Saturday, December 27, 2008

[cthulhu] is coming for you


[logic 101] clear thinking exercise

Q1: Pick what's wrong with this report:

Palestinians say Israeli F-16 bombers have launched a series of air strikes against key targets in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of people.

Missiles destroyed security compounds run by the militant group Hamas in the centre of Gaza City, killing at least 120 people, Hamas officials said.

Hamas quickly vowed to carry out revenge attacks on Israel in response to the air strikes.

A1: That's right, students, it is a thoroughly biased report, quoting the very people who provoked the strike, leaving the other side of the question unstated. These are the same people who killed their own the day before with a misdirected rocket.

Also, the report fails to mention the daily strikes against internationally recognized sovereign territory which, by definition, constitutes a declaration of war on Israel which they were within their rights to answer at any time.

Back to school for the BBC.

Some other quotes to ponder:

Peter Dodd and Halim Barakat, River Without Bridges.- A Study of the Exodus of the 1967Arab Palestinian Refugees (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969), p. 43; on April 27, 1950, the Arab National Committee of Haifa stated in a memorandum to the Arab States: "The removal of the Arab inhabitants ... was voluntary and was carried out at our request ... The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries.... We are very glad to state that the Arabs guarded their honour and traditions with pride and greatness." Cited by J.B. Schechtman, The Arab Refugee Problem (New York: Philosophical Library, 1952), pp. 8-9; also see Al-Zaman, Baghdad journal, April 27, 1950.

... and:

The people are in great need of a "myth" to fill their consciousness and imagination.... [Musa Alami, 1948]

... and:

Since 1948 Arab leaders have approached the Palestine problem in an irresponsible manner.... they have used the Palestine people for selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous and, I could say, even criminal. [King Hussein of Jordan, 1960]

... and:

Since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees... while it is we who made them leave.... We brought disaster upon ... Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure to bear upon them to leave.... We have rendered them dispossessed.... We have accustomed them to begging.... We have participated in lowering their moral and social level.... Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon ... men, women and children-all this in the service of political purposes .... [Khaled Al-Azm, Syria's Prime Minister after the 1948 war]

... and :
The nations of western Europe condemned Israel's position despite their guarantee of her security.... They understood that ... their dependence upon sources of energy precluded their allowing themselves to incur Arab wrath. [Al-Haytham Al-Ayubi, Arab Palestinian military strategist, 1974]
Interesting, eh?

[ponzi schemists] make good financial advisers

The Madoff Ponzi scheme was one thing and he was well and truly exposed. Another had a different fate:

Director Rubin and ousted CEO Prince - and their lieutenants over the past five years - are named in a federal lawsuit for an alleged complex cover-up of toxic securities that spread across the globe, wiping out trillions of dollars in their destructive paths. Investor-plaintiffs in the suit accuse Citi management of overseeing the repackaging of unmarketable collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that no one wanted - and then reselling them to Citi and hiding the poisonous exposure off the books in shell entities.

The lawsuit said that when the bottom fell out of the shaky assets in the past year, Citi's stock collapsed, wiping out more than $122 billion of shareholder value. However, Rubin and other top insiders were able to keep Citi shares afloat until they could cash out more than $150 million for themselves in "suspicious" stock sales "calculated to maximize the personal benefits from undisclosed inside information," the lawsuit said.

Non-President Obama would therefore avoid financial advisers in that interconnected group like the plague, right? No, here they are:

Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers
, Jamie Rubin, Timothy Geithner, Peter Orszag

Obama is utilizing each and every one of them. No one is accusing the bulk of these of the ponzi scam itself but rather it is an indicator of whom Obama goes to for advice. The country is in really good hands.

Now, via Politeia, a different view of economics:

[parallels] how the mighty fall

It's worth considering parallels in politics.

In December, 2007, John Howard not only lost an election after being the second longest serving prime minister but he also lost his safe Liberal [conservative] seat in Sydney. This put him in tandem with Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the only other PM to achieve this.

Now, it seems that a CNN poll has 75% of Americans glad to see Bush go. As they don't have the same mechanisms over there and though it is not the same thing, still, can you imagine what would have befallen him if they did have the power and precedent to vote him out?

In Howard and Bush's case, it was the Karl Rove policy. In Bruce's case, it was the unions although the Wall Street Crash was at the same time.

Friday, December 26, 2008

[political talent] let's see now ...


Vince Cable certainly has talent as a pollie, let's give him that.

So I got to thinking of a post, listing the talent in all the parliamentary parties, the theme being why can't we have an assembly without the two-party system which excludes mean and women of talent from having a say?

So, going back over the lists, we have, maybe, Michael Gove, David Davis, Liam Fox, er... er... er ...

Oh well, such a post is clearly not possible in today's parliament.

[christmas carols] when it is a subversive activity

Via Martin Kelly and Mark Shea:

A post-Christian culture like ours can make tips of the hat to Christ while laboring to escape him with might and main.

Meanwhile, in China under the Commies, a television broadcast of somebody singing "White Christmas" can be a deliberately subversive act feared by the State that fully intends to defy the State and give homage to Christmas and the Christ at the center of it.

In such a case, give me the latter over the former every time. God loves the widow's mite more than all the riches of the godless.




