Saturday, January 24, 2009

[economy good] according to gates

Shades of Dr. Pangloss


Bill Gates' take on the economy:

Despite the fact that his foundation’s assets have declined by over 20% in the past year—actually a decent performance, relative to other institutional investors—Mr Gates is remarkably optimistic. He will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, where there will be much talk of the need to “reboot” the global economic system, but he thinks such talk is exaggerated, because the foundations of the economy are basically sound.

“Even if it now drops 5-6%, the world economy has delivered phenomenally,” he says, predicting that innovation and wealth creation will eventually resume because the underlying market and technological forces remain as potent as before. Well, let’s hope so.

Glad he's happy with things.

[spy v spy] the faceless men

This is an abridged version of an often rambling interview but interesting nonetheless:

For nearly 30 years, Markus Wolf headed the international intelligence gathering arm (HVA) of East Germany's Ministry for State Security (MfS), or Stasi. Known to Western intelligence as "the man without a face" for his ability to avoid being photographed, Wolf developed one of the Cold War's most effective espionage operations.

Under his direction from 1958 to 1987, HVA ran a network of about 4,000 agents outside East Germany, infiltrating NATO headquarters and the administration of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. After German reunification Wolf was sentenced to six years in prison for espionage and treason. Later, however, the conviction was overturned and he received a suspended sentence on lesser charges.

Wolf was interviewed for Cold War [a publication] and the resulting article “Spies, in their own words”, was published in January 1998. The text has been translated from German.

On recruiting spies in the West

I feel that I, and the people under my command, tried to use all the traditional methods of recruiting agents which were also used by other intelligence services; adopting also means like pressure, money, sex -- but that did not characterize my service. I mean, it did exist and may have been adopted, and was successful in one or other case; but still, from the very beginning, when we had no experience, while the West German service had the experience of the Nazi General [Reinhard] Gehlen and they should have been superior, I feel that with our political convictions, we managed a lot. ...

The most important thing was that we tried to have a targeted approach -- to attack where the side had its secrets, in the centers in Bonn where the major government institutions and the Chancellor were -- you will know we were not quite unsuccessful there -- and in NATO and NATO countries. But the latter was not top priority. And of course, we thought about how to approach these people, how to get inside.

For instance, with the West German Foreign Office, it was important for us to study very closely how to make an application there, what sort of people were recruited -- perhaps from diplomatic families with establishment backgrounds, people who had studied a certain field at university and had shown good results; that is, people who from a Western perspective looked good and had a good chance of getting in. ... And so some of the most important sources were in the Foreign Office.

There were links through the [student protest] movement in 1968, where [West German] establishment youngsters joined us as a way of protesting against the state they were living in. ... One example concerns someone from the 1968 movement who wanted to protest against the injustice he saw in the West. Another [agent] who found him said: "If you genuinely want to do something against the country and against the establishment, there are other options. Let's go over to Berlin and do some talking about it." And then his further development was controlled, from his university studies up to a top position in NATO. ...

What we wanted from an agent depended on what he brought in. It was our experience that a simple sergeant in the U.S. Army, or a technical employee in the Ministry in Bonn, where not many abilities were needed apart from a willingness to furnish information, was perhaps more important and resulted in better, more secret information, and a larger volume, than [information provided by] an undersecretary, a high official or a high officer.

What we wanted from an agent depended [on a series of factors]: he had to be willing to do it, and to accept certain risks and dangers and a variety of different psychological preconditions as well. One person can take papers, photograph them without getting excited, return them, and give them away without any scruples; while someone else has to overcome an enormous obstacle. The question of trust comes in.

On the other hand, for a secretary who has a lot of confidence in her boss, and maybe has a certain liking for him -- to abuse his trust and to take secrets from his cabinet or shelf must be a major psychological barrier. Perhaps insurmountable.

And we weren't only successful there: there were cases where interesting target people said, "No. That's it -- period." You can't do anything if a person says no. In such a case, there's nothing you can do -- unlike the popular cliche that pressure is exerted, or that maybe an unwilling source is done away with. No.

