Dynargh dhe'n Blogofrob

Tuesday 18th March 2003

God, I'm so tired today. I wish I had more stamina - more to the point, I wish I didn't enjoy and need sleep so much. Imagine how much more we could get done if we didn't need so much sleep. I could read every thing I intended to read, manage to listen to the whole of albums without dropping off before the end. I could educate myself - manage to read a whole newspaper before it becomes out of date, see more people, get my washing done, watch films, go out. Things that I want to do outside work, but can't because there's no time.

And last night I went out - St Patrick's Day, so there was the usual crowd of imbecilic twats, wearing stupid hats, which said 'Guinness' on them, but may as well have said 'Braindead Fool advertising for free', pretending to be Irish, when they've never been within spitting distance of a box of lucky charms. Guinness were also giving out free drum like things, which, when the pseudo-pigskin had been removed could be 'comically' put on the head, reminiscent someone said, of a beret. The Irish don't wear berets, someone else said, they wear balaclavas. But I love the Guinness, and it is a good excuse to drink lots of it, so out I went, wondering what exactly it is that is celebrated on St Patricks Day. It was a good evening, overshadowed only by the spectre of work and a 7:30 alarm. At one point Tom tragically miscalculated the three pint put down and a wave of lager flew across the table into my hair. But my fears of being followed home by a swarm of wasps weren't realised, thank Christ. Anyway, it turned out that the only place we could find that had a late licence and was free to get into on Paddy's day was a mostly empty mexican bar, peopled ,I imagine, with London students and called 'Down Mexico Way' or something like that. It was alright, and I wanted to stay, but at 1 o'clock I knew I'd have to get to sleep, simply to survive the next day. Stamina, it'd be great, being able to be awake for ages and not need to sleep. But I'm lazy and love my bed. I need it at night and I don't want to leave it in the morning, and I want it now. Simple pleasures.

2 - posted at 14:42:53
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Monday 17th March 2003

Oh hello.

Right, the war, let's go. I think the term 'pre-emptive war' is fundamentally flawed as is the concept. However I would argue that certain 'anti-war' protestors are running the risk of completely devaluing any coherant and intellectual argument against war. Blindly attaching themselves to a morally easy cause is what the 'paedophile' protestors did in Portmouth and all they did was publically expose themselves as unthinking cretinous scum, who would happily lynch a doctor purely because she worked with children. Not enough people are thinking when they rant and rage against Bush and Blair - not enough people are even considering the questions posed by, for example, David Aaronovitch in this article (let alone attempting to answer them). I am not of the pro-war faction, I wanted somebody to find some way of averting it and working out the many legitimate issues that the UN has regarding Iraq (and, by the way, countless other countries - including America and Israel) I just, and forgive me for putting my viewpoint inelegantly, fucking wish that the level of debate in issues of huge importance such as this wasn't so fucking vapid and black and white. Come on, it doesn't take much to appreciate the complexity of the situation, we all know how terrible it must be for citizens of Iraq to live under sanctions AND Saddam's Hussein's regime. There are many tolerant and intelligent people who will automatically think, when someone unthinkingly says, 'Course, its all about oil', 'Why is it all about oil, what's the whole story?', rather than simply, 'yeah, of course it is'.

But in general, that's not the case - I watch people on television and they appear to be almost idolising Saddam Hussein. It's not right, it doesn't work and it doesn't help the anti-war cause. Billy Bragg standing up at the march and saying what's sad about the march was that it was 'natural labour supporters marching against a labour government'. No it wasn't, Bullshit - he was just simplifying the issue to fit his own mind set.

There will be a war, and I won't support the principle of the thing. But I will support some intellectual balance to the inevitable on-going debate.
And now its here - perhaps we should just live with it. Get it done, move on, rebuild. Blame the French. And then bomb North Korea. Then we'd really be in the shit.

1 - posted at 18:16:36
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