Saturday, June 27, 2009

[thought for the day] saturday evening

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.

“Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone?

“But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted-and you create a nation of law-breakers-and then you cash in on the guilt.”

[Bob G]

All right, all right, it was Ayn Rand.

[know your stately homes] part two of new series


1. Founded around 1140 as a Cistercian monastery, having been one of the most learned and wealthy monasteries for four hundred years. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536-41 it came into private ownership, and has been a charming country house ever since. The house is famous for its plaster ceilings, fine pictures and furniture. The gardens from late 18th C. and the highest powered fountain in England are all well worth a visit.

2. Started as a hunting lodge built in 1616/17 by the 13th Earl of Northumberland, in the Georgian period it was the country seat of the glamorous Lennox sisters. Notable are the State Apartments, with an Egyptian State Dining Room, grand Yellow Drawing Room and a breathtaking Ballroom. The walls are lined with fine collection of paintings (including a number from Van Dyck, Reynolds, Stubbs and Canaletto). Certain outdoor activities are also famous nearby.

3. King Edward I of England built it in the late 13th century, later to become a parliament. A long siege here during the Wars of the Roses inspired a stirring song. During the Civil War (1642-48), it was a Royalist stronghold.

4. Designed by Sir Charles Barry, visitors can trace the steps taken by the 5th Earl of Carnarvon when in 1922 with the Egyptologist Howard Carter he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. The parkland by 'Capability' Brown is spectacularly beautiful, featuring magnificent lawns, a walled garden, glasshouses and a fermery.

5. Was founded in 1120 for defense with walls six metres thick and in the 14th century the castle was transformed into a palatial home. During the English civil war Cromwell's troops demolished it. Scott was inspired to set a novel here. The Penny Magazine - July 31, 1835 had a long article about it.

Answers

Forde Abbey, Goodwood House, Harlech Castle, Highclere Castle, Kenilworth Castle

[iran election anomalies] could it be in the digits

Interesting stuff from Bruce Alderman:

Political scientists Bernd Beber and Alexandra Scacco have found some peculiarities in the Iran election results. While many people around the world are questioning the validity of the results, Beber and Scacco have gone a step further and looked at some statistical anomalies.

Beber and Scacco looked at the final digit of the results from each province for the top four candidates, and found two anomalies. Since there are ten possible digits, we would expect each number 0 - 9 to appear in about 10 percent of all the precinct totals, give or take a few percentage points due to random variability.

The statistical anomalies continue and then they conclude:

[W]e would expect to see results like this in only one of every two hundred fair elections.

[ferrari] why didn't they ask me


How would that be, eh? Sigh. I'm green with envy.
.

[first connex] now metronet


Oh, this is classic.

You probably read the piece about Connex finally being given its marching orders in Melbourne. There were many sentiments like 'good riddance' and 'will they try to come back here'?

It gets better:

The chief executive of Melbourne's new train operator also headed a British rail company that went into administration at a huge cost to taxpayers.

Andrew Lezala, whose Metro Trains Melbourne will soon operate the city's trains, was chief executive of the British rail maintenance company Metronet from May 2005 until it went into administration in July 2007.

It collapsed with £1.7 billion ($A3.5 billion) in debt, forcing the British Government to bail it out.

A damning report on Metronet's failure, released just three weeks ago by Britain's National Audit Office, found the company's management had wasted millions of pounds of public money.

"The main cause of Metronet's failure was its poor corporate governance and leadership," the report said. "We estimate that the overall direct loss to the taxpayer arising from Metronet's administration is between £170 million and £410 million, in 2007 prices."

Just who is appointing people downunder? Maybe they should be the ones scrutinized more closely.

[armed forces day] support our troops


It's Armed Forces Day today. [H/T Cherie]

The first Armed Forces Day is 27 June 2009, and is an opportunity for the nation to show our support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community.

A worthy thing to be sure and it's just a pity that the government couldn't have treated our boys and girls better. So this day is not just an opportunity for the average citizen to come out and support the armed forces, it's also a time to roundly castigate a government which has placed them in the danger they are in.

Henry Kissinger was quoted in the book “Kiss the Boys Goodbye", written by a Vietnam Vet.

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

Quite frankly, I have problems with material like that. As ex-military myself, sharing beliefs with such people as Steve Green and James Cleverly on the military, a check of my "About" reveals a man who believes in G-d, Queen and country.

Now read what James Cleverly said here:

I felt almost sick reading this blog post in the Telegraph [Telegraph has now deleted it] about the breakdown in relationship between the British military and local Iraqi forces.
The short-termism in Gordon Brown's government has created a situation where the troops in Iraq can no longer do their job but are still at risk from daily attacks.

Angus today on this problem:

No planes for Paras it seems that the iraq war has led to a shortage of Hercules transport planes for paras to jump out of.

When the Iraq war began in 2003 the Armed Forces had 51 Hercules available, but four have been shot down or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan and at least nine have had to be retired due to the intense workload. The remaining fleet is working flat out to support operations abroad.

In some units barely half the Paras are certified to jump - with hundreds unable to earn their wings or maintain their skills once qualified.

Recruits must complete a course of at least six jumps - culminating in a massed low-level jump from a Hercules at night, wearing full kit - plus two more with their unit to gain their coveted 'wings' badge and become fully-fledged Paras.

After that they cease to be operationally deployable unless they can jump twice a year.
Many have already lost their entitlement to specialist pay of £5 pay per day because they have failed to jump at all for two years.

Recent figures have shown just 55 per cent of soldiers in the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment are certified to jump.

With senior officers in uproar, the MoD has finally admitted the scale of the problem and agreed to hire a fleet of much smaller civilian Skyvan aircraft - normally used for amateur skydiving flights.

I'm with Lt Gen Dannart who said enough is enough.

Armed Forces Day is a wonderful thing and supporting our troops the right thing to do. It's also important to remember on this day, and to tell them we know, those who would nobble the Armed Forces - this government.

James Cleverly on this day.

