Month: May 2005

So after being unwell for a week with a veritable cornucopia of different symptoms, I went to the Doctor. He said “Well, it’s a virus of some kind. Keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll come right.”
I gave up my decade-plus streak of not going to the Doctor for this? I feel disappointed. I was hoping to get a syndrome named after me at least.
—
Saw Star Wars Episode 3 last night. In a word: unnecessary. In a few more words: [spoilers, mind] the first thing Anakin does after signing on to the bad guys is go and murder children? Wha huh?
In other words, I didn’t like it, and I didn’t like it way more than I didn’t like Eps 1 and 2 the day after I saw them. It was fanfic.
—
Doctor Who, meanwhile, continues to be wonderful.

Both sides in the war of information are always looking for the right key phrases to summarise their truths. If you’re aware of these tricks, you’ll likely notice the more clumsy examples of loaded terminology – the opening sentence I used, for example, is positively overloaded with subtextual premises.
A good soundbite is a key tool for spreading information. This is the world we live in, like it or not. So it pleased me when I stumbled across a nice one from the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray (who has of course been in the news of late for his criticisms of the UK’s relationship with the Uzbek regime) that expresses beautifully an analysis I agree with:
“Explain American policy in terms of freedom and democracy and you get a contradiction. Explain it in terms of oil and gas and it’s completely consistent.”
Add this one to your repertoire, people. For extra credit, learn all the arguments in support of it. (And for extra extra credit, learn the arguments *against* it…)
——-
I’m a complete mess at the moment. Took the day off today with an incredibly nasty headache, that now seems on the wane thankfully cross fingers touch wood. It’s been building for the last few days, and I haven’t really achieved much of anything since the weekend. Incapable of stringing creative thoughts together to write, for one thing. Dammit. I hope I’m recovered tomorrow. I better be, or there’ll be heck to pay!

Quickie because I am at work.
Alive and well and back in Blighty.
Have done important work of catching up on missed Doctor Who episodes. Note the none-too-subtle political subtext and decide that the Progressive movement isn’t a set of political values so much as a theory of power relations (Chomsky: “states are not moral agents”).
If you haven’t been receiving my emails about my travel experience, they can be found here.
Will return to regular blogging after I have finished writing this damn novel.

Here I am in Syria.
Nothing evil so far.
Hmm.