[hate the music] different strokes

There came a time in the late 60s or early 70s when popular music [not in the sense of "pop" but of music people listened to and enjoyed] fragmented.

I don't know when you'd date it from but the situation which had existed where a new song was released in either America or Swinging Britain and every teenager in the world discussed it seemed to … well … fragment.

Woody

Now some people listened to Uriah Heep or Ten Years After and some didn't. Everyone still listened to Zep, Floyd and Deep Purple and even had time for JJ Cale and the Eagles. But coming in from the edges were John Cale, Lou Reed, Nazareth and of course - punk.

Now some wouldn't give Wings airtime and others loved it. Deutsch Kosmik Musik and Hawkwind left many cold. We probably didn't realize how bad it had got until the late 70s when, if you went to a party, someone would put some track on and expect everyone would dance to it but some other guy would go over, take it off and put on another genre and so on.

Woody

My first inkling was around 1980 in London when I'd play Selecter and the Specials, the Beat and Bad Manners, Splodginessabounds and other garage groups hawked about by musicians on the street plus, strangely, Fairport Convention - a vibrant time but not everyone's cup of tea.

And there was music I wouldn't sully my player with. So when I read this article yesterday, though I didn't agree with his targets necessarily, I had to chuckle at his sentiments:

I consider myself a fairly pluralistic cosmopolitan fellow when it comes to music … but there are some musics and sounds that I find unendurable and I actually resent the fact that they even exist. So here's Part One of an ongoing series of Crimes Against Music.

Dixieland/Trad Jazz image: Code words for white guys with moustaches, straw boaters, bowties and striped shirts pretending to be playing a rudimentary form of New Orleans jaunty jazz. Banjo, trombone, tuba and clarinet all in one band and all playing at once! Hand me a blindfold and earplugs please.

Woody

The Piano Accordion: [I]t's a contraption from hell that sounds like an emphysemic portable home organ and when played looks like a fat man having a difficult bowel movement and playing with his own nipples. Oh yes, and smiling at us while he does it!

White People Playing Faux Reggae: Eric started it all [and] performed it as if he was anaesthetized from the neck down … It's not simple, it's subtle, it's not in the beat it's in the spaces in between, it's not rhythm it's riddem.

Wordless Choruses: The last resort for lazy uninspired songwriters who insult people's intelligence by singing baby talk instead of using coherent language. Sting's De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da. I rest my case.

Woody

Prog Rock: [I]n the early 70s, a bunch of otherwise useless Art College and University bearded white boy wannabes abandoned song, melody, meaning and purpose for pretension, pomp and meander, often over a whole side of an album! With frequent, frightfully clever, time changes and Year 10 poetic doggerel castratoed above it all, they often consorted with symphony orchestras to legitimize their own plunkings.

Jazz Fusion: [O]ften with too-clever-by-half "complex" time signatures, rhythmic patterns, and extended track lengths … draining all character and integrity out of both. Don't you hate virtuosos? They never shut up and play the music but instead are full of "Gee Wiz Hey Mum Look At Me!" tricks and technique. Once they got hold of synthesizers there was no hope, it was like giving whisky to the Indians!

Woody

And so on.

A good article but it makes me wonder what your own pet hates are. For the record, mine include saccharine sweet 60s, three piece, thin combo songs, bland super-serious Yes or ELR, bland Billy Joel whom we're told is the last word in cool, Gary Glitter and that whole 70s yuk, Sweet and that ilk, Supertramp and Supergroups, ageing rockstars, Wings, boring, thumping clubbing music [except for some trance] and my pet hate - those 90s and 00s stars who think they have to throw the voice about and hack up good songs to impress. These last you always see "singing" at superbowls in some sort of "how long can you yodel the one word" contest.

Tinny

I s'pose my pet hates come down to any singers with giant egos or chips on their shoulders for no genuine reason and my pet loves are those who are genuine, humble and consistently high quality.

[world cup] one last time, promise

[meon valley] this is england

Meon Valley Railway

May I introduce to you one of my favourite blogs and you'll possibly wonder why, with Higham not being a particularly party-political beast.

It's because of the innate decency I see running through this simply but cleanly presented site. The only slight thing I'd question is the dated Blogger template which is at odds with the other pages which can be accessed from the front page, e.g. the constituency map, the biography and his stance on the issues.

This latter has given me ideas on how to format my own site.

