Hello, Bob;

05 Sep 04 09:12, Bob Lawrence wrote to Robert Bull:

 BL>  That only applies to the losers, and no one cares about the losers
 BL> or they wouldn't do it. Did Dubya and his bureaucrats give a moment's
 BL> thought to the Iraqi people? They demonise their leaders, make
"Iraq"
 BL> the enemy, organise proper PR and get the Media onside, and to hell
 BL> with the innocent "enemy."

There was plenty of rheoric about the good of the "Iraqi people..."

 BL>  Maggie *said* she believed in small government and freedom, but take
 BL> a step back now that the smoke has cleared and see what she actually
 BL> *did*.

Close to dictatorship  :-(

 BL>  We've got a Maggie running Oz (less fright wig and frock). He talks
 BL> about freedom and locks up children in "detention" centres... in

Blair and co. are trying to bring in a law allowing them to lock up people 
with certain kinds of mental health problems -before- they commit any 
crimes...

 BL> Woomera, in the desert where they tested nukes in the 50's! All the
 BL> poor buggers did was try to get into Oz through the back door, and
 BL> they end up "detained" for five years. He talks of
"improving" our

Hmmm, they get to stay for five years, and end up glowing in the dark?  
Weird way to run things...

 BL>  At present, he is fighting the election campaign on terrorism... of
 BL> which have none, fortunately. The only problem we have with terror is

A few years ago Iceland was getting hot and strong on terrorism, to the 
sheer disbelief of tourists...

 BL>  Yes, but unfortunately Democracy can't do that. As soon as Pitt
 BL> invented the political party, and left the system open to lobbying
 BL> corruption, real democracy went out the window. I understand why the
 BL> anarchists are so active now. I look forward to the time when they
 BL> start shooting politicians and power-freaks like Packer and Murdoch
 BL> (and perhaps the Archduke Ferdinand). I've always had a soft spot for
 BL> those little round bombs with a wick.

Son't those hark back to the hayday of anarchists in Victorian times?  I 
don't know what you put in place of democracy, though.  Whatever system you 
have, wannabe alpha males are always going to kick, lie and steal their way 
to the top.

 BL>> where they are talking about imposing a curfew on young drivers

 BL>  1.  night driving is different. You need to know where to look
 BL> because you don't see much and you get less time to react when a dick
 BL> on a bike without lights suddenly appears. A new driver does not react
 BL> instinctively because he's still training his autonomic sytem. They
 BL> rarely have time to yell obscenities out the windows, for instance.

I'm not sure how far you have to train people.  Too many cyclists here are 
too stupid to use lights, but surely you can only train drivers to react to 
a reasonable degree of stupidy, not toweringly suicidal stupidity.

 BL>  An experienced driver has time to miss him, swerve closer so he
 BL> *almost* hits him, and then yell "Dopey poofter!"

Over here, white vans are a fashion statement.  A cabaret duo called Kit 
and the Widow have a song about White Van Man, who's supposed to be able to 
moon lady motorists out the window while steering with his feet...

 BL> late... because they think it's important to be manly and strong.

Machismo has a lot to answer for...


 RB>> Somtow Sucharitkul wrote a series of stories in the "Inquestor
 RB>> Universe" where planetary governments had tried something like
 RB>> that in order to have happy-happy citizens. The purpose of the
 RB>> Inquestors was to seek out Utopias - in order to destroy them.

 BL>  ROFL! I take it Mr Sucharitkul was in favour?

In that series he was in favour of destroying utopias because they were 
regarded as invariably deeply corrupt - like the one that turned out to be 
populated by servocorpses.

 RB>> I find lots of 19th century stuff hard going because of the
 RB>> length of the sentences.

 BL>  I've never noticed that! My reading history is in three parts: at
 BL> school where we were *required* to read that sort of stuff but I
 BL> actually enjoyed it (I read the entire list under the mistaken belief

I haven't read many 19th century novels, but, I have a lasting respect for 
Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES, because it was one of hardly any books that 
withstood being used as a "set book" for exams.

 BL> that it that was expected); an interregnum of 15 years when the only
 BL> things I read were text books and technical magazinesl; and then I,
 BL> ROBOT... which started me on SF and eventually everything, where I
 BL> read a book every second day.

In his book THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT - A MEMOIR OF READING AND CHILDHOOD 
Francis Spufford wrote that at the end of childhood a common way of moving 
on to adult books is to read "classic" 19th century novels.  He himself 
didn't take that route, moving instead to SF.


 BL>  Nowadays, if I find a book with awkward grammar, I just throw it out
 BL> the window (so many books, so little time). I don't mind long
 BL> sentences so long as they go somewhere, but I *abhor* smartarse

I tend to get lost in very long sentences, but, I think you need to get in 
the right frame of mind and have plenty of time.

 BL> writers who bury the story in style. I expect it's because I spent 15
 BL> years trying to distill meaioning out of what was mostly meaningless
 BL> prose but hey... text books are like that.

There have been periods when style seemed more than content.  Text books 
shouldn't be so impenetrable, though.  I tended to assume that if I didn't 
understand what they said, I just wasn't bright enough  :-/

 RB>> darker evenings will be coming soon...

 BL>  Oh! Of course. Unlucky you is facing a European autumn while I've
 BL> just dumped the doona and have begun to wear shorts again, as an Oz

What's a doona?

 BL> Spring arrives in all its glory. I mowed the lawn yesterday...
 BL> grizzle, grizzle.

That's one chore I won't be having so much of for a while  :-))

BTW, I had to take my mother to Eastbourne for her holiday, and bring her 
back again yesterday, a 300 mile round trip, a -lot- of driving by my 
standards.  Yesterday I drove most of the way there and then stopped off at 
the Long Man of Wilmington, one of those giant figures marked on a 
hillside.  There's a small car park with a nice grass picnic area, ideal 
for munching your sandwiches.  Three small boys were playing cricket, which 
rather surprised me given the all-pervasiveness of soccer.  None of them 
looked like they would potentially cause the Aussies of the future much 
bother - but, when one of them started knocking his wickets into the ground 
with his bat, I had this immediate flash of Prince Sameth and his schoolboy 
cricket team nailing down the Dead in LIRAEL  :-)

     Regards,

              Robert.

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