Saturday, November 03, 2007

[facebook part 2] run for your lives

I recently wrote a piece on Facebook, commenting on their delisting of bloggers who don’t use their real names. It now looks more insidious than first thought.

I said that I was thinking of unsubscribing and Ian Grey said one can’t – only de-activate but can re-activate at any time. Let me put that again:
When you sign up to Facebook, they have you in and you can not unsubscribe! You can unsubscribe from applications, discussion groups etc., you can unsubscribe from e-mail notifications but you can’t unsubscribe from Facebook itself – there is no mechanism.
This immediately gave me the shivers because it looks no different to those webpages where, the moment you enter, they lock you in and give you no navigation out until you’ve been through a series of other intrusive pages.

I want out and I want out now! I looked around to see what the web said:
Facebook, America’s number two social network behind MySpace, launched a redesign and two new features early this morning, allowing a user’s activities on the site to be tracked.

My guess is that if they’d allowed Facebook users to turn this feature off, most of them would have done so.

What’s odd is that most of Facebook’s recent additions have been extremely smart.
And ...
Facebook is commonly referred to as Stalkerbook, due to its many features that allows you to track people in your network, especially when you are friends with those people.

On September 5, 2006 Facebook altered the default logged-in screen to be the "News Feed," a new feature that lists every action that every Facebook friend of yours makes on Facebook.
And finally, Ian Parker:
Just remember who funded the building of Facebook and why it is there.

It was funded by DARPA's Information Awareness Office, and is there to collect information about you and build a profile on you.

Thats why they dont like pseudonyms.
Their site for those with concerns is here and when there, look down near the bottom of the page and see the group mentioned.

I’m outta here … or I would be if there were a mechanism to do so, which there isn’t.

[oh so wild] the importance of being english

These Weblog Awards, [there's a little banner top left for those who'd care to cast their vote], have had one unexpected spin-off.

Whereas some men have had their potency called into question and some their intelligence, hitherto I’ve only had my height called into question … oh, and my receding hair … well, yes … also my sanity at times … but I digress.

It appears that now, as a result of these double-edged awards, my origins have also been called into question. Wounded to the heart.

An esteemed rambler, uber-blogger, mother of note and lady of spotless virtue has asked the simple question: “Are you a UK blog, James?”

How to answer that, avoiding a simple yes or no?

Is Croydonian a UK blogger? He seems to blog on everything from France to Sweden. Is Tuscan Tony a UK blogger? Is Tom Paine, of questionable Facebook status, who blogs on the England he holds dear but doesn’t actually live there?

To rephrase the question – what constitutes a UK blogger? That he is permanently resident in the UK? If so, where does that leave Tim Worstall or Welshcakes Limoncello? Or Praguetory for that matter?

Or is it that he blogs on specifically UK matters, to the exclusion of all others? Where does that leave Bryan Appleyard or Ian Appleby? Where does that leave the girlbloggers like Liz Hinds and Wife in the North, [whom I understand is in the south right now], who blog on home related matters [and a bit of Rugby]?

Perhaps my crime is to pay too much heed to the Americans and to be too au fait with their affairs, barring football and baseball, which immediately label me non-American. Perhaps my premiership winning Aussie football team raises suspicion, as does my clear familiarity with matters Vancouver.

Is Colin Campbell an Aussie? Is JMB a Canadian or an Aussie? And what on earth is Lady MacLeod?

Or my French language posts, concerning Sarko, Segie and undergarments – do they put me out of contention as a sturdy oak and does this also put out L’Ombre?

What is, in fact, a UK blogger?

The Witanagemot seem to have come to terms with my Englishness, the Cross of St George group, of which I am involved, labelling me “an English Expat”, an epithet I am comfortable with.

Is it that I fail to appreciate the minutiae of daily life in the UK and can’t recite the lists of current pollies? After all, these awards aren’t for “political bloggers” – they’re for “bloggers”.

Further - these are supposedly prestigious stateside-based awards, centred in Florida and under scrutiny by the State Dept and other interested groups. Those top ten UK blogs were the top ten in American eyes. In UK eyes, I’m way down at N124.

Is it that I'm not over there currently, as I'd wish to be, clubbing, swapping asides in the idiom? I do touch on matters UK most days but not party politics – more Common Purpose and other nefarious nasties which the average Brit knows little of as yet.

To come clean at the death, my ancestral home is in the West Riding, snuggled up against Ilkley Moor, baht ‘at. You’d never pick it from either my writing, my accent or my dialect; [now I've lost all the Londoners with whom I lived for three years].

