Nor False Because Spoken Magnificently

Moving day

2003-07-08T12:48:00.000+01:00

Nor False Because Spoken Magnificently can now be found at

http://sceefy.typepad.com

So long Blogger, thanks for all the hits...

Positively medieval

2003-07-07T20:57:00.000+01:00

Two women accused of witchcraft have been burned to death by a mob in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police officials have said.

The incident took place in Godda, a tribal-dominated region about 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of the state capital, Ranchi.

In many tribal areas of eastern and central India, the killing of women suspected of being witches is not uncommon.

Not uncommon, maybe, but still positively barbaric. You would have thought this kind of thing died out with the idea of divine right, but not everywhere, obviously. Yet another example of why education and literacy are so important for all citizens of this planet, if only because education has consistently shown itself to be the best way of promoting human rights and concern for the well-being of others. Or would that be political correctness?

Not a good move...

2003-07-06T01:45:00.000+01:00

and I doubt he'll thank me, but I'll do it anyway. My good friend Cosmo has put his profile up on Faceparty. He's single, so get him while he's hot, ladies (and gents...)

Late, tired

2003-07-05T01:59:00.000+01:00

It's late, I'm tired, and I know, I actually know that I ought to write something. I've been toying with a few ideas, playing with them in my head lately. Not so long ago I finished reading (wait for it...) the latest Harry Potter book. Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. So I think that I ought to write something here about how it isn't as bad as the literati would have you think it is, and that on its own terms it is a deeply impressive book. Secondly, I just know that I should put down my thoughts about Glastonbury 2003, before I forget all the tiny little details that made it such a wonderful experience. Shouting "Organ Scholarship" in the middle of the night to a camp-site full of people shouting "Bollocks," for example.

So I know I should be doing those things, but I just can't work up the energy to do them. They require a level of thought and concentration that Seb Cameron isn't capable of right now.

I feel drained.

It will pass, it always does, and yet... This... lack, that I seem to be going through right now (that is the only way to describe it) still makes every muscle in my body, not to mention my brain ache. Strange how a mere absence of sensation can cause so much pain.

Wrapped in plastic

2003-07-04T02:13:00.000+01:00

Okay, I know I'm about 13 years too late to jump on to this bandwagon, but for my birthday I got the DVD of the first series of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. I've only had time to watch the first few episodes (after all, life is busy as hell during the Summer hols) but let me say that it is f***ing incredible. Absolutely blew me away. You've probably already seen it, but if you haven't, go out and rent (or preferably buy) it now. I promise you won't regret it.

Not that I'd ever libel someone...

2003-07-01T21:07:00.000+01:00

... but this news is still quite comforting. Apparently us bloggers have gained protection from libel cases, which is nice.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.

I'm not sure quite what to think about this, if you read the article you'll find a pretty appalling case involving a woman being defamed after an email was posted on the net accusing her of being the granddaughter of Himmler and that the paintings she was trying to sell were stolen. Needless to say, her professional reputation was ruined:

"I know what free speech is, and I support it, but this is about invasion of privacy and my civil liberty. Every time I meet someone now, I have to say, 'Hi, I'm not Himmler's granddaughter."

However I also think that you're average blogger or mailing-list maintainer could not come close to being able to afford the legal fees, or deal with the hassle that comes from even a 'small' libel case. As long as they print a full correction, and apologise for any hurt or offense they caused, I don't see what else they can do.

But seriously, read the whole article, then try and make up your own minds.

Party Faces (oh yes, and Glastonbury)

2003-07-01T14:46:00.000+01:00

Has anyone heard of Faceparty? It's hard to describe, but it seems to be a cross between a free-for-all house party and a friendship/dating agency. It looks massively popular, so I was wondering if any of you lot had heard of it. Oh yeah, and for a laugh, I put a profile of myself up there. Go crazy.

Oh, by the way, Glastonbury was FUCKING AMAZING (yes, that's where I've been these last few days). I'm still recovering, but expect to hear a lot about it very soon.

