... take a crack at a Gary Younge piece, in the same way that I try to avoid hitting suicidal pheasants on the lanes hereabout. Fish, barrels, and all that. When he gets off the subject he was hired to write about he can be good.
But this is awful.
We're talking colonial oppression. I just can't be bothered to fisk it all (you can look at his Auschwitz comparison), but he does commit one gross outrage against truth.
" ... photographs from Camp Breadbasket showed British soldiers standing on Iraqis enmeshed in netting, forcing them to simulate oral and anal sex, feigning to punch them in the head and parading them around on forklift trucks. "
Yes. All very bad form. But atrocities ?
"... the truth is that the atrocities committed in Camp Breadbasket were not aberrant ..."
Gary, an atrocity is what happened in Iraq on Monday. The kind of thing that gets the editor of the Independent running into the room, trousers round his ankles, shouting "Hold The Front Page !"
Not taking photographs of someone 'feigning to punch them in the head'.
If feigning to punch someone, and photographing it, is an "atrocity", I look forward to Gary's take on this story.
A man told today how he was attacked by a gang on a London bus while an accomplice took pictures on a mobile phone.
Andrew Greenwood was asleep on the top deck after a night out in the West End when as many as five youths beat him up.
He said they took turns to punch him in the face "as if it were a game". One witness said a gang member captured the attack on his mobile phone camera - and police believe the assault may have been part of a violent craze where youths broadcast images of attacks on the internet and send them to their friends.
Mr Greenwood, who is 28 and works for Victim Support, suffered a fractured eye socket. His left eye is still closed and badly bruised and doctors fear his sight may be permanently damaged.
He said: "It's sick and disgusting people could take pleasure out of watching others suffer like that. They were bantering as though it was some kind of joke or a game."
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
A new AL Kennedy Column
Subject : dead people.
Madness rating : moderate
Phase of Moon : half full (or half-empty)
Mentions of
Depleted Uranium : No
Reality TV : Yes
Christians : No
Porn : Yes
Blood : No
Celebrities : Yes
Bush'n'Blair : Blair
Swearing : Yes
Madness rating : moderate
Phase of Moon : half full (or half-empty)
Mentions of
Depleted Uranium : No
Reality TV : Yes
Christians : No
Porn : Yes
Blood : No
Celebrities : Yes
Bush'n'Blair : Blair
Swearing : Yes
It Is Right To Give Thanks And Praise To The Most High
As Mick Hartley well knows.
And especially necessary when I've got my tickets for Murrayfield. I can't believe they haven't sold out yet.
So on the 13th, God willing, Scotland v Wales (with four children in tow). Hopefully we'll have time to show them that fine city before the match. Not at all confident - the Scots have a way of pulling out great performances against the Welsh. And if that crowd get behind them ...
Ken Owen at Militant Moderate wonders what's happened to England.
And especially necessary when I've got my tickets for Murrayfield. I can't believe they haven't sold out yet.
So on the 13th, God willing, Scotland v Wales (with four children in tow). Hopefully we'll have time to show them that fine city before the match. Not at all confident - the Scots have a way of pulling out great performances against the Welsh. And if that crowd get behind them ...
Ken Owen at Militant Moderate wonders what's happened to England.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Your Postal Vote Frauds Tonight
Remember the postal vote fraud riots, as Labour, Lib Dem and Muslim activists scrapped in the streets of Brum over the contents of a postbox, amid allegations of widespread abuse ?
Slowly, things are happening, in Blackburn.
"A former councillor tried to rig postal voting by collecting ballot forms from voters and getting other people to fill them in in his favour.
Muhammed Hussain, 61, from Logwood Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, admitted the election fraud on Monday. He was warned he faces a prison sentence.
The ex-Labour councillor had a 685 majority in the elections for Bastwell ward on Blackburn Council in 2002."
In Birmingham Bordesley Green and Aston.
"The petitioners claim correction fluid was used to change votes marked for the PJP, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats into votes for the Labour Party.
It is claimed that the fresh crosses were made in the same handwriting and with the same blue pen.
The court also heard evidence from handwriting expert Michael Allen.
He was given 213 electoral documents to analyse as a sample of ballots cast in favour of Labour that were believed to be suspicious.
His findings suggested at least 80% of those ballots had been faked."
"The mobile phone records of a senior Labour councillor may be commandeered to check if he had any involvement in an alleged city postal vote scam.
Coun Mohammad Afzal denies being present when police were called at midnight to a deserted industrial estate before June's local elections.
Officers found hundreds of blank postal votes in the boot of a car which was driven by Aston Labour activists who claimed they were in the process of " sorting them out".
Liberal Democrats, who are fighting a High Court battle to overthrow the Aston result, have applied for a court order to obtain Coun Afzal's mobile phone records from the local authority.
Coun Afzal has signed a witness statement denying he was on the estate. He said he had been asleep in bed since 10.30pm on that night after consuming a "warm drink"."
Words fail me. Even the Observer is concerned, in the shape of the great and good Nick Cohen.
"There's an almost pathetic desire in everyone with a stake in the democratic process to make postal and internet voting work. A senior official at one very respectable organisation told me he wished I wasn't writing this piece because it would send the 'wrong message'. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it came out. He was just desperate to get more people involved and break the contempt for politics of the post-democratic age.
It is an honourable aspiration. But the political class doesn't seem to realise that the post-democratic attempts to make voting customer-friendly are reviving the corruptions of the pre-democratic age, and forcing us to fight the battles of the Chartists all over again. "
Read the whole thing.
And what is the Government doing to prevent this happening again ? A big fat zero.
"The Government has ruled out safeguards against rigging postal votes in the general election because time has run out, it emerged yesterday, as a court was told that Labour supporters forged 1,200 votes in a single council ward last June.
One of the country’s leading election experts outlined changes that the independent Electoral Commission believes could prevent people having their votes stolen, but said Whitehall had decided that it was too late to make reforms."
I imagine they are doing something - instructing their activists to be a bit less obvious this time round. Pretty straight guys.
Slowly, things are happening, in Blackburn.
"A former councillor tried to rig postal voting by collecting ballot forms from voters and getting other people to fill them in in his favour.
Muhammed Hussain, 61, from Logwood Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, admitted the election fraud on Monday. He was warned he faces a prison sentence.
The ex-Labour councillor had a 685 majority in the elections for Bastwell ward on Blackburn Council in 2002."
In Birmingham Bordesley Green and Aston.
"The petitioners claim correction fluid was used to change votes marked for the PJP, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats into votes for the Labour Party.
It is claimed that the fresh crosses were made in the same handwriting and with the same blue pen.
The court also heard evidence from handwriting expert Michael Allen.
He was given 213 electoral documents to analyse as a sample of ballots cast in favour of Labour that were believed to be suspicious.
His findings suggested at least 80% of those ballots had been faked."
