Saturday, November 25, 2006

[meme-tags] one thing you'd never see me do

Sweet photo of Iain Dale shamelessly stolen in a raid on Paul Linford

Simple piece by Iain Dale who must be chuckling over the mayhem: Power of the Meme: Prague Tory needs to get out more. Click HERE to see why.

When you do click on it, Praguetory makes his feelings known about his disdain for the meme and yet he's produced the most amazing analysis of the latest one on 10 Things I'd Never Do.

[chatham house] freedom of information

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

[the cross] b.a. backdown not necessarily correct

So BA boss Willie Walsh has finally backed down following an avalanche of criticism. The airline had faced four days of angry condemnation from an overwhelming alliance of Cabinet ministers, 100 MPs, 20 Church of England bishops and, finally, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Rowan Williams called its stance 'deeply offensive' and threatened to sell the Church of England's £6.6million holding of BA shares. Just five hours later, the airline capitulated.

The atheistic and humanistic among the readers of this blog would have expected me, a known serial-Christian, to be crowing. Not a bit of it. Actually, I don’t believe what she did was right and the photo of her in a light blue outfit, with matching cross, had me shifting uneasily in the chair.

This strikes me as being as bad as the burkah issue where the woman was clearly doing it to provoke and to make some money. I see where this Nadia is coming from [very Eastern European name, where icons are central to the faith] and it’s not a cynical exercise, rather one of defiant outrage.

And yet … it’s not right. It’s not what the cross is for. Certainly it shouldn’t be hidden away but neither should it be flaunted. This is not in keeping with the nature of Christianity, which should go about its business quietly. It’s not about taking up arms and burning heretics. It’s about personal belief and trying to spread goodwill.

[iraq] shake your head, weep, pray, do something

People, are we so inured against feeling that we can pass over this lightly: Six burnt alive in fresh Iraqi brutality?

Am I in company in feeling the way the media reports it is almost as nauseating as the acts themselves?

Shi’ite militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayers yesterday and burnt them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking Baghdad. The attack in the Iraqi capital came after suspected Sunni insurgents killed more than 200 people in Baghdad's main Shiite district.

Contrast this to the face of the Iraqi girl in the photo and the peaceful river scene in the previous post on Iraq. Will she ever smile like this again? Has law and order so completely broken down? Where the hell are the Yanks? What are they doing? Who’s ordering the troops to stand back? Where are the new Iraqi authorities? Has America met its match in the sheer demonic frenzy of these crazies? Do you doubt that tht’s what we’re witnessing here – demonic insanity?

How to stop the slaughter?

[les étrangers] how the americans and french really see one another

Another gem from the pre-blogging days, this is entitled: The Problem with the French is that they have No Word for Rapprochement. It’s by Gene Weingarten who writes the Washington Post column Under the Beltway on Sunday afternoons and can be forum e-mailed on Tuesdays. Click on the Post link in the left sidebar to find him. Hope this brings a smile to the face:

The French Minister of Agriculture politely awaited my question. We were seated in the study of his ministry in the heart of Paris, overlooking a garden with ancient statuary.

At 43, Herve Gaymard [post coming up tomorrow morning on his political scandal] is already a member of the national cabinet, custodian of nothing less formidable than the French wine industry. Sandy-haired, lithe, urbanely handsome like Paul Henreid in "Casablanca," the minister was in shirtsleeves, slacks and -- as became apparent when he crossed his legs -- loafers sans socks. He looked effortlessly fabulous, of course. He is French.

This interview almost didn't happen. I had requested an audience with the highest French official available, on the subject of the strained relations between our two nations over the war in Iraq. The French Embassy initially seemed reluctant, at which point I observed that it would be a pity if, to secure an official audience with a French dignitary, I had to seek out Jean-Marie Le Pen.

That would be the race-baiting crypto-fascist whose stunning showing in the last presidential elections threatened to create an international embarrassment for the French of a magnitude unseen since a swastika flapped beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

Soon afterward, Monsieur Gaymard was made available.

Continues here

[les étrangers] how the british and french really see one another

From the pre-blogging days comes this BBC gem and I’m not being ironic. The comments from readers which follow it are also revealing:

Two-hundred years to the day after France's defeat at Trafalgar many Brits still view their cross-channel neighbours with suspicion and antipathy. The French however, think we should just get over it.

France is the UK's top tourist destination, with 12 million British visitors each year, while the UK is the second most popular spot for French tourists with over three million visits a year. The air route from Paris to London is the busiest in the world, carrying some 3.3 million passengers a year... then there's the Channel Tunnel.

Such statistics might fool a person into thinking the British and the French actually like each other. But even though it is over 100 years since the Entente Cordiale was signed, pledging Britain and France to a lasting political friendship, relations on many fronts are decidedly frosty.

But the main problem seems to lie here. Stereotyped by the Brits as garlic-loving, snail-eating, skirt-chasing, shoulder-shrugging "Frogs", the French don't really care what the British think.

"Les Rosbifs" are not important to the average French person. Nobody is pretending that this is full blown racism, rather the inheritance of 'acceptable' attitudes of suspicion and isolationism," says Richard Kaye, organiser, Entente Cordiale exhibition

"Most of the French feel neither burning animosity nor deep affection towards the British," says Christian Roudaut, author of a book on Anglo-French relations, L'Entente Glaciale. "I'm sure the British would say this represents precisely the sort of arrogance for which the French are notorious in the UK.

And the age-old French stereotypes appear to show no signs of disappearing in the UK. 72 % of Britons questioned in a recent survey believed the French warranted their negative stereotype, while only 19% of French believe the Brits deserved their "Rosbifs" tag.

While Franco-British enmity stretches back centuries, many of the xenophobic stereotypes of the French in today's society stem from the post-war period, according to Professor David Walker, from the University of Sheffield.

"The French are a kind of sibling, cast in the same mould as us, but showing how the same genes can express themselves in alternative ways," says Dr Wendy Michallat, an expert in popular French culture.

Read more here

[the ashes] death of cricket and of life as we know it

This series is the Ashes, commemorating the death of English cricket back in the dim, dark past. But now we have a dim, dark future and the death of cricket has become, first the erosion of all forms of enjoyment, then a flood of suppression, all in the name of security. Security?

