Doh! (kicks self)

Fuggin’ binned it in the wet this morning on the way to work. Classic London incident. Overtaking a cabbie who changed his mind at the last minute and did the old turn–then–signal thing when I was about two metres behind him on the other side of the road about to go past. I obviously slammed on the anchors and swerved left to avoid going into the side of his cab as he turned. Kept it up for a bit then dropped it on its left hand side. He kindly drove off sharpish leaving me lying in the road.

The good news for me is, I’m fine apart from scrapes and bruises (foot looks a pretty shade of blue right now). Thought the bike was OK bar a scrape, but once I started it up, it started pissing oil out of the left hand engine cover. Which is disappointing.

That’s the second stupid London crash I’ve had this year (the first was a fair bit nastier, involving a mini–cab driver illegally running a red light and taking me out, resulting in my previous bike being written–off). My Mum would love to hear me say this, but I am really starting to wonder whether it’s worth it or whether I should give up risking my life by riding in this place when there are so many idiot drivers, cyclists and pedestrians and just save it for the track.

<personal responsibility rubric>I am not trying to absolve myself from responsibility for this crash. I was going too fast, in the wet, to be able to stop in the available distance should the unexpected happen. You should not overtake across a junction with a side–road (although in London, that would often mean not overtaking at all). As they say, you live and learn and fortunately, I have lived and will learn.</personal responsibility rubric>

Oh... Happy Christmas, yo.

I’ve been away enjoying a quiet family Christmas and never got around to the update on how the Reubens dinner went. The answer is: very well. Good food and friendly service. No particular comedy ensued from the circumstances (somewhat disappointingly, but probably for the best). The Israeli wine was excellent, if, as predicted, fairly pricey. A good time was had by all.

OK, another comment upon a weighty issue, about which I am entirely ill–qualified to comment. Will I never learn? Just saw this discussion on the BBC website about how to deal with Saddam now that he has been found and whether or not he should face the death penalty.

This quote struck me:

“The most pressing moral and political need is for Saddam to receive a trial that is fair and seen to be fair”.

Totally impossible. It is totally pointless to talk about a fair trial in this case.

The punishment has been carried out before the trial by bombing his country, deposing him and forcing him to live in a hole in the ground. If he comes before a court, is there any possibility whatsoever that it might look at the evidence and find him innocent? What would happen then, they'd say “sorry about that” and give him the country back?

No way.

Any “trial” would just be a listing of his sins, in an attempt to bring his era to a formal close and start to move forward. Which may be no bad idea. But there’s no point talking about a “fair trial” for Saddam in any normally understood way.

Saddam is clearly no ordinary criminal. There is no punishment which fits his crimes. The normal rules of crime and punishment do not apply. Revenge? Deterrence? Protection of the public? Any punishment a convicting court imposes will be either vastly insufficient or entirely pointless in achieving any of those aims. What other aims could a court be trying to achieve in trying and punishing him? I can only think of “closure”. The only thing that Iraq can do is to try to move on. And if Iraq considers that “trying” Saddam itself is part of that process, then I suppose, pragmatically, that is the lesser evil.

Chanukah lunch

Here’s an instructive chain of email correspondence which shows how alcohol consumption can allow your agenda to be hijacked in the most bizarre ways. The result on this occasion is that we are holding what was supposed to be a boozy lads’ traditional Christmas lunch in a strict kosher venue, where any mention of Christmas will be liable to offend. You could not make this up.

