Saturday, June 20, 2009

[twenty4seven] are you dreaming



This is a group which always puzzled me. When they were in vogue, so was Betty Boo, Paula Abdul and MC Hammer who was soon to drop the MC. Dance music and Game Boys were the rage and at this time, I was back in England, I'd bought the Twenty4Seven cassette and had it on quite loud on the way back from Newcastle in the little roadster. This was when Take That was in full swing, also New Kids on the Block and East 17 were about to come on the scene, so you can gather the tastes of the people in the car.

They were polite about Twenty4Seven, one said he'd seen a vid and the group danced well, the girl was nice and that was that. They didn't diss the group but somehow it didn't capture them. So, as I said above, I always wondered about it because they were big in Europe and did well worldwide but not in the U.K. for some reason.

Now that this music is out of vogue, I suppose I'll never find out. I can only surmise that the sound was a bit thin and they appeared a bit amateur, esp. at Top of the Pops. I don't know - they had the rhythm, the dancing, the girl's voice and the regulation suggestion of rap. In the end, I suppose it was that the girl's singing was of a different genre to Captain Hollywood's rap. Maybe the 'love the world' lyrics didn't move people who were looking for a harder edge - it killed off MC Hammer, after all.

See what you think. This was their biggest hit.

[dishonesty] promoted above their station

There is an appalling person over in Canada who has already been fisked by Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant.

These people are always head of this commission or that, aren't they? PC obeyers who are therefore given the nod. In this case, Jennifer Lynch, head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. As you'd expect, as in the 1984 Ministry of Truth or the Ministry of Love, the opposite is the case.

Her tactics are to make long, aggressive, jingoistic speeches from the safety of her office then to cocoon herself from any possible criticism by refusing to answer questions. Her idea of debate is for the opponent to go on the talk show first and have his say then, once he's gone, she comes on and gives her point of view for people to listen to.

How many of these earthworms do we have in Britain? Could you think of anyone offhand?

[lisbon] the last candle flickers in october

This will need to be confronted by the ordinary man and woman before October.

The press first, in the words of EU Referendum:

[In this recession], increasingly, the news is not generated by newspapers but by the various agencies. Much of the copy is now simply a "cut and paste" job, with a few tweaks, the less honest of the papers then simply adding their journos' names to the final result. Where this gets important is that a very few news agencies (and then a very few journalists within those agencies) are essentially controlling the print (and indeed much of the rest of the electronic) media.

Through this means, one sees insidious distortions and simplifications which completely change the context of the political debate. And, like water flowing through the cracks in the dam, they percolate everywhere, finding their way into thousands of print and online journals, influencing the way people think about the world.

So, while the major players on the No side put their view on the 2nd Lisbon vote, AP reported it as 'Ireland Votes Again' - distortion of the debate and 'the poisonous drip of misinformation'.

On the chances of a No vote second time around:

However, it seems to us obvious that Mr Ganley made a monumental mistake when he allowed his vanity to lead him into trying to form a pan-European party.

Flushed with the triumph of the No vote in the first Irish referendum he ought to have sat back and said that he was interested only in stopping the treaty. This could not be done in the Toy Parliament (a point that escaped Mr Ganley, I suspect) and, therefore, Libertas was not going to get involved in those elections but wait for the second referendum and campaign there.

At most, he should have campaigned only in Ireland, making that into a back-up referendum. He and his colleagues might have done quite well.

Instead, Mr Ganley decided to promote himself and his followers into a band of brothers dedicated to the salvation and reform of the European project. They failed miserably and deservedly. In the process, though, they destroyed Libertas's political credibility in Ireland and damaged, very severely, the chances of a No vote in October when the second referendum is likely to take place. (Smart money is on October 10 but no decision can be taken until the Referendum Bill is passed by the Dail in July.)

The battle in Ireland will be a tough one, made much tougher by Declan Ganley's recent antics and failure. We, in this country, must do all we can to help. This blog is standing by.

Courtesy of EU Referendum, here is the list of British traitors who defied public opinion and voted Yes to Lisbon, knowing full well, in the words of Heritagedotorg:

The new Treaty poses the biggest threat to national sovereignty in Europe since the Second World War, would threaten the future of the Anglo-American Special Relationship, and would significantly weaken the transatlantic alliance.

So what's new in this post?


Only a perspective.

Most anti-Union pundits concentrate on the threat to our sovereignty and to the corruption of the EU. Not many write of who would head it. Yes, I know Tony Blair has been mooted and Barroso but I mean who will really control Europe.

The powers that allowed and funded Hitler's rise are still there. The majority of the Thirteen Families are still there. The Round Table Groups are still there. It's not the very monolithic nature of the Union and the hoovering up of all semblance of sovereignty within the UK which frightens me the most - it's the presence of real evil in the heart of Europe, the posterity of the generators of strife over the centuries. They're the ones whose puppets will govern and the work they had Hitler doing, which went pear-shaped due to his imperfections, can begin again.

Do you honestly believe that the people who put Hitler in power were all killed in the bunker with him? Or did they just slip back into the shadows to wait for the next opportunity?

It's not just an economic zone we're on about here, it's not just the shape of your power sockets - it's the whole sordid agenda of 1929 to 1945 all over again. Make no mistake, if Lisbon goes through in Ireland, the implementation pan-Europe will be swift and complete. Then the real agenda will begin pulling what was the UK into the vortex with it.

It's not at all fanciful to suggest - just look at the whole nature of the European Project to date, the strongarm tactics, lies and spin, their very manner of going about business - that the very things Churchill spoke of those black radio nights will have to be spoken of again, only this time, minus a Churchill.

