August 28, 2011
Google - Keep To The Knitting
Google says it would pay more tax in UK - Telegraph
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, has blamed the Government's weak tax laws for the fact it pays just £8m of corporation tax in Britain despite making more than £6bn in revenues in this country.
Mr Schmidt told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday that Google "loves" Britain and would pay more tax if it were legally required to do so. He said the company's hands were tied by Britain's low tax demands.
"It is true we could pay more tax but we would have to do so voluntarily. It's called paying the legally minimum amount of tax required," he said.
Oh stop pretending to being so bloody lovely, you are a corporation maximising returns for your shareholders. That is what you are meant to do and is the best bloody thing you can do. Just stick to that.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:20 AM
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October 30, 2009
Change (in ones and fives) I can believe in
More than 40 per cent of the President’s top fundraisers are also said to have secured posts in his Administration, from senior jobs in the executive to ambassadorships in countries including Spain, France and the Bahamas.
Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s official spokesman, said that many of the White House guests who were also donors were Mr Obama’s close friends:
Of course a Messiah must keep his disciples around him and happy, just maybe it isn't a new kind of politics after all.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:59 AM
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October 23, 2009
Olympic Follies
An artist plotting his own "field of dreams" has won a £460,000 grant – to create a full-size football pitch in a secluded part of a Scottish woodland.
Craig Coulthard, 28, has been selected to create one of 12 artworks across the UK to help celebrate the staging of the 2012 Olympics in London.
The artist, who lives in Edinburgh, will spend the best part of 18 months creating a football pitch in the Borders – which can only be seen from the Edinburgh-London flight path. But the pitch will only be in use for one day – just before the Games – before being left to be "taken over by nature". The games will be played by volunteers who have gained British citizenship since the last Olympics.
Mr Coulthard said: "It's not the kind of project you do without a substantial grant or subsidy, so I was delighted to hear I'd won.
Other winning entries include: three 30ft hand-crocheted lions, which will be displayed in a huge case in Nottingham; an environmentally-sustainable watermill to float on the River Tyne, and the recreation of Coventry icon Lady Godiva as a giant human puppet, who will lead a cast of thousands in a processional performance.
See The Olympics aren't just about wasting our money on sports!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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October 22, 2009
Book Plug
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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March 26, 2009
Big Ignorant Fucker from Offaly Allows No Mockery
The prankster who created a furore when his nude portraits of Brian Cowen, the Irish Prime Minister, were hung in two of Dublin's most prestigious galleries faced prison yesterday after police discovered his identity.
Mr Casby could be prosecuted for indecency, incitement to hatred and criminal damage - for hammering a nail into a wall of the National Gallery of Ireland. If convicted, he would face a heavy fine and possibly even a stint in jail.
Also in the dock is RTÉ, Ireland's leading public broadcaster, for daring to report the incident. After receiving a formal complaint from the Taoiseach's office, the Irish equivalent of the BBC was forced to issue a grovelling apology to Mr Cowen on its main evening bulletin.
A detective told ...that he was under “pressure from on high ... the powers that be wanted it investigated”.
RTÉ, meanwhile, removed its light-hearted story from its website and delivered a contrite and sombre apology, read by one of the nation's best-known news presenters.
Michael Kennedy, a member of the Irish Parliament for Fianna Fáil, the ruling party, which Mr Cowen leads, insisted that the RTÉ report was “a gross insult to the dignity of the office of Taoiseach”. He called on RTÉ's director-general to tender his resignation.
"Dignity of the office of Taoiseach” what a joke, with the fat fucker there, what dignity? With this sort of reaction Ireland shows that its leaders are third world politicians.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:20 AM
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January 20, 2009
Look Away Dixie Land
Mike Newbury - the writer
Posted by The Englishman at 9:33 AM
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January 18, 2009
What can we give instead of what can we take....
Barack Obama to echo JFK with call for self-sacrifice - Telegraph
Aides said the President-Elect's first words as president would hark back to John F Kennedy's plea to "ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country".
A couple of days ago I suggested a form of words he might be comfortable with:
"We count it a privilege to live in an age when our country demands that great things shall be done, a privilege to be of the generation which learns to say what can we give instead of what can we take. For thus our generation learns there are greater things than slothful ease; greater things than safety; more terrible things than death."
But I have a feeling he won't given the author.....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:21 PM
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November 27, 2008
Turkey Talk
Happy Thanksgiving to my colonial readers, at least you get to stuff and eat the turkeys, we just get to be ruled by them.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:16 AM
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September 2, 2008
Palin backward, antifeminist and social antiquated - suits me
Alpha Mummy - Times Online - WBLG: Palin's a woman but not a pro-woman candidate
Because there is only one sort of pro-woman candidate and a strong independent woman who fails to follow the herd mentality bleating about "quality childcare and reproductive freedom" is "backward, antifeminist and social antiquated".
(Funny how non of the pro-women candidates ever get tagged with the vpilf label isn't it...)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM
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April 15, 2008
At least it isn't the SA-80....
Afghan troops told to lay down trusty AK47s - Times Online
For a country with a fighting history such as Afghanistan, where invading forces have so often been humbled, there could be no greater indignity than to be told to hand over your guns and fight with the weapon of the infidel.Yet the new recruits to the Afghan National Army (ANA) are being asked to swap their beloved Kalashnikov AK47, probably the most famous weapon in the world, for the American M16.
The reason for this dramatic change in the fighting culture of the average Afghan soldier is not to boost the coffers of the American manufacturer of the M16 —- although it undoubtedly will.
Rather, it is designed to improve the efficiency of the ANA and teach its soldiers how to preserve ammunition to ensure that, when a battle is fought, the enemy is defeated before the bullets run out.
Traditionally, the Afghan will fire his Kalashnikov from the hip as he advances, spraying the enemy in all directions on automatic mode until every bullet has been expended.
But that is not the way of the British or American soldier who uses his ammunition stocks with greater husbandry and fires to kill, rather than to deluge the enemy with a wall of bullets.
The M16 is fired automatically but in triple bursts, not a constant stream, and never from the hip but with aimed shots from the shoulder. It is against the very nature of warfare as practised by an Afghan soldier, but at Camp Tombstone the first attempts are being made to consign the AK47 to history.....
The reaction of the soldiers of the ANA's No 3 Kandak (battalion) of the Afghan 4th Brigade, normally based in the southern province of Uruzgan and now spearheading the switch to the M16, said it all.
“This is made of plastic, it will break,” one cried. They held up the M16 in ridicule.
“The Kalashnikov is cleaned just by covering it in diesel. It comes out looking spotless,” Major Robert Armstrong, the Royal Irish Regiment officer responsible for training the Afghan soldiers, said.
“But we tell them that the M16 is lighter and more accurate than the AK47 and I think they'll come round. There's no question, though, that the AK47 is a good rifle. You can bury it in the sand for 100 years, dig it out and it'll fire first time.”
Sergeant Rab McEwan, of the 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, had the task of introducing the Afghan soldiers to the M16. “I'm happy with the way it has gone so far but for the Afghans, the Kalashnikov is a cultural thing —- they'll take time to get used to the M16,” he said.
Colonel Neshat had one reservation. “I'm concerned whether there will be enough ammunition with the M16. My soldiers are used to firing hundreds of bullets.”
The British military instructors nodded and smiled.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:27 AM
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March 31, 2008
Scroungers
Bald eagles waiting to be handfed - Times Online
Benjamin Franklin. “I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country,” he wrote. “He does not get his living honestly.”
Hand fed and dependent on handouts, sounds like it should be our national bird.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:16 AM
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March 5, 2008
Seconds out, round two.
Hillary Clinton resurrects her dreams with Texas and Ohio victories - Times Online
Oh goody, the cat fight continues, hopefully once they have finished scrapping all there will be left will be a pile of blood and hair.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:43 AM
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February 8, 2008
Scoot, Muck and Dizzy and Roly too, Hillary and Obama join the crew
Hillary Clinton: "Yes We Can" : February 2008 : Toby Harnden : Foreign : Telegraph Blogs
Have you heard the Barack Obama slogan "Yes We Can" that has caught on like wildfire since he used it repeatedly in his speech after his narrow defeat in New Hampshire? Every rally you go to there are "Yes we can" placards held aloft. Obama's addresses are interrupted with cries of "Yes we can". There’s an impossibly-cool "Yes we can" Obama video (see below).
Seems Hillary Clinton has heard the slogan too. In the "Morning HUBdate" sent out by her campaign, there was the following paragraph: "Yes, We Can"... Not an original thought in her life!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM
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January 15, 2008
Tessa Jowell denies she has a black hole
Olympics 'may face £1bn black hole' - Scotsman.com News
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and London Mayor Ken Livingstone say that they will be able to recoup £1.8bn following the Games from land sales at the Olympic site in east London.
But reports claim a London Development Agency warns that, if land prices increase by 6% annually over the coming years, it may be possible to raise only £800m.
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport .. said: "There is absolutely no black hole in the 2012 finances, and these claims are completely misleading and a distortion of the facts.
"The £800m quoted is the most cautious of a range of LDA projections of how much might be raised by land sales in the Olympic Park, based on 6% per annum growth.
I wonder if any private company would be get away with basing its forecasted revenues on more than 6% compound growth in land values....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:19 AM
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January 11, 2008
Hopes dashed
Posted by The Englishman at 8:09 AM
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December 17, 2007
Nobel prize for economics
The Devil's Kitchen: There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents...
Banal though it may be, I remember playing SimCity 2000 as a teenager on my computer. Every time I tried to set up a high-tax, high-service economy within my city, my economy, followed by the city itself, stagnated. The answers have been staring me in the face for years.
Many years ago in a different place I noted the excellent work The Sims were doing in teaching real economics. My boys were similarly impressed by the truths it revealed. I have never played it but I bet I could beat Gordon, Darling and Batshit with one hand tied behind my back. And The Sims and Sims 2 with 30 million copies, at least, shipped deserve the Nobel Prize because I can't think of any other economic's text so widely spread that isn't a little red book.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM
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July 6, 2007
US Flag Flapping
Americans can only fly flags made in the US
The American state of Minnesota has announced that all US flags sold in the state should be of American manufacture, and warned violators of the law, that they would be punished by a 1,000 dollar fine, or imprisoned for three months.
The series of new laws is supported by the Flag Manufacturers' Association of America. It has complained about a flood of US flags, valued at 5.3 million dollars, imported mostly from China last year.
Jelly Bellied Flag Flapping! - It is a shame to see the symbol of liberty and freedom being dragged into the gutter as the refuge of protectionism and economic ignorance - cheap Chinese flags make America richer, even if the Flagmakers of America are in inconvenienced.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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June 13, 2007
Diana - What really happened in the tunnel
Harry: I'll never stop wondering about crash | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Prince Harry has revealed that he will "never stop wondering" about what happened in the Paris tunnel on the night his mother died.
In a poignant television interview, he and Prince William have confided they think about it "every single day"....
Both princes have stressed in the past that they believe their mother's death was a tragic accident. Their spokesman said Prince Harry's comments did not mean he believed there was any truth in the conspiracy theories that have since abounded, but that it was "natural for him and his brother to wonder exactly what their mother went through".
Is this same two Princes who complained about a television program about their mother's death? It is distasteful but hardly a great mystery as what their mother went through as she knelt in the rear footwell in front of what the Washingtonpost.com calls her coke-snorting beau (as it) crashed into a wall of the Pont D'Alma tunnel in Paris.
The Post also notes though, what we have mentioned before, that "Diana read what housemaids read -- down-and-dirty tabloids and sugary shy-virgin-marries-the-prince romances. Barbara Cartland, the pink-ostrich-plumed mother of Di's own hated stepmother, Raine, wrote hundreds of these, and would claim they were Diana's downfall: "They weren't awfully good for her." Fifteen years after the wedding (to which she wasn't invited), the Queen of Romance opined that the marriage was doomed all along because Diana "wouldn't do oral sex." Well, that wasn't in the romance novels, was it? But while we're down here in the trouser zone, it's worth noting that Diana herself called her marriage's sexual problems "geographical," and reported that Charles only sought her out every three weeks. We now learn that Charles likes to be called "Arthur" at the height of his amorous endeavors. Who would know? Not Di. But Camilla would, with her "long, languid understanding of her man"..
....Finally understanding that Charles would always love Camilla Parker Bowles, and never her, Diana began the string of affairs that spiced up the end of her short life. Tina Brown (whose book the Post is reviewing) really goes to town here. She, worldly piece of work that she is, thinks everything would have been hunky-dory if Di had only got it on with Prince Philip, the Queen's consort. He fancied her anyway, and it would have kept the fuss inside the family. But Di aimed lower. Her first affair, Tina believes, was with Di's cockney bodyguard Barry Mannakee. For this flash, Tina pumped Di's pal Dr. James Colthurst, who helped the Princess tape all the dirt used by Andrew Morton in Diana: Her True Story, the H-bomb dropped on the House of Windsor in 1992. Not only had Diana admitted an affair, Colthurst said, but she thought Barry was "bumped off" when he died. Next came the red-haired Life Guards Maj. James Hewitt, her (and the boys') riding instructor. Later, when the discarded and broke Hewitt sold his memoirs, he was widely scorned as the Love Rat.
Was he or was he not the father of ginger-haired Prince Harry? Tina Brown thinks so. "Well, I don't know what she was doing at the time," Prince Charles once responded, not too gallantly, when the subject arose. A succession of tall, handsome beaux, both before and after the official royal separation of Dec. 9, 1992, were dubbed "the Dianamen" and the "42 Longs" by her bodyguards. She fell hard for married art dealer, Oliver Hoare, becoming his "phone sex pest." She carried on with Will Carling, the rugby star. But by this time, she was already evolving into Saint Diana. The spurned but genuinely kind and empathetic princess comforted the sick, embraced AIDS patients, shook lepers' hands, touched bloody bandages. As she bent to speak to dying children or tenderly caress the wheelchair-bound, she seemed a veritable healing angel.
And now, she had a great love. He was a Pakistani heart surgeon, Dr. Hasnat Khan. Impressed that the devout Muslim would not consummate their affair until her divorce decree was absolute, Diana actually considered converting to Islam. She bought several sexy Pakistani outfits -- love those bare midriffs! -- cooked for him, ironed his shirts, vacuumed his modest apartment, and for his birthday turned up wearing sapphire-and-diamond earrings and a fur coat with nothing beneath. Ah, l'amour! And glamour! Unfortunately, his large, close family wanted him to marry a nice Muslim girl, and he obliged. Poor Dodi Fayed, who died in the Paris crash, was really just a stand-in.
As to what really happened in the tunnel? I cherish the hope it was the last gasp of an efficient British Security Service performing a "Wet Job" (bit like Diana) to rid us of a dangerous threat to our way of life and all we hold dear.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM
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April 24, 2007
Send forth the best ye breed
Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Money worries tempt OAPs to up sticks for new life abroad
PENSIONERS are leaving Scotland in record numbers to escape escalating taxes and inflation, new figures have revealed...."Many people who contact us are fed up with Scotland. They say the country is going down the tubes and that they don't see any future here."
One recent poll found that a third of those reaching retirement age planned to move abroad...
"In this country, people often feel put upon and are looking for a brighter, less stressful life, so they move abroad."
And it isn't just the old who have had enough of this demi-paradise..
The British are the most footloose people in the world. Not only do more British live abroad than any other nationality, they are also more spread out.
There are 41 countries with more than 10,000 British living there and another 71 countries with more than 1,000. The levels of emigration are now back to those last seen in the late-1950s and early 1960s, when the "ten-pound Poms" left in their droves for Australia, enticed by subsidised travel and settlement.
They are even higher than the last great exodus before the First World War, when the outflow was running at 300,000 per annum and more young men were leaving the country every year than died on the battlefields of Europe.
The latest research shows that far from being pensioners looking for a retirement in the sun, many leaving today are young and highly skilled. Four in ten emigrating in 2004 were in managerial or professional occupations.
Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM
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January 31, 2007
With Love from Italy
The Friends of the Amarone can be relied on to deliver mouthwatering recipes such as Stuffed Pork Tenderloin With Reduced Red Wine Sauce but today they have surpassed themselves...
Friends of the Amarone: Italy's 10 Sexiest Women
Today, I would like to do a small gift to all of our male readers...hope that you enjoy it ;-)
Cold showertime...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:03 AM
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December 30, 2006
Strange Dreams but True
Do you ever wake up from a comfortable snooze on the sofa of sloth and then spend some time having to disentangle dreams from the truth?
Having awoken from a short power nap I have had to check:
1) No I didn't get my scrotum tattooed last night, thank God, that would have been hard to explain.
2) Tony Blair is still in power, now that is harder to explain.
3) A valley in Chad - not Chad Valley, the toy maker or in Somerset, provides the fertiliser for the Amazon rainforest: now that is the hardest to explain but it is true:
United Press International - NewsTrack - Dust from Chad sustains Amazon rain forest
More than half of the dust needed to fertilize the rainforest in Brazil comes from a valley in the African country of Chad, researchers said.
