[ladies and gentlemen] the power of the sphere

I have Temptation now and the process by which it happened needs to be told.

In this blogging game, there are, quite frankly, some twits and some pretty evil characters.

Then there are people like Geoff Jones who is one [and I shan't start naming you all because it would not end by midnight] who belong to the "wonderful league".

You know precisely what I mean and this is the reason I blog, truly. I've now finished giving my message to the sphere, [see the last post for part of it]; so what is left now is just the sense of community and this is every reason to continue.

Realizing the situation vis a vis Temptation [the New Order song], Geoff sent me "Confusion", which is excellent and I sent back asking if I could possibly have Temptation and Hurt.

He sent and my e-mail duly bounced him. He left a message to help him out with a g-mail or better e-mail and I never replied [I was actually working at that time].

Undaunted, he went through a firm on the web and got it to me, I've now downloaded and listened and I can tell you I'm pretty chuffed. I'd love to be able to respond in kind and it might be possible.

This evening I have plans to run 10 Russian clips to show you some of the music over here and this will involve Audiograbber and Sound Forge. Keep an eye out for them.

So Geoff, again, a big, big thanks from me.

By the way, try this site too.

[lizard queen] private army at her disposal

Whilst plans are afoot in Britain to evict an 83 year old woman with Alzheimers disease over a money wrangle between the company, Southern Cross Health Care Ltd and her family, Jeremy Scahill reports, in the Asia Times of a different type of financial wrangle:

The Democratic leadership is arguing over the US$124 billion Iraq supplemental spending bill they still plan to keep funding the war [and thus] the estimated 126,000 private military "contractors" who currently come from such companies as Blackwater USA and the former Halliburton subsidiary KBR will stay put.

While many of them perform logistical support activities for US troops, tens of thousands of them are directly engaged in military and combat activities. According to the Government Accountability Office, there are now some 48,000 employees of private military companies in Iraq.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman estimates that $4 billion has so far been spent in Iraq on armed "security" companies such as Blackwater.

In January, David Petraeus, the general running Bush's "surge" plan in Baghdad, cited private forces as essential to winning the war. Petraeus admitted that he has at times not been guarded in Iraq by the US military, but "secured by contract security".

Contractors have allowed for a back-door near-doubling of US forces in Iraq through the private sector, while masking the full extent of the human costs of the occupation.

Although at least 770 contractors have been killed in Iraq, these have not been published and Paul Bremer, Bush's viceroy in Baghdad, issued an edict known as Order 17 in 2004, immunizing contractors from prosecution.

Then there is the issue of continued funding for the privatized shadow forces in Iraq. The Democrats' Iraq plan would have cut about 15% or $815 million off the supplemental spending [but then they dropped the plan].

A decade ago, Blackwater USA barely existed; yet its "diplomatic security" contracts since mid-2004, with the State Department alone, total more than $750 million.

Blackwater protects the US ambassador and other senior officials in Iraq as well as visiting congressional delegations; it trains Afghan security forces and was deployed in the Caspian Sea region, setting up a "command and control" center kilometers from the Iranian border.

The company was also hired to protect Federal Emergency Management Agency operations and facilities after Hurricane Katrina, where it [earned] $240,000 a day from the American taxpayer, billing $950 a day per Blackwater contractor.

Since September 11, 2001, the company has invested in building a private army - forces are deployed in nine countries, with a database of 21,000 additional troops at the ready, a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships and the world's largest private military facility - a 2,800-hectare compound near the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina.

It recently opened a new facility in Illinois ("Blackwater North") and is fighting local opposition to a third planned domestic facility near San Diego ("Blackwater West") by the Mexican border. It is also manufacturing an armored vehicle (nicknamed the "Grizzly") and surveillance blimps.

Erik Prince, ex-navy special-force multimillionaire heads the group. Senior executives include Cofer Black, former head of counter-terrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency; Robert Richer, former deputy director of operations at the CIA; Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon inspector general and other retired military and intelligence officials.

Company executives recently announced the creation of a new private intelligence company, "Total Intelligence", to be headed by Black and Richer.

Now, put that together with the plans for the SPPNA and the deployment of FEMA, not as a different issue to the illumined objective, as one commenter claimed but very much an integral arm of the North American security plans.

