Heritage - what bloody heritage?

I am, I think, quite aged. I have bits of memory that go back to 1938 and quite good recall of things since 1940. Mind you, this morning sometimes gets a bit hazy!
What I have no difficulty with is the way I was brought up. It was very much a case of 'children are seen but not heard'. My parents were above the normal age for parenting when I was born; my father considerably so. As an only child I had the full benefit of their attentions in ensuring I knew and complied with the standards of that time.
I learned that truthfulness was at the top of everything. This might be moderated by considerations of what was permissible in the way of conversation. 'That lady is fat' was possibly true but not permitted from even the youngest child. I was taught respect for my elders. How to approach them, speak to them – after being spoken to – and how to exist alongside them. My parents counted as elders and there was no relaxation due to familial relationship. Aunts and Uncles had to receive the same respect and consideration. Transgressions resulted in physical punishment. The punishment came first directly after the offence. No debate, no discussion.
I knew that provided I had said where I was going, I could be away all day playing in the woods and fields that surrounded our house. I was introduced to a shotgun at an early age – 10'ish or so. The rule was that if you shot it – you ate it. All adults could be trusted – almost implicitly. The police were regarded as friends and one was encouraged to say Hello when seeing one in and around the street. They always answered and often chatted with a young citizen.
Religion was of much significance. Just as important as knowing the tenets of one's own faith was recognition of other faiths and some understanding of what they believed. There was no clash over a person's choice of religion; that was respected.
Schooling was most formal. The idea that one would cause the slightest annoyance to one's teacher was totally absent. Avoiding school was not even considered. One did as one was told. There was little discussion as to why we learned what was put to us no matter how abstract it might seem. Most learning was by rote. Spelling bees were frequent. Reading aloud was common and we all knew our multiplication tables up to twenty times twenty. There were no exemptions from games and sports – all competitive – and those with sick notes still went onto the field and were chivvied around.
Around the age of twenty, I was conscripted into the Army to do a compulsory two years of service. I will not drag on as to what that taught me other than to say it must have been the best finishing school this side of Switzerland. I learned to be loyal and to understand what the loyalty of others meant to me. I became completely able to operate as a single unit with few resources as well as a team member. “Can do” became a watchword that was used to evaluate my personal and team performance. I saw foreign countries and observed how they operated. How the inhabitants inter-reacted and how they treated us – sometimes unwelcome in their land. From these experiences I gained some strong opinions – yes, maybe only just short of prejudice and bigotry.
Now, the world of my youth has gone. I cannot think of a single thing I have described that has survived. All swept away. I've gone back through the archives of the newspapers of those days and certainly there was violence, crime and social injustice. However, the spread of those olden days in no way relates to the parlous state we are in today. This is not just an immigration thing; the changes were wrought by those I would have to consider as 'one of us'.
However, those changes were to some extent benign. Just as people get the Government they deserve (and isn't that appropriate right now!), the community developed as the majority voice decided. I could regret it without understanding it or approving it. I adopted what I named 'reverse apartheid' where I did not aim to exclude people from my personal space and environment but I exiled myself from them.
However, I am now being reviled and threatened by people who are but fairly recent incomers to what was my land. They seek to implement massive change – indeed, the aim is to take the country's principles away and introduce a Islamic paradise. This is being carried out not just by obvious hotheads and terrorists with bombs and threats of chemical warfare on the streets of London. Muslims we might regard as 'nice old guys' are demanding rights and concessions that empower them but remove from me attitudes and conduct I have known and practised for over seventy years. Our smiley-face government has no experience of the attitudes that these disrupters have as their basic drives and cannot accept that there is a hidden agenda. Human Rights For All is the cry. Most of the things I have seen demanded conflict with what I regard as my Human Rights but I'm am told to grin and bear it. The status of refugee is, to me, clouded. Why seek sanctuary here when they have already travelled through three or four countries where, it seems to me, peace reigns? Having made the decision to travel to England as a 'nice' place, why set about destroying everything that has made it 'nice over the years?
Answers on a £10 note please.

Heal thyself

Given that I might end up in this situation myself, I find this rather amusing. Problem is that if I do need such a visit, I'll have forgotten what this is all about!

Want us out - hell. They want to kill us

Just a small addendum on the idea floated by PM B Liar that the Iraquis want us there. The poll detailed here showed that, never mind us leaving, but 60% of a sample of them polled were happy with deadly force being used against us. Sure - the government might claim they want us but only for their own selfish reasons. Most of them would disappear in a ball of smoke and fire the day after we left. Turkeys don't vote for Christmas!

We live in interesting times

I seem to have an amplitude of things buzzing around inside my; apologies if these include something not of interest to you.
There is a terrorist trial running here right now. A British man (Ugandan Asian convert to Islam in UK) admits plotting to 'kill as many innocent people as possible' in the UK and USA by targeting skyscrapers and major financial institutions in New York and Washington and setting off a dirty radioactive nuclear device in London. He is on trial with others who plead not guilty. I have sufficient experience of legal procedures to know that these claims will be amplified but right now all we are told is that plans for the operations were found on his computer. It is accepted by the prosecution that there is no evidence of any vehicles being obtained, specialist knowledge re bomb making or constituents of any such device. So, something like a Power Point on my computer as to how I might seduce Charlotte Church.
It is clear that the trial will be followed by a number of Muslims. Some of the 'peaceful' variety as well as would be fundamental activists. They may lack knowledge of how our legal system works but could have that Islamic tendency to kick off at the slightest imputation. I have to say that the way things have been reported, this Muslim is not getting a very fair crack of the whip. If this guy – even including those on trial with him – has the nous and ability to co-ordinate the attacks on two continents as he planned we should engage him in community service punishment at the Wembley Stadium project.
Jack Straw's attack on the veil still chunders on. The latest in the fall-out concerns a classroom assistant (some sort of glorified milk monitor I think) who insisted on wearing the face covering when at school.
She was involved with young children. Her employers agreed that she could wear the veil in the public areas and staff room but required her to uncover when in class on duty. She refused. Her husband confirms it is a matter of her personal choice. I suggest her suitability to be involved with young kids is clearly in question when she insists on appearing like some Trick or Treat Halloween character. She was on the radio this morning. Yes – she speaks English. It is not the sort of English I would like any child of mine to assimilate. Her pronunciation of many words was dodgy at best, emphasis and pace was quite wrong and she sounded muffled – maybe she had a blanket as a veil? To balance we had problems with English women wearing a Christian cross where it might be seen by the general public. This details treatment of TV newsreader and presenter Fiona Bruce but news is just breaking of a British Airways edict re their female staff. They have said that crosses may be worn but must be invisible. It seems that their dress code which refers to religious symbols does not ban Sikhs with turbans or the religiously significant kara bracelet. Why one may not display crosses signifying a Christian religious belief in what is still (OK maybe only nominally) a Christian country is beyond my understanding. Or acceptance. It think next time I check in with BA I'll take one of those life size crosses as carried by penitents at Easter in Spain or doing Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. We seem to be fighting a war on terror overseas whilst the people whose aims coincide with those of the terrorists are doing so well and winning in this country. Just as bit of light relief, see this.
War on terror leads me into the CGS of the Army and his remarks about the way this Government is treating the British Army. One small section of his initial interview was given undue prominence. Doubtless, it gave the soldiers a lot of good morale 'bash the government' feeling but I just wonder what it has done for his service future and the ability to ever again draw attention to anything. He will be a marked man. There is a minority view that he was wrong. This based upon the fact that the Government is in charge and soldiers should not get involved. Erm – Cromwell anyone? It could well be that the gallant soldier (holder of Military Cross which does not come stuck to a Mars Bar) has tried to raise the matter privately and been routinely ignored. In the background is the controversy whether the Attorney General gave dodgy answers to the 'How legal is the Iraq War?' question posed by last CGS.

Trust thy neighbour?

Reading the Financial Times (as one does!) I saw that Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists has published new research which shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone . This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam said he had delayed publishing until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it “would have been irresponsible to publish without that”.