[Don't forget that this is also the 7th day for Neda.]

Friday, June 26, 2009

[palestinians] snow job on the western media

It's with great trepidation that I run this post because of my long association with a true friend, Cherry Pie. However, when something is distorted, such as things she was told [she'd hotly dispute this, of course], then something must be said in reply. I don't blame her for swallowing it but it really does need to be set straight.

... we had a talk from a member who had been on a sponsored visit to Palestine

... is what Cherie opened with. Now it's nothing against the noble trade union movement or Cherie's tireless work for it but really, one needs to step back a moment and analyse that line. A trade unionist sponsored by Hamas, in the sense that he'd never have been shown around if Hamas had not approved, came back to Britain and gave an 'unbiased' assessment of the situation? Now what sort of conclusions would he be likely to bring back from his Hamas enabled tour?

Here is one of his observations:

Even the school’s windows were boarded up as protection from Israeli bullets. This meant the classrooms, with 45 children, were suffocating hot in summer. The Palestinian people are being all being slowly suffocated - culturally and socially, as well as economically.

Again, step back and analyse this. Why would the Palestinians keep the children in that building with boarded up windows on a stinking hot day? Why wouldn't they find a safe place for the children underground - there are many such semi-dugouts. Why keep them suffering? The answer's obvious, isn't it? It wasn't the comfort and safety of the children at issue here but the western visitor. So the emotive language in 'the Palestinian people are being all being slowly suffocated' tugs at the heartstrings like a Fenian ditty - pity it's not based on evidence though.

Now, anyone who knows anything about missiles knows that boarded up windows are hardly likely to stop one and rifles would go through them like butter. It's the very assumption that the Israelis would fire indiscriminately at the windows which betrays Hamas's own mindset. Hamas knew all this but the western trade unionist still swallowed the whole story, then came back and reported it. Was there anyone there to ask the questions I'm now asking?

If you need evidence, then there is this video. Now one sees the true Palestinian leadership - not the least concern about the welfare of the children. Why were schools targetted by Israel? Because they were using schools to fire rockets at Israel. Look at the video again.

Then there is this:

The airport also has a system of stickers for the luggage. Jews get a 1 or a 2, EU passport holders get a 3 and Arabs get a 6. Anyone with 6 label has to have both a luggage search and a personal search conducted.

Why are the Arab bags labelled differently? The immediate knee-jerk reaction is, 'Oh, it's apartheid'. Actually, it's because the Arabs can't be trusted, based on events of the past few decades, not to send suicide bombers and not to do this sort of thing. Please look at the way the children are treated by their own armed forces.

Again, not my words.

So, coming back to the luggage stickers, let me ask you a question. Imagine you're a customs official and you know that weapons are going through. Would you not take particular care to check over a people who have, among them, known offenders? Where is the Jewish equivalent to this? That's right - it doesn't exist.

I've no doubt there is a lot of brutality in the treatment and I've already commented at Cherie's site about what I think of the Jewish character. However, the issue here is what is really happening to those Palestinian children.

Naturally, Nakba [May 15, 1948] gets a mention by the pro-Palestinians but conveniently, the events preceding it are never mentioned. Wiki takes up the story:

After the rejection of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, five Arab states invaded the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel.

Now be sure of this – the Arabs rejected it. Here was the Israeli response:

The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan as "the indispensable minimum," glad as they were with the international recognition but sorry that they did not receive more.

Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organized the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.

Is that ever mentioned on the day of Nakba? Not on your life. Nor the next part:

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the 1948 Palestine war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states' armies the following day.

That makes the day of the invasion May 15th, 1948. Anything just a teensy bit significant about that date to you, vis a vis Nakba?

Moving on

What we've got here are highly emotional and unsubstantiated statements - systematic ill treatment, torture. Evidence?

“systematic ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities.”

This comes from someone called 'Gerard' who has the run of the Palestinian land, something he would never have if he were to report the truth.

'harsh Israeli jail'

Not just 'Israeli jail'. When it's Israeli, the adjective 'harsh' must be used. Do you know of any jail which is not harsh?

Aid

This is an article by a woman who visited the area, neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Arab. She says aid must get through and Israel must open up the borders for the convoys but then adds:

She also stated that "Hamas must respect that humanitarian aid cannot be diverted."

Therein lies the real problem. This is what's really going on:

There was a bit of head-scratching going on recently in the hallowed halls of the UN.

After weeks of rebuking Israel for preventing humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, UN officials were forced to cancel deliveries of aid into the Hamas-controlled territory after terrorists broke into a UN Relief and Works Agency warehouse and made off with 800 tons of blankets, food and other basic commodities to sell them to the highest bidders.

Israeli officials have been saying all along that Hamas routinely diverts humanitarian aid. In April, fuel trucks destined for UNRWA warehouses were overtaken. It was reported in August that Hamas gunmen had hijacked more than 10 trucks destined for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society full of food and medical supplies.

All that is only more ironic given the worldwide castigation of Israel for allegedly preventing humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza during the military operation.

and:

At least 10 trucks with humanitarian aid sent to the Gaza Strip by the Jordanian Red Crescent Society were confiscated by Hamas police shortly after the trucks entered the territory on Thursday evening, according to aid officials in Jerusalem.

Eight trucks had food products and another two had medicines. They were reportedly taken to Hamas-run ministries.

Initial reports said the intended target of the aid was the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza. Hamas and the PRCS had a run-in in the past, when the Islamic group diverted another aid convoy.

A spokesman for the Hamas police in Gaza said that the number of trucks was in fact 14 and they would be "delivered to Palestinians in need in the Gaza Strip."

Iran is even aware that the aid is not getting past Hamas.

What appeared in that trade unionist's talk was a highly slanted, Hamas approved take on what was happening, which simply does not accord with either the video or documentary evidence above [and that's but a portion].

Cherie's in a difficult position; she can say she's known these two people for a long time and they wouldn't lie. I'm not saying they are lying. I'm saying they've been duped because they wished to see the truth in these terms.

