[blogfocus sunday] a little quiet reading

My advice to Kate – keep number twos simple, girl, as the Romans did.

1. Bloody Lewisham Council is not actually the problem here this time. We've been waiting for news on this - Kate Capper explains:

Just a little follow up on my toilet problem, The toilet was looked at by a friend and was ok for a bit although now is starting to go wrong again. So i will be contacting the numbers sent to me. Would also like to say Thanks to the people that have offered help and correct phone numbers ( i say correct ...will find that out later ;-)) including Cllr Paul Bently. My daughter is now scared of the toilet (not sure why) but when i said we would get a plumber in to fix it she asked if he was going to put plums in it? Oh the joys of being 4.

2. Tiberius Gracchus offers his Dickens Football Team as a possible replacement for England. Here's a tiny fragment from it – do read it all if you haven't already done so:

Left centre half- A problematic position but Ebenezer Scrooge is a natural in it. Miserly in the beggining of the game when he never misplaces a pass in possession, his game becomes more expansive as the game advances. He is always though keen to stop the other side scoring and his grim determination to win means that he is a ferocious competitor and absolutely merciless in the tackle.

Centre-half- Betsy Trotwood fits right in here- she is strong and stubborn and has an innate positional sense. She is also a great captain for the team- a leader of men and women who has the ability both to comfort those in distress and to be ferocious with fraudulent divers. She is tough but fair.

Right centre half- Bill Sikes the thug in this lineup. Sikes is the Norman Hunter of the team- he will bite your legs and leave you on the floor afterwards. He isn't adverse to aerial challenges either and has an ability to intimidate even the most seasoned striker.

3. You'll just have to visit that Peach, the Swearing Mother to see why she's ... er ... swearing:

It all started off when I ordered some train tickets over the Virgin trains automated telephone service because I couldn't be bothered to go down to the station in person (it was raining) or struggle with the internet (don't ask). Eventually, after negotiating the seemingly endless pre-recorded voice messages I was put through to a call centre probably somewhere considerably hotter and much further away than the UK, spoke to a charming but clueless person in Bangalore or wherever it is, and ordered two return tickets from Birmingham New Street to London Euston for this Saturday. The idea was to take in a show, have a nice meal, enjoy a relaxing wedding anniversary treat. Simple.

Or so you might think.

4. Finally, rushing you the news about those toes of Tea and Margaritas and for no extra charge - Isobell's adventures:

The toes are much much better and thanks for the well wishes and great tips. In the future I`m going to attempt to knit some wool socks. Stayed tuned for that one. LOL.

That one requires some imagination. Incidentally, T&M is running one of those diagonal Lord Nazh banners – Help Make Poverty History. Well, T&M, I already have – have a swift look at the current state of my wallet. I must have the record.

Isabell

[england] where the sun never sets

First, the geography. People are forever pointing out how small Britain is but the length of the main island is 836 miles or 1329 kilometres. That's not short.

Given that most city states in the early days were relatively small and that disused Roman roads were pretty well impassable, given that the Elmet held out against the Anglian Northumbria and had little to do with the Saxon south, England as such developed pretty unevenly.

If pressed, I'd say the land from the Humber to the Firth of Forth and across to Cumbria are my extremities, York's pretty well the furthest south I'd call home but Lindisfarne is a little too far north. Beckfoot Bridge in the west riding settles the western limit.

Is this England? Well, it's as “England” as we're going to get. It's just as “England” as the Norfolk Broads [nice ladies all], Liverpool or Small Dole. But it's clearly not enough for a definition.

Wensleydale, Double Gloucester, Blue Vinney, Theakstons, Camerons, Bass, Marston's Pedigree, the pub culture [before it was destroyed by teen-binge-asbo-videoscreen-headnumbing] - do they help create a definition of England?

Drystone walls, railway embankments, signal boxes, dry fly fishing, the salmon, the chippy, mushy peas, Falling Foss, Ugglebarnby, fields and hedgerows, public walkways, shooting sticks, Coronation Street, the Archers, Tony Hancock, Barbours, wellies, anoraks [the people], football, rugby, cricket, Wimbledon [not the Crazy Gang], the Severn Bore - how am I going?