I can give you an example of a secretary who used to work at the Chancellor's office, and who was seduced to cooperate through a [male agent]. She even asked to be accepted into our party. And then the man, because his papers weren't that good, had to be withdrawn back to the GDR, and she got to know another man, a simple waiter, and she told him everything, and he said, "You're not going to carry on." I talked to both of them myself in Berlin, and I tried to lure them: I made financial offers, I tried to get them to carry on their work, but we failed and there was nothing we could do.

Making use of human weaknesses in intelligence work is a logical matter. It keeps coming up, and of course you try to look at all the aspects that interest you in a human being. At our college we were taught a universal approach to find out about a person: what problems the person has, what difficulties, what personal tendencies and likings.

But I must say that from my experience and the experience of my service, [it's not as] is popularly thought: that somebody who is a homosexual or engages in perverse sexual practices, or gambles or is over-indebted -- okay, that comes into the game, yes -- but of all the human weaknesses, I would think the most common weakness in capitalism is the lust for money: to have more money than you do, to live better than you can afford to. That is what was mostly used and played a major role. Then it's psychologically not that difficult to find a way.

It used to be my principle, even with someone who sold himself to us, to try to remove their feeling that they were doing something dirty. I tried to instill a different motivation, to give them the security and the conviction that they were doing something good, something necessary, something useful -- if you want to use a grandiose expression, that they were doing something for peace. I mean, we did believe we were doing it for peace.

On sex and espionage

Sex and espionage certainly go together -- that's an old tradition. There are many examples described in history as well as in literature, for example in "The Three Musketeers," where there is this famous story about the attempt to seduce D'Artagnan. But there are also true stories, for example that of Mata Hari. [Sex] does play a major role, in so far as women are employed against men; much more so [in other services] than in the service I used to be the director of. I have no good Mata Hari-type examples to talk about.

There was, however, a different approach, which the media called the "Romeo method" (though we never used that term) which became a very successful strategy. We used young men, people whom we had initially meant to send to the West anyway, who were unmarried.

They had different jobs initially, and we said to them, "If you need a woman -- and you may need one -- then don't choose one [who is] just a tram-driver: look out for a [government] secretary you like."

And it worked. ... It wasn't, as the media cliche would have it, the middle-aged, not beautiful, sad, easily seducible person -- no, no. I mean, they may have existed as well, but that wasn't the focus. There are as many examples as life itself. There were some tragic cases of women whose love was abused, who for a certain time procured important documents or information, not knowing who for, what service they worked for, and for a variety reasons got jailed, were tried and sentenced.

That's on the negative side, on the morally negative balance sheet; but there were also some who were lucky, who were happy enough. It was a successful method. You couldn't say that we were a "lonely hearts" operation. ... [But] I could maybe give you 10 or more examples where that turned into a happy relationship, and even a marriage with children, where I was present as a witness to the wedding ceremony.

I still correspond with several such couples where there was this fortunate outcome. But we can't say that the service was a marriage agency -- no, that was partly a by-product of that tough work, which in the end has nothing to do with romance.

On Berlin's role in Cold War espionage

The particular feature of Berlin -- well, all you need to do is look at the map: the geographical position of the city right in the heart of Europe, and the separation of the most powerful two blocs we've ever had in history, which went all the way through Germany. Berlin was in this exotic position, right in the heart of a socialist country, or a country within the socialist camp or the Warsaw Pact countries. And at least until 1961, when the borders were closed, it was easy to operate there. ...

The atmosphere in Berlin in the 1950s, early 1960s ... I mean, it was a hard, tough fight. It wasn't fun; it was a tough fight for all those involved. ... It was an exciting time.

But for those in charge, it was more work behind their desk, where the excitement came in the form of paper, of reports. Every arrest caused excitement. I hadn't been long in my post at the head of the service, when the West German Vice-Chancellor Blucher announced that 37 East German agents had been arrested. That was the first man who left our service and betrayed it to the West. That created a lot of tension for the director, causing sleepless nights.

