Saturday, February 10, 2007

[blogfocus saturday] girlpower, yo

Let me say, upfront, that the number of blogs has expanded to the point that both the blogroll and the e-mail list are woefully out of date. The roll I’ve half done; the other I must attempt tomorrow.

Now to Girlpower, the girls only edition of Blogfocus, where the boys are the voyeurs and without further ado, we’ll start in the North of England:

1 Just how grim can it get up north? Very. One Wife's lonely journey into the Northern heartlands is told here, as the heartrending housemoving takes place:

The plan then, (for want of another word,) is to manhandle the contents of the cottage out into the van on a room by room basis, drive it two miles down the lane to the rented house and then unpack the contents and install them on a room by room basis into the rented house, recreating our life exactly as it was before. Perhaps, he was a museum curator in a different incarnation. In fact, he could probably submit it for the Turner prize. He could call it something like: "Our life - a mess in two places."

2 This, thinks Bel, is beyond scandalous:

Some families of soldiers killed in Iraq have been trying for a long time to meet Tony Blair. They have organised demonstrations, launched petitions, and done their utmost to get a meeting. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has been too busy to see them. Anyway, how lucky for Shilpa that she managed to secure a meeting with the busy Blair. In his office at the House of Commons, no less. So it can be done, then? Perhaps the soldiers’ families should try harder.

3 Ellee continues to enjoy the presidential race and I do my best to cater for her in this:

I am fascinated to see how American politicians are actively using social media for their political campaigning. However, can Hillary Clinton break her carefully crafted mould to embrace a more open and interactive style? Would it suit her personality? The lesser known Obama could find it the perfect way to reach out to new supporters who decide they like what they see in cyberspace.

14 more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[ségolène] elle joue un jeu douteux

Le Figaro dit: Bien que Royal affecte l'indifférence, les sondages inquiètent le PS. Ainsi, dans le dernier baromètre BVA/Orange, elle recule encore d'un point au premier tour à 26 % d'intentions de vote, contre 34% à Nicolas Sarkozy, sans changement, tandis que François Bayrou progresse de 3 points à 14 %.

Au second tour, elle serait battue par Sarkozy 52 à 48. Pire, au second tour, si elle devait affronter Bayrou, elle perdrait également par 52 à 48.

Demain, Royal devrait tirer les enseignements de la phase « participative » de sa campagne (ouverte sur son site Internet en février 2006 puis relayée sur le terrain depuis son investiture par le PS). Cette méthode, qui a contribué au succès de Ségolène Royal, est devenue sa marque de fabrique.

Mais les chiffres avancés par le PS sont invérifiables : « 2,7 millions de visiteurs » sur le site, « 700 000 participants » aux débats locaux. La réalité des contributions est différente : seulement 60 000 personnes - ce qui est déjà beaucoup - ont laissé un message sur le site Internet, ce qui représenterait 135 000 contributions (mais combien d'entre elles sont réellement argumentées ?)

A-t-elle déjà perdu ce match? Bientôt, nous en saurons.

[lost sheep] those who were lost and now are found

Vital allegorical story, hot from southern Iceland:

Farmers from three farms in south Iceland, Litla-Heidi, Gil and Nordur-Foss, have teamed up this week and found ten lost sheep wandering in the mountain area of Svínatungur and Koltungur, in the Mýrdalur valley, in south Iceland.

They were reported missing during the annual sheep herding last autumn.

The farmers finally located the eight lambs and two grown sheep which had become quite skinny but were otherwise in good health and brought them back to their farms with specially designed sheep reins.


Well that’s all right then and three cheers for Litla-Heidi, Gil and Nordur-Foss. [Try saying that three times quickly.]

[killer fungus] it’s coming for you northerners

You planning to go to Canada? To the West Coast, by any chance? Perhaps to Vancouver Island? Good luck and hope you get out alive.

The Globe says a tropical and potentially lethal fungus that has mysteriously made its home on Canada's temperate West Coast has prompted foreign medical experts to issue a worldwide alert to doctors and tourists after doctors found clumps of the fungus growing inside a Danish man's chest.

The fungus is usually found in tropical or subtropical locales in Australia, Africa, India or South America and it lodges deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia, attacking the central nervous system and resulting in meningitis. As of December, 2006, 165 people had been infected and eight have died.

Don’t say I never bring you the good news.

[bizarre nasa love triangle] simple explanation perhaps

First, the story here, including bio link, of the “apparent breakdown of Astronaut Lisa Nowak”, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal, who tried to kidnap her love rival and possibly murder her.