Anything with an “-oze” ending [Rumbelows, Prestos, Tescos], DIY barns outside towns, the Tube, weird names like Lunn Poly and BUPA, Gyrocheques [don't know much about these], Boots, Marks & Sparks, Covent Garden.

These are just fragments in the makeup which is England.

The cynical moving in of the EU, attempting to exploit historical regional differences, shows a complete lack of understanding of our essential cross-county battiness. It's our eccentric tastes and passive resistance which will eventually drive the invader from our shores – if they don't go out of their tree first.

There's the past I miss too - Carnaby Street, Ska music from 1980, Splodginess Abounds, the whole scene of those days. The Stranglers, Gypsy Moth IV before they stole it and burnt the Cutty Sark, Biggles and Algy's strange relationship - we could go on and on.

Some of us are stranded, far-flung from native shores but isn't this also English? From Clive of India to Milligan, we've lived all over the place and for different reasons. Philby and Burgess insisted on their copies of the Times; I personally miss Radio 4's 12 midnight chimes and the shipping forecast. I miss BBC 1's 4.52 p.m. Final Score and Doctor Who [oh how I miss this]. I miss Sunday Lunches with convivial company.

So yes, much of my life has been spent [and still is] outside that green, pleasant, maddening and frustrating land, some count me American, Australian, even Russian, my accent is an RP mess with a hint of drawl and twang but there's an Englishness inside which is forever surfacing and cannot be denied. Surely only someone as batty as an Englishman could derive some form of pleasure from this nightly entertainment:

Dogger Fisher German Bight: Northwest 7 to severe gale 9, occasionally storm 10 in Fisher and German Bight, decreasing 5 or 6 in Dogger. Rough or very rough, occasionally high at first. Wintry showers. Moderate or good.

Sublime. Reassuring. It also happens to be tonight's forecast so you'd best head for home whilst you still can.

[sunday lunch] an expat can dream

[insanity] the mark of the beast

From the philosophical accountant and honey, Ubermouth:

... the REAL crazy ones are the ones that can pull off sanity while they plot their evil …

Why do I immediately think of the EU and Julia Middleton? Sigh – s'pose it's just me. Uber explains in more detail:

What are we even doing here? Is the net just a temporary, virtual holding sanatorium until we are dragged off to Shady Pines? Worse, would we care, as long as we could take our lap tops with us?

Good point. I'm certain I've slipped into some virtual reality and Second - Lifers have it real bad. In fact, I'd prefer to exist in some sort of bubble as long as there was nature and there were friends in there with me.

[fashionisti] solutions for life

Feeling a bit thick around the waist, girls? What you need is Japanese weekend maternity. Fashionista explains:

When I could no longer squeeze my derriere into a pair Antik denims, I knew it was time to make that transition into maternity clothes. Since there were, and are, so many options available for expecting moms in terms of stylish clothing, I did not have a problem with having to let go of my skinny clothes for several months.

You can get back to the real biz some months later, once the baby is out of the way. Incidentally, before I forget it - you should order your exclusive shoe stamps now before it's too late. You know you don't want to be without them at Christmas - exclusivity has its price, I suppose.

Back to the issue of Fashionista's gorgeous child. Sent to school three days without his lunch [hell anyone can forget things and besides, there were issues], the teacher cut up rough and failed to respect Fashionista as a woman.

In fact the teacher said it was all becoming tiresome. But as one of Fashionista's commenters, Lteefaw rationalized:

Looking young and fabulous is both a blessing a curse. What’s a girl to do? You have to roll with the punches ladies!!

Personally, I think this little number below right is the answer – the Darth Vader outfit to show that pesky teacher you're not to be messed with as a woman.

Now, onto more important things. I'm forever cursed with a divan which is, well let's face it, not conducive to lying there luxuriously and getting into a bit of R&R so the water buffalo leather rug below [made from genuine water buffalos] really caught my eye.

The gunmetal grey bubble divan behind it also caught my eye.

With fabulous bubbles to pamper your sorest parts, it should do the job perfectly. My only concern is that a pair of Antik denims might catch in the fabric and burst my bubble, so to speak, so it really has to be thought out.

Perhaps if I slipped off the Antiks and lay there au naturelle, that would solve the problem and then I could dress to sit on the modula kitchen nook stools [no photos of those, sorry].

Have to think this one out. Issues, issues.

