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Freedom
I dislike the term "civil liberties". I think it's about time we stopped saying "civil liberties" and started saying "freedom" instead. Tony Blair has attempted to define his way around "civil liberties" even calling the concept "outdated". He wouldn't find it so easy working his way around "freedom". I don't think he'd dare to call the ( Read more... ) -
Doing his job
From the BBC:
"We do not torture," Mr Bush told reporters …
The Senate has passed legislation banning torture, but the Bush administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA spy agency.
"We do not torture and therefore we're working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it more possible to do our job," Mr Bush said ( Read more... ) -
One of those days
Most of my days are pretty routine: up at 6am, study, go to school, study, come home, study, browse mindless stuff on the Internet, go to bed. That's why I don't write very much. It's all much the same: just a process of filling my brain with Japanese words and trying to get some skill in spitting them out again.
( Today was different. Very different. ) -
Chance of big earthquakes
The big dog lies on the ground, quaking and wondering: can he use the ability of his sex? The big dog sees the earth, sees the scorpion, while the rain falls on the dragon, standing on atop a cliff, her hair held in the wind by two golden hairpins. The engine spits nails from his mouth. Elbows bent, he retrieves the meat from the roaring oven ( Read more... ) -
Is that a mote in your eye, George?
George says:
And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it.
He also says:
We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives…
(Quoted from The Guardian.)
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Something has changed
Hello everyone. I've had a trickle of messages asking if I'm OK, since my last post was rather bleak, and the one before that described extreme difficulties at the Japanese school.
I don't have a lot of time at the moment, so this is just a note to say yes, I'm fine.
We passed the end of the second textbook at the school, and the third is ( Read more... ) -
Security through ignorance
The Home Office says :
In order to protect the security of the proposed Identity Cards Scheme we cannot comment on the specific steps that will be taken to protect the information of these victims on the National Identity Register.
In other words, we're not going to tell you how we'll protect you, because that's how we're going to protect ( Read more... ) -
Gambatte
In a society where endurance of suffering is a virtue, perhaps there is no reason to remove the causes of suffering, and perhaps even things will be arranged so as to unnecessarily cause suffering so that it can be virtuously endured.
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Something must change
After my short summer holiday my Japanese had improved enormously. It's taken all of two weeks for the school to reduce my capabilities back to the point where I'm as frustrated as I've ever been.
On Wednesday we had a seminar at which some folks were invited from previous years to give us advice. One of them told us that we should not do any ( Read more... )