Map of the general setting of Meon Valley - click to zoom

Who am I talking about? George Hollingbery, perhaps the next MP for Meon Valley and a chap I'd wish to have representing me.

Where is Meon Valley? See right for the general map and then zero in here.

For me, this is a slice of the England it's a pleasure to know and also, incidentally, a source of homesickness.

[male and female] ne'er the twain shall meet

The tragic case of Robert Farquharson is best not explained in a newspaper by a female journalist who, as a woman of that particular type, can never feel as a man feels. She quotes Professor Paul Mullen, psychiatrist and clinical director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health:

"Obsession deprives people of a sense of proportion to such an extent that, in the end, they can countenance their own death and the death of others they love in pursuit of that obsession."

The journo then adds:

A man [note the change from "people" to "man"] who has become obsessed with revenge against his partner and who is pathologically jealous of her can allow his children to become caught up in his delusions. His feelings about her fidelity can morph into doubts about the paternity of the children.

Bollocks. Another shoddy, female, PC, gutless* journalistic polemic against men. The moment she changed "people" to "man", she started writing of "his delusions". Subtle shift but heavily indicative and deeply dishonest of her as a journalist.

As for the issue, it's doubtful the kids even knew what was going on.

I don't blame women for completely misunderstanding the wrong they do and for steadfastly refusing to accept responsibility for their part in breakups. They're biologically not wired to accepting responsibility in matters involving men. To be fair, the mother is quoted as well in the article:

Cindy Gambino told the court that her ex-husband had been a good father and was a "softie" who always agreed to do what she wanted over matters such as whether to have another baby.

So what would drive a "softie" to kill his kids? You really want to know? Seriously?

I can completely understand not wanting my kids brought up by another man whom my ex had sold herself to and this feeling would be so strong, the thought would definitely flicker through the brain of how to make her truly understand.

Women will never, ever, understand what a man puts into his family emotionally and spiritually though society as a whole, both men and women, accept what she puts in - the eternal mother figure is a powerful icon.

When she decides to move on because he fails to satisfy or she has a better offer, this is the calculating nature of the female who sees the kids and herself as one unit and the man as just some poor sod who brings home a little over half the bacon and therefore interchangeable with someone else.

It all comes down to mental sets and I've surveyed this with the women I know so often that the correlation is indisputable. Women are never concerned with "state of being". If they marry, it's for advantage but this advantage alters with time and with changed circumstances. For her, the initial flame is replaced with the primary bond of the children with herself and society supports this bond against the man in the divorce courts.

If he doesn't spend enough time on his family [in her eyes] and on her [they might both happen to be out working for money most of the day to pay the credit debt which is a consequence of the "onwards and upwards" mindset], if he starts drinking to blot out her constant carping and shopping list of his faults, if the Camelot he envisaged and worked hard to set up now seems to have been built on a swamp rather than on a rock, if she decides he's now surplus to requirements and in true neanderthal fashon moves onto another mate - then, in her eyes, she's moved "onwards and upwards" and everyone should be "mature enough" to just move along with her but in their own separate directions.

Men are justly accused of being territorial but their territory is the whole show - the wife, kids, property, plans, dreams - it all goes with the territory. If there's one thing he's never, ever, ever going to accept it's her upping sticks, shutting the gate on him and inviting another man in to share the spoils of their joint labour of love.

It's a measure of a woman's mind if she could imagine for one second that he's going to just sit back and accept that and here's the rub - the less responsible the father, the more chance he'll just drift off and "move along" with her but the more he is, in wife Cindy's words, "a good father and … a softie who always agreed to do what she wanted", the less likely he would ever be to accept her shacking up with another man.

So yes, evil obsession consumed him, as it has countless people, male and female, whom it comes to and in these circumstances, the children were the victims. Totally wrong and the killing unjustified, no question, as killing is never justified and he must pay the price for what he did.

But to lightly skip over her own culpability in this and in all the other points of dispute in their marriage and for the journo to subtly shift all culpability onto the man and champion her would be an equal travesty.

Women MUST accept responsibility for the consequences of their snide actions, must understand, in a marriage, a dedicated father's mindset, just as he must be willing to move onwards and upwards with her. Any woman who truly loved her man would never have allowed such a situation to have arisen in the first place.

Jason and Medea - I'm afraid, despite her terrible crime in killing the children, that I'm on her side in this one. There is never any justification in the other partner taking up with someone else unless there was real, sustained and gratuitous abuse, with no extenuating circumstances.