I used to live in a small settlement at the time, which was surrounded by guards, where leading politicians of the GDR used to live only a few hundred meters away from the French sector in West Berlin. And one could freely move to and fro, and there were abductions -- people got kidnapped from the West to the East. So we had to expect retaliation, that one of us might become a target. I didn't have a personal bodyguard, although I had been offered one. But I didn't like that. But of course, I had a pistol. I was armed. ...

Our area never had anything to do with James Bond-style espionage. In the John Le Carre film "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," which included perhaps a depiction of myself, the tension was exaggerated for the purposes of the film. But then again, there really was an underlying tension. The responsibility for the agents, for offensive espionage work, is linked to tense situations. There were arrests time and again.

Sure, there were also action scenes; there was tension, but the tension was chiefly invisible. It was an invisible war. We coined the term ["invisible front"]-- or rather, we took it from the Russian language, to be exact. There was a song, and I remember I wrote the German lyrics: "The Soldiers of the Invisible Front." The invisible front -- that's what it was in the Cold War. And for us it was war. The soldiers were still on the alert, but for us and for others who did go out into the cold, it was a war.

On technical intelligence

We planted bugs, microphones, in premises which interested us in the West. We weren't too successful -- I would have said unfortunately in former years, but I don't care anymore now. But strangely enough, we were successful with Egon Bahr, one of the closest collaborators of [West German Chancellor] Willy Brandt, and we managed to monitor his confidential talks with an emissary from Moscow, which was interesting -- and we had no information [about the talks] from Moscow at the time -- but it wasn't of decisive importance.

Most of the results of using technical bugging devices were of little importance for my service. It may have been different in counter-intelligence, where bugs in flats, etc., were used to obtain a lot of information about what counter-intelligence was interested in. There was a lot of superfluous stuff, in my opinion, when other people were monitored: those with dissenting opinions, people in hotels, what people suspected of being spies said in hotels.

Of course, counter-intelligence used technical means in hotels for the surveillance of journalists, foreigners, people who were suspected, but all in all, as far as my service, the HVA, was concerned, the use of technical means played a subordinate role.

On the ethics of espionage

I'll use a comparison which I don't like to use, but ... you see, a general who commands soldiers in a war knows that some of them are not going to survive. And generally speaking, he will have no moral scruples. Of course, having human feelings, he will be sorry for every dead soldier, but he will say, "I did that in fulfillment of my purpose, my task." I don't like this comparison, but it's true in some way.

If, as a director of the intelligence service, I am putting people at risk of going to jail, then I don't do anything other than the general who does that in war. ... All staff members of a secret service, including my own, knew that they were risking death if they furnished information to the other side. ... Each staff member of an intelligence agency who crossed the borders and betrayed secrets, knew what to expect while there was capital punishment in the GDR.

In terms of intelligence methods, one may wonder at times if the end justifies the means -- this famous Machiavellian expression. I'm asked about that, with respect to the Romeo cases in particular, and it would certainly be the simplest thing to say, "No, certainly not; one has to refute such a principle." But that wouldn't be the full truth. With intelligence methods, you can't apply the same yardstick as with ordinary morals. And surely, one or the other means is justified.

And if, say, a secretary whose feelings were misused for love, or pretended love, for a man -- I'm thinking of a particular case now -- if, for 10, 12 or more years, she supplied secret documents which were vital for our service, and it was discovered and she was jailed for three years, and she lost the man and she lost the love -- I must say, as the head of that secret service, that in that case, well, it was worth it.

It's not nice, certainly, but then again, every director of an intelligence service, including those in the West, would be in the wrong position if he said, "I have to be scrupulous about it -- is that in line with my ethical conduct?" Intelligence methods are not moral things.

