Saturday [4 to 7]

(0706) Morning all. Bleah out there. (0827)

7.  Kathy Gyngell’s email feed newsletter today

“Andrew's other guest panellists were the Swiss lawyer Philipp Kruse, Dr Meryl Nass, the US physician who successfully treated covid patients with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. She is suing the Maine Medical Board who suspended her over 'misinformation'.

Kruse explained how the WHO, unconstitutionally, intends to remove our fundamental right of self-determination, what the starting point of our debate must be, the timeline of the treaties we are working to as well as the (treacherous) amendments to the International Health Regulations. 

His speech brought out how easily we can be gulled by the complex technical process, legalistic but misleading language and the painstaking effort required to untangle and challenge it. They, at the WHO and UN, are paid to this. We are not. You can listen to my (amateur) recording of Andrew's introduction and his speech here.”

6.  Time for another all in one OpEd

a.  The letter I and the single apostrophe

For some reason, when these two symbols start a line, the ipad will not “select” the text, nor allow anything else at the start of that line … same on both pads.

I’d therefore ask our key guys and gals if they’d watch out for those, as it throws things out in the redaction. Ta. (There were two examples today.)

b.  Bona fides of pundits

“Nourishing Obscurity” was never intended to be as a lesson for other pundits … it was just a name to use for the blog … when I saw that Deng quote, why not, methought. However, it’s become quite relevant in recent days as big shot pundits tend to lose over time … Hannity, James O’Keefe, Stew Peters … jury’s out on Tucker.

But even at a lower “reach” level, the red flags still appear … one giveaway is when someone starts talking about “my followers”. You wot? I’m not your follower, nor are any N.O. readers mine … you chaps and chapesses deign to drop in because you see some value in it … for now. We’re only as good as our material. In some cases, we’re part of your daily rounds or every few days. And what? Sounds good to me.

Building little empires? Forgeddit, chums, just the good oil please … that’s what we’re after.

c.  Sleep

I just can’t get this danged (Americanism) post written. I want to because so many are having really bad sleep issues up and down Britain (remember my NHS course I was on ?) but where does one start?

The moment I give any ideas how to fix it, every single other person can say his/her circumstances are different.

Yes … yes they are. Some have spouses there, others other circumstances … there are your surroundings, sheer noise, other worries … and so on and so on. 

I’d suggest the Holy Spirit was not called the Comforter for nothing, but who wants to know that these days?

Some people are naturally calm, others not, some are psychopaths who don’t care … therefore they sleep well … others are not, worry about this and that … fret.

You do see the probs. For me, the HS is the first major factor but is also a conscience triggerer, so … a double-edged sword.

I do like that advice I saw long ago about leaving your troubles at the bedroom door … your issues … sounds good to me. 

Then there’s arranging your periphery … your immediate surroundings … and anyone or anything interfering with those … deal with them.

There’s a certain degree of ruthlessness required … can’t be puddy-dats the whole time. Call it spine, backbone. To a point, otherwise it becomes ego and narcissism … or else the emternal power struggle.

Bloody govt trying to make our lives a misery. But one good antidote there is once you can finally accept thst these bstds truly are your enemy, out to depopulate … then it becomes far easier. I don’t fret over Gates, Soros, Schultz, Fauci, Whitty, Ferguson … they’re known-knowns … bullet to the head will sort those bstds … and it’s getting closer.

To a great extent, it’s mind over matter but it’s also diet, exercise, enough liquid, occupying your time too, not sitting about like couch porstoes …

… and so it goes on. Best thing I can say is don’t worry about it.  Easy for me to say, he who can arrange things as he wishes … well only to a point. I still have people around, neighbours etc, bleedin’ machinery a short distance away, all day and night.

But let’s say you do wake up in the middle of the night … so what? Is that the end of the world? Especially if retired and over a certain age … all the others will just have to adjust to that. 

I do have a vlog I put on which helps … it’s someone with a particular pitch and tone which puts me asleep, giving a lecture … I never hear it after ten minutes. Radio plays don’t do it as they’re interesting and often dramatic. Mood music doesn’t either in my case. Many clips are too short, I need 20 mins to be sure.