* Just an endnote - isn't it interesting that this newspaper usually offers a "comments section" where I would most certainly have left the above text but on this issue there is the journo's opinion and only her opinion, with no right of reply whatsoever. The only conclusion to be drawn from that is that the editorial staff simply do not wish to allow the man's point of view to be expressed.

Thank goodness for true blogs, as distinct from the MSM. Grrrrrr!

[terrorist attack in ny] not this time

[lizard queen 2] the paul allegations

I've been contacted by Peter Paul [see photo with the Lizard Queen herself], who features significantly in the Hillary matter.

Now fair's fair - this is a very biased campaign against the LQ and Peter Paul clearly has an axe to grind and now he's chopping wood with a vengeance. Who wrote of a woman spurned? A man betrayed is just as dangerous in a lizard's eyes.

Despite this, it's difficult to gainsay a man with facts on his side and I really can't see how she can refute them. In fact she doesn't. Paul notes:

The historical significance of a presidential candidate defending herself, in the midst of a presidential campaign, from videotaped evidence capturing felony violations of federal law has been lost on the Mainstream Media. They have consistently refused to report on this case since the California Supreme Court denied the Clintons’ appeal to dismiss the fraud and coercion case.

Apart from hearing vague feminist noises, this blogger is still waiting to see real evidence that Hillary Clinton possesses the integrity required to lead the United States, as the sovereign United States, into the next few really worrying years in the international arena.

Every new day only seems to throw up another reason to stop her unreasoning juggernaut.

[osculation] it's the name of the game

Osculation - it's the name of the game and in each generation, they play it the same.

Here are some of the benefits:

# Kissing stabilizes cardiovascular activity, decreases high blood pressure, and lowers cholesterol;

# Kissing prevents cavities and plaque build-up by stimulating saliva production while preventing gingivitis through the calcium present in saliva;

# Kissing stimulates over 30 facial muscles which smoothes out skin and increase blood circulation to the face;

# Kissing burns 12 calories per five-second episode and three passionate kisses a day will help you lose one pound!

# Kissing prevents the formation of the stress hormone glucocorticoids which causes high blood pressure, muscle weakening and insomnia;

# Kissing does its part to vaccinate people from new germs. Saliva contains bacteria, 80% of them are common to all people with 20% unique to each person.

… and some of the drawbacks:

# Halitosis can't be caught from a partner through kissing [although it detracts from the enjoyment at the time];

# Meningococcus and Hepatitis B are very rarely caught;

# Glandular fever is more common;

# It's best to steer clear of cold sores.

So let's face it - kissing is plain romantic after all, your chance of disease is minimal [well, at an acceptable level] and there are so many known health benefits.

So get to it - the night is still young!

[nicht akzeptabel] wasserwerfer in bern

Ein Großaufgebot der Polizei rückte an und eine Straßenschlacht entbrannte. Die Beamten setzten Tränengas und Wasserwerfer ein. Laut Polizei wurden mindestens 17 Beamte zum Teil schwer verletzt. Nach Behördenangaben gab es 42 Festnahmen.

If you can't follow the text, the photo should say it all - State using weapons on citizens whose interests they are supposedly representing. The citizens might well have been out of order - I can't read all the text - but the response is sadly worrying.

[blogfocus saturday] crimewave in the sphere

Marijuana? Much, much worse, according to Schneekonigin.

Theme this evening is crime - doing it, thinking about it and writing about it.

1. First a crime in contemplation by Pink Acorn:

As I was reading the Sicily Scene Blog today I realized I have this huge, maybe 30 acre, pepper field right next door. As I scooted over to take this picture I saw my neighbor. We keep commenting how we are going to make a midnight run for some pepper samples ....but that never seems to happen.

2. Longrider differentiates between two often confused crimes:

Credit card theft is the act of stealing people’s money; identity theft involves taking on someone else’s identity for the purposes of obtaining money, property, work or whatever the thief decides to take; they take on their victim’s persona and pose as their victim in order to carry out their fraud on an ongoing basis – this is not simple credit card theft and is much less prolific.

Conflating the two is fraudulent and government does this for its own purposes; to defraud the consumer into supporting its insidious “solution” – identity cards and the national identity register that lurks beneath the surface.