"The mobile phone records of a senior Labour councillor may be commandeered to check if he had any involvement in an alleged city postal vote scam.
Coun Mohammad Afzal denies being present when police were called at midnight to a deserted industrial estate before June's local elections.
Officers found hundreds of blank postal votes in the boot of a car which was driven by Aston Labour activists who claimed they were in the process of " sorting them out".
Liberal Democrats, who are fighting a High Court battle to overthrow the Aston result, have applied for a court order to obtain Coun Afzal's mobile phone records from the local authority.
Coun Afzal has signed a witness statement denying he was on the estate. He said he had been asleep in bed since 10.30pm on that night after consuming a "warm drink"."
Words fail me. Even the Observer is concerned, in the shape of the great and good Nick Cohen.
"There's an almost pathetic desire in everyone with a stake in the democratic process to make postal and internet voting work. A senior official at one very respectable organisation told me he wished I wasn't writing this piece because it would send the 'wrong message'. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it came out. He was just desperate to get more people involved and break the contempt for politics of the post-democratic age.
It is an honourable aspiration. But the political class doesn't seem to realise that the post-democratic attempts to make voting customer-friendly are reviving the corruptions of the pre-democratic age, and forcing us to fight the battles of the Chartists all over again. "
Read the whole thing.
And what is the Government doing to prevent this happening again ? A big fat zero.
"The Government has ruled out safeguards against rigging postal votes in the general election because time has run out, it emerged yesterday, as a court was told that Labour supporters forged 1,200 votes in a single council ward last June.
One of the country’s leading election experts outlined changes that the independent Electoral Commission believes could prevent people having their votes stolen, but said Whitehall had decided that it was too late to make reforms."
I imagine they are doing something - instructing their activists to be a bit less obvious this time round. Pretty straight guys.
More Snowdrops From The Curate's Garden
My little post on self-harm was pounced on by this blogger, who thinks that because tattoos and piercings are mainstream now, they always have been.
As always, Kipling has the words to describe this flaw in her logic :
In August was the Jackal born
The Rains fell in September
"Now such a fearful flood as this,"
Says he "I can"t remember!"
What I can't decide is whether she liked the post or not.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the culture of the Mother Country lives on :
"Police came under attack during a fourth night of rioting after the deaths of two teenagers whose stolen car crashed in a high-speed chase.
Teenagers pelted officers with petrol bombs, rocks, fireworks and bottles as riot police advanced on a crowd of about 100 people on the sprawling housing estate of Macquarie Fields in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney. "
And you'll never believe this one. Apparently youmg people's behaviour is getting worse.
Ofsted's annual report, published earlier this month, showed that the proportion of "good or better" behaviour in secondary schools had declined from more than three-quarters to two-thirds since 1997.
Following the latest report, England's chief schools inspector, David Bell, said: "Although the large majority of schools are orderly places where children behave well, it is worrying that unsatisfactory behaviour has not reduced over time.
I liked this :
The report recommends "regular training, focused on classroom practice, combined with an in-depth appreciation of child and adolescent development".
It's probably all a question of self-esteem. I blame the Daily Mail myself.
As always, Kipling has the words to describe this flaw in her logic :
In August was the Jackal born
The Rains fell in September
"Now such a fearful flood as this,"
Says he "I can"t remember!"
What I can't decide is whether she liked the post or not.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the culture of the Mother Country lives on :
"Police came under attack during a fourth night of rioting after the deaths of two teenagers whose stolen car crashed in a high-speed chase.
Teenagers pelted officers with petrol bombs, rocks, fireworks and bottles as riot police advanced on a crowd of about 100 people on the sprawling housing estate of Macquarie Fields in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney. "
And you'll never believe this one. Apparently youmg people's behaviour is getting worse.
Ofsted's annual report, published earlier this month, showed that the proportion of "good or better" behaviour in secondary schools had declined from more than three-quarters to two-thirds since 1997.
Following the latest report, England's chief schools inspector, David Bell, said: "Although the large majority of schools are orderly places where children behave well, it is worrying that unsatisfactory behaviour has not reduced over time.
I liked this :
The report recommends "regular training, focused on classroom practice, combined with an in-depth appreciation of child and adolescent development".
It's probably all a question of self-esteem. I blame the Daily Mail myself.
Monday, February 28, 2005
New US Atrocity
Guantanamera, My Lai, Hiroshima, Green Acres - and now this.
"The US has insisted abortion should not be recognised as a human right, at a review of progress 10 years after a major conference on women's rights".
Is there no end to the evil of this nation, condemning millions of pregnant women to give birth ?
Already the death-toll is rising. Among pregnant women.
"Illegal abortions are a major cause of death among mothers in many countries in Latin America, an international conference on the subject has been told."
Surely not among 'mothers' ? The whole point of abortion is to avoid that unhappy state, so indelibly associated with domestic violence, economic subjection, and grubby handprints on the newly painted walls.
"Unsafe and illegal abortion in Latin America is a social justice problem". It certainly is for the baby.
"The US has insisted abortion should not be recognised as a human right, at a review of progress 10 years after a major conference on women's rights".
Is there no end to the evil of this nation, condemning millions of pregnant women to give birth ?
Already the death-toll is rising. Among pregnant women.
"Illegal abortions are a major cause of death among mothers in many countries in Latin America, an international conference on the subject has been told."
Surely not among 'mothers' ? The whole point of abortion is to avoid that unhappy state, so indelibly associated with domestic violence, economic subjection, and grubby handprints on the newly painted walls.
"Unsafe and illegal abortion in Latin America is a social justice problem". It certainly is for the baby.
About Time Too
Strangely, the BBC seem to be ignoring this story - can't find it on their website.
"Michael Howard, the Tory leader, will seek to harness the growing nationalism south of the Border with a policy of stopping Scottish MPs from voting on English health, education and crime policies.
He will put the so-called West Lothian Question at the heart of the election campaign by claiming Labour’s support has retreated to the Celtic fringe, leaving his authority in England dependent on Scots and Welsh MPs.
The Conservatives expect that, even if Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, wins a third term, Labour will lose its majority in England - putting the power of Scottish MPs in the spotlight.
Mr Howard and Peter Duncan, the shadow Scottish secretary, will propose next month that the Speaker should decide what legislation applies only to England - and ensure Scots MPs do not debate or vote on such issues."
Ignore the spin about 'growing nationalism'. This is just a question of fairness. Scots MPs can vote on English issues - issues such as hunting or tuition fees where the legislation does not apply to Scotland. Scotland has its own Assembly which decides on such matters - and English MPs have no vote there.
You can't blame the Scots for wanting to keep the status quo, if the English are mugs enough to agree.
John Robertson, the Labour MP for Glasgow Anniesland, said:
"All legislation - English, Welsh or Scottish - requires money from UK coffers. Last time I checked, everyone in Scotland pays the same British tax, so every MP in Britain has a direct interest in how that tax is spent."
