Here are some brief comments on events while I was busy biographing:
Prince William to wed Kate Middleton
I really don’t give a fuck. Have you noticed he is strangely getting less bald? They’ll both be middle aged and ugly before they come to the throne. Or hopefully not.
Coalition launch “Starve the feckless” scheme
Multiple orgasms at the Mail, Express and Telegraph at launch of amusingly impossible policy guaranteed to increase crime rate.
Demonstrators trash Tory Party HQ
I don’t really approve of riot as people get hurt. But the only thing that makes me angrier than the tuition fee increases, are the NUS leadership hacks who support New Labour who brought in tuition fees in the first place.
Interesting moral conundrum as to whether pre-emptive murder of NUS executives can be justified. Looking at Straw, Clarke and Aaronovitch, it is certainly a debate worth having.
Possible voluntary reduction in London bankers’ bonuses from £7 billion to £4 billion and then £3 billion later. Anyone remember why the public finances are bankrupt? The bonuses are justified by record profits based on funding and administering government debt, which was incurred by governments borrowing to give to the bankers. What?
Thanks Mark and Ingo. We have not reached the bottom of the trough yet as you can see. The case is appalling and tragic. Mr Aziz is a Christian as you might know. We have also written to Rowan Williams but a token response came from his assistant. The CoE have a ‘special representative’ in Iraq called Canon Andrew White. If you look at his Wiki page, you will read of his connections to the Pentagon.
The CoE have not spoken out but the Catholic church has and Ashton of the EU too. Talabani has refused to sign the death warrant.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Holy-See-condemns-Tariq-Aziz-death-sentence/Article1-618855.aspx
On another matter, I have just seen that the Swedes are pursuing Assange again.
http://sify.com/news/swedish-court-orders-assange-detained-in-rape-case-news-others-klsq43cgfad.html
and Mrs Merkel has succeeded in her quest to find a detonator!
Yes, just a detonator, apparently, perhaps it went missing from a toner cartridge. Maybe they were parts of a ‘build it yourself’ bomb kit that got separated in transit, like passengers from their luggage. And Suhayl was wrong, or Operation Crackpot is a conspiracy to mislead us! It was Loch Lomond; Nessie is innocent!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-11787222
To bring it back to your comment on wedding- my thoughts exactly – more interestingly there is a growing Internet googlebomb campaign, first thought up by Max Keiser whilst talking to Alex Jones… How the mass public can bring down JP Morgan….
Step 1. Google ‘crash JP Morgan buy silver’
Step 2. Buy a silver coin, or more
Step 3. Encourage friends and family to repeat steps 1-3
viral marketing/ non-violent direct action in the age of technology/ethical protest, whatever you want to call it… The idea has legs…
For those without disposable income I recommend steps 1 and 3 – that includes me
Somebody, that is a very apt letter. I certainly am against the death penalty. If an individual has been convicted of a crime such as murder or genocide, etc. then life imprisonment ought to be the maximum punishment. And in this situation in Iraq, there is the distinct odour of victor’s justice – the ‘victors’ in this case being the current Iraqi regime.
Ayad Allawi himself, it has been alleged, may have taken part in multiple executive actions and torturing activities when he was part of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Baath Party, but now he’s a ‘goody’, a senior politician, and has never had to face any court on these allegations. There will be multiple others like Allawi.
So, the whole thing is somewhat hypocritical.
Either there should be court cases and jail when appropriate for all people, and/ or there should be ‘truth and reconciliation’ for all but the worst offenders.
Pipe-dream.
That’s viral marketing in the sense that I’m selling an idea, the only cost is time, the reward is satisfaction.
Clark, Loch Lomond is well-known to be a hot-lake of discontent, especially among plesiosaurs. It is an exceedingly dangerous place, where one would not wish to take one’s maiden aunt.
Unless your name is Clovis and your creator Saki.
I’ve never taken a maiden aunt, so feel unqualified to comment.
But if you had an hypothetical maiden aunt… a generic construct, shall we say, since in real life, maiden aunts will tend to wide variation.
Clovis, King of the Franks, and Alaric the Goth, sacker of Rome.
“Terror expert professor David Capitanchik, a former lecturer in terrorism at Robert Gordon University, warned the devices could have been part of a cache to launch an attack.”
Scottish Daily Express
How does one get appointed to the position of, “terror expert professor”, as opposed to ‘terrapin expert professor’?
We see ‘alternative practitioners’ (millionaire conmen and conwomen) who have zero qualifications in Nutrition being described as, ‘Expert Professors in Nutrition’. So why should we believe anything anyone says simply because the title of ‘professor’ has been bestowed by someone, somewhere?
