Saturday, January 27, 2007

[blogfocus saturday] a little out of focus this evening

An American Minuteman

Another Focus, without a focus, due to time constraints and slight illness but still, I hope you’ll enjoy the round-up:

1 The Baron opens with his debate about gun laws with us limeys:

In my post from earlier today about gun crime in Britain, one British commenter had this to say: No thanks. We don’t want a gun culture like you have over there. You can keep it. Some of the other commenters, including other Britons, disagreed.

Let’s recapitulate what American “gun culture” is based on, namely the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

2 The old argument about free trade and protectionism gets a new twist at Café Hayek:

The deep lesson here is that, just as moving to freer trade does indeed upset some economic apple carts, so, too, does protection upset some economic apple carts. Given that both free trade and protection cause some specific job and business losses, protection cannot be justified -- as so many try to justify it -- by pointing to people whose economic expectations will be upset by freer trade. Free-trade advocates can counter with similar accounts.

3 The Latic, Pete, explains why he is a slave to his computer and I identify with every word here:

Who said that man can always triumph over machine? Maybe no-one did, but it's a widely held belief. Well, let me tell you that my laptop tells ME when it's time to stop. How? Simple - it just gives up, which means I have to. It will whirr along quite merrily all day, doing all that I ask of it then, bingo!!, I'll hit a link, up comes the egg timer - and there it stays relentlessly, unswervingly, immovable - ad infinitum.

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[election 2008] focus on rudia and hilly

According to The New York Times, [no link, sorry], New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani performed in female attire, posing as "Rudia the Transvestite" at a nightclub. The occasion was the annual "Inner Circle" show.

Hillary, meanwhile, is almost certainly cleared of allegations about her friend Susan and the gay lobby is unhappy about her ambivalence on their issue.

So, America, there are your likely starters, currently running neck and neck. Good luck.

[meme] six unusual things about myself

Tiberius Gracchus dropped a meme onto me some days ago and the reason I’ve been tardy in posting is that I simply couldn’t think of six unusual things about myself. Plus these exercises induce you to be self-indulgent. Well, as there’s no other way but to be self-indulgent, here is an end of semester report on James Higham:

1] At any given moment, Higham doesn’t know what he’s doing. For example, if he’s in Finland and he’s met a Finnish drinking buddy on the boat and agrees to be the man’s navigator on the journey to the Arctic Circle and if they stop at a roadside café and the man asks if Higham knows where they’re going, he’ll answer, reassuringly, “Trust me.” With a lady, if it doesn’t seem to be working, he’ll try something else until it ‘takes’. This is one of the best arguments for fidelity - you learn the other. He also knows nothing about trade, education or blogging.

2] On a road journey somewhere, Higham lacks ‘reversability’. There’s something missing from his brain, perhaps due to things imbibed in earlier days. He can always find his way somewhere, even without a map, weaving in and out of the traffic and mounting footpaths but once there, he has no way back. The route just fails to implant itself in the brain, having been a creative and lateral route in the first place. “Do you, James, in fact, have any idea how to get back?” she breathes, evenly. “No.” “No?” “Not in the least. I was deliberately wasting your time,” he adds, pythonesquely. “Let’s just make love and I’m sure something will come.” This sort of thing loses him marriages. He did find his way home that day though, miraculously, she conceded.

3] One of his favourite tricks, alas no longer possible in the modern office, was to have two phones on the desk, of the bulbous receiver/microphone, horizontal handset type and when they’d both ring at the same time, he’d shout and rabbit chop the ends of both receivers so they’d spring up into the air and then he’d catch them in mid-air [quite often]. Another trick he loves and still practises, is to crack two eggs simultaneously, breaking them enough for the contents to go into the bowl and then flinging the shells, with a flourish, into a bin three metres away. That was the old hamburger shop gambit and it had to be three metres exactly. As age has crept up, he’s ceased bowing to an imaginary audience and increasingly tends to drop one or both eggs.

4] Higham is fanatically punctual [actually – early] for any appointment, even Blogfocus but when it comes to a lady, he loses all sense of time and proportion, the lotus syndrome. The uni girls know that if he’s ever late, it’s either because of a five car pile-up on the road or else he’s with a lady [well, actually the lady]. The former is more common and whilst on the topic of ladies, he doesn’t understand why he appeals to those under 16/18 or so and romantically to those over 30/32 but never to those in the 18-30 range but it’s always been so. He’s never got far with this intermediate range. Recently, he’s been experimenting with arriving late for appointments, with ready-made apology but that doesn’t feel good so he’ll probably drop the idea.

5] Higham suffers from what he thinks is Wilson’s Syndrome. The body temperature drops and the complications begin. People ask: “Do you have a temperature?” as if that’s the sole criterion for illness and he replies: “Yes, 35.5.” The thing is then, he can’t be idle for long – the body has to keep moving and working and sleeping-in is usually followed by glugginess. Better not to do it. Plus he doesn’t feel the cold unless it’s very cold. Anything over 25 degrees Celsius and he’s in trouble. People don’t say: “The iceman cometh,” for nothing. Actually, they don’t say it at all.

6] What people are usually struck by, given his blogging and working persona, which sometimes resorts to role-playing and manic acting to make its point and in his occasional lovemaking which usually gets a bit more physical and exploratory than bargained for, given his fine, upstanding character, is that when at home, he’ll suddenly switch to extreme, prosaic passivity. He can lie on a couch for two hours, reading or get up at 12 noon on Sunday, something he has in mind for tomorrow. As Eric Oldthwaite was once accused of by that pigeon keeper, Higham can be a ‘boring little tit’.

So, over to you, Russ and Don, Pete the Latic and Melanie P.

Friday, January 26, 2007

[climate change] un draft report debate

The UN Report will say:

■It is more than 90 per cent certain that human activities have caused global warming.
■Global temperatures will rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees.
■Earth will be increasingly unable to absorb rising carbon dioxide.
■Sea levels could rise by between 20cm and 60cm in the next 100 years, and will continue to rise for 1000 years.
■Snow will vanish from all but the highest peaks.
■More extreme, violent weather will ensue.

