Saturday, September 29, 2007

[our royal family] this sceptered isle

Discovered this fabulous site on our Royal Family.

Now I know it's the fashion in certain sections of society to belittle our Royals but in the U.S., as you can see from the photo below right, they are welcomed as Royalty, as was Lady Thatcher. Here are some of the gems from this site:

The Love Triangle

Add your own caption.

Their lives and names are forever entwined. Now, Madame Tussauds has given snappers the kind of photo opportunity which is enough to see the residents of Clarence House crying into their glasses of Prince of Wales whisky.

Unveiling the new waxwork model of Camilla, onlookers may have been surprised to see that the Prince of Wales' second wife has been positioned (for today at least) looking almost directly at her her nemesis: Charles's first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Beatrice does Victoria

This photo was shamelessly nicked from www.theroyalist.net - who said royalty cannot be voluptuous?

She made her debut with a beaming smile on her face. But as Princess Beatrice left Lincoln Cathedral following a day of filming for The Young Victoria, it would appear the showbiz gloss may have worn off as, wrapped in a blanket, the Queen's granddaughter appeared to have discovered the reality of life as a lady-in-waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ...

If you miss this opportunity to view the rich tapestry which is Royalty in 2007, you'll never be forgiven by your grandchildren, should you have any and if we still have an earth. Visit soon and visit often.

Friday, September 28, 2007

[clouds] come into everyone's life

Clouds define us, delight us and depress us. From Aristophanes' The Clouds to Susan Orey's Empty Sky, clouds Я go:

An empty sky is safe because nothingness can only stay.

When joy arrives in clouds I fear they’ll fade, or glide away.

I weep whenever I read that poem. Clouds are good and rain clouds can even help the economy [and isn't it inspired that the Guardian has a business section] but for every fluffy Cumulus, a little Nimbus must come into our lives. Life is more of a streaky Cirrus than a Stratus of success.

Clouds are so central to our life and yet so maligned - think of the negative connotations, as in the expression "head in the clouds" or Waters and Gilmour's "Obscured by Clouds".

Why not "Protected by Clouds" or "Charmed by Clouds"?

Because of this societal prejudice against clouds, a society has been set up to promote them, for a one off fee of three pounds, for postage and handling. The Society's Manifesto:

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.

Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.

If you'd like to see more cloud photos, Dan can oblige from Canada. Perhaps you'd prefer your clouds in musical form - there's always Ennio Morricone's Guardians of the Clouds.

And now, a little poem to close with:

I staggered lonely as a cloud

That p--sed down rain, day after day;

And made a little mental note

To nevermore be caught that way;

Shaking a drunken fist I cried

"Oh clouds, why dump you on my head;

Why blight my day in every way?

Something I did, something I said?

By way of answer the clouds did part

Revealing the form of a maiden fair,

This side of Tescos with two great bags

Approaching with matted, sodden hair;

"The clouds be praised, my own true love -

Sweet wench, the raingods sent you hence?"

"You wot, you tosser? Ere - grab these bags;

Now shut it 'n lend me fifty pence."

"For you, rain goddess I'd go as far

As fifty five though it cuts me deep."

"You stingy sod," the angel croaked,

A bitter harvest you're gonna reap."

Too late we saw the Nimbus high,

Stealthily gathered throughout our tryst,

And now it bucketed from the sky

I swear to you - it fairly p--sed.

And now these days, we sit and laugh

How that day led to wedded bliss;

And everytime we see those clouds,

My rain queen scores a whisky kiss.

[By James "Cloudy" Higham, greatly indebted to Link Notes. Visit him for other goodies as well. I dedicate this post to the Chipster, Crispen Walter, for whom I'd like the clouds to part, as if by a thong.]

[cat tales] best of icelandic life

Noticed my last Icelandic wisdom post has so far scored a resounding zero comments, which is a pity because I felt the pic was ever so nice. Not even Richard Madeley or Crispen Walter came over to say anything. Ho hum.

So you do realize that means it's necessary to press on with the second inimitable post:

Man Calls Police to Tackle Feline Intruders

A Hafnarfjördur resident recently called police when two cats, whom he was unfamiliar with, snuck into his apartment in the dead of night and disturbed his sleep. The man escaped out to his balcony and called the police from there.

When the police officers arrived the apartment owner wouldn’t leave the balcony to open the front door; so the officers had to climb up to the balcony and approach the intruders from there, ruv.is reports.

The two cats were hiding in the man’s bedroom and hissed and crawled under the bed at the sight of the police. The officers were not successful in driving the cats out from underneath the bed until they armed themselves with broomsticks.

The intruders disappeared into the darkness and have not been seen since.

An important post, I'm sure you agree and that line again:

…two cats, whom he was unfamiliar with, snuck into his apartment in the dead of night and disturbed his sleep…

Yes.

[housekeeping] changes

Five hours making big changes to the rolls, deleting many, adding a few and putting Blogpower and the White Roll to the revamped reader. I'm knackered.