You have your own sleep help … sex is supposed to be good … but not with yourself, ha ha.

d.  Dogs

Toodles wrote something which struck home in my noggin:

“… am telling you people are NUTS about their dogs these days. They act like they are children. They are not people. I loved our dogs, but I knew they were dogs. The dogs knew they were dogs and liked it that way. They were happy dogs. They were aware we were the head honchos. We had fun and played with them but also had rules.”

“Everyone (fawns) over these k-9s like they were babies!”

e.  Birthdays

Yes, we’re right in my birthday belt … yesterday a friend from long ago had one, there are more up to the fifteenth, many celebs also have em around now … then comes Valentine’s.

I can assure you mine is not today, nor was it yesterday or tomorrow.  Some days still.

5.  MftWC too

a.  BRICS agenda and “Western Empire” agenda are the same agenda

https://expose-news.com/2024/02/09/brics-agenda-and-western-empire-agenda-are-the-same/

b.  EU Bends The Knee To Farmers: Drops Key Provisions In 2040 Climate Proposal

https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/eu-bends-the-knee-to-farmers-drops-key-provisions-in-2040-climate-proposal/

c.  Assange, Elon, & The News Not Fit To Print

https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/assange-elon-the-news-not-fit-to-print/

d.  Ex-defense chief: Royal Navy warships are “unsatisfactory” and lack power to attack Houthis on land

https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-02-08-royal-navy-warships-lack-power-attack-houthis.html

e.  Report: UK military would exhaust capabilities after just 2 of months of war

https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-02-08-uk-military-would-exhaust-capabilities-2months-war.html

4.  Tucker C

That’s a compromise designation in the light of IYE’s quote of a guy who detests Tucker C (NOWP 582:4), but without current specifics, as I mention. 

The guy might even be right but it’s necessary to give specific reasons why. There is such a thing as red pilling or as Clif High calls it … woo. Such a thing as finding the way, as I did, a Fabian in my youth. It takes a long time in many cases. Mine was around my early 30s.

Toodles for one, never trusted Tucker C and methinks there were quite a few specifics in the Fox days … how much him, how much Fox?  Is he a total charlatan, and is this whole thing staged?

Ian here wrote:

The Tucker Carlson Interview with Putin:

I've only watched part of this, but am impressed by Putin's candour.

I see the BBCs 'balanced reporting' makes no mention of this incredible interview. As far as the 'approved' UK media is concerned, it never happened!

Similarly Julian Assange - wasn't his appeal meant to be yesterday?

Are we expected to forget about him too?

https://tuckercarlson.com/the-vladimir-putin-interview/

Bottom line, for me (JH), is that however disingenuous Tucker C might be … out for himself like James O’Keefe … this most certainly got the message out we’ve been on about for years. I’m going to touch on this issue in the OpEd coming up, of pundits out for their own glory … or not.

Sunday [1]

Wikipedia "editors", a euphemism for closed shop Wokism, oft write: "this article has multiple issues" and goodness but does this morning's TDS (below) ever have issues, few of which are down to their misleading but which far highlight more the very problems of information transference, confirmation bias, a priori assumptions, academic fashion, plus the snuffing out of discussion of clear anomalies.

From the get-go, there's the issue of even understanding that opening paragraph above and for those even able to take that onboard is my arrogant questioning of someone's intellectual capacity, illustrated nicely in the comment I've retained for well over a decade on my "others say" page:

"You want to know why? Because you are a cretin.  You are a mad man, of limited intellect, with an axe to grind.  You come over as slightly unhinged."

I've always loved the "slightly" bit there and must acknowledge that the lady's daughter did ask me to take it down, said lady having a bad day at the time but it does illustrate how manner and choice of words can sway, before any "facts" can even be established:

There's also the point Chuckles used to make about lefty academics:

... and how far one can trust a child or at least a child-brain, as in the opening item here:

... where cheerleading for respective camps causes said cheerleaders to cherry pick which bits of data they'll choose to run with ... and which will simply be ignored, often under instructions from the Central Planning Committee.

Then we get to paywall news outlets being any way to determine truth ... wot, you'd take on board anything written by intergenerational marxist Toynbee or the quite unintellectual feminist Codswallop (see Arron Banks) or back to said boy wonder Jones?