[it's rudd] howard could lose bennelong

83 Seats

58 Seats

2 Seats

State of the parties not so long ago. Howard in trouble in his own seat to a former journalist.

This was a victory for youth and congratulations to Rudd - he looks young, wholesome and an Aussie, which is the type they like downunder.

And yet there's personal sadness for me, not just because I'm a conservative, not because of any of the politics down there but because an electorate chose a young man, a young message, over a message of caution and a tired PM.

Though Howard is so much older than me that he's actually in the former generation, yet his values still resonate with me. He is from an era where G-d, Queen and country had relevance, the three Rs at school - you know the sort of thing.

With him in this near landslide went virtually the last vestige of the old societal values I grew up with. I too am starting to feel irrelevant now in this equivocal, relativistic world where national heroes are Paris Hiltons and David Beckams and where blind teenage drinking is the norm, where immigrants won't support their new country.

So, nothing for it now than to buy that Desert Eagle, barricade myself in and wait for the end.

[thought for the day] matt sinclair

Accusing people of racism is a bankrupt and small-minded style of argument. It is a witch-hunting discourse that will favour those who don't express themselves, who shut up and then manoevre into positions of power after a career of quiet blandness. It is, in the deepest sense, anti-intellectual. It closes our minds.

[total insanity] the way these boys were treated

Steve Green, of Daily Referendum, brought our attention to a grave matter this afternoon. I've nicked his quote and will start with it:

'The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war,no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation'' --George Washington--

My father would turn in his grave. Just what do we bother for? I am beyond apoplectic and if I try to write something on it, I'll say something I regret, particularly about young women:

Soldiers who suffered appalling injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan were verbally abused as they swam in a public swimming pool.

During a weekly rehabilitation class at a council leisure centre, 15 servicemen – including several who have lost limbs or suffered severe burns – were heckled and jeered by members of the public.

One woman was so incensed that the troops were using the pool at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey that she told them they did not deserve to be there. The swimmer, thought to be in her 30s, is understood to have said: "I pay to come here and swim – you lot don't."

I am numb at this because it is not just this moron but the whole attitude of society and the "everything is me" syndrome.

I wish to take that woman and ask her point blank; "What have you personally ever done for your society and its long term safety?"

Do you know the way the ordinary person over here in Russia treats its veterans, particularly the last vestige of the Stalingraders? Even low-lifes would not stoop this low. But the new breed of girl in the city is now different - not all of them but many.

February 23rd, my birthday, is the day of the Defenders of the Fatherland here and anyone 30 or over knows what goes down. I asked all the girls I know: "What do you have planned for the boys, for the men?"

"When?"

"February 23rd."

"Oh that."

Yes that. The boys who put their lives on the line so you can live in the style to which you aspire. And you know, they go quiet and disappear the day before, many of them, mysteriously to reappear on February 24th.

Now don't get me wrong, women of a certain maturity were also under extreme duress at that time and every mother I know does all she can on that day. Especially as her day, March 8th, is just round the corner.

It's the vilified men over here, with their vodka and attitude who come up trumps this time. They don't expect anything from their women - it was their duty to defend Russia. End of story.

Speaking generally once again - the respect for veterans, male and female must be so far beyond any sort of question that they should have free halves of the pool, not just lanes, free transport and there should be collection points in every town in prominent places where a fiver or tenner can be left for the vets.

Every one of them should have the same sort of adulation and respect Ike had when he acceded to the presidency. Monty in Africa. Churchill. But far more - this should be an integral part of every single schools course - I'd best stop, otherwise this will go on all night.

I would dearly love to see some sort of post, some sort of comment from the womenfolk to assure me that we haven't gone stark, raving mad.

[handguns] the right to bear arms

I'm caught right in the middle of this debate for reasons apparent below and for some not so apparent.

Bob G opens with:

From WWII:
 "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."
--Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

To which Dave Cole replies, in the context of "if they were ordered to":

The US armed forces could, with conventional weapons alone, reduce much of America to so much rubble.

Bob gives a thoroughly American answer:

Soldiers in the armed forces swear loyalty to the Constitution, not the people running the government. It is a question of whether people will let it get to the point of no return. Once a nation is disarmed and programmed to always obey, there is no hope left.


