Whenever obvious things are said in art, art suffers.

[alexsarll]

57% turnout for the Iraqi elections - which, iirc, is better than either the Yanks or us managed last time round. Those are elections which, lest we forget, wouldn't have happened if the anti-war mob had had their way. Or perhaps elections in which there'd have been another alleged 100% show of support for that murderous old sod Saddam.

The first successful case against homophobic bullying brought under the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Act is clearly marvellous news, but I find myself distracted by the name of the tribunal chair: Vivienne Gay. Surely that can't be coincidence?

Packed most of my weekend excitement into Saturday: in the afternoon I went on my first two Tubewalks. Proceedings were somewhat hampered by supposed leader verlaine a) not really being officer material and b) being in possession of a cursed Egyptian figurine with terrible decent-pub-closing powers, but it's still a diverting way to spend a day. And somehow, going for a walk and then going to the pub seems so much more productive than simply going to the pub. From there, back to Finny P for bowling (in theory) and pizza (in practice) in honour of angelv's birthday. Mmmm, Fiorentina...
In amongst all this I saw so many people I'd not seen in ages, and had chance to speak at length to too few of them. There are too many people on this planet, and most of them are entirely surplus to requirements, but I do treasure the exceptions.

The final issues of Grant Morrison's JLA Classified and We3 are now available. The art in the former was confused enough to annoy me a little - if a comic contains a scene where Batman punches a genocidal gorilla in the balls (as most comics should), then it should be apparent on a first reading that Batman is punching a genocidal gorilla in the balls. The latter, predictably, made me cry like a little girl.

Comments

[tubewalker.livejournal.com]

Very excellent to have you along Sir.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I shall certainly try to attend subsequent walks. Though I find myself more certain that I shall attend the local ones than the remote, which would seem slightly to defeat the point of the exercise. I shall do my best to fight against such stay-at-home impulses.

[tubewalker.livejournal.com]

stay-at-home impulses

Impulses that I'm in constant conflict with.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I was hampered from leading the tubewalk properly by uppity privates giving me backchat. Damn it all, I should have had tubewalker on the ground and giving me fifty within moments of his turning up. By the end of the day I felt like Captain Bligh!

I agree with you about the art in JLA Classified. How did Batman get off of that spit anyway?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You mean, by the end of the day you were unnaturally interested in breadfruit?

I think Batman got off the spit because the disembodied Warmaker One untied him, though tbh I'm sure he could have got out of those fairly primitive bonds. My objection was that last we'd seen Grodd, he was salivating over Batman; all of a sudden he has his back to him. WTF?

I was disappointed to step out of the Tube onto the surface of our doomed micro-Earth and not see Superbia above.

[superba]

damn that excessive letter.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It was only because of that floating city that I worked out how to pronounce you!

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

I was hampered from leading the tubewalk properly by uppity privates giving me backchat.

You can probably get some sort of ointment for that.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I defended your captaincy from all mutineers! Of course you were an excellent leader, you had the jacket to prove it!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I would never dream of disputing that the jacket was officer-jacket material.

[my-red-dream.livejournal.com]

I was quite amazed and proud of the election turnout. Half this country can't be arsed to get off their chair to exercise their democratic privelege yet in Iraq people were giving birth in the queue in order to cast their vote.

I want to go on a tubewalk. When is the next one?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I suppose novelty will get you a long way; something that seems old hat to us is fresh and new to them.

I am as yet unaware of forthcoming Tube Walk dates, but shall mention the next one here ahead of time.

[my-red-dream.livejournal.com]

By the by, lovely to see you on Saturday, as always, even if you did stare at my (admittedly quite prominent) breasts! :-P

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, quite. It seemed rude not to, especially when you were polling people about bumming.

[my-red-dream.livejournal.com]

'Scuse me, that tangent was not my own and I wipe my hands clean of the whole thing!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Always a good idea after that sort of thing.

