Israel v. Lebanon

Well chaps, it seems that this conflict is into extra-time and show no signs of ending soon.
I thought I would just run over the Just War doctrine with anybody who is still sympathetic to the Israeli cause:

A war can only be waged as a last resort.
A war is just only it is waged by legitimate authority.
A war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered (for example self defense) and must be waged with "right" intentions.
A war can only be fought if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success.
The violence use in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered.
The weapons used must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissable targets of war.

If a proposed war fits all these criteria, it is said to be just.
In red are the criteria that Israel have not met.
In green are the factors that would debatably allow their war (along with the others)
In blue is arguable either way.

You can draw our own conclusions.

Gordon Brown, and Lebanon

In the midst of a global conflict that has the world separated, there is just one thing that is keeping me amused.

Gordon Brown's new baby is called James. James Brown.
Is it only me who has drawn a parallel between 60's soul legend and the chancellor's new baby?
I feel saddened that nation is so caught up in the Lebanon crisis that nobody is able to pass judgement about the choice of name for the unfortunate child.

On a political note, I can't believe that I live in a nation that believes in a RIDICULOUSLY disproportionate conflict.

I was stung by a bee once. Did I attempt to wipe out the entire species? I think not.
It's like being poked in the back of the head by a slightly irritating person, and deciding to turn round and punch them in the face repeatedly.

Only way I can see of rectifying this situation is for some seriously growing up to occur. Oh, and for the USA and UK to stop using this conflict as a way of creating a pro-west middle-east.

I just- I just despair sometimes.

7/7

I promised myself that I would never make this into a political thing, but as it's a year since terrorists blew up my city, I thought I needed to say something. On a day like this, I can't help but feel such sympathy for the victims and grieving families.

The media suggests that the men who carried out these atrocities were criminal masterminds; but they weren't. They were idiots who, like children with matches, had a fascination with destruction.

In the words of my hero, Jon Stewart, after the attacks on September 11th:

"Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding. That's extraordinary. That's why we've already won. It's light. It's democracy. We've already won. They can't shut that down. They live in chaos and chaos- it can't sustain itself. It never could. It's too easy and it's too unsatisfying."

I, most certainly, am not afraid.

Twit Twoo

"Hoot"
It's 1am on a Sunday night and I'm trying to get some sleep to energise me for the week ahead. What doesnt help me is an owl hooting just outside my window.
"Hoot"
I lean out of the window.
"Do you mind? What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
The owl turns his beady eyes to face me.
"Sorry?"
"Well your hooting is keeping me awake, could you stop?"
"Sorry, hooting is kinda my thing, it's what owls do, don't you know."
"I thought owls were supposed to be wise?"
"Well we're not. Hooting is what we do."
"Oh, okay then. Sorry to bother you."
"That's not a problem."
....
"Hoot"

Philosophies of an Adolescent

Dressing in a particular way often cheers me up. So this morning, waking up feeling slightly dodgy, I decided I'd well and truly welcome summer with hawaiian shorts and flip flops.
After flip-flopping my journey to school, and arriving with sore feet, I was in no better mood. In my own mind I often feel neurotic and paranoid; perhaps where the deep thoughts I harbour stem from...

If I see someone for the first time, but they don't see me, I don't exist in their mind. If I don't exist in their mind then surely my existance can be doubted, as every conscious being cannot say to me "You exist." If you are reading my musings, then I exist to you. However, if you do not comment, then you do not exist in my mind. Not existing in my mind would leave your existance unwhole.

Food for thought....

My final, and perhaps bizarrely hedonistic and adolescent philosophical theory:
Our chances of being conceived are set at infinity to one; if my great-great-great grandfather had not got home from school on time one evening, missed his tea, then been kept in by his mother on the night that would have met my great-great-great grandmother, then I (and my entire family tree) would not be alive. I happen to think that my family are all fantastic people; and so if the opportunity for conception was denied, then so would the potential for thousands of children. Therefore shouldn't every opportunity for dating/conception be taken?
Perhaps this is close to Catholic doctrine...perhaps closer to the workings of an adolescent male mind; however I want you to think that if the first two humans had put off mating of an evening to play backgammon; would the world be the same today? Would YOU be alive?