Shock, horror!

So Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction? In the "well, what a surprise" stakes that probably ranks up there with being told that Stephen Hawking will not be representing Great Britain in the triple jump at the 2008 Olympics. But there you go, it looks like there's finally going to be an official admission that, oops, no, we were wrong, and, well, we blatantly lied about the whole thing to give us a pretext to invade. Sorry!

I never genuinely believed there were WMDs anyway (who did?), yet I still was not opposed to the war. Whilst despising Bush and his cronies and being naturally suspicious of everything they stand for, I believed that overthrowing Saddam Hussein's vile junta would be a good thing for the region and the world as a whole. Some good has come out of it: there is now a fledgling democracy in Iraq where once there was a murderous and genocidal regime. This is no small thing. The real battle is to get democracy bedded down and withstand the murderous intentions of a minority of Islamofascists. The concern is that the killings will create too much political heat causing the US to panic, withdraw completely and leave it all in chaos. After coming this far, any such action would be murderously irresponsible.

With any luck, Chimp-in-Chief George W Bush and the neo-conservative, Christian-right shitbags that accompany him will get the boot in November. John Kerry can then come to the helm and foster an international solution to the problem. It is imperative that democracy gets a foothold in the area: a genuinely popular, fairly elected government in the Middle East would be a real step forward. If it took manufactured threats about weapons of mass destruction to get the ball rolling then it will have been a small price to pay.

Thanks for the tip!

Managed to get my links to open up in a new window, thanks to the advice found here.

Cheers!

I think I've just settled the fox hunting argument AND come up with a compromise

I think I've stumbled across the most convincing reason yet for banning fox hunting. It's not a particularly sophisticated argument and it doesn't really get to the roots of the ethical dilemma that the whole issue represents. However, I feel it has a force of conviction that should win over anyone who has yet to make up their mind on the subject. It's an easily digested treatise and its power lies in its simplicity. Take a look, it's from the front page of today's Independent:


Twat

The chap in the main picture? He's Luke Tomlinson, one of the pro-hunting protesters who made a mockery of security at the House of Commons on Wednesday. Just look at the smug satisfaction plastered all over this halfwit's face. The moment I saw it, my mind was made up. His outfit alone should be punishable by public flogging. Jeans and a double breasted blazer replete with gold (yes, gold) buttons, set off with a shirt and tie. This is the enemy. If outlawing fox hunting worsens his quality of life then I'll back it to the hilt. In fact, isn't there anything else we could do? How about tighter laws on inbreeding? Just look at his chin. It's as if Jay Leno, John Kerry, Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Hill all donated DNA to create their very own 'Chin Boy' and this was the outcome.

Then again, also in the Indie, a feature on the "comeback" of Duran Duran made me think of a compromise we could offer to all those bumpkins still thirsty for the blood of vermin. How about (and apologies to Bill Hicks because he had this idea first) we let them hunt and kill Simon Le Bon and his merry crew? Just picture it. The whole band dropped in the middle of the countryside and mercilessly pursued by hounds for our enjoyment.

It would provide a threefold service:

1. We eradicate a tiresome act that really should have known when to quit (hint: 1986);
2. It fills the void for all those bogtrotting inbreds who need to chase and kill something in their spare time;
3. It would make fantastic television.

We'd never run out of viable targets either: the week after it could be the Rolling Stones for example, then, oh, I don't know, take your pick.

I don't know about you, but I reckon this is the answer. A real win-win solution all round. So what do you think, Mr. Blair?

A nation divided?

So here we are, a nation divided once more over one issue: the right of Hooray Henrys to hunt foxes to the point of exhaustion and have them torn apart by beagles. We're all talking about it, right? Of course we are. Personally, considering the way we treat animals in general, I can't get that worked up about the issue one way or another. I always considered the best reason for banning it was simply to irritate the people who are so keen to do it in the first place. Anything that winds this lot up has got to be good for the country in my opinion.

An interesting take on the subject here by Andrew Sullivan, arguing that this is Blair's authoritarian streak coming through (although Tone didn't actually vote) and likens it to the gun control issue in the US. Hmmm, the abolition of a cruel and unneccessary rural pastime and the idea that maybe it's not a good idea to let an entire nation bear arms. Yeah, that's the same thing isn't it? "But I sure do respect the fundamental notion that, as a general rule, the government shouldn't be telling people what they can and cannot own, and what they can and cannot do in their spare time."

Anyway, this isn't authoritarianism, it's just an overdue abolition of a ridiculous British tradition that deserves to die. It'll be impossible to enforce anyway, and will be another drain on already depleted police resources. And that should be the real issue: aren't there far more important things to be worried about right now?

Let's go round again, maybe we'll turn back the hands of time. . .

It was the same when I was a kid: I'd start a new diary and write in it religiously for the first couple of weeks, then it would be an entry every week and then by April it would be forgotten. And so it is, nearly a year later, I return to News Felch like a dog to its vomit. Or something. So much has happened yet so little has changed. But let's have another crack at this shall we?