What the...?
You know, this may well turn out to be a dud, or a complete error, but it looks like the Bush administration may have actually come up with a foreign policy initiative for the Middle East that's a good idea. (Yes, I've gotten rather cynical about these things. Does it show?)

If it goes off, OT1H it's probably a big win for Bush and some of his cronies, but it's also potentially a win for quite a few other people as well, and it may actually advance peace in the Middle East. And since the cynical advantage part is pretty obvious, it doesn't make me worry about hidden booby-traps quite as much.

But you know... this sort of policy, of keeping everyone's hands so far in one another's pockets that they can't reach for a gun does sound vaguely like the Clinton doctrine... *grin*

Story here.

( And in other politics news...Collapse )

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Because I'm avoiding work...
Looking up "draught" in the OED for pronounciation notes, which can't be copied into here because it's full of symbols that ordinary HTML can't render. Apparently the pronounciation "drawt" showed up in late Middle English but went out around the 18th century; the Scots currently pronounce it "dracht" (guttural ch, as in 'loch') and everyone else has gone over to "draft," a pronounciation which the OED editors apparently don't like because it makes the connection with "draw" less obvious. (A draught is something which is drawn, as a breath, a drink, a pen across a page, or an animal's load)

The more logical spelling "draft" is therefore coming into use, but is apparently the accepted spelling only for certain senses of the word, e.g. a drafting table, or a gust of wind in a room, and not e.g. a draught of beer or a draught animal.

This has been another useless fact.

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