However, a different article says:

■Geological coring data shows that natural rises in carbon dioxide levels follow temperature changes rather than cause them;
■It is also a fact that more than 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas effect is caused by water vapour, and the contribution from man-made carbon dioxide is estimated at 0.1 per cent;
■The source of information is claimed by an exclusive few — government-funded scientists with an array of climate-change models and large computer systems;
■We would not like to buy at the top of the sharemarket cycle, nor should we buy into a possible global warming peak without a responsible and wide-ranging debate;
■1975 Newsweek Report saying temperatures were falling, not rising, based on the last 40 years;
■Even the man in the street sees himself as an expert.

Clearly the CO2 question above is the one which is in dispute and where both sides flatly contradict one another. Len Walker, the author, is a civil engineer, not a climate expert. However, I did find a site supporting Len Walker’s statement about CO2. Unfortunately, it was published by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, so we’re back where we started.

The UN report is written by 2500 scientists, citing 6000 reports and reviewed by 750 experts, operating under a United Nations banner. The UN banner worries me, as the UN has a global political agenda. However, the question still remains: “Why would 2500 scientists go to the trouble of destroying their reputations by stating a clear scientific error, even if UN backed?”

Late note: having now gone through 11 random ‘climate change myth’ sites, the layouts are impressive, for example this one, complete with graphs. However, there is no evidence backing the assertion about CO2, no links to a credible scientific authority. In the end it’s just a blogger’s assertion which directly contradicts 2500 scientists.

That’s the dilemma.

[sole post today] whatchoo lookin' at, eh

So, they’ve finally admitted it. But it’s only part of the story. Here’s another comment.

For my articles on all of this, please see posts 1 and 2, which continues here, with appendices a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, and n [Yes, I know I numbered wrongly]. All of which shows that the process has been deliberate and not due to simple neglect, in the least.

The combination of the dumbing down of education, together with the other policies and trends mentioned below, produces a culture of chavs and droogs. This is my take on how we got there:

# Personal access to scripture was suppressed in the middle ages by virtue of:

a] having been kept in Latin;
b] bibles being chained to the pulpit;
c] keys to the church being in the hands of certain men.

# Personal access to scripture is suppressed in the modern age by virtue of:

a] the priests of the secular in key positions in society, actively ridiculing and suppressing;
b] only the humanistic ethic being taught in institutions of learning;
c] cessation of the oral tradition from parent to child;
d] the culture of unwillingness to countenance and read a scriptural document, whilst giving learned dissertations on all other philosophical systems;
e] it took three generations to get to this point.

# Philosophy, by its very nature, is speculation. Scripture is ancient documentation.

# Scripture, in particular the gospels, lays out a social plan which, if followed, is sustainable and productive. It actually works. Therefore it must be suppressed because it empowers individuals and runs society along wholesome lines.

# With the final suppression of a society's code of morality, the only law is satanic law, the dog-eat-dog law stated by Anton le Vey as: “Do as you will.”

# Values now get turned on their head, the rich prostitute is now venerated and aspired to and heads are filled with things which don't matter in a sane society. Society comes loose from its moorings.

# The spirituality of the child is now catered for by the nightclub and drugs. The spirituality of the adult is now catered for by the need for new acquisitions and the provision of palaces [shopping centres] to provide these. ‘New’ is the key buzzword.

# The rise of usury in mid-Europe put governments into debt with financiers and with one particular group, whose symbol, the XX, is now preserved in one company’s name.

# Western government debts are never written off; they are paid off. Ipso facto, governments have owed financiers over the centuries and have gone deeper and deeper into hock, principally through war. Debt creates power.

# Financiers have certain pillars propping up their culture:

a] the unit cost of goods is always out of all proportion to income;
b] it’s not necessary to have ready money to buy what we fancy – they’ll lend it and we’ll pay it off on the never-never;
c] with the money ‘saved’, we can buy other things, thereby ensuring steady income and increasingly more windfalls [bankruptcy, repossession] for the financiers and government.

# Western society has been weaned off a barter economy and onto a debt economy, with plastic replacing cash. The message is that because of the severe dislocation between price and income, the only way to achieve your dream is to go into debt to a financier.

# The known characteristics of illuminism are:

a] militarization and hierarchical regulation of society, where sovereignty is in the hands of a remote central authority, acting down through its vassals;
b] the progressive erosion of personal freedoms;
c] the suppression, weaning off and eventual destruction of spirituality;
d] the destruction of the family through:

[i] culture of tolerance and social and moral relativism, condoned and even abetted from the ruling class;
[ii] advancement of homosexuality as an equal alternative, rather than as a branching off from the norm, together with attempts to create ‘families’ bypassing the standard family structure, which was designed to nurture children;
[iii] promotion of philosophies holding that the traditional marriage is too difficult, too restrictive and contrary to societal health;
[iv] making accessible hardcore pornography for all, including the young, through the internet;

e] progressive restriction of independent travel by using external threats such as terrorism and climate change to restrict and regulate movement;
f] reduction of population through war and of the intelligentsia through oppression.

What is the net effect of all these elements combined? A society like in the films Brazil, 1984 and the Time Machine and historically real societies like the USSR and revolutionary France.

This article was simply a forlorn attempt, with no great hope of success, to help stem the tide.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

[rabbie’s day] great chieftain of the puddin’ race

A captured haggis ready to eat. Does it remind you of … er … anything else? No? Just wondering.

Some of you will recall the opening of the Haggis Season. Well, today is Rabbie Burns Day and Colin’s waiting for you, immediately you’re done here.

There's even a wee Haggis poem by Robert Burns, Colin advises. This is the first verse of Tae a Haggis, spoken prior to the ritual decapitation of the poor wee beastie prior to being devoured:

"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the Puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang's my arm."

[firefox] advice please, people

Browser share for last 100 visitors to this site

I know you all said switch to Firefox but what do I actually have to do to changeover? I found it, it said Download, it's compatible but
The Morningstar's comment freaked me. Windows might have to be reinstalled as a repair? How? How will I know?

