Saturday, 10 January, 2004Breaking newsOne of my Nordic readers gave me a heads-up regarding reports that Danish and Icelandic EOD personnel had recovered a batch of mortar shells near Basra, which appear to contain mustard gas. By now, the BBC has picked up the story (though at time of writing, CNN has not). It's hardly earth-shaking—we're talking 36 120mm mortar shells which appear to have been buried ten or more years ago—but we can expect a quick moving of the goalposts by the "there aren't any WMDs in Iraq" crowd if this report pans out. Update: not mustard gas after all. posted 1221 Z-8 [link] Friday, 9 January, 2004The Grey (alien) and the Blue (whale)A few days ago, my attention was directed to last year's Caltech Michelin Lecture, held by Michael Crichton and titled "Aliens Cause Global Warming," which someone over on 3WA described as "a great read" (I must admit my gut response was "well, I suppose Crichton had to produce something worth reading sooner or later."). It is a thought-provoking read, and I suggest you read it before continuing. posted 0428 Z-8 [more..] Wednesday, 7 January, 2004Is there something in the water at the Pentagon?Admittedly, I'm a little bit late with this, but had I mentioned before that in my not so humble opinion, Richard Perle is a fucking moron? Evidently I hadn't. So I'll say it now: Richard Perle is a fucking moron. I would have been happy to base that opinion on everything I read about him before this week, but a Grauniad article I came across recently—"War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal," 20-Nov-2003—serves to confirm my earlier held suspicions. posted 0243 Z-8 [more..] Tuesday, 6 January, 2004Sod nukes; old-fashioned high explosive kills tooOkay, here's something I really need to get off my chest, and I want all you readers—especially those of you with your own blogs—to remember this. There's this meme going around that the US is reluctant to initiate military action against the DPRK because the DPRK supposedly already has a nuke or two. Forget that, it's irrelevant to the equation. What is relevant is the fact that roughly half of North Korea's artillery is within range of, and aimed at, Seoul (and has been for some time now). It doesn't matter whether or not North Korea has a nuke when they can dust half of Seoul with conventional weapons at a few minutes' notice. posted 2343 Z-8 [link] Left-wing, right-wing and the Spanish civil war Via normblog I came across a new blog, The Lion and the Unicorn, titled after a book by George Orwell. Norm addresses the first post written by its author, Daniel LNU*, which is titled "Iraq... still," in which Daniel remarks on the preponderance of left-wing bloggers who supported the invasion of Iraq, and their continued fixation regarding the subject. posted 2003 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 5 January, 2004Whitewash roundupIt's a new year, which means that lord only knows how many media outlets will refer to stuff that happened as recently as last week as having taken place "last year." Much of the time, I find this practice incomprehensible. I mean, it's technically correct, obviously, but it strikes me as being unnecessarily vague to use a larger measurement when a smaller one will do. If it's the first of the month, and I'm recounting something that happened to me the previous day, it does not require more effort to say "yesterday" instead of "last month," while the information as to when this event took place is significantly more accurate. One of the many significant events of last posted 0025 Z-8 [more..] Sunday, 4 January, 2004Boots on the keyboardHappy New Year, everyone, and may I express my appreciation for those of you who have continued to check back here regularly while this blog remained dormant (you know who you are). So what caused my absence? A combination of factors, really, the most prominent of which was what I shall call "Baghdad burnout." I just got to a point that I felt anything I could write about Iraq, I had written at least three times already, because the problem with the "discussion" surrounding Iraq is that there isn't any. Ditto with various other issues I've addressed in this blog over the part year. At a certain point you just get tired of hearing "Where is the green parrot?" over and over. Perhaps "green parrot fatigue" might be a better term for the condition. Be that as it may, I should warn you that I'm still recuperating and may suffer an occasional relapse. Aside from "Baghdad burnout," I've been busy with various things, such as learning to drive (an essential skill in the western United States) and making my American stage début. Both projects have met with success, I'm happy to say, not least due to the support of my beloved spouse Carolyn. She's also the one urging me to start blogging again, which I hope my loyal readers will appreciate. So, without further ado, No Cameras launches into 2004. posted 1708 Z-8 [link] |
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