Wednesday, October 31, 2007

[milestones] it was profile views all along

Statistiques utilisateur

Sur Blogger depuis juillet 2006
Consultations du profil 10 002


I expected it next week - it happened tonight.

Delighted and humbled but perhaps I should be a bit worried about who half of them were. Had to smile at Ellee when she said not to look at stats because my eyes for some time have not been on uniques but I admit - on profile views.

I'm popping off now for a coffee and whisky, if you don't mind and will get back to Blogfocuses tomorrow. Have a lovely evening.

[all hallow's eve] don't be caught out of doors

Well, as you know, it's All Hallow's Eve and the details are dealt with below.

What I'd like to recount here instead is the evening I had to drive to a village near Derby from the North of England.

It truly was dark and foreboding and the rain was lashing the snot-green Mini's windows as I tried to negotiate the map to get me past Alfreton, New Order were blasting out of the door speakers and I was late.

Why does it always take so long to get anywhere in Britain? On a long stretch of moorish road it struck me that it was Hallowe'en and that it may not ahve been the cleverest idea to travel alone on such a night with all the witches and warlocks out in force.

Then the car died. Just turned off - everything - lights, engine - it all stopped. Slowing to a halt on the side of the road, it struck me that this was most certainly not a good move.

Some minutes later it struck me that it might be a good move to thumb some help down but not a lot of traffic was about at just before 11 p.m. on an open stretch of road.

A lorry did stop and took me into, can't remember, Alfreton I think it was and I remember a pizza shop which is unusual because I probably needed to organize the AA at that point.

They came out surprisingly quickly but here was the thing - they couldn't get it to start. Not in the least. So it was tow-truck time and it was closing in on midnight. Just after midnight the driver thought he'd try one more time and it started.

Everything started - the lights, the music and so on. He definitely scratched his head when he packed up and left.

Anyway, here are those details for those who like quick reference:

All Saints’ Day: November 1st

"Hallows" is the Old English for "holy man"; hence a saint. The French call it Toussaint.

It’s traditionally traced to Pope Boniface IV who, between 603 and 610, changed the heathen Pantheon into the Christian church and dedicated it to the honour of the martyrs but some trace it to the time of Pope Gregory III (731-741). Originally held on May 1st, in the year 834 it was changed to November 1st.

What exciting things to do on the day? Pray for the Saints and be one. That’s it.

All Souls’ Day: November 2nd

All Souls' Day is so called because Catholics on that day seek, by prayer and almsgiving, to alleviate the sufferings of souls in purgatory. It was instituted in the monastery of Cluny in 993.

According to tradition, there was a pilgrim, returning from the Holy Land, who was compelled by a storm to land on a rocky island, where he found a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs was an opening into the infernal regions through which huge flames ascended, and where the groans of the tormented were distinctly audible.

The pilgrim told Odilo, abbot of Cluny, of this, and the abbot appointed the day following, which was the 2nd, to be set apart for the benefit of those souls in purgatory.

What to do on this day? Pray for the souls of all the departed, from your grandparents through to the children of Beslan, say. In this respect, it would mean more than All Hallows to most people and it’s the one I take the most seriously of the three.

All Hallows Eve: October 31st

In the old Celtic calendar, this was the last day of the year, its night being the time when all the witches and warlocks were abroad and held their wicked revels. This was a day NOT to be out.

On the introduction of Christianity, it was taken over as the Eve of All Hallows, or All Saints, and - especially in Scotland and the north of England - it is still devoted to all sorts of games in which the old superstitions can be traced.

Sometimes known as "Hallowmas," many old folklore customs are connected with All-Hallows' Eve, such as bobbing for apples, cracking nuts, finding by various tests whether one's lover is true and so on.

In shortened form, it’s called Hallowe’en [always with the apostrophe]. Burns' Hallowe'en gives a good picture of Scottish customs and there is a tradition in Scotland that those born on All-Hallows' Eve have the gift of double sight, and the ability to command spirits.

Source: Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

[dipnote] blog with a difference

Little message just arrived from the U.S. State Department re my post on them:
Granted, we're new at this, but just ask that you give the blog a chance. It's an open forum where you can actually discuss foreign policy issues with State Department officials and fellow bloggers. The question of the week this week is "What will life in Cuba be like after Castro?"
They’re referring, of course, to Dipnote, the new State Department blog which opened on September 25th - rivetting stuff. Perhaps they’re right and we’ve been a bit hasty. Shall we go over and join the forum?

The State Department blog is here if you're brave.


[winter approacheth] billowing clouds

We're not yet at the stage in the photo but we have definitely made a quantum shift.

The big tree downstairs outside of my window has now lost the last of its leaves and the temperature which had been a balmy 4 degrees was now a tad below zero at dawn.

Coupled with this was a sky I can only describe as "billowing" and ominous in it's dark-greyness. It threatens to snow, in other words.

I dearly hope it does because without the snow, the plummeting temperatures are bleak and suicidal and people's moods are so low - perhaps "grim" is a better word.

Come the snow and everything is fairyland and the sky even seems to brighten. Colours seem to become more vivid, the beautiful hush comes over the land, dampening car and industrial noise and it affords respite from life's problems.

A quick glance now and the temperature has rocketed up to 2 degrees. Who knows, it might make the balmy 4 yet.

And as for that looming milestone, I'm now a tantalizing 34 away from it. So near and yet so far.

[treaty] dishonesty in high places

Mr Giscard d'Estaing says the "proposed institutional reforms" of the rejected constitution can still be found in the new treaty.

