Saturday, October 27, 2007

[saturday anagram quiz] leave them scrambled

1. sockttub
2. mymtu
3. pesbic
4. daqus
5. dershulos

buttocks, tumy, biceps, quads, shoulders

[blogfocus saturday] pink for girls

Click pics for slightly larger.

It's ladies' evening and the girls are all in pink:

1. Maremag is Spanish for “confusion” and she presents a trick of the eye:
Although I normally only like pink as found in the garden (see bottom thumbnails *), I fell in love with this pink home in Italy. Please note that the details (window frames, birds) are painted on the building, Trompe l'oeil style, French for "trick of the eye"!
2. Dragonstar - 63, 5 grown kids, and still mad about dragons! This isn’t a dragon though – it’s pink:

3. JMB is not so enamoured of pink but the girls are:
If there is one colour I really hate it is pink. None of the rooms in my house have anything pink nor does my closet contain a single item of pink apparel. But, as you can see below, it is a colour loved by many little girls, well except two.
One, my granddaughter, second from the right and the other one, next to her, the Birthday Girl, prefer blue which I also dislike but not so strongly. The party was held in a dance studio and the entertainment was a dance lesson. This is the lifestyle of the four year olds who live in Westchester County, New York.
4. Corey entered a different pic but I entered the one you see here:
Meanwhile, Welshcakes has been beating olives, Liz has had a bad machine day, Bel writes of the U-turn on marriage, Heather has Starbucks on the mind and Shani is glad another day is over:

[micro-control] oil, isis and lots of other goodies

Do you know the story behind the Statue of Enlightenment?

Woodstein had Deep Throat. I have a number of Anonymi.


One who, strangely, goes by the name of Anonymous, penned this on 19 October 2007 and it’s an interesting take on the present and future in Europe.


He makes a sound case – my only quibble being that he barely touches on the notion of the almost maniacal rush to remove liberty and I feel that this rush is the key.


And so in Lisbon, as our non-elected Prime Minister signs away a thousand years of evolved culture, philosophy, statutes and case law, perhaps, nay, it is imperative that we reflect, and try to gain a little perspective.

Some will say this monologue is politically biased. I make no apologies, I do not have the academic strictures of our host [he means me – Higham], nor do I wish them.

A debate is necessarily composed of opposite, or divergent, view points. If you start out balanced, in the inevitable trade-off, you lose. In any event, the facts that we will be seeking to assess are basically politically biased, so we have a precedent.

As our host most ably demonstrated last week, we live in a world, and a time, of rapidly coalescing power blocks. The need for this coalescence has been created by the rapid realisation that oil, a commodity that the entire world depends on for its continued existence in its current mode, is rapidly being depleted.

For many years (since the mid 1950s) this oil depletion has been recognised by “oil-men”, and a few geologists. Various US semi-clandestine agencies became aware of it in the 1960s, and in 1973 the entire western world was forcibly made to confront the reality of a constricted oil supply, and a nascent militant Islam.

We currently consume three barrels of oil for every one barrel that we discover, and this balanced situation has been such for many years.

We currently meet our consumption needs by the using and depletion of, the worlds giant oil-fields, discovered in the 40s, 50s, and to a lesser extent in the 60s.

This fact has been known by the world's political leaders for many years, and it has equally ably been denied and suppressed by the world's political leaders for the same number of years.

Very early in the process, intelligent and able American Politicians and Statistical Economists understood the significance of the “value added” to the national GDP by the efficient use of hydrocarbons, and that “efficiency measure” is still increasing to this day.

With the Middle-East rupture of old power alliances, the US stepped in to support the nascent house of Saud. Cheap, reliable supplies of oil were guaranteed in return for military muscle and defence/security commitments.

It was agreed that payments for oil would be made in US Dollars, thereby establishing the Dollar as the global currency for oil purchases.

This had the effect of forcing all oil importing nations to hold a proportion of their foreign currency reserves in Dollars, and eventually creating the Dollar as (almost) the World Currency of choice. Payments for imported oil, by all other nations also had the effect of limiting the recycling of Petro-Dollars to (mostly) the US, but in any event, to other globally traded/ trading, countries/currencies.

Economists would joke that the US economy was created for one thing, - the manufacture of Dollar Bills. This scenario rather limited foreign investment in smaller/non globally trading nations, although various structures were created to address this imbalance.

These structures have steadily become increasingly democratised, and in my opinion, increasingly less functional as they lose focus on what should be their core competencies. Strangely, or not, corruption seems to have grown in tandem with the democratisng/politicising levels.

This man will lead Britain into its brave new world - you can put your trust in him.

With stability in Saudi, the Islamic religion, with all its warts was encouraged, and with the House of Saud- Saudi Princes, (now numbering in excess of 5,000), becoming increasingly venal, hedonistic, and power intoxicated, Islamic traditions hardened, supported ironically by donations from many of those Princes through circuitous routes.

Islamic terrorism was born, seeded by the divides of wealth, and encouraged by self aggrandising preachers and almost 24/7 state propaganda from the time of the cradle, to redirect the seething animosity elsewhere and preserve a limited peace throughout Saudi.

A common enemy was found.

France, remembering the glory days of yesteryear grew increasingly aggrieved at the growth of US world dominance, after all, France had been instrumental in the true birth of the American nation, with many American Senior politicians (Masons almost to a man) visiting France immediately pre and post the French Revolution to meet with senior French Politicians (Masons almost to a man), having previously written the US Constitution. (Note, the true history of Freemasonry is not given by the Official Records held by Freemasons in London, largely for political, and at the time, life-threatening, reasons).