The drive of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.” He considers that his conclusions have validity in Europe also.

I rather welcome ethnic diversity, so long as it is legal and controlled. I totally oppose multiculturalism I deem as evil.

Read this

If ever you should think that things in your life are getting heavy, read the blog I've guested. The human spirit is apparently indestructible. One does not have to be Muslim to gain strength from one's religion either.

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A brave family. Long may they remain so.

An enemy within

Writing in the Guardian guardian.co.uk/commentisfree > Michael White gave his opinions on Ruth Kelly’s suggestion that there be a re-balancing on government attitudes to those British Muslims who proclaim that they are the good guys.
[quote]For a politician treading on eggshells I thought Ruth Kelly behaved with suitable delicacy in this morning's speech inviting mainstream British Muslim organisations to accept publicly that they do pretty well here. To encourage them she plans to ''rebalance'' government support towards faith organisations that actively combat extremism in their midst - rather than merely "pay lip service" to the proposition.
But then I thought Jack Straw, who represents a lot of Muslims in Blackburn, also showed appropriate sensitivity when raising the question of the veil last week. He wasn't telling anyone what to do, merely seeking public debate. Myself, I've got used to all but the most severe veils. It's dark glasses worn indoors that spook me: you can't see their eyes. Clearly not everyone agrees. Straw's article proved divisive - even at cabinet level where such divisions can exist because there is no official policy on the veil - unlike in France where Salman Rushdie's insensitive assertion that "the veil sucks" prevails.
In today's Guardian the playwright David Edgar, raises Voltaire's standard of tolerance, rightly insisting that liberals must defend things they don't approve of while inadvertently illustrating the difficulty of sustaining consensus in practice: he catergorised pornography as "harmless". After watching this particular debate for 40 years I no longer think it is, do you?
But as ministers review the implications of last year's 7/7 bombings, carried out by British-born Islamists, it is clear that Whitehall has decided that its multicultural emphasis on tolerance rather than integration in the French sense (which has problems of its own) has failed to nurture the moderate majority in the current struggle with radical Islam.
[/quote]
I think that someone has overlooked the effect of tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe is everything – it over-rides family ties and all personal opinion. There will be polite lip-service to saying what we want to hear but is as if they were speaking with fingers crossed. We saw just how quickly a topic spreads amongst Muslims at the time of the Danish cartoons and the remarks of Herr Pope. Did anyone appreciate the depth of feeling and the tendency to issue murderous threats amongst “those nice people from Somalia who run the vegetable stall”?
The communities secretary's specific reference to Muslim refusals to join the marking of Holocaust Day suggests she may have the umbrella organisation, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in mind, though there will be others, struggling no doubt to maintain unity between its conservative and liberal wings - like many organisations, religious and secular.
Kelly said today "it isn't about preferential treatment, it is about equality." She cited laws and international action, Kosovo for instance, which gives the lie to claims that British foreign policy is hostile to Islam, despite Iraq. We can have differences over policy and politics, not over "non-negotiable values" like the rule of law and freedom of speech, she said.
[quote]Personally, I think Kelly's pitch a useful contribution to the debate. Knowing what Islamists are currently doing to other Muslims (much as Christians used to do to each other in Europe) there's an unanswerable case for more mainstream Muslims, living in security in the west, to speak out more openly for a less oppressive vision of their faith.
They don't have to be "on our side." Our side is strong enough to thrive on diversity and difference. But, allowing for all sorts of difficulties they must have in reconciling conflicting loyalties, they owe it to their own young generation to have the courage of their own quiet convictions.[/quote]
Yes. But how would we monitor the real feeling that is hidden inside the home or mosque? I see it as similar to the pet dog that would ‘never hurt anyone’ that suddenly and for no discernable reason, savages a kid it has grown up with.

From the horses mouth

As things are at the moment, we have all sorts of people trying to explain Islamic values. I spent some 14 years in total in Muslim countries and find it hard to recognise some of the explanations. My memory is of a gentle and counsiderate people loath to offend or condemn.

In what I see as a partial vacuum of explanation, I offer the guest blog from a Muslim woman in an Arab country. Some of the ideas are strange ("As women are not allowed to raise their voices in prayer if men are in earshot") but if they are accepted by those directly involved, why should I condemn?

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Maybe this is a better insight?

Thank God (or Allah)

Just imagine this happening in UK! The riots would have exceeded those following the cartoons and comments made by Herr Pope

NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - A couple caught having sex in a Kenyan mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been sentenced to 18 months jail for what the judge called an "abominable" affront to religion.
Peter Kimani and Jennifer Wairimu pleaded guilty to the charge of having sex in a place of worship after being caught on October 3 at the Abubakar mosque in Gilgil, about 60 miles north of Nairobi. Neither is a Muslim.
A worshipper heading for evening prayers found the couple having sex after investigating what the prosecution described as strange noises emanating from a dark corner of the mosque.
Kimani and Wairimu both pleaded for clemency at Monday's hearing, saying they were too drunk to know where they were. Kimani told the court he thought he was in a lodging house.
John King'ori, senior magistrate in nearby Naivasha, dismissed their plea.
"Having sex in a mosque is a most abominable thing to religion and only a custodial sentence can add justice to this," he said.

Nice people

I still cannot get over how friendly people up here in Scotland can be.

Our pharmacist set up a scheme where he will look at minor injuries or other health concerns and advise on what if anything needs to be done. Saves the aggro of making appointments and wandering of to the medical centre on the outskirts of town. One needs to register with him for this.

I went into his shop and told one of the assistants that I wanted to sign up. She trotted off - I thought to get forms. Within a couple of minutes she was back and said, "That's OK" I asked her how she knew who I was and she just laughed and said we had lived in town for three or four years.

We get our prescription medicine from the same chemist. In the package is a form to request further supplies. Drop the form into the shop, they take it to the doctors and collect the prescriptions. All we have to do is collect the drugs some two or so days later. I lost my form and had to ring the doctor's receptionist to see what had to be done. She asked what medicine I wanted and said she would deal with it. I realised I had not told her who I was and gave her that information as we were ringing off. "Yes. I know" she said.

I must really be some freak of nature to be universally recognised.

Oh! No!

Just what you do not want to see stuck up on the door of the refrigerator!

Us oldies

The bit below comes from a site to which I will not link. I am conscious that some people who come here might well have an attack of the vapours.

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Following the introduction of the UK’s new anti-ageism laws, a recruitment agency has sent me an unusually sanctimonious and annoying brochure. “Remember, spotty little scrotes and doddering codgers have a valuable contribution to make at the workplace, so following the new law will actually help your business,” it more or less says.

It drives this do-gooding “you’re too dim to understand, so the government had better do it for you” message home with an extraordinarily stupid quote from American writer Norman Vincent Peale:

Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.

No, it isn’t. Racism and sexism are considered particularly odious in society because they’re not fair. A white racist will never find himself denied a job because of the colour of his skin (while white racists tend to decry half-hearted attempts to redress their massive advantage in life as anti-white discrimination, this doesn’t make it so). A sexist man will never find himself denied a job because of his unwise choice of chromosones.

In short, some people are privileged and remain so forever; some people are disadvantaged and remain so forever. Even though individual white men might fuck up and ruin their lives, and even though individual black women might succeed admirably, the former will always have done so while facing fewer race- and gender-derived obstacles than the latter (obviously, a black female born into a loving family with enough money to get by will face fewer non-race and non-gender-derived obstacles than a white male born to a homeless alcoholic, but this isn’t relevant here).

Ageism doesn’t have the same effect: we are all every age at some point (except for people who die young, which is worse than being the victim of ageism anyway). If everyone who is 30 treats everyone who is 70 like shit, then this isn’t unfair at all: everyone in the first group will either be dead or be treated like shit in 40 years’ time, and net discrimination against individuals will be zero.

So ageism isn’t a fairness problem, and Mr Peale was an idiot. But worse than that, the introduction of anti-ageism laws will actually make things less fair.

