I am sorry for the blog hiatus, but I follow a method of historical research a bit akin to method acting! I am absolutely immersed in the world of Burnes. I am in Bhuj at tne moment, and yesterday was at Mandivi looking at the shipyards and harbours where Burnes procured his boats to sail up the Indus – they are still made today. Much larger than I had realised. In Mumbai I identified a “lost”, uncatalogued portrait of Alexander Burnes which I think is the finest of him anywhere. The owners did not know who it was. It is by Brockendon like the one in the royal geographical society but is quite different, with him in military uniform. It is by Brockendon, not a copy.
Today disaster. I have lost ten days worth of notes. I noticed this morning that I had two versions of the identical document of my notes open – an .ODT on open office. One was a much older version. Paradoxically they had the identical file name but both showed as saved – the save icon was blanked on each.
Having checked that the content was all there on the version on which I was working, and that it was saved, I decided the best thing was to close off the extraneous version. Disaster!! An error message came up saying open office would now close. On restart, document recovery brought up only the old version, minus ten days work. I had a moment of hope when I right clicked on the document icon and saw “restore earlier versions of the document” but clicking on that just brought up a ,essage that there are no earlier versions available.
I am heartbroken- these aren’t just notes that can be recovered from memory, but also painstaking transcripts of old manuscripts, some of which I probably can’t access again even if I had the time and money.
I can think of a dozen things I might have done to avoid this situation. Comments on how to avoid such happenings are not welcome in the current trying circumstance. The real question is, can anyone think of anything at all that might help? I am running Open Office on Windows 7.
I really cannot express how much in despair I feel. This trip has cost all my available cash and I have to come back soon as money is out.
[If any mods have hung around while the blog is quiet, I am getting an extremely small typeface, only on this site. Do we have a problem, or is it another computer glitch personal to me?]
Technicolour, I don’t worry too much about “off-topic”, not when we’re scores of comments down, or on a highly specific thread. Both are the case here; many contributors would have little to add to this thread, originally about file recovery. I do object if one particular contributor attempts to divert multiple threads onto one, highly emotive topic by using consistently inflammatory language (i.e. tries to start fights), or where a closely argued debate on a particular thread would be diluted.
Clark Do not despair. You are not isolated and have a voice that is valuable to ALL of us with one or two exceptions! Take no notice of the puerile ad hominems. I was once told on Dissident Voice by a troll (when DV took comments) that ‘they’ knew who I was and where I lived. It was disconcerting to say the least to be told this although it was probably fiction.
.
How about Network Rail being fined £4m here? It’s our money being paid out by one Government dept to the Treasury. What nonsense. It would be more appropriate if the directors and the managers responsible for the lack of maintenance on those points at Grayrigg to perform many hours of community service whilst showing their identities.
.
Grayrigg crash: Network Rail fined £4m over death
The train derailed while travelling over the points at 92mph
.
Network Rail has been fined £4m over the Grayrigg crash in Cumbria in which a woman died and more than 80 people were hurt.
Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died after the Virgin train derailed on the West Coast Main Line in February 2007.
The train went over a “degraded” set of points at 92mph and careered down an embankment, leaving 88 people injured, including two train crew members.
Network Rail admitted health and safety breaches.
Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd admitted a charge under section 3(1) of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act last month and was sentenced at Preston Crown Court.
Speaking after sentencing. Network Rail chief executive David Higgins described it as a “terrible event”.
He said: “Within hours it was clear that the infrastructure was at fault and we accepted responsibility, so it is right that we have been fined.
“Nothing we can say or do will lessen the pain felt by Mrs Masson’s family but we will make the railways safer and strive to prevent such an accident ever happening again.
“We have learnt from the accident, determined to recognise what we got wrong and put it right.”