Auguste Bartholdi was an Italian sculptor. He sort a commission to build a giant statue of the Goddess Isis to overlook the up-coming building of the Suez Canal. His inspiration came from 1855 onwards when he departed on a journey to Egypt to study the architecture and statues.

In Egypt he met the French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps. They became lifetime friends. De Lesseps was negotiating French funding for the construction of the Suez canal, and so the idea of a gigantic statue, representing “enlightenment”, was born.

Ultimately, the Suez canal was not built at this time, due to Egyptian overborrowing from French bankers, and the resulting financial crisis.

Bartholdi's enthusiasm was transferred to other areas.

Edouard de Laboulaye was an authority on American Culture, and it was at his home in Paris that he discussed with Bartholdi the project of the Statue.

It was proposed as a “Statue of Liberty enlightening the World” for New York.

The Franco-American Union was established in 1875 to raise the necessary funds. Bartholdi’s cousin, the French Ambassador to the United States, was a Freemason, and a member of the “Franco-American Union”.

Other Freemason – Franco-American Union members were Henri Martin, the Count de Tocqueville, and Oscar de Lafayette. Bartholdi himself had been initiated into Freemasonry in 1875 at the Paris Lodge Alsace-Lorraine, and was raised as a Master Mason in 1880.

The engineer engaged for the project was Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French structural engineer who would go on to design the Eiffel Tower. The first 2 levels of his Tower, according to French engineer Jean Kerisel, are shaped like a Pyramid.

Not surprising then, since Eiffel was also a Mason. Eiffel was Well aware that in 1792, a Pyramid had been erected on the very same spot as the future Eiffel tower, on the Champs de Mars in Paris to commemorate the French revolution.

Bartholdi had spent much time studying and would doubtless be aware of the meaning of the Goddess Isis, and her association with the star Sirius.

Bartholdi went to America and arrived in July, 1875, New York. When entering, he knew immediately where to position the statue, on Bedloe’s Island.

You can put your trust in this lady, Americans - she'll bring you the American dream.

He carried a letter of Masonic introduction, and he met with many notables :- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horace Greeley, Senator Charles Sumner, and President Ulysses S Grant. He titled the statue, “Liberty Enlightening the World”.

The project was a success.

On 5th August, 1984, a bronze plaque was fixed to the pedestal of the Statue to commemorate the 1854 placing of the cornerstone of the Statue, and present in 1854 were William A Brodie, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, Grand Lodge Members, Representatives of the United States and French Governments, plus Army and Navy officers.

The date of 5th August 1984 is significant.

In early Egypt C.3,000BC, the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, associated with rebirth, and resurrection, occurred on the summer solstice, 21st June.

Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the heliacal rising of Sirius, in C.30bc was on the 20th July.

When Bartholdi visited Egypt in the 1860s, from the latitude of the ancient city of Heliopolis, the heliacal rising of Sirius would have been on the 5th of August.

Rebirth and Resurrection.

At the ceremony in 1854, Grand Master William Brodie was asked why the Masonic fraternity had been called upon to lay the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty. He replied

“No other organisation has ever done more to promote liberty, and to liberate men from the chains of ignorance and tyranny than Freemasonry”.

There are many other examples from this time period to show the friendship between the French and American nations carried via Freemasonry. It is a complex process sorting out the personalities.

I have dwelt at some length, because probably this aspect is unknown generally, and lost to the world, given the desperate attacks by both right, and particularly the left, on Freemasonry, and the re-writing and dumbing down of history. What we view as a secret society, was not.

Now, to return to more recent times.

The French nation, given its pride in its history (some would say, undeserved, given Napoleon’s defeats at British hands) and its (remaining) obsession with the Mahgreb became clearly worried about the American strength and influence, and commenced planning what we now call the EU, many decades ago.

Its form has transmogrified a few times since inception, but here we are, now, in this boat of many holes.

It was the French Valerie Giscard de Estaing who invited the Ayatolla Khomieni, while he was in exile from Iran, to reside in Paris, and it was there that he was free to finance and plan his revolution to overthrow the American backed Shah, (yes I know about the history of the Shah, - that is not the point - we will get there).

And it was the same man, Valerie Giscard de Estaing who wrote the EU Constitution documents that cause us to be here at this moment.

Nothing to fear - they're on your side.

Various, and numerous countries have been sucked in to the EU project, all willing at first, but as the intent widened in scope, and solidified in strength, populations began to worry.

Leaders, starry-eyed with accomplishment, bloated with power and ambition, greedy for the increasing salaries and expenses and lifestyle, increasingly ignored electorate wishes to “slowdown and think” and proceeded to seize, and centralise and consolidate power in their own, non-elected hands.

A new currency was born and a one-size-fits-all interest rate was administered from a new EU Central Bank. And all this, and more, to counter the power of America, but under the disguise of “never another European War”.

America had satellites, for both commercial and military use. GPS evolved for commercial use, from military use.

The EU decided that the EU needed one, - hence Galileo. The EU struggled to fund, and given its intent to undermine American strength, sold knowledge and access to China and India. The EU realised it didn’t have the ability to complete the task.

China is now building and launching satellites with GPS abilities and more. The EU moreover relied on Galileo for its ambitious plans to digitally control its citizens. It looks increasingly likely that a visit, cap in hand, to the US is planned.

Pray they say no.

When the walls came down in East Germany, the entire world could witness at first hand, the poverty, hunger, lack of spirit, lack of quality of life, endured under a central command economy, - a Communist Economy, a failed economy. The accomplishments were hollow, and at great expense.