An international research team found 50 million tons of dust blow from Africa to the Amazon region annually, a much higher figure than the previously estimated 13 million tons, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science said in a news release. The new estimate matched calculations on the quantity of dust needed to supply minerals for the continued existence of the Amazon rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest depends on minerals washed off by rain from the soil in the Sahara Desert and blown across the Atlantic Ocean as dust, the institute said.
Researchers said the Bodele valley in Chad played an important role as a rainforest dust source because of its shape and geographic features. The valley is flanked by basalt mountain ridges, which create a cone-shaped crater with a narrow opening in the northeast, resulting in a wind tunnel of sorts, researchers said. As a result, gusts of surface wind lift the dust from the ground and blow it toward the ocean.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 PM
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November 28, 2006
How to behave down under....
australians.jpg (JPEG Image, 945x627 pixels)
Posted by The Englishman at 10:44 PM
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Still waiting for an apology from the shores of Tripoli
in 1610 the King of Spain, Phillip III, expelled the Spanish Moors, many of whom had lived in Spain for generations. One large group of 4,000 men and women, called Hornacheros, settled in an almost abandoned Rabat, and became the Sale (or Sallee) Rovers. They hated Spain, and targeted it particularly, but didn't limit themselves. They linked with pirates in Tunis and Algiers, and started raiding merchant shipping. Between 1610 and 1616, they took 466 English ships! Some European captains, including English, joined them when their own governments tried to curb their excesses; one of these was the infamous John Ward. The corsairs soon controlled the Mediterranean.
Unfortunately, captains including John Ward soon realized the cargoes of the ships they took were less valuable than the crews, and they started taking particular care to capture those men.
In July 1625, a mighty fleet sailed up the English Channel, which was soon discovered to be Islamic corsairs of Barbary. The Vice Admiral of Cornwall, James Bagg, was appalled to learn there were over 20 ships; he immediately asked London for assistance. But too late - they swooshed down on The Mount, invading the town while the people were attending Sunday service, and took 60 men, women and children as slaves. Looe was next, but when they arrived they found the populace had been warned and had escaped They managed to capture 80 "mariners and fishermen", then set Looe on fire in retaliation. West Briton lost "27 ships and 200 men". Then another Corsair fleet was sighted in north Cornish waters. They captured Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, and flew their flag brazenly. Using it as a fortified base of operations, they continually raided the undefended villages of Cornwall. They seized people in Padstow, and threatened to sack and burn Ilfracombe. Facing a two-pronged attack, the British admiral sent to solve the problem admitted he could not defeat them.
By the end of 1625, it was estimated they had destroyed 1000 'skiffs' and captured as many people. All the captives had been taken to Sale slave pens, on the Atlantic coast, to be sold. Most ended as house-slaves, or building the immense palace of the Sultan - jobs for which their experiences did not qualify them. (Nothing would qualify them for the conditions in which they were kept, nor the brutalities they suffered.)
The King was petitioned by "distressed wifes of neere 2,000 pore marriners" to open negotiations with "the Kinge of Morocco.. for the redemption of the saide poore distressed captives." In 1627, a representative of the King did just that, but instead of freeing 2,000 as expected, only 197 were released.
Off and on, the slavery trade continued. Thomas Pellow of Penryn, who was 11 when he went sailing with his uncle Captain John Pellow, of the "Francis", which departed Falmouth for Genoa in 1715, was one of the captured Among the crew of the Francis were Lewis Davies, George Barnicoat, Thomas Goodman, Briant Clarke, John Crimes, and John Dunnal. They didn't know that shortly before they left, the Sultan had torn up his treaty with the King, and released the corsairs from any previous restraints. All of the crew of the Francis, including the captain, died in slavery, toiling on Moulay Ismail's palace.
Raids by Barbary pirates on Western Europe did not cease until 1816, when a Royal Navy raid, assisted by six Dutch vessels, destroyed the port of Algiers and its fleet of Barbary ships.
In 1784 two American ships (the Maria of Boston and the Dauphine of Philadelphia) were captured, everything sold and their crews enslaved to build port fortifications. Christian slaves were preferred and forced to do degrading work and treated harshly so letters would be written home to prompt the payment of a bigger ransom.
American ships sailing in the Mediterranean chose to travel close to larger convoys of other European powers who had bribed the pirates. President Thomas Jefferson proposed a league of smaller nations to patrol the area, but the USA could not contribute. For the prisoners, Algeria wanted 60,000 dollars, America offered 4000. Jefferson said a million dollars would buy them off, but Congress would only appropriate 80,000. For eleven years Americans who lived in Algeria lived as slaves to Algerian Moors.
Continued attacks prompted the building of the United States Navy, including one of America's most famous ships, the USS Philadelphia, leading to a series of wars along the North African coast, starting in 1801. It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.
The United States Marine Corps actions in these wars led to the line, "to the shores of Tripoli" in the opening of the Marine Hymn.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM
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October 9, 2006
No Nukes News Here
No Trident Replacement
No US bombing of Iran
No Nuclear Power Stations
Nothing else happening to worry the CND crowd.....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:34 AM
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October 6, 2006
Reporting from th CPU front
FREE MARKET FAIRY TALES: Looks like Johny is living up to his reputation brings us stories uncovered elsewhere:
With the Taliban closer than 50 yards, Rifleman Nabin Rai, 20, manning a heavy machinegun on the roof, had several rounds ricochet off his weapon before a bullet went through the gunsight and hit him in the face. "His commander called for him to be medi-vacced out, but he refused to come down from the roof," said Major Rex. "Later he was again hit, this time in the helmet. He sat down and had a cigarette, then went back to his position."
&
The Gurkhas faced constant danger from several snipers and Taliban mortar teams. "The snipers had positions in buildings two rooms back with holes cut through the walls to give them a field of fire," said Major Rex. British troops could not show themselves during the day and a signaller was shot in the back, but survived his injuries. In response the Gurkhas flew in a specialist sniper. "It was cat and mouse for a couple of days," said Major Rex. "Then our sniper, Corporal Imbahadar Gurung, got four confirmed kills."
and compares it to his exciting life modelling a probability distribution of the forward curve by using a binomial numerical model.....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 AM
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October 1, 2006
The New Colonists
Telegraph | News | Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests
Ministers are proposing an extraordinary scheme to tackle climate change in which the Amazon rainforest would be turned into an international trust and its trees sold to individuals and groups.
Plans for the wholesale "privatisation" of the rainforest will be raised by David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, at a summit in Mexico this week.
The scheme, endorsed by Tony Blair, aims to protect the plants and wildlife from logging....
Quite right too - the denizens of the political saloons of Islington have a far better idea of how all that green stuff should be managed than the poor little brown people who live there - so a few beads and mirrors and bingo they will sell the land to us!
Go on Dave -
Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM
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September 26, 2006
I say Chaps, let's get serious.
EU Referendummakes clear his "irritation (which) also extends to the British political bloggers who seem quite content to follow in the wake of the MSM and prattle endlessly about exactly the same issues.
Often the humour and analysis is about the level one would expect of the 4th form of a second-rate boys boarding school and I have heard more intelligent comment from college students in fifth and sixth forms in the lectures I have been given to schools recently.
In a nutshell, the Tony and Gordon show is fluff – nothing is going to be decided immediately and much water is going to pass under the bridge before things come to a head. Meanwhile, we are a nation at war, we do have troops committed to a dangerous foreign venture and, if the material we have accumulated in this and our previous reports is at all representative of the situation, there is the potential for the situation to go seriously belly-up. In that case, over the winter, we could be seeing soldiers coming home in coffins in very large numbers.
He is quite right of course, I should show more maturity and bring you world class analysis of the important issues. But I haven't anything new to add to those, so pricking the pomposity of our glorious leaders seems to be as good of use of my time as any.
Besides having spent last night drinking in the pub with an old friend and ex-"terrorist", (a short jail term for an explosion outside a barracks), my exclusives on the war on terror would mostly consist of his accounts of getting through US customs and the snapping on of rubber gloves in the white tiled room you hope never to be lead to.....
UPDATE - It has just occurred to me to wonder if as old "Bomber" and I discussed the good old times that I had a rifle propped up against the bar with me might have been why that nice Australian couple seemed to leave the Pub in a hurry...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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August 24, 2006
Registering the Huffington Post Failure
HuffPo nails Bush with mega scoop! | The Register
The Huffington Post has suffered through a short, uncelebrated career as one of the internet's lamest gag sites since it first logged on back in May of 2005. And the blog's condition has shifted to what doctors call "Mel Gibson's Tequila-infused Critical" this week after it let Adam Hanft make on the site.
Hanft seems to have gotten his Arse Feed confused with his globule in a mad dash to chuck up a huge scoop for the Huffers. In a very concise post, the journalist-cum-adverister wrote, "Google 'Failure and Be Stunned by the First Link: You heard it here first. But do it quick, before they get the Geheime Staatspolizei to have it removed."
Er, okay.
Hanft rather seriously seemed to have been claiming that he was the first person to notice that gogoling "Failure" turns up an entry for George Bush. Most folks with a web pulse know that the "failure" gag has been going around for months, only to be preceded by the "miserable failure" gag....
maybe it was just the site saying, "We'll stop at nothing to demean Bush, including letting any tool with a keyboard and mouse dribble drivel here."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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Wonderful news from The Lebanon
In my previous post on the Levantine war - An Englishman's Castle: In the land of Canaa - I mentioned that:
my main worry is what is happening to the vineyards that supply Serge Hochar with the grapes for the wonderful Château Musar wines, if this year's harvest is disrupted then that would be a disaster.
So I'm delighted to note:
Telegraph | News | Women rescue Lebanon's wine after fighting threatens to ruin harvest
They were almost left to rot, another casualty of the month-long war between Israel and Hizbollah, but yesterday Lebanon's oldest château began its annual wine harvest, eager to meet a surge of orders from abroad.
At Château Ksara, deep in the Hizbollah heartland of the Bekaa Valley, Bedouin women went to work among the vines, collecting the 149th harvest of Lebanon's oldest labels, which just weeks ago seemed certain to be lost.
The slopes of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges are home to some of the Middle East's finest wines. But for 33 days, Israeli war jets pounded the area, seeking out guerrilla hideouts and destroying houses, bridges and factories.
That what was so important about the timing of the ceasefire - I know "Château Musar, a wine beloved by the late Auberon Waugh and regarded by many critics as one of the finest in the world, captured the public imagination after tales circulated of a harvest conducted through heavy bombardment during the 1975 to 1990 civil war" - but let's get serious. The production of truly great wine is far more important to civilisation than nearly any other act - it must be given all the protection it can be.
Is 6:40 am too early to open one of my dwindling stock of rich red "hint of medical iodine" 1982 Musars? (Tasting notes)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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July 27, 2006
In the land of Canaa
A commentator brings me to book for failing to mention the Levantine war - I plead guilty. I don't think I have insight or anything interesting to say - but that never stops you I hear you say. I think in common with most of us on these islands we just don't really care. If the Jews want to do a bit of vermin clearance, well good for them; but also deep down there is an ancestral distrust of the troublesome settlers in the old British Protectorate.
So let me pass you over to the man in Lycra instead:
Blognor Regis: No to cease fires
And as an aside my main worry is what is happening to the vineyards that supply Serge Hochar with the grapes for the wonderful Chateau Musar wines, if this year's harvest is disrupted then that would be a disaster.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:02 AM
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July 3, 2006
Why Europe hates America Pt.3
Telegraph | Opinion | To hate America is to hate mankind
Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden is often assumed to be about the British Empire, but it was in fact addressed to the United States, then beginning its global ascendancy following the Spanish-American War.
A century later, its lines -"The blame of those ye better, the hate of those ye guard" - seem eerily prophetic. According to our YouGov poll, even many Britons regard America as malign, although they remain fond of individual Americans.
...
Americans find themselves damned either way. If they remain within their own borders, they are isolationist hicks who are shirking their responsibilities. If they intervene, they are rapacious imperialists.
Indeed, many of their detractors manage to hold these two ideas in their heads simultaneously. Yet a moment's thought should reveal that they are both unfair...
Conceived in a popular uprising against autocratic government, the United States has a natural sympathy with self-rule, personal freedom and representative government. To this day, it is guided by the Jeffersonian ideal that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people they affect.
The EU, of course, is founded on the opposite principle, that of "ever-closer union". No wonder its peoples sometimes resent their more successful cousins.
The ignorant misguided bile one hears about America and its leaders is astonishing and a disgrace but is absolutely normal amongst people who consider themselves "educated". At most dinner parties it would be far more acceptable to admit to having just buggered the cat rather than suggest that George W was an intelligent thoughtful man.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:05 AM
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June 28, 2006
There are no safeguards in place.
Enron Banker Loses Extradition Case (from This Is Wiltshire)
A FATHER-OF-FIVE from a village near Bradford on Avon will be extradited to the US to face trial on fraud charges in connection with the Enron scandal....
Mark Spragg, solicitor for the three men, said last week there were no safeguards stopping people being extradited to the USA. He warned business people to be extremely careful about any dealings they have with America, saying: "If anything is done which could possible offend against US law, then anybody in the business community is likely to find themselves the subject of an extradition request which will be granted by England straight away. "There are no safeguards in place."
You may well be aware that there is currently an unfair and aggressively policed extradition treaty with the US which has resulted in the dubious imprisonment in the US of one British businessman and the potential imprisonment of several more. Karl Watkin isn't just talking about it, he's organising a dignified demonstration of businesses' concern (that's a march to you and me) this THURSDAY 29th JUNE AT 5pm from the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall to the Home Office in Marsham Street, a short distance away.
As Iain says - spread the word. The US understands the importance of protecting its own citizens and that is why this arrangement isn't reciprocal, for all extraditions to any country, including our Continental friends there should be stringent safeguards in place.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM
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June 26, 2006
The old ones are the best one
I rang an old friend over in Kilkenny and we got onto the World Cup and this afternoon's match BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Italy v Australia. Not having followed the earlier matches I asked him -"How did Italy do?"
"Oh I'm doing diddly well, how about you Sur?".
Posted by The Englishman at 1:09 PM
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June 25, 2006
Microsoft in league with the Devil
I was reading this plea:
The Devil's Kitchen: Please stop using IE. Again.
When a security warning came up on my computer - looks like even Bill Gates agrees with the Devil....
Posted by The Englishman at 9:42 PM
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Turn up the volume and annoy the neighbours...
Hat tip - CDR Salamander: Why the West is worth fighting for
Posted by The Englishman at 9:13 PM
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June 24, 2006
And a big welcome to...
Welcome to kwaRemittance (The Land of the Remittance Man)
After many months spent infesting the comments of other bloggers I have finally decided to add my tu'penny worth of thought to the blogosphere.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:07 AM
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June 7, 2006
The bell knolls for Redmond
Google Spreadsheets - Sneak Peek - I have been playing with this - an online, shareable, spreadsheet application - so far looks very good.
So Google is providing mail, calendar, spreadsheet - word processing coming soon (Writely); maybe it is time to buy the Lidl special offer laptop
and forget about buying Microsoft Office...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:14 AM
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April 4, 2006
A hero remembered
I am pleased to see this news:
Ledger-Enquirer | 04/02/2006 | Heroism defined
Statue at Fort Benning memorializing Rick Rescorla helps world know a true hero.
For the full story I recommend - http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000307.html
Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming?
See their warriors' pennants streaming
To this battlefield.
Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
It cannot be ever said ye
for the battle were not ready;
Stand and never yield!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:59 AM
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March 9, 2006
Long Cecil - revisited
I'm short of time this morning, I must get back down to my workshop and finish cutting and welding the tubes onto the tripods, so please indulge me if I presetnt a repeat of an earlier post from two years ago which some of you may have not read before...
click to enlarge.
I know there is an element of my valued visitors who appreciate guns so this morning I thought I would bring the remarkable story of "Long Cecil" to your attention.
In 1899 during the Boer War Kimberly was besieged by the Boer but the garrison showed true fighting spirit and during the four months in many way kept the upper hand in the actual skirmishes. They had one problem though, the Boer could drop shells into the town and nothing they had could respond.
"Nobody really knows who first mooted the idea of making a gun in Kimberley which could outrange the Boer artillery, but credit is usually given to George Labram, an American engineer in the town. He had come to South Africa in 1893 to erect a new crusher plant for one of the Kimberhey mines, staying on to become Chief Engineer to De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd, the company owning all the Kimberley diamond mines and which was under the chairmanship of Cecil Rhodes. In August 1899 Labram resigned his post with De Beers to take up another in the gold-mining town of Johannesburg but, for some reason, was still in Kimberley when war broke out. A good mechanical engineer with a fertile brain, Labram not only designed and made 'Long Cecil', for which he is perhaps best remembered, but during the first three weeks of the siege he designed and constructed a plant for the bulk refrigeration of perishable foodstuffs - essential with shade temperatures averaging about 31 degrees C. He had also installed an emergency fresh-water supply system, which became the town's sole supply (apart from one or two wells) for the whole siege, and had given much practical assistance and advice to the Royal Engineers in laying out controlled minefields around the town, and with the design and actual construction of the defences. Then, as the garrison's artillery had expended nearly a third of its ammunition by the end of November, Labram turned part of De Beers' workshops over to making shells, charges, and fuzes for the 2.5-inch guns. His greatest triumph perhaps was turning the workshops into a gun factory as well, never before having had anything to do with gun-making.
