09.25.07
The Alisher Usmanov affair
I did mean to write something about the Alisher Usmanov mashup, but many others have done so much better than I could (links here). I’ll just do my bit and add Tim’s temporary home to the blogroll.
09.22.07
Just this once…
…I’m going to side with the creationists. Not because I actually sympathise with them in this particular case, you understand – it’s a tale of bleating wankers taking it upon themselves as soldiers a’ Gawd to bleat about an entirely sensible treatment of their religion to a bunch of spineless gimps who promptly fire the poor unfortunate who had the audacity to suggest that Christianity was not the One True Faith. *deep breath*
It’s just that on reading it I realised that by lining up with the fuckwits, I’d have the opportunity to write “Yes! Take that, Bitterman!” about a real life situation and seriously, who could resist?
A reply to Patricia Hewitt
Dear Patricia Hewitt,
Many thanks for securing a response from the Home Office regarding the situation of Iraqis employed by the British Forces.
Regarding the Ministerial review that is currently underway, I would be grateful if you could contact the Home Office once more on my behalf and communicate my desire for a quick and satisfactory result. The longer the review takes, the more people will die (please see the links below for some disturbing reports) and if the final decision is a half-measure then my faith in this Government’s willingness to do the right thing will be damaged. I do appreciate the logistical complexity of evacuating that many people but again, the longer we take the harder it will become – and moreover, we owe them to try. I can only hope otherwise that the number of lives we can ultimately save increases along with the length of the review.
I’d also like to bring to your attention and invite you to a speaker meeting in Parliament to be held in Committee Room 14 (St Stephen’s Entrance) on Tuesday October 9th at 7pm. The key speaker will be an ex-soldier named Mark Brockway who hired many Iraqi staff. Also attending will be Ed Vaizey and Lynne Featherstone, and it will be reported by Channel Four News, BBC Radio Four, Radio Five Live, The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Evening Standard, The New Statesman and the Observer. I would be delighted to know if you are interested in attending.
Once again, my thanks for your efforts thus far.
Links
Dragged to death for helping the British – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2469549.ece
Get out or die – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2448785.ece
Sectarian militias seek revenge on interpreters’ family and friends – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2296032.ece
09.20.07
A swing and a miss
Christ, click through to read Mary Midgley getting pretty much everything wrong. Dawkins replies in the comments.
A further reply from Patricia Hewitt
It contains no surprises:
As promised, I am enclosing a copy of the reply I have received from the Home Office regarding the status of of Iraqi translators who helped the British Forces in Iraq.
I do hope you find this information useful. If I can be of further assistance with this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact me again.
The Home Office reply is the same as others have received; at least 15,000 possible refugees, a genuinely complex matter, trilateral Ministerial review which will report in late September, not appropriate to pre-empt their recommendations.
09.04.07
Squee etc
My module list for the coming year has arrived:
Molecular Biochemistry; Cell and Developmental Biology; Chemistry for Biologists; Genes; Physiology; Environmental and Evolutionary Biology; Microbiology.
I spent a fair old portion of last year redoing statistics, maths and IT work that I’d already studied at A-level. Cannot wait for this to start.
