So I was dreaming last night, weird dreams as usual. I'm at the dentist (haven't been in about a month) and he's telling me he's got to do some serious work or something... and he gives me a small white pill which looks like it's been soaked in alchohol or ethanol or something. And I take it, before he starts prodding me with needles. And I get really fuzzy headed all of a sudden, like this is some SERIOUS drug. And he's saying like "Count backwards with me..." "Walk through it with me" etc... and I'm trying to do that, but it's really fuzzy and then the needles start. And it's always a strange sensation when your mouth is being poked and prodded a lot, but in this case, I woke up at that point.
So for a few minutes, I'm lying there in the sack, tongue lolling out of my beer-dry mouth, and I'm thinking WOW those drugs are good.

But it's been a few hours now, so either I'm having the flashback trip of a lifetime, or 'twas all just a dream.

So I get up anyway, and as always, hit the .net and see what's the what with today. One of the first things that greets me is Holz's welcome.

It made me feel like John Negroponte on his first day as UN Ambassador. Big welcome, but careful you don't bring the whole system crashing down.

However, like Mr. Negroponte, I shall ignore all sage advice. And if anything untoward should happen, like say, World War 3, rest assured I'll blame it on the French.

ASSHOLE OF THE DAY AWARD
Well, the running was tight, this week. Between Michael "No-Nose" Jackson, that monochromatic abuser of youth, and various political figures at home and abroad, but let's face it, there can only be one winner....

The nominations are :
1) Michael Jackson (for his convincing portrayal of an alien)
2) Michael Martin (Speaker for the House of Parliament) a late entry, but well deserved for kicking out the longest serving MP (Tam Dalyell) who foolishly tried to raise some questions about Tony Blair deceiving Parliament and the entire UK, as well as the United Nations, in a determined effort to start a war.
3) NASA Management (various) for snidely attempting to find ANY other reason (meteorites, aliens, Iraq etc...) for why the shuttle blew up, which doesn't leave the blame square with them and their el-cheapo mission productions.
4) George W. Bush, and Tony Blair (joint nomination) for their standing alone together last night, against the world wide drive for peace.

Drum roll please...
And the winner is George W. Bush and Tony Blair!

Congratulations George and Tony. I'm sure your families are very proud.

Yes, they win today's prestigious award for their staunch refusal to consider a peace plan put forward by France and Germany and backed by Russia and China.

The plan involves a huge step-up in weapons inspections - backed by United Nations troops with French and US air patrols. It would essentially involve a UN takeover of Iraq on a temporary basis, with UN troops guaranteeing the inspectors could go anywhere, drill anywhere, etc... but this way no bombs would be dropped, no innocents would be killed, and no reparations would be necessary. So the US wouldn't have to seize control of the oil fields to help pay for "rebuilding" etc...

When Mr Bush found out that this peace plan would NOT involve the US gaining control of the oil he went a little ga-ga and even warned the very existence of the UN was at risk.
He said: "The United Nations gets to decide shortly whether or not it is going to be relevant in terms of keeping the peace, whether or not its words mean anything."

At present there are just over 100 inspectors in Iraq. The plan is to triple that total and fly thousands of UN troops into Iraq to support them.
French Mirage 4 military jets would be brought in to over-fly sensitive areas. Iraq has also recently permitted the flyovers of American U2 reconnaissance aircraft.

And for those who think inspectors are a crock, just remember that the first Gulf War elimated just 11% of Iraq's weapons. The inspectors, over the following years, eliminated over 80%.



posted by Manchild at 1:17 PM