[knickers] the great dilemma

Boxers or le slip?

As regular readers well know, I'm deeply concerned with underwear and have often posted on the topic:

Here ... here [with links here - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] ... also here , in which the point is made, quite reasonably, I felt:

C'est pourquoi le slip est encore fort apprécié, malgré une très forte percée, cette dernière décennie, du shorty. "En grande distribution, c'est encore le slip qui se vend le plus", précise Estelle Cortier, responsable marketing chez Hechter Studio. Ailleurs, c'est le shorty qui sort grand vainqueur toutes catégories ; chez Hom, il représente 52 % des ventes, contre 33 % pour le slip et 8 % pour le string.

The point is made that comfort is what it's all about for the male:

La forme shorty fait l'unanimité chez les jeunes; chez les plus âgés, elle plaît plutôt aux citadins. Les coloris les plus appréciés sont les traditionnels blanc, bleu marine, noir ou gris. Les fantaisies couture doivent être discrètes et surtout ne pas nuire au bien-être. "Pour l'homme, la mode n'est pas un facteur déterminant, constate Marc Lefèvre. Au contraire, l'effet de style est plutôt rébarbatif. Son premier critère de choix, c'est le confort de la ceinture, des coutures, de la découpe."

Now it seems to me that there is a sort of knicker mafia in operation here which decrees that boxers are go and briefs are nowhere. For example, one Yahoo forum asks:

Women: Is there no love anymore for guys who wear briefs??

... to which responses ranged from this:

I prefer guys who wear neither...it's not the underwear that's important, it's what lurks underneath it that matters.

... and I'd agree - I wear knickers in bed on my own and nothing when with a lady ... to this:

personally, when meeting a guy, personality matters more than underwear... aside from the fact you dont usually know what underwear he is wearing when you meet them, the underwear doesn't make the man so to speak ...

... so that was encouraging at least. Then I googled "briefs destroy sex life" and "briefs impotence" and came up with nothing so now it was time to look at the abundance of questionnaires out there which tell your personality from your underwear.

This was the one near the top of google first:

* If you are a man who wears boxers, then you know how to let loose.

* Most girls tend to wear bikini briefs and that's because they are just the right fit between coverage and still being feminine.

* Guys who wear boxer briefs are typically cool, collected (sorry, our minds are sick) and organized (*snicker*). They typically are the leaders of a group and orangize friends when it's time to hang out.

* If you like to go commando then you either have forgotton to do laundry completely, or you are our rebel.Holy tighty whities! Did you get those from your Dad? Wow. Sorry to be harsh, but seriously, who wears tighty whities? If you do, first, you must be 75 years old, or in need of some mental attention.

* If you love wearing thongs or g-strings, we can pretty much assume that you are obsessed with flossing.

Wonder what this man thinks of that? But let's continue:

* It takes a brave man to really put himself out there, with nothing between himself and metal teeth [no knickers guy].

* We're not going to say something obvious about how you're more of a tomboy for wearing boy shorts. Whoops, we mean we ARE going to say that [referring to girls].

* String It Up - You're all about letting the world see everything that other people might hide. And you're not ashamed, even if you should be ...

At this point I'm getting a little worried about the occasional shots of half-naked teenage girls in underwear and check the url - oops!

Out of there like a shotgun.

So, let's try another questionnaire where you have to fill in your details - sex, preferences and so on plus your underwear and they tell you which celebrity you're most like.

Right. Well I filled in "guy" rather than "girl" and " black briefs" and hey presto, apparently I'm most like Orlando Bloom:

You are Orlando Bloom. You are charming with your boyish good looks, and come across as sweet and innocent.

Well, scallops rock me tadger - there's something wrong there and then I see my error - I should have filled in "man" instead of "guy". So I quickly change it and now I'm most like Heath Ledger:

You are Heath Ledger! Your rugged good looks have girls going gaga!

... but that can't be right as I'm not gay. So, in the end, the research was a bit of a washout and the only thing to do is run my own serious questionnaire which you can find at the top left of this blog.

[debate] does that mean flaming?

You know, ever since one commenter's comment:

What is missing in all these pages is something that certified bloggers always miss, the addition of concurring comments, more links to useful information, stuff that creates synergies.

But any site that relies on visits from other bloggers, to the extent that this one does, will fail. False agreements of support will fail in the real world ...

... I've been reflecting on the "character" of blogs and the people they attract.

Relying on other bloggers

This site does not get so many fellow bloggers visibly appearing, which the comment above erroneously suggests it does and very few visitors comment, compared to, say, Mutley. In any hundred visits, there would be 8 to 12 blogger visits.

One commenter said there was "something wrong" with a site where there is no debate. I think what he means by debate is "flaming", with people throwing insults all ways, as he seems to enjoy. Synergy, he'd term it.

Links

He seriously suggests I don't link to further information or to other sites? And yet it's true there really is little debate here and I wonder why.

For example, the post on groupthink was one of my more serious. Now, glancing at the zero comments until last evening, one could be forgiven for thinking that no one was interested. Not so. On "entry pages", this post was leading by a long way.

Nature of this blog

From the beginning, my friend over here was worried about the unpredictability and the vast array of topics covered - worried that if you were interested, say, in ceramics, there'd be a post here on it with links and labels to other posts on it but it wouldn't be a "definitive work" on the topic. This is the Achilles Heel of a wide-ranging blog.

