That great organisation, the Nobel Foundation have gone far further into the realms of stupidity than when they awarded Barry Obama the 2009 Peace prize.
This year they are awarding it to that corrupt bunch of iniquity, the EU. Words fail me and I better not say any more as I am typing this before the watershed!
Like knighthoods and other gongs, it appears the Nobel Peace Prize is being dumbed down!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9603745/EU-awarded-Nobel-Peace-Prize.html
This started of as a comment on the ‘Beyond Contempt’ post, but it got rather long, so I’m sticking it up as a stand-alone for whatever it’s worth. I think a word about anachronistic assignment of moral values might be in order. Measuring the behaviour of Kings, Queens and Dictators in centuries with moral, religious, cultural and social outlooks and systems far removed from those of the 21st century might not be appropriate. Shouldn’t their behaviour be measured against the standards of their times?
When you come closer to our own times and behaviour, there might be value in measuring the ‘standards’ of the time to see how far we have come – or not. It is a salutary lesson to point out as Sipu has, that the British invented modern concentration camps – although history is littered with similar examples. I am sure our historians can probably bring some examples to mind better than I can, since I can’t think of any off-hand – mass murder, of course, is a different story, Carthago delenda erat, after all. Continue reading “Top of the Pops?”
I cannot admit to being an expert on Australian politics but I know a pair of balls when I see them and Gillard has a pair. As I’m typing this I realise that very remark could be taken as sexist but it is not my intention, we are all grown ups here and you know what I mean with that remark. I know not whether Gillard is left, right, middle or whatever but she stood up for herself and in my opinion absolutely destroyed the leader of the opposition, she certainly wiped the smile of his face that was in place as she started to rip into him. Politics is a dirty game wherever it is played and I’m sure she has thrown a few low balls in her time (there’s that word again) but I just have to admire the way she stood up and let rip. I did not see a response from him as I had to crack on with other things and I know from reading comments in the past on here that she is not the most popular politico around, but then again which politico’s are, except perhaps the Blessed Saint Boris of Stratford, perhaps he gave as good as he got, I dont know, but strip the politics out and what are you left with? A gutsy performance which will long be remembered.
By the way, hi folks.
OMG
How can Rangers sell shares in the club when the administrators have the reins?
They claim to be debt free yet the latest release is that ‘Gers owes the tax man alone, as near as makes few odds 100 million. I smell corporate dodgy dealing.
On a similar note I see with utter disgust that Newcastle United, my local bunch of overpaid, over-bouffanted narcissists have signed a deal with scumbag predatory loansharks Wonga. The ‘fans’ don’t give much of a hoot because part of the deal means the stadium will revert to St James Park. It seems the cash could come from a rich paedophile or a Coloumbian Cartel and no-one would bat an eye as long as the name was changed from Sports Direct Arena.
Honestly I despair.
Yesterday I discovered that London’s sunrise was officially 7:15 am, and sunset was 6:19 pm, apparently making the day 11 hours, 4 minutes and 37 seconds long. By Monday 15th October the daylight hours will have shrunk to 10h 41m 28s. In a couple of weeks the clocks will have dropped back an hour to make the most of the available daylight, and by 21st December, the figures are like this: Sunrise 8:04 am, Sunset 3:54 pm and the day will be 7 hours, 49 minutes and 43 seconds long.
Then the night’s will start drawing out again.
Wild clematis, seed head, wet from the drizzle, on Monday Continue reading “Autumn: sometimes damp”
A short article in today’s DT notes that most of us say ‘sorry’ if we bump into someone in the street.
I am a firm believer in W of W’s maxim that ‘manners maketh man.’ Good manners and politeness make up the oil that relieves the friction we generate as we bump along with each other in our daily rounds. I always open doors for ladies – even daleks – on the presumption that whoever is in the dalek suit is, in fact, female – give up my seat on public transport to mature ladies or those of a certain age, stand when ladies leave a table, or seat them on arrival…
I believe that all of these little courtesies tend towards making my social interactions that little bit better, and the same for those I meet in my everyday toils. If I’m on the tube in the rush hour and I give up my seat to a lady, it makes me feel good, it makes her feel good, and, who knows, I might get a nice smile to brighten my day.
