November Chills

[El Gordo]

I suppose the danger of letting Saddam live out his days exiled in the US is he'd end up on Jay Leno or Letterman taking cat-calls and curtain-calls for big bucks. There has to be a more appropriate sentence; death's just too quick and easy. Answers on a postcard please . . .

I haven't yet heard this confirmed, but an Iraqi caller on 5 Live this morning claimed that the constitution forbids the execution of anyone over 70 in Iraq. Apparently Saddam is about 6 months short of that age. One could foresee an appeal, followed by a decision to continue with his other trial, taking him well past that stage, thus possibly neatly avoiding the danger of martyring him. On the other hand, the information might have been bogus...

I've always been against the death penalty, even for dictators.

On the subject of cynicism, I'm sure you've all heard the suggestion that the trial verdict was scheduled to be delivered just a couple of days before the US mid-term congressional elections. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature, but in this case I'm making an exception.

There's been some fascinating stuff from the US recently. It's heartening to hear that so many Americans feel the same as pretty much everyone else in the world about Bush. The nation is truly divided. Read a really interesting article in the International Herald Tribune about how Bush had polarised the US. Families no longer talking to each other. Interviewed a guy who'd been a member of the same bridge or poker school for 30 years. Last week, he and another member resigned because they could no longer stand being in the same room as the Republicans that they'd always previously rubbed along with, through thick and thin. Arguments in PTAs. Fascinating stuff.

Praise the Lord.