UPDATE SATURDAY

On the Egyptian side, 700 people and 10 trucks with medical aid from Arab countries were waiting to enter. Some 550 people waited to cross the other way, with priority given to those needing urgent medical treatment. Gaza has been blockaded by Israel, and much of the time by Egypt, for two years since Hamas took control there. Despite considerable criticism in the Arab world, the Egyptian government has kept Rafah largely shut since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007.

Interesting, eh? Why would Egypt, an Arab nation, supposedly in sympathy with the Palestinians, have done that for so long?

[weekend poll] sexiest men over 43

1. Omar Sharif [77]

2. Giancarlo Giannini [66]

3. Pierce Brosnan [57]

4. Denzel Washington [54]

5. Nick Faldo [51]

6. George Clooney [48]

7. Jon Bon Jovi [47]

8. Mikhail Khodorkovsky [45]

9. Brad Pitt [45]

10. Professor of History Darrin McMahon [44]

As usual, you're allowed three votes at one time but to vote again, you'd need to come back tomorrow.


11. Armand Assante [if you like him, please comment in ... er ... comments.

Results here.


[fatty salads] when you least expect it

A survey by consumer watchdog Which? found Morrisons' Smedleys Atlantic Prawn Marie Rose Salad contained 855 calories and 66.3g fat - more than a McDonald's Big Mac and medium fries and 70% of the fat a man should eat in a day.

Which?
bought a selection of 20 pre-packed salads on the high street and found another unhealthy option was Asda's Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, which contained 43g of fat, nearly as much as six Cadbury's Creme eggs.Almost a quarter of the salad is made up of high-calorie dressing (13% mayonnaise, 10% Caesar dressing).

The manufacturers have a double problem - they need to put enough chemicals in to preserve the salad fresh for long enough and western people's tastes are, frankly, sugary and salty. When a weight-conscious lady buys a fresh salad, she may have it in mind that it's healthy but equally, the body won't take withdrawal from its sugar, salt and saturated fats.

People are deluding themselves into an appearance of healthiness.

In Russia, as you imagine, what you see on the shelf is what you get. Grains are brought in, in kilogram plastic bags, a paper label is stuck on and that's that. No additives. Trays of bread are carried through and dumped in huge tubs. A cow that's been recently cut up has the portions laid out in bain-marie that day. The grandmother or mother prepares it that day into various dishes, including beef and rice patties, say and the salads prepared. The Russians have a weakness for white products and mayonnaise, so these are where the bulk of the calories are.

I was looking at ASDA's shelves two days ago and overheard someone saying that these particular noodles were 'healthy'. Healthy? There were the noodles in the packet [not the best carbs for a start] and then came all the E numbers, this chemical, that chemical, beef 'flavour' [as distinct from beef] and so it went on.

It was poison.

This is the gunge which people are feeding into themselves. There's a chippy I know and when you hold the fish vertically, the grease drips off onto the paper. Yet that's what people are used to, that's what people want.

I was looking at a nutrition chart on beef and other meats and discovered that if you have meat from the neck down to the chest [apparently the Americans call this 'chuck'], it gives 500% of your recommended choleterol intake. What we call 'fillet steak' [and the Americans apparently call 'brisket'] had 13% per portion of cholesterol. So even in the cut were vast differences.

Now, which would be the cheaper cut?

Good nutrition does appear to be a question of having the dosh, it does seem the preserve of the well-off.

[connex] booted out of melbourne

The company which helped decimate Britain's rail services and then went downunder, has now been given the bullet after destroying Melbourne's train services.

Where will Connex go next?

[the nvq society] and the uprooted flowerbed

You might first like to cast your eye over this post about June Turnbull, in order to get the picture.

Well, it's happened again - Angus covered it yesterday:

No good deed goes unpunished A retired florist has been threatened with criminal prosecution by a council after planting a flower garden on a neglected patch of land in a car park.

Jayne Bailey, a retired florist, gave the concrete island on her housing estate a makeover as the cobble-stones were coming loose and she thought they were dangerous.

Mrs Bailey, 60, removed loose cobbles and planted flowers in a display that has been supported by some of her neighbours.

So, was there an unveiling speech, with the local mayor praising initiative, selflessness and hard work? Not a bit of it. Those qualities are not desired in our society today, are they? Jayne Bailey is now retired from her horticultural work and as she doesn't possess a current NVQ [that is, paid out a huge sum of money for nothing] , she can't possibly know the first thing about horticulture.

Plus she's white and aged, which translates now as 'unwanted'. And what was the council's reaction?

"They also threatened that they would go to the police and report me for criminal damage.'

A spokesman for the council said:

"In this particular case no agreement was sought to carry out the works. Several complaints from residents have been received concerning the planting."

Complaints about her planting a garden on what was a bit of crumbling concrete? Oh yes? Maybe we can see the text of those 'complaints'?

So there it is - the new NVQ society, the forcing of people into narrow specialist areas, each with its new jargon and methods of exclusivity - this is union demarcation disputes taken to a point of madness and visited upon the whole community.

I have to ask you, 'Do you really want to live in such a society? Isn't there something we can do to reverse such bureaucratic madness?'

[who's the daughter] seems it's difficult

Hints: Naples, well-known politician, grand-daughter of a dictator

All right, obviously it was too difficult even for Welshcakes - Alessandra Mussolini


[michael jackson] r.i.p.

Nothing really to add to that.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

[optimism] better for the mental health

Life likes to teach some lessons. There are essentially four major blows which could befall me and it's been like this since I came back to Britain. One happened today but it's still too early to know the extent of the fallout.

Naturally, my friend said, 'Don't worry about it.'

Right at that point, I saw this:

Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.

When you see the nature of her cancer, it does put things into perspective. I've had, for a month or so, a very mild form of tinnitus but I was reading the other day about the bad stuff and it's anything but what I have. Mine only partially intrudes but heaven help those who have the full-blown version.

Still, there are ways to come to terms with tinnitus, there are ways to get round my own little matter in a few months but there's no way to come to terms with Farrah Fawcett's cancer.