Labram had noticed a billet of steel, 3 metres in length, ordered originally as shafting for one of the workshop machines, which was lying in the workshop yard. As it had a diameter of almost 28 cm it occurred to him that a fairly large calibre gun might be made from it. There were no books on gun-making in Kimberley but he remembered attending a lecture given some years previously by Sir William Anderson on the engineering aspects of the subject.
After 24 days continuous work, much of it under shellfire (one or two direct hits had been scored on the workshops and there seem to have been several near-misses), gun and carriage were completed on 18 January 1900.
On Friday, 19 January, 1900, the gun, nicknamed 'Long Cecil' in honour of Cecil Rhodes, was taken for testing and calibration to one of the three emplacements already prepared for it. Rhodes, who had taken a great interest in the gun and its manufacture, was present, along with a number of local dignitaries and senior officers of the garrison. He invited Lt-Col Chamier, as the senior Gunner, to fire the first round. The story goes that Chamier refused on the grounds that, as a member of the Royal Regiment, he was permitted to fire only such guns as had been officially approved by the War Office and that 'Long Cecil' definitely did not fall within this category! Rhodes, so the story continues, then told Chamier to remove himself to a safe distance and sent his pony and trap to fetch Mrs Pickering, wife of the Secretary to the De Beers Company. On her arrival, Rhodes handed her the end of the firing lanyard, inviting her to pull it. This she duly did, with some trepidation, and fired the first round from 'Long Cecil' - of this latter part of the story there is no doubt. The round landed and burst in the middle of a hitherto safe and quiet Boer laager at the Intermediate Pumping Station some 7200 metres away, causing considerable alarm and dismay according to Boer letters written at the time, some of which were later intercepted by the British.
During its 28 days in service (including four days when it was out of action and Sundays when no firing took place) 'Long Cecil' fired 260 rounds in action (most published accounts give a slightly lower figure) Assuming the RCA and DFA section comanders adhered to normal practice by ensuring that their guns each fired roughly the same number of rounds, it may safely be said that 'Long Cecil' did more firing whilst in service than any other gun in Kimberley throughout the whole period of the siege! Not a bad performance for a home-made gun.
The full story is at: South African Military History Society - Journal- LONG CECIL The Gun made in Kimberley during the Siege
Posted by The Englishman at 8:40 AM
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January 4, 2006
JFK assassination - the truth!
Telegraph | News | Did the Cubans assassinate Kennedy?
The Cuban secret service was behind the assassination of President John F Kennedy, according to evidence presented in a new television documentary....
Oh not another theory - I have never taken much interest but strangely I was sent a link to New Version of the Zapruder Film yesterday. Slow to load, but it seems quite clear where the headshot appears to come from.
It was Jackie! - she has a small silver large-calibre Derringer in her hand, JFK turns and looks at it as the first shot fires, she shoots him in the temple, the gun jumps from her hand and skids across the trunk of the Limo, she dives out of her seat and sprawls back across the trunk to retrieve it and stows it in her handbag before acting the caring widow. I'm surprised no one has realised this before; I'm off to write the book and TV show.......
Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM
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December 23, 2005
Live it up
Posted by The Englishman at 2:02 PM
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September 30, 2005
Bradys target Florida tourist industry
IT IS Britain's most popular transatlantic holiday destination, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors a year with its sun-drenched beaches, theme parks and wildlife.
But Florida's 30 billion tourism industry is under threat from a campaign launched by a gun-control group which warns visitors they could be killed.
A series of alarming adverts, to be placed in British newspapers, warns potential tourists about a new law allowing gun owners to shoot anyone they believe threatens their safety.
The Geek points out the real situation - I have never been to Florida, but it has moved up my list of possibles for a holiday now.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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September 25, 2005
Good News from Texas
Telegraph | News | Oops! TV crews left deflated as Rita blows herself out
the glummest faces were the huge crews of television journalists sent from Britain to cover the hurricane, many of whom looked as if they were reporting typical autumn weather in England.
The BBC had the biggest team, with a total of 34 reporters, producers, cameramen and others. Nine, including three correspondents, are based in New Orleans and 25 in and around Texas.
Thanks to our Dallas friends for giving us an update on themselves and some of the other Blogospheric Texans - so far not too bad.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:16 AM
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August 5, 2005
Gorgeous George at it again
Telegraph | News | Galloway pours petrol on the flames
In his most inflammatory outburst yet on the invasion of Iraq, George Galloway has sought to justify lethal attacks on British troops on the grounds that the rebels "are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony". Put down anything breakable before you read the rest.
George became a superhero to the Media because he is seen as a lovable old rogue, bit of a rebel, bit like lovely Ken, gave Tony a bit of a lesson with out being a Tory and gave those dull old American politicians what-for on television. So this will be just tutted at the way you tut a naughty nephew who breaks a vase. It's just George, isn't it? Only old fuddy-duddies will take offence - won't they?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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July 26, 2005
Works for me!
This is what they were fighting for, of course we couldn't do it in England, evil guns and not wearing a safety belt..
- Publius Pundit
Pickup? Check. Gun? Check. Babe? Triple-check.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:51 PM
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July 13, 2005
To the Glasshouse
Telegraph | News | US military drops capital travel ban
Embarrassed American military chiefs yesterday lifted the ban on their 12,000 British-based airmen travelling to London after last Thursday's bombings.
Amid mounting criticism that the move sent the wrong message while London was trying to return to normal, Gen James L Jones, the commander of US Forces in Europe, announced the lifting of "all travel restrictions for US personnel stationed in the United Kingdom".
He added: "While all personnel are encouraged to be vigilant, we cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated by the acts of terrorists."
Bit bloody late to say that now. Gen Jones - see those stones, see that pot of white paint, get to it; and when you have finished, here are the scissors for the lawn. You miserable little worm you did more damage to US UK relations in one stupid order than you can possibly imagine. If Her Majesty The Queen is prepared to ride through London in an open top car what the fuck were you thinking of ordering the Yanks to be cowards?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 AM
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July 5, 2005
Nothing new out of Africa
Tanganyika groundnut scheme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme was a plan to cultivate tracts of what is now Tanzania with peanuts. The project was a brainchild of the British Labour government of Clement Attlee. It was abandoned at considerable cost to the taxpayers after it was discovered that peanuts will not grow in Tanganyika.
Read the whole article, it isn't long, for how disaster followed disaster...
As The Tanganyikan Groundnuts Scheme says:
..based upon the official forecasts 4,000 tons of peanuts were purchased for seed in 1947 but only a fraction of this amount was actually planted. By the end of the second season's harvest, after two years of effort and 25 million had been expended, only 2,000 tons of peanuts had been harvested, 50 percent of what had been originally purchased as seed.
And the real problem was...
Alan Wood, himself a socialist, considered whether the project being a public enterprise rather than a private, profit-making endeavor had been the cause of the failure. He concluded that the principal decision-makers could not have worked any harder had their own capital been at stake. He knew from personal observation that they worked all of the time, from early morning until late at night. According to Wood,
"They worked too hard. They were themselves into such a state of weariness, fever and fret that they could not think ahead.....Too much has been written about the benefits of capitalism in providing the driving force of the profit motive. What is more difficult to replace is the function of the price mechanism in dividing up decisions among a large number of different people. The trouble was not that General Harrison was a stupid man or an incompetent man; He was plainly a man of great ability. The trouble was he carried a heavier burden than any man could bear." (Emphasis added.)
What Wood fails to realize or admit is that it is not so much a matter of how long people work but how effectively. The profit motive not only induces people to put forth more effort but to utilize the resources under their command, including their own time, more efficiently. Personal financial responsibility forces managers to delegate authority when circumstances require.
I wonder how many of the socialist NGO's busy creating schemes today in Africa have ever studied this disaster?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM
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Just one little asteroid strike please
BBC SPORT | Other Sport... | Olympics 2012 | Blair makes passionate 2012 plea
Senator Hillary Clinton arrived in Singapore ...Jacques Chirac - who arrives later on Tuesday...Blair, with his wife Cherie, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and London bid leader Lord Coe ...David Beckham....International Olympic Committee delegates.
Go on God, you know it makes sense...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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July 4, 2005
50.8 million people had better things to do
United Kingdom 60,441,457 (July 2005 est.)
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Live 8 attracts 9.6m UK viewers
The Live 8 concerts attracted a peak audience of 9.6 million viewers on BBC One on Saturday evening.
The channel's live coverage of the global concerts won an average audience of 6.6 million..
So despite fielding the "best" talent from popular music in a hugely hyped extravaganza, they failed to be as popular as "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here".
Could some one tell the newspaper editors they got the priorities of their readers wrong....
Posted by The Englishman at 11:45 PM
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The Fourth Of July, 2005
Via Kim du Toit
The USA was founded on the principles of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. Freedom in the purest form.
Today should be a day of celebration - go read why some are mourning instead.
But whatever, may I wish y'all a Happy July 4th on behalf of freedom loving people everywhere.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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July 1, 2005
G8 - bloggers' views
Does the G8 Summit matter? The Bloggers' View We asked a whole bunch of the UK's most popular bloggers this very question about the G8. As you might expect, we got some great answers - one in verse, and all very relevant.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:15 PM
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June 17, 2005
Alternative ideas wanted
Via Dear Old Blithers:
And Wired reports that the UN wants to impose a tax on every e-mail sent. Heres an idea instead:...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM
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June 14, 2005
Recommendation
PHD Press Presents Vienna Days by Kim du Toit - just a note to say the Publisher has been helpful "above and beyond" in sorting my order out. Now looking forward to reading the book!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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June 10, 2005
BBC Picture quiz
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Quiz of the week's news
The government announced plans to crack down on replica guns this week. Quickly now, one of the above guns is real.... which one?
I got it wrong!
Posted by The Englishman at 10:13 AM
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June 9, 2005
Seven to save the world
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
We have been looking for 6 visionaries who can make the world - or part of it - more just and more peaceful.
And their "mission statement" is by Margaret Mead who was a dupe and a fraud, but still sways the impressionable!
And what are our heroes going to do? - Receive 37,500 each a year for five years for a start, and there now seems to be seven..
"The brief was to suggest radical solutions to problems, addressing the underlying causes rather than ameliorating them, said trust secretary Stephen Pittam."
And the Number One world problem that needs solving is - cue drum role - Shutting Guantanamo Bay - "a lawless enclave and a model for human rights abuse around the world". Starring human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith.
A fierce critic of the US government's justice process regarding terror suspects, Mr Stafford-Smith said: "Closing Guantanamo Bay could easily happen in five years - I'll bet money on it.
"The question will be: will the US take their nefarious operations elsewhere?"
He said influential voices were also trying to close the camp, referring to US Senator Ted Kennedy and former president Jimmy Carter.
For fucks sake - millions of people starving, dying of preventable disease, tribal wars breaking out all over and he thinks it is the most important problem in the world - as far as I know not one prisoner has died at Gitmo - which considering the law of averages of deaths in a population is remarkable.
Still with any luck he will be kept busy for the next five years and not bothering us with anything else.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:52 PM
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June 7, 2005
It's who counts the votes..
Michelle Malkin reports:
WASHINGTON STATE ELECTION WATCH: COURT REFUSES TO OVERTURN
It is a story I have been following, notable for many things including the power of a blogger to create and push the agenda - so a big hand for
Sound Politics
Josef Stalin 1, Common Sense 0
"Will Judge Bridges side with common sense and rule that election officials can't just keep counting ballots again and again and get different numbers every time without also showing that every ballot has a voter and every voter a ballot? Or will he side with the Democrats and Josef Stalin and rule that he who counts the votes makes the rules and doesn't have to obey any laws?"
Posted by The Englishman at 7:19 AM
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June 5, 2005
Sense from France
The Democracy Defined Website. Home Page of The FCDAE-FIJA.
The FCDAE-FIJA non-profitmaking educational organisation sponsors this site which is dedicated to the defence and propagation of Democracy, Political and Religious Freedom and Humanitarian Values, for the benefit of people everywhere.
Some time ago I posted about their tract on the EU constition - they also have interesting stuff about Trial by Jury, Cannabis and Global Warming.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM
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June 3, 2005
Gordon Slapped
Telegraph | News | Bush slaps down Brown's plan to double Africa aid
President George W Bush has rebuffed Gordon Brown's plan to double aid to Africa, days before Tony Blair arrives in Washington to argue its merits....
America was not consulted on the scheme. But, to assume its share of the burden, it would be expected to raise a total of $12 billion (6.6 billion) a year at a time of severe budgetary cutbacks.
...Part of America's irritation with the debate on Africa is the way the rest of the world downplays or ignores its own increases in aid.
So Bush isn't actually keen on a plan that would cost the American taxpayer $12 Billion, and they weren't consulted on. What a surprise! Gordon is so keen on pissing away other people's money he just forgot that some people object to happening to them.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:24 AM
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May 18, 2005
Midgets Lion fight
As a public service announcement may I point out that sadly the Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight story is unfortunately a fake - see here - if you want to you can buy the T-shirt though I would suggest that this or this are better buys!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:14 PM
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May 11, 2005
Huff Guff
Right wing bloggers in the States have been crowing as to what a mess and failure The Huffington Post is.
It is group blog by the left, with famous names giving their opinions - for instance the bookies mad Kerry favourite to win from the exit poles, therefore he must have been the winner and Karl Rove stole the election (the other option that ht e bookies called it wrong and people like me made money from them is not mentioned).
So Moonbat opinions, but also a lot of other stuff. In fact pretty good for a startup - whether they can keep it up for the long run is another matter. But it does have one major flaw - no search engine.
Last night I noticed an article by an insider about how "Labor" (sic, oh how upset they would be if I wrote Eskimo or Peking but they can't even get the name of what they are writing about right!) won the election. No search, can't see it , limit on how much Huff Guff I can wade through to find it for you so if you are interested find it yourself....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:13 AM
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May 10, 2005
60 Years Ago
The war in Europe was over, and yet for many Allied PoWs their suffering was only just starting to come to an end. In December 1944, some 270,000 American, British, and Commonwealth prisoners were sent on the road so they wouldn't be liberated by the advancing Russians. One in ten died. After the war their horrors were dwarfed by the Japanese atrocities and the image of PoWs in Germany was set by the "Escape" films. My father was one of those PoWs and only ever spoke briefly of it so I can recommend this book as an excellent eye-opening account.
Amazon.com: Books: The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe, 1944-1945
Nichol (himself a PoW during the first Gulf War) and Rennell have dug out the stories of these men, who were marched for hundreds of miles through one of the worst winters Germany has ever experienced--half frozen, generally unfed, racked with dysentery, and apt at any moment to be shot by a German guard or strafed by Allied aircraft who had no idea who they were. Afterwards, their ordeal was forgotten by all but themselves. An excellent account of an unknown atrocity, which left thousands dead and other thousands crippled for life.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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April 29, 2005
Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh
Telegraph | News | 30 years on, Saigon tanks give way to trade
Ho Chi Minh (the father of independence and the first leader of North Vietnam whose name was given to Saigon a year after reunification) died in 1969 and his successors imposed a command economy, destroying what prosperity Vietnam had and leading to starvation in the countryside. In 1986 market reforms known as doi moi - renewal - were introduced and, despite being one of the world's last five communist dictatorships, Vietnam now has a booming capitalist economy...
So the Capitalists are winning the war - taking a long time but the Greenback is more powerfull than the bullet.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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April 18, 2005
Do you like Kipling?
"I don't know I have never Kipled"
Or as L'Ombre de l'Olivier says:
Somehow though I suspect that the people who ought to be reading Kipling (and Orwell) are those who dismiss both as dated, simplistic and/or wrong. I do note that many in the military and those who support the military - what one might call the "red-state" crowd - are both aware of Kipling and enjoy both his prose and poetry whereas the sophisticated label him as "imperialist" or "proto-fascist" and depict his work as little better than "talentless hack journalism" despite borrowing phrases such as "the white-man's burden" from him when they wish to criticise the Hegemonic or Imperialistic Neo-conservatives.
Sit back with a cup of Columbian's finest and read the rest,
Posted by The Englishman at 9:14 AM
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April 13, 2005
Slave Trade
Christian Aid's Trade Justice Campaign: the basics
The Slavery of free trade
Kofi is a victim of free trade. He earns 1 a day breaking rocks to make gravel. He used to be a tomato farmer. But that livelihood, which bought food for his family and schooling for his children, has been taken away from him.