This motif of a church persecuted is possibly the truest place for Christianity - certainly, it is being true to its roots in a such a situation. Take the Copts, for example:

After having survived the persecution of the Roman Pagans, they were once again besieged, now by other Christians. Hence, when the Arabs invaded Egypt in the mid-seventh century AD, they met little resistance from the native Christian population.

Puts it in perspective really.

[textile waste] think through what you buy


On Radio 4 You and Yours today, they were covering textile waste and how the throwing out has increased so much in the past five years.

One thing which struck me was the type of clothing we buy. Fashion dictates that we buy complicated items with zips, buckles, and various add ons. That's fine but when it goes out of fashion or the type of consumer who buys such items tires of them, then that poses a problem for recycling.

Taking this to the other extreme, I'll be damned if I'm just going to wear sackcloth to match my new serf status but surely there is a happy medium.

[sleep] critical matter of balance


Don't know how much yet another survey can be believed:

A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Christopher King and colleagues from the University of Chicago has found a relationship between sleep quantity (hours spent asleep) and calcium build up -- or calcification -- in the arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood. For each additional hour of sleep, the risk of calcification of the coronary arteries decreased by 33 percent -- an outcome equal to reducing blood pressure by 16 point elevations.

... but there's much to be said for getting an adequate amount.

It seems to me that when you get your sleep is equally important. Much has been written about napping in the afternoon but there's a difference between a power nap of twenty minutes and a deep sleep from exhaustion the previous night.

I always feel awful after sleeping in the afternoon. Again, siesta is one thing but to deep sleep is another.

This also brings us into the sphere of guilt over sleep. Laziness is not how you sleep - it's what you do with your waking time. If you set up and insist on adequate sleep and you can keep the wolves from disturbing you, then you'll have the energy to go hell for leather when you're awake.

If the population got enough sleep, enough exercise and a reasonable diet, I really do think much of the trouble would be alleviated. Couple that with a spiritual oneness inside and realistic knowledge and acceptance of yourself, foibles and all, then the results could only be positive.

[non-president] christmas laying low


Chicago Tribune But as his fellow Christians around the world attended Christmas services on Wednesday and Thursday, the president-elect and his family remained sequestered at their vacation compound on the windward coast of Oahu.

But of course. A leopard doesn't change its spots. As with Britain in 1997, America, what have you just gone and done?

[sydney to hobart] tenth year commemoration

Courtesy New York Times


You'd expect this blogger to feel something about this event:

There has been a sombre air surrounding this year's Sydney to Hobart. It is the tenth anniversary of a tragedy that claimed the lives of six sailors, who were killed when a giant storm hammered the fleet.

Several boats sank and more than 50 competitors had to be plucked to safety by helicopter in one of Australia's biggest peacetime rescue missions. Wreaths will be laid at sea and a minute's silence has been held to remember the victims of a race that some survivors still refer to as 'hell on high water.'

Crews have held a minute's silence to remember the victims of the disastrous race a decade ago. More than 100 boats are setting off on the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

It does go with the territory, unfortunately but that's no reason not to remember.

While we're on action, adventure and achievement, congratulations to this kid who achieved the ultimate. That's a constant theme at this blog - to venture, to go down in a screaming heap or not - but at least to have tried. In his case, he succeeded through perseverance.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

[liege and life] minstrels and jongleurs


There’s this game on Facebook which the delectable Trixy involved me in and my persona is Sir James, Knight but apparently I’m also the Sovereign [interesting concept of feudalism].

The first thing I thought on seeing my “vassals” was that I didn’t particularly want any vassals. Vassals did have rights though and the social contract was that they were granted land to farm, in return for loyalty and war service.

Facebook, being an offshoot of DARPA, is clearly interested in people’s predispositions and I’m sure DARPA would say to the game player who can amass vassals and win wars: “You’re our boy.” [Or girl.]

In the late 90s, Richie Blackmore and his Candice Knight put out that album with feudal references and slight problems of chronology. One of the tracks was Renaissance Faire:

So I told her, "Yes", I knew her fear
As I felt the truth draw near

Told her back three hundred years [?],

Was the time that I held dear...


Gather ye lords and ladies fair,

Come with me to the Renaissance Faire

Hurry now, we're almost there...
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la,la, la, la...

Hear the minstrels play their tunes,
They will play the whole night through,

Special songs for me and you,

And anyone whose heart is true...


Have to smile at the automatic assumption by Richie Blackmore’s entourage [special songs for me and you] that they and we would be the lords and ladies. A moment’s thought would show that they’d be the wandering minstrels and we’d be freemen at best:

Most minstrels were wanderers; travelling from town to town and performing to all classes of people, performing for whoever paid them.

One day, a minstrel might play at a local fair, performing before the townspeople, the next he might call in at the town’s castle to provide a few night’s entertainment.

As a perpetual traveller, he had many tales to tell and was a source of news and gossip to those he stayed with.

It took a lot of skill, a singing voice and a willingness, nay, a necessity for them to stay on the road, picking up new material and adjusting their repertoire. The life was not too bad early on and the minstrels were eagerly awaited by all classes. Gradually though, the troubadour name fell into disrepute:

The success and popularity of these jongleurs attracted unworthy followers and imitators.

