h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm more worred about TV evangelists than Islam . Come to think of it christians are altogether shadier characters, especially the ones with tambourines. When are you Jehova groupies going to get wise, and start practising dharma?

JTG

Drat this keyboard... it can't sppell!

JTG

Yep, Islam means peace but Islam is entitled to defend itself in a Jihad. Even the Queen is 'Defender of the Faith'. And Islam is certainly being attacked left right and centre and left right and centre again.

But I don't see how you can look at all those passengers without compassion for them.


Grime


Breaking News: I have 'intelligence' from Dubbya the Bush that you're not Bin Laden. This makes me think you are, but I know you're not - hence no code this time

I almost compassioned myself apart last week.

Here's to the world's innocence lost and the world's innocents lost... ... may they take rebirth somewhere nice that the mean [insert colourful phrase] who call the shots here don't know about.

JTG

ps By 'here' I mean the world at large, not precisely here, wherever that is.

Well said, JTG. I really mant not 'you', but how can anyone - terrorist, freedom fighter or what you will - look at those people and not feel compassion?

Grime

That's a good question, and one you may well ask ('scuse me, I can never resist saying that ). I think we've seen evidence of that all over the world. A cynic might say that some of the public grief is staged. But the tears we have seen were inspired by real shock and genuine sympathy for the victims.

JTG

Yes, all over the world and more to come unfortunately.

You don't crush terrorists through terror, you create them.


G.

Spot on... and I haven't heard any proposals for prosecuting Americans who sponsor terrorism either. Wouldn't that be an obvious first step?

China has said that a reasonable condition for joining the anti-terrorism super friends is that America should turn its back on the way China deals with its own 'terrorists'... nuns, monks, children...

There is a bill - "Tibetan Policy Act of 2001" - before the US Senate. It's interesting reading, very forward looking. Have a read, before it quietly disappears.

Can't post URLs, but the US Senate Website is easy to find. Search for "S852".

JTG

Yes, step forward Teddy Kennedy.

I found the Senate Bill on Tibet - 1,200,000 dead! Wonder why they're not thinking of bombing Beijing??

What's coming up is going to racially-motivated - aimed at muslims only. And the world (outside the US) knows it. NOT a world 'crusade' (copyright Dubbya) against all terrorism etc. It's funny how all the 'rogue states' are all muslim states.

Apparently, a preferred place for the Bin Laden series of organisations to hide out has been Canada!

I also came across a House Bill to oppose the unilateral declaration of an independent Palestine. (Sorry, I've forgotten the reference on the US site). Yet the (very public) code name for current US manoevres is 'Infinite Justice'

Will they never learn?



Grime

The bill addresses some key issues, including ethical trade relations. I've been writing to my MP and ministers of the Canadian government about it. It seems absurd to even have to vote on something like this... if the our commitment to 'good governance' and 'the rule of law' is anything more than a fairy story... Which is really what this whole charade is about: the myth that our relationship with developing countries is about anything more enlightened than taking what they have and treatiing them like dirt. We're scared to death of facing up to this possibility, because the obvious conclusion that any sensible person would come to is that most of the world has every right feel bitter. And our governments cannot afford to give us the slightest chance of thinking that the bad guys might just have a point, because then the wheels would really fall off, and bombing a few people in a far off place wouldn't make us feel better at all.

Apparently, the Americans are trying to think of a new name in recognition of the obvious insult to those who reserve infinite and absolute everything to the supreme being (not George senior).

I have the uncomfortable feeling that bin Laden and his henchmen are only an excuse for a much more nefarious game about to unfold. Don't you get the sense that the inflamatory language is a smokescreen for some other agenda here?

"Cry haddock! And let slip the cods of war!"

JTG

ps Sorry about the rant.

'We're scared to death of facing up to this possibility, because the obvious conclusion that any sensible person would come to is that most of the world has every right feel bitter. And our governments cannot afford to give us the slightest chance of thinking that the bad guys might just have a point, because then the wheels would really fall off, and bombing a few people in a far off place wouldn't make us feel better at all.'

Absolutely, JTG...especially in the land of fairy stories, of mickey mouse, the of disneyland, the movie industry and the 'American Dream'

The secret agenda's obviously about the control of oil, but there's also the thirst for revenge, quite openly. So a further slaughter of the innocents ensues, taking on one of the poorest and most generally hated of tyrannies - the Taliban regime- so it looks justified, and at a low risk, except from reprisals from across the arab world. How do you create a terrorist? Kill his family, let him watch people dying in the streets...

News From England:
1. A special edition of BBC's Question Time discussed the present situation and it got out of hand, with so many anti-American views, (wish I'd seen it - free speech instead of conformist piety) that Jack Straw (current Foreign Secretary) apologised (groan) to the American Ambassador.
2. Some American politician was asked over here if the current events could lead to a rethinking of American Foreign Policy, with a more even-handed approach to the Middle East. He couldn't even understand the question.

3. On a lighter note, Private Eye brought out this 'Nostradamus' prediction:

Where two rivers meet, in the land of the giant mouse,(1)
There shall be fire in the sky,
And a bush will be seen underground.

