to say on recent events, as I’m still adjusting my own position on a daily basis (from “Oh god, I don’t want to die in a nuclear inferno” to “Yes, string this Bin Lid wallah up by his goolies (providing no poor starving Afghans get hurt)”). However, the humbug detector hits overload when politicians start using the word “democracy” (shades of Stalin invoking “the will of the people”), particularly in the context of “protecting” it. In most cases, substituting the words “oil supplies” for “democracy” will get you a degree closer to the truth. (Remember “restoring democracy to Kuwait” - a place where it turned out there hadn’t been much democracy in the first place, unless you equate democracy with wealth - and the people with most of that voted to flee early on.) It is at least becoming clear that Bush and Blair have seen an opportunity to garner public support for the removal of the Taliban - and it’s hard to dispute their cause.

The Middle East has been a hornets nest into which the so-called leaders of the free world have been poking sticks for years. A shame that it’s the innocents standing nearby who eventually get stung (if indeed, people trading in oil stocks daily are truly “innocent” - but even so).

Odd that “defending democracy and freedom” apparently also means curtailing them at home. Perhaps there’s only a limited supply, which has to be rationed out. Forget money and food - donate some of your basic human rights now for the suffering millions in Afghanistan!

For rumour control and some degree of sanity, check the Urban Legends Reference special page.