Free trade means a country's economy is run without government intervention. It is a policy that rich country governments and international institutions are forcing poor countries to accept.
Free trade is imposed on poor countries through:
agreements between two or more countries
conditions and 'economic advice' given to poor countries in return for loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
agreements at the World Trade Organisation.
The effects of free trade can be seen across the developing world. Millions of poor people's livelihoods are being threatened, and their governments are powerless to prevent it.
If we are serious about having a world free from poverty, then poor countries must be given the chance to work their own way out of poverty.
Trade could be that chance.
And they are taking out full page adverts to push this nonsense - I hope they don't rattle a collecting tin under my nose in the near future.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:48 PM
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March 28, 2005
Back to the Socialist Stone Age please.
BBC NEWS | UK | Call for action on climate change
The Environmental Audit Committee attacked ministers for believing that new technology and market mechanisms will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The committee says Britain and the developed world need to reduce emissions by 60-80% by 2050.
Committee chairman MP Peter Ainsworth called on the government to draw up a clear plan of action.
Yea Gods the man is a Tory MP - why isn't Howard sacking twats like him and not MPs who actually believe in "Conservatism"?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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March 25, 2005
Off to the Glasshouse
Jackson's military badges raise Brit Army's ire!
World News] London, Mar 14: The military badges worn by Michael Jackson while on trial for child abuse seemed to have angered British Army veterans.
According to The Sun, the motifs on his breast pocket or a cap badge tied around his neck included symbols from the Royal Engineers, the Welch Regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, the Wiltshire and Cheshire Regiments, the Royal Corps of Transport and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
I think if he wants to wear them he should be able to - after he has completed Basic Training for the Regiments - nothing a few press ups, crunches, burpees, star jumps and a suitable NCO couldn't put right with the sick twat.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:59 AM
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March 19, 2005
Miss Information
Oh Bliss - I had never come across the Uncyclopedia before:
This part of an entry on England gives a taste:
England was founded in 753 BC by the master race, marked by bad teeth and an addiction to crumpets. Modern English still believe themselves to be better than everyone else, but centuries of breeding with outsiders has made this no longer the case. (This is in contrast to France, whose inhabitants believe themselves superior, but in fact, never were.) At the height of its power, England controlled nearly one third of the world. Its colonies have since become independent, with the notable exception of Alaska.
Go look up stuff and add to it!
Posted by The Englishman at 12:22 AM
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March 14, 2005
Recta Ratio
A bit heavy for a Monday morning, maybe I will leave this new blog untill the Tea starts to cut in.
Right Reason, the new conservative philosophy blog. This site is dedicated to philosophical explorations of moral, cultural, and political conservatism. The contributors are a diverse bunch, but all are committed to challenging the liberalism regnant among intellectuals and to giving conservative principles a careful, powerful, philosophical defense.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM
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March 12, 2005
Rent a German
Renting a German was never so easy !
Select the package of your choice. By clicking on the package, you can send us your order...
So do I choose this type or this type?
Posted by The Englishman at 8:35 PM
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March 10, 2005
Ruling the Roost?
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | The changing face of US news
...
As Frank Sesno, the former CNN political correspondent and now journalism professor, told me in his Washington office, the internet bloggers now rule the roost.
Journalists have always been in a fox hole but the shooting is now 24/7 and coming from 360 degrees.
Professor Sesno says this is not necessarily a bad thing.
If facts are checked by many more sources then the truth is likelier to be told.
But, at the same time, there is a risk that journalists and the organisations they work for will hunker down and simply not risk any original journalism. They will not think it worth the effort.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM
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March 3, 2005
Holistic approach
Telegraph | News | Hospital removes Christian artefacts
A communion table and other Christian artefacts have been removed from a hospital chapel to accommodate visitors of all faiths.
The health trust behind the move said it was complying with guidelines from the Scottish Executive, which call for a "holistic" approach to spiritual care.
But a regular visitor to the chapel at Perth Royal Infirmary complained that there were now "just a few mats on the floor" where the communion table once stood.
"A few mats on the floor" - now where have I seen that before? - Perthshire has one of the least multicultural populations in Britain, with less than one per cent of the population of ethnic origin. (Assuming that the Scotch aren't an ethnic people - that is.)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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February 22, 2005
Sudan Food Crisis
Bleary eyed from an evening's range practice at the Pub I started to read about the growing Sudan food crisis; my pleasure at the public waking up to the African Tragedy was tempered when I noticed that it actually was "Sudan 1" which was the problem - a tiny amount of potentially carcinogenic colourant that has crept into Pot Noodles and other processed foods. It must have been a couple of months since we last had a food scare! At least it kept the "Vegans are harming their children" off the front page. So I turned to the token male cooker writer in The Times describing following a recipe with the phrase "Caressing Nigella's every passage with buttery fingers"; which put me in a better mood.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:33 AM
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February 12, 2005
Happy Darwin Day
Darwin Day Celebration - it is today!
Oh and Happy Birthday to The Spare.
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life and from use and disuse: a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved (Origin of Species)
Posted by The Englishman at 8:45 AM
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February 8, 2005
Read all about it.
This mornings reading has been NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!
NationMaster.com, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease.
Fascinating site - and of course I had to look up England - I note some of it is based on the Wikipedia entry on England. If you don't know the Wiki you should get to know it. And anyone can edit it. If you feel this is not quite right follow the link and suggest changes...
Although there are calls for some for an English Parliament, there appears to be little popular support for independence of England from the UK - perhaps due to its dominance in the Union. Those groups that do campaign for such a thing tend to be right-wing organisations with very little popular support.
The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal.
Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign.
Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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February 3, 2005
The Guardian keeps up in Iraq
Thursday 3rd Morning: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Insurgents say they are holding US soldier
A militant group in Iraq claimed last night to have kidnapped an American soldier and threatened to kill him if Iraqi prisoners were not released within 72 hours.
The group posted on the internet what appeared to be a photograph of a soldier sitting in front of a black banner with a gun pointed at his head....
The US military said yesterday that no American soldiers had been reported missing in Iraq. "No units have reported anyone missing," said Staff Sergeant Nick Minecci in Baghdad.
Thank God the blogosphere (ie) discovered the missing man's identity a couple of days ago....
GI Joe!
Drudge first reported the story at February 01, 2005 19:56:02 GMT...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 AM
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February 1, 2005
Swords into Ploughshares
DefendAmerica News - Troops Assist Iraqi Farming Associations
The decision was made for the military to buy seed through commander's emergency response program funds. "Self-production of food in this country is important."
The commander's emergency response program is a program set up by the military to take care of humanitarian needs for the local populaces - needs that will make a quick and lasting impact on the community.
"That is why the division started purchasing this quantity of wheat and barley seed," Haney said. "Now the farmers can start raising crops once again for local sale and support the food needs of Baghdad."
Now who could complain about that? Helping the farmers get back on their feet - and with the extensive work of repair on thhe irrigation system it can return to being the breadbasket of the Middle East...
Sorry I forgot - it is all an evil American plot to make the farmers have higher yields and then there will be profits and reliability of food supply and chemicals and GM foods and did I mention profits? and they won't be in touch with their inner soil...
The Ecologist - HOT TOPIC
In short, what America has done is not restructure Iraq's agriculture, but dismantle it. The people whose forefathers first mastered the domestication of wheat will now have to pay for the privilege of growing it for someone else. And with that the world's oldest farming heritage will become just another subsidiary link in the vast American supply chain.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:07 PM
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January 25, 2005
BBC - how not to read results
The BBC presents a glib and useless summaryof a Poll on the Global Economy.
A majority of people surveyed in a BBC World Service poll believe the world economy is getting worse.
Most respondents also said their national economy was getting worse.
Might be factually correct but when it varies for instance from 8% of Chinese believing their Economic conditions in their country are getting better to only 7% of Labanese, an average is pretty useless.
It would be more interesting to look at the differences and try and explain them.
Maybe " Countries which are economically free or unfree are fundamentally different, and these differences are important.
We hope that the information collected will enable research on the role economic freedom may have in economic growth and prosperity."
FreeTheWorld.com would be a start - though China doesn't score well.....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:31 AM
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January 24, 2005
Tsunami Aid
The Diplomad presents a fact sheet laying out what the USA has done (as of January 18) to aid quake and tsunami victims in Indonesia; (They) haven't yet received read outs on our aid to Sri Lanka, Maldives, East Africa, or Thailand.
Compare for instance with Indian Ocean Tsunami - The EU Response"
This web site provides information on the measures which the European Commission has put in place to meet the needs in the countries concerned.
Top Story:
Intervention in Plenary session of European Parliament on aftermath of earthquake and Tsunami.
All talk and no trousers.....
Posted by The Englishman at 9:50 PM
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My email is on its way!
This site deals with the Danish WW II production of STENgun copies, which took place during the German occupation of Denmark 1940 - 1945.
Do you find interest in this matter?
Send us an e-mail - soe.ras "at" mail.dk
and we will work even harder to create an
English version!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:05 AM
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January 14, 2005
FFS where is the real news
BBC NEWS | UK | Duchess says Harry row should end and I agree with her for once - is a royal gaffe really the most important news story to be leading with for a couple of days? Still it provides smokescreen for our real leaders to operate unseen behind...
Harry row should end
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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January 8, 2005
No story here - please move along.
BBC NEWS - Search Results For "Dino Rossi" Gregoire
There are no pages about ""Dino Rossi" Gregoire" from BBC News .
For the non-wonks among you this is about Washington State :GUBERNATORIAL RESULT
Democrat Christine Gregoire becomes governor after beating Republican Dino Rossi by a margin of 129 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast. And there are allegations of fraud and mistakes. Whereas the Ohio allegations were well aired (the close vote went GWB's way) this one is being ignored.
If you are feeling that there is story there may I point you to Sound Politics
1) King County alone counted 3,539 more votes than the number of people who actually voted.
2) King County "discovered" additional ballots 9 different times.
3) King County disenfranchised some soldiers in Iraq who never received their ballot.
4) Poll workers fed many provisional ballots directly into counting machines, commingling them with legal ballots and circumventing the process of keeping thm out of the count if they proved to be illegal.
5) Elections workers "enhanced" more than 55,000 ballots, but contrary to state law, they permanently obscured the original marks on many, preventing a review of their decisions.
6) In a recent KING 5 poll, a majority of voters do not view the results of the election as legitimate and believe there should be another election.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:36 PM
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January 6, 2005
Millions
The comments are already comparing the amount of money governments are giving to Asia to the amount they spend on a frigate/stealth bomber/insert evil weapon of choice - I have not seen anyone yet comparing it to the cost of The Saville Inquiry: 150m - which doesn't include costs the MoD etc. have incurred; I wonder why not?.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:18 AM
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January 2, 2005
The Dead Pool
I used to run a little Dead Pool competition, found the file the other day and dusted it off - I think all the runners and riders are still up for it. Downloadthe filefor a properly formatted version and use it as you will.
2005 Dead Pool
Choose a name and put the fee in to the pool.
First one to pass on, on or after Jan 1st 2005 scoops the Pool.
Premier League - Fee
Pope John Paul II 4
Hurricane Higgins 4
Jeremy Thorpe 4
Simon Wiesenthal 4
Daniella Westbrook 4
Margaret Thatcher 4
Duke of Edinburgh 4
Barry Humphries 4
George W Bush 4
Keith Richards 4
1st Div.
Omar Sharif 3
Pat Coombes 3
Murray Walker 3
Dora Bryan 3
Elton John 3
Dick Van Dyke 3
Doris Day 3
Bernard Manning 3
George Best 3
Mel C. 3
2nd Div.
David Coleman 2
Alan Bennett 2
Richard Attenborough 2
Dave Allen 2
Shane McGowan 2
Jim Davidson 2
Tony Curtis 2
Chris Rea 2
Ronnie Wood 2
Val Doonican 2
3rd Div.
Sean Connery 1
Max Boyce 1
Chelsea Clinton 1
Edward Heath. 1
Ann Widdecombe 1
Cilla Black 1
Bruce Forsythe 1
Tom Jones 1
Jerry Lee Lewis 1
Ravi Shanker 1
Total Pool 100
Write ins - in case any are already dead or fail to make the starting line........
Posted by The Englishman at 5:29 PM
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December 31, 2004
Instant Reporters and Blogs
Belmont Club ruminates on Blogs and information flows...
But the mainstream media could console itself in one thing. It still controlled the primary newsgathering apparatus. Yet even here the rulebook was changing. The advent of cheap consumer digital cameras capable of recording sound coupled to the proliferation of internet connections meant that in addition to the analysis cells which manifested itself in 'instant punditry', the Internet was developing a sensory apparatus to match. To the 'instant pundit' was added the 'instant reporter' -- the man already on the spot, often possessed of local knowledge and language skills.
A friend who did some work for Aljazeera revealed how they obtained Insider Iraqi war footage - they just went round Fallujah beforehand giving out free Video cameras and prepaid postage bags - "if you see something interesting - film it and send it to us." Smart guys.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:49 AM
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December 30, 2004
Good News
FOXNews.com - Views - Straight Talk - 2004: The Good News
....
So take heart. As we head into a new year, both the U.S. and the world are growing safer, healthier, and less violent. Most of the world is getting freer. It may not seem like it, given the images we're seeing on the news, but man on the whole is making himself better.
Go read the whole thing as suggested by Instapundit.com -
Posted by The Englishman at 9:30 PM
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December 19, 2004
Healing the nation
Dave Barry - Dave Barry: One nation, purple or maybe plum, with goofiness for all - sacbee.com
And as Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that all red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that all blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?
Posted by The Englishman at 3:15 PM
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December 17, 2004
The US Mail - Big Brother
Some of my colonial readers may have noticed the USPS is introducing self-service kiosks to make life easier - but not just easier..
"US Postal Service self-service postage machines take portrait-style photographs of customers" - No warning or notice of this is displayed. It is part of the "Intelligent Mail" program. "A report issued on July 31, 2003 by a Presidential Commission on the Postal service called for the USPS to "explore the use of sender identification for every piece of mail, commercial and retail" as part of a broader plan to introduce Intelligent Mail."
So they want to know your Christmas Card list - for your own good of course!
Source:
EPIC Postal Privacy Page
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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December 16, 2004
Christian Marxist Aid at it again.
You may recall Christain Aid spunking money away on some bizarre ads against Free Trade Visit the link! Now they are campaigning against some cosy textile agreement coming to an end.
Christian Aid condemned the move, saying it would see almost a million jobs in Bangladesh alone being axed.
However, supporters of the change claim it will mean increased efficiency and lower costs for Western consumers.
It will also see more jobs created in India and China, advocates argue.
Christian Aid added that with few employment alternatives available many sacked garment workers could end up in far worse jobs - with some of the mainly female workers forced into the sex trade. Source
Where to begin with the economics of this? How about the idea that if the country is ruined by the collapse of its textile business then there will suddenly be enough wealth to provide employment for maybe half a million more sex workers? A touch implausable maybe?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM
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November 17, 2004
Can you see what it is yet?
+
Posted by The Englishman at 5:48 PM
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November 12, 2004
Geography Question
The article the post below references discusses a quick survey that showed how bad young Americans were at Geography - so Dear Reader, knowing how smart you are, here is a quick question.
Sailing through the Panama Canal on Christmas Day, the midday sun is streaming in through your port porthole - which ocean are you sailing towards?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:09 AM
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The Persian War has broken out!
Over at this post An Englishman's Castle: Iranian Race the Assyrians, Iranians, African-Americans, Irish and others are fighting it out - go and help please. (scroll down the comments).
Posted by The Englishman at 5:54 AM
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November 11, 2004
The Disease thatdare not speak its name
BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Arafat's illness still a mystery
It is still a mystery to the BBC or is it a cover up?
israelinsider: diplomacy: Suspicions grow that Arafat is dying of AIDS
Former White House speechwriter David Frum has joined the growing chorus of pundits, medical experts, and intelligence operatives who claim Yasser Arafat is likely suffering from AIDS.
Frum, a key figure in Republican politics and the man who coined the terms "axis of evil," writes in National Review Online that Arafat's undisclosed illness is well-known, but has been kept under wraps by the mainstream media.
"Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?" asks Frum, who also writes for the National Post.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:21 PM
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November 9, 2004
My thoughts exactly
I have been watching British TV for the past couple of weeks and can't believe the cynicism and outright stupidity of many broadcasters/politicians. That a worldwide broadcaster like the BBC sends a satellite signal out with the message that "if troops from a particular regiment are attacked/injured/killed we will want all British troops removed from Iraq" is unbelievable and would surely ... encourage anti-coalition forces to target those particular troops.
The edit is because Neil uses a very British spoken phrase "would surely not" which written looks confusing as it means "surely would" - I think....
