[eyechart] how's your eyesight currently

Have a quick skim through the text below [don't dwell] and immediately say how many "F"s there are in it:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI

FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH

THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Now click here and you might be surprised.

[predictable really] who for mayor poll results

Ken the Newt………………….27%

Boris the Beefy………………73%

15 votes total

[photo quiz] easyriders of the blogosphere

Who's this daredevil of the Harley, born to ride, born to live, living to ride, living to die [no that's not right]. Who is this devil may care blogger? Here are your clues, of which only one was actually written by the blogger in question:

Welshcakes

When I ride pillion behind Rafaello, holding his muscular torso and feeling the wind course through my golden locks, I shout, "This is Sicily" and as we tear down winding narrow, stone edged tracks to Lakeland Plastics to purchase some klippets, as I just cannot be doing with the fiddly bag ties that come with Italian freezer bags, the throb of the engine is a metaphor for the homemade cannelloni filled with beef ragù, peas and ricotta, veal and pork cooked in tomato sauce, with contorni of peppers dressed in olive oil, peppers in agrodolce [oil and vinegar] and grilled, dressed aubergines plus a good Chianti or three and the thought lifts our spirits and our hearts beat as one.

Richard

When Brian and I used to jam in Edinburgh, we'd do wheelies down Princes Street on our Bonnevilles between gigs, taking in the Old Town to the south, feeling the good vibrations and quoting Rabbie at the Jimmies and Hens lined along the promenade, before tearing up The Mound for some wheelspinning, Brian belting out That Lucky Old Song and me shouting to the punters to turn up to the Festival Theatre or we'd set the 10 piece band on 'em. Then a quick visit to the Bow Bar on Victoria Street for a few swift ales, a bit of how's yer father and when the hunger nibbles - it's only a 10 pace stagger from a brilliant cheese shop and a historically significant brush shop for afterwards.

Ordo

Gwelai res o fythynnod ac ysguboriau a beudai o bobtu i'r ffordd a'r eira yn cyrraedd bron hyd at y toeau. Gwelai oleuni'r canhwyllau yn y ffenestri a'r mwg yn codi yn y simneiau, a chlywai'r gwartheg a'r lloi bach yn brefu yn y beudai, ac o'r llyn hwyaid deuai chwerthin llon y plant a oedd yn sglefrian ar y rhew caled, llyfn.

And on a bike too.

Wolfie

There is something different about travelling anywhere by bike, in the city it’s the sense of freedom it gives you as you cruise past almost stationary traffic coupled with a feeling of superiority as you effortlessly weave your way around the almost stupefied drivers in their anodyne aluminium caskets and gracefully glide to the head of the queue at the traffic lights ready to leave them for dust when the lights flicker to green. As you reach the open road there is the sense of freedom coupled with belonging as you become part of the passing scenery. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

Ellee

I’ve been to a couple of parties recently where the subject of inheritance tax has cropped up but that's not nearly as much fun as leaping on my Goldwing and dualling the York northern ring road with Julian. Man, we move and make beautiful music but yesterday, as we were cracking the ton past the Jorvik centre on the way to Betty's, I was removing the last crusty flakes of mascara when I saw IT through the side mirror - and froze. It was one of those nasty eight legged beasties on the fuel tank. Equipped for such an emergency, I silently inched my hand in to the pannier bag towards the spider catcher, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on this unwanted leggy guest. Then a passing truck shot a puddle all over us and when I next looked - the wee sleekit, couring, timorous beastie was gone!

[common purpose] just the facts, ma'am

The sleeper issue of the moment is Common Purpose and good to see bloggers beginning to pick up a whiff of this one, via Parker Joseph, Battle for Britain and Postman Patel.

What we can't seem to get is hard data on who is driving it from Europe or if it is stemming from Britain itself.