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-17609369
The EDP Archant has pronounced an easter break to blogging on their pages, have you ever heard of that 🙂 Maybe they’ll be dragging the cross to north Walsham. Maybe they want to close comments during the local elections down, they always get in a flap, itsd like a bad rash.
to Q1, agree with Clark, a motion of no confidence, which still allows the LibDem MP’s to support their Tory masters, would be put. If a break up is acrimonious due to a bad local election result, such support would most likely not occur and a vote of no confidence could be successfull, on follows a a speedy election.
The question has to be raised is, how well prepared are parties for a GE? baring in mind that the election costs rows and lobby costs, etc. is all not sorted or regulated, so, unless voters switched off to all messages and voted for underdogs, those with most financial support would most likely shine through. The next election will be very important for all the issues we value and the principles that are under threat. I very much hope that this blog will suffer from lack of support during that time, because we’ll be at it, out there.
I don’t know whether to comment on the old London mayoral slanging match, where no other candidate can fire up the voters so it seems, a reoccuring media exercise, vodoo like spreading more apathy, jeering up London’s multicultural voters with simple guffs, hairy chests at dawn vs. the taxman cometh.
If there is a war situation occuring, then a GE could be postponed, keeping the Government of the day in power until further notice, afaik, others know better than me as to what circumstances have to be in place for elections to be postponed.
yes indeed Clark, meeting those one converses with online, is taking conversation online to a new level, its like meeting the bees who make our honey. July would be my prefered month.
Thanks, Mary. Crab got the online “We Know Where You Live” threat, too.
.
“Within hours it was clear that the infrastructure was at fault…” It would have been clear for months before if proper procedures had been followed, but that eats into profits and, therefore, bonuses. Spinning so much it makes me feel sick.
.
Nevermind, I second your suggestion. Who’s in favour of a conference in July?
Billy fourteen pints presenting his cut down version of consular support, as per usual format has taken up the high ground reeling off anecdotes about the silly Britons who seek such a help;
,
A- a Brit in Greece failing to erect his hen house,
B- Another ringing to request a coin to be thrown into a wishing well in Rome.
C- Brits ringing to complain about ants in their apartments, and not managing to get a restaurant booking for their Christmas dinner, to needing a dog minder.
,
All examples of puerile and indulgent morons in need of social workers, and not the weighty FOC. However, Billy fourteen pints left out the inaction of FOC in case of the two journalists who worked for Press TV and were detained in Libya under the charges of espionage, presumably because they worked for Press TV, and there was a need to send a strong message to everyone: not to collaborate with foreign news organizations, as Sun readers unanimously agreed on the issue too, the whole three of them in the comments section, inclusive of a Syd James character.
,
The classic tactic of assailing the nation before screwing it, is a well rehearsed protocol which puts pay to the offer of the cigarette post the screw, the bankers need subsidies, and not the silly bastard with a mashed brain who was mugged and kicked the seven bells out of in a foreign country and has no idea who is he? Never mind where is Billy fourteen pints and his band of merry men?
,
,
William Hague criticises ‘time-wasting’ Britons abroad
I visited a Bedouin camp once on the outskirts of Beer Sheva.An Israeli friend from that town took me and my girlfriend. It was quite an experience. They got on with the people of the town. And my friend always said you could buy anything in the Bedouin camp.
The Bedouin are the only true Semites left in Israel.
Now what does that make the IDF ?
komodo , BTW, Methil used to be some place.Then they closed the pits, and after that the docks, the East dock Bar followed, the Wonder Store closed ,then they moved the football ground, and just recently they knocked down the power station.It’s no longer a blot on the landscape.
“If there is a war situation occuring, then a GE could be postponed, keeping the Government of the day in power until further notice, afaik, others know better than me as to what circumstances have to be in place for elections to be postponed.”
aaaahhhh.
Didn’t they already make sure that an early election can’t be called?
Otherwise not sure that Boris Johnson is really representative of anything, so do not think his possible re-election is sign of a trend. Think the country will kick out, and the sooner the better.
Otherwise, thanks Clark!
