3) Make campaigning fun. Campaigning is like sex – if you’re not enjoying it, you’re not doing it right. It should never be a drudge. Make sure there’s plenty of meals, drinks, social events, and a campaign HQ with plenty of tea and biscuits. Tap into the enthusiasm of young people with blitzing and street stalls. High energy, high impact, low cost.
Well, I suppose I can see what she is getting at. However, I have to admit that my experience of sex did not include all of the delights she lists. Campaign HQ? - cannot see my blonde tolerating that.
I grew up in an atmosphere where sex was rented. Luckily it did not rub off (well, not very much anyway) on me but I can see the attraction of renting. I had a look at the McCartney and Mills relationship. After 5 years of marriage, he paid her $49 Million!
Assuming he got sex every night (which us men know would have never happened), it ended up costing him $26,849 each time he had sex with his wife. A really high class prostitute (OK, sex-worker for the nervous) apparently cost $4,000. The hooker is on the right and the wife on the left. So, no great debate there then. And no risk of getting splinters under your toe-nails! Even if you threw a 100% tip in for 'specials'. you are well ahead. On the face of it, renting wins all hands down. There is a web site that assists in showing the true cost of a girl friend.
I have to admit that no all prostitutes look as good as the one in my comparison. But at $4,000 a tussle one is pretty sure to find something. And ponder this as well - there are a heck of a lot of wives who look like the Jumping Cricket.
A Californian woman who gave birth to octuplets earlier this week already has six children, US media has reported.The eight babies were delivered nine weeks early by Caesarean section in a hospital near Los Angeles on Monday. The mother has not been named, but US media is quoting family members as saying she already has six other children, including twins.
The Los Angeles Times later carried an interview with a woman identified as the babies' grandmother, who said her daughter already has six young children and never expected fertility treatment she had received would result in eight more babies. She said that doctors had given her daughter the option of reducing the number of embryos, but she had declined.
Officials at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, near Los Angeles, said the woman was already 12 weeks pregnant when she came to them. Despite media questioning, the hospital has declined to say whether the mother became pregnant through fertility treatments.
Well. I do not know how much of this is based on fact. I cannot imagine why a woman with six children would even share her bed with a male still less seek fertility treatment. I understand that the odds of producing that many embryo naturally are many millions to one. So, what the heck were the fertility clinic people thinking when they took her on? The woman cannot have been struck with a warm glow of maternal desire; she had six children and would have known full well what a further eight would entail. Check on that but I bet she will do very well from advertising deals. A slightly arcane point is that her husband is a civilian contractor in Iraq; a job with a higher than average risk of sudden death which would just about wipe out the security of the family.
There is now updated information about this woman. Some form of pathological condition that makes her want children. Keep her away from me please!
I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment.
I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay.
I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies.
I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.
I warn you that you will be homebound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.
I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
So, you have met this incredible Japanese maiden. Not a one night stand.Not a bath-house babe. Just a very nice girl. Two or thre dates in she says "You wanna come meet my Mum Dad?" If the relationship is to continue, there can only be the one answer.
So, in best bib and tucker, you turn up at what is quite an impressive house. This girl is looking more attractive by the minute. She has told you that her parents are Old Japan so you have revised the courtesies and a few phrases in Japanese. All seems well. Then, a meal is suggested. The door rolls back and the dining room is revealed. It is an on the floor job but they have provided a low table for you to save the cramp that comes five minutes after the Japanese-kneel posture.
Then you see the meal!
So, where to start? Japanese food comes in extremes - very hot and spicy, very salted, very many things and all without any real indication of the traps set for Western palates. Luckily, Japanese Miss knows her Old Japan etiquette and selects something and offers it to you. The next trial is the sake. This, like modern-day vodka comes in many flavours. The one thing in common is that all are 200% proof alcohol. Put it in your Zippo if the lighter fuel is missing. They can down large quantities; the merest sip does for most of us.
I think I upheld the flag for the New World. I was invited back a time or two but fate intervened and I was posted to Korea. Local girls who could be described as 'nice' there were few and far between but at least they ate American food!
There seems to be a mass of discussion about the fate of the infamous concentration camp complex erected with the sole purpose of disposing of human beings. Over a million of them.
I remember the wave of horror that went through the free world when reports of these places appeared on our cinema screens. There was no convention then of sparing viewers distressing scenes. Bulldozers were used to shovel piled up bodies into mass graves. The 'living' were also shown in great detail. In some camps - mostly those opened up by Americans - the locals were ordered to attend and see what had gone on in these barbed wire enclosures where trains had run in crowded with humans and out empty. I was twelve years old.
What went on then is truly history. Ancient history. Publicising them and preserving them has served it's purpose. Who now needs convincing of the inhumanity that can spring from a human mind? Those who deny the Holocaust will not change their opinions and they have no influence on me anyway.
