Tum-te-tum-te-tum….Stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni…..
Not only that, mes braves! He blew beaucoup de euros on face-paint too. Mais pourquoi?
There’s a revisionist movement going on here in the USA and I don’t like it one little bit. As usual, it’s the leftniks who are driving things.
I know one of our cherished colleagues currently resting in NW America would have us use referenda to run the country – like a township in God’s own country. Democracy at its purest.
Unfortunately last year’s vote on Britain’s EU membership has caused psephologists (and normal folk too) to question their real value. I mean, why not have another go if you don’t like result of the first? One particular guru who was one of our Dave’s teachers has written about it:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/19/british-voters-second-referendum-on-brexit
His justification is that the voters may have seen the error of their ways! Yeah, right! (Which being translated is ‘now agree with him’.) In fact that’s precisely the problem with the whole idea of asking people to vote on issues. They will change their minds and change them back again (etc. ad nauseam) – which ain’t no way to run a railroad. That’s why we have a Parliament, to even out the bumps in the road to decision-making. Or to try another analogy: videos provide more evidence than snapshots.
I’m afraid I can hardly credit the principle that if you don’t like an answer, you can always ask the question again!
Oh, what an honour, what a blessing! Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz have deemed the great, filthy, unwashed masses of Trier to be worthy of basking in their glory. Both have scheduled rallies in front of the Porta Nigra. As you will know, the 19th Bundestag will be elected 24 September. Why anyone would choose to have a rally in Trier is beyond me. The seat, Wahlkreis Trier, is safe CDU. Trier itself might only be marginally CDU, but the surrounding cities have heavy concentrations of centre-right voters. Will I go to either rally? Oh, heavens no! I only hope it doesn’t interfere with my weekly shopping trip.
I’ve made up my mind to cast my two votes for Howling Laud Hope and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. This means that I’ll spoil my ballot, but will at least have the quiet satisfaction of having given myself a chuckle. Anything else would give me a deflated feeling.
Like everything else, even the hot and sultry weeks old Srius used to offer us have changed – to cool and damp. And countless Charioteers (at least I have lost count) are taking their R and R away from the proferred joys of our W and W (er…. wit and wisdom?).
The remaining participants are ‘off’ politics, off royalty, off meteorological mysteries – so what’s left? The culinary arts, garden rescue, tales of times past….and of course, love – the passion that drives us.
Better to let sleeping dogs lie, eh?
Politics have become like espresso. That is, unpalatable and something I can simply no longer stomach. I have been busy this week ensuring that political sites no longer show up on my profiles and I refuse to read anything but the weather forecast and currency exchange rates. I will go to the UK, Denmark and Sweden soon, after all. For lack of anything else to say, here is a video that is just as a-political.
The Women’s 50 km Walk around iconic London landmarks. Two Chinese athletes vie together for medals. Their names? Yin and Yang. Big Smiley Thingy.
I have an awful feeling of dèja vu when I scan the headlines today. The so-called Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was similar, but in several key respects different.
First of all, the context was the Cold War, when fear and suspicion were the background to every international event. 2017 has been relatively calm diplomatically. Second, the protagonists were schooled in the politics of the time: fear and suspicion! Third, the media and even, one suspects, the leaders of the USA and the USSR were dependent on relatively primitive intelligence-gathering. Nothing was certain.
Lastly, the current leaders might both be classified as mentally defective. Both rely on a supreme sense of superiority and power, neither, it seems, relying on the support of their people.
I can only hope a peaceful solution can be found this time, as it was in 1962.
Many of my fellow Charioteers are or have been expatriates. Some have settled permanently, some have repatriated, some have moved to third countries. However distinct a person’s experience, there are some experiences which many share. Continue reading “Pulling Apart”
Having an enemy helps a government stay in business. A good enemy can provide a focal point, a distraction, a source of fear (always useful for keeping the population in line) or, if we are feeling cynical today, a way to transfer tax revenue into the hands of the military-industrial complex. The first thing necessary is to get the public to believe in the enemy. If there is no real enemy at hand, simply make one up. Continue reading “Everybody Needs an Enemy”
Boadicea's Chariot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.