November

I'm finding that I have some sort of objection to November. I noticed it last year but thought it was just me but already this year I am starting to lose interest in this month. It always used to be one of my favourites - the starkness of the empty trees, dramatic skies at dawn and sunset, the uncertaintity of what sort of weather each day would bring.
Nowadays, I find myself annoyed at the fallen leaves which clutter everything. The skies generally portend bad weather and almost every day seems bad. I used to get a lot of enjoyment out of snow-covered landscapes that reduced everything to black and white; I hope I am not going to be deprived of that.
I am unsure whether I can get into politician mode and blame it all on global warming or if it just a Grumpy Old Sod sort of thing. I try to run ahead by repeating the 'Oh to be in England, now that Aprils here' mantra but it does not do much for me. April is such a long while away. P

Well now - that's clever

Who would have imagined that in this day and age, someone could do this sort of thing? Given that, why the hell is texting getting so common.

watch your tense and case

oh baby
i want to be your direct object.
you know, that is to say
i want to be on the other
side of all the verbs i know
you know how to use.

i've seen you conjugate:
i touch
you touched
you heard
she knows
who cares

i'm interested in
a few decent prepositions:
above, over, inside, atop,
below, around and
i'm sure there are more
right on the tip of
your tongue.

i am ready to spend
the present perfect
splitting your infinitive
there's an art to the way you
dangle your participle and

since we're being informal it's okay to
use a few contractions, like
wasn't (going to)
shouldn't (have)
and a conjunction:
but (did it anyway)

and i'm really really glad
you're not into dependent
clauses since all i'm really
interested in is your
bad, bad grammar
and your exclamation point.

In your local bookshop now

Not going to put this on my Amazon wish-list.

Courage?

This comes from an American blog. I'm not going to include any link for reasons that will come clear.

I am writing to let you know that my father has been diagnosed this week with cancer in his lungs. It appears to be in an advanced stage. We don’t know for sure what kind it is because we have decided not to pursue all of the tests necessary for a definitive diagnoses, but the lung specialist has called it a probable bronchial alveolar lesion. In addition there are enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen of unknown etiology which may be cancer also. Dad has returned from the hospital to the nursing unit of the R.P. Home. He is resting easily and does not appear to be in much distress from the lung lesion. He does continue to have severe pain in his lower back from spinal stenosis. He accepts this news with a calm and sure faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He does not see that he has any more work to do for the Lord now, and is ready to go to his fathers. He believes that resurrection beats death every time. Dad and Mother's address is:

This guy is going down the route that I would try and follow if this came to my door. Whilst I'm of no known religion, it is clear that some belief can be very sustaining. I would have to rely on the strength of my main adage "shit happens".

Apply for ID Card early - instructions

The image will enlarge if clicked. (Note confident use of 'will')

Muslim "problem" - another cure?

I see this as a reasoned and well-expressed posting.
How To Fix Europe's Muslim Problem
To figure out why Muslims integrate so poorly into Western societies you have to look at why other religious have integrated well. If you do that, the solution to Europe's problems with Muslims is obvious - free their women. This will be expensive but bring huge upside.This behavior comparison technique is used by criminologists to cut through liberal cant. If social conditions made Johnny bad, how come other kids in the same school/housing/family turned out fine?Europe and the US are full of people from poor and backward nations who play a productive and peaceful part in their new societies. For example, here's another snip from the Theodore Dalrymple piece used in the post on muslim killers (my emphasis):Many young Muslims, unlike the sons of Hindus and Sikhs who immigrated into Britain at the same time as their parents, take drugs, including heroin. They drink, indulge in casual sex, and make nightclubs the focus of their lives. Work and careers are at best a painful necessity, a slow and inferior means of obtaining the money for their distractions.UK society contains Hindus and Sikhs at all levels - they have strong community spirit, but they intermarry with and are respected by the native Brits.The big difference is the way these religions treat women. Here's how Indian Hindus see Indian Muslim treatment of women.THE NATIONAL Commission for Women has done a distinct service to society by coming out with its report on the status of Muslim women in India. Penned by Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, it is literally the `Voice of the voiceless.' Many girls are married off before they are 15. The man has the right to have more than one wife. And he can divorce them at will - with the triple utterance of the word talaq. This talaq can even be conveyed by phone or post-card. ...There is a vicious circle of large families, poverty, little education and less employment. According to the 1991 census, Muslims are 12.12 per cent of the population. But only 4 per cent of Indians who finish school are Muslim. Only 4 per cent Indians in government jobs are Muslim. And nobody seems to know how to break this vicious circle. To an objective observer the solution is clear enough; there must be a ban on polygamy and triple talaq. A divorced woman - and her minor children - must be maintained as long as she does not remarry. They must have smaller families and they must take greater care to send their children to school.Of course Indian Hindu society, like our own, has only recently ceased to treat women as inferiors. But unlike Muslim society it has made the transition, for example electing a woman as president in 1966. The Sikh religion appears to have treated women as equals earlier than any other society:Against this backdrop it is significant that Sikhism, one of the world's youngest religions, accorded women complete equality with men in all spheres of life over five hundred years ago.All of which explains why the US and UK have so many Hindu and Sikh women professionals.This isn't intended to romanticize women, who are of course often extremely irritating and lack a proper interest in, for example, the finer points of cars. But it doesn't take a lot of analysis to see that a society that suppresses the talents of half of its people is going to lose out against one that doesn't.So the way to civilize the Muslim killers hiding in Brit society & the rioters in France and Denmark is to free their women. This big project is vastly preferable to the alternatives of deporting and/or repressing tens of millions of people.To achieve this, European societies have to ensure that Muslim women are fully educated, that they are protected from brutalization by Muslim males, and that the Muslim quasi-legal basis for treating women as chattels is extirpated.As well as changes in laws, this will need lots of cops - preferably women and probably armed. Cops to keep the streets safe for women, cops to make sure that young women are not prevented from attending school (common in the UK), cops to bust very family member who commits or abets an honor killing or beating (common in Germany), cops to protect the educators.And look at the upside! Native Europeans are not reproducing enough and face dilution by Muslim incomers. If they do nothing, they'll be overrun by barbarians, whereas if they free Muslim women their societies will peacefully prosper.