Has anyone out there actually switched from IE6? I suppose everything needs reinstalling and my internet provider will probably have to be told, yes? New e-mail too but that's not a problem.

Are there any glitches with it?

[women] are completely equal to men ... or not

They’re bigger and stronger than before but does that mean that the desire to be equal should mean more sets for women – 5 sets, the same as the men – or has feminism gone over the edge? Here are the results of the Age Poll:

Yes - 69%

No - 31%

Total Votes: 201

[leslie nielsen] the naked gun series

Frank Drebin saving the Queen from assassination

Do you also have a secret liking for classic lowbrow comedy?

In
2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted the first Naked Gun the 39th greatest comedy film of all time. It was also voted the 14th best comedy of all time in a Channel 4 poll. They’re quite some accolades for a basically B movie and a B movie star.

Leslie Nielsen was born in
Regina, Saskatchewan on February 11, 1926 and it took him years of straight roles before he was cast as Dr. Rumacker in Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker’s Airplane! [1980]. He was 54 years of age.

It was another eight years before the same team reprised a former TV series and
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad [1988] was born. Touting some big names: Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson, before the murder rap, there was a definite chemistry between the cast in this film which wasn’t really recaptured in the sequels: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear [1991] and The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult [1994].

The plot is virtually irrelevant – the kidnapping of the Queen by a zombie baseball player – but it was the running gags and the slick scene changes, coupled with the obvious chemistry between a 62 year old Nielsen and Presley in the risky and risqué romantic subplot plus the great supporting role by OJ, as Detective Nordberg, Nielsen’s sidekick, which made the film. Here are some quotes from the Naked Gun series:

Frank Drebin [Nielsen]

# The truth hurts doesn't it, Hapsburg? Oh sure, maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.

# There is always risk. Like getting up in the morning and crossing the street... Or putting your face in a fan.

# Like a midget at a urinal, I'd have to be on my toes.

Scenes

Mayor: Now Drebin, I don't want any trouble like you had on the South Side like last year, that's my policy.
Frank: Well, when I see five weirdos dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in front of a full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards, that's my policy.
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare In The Park Production of Julius Caesar, you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones!

Vincent Ludwig: Drebin!
Jane Spencer [Presley]: Frank!
Frank Drebin: You're both right.

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane Spencer: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.

Frank: Interesting... Almost as interesting as the photographs I saw today.
Jane Spencer: I was young. I needed the work.

[Frank Drebin, angrily breaking up with Jane, turns at the door and faces her, putting his nose in the air]
Frank: And I'll tell you another thing: I faked every orgasm!

Norberg was shot by a gang of thugs and lies in a critical condition in hospital. The brother officers break the news to his wife:

Mrs. Nordberg: Oh, my poor Nordberg! He was such a good man, Frank. He never wanted to hurt anyone. Who would do such a thing?
Frank: It's hard to tell. A gang of thugs, a blackmailer, an angry husband, a gay lover...
Ed: That's no way for a man to die.
Frank: Ehhh, you're right, Ed. A parachute not opening... that's the way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine... having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that's the way I wanna go.
Mrs. Nordberg: [crying] Oh... Frank. Ohh this is terrible.
Ed: Don't you worry Wilma. Your husband is going to be alright. Don't you worry about anything. Just think positive. Never let a doubt enter your mind.
Frank: He's right, Wilma. But I wouldn't wait until the last minute to fill out those organ donor cards.
Mrs. Nordberg: [starts crying again]
Ed: What I'm trying to say is that Wilma, as soon as Nordberg is better, he's welcome back at Police Squad.
Frank: Unless he's a drooling vegetable. But I think that's only common sense...

Some further quotes here:

Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

[headmastership] how you change over time

You might like to picture this: you’ve just been confirmed as the new headmaster of a minor but geographically significant school, with a century of tradition. Apparently appointed for your vision and your blend of youth and experience, the chairman invites you into the boardroom with an extended hand and says: “Welcome aboard.” A glass is put into your hand and you feel both honoured and awed by the task ahead.

What happens to you over time?

1] You learn to take nothing on trust once you’ve been burnt a few times. Pretty women cut no ice. Respectable, suited businessmen cut no ice. The pretty little girl in tears could easily be acting. You reject stereotypes, such as the community leader who must be a fine character by definition and you often find the opposite. Often, the higher you go, the greater the dirt. However, your default demeanour is always friendly and gentlemanly, especially to your rivals. It’s just that you take much of what they say with a grain of salt.

2] Whatever ability you had to judge character reaches a much higher plane with experience. Every day, in all situations, your judgement is being called on to sort out a dispute, approve a contract and so on. After all the early mistakes, you do it better. You develop little rules which sound crazy but nevertheless work, e.g. never employ a woman who wears denim to an interview, has piercing or is a religious nut.

3] You begin to be ruled by the schedule and you reach the delegation watershed – either you delegate to trusted subordinates or you go out of your mind. You accept, to a certain percentage factor that they’ll always either let you down or not understand but you never hold it against them or write it down. You never hold grudges.

4] You try to keep the working day below about 15 or 16 hours and schedule in blank spaces – very vital. You either take care of your family or divorce. Twenty minute rest periods are fiercely protected by the secretary and you emerge refreshed. You either love your community or you must get out. The stress is too great otherwise. You learn to pace yourself and never regret if something wasn’t done today. Do it tomorrow morning.

5] You learn to get out of the office and interact with all sections of the community, from the maintenance man to the littlest child. You know each of their particular problems and follow them up. If the cook’s away, you step in [also saving money]. If the drain’s blocked and you’re right on hand, you put on gloves and clear it.

6] You take on the coaching of one of the underage sports teams and do the same training you require of them [almost]. Saves gym fees and gets you fit and out in the open air. You eat properly and when you forget, your wife or secretary doesn’t. You follow doctor’s orders instead of being a hero.