Good material on Common Purpose

UK Column
CP Exposed
Stop CP
Ken Craggs
BetweenMyths

Some of my own, based on material supplied

Common Purpose - more evidence
Common Purpose dishonesty
An oppressor by any other name
CP - the cancer spreads
OFSTED - the fish rots at the head

Common Purpose at work and play
More than corrupt
Groupthink spreads like a cancer through the UK
Is this how to run a country?
One ring to rule them all
Paradiso and the future of the internet
Demos, Common Purpose, Labour, Tories, security companies
Common Purpose - the disease spreads to the Netherlands
Common Purpose - meanwhile, in America
Groupthink - gentle art of persuasion
Common Purpose - initially to have a coffee
Common Purpose - just the facts, ma'am
Common Purpose - rhetoric of the quisling

References to Common Purpose appear in many other posts.

[russian crisis] early news hard to get

В Москве горит здание Института государственного и корпоративного управления

Russian Corporate Affairs office in flames today but this seems to be a separate issue

12:40, London time: Nothing on BBC, Telegraph, FT or Reuters at this stage and yet it's certainly the only phone conversation over here with everyone. Updates throughout the day.

So, by now the news might be filtering through to you about the Russian bank crisis and the rampant inflation in the last few days of up to 80% on all items. I can only get the news in Russian as the west seems to be very slow to report it:

Потанин и Прохоров договорились
о механизме раздела бизнеса

Seems to be the Russian trial run of the credit squeeze which you guys enjoyed two weeks ago and as soon as anything comes through, I'll report it.

The major thing is not to panic and as I've been saying over the last few weeks - to get out of any credit debt and buy commodities, particularly silver. If you have real estate, hold onto it and ride this thing out.

My own feeling is that it's just a trial run for the real thing but there could be some major moves today, tomorrow and the blog might end. Stay tuned.

[army anubis] tut and the boys are here

A giant statue of the ancient Egyptian god of the dead floated down the Thames on Monday, turning heads as it crossed under London's Tower Bridge. King Tut is here too and Rachel Weiss is vindicated. The Mummy is about to arise and Burnam Wood will come to Dunsinane.

Signs and wonders and the oracle is to be consulted.

[blackwater] prince erik in deep water

I'm in the wrong game:

"To the extent there was loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic. Every life, whether American or Iraqi, is precious," Prince says in his statement. But he adds that "based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept. 16."

Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL officer, founded Blackwater in 1997. Its business skyrocketed after al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, where the U.S. government hired it to provide security in hostile areas.

Now why can't I get into something like this? Stir up some trouble and finance a terrorist gang, then secure the contract to pursue them and wipe them out? Ah defence contracts - I'm dreaming of you. Blackwater, Whitewater, who cares? It's all money.

Just in case you didn't quite get that:

Aмериканская охранная компания не обеспечила своим работникам надлежащей защиты и поддержки. В частности, Blackwater отправила их в Ирак до того, как вступил в силу их контракт, и проигнорировала предупрежения об опасности пребывания в Фаллудже, которая была центром иракского сопротивления. Кроме того, погибших не снабдили необходимым оружием и бронированным транспортным средством, а в группе было меньше человек, чем положено.

[lonely planet] you've a friend at the bbc

You saw this? So now you need never be anywhere in the world without the BBC world view right beside you.

[banking 101] the role of the fed in and out of the u.s.a.

David Farrer sent me an article from Liberty, October 2004, Volume 18, Number 10 - Bill Woolsey, teacher of economics at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

It is designed to debunk "conspiracy theories" about the Fed. Here is what the article says and note that any brackets or …s are grammatical - they do not exclude any information:

"Isn't it true that the Federal Reserve is privately owned?" I agreed that it was, "kind of."

According to the Atlanta Federal Reserve bank, "They were to be quasi-private bankers' banks, owned by the member banks, which would buy all the stock of the Reserve Banks and receive dividends for it."

Mishkin explains, "Each of the Federal Reserve banks is a quasi-public (part private, part government) institution owned by the private commercial banks in the district that are members of the Federal Reserve system."

In the 1982 case, Lewis v. United States (see "The Lewis Decision"), the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals opined, "Federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of a Federal Torts Claims Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations."

On the other hand, the opinion notes, "The Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes."