Let them wither away say I. Indeed, level them to the ground and plant a forest of trees. Over a million of them.
The murder of little Sarah Payne was an event that had a great effect upon me at the time. The photograph of a very pretty child was everywhere and the inquiry attracted great attention. However, what really got to me were her parents Sara and Michael. They presented what I thought of as faces of bravery. No mawkish sentimentality; dignity shone through their loss. The broke up some while later but Sara continued to press for changes in the law.
Now she has been appointed Victims Champion. This is a Government post which sees her representing all victims of crime, giving them a voice at a national level. Mrs Payne, who campaigned for a "Sarah's Law" to reveal information on where paedophiles live, said she would challenge "whatever needs to be challenged" in her discussions with ministers.
She said: "Over the last eight years I have been asking for victims to have a louder voice, and for the Government to listen more closely to what they have to say. I am proud I will now be their champion, and welcome my appointment to this very important role. I look forward to bringing the voice of victims and witnesses to the heart of Government."
I hope she gets the support and results she deserves. There can be no better memorial for that lovely little child.
The summing up by the Judge in the Shannon Matthews case is a fine example why our justice system, in the main, works. A careful and precise examination of the facts presented and reference to other decisions in similar cases. What I found especially interesting is his statement about the two offenders at paragraphs 26 to 30 inclusive. All the while the State ends up with the finished products of education as revealed here we stand little chance of making much improvement.
Polly is not a favourite of mine. I certainly would not want her on my shoulder declaring how pretty she is. Sometimes, she does a good report and analysis and deserves my support there. So it is when she looks at an AGM. The fat cats are identified; named but not, one suspects, shamed. For my money; and thanks goodness none of it is involved, her comment on the bonus arrangements and the lack lustre attitude of shareholders explains just why we are where we are. If the owners and directors of an enterprise are allowed to reign untrammelled they will act in their own interest. That is where the financial controls let us - the great unwashed - down. The fat cats were observed by others with fat feline characteristics and standards. I never really studied the Russian Revolution but it is something akin that we need to change systems in this country. Not a move towards Communism (surely now seen by all as a failed concept) but adopting a root and branch survey and change in the way things were run by those who, even if they did not end up with their hands in the till, certainly had the keys to the cash box.
When put through the currently fashionable process of initialisation, we get TWOT. Not so far away from the street cred name for the primary female sexual characteristic. When one reads about police concerns at music gigs, it seems appropriate. The costs of such procedures - financial and in terms of police/public relationships - must be immense. To me, it demonstrates the way in which counter-terrorism is handled. We spend large amounts of time and money on arcane measures to prevent something that has a minute possibility of occuring. I cannot now recall the actual term for such conduct - the law of diminshing return is the nearest I can get. Something like the cost of preventing theft from motor vehicles being £1 million per year but the total loss from such offences is less than half a million. Conclusion? Do away with the publicity etc. campaign and give the losers full compensation. Saving of £500K. The other aspect is possibly not so apparent. If it is thought that a certain class or genre of music leads to problems, it means that the followers of that style are deemed more likely than others to be disruptive. Prejudice anyone?
Back in the early 70s, there was a active IRA gunman operating against the British forces in Belfast. He had a strange nose and, with that humour only the British army enjoys, he was known as "F*ck Nose". The only man who used condoms instead of Andrex hankies.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson and Chief Superintendent Janette McCormick - in charge of the Trafford division - were in the fast food restaurant in Eccles at 7.30am when two men armed with a knife and a machete struck.
Mr Thompson, the joint-third highest ranking officer in GMP, spotted one of the masked pair behind the counter trying to kick in a locked door. He stood up and challenged him shouting `Oi' while Ms McCormick dialled 999.
Mr Thompson said that the raider pointed a knife at him before throwing a chair. The attackers escaped empty-handed. The two officers did not give chase although Mr Thompson got the registration of the getaway car.
Mr Thompson, who was not in uniform and was wearing jogging bottoms because he was later due to attend a self-defence class, said: "We made an assessment of the situation to see if it was safe to disarm them. I let them walk out of the front door, then ran to the door and shouted the vehicle registration to Chief Superintendent McCormick. Our priority then was then to secure a crime scene and gather as much evidence as possible.
"I was stood there in my track suit bottoms with no protective equipment. I would not have expected any of my officers to have intervened."
The devotion to duty of these two is examplary. But just whose example are they following - a senior Manchester officer was in the news recently and, by all accounts, he may have had an early morning meeting or two or three - or even ten. 'Methinks he doth protest too much' comes to mind when we have the repeated explanation of his informal attire. The claimed attendence at a police self-defence class is ironic. My memory is that such instruction included dealing with assailants armed with knives? Why do we have to spend money on such classes when it seems that the measured response is "Oi"? Given Mr Thompson's rank he will have attended any number of self-defence classes; perhaps he was doing an advanced Oi-shouting class?
