If anyone wants to know why I take the 11th of the 11th so seriously, it's because of this statement made by Adolf Hitler in 1939 which I first came across when I was about 8 or 9 years old:

Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and ( Read more... )

Being the complete American political junkie that I am, the next 8 days will be fascinating for me in the run up to the mid-term elections. The results are, for the most part, becoming somewhat predictable. I think the Democrats will take control of the House and the Senate will split 50-50, with Cheney casting the deciding vote for the next two ( Read more... )

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Herewith some comments extracted from today's news and my thoughts thereon:

From "The Guardian":

A clear majority of voters want British troops to be pulled out of Iraq by the end of this year, regardless of the consequences for the country, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today.   In a sign that public opinion is hardening against Britain ( Read more... )

I don't know if this is, technically, the witching hour - but it's 2:08 in the morning and I'm sitting here in bed writing this.

"Why?", you ask.  Well, I was awoken about 45 minutes ago by what I thought was a gunshot and, in the ensuing minute or two after waking up when I was trying to work out whether I had heard a gunshot or a firecracker or a ( Read more... )

It's time to write more, it's time to rant more. I'm stuck in the office and I decided it's time to get back to the writing on a more regular basis, but with a fresh, clean look. It's like when they revived "Life" magazine as a weekly - it died shortly thereafter.

Stay tuned.

So CNN is reporting that the Harper Government may be starting to contemplate a withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan since public support for a Canadian presence there is falling sharply, especially in Quebec - and a withdrawal from Afghanistan is being touted as the politically expedient thing for him to do if he wants to be re-elected ( Read more... )

So, this evening marks my first piece of air travel since chaos gripped Britain's airports two weeks ago. I left the office early imagining complete Bank Holiday induced chaos at Heathrow but, amazingly enough, found myself in the lounge a mere 1 hour and 15 minutes after leaving the office (after a trip involving a taxi from the City to ( Read more... )

Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger ( Read more... )

As predicted, it was a pretty lousy weekend. I was in the office until 11 on Friday and then 1 am on Saturday/Sunday. Yesterday was spent doing all of the things around the house and today was back in the office. So much for the weekend celebrating workers - oh well, I'm a capitalist so I guess I reap what I sow ( Read more... )