[cfs] the disease of champions

The man in the photo is Alistair Lynch, triple premiership spearhead - hardly a hypochondriac, hardly a shrinking violet. A solid customer. And yet he has CFS [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome] which not only greatly reduced what he could do but put CFS on the table for discussion. Was there ever a syndrome so mercilessly attacked and summarily dismissed and yet it exists. He was diagnosed with it. Thousands of others have it. Just how real is it?

[hawai'i] at the end of the runway – a chasm

Planning to go to Hawai'i? A report by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., found more than half of U.S. commercial airports - including Los Angeles International, Chicago's O'Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International - have runways that lack either a 1,000-foot margin at the end of a runway as a safety zone or an "arrestor bed" to slow overrunning aircraft. Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for Hawai'i DOT, said the protections may be physically impossible to provide at some Hawai'i airports, such as Lana'i airport, where the edge of one runway is at the lip of a gulch. "There may be physical limitations for certain runways that we'll have to look at."

[sunday] light mist and quiet has descended over the land

Marvellous day outside. There’s a white, bright greyness to the sky and it merges into a misty haze through the dimly visible trees. Children are playing downstairs in their light jackets and hoods, the temperature is about … one moment … let me see … plus three and it’s quiet and still out there. It induces calm reflection, snug in our heated rooms but it’s just inviting us to go out for a long, brisk walk or a trip to the forest and shashlik.

[blogfocus] the tragedy of iraq and related issues

Photo from Iain Dale

The Iraq and other Middle-Eastern conflicts have forced western countries to consider their positions and those positions are disparate. This Blogfocus touches on some of the things bloggers have written on these themes:

# Shoddy treatment
# Under-equipped troops
# Military tactics
# The British enquiry
# The posting of evidence of WMD
# Across-the-spectrum anti-war sentiment
# The Muslim mindset
# Different takes on the issue

Iain Dale sets the tone with a timely reminder about those above us who make the decisions: Three soldiers' bodies returned home today from Iraq. There was no government minister in attendance. What an indictment of this sorry lot of charlatans that purport to govern our country.

On the other hand, as Blognor Regis brings to our attention: The Duke of Edinburgh has paid a surprise visit to Iraq to see British troops serving there. The 85-year-old flew to Basra to see soldiers from The Queen's Royal Hussars. That’s leading from the top.

Continued here ...

[nazis] lebensborn children meet

Found this quite moving: The Lebensborn "source of life" children were part of Nazi racial experiments. While millions of Jews and others deemed "undesirable" were being slaughtered, thousands of children were selected for Aryan physical qualities and given to families of Hitler's special police. Now, a meeting of 60 members of the Lebensspuren "traces of life" group, formed last year, is being held in Wernigerode, a town where the Nazis ran a Lebensborn home. It’s a struggle to imagine what it must have been like in those days in Germany.

[louise veronica ciccone] the battle for moronic supremacy

Follow her advice – tell no one.

It’s usually against my principles to write about Madonna but this one takes the biscuit: "If you haven't heard of [my book] by now, then you are either: a] living under a rock, b] living on the moon, c] away with the fairies. I am happy to clue you in to what the rest of the world already knows." Yet no matter how much sympathy she generates over the adoption saga, this passage about her own writing surely ranks among the most self-serving, self-satisfied and downright smug introductions to any book in recent memory. That’s all I wish to quote about the arcane Kabbalist who recently said she didn’t want to be a mother anyway. Try not to buy anything of hers whatsoever.

[rumsfeld] he’ll go when ‘they’ want him to, not before

An editorial to be published Monday in the Army Times, which serves the four main branches of the U.S. military will call for President Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "Basically, the editorial says, it's clear now, from some of the public statements that military leaders are making, that he's lost the support and respect of the military leadership," said Robert Hodierne, senior managing editor. One of the unknown knowns is that Rumsfeld can’t go unless he himself wants to or the ties are cut by Them. Identifying Them members, including Richard Cheney and Henry Kissinger, is quite easy. The rule of thumb is - if he’s in a top post, if the policy he supports produces Sudans and Iraqs, if he's a headkicker by nature - he’s one of Them.

[cllr ayling] the pleasures of eating indian

Love this excerpt from Gavin Ayling, who went to India in a manner of speaking. I went to Indian Summer in Brighton last night for a Diwali evening. As always the food was perfect (I don't use that word lightly) and the environment, service and everything else you might wish for were excellent. The chicken melts in the mouth, the inter-course palate cleanser does what it should while tasting better than any fruit juice you've had... Inter-course palate cleanser … yes … I can see how that would satisfy.

[saddam] the moment has come

If you’re moved to pity by the aging Saddam, never forget the swashbuckling version from the past and his delightful sons.

So the verdict and sentence on Saddam appears to have finally arrived. From the City News report: One of Saddam's lawyers claimed a death sentence for his client would "open the gates of hell" to the thousands of American soldiers stationed in Iraq. The mother of all gates? Sunni Arabs are predicting widespread violence should Saddam be sentenced to death and the majority of Shiites, many who were persecuted under Saddam, will be enraged if he gets off. Nice situation for that sad, divided country.

[saturn’s day] one day to go

The Sumerian and Babylonian Ninurta, the Greek Cronos and the Latin Saturnus all join to bring to a close the working week. Saturnus was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. Either way, the photo of him eating his children might scare the children so the photo of the planet appears instead. Tomorrow’s a rest day, folks and over here we now have four days of holidays !