What would be interesting is a Google map showing the addresses of these two and the Mac. Who knows - he may have left his 'protective equipment' in the bedside locker?
This is the French Minister who returned to her office less than a week after giving birth. She has now resigned to er um 'pursue other interests'. Whether this is related to the furore about her refusing to divulge the name of her bed-mate or not is not explained. However, whilst I do find her very attractive and worthy of being seen here, my main attention was drawn by the caption to this image. Smoothy Sarkozy had just announced that the position of Examining Magistrate was being abolished. I was frequently involved in legal cases in those countries where the Napoleonic Code was followed. The Examining Magistrate was a very significant figure. In the atmosphere where we citizens fear government involvement in directing legal outcomes, his being abolished must cause concern. Losing her and him is a double blow!!
When it comes to identifying the 'I wanna be like that' personalities in my life, for writing I aspire to be Fred Reed. His latest example exhibits all that I find attractive in his style and range.
The government is to be asked to pay £12,000 to the families of all those killed during the Troubles - including members of paramilitary groups.
The families of paramilitary victims, members of the security forces and civilians who were killed will all be entitled to the same amount.
The payment is expected to be recommended by the group set up to advise on how to deal with the past.
So far, this is just a leak from what the report may contain. Of course, this has not deterred the politicians from The Green Latrine rushing in with the outrage volume turned high.
Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson warned against implementing a proposal he condemned as "immoral".
"The proposal endorses the morally flawed notion that a terrorist killed while undertaking a mission of murder has the same status as an innocent civilian murdered in a bomb attack or a member of the security forces murdered in front of their family," he said.
TUV leader Jim Allister described the recommendation that £12,000 is paid to the families of all those killed during the Troubles - irrespective of how they met their deaths - as "nothing short of outrageous".
If the recommendation is accepted by the government, the cost would be an estimated £40m.
The group, co-chaired by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley, is expected to say there should be no hierarchy of victims and that everyone should be treated in the same way.
That would mean the family of the IRA Shankill bomber Thomas Begley would receive the same for his death as those of the families of the nine civilians he killed.
Likewise, the families of two UVF members killed while they planted a bomb that also killed three members of the Miami Showband in 1975 will be entitled to the same payment as those of the victims.
The Consultative Group on the Past is also expected to recommend the creation of a five year legacy commission, appointed by the British and Irish governments, to deal with the past - and to say there should be no further public inquiries.
“The Government cannot tell the people of Northern Ireland how they should deal with the past – only the people themselves can try to answer that question.
“This consultative group provides a platform for people to express their own views on how to address the violent legacy of the Troubles which impacted on so many across all sections of society.
“I know that this will not be easy. I understand that many do not want to discuss the past. It is too painful and personal and I respect those views. But I believe that with the historic political agreement that was implemented only last month, it is time to pause and ask how a society that went through a violent and long conflict wants to deal with its past.
“The question is how Northern Ireland might approach its past in a way that heals rather than poisons, that enables everyone to focus on building a shared future, not looking constantly over shoulders to a divided past.
“Only the people of Northern Ireland can answer, I hope with the help of the consultative group headed by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley – who are highly respected across both communities.”
Given the initial response, it seems that a significant portion of the Irish Psychos do not have a view shared with those happy to hold out their hands for the proceeds of murder. I cannot see just what good these Truth & Justice-type activities achieve. There is a good essay from a researcher which details the background to such iniatives in NI. Pages 100 and 101 are especially relevant. This posits that the Bloody Sunday was the first such process related to The Troubles. If that be the case, it only adds to the condemnation due to the Hain Effort. Costly - over £400 million so far and delayed "Maybe late 2009" and already with absolutely no credence from the Republisan side before a single page of the report is released.
It shows what rubbisn reporting can occur and makes a nonsense about MOD claims that the Army has the finest equipment that is allowing us to defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan.
Thus when, on Sunday morning the Viking armoured personnel carrier was caught in an explosion outside the town of Lashkar Gah injuring three and disabling the vehicle, Cpl Deering dismounted from his own Viking and approached the stricken vehicle to assess the damage. A second device went off killing him instantly.
The tactic, writes Harding, shows that the Taliban are now capable of not only defeating the armour of the Vikings but are also aware of the British tactics in dealing with disabled vehicles. It appears that the second device was deliberately planted to target troops who would have to deal with the damaged vehicle
.
And a sum-up reads
As it is, when the Army and the MoD have allowed a few more men to die and are casting around for a replacement for the Bronco, we can only hope that Force Protection, which produces our current range of mine protected vehicles, will have been able to design a tracked vehicle which will keep our men safe.
Of one thing we can be sure though. Our geniuses will not do it. It appears they would rather see men die than use their brains. They would sooner kill than cure.
