In particular, sorry for not updating SBBS – and for not changing it to display old posts when everything has expired. My own fault for being too stubborn to use MT, I guess… Anyway, happy new year. What’s happened since I last posted?

The US government’s plan to force foreign airlines to hire sky marshals has reached the sneakily coercive stage – “have marshalls, or we’ll ban your flight from taking off!”. I’m sure the insurance industry only quotes higher premiums for pilots travelling with sky marshals than those travelling without because the people working there don’t understand risk, not because the plan is utterly mad and dangerous.

In other news, head Kink Ray Davies has been shot. Surprisingly, not by his brother or any of his other bandmates.

The most shocking news of the Christmas period, though, was the revelation that if you take a country with a long-established climate of corruption, put a notorious crook in charge, and abolish the laws against fraud, then Bad Things will happen. I’ll drink (milk) to that.