poliphilo | A Rambling Train Of Thought That Touches On Big Issues

Bushe's crowd's time to implement their sucky ideas is running out. From 1 Jan he'll be a lame duck for real. We need to keep an eye out that they don't sneak something in on us when the world is distracted by Hilary and Obi but I think Gordon Brown is smart enough to know that supporting a lame duck president will get him dis-elected.

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I hope so.

But haven't Hillary and Barack both said they'd attack Iran if "necessary"?

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People say a lot of things to get elected - they don't then, necessarily do them. Hilary Clinton's husband will never allow her to attack Iran - believe me.

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Good old Bill...

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We can always hope

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I saw Omid Jhalili (I think it's the same guy) on the Jack Dee show a couple of years ago, and he's brilliant!

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I got my spelling out of the Radio Times- but I guess there's always a problem with how to spell these names that started life in a different alphabet.

For instance, is it Tostoy or Tolstoi? Chechov or Tchekov?

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I think it's check off, and Tol's Toy.. but what toy, that's the question?
;)

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I surfed into your journal from fickleasever's and am enchanted with the way you write. I hope this is okay...

I cannot express how much I think and feel that the Bush administration has erred by not inviting Iran to talk without imposing sanctions. While I do not personally condone many of his views, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is likely a genius and could be an invaluable contributor for negotiating peace in the Middle East. Iran is poised to become a major world power because of it's oil reserves and economic resources and cannot be ignored or shunned. The US cannot afford another war. Period. I live int he states and more and more do not feel it is my country. I'm reminded of some amusing graffiti from the Haight Ashbury when I lived there in the 1980's: "US OUT OF NORTH AMERICA".

Handbags are useful if you live in an urban environment and travel on public transportation just as cellphones are useful for business and in emergency situations. Along with your apparel and choice of automobile, they tell people who you are and what your status is. It is sort of darkly funny.

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Hey, pleased to meet you.

The US wants to control the (oil fields of the) Middle East and the independence of Iran is a constant source of irritation. The Iranian goverment is disgusting but no more disgusting than many governments allied to the US.

Iran is a volatile post-revolutionary society. Given time, the Iranian people will themselves sort out and liberalise their government.

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quick random thoughts...

I have a Saudi acquaintance who tells me that there is no possible way that a person from the West could ever understand Arab society or what their religion means and how it affects government (and I believe him)...

There is no holding back technology once it is in the world, and with or without anyone else's support, Iran and North Korea can build nuclear weaponry and will if they choose to.

It seems only 'right' that Iran should be able to control its own resources without interference, as any country should. It irks me that for three years their president has been inviting Bush to the table and that the 'administration' reacts as if he is insane and some sort of terror threat.

I understand the economics somewhat, and the ideology (if you can call it that), but the arrogance of US policy makers just floors me. I guess I am just too naive.

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I refuse to believe that a Westerner is unable to understand Arab culture. That's a council of despair. And there have been plenty of Western "Arabists" who have been honoured in Middle Eastern societies. What I readily accept is that our current leaders have made little or no attempt to understand how a society like Iraq works.

Bush seems set on a war with Iran, just as he was set on a war with Iraq. It's about oil and empire.

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War seems inevitable (I think I'm still in the denial stage).

There isn't a worse possible time to strike Iran. The dollar has never been weaker on the world market. The US doesn't have the resources to continue in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American people do not want another war. It's crazy that the US is so hard up for support that Condi Rice is trying to get Russia to back us. However, that isn't even the point. Iran isn't a threat to us. If we sat down with them, maybe we could buy some oil cheap.

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It's like watching a runaway train. No-one really wants this war- except for the tight circle of discredited neocons round Bush- and yet there doesn't seem to be anyway of stopping it

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I'm suspecting you might enjoy this from Laurie Anderson:

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msjann65.livejournal.com

Writing as both a handbag-toting woman and as a no longer proud US Citizen:

Why anyone would be willing to pay more than $25 American dollars for a handbag is beyond me! All we need is something that is not unattractive, has a strap (for me, a shoulder strap), and several pockets or compartments in which to stow our various necessities. Personally, I fail to see any difference between a so-called "designer" bag and those that are sold in the Wal-mart or Target, or even from sidewalk pushcarts. I guess the thrill in a handbag or any other item (car, condo, what have you?)consists for some in going to their friends to brag about how much they paid for it. Each tries to outspend the other, insane though that may seem.
By the way, I feel the same way about a Rollex watch as opposed to a $25 Timex. Call me crazy!
Now, about Bush, and to a certain extent, his Democratic opponents who are running for the presidency in 2008: "A plague on (ALL) their houses!" I still contend at the old age of 66 years that it has never been my function as a woman to produce cannon fodder for some old men's wars, whether it be my children, my grandchildren, or my far-in-the-future descendants. As for that blasted BOMB, I was among the "cranks and Kooks" who marched to ban it as early as 1957, when I was only 16. At the time it was a highly unpopular cause -- those were the McCarthy years.
Bush's obsession with WMD's got us into Iraq, and if he has his way it will get us into Iran, leaving the new President with a double mess.
And just as an aside: where did the leaders of the United States get the idea that the only country that should be allowed to have WMD's is also the only country that ever dropped TWO of them - on a civilian population, at that? If the US needs these horrors for "defense" in a country that has not had a live war on its shores since the mid 1800's, then why not other countries whose enemies are on their borders? Just a thought....

