[sunday blogfocus] the power of positive thinking

Colin Campbell, this week, was concerned with weightier matters, though still north of the border: Elizabeth bought some Scottish treats [probably at outrageous tourist shop prices], including Berwick Cockles, Edinburgh Castle Rock, Treacle Toffee, Tablet, and Highland Toffee, along with Irn Bru to accompany them.

Monty went Scottish with: Due to a family wedding this weekend, the Lionhearts are heading north of the border, to the land where people benefit from drug treatments that are denied to English folk. So blogging on the Isle is suspended until Sunday evening. Have a good weekend everyone! [See Tom Paine's comment at the end of the Blogfocus for a continuation of this theme.]

Still north of the border, seemingly in an endless loop, now came the difficult task. DK hardly needs soft words – his deeds and practical advice behind the scenes are well known to many a tired and lonely blogger but actually finding published soft gurgliness from the humble Devil was going to be an uphill task. I searched for mushiness and searched and searched, scratched the pate and searched some more. Teeth gritted by this stage, I finally found it: It's gratifying to see that The Kitchen is sitting at number 47, although not all of the listed blogs [Scottish] are political in nature. To echo Timmy, I am ready and available for any advertising chaps who want to pay me large amounts of cash! Now if that’s not a positive, I don’t know what is.

South of the border, Melanie Phillips was waxing lyrical: Oxford is clearly one of the most enlightened cities in the world, with its 30+ very old and very distinguished colleges, and boasting of some of the finest minds in nearly every field as part of its citizenry. Add to this the spectacular domes and tall minarets of the two big mosques in Oxford and the picture of a virtuous city is complete.

Black Quill felt the historic touch was required as he reflected on past glories: The Golden Era for England was during the reign of Elizabeth the 1st. Are we to assume that monarchies, although capable of wonders then, are incapable of such things now? The Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent of the same period is also known as a Golden Age. And so on.

There must have been something in the air, half-term approaching or both, for the normally ‘rooted in the present’ Samantha Brett herself went in search of historical libidinous precedent: Take Shakespeare, who suggested doing it with one of his 150 soulful love sonnets. Or Don Juan, the infamous 17th Century seducer, who used descriptive sweet talk to the lure the women in. And what about Casanova? With so many women to woo in his lifetime, [he is rumored to have slept with 122], he quickly learnt how to do it on the cheap. ‘Do what?’ asks the unconvincingly naive blogger.

AJD was waxing lyrical: It is shows such as these that make the whole effort worth while. The BBC and their ilk could learn a lot from shows such as these - this is TV at its best. He is, of course, referring to 18 Doughty Street and it seems to me that he likes the new Tim and Iain venture, though not all bloggers waxed lyrical about the former.

Iain Dale himself was in an expansive mood: Angela is a really nice woman and is one of the few Blair babes to have retained her sense of humour. Andrew Mackinlay is what I would describe as a proper parliamentarian - relentless in holding the government to account even if it is uncomfortable for his own Party. Obviously they are both political opponents, but that doesn't blind me to their qualities. Let's see who prevails. Evenhanded to a fault, Iain Dale.

This spirit of bonhomie clearly carried over to Oliver Kamm, who, quite unsolicited, came out with a eulogy: Norman [Geras] is an eminent political philosopher whose work in that field I have learned much from. Outside his academic and popular writings, I invariably also benefit when seeking his opinions directly on matters of politics and ethics. [I have periodically taken part, for example, in BBC radio discussion programmes. If the respective producers are reading this, I should concede that I have turned up to the studio only after consulting Norman about the subject under review.] Norman is a good and humane man, whom I am proud to count a comrade and friend.

Clive Davis came over all gooey, gurgly and family oriented this time: It's just as well our youngest was born when I was 36, because we never did rustle up enough cash in the end. I wouldn't want to put anyone off becoming a father, but it took me about ten years to learn how to enjoy it. Partly because I'm the type who likes to sit quietly and cogitate [not much chance of that when you're permanently sleepy and there are prams in the hallway], partly because I fell for the modern notion that we men have to be hands-on nurturers. I'm sure it works in some cases; it definitely didn't for me. So that's my highly reactionary pearl of wisdom for dads-to-be: if you feel it's right, don't be afraid to keep your distance, even if your Significant Other does give you dirty looks. But of course.