Everything is relative, really, isn't it? I admire eternal optimists who can't see how our society has been brought to the impasse it has and their enthusiasm is infectious. They genuinely believe we're about to turn the corner and maybe we should just throw in our lot with them and adopt their point of view.

[neda latest] seventy professors detained

From Maildotcom:

Seventy university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a website affiliated with Iran's key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.

Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the June 12 vote, in which Iran's ruling clerics declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide.

Still, the most senior dissident cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, warned the authorities in a statement that trying to snuff out dissent would prove to be futile.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn.

[guess who] the one on the left is

Clues in the comments.
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[housekeeping] back into it soon

There are some issues right now, of which health is one. I suspect, though loathe to admit it, that it might be an age and diet related thing. That's only an issue when it takes sleep away. Back a.s.a.p.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

[neda and daw aung san suu kyi] apply the pressure

Al Jazeera reports:

Shirin Ebadi, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel peace prize winner, has told Al Jazeera that she is prepared to represent the family of a young woman shot dead during a protest in Tehran.

The woman, named as Neda Agha Soltan on social-networking websites, has become a symbol for people protesting against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.

Ebadi told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: "I am personally prepared to legally represent her family against the people who ordered the shooting and those who fired at her.

This Saturday, June 27th, is the sixth day after the murder and Thursday, July 30th is the 40th day. Hopefully, some sort of massive protest will ensue in Iran.

Some notes

1. One wonders how much protest there would have been if it had been the music teacher killed or some old man. Of all the people to shoot, why a girl who could easily become a catalyst for the end of the Islamic oppression?

2. It wouldn't have saved her but all that shouting around her could hardly have been a nice way to go. To feel that bad and to have people near you screaming at you would not help your passing.

3. I notice that many blogsites have now dropped off this topic but if we mean it, we should keep referring to it at least every two days, plus on those key days, just to keep it fresh. Otherwise she died for nothing.

4. The demonstrations and press in Los Angeles were exemplary but how to transfer that anger to the Iranian blockheads? The net has been great and that pressure will keep up. Perhaps we should be noting Iranian bloggers and thinking out what we can do to support them - the problem, of course, being their providers.

[alfred hitchcock] notorious




All of it - just let the youtube change over itself. If it doesn't, then I don't know what to do.

[tv licensing] waiting for the stasi


Some of you might recall your humble blogger's apoplexy over receiving a letter out of the blue threatening:

You may be cautioned and interviewed in compliance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984 or Scottish criminal law. This interview may then be used for the purposes of prosecution, including a court appearance and a fine of up to £1000.

Peter, of the TV Licensing blog
, advised me:

Ignore the letter. As Liz rightly says, even if you went to the time and effort of responding (which you're not obliged to do, despite what they tell you) they'd only ignore you anyway.

Moving closer to Manchester [and possible work], that seemed to be an end to that. Not a bit of it. This excrescence seems to be going on all over Britain. After the fourth letter, I did phone up and was immediately asked my name.

Now, here's where I was within my rights not to answer - I was doing them a favour by calling, with respect to the address I was living at - but that didn't seem to phase them.

I decided to tell them, as I have nothing to hide and owe nothing to them. Their letter had said that if you gave them the details they wanted, then that was an end to the matter, unless their detector van picked something up.

Now of course I didn't believe a word of it but it was still a shock to get a follow-up letter, not from Manchester but from Bristol:

Thank you for telling us that you don't need a TV Licence. It is unfortunately necessary for TV Licensing to visit homes to confirm there is no TV being used. We do this because, when we make contact on these visits, a quarter of people are found to need a TV Licence.

Now that is not what the previous letters stated. The impression was clearly given that if you 'confessed' you were the occupier of the premises, the detector van did the rest and that was all that was necessary.

Instead, I find that whether or not the detector van detects a TV being used, they're still going to come into my home. That's what they really want to do. Peter's advice was therefore sound - don't trust the bastards because they lie.

We all read about the lies of Brown or the lies of this department or that and we do believe it but it doesn't really come home to us until we can compare two separate letters from a government utility, using standard forms and those forms are either a lie or at the very least, highly misleading.

Deliberate misinformation to gain access to one's home.

Call me naive but I'm shocked to see such a bald-faced lie in print, from what is meant to be an official section of the state. I know I blog a lot about these things but to see it in front of my eyes is ... well ... a shock.

So now, by playing along with them, I'm waiting each evening for the knock on the door from the State Stasi who have the power to prosecute me if they see anything they construe as evidence - it could be something the previous owners had done.

This is a country of rights? Seems more to me like a case of playing the bully .




This is an ad on my site from this morning. Note the tone.

[almost wordless wednesday] captions please


The post attached to this, which can be seen in RSS, is scheduled for the evening - otherwise, this wouldn't have been wordless. Go on, say it ... :)

[weekend poll] next two should be crackers

The Sexiest Man Over 43 Poll is coming along nicely, thanks, with fifteen entries for ten places thus far [and thank you, ladies, for coming to the rescue on this] ... so now the weeding out begins.

The list was dominated by actors and musicians, lots of them, as Uber said; I capped these at 7 and the remaining 3 were to be from other walks of life. There's even a scientist in there.

The governing rule for inclusion was this - Brad Pitt was in there [David Beckham was too young], therefore anyone else on that list had to have a fighting chance of beating Pitt. Forgive me but Liam Neeson and Donny Osmond won't do that but some of the others might.

Another thing I noticed was the 'nostalgia' factor. Someone suggested Sean Connery but have you seen him lately? Ditto with Harrison Ford and the photo had to have been from the last couple of years.

That poll goes up this Friday.

High excitement

Your humble blogger is chuckling away to himself about the following Friday's poll, which should start a war and see him run off planet earth [chuckle]. Oh, I'm really looking forward to that one!
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

[the beat] best friend

One of the best British bands of all time were The Beat. Their politics were all wrong, their decisions about the band were all wrong, they broke up just as David Bowie wanted to tour with them and yet they remain the producers of music Britain can be proud of. The insistent melody which never rests but is just overlaid and overlaid is complemented by some nice bass and wonderful saxophone playing.