Quite right John. Makes sense to me. So you'll be scrapping that white elephant knocked up by Kirsty Wark's mates, will you ? No ? Oh.
And some English MPs will use the rift to further the EU agenda for the Balkanisation of England into 'regions'.
Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran Labour rebel, admitted it was "frustrating" to be defeated over particular legislation by Scots whose constituencies were not affected.
But he went on: "Unless we have devolved regional government in England, there’s no reason to bar the Scots."
That's right. The Scots and Welsh can have a Parliament, but the English ? Who are they ? My loyalties are to the ancient 'South West Region', aren't they ?
"Michael Howard, the Tory leader, will seek to harness the growing nationalism south of the Border with a policy of stopping Scottish MPs from voting on English health, education and crime policies.
He will put the so-called West Lothian Question at the heart of the election campaign by claiming Labour’s support has retreated to the Celtic fringe, leaving his authority in England dependent on Scots and Welsh MPs.
The Conservatives expect that, even if Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, wins a third term, Labour will lose its majority in England - putting the power of Scottish MPs in the spotlight.
Mr Howard and Peter Duncan, the shadow Scottish secretary, will propose next month that the Speaker should decide what legislation applies only to England - and ensure Scots MPs do not debate or vote on such issues."
Ignore the spin about 'growing nationalism'. This is just a question of fairness. Scots MPs can vote on English issues - issues such as hunting or tuition fees where the legislation does not apply to Scotland. Scotland has its own Assembly which decides on such matters - and English MPs have no vote there.
You can't blame the Scots for wanting to keep the status quo, if the English are mugs enough to agree.
John Robertson, the Labour MP for Glasgow Anniesland, said:
"All legislation - English, Welsh or Scottish - requires money from UK coffers. Last time I checked, everyone in Scotland pays the same British tax, so every MP in Britain has a direct interest in how that tax is spent."
Quite right John. Makes sense to me. So you'll be scrapping that white elephant knocked up by Kirsty Wark's mates, will you ? No ? Oh.
And some English MPs will use the rift to further the EU agenda for the Balkanisation of England into 'regions'.
Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran Labour rebel, admitted it was "frustrating" to be defeated over particular legislation by Scots whose constituencies were not affected.
But he went on: "Unless we have devolved regional government in England, there’s no reason to bar the Scots."
That's right. The Scots and Welsh can have a Parliament, but the English ? Who are they ? My loyalties are to the ancient 'South West Region', aren't they ?
In The Inbox ..
A Viagra advert with the following text appended, a selection of random quotes. It seems to work rather well as one stream of consciousness. I think I recognise the work of the Marx brothers, St Augustine on chastity, Conan Doyle, Asimov on computers and Homer Simpson on beer, or is it Dave Barry ?
Begin doing what you want to do now (unless you are reading this in the public library - LT). We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. The problem with some people is that when they aren't drunk, they're sober. Who so loves believes the impossible. Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle; rather a great reminder of just how strong true love can be. I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Solitude, if rightly used, becomes not only a privilege but a necessity. Only a superficial soul fears to fraternize with itself. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. Those who are willing to sacrifice essential liberties for a little order, will lose both and deserve neither. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means. I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near. There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. Love takes up where knowledge leaves off. Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. A book may lie dormant for fifty years or for two thousand years in a forgotten corner of a library, only to reveal, upon being opened, the marvels or the abysses that it contains, or the line that seems to have been written for me alone. In this respect the writer is not different from any other human being: whatever we say or do can have far-reaching consequences. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this day. Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle; rather a great reminder of just how strong true love can be. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch? The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well. I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right. Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me. When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life. Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love. If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Autumn is the time when seasons merge because of bare necessity. No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation. Love is the beauty of the soul. Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there? What do you take me for, an idiot? Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Give me a museum and I'll fill it. The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Black holes are where God divided by zero. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. Dancing is silent poetry. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. A positive attitude will not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together. All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. Books are the shoes with which we tread the footsteps of great minds. The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad. His ignorance is encyclopedic It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances. Thank you for sending me a copy of your book - I'll waste no time reading it. Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. Dancing is silent poetry. A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years. All right, Brain, I don't like you and you don't like me -- so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer.
Begin doing what you want to do now (unless you are reading this in the public library - LT). We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. The problem with some people is that when they aren't drunk, they're sober. Who so loves believes the impossible. Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle; rather a great reminder of just how strong true love can be. I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Solitude, if rightly used, becomes not only a privilege but a necessity. Only a superficial soul fears to fraternize with itself. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. Those who are willing to sacrifice essential liberties for a little order, will lose both and deserve neither. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means. I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near. There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. Love takes up where knowledge leaves off. Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. A book may lie dormant for fifty years or for two thousand years in a forgotten corner of a library, only to reveal, upon being opened, the marvels or the abysses that it contains, or the line that seems to have been written for me alone. In this respect the writer is not different from any other human being: whatever we say or do can have far-reaching consequences. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this day. Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle; rather a great reminder of just how strong true love can be. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch? The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well. I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right. Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me. When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life. Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love. If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Autumn is the time when seasons merge because of bare necessity. No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation. Love is the beauty of the soul. Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there? What do you take me for, an idiot? Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Give me a museum and I'll fill it. The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Black holes are where God divided by zero. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. Dancing is silent poetry. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. A positive attitude will not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together. All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. Books are the shoes with which we tread the footsteps of great minds. The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad. His ignorance is encyclopedic It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances. Thank you for sending me a copy of your book - I'll waste no time reading it. Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. Dancing is silent poetry. A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years. All right, Brain, I don't like you and you don't like me -- so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer.
We're Top At Everything
When it comes to rape, drug abuse, abortions, crime or general naughtiness, you just can't beat the Brits.
The parallels with other indigenous peoples who've lost their culture really are striking. If you look an any social issues report on Australian aboriginals, Native Americans, or First Nation Canadians, you see the same indicators. As the UN said in December :
"There is a sense of hopelessness about the ability to control our own destiny that leads to social ills so common in indigenous communities, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence"
"They get disconnected from their communities and the environment and many eventually get completely detached from their own indigenous identity"
The Canadian report shows increased levels of sexually transmitted disease, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, children in care, domestic violence, rape and crime. Sounds like the UK to me.
The parallels with other indigenous peoples who've lost their culture really are striking. If you look an any social issues report on Australian aboriginals, Native Americans, or First Nation Canadians, you see the same indicators. As the UN said in December :
"There is a sense of hopelessness about the ability to control our own destiny that leads to social ills so common in indigenous communities, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence"
"They get disconnected from their communities and the environment and many eventually get completely detached from their own indigenous identity"
The Canadian report shows increased levels of sexually transmitted disease, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, children in care, domestic violence, rape and crime. Sounds like the UK to me.
Cash For Good Causes Part 4
From the Sunday Times
"It is alleged that Comfort Afolabi, the 48-year-old head of the charity, put an undercover reporter posing as an asylum seeker in touch with an immigration fraudster who was selling fake passports.
