BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin knows how old the Chinese gymnasts are.

calendar   Thursday - December 23, 2010

Christmas Comes Early

for us at any rate.

The new Bryston BCD-1 CD player showed up at the door just a little while ago. Naturally I opened the box right away and installed it. It’s half the size and weight of the old Denon player, which was nearly the size of a battleship, I swear. The Bryston is a solid device, but it’s only an inch and a half tall.

Horrors, we’ve been without recorded music here for a couple months, since the Denon DVD-5000 we were using as a transport died. Had to rely on my Magnum Dynalabs MD-100 FM tuner for everything. So having a CD player again is very nice indeed.

I only had one spare Krakatoa power cord from my friend Robert Lee over at Acoustic Zen, and that went into the pre-amp, so I hooked up the Bryston with a special Harmonic Technology power cord he made me when he was working there. Silver plated OFC copper wire in a hospital grade Hubbel plug. Not as good as the stuff he makes these days, but much better than the regular Harmonic Technology stuff I was pushing for him some years ago. Hey, a free power cord for every stereo dealer I got to carry the brand? I signed up lots of shops, let me tell you!

When I did the annual cable dusting and cleaning the other week, I set aside the longest run I had of his Acoustic Zen Silver Reference interconnect to use on the CD player, as I didn’t know quite where on the racks I would be able to fit it in. 7N silver oxygen free Ohno monocrystal. Love them. Detail, detail, detail, rhythm, purity, and air. Another coat of Pro-Gold and plug them in between the BCD-1 and the Placette Active Linestage. I’ve got another pair of them running from there to the Clayton Audio M-100 amps I had Wilson Shen build for me. Silver sounds best. From the amps a double run of Synergistic Research’s Resolution Reference speaker cables feed our rosewood Aerial Acoustics 10T speakers. It took us 2 years to pick out those speakers, but they fit our room, our lifestyle, and our system. Yeah, they broke the bank account and they look like fancy R2D2s, so what? Pity that Mike Kelly at Aerial doesn’t make them anymore. He’s gone way upscale and his top model 20TV2 speakers now cost as much as a new Nissan Maxima. Too rich for my blood, even back then when the 10Ts were the best he had and we had cash to spare. I’ll put them up against any other 4th order set of speakers made today, and I’m certain they’ll sound as good in my room with my gear as anything new right up to the Toyota Corolla price bracket.

Click on the amps and set them in pure Class A mode. Hey, it helps heat the living room! All the low power devices get their feed from a Bybee filtered PS Audio power regenerator, which in turn is fed, along with the amps, from an insanely heavy EquiTech model 1.5RQ balun, which provides noise-canceled balanced AC to everything and can provide far more juice than the system will ever be able to use. I set the PS Audio for standard 120v 60 cycle AC (the gizmo allows me to change the voltage and the wave pattern of the AC) and stuck in the first CD that came to hand, some live recording of the Grateful Dead from the late 70s. Great drum and space jam on there IIRC. And it’s actually a good recording (a miracle for the Dead), taken right off the mixing boards at Winterland.

Stone cold from the winter weather, brand new out of the box. No carbon fiber cones or blocks or maple top weights or other vibration tweaks, just set it on a clean shelf on the birdshot filled Lovan Sovereign rack and get it going. Ok, I did double check to make sure the shelf wasn’t touching any of the rack’s legs. And I ran the interconnects and the power cord away from all the other wires behind the system. But that’s all I did.

Very First Impressions
This thing is a bass monster. And I mean that in a really good way, as the bass is insanely tight while still being much more powerful than what the Denon used to give us. Soundstage is about the size of a basketball at first, but after warming up for about 10 minutes it is starting to open. It is also very fast. But I built the whole system to be clean, fast, and as neutral as possible. The remote is a hefty chunk of metal that lights up as soon as you touch it. Neat.