On the importance of espionage in the Cold War

Whether it was important or not is something for the historians later on to decide. But I feel that at that stage of the 20th century European history, developments at times bordered on a hot war, and that's why I think that if something positive can be said about the work of the intelligence services, it's that through their work they may have avoided this going over the threshold to a hot war. I think that's the most important thing. ...

Generally speaking we reaffirmed that the purpose of our intelligence service (maybe of all the services) was to prevent surprises -- above all, military surprises -- against one's own country or one's own alliance. That was the main job; that's the way we formulated our functions, and that's the way I saw it. ...

I'm pretty sure that the intelligence services on the whole, and the spies both in the East and the West, tended towards a more realistic assessment of the balance of power than that of politicians and military leaders; so that actions, or even adventurous actions which could easily have led to an escalation [of tension] or even to a war, would have been desisted from. So, yes, I do claim that my unit contributed to our having had the longest peacetime in modern European history. I feel I can justly say so. ...

[But] I have my doubts about the use of secret services. ... In the end, it all depended on the political decision-making, and I feel that we can count ourselves lucky that in those critical crisis situations in the Cold War -- in the end -- political reason won, somehow. Many things were not handled very reasonably, and perhaps if people had listened more to secret service agencies, some things would have been done more intelligently, more reasonably.

I don't think the intelligence systems spoiled a lot, but whether they were a lot of use -- well, I would reserve my reply.

Friday, January 23, 2009

[respectability] and what’s hidden beneath


Drawing room plays and Victorian novels stressed the necessity for money and therefore respectability.

Everything was predicated on money and above all else, one had to have wealth, which had the added advantage of providing a locked closet for former indiscretions.

It’s not just the British who place great store by respectability but the Brits have made an art form of it.

When I went into a properties place to get some accommodation, the "respectable" looking Higham, at first, had them interested but the moment it became apparent that I was just as impecunious as the average denizen around these parts, the tune changed very quickly.

So what is respectability?

Is it a bourgeois illusion, a thin veneer papering up the cracks or is it something more – a sense of decency and fair dealing? Maybe it's the possession of wealth after all.

What does respectability actually mean?

And is it important?

[china] and a false sense of security


Poor old China - the news doesn't look good:

Annual economic growth in China almost halved from 13 per cent in 2007 to 6.8 per cent in the year to December, the National Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday. The growth figure is below the arbitrary 8 per cent threshold that Chinese leaders say creates risks of social instability. Adding to concerns, Citigroup has calculated China's economy shrank 0.1 per cent in the December quarter from the September quarter — its first contraction in at least 16 years.

Wishful thinking.

There's still growth, of course and the shrinkage was miniscule but given the overall strength and direction in its controlled economy, it's still able to pursue its objectives around the world. Whatever China has become in the last 15 years, it is still a country relying on vast, cheap manpower and this can overwhelm all but the United States, which has been crippled by the traitors at the top in all spheres of its society. This article's not new but it sums up the reality:

China has adopted a "string of pearls" strategy of bases and diplomatic ties stretching from the Middle East to southern China that includes a new naval base under construction at the Pakistani port of Gwadar. Beijing already has set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar in the country's southwest corner, the part nearest the Persian Gulf and the post is monitoring ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea.

Other "pearls" in the sea-lane strategy include:


• Bangladesh: China is strengthening its ties to the government and building a container port facility at Chittagong. The Chinese are "seeking much more extensive naval and commercial access" in Bangladesh.

• Burma: Close ties to the military regime in Rangoon and turned a nation wary of China into a "satellite" of Beijing close to the Strait of Malacca, through which 80 percent of China's imported oil passes plus naval bases, electronic intelligence gathering facilities in the Bay of Bengal and near the Strait of Malacca. Beijing also supplied Burma with "billions of dollars in military assistance to support a de facto military alliance," the report said.

• Cambodia: Military agreement in November 2003 to provide training and equipment. Cambodia is helping Beijing build a railway line from southern China to the sea.

