[dale watch] quiz and post

First the quiz - who is the odd one out and why?

Now the post - Iain Dale refers to the new Blog Watch Police:

A project by the COI’s Media Monitoring Unit is considering how to add blogs to its regular summaries of government coverage in mainstream press or television. The summaries are used across Whitehall from ministers to departmental communications teams, often as an early warning service on issues rising up the public’s agenda.

Bull s--t!

You know the thing which galls me the most? It's not so much the surveillance and shut down tactics or the paranoid fear that bloggers can say what they wish, it's the lying hypocrisy of pretending it's for another purpose.

[sane values] there'll still be cakes and ale

The Christian ethic has underpinned western civilization for millennia, building on the Jewish ethic, with one purpose in mind - to put the relations between humans into some sort of order and to provide an ideal which, though seldom attained, could still be aspired to.

Though parts of the text of the scriptures were constantly, cynically hijacked and twisted by the intergenerational western leadership to justify wars and all sorts of human misery for eons and though hardly anyone observed the ethic as it really was, nevertheless it was there. It was taught in schools and at home.

Even the Kray brothers helped old ladies across the street and slipped them a quid or two.

Vader - the lure of glitz, power and exclusivity - come join us.

The whole basis, the true basis of Christianity has now been successfully suppressed and children are self-taught [in lieu of any values] to worship the bitch goddesses Success, Avarice and Me-centredness; the divorce figures, credit card debt and general weariness with everything in life skyrockets, as there is less and less leisure time, despite the new technological advances and because of the necessity to work two jobs and plunge into debt.

The whole basis of the other side is to ape and twist values such as compassion and tolerance and to apply them to all sorts of deviance from the norm, desperately rushing into legislation measures against any who would speak out but true compassion and tolerance, that is towards one's neighbour, is swamped in the the other side's maxims "Me, me, me", "Do as you will" and "I can do anything".

Humanity, who very much "can't do anything" without food, water, shelter and a system of social and moral mores to regulate it's dealings with each other, is now running around rudderless in palaces of expensive glitz, its mooring lines to values which really do produce an orderly and happy society severed and perverted doctrines instead consuming schools and colleges of higher learning, the arts, law and medicine [the multi-billion dollar drug pharmaceutica, for example].

Humanity is excreting and polluting it's way to some sort of heady dystopia.

There is no satisfaction for anyone.

The real Darth Vader, behind the mask

Though you've made deals and devoted your life to self-fulfilment and by extension, to your chattels, the more and more you acquire, the less and less satisfied you become - the law of diminishing returns.

Middle-aged ladies doggedly stick to feminist humanism and assure themselves they're far happier alone. After all, all the current literature assures them, through surveys, magazines and the internet,that it is so. Self justification and rationalization are rampant. Young couples break up all over the place, incapable of holding the family together in their "onwards and upwards" mentality and when one part of "me", their partner, acts independently of the "me" they have in mind, the conclusion is foregone.

Single people are everywhere, telling themselves it's far better than with an understanding, respectful, compassionate and supportive partner.

How we'd like it to be

Unfulfilled longing and being let down are the core values of the new religion, this non-religion of Self; jealous competitiveness and ambition, strutting about like a peacock and defining itself through one's BMW, Mercedes or air flights for the calendar year is one of the criteria.

"Only the little people pay taxes," intoned Leona Helmesly, New York, 1989, as she showed precisely what the new values represent.

Into this, young ladies are in shock when the man they pinned their faith in turned out to be a cheating ne'er do well. Not six months ago there was such a lady, a friend of mine and the two of them made a big deal of the atheistic, swearing f--- and c---, self-fulfilment thing. Yawn. There's one girl, a friend of mine, now doing just this.

Fine but why the huge surprise when the relationship falls apart? What else could it have done? And what are my friends left with? Bitterness. Gall. The girl six months ago wrote that she hated all men and trusts only hats. The current friend writes that she trusts no one. Same thing.

When sex becomes the end goal

And him? Looks great for him, bedding all the women in the city, except that inside his empty shell he is getting meaner and meaner and less and less satisfied, demanding greater and greater kicks to stay "satisfied". As the Emperor in Star Wars wanted Anakin to do, he's given way to himself, the baser instincts run riot whilst he himself thinks he's aspring to higher things [the Grand Babel Delusion] but the truth is he's let his moral core become as soft as butter, despite what he might look like on the outside.

Drink takes away a lot of it for a time - plus the substances. Nothing wrong with either when they're just an adjunct to a summer's afternoon with friends but when they become the day to day life - there's trouble on the horizon.