The Big Lottery Fund, which distributes £600m a year to good causes, has suspended the charity’s latest grant of £200,000, which was awarded in March.
In a statement, the Big Lottery Fund said: “We have with immediate effect frozen the grant to DSHU and have begun an internal investigation into the organisation concerned.” "
They seem to make a habit of this - see stories here and here.
I criticise the BBC often enough, so credit to Radio Five for the investigation.
It almost makes up for James "toilet-mouth" Naughtie's Ken Tynan moment this morning when he made use of Anglo-Saxon (about 6.40 a.m, in a discussion of the Oscars).
"It is alleged that Comfort Afolabi, the 48-year-old head of the charity, put an undercover reporter posing as an asylum seeker in touch with an immigration fraudster who was selling fake passports.
The Big Lottery Fund, which distributes £600m a year to good causes, has suspended the charity’s latest grant of £200,000, which was awarded in March.
In a statement, the Big Lottery Fund said: “We have with immediate effect frozen the grant to DSHU and have begun an internal investigation into the organisation concerned.” "
They seem to make a habit of this - see stories here and here.
I criticise the BBC often enough, so credit to Radio Five for the investigation.
It almost makes up for James "toilet-mouth" Naughtie's Ken Tynan moment this morning when he made use of Anglo-Saxon (about 6.40 a.m, in a discussion of the Oscars).
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Self- Harm - It's All The Rage
I blogged a week or two back on (inter alia) the phemomenon of female prisoners cutting themselves.
Like tattoos, body piercings and heroin, it seems to be spreading from criminal subcultures to the mainstream. I thought March 1st was Dydd Dewi Sant, but in America it's "National Self-Injury Awareness Day". Can't wait for the Radio Five phone-ins.
According to the lovely Michelle Malkin, "actresses Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci did it. So did Courtney Love (not deeply enough, IMHO - LT) and the late Princess Diana. On the Internet, there are scores of websites with titles such as "Blood Red," "Razor Blade Kisses" and "The Cutting World""
I think Razor Blade Kisses are actually a Goth band. But Cutting World seems kosher. How long before W.H. Smith is selling "What Modelling Knife ?", and the kids are looking for the latest (red-and-white striped, like the traditional barber's pole) awareness wristband, currently the must-have accessory among the 10-14 set ?
Uh-oh. Too late. Orange, if you want to know. Life imitates satire once again.
This is a public information post.
Like tattoos, body piercings and heroin, it seems to be spreading from criminal subcultures to the mainstream. I thought March 1st was Dydd Dewi Sant, but in America it's "National Self-Injury Awareness Day". Can't wait for the Radio Five phone-ins.
According to the lovely Michelle Malkin, "actresses Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci did it. So did Courtney Love (not deeply enough, IMHO - LT) and the late Princess Diana. On the Internet, there are scores of websites with titles such as "Blood Red," "Razor Blade Kisses" and "The Cutting World""
I think Razor Blade Kisses are actually a Goth band. But Cutting World seems kosher. How long before W.H. Smith is selling "What Modelling Knife ?", and the kids are looking for the latest (red-and-white striped, like the traditional barber's pole) awareness wristband, currently the must-have accessory among the 10-14 set ?
Uh-oh. Too late. Orange, if you want to know. Life imitates satire once again.
This is a public information post.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Church News
No organisation exemplifies the British cultural collapse better then the Church of England. Described within living memory as 'The Tory Party at prayer', it is now 'engaging with the issues of the 21st century' - or in other words, abandoning a Bible-based theology in favour of an inclusive, user-friendly Christianity more suited to a liberal, Godless society.
The ancien regime are struggling grimly against this tendency, the current battleground being over whether (open - people like Mervyn Stockwood just got on with it) homosexuals should become Bishops of the Church.
On the one side - organisations like Reform, Anglican Mainstream, most of the Anglicans in Africa.
On the other, Rasputin, the bishops of Worcester, Oxford, Southwark, the massed ranks of the BBC, Guardian, Indie, and all right-thinking, tolerant people.
Like Christina Odone, who writes in the Times of "a world full of no-nos: no sex before marriage, no feminism, no abortion and no gay sex".
I'm not sure about the feminism bit. But she's right - tragically, the Church has throughout its history been generally against these things.
Those on the side of light against the dark forces of bigotry and homophobia like to use this "killer argument".
"In much of Europe, in the USA, and in Canada, discrimination against gay people is now being consigned to history, along with slavery and the lack of universal suffrage. It is only shameful that the Church, which was in the forefront of the campaign to free slaves, still treats women and gay people as being less than fully human, with impaired human rights."
You've hit all the right buttons there - not just for liberals, but for everyone. Add in a few words to the effect that your opponents are funded by the American Religious Right, try to ignore the African view, mention George Bush if you can, and bingo - how could any right-thinking person not support you ?
Only one teensy problemette. No-one should be condemned because of the way they were born (I'll leave nature vs nurture for another day). But this argument fails to make the distinction between who you are and what you do. In practice it turns out that the evil reactionary bigots don't hate people with homosexual desires. But they do think it's wrong to act on those desires.
After all, we all have desires of all kinds. If I gave in to all of them, I would by now either be Supreme Dictator Of The Universe, dead, or (more likely) serving a lengthy prison term for crimes ranging from mass murder to serious sexual assault.
Yes, but these desires aren't at the core of your being. As John Humphrys on Radio 4 said incredulously to Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney (I paraphrase - can't find the link) "But that would mean being celibate all your life !"
We're back to Christina and her no-nos again. No one ever said it was easy. Christian literature is full of tales of broad, pleasant paths and stony, steep and narrow ones. We're all sinners. I certainly am.
Top coverage of the whole sorry caboodle at Thinking Anglicans. Presumably their opponents are unthinking, but an excellent site nonetheless.
The ancien regime are struggling grimly against this tendency, the current battleground being over whether (open - people like Mervyn Stockwood just got on with it) homosexuals should become Bishops of the Church.
On the one side - organisations like Reform, Anglican Mainstream, most of the Anglicans in Africa.
On the other, Rasputin, the bishops of Worcester, Oxford, Southwark, the massed ranks of the BBC, Guardian, Indie, and all right-thinking, tolerant people.
Like Christina Odone, who writes in the Times of "a world full of no-nos: no sex before marriage, no feminism, no abortion and no gay sex".
I'm not sure about the feminism bit. But she's right - tragically, the Church has throughout its history been generally against these things.
Those on the side of light against the dark forces of bigotry and homophobia like to use this "killer argument".
"In much of Europe, in the USA, and in Canada, discrimination against gay people is now being consigned to history, along with slavery and the lack of universal suffrage. It is only shameful that the Church, which was in the forefront of the campaign to free slaves, still treats women and gay people as being less than fully human, with impaired human rights."
