Ganja and the Holy Land

At risk of being topical-

Jenny Tonge, quite high up in the Liberal Democrats (the British 3rd Party), talking about suicide bombers, said something along the lines of
"I think if I had to live in that situation [Palestinian refugee camps], and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself. And that is a terrible thing to say."

Now, what she's saying here is "Even civilised and humane people like you and I might be driven to extreme acts- that's how desperate the situation is". The problem is, that most people have been quoting her as saying "I've been thinking of doing a little suicide bombing myself, you know". Read about it and see if you think that's what she's saying. The case here is that the conditions breed desperation, not that terrorism is a reasonable thing. Of course, it's not really fashionable to admit blame in things like this. To point to the occupying military force (which has installed martial law, incidentally) is blatantly anti-semitic and no civilized human being would do so. Sigh.

The debate on breakfast news was blatantly comical because the 'con' side, a Labour MP and member of Friends of Israel, relied heavily on two tactics
a) Implying that Ms Tonge was condoning terrorism
b) carrying on with the same sentence when asked a question.

I don't know if anyone's seen the interview between Jeremy Paxman and the Conservative party leader. Essentially, he was directly asked the same question 14 times consecutively- after the first few times, it was just a monologue by Mr Howard, with occaisionaly Paxman saying "Did you threaten to overule him?"- Howard would pause, draw breath, and continue where he left off his last sentence.

I admit, of the Political partied in the UK, I am most sympathetic to the Liberal Democrats. By having little or no chance of offfice, they are free to ignore the unspoken covenants, special interests and Emporers' New Clothes situations that you get in government. Why, you ask, don't they have a chance of office? Simple, because they don't have a chance of office- so most people feel it would be a waste of their vote to put their cross by a Lib Dem name. Presumably, voting for someone who's policies you don't agree with is less of a waste. That's why we're more or less stuck with a choice between a political party formed when expansion of the Empire was the chief political issue of the day, or Miners Strike Left-wingers who gained public popularity by having a "More conservative than thou" match with the Conservatives.

If any Americans are visiting, I'm sure your third-party voters sympathise.

Since I'm being a political animal today, I think I'll also talk about Cannabis. For those of you who don't know, the UK will be downgrading it to Class C. Well, hurrah. Class C. Don't know what that means? Don't worry, because no-one else does except some Lawyers, magistrates, and people who regularly take cannabis. Well, one has to be informed. Actually it means there's now a cap of two years prison for possesion, which is the same as for tranquilisers or anabolic steroids. In practice, it's treated by the police in Devon (where I'm from originally, and where all my 'party' friends live) I'm told the Police regard possesion of small amounts in pretty much the same light as underage drinking of cider in fields. That's a widespread social phenomena, round our way.

It's an interesting fact that in the Netherlands, where it's partly legalised, about half as many teenagers claim to have tried it. Howewever, there has been some opposition to the move. The Conservatives say it will lead to a rise in crime (because a common activity is no longer criminal, you see), and they quote doctors who warn that...
"chronic cannabis smoking can increase the likelihood of heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema."

I feel compelled top point out that spliffs are normally made with quite a high proprtion of tobacco. Though maybe that's irrelevant to a discussion of lung cancer and so on. I have the nagging feeling that something's not quite right about the Emporers' new suit, but I'm not sure what it is.

Song in my head: "Combat Rock" by Sleater-Kinney