A Possible Change

I may be setting up a new blog in the near future, as I am no longer in Cambridge. Will be getting back to you all on this in the near future.

Surprising No One...

Lindsay Lohan has been arrested for drunken driving. Didn't Bill Maher predict this a year ago? He must be psychic!

Link

Sorry, the link did not come up last time. Just type (or copy and paste) this address into your browser, and you'll get a link to the video.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/let_the_debate_.html

A Republican New Hope

Is it possible that the Republicans have actually produced a presidential candidate worth supporting? He for real fiscal conservatism, he opposes the Patriot Act, and he wants us out of Iraq. His name's Ron Paul. Here's a clip on youtube, posted on Andrew Sullivan's blog, that covers his debate with Rudy Giuliani:

Thought for the Day-5/12/07

Am I the only one who thinks that our culture has degenerated beyond redemption when Paris Hilton going to jail is a front page story and Kurt Vonnegut dying is virtually ignored?

Jalal Talabani

Today, at the Cambridge Union, Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, gave a speech and held a question and answer session. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to this event, and watched the whole affair from a balcony seat.

The security at the event was tight, for obvious reasons. (No suicide bombers allowed.) There were hordes of police officers outside the Union building. Supposedly, many of them were from the Special Branch, which specialises in combatting terrorism. There were metal detectors specially installed outside of the Union which all attendees had to pass through. There were also bag searches by police officers. I saw armed police officers inside the Union, an odd sight in Great Britain outside of airports. Furthermore, I saw at least one person whom I think was one of Talabani's bodyguards, an extremely rough looking Arab man standing outside a room where a luncheon was being held.

Talabani himself was a rather disappointing speaker. He gave the impression of a rather doddering old man, albeit a nice one. His talk was not particularly interesting, as it focused on his political career and was actually difficult to follow for someone who was not already deeply familiar with the history of Iraq, especially Kurdistan. However, it was interesting to learn that this major ally of the United States and the Bush administration cut his political teeth largely in Communist and Marxist organizations. He described visiting places such as the People's Republic of China to gather solidarity for the Kurdish people.

The question and answer session was somewhat more interesting. Some of the questions were rather revealing. For instance, when asked about current American tensions with Iran, President Talabani subtly indicated that Iraq was not eager for the two countries to come to blows, and boasted of Iraq's role in bringing them together at the negotiating table. Other questions, however, just elicited political spiel, as in the claim that Iraq would be able to take over its own security within a year or two, a claim that we started hearing a year or two ago.

A.M. Rabbits

This morning around 9 A.M., as I was walking to some classes at the Seeley Building via the St. John's Paddock (a wooded area within the college) I saw some rabbits grazing in the grass. I have never seen any rabbits here before. My guess would be they only come out early in the morning when there aren't any people around, as they hopped away the minute they noticed me. Indeed, the only reason I suspect they were even out that late was that it was a bank holiday today, and consequently the St. John's ground crew had the day off. Consequently, there were not lawn mowers, wagons, or other implements to scare the rabbits back into their holes.

Radio 3

I have been listening to BBC Radio 3 a lot recently. It is the BBC station dedicated to classical music and, to a much lesser extent, jazz. They have a great selection, not limited to the few mainstay symphonies and overtures that make up many classical repetoires. They sometimes dredge up obscure recordings from the twenties.

The DJs on Radio 3 all appear to have an extensive knowledge of classical music, extending not merely to the composers but also to famous musicians. Often, it is rather difficult for a novice to pick up on all the references they make. It makes me want to learn more about classical music.

Deep Blue

Hi all,

I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I apologise, but it's been incredibly busy.

Last night, I saw a truly excellent movie on DVD, Deep Blue, a documentary about the ocean. The cinematography was truly excellent. They captured schools of fish and other sealife with a beauty and realism that was breathtaking. It was released to theatres, but did not gain much notice because it came out at the same time as March of the Penguins.

