Saturday, December 13, 2008

[greece] gateway to powerful forces

The sacred and beloved apocalyptic future. Let the game begin.

There’ve been enough analyses of the ongoing Greek riots but many of the explanations either fail to mention or else deliberately ignore key factors and so all we have is a series of “60% correct” summations from different agendas.

On this second page here are the summaries of and links to the material I base this post on. You can always read through this material if you need confirmation of what is said here.

The thing which struck many from the outset was:

1. the rapid response of the rioters to the shooting;
2. the way it spread up and down Greece so quickly and in such a co-ordinated way.

In short, it was both organized and funded. The question was – by whom? Time to look at a bit of history and the players in the arena:

This is the old Byzantine Empire, the portal to Europe and the gateway to Asia Minor and striding about in it are:

New Democracy, the ruling party. They are trying to maintain relations with the EU, the Americans, Turkey and global business, each with its own agenda. On top of this, it has issues with FYROM to the north-west and the increasingly co-ordinated unrest in the major centres.

By the very fact of what they’re trying to achieve, they are part of the global capital/national socialism emanating from the inner circle of the EU, the round table groups, the Bilderbergers et al. Look at Mandelson and Sutherland and you’re looking at the face of this clandestine force, for whom national breakdown is a precursor to greater things.

PASOK The rump of the old socialists and the highest placed orthodox opposition.

The traditional Greek communists. Still a force to be reckoned with, hankering after the Glorious Revolution but also involved in collusion.

The new underclass of foreigners, mainly Muslim, expelled at intervals by the Turks and others and assisted by a network of professional agitators.

Turkey, who, behind their agreements with Greece, e.g. supporting their accession to the EU, continue to pour unrest into Greece plus the Arab nations associated with them, plus Iran, plus the Albanians and the Balkan Muslims.

The people behind the EU [not necessarily the EU itself]. Enough has been written in Britain about their agenda and that’s whom the Greek government have invited in to their country. These are the people behind the current depression, insurgencies everywhere, especially in Africa and the middle and near east.

The U.S. Tied in with the global elite at leadership level, there are nonetheless national agendas. The U.S. is tied, in Greek minds, with the discredited regime of the Colonels.

Summary

They’re all at it hammer and tongs in the area and what is being seen in Greece now but also all over Europe is a power game where the global elite find it to their advantage to allow the Muslim jihadi forces in to wreak havoc, creating extreme reactions from the so-called Christian populations and getting a nice scapegoat [albeit, in this case, a guilty one] to launch a new crusade against.

This convinces the banyuls that the state and population are both against them [which they are] and so they welcome the cynically organized and funded, internet aided and co-ordinated professional protesters up and down Europe, which half-unwittingly gives the necessary mandate for state strong-arm tactics and “temporary” suspension of freedoms.

The Greeks like to think that their troubles are unique. They’re not.

They’re part of a global game which utilizes memories of the old games of islamization of Europe, the Marxist rising of workers of the world and all the other useful agendas which can be pressed into service for the ultimate goals of the holders of the money.

This game is about global money, unrest and the reduction of populations to serfdom. Feel free to look at some of the raw material on the issue here.

UPDATE on the university situation, courtesy Cassandra:

What no one mentions is that the Karamanlis Government wants to put an end to the anomaly of university campuses being legalized free houses from criminal prosecution - a leftover from a spade of hyper corrections that took place under previous Socialist Governments in a reaction to the military regime's political persecution of Leftist students.

[ufo] becoming more mainstream


The 1991 near miss of the Alitalia plane and a UFO represents a slight hardening of the line on these things:


Secret documents released for the first time reveal that British Ministry of Defence staff accept that an Unidentified Flying Object zooming above Lydd caused the near miss. The incident took place at 7.58pm on April 21, 1991, and was investigated by the British Civil Aviation Authority and military experts.


Then there was the Turkish photo which I've been searching for debunkings on. If we can assume we've moved on from the "absolute rot - there are no such things" head in the sand position, it seems to me that the explanations fall into three main categories, ranging from an attempt to be reasonable through to on-the-edge:


1. They do exist, they are unidentified but they are foreign powers' clandestine technology. Hey, there's a lot of harware shooting about up there these days;

2. There are other worlds, it seems, so why shouldn't these people come over for a gander, just as we've done in reverse;

3. There is an entire other mystical thing going on, involving other dimensions, Ancient Egypt, Stonehenge, Ascended Masters and so on.


This blog dismisses none of them, simply because I don't know. As one who claims to "know" G-d exists from a given confirmation in the past, I'm hardly likely to dismiss such things as ufos out of hand although I feel the vast majority of "sightings" are explainable.

[vale bettie page] how do you want to be remembered

Choosing the right picture wasn't easy - she shunned recent photos so maybe this art print she'd have liked


Imagine you are this woman.

Imagine you had a couple of lucky breaks in the 50s and suddenly found yourself a star, a Hugh Hefner star. Now a battle rages inside you. Everyone around, from Hefner to an adoring public wants you to take your clothes off and if possible, to do as much as you dare.

Unless you’re emotionally scarred and even if you are, maybe especially if you are [which she was] there’s a pretty rampant sexuality in there wanting to get out but its expression is limited by the prudery of the times. I once asked a life partner of mine, a fairly red-blooded Serb, how strong was that little voice in the back of her head to show her body in public.

We’d just bought property and were short of the readies so she said – well, I’d just have to send her to Soho to sell her body and I couldn’t help thinking at the time that she was only 70% joking, as long as she could transfer the responsibility for her actions to me.

Everyone knows the old line “I was young; I needed the money” and it gets down to the core of exploitation. We’re not talking here about the slave trade but about the average woman and that little voice eternally driving her on. Lines like “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” give her the permission she needs and there’s always going to be an appreciative audience.

Imagine that you had allowed your personal sexuality to go public but now the reaction sets in; you find religion and go reclusive. They’d made you go too far. You grant the occasional interview but no photos, please.