This company is not dealing very well with the loss of electricity to thousands of homes in the North due to a sudden snowstorm and high winds. One lady seeking information said that she was on hold for a long time and then got disconnected. I suppose that in the ‘good old days’, the responsibility to maintain supply would have been down to the local electricity board who, in emergencies like this, were able to call in staff from other boards to assist.
.
‘Northern Powergrid is a wholly owned subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company; a leader in the supply and distribution of energy in the U.K. and U.S. consumer markets, with approximately 6.9 million electricity and gas customers. MidAmerican is also a global leader in the production of energy from diversified fuel sources including geothermal, natural gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, coal and wind.
.
Northern Powergrid is a Distribution Network Operator (DNO), operating through its subsidiary companies, Northern Powergrid (Northeast) Ltd and Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire) plc, which delivers electricity to 3.8 million customers in the Northeast of England, Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.
.
Integrated Utility Services (IUS) is a subsidiary of Northern Powergrid and operates independently of the distribution business. IUS provides engineering resources, including strategic and technical design of electrical distribution systems, through to construction, installation and commissioning of assets for all system voltages up to 132kV.’
.
MidWestern is owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Warren Buffet own all whose total revenue is US$ 143.688 billion.
Mr Gregory Abel is in overall charge in DesMoines, Iowa!{http://www.midamerican.com/aboutus3.aspx}
.
These changes were all slipped through probably without anyone knowing or caring about them. Local to me and over a wide area, UK Power Networks maintain the electricity power supply. That is a subsidiary of a Hong Kong multinational run by the son of Sir Ka-shing Li, GBM, KBE, JP (born 13 June 1928 in Chaozhou, China is a Hong Kong based business magnate. He is the richest person of Asian descent in the world and the ninth richest person in the world with an estimated wealth of US$ 25.5 billion as of 2012. Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings; through them, he is the world’s largest operator of container terminals and the world’s largest health and beauty retailer.
.
Wonderful isn’t it.
.
Donny, I never saw Methil in its heyday, and fully understand how it reached its present state, like most other pit towns in the country. Apologies if I trod on a toe. But I’m sorry they’ve knocked down the power station. Oddly enough I rather liked its style. I’d hoped they’d get something alternative-energy based going there….but having had an interview with the local business-start-up-for-optimists advisory suit, I’m not surprised they didn’t. His one success was a local artist he had advised who when last heard of had sold some paintings…he didn’t do technology, and he didn’t do helpful. Methil deserves a lot better.
Breaking: Gunther Grass stands up to be counted –
.
“Why do I only say now, aged and with my last ink: the atomic power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace?” reads the poem, which appeared in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.
.
Grass answers that Nazi Germany’s “incomparable” crimes against Jews and his own fear of accusations of anti-Semitism kept him from openly criticising Israel.
.
But now, “tomorrow could already be too late” and Germany could become a “supplier to a crime”, Grass wrote, referring to a deal sealed last month for Berlin to sell Israel a sixth nuclear-capable Dolphin-class submarine.
.
“I admit: I will be silent no longer, because I am sick of the hypocrisy of the West”.
.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMlVY2OQxp-ESLm0CKYOCvNbdjfg?docId=CNG.a6164a792a6ceaa28c4f10c558ab597d.881
.
David Cameron defends secret courts and web monitoring plans
David Cameron: “It is the job of the prime minister to make sure we do everything that is necessary to keep our country safe”
.
.
David Cameron has said “gaps” in national security must be plugged as he defended plans for more secret court hearings and more internet monitoring. It follows concerns raised by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and others about civil liberties implications. Mr Clegg said allowing ministers, not judges, to order court proceedings to be held in secret went too far.
.
The prime minister said there was still time “to deal with everybody’s concerns” before firming up the plans.
.
Proposals have been put forward to allow sensitive intelligence information to be heard in secret by a judge and “special advocates” in civil cases brought against the government.