On the other hand, this blog assumes that the visitor does not have a one or two track mind, that when he/she comes here, his/her interests might be wide-ranging enough to find something else readable as well as the central theme.

There are five threads running through this one, other than the lack of debate:

1. wide array of topics and unpredictability in their choice;

2. a more 'ladies and gentlemen' tone than the in-your-face blogs;

3. a tone which suggests the blogger is of a certain age and outlook;

4. little time to get about and interact - maybe the big killer;

5. time zones - I'm asleep when the Brits are getting ready to debate.

In the end, I'll stick with the type of blogfriends I have, thanks very much. There might not be so much Tim Ireland/Guido litigation fun but I think I'd prefer what there is. I find all that slanging off at each other and threats of lawsuits tedious. And I would suggest that the post which brought this post on in the first place was an example of debate.

Each to his or her own, I suppose.

[aboriginal homogeny] koori simply don't exist

Let me make it clear that I'm no Irving. The holocaust most certainly existed and was one of the most disgusting testaments to man's inhumanity to man ever. However, not every situation which exists in the popular mind is necessarily as portrayed by the revisionists.

Was there anything so ridiculous as this National Apology Day? As expected, once the thing was done, in they came for the cash:

But some Aborigines say it should have been accompanied with compensation for their suffering.

Exactly - the big handout to people who are only tangentially connected with the so called "Stolen Generations". Within Australia, even the existence of a concerted campaign to remove children from families is still hotly debated:

Some conservative journalists, such as Andrew Bolt, have publicly questioned the very existence of the Stolen Generation. Bolt considers that it is a "preposterous and obscene" myth and that there was actually no policy in any state or territory at any time for the systematic removal of "half-caste" Aboriginal children.

The Australian Governments of the time acted on field recommendations, which saw half-caste children rejected by aboriginal tribes and left to die. It was not the removal of full-bloods, as has been suggested - the tribes themselves were discriminating against the half-castes. Just as Social Services today will put abused and abandoned children into care, so it was then.

The very fact that the children were placed with white families, though muddled and showing not a great deal of understanding of aboriginal culture, nevertheless reflected the basically altruistic outlook of later white society, an altruism which eventually resulted in Sorry Day.

What's at issue here is that authorities of the time saw a situation and opted for a solution which, in hindsight, doesn't look too good. Why ascribe beastly motives for this policy when the motives really were altruistic at the time, albeit with some ignorance?

Either way, why on earth would a current government need to apologize? This modern habit of taking responsibility for the crimes of others in the past really needs to be examined.

Now to this business of tribal land and cash compensation for that.

Interesting how that only happens near national monuments like Ayer's Rock and where the oil companies want to drill. There's so much greed and hypocrisy among the aboriginals.

To portray the aboriginals as innocent sufferers is to rewrite history in a new PC light. Waves of tribes came in, warred with the incumbents and then were themselves pushed further inland. Negritos, Murrayans and Carpentarians are three that spring to mind.

Some 250 Aboriginal languages have been identified in Australia and more than 800 Papuan idioms are thought to exist in New Guinea.

This means different tribes and their offshoots and they fought [click to read]:


So to suggest that the aborigines:

1. are one people, the Koori;

2. never visited atrocities on each other or were peaceful and "soft"

... is revisionist history which can most charitably be described as muddled.

The various aboriginal tribes are chalk and cheese. There are peaceful elements, as there are with all peoples and then there are other elements. I suggest that those who are trying to differentiate on the basis of skin colour for the purpose of dragging money out of another skin colour are the true racists.

A non-racist would say all people are equal, with the same right to compensation as any other people. So who is trying to perpetuate these racial differences and for what ulterior motive?

Could it possibly be for the good old payola? Useful thing, racism.

[winehouse] place to get paralytic?

Little bit of brilliance from The Nameless One [f-word toned down for this blog]:

Bag lady in waiting Amy Winehouse wins Grammys but can’t attend the award ceremony. Why? Because she’s a f-cking junkie. End of story. So let’s hear no more about this woman until there is actually something newsworthy.

I always thought a winehouse was for bibbers but apparently not. Genius? Becoming a junkie?

[groupthink] the gentle art of persuasion

Before the stick always comes the carrot. Every parent is an amateur psychologist. Every political thinker and writer is also and the techniques are many and varied. Here are some of them:

Speaking in bureau-gobbledegook

Creating an esoteric language which both persuades anyone who doesn't understand your termnology that he is ignorant and at the same time bolsters your intellectual self-esteem:

multi-organisational working, cross-boundary working and the global-national-local interface each raise their own set of organisational dynamics which must be surfaced and worked with if collaboration is to be effective.

Cultivating an aura of exclusivity

Creating an aura of a vibrant, free-thinking contributor to change, dynamically going places at a high level beyond the common mortal, beyond the goyim, e.g. Middleton:

I believe passionately in the definition of civil society of Mr Mandela, who says that civil society is anyone who stands up.

Or in a group context:

[We] are looking for candidates who are:

*senior decision-makers within the area covered by the programme
*interested in contributing to the future of their area.

Applicants will be considered according to their:

*current responsibility as a leader through work or community activity
*involvement within the area covered by the programme
*likely contribution to the perspectives and dynamics of the group
*ability to participate fully in the Common Purpose programme.

