Dream with me

Long Entrey - Friends, Weekend off and War with Iran

This is bad.

I've not done any real work for the past two days and now that I am here to remedy it I can't concentrate because my back is killing me!

Still, as of tomorrow the library is closed for four days. I plan to play FFX again (or maybe X-2 depending on how I feel) and watch much holiday TV.

Only annoying thing is the idiot BBC is only showing 1/2 hour of decent sport all weekend - half an hours cycling on Saturday lunchtime.

The rest of the weekend is bloody snooker.

Still, it's the London Marathon next weekend.

My back really really aches!

I am resigned to the fact that I won't make my self-imposed deadline tomorrow. My back is really painful and I can't sit anywhere or at any computer, it would seem.

...

I've just been on a short walk through the journals and that seems to have helped.

Oh huzzah, I now get to write about Rupert Murdoch and competition Law. Joy!

Watch my word count sky rocket!

Hey, I'm actually close to being sort-of finished!

Actually, All I need now is the conclusion and to give the whole thing a once over.

Then it's my final chapter: The Final Conclusion.

My conclusion? The media is so whiped by their governmental masters they are failing to do their job in informing the public.

I'll write it in posher language, obviously.

Urg, my full project (minus chapter 3 and conclusion) is already 24 pages long. Plus references and my full biblio it's going to cost an absolute mint to print out!

Maybe I shoudl cheat and print it in the News Room for free?

I'm going to finish downloading now and go home and get some dinner. I'll be back later tonight to finish this chapter.

I'll also slop son painkiller gel on my back and use the ice pack for a while.

I might not come back, you know. I'm taking copies of all my work back to the Hall with me so I may not need to.

Really, I'm just downloading a bunch of scanlations so I have stuff to occupy me for four days.

Although, if I do play video games as I plan too, it won't be a problem.

I'm going to make Yorkshire pudding tonight. I have to use up my milk.

Here's hoping it's not gone off.

I got a distressed phone call from Nadine while I was in the library not-working yesterday. She's only just now started to write up her dissertation (who amongst us hadn't been expecting that?) and has discovered a ton of gaps in her research. She's stressing that she won't get it finished in time.

I bit back the 'I told you so' I so desperatly wanted to throw at her and just directed her to Google Scholar instead.

For three months I've been pushing her to do more work and less drinking. More reading and less getting high. Hell, if she'd just gone to see John once it would have been something.

It is very frustrating. I care about her a lot but I can't help her if she's not willing to do at least the bare minimum of work.

I want to tell her all these things. I want to yell at her for being so damn stupid as to go home now when she knew she wouldn't get any work done. When she knew it would leave her with only a week once she came back to write 9,000 words.

It doesn't sound like much but I've been writing up now for about three weeks and I'm still not done. It's not as simple as just writing up your notes or jotting down ideas. It needs a structure and to flow as well as having all the research and what have you to back it up.

I've not seen Nadine's research, I'll admit. I don't know how long her full Biblio is orthe variety of research she has used. But I look at what she carries around with her and I listen to her talk and it doesn't sound like she's done much

She makes a lot of excuses like all the research is too old or whatever.

I usually just nod and agree when what I really want to say is that it shouldn't be an issue. If the research is for the election before last so what? The world has not changed that much since then and it is possible to make inferences and hypothosis based on what you already know about the political climate.

You don't know if young people failed to vote because of disillusionment or apathy? Ask them. If there has been no survey conduct one yourself. Go to the Sixth Form collage (which is directly opposite where I live and not exactly a trek) and talk to the students milling around outside. Just 25 or 50 of them would give you an aproximation.

It's not like there is a ton of stuff written on what I'm doing. I've looked all over and not found any papers or books which look at the relationship between PD and Press Freedom. So I look at stuff that is close to it or focuses on one or the other then I use my brain.

For three months I've been telling Nadine to get her head out of the clouds and do some work. Her Ed/Dan/Alex trauma will still be there after April 27 but if she blows her degree because she too busy living her soap opera she'll have only herself to blame.

I know this may all sound harsh and I know Nadine visits my diary periodically (I just hop she reads this after deadline) but I needed to get it off my chest.

I can't say any of this to her. She's an overly sensitive soul and if I said any of this it will shatter her confidence in her work.

Like I said, overly sensitive.

What pisses me off more is that I can see myself offering to help. I'm not sure what I could do to help but I can see it happening.

I'm such a bleeding mug.

On another note entirely I've been reading a lot about what's going on with Iran. From blog to mass media the same thing is being said time and again; Are we going to war with Iran and if so, when?

Now I don't need to sit here and tell you guys my opinion on that. I think you all know me well enough by now to know.

So I had to ask myself - why all the hooplah? America can't go to war right now because of simple math.

The military is streatched too thin. With operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, peace keeping with the UN and NATO and keeping at least a minimul number of troops at home there simply aren't enough soldiers to launch an offensive against Iran.

The only real option they have in a skeleton personal ariel strike against Terahn and various nuclear facilities.

This would be a stupid thing to do because Iran is not the same at Iraq. Saddam had been virtually crippled by sanctions and so the invasion was relatively easy. Iran however is not as weak as Iraq was in 2003 and it has already publically stated that any attack by the US will result in retaliation against Isreal and the US.

(I really hope Bush isn't stupid enough to bomb Iran because it puts my Sivy in danger.)

Experts theorise that Iran could launch conventional and chemical attacks against Isreal and US forces in Iraq, infiltrate Iraqi resistence to atack the US military and send suicide bombers to the US mainland.

I thought that the "War on Terror" (now renamed the Long War (bodes well doesn't it?)) was supposed to prevent these kinds of attacks?

Now I'm not saying that the prespects of these relatiaions is going to put the Americans off, far from it, but I believe that logisitally, without reintroducing the draft, it simply cannot happen.

A war with Iran will not be like a war with Iraq. Against Iran it does not have the dubious 'credibility' of removing a dangerous dictator as pretext. The leader of Iran is democratically elected. A war with Iran will be a war of ideologies that cannot be won by either side.

Europe is already against the Iraq war, and that initially had little to do with it being a Muslim state. The US' issues with Iran very obviously stem from it being a Muslim state.

A war against Iran will be costly, foolhardy and impossible to win (on the Hearts and Minds front).

And yet you know, in you heart of hearts, that if the political climate of the US remains as it is then it is inevitable.

Not that I think the Democrates will do much of a better job but at least they do not have an ideological conviction to convert and control the Middle East.

To an extent it all seems to come back to the merging of Church and State.

We in Europe learnt that it was a bad idea centuries ago. Every country has to learn that lesson for themselves. It is just a shame that America has to learn it now, in the nuclear and digital age.

Anyway, seriousness over now!

Right. I'm hungry, my back still hurts and I'm done downloading so I am off.

Even if I come back I probably won't post again today so I shall wish you all a Happy Easter and a Happy Passover and a Happy Whateverthehellelse and I shall see thee all again on Tuesday next week.

Ja Ne lovelies!