The stereo hasn’t been played much more than a few hours a week for the past few months. Like all audiophile gear, the CD player is going to need at least 150 hours of run time to break in. And that’s about how much time it will take to recharge all the other parts of the system too. So I’m not planning on any critical listening for some time yet, and the stereo is going to be on 24 hours a day for the next week or two. I’ll set the amps to class A/B operation at night, and take the volume on the linestage - I had Guy Hammel build it special for me with a 256 step attenuator instead of the standard 128 step one - down to about 3. Nearly silent, but what matters is that a signal is running from the source component all the way through to the speakers.

In the time it has taken me to dash off this post the sound has opened up more. I’m sitting at the other end of the house listening to a Jerry Jam float around the room downstairs. Sweet. In a week or so, this is going to be really good.

Another 20 minutes went by while I was writing the summary for the comments. Right now Phil is running up and down the frets. Gotta go. I know, I said no critical listening for a week! But I didn’t say no listening just for fun, and I’m finding a grin stuck on my face even way up here at the other end of the house.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/23/2010 at 04:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

MORE EYE CANDY ONE MORE TIME ….

It’s very late, I’m tired and had some rotten, frustrating, maddening throw the damn machine out the window problems with the puter.
So then .. what to do. What do ya do?

Follow one of Drew’s links to this and CLICK. And CLICK again. I tell ya, it’s damn tiring.

Olga Kurylenko


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/23/2010 at 03:51 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

One Line Posts, Part I

North Korea Threatens “Sacred War” With NUKES As South Korea Stages War Games Near Border

These people are certifiably rabid batshit insane. As if that’s news. Nerve gas the entire country then start over. The NorKs are King of the Axis of Evil


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/23/2010 at 02:24 PM   
Filed Under: • InsanityNorth-Korea •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

One Line Posts, Part II

Chicago Board of Elections Ignores Their Own Residency Law To Allow Rahm Emanuel To Run For Mayor

Was there ever any doubt? Laws only apply to Republicans in the 100% corrupt Chicago Democrat Machine.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/23/2010 at 02:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsCorruption and Greed •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Export Opportunity?

Oh yes, we have no bananas onions

We have no bananas onions today!



Onion crisis in India leaves millions unable to make curry or dal



India has banned the export of onions after a blighted crop sent prices soaring, leaving many poor families unable to afford a staple curry ingredient.

Prices have doubled in recent days to £1.14 per kilogram – more than the daily income of almost 500 million Indians. The sharp rise has led to hoarding and fears that the price will climb higher still. Some traders predict prices could hit £1.40 per kilogram before they stabilise.

The shortage was caused by heavy late monsoon rains in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan states. Officials had expected crop yields to fall by just under a quarter but instead discovered entire crops had been devastated in some areas. The country is currently relying on warehouse stocks to cook the Indian staple of dal (lentils and onions) and sabzi (curried vegetables).

To head of a growing domestic crisis, ministers ordered a ban on exports to the Gulf states, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka until Jan. 15.

A member of Delhi’s Agriculture Board said: “The monsoon had completely ruined the Maharashtra crop while in Rajasthan it was affected by both extreme summer heat and then heavy rain. Prices were quite high even in October and November but we were expecting things to stabilise as the backup crop had started coming in. Now even that has been exhausted,” he said.

One Delhi restaurateur said onions were now so expensive he would no longer give them away as side dish accompaniment with kebabs.

The onion shortage isn’t just in India. It’s all over central southern Asia.

Sri Lanka experience severe shortage of onion , prices soars to record levels

Minister of Co-operatives & Internal Trade Johnston Fernando, who is keen to curtail the rising prices, plans to import new stocks from Pakistan for the festival season.

However, Pakistan is reported to have received more orders for onions from the region, which has moved the prices artificially with India temporally suspending the exports. “As a government, we will take all necessary measures to control the onion prices by importing from other sources,” said Minister Fernando.

According to Dambulla Economic Center, Sri Lanka produces less than what is required to meet its annual onion requirement and imports 90% or at least 5,000 metric tons from India on a monthly basis. However, Pettah Wholesale Traders’ Association Vice Chairman Nihal Seneviratne stated that Pakistan grown onions are inferior in quality and taste, when compared with India. With onions playing an important part as a vital ingredient in the Sri Lankan food menus, government is expected to import from other sources such as, Thailand, China, Egypt and Netherlands.