Your ladyship, this is all the explanation I fear I can give. I pray that it should suffice and that your smile shall once again alight on my fevered brow.

Friday, November 02, 2007

[2007 weblog awards] voting now open

Click on pic to vote.

The awards are now open and you can vote once in 24 hours. Should you wish to vote for my little blog or indeed, for another, click on the pic above.

[cartels] free trade or restraint of trade

In the wake of the largest fine in Australian corporate history handed out to packaging giant Visy, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graham Samuel said cartels were "a cancer on the Australian economy" and an "insidious attack on consumers" and said criminal penalties should be imposed on those found guilty.
History has been punctuated by attempts to control them such as the 1890 Sherman Act:
The Sherman Act provides: "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal".[2]

The Act also provides: "Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony [. . . ]"
But it could be equally argued that the legislation is restraint of trade in itself. And at what point do mergers and takeovers become illegal? The whole thrust of business is to combine and strengthen and though asset strippers are a scourge, resulting in cries to ban the practice:
In an interview with the BBC, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he shared the concerns of Britain’s general trade union GMB which voiced fears over a growing number of venture capitalists investing in UK firms only to strip them. "We want policies that make sure the objective of investment by private equity fund, for example, is to rescue them, to maintain as many jobs as possible, not to asset strip them," he said. This is ironic as Labour has been the recipient of donations from equity specialists that have been criticised by unions for their approach to certain businesses.
What happens when the government, e.g. the NHS, gets into the practice?
The government has been accused of orchestrating a £345m sell-off of former hospitals in one year in an attempt to balance the NHS budget. The value of the sales is 14 times the previous year's total.
Tough call, this one because should their be constraint on capitalism? This is not covered by the Free Trade/Fair Trade argument. Even if one argues for Free Trade, are we referring to cross border tarrif reduction and if so, what would be the effects?

The Congressional Budget Office says:
… the arguments for and against FTAs extend beyond their net economic effects on the United States to considerations of foreign policy and tactics for achieving multilateral free trade …
and:
Critics worry, however, that the pursuit of free-trade agreements could divert the world from multilateral negotiations and lead to the development of rival trading blocs centered on the United States, the European Union (EU), and Japan. Indeed, the EU has negotiated a number of FTAs in recent years.
In a world of outsourcing, how can legislation from national assemblies have any jurisdiction over those of outsourced countries? There seems to me to be very much a move towards blocs and this has political ramifications, especially regarding the EU.

How could the Sherman Act operate in the context of more globalized trade? And what relevance does a corporate affairs fine have on a major operator - surely it's window dressing?

Example of the thrust against the survival of small businesses was my screenprinting business. It was in a healthy state, orders were coming in and it looked rosy until some I was asked to tender for an indoor sports centre's team shirts.

My little firm could only do the job at near cost and still a large international printing firm undercut it by half by not only mass printing but supplying the shirts as well from one branch of their operation.

Diddums, you might say - that's just business and it certainly put me out except with customers who weren't aware they could approach this company to get their shirts for half the price. That was one of the key reasons I dropped it - it was unsustainable.

Should the small to medium businessman have any protection and if so - isn't this restraint of trade? Isn't this propping up unprofitable enterprises, as with CAP?

Still pondering on this one.

[facebook] banning bloggers with pseudonyms


Jonathan Swift is and has been for a considerable time, on this blog’s White List. Decoded, this means he’s a major world blogger, with a wide readership, whose posts do affect people’s lives. His method is biting satire but for all that, it’s subtle – sometimes too subtle and he’s been in hot water before for seemingly supporting one opinion when in fact he was taking the Michael out of it.

He is currently up for Funniest Blog and Nourishing Obscurity urges you to pop over here and vote for him each day, if you can see your way clear.

I mentioned hot water and he was in just that recently when Facebook, in their esteemed wisdom, decided to delist him on the grounds that he was using a pseudonym. What the hell are they going on about?

Seems they only want people to use their real names, which supports the contention that they are a very insidious organization who need watching. Jon Swift says:
By banning bloggers who use pseudonyms Facebook has declared war on the blogosphere. More and more bloggers have been using Facebook as a social networking tool, but how useful will it be if so many bloggers will be left out?
It appears that due to blogger pressure he’s been reinstated. All power to the blogosphere.

Also touching on this is the always excellent and increasingly unmissable Prodicus who thinks we have but a short time left.

[thou shalt not] with hellfire and brimstone

It’s All Souls Day, the day for the ordinary person, the day we remember the souls of our grandparents, those who fought for us - anyone who died.

Who knows if this would be efficacious or not? But if we didn't remember, it would certainly not be efficacious.