Then, in the late 80s, there is a rediscovery of what you were thirty years earlier and now you’re in two minds. You want to be taken for who you are inside but you’d also [as she said] made your money showing your body in the first place and people all round the world appreciated that body and face.

Most unreconstructed.

People say you’re beautiful and they mean the you which had been … but in a little, innocent transference, you partly apply it to yourself now. After all, you’re one and the same person, aren’t you?

Wiki quotes Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who said, of the movie about her:

"The tone of the movie is subdued and reflective. It does not defend pornography, but regards it (in its 1950s incarnation) with subdued nostalgia for a more innocent time. There is a kind of sadness in the movie as we reflect that most of these women and the men they inflamed are now dead; their lust is like an old forgotten song."

I'm not sure about "sad", a bit bewildered, perhaps. In her own words:

"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn’t know any other way to be, or any other way to live."

Vale, Bettie Page.

[lone voyage] fear his constant companion


These things really do inspire us. An Italian rower has almost crossed the Pacific by sea from Peru to Australia and got within 64 km before fierce storms stopped him:

"I didn't put the cherry on top of the cake. But the cake is very good, very big and I will never forget about it." He said that seeing his wife Francesca waiting for him was "one of the best moments in my life".

Bellini said that he had not walked more than a few metres since February, as he averaged about 30 miles a day in his 7.5-metre (25-foot) boat. His body weight dropped by 15kg (33lbs) during his 10 months at sea.

Fear, he added, was his companion on the voyage.
He kept in contact with a support team via a satellite phone and lived on dried food, drinking rain water and purified sea water.

With a wife like her waiting at the other end, I'd be pretty darned inspired to complete the journey but having sailed those conditions downunder, they're not nice. He said that fear was his constant companion. Understatement of the year, I should have thought.

Friday, December 12, 2008

[film and literature] why later editions often don't work


My favourite Holmes is the Bruce-Partington plans, with dialogue like this:

"Why had he no ticket?"

"The ticket would have shown which station was nearest the agent's house. Therefore he took it from the murdered man's pocket."

"Good, Lestrade, very good," said Holmes. "Your theory holds together. But if this is true, then the case is at an end. On the one hand, the traitor is dead. On the other, the plans of the Bruce-Partington submarine are presumably already on the Continent. What is there for us to do?"

"To act, Sherlock — to act!" cried Mycroft, springing to his feet. "All my instincts are against this explanation. Use your powers! Go to the scene of the crime! See the people concerned! Leave no stone unturned! In all your career you have never had so great a chance of serving your country."

"Well, well!" said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. "Come, Watson! And you, Lestrade, could you favor us with your company for an hour or two? We will begin our investigation by a visit to Aldgate Station. Good-bye, Mycroft. I shall let you have a report before evening, but I warn you in advance that you have little to expect."

It's very difficult to say why that story is so engaging and yet one like the Mazarin Stone is dire:

"It all seems very unchanged, Billy. You don't change, either. I hope the same can be said of him?"

Billy glanced with some solicitude at the closed door of the bedroom.

"I think he's in bed and asleep," he said.

It was seven in the evening of a lovely summer's day, but Dr. Watson was sufficiently familiar with the irregularity of his old friend's hours to feel no surprise at the idea.

"That means a case, I suppose?"

then later:

"What's the game now, Count? What's this fellow want? What's up?" His voice was deep and raucous.

The Count shrugged his shoulders, and it was Holmes who answered.

"If I may put it in a nutshell, Mr. Merton, I should say it was all up."

The boxer still addressed his remarks to his associate.

"Is this cove trying to be funny, or what? I'm not in the funny mood myself."

I can't identify precisely why - the dialogue, the abrupt ends to lines, whatever - it points to a Conan Doyle who seems to have lost interest.

In a similar way but in a different medium and different genre, the original of the sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still had tension to it - for example, when the initially unbelieving mother is co-opted by the alien and is then charged that, if something should happen to him, she must go to the robot and utter certain words in order to stop the robot from devastating every living thing. - one needs to make allowances for the age of the film, of course:





The current remake is slick, the sfx are 21st century but by all accounts, the film, as a whole, is seriously lacking. What is it? The lack of chemistry? The presence of "stars" who are "acting" when the original had ordinary characters who were for real?

Maybe we just want the characters to be for real, to be plausible, to be engaged with the plot.

[the lure of the questionnaire] hard to resist

As with Prodicus, so with your humble blogger here:

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?



Take it yourself, if you have not already done so.

[total opportunists] have your say

Which of these is the worst opportunist who'd crawl into a political bed with anyone, given the right incentive?

1. Johanna Kaschke

2. Hazel Blears

3. ?

4. ?

Help me out here.

[shame] citizenship and posthumous medal immediately !

Click for a bigger pic

This sort of thing really upsets me. Also click here please. And here. And here.

Threatened deportation for his wife and children.

Has this government gone fr---ing mental?

Now the Spaniards Know!

Matt, of Buckeye Thoughts. is a young American blogger who's been at it for some time, when not indulging in his other passion - partying. His take on what is happening in America shows a political maturity not seen in many so-called seasoned bloggers from around the sphere.


Originally posted at my blog.

Libertad Digital is one of my favorite news sources in Spain. Sure, El Mundo is great and El País is the mouthpiece of PSOE (heck, even El Mundo went for Obama!), but LD is pro-American as they come. Now, obviously I'm pro-American but that is not to say I can't take criticism of my beloved country. One of the other reasons I love LD so much is it truly is conservative, I mean US-conservative. What passes for conservative in Spain is more center than right.

Having said that, why am I writing about them? Well, it's because LD wrote this. For those that can't read or understand Castillian Spanish, I'll publish a translation tomorrow. It's basically talking about a possible collapse of the dollar and it's replacement with a new un-named currency. The first commenter beat me to it. What is it? THE AMERO OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update: Dec. 11, 2008 at 3:13 p.m.

A translation, as promised:

"For the first time in the history of the US....

Towards a new dollar? The Fed wants to throw its own debt of to the side of the government.