These low fellows, unable to obtain entrance to courts and baronial halls, donned grotesque dresses, stationed themselves in market-place or village green and supplemented their verses with coarse buffoonery, feats of legerdemain, tricks with monkeys, and doggerel appealing to a vitiated taste.


Philip Augustus and Saint Louis banished them from the country and the poets, finding the honored names of trouvère and troubadour trailed through the dirt, angrily denounced them as bastards, and ceased to provide them with verse.

The eventual problem with this life is that it had to end sometime and then what did an ageing minstrel do?


[christmas lunch] how was yours

First modest portion. After three of these, with veg from a bain marie on the second and third, it was time to tackle the trifle, Christmas pud with brandy sauce and then ...

... to just peg out.

How was your day?

[christmas] round the world but not in britain

The best laid plans oft gang astray.

The idea was to show Christmas around the world, with the emphasis on people celebrating it. Assisting in this was the Melbourne Age, which ran a series of photos front page top and many of these are below:


Hanoi


The Vatican


Moscow


Bethlehem


Haiti


Iran


Afghanistan


Melbourne


U.S.A.


Excellent but where was Britain? We had a family get together today, presumably most Brits did, so where are the photos of the celebrations of last night on the web?

Oh, here it is:


London

Dissatisfied, I google-pictured "Christmas celebrations UK 2008" and came up with a few naked women, shots of "traditional Christmas wallpaper" and pics of light festooned shops like Harrods and Regent Street stores. I tried various combinations of the words.

No, no, I don't want pics of shops and shops and shops and shops. I want pics of people out celebrating Christmas, as Christmas, in Britain. You know, people in the squares, singing carols and so on. They have to be there. The Brits must have been out celebrating the holiday, surely, like the rest of the world.

Here's what I found:


Birmingham

Phew, that's better.

Except for one thing - those signs were all exhorting people to shop, with slogans like "Buying makes you happy". There wasn't one thing about ... er ... Christmas.

You know ... Christ-mas? Anyone remember it?

Irritated, I now started on the online dailies - the Guardian, BBC news, the Telegraph ... and here was a typical front page:


No, no, Britain, not "log on to Christmas sales" please but "celebrating Christmas".

Hello, anyone out there who remembers Christmas in Britain?

Hello?

Anyone there?

[bethlehem] where it all started


As it should be:

Mass in Bethlehem

In Manger Square, vendors sold roasted peanuts and Santa Claus hats to the crowds, among whom were some local Muslims out enjoying the annual international fuss over their town.

Correspondents say a relative lull in violence in the Middle East seems to have encouraged pilgrims to return to the "Holy Land".

"Bethlehem is like the soul of the universe, and it's like an explosion of love here," said Italian fashion photographer Stefano Croce, 46.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

[jesus of nazareth] only for the humble



Let the just rejoice, for their Justifict is born. Let the sick and infirm rejoice, for their Savior is born. Let the captives rejoice, for their Redeemer is born. Let slaves rejoice, for their Master is born. Let free people rejoice, for their Liberator is born. Let all Christians rejoice, for Jesus Christ is born.

[Saint Augustine the Hippo]

Notes

Quite a few things come to mind in looking at the picture above. Firstly, how Mary looks in pretty good nick for someone who's given birth not long before. :) Secondly, how good-natured Joseph must have been after his initial anger and distrust of how Mary got pregnant - he didn't even get a speaking part in the Bible either. Some women get the good husbands, don't they?

Also, the question is not whether Jesus was born - that was attested to, by definition, in the writings of Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius and Phlegon and Encyclopaedia Britannica had:

These independent accounts prove that in ancient times, even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds by several authors at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries.

The only real doubt is whether He was resurrected and on that turns the whole issue, that being more properly gone into next Easter. If the odds were that He lived and therefore was born, then why shouldn't it be as Matthew described?

I've read the material which suggests Matthew was adopting tales from an earlier time and so on but in simple logic, there is no proof that it did not happen the way described in Matthew - he was a more contemporary source than modern revisionists who are just as much following an agenda as Matthew was.

Pascal's Wager seems a sound position to take.

Either way, may peace and harmony descend on you this night and all the way through the next few days. Have a raucously good time tomorrow.

Merry Christmas.

A little ditty by Michael Crawford to take us out this night:


[tragedy] at a time of happiness


One of my favourite bloggers and one I'd hope I could count as a friend, L"Ombre, has lost his mother. His account is moving but has a sting to it:

The ambulance crew showed up because at o'dark thirty on Thursday my mother tried to go to the toilet and fell somehow next to it instead of on it. Father was unable to extricate her and called 999. When they showed up (quite promptly I believe) they quickly got her up from where she had fallen and gave a little first aid. They (and their superiors via radio) advised against taking her to hospital because they said she'd be no better off.

I don't know, in these circumstances, if it helps but maybe if you pop over there, read and comment, it might ease things a little.

[memo to gordo] how to get the country back on its feet


During the bust of '98, I was in Russia and one of the measures was a radical revaluing of the currency by renaming.

So if you had 1 000 000 roubles in your pocket, this was now 1000 roubles and against the dollar, the rouble went from 6.7 to 32.4 which, though still artificial, at least gave the basis of coming out of the recession. Another measure was the reintroduction of coins and the necessity to buy almost all goods and services in roubles, in an effort to kill off the dependence on the hard currency of the time, the dollar.