Try this one:



As eras go, the early 80s was one of the richest in British music - so many great artists were spawned and it's probably true to say that this was the place to be at the time. Fortunately for me, I was.

[know your stately homes] part one of new series


1. Built in the late 14th C. by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. The castle looks very strong and powerful, one of the least changed castles in Scotland, is perhaps best known for the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

2. Built by Sir John Vanbrugh, the location of 'Brideshead Revisited', an impressive Great Hall and fabulous collection of art.

3. Beautifully situated by the River Dee, was purchased in 1852 by Prince Albert, the present castle was built 1853-55.

4. Stronghold of the Chiefs of MacLeod for nearly 800 years, has a massive keep, a 15th-century tower and a hall block from the 17th century; there is an exhibition about St.Kilda Islands.

5. Was built in the late 16th century by Bess of Hardwick and her 2nd husband William Cavendish; there are outstanding painted ceilings by Verrio and Laguerre, a library of over 17,000 volumes, old master paintings by Rembrandt, Hals, Van Dyck, Tintoretto, Veronese, Sargent and Landseer, a collection of neo-classical sculpture and 'Capability' Brown's exceptionally fine garden.

Answers


Doune Castle, Castle Howard, Balmoral Castle, Dunvegan Castle, Chatsworth

[iraq enquiry] public or behind closed doors

Blogger Dave Cole is spokesperson for the Atlantic council and you might like to see the debate here over the closed investigation of Iraq.

He took the point of view that it should be a closed enquiry on the grounds that:

1. There are security considerations, e.g. the Iraqi workers who, if they were 'outed', would suffer. Also, Britain is still in Afghanistan.

2. One doesn't let the enemy, present or future, know one's operational procedures - even though it's not fashionable these days, there is still such a thing as the national interest.

3. An open enquiry would be a media circus and anyone wishing to testify would either feel constrained or would demand to have legal counsel present.

He makes a good case. All the other speakers took the line that the public is not going to wear anything less than transparency on this issue. There are too many dead Brits for no good reason to keep it behind closed doors.

Your humble blogger is halfway between the two. Why must we have this polarity in political life these days? Common sense dictates that some things must be kept private but the bulk will come out. As for saving their own butts, they can forget it.

The pigeons are coming home to roost .
.

[blogger behaviour] sometimes needs comments

There are reasons not to post this and then there are more reasons to actually post it.

In the context of our own financial worries, the girl who was murdered in Iran, the Iraq enquiry, the state of education, the burqa issue and so on and so on, this is a relatively minor gripe but it is still a gripe.

My position on the political compass is such that I don't like using left/right as designations and would prefer to say socialist, totalitarian, laissez-faire, libertarian or whatever. If forced to use left/right designations, I'd like to feel that I get a cross-section of opinion at this blog, probably more slanted to the centre-right [not my choice of terms] because there are more of those bloggers about.

Whether this is correct or not, I've noticed something happening which, at first, I put down to my own error - pushing the wrong button, not pushing hard enough, whatever. Either way, comments I've posted are sometimes not there when I return to that blogger's post's comments section.

Frankly, one's first reaction is to be miffed by this, particularly as it's not something I do to that person. If I delete someone's comment, then I explain why and my readers know that. Some bloggers go further than I do - they actually write, via email: 'Listen, James, I had to delete your comment because ...'

Fair enough. I don't agree he should have deleted it but it's his choice - it's his blog.

Now I'm the first to admit I'm quite disliked on certain blogs, particularly those I've savaged in the past and there are those who feel my views are too left field [without actually exploring it to the end with an open mind]. Again, fair enough. I know there's something in my manner which leaves many cool towards me, even if we fundamentally agree among ourselves, politically. All those are known knowns.

But leaving comments is when a reader has taken the trouble to come to that person's site, has looked at what he's offered and has decided to respond. On my blog here, people who come to visit are called 'Esteemed Readers' [see Mybloglog in the left sidebar] and the last thing I'm going to do is delete their comments, with two exceptions - ad hominem against another commenter and my personal ex-stalker.

I don't give a damn if you're Gordo's right hand man [or woman] or whether you're Daniel Hannan - all are welcome. I take pride over the appearance of my blog and like people to speak intelligently on an issue but sometimes they don't - they just leave a quick comment, often flippant and in passing on what was a serious topic. I don't have to like that but I'm sure not going to delete it. More often than not, it's a post which invites banter anyway.

It seems to me that some bloggers invite comments but when the comments don't accord exactly with their views, they are not allowed to stand.

Now the controversial part - of the five comments of mine which have been deleted in the past few days, all were at what you would call 'left-wing' blogs. Does that say anything?

What tends to happen with right-wingers who don't like my presence?

Well, take Dizzy for example, Julia M or Croydonian. They seem to put up with my comments, ignore them and hope I just go away and that's fair enough too. If I put a comment at Lord T's he doesn't like, he attacks, as he should do, as I would hope anyone would do.

Surely we politically blog for debate, for feedback, don't we? Surely we don't blog for our own narcissistic ego-pampering?

That's why just deleting someone's comments without any explanation stinks and says much about the blogger who does it. Having said that, I'll still visit and still try to leave comments.
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[l'interdiction du burqa] pourrait expédier l'islamicization

Banning the burqa may, in fact, speed up the process of the islamicization of France

62,448,977 in mainland France, divided by 3.7 to 4.1 million Muslims gives a percentage of the population of 6.57%, [thank you, Nigel].

It is a significant minority and rapidly expanding. One estimate puts the Muslim birthrate at three times that of the "indigenous" population. I use the term indigenous with care, as "indigenous" includes Muslims going back many generations.

Nevertheless, whichever way you wish to slice or dice it, it still creates a "problem" like the expanding population of Catholics in Northern Ireland. That is a problem for the Protestants, not initially for the Catholics but then becomes one for them in turn. In France, the strife in the banlieues [thank you, Pedant's Apprentice] is but one manifestation but it's not the only issue in France.