The current crop of near-retirees looking for protection from this law are the baby-boom generation, who avoided WWII, profited massively from asset price rises throughout their adult lives, and left their descendants enormous financial and environmental liabilities to clear up. They also treated their parents’ generation like crap: abusive, horrible retirement homes flourished under the boomers’ rule, since they couldn’t be bothered to look after their parents themselves, and they also severed the state pension / earnings link because they didn’t want to pay taxes to support anyone else’s either.

Suddenly, now they’re approaching the receiving end of this treatment, the fear is kicking in – so now, as a final act before retirement, the spoilt bastards have successfully lobbied for a law prohibiting their children from treating them the same way (as well as making their children pay through the nose to bail out their bankrupt pension schemes).

If that’s fairness, then I’m the Pope dressed in a Mohammed costume and clutching a novelty fake bomb vest at the annual Vatican fancy dress party.

French letter

We may wonder what our cosy little world is coming to with all this Islamic content. One of the TV news programmes yesterday carried nothing but matters involving Muslims - things done to them, things done by them, arguments involving them.

So, it may be some consolation to see just what is happening in France. Let us hope that, just like rabies, we can keep this sort of thing out of Britain.

Whither goest thou?

Consider

"Sadly enough, instead of Muslims marching out of the suffocating swamps of submission to the meadow of liberty, Allah’s faithful aim to drag the rest of humanity into the deadly Islamic quagmire. Islam may have been an improvement to
the life of the nomads that roamed the Arabian deserts some 1400 years ago. The 21st century world, in spite of all its problems and challenges, is not willing to surrender to the clearly failed and failing Islamic experiment."

Write on one side of the paper only.

Attack on Virgin Rail train

I was rather taken with the Virgin Rail TV advert where the train comes under attack. It has been running for about a week and I was wondering when the 'stereotype' backlash would come from Guardian readers.

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Is this allowed under our Brave New World Order?

Amish

The TV coverage of the shooting at the Amish school led me off through Google.

Seems strange that a community could live so apart from main stream America but then, there seems to be something similiar with the American Indians/native Americans or however we refer to them today. Never had contact other than visual with Amish. Saw the film Witness but this short article seems to get the bullet points across.

My experience with the native Americans did not impress me. The elders may well have chosen to run things their way but I saw no evidence that this was any improvement. Certainly a lot well down on their luck and victims of booze or drugs.

Higher Education

Maybe because it reflects my own experience in a number of Arab countries, I found this interesting.

Never mind Know Thyself - know thine Enemy

I have alwasy had a lot of time for the admonition "Know thine Enemy". Not just a deadlu enemy but anyone whose intentions run counter to one's own plans. Events in Iraq have proved that we either did not know or did not take notice. Hence the lack of rose petals showered upon us by grateful Iraqi.

My guest blog today is long and requires serious reading. Provided it is not some CIA- inspired plant, it does give real insight into how the brain of an AQ leader ticks over. The readiness to invest time and patience in the long game is somewhat scary. Sure as hell confirms to me that it will not all be sealed and signed in a short time and that this fundamentalism is set for the long haul

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Long but worth it

Teach me to shoot

I think I understand the American attachment to the idea that possession of guns is a right. I comprehend that whatever is the opinion of the mass does not get represented by politicians every time. What I cannot understand is why nothing seems to be done to deal with children in school being executed like rabbits by what are so obviously mentally challenged individuals. One would think that having Presidents assassinated by gunshot would have caused people to reconsider what they considerd to be their God-given right to bear arms.

Just what will it take to cause even a small and insignificant examination of status quo? How many have to die? For a nation where political correctness reigns and freedom is prized - who will speak up for these kids killed before they have even a chance to experience just how great life could be?

I spent a large part of my life permanently carrying a weapon. I know that it is the person who kills and not the firearm. That is a coward's explanation and reasoning. If the gun is not there it cannot be used regardless of the mental capacity of the one who would resort to that sort of violence.

Back to normal

Well, almost normal.
How can one be normal in the midst of all this stuff from the party political conferences? Spin upon spin, downright lie upon stretching of the truth, damnation, condemnation. What was that saying "all human life is there"?
The pills seem to have done their job - again - and I can at least garner enough interest to get out of bed.
So; back to the fray. I'll need to read up quite a bit to be able to generate enough bile to function. There are a coiuple of trigger words that set me off and running - Afghanistan, Iraq, B Liar.
There - almost totally cured.

Read and remember

This came at me from one of the forum I frequent. It perfectly summarises the terrorist as I know him. This is what seems to be missed when "civilised" beings meet to discuss what we need to do to protect ourselves from such single-mindedness. Mere adaptions of our comfy, fuzzy, laws will not deter the believer.

Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimalfood or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what
workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home. He knows only The Cause.

Print it out and pin it up somewhere. Make sure you know it word perfect and understand what it is that the non-fundamentalist faces.

Game Play

Whilst I cannot at this time create, I can still do some nifty cut and paste. From which lazy action comes this scenario.

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So, what do you think of this then?

Nice dog

Bit of a break in service for a (hopefully) short time.

The Black Dog has got me again and the normal anti-depressants seem to be taking longer to kick in. Writing anything reasonable at times like these is not possible.

I'll get back when things improve. They usually do.

Top whack

The high speed crash that took out Richard Hammond was surely something just waiting to happen. The show had become a victim of its own success as higher powered car followed high powered car. Faster and faster exotic cars had to be gathered for testing and display. I have nothing against this but there is a rising risk and, all too often, a price to pay.

Some while back the Noel Edmonds show was taken off air following death of someone on the show. I suppose the TV authorities undertake proper Health &Safety assessments but just how far can these cover all eventualities at speeds approaching 300 miles per hour. There seems to be a pretty well based claim that Richard was driving as a replacement. I would have expected them to use The Stig.

Medical outlook is that he should be OK. OK for what is the question. He comes across as a nice guy and it would be a shame for him to be unable to lead a full life. Best of luck hamster!

Shoe on other foot time

Much of the stuff I read about Muslim views of current events passes over my head. I think I have had sufficient past experience of just how crazed they can get on very little justification to find much interest in what switches the modern fundamentalist onto KILL mode.

My guest blog today has a nice way of asking the question.

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Provocative text goes here!

Pot. Kettle. Black.

What amuses me about the Pope's remarks concerning Islam is that he conveniently ignores Christianity's own barbarous past. I don't want to offend any fundamentalist by mentioning C r u s a d e s but they were not just outings in the park. Embrace Christianity or The Sword was a powerful missionary principle.

Going - Going Go......

The blog in the guest spot shows just how under-strength we have become in defence capability. I think his point about control being vested in Civil Servants is most appropriate. One can hear them saying, above the discreet tinkle of fine china tea cups, "So. What does one need to know to be a soldier? Anyone can do it"

Could as easily ask, "So. What does one need to know to be a lawyer? Anyone can do it"

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Just see what this poxy Government has done

One damned thing after another!

As if we did not have enough on the stress front with leadership battles, along comes this report.

Britain faces a fate worthy of the Book of Revelation. According to botanists, the Tree of Heaven is set to make life hell on Earth for our gardeners.

Ailanthus altissima, which gets its heavenly nickname from its ability to grow rapidly to heights of 80 feet or more, has begun spreading alarmingly across the landscape and poses an imminent threat to plant health and biodiversity in Britain.

No Papa!

I really find it difficult to believe that the Pope was not well aware of what he would spark off with his remarks about Islam. My guest blog is somewhat on the lines Ian Paisley might write but does suggest another agenda?

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Is this the point of the Pope's speech?

Whose tragedy?

There is quite a bit in this blog that strikes a chord with me. Who is wrong? Makes interesting reading.

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Quite long, just suspend judgement until you get to the end. Maybe go back and read some bits again.

What are you reading today?