The Federal Reserve of the US is studying throwing off its debt without approval from the Treasury. A new way of making bills. Something never seen before and prohibited by law. Some analysts in this media see this as an attempt to create a new dollar.

Pulbished on Dec. 10th, 2008

LD (M. Llamas) The Fed is considering throwing its own debt to side of that debt which the US treasury has. An action of these characterstics lacks precedent. Of which, the Federal Reserve's Law explicitly prohibits these types of debt reducing measures.

Nonetheless, the project is on the table according to the Wall Street Journal. It will deal with a new financial instrument to print bills, to the side of the traditional means, such as the throwing around of public debt on the Treasury's behalf. The objective of said plan would consist in giving more flexibility to the balances of the Federal Reserve in it intent to save the US financial system from a complete crash.

The mechanism could include emitting T-Bills or some other kind of debt according to sources familiar with the event. And that is, the Fed's balance has shot around at abnormal rythm never seen before since the past August, the credit conscessions have grown 900 billion dollars to 2 trillion, like Libertad Digital has said.

The discount teller windows and the announcement of the public debt on the part of the government are causing the Fed to run out of financial possiblities in order to save the economy of the US. The announcement of the public debt would create a new mechanism so that the central bank could continute its expanding of the liquidity in the implementation of new programs for public recovery.

The Margin of the Tresaury is closing
The problem is the Treasury works with a limited space margin. The debt of the State is marked by law, and briefly the government programs designed to combat the debt threaten to go over that debt that is already there. Not withstanding, the joining of the appropriate means to combat the debt up till this moment constitute nearly 60% of the PIB (GDP in English, I think, maybe an econ major could check that for me).

Some analysts have already started screaming from the rooftops about this new initiatitve. The credit extension done by the Fed and the creation of ex novo money could provoke a short term to medium term hyperinflation of unforseen consequences for the US and the economical world.

Medium term Hyperinflation

Besides, the Fed's debt would compete in a parallel market with Treasury's T-Bills in a risky strategy never seen before until now in the history of this country. Such a measure has an end of "eliminating the middlemen". The central bank would therefore have free reign to create a new currency from nothing, according to analysts consulted by LD. "The expansion of the Fed's credit will know no limits," without the necessity of needing to recover the public debt.

Of which, neither the government nor American citizens would have control over the amount of money emitted from the Fed with its guarantee. It is to say, eliminate the democratic controls that are over danger and always risk the creation of new bills, they add. And it's that the balance of the central bank has always been guaranteed during the emission of public debt.

Crashing of the dollar
A mechanism of these characteristics would give to the Fed Chariman, Ben Bernake, the ability to offer the Fed's debt for investment and to foreign central banks. Of which, these same analysts avance that the central bank of the US will be most likely anticipating the probable free fall of the US's debt and crash of the dollar.

A new dollar in blossoming
On the other hand, such notes would have to count on different rates than those of T-Bills. And such a plan, "has little feeling unless the Fed wants to emit a differentiatied public debt, which would open the door creation and emission of a new dollar," that would subsitute the current one, they added.

"Everything points to what deals with a foreseen movement that stands before the possibility of the US government being incapable of living upto its financial compromises." It is to say, before the risk of the US being between having to suspend payments, which had been said by this magazine."

Translator's note: Sorry if it seems a bit weirdly worded. I don't understand economic terms in English, much less Castillian Spanish. Regardless, I think it really hits home when a foreign news source, pro-US at that, is talking about this with analysts as a real possibility.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

[thursday boulder caption time] add yours

[juggernaut] roll on february

Some of you might recall, two years or so ago, when Martine Martin and I went a bit OTT and started claiming here, here, here and here that the meddling with the Lords was the road to Blairite and Brownian autocracy.

Well? Look at it now. Look at the arrogance with which he deals with parliament during PMQ time, which he could not possibly get away with unless he knew he was now unassailable within parliament ... plus the other things he knows are coming up.

Some time later, Ian Parker Joseph wrote, on EU policy:

The headlong rush to get the Reform Treaty ratified by 1st January 2009 is so that there can be ‘elections’ on a regional basis to the European Parliament later in the year, which under the EU Constitution will be a rubber stamp parliament ruled over by the European Commission and the Council of Europe, run by EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso until the new Presidential office is set up.

Scotland and Wales are safe, and will remain as they are, with their own new parliaments, each being a region to remain intact, but they will lose national status, and be downgraded by our new master in Europe to regional status. England will no longer exist as a country, just 9 regions. The UK as represented in Europe will be known as the 11 regions of the UK.
At the same time, Party Politics will also be abolished. Westminster will be closed as a debating chamber and will become the headquarters of the London Region, the South East Region, and the Governor of the UK. There will no longer be a Conservative, LibDem or Labour Party. Never again will there be a democratically elected UK government, an opposition and democratic debate.

I posted the following in 2006, based on a year 2000 document I'd saved, giving this version of events of the next two decades, as distributed by people I'd prefer not to name:

An economic collapse that will devastate the economy of the US and Europe, much like the great depression. One reason that our economy continues limping along is the artificial support that the Federal Reserve had given it, manipulating interest rates, etc. But one day, this won't work (or this leverage will be withdrawn on purpose) and the next great depression will hit.

The government will call in its bonds and loans, and credit card debts will be called in. There will be massive bankruptcies nationwide. Europe will stabilize first and then Germany, France and England will have the strongest economies, and will institute, through the UN, an international currency. Japan will also pull out, although their economy will be weakened. Peacekeeping forces will be sent out by the UN and local bases to prevent riots.

The leaders will reveal themselves, and people will be asked to make a pledge of loyalty during a time of chaos and financial devastation. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it?

I see no reason to backtrack on any of those assertions above, give or take some details here, some dates there. The itinerary is the same and is becoming more and more likely as we head closer to it. The UK election must come within 18 months but by then, there's an even money chance there's not going to be any more parliamentary democracy, for a number of reasons:

1. Ireland will pass Lisbon second time round [look at the sweeteners now being offered if Ireland gives the correct answer, especially in recession];

2. The EU will implement the above Parker Joseph quote. I'm not sure of the chronology of the thing and which comes first but that's what is in the pipeline. They're only awaiting the Irish ratification.

