[blogfocus saturday] a little out of focus this evening

An American Minuteman

Another Focus, without a focus, due to time constraints and slight illness but still, I hope you’ll enjoy the round-up:

1 The Baron opens with his debate about gun laws with us limeys:

In my post from earlier today about gun crime in Britain, one British commenter had this to say: No thanks. We don’t want a gun culture like you have over there. You can keep it. Some of the other commenters, including other Britons, disagreed.

Let’s recapitulate what American “gun culture” is based on, namely the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

2 The old argument about free trade and protectionism gets a new twist at Café Hayek:

The deep lesson here is that, just as moving to freer trade does indeed upset some economic apple carts, so, too, does protection upset some economic apple carts. Given that both free trade and protection cause some specific job and business losses, protection cannot be justified -- as so many try to justify it -- by pointing to people whose economic expectations will be upset by freer trade. Free-trade advocates can counter with similar accounts.

3 The Latic, Pete, explains why he is a slave to his computer and I identify with every word here:

Who said that man can always triumph over machine? Maybe no-one did, but it's a widely held belief. Well, let me tell you that my laptop tells ME when it's time to stop. How? Simple - it just gives up, which means I have to. It will whirr along quite merrily all day, doing all that I ask of it then, bingo!!, I'll hit a link, up comes the egg timer - and there it stays relentlessly, unswervingly, immovable - ad infinitum.

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[election 2008] focus on rudia and hilly

According to The New York Times, [no link, sorry], New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani performed in female attire, posing as "Rudia the Transvestite" at a nightclub. The occasion was the annual "Inner Circle" show.

Hillary, meanwhile, is almost certainly cleared of allegations about her friend Susan and the gay lobby is unhappy about her ambivalence on their issue.

So, America, there are your likely starters, currently running neck and neck. Good luck.

[meme] six unusual things about myself

Tiberius Gracchus dropped a meme onto me some days ago and the reason I’ve been tardy in posting is that I simply couldn’t think of six unusual things about myself. Plus these exercises induce you to be self-indulgent. Well, as there’s no other way but to be self-indulgent, here is an end of semester report on James Higham:

1] At any given moment, Higham doesn’t know what he’s doing. For example, if he’s in Finland and he’s met a Finnish drinking buddy on the boat and agrees to be the man’s navigator on the journey to the Arctic Circle and if they stop at a roadside café and the man asks if Higham knows where they’re going, he’ll answer, reassuringly, “Trust me.” With a lady, if it doesn’t seem to be working, he’ll try something else until it ‘takes’. This is one of the best arguments for fidelity - you learn the other. He also knows nothing about trade, education or blogging.

2] On a road journey somewhere, Higham lacks ‘reversability’. There’s something missing from his brain, perhaps due to things imbibed in earlier days. He can always find his way somewhere, even without a map, weaving in and out of the traffic and mounting footpaths but once there, he has no way back. The route just fails to implant itself in the brain, having been a creative and lateral route in the first place. “Do you, James, in fact, have any idea how to get back?” she breathes, evenly. “No.” “No?” “Not in the least. I was deliberately wasting your time,” he adds, pythonesquely. “Let’s just make love and I’m sure something will come.” This sort of thing loses him marriages. He did find his way home that day though, miraculously, she conceded.

3] One of his favourite tricks, alas no longer possible in the modern office, was to have two phones on the desk, of the bulbous receiver/microphone, horizontal handset type and when they’d both ring at the same time, he’d shout and rabbit chop the ends of both receivers so they’d spring up into the air and then he’d catch them in mid-air [quite often]. Another trick he loves and still practises, is to crack two eggs simultaneously, breaking them enough for the contents to go into the bowl and then flinging the shells, with a flourish, into a bin three metres away. That was the old hamburger shop gambit and it had to be three metres exactly. As age has crept up, he’s ceased bowing to an imaginary audience and increasingly tends to drop one or both eggs.