Seems like the Internet cuckoo is just about getting ready to toss the Main Stream Media (MSM) chicks out of the nest. The owner of the LA Times has demanded job cuts and is at loggerheads with his Editor on his demand. Lack of profits is the stated cause.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is threatened with closure if the Unions do not agree to cost-cutting initiatives. Long run of losses is at the root of this.
The NY Times reports a sale of a chain of radio stations in face of drop in listeners in switch to Internet-based interests.
Looking at from over the Big Pond I wonder just what it is that is leading the switch. Living as we do ‘interesting times’, it cannot be the paucity of news. There seems to be an enormous list of interesting events bubbling about in the stew of American media. Never mind the actual news – I’m sure one could fell an ox with a paper made up of learned commentators’ comments.
Perhaps it is this very overload that is doing the damage. Reading a paper is like getting Push e-mail; it is there whether one wants it or not. When I go to my home page I can see a précis of news and can choose whether I click further or not. I am an avid reader of blogs (the serious ones that is! Younggirl15 on video does not sweat my rocks) and gather an immense mass of current events from them.Here we have circulation wars but that is more about the share of the reading public and I am unaware of any decline in overall print runs.

Stronger police

Perhaps a few notices like this will deter criminals?

No more Mr Nice Guy!

Anniversary

It seems to me that the 9/11 events this year are more numerous and attracting much more media attention. One would have thought that after five years, the general public would have come to terms with what happened.

The conclusion I have drawn is that the state of things in Iraq and Afghanistan has led to the realisation that what was expected to be a swift and clean operation to deal with those behind the attack in New York is going to be a long haul. There can be no victory for a military solution and we are dealing with opponents who have nothing to gain from discussion and agreements. If anything, the terrorist threat is worse now than when we moved into Iraq. Sure, mainland USA has - so far as we the public know - had no more attacks but alsewhere US assets are fair game. Also, easy game.

This feeling that we are unable to deal with those who caused our losses increases the effect of the attack. It is not normal for an American citizen to feel powerless.

Blog bug

Seems that there has been a bit of a blog-up in the comments area.

I had moderation mode working to deter the spambots. However, for some reason my approval of those bona fide remarks did not result in them being posted as used to be the case. Why - who knows. I've already commented on the ability of p.c.s to be operating perfectly when shut down and then to re-open next morning with all sorts of problems and self-administering cock-ups.

So - moderation is off.

How profiling works

In a climate when young religious fanatic Arabs are giving their useless lives in the cause of world terrorism, it pays to make sure that every possible suspect has been cleared.

The little old white lady has obviously been here before as her faultless pose indicates.

Elephants never forget

Those who know my idea of funny will understand why this is here.

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and
found a large thorn deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the
elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Mbembe never forgot that
elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him instantly. Probably wasn't
the same elephant.

What might have been

Intelligence gathering is a slow and drawn-out procedure. It has certainly taken a little while to come up with an assessment of terrorist plans around the time of the fateful 9/11 a few years back. The public always expect quick results - brought up as they may have been on the American crime soaps where all has to be solved inside the hour. There is also the truism that the terrorist has a considerable advantage in the need for us never to make a mistake in our precautions whilst Bert the Bomber only needs one loophole to slink through.

Latest report on US investigations shows the scope of the plotting undertaken by the fundamentalists.

9/11 prisoners reveal British terror targets

By Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory

HEATHROW, Canary Wharf and British embassies overseas were on a hitlist of terrorist targets drawn up by the architect of the 9/11 atrocities, according to intelligence gathered in secret American prisons and made public yesterday.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda’s operational planner, was plotting suicide attacks on the world’s busiest international airport, the iconic London skyscraper at 1, Canada Square and the British Embassy in Cambodia before he was captured and taken to a CIA interrogation centre.

One needs to read the whole article.

Care in the community

This is something that has come at me from four different sources so either it is already a classic or is destined to be one.

Whatever! I'll leave 'gentle reader' to decide.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
A female liberal wrote a lot of letters to the White House complaining

about the treatment of a captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Guantanamo Bay.

She received back the following reply:


The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20016



Dear Concerned Citizen,



Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Quaeda detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington. You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the "Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers" program, or LARK for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to place one terrorist under your personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be
cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your
letter of complaint. It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers.

We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of
care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.

Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope your
sensitivity to what you described as his "attitudinal problem" will
help him overcome these character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in
describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling.

Your adopted terrorist is extremely efficient in hand-to-hand combat
and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or
nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except
sexually), since he views females as a subhuman form of property.
This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire. I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka -- over time.

Just remember that it is all part of "respecting his culture and his
religious beliefs" -- wasn't that how you put it?

Thanks again for your letter. We truly appreciate it when folks like
you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job.

You take good care of Ahmed - and remember...we'll be watching.

Good luck!

Cordially, your friend,

Don Rumsfeld

TalkTalk - again!

Although all I lost in the TalkTalk saga was temper and time, I'm glad I got out of it. Just Google TalkTalk problems and see what happened to others. Small selection in the Guest section.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Looks as if I was lucky in getting a answer about my TalkTalk experience

Will he, won't he - who really cares?

I don't quite know how I truly feel about the pantomime antics of the Labour Party. I cannot bring myself to shout out every time Brown comes on stage. I don't think I have any political faith in anyone who gets elected and is chosen to become Prime Minister. The whole thing is outside my understanding. Manifesto politics seems doomed anyway. The period between deciding something that might interest us, working out a policy, publishing it, getting into power and dealing which emergency problems need immediate attention means that things have changed beyond all recognition and the Manifesto is ready for turning into lavatory paper.

However, it is interesting to watch a beast rend itself asunder.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Just like this from the local version of the Labour Party

My life with a Dog

When my last dog, a black Labrador bitch, died I was devastated. She had been with us for over thirteen years and led the life of a full member of the family rather than a pet. For months I was unable to talk to any dog I might meet and saw her as irreplaceable. Gradually however, I got back to sanity and decided to start to think about another dog.
What was clear was that it could not be a Labrador. I would always be comparing the new with the old which would be unfair to me and animal. I looked around and settled on a choice from two breeds; vizsla or German Shorthaired Pointer. After spending some time with both breeds, I choose the GSP.The characteristics and features of a GSP have been defined as:

1. A versatile, tireless hunting dog capable of hunting feathered and furred game, pointing or treeing as necessary, retrieving to hand over land or water, and tracking wounded game. 2. A dog capable of dispatching predators. 3. A dog who is a loving, loyal family companion and hearth-warmer. 4. A vigilant watchdog capable of guarding his home and family. GSPs retain a puppy level of energy throughout their lives. They require physical and mental stimuli to help keep this energy at a manageable level.
Devoting necessary time to fulfill a GSPs drive to "work" and learn through training and play and to satisfy his need for human companionship is essential.
A sense of humor should be a prerequisite for any future GSP owner. A GSP can be quite mischievous; its pranks often not appreciated by humans. GSPs can be protective of their home and their humans. As a very social and human friendly breed, the GSP loves to be around people and activity, and handles this well, assuming it has been properly socialized. The tendency to protect territory and "pack" can be present in some more than others.
GSPs are hunters. This does not mean they would be unhappy in a non-hunting home. It does, however, mean that other avenues to direct their energies may have to be found.
GSPs get bored very easily if not kept busy. They are very inquisitive and can
be quite inventive when entertaining themselves. Unfortunately, many things they consider fun (such as playing with all the neat toys in the kitchen garbage can, unspooling toilet paper, digging in the flowerbed, jumping or climbing fences, shredding pillows or furniture, and the list goes on) we consider destructive. GSPs are very people oriented, sometimes to the point of being clingy; following your every step around the house for example. They thrive upon human interaction to be truly happy. They do best, whether hunting, competing, or just kept as companions, if allowed to live as a part of the family unit as a housedog rather than a yard or kennel dog. GSPs are, by nature, often not very amicable with cats and other small furry or feathery pets. They can be trained to leave them alone and share home space, but their hunting instinct may interfere at times.
The GSP and its owner will both benefit from obedience and other types of
training.
A GSP's intelligence and independent-mindedness can often lead to
pitfalls if not planned for. Many GSPs can be counted on to ignore commands if it doesn’t feel that obeying the command is the proper thing to do at that point in time. Training shapes the GSP, teaching it both control and confidence in obeying commands. They thrive upon structure and leadership, instinctively realizing the need for this.
GSPs tend to train easily, as they are a very biddable breed. As a working breed, they literally love and need to work.