Christopher Mims, blogger, says: If and when NASA finds out its astronauts have problems, what's it going to do in order to avoid embarrassment and possible tragedy? Take them off the flight list. What incentive does that leave astronauts to admit that they might have problems? None at all.

That’s one way to look at it. Another way is to ask what was a married woman with children doing vying for the affections of another astronaut anyway? Secondly, as she herself said, it was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." Yet she apparently wrote that she loved him.

So, a highly stressed, highly strung astronaut in the cold, clinical NASA world suddenly feels pangs of long dormant love – and what? Seems to me the man in it, the object of the affections, Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, needs to step in and put her straight about his own feelings, for a start.

Although driving in diapers and carrying weaponry and stun gas might be a little OTT, I can’t see that the emotion driving it is unusual in any way. I’d have been more worried if she'd been devoid of emotion, as cold as a fish.

NASA have given her extended leave to cool it and the media attempt to beat this up will fizzle away. Unless she truly is crazy, of course.

Friday, February 09, 2007

[dire commercials] pass the paper bag

One thing leads to another. Two Wolves is running a post on the American serial ‘Lost’, with a sickening line from the lead female and that got me thinking about sickening lines. The most sickening lines I’ve ever heard were in a Camay Soap commercial from the 70s:

Him [coming home]: Darling, where are you?

Her [in the bath, soft music in the background, light pink and white décor ad nauseam]: I’m up here, making myself beautiful for you. [She smiles sweetly at the camera and holds up a bar of Camay soap].

Pity because I’d really enjoyed that curry for dinner. There’s a brief paragraph about these commercials here.

What were the most sickening lines you’ve ever heard?

[drew gilpin faust] anyone know this lady

Great name and any deal she makes will give rise to some awful puns but still. Who is she? Look at the photo. Still in the dark?

The Corporation, as the governing board is known, will present its recommendation Sunday to the Overseers, an oversight board of about 30 alumni,
the Globe reported today. The Overseers, who must approve the choice, wield far less power than the Corporation and are considered all but certain to approve the recommendation, as they have done in the past.

No? Still in the dark?

If the selection is approved by [the] alumni, [Drew Gilpin] Faust, the Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will become the first woman to lead Harvard.

Here are one or two things about her.

Follow-up post in more detail here.

[jerusalem] closer and closer and closer

Third Temple

So, it’s started. I dearly wish I could have posted last evening’s piece on the scenario in the next few years because today’s news is very much part of the deal. The agents provocateur are out in force and I’m not referring to one particular group, as this article is:

Any encroachment on a holy site is seen as a challenge to the fragile status quo in Jerusalem. It may be a one-time incursion, but suspicions and anger run so deep it will no doubt be one of those often-referred-to-moments in this tireless conflict.

Tension had been building. Arab leaders around the world had been calling for Muslims to protest today. Many Arabs are furious the Israelis have started construction on a covered bridge that leads from the Wailing Wall Plaza to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

There is a small mound or hill under the bridge and it was an entrance into the Mosque at one time. Parts of the mound are being removed to make way for a new foundation for the bridge and many Muslims consider that sacred ground. Moderate Arabs are furious Israeli backhoes are taking away that hill without consulting any Islamic officials.

As most know, the conflagration starts the moment the red heifer is found and the cornerstone laid. According to my document, religious tensions get to the point where most people are sick to death of it all and religion is seen as tantamount to killing and terror. Someone steps up and says: “I’ll put a stop to the crazies,” and he/she is welcomed with open arms.

Hitler was welcomed thus as well.

[girlpower] blogfocus goes girl

Our girls are definitely not W.A.G.s.

More than a little excited about tomorrow evening – it’s a girls only bumper edition of 17 blogs!

Entitled Girlpower, for want of an imagination, the range of views is entertaining and the only regret I have is that the peerless Jackie Danicki still has me blocked, so I couldn’t include her blog. Also not in tomorrow's edition, sadly, are Michelle Malkin, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

Now ladies, I’m going to ask a favour from each and every one of you. Would you send me, either by commenting on the post tomorrow or else by e-mail, the link to one “girl site” you particularly like and which has not already been included?

Boys – you’re more than welcome to look in too and your turn will come, on Tuesday, to undergo the Higham grilling.

[macdonalds] masters of consumer psychology

McDonald's really are the masters of consumer psychology. In Australia, they have modified their product line to the point where the Heart Foundation have given nine of the meals their famous 'tick' of approval. An interesting article by Paul Harrison, senior lecturer in consumer behaviour at Deakin University, goes on to say:

What Maccas is doing makes sense: psychological research has shown us that humans are notoriously trusting, positive, and generally apathetic when it comes to thinking too much about habitual behaviours. So it takes only a little effort on the part of a big brand, such as McDonald's, to convince us that everything is OK.

