Saturday, February 09, 2008

[joy division] curtis documentary

New documentary about Joy Division:

The streets of Manchester look as bleak in colour as they did in black and white ("I didn't see a tree till I was nine", one band member claims). Shots of Curtis performing show how closely the actor Sam Riley imitated his thrashing, uncoordinated dance moves.

Many other talking heads are willing to expound on the genius of Curtis and the legacy of a band who changed the face of pop music forever.

In the face of all these grand, romantic statements, someone brings things down to earth with the simple observation that the total output of Joy Division consisted of two albums,
Unknown Pleasures and Closer. "Everything else is merchandising."

Very true, and this film is no exception.

Did they need any more to make the legend? These albums stand alone.

[anniversaries] one and one hundred

As you'll see from the previous post, Aquarian men are terrible at dates and anniversaries but this post celebrates two:

JMB has come of age in the blogworld and says:

Blogging takes a lot of time and effort and many things in my life have suffered this past year. Reading has been one of them and it seems that I only read a book a week or every ten days now whereas I read a book every couple of days before, sometimes one in a day.

The Broadsheet Rag has reached 100 posts and should automatically be included in Blogpower. :)

Please get over to both and wish them the warmest wishes.

[aquarian man] ignore at your peril

Click on pic for more info.

As a few of our birthdays are around this time, it's appropriate to present to any female [or male] contemplating a tryst with one of these some of the truths of this sign. There's a lot of guff written but some things do repeatedly come through:

Firstly, this was voted the most accurate by readers of one site:

[He is] friendly, unpredictable, clean, erratic, innovative, freedom-loving. Marriage is not important for the Aquarian male. He usually marries or gets into long-term bonded relationships “like marriage,” but he usually takes a long time making the commitment.

He is a romantic, but not in the usual sense. He remembers his love, whenever it suddenly strikes him, not necessarily on birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries. He likes to surprise and prides himself in “being different, non-conventional. He may achieve some position of prestige with his inventiveness.

He needs a woman who will support his “ahead of the times” ideas. He is attracted to the unusual and independent woman, yea, even eccentric who is willing to be experimental. She should value her freedom, but be firmly loyal to him. He will reject any relationship in which he is not trusted.

Here are a few other things cobbled together from various sources:


The only sure thing about Aquarius is his independence and unpredictability. He is drawn to novelty like a magnet, and loves reaching out to touch every person or thing that fascinates with its newness. He is famous for his spontaneity.

It can also be disturbing when he starts asking you direct questions, as he probes deep into the heart of your private feelings, not in the least interested in pointless small talk
His boyish enthusiasm doesn’t hide his vast databank of life experiences, which make him coldly practical and fiercely protective.

The Aquarian doesn't have the best memory in the world and is very poor on women’s names, but he does have some sort of invisible antenna and a high degree of psychic precognition – he’s known for this. [My comment - I can often tell who's phoning by the dial tone and don't care if you believe it or not]

Trusting people doesn't come naturally - he wants to know what's behind the carefully constructed face you’re presenting to him. [My comment - hence his stress on loyalty]

He delights in defending prophets whose opinions are vilified, then are found to be correct years later. [My comment - as in Jesus Christ who will be seen to have been correct]

He has a knack for calming hysterical people and soothing frightened children and he’ll always be popular with the young. [My comment - this can be a rod for the back]

Aquarians despise liars and cheats, especially a cheating woman. He may remain polite and even loving to her but inside – he’s lost all respect for her.

If he thinks he's being exploited, that charm can vanish so quickly - an upset Aquarian is perfectly capable of truly shocking actions. [My comment - e.g. me at Blogpower]

He’ll support your own career and projects with all his soul but he’ll only fight for you if you’re in real danger; then he’ll fight to the death. His approach is not to let you get into danger in the first place.

If you play off another man against him, he’ll say, "Well, I guess the better man won," pick up his hat and go.

Aquarians suffer from the humidity in the summer and often prefer the winter months. Mental activity keeps them from getting enough sleep, and sleep is often troubled by strange, silent dreams. [My comment - heat and humidity are awful, yes]

He’ll always appear if he says he will, unless he's been kidnapped along the way, which is more than possible - anything can happen to him at any time.

He's into Truth, which transcends any loyalties to anyone.

[blogfocus saturday] special gonad edition


Today's roundup of those I've been able to access:

1. Sally brings us the search for a generic name:

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

Now this worries me. Maybe it's the women I chase but in my case, it's either smallish or Voom! - there's no "drupin" involved. Maybe I'm from another planet.

