Given the amount of anti-Bush protests, demonstrations, people and events going on in America I don't understand how opinion polls still put Bush and Kerry at ~50/50. Something is seriously wrong over there guys, and it needs to be fixed. Sadly I think Kerry winning this election won't be enough, for two reasons: the hard-right nutters politicians will still be around and the Democrats are still pretty right-wing when compared to some other countries.

Yes, I'm a tree-hugging nut-eating hippy. The highlight of yesterday was reading the excellent The Wrap from The Guardian, in which they slated The Daily Mail (a tabloid with aspirations of intelligence, meaning serif type) for running horror stories about how "half your income goes on taxes", assuming you earn £50400 a year. I quote:

But what is so unfair about the vast majority of New Labour's tax rises is the people they punish. The hard-working, home-owning, pension-building middle classes are ruthlessly targeted again and again, while the feckless and welfare-dependent are allowed to benefit from the Government's commitment to 'social inclusion'.

Erm, yes. That was the point.

NP: Blue For You, Nina Simone

First a new lens for our camera arrived, a 50mm f/1.8. It's not USM so the focus motor sounds more like a scream than a whisper, but at £55 it was a bargain. Now I get to play around with low-light photography.

Secondly, a new monitor, an Iiyama E431S 17" LCD monitor. They claim it's "ivory" which I was hoping would be white, but they mean "beige". However, the image quality is great and I was pleased to see a sRGB button in the menus. All I need now is a ICC X extension and my monitor calibration tool is useless.

I didn't tell Vicky about all this as she has been saying how ugly my computer is recently -- 17" monitor and a mid-tower, beige and clunky, until the original iMac came out I didn't have this problem :) -- and I thought I'd surprise her. When Vicky finally noticed yesterday evening she was really pleased, and having lots of space on the desk is... liberating.

NP: Best of Sting and The Police