I'm in training and ready to rejoin Dad's Army but unfortunately, the enemy is already inside and in power in every region, in key posts in all fields. This time, Britain, no one is going to send up Spitfires, no one is going to rally us all together. This time, the vans will be sent to quietly mop up all known insurgents in a time of crisis - you, me and every blogger who has dared to speak out against this monstrosity.

Ireland must vote NO.

By the way, here's Vox Day's transatlantic interview with Dan Hannan, touching on why he [mistakenly] supported Obama, why he doesn't stand for a place in the UK parliament and including views on the BNP.

[blowflies] disturbing increase in unexplained deaths


How do you eliminate these varmints? Personally, I have a can of Raid nearby but what's this I'm finding? The buggers are dying of their own accord.

Right through the flat, dotted here and there are upended and very dead flies. Something, someone, some powerful force, maybe the Fed, maybe Gordo, maybe the one whose name must not be mentioned, is doing this.

It's a conspiracy.

Friday, June 19, 2009

[art of noise] peter gunn theme



In 1987, two of us choreographed the Peter Gunn theme for a bunch of kids in a review, around a single street lamp, slightly stage left. Was this one of the earlier pole dances? We were pretty chuffed by it, they looked slick, the guys and gals and my friend was a pretty hot choreographer. The light and sound were in place and a techie I knew came in gave it the once over, so all seemed well.

They did do it well but unfortunately most people likened it to Bugsy Moran so it lost a bit of its wow factor plus the song was still too freshly in people's minds and everyone was doing arrangements to it. Doesn't matter. Whenever I listen to this I still remember that black and white number.

It would have been nice if the Art of Noise could have run the characters in the video in monochrome and the girl's dress in red. That's just my personal preference though.
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[weekend poll] age and beauty

Yes, Rachel, the Boys' Poll is next Friday.

Well, I've already made a hash of this right from the start. I left Nigella off and Freepolls only allow ten variants. So the only way out of it [some votes already having been cast] is to count TOTAL VOTES and I'll tot up the percentages once it's all done, after the weekend.

Now, let's get down to it

Only a fool would claim that young women are not beautiful and enticing but 'sexy' is a much broader term than just perfect skin and sharp movements. It's the combination of so many things and the expression that a woman is like a fine wine - better as she gets older, I'd vouch for from my [limited] experience.

There's an animal wildness and a knowledgeability to the experienced lady [in the one or two I've known] which the younger girl is going to have to wait years to develop.

So, here are eleven such ladies for you to vote for in the right sidebar. Remember that you're allowed multiple votes done at one time.


1. Stevie Nicks [61]

2. Queen Noor of Jordan [57]

3. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. President of Argentina [56]

4. Segolene Royal [55]

5. Michelle Pfeiffer [51]

6. Ann Curry, U.S. television personality [51]

7. Susanna Hoffs, from the Bangles [50]

8. Kate Bush - yes, Kate herself [50]

9. Julia Louis Dreyfus, U.S. actress and comedienne [47]
[This picture was removed on 02/11/10 at the request of JL Dreyfus's management.]


10. Monica Bellucci [44]

You must be wondering about Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emmanuelle Beart, Queen Rania of Jordan, Audrey Tautou, Carla Bruni and many others. They're all too young! Slips of girls.

You might be wondering about why Christie Brinkley's not here either. She's a model and I've left the models out because their profession is beauty.

2nd group - those the readers insist should be there


11. Nigella Lawson [47]


PLEASE VOTE IN THE SIDEBAR, RATHER THAN IN THE COMMENTS :)

[henry allingham] now the world's oldest


Gets you right here, doesn't it? You've seen the news, of course and this blog would like to mark the occasion as well. The Beeb announced:

World War I veteran Henry Allingham is the world's oldest man, following the death of 113-year-old Tomoji Tanabe who died in his sleep at his home in southern Japan, Guinness World Records has confirmed.

Mr Allingham, one of only two surviving WWI veterans in the UK and the last surviving founder member of the RAF, was born on 6 June 1896. He was born in Clapton, London, and now lives at St Dunstan's Centre for blind ex-service personnel near Brighton. Mr Allingham is the sole survivor of the Battle of Jutland and has also published his life story.

Mr Allingham's friend and chaperone, Dennis Goodwin, said: "It's staggering. [Henry] is philosophical. He will take it in his stride, like he does everything else. He withdraws in himself and he chews it over like he does all the things he has done in his life. That's his secret I think."

Well done, sir!
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[women] wiis and home accidents


Angus had this yesterday:

WIIs can be dangerous especially for the fairer sex: Women exercising indoors have caused up to £1.3 billion in accidental damage in the last year, as they increasingly give up gym memberships and used games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii.

It seems that Ladies (glass of wine, a fruit based drink) are deserting Gyms in droves in favour of the above mentioned games console. An estimated 13 million women now exercise at home, either in front of a television or computer monitor, or using basic weights and home gym equipment, according to a research by an insurance company.

Hence all the home dumbbells on sale at ASDA? And subsequent visits to the Outpatients?

[the fed] pull the other one

Karl Denninger [H/T Anon]:

I mean, c'mon, $165 billion in Treasuries for sale in the next week?

$31 billion in 3-month bills
$27 billion in 7-year notes
$40 billion in 2-year notes
$37 billion in 5-year notes
$30 billion in 6-month bills

Annualized this is $8.58 trillion dollars!

Now obviously they won't keep doing that for the next 52 weeks (one hopes) but you have to be smoking something if you think the market can continue to absorb this sort of supply and shrug it off.

Today the TNX was up over 5%, undoubtedly on this announcement, almost erasing the benefit from the recent stock market decline.

