February 20, 2002, 1:15pm. Dubya is doing his best to make John Howard look competent. From the New York Times, “Standing atop a sandbag bunker and protected by bulletproof glass, President Bush peered through binoculars at North Korea Wednesday and bluntly called it “evil.””.

Direct from Reuters, “The axes that were used to slaughter two U.S. soldiers are in the peace museum,” Bush said. “No wonder I think they’re evil.”.

Is having a museum evil, or calling it a peace museum instead of a war museum the problem? Do we need to explain to him that just because war museums point ouf the folly of war, it doesn’t mean that peace museums point out the folly of peace.

In the same article, Bush says, “We must not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most dangerous weapons”. So, it’s ok when he thinks it about a bunch of foreigners, but not ok when a bunch of foreigners think it about him?

The Opinion Journal, from the Wall Street Journal, has an interesting article about Bush’s use of ‘evil’ and there’s also this summary of responses to Bush.

On a lighter note, Reuters says: “Philippine karaoke parlors have been removing “My Way” from play lists because fights frequently broke out — for unfathomable reasons — when the song was sung”.

11:48am.Nice article on doctype.

9:32am. I knew photos were doubtful, PM admits. This should be the scandal that topples the Howard government, but it probably won’t be. It’s horrible that John Howard will probably get away with lying to the Australian public to win the election. 11 per cent of respondents to a NewsPoll said they “would have voted differently had they known the truth during the election campaign”, and 51 per cent “felt the government had acted ‘dishonourably’ in the affair”.

Defence staff ‘were ordered to doctor details on photos’. Makes me proud to be an Australian. I wonder if it’s too late to return my passport.

In related news, Labor is finally getting the web, launching a site http://www.truthoverboard.com/.

Hicks sues United States for the same legal rights as American Taliban John Walker Lindh.

Fluffy link: cartoon.

General Dutch phrases, including the all important ‘dat hangt er van af’ (that depends), ‘het kan me niet schelen’ (I don’t mind) and ‘Ik denk het’ (I suppose so). And just for me, the ‘be understood‘ section, including ‘Ik ben het woord vergeten voor…’ (I have forgotten the word for…).