2. Speaking of another planet, this one's set in Edinburgh - how to convince a cabby to do what you see in the pic above. 1st Lady explains:

Now, for those of you interested in furniture shopping this way please note that L.Muck and I have become experts and we do not recommend you starting with such large pieces. A few days earlier we had a successful trial run which involved moving a large chair from shop to home (dont ask the taxi driver for seating credit unless he seems in a good mood). Learn the doorway dimensions, learn where the drivers blind spot is, investigate how much oxygen you require in the cab to safely make it home (we dont recommend mattress moving).

3. Ellee brings us why men rape:

Men rape for many reasons, including a desire to exert power in response to a feeling of entitlement, or perhaps to fulfil a need to humiliate and oppress their victims to compensate for their own perceived inadequacy.

Perhaps another reason is they're not getting enough which raises the interesting question of whether men can be raped by women. We once experimented with this and came to the conclusion - no, it's not possible. I'd like to meet a female rapist. Men call them nymphos, I think.

4. Speaking of another type of pestilential female, Jams brings us the Harlequin Ladybird:

Because it eats so many aphids, its staple diet, as well as other ladybirds, it has threatened the number of native ladybirds and species, such as lacewings, which also eat aphids. It also threatens aphid numbers. The two-spot and seven-spot ladybirds are particularly threatened.

5. An oldie but a goodie [the post, not the luscious Swearing Brummie Mummy herself, who's merely delectable] on the delight of pungent food. A Frenchified lady brought me a Camembert form Normandy the other day and the apartment stank, so I understand this:

We've still got half a baby Stilton, an appallingly odoriferous Brie, two tons of chocolate and a tree with no needles left on it. Oh, and half a sherry log. And a ham. With Nigella Bloody Lawson's spiced peaches, which were very nice actually once I'd got some jars, but right now even the smell of cinnamon is enough to make me gag.

6. With this appalling Blogrollingdotcom situation, we need to start manually blogrolling, which I'm about to do, from my MyBlogLog and Referrals. Now, I was thinking that if we each blogrolled each other, imagine how we'd zoom in Technorati - so the BRDC disaster was not a disaster after all but a Resounding Success!

Only one thing left to say:

"Blogroll me! Blogroll me!" he pathetically grovels and whimpers at your ankles, clutching at your thighs in his fawning grip. What a Man!

[blogrolling] just have to love these guys

The situation on the blog couldn't be direr. Time is just being Hoovered up by both RL and the necessity to complete the book before the window of opportunity closes next week [regular sessions at uni].

Just been reading recent comments and many require thought out responses. When? When? Lots of comment about "debate" - post hopefully later. Seems to me the main jobs on the blog are:

1. interesting topic, relevant to today;
2. answer your commenters;
3. visit and link.

Understandably, my visitors have dropped right away in the last few days, a situation which hopefully can be reversed. What's upsetting is that many I'm sure think I've lost interest, e.g. Wife in the North, Mutterings, Chris Dillow and so on but it's not true - it's simply time and organization. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat.

It's not helped by Blogger playing up something awful recently in its html formatting for posts plus this, which has bu--ered up the whole system:

ERROR The requested URL could not be retrieved

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://blogrolling.com:4080/

The following error was encountered:

  • Connection to 216.193.240.86 Failed

The system returned:

    (54) Connection reset by peer

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.


Generated Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:47:58 GMT by elrond.vpop.net (squid/2.5.STABLE14)

[high treason] yes, say voters

If a people vote in a referendum not to ratify a treaty and then the parliamentarians go ahead and ratify it, does this constitute high treason?
Selection Votes
Yes 89%16
No 11%2
18 votes total
pollcode.com free polls

And some of the responses were quite gentle:

From Ian Hunter

I would consider it an honour to lead the attack on Downing Street,pitchfork in hand. The police protection squad can't have that many rounds, i may fall, but others would complete the job!

From Dave Petterson

... and the penalty for treason should be death by being hung drawn and quartered. Slowly.

[vansterdam] drug capital of canada


Vancouver - heading the list of the world's most livable city?

