Thursday, August 02, 2007

John Edwards' Harpies

McEwan:

What don’t you lousy motherfuckers understand about keeping your noses out of our britches, our beds, and our families?

…The unmitigated temerity of calling themselves the “Pro-Family” Network while they try to undermine gay families is just about enough to send me permanently around the bend. And what’s this bullshit about children deserving to be “in that relationship”? If you’re so bloody passionate about making sure kids have a mom and a dad, then surely you’re spending at least as much time and effort on deadbeat parents and trying to criminalize divorce for couples with children, right? No? Pretty much just focused on preventing gays from giving homes to unwanted children? What a fucking surprise.

Oh, and I see on your shitbag website that “Hate Crimes Bills” are one of your priorities.

Labels:

Sunday, July 22, 2007

There always has to be one, doesn't there?


Hover mouse over pic to stop it and give it its title.



Friday, January 12, 2007

[fossil record] giants

Giant Skeletons

In his book, The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, author John Haywood describes "very large" bones in stone graves found in Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1821. In White County, Tennessee, an "ancient fortification" contained skeletons of gigantic stature averaging at least 7 feet in length.

Giant skeletons were found in the mid-1800s near Rutland and Rodman, New York. J.N. DeHart, M.D. found vertebrae "larger than those of the present type" in Wisconsin mounds in 1876. W.H.R. Lykins uncovered skull bones "of great size and thickness" in mounds of Kansas City area in 1877.

George W. Hill, M.D., dug out a skeleton "of unusual size" in a mound of Ashland County, Ohio. In 1879, a nine-foot, eight-inch skeleton was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana (Indianapolis News, Nov 10, 1975).

A six foot, six inch skeleton was found in a Utah mound. This was at least a foot taller than the average Indian height in the area, and these natives — what few there were of them — were not mound builders.

"A skeleton which is reported to have been of enormous dimensions" was found in a clay coffin, with a sandstone slab containing hieroglyphics, during mound explorations by a Dr Everhart near Zanesville, Ohio. (American Antiquarian, v3, 1880, pg61).

Ten skeletons "of both sexes and of gigantic size" were taken from a mound at Warren, Minnesota, 1883. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 23, 1883) A skeleton 7 feet 6 inches long was found in a massive stone structure that was likened to a temple chamber within a mound in Kanawha County, West Virginia, in 1884. (American Antiquarian, v6, 1884 133f. Cyrus Thomas, Report on Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology, 12th Annual Report, Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91).

A large mound near Gasterville, Pennsylvania, contained a vault in which was found a skeleton measuring 7 feet 2 inches. Inscriptions were carved on the vault. (American Antiquarian, v7, 1885, 52f).

In 1885, miners discovered the mummified remains of woman measuring 6 feet 8 inches tall holding an infant. The mummies were found in a cave behind a wall of rock in the Yosemite Valley.

In Minnesota, 1888, were discovered remains of seven skeletons 7 to 8 feet tall. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 29, 1888).

A mound near Toledo, Ohio, held 20 skeletons, seated and facing east with jaws and teeth "twice as large as those of present day people," and besides each was a large bowl with "curiously wrought hieroglyphic figures." (Chicago Record, Oct. 24, 1895; cited by Ron G. Dobbins, NEARA Journal, v13, fall 1978).

The skeleton of a huge man was uncovered at the Beckley farm, Lake Koronis, Minnesota; while at Moose Island and Pine City, bones of other giants came to light. (St. Paul Globe, Aug. 12, 1896).

In 1911, several red-haired mummies ranging from 6 and a half feet to 8 feet tall were discovered in a cave in Lovelock, Nevada.

In February and June of 1931, large skeletons were found in the Humboldt lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada. The first of these two skeletons found measured 8 1/2 feet tall and appeared to have been wrapped in a gum-covered fabric similar to the Egyptian manner. The second skeleton was almost 10 feet long. (Review — Miner, June 19, 1931).

A 7 foot 7 inch skeleton was reported to have been found on the Friedman ranch, near Lovelock, Nevada, in 1939.(Review — Miner, Sept. 29, 1939) In 1965, a skeleton measuring 8 feet 9 inches was found buried under a rock ledge along the Holly Creek in east-central Kentucky.



Australian Giants

There was a race or group of people found in Australia called "meganthropus" by anthropologists. These people were of very large size — estimated between 7 to 12 feet tall, depending on what source you read. These people were found with mega tool artifacts, so their humanness is difficult to question. Four jaw fragments and thousands of teeth have been found in China of "gigantopithecus blacki" — named after the discover. Based on the size of the teeth and deep jaws, its size has been estimated at around 10 feet and as tall as 12 feet, 1200 pounds.



Proof Of Australian Giants

In old river gravels near Bathurst, NSW, huge stone artifacts — clubs, pounders, adzes, chisels, knives and hand axes -- all of tremendous weight, lie scattered over a wide area. These weigh anything from 8, 10, 15, to 21 and 25 pounds, implements which only men of tremendous proportions could possibly have made and used. Estimates for the actual size of these men range from 10 to 12 feet tall and over, weighing from 500 to 600 lbs. A fossicker searching the Winburndale River north of Bathurst discovered a large quartzitised fossil human molar tooth, far too big for any normal modern man. A similar find was made near Dubbo, N.S.W.

Prospectors working in the Bathurst district in the 1930's frequently reported coming across numerous large human footprints fossilized in shoals of red jasper.

Even more impressive were fossil deposits found by naturalist Rex Gilroy around Bathurst. He excavated from a depth of 6 feet (2 m) below the surface a fossil lower back molar tooth measuring 67 mm. in length by 50mm. x 42 mm. across the crown. If his measurements are correct, the owner would have been at least 25 ft. tall, weighing well over 1,000 lbs!

At Gympie, Queensland, a farmer, Keith Walker, was ploughing his field when he turned up the large fragment of the back portion of a jaw which still possessed the hollow for a missing lower back molar tooth. This is now in Rex GiIroy's possession. The owner of the tooth would have stood at 10 feet tall.

In the Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains NSW, a Mr P. Holman found in ironstone protruding from a creek bank the deeply impressed print of a large human-like foot. The print was that of the instep, with all 5 toes clearly shown. This footprint measures 7 inches across the toes. Had the footprint been complete it would have been at least 2 feet (60 cm in length, appropriate to a 12 foot human. However, the largest footprint found on the Blue Mountains must have belonged to a man 20 feet tall!

A set of 3 huge footprints was discovered near Mulgoa, south of Penrith, N.S.W. These prints, each measuring 2 ft long and 7 inches across the toes, are 6 ft. apart, indicating the stride of the 12 ft. giant who left them. These prints were preserved by volcanic lava and ash flows which "occurred millions of years" before man is supposed to have appeared on the Australian continent (if one is to believe the evolutionary theory): Noel Reeves found monstrous footprints near Kempsey, N.S.W. in sandstone beds on the Upper Macleay River. One print shows toe 4 inches (10cm) long and the total toe-span is 10 inches (25cm) — suggesting that the owner of the print may have been 17 feet tall.