Already 80% under EU law, with a crippled pound against the euro, bankrupt Britain and in particular, England, is down for the count.

Watch next February closely but better still, wait for the call for all of us to pull together in the coming time of extraordinary necessity. A Churchill will appear but I don't think it's going to be Gordon Brown.

Brown has claimed to save the world and in the twisted, rarified atmosphere he cavorts about in, he could well have a point - he may well have, in their terms, saved the world. In our terms, he has helped devastate it.

[greece] the real story behind the riots

Wolfie gave me a "could do better" report card on the Greek issue, which was not my intention to actually pursue. Just haven't had time to do a big exploration yet but Cassandra has and she gives an insight into the behind the scenes issues and the historical perspective to the thing:

Back in Greece the riots are being executed with the use of the Internet and other new media techniques, such as instant messaging (IM) from mobile phones to web pages, Indymedia, along with the use of CB’s, Facebook pages, walkie-talkies, computer mass generated SMS, Twitter, and the construction of “flow-networks” and already established “dark networks” within the city.

The moment they were reported with their usual MSM report-the-reaction-but-not-the-cause style of reportage, there seemed anomalies, with the old military regime invoked and a wholly disproportionate response by students who seemed far more ... well ... anarchic than one would expect.

It's the natural reaction of bloggers to automatically see the poor students as freedom fighters against a monolithic and evil government. The latter may be so but the former are certainly not innocent and there was far more to this than met the eye. It's worth reading Cassandra's article in full.

Here's a further read on the matter while we all try to get to the core of this thing.

[internet censorship] the next battlefield


In Australia, the government has launched an e-democracy website:

Predictably, hundreds of the comments published so far have criticised Senator Conroy's plans to introduce a mandatory clean feed for all Australian internet users, which would introduce a level of web censorship that's far beyond that of any other Western democracy.

"I am offended that Senator Conroy has likened censorship opponents to child porn supporters. It is a straw-man argument and offensive to basic principles of democracy," one reader wrote.

Sigh.

[private eye] and the man of straw


Parliamentary democracy itself may well be the bulwark againt totalitarianism but the two party system sure is not. What's worse, it breeds rank hyocrisy, as the Eye has just pointed out in the current edition [1225, p3]:

In fact, 1995 was dubbed "the year of the leak", with civil servants across Whitehall falling over themselves to hand over documents to the opposition. The cross-party European forum found that there had been 38 significant breaches, with the Home Office and Transport Department handing over most. It got so bad that even internal reports on how to plug leaks were ... er ... leaked.

And who were the most high profile utilizers of these leaks? That's right - Blair and the man of Straw.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

[train journey] chance encounters, danger and intrigue

.

A long rail journey can be likened to a fabulously drawn out meal for two - the aperitif, the amuse-bouche, the entrée, plat principal, the fromage, dessert, the café and the digestif, a little dancing, a moonlit walk by the river, followed by a long languid night.

The rail journey may even signify freedom, liberty. It was Ernest Bevin who said:

"My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and go anywhere I damn well please!"













Couldn't agree more. At Victoria, looking at the big board, with some cash in the pocket and thinking: "I might just go there for the hell of it." It gives one a sense of freedom.

The long distance journey should be taken by rail.

The air flight is one frenetic rush, the car is nerve-racking, the bus is abysmal and bumpy but the train, curving its way through the countryside, whooshing then rattling, sitting back in the seat and gazing from the window with absolutely nothing you must do except meet that elegant lady sitting two seats across from you.










But better is planning the journey, looking at the brochure, viewing the itinerary, arriving at the busy station with its wrought iron roof frame and finding the platform, being met by the attendant, stowing the baggage and then finding the restaurant car for the aperitif.


A Swiss itinerary might fit the bill:

Zermatt - The last section of the journey takes you through wild and romantic larch woods, through avalanche protection structures and tunnels, to the world renowned car-free town of Zermatt. Just before you arrive in the station, the majestic Matterhorn, 4,478m above sea-level, looms up before your eyes.

The Visp - Zermatt section of the line was opened in 1891 after two and a half years of construction. The foresight of the railway engineers of the time is amazing, they realised that the valley communities who had lived off the land for centuries would have to look to tourism to sustain them in the long term.

And so it was - the new rail connection brought a new lease of life and prosperity to the people of Zermatt. Today, the tourist infrastructure of Zermatt leaves nothing to be desired.








Perhaps you prefer danger and intrigue:

At 8:45, the Orient Express arrives at Belgrade. Poirot gets out to stretch his legs, but, because of the bitter cold, quickly returns to the train. The conductor informs Poirot his luggage has been moved to compartment number one, M. Bouc's carriage.

M. Bouc moved to the Athens coach to allow Poirot a spot in first class. Compartment N1 is directly next to Mr. Ratchett and two doors down from Mrs. Hubbard.

While returning to his compartment, Poirot is cornered by Mrs. Hubbard. She tells Poirot that she is "dead scared" of Ratchett and tells Poirot she heard Ratchett trying the communicating door between their apartments the night before.








Abe Lincoln was once moved to write about a rail journey:

A lonesome train on a lonesome track --
Seven coaches painted black --
A slow train, a quiet train
Carrying Lincoln home again;
Washington, Baltimore,
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Coming into New York town,
You could hear that whistle for miles around
Crying, Freedom! Freedom!!


Even with modern trains, there is something old-worldly about some stations and some services. John Betjeman was moved enough to write Pershore Station, or A Liverish Journey First Class:

"The train at Pershore station was waiting that Sunday night
Gas light on the platform, in my carriage electric light,
Gas light on frosty evergreens, electric on Empire wood,
The Victorian world and the present in a moment's neighbourhood."

Can you picture yourself on the Orient Express?