7] Your mind starts to compartmentalize. In any one hour, you might have to discipline a recalcitrant student, greet local dignitaries Mr. and Mrs. Patel and their son as they seek to enrol him, then perhaps you’ll hear the complaint of one teacher about another, then it’s off to the Heads Association luncheon and so on.

8] You quickly learn your own limitations, both character-wise and capacity-wise and all your flaws are thrown into sharp relief, for all to see. One of mine was the tendency to let things slide, to gather data and advice first and to stew over it before acting, even if some saw this as dithering.

9] You learn to break the incident-reaction-regret cycle. Remove the immediate danger and schedule a time for the matter to be heard, with no snide remarks whatsoever in the meantime. This was particularly important for me because one of my failings is that I don’t suffer fools gladly and my tongue is too sharp.

10] You can’t afford the slightest whiff of scandal or your school will be empty by next morning. Reputation becomes everything and the greatest crime, the greatest enemy, is ‘drama’. You’ll hear out a teacher who’s complaining about some child and then reply: ‘That may well be so but I see more drama coming out of your class since your appointment here than all the other classes combined.’ This is the only time you react swiftly and nip the trouble in the bud, before it damages the community and by association, yourself.

11] You become implacable and a certain steel enters your soul. Once a decision is made, you never go back on it or regret it, if it’s originally been thought through. You fire after two warnings, without regret. Once the dead wood’s been cut away, soon everything falls into place and people know where they are. Your loyalty is to all those dependent on you and you brook no attack on those people.

12] Despite all this, there eventually comes a time when the cumulative effect of the stress makes you less efficient or gets you bogged down and you have to know when to let go, to hand over the reins and seek new horizons. Otherwise you become a cynical, unpleasant shell, have a heart attack or both. Mental health is everything, otherwise you can’t operate. Soldiering on is stupid in this game because you’re short-changing your dependents.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

[thought for the day] old wives' tales

From Lord of the Rings, Celeborn the Elf King says, in answer to Boromir, who thought the former was repeating old wives' tales:

"Do not depise the lore which has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know."

[reykjavik acts] perhaps some species can be saved

After a rather torrid lot of posts from me lately, perhaps reflecting the current mood, in desperation I went to Iceland, which can usually be relied on for a cheerful post and I think it’s done so again:

The Environmental Health and Protection Office of the City of Reykjavík decided on Monday to give baby geese and other nestlings, hatched around the Reykjavík Pond next spring, food to secure their survival. A report says the growth rate of the bird species has come to a standstill.

“We take the report very seriously,” said the director of the Environmental Health and Protection Office, Gísli Marteinn Baldursson. “If we don’t take action now we might lose the variety of bird life we have enjoyed at Reykjavík Pond.”

In addition to feeding the nestlings hatched at the pond next spring, the Environmental Health and Protection Office of the City of Reykjavík has decided to take actions to scare the lesser black-backed gull away, which often beats the other birds to the food.

Hope they don’t overdo it and start losing the ‘lesser black-backed’ as well. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.

[blogproblems again] the last of the hair disappearing

Dearest readers and fellow-bloggers – my computer has several problems.

For a start, the dialogue box says an MSVCR71.dll is missing, whatever that means. When I try to access your site by clicking on the sidebar link, another box appears and says some other element is missing, something connected with ‘language’.

I simply can’t get into your site.

I had seven goes trying to leave a comment on Notsaussure earlier and halfway through accessing two other sites, the IE6 just dropped out completely. In trying to access the mail.com e-mail, the computer just shuts down completely, then reboots. When I try to access my ‘manage posts’, it asks me to sign in every time and then asks me which way I’d like to sign in and then says an engineer has been called to talk to Blogger when I can’t reach the dashboard.

I have no knowledge how to fix these problems. I’m going to try to visit you and comment again now, after work but if it does the same, that’s it for the evening, I’m afraid, dear friends.

Bed will beckon.

[welcome cold] but not for long, unfortunately

Laze and zhem, just came home and it’s a nice, ambient minus 17 but they say it will get down to minus 20. Broke out the winter jacket and they laughed at it because it’s one of the old-fashioned thick fur, three-quarter length ‘dublyonki’ from ten years ago. They sniggered, I tell you.

Absolutely no one would be seen dead in one of ‘em today – these days it’s all fine fur and kid leather. I’m like someone from the wilds of Siberia, a throwback to Soviet times. And yet when I stand by the road with the hood up, cadging a lift, it’s a little too hot to wear and I give thanks for my jacket.

A friend asked how cold it got in Britain. Oh, minus 2, 3. There was once minus 17. So it doesn’t get cold, he smiled. Minus 2 – that’s damned cold. He looked at me strangely. The day I was on Hadrian’s Wall at 06:00, that was cold, I continued. Damp cold. Equivalent to your minus 30. He didn’t believe me.

[anti-americanism] anti-powers-that-be or anti-people

Notsaussure writes:

...I tend to distrust the Americans when they get directly involved in helping other people run their own countries because, over the last 40-odd years, they’ve not really had a particularly brilliant track-record...

So far, so good. We’re at one. Notsaussure continues:

...No, to my mind it’s not so much that if you’re in the Bush administration’s sight’s it’s evidence you’re doing something right as that if the US government decides to help your country towards peace and freedom, things are likely to get even messier than they and it’s maybe time seriously to consider emigrating somewhere safer...

There were studies done on Kissinger [Bilderberger, CFR and one of Them] which tracked where he visited and what accrued about a month afterwards in those countries. Rwanda was an example, so was Vietnam. E. Howard Hunt died today and he was proud of his destabilizing role – openly. There is evidence that Cheney was the new Kissinger. There were allegations by a woman in a published book, Trance Formation of America, about his extra-curricular activities and interestingly, despite it’s direct challenge, she was never sued.

NATO went into a situation in Kosovo before it became a crisis, stayed while it became an atrocity, then suggested a solution. So yes, wherever the US or NATO go in the world, the moment the envoy flies in, it’s time for safety minded people to fly out.

Notsaussure puts it down to the type of leader the Americans demand but I think it’s important to identify what we mean by ‘the Americans’. If one means the American nation, then I’m not on board. If we mean the powers that be [and these can be seen in such films as Twilight’s Last Gleaming], then yes, these people are culpable to the fullest possible extent, as far as I can see.