Identification with a common goal

Aligning your goals and techniques with those of business and sharing their joint concerns, e.g. industrial and corporate espionage:

InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States.

This is nicely illustrated in a speech not that long ago by Robert S. Mueller, III, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation:

I want to turn for a moment to counterintelligence intrusions and economic espionage. There is no shortage of countries that seek our information technology, our innovation, and our intelligence—information we have spent years and billions of dollars developing.

The simple truth is we do not protect cyber space to the same degree we protect our physical space. We have in large part left the doors open to our business practices, our sensitive data, and our intellectual property.

We understand that we must continue to work closely with all of you—members of the private sector and the academic community.

Think of the fusion center as a hub, with spokes that range from federal agencies, software companies, and ISPs, to merchants and members of the financial sector.

Industry experts from companies such as Cisco, Bank of America, and Target sit side-by-side with the FBI, postal inspectors, the Federal Trade Commission, and many others, sharing information and ideas. Together, we have created a neutral space where cyber experts and competitors, who might not otherwise collaborate, can talk about cyber threats and security breaches.

Members from a host of industries, from computer security to the chemical sector, share information about threats to their own companies, in their own communities, through a secure computer server.

We are also reaching out to academia. In 2005, we created the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board. We asked your president, Graham Spanier, to lead the group. We knew it wouldn't be an easy sell, because of the perceived tension between law enforcement and academia.

Collective mental position

The next stage on from identification of a common goal is the "slide":

‘A “slide” is a prefabricated, politically correct, blanket pop opinion, “view” or “take” upon a particular issue of general interest which is designed to preclude further consideration, analysis or investigation of the issue in question. [Soviet Analyst]

Beyond Bullets, in addressing corporate techniques in groupthink, wrote:

It's fine to assume these things, as long as we're aware that our default mode of presenting and informing also means that there is little room for thinking, challenging, dialogue and debate -- a fertile breeding ground for groupthink. The way we use PowerPoint only adds fertilizer to this stagnant pool, because a slide filled with bulleted text only increases the illusion of certainty for presenters and the feeling of passivity for audiences.

The bulleted, pre-packaged concept is used by the Chinese and others to great effect:

Three evils – terrorism, extremism and separatism – are main threat to peace and security of Central Asia, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Zhang Deguang said o­n the eve of the SCO heads of states summit in Astana.

In the English language, the addition of the definite article "the" transforms the package to gospel - "the three evils of ...", as in "we're all agreed this is what they are".

Polarizing diverse opinion

One of the oldest techniques is to rearrange diverse opinion into two antagonistic party lines, e.g. Swift's High Heels and Low Heels and then everything can be argued along such convenient and easily controlled party lines.

So, in a non-partisan debate about wiretapping, one person's incarceration for refusal to divulge information casts her in the role of martyr [she's of our political persuasion] but when it's someone of the opposite persuasion, her incarceration hardly matters:

Lest anyone be confused, this is quite the opposite situation from when former NYT pseudo-reporter/White House shill, Judy Miller, was subpoenaed and went to jail for failing to reveal her sources in the CIA leak case. In her case she was refusing to name White House officials who were involved in government wrongdoing in which she had a role.

Marginalizing dissent

Persuaders are ever ready to learn new techniques in assuring your opinion prevails and all other dissenting opinion is marginalized, from the horrendous to the banal:

This paper seeks to fill this gap, by drawing both upon theoretical literature and experience with successful change facilitation practices from Europe and the US. Its focus is on the cognitive aspects of strategic orientation and provides a practical guide to those who use this process.

It doesn't matter if the technique is proven or not - it's new and it sounds great:

The NLP Milton model uses non-specific and metaphoric language allowing the listener to fill in the gaps, making their own meaning from what is being said, finding their own solutions and inner resources, challenging and reframing irrational beliefs.

For example, Grinder and Bandler stated that there were a few common traits expert communicators – whether top therapists, top executives or top salespeople – all seemed to share:

1. Everything they did in their work, was pro-active (rather than reactive), directed moment to moment by well-formed outcomes rather than formalized fixed beliefs.

WF Outcomes as the goal, rather than acting from belief in something?

A Well-formed outcome is a term originating in neuro-linguistic programming for an outcome one wishes to achieve, that meets certain conditions designed to avoid (1) unintended costs or consequences and (2) resistance to achieving the goal resulting from internal conflicting feelings or thoughts about the outcome.

There is no shortage of detractors as to the efficacy of the techniques though:

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is one of many New Age Large Group Awareness Training programs. NLP is a competitor with Landmark Forum, Tony Robbins, and legions of other enterprises which, like the Sophists of ancient Greece, travel from town to town to teach their wisdom for a fee.

The Persuaders require young[ish] people, susceptible to flattery and elitist inclusion, of mediocre intellect, of a conformist bent and likely to rise high. Fortunately for the Persuaders, there are many such goyim out there who want "up".

Free thinkers need not apply.

Good material on Common Purpose

UK Column
CP Exposed
Stop CP
Ken Craggs
BetweenMyths

Some of my own, based on material supplied

Common Purpose - more evidence
Common Purpose dishonesty
An oppressor by any other name
CP - the cancer spreads
OFSTED - the fish rots at the head

Common Purpose at work and play
More than corrupt
Groupthink spreads like a cancer through the UK
Is this how to run a country?
One ring to rule them all
Paradiso and the future of the internet
Demos, Common Purpose, Labour, Tories, security companies
Common Purpose - the disease spreads to the Netherlands
Common Purpose - meanwhile, in America
Groupthink - gentle art of persuasion
Common Purpose - initially to have a coffee
Common Purpose - just the facts, ma'am
Common Purpose - rhetoric of the quisling

References to Common Purpose appear in many other posts.

