I had excellent news from my cardiologist yesterday. Ready to think about other things now. I am horrified by the continuing stream of ” royal” baby hype on television. Truly pathetic – is this 1313 or 2013? Who buys into this nonsense?
I thought the Lib Dem take on Trident missiles was hilarious. This small group of islands does apparently need to retain the ability to wipe out one third of the urban population of humankind, as a defence against something undefined – possibly people we invade getting too annoyed about it – and in order to increase our “influence” in the World. As we plainly have less influence than the Germans, who don’t feel this need for the power of obliteration, I do not quite see how this works. Nor do I see Pakistan, which does have nuclear weapons, as very influential. Nor do I quite understand how our influence can be increased by possessing something under effective American control. But there you are.
Anyway, the Lib Dems have come to the intellectually scintillating conclusion that we do need this world shattering power, but we don’t need it on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons or on Saturday mornings, which will be cheaper. Brilliant, and plainly does not dodge any big ethical or practical questions at all.
Sofia Kibo Noh 24 Jul, 2013 – 12:53 am
“Israel has no guarantee of long term support from a faltering US.”
Ouch. Passive aggressive double after break?
Jon: “I am saddened by the atmosphere here, Villager, I really am. I’ve put a lot of time into this place, and it currently seems to be a waste.”
It’s not a waste, and fwiw, my comments were not meant to be an entire summary of your efforts. I object to the knee-jerk deleting and line-editing of correspondents here, but definitely appreciate the fine work you’ve put into making the blog available, and making it much more usable too (such as ridding us of the spam and true nutters that used to infest the place).
Anyone with memories able to go back further than November 2012 will recall considerable disruption and unpleasantness. There was trolling, spamming, blatant race-baiting and sock-puppeteering. Drunken posting, hate-mongering and wild off-topic rambling. And that was at the gentler end of things.
This blog has stood out for the free speech that it allowed, on the whole. My appeal is not to allow one person’s vision of purity in debate to come before the allowing of a full and frank exchange of views – something by which this blog once distinguished itself.
We’re all adults, we can decide if something is out of order and form our own views. Personally, I don’t feel the need to have someone shield me from what might be an objectionable view. “Mod” becomes “Censor” quite seamlessly. One might ask, if the censor is preventing others from being corrupted, who is protecting the censor? Alternatively, the frame is that the censor is the only adult in the room.
I note that while having misgivings about the entire exercise, you have not expressed the least doubt in your own ability to censor with perfect judgement. No error even could have occurred in that regard. Dismissing all concerns about this censorship, we should accept your reassurance that nothing needs to be reconsidered. Should this self-assurance be an example, or a warning to us all?
*
Short version: Your efforts are greatly appreciated. If you could lay off the delete button a bit, it would be even more appreciated.
I realized my 12:43 had what might be an unfamiliar nomenclature.
When I say ‘take it to Obama’ I mean” fracking TAKE it to Obama!”
hope that’s clearer. I’m off.
About water… are we really comparing like with like? People in arid countries need huge amounts of irrigation to grow crops. Is “water usage” – i.e. water per head of population being fed through pipes – being included in crop irrigation? If “water usage” included that which falls on land through precipitation, I’m very surprised Britain doesn’t come out nearly on top. Including irrigation with other water usage makes any comparison between the Middle East and South America, anywhere in Europe etc., absolutely meaningless.
Villager;
No evening could be complete without a song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntAzzSt4WXs
+1 from me as well for all of Jon’s work here. The whiny bastard(s) who won’t stop hassling the moderator reveal their true intent.
Hmm, which whiny bastards are you talking about Phil? I’d be interested in knowing my “true intent”, because I’m damned if I can figure it out. Because you could straighten me out here.
This blog is fucking brilliant. Fuck the tossers. Keep it up Craig (and Jon).
Anon wrote:
What I find interesting is :
why a 2nd rate magician was hyped to such heights in the first place
why in all the intervening decades he’s never been exposed as a charlatan
why he feels free to use the Mossad for his self-aggrandisement.
why there seems to be an agenda to have us believe in psychic powers
May I attempt some answers. The first is that he had a good agent, and the press is lazy and likes hype. It makes for easy copy.
The second is that he has been exposed – his supposed spoon-bending abilities were long since shown to have been worked on metal that had been forcibly bent hundreds of times, all Geller was actually demonstrating was the effect of metal fatigue. There are long-standing challenges for anyone to prove telekinesis, nobody has ever demonstrated any slightest ability under scientific controls.