As for faith, follow the supposed logic here and tell me this is wrong
. Susie Bright was speaking of her Catholic upbringing, recalling such things as the eternal question:
"If there is a God, why doesn't He stop the killing?"
She wrote of her oppressive Catholic upbringing and emerging desire to break out, rebelling inwardly against the Thou Shalt Not nuns:
If they were what "Godliness" was about, I wanted nothing to do with it.
I replied:
They weren't. They were the main reason people turn the other way and with all their ritualistic clothing and mumbo jumbo they certainly weren't promoting their supposed boss. Looks like they were promoting the other guy.
Why do people insist on misrepresenting and acting in weird and unnatural ways whenever they come near the Christian faith? Church is an association of people, not a building. What’s with the mitres and regalia, the thundering pipe organs with their manic welcome to vaulted cathedrals, impressive though they are – what have they to do with simple faith?

And it’s a voluntary faith. You can say the disciples were press-ganged but you could also say “invited”. It is voluntary and there is nowhere in His lifetime where that wasn’t so. If you choose to go that way, good luck to you because I know the overwhelming benefits which come to you upon joining.

The evangelistic weapon was always meant to be persuasion, not the sword, not the convent, not the locking of bibles in Latin in churches, which the common man could never access, not dire threats of fire and brimstone.

All that was a later, human embellishment. But I haven’t answered the question:
"If there is a God, why doesn't He stop the killing?"
How the hell should I know? I have my ideas though.

I think somewhere in the mists of time, great power was vested in humans [even the humanists acknowledge the amazingness of man] and this might explain the puzzling "ye are gods" reference.

But above all was vested Free Will, the thing the whole blogosphere is up in arms about right now, as governments continually turn the screws. Seems to me you can't offer Free Will with one hand then take it away with the other.

There's been a lot of talk lately about Freedom of Speech in the sphere. One point of view is that however much we might not like it, we have to allow it, otherwise the road to loss of freedom is embarked on.

Seems to me that the analogy holds water. And how to ensure the happy day to day lives we'd fight for?

I think it comes down to faith, hope and charity and if everyone did one little bit of this every day, it would kill off any warring madness which possesses our supposed leaders. We could block this stupidity.

Though I'm right behind our armed forces - the men and women who serve - this doesn't alter the fact that they are being used and deployed by cynical people who simply don't care for their welfare or that of the nation.

If all people were continually shown, by repeated example, that a kind act a day was the way, it would starve the warmongers of the oxygen they need to continue.

My little contribution to All Souls Day today.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

[oh my goodness] they’ve called our bluff

Click on pic to vote.

If you were to pop over here:

… you would note that sadly, Blogpower did not make it to Best Online Community finalists.

However, the Best UK Blog category features:
* Iain Dale

* Guy Fawkes

* Neil Clark

* EUReferendum

* Pub Philosopher

* The Devil's Kitchen

* Baggage Reclaim

* Nourishing Obscurity

* Bright Meadow

• Kickette
Gobsmacked and delighted for all my blogfriends who made it to these awards, in the light of last year’s comment which actually kicked off Blogpower:

I first found out about this at the ever witty and top ranking blog of Jon Swift and I would like to add that Jon is a finalist under the heading of Funniest Blog.

People, voting starts tonight apparently and it seems you can vote once a day and as none of ours are in the Funniest category, could I prevail on you to give Jon a bit of a bunk up here?

I would regard this as a personal favour.

You do as you feel in the Britblog category – I can’t very well canvass, with Steve in there as well.

[price fixing] can’t even trust the nordics these days

Chicken breast, believe it or not ...

I know, I know I’ve neglected the gentle world of Iceland recently so popped in just now and was shocked by the rampant price fixing which is alleged to have taken over the retail sector:
To test these accusations, RÚV sent two reporters to Krónan and Bónus to investigate the price of products like chicken breasts.

At first they were disguised as “normal housewives” shopping for groceries and then the reporter who went to Krónan appeared as a reporter intending to survey prices in Bónus and vica versa.

The price of chicken breasts remained the same in Bónus in both cases, but in Krónan, the kilo price of chicken breasts dropped by 34 percent when the reporter said the price was being included in the survey and a discount on the product was increased from ten percent to 50 percent.

Both managing director of Bónus Gudmundur Marteinsson and operational manager of Krónan Kristin Skúlason denied accusations of price fixing and other deceptive tactics in price surveys in an interview with RÚV yesterday.
I have a few questions:

1. What's an "abnormal" Icelandic housewife look like? Are there many of them and do they wear clothes? Would we want them to?