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More money than sense, More money than sense, More money than sense, More money than sense,..............

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I marched against the bomb too- in my day.

It would have been the early 80s and we were protesting about the American bases at Greenham Common and Molesworth.

I don't think Bush was ever obsessed with WMDs. That was just the excuse, the cover story. He wanted to neutralise an unfriendly power in the Middle east- and it's the same with Iran. What he chiefly wants is control of the oil fields.

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beentothemoon.livejournal.com

as loathe as I am to do it, I must come to the defense of the expensive handbag. A beautiful limited-run couture bag, designed by a master artist and hand-crafted by a truly gifted artisan (as opposed to an underpaid, exploited sweatshop worker) is a work of art. How is that different, more frivolous or less justifiable than spending money on a piece of artwork to hang on your wall? An immaculately made bag will last just as long as a painting or lithograph, and has the added bonus of being taken out into the world and actively enjoyed. Also like more traditionally accepted forms of art, a couture bag will increase in value.

Obviously there are some people who want a great big label to show how much money they spent on a bag. Those big label bags are known as "collection" bags as opposed to couture. They're still beautifully and ethically made, but I will freely admit there can be an element of silliness to that.
But the people who are buying couture, or even high-end collection bags are, I'd be willing to wager, not people who have more money than sense or the great desire to own something expensive so they can tell their friends about it, but people who save and sacrifice for a piece of truly beautiful art.

Maybe you can't tell the difference between a Walmart bag and beautifully crafted leather goods, just as there are people who can't tell or can't be bothered to note the difference between good wine and bad, Hershey's chocolate and Valhrona 72%, Kraft American cheese and aged cheddar or a poster print and an Old Master. That's fine.

Some people can though, and decide the beauty and joy it brings into their lives is worth scrimping and saving for that hefty price tag. What exactly gives anyone the right to judge the worth and merit of that joy? To place a value of "unacceptable" on it because it's not something you would personally do? I'm not all that interested in modern sculpture, but I'm not arrogant enough to tutt tutt and decree grandly that no one needs a funny shaped piece of clay that costs more than 25 dollars. They just need something lumpy to put in the foyer.

I have beautiful shoes and a few exquisite handbags. I work for those. I also have a trust fund. I help build and run a series of four water wells in southern Malawi with that.

Yes, there are children starving all over the world, but my purse isn't part of that economic abuse. Look where your handbag and shoes were made. Can you say the same thing?

Here is a link to the Dior plisse and samouri bags, handwoven leather, bronze and tortoise shell. Either could rightfully be displayed in a museum. http://i22.tinypic.com/727i46.jpg

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I take your point. Those are handsome bags.

But they're still only bags. They're the same shape as other bags... and, well, de gustibus non disputandam so I'm going to shut up.

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veronica-milvus.livejournal.com

You are right about the handbags. The Sunday papers are trying to make us all aspirational and dissatisfied and saying we should buy £1000 bags. Mine cost £60 from John Lewis and it is fine, it has a bright orange lining and that is all the funkiness I need. I will be posting later on the Stuff fetish we are all being caught up in.

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Ailz buys lots of bags- she's on a quest for the perfect one- but she never pays more than a few quid for any of them.

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I'll leave the politics alone, but will comment on handbags...

Can't abide anything costing so much 'just for fashion' that makes no sense to me. But then I've never been a fashion victim... (a victim of other people thinking I'm unfashionable, yes, but that's different).

Handbags... My own was borrowed by my (now late) father and taken on holiday with him. It's black, a shoulder bag, with a lot of zipped compartments and is useful. I lent it to him back in... I dunno, the early eighties and it's still going strong. I've mended it several times. I prefer to mend something old and useful that still has use left in it and than buy something new.

And... I have two handbags that I don't use, that I wouldn't want to use. They belonged to my mother and I am emotionally attached to them.

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Everything would be simplified if women's clothing came with pockets.

Though I believe they're trying to sell us "man bags" these days.

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Women's clothing does come with pockets, but they don't make them the right way!

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Not deep enough?

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Sometimes not deep enough, but mostly they are cut in a diagonal slant, so things fall out.

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Ah yes. Very annoying.

Pretty pointless too.

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typo 'than buy something new' not 'and than buy something new'.

:/

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glitzfrau.livejournal.com

Oooh, can I join you in your fresh-minted Omid Djalili crush, please? So gorgeous! So camp! So clever! So funny!

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And different.

I was faintly reminded of Alexei Sayle, but I guess it's just the build.

I'm hungry to see what he does when he's got a whole half hour to himself.

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