Verbal Diarleah (The Diary of Leah)

Just tell your mom that you don’t want dust mites. Awesome.

For my loyal readers who comment, you may notice a slight difference. You will now have to enter two skewed words into a box before you click submit. If you’ve ever ordered tickets from Ticketmaster you’ll recognise it. I’ve been inundated with spam this week and this is a way to stop it because a human will be able to put in these words, a computer won’t. So there ya go. The wonders (and annoyances) of modern internet life. Thanks for reading.

P.S. Speaking of reading, by commenting and entering these words into the box, you are apparently helping to digitise books.

In my MA dissertation I compared not only the theoretical reasons that the current ‘war on terror’ is similar to and possibly will be the Cold War for the 21st century but also the operational and functional similarities. One of these is the secrecy and guilt by association McCarthy-esque branding of terrorists and terrorist organisations. Someone from the Washington Post has also seen this striking similarity and the horrific impact it is having on civil liberties.

The government’s failure in the Holy Land case suggests that the administrative processes for designating groups as terrorist organizations are flawed. The president has asserted the power to designate any organization or individual he chooses, here or abroad, without formal charges, a trial or hearing of any kind; without a statement of reasons; and on the basis of secret evidence. While full-scale criminal protections are not necessary, surely groups should be afforded a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves before they are shut down.

We’ve seen this kind of regime before. In the McCarthy era, the government, working behind closed doors, created lists of “subversive organizations” and then held individuals responsible for any association with such groups, often using secret evidence to support its charges. Such actions invited abuse, harmed innocents and infringed on the very rights the government claimed to be protecting. As the Supreme Court said in a 1967 decision belatedly declaring unconstitutional the “guilt by association” tactics of the McCarthy period: “It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties — the freedom of association — which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile.” The administration seems to have forgotten that lesson; American juries, thankfully, still remember.

I noticed this headline on a Guardian comment is free post today: If our political parties did not exist, would we ever need to invent them? I thought of it first you know! Well, sort of. I didn’t quite address the same heavy topics on Poland and Italy’s recent political party additions but I did have a rather in-depth conversation with my husband in the car on the way to Cardiff back in July.

I asked him ‘if there were no political parties, do you think government as we know it would collapse?’ We then had a lively debate on how you would know who to vote for and how would you recognise what he/she stood for, etc. I can’t remember the exact conclusion we came to but I’m pretty sure we differed on whether or not parties are needed. I said no; I think he said yes.

Anyone else have an opinion? I welcome debate remember…even if you do disagree with me and are, therefore, wrong! Just kidding. Political parties are not needed for government to work. Discuss.

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this blog post today about former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Oh…my…word. He is blaming illegal immigration on abortion. Apparently because we heathen women have been able to abort babies in the last thirty years, there has been a gap created in the workforce that illegal immigrants are now having to close. As most will recognise, non sequitur is Latin. Its meaning is roughly ‘it does not follow.’ It is used in instances such as this when logic is extremely flawed.

Where, and before what constituency, could such a ridiculous assertion be taken seriously?

Well, if you guessed the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit held this weekend in Washington, you’d be correct.

Reason, it seems, is not a conservative Christian value.

Don’t get me started on the Values Voter Summit. Ok, maybe just one little thing: EVERY VOTER IS A VALUES VOTER!!!! Just because they aren’t Christian values, does not mean they are not valid values. Every person has values to which they ascribe and which direct their life choices, therefore, every voter votes according to his/her values. It is somewhat an oxymoron, people, and I know where the morons are!! Aaarrghhhhhh!!! I think it’s time for a nicotine lozenge….

A man walking around in a bear costume night-after-night alone in a Berlin museum. Give me a break. See Dom Joly of Trigger Happy TV’s response here.

Wallinger’s only piece of work here, the 2004-5 video Sleeper, is tremendous. It is also crazy: why would a grown man dress up in an unconvincing bear suit and spend night after night alone (give or take a discrete camera crew) in Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin – or anywhere else, come to that? And who is going to watch him maundering about for two-and-a-half hours?

I noticed this on Guardian online today. I find it hysterical. Cartoons of cute little bunnies killing themselves in humourous ways. Anyone looking for Christmas ideas for me, I think this book might be an option. It’s just too funny. It’s somehow cute while being slightly disturbing. That’s always a good combination.

The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas obviously needs a refresher course on noun-verb agreement with the word ‘police.’ They seem to think of it solely as a singular noun rather than both plural and singular. First I noted Police Is Looking For Suspects In Kidnapping Case, now it’s Police Investigates Infant Death. Perhaps someone should write a letter to the editor to inform him/her that in both of these instances, police is plural and, therefore, should not have singular verbs. Harumph.

You’ve got to love Fox news. They really are so ‘fair and balanced’ with comments like this

Greg Gutfeld, recording the visit to the US of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: “So the foul-smelling fruitbat Ahmadinejad spoke at that crackhouse known as Columbia University today.”

If only everyone was as tolerant and open-minded as Fox News anchors; we’d live in a better world.

One: Nanner, nanner, nanner President Bush and all the lame Congressmen and women who voted for the Patriot Act. That vile piece of legislation aimed at ‘protecting’ our country when in reality it’s only hurting our civil liberties is useless!!!! Why? Because there are no terrorists in America. The song from An American Tail springs to mind. ‘There are no cats in America.’ Supplant terrorists for cats and there ya go.

“The vast majority of cases turn out to include no link to terrorism once they go to court,” the report found. The analysis “suggests the presence of few, if any, prevalent terrorist threats currently within the U.S.”

I love it when I’m right. Well, me and a lot of commentators who are much smarter than me. Just call me Smugly von Smuggerson today.

Two: I’ve quit smoking and I’m proud of it. Yet I still think this is extremely stupid. I watched Top Gear on Sunday night and found the pipe-smoking bit hilarious. I especially liked it when Jeremy Clarkson put the pipe in his mouth backwards – while it was lit, mind – and got tobacco in his mouth. It was great. I’m close enough to my ’smoking roots’ (if you will) to still be rather adamant about smokers’ rights. It was a gag for a television show; get over it. If no one in the audience complained, where is the problem? So they flouted the smoking ban, big freaking whoop. Some people seem to have nothing better to do than complain about people smoking. Get a life.

And that’s my two cents for the day.