[indifferent cruelty] laying your agenda on another

If you can spare the 48 minutes [a tall order, I know] to look at this video with subtitles about the Beslan monsters, it will put the rest of this post in context.

The tame flamingo set upon by four youths, which has jammed talkback switchboards in Australia, illustrates a broader problem - that of the gutless and the sickos, often in the same package.

This blog sees no difference between the flamingo bashers, the Beslan terrorists, nutters who prey on women under the guise of respectable bloggers then accuse others of their very own guilt in blogposts, ASBOs who blame society, union shop stewards who cripple transport and rubbish collection, then tell people to blame the bosses, bosses who don't give a damn about the conditions of their employees, even switching off their heating to save money over winter and myriad other whingers and whiners.

Above all, the ones this blog places on the lowest rung in Dante's inferno are those who feel that everyone else must take on their agenda. The terrorist who holds a third party, maybe a child, hostage and then makes some political demand or other, with the child's life as the bargaining chip - these are gutless, uncaring people. The murderer who breaks down and cries that he had a tough childhood, the mother of the [still alleged] murderess Amanda Knox complaining to the media that it is traumatizing her daughter - these are all in the same boat as far as this blog is concerned. Do the acts proposed to the victim in the Kercher case bring any blogger's recent similar proposals on his site to mind?

Let's throw Jonathan Ross into that boat too.

Are more and more people becoming callous and uncaring these days or is it all a media beat-up? Hate crimes are one thing but cold, calculated, indifferent cruelty is another beast altogether.

[faroe islands] help bail out iceland

Like this one very much about the Faroe Islands helping to bail Iceland out:

The Faroe Islands, which have a population of less than 50,000, represent an autonomous province under Danish rule and are one of Iceland’s closest neighbors.

Faroese Prime Minister Kaj Leo Johannesen told Fréttabladid that his countrymen feel sorry for their close Icelandic friends but emphasized that they are granting a loan but not a donation.

The Faroese are a Nordic/Celtic mix, the language is a Germanic dialect but they are officially semi-Danish. Whilst not part of the EU, EU travel rules do apply. The staple foods are whale and mutton. Just the country to be bailing Iceland out, yes?

Now, will Jersey bail Britain out? Or am I being Scilly?

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

In adversity lies much humour.

This observation was made this evening after a a chain of events and errors which have left us freezing for a third night - so bizarre it has to have its own post, once the thing is resolved - maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, who knows?
:)

[high days coming] november first and second

As the well read and scholarly know, the festival of All Hallows [or All Saints] is on November 1st and that of All Souls is on November 2nd, at least in the western church.

Therefore the solemn ceremony of November 1st is preceded by All Hallows Evening, just as Christmas is preceded by Christmas Evening, the name of the former now contracted to Hallowe'en. It should be pointed out that:

It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1.

Naturally, Hallowe'en has overshadowed the other two days in the popular mind, through superior PR but the two days of the festival are still vital in the Christian calendar. For mine, All Souls is the more important because:

1. It encompasses the saints;
2. It can appeal to all denominations.

November 2nd is therefore a day to remember one's descendants and deceased family members, a day to pray that they are in a good, safe place, a day to pause and consider things in general.

[courage] should the underling call out the celebrity

The Jonathan Ross saga, which everyone is sick to death of now, illustrates one thing to me - what does a young producer do when an £18m a year star misbehaves? Getting off that and on to the Tenerife disaster in 1977, here was the critical exchange, prior to the KLM plane moving off down the runway:

17 :06 :32 (KLM first officer) – Is hij er niet af dan? {Is he not clear then?}

17 :06 :34 (KLM captain) – Wat zeg je? {What do you say?}

17 :06 :35 (KLM first officer) – EstIs hij er niet af, die Pan American? {Is he not clear that Pan American?}

17 :06 :36 (Angry KLM captain) – Jawel. {Oh yes. - emphatic}

For those not familiar with the story, the pilot was one of the main trainers at HQ who was "shaking the cobwebs out", having not flown for some time, except on simulators in the training room. Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten was a company star, the golden boy, a celebrity who'd even graced the pages of the company in-flight magazine.

The First Officer was experienced but not in the same league, celebrity-wise, as the Captain. It was the Captain's impatience to be off home [with some justification perhaps] which tipped him over the safety edge and the First Officer did not object.

It must be tough for an underling to call a celebrity on a clear error which could make it all go pear shaped. I wonder if we'd have the guts to do it?

[classic posts] not all bloggers have them

Try Theo's contribution to Hallowe'en.

There are great blogs and then there are very good blogs which have some absolutely classic articles. On Obama, McCain and the election coverage, try these two:

* Great moments in election year blogging

* Lockwood and Malone

The first blogger here is dismissed by some and yet he has some classic stuff. The second does not post all that often but when he does, it's usually close to classic.

[hitler] and that trout and butter sauce dish

It looks yummy to me. I adore trout and salmon and in Russia, it's a staple dish. Cook it in herb butter sauce and it can't be beaten, that's if you like fish in the first place.

However, Belgian broadcaster VRT has banned the food programme Plat Prefere's segment on this dish because it was Hitler's favourite.

Uh-huh. Kindzmaraul was one of my favourite wines in Russia - very fruity and smooth tasting. Should I feel desperately guilty because it was reportedly Stalin's favourite wine? I once drove a Volkswagen during my time teaching in a Jewish school and this was looked at askance.

Should we avoid Rumblethumps and boycott the Scottish Kirk because Gordon is attached to both?

And while we're at it - Hitler disliked smoking so should we now ban the smoking ban?

[drayton manor] test case on admissions criteria

About the Drayton Manor High School thing and the principal, the fabulously named Sir Pritpal Singh ...

This is a test case, in a way, as it highlights the right of schools to determine their own admissions policy. In simple-speak, it means that the school will seek to minimize intake of "dead-loss students", thereby maintaining quality of education and classroom ambience, thereby boosting its rankings in the league tables.

Before the egalitarian, mediocratic procrusteans leap onto this, let me put in a word for the independent schools [no one inside calls them "private"]. If you call yourself a libertarian, i.e. the freedom to choose the education you want for your child and the freedom to set up a school which will deliver it, you can't therefore knock a school which aims for excellence.

You can't have it both ways. Either ALL schools work to a mediocratic median point and are open to ALL pupils regardless or else you allow choice and then there is ... well ... choice, such as Drayton Manor has made.

Anyone inside the system, as I once was, knows that the majority of independent schools are small and they struggle to gain good pupils. There are ethical limits to advertising and soliciting and you are only as good as:

1. your courses of study, professionalism of staff and care for the children;
2. your academic results.

Where the argument becomes shaky is that Drayton is a comprehensive in Ealing and some might say that, by using taxpayers' money, then it should, by definition be egalitarian, no matter what.

I'd humbly disagree.

In a semi-ideal system, parents would have the choice of two or three schools in the area and while not all three schools could apply the same criteria, as it would mean exclusion for the incapable, [an LEA matter], there is no reason why enhanced Key Stage test scores [SATs in the U.S.] could not be a criterion for entry or the schools own admissions test.

Back in the private system, now Ofsted controlled in the UK, we had an academic admissions test and it was up to the parents as to whether they could afford the fees, which were quite affordable, it being a small school.

There were international students and many from black, sub-continental and Asian background - the only criterion was the pass score and whether we felt we were able to assist the learning impaired [we had special needs facility]. Now the thing which came through loud and clear at PFA meetings was that it was the non-white parents who were most vehement that "dead-end" ASBOs not be admitted.

They had chosen to place their children in the school and this was their directive - to maintain the high standards and be ruthless with behavioural distractions. I've said that we had one criterion but of course that was combined with the interview process and whether both felt the school was of benefit to that child.

I would defend to the end the right of parents to determine that they wish their children to be in a "good school" and the way to achieve that is with an admissions policy set by the school itself.

[the worcester combi boiler] and the tale of cold feet

We are not happy chappies at the moment.

Boilers should last ten years, some have been known to last fifteen or even twenty years. If one buys the best available, on the grounds that it is less likely to go kaboom, then imagine one's feelings as this four year old device first loses its vacuum switch, turning the house into a cool store and then, some weeks later, the boiler fixed to the tune of a few hundred quid, the fan goes on it and the rigamarole of calling the man eight to ten times to get him to fix it runs into a three day affair [or even four], with no heat and no hot water.

No matter - no doubt you've all been in that position yourselves, with your very own Worcester Combi-Boiler. No doubt your toes were frozen half off your feet as the bumbling Worcester Combi-Boiler repair man led you into a false sense of security by promising he'd order the part and call you back the same day.

Seven hours ... eight hours .. nine hours ... then you called for the nth time and were told that he'd been trying to call you all day [an outright lie] and that he'd have the part by tomorrow sometime.

Did you feel the teensiest weensiest urge to kill, when that happened?

I know - we should be more manly about it, more robust - to plunge the face through the icy crust in the basin, to shed the jackets and double socks and be ... a Stoic. This is Sparta, after all, as Ordo would say. Besides, it might have happened between Christmas and new Year. Think about that!

It behoves a reader to bear the misfortunes and tribulations of others with equanimity so let's say no more about the matter. Let's put it out of mind and move onto more pleasant topics like discovering there was no Blogger problem after all and the three days composing from html could have been avoided, had I known that the bloody settings had decided to reconfigure themselves. Or even discovering what was previously a dormant investment fund, spending most of the day negotiating about it and getting the assurances that all was well and underway, only to be stymied by the fund manager at the last hurdle who has now frozen all redemptions on that fund for the foreseeable future.

Not to worry. What they can't prevent is hopping into bed with the Mac and watching the second half of Zorro from under the bedclothes. Nighty night, good people. Let's smile and think of people who really do have problems.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

UPDATE: Read Posh Totty's account at her place too.

[mary magdalen] judge for yourself

Clearly, the original, of which this above is but a photo, is not going to resolve the issue of the Mary Magdalene/John figure to the right of Jesus. Far better is this link to the Milan site - click on the Last Supper pic and then zoom to your heart's content.

If you accept that the cleaned up copy at the end of the link is close [and there is another one doing the rounds which is not only bright and clean but has been doctored or redrawn], then certain things are interesting.

Given that you know the arguments for it being John - that Leonardo and artists of that period painted youths as feminine, that there were only thirteen figures in all and that it appears to be Judas with the money bag below and to the front of Peter and John/Mary, then there does seem a good case for it being John.

Until you look at the zoomed in figure in detail. You make your own decision but that looks to me, not a femininized youth but a woman, the clasped hands also add support to that.

Now, if it were so, then who is the missing disciple? That's the key anomaly. Peter's left hand gesture and the knife in the right hand are also significant. Against that was that this is a painting, centuries later and that Leonardo was close enough to the reach of Rome not to risk incurring the wrath of the Church. He'd have to have been careful.

It seems pretty clear to me that he was hinting and the way in which, if you shift the figure of Mary/John to Jesus' left shoulder, it fits in perfectly with the idea of John's that he was leaning on His shoulder. Equally, it lends credence to the notion that it could have been Mary and if so, that the clasped hands signify either a wringing of hands or a penitent, innocent state, in contradiction to the prostitute legend. Then again, she'd have been reformed by the time of the Last Supper.

So, for argument's sake, if it was Mary Magdalene suggested there, why would Leonardo have suggested it? Some say because he was Priory of Sion. As a mason he'd also be likely to believe the wife of Jesus story too. Biblical references show she was certainly close to Him and I can well understand very close friendships with women which are actually platonic, despite the odds and the nudge-nudge wink-wink merchants.

Would it have killed the immortality of Christ if He had been married and if there had been an heir? All sources show that Mary Magdalene was deeply involved in the events around the crucifixion and resurrection. If you were in His shoes, knowing the agenda, knowing you were soon to ascend to heaven, would you impregnate your closest supporter?

Also, if Jesus appreciated women to that extent, why did He surround Himself with male disciples? The obvious answer was the custom of the time.

If you were to accept an heir, then each successive generation would progressively dilute the bloodline, despite it still being passed down and there was a grave risk in that for G-d. The enemy would surely try to either corrupt the line with itself [there was precedence for this] or else snuff it out.

That seems to me a great risk - better to pass, not a bloodline but an idea down through the disciples. The idea of the descendant being the returned messiah would also seem to be unnecessary - He can appear once more, just as He ascended.


Lastly, I don't think the idea of the marriage and heir affects the divinity one bit but it does seem more likely to me that she was a devotee and He may well have found comfort in her presence - who wouldn't have at His age?

The argument that He wouldn't have had the following if He'd been too close to her is a good one though but that could have cut both ways.