• South China Sea: Focus is "protecting or denying the transit of tankers through the South China Sea" and to be able to "project air and sea power" from the mainland and Hainan Island. A military airstrip on Woody Island was upgraded and its presence increased through oil drilling platforms and ocean survey ships.

• Thailand: Construction of a $20 billion canal across the Kra Isthmus that would allow ships to bypass the Strait of Malacca giving China port facilities, warehouses and other infrastructure in Thailand aimed at enhancing Chinese influence in the region.

China will not confront the Islamic push or Russian reassertion - it will simply sign treaties with them until the time is ripe. Never forget because the Chinese don't, Deng Xiaoping's maxim of hiding its light for the present and nourishing obscurity until the time is deemed right.

[retail today] going the extra yard

Oh, I like this one, about Right Rant's trip to WH Smith:

She scanned the paper and then put the bloody thing in a carrier bag - and with a receipt to boot! Talk about eco friendly - a friggin carrier bag for a newspaper! And a receipt - whats that for? So that I can take the paper back if there's a fault with it? 'Can I have my money back for this newspaper please, it's gone wrong'.

Every time I go to my bank, the lady asks me, after we've done the dirty deed: "Would you be liking something else, Mr. Higham?" [Love the continuous tense.]

In the case of one nice teller named Nikki, it might be a consideration but in general, the answer would have to be: "No thanks, the money's enough for now but thanks for the offer anyway."

Thursday, January 22, 2009

[memory loss] ho hum

Damn, damn, damn and damn.

I had a post on 'respectability' but forgot to put it on the stick. I did have my CV though and the letter to a potential employer. Oh well, I'll post it tomorrow.

This is being written on the library computer and it makes everything ten times slower than the Mac so I'll do my visiting tomorrow. Still, this is a friendly place here and warm, so that's good.

Have a good day - I'm off to ASDA now.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

[aging] lifestyle change rather than drugs


Not at all sure that drugs are the way to go, no matter how effective they may be in the short term.

Aging is an unfortunate but natural process which requires complete lifestyle adjustments. Easy to say that you and I should have thought of this earlier but still ... all our efforts should be to take care of the inevitable before it goes too far.

If we can, in this current climate.

[feminism] one woman's take on it

An anti-feminist


Dare I mention this interesting post? :) For personal reasons, I make no further comment whatsoever.

[obama] and that inauguration


I'm very proud to have [possibly] been the only person on this planet [apart from one or two tribes in deepest Africa], who saw nothing of, heard nothing of nor was interested in Obama's inauguration.

It would be nice if he were eligible but he's not. It would be nice if he wasn't beholden to forces who are going to rip America apart but he is. It would be lovely if he were the messiah but he's not.

It would be lovely if we were all prosperous again but I'm not holding my breath. However, hope springs eternal.

[interim report] midweek fun and games

My washing machine [also doubles as Wordless Wednesday]


Things are impinging, people.

The interview yesterday might produce something but at best it’s going to be a piecemeal solution. Still, a start is a start. The new place is good but already there are faulty kettles to take back, letterboxes to repair and all the other moving in things which you know well.

The builder found an old washing machine for me, connected it and up to a few minutes ago it was fine but then came the rinse cycle and the walls and floor are shaking a-a-t-t t-t-h-h-i-i-s-s m-m-m-omen—t-t-t.

Blogging’s going to be a headache for some weeks as there are quite a few things to be bought for the home before I start thinking of BT and internet. For now it’s going to have to be the library in a nearby town and occasional visits to my mate to impose on him, a situation which is a pain in the neck but it’s only until mid March.

It was suggested yesterday that I should write up a lot of posts and put them into “scheduled”, which Blogger now allows but there’s a downside to that - the nature of blogging anyway. Isn’t it supposed to be an interactive process? When I visit someone’s site, he/she is away and the thing’s on autopilot, it somehow isn’t so good.

So, I’ll post when I can. That’s about it really for now. Hoping your own situation is either stable or improving.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Well, Who'da Thunk It?