While I am wandering about amongst The ThinBlue Line, let me introduce you to a post made about Government claims as to what it is doing to enable Commanders to get away from the form filling and out onto the street.
Don’t let the Home Secretary ‘blind you’ by talking nonsense. On one hand she makes grand claims regarding ’stop and account’ and how she is reducing the burden of paperwork on operational policing by removing this burden in a trial 10 forces - oh don’t rush there are 43 forces you know. Lets not forget that this is the same Government of which this would be minister belongs that introduced ‘Stop and Account’ in the first place. As is usual with ‘Nu Labour’ this was contrary to the fears of the service (or as I preferred to call it in it’s heyday ‘Force’). Why did they introduce this process initially? It was to appease some unproved belief that the police were somehow institutionally racist. Do me a favor; nobody other than the author of that ‘famous report’ even knows what that term means.
The fears about the introduction of this ‘paper form’ were well founded. Stop and search encounters reduced and knife crime increased. A coincidence? - I don’t believe in coincidences. Now I am sure that if I was a ’spin doctor’ I could produce some correlation between the two but I think even common sense must say that the two may be related. We now have a situation whereby individuals feel they can carry weapons with abandon without fear of being bothered by the police. The loony liberals have taken over the asylum and seem more intent on worrying about how policing is done than the actual criminal acts that we are trying to prevent.
Read on however… There is clearly not a problem with stop and search but headlines portray ‘Stop and Search Complaints Increase’. Is this headline deliberately chosen to somehow justify the Governments ‘concerns’ about police constables using the powers bestowed upon them by the Crown and the forms introduction. I think so to, so I looked closely at these figures, 955,000 stop and searches in 2006/2007 - a good ‘turn out’ despite Government Interference, maybe it would be higher if we weren’t filling in lots of forms. The interesting thing is that of the stop and search ‘grievances’ only 169 needed to be investigated and 88% of these were shown to be unfounded. Why then are we producing a mass of paperwork that is clearly unnecessary whose only purpose is to keep a few bean counters employed. Answers on a postcard please, Good old ‘Liberty’ think the figure is low because the ‘young and vulnerable’ lack the confidence to complain - wrong , come out with me on a Friday and Saturday and I will show you how ‘timid’ this group of people really is.
I digress but I could not let the stop and search issue pass after today’s ‘report’, and it is related to the topic that I wanted to blog about, that old favorite, unnecessary paperwork and stop and account was a good start. It’s only purpose after all is to provide statistics. I was really ‘heartened’ by the claims that the burden of paperwork was being reduced when I first heard it and thought Jacqui actually had a brainwave, but alas as you can see from the above, hollow words.
There is no real commitment to reducing paperwork, and I know this because the dreaded spectre of activity sampling rears its head again this year - what an absolute waste of police time, effort, resources and tax payer’s money. Two weeks of recording my every move, every fifteen minutes of the day. It’s been blogged about ad-infinitum but the only effect there seems to have been is that a smaller number of staff are being sampled, not insignificantly small, and too many in an operational role whose core task is to protect you - the public. The anger I felt when this ‘tosh’ arrived in my work tray prompted me to blog again as we seem to be making no progress in returning policing to the police.
If you only take one message from this post, then that should be ‘don’t believe anything that this Government tells you about reducing paperwork’. For each form taken away two seem to take their place. It’s about time ACPO actually earned their rather inflated salaries and stopped sitting on the fence and supported the front line staff by actually saying no in the dying months of this Government
This is from a police officer's blog. A true story. A 16-year-old girl with a mental age of eight is lured to an empty house in London by an 18-year-old man. Once in the flat, the man calls his mates and a group of them turn up. Then three of them rape her, giggling and filming the attack on their mobile phones. When they are finished, they pour caustic soda over her body in an attempt to destroy forensic evidence. The girl screams with pain - later, on some of the mobile phone footage, the attackers can be heard laughing at this - and eventually lapses into a coma. For a while, doctors think she will die. She survives, but the skin has 'sloughed off' her face and body, and has permanent scarring to 50% of her body. A year on, she cannot control her own temperature and suffers from depression, flashbacks and suicidal thoughts. When arrested, her attackers plead not guilty, so she has to sit, trembling, in the witness box to relive her ordeal for a jury. When the three men are found guilty, Judge Shaun Lyons talks mighty tough. "The victim has been left with severe post traumatic stress disorder and many, many physical difficulties," he says. "It is doubtful what form her life will take and whether she can operate fully as a young woman in the future." According to press reports, at least one of them Muaimba can 'be seen smirking in the dock'. Then Lyons hands down the sentences. Rogel McMorris, 18, from Tottenham, North London, is jailed for nine years for rape and grievous bodily harm. Jason Brew, 19, from Haringey, North London, and Hector Muaimba, 20, from Waltham Forest, East London, receive six years for rape. Has there ever been a more disgraceful set of sentences than these? If you live in London, you could find yourself standing next to Brew and Muaimba on the Tube in three years, and next to McMorris in four. Does anyone think this is remotely akin to justice?