Mossad would never confirm nor deny such glamorous rumours. It adds to their mystique, and is surely preferable to being known as a bunch of murderous, criminal thugs.
An agenda to have us believe in psychic powers? Heh… look at the Astrology section in nearly every publication. Then look at the religious sections – God himself reminding us what the entire universe (created for us alone!) means in our tiny lives. Or how the Royals mean _so_ much to us, for that matter. Not to mention how we can trust the apparatus of government to be diligently working for the betterment of us all, together with all the security services. Ask any forelock-tugging royal devotee, wide-eyed religious dupe, or other attendant of meaningless rites.
Glenn_uk
If Geller really was helped by the Mossad all of the time then of course I can see the funny side. In fact well done.I don’t like the “murderous, criminal thugs” bit whichever “side” it comes from – which is probably all of them.
Sadly I fear things risk getting all too real. But then I drink too much 🙂
M. Golding, it isn’t Russia alone, it’s Russia and the world against an isolated, atavistic pariah state. Snowden is safe. He’s going to lead a long, productive life defending rights.
Re Jon’s “Moddy blues” ! That the “Israel narrative” crowd have their man (or men) on this scene goes without saying, methinks its pratzelhabba, if only for his devilishly cunning half-truths. But there is a tech solution, a small box at the top where punters enter names of posters whose posts they wish hidden and the html does the “Excel hiding rows bit”. Craigs beloved free speech, and freedom of choice both maintained, accommodating all types of punter pategear,fez caps or yarmulkers !
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/s370x247/374435_401324133306027_1051146296_n.jpg
https://twitter.com/brianwhelanhack/status/359777769242112001/photo/1
Two photos which comment on yesterday’s events in Paddington.
Re Access to water in Stalag Gaza
We’ve read some reports of average consumption but this is not a complete picture.
Does this water also include industrial and agricultural uses?
Is access to water universal and uniform?
What is the quality of the water?
What is the unit cost of delivery?
What is the service reliability?
Are there any unfair obstructions to increasing volume, access, quality and reducing costs?
So many questions but all we have is an argument over the adequacy of average consumption.
AlcAnon and NR Thanks for the background on Abiodun David John. What was he being set up for? The mind boggles.
~~~
Ramzy Baroud on the ‘peace’ talks.
Back to Square None
Netanyahu, Abbas to Resume “Peace Process” that Never Was
by Ramzy Baroud / July 23rd, 2013
The political peddlers, think-tank experts and media professionals are all back in full force. They want us to believe that US Secretary of State John Kerry has done what others have failed to do. On his sixth trip to the Middle East during his post, and following intense shuttle diplomacy likened to that of Henry Kissinger, Kerry managed to create a modest common space between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA), thus securing their agreement to resume the so-called peace process.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/07/back-to-square-none/
It’s with a sense of frustration that I occasionally catch-up with this blog whilst in the midst of holiday, as I can’t devote time other than for brief comments, but the following seems most apt;
Great minds discuss ideas,
Average minds discuss events,
Small minds discuss people.
(Dedicated to all the Mary Bashers !)
BTW – Chrome users may see a visual representation of any overblogging on each page by typing Control+F and …… in the pop up box.
@ Glenn_uk (01h25) re water consumption :
Yes, this is the point that Kempe made at the beginning of this discussion.
IF irrigation for agricultural purposes in Israel proper (and we are talking about an agricultural sector – mainly fruit and veg – which is highly water-intensive) is included in the annual Israeli per caput consumption figure of 330m³, then the comparison with the Gaza figure of 83m³ becomes meaningless because the agricultural sector is a rather small part of the Gaza economy (the same goes, by the way, for water consumption in the favelas of Brazil, the Indian sub-continent and Africa, which is likely to be considerably under 83m³ per caput). In any event it cannot legitimately be used as evidence that Gaza is a “concentration camp”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
BTW, thank you for your points on the current outburst of ‘moderation’ on this blog. They are all the more valuable in that they come from a commenter whom nobody can – would dare – accuse of being a “Ziofuckwit/Hasbara agent/disrupter/”snarker” (whatever that means)/commenter in bad faith/..etc, and I find it interesting that the only response so far appears to have been a statement to the effect of ‘this discussion has gone on for too long and I’m not going to continue it’.