Defend yourself

I got this from the Lexis legal site.

The Bill to change the law on resisting intruders received early rebuffs in Government, signalling it will struggle to become law. Under the plan, only those who use "grossly disproportionate force" against an intruder would leave themselves liable to prosecution. At present, the law allows homeowners to use only "reasonable force" in defence of themselves and their homes.

To my cynical but untutored eye, this looks like another Government dogs' dinner on the part of those who draw up planned legislation. Opponents say that the existing law is sufficient and there have been very few - albeit well-publicised - cases where charges have been brought. We have the present standard of "reasonable" force with the proposed barrier for the new Act being "grossly disproportionate" force. So, beyond reasonable or plain disproportionate will be OK. Who will decide what is ordinary disproportionate (?) and what is grossly etc? On this sort of thing, are the fortunes of my friends in wigs made.

My dog continues to amaze me. She is wary of dogs we meet in public - she was bitten by a rogue Labrador when a pup. We were walking in some woods today and she was off checking on her stock of rabbits. Coming along the path towards me was a fairly large Alsatian. He was very alert and stopped, hair raised, and snarled at me. It was not the sort of snarl that would respond to kindness and the mutt did not sit when I gave it a trainer's sort of instruction. I was just adjusting my balance to give it a quick kick in the slats if it came closer when Sable appeared. She stood alongside me and snarled at the much larger dog. Not a trace of fear. The other dog went off sideways into the undergrowth and that was that.

In her case, what she did was well within the bounds of reasonable never mind disproportionate.

Mt wife The Project Manager - Part TWO

The work in our bathroom has now been completed. Despite B & Q rather than because of them.
Individually, each part of their survey, fitting and customer service team seem capable of doing a good job. The problem seems to be getting them all on-side as one team. We had a delivery that was short of all items and included a unserviceable item. We were given a date for uplift of the broken item and delivery of the items required. That took place but we still did not have a complete set of bits. Various suggestions were put forward as to what would happen next. As we had had so much faffing about, we insisted on very close estimates as to the time things would happen.
This attitude was not catered for. Then came the suggestion that everything be put back for a week whilst everything was collected. We did not want this - their not being able to get it right in six weeks convinced us it would not happen in one. Then we realised we had sufficient parts to deal with the bath replacement. This, of course, was all we really wanted. We told B & Q we were so dissatistied that we were cancelling the works on w.c. and hand basin. They agreed to this so we had a result.
Well done Norma - we'll make a project manager of you yet!

Afterthought

I wrote about The Master and his article where he expressed wish to a a pole-dancers' pole. When I wrote it there was something in my mind that I wanted to add. It just would not come to me.
This morning I woke up and straight away remembered. The singer Blondie used to sing a song in which she expressed the wish

I wanna go to Heaven before I die

That's what I wanted to add. Strange how the mind works isn't it?

OK - see what your result is

I am 19% Idiot.

I am not annoying at all. In fact most people come to me for advice. Of course they annoy the hell out of me. But what can I do? I am smarter than most people.

Take the
Idiot Test
@ FualiDotCom

Examples abound

I recently bought a book on creative writing as I thought it might lead to something. I'm still being creative about that idea. However, that man whom I now follow like a disciple, has just posted this.

We are not entirely without ambition. Often I have seen a young lovely in Bangkok, on Patpong or Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy, revolving without excessive clothing around a brass pole in a dim club with disco thumping in the murk and almond eyes watching for a flicker of interest. I do not want to be president, nor a Rothschild nor a computer magnate. But a brass pole in Bangkok, that I could be.

Snap

In the late 1970s Snoopy embarked upon a journey to visit Daisy Hill, only to find that the puppy farm had been replaced by a six-story parking garage.

This is the same sort of dreadful event that happens to me. The vandals destroy my heritage.