Unintelligent Design

More than twenty people have been arrested in Britain in a plot to kill thousands of innocent air passengers. The British press is undoubtedly looking frantically for somebody to blame. But they won't see the most obvious one: the tax-funded BBC.

So, who's going to InFest, then?

If you haven't fled south Lebanon, it's your own fault. And it seems you can expect to be shot at on principle.

"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah" - Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon

Possibly not the best thing to say a day after bombing south Lebanon's UN peacekeepers? Or any of the other non-Hezbollah types there...

We've got this really good plan, see. To catch the terrorists before they strike.

We're going to offer to sell people Kryptonite - and we're sure the terrorists will try to buy it, 'cos they know that they can do bad things with it. Kill people. Explode stuff. That sort of thing.

It'll just be a hoax, of course. A sting. As soon as they offer to buy the Kryptonite, we'll arrest them. Charge them with conspiracy to obtain dangerous substances for terrorist purposes. Lock 'em away for years. No problem.

What's that? Kryptonite doesn't exist you say? Who cares. Whether or not Kryptonite does or does not exist is irrelevant - so don't get so hung up on that bit. Doesn't matter. You try to buy Kryptonite, we send you to jail for many, many years. Simple as that.

That sounds more than a little bit stupid, doesn't it? But the UK police just tried to convict people for buying another (allegedly) fictional substance, red mercury. Strangely, it didn't work. Not just because the stuff doesn't exist, but still...

Oh, and the prosecution lawyer 'admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury' and did indeed say "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant", as well as warning the jury not to get "hung up" on this fact...

Now, I know many people reading this already have well-established views on the Middle East situation. And I know that there's a wide range of opinions out there. So I'm not going to try to revisit the rights and wrongs of the whole mess. However, having said that...

I can't help feeling that Olmert's been suckered. He's at the head of a new government and he had to show he was tough on security. Hezbollah seem to have known that, too.

Soldiers are kidnapped, Israel retaliates. Which means striking at Lebanon, as Hezbollah's mostly based there.

We're now up to 12 Israeli dead and up to 200 Lebanese dead, according to the BBC. Still no sign of the captured soldiers. Which means that Olmert's written himself into a corner - now that he's committed so much force and things have escalated, he can't just stop without a good reason (such as recovering those two hostages, which doesn't seem likely to happen soon...).

It's worth noting that Hezbollah has now proved that it can easily hit Haifa with rockets. Which seems to have been a shock to Israel. They've obviously had the capability to do this for a while - they just chose not to, until now.

And every bomb that falls on Lebanon seems to push the Lebanese public - Christian and Muslim - further away from any sympathy with Israel's position. Even the elements that previously condemned Hezbollah now seem frustrated and furious...

Hezbollah have obviously been planning elements of this for a while. They arranged a suitable provocation - and I suspect Israel reacted more-or-less as expected. Despite the military imbalance, that doesn't put Israel in the best position, does it?

Started well. Could have been better, could have been worse - it looked like one scene was cut and I've got some quibbles with the finish (and a couple of the RTD touches)...

...but definitely could have been worse

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The storm's here.

About time, too.

USA - Guantanamo tribunals declared 'illegal' by the Supreme Court

UK - Anti-terror control orders "the antithesis of liberty", quashed by High Court

I happen to believe that both of these decisions are a Good Thing. I'm not saying that these people are innocent and should be released - but they deserve a trial, just like everyone else.

Indefinite detention without trial - without a chance to challenge the evidence against you - should not be an option. Partly because it's an abuse of human rights. Partly because it's been tried before and just doesn't seem to work.

Interesting to see that the two judgements were within a day of each other, btw...

...but what a shambolic game that was. Some good football in there, but the number of cards... and the referee...

Lots of bad feeling on both sides, but one image picked up by the ITV coverage that seems to sum it up:

Gio Van Bronckhorst (Holland), who'd been sent off and was sitting next to Deco (Portugal) - who'd also been sent off. Both of them play for Barcelona and while their national teams were bickering, they seemed to be in total agreement about something, presumably exchanging rants about the ref...