[parallels] how the mighty fall

It's worth considering parallels in politics.

In December, 2007, John Howard not only lost an election after being the second longest serving prime minister but he also lost his safe Liberal [conservative] seat in Sydney. This put him in tandem with Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the only other PM to achieve this.

Now, it seems that a CNN poll has 75% of Americans glad to see Bush go. As they don't have the same mechanisms over there and though it is not the same thing, still, can you imagine what would have befallen him if they did have the power and precedent to vote him out?

In Howard and Bush's case, it was the Karl Rove policy. In Bruce's case, it was the unions although the Wall Street Crash was at the same time.

[political talent] let's see now ...

Vince Cable certainly has talent as a pollie, let's give him that.

So I got to thinking of a post, listing the talent in all the parliamentary parties, the theme being why can't we have an assembly without the two-party system which excludes mean and women of talent from having a say?

So, going back over the lists, we have, maybe, Michael Gove, David Davis, Liam Fox, er... er... er ...

Oh well, such a post is clearly not possible in today's parliament.

[christmas carols] when it is a subversive activity

Via Martin Kelly and Mark Shea:

A post-Christian culture like ours can make tips of the hat to Christ while laboring to escape him with might and main.

Meanwhile, in China under the Commies, a television broadcast of somebody singing "White Christmas" can be a deliberately subversive act feared by the State that fully intends to defy the State and give homage to Christmas and the Christ at the center of it.

In such a case, give me the latter over the former every time. God loves the widow's mite more than all the riches of the godless.

This motif of a church persecuted is possibly the truest place for Christianity - certainly, it is being true to its roots in a such a situation. Take the Copts, for example:

After having survived the persecution of the Roman Pagans, they were once again besieged, now by other Christians. Hence, when the Arabs invaded Egypt in the mid-seventh century AD, they met little resistance from the native Christian population.

Puts it in perspective really.

[textile waste] think through what you buy

On Radio 4 You and Yours today, they were covering textile waste and how the throwing out has increased so much in the past five years.

One thing which struck me was the type of clothing we buy. Fashion dictates that we buy complicated items with zips, buckles, and various add ons. That's fine but when it goes out of fashion or the type of consumer who buys such items tires of them, then that poses a problem for recycling.

Taking this to the other extreme, I'll be damned if I'm just going to wear sackcloth to match my new serf status but surely there is a happy medium.

[sleep] critical matter of balance

Don't know how much yet another survey can be believed:

A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Christopher King and colleagues from the University of Chicago has found a relationship between sleep quantity (hours spent asleep) and calcium build up -- or calcification -- in the arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood. For each additional hour of sleep, the risk of calcification of the coronary arteries decreased by 33 percent -- an outcome equal to reducing blood pressure by 16 point elevations.

... but there's much to be said for getting an adequate amount.

It seems to me that when you get your sleep is equally important. Much has been written about napping in the afternoon but there's a difference between a power nap of twenty minutes and a deep sleep from exhaustion the previous night.

I always feel awful after sleeping in the afternoon. Again, siesta is one thing but to deep sleep is another.

This also brings us into the sphere of guilt over sleep. Laziness is not how you sleep - it's what you do with your waking time. If you set up and insist on adequate sleep and you can keep the wolves from disturbing you, then you'll have the energy to go hell for leather when you're awake.

If the population got enough sleep, enough exercise and a reasonable diet, I really do think much of the trouble would be alleviated. Couple that with a spiritual oneness inside and realistic knowledge and acceptance of yourself, foibles and all, then the results could only be positive.

[non-president] christmas laying low

Chicago Tribune But as his fellow Christians around the world attended Christmas services on Wednesday and Thursday, the president-elect and his family remained sequestered at their vacation compound on the windward coast of Oahu.

But of course. A leopard doesn't change its spots. As with Britain in 1997, America, what have you just gone and done?

[sydney to hobart] tenth year commemoration

Courtesy New York Times

You'd expect this blogger to feel something about this event:

There has been a sombre air surrounding this year's Sydney to Hobart. It is the tenth anniversary of a tragedy that claimed the lives of six sailors, who were killed when a giant storm hammered the fleet.

Several boats sank and more than 50 competitors had to be plucked to safety by helicopter in one of Australia's biggest peacetime rescue missions. Wreaths will be laid at sea and a minute's silence has been held to remember the victims of a race that some survivors still refer to as 'hell on high water.'

Crews have held a minute's silence to remember the victims of the disastrous race a decade ago. More than 100 boats are setting off on the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

It does go with the territory, unfortunately but that's no reason not to remember.