4] Higham is fanatically punctual [actually – early] for any appointment, even Blogfocus but when it comes to a lady, he loses all sense of time and proportion, the lotus syndrome. The uni girls know that if he’s ever late, it’s either because of a five car pile-up on the road or else he’s with a lady [well, actually the lady]. The former is more common and whilst on the topic of ladies, he doesn’t understand why he appeals to those under 16/18 or so and romantically to those over 30/32 but never to those in the 18-30 range but it’s always been so. He’s never got far with this intermediate range. Recently, he’s been experimenting with arriving late for appointments, with ready-made apology but that doesn’t feel good so he’ll probably drop the idea.

5] Higham suffers from what he thinks is Wilson’s Syndrome. The body temperature drops and the complications begin. People ask: “Do you have a temperature?” as if that’s the sole criterion for illness and he replies: “Yes, 35.5.” The thing is then, he can’t be idle for long – the body has to keep moving and working and sleeping-in is usually followed by glugginess. Better not to do it. Plus he doesn’t feel the cold unless it’s very cold. Anything over 25 degrees Celsius and he’s in trouble. People don’t say: “The iceman cometh,” for nothing. Actually, they don’t say it at all.

6] What people are usually struck by, given his blogging and working persona, which sometimes resorts to role-playing and manic acting to make its point and in his occasional lovemaking which usually gets a bit more physical and exploratory than bargained for, given his fine, upstanding character, is that when at home, he’ll suddenly switch to extreme, prosaic passivity. He can lie on a couch for two hours, reading or get up at 12 noon on Sunday, something he has in mind for tomorrow. As Eric Oldthwaite was once accused of by that pigeon keeper, Higham can be a ‘boring little tit’.

So, over to you, Russ and Don, Pete the Latic and Melanie P.

[climate change] un draft report debate

The UN Report will say:

■It is more than 90 per cent certain that human activities have caused global warming.
■Global temperatures will rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees.
■Earth will be increasingly unable to absorb rising carbon dioxide.
■Sea levels could rise by between 20cm and 60cm in the next 100 years, and will continue to rise for 1000 years.
■Snow will vanish from all but the highest peaks.
■More extreme, violent weather will ensue.

However, a different article says:

■Geological coring data shows that natural rises in carbon dioxide levels follow temperature changes rather than cause them;
■It is also a fact that more than 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas effect is caused by water vapour, and the contribution from man-made carbon dioxide is estimated at 0.1 per cent;
■The source of information is claimed by an exclusive few — government-funded scientists with an array of climate-change models and large computer systems;
■We would not like to buy at the top of the sharemarket cycle, nor should we buy into a possible global warming peak without a responsible and wide-ranging debate;
■1975 Newsweek Report saying temperatures were falling, not rising, based on the last 40 years;
■Even the man in the street sees himself as an expert.

Clearly the CO2 question above is the one which is in dispute and where both sides flatly contradict one another. Len Walker, the author, is a civil engineer, not a climate expert. However, I did find a site supporting Len Walker’s statement about CO2. Unfortunately, it was published by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, so we’re back where we started.

The UN report is written by 2500 scientists, citing 6000 reports and reviewed by 750 experts, operating under a United Nations banner. The UN banner worries me, as the UN has a global political agenda. However, the question still remains: “Why would 2500 scientists go to the trouble of destroying their reputations by stating a clear scientific error, even if UN backed?”

Late note: having now gone through 11 random ‘climate change myth’ sites, the layouts are impressive, for example this one, complete with graphs. However, there is no evidence backing the assertion about CO2, no links to a credible scientific authority. In the end it’s just a blogger’s assertion which directly contradicts 2500 scientists.

That’s the dilemma.

[sole post today] whatchoo lookin' at, eh

So, they’ve finally admitted it. But it’s only part of the story. Here’s another comment.

For my articles on all of this, please see posts 1 and 2, which continues here, with appendices a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, and n [Yes, I know I numbered wrongly]. All of which shows that the process has been deliberate and not due to simple neglect, in the least.