Think again. Known locally as Vansterdam, it's the drug capital of the north, along with all the other goodies - violent crime, prostitution and so on:
"Vancouver is the drug capital of Canada,'' said Mariana Valverde, a professor of criminology at the University of Toronto., with the city's Downtown Eastside district known for illicit drug use, prostitution and violence. Vancouver is a magnet for suspects on the run because winters are mild in Canada's third-most-populous metropolitan area and it is a hub of drug abuse.

But there's hope. The city wants people to donate their frequent flier miles to catch the criminals:

The city is taking a cue from the 1997 Nicolas Cage movie about a planeload of convicts being transported to prison. The Vancouver Board of Trade is urging residents to donate frequent- flier miles so that people who are accused of crimes outside British Columbia can be returned to those provinces.

Vancouver has about 2,500 fugitives who are wanted on low- priority arrest warrants for crimes ranging from fraud to assault that were committed in other regions, police say. The suspects' jurisdictions aren't willing to spend the estimated C$2,500 ($2,480) it would take to fly them back.

"We're sending a message that fleeing to Vancouver is no longer a low-risk endeavor,'' said Bernie Magnan, an assistant managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade who is responsible for the "Con Air'' Appeal.
So there it is. You too can give away your excruciatingly slowly earned flier miles to catch a loveable junkie next year.

Is JMB going to be this altruistic?

Friday, February 08, 2008

[mafia] not a good month

Why? Not enough payola? Or does Eliot Ness ride again?

The morning raids today in New York represented one of the largest sweeps against the New York mafia ever, with more than 50 suspects detained.

Much of the focus was on the Gambino family, whose members were charged with seven murders, blackmail, criminal dealings and illegal gaming, New York State's Attorney Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference in New York.

[sheep's clothing] my tuppence worth

David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, Oct 4, 1984:

I am not sure that G-d manoeuvres physical things ... after all, a conjuring trick with bones only proves that it is as clever as a conjuring trick with bones.

Billy Graham, on the Larry King Show (CNN) in 1997:

“Well,” said King, “are you comfortable with Judaism?” “Very comfortable,” answered Graham. “I depend on a Jewish rabbi, Rabbi Tannenbaum in New York, constantly, theologically and spiritually in every way.”

February 21st, 1988:

Mr Swaggart's confession is all the more scandalous since he himself unleashed fire and brimstone against rival TV evangelist Rev Jim Bakker a few months ago for committing adultery with minister and secretary Jessica Hahn.

Saturday, May 27th, 2006:
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Dr Nazir-Ali said that such a change would be impossible. "The coronation service is such that whoever takes the oaths actually takes oaths to defend the Christian faith," he said. "If, by saying that, he meant that he wanted to uphold the freedom of people of every faith, then I have no quarrel with that. But you can't defend every faith, because there are very serious differences among them." In an interview earlier this week, the bishop - who was born a Muslim - called on fellow Anglicans to reassert Britain's "Christian character" and resist the trend towards a "multi-faith mish-mash".

Rowan Williams, February 8th, 2008

Nothing ever changes.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" — Matthew 7:15

[blogrollingdotcom] yours working?

This also happening to you?

I'm sorry but your request has encountered a Fatal Error. Blogrolling support has been notified and all pertinent information to the error has been transmitted.

My blogrolling page has lost al its - er - blogrolling. You've all disappeared. Ok, I'll visit via MyBlogLog and Sitemeter Referrals and hope Blogrolling comes back.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

[pineapple politics] lite, trite or right


Which hits home more, this:
Once again, it is the way fresh fruit is presented here that has made my day. I have not seen pineapple cut quite like this anywhere else. [And again, they will do this for you in the simplest bar.]
or this:
The retired detective at the centre of the Sadiq Khan bugging case was bugged for months by fellow officers as part of a "witch-hunt" intended to stop him becoming a whistleblower, it has been claimed.

Former Detective Sergeant Mark Kearney, 49, was subjected to months of surveillance with his friend Sally Murrer, a local newspaper reporter, ostensibly because police suspected him of giving tip-offs on local crime stories.

But Mrs Murrer, 49, is convinced the huge police investigation, in which her car was bugged and secretly fitted with a tracking device, was a "smokescreen" to ensure Mr Kearney was discredited before he could go public with details of how he was ordered to bug the MP.