[super delegates] when democracy is unnecessary

Beware political wiveswith grudge lists

Given that McCain is a shoe-in, then it comes down to the superdelegates which Hillary thnks she has sewn up but a McCain-Obama head to head is still quite likely:

The role of around 440 still-undecided super-delegates - party luminaries who can chose to vote for either candidate - is now likely to be critical. Senator Obama now leads Senator Clinton 1144 to 1138, in the running delegate count, according to website RealClearPolitics.com. A total of 2,025 delegates are needed for the nomination.

Therefore, the decision on who will direct foreign policy in your country comes down to 842 unrepresentative [in this context] men and women in the United States.

And this is democracy?

Just one other thing to look at is who the running mates might be - Iain Dale addressed that some time back, among others.

If you have a few minutes, take a look at Cindy McCain - great first lady or trophy heiress?

[imagination] nightmare scenario actually

5th Beatle?

Only problem is that he's getting it in the neck from someone like her.

Via Gates of Vienna

[new feudalism] we've laid ourselves open

Ian Parker puts it like this:

Dead countries almost always give birth to dictatorships. Remember that old one about for evil to prosper, all that's needed is for good men to do nothing?

Well, thank you, the nation's teachers and education authorities. Fine work over the past thirty years or so, during which your left wing all shall have prizes and let's not teach British history 'curriculum' has so successfully disenfranchised the younger half of the electorate. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant. Lenin must be so proud.

This apathy and ignorance scares the hell out of me.

It was not always thus.

I would like to add some notes to this.

Williams' assertion that adherence to sharia "assumes the voluntary consent or submission of the believer" is symptomatic of what has happened in Europe and raises the question of either his naivety or his complicity.

It ignores one simple point - societies now Islamic are in the House of Peace and societies not yet Islamic are in Dar al-Harb. There is a do-gooder spirit, much lauded in the west, which says 'let's all love one another' but ignores simple realities. It's allied with PoMo relativism.

Multiculturalism is nowadays affiliated with a postmodern outlook. The pivotal ideas of this vision of life are relativism (cultural relativism, in particular), a negative attitude toward Western political tradition, the cultivation of collective guilt for the transgressions of the colonial past, and other real or presumed black pages in Western history.

What worries me about this relativistic - or rather, nihilistic - position is that it makes Western societies easy prey for the ideology of radical Islamism.

The Left not only refuses to acknowledge but actively propagates the idea that there is no Christian basis to western society and in particular - Europe. Therefore:

If Western societies think they have no core values important enough to fight for (by peaceful means), then there is no reason for immigrant minorities to accept them. If the dominant ideology in Western societies is that democracy, the rule of law, and human rights have no specific quality that makes them superior to theocracy, dictatorship, and authoritarianism, there is no need to oppose the radical assault directed at Western democracies by the teachers of hate.

Is hate too strong a word? Here is the Iran Daily on Magdi Allam, the Italian journalist who has achieved some notoriety for his statements:

The way he earned such reputation is by means of relentlessly and viciously slandering Islam and its beliefs, a task that he carries out diligently every week--when not every second day--from the pages of Italy’s biggest newspaper, usually by splashing shocking headlines on the front page. The ideas he expresses in his articles and interviews are so outrageously biased and grotesque that the Italian journalists’ guild ought to reprimand him, at the very least.

Here is yet another example:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born member of Parliament from Verdonk’s VVD party, used to be a Muslim. After 9/11, however, she renounced a religion from which she was already estranged, and has now become one of its most uncompromising critics. In return, Islamic fanatics want her dead.

So the West, aided and abetted by cynical men and women of the old money have been in bed with the marxists in destroying everything from the judiciary to education in the last four decades but far worse is that by crippling Christianity and not allowing social values most strongly espoused by Christianity, e.g. standing firm on principle and treating ones' brother as oneself and by replacing it with a false dictatorship of the proletariat model of brotherhood, bereft of the key element love, European society has been laid open for takeover.

And they know it very, very well.

Caroline Fourest, herself of the Left, prefers to see it as naivety and refers to 1979 in Iran:

“Back then, a group of Marxists made a big mistake. They thought it would be possible to form a partnership with Islamists in the fight to topple the Shah,” said Caroline Fourest in her controversial presentation at the recently concluded international Islamism conference at Århus University. “Today, we see coalitions and partnerships between Islamist groups and progressive leftwing movements that we would not have expected five years ago.

We can argue all night about whether it's intentional or not but the simple fact is that the Left is assisting in the destruction of society as the west once knew it.

If we persist with the delusion that the EU state is not marxist in nature and funded by the stateless and unscrupulous old money, then there's very little basis for debate. This unholy alliance has put any person or persons who dares speak out against it in great danger.

Read about Redeker to see this alliance illustrated:

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and centrist intellectuals, including Pascal Bruckner, Alain Finkielkraut, André Glucksmann, and Bernard-Henri Lévy, also issued an appeal on Redeker’s behalf and in defense of France’s “most fundamental liberties.” But the vast majority of responses, even when couched as defenses of the right to free speech, were in fact hostile to the philosophy teacher.

