[obama] this question now becoming critical

Some of the documentation which would help decide this is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight:

"Even the Hawaii Department of Home Lands does not accept a certified copy of a birth certificate as conclusive evidence for its homestead program. From its web site: ‘In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL.'"

The essence of the complaint is that the "Certification of Live Birth" that is used by FightTheSmears, the Annenberg Political FactCheck and others does not have the same information as an original birth certificate, including location of birth.

Surprisingly, Hawaii happens to issue birth certificates for babies born outside Hawaii. The Hawaiian law on that states:

"Certificates for children born out of State. (a) Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child."

In the comments section of a recent post, Ted Mathis stated:

3. BHO is therefore not a “natural born citizen” (irrespective of Hawaiian birth or whether he may be a 14th Amendment “citizen” of USA) — confirmed in the Senate’s own McCain qualification resolution (that both parents must be citizens of USA) co-authored by BHO.

4. Supreme Court has already docketed two upcoming conferences, 1/9/09 and 1/16/09 — between dates Congress counts electoral votes (1/8/09) and Presidential inauguration (1/20/09) — to address Berg Case and fashion relief on BHO’s eligibility to be President.

The 14th Amendment appears to scupper the Obama challenge until one returns to the material above. Hawaii issues certificates for births outside of Hawaii. My reading of this, to be fair, is that they may mean "in any other part of the United States" but they may also mean exactly what they say, with no futher stipulation. If Obama had been born in Kenya [grandmother and Kenyan Ambassador] or even in transit, then Hawaii would have been satisfied for their own purposes.

However, clearly, given link one above, he would be ineligible for natural born status, for the purposes of federal election. So there is a convoluted case here. SCOTUS accepts a Hawaiian assurance of his birth, as they have precedent in doing. Therefore he is natural born in their eyes and the case goes no further. However, to go back to the setting aside of Dred Scott [link four above], the differentiation between state and federal law was preserved, not overturned.

So there is a logical impossibility here. "Natural born" is not defined and depends on congressional statements or court interpretation and precedent. In federal law, if he was not born in a Hawaiian hospital but Hawaii accepted the "intent" of being Hawaiian, then he is natural born in terms of their acceptance of the Hawaiian statement to that effect but not natural born in terms of their own conditions.

At the very least, this requires a court case. However, private persons have been ruled to have no standing to bring a case against an elected federal official, e.g. Berg. Only congress has that standing and it is Democratic.

The clear answer to this is that Obama was born on Hawaiian soil.

But where? There is no Hawaiian hospital nor presiding doctor or nurse stated anywhere in the Obama camp reply. The name of the hospital has to be on the vault copy and Fact Check [an Obama camp website] says it has viewed it and yet it has not been stated. More than that, they are refusing to state it.

There is a case, with the grandmother and others, claiming he was born at Mombasa Coastal Hospital in Kenya. Records are now sealed in Kenya.

The official Obama camp claim is that he was born at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu. His sister Mary claimed he was born at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. There is no record of either the birth or the mother having attended those hospitals.

These hospitals were contacted by Republicans and none had records of Obama's birth.

Many reference materials say Obama was born at Kapiolani, including Wikipedia English version under the subject “Barack Obama.” But under the subject “Queens Hospital,” Wikipedia says Obama was born there. And Wikipedia Italian says this:

Barack Obama nacque al Queen’s Medical Center di Honolulu da Barack Hussein Obama Sr….

Wikipedia Geneology says Queens too. And there’s this reference on Yahoo Answers:

Apparently, examination of the hospitals’ records in Hawaii have shown no birthing records for Ann Dunham Obama even though there is a registry of the birth in the public records office a week after his date of birth it does not show his place of birth.

Perhaps that Yahoo Answer explains Ann Dunham’s brief stop-over in Mercer Island with baby Barack when he was only a couple of weeks old. Is it possible that she was on her way back to Hawaii?

The State of Hawaii does provide for “late registration” births.

Does anyone know in which hospital Stanley Ann Dunham delivered Barack Obama?

UPDATE: A reader, Aragon, adds…

Alternatively, I ask, “Can anyone identify a written statement or interview or recorded statement wherein Obama, himself, identifies which hospital he was born in?” I’ve asked this question for a month now. No statement has been idenitified by anyone here or elsewhere. The inference to be drawn from this is obvious. He doesn’t identify a hospital because it is something that can be factually verified or debunked and this would compromise his aura of plausable deniability when it comes to issues of his true birth place.

Add to this the AFI tape. AFI originally produced a transcript in which Michelle Obama states:

My husband and I know that there is no law that will stop him from becoming the president, just because some American white racists are bringing up the issue of my husband's adoption by his stepfather.

That one is easily solved. Did she say it or not? Produce the tapes where it was said and all is resolved. But this has not happened and it has gone into the same circular non-resolution in which all the other questions have now fallen.

This issue won't go away because it has not been resolved. Whatever is on that certificate is sufficiently important for the Obama camp to ignore a SCOTUS member demand that it be produced. At the very least, they are being secretive and it is no defence to say it is a private matter. To hell with that - this man is to become president.

This smells, it truly does. There is untruth by omission in here. It has to be resolved.

On a personal note, there's a very simple test of the intent of this blog on this and the Gaza matter, of whether this is a vendetta of mine. If you were to take out the name of Israel and Hamas and substitute Palestine and Irgun, would this blog's stance have been the same? Similarly, if it had been McCain in this situation and not Obama, would this have still been pursued as it has?

The answer is an emphatic yes. Damned right. This blog has no affiliation one way or the other, except to the ideal called the truth. This is not to say that I am a moral person or a saint - merely that I want to know the truth on any issue.

[new dawn] a hungarian rhapsody

4 a.m. in Budapest

Budapest dance ensemble

Eastern influence is strong too.

[hawaii five o] book em, danno, murder one

Hawaii Five-O, does anyone remember it?