... or how about this?
Tsk, tsk, pushing Hillary on the little people to continue the policies of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Federal Reserve and the New World Order. Pres. Bill Clinton was a member of the CFR. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933, NAFTA, and the China Trade Agreement were in the best interests of the elitist. And due to Clinton's policies, we, the little people are being robbed with the contrived subprime mortgage, credit crunch, and inflation to steal the wealth of the middle class by the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs.....
And there is a debate right now between Guido, Samisdata and Tiberius:
Where I concede is that Paul Staines is right: there is a separation between Paul and Guido, between the person and the blog persona. Perhaps because this blog is so much the creation of my personal whim and not of any attempt to create a persona, that means that I underestimated that.
Political blogs who take themselves very, very seriously abound but ultimately it's a small pool in comparison to the general populace out there. I agree with numbers 2-4 above as I've a political mind but not exclusively political and I'd argue that the all-consuming politblogger who likes nothing better than velociraptor debate would scathingly view someone speaking of how pineapple was presented as trite and insignificant.

There is a huge pool of people out there for whom a constant diet of daily politics is as interesting as intestinal worms. This blog's readers come from different walks of life and different persuasions. Does that make them trite, as our Velociraptor Anonymous says:
There is no debate worthy of the name on your blog, merely pre-arranged visits to generate stats, and stupid banal comments ... Even the debate by your friends, when they can be bothered, is contrived, at best. You may want to run a hierarchical system based on whether some one is certified. Many of your bloggers should be!
Easy to rage over issues on which we're largely agreed and where our pool of blogfriends equally rage to each other and everyone's happy. Except it's not about raging to each other - it's about presenting the message to a pool of non-politicos who are not interested, who have their own agendas, including pineapple and who have their own lives.

The way pineapple is presented is an aspect of living which comes under the heading of "taste" and "rising above the banal", equally important issues in today's tendency to mediocrity. All right, police corruption is a major issue. So how should a blogger get that message across to people out there who have a life, how to get them interested in corrupt politicians or how dire Clinton and the CFR really are?

Firstly, in small doses, without the stridency which I've been equally guilty of falling into. Secondly, realizing that the pool of non-politically thinking people is not certifiable but actually amenable to an idea if it's presented understandably and with respect for the reasoning ability of the reader. The commenter who shows not a great deal of understanding of an issue has simply shown he's not au fait with the issue. OK, so the blogger has to do better next time.

The Case for Slowly Educating

Education doesn't have to mean some sort of nazi force-feeding of names and statistics and resorting to insults when the other doesn't go along with you.

Instead, it's a war of attrition, an education process where most people will listen or internalize if it's presented the right way in the first place. The onus is on the presenter to interest the reader - not that of the reader to knuckle down and start howling with rage.

I howl with rage myself because I've read the material and followed the links but that's no guarantee anyone else is going to be equally upset. You write:
I've given you so many pointers to serious aspects, it just beggars belief that you missed them all.
Who says I've missed them? Who says that readers didn't click on those links, follow some of them, read them and note them at the back of the mind? Just because an army of non-political readers don't take up the cudgels and storm the ramparts, a la Rik Mayall the urban guerilla, doesn't mean it didn't register.

The Brit in particular is attuned to passive resistance and cold shouldering. It's more the Italian who's into the impassioned debate. Your links, Anonymous, are invaluable and I'd suggest that many people for whom Mark Kearney or Hutton are not household words are now cognisant of them.

Then you go and say:
Carry on thinking with your balls, James. You'll get some nooky in the end.
... and all the good work you've done disintegrates because who's going to take anything you say seriously after that? There's a place for your style, even here but there's also a place for "steady as she goes", which is the style more favoured by the great silent majority out there.

The Case for Pineapple

There are some very nasty people out there who are hellbent not just on enslaving society in the next few years but on defining the agenda in dire terms. Therefore everyone must be in the same dire frame of mind, no one is allowed to enjoy life any more for its own sake.

Those exposing this are equally sucked into a dire life on the edge and pleasure simply ceases, to be replaced by endless outrage at how terrible life has been made by the animals up top. I'd argue that the question of how pineapple is cut is vital to concern ourselves with because it thumbs its nose at the opposed agenda and says, 'Hey, this life is to be enjoyed, not bemoaned.'

The Case for Bollocks

I have two choices. I can either spend my life writing tomes of anti-cabal literature, raging against the state 24/7 or else I can spend some time enjoying nooky with my girlfriend, spend some time appreciating beauty and spend some time presenting anti-cabal articles.

[thursday snow] dance of the falling man

One of my friends wrote yesterday and said I'd been quiet and then, "How's the book coming on?"