Wellingtons

2003-06-23T13:59:00.000+01:00

I swear, you can find the strangest things in a pair of rarely-used wellington boots. Just today I found a padlock, a lamp, a poster of Donald Duck and (best of all!) an almost full bottle of rum. I'm sure there's some deeper meaning to that, but right now I'm too busy enjoying the aforementioned rum to care.

A Dark Day for the Junta

2003-06-23T10:38:00.000+01:00

Things do not seem to be improving for Bush or Blair. Today has brought us a flood of news, little of it good, about the progress of The War against Terror (TWAT) and the occupation of Iraq. First, it turns out that the American Al-Qaida operative who was 'unmasked' a few days ago, to a sizeable media fanfare, turns out to have been an FBI double-agent. Iyman Faris, who had been accused of plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, had in fact been under FBI control for months. However it took a British newspaper (the Telegraph no less) to reveal this latest deception. Presumably the 'liberal' US media did not want to spoil Bush's big day.

In other news, Bush is now trying to justify the intruiging lack of WMD in Iraq by using the excuse comedians had been using for months. He thinks they've probably been looted. Regardless of the veracity of this latest excuse, I hardly think this outcome is any better for Bush, considering that the main justification for his war was to prevent these weapons from falling into the hands of the wrong people.

Finally Reuters is reporting that for the first time since the end of the war in Afghanistan (anyone remember that?) a US base situated in the north of the country has come under attack. Afghanistan is in an incredibly troubled state, apart from the capital, which remains under the control of the legitimate government, much of the country is in anarchy, and some of it is slipping back into the control of Taliban forces. It is becoming clear that any good that came from the invasion of Afghanistan has rapidly been undone, as Washington (and the world media) turned their attention, and their cross-hairs to Iraq.

Comments!

2003-06-22T22:55:00.000+01:00

Woo, I've finally gotten round to installing comments; now you lot get to tell me how wrong I am about everything I believe in, and not just sit by your computers and fume.

I've been high

2003-06-22T22:31:00.000+01:00

Apologies to those of you who've already heard me going on about this, but the song "I've Been High" by REM (from their latest album, Reveal) is absolutely astonishing. It's a very simple song, but indescribably... uplifting, I suppose. I've been trying for days to quantify it, to find a way of describing it adequately, but I've come up short. So go listen to it for yourselves.

So I dive into a pool
So cool and deep that if I sink I sink and when I swim
I fly so high

The long and winding road...

2003-06-19T16:20:00.000+01:00

...of public examinations is coming to an end. Only two more exams and 23 hours to go. Ring on the day... (is that even something people say?)
Until then, go read this lovely article explaining why Americans don't seem to care about that curious absence of WMD in Iraq. I plan to blog about this very very soon...

2003-06-13T16:26:00.000+01:00

End in sight...

Right, the exams are almost over, only seven days and five exams to go. Which all means proper blogging can begin again soon. Woo.

2003-06-06T21:17:00.000+01:00

Exams, exams, exams...

Those of you who know me personally will be aware that I (and the rest of my fellow students) are currently going through their GCSE examination period. I don't have the energy to complain about the inherent stupidity of the whole exam system (for example its reliance on mark-schemes, the way it removes all creative thinking from its students, etc, etc) but anyway, they are the reason blogging has been rather... light lately.

Woo, at least I'm almost half-way through the exams. Just two weeks and 11 more GCSEs to go...

2003-06-02T16:19:00.000+01:00

The Ugly American

NB: This article isn't quite finished, so please email with suggestions, comments, criticisms and ideas.

The banner read, "Mission Accomplished". It flew above President Bush's head as he announced that the war in Iraq was practically over. American conservatives and that strange breed, neo-conservatives congratulated themselves, while smug editorals in American papers such as the Wall St Journal and our very own Times patted themselves on the back, saying that the millions who had opposed the war had been proven comprehensively wrong. The game was up, they said, Bush (and let's not forget Blair) had been vindicated. Of course, his approval ratings went up too. Handy, that.

