As they say South of the Mason Dixon line.
I Declare! And that says it all. I really don’t know how many more newspapers I can read without taking to the hills.
One appreciates that there is a decline in every facet of society, education, manners, violence, morals and of course suitable clothing. First Parliament abandons ties and NOW the Cof E is abandoning vestments and it is suggested Bishops should fold their mitres for good!
Oh and the final horror, the Beckhams rent Buck house for a party for their brat!!!
These depredations on society seems particularly bad in the UK, but then I only read the papers, I am not there. Everything appears to be being reduced to its most basic vulgar expression with all niceties abandoned. It is certainly not so bad here in rural USA but then people still go to church here. Is it really that bad there? What are other countries like? It certainly appears from here that one takes one’s life in one’s hands walking the streets of Londonistan! Why so much inchoate rage in society?
My view is that there are too many of us and we need a good culling which might just concentrate the minds of those left. One is left with the question does the species actually deserve to survive? For decades I have toyed with the thought that there must be other sentient species out there and they are probably not getting in touch quite deliberately, would you? They may, of course, have us in quarantine! I would. Who would want us running round the universe wrecking it like Syria? Certainly no alien ‘cockroach’ or ‘dinosaur’ society in its right mind.
PS, Not one mention of the 225 wildfires raging in BC though. Thousands evacuated and most out of control. No, no, Beckham’s brat is more important. As I say,
I Declare.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I would blame Alex Salmond, but he’s a spent force. I’ll have to come up with a new catch-all.
This started with Vatican II, methinks. All that was sacred was no longer so sacrosanct. If even the stolid, conservative Roman Church became touchy-feely then it was clear that the world had well and truly fallen on its arse, tits high up in the air! The abandonment of mitres and elements of clerical garb isn’t new. If anything, it’s a further degree of Protestantism in services. Neck ties have long been an affectation as style has evolved.
Beckam and Bimbo’s spawn at Bucks House… Now THAT’S unspeakable!
Christopher, where have vestments been abandoned to your knowledge?
I would have thought than any one who objected to clerical dress would have done a bunk to a nonconformist church/chapel, centuries ago.
I meant in terms of the broader Protestant movement. That the Anglicans are now moving in that direction makes the Church of England somewhat more “Protestant”.
It’s only a matter if time before the minister turns up in jeans, Tshirt and a baseball cap with a ‘God Is Great’ slogan.
They already do in nutter US churches!
Our new neighbour across the road is a ‘youth pastor’ He has been to college in Canada for some divinity studies, but not a fully frocked priest and he always goes to work in shorts and baseball cap.Not a real church as we would know it, they are very fond of being interdenominational, let it all hang out and suck you in socially 4 nights a week.
Don’t drink the KoolAid!
CO: Not too long ago there was a positively ghastly concert held in front of the Cathedral of Trier. In an effort to appear “hip”, the Archdiocese hires the services of religious buskers. Africa and the United States are heavily represented. Some twenty-something Yanks were singing and dancing pretending to be somehow relevant to Hunnish youth. It was slightly embarrassing.
Well, this may add to your gloom Christina.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/10/tories-urgently-investigating-after-mp-uses-n-word-at-public-event
Meanwhile rap songs are full of such language, blasting out from cars and houses. The Bonfire of the Vanities, is nothing compared to what society is being subjected to by the politically correct moral guardians.It will turn nasty.
Formality is dead on it’s feet. No such thing as appropriate any more. I ask myself why do the plebeian Beckhams want Buck House? Because they think everything has its price and if there’s no knighthood they’ll buy their social acceptance – wrong.
On the C of E, I read recently that a merger with the Methodists is on the cards. So much for doctrinal differences.
Christina sugar, ah do hope you were fluttering your fan and your eyelashes à la Scarlett O’Hara when you said “I declare”.
I would go further, Christina.
Firstly, sack the twerp Bercow who declaimed from the chair of the mother of parliaments whilst wearing a petrol blue suit and brown shoes, FFS, that the oafs we elect no longer need to wear a tie. Expect sponsored t-shirts endorsing the popular I-trend of the moment, ostentatious displays of tins of Irn Bru and breast-feeding in the chamber any time soon. To his credit, even McEnroe still wears a tie when commentating at Wimbledon.
Secondly, shut down the Book of Face, Twatter, Mumsnet and all such forms of communication between assorted mongs, the self-professed entitled ones, faceless trolls and the remaining hard of understanding who think they are something speshull. It only encourages them. Most sci-fi movies referencing the future start with a sewer cover twisting open at dusk allowing egress to a genetic sub-species of mutant scavengers. It is already happening – just look at your nearest sink estate or most daytime TV audiences.
To the above I would also add any talking heads that start their comments with ‘The truth is…’ or, particularly, ‘So,…’. I automatically dismiss anything that follows such pretentious bolleaux.
As an aside, we had a disastrous wild fire up north last month, the cause of which is yet to be determined, which killed at least 68 people, injured hundreds more, destroyed whole villages and businesses and left thousands of hectares of land devastated. The civil authorities and gobmunt, with the honourable exception of the bombeiros (voluntary firefighters, one of whom was killed), had their ignorance, complacency, and irrelevance exposed for all to see. Lessons will, of course, be learned as they always say, but nothing will actually be done as nobody in Lisbon or Porto suffered the slightest personal inconvenience. The local infrastructure will take decades to recover, but as it didn’t happen in California, no international coverage followed either, nor will it.
I shall now go and find a cool, dark corner of The Cave and have a good lie down.