Matt Wardman noted:

We have seen that soldiers will obey orders bordering on illegal orders when pushed to do so. And that commanders will then attempt to sweep things under the carpet, and blame it on the little guys.

All are right. Firsly, there is this charming and amazingly simplistic faith in America, for America and you see it in every bowling alley, every supermarket and on every beach. The type of patriotism which is Americanism, the American Dream, powerful and focused on one flag, one people.

Sadly, the problem we have is with leaders like Brown, who are openly traitors to the UK. He's not a traitor [in his own mind] towards England itself for the simple reason he doesn't recognize England as a separate entity but he does end up technically a traitor for selling out a constituent part of the UK to the EU.

So there is national chagrin over who we are, abetted by the EU regionalism [divide and rule]. If we fly the flag, which is it? The Union Flag [and we can't even celebrate 300 years properly]? The flag of St. George? St. Andrew? The crescent on a green background? It would never be the circle of 12 stars and have you ever wondered about that design? They're laughing in their sleeves in Bavaria. Council of Europe is most amusing for those with a sense of arcane history.

Not so in the U.S.A. One flag, one dysfunctional nation indivisible, huge pride and a belief that the CFR's proposal to carve up the U.S.A. [divide and rule], by stealthy means, is not only crazy Ron Paul stuff but it's also unpatriotic or would be so if we were Americans saying it and we're not Americans.

It's a beautiful faith, focused on one unchanging flag, the Stars and Stripes and you mess with that at your peril. Whereas the EU has hopes of foisting another flag on us over here, no one in his right mind will try that on an American.

But there are ways.

For a start, Matt is right, Manchurian Candidate is right, behavioural studies are right - people will kill their own, for some time, in a crowd context, for fear of reprisal. Also in terms of stealth and Emperor Palpatine treachery. Bush did agree, on March 23rd, 2005, that the functions of state become three nations at the start of 2009. At least the process begins and takes some years. Sorry America but he did betray you. It's on record. clinton will continue the agenda - she's CFR. So is Thompson.

But Bob wasn't referring to the people in charge. He was talking about innate Americanism which can take up arms and defend itself against the aggressor. Trouble is, the enemy is inside - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Clinton - hell, Cheney even referred to himself as the White House Darth Vader - it's on record. He is dropping hints as all that crowd do, all over the place. Hillary's in on the joke on America. Funny stuff, huh?

The average American has this notion of some great macro-invader [Russia? Iran?] whom they can all be patriotic against. It doesn't work that way. You'll never get a chance to turn on the enemy because the enemy is not visible. They are snakes in the grass, unmanly, slithery, metamorphosing into different forms to meet the changing circumstances.

Bush never signed anything in March 2005 - the CFR are correct. He simply agreed and it is now coming out in the actions of government behind the scenes, allowing Mexican truckers in here, signing this right away there. All done in offices at desks and tables. There'll never be a visible enemy.

American patriotism is simply factored in. And how can I know that? Because I've studied it. It's available if you do your homework but the American won't do that because something inside him which recoils against the idea that his national icons are traitors e.g. four time Roosevelt.

We, over here, have a living example before us every day - Brown and the EU. Lord Nazh says he'll be glad to prove me wrong. He'll never do that, not because I'm right but because they'll never be sufficiently visible for m'lord to do so. But that's un-American, he mutters. Come out and fight, you lily-livered wimps.

Think it through, Lord Nazh.

Are traitors ever likely to come out and fight, guns drawn at High Noon? Of course not. The way anyone fights the U.S. is by stealth [except for England, who've had their moments, and Russia]. Korea, Vietnam, China.

Please don't shoot the messenger. It must be apparent that this blog's American readers are very valuable but the blog doesn't deal in half truths and illusion. It prefers to tell it as it is.

So should Americans carry weapons? Yes - because it makes the enemy think twice before they factor that in and Americans end up with the "right" to bear arms but with all the "arms to bear" either impounded or inaccessible - used for the "war effort".

Against that, there is that small Andrew Jackson factor in there, where the American can be pushed so far and no more and if he does get any inkling what's going on - which I'm telling him is happening but he's so far ignoring - it's the end of the ball game for the snakes.

They know that - they've factored that in.

[wesley snipes] fraught on google

If you're not doing anything much just now, Google "wesley snipes fraught' and hit the number two entry [after the Guillermo del Toro one].

Thank you.