Onion prices in the UAE continue to remain high as the supply of one of the most used vegetable from India has dried up following Indian government’s blanket ban on the commodity’s export, as well as a drastic cut down on the arrival of onion containers from Iran, Egypt and Pakistan.

The retail price of onion in the UAE market has touched Dh5 per kilogram, up from Dh1.5/kg earlier. “We used to get 10 to 12 containers of onion regularly. Yesterday, not even one container came from India,” said Sidharth Chomal Kamal, Managing Director, Sun Floritech International, fruits and vegetables wholesale dealer in Al Awir Vegetable market.
...
Wholesale price of a kilogram of onion in the UAE market is Dh2.80 and the Indian onion is Dh2.50/kg. Iranian onion commands Dh2.2 per kg and Egyptian onion costs Dh1.8 per kg.

Dh1.5/kg is 41¢ per KILO, which means onions cost 18¢ per pound in the United Arab Emirates.  At the peak of the Onion Panic before India curtailed exports, onions in India were retailing for just over 80¢ per pound. That’s the panic market price. A 3lb bag of plain old yellow onions costs $2.49 in my local grocery store. That’s 83¢/lb, a normal everyday price.

Silly foreigners! Screw your local markets, export your onions to the USA!

But in the mean time, here’s a recipe for a very nice Dal Makhani that uses no onions at all, and another that only uses one onion. Dal Makhani is the yummiest stuff ever to dip a fat hot chunk of naan bread (pita) into. It’s just kidney beans and lentils with spices, butter, and cream. So good!


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/23/2010 at 01:24 PM   
Filed Under: • EconomicsFine-Dining •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

eye candy special for thursday night

A little over a week ago, I posted a photo of what I think is a particular beautiful lady.

I realize she had professional make up and clothing for a photo shoot, the normal girl on the street isn’t made up and dressed by pros.
But that does not take away from her natural good looks.
She’s married to a naughty football player who was caught playing away from home.  He chose I said, hot dogs over the steak he has at home.

Well, I found a few more photos of her. Again, they are staged but still please my eye and I hope yours too.image

COLEEN ROONEY

image

image

image

image

ok ... If I really must .... just for those who require a bit less class ... of course I only found the following doing “Research” just to keep BMEWS happy.
I don’t really look at the shots below the fold.  More then a few hundred times anyway.
HEY!  Gimme a break. I’m old and well past my use by date.

See More Below The Fold

avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/23/2010 at 01:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
Comments (4) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

THE LATEST MUSLIM DISCOVERY ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD. CHRISTMAS IS EVIL.

Can you just imagine if any group tried this out on islam?  Look what happened over a cartoon. Personall, I believe some of their supposed anger is false.
They use it as a cover simply to do what pimple heads do.  Which doesn’t make em any less dangerous.

To put things in a better way, I am stealing one of the comments from Vilmar’s blog which hits the target dead center. And I’m sure you’ve thought of this yourself as well.

Author : Forq

Scrufty, the ignorant peasant with a bomb strapped on is scary as hell. 

BUT the guy with an MBA who speaks fluent English ... then suddenly grows a beard and changes his name to Mohamed.  He’s much more dangerous—especially when he shaves the beard and enrolls in pilot school.

And I hate to inform you guys but I think you too may have read it.  Al-Q.  is trying (according to the papers) to recruit just exactly that sort of person.
Now that is scary. Truth to tell and I must with apologies to Brits and sincerely meant, I think there is still (at the moment) more chance of me being attacked on the streets here in broad daylight by a drunk female teen and her friends, then there is being done in by Al-Q.  And that’s a very sad state of affairs. It wasn’t always so and I know it from experience.

H/T Newstrack India for this one.

UK Muslim hate group launches ‘poster campaign’ terming Christmas “evil”

ANI

London

Thu, 23 Dec 2010:

London, Dec 23 (ANI): Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have reportedly launched a nationwide ‘poster campaign’ in Britain describing Christmas as an “evil” festival that is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

According to the Daily Mail, IslamK group launched the campaign with an intention to convert Christians to Islam in the UK.

