The evening at Derek and Betty's was enjoyable even though everyone banged-on a bit about holidays and cruises. Maybe we suffered through not drinking alcohol and the fact that in the near future we have only planned our Llandudno trip.But don't let me knock it because the food was gorgeous and it is nice to be among friends who really do not want us to move house. We saw the new year in and then walked the 30 yards home, made a pot of tea and then bed.
As I hope Picture 1 shows, it was a wild and stormy night and I practised my low-light photography - through the bedroom window I hasten to say. Y slept well but I didn't. It must have been too much excitement.
Picture 2. I don't know how I managed to miss this great Matt cartoon over Xmas but I did. Fortunately Brian e-mailed it to me and I decided to use it even though it is a few days old.
On a much darker note, Riverbend posted her blog on 31st December please click and she is well worth reading about Saddam's actual execution. She actually called it a 'lynching' and I can't fault her. Her coverage of what was and what wasn't said is of course most valuable in view of her laguage skills. And what CNN and BBC seem to have omitted.To use a cliché (and why not?) - more power to her elbow. Blogs like her's are very important. Mine is just a light daily journal of no real significance but 'Baghdad Burning' is an important 21st century document and requires great courage. It is rewarding for me, and Madeline, that 'radiogandy' had the humble pleasure of mentioning it and 'posting' a link.
Re the blog comments about children and TV - David is right to point out that his 8yrs and 6yrs children are nowhere near being TV addicts and don't have bedroon TVs. And they happily do loads and loads of constructive, creative things. But Jill and Bungus are probably quite correct with regard to many households where it is an easy way to occupy the little blighters.
Mansfield National Trust tomorrow evening. The subject of the lecture is Nottingham Castle so we are looking forward.
p.s. The Telegraph has been satisfactorily restrained in its 'execution' coverage. No grisly pictures, front page or elsewhere. Even in The Daily Mail, Max Hastings (who I always consider still to be a Telegraph person) says "far from being the dignified conduct of justice, this sordid display of mob vengeance..........." Ho Hum as Ray would say.
......Not to worry. The sun will shine and Spring will come.
2 comments:
Thanks for the link to Riverbend's latest update to he blog. She must be about the only person who tells it as it is! Yes Bungus, there is a difference between war and genocide according to the dictionary, but either way many innocent people end up dead.
Nobody will ever convince me that Dubya and his coven didn't have prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. What a wonderful excuse to invade Afghanistan and establish an oil pipeline! (A bit like Maggie and the Falklands, but much worse, she knew some weeks before it happened of course). When that didn't work out as planned, what next? Obviously accuse Iraq of complicity with Al Qaeda (absolute rubbish of course), demonise Saddam Hussein and invade Iraq for their oil!
After the initial "shock and awe" attack of an illegal war, many Iraqis are dead, but that doesn't matter does it? The American terrorists are on their way to get the oil to sustain their self-indulgent lifestyle.
War on Terror, what a farce! The biggest and most dangerous terrorists on the planet are the Americans, closely followed by the Israelis, with our pathetic government tagging along because it's best and safest to be friends with the biggest bully in the playground.
Happy New year!
Madeline.
Yes, people do tend to ‘go on’ about their holidays, don’t they. And things which went wrong are frequently more memorable and even enjoyable, in hindsight, than the good bits.
Yes again, David is right in trying to protect his very young children from bad influences and I have no doubt that some children are allowed to watch too many unsuitable TV programmes.
But it is when they get older and peer pressure kicks in that the problems really start. Give way and enter a never-ending cycle of foolish spending, take up arms against and you will be faced with resentment and rebellion (and where would we be without teenage rebellion anyway?). But most parents do their best and, as has always been the case, somehow manage to survive on reasonable terms with their generally stable offspring.
Madeline, of course, is absolutely entitled to believe as many conspiracy theories as she likes and Saddam was a lovely family man (although you probably wouldn’t have wanted him as a father-law).
After a very limited reading, I accept that Riverbend publishes an important and not entirely biased blog and I agree that there are aspects of the execution which can be criticised,
I do not, however, accept that it was a lynching. For me, the use of that word (and other hyperbole) weakens the Riverband case. And who can be sure that ‘she tells it as it is’? She tells it as she sees it. I found much of the first page I read (28 Dec?) believable and convincing. But I consider the most recent page nothing much more than a hysterical rant. That is understandable, as is her rage and anguish but, for me, it weakens her argument.
I am totally opposed to capital punishment but I can see why many people, almost certainly including a majority of his own countryfolk, would consider a live Saddam to be potentially more dangerous than a dead one and he WAS tried, so far as I can see, as fairly and openly as possible, under particularly difficult circumstances. He was found guilty of mass murder, several other similar charges remaining unheard. He then bravely suffered the punishment decreed in his own country and which he had often been happy to impose himself (often, most likely, in even much more brutal fashion).
I am an infidel so, despite having been on very good terms with a number of Muslims many years ago, I cannot judge how offended they generally will be at the execution having taken place during the religious festival of Eid. But it seems that the media has not, so far, been impressed by the newsworthiness of any global mass protests.
If there is a ‘certain uncertainty’ about what I have written here, it should not be surprising. I am confused by many aspects of the Iraq situation and, it seems, rather less convinced (or more open minded) in my opinions than some other people. But having read a few of Riverbend’s early blogs I regard her as a very skilful writer with whom I can empathise on some matters but not others (eg, her almost gleeful description of the hunting knife she carries does worry me a little). But I feel desperately sorry for her and the vast majority of other people living in Iraq at the moment and since before the Iraq/Iran war.
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