Some Common Sense ?

I’m surprised so few have made similar comments… Surely we are not so intimidated that we dare not speak blunt truths to delusions of unfettered power–thereby lending them substance and a semblance of sanity? If so, we’ve only ourselves to blame. Blogging will only ever communicate the power of the voices it carries and I’d hoped that, despite the November 2 brouhaha, more would pay attention to the world about them. Ah well, on we go…

Thanks for stopping by, Mike. I’m honoured … to me you’re one of those mythic bloggers whom I read in astonishment on a regular basis.

It was funny that I felt a bit reticent to post this … given that it is clearly heresy to even suggest that OBL is not necessarily a foaming-at-the-mouth and fanged demon, rather a clear, intelligent and level-heded person with a sense of justice and a strong determination to have hiis go at his take on that justice.

For me it is clear that eventually, some day (in the no-doubt distant future, when the world is on the brink of destruction), the issues that have been brought into stark relief in the past few years will actually have to be acknowledged and addressed.

But no doubt in posting this, there’s a chance that I might expose myself to some significant danger, by not automatically assuming that every single person in North America or in the “free world” should want to slit his throat on site.

I know the feeling :).

A blog’s attraction in a wired world is partly the knowledge that you might, in many and perhaps immediately direct ways, be made to suffer consquences not commensurate with honestly stated beliefs or views. But that is the name of the game when engaging others in conversation. Blogging has raised the stakes and, simultaneously, its value.

Given his profile and statements to now, I reckon OBL’s a shrewd operator motivated by a deep-seated sense of injustice. That said, he’s a killer, as is Bush. If we dispense with the rhetoric and the dollar-and-dime demonising, it intrigues me–in a world where many countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United States, retain capital punishment and harp on their institutional moralities or religions–how we absolve some in positions of power. In a fast-globalising world, who determines the person or office to be exempted when outfits like the ICC are treated with such scorn?

Is OBL more or less guilty than others, given that his (we’re told–and he tells us) was a pre-emptive ’strike’? With international law thrown out of the window by the Bush Doctrine, where do we stand? As I see it, it’s pretty much an arbitrary free-for-all that bodes ill for all of us. I’ll go back to the ‘overstepping of the line in the sand marking the border between Kuwait and Iraq’. That’s where we all lost our heads and any recourse to law–or what passes for morality, for that matter. Bin Ladin and Bush’s office (Dubya has much else to answer for) merged right there. All that followed is noise and senseless slaughter. How we reverse our slide to a generally accepted mayhem is beyond me, but I’m determined to find an answer :).

Erm…yes, thanks for the compliment, Jon. The appreciation is mutual, I assure you. You work and pronounce in a world that fascinates me, but in which I all too often feel ill-equipped to make a significant contribution.

Thanks … again, Mike. I’m left with the ubiquitous “what you said” as a reply
yeah, it’s kinda like the wild West, in pinstripes, robes, turbans and combat gear, in a videogame-like (or World Wrestling Federation) setting.

I’m Good, you’re Evil … no I’m not, it’s you, nyah, nyah … backed up by high-tech armaments and money … pretty fuckin’ dangerous for us all … nuke-in-a-suitcase time.

Mike, heh … I don’t work much any more … at least in my old types of gigs … since I can’t seem to smile and say., sure whatever you want easily enough any more. tastes like ashes. Don’t want to feed the animals in the zoo anymore. I made less than 5 digits income in 2004, so far.

That said, I am working on a “wirearchical” (in the sense of empowering individuals in a “world of ends”) easy-to-use but comprehensive publish-to-blogs-and-anywhere else application, that (for example) makes publishing photos, along with any other content, to one’s blog an absolute, 10-second drag n’ dop snap.

You’re the kind of blogger it would really suit. Want to be a beta tester and thus get a free version forever ?

Yes. Mail me.

Depending on server requirements, I’d need to speak to my landlady. But I’d like to, very much.

And, uh, yes indeed, thank you very much :).