It is certain the Aborigines were not the first to reach Australia. Anthropologists maintain mainland Aborigines are in fact quite recent arrivals that ate their predecessors who were akin to the New Guinea natives. Aborigine themselves admit in their ancient folklore that this land was inhabited by several groups of men, as well as giants, before they settled here.



More Giant Records

In an old book entitled "History And Antiquities Of Allerdale," there is an account of a giant found in Cumberland, England, at an unknown date in the middle ages. Called "A True Report of Hugh Hodson, of Thorneway," it states: "The said giant was buried four yards deep in the ground, which is now a corn field. He was four yards and a half long, and was in complete armour; his sword and battle-axe lying by him....his teeth were six inches long, and two inches broad...." The bones of a twelve foot tall man were dug up in 1833 by a group of soldiers at Lompock Rancho, California. The skeleton was surrounded by giant weapons, and the skull featured a double row of teeth. Yet another giant was unearthed in 1891, when workmen in Crittenden, Arizona excavated a huge stone coffin that had evidently once held the body of a man 12 feet tall. A carving on the granite case indicated that he had six toes.

A living giant was sighted in the little village of Buffalo Mills, Pennsylvania, on August 19, 1973. A man at least nine feet tall strode down the main street of the village, dressed in strange clothing, which appeared to be made of some sort of shimmering material. He gazed at the startled townspeople in a dark, penetrating way and then loped off casually into oblivion.



Other Giant Evidences

In July, 1877, four prospectors were looking for gold and silver outcroppings in a desolate, hilly area near the head of Spring Valley, not far from Eureka, Nevada.

Scanning the rocks, one of the men spotted something peculiar projecting from a high ledge. Climbing up to get a better look, the prospector was surprised to find a human leg bone and knee cap sticking out of solid rock. He called to his companions, and together they dislodged the oddity with picks. Realizing they had a most unusual find, the men brought it into Eureka, where it was placed on display.

The stone in which the bones were embedded was a hard, dark red quartzite, and the bones themselves were almost black with carbonization — indicative of great age. When the surrounding stone was carefully chipped away, the specimen was found to be composed of a leg bone broken off four inches above the knee, the knee cap and joint, the lower leg bones, and the complete bones of the foot. Several medical doctors examined the remains, and were convinced that anatomically they had indeed once belonged to a human being, and a very modern-looking one.

But an intriguing aspect of the bones was their size: from knee to heel they measured 39 inches. Their owner in life had thus stood over 12 feet tall. Compounding the mystery further was the fact that the rock in which the bones were found was dated geologically to the era of the dinosaurs, the Jurassic — over 185 million years old. The local papers ran several stories on the marvelous find, and two museums sent investigators to see if any more of the skeleton could be located. Unfortunately, nothing else but the leg and foot existed in the rock." Strange Relics from the Depths of the Earth--Jochmans http://www.ior.com/~kjc/pages/strange.htm



Even More Records Of Giants

In 1936 Larson Kohl, the German paleontologist and anthropologist, found the bones of gigantic men on the shore of Lake Elyasi in Central Africa. Other giant skeletons were later found in Hava, the Transvaal and China. The evidence for the existence of giants is incontrovertible. "A scientifically assured fact," says Dr. Louis Burkhalter.

Large bones in stone graves in Williamson County and White County, Tennessee. Discovered in the early 1800s, the average stature of these giants was 7 feet tall.
Giant skeletons found in the mid-1800s in New York state near Rutland and Rodman.
In 1833, soldiers digging at Lompock Rancho, California, discovered a male skeleton 12 feet tall. The skeleton was surrounded by caved shells, stone axes, other artifacts. The skeleton had double rows of upper and lower teeth. Unfortunately, this body was secretly buried because the local Indians became upset about the remains.
A giant skull and vertebrae found in Wisconsin and Kansas City.
A giant found off the California Coast on Santa Rosa Island in the 1800s was distinguished by its double rows of teeth.
A 9-foot, 8-inch skeleton was excavated from a mount near Brewersville, Indiana, in 1879.
Skeletons of "enormous dimensions" were found in mounds near Zanesville, Ohio, and Warren, Minnesota, in the 1880s.
In Clearwater Minnesota, the skeletons of seven giants were found in mounds. These had receding foreheads and complete double dentition.
At Le Crescent, Wisconsin, mounds were found to contain giant bones. Five miles north near Dresbach, the bones of people over 8 feet tall were found.
In 1888 seven skeletons ranging from seven to 8 feet tall were discovered.
Near Toledo, Ohio, 20 skeletons were discovered with jaws and teeth "twice as large as those of present day people." The account also noted that odd hieroglyphics were found with the bodies.
Miners in Lovelock Cave, California, discovered a very tall, red-haired mummy In 1911
This mummy eventually went to a fraternal lodge where it was used for "initiation purposes."
In 1931, skeletons from 8 ½ to 10 feet long were found in the Humbolt lake bed in California.
In 1932, Ellis Wright found human tracks in the gypsum rock at White Sands, New Mexico His discovery was later backed up by Fred Arthur, Supervisor of the Lincoln National Park and others who reported that each footprint was 22 inches long and from 8 to 10 inches wide. They were certain the prints were human in origin due to the outline of the perfect prints coupled with a readily apparent instep.
During World War II, author Ivan T. Sanderson tells of how his crew was bulldozing through sedimentary rock when it stumbled upon what appeared to be a graveyard. In it were crania that measured from 22 to 24 inches from base to crown nearly three times as large as an adult human skull. Had the creatures to whom these skulls belonged been properly proportioned, they undoubtedly would have been at least 12 feet tall or taller.
In 1947 a local newspaper reported the discovery of nine-foot-tall skeletons by amateur archaeologists working in Death Valley.
The archaeologists involved also claimed to have found what appeared to be the bones of tigers and dinosaurs with the human remains.
The Catalina Islands, off California, are the home of dwarf mammoth bones that were once roasted in ancient fire pits. These were roasted and eaten by human-like creatures who were giants with double rows of teeth.



Giant Skulls Found

Ivan T. Sanderson, a well-known zoologist and frequent guest on Johnny Carson's TONIGHT SHOW in the 1960s (usually with an exotic animal with a pangolin or a lemur), once related a curious story about a letter he received regarding an engineer who was stationed on the Aleutian island of Shemya during World War II. While building an airstrip, his crew bulldozed a group of hills and discovered under several sedimentary layers what appeared to be human remains. The Alaskan mound was in fact a graveyard of gigantic human remains, consisting of crania and long leg bones. The crania measured from 22 to 24 inches from base to crown. Since an adult skull normally measures about eight inches from back to front, such a large crania would imply an immense size for a normally proportioned human. Furthermore, every skull was said to have been neatly trepanned (a process of cutting a hole in the upper portion of the skull).

