Apologies to folks that were expecting some new images on the site this week; the screen on my laptop has died, which means I can only use it at work where there is an external monitor to connect it to 🙁
Normal service will be resumed in a few weeks, when my shiny new Vaio GRX-650 laptop arrives…
Here is my joke of the week, courtesy of Ms. Claire Sussums (thanks Claire!):
Three Texas surgeons were arguing as to which had the greatest skill.
The first began: “Three years ago, I re-attached seven fingers on a pianist. He went on to give a recital for the Queen of England.”.
The second replied: “That’s nothing. I attended to a man in a car accident. All his arms and legs were severed from his body. Two years after I reattached them, he won three gold medals for field events in the Olympics.”.
The third said: “A few years back, I attended to a cowboy. He was high on cocaine and alcohol when he rode his horse head-on into a Santa Fe freight train traveling at 100 miles per hour. All I had to work with was the horse’s ass and a ten gallon hat. A couple of years ago, he became President of the United States.”
For an entirely more serious (and MUCH less amusing) analysis of the current global crisis, read the excellent article by Nation contributor Jonathan Schell, The Case Against War.
Today I went to the anti-war rally in New York City with two friends, Angus & CK. We couldn’t get anywhere near the epicentre of the rally (1st Avenue north of 49th Street); the whole east side of New York was effectively shut down by a huge, diverse and peaceful crowd of peace protestors who braved bitterly cold conditions to make themselves heard (today’s highest temp in NYC was -5°C, or 22°F).
We got as close as 53rd St and 3rd Avenue, which was supposed to be an access route, but the police aggressively threw up a barricade right in front of us, supposedly because of some disturbance involving mounted police at 53rd St & 2nd Ave.
It was clear that the police massively underestimated the turnout; CNN’s website is currently estimating about 200,000 people attended, but it seemed like MUCH more to me — the police were totally overwhelmed, and responded by trampling through the crowds with riot police on horses (something I haven’t seen since the Poll Tax riots of 1989 in London).
Ignore the scaremongering U.S. media — opposition within the United States itself to the U.S.-led war on Iraq is huge. Today was a good day.
P.S. Message to Tony Blair: I am disgusted by you.