.
/…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17601594
Was gesagt werden muss
Warum schweige ich, verschweige zu lange,
was offensichtlich ist und in Planspielen
geübt wurde, an deren Ende als Überlebende
wir allenfalls Fußnoten sind.
Es ist das behauptete Recht auf den Erstschlag,
der das von einem Maulhelden unterjochte
und zum organisierten Jubel gelenkte
iranische Volk auslöschen könnte,
weil in dessen Machtbereich der Bau
einer Atombombe vermutet wird.
Doch warum untersage ich mir,
jenes andere Land beim Namen zu nennen,
in dem seit Jahren – wenn auch geheimgehalten –
ein wachsend nukleares Potential verfügbar
aber außer Kontrolle, weil keiner Prüfung
zugänglich ist?
Das allgemeine Verschweigen dieses Tatbestandes,
dem sich mein Schweigen untergeordnet hat,
empfinde ich als belastende Lüge
und Zwang, der Strafe in Aussicht stellt,
sobald er mißachtet wird;
das Verdikt “Antisemitismus” ist geläufig.
Jetzt aber, weil aus meinem Land,
das von ureigenen Verbrechen,
die ohne Vergleich sind,
Mal um Mal eingeholt und zur Rede gestellt wird,
wiederum und rein geschäftsmäßig, wenn auch
mit flinker Lippe als Wiedergutmachung deklariert,
ein weiteres U-Boot nach Israel
geliefert werden soll, dessen Spezialität
darin besteht, allesvernichtende Sprengköpfe
dorthin lenken zu können, wo die Existenz
einer einzigen Atombombe unbewiesen ist,
doch als Befürchtung von Beweiskraft sein will,
sage ich, was gesagt werden muß.
Warum aber schwieg ich bislang?
Weil ich meinte, meine Herkunft,
die von nie zu tilgendem Makel behaftet ist,
verbiete, diese Tatsache als ausgesprochene Wahrheit
dem Land Israel, dem ich verbunden bin
und bleiben will, zuzumuten.
Warum sage ich jetzt erst,
gealtert und mit letzter Tinte:
Die Atommacht Israel gefährdet
den ohnehin brüchigen Weltfrieden?
Weil gesagt werden muß,
was schon morgen zu spät sein könnte;
auch weil wir – als Deutsche belastet genug –
Zulieferer eines Verbrechens werden könnten,
das voraussehbar ist, weshalb unsere Mitschuld
durch keine der üblichen Ausreden
zu tilgen wäre.
Und zugegeben: ich schweige nicht mehr,
weil ich der Heuchelei des Westens
überdrüssig bin; zudem ist zu hoffen,
es mögen sich viele vom Schweigen befreien,
den Verursacher der erkennbaren Gefahr
zum Verzicht auf Gewalt auffordern und
gleichfalls darauf bestehen,
daß eine unbehinderte und permanente Kontrolle
des israelischen atomaren Potentials
und der iranischen Atomanlagen
durch eine internationale Instanz
von den Regierungen beider Länder zugelassen wird.
Nur so ist allen, den Israelis und Palästinensern,
mehr noch, allen Menschen, die in dieser
vom Wahn okkupierten Region
dicht bei dicht verfeindet leben
und letztlich auch uns zu helfen.
.
Günter Grass, 2012
I hope Nevermind will provide a translation 🙂
.
But meanwhile, I gather “schweigen” means much more than “to be quiet”
As Pope Boniface VIII (1235–1303) said: „Qui tacet, consentire videtur.“ (Wer schweigt, scheint zuzustimmen. Or, ” He who is silent is seen to consent”)
And Hobbes concurs:
“11. Silence in them that think it will be so taken, is a sign of consent; for so little labour being required to say No, it is to be presumed, that in this case he that saith it not, consenteth.”
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic by Thomas Hobbes (Chapter XIII)
Thanks Komodo. I had not heard of Günter Grass’s poem. Here is some background. I cannot find a translation.
