This is the captain of your ship your heart speaking...

This is the captain of your ship your heart speaking...



See post below...Full Steam Ahead

Handing back over...

[full steam ahead] hope there are no more submerged rocks

... anyway, as we were saying on Friday in that last post before we were interrupted:

"No, don't rub your eyes - it is nourishing obscurity ..."

In among the dangerous rocks and reefs out there in that blog ocean, there are some wonderful havens of friendship and good cheer.

Thank you and I'm back [as far as I know] also due to the kindness of that chap not suing me.

[bloghounds] staying cool in the sphere

[This badge is only a mock up and will be reviewed by the steering committee, along with the tag line. If you can think of a good tag line, suggest it and it can be adopted. If there are copyright issues with the pic, it will be changed.]


The events of the weekend, appearing out of the blue and resulting in the shutdown of this blog, were simply an extension of something which has been happening for a long time in another place and I do not propose to comment on that here.

Yesterday, initial feelers were sent out to various BP members as to whether the group could be initially disbanded and then reformed under the auspices of a steering committee. The result below was not intended at the time, certainly not to kick off today but as it all went public late yesterday, there was considerable feedback, mainly along two lines:

1. The logistics of such a move would seem to be prohibitive;

2. A certain amount of feedback supported the idea of setting up an entirely new group, incorporating the best principles of Blogpower plus one or two others.

If you happen to have read the original BP post, you’ll see that it mentions a smallish group of mutually supportive bloggers and a number of the 2006 members have at times referred to the friendly atmosphere which used to prevail.

Contrast that to the past few months and even the last few days and not much more needs to be said.

Blogpower was certainly unique in that it drew together people of all walks of life, of differing political bents, even completely apolitical beings [yes, they exist in large numbers] and certainly from different parts of the world.

This was its strength.

As it grew and changed its focus somewhat, the principles many held dear seemed to assume less importance than formerly. The proposals below attempt to redress the balance. It is proposed that:

1. A new blog group be set up, initially called Bloghounds as a working name and using a steering committee to set up the group and to do the early admin.

2. While it would be nice to see some of the 2006 Blogpowerers plus the current BP administrators [2 in number] represented on the steering committee of seven, it is really open to others as well, however shy, who feel they could play a part.

3. The steering committee would initially assess membership requests according to these guidelines:

a. The blog would need to be of at least one month’s standing and be of an acceptable standard, with clear navigation.

b. The blogger needs to be identifiable, whether using an avatar or real name and be clearly active in the sense in which the committee understands the term.

c. He or she needs to accept and see the necessity for replying to comments, participating as a group member, carrying the banner in the sidebar, carrying at least one form of the blogroll, agreeing to be part of the mailing list and most importantly would make a genuine attempt to link to fellow members at least once a week.

d. The blogger would further need to accept that the group homepage and mailing list are semi-public and not appropriate fora to air personal issues which are not of interest to the group as a whole and he or she should not have a previous history of divisiveness, troublemaking or harassment of fellow bloggers.

4. The steering committee, having looked at the request for membership and if having decided against, is honour bound to e-mail the blogger concerned with both the vote and the reason why. That blogger is welcome to try again after two months.

On the matter of the vote, one dissension would necessitate a more thorough steering committee review of the proposed blogger, two dissensions would need to be taken seriously, three would fairly well end the current bid. Abstentions would be advisable in a conflict of interest situation.

Therefore the composition of the steering committee itself is quite critical and a good cross-section of even-headed, experienced bloggers are being sought for this.

5. The main thrust of these guidelines is not to tie anyone up in red tape but to enable enjoyable membership of the group without petty disputes, recrimination, drawn out issues and other things which often tend to sour what should be a fun activity.

6. Once a group of around twenty bloggers is in operation [and this could take some considerable time, approaching the dead season for blogging], members are asked to nominate and vote for the ongoing admins. When the admins are in place, the steering committee retires.

7. On a personal note, I’d like to make it known that though I am perhaps up for the steering committee, I have no intention of becoming a permanent admin.

Should you wish to be a member of the steering committee, it would be lovely if you were to make yourself known in the next few days.

UPDATE AT 7.57 - first four expressions of interest have arrived so that is encouraging.

