Thursday - October 08, 2009
vainglory, hubris, and narcissism
Odingus and the Klingon referred to themselves 76 times in 89 sentences while pitching Chicago to the IOC. No wonder they IOC thought they were pitching something else.
George Wills writes more at Real Clear Politics.
The Obamas’ Narcissism on Display In the Niagara of words spoken and written about the Obamas’ trip to Copenhagen, too few have been devoted to the words they spoke there. Their separate speeches to the International Olympic Committee were so dreadful, and in such a characteristic way, that they might be symptomatic of something that has serious implications for American governance.
Both Obamas gave heartfelt speeches about ... themselves. Although the working of the committee’s mind is murky, it could reasonably have rejected Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games on aesthetic grounds—unless narcissism has suddenly become an Olympic sport.
In the 41 sentences of her remarks, Michelle Obama used some form of the personal pronouns “I” or “me” 44 times. Her husband was, comparatively, a shrinking violet, using those pronouns only 26 times in 48 sentences. Still, 70 times in 89 sentences was sufficient to convey the message that somehow their fascinating selves were what made, or should have made, Chicago’s case compelling.
[there ought to be software that could] delete the most egregious cliches sprinkled around by the tin-eared employees in the White House speechwriting shop. The president told the Olympic committee that: “At this defining moment,” a moment “when the fate of each nation is inextricably linked to the fate of all nations” in “this ever-shrinking world,” he aspires to “forge new partnerships with the nations and the peoples of the world.”
Good grief.
… meaningful sense is often absent from the gaseous rhetoric that makes it past White House editors—are there any?—and onto the president’s teleprompter.
Perhaps the premise of the otherwise inexplicable trip to Denmark was that there is no difficulty, foreign or domestic, that cannot be melted by the sunshine of the Obama persona. But in the contest between the world and any president’s charm, bet on the world.
Yup, I think The Magic Negro’s ass needs a reload. He seems fresh out of unicorns ready to come flying out on rainbows whenever he opens his mouth.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 02:38 PM
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • The $5K Prequel
Talk about your indie productions meeting extreme fanfic! This bunch of folks put together a 40 minute film that fleshes out a completely missing part of old J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale.
Called The Hunt For Gollum, a film made by fans for fans, that’s exactly what it’s about. It looks, sounds, and possibly even tastes like it was done by Peter Jackson, but it wasn’t. It tells a bit of the story that was only alluded to in the main text, and only slightly touched on in JRR’s appendices. Nicely done! And they did it all for only $5000.
They’ve had a number of public screenings if this film, even managing to wrangle being selected as an Official Selection by Icon, Israel’s International Sci-Fi Festival. It’s also a bit of a gray area whether they have any legal rights to tell the tale. Um, legal rights to tell the tale of a tale that wasn’t really written. So, to get around that, they aren’t selling any tickets. It’s all for free. For the fans. And it’s all on the internet. Cool. About 10,000 people a day watch it, either at the homepage or out at YouTube etc.
Here’s the link. Go ahead and spend the time to watch. I think you’ll find it ... Precious.
By doing a superb job of bringing LOTR to the screen, Peter Jackson opened a big can of worms. While he told most of the story in about 12 hours worth of film, there are still numerous parts of the tale still untold. And with today’s technology, the rabid fan base is out there filling in the cracks. Good for them.
Personally, I want a believable film that explains Tom Bombadil. I’ve read every thing J.R.R. wrote, even the Silmarillion, many times, and I could never quite pin down who or what he is. Some kind of a godling I think, one of those watcher spirits, but of a higher order than the wizards. But not higher in the way that he was portrayed in Bored of the Rings all those years ago, although that would add some fun to the mix!
Hard core LOTR junkies have not only seen The Hunt For Gollum a dozen times already, they’re fully aware that yet another online indie effort is in the wings. Called Born of Hope, it tells yet another unwritten Tolkien backstory, about what happened to the generations of the Dúnedain after the fall of Arnor, their ancient kingdom in the North, until the final Coming Of The King in LOTR. This one will debut in another 2 months. You can watch the trailers for it and stuff here.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 12:53 PM
Filed Under: • Hollywood •
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Permalink • One Bill, One Page: KISS
I had a little discussion with Vilmar the other day in the comments of one of his posts. He felt that no GOP solution to health care reform could get a fair shot; it would be buried in the House and ignored by the MSM. Those are fair points, but I have to disagree with his view that the best path for our Republican representatives is to Just Say No. Say NO to the lefty plans, but push a good, simple, cost effective plan of your own. If the word gets spread by the VRWC, then eventually Fox News will have to run the story. And if they run it long enough and loud enough, then the other parts of the MSM will have to notice it too, if only to say how no good it is. But that itself will let the regular folks know such a plan exists.
Here’s a plan, and a bunch of links. Looks pretty good to me.
1. Leave employer-provided insurance as it is and give individuals a $2,500 tax credit to equalize tax treatment for individuals who buy their own insurance.
2. Allow individuals to buy insurance across state lines.
3. Extend COBRA for up to 30 months, allowing people to keep their insurance if they leave a job.
4. Remove government regulations limiting insurers from offering premium breaks for healthy lifestyle choices.
5. Enact real malpractice reform (limit punitive damages to $250,000 and all noneconomic damages to $750,000).
6. Provide help to encourage insurance pools for the hard to insure.
That’s it. Over 10 years Anderson’s plan would spend $75B and include $345M in tax cuts. The Baucus bill (one version of it, at least) would spend $856B and include a net increase of $352B in tax hikes and $47B in fines. Both the Anderson and the Baucus plans would insure 95 percent of Americans.