Imagine it is the mid-1930s, and you are in Istanbul. You dine at the Pera Palas Hotel, the hotel established by the Wagons-Lits Company in 1894 specifically to cater for Orient Express clientele, and still a great hotel today.

About 9pm, you head down to Sirkeci station for the 22:00 departure of the Orient Express. You need to eat beforehand, because there is no restaurant car attached to the Orient Express when it leaves Istanbul - this isn't attached until Kapikule on the Turkish/Bulgarian border, in time to serve breakfast.




Each 'S' type sleeping-car has 10 wood-panelled compartments with either one or two beds (one above the other) plus a washbasin - there are no baths or showers on board. The sleeper compartments convert for daytime use into a compact carpeted sitting room with sofa and small table. There is no lounge car or seats car, at least not this side of Trieste.

At Sirkeci station, under the station lights, you catch you first glimpse of the blue and gold sleeping-cars of the Orient Express. It's a very short train - Just four sleeping-cars, with a baggage van ('fourgon' in French) at either end.










Anything is possible on a rail journey. I can't decide if my favourite journey was from Bordeaux to Madrid or from Helsinki to the north through the myriad lakes. Perhaps it was the train from Bergen to Stockholm to Turku. On a first class rail pass, it allowed you to travel either class according to the state of the train and the destination. And in earlier days it really was not all that expensive for a one month pass.



I know it's not really done in Britain and I usually don't break into bonhomie with people on a train but sometimes, over a long journey, when both seem willing, it can be a small pleasure. Chance encounters, that missed train, accidentally bumping into someone, it's all possible on the train:

My wife Asya and I met on a train from London to Leicester. She is Polish and had just arrived in the UK for a six-week working holiday at Hothorpe Hall near Market Harborough ... There were plenty of empty seats when she boarded but she stood watching her case until the train departed leaving the only free seat next to me! We both should have been on the previous train but were both delayed.









I myself was on a train from Madrid to Firenze and met a girl. One thing led to another and we stopped off in Narbonne. She went on to Firenze and I followed later, via Finland. That's the sort of thing which trains make possible.

I've left the down side till the end but it need not be a terribly down side. Sure there are these things to consider:

* If you only speak one language (like English) then you have just encountered what could be your first problem

* The ticketing lines at trains stations are for the most part always long.

* Train connections in Europe can be awfully close when it comes to connecting time.

I really do think that planning and preparation can alleviate many of these but that cuts down spontaneity, one of the joys of train travel. And as for the language barrier - consider it a challenge rather than a barrier.

Travel by rail.


[finance sector] always be positive



Question: What's the definition of optimism in the finance sector?

Answer: ironing five shirts on a Sunday night.

[greek tragedy] all the world's a stage


Have you looked at this Greek tragedy? Rioting youths out of control, frightened policeman shoots one of them, riots, looting and burning ensue, then a general strike. Just in case you haven't picked up on the crisis, this explains it clearly:

Gewalt auf den Straßen, Misstrauen in den Köpfen: Die schweren Krawalle sind nur das sichtbare Symptom der griechischen Staatskrise, tatsächlich reicht der Vertrauensverlust viel tiefer. Viele Bürger denken ähnlich wie die Anarchos - sie halten die Eliten ihres Landes für unfähig und korrupt.

So there!

[whither america] whither the west


Robert James Lee Hawke was an Australian PM and his story has parallels today which you'll see shortly. Wiki says:

Part of Hawke's work at the ACTU was the presentation of its annual case for higher wages to the national wages tribunal, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. He attained such success and prominence in this role that in 1969 he was encouraged to run for ACTU President, despite the fact that he had never held elected office in a trade union.

Hawke declared publicly that "socialist is not a word I would use to describe myself" and his approach to government was pragmatic. He concerned himself with making improvements to workers' lives from within the traditional institutions of government, rather than to any ideological theory.

That's the text but my memory is that wherever there was a dispute between government and workers, especially a long running one, Hawke would be called in and before sundown, he usually came out with an agreement which ended the impasse. I recall he never stayed to soak up the adulation but went on to the next one.

Personally charismatic, with those big bushy eyebrows, [it was the 70s, remember], it was clear that the parliamentary scene at the time was dire. The conservatives had made a hash of things and a lame duck leader was in charge. The Labor leader himself didn't look any too promising either and there were rumblings up and down the country: "Let's get Hawke in."

Trouble was that he neither held a seat nor had any parliamentary experience whatsoever. Didn't matter. A lot of shovel work was done, he was found a safe seat in Melbourne, he got in, displaced the current leader, fought and won the upcoming election, all on a wave of near euphoria.

There was considerable comment at the time on his "honeymoon ride" with the press and for about a year and a half, he could do no wrong. Despite his personally aggressive demeanour, his game was consensus and negotiation, in which he was skilled. His less charismatic Treasurer, Paul Keating, was the second half of the equation and he was damned good at what he did - I think no one disputed that at the time. They were a powerful team.

To paraphrase what my friend said yesterday about Obama, in the light of Ruthie's comments - when everyone sees a possible saviour, a solution to the economic woes, when he is eloquent and charismatic and infinitely preferable to the alternative, when he represents the best chance a party has had for a while to gain office, when he has a set of policies which seem sane [to an uncritical mind], then blandishments like "yes we can", "change we can believe in", "enough talk - time now to do" "I'm a pretty straight type of guy" and so on seem to show the man as the type of go-getter who is going to get things done.

People fall for it every time and the Leader is almost always swept in on a landslide. The opposition are irrelevant and attempts to portray the charismatic Leader as evil - the British Tories used a demonic face of Blair, a ploy which backfired - then it only serves to harden people's support of the new man.

"Give him a chance." "Let him govern before we judge him."

The minutiae on eligibility, for example, are barely looked at. A birth extract lands on the desk for scrutiny - yeah, it's fine. All's in order. No one is either interested nor sees the necessity at the time to investigate rigorously and talk of "enhanced FBI checks" by Ruthie yesterday must be seen in the light of the perfunctory way they were handled, as has turned out to be the case at the eleventh hour.

