What are we doing?

June 8th, 2003

Within the goddammit-scope I again have to urgently get something off my chest, no particular recipient intended.

  1. Whether we have been misled about weapons of mass destruction, as pertaining to Iraq, is irrelevant. The most effective, most often used, cheapest and most procurable weapon of mass destruction remains the oldfashioned bullet. And mustachio used it extensively. The mass graves that are now being discovered (as recently as the 2nd of June, 1 with 200 Kurdish children, are you paying attention?) to my mind are enough reason for the past war and were so before the whole banter about mustard gas began in the Security Council. Saddam Hussein would certainly have used weapons of mass destruction other than the bullet if he had had them, since he did so before, when he had them. Whether he still had them is of no importance. The affront is not that we were possibly misled in that discussion, but that that discussion was necessary at all. It's about what you wish to tolerate on your planet, as a human being, and especially about what you do not. That the Yanks only address part of that is a shame, but thàt they address part of it is, to my mind, fantastic.

  2. Banning smoking in all of the catering industry is fascist. Just as fascist as not having a smoking space in a company. Sure, everyone should be entitled a smoke-free workplace and a smoke-free bar. But anyone should be entitled to waste the self in the way of one's choosing. And so there should be bars and workspaces where one can smoke. And I'm not saying that as a smoker, but as an ex-smoker: I smoked from my 14th to my 35th (1,5 packet of cigarettes a day + 1 packet of shag tobacco in 2 days + 50 guilders worth of weed a week). And I quit 2 years ago to date, but I find smokers a lot more enjoyable, as people, than the militant kind of non-smoker that comes up with measures like this.