Verbal Diarleah (The Diary of Leah)

Just saw this. Think it’s quite cool; thought I’d share it. Noah’s Ark re-built.

So, Tim and I were supposed to go along with our good friends Dave and Mendy to see the filming of The IT Crowd at Pinewood Studios in between Uxbridge and Slough in Buckinghamshire. It’s outside London by quite a bit. We had our tickets, which were free, and were excited to see the show. It’s one of Tim’s favourites. Well, much to our chagrin we were unaware that the email stated that entry was subject to capacity. The email was three bloody pages long! We couldn’t be bothered to read it all for goodness sake. Needless to say we were not let in. In point of fact, we were directly behind the last four in the queue to be let in: Sod’s/Murphy’s Law I suppose. We’d driven all that way and Mendy and Dave had rushed to make a train to meet us there and paid for a taxi from the station.

Thankfully, all was not lost. We agreed to go find a pub and have some food and/or drinks. We found a nice one and plopped ourselves down. The discussion turned to what this blog should be called. Dave threw out some excellent ideas; he is a writer after all. LODblog and blogovan are just a couple I can remember. Then Mendy came out with ‘Verbal DiarLeah.’ This was immediately met with laughs and my remark that I’d like to avoid anything to do with feces. At this point Mendy shouted, much louder than I’m sure she intended to, that ‘Feces sells!’ I simply laid my head down, laughing hysterically, while Mendy turned bright red as we all pointed out that she had shouted that quite loudly in the middle of a rather quiet country pub. It definitely made the evening and gave me some great fodder for the blog in question.

So I now put it to you, the ‘masses’ that read this blog. Verbal DiarLeah anyone? We all agreed it was a great play on words. What better way to describe a blog than verbal diarrhea and combine it with the diary of Leah. And of course, as most of you who know me well will probably agree, I have been known to suffer with verbal diarrhea on occasion. Feel free to give me your ideas on this rather inventive, if slightly odd, pending name.

It was a good night overall, despite the tragic and disparaging start. An evening in Buckinghamshire with good friends is always far better than watching EastEnders (I’m not ashamed) and other mindless telly on a Friday night.

Could Bush look any more stupid than in this video? So embarrassing.

A small victory for the Iraq war opposition today. The US House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill setting out a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. With an original firm deadline of August 2008 for pulling the troops out, the House instead accepted Senate language of setting a ‘goal’ of getting troops out no later than March 2008. It will go to the Senate this morning. 

President Bush has, of course, threatened to veto it. Congress can overrule him if it comes back and passes with two-thirds of the vote. Apparently the margin of victory in the House was short of the two-thirds needed to override Bush, which means, more than likely, it will fail at Bush’s veto. I think it is an important symbolic move though. It shows President Bush that we no longer want our troops in harm’s way in a war that, arguably, should not have been started in the first place. I’m proud of our Representatives in Washington for standing up to the Bush administration and telling them that they won’t accept his open-ended war any longer. 

White House spokeswoman Dana Petrino said, “Tonight, the House of Representatives voted for failure in Iraq, and the president will veto its bill.� I see this as more of the ‘strong’ language we’ve come to know and love from the Bush administration. It makes things simpler. The House wants failure in Iraq; they want our troops to fail, therefore, this bill is un-American. This is utterly ridiculous. If anything, the House wants our troops to succeed but, unfortunately, it appears we are well past the point of being able to do so. Withdrawing is really the only option at the moment. As last week’s horrendous massacre proves, I don’t think the ‘job’ will ever be done and we could be there for the next century trying to finish it.

I have not read an op-ed piece in the Guardian more insightful, informed or thought-provoking than this one. Naomi Wolf is an American writer and in this article argues that Bush is taking American down the road towards fascism like that of Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet. It is quite lengthy but well worth the read for anyone interested. I have, however, summarised the main points below for those with less time on their hands.

Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy: The enemy in this case is terrorism but it is deemed to be on a world-wide scale. The civil liberties we often give up during times of war or crisis eventually return but because this is an open-ended war, we don’t know if this will ever occur. The language we use to convey the terrorist threat is different to other countries such as Spain. The grandiose language used by the US, however, persuades citizens to give up these liberties without possibly fighting for them to return.

Create a gulag: Guantanamo, obviously, fits this bill but also the many secret CIA prisons throughout the world. At first we see the prisoners as criminals and feel safer but soon enough clergy, journalists and activists start to fill the cells. These jails also tend to become more secretive the longer they continue.

Develop a thug caste: Post 9/11 and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts have been given to mercenaries for security work that belongs with the military. In Iraq, some of these operatives are known to have fired on civilians and tortured prisoners. At home, hundreds of private security guards roamed New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Some of these were reported to have fired on unarmed civilians.

Set up an internal surveillance system: Secret police are well-documented in Mussolini’s Italy, Nazi Germany and in communist China. We all remember the wire-tapping scandal of the past few years.

Harass citizens’ groups: There have been many documented reports of federal agents infiltrating otherwise peaceful activist groups. They’ve even redefined animal rights protests as ‘terrorism.’ The definition expands to include everyone that is in the dissenting ‘minority.’

Engage in arbitrary detention and release: The black-list of passengers not allowed to board a plane in America is nothing more than more harassment of otherwise peaceful people. Liberal Senator Edward Kennedy was once on this list as was a Venezuelan official after Chavez made disparaging remarks about Bush.

Target key individuals: With the present Alberto Gonzales scandal and the firing of eight US attorneys for not falling in line with the Republican Party, we see Bush’s intimidation of civil servants. Academics too have been targeted by state universities threatening termination or punishment for criticizing the administration.