You've hit all the right buttons there - not just for liberals, but for everyone. Add in a few words to the effect that your opponents are funded by the American Religious Right, try to ignore the African view, mention George Bush if you can, and bingo - how could any right-thinking person not support you ?
Only one teensy problemette. No-one should be condemned because of the way they were born (I'll leave nature vs nurture for another day). But this argument fails to make the distinction between who you are and what you do. In practice it turns out that the evil reactionary bigots don't hate people with homosexual desires. But they do think it's wrong to act on those desires.
After all, we all have desires of all kinds. If I gave in to all of them, I would by now either be Supreme Dictator Of The Universe, dead, or (more likely) serving a lengthy prison term for crimes ranging from mass murder to serious sexual assault.
Yes, but these desires aren't at the core of your being. As John Humphrys on Radio 4 said incredulously to Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney (I paraphrase - can't find the link) "But that would mean being celibate all your life !"
We're back to Christina and her no-nos again. No one ever said it was easy. Christian literature is full of tales of broad, pleasant paths and stony, steep and narrow ones. We're all sinners. I certainly am.
Top coverage of the whole sorry caboodle at Thinking Anglicans. Presumably their opponents are unthinking, but an excellent site nonetheless.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Indie Watch
A correspondent points out that a few weeks ago, when the engagement of which I must not blog was announced, that principled newspaper The Independent covered its front page with 'The Stories You May Have Missed". (Their argument, which is not without force, is that a serious newspaper should cover serious news).
Was this, he asked, the same Independent which devoted Tuesday's entire front page to the death of a drug-addled American gun nut who wrote a couple of not-bad books in the early seventies ?
I wonder what the Indie's cover will look like when the guy who wrote these dies ?
P.S. Note this early tribute to Polly Pot. (I seem to be the only person ignorant of the fact that the Child Catcher was indeed, in some sort, a drippy hopout.
Was this, he asked, the same Independent which devoted Tuesday's entire front page to the death of a drug-addled American gun nut who wrote a couple of not-bad books in the early seventies ?
I wonder what the Indie's cover will look like when the guy who wrote these dies ?
P.S. Note this early tribute to Polly Pot. (I seem to be the only person ignorant of the fact that the Child Catcher was indeed, in some sort, a drippy hopout.
Looters will be ... er ... er ...
So the British soldiers were found guilty. I'm not suprised. One guy's defence ("He was cold and so I moved him into the sun. With hindsight, perhaps using a forklift to do it may have been a mistake") was up there with Ian ("She fell into the bath and drowned - as you do") Huntley's story - what I call the "cat ate my homework" defence.
The Guardian is shocked at the "horrific images" of prisoners simulating various naughty acts. Surely the images themselves can't be horrific to a Guardianista ? I thought they approved of that sort of thing - indeed, they want such scenes to be a commonplace in Her Majesty's Forces.
But there is a difference between consenting and non-consenting adults. Nonetheless, this humiliating treatment, while unpleasant and wrong, comes pretty low on the list of bad things that happen in war. I'm more concerned about that hotel worker who may or may not have been beaten to death.
Apparently it's illegal to 'work hard' captured looters, a hideous crime which the Guardian makes much of (the working, of course, not the looting). I'm not sure what applies now, but not so long ago it was OK to shoot them. I think I'd prefer the happy snaps.
France, 1944. From Max Hastings' book "Overlord", Corporal Baldwin of the Westminster Dragoons.
"In a field on my right I noticed some dead British infantry. There were two civilians there and I pulled up. Another jeep with a military policeman pulled up behind me. We walked towards the two men and it became obvious that they had been looting the bodies. Two had had their boots removed. The civilians started to speak quickly in French, but the policeman simply said "Bloody bastards" and shot them with his Sten gun."
For a little more perspective, here's what the Army can do to a seventeen year old British part time soldier, captured on exercise. From Chris Ryan's 'The One That Got Away'.
"When I was seventeen, on my first escape and evasion exercise with the Territorial SAS, up at Otterburn in the middle of winter, I was caught by the hunter force of Three Para. They got us, gave us a good kicking, stripped us naked, tied our wrists and anchored us up to the chest in the middle of the river until we were completely numb. Then they took us to an insulated airborne shelter (anyone know what one of those is ?), with five gas heaters blazing, where the temperature was about 120 degrees. As our circulation got going again, the pain became excruciating - and it was then, when we were doubled up in agony on the floor, that they started interrogating us about who we were and what we had been doing. As soon as we were warm and starrting to recover, they put us back in the river and so began the whole process again ..."
On Ryan's eighteenth birthday he was captured and interrogated on exercise by Belgian paratroops. He doesn't say exactly what they did to him, but thought "there's no way I'm ever going to get captured again".
Obviously the Guardian, Respect, Malice Ahon etc will use this series of unfortunate events as a stick with which to beat the Army with. Among the rest of us, some proportion please.
The Guardian is shocked at the "horrific images" of prisoners simulating various naughty acts. Surely the images themselves can't be horrific to a Guardianista ? I thought they approved of that sort of thing - indeed, they want such scenes to be a commonplace in Her Majesty's Forces.
But there is a difference between consenting and non-consenting adults. Nonetheless, this humiliating treatment, while unpleasant and wrong, comes pretty low on the list of bad things that happen in war. I'm more concerned about that hotel worker who may or may not have been beaten to death.
Apparently it's illegal to 'work hard' captured looters, a hideous crime which the Guardian makes much of (the working, of course, not the looting). I'm not sure what applies now, but not so long ago it was OK to shoot them. I think I'd prefer the happy snaps.
France, 1944. From Max Hastings' book "Overlord", Corporal Baldwin of the Westminster Dragoons.
"In a field on my right I noticed some dead British infantry. There were two civilians there and I pulled up. Another jeep with a military policeman pulled up behind me. We walked towards the two men and it became obvious that they had been looting the bodies. Two had had their boots removed. The civilians started to speak quickly in French, but the policeman simply said "Bloody bastards" and shot them with his Sten gun."
For a little more perspective, here's what the Army can do to a seventeen year old British part time soldier, captured on exercise. From Chris Ryan's 'The One That Got Away'.
"When I was seventeen, on my first escape and evasion exercise with the Territorial SAS, up at Otterburn in the middle of winter, I was caught by the hunter force of Three Para. They got us, gave us a good kicking, stripped us naked, tied our wrists and anchored us up to the chest in the middle of the river until we were completely numb. Then they took us to an insulated airborne shelter (anyone know what one of those is ?), with five gas heaters blazing, where the temperature was about 120 degrees. As our circulation got going again, the pain became excruciating - and it was then, when we were doubled up in agony on the floor, that they started interrogating us about who we were and what we had been doing. As soon as we were warm and starrting to recover, they put us back in the river and so began the whole process again ..."
On Ryan's eighteenth birthday he was captured and interrogated on exercise by Belgian paratroops. He doesn't say exactly what they did to him, but thought "there's no way I'm ever going to get captured again".