Balderdash [there are ladies present]

Just what are the draconian security measures supposed to prove? What exactly do they prevent? Would they prevent an organized guerilla group dropping from the skies or lobbing grenades? There was an attempt at a Mexican wave and whereas it would have been good-naturedly tolerated earlier, this time it was ruthlessly suppressed and the culprits dragged from the ground. These were hooligans, that’s all. Hooligans with a skinful on a hot summer’s day. These were not terrorists – not in any way.

I resent this. I resent that the PTB created this whole political situation by misrepresenting it to the patriotic public, stirring up the muslim world then, by allowing known malcontents to slip past the screen, creaed 911 and 7/7 and right there and then was the pretext to rob the ordinary person of everything he had and to militarize the state. Oh it's on the way to being militarized all right and they don’t give a tinker’s cuss for any talk of 'rights'. They say that bodysearching cricket fans and over regulating a festival of pleasure, a cricket match [well, not pleasure from England’s point of view maybe] is a necessary counter-insurgency measure.

Bullsh-- [excuse my French]

And anyway, England will fight back on the field sooner or later, by the way.

Friday, November 24, 2006

[iraq] there are things which don't add up here

Happier moments in Iraq

The Reuters headline said it: Mosques torched after worst Iraq bombing. It doesn’t add up. There are too many anomalies here. For a start, it was done ‘untroubled by a curfew enforced in the capital by U.S. and Iraqi forces’. How so? Then there was the simple fact of Muslims burning down their mosques. Then this: One witness said 14 people were killed in his mosque during Friday prayers: "It was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades. That had to have been funded and the hardware had to actually have been brought in.

The original split between the sects came in the 7th Century over what was essentially a political dispute over who should lead Islam after the Prophet Mohammed. The Shiites wanted the leadership to pass through the prophet's family. When his cousin Ali was passed over for the job, his followers became known as the "Shiat Ali," or "partisans of Ali." Sunnis and Shiites live and work side-by-side, intermarry and, broadly speaking, follow the same core religious tenets. So how can they rocket attack and burn buildings dedicated to Allah? Torch each other – that’s possible.

In Algeria, there’s a clue: The GIA [Muslim guerillas] started coming up with new touches to keep the game interesting: burning people alive, bayoneting babies, raping and killing children in front of their parents. All in the name of God, you understand. Then came the GIA splinter group I read about - the Disciples of Satan. They started out as GIA fighters, but they got so messed up by what they'd seen and done that they decided there must not be a God at all. They turned into Islamic Satanists and went around trying to find newer and sicker ways to kill people as a way of making Satan happy. So they were doing the same sick stuff as ever, but in Satan's name instead of Allah's. He appears to be alive and well in Iraq as well. After all, the I—tar Gate is a national monument in Iraq and you know whom that’s dedicated to.

[animal lust] right old rogering in a christmas window

Time to lower the tone. Yesterday, in a Melbourne department store window Christmas display, a platypus appeared to be rogering a wombat.

A malfunction caused the “accidental and unfortunate positioning of the two characters in this year's Christmas windows titled Wombat Devine,” the store apparently explained.

"I don't know what to think," said a mother of four. "They look like they are ... involved."

Morning radio programs were flooded with upset callers who thought what they had seen in the particular window was in bad taste. But some people weren't at all upset by the graphic scenes. "It's for kids and they don't think like we [adults] do so I'm sure they wouldn't even notice it," said one woman with her grandchildren. In another scene, two koalas appeared to be intimately involved and this was posted on youtube.com. Looks a little more than a 'malfunction' to me but I might be much mistaken.

[christopher beale] 6 year old's book launch tomorrow

This and Last Seasons' Excursions by Christopher Beale

Do you remember the recent post about six year old Christopher Beale’s new book and how he is in the Guiness Book of Records now?

His book launch is tomorrow, Saturday, November 25th, at 14:30, at the Borders, Oxford Street. If you are in London and can possibly spare a few minutes and maybe snap up a copy – I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m going to see how I can buy one too from over here. [Not being on the grid 'n all, I can’t use the net.]

[nagging] how can it ever achieve the desired result

Picture which some ladies find offensive and which I think is fundamentally flawed - girls are a lot more subtle than that.

Men nag about sex. Yes they do and it drives women mad.

Now, having done my bit on behalf of the ladies, we need to look at the other side of the coin. A short time ago, there was a most unpleasant scene next door and it’s rare for this particular couple. He was shouting at the top of his voice and from what I could make out, was indicating that she was dragging him to an early grave etc. She could not be heard. I often hear this sort of thing from neighbours above, below, left and right.

What does it indicate – that men are nervous creatures? Or that they’ve reached the end of their tether? The carefully placed female word can carry a lot of power when it wants but I do wonder what they are trying to achieve? I asked some girls why they harp on about things and they said, ‘So that it will finally sink in.’ By which generally accepted, efficacious psychological theory does this method work? I would have thought you’d get what you want by the opposite – building up his ego.

Sam Brett ran a post on this issue sometime back and I did as well.

[why we blog] perhaps we’re getting closer

Following on from this post, I really do feel we’re getting somewhere here. I have 5 questions to ask you to put this thing into focus [at the end of the link below] but first – comments by two top bloggers:

Tiberius Gracchus wrote, in my comments section:

1] Ultimately you blog for two reasons: firstly so that you can put down your thoughts on a page … we all have unformed political beliefs and blogging gives them a form. The second thing is the comments and feedback- I try to respond to all my comments precisely because I know I don't know that much about the world - blogging is a way of getting into a conversation with people who have other kinds of knowledge, other specialisms and can give me their knowledge and resources in order to solve problems and issues.

2] I'd rather have fifteen readers who came back every day and were interested in what I said and commented, than have a hundred who couldn't care less what I said and just flicked over it. The stats for me are just ego really but the interest derives from people commenting and responding and thinking and responding on their own blogs and reading stuff which challenges me and researching my own ideas and writing things down.