.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1333571962.html
So kind of the shills for war, the BBC and Alastair Leithead, to give us chapter and verse on drone warfare. Do they a kick out of producing this stuff and feeding the people with this propaganda?
.
5 April 2012
.
Inside America’s Drone HQ
Alastair Leithead
BBC News, New Mexico
.
Unmanned aircraft are the new cornerstone of modern military operations, and both American and British crews are learning to fly them at a New Mexico Air Force base. There, they must tackle the practical questions of what it means to wage war from afar.
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17516156
.
How about this phrase ‘contentious areas’?
.
‘These unmanned aircraft have the ability to fly above contentious areas, taking and relaying surveillance photos. The most controversial drones have the ability to launch an attack via onboard weapons.’
Contentious areas ..
Lets have a drone over the rainforrest please.
Or an underwater drone looking at the fish stocks
Or closer to home thecongestion and traffic us muppets have to endure.
We are turning our island into a ghetto.
Water, water, everywhere… There is enough to drink but no hosepipe use. £1,000 fine if you do. Water companies continue to waste it in leaking pipes and their directors continue to stuff their wallets.
.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125261/As-hosepipe-ban-begins-water-bosses-pocketed-huge-bonuses.html
.
Hosed down with millions! As hosepipe ban begins, how water bosses have pocketed huge bonuses and handed shareholders massive payouts
.
Three executives at Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water supplier, were handed £2m in bonuses
.
Anglian paid out £1m and Southern Water dished out £400,000 – despite failing to meet their leakage targets
.
Water companies also gave a staggering £500m to their shareholders
.
This is despite 300m gallons of water lost every day and many companies failing to meet their leakage targets
schweigen means more than being quiet, stumm is another word for it, an intentional quiet so to speak. Its a long poem and i got to do something today, the sun is out, but I shall do it later.
Meanwhile if you like, send it through one of these machines who do it for us, should be fun.
Its an excellent and very powerfull poem, my sincere thanks to Guenther Grass for taking his principles before profits this time, he should have said something much earlier on, but when you sell books, you sometimes have to supp with the devil, or drink copious amonts of expensive wine… isn’t that right Craig.
Hope you’ve found your files again.
Mary this cornerstone of our future western defense is basically unrestricted, unlawfull, unregulated and unreal. Drones will break the UN’s already besmudged back, pull out the few strings of spine that are left and leave on orifice of carcass standing for all to see.
Drones are illegal and have kiled as many innocent people as so called precision bombing, their breaches of sovereignty should allow us to confiscate them, theoretically.
As for thwe snooping laws. If we have serious doubts about MP’s and civil servants, should we not equally be allowed to view all of their rivate emails and missives? With so my psychopathic fervour driving this coalition and their friends in high finance, should the ordinary citizen not be allowed to use the same legisaltion to find out what Government does? How they conduct their business? etc.
BTW. Over the last two weeks, bar yesterday, we have seen just about every formation flown, high altitude attacks, dog fighting and low level bombing raids here in Norfolk, whatever they are planning for, its getting furious up there.
I’ve been pondering”drone”; is it the noise it makes, or is it a reference to its general pointlessness – only one drone gets to inseminate the queen – or perhaps it’s a comment on its parasitic nature – don’t the workers have to feed it?
Whatever – it’s a good word the describe an abomination; the opposite of everything healthy and life-affirming and a dreadful example of the way that bright minds and human endeavour have been distorted to serve evil purposes.
A worthwhile thought for the day for a change today: a reversal of the old order symbolised by the foot washing ritual. Oh if only …….
The swelling chorus of complaint from the holocaust industry does not fail to mention that Grass was a member of the Waffen SS during the war. He was, as he himself acknowledged. The facts:
.