Jack Lord had a dark side but he was certainly The Man in this police series - he'd have found Obama's vault copy birth certificate, no problems. In an act of utter prattiness, the supplier of this youtube of the famous theme song won't allow it to be posted on web pages. Click on the pic above to see and hear it.

The show was hugely popular, running for twelve seasons and much of that was down to the characterization and idiosyncrasies. For example:

Curiously, it [the Five-O department] lacked its own radio network, necessitating frequent requests by McGarrett to the Honolulu Police Department dispatchers to "Patch me through to Danno". McGarrett's tousled yet immovable hairstyle and proclivity for wearing a dark suit and tie on all possible occasions rapidly entered popular culture.

Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!

The popularity of the Hawaii Five-O format spawned various police dramas on all the major television networks since its debut. Another legacy is the popularity of the Hawaii Five-O theme song, composed by Morton Stevens and later covered by surf music band The Ventures and by Radio Birdman, a punk-era band from Sydney.

In summary:

While the location, theme song, and esemble cast made "Hawaii Five-O" one of the longest running police dramas in television history, the show is also noted for its liberal use of exterior locations as "sets" throughout the entire 12 seasons, breaking the tradition of filming indoors as with the case for a typical TV series. A typical episode, on average, would have at least two-thirds of all footage shot outdoors.

Here is the Radio Birdman version of the theme:



I loved the deadpan McGarrett [Jack Lord] who reminded me of Robert Stack in some ways. Does anyone recall Stack in The Untouchables? Here he reprises and caricatures his film persona:

[serious people] and bully boy punks

A few people have asked me to continue my series of posts on life in Russia from time to time. I'd like to but not being there now, I don't have the daily incidents to draw from. This one is from what I recollect.

The essential thing to remember in Russia is that the network of family and friends is everything. It provides support systems, which the state does not provide and it also provides protection, an absolute necessity over there.

This is not to say that daily life is like that for anyone but the local gangs. Most people go about their business, going to the market, kids going to school, grandparents playing their roles. Most now have cars and the rest usually go by the now quite satisfactory bus system.

There is a golden rule that you don't go out looking for trouble but if it does come upon you, you need to have a "krisha" [roof] or two in place to help you. Krisha is an outmoded word these days and most people speak of "par' ni" or "rob' yerta" [the guys]. The thing for you to ensure is that the krisha is appropriate for the occasion.

Let me illustrate this. I was going to buy a place in a carpark not far from my home but what it did was put me on the other side of the new development block I was living in [maybe 250 000 population]. While it was safe enough to walk around the well-lit periphery of this block, it wasn't so good to go through it because of the punks.

In Russia, there are egotistical young punks dotted here and there, everywhere, who imagine themselves as hard men and use bully boy tactics which work on the majority ... and then there are the seriously hard men, known as "seriosniye lyudi". I was introduced to a few of these latter and the thing which characterized them was that they were generally softly spoken, with a sense of humour and were nice guys to know.

Only their history and physique gave them away.

The thing is that the punks generally do get away with threatening and standing over the ordinary citizen and so it's best to avoid them. If you can't or if they come to you, then you have to respond and so I asked one of my 'seriosni' acquaintances how to deal with the punk problem in that 'dvor' or yard between the main roads.

His solution was to get a carpark berth at a place which wouldn't require walking through there. If, by some unfortunate chain of circumstances, you did find yourself face to face with them, then there were certain key jargon phrases to know and say, to the effect: "Let's come back here tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and settle the matter. You bring your people and I'll bring mine."

The absolute essential was that you did go back there the next day at 10:00 a.m. If you failed to, then you'd created a major ongoing problem for yourself. Anytime anyone saw you alone after that, they'd know they could do as they wished. So to use your krisha seemed the solution but this was a double-edged sword. My particular krishi were a bit too high powered for punks in a yard and it would have to have been a major threat to utilize them.

They knew that too because if they did act for you, then there was the standard payback required in some way. Life revolves round favours done and returned over there. So people generally tried to resolve a matter like gentlemen. However, if you were really forced into a corner, there was only one thing for it and that was to utilize your krisha with maximum prejudice and no beg pardons.

Most people knew that a punk might get a result for his bullying but it didn't help much in the long run if he ended up crippled for life. Only nutters ignored silent warnings and it illustrates something which has been said many times in the last few days on the Gaza issue - ongoing violence, such as the Hamas and Hezbollah rockets, only begets violence.

It's better to come to the table in a strong position and not demand anything outrageous which could not be accepted by the other side. Then it's a case of standing by the agreement, otherwise it all starts over again.

Above all, in Russia and perhaps elsewhere too, it's best not to threaten, even obliquely. That leaves you with one of two choices - either remove yourself from the threat as far as possible [which is not weakness - it's intelligence] - or else hit hard out of the blue, when they least expect it.

There is a concept of Russia as a lawless land but that's to misconstrue it. There is a law at ground level and as long as all are au fait with the ground rules, things generally stay calm.

[blogrolls] time for an overhaul

My blogrolls have been updated but there's nothing special happening.

This blog runs a Bloghounds plus an Active Roll as the main rolls. There is also an Inactive Roll but it needs to be named better. In there are bloggers who are either not posting much or are moribund but a sense of past loyalty keeps them there. Notsaussure is an example.

In other words, this latter roll contains good people but something is a bit different about them. Certainly the prattiness of not allowing comments, expecting readers to come in merely for the wisdom, wise though it might be, is a blogrolling factor with me, not that it unduly worries them, of course.

There are people conspicuously absent from the rolls altogether and they might not all know why. Some know full well. This is a one-to-one e-mail matter, should they be interested.

In the end, there are always errors and updates needed so please don't take umbrage. It's an ongoing process.

[so it begins] the slide to ... what?

A Sunday roundup, of sorts:

1. John Trenchard shows footage of what is actually happening in Gaza today.

2. Ian Parker Joseph hits the nail on the head again:

Just read carefully the second clauses of Articles 8, 9, 10 and 11 HERE.