My note: Those purposes are, of course, to fulfil their charters by the the govenment of the United States.

All member banks are U.S. chartered banks — chartered by the federal government as national banks, or by one of the states. However, the stockholders of the various banks can be U.S. citizens or foreigners. So, private investors, including foreigners, own the member banks which in turn seem to own Federal Reserve banks.

Aside from the transactions with their Federal Reserve banks to maintain the 3% ratio to capital, the member banks cannot buy additional shares or sell off their shares. They cannot pledge the shares as collateral for loans. Most investors purchase stock to earn capital gains, in the hope that it will increase in value.

The Federal Reserve Act fixes dividends at 6% per year. That is $6 per year per $100 share. Any additional earnings go to the U.S. Treasury.

Each member bank … gets just one vote [for the Board of Directors] regardless of the number of shares it owns in its Federal Reserve bank.

The Class A directors can be involved in the banking industry and usually are. Class B directors are elected in much the same way, except that none of them can be bank employees or stockholders. Class C directors cannot be involved in the banking industry either [and they] are … appointed by the Board of Governors in Washington D.C.

There are seven members of the Board of Governors and they are appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. The Board of Governors dominates the twelve Federal Reserve banks. Not only does it appoint one-third of their boards of directors, it has an effective veto power over the selection of the twelve Federal Reserve bank presidents.

In 2003, the Fed changed its lending policy. Today, any financially sound bank (member or not) can obtain loans from its district Federal Reserve bank at the primary credit rate. It is set at 1% above the Federal Funds rate. While the Federal Reserve Act implies that lending at the discount rate would be the key element of monetary policy, that approach was long ago superseded by open market operations.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee directs open market operations. It is made up of the seven members of the Board of Governors and five Federal Reserve Bank presidents. The president of the New York Federal Reserve always serves and the other four slots rotate among the other eleven Federal Reserve bank presidents.

The committee sets a target for the Federal Funds rate. When the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee sets its target for the Federal Funds rate, it is also determining the primary and secondary credit rates for loans by the Federal Reserve banks. Today, monetary policy is controlled entirely by the Open Market Committee.

Because of the 14-year terms for the members of the Board of Governors, today's monetary policy mostly depends on the appointments made by politicians in the past. Short of rewriting the Federal Reserve Act, appointments by today's politicians will only gradually effect future monetary policy.

My note: Therefore the power of the Fed is vested in the Board and the consituent presidents.

When the Fed was formed, the United States was on a gold standard and the Fed was obligated to pay off Federal Reserve notes on demand with lawful U.S. money — mostly gold coins and gold certificates. While the Fed no longer pays off Federal Reserve notes with anything, it continues to account for them as liabilities.

The Federal Reserve doesn't directly lend currency to banks. When a bank gets an "advance" from the Fed, the Fed just makes an entry into its computer and credits the bank's deposit account.

[T]he Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air through open market operations — purchasing government bonds.

My note: Therefore, you hold a dollar in your wallet and in troubled times, wish to redeem it for its true value. You can't. It is worth only the paper it's printed on. It is non-redeemable. This is fiat money and all western economies run on this. Therefore, any dealings in dollars are book entries in a ledger, unbacked by anything hard.

This was one of the disputes between Adam Smithites and the Mercantilists, the latter who demanded the dollar was backed up by hard bullion.

Do shady international bankers control the Federal Reserve? Perhaps, but not because they "own" the Federal Reserve system.

My note: Ownership is a largely meaningless term - control is a better term and control is very much by the FOMC on monetary policy, i.e. the supply of currency and credit.

More importantly, by taking away the right of banks to issue redeemable, dollar-denominated banknotes, the Fed's compulsory monopoly on currency issue reduces bank earnings by tens of billions of dollars.

My note: And there it is. Not only does the Fed control monetary policy in the nation but it restricts lesser banks's operates through regulation. It is a fixed market. On the other hand, the FOMC is concerned primarily with open markets and therefore global markets as well. The next topic to look at is how far the three key Central Banks in the U.S., Europe and Britain operate in unison in response to global conditions.