The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree. They also include lines announcing the festive season as ‘the evils of Christmas’ and also feature a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.

The bottom of the poster declares: “In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Abu Rumaysah, the campaign’s organiser who once called for Sharia Law in Britain, has said that Christmas is a lie and as Muslims it is “our duty to attack it.”

Earlier this year, Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson had banned Islam4UK group making it a criminal offence to be a member, after it threatened to protest at Wootton Bassett, the town where Britain honours its war dead soldiers.

However the campaign was criticised by a number of Britons, including politicians.

Labour MP and anti racist campaigner Jim Fitzpatrick branded the posters ‘extremely offensive’ and demanded that they should be immediately taken off.

Sister Christine Frost, founder of the East London Neighbours in Poplar charity, said she was extreme angry after seeing the posters.

“Someone is stirring hatred which leaves the road open to revenge attacks or petrol bombs through letter-boxes. I told the Mayor we are all scared. If we said such things about Muslims, we’d all be hanging from lamp-posts,” she added. (ANI)

NEWSTRACK INDIA


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/23/2010 at 12:17 PM   
Filed Under: • muslims •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Thursday Already?

image

that’ll leave a mark alright



Modern Archaeologists Decipher Battle of Towton

Nastiest Battle In War of the Roses



No quarter asked, none given: bodies chopped to bits, stripped, and thrown in pits to rot.

The soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out.

Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.

The next one almost certainly was.

In Shakespeare’s cycle of eight plays, the story of the Wars of the Roses is told as an epic drama. In reality it was a messy series of civil wars—an on-again, off-again conflict pitting supporters of the ruling Lancastrian monarchy against backers of the house of York. [ under the reign of weak King Henry VI ] factions formed and enmities deepened. These spiralling conflicts eventually drove Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, to assert his own claim to the throne. York was named Henry’s heir, but he was killed in December 1460. His 18-year-old son, Edward, proclaimed himself king just before the battle of Towton.

That set the stage for a vicious fight. Edward had his father and brother to avenge. After killing him, Lancastrian forces had impaled York’s head on a lance and adorned it with a paper crown. Following years of skirmishes others had scores to settle, too. In previous encounters, efforts had been made to spare rank-and-file soldiers. At Towton, orders went out that no quarter be given. This was to be winner-takes-all, a brutal fight to the death.

In a letter sent nine days after the battle George Neville, the then chancellor of England, wrote that 28,000 men died that day, a figure in accord with a letter sent by Edward to his mother. England’s total population at the time is thought not to have exceeded 3m people. George Goodwin, who has written a book on Towton to coincide with the battle’s 550th anniversary in 2011, reckons as many as 75,000 men, perhaps 10% of the country’s fighting-age population, took the field that day.

Modern techniques, carbon dating, and the unusual practice of opening an entire mass grave at once, instead of doing it one little grid square at a time, has given archaeologists a much better picture of what went on that day. The battle was a well recorded event, but what has been learned recently fills out much more of the historical record. This was the first, or one of the first, engagements in England in which guns were used. This is news. A great number of the dead show wounds mostly to their heads, leading to conjecture that the overheated soldiers took off their helmets to cool off at the wrong time, and they got the chop in any number of different ways from a combination weapon called a poleaxe: part spear, part war hammer, part spike, part halberd (war axe on a pole). Ouch.

image

The next task was to try to identify the weapons which might have done this damage. Ms Novak took a variety of medieval weapons from the collection of the Royal Armouries and poked them through pieces of acoustic ceiling tile to see what shape they made. Some of the matches were uncanny—the dagger that had to be twisted on the way out, the beak of a war hammer. The puzzling range of blunt, sharp and puncture wounds have their explanation in the lethal versatility of the poleaxe, with its bladed axe, top-spike and hammer

On the run from the battle, with Yorkist soldiers in pursuit (some of them doubtless on horseback), the men would have soon overheated. They may have removed their helmets as a result. Overhauled—perhaps in the vicinity of Towton Hall, which some think may then have been a Lancastrian billet—and disorientated, tired and outnumbered, their enemies would have had time to indulge in revenge. Even at this distance the violence is shocking. “It’s almost as if they were trying to remove their opponents’ identities,” says Mr Knüsel of the attackers’ savagery. Thanks to some unsuspecting builders and a team of archaeologists, they did not entirely succeed.

