Who’d Go on Holiday to Libya?
Out of curiosity I typed Lybia holidays into Google and found that I could book one with several reputable countries.
Even without the current troubles, you wouldn’t find me going to Libya, as I don’t give dictators any money and wish them the bad luck they deserve. Also included on my list are any countries without proper democracy, those that have cruel dictators and those that still use the death penalty.
On the other hand if say the United States wanted to give me a large sum of money for something I’d created, I would go to collect it. I’m not that stupid, but they’d hear my views on the death penalty in no uncertain terms.
QVC
Is there anything more banal than this?
I’ve never actually watched it in seriously, but it was on in a pub I had a drink in one afternoon and the punters were just making fun of the channel, the presenters and the expensive tat they were selling. I should return to that pub.
But according to an article in The Times today, one in four homes have ordered something from the channel. All it proves it that there are one or probably a lot more born every minute.
But then I’m a man and I don’t understand shopping. And especially junk American television programmes and channels!
America Puts Guns Before Fighting Crime and Terrorism
The story of Steven Greenoe is a classic farce and it shows how the United States love of the gun, gets in the way of fighting crime and terrorism around the world. Afer the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, surely the country should do something to curb guns, which seem to be at the cause of much of the world’s troubles.
I recommend all United States politicians read my Abba Eban quote.
Globalisation Hits Executions in the United States
Globalisation is often blamed for many of the world’s problems, but here’s an article that says that the same process is starting to hit executions in the United States.
The news has broken today that the sole US manufacturer of a key drug used in lethal injections will cease production because authorities in Italy, where the drug was to be made, wanted a guarantee that it wouldn’t be used to put inmates to death.
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill, had decided to switch production of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental from its North Carolina plant to Liscate, outside of Milan. But the Italian Parliament wanted the company to control the product’s distribution to prevent it being used for executions. Hospira decided it couldn’t make that promise and has decided to suspend production — potentially throwing the death penalty system in the US into disarray.
But what’s missing from today’s reports is that behind the Italian Parliament’s insistence is a lay Catholic movement dedicated — among many other things – to the eradication of the death penalty around the world. The Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio had been engaged in discussions with Hospira’s Italian subsidiary, Hospira SL, which led to meetings with the Foreign Affairs minister, Franco Frattini, and the Ministry of Health. The result of those meetings was an agreement that the production of the drug in Italy would have to be for strictly therapeutic purposes. The company has long deplored its use in executions, and said it regretted the need to cease production.
Hospira’s choice to end production because it couldn’t give that guarantee was described as “highly responsible” by Sant’Egidio’s spokesman, Mario Marazziti, who said: “It highlights the point that therapeutic drugs and doctors should never be used to bring about death”.
Sidium thiopental is already in short supply after the British government last November also banned the UK manufacture of the drug following a campaign by the British NGO Reprieve. According to the Wall Street Journal’s law blog, Hospira’s decision means the death penalty system in the US “is potentially thrown into turmoil”. States can attempt to use another anaesthetic instead — Oklahoma, for example, has switched to a drug used to euthanise cats and dogs
— but it involves seeking clearance from the courts, which is likely to delay executions.
There is a lesson here about globalization. It’s not just the market that’s gone global. It’s civil society pressure, too.
I also applaud the work of the Catholic church here.
US Troops Turn to a Tricycle
The third leader of The Times today is unusual in that it tells the story of how the Pentagon has commissioned two command performances of The Great Game, by North London’s Tricycle Theatre. Here’s an extract.
The idea of staging The Tricycle Theatre’s production in Washington is so that generals, and soldiers heading to Afghanistan, might come away thinking what General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, thought after seeing the show in London; that “if I’d seen the plays before being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in 2005 it would have made me a much better commander”.
Let’s hope we see more education of those who go to war, as we always tend to forget the lessons of history. I would also hope that they also read the thoughts of Aircraftsman Shaw.
I’d love to hear Sarah Palin’s thoughts on US forces being educated by Britain’s leading political playhouse.
Engineering Pornography
I needed a 17 mm. ratchet spanner to try to fix the stairs. They may be more expensive, but they are so easy to use if you have gammy hands. Or just one good one like me!
So I bought this double-ended one made by TengTools from Franchi in the Holloway Road.
A TengTools 17/19 mm. Ratchet Spanner
It looks, feels and works so good it’s almost pornographic.
Twenty years ago, this sort of hand-tool, might well have been made in the United States, but TengTools are a Swedish company. So perhaps the United States isn’t building on its traditional strengths to get itself sorted out.
Everybody Got it Wrong
The US Government report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster would appear to lay the blame thick and evenly.
But should we really be drilling offshore, when statistics show that on-shore drilling is so much safer?
The problem is also made worse in the United States because of their misguided energy policies and absolute adoration of the car.
02030265001
I used to get about three calls a day from this number on my old landline in Suffolk. It say’s I’ve won a cruise in the Caribbean or Florida or some other place I’m not keen on visiting. As it was an American voice, I usually just cut them off, if I didn’t spot the number before I picked up the phone.
I’m transferring the Suffolk number to my London house, so that I don’t have to change how people phone me. But in the meantime, I’ve got it diverted to my mobile and you guessed it, I got one on that today, after being diverted.
What is going to be fun, is when Virgin complete the transfer of the number, will they be able to stop these nuisance calls?
By the way don’t ever do anything with this number except cut it off immediately. Remember if they do it three times it’s harrassment! It would be rather good if someone actually tried to use the Harrassment Act against these idiots. But there are much better things to do, like slag off these people down the pub to warn everybody not to fall a victim. It might get you a free drink!
One interesting result of this scam might be, that it actually puts people off taking a cruise with one of the reputable American cruise companies. I hope one of them or their trade organisation has put the Feds on the case!
American Dream
This series on BBC 2 has been fascinating.
One particular interview was with a black American fighter pilot, who after being shot down over Germany was sent to Colditz.
The Anonymous Widower 