There is something to be said for simplicity — and a lot to be said for achieving the same results as Democrats are promising without a massive tax hike, a government takeover of health care, another massive hit to the budget, and thousands of pages of new federal regulations.
A short essay on the subject is here at Commentary Magazine.
The proposed bill itself, put together by The Weekly Standard‘s Jeffrey Anderson, is available here. ONE PAGE. Jeffrey discusses the need for a plain talking basic reform bill that enhances freedom in his essay Keep It Simple.
The American people haven’t been shy about expressing their views on health-care reform. In the polls and at public events nationwide, they’ve made it clear that they don’t want a behemoth bill that would fundamentally transform a health-care system that works well for most Americans and which offers a level of care that is largely the envy of the world. But they are also understandably concerned about health care’s rising costs, its lack of portability, and the ten percent of Americans who are uninsured. They want to see these pressing problems be addressed, but in a sensible and moderate way.
The bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus does not answer Americans’ call. The Baucus bill is the real health-care bill, the bill on which the Obama administration is implicitly pinning its hopes. But it defiantly turns a deaf ear to the American people.
Republicans cannot lead merely by stating abstract principles. They must advance specific proposals--ones that are easily understandable and can be expressed in plain language to the American people. The Republican bill should be as short and simple as possible. It should be targeted to address Americans’ specific and pressing concerns. And it should make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and portable--without breaking the bank, threatening the quality of care, or jeopardizing the preexisting insurance of millions.
It always feels so good when a professional journalist writes something that supports my opinion, even if this essay comes out a few days later than I needed it. Simple Solution fans will immediately notice that this plan is a minor extension of the Ann Coulter Plan, but with money numbers crunched and added.
We don’t NEED a 1200 page government mega-bill, and we don’t NEED a government take-over of the health care industry. Do it the American Way: less government, more freedom, and lower taxes. Golly, that sounds like a core plank in the Republican Platform, doesn’t it? So help spread the word, and maybe, just maybe, eventually, our elected reps will have to notice it.
A big h/t to Right, Wing-Nut! who sums it all up nicely:
Over twenty years the “Small Bill” becomes revenue neutral, while the Baucus Plan puts us in a $2.9 trillion dollar hole.
Where are the Congressional/Senate Republicans on all this? Grab this plan and plaster it all over the airwaves; show Americans how you can get it done for 1/20 the cost and without handing over health care to the bureaucrats in Washington. Offer an alternative, watch the public response, and then see the Democrats try to pass a bill that thwarts the will of the people, and exposes their underlying purpose here: Not to reform health care, but to nationalize it, and bring a huge chunk of the economy under Washington’s control.
It would be the last bill this majority ever passes ...
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 11:27 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Teenage girl named and shamed. Yeah right. She’s shamed like I’m a rocket scientist.
This is really crap and it bothers me and I want to tell everyone why.
Cos the system is stupid and has ZERO logic. On its own this story is so empty I wouldn’t even bother posting it. In fact, I’m not even posting the whole thing. No point in that.
First of all it’s dumb to assume this teen is shamed just cos she held her gang member boy friend’s gun for him. But what got to me about this is that the court decided her crime was so serious (and I am not saying it wasn’t) that the court decided to allow her to be identified. Oh woo-hoo.
That’ll teach her. NOT.
So here ... just a sample.
Teenage girl named and shamed after gangster’s loaded gun found stashed in her handbag
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:07 PM on 08th October 2009A teenage girl was named and shamed as Britain’s youngest gangster’s moll today after she was caught carrying a loaded gun in her handbag.
Chanelle Merryweather was just 16 when a passing police patrol searched her in the street and found the deadly Browning pistol hidden amongst her lipsticks, purse and mobile phone.
The teenager was stopped after an eye witness told police that she had seen her and boyfriend Sammy Geldard, 19, brandishing the gun whilst they were walking hand-in-hand together from a youth disco at a local church.
The gangland sweethearts were members of the infamous Longsight Crew which has been involved in a bloody 15-year old turf feud with arch rivals the Gooch Close gang in Manchester.
Police examined Miss Merryweather’s mobile phones and found 20 photos taken of the lovers outside a McDonalds restaurant showing them making hand gestures associated with their gang.
At Manchester Crown Court, Judge Martin Steiger QC lifted an order banning identification of Miss Merryweather, now 17 after she pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon.
It is clear she was mixed up with dangerous gang members,’ said the judge. ‘Gun crime is a matter of very serious concern to the public.’
She is due to be sentenced next month and is facing a mandatory five-year jail term under gun laws.
ok, so she’s ID’d and facing five years.
Meanwhile, this useless, miserable pile of monkey turd has his ID protected because after all. He only raped a five year old boy a few days after being released by a judge for the VERY SAME THING. But his tender yoot protects him from being ...
NAMED and SHAMED. Now that gets my goat. I don’t understand that kind of logic. Hide gun, be exposed and face jail. Rape little boys, pass jail and land on boardwalk? It’s even worse really because the shit got three years for the rape of a 7 yr old but served NO TIME. He got a “community order.” And we can all see how impressed he was and what kind of deterrent that was.