Pretty grisly.

So here’s ballerina Heidi Rhodes just to show that being covered in red doesn’t always mean blood and guts.

image

Heidi has 20 years of dance training under her belt but describes herself as a bona fide tomboy.

You can Google up more - I should say all of leggy Heidi on your own. Apart from her ballet slippers and a warm-up wrap, she doesn’t seem to own any clothes at all.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/23/2010 at 11:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / AnthropologyEye-Candy •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

orf wif es ed for having a sense of humor. even the burka a no go for some muzzie crazies

Found this yesterday but couldn’t get to it. Better late then never as they say.

I think it’s pretty darn clever, and reading the words makes seeing the video even funnier.
Quite naturally, the crazies are calling for blood.  But then they would. No surprises there. I wish the young man good luck. He’s gonna need much of it.


Comedian under fire for Burka Woman version of Pretty Woman

A stand-up comedian has become a hate figure in Pakistan after his cheeky remake of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman.

Saad Haroon has been accused of mocking Islamic values prompting bloggers to call for him to be stoned to death.

The video follows his tongue-in-cheek efforts at serenading a “sexy ninja” or “mystery prize” hidden beneath a black niqab, with only her dark eyes visible through a narrow slit.

“Burka woman, in your black sheet,” he sings, “Burka woman, with your sexy feet, “Burka woman my love for you it grows, every time I see your toes.” He even describes going home to “practise flirting with my living room curtain”.

However, the video has caused a storm in Pakistan, the cradle of the Taliban, where conservative religious leaders hold considerable influence.

Earlier this year, access to YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook was blocked after cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were published online.

“You should be stoned to death Saad Haroon Hell to You,” reads one comment on YouTube, where the video has been posted. Others have chastised him for giving the West a chance to laugh at Islam.

He has also been deluged with threats sent by email.

Mr Haroon said that he had simply set out to make people laugh.

“I don’t know if I’m brave or not. I’m a comedian. It’s my job to make jokes about things,” he said.

But he added that he was pleased his video had received supportive comments and started a debate about whether the burka had any place in Muslim society.

“Everyone has a right to say what they want. The crazies always shout loudest but I’ve also had positive comments from women in burkas who have come up to me after shows, saying how funny they found it,” he said.


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/23/2010 at 08:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Wednesday - December 22, 2010

That Internet Thing, Again

Hey, let’s not even let the ink dry before we take the next step! High speed internet is a civil right, and that means that black people should get it for free!

You think I’m kidding? Hell to the no to the NFW:

On Monday, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps proclaimed: ”Universal access to broadband needs to be seen as a civil right ... (though) not many people have talked about it that way.” Opposing the government Internet takeover blueprint, in other words, is tantamount to supporting segregation. Cunning propaganda, that.

Broadband is becoming a basic necessity,” civil rights activist [ and former Executive Director of the NAACP ] Benjamin Hooks added. And earlier this month, fellow FCC panelist Mignon Clyburn, daughter of Congressional Black Caucus leader and Number Three House Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina, declared that free (read: taxpayer-subsidized) access to the Internet is not only a civil right for every “nappy-headed child” in America, but is essential to their self-esteem. Every minority child, she said, “deserves to be not only connected, but to be proud of who he or she is.”

Read the rest, because there’s so much more there than just the race card crappola. Michelle Malkin, writing in today’s Town Hall.

The “net neutrality” mob—funded by billionaire George Soros and other left-wing think tanks and nonprofits—has openly advertised its radical, speech-squelching agenda in its crusade for “media justice.” Social justice is the redistribution of wealth and economic “rights.” Media justice is the redistribution of free speech and other First Amendment rights.