OZ
More Frizzeeze required, OZ. I’m orf to Blighty soon and formal dress will be expected at all times. Them starched collars and underwear don’t ‘alf scratch in bed. But Mrs J doesn’t seem to mind wearing them.
Hi OZ, I have been listening to an audio book of Fahrenheit 451. Written in 1953 but set in a dystopian future, the protagonist (note the use of that word, Janus) is a fireman whose job it is to burn books. I do not think I am giving anything away by saying that. He lives in a society whose members are hooked on interactive reality TV which are the size of living room walls. People are fed an unending stream of mindless guff and propaganda. Original thoughts and ideas are discouraged and books are forbidden. It is depressingly prescient, very closely reflecting the situation that now exists in Europe. Words and ideas alone, can get you locked up or banished from society.
From one topic relating to fire I seque into your comment about the conflagration in Portugal. We did read about it out here and it was discussed. Horrific stories of people being trapped in their cars unable to drive because of the thick smoke. You may not be aware that at roughly the same time there were devastating fires in South Africa that destroyed much of the town of Knysna and the neighbouring Plettenberg Bay.The number of casualties was lower than in Portugal, but the loss of property was immense. But this was South Africa and many of the victims white, so it did not really matter. Rather like the murdered white South African farmers whose gruesome deaths raise not the slightest concern outside of their community.
Well, it appears everyone here thinks the world is going downhill in every way possible!
One of the most useful remedies would be to lose electricity. Wouldn’t that set the cat amongst the pigeons?
Most would not survive.
It is staggering how few can actually start a fire these days. Seen it with my own eyes in Wales at the heritage place I had. Kids taking the rental cottages used to turn up at the pub to me complaining that the fires ‘didn’t work’, used to nip down the street and eh voila in a couple of minutes, many admitted they had never started a fire in their lives! These were Victorian ranges on which the original families had fed their whole family perfectly adequately. Most today would starve to death.
Can you imagine the hordes going without their mind numbing reality shows?
AND the removal of Oz’s book of face?
Splendidly enticing thoughts!
Well, one can have such splendid dreams whilst gardening.
On the plus side I have to DECLARE a surfeit of aubergines this year. Whoda thought! Not the easiest crop it needs protection here, greenhouse or polytunnel. So mass production of goodies for the freezer.. All to the good. Quite cheers one up.
Just had a tasty egg plant stuffed with chili con carne. Delicious.
Ah, but did you grow it?
Oh no, too exotic for us! 🙂
G’day, Sipu. The footage of Plettenberg Bay is remarkably similar to footage from Pedrógão Grande, and equally chilling.
What is making people angry here is that overpaid, overpromoted muppets sit in meetings in Lisbon with their gaudy ID badges on ribbons round their necks and their little bottles of water talking to each other. This works fine as long as nothing untoward happens as the image of being competent and doing something is more important than actually being competent and doing something. By comparison, there is nothing but universal praise for those out on the front line – the bombeiros, (all of whom are volunteers like the RNLI in the UK), the GNR police, the army and the paramedics of INEM. They have all been badly let down by inept, faceless, unaccountable jobsworths.
Most of the victims died because Protecção Civil failed miserably to fulfil its prime directive of protecting people, mainly because their intricate, overblown and hugely expensive communications system broke down (yet again) leading to chaos with none of the authorities knowing what the other was doing, which in turn led to one particular road not being closed. Families drove into the the flames where their cars stalled with engines starved of oxygen. They died of smoke inhalation or simply burned to death. Not a nice way to go.
Such official inefficiency and complacency is also evident within the UK authorities under whose watch the Grenfell Tower disaster happened and almost certainly in most other layers of bureaucracy around the world. A good sprinkling of corruption and fat cattery also adds to the toxic mix.
In the aftermath of Pedrógão Grande there have been calls for charges of culpable homicide and corporate manslaughter be laid against individuals and entities that failed in their duties. Nothing, of course, will happen because the finger is being pointed at those who make the rules in the first place. “Lessons will be learned”, they are already saying, and “we must move on”, probably to the next meeting where they will discuss the tragedy as if it had nothing to do with them.
OZ
And this one from SIC, one of the four main Portuguese TV channels
OZ
Oz how shocking, quite unforgivable. What the hell is wrong with these people?
One thing I must say for both the Americans and Canadians, perhaps it is because they have so many wildfires each season to the east of the continental divide, they are very adept at helping each other. A couple of thousand firefighters appear within hours from all over the country to help out, often going to each other’s country to give assistance.
As I said there are now 225+ wildfires in BC but have heard of no loss of life so far. Most of these fires are measured by square miles, not acres so you can imagine the extent.
There is no way I personally would live in these arid areas, having been caught in two commercial fires in a lifetime is more than enough for me, might not be so lucky next time round. Much rather take my chances with the subduction zone and the big one! Mind you we were extremely careful as to exactly where we bought in the County. Not near any faults, hotspots, pyroclastic flow paths, tsunami warning areas. Took me three months of research to pick this spot.
janus- shame on you for not giving them a try! As a matter of curiosity how much did you pay for eggplant there? They are ludicrously overpriced in both the UK and the USA, as are shallots, leeks, celeriac and any other non bog standard veg the Yanks eat. Who would have believed that leeks are an exotic veg here???
CO, less than a couple of bucks for a good-sized specimen, say 6 in. long.
Oh God that is double here! And I reckon a buck is too much!!!
Yes, everything is double here owing to the high minimum wages and 25% VAT on everything.