You do see just some of the issues of people with the vote relying on such sources for "truth" ... and what of the Hitchens celebs? Piers Morgan?  It becomes bewildering. Humans start choosing "trusted sources" based on many criteria, not all being ruthlessly ferreting with neither fear nor favour.

And that child in the photo above ... her very looks are against her ... better a wizened old professor perhaps or caustic bstd who rips apart humbug at the seams and who takes no prisoners?

Then we look at the techniques used in research and data manipulation:

https://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2008/02/groupthink-gentle-art-of-persuasion.html

http://archive-random-nour-obscur.blogspot.com/2006/10/appendix.html

... including:

http://archive-random-nour-obscur.blogspot.com/2006/10/appendix-h.html

... and:

Perry Mason, advocate, had just finished pointing out an anomaly in Sergeant Holcombe’s evidence in a murder trial and now asked, ‘Does that seem logical to you?’

Sergeant Holcombe hesitated a moment, then said, ‘Well, that’s one of those little things. That doesn’t cut so much ice. Lots of times you’ll find little things which are more or less inconsistent with the general interpretation of evidence.'

‘I see,’ Mason said. ‘And when you encounter such little things, what do you do, Sergeant?’

‘You just ignore ’em,’ said Holcombe.

‘And how many such things have you ignored, Sergeant, in reaching your [current] conclusion?’ 

A girl at one university asked me to tell her what Bloom's taxonomy was saying or Dewey or Piaget and I told her that she was meant to feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of their grossly oversimplified and cherrypicked marxist rantings, designed for intellectual retards ... which hardly helped in the task set by her lecturer ... and so it goes on. 

It did not help with the security of my tenure either.

And why should anything academic turn out to be treated as gospel, while Adam Smith or Karl Popper are ignored?  But even the latter's "empirical falsification" has its limits when something spiritual is involved ... empiricism is great to be sure but is it the only test of weighty matters of other dimensions or even the dark edges of our solar system?

And then we get to the deathjab ... we have collated at our sites more than enough, I'd say, to at least question the way the jabs were rolled out ... to establish at least reasonable doubt ... before even starting on "climate science" and king chas's bollox at copulate 28 in Dubai.

Before even getting onto the Irish govt's severe punishments to any poor sods they've hacked and found questioning the govt line.

And so on.

Saturday [17 till close of play]

(1700)

25.  At 2219, Twitter appears to be down

I'll try other ways to reach it and maybe you could check too but if it's so and not some aberration at my end here ... then that's most interesting.

As you were ... it's back up.

24.  IYE reports at NOWP

Tsunami alert

“Japan has ordered evacuation of thousands of coastal residents of Ishigaki, Miyako islands and Futtsu City due to possible tsunami after powerful Philippines earthquake.”

JH: Another explosive device detonated?

23.  Digger is out of this world

22.  Tacky or supercool?

21.  Utterly sickening thing in Ireland

… completely insensitive to the recent attacks … some politician called Noonan inviting eleven rapists and stabbers to a welcome ceremony photo op, talking about them integrating.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Why are they even in any sort of power?

20.  IYE

"Self-Amplifying RNA Shots Are Coming: The Untold Danger"

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/self-amplifying-rna-shots-are-coming-untold-danger

Had a lok at the 1959 series of that film.

19.  This Copulate 28 thing

Quick quiz question … to whom are they referring here?

Thing which got me is that they’re all together in the one place are they not?  Anyone have a few spare missiles or MOABs?

18.  Why are the Woke left (and Karens)

… such horrible people?