3. Hercules shows that it's the hidden criminal you have to watch out for:

I always thought that crafty little bastard was up to something, blagging his way in to millions of homes across the world, pretending to be a lovable toy and then BAM, your kids are hooked on E!!! The term "off his face" Certainly does apply to this toy, doesn't it? In the news today Customs officers discovered nearly 300 grams (10.5 ounces) of ecstasy tablets hidden inside a Mr. Potato Head toy sent to Australia from Ireland.

4. Intervening to prevent a crime can be criminal, as Cllr. Gavin Ayling explains:

If people were not punished for intervening, if people could be sure the law would protect those who were acting in society’s greater interest, if people could defend others and themselves with force that the law currently considers ‘unreasonable’ from the safe confines of the courtroom, then (and only then) would people and society start to turn on those among them who were antisocial, violent and intimidating.

Like many things, it doesn’t seem that hard so long as you purge the pink fluff which takes the place of a spine in many politicians.

5. Ross Fountain is hot on the trail of the delinquent toddlers and came across this as well:

However whilst reading this story I spotted a link to an earlier story from May this year, "Criminal age 'should rise to 18' ". This is nuts, pure and simple and I guessed before I read it that it originated with the increasingly vocal pro criminal lobby group, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at Kings College, London. It is important to realise that 'youth crime' isn't a trivial subset of general crime. it amounts for a huge proportion of total crime.

6. Neocon comments on the Philadelphia Experiment:

This is a brave, if somewhat naive initiative... I wonder what happens when the first volunteer is gunned down. I know I wouldn't be out there without Kevlar and a K-frame.

Groups of volunteers will be stationed on drug corners and other trouble spots in a bid to stop the shootings and other crimes that have given Philadelphia the highest homicide rate among the nation’s 10 largest cities.

They will not be armed, will not have powers of arrest, and will be identified only by armbands or hats during their three-hour shifts.

7. James Cleverley looks at the Youth Service scheme:

There should be a balance between rights and responsibilities, young people should understand that not everything in life comes easily and pre packed. Labour have an obsession with the "respect agenda" seeming not to understand that respect has to be earned.

I would feel very uncomfortable if this kind of scheme was limited to military service, but the mix of activities is a healthy idea. I'm sure that there will be plenty on the left who will try to paint this idea as a big step back into the fifties but until they can come up with a better idea to tackle the fragmentation of communities and the huge increases in youth crime and anti-social behaviour they should keep shtum.

8. And lastly, the Anglo-Canadian Tea and Margaritas' gets unusually violent on crime:

I love animals and despise anyone who does them harm. I would see them strung up by their heels and publicly lashed if I ruled the world. Prisons for the guilty are far too soft. Colour tv, computers, diplomas!

The same as above goes for harming children and a several other horrible crimes.

Hear, hear! Hope to see you next Wednesday evening. Cheers!

[world cup] how many of the originals are left?

Click pic to zoom.

England team to play Australia: 15-Jason Robinson, 14-Paul Sackey, 13-Mathew Tait, 12-Andy Farrell, 11-Josh Lewsey, 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Andy Gomarsall, 8-Nick Easter, 7-Lewis Moody, 6-Martin Corry, 5-Ben Kay, 4-Simon Shaw, 3-Phil Vickery (captain), 2-Mark Regan, 1-Andrew Sheridan.

Australia team to play England: 15-Chris Latham, 14-Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13-Stirling Mortlock (captain), 12-Matt Giteau, 11-Lote Tuqiri, 10-Berrick Barnes, 9-George Gregan, 8-Wycliff Palu, 7-George Smith, 6-Rocky Elsom, 5-Dan Vickerman, 4-Nathan Sharpe, 3-Guy Shepherdson, 2-Stephen Moore, 1-Matt Dunning.

[lizard queen] whitehouse here we come

In the Telegraph take on Hillary, there were some juicy morsels:

"Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar [an elite college founded for women]," sniffed Maureen Dowd.

Mrs Clinton's answers to every question, Frank Rich wrote, were "a rambling and often tedious Gore-like filibuster" and she seems "especially evasive when dealing with questions requiring human reflection". Her laugh had "all the spontaneity of an alarm clock buzzer".