The combination of the dumbing down of education, together with the other policies and trends mentioned below, produces a culture of chavs and droogs. This is my take on how we got there:

# Personal access to scripture was suppressed in the middle ages by virtue of:

a] having been kept in Latin;
b] bibles being chained to the pulpit;
c] keys to the church being in the hands of certain men.

# Personal access to scripture is suppressed in the modern age by virtue of:

a] the priests of the secular in key positions in society, actively ridiculing and suppressing;
b] only the humanistic ethic being taught in institutions of learning;
c] cessation of the oral tradition from parent to child;
d] the culture of unwillingness to countenance and read a scriptural document, whilst giving learned dissertations on all other philosophical systems;
e] it took three generations to get to this point.

# Philosophy, by its very nature, is speculation. Scripture is ancient documentation.

# Scripture, in particular the gospels, lays out a social plan which, if followed, is sustainable and productive. It actually works. Therefore it must be suppressed because it empowers individuals and runs society along wholesome lines.

# With the final suppression of a society's code of morality, the only law is satanic law, the dog-eat-dog law stated by Anton le Vey as: “Do as you will.”

# Values now get turned on their head, the rich prostitute is now venerated and aspired to and heads are filled with things which don't matter in a sane society. Society comes loose from its moorings.

# The spirituality of the child is now catered for by the nightclub and drugs. The spirituality of the adult is now catered for by the need for new acquisitions and the provision of palaces [shopping centres] to provide these. ‘New’ is the key buzzword.

# The rise of usury in mid-Europe put governments into debt with financiers and with one particular group, whose symbol, the XX, is now preserved in one company’s name.

# Western government debts are never written off; they are paid off. Ipso facto, governments have owed financiers over the centuries and have gone deeper and deeper into hock, principally through war. Debt creates power.

# Financiers have certain pillars propping up their culture:

a] the unit cost of goods is always out of all proportion to income;
b] it’s not necessary to have ready money to buy what we fancy – they’ll lend it and we’ll pay it off on the never-never;
c] with the money ‘saved’, we can buy other things, thereby ensuring steady income and increasingly more windfalls [bankruptcy, repossession] for the financiers and government.

# Western society has been weaned off a barter economy and onto a debt economy, with plastic replacing cash. The message is that because of the severe dislocation between price and income, the only way to achieve your dream is to go into debt to a financier.

# The known characteristics of illuminism are:

a] militarization and hierarchical regulation of society, where sovereignty is in the hands of a remote central authority, acting down through its vassals;
b] the progressive erosion of personal freedoms;
c] the suppression, weaning off and eventual destruction of spirituality;
d] the destruction of the family through:

[i] culture of tolerance and social and moral relativism, condoned and even abetted from the ruling class;
[ii] advancement of homosexuality as an equal alternative, rather than as a branching off from the norm, together with attempts to create ‘families’ bypassing the standard family structure, which was designed to nurture children;
[iii] promotion of philosophies holding that the traditional marriage is too difficult, too restrictive and contrary to societal health;
[iv] making accessible hardcore pornography for all, including the young, through the internet;

e] progressive restriction of independent travel by using external threats such as terrorism and climate change to restrict and regulate movement;

f] reduction of population through war and of the intelligentsia through oppression.

What is the net effect of all these elements combined? A society like in the films Brazil, 1984 and the Time Machine and historically real societies like the USSR and revolutionary France.

This article was simply a forlorn attempt, with no great hope of success, to help stem the tide.

[rabbie’s day] great chieftain of the puddin’ race

A captured haggis ready to eat. Does it remind you of … er … anything else? No? Just wondering.

Some of you will recall the opening of the Haggis Season. Well, today is Rabbie Burns Day and Colin’s waiting for you, immediately you’re done here.

There's even a wee Haggis poem by Robert Burns, Colin advises. This is the first verse of Tae a Haggis, spoken prior to the ritual decapitation of the poor wee beastie prior to being devoured:

"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the Puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang's my arm."