Now, one reads that the north and north-west of Scotland (which of course is not Loch Lomond, which is an inland, not a sea, loch) is a key gateway for heroin trafficking into the UK by organised crime cartels. If this is true, it must be the case that they are able to evade all the surveillance put in place. So how useful, then, is the surveillance? Is this great circus simply part of a strategy of tension? The MSM seem wholly uncritical in this regard. Robert Fisk writes well on this in his recent memoir.
Perhaps they will be ferreting around Pollokshields and Govanhill, in Glasgow, looking for guys in fatigues…
Ah, what games are being played-out here!
thank you for your saring
It occurs to one that it would take only a few ‘Buckfasted’ Neds from one of the schemes in the north of Glasgow to head off, ‘Trainspotting-style’, into the woods with a pile of fireworks and a cigarette lighter and the entire nation is on ‘Red Alert Terrapin Warning Floating Submersible Waterhorse Number One’ for weeks-on-end! Let us see what tale emerges…
Meanwhile, in side-columns of the newspapers, we hear that the torture-for-terror- cases are being settled out of court with fiduciary ‘ransoms’.
Btw, whatever happened to the Gareth Williams case. Nil by ear since it was ‘definitively unsolved’. Anyone heard anything?
Perhaps a sportsbag filled with fireworks will be located in the woods, next to the Gingerbread House.
MJ is referring to the inimitable Clovis Sangrail (interesting name – a Rosicrucian reference?) the character created by Scottish short story writer H H Munro, pen name ‘Saki’. Saki is, I believe, cup-bearer to the gods. The original source of that oft-heard comment about ‘losing one is unfortunate, but to lose both is careless’ comes from a Saki story, involving Clovis. I also remember: ‘as cooks go she was good, and as cooks go, she went’.
Read that piece in the Express. It says: “They would think that, in a remote area such as Loch Lomond, they could do it without discovery.”
It’s hardly remote – a half-hour drive from Glasgow and a tourist hot-spot. Garadhban Forest straddles the West Highland Way, so I expect they’ll be reporting suspicious characters carrying rucksacks.
Thanks Alaric for lighting up my life with your little suggestion to google ‘buy silver to bust JPMorgan’, it seems to get a lot of hits.
These practises by HSBC and JP Morgan are exact examples of unsustainable financial systems. Making up values and assets, manipulating markets by accelerated buying etc., they need cutting short.
Alaric was the king of the Wisigoth and also the first to sack Rome. Sadly on his way home laden down with treasures, he and many of his men drowned in the swollen river Busento.
Copme back Alaric all isd forgiven Emperor Berlusconi needs sorting, the man has clearly got his finger in the till.
Tell us more about Clovis, Vronsky, was he rebellious, a womaniser? did he like his whiskey?
Read a little more here: http://manaboutmayfair.blogspot.com/2006/10/amazing-clovis-sangrail.html
“Clovis Sangrail, one of the most languidly malicious characters in all of literature.”
I think Munro might have been playing with Rosicrucian ideas when he named his hero. Clovis was the founder of the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, by some accounts the blood line of Jesus, who survived the cross. Sang – rail, blood royal – geddit?
Suhayl – The conclusion of the case of Gareth Williams seem to have drifted off into the ether. Nothing on this Wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams
Surely there will be an inquest or will it be another cover up?
Did we discuss the Wiltshire Constabulary station officer who has been acquitted of assaulting a female prisoner? As a Medialens contributor says:
“Actually, thinking about this…
It’s strange that a Student can lob a fire extinguisher off of a tall building, get videoed doing so and get arrested (quite rightly ?” he could have killed somebody), and yet a Policeman assaulting a woman in a Cell which is also videoed gets cleared.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-11787126
Thanks Vronsky, what a colourfull character.
A very thoughtfull piece from our favourite broadcaster…
maybe William Hague should have a rethink to the open letter above and abstain from being a member of the Conservative friends of Israel, rather be impartial than become too embroiled in cults.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081912522467685.html
Good point somebody, why was he let off for handling that woman as he did. What is it with policeman and woman? First the woamn who got struck at the G20 demo, now this judgement.
Just because they live pressured lifes due to their job and can’t keep proper relation ships, somehow, should not mean they can take it our on woman when it suits them.
I’m worried about the disregard of the police towards the public, their too cagey behaviour leaves one to believe that a lot can be achieved with a little reform.
Could you make this up? What the dickens is going on? Note ‘Germany says’ – very reminiscent of their use of ‘Israel says..’ in reports from Palestine.
19 November 2010 Last updated at 12:52
Germany says Namibia ‘bomb’ was security test
Thomas de Maiziere said the suitcase was made by a US-based company
A suspect package intercepted at a Namibian aiport was a dummy used to test security, German officials say.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said officials had established that it was a so-called “real-test suitcase”.
