Missing Letter

Dan Plesch tells me that my letter from last week (below) got in to the Grauniad. I missed it! Missed the little flush of pleasure that you get to see your words in print. Never mind. These days, between pressure of time and not being able to find my glasses, I only read the headlines, which seems a waste of trees.

That letter in full:

The Editor
The Guardian

I was electrified to read that the French ground to ground nuclear weapon rejoices in the name of "Plateau d'Albion" (Letters, January 26th). Does that not roughly translate as "Flatten England"? Maybe Blair's plan to renew Trident is not as stupid as it looks.

Dr Richard Lawson

The USA electronic vote rigging scandal rumbles on...

Voting system examiners in several states have been prohibited from revealing voting system flaws to the public due to nondisclosure agreements they signed with the vendors.


Electronic voting machines that have been under suspicion ever since George W Bush’s last election victory, which had a strange discrepancy (that cannot be explained statistically) between exit polls and the final tally in some states. Black Box Voting, campaigning on this issue, has learned that vendors of the electronic voting machines have been requiring nondisclosure agreements that block release of information of critical importance to the welfare of American democracy. Secretaries of state have failed to protect their voting system examiners.

BBV have already obtained one of the Diebold nondisclosure requirements. Diebold attempts to block everything that should be revealed -- even if the contractor is served with a subpoena or court order!



Black Box Voting has requested copies of the rules, procedures, and any indemnifications, nondisclosures or administrative procedures that apply to the certification, examination and deliberation process in Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, California, and Iowa.

Jacob and the Angel

I never understood that one, before.
What made you wrestle with the angel?
What fool would try it on,
would fight a schrecklich messenger of God,
and waste a night on it?

What'd you get out of it, except a limp?
You did much better with your sheep-breed scam
the brindle swindle of your lover's dad.

But now, it all makes sense.
You saw them watching you,
those black white figures
those alien colours
masquerading as heaven sent,
but clearly not.

Not holy, not of nature, therefore Satanic,
so with the deadly logic of a Rottweiler,
you went for him,
tearing the trousers of the messenger,
scattering all his letters to the wind.

Lucky he only touched your hip.
If he had grabbed your balls
there would have been no twelve tribes,
no genealogies,
no David, Solomon, prophets,
a different history.

They'd have invented one though.

Similar.


Or worse.










(c) Richard Lawson ca. 1999

image courtesy of http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguin17.html

Alas Poor Google, with Opium

Emma Bonino writes in OpenDemocracy : " The illegal drug economy poses a serious threat to stability and democracy in Afghanistan, so it is crucial to promote a sincere and open-minded debate about it, and to consider the merit of different ideas and approaches. This debate must not exclude the possibility of licensed opium production for medical purposes, with quotas granted as in many other countries."

Amen to that. Rather than fight a "War on Drugs" it would be cheaper, simpler and more effective to simply buy up the farmers' opium crop from Afghanistan and wherever else it is grown. Buy it, use it as a feedstock for our pharmaceuticals (there is currently a medicinal heroin shortage, and it could also be used as a substrate for other medicines) and burn the rest.

The only objections I have ever had from this is the Imperfection Objection ("some of it might be leaked to the black market" . Well, well. Where do they think it is go=ing at the moment. The other was a plaintive cry that it would be an unwarranted interference in the workings of the market. Hmm.

So why not buy it? Anyone got a valid reason?

PS This is the second time I have written about this. 319 days ago I did another piece, in the same vein. Search Drugs on the Technorati box herinunder and you may see the first few lines. But when you click the link, you get a 404 Page not Found. Just like my original Zaqarwi/Zarqarwi story (try searching that too). They get a 404. I finally got through to Blogger help on that: we decided I may have altered the title line, causing the 404. I have definitely not altered the title line on the Buy it and Burn it story. Me, I think we could have another Google China Syndrome.

Alas, Poor Google! I knew him well
Or thought I did, but then his coffers swelled
With gold, and seeking more, he found that round his neck
A chain of gold had formed...