If Charlton Heston were still alive, there would be pictures of him holding a keyboard today. Because it starts with Net Neutrality, and it ends with “digital justice” and the left’s concept of the “fairness doctrine”. Which means Camp Ayers for you and me.

image

the camel’s nose




avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/22/2010 at 12:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Basic Truth

I don’t care what political or economic theory you believe is best.  There are only 3 sources of wealth in the world.  Mining. Farming. Manufacturing.  Without those in your economic base, you’re not creating wealth, you’re merely skimming it from those who do make wealth.

Doc

I don’t know the status of the first one. Every once in a while I read how foreign countries pay almost nothing to “rent” our soil, dig up the gold and silver, and take it home. Then I hear about the heavy metals/rare earth mines out in the Rockies, and how they’re all shut down thanks to China. And then of course there’s the whole demonization of the coal industry. So I’m guessing mining isn’t in such great shape in this country?

All I know about the second one is the rise of large scale agribusiness; economics and the decline of the truck farm market has doomed the little family farm. The cost of “organic” food is through the roof because the farmer has the “right” to profit just as much from a crop 1/3 the size as the agribusiness crop, even though “organic” crops and their yield per acre had been the norm for 10,000 years; the fertilizer intense, soil depleting Green Revolution crops (engineered not for taste but only for high yields and durability during shipping) is a phenomena of only the last 45 years.

The third one has been on the decline ever since Nixon went to China and the creation of OSHA and the EPA. Not to mention the onerous taxes on business. Then along came outsourcing to drive the final nails into it’s coffin. Factories? NIMBY.

So tell me again how are we the richest nation in the world? Innovation and new ideas that create new products and new markets? When everything is made in China, all the latest ideas come from Japan, and all the educated people are in India? Or is it all just a shell game, an ever-faster round of musical chairs as the fiat money, siphoned off the stock market where it was created out of thin air, get shuffled around and around?

Pardon me, I have to go do some last minute Christmas shopping at Wal-mart. Everything I buy will be made in China, and it’s an even money bet whether my cashier will be an American citizen or an illegal who sends half her paycheck back to her home country.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/22/2010 at 10:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics •  
Comments (4) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

AN OBIT … AMERICAN DERRING DO, A YANK AMERICANS MOST LIKELY NEVER HEARD OF.

A very unusual obit and bio ...

Once upon a time guys like this actually did exist. And this one is one of ours.

An American ...

I’d be willing to bet not many newspaper in the USA would give him this much space. For those who don’t know btw ... Brit papers like The Telegraph, are HUGE. They are larger in actual size then those found in USA. Pages are 23 inches long by almost 15 wide. And they gave this fellow most of one page.

(A side note. This will be my only post today.)

Frank Bessac

Frank Bessac, who died on December 6 aged 88, was one of two survivors of an epic and ill-fated trip led by the CIA in the early days of the Cold War which took him from the borders of Mongolia to the Tibetan capital Lhasa amid Great Game-style efforts to stymie communists both in China and in Russia.

Bessac, who went on to become a social anthropologist, had officially resigned as a spy by the time he undertook the journey. But his companion on the trip was a CIA officer believed by some to have been ordered to arm the Tibetans against the insurgent Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

A Mandarin speaker, Bessac had himself joined the CIA on its formation in 1947, gathering intelligence on both Nationalist and Communist activity as China descended into civil war. He was considered for a senior role in the organisation, but left when he discovered that this meant working covertly and would stop him pursuing a new-found interest in Mongolia. Instead, he studied Classical Chinese and Mongolian at Fu Ren University, Peking, where he wore the robes of a Chinese scholar.

In spring 1948 Bessac and Prince De, a descendant of Genghis Khan, distributed food aid for the US State Department’s Mongol Branch of the China Relief Mission, for which Bessac was made an honorary Mongol and a Knight of Genghis Khan. In September he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and decided to deepen his knowledge of Mongolian and the life of the pastoral nomad.