At the age of 17, in November 1944, having been turned down for service in U-boats (by this stage in the war, these had experienced heavy losses and had ceased to be a major factor in German strategy), he was conscripted into the 10th SS Panzer Division. As a youth of military age during a period of national crisis, his alternatives were limited to being shot.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_SS_Panzer_Division_Frundsberg
.
The unit, though having originally been formed, like other SS units, with an eye to the Aryan supremacist myth, was by this stage in the war dependent on conscripts and personnel transferred from other branches of the military. Grass was a tank gunner. The Frundsberg Division fought on both the Western and Eastern fronts during Grass’s 6 months’ service. It was not involved in atrocities – it was too busy fighting. Grass was wounded by Soviet shellfire in Pomerania, and was transferred to a field hospital near Marienbad, which was then overrun by US forces. He wound up in the same PoW camp as the present Pope Benedict…
.
Mere membership of the Waffen SS is not enough to qualify a man for the obloquy of the ages. Many, like Grass, were conscripted members of fighting units wholly engaged in the desperate defence of their country, and deserters were hanged or shot. They were not to blame, and should not be held guilty by association with others.
“If we have serious doubts about MP’s and civil servants, should we not equally be allowed to view all of their private emails and missives? … should the ordinary citizen not be allowed to use the same legisaltion to find out what Government does? How they conduct their business? etc.”
Good point, Nevermind.
.
It becomes harder and harder to explain to Johnny Brown-Foreigner that we British enjoy a superior level of freedom and democracy, manage to organise ourselves without secret police and torture, and are better informed by our impartial media than he is. I cannot imagine why.
Mary: “Do they a kick out of producing this stuff and feeding the people with this propaganda?” – Marshall McLuhan’s analogy seems to fit quite well: “If you could ask a fish what was the most obvious feature of its environment, probably the last thing it would say would be ‘water.'”
.
The people that produce propaganda are immersed in it themselves. It’s “confirmation bias” on a large scale. Do they “get a kick” out of it? Well, sort of. Many of them probably believe, to varying degrees, that “our” forces really are “fighting the good fight” to “keep us safe”, so the constant litany of superior fire-power is probably comforting.
.
Xenophobia, islamophobia, racism; examined on a large scale, these are prejudices within society, but the “atoms” of which they’re composed exist at the scale of individuals. How are people to notice their own prejudice when nearly all their colleagues carry similar bias? Like atoms in magnetised iron, they all align in roughly the same direction, but the magnetic field that coordinates them is itself a product of their coordination.
Nevermind, again,
It’s almost as hard to make sense of a computer translation as it is of the German. And I only have a few words of German. I’ve had a go at the first few lines, sentence by sentence, and I would be interested to know if this resembles what Grass wrote in any way. I’ve played with it a bit because he’s relying on the language to supply his emphases and that doesn’t translate well.
.
What Must Be Said
.
“Why be silent?
I’ve kept stumm too long.
It’s obvious, it’s been rehearsed,
and at best we will survive as footnotes.
It’s the “right” to a first strike:
to quench Iran’s people,
(subordinated to loud bullies,
their very celebrations organised),
because – somewhere – it is thought
they are building a nuclear bomb…”
MikeD puts my thoughts into words. I think I read that he had been ‘water boarded’ 260 times. And that his mind has been broken by the barbarians. His Wikipedia account is long and biased. Read his confessions. Most or all bullshit. Treated as the Zionist entity treats thousands and thousands of Palestinians except for the waterboarding as far as I know.
.
Man Who Was Waterboarded 183 Times, Confesses Complete Responsibility for 9/11 and Will Be Executed.
Posted by MikeD on April 5, 2012, 8:35 am
.
http://kevboyle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/man-who-was-waterboarded-183-times.html
.
It was reported on BBC News tonight that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others will be charged with orchestrating the September 11 attacks.
.
What the report omitted to say was that many sources, including the New York Times (could any institution be less anti-establishment?), reported in April 2009 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times in Guantanano Bay.
.