This is a standard Leftist ploy - to pretend to be interested in freedoms of the individual. Yes we are but ... always the but.

And none of them would ever have got a leg-in if Europe had adhered to it's Catholic and Protestant codes of conduct, if not its practices.

[blogfocus monday] three issues in one

1 Jobsworths


MJW brings us the harrowing tale of station attendants who had officiously closed all doors then let the train stand idle. Then:

Suddenly a woman and her young son, who had obviously been trying to board at one of the doors locked out made a desperate dash for the remaining open door, the platform staff shouted at her to stand away and attempted to block her path, whilst the guard attempted to close the doors before she could board, but he was too late and the doors closed on her before automatically springing back open.

With doors open, the woman stepped into the entrance way, and then it happened, a reprehensible act from the guard, instead of letting her board, he blocked her path and started to bundle her back through the open doors on to the platform. He was unable to prevent her son from boarding (the young boy actually stood next to me), but he managed to manhandle the woman back on to the platform and refused to let her enter, so she called her son off the train.

As he closed the doors on the poor woman and her son, I said to him “you didn’t need to do that, did you?” prompting him, in the tradition of a million petty minded jobsworths before him to snap back “don’t you tell me how to do my job”!

2 Flaming and the quality of debate


Doctor Vee berates moronic commenters which is interesting because that is what Anon and Simon recently did here before storming off in a huff. Here's part of what the good doc said:

The first time I truly realised that comments on MSM sites were almost universally awful was when Scotsman.com introduced them. I wrote about it at the time. The comment box obviously just attracts loudmouths and morons. Anyone looking for good debate would be sorely disappointed.

This isn’t just a problem with the media. Anyone who has read the comments on huge websites like Digg or YouTube will have probably found their inner misanthrope jumping out and despairing about the state of humankind. It seems as though the bigger the website is, the worse the comments are.

To support this contention, I offer, from a Sydney national news website, the question "How to make someone love you". Here's a cross-section of the responses:

Lol that cynical tumor is seriously malignant ;) Posted by: M on February 11, 2008 9:15 AM

I think it is also contagious. Posted by: Dragonforce on February 11, 2008 9:21 AM

It is called early- to mid-30's can't be botheredness. Posted by: M on February 11, 2008 9:27 AM

how does a chick make you fall in love with her ##### she gets knocked up/ and within no time at all you got yourself a fullhouse with a couple a deuces i tell all you dudes on here playing with a shortstack sometimes its easier playing the slot machines than playing pokher with a slot Posted by: Pokher on February 11, 2008 10:17 AM

Ruthie offered her thoughts on the quality of debate here.


3 Sex and the appreciative woman


This is exactly the sort of thing I'm putting in the 2nd book right now and Lady M is the type of woman I'd gladly bed but her standards are so high that I doubt I could meet them. Sending a plane seems a bit of a tall order at this point in time:

I like men. I like the way they smell. I like the way they think - solution over debate, facts over speculation. I like the hair on their bodies in places that can keep a skinny woman warm. I like the way they like women. I like the way they can talk with their eyes even if they can’t dance. I like the way they laugh. I like the way they continue to make me feel sexy and desirable, even though I am now a woman of a certain age – I appreciate that chaps - I thought it would be all over by now.

I love flirting and I appreciate a man who does it well. I like a man of few words and I like a man who can engage in conversation as a blood sport. I like men who send flowers, and I like men who send planes. I like men who are warriors, and I like men who are poets and philosophers. I love a man who loves his wife/girlfriend/fiancée’ and talks about it – nothing sexier. I love men who love children and animals. I appreciate a man who can sing or dance or both, but I love a man who loves opera. I really like sex, I do. I like the entire package ...

[incest] third cousins breed most

Update for this post.

Hot from Iceland, even if seriously flawed:

Couples with the same great-great-grandparents have more children than those who aren't as closely related, according to an Icelandic study.

They'd know up there in those winter months, wouldn't they? So the message is clear - get out there and get breeding.

By the way - do you actually know your third cousin? Also, maybe you should read this first. Also, how did they gather the data for this study? 'Excuse me- have you bonked a close relative lately?' And is the study really necessary for our further understanding?

This was also interesting:

Incest in the United Kingdom is governed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. In France, incest laws were abolished by Napoleon some 200 years ago. Incestuous relations between a parent and minor child are prohibited and punished by law in France, but not between adults.

How could the same thing be wrong in one country but not in the other [despite the law]?

[quickies] good news monday

1 Excellent!

2 Also excellent:

Senator Barack Obama tallied his fourth decisive victory this weekend in a state nominating contest on Sunday, winning the Maine caucus, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced her campaign manager and longtime aide in the biggest shakeup of her campaign to date.

3 Also, also excellent:

The unanimous approval of the deal by the governing bodies of the Writers Guild of America came a day after the union and studios finalized details of a settlement hinging on how much writers should be paid for work distributed over the Internet.

4 Also, also, also excellent:

They appear to be back.

5 Also, also, also, also excellent:

This might just see the Church getting the kick up the backside it's needed for many years now, especially in the U.S., over it's relativistic and equivocal positions on fundamental issues.

6 Also, also, also, also, also excellent:

Flip flop. The Hottie and the Nottie? Please!