The ‘family motif’ continued with the Greek Boy, better known for his relentless fisking, who briefly reflected this week on brotherly love: Er, loved each other as brothers? Mr Eugenides may be Greek, but even where he comes from, you don't give your brother naked rub-downs. Which raised the immediate question, ‘Then what do you give your brother?’

RS continued the brotherly love: The poor, young Greek has a pop at party funding. He has a different view on the matter from me … but it is nice to see that even when we disagree we can both give the poisonous Blears and her cronies a damned good kicking. Now that’s a definite positive and thus falls well within the Blogbrief.

What is it this week? Even the normally taciturn Guido muttered, at one point: Guido is wary of mocking Kennedy, in fact if you are reading this Charles - lets do lunch - Friday is always good for me. Push the boat out, polish off some of the good stuff. Sod 'em. Which is quite sweet really .

Tim Worstall also began quite magmanimously towards the pollies: I realise that there are indeed a few reasonable people in Parliament: there are even a very few who could actually be described as proper liberals. Sadly, parliamentary representation appears to have robbed more than a reasonable number of villages of their idiots. Er ... not within the Blogbrief, I’m afraid. And it was such a good start.

Serf found something to be positive about with them: New ICM poll of 1,000 businesses: 52% think the EU is “failing”; 54% think EU over-regulation “outweighs” the benefit of the Single Market; 60% think the UK should renegotiate to reduce its involvement in the EU to free trade only. This is excellent news, as a continuation of this trend would leave the EU very friendless indeed. Which in Serfspeak, of course, must be a good thing.

And Ellee also found governmental positives, with a capital G: So let’s give the Government a hand with this; do you have any innovative ideas to boost recycling? For example, I have heard that disposable nappies are recycled in The Netherlands, the EU’s good boys, they are collected from the kerbside and dismantled and given a new lease of life. Recycled nappies could surely be extended to recycled underwear for adults as well, Ellee.

AJD [again] blogtravelled to Switzerland, drawing our attention to a point many a motorist must have considered: A Swiss man caught speeding on a Canadian highway has blamed his actions on the absence of goats on the roads. The man was caught driving at 161 km/h [100mph] in a 100 km/h [60mph] zone. The driver said he was taking advantage "of the ability to go faster without risking hitting a goat". No, seriously, this is a valid point. How often I remember wheezing and spluttering to the top of a Scottish hill in my ramshackle vehicle, scanning the winding road below for clusters of errant sheep, observing there were none visible and letting the motor have it’s head, in the manner of a downhill skier?

Following his cautionary tale of torture, Bryan Appleyard was down in the dumps and so he, himself, decided to go offshore: That last post was so depressing that I feel obliged once again to draw your attention to the happiest, most consoling picture in the world.

Chris Dillow crossed the pond and focused, not on Leicester but on Alaska Day, when Alaskans mark the anniversary of the completion of the US's purchase of Alaska from the Russians. Which raises a question. Why don't countries buy territories from each other any more? … Successful companies often buy badly managed ones, so why shouldn't successful states buy badly governed states? What's so great about national sovereignty that means it can't be traded? Are the obstacles here practical or ethical? Valid point wouldn’t you think?

Moving south-west, never one to mince words, Neocon found this to be quite positive news this week: There are reports out of Afghanistan today, of a spectacularly unsuccessful suicide attack on Canadian soldiers, which nonetheless managed to expedite the involuntary journey of another three Afghani citizens to the Garden of Paradise. A suicide car bomber rammed into a Canadian resupply convoy Monday leaving at least three Afghan civilians dead and one Canadian soldier slightly injured. That’ll learn ’em.

Moving even further south, The Baron’s contribution was in the form of a bit of amateur sleuthing for all the Right Bloggers who’ve been subject to the DoI scourge, which seems to have crossed the channel and taken out Gavin Ayling as well: This sounded like a job for the 910 Group. I started a topic there asking for help investigating the internet-filtering software used by the Department of the Interior. By the next morning, the intrepid 910 sleuths had tips and information about the software used, the way it was likely to have been implemented, and details about the internal organization and contact information in DOI. The Baron’s new epithet is Blogblockerbuster Extraordinaire.