Child rapist strikes again days after being let off because victim’s Christian family forgave him
By Jaya Narain
A judge is being investigated after he freed a child rapist who kidnapped and assaulted another youngster just eight days later.
Judge Adrian Smith spared the 16-year-old jail after the first victim’s family apparently forgave the teenager because of their Christian faith.
He was given a community order despite protests from prosecutors and police and went on to rape a five-year-old.
He gave his second victim a Star Wars light sabre toy as a ‘reward’ for keeping quiet.
By chance the new case was due to come back before Judge Smith but he agreed to release it to another judge after Crown Prosecution Service lawyers intervened.
Attorney General Baroness Scotland has been asked to investigate why the original sentence was so lenient.
Today the latest victim’s father, a 35-year-old printer from Greater Manchester, said: ‘Our son was abused not only by this lad but also in effect by the British legal system that was supposed to protect him. I always thought people who commit such serious offenses like rape automatically go to prison – yet this boy was allowed to go free. He was even allowed back onto the estate where he lived.
‘In my eyes if someone commits an adult or grown up crime then they should serve an adult or grown up sentence – not be mollycoddled by the courts and told to get treatment.’
He added: ‘My son is six years old now but as a result of what happened his childhood innocence has probably been robbed. Heaven only knows what effect it will have in him in the years to come. We should be able to rely on our judges to use common sense to protect us and our children. ‘In this case the judge has let us and in particular our son down. We won’t be letting the matter rest until the judge is brought to book for the original sentence he passed.’
In the first attack, the teenager lured a seven-year-old boy to a bedroom and subjected him to a horrific assault. He was convicted of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and rape and given a three-year community rehabilitation order at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, on June 26.
As part of the punishment he was ordered to go to counselling sessions to address his behaviour and was to be supervised by probation officers.
On July 4 the second victim was playing just yards from his doorstep when the attacker lured him away on the premise of looking for a lost football.
He was taken back to the teenager’s house where he was repeatedly sexually abused.
The boy’s parents realised their son was missing when they were alerted by his friend just minutes after his disappearance. He was found emerging from the attacker’s house as they frantically searched the neighbourhood for him.
The teenager initially claimed he was working for Christian Aid and that he ‘helped children who had been abused’.
But the boy told his parents what had happened and the teenager was arrested.
The attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has admitted child abduction, rape and kidnap.
He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month after psychiatric reports have been prepared.
A HISTORY OF LENIENCY
It is not the first time that Judge Adrian Smith has faced criticism over claims he has handed down an unduly lenient sentence.
Posted by peiper
on 10/08/2009 at 09:54 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • The Ghost Of Speeches Past
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 08:22 AM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 07, 2009
A BIT OF ENGLISH HISTORY …. IT’S DREW’S FAULT
I had planned on a disturbing story to close for tonight and right upset I was too. The usual lunacy and disorder stuff.
Then I saw that Drew had posted some things from my neck of the woods, and I just couldn’t end with depressing material.
I mean, how does one follow “Ode To Autumn” and a great shot of our village pub, with mayhem and murder.
Can’t. But I happen to have a few items here including a photo I took of a grand old building and also took a couple from the web.
It’s a place called Chawton House. In the write up on it I noticed they say they have manuscripts that date to the 1600s. BUT ... a tour guide told me they have manuscripts from mid 1400s. ? So I don’t know as I haven’t been inside.
Some months ago a magazine here did a big write up on the American who almost single handedly saved this building from ruin and spent her own money and got donations from wealthy friends etc. She is none other then SANDY LERNER , the co-founder of Cisco Systems.
The restoration work carried out on Chawton House was all done using traditional methods, in keeping with the history of the house. Before work even started, extensive research was done to establish the history of the building and the landscape, and during the restoration, a careful watch was kept for evidence of archaeology and architectural history.
A historical team, including architectural historian Edward Roberts, archaeologist Christopher Currie, dendrochronologist Dan Miles and landscape consultant Sybil Wade, were able to investigate and document anything found that provided additional evidence of the history of the house and estate.
The first repair work was done on the roof of the south range of the house. This work began in 1995 and consisted of temporary holding repairs. The historical research carried out was then used to put together plans for the listed building application and planning consents. This was extensive work involving long negotiations with the local planning departments and English Heritage. At the end of October 1997, planning and listed building consent was finally granted, enabling work to begin in 1998, when the initial phase of the main restoration work began.
The south range roof was stripped of the tarpaulins and major timber repairs were carried out. The Victorian billiard wing, which was causing damage to the fabric of the Elizabethan house, was demolished. The following year, work began on the outbuildings, which subsequently became the estate offices and workshop. The drive was lowered and, in 2000, work also started on the restoration of the well and pumphouse, including its machinery.
In 2001, internal work began on the south range and the restoration of the west range roof was also carried out. In 2002, work began on a timber framed barn to accommodate four shire horses, a tack room and a hayloft, and in the same year, the final phase of restoration work began on the house, with work carried out on the internal part of the west range and the whole of the north range. Extensive dry rot was discovered; brickwork had to be removed, and timber was also removed so that it could be treated and rebuilt. The restoration of the house was essentially complete when it opened as Chawton House Library in July 2003.