Since there's the hoopla of the inauguration of the first black President here (sorry, he's holding the office but will never be since he's not a natural born US citizen), I have some more bad news for all the Obamunists. He isn't the first black person to hold the office of President of the United States of America. Sorry, Barry is the 9th, yes 9th, black man to hold the office. Sorry folks!

Monday, January 19, 2009

[the abyss] inexorably down or rising above it


Whilst you might be on the edge of your seat awaiting the latest news of Margaret Beckett, Geoff Hoon or Lembit Opik, whilst Hazel Blears' latest missal or news of Jonathan Ross and Jade Goody might fill the gap in your day, it would seem it does not take centre stage in the minds of maybe a few million people across the UK.

These are the ones hanging over an abyss or who've already fallen into it. These are the ones about to be redundant or the unemployed, the drug addict on the street moving slowly downwards to that feral state I've seen before in a former life [not me but I was closeby], the bin pickers and corridor finders at night, the fallen - those who once occupied positions of trust and respect and who somehow lost all, those who've lost what they thought only other people lose.

These are the people needing some sort of break, some sort of hope but instead see signs on buses telling them there is no G-d and to abandon all hope.

Why so dark today? These are the days where the ship has left the spaceport and finds itself out there once again hovering over the abyss, where one systems glitch will see it spiralling down but this time without a safety net. This is reality TV.

Confession time - yes, I've been watching this series from the early 2000s called Andromeda, not the greatest series ever but sufficiently concerned with universal themes to make it morish. In researching it, its characters and actors, the same questions were asked by many - if it's not all that great as a show, then why am I still watching episode after episode?

Off topic for a moment, how could I be watching this if I have a house to shift, job interviews to attend? The answer is that if you don't take breaks, you go mad.

Back on topic. The abyss was a good name for the force of darkness from a parallel universe, a force which sucked you down a black hole which you could see no end to, a force the afficianados said [and backed up by the words of JC in the gospels] that you shouldn't mess with or even mention by name.

In the series, it was a force which was all watchful, which found its way in through little fissures in relations between people, which explored cracks in the fabric of life systems and always stressed the gloomy side, rather than the hopeful. It was concerned with death and destruction and somehow labelled this noble and romantic, as if the despair and sadness were a fine thing to inure you against hope. Black was white and white was black.

Hope was its enemy.

It got into the commonwealth and corrupted the politicians so that they even turned on their former heroes, incarcerated and tortured them. It turned people's minds so that former allies were now enemies, consumed by personal ambition and indifference to others. Whatever had been built up, whatever had been achieved after long struggle, it was perverted and corrupted and it always sought people in key positions to do that to.

You could excise it from the brain of a subject [exorcise?] but it would find another host to occupy. Where, in earlier series of the show, it was referred to obliquely, now the gloves were off and it was referred to openly as possession and the struggle, which had previously been between different worlds, different peoples, good and bad, where it had once been a secular, temporal matter, now the chaos was revealed to have had a guiding hand deep in the soul of people, on a one to one basis and the greatest joke was that people knew and yet didn't know they were even possessed.

Immediately I think here, in today's world, of the millions who are slaves to their credit cards.

The abyss seeks to kill or neutralize the whistleblowers; the naive and not so naive seekers of truth are welcomed by pretty faces, with smiles, who appear to be onside at first but who slowly reveal another agenda and in whom the paucity of good values and strange responses to mini-crises should be a warning sign for the perceptive but the perceptive can't get anyone to listen to them.

Through the series, two people on opposite sides of the galaxy might be following different agendas - one a tyrant consolidating power, another a girl who had fallen to the unforgiving street of feral once-humans but eventually, it's seen that the same force had permeated its way into their brains. Security forces who seem to be targetting the wrong people - ditto.

In the second last episode I saw, the starship captain was trapped on a derelict craft, headed towards a black hole and with him is a religious man who's now lost the way. The latter is full of doom and gloom and asks the captain what his greatest fears are, to which the captain snaps: "Those are negative thoughts. they're not going to help us out of this hole."

