[the power and the glory] same old story

Gandalf

"Our time is at hand: the world of Men, which we must rule. But we must have power, power to order all things as we will, for that good which only the Wise can see.

"And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper!" he said, coming near and speaking now in a softer voice. "I said we, for we it may be, if you will join with me. A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all.

This then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it.

We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means."

"Saruman, I have heard speeches of this kind before, but only in the mouths of emissaries sent from Mordor to deceive the ignorant." [Lord of the Rings Book 2, Chapter 2, the Council of Elrond]

Doctor Haydock

"Do believe me when I say I really do admire both you and your husband immensely. You've got grit and pluck. It's people like you who will be needed in the new State — the State that will arise in this country, when your present imbecile Government is vanquished.

We want to turn some of our enemies into friends — those that are worth while. Let me impress upon you what so few people in this country seem to understand. Our Leader does not intend to conquer this country in the sense that you all think.

He aims at creating a new Britain — a Britain strong in its own power — ruled over, not by Germans, but by Englishmen. And the best type of Englishmen — Englishmen with brains and breeding and courage. A brave new world, as Shakespeare puts it."

He leaned forward.

"We want to do away with muddle and inefficiency. With bribery and corruption. With self-seeking and money-grubbing — and in this new state we want people like you and your husband — brave and resourceful — enemies that that have been, friends to be.

You would be surprised if you knew how many there are in this country, as in others, who have sympathy with and belief in our aims. Among us all we will create a new Europe — a Europe of peace and progress. Try and see it that way — because, I assure you — it is that way..."

His voice was compelling, magnetic. Leaning forward, he looked the embodiment of a straightforward British sailor.

Tuppence looked at him and searched her mind for a telling phrase. She was only able to find one that was both childish and rude.

"Goosey, goosey gander!" [N or M, Chapter 14]

Angela Merkel

The German Federal Chancellor has now made this suggestion her own. “In the EU itself we must move closer to a common European army.” The Federal Chancellor announced, “We should not take peace and democracy for granted. The ideal of European unification is still today a question of war and peace.” [Bild 23.03.2007]

Increased powers of political decision should be conferred on those states which have adopted the euro currency. “The euro group should have a special role in designing the future of the EU”. [zur Zukunft der Europaeischen Union; Guetersloh 21.02.2007]

The Bertelsmann Foundation [which] publicised [the conference], claimed that “the hand-picked circle of participants … covered all the great geographical areas of today’s European Union, EU candidate states and the USA.” The theme was the “strategic reorientation” of the EU.

It never ends, does it? The inconceivable, arrogant folly of those who set themselves up as our leaders. I thumb my nose and blow a raspberry in your general direction, you rattlesnakes, you komodo dragons, at least until you squash me with your pythonesque foot.

Honestly, look at these:

'Our time is at hand', 'power to order all things as we will', 'which only the Wise can see', 'rich reward for those that aided it', 'the high and ultimate purpose', 'the State that will arise in this country, when your present imbecile Government is vanquished', ' brave and resourceful', 'compelling, magnetic', 'a question of war and peace', ' special role in designing the future'.

Ephesians 6:12. I can't put it any plainer than that.

[falling asleep] back to normal tomorrow

Like Not Saussure, I'm out of it a bit. In my case it was a bad night's sleep [my own doing]. I've read all the comments and done the mail and am about to crash. To the regs - I'll be round tomorrow morning, people.

[sitemeter again] quite worrying, these people

Further to my own article, I just saw and am reprinting this article by Geek News Central in its entirety:

Posted by Todd Cochrane at 2:12 AM on April 9, 2007

It has become obvious to me that the people behind Sitemeter are unwilling to respond to the allegations that a significant number of people have brought forth on their planting of third party cookies on their customers website visitors.

I have sent an e-mail every day since this story broke asking them to respond to the charges that have been levelled against them. It is in my personal opinion that people need to run as fast as they can away from this service.

I have been contacted by several major news services in regards to this story, and while I do not know when their reports will be out it is obvious that their is some interest out their in exposing what I think is a Betrayal of trust.

