[blog birthday] jon turns two

That uber-satirist, Jon Swift, turned TWO this week. Do get over and congratulate him if you haven't already done so, people.

There's also a little milestone of my own. If you Google "nourishing obscurity", the obvious happens. But if you Google just "nourishing", it wasn't so clear until recently.

Now I'm proud to temporarily be in 3rd place - temporarily because it's a pitched battle against these Americans here.

Unfortunately, "obscurity" is still in obscurity but I'm not complaining.

[winter and the festive season] here with a vengeance

Today, December 21st, is the first of the three shortest days and I love this time. Our weather has also come to the party.

The type of weather we currently have is of the picture postcard variety - massive piles of snow everywhere and yesterday it snowed all day - big flakes filling the air, slowly and silently falling to the gardens, paths, hedgerows and onto the branches of trees.

There's a forecast minus 30 on the weekend so that will be the first really low temperature we've had.

Unfortunately, the health is not 100% just now and there's a variety of reasons, not least the constant battles throughout the semester. No overt battles but silent brickwalling, which in the end takes its toll. Need to recharge the batteries and avoid any dire New Year "celebrations". One or two commitments to take care of and then touch wood that I can keep people off my back for a week and a half.

I like the Orthodox Christmas better, on January 7th. We've had a rest, we're ready to start seeing people again and the weather always seems so much better then. The mood's better and I'm feeling better now just thinking about it.

Yesterday I got a little frosty myself over a most unimportant matter, with a client who had even brought a little food gift. That was a clear danger signal to back off and maybe postpone my RL work until after New Year. No point blowing a good relationship over something a tired mind might construe as worth the battle.

It's a dangerous time where people try to drag you into their agendas - BP members can see that from the latest mailing list posts but I'm having none on't. Ditto in RL here. My whole current mentality is a siege mentality - to prevent being dragged into things. I've disconnected the phone as an interim measure and the only way anyone can get to me is either via e-mail or with crowbars.

There's a nice cask of wine at the ready, the fridge is stocked up and the doors locked. Post-New Year, after a recharging of batteries, should then be a matter of getting round to any friends I still have left, for a bit of festive cheer. It's a lovely time over here.

[no denying] that there's denial and denial

Two primitive fishermen with spears step through the water and wait for the sand to resettle and for the water to become clear again. They're looking for flatfish.

A rainbow fish appears instead and one of the two doesn't want that fish touched. What's the most effective method of preventing it being caught?

I'd say it would be to accidentally on purpose muddy the waters and then the fish can't be seen. Not only that, it would now be tipped off and may well swim away out of range.

Maybe it's not the greatest analogy but you'll soon see where this is going. Maybe, as Lucia Flecha da Lima claimed:

"Paul Burrell was perfectly capable of imitating Princess Diana's handwriting."

Maybe so. Maybe not. A whole host of thoughts crowd into the mind, to be filtered through predispositions and prejudices and please don't claim you're unbiased or looking only at the facts. You might be trying to do that and so am I but we're restricted by our experiences, by our foreknowledge.

This woman won't accept that Diana felt that she was going to be killed. It doesn't gel with her experience. There are obviously those who would place great store on da Lima being "one of the princess's closest confidantes" and therefore this being an appeal to authoritativeness, in order to conclude the letter's a fake.

But we don't actually know.

On the other hand, if it is true, then very powerful personages wish it to be the accepted view that the letter's a fake. It's only logical that no stone will be left unturned. Against that, it's only one letter and only one peron rejecting it, long after the fact. To appeal to numbers who believe in it or not is pointless.

Hand in hand with this is the necessity to vilify the opponent and the standard subterfuge is to label anyone accepting the letter as a conspiracy theorist. End of story. No need to pursue it further.

Against that, there is the view that a certain type of researcher always leans towards the conspiratorial explanation and this clouds his judgement when it comes to something which can be explained away more plausibly, by less sensational means.

This is serial rationality and the rationalist always has the advantage over the passionate ferret in that he appears ... well ... rational. A prime example is Cheney who always sounds plausible, even though he's not saying anything which stands the test. He draws on a few stock phrases which appeal to the no-nonsense conservative and that's accepted as truth.

On the other hand, the rationalist could well be right. I've read some quite cogent arguments for the "single bullet theory" with JFK, now that the hysteria's died away. The claim to "likelihood", witnesses' testimony and the relatively clear view from the building behind JFK, let alone the grassy knoll, is powerful but it might, after all, be wrong.

To claim Oswald couldn't have made it down those steps and be drinking a coke is a straw man, as is the ludicrous diagram of relative body positions in the limo, used to disprove the single bullet theory. And the vehemence with which both sides stick to their entrenched positions precludes debate. Actually, I believe it was an ordered hit but that's neither here nor there.

So, this letter. It exists. It's Exhibit A. To not admit it as evidence, you'd have to prove Burrell could have forged it so well it got past the handwriting experts. And who's to say Burrell forged it anyway?

Finally, the murky muddying of entrenched interests who'll either pay or kill. Well, what can one do about them?

Does it matter? I think it does. If it's a forgery - why was it done? And who did it? Burrell, to revenge himself on the slights he felt by the princess and the boys? Maybe.

One thing I do know though is that the "water-muddiers", the flat deniers, the "everything must be a conspiracy" advocates - none of them have any place in this process of finding the most likely scenario.

Most likely scenario because I don't think anyone's going to uncover the truth.

[carla bruni] and sarkozy?

Stranger things have happened ... haven't they?

Vigilance (for Freedom), Even During Christmas Break

Indianapolos

One thing I really enjoy is waking up and finding that one of the "team members" on this blog has posted and this is an open invitation to some of my other guests to post as well.

Today it is Matt, of Buckeye Thoughts, his blog sadly no more. Matt is a young American now stationed in Indianapolos and attending [or did] Purdue University, West Lafayette. And yet his blog dealt with the Buckeye State.

As you'll see from this guest post, his interests are wide and yet he and his friends over in the States have been getting more than a little worried of late by what they're seeing:

Seeing as how it is Christmas Break (I've been on it since 4:15 p.m. EST last Saturday), you all would think I could relax. I have been but at the same time have still been very preoccupied. The primaries for the two parties nominations of presidential candidates start in a few weeks. As a political science major, you'd think I'd care.

I do, deeply. Yet I don't care about either party. Yes, that's shocking to say that for the first time in my 20 years of life on this Earth, I don't care about either party. I've strongly identified with one since a young age (at first because of my parents, naturally, but later on because it held the values I held dear), but won't say which one. Both, to me, in this upcoming election are poised to sell my country outright to highest bidder.

On the one hand, this was announced. I'm sure you all remember James writing several posts on the SPP and how it threatened American sovereignty. Don't start to pop the champagne just yet. That announcement seemed very suspicious to me; I was right to be suspicious. Contrary to what some of you may think, I don't buy into conspiracy theories. When I first heard of this whole concept of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, I thought it was a joke, a conspiracy theory. After reading and doing research, I realized it was very, very real.

I even wrote a letter to my school's newspaper a while back about it, taking aim at a person who denied it (not an ad-hominem attack, but attacking his view that it didn't exist). He wrote me back, saying that upon closer inspection, the whole thing (the SPP/the plan to create the NAU) was simply just a dialog. I wish I could be as blissfully ignorant as him but I can't.

It seems every time I go abroad something happens. When I leave in January, something will be happening in March. In March, the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments made by the District of Columbia, which is trying to uphold its ban on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in the district. The Court's ruling will be judicial precedent to a) repeal anti-carry laws nationwide or b) give precedent to the ability of where to carry (and the eventual confiscation) of firearms.

I should be happy; I'm on break. I am and yet I am very worried. This coming year could be the taking back of the US from those who would sell us out: the SPP and those who would oppose 2nd Amendment rights for law-abiding citizens. Make no mistake, I am not some whacko. I have said, many times, the Bill of Rights must be respected in its entirety (all 10 Amendments) or not at all. By the same token, 2008 could be the beginning of the end for my country. Regardless of what happens in March (the decision will be passed down, supposedly, in June), November will decide the future of my country. I hope someone comes in who is willing to stop the madness before it's too late. I hope...

[sex predator] allegedly at it again

Sex predator Debra Lefave

I know I'm late to the party on this but:

Why on earth didn't I have her as my teacher at 14? I can't think of one of the guys who wouldn't have been into it with her. We were all looking about for likely girls at that time and would have welcomed a bit of "lewd and lascivious battery".

Don't understand the "battery" part. We'd have been the ones doing the battery.

Not now of course - you don't know who's been in there and at what level of hygiene. Besides, she doesn't seem to be so much into the immature man.

It appears she's now at it again. Wonder what her problem is? Perhaps she was raped as a young girl, perhaps she enjoys undersized, under-aged equipment. She might even be a victim, visiting her victimhood on others. Can you feel any pity for her?

Either way she's in trouble and could be put away for 15 years. Do you feel it's as bad for a woman to be doing it with boys as for a man with girls?

I didn't ask if you "thought" it was as bad - I know you'd say yes to that but the question was - do you "feel" it's as bad?

Actually, if you look at the official file, she looks remarkably like someone I briefly knew and who was also not noted for her chastity.

Doesn't thrill.