Another good point of the film was that it did not have a lot of narration. The filmmakers chose to let their footage speak for itself. Although at times it would have been nice to know exactly what species of fish I was looking at, it was enjoyable just to sit back and look at the different animals.

I highly recommend seeking out the DVD.

From www.andrewsullivan.com

This is a poem I found on Andrew Sullivan's blog. It was written by a soldier currently serving in Iraq, who has chosen to remain anonymous, although I feel he has nothing to be ashamed of, as he has written an excellent poem. The language is rather explicit,but it captures exactly what is going on in Iraq, at least from what I can gather from news reports.

Fucker

They heard it twice; bombs do that when they crack
across the dunes, a groan chasing a clap
In the desert, where blue eyed boys in armor
listen, pink faced, to the wind and know
It's the sound of someone dying when they
see the truck all mangled on the roadside
The thin man all blown to pieces inside
and, for a heartbeat, feel, because maybe
He was just an old man, driving home but
they see the next bomb with him meant for some
Pot-hole, dead goat, trash pile, old car, young man -
deadly, they know, like their dead friends, and now
They don't shrink from saying to him, "Fucker,"
they say, "The first rule is, fucker, be sure
Where you put the last one, fucker." Laughing
without pity for him who is scattered
Bloody around the boys who die now too
because they aren't repulsed by the sight of
This thing, anymore, that they'll take home, thinking
of the day when they scolded a corpse

[Note: I in no way know the author of this poem, or have any relation to him. If he has any objections to the publication of this poem on this website, just comment on the site or e-mail me, and I will remove it. I just published it because I found it to be so moving.]

Ding, Dong...The General's Dead

Well, Augusto Pinochet is down for the count. It's setting up to be a truly bad year for conservatives, all in all. First, the Republicans fall in commerce. Then, Rumsfeld resigns. Next, the former head of the Sandinistas gets elected in Nicaragua. And now this.

It's not quite Republican hell, but you can see it from here.

The Ugly Duckling

On my birthday last Monday, I had lunch at a restaurant across from St. John's College, The Ugly Duckling. The Ugly Duckling is a Chinese restaurant, but unlike most establishments of that type in the United States, it does not feature such faux Chinese dishes as chop suey. The Ugly Duckling specialises in more traditional Chinese dishes, offering its customers interesting new culinary experiences, at least to western palates.

For my lunch, I had a starter of prawn crackers and a main course of king prawns and rice with undercooked egg white. (What can I say, I like shrimp!) Although the prawn crackers were advertised as a starter, they served as a course in their own right, with an entire dish full of them accompanied by a side of sweet and sour sauce. I had expected them to be saltine crackers with tiny shrimp on them. However, they turned out to be more like a pork rind, composed of actual shrimp processed into crunchy crackers. This starter was decent, but it lacked a strong prawn flavour, and only served to fill me up in advance of the main course.

Further complicating matters was the fact that the only silverware provided by the Ugly Duckling is chop sticks. On the whole, these proved to be less difficult to maneuver than their reputation would suggest. (It was particularly helpful that the chopsticks came in a small paper bag with instructions on how to use them.) However, they proved rather ill-suited to picking up the thin prawn crackers, especially in my beginner's hands.

Far better was the main course of shrimp, rice, and undercooked egg white. The egg white in this dish was deliberately undercooked, provided the overall dish with a pleasant, gooey consistency. The prawns were truly excellent: large, plump, and pink. They were a genuine treat, particularly when combined with a coating of egg white. Eating this dish with chop sticks was surprisingly easy, particulary when compared with the prawn crackers. The large prawns were easily picked up, while the egg white helped the rice to clump together for easier handling. (I think my handling of the rice may have further benefited from the fact that the rice was of a sticky variety found in some Thai and Chinese dishes.)

One true disappointment was dessert. I requested a cup of vanilla ice cream, which cost roughly three pounds. You can imagine my surprise then when, peering over the counter, I noticed the waiter scooping out ice cream from a Walls carton. Walls is a British brand of ice cream that costs no more than two pounds for an entire carton, less than what they were charging me for just one dish. That will be the last time I order ice cream there.