The authors of the new treaty, he says, have taken the original draft constitution and "blown it apart into separate elements". They have then "re-attached them, one by one, to existing treaties".

Changes to the original constitution - such as jettisoning references to a European flag and anthem - were made to "head off any threat of referenda", Mr Giscard d'Estaing says. The EU Reform Treaty was agreed earlier this month at a summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
Four things:
1. Why did it take until now for the BBC to carry this self-evident truth?

2. Does this not now show that the EU has been acting dishonestly and contrary to the wishes of the people in two of the strongest members – France and Britain?


3. Do you realize that because of the Lisbon accords, what was Britain will be EU post-2009?


4. What can be done about it?

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

[political bloggers] failing to connect the dots

Political bloggers may be driving themselves to exhaustion but are they too narrowly channeled?

Just been round to various blogs and one thing is painfully obvious – political blogs are islands and political bloggers run in well worn grooves.

It’s exasperating to see bloggers persisting in pushing the same narrow focus, no matter how correct it is and flatly refusing to either research outside the style of journals they use as their primary sources or failing to take the macro-view into account.

For example, one blogger keeps asking: “Why do we need a stepping stone to an English Parliament?”

Well clearly because there isn’t going to be an English Parliament whilst Brown is there and Brown needs breathing space. How would I know this? Look at Part 3 of the micro-control article and the links and a possible answer is there. At least it's worth considering, which I don't see major bloggers doing.

And why don't we see this sort of thing - three questions for CP? Why are the big boys not covering it?

The regions are being beefed up - this is not even in dispute and CP is moving into positions of influence within local areas. The focus is on RDAs - they flew the regional assembly kite and now it’s occurring by the back door, just as the Treaty is.

Now why would the DTI have altered its website and included regionalization? Why would CP be training people hell for leather in local areas such as the South West to assume command “beyond authority” as they put it? They are doing that – follow the relevant links.

Look – here is a video of Diversity Training at Ian Parker’s site plus his comment:
Diversity training has had to be forced on companies because there are no actual benefits to be derived from it. Were this not the case organisations would already have recognised the competitive benefits and implemented their own diversity programs, without the need for government legislation.
Why are the major bloggers not picking up on these things? Where are they? Tied up in Polly Toynbee and David Milliband. Even Mr. Eugenides touches on the “what” all right and well done but does not get into the “why” or “what is going to happen as a consequence?”
"Looking at the content, the result is that the institutional proposals of the constitutional treaty … are found complete in the Lisbon Treaty, only in a different order and inserted in former treaties," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said.

The former chairman of the European Convention - the body of over a hundred politicians that drafted the 2004 EU constitution – suggests the new more complicated layout was only to avoid putting the treaty to a referendum.
Ignoring the body of evidence out there from the more unorthodox sources, Iain Dale refers to training for something not going to happen:
This sort of training course teaches them debating skills, media skills and how to campaign. It may sound dull to those not involved in the political process, but this sort of thing is vital for young people from all parties if they are to acquire the skillset to become our politicians of the future.
There are going to be no “conservative leaders” because it goes straight from Britain to the EU Treaty regions. We must begin to look more broadly at the whole frame, such as Dizzy did:
What's important to point out here is this is not about saying you think Gordon Brown and the Labour Government are secretly trying to enslave us all in an Orwellian nightmare with the ultimate aim of destroying democracy. No, this is about asking whether the proposal passes the Stalin Test. Would someone like Stalin have found a system like this useful?
So, given that Dizzy is not talking through his hat, then what are the possible consequences of this tightening of restrictions even on people’s movement? A possible answer is via Sackerson, where Tony Allison says, about the peak oil consequences:
For example, we could see a re-birth in local farming and manufacturing, as food and industrial products become exceedingly expensive to transport.
Of course we’re going to – the population is being increasingly made to remain local. Still with Sackerson, Robert McHugh says of the squeeze on the bourgeoisie:
The Middle Class is getting annihilated from this silent event. Incomes are not keeping up. This was done because this administration “equates stock market success with economic success and has directed their efforts to drive up equities at literally any cost,” to quote one of our subscribers.
Can anyone see where this thing is going? Yep, the middle class is about to go bust and those holding gold are sitting pretty:
Charles Merrill, a relation of the Merrill Lynch founder, has become a gold squirrel.
And other big boys who are in the know?
… up to 25% of M&A deals had some dodgy looking share deals associated with them in the past few years ...
Joining the dots – that’s what is necessary here. Think tanks with data from a variety of sources coming in and bloggers combining to sift through it all and get the whole picture.

By the way, was informed today that one of my irregular sources was visited by CP today for 3 hours 59 mins 46 secs and he asked:
Now, do these people waste tax-payers money? :)

[housekeeping] useless post

Yesterday was my highest day for uniques ever, despite it being a bad day personally. At the same time, it was my lowest number of fellow bloggers visiting since last September, 2006.

Make that one out!

Also, it appears my personal milestone [not traffic by the way] is getting mighty close and might even be this week! Very excited by this - I've just had a peep now but will have to work doubly hard to get over the line.

[promiscuity] has zero to do with the logos

Bloggers, on the whole, are not a particularly religious bunch and a glance through this blog also finds no overt religion.

What it does find is a sense of right and wrong, which is what the political blogger is into – fisking is a blogging term, after all. So just as the libertarian is experienced at sniffing out political humbug, won’t you give the Christian credit for sniffing out moral humbug?