Mr. Eugenides then wrote, in my comments section:

1] But, put another way, it would be rather curious if Guido came in at no.35 but some mug like us slotted in at 7 - gratifying, but not perhaps a true reflection of the "top 100" of the blogosphere.

2] As Gracchi says it's not about the stats, though of course more is better than less and it's nice to think people are coming specifically to read what you have to say; DK said on Doughty St the other day that he blogs entirely for himself, and whether this is true or not, clearly it is important (given that we do this for nothing) that we are excited and interested in what we're doing.

3] I could probably double my stats overnight by putting "Britney Spears Sex Tape" in every post title, but what would be the point?

4] I was listening to Stephen King on Desert Island Discs this morning (now there's a sentence I never thought I would type!) and he mentioned that his wife had given him early encouragement by saying that "good fiction will always find an audience". I think the same is true, broadly speaking, of blogs.


I would add, as I'm sure these two gentlemen would agree, that one must work hard at one’s blog. Same in blogging as in all aspects of life.
Update: Paul Linford has also weighed into this debate now with a controversial idea.

[economics and health] government incentives to look after yourself

Black Quill has come out with this today:

The only way to make people healthier is by giving them a financial incentive to stay fit and at the moment there isn’t one. Car insurance gives you a no-claims bonus. Why can’t health insurance? Why do the fit have to supplement the healthcare of those who will not take care of themselves?

Considering the amount of money people pay towards healthcare, they should get some form of discount for not abusing it like a box of after-eight mints. The same is true of sports clubs. Membership should entitle you to a tax discount of some sort and clocking up the recommended number of exercise hours each month should entitle you to more.

I like it but I’m not an economist. Will you economists out there tell me if this would work?

[ranking blogs] 10 new criteria for assessing a great weblog

As many know, I run a Blogfocus on Tuesdays and Saturdays so, like you, I get to read many blogs and of course have come to some conclusions about them.

To that end, I’ve strung together 10 criteria of a great weblog which looks at Iain Dales’s ten to start with but then diverges. If you apply these criteria to the blogosphere, then a slightly different top 100 emerges. To start with, the 4 types of blogs I have in mind are:

1] Single purpose blogs, such as in economics, where the writer is well known and has worked hard to get where he’s got – publishing books, using RSS feeds using the latest schemes and technology and establishing his authority, stamping his mark as it were. Becoming a sort of Bloomsberg where people go for information and analysis and the more prosaic the writing and cutting the comment, the better.

2] MSM writers whose blog is an outlet in the blogosphere because one must be where the people are and certain things characterize them. In short, they can write, especially one or two from the Times. Others, like Neil Clark, can’t. Whatever one says about the MSM, these people have improved their writing over the years, forever at the mercy of sub-editors until they’ve honed their style and trimmed all wobbliness away.

3] Pollies who recognize the political need to blog and do so with varying results, e.g. Polly. Such as these provide a valuable public service in giving other bloggers a prime target to aim at. Some can write, most think they can write and one or two, such as Councillor Gavin Ayling, win people over through their essential goodness.

4] The great unwashed, including yours truly, who flock to the blogosphere and rise or fall simply by the quality of their writing and this is the most depressing area of all. Naïve babes in the art of promoting themselves, here is the purest writing of all, great in principle but one thing which stands out about the majority is that a] they can’t write b] they can’t sustain the flashes of brilliance they do have c] work gets in the way.

However, the ones who do rise above the mire, so to speak, have certain common characteristics and these I’ve tried to work into the 10 criteria.

Here ‘tis.

[revenge] spiralling escalation of madness

In the first suicide bombing claimed by Hamas in nearly two years, a grandmother blew herself up Thursday near Israeli soldiers operating inside Gaza, near the town of Beit Lahiya. "She and I went to the mosque," [the eldest daughter] told reporters. "We were looking for martyrdom."

This is simply a spiralling escalation of demonic madness which produces no lasting result. Romans 17-21 I thought put it well:

Recompense to no man evil for evil ... If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men ... avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Yeah, great, you say, with rockets raining down on our heads and our children in fear. True and yet, where is the final solution in revenge? From Northern Ireland to Janjaweed, where is an end on’t? But if you think the advice in Romans through, it is quite a powerful strategy, if applied uniformly and consistently.

The objection is that Israel has been trying to do this but the Arabs continue to rain rockets on them without pause and without any international outcry. Where is 'live peaceably with all men' here? No one is denying that this is true and yet it will never end by military means without huge cost to the society. They tried it some weeks back and it didn't work.

There's no namby-pamby do-gooding in the Romans excerpt - it clearly states 'heap coals of fire on his head'. It's a different strategy, which perhaps betrays my Fabian past.



[litvinenko] death a sadness

He’s died and I’m very sorry about that, [I assure you there is feeling behind the cold words], but this earlier post must still stand, I’m afraid. UK Daily Pundit also had something to say on the issue.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

[spain] for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction

Did this one grab you the same way it did me or do I just have an unsound mind?

Three people have been badly hurt in a luxury Spanish hotel when two tourists in a bed crashed through the floor onto a man renovating the room below. A 32-year-old woman suffered various injuries, including serious damage to her arm, while her 38-year-old male companion fractured a vertebrae, emergency services said. There was no further news on the builder's injuries or on what exactly caused the accident in the posh Parador de Toledo hotel in the central Spanish city of Toledo.

No further news on what exactly caused the accident? N-n-n-no.

[meme tag] ten things this blogger would never do

Late mistake update Nov 25th. Bad mistake. I was tagged first by Paul Linford. Have to be careful in this game.

Lady Ellee says she’s been tagged: Dizzy and Norfolk blogger [asked me] to list 10 things I would never do, as if life isn’t busy enough. It’s now my turn to pass on this MEME to cityunslicker, Sicily Scene, Geoff, Maalie, Guthrum, Bel, Neo Jacobins, PC Bloggs, Jeremy, Nourishing Obscurity and Heather Yaxley - hope I haven’t broken any rules by adding an extra one.

