You see, what I would do is release some information to them: a good mix of real intel (that, despite its appearance, wouldn’t hurt that much), some stuff we know everybody knows already, and some made-up junk.

I mean, let’s face it: you’d be disappointed if, as the ruler of a foreign power, the US wasn’t spying on you. And we already know that politicians are the scum of the earth, and that Silvio Berlusconi doesn’t get enough sleep. People say nasty things about other people all the time; down the pub, in email, and in the embassy. How about some information that, actually, makes us look good—Hey, the Saudis asked us to nuke Iran, and we haven’t. Aren’t we good citizens?

As time goes on, I’d release more info, and successively weight the mix towards the third sort of material. I’d do this through multiple sources. Eventually, Wikileaks is publishing shite, and then you can discredit them publicly, throwing doubt on everything they’ve ever done.

Before that stage, however, I’d get the Secretary of State to stand up in TV and announce that we were taking ‘aggressive steps’—to shut down Wikileaks and increase internal security.

Who could blame us for that?

I like Nature Network. I’ve got a bunch of mates there, it’s possibly a bit cliquey but in a way that doesn’t exclude new, interesting people, and very few people are nutters, up their own backside or into the whole “let’s pick on creationists because it’s good for traffic” thing. A nice bunch, on the whole. Unlike the wankers at scienceblogs.com who bore me stupid.

So this cove has basically said ‘Thanks! I’m off to Scienceblogs.com!’ after a month or two. And points the NN bunch to his RSS feed.

Shrug. Yeah, whatever.

Half-way. Yay!

Matt Stone has some unconventional Christmas cards at his place.

(see here)

Anyway, the important thing is that I scored a cool freebie:

Woohoo!

I sent the link to CK, giggling at the phrase

Holland is impolitely interrupted during breakfast as a stray bomb lands in his cup of cocoa.

CK writes back that his

great uncle was one of four Dutch soldiers to be injured during WWI. He was in an observation post when the Germans ‘accidentally’ lobbed in some a small shell. The explosion set fire to their store of cooking oil and he was a bit burned trying to fight the fire.

Good enough for him to claim a war pension for the rest of his life.

As far as I can tell, just about every male member of CK’s extended family did something in one of the two major unpleasantnesses in Europe last century, from sinking U-Boats single-handedly to rescuing 45,000 Polish refugees using only a rubber dinghy and a bag of flour.

Amazing.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to Bentley Priory. And this piece of art is remarkable:

observe, to trade (on our terms) and occasionally fight the French & Germans.

In many ways, this is an artworking job like any other. But you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the ultimate purpose of everything you do is to protect the UK 

Even more ego-strokingly, I appear, directly or indirectly, three times in that one post.

Fame! We’re going to live forever!

Um, nearly got carried away, there. Sorry.

I am proud of my dad, my sister and my brother-in-law.  They have served their country at home and abroad, in places such as Basra and Pristina.  And they should be able to walk down the street — any street — with their heads high, saying “I served you”.   

Because if they can’t, what they have done and still do, and what our parents and their parents did all over the world in the last hundred years, is meaningless. We, the people they protect and serve, are duty-bound to honour and respect them. 

So I say, wear your uniforms with pride, and if any bastard has it in for you, you have a sidearm for a reason.  And I’ll gladly be your witness.

 Google for “hullo chaps” and you find that really, some people would whinge if their arses were on fire. 

Send email to suzannbadango4@yahoo.com or suzannbadango119@hotmail.com, if you like.