But that was before the Commodities Boom. And what created the Commodities Boom?

First China, then India and South America, threw off doctrinaire political restraints and embracing Capitalism, or at least a version of Mercantilism.

China is now engaged in a global acquisition of commodities using methods that western companies, no matter what their size, cannot compete with.

Requests for commodity extraction, made to all point of the compass, are wrapped up in “Infrastructure Development”, or hospital provisions, or (low level) technology transfers. Were western companies to approach business in this way, some august body would proceed, with large headlines, to examine their ethics, and prosecute.

Russia, post the Commodities Boom, is a different animal. Now, given the margins on commodities, and its profitable exports of such, it is able to repay its Paris debts ahead of schedule, and engage in almost naked energy blackmail with its customers.

Its military proliferation throughout the Middle East and, ergo, its proxy states, is also a direct challenge to American power. European, and British governments have been particularly short sighted and stupid in their reliance on Russian energy and honesty.
Even Churchill warned them.

Now the pigeons come home to roost, and there is precious little that can be done in the medium term. We still sit and talk about nuclear power generation. Ambitious plans for estuary wave electricity generation are announced with great fanfare, but they are years away, maybe decades, and the problem is now!

Meanwhile Russia increasingly flexes its military muscles.

The import into the EU of millions of younger immigrants is required in large part, to pay the pension commitments, made by the state, to an ever-aging population. Politicians of all colours have steadfastly refused to appreciate how equity markets function, and have managed state pension funds on a cash-in-cash-out basis, - there is no invested pool.

This is fine when the population is expanding. When it is static, or falling, there is a problem. This lead initially to regulations facilitating the increasing employment of female workers to add to the pool of workers paying taxes, and NI.

This created the further problem of a more rapidly decreasing birth-rate, so we now import workers. This in turn creates the problems that todays bloggers revel in, which I need not dwell on.

American aggression in Iraq is plainly oil based, the demand for scarce resources. And Iran, if it happens, will be for the same reasons. Iran is foolhardy, and is playing a dangerous game of poker.

You can always pray to the equivalent, relative g-dhead in this piece of stone at the U.N.

I firmly believe Peak Oil is here, or very near, and the US administration is clearly worried sick. Both Iraq and Iran have large, unexplored, unused resources, both in insecure, unstable, anti-American hands.

There are some rumours that output from Iraqi oilfields is disappearing into a pipeline that ultimately disguises and feeds Saudi quoted output, (yes oils have different signatures and are distinguishable to a refinery techie, but it can be done).

If that is the case well…my suspicions are well founded. Needless to say, should such become widely known in the markets, before Iraq can be stabilized, then there would be wide-scale meltdown in both equities, and currencies, compared to the currencies of the commodity rich countries currencies.

And therein lies another explanation for Russian arms proliferation!

I note in passing that both oil and gold are at, or near, record highs in dollar terms. Russian proliferation and sabre rattling are designed to deny Middle East oil to American aggression, or at the very least be expensive in terms of blood and treasure.

The Russians want the American market for themselves. They are also seeking to establish an OPEC equivalent for LNG, with countries in North Africa, and in central/south east Asia. The “Stans” have oodles of energy resources.

We are on the threshold of the third world war, the war for energy.

Last week, our host dealt well with the effects of secretive, world wide organisations. I have my views, but suffice it to say, these entities will follow the money, and are therefore predictable to an extent.

I will not enter that field.

However, two facts impact our immediate concern - that of the coming EU. Facts that the politicians have overlooked.

If Peak Oil has arrived, and it will be because the monster fields in Saudi begin to decline, given the 3 to 1 equation [he would have, if he’d remembered but I know what he’s talking about- Higham] mentioned earlier, there is little logic, from the West’s point of view, in the ongoing support for the house of Saud.

True, there are historical family ties with the house of Bush, but we may just be witnessing a split with the increasing differences adopted by Saudi, and US negotiators in the Israeli/Palestine negotiations.

“Gently does” it is the key.

Keep movements gradual, keep equity markets stable. Stabilise Iraq. If the Saudi decline is real, the 5,000+ Princes will seek to preserve their standard of venality and greed, and the first to suffer will be the financing of terror throughout the world, with the Princes suddenly forced to confront their own vulnerability in their own land, given the phased withdrawal of American protection.

The possible exception to the cessation of terrorism is the poppy-field funded Taliban/Pakistan terror. Further more, the EU agreement with Saud, concerning unrequited immigration and the suffusion of Islam and Sharia throughout the EU can contractually cease!

This may not solve the EU pension problem, but all the quoted reasons for enhanced security throughout the EU will disappear,and a smart electorate will legitimately demand the dismantling of the newly forming structures and hardware and software designed for such control.

This in turn would remove vast volumes of sand from the cogs of the economic machine, and greatly improve nationwide efficiencies.

That I consider this to be unlikely may be a reflection of my opinion of politicians, but it may also be very true.

One of the side effects of Peak Oil, and aggravated by the proliferation activities of Russia in the Middle East, is the ongoing, and increasing Western use of agricultural products, Maize, Corn, and Oil bearing seeds (Jatropha notwithstanding) for conversion into hydrocarbons for power generation.

Troops come home

The diversion of food products to these products not only increases world food prices and diverts agricultural land away from agriculture, but also hastens the onset, together with increased desertification (200 million starving in a few years) of peak food.