Posted by The Englishman at 9:49 PM
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November 5, 2004
The 5th November
The old traditions are strong today - parading a Guy round the streets asking for a Penny before tossing him onto the bonfire - long may it continue..
-thumb.jpg)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:12 AM
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November 4, 2004
Voter intimidation in Ohio
Boing Boing: Michael Moore "protect the vote video team" member's Ohio account
They didn't know who the white guys with clipboards were, but they didn't like their looks and shot about ten minutes of footage of them. These were not blue-suited Republicans. They were twenty-somethings with short haircuts wearing black crewneck or turtle neck sweaters. One stood at a table examining voter documents with a severe look, while holding his pen in a "stabbing" grip and clicking the button repeatedly in a strange menacing way. His two male friends carried clipboards and wandered around, looking over people's shoulders. They talked to each other or to people outside with cell phones, and a short haired blonde woman came in to confer.
Wow! that was scary - some one dressed up like an arts student with "short hair" actually clicking his pen and holding it in a frightening manner. - Of course they don't mention what a film crew racing round filming people voting (I bet they were wearing "black crewneck or turtle neck sweaters" as well) looks like to other people. Tossers.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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The reason why..
IT'S ALL THE BLOGGERS' FAULT. AGAIN.
One day a serious analysis of the 2004 Presidential Election will dissect the role Bloggers had - without them:
The Swift Boat Story would not have been aired.
CBS would have got away with a fake story.
Etc.
And the whole MSM (main stream media)would not have been on their guard, as they now are, against the force of distributed knowledge fact-checking them.
And because Bloggers come from all sides both sides have to be more truthful - which must be a good thing.
Well done Blogosphere.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM
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November 3, 2004
Time for the happy dance!
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Kerry admits US election defeat
Posted by The Englishman at 4:36 PM
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Is it over?
It is never over until it is over but you can get 50 pounds back for every quid you bet on a Kerry victory over at Betfair
- that sounds like confidence.
I bet twice last night - Bush at 1.81 and Bush at 3.7 so if he wins I'm in the money! And it shows I put my money where my mouth was even as the odds slipped...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM
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November 2, 2004
It is going to be a long night....
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Timetable: US election results
Memo to self - get some sleep, watching it won't change it - and think positive, if Kerry wins Bitch Clinton won't in 2008.
And I put my trust in people who put their money at stake - http://www.tradesports.com/ and http://www.betfair.com/ rather than polls.
(Betfair went up to 1.82 for Bush but back to 1.76 before I could place a bet) watch it live to get the pulse.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:24 PM
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October 30, 2004
Advice for Americans
It is a while since I referenced Kipling - I was reminded to do so again by John. But with the news from America being dominated by the burden of Iraq it is worth reading again his advice written to encourage the U.S. in 1899 to intervene in the Philippines.
(And don't be silly and run around crying "racist" and "sexist" because he uses the word's "White Man" - it is just a dated phrase.)
...
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
..
Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
...
Read it all...
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:29 AM
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October 26, 2004
BBC bush bashing impartiality
I notice the BBC is leading with:
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | New Florida vote scandal feared
A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.
By Greg Palast
Reporting for BBC's Newsnight
Not a reporters name I recognised so I followed the link to his site:
The Greg Palast where being a good little capitalist he sells stuff - top seller is:
The Joker's Wild: Dubya's Trick Deck by GREG PALAST
an EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL OFFER
Make a small donation of $25 or more to the Palast Investigative Fund and get a personally signed deck of these unique cards.
This is your opportunity to support our cause, fight with us to fight them and at the same time enjoy a fun game of poker with your friends.
Read these special cards and arm yourself with Greg's devastating insight and knowledge. You will learn why it is so crucial that we fight on, who's on our side, and who/what we are up against.
I think you get the picture without needing to go throught the rest of the stuff.....Still I'm sure he is impartial when he is "Reporting for BBC's Newsnight" after all we know "who's on our side".
Posted by The Englishman at 9:43 PM
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October 20, 2004
Death Stats in the USA
Firearm Homicide 3.72/100000
Abortion 1000/100000 (Based on 2000/100000 women)
Sources:
GunCite-Gun Control-International Homicide and Suicide Rates
Abortion Statistics by U.S. State, Race, Age and Worldwide Statistics
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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October 18, 2004
Wonderful...
Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Reaction from the US to the Guardian's Clark County project
Last week G2 launched Operation Clark County to help readers have a say in the American election by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. In the first three days, more than 11,000 people requested addresses. Here is some of the reaction to the project that we received from the US
Just go and read them, after putting your drink down....
For instance:
Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... I don't give a rat's ass if our election is going to have an effect on your worthless little life. I really don't. If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals.
Wading River, NY
Hat tip to The Burnt Pig
Posted by The Englishman at 11:58 AM
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October 15, 2004
POWerful Ads
SwiftVets.com has their new adverts up - very effective.
If nothing else John Kerry has shown through his campaign that he failed to anticipate, neutralise and counter this attack. All of which he could have done if he had done it early enough. Denis Healy showed an example when he was attacked for once having been a member of the Communist Party - "Yes I was, I also once believed in Santa Claus". End of attack. So if John Kerry can't effectively fight against a widely anticipated assault what does that say against his leadership?
Posted by The Englishman at 8:51 AM
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October 13, 2004
Bush Bulge
The Times and BBC have been wetting themselves over Bush being "wired" in the debate and the mysterious bulge. I found the Pictures and strangely the bulge seems to change shape and in some looks like a wrinkle with backbone below. If I can buy a match box sized mobile phone I think the President of the USA would probably be able to lay his hands on something smaller than a brick sized receiver. More proof needed before I'll buy this one. Of course Kerry bringing a forbidden black pen into the first debate has never been mentioned.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:31 PM
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So much good stuff.
The Cabarfeidh Pages (Highland Warriors): So much to see so much to link! is an excellent round up of some stories I had missed - he has buggered up the links but you can work them out!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM
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October 11, 2004
Just a nuisance
Dean's World - A Nuisance `'We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,'' Kerry said.
Just for once I am not sure that Kerry isn't right. We are never going to completely remove the threat of terrorism, so what are we going to do? Run around with tin hats on demanding cctv on every corner and fingerprinting when you buy batteries and duct tape? Here in the UK we have a little more experience of terrorism. From the Sidney Street siege, through Zeppelin raids, Baedeker Raids, Doodlebugs and the Irish troubles (to name a few)civilians on the street have been subject to it. You will probably guess that I know one or two people who have been on the sharp end of the fight; at least two of my friends will still not have their photo taken anywhere in case their past catches up with them. So terrorism is still personal and close by. We have killers on the loose. But is it the focus of our lives? No it is just a nuisance and like many other nuisances you just take sensible precautions and get on with life. To do otherwise is to grant victory to the terrorists. Ignoring them is the one thing they can't stand! Remember the Spirit of the Blitz!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:43 AM
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October 10, 2004
Screwed up articles
I saw several items on the BBC last week about the up coming Australian election and you could hear the reporters loving the idea that Howard was going to lose - 1500 word essays on Iraq and domestic politics were being drafted - and what happens, the polls are badly wrong. It reminds me of Kinnock's loss when no one liked to admit they were going to be uncool and vote Tory to the pollsters, but safe in the booth that is what they did. So I was glad to see that Instapundit.com has noted the same phenomenon:
AFTER WHAT THE AGE CALLS JOHN HOWARD'S "THUMPING VICTORY" in an Australian election that was run in no small part as a referendum on the war, it's interesting to see how little play it's getting in U.S. media.
If Howard had lost, however, I suspect it would be getting a lot of attention, and advanced as evidence that the war was going badly, Bush can't keep allies, etc., etc.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:21 AM
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October 1, 2004
Th wisdom Spain is missing
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler points out an incredible speech on terrorism that was delivered by Jose Maria Aznar, the man who was in charge of Spain before the Socialists took over. Read it here and wish he was still in power.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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September 29, 2004
Pro Bono
The BBC has been fawning over Bono and his speech over the last couple of days - the latest installment is :
BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Get real' on Africa, urges Bono
His campaigning work - which he fits in alongside a busy rock career that sees his band release their 14th album in November - has led to calls from several quarters for him to be considered for a Nobel Prize for humanitarianism.
Yes, that would be from the sort of ignorant people who think there IS a "Nobel Prize for humanitarianism" - not a great advert really is it.
(I have often wondered why I love Irish music - even the Fenian bigots - the only band I have had no time for ever that has come from the Island is U2 - must be the smell of bullshit about them.)
Posted by The Englishman at 10:57 PM
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September 27, 2004
Debunked
As I have noted be for the UK media, including The Times, routinely dimisses the Swift Boat Vet allegations as being "debunked". Which is not my impression of the truth so:
Can you identify even one specific and material SwiftVets allegation that you believe to have been fully "debunked" or fully proven to be "unsubstantiated"?
is interesting, and so far the answer is NO.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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September 15, 2004
Shrapnel
Entropy Manor notes:
I am surprised that no one in the blogosphere mentions that the shelling of Fort McHenry ended on September 13th, 1814. And that later that day Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the poem Defence of Fort McHenry. The poem was circulated on handbills and printed in newspapers. Someone noticed that the poem fit the tune To Anacreon in Heaven. And for obvious reasons, no one called it Defence of Fort McHenry, because Star Spangled Banner fit so much better.
Down here in Wiltshire we have a link to "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air" - It is the home to the Shrapnel family - you still meet an odd Shrapnel on the Rugby field down in the Bath area, and Bradford on Avon is where the monument to General Shrapnel is.
An what a name it is;
" Had the inventor of a shell like Shrapnel's been Jones or Williams, the language would not remember. With "shrapnel," it found a miracle of onomatopoeia: the incoming whistle of the "sh-," the explosion of the "rap-," the death knell of the "-nel." In the mouth, the word is a minidramatization of what it describes. It's so satisfactory to say that it has become a part of many foreign languages in more or less its English pronunciation; someday it will be one of those universal words ("email," "okay") that are the same all over the world."
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Posted by The Englishman at 3:50 PM
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September 7, 2004
Real War Heros
dailyrecord - MEDALS HONOUR ACTS OF BRAVERY
EIGHTY heroes who served their country with distinction overseas will have their bravery and devotion to duty recognised today.
The latest round of operational honours include a sergeant who carried on firing with his good arm after being shot and a Gurkha who saved an American officer.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM
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BBC balanced view
The BBC has a "balanced panel" of US Voters' views.
Where the BBC gets its views from.
compare with the last election results:
If we agree that Florida was near enough a hung vote then we have four from Democrat States, one from Florida (hung) and one from Tennessee (Rep) (Al Gore's State he couldn't hold onto).
Hum..
Posted by The Englishman at 12:36 AM
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September 6, 2004
The London Times on SBVFT
Times Online - Newspaper Edition
..by arguing so forcefully that Mr Kerry's courage under fire 35 years ago qualified him for the Oval Office, the campaign opened the door to the subsequent vitriolic attacks on Mr Kerry from fellow veterans.
Mr Kerry, against his instincts, was persuaded not to respond personally and immediately to their charges that he had fabricated part of his glittering combat record, which includes three medals for wounds and two for bravery.
By the time Mr Kerry did, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had already succeeded in raising awkward questions about his reputation, even though most of their claims have since been disproved(my added emphasis).
But their success gave the well-funded veterans, who have links to Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief strategist, sufficient momentum to move on to the more politically justifiable ground of questioning Mr Kerry's stance against the Vietnam war once he returned early from his second tour of duty.
Letters to The Editor (letters@thetimes.co.uk)seemed to be called for. I am sure somewhere there is a simple list of SBFVT claims and whether they have been proved (Christmas in Cambodia), appear probable (Purple Hearts 1 & 3), are a matter of debate (One or two tours), or have been disproved (?)
But certainly my impression is that the majority haven't been disproved.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:57 AM
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September 5, 2004
My Weekend reading
Whilst the internal politics of our ex-colonies are matters for themselves, the C-in-C of the US is also our de facto C-in-C and so the character of the contenders is a matter a mere Englishman can and should consider.
Amazon.com: Books: Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry was delivered on Friday.
It isn't a long book book but it is compelling, consistent and convincing. It presents a realistic and recognisable type of person which ties in with the continuing news coverage. To me it has the ring of truth through out it. But in a way the key thing is not the exact truth of minor skirmishs thirty five years ago, it is the undisputed fact that a man who claims to demonstrate leadership has failed to earn the loyalty and respect of those he served with. That is what makes me deeply worried that Kerry might become C-in-C
Posted by The Englishman at 4:57 PM
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August 31, 2004
From Nepal
BBC NEWS| Nepalese hostages killed in Iraq
Twelve Nepalese hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq.
Poor sods, not there as combatants just trying to support their families.
My mind turns to Kipling and the Shikaris or professional hunters who came from Nepal.That is the answer that is needed...
The Grave of the Hundred Head
There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.
A Snider squibbed in the jungle,
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.
Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Jemadar Hira Lal,
Took command of the party,
Twenty rifles in all,
Marched them down to the river
As the day was beginning to fall.
They buried the boy by the river,
A blanket over his face--
They wept for their dead Lieutenant,
The men of an alien race--
They made a samadh in his honor,
A mark for his resting-place.
For they swore by the Holy Water,
They swore by the salt they ate,
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib
Should go to his God in state;
With fifty file of Burman
To open him Heaven's gate.
The men of the First Shikaris
Marched till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village,
The village of Pabengmay--
A jingal covered the clearing,
Calthrops hampered the way.
Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Bidding them load with ball,
Halted a dozen rifles
Under the village wall;
Sent out a flanking-party
With Jemadar Hira Lal.
The men of the First Shikaris
Shouted and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the howling crew.
The Jemadar's flanking-party
Butchered the folk who flew.
Long was the morn of slaughter,
Long was the list of slain,
Five score heads were taken,
Five score heads and twain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back to their grave again,
Each man bearing a basket
Red as his palms that day,
Red as the blazing village--
The village of Pabengmay,
And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets
Reddened the grass by the way.
They made a pile of their trophies
High as a tall man's chin,
Head upon head distorted,
Set in a sightless grin,
Anger and pain and terror
Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin.
Subadar Prag Tewarri
Put the head of the Boh
On the top of the mound of triumph,
The head of his son below,
With the sword and the peacock-banner
That the world might behold and know.
Thus the samadh was perfect,
Thus was the lesson plain
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris--
The price of a white man slain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back into camp again.
Then a silence came to the river,
A hush fell over the shore,
And Bohs that were brave departed,
And Sniders squibbed no more;
For the Burmans said
That a kullah's head
Must be paid for with heads five score.
There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:54 PM
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Crossing under the pond
Atlantic Tunnel will make life easier for those of us who like to cross but hate flying.....
Posted by The Englishman at 1:33 PM
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August 29, 2004
George Bush 007 ?
BUSH: THE MISSING YEARS
Posted by The Englishman at 7:29 AM
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August 26, 2004
Still a quagmire in occupied country
Transterrestrial Musings brilliantly points out:
Sixty years after Paris was seized by the "Allies," and the beginning of the American occupation, France remains a failed nation, mired in political corruption and beset by vast pockets of Muslim extremism and anti-semitism, into which the gendarmerie fear to tread. The economy continues to struggle under economic policies driven by failed ideologies, and many of its best and brightest continue to flow out of the country, with only ex-dictators and their families, and hysterical movie stars willing to move there.
Sadly, history has born out the predictions of those who, in the spring of 1944, warned against invading. Many had pointed out what a poor prospect the region was for any kind of democracy, with its long history of belligerence and arrogance, and failed republics....
Hat tip to The Cabarfeidh Pages
Posted by The Englishman at 8:30 AM
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August 21, 2004
Swiftboats - a reasonable analysis
I'm pleased to see some debate here and elsewhere about the Swift Boat story do thanks to Dean's World for linking to this Washington Post article which is a model of what journalism should be, trying to disentangle the stories.
Conclusion:
An investigation by The Washington Post into what happened that day suggests that neither side has been entirely forthcoming, and that each has withheld information from the public record. Which doesn't sound too good for the Kerry camp...
And it also introduced me to the word "roil" a useful and apt addition to the vocabulary.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:41 PM
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August 20, 2004
BBC and Kerry
I have mentioned before the BBC not mentioning the "Swift Boat Vet " allegations, including the "Christmas in Cambodia" story. Because John Kerry brought them up in a speech they do provide a little coverage:
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Vietnam dominates Bush-Kerry fray
US presidential contender John Kerry has accused rival George W Bush of using a front group to launch underhand attacks on his Vietnam war record. ...TV ads - paid for by a Republican supporter in Texas - of Vietnam veterans accusing Mr Kerry of lying and exaggerating about the actions for which he was awarded his medals.
So they don't mention any specifics or provide any links - the only "related links" are to:
Senator John Kerry
Kerry presidential campaign
Lee Roystone website
While the stories are interesting the reason this whole saga is fascinating from a blogger point of view is summed up by Dean's World "The big story is, the universe recently changed when no one was looking. .. Everybody who watches politics is talking about a story the mainstream press is choosing to either completely ignore, or to dismissively sniff at."