The bottom photo of the house was shot through the windshield of the car I was in as we drove up. It also started raining a bit later.(peiper)
See the link .... and gigantic stone buildings in Drew’s post following this. That link will provide further history of this place. A tad misleading unless you know. Although it was owned by the Austen family (Jane Austen) this was not the house she lived in and wrote from. That house is just down the road from this place.
A small update from the other side of the salty pond -
Peiper got his pics and info right here I bet. Lots of info on this stately home, the renovation project, the history of the place, and lots of lovely photographs. The place is once again a working farm I gather, with proper Shire horses and Rescue Chickens. Lovely place. If you like stately old homes this will be a link you’ll love.
I think you’re going to have to take the tour old man. The rest of us will just have to click on this link.
Posted by peiper
on 10/07/2009 at 11:55 AM
Filed Under: • Architecture • History • UK •
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Permalink • Fall Colours: Letters From Littleton
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease;
For Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river-sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
- J. Keats, Ode To Autumn
“Yes", says Peiper, “but I actually live there.”
To walk among the golden-tipped trees and autumn mists on the water meadows where John Keats was inspired to write Ode to Autumn. To explore the heart of what was once the capital of Anglo-Saxon Wessex, to visit Jane Austen’s tomb in the great Norman Cathedral, and escape into the peaceful Mrs Miniver world of The Close, where matrons on old-fashioned bikes sweep past like galleons and the angel voices of choirboys float out through an open window.
Why this post? Just because it’s a decent day here. And for the enjoyment of the season. Fell winter shall be with us soon enough!
And because this might be Peiper’s local:
Still though, nothing like a bit of travelogue to stir one’s taste for adventure. While my humble little Clinton NJ pretty much only has it’s little Red Mill as a claim to fame, Peiper’s corner of the world is nearly overrun with great and ancient architecture. I mean, aside from the world famous cathedral. Really. Take a quick tour - you could start your visit at the debtor’s prison. It’s a castle. Visit the combination almshouse/hospital. They hand out free food and beer! It’s a castle. Nearly 900 years old! See King Arthur’s Round Table! It’s in a castle!. Walk the ancient MizMaze - which is by St. Catherine’s fort. Which isn’t a castle, but probably only because the place is thousands of years old and all that’s left is a mound of dirt. You can visit Winchester College, the oldest still-running university in England, still lecturing after 627 years. Guess what? It’s a castle! Well, almost.
And of course all the lovely fall foliage. Or several of the formal gardens. Or the medieval mill, rebuilt and still working, along the banks of the bitchin’ Itchen River. Or the Or the Bishop’s Palace. Which used to be a castle, but mostly has fallen down.
Looks like a fantastic trip. I’m just touching the surface. You can see any of the dozens of Sarsens, or the Buttercross, or even visit God Begot, once owned by Emma. Who, later in life once her first husband the King died, and then married the next king after a bit of a war, was better known to her friends as Mrs. King Canute. Yes, that Canute. Him with the tides and all. Mr. Humble. It’s that old. Pity that the two of them wound up being used as throwing sticks by the Roundheads. Eww.
Or see St. Cross, another of the city’s several ancient almshouse/hospital/churches; massive piles of stone that aren’t castles pretty much only because they have windows on the ground floor.
Should I ever get over there, one of the things I’d like to see is the local stone quarry. With all those castles and gigantic stone buildings, this must be one massive hole in the ground!
But hey, in Clinton we have our Red Mill! 
Posted by Drew458
on 10/07/2009 at 09:03 AM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •
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Permalink • On orders from the EU Super State? Get this. They want England to give up border control.
Not that there’s much to give up anymore considering the rate on immigrants legal and otherwise and yuman rights of ppl who sneak in.
One of my first observations after being here for a week or two was that the Brits seemed to be in a hurry to give away their country. Fortunately that is not true of all of em. There are a few who are resisting. And many who have left.
Anyway ... these two very brief articles caught my attention today and I thought ah ha. I was right to be banging on about sovereignty as often as I have. It wasn’t an illusion.
The first article is really an aside. I just wanted to show you how serious the EU bullies are, and so am only posting the headline and a link if you’re interested in the rest. But the second one is a mind blower actually seeing it made public. Not that folks didn’t know already.
EU puts pressure on Czech Republic over Lisbon Treaty signing
In a meeting in Brussels the EU is putting pressure on the Czech Republic over the refusal by the country’s president to sign the Lisbon Treaty
Interesting perhaps but no surprise. No surprise on the next one either BUT ....
Benelux countries seek to stop Tony Blair becoming EU President
Tony Blair’s bid to become the EU’s first President is facing fresh resistance after the Benelux countries sought to block a Briton from taking the post.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels and Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2009Britain is regarded by Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands as too Eurosceptic and not sufficiently pro-EU to take the new job which is created by the Lisbon Treaty.
A confidential paper, which does not mention Mr Blair by name, has been circulated by the three countries.
European diplomats have deciphered the language as ruling out Mr Blair because Britain is not sufficiently committed to the EU as it is not a member of the euro zone or given up its border controls.
What next? If they beat the Brits into the ground on border control maybe next they’ll demand the USA do the same with Mexico.
Oh right. I forgot. There isn’t much there anyway.
Posted by peiper
on 10/07/2009 at 06:43 AM
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Permalink • EU draws up plans to establish itself as ‘world power, according to headlines in morning paper.
OK BMEWS, flame me if you must but this concerns me a lot more then the issue of China and Tibet.