(1) Mickey, of course.

Keep Smiling. Share and Enjoy,


Grime

Thanks for that.

Some heavy-handed Sub-editor probably cheated poor Nostrodamus out of being right about the bush hiding in a corn field in Nebraska before going to ground.

I wonder if toppling the present Pakistani government is what the ulterior motive is. The only thing that makes me think otherwise is that, from what I've seen on the news (like looking through a jam jar ), it seems likely that any serious shakeup there would result in the installation of another 'fundamentalist regime'. I can't shake the feeling that this is part of a game to out shimmy the People's Republic of China, the only other nation at the dance with two legs. Stirring up the hornets nest (another ingredient in this metaphor mix) in the hope of strengthening India's position in Kashmir is bound to raise the anxiety level in the land of self-tightening thumb cuffs.

Sorry, I haven't taken my paranoia pills yet.

Was the President's address to Congress televised in the UK? It was brilliantly conceived, with a little bit of something for almost everyone: dire warnings to the Taliban (naturally), praise of heroic NY rescuers... but also very specific reminders to the rednecks in the crowd that every dark-toned human between Morocco and Burma isn't a 'Packie', and that the enemies of the American people don't include everyone who fiendishly chose to be born in the Middle East. It was like a highschool pep rally... in Nuremberg. I was amazed at how well Mr bush performed, being interrupted by eruptions of 'spontaneous' applause at least two dozen times. Although, thinking about it, if I had to direct that particular production, I would have used the same device to limit his lines to less than 30 seconds too.

Keep yer chin up.

JTG

Drat this keyboard... That's probably not how to spell [unkind name for a persom form Pakistan], but I make no apology for not having much practise writing it.

JTG

Sorry, your speculations about Pakistan and China are a little bit further than I want to go. Not that I'm saying thery're wrong - I wouldn't be surprised if a global chess match with China was going on, whether the US realises it or not. For me, it's pretty much the opposite - Pakistan is the source of the Taliban and there's lots of fundamentalist feeling there, so shoring up the military dictatorship is pretty good news for the world, what with their H Bomb and all. Far better than attacking them and provoking a Fundamentalist coup.

And China gains Tibet at very little cost.

Yes, I did see the Presidential Address, (at 2a.m. on CNN), and I thought it was a very, very clever speech delivered very convincingly by Dubbya. It was, in fact, a firm declaration of war on the Taliban. I thought labelling terrorists as fascists was right on the money. In this country, we used to call the IRA the 'Green Fascists' (nothing to do with the environment) before they 'gained respectability'. Dubbya finally rose to the occasion and delivered a very powerful speech. But the spectacle of Congress standing up and clapping and sitting down and then standing up and clapping was ridiculous. Most people seem to get very excited at the start of wars - guess it eases the tension - like here over the Falklands and the Gulf. I've never quite shared that meself.

And how is forming an alliance with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and China a defence of democracy?

BTW, I've just caught up with your article in the H2G2 Post. I thought it very balanced and humane. Wish I could say it so well. I really thought it was excellent, and exactly what needed to be said.

I'm not anti-American as such. I felt that everyone with a heart was a New Yorker that day. I did write a very short piece on the day itself, if you'd like to check the diary section on my Home Page.

Keep your chin up,

Grime

Thanks. The Post article was basically just cobbled together from a lot of forum postings... and inspiration from the Dalai Lama, who smiles encouragement from a photo next to where I'm sitting.

People are being affected in all sorts of strange ways - paranoia and mild dyslexia, in my case. CNN ran a story about an alarming level of insomnia, anxiety, and the inabilty to concentrate, which, it said, was at a level higher than during the Gulf War.

I read your journal entry, which really says as much as needs to be said... the rest is just the agitated clucking of a henhouse gone mad. Have there been any reports of Reseachers lost in the tragedy?

JTG

I just don't know, JTG. Particularly as I'm avoiding the main thread(s) on the subject. I really think that for me it's/they're rather - unnecessary, shall we say, although they're probably a good thing for others.

I would feel personally bereaved if there were. In fact I feel a bit personally bereaved anyway. New York is one of my favourite cities.


Grime

Ahhhhjj,

Think I'm going to do an entry on backflips soon


Dancer

Good for you, Dancer. We could do with some plain, old-fashioned, unabashed and unadulterated fun. Good luck with it... but don't count' on me for advice; I'm twenty years past backflips.

Was it your work that inspired my rejection comment? And, if so, did you receive it?

Grime, old friend, I know what you mean. I've never been to New York city, but it's a place that has the familiarity of a place often visited.

JTG

Nahh, I was rejected on an entry about Dance

But I'm still a backflipper, and I'll also recruite Happydude, who is a master of virtual backflips, and might also be a real life pro (don't really know that for sure )


Dancer

Probably is. You can't have a name like Happydude without a backflip or two in your cv.

Don't forget to support any claims you might make about Parisian banana orchards with solid facts... or statements by celebrities, at least.

JTG