So Ben's liquidity games have bought him about 15 basis points of improvement in the TNX, but he's given up 35 handles on the SPX.

At this rate to get the TNX down to 3% he'll have to sacrifice 230 points on the SPX, taking it down to about the March lows.

The thing which amazes me in the whole business can be summed up in another article by Karl Denninger:

There is no attempt to hide anything and no conspiracy - simply a conflict of interests.

Readers are at different levels of incredulity over the Fed's actions, from the, 'Oh I'm sure they wouldn't do anything nefarious, those nice men in suits,' through, 'Those incompetent bastards,' to the keen observers [see Sonus articles in the sidebar] who have come to the same conclusion, albeit from a different direction to me, that the Fed and others are simply proceeding to shaft us and position themselves nicely for the next induced stage of the crisis.

I say 'induced' in the sense that certain policies are going to result in certain economic outcomes and to say that from Greenspan to Bernanke weren't and aren't aware of this - come on, pull the other one.

I do sincerely hope that we've all got past the Economics 101 stage of thinking that the Fed is a Government agency, haven't we? We do all realize it's a private cabal of companies who handle the government's business?
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[women over 43] andy mac dowell

This is an ongoing series about lovely women over 43, which reaches its climax in Friday afternoon's Sexiest Woman over 43 Poll.

"Four Weddings and a Funeral" star Andie MacDowell says her 40s were an awkward time partly because Hollywood filmmakers didn't know how to cast the veteran American actress.

The 51-year-old actress hasn't had a big hit since a string of commercial successes in the early and mid-1990s, including "Groundhog Day," "Michael," and "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

She said Thursday that while she didn't have trouble finding work in her 40s, American filmmakers may have had trouble finding good roles for her."In America, there's such a hunger for young people, so you get the young up-and-coming star.

And then it becomes a time when they really don't know what to do with you ... and then it changes, I think, after 50. I think you have to stay open and flexible and look for opportunities and not be arrogant," she said.

"You're so used to being the lead or the hot thing. I think a lot of people get stuck in that moment. And I'm not really stuck in that moment. I just want to participate."
She looks great at 51 but that still isn't enough, it seems. It's the tragedy of people who perhaps have pretty features but something in them, some vibe they project, puts people off. Looking at her, I could be completely wrong but she comes across as a bit pushy, a bit terse maybe, which men don't like in a woman, of course. I think most men would not even notice the physical ravages of time if she was a lovely personality. Perhaps she is lovely in real life.

This article says of her:

[S]he appeals to women as much, if not more than, men, who don't always find her sexy.

That's true.

'Anjelica Huston, Jessica Lange, Geena Davis - what's the girl from Basic Instinct? Sharon Stone - Sean Young, all modelled. The big difference is that I was extremely successful.'

The tartness of the riposte is rather at odds with her likeable screen image.

This is part of the problem with actresses - often you're only as good as your material and how you are typecast. She was most likeable in Groundhog Day but if she had a poor part, she might come across entirely differently.

The bottom line though is that she looks like that at 51. Wow.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

[rain] from a warm room


wind drops, vertical rain
tumbles, thunder and lightning,
snug here, observing















Snow does it in a different way but the rain! Why can't Britain have a monsoon season? All the major pleasures and tragedies, all the poignant moments, all the crossroads in my life have been to the backdrop of rain.

[splodginessabounds] two pints of lager ...

[ten banks] chutzpah as an art form


All of us are angry at having the p--s taken out of us these days. This, however, makes me very, very, very angry:

Part 1
Ever since the government gave the O.K. for 10 big banks to pay back the bailout funds, the firms have been rushing to return the money. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be off the government dole anytime soon. Last week, 10 big banks got the blessing from the U.S. to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the rescue fund under which scores of banks got federal funds.

Just days later, banks are giving back the money. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have returned $10 billion; US Bancorp $6.6 billion; and BB&T $3.1 billion. Goldman Sachs says it’s ready to repay the money, as well. In all, the 10 banks are expected to return some $68 billion.
So, let's analyse this but not with economic stats. The banks were bailed out. This meant that without this money, they would have gone to the wall and the economy as we know it would have collapsed, right? Now, in a short space of time, what is apparent is that their liquidity supposedly dried up, having stashed the cash into other areas. Now they pay back the loans in full.

How?

Well, they realized assets, didn't they? Assets they'd had all along. So all this talk of expensive TARP is so much hogwash because the simple bottom line is that they actually had the reserves in the beginning, saw the chance of a big handout from the government, took it but now see no further need to continue the charade.

This is the historic Morgan octopus's game. The current game is a variant - they wish to control the government, not be beholden to it. It was always to be this way.

Where did the money come from? From the American taxpayer, of course, those in the bankruptcy queues. What state is the American taxpayer currently in to support cheating banks? Now, if an individual had been up to this creative accounting, in order to secure a loan, what would happen to him?

Part 2

A Democratic president, of course, would be all for ripping off the banks and redistributing it to the common people, wouldn't he? Isn't that what socialism is? Taking from the rich to give to the poor? Well, all right - at least letting the poor go away to lick their wounds.

Er ... no:
This summer, President Obama is calling on all of us – young and old, from every background, all across this country – to participate in our nation’s recovery and renewal by serving in our communities. From June 22 to September 11, United We Serve will begin to engage Americans from coast to coast in addressing community needs in education, health, energy and the environment, and community renewal. Serve.gov is your online resource for not only finding volunteer opportunities in your community, but also creating your own.
Hang on one moment. A people desperate for their steady jobs not to disappear, cynically played around with by the very people who had Obama elected [Morgans, CFR et al], are now being asked by him to volunteer through the summer for the good of the You Ess of Ay, to selflessly give for the good of the country as the dollar is about to be by-passed by another currency, plunging the nation into chaos.