In fact, the habit of flattening the skull of an infant and forcing it to grow in an elongated shape was a practice used by ancient Peruvians, the Mayas, and the Flathead Indians of Montana. Sanderson tried to gather further proof, eventually receiving a letter from another member of the unit who confirmed the report. The letters both indicated that the Smithsonian Institution had collected the remains, yet nothing else was heard. Sanderson seemed convinced that the Smithsonian Institution had received the bizarre relics, but wondered why they would not release the data. He asks, "...is it that these people cannot face rewriting all the textbooks?"



Giant Footprints

In South Africa, a giant footprint of a woman measuring over 4 feet long has been carbon dated at approximately 9 million years old. Pointing to the probability of this being a female human-like species' foot, proportionally the two-legged being would need to be some 30 feet tall! The local African people commonly refer to this as a highly revered and sacred site. Giants, twice the size of gorillas, were found in Java.

The petrified remains of a giant were found in South Africa. A well-known anthropologist declared that these remains showed that these man's ancestors must have been giants.



Giant Devils

Within an ancient burial mound near the town of Sayre in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, skeletons measuring approximately 7 feet in length were discovered in the 1800s. But the most remarkable feature of these tall skeletons was not their height, but the strange horn-like protrusions above the brow region on their skulls. It was estimated that they were buried around 1200 AD. According to some sources, the skeletons were sent to the "American Investigating Museum" in Philadelphia, and vanished.



Revised Articles

In Lampec-Rancho California, in 1833, soldiers discovered a skeleton 11' 9" long which was covered with boulders with an unidentified writing. A similar writing was unearthed on the isle of Santa Maria off the cost of Los Angeles. In July of 1887 in Eureka Nevada, a human leg was found measuring 38.9 inches form the knee to the heel. The man was over 11 foot tall. In Crittenton Arizona in 1891 a sarcophagus was uncovered containing a human 3 meters high and had 12 toes. More recently skeletons ranging from 2.8 meters to 3.12 meters were found by soviets in the Caucasus Mountains. In China skeletons 10 feet tall have been found. In the Philippines a giant human skeleton was found at gargation, Measuring 17 feet long. In the Eagle three Cole mine at Bear Creek Montana in 1920 two human molars were found three times larger than normal. In Braton Tennessee human footprints were found in solid rock 33 inches log and one foot wide. These also have six toes each. Tools found in Morocco are so large their users must have been at least 12 foot tall. Other Giants found around the world are: the Java giant, the south China giant, and the South Africa giant. (See The Timeless Earth p. 26)

In 1833,soldiers digging a pit for a powder magazine at Lompock Rancho, California, hacked their way through a layer of cemented gravel and came up with the skeleton of a giant man about twelve feet tall. The skeleton was surrounded by carved shells, huge stone axes, and blocks of porphyry covered with unintelligible symbols. The giant was also noteworthy in still another respect :He had a double row of teeth, both upper and lower. When the natives began to attach some religious significance to the find, authorities ordered the skeleton and all the artifacts secretly reburied — and , of course ,lost to the scientific study they deserved.

This particular giant, incidentally, bore marked similarity to another, that of a giant man with double rows of teeth whose skeletal remains were dug up on Santa Rosa Island, off the California coast. Subsequent research has shown that he, or his descendants, feasted on the small elephants which once lived on that island and which have vanished like the giants who ate them, countless ages ago.

Near Crittenden, Arizona, in 1891, workmen excavating for a commercial building came upon a huge stone sarcophagus eight feet below the surface. The contractor called in expert help, and the sarcophagus was opened to reveal a granite mummy case which had once held the body of a human being more than twelve feet tall -a human with six toes, according to the carving of the case. But the body had been buried so many thousands of years that it had long since turned to dust. Just another silent witness to the truth of Genesis, which tells us that there were giants in the earth in those days, the excavation of over a dozen skeletons 8 to 12 feet tall, around the world, shocked archaeologists.

These skeletons were positively human. Some of these skeletal remains are on Maui in lava caves near Ulupalakua and Olowalu. An example of this is the "mysterious" disappearance of more than 50 perfectly kept gigantic antediluvian skeletons (between 10-14 feet tall) found in a cave in Arizona.

Earth Giants : over the years a number of gigantic human skeletons have been unearthed. The most distinctive of these were the remains of some American giants found in the 1880s at Tioga Point, near Sayre in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, as recounted by Robert Lyman in Forbidden Land. Some other examples include the following:

A decayed human skeleton claimed by eyewitnesses to measure around 3.28 meters (10 feet 9 inches tall), was unearthed by laborers while ploughing a vineyard in November 1856 in East Wheeling, now in West Virginia.

A human skeleton measuring 3.6 meters (12 foot) tall was unearthed at Lompock Rancho, California, in 1833 by soldiers digging in a pit for a powder magazine. The specimen had a double row of teeth and was surrounded by numerous stone axes, carved shells and porphyry blocks with abstruse symbols associated with it.

Several mummified remains of red haired humans ranging from 2-2.5 meters (6.5 feet to over 8 feet) tall were dug up at Lovelock Cave, (70 miles) north-east of Reno, Nevada, by a guano mining operation. These bones substantiated legends by the local Piute Indians regarding giants which they called Si-Te-Cahs. For some reason scientists did not seem to want to investigate these finds further so many of the bones were lost. Fortunately one of the giant Lovelock skulls is still preserved today. It measures almost 30cm (1 foot) tall and resides along with other various Lovelock artefacts in the Humboldt Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada. Some of these artefacts can also be found in the Nevada State Historical Society's museum at Reno.



The Hubbard Discovery

In this magazine for September, 1923, we mentioned a reported discovery by Mr. Samuel Hubbard, of remains of giants in the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Owing to press unreliability, we did not notice this to a great extent. We have now, however, obtained more knowledge on the subject, and there remains no doubt that Mr. Hubbard has actually made a discovery composed of the following parts:

Petrified bodies of two human beings about 18 and 15 feet in height respectively. One of these is buried under a recent rock fall which would require several days' work to remove; the other, of which Mr. Hubbard took photographs, is in a crevice of difficult accessibility. The bodies are formed of a limestone petrification embedded in sandstone.
An ancient beach, now sandstone, containing a great number of footprints of a giant race, men, women and children; the prints of adults about 17 to 20 inches in length, and corresponding in size and shape to the Carson City and Blue Ridge prints.



Even More Giant Records

According to a press clipping, dated Nayarit, Mexico, May 14, 1926, Capts. D. W. Page and F. W. Devalda discovered the bones of a race of giants who averaged over ten feet in height. Local legends state that they came from Ecuador. Nothing more has been heard of this, but that is not surprising; the word "giant" will flutter the feathers of any scientist into rapid flight, metaphorically speaking, in the opposite direction. So also with a report from the Washington Post, June 22, 1925, and the New York Herald-Tribune, June 21, 1925. A mining party, it is reported, found skeletons measuring 10 to 12 feet, with feet 18 to 20 inches long, near Sisoguiche, Mexico. The Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1927, says that explorers in Mexico located large human bones near Tapextla, indicating a race of "gigantic size." All this, if unfounded, would be straining coincidence or imagination pretty far.