Needless to say, people still kept dollars in the shoebox on the top shelf of the cupboard but radical solutions in that case did work and the restructuring of the country did begin.

Radical solutions can work if:

1. both government and people want them to;

2. there is no prior agenda which takes precedence over this desire.

If Gordo really wanted to save Britain and get the people back to work and if he had some vision, he'd:

1. write off the bulk of people's credit debts forthwith;

2. remove credit cards from those who were still sub-prime after that;

3. radically rewrite house and other unit costs to reflect a formula on items which cost over one year's median salary, e.g. an average two bedroom house would cost 5 years median gross salary, a car would cost 2 years and so on;

4. begin dismantling the apparatus of state and repealing the ridiculous laws in minor and petty things involving people's personal lives;

5. bring in a flat tax of 12% plus an NI contribution of 2%, mainly for pensions and certain free services for the needy, e.g. pensioners;

6. drastically cut company tax, stealth taxes and VAT;

7. issue the pound as treasury notes against some commodity, e.g. gold and then demand that reserves be kept by the state run Bank of England;

8. give England its own assembly in a traditional group of buildings somewhere in London;

9. formally depart the EU and operate as Great Britain, comprising England, Scotland and Wales, each with its regional assembly;

10. return Ulster to Ireland, on condition that Ireland was part of a greater confederacy of the British Isles [an economic and trade term];

11. remove the CCTV from around the nation and demilitarize the police, returning them to the beat and offering pay and conditions which would show the force as an attractive career move;

12. put commissioners into education, law and medicine who will return the systems to the values and practices of former decades;

13. encourage family values, the return of the pub [by tax concessions on low alcohol items such as beer] and army cadet training in Years 9 to 11 at school;

14. remove the insistence on NVQs and allow firms to determine their own staffing.

That's the first stage and as people began to spend again, adjustments, privatizations and so on would follow of their own accord. Gordo would then be hailed as the saviour of Britain, other nations might follow suit and he would then be the saviour of the world.

He'd also go down in history as the statesman who returned the monolithic EU to the benign EEC, with whom Great Britain would fully trade, along with the rest of the world. This would return Britain to a position of near parity with the U.S.A., making that alliance a formidable counter-balance to the rising hegemony of China.

Christmas, Then And Now

At Christmas 1968, the capitalists owned the banks and the government owned the utilities.

At Christmas 2008, the government owns the banks and the capitalists own the utilities.

This seems a strange reversal.

Merry Christmas.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

[g-d rest you merry citizens] minor miracles can happen

No wisecracks - this is neither Angus nor myself.
Yet ... :)

Remember those alone:

This is the fourth Crimbo I will spend on my own; I’m not looking for sympathy, or invites.
“We” really used to enjoy the festive season, no thought of the homeless or the poor, or the old, or the lonely. Since “Mrs Angus” passed, my outlook has changed, I look on Christmas as something to get past, and over with, but I do think about the above more. Christmas to me now is a time of reflection and pondering, a time to look at the past year and add the good and the bad bits to either side of the “scales of life”.

The past three have come down heavily on” the Bad side, this year I think they may well be balanced, I have discovered the joy of Blogging, made quite a few “online” friends, and learned a lot.

How many others out there will be alone and which of those will be resigned to it, dearly wanting some sort of company and yet liking their own routines they've got into? How many drug-ravaged kids can't cope and will succumb over the next few days? Is there power in all thinking about them on Christmas Eve around the same time and hoping some minor miracle occurs for them?

As for myself, I quite prefer to be alone on this holiday, as I've become less social as I've gone along. This year I can't escape the festivities and the family here quite enjoy it so there'll be a turkey, bonhomie and all that. Well, fine, good, let's do that.

It's the people who once had the joy of this time, who really appreciated the coming together and then somehow lost that - you are the ones I'd like to get some cheer across to if I could.

Lastly, spare a thought for a group who never get sympathy, never seem to be in people's prayers - these are the employed, with the house and car, the mortgage, the bulging credit card debt and the worries about the New Year. You are the ones who are supposed to be sympathetic to the have-nots and the visible lost-allers but you yourself don't seem to register on the sympathy counter. You're often the ones who are expected to open the wallet and pay and yet how many spare a thought for you?

You are the unfashionable for the media.

Well, Merry Christmas to you as well.

[christmas quiz] how much do you know

.

True or false:

1. Shepherding was considered a very noble occupation.

2. Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar Augustus.

3. The wise men found Jesus not in a manger but in a house.

4. There are no records of Joseph speaking in the Christmas story.

5. The little drummer boy came to the manger after the other shepherds.

Answers here

[search and rescue] who should carry the can

.

Consider:

In February, 1999 three climbers went missing for four days on the Dômes de la Vanoise during a period of high avalanche risk. After a long search and rescue operation the climbers were found safe and well. They were hailed as heroes by the media with the efforts of the rescuers being largely ignored and unrewarded.

They sold their story to Paris-Match for 600,000 Francs and it was published in a 20 page special. This provoked outrage amongst many people and the climbers subsequently donated part of the money to the mountain police widows and orphans fund.

The article puts the cost of a helicopter alone at 2000 euros an hour and a straight stretcher rescue at 300 euros. In a typical scenario, it might be an all day or two day operation with dozens of personnel.