We have been exceedingly lucky. My bitch, Sable, has fully integrated into her immediate family of the two of us and the wider family of Lord knows how many. All of the points about the character of the GSP made above are 100% true. She inherited hunting. We have, quite rightly, been warned off an exercise area where she just would not give it up. The first year or so was very frustrating as training seemed to be just a daily joke – mostly against me. We would have a training session. She learnt what was passed over. She did what was passed over. We went home. Next morning, we started by trying to recap on what we had done the day before. Gone – all gone into some mist. And attempt at conditioning by my treatment of her was just swallowed up – she was as obstinate as three donkeys. I stuck with it and then one day – quite suddenly as if a light had come on inside her head – she had it all. Now – we do not need any training. We go out and enjoy ourselves almost without any command being needed from me.
She is a fine and perfect dog and I love her to bits.

Blair organises Waynes World

I was going over the state of MY World this afternoon. Much heated debate about Emperor B Liar and the stress of will he or won’t he. What guarantee is there anyway that we will find better/less of a pain in the butt?
Immigration seems to be getting more and more of a cock-up and can only get worse as EU increases never mind those who come illegally.
Troops beginning to lose initiative in Afghanistan. Varying reports as to what they are achieving in Iraq. Growing sense that we – the civilians back home – are becoming blasé about the kit shortages that increase their risks in a murderous country.
Crime in the streets here. Not just the sort of crime where old ladies are sexually molested, infants tied up and beaten with building bricks and total defiance of police by young kids who are next generation of professional criminals. The range and the manner of dealing with the few we do catch is total confusion. We rise up about tearaways being released well before they have served any significant period away from their well-upholstered tarts. “Not us” says the Judges. “It’s the way the law is written”
But then. I thought about other places in the world. Where the individuals corresponding to Terrible Tone are far worse, more blatant and even more self-centred. Where immigration is like those places bordering on dissolute African states where racial cleansing is the government’s agenda.
Troops poorly valued, under-resourced and set-up as targets. The Russians are a prime example. They also figure high in my check on criminality. Not just in terms of figures but in the all-pervading presence in and across all levels of society.
So – God help me for sounding complacent but we could be a heck of a lot worse off. The great unwashed public in those places have learned to get along.
I fear that we will start to increase our slide down the slippery slope.
For sure, the pratt we have there now is unlikely to do anything different to what he has exhibited since the public were conned into giving him power. He is likely to remain until there is an uprising. How the hell did the country set gather the mass marchers to oppose changes in the hunting laws? Where are the organisers of the ‘Not in My Name’ who were anti-war reference Iraq? Why is there such calf-like acceptance of the state we are now in – and getting into worse? Why should the best of those we call British have to uproot themselves and their families to get out while the getting out is possible?
Answers on the back of a £5 note. I’m saving up to buy a small hovel somewhere in Arizona.

15 minutes of fame

Someone once said that everyone has 15 minutes of fame. Don't know if infamous allows the same degree of spotlight.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Have a look here. Do a search for John Wood. What a life to lead.

Has potential

Looks as if the chip off the old block has taken root and, hopefully, will flourish.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Written by #1 Son

Free trial - start Today

Buddhism is a path of practices and spiritual development which lead to insight into the true nature of life. Practices such as meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop and perfect the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. The methods developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incredible resource for all those who wish to follow the path which ultimately culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood.
The foundation of Buddhism is the Fourfold Noble Truth:
1 The world is full of suffering and stress.
2 The cause of this suffering and stress is desires of physical instincts.
3 If desire can be removed, then suffering and stress will be ended.
4 Desire can be removed by following the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Views, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration

Try it - you might like it?

Sums it up

Can't give a credit for this as it comes from a site where people post anonymously.
Pretty well sums up just how I'm feeling. There are very few kicks in this life of retirement.

Great minds think etc.etc.

A TANGLED WEB: Not all farmers are suffering production downturns!: "But “Hold”, you may call; “Aren’t British soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan? How come we don’t hear of the raids against the drug barons, the warlords who grow fat on the proceeds of the heroin trade? Why are we not burning the fields of poppies, in order to stem the flow of this insidious narcotic into our towns, cities and youngsters’ veins?” Well, we don’t hear of these raids because there aren’t any! The few active soldiers which are ‘in country’ are too busy fighting for their lives to worry about the fields of poppies which fuel the Taliban terrorist onslaught."

This guy sems to have been reading my mail!

Well - goodee for that!

Telegraph | News | Black day for Forces as 14 die in Afghanistan: "The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that, under new rules of engagement, the Armed Forces are now officially at war in Afghanistan."

This was tacked onto a long piece about the deaths of 14 soldiers in Afghanistan. Seems to put Reid in a spot for his assurance that our troops would not have to fire a shot in anger. Did he not have any advisers; was there no one with knowledge of Afghan history of fighting those who enter their country? The gross error about locals in Iraq welcoming us with scented rose petals was completely ignored.

Defense Minister Clown 2 Browne was quick to declare the downing was an accident. How the heck would he know at this time? OK - maybe the crew did get off a message about a problem but what was the cause of that problem? Surface to air missiles are available to the terrorists. We gave them loads together with training when they were fighting the Russians.

We are pushing the troops to the extreme in terms of workload and periods spent fighting. How can we be assured that the same is not being demanded of the aircraft maintenance crews and pilots?

The total lack of political concern at conditions there is criminal. The calls for extra support in men and equipment are still not fully answered. The RAF thought they might be able to squeeze out one additional Chinook helicopter - big deal! There should not be a single Chinook outside Iraq and Afghanistan. I see helicopters training in low flying up in the hills near to my home. Let them have some realism to it - train whilst flying in the place where they are needed. The pilots are doing training extension and it is not that they are just recently qualified in rotary wing operations.

Crocodile tears from Browne solve nothing. We haven't yet had B Liars performance in shirt sleeves with mug in hand. It is not as if there will be any good result to the drug denial plan. Vast sums of money were spent in Columbia to achieve a not very big reduction. Telling an Afghan you will deny him the drug income is like putting your hand in his pocket and taking his life savings whilst tickling his testicles at the same time. Let them grow the crap. Spray it with Agent Orange - make sure we tell the locals to stay clear of that. Singapore has the death penalty for drug dealing and I'm told that cut back a hell of a lot. Let people know that trafficking will result in death and not just them lingering in some 3rd World prison whilst the government busts a gut to get them out and back to softly softly England. There has been a procedure of going easy with users if they help police track down the Mr Big distributer. Stop that and put them in a wet room where they can be hosed down whilst choosing where their drug habit goes. If saving the future of an addict here requires that we send troops - unprepared and poorly supported - to die overseas, I'm happy to see the junkies die in their own filth.

New details emerge in UK terror plot- The Times of India

New details emerge in UK terror plot- The Times of India: "LONDON: On August 9, in a small second-floor apartment in East London, two young Muslim men recorded a video justifying what the police say was their suicide plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes: revenge against the United States and its 'accomplices,' Britain and the Jews.

'As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed,' said one of the men on a 'martyrdom' videotape, whose contents were described by a senior British official and a person briefed about the case. The young man added that he hoped God would be 'pleased with us and accepts our deed.' "

Interesting thing is that if you try and get this information from the UK, it is blocked. Something to do with legal obfustication I suppose. The Indian media does not seem to have the same problem. I think it is a little weird that I cannot read something about my own country's problems but can get it 'through the back-door'. Another example of an Indian call-centre I suppose.

Goin' To School

Grouchy Old Cripple: Goin' To School:
Class available for adults.
"Class 1. How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays --- Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM."
Some suggestions for those of us who never really figured out this living alone business.