On the whole, however, I greatly enjoyed my lunch at the Ugly Duckling. The restaurant itself had a quiet atmosphere that was highly pleasant, though no doubt this was helped by the fact that I was eating lunch a little before noon, thus avoiding the main rush. I would definitely recommend it.

Latin Mass

This morning, I gave the first reading for the 9.30 A.M. Latin Mass at the Fisher House Catholic Chaplaincy here in Cambridge. (Luckily, the reading was not in Latin.) I woke up to get there on time at 7.30 A.M. I had set my clock to 7.40, but I was awakened by the sound of bursts of rain getting blown against my window by the wind. This meteorological wake-up call was courtesy of a storm which had produced wind gusts of up to 100 miles an hour in Scotland, according to the BBC website. Luckily, Cambridge was not hit that badly.

I arrived at Fisher House roughly fifteen minutes before Mass started. I was rather nervous because I had never attended the Latin Mass before, and consequently I did not know exactly when I would have to get up and give the reading. (As it turned out, it was right after the Collect.) Sister Pauline, who was in charge of the readings, showed me where to begin and end.

Overall, it went well. I did mess up slightly when I began the reading without mentioning what book of the Bible it was from. Luckily, I noticed this mistake quickly and corrected myself, with some slight embarressment. (If I remember correctly, the book was Jeremiah. I was so wrapped up in giving the reading that I did not really pay attention to its contents.)

The Mass itself was a rather interesting experience. I remembered a bit of my high school Latin, but not enough to understand more than a small portion of what was being said. This lack of comprehension was rather disconcerting. Indeed, part of me wondered why I was even there. (Most of the people who were there were old enough to remember the pre-Vatican II Latin masses.) Still, my experience did give me insight into the appeal of the Latin Mass. It had a mysterious feel to it, with its ancient language and some of the rituals, that to many people must have conveyed a sense of the divine. It was definitely an interesting experience.

A Quote Worth Remembering

Here is a quote from one of our founding fathers, John Adams, in his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America:

"It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [national leadership] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships and houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture."

I think certain members of the executive branch, and the Republican Party in general, should keep this quote in mind.

A Modest Proposal

I have an idea about an alternative sentence for Saddam Hussein. Rather than putting him to death, we should make use of him. After all, he has between thirty and forty years of experience in running that country, whereas we've managed to plunge it into outright chaos within three and a half years. If I had been President Bush, Hussein's sentence would have gone something like this. (Believe me, the President could've arranged it if he had really wanted to):

"Mr. Hussein, in view of your crimes against humanity, there is no punishment this court can provide that would be adequate to punish you. Consequently, the only fitting punishment that we know of is that you will be appointed President of Iraq from this day forward. You will rule over your people, if you can.

"Do not think that this is a light sentence. Things have changed since you last ruled. The Shi'ites you once oppressed are now organised into military forces, all of which will want to see your head on top of a pole. They are not the weak minority that you once tormented to your heart's content. Likewise for the Kurds, who may well break away from Iraq once you return to power. Do not bother them; Turkey will deal with them. You will have your hands full as it is.

"Furthermore, you will not have the American Army to protect you as Maliki has. The Americans are leaving, now that they have come to their senses. They realise that they cannot teach liberty to a foreign people, or impose it on them. It is something that they must determine for themselves, no matter how difficult that path is. In our case, it may take years of bloodshed. It may not even happen within our lifetimes. You, I suspect, will be but a minor obstacle now, for whatever number of weeks you manage to stay in power.

"You have always proclaimed you would return to power. Now let's see what you can make of it."

Dunk in the Water

Hmmm...he's not the vice-president for torture, but...

Now the politicos and the press are up in arms about what Vice-President Cheney meant when he talked about giving suspected terrorists a "dunk in the water." Many observers, quite naturally, assumed that the VP was referring to the practice of waterboarding, which simulates drowning in order to get a prisoner to divulge information. He made this statement at the same time as complaining about being labeled the vice-president for torture. Sending mixed messages there, Dick!