China, India, Brazil, etc, as they move up the wealth ladder, are demanding diets similar to the West. On a planetary scale, with current technologies and water supplies, this is impossible. Prices will rise.
The rich will eat meat (8 to 1 by weight conversion rate from food to meat for cows) and drive their cars, the poor will starve.

So, what do we do?

The EU is energy deficient, a net importer, and vulnerable to economic exploitation from unstable suppliers (except Norway). Alternate generation methods are either non-starters (hydrogen) or development years away (waves).

We have chosen to hitch our carriage to an area (Middle East) that is rapidly failing in its only asset, oil. And we have chosen a structure, (or at least the cretinous politicians have!) at the hands of de Estaing, based on a failed state-central command economy - communism!

Aided and abetted by the malevolent use of technology to micro control and monitor the populations. Can we do any worse?

Well yes!

On entry to the EU, our State held Pension funds go into the EU pot. Our underfunding per head (as a result of Gordon activities, there was previously no underfunding) is roughly one thirtieth of the level of EU underfunding.

So our pensions go down the EU black hole. Given the self voting rights of the increasing bureaucracy, at all levels, this can only get worse! You think 20 million in the next 20 years will solve that problem? Folks, they’re lying through their teeth.

Sarkozzeee has realised this, and is taking steps. Too little, too late, and bribed by power and the gravy train, I fear his realisation will not transfer to action.

The UK has many, many years of COAL still unmined, and at current oil prices it is economic to extract.

New technologies developed before the Maggie war use powdered coal, a very explosive mixture to achieve combustion almost as clean as gas. Nuclear is still on the table. We are plain and simple fools, too intent on social engineering and professional victimhood to see the killer on the doorstep!

You have to ask, The EU, even at this point, is a failed state. Do we need the EU?

The position of the US is unclear.

A few years hence, she may be self sufficient in oil, but at an environmental price, or higher cost. The same is true for Canada. Canada has Uranium, and WATER (the probable scenario for the next war). The US has vast hot deserts, and it only needs a few percentage points increase in solar cell efficiency to achieve energy nirvana, (given a redesign of the energy grid). Satellite based solar reflectors are not beyond the abilities here.

But she may go to war in Iran, and then all bets are off.

The first step is a referendum.

The second is the political recognition of the economic/structural realities above.

The third is to take action on the second.

And there is the problem. Given the mindset of current politics, the economic illiteracy of the leaders, and the clear lack of an identifiable charismatic leader, and the ongoing inertial momentum, I see no movement from the existing descent into, ahem, sub optimal, micro-controlled existence.

I have shown that behind the scenes action by motivated wealthy persons, (Masons in the example), had a significant impact on the development of nations. The visual monuments are just that, monuments, but they speak of behind the scenes cross fertilisation of ideas, ideas born out of realism.

It may just be that enough wealthy individuals may become concerned enough to effect a change of political heart and direction, in the EU.

The EU is a voracious consumer of taxes to fund its corruption and inefficiencies. The flight of capital, and resultant loss of taxation bases may shout louder than the current 70% of the population,

Who can tell?

The EU is currently hammering Billy Gates, with threats of others in line. But these actions take too long.

About 75 years, failing legal moves, is my estimation, unless something dramatic happens in the next few months…

I feel Anon is too generous here regarding the years we have left to us. There is a recognizable, almost manic drive, a push to meet certain loony, spiritual watersheds and hence the haste to have things in place on time.

Hence the raggedness, the slight lack of care in covering tracks.
Anon’s mention of 5th August, 1984, is not accidental. How many times have these supposedly all-knowing people made grand world plans, factored everything in, only to see them go awry through human folly?

So, they have some dates with destiny this time round - let the battle commence.


You can put your trust in Pascal - he knows everything.


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

[common purpose] initially to have a coffee

At 5 hours 48 minutes even listing the links The Anonymii kindly bestowed on me, with one or two explanatory lines each, the laptop is doing weird things and methinks a break for a coffee is in order.

An initial reading says we're in a bit of trouble, people. I hadn't realized how far it had gone and how open they were being about it all or "clumsily secretive", if you like. Can't make promises - I'll post the first when I can - think I need to run some lighter posts too, just to clear the brain but first a little space to unwind.

Suppose you're down the pub right now - careful you don't smoke. :)

Good material on Common Purpose

UK Column
CP Exposed
Stop CP
Ken Craggs
BetweenMyths

Some of my own, based on material supplied

Common Purpose - more evidence
Common Purpose dishonesty
An oppressor by any other name
CP - the cancer spreads
OFSTED - the fish rots at the head

Common Purpose at work and play
More than corrupt
Groupthink spreads like a cancer through the UK
Is this how to run a country?
One ring to rule them all
Paradiso and the future of the internet
Demos, Common Purpose, Labour, Tories, security companies
Common Purpose - the disease spreads to the Netherlands
Common Purpose - meanwhile, in America
Groupthink - gentle art of persuasion
Common Purpose - initially to have a coffee
Common Purpose - just the facts, ma'am
Common Purpose - rhetoric of the quisling
References to Common Purpose appear in many other posts.

[fema] we have an emergency on our hands

Some time back I ran a series of posts mentioning FEMA in a negative sense and one American wrote that I was mistaken and that FEMA was just for disasters such as the New Orleans floods.

This might clarify it a little. Congressman McDermott said, in the House:
FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling U.S. domestic unrest.

From 1982 to 1984, Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defense preparations. Details of those plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.

They included executive orders providing for suspension of the Constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the President and FEMA.

