there used to be a copy of pred.txt online. there isn't anymore, so here is a replacement. predator, or michael carlton, was an amazing guy who did a lot more than many of us could imagine. this is his story, and some of his writing.

• Pred.txt (pdf - 11MB)

Thus concluded Charles Ferguson, film director and producer of No End In Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq at the end of an evening of debate, following a screening of the film. Not just any old screening, either; this was only the second ever screening, in front of an audience of academics, students and lay people - learned others - at the heart of the well known Californian political community, Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

The film, which won the 2007 Sundandce Film Festival Special Jury Prize in the Documentary category, is Ferguson's first film; I'm not sure how he came to make it, as his bio listed a degree in mathematics, followed by a doctorate in Political Science, which was in turn followed by a a number of years as an independent consultant providing "strategic consulting" in the early nineties. Perhaps he has now found his vocation - for this film truly is magnificent, acting as a quality piece of writing against the dross that an every day reader recieves. It is to Michael Moore's movies (Fahrenheit 911 being the most similar in topic) as the Times or Guardian are to the Mirror or the Sun, the New York Times or the Herald Tribune to the Daily Post: this is a purely class documentary, allowing the subjects to do the speaking, whilst Ferguson narrates only the most fragile of architectures. And it is clear who's mess is Iraq - and who's legacy.

Another movie night, having done over 400 multiple choice questions today (didn't mark them yet - although I know I got 50% on the first two). Felt it was appropriate to relax a little bit, and get up early again tomorrow. Previously, I've written about Fitzcarraldo; I also previously watched that in this house, the house of the chickens, a year or more after I'd first seen it. Magnificent. But tonight, was a night of Alain Resnais.

And as to everything, all good things, people and chickens come to an end.... I just checked my email to discover that, unfortunately, Mr Fox wins today:

Today at midday, the black chicken was killed by a fox. I had let them out and was sitting in the kitchen when the speckled one burst into the kitchen and jumped onto my computer.
I rushed out to discover some feathers by the trampoline and the body under the big tree. The orange chicken was nowhere to be found. Eventually, maybe two hours later the orange chicken re-emerged.
The upshot of all this is that I am cooking roast chicken tonight if you wish to join me.

The title of this post is taken from Saul Alinsky's eponymous book, which I spy sitting on the mantelpiece over the fireplace, just a short distance away from where I sit. But that is not what I was going to talk about initially... instead, I wanted to highlight some topical news (of the week) about drugs in the United Kingdom: a report has been published, which follows on another report, which makes some suggestions according to some heavily-involved people in the industry (well, from the "establishment" perspective that is, doctors, police, drugs-workers, the like) that maybe the classification of drugs isn't quite so straightforward. And there beginneth the arguments....