Obviously the Guardian, Respect, Malice Ahon etc will use this series of unfortunate events as a stick with which to beat the Army with. Among the rest of us, some proportion please.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Blimpish on Chavs
What Burchill and her Chav Chic chums seemed to entirely be missing in their analysis is the notion of respectability. Yes, this country has always had a working class and it has always had its rougher side. On the whole though, certainly from mid Victorian times, the English working classes did not pride themselves on living to that rough side. Historically, the English working classes were possessed of a hardy moral puritanism, after all - morals were something that they tended to look down on the middle classes for.
Here is where they miss the importance of the sixties (first) and then the Thatcher episode: not that it was a betrayal of the working class, but the end of it.
I'd agree, with the proviso that the working class as previously known vanished in the 1980s. During the 1960s the cultural revolution removed the moral foundations, but it was not until the economic scaffolding was taken down during the 1980s that the house actually collapsed. (During the 1920s and 30s the economic scaffolding had also been removed, but the moral foundation remained). Places like the mining villages of Yorkshire, the South Wales Valleys, or the heavy industrial areas of the North East, went from tight-knit, self-reliant communities to smack-ridden disaster zones in a generation.
The kind of behaviour that Julie thinks authentically working class was despised by actual working class people. It was college types who loved people like the hero of Alan Sillitoe's late 50s novel "Saturday Night And Sunday Morning", an early protochav.
Here's Daniel come to judgement again, Rod Liddle on the white working class male.
And my hero Norman Dennis (last chapter) on the old socialist ideal of the family.
"Old Labour (properly so-called) saw each successful, decent family, egalitarian in its division of labour and benefits through the willingness of each to be self-sacrificing for all the others, as itself a socialist commonwealth in action. Such families were believed to be both common in the respectable working class and achievable as the norm in all classes. Their widespread existence — as these ethical socialists believed — proved that it was not ‘against human nature’ to be dutiful and unselfish. "
"No loss of reputation has been swifter or steeper on the left than that of the working-class male: from heroic proletarian father to unspeakable abusive beast in one generation."
Here is where they miss the importance of the sixties (first) and then the Thatcher episode: not that it was a betrayal of the working class, but the end of it.
I'd agree, with the proviso that the working class as previously known vanished in the 1980s. During the 1960s the cultural revolution removed the moral foundations, but it was not until the economic scaffolding was taken down during the 1980s that the house actually collapsed. (During the 1920s and 30s the economic scaffolding had also been removed, but the moral foundation remained). Places like the mining villages of Yorkshire, the South Wales Valleys, or the heavy industrial areas of the North East, went from tight-knit, self-reliant communities to smack-ridden disaster zones in a generation.
The kind of behaviour that Julie thinks authentically working class was despised by actual working class people. It was college types who loved people like the hero of Alan Sillitoe's late 50s novel "Saturday Night And Sunday Morning", an early protochav.
Here's Daniel come to judgement again, Rod Liddle on the white working class male.
And my hero Norman Dennis (last chapter) on the old socialist ideal of the family.
"Old Labour (properly so-called) saw each successful, decent family, egalitarian in its division of labour and benefits through the willingness of each to be self-sacrificing for all the others, as itself a socialist commonwealth in action. Such families were believed to be both common in the respectable working class and achievable as the norm in all classes. Their widespread existence — as these ethical socialists believed — proved that it was not ‘against human nature’ to be dutiful and unselfish. "
"No loss of reputation has been swifter or steeper on the left than that of the working-class male: from heroic proletarian father to unspeakable abusive beast in one generation."
Little Man, What Now ?
If the blog is half as good as its title it'll be a cracker.
Presumably inspired by this book.
Whose author took his name from this story.
Or the film of the book.
Or this song.
Presumably inspired by this book.
Whose author took his name from this story.
Or the film of the book.
Or this song.
Nothing Lasts For Long ...
It's male menopause time at the Guardian and Indie, as they mourn for Hunter S. Thompson and lost youth. The entire Indie front page, half the Guardian. I looked at the Guardian today with the same feelings as I looked at the Daily Mail the day after the Camilla engagement was announced. See pages 2, 3, 7, 9, 10 and 11.
Doubtless as the days shorten other Sixties relics will remember some long ago incident to add to the fetid pile of unwashed anecdotes.
No wonder they're upset. The man and his work are symbolic of the class of 68. A couple of bursts of brilliance back in the days where things really looked as if they might change - and then what ?
The problem with the counterculture was that it was only - and literally - a counterculture. It knew what it was against (the existing culture), but not what it was for. Thirty-five years on the counterculture still doesn't know. Against the war in Iraq ? Check. Against Saddam's evil ? Check. What are you going to do short of war ? "I don't know, but there must be another way".
Thompson spent the last thirty years of his life being remembered for two early works. His later stuff still had the same targets, but who wants to listen to someone bellowing "I hate straights !" for thirty years ?
(He probably wasn't a very nice man, either, if the scene in the lift at the Dunes motorcycle race is any indicator. Certainly not a chap to borrow the lawnmower from, the Laban Tall touchstone of a civilised being.)
I doubt if one in fifty of the people who bought "Fear and Loathing" to add to the Hesses, Castenadas, Peakes and Donleavys of the seventies student bookshelf ever bought another thing by him.
In the UK the counter-culture has been remarkably successful in the work of destruction, and we have a situation, particularly in England, where we can be said to have no national culture. We're still waiting for whatever new culture (a.k.a 'rough beast') may rise from the myriad subcultures inhabiting the ashes, with a childish belief that somehow all the good bits of the old culture will be retained.
In the US the existing culture, though embattled, was stronger and has not rolled over. That's why America and the 'Religious Right' are every Guardianista's nightmare. What's the point of hating Britain, or England ? There's nothing there to hate.
Doubtless as the days shorten other Sixties relics will remember some long ago incident to add to the fetid pile of unwashed anecdotes.
No wonder they're upset. The man and his work are symbolic of the class of 68. A couple of bursts of brilliance back in the days where things really looked as if they might change - and then what ?
The problem with the counterculture was that it was only - and literally - a counterculture. It knew what it was against (the existing culture), but not what it was for. Thirty-five years on the counterculture still doesn't know. Against the war in Iraq ? Check. Against Saddam's evil ? Check. What are you going to do short of war ? "I don't know, but there must be another way".
Thompson spent the last thirty years of his life being remembered for two early works. His later stuff still had the same targets, but who wants to listen to someone bellowing "I hate straights !" for thirty years ?
(He probably wasn't a very nice man, either, if the scene in the lift at the Dunes motorcycle race is any indicator. Certainly not a chap to borrow the lawnmower from, the Laban Tall touchstone of a civilised being.)
I doubt if one in fifty of the people who bought "Fear and Loathing" to add to the Hesses, Castenadas, Peakes and Donleavys of the seventies student bookshelf ever bought another thing by him.
