he's still dead

so, John Lennon died 25 years ago today.

why, thank you for asking ... no, I didn't feel I'd lost a friend. I didn't feel as if I knew him. I don't remember where I was when I heard he'd died.

he was a pop star who was shot - it's sad, but that's all. It's bad enough that we all have to suffer the Cult of the Celebrity. Now we have the Cult of the Dead Celebrity, FFS.

even our national treasure, the Home Service, is all over this like a rash. I fully expect to see Tony Blair during the course of the day, wringing his hands and talking about "the people's Beatle".

thermaland has summed it up nicely for me here, so I won't rant any more.

Harold Pinter's Nobel speech

'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'

more here (link to the Guardian).

this extract, of course, is not Pinter's own conviction, but his suggested speech for G W Bush.