McDonald's is [simply] using a tried and tested psychological theory — often used by large brands in an abundant marketplace — called bounded rationality. Simply put, bounded rationality is a theory that suggests most of our decisions are not fully thought through and, as such, we can be rational only within limits such as time, desire to expend effort, and cognitive capability.

Generally speaking, there are two major causes of bounded rationality: (1) the limitations of the human mind and (2) the structure within which the mind operates. Generally, we are creatures of habit in our purchase decisions, and rely on simple messages, and tap into stereotypes, values and emotions, to help us make sense of a complicated world.

In some irrational, illogical way, our mind interprets that having the healthier choices at McDonald's, and having the Heart Foundation tick of approval, means that McDonald's has nothing to hide. We feel reassured, and better about our choices, whether it is a salad, or a Big Mac and fries.

The McDonald's brand has much to gain from being associated with the Heart Foundation. A major concern, however, is that the Heart Foundation brand, and in particular, the tick, may suffer from the association with McDonald's if consumers believe that the Heart Foundation has "sold out" to a big corporation.

[puzzle] strange goings on with higham

Explain this if you can and I 'm really not making any of it up:

I had plans last evening to do a follow up to the finance post and had written it in the form of a fisking of myself, disparagingly quoting myself from documents I have on file, which directly points the finger at who is behind Blair et al.

It goes on to speak of the coming credit squeeze and calling in of loans. The graphic was to be a photo of a US president with someone and it would have left no doubt in anyone's mind. It wasn't half bad.

The moment I tried to lift the graphic from Word to Paint to upload, the computer jammed and I eventually had to switch off at the wall - all of the regular buttons were immobilized. Then it wouldn't reboot, then it would but without keyboard.

I switched off again, took out all the leads at the back, puff-cleaned the area and put them back. Still nothing when I tried to reboot.

Suddenly, I had a brainwave. "All right," I said to no one in particular, "I won't run the post. Promise."

It rebooted and all went back to normal. I threw the post, as my part of the agreement.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

[edwards] would you still vote for this man

What is this rubbish? What is pretty boy John Edwards trying to do? The two bloggers have promised him “they’ll be more temperate in their language than they were before they joined his campaign.” He clearly knew what they were like before he took them on. He clearly took them on to cater for a certain market in the blogosphere.

Commenter Bob Owens said:


It's all quite delicious, actually. Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan prostitute themselves by disavowing the overwhelming majority of their own bodies of work to keep their jobs, while Edwards flip-flops from yesterday and caves under the pressure of a group of progressive internet extremists to keep them on staff.

[attention] all brits should read this post

Britain probably isn’t aware of this but it has heavy snow. Truly. No, don’t laugh at this – the Australians have reported it, so it must be so:

Britain was hit by travel chaos yesterday as much of the country was covered by a thick blanket of snow at the height of the morning rush-hour. Luton airport had to be closed for up to four hours due to the bad weather and one lane of the M25 motorway was blocked by heavy snow in Hertfordshire.

There you are, you see.

[finance] for the economically ignorant like me

Interesting little article on the Fed’s continued low interest rates:

In an effort to preserve US consumer spending, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates; the administration of President George W Bush lowered taxes, and Asian policymakers kept their currencies artificially weak to subsidize exports to American consumers.

These policies have led to one of the longest booms in consumer spending ever - US consumer growth has not been negative since the early 1990s. However, it is credit expansion, rather than increased purchasing power, that has fueled the growth.

Hedge funds and the issuers of credit derivatives seem to be most into this phenomenon. European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, warned that the explosion of credit derivatives is a risk to the stability of financial markets. Specifically, he complained that the market underprices its inherent risks.

You don’t have to be an economist to understand this – credit is fuelling the boom, maintaining it, to be more correct. And when the plug is pulled further down the track? I have a document before me, from 2001, predicting that the finance is going to call in credit debt when they feel the societal controls are at last in place and they are ready to create a crisis. Is this one reason why George and Tony are so hell-bent on removing citizen’s freedoms, e.g. the FoI Act?

[west country] blessed are the cheesemakers

England's West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers have put a webcam on maturing cheddar cheeses to let afficionados watch in real time the process of mould growth for a year.

"It puts watching paint dry in the shade," a company spokeswoman admits. The site, Cheddarvision, boasts 85,000 visits already.

Go to it rightly.