Another article puts the cost differently:

Each year, the National Park Service spends $3 million on rescues. Most of the searches are for kids who wander from campgrounds, park officials say. But the expensive rescues--the ones that require leasing a $300-an-hour high-altitude helicopter to pick "thrill-seekers" off snowy cliffs--are on the rise.

Whatever, the costs to the residents or in the case of a national rescue service, the taxpayer, are high. Climbers and potholers get a bit hot under the collar about having to pay what they see as exorbitant fees upfront and outrageous costs of an actual rescue:

In one of those four snowboarders were rescued from Mont Rosset in the Savoie in 2003 and were billed around 6000 Euros for the private helicopter that plucked them to safety.

There's a difference, isn't there between experienced and amateur, safety conscious and not, foolhardy and following a plan which was left with officials.

Years ago, at the end of a sailing season, on a windy day and over very cold water, I was racing my A Class cat when the trapeze I was on broke and I was flung some distance from the craft. The club rescue boat was involved, at that moment, in rescuing some kids and they said later they hadn't seen me. The only thing which saved me was a passing motorboat with some some party-goers on board.

That involved just an obligation to my rescuers but I've often thought of rambling and getting caught and needing to be got out. Who should pay? What should the set up be? Should there be opt out clauses? Or should it all be banned?

[caption] please

[good luck, bad luck] would be nice to know the formula

Oh, don't you just love this one:

UK couple Jason and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence have been on holiday in Mumbai, London and New York just as terrorists have attacked each of those cities, and have survived each occasion.

The couple, from Dudley, near Birmingham, were in central Mumbai last month as Islamic terrorists targeted foreigners during a killing spree that paralysed the city with fear, London's Telegraph reported.

They were also in New York on September 11, 2001, when hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers and brought them down, killing about 3000 people.

Four years later, they were in London on July 7 when four terrorists used suicide bombs to blow up trains and buses, killing 52.
How lucky are you?  I am lucky in some ways but desperately unlucky in others.  For example, if I'm in a car, it's most unusual not to get a parking spot there and then.  There is always someone pulling out or one break in the traffic - I think it's a little beyond the average.

On the other hand, I'm not too lucky on the work front and sometimes things go pear shaped which there was no reason for them too.  Some of it, like being booted out of Russia with the other Brits was wrong place, wrong time, wrong ethnicity.

You know sometimes, when you're in for a bad day.  Things don't gel - you knock that table and it it all falls on the floor, you stub the toe, even when not rushing, a phone call comes with bad news and another comes with a demand.  The bus doesn't arrive at all.  That sort of thing.

Sometimes I know when it's going to be a good day and much of that is if I'm in the good books that day with a certain Personage.  That's the day to try your luck because the chances are it will all work out.

I hope it works out for you this Christmas, as long as your wish doesn't involve the destruction of someone else.  I hope you're not cold or impecunious to the point you're not eating.  I hope it's OK for you.

Monday, December 22, 2008

[the soothsayer] and the greed of the senators


A certain curmudgeonly soothsayer was known for his crazy predictions which caused all and sundry to label him as mad.

Day after day, he could be found on the steps of the Senate and as Senators climbed the steps to the forum, the soothsayer would predict some dire thing or other which was sure to pass.

“Oh, Cashius Minimus,” he would say, “do not leave the city tomorrow for your wife will entertain one of your colleagues of the populist persuasion.”

Now the tall, spare Cashius, afflicted with his dandruff trouble, knew better than to physically rough up an old man on the steps of the Senate so he just grunted and went up to the forum, making a mental note to have his luscious wife watched, in order to prove the soothsayer wrong, to publicly label him a charlatan, a humbug.

Needless to say, his two henchmen had occasion, the next afternoon, to put both Cashius’ s wife and her lover to the sword, on their master’s express orders. When one of them brought the gory news to the steps of the Senate, the soothsayer could be heard cackling: “I told you so, I told you so.”

Yon Cashius kept his peace.

On another occasion, the egregious Maximus Flatulus, who had just been appointed princeps senatus and was surrounded on the steps by sycophantic admirers, was advised by the soothsayer that a plague of locusts was coming to devour all the produce in his fields east of the city.

He laughed the soothsayer to scorn, as nothing so ridiculous had ever happened in those parts before. In Egypt, maybe but here in the Golden City? And why only the east of the city anyway?

Flatulus swept past the crumpled old figure on the steps, pausing only to live up to his name and immediately put the matter out of mind. Needless to say, in three days time, a plague such as had never been seen swarmed through the countryside, eating everything in its path and leaving Flatulus stony broke and without either property or senatorial appointment.

...........

Now, it would be wrong to suggest that the soothsayer never took a break – he did – and his favourite place to meditate was close to the Tarpeian Rock. Being a soothsayer, of course, he knew beforehand that a group of very disgruntled landed gentlemen were approaching him from the Capitoline Hill and he could also glean their intentions.

“Welcome, kind sirs,” he croaked, as they gathered behind him in malevolent silence.

Flatulus spoke for all. “I suppose you know, Painus Arsus, why we are here?”

“Of course, your honours. You wish me to desist from my irritating predictions of doom and gloom. Otherwise you will throw me from the Tarpeian Rock.”