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

I am so committed to democracy and exercising my civic duty etc that I have even voted in elections where I'm not a registered voter. Beat that.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

For a while I was accidentally on the electoral register twice, but I wasn't committed enough to democracy to use my second vote.

[thermaland.livejournal.com]

I was quite amazed and proud of the election turnout.
What, on account of your little-known Iraqi roots? ;P

In Iraq people were giving birth in the queue in order to cast their vote.
Yeah, they didn't read the instructions properly, did they? This isn't how you do it! I suspect a faulty translation.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Apparently one of the babies born on the day has been named 'Election' (except in Iraqi, like). Which is harsh, but at least over there it probably doesn't sound like the word for 'erection'.

[kennedybak.livejournal.com]

Slightly less than our last general election turnout, which was 59%; but better than the Yanks, on 55%. And we don't have to worry about getting blowed up at the polling station.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

(Although they do play devotional music at mine, which isn't much better)

I was probably thinking of local/European turn-out for the UK, then. And wasn't that the highest in ages for the US? But yes, point being, for all the naysayers they do seem to have had a valid election, and hoo bloody ray for that.

[kennedybak.livejournal.com]

Yes, the US' turnout had been gradually drifting downwards for decades, and stood at 50%-ish in 2000, IIRC.

I think there was a bit of a spike at the last Euro elections, thanks to the interest in UKIP, but from a very low base of about 25%. (I could check all these figures in google, but I'm lazy and I think I'm guessing about right)

[razorcheekbones.livejournal.com]

Is the Fiorentina the one with the egg on it? If so, I'm so with you on that opinion.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Egg and spinach, yes.

I am now hungry for MORE PIZZA, dammit!

[razorcheekbones.livejournal.com]

I like to get them to put a bit of parma ham on it as well, that's not really a Fiorentina, but then I'm not a stupid hippy.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

57% turnout for the Iraqi elections - which, iirc, is better than either the Yanks or us managed last time round. Those are elections which, lest we forget, wouldn't have happened if the anti-war mob had had their way.

Absolutely right, guvna.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

Point being: why is staging an election necessarily a good or useful outcome?
43% + perhaps a half of voters are *still* disenfranchised under this new system of "democracy".

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

As a great man once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others which have been tried from time to time."
Reaching the same level of disenfranchisement as the UK and US isn't ideal, but it p1sses all over a Ba'athist reign of terror.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with that sentiment, as I have mentioned before.
And, as such, I hate it when people blindly point to democracy as being the people's salvation - creating democracy is hella Not a decent justification for war.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I always thought 'taking out dangerous b@st@rds' was about the best justification going for war.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

43% + perhaps a half of voters are *still* disenfranchised under this new system of "democracy".

No they aren't.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

My mistake there, then. replace disenfranchised with unrepresented if you will.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

They do have representation, they just didn't participate in selecting it. By your logic I don't have trade union representation.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

No. My logic is that voting and representation are distinct.
I have voted in every government election since being eligible to do so, but I am not represented in any of those.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

You have never voted in a government election. You have voted in each Parliamentary election, and in each case this resulted in you being represented.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

Being represented by the candidate I voted against is not a serious form of representation.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

The duty of MPs is to all the people in their constituency, not just the ones whose votes helped elect them. I can't help it if most people think you're wrong about who would be a good MP.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

No, and nor can I. That's the problem.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Nonetheless, in my experience most MPs (ie nearly all the Labour ones, the vast majority of the Lib Dem ones, and probably about half the Tory ones) are very diligent about dealing with the concerns of their constituents, and I've never known an MP ask how someone votes before taking up their case.

I suggest you write to your MP about your problems with the County Council. You will not find them checking the canvass returns before their staff look into it.

What they will not do, and what you don't regard as justification for a war, but I do, and that's where we differ, is pass your letter to the security services as evidence that you are a dissenter, gang-rape your wife to death in front of you, then feed you to a meatcutting machine. For instance.

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

Yes but someone else, somewhere else, is also a pyschotic genocidal maniac, or something, therefore everyone should be allowed to be, remember.