Parliamentary debates in full swing...

I'm watching on PBS the British Parliament debating on the News of the World phone hacking debacle.  It never used to impress me much.  Having lived in the US for the past three years, I'm glued to the TV and to the display of intelligence and speed of reaction.  By comparison, the US presidents' press conferences (and I'm not even thinking of Bush!!!) seem like self-righteous kindergarten games.  Not even Obama would survive half an hour in the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions.  He should be lucky if he escapes without a heart attack, since his very measuuuuuuuuuuuured and caaaaaaaaaaaadenced speech would allow the rest of the MPs to crack an average 3 jokes/second and drive the Speaker of the House insane!  Let's face it, John Bercow does not suffer fools gladly.  But I forget, this is the country of the simulacrum and intelligence is no different.

Aung San Suu Kyi tells of Burma's struggle for freedom and its cost

"What is this passion? What is the cause to which we are so passionately dedicated as to forgo the comforts of a conventional existence?" she asks. "Going back to [former Czech dissident leader] Václav Havel's definition of the basic job of dissidents, we are dedicated to the defence of the right of individuals to free and truthful life. In other words, our passion is liberty."

From The Guardian

House

I love the way they managed to keep the dry British humour in an American context, and I'm still amazed by the popularity of this series on American TV.  The Brits so obviously hate Hugh Laurie for "selling out" to the Yanks/Sherman Tanks.  But he is great (of course!) and Massive Attack sound track is awesome too!

all in a day's work

My day at work. Can't talk about it. It's confidential, you see. Everything I do is confidential. Anyone I come in contact with needs to stay anonymous.

I'm working on my new assignment, which I need to figure out pretty soon! It's due a week from today minus 6 hours difference between US and England. That's for the ED209 Child Development with Open University. I enjoy some aspects of this course, but I still can't make up my mind about its overall appeal.

Had an interesting conversation with a friend today. Talked about a book called Classism and Feminist Therapy....:-)

In the meantime I came across a really interesting story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/video/2010/may/13/death-penalty-trial-law-video in which The former lord chief justice Lord Woolf presides over a trial of the US death penalty for perverting the course of justice. Two of Britain's leading criminal barristers cross-examine witnesses with intimate knowledge of the American justice system, including a mother who argued against the death sentence for her daughter's murderer. That's from my favourite paper: The Guardian! Could not live a day without it!