Sunday, September 09, 2007

[gold is good] but perhaps silver is better

In gold we trust - I didn't say it, CityUnslicker, they did:

The global financial system is broken, with banks refusing to lend to one another at any cost, even as central banks attempt to increase system liquidity. As the interbank lending rate surges well past normal levels, usual circuit-breakers such as liquidity facilities have simply failed. In this environment, only the holders of physical assets such as gold and oil appear to have the upper hand. Sell your equities, by the way.

CityUnslicker is not happy that I'm talking doom and gloom when what is needed in the financial markets at present is confidence. I do see your point but sorry - this thing is induced and the rhetoric is simply reflecting what I suggested to everyone some time back.

And I think silver is a better bet in uncertain times - governments have a habit of confiscating gold in time of trouble.

[deobandi] who allowed it to breed, then cried foul

The respected Beaman is "speechless" after reading the Times report that 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques are reportedly under the control of the Deobandi sect in Britain:

The Times investigation casts serious doubts on government statements that foreign preachers are to blame for spreading the creed of radical Islam in Britain’s mosques and its policy of encouraging the recruitment of more “home-grown” preachers.

I don't see what's to be surprised about - it just takes a bit of homework and research.

There has always been a constant and relentless move on the part of hardline nutters to run the show in each country. This is a given and will never change. The character of a country is simply a reflection on how far the nutters get to the reins of power and that depends largely on societal forces.

Where the bad seed falls on uneven ground, such as in Iran, Afghanistan and Hitler's Germany, it sprouts and the result is there for all, in retrospect, to see. Maniacal leaderships [e.g. Saddam] choke the life out of the people and even create a bizarre sort of patriotism, predicated on hate for one or more sections of society, for the purpose of deflecting attention away from what is really going down with the leadership.

In the west, there has been a sort of tacit resistance to the nutters until the last two decades - a perfect case being when Joe McCarthy came a cropper in the 50s. What protected the west for so long were so-called Christian values, the Judaeo-Christian tradition and a fierce belief in democracy and that elected leaders were just that - elected leaders.

In turn, the people who actually do control society [follow the money, as Deep Throat said] - well, it suited their book at that stage to allow Korea and Vietnam to occur - the profits rolled in and all was well.

However, with the advent of genuine peace after 1972, this worried the hell out of the ghouls and they've done all they could to exacerbate conflict - Munich '72 was an example. Ireland was a pretty good breeding ground for some time but the moves to conciliation there were deeply worrying.

So there had to be a catalyst to move society one step closer to the "melting pot", out of which the new order would arise and this came in the form of fomenting the Muslim issue. There is no evidence of this degree of Islamicization [now occurring] happening pre-72.

Communism was the bugbear then and has it not struck you as uncanny how, when the communist threat lost its teeth in the late 80s, the Islamic threat neatly stepped in to take its place?

Thus to Iraq, 911, Beslan and 7/7.

Has it not occurred to you to wonder how freedom has become licentiousness, justice has become law and order, the three rs have become moral relativism and precious little else, how high class bimbos [e.g. reality TV] are the new folk heroes, how society has been turned on its head, at the same time the Islamic threat has become an onslaught?

Has it not occurred to you to wonder how feminism changed from the redressing of injustice for women to giant vaginas parading around college campuses or how to speak one word against the gay mafia lands you in prison or worse?

Has it not occurred to you how the severing of the connection of most people with their Maker has been closely followed by the scramble for the dollar and how material things have become the summum bonum for virtually everybody?

Is it no wonder that Islam is seen by many in the west as an attractive alternative? That it appears to be a return to the rule of order? Does it not puzzle you that church leaders are either silent or mumble in the corner or worse - that their voice is never reported? They could give you the ethic which would correct society overnight, if they only would.

Which is why their voice is suppressed.

Has it not occurred to you that you've never heard of the CFR, the TLC or the SPPNA through the media nor any of the other dastardly manifestations of the real power? That it takes bloggers or the peripheral media to bring it to people's notice?

Do you really see that all this just "happened" for broad sociological reasons? And even if you do concede that there is a distinct driving force behind it, why do you put it down to incompetence? The incompetence of the Fed, for example?

Do you really see the Greenspans and Sutherlands of the world as klutzes? Do you really see the ignoring of the Israeli warning to MI5 as incompetence and the major players in 7/7 just happening to be out of town at the time as sheer coincidence?

Analogously, the uncovering of Philby in the 60s was followed by such head shaking and mutterings of "but he was one of us" and yet it was quite an easy genesis and development to follow with hindsight.

The ones who are doing the major damage to society are not the Deobandi and the like but the "one-of-us"es, cocktails in hand, who are failing to act at critical times, who are turning a blind eye to the Deobandi, who are allowing draconian laws to be stealthily put into place and to whom no blame can ever be sheeted home.

Have you forgotten the fifth column, very popular during the last world war and into the 50s? On February 23, 1954, U.S. Senator William Jenner of Indiana, took to the Senate Floor, to speak in support of the Bricker Amendment, addressing the nature of these people:

"The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization. It is a dynamic, aggressive, elite corps, forcing its way through every opening, to make a breach for a collectivist one-party state. It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government without our suspecting the change is under way... It conducts tactical retreats but only the more surely to advance its own goal."

Ron Paul estimated [August 2003] that there were about 25 000 of them in key positions in the U.S. alone. Note also that Jenner was an arch conservative and Ron Paul's bio is well known. They were GOP through and through.