I don't ask why it is so. I know exactly why it is so and I'm no guru or adept in these matters. I'm just one little man. Anyone with half a brain can step back from life and see it for him or herself, if willing to do so.

So, where to?

All right, continue to reject the core values spelt out in the Sermon on the Mount and in other places and continue the inevitable downwards spiral, as sure as night follows day [though they're working on that too]. There are values waiting on the shelf for you, right at hand, entirely free, no strings attached and if you adopt them - sharper enjoyment, comfort, fulfilment and rest are the consequences.

And another thing - adopting sane values does not mean there'll be no more cakes and ale, no more bawdy jokes. The notion that sane values equals high morality is a furphy. "Capital M" Morality does not mean the same as "small d" inner decency.

If you think this, then you've been hoodwinked by the vocal high-moralists of the Christian Right who love to mix politics and religion in a lethal cocktail which inevitably will lead to a godless, humanistic over-reaction, which was the idea in the first place. You've been hoodwinked by the drip, drip, drip of cruel, cold decades of corrosively stuffed values of the left as well.

So, having been rejected equally by the writhing serpents of the godless pagan left and by the high moralist Christian Right, where does that leave me, your humble blogger here? Undefended? Does it hell!

Read Ephesians Chapter 6. Though I'm not crazy for the guy who wrote it, there are some good ideas in here, particularly verse 12.

If that's a bit gung-ho for you, no matter. This excellent piece by Wolfie puts the matter in perspective for the miserable sinners like you and me.

Into the sunset, with nothing but our values. Take no thought for what you'll wear ...

[lit quiz] know your holmes

Quite simple - name the story plus answer the specific questions:

1] None did come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this paper lying on the sundial in the garden I showed it to Elsie, and down she dropped in a dead faint. Since then she has looked like a woman in a dream, half dazed, and with terror always lurking in her eyes. It was then that I wrote and sent the paper to you, Mr. Holmes.

Name the villain. Abe ……

2] 'To act, Sherlock - to act!' cried Mycroft, springing to his feet. 'All my instincts are against this explanation. Use your powers! Go to the scene of the crime! See the people concerned! Leave no stone unturned! In all your career you have never had so great a chance of serving your country.'

'Well, well!' said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. 'Come, Watson!

What was the other story where Mycroft appeared?

3] "One moment," I asked. "Did the stable-boy, when he ran out with the dog, leave the door unlocked behind him?"

"Excellent, Watson, excellent!" murmured my companion. "The importance of the point struck me so forcibly that I sent a special wire to Dartmoor yesterday to clear the matter up. The boy locked the door before he left it. The window, I may add, was not large enough for a man to get through.

What was the name of the property where the action took place?

4] "Well, I thought as you do," said Lestrade. "On the other hand, this Morse Hudson is the purveyor of busts in that part of London, and these three were the only ones which had been in his shop for years. So, although, as you say, there are many hundreds of statues in London, it is very probable that these three were the only ones in that district. Therefore, a local fanatic would begin with them. What do you think, Dr. Watson?"

Who was the historic figure?

5] She's a beautiful woman, but she can be as hard as a man. She was angry when I left her, and so she doesn't want me to marry another woman. I know that she will send this photograph to the Saxe-Meningen family, and then there will be a terrible scandal. We must find the photograph before she sends it!'

Who was the beautiful woman?

Answers here …

[blogfocus wednesday] quiet men of the sphere

I wanted to include Geoff Jones, Heraklites and The Select but they're not blogging a lot just now. Below are those, with the possible exception of N5, who could be termed "the quiet men", the ones without any aggressive agenda. There are many of them - I had to leave about about five this evening:

1] Alex Blondeau has had storms:

It seems as though we haven't had a drop of rain here in central Minnesota since the middle of June. That all changed this last week. We've found ourselves in the midst of a "storm belt". Four out of the last five days have produced severe weather that has been surging through our area. The photo above is of a storm that just missed us last night.

2] Deogulwulf reflects on ways to rid oneself of pesky dissident opinion:

Naturally, the process of mass-killing needn't be anything personal, for, given the premise, and in the absence of stricture or moral scruple, it can simply be a rational process towards a desired end, strictly business, ideally conducted as efficiently as possible, though perhaps with a modicum of indulgence to any humane sensitivities that might remain.

3] Dave J., of Wandering the Ether is in search of water buffalo wisdom:

The people of the world have more than enough.

I alone appear to have nothing.

The people of the world appear shrewd and wise.

I alone look foolish.

I like to be forgotten by the world and left alone.