[e. howard hunt] when things needed to be done

E. Howard Hunt has now died of complications from pneumonia, aged 88. Here is an abridged excerpt from Chapter 1 of All the Presidents Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, when the story broke open:

Woodward, who had been assigned to write Tuesday's Watergate story, picked up the telephone and dialed 456-1414 -- the White House. He asked for Howard Hunt. The switchboard operator rang an extension. There was no answer. Woodward was about to hang up when the operator came back on the line. "There is one other place he might be," she said. "In Mr. Colson's office."

"Mr. Hunt is not here now," Colson's secretary told Woodward, and gave him the number of a Washington public-relations firm, Robert R. Mullen and Company, where she said Hunt worked as a writer. Woodward walked across to the national desk at the east end of the newsroom and asked one of the assistant national editors, J. D. Alexander, who Colson was … "T he White House "hatchet man," he said.

Woodward called the White House back and asked a clerk in the personnel office if Howard Hunt was on the payroll. She said she would check the records. A few moments later, she told Woodward that Howard Hunt was a consultant working for Colson. Woodward called the Mullen public-relations firm and asked for Howard Hunt.

"Howard Hunt here," the voice said. Woodward identified himself.

"Yes? What is it?" Hunt sounded impatient.

Woodward asked Hunt why his name and phone number were in the address books of two of the men arrested at the Watergate.

The most fanciful claim was that he was one of the three - Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum – who stood on the overpass, observing the execution of JFK. More provable was that he was photographed near a fence at the back of the Texas Book Depository, in a secure area, some hours before Kennedy’s motorcade came by.

Shadowy figure he was and the regular biographical details alone make his story one of interest.

[wef] seeking solutions for that which attendees engendered


Concerns about global warming and resolving tensions in the Middle East are set to dominate the agenda of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting this week, with a lack of snow in the tiny mountain community of Davos a stark reminder of the warm weather.

About 2,500 business and political leaders are set to meet, beginning today, for the annual meeting of the minds to talk politics, economics and social issues in an atmosphere aimed at finding long-term solutions instead of quick fixes.

"We are getting huge demand from our members to place climate change and issues of environmental security at the very heart of the program of the World Economic Forum," said Dominic Waughray, head of environmental initiatives for the WEF.

Ha! Was there ever a more cynical exercise? Being integrally involved in the onset of both, within other fora, little wonder attendees are going to 'seek long-term solutions’. Dear, dear, tut, tut, they might as well say. What a terrible state of affairs we and those we've succeeded have collectively brought about since World War II.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

[blogfocus tuesday] potpourri of the strange and the not so strange

1 First up is a very worthy cause which I’m hoping you’ll all support just a little. Jeremy Jacobs' tragedy led to him dedicating himself to the cause of Breast Cancer ever since. He’s about to embark on a trek which is explained below and naturally needs funds for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

I'm receiving a few e-mails and hits concerning my Trek next month. For those of you who would like to donate to Breast Cancer Campaign, you're able to do so on-line here. If you would like to send me a cheque, then please drop me an e-mail to jeremyATjeremyjacobsDOTcom or call +44(0)8453 31 31 71.

Please pause a moment and drop him a line or click on the link. It's for a very worthy cause.

2 Ballpoint Wren takes us to the domestic world of bulldog cleaning kits:

I don’t think anybody except a bulldog owner understands the stuff you’ve got to do to keep the little guy clean and sweet. In our case, we’ve got a “Bulldog Kit” in our family room: a basket filled with stuff like cotton swabs and pads, nail clippers, hydrogen peroxide, ear cleaner, wrinkle cleaner, and a certain secret weapon which makes its debut in this comic. Although any brand of this particular product will do, I very much enjoy the name of this one. Yes, it really does exist, too. It works great on both ends.

3 Cleanthes has a sure fire way of getting out of bed each morning but not necessarily at one with the world:

Mrs Cleanthes will be the first to agree that I am not “a morning person”. It is in this context that the Radio 4 Today programme appears to display its only redeeming feature - its ability to get me out of bed. A few minutes of the staggeringly inept Carolyn Quinn or that impossibly arrogant toad, Humphries, and I leap into action, figure wagging admonishingly in the general direction of White City. If anyone were to find a way of converting invective into usable, transmissable energy, in a sort of grown-up allegory of Monsters Inc., Humphries et al would indeed have a claim to be saving the planet.

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[history] can’t fathom vorty, freddy and harry

This is the sort of day when a man’s mind naturally turns to questions such as:

1] Whatever possessed Vorty to invite Hengy and a bunch of savage Saxons over for tea and cocktails in the first place? What, in that miniscule mind of his, did he possibly think was going to be the outcome of Saxon ‘assistance’ in his Pict and Irish campaigns?

“Er, right, well that’s that done. We’ll be getting back to Saxony if you don’t mind, Vorty. I think we might have left the cakes on the hearth, tell the truth. Thanks for the beers.”

2] While we’re at it, what possessed that Athelney woodcutter’s wife to even think Freddy was going to attend to supper on the hearth when he had things like saving Wessex and driving back the Danes swirling around his noodle at the time? Didn’t she notice his distant, semi-detached look as he cupped his chin in his hands and brooded?

Didn’t it dawn on her that she had an undomesticated, unreconstructed king type person on her hands? And why cakes, when a good hunk of beef and bread and a vat of wine would seem to have been more to the immediate purpose? And did she think a bit of scolding was going to endear herself to him?

3] And whatever possessed Harry, the second of that moniker, to allow the fyrd to go back to their farms, just when Will the Con, Harry the Hard Man and Tosser were getting ready to come over and pay a visit? I mean, surely Harry was King, wasn’t he?

I know that this was actually the point at issue and that he was excommunicated for cheating and that Haley’s Comet had appeared but still. Why didn’t he just go and get them again and if they kicked up a fuss, tell them: “You ignorant prats. We got bovva, so get your gear, get in line and come down to Hastings with me and you can go home next week, orright? Otherwise there ain’t gonna be a next week, you go’ it?”

