[blogfocus saturday] of war and the human condition

Our 9th blogger this evening

The escalating war – Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran …

This particular series of wars across the east are deeply worrying because to many, they are just the trial run, the practice run, before the real thing. Britain is already mobilizing, issuing bio-ID and gasmasks, which is quite a departure because Britain has traditionally been caught flat-footed.

1 Many truisms spring from war and many analogies can be made. Bryan Appleyard opens fire with the analogy to end all analogies:

When - if - Blair stands down and when - if - Brown succeeds, I forecast British politics will mirror Iraq's. The Shias - Brownists - having gained power, they will do all they can to suppress the Sunnis - Blairists. The Sunnis, meanwhile, will launch a fantastically brutal insurgency, the main weapon of which will be Blair's insistence that the entire New Labour projected was, from its inception, crippled by Brown's vengeful bitterness.

2 Vox Day maintains that a country needs to be at one with all its constituent parts before even contemplating conflict:

Finally, if the national unity is not there, then don't go to war! This has been known since Sun Tzu was writing about the Moral Law and the importance of harmony between the ruler and the ruled. If the ruler does not have the confidence of the ruled, he will likely lose his war. And blame for it will lie with the ruler, not the ruled.

3 International Political Will takes issue with the anti-war lobby but for reasons not immediately apparent:

The anti-war camp claims to own the moral high ground, to care about human life, to respect the rights of people, and asserts that war obliterates all those in the name of power and money. But in the same breath, they call for American troops to come home. Are Americans so callous that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of Iraqis just because they aren’t falling in line with the pre-designated ‘plan?’ Are Americans so heartless as to only care about American soldiers’ lives, and not at all for Iraqis? Do Americans only value that which is red, white and capitalist – and care nothing for the brown, Muslim and other? America got itself into this war based on lies and misinformation, aided by propaganda spewed by the allegedly “liberal media.”

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[january 13th] happy new year, everyone

Well, we’ve had Christmas on January 7th and now we’re only an hour and a half away from New Year. What are you doing this evening? Me? Well, there was this girl, you see, a New Year tree, a little bit of the fortified liquid and a whole lot of cheer.

Even London is getting in on the act but be warned when following the link – Red Ken will be looking upon you.

В ночь с 13 на 14 января более половины населения России, Украины и Белорусии отмечают старый Новый год. Эта традиция возникла после 1918 года, когда в России было введено новое летосчисление.

Anyway, to everyone everywhere – Со Старым Новым годом!!!!

[puddings] my very, very favourite of all

GRANDMA'S BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

8 slices of bread
150 grams of sultana and raisins (75g +75[each])
1/2 jar of jam (strawberry or raspberry)
200 g butter/ spread
250 mls milk
2/3 eggs
sugar (to sprinkle on top)

Serves about four portions.

Preheat oven to about 180 C (350 F). Then, whilst you wait for it to heat you SHOULD have enough time to do the rest.

Get a suitable cooking dish [personally I used a 30x30 (cm) smear some butter on the bottom (and sides) of the dish.

Take four slices of (preferably semi stale, although it ultimately makes little difference) bread, and butter each on both sides; place them in the dish.

Now, add your Raisins and sultanas, simply sprinkling them on top of the bread. Once you have spread the raisins and sultanas evenly over the bread, spread half a jar of (strawberry or raspberry) jam over the raisins and bread so that the jam absorbs the fruit and keeps it in a sort of stasis.

Next, take the other 4 pieces of bread and butter them (on both sides. Place the bread on top of the jam, raisins, etc. and then cut the four sandwich-like portions into halves or even quarters so that you will have smaller pieces.

Put milk into a mixing bowl and whisk in the eggs. When this becomes an almost-cream like colour (or just white with yellow parts), pour the mixture on top of the bread.

Sprinkle a small amount of sugar (optionally) and bake in the oven for about 45 mins. Serve with cream or custard for best flavour.

Submitted by: Lewis Arran Husbands

[gastronomy] pudding on my mind

Later this evening I'm going to post my very, very favourite pudding. Can't get it over here [good as the puddings are]. In fact I'm going to try to make myself one tomorrow.

[spring weather in russia] fishing for answers

Fishing in happier times

With the climate change, the effects in Russia are perhaps more pronounced than in the rest of Europe and Britain.

Russians are very straightforward people and when they see spring type rain everywhere in mid-January and no snow anywhere to be found and when this has been increasing year by year for the last five years, then they wouldn’t be so stupid as to pretend it’s not happening, unlike some in Britain and Europe who are closing their eyes and calling it a myth.

It’s particularly hard on the fishermen who love to go out and cut holes on the ice, sheltering behind windbreaks and generally spending their afternoons this way. It gets them out of the flat, gives their wives a break and there’s a strong sense of cameraderie and a certain amount of vodka consumed in the process.

Today, on the way home from work, they were still out there but there was a layer of water across the ice and in places it was breaking into drifts, with the fishermen on them. It’s not unusual for deaths to occur when they crash through to the freezing water below.

The general word around these parts is that it’s a terrible situation. The land needs this frost [Russian-speak for minus twenty and a metre of snow] for the flora to regenerate and this year it just doesn’t seem as if it’s going to happen.

The drivers have now taken off their winter tyres and are back on the summer tyres and that's never occurred before.

The mood is sombre.

[notices] blogfocus, testimonials and visiting

Blogfocus is ready and will go out sometime between 19:00 and 21:00, London time, depending on ... er ... one particular young lady. [Saturday night and all that.]

Testimonials will continue tomorrow morning with the next 10 from the keyboard of Higham.

Visiting is ongoing and I'll be round to you by tomorrow morning.