Quiz question - which party's supporters would be more likely to accede to Obama's request, thereby showing themselves to be True Apple Pie Patriots? And what of the other side who point out what they think of Obama's idea? Oh, they're cast in the role of villain of course.

Part 3

There is a Jewish word 'chutzpah'. Here is the Wiki definition:
The word derives from the Hebrew word ḥuṣpâ (חֻצְפָּה), meaning "insolence", "audacity", and "impertinence." In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly, to describe someone who has over-stepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame.
Which is more galling to you - the situation you find yourselves in or the way it has been played by your non-President? There are many words to describe my feelings on the pollies and those behind them.

'Kill' is one of those words, in a completely hypothetical way, of course. Just letting off steam on a blog, you understand.

In a country still maintaining freer gun laws, I wonder if 58 East 68th Street, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave or 1585 Broadway are at all worried about the people of the United States and what they might do?

Part 4

If you're not doing anything much in the next few years, particularly if you've just gone to the wall, you might like to pop along to JPMorgan Chase or Morgan Stanley and have a chat to Martine Bond about the situation America's in. A couple of million people should be sufficient to make the point.

[an ordinary person] a plea

Oh nice. Could almost be in Britain:

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
H/T Bag, wherever he is.

[iran] how much is rafsanjani a factor

How much Mousavi intends to protest might depend a little on this:

Khamenei virtually reminded Mousavi of their old association, when the latter served as Iran's prime minister under him and the two were not only close comrades-in-arms for the preservation of the Iranian revolution through the critical years of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s but also worked together to frustrate the cunning ploys of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Also:

Will he get another chance? That is a big question. Time seems to have run out for Rafsanjani. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly projected an "anti-corruption" drive as a major plank of his new presidency. Was that mere election rhetoric, or will he go for the Rafsanjani family, which has many skeletons in its cupboard? Everything depends on what Khamenei thinks.

[made in heaven] er ... um ... er


Not wanting to be cruel, sexist, ageist, heightist, spotlightist or goldist but Katie Lee leaving Billy Joel does not appear to me to be news. It's surprising that it lasted five years. Katie Lee defined it this way, at the beginning:

"I think we complement each other," she said. "Obviously, there's a big age difference," she said, laughing. "But he's very immature and I'm very mature, so we meet in the middle."

And at what age did she marry? The golden 23, of course. Hmmmm. Yes. This blog doesn't, as a rule, follow the celebrity limelight but in this case, the photo is so stark.

The couple had earlier denied reports of their marriage being on the rocks. The 60-year-old actor had married the 27-year-old chef at his 15-acre waterfront Center Island estate in Long Island.

Look ... er ... Billy ... um ... what can one say? Well, all I can say is that I've been down that path before and ... oh hell ... can't believe I'm saying this ... couldn't you have chosen someone just a teensy bit more ... er ... appropriate?

Yes, I know - you loved her and she loved you to smithereens, it was pure romance etc. etc. She was the light of your life but ... um ... er.

It's just, you see, that I've also, in the past ... well ... best I stop there.

[poor diet] the lifestyle of choice in britain


You may have gathered I'm not all that well. I put it down to poor diet of late and am currently working to rectify it. It was interesting then to read Minette Marrin's remarks about the NHS and on health. Firstly, a little dig:

The NHS is the fourth-largest organisation in the world, after the Russian army, Indian railways and Wal-Mart. The idea that anyone at the top can begin in two years to understand what should and shouldn’t be done, let alone do something, is madness. For secretaries of state to skip at speed from post to post, using each ministry as a stepping stone in their career or as a way to prop up a self-serving prime minister, is not government; it is musical chairs.

Lovely. Now to the meat of it:

To me the phrase “public health” had come to mean “public nuisance”. However, my mind was changed by Christine Hancock, a former senior nurse and NHS manager and now European director of the Oxford Health Alliance, an international public health charity. She began by saying – and who can disagree – that she was exhausted by NHS reform. The service is obsessed by structures and finance, to the detriment of primary care.

Yet the main burden upon the NHS comes from chronic diseases – cardiovascular disease, lung disease, diabetes and cancers – which, apart from causing drawn-out suffering and death, are hugely expensive to treat. All these conditions are often caused or made worse by smoking, inactivity and a bad diet. Everyone knows that, but few people seem to care.


The acute hospital ward where I spent three weeks as a visitor recently was full of people almost too big for their beds, and certainly too heavy to lift, regularly visited by their outsize relations: people of normal weight were in a minority, except among the nurses and doctors.

Our streets and shops are full of people who are not just fat but obese, waddling from groaning sweetie counter to busy burger bar, eating food that is in effect poison.
Sugar is full of calories that make you fat and sick and it’s addictive. And it can give children serious mood swings. Most fizzy drinks are bottled disease. There are about 550 calories in a Big Mac, which by itself is well over a quarter of a woman’s or a child’s daily energy needs.

Yummy thingies and treatlets and biccies are swimming in invisible fat to fuzz up your arteries. To give such things to children is nothing short of child abuse.
As for good food, according to Hancock, only 25% of the population eat five portions of fruit or vegetables a day, and 50% of children – an astonishing figure – eat no fruit or veg at all in the week. I am sick of people talking about health education and “lifestyle choices”.

What’s clearly needed, contrary to everything I’ve always thought, is a little compulsion. Our NHS and our economy cannot take the consequences of poor lifestyle choices.


First, all schools should make healthy meals compulsory and should offer pupils one meal only – no choice – and make them eat it. (Allowances would be made for religious taboos and ill health.)