Somewhere else in that vast land, Vox Day was uncharacteristically shy on the topic of his new book: It's no highfalutin' romance between an intelligent, beautiful, independent woman and the ruggedly dangerous were-seal who respects her or anything, but it may be of some small interest to a few of you.

And to the arts, with Norman Geras: Here's the trailer you would have seen for a famous musical in 1961. And here are the details of the normblog musicals poll. I'm still waiting on a lot of you, waiting for your entries. It's just five, your top five, ranked or not, as you please. Don't let me down.

I know just how you feel here. Don’t let me down indeed. Plaintively awaiting the blogreadership to respond to one’s polls is a forlorn game but hopefully people will get behind the new Behind-the-Quote competition. Best of luck to you, Norm, with your particular venture!

Johnathan Pearce knows art and knows antiquities - no doubting that. His contribution this week: An almost-hidden jewel in London's collection of museums is the Gilbert collection of jewels, furniture and historic art in Somerset House, on the banks of the Thames near the Temple tube station. At the moment, there is a retrospective exhibition of the work of the great Tiffany jewellery business, going back to that firm's origins in the middle of the 19th Century. Check in at Samizdata before you go because my links in this piece are not working.

Not exactly the arts, nevertheless, radio is close enough to bring in Dave Hill, whose attention was taken for much of the week by the man in Lincoln Green. He paused long enough to put this poser to his family-oriented readership: I'll be on BBC Radio Oxford from roughly 1.15 until 1.45, talking about the best age for having children. Could anyone please tell me which it is? You have 27 minutes.

L’Ombre, whose olives are currently under duress, would consider his hobby as falling into the category of art and he illustrated that not all is doom and gloom: In other news, the new gardener we got to help us with the basic jungle taming is a local with extensive olive tree knowledge who promises to come back and prune the trees properly in March. He has a great local provençal accent - the swear word "Putain!" turns into "Puteng!" and I think that sounds so much better :) Should one want to employ the term, it might be added, L’Ombre. Still, the outdoor life is surely a healthy life.

Stephen Pollard agrees wholeheartedly, suggesting we all abandon our unhealthy, housebound pursuits and get out for a bit of fresh air: In any case, the flat season is now drawing to a close and we can get on with some proper sport: National Hunt racing. Roll on the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham, the real start of the NH season. And have the readies at the ready.

Approaching the end of this Blogfocus, approaching All Saints and All Souls Days after that nasty pagan festival the night before, Prodicus is forgiving in this piece and the spirit of goodwill is indeed abroad: Those whose do know, that is, those who run 'mainstream' Christian schools or teach in them or whose children are currently taught by them may not - may not - defend themselves with the facts at their disposal because they know both that they are not the problem and what the real problem is. The fact is that Christian schools of all denominations promote peace and inculcate a duty of civic responsibility in the spirit of our mainstream cultural tradition - as do Jewish schools.

I wouldn’t want Tim Montgomerie, Minette Marrin or Stuart A to feel slighted but all were clearly busy elsewhere this week, spreading the spirit of goodwill and so their contributions must wait until Wednesday.

Also positive was the discovery, by this blog, of Vented Spleen [fine concept], the Englishman, James Cleverly, Wat Tyler [awful lot of historicity in these blognames], Phil and Deogolwulf, who will hopefully be covered on Wednesday.

Finally, I’ve always wanted to include Paul Linford but something else got in the way. Hope to begin soon.

Google Blogger, the worst programme ever devised, always takes a dislike to some blogger or other and refuses to publish him each time. This week it was Tom Paine's turn and the only way to circumvent Blogger was to put Tom at the end and list the url unembedded: I love to visit Scotland. It's a beautiful place. I never met a Scot I didn't like, but because of the Act of Union [something I never asked for] I also never met a Scot who did not hate - or at least resent - me. As that now falls outside the Blogfocus brief for the week, that's it for now.

http://lastditch.typepad.com/lastditch/2006/10/freedom_and_whi.html

See you Wednesday I hope.