From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

In article , "Dave Ings"
 wrote:
>Don, I think that's fair comment. What was bugging me is the sanctimony
>often displayed from Phil and Adam towards many things American. Sure they
>are sometimes just stirring the pot up, but I wish they would be more
>generous in applying the "bad day" benefit of the doubt reasoning more
>widely.

Pretty hard to give the benefit of the doubt in the area of foreign policy.
The problems in Iraq, for example, are not the result of someone
"having a bad day". They are the result of deliberate and
sustained effort and lack of accountability, which is the sort of thing I
said we should watch for and deplore.

>BTW I am indignant. I have strong ties to Britain and I'm appalled by the
>London police behaviour ... perhaps less so by the incredibly unfortunate
>shooting itself but more by the post incident behaviour.

It happens everywhere. We had a local occurrence recently - our police
force have recently added pepper spray to their arsenal. A man who had been
arrested, handcuffed and laid face-down on the ground was then pepper
sprayed because the police believed he posed a threat. They did this in
spite of being aware that they were being filmed by a news team. I've just
seen a nationally published cartoon by an award-winning political
cartoonist which shows a police officer spraying a housewife in her car,
saying "Next time, indicate!".

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
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