Journal Entries
Otto's Journal: "The people have spoken. The b******ds"
Posted Nov 5, 2004
.... as someone once said.
I think I had a lucky escape. I never seriously thought that Kerry would win, and in fact I'm surprised that he came so close. Perhaps it's because I went to bed early rather that putting myself through listening to the results coming in - I didn't hear the early opinion polls and so wasn't disappointed the next morning.
I've never been to America, so all my knowledge of America is second hand. But it seems to me that Kerry did very well to come as close as he did, given that there's a war on. Because the US President is Head of State, he symbolises the country in a way that the British PM doesn't, and it seems to me that this gives the incumbent a real advantage, particularly as Bush has shamelessly played the patriot card at every opportunity. Kerry did well to get close, it seems to me, given the political climate.
And I think many people had completely unrealistic expectations about what a Kerry presidency would have meant. He's liberal and multilateral by US standards, but that doesn't mean that he was going to sign up to Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, reverse US policy in Israel, revitalise the UN. It would have changed the political climate in that it would have opened a number of windows of opportunity for improvements in relations between the EU nations and the US and allowed some face-saving, but President Kerry would not have suddenly started respecting the UN and acting only with its full authorisation. Clinton didn't, and that was in a very different political climate.
But how serious a blow is the reelection of Bush? Nationally, I think it's a disaster for liberal America, especially if it looks like it was the Christian Right 'wot won it', as they seek to impose their world view on others. Same as religious extremeists everywhere of any religion.
Internationally, I don't think that Bush could get away with invading another country, say Iran. I don't think that Blair could get away with supporting the US a second time in the current climate. I wonder whether Bush could get away with it, bearing in mind how much support Kerry got and the mess that Iraq is still in. Is the US capable of mounting another invastion/occupation effort by itself? But then I thought the same about Iraq when the US attacked Afghanistan.
Semi-finally, some amusing slogans I've seen:
"Why change horseman mid-apocalypse?"
"Vote Cthulu for President. Why settle for the lesser evil?"
Actual finally, a link to some interesting commentry on the US election:
http://www.spiked-online.com/Sections/politics/index.htm
Mick Hume's article on 'white trash bashing' is particularly worth a read. I disagree with Hume most of the time, but here I think he's on to something....
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Nov 5, 2004
Otto's Journal: Ennui
Posted Oct 7, 2004
> WAIT
You wait, time passes.
>
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Oct 7, 2004
Otto's Journal: Chris Morris and On the Hour
Posted Aug 27, 2004
... can be heard on the BBC 'listen again' bit of the website. This is the radio precursor to 'The Day Today' and is just as funny...
"Last year there were 200 different types of wood in Hampshire. Now there are 300. If you know who's been leaving types of word in Hampshire, please call......"
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Latest reply: Aug 27, 2004
Otto's journal: Patrick Moore Plays the Xylophone...
Posted Aug 25, 2004
Oh yes indeed he does...
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/20/
And, from the golden era of computing that I'm just old enough to remember some of...
http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
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Latest reply: Aug 25, 2004
Otto's Journal: Mmmmm... firefox....
Posted Aug 1, 2004
I've finally heeded all of the warnings and ditched *nt*rn*t *xpl*r*r and downloaded the Fox of Fire. A few teething problems and not everything works quite as well, but the's a delicious smoothness to FireFox and the tab browsing thing is great. All hail to the Fox of Fire!
Otto
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Latest reply: Aug 1, 2004
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Otto Fisch ("Stop analysing Strava.... and cut your hedge")
Researcher U182089
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