You’d agree that these are pretty vital questions to mull over with our beef, bread and vino this evening?

[russian brains] why do they never learn

Strange brains, the Russians. Last evening, the television was full of heavy snow four hundred kilometres to our west, cars stalled, bogged, crashes everywhere, following the week or so of awful rainy, sleety, drizzly British weather.

Everyone knows that this town’s weather comes to us next day. So what do we find? An eleven [11] car pile up on the pontoon bridge, cars travelling within a metre of each other at about 80kph on a slippery road. Really wise. Naturally, this occurred at peak hour and the tailbacks were unbelievable. Ambulance, police, the whole works.

Plus, the atmosphere is such today that everyone’s really, really knackered and dragging his and her feet about, making errors, myself included and there’ll be a lot of people getting an early night tonight, again myself included. Thank goodness the Focus is ready.

Quick check of the thermometer and this is more like it – minus eight and supposedly dropping to minus fifteen overnight. Lovely night for toasting marshmallows, cuddling up with one’s sweety – that sort of thing.

[blogfocus tuesday] to go out this evening at 19:00, london time

I’m putting out the Focus earlier this evening because: 1] it’s ready; 2] I’m dog tired and am already falling asleep. The e-mail notifications might take until tomorrow morning, sorry.

Hope you enjoy this evening’s edition.

[china] tigers on the brink of extinction

Should large cats like this be kept in captivity?

"China was once home to a large Siberian tiger population, but rapid growth and a demand for animal parts has pushed the tiger to the brink of extinction. Growing up to three metres long and weighing just under half a tonne, the relentless search for food has given Siberian Tigers a reputation as one of nature's most vicious killers."

The problem is a combination of booming and rapidly expanding cities squeezing the tigers’ natural habitat, plus the market in tiger parts. As the dragon looms large, the tiger unfortunately diminishes. The government has taken some measures but it’s hard to see the process reversed or even halted and naturally, western pressure would have no effect.

It seems that unless some are bred in captivity, the species will perish. Wish raises the question asked at the beginning of the article: ‘Should large cats like this be kept in captivity?’

[stats] us dirtiest spammer, china up there with malware


Sophos said U.S.-based computers were responsible for sending 22% of the year's spam, with China second at 15.9% and South Korea third at 7.4%. Nine out of every 10 spam messages sent worldwide were sent from so-called "zombies," computers that were hijacked and sent messages without their owners' knowledge.

The United States also led the globe in hosting malware, reported Sophos; its servers accounted for 34.2% of all Web-based malicious code. China again held second place, with 31%.

"Thirty percent of the malware written during 2006 came from China," says O'Brien. "Most of it was designed to steal logons and passwords related to online games." When asked why Chinese malware targets online gaming rather than, say, bank accounts, O'Brien says games "seem to have more of a cultural significance than strictly finance. It's like an American hacking MySpace."

Brazil, meanwhile, accounted for 14.2% of the world's malicious code, and consisted mainly of Trojan horses that targeted online banking services. Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine came in third through fifth by producing 4.1%, 3.8%, and 3.4% of all malware studied by Sophos' forensics engineers.

But percentages don't tell the whole story. "Russia was responsible for some of the more malicious malware," says O'Brien. "In Russia, [hacking] is primarily an organized crime activity."
One of the few bright spots in 2006, says O'Brien, was the dramatic decrease in infected e-mail, messages that contain a malicious Trojan, worm, or virus payload. During 2005, one in 44 messages were infected (2.2%); last year, only one in 337 messages carried a malicious payload (0.3%).

Monday, January 22, 2007

[2012] why does this year keep cropping up

I’ve been asked what I mean by the ‘Big One’ in 2012. Firstly sorry - some of the links in the last post 'jumped' but have now been restored. Secondly, one or two more things on 7/7:

# Benjamin Netanyahu was on the way to a conference at the same hotel where Rudy Giuliani was also staying, when he received the warning. This doesn’t lead anywhere, it’s just interesting.

# The server in Houston [on which the Islamic organization claimed responsibility] has intriguing connections. Everyone's Internet was founded by brothers Robert and Roy Marsh in 1998 and by 2002 had an income of more than $30m (now about GBP17m).Renowned for his charitable work, Roy Marsh counts among his friends President George Bush's former sister-in-law, Sharon Bush, and the president's navy secretary.

# Many "Islamist extremist" websites are hosted in the United States - here's an interesting compilation.

If I had to put my money down to save my life, I’d go with this idea: Blair was in Singapore securing the Olympics, then flew to Scotland for the G8. He would have had his mind somewhat pre-occupied and any terrorism question would have been left to the professionals.

If it is admitted that Israel gave a warning six minutes before [which is very hard to deny on the evidence] or if it was given two days before [which has less supporting it], then for Blair not to have been instantly informed would have been impossible. The defence that he wasn’t informed because of the chance of disrupting the summit doesn’t wash. His underlings had to inform the PM of such a thing and at this time of heightened tension, the communication lines would have been instant.

As to whether Tony Blair ever lies, see the earlier post on the Bilderbergers. If we can assume, for the moment, that he knew, were there strategic reasons for him not to act? In other words, like in World War II, was it in the interests of the greater number of the populace not to act? Or did it suit his book not to act? Soon after, he pushed very hard for the ID legislation and all sorts of measures followed on. Again, assuming he knew, then by definition, the EU chiefs might have known too because their legislation followed hard on the heels as well.

Given the undeniable push for restructuring Europe and implementing draconian measures, for what purpose could that be? Because they’re expecting some sort of atrocity which they’ll either thwart or not? Matters little – it’s the Hegelian principle anyway. When? 2012? Too late. It has to come earlier so that the process of legislation can be given a chance to get through the Lords. It will take one parliamentary term to achieve that - to pull the last teeth from the Lords.

So what then is 2012? The new, ultra-secure, regulated Olympics possibly. The final joining with Europe in all respects, including the database on citizens of the union, Britain having already sundered as an entity. Whatever, they’re certainly in a hurry to get it all implemented.