Second, the polluter must pay, as the Greens always say. The polluters who manufacture junk food of all kinds should be forced to label it, like cigarette packets, with simple information about calories.

And the food itself, the pollutant, should be made extremely expensive, by high taxes, so that those who are polluting their own bodies would have a powerful incentive to stop.
Admittedly this is hard on the poorest, who eat the most junk food, but bad diets are not only bad for them.

This last sentence I'd like to look into further.

Where I live now, it's a certain distance from an ASDA but there is a corner shop round the ... er ... corner. This corner shop therefore supplies what sells. In that shop are packaged sandwiches, bottled orange juice and some fruit near the door but the rest of the shop is groaning under the weight of junk food.

That's the problem with Ms Marrin's idea. No one wants good food. It's not yummy in most people's eyes and they've often grown up knowing no other choices.

If I'm out of food and I want to have a healthy meal, I can't. There is none in that shop.

Now, contrast that with Russia where every second housing block has a shop of some kind on the ground floor. In that is bought kasha [buckwheat, couscous etc.], rice and many cereals and all have bain-maries with a variety of meats, fresh and cured.

Admittedly, greens can't be bought from there, except in the form of salads, of which varieties on cabbage are the majority. Salads are big sellers in Russia. For fresh greens, you have to go to the markets. On the way back home, one must run the gamut of the babushki selling their cottage cheese from deep pans into your bottles you've brought, radishes, garlic, shoe-cleaning materials, fuses, spanners, jams, lettuces, tomatoes and cigarettes [that latter not so good].

So, put me in the same position - having no food in the flat and wanting to buy some, I'd return from my local shop with half a fish or chicken breast, some salads and some kasha, pick up a couple of items form the babushki and there we were. The cumulative result of a few years of living like that, combined with walking most places, was that I was healthy and looking younger than my years.

Over here, a year of junk food [given that that is all that is available from the corner shop and I have no fridge] has resulted in the inevitable. With no fridge, fresh meat is a day to day affair but that takes some organizing because a shop which sells it is so far away. There is the corner shop, as I said and a chippie up the road which is one of the greasier ones. In the main street there are burger places and Indian but nothing fresh.

There needs to be something like the Russian stolovaya. The west makes fun of these but when you walked in, one bought, for remarkably little money, salad, soup, piece of meat and two veg and finished it up with tea. These places were everywhere, as tea-rooms are over here. Basically, not only was that lunch taken care of but one didn't need anything else for a few hours.

If I don't do something quickly to circumvent this, I'm sure I'm heading for heart disease. It might even be too late. It will be hard to do - there are no longer cabbages to be had [for the last two weeks] and the buckwheat disappeared off the shelves some months ago. Finding good food within half a mile in Britain is very difficult.

But I'll try.

Just a note about Russia.

There was a push, in my last years there, to run the babushki off the streets and force everyone to go to the new hypermarts, government built, where stalls were rented at high premiums and the only kiosks left were ice-cream, confectionery and cigarette bars. So the process of westernization had already begun, children were starting to become obese [never before 2002] and that's the point I departed Russia.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

[going to bed] with ludwig



Have you ever seen a 36 minute Youtube before?

Nigh nigh, all.

[flowers] a language of their own


Wouldn't it be lovely to see this come back again?

A nosegay, posey (or posie, posy), flower bouquet or tussie-mussie is a small bunch of flowers, typically given as a gift. They have existed in some form since at least medieval times, when they were carried or worn around the head or bodice to mask the unpleasant smells of the time - literally, to keep the nose gay (to keep the nose happy).

In their current form, they rose to popularity during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 onwards, at which time the tussie-mussie became a popular fashion accessory.

Typically, tussie-mussies include floral symbolism from the Language of Flowers, and therefore may be used to send a message to the recipient. See the book entitled Tussie-Mussies, the Victorian Art of Expressing Yourself in the Language of Flowers, Workman Publishing, 1993.

The nuances of the language are now mostly forgotten, but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. Also commonly known meanings are sunflowers, which can indicate either haughtiness or respect – they were the favorite flower of St. Julie Billiart for this reason. Gerbera (daisy) means innocence or purity. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, still represents the sending of a message. A pansy signifies thought, a daffodil regard, and a strand of ivy; fidelity.

This is about the only reference, other than Wiki, on the Turkish practice of Salem or the language of objects - suspect a bit of Days of the Raj here [though it be Turkey]:

The Turkish women cannot be called happy; ignorance and confinement must impair the sense of being: quarrels and toys divide their time; they dote on trifles, and all the copiousness of female feeling is wasted on personified objects.

The language of flowers, which is peculiar to the Turkish harems, owes its celebrity wholly to Lady Wortley Montague; it was she who introduced it into Europe, together with the practice of inoculation, in the same manner as Busbequius, two centuries before, had introduced the Persian lilac and the writings of Dioscorides.

[outing bloggers] it's all over the sphere

I didn't want to do another political post today.

Guthrum:

Like Nightjack this blogger will eventually disappear either through a need to protect my business and employees, or be exposed by some moral vagrant working for BERR or whatever Mandelson's Empire is called this week.

The British people are being slowly reduced to acquiescent slaves to work without a murmer as drones in the factories and offices of this country, whilst monopolies like Tesco determine the price of our food, and destroy farmers ...

The blogosphere has given me the opportunity to write on things that I have know that has gone on for years ...

Yes, yes and yes, Guthrum.

Why then do some bloggers use 1984 tactics like widgets in the sidebar informing the authorities where the visitor has come from?

Why does Google require a phone number now?

Why can't I keep my identity and place of blogging to myself and therefore from the very authorities you're speaking of?