As Frederick Turner says at TCS
The "mainstream press" may be in the process of squandering a precious resource that its leaders no longer have the institutional memory to recognize as the source of its legitimacy and its living. In the last few years -- essentially since 9/11 plunged us into a new world, a new agenda, that the press did not understand -- the major organs of civilized journalism, once trusted by the billion most effective people on the planet, have given away their credibility upon a trifle.
Everybody now recognizes that such voices as CNN, the New York Times, the BBC, the Washington Post, the major TV networks, the New Yorker, the Guardian, etcetera, are now the express and all-but-explicit advocates of a very special point of view, one with specific political goals. Those goals are certainly different from those of al-Jazeera or the socialist press, but they are in their own way as coherent, exclusive, and unquestioned.
This collective view emerged as a rather well-intentioned product of an age of wild hope, ill-informed academic speculation, and youthful optimism about the world. Nurtured in the great European and American universities, it was statist, existentialist, anti-religious, suspicious of any science that did not support its views, snobbish, pacifist, anti-technological, hedonistic in practice, puritan in theory, postmodernist in its tastes, committed to a social rather than an individual morality, hostile to the virtue tradition, sentimentally Romanticist in its attitude to Nature (which, in an unconsciously Creationist turn, did not include human beings), relativist about cultural differences, legalistic, optimistic about human nature, and deeply hostile to the marketplace. In one sense it was a nostalgia for the aristocratic European world of our collective rose-tinted memory, when the virtues of artists and intellectuals and university-educated people were recognized automatically, and merchants and financiers were "rightly" despised. In another sense it was a yearning for the dear lost days of revolutionary fervor, moral certainty, "free" sex and callow cynicism about tradition and respectability. It was escapist in its worship of Otherness -- cultural, social, political, economic, ideological, sexual, biological -- and conformist in its anxious attention to the next move of its "coolest" current leadership.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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August 12, 2004
No Bias here
BBC NEWS - Search Results For swift boats veterans
There are no pages about "swift boats veterans" from BBC News .
Compared to say:
BBC NEWS - Search Results For Bush lies
Your 272 search results for "Bush lies"...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:55 PM
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New Bunny on the block
Interesting new blog form an academic who know his arse from his elbow: Blithering Bunny
I will read with interest - we have fighting bunnies down here in wiltshire - this was the local headlines today:
Rabbit starts blaze
A RABBIT set on fire under a bonfire at Devizes Cricket Club, may have had his revenge after taking refuge under the club's groundsman's hut, setting it ablaze.
"A volunteer was burning branches that had come down in the recent high winds and poured paraffin over it to start it burning.
"Suddenly, this rabbit shot out, on fire. It must have had paraffin poured over it and caught fire at the same time. We ran to see where it had got to but couldn't find it.
"We can only imagine that it disappeared down a hole beside the hut because, shortly afterwards, the hut started burning.
"The fire started in the far left-hand corner of the hut but it spread to the whole hut in a few minutes. There was no chance of getting anything out."
Devizes fire station commander Pip Flowers said he had never heard of such an incident before.
He said: "It's very sad for the rabbit."
Of course I am on the Bunnies side as it was one of my ancestors who by a lot of hard work and skill won the prize and medal for successfully getting a breeding pair of Rabbits to Australia.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 PM
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August 10, 2004
Edwards - unsuited for the big job?
I'm not an American and I'm not a Republican so in a way it is none of my business. But it does mean I can raise an issue that they can't. In looking at Sen Edwards life and reading his account of that awful time when he lost his son "Edwards' life:
Sixteen-year-old Wade Edwards was killed in April 1996 when he lost control of the Jeep he was driving from his home in Raleigh to the family's beach house near Wilmington, N.C. Grief-stricken, Edwards withdrew from his practice for six months." it struck me that this doesn't sound like a man fitted for Presidency, or Vice-Presidency.
I have friends who have lost teenage children, my own oldest boy is 16, I nearly lost him once in a serious accident, so my sympathy for Edwards is complete. But if you read the full account - not online that I can find - it sounds like he came very close to a nervous breakdown. He stopped work for six months, friends had to come round to "put him to bed" and so on. There is nothing wrong in being literally grief stricken and I think no worse of him as a person for that. But being a President and Commander in Chief requires exceptional talents and aptitudes. And one of them has to be a certain coldness and hardness of heart. His reaction to his son's death is symptomatic of what might be called the emotional incontinence of modern society. Diana's death caused an outbreak of it in the UK.
"Shit happens, kids die, cope with it, stiff upper lip" is not the creed now, but maybe it needs to be for Commanders. So do you think Edwards could order Eighteen Year Olds into battle in the knowledge that some will die? Or would he dither?
I think he would be a dangerous ditherer.
And whilst I'm having a go at US politics; what was going on in Kerry's advisers minds when they made Vietnam the bedrock of his campaign?
1)War heroes don't win votes - Bush senior lost to Clinton, Churchill himself lost after the war.
2)And if you want to play the Hero you should make sure your story is unchallenged. They knew there were many Vets with a grudge against him, and those grudges were going to be aired.
Or is it really that in twenty years in the Senate he has done nothing they can brag about?
Maybe it is just a British attitude, most ex service people I know would rather admit to cross dressing and sleeping with goats than reveal their rank or mention their exploits. And if you ask them directly the most you would get is that "things were a bit hairy at times". Kerry's GI Joe performance would have merely caused laughter..
Posted by The Englishman at 8:48 PM
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July 29, 2004
Water under the Bridge
Excuse me commenting on US politics but I noticed this:
BostonHerald.com - DNC 2004 Coverage: Teresa's Ted K tirade
Teresa Heinz Kerry, years before becoming a Democrat, railed against the party's ``putrid'' politics, said she didn't trust Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and angrily called the liberal lion a ``perfect bastard.''
Kennedy's office dismissed the comments as water under the bridge and said the two get along famously now
Well if anyone knows about "water under the bridge" it would be Teddy Kennedy, pity Mary Jo Kopechne can't be with us to back him up...
Posted by The Englishman at 10:35 AM
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July 22, 2004
Smart Weapon, Dumb Pilot?
24 hours ago, at 16:03 precisely, having flown for 8 hours non-stop from Offutt Air Force Base Nebraska, a USAF B-52 bomber made a precision, high speed, low altitude pass down the centre line of the main runway of
Blackbushe airport. He was on time to the second.
This achievement would have been somewhat more impressive if he hadn't been supposed to be performing a precision, high speed, low altitude pass down the centre line of the main runway of Farnborough airport.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:48 AM
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June 21, 2004
I say old bean..
Thanks to Doctor Curmudgeon & Co. for pointing to me, and commenting on, The Chronicle: American Idioms Have Gone Missing about how Briticisms are invading the USA..
Something todo with "the eternal appeal of sounding classy without seeming pretentious" I believe.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:22 PM
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June 18, 2004
The Artiste formally known as..
A fellow landowner in Wiltshire is all over the news today - winning a partial battle to shout " Get orf moi land" at Ramblers and also for comparing Bush to Saddam They are both like "behaving in an irresponsible manner". It also reveals that:
Madonna - who was named after her mother - said she now wanted to be called Esther as part of her following of the Kabbalah religious teachings.
Can I suggest that she takes the title "Talentless Old Slapper" instead and then we would all know who we are referring to, in the unfortunate occurrence of us ever having to hear of her ever again.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:53 PM
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June 15, 2004
Give 'em hell
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler links to a Patton Speech - start the day with a high caffine cup and go and read it - preferably aloud and outside facing the world.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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June 5, 2004
Reagan dead
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Ex-President Ronald Reagan dies
Former US President Ronald Reagan has died, aged 93, after reports in recent days that his health had taken a turn for the worse.
He probably did more than any other person to make this world a safer and freer place in the last thirty years. His courage in facing his illness was inspirational and his death must be a release for him and his family. But the world should honour him.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:21 PM
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June 1, 2004
Where does oil come from?
I have come across this before, but thanks to Barking Moonbat EWS for this link to an interesting theory - WorldNetDaily: Sustainable oil?
"...in the Middle East, where oil exploration and extraction have been underway for at least the last 20 years, known reserves have doubled. Currently there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 680 billion barrels of Middle East reserve oil.
Creating that much oil would take a big pile of dead dinosaurs and fermenting prehistoric plants. Could there be another source for crude oil?
An intriguing theory now permeating oil company research staffs suggests that crude oil may actually be a natural inorganic product, not a stepchild of unfathomable time and organic degradation....
Posted by The Englishman at 4:48 PM
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May 17, 2004
Compare and contrast
Headline: - "Morgan expects 1.5m and a summer holiday"
Essam Jeradeh, the head gardener at the Commonwealth cemetery in Gaza, inspects damage to gravestones defaced with pictures of the alleged abuse of Iraqis. Photo: Suhaib Salem/Reuters
Posted by The Englishman at 9:04 AM
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May 15, 2004
German for Beginners
197 Schimpfwrters for you to learn - Derb vulgr
Derb vulgr
Der Volksmund ist hart und gemein. Sind die Wrter "Affenarsch" bis "Zaunsoacha" zu hart fr Dich, dann lass diese Kategorie sicherheitshalber aus.
German is a great language for these sort of words:
Analakrobat
Atomblonde Trampelsau
Furzklemmer
Peidlwasserpracker
Posted by The Englishman at 10:21 PM
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May 6, 2004
Manmade Global Warming
Times Online tells me the proof is in..
While it is generally accepted that surface temperatures are increasing by an average of 0.17C (0.31F) per decade, satellites have been unable to detect a parallel trend in the troposphere...
The raw data for the troposphere, as measured by the instruments channel 2 setting, showed no pronounced warming trend.
Dr Fu realised, however, that about a fifth of the signal picked up on channel 2 in fact originated in the stratosphere the higher level of the atmosphere between 10km and 50km above the Earths surface. This had skewed the data, as the stratosphere is known to be cooling rapidly. ...
The findings, details of which are published today in the journal Nature, provide one of the final pieces of proof that global warming is taking place, and that it is a human-induced phenomenon.
Sceptics have often argued that if temperatures are rising at all, this is down to natural variation in the climate as the world emerges from a "little Ice Age"�. The tropospheric trend, however, is precisely what scientists would expect to see if man-made emissions of greenhouse gases were causing it to heat up.
"I think this could convince not just scientists but the public as well," Dr Fu said.
Sorry Dr Fu, it is interesting and it may be the basis for more useful theorising but convincing proof it ain't. .. "Oh Mr Fu, what shall I do, I'm feeling kind of Limehouse Chinese Laundry Blues. continues with ukelele..
Posted by The Englishman at 4:01 PM
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April 28, 2004
Thought for the Day
BBC - Radio 2 just had a cleric on giving the usual tosh about how we must see the fight in Falluja in the light of love and forgiveness or something. He mentioned the TV pictures we have all been watching overnight of the bombardment. The producer must have a wicked sense of humour - he segued straight into -
I feel the earth move
Under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you're around
Full lyrics
Posted by The Englishman at 9:26 AM
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April 14, 2004
Bush Speech - reactions
BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | Bush speech: Your reaction
There is actually a fairly balanced selection of views here - but I thought this one would have you spluttering your coffee...
Georgie, it's ok, you can stop now. There are grown ups at the UN who can clear up after you. Run along now, back to your toys in your own back yard.
Conrad Cockburn, London, UK
Strange name - Conrad Cockburn from London - Google gives me a naval architect and a runner who may be the same person - who knows? And it also gives me a 1960s Male model dressed in a flower power suit. I hope it is this old hippy still wearing his smelly Afgan coat, smoking a strange cigarette with his young friend by his side who posted the entry - you can buy a photo of him adorning a thong from the Mirror100 site
Posted by The Englishman at 10:13 PM
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April 8, 2004
Simian Update
3, 6, 9
The goose drank wine
The monkey chew tobacco on the streetcar line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat,
The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles has a new home.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:18 PM
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April 2, 2004
Incoming!
Start digging. The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler was very concerned in his understated way that http://www.cooperforpresident.com/
had sold out to "the enemy". And harsh words were spoken. Today it is revealed as a hoax. I think harsher words are coming....
Posted by The Englishman at 5:12 AM
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March 30, 2004
A hero
Thanks to Kim du Toit for bringing the story of this extraordinary man to my attention - and yours as well I hope. Dr. Norman Borlaug
"that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." Jonathan Swift
That reminds me why I studied Agricultural Science all those years ago ,and why I hate the Greens who are killing Africans by their opposition to progress.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:21 AM
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March 26, 2004
Gadaffi identified
Good to see that Google has identified what this mysterious Lybian leader with the many names actually looks like - I'm never flying on his planes again.
Click to see.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:03 AM
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March 25, 2004
Who?
Gadafy
Gaddafi
al-Qaddafi
Gadhafi
Kadhafi
Kaddafi
Kadaffi
El-Kaddafi
etc..
Posted by The Englishman at 1:30 PM
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March 22, 2004
BBC - A saint dies.
I don't follow events in Judea and Samaria as closely as I should. After we handed the mandate back very few British have taken much interest in what they get up to out there, unlike our dear ex-colonial friends who do.
But I did hear on the BBC that a Great Spiritual leader had been blown away, and the tone of disgust was heightened when it was announced, "some reports say he was in his wheelchair at the time" - that is beyond the pale, attacking a cripple!
Online - BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Sheikh Yassin: Spiritual figurehead
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was a frail quadriplegic who could barely see. His voice was thin and quavering.
Yet he wielded growing power among Palestinians, long frustrated with a peace process that has failed to improve their lives...
Obviously it is the peace process that condemns the poor Palastinians to poverty and not the violence that the good Sheikh promoted..
Hamas has been able to build support by offering material help to Palestinians suffering economic hardship during the latest intifada.
It has established charitable funds to establish schools, clinics and hospitals that provide free services to families in distress and has been able to attract millions of dollars from the Gulf and elsewhere.
Where is the collecting box, such a charitable organisation..
Sheikh Yassin himself proved a powerful inspiration for young Palestinians disillusioned with the collapse of peace hopes.
He inspired them to offer up their lives, promising that suicide bombers who were willing to die for the sake of the dignity of Palestinians and in the service of a longer-term victory would achieve martyrdom.
Oh well that is alright then, he was happy to send young men to their deaths, and so presumably he was ecstatic as he acheived martyrdom, all those virgins to look forward to.. (Why is that those who promise eternal bliss to martrys are so reluctant to become one themselves?)
Posted by The Englishman at 2:52 PM
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March 17, 2004
A reader writes.
Thanks to Mr Burnt Pig for this - I hid it as I prefer old tractors to socialists...
Posted by The Englishman at 1:24 PM
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March 12, 2004
Cracked Mirror
In the newsagent and across the world Today's Front Pages all lead on one story - the mass murder in Madrid.. apart from the Daily Mirror which had the front page and "Full sensational interview Pages 2,3,4,5,6,and 7" about:
MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY
British captive freed from Guantanamo Bay tells the world of its full horror - telling how he was tortured and prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates...
Got the priorities wrong guys?
(I notice later editions have a second story on the Front page about how Al-Qaeda claim the Madrid bomb. And explore the link to the front pages - interesting site.)
Posted by The Englishman at 5:05 PM
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March 11, 2004
Economic illiteracy
Kerry ... "And we've learned the truth of what George Bush thinks -- exporting our jobs is good economic policy. I believe that creating jobs here in America, keeping good jobs here and exporting goods, is good for our economy."
So soon after John Blundell explains why 'Patriotism' is just bad economics - isn't any one taking notice of me? - or understanding basic economics.?
Posted by The Englishman at 2:35 PM
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March 9, 2004
'Patriotism' is just bad economics
08 March 2004
The latest article by John Blundell in The Scotsman - Elections are auctions. Every time the politicians have an appointment with their electorate, the volume of dud economics is turned up.
This week the US Senate will vote through a Bill banning all federal agencies from buying services in from abroad. "America First" resonates well, "Buy Expensive" lacks charm.
Yet there is a paradox. The more the branches of the vast US government machine fail to buy abroad when it makes sense to do so, the more the dollar will suffer and the more profitable it will be for American companies to migrate offshore.
Once again, I offer you an example of "Blundell's Law" - that all political actions create the opposite effect. ....
Posted by The Englishman at 2:18 PM
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March 3, 2004
Not Wild West
The Wild West was not wild "it was "hard work, trade, tedium, and peace" | Samizdata.net
I'm wanting to get back out to Colorado already.. No2 Son (The Spare in tradional English parlance - the heir, the spare and the girl is the proper way of doing things) is going to be studying "The Wild West" as part of his history course for the next two years - I must present him with these links in case his right-on school fails to.
