Here we are again
We have been talking about returning to blogging, if only because it is a way in which we can keep a record of our own activities and next year we hope to be setting off in March for a two month trip to South America. The central focus will be a month in Buenos Aires-our city fix for next year-but we also intend to visit Patagonia (the Chilean version), Chile, including Santiago and the Atacama desert, Peru (Machu Pichu, of course), Bolivia, and whilst we are in Argentina, part of Uruguay and Brazil-although the people who run the Argentinian cafe at the top of our road tell us that there is nothing to see in either country and we are better off sticking to Argentina. We have more or less booked most of it and now we start the pleasurable process of pre-holiday reading......
Meanwhile we wait to see what happens in North America on November 4th. We read a very interesting piece in El Pais this morning by Timothy Garton Ash (translated from the English I imagine so it is probably in the Guardian) about Obama mostly and the elections in general. He begins by referring to something that has been on our mind recently. According to TGA the American Press are silent on the horrible possibility of an Obama assassination, but almost every conversation he has, gets round to the topic. It is this possibility, he says, which makes the stirring up of smears (Obama is a terrorist, a foreigner, anti-American etc) by the McCain-Palin campaign (especially Palin) so reprehensible. However, on a more positive note, he goes on to say that he admires Obama enormously and feels he is growing into the job of President. It may well be true and I hope so. I still regret that Hillary didn't make it and still agree with David Aaronovitch what mysogyny is more insidious than racism, but the world could do with something that feels good right now.
One of the scandals of the week (is there ever anything else in the news?) is that various UK police forces have messed up/falsified (it doesn't seem clear how deliberate/stupid this was) violent crime figures. This has given parts of the left an opportunity to have a go at the very notion that "statistics" might help us understand the world and call for a return to trusting the gut instinct of "ordinary working class folk" (whoever they might be). Said parts of the left conveninetly forgot that the same gut instinct is for hanging, flogging and castrating-probably all at the same time. I hate the anti-intellectualism that passes for political thought in Britain.
Meanwhile we wait to see what happens in North America on November 4th. We read a very interesting piece in El Pais this morning by Timothy Garton Ash (translated from the English I imagine so it is probably in the Guardian) about Obama mostly and the elections in general. He begins by referring to something that has been on our mind recently. According to TGA the American Press are silent on the horrible possibility of an Obama assassination, but almost every conversation he has, gets round to the topic. It is this possibility, he says, which makes the stirring up of smears (Obama is a terrorist, a foreigner, anti-American etc) by the McCain-Palin campaign (especially Palin) so reprehensible. However, on a more positive note, he goes on to say that he admires Obama enormously and feels he is growing into the job of President. It may well be true and I hope so. I still regret that Hillary didn't make it and still agree with David Aaronovitch what mysogyny is more insidious than racism, but the world could do with something that feels good right now.
One of the scandals of the week (is there ever anything else in the news?) is that various UK police forces have messed up/falsified (it doesn't seem clear how deliberate/stupid this was) violent crime figures. This has given parts of the left an opportunity to have a go at the very notion that "statistics" might help us understand the world and call for a return to trusting the gut instinct of "ordinary working class folk" (whoever they might be). Said parts of the left conveninetly forgot that the same gut instinct is for hanging, flogging and castrating-probably all at the same time. I hate the anti-intellectualism that passes for political thought in Britain.
posted by Team Tierney | 4:29 PM
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