Saturday morning breaks cold and misty.

[zotz]

Nifty trick of the week : take someone's liver out, give it radiotherapy for tumours (that wouldn't be practical in situ) then put it back.

Apparently the Red Cross is banishing Christmas and Christmas decorations from their shops. I intend to spend the next fortnight in a Red Cross shop.

Also, the US delegation has torpedoed another initiative to get cheap drugs to developing nations. If any of you good people over there would go round and have a quiet word with George W, we'd be very grateful. In return, I'm sure we'd be more than happy to give young Tone an earful he won't forget in a while.

Comments

[sheridanwilde.livejournal.com]

I just heard about that (the Red Cross thing) and thought it was pretty good of them to do that (then they wheeled out the rent-a-quote "It's political correctness gone mad" brigade - and yes, they did actually say that, verbatim).

Oh, and I despair at the current crop of politicians.

[zotz]

The country gets the politcians it votes for, and therefore that it deserves. I despair of my countrymen sometimes. When I'm not busy despairing of myself, obviously.

[sheridanwilde.livejournal.com]

As I read in The Times on Wednesday: "If we treat all MPs as lying bastards, only lying bastards will be willing to stand for Parliament" (by Mary Ann Sieghart)

The gist was that when we (or the media, rather) poke our noses into MPs private lives (past whether they're a murderer) then we make life intolerable for ordinary people, and so this discourages the well-intentioned from taking public office.

The conclusion follows.

It is more a question of how we serve our own interests as voters and citizens. The crueller we are to politicians, the more we invade their privacy and the more we impugn their motives, the worse our government will be. If we want to be ruled well, by upstanding, public-spirited people, we should think again.
Until we do, we shall continue to have the politicians we deserve.

[zotz]

Colin Powell, of course, refused to run for the presidency, and it's thought that concern for his family was one of the reasons. This in some ways was a great shame, because four years later he accepted a job offer from Bush, and he's the best Bush's cabinet can boast. An example of a fairly trustworthy politician, as far as I can tell.

[bootpunk.livejournal.com]

Errr, is this the real zotz? I can think of many, many politicos and other public people who are whiter than white, clean as a wistle, etc but who have viewpoints that I detest. Powell may be a fine man, and indeed he is a much needed voice of moderation within Bush's circle, but his politics aren't exactly OK. He's a long way to the right of Blair, for example. Even Blair himself is *reasonably* trustworthy, compared to what went before.

[zotz]

They don't have to be immaculate. Very few people are (apart from Dennis Skinner, of course). Powell's a long way from a kneejerk reactionary, though - he's centrist enough that when there was talk of the presidency, it was predicted that his candidacy would split the Republican party because the religious right just absolutely would not wear it - due to his position on things like abortion rights. Admittedly I'd not be likely to vote for him even if I were USAnian, but compared to the rest of the cabinet I feel very well disposed towards him.

The point about Blair, of course, is definitely true and not stated often enough, disappointed though I am with him in various ways.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Or, he might be so untrustworthy that you haven't noticed what he's doing, because he's twisted all the means by which you would know whether he's being trustworthy or not as well.
Just a thought.
Is it obvious that i've been reading a lot of Robert Rankin recently? ~embarrassed~

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

Also, the US delegation has torpedoed another initiative to get cheap drugs to developing nations.

And will no doubt spend the next several years wondering innocently why so many developing nations hate them and blow up their national monuments.

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

*Smiles lopsidedly* -- deftly said. And horribly true.

the Red Cross

[inulro.livejournal.com]

At first News 24 did the headline of the Red Cross banning Christmas and the "political correctness gone mad" aspect. Later on there was a fuller story. They were not banning festive decorations altogether - they made the staff of one shop get rid of their HUGE HONKING BABY JESUS NATIVITY SCENE IN THE WINDOW. They still had tinsel and santa on display. (Yeah, I know, Santa is encouraging greed and consumerism, etc).

And the Red Cross are quite right in saying that in order for them to carry out their work effectively, they need to be seen as non-partisan. In that respect they *are* different to the other shops on the high street.

Re: the Red Cross

[zotz]

That's actually quite reasonable. I preferred the madder version of the story. Oh well.
And yes, they do need to be seen differently. But there's no joy in trying to persuade the more parochial of the wisdom of this.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Plus you can do as much drinking as you like when you don't have a liver.