And as the nine hippies of Tarnac are finding, one doesn't actually have to pose a real threat to the State - it's enough for the paranoid and weak central State to believe that you might.

It's a pity Ian's comments system doesn't allow some blogs to comment as I'd like to have added to this.

3. Meanwhile, Henry North London has translated Brown's message into English. Here's a sample:

Prime Minister in Black, translation in Blue

As we look forward to this New Year, we face a challenge. A challenge of how we build a better tomorrow, today.

Hello folks, we're unfortunate to live in the time when our whole economy is based on oil which is rapidly running out but we haven't told you this yet because we are scared stiff, and we know that you would lynch us if we told you things were going to get worse even though it would be the truth.

4. Great piece from Mr. Eugenides on Scotland's first space port.

5. Finally, Blake's 7 is an analogy for our current woes, according to the Quiet Man.

[the immortals] do they have more fun

Think about if you accidentally become immortal. This, from Douglas Adams, courtesy of the Hitchhiker project:

Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged was - indeed, is - one of the Universe's very small number of immortal beings.

Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had his immortaility inadvertantly thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying.

To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody. In the end, it was Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55 when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everybody in it in particular. This was the point at which he conceived his purpose, the thing that would drive him on, and which, as far as he could see, would drive him on forever. It was this:

He would insult the Universe.

That is, he would insult everybody in it. Individually, personally, one by one, and (this was the thing he really decided to grit his teeth over) in Alphabetical Order.

When people protested to him, as they sometimes had done, that the plan was not merely misguided but actually impossible because of the number of people being born and dying all the time, he would merely fix them with a steely look and say, "A man can dream, can't he?"

And so he had started out. He equipped a spaceship that was built to last with a computer capable of handling all the data processing involved in keeping track of the entire population of the known Universe and working out the horrifically complicated routes involved.

What would you do if you found yourself accidentally immortal? You've all the money you're ever likely to need, you've seen all the movies, you've visited all the planets. You've been altruistic to the universe. You've been a bstd. You've tried it all. The health is fine.

On the other hand, what would you do if you were mortal, you aged and the systems were beginning to break down? You've done all you're usefully going to do, the kids have grown up, your mates are all dead, you're wondering why you're hanging about.

Would you want to be immortal?

[palestine] just the facts please 4

I wonder if I might ask a question: “Do you feel accepted by your nation, your land, your peer group?” For most of you, that’s an irrelevant question, stupid even.

What would you say then to a friend of mine, a Yorkshirewoman, who moved to another town twenty odd years ago and not so long ago told me, with a touch of irony, that she was now finally accepted because the baker had waved to her for the first time ever, as he’d driven by?

Cutting closer to the chase, last year I was nominated for the American weblog awards in the UK section, largely on the strength of American and British votes but a certain lady left a comment at this site, saying: “Oh, are you a UK blogger, James?” Nice putdown.

Going way back in time, to the 4th class/year/form, I always thought I was one of the lads but one day I was bumped off top spot in our weekly class tests by a girl called Gail and I was mightily p---ed off because she’d been given help with the last test. To be honest, a tear or two crept from the eyes.

At lunch break, out I went to play football with the lads but no one was passing it to me so I just took it and tried for goal myself. Even my own supposed mate wouldn’t tell me what was wrong later but from that day forward, there was a coolness from my peers.

Now, leave aside these trivialities and look at a people who not only haven’t managed any peer acceptance in 5000 years but they’ve also put up with pogroms, oppression, putdowns and all sorts of unpleasantries – anyone know the story of Clifford Tower in York or about the Volga River pogroms?

Forever seen as foreigners and usurpers in their own homeland, taken captive and deported, they’re quite logically going to develop a jaundiced view of life, wouldn’t you think? The word that springs to mind, regarding the attitude they’re likely to develop is “intransigent”.

Unpleasant to deal with but understandable, all the same.


I’ve had two interfaces with the more extreme members of this community, one for three years and one for two weeks. In the former, one month the gentiles’ salaries were not in the bank but the Jewish ones were. Our money had been used to pay for the new chandelier in the synagogue.

In the latter case, I was staying, during the holidays, in a cottage on a hillside and a group of Jewish children passed by, singing Top 100 hits. Suddenly, a voice cried out from behind for them to stop and a man ran up, circling them like a sheepdog and exhorting them to start chanting a Hebrew song instead and so they went, all the way down to the fields below.

Most of the Jewish families I knew were just your average family, “more English than the English”, a statement which would upset them because they were English, in their eyes. This is the thing, isn’t it – non-acceptance of who they are and what they believe in? That then causes an attitude problem in them and confirms the worst suspicions of the non-Jews around them who’ve been fed a diet of hostile folklore all their lives.

Cf the Irish question.

Things stick in the memory and my father always told of how, in the war, he stood on the banks of what might have been the Jordan and on one side were the Jewish settlements, with irrigated land and crops and on the other – desert and Arabs. Blame my dad, not me, for that story. Either way, it sure affected those soldiers and they were far more pro-Israel after it.

Looking at it from the Palestinian point of view, there they were, minding their own business and doing sfa with the place, when along came dispossessed Jews from Europe and man, these people were intransigent in a big way. From 12% of the local population to some enormous number, these Jews posed an enormous threat.

For a start, there was the worldwide caliphate to consider, the goal of every intransigent Muslim and they, the Palestinians, were right in the heart of it. But a different loyalty was also tugging at them at the same time – the nature of being Arab and all it entailed, with a long and glorious past.

With the various mandates in the area, a new idea had also sprung up – that of nationhood. Iraq became Iraq, Persia and Egypt already were, the Lebanon and Syria became distinct.

So, torn all different ways and observing what, to them, were foreign powers imposing a Jewish state on them, they were likely to become intransigent. It was beyond the pale to cast an eye across this vast Arab Muslim caliphate, a source of great pride and to see this ancient blot on the landscape return – the hated Jew. And not only return but right in the prime piece of real estate they suddenly wanted.

All the time, their own holy book speaks of finding Jews hiding behind trees in the end times and killing them, along with other choice scriptures. What chance any sort of accommodation with the Jew? Parts of the Talmud are equally revealing.



The instant Israel formed, wham – virtually the whole Arab world attacked in force, once, twice, three times, even on a religious holiday. Having refused to accept the two state solution, they preferred war and in war, territory gets taken which could never have been taken in peace time.

Then they turned around and cried, “Usurper!”

The Arab leadership must shoulder a large portion of the blame for this. Yes, the life of the Palestinian is dire but look at the intransigence of Hamas, which only stirs up the intransigence of the Jews, which stirs up the intransigence of Hamas and so it goes on. Stop the rockets and see what happens, whether things become better in Gaza.

In a condition of peace, see if Israel continues to choke the border crossings or oppresses the Gaza residents. Let’s not you or I speculate but let’s just see what happens. Let’s see how Hamas spends its billions in aid – on Iranian weapons to wipe Israel off the face of the map or on the living conditions of their own people.

I’d say as long as those nutters are in charge, putting innocent Palestinians in the firing line for their own purposes, as with Hezbollah in the Lebanon, then the Palestinian cause will never be served.

At least Fatah offers some sort of hope for a lasting peace. At least there is a way forward for cooperation on irrigation, on food supplies, on housing, on a reasonable lifestyle.

Let it just happen.

[bloghounds] stirrings from the hearth

Bloghounds Term Report

[Cross-posted at the site, if the technically wizardry of Cherry Pie worked.]


As usual, this is a personal review and you’re welcome to post your own. The Bloghounds welcome your perspective. Comments at the site rather than here, please.

We find ourselves with eight months under our belt and where are we?

The attrition of blogs

Some say that the nature of blogging has changed; certainly there is a move by certain sections of society to restrict and register blogs but there also seems to be less blogging going on in general.

Bloghounds needs to recognize realities and the immense pressures [in blogging terms] of real life in 2009. In short, people have their own worries and less time to devote so this, in turn, makes rules about visiting other members and linking quotas unworkable.

There is also the firm principle that a blog is a voluntary, largely unpaid medium which someone maintains because he or she wants to. Therefore, he will want to visit the Dales, Wat Tylers and Dmajor bloggers, he has his own daily round and his own inner circle.

Where does that leave Bloghounds?

From a personal point of view, it seems, as I wrote once before, that BH is a brand name and as such, the principles upon which it was founded need to remain immutable, as the best trading houses in the world, the ones remaining viable and not bailed out, also do.

The line, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ applies to us. As a badge of a certain, if minor distinction, it stands for ethical principles and that has implications for new inductees. We don’t have many rules but those we do have, we stick to almost vehemently. Not to put too fine a point on it – there is a certain type of blogger we like to see wearing the Bloghounds badge and there are, sadly, some which we don’t.

This is not high-nosed but a simple statement that we are protecting the brand name.

The committee

We do seem to have settled on a skeleton committee which takes care of the nuts and bolts but I’d like to mention some in particular.

There is our technical whiz, Wolfie, who made it possible in the first place and keeps these matters going, there are the original committee members such as Andrew Allison, Welshcakes, Jams O’Donnell [current committee member], Sackerson and then there is one other to mention at this time.

This lady is the goods, a great administrator because she does it with so little fuss. To have an admin who is also so in Real Life is a coup and I’m referring here to Cherry Pie who has carved out her own little niche in the blogosphere and who crosses so many blogging boundaries.

Issues

There are two issues we’ve so far had to face.

One was the image copyright matter which we jumped on in uncharacteristic haste, followed now by our own langorous search for a new logo.

The other is the constant problem of applicants who are refused. A look at the correspondence which goes back and forth over any controversial applicant has shown a distinct pattern – unanimity amongst those who spoke and silence from the others.

We know what we want and we know what we don’t. We reserve the right to rely on our members’ voices and we go with the majority opinion. There is no undue administrative directing of opinion for the simple reason that this membership has shown itself to be impervious to undue influence. They’re big boys and girls in their own right.

Bighound

There is one mystery member who can usually be found contentedly curled up on the hearthrug. We assure members he’s been fed and watered and if you see him roaming round the premises late at night, do not be alarmed – he’s simply shifting position to get closer to the warmth.

The human members

We are the members. Having said that, recent votes and comments have shown a distinct tendency to leave it to the few and so be it. BH does not push the unattainable; it recognizes reality. If things are going in a certain direction, then that’s the direction they’re going.

If this report resembles a boring quarterly company review sent to your mailbox, then that’s a big plus in our eyes. ‘Steady as she goes and into 2009’ is where Bloghounds is currently sailing.

[arabica] music, not war

First is by Hi Fi from 1999 and the second Di-du-la. Both Russian. You know the next one:

[modern living] oh for gay paris

They do it differently in France:

Vendredi, vers 13 heures, la ministre de la Justice a accouché par césarienne d'une petite fille. C'est le premier enfant de Rachida Dati, âgée de 43 ans. Elle avait officialisé sa grossesse en septembre dernier. Depuis, la ministre a refusé de révéler le nom du père de l'enfant, ce qui a suscité de nombreuses rumeurs.

43 years old for her first child, the father unknown and she's a minister of state. And how's this for a prediction?

Anyway, back to more conservative matters, here is your business attire for 2009. Pop over to gay Paris and get yours now.

[the skinny] on the fat of the land

So glad the BBC saw fit to publish this.

This is not the time of year to think skinny but to get a bit of body fat on, eat lots of proteins, good carbos and some good fat. A certain amount of exercise and a whole lot of hibernation is indicated.

Good luck.

[palestine] just the facts please 3

It's next to impossible to get a clear picture of the region loosely referred to as Canaan. I've just been reading one, two, three, four and five sources and am no clearer now than before.

The essential problem is that almost all sources set out initially to be unbiased but then twist the narrative as it goes on, concluding that the land belongs to this people or that people and that they've proved it.

There's little doubt that Israel occupied ancient Canaan but I can't see this as any different to the Romans or Anglo-Saxons occupying Britain. The most realistic statement is that there are quite a few tribes or sub-groupings attached to different regions and the hegemony of one or other is a fact of life.

Whites dominate Australia, the dark skinned tribe dominates Italy ... so what? Realpolitik. Given this, I'd like to ask the Arabs in the middle-east two questions:

1. Do a people exist whom the world could refer to as Jews or of Jewish origin? Just that - do they exist?

2. If they indeed exist, then where is their traditional home, if you will not concede it is in Palestine? In other words, if your claim is correct that the Jews do not descend from Canaan, whence do they descend?

Then we come into another area - the people who develop the region. The Jews have obviously turned the area into a fertile land, where once it was a barren home of nomadic groups and people eking out a living. Jerusalem has been associated with Jews millennia earlier than with Muslims, so who can lay claim to it?

[tough men] sometimes need to remember their age

Statue of Ronald Dale Barassi near the MCG

This sort of thing goes on all the time, of course, so why should this one be any different? Well, there's a twist to it.

On New Years Eve, football great Ron Barassi was having dinner with his wife at a St Kilda restaurant, dining al fresco. There was a commotion and the next thing someone crashed into his wife's chair. It was a woman who crashed to the pavement and was then kicked while she was there by an unidentified male.

Ron Barassi sprung up, the man ceased and ran and Barassi chased him through the crowd, when the man turned on him punched him to the ground and started kicking him in the ribs. Then friends arrived and the man ran.

All right, so where's the twist? Ron had forgotten he was now 72 years old and the coward could have been anything from his 30s downwards. Barassi's been good-humoured about it but understandably, there is a groundswell of sympathy for him.

Just a note for non-Australians. Barassi was the famous Number 31 for Melbourne during their golden years and then went on to a distinguished, premiership winning coaching career afterwards. He's generally regarded as one of the greatest football legends ever. What characterized him during his playing and coaching days was his ruthless determination and hardness - he was a tough customer to tangle with.

You have to wonder what the fate of the coward would have been, had the incident occurred 35 years earlier. And Barassi's last words on the matter?

'I'd do it again.'

[eu monster] time it returned to the eec

Interesting thought - a Mediterranean Union

Liam Fox wrote a piece at the Telegraph on the EU defence establishment:

On defence, the treaty gives the EU Commission more influence than ever. The debate is not about whether the treaty affects our defence policy but how far it pushes us from an intergovernmental policy to a supranational one. The newly created High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (the EU's foreign minister) will also serve as a vice-president in the EU Commission.

This in itself is bad enough, potentially blurring executive and civil service roles. Worse still, he will also head the European Defence Agency (EDA) and have a right of initiative for proposing EU-led military operations. The bottom line is that the EU will get a foothold in our defence policy for the first time.

We did not join the EU for defence purposes – we have Nato as the cornerstone of our defence. For the EU to have a constructive role, it needs to do something Nato does not do.

Mr. Fox is correct - Britain did not join an EU state with it's own defence establishment. Defence in the UK is through our own forces and in combination with NATO. Quite apart form the resources consideration, there is the simple matter of jurisdiction.

Can anyone doubt that the EU sees itself as consuming the members states in all aspects of a government's remit? This body must be resisted with the full force of a nation's resources until they agree to go back to what they once were - the EEC.

[renegade] or do you prefer trojan horse

Stephen Pollard tells us that Barack Obama's secret service code name is renegade.

This is the Merriam Webster definition of a renegade:

1 : a deserter from one faith, cause, or allegiance to another
2 : an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior

Are they trying to tell us something?

[in bruges] requiem for three hitmen

The reason Roger Ebert is such a popular film critic is because he is a good film critic. You don't have to agree with everything he concludes but he's on the money with In Bruges.

Now, call me a prude but I don't like the way Colin Farrell operates in real life. On screen though and especially in this film, he's the goods. As Ebert says:

Farrell in particular hasn't been this good in a few films, perhaps because this time he's allowed to relax and be Irish. As for Brendan Gleeson, if you remember him in "The General," you know that nobody can play a more sympathetic bad guy.

This is a superior film, despite its lukewarm box office reception. The cast is talented and Clémence Poésy is so uncannily like someone I know well in Russia that the film would be memorable just for her. Thekla Reuten [photo below] maybe even overshadows her although her role is smaller.

Actually, it's a great film in itself. Ebert again:

If the movie accomplished nothing else, it inspired in me an urgent desire to visit Bruges ... The movie does an interesting thing with Bruges. It shows us a breathtakingly beautiful city, without ever seeming to be a travelogue. It uses the city as a way to develop the characters ... But [the film] accomplished a lot more than that.

It's dark, there are quite a few threads and the black, grim humour runs below the surface the whole way through. It's atmospheric and lush and yet it does something else only a few might enjoy - it allows nothing particularly active to happen for long portions of the run time.



Then it finally comes together. Ebert:

Without dreaming of telling you what happens next, I will say it is not only ingenious but almost inevitable the way the screenplay brings all of these destinies together at one place and time. Along the way, there are times of great sadness and poignancy, times of abandon, times of goofiness, and that kind of humor that is really funny because it grows out of character and close observation.

All the above is probably telling you what you already knew.

In Bruges.

[bloghounds] stirring myself to write on us

Bloghounds is an unusual combination of bloggers and it confuses those outside of it.

Someone says, "What's happening with Bloghounds?" and I reply, "We're hibernating just now." He might reply, "Hibernating? Moribund more like."

Bloghounds would be likely to reply, "Well, we're sorry you feel this way."

Actually that statement is to misunderstand what BH is about. It's more like a label, a badge. Does anyone ask, "What's Pajamas Media been doing lately?" Well nothing, actually. It just is.

We do have plans to run a Fun Awards early in this new year and the categories are almost ready to present to members. Some of them are quite funny and we should be cutting loose soon. But don't hold your breath.

I suppose the best way to describe it is that BH is a loose affiliation of very busy people who have a real life out there and not much time to blog. We are often bemused the way we're viewed by the outside world. Any action tends to happen inside the site but we've also been criticized for being too nice to each other in there.

BH is most certainly democratic and that's why I don't dare post this over there without member approval, nor did I visit my issue from 2008 over there either. We'd definitely support a universal cause or a blogger who was being oppressed by Evil Powers.

We don't lay great claim to defending the blogosphere, per se and we don't canvass for members although we did at the start, wanting to get the right people in there early.

Bloghounds was born out of a mini-crisis in this corner of the sphere but very soon began to develop its own persona, via the members and though there are differing opinions about how large we wish to become [we've recently admitted two more members] and whether we should set anything in writing, we've been fairly easy-going up to now.

That's the special feature I particularly like about BH which makes me happy to be a member. No one bothers with quotas and votes and the like and the reason is at the point of inclusion of new members. We regard this as fundamental - that new members adopt the spirit of BH, such as it is and as Wolfie said, "We don't have many rules but those we do have we like to see observed."

So, we press on, as and when we can and occasionally even get ourselves into a loping stride but more often than not, we snooze by the fan or the fire, depending on the season.

[cassilis] liam is back

Liam is back but not as Cassilis.

[exclusivity] it's all about privacy and immediacy

Photo 1 - Rayavadee accommodation, set in the forest

Rayavadee Premier Resort in Thailand, where the esteemed Wolfie is staying, raises for me some interesting issues. Hopefully, this photo post will illustrate these.

Let’s just say you’ve come into a few thousand euros and you and your partner plan to travel. You now get down to priorities. Do you want:

1. some base away from it all, with mod cons;
2. a slice of another culture, relaxing away from the madding crowd;
3. to “do” a country, seeing absolutely everything in a given time;
4. a bit of excitement and adventure in your life?

Photo 2 - Rayavadee eating area

Also, there are three components to your stay –

1. flight and transfers;
2. the resort itself;
3. the excursions.

How much of the kitty do you disburse into each of these areas? Whenever I went away, I was looking for a break from the pressure of work, so N2 [immediately above] was the key and N3 was second. My partner had N3 up front but she also liked her comfort. Faced with a finite sum of money, she opted for N2 next.

Photo 3 - Sai Yok National Park falls

The reason Rayavadee is interesting is that it doesn’t seem to go the polished wood, brass and glass route. Look at photos 5 and 6 and tell me if you see something wrong here? Possibly you don’t see it. For me, they’re too sanitized, too international, too “cocoon” like, too expensive in style. Don't get me wrong - the service was exquisite and the layout open and vast.

I don’t want to pay for glitter and shine or for westernized samples of a country. I want to be deep in the heart of a place, speaking with locals and getting a feel for my surroundings. Of course, paying those prices, you’re never going to be slumming it with the locals but you can come to a sort of compromise.

Photo 4 - Sai Yok National park

When we went to Thailand, we were based at the Royal Cliff but half the trip was at the Sai Yok National Forest encampment near the Burma border and we both voted that infinitely better.

We were actually on the river on a barge with a house on it, our meals were taken on the restaurant barge which would come away from the river bank and be towed downstream and unlike the glassed in, polished wood barge of photo 8, we were on a wood-planking, thatch-roofed raft, complete with servant boys and yet the same food the Thais were eating themselves.

The raft would then jam right in under a waterfall and we could walk out to the end and let the waterfall tumble over us. That’s where we discovered how heavy water really was. We’d hear tales of the wet season and how the river would rise almost up to the high bridge, we’d speak in broken Thai to the staff. In the evening, we’d be sipping on drinks on that barge, as the river flowed beneath us.

Photo 5 - the view from my favourite terrace restaurant at Royal Cliff

I suspect that that’s what Wolfie was looking for.

In my eyes, exclusivity means to be able to reduce the population around you to the point where you can handle it. If I were in prison, for example, I’d hope to be in solitary confinement. I’ve read that people go mad from that but I’d welcome it.

Exclusivity does not have to mean you think you’re better than someone else. It doesn’t have to mean obscene amounts of money although it’s becoming increasingly the case that you can’t find space unless you pay big for it.

Photo 6 - a bit above the accommodation we had but not unlike it

IMHO, it means a degree of privacy and it means you can choose whom to have around you. What I didn’t like about Pattaya was the vastness of the complex although they couldn’t have provided all the ancillary services, such as ludicrously discounted Mercs to Bangkok or the dazzling array of bars and pools unless they were pulling in large numbers of guests.

That’s why I only once went down to the pools and never went to the bars. It was like being in the crush of London or Moscow all over again. You might like the sheer weight of huge numbers swirling around you in the clubs or bars but it’s not for me.

That’s also the beauty of the area where I’m now living – it’s on the edge of civilization, is quite low density and is set close to forest with the water not far away.

This, to me, is what luxury is all about.

Photo 7 - night time dining al fresco

May I give one more example from Russia? No one understood why I opted to travel on the ancient, decrepit tramvai which rattled and squealed along the rusting tracks when there were modern, heated buses and my own car to take into town.

There were two reasons:

1. There was hardly anyone on the tram and it would amble along without restriction, past the clogged road traffic and down some scenic routes which had not changed in fifty years;
2. It was part of the specific culture of the town and opened up interactive possibilities which were just not possible the other ways.

Photo 8 - the type of bland, cocooned tastefulness which removes you from the experience

Finally, the question of envy. I don’t envy Wolfie one little bit although I’m happy he’s happy. I don’t envy you who are living in mansions and driving Mercs either although I can see the allure. There’ve been enough fascinating times over my life to keep me in memories until the end.

What I do envy is the person who has his own little world and is happy in it, who’s surrounded himself with what he likes and enjoys and does it his way. That, to me, is worth all the tea in China.

[optimism] better for the mental health

Le figaro is running a poll:

L'année qui vient de s'achever a vu le monde se transformer profondément, avec les conséquences de la crise économique et financière mais aussi les espoirs portés par l'élection de Barack Obama à la Maison-Blanche. Pensez-vous que 2009 sera une bonne année ?

Will 2009 be better, in other words?

Oui 39.81% Non 60.19%

That's as maybe but the economic situation is not always the be all and end all. A close lover and/or great friend can be an immense boost. Spiritual calm is the best lift of all.

Sometimes it's just one lucky little break which can do the trick.

I suppose all I'm trying to say is that we needn't be slaves to our situations, even if we can't escape them. Keeping the spirit up in 2009 seems the only way. On the other hand, there are one or two people I'm missing something awful and what makes it worse is that I can't make contact, can't get through.

C'est la vie.

[new year] wishes for you

С празднечкам вас всех!! C Новым Счастьем! Тут можно поздравлять и дарить подарки. С наступающим новым годом! Здоровья и удачи всем!

Buon capodanno a tutti felice anno nuovo! Allora...buone vacanze...all'anno prossimo...una bellissima fine anno e un inizio felice 2009 !!!

Je vous souhaite une très bonne année et que tous vos désirs se réalisent. Je vous adresse à toutes et à tous, ainsi qu'à ceux qui vous sont chers, une très bonne et heureuse année 2009. Puisse cette nouvelle année vous apporter ce que vous en attendez mais surtout la santé et le bonheur.

Gluecklichen Rutsch ins Neue Jahr! Ich wünsche Euch geruhsame Festtage und für 2009, alles, alles Gute, viel Gesundheit, Glück und Zufriedenheit, Erfolg und alles was ihr Euch selbst am meisten wünscht.

Feliz Ano ~ Nuevo, bliadhna mhath ur, bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit, blwyddyn Newydd Dda, Naye Varsha Ki Shubhkamanyen, l'Shannah Tovah, kul 'am wa antum bikhair!

Happy New Year and may your most constructive resolutions come true.

[blogfocus] last gasp before new year

Gallimaufry charts the changes in this definitive piece on ordinal numbers.

Nick's bytes had a piece on Hanukah, which I didn't know was from December 21st to 29th.

Andrew Allison asks whether bishops should get involved in politics. Should psychatrists get involved in medicine too, I'm also wondering.

Blogrightreading asks why he is working on December 30th and has a chart to illustrate his point.

Angus asks if the New Year's Honours List is really necessary.

Cherie brings us the vital news about the leap second tonight.

Flip chart fairy tales asks are HR managers ready for the recession.

Hookie has discovered that Hamas has legalized crucifixion.

Mark Wadsworth asks what do "other public servants" do all day long?

The Quiet Man has come to the conclusion that aliens are dicks.

Vox Day says that "Unless your degree is going to lead directly to a six-digit salary, it's almost definitely not worth going into debt to buy it."

Tom Paine thinks that "elderly Christians probably feel the need NOT to lie, but they are being old-fashioned."

JPT tells us that all the gold ever mined would fit into two swimming pools.

[morning chinwag] over a cup of tea

We were having a chat by the fire just now and what came out of it was:

1. There should be rigidly defined areas where central government can interfere and many where it cannot.

2. Some things government could handle, they're not, e.g. if there was a problem in some part of the country which was depressed, resources from the rest of the country could go in there to get it back on its feet, as long as the resources were from within the country.

3. Let's face it, Britain was great as Britain but the intransigence of the Scottish and Welsh politicians has skewed the landscape. Nothing wrong with an assembly and England also needs one badly but the fragmentation of the nation as a whole is not good for any constituent part of Britain. The EU is the other culprit in this. Take them out of the equation and the home countries will think twice.

4. Why is it that whenever things go wrong, governments start printing money, nationalizing and people blame Keynes? Keynes had a whole theory but governments take one small part of it and distort it out of all proportion.

5. We aren't producing anything. We're big in the tertiary areas but secondary industry is dead in the water. Not many are plunging national capital into national manufacturing - it produces no short term profits and no one wants to be burnt in a government policy inimical to manufacturing. cottage industries are similarly affected.

That's as far as we got because a phone call interrupted it.

[2008] a short retrospective

Health of the blogosphere

It does seem to be waning. So many blogs we knew from two years ago have fallen away and even top bloggers [1] have been taking extended rests. Of course, new bloggers come in all the time to replace them and small blogs which persevered have become more mainstream and better known.

Regulation, which reared its ugly head last year, together with the two tier system, will become the norm, most like.

My personal world

Coming into 2008, things were not at all disastrous on the personal front, at least visibly. Real life work was going on swimmingly and friendships were being made all the while. In my corner of the sphere though, there was a major eruption which peaked in January, March, July and November and that’s been catalogued and can be read even now.

It’s a matter of record that Moscow decided that all foreigners who’d been “hanging about” for too long, according to them, were to be given the boot and in my case, I was ill-prepared to cope at that particular time and still am now, despite advances.

The public sphere

You've read the blogs across the blogosphere and have seen the MSM. Other pundits have recorded the fall, the long designed, unsustainable madness which drove the debt-based economy and now here we all are, with worse to come in 2009.

The good news is that there’ll be apparent recovery, led by messiahs but it will be as hollow as the bubble which has now burst. People will be so hell bent on believing it though that it will have a temporary effect until the real desolation and bankruptcy beneath become finally apparent to all.

The debt which the socialists have and will have yoked us with is actually only a concept. Countries are not individuals – for a start, they have limitless credit, despite Moodies and can unilaterally withdraw form a debt. The joke is that while we are heading for the hard-worked-for socialist panacea in society, the governments continue to embrace the capitalist concept of national debt.

2008 saw the education of the more intelligent and open-minded pundits who are now publishing what should have been published two years ago.

And so it came to pass

Many soothsayers now appear to be wise men in retrospect, at least to substantial portions of the sphere. David Icke’s lizards still remain David Icke’s lizards and yet some posts [2] now don’t seem so far-fetched, even finding their subject matter in Wiki and accepted as facts of life.