I think it is called serendipity? Getting a result by accident that is not the one you set out to achieve. I was looking for grouse but dodgy fingers and Google offered me Graze. I liked the précis and made a neat discovery. Graze is a sort of up-market Meals on Wheels. One can identify one's favourite foods and also specify when you wish to have these sent to you by Royal Mail. One needs to read through the site to see why I say 'up market' I got my first, free, box yesterday and was gob-smacked. Great attention has been paid to presentation; the packaging and the food itself. I do not know who the target audience was. From my time as a worker, I see it as ideal for those days when the M & S sandwich palls. It would come right to your desk. I would have pushed it to be used for catering for meetings. I was in charge (roughly) of about 80 people making sure that the Corporate HQ in London was fit for purpose and that the staff had all they needed to do their work without any problem from the services or the building fabric. I used to reward any especially good work by any of my people by ordering them up one of the three course meals that were delivered to offices. The 'done good' individual had the main course. Tradition was that the starter and pudding went to their colleagues. Graze would have taken over from that idea. A healthier alternative and, I suspect, less food miles. I hope that their business plan was flexible enough to deal with the possible reduction in demand due to staff losses and pressure on personal finances. I hope this does not harm what is a most innovative enterprise. I'm convinced and have made a regular order. This may seem strange given that I am retired and now live in the centre of a well-serviced village and just a totter from a well-stocked fridge. Truth is, my self-appointed carer goes off regularly to her Quilt or embroidery groups. On those days, I shall Graze at midday.
The only fly in my share of the ointment is the name. Graze. When my BMI was North of 40, my fatman consultant identified my problem as being due to grazing as in sheep or cattle. I was eating all day; main meals, snacks, comfort food, checking the kitchen's output, whatever kept my mouth in motion. He cured the problem with some nifty embroidery and very large staples. I think I'll call my box Snax.
An orang-utan who rose to become a leading City banker is compelling evidence that low social class is not a bar to success in Britain, claims Piers Farquharson (Rugby and Trinity, Cantab.) a leading expert on social mobility: ‘Over the past few days it has been suggested that inequality in Britain has worsened and that people from poor backgrounds can’t easily succeed in the bastions of the British establishment. But there are few countries where an orang-utan could rise to become a leading derivatives trader.’
We here are having the "Obama is the Messiah" message thrust down our throat. I am getting a slightly less favourable feedback from a number of the 'usual suspect' blogs based in America. Now - I know that no one is perfect (look what some people say about our own tool Brown!) - but these are amongst the comments on what is normally a very conservative (small 'c') site.
I kinda wonder what some of the rest of the world thinks about the hype and hoopla and hysteria surrounding BO’s inauguration. It’s far and away more grand, more publicized, more covered, and more costly than any other we’ve had so far, more like coronation of a royal sovereign than the smooth transfer of power in a free republic.
Even worse, what message will be sent by the security measures being arranged and amount of muscle and firepower employed for crowd control and terrorist suppression (both foreign and domestic)? If I saw something like this being arranged in Italy or France or Spain or Canada or Mexico or Japan, I’d assume the incoming executive to be somehow seriously threatened, or doomed, fatally flawed, deathly unpopular, marked for murder.
Hell, the security forces allotted to this folderol fiesta are greater than what we have in Afghanistan. Total price of this shindig (salaries, vehicles, equipment, overtime, printing, communications, and what-not) are already into 9 figures, and this in a nation which has taken a routine market correction, mismanaged it into a recession, magnified that into a disaster, and allowed that to grow into an economic catastrophe of global import.
WTF, O? I mean, WTFF, dammit! Is this all necessary? Will the people footing the bill (the taxpayers) be able to participate, witness, observe, understand, hear, or see any friggin part of it except via TV? And couldn’t that be done just as effectively today as it was 50 years ago? Frankly, I think we’ve lost it.
“At Last” my ass. More like The Last.
Inarguably we have morphed into a society characterized by excess. Everything has to be bigger, noisier, flashier, more complex, and certainly more expensive than related precedents. Movies have to have more violence, more spectacle, more explosions, faster chases, and higher body counts. Music videos have to have more bump and grind, more controversial lyrics, more glitter, and definitely more bling. Political campaigns have to have more accusations, more innuendo, more scandal, and more polarization.
And now it appears that inauguration ceremonies have to resemble carnivals, side shows, self-congratulatory awards presentations, and compare favorably to the cast of Roots. We’re on a rusting ship whose boilers have salted up, whose rudder has lodged at hard left, whose moral compass has fallen into the bilge, and whose crew got their hands-on training from The Keystone Cops and their degrees from The Three Stooges.