That of laïcité has been around for centuries, at the centre of slaughter and helping spawn philosophers. The matter is not resolved but in the corridors of power, it is the guiding principle. Mixed in with this issue is the taking of citizenship and citizenship rights by so many Muslims and there's a pretty problem:

A parallel process of Muslim enfranchisement is accompanying [the] population surge. Nearly half of the ... Muslims in France are already French citizens. The situation is similar for most of the ... Muslims in Great Britain. Most recently, in 2000, Germany joined the countries where citizenship is granted according to birthplace instead of ancestry. The new German citizenship laws added already a half million voters to the rolls and have opened the road to citizenship to all other Muslims in Germany.

Laïcité is at the centre of Sarkozy's remarks. At pains to redefine the issue as one of oppression and an "affront" to human rights, he understandably wishes to steer the focus away from the religious aspect. Again, whichever way you cut it and I'm not taking sides on the matter, it is a divisive garment, the burqa and the human rights angle muddies the waters and dilutes the opposition to its banning, i.e. leftist thought in France.

It would be interesting to see if the wearing of the cross would follow that; I feel it would not in the forseeable future in what is, after all, a Catholic country and with the political implications with the papacy.

Opinion in France, as Sarkozy well knows, appears divided along political lines:

Cinq ans après la loi de mars 2004 sur le voile à l'école, le problème de l'affichage de signes distinctifs religieux particulièrement voyants et attentatoires à la féminité – burqa ou niqab – suscite à nouveau un vif débat qui transcende largement le clivage droite-gauche.

Le Figaro doesn't seem to be carrying too much on the issue at all. Le Monde carried the Muslim side of the story. An interesting interview in Jakarta from 2004, throws some light on the official Muslim position:

ULIL: Can you estimate how many Muslims in France wear headscarfs?

AF: Statistic indicates that about 80% of Muslim women in France do not wear headscarfs. Hence, only 20% wear headscarfs. Syafiq Hasyim told us that some Muslim figures have said that the matter of headscarf is not an important religious matter. The French government asked the Muslim leaders in France about this and they said that it is not a big problem and that the most important is integration of the Muslim children. Hence, to them, it’s not a fundamental matter.

ULIL: What do you mean by mentioning that secularism benefits the Muslim community?

SH: It is because they are led by the majority law system supporting secularism. If only they accept not laicite or secularism, there will be a chance for the French people to adopt the Catholic system, since their major religion is Catholicism.

In other words, the Muslim spokespeople will make all the right noises against the move but actually, they are not against laïcité per se, as it affords them the best chance of keeping the Catholic Church in check and not reasserting its position within France. The Muslim task of the islamicization of France can then proceed without great hindrance.

From all this, one can conclude that the burqa will be banned but rather than be the next step on the road to the reassertion of France's traditions, it will actually aid in the islamicization of the country.
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Monday, June 22, 2009

[creedence] put a spell on you

The Creedence version of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song is, IMHO, head and shoulders above all other versions, including Nina Simone's. This was Creedence at their very best.

There are two versions here. Frankly, the B&W has the more interesting vid but the Live Creedence version has the better sound. Your dilemma, dear reader.



[bigot] this blog is racist, sexist, ageist and against shellfish

Russian Filipina, raised in Hawaii. Hmmm. OK.


The other day, one of my fellow bloggers asked why I'm always posting half unclad women on my site.

Another blogger has a thing about me posting only about young women. Now I'm told I'm only posting older women - where are the men?

On the weekend, a correspondent asked why I never post pics of non-whites. Do I have something against non-whites? Someone told me Latinas are black. Are they? I always thought they were Brazilian.

Actually, I was originally going to post 42 to 43 year olds but there were two women I didn't want in there. They were Halle Berry and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

So, I'm clearly anti-black, a disgusting honky racist and anti-Welsh too.

The real reason is that they would have won the poll, those two, no question and I wanted a more even contest to make it that little bit more interesting. Truth was, I was hoping the older ladies would get more votes, so I made it 'over 43'.

Why would I think they would have won? Because they're hot, that's why. No man I know would question that.

So where do I stand as a racist? Well, it IS true there are no Tibetans or Mongolians making regular appearances on this site. Maybe this needs to be rectified. Also, have you noticed there are very few redheads [colourist], almost no naked men [sexist], very few disabled [disablist] and virtually no Australians or New Zealanders [hemispherist]?

There are virtually no pets whose pics are posted here. That makes me highly prejudiced against non-humans. There are very few robots, so I'm obviously anti-android.

There are no sight-impaired or MS sufferers as yet.

Confession time

Do you know why I'm really doing these 'sexy' polls?

To be totally politically incorrect, completely unreconstructed and neanderthal, to anger the Feminazis and have them run me out of the blogosphere and I'm going to do a Sexiest Member of Them one week [hee hee]. If I live that long.

I've got a Sexiest Philosopher coming up too and I'm going to ask Chris of Godfree-Morals and Sean Jeating if they wouldn't mind adjudicating that one.

And a Sexiest Rodent. I'll ask the Flying Rodent to adjudicate that one.

[sedition] if you blog, you're seditious

There is a blogger, Scaramouche, accessible via Blazing Cat Fur, who wrote:

We have legal constraints--laws protecting people from being libelled and slandered and the state from sedition ...

The context was the human rights bill in Canada, "protecting" people from "hate talk". The one up in arms is called Haroon Sidiqui, who says Muslims are being targeted. Yawn. There are too many real problems at the moment to worry about, without going into that.

Scaramouche was saying, I think, that the law of the country as it stands can take care of "hate talk" without setting up a multi-billion dollar Human Rights Commission under the control of certain pressure groups. Now, in the middle of all that I saw one word - "sedition".