They don’t like it up ’em, do they? What people are seeing is Farage having discussions and putting across his point of view. The only poisonous ones coming from those who would silence him. It would be nice if those who vote on these things give Whittome a massive two-finger salute.

https://longrider.co.uk/blog/2023/12/02/farage-and-the-celebs/

17.  Steve

War Room snippets...

a.  Dr Wolf Breaks Down AG Ken Paxton's Lawsuit Against Pfizer For Defrauding American Citizens

https://rumble.com/v3z2pkj-dr.-wolf-breaks-down-ag-ken-paxtons-lawsuit-against-pfizer-for-defrauding-a.html

b.  Ric Grenell: "When the left and these big government types see AI they wanna operationalize it"

https://rumble.com/v3z42kg-ric-grenell-when-the-left-and-these-big-government-types-see-ai-they-wanna-.html

c.  Garrett Ziegler: "Hunter Biden's entire lifestyle is paid for by this bong smoking degenerate"

https://rumble.com/v3z439v-garrett-ziegler-hunter-bidens-entire-lifestyle-is-paid-for-by-this-bong-smo.html

d. Ben Harnwell: Washington Post Stabs Zelensky In The Back — And Twists The Knife

https://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2023/12/saturday-12-onwards.html#comment-form

Wednesday [1 to 4]

(0633)(0750)

4.  From the readers’ and my perspective

… as distinct from each author in relation to the other authors, it serves the reader better for me to just point, from here, to NOWP 494 with Andy, IYE and DAD today, rather than me telegraphing the specifics of that specific footage over here.  There are things which can be brought over here … there are other things probably better left over there and alluded to in general here.

These are ongoing decisions the whole time … par for the course.

3.  Housekeeping too

a.  The shocking-pink highlighted bits today where both MftWC and also Amfortas opened with either ‘ or I.  

Whoever failed to design either the ipad or ggl or WP properly, such that that mark and that letter throw out the page formatting something awful, such that just to put a letter in there or to attempt to Select throws out the text … it’s hardly the type of thing a non-blogger could appreciate … our boys could easily get caught out because it doesn’t throw their own comment out … it just throws out N.O. page format.

This is the diabolical aspect … it never hurts the perps, it only hurts the users and readers.

b.  Youtube and other tricks

Ditto with IYE … there is no way he could have known NOWP 494:6 was going to do that … in fact it was actually working at first. However, once I played it, this showed up in my YT history, was noted and the rest you can see.

In a similar way, the issues on which our French readers in particular are getting grief … this is hardly their doing … but nor is it mine, except in still using these devices and platforms.

Why do I not change? Because not only are no others (freely available) better but in fact they’re worse … I do know that of which I write. Or else super-expensive for someone in a certain penury. I’m living on the principle that if Mr. X is on £3m per annum and he spends £3.5m … he is in a worse position than I am on £5K plus bits and pieces who is spending £4.5K … I can live like a prince, not a king, with severely reduced overheads … Mr. X though is heading for trouble.

So no … our boys (and sometimes our gals) are not to be castigated … it’s not their fault, they have their own home issues, I for one am not going to let third parties drive in wedges in the work we do.

2.  Housekeeping (not concerning Wed 1, something else)

There’s a certain amount of “fair play” in what we do and one aspect in that is to differentiate between gossip-mongering clickbait, constructing scenarios to get hits … and genuine calling out. 

There used to be one called Landum who took celebs and headed his vlogs with “why (name) absolutely hated …” or else “the REAL tragedy which befell …” and it simply was not so … it was a beat-up, a construction.  In his case, he had that slow Southern drawl which suggests solid, no nonsense reportage … but actually was a beat-up to get clicks.

We had that Grant Wood youtube yesterday in one of our feature sections and I ran my comment on the bashing of the joanna … Amfortas went further:

I agree with the piano playing comment. Better kept for the brothel, perhaps, where it covers the sound of springs. But the narrator hisself needs a few strokes of a hard brush. His risen pitch, as though he were speaking to someone at distance in a strong wind, needs to calm down. I do not appreciate being shouted at.

Well now there’s another … a youtube about Markle being told no by the palace 60 times and it was down to run in the first post after the opening two news posts here. 

That is a very pratty thing to do if your motvation was to get the word out. If however, your motivation was coickbait hits, then that’s another matter.

Plus this:

Body shaming?  Oh my goodness … she’s Wokerati. She can get knotted.