(He is also going to study Northern Ireland - the last forty years, which should be interesting to a bigot like me.)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:22 AM
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February 27, 2004
Fired
Bigger please!Student bandit turns gun exec - 02/18/04
As the newly appointed chairman of Arizona-based Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., parent of the famous firearms maker, James Minder Jr. knows a thing or two about guns - specifically the double-barreled, sawed-off kind.
Decades ago, in a life far removed from his decades of community service and current perch in the corporate suite, Minder used to have the nasty habit of robbing shopkeepers with a 16-gauge shotgun after his classes at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In a story stranger than fiction, Minder - the infamous "Student by Day, Bandit at Night" is now was the top ranking board member at one of America's largest gun manufacturers.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:06 PM
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February 13, 2004
JOKES FROM GERMANY
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
The police. I'm afraid there's been an accident. Your husband is in
hospital.
A man walks into a pub.
He is an alcoholic whose drink problem is destroying his family.
Did you hear about the blonde who jumped out off a bridge?
She was clinically depressed and took her own life because of her terribly
low self-esteem.
What do you call a cat with no tail?
A Manx cat.
Why do undertakers wear ties?
Because their profession is very serious, and it is important that their
appearance has a degree of gravitas.
How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb?
One.
Why do women fake orgasms?
Because they want to give men the impression that they have climaxed.
Two men are sitting in a pub.
One man turns to the other and says: 'Last night I saw lots of strange men
coming in and out of your wife's house.'
The other man replies: 'Yes, she has become a prostitute to subsidise her
drug habit.'
Two cows are in a field. Suddenly, from behind a bush, a rabbit leaps out
and runs away.
One cow looks round a bit, eats some grass and then wanders off.
Why are there no aspirin in the jungle?
Because it would not be financially viable to attempt to sell
pharmaceuticals in the largely unpopulated rainforest.
A man walking into a hospital notices a prominent surgeon and his surgical resident down on their hands and knees digging in one of the flower beds. He goes over to them and asks, “Can I help? Did you lose something?”
“No,” says one of the surgeons, “We’re about to do a heart transplant on a individual health insurance executive and we’re looking for a suitable stone.”
Posted by The Englishman at 9:38 PM
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February 12, 2004
JFK - womaniser?
Sometimes I wish I was an American then I could start commenting on the US presidential race - it is much more interesting than our own dear tame politics at the moment. See for instance this breaking story...DRUDGE REPORT 2004
CAMPAIGN DRAMA ROCKS DEMOCRATS: KERRY FIGHTS OFF MEDIA PROBE OF RECENT ALLEGED INFIDELITY, RIVALS PREDICT RUIN
Posted by The Englishman at 9:02 PM
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February 3, 2004
Roundhead, Cavaliers and Peace on Earth.
Gentlemen, I apologise for starting some rough talk, but the Ladies have withdrawn to the 'Drawing room and the Port is flowing so I hope you will forgive me.
I am busy reading Survival of the Prettiest : The Science of Beauty and she makes an extraordinary claim I had never come across before; circumcision is a meme or cultural practice to discourage masturbation, thereby encouraging more babies.
Now obviously I have only limited knowledge on the subject from a personal point of view but then it struck me that the world politics might tell us something.
I was doing a Google Search: for " damn hard pounding" - the Wellington phrase I believe he used about some battle. The page I accidentally opened indicated that most Americans have been cut. Now I bow to no one in my admiration of the Americans but even they would admit they are a bellicose country (in the best of causes). Our Semitic friends on both sides of the Middle East conflict have the old todger topped. And the wonderful fighting Sikhs have a slice missing.
The Hindus, the Buddhists, the French and all the peace lovers don't - see this table Religious & Belief Populations of the World (1994)
So it looks like the old roundheads can get no satisfaction from spanking the monkey and go off killing each other.
World Peace is in our grasp - it is simple. Leave the kids alone!
Update: it looks like someone has obviously already had the idea and set up a website.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:58 PM
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Star Boob
I don't wish to intrude in to a nation's grief and shock over the Boob incident. 
And I realise I have lead a sheltered life and there were somethings we didn't learn about at boarding school, but my eye just caught a picture of the offending boob at BBC SPORT | Other Sport | US Sport | Photo Galleries | Janet Jackson's Super Bowl strip
WTF is that on the end of it - a sea anemone? multiple piercings? A Golden Spider. Or is some type of Flange Fitting where she docks with the mothership?
Urgh, I'm glad I have never had to face one of those in action. I will stick to what I know, thank you very much.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:30 PM
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February 2, 2004
Why Europe hates America Pt.2
As a long time fan of the IEA I was pleased to see Samizdata.net bringing the paper Friend or Foe? What Americans should know about the European Union to our attention. What can I add but read it! now!
As Mr Free Market said here... let us once again revert to the wise words our skipper, Sir Winston,
We must also never allowthe growing sense of unity and brotherhood between the United Kingdom and the United States and throughout the English-speaking world to be injured or retarded.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:55 PM
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January 23, 2004
Practise makes perfect.
Mr Free Democrat almost feels sorry for Jenny Tonge because of all the nasty things that the blogosphere will say about this Lib Dem halfwit who thinks she might want to be a suicide bomber if she lived in Palestine.
We have 60,000 acres of Salisbury Plain training ground down here - I suggests she practices on her own out in the middle of it!
Posted by The Englishman at 10:15 AM
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January 21, 2004
Freedom Index
Thanks to Dr Eamonn Butler, Director
Adam Smith Institute for this link from his newsletter:
The Heritage / Wall Street Journal 2004 Index of Economic Freedom makes
interesting reading. It's a country-by-country measure of economic freedom
and shows that the most free countries are also the most prosperous. The top scorers -- in terms of free trade, low burden of government, a liberalized financial sector, property rights, and low regulation -- also enjoy higher living standards.
| The Most Free | The Least Free | |
| Hong Kong (1st) | Tajikistan (146th) | |
| Singapore (2nd) | Venezuela (147th) | |
| New Zealand (3rd) | Iran (148th) | |
| Luxembourg (4th) | Uzbekistan (149th) | |
| Ireland (5th) | Turkmenistan (150th) | |
| Estonia (6th) | Burma (151st) | |
| United Kingdom (7th) | Laos (151st) | |
| Denmark (8th) | Zimbabwe (153rd) | |
| Switzerland (9th) | Libya (154th) | |
| United States (10th) | North Korea (155th) |
Posted by The Englishman at 4:04 PM
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Help they need somebody
It is a touching story of lovers torn apart by circumstance. 
They are keeping a stiff upper lip and everything but there will be a happy ending.
You can help Lionel get to Shell by buying his stuff on eBay.
I'm bidding away on the stuff, but there is plenty more coming for everyone.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:27 PM
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January 12, 2004
Iranian Race
I noticed the Muslim Council condemning Kilroy with these words:
Kilroy also displays a lamentable grasp of geography and history:
The Arab world has not exactly earned our respect, has it? Iran is a vile, terrorist-supporting regime - part of the axis of evil.
Iran is a largely Farsi-speaking country (not Arab) and heir to an enormously rich civilisation.
As a rule I don't have much time for racial stereotyping, but it made me wonder if Iranians aren't Arabs what are they?
A problem about identifying races is that there seems to be many layers to what race someone belongs to. Caucasian covers a lot of different types of people, so is Celtic also a race? and then are Irish Celts different from Breton Celts? I don't know and frankly don't care. One of the huge advantages of identifying yourself as an Englishman is that you are identifying yourself as a racial mongrel but with an identifiable culture.
Anyway, back to Iran. The Muslim Council seems to be basing their racial profiling on language - which must be wrong. So Iran has Arabs to the left of them, Asians to the right and Caucasians to the north. So what do they think they are themselves:
Aryans!
The Aryan National Press
I am Dariush, the Great King, the King of Kings
The King of many countries and many peoples
The King of this expansive land, the son of Wishtasp Achamenia
Persian, the son of a Persian, 'Aryan', from the Aryan Race
Dariush's scripture in Naqshe-e-Rostam
So I least I have learnt something from this whole tale.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:52 PM
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January 10, 2004
Breaking News - 'Chemical weapons' found in Iraq
BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | 'Chemical weapons' found in Iraq
Danish troops have found dozens of mortar rounds in southern Iraq which could contain chemical weapons according to initial tests.
The 36 120mm shells appeared to have been buried for at least 10 years, the army said.
All showed traces of blister gases, the army said, a group of chemical compounds which include mustard gas.
The comments are published on the Danish army website, according to Reuters news agency.
- They must be a lot that was overlooked when the rest were moved to Syria.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:52 PM
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January 8, 2004
Joan Smith - The Great Iraq Expert.
In The Times Online - Newspaper Edition Joan Smith spouts on the situation in Iraq:
Headline-grabbing visits from politicians cannot disguise the fact that morale is seriously low among American soldiers in Iraq
IT IS NOT what was meant to happen. The Iraq war, as imagined by George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Tony Blair, was supposed to be a quick in-and-out, a short military campaign after which a grateful populace would get on with the job of rebuilding their country.
Well I know you Journalists were expecting an MTV war, and I'm not sure if Tone had any idea about anything but the Military, Bush and Rummy had more sense and knew they were in for the long haul.
Instead, it is increasingly clear that the American military finds itself stuck in Iraq without sufficient troops, and the Army has had to resort to coercing soldiers to stay with their units.
... The situation is so serious that the US Army has introduced measures to prevent soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan from leaving the service when the period for which they enlisted expires. The stop loss orders mean that troops will have to remain in service while their units are deployed, and for another 90 days when they return to their home bases.
So this is unusual? Isn't it just normal practice?
Well before the war started, voices were raised about the morality of sending soldiers from the poorest sections of American society the Army contains disproportionate numbers of black kids, white youngsters from deprived rural communities and Latinos to a country where they might well become the targets of ruthless guerrilla fighters.
I must be getting deaf - I didn't here those voices. I suppose in her racist patronising way she would prefer them to be on Welfare rather than working their way out of poverty through one of the traditional routes - I would refer the Lady to my earlier posts, for instance about a poor Crofter's son who rose through the ranks.
It continues in this vein so I wondered who this Joan Smith was, and why she was such an expert on Iraq. Google found Tightrope walks where I am sure the same Joan Smith says: "Well, I would say that a lot of us here tonight are probably on the side of the French! " and asks this question: "Can you expand on this interesting suggestion that bin Laden is in some ways a phallic figure, a successful masculinising figure, in the Middle East? "
So can I be bothered to fisk the rest of her article - when Dearly Beloved Reader I am sure you have already done so in your mind? No.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:27 PM
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December 24, 2003
Xmas music
Here is the music you need - and also you can track Santa on his trip tonight thanks to NORAD.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:09 PM
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December 23, 2003
Why I won't be celebrating Kwanzaa
Trying to find why AOL is blocking emails I need to send I came across this article in The American Spectator.
Firstly it confirms my belief that AOL SUCKS. and secondly it gave me the details on something I was dimly aware of - that Kwanzaa as a festival is a fraud, a Marxist fraud at that, recently founded by a torturer in sordid violence, paranoia, and mayhem some three decades ago in a section of America that has vanished down the memory hole.
And here just to annoy the censors is the banned poem:
'Twas the night before Kwanzaa
And all through the 'hood,
Maulana Karenga was up to no good.
He'd tortured a woman and spent time in jail.
He needed a new scam that just wouldn't fail.
("So what if I stuck some chick's toe in a vice?
Nobody said revolution was nice!")
The Sixties were over. Now what would he do?
Why, he went back to school -- so that's "Dr." to you!
He once ordered shootouts at UCLA
Now he teaches Black Studies just miles away.
Then to top it all off, the good Doctor's new plan
Was to get rid of Christmas and piss off The Man.
Karenga invented a fake holiday.
He called the thing Kwanza. "Hey, what's that you say?
"You don't get what's 'black' about Maoist baloney?
You say that my festival's totally phony?
"Who cares if corn isn't an African crop?
Who cares if our harvest's a month or two off?
Who cares if Swahili's not our mother tongue?
A lie for The Cause never hurt anyone!
"Umoja! Ujima! Kujichagulia, too!
Collectivist crap never sounded so cool!
Those guilty white liberals -- easy to fool.
Your kids will now celebrate Kwanzaa in school!"
And we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight:
"Happy Kwanzaa to all, except if you're white!"
Posted by The Englishman at 12:04 PM
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Miserable Moore
Guess who is No 1 on Google for Miserable Failure now!
Ho ho ho.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:14 AM
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December 22, 2003
News from the Left Coast
Keep an eye on the earthquakes - there has been a 6.4 in the last hour or so.
Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada - Index Map
"initial reports indicated a few unspecified injuries, a structure collapse and otherwise mostly minor damage."
Hope it stays that way!.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:59 PM
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December 19, 2003
The Shortest Day
Don't listen to the misinformed! amaze your friends! Bore the whole pub! this year the shortest day ISN'T the 21st - it is the 22nd.
The Sky This Week tells us:
As we await the coming of the winter solstice on December 22nd, we can take some comfort in the fact that we have now experienced the earliest sunsets for the year. Since our time-scales are based on the position of a theoretical Sun versus the actual Sun's apparent path in the sky, the times of earliest sunset and latest sunrise don't correspond with the theoretical Sun's position, giving rise to the discrepancy. Rest assured that the shortest day will indeed fall on the 22nd, but for now enjoy the later sunset times.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:10 PM
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December 17, 2003
Happy Birthday.
I can only echo the Adam Smith Institute Blog in wishing the aeroplane a Happy Birthday.
As with the car it has given us the freedom to travel cheaply. The enormous benefits of this can not be understated, but they can be opposed. It is not the environment that the Moonbats care about, it is people choosing to travel how and when they want to. If only they were happy to wait for the state to provide rational travel arrangements on a pre planned basis life would be so much more controllable.
Of course such controls shouldn't be applied to really intelligent people, such as the Moonbats, as their travel is important and for the good of the world.
Exhibit 1: George Monbiot, an environmentalist, wrote a piece in yesterday's Guardian calling for "a day of international mourning. December 17 2003 is the centenary of the world's most effective killing machine."
.. he tried to apply the killing point to civilian flights, saying that commercial planes are a "weapon of mass destruction" because of their environmental effects.
Exhibit 2: George Monbiot, author of Manifesto for a New World Order, speaks in Sydney on Tuesday 15 July 2003 at 6.30 pm, the Valhalla, Glebe
Fiercely controversial and yet utterly persuasive, what Monbiot offers is a truly global perspective.
George Monbiot has held visiting fellowships or professorships at Green College, Oxford and the Universities of Bristol, Keele and East London, in (respectively) environmental policy, philosophy, politics and environmental science. He is currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes.
This event is co-sponsored by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, Gleebooks & The Adelaide Festival of Ideas.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:16 PM
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Not a lot of people know that.
"everybody knows" that the US played a major role in arming Saddam Hussein.
- but the facts are different..
The Daily Ablution: How the US Armed Iraq - And the Importance of Being Bearded
Posted by The Englishman at 11:55 AM
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December 16, 2003
French Fighting Men
Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love asks about the French Fighting Forces.
It reminded me of one the scraps the Old Man had been involved in; The following is "researched" from oob_operation_exporter_1941
Please go to the site for a full story - this is just a taster.
Exporter was the British code-name for their invasion of Vichy French Syria in June 1941. The attack was prompted by the recent Vichy decision to supply the anti-British rebels in Iraq with arms..
At the beginning of June, Britain managed to scrape together what she considered as sufficient force to overwhelm Vichy resistance. It was hoped that the presence of a Free French column among the invaders would soften the blow and render serious fighting unnecessary -- In spite of the disarmament clauses of the armistice, the French force remained largely intact and moreover, had been been thoroughly purged of British sympathizers in the wake of Mers el Kebir, Dakar, and England's various efforts to bring the French colonies over to the Free French cause. Those who remained regarded the Free French as traitors, had been embittered by the various British attacks on French forces and possessions, and were motivated to redeem the honor of France. What Britain had hoped would be a relatively bloodless demonstration of force turned into a small but hard-fought little campaign. Three Commonwealth battalions were virtually wiped out, and Commonwealth and Free French losses totalled 4600 men, while for their part, the French suffered six thousand casualties before deciding that their position was hopeless, that honor had been thoroughly satisfied, and that they could lay down their arms. To put these figures into perspective, British losses suffered in the concurrent Operation Battleaxe conducted against Rommel totalled only 969 officers and men. At a time in the war when Britain was deploying only very small forces overseas, Exporter was one of her bloodier fights.
...
As the campaign unfolded, it rapidly became clear that (a) much of the Free French division was unreliable, and (b) that the Vichy French were determined to fight and very much able to do so. The two infantry brigades of 7th Australian originally present plus the 5th Indian Brigade were obviously totally inadequate to the task at hand. Numerous additional forces were thrown into the fray.
- And The Wiltshire Yeomanry was amongst them.
It was a nasty little campaign, the only light relief is a story I heard that the Defeated Vichy French Foreign Legion said fair enough can we sign on for the Free French Foreign Legion.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:29 PM
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Hang'em high!
