Hurrah! Richard 'Prince of Darkness' Perle has resigned from the Defense Policy Board. Maybe he'll be followed by Wolfowitz & Rumsfeld (I wish). I'd like Ari Fleischer to resign too cos he gets on my nerves. If I was Mr Bush that would be good enough reason to fire him.

Comedy article by the Guardian about the US military's war-games operation last year, in which the 'US side' cheated because they were rubbish. Then pretended it never happened. No surprise there.

I was, however, surprised by the US marine who, in effect, said "I don't like it here, I keep getting shot at", unknowingly reflecting Eric Idle: "I want to leave the Army. It's dangerous, they've got guns! Someone might get killed."

Today's music is Skanfrom. Again

Well, mighty Caley have seen off not-so-mighty Celtic. Again. How I laughed.

Still war, still rubbish.

As antidote to war, have been listening to lots of music: Bedhead (now The New Year), Solvent, some old Sigur Rós/Mogwai stuff, Red House Painters, more and more Aspen, Aphex Twin's 26 Mixes For Cash and so on.

Wibbot got his present today, so we'll see some 'unpatriotic behavior' soon, no doubt.

As for Ronald Dumbsfeld condemning Iraqi TV for showing film of captured US soldiers (well...at least they won't get shot by their own side now) breaking the Fourth Geneva Convention, I somehow doubt he'll be round at BBC News 24 next, condemning them for showing Iraqi prisoners of war recently. Perhaps he's too busy on a plane to Camp X-Ray to stop the cameras filming there. Oh no wait...they're unlawful combatants, I forgot. How silly of me.

Indeed, the whole thing stinks of bums.

BBC News 24's question of the day today is: An attack on Iraq appears imminent. Do you support such action?

What? An attack on Iraq? I don't believe you.

Reuters' 'prediction' seems to have come eerily true, as an RAF Tornado goes missing, presumed shot down by Americans (who else?).

Well, they abandoned precision bombing as they realised that they wouldn't get Saddam with it (no surprise there), so the carpet bombs are out and Baghdad is being flattened. Shame on you, Mr Blair. I'm fed up with this whole hypocritical bunch of arse. It's a total sham.

Meanwhile, on QVC....cake

Some interesting Boards of Canada stuff. Or not.

Wibboty is now top internet search result for search term 'wibboty'. And Random Conspiracy Generator is straight in at no. 2 on Google's list of stuff for 'random conspiracy generator'. Hm.

BLAM!

BBC website: "But we should not underestimate the risks and difficulties we may face against a regime that is an embodiment of absolute ruthlessness with utter disregard for human life."

But who said it? Tariq Aziz, Saddam, Bush, Blair, Geoff 'Drunken Dad' Hoon, Britney, or Tatu?

SPLAT!

New Scientist headline: "Iraq war begins by targeting Saddam"

Well I never.

POW!

Reuters headline: "Tornado kills at least six in Georgia"

Has the RAF been given its targets by US intelligence?

BOSH!

BOOM!

Yahoo News: "On Wednesday, before the U.S. bombing of Baghdad began, Iraq ranked five on Yahoo's index of current search terms." (it's now number one)

I wonder how many e-marketing gurus have twigged that getting bombed by idiots boosts your web traffic. At least they should suggest it to Microsoft.

WHEEEE!

BANG!

BBC News 24: "US intelligence has been monitoring the Iraqi telephone network. It's safe to say that any building with a lot of telephone activity has a lot of important people inside."

That's all the western journalists up the creek then. It was probably John Simpson's pizza order.

KER-POW!

BBC News 24 (again): "We're getting reports in that strikes on Baghdad have started again. We should be able to bring you live pictures of the...er...er..." (fumbles for word)

I think the word was 'murder'

SPLAT!

Still, it's all insignificant. The real question is: will Jacques Chirac shake hands with Tony Blair?

If I was President Chirac I wouldn't shake his hand. Unless he'd wiped the blood off, then I might think about it.

BAM!

BOOM!

Tory MP Michael Ancram: "I think we all expected a surprise attack"

CRASH!

I don't wish to bang on about the imminent results of the loss of reason by certain people in charge of national governments, but I really have to take issue with the media for its irresponsibility in propounding false information. Now I know it does this all the time, but there is a fairly large difference between influencing the public's attitude towards David Beckham and influencing the public's attitude towards the hours-away massacre of thousands of innocents. To draw the conclusion that 52% percent of the public supports Mr Blair from a poll of 1000 people is patently wrong. If, as L suggests, the British population had the brains to work this kind of thing out for itself, it might have come to an altogether different conclusion. Instead, it seems quite happy to have its opinions formed for it by The Sun and the Daily Mail, and these two wastes of rainforest are quite happy to seed their opinions among the mentally apathetic readership. It's the old story - the papers tell the people what they want to hear because they tell the people what it is they want to hear.

So, I've got it in for the government and the media. Does that make me an anarchist? I don't even like herbal tea.