The BBC report went on to say, rather comically in the circumstances, was that “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admits everything relating to the 9/11 attacks from A to Z.”
.
I like to think that this blog specialises in stating the obvious but here is something SO obvious that it does not need stating.
.
How long will we and our useless, zombified representatives continue to put up with this stuff?
.
Full confessions. No jury. We can expect one or perhaps two of the defendants to be given light sentences to project (laughably) an impression of fairness……that this is something other than a completely pre-arranged propaganda exercise that will also shut up for ever one or two people who might, in the long term, provide information that damages the real criminals responsible for 9/11.
.
Perhaps I can turn my satellite dish pointing at SES Astra into a bird-bath now PressTV has been banned from Europe (most of the channels are porn or in the German language)…
.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/234695.html
They’ve lost the run of themselves completely:
“Israeli forces attempt to arrest 2-year-old Palestinian child”
http://www.qwmagazine.com/2012/04/05/israeli-forces-attempt-to-arrest-2-year-old-palestinian-child/
“The Times article, based on information from former intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abu Zubaydah had revealed a great deal of information before harsh methods were used and after his captors stripped him of clothes, kept him in a cold cell and kept him awake at night. The article said interrogators at the secret prison in Thailand believed he had given up all the information he had, but officials at headquarters ordered them to use waterboarding.”
(NYT, 2009)
.
A neat encapsulation of the processes of modern freedom and democracy at work.
In inducing us to abandon all civilised norms in this way, I’d say the terrorists had won. Hands down.
“US draws up plans for nuclear drones”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/02/us-plans-nuclear-drones
.
…”It’s pretty terrifying prospect,” said Chris Coles of Drone Wars UK, which campaigns against the increasing use of drones for both military and civilian purposes. “Drones are much less safe than other aircraft and tend to crash a lot. There is a major push by this industry to increase the use of drones and both the public and government are struggling to keep up with the implications” …
Komodo,
In inducing us to abandon all civilised norms in this way, I’d say the terrorists had won. Hands down.
,
Those were no terrorists, in fact the whole stinking affair was started with an attempt in the protection of “Markets” due to the inevitable crash and burn of the the “only clever men in the room” aka Enron (Remember Kenny boy?).
,
Post the collapse of the two buildings and the subsequent collapse of the fifty story world trade center seven, that apparently fell apart in sympathy, the world was changed, so the crooks and liars pontificated.
,
Success of the operation huff and puff and blow up the buildings was shown in markets remaining operational, that is, despite the massive losses of those investors in Enron, Global Crossing, Parmalat, et al, there were no runs on the stock market and banks, hence the objective had been achieved, the punters getting the shaft and not getting spooked and messing it all up. However the ease of the taking candy from the masses who were all too horrified to care what happens to their dosh, then compelled the crooks and liars to go for more.
,
Hence came Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Somali, etc. lunching the evident never ending hundred years of war cycle, in an effort to maintain the Ponzi scheme that had patently fell apart and proved to be a failure.
,
The on going economic crash itself an opportunity for a massive transference of wealth from the lower echelon to the plutocrats tacking the course of economic meltdown is indeed an opportunity that no crook can resist to play. Fact that this shameless reward for failure is contrary to all moral, and natural values, somehow is never even hinted at.
Mark Golding : They are just do not want anyone to find out what actually goes on, that the sanctions have very little effect, that the normal life goes on in Iran and that Iranian even liberals anti government, support the government on their stance against USA/Europe/Israel. I know that, I just got back from Iran after spending a month and travelling to 5 different cities (big cities which traditionally are more anti government!), my husband noted that still far less begged in the streets than in London or New York …and that the life goes on as normal. Yes there is inflation, but nothing like it is reported, in fact there were some items such as fruit which were cheaper this year than last. Shops still were full of luxury goods. The biggest effect has been on currency exchange, but as someone said “it will make us even more reliant on ourselves and it might help employment”.