So don't look for the real enemy in dark, smoke filled corners of Trotskyite cafes. Raise your eyes upwards and there they are in all their inglorious, Armani invisibility.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

[blogfocus saturday] putting us straight

Popcorn

1. Jams O'Donnell puts us straight as to the dangers of popcorn:

Microwave popcorn is a tasty snack but it is potentially lethal. The threat does not from choking or anaphylaxis but from an incurable condition known as popcorn workers' lung.

It was the love of microwave buttered popcorn that caused a relatively healthy 53-year-old American to develop severe breathing problems. The cause of his illness was tracked down to the microwave popcorn he loved so much that he would inhale steam from the bag as it came out of the oven.

2. Ross Fountain puts us straight as to the dangers of pit bull owners:

I missed the Panorama edition on dog fighting last week and saw it for the first time last night on the BBC's sign language zone late at night. Watching the sign language for phrases like 'vicious dog' was somewhat disconcerting at first, as it seems to involve snarling like a dog.

I made my own
thoughts about Pit Bulls clear a few months ago, in short not only are they intrinsically dangerous and unpredictable animals but the people who own them are the more likely to be the sort who would bring out the worst in any dog.

Popcorn from a different angle

3. Trixy puts us straight as to the dangers of calling a Constitution a Treaty:

It couldn't be plainer, could it. It is being referred to by MEPs as the 'Constitutional Treaty'. It's not a 'reform treaty' and Brown and Miliband are wrong when they say that they are fundamentally different treaties. And they know they are wrong, because even though they come out with claims about 'red lines' even European Commissioners are saying that they are lines in the sand, and not concrete.

4. Sean Jeating puts us straight as to the dangers of underwear:

"It has neither to do anything with politics, nor with language and literature."

"It's part of Omnium", said Tetrapilotomos. "Isn't it politics that your 83-years-old mother-in-law is demonstrating to her neighbours - and thus to the world - that she is ready for another season? And isn't it lovely to make a joke about her "unspeakables", and she would wholehearted laugh about her wicked son-in-law?"

When you understand this, e-mail me and explain it, would you?

Less clear photo of popcorn from an entirely different angle

5. Winfred Mann puts us straight as to the dangers of being a fat slug:

In fact, though Moore doesn't mention it in Sicko, all industrialized nations are struggling with soaring costs, due to new technologies and aging populations. Another subject that the obviously overweight director Moore doesn't bring up is that many U.S. experts are now saying that the best way to live longer and cut healthcare costs is simply diet and exercise.

6. Onyx Stone puts us straight as to the dangers of not thinking out the Milky Way:

If you have a distorted brain like mine, you've probably wondered about the angle on which the Milky Way cuts across the sky. It's just all wrong. The Moon orbits the Earth around the equator. Both north poles point roughly in the same direction. In like manner, the Earth orbits the Sun around its equator and, again, both north poles point in roughly the same direction. But neither the Sun nor the Earth are in-line with plane of the Milky Way. And the question is, why?

Finally, a photo of popcorn

7. John Hirst puts us straight as to the dangers of scrambled brains from being a Bilderberger:

"Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, said he wanted parents to take responsibility for their children's behaviour". Like, for example, Tony Blair took responsibility for his behaviour of going into an illegal war with Iraq? I don't think it is just the children and their parents who are to blame, I believe that teachers and the government have to share the blame.

8. Ordo puts us straight as to the dangers of taking the Michael out of the English:

The likelihood is that Wales would do better financially from the public coffers by now if she had been treated as a region of England. According to the latest figures north-east England, for example - the region closest to us when it comes to economic performance - receives more public money per head than Wales.

That's it until Wednesday evening. Hopefully see you then.

[great flatterers] who was the worst

Wonderful and distinguished readers - who were, in your esteemed opinion, the worst three flatterers of all time?

1. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

2. James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck

3. Dr John H. Watson

4. King Canute's courtiers

5. Hazel Anne Blears, member for Salford

6. Martin Van Buren, 8th President

7. Edward Gibbon

8. Heinrich Himmler

9. Condoleeza Rice

10. [Insert name here]

If you can spare a few seconds of your extremely valuable time, please select your three worst, if it's not too much trouble.

[mandelson] philosopher extraordinaire

Photo shamelessly stolen from the BBC because I couldn't be a-sed finding another of him

Peter Mandelson is a genius of the first order - I'm now convinced of that. Witness his statement where he gets right to the nub of the issue without any prompting from Sutherland and the brotherhood:

Mr Mandelson said those calling for a referendum often wanted the UK to withdraw from the EU.

Now it takes a special kind of intelligence to make a statement like that.

[apec] more than photo opportunities

Note JH's extraordinary camera sense - the question is; "Which camera?"

There'll be some meaningless conciliation, some equally meaningless sabre rattling plus a run through of the measures for the new era we're now entering:
Crews in Sydney, Australia are building a 5.5-kilometre steel-and-concrete fence to keep demonstrators and delegates apart at next week's APEC summit. The Sydney Opera House and hotels that will house more than 5,000 delegates will be hidden behind the barrier for the Sept. 2-9 meetings.
Great stuff. And on the steps of the opera house will be re-enacted the first hanging, drawing and quartering of dissidents who have had the temerity to question whether the boys and girls up top really are representing our interests or not.

The format of this post is dedicated to Richard Madeley's Appreciation Society - he knows why.