The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has her first video podcast, coinciding with the beginning of the World Cup in Germany. A Prime Minister doing a video podcast, who’d have imagined that 12 months ago? [via]
Month: June 2006
Don't forget those other 27,000 nukes
Hans Blix is in the IHT today, talking about the nukes that actually exist, as opposed to the ones Iran might want to build.
While it’s desirable that the foreign ministers talk about Iran, they don’t seem to devote any thought to the fact that there are still some 27,000 real nuclear weapons in the United States, Russia and other states, and that many of these are on hair-trigger alert.
He then argus in favour of the US signing the comprehensive test-ban treaty. He concludes:
A U.S. ratification of the comprehensive test-ban treaty would, in all likelihood, lead other states to ratify and bring all such tests to an end, making the development of nuclear weapons more difficult. Leaving the treaty in limbo, as has been done since 1996, is to risk new weapons testing.
The second measure would be to conclude an internationally verified agreement to cut off the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons purposes.
This would close the tap everywhere for more weapons material and would be of special importance if an agreement on nuclear cooperation with the United States were to give India access to more uranium than it has at the moment.
It is positive that the U.S. has recently presented a draft cutoff agreement, but hard to understand why this agreement does not include international inspection. Do the drafters think that the recent record of national intelligence indicates that international verification is superfluous?
Surely it would put the US in a stronger position were it to take this line?
Zarqawi Killed
CNN are showing a video of the airstrike that has apparently killed one of the most wanted men in the world, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Whether or not his death will affect the overall insurgency remains to be seen. It could be just as likely that his successor will carry on as ever, though without the same propaganda effect Zarqawi had, having evaded capture for so long.
Incidentally, the notorious US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, will be on Newsnight tonight, discussing the death of Zarqawi, and probably his recent run-ins over the comments of Mark Brown.
United 93
I went to see it today. An emotional rollercoaster, and well worth seeing.
But I found Flight 93 to be a better film overall. There are two chief differences between the two films.
First, Flight 93 shows the people at the other end of the phone. We get to see a wife’s or mother’s reaction to their loved ones calling them. There are protracted heart wrenching conversations between families, during the course of the hijacking. This makes Flight 93 a far more emotional experience. Much of the film is devoted to these phone calls.
Second, Flight 93 showed very little military reaction. The film instead centered on the passengers and the hijackers. No scenes of the planes hitting the WTC, only word coming through on the phones. The early parts of United are almost entirely devoted to air traffic control and NORAD reactions.
Two different approaches to tell the same overall story, I found Flight 93 to be the better of the two.
Cork Opera House
I helped out with the production of this podcast for Cork Opera House…
Interesting listening, love the song in the middle.
Government woes
What with all the furore over the Supreme Court judgment, at least we don’t have this spectacle in Ireland. That must be the weirdest and sickest political party I have ever heard of.
Quote of the day
Minister Brian ‘Biffo’ Cowen on the News at One.
Well I mean I have answered the questions insofar as is knowledgable in my knowledge.
More transcript below the fold.
Continue reading “Quote of the day”