While we're on action, adventure and achievement, congratulations to this kid who achieved the ultimate. That's a constant theme at this blog - to venture, to go down in a screaming heap or not - but at least to have tried. In his case, he succeeded through perseverance.

[liege and life] minstrels and jongleurs

There’s this game on Facebook which the delectable Trixy involved me in and my persona is Sir James, Knight but apparently I’m also the Sovereign [interesting concept of feudalism].

The first thing I thought on seeing my “vassals” was that I didn’t particularly want any vassals. Vassals did have rights though and the social contract was that they were granted land to farm, in return for loyalty and war service.

Facebook, being an offshoot of DARPA, is clearly interested in people’s predispositions and I’m sure DARPA would say to the game player who can amass vassals and win wars: “You’re our boy.” [Or girl.]

In the late 90s, Richie Blackmore and his Candice Knight put out that album with feudal references and slight problems of chronology. One of the tracks was Renaissance Faire:

So I told her, "Yes", I knew her fear
As I felt the truth draw near
Told her back three hundred years [?],
Was the time that I held dear...

Gather ye lords and ladies fair,
Come with me to the Renaissance Faire
Hurry now, we're almost there...
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la,la, la, la...

Hear the minstrels play their tunes,
They will play the whole night through,
Special songs for me and you,
And anyone whose heart is true...

Have to smile at the automatic assumption by Richie Blackmore’s entourage [special songs for me and you] that they and we would be the lords and ladies. A moment’s thought would show that they’d be the wandering minstrels and we’d be freemen at best:

Most minstrels were wanderers; travelling from town to town and performing to all classes of people, performing for whoever paid them.

One day, a minstrel might play at a local fair, performing before the townspeople, the next he might call in at the town’s castle to provide a few night’s entertainment.

As a perpetual traveller, he had many tales to tell and was a source of news and gossip to those he stayed with.

It took a lot of skill, a singing voice and a willingness, nay, a necessity for them to stay on the road, picking up new material and adjusting their repertoire. The life was not too bad early on and the minstrels were eagerly awaited by all classes. Gradually though, the troubadour name fell into disrepute:

The success and popularity of these jongleurs attracted unworthy followers and imitators.

These low fellows, unable to obtain entrance to courts and baronial halls, donned grotesque dresses, stationed themselves in market-place or village green and supplemented their verses with coarse buffoonery, feats of legerdemain, tricks with monkeys, and doggerel appealing to a vitiated taste.

Philip Augustus and Saint Louis banished them from the country and the poets, finding the honored names of trouvère and troubadour trailed through the dirt, angrily denounced them as bastards, and ceased to provide them with verse.

The eventual problem with this life is that it had to end sometime and then what did an ageing minstrel do?

[christmas lunch] how was yours

First modest portion. After three of these, with veg from a bain marie on the second and third, it was time to tackle the trifle, Christmas pud with brandy sauce and then ...

... to just peg out.

How was your day?

[christmas] round the world but not in britain

The best laid plans oft gang astray.

The idea was to show Christmas around the world, with the emphasis on people celebrating it. Assisting in this was the Melbourne Age, which ran a series of photos front page top and many of these are below:

Hanoi

The Vatican

Moscow

Bethlehem

Haiti

Iran

Afghanistan

Melbourne

U.S.A.

Excellent but where was Britain? We had a family get together today, presumably most Brits did, so where are the photos of the celebrations of last night on the web?

Oh, here it is:

London

Dissatisfied, I google-pictured "Christmas celebrations UK 2008" and came up with a few naked women, shots of "traditional Christmas wallpaper" and pics of light festooned shops like Harrods and Regent Street stores. I tried various combinations of the words.

No, no, I don't want pics of shops and shops and shops and shops. I want pics of people out celebrating Christmas, as Christmas, in Britain. You know, people in the squares, singing carols and so on. They have to be there. The Brits must have been out celebrating the holiday, surely, like the rest of the world.

Here's what I found:

Birmingham

Phew, that's better.

Except for one thing - those signs were all exhorting people to shop, with slogans like "Buying makes you happy". There wasn't one thing about ... er ... Christmas.

You know ... Christ-mas? Anyone remember it?

Irritated, I now started on the online dailies - the Guardian, BBC news, the Telegraph ... and here was a typical front page:

No, no, Britain, not "log on to Christmas sales" please but "celebrating Christmas".

Hello, anyone out there who remembers Christmas in Britain?

Hello?

Anyone there?