He gets out and others who were looking for him find him, [neither could have done it alone] ... but in the very next episode, one of the crew is infected by the abyss and nearly costs everyone's life.

And so it goes on and on ... into the starry blackness of the future. There is hope, despite appearances, but it depends whom you trust.

Off topic - I'm moving today and have an interview tomorrow and thus will be temporarily offline. Have a successful couple of days. Try this post.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

[effects] do you know yours

Mass effect

What is the effect called:

1. ... commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren approaches, passes and recedes from an observer. The received frequency is increased (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is decreased during the recession.

2. ... primarily with hunters and trappers to criticize what they feel are irrationally emotional objections to the killing of "adorable" animals, regardless of what the hunters consider are environmental and economic realities.

3. ... referring to situations in which students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so.

4. ... which is a psychological phenomenon whereby a highly persuasive message, paired with a discounting cue, causes an individual to be more persuaded by the message (rather than less persuaded) over time. Some messages are often accompanied with a discounting cue (e.g., a message disclaimer, or perhaps the message was delivered by a low-credibility source) that would arouse a recipient’s suspicion of the validity of the message, and ultimately suppress any attitude change that might occur with exposure to the message alone.

5. ... a phenomenon where it becomes difficult to detect local feature changes in an upside down face, despite identical changes being obvious in an upright face.

Answers
doppler, bambi, pygmalion, sleeper, Thatcher

[unpopular opinions] cost many readers


The most important thing is to tell it as it is, even if it costs you big in terms of readership. If the truth runs contrary to popular opinion, that's no reason not to tell it.

Obama

The President-Elect began the day in Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy, and travelled by train to Washington DC, seat of the nation's super power. In so doing, he followed in the wheel tracks of the man who enabled the first steps that have taken black Americans from slavery to the world's most powerful office.

Bentsen once said to Quayle: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," and anyone could say to Obama: "You're no Abe Lincoln." In fact, the cynical train journey by the non-president is a travesty, an insult to the American people.

As for the American people themselves, they've been hoodwinked in the same way Britain was with Blair.

Gaza

Stop the rockets and all the rest follows.

Today's agenda

When the American War for Independence came to an end at Yorktown, the British, stunned at their defeat, stacked arms while a band played "The World Turned Upside Down." At the time, the musical selection must have seemed particularly apt. After all, who could have predicted the defeat of the world's foremost naval and military power by the band of rag-tag citizen soldiers fielded by the Colonies?

It's as well to look yet again at the elite's manifesto:

1) Abolition of all ordered governments
2) Abolition of private property
3) Abolition of inheritance
4) Abolition of patriotism
5) Abolition of the family
6) Abolition of religion
7) Creation of a world government

Marriage and the family

Pornography, the gay mafia, feminism and the predictable male backlash, along with the tame reconstructed male, domestic violence which is never explored for its true antecedents, the rise of the unsocialized young male and now female, the dumbing down of education, agendas of destructive organizations like planned parenthood and the detested CSA, the controlled MSM, a new generation which knows nothing of ordered society - all contribute to the destruction of the family unit and marriage as its binding glue.

Active assault on their maker

If the notion of a deity is as much a myth as the socialist, atheistic humanists like to make out, why the need to take out ads on the sides of buses? They've got quite a psychological problem, poor souls. One can only smile the way they trumpet the rationale as supporting "free speech".

Er ... exactly the opposite, actually but still - these people never can see this.

They like to portray themselves as the voice of reason but all they're really doing is taking part in the same suppression that they're purportedly railing against and can't see their hypocrisy for what it is. Why does the existence of their maker send them into such apoplexy?

Lastly

In his keynote address to the Association for Childhood Education International, in April, 1972, Chester M. Pierce, Professor of Education and Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, proclaimed:

"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being. It's up to you, teachers, to make all of these sick children well by creating the international child of the future."

Lovely people, aren't they?