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Nothing but gloom and doom in the news today. Even the weather is miserable. Had the grand moonshine picnic packed and everything. Looked like a beautiful sunny day. Slowly however, the rain clouds came in and just as I was on the way to my favorite moonwatching spot, it started to rain. Decided that there was no point in going to wait up on the hill for the full moon only to have it hidden behind clouds so I may as well get on the broomstick and make my way to the Min of Fin computer labs to catch up with events in Cyberia.
Apart from the sad story of the Swedish politician (Astrid Lind is her name.. I think) who died after being stabbed by some guttersnipe who got away, there was the inevitable resurrection of 11 September 2001. While the families and friends of those who died or were injured have to live with the consequences every day...Iz finds it extremely irritating how King George is milking those horrific events for justification for his own obsession with the death penalty and the so called war on terror. Never mind innocence or guilt, lets just kill some bastard. Izzie does remember as if it was yesterday, the events of two years ago, but also remembers the events of six months ago where people were dropping bombs onto buildings with very little risk to their own lives at all and the victims were not even mentioned let alone named. Ooops sorry forgot to say 'alleged' victims. I wonder who will be remembering them on 22 March 2004?
And now Osama bin Laden has come out of the woodwork to gloat about his awful acts of televised mass murder while innocent Iraqis were punished for his crime (and guilty Saudi Arabians were expediently ignored) and King George expresses bewilderment at the fact the Iraqis don't like their country being occupied.
I do not personally know anyone affected by the attacks on 11 September 2001, but have been acquainted with several people whose relatives were victims of another mass murder also on Tuesday September 11. That was 30 years ago. But we do not call the events that took place in the Santiago Football Stadium in 1973 an act of terrorism because by definition it is impossible for US Citizens or those trained or backed by the US govt to be war criminals or terrorists until they no longer obey their master's voice. When that happens they are tossed off the payroll and suddenly become Public Enemy No 1.
Life would be so much easier if I did not have such a resistance to memory charms. Then Izzie too could unquestioningly believe the latest policies from the Ministry of Truth.
Then of course there was all those bombs and attacks in Israel. The policy of bombing the hell out of neighbours and families of suicide bombers to deter them or maybe just as plain revenge seems to be having the opposite effect of gaining recruits instead. It just seems to be one neverending spiral of violence where each side wants to see itself as the victim but conveniently forget the atrocities their own side commits. There are too many Goliaths out there who seem to sincerely believe that they are Davids and then seem utterly bewildered to discover that not everyone shares this viewpoint.
One of the women who was in the Cafe Hillel and survived only because she was sitting at the back had also been in the vicinity of the two towers two years ago in New York. She will probably have nightmares for the rest of her life.
It is so true that when elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.
Apart from the sad story of the Swedish politician (Astrid Lind is her name.. I think) who died after being stabbed by some guttersnipe who got away, there was the inevitable resurrection of 11 September 2001. While the families and friends of those who died or were injured have to live with the consequences every day...Iz finds it extremely irritating how King George is milking those horrific events for justification for his own obsession with the death penalty and the so called war on terror. Never mind innocence or guilt, lets just kill some bastard. Izzie does remember as if it was yesterday, the events of two years ago, but also remembers the events of six months ago where people were dropping bombs onto buildings with very little risk to their own lives at all and the victims were not even mentioned let alone named. Ooops sorry forgot to say 'alleged' victims. I wonder who will be remembering them on 22 March 2004?
And now Osama bin Laden has come out of the woodwork to gloat about his awful acts of televised mass murder while innocent Iraqis were punished for his crime (and guilty Saudi Arabians were expediently ignored) and King George expresses bewilderment at the fact the Iraqis don't like their country being occupied.
I do not personally know anyone affected by the attacks on 11 September 2001, but have been acquainted with several people whose relatives were victims of another mass murder also on Tuesday September 11. That was 30 years ago. But we do not call the events that took place in the Santiago Football Stadium in 1973 an act of terrorism because by definition it is impossible for US Citizens or those trained or backed by the US govt to be war criminals or terrorists until they no longer obey their master's voice. When that happens they are tossed off the payroll and suddenly become Public Enemy No 1.
Life would be so much easier if I did not have such a resistance to memory charms. Then Izzie too could unquestioningly believe the latest policies from the Ministry of Truth.
Then of course there was all those bombs and attacks in Israel. The policy of bombing the hell out of neighbours and families of suicide bombers to deter them or maybe just as plain revenge seems to be having the opposite effect of gaining recruits instead. It just seems to be one neverending spiral of violence where each side wants to see itself as the victim but conveniently forget the atrocities their own side commits. There are too many Goliaths out there who seem to sincerely believe that they are Davids and then seem utterly bewildered to discover that not everyone shares this viewpoint.
One of the women who was in the Cafe Hillel and survived only because she was sitting at the back had also been in the vicinity of the two towers two years ago in New York. She will probably have nightmares for the rest of her life.
It is so true that when elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.