A wicked gleam sparkled in all eyes but Arsus went on. “However, that would be to your disadvantage, gentlemen,” he fawned. “I can predict wondrous things as well as evil. It’s just not as much fun, that's all.”

“Well start predicting now,” growled Hypocrises, who shouldn’t be in this tale anyway but these things happen.

“Well, your lordships,” murmured the gnarled and balding Arsus, standing and facing them both bravely and obsequiously, from long practice, “if you were willing to lay down the most valuable things you possess, one item apiece and if you were to return to the Senate henceforth, riches beyond your wildest dreams await you there.”

The landed gentry looked from one to the other. They’d actually come to end the life of this pestilential creature before them but business is business and each, in turn, laid the most precious possession he happened to be carrying before the soothsayer – a few aureii here, a few sistertii there, a picture of Arnius Gropus’s concubine, a season ticket to the corporate box at the Colissei, until the social isolate with the protruding front teeth, Flagellus Logus, was the last.

“I … er .. came out without my wallet, I’m afraid,” he shuffled awkwardly in the dust.

“Never mind,” replied Arsus. “Each will be rewarded in kind.”

With that, he stood aside, as a herd of wilderbeast came charging at the cliff, taking the Senators with them over the edge in one fell swoop, arms flailing and togas failing to act sufficiently parachutie to prevent their untimely deaths on the jagged rocks below.

Arsus nodded, gathered the booty into one toga which had got caught on a sharp boulder, then made his long, painstaking way back to the Senate steps, stumbling here, dropping a note to Mondo Lecherus there, a note from a fellow Senator’s wife for an assignation that night but now he had no need for such youthful diversions; he was a rich man and within two weeks he was appointed princeps senatus, a title he graciously accepted, before trading it in for an Emperorship and the Divine right to rule.

But that’s another story.


This cautionary tale is dedicated to Jams O'Donnell [but does not refer to him]. :)

[memorable lines] actor and film


For five points - the actors. For the other five points - the films.

1. "I vont to be alone."

2. "Where's the rest of me?"

3. "Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

4. "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off !"

5. "Speak English to me, I thought this country spawned the f---in' language and so far nobody seems to speak it."

Answers

Greta Garbo, Grand Hotel; Ronald Reagan, King's Row; Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove; Michael Caine, The Italian Job; Dennis Farina, Snatch

[greenbacks] will gordon issue a uk version


In 1862, the bankers secured the passage of an Act which provided for the issue and circulation of private bank notes of a less denomination than $5.00 in the District of Columbia. On June 23rd, 1862, Lincoln exercised his power to veto the Bill:

"This bill seems to contemplate no end which cannot be otherwise more certainly and beneficially attained. During the existing war it is peculiarly the duty of the National Government to secure to the people a sound circulating medium. This duty has been, under existing circumstances, satisfactorily performed, in part at least, by authorizing the issue of United States notes, receivable for all government dues except customs, and made a legal tender for all debts, public and private, except interest on public debt.

…Entertaining these objections to the bill, I feel myself constrained to withhold from it my approval, and return it for the further consideration and action of Congress. [Abraham Lincoln, June 23, 1862.]

Lincoln backed the greenback to counter the bankers and in his letter to Colonel E.D. Taylor says:

"...we finally accomplished it, and gave to the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever had ...It is due to you, (Col. Taylor) the father of the present greenback, that the people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known..."

The problem was in the codicil:

"This note is legal tender for all debts public and private... except duties on imports and interest on the public debt…"

Near the end of his term, Lincoln was despairing of having lost the battle with the financiers:

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.

As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." [letter from Lincoln to Col. Wm. F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.]

… whilst Europe was despairing of the greenbacks policy:

"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." [Hazard Circular - London Times 1865]

The idea of a National Currency controlled by the government itself remained persistent for a long time. In response to the 1877 riots, the American Bankers Association secretary James Buel wrote:

"It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural and Religious Press, as will oppose the greenback issue of paper money and that you will also withhold patronage from all applicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money.

To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore to circulation the government issue of money will be to provide the people with money and will therefore seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders. See your congressman at once and engage him to support our interest that we may control legislation."

Now let’s cut to 1963, with:

Executive Order 11110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289

AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended-

By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):

(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption

and --

By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.

Sec. 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made. [John F. Kennedy The White House, June 4, 1963]

Executive Order 11,110 called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than through the traditional Federal Reserve System.

From The Final Call, Vol. 15, No.6, On January 17, 1996

U.S. notes were fiat money but free of interest, not based on debt and not monopolistic. Federal Reserve notes are fiat money, not based on anything solid but on debt and the issuance is monopolistic. Lincoln and Kennedy were both killed.

Will Gordo be brave enough and love his people enough to issue a non-interest bearing currency which will secure his suffering people sustenance in their time of trouble?

Sunday, December 21, 2008

[dealey plaza] eliminating disinformation

Click for zoom

Intro

I'd always been for the grassy knoll and the Dal-Tex building because of the man who'd been found in there during the shooting. Then I read a couple of quite cogent pieces on why Oswald could have done all three shots and now believed the One Gunman theory.

A glance at the map above and pics below shows that he could have made the shots but it would have been damned difficult from that window. Why wouldn't he have been from the window at the other end of the 6th floor [where witnesses said they saw someone anyway]?