Shot at Dawn - further thoughts

Pardons for 'cowards' condemned - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "The decision by the Government to pardon Private Harry Farr and the other 304 soldiers executed for cowardice and desertion in the First World War has been attacked by a leading psychiatrist."
Somewhat gratifying to see that my opinion has the support of someone far better qualified; just wish I could get paid for my drivel.

Can't park there love

Rio man saws woman in half over parking dispute - Yahoo! News UK: "RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A street parking attendant in Brazil's crime-ridden city of Rio de Janeiro was charged with sawing a woman in two over a parking space dispute, police said on Wednesday."

She should have driven off before he wrote the ticket!

Public Service Announcement

The right to determine one's life has attracted a good deal of attention over the past couple of months. I have a fear that I shall end my days plugged into a 13 amp electrical socket like some condom vending machine. From that background I have devised a form of living will. Short but, I think, all encompassing.

I have made this declaration at a time when I am of sound mind and after careful consideration. I understand that my life may be shortened by the refusals of treatment in this form. I accept the risk that I may not be able to change my mind in the future when I am no longer able to speak for myself, and I accept the risk that improving medical technology may offer increased hope, but I personally consider the risk of unwanted treatment to be a greater risk. I want it to be known that I fear degradation and indignity far more than death. I ask my medical attendants to bear this in mind when considering what my intentions would be in any uncertain situation.

If the time comes when I can no longer communicate, this declaration shall be taken as a testament to my wishes regarding medical care.

If it is the opinion of medical care team that there is no reasonable prospect of my recovery from severe physical illness, or from impairment expected to cause me severe distress or render me incapable of rational existence, then I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means such as life support systems, tube feeding, antibiotics, resuscitation or blood transfusions: any treatment which has no benefit other than a mere prolongation of my existence should be withheld or withdrawn, even if it means my life is shortened. I already have a Do Not Resuscitate directive in my medical documents and on a MediAlert-type tag that I wear. I accept basic care however and I do request aggressive palliative care, drugs or any other measures to keep me free of pain or distress, even if they shorten my life.

I wish the following person to be consulted in the event of uncertainty about my wishes. My wife, Catherine Norma Wood (nee Robinson)

Written by me, John Samuel WOOD, born 15 August 1933. http://snipurl.com/kyyi

There may be some who think they would find comfort in this sort of thing but have shrunk from the sort of soul search that goes with it. Feel free to copy. There may also be readers who can find a potential problem with the wording - comment away please.

Win Win Warfare

How Israel won on the battlefield against Hezballah and lost in the media and why it's important to America: "This was perhaps both the most cynical and barbaric disregard for innocent civilian lives of all of Hezballah's and Iran's strategic choices. It was also the most successful. It was predicated not on its knowledge of its enemy (Israel) but its true genius lay in its knowledge of the press. The calculus was simple: launch a rocket from within a civilian population; if you kill Jews that's a victory. If the Jews hit back and in so doing kill Lebanese civilians, that's a victory. If they don't hit back because they're afraid to hit civilians, that's a victory. Now repeat the process until you kill so many Jews they have to hit back and in so doing kill more Lebanese civilians. That's the ultimate victory, because they know that in striking just those chords exactly what music the press will play. The awful truth, which the Western Press was manipulated to ignore or downplay, was that Iran, through its terrorist operational arm Hezballah, had invaded Lebanon from within. Hezballah did not protect Lebanon, they occupied it and they used those Hezballah occupied territories to launch Iran's offensive in response to the West's ultimatum to cease development of nuclear weapons."

That comes from an assessment by a IDF officer. Israel is now facing a much more sophisticated enemy. HB is not a rag tag terrorist organisation. It is a trained - and skilfull - Army that uses terrorist methods.

This you have to see!

The stud is 24 years old. She is, allegedly, 84 years of age. The music is dire - turn volume way down before going to see what I am writing about

My real interest is just what they get up to in private - and how?

Catch 22

I was thinking of something today as a "Catch 22" situation and realised that I had lost the full definition. When the novel was new, it was a rite of passage to have read it and be able to engage in the circular reasoning that is typifies.

This is a public service. "Catch 22" is repeated here for those who may never have explored it or whose memory is getting a bit fuzzy at the edges. Let us hope that that tosser B Liar never discovers it or we will be off down more of his avenues of fractured reasoning.

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

Centers on Air Force procedure during WW2 that one was rotated after a certain number of combat missions. After having flown the stated number of flights, one could claim the rotation. If one did not claim, active service flights continued.

NiceNice from TalkTalk

I spoke about my frustrations with the ISP people TakTalk and the ongoing problems.

Writing to the Head Honcho seems to have worked. Received today a letter apologising for all the annoyance. Best bit was that they have waived the £70 'disconnection'

Tell me please!

Where was this poster maker when I needed him?

Bogey-man exposed

English Russia » Photos made in Moscow subway

Are these inhabitants of a country of whom we were so scared that we went to extraordinary lengths to keep them, at least, quiet.

The London Underground - when last I had to enter the bowels of that hell on earth - may lack the grandiose architecture but the worst we seem to endure is Boy George or Adam Ant clones.

The heat goes on..

A TANGLED WEB: IGNORE THE AID DONORS...: "Millions of dollars are apparently 'urgently needed to help Lebanon back to its feet after its bombardment by Israel, aid agencies have urged international donors.'

Governments and international organisations are gathering in Sweden to pledge money to rebuild the country, with $500m (£260m) the target. Oxfam said the bombing campaign had ruined Lebanon's agricultural sector.

I just love the bias in that first sentence, taken from the BBC news site.

First of all, the inference that Lebanon was bombarded by Israel. Wrong. Those parts of Lebanon that were being used by the terrorist group Hezbollah were bombarded by Israel, and rightly so. The fact that Hezbollah cowards dug in around civilian structures is a problem of Hezbollah's making."

Just one of the bits floating around now which ignore the current situation and retreat back to long-held prejudices. The most recent events have been overeshadowed by this sort of diatribe more suited to the playground of a primary school.

The problem I see is that whilst this dinosaur attitude pertains, there will be no progress on the Israel/Palestine problem. I still cannot think that there will be any great advance - one is never going to see eye to eye with, for example, someone who denies them their very right to live in peace to the extent of calling for them to be wiped off the face of the earth. There has to be some solution short of total resolution that brings peace and stability there.

No - I don't know what. If I had that sort of intellect, I'd be sitting where you are at the time you read this. Sure as hell, rhetoric like my quoted site will do nothing positive.

1st edit - read this to see how corrosive this attitude can be

2 Egyptians Use Shoehorn to Dig Tunnel Under Russian Border - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM

2 Egyptians Use Shoehorn to Dig Tunnel Under Russian Border - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM: "Two Egyptian citizens have managed to violate the Russian state border by digging a tunnel under the barbed wire fence with a simple shoehorn. After getting lost on the territory of Poland the Egyptians performed the trick for the second time and got back to Russia to face arrest. "

What comment is needed!

A TANGLED WEB: First past the Post

A TANGLED WEB: First past the Post: Looks as if I have a doppelganger out there?
"We all know that we could do a better job than the bunch in power; that’s human nature! But please, please, someone tell me that there are trustworthy politicians somewhere, who will put themselves forward so we can elect a crew who at least can keep their bloody promises to a waiting electorate?"
More stregth to his elbow say I.

The First Post : Return of the failed statesman

The First Post : Return of the failed statesman.
This about sums it up for me. Sad and disgraceful but there should really be enough who were able to see just what a untruthful fraud anything-for-a-result charlatan he really is.
Sad thing is that I do not see anyone - Socialist or Conservative - that stands any chance of returning things where my country has the status it deserves.

What is going on there?

