Archives, eh
-
# Links for 2005-03-29
- The Nameless Dread
Welcome to The Nameless Dread, the latest Wrongness on LJ ✴
- The Nameless Dread
-
# Links for 2005-03-25
- Cows, beans, and biodiesel – The tricky politics of alternative energy ✴
-
# Links for 2005-03-24
- Transparent Screens
This is just unspeakably cool ✴
- Transparent Screens
-
# Good job for the moral support, but they did all the work.
I'm told that I need a Somewhere Else to talk about politics and other things of that nature; that's not happening anytime this fortnight, so in the mean time.
I posted previously that I was ashamed of supporting the Iraq invasion. My position is a little more nuanced than I managed to express, I think. I am still supportive of the idea that Iraq was better off with Saddam Hussein removed. It might have been nice, if unrealistic, for that to happen without an invasion. In retrospect it is hard to imagine how the US/UK/Australia could have executed the war too much more cleanly – in other words, mistakes were made, civilians were killed and it is churlish to shrug them off as broken eggs, but it could have been worse. Actually, reading over that, “it could have been worse” are such weasel words, just as much as that Grand Excuse for Civilian Deaths “more would have died under Saddam”. My point here is that the Pentagon, and by extension George W. Bush deserve praise for a quick execution of the Iraq war. Right up just after the tanks rolled into the centre of Baghdad.
Everything after that is fuckup after fuckup. Chalabi, Al Grahib, too few troops, explosives theft; the list goes on. And on. There aren't as many bright spots for the US as the cheerleaders tell us. For the US that is. There's been a lot for Iraq itself. The Purple Revolution – Iraqis voting and being marked off with a purple stain on their fingers – is much more the result of the Iraqi people despite the various ways the US, and by extension George Bush, have let them down.
Thomas Friedman wrote a piece on Sistani today. He suggests that the Islamic cleric deserves the peace prize medal in this years Nobel season. I don't know enough about Sistani to really have an opinion either way, but it did make me stop and think that really, just as the credit for the success of multiculturalism in Australia should go to the residents of Cabbravale and similar, the credit for the success of the democratic process should go to the Iraqis. Even if the turnout was low as is claimed by some and – perhaps tellingly – never really refuted as far as I can tell; I'm not all that comfortable about characterising a turnout not dissimilar to that of the US Presidential election as “low” though.
It should go without saying – but won't – that the same goes for the Orange Revolution and the Cedra Revolution and whatever backreference they will tack onto the Egyptian president allowing a contested election – even if Zimbabwe can show us all exactly how inherently democratic those can be. Poor Hariri; everything he did to support opposition to Syria's occupation so cavalierly disregarded by Bush's supporters. All of a sudden, it was all Bush. Even the Lebanese are doing it to him, although that may just be an artifact of misrepresentation – it is possible to read statements such as “We thank Mr. Bush for his position.” as thanking Bush for support without giving him credit for the initial uprising. Ditto for the Ukraine.
-
# Links for 2005-03-21
- New Scientist – 13 things that do not make sense
They forgot Chewbacca living on Endor ✴
- New Scientist – 13 things that do not make sense
-
# Links for 2005-03-20
- DGrassi Is tha Best Teen TV N da WRLD!
I loved the original show; I’d probably cringe now at it and its descendent though :- ) ✴
- DGrassi Is tha Best Teen TV N da WRLD!
-
# Links for 2005-03-15
- Wanted: Sailor to fix dodgy ship ✴
-
# Eye popping
# *I* did the carpentry, at great risk to my safety!
Heard on ICQ today.
Danae: i got an excellent for my project
gil: is that tWM telling me or tMotWM being facetious? :- )
Danae: me? facetious?
gil: I'm confused by the almost excellent spelling, is all
Danae: only 4 other mothers got an excellent
# Links for 2005-03-14
- The Biology of B-Movie Monsters
See The Incredible Shrinking Man section for justification for the Incredible Leaping Yoda ✴