At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then-Attorney General, William French Smith, a Republican, wrote to the National Security Adviser, Robert McFarlane:

“I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the revised executive order exceeds its proper function as a coordinating agency for emergency preparedness. This department and others have repeatedly raised serious policy and legal objections to an emergency czar role for FEMA.”
That’s all I could get without delving into the kook press but if one does [and this one’s better than most], you get:
The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.
A few selected executive orders:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to seize all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports, and waterways.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 10999 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
If we were in a time of peace with no internal threats, one would assume that these things were for floods and fire and the like.

However, given the thrust of the proposals to Congress for expanded powers of search and interrogation of suspected terrorists and insurgents, coupled with defence moves in Europe, the above executive orders start to take on a different hue.

Now another little window on FEMA has unexpectedly opened and only due to the Washington Post whistle blowing because of the slight to journalists:
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The main U.S. disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a news briefing on California's wildfires that no journalists attended.
No actual reporter attended the hastily called news conference in person, although some camera crews arrived late to film incidental shots, officials said.

A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident "inexcusable and offensive to the secretary."

"We have made it clear that stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated," spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. She said the department was considering reprimands.

The White House said: "It was just a bad way to handle it."

FEMA had called the briefing with about 15 minutes notice as federal officials headed for Southern California to oversee firefighting and rescue efforts. Reporters were also given a phone number to listen in but could not ask questions.

But with no reporters attending and a FEMA video feed being carried live by some television networks, FEMA press employees posed questions for Johnson that included: "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?"

Johnson replied that he was "very happy with FEMA's response so far," according to Friday's Post account, which FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker confirmed.
It’s not so much the stunt, which was no worse than one of Donald Segretti’s but the feeling that it was quite OK to be cavalier with the truth in a live feed which people were going to view.

This is one more ragged edge of FEMA which might cause more than a little anxiety, one would think.

[google] algorithm tweaked on thursday

The article didn’t say much:
In the brave new world of online media, fortunes can be won and lost on the whim of Google's key search algorithm. And when, without warning, Google tweaked that mathematical formula this week, there was panic on the world wide web.
Well, that’s as maybe but I’ve personally improved in the rankings. Seems to me one has to be a good boy with Google and play ball – use ad sense, have most things configured to it and so on.

There’s no doubt a trawl can spike your visits from Google referrals and two weeks ago I had three days in a row with 50% more visitors than the norm. Now it’s dropped back again but not all the way.

For such an independent minded cove as me who refuses to knuckle down, this is the most craven I’ve ever been [with the exception of the beloved country I reside in, of course].

Incidentally for those who were asking, on the new Mac I don’t have the new Leopard but the 10.4 version of OS X, with 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. It has sudden motion sensor data protection and various other goodies. Screen is 17”.

Friday, October 26, 2007

[quotes] who said these

The quotes

1. A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. [babies]

2. You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jelly-beans.

3. It is best not to swap horses when crossing streams.

4. Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.

5. It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.

6. I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

7. In America, any boy may become president and I suppose it’s just one of the risks he takes.

8. Enough of talking. Time now to do.

9. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

10. Mountains will go into labour and a silly little mouse will be born.

Choices

a. Raymond Chandler
b. Winston Churchill
c. Tony Blair
d. Ronald Reagan
e. Adlai Stevenson
f. Abraham Lincoln
g. Samuel Johnson
h. Monsignor Ronald Knox
i. W.S.Gilbert
j. Horace

Answers

1h, 2d, 3f, 4i, 5a, 6b, 7e, 8c, 9g, 10j

[blogfocus friday] alanders, edwardians, pollies and books

1. The Croydonian highlights the plight of the Alanders:
And this is where the Alanders have a problem. Quite a big one, actually, as the EU is intent on levying a fine for this wickedness, and "Åland and Finland have an agreement according to which Åland pays its own EU fines".

So €2m, and counting, is not an insignificant sum, and works out at about €75 per head. But how is the EU going to get its greasy mitts on the money, I wonder?
2. Charles Robertson, in Jersey, makes a second appearance with his thoughts on Politics and Special Interests:
The problem is that politicians have too much power and influence to sell. Reduce their power and you reduce their ability to favour special interests. No, this is not an argument for anarchy, simply limited government: limiting it to those things that we really need it for.

When we let government do things that can be done as well or better by other mechanisms, then it is simply an invitation for groups with vested interests to try and influence the rules to their, and not our, favour.
3. Mutterings and Meanderings is so knowledgeable on Edwardian ladies and you should be too:
Edwardian ladies had much smaller fingers than me. I don’t have particularly fat fingers, but I do have chunky knuckles. They’re the sort that are better at giving a good punch than looking elegant.

In fact, a psychic once told me: “Of course, you know you will suffer from arthritis when you’re older?”

“Can you tell that from reading my palm?” I asked.

“No,” she said, “I can tell because you’ve got big knuckles.”


I know this, but I have felt myself utterly compelled to bid on eBay for an Edwardian amethyst ring that I am unlikely to be able to force on to my finger. It’s just so beautiful and purple and old.
4. Mopsa is giving us all due warning so there’s no excuse for forgetting it:
My birthday is in November and then it's Christmas, so it is present time (yes, presents, and plenty of fuss please). But I don't get to bookstores that often these days - fairly thin on the ground in rural Devon, and Waterstones in Exeter lacks inspiration (I think it's the layout and the too neatly proffered stock), so browsing for delights is a very rare thing indeed.

Amazon is amazing but you can't pick stuff up and see if page 22 will have you giggling or groaning. So, I am after your book recommendations - what should I be sticking on my wish list?

[tramvai] with whom does the cord communicate?

