[the real eu] this is how they operate

Admittedly, this is a UKIP promotional, courtesy of Trixy but it needs to be viewed by all Brits. This is what Ireland is probably going to vote in next year - democracy, EU style:

Assuming that this man standing over Hannan, browbeating him, is Christopher Beazley, then wtf is he doing? He was supposed to have been elected on a eurosceptic platform. Iain Dale and commenters give a possible clue.

Further, from Daniel Hannan's blog:

A few minutes later, Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, rose to make a similar point. He reminded the Speaker, Hans-Gert Pöttering, that, when 14 MEPs were fined for demanding a referendum in the chamber, the stated reason was that they had misbehaved in the presence of a national leader: José Sócrates of Portugal. Yet when Cohn-Bendit and others behaved with outrageous boorishness to another national leader, Hans-Gert not only ostentatiously declined to restrain them, but joined in, upbraiding the Czech leader for daring to mention Communist Czechoslovakia (the complete transcript is available at the splendid EU Referendum blog).

People, this is lawlessness and blatant disregard for their own rules.

[post offices] why they are closing

Ian Parker Joseph gives the real reason for the Post Office turmoil.

My calm and reasoned response below:

[blog contacts] quick few lines

Have you noticed an increase in your blog contacts lately? I've been delighted the new [to me] faces and plan to visit them as much as poss. One of the things I've been meaning to do too is go down the Witanagemot list and visit all of them. Pity there is only so much time we can use to visit but the holiday period will give us some more.

[whistler] gondola tower breaks in two

The pic above is not so clear but the pic in the mind is:

Click pic

There were the skiers enjoying bumper conditions, long queues to get into the gondolas, mucho expenso, when suddenly ... c-r-r-r-r-a-a-a-c-c-k-k! One of the towers breaks in two.

Gondolas are brought to a shuddering halt, swinging around in the breeze then the cable and all sag and bottom out, bouncing a few times, then the realization comes that skiers are stuck up there over the forest way below.

Intrawest, which owns the resort, released a statement last night, saying all 53 guests were evacuated from the gondola shortly before 6 p.m.

You can imagine that operation.

Bryn Hughes, a professional photographer in Whistler, was driving near the Excalibur gondola when he saw the cars start to bounce up and down.

“It was violent for sure,” he said of the yo-yo motion of the cars. “They were going anywhere from 15 to 20 feet down to 15 to 20 feet up.”

Mr. Hughes said he stopped to see whether he could help and saw a young man jump out of one of the cars, which had come to rest about two-and-a-half metres above the ground.

“He was fine. He had a bump on his head and a sore back. He didn't say much, he just wanted to get away from there,” he said.

Mr. Hughes said the top half of a cable tower near the lift station appeared to have sheered off and was lying on the ground.

“It was completely detached, and it was lying near the base [of the tower].”

I've been a few times on a stopped lift but the most frightening of all was the time going down from Mt Pilatus to the town and the gondola, in which I was the only passenger, was swinging sideways and bouncing in a strong wind.

Shudder. Still, it goes with the territory, I suppose.

[playing with space] bring on cancer

You've probably read this, this morning. You probably didn't read this.

It's precisely what this blog has been going on about. The arrogant bstds felt it was their right to bombard the fields surrounding the earth and to hell with the people below. The profit margin and military advantage are everything.

Naturally, the Telegraph article did not mention the second part of it.

Under national socialism, which we have in Britain, the situation is not going to be any better. That's what PFIs are for. What we have here, readers, is a group of people, employed by the various states, who have damaged the atmosphere. It can't be undamaged because you and I have neither the technology, the money or the clout to be able to alter it.

These people will get off completely scot free and your children will develop asthma, cancer and skin lesions. This is not an exaggeration - holes in the fields will allow it to happen.

People, we have to take control of our nations before those with a stranglehold on them decimate us.

ESP, Do You All Believe In It?

I originally published this under the title "Bay of Pigs Revisited" at my blog, Buckeye Thoughts.

As a preface, before we get started, how many of you believe in ESP? I personally, (as I point out in the post) having had several real life experiences with it, do and am curious about others' opinions. With that said, onward!

Last night I had probably what I would rank as one of my craziest dreams ever. The basic premise was this: one of my good friends and I along with a large contingent of Cuban exiles were sent in to overthrow the Castro government, much like the Bay of Pigs.

What I distinctly remember was my group which consisted, of among others in our zodiac, of my friend and one Cuban. As we landed on the beach, we had total surprise. A few minutes inland and all hell broke loose. Although we only took fire from the front, it seemed like a wall of lead was flying towards us. I, myself, was hit as was our Cuban guide. We somehow managed to carry her, our Cuban guide, between the two of us (my friend and I) till we arrived at, of all places, a hotel.

By this time our force had been utterly destroyed; we were the only survivors left. The G2, Cuba's version of the KGB, was hot on our trail. As we slowly made our way into the hotel, it was clear we were out numbered. My friend guarded her while I desperately tried to kill as many of MININT's (the Cuban Ministry of Interior, which has the best weaponry and training available in Cuba) soldiers without getting killed myself. After having cleared an entire floor, I staggered (clearly feeling the effects of the bullet wounds I had sustained) and opened a stairwell door only to be greeted by a member of the SVR (the Russian equivalent of CIA). He attempted to capture me alive by throwing a blanket on my head which automatically binded the moment it gets around a solid object. I pushed him down the stairs, the blanket falling with him, and shot him in the head. I then proceeded to make it back to my friend and our guide, who by this time was looking less than 100%.

The three of us made it out of the hotel alive, carrying her, whilst more MININT troops stormed the building. We made it to an autobus station near the beach. My friend and I were both exhausted and our guide was nearly dead. Then, probably the strangest part of the whole dream happened.

"¿Me quieres?" (Do you love me?) she asked me.
"Sí, no tienes ninguna idea del tanto que te quiero." (Yes, you have no idea how much I love you) I said back to her.

We then kissed once and I asked my friend what he planned to do, since we were unsure if MININT had been able to follow us or not. He said, "Get the hell out of here." I seconded the motion but then turned to our guide and asked, looking at her angelic face, what was going to happen to her. She looked at me and told me that everything would be ok. We kissed once more and my friend and I left towards the zodiac, trying to get there before MININT realized we had an operational means of escape at our disposal. I woke up shortly after this, feeling really blue.

Now, granted this was a dream and a bizarre one at that, I would like to point out the effects of ESP (extra sensory perception, dreaming about events before they happen). I highly doubt this dream was such an instance but wish to bring to your attention of such occurrences happening to me this semester, mainly regarding school work and presentations. For instance, in one class, when a group gave a presentation, I tried to think about where I had seen this before and then it hit me: I had dreamed about this specific event a month prior to it happening in the real world.

Bizarre, indeed.