I don't like it.

I'd rather the government spends the money on a more efficient bus or train service rather than aim to make it more comfortable. I'm not sure where the line is drawn between SBS and the government on this, but I see little tangible benefit to it, other than the fact that a group of heat-sensitive individuals will be able to breathe easier.

Air conditioning the whole place, to me, is a waste of money. The heat and humidity might irk and fustrate, but how long does one spend at the terminal? How much would it cost to run the air conditioning day in and day out, and what about the costs to the environment for such an unnecessary venture?

I also don't get it.

Angela Merkel recently praised the Danish cartoonist at a ceremony for his highly controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons that stole the headlines a few years back. She will be doing so so as to show support for freedom of speech, even in the face of death threats. Of course, the threats didn't come before the cartoon, so I don't see the full merit to that statement. The whites and their free speech.

What doesn't click though, is that the very same leader has also condemned the plan by Pastor Terry Jones from the States to burn Qurans on Sept 11, to simultaeneously commemorate and condemn the event of the same name. In his International Burn a Koran Day, the pastor defended his actions as, once more, fitting of the West's freedom of speech rights. After all, if the Muslims can burn American flags and condemn the West freely, what's a little tit for tat?

I don't agree with this, though. As far as I am concerned, the newsreels that publicise such events lack a religiously intolerant aspect. It tends to be the case that these happy-go-lucky arsonists target the Americans as a country rather than through their major religion.

But I digress. To me, it smacks of an odd double-standard that the leader is reaching for. Both are similar acts of condemnation towards a religion, and both are conducted on the grounds of free speech. Is her support for the Dane one of European solidarity? If so, (which I doubt) then it must be highly near sighted. Each act of hers was done in close succession, so there's no question where a change of hearts could be in such a short span of time as a prominent a widely regarded leader.

I just don't get it.

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