One of the major advances is how many people now are prepared to at least listen to the possibility that the social ills, the recessions and the wars are not a matter of accident. Appropriately, it took fantasy films like Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace to entertain the notion of “we are legion”.

The next step will be for the inspired pundits to show that there is real William Blake insanity [3], banal desolation of the spirit and a twisted notion of the ideal world, behind the decisions of the movers and shakers. It’s still too early for the common man to take this one on board and he’ll still fall for the pronouncements from above, as he always has.

How many times have we heard, “Well I never could have believed it until I saw it with my own eyes.” You’re never going to see it with your own eyes [4], which doesn’t mean to say it isn’t happening.

The slide to feudalism

Ain’t no doubt about it, folks.

Whether we accept the economist’s model and observe the upturns and downturns of history, trying to predict the bucking bronco’s next move, which historically has meant recession, depression, war and recovery or whether we accept the apocalyptic scenario, the slide to ignomony, the road to hell, the trouble is that education, medicine, the law and the arts have all been crippled by a progressive occupation of key posts at all levels by a certain type of mindset.

Common Purpose is just one manifestation of a morally bankrupt mindset we are now in the grip of. Government has intruded so far into our private lives, even down to our rubbish bins, that a great inuring of people is taking place – inuring them to armed officers, to bizarre degrees of checks and balances, inuring them to militarization of civilian lives, inuring them to the incompetence and wastage, together with the destruction of the old parameters of national identity, religious persuasion, the family [under particular assault] and a feeling of self-worth in the old model we lived under.

This is the crime which has been committed by all who’ve aided and abetted this slide and even now, these PCers will swear blind that they are doing it for the good of society. Yeah? Look at society.

Hope springs eternal

It’s not for me to say. People will discover for themselves from where genuine comfort and solace can be found. We’re still too early in the process in 2008/9, some still have their homes, mortgages, cars, travel and jobs and so the traditional fallback of the have-nothings, the destitute and the rudderless will not kick in for a couple of years yet.

People could, if there was any Charismatic of an altruistic nature around, rather than a false prophet, a black noble, be pointed in the right direction. A kind act a day by each and every one of us, to someone outside our circle of family and friends, would be a start and would go a long way to breaking down the coming climate of suspicion and turning in your neighbour to the authorities. For a start, it would help with a sense of community, now increasingly eroded.

It seems to me that we can come out of this and stall the forces driving us ever onwards but it’s not going to come by us putting up the shutters and acting each man for himself.

That’s the divide and rule principle.

The refusal to assist a neighbour is as bad as those neighbours expecting that they have the automatic right to help themselves to someone else’s resources, someone in the street who made hay whilst the sun shone. That sort of attitude leads to guns mounted on front porches.

Any recovery is going to involve two things – ridding ourselves of [or at least emasculating and marginalizing] the elite who always fear the people and the second aspect is at the micro-level – rediscovering sanity, putting aside the consumer madness and rediscovering old values which always stood us in good stead before.

There are some I need to personally thank for their kindnesses and friendship. I do thank them very much. There are new blogfriends and that's always a delight. This blog wishes all with constructive and kind hearts the very best in 2009.

[mystery town quiz] round the world

1. The name stems from Dwrgwyn, from the Old Welsh (also a Brythonic language) dwr or "water" and gwyn Brythonic for "white" or "clear". Thus the name may mean "clear water".

2. It's a capital and is closer to the capitals of five other countries than to the capital of its own. The region has a tropical climate, with a wet season and a dry season. It receives heavy rainfall during the Wet, and is well-known for its spectacular lightning.

3. The navigational head of the Missouri River, this town is located very near to the centre of the North American continent, far removed from any major bodies of water. It has hot, humid summers and cold snowy winters.

4. The town with the highest elevation in the country, it is near Lake Louise, was named by a Scot after his birthplace and has given its name to a crater on the surface of the Planet Mars.

5. Situated between the Buffalo and Nahoon Rivers, it is the country's only river port. Originally called Port Rex, it is home to the Xhosas and has an unusual double-decker bridge.

Answers

Darwen, Darwin, Sioux City, Banff, East London

[realpolitik] asking a terminator to be gentle

Yeah, right.

If little boys bait and taunt a rottweiler on a leash and that leash breaks, all the resolutions in the world calling for dog control will not save those boys. Those boys are in real trouble and unfortunately some of the little girls hanging around with them are also going to be mauled.

It's tragic, the whole thing is better not to be - but that is realpolitik.

[post-feminism] back to the stone age ... or to reason

.

It's official:

The housewife is back, with younger women embracing domestic crafts in droves, according to new figures. Sewing machines have rocketed off shelves in the past six months with Lincraft reporting a 30 per cent increase in sales.

"There has been a definite trend happening and we have also started to see an increase in dress fabric sales," said Lincraft spokesman Jeff Croft. "Demand for sewing classes has increased and one of the biggest growth areas has been knitting yarn, with a 10-20 per cent increase in sales compared to this time last year."

Feminism - wherefore art thy victories?

Save the women, I say, before they deconstruct into Stepford Wives. Save the women before they spend all day in the bath. Women didn't achieve their victories, they didn't become harder than the male, doing everything much, much better than he ever could, only to lose it to a spurious rise in homecrafts and other productive but rubbish activities.

Down with sewing, knitting and gourmet cooking, down with improving your mind with world literature - you should be narrowing your focus with Beauvoir, Walker, Greer and the Vagina Monologues. You must understand that the male truly is to blame for everything so get back to Wollstonecraft and Lydon right now and immerse yourself in orgasm.

That's an order!

[best posts] swift work, jon

Jon Swift has done a massive job putting together Best posts of the year for 2008. If you get a chance, get over there - there's a lot of reading to be done.

[oh dear] not another assassination

Hope it never comes to that.
Is she tempting fate?
Pity about her indefensible policies.

[creature quiz] five to test you

1

2

3

4

5

Which is which? Gytrash, stone marten, mongoose, house martin, sugar glider.