One thing for sure is that if anyone Google’s Sitemeter they are going to be able to read my article on the situation.

As for google, try googling "sitemeter clandestine".

[george f kennan] genius or liberal intellectual lightweight

Richard Holbrooke, United Nations ambassador, wrote for the Washington Post in March, 2005:

George F. Kennan's warning that enlarging NATO would destabilize Europe - "an enormous and historic strategic error" - carried the dinner audience [at Columbia University] with its eloquence and sense of history. Events, of course, proved Bill Clinton right, and Kennan - and the bulk of the liberal intellectual community - wrong.

No events didn't prove anything of the sort. Quite the opposite. Events proved that wherever NATO sticks its oar in, the killings soon escalate. Kennan was quite astute in this. Holbrooke continues:

He had accurately predicted, at the end of the Cold War, the outbreak of ethnic violence in Yugoslavia, but he did not understand the need for American involvement in the problem, let alone the use of military force to end the Balkan wars.

Again, spot on and the antithesis of the thinking at the time at state department level. So who was George F. Kennan? Wiki says about him:

In the late 1940s, his writings inspired the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. foreign policy of "containing" the Soviet Union, thrusting him into a lifelong role as a leading authority on the Cold War. His "Long Telegram" from Moscow in 1946, and the subsequent 1947 article "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" argued that the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be "contained" in areas of vital strategic importance to the United States.

These texts quickly emerged as foundational texts of the Cold War, expressing the Truman administration's new anti-Soviet Union policy. Kennan also played a leading role in the development of definitive Cold War programs and institutions, most notably the Marshall Plan.

The only trouble was - he didn't go along with this:

Kennan's influence was increasingly marginalized—particularly after Dean Acheson was appointed Secretary of State in 1949. As U.S. Cold War strategy assumed a more aggressive and militaristic tone, Kennan bemoaned what he called a misinterpretation of his thinking.

So what was his solution to the Soviet menace?

The solution, Kennan suggested, was to strengthen Western institutions in order to render them invulnerable to the Soviet challenge while awaiting the eventual mellowing of the Soviet regime.

Thus he was the apostle of 'containment' rather than aggression. The trouble was the State Department didn't want to hear that, as they wanted to 'shake Americans out of their isolationist tendencies'. Truman seized on the 'Long Telegram' with it's dire warning and the result we all know.

Kennan and his associates on the policy planning staff hoped to bring about a split between the Soviet Union and the world Communist movement as a way of achieving the goal of containment. In turn, this would help make possible the peaceful withdrawal of U.S. and Soviet forces from the positions that they had been occupying since the end of the Second World War.

Kennan's argued for direct economic aid and covert political help to Japan and Western Europe in order to revive Western governments and prop up international capitalism. By doing so, the U.S. would help to rebuild the balance of power.

In addition, in June 1948, Kennan proposed covert support of leftwing parties not oriented toward Moscow and to labor unions in Western Europe in order to engineer a rift between Moscow and working class movements in Western Europe.

NSC-68, the blueprint for the Cold War and corollary to the Marshall Plan saw the USSR going all out for world conquest, though Kennan warned they weren't strong enough. He opposed the building of the hydrogen bomb and the rearmament of Germany.

Interestingly, Eisenhower was for tackling the Soviet Union only when the US could afford to act and not in a costly and protracted struggle. Kennan adds to this:

Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start in a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before...

Iraq?

W. Averell Harriman, the U.S. ambassador in Moscow when Kennan was deputy between 1944 and 1946, remarked that Mr. Kennan was "a man who understood Russia but not the United States."

I think he understood U.S. foreign policy very well.

[graph paper] if you need free online

If you're at all interested in free online 5mm squared paper, these are two good sites:

1st choice
2nd choice

Just select your desired variant, get the PDF and print. It also saves through the original graphic.

[nostalgia] rarely does this blog indulge

Come home, boys! All is forgiven. Plough Lane awaits you:

Joe Kinnear, Dennis Wise, John Fashanu, Vinnie Jones, Wally Downes, Lawrie Sanchez, Dave Bassett, Dave Beasant and Sam Hammam.

I'm a wandering fan without a home.