That sums it up. Nearly done rewriting but it's meant less of everything else and people have either drifted away or are a little peeved. At the same time, the internet keeps dropping out. I had tabs for Harry, Ellee, Ross and Bunny up yesterday and tried to comment - phut!

My friend is visiting this morning to help sort all this out.

Snow - last evening two girls I know visited and so that meant going our for a walk but there was a condition they call "lyot pod snyegom" on all the roads - ice under loose snow. Walking along - whoosh - on your back and cracking your head.

This creates the Snow Dance.

Can you imagine maybe a hundred people picking their way along the path, not stepping normally but putting a foot out to the left, a foot to the right, toppling over backwards and the legs peddling as if riding a bicycle, fingers touching the ground for balance then springing into a crouched but basicially upright position?

And absolutely everyone doing it?

Great training for balance and the start of any number of new dance crazes and new relationships. Let me explain - any female within range will grab your arm to keep herself upright and now you have a pas de deux or even quatre at times.

I've resolved to buy that camera and bring you these images but it might be spring before I can find a good store so don't hold your breath.

Have a lovely Thursday and don't slip over.

Politics

Banks push up mortgage rates

Not worth a separate post but very depressing to see the way the Democrat delegates are shaping. In home news, 'Greedy' banks push up mortgage rates. So what's new?

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

[monplaisir] magnificence of nature and man

Pyetrdvoryetz, near St. Petersburg

Versailles is sheer magnificence on a gargantuan scale. Schoenbrunn is sheer elegance. But of the "Russian Versailles", Peterhof, Petergof, Pyetrdvoryetz, whatever you wish to call it, by the ocean near St Petersburg, Alexander Benois, in 1913, wrote:

Among the fabulous palaces of Versailles, Aranjuez, Caserta, Schoenbrunn and Potsdam, Peterhof occupies a place entirely apart. It is often compared to Versailles but that is due to a misunderstanding. Peterhof is endowed with an utterly special character by the sea. It is as if Peterhof was born out of seafoam called into being by the command of a mighty maritime ruler.

The Queen's Chamber, Versailles
Versailles rules over the land ... The fountains at Versailles are an elegant adornment, which could be done without. Peterhof is the residence of the sovereignof the seas. The fountains in Peterhof are no afterthought - they are the main thing. They are a symbolic representation of the watery realm, a cloud of spray from the sea that washes the shore at Peterhof.
Le Hameau de la Reine, Versailles

If Versailles is a triumph of architecture and layout, Peterhof is a triumph of engineering. At the height of its construction, 1715 to 1723, Le Blonde, Braunstein, Michetti and Zemtsov, the sculptor Rastrelli, the master fountain builder Paul Sualem and the hydraulic engineer Vasily Tuvolkov, together with a host of others, were all carving out this amazing series of canals, cascades, grotto, terraces and palaces.

The Cascade from the main palace, Pyetrdvoryetz

Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof is that all of the fountains operate without the use of pumps. Water is supplied from natural springs and collects in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens. The elevation difference creates the pressure that drives most of the fountains of the Lower Gardens, including the Grand Cascade. The Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct, over four km in length, drawing water and pressure from a high-elevation source.

Pyetrdvoryetz truly connects with the sea via this canal.

Then, after all that is said, comes the magnificently small scale, simple Monplaisir, right down by the water itself:
Monplaisir is as old as Peterhof itself. The history of the whole palace and park ensemble began with the construction of Monplaisir. The palace was Peter the Great's favourite creation, and it was he who gave it this name. The Emperor himself chose the site for the construction and sketched the layout of the building. It is hardly possible to find any other place where his personal habits and tastes could be so strongly felt.

Garden of Monplaisir - my pleasure, Pyetrdvoryetz, near St. Petersburg

This place, Monplaisir and le Hameau de la Reine, at Versailles, continue to haunt me and hold a special place in my life. I suppose adding to the piquancy was that I was at each with the same girl and both places also feature strongly in the denouement of my first book, not that that is relevant.

Balustrade at Monplaisir, on the seafront at Pyetredvoretz

There are places in the world which are no doubt overrated but there are some which reward. If you love the sea and its interaction with the land, then Pyetrdvoretz really must be on your list to see at least once before you die.

French influence at the court of Peter the Great

[kosovo update] mitrovicaen republic the way to go

Centre of the new Mitrovicaen Republic

Predictable pap from the WSJ but with two sensible observations:

By a narrow margin, Serbs on Sunday re-elected Boris Tadic, who wants to bring the country closer to Europe, over the pro-Russia candidate. But his government already staunchly opposed Kosovo independence.