Control the press: Arrests of journalists are at an all-time high says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Even bloggers such as myself aren’t free from attack. The main example is the Joseph C Wilson affair and the outing of his CIA wife Valerie Plame as punishment. Furthermore, in Iraq journalists not embedded with a unit have been seized and stuck in prisons, fired upon, threatened to be fired upon and even killed (ITN’s Terry Lloyd).

Dissent equals treason: When the wire-tapping story ran in the New York Times, Bush labeled it disgraceful and Republicans in Congress wanted the editor charged with treason for leaking classified documents. Even normal citizens aren’t safe. Any one of us can be labeled an ‘enemy combatant’ and shipped off to some secret prison thanks to the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Suspend the rule of law: The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president the ability to send Michigan’s militia to any state over the objections of the state’s governor or citizens if he declares a national emergency (which he also has increased power to do). The founders were afraid of this exact thing (I.E. the Quartering Act): being unable to prevent or protest against soldiers bullying citizens.

She sums up by saying that even with a President H. Clinton or a President Giuliani we might not be safe. Any executive will be tempted to enforce his/her will on the people rather than go through arduous task of proper democratic negotiation. She wants all citizens to fight against this semi-tyranny and demand these civil liberties be restored. She ends with an excellent quote from James Madison which says “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands … is the definition of tyranny.â€?

I doubt it’s just me but I really think Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is severely unhinged. It’s coming to the point that I do not seriously fear Iran or anything they may or may not be doing; I have to laugh at them. Take this interesting bit for an example.

Speaking in an interview with the state TV channel of Spain, the president said “Certain bullying powers led by the US are seeking to trample upon the rights of other nations, including that of Iranians, by using international bodies as instruments.” “The problem of the present world is that some people think they are above law and do not want to recognize legitimate rights of other nations,” said the president.

Doesn’t that go both ways though? Hasn’t he made comments about Israel being wiped off the map? Isn’t this slightly hypocritical? I really think he and dear old ‘King George’ would get along a lot more than they think. Both are quite stubborn, steamrolling over anyone or anything that would get in their way and prevent them from doing what they want. Both represent nations that have lost faith and do not wholly support them. I think, really, they ought to get together for a good ol’ barbecue down on rancho del Crawford. They might clear a few things up or, if nothing else, swap a few good ‘look at me and what I can do’ stories.

More strange tales abound though. Try this one for size: Iran is now offering to publish the stories of the 15 UK navy and marine officers they took hostage! For those unaware, the Ministry of Defence initially gave the sailors permission to sell their stories to the media but then hastily withdrew it after strong criticism. Now Iran is offering to publish them as long as the British government allows it.

We will “provide them with photos as well as cassette tapes and video cassettes on their cheerful life during their time in Iran,” said Javanfekr, the top media advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Cheerful?! Seriously?! This country seriously makes me laugh. I mean, it’s easy to laugh at bumbling Bushy and his amazing oratory prowess but this guy, Ahmadinejad, and his whole government are quite a strange incarnation indeed.

Ok, I know I’m 26 years old but I cannot get enough of the CBBC (Children’s BBC) show Shaun the Sheep!! It is too cute for words. It’s done by the same guys who do Wallace & Gromit. You’ve got the ornery Shaun, the fat Shirley, the wily sheep dog Bitzer, the clueless Farmer, the following Flock and the Naughty Pigs. They’ve just shown an episode on BBC1 and there’s another on the CBBC channel at 6.00 that I will be watching.

There really is no better place to discuss current affairs than in a British pub, especially sitting outside in the garden on a warm spring evening drinking copious amounts of cider. I did just such a thing Thursday night with a few of my work colleagues. The topic of the Virginia Tech shootings came up and, of course, the issue of guns and America. Now, I’ve only ever fired two guns in my life: a BB gun and a pistol fired at a campfire in the middle of nowhere. So, yeah, I don’t have a lot of experience with them, but I’m quite proud of that. The longer I live away from America the more I do start to look at things from an outside perspective. The American obsession with guns scares the living daylights out of your average British person. I try my best to explain it away but it is often quite difficult especially since I’ve really started to agree with them. What is the deal? I don’t have an answer; I don’t think anyone really does. Michael Moore certainly came close in Bowling for Columbine but I don’t think even he scratched the surface.

I regularly spend time in the pub with work colleagues so feel free to stay tuned for more ‘discussions in the pub.’

So, I thought for my first proper post, I’d discuss a couple of books I’m ‘reading.’ I say ‘reading’ because I’ve started all of them because they seem so interesting but, probably because they’re non-fiction, I just can’t seem to continue any of them! I sit on a train for around forty minutes a day and yet the only thing I can be bothered to read is the free Metro newspaper with all of its quasi-news. In chronological order, they’re

• The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future
• Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms Around the World
• Amo, Amas, Amat… and All That: How to Become a Latin Lover
• America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism
• Kosovo: War and Revenge

I’m making the most headway through the Latin one. It’s still a bit dry and not quite the brush-up on the two years of Latin I took in university I’d hoped for but if you want to know a little bit about it or Roman culture, give it a go.

It’s hard doing non-fiction but one of these days I’ll complete them all!

Hello and welcome! After viewing blogs from two of my friends (thanks Dave and Meghan) I’ve decided to enter the blogosphere! Big thanks to my wonderful and oh-so-technologically-advanced husband, Tim, for helping me to get things started. I’m hoping this blog will allow friends from Arkansas to keep up with my life here in London as well as give me a way of expressing myself on issues of interest. There’s not much to see or read at the moment but watch this space and check back often to see how things are going here in the Big Smoke.