The thing is, even expert investigators can't agree so the only thing is to go through it all again, viewing as much primary evidence as possible, e.g. Zapruder. I have to say, after last evening, that it now seems clearer.

You make your own judgements, after viewing this material:

Dealey Plaza and the Book Depository

Dealey plaza gif.
Dealey plaza shots [click on them for zoom].

Motorcade

Garrison appears to be wrong, as the maps were indeed printed with the correct route but the next day, the Morning News printed the wrong route yet again. The Times-Herald kept it as Elm right through:

Dallas Morning News Wednesday, November 20, 1963 ~ page 1

Yarborough Invited To Travel With JFK by Carl Freund

"A security car will lead the motorcade which will travel on Mockingbird Lane, Lemmon Avenue, Turtle Creek Boulevard, Cedar Springs, Harwood, Main and Stemmons Freeway."

Dallas Morning News.
Dallas Times-Herald.
Here is the description in the Dallas Morning News.
Here is the description in the Dallas Times-Herald.
Check parts 1 to 4 for the altered security arrangements.
Select Committee report [1979] on arrangements, inc. motorcade [104-106].

Notes: Obviously confusion over the route but by November 19th, it had been cleared up. Lack of security for Kennedy in that section quite unusual. Buildings not checked beforehand either.

The Assassination

Version 1, showing the two shots.

First time Zapruder was shown in 1975.

Closeup of the second head shot and Jackie Kennedy's reaction.

Notes: Some have stated the head goes forward a micro-second before going back. Some have said the bulge at the back of the head was painted onto the Zapruder film later. You decide if the head went back or forward as well as the angle of the shot. Also, there is some evidence the Zapruder film was doctored.

Why did Jacquie crawl back over the trunk? Check the right arm movement. Also the crack in the windscreen [not on film]. Check the Dealey Plaza map at the top of the post again. Work out what angle the bullet would have come in at.

Possible snipers

Badgeman.

The storm drain/sewer theory. This youtube no longer appears to be up. However, I found this wmv. Damn because the original vid showed a man actually taking the cover off and climbing down, then exiting from a place a hundred metres or so away. It was reenacted. In the wmv, the car's going way too fast - Kennedy's was almost stopped at the time after the first shot. The shot is difficult but possible from down low and easy enough if the cover had been taken off.

Notes: Also check Dealey Plaza map again. For Badgeman - it does seem a human head. Against - the angle seems wrong for where the limo was, past the Freeway sign. For - someone wrote that for Badgeman to have done that damage on JFK, the recoil of the weapon would have been too much. Badgeman seems to have fired [judging by police and crowd reaction] but perhaps not the fatal shot.

On the other hand, for Sewer Man, it would have been almost point blank, plus the angles match. I don't think he would have been half out of the manhole, as the film contends - he would have entered the same way as he exited - through the drain and fired through the gap at street level. It may have been that he was just the last resort shooter if all else failed.

Teague

Teague testimony.
Teague and the echoes.

Notes: Teague was certain hit by debris [check map again] and that indicates either a shot from the Dal-Tex or by Oswald [check Dealey Plaza pics again].

Witnesses

The Bell film, showing witnesses running up the grassy knoll.

Notes: This one is a puzzle. Over half said that the shots came from the TSBD but that includes people not near the grassy knoll. The crowd behaviour was strange. An anti-knoll theorist said that the crowd only ran up on to the knoll a full minute after the shooting and were following a policeman who'd arrived late and had run up there. I say, "Well?"

Look at it this way. If you were in that crowd and the shot that hit Kennedy seemed to come from behind and up [the TSBD], what would your reaction have been? Hit the deck? Hide behind a tree? Run away from the scene? If the shot had come from the grassy knoll or the drain, would you have run towards the gunman?

Also, look at the scene again. Some people are just walking on by, quite casually.

The security men

Here is driver Greer's view.
Here is Kellerman's statement.
Security man called away.

Conclusion: Oswald could well have fired the back of the neck shot, the Teague shot may have been from Oswald or Dal-Tex, the Connally shot I don't know, the windscreen I don't know, Sewer Man probably for the fatal shot but as the wmv shows, the side of the car is high and Kennedy was leaning slightly inwards.

The thing is, the shot had to have come from somewhere. The limo seemed to have passed Badgeman so it had to have come from somewhere front and side, and fairly low down. If we can't accept Sewer Man, then from somewhere else in the drain. The Moorman polaroid seems a bit early for the fatal shot.

Finally, any ideas why?


[december 21st] auspicious day


Today is December 21st, one of the two shortest days of the year. It was significant, in 1971, for another reason.

Richard Nixon's major priority, in late 1971, was that nothing occur to derail his re-election. He had come to Washington deeply suspicious of a Democrat dominated town of liberal tendencies and thus a siege mentality began to define the White House [according to Colson later].

Two very interesting themes came out which did not feature in the received wisdom about Watergate, but in the light of the release of classified documents, explain a lot. They're of interest today in the way they show the workings of the presidency and the oval office.

The Moorer-Radford spy ring

Nixon's secretive manner, the way he scrutinized things before acting on information [or not], the way he bi-passed his official utilities from the Secretary of State to the Joint Chiefs, even down to sending in warships on his own say so, can be taken two ways.