Sedition

Let's look at changes to British law:

First, the RIP Act. You can be spied upon by your government for what, on the face of it, are good reasons (you're a criminal etc.) but there are some appalling reasons there too. Section 22 sets out the reasons you can be spied upon by your own government:

Section 22 says:
It is necessary on grounds falling within this subsection to obtain communications data if it is necessary-

(a) in the interests of national security;
(b) for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder;
(c) in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom;
(d) in the interests of public safety;
(e) for the purpose of protecting public health;
(f) for the purpose of assessing or collecting any tax, duty, levy or other imposition, contribution or charge payable to a government department;
(g) for the purpose, in an emergency, of preventing death or injury or any damage to a person's physical or mental health, or of mitigating any injury or damage to a person's physical or mental health; or
(h) for any purpose (not falling within paragraphs (a) to (g)) which is specified for the purposes of this subsection by an order made by the Secretary of State.
Now section (h) here requires both Houses of Parliament to review the draft order, but what the hell does (c) mean if it's not the same as (b)?

The UK situation with sedition

Legislation under George III for example made it an offence to use any words to excite hatred and contempt of the king, government or constitution, particularly speech that might have a "tendency" to cause disloyalty in the armed forces.

Look at this post and this one. That's sedition, James and James, even though you were pointing out how the government has sold its armed forces down the drain.

You may not criticize the government.

The Treason Felony Act 1848 made it a serious offence, punishable by transportation, to call in print or writing for the establishment of a republic, even by peaceful means. As of 2004 it remained in force (athough last used in 1883), with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty.

You may not criticize the form of government, its composition or advocate ways to make it more responsive to public opinion. If you take up the invitation to write to N10's suggestion box, you are now on file.

They, of course, are allowed to destroy the Lords and stack it with Labour peers, they are allowed to sell Britain out to the EU [which still does not legitimately exist until post-Lisbon 2], they are allowed to sell off Britain's gold reserves for a song but if you start talking proportional representation or doing away with the monarchy, that's sedition, boy!

Now here are two I adore:

# violates the King's wife or the Sovereign's eldest daughter unmarried or the wife of the Sovereign's eldest son and heir", with or without the consent of those women

That's choice. I'll have to try it with the second daughter then.

# "slays the chancellor, treasurer, or the king's justices" while carrying out their duties.

Duties? Er ... like selling out Britain?

Applicability


Of course, this is all largely ceremonial at this time but it is still a useful little arrow to have in the quiver. Let me give a possible scenario:

Lisbon 2 is passed by Ireland. The EU, poised, swoops and officially assumes the organs of power in what was once the UK. The blogosphere erupts and the major bloggers are rounded up and shut down. Remember they're allowed to be waterboarded. How long was the detention for these days?

All of it silently, inexorably put in place - the legal right to snuff out dissent.
Who will actually do all this? Well the traitors in Common Purpose, of course, the socialists who've now been trained to "lead beyond authority" and take over the functions of state during the turmoil.

America

America is a little different - FEMA's your problem there. What it comes down to, quite simply, is this - when American troops, even acting for FEMA, are asked to round up or shoot their own citizens, they have a big problem in their heads.

Many American armed personnel have gone online to say that their loyalty is to the Constitution and the Country, not to Obama or anyone else in Washington. It happened in Vietnam, it happened elsewhere - they'll shoot the officer who gave the order to fire on his own people.

The complication is if he's told, 'If you don't do this, your family gets it.' Then it gets a bit tricky. Yessir, it's a bit tricky in the U.S.A. at this time and the people ain't happy. Not only that but do they really think anyone's going to surrender his gun in the amnesty?
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[weekend poll] closed, results here


Who's the sexiest?

9…Stevie Nicks
9…Susanna Hoffs
8…Michelle Pfeiffer
6…Kate Bush
6…Nigella Lawson
4…Queen Noor of Jordan
4…Segolene Royal
4…Julia Louis Dreyfus
3…Ann Curry
2…Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
2…Monica Bellucci

Total Votes: 55. Thank you to everyone who voted. You can find all eleven photos here.


Sexiest Older Man

I'm stuck with the 'Older Men' poll for this Friday. So far I've only been able to find Pierce Brosnan, George Clooney, Jon Bon Jovi and Mikhail Khordokovsky.

Surely there are other fine men out there between the ages of 43 and about 63 [not too fussed about the upper end].

Ladies, give me a hand here.
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[virus alert] blogrolling dot com


Some of you will remember the ill-fated Blogrolling dot com which had our group blogrolls [and I used them for every roll I had] and then they just crashed.

This necessitated the physical li and slash li laborious method of seeking out each site and re-entering it manually in a new roll. I was not mightily pleased by these bozos but hey - every company crashes from time to time, right? Did they fix the problem? Not on your nelly but not to worry because the new rolls are in place and all's roses.

Cut to the past few weeks. If you use Firefox, then you're in for a shock. Take the previous post, where I posted links to eight news sites. So let's say the link was:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/style/brit-hens-have-
more-pluck-than-this-wussy-canuck/article1189618/

Usual method. I typed the text "5. The Canadians admire British hen nights. Eh?" then inserted the link. Now here's the interesting thing. When I pressed publish and view post, if I then clicked on the link, it had been changed, taken over by:

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/redirect.php?retc.

That is, the link to the required page had been virused by this effing rpc blogrolling dot com. Now I never subscribed to them; I never asked them to do this. I just want my bloody link as it was typed in.

What makes it worse is that Blogrolling dot com, who obviously have some sweetheart deal with either Blogger or Firefox, I'm not sure which, can't even get it right. When I clicked on their revamped link, for example on the North Korean story, it didn't take me to the Reuters item, via Google News, which is where I'd come from but instead took me back to Google News itself.

If I'd wanted Google News itself, which I often do, then I'd have clicked on it. But for my readers, if I insert a link to a Reuters story on North Korea, I expect the link to take you to a Reuters story on North Korea.

Now there are three ways to look at this:

1. Find out where Blogrolling dot com work from and take the Kalashnikov;

2. Put up with this;

3. Painstakingly [and have you seen my blogrolling page?] go back, one by one, and remove every single rpc blogrolling dot com link they've taken over, find the original link somewhere and type it back in.

