SONGS in my head today: Hand in my pocket , the screamfest von Alanis Morissette

SAINT OF THE DAY St. Theophilus the Lawyer. Martyred 300 AD. Who is only the second lawyer-saint I know of.

EXAMS As far as Heidegger went, I felt a little like Pataki did during his exams in Under the Frog.

LINE OF THE DAY
The famous deconstruction of Star Wars scene from Clerks [Kevin Smith, 1994]
...
RANDALL:
There was something else going on in Jedi, I never noticed it till today. They built another Death Star, right?
DANTE: Yeah...
RANDALL:
The first was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.
DANTE:
Luke blew it up, give credit where credit's due.
RANDALL:
But the second one was still being built when they blew it up.
DANTE:
Compliments of Lando Calrissian.
RANDALL:
Something just never sat with me that second time around. I could never put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right.
DANTE:
And you figured it out.
RANDALL:
The first Death Star was manned by the Imperial Army. The only people on board were stormtroopers, dignitaries...Imperials.
DANTE:
Basically.
RANDALL:
So when they blew it up, no problem. Evil's punished.
DANTE:
And the second time around?
RANDALL:
The second one wasn't even done being built yet, it was still under construction.
DANTE:
Yeah, so?
RANDALL:
A construction job of that magnitude would require a hell of a lot more manpower than the Imperial Army had to offer, I'll bet they brought in independent contractors on that thing--plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers...
DANTE:
Not just Imperials, is that what you're getting at?
RANDALL:
In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. You think a stormtrooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know how to do is killing and white uniforms.
DANTE:
Alright so they bring in independent contractors. Why are you so upset at its destruction?
RANDALL:
All those independent contractors brought in to do the job are killed - casualties of a war they had nothing to do with.(notices DANTE's confusion) Alright, look. You're a roofer. Some juicy government contract comes your way. You've got a wife and kids, the two-story in suburbia. This is a government contract which means all sorts of benefits. Along come these left-wing militants who blast everything within a three mile radius with their lasers. You didn't ask for that; you had no personal politics, you were just trying to scrape out a living...
(The BLUE-COLLAR MAN joins them)

XAVIER RYNNE I must be the last person in the the world to find out who he is (was?)

THE BIBLE likes neo-liberalism??!!.."Ni undu o mundu uria wina indo, niwe ukaheo, na akiriririo: no uria utari na indo, niagatunywo una kiria arinakio.
Matt 13:12"

The HUTTON REPORT
1. Lord Hutton, given the narrow terms of reference he had to work with, has done a reasonable job of collecting and making sense of the relevant evidence.
2. The BBC publicly made a claim that it could not show to be true, and which it knew at the time it could not show to be true. It needed to be, and has been, held accountable for this error.
3. There is not a fourth arm of government called the media.
4. Those who opposed the Iraq war [as I did] have got to actually make the argument that the war was illegal and morally unjustifiable in public. The Judiciary is simply not going to find post-facto that the war was unjustified...
5. As soon as I'm coherent on all this, I'll update, but I thought it vital to put my preliminary impressions up.

DISGUSTING is not too strong a word. HA! Koigi was stood up. Nation link tomorrow when it will be permanent.

APOLOGIES I caught the flu after a particularly debauched night out last saturday. Which is why I haven't posted all week, dear reader. I'm only now regaining my will to live.

RACCOMMANDAZIONI
The Leiter Reports here ,
The Campaign for Universal Inheritance here,
& Roger's Profanisaurus [now with added vulgarity!!] here.