Press accounts say that the skeleton of a gigantic man, with head missing, has been unearthed at El Boquin, on the Mico River, in the Chontales district. The ribs are a yard long and four inches wide and the shin bone is too heavy for one man to carry. "Chontales" is an Indian word, meaning "wild men."

In the late 1950's during road construction in Homs southeast Turkey, Many tombs of Giants were indeed unearthed. These tombs were 4 meters long, and when entered in 2 cases the human thigh bones were measured to be 47.24 inches in length. They calculated that the person who owned this Femur probably stood at fourteen to sixteen feet tall. A cast of this bone is seen at the Creationist museum in Texas.

Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian of the first century A.D., described the giants as having "bodies so large and countenances so entirely different from other men that they were surprising to the sight and terrible to the hearing." And he adds that in his day, the bones of the giants were still on display
!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

[saturday quiz] 10 slightly easier ones this time

Answers here …

1 In Roman numerals, what number is CLI?
[151]

2 Which are the fire signs of the Zodiac? A, L & S.
[Aries, Leo and Sagittarius]

3 After how many years marriage do you celebrate your Golden wedding anniversary?
[Fifty]

4 From which country does the cloth denim, used in jeans, originally come from? Do you know the town it comes from as well?
[France - Nimes Denim=de Nimes]

5 Which is the third letter of the Greek alphabet?
[Gamma]

6 The screwdriver cocktail is made with vodka. What juice is also used?
[Orange juice]

7 What is claustrophobia?
[Fear of confined spaces]

8 The winter solstice occurs when the sun is furthest from the equator (on December 22nd). What do we call the days the sun crosses the equator on March 21st and September 21st?
[Equinox]

9 To the nearest whole number, how many revolutions does the moon make around the earth in a calendar year?
[Thirteen]

10 In which organ would you find the pineal gland?
[The brain]

Sunday, December 10, 2006

[history quiz] ten questions to test your memory

1] What was Operation Sea Lion in the Second World War?
The invasion of Britain

... and Operation Dynamo?
The evacuation at Dunkirk

2] What was the name of Haile Selassie before he was crowned in 1930?
Ras Tafari

3] Which American City is named after a British Prime Minister?
Pittsburgh

4] Which Republic exists in France since 1958?
The Fifth Republic

5] Which two other countries joined the EEC at the same time as Ireland?
Denmark and the UK

6] Who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of France?
Georges Pompidou

7] Who was the last British Prime Minister not to have a wife?
Margaret Thatcher

8] The Roman Appian Way went from Rome to where?
Brindisi (Brundusium)

9] Enola Gay was the name of the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but what was the name of the bomber that dropped it on Nagasaki?
Bock's Car

10] Eboracum is the roman name for which city?
York

Saturday, December 09, 2006

[blogfocus saturday] life’s little problems

More of life’s problems here …

4

The state’s to blame, concludes DK and so, statist Pollys who love to legislate and regulate are therefore the bane of our life and …

In this way, it can be perceived that it is, in fact, the state's interference [as regards retirement age and in the provision of a state pension as the main source of income upon retirement] that creates this cultural attitude to ageing. Thus it is 'socialism/communism/other nice but un-workable political ideal' [which we libs generally refer to as statism] that creates the dependency and the culture.

5

Just after I posted about starting up a ‘solidarity group of small bloggers’, what should I see at Doctor Vee but the same sort of thing already in operation. Actually, I feel it’s different because Blogpower is not meant to be an organization – it’s a loose confederation trying to keep ourselves alive. See what you think:

But this is actually quite a good idea because it emphasises the community aspect of blogging. It also reveals connections between blogs that you might have thought didn’t exist.
Here is my user profile for MyBlogLog, and here is this blog’s community (feel free to join it of course). The other website that’s quite impressed me recently is Twitter. It’s another sort-of social network, but it’s more like a blogging tool. But not. It’s from the people who brought us Blogger and Odeo.

6

Russia’s been very much in the news of late on more than one count and Martin Kelly puts a point of view on another over-eulogized ‘freedom fighter’ – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom I also posted on:

One of the more unfortunate aspects of Russian history is its tradition of jailing dissidents. Mr. Amsterdam might be of a generation for whom the name 'Andrei Sakharov' still has some resonance. But whatever the source or nature of his legal difficulties with the Russian authorities, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is no Andrei Sakharov; and any attempt to paint him as such is mythology.

7

Some have felt that Norm’s been posting too much cricket of late and that he had absolutely no right to go gallivanting off to Oz and enjoying himself so much, then informing us that this is what he’s been doing. The Political Umpire and I disagree and the former takes the Yorkshire Altruist to task over some very strange comments:

I admired Geoffrey Boycott the player, whatever his faults. I enjoy Geoffrey's commentary during matches too. Today, however, Boycs has come out with a clanger: "The problem is that England, like a lot of teams, have become so used to playing crash-bang one-day cricket that Test matches don't come naturally to them any more." Codswallop. Hasn't Geoffrey noticed that England over the past few years has been good at test cricket and utter rubbish at one day cricket?

8

There are bloggers who rant and rave and tear to pieces. There are bloggers who try to construct something or at least report on it. Jeremy CJ is of the latter ilk and if this report is half as true as is purported, it is indeed a minor miracle:

Peace Oil is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together. Grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, the olives are pressed within hours of picking, to produce this prize winning extra virgin olive oil. An initiative of registered UK charity The Charities Advisory Trust, Peace Oil encourages co-operation between communities.

9

Meanwhile, still in the Middle-East, those never-resting terrorists have a new scam – Terrormail. International Political Will fills us in:

Conditioned to shudder in fear at the mention of Al Qaeda or even the word “terrorist,” are we now being threatened by Islamic emails? What’s next – a telemarketing campaign with pre-recorded messages by Osama bin Laden that call you during dinner? Someone’s got to stop these madmen …Yet while those crazy Muslims are plotting how to spam the “infidels” to death, the “good” side in the so-called “war on terror” is making headway in their efforts to emulate their own religious teacher.

IPW then takes apart the Christian Coalition of America. Interesting read.

10

Tim Almond, on his nicely laid out blog, returns to the Tony Petition Site and finds one, among the dross, which might well be worth following up on:

There're a load of petitions floating around on the Number 10 website. I don't know if any of them are going to get anywhere, but it seems to me that in the end, things like dropping the ban on hunting just aren't going to happen [nor is juggling ice cream]. But there's one that's sensible, doesn't cost much, is important to all, and would have cross-party support. That is that websites produced by the government are accessible to all. This helps blind and partially sighted users to read the content, as well as other groups [see
this introduction]. Implementing it isn't that difficult, if it's thought through in the first place. The petition is here.

11

Outside Story is an enigmatic character [unkind people might suggest that this is sour grapes, that though I run him here in Blogfocuses, he never responds]. No matter, he also has a Tonypost, focussing this time on the ridiculousness of “integrated multiculturalism”. Only someone like Tony Blair could put this forward as a serious statement:

I just saw the headline on Sky News that Tony Blair thinks the "right to live in a multi-cultural society" must be balanced by the obligation to integrate. Leaving aside the issue that he thinks we have a right to tell other people how to think (or at least that he does), how on earth do you "balance" two mutually exclusive concepts? It is impossible to integrate into a multi-cultural society. By definition there is no one culture to adopt, there are many, some of which will embrace intolerant views.