Nice stuff but the following commenter seemed to me closer to the truth:

Hillary Clinton will indisputably be the next President of the United States. She will move to the political center after she wins the Democratic primary. She is extremely intelligent and experienced. She will be a centrist akin to Brown and Cameron. David Cameron would defeat her if he was the Republican nominee in the USA. His oratorical prowess and charisma would resonate with Americans. His impressive green agenda would help to defeat Hillary. [Brien Comerford, United States]

Leaving aside the alleged connection with the giga-fund scandal, Peter Paul, Whitewater and Vince Foster, Jamie Gorelick, Nolanda Hill, Independent Counsel Robert Ray, bouncer Craig Livingstone, National Finance Director David Rosen and the $2m, Juanita Broaddrick, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Yucaipa, Web Hubbell, John Huang, the Lippo Group and Norman Hsu, leaving aside her health care policy, leaving aside the clearly partisan attacks by Giulliani, leaving aside the worrying and unknown extent to which she accepts the Saul Alinsky thesis, just what is it about this woman?

The travesty of the Starr Report and Wallace's Fox attack show the Republicans need to let the Clintons hang themselves, by themselves, not leave the GOP tactics open to a public perception of overkill.

And yet there is still something fundamentally wrong with the woman.

In the end, it might even be the symptoms and signs - the hyena cackle, the heavily scripted human warmth, the way former supporters and allies are coming out against her and her voting record, rather than the concealed disease itself which sinks her.

I myself wonder about the nuclear arsenal in her hands, in conjunction with the finance she's in thrall to and finally - that phoenix brooch. In the words of another Telegraph commenter:

May G-d help this country if this woman is elected to the Presidency. [Joan - Tennessee USA]

[economics 201] the nasty side of monetarism

In my tiny bit of trade work, we were discussing today Friedman's monetarism and a bit of Hayek, Lucas, Fischer, Sargent and Wallace.

For readers not much into macro-economics, Wiki gives a reasonable summary:

Friedman wrote extensively on the Great Depression, which he called the Great Contraction, arguing that it had been caused by an ordinary financial shock whose duration and seriousness were greatly increased by the subsequent contraction of the money supply caused by the misguided policies of the directors of the Federal Reserve.

"The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government."

Interesting the equating of the Fed with government, which it is anything but, especially these days. Interesting how some people still see the Fed as government today, when the FOMC runs the show. Interesting to talk of rational expectations and assume non-intervention when the FOMC is very much intervening by means of discount and other rates and where other economic triggers have deliberately been allowed to come into play by its governing body, e.g. sub-prime lending by domestic banks and credit institutions.

Nastiness like sub-prime mortgages and other such lending is not held to be part of either their brief or that of government and the question is why not, given that they can regulate the money supply itself. Sub-primes are a major component fuelling the economy and the likely outcomes are predictable in a macro sense.

Swinging over to our situation here. The manager of [hypothetical] Swift Supermarket has money invested through the banks and other agencies. He wants to pull it out of one fund and into another but is offered attractive rates to keep it where it is.

Rather than going along with this, he smells a rat - no one offers better rates without a reason and the grapevine says there's a liquidity crisis in the offing. He panics and his prices skyrocket, with people paying the increase short term but then faced with two choices - to pull money out of the bank to pay for household goods or to cut consumption drastically.

Everyone then scrambles to get cash into their pockets and with his supermarket now virtually deserted, he doubles prices to make what he can on what is left.

He closes and so do all the others, unless someone will bale them out. That's where this little fairytale ends.

[situation update] always look on the bright side

16:15 London time

Situation seems to be that it's giving me about 30 minutes typing time before the screen [videocard] goes down. The Mac doesn't come until the 12th. This could mean sudden cessation of blogging at any time in the interim which is a pity because the reader level has been wonderful these past two weeks and I've now got my Google Reader working a treat as of this morning.

All of that pales into insignificance compared to what's happening outside in the markets and on the streets. There is a very ugly mood and even a grandmother spoke of vostaniya or uprising today. The prices are now ridiculous - halfway to western prices but the salaries are stagnant at the level of two years ago.

Examples - milk is now [all in American currency in this post] $2 a litre, petrol $1 a litre, 200g of cheese $3, 1kg of mincemeat $9. Doesn't sound a lot but look at the salaries.

Qualified five year teacher $196 a month and pensioner $100 a month. Tax at 13% flat rate [good aspect] comes out of this money. It is not possible to eat meat in most households more than twice a week now.

Naturally the amount I pay on this flat doubled today. They say it's going to double again in November but with no increase in salaries [liquidity crisis, you know because the banks speculated with fiat money].