This blogger does not think the Christian has a mortgage on truth or on constructive social values – there are many who can see the right way to live but it is true that he perhaps focuses on the personally moral far more than the average citizen.

There is a key passage in the gospels and if we can forgive the quaint language of yesteryear, the general idea is clear enough:
15: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16: Ye shall know them by their fruits.
And further down:
20: Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
This has always been the thorn in the side of Christianity – its exponents who interpret scriptural passages and put constructs on them as is their wont - and their wont is mostly to do with their own agenda.

But returning to the “fruits”, scrutinize this blog and what would you say are the fruits coming out of it? What values is it pushing? What message?

Go to Matt Murrell’s site and it is openly atheistic [and even a whole lot of fun]; go to Deeply Blasphemous and it’s a known known. But what to do when someone makes himself out a Christian but wants to combine it with promiscuity and Marxism, the politics of oppression?

Now I’m not asking anyone to come on board with my values – this is no sermon but what it does illustrate is that a man who has a large dose of personal charisma and charm, particularly with the other sex, to the point they become blind to the defects in his message, a man who admittedly visits and speaks with seeming decency and respect but who urges people to unite behind his new vision – this man is pure Jim Jones and Charlie Manson in the making.

This is beyond reason because it is a psychological thing, and tunes in with people’s own mindset far more than this post does. It is for personal and psychological reasons that this post will most likely be rejected. And the reason his is accepted is that it offers 72 virgins for the taking, all under the loving eye of the Lord.

What we have here is a prophet of moral equivalence and when he says he goes to Church and says the Mass - to a Christian this means zip if he’s not following the Word. The Logos. So, what is the Word?

On moral matters:
Matthew 5:19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

28: But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Now you can argue all you like with the message and language in the following but you can’t deny that this is what it actually says [look it up for yourself]:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
Equivocal? Capable of interpreting that to mean you can screw around as long as you have a “bond” with the other [usually younger women]?
1 Corinthians 7:1-2, KJV. "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman [or, "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman," according to the NIV footnote]. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."
So, to teach others, particularly young women, that it’s in keeping with Christianity to do such things means that such a person has surrendered the right to be called Christian. It’s a semantic point, a theological and a social.

To the majority out there reading this, it might also be a reason not to be Christian but with you, at least, there is a certain honesty to what you do. But for a person to divert the Word to his own sexual ends and use his blog to entice people to accept the social construct he’s surrounded it with is another thing.

To call himself Christian, whilst pushing this guff, is beyond the pale and a group which accepts this is also misguided. Therefore, this is not designed to make me friends or win people over – it will do the opposite and engender great sympathy for him instead.

That’s also a known known and popularity has never been my goal.

I’m no stranger to promiscuity myself but what cannot be denied is that actually condonng and preaching promiscuity, however well it fits into one’s new vision of the future, is definitively not Christianity.

Monday, October 29, 2007

[twin sisters] does europe produce them


What is it which makes a British public figure lose his marbles and fall for a couple of Eastern European twin sisters?

Identical twins Roszika and Yansci Deutsch were born October 25, 1892, in Budapest, Hungary.

In addition to making about a half dozen films made from 1913 to 1920, they toured the theatres and dance halls of Europe [as the naffly named Dolly Sisters]. Sometimes they would appear with separate partners as "rival" acts to boost ticket sales.

Their gambling "career" was nearly as successful. They won $850,000 in one season at Deauville and one evening in Cannes, Jenny won 4 million francs, which she converted to a collection of jewelry, then she went on to win another 11 million more.

Clearly a wild couple of ladies, this didn't stop old H. Gordon Selfridge from leaving home with a Dolly sister on each arm.

After his wife's tragic death in 1918, Selfridge travelled the nation doing a music hall act with the Eastern European Twin Sisters. Eventually, he lost his controlling interest in Selfridge's and blew his entire fortune on gambling, eventually dying in poverty.

Of course that was then and this is now and you'd never expect to see a British public figure up sticks today for a couple of naffly named Eastern European Twin Sisters. Or even for one of them.

[new mac] fifth post


I think I have a Tiger and it looks as if it might have been a good move:
Soon after the long-awaited $158 operating system upgrade went on sale on Friday, Apple's online technical support forum was hit with a deluge of complaints from buyers who said it crashed their computer.

Others, who had more success at installing the upgrade, have already broke free from the Mac platform, releasing a hack allowing Leopard to be installed on regular PCs sold by other manufacturers.

Those whose computers were crashed by Leopard reported that, when rebooting their Mac towards the end of the installation process, their computer locked up and they were greeted with a blue error screen. It has already been compared to the infamous "blue screen of death" error that was common with earlier versions of Microsoft Windows.
Oh dear and my problem seems to be that the cable people won’t come and put it in.

Of course, True Maccies are having none of that and would like you to know just what the Leopard can do.

[micro-control 3] pinning the bstds down

Étienne Davignon

This follows the second article in the series here. It needs to be read in conjunction with its links - at times the short quotes themselves don't give the required continuity.

By virtue of their only partial-transparency, organizations like the CFR, SPPNA, TLC and the European Round Table groups are only going to allow sanitized snippets to become available.

So when Viscount Étienne Davignon [read the article] gives an interview [read the article] to the press and says that conspiracies will always exist, that the Bilderbergers are just multinational business people chatting about the future of the world and that there is no global elite, that things are far more fragmented than that, he speaks no more than the truth, as far as it goes.

And it doesn't go far. There may be no unity to them but there is definitely a common mindset and purpose. It's just the details they get bogged down in.

Pascal Lamy discovered, with DOHA, how difficult it was to find common ground and I myself can attest to that in my proximity to the trade world. The desire to find common ground and to reconcile the localized resistance to common policy is one of the greatest tasks of global trade.

When a journalist notes, to Davignon, "all the recent presidents of the European Commission attended Bilderberg meetings before they were appointed." Davignon's response [is that] he and his colleagues are "excellent talent spotters."

So the anti-globalists are left clutching at straws and the thing is, there is an innocent construction which can be placed on all of it.

When Ian Parker produces a map of the sub-regions Common Purpose will administer in the South-West, post 2009, CP can say “and what?” When he says that CP is no more than an offshoot of the ODPM, they can ask “yes and what?”

What’s nefarious in this?

It’s so non-nefarious that Asha [read the article] can run a piece on Julia Middleton [view the video] which heads up the Google page under her name and is full of her achievements. She’s a leadership developer at low management level, a talent spotter, looking to place the best people in the best positions.

Young hopefuls see that this is a semi-governmental offshoot and a one way ticket to prosperity and security in the next few years so why not?

End of story so let’s all go home.

Except for pesky snippets and little errors they sometimes make, such as Blair’s outright lies when questioned over attending the Bilderberg Conference here and here, which don’t accord with Davignon’s transparency over the group’s above board status.

Or Common Purpose’s failure to explain “what common purpose?”, only to say it is “beyond authority” and when pressed as to what that means, answers that it’s to open up leadership opportunities to those not actually in positions of authority. Again, for what common purpose? They are silent.

The new DTI website now has Regulation in the title and deals with regional administration. CP lists these, concerning all their programmes:
  • develop outward-facing leadership, as people who can lead beyond their authority can produce change beyond their direct circle of control
  • are highly interactive and experiential, through their real-life settings
  • are committed to diversity as working with new and different groups of people delivers greater insight, problem-solving and creativity
  • operate under a set of international conventions that create an environment in which real challenge can thrive
  • are demanding and fun.
Set of international conventions? In an English region? Change beyond their direct circle of control?

So the investigator either becomes a conspiracy theorist and joins the dots himself or else he is left with a fragmented database, no one snippet actually proving anything but tantalizing nonetheless.

Such as Ben Shepherd’s CP recruiting drive page [read the article] showing a young man in isolation and a blurb inviting young people to join. Notice it's supported by supported by Deutsche Bank and you can check out their history. H/T Cassandra

Again, not particularly nefarious although I thought it was British money supporting CP, not Euro.

And check the Julia Middleton video op. cit.: How To Lead When you haven't any authority and her explanation of recruiting procedure [read the article]:

Participants are selected by a local Common Purpose advisory group, consisting of senior leaders in the area covered by the programme.

But leadership for what? Well, clearly for local and regional CP graduates to occupy top places in government, semi-governmental and industry instrumentalities.

But for what and with what common purpose?

That question has been much on MPs’ minds too as they’ve asked many questions in parliament [read the article].

John Trenchard mentions [read the article], for example, Phil Woolas, Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government replied to one question about the PEU or riot police:

Since the formation of the Preventing Extremism Unit in October 2006, the unit has made grants of less than £100,000 to: Common Purpose - Muslim Leadership Development Project.

Pardon?

Or what of the 4.8 MB pdf on CP in Bradford, whose Page 1 Google fragment says:

THIS WILL TRANSFORM THE TOWN OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS. THE FACILITY WILL ... YORKSHIRE FORWARD EXISTS TO CREATE A POWERFUL AND POSITIVE EFFECT ON THE ...... Leeds Common Purpose. Board member. January 2002. Leeds Initiative ...

You can find a partial list of CP controlled organizations here [read the article] .

Indimedia says the organisation now has training programmes in every major town and city in Britain and since 1989 more than 60,000 people have been involved with 20,000 'leaders' completing one or more programmes. These are:

Leaders: Matrix and Focus
Emerging leaders: Navigator
Very young leaders: Your Turn
Leaders who need a local briefing: Profile
National leaders: 20:20

Matrix?

They themselves seem quite proud of it [read the article]:

We run a Common Purpose programme in every major city and town in the UK and in an increasing number of European cities. 12,000 leaders from all sectors and backgrounds have become Common Purpose 'graduates'.

As CP aren’t making their methods available or filing their curricula online, Indimedia believes it is to do with NLP:

NLP is a technique of using words to re-programme the body computer to accept another perception of reality - in this case the consensus agreed by the manipulators before their victims even register for the 'course'. Apparently the CIA refers to these pre-agreed 'opinions' as 'slides'.

Anyone who resists the programming is isolated and the group turned against them until they either conform or lose credibility to be a 'leader'.

Well there’s not a lot new in that – it was the basis of much of our military leadership training – the need to have all think as one.

Winston Leonard got down to it on 15 October 2007, at my site, when he cited Derek Twigg, [Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Veterans), Ministry of Defence) Hansard source] in answer to parliamentary questions:

Sums paid to Common Purpose UK in each of the last complete five financial years, inclusive of VAT, are as follows:

Amount (£)
2002-03 56,576.25
2003-04 66,716.50
2004-05 42,958.00
2005-06 58,456.27
2006-07 83,817.89

"These payments covered the cost of participation by MOD staff in Common Purpose UK's training and education programmes. Programmes of this nature help to develop leadership skills, to gain understanding about broader aspects of government and to share experience with and learn from participants from both the private and public sectors."

One moment please. CP are connected with MOD training? Winston Leonard adds that, with that in mind, consider these two links:

SWRDA who bought delisted MOD territory [read the article]:

The site is being redeveloped by the South West Regional Development Agency and English Partnerships, who purchased it for £10m. Some form of mixed commercial, retail and housing development is planned, but no details are yet concrete.

Norfolk Action Plan [read the article]:

6.2 It was noted that the Unit would be using the services of a Graduate Placement to help drive the Action Plan forward. Members welcomed the report and emphasised the need for a sound regeneration policy and for this to be high priority particularly in the light of recent closures e.g. Crane Fruehauf, Heinz Foods, RAF Coltishall and RAF Neatishead.

It was also highlighted that regeneration could not take place without partnership working across the county including District Councils. Furthermore it was important to remember that the county contained many areas of hidden deprivation.

As to what action plan, read the article. And as for English Partnerships, Wiki is sketchy:

English Partnerships (EP) is the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies on a regional level. It is responsible for land acquisition and assembly and major development projects, alone or in joint partnership with private sector developers.

Do you know anything about them? I didn’t before this week.

It’s often difficult to see the forest for the trees. What we have so far is a lot of acitivity on leadership training programmes for vaguely stated purposes, the buying up of property and some connection with the security forces [along with similar moves to EU militias in Europe].

Meanwhile, headquartered in London, a similar organization to CP in its modus operandi is the Tavistock Institute which is now registered as a charity [read a hostile article here and a a negative overview here]:

… the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London which was funded into existence in 1946 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

One of the Tavistock founders, Dr. John Rawlings Rees, who also became co-founder of the World Federation for Mental Health, talked of infiltrating all professions and areas of society - 'Public life, politics and industry should all ... be within our sphere of influence ... If we are to infiltrate the professional and social activities of other people I think we must imitate the Totalitarians and organize some kind of fifth column activity!'

'We must aim to make it permeate every educational activity in our national life ... We have made a useful attack upon a number of professions. The two easiest of them naturally are the teaching profession and the Church: the two most difficult are law and medicine.'

In the end, it is the militaristic organizational structure, the dealings with the military itself at semi-governmental level, the vacuum sealed non-statements of their purpose, the spin-off authorities and other qangos such as English Partnerships, the presence of groups like Tavistock who are clearly more than think tanks, the rhetoric used and the degree of funding available to these organizations which do sound alarm bells.

All of this can’t be seen in isolation. Accompanying the rise of CP and the like, in Part 4 we look at the plethora of legislation which has hit us in the last twelve years or so.

Late note - have just had a visit from Common-purpose-net IP 217.150.113.250

Notes
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

[least sexy] of the celebs, that is

One of my handful of Russian readers has seen fit to enter into the debate here and here over the Самые несексуальные женщины года.

She's not the best but I can still think of others worse amongst the celebs. See lower right:

And have you seen Julia Middleton?

[milestones] one in the offing

There's a little milestone coming up and I'm getting quietly excited about it. I can see I'll have to do a bit of work to actually get there but hope to be able to report something about Wednesday or so of next week, all being well.

By the way, speaking of "miles", hands up all those who are members of the mile high club? I nearly was on two occasions. Nearly's not good enough though, is it?

I do see where we went wrong - the main problem was that we weren't drunk and abusive enough. :)

[theo] more than just totty


Most readers don't need me to direct them but Theo Spark runs a sort of Forces Network Blogging Service and here are some of his gems:

* I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

* To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

* The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

* It was mealtime during a flight on American Airlines.
"Would you like dinner?" the flight attendant asked John, seated in
front.

"What are my choices?" John asked.

"Yes or no," she replied.
His short roundups of the week's events, in summary fashion, also have quite a following.

Regulars to Theo will understand why I refrained from stealing some of his juicier pics.

[link daze] progress report on anon

I've now completed listing the links and reading most of the material. There are 15 pages of links alone, before even thinking of the text.

Hope to have the third post out later today but the problem is how best to present it in blog form. Grappling with this one.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

[dilemma] something to sleep on

Some of you will recall the nasty little incident of the Cross in a Christian chapel being locked in a cupboard on the grounds that the chapel was now for "all faiths" and that the Cross would offend.

This was a straight out assault on Christianity and was met with fierce resistance.

Now there's another assault at the same William & Mary, in the realms of the bizarre:
... the NCAA ruling that the school's logo including two green and gold feathers amounts to "hostile and abusive" imagery ...
Are the authorities total morons? Predictably, it has occasioned the handing out of tens of thousands of green and gold feathers in an act of mass defiance.

This evening I witnessed another and though the two incidents above were both contemptible, the one this evening was far more insidious.

Question, when should a blogger be stopped?

If he spouts left-wingism like Mike Ion? When he spouts atheism like Matt Murrell? When he openly calls himself the Devil and blogs from a kitchen? When he calls himself Surreptitious Evil?

Of course not - on the grounds that these bloggers have clearly set out their stall and any visitors know what they're getting into. There's no subterfuge there, no hypocrisy.

But what to do when more than one woman writes, warning about a certain blogger who uses his blog to suck in and abuse women? When this blogger is occupying the moral high ground, waxing lyrical about everyone loving each other and posting images to reinforce this but the message of "love" comes down to having sex with as many as you like, as long as there is a "bond" - a new world hotchpotch religion for the future?

What to do when this blogger, who is clearly charming a considerable number of women into going along with him, is also using images of Christ and says that the new Marxist Christian Free Love new world is merely an extension of Christianity itself? That Christ would approve?

What to do when the person uttering such balderdash is immensely popular with the men because of his rollicking bonhomie and with women for the message of love and tolerance he's preaching? And for the pathos in his beautifully written posts?

What to do when that blogger is a member of the same group I am and there's no way anyone would accept a Christian's word in the blogosphere over a "good guy", especially on the subject of gross misrepresentation of Christ's position?

Update Monday morning - I've removed the final two paragraphs of this post on the grounds that the other party cannot reply here. It's been suggested this is a spat between two bloggers. This clearly a misreading of my persona. Since when have I ever blogged for personal gain on any issue? This is an issue of protecting people which is all the "micro-control" posts have been and will be about. These are macro-issues.

Personal issues with fellow bloggers - show me anywhere I have posted on these on my site. For the general readership, this issue has now moved inside Blogpower and nothing further will appear on this blog about it.

[imagined community] it's easy if you try

Ian Appleby, founder member of Blogpower and esteemed man of letters is two years old this weekend. That's right - two years old and you can read all about it here.

He's the one in the orange shirt which Gabby's sister is so in love with. Happy birthday, young man!

Do get over there, people, if you haven't already done so and congratulate him.

[chip dumped] military romanian takes over

There's been a coup de dale over at the Chipster's. It seems his piece of fluff ... sorry ... his 64 year old military, tank loving girlfriend, hs taken over his blog - could this be the start of a revolution or will they kiss and make up?

Personally, I feel we need some more photos, just to make sure like that she is all woman.

[rugby] does the code need an overhaul

There could be some sour grapes in Oz over Wilkinson and yet Greg Baum’s proposals seem to make sense to me.

Firstly, in my playing days, I always appreciated the breakdown of play the kick to touch gave because it gave a brief respite – a reason I hated sevens; so what to make of Baum's nostalgia for the French of old:
They played a game I could understand. They ran at breakneck speed, flicking the ball between them in such lightning movements that it was sometimes impossible to know where it was.

What to do about rugby? The foremost is obvious: more points for a try, less for a penalty kick. The emphasis would change: the premium would be on going boldly to the try line, rather than butt and bullock away to force obscure infractions. But I would keep the incentive for a field goal: it adds spice.

Increasing the reward for a try could have negative impact. In professional sport, the greater the prize, the harder teams work to deny it to their opponents. Some [changes] — called the Stellenbosch Laws — were trialled in the recent Australian championship.

The advantage rule was broadened. Teams were given encouragements to play on constantly, so minimising the incidence of pile-ups and scrums. Authorities strived for a faster, more open, more constant game.
Personally, I’d like to see the following points awarded:

Linked try [player alone]: 6
Forced try [more than one in push]: 5
Field goal: 4
Conversion: 3
Penalty outside opponent’s 25 [shows my age]: 2
Penalty inside the 25: 1

Don’t forget New Zealand, 2011.

[micro-control 2] how to recognize it when you see it

This follows the first article in the series here.

I’d like to make it clear that this second article is not intended as “evidence” of any kind and doesn’t touch on that supplied by Anonymous. That comes from the third article onwards.

One needs to be patient.

This here deals, in large part, with one woman’s testimony and stands or falls by that. It excludes all she said which I can’t corroborate from other sources or else is too early to bring in at this point.

It deals, essentially, with the type we’re up against

There is a mentality, a way of operating, of treating others, which characterizes those who are hauling us to a destiny we would not choose for ourselves.

If I use the reference labels “them” and “they”, it’s because theirs is a nebulous way of thinking, shared by many people of a certain societal level, rather than specific individuals – the individual is subordinate in this thing.

Nevertheless, there are certain key characteristics which are always present and permeate everything which they do.

One of my sources for an overview of the mindset is a woman who supposedly escaped the clutches of these people and it’s hardly relevant who she actually is, whether she’s someone’s stooge, an imaginative author or what – she certainly chimes in with what we can see in subsequent articles.

My co-author Anonymous might not be happy that I begin with this, when he is solely concerned with “irrefutable evidence”. I am too but this overview is useful as well to know what to look out for. Plus two more things.

I’ve searched for definitive debunkings of this woman’s words and have yet to find any.

Also, bear in mind that she wrote these things in the mid to late 90s, before what we see today had begun to fully appear to the public eye. The time frame is quite vital because it can be, in no way, 20/20 vision.

Many researchers knew her as Svali. When asked who she was in RL, as distinct from as one of their trainers, she replied:

I am a professional writer in the medical field, was a registered nurse for 18+ years, and currently work as an ESL teacher, health educator, and freelance author.

Interviewed by HJ Springer, Chief Editor CentrExNews.com. 2000, here are some of the things which came from that interview:

Who are they?

The leadership levels include businessmen, bankers, and local community leaders. They are intelligent, well educated, and active in their local churches.


Above local leadership councils are the regional councils, who dictate to the groups below them, help form the policies and agendas for each region, and who interact with the local leadership councils.

At the national level, there are extremely wealthy people who finance these goals and interact with the leaders of other countries.

They have divided the United States up into 7 major regions, and each has a regional council over it, with the heads of the local councils reporting to them. They meet once every two months, and on special occasions.

[They] believe in controlling an area through its:
1. Banks and financial institutions (guess how many sit on banking boards?)
2. Local government: guess how many get elected to local city councils?
3. Law: children are encouraged to go to law school and medical school.
4. Media: others are encouraged to go to journalism school, and members help fund local papers.
People know their status in the group by how far ahead of time they know a meeting date. The lower in the group, the less they are trusted with information, and the less "lag time" before meetings.

These are NOT nice people and they use and manipulate others viciously. They cut their eye teeth on status, power, and money.

An example: my mother was friends with Sid Gottlieb, who was part of the CIA. The farm I grew up on was only about a half hour away from his home in Culpeper, Va. She also knew the Dulles family. A lot of the researchers in the CIA were part of it, and I visited Langley, Va. at intervals growing up.

They are very duplicitous people.

They believe that basically, they are GOOD and doing a good work, even if the means are tough to endure at the time. They are weeding out the weak and unfit, and developing a supreme human being. I know it sounds like hog wash, but they truly, honestly believe this at a core level.

[They] believe that their children are the brightest and best and will be the intellectual elite who will rule over the unintelligent, or "less fit".

They are full of pride, believe they are invulnerable … and that any press about them is the equivalent of a gnat to be swatted. Arrogant people make mistakes, and they are becoming more blatant and open in recent years.

There is a lot of discontent in the ranks, and there would be a mass exodus if the members believed it were really possible to get out (and live).

On world affairs, again remembering that she was taught this in the 80s and wrote of it in the 90s

Russia was never really a threat to us. Marxism was funded by [them], and espoused as a counterbalance to capitalism. [They] believe strongly in balancing opposing forces, in the pull between opposites. They see history as a complex chess game, and they will fund one side, then another, while ultimately out of the chaos and division, they are laughing because they are ultimately beyond political parties.

China will be ranked after the USSR, then the U.S. But a lot of the current U.S. leadership will be in Europe when the change occurs, and many have homes there. They will be "changing nationalities" overnight, as it were. This is the little that I do remember.

I believe it is impossible to win a presidential election in our country today without their backing. The Kennedy family were punished because they tried to disobey them. They were free thinkers, and too hard to "control".

Want to hear the end of the world scenario [as I was taught]?

There will be continued conflict in the Middle East … an economic collapse that will devastate the economy of the US and Europe, much like the great depression.

One reason that our economy continues limping along is the artificial support that the Federal Reserve had given it, manipulating interest rates, etc. But one day, this won't work (or this leverage will be withdrawn on purpose) and the next great depression will hit.

The government will call in its bonds and loans, and credit card debts will be called in. There will be massive bankruptcies nationwide. Europe will stabilize first and then Germany, France and England will have the strongest economies, and will institute, through the UN, an international currency.

Japan will also pull out, although their economy will be weakened.

Peacekeeping forces will be sent out by the UN and local bases to prevent riots. The … people will be asked to make a pledge of loyalty during a time of chaos and financial devastation.

The good news is that if a person is debt-free, owes nothing to the government or credit debt, and can live self sufficiently, they may do better than others. I would invest in gold, not stocks, if I had the income. Gold will once again be the world standard, and dollars will be pretty useless.

On the metaphysical side, they believe

…that their roots go back to the ancient mystery religions of Babylon, Egypt, and Celtic druidism. They have taken what they consider the "best" of each, the foundational practices, and joined them together into a strongly occult discipline…

Hence temples, grand lodges and the like. Hence the giant stone owl at the world leaders’ summer camp in California [see pic here, for example].

There are 12 steps to this [way of operating], also known as "the 12 steps of discipline'.

I don't care if this steps on any toes, it's a fact. The Masonic temple at Alexandria, Virginia (the city itself was named after Alexandria, Egypt, and is a hotbed of … activity) is a center in the Washington, DC area for [their] scholarship and teaching. I was taken there at intervals for testing, to step up a level, for scholarship, and high ceremonies.

[They] also believe their bloodlines have come down from the ancient kings of Egypt.

On symbols

The phoenix is one of their highest, the eagle, red on black, or the reverse, butterflies and rainbow signs, gem stones, the Star of David, believe it or not, earth, water, and fire, a tremendous amount of Greek and Roman mythology, lightning bolts, a head with a computer inside, pyramids …

On why people either don’t know about this or reject it out of hand:

The evidence is there, but in my opinion, the average person does NOT want to know, and even when confronted with it, will look the other way … the MK-Ultra documents that have been declassified, shown as real, and people still ignore it.

But I believe that the media that downplays [it] is feeding into a deep need in the average person to NOT know the reality. In fact, how can a person face the fact of great evil in mankind, unless they have either a strong faith in G-d, or are faced with insurmountable evidence? We as human beings want to believe the BEST of our race, not the worst.

How to stop them:

1. Their arrogance (I think I mentioned this before) is their weakness. These people think they are untouchable, and this could make them careless.

2. If by a miracle, enough people took this SERIOUSLY … and God's guidance, perhaps they could be stopped. I hope so, with all of my heart.

3. Stopping pornography and child prostitution and drug smuggling and gun running would take a huge chunk out of their profits.

4. To be honest, I don't know what could really stop them. I have written about this group to try and expose them, I have gone to the police … I guess each person has to do his best in fighting these people, in the way they feel led to. My skills tend to be in writing, so I am using them.

Anything else?

From my own sources and without attempting to prove any of it at this stage, I’d add:

1. They favour hierarchical structures – though they operate in teams at lower echelons, the hierarchy is still much in evidence in terms of promotional opportunities and “carrots”. To employ Svali’s own words, they:

…are a very political and back stabbing group, a "dog eat dog" mentality; everyone wants to move up…

A person’s natural desire to do well creates an “invitation” scenario. One is invited to write [in our case as authors] for certain publications, one attends the little get-togethers with those above us, the waters are tested as to what a person is prepared to do to move up.

A person who draws the line is applauded outwardly but is actually then marginalized and windows of opportunity now cease to open up as they’d begun to do.

There’s a very “clubby” atmosphere to it all - the “hush power” I’ve referred to before – and it is nice to be recognized, courted, to earn vastly more, to sit in the first class lounge rather than with the plebs. I suppose I felt it most in my times in Frankfurt.

2. They do like symbolism, e.g. the XX in ExxonMobil. Plus some other things:

Look out for muted blues, yellows and pinky reds on their webheaders and in their literature, diffuse colours in a sort of watercolour swirl, accompanied with high sounding bureaucrat-speak which actually comes down to nothing specific, such as “Preparing for Tomorrow Today” and so on.

Look out for colour coding, especially people who colour code their sections or folders [or even blogrolls].

Look out for images which are happy and loving up front, show men, women and sometimes infants in happy poses but then in the text are quite relativist and morally equivalent, devoid of specific aims.

There was a cogent example of this with one of our own Blogpowerers in a post last week – beautiful rhetoric, punctuated with photo-images to reinforce it but hollow in substance when analysed and in its values, equivalent and relative in the extreme.

Tied in with this is the absolutely naff banner or logo design which a schoolkid could have come up with here [now relegated to the bottom of the page after severe criticism]. Here is another example. Think for one moment about the mindset which both came up with and approved those logos - that's quite some mind to entrust your future to.

PCism [an example is here and another particularly egregious example is here] is also part of this – with vague ideas of tolerance and love for oppressed minorities but moving down channels proponents often don’t foresee and with ways of legislating what they want into existence, whilst firmly believing it’s all for the benefit of society.

Look out for poor navigation on sites and in publications and things left unexplained, e.g. just what Common Purpose really means. When you follow the links in what initially seems good navigation, they always end up curtailed, speaking of “graduates” without actually specifying the nature of the training, the curriculum or from whence the teaching staff is derived.

There is never any explicit statement of purpose except, say, “beyond authority”. It’s biz-speak in its worst form and it’s not designed for such as me or maybe you – it’s designed for the young hopeful who wants to move up in the world and is happy to accept the slick presentation, elegant colours and platitudes without seriously questioning their source nor where they lead.

There is a certain type of punter who laps that type of thing up because it appeals to something deep inside.

Horses for courses – what appeals to young women in a woman’s magazine is stated differently with, say, Second Life. There it is the “power of cyber-possibility” which appeals, young avatars and slick graphics, the “wow” factor.

There is absolutely nothing new in this. Agatha Christie’s Inspector Grant said, in N or M [1941]:

It appeals to something in man, some desire or lust for power.

The next part of that quote is relevant to the next point.

3. Loyalty is a fluid concept with them, [what I call the “Sutherland mndset”, especially in respect to nationalism and patriotism. These are people without nations, loyal to a higher good. Christie’s quote continues:

These people were ready to betray their country, not for money but in some sort of megalomaniacal pride in what they, they themselves, were going to achieve for that country. In every land it has been the same.

4. They’re quite militaristic, favouring quasi-military solutions for perceived problems in the public sphere. It’s very much part of their persona to favour checkpoints, surveillance, armed paramilitary police instead of the friendly neighbourhood bobby and always that hierarchical model, as distinct from an occupation and task oriented structure.

5. Their propaganda is both soft and hard, the hard following the tried and tested pseudo-Hegelian derivative - here are some instructions:
a. over decades, by means of stacking positions of power in every field with like-minded people - undermine the ability of the organs of state to respond;
b. create a crisis when the time’s right;
c. identify the enemy who caused this outrage and his hangers on and apologists [lumping in one’s own opponents here];
d. allow the undermined and atrophied organs of state to fail to respond adequately;
e. await the public rumblings then outcry, the flames of which you yourself have fanned with occasional well-timed statements;
f. step up with a pre-groomed messiah, e.g. Tony Blair in ‘92, who speaks vague words of great sense and is possessed of a great sense of energy and enthusiasm;
g. mission complete.
Why?

Meaning why is it all going on? Why can’t people just enjoy the pleasure of a productive working week, repartee, the conviviality of the pub and a quiet smoke, the Sunday lunch and drive, holidays and so on? Where is the necessity for crisis?

Ask the ghost of Nietzsche. Ask Ian Hay, who in The First Hundred Thousand, in 1915, wrote:

War is hell, and all that, but it has a good deal to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time.

Such as not having your son’s body riddled with bullets as he lies face down in the mud, I suppose, Mr. Hay. Like not having to live on rations and in a state of constant fear. To which Hay might reply:

Well, at least it’s better than living in debt as a virtual pauper, as the government lurches from crisis to crisis.

But this is that old Inversion and Deception again, Mr. Hay, that old chestnut. There would be no recession and depression in the first place if people’s greed and ambition had not caused them to eat of the Deadly Nightshade and be poisoned by its hallucinogens.

The whole purpose of those societal ills in the first place was to set the scene for the real money-spinner – war.

And to sentient beings who think and feel and have a moral framework? They go the way of all things, like the entire intelligentsia in Stalin’s USSR.

Like the blogosphere.

In part 3, we get down to the nitty gritty of 2007 and beyond.



Notes
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7