verging_on_random

US alliance? With President McCain? No thanks

John McCain, the bloke who could well be the next president of the United States, is a dangerous war-loving power-crazy maniac. Here’s his latest paranoid ranting about the monster in the American closet:

McCain, who has linked his candidacy to a successful outcome in Iraq, attacked Obama’s stance on the war at a town hall meeting in Texas as he seeks to wrap up the Republican presidential nomination.

Obama said during the debate with Clinton that once he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq, if al Qaeda were to form a base there, “then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.”

“I have some news,” McCain said. “Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called Al Qaeda in Iraq. My friends, if we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base, they’d be taking a country and I’m not going to allow that to happen.”

If the Americans left Iraq al Qaeda would be ‘taking the country’? What deranged mindset inspired that piece of idiocy? The truly scary thing is the possibility that McCain actually believes this bullshit … that he’s so insulated from the real world that it no longer touches him. Even the most rudimentary knowledge of al Qaeda and the Middle East reveals that:

• al Qaeda is NOT the same as ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’ - in fact the latter is a convenient catch-all label invented by the yanks to describe just about anybody in Iraq who has resisted the occupation.
• most Iraqis hate the genuine al Qaeda, which had no presence there prior to the invasion, and are quite capable of running them out of the country without any assistance from the USA.
• al Qaeda is not, repeat not, an organisation that wants to ‘take over’ countries. It wants the infidel out of Muslim lands.
• if and when the USA pulls out of Iraq, the country will largely be dominated by Iran. Iran is no friend of al Qaeda. Nor is Turkey, which will be the most influential country in the north.

In short, McCain is talking complete crap. I can think of three possible explanations:

1. He and his advisers have the mental capacity of 10 year olds and are incapable of understanding even the most basic history, sociology, anthropology etc.
2. He and his advisers are lunatics who inhabit their own alternative world which is never going to be affected by anything that happens in RealityWorld.
3. He and his advisers are extremely dangerous people who are deliberately deceiving their fellow Americans in order to promote their own private agenda.

I don’t pretend to know for sure which one is the best explanation, just as I still can’t work out what drives the behaviour of Bush, Cheney and company. What I do know is this: if any one of those explanations is true of the man who could well be the next president, it’s a flashing neon light for Australia to distance itself from the American alliance as quickly as it can do so.

Help a school

Just a reminder that I’m soliciting contributions to help this school in the Philippines.

The school principal has decided that a covered walkway would be the most worthwhile project that’s likely to be within our budget. Areas like the one you can see in the photo are a quagmire in the wet season and a covered walkway will do wonders for the general comfort and cleanliness of staff and students. It’s also a good project because building  it will create a useful bit of work for local people.

The quote is 31,000 pesos or about $900. I’ve opened a special bank account with my own contribution of $500 and it would be great if any readers want to kick in a few bucks. It’s a St George Bank account, branch number 112-879, account number 057536543, in the name of Kenneth Alan Lovell Raxos Elementary. If you can’t transfer money online you can just send a cheque to me at PO Box 18, Pottsville, 2489.

These are some of the kids you’ll be helping:

They are good people whose main hope of a better future lies in education. If you have other ideas to help you can contact the principal, Grace Pedregosa, on ggfpedregosa@yahoo.com. The address of the school is Barangay Roxas 8, Tapaz, Capiz, Philippines.

A few people have said they’ll chip in but nobody has actually done so yet, so now’s the time! Philippines long vacation begins next month so it would be nice to have the project done by June when the kids return to school and the weather will be wetter than it is now.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to email me ken@kenalovell.com.

Why blog?

Damian, for reasons best known to himself, has tagged me to write about why I blog. Apparently I have to “list three reasons you blog and pass it on to three more bloggers”. In the spirit of compromise I’ll do the first and ignore the second, having learnt to detest these chain letter things from my ill-spent days in MySpace .

It’s hard to list three reasons why I blog because I never really sat down and thought about it very much. If I did, I’m sure the reasons would change from one week to the next. Fortunately the task mentions three reasons, not the three main reasons, so I’ll set down the first ones I think of.

1. Ego. I like to write, I think my ideas are way cleverer than most other people’s, and the way to prove it is to publish my thoughts for all the world to read. It’s an irresistible temptation, especially when I get to control who responds and to delete and/or abuse any commenters who I don’t like. Naturally I look down upon most other bloggers who blog for the same reason, because their work comes nowhere near my incredibly high standards .
2. A wish to participate in politics. Blogging offers the opportunity to have some slight influence on political decision-making; it’s the first real technological breakthrough in democratic governance since the Athenians introduced the town meeting. I believe strongly in democracy in its deepest sense of government by the people and not by some unaccountable mob of politicians who submit to the meaningless ritual of an election every few years. It’s exciting to be in the vanguard of a new social movement.
3. The creative urge. For me, writing is fun. Usually I couldn’t care less if anyone actually reads what I write … I get the same satisfaction out of writing a piece that I like whether anyone else reads it or not.

Interestingly, my urge to blog waxes and wanes. This is my third one, but the first where I’ve written under my own name and disclosed my background. I often wonder why so many people hide behind pseudonyms on blogs, either as writers or commenters; are they really so ashamed of their own opinions that they don’t want to be identified?

Anyway thanks Damian, that was possibly my most pointless post yet .

Another dream shattered

As a child of the 60s I was still clinging to a few illusions until I read this:

Neil Young Admits Music Can’t Change World

Bugger.

Cost of living

I was in the Philippines again last week and visited Subic Bay. In typical Filipino fashion, there were roadside stalls everywhere and near the coast I noticed they were selling crabs. Now the only crabs I’d eaten in PI to that stage were so small they weren’t worth the trouble but these looked the real deal so I got the driver to stop and had a look. And sure enough, they were beautiful muddies. So I bought a couple and the hotel cooked them up for us that night. Here’s mine:

It weighed 1.2 kg.  Cost? 350 pesos … $10. Aaahh the joys of developing countries.

The interesting thing was that the crabs caused quite a stir in the hotel kitchen. Fortunately the chef knew how to cook them or I would have had to put on an apron but the other staff had never seen crabs that big. Now the stalls were maybe one and a half hours’ drive from the hotel in Angeles, so if anyone is looking for a business opportunity, go to Pampanga and start a courier run from Subic to Angeles every day. I’m sure the foreigners would pay top price for them in the restaurants and hotels … oh wait, then I couldn’t get them dirt cheap at a roadside stall any more. Capitalism ruins everything