I don’t think the EU will launch a war against anyone soon unless it’s economic. But say what you will about the commies in China, at least you know (generally) where they stand. Easy to spot what with their red flags and all. Guess I’m just so anti EU I’ve become a bit blind to much else. That might be wrong of me but that’s how things are at least at this moment in time.
The European Union has drawn up secret plans to establish itself as a global power in its own right with the authority to sign international agreements on behalf of member states.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2009Confidential negotiations on how to implement the Lisbon Treaty have produced proposals to allow the EU to negotiate treaties and even open embassies across the world.
A letter conferring a full “legal personality” for the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries.
According to one confidential paper, the first pilot “embassies” are planned in New York, Kabul and Addis Ababa.The move is highly symbolic in Britain as it formally scraps the “European Community”, the organisation that Britons originally voted to join in the country’s only referendum on Europe 34 years ago.
Mark Francois, Conservative spokesman on Europe, said that the deal showed why the British should have been given a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
“As we have long warned, the Lisbon Treaty increases the EU’s power at the expense of the countries of Europe,” he said. “The new power a single legal personality would give the EU is a classic example. “It illustrates why it is wrong for Labour to try to deny the British people any say on this Treaty at all.”The decision, taken shortly before Ireland’s referendum last week, will mean a new European diplomatic service with over 160 “EU representations” and ambassadors across the world. Lorraine Mullally, the director of Open Europe, described the move as “a huge transfer of power which makes the EU look more like a country than an international agreement”.
“Giving the EU legal personality means that the EU, rather than member states, will be able to sign all kinds of international agreements – on foreign policy, defence, crime and judicial issues – for the first time,” she said.
She pointed out that the 1975 referendum was on joining the EC and that it is the European Communities Act that gives Brussels legislation primacy over British law.
“British voters agreed to join the European Communities, not a political union with legal personality with the power to sign all kinds of international agreements,” said Miss Mullally. “No one under the age of 52 has ever had a say on this important evolution and it’s about time we did.”A restricted document circulated by the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, seen by The Daily Telegraph, spells out the need for legal changes to set up a European External Service (EEAS), an EU diplomatic and foreign service with “global geographical scope”.
The paper said: “The EEAS will need a legal status providing it with functional legal personality so that it has sufficient autonomy.
“This legal personality should also give it the capacity to act as necessary to carry out (its) tasks.”A British diplomat defended the decision. “The EU has been able to sign treaties for over a decade. The innovation under the Lisbon Treaty is that the European Community will cease to have legal personality. This is about simplification,” she said.
Brussels ambassadors yesterday (TUES) began detailed work, in secret, to create new institutions, the EEAS, “foreign minister” and EU President, that are to be set up under the Lisbon Treaty.Decisions “in principle” will be taken despite the fact that both Poland and the Czech Republic have not yet fully ratified the new EU Treaty.
The creation of the EEAS has sparked a bitter Brussels turf war. The European Commission could lose up to 1,424 senior staff from three departments.Another 400 staff will be taken from the Council of the EU and an “equivalent” number will be seconded from national diplomatic services.
The EEAS will take over Commission representations – there are currently more than 160 offices around the world – and its senior diplomats will be given the same status as national ambassadors.
SOURCE:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews
Posted by peiper
on 10/07/2009 at 01:54 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 06, 2009
Dickless Wonder
Utterly shameful. Can we get a do-over please, to get this red-assed baboon out of the White House?
President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favour with the Chinese.
The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader.
It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991.
The Buddhist monk arrived in Washington on Monday for a week of meetings with Congressional leaders, celebrity supporters and interest groups, but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month.
Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of “appeasement” toward China as its economic weight grows.
“Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests,” he said.
Mr Obama’s decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a “splittist”, despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee.
Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: “Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing.
“This idea that if you are nice to the Chinese Communist Party up front you can cash in later is just wrong. If you lower the bar on human rights they will just move it lower and lower.”
( The UK Telegraph editorializes: )
Good grief. You begin to wonder if the man has a list of Friendly Leaders I Still Need to Offend.The Washington Post is reporting that the Dalai Lama went to Washington this week – apparently expecting to be received at the White House – only to find that his meeting with the president has been “postponed… until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month.” According to the Post, this is the “first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president.” The snub could be a big set back. The Post says:
[I]t could make it more difficult for the Dalai Lama to meet with the heads of state of other countries. China has launched a worldwide effort to stop heads of state from hosting the Tibetan leader. The Dalai Lama is to travel to New Zealand and Australia later this year and has yet to secure a commitment from their leaders to meet. “A lot of smaller countries will have the best excuse,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Give us a break. How about the big United States?’ ”
Finally, Tibetan officials worried about how Chinese authorities would portray the victory in China. “They would obviously tell the people of Tibet that His Holiness was rejected in Washington,” the Asian diplomat said.
Never fear, your Holiness: Obama administration officials have termed the new policy “strategic reassurance” – or “part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China’s human rights and financial policies as well as backing efforts to elevate China’s position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund”.
I can think of other things to call it.
What a sellout. What a ZERO.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/06/2009 at 04:30 PM
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Hard Work
Work was just awful today.