4] Dave Hill compares Brittany and Britain:

I'm in Brittany, near Morlaix, with my feet up in our rented mobile home. Driving here, via Portsmouth and Cherbourg, I was impressed as always by how clean and somehow centred small French towns are. I'm the butt of a family joke for always spotting the municipal sports ground each seems to contain, with their well-maintained football pitches. Other civic features appear equally valued: central squares, post offices, war memorials, town halls, even sculptures.

5] Hercules brings to you the tale of the rabid racoon:

A Connecticut woman killed a rabid raccoon with her bare hands when the animal attacked a young boy. Officials with Cheshire animal control say the woman was walking in the woods around 11 a.m. with a group of children when the animal bit the 5-year-old son of a friend.

6] Andrew K. Brown is knee deep in beetroot today:

I’ve decided to start a “proper” food blog and should you be interested in that you’ll find it at Everything but Beetroot.

Should you actually like beetroot then you may want to get yourself to the Love Beetroot site.

7] One thing I know is that SPIT is not a good name for a Christian organization:

Bruce Alderman at his blog “it seems to me” has a funny post about a new Bible “translation” that has just been released. "In January of last year, the Society for the Promotion of Individualized Theologies (SPIT) announced the publication of the New Conservative Bible and the New Liberal Bible."

I should say that Will has offered to play me at scrabble but I haven't answered him yet.

8] Max returns to Treasure Island and I hopefully return on Saturday evening:

[life lesson 1] learn the word uzhas

Sold my car.

Good move, given the unbelievable regulations pertaining to foreigners here. They squeezed and squeezed and squeezed the foreigner for years, made it well nigh impossible, except for big money - so colour this blogger gone.

First reality check - had to physically go over to the post office, first time for years, to pay phone and flat - had my own system before. Uzhas! It means "horror", "awful", "nightmare".

I'll never do this again.

The inefficiency sends me apoplectic - 42 minutes to take money from 7 people; she cleaned out her till completely and took all the money somewhere else for ten minutes, then came back with two people left to serve and theefore had no change.

So five or six people in the post office surrounding us were trying to find the right money - I just paid for the woman ahead of me in the end to get her out of the way. Uzhas. People coughing and spluttering and drunks breathing on you, wanting to chat - what a great test of Christian compassion. What a reality check. Uzhas.

Never again.

Whilst looking around the place, waiting in line, it struck home - the poor old people, the poor young people, this is the old soviet union still fiendishly being clung to by state institutions. What it must have been like before - uzhas.

Seems to this blogger that there are four increasingly major things in society required to preserve one's sanity:

1] Time - we must create a situation where we are not rushing. Rather than paying for time-reduction, we should contract our sphere and not take on so much. It's peace of mind;

2] Space - having an empty flat, empty thirty metres on a beach or under a tree, wide open spaces, empty, free, breathing space;

3] Reality checks - realize that as we age, we firstly lose resolve, secondly memory and lastly reasoning power;

4] Resistance to other people's agendas, whoever they are. No matter how much we might love them - they can send us out of our tree. We must learn to sweetly smile: "No";

5] Refusal to be sucked in. Idiot cuts you off on the road or blocks you, causing you to miss the lights, woman in post office closes up shop when you're two people from your turn - resist them.

Had a client three years back - a walking wreck, came to me more for peace of mind than anything else. Told me of a mate who'd had a heart attack at 49 - had everything that opened and shut in his life, multiple cars and women, plus a wife - for what?

My friend himself was shaking like a leaf. Uzhas.

Sanity, people - number one priority.

The new way to travel

[neil clark] finest post competition

So, here is the field, ladies and gentlemen. Check them out and vote [in the comments] for your favourite:

1] Of course, as a veteran Neil Clark baiter, Stephen Pollard has produced some fine posts and this one is no disgrace: "Neil Clark - Hypocrite." Yes, I understand the headline could do with a revamp but the post is a rip-snorting fisk and so it takes its place on the list.

2] Though Oliver Kamm's heading: "Neil Clark" takes no prizes, the fact that he was sued by the said Neil in late 2006 entitles Oliver to immediate entry to the list.

3] Ross Fountain's fine entry "Rancid little moron" was gratefully received.

4] Our own Matt Murrell went for the tongue in cheek approach with "Bringing people together".

5] Prodicus went for the Grecian touch with "Rollup! Public dissection of Hypocrite".

6] Mr. Eugenides is last but not least with his succinct: "A New Low" and a fine entry it is too.

So there we go - six fine entries but if you too have been overlooked, please rush your url to this post and it will be included for the readers' verdict.

If you want to contact Neil, it's a little difficult. When you go to the Guardian and click on his site, he's missing some of the link and you get "Sorry". When you find his blogger profile, there are in fact two blogs, both called Neil Clark.

An interesting chap, as Slobodan would say.