12

What have Adam Smith, South Park and Jeremy Clarkson in common? Johnathan Pearce [of Weblog Award Fame] feels there is indeed a connection and he explains:

Via the
Adam Smith Institute blog I came across this excellent essay over at the LewRockwell site about South Park. Definitely worth a read. Of course it is not the first time that the outrageous but wonderfully sharp series has been noted for its libertarian, anti-puritan content. Of course, arguably PJ O'Rourke was ahead of them all with his Republican Party Reptiles, which is essentially a libertarian credo in most respects. The nearest we have in Britain to such a celebration of brash material wealth and fun, irreverence towards do-gooders of all forms is motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson.

13


Deogolwulf has left the Fewtrills for the moment and posed a curly one, which first you must try to understand, then decide upon. I'm still at the understanding stage, myself and I've got as far as envying cabbages for their ataraxia:
The desire to be free from care and worry is nevertheless still strong. With that mind, therefore, there is no sublime discipline so as to transcend the hardships of life, but rather a submission to whatever makes life easy and carefree. One suspects it would rather live in a joyless order than be inconvenienced or unsafe. If we were, after all, to view ataraxia as the greatest good, we might envy cabbages, although the perturbance caused by such envy would further bear witness to how far we fall short of such vegetables.

Think you'd best read the whole post, to get the context, like.

14

Martine warns the blogosphere about Bent Postmen but I think she concentrate more on Bent Websites:

I am a little concerned about having send so much information on my bank account over the post I have to admit. I've been wary of sending things this way since having problems with a bent Postman, and now even more so after Dizzy spotted the huge security flaws in the party's last batch of membership renewal forms. Perhaps they have learned a lesson since then since they no longer ask for your card's security number.


I think it was UK Daily Pundit who scolded me, pointing out that my Mystery Blogger was no mystery at all. How can he be a mystery when the moment you put your mouse over the link, you know who it is? Fair comment, so let’s do it differently this evening. Here are the clues and you work out who it is:

1] He or she’s an Aquarian male horse;
2] His or her job is being tortured by adolescents in tracksuits;
3] He or she asks if we believe that forks are evolved from spoons;
4] He or she answers his own question: “Don't be silly”;
5] His or her favourite movie is Casablanca;
6] He or she likes quoting Edmund Burke;
7] He or she ran a post on Communication Breakdown.

So all right, who is he or she?

1] Croydonian;
2] Iznewmania;
3] La Femme Contraire;
4] Shuggy;
5] Beltoday;
6] Notsaussure;
7] James Cleverly?

Hope to see you on Tuesday evening at 21:00, London time for the next Blogfocus. Bye for now.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

[blogfocus tuesday] dealing in death

Another 11 bloggers plus the mystery blogger here …

3

The Flying Rodent certainly had me between the Hammer and the Anvil with his “good news about Pinochet recovering”. Then he explained about the old death dealer and all was well:

Old Augusto may be in his nineties, but he clearly has no intention of giving up the fight just yet. This is encouraging for his family and supporters, and also for me - I've got twenty quid on Thatcher to pop her cork first, and the old bat is showing no signs of giving up the ghost. So come on, General, stay with us! Satan will just have to keep that red-hot poker in the fire for another year at least.

4

Mr. Eugenides also has a stake in the matter: It's asking a lot, but for these two old dictators to go on the same day would be a nice final irony. Of course, one will be rather more eulogised in the pages of the Guardian than the other, but that's a matter for another day. Feel free to go ahead and die, señors.

5

Clive Davis hobnobs with a killer [well, an executioner] and comes up with the most surprising things: Old circuits and other electrical odds and ends were scattered [down] his driveway in an anonymous suburb. During the hour we spent together in his kitchen, he broke off to take a call from a southern penitentiary. He was servicing their chair down in his basement workshop, and they were in a hurry to get it back. The conversation took place on his speakerphone, so I could hear every word. You’d have thought they were talking about a car that needed a new axle.

6

Last Ditch puzzles over the Sky News query over the death dealing Trident system: Sky News never queries government expenditure on social services or foreign aid. After all, many of its viewers pay their subscriptions from social security and giving "charity" to African dictators provides a cost-free charitable glow. The channel merely mirrors the slack-jawed sentimentalism of its underclass viewers.

When its gormless news anchor told the Shadow Defence Secretary "there were questions about the cost" of Britain's nuclear deterrent, we were surprised by the unaccustomed rigour. Then enlightenment dawned. "Ah," said my wife, "what a waste of money we could be spending on NHS dance lessons"

7

The Gracchi take a different tack, looking at none less than the birth of America into iniquity: The idea that Neo-conservatism is Machiavellian is hardly a surprise. It might come as a surprise to our author that America was founded by Machiavellians. By people who wished to maintain a republic by craft as well as moral example. Go and look at the reasons why the US is built the way it is and in the Federalist Papers you will find reasons which are precisely to do with elevating the right people to power. Machiavellianism is not really neo-conservative- it dates to a far earlier trend in politics- made incarnate by the Prince- of literature which seeks to instruct a politician not merely in what his ends should be, but in how to attain those ends.

8

Blognor Regis has his eye carefully trained on Bananarama and gives us the lowdown: Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, Fiji's armed forces commander, took control of his country's government at 18:00 local time. (6AM GMT) Frankly he's played a blinder. Slowly and gently increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase until he was able to virtually stroll into assuming power…

I think
Laban calls it right. Anyone coming upon the story for the first time right now is going to automatically assume that Bainimarama is the bad guy and the deposed PM is the good guy here. And that just isn't the case. (Which just goes to show that there's an awful lot of nuance to these sort of situations, Thailand earlier this year, Ukraine last year, and that anyone rushing to judgement with barely any background information can hardly know which is the "right" side to support.

Also check out BR’s new header.

9

Shuggy focuses on yet another dictator: Chavez has been re-elected for a third six-year term. No-one's talking about it. Not in my workplace, not in the pubs I go to. But the blogosphere is a
different story. The reason behind this is a familiar one. Political partisans, leftists in particular, have a long history of being obsessed with the events taking place in two arenas in the world - the Middle East and Latin America. It is because it is felt that it is here that the fundamental clashes between right and left, capitalism and socialism, are played out in primary colours. For the ultra-leftist, the attractions are obvious.

10

L’Ombre is the only man I know who would take on Lady Ellee of the Fens but he explains his stance: One of the reasons why I don't live in the UK is the way that as soon as something bad happens politicians and their toadies cry out to ban something to do with the event. I admit this was a minor reason for my choice of life on the Riviera (despite today's miserable drizzle, the weather was the biggest reason), but it is one big reason why I can't imagine going back.The problem is that passing laws banning something makes politicians look like heroes but usually results in them being real villains because the bans always [invokes] the law of unintended consequences.