We're all very happy over here and thanks for asking. At least I seem to be out of the one week of flu now. Silver lining.

11:36 London time

Don't know whether you can read this or not - I can't and therefore can't check spelling but my screen ahs given out. New videocard needed but not obtainable as it's so old. Therefore new computer motherboard and different slots required

We have just had 40-80% price hikes over here so a new computer is not affordable, especially as I've paid for and am waiting for the Mac. Not good - maybe no blogging or at least a minimal amount. Don't know if this will post but if it does, you know the situation. Sorry.

[country spread] this morning

11:15 My crazed reader origin stats [crazed stats, not readers] - this will reverse [usually] by midnight with the Brits taking top spot but other countries [usually] stay much the same.

Now look how it's altered during the day. It's now 16:39 and as you can see, the Brits have taken top spot again. This will increase towards midnight. Interesting, huh?

[All percentages refer to the last 100 readers.]

[humour check] is this skit funny or not

This is one of the Python skits from the early 70s. Your reaction to it will speak volumes about you, yourself.

The skit itself

(Fade in - TV interview set. Interviewer sitting with man with large polystyrene nose.)

Interviewer (Michael Palin): Good evening. I have with me in the studio tonight one of the country's leading skin specialists - Raymond Luxury Yacht.

Raymond (Graham Chapman): That's not my name.

Interviewer: I'm sorry - Raymond Luxury Yachet.

Raymond: No, no, no - it's spelt Raymond Luxury Yachet, but it's pronounced 'Throatwarbler Mangrove'.

Interviewer: You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you.

Raymond: Ah, anti-Semitism!

Interviewer: Not at all. It's not even a proper nose. (takes it off him) It's polystyrene.

Raymond: Give me my nose back.

Interviewer: You can collect it at reception. Now go away.

Raymond: I want to be on television.

Interviewer: Well you can't.

Possible reactions

Rational libertarian [chuckling]: Python were classic, weren't they? Mind you, you'd better be careful who you show that to these days …

Left liberal [stiffly]: Dated, aren't they? I would have thought we'd moved on from this kind of cheap, racial stereotyping by 2007. Seems not.

PC devotee: This is the sort of crass, philistine pig-ignorance we've tried to eliminate from rational debate these days. You think it's very funny, don't you? Well, let me tell you you're nothing but an unreconstructed racist, a throwback to a former, darker time and I wish to have nothing further to do with you. Dear oh dear. Good day!

Russian or American [possibly]: Was there something funny just then?

Russians

I've just been running through the Dead Parrot Sketch with a lady friend and once she understood the words, she found the humour understandable and would like a copy of as much Python as I can give her.

Americans

I'd be interested to read in the comments section from my friends.

[economics 101] all life in terms of money

Scenario 1

As a non-economist, reading economists can be an entertaining business. Chris Dillow, for example, explains human relationships in terms of economics and sees co-habiting as a call option, irrespective of its moral standing.

The Financial Times, one of my favourite sources of often fictional entertainment, has conflicting points of view. Firstly, that credit squeeze and our darling Chancellor of the Exchequer:

Britain’s economy will be hit by the global credit squeeze, forcing the government to downgrade its growth forecasts ahead of a possible general election, the chancellor of the exchequer admitted on Thursday.

The media is being partly blamed for this:

For the allegation that is now being bandied about is that irresponsible media coverage played a role in turning this summer’s credit turmoil into a crisis.

On the other hand, other FT columnists seem to be talking up the economy:

Most emerging economies, on the back of buoyant global demand and high commodity prices, have expanded rapidly and are less vulnerable to external shocks. Robust earnings growth and reduced country risk have propelled stock markets higher and bond yields lower.

Scenario 2

We have a liquidity problem in our banks over here which is only just emerging. This has not yet affected the average customer, except in the refusal of loans. However, on the strength of the words "possible crisis", retailers who've been itching to raise prices have suddenly done so. And how!

Milk is 40% more today than last Friday. My computer I'm in the process of buying [things take ages in Russia], has suddenly jumped 81% in cost, irrespective of the fact that I've already paid. All goods have alarmingly surged in price.

There is absolutely no direct economic connection between the bank problems and the price hikes except the age old justification of greed and I ran this by a Financial Services client yesterday who was mystified and yet not mystified.

Conclusion

In my jaundiced opinion, the doom and gloom talk from the Treasury disguises something disquietening. There may be no economic justification for a global squeeze [see the last quote above] but the CBs and Treasuries are sure trying to talk us into one.