Outing

Since when has this pernicious practice been acceptable in the sphere? Why? For what? Even in our fiercest battles last year, my [ex] stalker and I never divulged anything of each other, which would surprise many. I have to give him that.

Why would you out a blogger of a different political persuasion if he's committing no crime or is not in with criminals?

Why would you out a gay? If a gay wants to choose his own time [or hers] to come out with it, isn't it his/her business without the Gay Mafia deciding, 'No - you must be proud! We're going to out you.' ?

Why? for what vicarious thrill?

Why must the jackboot reign even in the blogosphere?

[great work of ages] proceeds apace


There is one quite fundamental difference of opinion between this blog and the majority of other political blogs. Let me illustrate with cases in point.

This article makes what appear, on the surface, fanciful claims but they're anything but fanciful when laid alongside the weight of other evidence:

There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”

It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe.

The governor of China’s central bank has openly called for the abandonment of the dollar as reserve currency, suggesting in its place the use of the International Monetary Fund’s
Special Drawing Rights. What the new system will be remains unclear, but the flight from the dollar has clearly begun. The goal, in the words of the Russian president, is to build a “multipolar world order” which will break the economic and, by extension, military domination by the United States.

This article was written from the American perspective and is therefore quite paranoid about the hegemony of the U.S. being broken and let's face it, that should worry us too. What is less apparent is that it was known well in advance that this collapse was coming. Time and again I refer to the FOMC report of October, 2006, where it was clearly anticipated.

My and other bloggers' posts [read the Sonus articles in the sidebar, on the Fed ] on the NAAC, SPPNA and NAU have shown that the CFR, at least in their own minds, saw themselves in an openly validated advisory role to the U.S. government. What really annoys me is when blogger friends of mine, involved in and commenting on the financial world, see this CFR as an association of loons. Sorry but the Morgans, Rockefellers et al are not loons. At least, they are loons in terms of their crazed 'Great Work of Ages' - intergenerationally, they should all be in loony bins.

What I mean though is that they are so cold, manipulative, all-pervasive and clever in the way they operate. They find every fissure in the world of power, insinuate themselves into it and eventually control it. I keep going back to Senator William Jenner of Indiana, from Feb. 23, 1954, who said before the U.S. Senate:

"Today the path to total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people.

We have a well-organized political action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state. It has a foothold within our Government, and its own propaganda apparatus. One may call this group by many names. Some people call it socialism, some collectivism. I prefer to call it 'democratic centralism.'

The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization. It is a dynamic, aggressive, elite corps, forcing its way through every opening, to make a breach for a collectivist one-party state. It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government without our suspecting the change is underway.

This secret revolutionary corps understands well the power to influence the people by an elegant form of brainwashing. We see this, for example, in the innocent use of words like 'democracy' in place of 'representative government.' "

Remember, of course, that those were the days of the communist fear and McCarthy. What he wasn't aware of, in the times he lived, was that he was referring to, in reality, the power which Ike also referred to, behind the scenes. Wilson had referred to it too, FDR had begun to refer to it but ended up doing its bidding by calling in gold and converting the dollar to fiat money, a most necessary precursor of the current troubles.

No one wants to read about these things.

Fellow bloggers will look at this post and say, like Graham Chapman's Colonel, 'Too long, too long. Get some discipline into this post, Sergeant-Major!' People just will not accept that Obama did not come to power through democratic process but rather by a three-card trick.

Here's one take on it.

On Nov. 25, 1959, a Council on Foreign Relations Study Number 7 called for a "...new international order which must be responsive to world aspirations for peace, for social and economic change...an international order...including states labeling themselves as 'socialist' [communist]."

The CFR were anything but innocent and pro-Yankee.

In 1962, a study entitled "A World Effectively Controlled by the United Nations" was published, in which CFR member Lincoln Bloomfield stated:

"...if the Communist dynamic was greatly abated, the West might lose whatever incentive it has for world government."

In 1966, Professor Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown University, wrote "Tragedy and Hope" in which he stated:

"There does exist and has existed for a generation, an international network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so.

I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments.
I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies, but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known."

Military-industrial complex, subversive group, conspiracy? All of this skirts around the real issue which is that these are but one or two tentacles of something which has been lurking in the sewers of the world's great nations for eons and metamorphosing themselves in different ways. You can say the CFR has little influence - it is only a pressure group.

Really? Even Wiki acknowledges:

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is a region-level dialogue with the stated purpose of providing greater cooperation on security and economic issues.[1] The Partnership was founded in Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005 by Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, and George W. Bush, President of the United States. It is the second of such regional-level agreements involving the United States of America following the 1997 Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean (PPS).

Greater cooperation? My ass! Read the post and the original document linked from it. Here is what will be controlled, taken from their own notes:

a. defense

b. the judiciary

c. education

d. social security

e. opens the borders and creates access and egress via the state constructed NAFTA Superhighways

f. creates a free economic zone within NA shores

g is advised by the North American Advisory Council [CFR appointees - p53]

Please get it clear that Bush, Martin and Fox thought the CFR proposal sufficiently important to attend that meeting and make that pact. They're not going to do that with loons.

The Law

Back to Britain and the 'three-card tricks continue apace. Charon QC comments:

The Law Society Gazette has an interesting article in the edition today “Inherent prejudice in judicial selection”

I quote from the opening to the article: “Official research published today reveals a ‘widespread and underlying perception’ of ‘inherent prejudice’ in the judicial application process and suggests that solicitors still see the bench as a career for ‘other people’.
The study, sponsored by the Judicial Appointments Commission, surveyed barristers and solicitors eligible for appointment. Of the 2,182 respondents, more than half (55%) said there is prejudice in the selection process, and a quarter said that the process is unfair. Only 51% felt judges are selected purely on merit.”

