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It's all a bit arse out there right now, isn't it?
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 11:00 amLivejournal is redefining ‘down’ as ‘up’ this morning as the status page insists it’s working, but the web browser tells me that it doesn’t exist.
I suppose that we’re back to blaming some malcontent Armenian, picking on the Russians’ favourite social web service with continued DDoS attacks. Of course, since Putin has just been caught out trying to rig the elections that would make him the first post-Communist Czar1 (Stalin being the Communist Czar) and is rabidly trying to crush all electoral dissent, it could be his mates doing the business.
Democracy in all its forms seems to be in retreat at the moment as the so-called political elite have decided that propping up the Euro is far more important in the long run than worrying what the electorates in any given country want. The governments of Greece and Italy have been replaced by force majeur by the Paris-Berlin Axis and Italy has dispensed with any semblance of democracy by appointing its entire government with technocrats from without its elected Parliament. I think Greece has at least got a government that is made up of elected officials.
And to add to the fun, the French and Germans are now saying that Eurozone states will have to pretty much do as they are told, regardless of what’s the best local economic option, because the survival of the Euro is paramount and their sovereign rights are merely an annoying detail.
It’s not even as if the Euro is much use. Even tourists can get local currency out of local ATMs after all. It just saves a bit of faffing sorting coins out when you drive across a border.
I remember before the General Election last year, I said I hoped that 2010 might stand alongside 1832 as a year of great reforms. I won’t; there haven’t been any. 2011 isn’t going to stand with anything either, outside the Arab world, possibly. There was, for a moment, a whiff of 1848, but that went away and it’s all rather more reactionary than progressive.
Oh yes. It's the 70th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, too. An auspicious day.
Bit depressing if you think about it too hard.
1I am typing this up in Word before copying to Dreamwidth and hopefully cross-posting as usual. Word does not like the word ‘Czar’. ‘Tsar’ is okay, however. I’m sticking with Czar because I can.
I suppose that we’re back to blaming some malcontent Armenian, picking on the Russians’ favourite social web service with continued DDoS attacks. Of course, since Putin has just been caught out trying to rig the elections that would make him the first post-Communist Czar1 (Stalin being the Communist Czar) and is rabidly trying to crush all electoral dissent, it could be his mates doing the business.
Democracy in all its forms seems to be in retreat at the moment as the so-called political elite have decided that propping up the Euro is far more important in the long run than worrying what the electorates in any given country want. The governments of Greece and Italy have been replaced by force majeur by the Paris-Berlin Axis and Italy has dispensed with any semblance of democracy by appointing its entire government with technocrats from without its elected Parliament. I think Greece has at least got a government that is made up of elected officials.
And to add to the fun, the French and Germans are now saying that Eurozone states will have to pretty much do as they are told, regardless of what’s the best local economic option, because the survival of the Euro is paramount and their sovereign rights are merely an annoying detail.
It’s not even as if the Euro is much use. Even tourists can get local currency out of local ATMs after all. It just saves a bit of faffing sorting coins out when you drive across a border.
I remember before the General Election last year, I said I hoped that 2010 might stand alongside 1832 as a year of great reforms. I won’t; there haven’t been any. 2011 isn’t going to stand with anything either, outside the Arab world, possibly. There was, for a moment, a whiff of 1848, but that went away and it’s all rather more reactionary than progressive.
Oh yes. It's the 70th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, too. An auspicious day.
Bit depressing if you think about it too hard.
1I am typing this up in Word before copying to Dreamwidth and hopefully cross-posting as usual. Word does not like the word ‘Czar’. ‘Tsar’ is okay, however. I’m sticking with Czar because I can.
