Intervening In Syria

I've always thought it unlikely that Assad would use chemical weapons. Why would he needlessly cross Obama's red line? He's a murderous despot but surely he's not stupid?

I'm picking up rumours, whispers, that the chemical weapons were supplied to a tame rebel outfit by the Saudis and that the rebels either deployed them- with a view to landing Assad in the shit-  or set them off by accident. I don't know the status of these reports (you'll find them at a site called Zero Hedge) but they're not implausible.

Peter Hitchens  has a good line about the armed response that Cameron was deflected from and Obama has deferred. "The Good Samaritan," he writes, "Didn't have a gun".

Memento Mori

When a famous person dies I nearly always make a point of comparing their age with mine. (David Frost was 12 years older than me.) It gives me an idea of where I stand.