ought to be a word to describe that familliar sensation of disgust coupled with monotony. Child rape, self harm, corpses - I can't bring myself to watch the full video.

Danish cartoons. Published by a far right rag as deliberate provocation. Tiny demos by mad groups are given high media coverage while appeals and big rallys for tolerance and calm are ignored. Most of the left is still caught in the red herring debate with itself about whether freedom of speech is an absolute right.

ID cards. Will prevent identity theft - to the same extent as existing credit cards. And will help catch terrorists - but only those with bad fakes. You'll also need to pay UKP90 for a new card every time you change home or your biometric data is changed by severe illness or age. But not to worry, because implementing and maintaining the scheme properly is nearly impossible.

Iraq. Memos have surfaced proving Bush and Blair had agreed to invade long before weapons inspections or UN resolutions.

Iran. In ten years they might possibly be able to build a nuclear bomb. 'Nuclear Installations' have been identified for possible bombing. Here 'installation' means any lab or factory researching nuclear power or building power plant componants - which are of course in all the major cities. Most still think the US isn't desperate enough to attack.

Iran again. It turns out the unpronouncable prime minister never talked about wiping Israel off the map - it was a misquote from a speech against zionism. Is he still a holocaust denier? Probably.

Unemployment is up, university enrollment is down, and military recuitment is through the floor. So where are all the young people who aren't in work, a classroom or a troop ship? They can't afford to leave home, because house prices obsinately refuse to become affordable ('crash') and fuel bills are rising by 22%.
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The Portsmouth Respect site is redesigned but not up yet. I'm still a great believer in handcoded HTML, but having to use multiplely embedded tables to format text and images feels like having to use Powerpoint for accounting.

In spare moments I've been rewriting lyrics and inventing a form of shorthand.