‘Gentleman,’ seems to be a word that is losing currency, mores the pity, but I’m not giving up.
A few moments ago while writing a comment on Mrs. Osbornes Antidote post I was struck by how much my words sounded like something I had read some time in the far past. Digging back in my various messy archives I found the source, I take no credit for the writing, or the spelling.
Fantasticks
by Nicholas Breton
(c1554-1626)
Milton elsewhere used fantastic as a noun too, meaning “someone given to showy dress”. But as a noun it could also mean “a fanciful composition”, and Fantasticks was the title chosen by Nicholas Breton (c1554-1626) for his curiously pleasing series of sketches, of hours, season and months.
It is long out of print, and several years ago Chistopher Howse of the Telegraph took the trouble to transcribe it over the period of a year. I thought it delightful and still do. Here is October, complete with its fanciful spelling.
OCTOBER
It is now October, and the lofty windes make bare the trees of their leaves, while the hogs in the Woods grow fat with the falne Acorns: the forward Deere begin to goe to rut, and the barren Doe groweth good meat: the Basket-makers now gather their rods, and the fishers lay their leapes in the deepe: the loade horses goe apace to the Mill, and the Meal-market is seldome without people: the Hare on the hill makes the Grey-hound a faire course, & the Foxe in the wood cals the Hounds to full cry: the multitude of people raiseth the price of wares, and the smoothe tongue will sell much: the Sayler now bestirreth his stumps, while the Merchant liveth in feare of the weather: the great feasts are now at hand for the City, but the poore must not beg for feare of the stockes: a fire and a paire of Cards keepe the ghests in the Ordinary, and Tobacco is held very precious for the Rhewme: The Coaches now begin to rattle in the street but the cry of the poore is unpleasing to the rich: Muffes and Cuffes are now in request, and the shuttle-Cocke with the Battel-Doore is a pretty house-exercise: Tennis and Baloune are sports of some charge, and a quicke bandy is Court-keepers commodity: dancing and fencing are now in some use, and kind hearts and true Lovers lye close, to keepe off cold: the Titmouse now keepes in the hollow tree, and the black bird sits close in the bottom of a hedge: In briefe, for the little pleasure I find in it I thus conclude of it: I hold it a Messenger of ill newes, and a second service to a cold dinner.
Farewell.
We appear to have been discussing more than our fair share of unappealing humans just lately! What with murdering ragheads, genocidal war lords and paedophiles running amok in the news, or not running as the case may be, it has to be time to appreciate the finer things of existence.
Regardless of one’s opinion of Jimmy Savile, the idea that he should be stripped of his knighthood must surely strike all but the most vindictive and petty minded as being being beyond contempt. The man is dead. David Cameron might just as well force the posthumous abdication of King Henry VIII, responsible for the executions of between 60-70,000 English citizens, or of Queen Mary, also responsible for a large number of gruesome deaths though considerably fewer than her father. Certainly Oliver Cromwell’s statue should be removed from outside the House of Commons. Apart from being a regicide, he was responsible for the death and deportation of 10’s of thousands of Irish Catholics. (Cromwell was of course ‘executed posthumously’, but the favour with which he has been perceived since then is surely misplaced given the current laws affecting religious tolerance and ethnic cleansing.) And then there were those responsible for prolonging the slave trade and Lord Kitchener who introduced the world to concentration camps during the Boer War causing the deaths of “27,927 Boer civilians in concentration camps , plus an unknown number of black Africans (107,000 were interned).” . In fact the list of honoured people who have behaved dishonourably is very long indeed. Continue reading “Beyond contempt!”
Boadicea's Chariot 
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