[the agenda] the squeeze is on

Look at this crappy logo. It represents everything reprehensible in the spiritually bereft world of the soul-less upper echelons

Archbishop Cranmer asked:

So if its [The Council of Europe's] raison d’être is to sustain plurality and to promote diversity, why is it voting soviet-like to ban the teaching of creationism and ‘intelligent design’ in Europe’s schools?

He then said:

Both the EU and the European Council are seeking to relegate the role of religion to the realms of the private, and assert an increasingly aggressive secular agenda in the public realm.

For a start, the terms "intelligent design" and "creationism" are buzz words which play into the hands of the enemy.

By trying to make it into a science, proponents are turning the whole Judaeo-Christian tradition and the nature of Christianity itself, let alone the concept of our Maker, into something which can be "scientifically analysed" and therefore rejected because it fails to meet non-comprehensive prescriptive criteria. Read Wolfie's and Gracchi's take on science in the first link and that of the Devil's Kitchen here.

The Council [for goodness sake - even look at the name of the 13!] are doing a lot more than making religion a private matter, Archbish. They're following an unerring globalist agenda [the cold blue logos and vague taglines are the best indicator of that] and one of the planks is to wipe Christianity off the face of the map because it's one of the few modes of thought which can see the drive from Europe for what it is.

The means to that is to break the nexus between Christianity [and that is the western religion, for crying out loud] and State - not a bad thing in itself because one's relationship with one's Maker is a private matter but that's not the ulterior motive of the Council, just the same.

When will people see that this so called Council is just one manifestation of the same hydra?

Now the FT says:

Western multinationals and financial centres are often “complicit in driving corruption in poor nations”, Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog, charged on Wednesday as it published its annual ranking of how corrupt different countries are perceived to be.

The index – widely used by governments, companies and development organisations as a corruption gauge – shows a perceived worsening of corruption in several major industrial countries compared with 2006.

Huguette Labelle, TI chairwoman, said: “The bribe money that buys a champagne lifestyle for corrupt officials in the poorest countries often originates in multinational companies based in the world’s richest countries – the CPI’s top scorers”, she said.

So what on earth is news here? When will the financial world work out that a lot of what drives it askew is complete corruption and spiritual bankruptcy at the top? Whose tools include "deliberate incompetence". The Fed itself - just examine the events leading to the squeeze and how quickly it responded with "altruistic" loans at friendly rates, the way it bent the rules to assist, the powerful position over domestic banks it now finds itself in.

Nothing like a little squeeze on the greedy, is there? If people didn't want what they didn't have, there wouldn't be credit debt. If there was no credit debt, there'd be no powerful banks. If there were no powerful banks, there's be no uber-powerful Central Banks and these last wouldn't be able to dictate to governments. Therefore the governments might just pursue people friendly policies.

That would never do, would it?

And for goodness sake, they even mooted that the ECB would follow - read for yourself what the ECB did. Now how does an American housing crisis translate into an ECB move? Is there anyone who still seriously doubts the collusion of the financiers and the pollies they control?

Second question, returning to the Archbish - if the financial agenda is indeed global in scope and federalist in nature, then how does that tie in with a social agenda of wiping Christianity off the face of the earth? Or should that read "wiping the voices of conscience [Christian, other religions e.g. the Buddhists plus the secular world] off the face of the earth"?

Get out of your debts and credit obligations now and buy commodities, e.g. silver. Sackerson quotes sources:

"Investors have to look for assets which cannot multiply as fast as the pace at which the Fed prints money."
Deprive this inferno [read "coming holocaust"] of its oxygen, as Maggie mooted in a different context.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

[country quiz] tough one this evening

Dettifoss

Your task, for ten points, is to name the country in each case:

1. Lýðveldið Ísland is the native name for the island otherwise known as:

a. Baffin Island

b. Iceland

c. Tasmania

2. The island settled by Ingólfur Arnarson around 874AD was:

a. Iceland

b. Jersey

c. Staten Island

3. The world's fifth economy, in terms of GDP is:

a. Italy

b. Iran

c. Iceland

4. Which of these is not in the EU?

a. France

b. Germany

c. Iceland

5. Which country executed its last Catholic bishop to make way for a Lutheran?

a. Iceland

b. Wales

c. Jamaica

6. In which country were there riots and disorder when it joined NATO on March 30, 1949?

a. The U.S.A.

b. Iceland

c. Trinidad

7. Kópavogur, Hafnarfjörður and Mosfellsbær can be found in the capital of:

a. Iceland

b. Norman England

c. Jamaica

8. The island which is 11% glaciated is:

a. Jersey

b. Iceland

c. Fiji

9. The country with no native reptiles or amphibians on the island but around 1,300 known species of insects is:

a. Scotland

b. Ireland

c. Iceland

10. The country with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge running right through the guts of it is:

a. New Zealand

b. Jamaica

c. Iceland

Nope, I'm not going to tell you the answer.

Alþingi at Þingvellir - I've stood here. Just thought you'd like to know.