He said no explosives were discovered in the bag, which was found near luggage about to be loaded onto a Munich-bound flight.
The suitcase was found at Windhoek airport, triggering an international alarm on Thursday.
Mr de Maiziere did not say who had conducted the security test, adding only that German agents were still investigating.
/…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11795415
“They’ll both be middle aged and ugly before they come to the throne.”
What a vicious expression of class hatred directed by someone already old and ugly at a harmless couple who, through no fault of their own, have a hereditary connection with monarchy.
And what stupidity, reflecting total ignorance of Britain’s constitution and the role of Britain’s constitutional monarchy in the development of the nearest thing the modern world has had to a free society.
Somebody, did they find the body of a very small UK secret agent in the bag? And did he have (an even smaller) injet printer cartridge in his stomach?
They are messing with our minds, people!
MJ: saki fans united, I see. great writer.
alfred: wanted to say that I much appreciated your comments on the torture/diplomacy thread, thanks.
Yes, likewise, on both counts.
Ooh er! We have a royalist amongst us @4.14pm.
The prospective bridegroom’s father was asked today if the ‘crocodile wife’ Camilla would become queen when he succeeded to the throne (our family’s name for the lavatory). You would think that there was some brain death present when listening to his reply.
1) I am not a monarchist and would prefer to see the abolition of the monarchy in the UK.
2)I think that the monarchy and aristocracy perpetuate the structural and internalised class system in the UK which, in my view, continues to have damaging effects on British society, two of these being, specifically, class envy and immaturity of political discourse.
3) Some senior members of the monarchy/aristocracy are involved in extremely dodgy activities and they use their positions as both platform and cover for these activities. Roderick Russell has alluded to some of this on previous threads.
4) Senior members of the monarchy/aristocracy still own far too much land in this country. They project a benign image but this is often just propaganda.
5) However, I do acknowledge that historically, the UK’s (and other) constitutional monarchy has at important times and in key ways been a stabilising factor and that there are far worse systems than that of constitutiuonal monarchy. Evolution is better than revolution – as long as the evolution is not too slow (eg. it was far too slow in the UK in many ways during the C19th) and tokenistic. I also acknowledge that elites will form in any society and will behave not unlike ‘aristocrats’ – eg. France, the USA, the USSR, etc.
6) Basically, then, I feel that there are more important targets at which to direct our immediate political ire. I bear no personal malice towards individual members of the current Royal Family. My criticisms would be directed at certain of their activities. However, they can be wheeled-out as an attempt at distraction, and thus can become de facto political tools.
While “Somebody” and other anonymous ignoramuses who have read neither Baghot nor Macaulay and who understand nothing of the history and psychological underpinnings of England’s constitution may sneer at those who uphold the constitution, the fact remains that hate speech directed at William and his partner is unpleasantly suggestive of the mentality of those Bolsheviks who shot the children of the Tsar and flung the corpses down a well.
And to those people I ask this: on whom, as Head of State, would you rather have the spotlight of publicity shine, and around whom would you rather have national loyalty focus: Tony Blair? David Cameron? or an inoffensive Anglo-Scottish housewife named Elizabeth Windsor?
Suhayl, you cannot justify a smear against William and Kate on the basis Roderick Russell’s allegations, which though I do not call them paranoid rantings, are unproved in court, and which in any case, have nothing to do with William and his girl. As for the monarchy being the basis of aristocracy, that is an essentially meaningless argument. If all titles except Rex and Regina were abolished tomorrow, it would make no difference to England’s constitutional system, and it would make no difference to those who were formerly titled except that they would no longer be titled — big deal.
And as for the Queen’s land holdings, that is another non-issue. That 92% percent of the Province of British Columbia (four times the size of the United Kingdom) is owned in the name of the Crown, in no way means that the Queen enjoys any benefit from those lands. It means, simply, that British Columbia, like the rest of Canada, is in many respects the most socialistic country in the world, with most real estate controlled by government.
However, title to “Crown” land in British Columbia is hotly disputed under the terms of treaties signed in the name of the Great White Queen Victoria. Settlements are currently under negotiation, with 130% of the Province subject to overlapping claims by various native bands.
Alfred, I like your question, “on whom, as Head of State, would you rather have the spotlight of publicity shine..?”, but I expect that practically, this doesn’t make much odds; I think that the spotlight upon the monarch fails to dim the spotlights on the politicians. Politicians are already chosen by their looks, as are almost everyone who appears regularly on telly. Political speeches are prepared by press offices in advance, carefully screened and laced with soundbites, to help cultivate the speaker’s media image.
How about a blanket ban on any politician or prospective politician appearing on TV or radio? Written word or nothing…
Oops, me above at 9:30!