2. What do Icelandic chickens do in winter?

3. Was there any possibility the reporters telegraphed their moves?

4. Could the interview have possibly gone like this:
RÚV We sent a cunningly disguised "normal housewife" to your store to check prices. Then we sent a reporter.

Kristin Skúlason Er … yes.

RÚV And you immediately dropped prices 34 percent.

Kristin Skúlason Er … no.

RÚV But we have the dockets here to prove it [hands them over].

Kristin Skúlason They’re not our dockets.

RÚV But your store’s name is written in large letters across the top – Krónan.

Kristin Skúlason [Quickly scribbles on docket] Says Bónus.

RÚV Mr. Skulduggery, you deliberately falsified that docket.

Kristin Skúlason You want concrete boots? Cod are hungry this time of year. What’s your name anyway?

RÚV Njala Sverisdottir, phone 234 593 567 78. Mr. Skullcap, are you threatening me?

Kristin Skúlason Heaven forbid!

RÚV Mr. Skull, I’m going to ask you one more time – did you or did you not drop your prices when you knew you were being surveyed?

Kristin Skúlason No.

RÚV Well that’s all right then.

Kristin Skúlason Cheque’s in the mail.

Chicken breast - in case you missed it the first time

[blogfocus] bumper all saints day edition

This evening we have a round, even, seven bloggers strutting their stuff. But before that, if you want to see how to put together a real Blogfocus [or roundup in this case], then get over here when you're done [or even before, if you're so inclined].

1. Mr. Eugenides is just deciding how best to deal with James Higham’s moan about not connecting the dots – the cudgel or the headbutt.

2. Hercules gets straight down to the messy business of divorce:
Since the wife lost around 20 pounds she’s been gagging for it! The only reason he doesn’t want "it" is because he likes chubby sex!!!!

He also plans to make legal history by being the first person to cite a dietary product as the third party in divorce papers. And he intends to sue the tablet makers for causing the couple’s constant rows over sex.
4. Ordo gets straight down to Welsh politics:
El gobierno de la asamblea galesa - una coalición formada por el Partido Laborista de Gales y los nacionalistas de Plaid Cymru - acaba de nombrar Sir Emyr Jones Parry como presidente de la convención constitucional galesa. Dicha convención preparará un referéndum para aprobar la creación de un parlamento con plenos poderes legislativos, o sea, dar estos poderes a la asamblea y cambiar su titulo a "parlamento" (el edificio nuevo de la asamblea ya tiene el nombre de y Senedd, "el parlamento" en la habla galesa).
You might like to tackle Ordo on that one.

3. If Scottish politics and whips are your thing, then you can’t go past this blow-by-blow description by MacNumpty:
Anyway, MSPs had more to do on Thursday - eight questions were put to a vote, all non-binding, and there was a defeat for the Government in there. Angela Constance was still absent and probably just about to go into labour (that's childbirth, not the party), while John Farquhar Munro was also missing for asecond day, and Margo MacDonald reverted to form and gave the Chamber a miss.
5. Cassilis touches on the important topic of serial killers’ nicknames:
Serial killers have their own sub-genre of nicknames. From the well-known such as the 'Yorkshire Ripper', the 'Boston Strangler' and even the 'Moors Murderers' to the more obscure but wonderfully inventive 'Giggling Granny', 'Gorilla Killer' or 'Wolf Man' (what price the surname Lupo eh?) There are also a few standards in this genre - anyone with the loosest of medical connections who happens to kill can be labelled 'Angel of Death' and the use of any sort of ligature guarantees the 'strangler' tag even when is wasn't a particularly defining feature.
6. The full-bosomed Ruthie with the Zaftig figure does not like Anonymous:
Here's my observation about anonymous comments: generally, when a person disagrees with the premise of a post, dislikes the post's author, or just wants to be an ass, he or she will leave a cryptic anonymous comment. This is alternately annoying and amusing, because it's as though the person is saying: "I want to tell you you're wrong/stupid/whatever, but I'm not brave enough to leave my name or identify myself in anyway."
7. Finally, Marina has a bag with a difference:


[the charismatic] genesis of a monster

Warren Jeffs

Monsters don’t fascinate me - there but for the grace of …

However, their genesis is interesting, just as the Genesis of the Daleks episode was interesting. The charismatic definitely has some “pull” which he discovers early and by a process of trial and error, manages to identify its source.

For some, as you know, it’s the power of words and passion, like Adolph and for some it’s physical charisma and the latter is the hardest to combat because words come and go but a beautiful boy stays a beautiful boy.