In other words, they know very well what's going down. Couple that with accompanying moves in the field of surveillance legislation et al, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and its corollary discussed here in Phil A's post plus the move to regional assemblies - and it's looking increasingly like a gang of criminals up there in charge of us all.

Actually, without putting a label on it, it's an agenda. Deliberate mismanagement by the CBs, particularly the Fed, allowing unbridled speculative trading, bubble bursting, credit squeeze in economies hocked up to the eyeballs, bank liquidity crises, baling out and debt creation of the domestic banks by the CBs, runs on the banks, calling in of credit debts, bank closures, massive unemployment, selective terrorist attacks preceding newly prepared legislation, strong man arising to sort out the mess, [Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill], inevitable war, suspension of the party system in favour of a combined government, evaporation of the bourgeoisie.

Call me a kook now in 2007. We'll see how wrong this scenario is in the next few years. If it does pan out this way, I assure you there'll be zero pleasure derived from it.

[burma] human tragedy in the making

Y gwir cywilyddus ydy - a barnu o hanes rhyngwladol - bod yr unig rai sy'n gallu helpu pobl Byrma yn effeithiol ar hyn o bryd ydy'r Byrmaniaid eu hun. Ac mae hynny yn golygu llawer o fodau dynol byw yn dod yn llawer o gelanedd pydredig oer. Croeso i'r unfed ganrif ar hugain: yr un mor hyll â'r canrif blaenorol, ond ein bod bellach yn gallu ei wylio ar YouTube.

I failed to understand the idea was to only post once in the day. It does not lessen the night's thoughts on the matter.

[cecilia] you're breaking my heart

Simon and Garfunkel sang: " Cécilia, you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily."

If I could only get an unbiased non-feminist to explain this woman, Cécilia Sarkozy, to me, I'd be appreciative. Take her absence in Bulgaria today, after she'd negotiated the release of the nurses a month ago:

L'absence de l'épouse du chef de l'Etat à Sofia, où elle devait être décorée en même temps que lui pour son rôle en faveur des infirmières bulgares, a été très remarquée. L’intervention de Cécilia Sarkozy dans la libération des infirmières bulgares a été "en tous points remarquable, et d'une certaine façon décisive même".

In a nutshell, the EU clearly paid some sort of largesse to Libya, Cécilia did her part and got the credit for the release of the hostages, Nicolas did his part for the EU and all was sweet. But when the denouement was planned in Sofia, the heroine did not roll up.

Whyever not? And why didn't she attend the earlier Bush function, a move widely seen as a snub? French regional newspaper Le Telegramme wrote in its Monday edition at the time:

"What does the wife of the president of the republic want? To live her life as she likes, without constraint? In which case, why does she accept invitations, like that made personally by Laura Bush?" it added, saying that U.S. first lady Laura had personally organized the lunch with Cécilia.

Please allow me to state that I'm no stranger myself to such behaviour. Months ago I missed an award to be made to me at a university function and it did not go down well. The thing was, I was really sick at that time so Cécilia Sarkozy's sore throat - well, it's understandable that it might have been true at the time of the Bush invitation.

Except that she was seen shopping the day before and the day after.

Forgive me but this seems just a little too Princess Di to me and whatever you might personally think of The Firm, they do attend to their commitments. In the case of the Bulgarians, it does seem to me a bit of a slap in the face towards that nation.

Plus, there is the question of the re-election a few years from now. Marie-Ségolène Royal has not gone away and a much loved Cécilia would surely go a long way towards keeping France blue?

[atheists] and the statistics of religion

Chuckle - I do like Vox:

Mike doesn't do his homework:

Look at what the illiterate believe. By far most of them believe the bible is the word of God. Most of the barely literate believe likewise. As you move up the scale of literacy, you find belief in the Bible drops off.

Actually, the nation which has the highest percentage of atheists in the Western world, France, only ranks 27th in literacy; it's 99 percent rating is equal to that of the notoriously religious United States. Vatican City, meanwhile, has a 100 percent literacy rate; ultra-Catholic Poland ranks 9th, compared to secular Sweden's ranking of 28th.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the typical atheist approach to debate resembles that of the medieval religious philosopher. No facts, no evidence, just a logical structure constructed upon a baseless assumption.

Now that's going to set the cat among the pigeons.