[assault on woman] dancer pulled from stage

In Australia, an 18 year old dancer, in a very seedy part of town, at 4 in the morning, was pulled from a stage where she’d been dancing and assaulted by a man in his early 20s:

Police say the man approached the 18-year-old woman, Tamieka, about 4am on Sunday at the Area 61 nightclub in Fitzroy Street while she was dancing on a podium. Detective Senior Constable Scott Gladman says the man tried to talk to Tamieka, then pulled her from the podium and attacked her.

No one is saying for one moment that this attack was anything less than appalling and the young man should feel the full force of the law and yet …

Why would he have done it this way? Why not, say, sexually assault her? Why the type of attack a man usually reserves for another man? Did he know her? Was he a suitor or ex boyfriend? Had she broken up his next relationship? The glib headline ‘Coward attacks woman’ and the printing of only her side: ‘I did absolutely nothing wrong,’ doesn’t ring true to me.

Seems to me, a man physically assaulting a woman, with no sexual overtones, is rare and is usually associated with prior history or else something she said which snapped the self-control.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

[science fiction] botnets and zombies attack root machines

A handful of the 13 machines that work as the internet's traffic cops were struck last night as Asian hackers overwhelmed them in a co-ordinated strike. According to our report, the attacks lasted 12 hours but failed to completely immobilise the servers in question.

Using botnets and zombie machines, the hackers tried to overwhelm the root servers in what was effectively a massive denial-of-service strike. But security experts say ordinary internet users wouldn't have noticed any real difference, despite the fact that Graham Cluley of Sophos likened the attack to '"twenty hippos trying to get through a revolving door at the same time".

Any idea why the Asians wished to do this? Who were the goodies in this and who the baddies? Any significance in the number 13? Who are these root servers?

[house of lords] someone finally recognizes its vital role

On the absolute stupidity of an elected Lords, Martine Martin, G-d bless her cotton socks, has said:

I will argue that point to the death. I've never read an argument yet for this that stands up in any way. To say that an unelected second chamber is somehow "inappropriate for the 21st century" reeks of an incredibly superficial understanding of democracy and our parliamentary system in general. As we know, any banana republic can have elections. They're meaningless compared to all the other nuances of a political system created in order to remove the potential for corruption or abuse of power.

Of course – it’s only logical. I differ from her only in the workability of inducting new Lords and in her view of hereditary peers: “Transform the remaining hereditaries into Life Peers.” No, the hereditary peers have every right to a place in the Lords, on the basis of her own argument:

As we know, any banana republic can have elections. They're meaningless compared to all the other nuances of a political system created in order to remove the potential for corruption or abuse of power.

What I think Martine is getting at is that they should be above politics. In this I heartily concur and deplore the attempts to cripple this absolutely vital chamber for the survival of our freedoms. My proposals are here and here is my fervent hope that this current madness shall pass.

UPDATE: Please check out Benedict White's take on this.

[men and women] close partnership or constant war

National hero had been sleeping with his best friend’s wife

Relations between men and women is a field I’ve done a certain amount of research on over ten years although I’ve surveyed far more women than men, maybe 1800 females to about 200 males.

I’ve asked the straight question: “What are the characteristics you’d most like to see in your partner?” and have done scenarios where certain characters are placed side by side with multiple characteristics and have then seen which they’ve chosen.

Certain things have come out of this. Both felt that being loved, liked and respected was way up near the top but it came out differently. The males, who admittedly were a poor cross section, comprising only students and businessmen, assumed this but the females stated ‘respect’ over and over, ahead of ‘confidence’, ‘intelligence’, ‘sense of purpose’, ‘sense of humour’, ‘money’ and a host of other features.

Both assumed the opposite number would be good looking to a point. The males were less articulate about it but it’s perhaps fair to say they wanted the girl to be ‘feminine’, ‘soft and loving’ and the characteristics they most detested in a woman were ‘nagging’, ‘infidelity’, ‘troublemaking’ and ‘feminism’. These came out, over and over again as driving them away from their partners and even overseas to fresh fields, with nagging the worst, the older the man was.

The females hated ‘disrespect’ and then ‘weakness’ and ‘lack of intelligence, money and cleanliness’, in no particular order. In recent years, ‘money’ has gone further and further towards the top. Interesting then that Samantha Brett has just posed the question of a man crying – how it affects a woman and her results can be seen here.

Activity wise, most of the females liked dancing, conversation, shopping and sex; almost all of the males saw sex at the end of anything they did, though of course they’d be ‘just friends’ with a woman who didn’t physically attract them. Nightclubs were for the ‘scene’ and for ‘picking up’, not so much for the dancing for the guys, whilst it all fitted together for the girls.