1.  Man from the West Country one

a.  CDC confirms 58k Children were Injured, 15k were Hospitalized, 1.2k were left Disabled & 163 tragically Died due to C**ID-19 Vaccination in the USA by October 2022

https://expose-news.com/2023/11/14/cdc-confirms-covid-vaccine-has-left-thousands-of-children-disabld/

‘Shot Dead’: Stories of Children who’ve been Killed by C**id Injections

https://expose-news.com/2023/11/14/shot-dead-children-killed-by-covid-injections/

c.  Vaccinated children shed C**ID up to 3X longer than unvaccinated kids, study data show

https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-11-14-vaccinated-children-shed-covid-3x-longer-study.html

d.  When New Zealand’s regulatory authority says deaths post-vaccination are “under investigation” – it is misinformation

https://expose-news.com/2023/11/14/when-new-zealands-regulatory-authority-says/

e. Feds keep hidden books on VVV Jab Injury reports: Investigation (Video)

https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/feds-keep-hidden-books-on-vvv-jab-injury-reports-investigation-video/

f.  Purebloods as sperm donors: Demand for sperm from unvaccinated donors is rising sharply

https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-11-13-demand-sperm-unvaccinated-donors-rising-sharply.html

g.  The Damage Of The ‘White Privilege’ Smear — Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/the-damage-of-the-white-privilege-smear-victor-davis-hanson/

Israeli genocide of Gaza may be motivated by Palestine’s maritime natural gas reserves and desire to “wipe Gaza off the map”

https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-11-14-israeli-genocide-gaza-steal-palestine-natural-gas.html

Easter Monday [2 to 4]

(0500)

4.  Businesses are under their control

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/04/09/controversial-woke-scorecard-encourages-corporates-to-endorse-celebs-like-dylan-mulvaney/

A little-known index appears to be an important motivator for big companies to offer lucrative branding deals to divisive influencers like Dylan Mulvaney. The Corporate Equality Index (CEI) rates American businesses according to how woke they are on issues like sexual orientation and gender identity. The CEI is overseen by an LGBTQ+ political lobbying group called Human Rights Campaign (HRC). 

The New York Post has the story. 

Businesses that attain the maximum 100 total points earn the coveted title “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality”. Fifteen of the top 20 Fortune-ranked companies received 100% ratings last year, according to HRC data. …

The HRC, which was formed in 1980 and started the CEI in 2002, is led by Kelley Robinson who was named as [the organisation’s] President in 2022 and worked as a political organiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

3.  Amren

https://www.amren.com/blog/2023/04/the-fall-of-townson-maryland/

Years ago, I lived in Towson, Maryland. It was a very wealthy area with a Starbucks every two miles and a five-story mall. Then one day, Baltimore started running buses to Towson, and the city went downhill fast. Property values plunged, everyone started moving out (including my family), and stores started shutting down and leaving the mall. Nobody wanted to take their family shopping there because of the mobs of young black teenagers from the city. 

2.  Consider

To answer Mary Miller with another question ... why did the Crim Clown Zelenskyy close the churches?  Why was there not the slightest notice taken, officially, of those shooting victims at the Christian school?  Why the London festival of some religion nothing to do with Britain but not a word about the meaning of Easter or to be more accurate ... Resurrection?

And to answer ... it is not way off beam to say that all the miscreants mentioned since midnight here are simply playing for the other side.  Yet so, so difficult for most to wrap their heads around.

Tuesday [11]

Before starting this, there’s a heck of a lot going on just now over at NOWP.

The Intellectual Dark Web

Who is maybe the most vehement opponent of the much adored Jordan Peterson? I don’t mean amongst the Wokerati, as they see him as the devil incarnate, e.g. Cathy Newman.  No, I mean among “us”, the supposed dissident right?

Vox Day, right?

But now I find another … and in far more detail, far more, in her own inimitable fashion. I know when she’s waffling, when she’s a heat seeking missile … and in this, she’s the latter.  My own stance, until looking at Polly’s video, was that I respect Vox, I respect her … in particular because her eye for detail usually turns out to be right, e.g. in what’s behind the deathjab.  She it was who broke Event 201.

Right … and on Peterson? There are way too many questions, and they show no sign of abating.  What about Ben Shapiro?  Bought of course, I never go to Breitbart if it can be helped. The GWP?  Don’t trust them, caught out too many times. Before it’s News? They’ve been shredded. Epoch? Nope, cashing in, often days later, hard sell.  Alex Jones?  A real anomaly. Sandy Hook is in no way a closed issue, yet he agrees to pay out big time?  Whoa!

