Fear of Flying

I know I said I'd keep my rants safely tucked away on my website, but it's time to get boring …
Today's banner headline: Foiled: Terror Plot To Kill Thousands.
Let's take a look at that, shall we?
It may well be that our lovely boys in blue have pulled off a real coup and saved thousands of "units of collateral damage" from a nasty fall (30,000 feet- Ouch).
That would be great news, and if it turns out to be true, well done lads!
And they didn't shoot anyone this time. Yay!
Now … Hold up your hand, anyone who remembers Blair rolling the tanks into Heathrow and buggering up everyone's holidays the last time he wanted to distract attention from his and Bush's Idiot's Guide to Foreign Policy.
SAM missiles all around our airports? Yeah, right.
There he was on the telly, smirking like he thought we'd believe him; Bush's arse-print still smeared across his face.
"WMD, anyone? We're only forty-five minutes from nuclear armageddon! Yikes!" … Oops. False alarm.
Western leaders have always liked the old "Popularity slipping? Let's have a war!" idea. In the US, this has been refined into "Fear = Control"; terrorise your own people into dependence.
Here we are, with support for George and Tony at its lowest ever, world opinion aghast at their policy in the Middle East, Tony's cabinet in open revolt; the perfect time to creep up behind your disgruntled people in a Bin Laden mask and go "Boo!"
It may well be that the "intelligence services" have foiled a real terror plot (I do remember last July's bombings; I was on the circle line just ahead of the Aldgate bomb), but Tony has now cried wolf so many times that we are not afraid anymore.
And we just don't believe him.
"Round up the usual suspects. Some of those brown-skinned chappies we've been watching for over a year. Tell the press the threat is IMMINENT. That should keep Lebanon out of the headlines for a week at least. All those pictures of dead children … Ugh. So bad for my ratings."
And now our great leader refuses to come back off holiday. Maybe he's scared he'd giggle in front of the cameras and give the game away.
His chum George was on form yesterday: "Islamic Fascists". If he wasn't so tragic and dangerously insane, you'd have to laugh. His powers of articulate speech were never much higher than those of a vegetable, but now he no longer knows the meaning of the words he mangles. Blair's been stuck up his arse for so long, his shit's got all backed up and now comes out of his mouth.

Anyway. Apologies for the ranty downer, but some things just have to be ranted about.
More cheerful stuff to come, I promise: The Small Glass Planet will be decamping to our local racetrack at Snetterton this weekend to watch touring car mayhem in the rain.

Homework time:

Today's word you must use in your next telephone conversation: Revolution (sorry; still ranty).

Today's track to track down: Bonebomb by Brian Eno. An utterly devastating smack in the face with the truth, from the musical revolutionary, big-brained bald bloke from Ipswich.

Today's fact: Scientists have discovered that humans share almost six percent of our genetic make-up with incumbent US pres. George Walker Bush (an evolutionary dead end, kicked out of the chimpanzee family for incompetence). Say, isn't that 'L' in his name a couple of letters short of where it should be, alphabetically?

Today's reading assignment: Read BETWEEN THE LINES! I cannot stress this strongly enough.
For weekend browsing - if you can't get hold of a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook - try Che's Guerilla Warfare, or chomp on a load of Chomsky.

Have a spiffy weekend and don't let the press frighten you.