In Blair's case, Britain now sees the monster they let in and there were few tears when he handed over the PMship, the culmination of a sweetheart deal, with zero to do with the will of the people and still, today, with Britain going down the drain, the people can't see it for what it was.

The internet can.

So, in the euphoria of the coming of the messiah, anyone who dares challenge the incoming juggernaut with, "Hey, just how eligible is this person?" is seen as pathetic, a last ditch attempt to grab power, a crank, a bunch of nutters or worse in America, a Truther.

Reasoned debate has flown out the window and the people are off on another blind stampede towards The Light.

Take Christianity, for example. I've found the actual text he spoke, without annotation:



Persuasive, isn't he? Looks good.

On the surface, a reasonable person would have to agree that stories like Abraham and Isaac, another time, another place, are not relevant except in the context of the test of faith at the time. Obama though chooses that and other tricky old testament passages to illustrate that Christianity overall, therefore, has little relevance for a country with many faiths and even no faith at all.

Most would agree.

The problem is that, in a sleight of hand [or rather, of speech], he ignores the hope, faith and charity aspect of Christianity, the new testament passages, its real driving force, the forgiving nature of it.

Look how our society, based on the Judaeo-Christian tradition, tolerates other religions and spawned modern democracy, such as it is. Look at ourselves, our natures today - are we fanatics? Compare that, say, to Saudi Arabia or Burma.

Obama ignores the positives in order to illustrate that "religion", in general, shouldn't drive public policy, a point most, including me, would agree with.

The trouble is, this opens the door to relativism and all the societally corrosive aspects of multiculturalism, as we've seen. It's no accident that many Muslims and Jews find it astounding that a "Christian" society can tolerate bans on its own festivals for fear of offending them. Most societies embrace their roots and are proud of them. That's a measure of the fact that Christianity is not a state affair - it's a personal commitment but it just happened that enough people had that belief for the society to have been labelled Christian.

Obama says people haven't read their bibles.

He's right, in the sense of not having read the gospels, which he carefully avoids in his argument, for good reason. As with most charismatics of this type, he is a clever man who chooses his words to great effect. However, that effect is not wholesome in its extrapolation into the future. Its effect is to break down the glue which bound the society together and made it great in the first place.

His first act has been to emasculate the society's Judaeo-Christian conscience, consciousness and roots, a rootless man promoting a society in his own image. So with nothing but a pluralistic hotch-potch of values to aspire to, the only values the new society has are those promulgated by the state - it's vision of the tolerant, all-inclusive society, dedicated to impossible equality and the mediocratization of thought.

And in this world, in America at least, there is one fixed point - Obama.

I wouldn't mind betting that the vast majority of those who read this would not concur with the sentiments expressed here, except for some "right wingers". Nevertheless, let me put it this way. At every point along the Obama trail, the man does not add up.

His background, the way he has come to power, his statements of loyalty versus his real views, the enormous efforts in covering up his antecedents, the way he rides public opinion to defy the organs of state, the way he has people mesmerized - this is Blair again, Hawke [who turned out to be human after all], even Hitler.

This is enormous danger, not only for America but for the world.

And to answer all the foregoing: "You're too late, it's a done deal. Just let it go."

And to answer the answer: "No! When something is just plain wrong, it must be pursued."

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

[tuesday caption] this is a family blog, remember

Usual procedure ...

[relapse] nothing a good sleep won't fix

Lemsip at the ready - check. Bed ready - check. Teeth cleaned - check. DVD ready - check. See ya tomorrow, G-d willing.

I'll put in a little prayer for all you poor folk with throats, heads, chests and sniffles and hope we all get better by the end of the week. Plus Angus's foot. :)

[change we can believe in] obama delivers

Mombasa's north beach, not far from the Obama birthplace

Judge for yourself:

* Hillary Clinton is only the biggest name in what has become the second coming of the Clintonites and other old, familiar faces to Washington.

* Obama's new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was an insider in the Clinton White House.

* So was Susan Rice, who will serve as UN ambassador.

* Attorney general-designate Eric Holder and homeland security secretary nominee Janet Napolitano were both in the Clinton era justice department.

* Bill Richardson, who will become commerce secretary, was energy secretary in the 90s.

* Housing and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle is a long-time member of the Washington 'good-old-boys' network.

* Lawrence Summers, Obama's new top economic adviser, was Clinton's treasury secretary.

* Obama opted to keep a Bush administration appointment, Robert Gates, in charge of the Pentagon, and to appoint a jut-jawed retired general, Jim Jones, as his national security adviser.

* Both men opposed Obama's single most important military and foreign policy promise, to set a timetable for pulling US troops out of Iraq.

* Jones backed McCain in the election and Gates is as Republican-establishment as it gets.

* Including Joe Biden, the vice-president elect, all of the incoming president's core foreign policy team backed the ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003.

* The chairman of Obama's economic advisory council, Paul Volcker, isn't from the Clinton era - he is of an even earlier vintage, having served as Federal Reserve chairman under Jimmy Carter three decades ago.

Where is the representation of the young people who voted him in on the change platform - just asking?

By the way:

I asked Ms. Obama specifically, “Were you present when your grandson Barack Obama was born in Kenya?” this was asked to her in translation twice, and both times she specifically replied, “Yes! Yes she was! She was present when Obama was born.”

Though, some few younger relatives, including Mr. Ogombe, have obviously been versed to counter such facts with the common purported information from the American news media that Obama was born in Hawaii, Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama was very adamant that her grandson, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, was born in Kenya, and that she was present and witnessed his birth in Kenya, not the United States.

When Mr. Ogombe attempted to counter Sarah Obama’ clear responses to the question, verifying the birth of Senator Barack Obama in Kenya, I asked Mr. Ogombe, how she could be present at Barack Obama’s birth if the Senator was born in Hawaii, but Ogombe would not answer the question, instead he repeatedly tried to insert that, “No, No, No, He was born in the United States!”