The Neworlens saga rolls on. At the time, I considered it to be such an overwhelming natural event that no sort of planning or real-time rescue operation would have achieved much. Then came stories of clear incompetence and naff protection from levees. I soon realised that I was so far out of the loop on information that it was not possible to have any hard and fast opinion on during- and post-Katrina events. It was also about this time that I came across the vast 9/11 Conspiracy empire and that grabbed most of my spare time (and a lot more since). Here, my interest lies in the way that facts are interpreted and seemingly unconnected events are used to support what seems to be a genuine belief amongst a lot of people that not all is known. Not all written in BLOCK CAPITALS, underlined a couple of times and written in green ink. One of the things I concluded about the flood was that all would be set to rights.

I see America as a nation with vast resources of material, money and sheer human drive towards the achievement of goals. I had always considered that what USA wanted, USA got. Not always by the neatest and most polite way but still, at the end, the aim was met. This came from being lucky enough to have been let loose from the Corporate waistcoat on my American visits but also from working with a US oil company at a time when the British North Sea exploration and recovery was at its height. My favourite line from my VP was “Throw money at it John” when a really tough problem arose. My own government has this money-tossing syndrome (NHS computer service anyone?) but they seem to take the moola directly to the drain without ever pouring it over the problem.

So, I am baffled when I see the TV reports reflecting the state of Katrina-land today. We saw pictures of circumstances that Saddam Hussein might have engineered in Iraq pre-2003. Here, surely, was something big enough for Dubya to make a major impact on his (apparently – I’m not going to get into that discussion) dwindling support. All it needed was money thrown at it with some good supervision. Yes – I have heard of corruption but we knew of the venal nature of the locals just a few days after the water came up so should have been ready to stop recovery money being siphoned off.  I don’t see it as a ‘poor deprived blacks again’ scenario as the failure to do much/anything seems to cut across racial divides. Doubtless, there have been victories somewhere but I saw Neworlens as exactly the situation that America, to my mind, dealt with. Sheer brute force deployed to a clear end game.

I’d like to be able to tie down an opinion and cause for the situation as it is reported today. I reckon other things will get in the way. I’ve just started planning for our 50th Wedding Anniversary in July next year and that should keep me amused. Seems a shame that inhabitants of a great country don’t have a better life though……………..

UN Forces?

Just as the political correctness crowd have changed our Police Force into Police Service, my guest blog indicates to me that we should change UN Forces into UN Services. Don't want any of that nasty old suggestion of force being used do we?

Wonder if the Coffee Onan will visit during his Lebanese jolly?

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Just to show what the blind eye does not see

I think he's got it!

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended Aug. 14. Five other Israeli soldiers were killed as they pursued the militants back into Lebanon."We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude.

So, it seems that even Islamic terrorists/leaders of freedom fighters (dual description so as to not offend the bleeding heart-ists), can learn.  Al  I hope is that the forces of law and order can also see the light and react to any threat with the highest possible level of aggression. None of this ‘minimal force’ or ‘negotiation’ rubbish. Hit them hard and hit them often seems to work.

In lieu of blogging

During my enforced absence from the blogging action I sustained myself with trying some creative writing. There are many resources that will assist in this – mainly classes at night school or directed learning by post. I did not think I wanted to go down these routes. After all, I’d written police reports for years, drawn up business proposals and handled complicated business correspondence. My vocabulary seemed adequate.

I chose to write about a group of women Quilters. This is a sub-class of posh ladies who gather together and make quilts. They contain the sort of female that one might find at a Womens’ Institute. For American readers, think Junior League members.
I had an insight into their world as my wife is a Quilter and assiduous attendant at the gatherings of a local coven as well as travelling on visits to other Ladies Who Quilt.
My unique selling point however, was to write about a Quilt group as a gathering of lesbians. The meetings were a cover for their conduct. I saw their association and friendships as the sisterly representation of the lesbian ethos. No nasty physical stuff really. I quite enjoyed drawing up the plot list and characters I thought would be involved. We showed the early work to a selected few whom we thought might see the joke and it went down well. I’m going to continue and might even get into publishing it. It has struck me that the gay boys Brotherhood has penetrated (if I may use that word) the TV soap world but so far no one has chanced their arm with lesbian themes so there might be some interest there.

Where the heck have YOU been?

My period off-air was my own fault for taking up a TalkTalk offer to combine much cheaper telephone calls with free Broadband services. I suppose you can when it works but the response was so great that the TT people could not handle it. They completely fouled up on the transfer, which meant that I was off-air for about a month. I’m still not live but I’m blogging so as to keep up to date with my blether and so that I would not have too much to write when things/if things sorted themselves out.

I suppose the major thing has been Lebanon. What this has demonstrated is just how powerless the world community is to have much of an effect upon regional events. I think the reasons for this are interesting. The great and the good have much to say but fail to recognise just how desperate things are. The entrenched Muslim position is that Israel has no right to be where they are. The extremists even deny the right of the Jews to exist anywhere. Israel claims that the land is rightly theirs, wishes to live in peace and will never again find themselves in a 1935-1945 position. Talking will not change things. My main thought is that Israel, in confronting this basic aim of Palestine and the Arab world in general, has lost the propaganda war where the onlookers think their reaction is non-proportional in respect of the kidnapping of two soldiers.

Just as much try and reason with a homicidal maniac high on drugs. Let us assume that the leaders of the Islamic terrorists do come to some agreement with Israel. They do not have sufficient control over their members to ensure that just a few do not go rogue and continue to fire rockets into Israeli territory. This would provoke a reaction from IDF and the whole thing would be off again.
The attitude of the media is also interesting. They make the maximum use of press briefings from the Israeli side and ask aggressive questions before seemingly rejecting the answers they receive. We do not see any interviews with the terrorist leaders. No questions like “So, Mr Mohammed. What did you expect the Israeli to do when you kidnapped their soldiers?” or “How did you think they would respond to the firing of rockets into their land?” The way in which Muslims demonstrate grief and anger is very demonstrative and provides good images. The damage to Arab villages is very graphic when high explosives strike. We were shown a devastated village that, the Press stated, had been a terrorist stronghold and where there had been some 9 or more IDF deaths. Who can say what damage came from the defenders resisting and which from the attackers advancing? Why do we not see what damage there is in, say, Haifa when over 200 rockets are fired in a day?  Israeli people are far more stoic – can one say dignified? – in the face of death so do not attract the lenses like Arabs.

Still, it cannot be too serious. Our Prime Minister is having a farewell tour of USA. He saw big Arnold and signed a deal with California on global warning. That reminded me of when the small London borough of Ealing declared itself a nuclear-free zone. I suppose they thought the radiation would see the signs and go round them. The wide-mouthed frog was not with him. This relieved her minders of a drunken Scouse rendering of Hasta la vista Baby.

Another Police Complaints report out today. This one was regarding the shooting of an innocent man during an early morning police raid on his home involving 200 officers. Seems it was an accident. The number of police deployed can illustrate the presumed threat and it would be reasonable for high adrenaline levels in the attacking group. The usual background to the discharge of a firearm described as accidental is where the weapon has some fault that allowed or caused a round to be fired without intervention of the weapon handler. All other discharges are negligent. A highly trained officer should be able to avoid negligence. Suggestion seems to be that it was an accident as there was some physical contact between shooter and shot person. That is negligence. So, one more in a series of highly publicised shootings by police expert marksmen and it was all OK, just one of those things. Just how Independent is the Independent complaint system? Another thing that was revealed was that the police intruders were shouting “Armed Police” but could not be heard as the sound was muffled behind their gas masks. Why did the police not know from their training that they were silenced in this manner? Where is the legal responsibility if their required warnings cannot be heard?

Another 3 soldiers killed in ambush in Afghanistan. You remember – the place where the Defence Secretary said he hoped that not a shot would be fired in anger? It is also the place where there is a long tradition of rebel tribesmen inflicting heavy losses on the British army. In Iraq, the terrorists resort to roadside bombs that remove them from real danger, in the latest attack the Afghans were confident enough to confront a convoy of 12 armoured vehicles. The convoy was itself a symptom of how marginal things are. We have forts in Indian country where some 50 or so soldiers live in a village and use it as a base for patrols.