In the UK the counter-culture has been remarkably successful in the work of destruction, and we have a situation, particularly in England, where we can be said to have no national culture. We're still waiting for whatever new culture (a.k.a 'rough beast') may rise from the myriad subcultures inhabiting the ashes, with a childish belief that somehow all the good bits of the old culture will be retained.
In the US the existing culture, though embattled, was stronger and has not rolled over. That's why America and the 'Religious Right' are every Guardianista's nightmare. What's the point of hating Britain, or England ? There's nothing there to hate.
The NHS, the Met, and Race Targets
I noted yesterday the under-representation of Native Brits in the NHS.
In a speech to the TUC in September 2003, Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission For Racial Equality, thought this was A Good Thing for which the natives should be grateful.
"So, colleagues, I ask you next time you add 50,000 to your circulation with a story about so-called health tourists please mention the 45,000 foreign nurses working in NHS hospitals today without whom none of us black, brown, white, citizen or refugee would enjoy the healthcare we take for granted now.
Let me make one point, that is the National Health Service, the most British of institutions, was launched by a Welshman, built by Irish labour, sustained by Caribbean nurses and now held together by Indian and other foreign doctors with Filipino nurses, and Somali cleaners. That is modern Britain."
His remarks were applauded by columnists like the Guardian's Jackie Ashley.
Strangely the converse doesn't apply if the natives are over-represented. No-one to my knowledge has made a speech pointing out with pride that if an Asian girl is shot for her mobile phone, the crime is likely to be investigated by dedicated Native Brits, serving all communities without fear or favour.
Far from it. Too many crackers on the beat is apparently A Bad Thing. While a white patient who demands care by white medical staff is condemned by all, and loses entitlement to NHS care, it's quite acceptable to argue that black Londoners need black police.
As the Metropolitan Police Authority (chairman Lord Harris - see here and here) put it : "Of greater concern to the Authority is the recruitment of black and ethnic minority police officers. While the Home Office statistics released today indicate a positive increase in the percentage of VEM (Visible Ethnic Minorities - since half of Eastern Europe arrived in London this is now the preferred PC term for black and Asian people) recruits to the Met in the year between April 2001 and 2002 – a 23% increase for that year, representing 4.9% of the workforce total – we know from current figures that we still have a long way to go to achieve the 25% target set for completion by 2009."
I still can't work out why this is so important. Does the colour of a policemen's skin matter, as long as he does his job well ?
The only real 'reasoning' is in the Home Office targets report, one of many.
"The employment targets are wide-ranging and cover recruitment,
retention, career progression and the senior officer level. They will
help ensure that each service is truly reflective of the communities
they serve, and thereby better able to serve them and meet their
needs and priorities."
If this applies to the police, why doesn't it apply to the NHS ? Or, come to that, to soccer sides ? If Jack Straw is right, the Baggies would have been able to meet their fans needs better without the Three Degrees, and Bradford City should have swapped the great Cec Podd and Joe Cooke for a Patel and a Hussein.
Why aren't Trust managers and executives looking forward nervously to their next Whitehall meeting, when they have to explain that only 60% of their staff are Native Brits as against a target of 90% ?
I don't really need to answer that, do I ? When white liberals are involved, the ratchet will only ever work one way.
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where even Metropolitan Police Officers were judged solely on the content of their character, just as the colour of your doctor's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes ?
In a speech to the TUC in September 2003, Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission For Racial Equality, thought this was A Good Thing for which the natives should be grateful.
"So, colleagues, I ask you next time you add 50,000 to your circulation with a story about so-called health tourists please mention the 45,000 foreign nurses working in NHS hospitals today without whom none of us black, brown, white, citizen or refugee would enjoy the healthcare we take for granted now.
Let me make one point, that is the National Health Service, the most British of institutions, was launched by a Welshman, built by Irish labour, sustained by Caribbean nurses and now held together by Indian and other foreign doctors with Filipino nurses, and Somali cleaners. That is modern Britain."
His remarks were applauded by columnists like the Guardian's Jackie Ashley.
Strangely the converse doesn't apply if the natives are over-represented. No-one to my knowledge has made a speech pointing out with pride that if an Asian girl is shot for her mobile phone, the crime is likely to be investigated by dedicated Native Brits, serving all communities without fear or favour.
Far from it. Too many crackers on the beat is apparently A Bad Thing. While a white patient who demands care by white medical staff is condemned by all, and loses entitlement to NHS care, it's quite acceptable to argue that black Londoners need black police.
As the Metropolitan Police Authority (chairman Lord Harris - see here and here) put it : "Of greater concern to the Authority is the recruitment of black and ethnic minority police officers. While the Home Office statistics released today indicate a positive increase in the percentage of VEM (Visible Ethnic Minorities - since half of Eastern Europe arrived in London this is now the preferred PC term for black and Asian people) recruits to the Met in the year between April 2001 and 2002 – a 23% increase for that year, representing 4.9% of the workforce total – we know from current figures that we still have a long way to go to achieve the 25% target set for completion by 2009."
I still can't work out why this is so important. Does the colour of a policemen's skin matter, as long as he does his job well ?
The only real 'reasoning' is in the Home Office targets report, one of many.
"The employment targets are wide-ranging and cover recruitment,
retention, career progression and the senior officer level. They will
help ensure that each service is truly reflective of the communities
they serve, and thereby better able to serve them and meet their
needs and priorities."
If this applies to the police, why doesn't it apply to the NHS ? Or, come to that, to soccer sides ? If Jack Straw is right, the Baggies would have been able to meet their fans needs better without the Three Degrees, and Bradford City should have swapped the great Cec Podd and Joe Cooke for a Patel and a Hussein.
Why aren't Trust managers and executives looking forward nervously to their next Whitehall meeting, when they have to explain that only 60% of their staff are Native Brits as against a target of 90% ?
I don't really need to answer that, do I ? When white liberals are involved, the ratchet will only ever work one way.
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where even Metropolitan Police Officers were judged solely on the content of their character, just as the colour of your doctor's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes ?
Monday, February 21, 2005
A Death Is Mourned
It is always tragic when a great artist is taken from us. Even when he appears to us in the guise of a manic drug and alcohol abuser, a true genius with words somehow seems to rise above his failings.
And no matter how many years may pass, his poetic flame will still burn brightly.
No, I don't mean that gonzo scribbler !
Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC and surely the best thing to come out of Kirriemuir since the infamous ball was held, died twenty-five years ago.
Some say he went to heaven, some say he went to hell. But we will always be in his debt for lyrics like these.
"She had the face of an angel, smiling with sin,
The body of Venus - with arms"
Aware that to an educated listener "the body of Venus" could only mean this woman, Bon was at pains to point out that, unlike the Venus de Milo, the muse who inspired 'Touch Too Much' did actually possess two arms (I don't know if he ever met Heather Mills, or Alison Lapper - what a song there might have been).