This is not all - oh no. They also have the temerity to spread advertising pop ups over the news site I've accessed, with a little panel to click on, saying, 'Why you are seeing this.'

In my book, this is p--s taking of the most despicable kind. For a start, I haven't the time to do all this extra work due to their incompetence or design. I never wanted it and it added one hour to that post this morning. The post took fifteen minutes, tops, including the search for news. The redoing involved googling every news site individually, finding the item, clicking, copying, opening the Blogger post, inserting and so on.

Blogrolling dot com are high on my list of incompetent, greedy, smug organizations to wipe off the face of the earth and I feel a dose of Devil's Kitchen swearing coming on.

The reason it probably won't happen to you, to the same extent, is that you might not use Firefox and you might not have changed your blogrolls recently. This seems to be the entry point for the Blogrolling dot com Virus. But keep your eyes peeled anyway.*

Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!

UPDATE: I've just checked my Blogrolls template and yep - they've taken over all the news sites and about half the links to fellow bloggers. I should have been more careful, I suppose but I wasn't expecting this to happen. This is not unlike Connex with trains. So incompetent they're booted out of Britain, so where do they go? Downunder to stuff up Melbourne's trains instead. You should read what Melburnians are saying. :)


* Have you ever considered what the act of peeling your eyes would involve? Just asking.

[stig] and other matters


1. Seems the Australians were also interested.

2. Great White Sharks don't attack at random - they stalk victims. I feel much better, knowing that. Swim anyone?

3. Would it be unpatriotic to be cynical about this?

4. Brinkmanship.

5. The Canadians admire British hen nights. Eh?

6. Harper lives again. Comment here.

7. Airbus troubles yet again. Monotonous regularity. Check with your airline if it's an Airbus this holiday.

8. You can't recognize something you plan to destroy.

Have a good breakfast.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

[country, rock and blues] daren't call it southern

Now this is not a joke. I'm serious and thank His Girl Friday for the tip. I've decided to put this up is because the piccies are superb. Just a word of warning - this youtube might flip over to the second track automatically so unless you press Pause, you could be listening to country all night:



This is going to come as a shock to regular readers but though it's true I'm not greatly into country music and certainly not into western, three country songs have been in my top ten favourites over 30 years:

1. Wide River, by Elvin Bishop. Can't get it on youtube or anywhere on the net for some reason but it's an absolute country classic. If any kind soul ever finds it, send it to me please.

2. In My Own Way, by the Marshall Tucker Band. The only possible way to get through this song in one piece is:

a. Get enough beer in;
b. Arrange the computer speakers near the window closest to the verandah;
c. Clear the bench, bring the nibbles and get started;
d. Sock back sufficient cleansing beers, you and your good lady, that you reach the maudlin stage;
e. Press play and let In My Own Way start;
f. If you happen to stumble inside at some stage, the fuzzy visuals on the clip should become crystal clear.

8. Travellin' Shoes, by Elvin Bishop. Forget the visuals on this one too - by now, she should be in your arms. After this song starts, you'll need to start dancing and brace yourself for the punch in the face at 1:22 and the end of your relationship.

Seriously though, non-Americans, give this one a chance - it's one of the country rock classics of all time, especially the last four minutes. Elvin Bishop's music was always so human and always had that element of high spirits and good humour to it.

[berlusconi] totally innocent of all charges

That symbol, also at Milan station - a serpent spewing forth a new child or a serpent swallowing a child? I'm not absolutely certain. Silvio, of course, is unaware that this symbol is marked on his front lawn. Understandable, really.


What the?!*&^!

Gianfranco Fini, the parliamentary Speaker and one of the most senior figures in Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom coalition, said there was "a risk that citizens could lose faith in politics and government institutions, which are the foundations of democracy," as a result of the scandal.

Oh, that's just beautiful. Silvio is no sleazebag, he's no way one of the most highly placed lieutenants of the real power which runs Europe and America - no, he's a total innocent.

Miss D'Addario et al never happened and anyway, they're nothing to what came before.

Berlusconi, Alexander Stille writes, "said a host of things that were almost childish in their transparent falsehood ... but he said them with such genuine-seeming passion that I actually began to doubt whether two and two still equaled four."

His comment on judges who dared, in 2003, to oppose his ad personam legislation to protect himself from retrospective charges was that judges are "mentally disturbed" and "anthropologically different from the rest of the human race".

He claimed he was misquoted and that it was a joke. As this is a joke:

In 1998, Mr Berlusconi was formally investigated on suspicion of commissioning the murders of two anti-Mafia judges, based on the testimony of a Mafia informant. However, no case was brought. That proves he is a total innocent.

In the 80s, it became public that the "gardener" at his Arcore estate in Milan was Vittorio Mangano, a powerful mafioso from Porta Nuova. Mangano was described by anti-mafia investigators as "one of those personalities who acted as a bridgehead for the Mafia in northern Italy". Silvio knew nothing of this.

P2

P2 was sometimes referred to as a "state within a state" or a "shadow government". The lodge was peopled by prominent journalists, parliamentarians, industrialists, and military leaders -- including the then-future Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; the Savoy pretender to the Italian throne Victor Emmanuel; and the heads of all three Italian intelligence services.

When searching Licio Gelli's villa, the police found a document called the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for a consolidation of the media, suppression of trade unions, and the rewriting of the Italian Constitution.

As is happening now, of course.

The murder of Calvi was ritualistic according to the listed punishment of a certain organization. Leaving that aside, perhaps Silvio would care to explain why the name of his adviser was mentioned by Chief Superintendent Chiara Giancomantonio, while she was investigating missing children who'd been brought into Italian sweat shops? What's his theory on where these children ended up?

No matter. Maybe he could enlighten us on Alessandra Borghese's remarkable rediscovery of Catholicism, the Borgheses being the head of the Black Nobility?

Well, all right, perhaps not. Silvio one of the occult line? Never! Flight of fancy.
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