21. juli 2003

'Sexual healing' The Observer reports about rape and sexual abuse of women by Anglican priests who offered women a 'spiritual shoulder to cry on' and then took advantage. While the Church of England remains in turmoil over the sexuality of its bishops, some believe the mounting catalogue of sexual abuse against women is the real untold scandal of the Church. This particular controversy now threatens to envelop the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who faces questions over his role in helping a priest who sexually assaulted a female vicar to find another job. Nothing like a little gay-bashing to distract attention from the real problems. 11:28:37 PM    comment []

Bush reiterates warning to Syria, Iran "'Today Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorists. This behavior is completely unacceptable and states that support terror will be held accountable,' Bush said at a news conference at his Texas ranch with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi." (Reuters) The Bush administration has been warning Syria and Iran earlier, but it's not altogether clear what options remain if the states continue to ignore these warnings. Syria is very vulnerable to economic pressure, especially as the US gets better control over its border to Iraq. Iran, which like Iraq is "floats on a sea of oil" to borrow Wolfowitz' famously misquoted words, is another issue entirely. Obviously, economic pressure will be less effective. The country is already under some sanctions. Also, it would be difficult to imagine the Bush administration selling another preemptive war to the public at this stage. However, the cleric-ruled Iran now finds itself surrounded by US-friendly or -occupied countries, and not the least, they face serious opposition from their own population. The Iranian people have proved before they can stage a revolution if they get sufficiently fed up with oppressive rulers, and if the US can ignite that fire in a not-too-obvious way, the mullahs may find themselves in urgent need of some deep caverns to hide in. By now, the rulers of Syria and Iran should know that in Bush, at least, they are not dealing with a man of idle threats. 8:07:28 PM    comment []

Virtual Occoquan the hedonism isssue A new edition of the Occoquan Inquirer is on the newsstands, this time edited by Dave Pollard and Mark Hoback. Don't miss the best of last week (or so) in Salon blogging. 4:29:31 PM    comment []

No weather today I have sadly found it necessary to remove my weatherpixie. It was unavailable too often, and delayed the loading of my front page substantually. I'll try it again later, and see if response time improves, because I really liked it. 5:44:16 AM    comment []

Metallica sues band using E and F chords "Metallica are taking legal action against independant Canadian rock band Unfaith over what they feel is unsanctioned usage of two chords the band has been using since 1982 : E and F. "People are going to get on our case again for this, but try to see it from our point of view just once," stated Metallica's Lars Ulrich. "We're not saying we own those two chords, individually - that would be ridiculous. We're just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music."" (MTV, sorta) Actually a few music and news sources fell for this hoax hook, like and sinker. Now, however, it seems the sources with eggs on their faces have pulled them from their pages. See e.g. here or this page. Lots of blogs fell for it, too. See e.g. metafilter. 3:59:42 AM    comment []

Quote of the day "I'll try to soften it and become boring, maybe even very boring, but I'm not sure I'll be able to." (Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is tired of controversy) 2:26:24 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.08.2003; 01:52:04.