The problem is that all considered, this is still the best port that ship can drop anchor in. I can only shudder when I imagine what life will be like in other places when this country stops coming up with new ideas, finding new applications for old technologies, and growing food for export to places which can’t grow their own.
Sadly, considering the decay of our educational system, the decline in the quality of our leadership, and the demise of personal ethics and accountability, I think we may be not far from that point.
I really believe this country is going to require some type of revolution to get it back on track. Not necessarily one involving violence, but one involving a change in values and the way we live. One where people "want" for stuff again and don't have or get everything they want. One where personal responsibility is rewarded and lack of is punished. Until the values upon which the foundations of this country were founded on return to every day living once again, we can never really be as great as we have the potential to be.
Sandy G, I couldn't agree more. In fact, I will not be watching any television at all for the next several days.
My school district called letting parents know that they will be broadcasting the inauguration to the elementary school. I called my son's and daughter's teachers (4th grade and kindergarten) and told them that my children would not be attending school that day. The teachers called me back and said that it was up their discretion and that they would not be broadcasting the inauguration and for me not to worry. I guess I lucked out with two really good teachers. God bless teachers (some of them)
I get annoyed at the fuss that is made over some modern issues. Assimilation of minorities, GLBT, the environment and global warming; those sort of things.
Sometimes my fevered brain comes up with questions that do not seem to get answered.
Why are there no dedicated public toilets for transvestites?
Why are windows of sheds on council allotments not double glazed?
Why is the water supply to horse troughs not metered?
If dropped bread always lands butter side down, why do we not butter the other side?
If sticks and stones break my bones, why do we need a nuclear deterrent?
We had an expert agree that a Saudi national was tortured by the Americans at Camp Gitmo. She was in a position to know and with a background that supported her assertation.
One would think it was all cut and dried. Torture. Black and white. But, there is considerable argument and debate on what seemed to be a simple statement. Thing is, the accusing fingers may not have the ability to understand the arguments, And a vital part of the WOT is degraded.
Another opinion at second hand about what is going on in Gaza. I have been putting situations in another framework; rockets incoming into Dover, other operations involving terrorists/freedom fighters in a civilian setting. That sort of thing. I found this where US troops dealt out a lot of death in a short time. It is here in full for those who do not 'do' linking. The original is linked however.
13 Jan 2009 10:48 am
At least nine hundred people, maybe half of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza so far, the overwhelming majority presumably killed by Israel (some people, more than we probably know right now, have been killed by Hamas, mainly Fatah activists in revenge killings). This number, nine hundred, is large, and it brought to mind another conflict between a Western army and a Muslim insurgency, the one portrayed in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down." Roughly one thousand Somalis were killed by American forces over the twenty hours or so of the First Battle of Mogadishu (eighteen American soldiers, of course, were also killed).
I couldn't get an accurate read on how many of those Somalis were civilians, so I called my colleague, Mark Bowden, who wrote the book. He said that eighty percent of the Somali deaths were of civilian. Eighty percent! Roughly eight hundred people. I asked Bowden if he thought this meant that American forces in Somalia had committed war crimes. Andrew has been leading an interesting discussion about whether or not Israeli actions in Gaza constitute war crimes, and I've been trying to place Israeli actions in a broader context. Bowden agreed to help me by providing his own understanding of civilian deaths in asymmetric warfare. Here's some of what he had to say:
"If you feel the need to go to war against an enemy that is not as powerful as you are, one of the tactics of the weaker party is to hide among civilians, and use the global media to advertise the horror of the onslaught. People on the receiving end of the bombs greatly exaggerate the casualties and get photographers to take the most gruesome of pictures, and at the same time, the people in charge of the stronger power try to minimize the number of casualties. If you live in a democracy, then public opinion really matters, and reports of dead children swells the criticism of the war. If you live in a dictatorship, then you don't care what the people think. Israel is a democracy and it cares about the way the rest of the world feels. It gets hurt by killing civilians, so for moral and practical reasons, they're trying very hard to avoid it."
"I believe that culpability for these casualties is very much with Hamas. Take this leader, Nizar Rayyan, who was killed with many of his children. He knew he was a target. If I knew that I was a target, I sure as hell wouldn't have my children near me. It's a horrible and cynical choice he made. But if your enemy is a sophisticated manipulator of public opinion, then this is one of the many downsides of choosing to go to war. Israel knows that."
"The parallel with Mogadishu is that gunmen in that battle hid behind walls of civilians and were aware of the restraint of the (Army) Rangers. These gunmen literally shot over the heads of civilians, or between their legs. They used women and children for this. It's mind-boggling. Some of the Rangers shot civilians, some of them inadvertently and some of them advertently. They made the choice to shoot at crowds. When a ten-year-old is running at your vehicle with an AK-47, do you shoot the kid? Yes, you shoot the kid. You have to survive. When push comes to shove, faced with the horrible dilemma with a gunman facing you, yes, you shoot. It's not just a choice about your own life. If you don't shoot, you're saying that your mission isn't important, and the lives of your fellow soldiers aren't important."
