[blogfocus thursday] new friend, old friend

A blend of the new and the old, layer by layer:

1 When you're havering around, altitude decidedly counts:

When you garden at 700ft up in the Scottish Hills it's not all flouncy frocks and straw hats. The Head Gardener complained today that there was nothing for it but to get out there and get on with it. This was she returning from Polytunnel World at 5 p.m. this afternoon. A hot shower and a hot toddy will probably do the trick!

2 These groups were no shade of grey - they coloured our world:

In advance of the Gig, I was told about how Supertramp were not like other bands. Most shows hired in the sound and lighting from the big name tour production Companies arranged by the Promoter as a package, generally with Edwin Shirley Trucking for the logistics and sometimes with a catering Company. Supertramp, however, owned most of their equipment in order to contain costs and paid the crew directly rather than through others. (Roxy Music were another Band that did something similar, they had a their own PA).

3 It's no calumny to say that SNP supporters do exist:

I voted SNP for the first time at the elections two weeks ago primarily because they were the vehicle most likely to turn over Labour. Although my politics lie mostly to the left of Labour I couldn't vote Labour: I, like many others felt, the need for change was crucial. Hopefully, the Labour party will learn lessons and come back a changed and reinvigorated party but I don't hold my breath.

Now I have to lie in the bed of my making and accept what the future brings.

4 Beat the drum and take a stand against tinny diversofascism now:

Nice. Being a modern country does involve, in their eyes, as it seems to for so many people now, associating people who don't agree with you with all manner of evil, depredation and murder. There's a real tone of violence, I think, underlying our modern inability to debate with another without assuming he's something dreadful, and a sense of contempt for others in the need to make laws, laws and laws for things we personally don't like. The more we parrot the hollow slogans of diversity, the less we really believe that people with different views and ideals should exist at all.

The tin drummer is 5' 91/2" tall. Oops. I've just glorified our imperial past and the shocking legacy of slavery. Again. Oh well, off for a pint then.

5 A pommy has to be as hard as granite to sort out Iraq:

I don't pretend to know what the correct course of action is. But what I do know is that those who advocate withdrawal of our troops and to leave Iraq to a full blown bloody civil war without any Plan B, are no better than Rumsfeld and his neocon mates who took Iraq into the hell-zone in the first place. The surge is yet to work but at least it's a plan. It may yet work. The Chatham House recommendations may not be the answer, after all engaging with terrorists is political suicide, but at least they have thought through the issues and have come up with ideas. Good for them.

6 Imagine a community where the end of history is not yet upon us:

Although the red cherries of the song are thought to evoke, among other things, blood spilt in the class struggle, and the red flag itself - images that won't necessarily strike chords with all who read this - listen now, as the valley is adorned with cherry blossom, and the promise of the fruit to come endures. Yes, the windfalls may lie over-ripe and flyblown come the autumn, just as there are plenty who will tell you that Communism is discredited. I don't grieve for the Soviet Union, but as Gracchi recently pointed out, the victory of Capitalism is far from clear, the end of history not yet upon us.

7 There's no Ingsoc here if you have a crush on your dog:

I think dogs are one of the best things on the planet.
Dogs are such a positive feature of the world we live in.
If you haven't included them on your list of things that make it all worth it, you should.

It is always a regret to me that, due to work and a social life that involves a fair amount of not being home, having one of my own is just not practical. But is definitely something I miss.

To me, dogs aren't animals. They occupy a kind of halfway house between us and animalkind. I don't tend to get overemotional about blue whales or tigers, but I get emotional about the Dogs Trust advert.

8 There may not be wisdom at Westminster but there certainly is here:

[I]f I were to begin earning money from it, this blog would cease to be fun, and the parameters of what I wrote would be deformed by a desire to maximise traffic. It isn't that adverts would subvert my political views, but they would subvert the purpose of the blog- in that sense I agree with Ashok I would have lost something- a space to think aloud about what interests me, without regard to whether anyone's listening- though I hope you are and what I have to say interests you- whether if its only 4 people or 40 or even 400 or 400000 doesn't matter to me and that's something I value.

Guthrum the Old is not forgotten - he'll be next time. Till Saturday …

[misrepresentation] the scourge of truth

This blog strongly dislikes political positions based on false premises. It's been shown categorically that the CFR-run SPPNA plans a virtual break up of America. The functioning parts - defence, education, health care and so on - are to be removed from U.S. auspices from 2009 and put in the hands of a NAAC.

Now, the CFR did not specifically state that they would control the NAAC but there's a clear inference in the wording of the report.

Therefore, presidential candidates who are known CFR members or sympathisers and presumably have a brain and are aware of major CFR moves are not acting in the interests of the U.S.A. if they are also acting in the interests of the CFR. You can't have it both ways.

A CFR President will implement the policies of the CFR. It just stands to reason. And the policy of the CFR is the North American Union. Not even Lord Nazh can argue with that. It's in black and white.

Another thing this blog intensely dislikes is not so much bias but outright misrepresentation. The BBC has just reported:

At least 20 people have been killed in a fourth day of gun battles in the Gaza Strip between the rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. Both groups have called a renewed ceasefire to end the violence in which nearly 40 people have died, but gunfire was still being heard after it began.

