The Null Device
2003/6/5
We've got your moral clarity right here: US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz admits the Iraq war was about oil. Speaking in Singapore, Wolfowitz (a member of the Project for a New American Century, a think tank openly committed to global U.S. hegemony) stated, "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil."
Which is likely to further damage the standing of Tony Blair, the PNAC's most loyal servant ally overseas, possibly leading to him being dumped by Labour (unless there is an intelligence cabal blackmailing key Labour members into supporting the neo-conservative cause, as some have suggested). Of course, after the next general election, it may not matter. Rupert Murdoch's Sun tabloid largely decides those, and apparently they're already leaning towards the Tories.
Not sure what effects it will have in Australia; perhaps it will embolden Labor and remove the temptation for the government to call a double-dissolution "khaki election". (via Charlie's Diary)
This (well, Wednesday) afternoon, I met BeTh for coffee, which was fun. She's a pretty cool person to talk with about random things (including the weather, strangely enough); it's a pity we weren't aware of working almost next door to each other until a fortnight before she leaves Melbourne and moves to The Land That Broadband Forgot.
I went away from the meeting with a copy of Bidston Moss' A Nice Lie Down, which on first listen is pretty good. I can think of people I should play some of their songs to. (The artwork is fairly doovy too...)
Conceptual art of the day: Thing in a Jar:
Usually when I make a Thing in a Jar, I try to keep the shape ambiguous enough so that the viewer cannot really pin down exactly what they're looking at. The glass jar acts as a physical barrier, preventing the viewer from directly accessing its contents. The murky fluid acts as a visual barrier, making the exact details of the form indistinct. The viewer is forced to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.
It's fun to leave the Thing in a Jar in someone's refrigerator and watch their reaction.
(via Gimbo)