The ... Serbian enclave around the city of Mitrovica. Some politicians there, backed by Belgrade, promise to break away from Kosovo.

If Kosovo becomes an independent republic, the rot sets in, in two ways:

1. The domino effect begins, e.g. Republika_Srpska, Chechnya and one can't help but conclude that this is in line with U.S. foreign policy in the region, which is determined by the CFR*.

2. Serbia solidifies and hardens its line, with the Mitrovicaen Region initially breaking away and a more or less permanent state of war ready to break out at any time.

The cynical powers destabilizing southern Europe at this moment are fully aware of this scenario and that's why an independent Serbian enclave in the north of Kosovo is the only viable solution.

But this won't happen and Serbia, one half of the ancient Albanian conflict, will be ignored in this done deal. Ignoring one half of a conflict is hardly sensible foreign policy unless one wishes to see instability in a region. Then it makes eminent sense.

*the Council on Foreign Relations, America's most influential group devoted to US foreign policy

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

4. The situation in France

1. Sovereignty in this country 2. Legal reasons we can leave right now 3. The principle of prerogative 4. The situation in France 5. Masterly inactivity and executive action 6. It's all about culture, not race

Forget the rhetoric, forget politicking. Here is what happened in France on 29 May 2005:

A referendum was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The result was a victory for the "No" campaign, with 55% of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69%.
The question put to voters was:

Approuvez-vous le projet de loi qui autorise la ratification du traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe ? "Do you approve the bill authorising the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?"
Is there some way you can explain to me how this constitutes a legitimate mandate from the people to set up the EU as a state? By what legal terminology can this mean that the people voted Yes?

Here is what happened over these few days now:
Today, France’s deputies and senators meeting in Parliament in Versailles ratified by a vote of 560 to 181 the constitutional revision to allow the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon without the need for a referendum. The result of this voting opens the way for the final ratification, Thursday, first at the National Assembly, then the Senate. Out of 893 present, 741 voted. France is the 5th country after Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Malta to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, in which they sign their sovereignty away.
I take issue with only one semantic point. France did not sign away its rights, if by France you mean the French people. They voted 55% No. Their political leaders did sign away their sovereignty and in national terms, that constitutes high treason, which Wiki defines this way:
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country.
Please explain how a clearly expressed view of a national people being deliberately ignored in the creation of a new state at the behest of another nationality does not constitute high treason?

Britain has been treated the same way.

[super tuesday] pass the paper bag

Obama and the Sisterhood

At a packed Obama rally in Los Angeles, Winfrey addressed a backlash from some of her female viewers, who have accused her of being a traitor to the sisterhood because she was supporting a man over a woman for US president.

"I was both surprised by that comment and insulted, because I've been a woman my whole life and every part of me believes in the empowerment of women but the truth is I'm a free woman," the world famous television talk show host said'. "And being free means you get to think for yourself."

"I will never vote for anyone based on gender or race," she said. "I'm voting for Barack Obama not because he's black, I'm voting for Barack Obama because he is brilliant."

Clinton and Her Superbowl Victory

"Super Bowl, Super Tuesday . . . we've got one down, let's get the other one!" Senator Clinton said as she jumped in the air and high-fived a group of children.

Where's a paper bag?

Monday, February 04, 2008

[hamsters in the rain] and other emergencies

For what reason would you call them?

South Wales police force has published a list of top time-wasting 999 calls during the past year in an attempt to convince people not to pick up the phone unless it's really necessary.

According to icWales, the highlight of 2007 came when one woman demanded officers come and cuff her boyfriend because he'd put her hamster out in the rain. Another caller explained: “My husband has the TV remote and won’t let me watch EastEnders.”

The list continues with the anxious citizen who admitted: “I don’t have £1 for a supermarket trolley”, and one flustered bookworm who offered: “A friend has my library card, can you come and arrest her?”

Or the bloke who enquired: “Can the police come round and take my mother-in-law away? She has been here for 18 days.”

I can think of some choice ones of my own but this is a family blog.

[punxsutawney phil] six more weeks - great


Six more weeks of it, folks!
At the curiously-named Gobbler's Knob, in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, just a few moments ago, the little furry form of Punxsutawney Phil cautiously emerged, sniffed around for a bit...and then quietly muttered in Groundhogese that his own shadow he could see. So according to the seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators, an early Spring is out of the question for 2008.
Good thing too! I love the winter so much. You've all seen the film, of course.

[news] more and more boring every day


Yawn 1

You really wonder about the French:

Citing economic worries, 55 per cent of those surveyed said they had a negative view of his performance, according to one poll. But displeasure with Mr. Sarkozy as a person ran deeper. Three out of four people objected to what was called his “exhibitionist” style.

“For the traditionalist and right-wing electorate, he was just too much,” François d'Orcival, an editorial writer at the conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles, said in an interview with Europe 1 radio. “He broke with their image of what the presidential family should be. So this marriage – even though it's his third marriage – could help calm the waters.”

Mr. Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cecilia, refused to move into the presidential residence after his election last May. She made a point of dismissing the role of first lady as boring, saying she had no intention of being “a potted plant.”

OK, so it's all over - personally I think she's wrong for a First Lady but maybe she'll grow up and surprise.

Yawn 2

So Eli Manning brought his team back to score with 35 seconds to play with a 13-yard toss to Plaxico Burress. Big deal.

Yawn 3

Wendy Alexander cash donations. What the hell does it matter where the money comes form? Why is everyone all tied up in knots over this issue when they could save time and money concentrating on real issues like Nationalism in Formula 1? And are you really interested in Hain?

Anticipation 1

Super Tuesday tomorrow. McCain v the other two:

On the Democratic side, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were enmeshed in a tough national fight, illustrated by polls showing the race had tightened both nationally and in key states voting on Tuesday where Mrs. Clinton had once enjoyed a comfortable lead. They include California, Missouri, New Jersey and Arizona.

Not so foregone for Clinton as supposed. She really is hated, isn't she? Question of course - can McCain defeat either?

More important than this is the worried scrutiny of countries such as Russia for whom the election of one candidate over another thousands of kilometres away is of enormous significance, despite anything said publicly. The U.S. puts itself about the globe so aggressively that their choice of leader assumes enormous importance, as it does with all the rag tag smaller countries.

I always liked that one about the big countries acting like gangsters and the small ones acting like prostitutes.

[rudolf] and the pc army

There is the Swearblogger who is also a sharp and erudite pundit, such as DK, Mr. Eugenides, Reactionary Snob and Longrider [the latter a little tame of late].

A variant on that is the Creative Swearblogger like Flying Rodent.

Then there are the straight pundits with a twist of wry like Iain Dale, Steve Green, Cassilis and Harry Haddock.

There is the soft blogger, often a lady and the special purpose blogger.

Then there is the whimsical such as Beaman, Bryan Appleyard and Deogulwulf and you either like that or you don't. Personally, I really like the latter's series of Fewtrils which I've posted a few times. Here is a selection of his latest offerings:

Helvetica is rightly deemed the typeface that best typifies modernism: it is bland and functional. Of its aesthetic qualities, others say otherwise:
The Helvetica Medium lower-case ‘a’ . . . is the most beautiful two-dimensional form ever designed. Its luxurious sensual curves are balanced by points of crisp tension. Its lovely counter makes me think of Mozart. [1]
The pretension is by-the-by, but what gets my goat is that the name of Mozart is doomed to suffer from its invocation by blighters wishing to impart the aura of aesthetic genius to ugliness and insipidity.

Fewtril no.231

History is no keen judge: the silliest affairs can become the profoundest events, and the weakest ideas the strongest currents.

Fewtril no.228

I’ll never fit in; I have trouble faking outrage.

Fewtril no.226

Some might say we are blessed by political moralism, in that for every matter about which one might feel guilty, there are a thousand unconscionable ways in which one might feel absolved — so long as one remains an adherent. Yet even if one were to succumb to this graceless convenience, guilt would find its own way, attaching itself at last to one’s own existence and advantages.

and a little contribution to the PC [ugggh!] debate:

Rudolph the Valued Member of the Reindeer Community

“[I]nclusive school programming may allow children to perceive . . . reindeer such as Rudolph as a reindeer, not as a ‘red-nosed reindeer’.”

Susan Gately, “A Textual Deconstruction of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Utilitarian, Mechanistic, and Static Constructions of Disability in Society and in SchoolsEssays in Philosophy, Vol. 9:1, January 2008, wherein we happily learn that “Rudolph eventually rejects the institutionalized notion that one with a red nose has no worth.”

Lord preserve us from people who use titles like Destiny's Child.