This has zero to do with Israel. But accorsing to the same BBC report, the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, repeated his calls for:

...an immediate end to the "unacceptable attacks" on Palestinian Authority installations and personnel, which he said endangered civilians throughout Gaza. Mr Ban also said the rocket attacks on Israel were "equally unacceptable".

Equally unacceptable? Either:

1] Ban Ki-moon is here referring to Palestinian attacks on their own facilities or

1] to Israeli responses to rocket attacks, a separate issue or

2] he doesn't know what he's talking about or

3] the BBC has itself simply lumped together the Palestinian infighting and the Israeli responses to rocket attacks as one and the same issue, somehow causally linked.

Here is the BBC reportage on the chronological order of events:

Four Israelis were also injured by a rocket attack, prompting their prime minister to order "a severe response". Shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country's "policy of restraint" could not continue, an Israeli strike on a Hamas training camp in southern Gaza killed four people. In a later Israeli strike, a Hamas militant was killed and two other Palestinians wounded in a strike in northern Gaza, Palestinian sources said.

The lack of a "comma" after "shortly after" is significant here. Olmert's "severe response" is a clear reference to Palestinian rocket attacks which have been continually strafing Israel since the so-called cease-fire.

In other words, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, by placing "unacceptable attacks" on Palestinian Authority installations first on your list, your implication is that the primary responsibility is Israel's for rocket attacks upon themselves.

This is tantamount to lying through your teeth to appease one viewpoint in a conflict. This is not what diplomacy entails.

To make it crystal clear, the order of events were:

1] Palestinians continue to send rockets into Israel;

2] Israel responds severely;

3] In a completely separate issue, Hamas and Fatah continue to kill each other.

[Comments were off today by mistake - something must have happened during publishing - sorry.]

[minoan 14] who's the author

Try to identify the author from the text. First correct answer acknowledged and comments turned off after that. Here, a young man has lost his car from the hotel carpark - that car later discovered to have been used in a murder. Clue - the pic is a red herring and this author used many of these:

'Well, that's just it, you know. I mean, one can't tell, can one? I mean someone may just have buzzed off in it, not meaning any harm, if you know what I mean.'

'When did you last see it, Mr Bartlett?'

'Well, I was tryin' to remember. Funny how difficult it is to remember anything, isn't it?'

Colonel Melchett said coldly: 'Not, I should think, to a normal intelligence. I understood you to say just now that it was in the courtyard of the hotel last night -'

Mr Bartlett was bold enough to interrupt. He said: 'That's just it - was it?'

'What do you mean by "was it"? You said it was-'

"Well - I mean I thought it was. I mean - well, I didn't look, don't you see?'

Colonel Melchett sighed. He summoned all his patience. He said: 'Let's get this quite clear. When was the last time you saw - actually saw your car? What make is it, by the way?'

'Minoan 14.'

[deputy] chipmunks are go

Hilary Benn - 42 MPs
Hazel Blears - 49 MPs
Jon Cruddas - 46 MPs
Peter Hain - 50 MPs
Harriet Harman - 63 MPs
Alan Johnson - 70 MPs

Go Chippy!

[fred thompson] or maybe ron paul

Via Tim Worstall, via Deans' World - Fred Thompson.

This man is making waves. Why won't he declare, even if he is CFR? And why are they ignoring this man, Ron Paul, after this:

Congressman Ron Paul finished first in the MSNBC poll following the GOP primary debate last night held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. Dr. Paul received 43 percent, beating the second-place finisher by five points, and crushing the rest of the field.

Or as this commenter, P.J.Walker, stated:

I sincerely believe only he can save America. I say this because he is the only true American in potential position to get into the presidency.

All the rest are either CFR traitors or otherwise controlled by the CFR. This country cannot be turned around without someone like Ron Paul taking the helm to steer us away from danger.

These are clearly the two with the talent.

[notsaussure] and the minoan civilization

Getting a line on the reclusive Not Saussure is not so easy. The man gives only the tiniest of hints in his official photo although some of his posts give a fuller picture. The profile blurb describes his blog thus:

I should like it to resemble some old deep desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.

So when Notsaussure comes out with a glimpse into a former life, it is indeed a scoop and that's what we proudly present here.

An old boy of my school sent me today a newspaper article about someone's reminiscences of the place.

This inevitably, for anyone who was there at the time, entailed a mention of the sometime Head of History, a notorious brute who was, nevertheless, loved by some of his pupils (though not by me, I assure you).

The passage that had me laughing out loud concerned one Friday afternoon - time for Mr .....'s weekly history test and the subject was the Minoan civilisation in Crete.

'If I were looking at a mixture of a dragon, an eagle, a lion and a bull, what would I be looking at?' he demanded.

Quick as a flash, two desks in front of mine, somebody muttered, 'A mirror...'.

Dead silence, as we awaited wrath beside which the eruption of Krakatoa would have appeared as a mild sneeze.

We looked up - and our form-master was shaking with laughter in which, after a decent interval, we joined.

I'm wondering how much Notsaussure learnt of the Minoan civilization and so allow me to present the Minoan Quiz.