Classic example of the day is
Ellee Seymour who wants all knives banned or something like that. She wants this ban because the existing regulations of knives, which result in retired brigadiers being arrested for posession 5cm pocket knives failed to stop two muggers from stabbing someone.

Sorry, Ellee but I had to get you into this somehow.

11

Dizzy writes of another use which is being made of the blogosphere - a more sinister use: Blogs and wikis are now seen as a vital tool in intelligence gathering agencies in the US. The self-publishing revolution has in effect changed the way intelligence works. For example, one analyst commented about how on the day of the London bombings he visited Wikipedia and within minutes the bombings had an entry. Over the next few hours the article was updated as news changed, the analyst pointed out that “you could just sit there and hit refresh, refresh, refresh, and get a sort of ticker-tape experience.”

12

Moving away from death and destruction but still on the theme of blogging, Tim Worstall raises the eternal issue of the altruism [or not] of blogging: [This] is assuming that economic theories rest upon the maximisation of monetary income. Given that, it is indeed extremely odd that practitioners of the dismal science would do something like blogging for no money (or pittances, certainly less than could be earned elsewhere).

However, extend that thought. Why would such people, who know how the world works, do such silly things like become a college professor? OK, it's not that badly paid but it isn't, with a very few exceptions, the route to a fortune. Why are they doing this silly research, publishing those papers that only 10 people (including their own mother) will ever read? Why aren't they pounding out the Harlequin novels instead? Could it actually be that such economists rather like doing research? Thinking about the world? The long vacations? The short work week? Even, perhaps, the respect of their peers?

Mr. T. Worstall may now be getting some return for his efforts but it’s as well to remember that it was a long hard road there and many of us may well fall by the wayside along that same road.

13

Speaking of blogging, has Chicken Yoghurt rewritten his manifesto and become a public service? Here he gives
The Roundup Roundup, urging you to check out Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #94, Mr E’s Swearbloggers Roundup #9 and James Higham’s Blogfocus.

As if that’s not enough, he’s very thoughtfully provided a blow-by-blow, day-by-day Advent Calendar and here is today’s:
Advent Calendar: Day 5

[01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06][07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12][13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18][19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]

What’s advent? You’ll have to go to our mystery blogger to find that out, plus anything else you need to know about the liturgical calendar. I wish you good luck this week and maybe see you on Saturday evening, at 21:00 London time.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

[geography] 10 more tricky ones for you

Answers here …

1] If you crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic (Caribbean) to the Pacific, in which general direction would you be going?
South-East (NOT South-West)

2] If you saw the letters BWI after a country on a postal address, where would you expect the letter to be delivered?
Somewhere in the British West Indies

3] If you were in Molokai, in which country would you be?
United States (Hawaii)

4] In which city is Marco Polo airport?
Venice

5] In which city is the HQ of the Central Bank of China?
Taipei

6] In which country is water considered so precious that it gives name to the currency: the Pula?
Botswana

7] London's Fleet Street runs from the Strand to Ludgate Circus and has become the former home of British journalism. What is it named after?
The River Fleet which still flows under the street in the sewers

8] Name the eastern-most and western-most state in the United States.
Alaska and Alaska. The Aleutians cross the 180 degree line of longitude and are in both the eastern and western hemispheres.

9] Jebel Musa is acknowledged to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, the end of the world according to Mediterranean cultures. What is the other one?
Jebel Tarik, better known as Gibraltar

10] Valencia Island is off the coast of which European country?
Ireland

Saturday, December 02, 2006

[blogfocus saturday] creative initiatives

Another 12 bloggers here …

3

Cityunslicker, a fine blogger using an appalling template, Minima, focuses on the Leeward Islands, saying: We supported the islands until 3 years ago, via subsidy for their produce. He then explains that when the criminally inclined Haitians went home after sugar slumped, tourism had to be the new industry but he put an idea to the President to preserve the sugar industry: So much has changed that Slicker's idea to the president of using sugar fields to fire a new power station to replace their ancient diesel one has fallen on deaf ground.; they don't want to know about sugar here any more..

4

Dave Hill raises some eyebrows with his idea and I wonder how many have e-mailed him? This is his idea: It's a show-off thing I'm afraid: but I like sending Christmas cards and I like doing it early in December. People receive them and cry, "Wow, it's our first one this year! It's from Dave Hill! What a lovely bloke." [Don't they...?]. Maybe you, reader, would like to receive a Christmas card from me. If so, email me your address and I'll do my best to oblige. By the way – lunchtime Monday, skip across to the bookstore and buy his latest book please!

5

David Farrer puts a more than sane case for re-ordering the parliamentary system in what is now the UK. These points certainly need to be considered and analysed:

# Withdraw from the EU;
# Devolve all powers - except defence and foreign affairs - to the various national parliaments;
# Each parliament to be fiscally independent with contributions being made to the federal government in proportion to population;
# The federal government should be situated on the Isle of Man, which is not in any of the home countries but is equidistant from all four of them;
# The Irish Republic should be invited to unite with the North and rejoin the UK with Dublin taking its rightful place in the Anglosphere alongside Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

6

In the Englishman’s own words: The success of the human race, and also some of its uglier deeds can be traced to our highly developed sense of what is true to the first approximation. My rules:
# All timeshares are cons.
# If you don't understand the deal, don't do it.
# Nothing is too complicated to be explained on more than one side of one sheet of paper.
# Americans can be trusted.
# Politicians can't.
# Anyone who claims to be a funny, crazy guy isn't.
# Modern Jazz isn't worth listening to.
# Old men in pubs are.
# Young people's opinions aren't worth spit.
# Young people should be listened to with respect and patience.
# Nobody cooks breakfast like your mum did.
# No bed is as comfortable as your own.
# Trusting your first instincts is rarely wrong.
# Stupid haircut equals stupid person.
# Anyone one wearing stacks or a syrup can't be trusted.

7

Iain Dale has done more than many to champion the blogosphere and blogging as a venture: I did a similar speech last weekend to thirty young Conservative women and I am delighted that 3 of them have already got in touch to say my talk inspired them to start blogging themselves. I'd be delighted if a similar proportion of today's audience [whre he was addressing a group] took up the blogging challenge too. Every political activist should have a voice and play their part in spreading the message whether it's through blogging or another medium.

8


Victorian shopping night in the Drummer's village. He hated it, of course and described this in vivid detail, before offering alternative suggestions to the village organizers. Here are the Drummer's suggestions:
1) a public execution
2) stocks
3) we import cholera and dystentry into the village for the night
4) we make all the stallholders sign the 39 Articles
5) all pregnant teenagers are hurried off to backstreets or given huge doses of gin and hot baths
6) the village stages a series of summit meetings with a German village, announcing periodically that the opposing village needs to negotiate on its number of ducks, while the German village relentlessly builds up its amount of ducks, and we just stoke the river, ready for the inevitable conflict.