Early in 1949 he travelled to Dingyaunying, near Lanzhou, central China, where he settled and engaged a language teacher. In August he attended a congress, summoned by Prince De, which proclaimed the formation of a provisional Mongolian Republic. But within days the whole area became engulfed in fighting between the Nationalists and Communists, and Bessac was forced to flee. After travelling 200 miles north-west by camel to Shandan, he hitched a ride on a truck to Hami, then travelled by air to the remote western city of Urumqi, where he was astonished to be met by a car flying the Stars and Stripes.

The car belonged to the American vice-consul, Douglas Mackiernan, who was about to evacuate the city after the closure of the consulate. Mackiernan was, in fact, an undercover CIA agent who was in the region principally to spy on the first Soviet atom bomb test, which was eventually staged across the border from Urumqi at Semipalatinsk on August 29 1949.

When Mackiernan used Bessac’s old code word, it was clear that he knew Bessac had been a CIA man too. Mackiernan asked him whether he would be interested in helping Osman Bator, the anti-Communist Kazakh leader of Chinese Turkestan. Feeling that it would be “interesting to spend time in a Kazakh camp while trying to get a better deal for them with the communists or help them escape to Tibet”, Bessac agreed. On September 27 1949, having picked up three White Russian refugees as they left, the two Americans duly drove out of Urumqi in a Jeep.

They soon abandoned the Jeep and joined Osman Bator and his Kazakh horsemen at their winter camp by Barko, north of Hami (“Left Urumchi on September 27 1949 and arrived about two weeks later in company of Ozman Bator’s Kazak Hordes,” Mackiernan noted in his log).

But it was clear that the Chinese Communists knew their location, so Mackiernan, Bessac and the White Russians set off once again, this time ostensibly to save their own necks from the advancing “Reds”. Despite apparent alternative routes of escape, they headed south on horse and camelback on a year-long, 2,000-mile trek across almost uninhabited and unmapped territory out of Communist-controlled areas and towards Tibet.

In later life Bessac was concerned to rebut suggestions that he himself had been working for the CIA in Tibet, but the murky story of why Mackiernan opted to head there was a potential embarrassment for the Americans, and information about the expedition was classified. If Mackiernan had been dispatched to stoke Tibetan national resistance to Chinese Communists, Bessac claimed to his dying day that he had not been privy to the plotting.

The group crossed the edge of the Kara (or Black Gobi) desert, at times struggling to find water. After covering 500 miles in 30 days, they met a local Kazakh leader, Hussein Taiji, with whom they were to spend the winter. “Reached Timerlik Bulak at about 10.00am,” Mackiernan noted in his journal. “Royal welcome by Kussaim Tadji who had yurt all ready for us. [He] has the largest yurt I have ever seen.”

On March 20 the following year they bought new horses and camels and set off on a route never before travelled by any Westerner.

About a month after setting out, however, they had a fatal encounter. Arriving at a Tibetan border post near Shegarkhung Lung on April 29, they decided to make camp. While Bessac went over to the border post with gifts, six guards on horseback approached. Bessac heard shots and saw his four companions with arms raised. Four of the horsemen dismounted and again opened fire. Mackiernan and two of the Russians were killed and the third Russian was shot in the leg.

ALL THE REST IS HERE AT THE TELEGRAPH


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/22/2010 at 09:34 AM   
Filed Under: • OBITITUARIES •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Tuesday - December 21, 2010

so this self serving black bastard wants to silence or make rush explain himself ….

I was just getting ready to clear the decks and retire when I realized I hadn’t checked one of my in boxes in a week.

Days and days go by, don’t hear from Doc Jeff and then suddenly there he is, with something that so pisses me off I know I’ll need a Valium to come down. Maybe Xanax. Maybe both?  No kidding this N%**!* makes me see red and don’t tell me Al Sharpton isn’t one of those.  I guess anything he doesn’t agree with is automatically racist and offending.  It’s folks like him that are the problem with race relations.