What that gives us is a very worrying scenario:

1] Iraq as a mere training ground;

2] A private contract army not subject to federal regulation or to the constitution of the United States;

3] Private command of forces, under the consultative eye of the NAAC, comprising the CFR.

I think you're getting the drift. All of this facilitated by the next president. The Illumined,phoenix wearing Lizard Queen perchance? This could be "Living History" we're seeing.

Still, the 83 year old lady, YL, won't have to worry about that soon, will she?

[forbidden fruit] mixing work and pleasure

Unusual for this blog to run two posts in a row on a similar theme but this one just couldn't be passed up.

It was the photo Sam Brett used which struck me first because it brought back memories of a spaghetti bar when I was visiting Melbourne and the lady at the time was wearing red shoes and red nail polish and the feet looked like that.

Call me an android but you know, I didn't appreciate it. Perhaps it was the rough way she did it, perhaps it was that I'm supposed to make the moves [unreconstructed male in this sense], perhaps it was … oh, who knows?

So, far from a turn on, it actually had the opposite effect and I tried to hide it but it all sort of petered out in the next few weeks anyway - not just over this, of course, but it was the start.

And what about the old chestnut: "Can a woman rape a man?"

Not one which often crosses your mind, I'll be bound and yet it's an interesting conundrum which I always wanted to put to the test. Fortunately, a wife at the time, given to sometimes doing things out of spite, waited until the day when I was as sick as a dog and then sprang.

There's a point in Life of Brian when his mother is asked: "Were you raped?" and she replied: "Well - at first."

So to Sam's point about mixing work and pleasure:

I must hear from a dozen readers and friends weekly who say they're facing a similar quandary: Do they pounce on their sexy work colleague, co-worker, boss or subordinate, or do they let it slide by the wayside?

Whether working in the same office or starting a business together, couples quickly learn it's often not the most pleasant situation - especially when it comes to handling prying colleagues.

Sneaky kisses in the office kitchenette? Clandestine winks during the weekly board meeting? Romantic lunches at the coffee shop across the street?

Clearly, in my situation it's right out because which of the dozen girls would you go with? How would you get the message to her anyway in front of the others, who are expecting such a thing anyway? And how could you go anywhere without being noticed in this town?

And finally, for what purpose? If one is halfway normal, there's your own sweetheart to meet, although forbidden fruit does attract some, I suppose.

[all above board] but dubious taste nonetheless

Very puzzling story, really:

Iceland’s parliament agreed to grant a woman from Central America Icelandic citizenship one month ago after only 15 months in the country on a student visa. The woman apparently has close ties to Jónína Bjartmarz, Iceland’s Minister of the Environment.

According to RÚV, the woman in question, who is in her early twenties, has a registered address at the Minister’s residence and is her son’s girlfriend.

I think this is an absolute disgrace. There are some amazingly moving home-grown products in Iceland so why import a Latino? I admit tastes differ but the Nordic honeys, such as in the pictures top left and lower right are totally irresistible, in my book.

Still, Jónína's son knows best, I suppose.

[simplicity] that to which to aspire

I don't know why but I love stark images and simple living, the power of nature, polished wooden or tiled floors with rugs - it's restful, even in its power. I like much that is electronic as well. Apart from the image to the left, listen to this clip:

Here

... and you'll get some sort of index to the way I live. My blog is no indicator - it's far more ornate than I am. A girl came to my apartment and she commented on the single light bulb hanging from the centre of the ceiling.

Ashamed a little, I said I hadn't found the shade I wanted yet. She said not to touch it - she liked it that way. I have tubular bells near my window - they hang from the ceiling too and tinkle when there's a slight breeze.

There are no curtains over the windows, no blinds. When we go to sleep, the grey light shines through and in the morning, the sunlight through the large windows hits the golden parquet floor. I like it that way.

I serve meals in 12cm white bowls, on thick wooden boards with a piece of toast and a glass of water beside them.

I love the imagery of Leonard Cohen. I love Haiku. And you?

[buttocks] one pair, slightly soiled

Anyone need a pair of buttocks? Newmania's selling his. Now, about the bollocks we were talking …