OK, so my turn for the nonsense and I’m tagging 10 bloggers. The rationale behind this selection of 10: Entirely random fifteen selected; then they had to be e-mailable [which is why I had to skip over Daily Pundit] and possibly have the time [which is why I dropped Serf off]. So, I ended up with:
Blognor R, Chris D, Cllr. G.A., Deogolwulf, Gracchi, L'Ombre, Notsaussure, Tin Drummer, David F, Englishman.

But I believe that I’m also required to write 10 things I’d never do, so here they are:

1] Eat oysters, offal or any other slimy thing;
2] Socialize;
3] Vegetate in a rut;
4] Judge a person until I’d heard his whole story;
5] Keep pets;
6] Go the same way the crowd is going;
7] Give up sailing;
8] Bite the hand that feeds me;
9] Have another girlfriend younger than 30;
10] Enjoy the dentist.


Update: Damn - I was also tagged by Notsaussure - what's that called now? Team tagged? Double tagged? Threesome? The mind boggles. And aren't we s'posed to e-mail the person?

[thanksgiving] dangerous macy’s balloons and high winds this year

It was 1997 when the Cat in the Hat balloon crashed into a lamppost, injuring four people and leaving one of them in a coma, and last year, when an M & M balloon sent the head of a street lamp crashing onto a woman in a wheelchair and onto her 11-year-old sister.

This year new preparations were put into place. Seven pole-mounted anemometers are transmitting minute-by-minute wind measurements to handheld computers. Police and emergency management officials are relaying the data to balloon navigators. Aerodynamics engineers and a liaison from the National Weather Service will advise the incident commander, a three-star police chief.

In the worst case, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned yesterday, the hapless helium-filled creatures could be pulled onto side streets and summarily deflated. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, “We’re very well prepared to guard against any eventuality, as far as the balloons are concerned.”

However, guidelines adopted in 1998 prohibit the giant balloons from being flown if sustained winds exceed 23 miles per hour or if gusts exceed 34 m.p.h. Michael E. Wyllie, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s forecasting office in Upton, N.Y., projected sustained winds of 20 to 25 m.p.h. and gusts of 30 to 35 m.p.h. this morning. So the balloons shouldn’t be flown.

But they’re going to be flown, so stay tuned for this one.

[the eu] fighting for your boozing and smoking rights - not

How to deal with the EU

From the Register: The European Court of Justice has ruled that boozers and smokers looking to get cut-price deals from countries with lower rates of duty will not be able to buy the stuff online. Punters will have to continue the time-honoured "booze cruise" tradition and "accompany the goods back themselves".

The judges declared that "only products acquired and transported personally by private individuals are exempt from excise duty in the member state of importation". Great for the Treasury and ferry firms but stuff the little man and his wife.

Wonderful organization, the EU, so vital for the successful operation of Britain plc, so concerned for the rights of the ordinary citizen – not. The tossers, the absolute horses’ backsides, the excremental emissions!! Look, let’s just get out of this uber-corrupt organization right now.

Vote for anyone, even Tarquin Fintimlimbimlimbimwhimbimlin Bus Stop Ftang Ftang Olay Biscuit Barrel if necessary or at a pinch, Kevin Phillips Bong but let’s just get out now. Agreed?

[litvinenko] on hit list with mass murderer and crooked oligarch

All right, I read into this article about Litvinenko and how Russian emigres in London are now on edge. And also this: For Londoners, the attack on the former Russian spy, in broad daylight in the midst of the hustle and bustle of their city, has changed the image of the Russians who come here. But when the article started quoting the mass murdering Akhmed Zakayev, actor and former Chechen rebel commander, who arrived in 2002 and lives in the same street as Litvinenko, it was time to draw the line.

Please listen, fellow Britons – do you want the hype or do you actually want the truth? Even this article gets close on occasions: By far the most controversial figure to move to London was Boris Berezovsky, one of the original Russian oligarchs, who amassed a fortune after the collapse of Communism and fled Russia under the threat of prosecution for corruption. Precisely. And where was that fortune made? Out of whose pockets? And he laundered it out of Russia. So a mass murderer and a crooked oligarch are bunched together with this Litvinenko, saying that they believe they are at the "top of the hitlist" of Russian émigrés in London, do they?

Of course they are. But the absolute hypocrisy of fellow Brits saying that this shows Putin is out of order but that our own MI6’s hits in other countries are OK is galling. We believe what we want to believe but each one of these three had very good reason to be on the list and not – repeat not – only because they’ve indulged in ‘criticism’. It’s because of what they’ve done to the Russians themselves. Talk to any Russian within this country about this please. Then form your opinion.

[pope-archbishop summit] what’s the point

You wouldn’t normally associate the ultra-slow-loading Forbes site with ecumenical news. Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams want to talk but there are serious obstacles: 1] Rowan’s quite unforgivable facial hair 2] the euphemistically described same-sex unions 3] Anglican ordination of female bishops.

Don’t know how you stand on these but I’ll go out on a limb and suggest all three are strikes against any dialogue [or trialogue, if you include their Employer]. And Benny did not get off to a good start, referring to "the strains and difficulties besetting the Anglican Communion and consequently about the uncertainty of the communion itself."

I know the American Episcopalians appointed a gay bishop in 2003 and if memory serves correctly there are some female bishops roaming around in their wild animal luxury but I’d like to know if there are any current female gay bishops. Anyone know about this?

Incidentally, if you go googling for Rowan, you find this:
Telegraph Entertainment The Dark Materials debate: life, God ... Entertainment?

[festive spirit] time to hibernate until late january

How do you like the new winter header? One reader accused me of gratuitous bonhomie in the middle of an English winter but I protest that there is not one santa to be seen, not one cross and not one reference to Christmas anywhere in the new design. It’s the new non-faith-specific design.

Today people were out in force, pre-buying New Year gifts, bless their hearts. Not me. Twenty years ago, I vowed never, never, never to do Christmas again. The reason was an extended family get-together on December 25th where everyone was doing his or her best to make conversation and enjoy the whole sorry day, all for the sake of the grandparents and the children. Well, all right, fair enough.