So the news is that Britain and the UN are coming over all feeble at the idea that the Iraqi's might want to demand the Death Penalty. Now this refusal to get involved will hamper the holding of an internationally recognised trial. Now I'm as much a wishy washy liberal as the next man on the Death Penalty, but standing in the way of justice being done and seen to be done for the sake of principles is a cop out.
Besides:
Moufawak al-Rabii, a human rights activist and Iraqi Ruling council member, said it would be a matter of a few weeks before a tribunal was ready to try Hussein, although other members insisted it could be several months.
If the US was not ready to hand over Hussein, Iraqis would be able to demand him once they become self-governing, Mr al-Rabii said.
"We will get sovereignty on June 30th," he said.
"I can tell you, Hussein could be executed on July 1st.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:14 PM
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A small victory
Google Search: "miserable failure"
Ninth position is :
miserable failure - Hillary Clinton the Hildebeest
The original campaign was:
Miserable Failure
The campaign should back the winner so,
miserable failure - Hillary Clinton the Hildebeest
should now be
Posted by The Englishman at 7:10 AM
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December 15, 2003
"Four killed, 60 wounded as jubilant Iraqis fire in air "
I saw this headline - bit of a downer to survive Saddam only to die from some random round fired by an idiot:
And here is The Straight Dope: Can a bullet fired into the air kill someone when it comes down?
Hatcher's Notebook (1962) by Major General Julian S. Hatcher, a U.S. Army ordnance expert. Hatcher described military tests with, among other things, a .30 caliber bullet weighing .021 pounds. Using a special rig, the testers shot the bullet straight into the air. It came down bottom (not point) first at what was later computed to be about 300 feet per second. "With the [.021 pound] bullet, this corresponds to an energy of 30 foot pounds," Hatcher wrote. "Previously, the army had decided that on the average an energy of 60 foot pounds is required to produce a disabling wound. Thus, service bullets returning from extreme heights cannot be considered lethal by this standard."
If 30 foot pounds doesn't mean much to you, the bullet made a mark about one-sixteenth of an inch deep in a soft pine board. About what you'd get giving it a good whack with a hammer.
...
It appears that the fatalities so commonly reported in places such as LA are from more "horizontally" fired shots, including the not so random shots.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:59 PM
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Orange doesn't suit me.
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Blunkett offers US easier extradition of Britons
The government will be accused today by the Liberal Democrats and the Tories of sneaking through retrospective laws that will allow the US to have any British citizen extradited for trial in America without having to prove there is evidence of guilt.
David Blunkett, the home secretary, is using a little known parliamentary procedure to avoid a full scale debate in the Commons or Lords to push through changes to the US-UK extradition treaty he agreed this year.
The changes retrospectively remove the right of British citizens facing more than a year in jail to argue that there is no prima facie evidence linking them to the offence. Only evidence of identification from US police will be required.
But US citizens accused of murder, rape, robbery and drink-driving offences in the UK will be protected from extradition unless a US judge is convinced there is prima facie evidence against them.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This seems to be an abuse of democracy. Effectively the government is smuggling a one-sided retrospective change of law through a statutory instrument three days before the Christmas recess."
- Seems a bit unfair to me, but then we gave the same rights to Europe last year - including such bastions of justice as Albania and Turkey so adding the US to the list is probably least of our worries.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:35 PM
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December 14, 2003
In case you missed it.
Saddam's in the bag - confirmed by Tony Blair.
- A big drink this sunday lunch time is in order I believe!
Posted by The Englishman at 11:21 AM
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December 9, 2003
Google Bombing--
Why let the Libs have all the fun? Link to this page and let's Googlebomb Hillary.
It is going to take a while as Google grinds away but once more over the top - final push - what ho, victory in sight and all that stuff.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:09 AM
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December 8, 2003
The blogs of war are loose!
miserable failure - Hillary Clinton
Posted by The Englishman at 1:21 PM
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December 6, 2003
From the front.
The Great Blogger Google Bombing War is off to a great start - remember the lefty liberals launched an unprovoked attack to the Commander in Chief -
The story is on Newsday.com - Miserable Failure? Google Trick Says It's Bush -
honour is at stake -
To fight back you must put this link on your site:
According to Newsday only 36 sites do the Bush trick - we have got at least 12 in the first day - so we are getting there.
"Cry 'HAVOC' and let slip the dogs of war!"
Posted by The Englishman at 9:54 AM
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Plain English
Michael Quinion in World Wide Words email newsletter discusses the Plain English Campaign: Annual Awards - especially the Foot in Mouth award to Donald Rumsfeld for comments in a press briefing.
'Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns � the ones we don't know we don't know.'
I saw the clip of him saying it again yesterday and all I can do is agree with Michaels' words:
"In the days since, journalists and academics have queued up to assert that Donald Rumsfeld was talking sense, moreover sense expressed in the simplest and plainest words available, ones that the Plain English Campaign should be applauding, not criticising.
The trouble is, Mr Rumsfeld's statement needs work to appreciate, because he's talking philosophy. (You might argue that he left out one category, that of unknown knowns - things we know, but we don't know that we know - but this is perhaps a comment better reserved for a seminar on metacognition.) It would seem that the PEC has put its own foot in its own mouth, again."
It is a shame because the PEC has done sterling work in promoting plain English and it still needs to name and shame - for instance:
The online retailer jungle.com was asked: "Do you still sell blank CDs?". The company replied: "We are currently in the process of consolidating our product range to ensure that the products that we stock are indicative of our brand aspirations. As part of our range consolidation we have also decided to revisit our supplier list and employ a more intelligent system for stock acquisition. As a result of the above certain product lines are now unavailable through jungle.com, whilst potentially remaining available from more mainstream suppliers". So that would be a "no", then?
Posted by The Englishman at 9:50 AM
December 5, 2003
Blog Bashed
There is a blog campaign out there to link George W. Bush and Miserable Failure in popular search engines. See for instance Archived Weblog Entry - 10/27/2003: "I'm taking part in a new web project..."
And it is working as it is now #1 on Google
So to fight it I suggest that we add the following link as often as we can to our blogs:
Miserable Failure
They have declared war - we have the power to fight them - go and do it and pass the message on!
Posted by The Englishman at 11:53 AM
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December 4, 2003
Hi Babs!
DECEMBER 3--A Los Angeles judge today threw out Barbra Streisand's $10 million suit against a California environmental group that posted a photo of the singer's cliffside Malibu estate on its web site. In a 46-page tentative decision, the summary from which you'll find below, Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman declared that the aerial photo's publication was protected by the First Amendment and, to boot, was not "highly offensive to a reasonable person."
But then no one ever siad she was a reasonable person!
Nice house though!
Posted by The Englishman at 11:12 AM
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December 3, 2003
Woof woof barking!
It is sometimes instructive to be woken up and made to smell the coffee - I have read so much about Global warming and climate change over the last few years and the conclusion of all the sane commentators is the same. Climate change is the norm, man made global warming is unproven but not unlikely, but its effect would be small in the effect of things. Kyoto and the Greens are political rather than scientific, and are bad for the human race especially the poor countries.
So when the ever excellent EnviroSpin Watch pointed me to this week's lead stroy in the New Statesman it was a surprise to come across such an out of date out of touch article. But of course I was forgetting that is what the Greens are. Know your enemy - read it, but have a strong cup of carcinogenic coffee first.
...if we do not take immediate action to slash greenhouse gas emissions, we will in effect condemn our children - and all generations that follow - to a permanently impoverished and more threatening world dominated by extreme weather and ecological collapse.
...
These dangerous trends continue almost unchallenged. Why? Because we appear to be experiencing a disastrous form of collective denial, more typically found among societies suffering major institutional human rights abuses - such as apartheid South Africa or Nazi Germany - where individuals may understand the reality of the problems, but refuse to accept the implications.
...
Climate change, unfortunately, matches our evolutionary weak-nesses. Not only is it complex, ambiguous and inter-generational, but it is largely self-inflicted.
...
We could transform our lifestyles, but only if we recognise and confront the psychological barriers to major behavioural change. A big shift in world-view is essential, and time is running short.
...
The passive bystander effect stops operating as soon as sufficient people break ranks and become involved. It may become "normal" to eschew cars, to shop locally and to consume renewable energy only.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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December 2, 2003
Proof God is black - and she has a sense of humour.
From www.theage.com.au
The Klu Klux Klan, the white supremacy group notorious for its lynchings of black people and those favouring desegregation, has scored a spectacular own goal.
One of its members has been critically injured after being hit by a bullet fired into the air during an initiation ceremony.
While the organisation is more a subject of ridicule than fear these days, it still holds initiation ceremonies. The latest took place in Johnson City, Tennessee (the state where the Klan was formed in 1866) with about 10 people present. The new member was blindfolded, tied to a tree and shot with paint pellets. In order to make the event more dramatic, Gregory Freeman, 45, fired a real pistol with live ammunition up into the air.
It would appear that the Klan, always dismissive of the laws that entitled all citizens to vote and be educated, also has little respect for the law of gravity. The bullet, having gone straight up in the air, came straight down and hit Jeffrey Murr, 24, in his skull, leaving him in critical condition.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:52 PM
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December 1, 2003
This may be handy.
or may be not...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 PM
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November 28, 2003
From the ranks
Over a drop of the amber nectar Mr Free Market and I couldn't remember, or rather disagreed over several things:
Did Tommy Franks rise from the ranks?
Who was the UK General in the First World War who rose from the ranks - dispelling the idea that Edwardian Britain wasn't a meritocracy?
Did Slim hold every rank in the Army?
I could Google them but this late at night I will leave it open...
Posted by The Englishman at 11:46 PM
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November 26, 2003
Urban Fighting
I noticed this article: How to Conduct Urban Warfare
From Stalingrad to Seoul, Hue City to Sarajevo, Mogadishu to Groznyy, history is filled with the tragic tales of urban brawls. If they can avoid it, U.S. forces would certainly prefer not to confront an enemy in city streets. ..
The military has also paid a lot of attention to the lessons learned from other tough urban fights, including the Russian army's disastrous first war with Chechen rebels in the streets of Groznyy in 1994 and Israel's experiences in the Palestinian refugee camps. ..
Excuse me - haven't they learnt anything from UK troops 'trained for urban war' I thought it was one of our specialist subjects now!
Posted by The Englishman at 3:15 PM
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November 20, 2003
Iraq Body count
The Coalition dead body count went through 500 yesterday.
Hostile fire: 354 71%
Non-combat related: 147 29%
Total 501
I don't want to sound callous but that doesn't seem very many to me, especially as a large proportion are non-hostile.
Interesting how different commentaors se the same figures:
And from;
Samizdata.net - Middle East & Islamic Archives
Posted by The Englishman at 12:04 PM
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November 19, 2003
Making fun of foreigners.
IDIOTAS EN HEATHROW
Dos graciosillos estuvieron hace poco en el aeropuerto de Heathrow (Londres) haciendo la siguiente broma: escriban extraos nombres en un trozo de papel y los llevaban al mostrador de informacin para que preguntasen por esa persona por megafona.
AirportGag2.doc
Posted by The Englishman at 10:10 AM
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November 18, 2003
Rudyard again
FREE MARKET FAIRY TALES notes the Kiplingesque state of the US now:
Marine? I asked.
Yes, he answered.
Have you just been in Iraq?
Afghanistan. Just got back.
The exchange was straight out of Kipling.
and I was reminded of Rudyard's work that he wrote for the Americans when they got involved in Panama:
-Take up the White Mans burden
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard
Full poem - thanks to Words - Rudyard Kipling here..
The White Mans Burden
1899
Rudyard Kipling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAKE up the White Mans burden
Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Mans Burden
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek anothers profit,
And work anothers gain.
Take up the White Mans burden
The savage wars of peace
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Take up the White Mans burden
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Mans burden
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:
Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?
Take up the White Mans burden
Ye dare not stoop to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Mans burden
Have done with childish days
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Posted by The Englishman at 12:16 PM
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November 16, 2003
Good Question
The Daily Ablution: Calling All Human Shields!
"So why aren't the human shields "trying everything" to protect Iraqi civil society now, when it most needs it? Why isn't the peace crowd out in the streets, screaming at the top of their lungs about terrorist bombers who callously kill "equally precious, equally important" Red Cross wokers and Iraqi civilians?"
Posted by The Englishman at 7:15 AM
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November 14, 2003
Samurai pussies
Across the Atlantic has an impressive list of countries helping out in Iraq - but Japan won't send any pf its warriors because it is too dangerous - so much for Bushido, the way of the samurai.
This way can be summarized in seven essential principles:
1. Gi: the right decision, taken with equanimity, the right attitude, the truth. When we must die, we must die. Rectitude.
2. Yu: bravery tinged with heroism.
3. Jin: universal love, benevolence toward mankind; compassion.
4. Rei: right action--a most essential quality, courtesy.
5. Makoto: utter sincerity; truthfulness.
. Melyo: honor and glory.
7. Chugo: devotion, loyalty.
These are the seven principles underlying the spirit of Bushido, Bu--martial arts; shi--warrior; do the way.
The way of the samurai is imperative and absolute. Practice, in the body, through the unconscious, is fundamental to it, thus the enormous importance attached to the learning of right action or behavior.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 PM
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November 11, 2003
Climate Alarmism Reconsidered
From the ever reliable Institute of Economic Affairs
Robert L. Bradley Jr.
A robust examination and critique of statist solutions to energy and environmental problems
The energy challenges of resource depletion, security of supply and pollution have been effectively addressed by market entrepreneurship, technology, and measured regulation. The remaining sustainability issue for carbon-based energy reliance is anthropogenic or man-made climate change. Climate Alarmism Reconsidered demonstrates how the balance of evidence supports a benign enhanced greenhouse effect, and how the case for mandatory greenhouse gas reductions depends on unrealistic assumptions.
Government intervention in the name of 'energy sustainability' is the major threat to real energy sustainability the provision of affordable, reliable energy to growing economies worldwide. Free-market structures and the wealth generated by markets help communities to best adapt to climate change.
This multi-disciplinary study concludes that climate alarmism and its corollary, policy activism, are unwarranted and counterproductive for the developed world and particularly for the world's energy poor.
> buy now for 12.50 or
Download it for free - PDF
Posted by The Englishman at 5:24 PM
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World Peace - sorted.
The Daily Ablution: David Lynch to Bring World Peace - 'It Could Happen This Year'
Well that is it then - no more worries.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:35 PM
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November 10, 2003
IQ
Reading my freshly ironed copy of The Times - Newspaper Edition, which my Butler had brought to me in bed, I noticed they had been brave enough to write about IQ....
Click for bigger version
ONLY the bravest academics dare to embark on the study of comparative intelligence, a field fraught with social, racial and sexual sensitivities.
Professor Richard Lynn, a fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Intelligence and Personality & Individual Differences, has often provoked controversy. Despite being described by colleagues such as Oliver James as kindly and unbigoted, his findings have led some students to boycott his lectures.
In 1996 he annoyed feminists by concluding that more men were winning first-class degrees because their brains were about 80 cu cm (5 cu in) larger than womens, so that more men had IQs above 130 (which he calculated was needed for such degrees). He believes that males are innately more intelligent than females by about five IQ points from the age of 21 onwards.
Two years later he enraged social reformers by arguing that the tendency for intelligent people in good careers to delay having children and to have fewer of them compared with the average will knock half an IQ point off the average score in each generation.
His co-author, Tatu Vanhanen, the father of Matti Vanhanen, the Prime Minister of Finland, specialises in the study of democracy, in particular the social and economic preconditions necessary for its existence.
The longest shadow hanging over psychometrics the measurement of intelligence comes from The Bell Curve, the 1994 book on genetic influences written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray.
It claimed that blacks in Western countries scored on average 15 points below the average white IQ of 100, and that a cognitive elite, led by Ashkenazi Jews with an average IQ of 115, would come to lead developed societies. Opponents said the statistics were flawed and called the book racist.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:24 AM
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November 9, 2003
Remembrance
Thanks to The Group Captain at Across the Atlantic for providing the words..
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.
On 3rd May, 1915, an exhausted Canadian doctor, Colonel John McCrae, was doing all he could for the wounded and dying on the battlefields of Flanders. The unimaginable carnage he witnessed at the front is captured in the moving words of a poem he wrote that day.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:42 PM
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November 3, 2003
Better Out than in.
I don't really care about internal schisms in churchs who have different imaginary friends to me, but having met a couple of Bishops who seemed to be as queer as a the day is long, at least this guy is being honest about himself: First openly-gay bishop consecrated.
Whereas the church, which is meant to be about searching for some sort of Truth, is full of lying hypocites in pretending that homosexuality isn't rife in it. It is time they made their mind up - either they grow up and accept the Queers are a normal part of life or they stick to their Old Testament guns and say that queers have no part to play in their church - but then they seem to have given up on actually believing any of the inconvenient difficult stuff in The Bible.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:55 AM
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