Friday, April 15, 2005

Attention deflected, Cap'n.

Been away for a few days, so only been loosely following the Order of Things. Election time fills me with manic glumness as promises and pooh-poohed arguments fall over themselves to get media attention. The fate of the next 4 years decided by a month of political polemic, good-oh.

The Kamel Bourgass story has been particularly notable for its lack of level-headedness, though. I suggest ignoring the print media on this one, and going straight to both The Register and Spy Blog for more interesting takes on the matter. The bandwagon stirred up around this one is well worth a look, just to note how well the public media machine lumbers into life when needed. Also worth a peek, perhaps, is the BBC's amusing analysis, which highlights documents attributed to Bin Laden "downloaded from the internet", and the finding of "scales, thermometers, rubber gloves, a coffee grinder, batteries and bulbs" in the flat. Heavens, I never knew washing up was considered so dangerous.

Meanwhile, I'll be writing to my MP to make sure that castor beans are banned, or at least subject to identity checks at point of purchase. Rice should also be carefully controlled, due to its aural similarity to "ricin" which may confuse eavesdroppers, leading to yet more embarassing arrest scenarios that have to be covered up in a blanket of spin.

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