Then came present time. I’d earlier asked people what the other family members might like and so had dutifully bought brass candle holders, photo frames, mid-market quality wine, children’s things and so on for each member of each family. At the end of the day, I departed with a total haul of one handkerchief which you could never take out, even in the privacy of one’s bathroom, one lower-shelf bottle of plonk and two cards. I asked my mother afterwards, while driving her home, if she’d enjoyed the day.

‘It was appalling,’ she ungraciously replied. I’d never before realized she felt that way. There and then I asked permission never to be asked to attend one of these things again and she most graciously acceded, adding, ‘It’s all right for you – you can get out of them.’ Actually, she had enjoyed the company and I was being unreasonable and I did inwardly decide to go through with it all again the following year but it never happened. I went overseas during the year.

This year James Scrooge has told everyone we’ll be away and not to count us in but I wish them all the very best and please have a lovely time. Is that the wrong festive spirit?

[iceland today] roads, giant iceblocks and kinder

Three classics today from Iceland Review:

Roads in Iceland to improve

Minister of Transport Sturla Bödvarsson announced this morning that the government is going to increase funding for road construction projects through 2010 to improve Iceland’s road system. The announcement was made at a meeting organized by the Federation of Trade and Services this morning. This story is reported on mbl.is.

Bödvarsson also said too many roads in Iceland are still unpaved, which he would like to work on, and he would also like to see increased load bearing capacity, more tunnels and wider roads. Due to heavy industry projects this year, the Minister said there has not been much focus on road improvement operations.

I can just see the fearless reporter now, sitting with the Minister, notebook at the ready.

Ambulance hit by huge ice blocks

An ambulance transporting a patient from Akranes to Reykjavík was severely damaged yesterday when giant ice blocks flew from the roof of a truck and hit the front of the emergency vehicle. According to Morgunbladid, no one was harmed in the accident, which took place near Mosfellsbaer, outside Reykjavík.

The ambulance driver, Gísli Björnsson, told Morgunbladid that the ice blocks had suddenly come flying towards him. He said that if the heavy ice blocks had crashed through the windscreen of the ambulance, he would probably have been killed. Police told Morgunbladid that truck drivers, as all other drivers, should remove snow and ice from the roof of their vehicles to prevent accidents like this.

Kindergarten staff shortage in Reykjavík

The capital’s kindergartens are short on staff, resulting in an increased burden on parents and a more dangerous environment for children. Hanna Birgisdóttir, a teacher at Gullborg kindergarten in Reykjavík, told Bladid that her kindergarten is short of at least three full-time staff members.

Birgisdóttir says with less staff children have less supervision when playing outside and could get hurt more easily. Birgisdóttir says the current staff and parents do their best to cooperate, but without support from the authorities, she says the situation is unlikely to improve. Bladid reports this.

[iceland review] writer strikes back

You may recall my writing of Hitler being in Iceland and the writing style of Icelanders in English being so pleasantly quaint, especially when they are forever quoting RUV.

Intrigued, I wrote to Iceland Review to throw light on exactly who the person is who writes the news. From the style angle, I suspected [hoped for?] a sweet young lady. An example of her simple, earnest style:

This account in Skáldalíf is based on a written testimony given by a man who lived on the farm closest to Skriduklausur. To read another story about Gunnar Gunnarsson, click here.

Well, now she’s replied to my letter - the publishable part is here:

Dear James, I am the one responsible for the daily news and I am happy to hear that you enjoy our website. Best wishes, Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, Web Editor
I don’t know what it is but that sort of thing brings out niceness in people, which is one of the reasons I read Iceland Review in the first place. It certainly affects Lady Ellee :

I visited Iceland once for a day trip. I flew from Stansted, saw lots of water features and even had a lovely dip in the Blue Lagoon surrounded by volcanic rock.

But even crusty old bloggers can be affected. Witness our own redoubtable Serf, who is undergoing his own particular bout of niceness just now:

In the middle of a hectic day of a hectic life, Iceland seems somehow peacefully inviting doesn't it?

[christopher beale] youngest author launch – the borders, oxford st, sat 25th november

You may recall the earlier piece which stated that a six-year-old boy whose book will be published in the UK later this month has staked a claim as the world's youngest author. There was a link to the Independent:

Christopher Beale completed his 1,500-word, five-chapter novel 'This and Last Season's Excursions' when he was six years and 118 days old, beating the previous Guinness World Record by 42 days. Christopher, now seven, from Zug in Switzerland, landed a publishing contract with Aultbea Publishing, based in Inverness, and his book will be launched in London on 25 November.

It was then stated that his father’s name is Theodore, aged 38, also known as Vox Day. Vox has now indicated that Christopher’s book launch will be at:

The Borders on Oxford Street at 2:30 [14:30] on Saturday November 25th.

If you could get along there and support the lad, it would be nice. I'll have a little trouble doing that from where I'm stationed but anyone in London that day .....

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

[in brief] thought for the day

A beautiful young woman

Anouk Aimee, in O Magazine, October 2003, said: You can only perceive real beauty in people as they get older. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, sometime between 1815 and 1902, said: With age comes the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever young, to dwell always in externals? But Plato wrote, sometime between 427 BC and 347 BC: He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. Unfortunately, that cuts the vast majority of us out.

[thanksgiving] dispelling the myths

This reproduces an article by Timothy Walch, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, and a writer for the History News Service. His book, Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, will be published in 2003.

Thanksgiving dinner: never has the history of a meal been so obscured by myth. Every year on the fourth Thursday in November, Americans sit down to eat with family and friends. Some gather to give thanks for all that they have received over the previous year; others get together just to enjoy turkey and football. We all celebrate Thanksgiving in our own ways.

So what do most Americans believe happened on that first Thanksgiving Day? Most still cling to what they learned in elementary school. The Pilgrims sat down with Indians for a big meal of turkey, cornbread, cranberries and pumpkin pie. The Pilgrims dressed in black, and the Indians wore feathers and colorful beads. In fact, many Americans today still recall if they were "pilgrims" or "Indians" in their school pageants.

It's a charming story, but it's a myth. To be sure, it's a powerful one -- one that will be repeated many times this November. The fact that it's so pervasive is evidence that American myths have long lives.