One would actually have more respect for the Vice-President and the Bush Administration in general if they actually came out and said that they condoned the use of torture. That candor would be preferable to the type of prevarications displayed at a recent press conference by White House spokesman Tony Snow, at which a reporter, frustrated by Snow's refusal to admit that the Vice-President had referred to waterboarding, asked if a pool had been installed in Gitmo. (Video of this press conference has been posted on the BBC News website, news.bbc.co.uk.)

Some Republican apologists might claim that Cheney was simply playing tough for the Republican faithful. However, it is, at least in my opinion, highly disturbing that one of the leaders of the most powerful countries on earth would consider the implicit condoning of a form of torture an acceptable means of currying political favour. The fact that such rhetoric is apparently considered acceptable by a significant portion of the American population is even more disturbing. It demonstrates a hardening of attitudes, motivated by understandable fears, that bode ill for American democracy.

Going to Hell in a Handbag

Sorry that it's been over a week since I last posted, but I've been busy.

The big story recently has been what is happening in Iraq. We seem to be reaching a real turning point. High military officials in Great Britain are expressing extreme dissatisfaction with what has happened in Iraq and its effects on Afghanistan, and the British government has made an announcement to the effect that it wants to be out of Iraq within the year. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said, as reported in The Guardian newspaper, that "I would have thought, certainly in a year or so there will be adequately trained Iraqi soldiers and security forces...in order to do the job." One suspects that the newspaper omitted some following statement along the lines of "Please God let there be adequate forces!"

Meanwhile, the American government is trying to pressure the Iraqi government into providing better security, with the possibility of sanctions unless certain goals are met. (What are we going to do? Invade them again?) On the whole, it looks like the end might be in sight.

I will be writing more about what I foresee as the potential consequences of this debacle in the near future.

An Important News Story

Everyone who reads this post should go to time.blogs.com/daily_dish and read the October 15th post entitled "The End of Habeas Corpus," then click on the video. It is very informative and humorous, and it should definitely be viewed by every patriotic American.

See...I was right

This morning, the BBC News website is reporting that American scientists have detected radioactive gases around the site where the North Korean nuclear test took place. Guess it must have been something more than a few firecrackers going off, huh? Although scientists say that the tests are not yet conclusive, it seems to me that the presence of radioactive gas around the site of an explosion is a pretty good indicator that a nuclear weapon was involved. Maybe now the conservatives will stop trying to laugh this issue off and actually try to do something about it.

The Trouble with Kim

The American government and the world have gone from concern to uncertainty regarding our friend in North Korea. Now, so we are told, it is not certain whether an atomic explosion actually took place in North Korea; all they know is that a really big bang took place. (Nevermind the fact that the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov stated in the immediate aftermath of the blast that "We have no doubt that it was a nuclear explosion.") Now some conservative columnists and bloggers are trying to laugh off North Korea. Personally, I am not convinced by this argument. It sounds like an attempt by an embattled Republican President to salvage his party's fortunes during a difficult election season.

Just more political manoeuvring, you say? Quite so, until one considers the stakes involved. North Korea is not limiting its investments to bombs; it is also developing missle systems to which nuclear warheads might be attached. As The Independent newspaper here in Great Britain reports, the North Koreans already have a missle, the Rodong-1, which is capable of hitting Japan and South Korea. They are also in the testing stages of another missile, the Taepodong-2, which would be capable of hitting Alaska. The possiblity of an attack on Alaska may not seem that serious, until one considers what would happen if one or more North Korean nuclear missiles struck the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. Oil prices would skyrocket in a way that would make what happened last summer seem like a beach party in comparison. Combine this with the economic damage that would result from a simultaneous nuclear detonation in Tokyo, and you have the makings of a catastrophe for global markets.

Here's hoping the politicians know what they're doing when they laugh at North Korea.