[illegal aliens] of snakeheads, dashboards & cash

How a story grows and grows:

US Customs and Border Protection said inspectors found a 40-year-old man crammed into the dash of a Mercury Sable mid-size car during a routine inspection at the Calexico port of entry in southern California on Saturday.

This led to the tale of snakeheads and Sister Ping, who arranged for illegal Chinese immigrants to go to the West but then kidnapped them on arrival and demand huge ransom, often using torture. The most notorious incident was when the ship Golden Venture ran aground off New York and the scam was exposed.

I’d like to know from where the $30 000 ‘fee’ would come from. If illegals could find that sort of cash, surely they could do what was necessary to enter the US the normal way. If that was impossible because of criminal connections, then surely it would be dangerous for the snakeheads to take them on in the first place.

The Zorlu Turkish affair is Britain's contribution and the Dorset coast, near Bournemouth, is a notorious entry point.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

[blogroll] my right sidebar has been updated


The first of two changes has now been made. The roll titles will be adjusted later, to take into account the sheer numbers. The Blogpower roll, over on Defending the Blog, is unfortunately static for the moment because the two admins can't get to it to change it.

[2012] are you planning to be at the olympics

There seems to be complete myopia as to what is going down. Can’t we join the dots on the picture? Why is it so difficult? Outside Story refers to it:

The government is considering allowing armed US and Israeli police at the Olympics to protect their athletes from Islamic terrorists. They are also considering using the army to assist.

Using the army. The British Army. 2012. Meanwhile - destruction of the criminal justice system. Prisons crisis. NHS breakdown. ID cards. Four years ago I wrote to my friend in America:

It’s the old dialectic. Foment a crisis, sit back and allow it to fester until the public cries out: “Enough!” Relax vigilance via a series of bureaucratic errors, thus enabling an atrocity. Announce sweeping Draconian measures to take on the “hidden enemy” and re-order society as you wish it. The hidden enemy disappears, the public are grateful. You have what you were always after in the first place. The oldest trick in the book in democracies.

And while we're at it, an interesting post on the triumvirate.

[blogfocus tuesday] allow me to introduce …

Poshorexia gets her hair in a tangle

This evening’s blogfocus concentrates mainly on new blogs [new for me but possibly old favourites of yours], with a sprinkling of old stagers to add that touch of spice.

1 Out of the blocks bolts The Spine with the tale of Vic Beck’s scary moment:

Visiting Disneyland as part of a promotion for the company’s ‘Year of a Million Dreams’, David and Victoria Beckham were caught in a terrifying incident involving two of the park’s residents who took the opportunity to start building a nest in Victoria’s head. The events were described in horrific detail by park-keeper Donald Duck whose bravery has been praised for his quick action, leaping between the combatants.

2 A real accident this time and a tragic one. Bonny Wren explains:

I’ve often heard that traffic lights don’t get installed at intersections until somebody gets killed. I’ve often wondered how come there wasn’t a traffic light installed at that intersection, especially with all the school traffic so close, but I guessed it was because of the traffic light that does exist a short distance west of the intersection.

Perhaps the city planners felt that two traffic lights so close together might cause gridlock, and indeed, Encinitas lights are famous for their poor timing. Carlsbad seems to have traffic light timing down pat, but Encinitas gridlock is a given.

3 Freethinker, who hails from the San Francisco area, sees the Winter Solstice as the root of all holidays:

On this Winter Solstice, which is also the shortest day and longest night of the year and the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, join me in imagining how our ancestors observed this time. Imagine the awe and respect they had for the earth and the sun and their awareness of the interconnectedness and interdependencies of all living things and the cosmos.

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

Monday, February 05, 2007

[qm2] everything will be just fine

QE2 on the left, QM2 on the right

People, I don’t think I have the capacity to put a jinx on anything but the instant I saw the photo of the Queen Mary 2, it worried me. The boat is plain top-heavy.

As a sailor, even with stabilizers below, it worries me and the hype which is surrounding it reminds me a little of a particular 1912 boat beginning with the letter T and carrying Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet:

Wherever it goes, the ship is often greeted not just by crowds of onlookers, but sometimes even with parades and fireworks. ''When we go into Hamburg, 500,000 people line the shore to see the ship, and we've been there five or six times. I've never seen anything like it,'' said Ben Lyons, the QM2's first officer.

She’s been at it now for three years and the only glitch so far seems to have been the service on the maiden voyage. Fine, I’m absolutely certain nothing will go wrong. Truly. I’ve just been reading too much of this sort of thing.