[the ashes] here we go, here we go …

The Ashes showdown starting today could be the fiercest in cricket history, England captain Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff said yesterday. "We are one day away from what could be the biggest Test series ever," he said.

The dynamic Flintoff was unable to contain his excitement about the arrival of the most talked-about sporting event Australia has hosted in modern memory, with the exception of the Sydney Olympics.

As many as 40,000 English tourists are expected to have arrived to cheer their team on. The Barmy Army were the best sports fans in the world, Ponting said yesterday. Brisbane is awash with them; two outdoor bars in the city centre becoming their headquarters. Flintoff said he walked the streets at night and bumped into so many people he knew that he thought he was back home in Lancashire. "The fans have supported us for a long time and they're as excited as we are," he said.

With five days of glorious Queensland sunshine predicted, Australia is hot favourite to win the match and the series. Don’t be too cocksure, Aussies. A Brit with his back to the wall can be quite a handful and remember, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Plus Norman Geras.

[intellicar] drink detector says no

Good idea, infringement of personal liberties or are these women just plain MADD? They want their hubbies’ cars to refuse to start if the said hubbies are drunk.

While devices that check a person's blood-alcohol level and disable a car are in use, it could soon be universal. Arizona is currently among 20 states requiring repeat offenders to use the device, called an alcohol ignition interlock. Last year, New Mexico became the first state to make them mandatory after a first DUI conviction. The device also tells authorities when the driver is avoiding using it. It can be programmed so that the offender must use it at specific times.

According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, Web site: "An alcohol ignition interlock is a breath-test device linked to a vehicle's ignition system. When a driver wishes to start his or her vehicle, he or she must first blow into the device. The vehicle will not start unless the driver's alcohol concentration is below a preset blood-alcohol concentration."

[turkey time] a quiet day in late november

The scene: Tom and Tina are wondering where all their friends have disappeared.

Tina: Er … have you noticed where Tony, Tim, Tamara, Tomasetta and Tilly went, dearest?
Tom: I saw some men chasing them round a bit yesterday.
Tina: Oh that’s nice. Fun and games, yes?
Tom: The men were shouting out something about inviting us all to Thanksgiving. Something about cranberry sauce.
Tina: And what did Tomasetta and Tim say? They always were a greedy pair.
Tom: I don’t think they were actually saying very much – more like running around wildly and squawking and the men were shouting, 'Here're two plump ones for the pot!'
Tina: Clearly Tomasetta and Tim were delighted to be invited. I hear tell it's a happy time of year for all families. Right altruistic of those kind men, don't you think? Do you think we could get an invite too, dear?
Tom: Tina, my little turkey-gobbler,I don’t think they were actually invited to partake in the Thanksgiving.
Tina: But w-w-whatever can you mean Tom? [catches his knowing frown, pregnant with meaning and attendant pathos] Oh … no … I think I’m coming over all faint, dear. Catch me!
Tom: Tina, honey, I think it’s time to … to…
Tina: To run, Tom ... to run?
Tom: Er - yeah. [Reflects in mid-waddle] And I thought it was such a happy time of year.

[france] untold energy to rival the sun, the earth, the stars

What is it with the French? It’s been said that a Frenchman raises his eyes above him anxiously whilst an Englishman lowers his with satisfaction. Whatever, here is an idea the French have come up with [yes I know there were 7 countries but it is clearly a French idea].

A seven-member international consortium including India on Tuesday signed a formal treaty to build a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear reactor emulating the power of the sun, sealing a decade of negotiations.

Originally called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, now known officially by its initials ITER (or "the way" in Latin), the facility is to be built in Cadarache, in southern France, over a decade starting 2008. Instead of splitting the atom - the principle behind current nuclear plants - the project seeks to harness nuclear fusion: the power of the sun and the stars achieved by fusing together atomic nuclei.

If it is successful, a prototype commercial reactor will be built, and if that works, fusion technology will be rolled out across the world. Note the language used: ‘exceptional venture’, ‘rolled out across the world’, ‘harness nuclear fusion’, ‘emulating the power of the sun’, 'ITER - the way'. The light, the light bearer. Has any one out there ever heard of the Tower of Babel? What about mighty Babylon? And naturally it’s situated in France. But of course.

"This is a new step in an exceptional adventure," French President Jacques Chirac said after leading the signing ceremony in Paris, "a hand held out to future generations" and he predicted that, if it proved successful, "we will be able to derive as much energy from a litre of seawater as from a litre of petrol or a kilo of coal." Man will become G-d and we will surpass Him, all glory to France and I … I … Jacques Chirac, alias Agent Smith, will go down in history as the creator of the new earth, the heavens, the …….

[whitechapel] do you know this man

Here's an interesting one [no link, sorry]: Jack the Ripper was short, stocky and about 30 years old - "frighteningly normal" - according to a profile of the notorious Victorian-era killer published yesterday using state-of-the-art technology.

The man who strangled and butchered five London prostitutes probably looked very different from the man authorities were searching for at the time, police said.

Laura Richards, head of analysis for the Metropolitan Police's violent crime command, has drawn up what is believed to be the most accurate portrait of the murderer after analysing evidence from the case using modern police techniques. Does he look like anyone you know?

[google bombing] time to try it on tony

Reactionary Snob has come up with a doozy of an idea and explains: you probably don't know what a Google Bomb is. From my limited understanding, it is some sort of trick that a group of people do to subvert the Google algorithm (for those of you educated since 1970 an algorithm is described quite well here).

The government, following the DEFRA wiki and Milliband's blog, have come up with the idea of a list of
online petitions. At the moment, the top ranking is a repeal of the Hunting Act 2004. Each is phrased ''We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…'' The 9th best ranked is a stroke of genius. However, why don't we all group together and try and get something ridiculous (and, if possible, offensive) high-up the list.