Strangely quiet end to the day – hard to describe.

For a start, though it was clear and mild out there, not especially chilly, the atmosphere exuded menace, maybe it was magnetically charged and people were definitely down – the young ladies an hour or so ago especially.

My goodness it was tough keeping their spirits up and I let them go early, then did the trek down to the tramvai, stopping in at the café for a bite and the management had made the girls dress up as some sort of Egyptian servant girls and they were suffering under these heavy mop top wigs in the overheated room.

Some young DJ was dressed like a pirate and on the counter were hallowe’en jack o’ lanterns. The girls said it was an early hallowe’en party – whatever moved them, I suppose but a bit of a mix of motifs.

It took a long time to tumble to the realization that I am now genuinely alone. I realized for the first time – I don’t know any of these people any more, the girls give not a glance, people go past on their business and I go home by tram to a home which is not a home. Even if I’d wanted to join their party, even if I’d been invited, I’d not fit in.

In the light of what is coming in Europe and America, it feels even more poignant, as if we’re at some crossroads, maybe the calm before the storm [to mix metaphors] and that nothing we’ve worked for or achieved before counts for anything anymore.

I think we’re going to be surviving on our wits, [as I’m doing at the moment anyway], only bigger issues are going to be hanging on it. I remember reading of young men in the Polish ghetto surviving in an animalistic way and I’m wondering if I’m too old for this or if it’s still possible for one such as myself to survive and if so, for what end?

Seems to me there has to be some ‘coming to terms’ required and so I’ve made a list of pre-survival requirements:

1. Get physically training again as soon as possible and continue eating healthily;

2. Come to terms with being alone and losing everything of value;

3. Suppress regret and self-pity over ageing – there’s little time for this and if encumbered by a true love – that can only be a weapon to be used against you –better not to have one;

4. Construct a series of concentric redoubts:

a. beef up and maintain your support network of protective people – especially important over here;
b. own your property outright but be prepared to lose it all and to have some haven to retreat to;
c. develop a sense of purpose, a clearly defined goal, rather than drift along into old age which I fear we’re not going to be allowed to do anyway – make that goal altruistic;

5. Get some sort of inner spirituality going and put your implicit faith in hope;

6. Practise, practise, practise infinite patience and see the value in doing nothing precipitate.

That’s maybe enough to be going on with for now. It seems I’m not the only one thinking this way – two separate people asked me where was the safest place to be in the next few years and I couldn’t help thinking either in South America or here.

“Here?” they muttered, “but it’s so boring here.”

“Precisely. Just as we want it.”

[Yes I know, I know, readers - I need to get more Mutley or Flying Rodentish and cease worrying.]

[dale watch] think this will reward you


Interview with Sir Antony Jay. Really hope there’s a transcript because I can’t access video yet.

[blood, guts and offal] get yours now

Attention all Vikings:
The sale of raw material needed to make traditional slátur, blood and liver pudding, has decreased by 15 percent in one year at the meat production company Nordlenska. People seem to prefer buying ready-made versions of the delicacy.

Sheep heads, stomachs, fat, hearts, livers, kidneys and blood, are still popular. Liver was praised by a much-hyped Danish diet, so its sale has remained high. The slaughtering season ends at Nordlenska tomorrow; more than 80,000 sheep were slaughtered this year.
So rush out and buy up your offal, Sven, because winter is coming. Me? I'm off for a good long retch.

[bankers] gangsters in suits

First the news:

Home mortgage rates could rise to between 9 and 10 per cent by the middle of next year — with not one but three more rises ahead — as the Reserve Bank struggles to keep the lid on an overheating Australian economy, the ANZ bank has warned.

Now the exquisite touch:

In a rebuff to Treasurer Peter Costello, ANZ and another prominent bank yesterday declared they would not be pressured by the Government into refraining from rate rises during the federal election campaign.

As the banks faced off with the Treasurer, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile also entered the fray, appealing to the Reserve Bank not to raise its official rate next month, and warning that another rise could push heavily indebted farmers over the edge.

Quiz question:
Since when has a western government had to beg a bank to do something, to be answered in such a cavalier fashion?
Which answer is correct?
1. Since the year dot. The bankers rule the earth and there’s someone else ruling the bankers. Hands up those who still think the government runs the show.

2. The government is laying the blame on the Reserve for what it approved in the first place.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

[cassandra] wildfires of pyro-terrorism

Cassandra writes, of that terrible situation in California:

With reference to the massive, cataclysmic wildfire situation presently unfolding in California, the Politeia Article Database has been updated with information on Pyro Terrorism. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people who have been hit.

Amen to that. I've been close to a number of these in Australia and they're no fun.

[blogfocus thursday] gentlemen’s evening

1. Jeremy Jacobs is deeply concerned about quinces:
Make marmalade or jam from it. Now you may wonder what I'm doing writing about an obscure fruit such as the quince. Well my travels today included a visit to the wilds of Suffolk, whereupon I came across the owner of this quince tree. (You can just make out the hanging fruit) For 50p I bought four and continued with my trip.
2. Shades is, however, reminded of something else:
Through a process of random connected thought and erratic surfing after reading his book I have now found out that the well known Dexy's Midnight Runners song Jackie Wilson said (I'm in heaven when you smile) was written by Van the Man. (I also now know who Jackie Wilson is as well). That reminded me of the first time I saw this episode of Top of the Pops (aired in 1982 but I was abroad at the time) and laughed like a drain when I got the in-joke.
Jeremy replies to this post:
Professional Yorkshireman. Contradiction in terms isn't it?
To which I reply:
Ooh, Jeremy, you are naughty about us tykes.
To which Shades replies:
Jeremy- Laugh out loud! Maybe I'll get the Tee Shirt. Or I'll set Ian McMillan on you. What number bus goes past your street? James, I didn't know you were a Tyke*. It partially blows away the old saying:

You can always tell a Yorkshiteman...but you can't tell him much!
Anyone can make errors and Shades corrects his:
Oops- a rather inadvertently funny typo in that last comment!
But enough of this gay Yorkshire banter. Moving on:

3. Ross Fountain is in a forgiving mood:
I'm always keen to resolve any questions Guardian writers may have so I'll have a go at solving this one from the Guardian sport blog: Is it really that ridiculous to argue that the disastrous invasions of Vietnam and Iraq were at least partly the fault of the games that America plays? Yes it is, in the sense that it is an absurd idea. However it is a good career move for a Grauniad writer to be able to use any subject as a stick to beat Amerikkka with.
4. The Jailhouse Lawyer has a nice twist on the EU Constitution by Any Other Name:

Jailors claim right to strike under EU treaty
Gordon Brown faces his first legal challenge under the new EU Charter of Fundamental Rights days after claiming to have won a watertight opt-out from the document for Britain. Prison officers are preparing to use the charter to win back their right to strike in what will become a key test of its force in this country.

* Bingley

[indoor pollution] time to think about it

Coincidences happen. There we were thousands of kilometres from Wales, speaking of indoor pollution and airflow and Liz was posting about just this on her blog - naturally, her slant was slightly different.

Three aspects immediately spring to mind – airflow, dust and surfaces.

Airflow – I’m notorious for seating people in parts of the room where the draught won’t affect them and then, by a combination of which door is left open and how far, the source and strength of the flow can be controlled. In extreme situations, the heaters or conditioners come into it.

With the Russian penchant for not just closing up windows in winter but sealing them with sealing tape, all those lovely coughed germs stay right where they hover and then lightly settle to the preparation surfaces to fester.

Welcome to the world of constantly recycled sickness – if a family member hasn’t got it this time round, just wait a few rounds and he’s guaranteed.

As most of my time is spent with females, the question of men’s and women’s sensitivity to cold also comes up under this heading.

Don’t wish to be categorical about it but in winter most men I know first don the jacket, then a cap but only when forced to [under minus 12 or so, with wind] will we don gloves.

Girls will go for boots and gloves early, then a heavier jacket and only in extremes, a hood.

Here are some theories about this.

Naturally, this causes conflict. If I leave the room, a girl will go over in my absence and close the window and lock it! I come back in, open it again and so it goes on. I can’t stand stuffy rooms.

If you’re a girl reading this, I have an idea what you’d be thinking.

Dust – my new printer went in and though it’s covered, the plastic feed tray sticks out and in two days it was covered with a thin layer of dust. From where? It’s metres from the balcony door and the balcony windows are closed. From the ceiling? I’d like to know.

Vacuum it up, change bed linen, my two girls regularly wash the area – things definitely changed for the better, even overnight.

Surfaces – some time ago a friend made me lunch at his place. He had a cold so the hankie came out and went away, the food was prepared, the benchtops were as they were, I came down with the flu within two days.

The AMA says:
Ninety four percent of all respiratory ailments are caused by polluted air and one-third of our national health bill is for causes directly attributable to indoor air pollution such as toxic mold damage and black mold problem.
It stands to reason, isn’t it?

A friend said today he hasn’t got time for this stuff and couldn’t be bothered with finicky cleaning of surfaces and so on. I said the girls he pays could do it, should do it, as part of their brief.

This same friend went on to speculate that when we use the word “dust”, what little nasties actually constitute this stuff?

No one wants to become like Felix Ungar and yet - with winter coming on – maybe it’s a topic to consider.

[world’s unsexiest] why is it so?

As you know, this blog is not into “celebrity” in any worshipful sense of the word; in fact higham feels the deepest sympathy and pity for those empty shells and hopes earnestly that they can find that for which they seek.

Example:
Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue has revealed she would like to have a baby.
This is not new. Months ago she was looking for a good man and at the time:
Word on the street is that Kylie Minogue has hired a team of assistants to help find her a man.
I commented that she was fishing in the wrong pond.

The answer is there, if people would only look. They insist on trying everything except the efficacious and then walk around, sadly resigned to the inevitable that they’ll never find what they long for.

They can find it tomorrow if they fished in the right pool. And so to celebrity beauty - typically shallow journo article:
Charlize Theron, Jessica Alba and Halle Berry are regularly named the world's sexiest women. But who are the unsexiest women alive? A men's magazine decided to find out. The list, published in the latest edition of Maxim Magazine, named Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker as the No. 1 Unsexiest Woman Alive. The magazine said Parker was the "least sexy woman in a group of very unsexy women" that ironically starred in a show with the word "sex" in the title.
The article then goes on to list poor physical attributes like hair and skin but predictably misses the core reason people are attractive – the harmonious combination of spirit, balance within themselves and all of this exuding itself in their physical presence.

Even 20 year old Russian girls understand this principle – why can’t the Anglo-Saxon?

My lowest five celebrity unsexy women? In no particular order, Miss Dirty [Angelina Jolie], Miss Airhead [Paris Hilton], Miss Anorexi-avarice [Posh Spice], Miss Boobs [Pamela Anderson], Miss Lost Her Way [Anna Kournikova but at least she looks OK facially] and Miss All at Sea [Britney Spears].