Forget I mentioned it. QM2, every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you; that is how I know you’ll go on …

UPDATE: Now it's gone just a little too far. Wikipedia includes a side by side size comparison with, of all craft, the Titanic and the Airbus.

UPDATE UPDATE
: Free thinker has some great shots of her coming into San Francisco Bay. He raced down and took them himself.

[be prepared] shakespearean taunt on stand-by

One should always have a fine insult at the ready for unleashing on your bewildered foe, e.g:

Thou bawdy unchin-snouted hugger-mugger!

The chap says that they are not genuine Shakespearean taunts but many of them are attributed and this Elizabethan Curse Generator seems better than most of the others on offer.

The aim of the series is so that you need never walk naked into the conference chamber – that you’ll always have a great historical insult at the ready to hurl.

Here are more.

[nudge nudge] on for young and old

Well, maybe we had to cover this topic. You saw the stats today – four in ten kids have accessed unsolicited porn, including pre-teens.

Now, what’s our reaction to be? I remember when I was in 2nd Form [Class 8], some kid brought some black and whites along and they did the rounds of the rest of us before the teachers stepped in and confiscated the lot.

I remember we all thought the staff were spoilsports and were only taking them to look at themselves. I actually asked one of the staff where the shots had got to and was told the Headmaster now had them. My goodness, I thought at the time – and he has a wife and family.

Was I traumatized? No. Was I turned into a raging sex maniac? I think I already was one. I had a girlfriend two years younger than I who was at the girls school across the way. Did I try out some new ideas on her? No – I was terrified enough holding her hand and asking her on a date.

So is it all right then for kids to see this stuff? In my humble opinion, I don’t think so. I really believe it has a cumulative effect over time and helps the already-existent poor attitude of boys towards girls. And if you know where to put it, you will. Just one opinion.

[nato] move over brits, here comes yankee know-how

Beautiful illustration of the essential differences between the British and US attitude to war.

The highest-ranking U.S. general to lead troops in Afghanistan took command of 35,500 NATO soldiers Sunday after nine months of British command. Gen. Dan K. McNeill replaced British Gen. David Richards to lead NATO's International Security Assistance Force after a year of sharply increased violence following the alliance's push into the Taliban's southern heartland.

The clearly pro-American article went on:

Military officials said they expect McNeill to take a harder line with insurgents than Richards. Richards backed a peace deal in the southern town of Musa Qala that crumbled in his last days in command when an estimated 200 Taliban fighters overran the town on Thursday. NATO said a targeted airstrike Sunday killed a key Taliban leader behind the upheaval.

I wonder if McNeill is aware of this and this about the Taliban and its plans for the spring offensive or does he think this is how they operate? If so, then we are headed for a conflagration of epic proportions. If not, then the new gung-ho NATO won’t know what hit them.

[japan] home of brave men and ‘birth machines’

Was there ever a better indication of the attitude of Eastern men to their women than the Japanese Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa’s reference to Japanese women as ‘birth machines’?

As the media said: The fuss over Yanagisawa's remark is the latest in a string of missteps to plague Abe, whose leadership has come in question ahead of the July election. A weekend opinion poll by Kyodo showed that public support for the 52-year-old leader had slid to about 40 percent, almost 25 points below the level when he took office in September.

This is the problem with most gung-ho politicians – all bravado and super-patriotic talk but not a lot else, certainly not a lot of common sense. Abe will go on from blunder to blunder.

I once posted a geisha girl's own story and that also says it all.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

[alien attack] trying to identify a serial

Can anyone help me out here? I’m trying to identify a serial from the 50s, it would seem, made for television, possibly in six or so parts and in B&W. I was a child when I saw it years after it was made and was annoyed when my parents at first wouldn’t let me watch the exciting finale but then I prevailed on them to let me.

I’m very, very hazy about it. The hero was, I think, like all the short-haired heroes of the time, in a suit, an ordinary man who’d ‘discovered the truth’. The tone was dark and menacing and it was unlike any other I’d seen, with the exception of the classic ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’. There wasn’t the least amount of corniness about it.

It turned on the fact that if something hadn’t been agreed to by a certain time, the flying saucers would obliterate the earth. Somehow it came down to one particular saucer planning to hover over maybe the Empire State building at maybe 12 noon and if that couldn’t be prevented, then zap!

Once the final pieces fell into place and the hero realized what was really going down, he had to somehow race to the city to warn someone. Like all of those more innocent days, I naturally assumed he’d clinch victory at the last second. He didn’t. He never made it on time and the saucer came to the building, hovered and zap! The screen went blank. I can remember being shocked to the core because in every other film and TV show I’d ever seen, good had always triumphed.