Not a bad start to a Monday. Now watch someone come along and b-gg-r it up.

[divorce] the nastiness of it all

What a gold digger:

The musician, meanwhile, has vowed to stay cool - hoping to clear his name and keeping most of his fortune, estimated at £825 million.

Mills, who is defending herself after furiously sacking her lawyers, has reportedly demanded a settlement of £50 million in what could be the most costly divorce in British legal history.

I shan't be following this sordid affair. What is it about divorces? What makes them so petty and unjust? Such hatred comes out, often from one side. Accepting that he drank and was abusive ... why? Why not kind and loving? Could she have had anything to do with that by some chance?

The alien life form who finds a solution to the war between men and women and patents it will become rich beyond imagining. On the other hand, look at the McCartney history, from the Apple Studios days onwards. All the sycophantic hangers-on trying to fleece them for all they had.

Don't know, some of us just seem poor judges of character when it comes to ourselves. personally.

[blogger classic] last freedom in the sphere

Rob has just been having problems with control-freak providers:

I was trying to make some code appear on my site. Now this code has taken me ages to get right. Not because it’s complicated. Just because WordPress was playing havoc.

I typed out the code using some entities and normal quote marks. It appeared ok but it wouldn’t copy properly — rendering the banner useless. OK I thought, I’ll just use entities. And this is where things got annoying.

The problem with WP is that it likes to change things for you.

That's right, Rob - it does. Typepad and Wordpress are useless service providers because they insist you do it their way. Wordpress doesn't even let you justify text and prevents you doing a myriad other things you'd like.

Then Blogger got in on it with their ridiculous "Layout" widget rubbish until someone clearly told them where to put it and they allowed "Classic" again. Here's how easy Classic is:

1. Go to twenty pages of Classic templates [google Blogger Templates] available on the web;

2. Choose one;

3. Copy the html to Word and play about with it, throwing this out, writing this in, designing your header for yourself;

4. Paste in to the template and save.

Voila - nourishing insanity in its new version - I've just finished the initial site before tweaking. Now, if I'd like to tweak it, I go to Mandarin Design Color Chart and make some slight adjustments to taste. I'm not saying my design skills are anything to write home about but I do have the freedom to do as I wish.

Easy-peasy. All other providers - you can keep them.

[britain] time the traitors were charged

Right on. Carey!

There is no news in this post - you've all seen it in the Telegraph and elsewhere. I'm just adding my signature to it.

Enough's enough!

Writing in this newspaper, Lord Carey condemns multiculturalism as "disastrous", blames it for creating Islamic ghettos and says that Dr Williams's support for sharia law will "inevitably lead to further demands from the Muslim community".

He suggests that such a move could embolden some Muslims to try to turn Britain into a country ruled by Islamic law which, he says, contradicts principles of human rights and allows the persecution of Christians.

I live in a Muslim republic over here and good luck to them. It's their land and I'm living here as their guest. Therefore I observe their laws. What's the problem?

One can't even blame the British Muslims for acting as they have - after all, if the Musselmen here said to me, 'Let's be all multicultural and tell us how we can become Anglican,' it's sort of an open invitation, isn't it? But the Deobandi? On the plane, chums.

It's Blair and Brown who should be charged with High Treason and either incarcerated in the Tower or executed [we'll argue this one later]. But traitors they are, by any definition of the word. This is not rhetoric - they have clearly betrayed our land.

And if I might be permitted to be the one to waterboard Brown until he says the word "England", I'd deem it an honour. To quote Holmes, in His Last Bow:

The Englishman is a patient creature but at present his temper is a little inflamed and it would be as well not to try him too far.

And who does Brown think he's doing it for - some vague notion of the '45? Even his own countrymen detest him. Old news but the idea remains:

This weekend Brown has managed to destroy one of the most formidable reputations in British politics - his own; he has handed a political triumph to his only rival for the Premiership; and he has made Alex Salmond's day. Nice work, Gordon.

As for the Catholic/CofE thing - what a storm in a teacup. They're all Christian. As for the Scots, Irish and Welsh - they're my friends so there's nothing to be read into this.

[joy division] curtis documentary

New documentary about Joy Division:

The streets of Manchester look as bleak in colour as they did in black and white ("I didn't see a tree till I was nine", one band member claims). Shots of Curtis performing show how closely the actor Sam Riley imitated his thrashing, uncoordinated dance moves.

Many other talking heads are willing to expound on the genius of Curtis and the legacy of a band who changed the face of pop music forever.

In the face of all these grand, romantic statements, someone brings things down to earth with the simple observation that the total output of Joy Division consisted of two albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer. "Everything else is merchandising."

Very true, and this film is no exception.

Did they need any more to make the legend? These albums stand alone.

[anniversaries] one and one hundred

As you'll see from the previous post, Aquarian men are terrible at dates and anniversaries but this post celebrates two:

JMB has come of age in the blogworld and says:

Blogging takes a lot of time and effort and many things in my life have suffered this past year. Reading has been one of them and it seems that I only read a book a week or every ten days now whereas I read a book every couple of days before, sometimes one in a day.

The Broadsheet Rag has reached 100 posts and should automatically be included in Blogpower. :)

Please get over to both and wish them the warmest wishes.

[aquarian man] ignore at your peril

Click on pic for more info.