Another nice person at 9.05 so we're up to five. I think maybe eight would be interested initially. Any more would be a bonus. Have to get some sleep now - the neighbours' dogs were barking all night.

Initial list

Group name: bloghounds
Group home page: http://bloghounds.org/
Group email: bloghounds@email.com

[clandestini] something here for all of us

Yet another tragedy was splashed across the local paper casually dropped on the glass tabletop with the inlaid design, in the cafe I strolled down to on Sunday morning.

Here was I, white, clean shaven, dressed as smartly as any local, sipping on my coffee, just as the scattering of others also were who’d stayed in the city rather than go to the beach or to their country houses. Did I care?

Well yes.

The people in the news are the clandestini, the boat people who, desperate to escape the senseless poverty and violence of the North African Muslim regimes, prefer to chant “Sicilia or Paradise”, the latter their watery destination should they fail, which they generally do. And yet this does not dissuade them from trying.

The Italian, the Sicilian attitude, is a tad kindlier than, say, in Germany or France. There is a grudging recognition down this way that we are all struggling to make ends meet and to find some sort of life in the process.

And what of me, silently finishing the first cappuccino? I’m also by no means out of the woods, off the boat to mix metaphors. It is quite possibile that a stroke of the pen will end my stay once again. So you’ll perhaps forgive a slight edge to my interest in the boat people.

The other day for the first time, I saw one of the survivors emerge from the kitchen of a cafe and pick some leaves from a tree, then merge back into her sanctuary. She was working, possibly long hours. She had every intention of integrating and trying to find acceptance in a very closed community.

Contrast this with the aliens allowed in on study visas in Britain who then kick up merry hell at the end of their time. Contrast it with the proliferation of Mosques and the like, led by people who then have the temerity to demand their own system of justice, Sharia Law.

Oh yes?

And what does the head of the UK police say? Get knotted? You will conform to British law whilst in this country? Not a bit of it. He says there is a place for Sharia Law in Britain’s legal system. Was there a place for Jewish Law in previous years? Bahai Law? Was there a Buddhist system of justice recognized by the Crown?

Sorry to be so grumpy but why the hell should Sharia Law be picked out of the air and favoured by the British police and justice system?

Every one of you knows the answer to that. Because these leaders are not socially agreeable, hard-working immigrants, trying to integrate with British society. They are trouble makers trying to impose an alien system on someone else’s country.

Ours.

Now if I’d written that about the Bahai, about the Buddhists, there’d have barely been more than a murmur. So why the howls of rage from this community, insistent on no offence being given them?
Look.

Any person of any race, religion or color is generally welcome to another land, as long as the clear intention is to integrate and conform to the law and social mores of that country.

Here in Italy, it is quite clear – to have any intention of remaining, one learns the language, the customs, the traditions of the place, mixes with the local people, rather than hiding away in a ghetto, contributing to the local economy and needing to be seen to be doing this.

One keeps one’s protestantism low key and visit the Catholic church, eating the local cuisine – not all the time but much of the time, transmitting one’s own culture to the locals as and when they wish to know of it.

Having now travelled from land to land, this appears fundamental, something that should simply be taken as read.

Not in my homeland, it seems.

Read Cllr.Tony Sharp's thoughts on this latter issue.

[Hopefully cross-posted later at Lord Nazh]

Thought for the Day

This is from an English perspective, I am quite sure Summer is very sunny in Sicily :-)

One July Summer

"What has happened to summer,
That's what I want to know.
Is she on a vacation -
Who knows where did she go?
Tell, what was she wearing;
A zephyr breeze and rosebud
Or grass and wild berry?
Could she be honeymooning
With spring or early fall
Or has she gone so far away
She'll not return at all?"

Dorothy Ardelle Merriam

A bit of a Sunday blog round up

A bit of a Sunday blog round up

Noclue and the cutting remark Ouch!

Cherrypie continues with her theme of a picture painting a thousand words with this photo of a castle of her dreams.

It maybe that JHL is deliberately misinterpreting Tory MP George Osborne giving relief at the petrol pumps, there again...

Bob Piper asks if David Davis is a stupid bugger...

UPDATE: Belated 100th birthday wishes to Ellee.

TalkLeft - The politics of crime
On what is it that the Left bloggers don't get?