PeterBlood goes to Lisbon

Os erros, peripécias, asneiras, distracções, do governo anterior iam ao coração do poder, directamente aos lugares cimeiros da governação e eram vistos como extensões da identidade e do estilo dos governantes. Mais: eram potenciados na primeira pessoa, por ditos e eventos, que punham em causa a competência do governo na sua condução central, e encontravam todos os dias novas justificações para que a suspeita de incompetência fosse mais do que isso, mas sim uma realidade.

A crítica a este governo tem muito por onde se fazer, mas tem uma condição sine qua non para ser eficaz e merecer ser ouvida: a de se demarcar das trapalhadas do governo anterior sem ambiguidades, nem desculpas, nem simetrias.

DUAS QUESTÕES ÉTICAS...

Primeira questão:

Suponhamos que conhece uma mulher que está grávida, mas que já tem 8 filhos, dos quais 3 são surdos, 2 cegos e um retardado mental. Além disso a mulher tem sífilis. Recomendaria que ela fizesse um aborto?

Responda mentalmente, depois leia a segunda questão.

Segunda questão:

Está na hora de eleger o Presidente do Mundo, e o seu voto é determinante. Os dados dos três principais candidatos:

O candidato A está associado a políticos corruptos e consulta astrólogos. Tem duas amantes. Fuma como uma chaminé e bebe de oito a dez martinis por dia.

O candidato B já foi destituído duas vezes, dorme até ao meio-dia, fumava ópio na escola e bebe um quarto de litro de whisky todas as noites.

O candidato C é um herói de guerra condecorado. É vegetariano, ocasionalmente toma uma cerveja e nunca teve casos extraconjugais.

O candidato A - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

O candidato B - Winston Churchill.

O candidato C - Adolf Hitler.

...e, a propósito:

A respeito da questão do aborto:
Se respondeu "sim", saiba que acaba de matar Beethoven.

‘Get off the corruption thing,’ says Bob Geldof. The point is that nobody has got on to it properly yet. Aid-giving nations pretend to be tough on corruption, while African leaders pretend to change. Aid bureaucrats care less about financial probity than the press releases claiming that an economy is on a positive reform track. They are not helping Africa’s young entrepreneurs. By throwing fiscal discipline to the wind and shovelling aid at Africa, the international bureaucrats will fuel a new renaissance in corruption.

Meanwhile, NGOs refuse to focus on corruption because it’s simply not a priority for them. They blame corruption on Western multinationals. Charities are ideological museums stuffed with socialists and anti-globalisation activists. They loathe private enterprise. I sometimes wonder if they would prefer to see Africans stay poor so that aid workers could carry on doing good works for them.

"Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver;
É ferida que dói e não se sente;
É um contentamento descontente;
É dor que desatina sem doer"

Luis de Camões

Ah Camões
Se vivesses hoje em dia
Tomavas uns anti-piréticos
Uns quantos analgésicos
E Xanax ou Prozac para a depressão
Compravas um computador
Consultavas a página do Murcon
E descobririas
Que essas dores que sentias
Esses calores que te abrasavam
Essas mudanças de humor repentinas
Esses desatinos sem nexo
Não eram feridas de amor
Mas somente falta de sexo.

Análise do poema de uma aluna de 16 anos da Escola C+S da Rinchoa

Serious scholars still debate whether the Civil War was necessary, never mind the more obvious "wars of choice" such as World War I, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Korean War, wars in Vietnam and Kosovo, and the Persian Gulf War. To a certain brand of American isolationist, even World War II was unnecessary and counterproductive. So there is nothing remarkable about polls showing Americans wondering whether the recent Iraq war was "worth it." It is a great American myth, voiced by John Kerry last year, that the nation goes to war only when there is no question about the necessity of going to war.

NEW YORK--Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids--so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview--one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."

In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called "The Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So in a nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her beliefs--which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment.

U.S. marines watching the skyline from their second-story perch in an abandoned house here saw a curious thing: In the distance, mortar rounds and gunfire popped, but the volleys did not seem to be aimed at them.

In the dark, one marine spoke in hushed code words on a radio, and after a minute found the answer. "Red on red," he said late Sunday night, using a military term for enemy-on-enemy fire.

I am saddened by the unhelpful attitude of John Simpson, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, for declining to take on board the concerns of the British Potato Council, campaigning for the removal of the term "couch potato" from the dictionary - which is deterring people from making more use of this nutritious vegetable (Couch potato label gives veg a bad name, June 20).
As one who has spent much of his life in the fruit and vegetable business, I can vouch for the fact that there are a great many terms in the English language that give needless pain to the sensitive greengrocer. We deplore derogatory descriptions such as "cabbage head", "prune face", "cauliflower ears". These have a negative impact on our business by making all such produce unattractive. Who is going to buy raspberries if people insist on blowing them?
Even seemingly innocuous terms like "fruity" and "nutty" give grave offence to vegans such as myself. People should show more sensitivity and refrain from all such loose talk.
Jeremy Hart
Buckfastleigh, Devon