Any thoughts?

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [7]

The way it should be

When I was in my early twenties, I loved rambling and there was a sober-minded, intellectual girl I hiked with and that was all. We were friends.

One Saturday morning I collected her from her home [where she lived with her mother] and we went into the forest, left the car and climbed a tor, as we’d planned. Once there, we got out the makings of lunch and casually, between mouthfuls, she told me she’d been raped at 2 o’clock that morning.

You can imagine the swirl of emotions running through the mind. But why was she here hiking now? Answer - rape doesn’t stop the body working. But aren’t you … er … in shock? Not really. You want to tell me? She told me. It had been on the way home from her evening class, he’d followed her and well …

But shouldn’t you be with the police, you know, giving statements and so on? How do you feel [stupid question]? Not good. As we fell silent, all sorts of questions suggested themselves but I didn’t ask them: how had her mother let her come with me today, how could she stand to be with me, how could she have finished with the police at 4 a.m. and then come with me at 9a.m.?

I did ask her if she’d have to go to court. No. But whyever not? The animal! She didn’t want to go through any of that. She just wanted to forget it. She’d been lucky physically. She told me about her rule that you never fight them. I got on to other topics. I somehow felt guilty to be part of the gender which had done this thing.

Actually, I didn’t have a clue how to deal with it or what to say. So I didn’t. I still don’t.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [6]

The way it should be

Seems to me the answer is to immediately differentiate, as Germaine Greer indicated, between types of rape:

1] the unprovoked attack on a modestly clad female in a place which in no way could be construed as conducive to this crime;
2] underage statutory rape;
3] incest where, though she might be of age, she’s still in a subordinate position;
4] where the wife or consensual partner, of age, brings the charge, with a history of conjugal relations and alcohol and/or a prior history of violence is involved;
5] the unprovoked attack on a female in a place which could be construed as conducive to the crime, where she demonstrably was dressed enticingly or can be shown to have repetitively placed herself in a position which could well bring her into contact with such types;
6] attacks, particularly group, where the female was for some time in their company, where she left the point of meeting with them and where her attire and overheard conversation was of a sexual nature;
7] where the wife or consensual partner, of age, brings the charge, despite a history of conjugal relations and no alcohol or prior history of violence is involved;
8] where her trade is sex.

The criterion is still that she claims she said “no” but it’s filtered through the above hierarchy of situations. This would take care of the professional rape-caller who’s out to make a dollar.

Which leaves the girl who’s really been raped but is too traumatized to press charges. This, it seems to me, is the situation we should be directing our energies towards. I knew such a girl once.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [5]

The way it should be

Doesn’t the definition of rape come down, in the end, to not wanting him [and it is always him] to do it?

Do what? Where’s the line? Is the line the first touch? Is it the kiss? Is it the first time the hand touches a sensitive part? The woman wants the right to say “no” at any moment in the process and wants the weight of the law available to bring down on any transgressor.

Women rely on legislation but no amount of legislation alters the fact that man’s physiognomy is such that once he’s aroused, it needs release. She may not like that but it’s how men are biologically structured. What she has no clue about is how strong that desire is, even in reasonable, quiet men. And they’re not the ones she’s dirty-talking with in a bar or club. That desire is overpowering and a man need never apologize for that.

Alison says:
"Yes women need to take care of themselves, of each other when they are drinking, [or not], only a fool would think differently. But a change in attitude needs to take place on both sides ..."

I agree with the point but add that they should never have been in that position in the first place. This smacks too much of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

There was a time where a thing called “chaperoning” went on and there was a lot of sense in it. The girl always had protection because she is naïve and doesn’t understand the male dynamic, no matter how worldly she might think she is.

But we threw all that out, didn’t we? Along with the Christian moral code which really did rein in man’s excesses in most cases and treated women as ladies. Anyone over a certain age knows that to be true, knows how society was. Even the statistics on rape support it. But people don’t want to concede that. They see this as an argument to put women back in the kitchen.

I say it’s just common sense – the more that unchaperoned girls freely drug around all night with absolutely no parental control, the more this sort of thing is going to happen. But parents refuse to admit any responsibility in this. They say it’s the type of animal now roaming around, raping girls. Nothing to do with them, the parents.

As for the aggressive male predator, the epidemic of porn and gaming on the web does affect their already jaundiced view of the female – have you seen some of those games? The porn of course you’ve already seen. We’re force fed it.