As a few of our birthdays are around this time, it's appropriate to present to any female [or male] contemplating a tryst with one of these some of the truths of this sign. There's a lot of guff written but some things do repeatedly come through:

Firstly, this was voted the most accurate by readers of one site:

[He is] friendly, unpredictable, clean, erratic, innovative, freedom-loving. Marriage is not important for the Aquarian male. He usually marries or gets into long-term bonded relationships “like marriage,” but he usually takes a long time making the commitment.

He is a romantic, but not in the usual sense. He remembers his love, whenever it suddenly strikes him, not necessarily on birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries. He likes to surprise and prides himself in “being different, non-conventional. He may achieve some position of prestige with his inventiveness.

He needs a woman who will support his “ahead of the times” ideas. He is attracted to the unusual and independent woman, yea, even eccentric who is willing to be experimental. She should value her freedom, but be firmly loyal to him. He will reject any relationship in which he is not trusted.

Here are a few other things cobbled together from various sources:


The only sure thing about Aquarius is his independence and unpredictability. He is drawn to novelty like a magnet, and loves reaching out to touch every person or thing that fascinates with its newness. He is famous for his spontaneity.

It can also be disturbing when he starts asking you direct questions, as he probes deep into the heart of your private feelings, not in the least interested in pointless small talk
His boyish enthusiasm doesn’t hide his vast databank of life experiences, which make him coldly practical and fiercely protective.

The Aquarian doesn't have the best memory in the world and is very poor on women’s names, but he does have some sort of invisible antenna and a high degree of psychic precognition – he’s known for this. [My comment - I can often tell who's phoning by the dial tone and don't care if you believe it or not]

Trusting people doesn't come naturally - he wants to know what's behind the carefully constructed face you’re presenting to him. [My comment - hence his stress on loyalty]

He delights in defending prophets whose opinions are vilified, then are found to be correct years later. [My comment - as in Jesus Christ who will be seen to have been correct]

He has a knack for calming hysterical people and soothing frightened children and he’ll always be popular with the young. [My comment - this can be a rod for the back]

Aquarians despise liars and cheats, especially a cheating woman. He may remain polite and even loving to her but inside – he’s lost all respect for her.

If he thinks he's being exploited, that charm can vanish so quickly - an upset Aquarian is perfectly capable of truly shocking actions. [My comment - e.g. me at Blogpower]

He’ll support your own career and projects with all his soul but he’ll only fight for you if you’re in real danger; then he’ll fight to the death. His approach is not to let you get into danger in the first place.

If you play off another man against him, he’ll say, "Well, I guess the better man won," pick up his hat and go.

Aquarians suffer from the humidity in the summer and often prefer the winter months. Mental activity keeps them from getting enough sleep, and sleep is often troubled by strange, silent dreams. [My comment - heat and humidity are awful, yes]

He’ll always appear if he says he will, unless he's been kidnapped along the way, which is more than possible - anything can happen to him at any time.

He's into Truth, which transcends any loyalties to anyone.

[blogfocus saturday] special gonad edition

Today's roundup of those I've been able to access:

1. Sally brings us the search for a generic name:

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

Now this worries me. Maybe it's the women I chase but in my case, it's either smallish or Voom! - there's no "drupin" involved. Maybe I'm from another planet.

2. Speaking of another planet, this one's set in Edinburgh - how to convince a cabby to do what you see in the pic above. 1st Lady explains:

Now, for those of you interested in furniture shopping this way please note that L.Muck and I have become experts and we do not recommend you starting with such large pieces. A few days earlier we had a successful trial run which involved moving a large chair from shop to home (dont ask the taxi driver for seating credit unless he seems in a good mood). Learn the doorway dimensions, learn where the drivers blind spot is, investigate how much oxygen you require in the cab to safely make it home (we dont recommend mattress moving).

3. Ellee brings us why men rape:

Men rape for many reasons, including a desire to exert power in response to a feeling of entitlement, or perhaps to fulfil a need to humiliate and oppress their victims to compensate for their own perceived inadequacy.

Perhaps another reason is they're not getting enough which raises the interesting question of whether men can be raped by women. We once experimented with this and came to the conclusion - no, it's not possible. I'd like to meet a female rapist. Men call them nymphos, I think.

4. Speaking of another type of pestilential female, Jams brings us the Harlequin Ladybird:

Because it eats so many aphids, its staple diet, as well as other ladybirds, it has threatened the number of native ladybirds and species, such as lacewings, which also eat aphids. It also threatens aphid numbers. The two-spot and seven-spot ladybirds are particularly threatened.

5. An oldie but a goodie [the post, not the luscious Swearing Brummie Mummy herself, who's merely delectable] on the delight of pungent food. A Frenchified lady brought me a Camembert form Normandy the other day and the apartment stank, so I understand this:

We've still got half a baby Stilton, an appallingly odoriferous Brie, two tons of chocolate and a tree with no needles left on it. Oh, and half a sherry log. And a ham. With Nigella Bloody Lawson's spiced peaches, which were very nice actually once I'd got some jars, but right now even the smell of cinnamon is enough to make me gag.

6. With this appalling Blogrollingdotcom situation, we need to start manually blogrolling, which I'm about to do, from my MyBlogLog and Referrals. Now, I was thinking that if we each blogrolled each other, imagine how we'd zoom in Technorati - so the BRDC disaster was not a disaster after all but a Resounding Success!

