[pineapple politics] lite, trite or right

Which hits home more, this:

Once again, it is the way fresh fruit is presented here that has made my day. I have not seen pineapple cut quite like this anywhere else. [And again, they will do this for you in the simplest bar.]

or this:

The retired detective at the centre of the Sadiq Khan bugging case was bugged for months by fellow officers as part of a "witch-hunt" intended to stop him becoming a whistleblower, it has been claimed.

Former Detective Sergeant Mark Kearney, 49, was subjected to months of surveillance with his friend Sally Murrer, a local newspaper reporter, ostensibly because police suspected him of giving tip-offs on local crime stories.

But Mrs Murrer, 49, is convinced the huge police investigation, in which her car was bugged and secretly fitted with a tracking device, was a "smokescreen" to ensure Mr Kearney was discredited before he could go public with details of how he was ordered to bug the MP.

... or how about this?

Tsk, tsk, pushing Hillary on the little people to continue the policies of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Federal Reserve and the New World Order. Pres. Bill Clinton was a member of the CFR. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933, NAFTA, and the China Trade Agreement were in the best interests of the elitist. And due to Clinton's policies, we, the little people are being robbed with the contrived subprime mortgage, credit crunch, and inflation to steal the wealth of the middle class by the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs.....

And there is a debate right now between Guido, Samisdata and Tiberius:

Where I concede is that Paul Staines is right: there is a separation between Paul and Guido, between the person and the blog persona. Perhaps because this blog is so much the creation of my personal whim and not of any attempt to create a persona, that means that I underestimated that.

Political blogs who take themselves very, very seriously abound but ultimately it's a small pool in comparison to the general populace out there. I agree with numbers 2-4 above as I've a political mind but not exclusively political and I'd argue that the all-consuming politblogger who likes nothing better than velociraptor debate would scathingly view someone speaking of how pineapple was presented as trite and insignificant.

There is a huge pool of people out there for whom a constant diet of daily politics is as interesting as intestinal worms. This blog's readers come from different walks of life and different persuasions. Does that make them trite, as our Velociraptor Anonymous says:

There is no debate worthy of the name on your blog, merely pre-arranged visits to generate stats, and stupid banal comments ... Even the debate by your friends, when they can be bothered, is contrived, at best. You may want to run a hierarchical system based on whether some one is certified. Many of your bloggers should be!

Easy to rage over issues on which we're largely agreed and where our pool of blogfriends equally rage to each other and everyone's happy. Except it's not about raging to each other - it's about presenting the message to a pool of non-politicos who are not interested, who have their own agendas, including pineapple and who have their own lives.

The way pineapple is presented is an aspect of living which comes under the heading of "taste" and "rising above the banal", equally important issues in today's tendency to mediocrity. All right, police corruption is a major issue. So how should a blogger get that message across to people out there who have a life, how to get them interested in corrupt politicians or how dire Clinton and the CFR really are?

Firstly, in small doses, without the stridency which I've been equally guilty of falling into. Secondly, realizing that the pool of non-politically thinking people is not certifiable but actually amenable to an idea if it's presented understandably and with respect for the reasoning ability of the reader. The commenter who shows not a great deal of understanding of an issue has simply shown he's not au fait with the issue. OK, so the blogger has to do better next time.

The Case for Slowly Educating

Education doesn't have to mean some sort of nazi force-feeding of names and statistics and resorting to insults when the other doesn't go along with you.

Instead, it's a war of attrition, an education process where most people will listen or internalize if it's presented the right way in the first place. The onus is on the presenter to interest the reader - not that of the reader to knuckle down and start howling with rage.

I howl with rage myself because I've read the material and followed the links but that's no guarantee anyone else is going to be equally upset. You write:

I've given you so many pointers to serious aspects, it just beggars belief that you missed them all.

Who says I've missed them? Who says that readers didn't click on those links, follow some of them, read them and note them at the back of the mind? Just because an army of non-political readers don't take up the cudgels and storm the ramparts, a la Rik Mayall the urban guerilla, doesn't mean it didn't register.

The Brit in particular is attuned to passive resistance and cold shouldering. It's more the Italian who's into the impassioned debate. Your links, Anonymous, are invaluable and I'd suggest that many people for whom Mark Kearney or Hutton are not household words are now cognisant of them.

Then you go and say:

Carry on thinking with your balls, James. You'll get some nooky in the end.

... and all the good work you've done disintegrates because who's going to take anything you say seriously after that? There's a place for your style, even here but there's also a place for "steady as she goes", which is the style more favoured by the great silent majority out there.

The Case for Pineapple

There are some very nasty people out there who are hellbent not just on enslaving society in the next few years but on defining the agenda in dire terms. Therefore everyone must be in the same dire frame of mind, no one is allowed to enjoy life any more for its own sake.

Those exposing this are equally sucked into a dire life on the edge and pleasure simply ceases, to be replaced by endless outrage at how terrible life has been made by the animals up top. I'd argue that the question of how pineapple is cut is vital to concern ourselves with because it thumbs its nose at the opposed agenda and says, 'Hey, this life is to be enjoyed, not bemoaned.'

The Case for Bollocks

I have two choices. I can either spend my life writing tomes of anti-cabal literature, raging against the state 24/7 or else I can spend some time enjoying nooky with my girlfriend, spend some time appreciating beauty and spend some time presenting anti-cabal articles.

[thursday snow] dance of the falling man

One of my friends wrote yesterday and said I'd been quiet and then, "How's the book coming on?"

That sums it up. Nearly done rewriting but it's meant less of everything else and people have either drifted away or are a little peeved. At the same time, the internet keeps dropping out. I had tabs for Harry, Ellee, Ross and Bunny up yesterday and tried to comment - phut!

My friend is visiting this morning to help sort all this out.

Snow - last evening two girls I know visited and so that meant going our for a walk but there was a condition they call "lyot pod snyegom" on all the roads - ice under loose snow. Walking along - whoosh - on your back and cracking your head.

This creates the Snow Dance.

Can you imagine maybe a hundred people picking their way along the path, not stepping normally but putting a foot out to the left, a foot to the right, toppling over backwards and the legs peddling as if riding a bicycle, fingers touching the ground for balance then springing into a crouched but basicially upright position?

And absolutely everyone doing it?

Great training for balance and the start of any number of new dance crazes and new relationships. Let me explain - any female within range will grab your arm to keep herself upright and now you have a pas de deux or even quatre at times.

I've resolved to buy that camera and bring you these images but it might be spring before I can find a good store so don't hold your breath.

Have a lovely Thursday and don't slip over.

Politics

Not worth a separate post but very depressing to see the way the Democrat delegates are shaping. In home news, 'Greedy' banks push up mortgage rates. So what's new?

[monplaisir] magnificence of nature and man

Pyetrdvoryetz, near St. Petersburg

Versailles is sheer magnificence on a gargantuan scale. Schoenbrunn is sheer elegance. But of the "Russian Versailles", Peterhof, Petergof, Pyetrdvoryetz, whatever you wish to call it, by the ocean near St Petersburg, Alexander Benois, in 1913, wrote:

Among the fabulous palaces of Versailles, Aranjuez, Caserta, Schoenbrunn and Potsdam, Peterhof occupies a place entirely apart. It is often compared to Versailles but that is due to a misunderstanding. Peterhof is endowed with an utterly special character by the sea. It is as if Peterhof was born out of seafoam called into being by the command of a mighty maritime ruler.

The Queen's Chamber, Versailles

Versailles rules over the land ... The fountains at Versailles are an elegant adornment, which could be done without. Peterhof is the residence of the sovereignof the seas. The fountains in Peterhof are no afterthought - they are the main thing. They are a symbolic representation of the watery realm, a cloud of spray from the sea that washes the shore at Peterhof.

Le Hameau de la Reine, Versailles

If Versailles is a triumph of architecture and layout, Peterhof is a triumph of engineering. At the height of its construction, 1715 to 1723, Le Blonde, Braunstein, Michetti and Zemtsov, the sculptor Rastrelli, the master fountain builder Paul Sualem and the hydraulic engineer Vasily Tuvolkov, together with a host of others, were all carving out this amazing series of canals, cascades, grotto, terraces and palaces.

The Cascade from the main palace, Pyetrdvoryetz

Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof is that all of the fountains operate without the use of pumps. Water is supplied from natural springs and collects in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens. The elevation difference creates the pressure that drives most of the fountains of the Lower Gardens, including the Grand Cascade. The Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct, over four km in length, drawing water and pressure from a high-elevation source.

Pyetrdvoryetz truly connects with the sea via this canal.

Then, after all that is said, comes the magnificently small scale, simple Monplaisir, right down by the water itself:

Monplaisir is as old as Peterhof itself. The history of the whole palace and park ensemble began with the construction of Monplaisir. The palace was Peter the Great's favourite creation, and it was he who gave it this name. The Emperor himself chose the site for the construction and sketched the layout of the building. It is hardly possible to find any other place where his personal habits and tastes could be so strongly felt.

Garden of Monplaisir - my pleasure, Pyetrdvoryetz, near St. Petersburg

This place, Monplaisir and le Hameau de la Reine, at Versailles, continue to haunt me and hold a special place in my life. I suppose adding to the piquancy was that I was at each with the same girl and both places also feature strongly in the denouement of my first book, not that that is relevant.

Balustrade at Monplaisir, on the seafront at Pyetredvoretz

There are places in the world which are no doubt overrated but there are some which reward. If you love the sea and its interaction with the land, then Pyetrdvoretz really must be on your list to see at least once before you die.

French influence at the court of Peter the Great

[kosovo update] mitrovicaen republic the way to go

Centre of the new Mitrovicaen Republic

Predictable pap from the WSJ but with two sensible observations:

By a narrow margin, Serbs on Sunday re-elected Boris Tadic, who wants to bring the country closer to Europe, over the pro-Russia candidate. But his government already staunchly opposed Kosovo independence.

The ... Serbian enclave around the city of Mitrovica. Some politicians there, backed by Belgrade, promise to break away from Kosovo.

If Kosovo becomes an independent republic, the rot sets in, in two ways:

1. The domino effect begins, e.g. Republika_Srpska, Chechnya and one can't help but conclude that this is in line with U.S. foreign policy in the region, which is determined by the CFR*.

2. Serbia solidifies and hardens its line, with the Mitrovicaen Region initially breaking away and a more or less permanent state of war ready to break out at any time.

The cynical powers destabilizing southern Europe at this moment are fully aware of this scenario and that's why an independent Serbian enclave in the north of Kosovo is the only viable solution.

But this won't happen and Serbia, one half of the ancient Albanian conflict, will be ignored in this done deal. Ignoring one half of a conflict is hardly sensible foreign policy unless one wishes to see instability in a region. Then it makes eminent sense.

*the Council on Foreign Relations, America's most influential group devoted to US foreign policy

4. The situation in France

1. Sovereignty in this country 2. Legal reasons we can leave right now 3. The principle of prerogative 4. The situation in France 5. Masterly inactivity and executive action 6. It's all about culture, not race

Forget the rhetoric, forget politicking. Here is what happened in France on 29 May 2005:

A referendum was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The result was a victory for the "No" campaign, with 55% of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69%.

The question put to voters was:

Approuvez-vous le projet de loi qui autorise la ratification du traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe ? "Do you approve the bill authorising the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?"

Is there some way you can explain to me how this constitutes a legitimate mandate from the people to set up the EU as a state? By what legal terminology can this mean that the people voted Yes?

Here is what happened over these few days now:

Today, France’s deputies and senators meeting in Parliament in Versailles ratified by a vote of 560 to 181 the constitutional revision to allow the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon without the need for a referendum. The result of this voting opens the way for the final ratification, Thursday, first at the National Assembly, then the Senate. Out of 893 present, 741 voted. France is the 5th country after Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Malta to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, in which they sign their sovereignty away.

I take issue with only one semantic point. France did not sign away its rights, if by France you mean the French people. They voted 55% No. Their political leaders did sign away their sovereignty and in national terms, that constitutes high treason, which Wiki defines this way:

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country.

Please explain how a clearly expressed view of a national people being deliberately ignored in the creation of a new state at the behest of another nationality does not constitute high treason?

Britain has been treated the same way.

[super tuesday] pass the paper bag

Obama and the Sisterhood

At a packed Obama rally in Los Angeles, Winfrey addressed a backlash from some of her female viewers, who have accused her of being a traitor to the sisterhood because she was supporting a man over a woman for US president.

"I was both surprised by that comment and insulted, because I've been a woman my whole life and every part of me believes in the empowerment of women but the truth is I'm a free woman," the world famous television talk show host said'. "And being free means you get to think for yourself."

"I will never vote for anyone based on gender or race," she said. "I'm voting for Barack Obama not because he's black, I'm voting for Barack Obama because he is brilliant."

Clinton and Her Superbowl Victory

"Super Bowl, Super Tuesday . . . we've got one down, let's get the other one!" Senator Clinton said as she jumped in the air and high-fived a group of children.

Where's a paper bag?