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Dec. 29th, 2006
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who is that's man's best friend, again?
Dec. 29th, 2006 12:03 pmCairns cat saves owners from fire
A pet cat came to the rescue when a family home in Australia caught fire - by scratching the face of its sleeping owner, officials say.
The cat's prompt actions meant the family of four escaped before the blaze took hold of the home, in Cairns, north Queensland.
from the BBC
A pet cat came to the rescue when a family home in Australia caught fire - by scratching the face of its sleeping owner, officials say.
The cat's prompt actions meant the family of four escaped before the blaze took hold of the home, in Cairns, north Queensland.
from the BBC
I have a bad feeling about this
Dec. 29th, 2006 11:07 pmSaddam Hussein is dead.
As far as I can tell, after a day of the US and Iraqis lying about who had him (OK, maybe both of us weren't lying, but we were simultaneously saying the other guys had him, so *someone* was lying), he was executed, apparently, about an hour ago.
And the largest part of my misgiving is the 'apparently' part.
I don't have any problem with him being executed. He was a vicious and brutal dictator who deserved to die. And don't give me any Gandalf BS about not killing people if you can't also bring people back to life. One could argue that having him live out his life in prison would be even worse punishment, but I'm not sure in his case it would be, and the world is well shut of an evil man.
But... is it? Who really knows? A hurried execution, hole and corner in an undisclosed location. Were there any independent witnesses? Is there really any public way to be sure he's actually dead? This smacks of the desperation and fear of a band of nervous men looking over their shoulder, not the majesty and justice of a sovereign state. This reminds me all too uncomfortably of the assassination of President Diem in 1963.
There are still trials ongoing in which Saddam was a defendant. People still have yet to testify who deserve to have been able to see him in the dock. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had both called his trial irregular and demanded an international tribunal that could not be pressured by the Iraqi government.
CNN reports that during a telephone interview with an eyewitness to the execution, people were singing and cheering and dancing around the body. This should have been done publicly, openly, with dignity--not for Saddam Hussein, but for the sake of the substance, the credibility of law and order. Not in a hidden room with people celebrating while the world saw nothing. This is justice?
This is bad, and it will get worse. All kinds of outlandish claims are going to be made now. That Saddam Hussein was not killed; that a double was executed, that no execution took place at all; that the whole thing was faked. Such claims would surely have been made in any case (there are still people who think the Apollo Moon landings took place on a soundstage in California), but this has done everything it could to confirm them and nothing to discredit them.
And in the meantime, there will be more violence, as Shi'a who take this as the final evidence of their supremacy begin evening more old scores, and Sunni who see it as evidence that they are truly without hope begin thinking "Well, let's take some of them with us."
Yes, this may have been a good thing, but it was done in a very bad, bad way. I fear that we will be very sorry for having allowed this to happen in this manner and at this time.
As far as I can tell, after a day of the US and Iraqis lying about who had him (OK, maybe both of us weren't lying, but we were simultaneously saying the other guys had him, so *someone* was lying), he was executed, apparently, about an hour ago.
And the largest part of my misgiving is the 'apparently' part.
I don't have any problem with him being executed. He was a vicious and brutal dictator who deserved to die. And don't give me any Gandalf BS about not killing people if you can't also bring people back to life. One could argue that having him live out his life in prison would be even worse punishment, but I'm not sure in his case it would be, and the world is well shut of an evil man.
But... is it? Who really knows? A hurried execution, hole and corner in an undisclosed location. Were there any independent witnesses? Is there really any public way to be sure he's actually dead? This smacks of the desperation and fear of a band of nervous men looking over their shoulder, not the majesty and justice of a sovereign state. This reminds me all too uncomfortably of the assassination of President Diem in 1963.
There are still trials ongoing in which Saddam was a defendant. People still have yet to testify who deserve to have been able to see him in the dock. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had both called his trial irregular and demanded an international tribunal that could not be pressured by the Iraqi government.
CNN reports that during a telephone interview with an eyewitness to the execution, people were singing and cheering and dancing around the body. This should have been done publicly, openly, with dignity--not for Saddam Hussein, but for the sake of the substance, the credibility of law and order. Not in a hidden room with people celebrating while the world saw nothing. This is justice?
This is bad, and it will get worse. All kinds of outlandish claims are going to be made now. That Saddam Hussein was not killed; that a double was executed, that no execution took place at all; that the whole thing was faked. Such claims would surely have been made in any case (there are still people who think the Apollo Moon landings took place on a soundstage in California), but this has done everything it could to confirm them and nothing to discredit them.
And in the meantime, there will be more violence, as Shi'a who take this as the final evidence of their supremacy begin evening more old scores, and Sunni who see it as evidence that they are truly without hope begin thinking "Well, let's take some of them with us."
Yes, this may have been a good thing, but it was done in a very bad, bad way. I fear that we will be very sorry for having allowed this to happen in this manner and at this time.
OK, so a lot of the things that these guys do look fun. I have no interest in off-road ATVing or driving, but some of the water-based activities are cool. But one thing just took me completely aback.
Sphereing? How weird is that? Who came up with that idea? I have no idea whether it would be really, really cool, or really, really alarming!
Sphereing? How weird is that? Who came up with that idea? I have no idea whether it would be really, really cool, or really, really alarming!