Only one thing left to say:

"Blogroll me! Blogroll me!" he pathetically grovels and whimpers at your ankles, clutching at your thighs in his fawning grip. What a Man!

[blogrolling] just have to love these guys

The situation on the blog couldn't be direr. Time is just being Hoovered up by both RL and the necessity to complete the book before the window of opportunity closes next week [regular sessions at uni].

Just been reading recent comments and many require thought out responses. When? When? Lots of comment about "debate" - post hopefully later. Seems to me the main jobs on the blog are:

1. interesting topic, relevant to today;
2. answer your commenters;
3. visit and link.

Understandably, my visitors have dropped right away in the last few days, a situation which hopefully can be reversed. What's upsetting is that many I'm sure think I've lost interest, e.g. Wife in the North, Mutterings, Chris Dillow and so on but it's not true - it's simply time and organization. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat.

It's not helped by Blogger playing up something awful recently in its html formatting for posts plus this, which has bu--ered up the whole system:

ERROR The requested URL could not be retrieved

---

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://blogrolling.com:4080/

The following error was encountered:

• Connection to 216.193.240.86 Failed

The system returned:

    (54) Connection reset by peer

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

---

Generated Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:47:58 GMT by elrond.vpop.net (squid/2.5.STABLE14)

[high treason] yes, say voters

If a people vote in a referendum not to ratify a treaty and then the parliamentarians go ahead and ratify it, does this constitute high treason?
Selection		Votes
Yes	89%	16
No	11%	2
18 votes total
pollcode.com free polls

And some of the responses were quite gentle:

From Ian Hunter

I would consider it an honour to lead the attack on Downing Street,pitchfork in hand. The police protection squad can't have that many rounds, i may fall, but others would complete the job!

From Dave Petterson

... and the penalty for treason should be death by being hung drawn and quartered. Slowly.

[vansterdam] drug capital of canada

Vancouver - heading the list of the world's most livable city?

Think again. Known locally as Vansterdam, it's the drug capital of the north, along with all the other goodies - violent crime, prostitution and so on:

"Vancouver is the drug capital of Canada,'' said Mariana Valverde, a professor of criminology at the University of Toronto., with the city's Downtown Eastside district known for illicit drug use, prostitution and violence. Vancouver is a magnet for suspects on the run because winters are mild in Canada's third-most-populous metropolitan area and it is a hub of drug abuse.

But there's hope. The city wants people to donate their frequent flier miles to catch the criminals:

The city is taking a cue from the 1997 Nicolas Cage movie about a planeload of convicts being transported to prison. The Vancouver Board of Trade is urging residents to donate frequent- flier miles so that people who are accused of crimes outside British Columbia can be returned to those provinces.

Vancouver has about 2,500 fugitives who are wanted on low- priority arrest warrants for crimes ranging from fraud to assault that were committed in other regions, police say. The suspects' jurisdictions aren't willing to spend the estimated C$2,500 ($2,480) it would take to fly them back.

"We're sending a message that fleeing to Vancouver is no longer a low-risk endeavor,'' said Bernie Magnan, an assistant managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade who is responsible for the "Con Air'' Appeal.

So there it is. You too can give away your excruciatingly slowly earned flier miles to catch a loveable junkie next year.

Is JMB going to be this altruistic?

[mafia] not a good month

Why? Not enough payola? Or does Eliot Ness ride again?

The morning raids today in New York represented one of the largest sweeps against the New York mafia ever, with more than 50 suspects detained.

Much of the focus was on the Gambino family, whose members were charged with seven murders, blackmail, criminal dealings and illegal gaming, New York State's Attorney Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference in New York.

[sheep's clothing] my tuppence worth

David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, Oct 4, 1984:

I am not sure that G-d manoeuvres physical things ... after all, a conjuring trick with bones only proves that it is as clever as a conjuring trick with bones.

Billy Graham, on the Larry King Show (CNN) in 1997:

“Well,” said King, “are you comfortable with Judaism?” “Very comfortable,” answered Graham. “I depend on a Jewish rabbi, Rabbi Tannenbaum in New York, constantly, theologically and spiritually in every way.”

February 21st, 1988:

Mr Swaggart's confession is all the more scandalous since he himself unleashed fire and brimstone against rival TV evangelist Rev Jim Bakker a few months ago for committing adultery with minister and secretary Jessica Hahn.

Saturday, May 27th, 2006:

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Dr Nazir-Ali said that such a change would be impossible. "The coronation service is such that whoever takes the oaths actually takes oaths to defend the Christian faith," he said. "If, by saying that, he meant that he wanted to uphold the freedom of people of every faith, then I have no quarrel with that. But you can't defend every faith, because there are very serious differences among them." In an interview earlier this week, the bishop - who was born a Muslim - called on fellow Anglicans to reassert Britain's "Christian character" and resist the trend towards a "multi-faith mish-mash".

Rowan Williams, February 8th, 2008

Nothing ever changes.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" — Matthew 7:15

[blogrollingdotcom] yours working?

This also happening to you?

I'm sorry but your request has encountered a Fatal Error. Blogrolling support has been notified and all pertinent information to the error has been transmitted.

My blogrolling page has lost al its - er - blogrolling. You've all disappeared. Ok, I'll visit via MyBlogLog and Sitemeter Referrals and hope Blogrolling comes back.