[firefox] advice please, people

Browser share for last 100 visitors to this site

I know you all said switch to Firefox but what do I actually have to do to changeover? I found it, it said Download, it's compatible but The Morningstar's comment freaked me. Windows might have to be reinstalled as a repair? How? How will I know?

Has anyone out there actually switched from IE6? I suppose everything needs reinstalling and my internet provider will probably have to be told, yes? New e-mail too but that's not a problem.

Are there any glitches with it?

[women] are completely equal to men ... or not

They’re bigger and stronger than before but does that mean that the desire to be equal should mean more sets for women – 5 sets, the same as the men – or has feminism gone over the edge? Here are the results of the Age Poll:

Yes - 69%
No - 31%

Total Votes: 201

[leslie nielsen] the naked gun series

Frank Drebin saving the Queen from assassination

Do you also have a secret liking for classic lowbrow comedy?

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted the first Naked Gun the 39th greatest comedy film of all time. It was also voted the 14th best comedy of all time in a Channel 4 poll. They’re quite some accolades for a basically B movie and a B movie star.

Leslie Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan on February 11, 1926 and it took him years of straight roles before he was cast as Dr. Rumacker in Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker’s Airplane! [1980]. He was 54 years of age.

It was another eight years before the same team reprised a former TV series and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad [1988] was born. Touting some big names: Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson, before the murder rap, there was a definite chemistry between the cast in this film which wasn’t really recaptured in the sequels: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear [1991] and The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult [1994].

The plot is virtually irrelevant – the kidnapping of the Queen by a zombie baseball player – but it was the running gags and the slick scene changes, coupled with the obvious chemistry between a 62 year old Nielsen and Presley in the risky and risqué romantic subplot plus the great supporting role by OJ, as Detective Nordberg, Nielsen’s sidekick, which made the film. Here are some quotes from the Naked Gun series:

Frank Drebin [Nielsen]

# The truth hurts doesn't it, Hapsburg? Oh sure, maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.

# There is always risk. Like getting up in the morning and crossing the street... Or putting your face in a fan.

# Like a midget at a urinal, I'd have to be on my toes.

Scenes

Mayor: Now Drebin, I don't want any trouble like you had on the South Side like last year, that's my policy.

Frank: Well, when I see five weirdos dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in front of a full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards, that's my policy.

Mayor: That was a Shakespeare In The Park Production of Julius Caesar, you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones!

Vincent Ludwig: Drebin!
Jane Spencer [Presley]: Frank!
Frank Drebin: You're both right.

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane Spencer: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.

Frank: Interesting... Almost as interesting as the photographs I saw today.

Jane Spencer: I was young. I needed the work.

[Frank Drebin, angrily breaking up with Jane, turns at the door and faces her, putting his nose in the air]
Frank: And I'll tell you another thing: I faked every orgasm!

Norberg was shot by a gang of thugs and lies in a critical condition in hospital. The brother officers break the news to his wife:

Mrs. Nordberg: Oh, my poor Nordberg! He was such a good man, Frank. He never wanted to hurt anyone. Who would do such a thing?
Frank: It's hard to tell. A gang of thugs, a blackmailer, an angry husband, a gay lover...
Ed: That's no way for a man to die.
Frank: Ehhh, you're right, Ed. A parachute not opening... that's the way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine... having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that's the way I wanna go.
Mrs. Nordberg: [crying] Oh... Frank. Ohh this is terrible.

Ed: Don't you worry Wilma. Your husband is going to be alright. Don't you worry about anything. Just think positive. Never let a doubt enter your mind.
Frank: He's right, Wilma. But I wouldn't wait until the last minute to fill out those organ donor cards.

Mrs. Nordberg: [starts crying again]
Ed: What I'm trying to say is that Wilma, as soon as Nordberg is better, he's welcome back at Police Squad.
Frank: Unless he's a drooling vegetable. But I think that's only common sense...

