Daily Loaf

The president that should've been.

I am talking, of course, about Al Gore. Loving, caring, and utterly boring, the man who won the popular vote in the latest American presidential election has kept a low profile in the ever-cooling atmosphere of post-9/11 America. Just last week though, when he finally opened his mouth in a public address for the first time in a year or so, the message that boomed out was clear and grave.

The former vice-president spoke at an event organised by MoveOn.org, an organisation devoted to putting the public back in the republic. He raises many good points. He can't resist, though, the temptation of listing - and certainly isn't the first to do so - some of the "false impressions" conveyed by the current US administration in justification of the liberation of Iraq. The war is now over, and, to quote South Park: "It's been six weeks since Saddam Hussein was killed by wild boars, and the world is still glad to be rid of him." And Gore himself admits his message isn't that removing a cruel dictator is wrong. To deceive a nation - and indeed, the world - on this and other accounts, is. To attempt to shut down democratic processes, is.

I won't reiterate all the arguments put forward by Gore here. The George Akerlof interview in the German weekly Der Spiegel - the sassier points of which are referred to in the speech - is definitely worth a read; heavy words from a Nobel laureate. Since national sovereignty is no longer in vogue, it would poetic justice if the rest of the world could come up with some ideas on how to prevent the re-election of the man responsible for a new breed of interventionism.

Quick note

Life has been throwing little pebbles my way for the last couple of days, preventing me from posting anything. Last week I got some sort of funky stomach flu or food poisoning, which kept me in bed for the better part of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I did make it to the gay sauna (not the seedy hamam-kind, please) at Jani's, even though there was much crayfish standing between me and 80 degrees of sweet relief. Didn't make it to Mixei though, still had bad mojo left over from previous days. On the gossipy side, things are boiling down Tampere way, with G-A-Y parties bound to repeat the success of their June edition, the aforementioned gay bar lost to terrible, terrible music, and the traditional Leimarit having been transformed into obscure events that no longer seem to serve most of the community; certainly not the people I know from Tampere. Check out the conversation at TreSeta or at Ranneliike (Finnish only, sorry).

And I still can't get over the fact that student apartments in Tampere have saunas these days! In Helsinki you're lucky to get a tiny room in some distant ghetto 10 miles from your school.

Sunday is spent honing the gaymobile, washing, vacuuming and waxing, and driving it to the maintenance guy. Although our June road-trip isn't to blame (there were signs a few years back already), some tube that has something to do with power-steering finally gave up, and since the replacement (which had to be ordered from the States) had finally arrived, it was time to hand that beautiful machine over to someone who knows their way around under the hood.

Monday I come to work only to find out my monitor has been scavenged to replace one that had blown up at the plasma cutter. Now I'm happily typing away at my new 17-inch Flatron, so I'm not complaining - although it's been much too long a hiatus. I haven't read the news in a few days, but I'm sure I'll have formed some opinions by tomorrow. Try and stop me!