However the business of war and peace is not quite as simple. For a start, the reason that Bush could not unambiguously announce victory was because the war was not quite over. Had he said it was, he would have had to obey the Geneva Convention (the same document he had made so much of when American PoWs were at risk) and release the prisoners he had confined in Guantanamo Bay. However arguably more important than that was the small matter of weapons of mass destruction, or WMD as they are now universally known. Many people who have supported this war from the beginning now claim that it would not matter if WMD were not found in Iraq, because an evil dictator who oppressed his people had been removed from power. These same people denounce the anti-war movement for being nothing more than sore losers, who are unable to deal with the reality of the situation. Gulf War II did not become another Vietnam, with soldiers becoming bogged down and conflict lasting for months. These people fail to grasp the point.

Saddam Hussein was removed from power, and can no longer oppress his people. This is unambiguously a good development, and no person in their right mind would wish that he were still in power today. However Iraq was nonetheless liberated from dictatorship into anarchy. In Baghdad large swathes of the city are without power and running water, and the hospitals and medical supplies needed to prevent a humanitarian disaster are either missing or massively underfunded. And so it remains to be seen whether the situation improves enough for the military campaign (now being touted as a 'liberation') to be called a success. This is where the issue of WMD becomes crucial.

In President Bush's State of the Union address in January this year, he declared that Iraq would not be allowed to "dominate a vital region and threaten the United States". It was continuously claimed that the regime in Iraq posed a threat to the security of the Western world, and that this threat could descend at any time. Blair was able to bring an unwilling Parliament and a country racked by doubt into conflict because of his belief that Saddam's weapons posed an imminent threat to the security of his neighbours and the world at large. His mandate for war was granted specifically because of his claim that this threat was so immediate that Hans Blix and his inspection team could not be given more time, and that military action was necessary to prevent another terrorist outrage. Two months have passed since the war ended, and yet no such weapons have been found.

As long ago as January last year, US officials (including Bush himself) were claiming that they had unambiguous proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Dick Cheney, the Vice-President of the US, said "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." Now, one war and who knows how many deaths later, these same officials are being forced to explain why these weapons have not yet been found. Lt. General James Conway went as far as to say that they had "been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there." Their attempts are nothing if not amusing, and one is reminded of the laughable answers Comical "my feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all" Ali (otherwise known as Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf) the Iraqi Information Minister gave during the war itself. How long ago that seems.

Even if WMD are eventually found, I would still find it hard to lend my support to the Bush administration, a cabal who seem craven in their pursuit of power and unchallengable hegemony. If it was about security, why was Iraq, not North Korea, or the conflict between India and Pakistan, or the Middle East Peace Process, or for that matter even Al Qaida, the focus of US foreign policy for more than a year.

If it was about liberating the oppressed, why are the 'cowardly' French leading a team of peacekeepers to help bring an end to the crisis in the Congo, where thousands have already died. Why did Bush give the President of Uzbekistan (an ally in the war against terror) £300m in aid, despite the fact that he is a man who boils opponents of his regime to death.

If the pessimists, the sceptics and the cynics are eventually proved right, and this whole sorry mess was nothing but an exercise in expanding American military might, I would ask Bush one question. Why, if you want to lead an empire, are you so utterly lacking in grandeur? Bush fiddled while Iraq's precious cultural heritage burned. In the aftermath of Gulf War II, the ministry of oil was protected by US tanks while homes, offices and even hospitals - places to heal the sick - were ransacked. No wonder Bush appears, as one US commentator put it, to be "the ugly American writ large".

I do hope that some weapons of mass destruction are found, in high enough quantities to justify this war and the deaths it caused. I do not want to have to believe the frightening thought that the most powerful man in the world was able to lie to his own nation and the world about the threat posed by a small, tin-pot country, broken by years of UN sanctions, in order to start a war. What makes it worse is that no-one seems to care.

2003-05-31T14:40:00.000+01:00

Glasto

At long last, the line-up has been announced. Read it and weep.