I have my own issues onside me but these lost ladies have issues beyond. Hope to goodness that someone they accidentally meet up with points them in the right direction.


[comments policy] is yours the same

I really dislike Thursday mornings because of the lack of time. However, it seems the comments policy has to be touched on again due to one or two incidents over the past two days.

This blog allows anonymous comments on certain conditions. Whilst this often produces a better comment due to the lack of constraint the writer now feels and that can be useful, especially with the world issues recently, the moment he personally calls another writer an idiot or whatever, I delete.

The other type most of us delete is when the person comes in either off topic or with scant regard for the subject line, accompanied by a link to click. We all know these and they're pests. Unfortunately, I fear Anon was caught up in this too in his haste.

You might say that Anonymous has been doing a lot off o/t commenting of late but there is a clear difference - it was feeding information vaguely attached to a former and far-from-dead-even-now topic and quite often pertinent. Besides, there is more than one Anonymous and their grammatical and stylistic singularities identify them anyway [don't forget I'm a former headmaster].

This whole blurb comes down to respect for the blog, the subject being discussed and the other commenters, even though we might violently disagree. I have no problems saying that what you wrote just now was the greatest load of garbage I've ever read but that's not, in my book, ad hominem. Attack the message, not the messenger.

Others might disagree.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

[midweek travel] add piquancy to your stay

From Parker Pyne to West World, there has always been a market for the adventurous kind who like a touch of piquancy to their stay.

Below are ten randomly selected destinations which are fairly certain to supply you with the “adventure holiday” you crave. Each entry has its own Scimitar Piquancy Rating [SPR] for your guidance, from 1 to 5 scimitars - the more scimitars, the more lethal the holiday.

1. Somalia

SPR: Trouble is - so many groups, each wanting to terminate you.

The X Factor: A Fourth Generation entity, the Islamic Courts, which had taken control of most of Somalia, was brushed aside with ease by Ethiopian tanks and jets. A makeshift state, the Transitional Federal Government, which had been created years ago by other states but was almost invisible within Somalia, was installed in Mogadishu. The Somali state was restored – or so it seems. Added factors: warlords

2. Darfur

SPR: They're more interested in massacring each other but if you get in the way ...

The X Factor: The government and Janjaweed attacks upon the non-Baggara civilian populace have resulted in a major humanitarian crisis. Added factors: UN “Peacekeeping” atrocities and China, who are supporting the government.

3. Algeria

SPR: If they catch you, it will be gruesome.

The X Factor: Sustained small-scale terrorist attacks including bombings, false roadblocks, kidnappings, ambushes, and assassinations occur regularly. Added factors: government condoned militsias like “the AIS, connected to the FIS, the Islamic party that would've won the elections.

But AIS looked like squeamish moderates compared to the GIA, another Islamic militia that does its killing south of Algiers. The GIA get my vote for the sickest, craziest, bloodiest guerrilla group since the Khmer Rouge went out of business. They're the ones who do the massacres that make Algeria the place you'd least like to spend your honeymoon.”

4. Palestine

SPR: They catch you, off goes the head.

The X Factor: "The leaders of both the PA [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas must take immediate steps to break the cycle of impunity that continues to fuel abuses, including arbitrary detentions, abductions, torture and ill-treatment by their forces," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East programme director. Added factors: Condi’s stirring.

5. Namibia

SPR: Disease is the one to be careful about. And drinking the water.

The X Factor: The expropriation of white-owned farms began in 2005 and the government says it aims to resettle many thousands of landless citizens. Like its neighbours, Namibia's wellbeing is being threatened by the HIV/Aids epidemic. Added factor: secessionist war in the east which the government now says is safe.

6. Burma

SPR: Almost no risk because the country is sealed off to you.

The X Factor: Than Shwe and the SPDC are the biggies, doing a Darfur by providing government troop protection whilst 200 “security” men killed monks in Ngwe Kyar Yan. Added factor: isolation.

7. Afghanistan

SPR: They catch you, they kill you.

The X Factor: Even though they have been removed from power, they are still present in small pockets, particularly in the eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan. News reports are claiming that these scattered Taliban have now supposedly teamed up with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of Hezbi Islami. Pakistan, who supported the Taliban regime militarily and financially, made a drastic policy change and yet can it be trusted? Added factor: NATO.

8. Colombia

SPR: Virtual guarantee to be kidnapped but usually only for ransom.


The X Factor: In August 2001, Colombian police arrested four members of the Irish Republican Army, one who was reportedly teaching English to terrorists at an FARC camp, while the others had apparently been showing the Colombians how to manufacture gasoline bombs. FARC finances its operations partly through ransoms paid to kidnappers. There were 3,000 kidnappings reported in Colombia in 2000. Added factors: civil war, drug barons.

9. The Philippines

SPR: Stay out of the south and you might be all right.

The X Factor: Several religious groups have been fighting for a homeland in the south of the Philippines since the 1970s. Thousands of people have died in the conflict. Rebels occasionally take foreign tourists and Filipinos hostage. Added factors: Libya and possibly Bin Laden.

10. The Yemen

SPR: Virtual guarantee to be kidnapped but less to be murdered.

The X Factor: Its tribal tradition of kidnapping foreigners for ransom and its government's inability to control remote areas, have made Yemen a haven for Middle Eastern terrorists. Foreign tourists have been kidnapped in recent years. Added factors: Bin Laden, Iraq, Iran.

If you’ve noticed a certain correlation between many of these destinations, for goodness sake don’t go drawing any cartoons about it.