[nationhood] like trying to define love

From the Royal Palace of Westminster

Take six terms at random: England, Britain, the British Isles, Ireland Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and you'll get as many points of view.

Simplistically, I see a whole lot of islands called the British Isles, including two big ones - Britain and Ireland. Within Britain are three nations - England, Scotland and Wales. Within the other are two disputed political entities. The last two on the list above are political expressions of differing conjunctions of nations throughout history.

The main problem is with the terms Britain [a geographical term for the big island] and British. Yes - what on earth does British mean? It would be churlish not to recognize the contribution of the member nations to the British Empire of Victorian times and churlish not to recognize the present Commonwealth nations as part of that empire. But these latter are also late entries to the family.

Even here, surely, there is a distinction between Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans and all the other nations, not least in the manner in which they were set up in the first place.

Even within the home countries, there is a mess. Ireland is divided, the Scots are Highland, Lowland and Islanders; the Welsh are North and South, as is England. Even in the North, a Lancastrian is not a Yorkshireman.

Prodicus noted:

A town is too small. A continent is too big and lacks tribal or quasi-familial bonds strong enough to hold it together - an empire likewise.

What he doesn't touch on is the large county which was formerly a state - that can be a difficult entity to define. However, running through all this are "common values" and was there ever a vaguer term than that?

And yet it binds disparate elements. Also, every town which has a Boots or Tescos and drab architecture is part of the whole, from Brighton to Aberdeen, a whole which cannot be adequately defined. But say "Scottish" and it's readily defined. Say "Wales" and it's fairly clear, give or take a few miles. Say "England" and it is a variable distance out from London, bound by a single language.

Gordon Brown believes that 'sharing British values' makes one British. Prodicus comments:

I find it hard to distinguish between these allegedly British values and the values of most people of conscience living in the world's (more or less) liberal democracies …

Brown is a Scot and the two leaders in waiting, Cameron* and Fox are Scots, so therefore the politicians need to talk up Britishness to justify their intrusion into matters English in Westminster. But beyond that is an agenda, a Marxist agenda which has never gone away and has an EU face.

Prodicus again:

Abolition of the nation is necessary for Marxism because allegiance to one's own nation is inimical to Marxism's unfocused allegiance to an amorphous grouping such as 'everybody on the planet except the bourgeois'.

So the customs and closely allied - values - need to be diluted or abandoned and one of the ways to do that is to resort to the vague sense of "Britishness" which at once is all-inclusive, multi-cultural, EU friendly and lays the foundations for rule from overseas, through local faces.

This is precisely what the Christie quote here was all about. Prodicus notes again:

Customs are a core element in a nation's identity. They are vital to the group cohesion. Destroy them and you have damaged the nation's sense of itself, jeopardising its inhabitants' inclination to defend themselves as a group - as a nation.

But what if some bastardized, jingoistic vestige of customs which do not threaten the uber-state are left in palce to placate the people and only real customs and values are quietly eradicated?

Sackerson noted about Brown's appeal to values:

[O]ur new Prime Minister's latest proposal: a motto for the country, to show our "values". He is pretending that it has escaped his notice that we have one: Dieu Et Mon Droit. All part of airbrushing out the Monarchy, I assume.

Two concepts which have become well-nigh anathema over the last few decades and as Prodicus adds:

This … is a central aim of Marxist theory, and it has been dreadfully successful in England in the 20th century, more so than in any other nation I can think of.

In his view there is still hope:

Nations are essentially tribal - and they will not be suppressed. One cannot make a nation - or remake it - by artifice.

I'd like to believe this but it's probably going to mean a tenacious hold on Englishness [one reason I like Boris, born in New York] and Scottishness and Irishness and Welshness but the former is the least easily defined and therefore more easily put upon by Britishness but still, it must be done.

Creeping humanistic socialism believes it has already killed off G-d but the belief in nation is still clung to in both England [and France] and hasn't yet been wholly smothered.

* David Cameron - His father was born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire. The Cameron family were originally from the Inverness area of the Scottish Highlands.