This was typical of his craftsmanship and attention to detail.
In memory of this blazing, bourbon-soaked comet in the rock firmament, BBC Radio Wales presents an hour of classic Bon Scott music, available via the Interweb for the next week or so. Listen and wonder.
And no matter how many years may pass, his poetic flame will still burn brightly.
No, I don't mean that gonzo scribbler !
Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC and surely the best thing to come out of Kirriemuir since the infamous ball was held, died twenty-five years ago.
Some say he went to heaven, some say he went to hell. But we will always be in his debt for lyrics like these.
"She had the face of an angel, smiling with sin,
The body of Venus - with arms"
Aware that to an educated listener "the body of Venus" could only mean this woman, Bon was at pains to point out that, unlike the Venus de Milo, the muse who inspired 'Touch Too Much' did actually possess two arms (I don't know if he ever met Heather Mills, or Alison Lapper - what a song there might have been).
This was typical of his craftsmanship and attention to detail.
In memory of this blazing, bourbon-soaked comet in the rock firmament, BBC Radio Wales presents an hour of classic Bon Scott music, available via the Interweb for the next week or so. Listen and wonder.
A Daniel Come To Judgement
Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times on discrimination.
"In terms of employment and income (and education), British people from Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian backgrounds easily outperform their white counterparts, both male and female. In terms of earnings, women from ethnic minority backgrounds (excepting those from Pakistan and Bangladesh but including, for example, African and Caribbean women) easily outperform white women. The average weekly wage of a white British woman in 2002 was £180, compared with £187 for all black and Asian women, £199 for African women and £210 for Caribbean women. These figures come from the Cabinet Office.
One year later the Downing Street policy unit concluded, in a report entitled Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market, that “the old picture of white success and ethnic underachievement is now out of date”.
So exactly who is being discriminated against here? Should we not be manning the barricades in defence of white women and calling for positive discrimination against those women from our African or Asian communities? And how do we explain the poor performance of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women (who earn only £140 per week)? Does the problem lie solely with the racist and sexist white hegemony or might there be something within the indigenous culture that is holding these women back?"
All very true - this from the same guy who in 1998, as editor of the Today programme, was working to death the hideous revelation that "Asians applying to study medicine are more likely to be rejected than other students."
To be exact, "while one third of all applications for medical school places are from Asians, they represent only one fifth of those accepted".
Given that Asians were approximately 4% of the population at the time, the real story would have been that they were applying at 8 times the rate of the natives, rather than that they were "only" being accepted at 5 times the rate.
Mr Liddle appears to have undergone a Damasacene conversion on these and many other issues.
His successor at Today, Kevin Marsh, has strangely ignored this more recent story.
"Researchers at Oxford University say white men, who make up 44% of the UK population, accounted for 26% of new medical students in 2001.
They said medicine is increasingly dominated by white women and people from ethnic minorities, particularly those from the Asian community."
Or, in the words of one comedian, 'my family doctor's a bit old-fashioned - he's white'.
I liked this story from Salisbury Pages.
I got talking to an Asian anaesthetist from Bradford yesterday. He’s got a face like Uday Hussein, an accent like Geoff Boycott and a wicked sense of humour that’s all Yorkshire. Apparently a couple of days earlier he had been waking up a patient after an anaesthetic when the patient had become more and more agitated. Eventually the patient was awake enough to croak, “Where am I?”
“You’re in Brummagen General Hospital” my colleague replies.
“Thank God for that!” says the patient, with transparent relief, “I thought I’d been kidnapped.”
Looking around the bed my colleague realizes that there’s not a white doctor or nurse among them. “Mind you,” he tells me with a wicked glint in his eye, “I’d still like to have seen his face if I’d said, ”You’re in the Tora Bora mountains, mate.”"
One more sidebar link - via Irene Adler, to Conservative Brotherhood, "a group of African American writers whose politics are on the right hand side of the political spectrum." In other words, people who don't exist as far as the BBC and Guardian are concerned. I'd love to see a Gary Younge interview with, say, Thomas Sowell.
"In terms of employment and income (and education), British people from Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian backgrounds easily outperform their white counterparts, both male and female. In terms of earnings, women from ethnic minority backgrounds (excepting those from Pakistan and Bangladesh but including, for example, African and Caribbean women) easily outperform white women. The average weekly wage of a white British woman in 2002 was £180, compared with £187 for all black and Asian women, £199 for African women and £210 for Caribbean women. These figures come from the Cabinet Office.
One year later the Downing Street policy unit concluded, in a report entitled Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market, that “the old picture of white success and ethnic underachievement is now out of date”.
So exactly who is being discriminated against here? Should we not be manning the barricades in defence of white women and calling for positive discrimination against those women from our African or Asian communities? And how do we explain the poor performance of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women (who earn only £140 per week)? Does the problem lie solely with the racist and sexist white hegemony or might there be something within the indigenous culture that is holding these women back?"
All very true - this from the same guy who in 1998, as editor of the Today programme, was working to death the hideous revelation that "Asians applying to study medicine are more likely to be rejected than other students."
To be exact, "while one third of all applications for medical school places are from Asians, they represent only one fifth of those accepted".
Given that Asians were approximately 4% of the population at the time, the real story would have been that they were applying at 8 times the rate of the natives, rather than that they were "only" being accepted at 5 times the rate.
Mr Liddle appears to have undergone a Damasacene conversion on these and many other issues.
His successor at Today, Kevin Marsh, has strangely ignored this more recent story.
"Researchers at Oxford University say white men, who make up 44% of the UK population, accounted for 26% of new medical students in 2001.
They said medicine is increasingly dominated by white women and people from ethnic minorities, particularly those from the Asian community."
Or, in the words of one comedian, 'my family doctor's a bit old-fashioned - he's white'.
I liked this story from Salisbury Pages.
I got talking to an Asian anaesthetist from Bradford yesterday. He’s got a face like Uday Hussein, an accent like Geoff Boycott and a wicked sense of humour that’s all Yorkshire. Apparently a couple of days earlier he had been waking up a patient after an anaesthetic when the patient had become more and more agitated. Eventually the patient was awake enough to croak, “Where am I?”
“You’re in Brummagen General Hospital” my colleague replies.
“Thank God for that!” says the patient, with transparent relief, “I thought I’d been kidnapped.”
Looking around the bed my colleague realizes that there’s not a white doctor or nurse among them. “Mind you,” he tells me with a wicked glint in his eye, “I’d still like to have seen his face if I’d said, ”You’re in the Tora Bora mountains, mate.”"
One more sidebar link - via Irene Adler, to Conservative Brotherhood, "a group of African American writers whose politics are on the right hand side of the political spectrum." In other words, people who don't exist as far as the BBC and Guardian are concerned. I'd love to see a Gary Younge interview with, say, Thomas Sowell.
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