I did the windows for another one of these condos here. The lady was watching Charlie Rose on TV, and his guest was author, and fanatic leftist, Max Blumenthal. Horry Clap. The guy was on for 15 uninterrupted minutes and almost every word out of his mouth was a lie. What a total crock. Al Gore won the 2000 election. Bush was selected not elected. The Christian Right wants to execute doctors and eliminate old folks. The GOP has no ideas. McCain is a moderate Republican. Republicans overwhelmingly rejected Sarah Palin. And on and on and on. 10 years worth of tired old Push Button talking points dragged out and repeated for the 83rd millionth time. Plus how wonderful Obama is, and how he’s going to save us all, and take the country in the right direction finally. GAK.
Maxxy baby has a new book out, called “Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party”, in which he “exposes” the Christian Right as intolerant haters who want to rule everyone and violently stamp out all forms of dissent or contrary opinion. It turns out that extremely large portions of Max’s book are just retellings of Frank Shaeffer’s book “Crazy For God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back”. So much for originality and actual research.
As Mr. Shaeffer himself explains, for 18 paragraphs, in the review section at Amazon for Blumenthal’s book,
For me reading Max Blumenthal’s Republican Gomorrah is a look into a mirror. That might be because Blumenthal extensively interviewed me and drew rather heavily on my book “Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back” as a reference for his in-depth exposé of what has gone so very wrong with the Republican Party. He’s on my turf so I happen to know he’s telling the truth as its not been told before. But there’s more.
Republican Gomorrah is the first book that actually “gets” what’s happened to the Republican Party and in turn what the Republicans have done to our country. The usual Democratic Party and/or progressive “take” on the Republican Party is that it’s been taken over by a far right lunatic fringe of hate and hypocrisy, combining as it does, sexual and other scandals with moralistic finger wagging. But Blumenthal explains a far deeper pathology: it isn’t so much religion as the psychosis and sadomasochism of the losers now called “Republicans” that drives the party. And the “Christianity” that shapes so much “conservative” thinking now is anything but Christian. It’s a series of deranged personality cults.
Th e Religious Right/Republicans have perfected the method of capturing people in personal crisis and turning them into far right evangelical/far right foot soldiers. This explains a great deal that otherwise, to outsiders, seems almost inexplicable--the why and wherefore of “Deathers” “Birthers” et al. Blumanthal brilliantly sums up this pathology as:
“...a culture of personal crisis lurking behind the histrionics and expressions of social resentment. This culture is the mortar that bonds leaders and followers together.”
So we have one lefty encouraging another. Big whup. Give each other a hand. And a reach around.
Max Blumenthal is a jerk. Want more proof? Here’s a couple excerpts of his book, from over at the “fair and balanced” NPR site. Max is writing about his almost dangerous, amazingly bold foray into the lion’s den, about when he attended the 2008 GOP Convention:
From the Idaho delegation, I pushed through a gaggle of reporters and cameramen surrounding the Alaska delegation to meet some of Palin’s constituents. When I approached a young man, the only delegate from the state who appeared to be under the age of fifty, he snapped, “You’re not going to ask about Bristol, are you?” referring to Palin’s pregnant sixteen-year-old daughter, who sat nearby with her fiance, eighteen-year-old self-proclaimed “fuckin’ redneck” Levi Johnston. I asked about Palin’s support for laws banning abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger. “There’s no reason to kill a baby, whether you consider him unborn or born,” the delegate replied. Another delegate, a middle-aged woman, explained to me how her husband took their two daughters on “dates” to “talk about keeping themselves pure until marriage.” (Two days later, the same woman, dressed in a construction worker’s outfit like one of the Village People, bellowed on the convention floor in favor of offshore drilling: “Drill, baby, drill!")
This was a portrait of the Republican Party fully in the grip of its right wing: almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly evangelical, fixated on abortion, homosexuality, and abstinence education; resentful and angry; and unable to discuss how and why it had become this way. Noticeably absent from the convention were moderate Republicans. Senator Lincoln Chafee, legatee of the moderate Republican tradition in Rhode Island, was defeated in the 2006 midterms, and he was endorsing Obama.
Born in 1900 in Germany, Fromm descended from a long line of rabbis. After studying to be a rabbi himself, he switched to the law, sociology, and the new field of psychoanalysis. He joined the famed Frankfurt School for Social Research [ You watched Peiper’s video yesterday? Then you know that this means that FROMM WAS A COMMUNIST!! ] but fled the country after Hitler’s assumption of power, eventually making his way to New York. In 1941, Fromm published Escape from Freedom, a book illuminating the danger of rising authoritarian movements with penetrating psychoanalytical insight.
Writing after the Nazis had overrun Europe but before the entrance of the United States into World War II, Fromm warned, “there is no greater mistake and no graver danger than not to see that in our own society we are faced with the same phenomenon that is fertile soil for the rise of Fascism anywhere: the insignificance and powerlessness of the individual.” Those who could not endure the vertiginous new social, political, and personal freedoms of the modern age, those who craved “security and a feeling of belonging and of being rooted somewhere” might be susceptible to the siren song of fascism. For the fascist, the struggle for a utopian future was more than politics and even warit was an effort to attain salvation through selfmedication. [ and yet Blumenthal doesn’t see the slightest thing wrong with Obama and Obamabots. Hmm, willful disconnect perhaps?? ]
When radical extremists sought to cleanse society of sin and evil, what they really desired was the cleansing of their souls. Fromm’s understanding of the psychological character of authoritarianism was not only penetrating but also prophetic. He described how submission to the authority of a higher power to escape the complexities of personal freedom would lead not to order and harmony but ultimately to destructiveness. [ this sounds EXACTLY like the Left’s desire for the NANNY STATE. Max must be asleep at the wheel not to see this one! ] Movements that evangelized among the crisis-stricken and desperate, promising redemption through a holy crusade, ultimately assumed the dysfunctional characteristics of their followers. After sowing destruction all around it, Fromm predicted that such a movement would turn on itself. Dramatic self-immolation was the inevitable fate of movements composed of conflicted individuals who sought above all the destruction of their blemished selves.