To be fair to Charon, I have no wish to misconstrue his comments, which were referring to the choice of barristers over solicitors but the point about prejudice stands and inevitably, the question of 'stacking'. Sotomayor is a case in point and so was the 2000 election, the other way round. The issue is not whether the bench is stacked or not - it clearly is, as this pro-Republican article makes clear.

No, the issue is more who has the hegemony at the time? Who is at the reins because the judiciary will be more at their beck and call as time goes on. Did Obama cause the stacking? He hasn't been there long enough but he's sure trying. Of course it's all part of an ongoing process.

Medicine

Karl Denninger brings our attention to this [hat tip to my Anon]:

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE
Tue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House. The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

Pause for breath

In the speed with which we've got to this point of the post, we've focussed on a nefarious organization being behind the governments but what has not been spelled out clearly is the treasonous aspect of it.

Gordo has done the same over here. By working to insinuate Europe into our regions, he could be said to be a traitor to the country. He'd answer, 'Traitor to some old, outmoded concept called Britain, yes, to the dismantling of England, yes but I'm no traitor to the new ideal, one step in the Great Work of Ages - the European Bloc with its prescriptive uniformity.'

So no, he's not a traitor. Obama's not a traitor. They are working to create the one state panacea they believe in and there are people of influence in both countries, occupying chairs in universities, heading medical boards, appointing the judiciary with 'sound people' who equally believe.

Even some of my dearest friends, particularly of the female persuasion, are convinced that this is what it's all about - love for one's fellows, fairness, equality, equal distribution of wealth, supporting the needy. They really believe that Obama's and Brown's path are leading to this. This post is hardly going to alter something so ingrained it can't be shifted.

Others have tumbled to the messianic elements in this, the religious. This is the fundamental difference I referred to in the first sentence of this post. This is indeed just as much a religion as Christianity or Islam. These people genuinely believe in transforming society - hence all the blame on 'capitalism' for the ills, the ordinary person-in the-street not understanding who the Fed and the central British financial power really are, hence the need, according to Brown, for a new model of economics, hence the proliferation of the welfare state.

It has its fanatical devotees, absolutely convinced that they are helping lead the world to a New Enlightenment, which is the Great Work of Ages. The sheer weight of Masons, Rotary, Rhodes scholars, Tavistock, people in high places, employment tribunal magistrates, respectable, well-spoken people, people with position in society, all support Mr. White's words in Quantum of Solace:

The first thing you have to understand is that we have people everywhere.

And meanwhile, we slide towards the new-feudalism where you and yours will be numbers in a vast database.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

[24 hours] many a slip


There are up times and down times.

Yesterday - perhaps I’m not eating properly – this pain began in the right calf and today got to the stage where, in the supermarket, the legs buckled and I couldn’t breathe properly. Checking quickly for age and inebriation, there had to be something else.

Coming back home, there was an awful bit of news via email and just as I was wondering about this, the nose started bleeding over everything. Fine, fine, one needs a sense of the absurd. So, duvet rolled up against the wall and cushions in place, I’m blogging to you from the floor. You know what? I think I’ll just go to bed and read.

Do you think someone’s sticking pins into a voodoo doll or invoking incantations? Toothache's started now - catch you tomorrow.


[caption time] with the ospreys

[weekend poll] will come up friday evening

Julia Louis-Dreyfus


The weekend poll on this site has become a regular thing and I've been sorting this week's out this evening. The theme each week is 'sexiest' - sexiest aeroplane, dessert, flower, politician, spaceship, house, lake, whatever.

This week's will be 'sexiest older woman' and at first I thought it would be a doddle. Not a bit of it. There ended up being about 15 or 16 for ten places in the final, so I put all the photos in order of age, the oldest at 61 and the youngest slip of a girl at 44 [Monica Belluchi - if I didn't put her in I'd be lynched most like].

Then all the models were eliminated because their beauty was professionally done. You could argue that actresses are also that way but the criterion was that they had to have a day job.

Then I counted down from the oldest until we got to 44 and there were the ten, ready to go this Friday evening.

If you have any ideas for a good weekend poll with the theme 'sexiest', your thoughts would be appreciated.

[aston martin] best ever?

[contessa brewer] has no problem being called a slut

This is astounding [to me anyway].

No, I'm not referring to the Letterman joke about Sarah Palin's 14 year old daughter being 'knocked up' by Alex Rodriguez at the game or about his joke about Palin being like a 'slutty flight attendant'. Here are the reactions to that:

Todd Palin issued a statement last week that said "any 'jokes' about raping my 14-year-old are despicable." And Sarah Palin charged Letterman with "sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity."

On Monday's show, Letterman said, "I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this, as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years."

... the fact that his jokes are readily available on Youtube notwithstanding.

Those things are certainly mentioned here in this video but once past that, listen to the venom in the interview as it gets onto other matters:



The interviewer, Contessa Brewer, wanted to talk to a talk-show host about what possible problem Sarah Palin could have with the Letterman comments. It's a comedy programme, she said, all's fair. Asked by her interviewee, John Ziegler, how she would feel if she was called a slut and her daughter a prostitute, Brewer said she'd have no problem with that.

What?!!

Listen to the end of the interview where she closes him down because she doesn't want to listen to him any more. Just look at the Caroline Flint face she pulls when she welcomes him to the programme at 1:07.

Lord T recently posted on declining standards. Well, here they are, for all to see. It's when I read things like this that I start to think the world's just got right away from any kind of sanity. The writer says teenagers should be encouraged to have sex. If you agree with that, then I'm afraid our value systems are light years apart, the trilogy I wrote notwithstanding.