It meant that the military industrial complex Eisenhower had mentioned would now have little say in policy on major issues, except through their man Kissinger, a complex character in himself [click for a clearer view]:



On the other hand, almost like throwing a dog a bone, what these official organs did receive was a "backchannel", a way to indirectly access the President through Kissinger, whom many feared, even Nixon. Why such a man was kept on when he clearly made all and sundry uncomfortable is another story. For his part, Kissinger revealed, in Nixon, a man who shied away from disciplining subordinates or enemies but rather "getting something on them", to bring them into line:



These very "extraordinary procedures" convinced the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they were being circumvented:




So the JCSs set up a spy ring within the White House and in particular, within Kissinger's baby, the NSC, which had not been used since the Kennedy days but was a clear ploy to bring national policy firmly inside the purview of the White House itself.

The method was to use a naval yeoman, Radford, who acted as PA to Kissinger and Haig on foreign trips, to actually rifle through their briefcases and copy sensitive material of use to his military superiors. He was shocked when some of that material appeared in Jack Anderson's news column, high grade material at that and then more appeared over and over.

Nixon was incensed about Anderson in particular but when he heard about the spy ring itself, he reacted seemingly strangely. This is part of the transcript from the tape of the meeting on December 21st, 1971:

EHRLICHMAN: Well Bob, it doesn't happen that way of course. [INAUDIBLE] He says, "He stated that this practice began with Admiral Robinson, who instructed him to 'keep his eyes open.' The subject construed this to mean that he should furnish Admiral Robinson whatever information might be an advantage to support the liaison's office and the Admiral."

NIXON: Now, wait a minute. Now, wait a minute.
[PAUSE] I'm suggesting that it was Moorer who must take responsibility for this Anderson's column. It's possible, right?

Later they discuss whom they can trust:

NIXON: I mean, uh, and particularly Henry. Henry is, uh, is not a good security risk.


MITCHELL: He's not a good security risk the way he runs that office.


NIXON: [INAUDIBLE] he stole . . . so indiscreetly. The main thing is that, the main thing is that, it's to me that reason that [POUNDING OF DESK WITH EACH WORD] He—had—to—know—that he was getting stuff from Kissinger's and Haig's briefcase. That—is—wrong! Understand? I'm just saying that's wrong. Do you agree?


MITCHELL: No question about it, that the whole concept of having this yeoman get into this affair and start to get this stuff into the Joint Chiefs of Staff is just like coming in and robbing your desk.


NIXON: Yes it is.


HALDEMAN: The thing that disgusts me about this is, if they'll do that—


NIXON: Yeah.


HALDEMAN: - What else are they doing?

EHRLICHMAN: You know, military drivers, military gals, military everything around here.


NIXON: Yup, yup, yup, yup.


HALDEMAN: Christ. We've all used this office. [INAUDIBLE]

One of the key chiefs, Welander, was brought in for questioning and he made a confession:



Rather than hit the key JCSs, Nixon decided to tread carefully and in particular, he didn't want Haig touched. There's been much speculation on Nixon's reaction, especially that his prime motivation was to keep the backchannel open:



Of even more interest was Haig's and Kissinger's relationship, given that Kissinger was the public hawk and Haig the dove:




The Watergate key

The general consensus accepted at the Senate hearings was that the burglars had gone in to wire tap and dig up the dirt on the Democrats for political advantage.

Another story which emerged but was never pursued, for some reason, stemmed from the point where the burglars were lined up along a wall with their hands on that wall and then the bugging equipment was found. The investigative officer noticed that one of them at the far end of the line, Martinez, kept moving his hand to his chest so many times that when the officer reached into his coat, he found this:



Much was made of the contents of the book but the key, surprisingly, did not feature al that much in subsequent testimony. In fact, the focus became how much Nixon knew and when but not on the burglary itself, which had enough holes in it to drive a bus through. It was too incompetent to be true.

The obvious question was:

"Why would a Watergate burglar have a key to a DNC secretary, Maxine Wells's desk in his possession and what items of possible interest to a Watergate burglar were maintained in Wells's locked desk drawer?"

Into this came a character called Bailley:

According to Silent Coup Bailley was eventually arrested and indicted for violations of the Mann Act (transporting under-age females across state lines for immoral purposes), extortion, blackmail, pandering, and procuring. As a result, Bailley's address books were seized. Silent Coup also notes that Maureen Biner's name appeared in Bailley's address books.

Maureen Biner was John Dean's wife:

The implication of Colodny and Gettlin's narrative is that the June 17, 1972, the Watergate break-in was ordered by Dean so that he could determine whether the Democrats had information linking Maureen Biner to the Bailley/Rikan call-girl ring and whether they planned to use such information to embarrass him.

Why would no one wish to pursue that line, apart form G Gordon Liddy? The allegation was that that key opened a desk at the DNC HQ and that inside that desk were the photos and contact details of girls, many underaged.

It's long been maintained by both pundits and leaks from the establishment that the higher echelons of Washington operate not unlike Salon Kitty was supposed to have, way beyond mere call girls and involving some very sick stuff. Now, if the DNC ran a show like that for visiting VIPs, would the GOP have been any different?

The effect on 1971 America would have been devastating, had that come out.