I’m game if he is and if you are. So what will we bomb?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

[blogfocus tuesday] 14 final victims under scrutiny

1…James Cleverly Blog, the Hugo Chavez look-alike, runs nearly one of the best Conservative blogs on Iain Dale’s list at the moment, he was an officer in the Territorial Army for over 15 years [looks too young for mine], was a one year resident in Scotland until they sent him home to think again, is the next member for Lewisham East, runs pictures of pretty girls on his site and 79% of respondents were in favour of him joining the Goldlist but as a blogger, he is clearly on the A list. Here he is, swimming about in a piece of Lewisham skullduggery:

It was always the case that the parties involved in the Ladywell Pool campaign would make political capital out of the decision to keep it open. Everyone writes their part a little bit bigger, a little bit bolder than in reality it was. I can forgive them that. But it takes some kind of brass neck for Steve Bullock to claim credit for it's saviour. See here for the leaflet.

2…Daily Pundit is a full-on, mainstream, no-nonsense, at-you blogger whose catchcry, Yo Churchill! sets the scene, his concern being the British sphere, even down to listing Government Departments, which presumably he uses for background material. But his interests are broadly international and he runs link after link down his sidebars, like an aircraft instrument control panel, everything at his fingertips and ready to press into action - a man after my own heart [look at my own sidebars]. Where we differ, his undoubted talent aside, is that Daily Pundit is also concerned with scientists, pointing out that there are two kinds: those who are peer reviewed, the true scientists and then there are those who yearn for a certain outcome and set about creating the needed data to make it so, requiring grants along the way. What this says about Daily Pundit himself is not clear.

I was just about to say what a good day it's been for Labour to 'bury bad news'. Then I popped over to the Government News Network, a central hub for department press announcements, only to read this: 'The News Distribution Service is currently experiencing some technical problems, which have caused some old press releases to be spuriously re-issued.' Surely that's the norm?

Another 12 bloggers here

[weirdos] time to terminate this superstition

People, sorry – I really seem to be hitting this topic lately but maybe it’s hitting us instead and we are simply picking up on it. Last one for now – promise.

“I am not a religious person, but I like to think my beliefs are broadly Christian. This is, after all, still a predominantly Christian country. But I find it appalling that Christians are starting to be persecuted like some weird religious sect, while other religions are deemed to be 'untouchable' both in law and satire. The latest manifestation of this worrying trend is that some universities are, unbelievably, starting to ban Christian Unions.” No, it’s not me but Iain Dale.

Anonymous replies... iain, in 1998 the christian union systematically went around the university trying to get rid of every single student in halls they did not like the look of … these organisations … have been taken over by a bunch of unlibertarian, evangelical nutcases. The university chaplain correctly stated there was "nothing christian about our christian union."

Sam Tarran said ... If there are problems with the Christian Union shoving the Bible in people's faces, as some here have described, then surely wouldn't it be better to act against its wrongdoings rather than ban it altogether?

Firstly, there is no doubt at all that there is a systematic movement, especially in the halls of higher learning, against the cross. Anonymous is also right - many of these people are appalling and you have to run and hide until they’ve gone away. There’s no one more off-putting than a religious zealot who produce precisely the opposite of their desired result.

Should we ban the movement or the individuals? My fellow humanist bloggers would say suppress all religion – it only causes wars but that’s nothing but the old three card trick.

Analogy – there are two boys from a college sitting on a bench, reading. A pair from another college come along and start taunting them, jostling them and so on. Along comes a street kid, reads the situation and goes and gets his mates to champion the first ones. Soon there’s biffo everywhere, blood on the benches, the centre manager ejects them all and two women look at each other and mutter, ‘Boys - nothing but trouble wherever they go!’

[youngest author] six year old to be published

Proud father

Now here’s an interesting one: A six-year-old boy whose book will be published in the UK later this month has staked a claim as the world's youngest author.

There’s a link which takes you to the Independent, which continues: Christopher Beale completed his 1,500-word, five-chapter novel 'This and Last Season's Excursions' when he was six years and 118 days old, beating the previous Guinness World Record by 42 days. Christopher, now seven, from Zug in Switzerland, landed a publishing contract with Aultbea Publishing, based in Inverness, and his book will be launched in London on 25 November.

His father’s name is Theodore, aged 38 and he’s a proud dad. He’s also known as Vox Day.

[high street stores] rise of the herd mentality

You think it’s time to buy a shirt so you take the tube to James Street and go to Bednams, Trubons and so on. You could go to a boutique but that’s pricy.

As you look around the range, you notice that, in your size, there’s only rubbish left but in midget or elephant sizes there are some good lines. You ask the woman and she shrugs. You’ve had two weeks to buy and anyway, why didn’t you take advantage of the preview for card holders?

“But I don’t have a card.” She looks to the sky and directs you to the credit facility. Now you’re all set up and you’re on the grid. The moment the store sends you advance warning of the preview, you get in quick and buy up before any other rival does. Comes the grand opening and the plebs all rush the store to pick off the remaining wearable sizes before someone else muscles in ahead of them. The question never crosses your mind, ‘Er … did I really need these three pairs of underwear and silk thai I also bought?’

The question also never enters your head, ‘Why must I join the cattle drive to buy a shirt? Why must buying of clothing be done in spasms? Why can’t enough of the good sizes be held back so that when someone actually has a need for a new shirt, he can visit the store, confident that some nice lines will still be available? How does the stampede shopping mentality improve modern life? And why, if you refuse to madly stampede, is nothing left for you but remainders when you do casually stroll through the door?

[racism] cussing your brother then apologizing

Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot. “For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry,” the former Seinfeld co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's Late Show in New York.

Oh really? Calling two hecklers ‘nigger’ appears to me to be a little racist. Uttering profanities [I think they call it ‘cussing’] would seem to support the contention. But this post is not about racism – it’s about weakness. The Pope made comments about Mohammed. All right, so be it. Certain young gentlemen in Lewisham who’d watched too many 90s movies called me ‘white honky’. And what? At least they didn’t apologize for it afterwards.

What’s with all this apologizing, as I plaintively asked some time ago? Look, if you think the guys are ‘niggers’, then either say it or shut up about it. Personally, I think you’re a pratt for even concerning yourself in that stuff. But don’t call them things and then try to squirm out of it later.

That’s just weak.

[oj squeezed] we’ll never know how he would have done it

It’s been dropped – the plan to publish the book and do a string of interviews with O.J. Simpson.

As the International Herald Tribune said: The decision to cancel the twin Simpson projects was greeted with widespread expressions of relief. Michael Angelos, a vice president of Pappas Telecasting Companies, which told the network Friday that its four Fox-affiliated stations did not intend to broadcast the interview, released a statement calling the network's decision "a victory for the people who spoke out." The statement concluded, "This special would have benefited only O. J. Simpson, who deserves nothing but contempt, and certainly no benefit."


Right. Yes. It would have benefited only him and maybe he was a bit cash-strapped and maybe his taste is kinda low. But … but … isn’t that what anyone would do if he had a story, an angle, which would sell? Wouldn’t anyone sell his memoirs if they’d make a killing? Imagine the T-shirts you'd sell. You'd be famous again. And as someone once said, 'I don't care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right.'

[congress] conscription is back on the discussion board

There’s a current congressional discussion of the reintroduction of conscription. It matters not that the Democrats have decided not to at this point – all that matters is that the issue has been re-introduced into people’s minds for them to mull over for a while. And the men and women of the state who introduce these things – they meet barriers from the populace and drop it, only to reintroduce it later in another form. They must do so because there’s a very patient agenda that is being worked towards.

This blog has
recently expended energy on what some would see as spurious activity – pinning the root cause of the current troubles to the 4th player, which those who know know and those who don’t reject. The High Finance, in other words. And the Finance is linked to the global strategy of the UN and is funding all the strife, as it always has, as well as fomenting more. It’s good business.

It is not a club, any more than the blogosphere is a club. After all, business is business and knows no true friends. It’s just that once you rise to a certain position, you slip quite easily into a new, more comfortable lifestyle, a certain ‘clubbable’ atmosphere and a growing feeling of exclusivity. You have a financial buffer now and people begin to defer to you. You sit in first class lounges. All very flattering. And like minded people surround you.

Certain people from above deign to address you and even suggest you can be included and you’re even more flattered. I’ve seen that in the last few days where certain bloggers, full of invective against the establishment, allow themselves to be drawn into that establishment when it smiles upon them.

That’s how it starts. Oh yes, and it’s very difficult to extract yourself and when you do, there’s a certain tolerance from them at first, then annoyance, then they just abandon you. It’s like your father rejecting you. Rather than that, some get deeper and deeper into this exclusivity thing.

Even in the tone of this post you can sense my own overweening attitude which, of course, is essentially unfounded. Exclusivity and influence are the two tenets of this non-club and they’re enormously seductive. Even now I don’t know how to deal with this thing.

There are things which go with it in the macro sphere which don’t immediately meet the eye: militarized atmosphere in society, colour coding, redrawing of artificial geographical boundaries, hierarchical structures and managerialism, restriction of movement and database tracking of people, destruction of trees for goodness sake [don’t know why – it’s the Joni Mitchell syndrome], the locking in of all people from a young age into a debt economy – the bank as mother pig and we the little piglets, globalized agenda and so on.

Bloggers will blog, millions of words will be uttered, congress will gradually be won over, as will parliament and gradually it will be forced through, along with ID cards and summary detention. I would say it’s relatively easy to track the agenda of the last 16 years. There’s plenty on record. And it’s equally easy to track the next 16.

Monday, November 20, 2006

[wren chapel] now they've put it under lock and key

The 2nd most nauseating thing to me was the smug banality of the administrator's explanation that they were trying to make the Wren Chapel "less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff and visitors of all faiths. " What drivel, what a gross insult to the intellect of the university community.

The most nauseating is that the video reveals they didn't just put the cross in a cupboard - they locked it away. Locked it. Now I can only think of two explanations for this 1] in it's old position it was guarded and in it's new, it's at more risk of thievery 2] there is real mania at work here.

Also interesting is the way the secular blogosphere has got into this. Michelle Malkin, bless her little cotton socks, got into it and today the Tin Drummer said:

I have come across this unwillingness to allow symbols of non-atheism in public spaces many times recently, but I just can't work it out. Why do atheists need to protected from symbols of faith, even in chapels? Are they really so chippy and insecure that this is necessary? My experience of atheists suggests that most don't give a damn.

One major blogger today said he felt it was a storm in a teacup. Hardly that - the locking away would seem to have put paid to that notion. This blog believes there is truly mania at work here and a cynical, banal disrespect fuelling it. Believe me, if it was a Wiccan Chapel in a Wiccan College and the Wiccan Star had been removed and locked away, I'd be equally up in arms about it. Perhaps the final word should come from Mr. Eugenides, in his comment at Gates of Vienna:

It's a disgrace.

[the hobbit] greed blights middle-earth

Sad, sad and sad. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are in a legal battle with New Line over the profits from Lord of the Rings. As the Chicago Tribune says:

So naturally New Line is looking for someone else to direct [the new Hobbit film]. At least that’s what Jackson and producing/writing partner Fran Walsh say in a long letter posted Sunday night on TheOneRing.net, a Tolkien fan site. They contend that New Line insisted on linking a "Hobbit" deal-which might involve two movies-with the settlement of a lawsuit by the filmmakers’ production company over "LOTR" profits. Jackson and Walsh write that their position has remained that they wouldn’t enter business with New Line again until the suit was resolved-and they didn’t want a "Hobbit" agreement to be tied to working out legal issues.

And there it is. Due to greed over profits, the public will miss out on what was a winning combination.

[new blogroll] actually raises some issues

All right - that's done but the way I've done it might raise some questions.

The issue with those on the 2nd list is e-mailing and comments. Either they provide no e-mail, which cuts out one of the fun aspects of blogging or they provide no comments, which cuts out one of the fun aspects of blogging. Or else it takes two years to load on a dial up.

Everyone to his own, of course but I like to access the people I read and feedback instantly, which I can't if I have to log in to my e-mail each time. Also, sometimes it's appropriate as a comment but sometimes one wishes to say something more personally [not in front of everyone, as it were].

Tomorrow's Blogfocus has 14, not 17, as three I had earmarked are currently inactive - which is another issue. and yet you'll see some new faces in those 14 so it might be worth your while.