But during the conversation, Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama never changed her reply that she was in deed present when Senator Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

[the hairy yam] your passport to good health


It's a real pain being ill and the sooner it ends the better. The Chinese might have some wise words of advice on that:

Brown with a rough, hairy coating, yams are ugly in the eyes of many. But in traditional Chinese medicine, it is an outstanding health food which can help reinforce energy and nourish blood. And now, from November to January, is the best time for yams.

The benefits of this vegetable were first identified more than 2,000 years ago with the "Shennong Bencao Jing" (Shennong's Herbal Classic) recording that "neutral" yam can help reinforce energy, dispel pathogenic cold and dampness, nourish muscles and improve hearing and eyesight.

Famous Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) pharmacist Li Shizhen concluded that yams helped to reinforce blood and energy, benefited the kidneys, spleen and stomach, stopped diarrhea, dissolved phlegm and nourished skin and hair.

So there you go. Get your hairy yam today and get healthy! Lee Shizhen [pronounced shitsen] recommends it.

[current brinkmanship] we're not ready yet, says europe

The Asia Times says:

European NATO members are increasingly nervous about the prospect of a military confrontation with Russia. Last August's swift Russian response to act in aid of South Ossetians against the Georgian invasion sent a reality shock through Europe.

Neither Germany nor France wish to admit unstable states like Georgia or Ukraine only to be forced to act militarily in their defense in event of a repeat of the madness of last August.

Much is made of the rusting Russian navy and the depleted army but Russia's strength has always been in numbers, as with China. Not just in numbers either but in a fanaticism which would be lacking in the "away" players. For what strategic purpose would Europe wish to anatagonize the north-east border state over rogue leaders in Georgia and the Ukraine? You can throw Belarussia into that too.

And don't forget a mobile China who have the super-highway to reach the sub-continent plus a friendly neighbour to the north.

As for Europe, the EU state still has a few teething problems e.g. Ireland and the Milliband/Merkel army won't be ready for at least half a decade, except as a sabre-rattling exercise. Of course, a split in NATO would give the EU the green light to proceed full tilt with this.

So what is America's game here? In their brinkmanship with Russia, aren't they forgetting Europe's own grand design?

As far as we're concerned, we're still only entering the great depression and history dictates that it always takes a few years for the seeds of discord and the demoralization of the people to be achieved. At the moment, too many are still hopeful for an upturn of the economy and not everyone is yet sucking on the subsistence teat of the nanny state.

2009 might even see the best laid plans of the inner circle overturned and the whole show postponed for yet another generation. Humans can be so unpredictable at times.

Monday, December 08, 2008

[screenplay] man and the ascended beings


Just finished watching Stargate, the Ark of Truth and the mythology made me start thinking just how much more bizarre the reality of what did occur in the beginning might have been.

Here's a sci-fi plot off the top of the head.

Imagine that there are two types of ascended beings. The first lot created Man and just as a parent loves his child, wants to see him grow, learn, develop, evolve, not by being directed in every action like a robot but by imparting a code to live by, a sort of self-regulatory mechanism, so Man himself was given a lot of rope, only to be tapped back on course a few times. Freedom within limits and oodles of love.

The other type of ascended being recognizes the danger lurking inside Man, the potential power of combined good. You see it everywhere - things being built, communities, families and so on. Get enough humans combining and the collective power is awesome, as long as it is in free association. The downside of this is that humans who are used to this sort of freedom are not particularly amenable to command and control schemes.

Recognizing that humans are susceptible though to the "balance of opposing forces" idea, the Dark Ascended devise a nifty logo and suggest the first teaching - that for every white action, you need to do a black one to "spiritually balance it".

Thus the principle of evil is implanted.

The second teaching is that the things taught to you by the white side, authority figures and your parents are restrictive, anachronistic and boring - that there is really only one rule in life: "Do as thou will." So all human activity is taken to excess and called good. However, as Anakin Skywalker and many others across the galaxy found to their cost and that of billions of others, unrestrained action actually weakens a person's character and makes him more susceptible to the Dark Ascended.

The DAs also recognize that if they can get enough humans worshipping them, there is immense power in that, allowing them to fulfil their real goal of enslaving and slaughtering Earth's population, the original threat. The only way to get Man to knuckle under is to first create a utopian ideal he'll cling to - the fair redistribution of wealth to all humans who will now live in an ascendant paradise, with no war, no misery and no suffering. Call it, for want of a better term, the Illumined Way.

The Dark Ascended now point to the disaster that unbridled greed, hedonism and lack of self-control have led to and say the only way to get Man back on course to the Utopian nirvana, where all men are brothers and share equally in the collective wealth, is for each person to voluntarily sign away his freedoms and give a pledge of loyalty to the brave new world.

Having got most humans on the planet to sign freely, having coerced almost all the rest, there are just a few rebels left who support the white side and the Old Ways - they're hunted down across the galaxy as insurgents and terrorists and that's where the film ends.

Not a bad plot, d'you think?

[word verification] is it the water or something

What's going on today? Already we have these two gems:

PANTIES

PSYSLUTS

Is it just me?

[britain near bankrupt] and the joy of the soviet union


Seeing as, this Monday morning, we're all into the hat tipping business, let me hat tip the Shrewd Mammal for presenting this:

So now, we implement the “Zimbabwe protocol”.

Hat tip to Guido & the UKLP blog

Aside from bailing out the banks with our money, it appears the government is about to run out of it so what do they do?

  • repeal an act that has been in place for over 164 years
  • release the Bank of England from it’s reporting obligations
  • print more money

Predicted here, reported here, and detailed (??!!) here.


He covers the issue well and it needs no further comment from me, so let me move tangentially and tell you some stories from Russia about the Soviet days.

The people whose stories you'd give the most credence to were the grandparents, many of whom still hankered after the dead weight of the nanny state, on the grounds that everything was nominally free and one didn't have to think for oneself, which left one in a state of infantilization, whilst not delivering on the whole raison d'etre of that state in the first place.