My dear old Granny would have been a top earner I reckon.
Source: PA News
A Lithuanian debt collector has hired a witch to hunt down companies and individuals who are failing to pay their debts amid the credit crunch.
"Our new employee will help them to understand the situation, reconsider what is right and wrong and act accordingly," said a company spokesman. Vilija Lobaciuviene, who describes herself as "Lithuania's leading witch", is renowned in the former Soviet republic for providing such "magical" services as predicting the future and casting spells.
Sometimes one gets more from the comments on a newspaper article or blog than is gained from the root item. Certainly here. Not just the actual words but the way in which a Government minister is shown as having so little in common with those who bothered to respond.
The report that Mars is emitting vast clouds of methane is one thing. The scientific conclusion is that it comes from alien bugs is another. I find myself strangely amused by this image of billions of billions of little creatures all farting mightily and, doubtless, in unison. I have seen some damned big ant hills in Africa and that allowed me to visualise this spectacle. Then I came to the bit where they might already be dead and what is surfacing is historic farting. Gawd......... A soldier's paradise.
Good game, good game. This has taken my last post and put it all into a cloud to show the constituents in frequency. Click on the picture to get a readable size image.
Attrubuted to www.wordle.net from where you can create your own. Easy as pie. I like it.
I am, by dint of past employment, biased towards the police view on things. That is why I post the following that came from a serving police officer:
“We live in a police state? No such luck… The Idiot Left are wrong: the police are powerless to stop our lives being blighted by rogue males.”
Arterial blood clings to Farrow & Ball paint as well as to any other. I learnt this one recent Saturday night.
At or about 8.05pm, having answered our front door to urgent knockings, I found myself simultaneously applying a tourniquet to a deeply slashed arm, calling 999, trying to keep the blood off ye olde F&B paintwork and attempting to marshall a swooning drunk (whom I knew to be just out of prison for a serious assault) away and on to the pavement, so that he could bleed there rather than in our garden - while all the while shouting to my partner and our three boys, in tones as seasonal and unstressed as I could muster, that no, it was not carol singers actually and that they should all just keep on watching The Incredibles (darling, just keep them inside, it's the neighbours again!)
Now, anyone exposed to the after-dinner jeremiads common at the groaning tables of our chattering classes might be forgiven for assuming that Britain is fast becoming a quasi-police state.
It is an article of belief among certain folk that the cops, given half a chance, would gleefully strip the hapless citizenry of its few remaining liberties (that there is no empirical evidence whatever in our history for this rather thrilling notion is neither here nor there to them).
The much more alarming truth is that in Brown's Britain, there is practically bugger-all that the police, however swift, helpful and sympathetic they are (and they are), can do to stop ghastly neighbours ruining people's lives.
Ours is the perfect middle-class nightmare. When we bought the place (from a smiling C of E cleric, no less), we paid the sort of buck-per-bang that, even in the Home Counties (which we're not), would normally guarantee that all-important child-friendly location, complete with parks, cafés, delis and suchlike in toddling distance.
All that we have.
Sadly, we also have, near by, a nest of bachelor alcoholics “well known to the police”.
Their house is privately owned. If the owner-occupier, a free-born Briton, wishes to lay out his benefits in drinking himself noisily to death there, that is his right. If he chooses the company of violent ex-convicts, who is to say him nay? If they appear at our door, blood-spattered, begging for policemen and ambulances to protect them against each other and their own stupidity, but thereafter elect neither to press charges nor mend their ways, what business is that of the overweening State's?
In less blessed countries, some local version of the Napoleonic Code would be swiftly visited upon them, citing the General Good - but not here.
My consolation is that this may all be poetic justice for the years I myself spent (horrid to admit, but true) insulting policemen, shouting Troops Out, baying at Arthur Scargill's every word and generally lambasting the Bourgeois State that had so viciously subsidised my four years at Oxford.
Dear God, if there is no special circle of hell reserved for we amoral young trots of the Eighties, divine justice is mocked!
But if our troubles are rare among the middle classes (and in my own case arguably deserved), for millions of decent working people the nasty proximity of rogue males, benefited up to the eyeballs, structurally violent, functionally illiterate and virtually beyond legal sanction, is a daily fact of life.
Pace the Idiot Left, “the Workers” and “the Minorities” are not different moral species, to be idolised or slummed with when the fancy takes one, whether in 1960's Notting Hill or modern Whitechapel (my dear, how unbourgeois, how real, how too, too vibrant!).
Decent working people of all colours and creeds are treacherously non-entertaining.
They want exactly the same as you or I would want in their places.
They want more police in their streets. Lots of them, freed from red tape, backed by courts that will ensure that dangerous males are swiftly convicted and effectively removed.
