Sunday, June 17, 2012

Eventually

A dear friend, speaking to me a little over a year ago about the matter that has caused my many recent distractions, reminded me of the surgeon's wisecrack about bad things:
"All bleeding eventually stops."
Well, I'm not sure the problem this time has stopped, but it is out of my face for a while. Let's see if I can't do some good here while I've the chance.

Usual thread posting resumes Monday, 18.June.

Thanks for waiting, All.

***

Update Monday: Due to some mysterious new bug in Blogger, I can't create any new Topic Tread postings.

Update 2 Tuesday: Problem persists. Damn it.

Update 3 Wednesday: Problem persists. It isn't anything here (no changes to my set-up since posting this thread successfully on the 17th). Feedback to Google Blogger sent. Sending again.

Update 4 Thursday: Problem persists. No feedback from Blogger yet. ***See the comments on this thread for ongoing discussions, please.***

3 comments:

Will said...

Well let's open a topic in the comments then!

What's all this about the Pakistani supreme court declaring the office of the PM vacant because he refused to investigate the president? Is there some person or organization behind this mess, or is it something else?

L.Douglas Garrett said...

Works for me!

What that all is would be the latest round of the near-permanent hostilities between the Pakistan Supreme Court (specifically enbodied in Chief Justice Chaudhry) and the office of the President of Pakistan (currently held by A.A. Zardari). The attempt to force the removal of Prime Minister Gilani is really just collateral damage. The conflicts go back to previous administrations, over everything from judicial independence to the courts being used by certain (Army-linked) factions to undermine a civilian President. While this particular case is all about keeping some charges of corruption against Zardari alive, (oh, and while the Swiss case was dismissed, the general charges against "Mr. Ten Percent" have potential merit...) the larger conflict between the institutions of state can't be ignored.

Here's a BBC report on where things stand now.

Hope that helps.

L.Douglas Garrett said...

OK, continuing the idea of opening topics here until we get a fix from Blogger:

You know all that talk about how Japan is a "blame-avoidant culture", one where blame is rarely placed for social reasons? It is usually so... not surprising in a culture that had 200+ years where being blamed for something was pretty much a death sentence... but...

apparently TEPCO feels they are above any such risks.

Yeah. Sure. Then again, they may just be trying to dodge their own responsibility. Trying to save their own neck, so to speak. If so, I'd wager it isn't going to work.