The Eggs

Anyway, I was having lunch at one set of grandparents and the gf was telling me that they used to travel to Moscow overnight on the train to buy food and other goods, including eggs.

"And do you know, James," added the grandmother, "where they were produced in the first place?"

"No."

"Here. Right here." Both of them laughed at the incompetence of the creaky old "welfare' state.

The Denunciation

They wouldn't have dared laugh during Soviet times, as the story of Misha testifies. Misha told a tale of when he was in school. He apparently asked a question about the efficiency of state shops and one or two other choice topics, for which he was put in a spare room, until a local official arrived to "correct" his error.

Misha told me he was held there for four hours and still had to do the homework afterwards, on the lessons he'd missed. His mother did not fare as well.

There was a principle, in Soviet times, of Denunciation and all citizens were exhorted to turn in or officially denounce wrong thinking neighbours, especially teachers. Apparently this lady transgressed, was denounced by the mother of a pupil whom she'd offended and the whole time-wasting paraphernalia of due process got under way.

I understand the whole matter was shelved eventually and the documents were all stamped and filed. As long as the documents are filed, that was everything.

The general goods shop

Even when I arrived in Russia, some years after the Soviet times, things hadn't greatly altered in the state shops but a new type of entrepeneur was starting to open western style chains which were still a bit expensive, comparatively.

This was how it worked. You needed a new lock for your door, say. You took the bus, then tram, to the line of state shops and inside, the numbers of people were surprising in such a suburban corner of the city. The counters ran round three walls of the long, rectangular shop and behind them were maybe five different points, manned by two or three women with little hats, tunics and forbidding grimaces.

A lot has been made of this stereotype and to be fair, would you be smiling if you'd had to put up with customer scowls all day, every day, for little actual pay? So, to get this lock, you had to be savvy and know which queue. I got into the wrong queue and when I eventually made it to the top, was told, summarily, that those locks were "over there", with a wave of the hand.

Well, couldn't you possibly ...? Already she'd turned to the next customer behind me. There was nothing for it but to line up in the other queue. Very quickly, in post-Soviet days, you learnt the expresssion, "Kto poslyedni?" meaning, "Who's last in the line?" Then came the wait yet again.

At the top of the queue [and I've shortened this process for reader consumption], the woman stabbed a finger at the one example of the lock in the locked glass case but it wasn't the one I needed. She shrugged. I realized I had to take this one and as I was near the end of the process, I said, "Da."

She went over to the table behind her and started to fill out a chit, cme back and gave it to me.

"Where do I go?"

She waved in the general direction of the other end of the room and a kind old chap pointed me to the citadel, the glassed in holder of the moneys, the cashier, obscured behind a queue which stretched back to the entrance to the shop. Of course, mathematically, customers from five different points, descending on the one cashier, was always going to create a mega-queue.

It wasn't anyone's job to notice this, let alone comment on it. To report this inefficiency was more than your flat was worth.

So, some hour and twenty minutes after entering the store and with a perverse determination to complete this cursed exercise, I got to the cashier, paid, had the chit torn at one corner and joined the "collect" queue to get the lock.

Eventually I made it to the top again, she took the chit and scrutinized it, then went out the back. I could hear her rummaging round. She came back, if not apologetically, at least with less assertiveness and here was the one redeeming feature of the business. She had no right to have the item on display if it wasn't in stock. Rules are rules. She knew it might be sheeted home to her and as I'd been reasonable and was foreign, she let me have the other lock which was available and was at the same price.

Conclusions

What we had here was a centrally imposed, inflexible system, which a cowed and compliant population had long ago decided wasn't worth the consequences in opposing and instead, an air of resignation pervaded. Nothing was done to reform the system because that would have involved reporting one's misgivings to one's hierarchical superiors and those superiors could see that to their advantage.

People said nothing and kept their own counsel until one chink in the armour appeared in Gorbachev and then the floodgates opened.

Similarly, Brown is running out of money and even the IMF reportedly [don't quote me on this] warned him there was a cap to his assertions to the British people. No one can change the system because everyone is too frightened for his own job, with Christmas coming.

At this stage, people like bloggers and the MSM are still speaking out but look at the American situation where no one is commenting in the MSM on Obama's ineligibility. The expression "knowing which side the bread's buttered on" springs to mind.

Britain is not yet Soviet Russia but we are already at a stage where the sins of the Beloved Leader are officially forgiven and all sorts of excesses and inefficiencies of the centrally organized and mushrooming bureaucracy are lightly passed over, once the MSM and blogosphere have had their say. We're also seeing the beginnings of people being encouraged to grass on neighbours who fail to comply with legislation on, say, wheelie bins.

As in Soviet Russia, the system is bankrupt underneath the facade but unlike Soviet Russia, we are not moving to drop the discredited socialist system but are actually hell-bent on creating a new one.

It's just a question of time, tovarischii.

[pc carol 4] for the winter solstice season

Mythical deity-like Figure Rest you Merry Gentlemen and Ladies, Boys, Girls and Small Furry Animals, not excluding other Creatures of all Shapes and Sizes, Capitalized and non-capitalized; also not exclusively Mammalian and in no particular order


Now to the asserted yet unsubstantiated authority figure in an alleged and unproven region of the cosmos, sing praises,

All you within these non-denominational, all-inclusive, supportive and non-discriminatory places,

And with true love and brotherhood and sisterhood, irrespective of sexual orientation or colour, celebrating the joy of multiculturalism,

Each other now embrace in an entirely platonic and non sexually harassing way, devoid of sexism, ageism, disabilitism or any other -ism;

This holy [in the sense of it being of personal spiritual delusion only] tide of the holiday around the 25th of December - the one we've now defaced:

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy,

O tidings of comfort and joy


Under no circumstances are the following lyrics to be sung, failure to observe this stipulation possibly resulting in prosecution, seizure and confiscation of any or all winter holiday gifts you may erroneously have pre-purchased:

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy