[party politics] children at play

It used to count for something

Bag rightly notes:

All politics seems to have come down to is poking one another in the chest and saying 'You did this' and 'No I didn't'. Soon it will be 'My dad is bigger than yours'. This can't be good for the country.

So glad Bag sees it and hopefully others as well. Party politics is the flim flam for the real agenda e.g. the EU swallowing up what was once a great country or else, on the other side of the pond, the assimilation by stealth of the U.S.A. into the SPPNA.

But people wilfully persist with the idea that party politics is somehow important.

[reality] welcome to the new child

Rearguard action from parents:

At times it has felt as if the only time the kids are turned off is when the tube is flicked on. During the school holidays the rules were no screens from 9am to 5pm and no screens after dinner. Our six-year-old spent far too much time asking how many minutes until 5 o'clock despite cupboards groaning with toys, books and bald plastic guys who look like extras from Prison Break. So No Screen February it was. And no, the kids weren't happy when we told them. And yes, we grown-ups were very, very scared.

There are plenty of conflicting studies about the effects of television, computers and screen toys on kids. And although their world will be one of digital information and entertainment, deep in my heart I'm with US psychologist Dr Aric Sigman who reckons telly is "recreational junk food for kids".

My television was stolen ten years ago and I never replaced it - the computer has all the news I need and films can be bought and played on it. It's a world in itself and yet there are things missing, such as the daily newspaper, sports results given live and so on.

More sinister is the world of games. Dave Johnson refers to board games:

Then it hits me. This has nothing to do with the act of playing games, and everything to do with the games we're playing. After pondering this I've come to the conclusion that most board games are microcosms that mirror our world; and the problem lies in the realization that these games are choosing to glamorize all the wrong aspects of that world.

Kids, by definition, originally have no life so they go out to get one and the first stop is their home computer. With parents abrogating their responsibility of subscribing to and instilling a moral code - it was thrown out along with the bathwater - in step the purveyors of the internet game.

So, minds which are still forming, influenced by glitter and simplistic solutions in a "revenge cycle", with added pornographic interpretations of gender roles - hell, I'm starting to write like a feminist - backed up by real porn which can be switched into at will - these are exploring and absorbing the New Reality.

One of my friend's sons is into it, as are all his mates too. Before coming over all "parental", we did similar things earlier. The urge to game is strong. Dungeons and Dragons was the thing way back when but that stuff is tame.

We had our own Game too, where twenty one people in seven separate houses played a game I'd devised about battles in three spheres - the ethereal, the temporal and hell - and all interrelated with each other. The game ran for three days and nights, washed down by liberal doses of substances liquid and otherwise.

So I'm not intrinsically against games per se and my real life is one big game but it does affect how todays new humans relate to the real world in any sort of normal sense. Give kids credit to differentiate between fantasy and reality but progressively the barriers are breaking down, generation by generation, values becoming diffused and warped, rampant across the late Gen X and Y's minds.

Gen Z is a whole new ball game and Hitler would have been delighted - this is the Aryan experiment taken to the limit - the New Child, based on no G-d, no rules, indiscriminate instant gratification of rage and lust as one wills, clawing one's way up the ladder and the worship of acquisition. In this world, the pesky parent is a barrier, a blockage to attainment of one's true enlightened self. Hence the need for state Mentors.

In the Brave New World, "I" is G-d and good human characteristics are channelled into pursuit of that goal. There are blogs all over promoting a twisted, seemingly utopian and beautifully worded but ultimately dystopian New Universe. We all know one or two of these and the sad thing is - in many cases it's not malice aforethought but lack of anything solid to latch onto into their own lives. So they invent a new reality.

Welcome to the child of 2010. Can he cope or as the Who put it in one of their songs about the cobalt blue New Child:

In suspended animation
My childhood passed me by
If I speak without emotion
Then you know the reason why

I have a feeling deep inside
That somethin' is missing
It's a feeling in my soul
And I can't help wishing

That one day I'll discover
That we're living a lie
And I'll tell the whole world
The reason why

Seems others feel the same way too.

[tramvai of dreams] currently drowning in venice

Remember that new word "uzhas", meaning "horror"?

Seems I wrote too soon yesterday, which was a fabulous day until the evening. Today the temperature saw fit to jump above zero and the mayhem on the roads has everyone stranded, huge lakes of water are ankle deep everywhere, girls' clothing and men's suits are drenched with muddy slush and the mood is ugly.

Had a shocker of a night, just got back from work and am scheduled to meet up with my ex-darling whom I still love to little bits. It's the only available day - doesn't augur well but we'll try to make the best of it. She's certainly easy on the eyes and in the arms - the question is whether I measure up today.

Had to laugh at Colin's latest - that's like us today. How are things in NA and Britain?

Everyone says it will drop again and there'll most likely be snow but it will be a wet imitation of itself and lots of sliding and car crashing will ensue.

Glad I'm driven these days.


Update

B-gg-r! She postponed our tryst because her left wheel fell off and she also had a shocker today, as most people have had in this cr--py weather. Right - there are two choices:

a. slash the wrists;

b. remind you of five optimists.

Five optimists

1. The term "panglossianism" describes baseless optimism of the sort exemplified by Pangloss's beliefs, which are the opposite of his fellow traveller Martin's pessimism and emphasis on free will.

2. All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal.

3. Sir Winston Churchill, speaking at the Lord Mayor΄s banquet, London, November 9, 1954, said: For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

4. The house of 2000, according to H.G. Wells, would have self-cleaning windows, and the floor would be easy to sweep because the architect would ''have the sense and ability to round off the angle between wall and floor.''

5. The economist Julian L. Simon's book, ''The State of Humanity,'' includes 660 pages of historical statistics and concludes with 2 basic predictions for the next century and any century thereafter: * Humanity's condition will improve in just about every material way. * Humans will continue to sit around complaining about everything getting worse.

* The true Christian [as distinct from the bible-bashing moralist] is an interesting creature - he's a pessimist but at the same time, a serene pessimist, optimistic about the goodness which can be rekindled in every person.

* The Left Liberal is the eternal optimist but the Marxist [of the Marx variety] knows that pessismism is the only realism as he's hell-bent on creating a dystopia with his mates, the g-dless PC relativists.

* The economist is shifting from a 2007 optimist to a 2009 pessimist.

* I believe the Love of my Life will glide across my path with her billowing hair and mantle of virginal white, whatever the true state of affairs in her garden.

[research] spilt some gravy, sorry

Wiki shot of animals for research

We all need to go out on the street and bring in some stray cats:

A study by the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Research Center presented Thursday at the American Stroke Association meeting found that people who had previously or currently owned cats were less likely to die from heart attack and other cardiovascular disease.cats may help prevent heart attack?

The study examined data from 4,435 people, ranging in age from 30 to 75, participating in ongoing research with the National Health and Nutritional Examination Study.

Uh-huh and how much did it cost in research funds to come up with that one? What about the study which found that enough LSD will kill people - by the way, how did they determine that?

Every six months or so a bunch of scientists get together and decide to administer what are called LD 50 tests to a population of animals, such as rats, monkeys or beagles. This is done to determine the level at which a Lethal Dose (LD) of any substance will kill 50 per cent of the population. This then allows the same group of scientists to issue pronouncements such as "Eating 50kgs of marzipan is not good for you and/or may result in death"

And the topics hypothesized on are all in the serious category, of course:

Their study of 329 drinkers in Los Angeles found that malt liquor drinkers are different from those who choose other tipples. Ricky Bluthenthal, who led the study, said malt liquors were both higher in alcohol than other beers and tended to be sold in larger containers.

"We found that the combination of these differences resulted in the average malt liquor drinker in our study consuming 80 percent more alcohol per drink than the average regular beer drinker," he said in a statement.

Quite serious studies, say the detractors - the research might seem spurious to the layman but it takes 90% of research for every 10% of result. This costs money. Er, yes - exactly how much money? I did a little cursory research and came up with people who are quite shy to exactly say. This was as far as they'd commit themselves:

A major problem arises for universities because funding from external sources rarely covers the full cost of research. The trend amongst external agencies is to provide less than the direct full costs of research, leaving the universities to "top up" not only the direct costs of a project but also to fund fully the indirect research costs ...

So it's necessary to turn to detractors to put a figure on it and it's not peanuts:

Circa 1999-2002, David Touretzky was given $338,334 in grant funds obtained from the National Science Foundation, to conduct experiments involving the use of rats and "Amelia" a mobile robot.

I think the one I love most of all is this:

We all know that women like pink and men prefer blue, but we have never really known why. Now it emerges that parents who dress their boys in blue and girls in pink may not just be following tradition but some deep-seated evolutionary instinct.

Researchers have found that there could be sound historical reasons why women have developed a heightened appreciation of reds and pinks, while men are drawn to blue.

In the light of the current economic climate, bird flu and so on, I'm sure you'd agree that colour research requires heavy investment and an overseas trip to some resort.

[blogfocus monday] eight of the best

1. The Teddacotta army is on the march and Julie says they're coming for you!

2. You need a special lamp, girls? Bob G's your man.

3. Is it my mind or is there something wrong in John's photo?

4. You need some of JMB's wood carvings? Pretty fearsome.

5. Your pet smoke much these days? Scottish Diary has the lowdown.

6. Omnium asks what one does after Friday prayers.

7. Sackers is having a little trouble deciding which animal he is.

8. Cassilis reports on Hillary's sense of modesty and decorum.

Bonus: Let Cherie help you see February out.

[enlightenment] and the allure of the dark

Don't mess with dark forces or you might end up inside a Wicker Man.

Eva Green, ex-Bond girl was quoted:

There is no verbal fat with Green, no messy non sequiturs. The only cracks in her composure appear when she talks acting projects: a Jordan Scott drama set in an English boarding school and something "very exciting I can't tell you about yet" - all with the common thread of being "dark". "I do like dark things," she admits with relish.

With relish - yes. Tell me, which persona do you find more interesting in me - reformed sinner with a suspect lifestyle or staid moral crusader? I didn't ask which you approved of. :)

Changing tack, you might recall this incident:

After putting her four-year-old daughter into the back seat of the family SUV, Madelyne Gorman Toogood took a quick look around the parking lot just to make sure nobody was watching.

But despite her best effort to conceal what she was about to do, nearly everyone with a television has seen what happened that afternoon outside an Indiana department store, where a surveillance camera captured Mrs. Toogood shaking and slapping her daughter Martha in a violent fit of rage.

Before we get on to who the Irish Travellers are, a glance at the incident involving a Romani and Giovanna Reggiani might jog the memory.

The Romanian government commented on it at the time.

This post appears to be jumping all over the place but contends that it's all part of the same process, so that gives it continuity.

Another jump cut - remember this film?

Sergeant Neil Howie is sent an anonymous letter recommending that he investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle.

He flies to the island and during his investigations discovers that the entire population follows a neo-pagan cult under the island's owner Lord Summerisle, believing in re-incarnation, worshipping the sun and engaging in fertility rituals and sexual magic in order to appease immanent natural forces.

Howie, a devout Christian, is increasingly shocked by the islanders' behaviour; yet he is attracted and repelled by the alluring and sexual Willow, the daughter of the landlord of the inn where he is staying.

Here is an excellent analysis of the plot, which includes:

The Wicker Man puts the liberals on the defensive by showing what a society literally based on and worshipping sex might be like. Sergeant Howie is as noble as any Knight of the Round Table, yet defenseless against the wiles of foes who do not believe in his goodness.

Another great analysis here although Christians should be warned it's a bit irreverent.

The most famous scene is Howie's temptation by Willow [Britt Ekland] which was really a test by the local laird to see if Howie was corruptible. The Youtube here is the original, from the movie and deals with the real issue.

Warning, a clean, innocent version is below this clip if you'd prefer :

[Well, I'm stunned - YouTube have this evening pulled this clip - post to follow now. OK - I'll just have to describe the clip to you:

Britt Ekland, playing Willow, daughter of the publican on the island, has been put up to seduce the Christian policeman Edward Woodward, who is investigating her disappearance years ago. She dances naked round her room, slapping the walls and tables and inviting him to come into her room. He almost does but resists the temptation, which ultimately leads to his doom.]

And here is the Wiccan sanitized version with lots of lovely Bambis and nature love which the morally upright should view instead.

Germane to this post is James Berardinelli's review, which says, in part:

The Wicker Man places us in Howie's shoes, although his dour disposition and puritanical outlook on life makes it difficult to sympathize with him entirely. He sees the men and woman of Summerisle as monstrous heathens; we view them a little less judgmentally (at least initially). But, like Howie, we suspect that there's something rotten at the core of the community, and, also like the dauntless police officer, we don't figure out what it is until it's far, far too late. The brilliance of the writing is such that we don't seen the twist coming until it's nearly upon us.

Could almost be a commentary on the years we're moving into now, dour prophets of doom being ignored and marginalized.

While we're still in Scotland, the little matter of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is worth exploring. There's a lot of wild material out there but this seems the sanest [although admittedly Christian] source:

Establishing the facts concerning the incompatibility of Freemasonry and Christianity requires having access to the documents which contain the evidence.

And now, swinging back to the Irish Travellers, here is coverage, including an interview, of that Toogood baby beating case:

Murphy Village Travelers dress their preschoolers - kids as young as five to six years old - in sequined designer gowns. They put makeup on their toddlers.

"They're taught to dance early in very voluptuous ways that you wouldn't have your little girl you know, to touch themselves, to rub themselves, to move, to get attention," says Patsy Hart, one of few outsiders to marry an Irish Traveler in Murphy Village.

She says those parties are often negotiations for money and marriage.

"They could be playing in a sandbox one day, and snatched up and took and got married the next and be ten years old and have a baby by the time they are 11," says Hart.