“The function of an authoritarian ideology and practice can be compared to the function of neurotic symptoms,” Fromm wrote.
“Such symptoms result from unbearable psychological conditions and at the same time offer a solution that makes life possible. Yet they are not a solution that leads to happiness or growth of personality. They leave unchanged the conditions that necessitate the neurotic solution.”
I thought he was never going to shut up. I was hoping, really hoping, for a commercial break. Ha, not on Channel 13! But I had work to do, so I kept my mouth shut and got done as quickly as I could. It was awfully hard to do so.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/06/2009 at 02:10 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • work and the workplace •
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Permalink • Homeowner who won right to protect his home falling into the sea faces fresh legal challenge
Woo-Hoo ... look at this photo. In fact, if you go to the link you will be able to see an enlarged version.
What is it with conservation that a guy has to live with the threat of home loss. Oh well. Some castles aren’t meant to be an Englishman’s home I guess.
Peter Boggis, 78, has had his legal victory in the fight to prevent his home falling into the sea challenged by a conservation watchdog
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:25 PM on 06th October 2009A legal victory won by a modern-day King Canute in his fight to prevent his home falling into the sea was challenged by a conservation watchdog in the Court of Appeal today.
Natural England wants fossil-bearing cliffs near Southwold, in Suffolk, to be allowed to erode naturally for scientific reasons.
It has disputed a High Court ruling made last December that its plan was unlawful because it failed to carry out an assessment of how a nearby wildlife haven might be affected.
Since 2002, retired engineer Peter Boggis, 78, has spent tens of thousands of pounds installing his own ‘soft’ sea defences built from 250,000 tonnes of compacted clay soil in front of cliffs near his Easton Bavents home.
He said this has so far saved more than eight acres of land and four properties ’at no cost to the nation’ and that his efforts would, if anything, slow down the expected loss of habitat on the wildlife site.
Mr Boggis wants to be allowed to maintain his defences to prevent further erosion of the cliffs.
He said the decision of a conservation organisation to allow the sea to destroy people’s homes was ‘immoral and totally unsatisfactory’.
In 2006, Natural England notified a coastal Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) between Southwold in the south and Kessingland in the north.
peter BoggisBarrier: Mr Boggis has spent thousands of pounds building ‘soft’ sea defences using 250,000 tonnes of compacted clay soil in front of cliffs
In the High Court, Mr Justice Blair said the evidence showed that part of the intention of the SSSI was to allow the destruction of Mr Boggis’s defences, for which consent was unlikely to be given, and the rapid erosion of the cliffs behind them.
The judge ruled this amounted to ‘a plan or project’ which might have an effect on a special protection area (SPA) for birds - particularly the little tern, bittern and marsh harrier - which is located to the north of Mr Boggis’s sea defences.
An assessment of the risk to the SPA should have been carried out to comply with the EU Habitats Directive, the judge said.
Natural England said it sympathised with the situation faced by Mr Boggis and his neighbours, but was concerned that the High Court judgement set a precedent requiring environmental assessments to be carried out when they were entirely unnecessary.
When the case was heard in November last year, Mr Boggis’s lawyer Gregory Jones told the court that, in contrast to King Canute, the 11th century king who made his futile attempt to hold back the tide in order to demonstrate to his followers how insignificant his power was compared with that of God, Mr Boggis’s sea defences had been highly effective.
John Howell QC, acting for Natural England, today told Lords Justices Mummery, Longmore and Sullivan at a three-day appeal hearing in London that Mr Boggis built his sea defences without planning permission or an environmental impact assessment.
He pointed out that the High Court had rejected all the arguments by Mr Boggis and the Easton Bavents Conservation group to the effect that the notification of the SSSI was in itself unlawful.
Posted by peiper
on 10/06/2009 at 10:34 AM
Filed Under: • Environment • UK •
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Permalink • Italy says yes to Blair for EU president… but ….. there’s a bit of a snag.
See, the Italians aren’t sure of his attitude on immigration. And maybe the French aren’t pleased either but we’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, consider this.
Britain’s refusal to adopt the euro as its currency - and to sign up to the Schengen agreement - may be obstacles that will prevent other countries from agreeing with Italy, however.
Ah ... the Schengen agreement. Here ya go ... consider this as well.
Signing up to the Schengen agreement would open Britain’s borders to anyone travelling from Europe without a passport or visa, whether they were European or not.
So bend over and kiss your sovereignty bye-bye. Oh yeah. While you’re at it, expect more (LOTS MORE) immigrants of a dark hue and especially those who are devout members of a peaceful religion.
Italy says yes to Blair for EU president… but admits Britain’s stance on immigration could be a problemBy Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:23 PM on 06th October 2009Italy wants Tony Blair to become president of the European Union - but a minister admitted today that Britain’s stance on immigration might hamper the former Prime Minister’s bid.