Anyway, as counterpoint to impending destruction, L and I have taken up indoor gardening, which will soon develop into outdoor gardening - so I have 4 propagators on the windowsill, containing large amounts of bizarre-shaped seeds with nutso Latin names. Meanwhile L is forging ahead with Real Pots and Alan the twisted ficus has been rescued from office obscurity - he is now getting to know Eusebio, recently-repotted areca palm who used to live in the fireplace until he was mauled by Minkus and looked at shad-style by Fat Boy.

Well, it's war, and political dimwits Bush and Blair have condemned thousand of Iraqis to death, while the only person with the means to escape the whole bloody nightmare is Saddam Hussein. Get Mr Bush's latest speech here.

Don't fool yourselves, kids, it's not about regime change, oil, WMD or human rights, it's about US domination.

Let me see, who's more likely to know about Saddam's weapons - is it Dr Blix, who's been in and out of Iraqi factories for the past few months, or is it Mr Bush, who's busy kicking a football round his garden in the good ol' US of A? Answers on a postcard of Jacques Chirac.

Let me see, might Saddam perhaps want weapons in order to defend himself against no-rules Israel, World Leader in Ignoring UN Resolutions?

Let me see, average American citizen wondering 'why does the world hate us so much?', look no further than Mr Bush - now I know most of you didn't vote for him, especially residents of Florida who turned up on election day only to find that they were criminals (look out for 'Jeb Bush denies any involvement in eating all the pies') - and his 'we think you don't like us, so we're gonna bomb you' foreign policy, so you really need to do something about him. I will be doing my best not to vote for Mr Blair the next chance I get (unless I have somehow become a criminal - unlike Mr Blair whose moral validity has been guaranteed by G W Bush).

Let me see, is the US invading Iraq to disarm it? Of the weapons nobody knows if it has? How much of Iraq's arsenal was destroyed by bombing in 1991? (clue: not a lot) How much was destroyed by continuous inspection? (clue: the opposite of not a lot). So how is bombing Iraq going to disarm it?

Let me see, who will be next? Mr Bush gave us a shopping list some time ago - Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Chalvey. Perhaps it'll be recent anti-Saddam ally but 'kernel of evil' Saudi Arabia. Or will it be the American people, being spied on (by the Land of the Free), having their information censored (by the Land of the...er...Free) and then being subjected to toxic waste from World's Number One Polluter, the US Military? Oooooh this is fun, Mr Bush - can I have a go on your diplomacy dartboard?

Let me see, is diplomacy dead and a new world order is forming? Can it really be true that this war was already decided on years ago by Richard 'Prince of Darkness' Perle (don't look into his eyes!) and his jelly-eared goons on the Defense Policy Board and no amount of dithering, vetoing, House of Commons voting or actual Iraqi disarmament was going to stop it? (clue: yes).



Come on, Mr Blair, even the kids are walking out! The kids! You can't fool them with your 'going the extra mile for diplomacy'. The kids can tell, you see - they can spot liars - not even Justin 'Fry Me Some Liver' Timberlake could convince them that killing half a nation, not to mention thousands of soldiers (admittedly, getting shot at is an occupational hazard for...er...soldiers) is a good idea for world peace.


So, you can probably guess where I am in relation to the fence on this situation. People will protest to no avail, the US military will bomb its own soldiers, Saddam will get away and rent the cave next to Mr bin Laden's, Ariel Sharon will have a permanent smile, Bush will turn his attention to Saudi or Iran or Syria, Iraq will be flattened and LOTS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL DIE. I think Mr Blair must have missed the last bit.

I hope Neighbours won't be affected. I like a bit of perspective.

Blah blah blah - are we at war yet, Captain Blair?

I've spilt honey on the keyboard - it's the shocking arrogance of the Bush 'administration' (How dare the French want peace?!) wot done it. Anyway, I have done some updates, notably to the front page and some extra tunes have been added to the revamped music page. Also, there will soon be an update to the random conspiracy generator reflecting the 2-minutes-to-midnightness of the current world situation. But enough about that.

I have been listening to a lovely track by Alphawezen and I can't think what it reminds me of. Also, the wonderful new but irritatingly shrinkwrapped Cat Power album is in residence on the cd player at work. Oh...while you're here, have a look at my good friend Mr Watson's new site - he writes some good tunes, you know.

Apparently, Minkus is in charge.

We went to the seaside the other day, where we found fossils and mud. Fossils found their way (non-self-volitionally) onto the mantlepiece, and mud found its way onto my trousers, forcing me to stand about in Bere Regis petrol station forecourt in my underwear on the way home. Bare Legis, more like.

At school everything is going wrong, rats desert sinking ship, ravens leave belltower and other metaphorical organismic transitions (that said organismic, and I don't care if it's not a word).

I have also (nearly) finished Romarin website, still waiting for genuine orders. First order turned out to be spam. Sigh.

Wibbot has gone on strike pending clarification of his present.