9

Tom Paine comes out with one of his traditionally perceptive pieces on what to do to make things run better: As a libertarian, I would have as few public employees as practicable even if they came for free. Generally, the more people divorced from wealth-creation, the more dangerous the position of wealth-creators becomes; and the more fragile the liberty essential both for wealth creation and (even more importantly) for true civilisation. He generally argues, in this post, for small government.

10

Wat Tyler swims against the tide with the reasons for the road-charge and asks - why stop there: But if charging is the way for roads- and those politicos all seem pretty keen- why isn't it the way for our other public services? After all, charging for a service will soon show whether people actually want it or not. One personal social service that's not free at the point of use is hairdressing. And today we hear
it's booming, with turnover up to £5bn pa.

11

Cleanthes is concerned about the preconditions for getting into Heaven [starting to feel the pinch perhaps] and finds the answer in this anecdote: A Sunday school teacher was testing the children to see if they understood the concept of getting to Heaven. He asked them, ‘ If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?’ ‘No’, they chorused.
Of course you’re not getting the punchline – you have to visit him to get that.

12

After quoting a lady blogger who lists, ironically, 5 ways for young men to behave towards women in today’s society, Vox Day adds a sixth: 6. Unless you are religious or want children, don't even consider marriage. Seriously, there are tremendous potential costs and comparatively few potential benefits for men in marriages without those two elements, given that so few women now view marriage as a prerequisite to a full and intimate relationship. And given the current child support laws, even the motivation of wanting children is unreliable. If you're only popping the question because she's pressuring you, well, all I can say is enjoy your slide into Gamma Male Hell.

13

UK Daily Pundit has done it again. You’ve probably gathered by now that I’m partial to this blog – I like the way he gets straight to the heart of the matter, the way he often comes up with something most of us haven’t thought of and the succinct nature of the eventual post. Try this one: What if Alexander Litvinenko wasn't deliberately poisoned with polonium 210? What if he was handling the stuff for reasons unknown? And if so, where's the rest of it? And I do wish the Labour Party would be more careful about who they give passports to. Irrespective of the large fees they charge for such services.

14

It’s about time I got to Croydonian, after just about everyone else has. Of course he needs no introduction and here’s one of William’s more unusual offerings: Strange things are afoot on the other side of the North Sea, with a politically motivated cake thrower in Norway facing the prospect of a 15 year jail sentence [one could probably be a rampaging serial killer and get change from 15 years in these parts] for lobbing a cream cake at the country's finance minister. Wonder what would happen if I … no, no, no … I have to put that out of mind.

Our Mystery Blogger had a most distasteful task the other day and if today’s Blogger problems are anything to go by, he’ll have to go through it again. Have you guessed who he is yet?

Hope to see you on Tuesday evening at 21:00, London time.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

[country quiz 3] how many of these do you know?

Country quiz answers

1]…Suva is the capital of which country in Oceania?
Fiji
2]…Avianca is the national airline of which South American country?
Colombia
3]…Which airport has the code DFW?
Dallas / Fort Worth
4]…The Vinson Massif is the highest mountain in which continent?
Antarctica
5]…n which group of British Islands would you find the port of Sullom Voe?
The Shetlands
6]…What are Chafarinas, Alhucemas and Vélez de la Gomera?
Spanish islands off the coast of North Africa
7]…In which Asian city would you find the Potala Palace?
Lhasa, in Tibet
8]…Which is the longest river in France?
Loire
9]…How is Portuguese West Africa now known?
Angola
10]..A black letter 'A' in a white oval on the back of a car denotes it is from which country?
Austria

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

[blogfocus tuesday] lad, lass, lad, lass, lad ...

Haute cuisine

7 more lads and 7 more lasses here …

Continuing the food theme and Steve, of Opinion Dominion, takes us skyward for some
haute-cuisine:

Dinner in the Sky takes place at a table suspended at a height of 50 metres by a team of professionals. Benji Fun, our partner in this event, is the worldwide leader for this type of activities.

My attitude to heights might be little unusual. I like flying, and I enjoy it more on a small aircraft than a huge one. (I feel it is more "natural" for a Cessna to fly than a 747.) But when it comes to buildings, I can get a little nervous standing on an apartment balcony if it is any more than a few stories up. Maybe it's the tilted angle of that photo, but for some reason it makes me feel queasy just thinking about trying to enjoy food while strapped into a seat with 50 m of air between my backside and the ground.

Liz, la femme contraire, is down on a
world icon, just as I’ve been with Anna Politkovskaya:

I read Xtopher Hitchens' exposure of the arch reactionary Mother Teresa of Calcutta yesterday (see link). I know it is a few years old but it's still worth a read for those who still harbour any illusions of the saintliness of this character.

I had long disliked her brand of Christianity - one that proclaims itself 'apolitical', one that advocates the giving of charity yet never questions a system which allows so many people to starve or die of treatable diseases, while others have many times what they need. This type of Christianity is in fact not 'apolitical' but is in fact deeply conservative, as Hitchens stresses.

Chicken Yoghurt has a different opinion about Hitchens but his opinion on Mother Theresa I couldn’t find:

A few months ago
, I found myself within spitting distance of Christopher Hitchens after attending a lecture by him on Thomas Paine. Having, however, now read this review utterly destroying Hitchens’ book about Paine (via Dave), I’m now regretting that I resisted, as crude as this sounds, the urge to spit.

As graceless and liverish as Hitchens was in the question and answer session after the lecture, and as
unnecessarily foul-mouthed as he was at the later book signing, at least, or so I thought, his lecture on Paine was worth the entrance fee. Except, now having read the review, I realise that not a word that Hitchens uttered about Paine that night is to be trusted.

Heather Yaxley
asks: “
Should corporate blogs exclude PR?”

Should employee - and executive - blogs exclude public relations? Interesting
post by Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail) on how blogging has inverted corporate norms, particularly shifting from secrecy to transparency as a default communications mode. He states that employee bloggers are increasingly trusted to blog without “PR review” and that there is a new “radical transparency” in some companies including early product development discussions, CEO venting and management in public.

Everybody has had a go at Polly Toynbee, the most unlinked woman in the sphere and here Blognor Regis gives one of the best
takes on her: Hypocrita sinistra:

Just why is Polly Toynbee loathed so? Easy, because she's the very definition of the I'm alright jack, pull the ladder up, lefty hypocrite - hypocrita sinistra. Hypocrita sinistra can usually be heard emitting a screeching whine, 'What about the poor?' often while they are busy polishing their Beemers.

However much they try to fool themselves into believing that the relationship is symbiotic, and indeed many are deceived by the creature's cunning, hypocrita sinistra are in fact parasites who hitch a ride on the back of an unwitting government those that fund it. They grow fat on good intentions and steer well clear of outcomes as they are rightly considered poisonous. The species' most obvious markings … and so it continues. Worth a read.