‘We have expressed our appreciation for Tony Blair, knowing however that there is a bloc of countries with concerns about him,’ Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Corriere della Sera newspaper today.
Britain’s refusal to adopt the euro as its currency - and to sign up to the Schengen agreement - may be obstacles that will prevent other countries from agreeing with Italy, however.
Signing up to the Schengen agreement would open Britain’s borders to anyone travelling from Europe without a passport or visa, whether they were European or not.
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart has long been demanding Britain sign up to the agreement, which would allow refugees who congregate in the port as they wait to sneak into the UK to openly travel here.
We appreciate [Mr Blair] as a person. We realise these limits, we do not deny them,’ said the Italian minister.
The new role of long-term president of the European Council of MInisters is due to be created under the Lisbon Treaty.
Mr Blair’s name has long been tossed about as a potential candidate for the post, ever since it was raised by French President Nicolas Sarkozy back in 2007.
Britain’s Labour government also supports its former leader’s bid - but Mr Blair may find a roadblock in Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Other candidates may include Dutch premier Jan-Peter Bakenende and Finland’s Paaco Lipponen.
The appointment may be made at an EU summit later this month.
The Lisbon Treaty will take effect when Poland and the Czech Republic follow other member states in ratifying it.
Ireland just ratified the treaty last week.
Posted by peiper
on 10/06/2009 at 09:50 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • International • UK •
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Permalink • Not unsympathetic to elderly ill BUT … this shows mindset and what ails National Health
This actress will not be at all familiar to Americans I’m sure. Doesn’t matter. I’m not even posting the entire article, although I would recommend you read it as it does have interest. Kind of scary too and leaves ppl with the impression that every hospital in the UK might be like this. But that isn’t true.
Anyway ... The Mail had a very misleading headline, reminded me of Tiger’s term for dumb things. “STUCK ON STUPID.”
The headline implied the old lady had to plan an escape from the hosp. Bosh. Not so although I don’t doubt her stay was not a walk in the park.
Royle Family was a popular sit-com.
I read the entire article but found no “plan.” What we did find however, was a mindset that says things should come to me without asking and I’m entitled. A stroke is nothing to make light of. She’s an old lady but has family around her and she certainly has some spare change due to her profession. True, she has most likely paid into NHS all her life. Or at least since national health began here. She was made a promise and it should be kept. Don’t have a problem with that. BUT ....
The Royle Family’s Liz Smith was so appalled by her poor care in hospital she hatched a plan to escape...
By Angela Levin
Last updated at 10:19 AM on 06th October 2009When Liz Smith suffered three strokes in just two days, not surprisingly she thought she was dying.
‘I was sure my end had come,’ says the 87-year-old actress, best known for playing Nana in the TV sitcom The Royle Family.
‘But still, I managed to tell my son Robert that I wanted to be buried in a wood without a coffin, so I’d have a green funeral.’ She bursts into laughter at the thought.
Liz has become something of a national treasure, recognised for her hilarious facial expressions and her deadpan delivery.
But, nine months since her strokes, speech - specifically language - is a real problem.
Liz often struggles to say the right word, ending up using a word that sounds similar to the one she wants - for example, ‘familiar’ when she means ‘family’.
This condition is called aphasia and is a common result of a stroke, explains Dr Peter Coleman of the Stroke Association.
For a few months, a nurse came every day to help me. I was also given a Zimmer frame and a special stool with arm rests to use in the kitchen.
‘But in the four months I’ve been home, I haven’t had one visit from my GP, which I think is disgraceful.
Luckily, my children are great and visit me on alternate days.’
‘My next ambition is to get rid of the Zimmer frame. I can walk a little by myself, but I’m waiting for social services to bring me a stick.’
The one thing she doesn’t want to give up is her new wheelchair. ‘I can just be taken out without making an effort,’ she enthuses.
I am pleased I didn’t die and that I have a bit longer.’ Her fans would agree.
‘But in the four months I’ve been home, I haven’t had one visit from my GP, which I think is disgraceful.
She makes it appear as though she is the ONLY patient her GP sees during the day. Without going into a long song and dance, fact is that if she needed her doctor, a call would have brought him or her. They make house calls here FREE when a person is too ill or unable to get to the practice.
The wife’s mother was bedridden for years here and whenever a doctor was needed, one came. But there not enough of them and there are not enough hours in the day for a doc to man the office and also check in on people just to see how they are doing. It’s not disgraceful. It’s a mind set that ignores everything else in the world except ME.
But this is the corker far as we’re concerned.
I can walk a little by myself, but I’m waiting for social services to bring me a stick.’
She has family there. Her children are in attendance, and she’s waiting for SS to “bring me a stick.” Why? Why can’t one of her kids just go out and buy one? In fact, based on the wife’s experience when her mother needed one, she went to the Red Cross. You give a donation (no set amount) and they take you through a storehouse and you get what you need if it’s in stock. When you’re through with it you simply return it.
Or buy one. The reason my wife went to the Red Cross was because the wait for a cane was going to be some weeks. So she found another source.
I still can’t get over the fact that national health here even covers aspirin. WHY? But people expect it I guess. Things were PROMISED and now the service is trying to deliver. One problem however is ... there sure do seem to be a heck of a lot of managers drawing pay.
Posted by peiper
on 10/06/2009 at 08:39 AM
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • UK •
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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