10 years ago today, Bill Hicks died. His material on the gulf war, on the other hand, could have been written yesterday.

I read in the papers today that the charges against Katharine Gun have been droppped. This surprises me somewhat, as she’s plainly bloody guilty, and as far as I understand these things was largely fighting the case in order that certain evidence would come out in court. The speculation is that the charges were dropped because the government did not want Lord Goldsmith’s advice to the government about the legality of the war on Iraq being published.

This is of course, being denied. But yeah, I think it’s a bit bloody suspicious that the charges were dropped the day after the defense brought their intent to look to Lord Goldsmith’s advice in court. The official reason being given is that there was fear that a majority of 12 randomly selected jurors would be reflexively anti-war, and would acquit on that basis, and thus damage the force of the Official Secrets Act. Personally, I think this is toss – no-one worries about a majority of 12 randomly selected jurors being in favour of legalising cannabis when they’re called on to give a verdict in a trial relating to cannabis, and from my own experience, I can say that a jury is capable of setting aside their own feelings on a subject and coming to decision.

The second gulf war was like the first, only conducted under false pretenses, and quite possibly criminal so, y’know, worse.

There’s a temptation to look back at the past, and say that things for better then. For the most part, I tend to look askance at doing that sort of thing. But christ, a decade on, and not only are we going to war with a man we armed in the first place, but we’re being lied to with impugnity by the people we elect to represent us. And we’re letting them away with it, all while watching the fuckers stripmine our education system and fuck over one of our greatest journalistic institutions. And America looks like it’s going to asked to choose between Skull-and-Bones-man in office, and Skull-and-Bones-man in opposition at the next election, and I just don’t see things getting better for the world any time soon.

And Bill Hicks is still dead.

A virus with fucking shoes, ladies and gents.