So, this North Korea nuclear test, eh? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about the situation (particularly because unlike most people, in a year's time I may well be within a 500 mile radius of a crazy Communist country with nuclear bombs).And... I was totally against the Iraq war. Even back in 2003 it was patently obvious that Saddam had no WMDs and zero intention of getting his arse kicked by NATO on purpose, and yet in we went and cocked it up for no reason. And yet I am very worried about North Korea, because the government is crazy. Absolutely insane, with no intention of "fitting in" with the modern world, a totally fascist state that is 50 years behind everyone else, who have no qualms with taking on the entire world in a fight. That's scary.

And so now if they do have a nuclear bomb (this test was quite possibly a dud, but it's a bad sign nonetheless) they can now launch it at Japan, or even the western US, or sell it to the highest bidder. Either way it's basically 9/11 multiplied by 20.

So... pacifist as I am, I'd feel a lot safer if we invaded North Korea first. It's not like we wouldn't win, and the chances of a Iraq-style quagmire are low. I think a short conventional war is much, much more preferable to risking nuclear exchange.

Or maybe I am forgetting that there are real people living in North Korea, who don't want a war and don't want the rest of the world to interfere.

Anyway, here's a very interesting report on a trip by an American to North Korea from 1stopKorea.com.

In other, less apocalyptic news, I am ready to join the hospital as a hard-workin', tireless Volunteer. Cool. I'm hoping they can transfer me to Thursdays, perhaps, because then I can go from school to hospital to Japanese lessons in one smooth motion. Gosh. It's funny, I do absolutely 0 extra-curricular activities all my life and then three come along at once.

**sigh**

I am so pissed off at Israel right now.

Some Israeli government minister said if London was bombed, you'd expect the government to respond. Yes, yes I would. But I would not expect the British Army to invade Leeds. Note that London was indeed bombed, and we resisted the urge to invade our neighbouring countries and kill lots of people.

Argh.

Party at Scott's! Ate: too many Pringles, burgers, sausages, but eh. Drank: one glass of white wine with lemonade, lots of Dr Pepper. It was the usual, it rained a lot, we put on intentionally crap music, then put Morrissey/The Smiths on later in the evening, hoho. Danced, sang with my homeboys. Shaun flirted, incessently. Went home 'bout 11:30ish cus there wasn't enough room in Scott's house to sleep all of us but I didn't mind. So all in all: woo!

So I learnt today that, bizarrely, and worryingly, that five- and six-year olds are responsible for more racist behaviour than any other age group in Norfolk schools. And it's like: whoa. What's the reason for this strange state of affairs? A particularly racist generation? Are they simply using the words without knowing what they mean and not intending to be racist? Or more worryingly, are they just too young to know that racism isn't acceptable and they manage to hide their prejudices as they grow up?

Recently I have been playing:
Oblivion: Phwoarr. Phhhwwoarr. Riding through a dark cold forest in the rain, passing by an Oblivion gate (which turns the sky an eerie deep red), then coming across a river with the rain causing endless ripples across the water surface, crossing with the water up to my neck and almost tasting it...
F.E.A.R.: Or rather, trying to get F.E.A.R. to work because the stupid thing refuses to acknowledge that I actually do legally own the game and the disc is in the drive. If I had actually pirated it I could probably get a crack for it in a minute, but I refuse to have to pirate something I own. Anyway, I think I've got it to work now.
Star Wars: Empire At War: I'm stuck on the penultimate Empire mission, which recreates the start of Star Wars (you have to capture Princess Leia's ship with an Imperial Star Destroyer). It's awesome cus the game doesn't let you build the Imperial Star Destroyer until right at the end. So most of the game you're using Acclamator and Victory-class Star Destroyers, which are powerful and massive compared to the puny Rebel ships, and you think "So what's so special about the Imperial-class?" Then you build it. And you first use it in a battle... and the thing is bloody enormous, dwarfing the previously massive Victory-class ones. I can't wait until the expansion pack if it includes the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer. That thing will pwn. Oh, I'm in Star Wars nerd heaven.

Also: I have learnt to play Radiohead's Street Spirit effortlessly on guitar. I am both dismayed and pleased.

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes

:D Underground Ernie! A new TV series on CBeebies which is like Thomas the Tank Engine... except it's on the Underground! Awesome. The next station is My Next LJ Entry. This train terminates here.

So I hear right-wing British historian David Irving has been imprisoned in Austria for three years for Holocaust denial. Now, of course, I can't see how any rational person can claim that the Holocaust didn't happen, and if I met Mr Irving I would possibly punch him in the face. But being jailed for having an opinion, my friend, just isn't on. Not only for basic reasons like censorship is wrong and everyone's entitled to an opinion and because I'm a pinko leftie liberal who believes in free speech (to an extent), but because if you censor people you just add fuel to their fire. Like I hate the way the BNP is always sidelined and censored and ignored, because it just lets them say "Look, the government tried to stop us! They don't believe in democracy!" when really the government should give them the same oppotunities as any other party, so that we can take a look at their policies (e.g. reintroducing National Service and putting an SA80 assault rifle in every home - no, seriously. Imagine Chav Britain given an array of fully automatic weapons.) and say "Yeah, like, I'm not interested."

But that's just me.

Watching about that Hemel Hampsted explosion thingy on the 24-hour news channels is interesting. Not because the news itself is interesting (I don't think anyone cares much but the media who are experiencing a slow news day) but because different stations have different viewpoints. The BBC and Sky are all "Well, the smoke is drifting slightly east, and I'm standing in a field, Trevor, and I can see the cloud. Now there's going to be a press conference in ten minutes with the Police for some reason, and I'm just hearing that that press conference is now in nine minutes..." and Chinese government-run propaganda station CCTV-9 is showing some lavish opera and ignoring 20 dead villagers, but American propaganda station Fox News is the most interesting. Apparantely us Brits, who are still "jittery with fears of terrorism" woke up this morning "in a state of shock" fearing the worst about this explosion. Actually, until they mentioned it, I hadn't thought about it being terrorism at all. Apparantely signs show that it "probably isn't a terrorist act", so that's ok.

...whoa, I'm becoming one of those bona-fide annoying Bloggers.

Gosh, t'ain't it refreshing to not have a bald person as leader of the Conservatives? Yeah, Quentin Letts, I agree. He just looks cool, dontcha know?

...yes I know it's not about looks. But... it does count. Like I always say the most unrealistic part (well aside from the Twin Towers and the whole Manhattan becoming a prison and all that) of Escape From New York is the President of the US: he's a fat, ugly, sweaty, bald guy. A guy like that would never get elected.

Anyway, uh, maybe having a coherent opposition will spur everyone else into action? Gordon Brown still is The Man, though.

Oh yes, I'm very angry about this Al Jazeera bombing memo:

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

for several reasons:

a) I only found out about it two days ago, several days after the news appeared (stupid useless media)
b) it is, of course, fucking stupid (and brings into question the fact that al Jazeera's offices in Baghdad and Kabul were both "accidentally" bombed by the US)
c) and finally, and worst of all, the fucking Government have decided that it's in everybody's best interests if we remove freedom of speech for a while and ban people from publishing the memo.
oh, and finally finally, d) the fact that no one seems to care.

So, like Boris Johnson and Ian Hislop and hundreds of others, apparantely:

;_;



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