Have a good day, all.
Hasbarista,
Re your tech solution –
Would this be server or client side processing? How would you enter, validate, edit, delete multiple identities?
You’d also be reading a lot of fragmented conversations – like listening to someone talking on the phone. Misunderstandings? Sure to be a few.
My preferred solution is placing very heavy advertising of counterfeit medications in the margins and paying Jon to randomly delete comments by posters who fail to click on those ads.
I will have a nice day thank you. I am going up to London this afternoon to a concert given by young Palestinian musicians which precedes this festival being held in Palestine.
http://www.palestinechoralfestival.org/Palestine_Choral_Festival/Choirs.html
Habbabkuk is twisting his (unreferenced) figures to suit his rosy picture of the benevolent Israelis.
Leaving aside Gaza, for the moment, take a look at the Palestinian West Bank. Where agricultural water use is as high, per capita as it is in the “Israeli” West Bank:
http://www.ceia-sc.org/page55/page112/page116/page116.water.consumption.html
The discrimination in utilization of the resources shared by Israel and the Palestinian Authority is clearly seen in the figures on water consumption by the two populations. Per capita water consumption in the West Bank for domestic, urban, and industrial use is only 22 cubic meters a year, which translates into 60 liters per person per day.
Domestic, urban and industrial use.
There is a huge gap between Israeli and Palestinian consumption. The average Israeli consumes for domestic and urban use approximately 104 cubic meters a year, or 280 liters per person per day. In other words, per capita use in Israel is four and a half times higher than in the Occupied Territories . To make a more precise comparison, by also taking into account industrial water consumption in Israel, per capita use per year reaches 120 cubic meters – 330 liters per person a day – or five and a half times Palestinian per capita consumption.
The World Health Organization and the United States Agency for International Development recommend 100 liters of water per person per day as the minimum quantity for basic consumption. This amount includes, in addition to domestic use, consumption in hospitals, schools, businesses, and other public institutions. Palestinian daily consumption is 40 percent less than the recommended quantity.
Read it carefully, Hasbacock. Arm yourself with the (referenced) facts for a change. Who knows, you may look less like a stupid and malicious troll with an agenda, and more like someone genuinely interested in debate.
Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, but let’s revisit Gaza for a second;
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-water-is-running-out-in-gaza-humanitarian-catastrophe-looms-as-territorys-only-aquifer-fails-8679987.html
Even Israel recognises that there’s a problem:
Israel is trying to drum up aid for Gaza, the senior security official said, alarmed at the prospect of a looming water catastrophe and possible humanitarian crisis on its doorstep. “We have talked to everyone we know in the international community because 1.4 million people will be without water in a few years,” he said, asking not to be named because of the issue’s sensitivity. He said Israel, a leader in the desalination industry, was helping to train a few Gazans in the latest water technology, which the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) confirmed.
Though naturally none of this is Israel’s fault as Gaza is an independent entity except for the purposes of IDF target practice. It’s Gaza’s own fault for not being allowed to repair their sewage system and having to pump their sewage into the sea, where it recharges the formerly freshwater aquifer depleted by Israeli abstraction as much as by 1.25 million people living in the densest urban concentration on earth. Bad Gaza. If only they were Ashkenazi Jewish, they would be entitled to live somewhere nice. So simple! For stupidity!
“We’ve read some reports of average consumption but this is not a complete picture.”
Here you go Jemand, the complete picture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Palestine
http://www.buyitinisrael.com/private-swimming-pools-in-israel/
That’s all you need to know.
There was indeed. Which provoked calls for some form of moderation. And deletions, if I remember correctly. And we got those, and everyone was happy. Now everyone (well, many of them) is/are complaining again.
Isn’t it a case of
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.?
Good for you FJ. Give them my regards.
@Dreoilin
I
neverinhaled…I did too. And it was nicotine.
@Villager
People come to this blog to read opinions about what is happening in the world not to see people squabling among themselves or whinging about the blog itself.
“Isn’t it a case of
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.?”
One of Escher’s lithographs explains things.
http://www.graven-images.org.uk/temp/escher-crystal-ball.gif
Esher himself reflected in a silver sphere, notice his eyer are in the centre of the sphere. As where he holds the sphere he will always see himself at the centre. As who looks at the sphere they will see themselves at the centre.
That is how we all see the universe, with ourselves at the centre, some haven’t realised it is just an illusion.