And so it goes on. Candace O was criticised by our people here, I looked again and she’s not intellectual, let’s say. Rogan … don’t trust him over so many things.  Christina Hoff Summers?  Seemed good but some feminazi stances had me quite puzzled.  So look at these two charts from Polly:

Looking again at that first chart, what were they all up to? Right of centre for profit. Not for enlightenment. Elon Musk is in there … what’s the first thing he does?  Implements buying blue ticks … why does that remind me of Led Zeppelin?

But for me, the biggest puzzle is … what connects Vox and Polly?  They do not quote one another, I can’t see a connection …

Ahhh … except one. One clip of Peterson had someone ask him if he believed in God? He waffled, went into deep sophistry, started talking about defining one’s terms. To a real Christian, as Polly pointed out, you just say, “Yes.”

Now there are many of our readers who would give a straight, “No.” That’s intellectually honest, that’s setting out your stall.  That’s not waffling. But these other celebs hide behind their waffling.  Why?  Because a huge number of dissident anti-Woke are Christian, in a real way.

How can I tell?  Because it’s not unlike the Masonic handshake … members recognise one another. We suddenly attack, for example, the antiPope or Welby.  Now that doesn’t take a Christian, most at N.O. do that.  But there are questions when some of us see someone waffling … and that’s a dead giveaway.

It’s not unlike Tulsi Gabbard pushing her “rightwing” credentials. We don’t even see ourselves that way … I call myself antiWoke.  The antiWoke space is now being gradually taken over and occupied … look at James O’Keefe, at past heads of Breitbart, at Michelle Gold, at Mark Steyn … one by one, shut out and their former space occupied by “safe to the establishment” GB News types such as Farage, who sold us out.

Some of the least forgiving people are Christians, real ones, because they can smell bullsh a mile off.  The biggest prob is when they do the hard sell evangelising, which is why I try not to and I myself run a mile if I see two men in suits come to my door with a bible. I’ll tell you now … I’m doing a post at some stage on the filioque clause … most interesting, so be warned that that’s coming up … why there was that schism.

But coming back to the intellectual dark web … what do those people actually stand for?  Polly goes into that if you’re interested.

Monday [10 to 14]

Late afternoon.

14.  Now and Next on EVs

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/evs-blowin-in-the-wind

13.  IYE

"Russia Reveals Antarctica Is Not What We're Being Told!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh-2ndWRW54

{Apart from a smidgin of global moaning/climate change blah blah quite interesting, imho}

12.  Andy

I suppose one reanimated ancient Egyptian felt offended, so we all have to take the metaphorical knee. 

https://amp.lbc.co.uk/news/mummy-offensive-dehumanising-banned-ancient-egypt-museums-edinburgh/

11. Interesting what Ian J sent

Is Clarkson starting the fight-back?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/clarkson-fights-back-goes-offensive-against-woke-take-over

Clarkson and, say, Morgan are two peas in a pod … right up themselves as super celebs who are allowed to behave badly, yet not in any politically useful way until now.

Still not convinced because the ‘conversion’ was only triggered by the treatment of him himself, not by the treatment of millions.

10.  These

Wimmin of note

Born 1930, still alive, singing star of the 50s, on February 8, 1960 she became one of the first stars to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Some Americans might know of perky PK:

Similar era, born in Subiaco, GL was from the Golden Age of Hollywood:

Highly controversial figure, I could write an essay on LF … largely detested by family and public, disliked by people such as Roger Moore … seems to me her hubby bought himself trouble in this May-December, tragic end to both.  There are some women who just have that irrational ability to enslave, Henry VIII knew about that:

Just a beach scene, no “celebs” in particular:

The conundrum with carols

Firstly, just had chicken broth ... tell you what ... nice. Now, best I do this while I still can and sorry, but I must name names, plus I'm going to relate it as it happened.

With a fair idea of the carols until Christmas, it struck me that I'd not done much in the American line until after Christmas ... you know, that Marine Corps band and their humorous renditions, that sort of thing. The serious carols, the historic ones, do tend to be European.

