Forgotten Tidbits

There are a few things from this week that I forgot to mention in last night's entry.

The most important thing is that my brother is now fully qualified as a paramedic. He got his epaulettes on Thursday, although he had everything signed off on Tuesday. So for those of you who missed it the first time around, here's a picture of him in kinda paramedic duds.

The next thing is creeping back to an old topic, and I'm afraid it's a bit of a rant. Since the main offensive in Iraq ended I've been getting spam emails offering me the chance to buy the "Iraq's Most Wanted" deck of cards. Given that I found this to be a disgusting attempt to cash in on conflict, you can probably guess that I didn't respond well to the two new decks of cards that I started getting spammed about this week.

The "Iraqi Freedom Heroes" deck was for the most part laughable, purely for the fact that the Ace of Spades was George Bush. I don't object to celebrating heroes, but I do have a problem with the idea that there's anything about any war, let alone a one-sided one, to celebrate. And I don't see how George Bush is a hero of anything other than the militaristic mind-set that says "Might is Right".

No, it's the "Deck of Weasels" that really gets my goat. For a country that claims to enshrine freedom of speech America is pretty big on ostracising anyone who doesn't follow the party line. Joe McCarthy would be proud.

And I love my XBox. I have four games for it, but right now I play only one. Buffy. The game rocks. I've gone on about it before, and I'm sure I will again, but parts of it are just too good, you know? However, the current level is incredibly frustrating, not least because it's so dark I can hardly see a fucking thing. Still, this is not going to stop me going off and trying it right now.

Oh, and the Buffy episode rocked. Nice to see some of that good ol' subtext again.

Adieu.