How bad do you have to be...

...for George W to consider sanctions?

On a less flippant note this story is both uplifting and depressing at the same time. I'm no respector of religious belief and the fact that it's monks demonstrating doesn't add an extra poigancy for me beyond the fact I assume they are quite pointedly non violent. How can people live with themselves working for security forces crack down on a non violent protest?

Do the people in these forces believe they are protecting a decent state from internal dissidents? Surely to fuck not. I don't know these peoples lives in any detail but I can barely comphrehend how people can join any military.

I've read many times about things like he following,

• The use of child soldiers and forced labour.
• Laws that criminalize peaceful expression of political dissent. At the end of 2006 most senior opposition figures were imprisoned or administratively detained, among more than 1,160 political prisoners held in deteriorating prison conditions.
• People are frequently arrested without warrant and held incommunicado.
• Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are common, especially during interrogation and pre-trial detention.
• Judicial proceedings against political detainees have failed to meet international standards of fairness.
• Defendants are often denied the right to legal counsel and prosecutors have relied on confessions extracted through torture.

That was lifted of Amnesty website and thats just scratching the surface. There is a section in John Pilgers book Hidden Agendas delaing with his experience in Burma which is worth reading.

It's no wonder people filter out this kind of unsavoury news, it's very easy to stick our heads in the sand.

Truly sickening...

...just got wind of this petition in an email. Sheffield Wednesday are suing there own fans!

Submission of Novel

Little bit late with this news, but I have submitted my novel to a publisher. Taking the path of least resistance I went via MacMillan New Writing, because it didn't require me writing an a letter and selling the idea via a synsopsis just to get a literary agent or publisher to even read it. Barring being extraordinarily lucky in about 10 to 12 weeks time I'll be doing just that if I haven't heard anything but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I have a list of literary agents and publishers to go through.

In the meantime I can move on and work on screenplay I started last year. It's all been written in a notebook until now. I've transferred what I've done so far onto the computer, I just need to get cracking now and decide where it's going to as what I've written aside I've only got a very sketchy idea of what is going to happen.

Links updated

Fixed a few broken links and added one new link, a still rather new music blog that my good friend Ewan is undertaking. Expect a review of this years Mercury nominated artists sometime in the new year.

The Noam Chomsky link should now go to his official website, The Rob Newman one should also now work again, he has a new show called History in Reverse is due to start at the end of October on BBC4. And the ethical shopping link should now work after I deleted an superfluous http:// bit I hadn't noticed was in twice.

Stunned

I spent most of last night and this morning making odd sighing noises of surprise and bewilderment at the superb result last night. It's hard to get my head round, I don't think I've ever witnessed Scotland do something as incredible as winning a meaningful qualifier against a team as good as the French in their own backyard.

To be honest we're still miles away from qualifying, but if we do keep it going and make it to the finals you have to say whiles it's been a hell of an achievement just to get there if we can get there from this group you have to believe that the team is capable of winning the whole fucking tournament. I'd caution against silly season optimisim but if and it's still a big if, if we get there I'd hope the players believe in themselves and do themselves justice. Look at what Greece managed at the last one.

I'd still happily settle for us just getting there and doing our usual out after the group stages, certainly if we get a decent WC qualifying group to look forward to after.

Racism rears it's ugly head

Although from talking to people and perusing messageboards about the only bugger who heard it was the steward who reported it. It's the second time this calender year as well we've had these sort of allegations and it's a total red neck.

The first time was a bit more clearcut, in a cup game against St. Johnstone a section in the Main stand were quite clearly heard, this section of fans were of the sort that don't wear any colours and prefer Burberry and Stone Island attire. They were so obvious and yet the stewards and police chose to do fuck all about it.

This time it's emanated from the Main stand again, although the source seems to be one of the more regular patrons. I don't know if anyone was singled out, but if the steward heard it he must have a fair idea of where it came from as it certainly wasn't from a large body of people.

We all now get tarred with the same brush whilst any muppet in a crowd of well several would be pushing it but a few thousands can make the rest look like complete fucking dicks.

On a lighter note though, I did hear what sounded like a potential racial slur last night, however it was either proof that the racist mindset truly is thick or a rather off the wall attempt at humour. A Hearts player lying prostrate and timewasting as we are chasing the game is targeted with the following abuse, "Away back to the country you came from," rather shocked look about at this seemingly racist outburst only to see that it's being aimed at Scottish internationalist Robbie Neilson. He does look a bit like Greystokes Lord of the Jungle but even so the shout seemed beyond surreal.