Too much

I have learned a lesson.

When things get too much for you and you find yourself despairing, make a list of all the problems, things that you need to do, things that you need to resolve and things that are worrying you. It will make for tough reading. Try to tackle just one of the things on the list - the easiest, or the least worrying is fine. Then in the coming days and weeks, refer back to the list to see if you still feel the same; and cross off the things that are no longer problems. Of course, you can add new things too.

Now here's the lesson: the end point is not to cross everything off the paper. The end point is getting to the point that you don't care what's on the paper any more.

:-)

Well well well

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

That is all.

Pesky evidence

From the Beeb as the High Court informs the government that locking people up with no evidence and no conviction is a tad problematic:

'Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said the government would try to overturn the ruling in the Court of Appeal.
"We do really seriously feel that the interest of public safety far outweighs the rights of particular individuals who are incredibly dangerous but there's not that evidential base there."'

Hmm. Let's try:

'Tony McNulty is a baby-raping murderer but there's not that evidential base there.'

Okay, I think I get it. Lock 'im up!

Bush is quite smart

I don't very much like George W Bush, the eleventy-twelfth President of the Untied States; but I'm beginning to think he's got a pretty good political brain. He is a liar, but he offsets it by being demonstrably gullible, and the net effect is that he is a "man of the people" whom the people allow to mislead them. He holds unpleasant, fundamentalist views, but he expresses them calmly while making sure there are other voices more frightening than his, and thereby places himself in a mock centre-ground. He lacks natural oratory skills, but has successfully painted that as a virtue rather than a failing, thereby rendering the erudition of his opposition a failing rather than a virtue. He also understands that however intellectually unpalatable the policy - pre-emptive war, torture, occupation, detention without trial - there is a limit to the newsworthiness of opposition to it: the longer you carry on regardless, the less concern anyone will have for what you're doing.

His policies are repugnant and the actions of his administration reprehensible. But he ain't stupid.