All of which does not take into account the unprovoked attack on an innocent woman.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [4]

The way it should be

Vox Day who, like me, detests feminism and the PC mafia, says this about rape:

I think that the penalty for knowingly bringing a false charge against someone should be the same as the false charge brings. Although of course in Cool Britannia these days, it's entirely possible that two years in jail is the maximum penalty for rape.

One of his commenters says:

Rape is rape, no matter who the victim is. The degree of damage done though probably depends on the victim. Consider three cases:

1. Virgin
2. Faithful wife
3. 6-john a day prostitute

Another commenter says that we run the risk of a society of Prenuptial Contracts, where love and romance are the last things on anyone’s mind.

Germaine Greer thinks that date rape and one-on-one rape should be legally separate.

Ian Grey points to a Times article debunking the female case.

I still think it all comes down to neither side understanding the other’s biology.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [3]

The way it should be

Mike Tyson saw Desiree Washington in a line. That’s as he would have liked it, all the girls lined up for his inspection. He chose her and from the field, I would have too. He was a known lecher, a brute, everything he’d done and said indicated that:

"A lot of young women don't know what they're getting themselves into. A lot of them think it's fun, a game. . . . But they truly don't know what they're into when they lock themselves into a room and engage in sex with a man who knows how to handle a woman."

She went up to his room later, flattered and curious. He says that, by crossing that threshold, it was permission. She said it was not – that she was a naïve girl, summoned by her hero to talk about things. Did she honestly believe, in that society and at her age, that it was to play tiddlywinks and chat about philosophy?

She might have. I’ve known many seemingly worldly women who were still easy to con, who were the product of their relatively sheltered upbringing, despite later developments.

The perpetual hunger to be beautiful and that thirst to be loved which is the real curse of Eve. [Jean Rhys, the Left Bank, 1927]

There’s the rub. Naïvety and the desire to be wanted but how many times, once it’s clear he wants her, does she see the matter as closed, that in his mind the ultimate denouement of the libidinous dance is a simple inevitability but in hers, she’s already thinking thoughts of other things. She’d be shocked if he kept pressing his attentions.

The way the woman thinks. The way the man reacts. It’s patently obvious that a woman cannot understand the way a man’s biology works. And a man never really understands that for a woman, desire is a tool.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [2]

The way it should be

I’ve tried to feel, to empathize with women countless times. Surrounded by girls most days, it’s a fertile field for finding out how a woman thinks and feels. I’ve painstakingly asked my partner what it’s like to have a baby inside her, what it’s like to give birth. All the joy, pain, strange emotions, the lot. I want to know.

Desperately keeping a tight hold on my sharp tongue, I listen to what it is to be a woman – hopes, dreams, ideas, what she respects, what she disparages. I want to know. From all this, it’s more than clear that rape is an incredibly destructive violation, not only of the body but of what the person is, of everything she or he has achieved. Gone in a moment.

I have to get some clue as to what this means. So I think of prison. There I am, in a cell and three beefy types come in, hold me down and do it. I can now feel the shame, the anguish, the burning anger, the desire for revenge. Perhaps the revenge is more masculine, I don’t know. Plus the sweaty smell of them. It’s bad.

We were once burgled – the back window had been forced open and the bedroom had been trashed. All our personal items were scattered and the valuables taken. My rarest vinyl records had been taken.

Perhaps that too was a little like rape. A sense of powerlessness as they do as they wish.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [1]

The way it should be

I’m a rapist.

I know this because a piece of graffiti in 1985 on a brick wall, in two foot high letters, told me: “All men are rapists.” Marilyn French, in 1977, also told me this in a book and she added: “They rape us with their eyes, their laws and their codes.” Of course, that was before the PC mafia took over.

There’s a third reason I know I’m a rapist. My own partner told me so. The night before, we’d both been as hard at it as each other - plus romance. This night, we’d also both been as hard at it as each other, with one difference. She had said at the start she wasn’t in the mood but of course, all that changed later. There was still the romance.

Next morning, she calmly informed me I’d raped her, didn’t I know? I could go to jail for that, didn’t I know? I think my look of shock, rather than disbelief, might have saved me on that occasion. Interestingly, one afternoon, with me laid up with flu and at death’s door, [must lay it on with a trowel here], she raped me.

She entered our bedroom and there was no doubt what was on the agenda. I protested: “In a few days. Let me get better.” But it was not to be. For the first ten minutes, I was raped but it’s amazing how one’s physiognomy can find energy from nowhere, don’t you think? During the coffee break, I told her she’d raped me. She thought I was recovering, as my sense of humour had returned.

By the way, her work was at the Family Law Court.