The normal re-supply by road has been deemed too dangerous and helicopters should be used. Except that we do not have enough helicopters. I’m sure that to Afghan eyes a helicopter is just a fatter and more valued target than an armoured vehicle. We do have some Apache attack choppers and one was called in at the latest attack. It killed one tribesman so either we need some better pilots or the simple peasant has camouflage talent sufficient to beat the very expensive and sophisticated weapons systems one would expect in a machine designed to find and kill the enemy. I listen to the morning news with some dread lest I hear a report that the assassins have got into one of the forts and wiped it off the map.

I have a resolution to the TalkTalk broadband saga. I got hold of a Customer Services telephone number and, after the obligatory 30-minute wait on hold, spoke to someone who spoke English I could understand. Reviewing my notes on her screen, she admitted that I was not likely to be connected until late August and all the talk of routers and software in the post was a ruse. We agreed this telling of falsehoods was reprehensible. I had no interest in a relationship where the service centre agents lied – not just one but three different people had told me the ‘in the post’ lie. I got the number of the department that could take my cancellation of the agreement.

This hides behind another (surely designed to annoy) set of options. Make a wrong choice and, bingo, you are cut off. I got the selection right at the second go. Then followed 51 minutes of “Sorry for the delay. Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold” If they are sorry for the delay, they should do something about it by getting more lines and extra staff. Ditto if they truly feel the call is important. I can understand why there might be a shortage of staff in this department as the agents are in the heavyweight fighter class. That is heavy as in sumo wrestlers and not boxing.

The lady I won in the raffle was very correct but quite keen to gain the initiative. An early exchange came when I mentioned a ‘router’ as an item I expected. I was briskly told it was not a ‘router’ but was a ‘modem’. I responded that to serve her pedantic demands and to save confusion I would refer to it as a small box made of what appeared to be black plastic with connecters and wires that one joined to one’s computer to get a internet connection. I found pleasure in making frequent reference to the router/modem in these terms. My dragon then went on to tell me that my connection was live. I asked how a connection could be said to exist if something were only attached at one end. I understood live in this context to be like a electric current. I received no shock. The conversation then descended into the realms of a Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch. This is a dead connection loomed. I finally tired of her waspish responses and said I wanted to abandon the whole TalkTalk saga. “That will need a £70 cancellation fee” said she. I queried exactly what it was that cost £70 that had to be done to cancel something that had never existed. She offered me a contact to whom I could write for an explanation. I told her TalkTalk would get their money. I would get the benefit of telling anyone who would listen, just what a load of rubbish was TalkTalk and their backer Carphone Warehouse. So – dear reader; be aware. Be very aware. They cannot deliver what they promise (TV programme 2 August), their telephone administration system is rubbish and agents are allowed to lie to cover their deficiencies.

I think it would be a good piece of legislation for call centres to be run by a rival company. I am sure that Apple could run the service centre for Microsoft with a great deal more honesty and confidence. Sky or Orange should take over the TalkTalk operation. They would then respond much better to complaints.

The very hot weather seems to have moved away. Expert local opinion is that the rain we had was not really sufficient and the crops are sure to be below par. Planting for winter wheat and barley cannot start as the ground is too dry for the seeds to germinate. The local farmers try so very hard that it is sad to see the problems they have. Not many latest registration Range Rovers around here. The dog enjoyed the heat as we changed the beach/country regime to beach every day. She still got the exercise swimming and did not overheat so dangerously as she had done up on the hill. My personal thermostat has failed; the tropical heat that fazed me not at all would surely kill me now.

The main p.c. over-cooked itself. The power pack melted. This is being written on one of the laptops and the iMac has come back into play for correspondence. Delivery time for a new pack is in the TalkTalk league – five or six days. I just hope that the cleft in the messenger’s stick does not penetrate the packaging. I am told that it used to be possible during the afternoon to write a postcard invitation to take tea that day and it would get there in time. So much for progress!

Slowly, gradually, painfully, things seem to be coming back towards normal. The ‘proper’ p.c. is back with a double-size fan assembly and it is certainly much cooler. After some very heated discussions with TalkTalk, I have the Migration Code I need for BT to take me on. I still think it is strange that I have a line I paid for, for which I pay a rental, where I may choose my Internet supplier but where I have to obtain authority from another to decide what is connected to that line.

So – we have what is described as a Cease Fire. Israel will remain in Lebanon until the multi-nation force gets set up and deploys. Not much chance of anything going wrong there then! The cheese eating surrender monkeys of La Belle France were well to the fore with the offer of 200 engineers. This in a force destined to be 15,000 strong. You can bet your apples that the engineers would not go anywhere or try anything military unless guarded by a strong infantry presence.

I was amazed at the so-called ‘friendly’ Muslim community warning us that the terrorist violence in UK was likely to continue until we changed our attitudes and policies to Arab nations. If this is not supporting the terrorists, what is? They have the same relationship to the murderers as Sinn Fein had to the Provisional IRA. Shagger Prescott has met with them so we will have sold the pass there then. They are all about restitution of the Muslim empire as it was in it’s heyday so a whole swathe of the Middle East from Turkey to mid-Spain will have to adopt Sharia. They do not care how they get it but that is their aim – they claim with Holy backing.

Normal Service will be resumed...

Sorry to have missed you.

My ISP connection is causing problems and I will be back when it is all sorted out.

Seems to be the standard SNAFU. Wanted to change ISP. Old ISP turned off. New ISP not yet turned on. Help desk in India, with just the one phone line where the person who answers it has gone on his holidays.

This post has been faxed to #1 Son, who lacks the creative writing skill of aged parent.

Normal service will be resumed...

Bush's Clinton moment?

Here we see a off-duty (one hopes) moment at the G8. In this day and age, I thought that the laying on of hands was inappropriate?  

Wonder what the poor folks are doin' today.....?

Well, it is again very hot.



p.s. That is NOT Chinese tea.

Hic! 

Hot work

I would imagine that at some time or another, I have moaned about the British workman. I used to employ quite a few and was never impressed with their work rate when compared to some Europeans and transitory Oz and Kiwi labour.

One of the traders whose back yard is below our flat is having an extension built to extend his shop. This is quite a large building project that has kept me amused supervising from afar. There are generally about half a dozen guys on site and what they do is labour intensive – pushing, shoving, transporting things.

The external sensor on my little weather station registered 36 degree C at 3 pm yesterday. The builders worked all through this. No long sessions brewing up. No makee-workee in what shade there was. Good hard graft. T-shirts kept on. Big heavy boots. Gloves when handling bricks.

So – some of my general carping may have been unjustified. Certainly, these Jocks showed what can be done in the way of hard work. In my youth I used to earn female-entertaining money with a holiday and week-end job as a labourer on a building site and know first hand that it is not easy money.

Live well - go to hell

This is from the blogger who creates news from facts and events. Very amusing but this is one that stands out for me. Thankfully, I have a excellent GP and this is a scenario I could image myself into.
After a recent visit to a doctor, one 60-year-old patient in California, who has spent the last several years following the recommendations of the health industry, was taken aback by his doctors comments and is now considering reverting back to all his old bad habits."I recently picked a new primary care physician and after two visits and dozens of lab test he said I was doing fairly well for my age," he said. "I was curious whether or not he thought I'd live till eighty so I asked him." He said the doctor then asked him a slew of questions including whether he smoked or drank, whether or not he ate red meat, whether he spent too much time in the sun playing golf, sailing, hiking or bicycling, whether he gambled too much, drove too fast or had sex too often to which the answer to each was no.The doctor finished his notes then looked at his patient and shook his head before asking him one final question."Then why do you give a shit if you live to be 80?"

Dangerous Holy lands

http://www.riehlworldview.com/photos/uncategorized/lebanon_1a.jpg
http://www.riehlworldview.com/photos/uncategorized/israel_1.jpg
are a good attempt to show just how serious the situation is in Israel and surrounds.