2003-05-30T22:27:00.000+01:00

And now for something completely different...

Something I was emailed today:

The words that I choose do not have the power to express how I feel about you, the love of my life.

The fact I now have found love has changed me, and my outlook on life, forever. All the things in life that i used to enjoy, have been replaced by you. Nothing bears meaning now apart from you, my love. Being only mortal, I give to you whatever time I have on this earth.

All I have is yours.

*Seb blushes a WHOLE lot*

2003-05-30T21:43:00.000+01:00

(Vaguely) Relevant Quote of the Day

With trouble brewing both in the UK and on the continent over the proposed EU Constitution, many opponents of the document have mentioned proudly that they resisted "invasion" from Europe twice in the last century, and would be loathe to give up their sovereignty now. They should remember the words of that great statesman, who led the repulsion of one of those invasions; Winston Churchill, who said:

"We must build a kind of United States of Europe"

For now, I leave you with that thought.

2003-05-29T19:10:00.000+01:00

Remarkable

There is no other way to describe this, a catalogue of the web of lies, deceit and falsities emanating from the Bush White House in their battle to swing public opinion behind the war in Iraq.
From "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised - G.W.Bush" to "They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer - Donald Rumsfeld".
We shall know them by their words and actions. Please, please, read the whole thing.

2003-05-29T11:45:00.000+01:00

His friends call him Serena

From PopBitch, this excerpt from an interview after the release of Fellowship of Ring:

Journalist: Don't you think Gandalf should have had
a love interest?
Ian McKellan: He does, my dear. His name
is Orlando Bloom.

Amen to that, brother.

2003-05-28T19:03:00.000+01:00

Aren't we all feeling better now?

According to a new report from Amnesty International,

The "war on terror" has made the world a more dangerous place and created divisions which make conflict more likely.

I'm not sure what to think about this, as I haven't had time to read the report myself, but some papers are merely reporting that the report says 'the "war on terror" has left people around the world feeling more scared than at any time since the end of the cold war'. There is a significant difference between the two statements, although they are in their different ways quite worrying. We don't yet know what impact the war on Iraq has had on international terror, although if the recent suicide bombings in Morocco (until recently a country famous for its fairly Western, moderate-Islamic tendancies, more on that later), Saudi Arabia and the continuing Intifada in Israel are anything to go by, we'll know soon enough. What times we live in, eh?

2003-05-25T20:00:00.000+01:00

Look what happened...

Do you remember the run-up to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan? We were told by the elected leader of the UK, and the unelected leader of the US that once the Taliban had been removed from power, they would not "leave behind" the ordinary people of Afghanistan. Now, more than a year later, a few Observer reporters visited the country to see if Messers Blair and Bush had lived up to that great promise. Look at what they found.

2003-05-22T15:27:00.000+01:00

End of an era...

Okay, so I haven't blogged much lately. My fault, I'm sorry... Anyway, I am coming out of this blogging hiatus briefly to remind you all that Aaron Sorkin has just left The West Wing, which clocks in as easily my favorite TV show of all time, ever. He's left at the end of the fourth series, after creating the series and writing every single episode for the last four years. The American Prospect has a nice article commemorating his depature, go read.

2003-04-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

Look right!

See those nice links under the big yellow blog sign? There are lovely, intelligent, interesting people behind those blogs (yes, even you, Cosmo) so go visit.

2003-04-30T06:39:00.000+01:00

Okay, it looks like my problem with links has been resolved, so expect proper posting to begin soon.

2003-04-28T18:20:00.000+01:00

I like links, I do

Testy link type thing. Please work, please work...

2003-04-28T18:12:00.000+01:00

Hectic!

Things have been very busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to post anything informative or compelling yet. Or post anything at all, actually. Whoops. Anyway if you have no idea who I am, or know who I am but want to find out about the real Seb, take a gander at this. Damn, there isn't much there either. But take a look anyway! It'll kill some time.

2003-04-27T09:28:00.000+01:00

1...2...3...

Just a test for now, lads