Well, that Saturday night one of our neighbours was indeed arrested pursuant to the arm-slashing of his ex-con drinking buddy. I doubt the charges will stick. The arterial blood did, though.
By the time the police left, regretfully but helplessly leaving us to what sounded like a convention in honour of that foul old priest from Father Ted, it had coagulated awkwardly within the mid-19th-century mouldings of our front door. A bugger to gouge out, F&B high-gloss finish or no. Arterial blood is hard to get off your path, too, until swilled and brushed away with copious buckets of hot Flash, when it takes on an extraordinarily neon-like pink colour as it steams away in the midnight gutter beneath the streetlights.
An unusual experience, as I say, for a middle-class person. But one all too familiar to millions of hard-working, child-rearing people living in unentertaining, unthrilling, unexotic communities far from NW3 that are daily blighted by the brutes within them - brutes that our own social policies have engendered and whose alleged rights our idiot commentators are so intent on defending.
I have recorded my opinion on the whole sad matter. (Troops Out - 18 December) Be nice to see some justice done for a change. Maybe less attention to little old ladies who feed pigeons and some attention to matters which stain the whole nation.
So, what is missing? The work ethic or pride in themselves? The history of the chap's parents would be enough to destroy any idea that work is what we were put on this earth to do. They are surrounded by pals in the same state as themselves so shame does not come into it. I cannot see the Job Centre ever finding work for two people so unqualified as these two.
Mind, I did read something very interesting just the other day. I cannot now find it so you will need to trust me and appreciate that the figures are approximate. An economist did some research and found a couple an income of something in excess of £500 a week. This involved the male doing a specialist cleaning job for three days and two nights. She would have contributed money from a carer job that entailed getting an old lady to bed and up again in the morning. Minimal qualifications needed for both of them with training on full pay. Within five miles of where they lived. Neither of them had the confidence (or get up and go) to follow up on his research. That is the sort of thing that Job Centres should be doing with directed labour back-up. Have a genuine go or lose your allowances. Losing the dole is the one thing that seems to motivate people such as the two in the link.
I have negative thoughts about the preservation of a brain-dead mum until such time as her baby could be taken from her by Caesarean section. It is, to me, an example of medical procedures going just too far. I realise I am just about the only one thinking this way so I'll not elaborate. Put me down as weird.
What it did do was cause me to look up the Caesarean process. I had imagined it to be a relatively modern innovation. Not so:
1794: Elizabeth Bennett delivers a daughter by Caesarean section, becoming the first woman in the United States to give birth this way and survive. Her husband, Jesse, is the physician who performs the operation.
He was pressed into service after Elizabeth, struggling with a difficult labor and believing she would die, requested her attending physician to perform a Caesarean in the hope of saving the baby. The doctor refused on moral grounds, so Jesse stepped in.
Conditions were crude. The procedure was performed in the Bennett home, deep in the Virginia backwoods. A sterile environment was out of the question: The operating table consisted of a couple of planks laid across two barrels. Jesse Bennett resorted to laudanum — lots of it — to knock out his wife.
Despite these limitations, the surgery went smoothly. Bennett extracted a healthy girl and he closed the incision, but not before taking the opportunity to remove his wife's ovaries, saying he "would not be subjected to such an ordeal again." Elizabeth quickly recovered, but her feelings about Jesse's excursion into her ovaries were not recorded.
Although the surgery was successful, Bennett didn't immediately report what he'd done. He apparently feared being ridiculed as a liar, given the primitive conditions under which such a dangerous operation had been performed. Nevertheless, the details eventually came to light and Bennett (not to mention his intrepid wife) entered the annals of obstetric history.
Even in the Bennetts' time, the Caesarean section was not new. What was new was the idea that both mother and child could survive the ordeal. The operation itself dated from antiquity, but with very few exceptions was only performed when the mother was dead or dying. The first recorded Caesarean where both mother and child survived was done in Switzerland, in 1500. That was also a husband-wife affair, although in this case Jacob Nufer was a swine gelder, not a doctor.
Before the 19th century, the success rate for physicians performing C-sections in the hope of saving both mother and child was very low. Even with advances in medicine it remained a relatively high-risk procedure into the 20th century.
Times have sure changed. Now, Caesareans are so routine that some critics believe they are often performed unnecessarily, as the "delivery method of choice" even when natural birth presents no unusual danger.
The World Health Organization agrees, recommending that Caesarean rates should not exceed 15 percent of all live births in any country. In the United States, roughly 31 percent of all births are done by Caesarean section, including an increasing number that are performed as an expedient alternative to natural birth. Now, why would anyone opt for major abdominal surgery without a sound medical reason?
I have held off commenting on the situation in Gaza. I am biased. However, that does not mean that I cannot suggest articles by my betters that - in my humble opinion - do not go a long way to explain how the heck they got where things are now. Both sides of the argument are represented.