It starts with little things, questioning this, questioning that and soon it appears some people are following all this silently. Girls mysteriously appear at his side and it surprises and delights him that they really actually want to be there. He’s still a bit bashful, maybe but has some sort of inner drive, some sense of direction or else is endlessly seeking it.

The line, it seems to me, is the defect in character where he actually starts the self-congratulation with little nods to himself – he’s just that little bit better and finds people hanging on his words as well as his natural charm.

Perfect example – Jim Morrison. You could call it ego though that hardly explains it all – everyone has ego. As Tull mentioned, it’s about being able to bend this rule and that rule with virtual impunity and it’s forgiven.

To a much lesser extent I have a certain “pull” myself of a quite minor nature – still, it does turn heads and might just be my ugliness. If I walk into a café the girls do start to flock and that’s where the trouble begins.

If you don’t have firmly rooted spiritual harmony at that point, which most of these guys don’t, the temptation to “believe your own publicity” becomes oppressive, especially if it is a weak man who is susceptible to the charismatic “call to greatness”. Then he starts to avail himself of the talent at hand and as he sees how easy it is, the temptation is there to bathe in it.

That’s the genesis of the monster and now he becomes more and more hedonistic, less and less open and starts that long path to degradation where he actually starts to justify what he knows deep down is wrong. He starts to build a code of life which his charisma allows him to persuade with eloquently and immediately inducts the closest admirers as disciples and they, in turn, begin to put out the word and seek followers.

But some trainee monsters have some element in them which arrests this process and I'm not sure why – perhaps it’s some element in the character which gets people’s backs up [in my case I know it’s so] or maybe it’s a sort of Darth Vader Final Moral Last Gasp which does it and methinks that this story is about such a one as this, concerning Warren Jeffs, who’s led the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since 2002, taking over from his father:
In telephone calls Jan. 24, Jeffs told family that he "had been immoral with a sister and a daughter" when he was 20 ... He goes on to renounce his role as the church prophet and says the Lord had "revealed to him that he was a wicked man."

It is not clear who Jeffs is speaking about, and Jeffs does not elaborate on the conduct. Some listeners responded by telling Jeffs he is the prophet and was being tested, according to the documents.
“Among FLDS members, who cover their bodies from neck to ankle, even small physical gestures would be considered inappropriate,” said Ken Driggs, a Georgia lawyer and polygamy expert.
Jeffs came a cropper and it might be his conscience which finally got to him – who knows? His charisma maybe was not sufficiently high to drag him down into the circle of admirers and narcissistically preen himself and drink their accolades as a vampire drinks blood.

Seems to me that the one who continues on from here enters into some state of or form of madness and it can’t be described as a healthy or “good” madness. The end result is megalomania, of course - or else it branches off into satiating desires of some kind – sexual, political, wealth – maybe all at the one time.

It worries me greatly that this fixation with immorality and self-flagellation and the really weird biblical language in which some Christians immerse themselves is also not healthy and can only act as a breeding ground for the genesis of monsters – witness Christian TV.

Seems that though the gift of the spirit is a mightily powerful thing, I wonder if some people aren’t strong enough to fully let it download and are operating with the operating system definitely onboard but with a Leopard-like blue screen instead of a clear, sustainable vision.

The last thing which worries me is if a leader for "good" is highly charismatic. For a start he is stealing the thunder from the Lord who gave him his start and then again, if he was truly possessed of the holy spirit, he wouldn't need his charisma anymore - he now has all he needs to find happiness.

By some sort of convoluted bizarre twist, the more contented he becomes, the less charismatic he becomes anyway - happy people don't usually bestride the world - it's the malcontents and troubled who do that.

Just my little contribution to All Saints Day.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

[milestones] it was profile views all along

Statistiques utilisateur

Sur Blogger depuis juillet 2006
Consultations du profil 10 002


I expected it next week - it happened tonight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All Saints’ Day: November 1st

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

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

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

All Souls’ Day: November 2nd

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

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

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

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

All Hallows Eve: October 31st

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

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

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

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

Source: Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

[dipnote] blog with a difference

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

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


[winter approacheth] billowing clouds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[treaty] dishonesty in high places

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

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

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

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


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


4. What can be done about it?

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

[political bloggers] failing to connect the dots

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[housekeeping] useless post

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

Make that one out!

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

[promiscuity] has zero to do with the logos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, October 29, 2007

[twin sisters] does europe produce them


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[new mac] fifth post


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

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

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

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

[micro-control 3] pinning the bstds down

Étienne Davignon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s nefarious in this?

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

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

End of story so let’s all go home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But for what and with what common purpose?

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

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

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

Pardon?

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

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

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

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

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

Matrix?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Norfolk Action Plan [read the article]:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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