[blog stats] too misleading to rely on

Seriously, I've given up trying to analyse stats. The most visited post [7 in each 100] was the Canadian one about Lynch. Yet at the time of writing, there were no comments. The last evolution post, predictably, was shunned and the railway embankment, garnering 9 comments, was visited by few.

Of course, that excludes the RSS readers. In other stats:
49.5% of visitors here use Firefox 1 and 1% use Firefox 3 [which I use];
60% use Java 1.5;
33% use a 1024x768 [I use 1680x1050];
75% use 32 bit;
92.6% use English but 3.2% speak French and 2.1% Spanish;
52% use WinXP and 18.6% MacOSX [which I use];
39% are U.K. and 35% U.S. but that’s reversed in the past 15 minutes;
In the last 100, there’ve been 51 separate entry pages;
I get 1.4 views per visit

[blogfocus] tuesday rounds

Longrider talks telephone:

While we are used to our landline numbers being exposed in a directory unless we choose the ex-directory option, it is worth bearing in mind that it is something of a historical hangover.

Centurean 2 exposes Common Purpose:

Common Purpose specifically targets children from the age of 13, and more recently younger, for special leadership and citizenship training. Yes, it is active in schools, and again the average parent has no idea. People have contacted us to speak of their experiences with Common Purpose. A common theme is its all sweetness and light, until you fail to follow the direction set by the CP leadership.

L'Ombre takes part in the great Man vs Horse race
:

The Man vs Horse race provides a fairly good indicator of what humans can do, and what horses can do, at the top end of the range on mixed terrain. The man on foot can beat a horse if he's fit and smart and the rider doesn't want to ruin his animal.

Lord T is in fighting form about declining standards:

If I speak out about treason in the government that makes me a patriot not a traitor.
If I speak out against corruption in the government that makes me a patriot not a traitor
If I speak out about the government destroying our way of life without as much as a referendum or a mandate then I am a patriot not a traitor.
If I rise against a corrupt government that makes me a patriot not a traitor.

Mark Wadsworth is concerned with Gov-speak
:

As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week.

Posh Totty is off to the beach:

I have packed swimmers, sun hats, shorts, t-shirts, vest tops & cropped trousers for us all in the hope we get some much need sunshine .... and bunged in a few spares just in case.

Pisces explains reality:

Create is probably not the right word: we do, I believe, define/realise our own reality by becoming aware of it - the flowers that grow beside the motorway are not included in our reality until we become aware of them.

Welshcakes writes of the job process over there:

When I tell my Italian students that in the UK it is possible to apply directly for a professional job, they are flabbergasted, as in Italy they have to put themselves through a complicated series of "competitions" and the job is usually awarded on the results of these, with no interview.

Trixy does her bit for international relations:

However, basic is too much for this shower. They really are beyond the pale and expecting any level of decency from them is like expecting the French not to surrender.

Vox quotes Barron's
:

There are better and worse ways to manage the Federal Reserve, but most are a matter of luck and hindsight. As economist Marc Faber has written, "When...the public...finally realizes that central bankers are no wiser than the central planners of former communist regimes, the tide will turn and monetary reform will come to the fore.... market forces [will] drive economic activity, and not some kind of central planner...."

[revisionismus] falsche version der krise

Spiegel:

Bei aller Freude darüber, dass einige Banken vom Tropf genommen werden können, wittert das Londoner Wirtschaftsmagazin "The Economist" in den Äußerungen von Dimon und manchen Kollegen jedoch "Revisionismus": Die erfolgreicheren Banken verleugneten ihren eigenen Anteil an der Finanzkrise, um künftigen stärkeren Kontrollen zu entgehen und im alten Stilweitermachen zu können. In Wahrheit seien auch diese Institute von Staatshilfe abhängig, wenngleich in indirekter Form:

Die Zentralbanken würden schließlich großzügig Sicherheiten für Kredite geben, kurzfristige Zinsen auf Rekordtief, implizite Staatsgarantien für Bankschulden und eine günstige Finanzierung erlauben, die Preise von Vermögenswerten durch Aufkäufe der Zentralbanken und lockere Bilanzregeln stützen, durch die Staatshilfe für schwache Banken verhindern, dass deren Ausfall als Geschäftspartner die starken belastet.

"Das gesamte Bankensystem hat versagt, nicht nur einige wenige Firmen", resümiert der "The Economist". "Das gesamte System muss jetzt in Ordnung gebracht werden."

Gegen die Legende von der Rückkehr zur Normalität sprechen auch die infolge der Rezession steigenden Kreditausfälle. Die größten Probleme bereitet den Banken noch immer der Immobilienmarkt. Nach wie vor fallen die Häuserpreise im Rekordtempo, und immer mehr Hausbesitzer können ihre Kredite nicht mehr bedienen. Eine Zeitlang wurde das dadurch aufgefangen, dass Banken auf Zwangsvollstreckungen verzichteten.

Read further, in English.


For those who want it short and simple, the Banks have revised their version of why it all went wrong and are buying back in.

At the same time, however, a worryingly revisionist history of the credit crunch is being penned. It says that some banks did not really need government help and were bullied into accepting it last year as part of a wider bail-out of their flakier peers.

Tweren't me, guv. These people couldn't lie straight in bed.

[desirable traits] poll results

Click three most desirable traits

Physical (0) 0%
Good looks (2) 10%
Intelligence (5) 24%
Loves you (3) 14%
Money (0) 0%
Lady or gentleman (2) 10%
Education (0) 0%
Conversationalist (3) 14%
Creative (4) 19%
Some other factor (2) 10%


One wag commented:

Unfortunately, the 24% who checked "intelligence" probably only meant "agrees with me most of the time".