Some further quotes here:

Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

[headmastership] how you change over time

You might like to picture this: you’ve just been confirmed as the new headmaster of a minor but geographically significant school, with a century of tradition. Apparently appointed for your vision and your blend of youth and experience, the chairman invites you into the boardroom with an extended hand and says: “Welcome aboard.” A glass is put into your hand and you feel both honoured and awed by the task ahead.

What happens to you over time?

1] You learn to take nothing on trust once you’ve been burnt a few times. Pretty women cut no ice. Respectable, suited businessmen cut no ice. The pretty little girl in tears could easily be acting. You reject stereotypes, such as the community leader who must be a fine character by definition and you often find the opposite. Often, the higher you go, the greater the dirt. However, your default demeanour is always friendly and gentlemanly, especially to your rivals. It’s just that you take much of what they say with a grain of salt.

2] Whatever ability you had to judge character reaches a much higher plane with experience. Every day, in all situations, your judgement is being called on to sort out a dispute, approve a contract and so on. After all the early mistakes, you do it better. You develop little rules which sound crazy but nevertheless work, e.g. never employ a woman who wears denim to an interview, has piercing or is a religious nut.

3] You begin to be ruled by the schedule and you reach the delegation watershed – either you delegate to trusted subordinates or you go out of your mind. You accept, to a certain percentage factor that they’ll always either let you down or not understand but you never hold it against them or write it down. You never hold grudges.

4] You try to keep the working day below about 15 or 16 hours and schedule in blank spaces – very vital. You either take care of your family or divorce. Twenty minute rest periods are fiercely protected by the secretary and you emerge refreshed. You either love your community or you must get out. The stress is too great otherwise. You learn to pace yourself and never regret if something wasn’t done today. Do it tomorrow morning.

5] You learn to get out of the office and interact with all sections of the community, from the maintenance man to the littlest child. You know each of their particular problems and follow them up. If the cook’s away, you step in [also saving money]. If the drain’s blocked and you’re right on hand, you put on gloves and clear it.

6] You take on the coaching of one of the underage sports teams and do the same training you require of them [almost]. Saves gym fees and gets you fit and out in the open air. You eat properly and when you forget, your wife or secretary doesn’t. You follow doctor’s orders instead of being a hero.

7] Your mind starts to compartmentalize. In any one hour, you might have to discipline a recalcitrant student, greet local dignitaries Mr. and Mrs. Patel and their son as they seek to enrol him, then perhaps you’ll hear the complaint of one teacher about another, then it’s off to the Heads Association luncheon and so on.

8] You quickly learn your own limitations, both character-wise and capacity-wise and all your flaws are thrown into sharp relief, for all to see. One of mine was the tendency to let things slide, to gather data and advice first and to stew over it before acting, even if some saw this as dithering.

9] You learn to break the incident-reaction-regret cycle. Remove the immediate danger and schedule a time for the matter to be heard, with no snide remarks whatsoever in the meantime. This was particularly important for me because one of my failings is that I don’t suffer fools gladly and my tongue is too sharp.

10] You can’t afford the slightest whiff of scandal or your school will be empty by next morning. Reputation becomes everything and the greatest crime, the greatest enemy, is ‘drama’. You’ll hear out a teacher who’s complaining about some child and then reply: ‘That may well be so but I see more drama coming out of your class since your appointment here than all the other classes combined.’ This is the only time you react swiftly and nip the trouble in the bud, before it damages the community and by association, yourself.

11] You become implacable and a certain steel enters your soul. Once a decision is made, you never go back on it or regret it, if it’s originally been thought through. You fire after two warnings, without regret. Once the dead wood’s been cut away, soon everything falls into place and people know where they are. Your loyalty is to all those dependent on you and you brook no attack on those people.

12] Despite all this, there eventually comes a time when the cumulative effect of the stress makes you less efficient or gets you bogged down and you have to know when to let go, to hand over the reins and seek new horizons. Otherwise you become a cynical, unpleasant shell, have a heart attack or both. Mental health is everything, otherwise you can’t operate. Soldiering on is stupid in this game because you’re short-changing your dependents.