Occasional Tales

Fire! I was in one of those tacky little market shops in Chengdu yesterday where I saw a card which said “Thinking for you”. Must be the one the imperial government sends out at Christmas. Yeah, I know. Too easy to take a swipe at this one. I had no idea Steve Jobs had died. Millions in the Empire will be mourning his passing as the purveyor of modern-day shiny beads, which distracted so many of the nation’s youths. The government is probably more upset than anyone else. Why think about how rotten the system is when you can have a nice, shiny iPad? The other news item which I missed because I was away was the quashing of the convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of Meredith Kerchner. I’ve been sceptical about the pair’s claims of innocence, but I’m also not missing the point that there does seem to have been sufficient uncertainty to undermine the certainty of the original conviction. I don’t like the sound of Knox’s reception back in the ...

I have nothing to say, but this is the Internet. The financial world is going to hell. Again. And what can most of us do about it? Nothing. Europe seems to be about to slide down the toilet and even the Empire is apparently wobbling a bit. Meanwhile, there are particles which might just be able to exceed the speed of light. Confirmation pending. Amanda Knox might yet be released from prison. As on other occasions, I have no idea whether we’re being conned into believing she’s actually innocent or whether there really isn’t the proof to secure a certain conviction. I’ve seen one article, in The Guardian, which went into why the conviction was sound; but most of the time, overtly or covertly, the assumption is that the conviction was, at least, unsound. Meanwhile, the Americans are executing people on allegedly flimsy grounds and blocking Amnesty International writing campaigns. It’s also further proof that Amnesty International isn’t partisan. It leaves the Empire in an ...