I know we talked about this a (long) while ago, but I forget where we came out... is there any form for a traditional lads' Christmas dinner this year? I seem to remember that there was talk about a Saturday affair followed by possible club action after dinner? Or have we decided that now we're all grown up we've no time for this sort of frivolous bachelor behaviour any more? Any thoughts? We'll probably need to start sniffing around for a room in a restaurant soon if it's going to happen... ------------------------------- Wasn't it the sniffing around that caused all the problems last year? ------------------------------- got to be someone else's turn to organise - I'm well up for it but away next week so tricky for me to organise - plus under to much pressure to keep coming up with decent restaurants!! ------------------------------- I don't mind organising it this year but don't have personal experience of a vast array of fine restaurants. If you want to suggest some alteratives then fire away, otherwise I'll try for 3 Garcons ------------------------------- What's the deal - are we going kosher or shall I phone Rules? ------------------------------- Kosher. Then a quick cab ride to Primrose Hill, stagger to the top, take in the view, smoke a 'gar and then sit in a pub? ------------------------------- I agree with the kosher option. ------------------------------- Eh? Kosher? So where/what is the suggested venue? Did you blokes settle on a day and time? Is this some kind of joke that has backfired? ------------------------------- Afternoon everyone. The up market restaurant that is Rueben's has been booked for 10 people. To see a little more on this restaurant, please go to here I have very little doubt this will be an experience for you all. ------------------------------- What's your view about this? I'd regard it as a small frame-jack from the original terms of reference, that, as far as I can see, wasn't discussed at all, unless the discussion was behind closed doors... As far as I'm concerned, the last time the debate was taking place, we were talking Rules, to be followed by booze in a nice bar afterward... Now a place that is apparently known for its expensive Salt Beef Sandwiches is presented as a fait accompli, with Primrose Hill for the after-party. ------------------------------- I thought we'd left it with Rules or LTG as venues - whichever had availability. Then last Wednesday I went turned up in the pub at 10pm to find that the boys had met up, had a few beers and in the interests of religious tolerance had changed the venue to some kosher joint so the bagel wouldn't have to eat veggie. ------------------------------- Dear all, got a good review of Rubens off my Dad. 2 visits, 2 good meals. Says someone will have to tell us what's what but pretty favourable review. ps not quite sure what he made of the kosher wine list. ------------------------------- Chopped liver, chicken soup with Kneidlach and Lochshen, Steak with chips. Not sure about wine...will undoubtedly have reasonable expensive bottles, just not sure if they taste any good. ------------------------------- You see what happens if you allow your agenda to be hijacked by pandering to religious minority interests..? Speaking of chopped liver, that was exactly what my face could have been said to have looked like when I heard where we were going for the Christmas dinner... :-) ------------------------------- I'm particularly looking forward to trying the Bethlehem Beaujolais....... ------------------------------- Quite. "...will undoubtedly have reasonable expensive bottles, just not sure if they taste any good" This, to me, discloses a point missed... ------------------------------- http://www.chrisbell.co.nz/reubens.html ------------------------------- Suppose Christmas crackers and hats are out of the question? ------------------------------- Xmas crackers...what, 12 in a box for all you yoks... No offence meant, was just the little ditty I used when I worked at Wembley market flogging the damn things in Dec. Sorry, all things Xmasy are unlikely to happen/be welcome. ------------------------------- Doesn't it strike you as slightly odd that we're celebrating our Christmas lunch in a venue dedicated to the cuisine of a religion which does not celebrate Christmas, and may indeed regard the obvious celebration of Christmas as offensive? We should have just had the lunch during Ramadan in an Islamic restaurant. Then not only would crackers and hats have been off the menu, so would any kind of food or drink during the hours of daylight... It's all slightly bizarre - this is in danger of turning into a Monty Python sketch. Somebody bring a video camera.

Like I say, you could not make this up. I will report back on how the lunch goes.

Robin on Speaking as a Parent raises some difficult issues about the work of 50 Cent and the sexualisation of popular culture and the potential impact on the very young. He says “to pretend that this is an issue of self expression is bogus nonsense — the issue here is profit”.

The problem with that is that in a capitalist liberal democracy, the right to try to make a profit is part of the right of self–expression. You have to be very careful before you curtail people’s right to make a living out of something that other people want to pay for.

And undoubtedly many people do want to buy this stuff. The strange thing about 50 Cent and others like him is that it’s so mainstream. 50 years ago the adult majority would probably have frowned upon this sort of thing and not wanted to buy it, so it would have been a minority interest… like, I don’t know… certain types of nastier pr*no are now. But rap music has gone in the last 20 years from being an American urban minority thing to being a massive, mainstream worldwide phenomenon. Because this sort of attitude to sex/women and particularly pimp–as–hero culture is ingrained in certain parts of rap culture and music, traceable back at least as far as the writings of Iceberg Slim and probably before that, this pimp stuff is benefitting from that worldwide exposure. Result: respectable, 30–something people bob their heads to “I’m a mf’in P.I.M.P” when it comes on KISS FM.

There has been a cultural shift with the result that stuff that, if you think about it, is really pretty unpleasant is just regarded as lightweight, popular entertainment. Society’s attitudes have shifted, and Robin is right, we’re anaesthetised to it — we don’t think about what these lyrics mean. That may be partly as a result of marketing, driven by the profit motive, but why do people market this stuff to us: because they think it’ll sell. Why is that? Does it say anything deeper about us than the fact that we like Dre’s catchy hooks and most of us don’t listen to the lyrics anyway?

So these guys at Guantánamo Bay continue to languish behind bars in pretty disgraceful conditions. Many of the detainees have been held for almost two years, without any sort of legal process or access to lawyers or their families. I agree with Amnesty International that it is about time that all those held be charged and brought to fair trial in full accordance with international standards, or else released. I have not seen a proper explanation and justification of this “unlawful combatant” categorisation that seemingly takes these prisoners outside both the criminal law and the Geneva Convention. Should not the British Government be adopting a firmer stance in opposition to this, at least insofar as British citizens are affected?