[draconian measures] reasonable inferences or not

This blog has no time for surmise, which it defines as uninformed speculation. On the other hand, laying out evidence on the table, all of it, that is and drawing a conclusion from it - that is something else again. That is detective work.

There are different grim things going on in Britain right now and they are reflected in all the western nations. For every link in this post, one could be found about the US, for example.

What sort of things? The Guardian suggests we're sliding into a police state, for a start. Then there is the question of which particular definition of 'terrorist' is accepted, so the state forces can concentrate on that alone. The EU has acted to implement sanctions to streamline police procedures across Europe and give wider powers. Anti-terrorism measures are on the agenda, including vast diminishment of citizens' freedom to move.

There are pro-active moves towards preparing citizens for an emergency situation and the putting of the countries onto an emergency [read 'war' ] footing. Emergency powers and the adoption of temporary martial law is now in the process of implementation. Military exercises are now being carried out, one for the start of this February.

Police are to buy gas masks. These can be bought here. It goes on and on. On January 15th, Tony Blair tried to institute phone tapping on fellow MPs.

Why? For what purpose? Why such draconian measures and why at this time? Here was a society largely at peace and increasingly tolerant of other cultures, Despite the dumbing down and chav-producing dismantling of education, successfully producing a nation of bestial, ignorant, young, huggable, zombie ASBOs [future cannon fodder], why the pro-active moves to implement legislation and to put society onto an emergency footing?

One of the best articles I've read on 7/7, because it gives MSM links to everything claimed and finishes with a constructed 7/7 timeline, based on these links, is here.

The conclusion is that Tony Blair was either 1] quite ill-informed and unaware of clear prior knowledge or 2] he was in on it. Add to this his quite uncanny propensity to be both away from his desk and simultaneously within an hour's flight of 7/7 and out of the country on holiday during the subsequent thwarted simultaneous attacks and one is left with the detective's classic dilemma:

Can't be absolutely proven but sufficient indicators exist as to warrant suspicion and close scrutiny of the man's subsequent actions.

I was asked the question in the comments sections as to what I meant by 'the Big One in 2012'. I'd like to answer that by a series of questions: 1] what exactly do they feel sure is going to happen - another terrorist attack? Why so sure? 2] after all the measures linked to above have been passed, then what would be the government reaction to any 'terrorist' atrocity, vis a vis counter-measures after the event? 3] by the way, 7/7 occurred one day after what major event? 4] what major event for Britain is coming up in 2012, around the time of the election?

You might label the inference in these questions 'surmise'. I'd prefer to label it a fair and reasonable conclusion, given all which was presented in this post and having read every word at the end of each link.

[repeat after me] robots are our friends

What do you think of the group of university scientists from Warwick, Cardiff, Dublin and Newcastle universities, funded by the European Union, attempting to create a breed of robots designed to work together as hospital nurses by 2010, two years before the Big One?

I really love the explanation:

Project leader Thomas Schlegel explained the goal of the IWARD project was not to replace medical workers but rather increase the interaction within European hospitals. The idea is not only to have mobile robots but also a full system of integrated information terminals and guide lights, so the hospital is full of interaction and intelligence,' he said.

Won’t that be lovely? When you’re sick and dying in future, you can be attended, not by pesky human type entities with long legs and pretty smiles but by Medbot the Android who, like T-1000, can decide how much medication to administer, how to strike up a conversation with a human primitive and if necessary, when to terminate said HP, if it gets a bit uppity like.

Can’t wait and remember whom we have to thank for it – the lovely folk over at the EU.

[us missiles] we’re only in poland for peace

Yeah, right. Who does the US think it’s fooling? US weapons in Poland? Read Russian missile silos in Cuba [1962]. Same old story, same old tricks. Russia will act and the US will have provoked it. Just what are they playing at, the US?

Interesting also that they’ll be operational in 2011, just one year before the Big One this blog keeps referring to.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

[5 questions] to tony blair and gordon brown

1] Did Prime Minister Tony Blair attend the Turnberry Bilderberg conference in 1998, despite this:

Prime Minister Bilderberg Group Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 12 October 2006, Official Report, column 862W, on the Bilderberg Group, if he will provide the information requested in respect of himself since 1997. [95308] The Prime Minister: I have not attended any such meetings.

2] Did Tony Blair attend the 1993 Bilderberg meeting in Athens, with Kenneth Clark, shortly before becoming Labour leader?

3] Did Lord Stoddart of Swindon ask Gordon Brown the same question a few days ago, after asking last year:

The Lord Stoddart of Swindon—To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any Ministers attended the Bilderberg Conference in Ottawa between 8th and 11th June; if so, whether they attended in a Ministerial or private capacity; whether they made contributions to debates; and, if so, on which subjects. [CO] (HL7569)

4] Did Gordon Brown attend the Bilderberg Conference in Baden-Baden in 1991, when he was shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer?

5] If it is no crime to attend a Bilderberg Conference, why then would Tony Blair allegedly lie and Gordon Brown not give a straight answer? If there is no stigma attached to the Bilderbergers, why then so coy?

Just wondering, you know.

[usa] the inexorable election of the monstrous

It’s best to go to the Americans for things American.

Firstly, from Vox Day, the little matter of the Congressional attempt to legislate to regulate the blogosphere. The idea is that if you want to make political comment, you need to be registered as a lobbyist. Anyway, the vote went this way:

The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."

On Obama, Vox reports:

The Lizard Queen doesn't take kindly to rivals: Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?

He comments:

He's not only a lightweight, he's less electable than Ron Paul. The Lizard Queen could chew him up as a snack … More likely, she'll keep him around as harmless vice-president material. Any time he gets uppity, she'll just hiss: "zip it, Osama, or it's Guantanamo Bay for you!" My feeling is that Obama is playing for the vice-presidency anyhow.