However Toodles was saying to me that as a child, she loved Away in a Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem, which were wonderful for a sweet child. She hastened to add that she was not asking for me to play them, which of course guarantees that I shall.

(This is going to be a very long post, readers.)

All right, so I'm thinking ... hmmmm, let's have an American afternoon of carols. First I found was fine ... Gentleman Jim Reeves, with Mary's Boy Child ... and I'm thinking of our curmudgeons here and their reaction ... this selection is not for Sceptr'd Islanders per se. 

So fine, his voice is good, good background to his life, a nice carol. Number one:

Looking around for a second carol from America ... Do You Hear What I Hear? ... and there's Martina McBride ... er, her voice is not so great for carols, it's more for drawled country songs ... great for those. All right, I keep looking around and there are dozens of female celebs, even Mariah Carey ... what's wrong with these people? Why must they "interpret" a carol? Mangle it beyond recognition so that it becomes an ego trip for the artist? And as for their personal lives!  I mean ... not looking for a saint but at least let it be a 'good' woman (or man).

Finally, I find a good one with a weird name ... Órla Fallon ... lovely voice, nice treatment of the carol. Then I see she's not American. Oops. Still, it's a nice carol, so number two.

I usually run three songs but Toodles has two so what the heck, let's do it. Bethlehem ... I'm going to read out just some of the versions ... Nat King Cole (have you seen his private life, that of a satyr?) ... Sarah McLachlan, nice voice (but cursory investigation and she's occult, into Lilith etc.) ... Cedarmont Kids, reasonable until the camera fixates on the black boy and fair girl (plus something ultra-contrived about it (more later).

Hmmmm ... Hayley Westenra, some superstar teenager and don't she knowitt?  Dan Forrest ... ah, he's an American:

Er ... he can't play, he's off key, includes the wrong notes in chords.  This is becoming frustrating.  

Perry Como ... ah, good, a good man ... but Perry's not great here, the ole crooner, and the backing singers are awful. Hmmmm ... Brighouse, a brass band ... ok but a brass band for an intimate carol? Anne Murray ... can't sing. Choir of Clare College ... ah, good, they can sing ... oops, British.  

Natalie Raynes ... bashing away at the johanna like a school ma'am or piano teacher (oops, she is a piano teacher, listing her scale of $$$$$ charges).  Well what then?  Are there any I can run?

All right, let's go with her instrumental, karaoke style with lyrics displayed (was about to run this, then saw it was the BBC) ... so, Natalie:

Now to Away in a Manger.

In frustration, I thought Pentatonix acapella would shirley do it justice. Starts ok, pans to the female ... dress split to the waist, breasts half hanging out. On a Christmas carol ... aaaggghhh! 

Well Home Free then?  It's ok but they're grinning, not taking it seriously ... plenty of real baby there for Toods and other gals but men start kissing it ... it's not up to scratch, this version.

Sigh. And there's something else ... they're singing the wrong tune. Yet some singers did have the right tune ... Toronto Mendelssohn for example, in fact most Canadian renditions had it right.

This one though, though certainly pretty, was playing some sort of country rhythm "Home on the Range" type tune.

Hmmmm, what's going on here? So, to Wikipedia, if you can get past them going all leftwing with Musk:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger

Ah, I finally understand. Scroll down to the Music section and all is revealed.  There are two distinct tunes ... one, called Murray or Mueller, is only in the USA, all others around the world use Kirkpatrick or Cradle Song.  Both are American, so qualify, but the Americans don't seem to like the second American one. Ok, got that.  The second does sound more like a hymn in church ... listen to both there.

But which to play?  Why do these things have to happen?

Horror descends

As if that weren't enough, I went back to Cedar something Kids ... plenty of babies being kissed by kids but there's something a bit contrived all the same. So I click on their website ... blocked. Allo allo allo, what's this?

Next one has some nursery teacher going through all these actions ... rocking a baby (pretending) and suddenly, she's making satanist horned handsigns. Whaaaaa?  Whole thing is off, really off.

You know ... Disney, commercial hiring out of kids ... quite offputting the way YT is getting into this. All right, I have to play something so let's hope this isn't some cult: