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Spam salad with ginger
My hotmail inbox is full of herbal viagra offers and worse. If it weren't for the fact that a few of my friends are too stupid to work out how to change my email address in their address books, I'd have long abadoned the account to the deletory caprice of Bill Gates. But the profile of the spam my gmail acount suffers from comprises phishing attempts referencing banks I have no account with and jpeg images of information about some random shares - altogether classier I think. The subject lines of the latter have become a source of amusement and joy in my days. Here are some recent examples:
- glacial transitory
- necessarily aloha
- spectacularly in-laws
And my recent apposite favourite:
- referee earache
Referee Earache (officialis auralitis) is a complaint arising from too much time around DIVING Latino players... I am still wrestling with a desire to cause the death of Cristiano Ronaldo, and generally disliking people whose name ends with 'o'. Had I been there when Rooney was sent off, I might've caused some Referee Earache myself. While waiting for the penalties, my friends and I fantasised about Ronaldo dying as a result of a too-enthusiastic dive, and then perhaps the rest of his team slipping on the blood and becoming too injured to score their penalties... however that did not happen. Zidane's headbutt tonight may have been disgraceful etcetera ad nauseam, but at least it wasn't sneaky!
Anyway, to return to the spam. I always know it's spam because they never capitalise, and most of my friends have learned this basic thing by now.
In addition
I hate the new 20six...
Cameroncologist
So Cameron is now proposing we all 'hug a hoodie'. I was impressed that he had addressed the 'Centre for Social Justice', until I saw that it was founded by Ian Duncan-Smith (he was the one who came right after Hague, and was also small and bald). So should I, as a bona-fide lefty, be worried or pleased that this Thatcher-loving Eton-boy is making progressive sounding statements all over the shop? Well yes, and, as always, no. It's a game of two halves, and a story with two sides...
So it could be that Cameron's stuff garners support for the Tories in the liberal 18-35 masses, while Labour hemorrhage support in their traditional bases. They are losing liberally minded armchair lefties to the Lib Dems, and the marginalised poor are running to Respect and the BNP. I don't know if Labour will actually lose people to the Tories, but as Cameron erodes at the distinctiveness of their social justice agenda, they may find they lose voters to the Lib Dems, who in turn lose voters back to the Tories, whose supporters are rallying behind the first credible leader they've had since Maggot. There's a real chance that Labour will lose the next election. This would be a sad thing on many counts - as there's a hell of a lot of great stuf they've begun to do that might not be continued. But on the other hand (dare I speak this heresy) why the hell should Blair tell us we have to have Brown? And what if losing an election is the only way to tell New Labour that Guantanamo, that Trident, that most of what John Reid says is wrong?
The other side of the story is that Cameron's witterings are proof positive of Labour's success. Just as Maggot can be said to have forced Gordon Brown's 'fiscal prudence', it is undeniable that social justice, the environment, and community cohesion now have to form part of every politician's rhetoric, on both sides of the house. This is a Government who have dismantled civl liberties, but who have also aggressively fought poverty on the home front and abroad. This is the Government of a reportedly predatory Prescott, but also of unprecedented levels of female representation in the Commons. So again, if we have to put up with a term of the Tories, well maybe it won't be so bad. We can use the four years to hone the Labour Party. We can oust what Blairism has become, but consolidate the policies that were so progressive, back in the day when things could only get better.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
People are very complicated and unpredictable and sometimes neither you, nor they, know what's best for them. I"M REALLY ANGRY! Oh well, there is iced tea, and there are housemates and houseguests and we are listening to nice music...
Justice
So the Natwest 3 are in the sky, on their way to Texas, having been extradited. All sorts of human rightsy people have been opposing the extradition, but somehow I'm finding it hard to care. It might be that old chip on my shoulder. These are very rich white men. If we somehow tallied up the oppression and injustice in the world, I'd be surprised if any more than 0.00001% of the oppression and injustice in the past 200 years has been visited upon rich white men. These are individuals though, not merely representations of a demographic, and so I guess I have to care. Or something... too tired to be articulate/intelligible
Let's also remember that they're not just poor ransdoms being flown to a prison in an evil country, but rather they are, admittedly not convicted yet, but accused of serious fraud. Given the way that usually a single mum shoplifting is treated worse than a corporate fraudster, again, finding it hard to care. They won't exactly be languishing a cell either, as bail is almost certain, and they each made over a million (allegedly). So maybe we should all save our human rights indignation for Guantanamo et al...
More extraditory musings
This from the Guardian website on the extradition treaty with the US:
"The government is sending Baroness Scotland, the Home Office Minister in the House of Lords, to Washington to deliver the message that Senate ratification of the treaty is now essential."
Do they not have email in Downing Street?
Swoon...
It's far too hot to be writing big scary documents...
I need to nip home and get a tax letter but it's just too hot!
I need to get up and get a drink of water, but it's just too hot.
Hot, hot, hot, and getting hotter tomorrow. If we lived in Siesta-land I wouldn't be complaining!