Jon Swift comments:

Do we really want a President who has lived in another country, or even traveled to one, especially a Muslim country? Is Obama too pretty to be President? Does being black make Obama too angry to be President? What negative information is there about his wife? What kind of underwear does he wear? If the hard-hitting reporting we have already had on Barack Obama is any indication, the 2008 Presidential election is shaping up to be the most substantive and rigorous examination of candidates yet.

Don’t know about you but the idea of the Lizard Queen actually being in the race, let alone a chance to win, is disquietening enough. Her team is here and you’ll see she’s deadly serious.

Last word to Vox Day:

There simply isn't anyone else out there. In addition to the ongoing Republican meltdown and the way in which unelectables such as McCain, Giuliani and Rice are pushed forward, many Republican women will vote for Hillary Clinton simply because she is female.Never, ever underestimate the tendency of women to embrace their own, even in situations when it is manifestly against their beliefs and personal interests.

[sunday quiz] try your luck

1] Which weather phenomenon translates from the Spanish for 'little boy'.

2] Ambassador to the Court of Saint James is the official title for Ambassadors of which country?

3] Which castle is on the island of Anglesey?


4] Which N. African seaport's name is Spanish for white house?

5] Which is the only vowel on a standard keyboard that is not on the top line of letters?

6] In Britain, what letter is given to a car number plate when the age or identity of the vehicle is unknown or if it may have been built from parts?

7] Globe and Jerusalem are types of what plant life?

8] How many people take part in the dance of a quadrille?

9] Rather than a hatter, what is the proper name for a maker of hats?


10] What is the name of the poker hand containing three of a kind and a pair?

Answers here ...

[snow] it’s falling, it’s falling, it’s falling

The snow came this morning – myriad great flakes of it in the air, in the sky, over the earth. All the jangling, mangled bits of metal and dull concrete roads, the trees, the fences – all are covered in icecream white smoothness.

If it continues, great mounds will build up at the side of hard packed paths where the grader came through. The weak sun will shine down over all and this man will be at one with the world.

I don’t know why I need snow. All I know is that when it comes, all is well and even the atmosphere changes, a hush comes over all as couples walk along paths, arm in arm and children laugh and throw snowballs [admittedly with rocks inside].

This got me to thinking. The place I’d most wish to live in the world, if I could arrange it would have:

# the sea or some body of water somewhere within range to sail on in summer;
# proper snow – great mounds of it, constantly through winter;
# good downhill skiing within range;
# temperatures of +28, in summer, down to -12 in winter;
# very pretty women;
# reasonably cultured language and accents;
# a bit of an old worldly atmosphere;
# simple, scrumptious cuisine;
# care for their aged, which is where I’m inexorably headed [just getting in early, that’s all].

So, where should this blogger be living? Where should you be living?

[personal spirituality] hard to pinpoint

There’s an aspect to us to which most give scant regard – the spiritual. Lord Mancroft’s quote [1979] was amusing and yet contained a grain of truth when he wrote:

Cricket – a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity.

We often come close to the spiritual. Ian, of Imagined Community, wrote:

[The] closest I have ever come to knowing G-d to exist was during a Russian Orthodox funeral mass sung in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on Hare Island in St Petersburg, burial place of many of the Tsars. You know I'm agnostic; if I did believe, I think the Russian Orthodox church would still be far too mediaeval for my taste.

But as I sat in that cathedral, and I listened to the unaccompanied male voice choir, and the harmonies flowed through me, and the impossibly low notes reverberated around me; as I heard the beauty which man could attain, and contemplated the devotion which inspired both composer and performers; well, I might not have known it for sure to be G-d, but I did know it to be sublime.

Every time your wife lies in your arms and you’re at one with the world, it seems that’s also close to it. As when we stand on the point of the cliff and gaze on the raging sea. As when we sail – the lonely sea and the sky.

Most aspects of the metaphysical I don’t purport to understand. I also don’t understand electricity but I know it turns lights on. There are clear ways to conduct oneself contained in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. There are triumvirates of aspiration – hope, faith and charity.

I know one thing. When I cease to place myself at the centre and admit to my true place in the world, to relinquish my sovereignty, as it were, to submit, then things start to happen. They always have and they are doing so today.

Firstly, comfort comes and I can’t describe this – it’s like restfulness inside. Then things really do fall in place, in line, the physical elements of the daily grind and the ugly conjunction of unfortunate circumstances ceases to grate, like a jackhammer in a road and become more the strains of fine music.

Understanding comes too. It’s now easy to see I was wrong, that the falling out I may have recently had stemmed from my own wilfulness. And so on. It’s like an expansion of the intellect. And the health snaps into place too. Eat better, sleep better, the scales fall away.

Don’t forget strength. Moral strength gives strength of the will. A snivelling, gibbering weakling, such as I could easily have been, isn’t any more. Not so much ‘protected from harm’ – that was never promised – but certainly knowing how to meet adversity and that gives courage.

Douglas Adams had a nice way of describing people in this hyper-elevated state:

“The serene lot of bastards.”


That’s the point where it all starts to unravel and go wrong. People who’ve discovered this elixir now want to go out and spread it, to evangelize, to force all others to experience it. That’s why I’m diametrically opposed to compulsion, to evangelism, to religion. Yes, religion – the bane of civilization. I can’t imagine anyone I’d least like to be with than a religious nut. When they want to talk G-d, I go to the pub.

That’s why Marx was right about the opiate of the masses. That’s why the Muslims are right about submitting to the will of G-d and I don’t mean the evils of Sharia Law. That’s why the Buddhists have something there. They’re all skirting around different aspects of the one central truth. Plus blandishments like ‘we’re all children of the universe’. Well, we are. That’s why the Australian aborigines had it right before western values and alcohol destroyed their spirituality.

This is not to say, in any way, that all religions are right. Religion is the bane of civilization and has caused more destruction than any other factor. It’s because the human factor enters into it, it becomes a system of oppression and the ones at the top are the worst.

There really is a spiritual aspect though; there are ways to act and they’re all written down. And when a society is at one with its code of conduct and when that code is non-destructive and is based on simple common sense values, then good things come of it.

But they can’t accrue unless we have our personal spirituality sorted out first.