Sunday, July 04, 2004
I don't know, but in the whole time I've live here, I've never really "gotten" the whole 4th of July thing. Sure, I understand that you threw the Brits out and got a new Consitution. Thats great. And the fireworks are very nice, and all. I guess in part its that unlike most other holidays, as a Brit we don't have anything analagous to this one. The last time we were conquered was in 1066 and nobody came and liberated us. We had a kind of peasants revolt that gave us the Magna Carta... but not enough to warrant a national holiday. Then we got all full of ourselves and invaded most of the world... and gave most of the world either influenza, tuberculosis or syphillis (or all three) along the way. And then of course they quite rightly almost all threw us out again little by little over the last 200 years.
The irony is that with all the erosions of freedom during this Administration, I'm not sure what most Americans are celebrating either. I mean, if another country held American citizens in prison for over 2 years on whatever charge without letting them see an attorney, you'd see them send the troops in to "bring our boys home", right?
Of course, putting all this in perspective, it was predated by the UK's own Criminal Justice Bill of 1994, which was arguably just as much an erosion of civil liberties and allowed many seemingly harmless activities to become illegal in the eyes of the beholder. For example, if you took a picture of one of your children in the bath and just happened to be able to see their "naughty bits", you could be prosecuted as a paedophile. No really.
Nah, nah, mate... calm down... its not worth it...
On a more positive note, went down to Fadó, an Irish pub in downtown Austin to watch Portugal vs. Greece in the final of Euro 2004 (its a soccer tournament for those that haven't been keeping up...). After England were knocked out by Portugal (because of a dodgy referee decision to disallow an England goal in the last few minutes of the game), we were totally rooting for the Greeks. And what a game. The Portugese were clearly the stronger side, but the Greeks played their hearts out, and the goalkeeper deserves the highest honor their country can bestow - he was awesome. And the Greek supporters were just amazing through the whole game - just totally happy to be there. The pub erupted when Greece went 1-0 up, and the energy never subsided until the final whistle. What an awesome result - I'm so happy for them.
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The irony is that with all the erosions of freedom during this Administration, I'm not sure what most Americans are celebrating either. I mean, if another country held American citizens in prison for over 2 years on whatever charge without letting them see an attorney, you'd see them send the troops in to "bring our boys home", right?
Of course, putting all this in perspective, it was predated by the UK's own Criminal Justice Bill of 1994, which was arguably just as much an erosion of civil liberties and allowed many seemingly harmless activities to become illegal in the eyes of the beholder. For example, if you took a picture of one of your children in the bath and just happened to be able to see their "naughty bits", you could be prosecuted as a paedophile. No really.
Nah, nah, mate... calm down... its not worth it...
On a more positive note, went down to Fadó, an Irish pub in downtown Austin to watch Portugal vs. Greece in the final of Euro 2004 (its a soccer tournament for those that haven't been keeping up...). After England were knocked out by Portugal (because of a dodgy referee decision to disallow an England goal in the last few minutes of the game), we were totally rooting for the Greeks. And what a game. The Portugese were clearly the stronger side, but the Greeks played their hearts out, and the goalkeeper deserves the highest honor their country can bestow - he was awesome. And the Greek supporters were just amazing through the whole game - just totally happy to be there. The pub erupted when Greece went 1-0 up, and the energy never subsided until the final whistle. What an awesome result - I'm so happy for them.