The interestingly named Beach girl leaves the Wren Chapel sacrilege to comment on
the Sudan:

I have refrained from writing about Darfur for several reasons. One reason was that I believed the reality of what I would find regarding the UN member-states involvement against trying to stop the genocide militarily would confirm my suspicion that the UN is increasing an Islamic-controlled organization with collusion from willing European nations, themselves not yet Islamic-controlled but the nations nonetheless joining their international policies with those of the Islamic-controlled nations. [That is a rough sentence, so please excuse.]

Another reason that I have refrained is that I see this as a civil war, the aim of which is to rid Sudan of Christians (5%) and animist/indigenous beliefs (25%). That the international community of the usual UN suspects is supporting the dominate Islamic-oriented government goes a long way to explaining why nothing will be done to end the genocide. And the government has the guns.

Newmania, normally a demure chappy, puts the boot into
Priti thingymabob, the latest darling of the right:

One thing that horrifies me is the disappearance of working class political representation from parliament . On this basis it is hardly likely that much will be achieved . I would like to see the Conservative party reconnect with its working class support , not focus exclusively on the centre "Liberal " voter. I would like to see more talk about social justice and less about image friendly subjects like the "environment ".

I am concerned at the rampant inequality between classes that widens daily .What we get as our "representative MP s ? Priti thingymabob . Asian , oh goody, but the sprig of a long line of bureaucrats last seen getting kicked out of Uganda by the blacks for feathering their nests at their expense. She knows nothing of disadvantage .


The eternally delightful Lady Ellee goes for:
momentum increases for England to become independent, will this add extra credence to a campaign to oust St George as England’s patron saint and replace him with St Edmund? Should St George remain our patron saint if he never set foot in this country? Should we not have a true English saint holding that very privileged title, a plan which has already angered Labour MPs.

St Edmund was originally
England’s patron saint until he was usurped by St George around 1100AD. But there is strong feeling in East Anglia to bring St Edmund back, he was a former king of East Anglia who was martyred in the year 869 for refusing to renounce his Christianity. Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley has actively taken up the campaign, handing in a petition to Downing Street last Monday, St Edmund’s Day last, joined by organisers from the local newspaper and radio station.

However, he was surprised by the
hostile reaction from Labour MPs when later in the week he presented the petition in the House of Commons. He said petitions were normally read out in silence, but there were shouts of “Saint George” from the Labour side.

A vital issue, I think you’d agree. Tiberius Gracchus also goes for the historic touch, placing Russia and in particular,
Gorbachev, under the microsope, where the latter squirms on the glass slide under Gracchus’ unrelenting gaze:

Gorbachev's era was characterised by hostility to Russia from those who liked their foreign policy in simple shades of red and white, similar things are at the root of what is going on today with regard to Russia.

The Economist has called Putin a fascist, others envisage him as a communist. The truth doesn't lie in those simple labels- Putin's regime does have a bad human rights record in Chechnya and a Russian democrat might well be disturbed by some of the developments that have taken place- but as a threat to the West, we misunderstand Russian foreign policy if we read it through a simple prism of opposition to the forces of capitalism.

We find even in the days of Communist Russia that most of the senior members of the politburo could not be easily categorised in those terms- Gorbachev and the men he led can't be described simply as reds opposing the forces of capitalism.


Everybody by now knows
the unfortunate incident which occurred to Jackie Daniki [which she has updated, by the way but it might just have brought her a new readership. Silver lining or not? Here she gets stuck into the blogbashers:

Not a day goes by when I don’t read a column or opinion piece in the ‘mainstream’ press and think, “Yeesh, I read better blog posts than this many times a day.” This piece about how people online have egos (try to stop your eyes from rolling back in your head as you read it), by the Guardian’s American Editor, Michael Kinsley, is one such example.

It’s so bad that I cannot even be bothered to detail exactly why and how it is bad. He’s either phoning it in or can’t do any better; either way, how does he stay in work? I have a feeling his very web-savvy colleagues at the Guardian - many of whom (gasp!) have their own blogs - will be fairly embarrassed at being associated with this drivel.

Dave Hill
is not given to “boot in the groin” journalism, so this piece really surprises:

Last week saw publication of a report by the Foundation for Information Policy Research into the government's proposed Information Sharing Index, or "Children's Index" as it is often known. I've written about it here and here. The Telegraph's coverage of the report's findings prompted this letter from Minister for Children, Beverley Hughes.

“Sir – You do your readers a disservice in your news item 'Child database will ruin family privacy' (November 22) by not challenging the findings of the authors of the report [Children's Databases: Safety and Privacy].”

The following day, the report's authors responded:

“Sir - Beverley Hughes, the Minister for Children (Letters, November 24), does a disservice to families by an evasive response to our report to the Information Commissioner on the range of databases being set up to monitor children.”

Now let me restate their case in plainer language: Beverley Hughes is a twister, a sophist, a shirk, a flannel merchant, an exploiter of fearful emotions, a coward who will not debate her critics honestly - in short, a disgrace to her office. How dare she treat children and families in this way?

Have to follow Dave with
this post because I know he hates the term Political Correctness bandied about. This little number is from Bel and she’s thinking, circumspectly:

Good to see ordinary folk striking a blow against political correctness. This interesting story from the Telegraph:

Parents have forced a comprehensive school to back down over plans to offer only halal chicken on its Christmas dinner menu. Pupils will now also have the option of traditional turkey with trimmings as a choice after the intervention of a former Government minister.

Nothing more to say, really. People are beginning to speak out against the takeover of their traditional customs and values. Let us hope that this continues.


I was getting ready to run this piece on
the English Parliament:

With the Sunday Telegraph today telling of 68% of English people agreeing with the need for an English parliament and nearly half supporting independence (before which we need a parliament to negotiate a fair settlement) it is easy to forget the more menacing Union – the European Union.

… when
this caught my eye:

Wii for Christmas. I'm getting a Wii for Christmas. No, there's no other reason for this post. Just that. Labels: Geek, Wii

Now surely only Gavin Ayling could have posted that and that’s one reason his blog is always high on my list. Lastly, this evening, Sam Brett agonizes over this question:
Should you ever intervene in a friend's relationship? Some of Sam Brett’s posts are a little close to the edge at times but this dilemma, which we’ve probably all faced at some time or other, shows her at her best:

"What on earth were we thinking?" is a question we often ask ourselves after the end of a noxious relationship. Why was it that everyone could see how harmful, injurious and damaging the union was, besides us? William Shakespeare once said it all comes down to this: "Love sees not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." True, love may be blind. But let's put our own mistakes aside for just a moment. What if you witness a good friend making the same gaffe? Is it ever okay to intervene? Or will they resent you for not minding your own business?

The question is swirling around my head as I try to fathom why my beautiful, intelligent, classy, lifelong friend is dating a cad who thinks emotional abuse is okay. He often beats her to a pulp with his words, draining her self confidence, her self respect and her happiness. While my friends and I have endlessly tried to knock some sense into her, it's come to the point where perhaps a word to him might do the trick. But is this okay? Or should we simply butt out ...

Lastly,
a mystery link - one final bit of fun before we go but whatever you do, don't click on it if you're easily offended. All right? See you, hopefully, on Saturday evening.