Patsy Hart says her husband was 17 when he married his first wife - who was only 11.

Slate refers to white gypsies:

Irish Travelers, also known as "White Gypsies," are members of a nomadic ethnic group of uncertain origin. Scholars often speculate that they are descended from a race of pre-Celtic minstrels and that their ranks were swelled by displaced farmers during Oliver Cromwell's bloody campaigns of the mid-1600s.

A further insight is this message board comment by a Romanichal connected young man. This then brings us to the question of "white witchcraft":

Although nominally Christianized, there is little doubt that the early medieval Irish retained many remnants of their former paganism, especially those with elements of magic.

One of my friends over here is a faith healer, I suppose a "white witch", who knows all the incantations. He also knows about "black witchcraft" which this post won't deal with, on his advice but this article does:

Magick really isn't black or white. It just is.

By the way, what do you think of the current popular games [last ten years] which the kids love on the net? Healthy or dark?

The point of this post is that it all emanates from the same Firm, which currently has the environmental movement in its grip and herein lies the problem.

No one inside will recognize whom they are following, who the Lucis Trust is, who Maitreya and Djwahl Kuhl really are and who all the political and business organizations adopting this type of bureauspeak, relativism and light diffused colours are really serving at their upper management levels.

I'm not even going to try to argue it because it's a question of mindset. To me it is quite clear why the declining educational, judicial and moral standards, e.g.:

"Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions." - U.S. Department of Justice, Post Hearing Memorandum of Points and Authorities, at l, ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (1996).

... but those not of my bent would put it all down to the "incompetence" of Blair, Brown, Bush and of sprawling bureaucracy. No one will lay the blame at the upper echelons who really must know that selective incompetence at certain key times trumps overt malice aforethought.

We can look at any example you like of "incompetence" in the political sphere. What about the London Bombings and the incompetent surveillance operation which David Davis bought into, one claim being:

But the serious mistake that Panorama has identified is that at the time MI5 never informed West Yorkshire Special Branch about the surveillance operation that ended up in its patch.

Or how about on 9 July, 2005 when it came out that all four CCTV cameras on the 30 bus were not working. The Guardian said "the security camera" wasn't working.

Or Diana. CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy said, about the security cams suddenly breaking down before Diana's death in that tunnel:

"For example we do know that as they were driving into that Paris tunnel that night... the car they were driving hit another car... that car was never found and the eyewitness driving that car was never found." "The security cameras in Paris that night, many of them were not working, so there's not a detailed security camera record of the movements of the car that night... conspiracy theorists will always say that this was something that was organized by very powerful people.

Maybe so but non-conspiracy theorists might say there is an interesting motif of incompetence of this nature at the time of key tragedies. Certain things always happen to go wrong.

You probably feel I've gone off the deep end but IMHO, the Wickerman and this "selective incompetence" are not so far apart when one peels back sufficient layers to reveal the ultimate source of all the mischief.

Incompetence versus Intention

This dilemma will never be resolved because we are arguing from vastly different standpoints. As a Christian [and the Black Magicians and Satanists would also agree inwardly here] - it's as clear as night what it's all about and nothing in world events in the last four decades, along with the deterioration of western culture, provides any surprise whatsoever.

Others will argue, till the cows come home, bringing up quite intelligent models which would explain all the phenomena. The whole Philosophy Industry is about that and bloggers can wile away hours arguing over the "bleedin' obvious". Some of my best blogger friends do this.

Interesting hand gesture, seen being used by Bush, Clinton, Berlusconi, various industry leaders and the Queen, among others. Of course, the one of the Queen must have been photo touching.

Politeia declares:

After roaming the earth for some decades I can now declare beyond a doubt, that man - while knowing what's right and wrong and thus being a moral creature - has a talent for the worst.

I can therefore officially join the ranks of Calvinists and paleo-conservatives who, on theological grounds have always said so.

Man doesn't do the worst because he is bad. Intentional evil is rare and in a class of its own, but it exists and we have to shield against it.

But he is lazy, preferring the easy way out rather than the best. Man moreover, loves shortcuts: getting something for nothing. So he demands love and respect so he can fool others in believing that he's earned it.

On one hand, a certain mindset puts world problems and the slide into the new feudalism down to instincts mentioned by Politeia above here and to sheer human incompetence. A different mindset, interestingly shared by sworn enemies, puts it down to intention, a game plan, utilizing subterfuge to cover-up and obscure what's going down.

I like this in the above quote:

Man moreover, loves shortcuts: getting something for nothing ... Intentional evil is rare and in a class of its own, but it exists and we have to shield against it.

But if you don't believe in intentional evil in the first place, then surely you're a sitting duck?

Warning the villagers that killing him is not going to save them