Rush Limbaugh can do a good job defending himself. If I were so clever he needed me, then I’d have his job.
No.  One of the things that bothers the hell out of me tonight, is that having seen the clip Jeff sent to me, I now see the signs of the very same exact thing that happens here in the UK. Exactly the same, and I’ve been ranting about this and worried about this in the USA.
Just another reason to wish it had been LBJ that caught the bullet that killed Kennedy.  Cos were it not for him, maybe we wouldn’t have to put up with someone like AS which is one S short of ass.

My immediate thought was ... damn it. Why hasn’t anyone shot this bastard after all these years?  But then better judgment took over. Hell, I don’t anyone to hurt a hair or whatever is left on his coon head. No way. Cos then we’d be FORCED to endure another public holiday and have banks closed and roads and highways renamed, all to make a show of how inclusive we really are and to toss the black mobs a bone to placate for awhile, else cities will get burned. Again.  And the left would have a field day with that and legislation would be passed banning bb guns. You know the drill.

Jeez that guy gets my freekin goat. 

My guess is many may have seen this already but I’ve just been made aware for the first time. 
The arrogance of the shit. The nerve. 
When the left can’t win an argument ... they try and shut down the speaker.  Or as here, either that or force him to explain himself.
Ppl like A.S. are professional victims and will go out of their way to scream race at every opportunity.  And racism to them is anything they do not want to hear or anything they don’t agree with and that means shut the debates down. 

So Doc ... I won’t be thankin’ ya for the ulcer ... and keeping me up.

H/T though for the link and story.  Maddening. More then maddening.

H/T Doc Jeff

Al Sharpton said he had a “fruitful” conversation with the FCC on censoring Rush Limbaugh.

Sharpton says the FCC will hold public hearings where Limbaugh (or one of his representatives) will have to attend and defend some of his “racist” statements.

Sharpton says the FCC will “shape policy” based on these hearings.


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/21/2010 at 03:34 PM   
Filed Under: • OutrageousRacism and race relationsUSA •  
Comments (12) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

jingle bells … ho-ho-ho and merry christmas

One of my very favorites in Brit press is this guy. And not just cos he’s very conservative either.
He’s just plain darn good at everything he does and writes.
So Cheers to Littlejohn for the smiles and to BMEWS too ....

image


Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells… chaos all the way

By Richard Littlejohn

There’s nothing like a good old sing-song to raise the spirits in difficult times such as these. With that in mind, I thought I should update some classic holiday hits to reflect the widespread travel disruption which has caused so much mayhem over the past few days.

If you’re stuck on a train, or marooned at the airport, feel free to sing along.


WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

The phones ring
No one’s listening
All the staff
Have gone missing
Check the website
You won’t get a flight
Stranded in the Heathrow hinterland.

Locked away
Are the gritters
Read about it
On Twitter
It’s nobody’s fault
We ran out of salt
Stranded in a Winter Blunderland.

Snowfall came
Without warning
You could blame
Global warming
But nobody cares
About the polar bears
When they’re stranded in a Winter Blunderland.

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus’s sled has broken down

He planned to come by reindeer
But Rudolph had a crash
Now his sleigh’s been grounded
By a cloud of volcanic ash.

So he plotted his route

He checked it out twice

But he didn’t spot

That sheet of black ice.

Santa Claus’s sled has broken down

Santa Claus’s sled has broken down

Santa Claus’s sled has broken down

Santa Claus’s sled has broken down.

I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS

I’m dreading another White Christmas,

Just like we’ve had the past three years,

When the snow starts falling

The response is appalling

And your best-laid plans will end in tears.

I’m dreading another White Christmas,

Next year I’m going to Sandy Lane,

That’s weather permitting,

If they remember the gritting,

At Gatwick, and de-ice the plane.

You get the idea and for a bit more .............GO HERE


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/21/2010 at 02:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  
Page 3 of 12 pages « First  <  1 2 3 4 5 >  Last »

Five Most Recent Trackbacks:

Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
The advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37

The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20

Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造,北京名传天下配音公司
  专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作,北京名传天下配音公司   北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月,是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司,幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位,可供给一流的外语配音,长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台,能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话:010-83265555   北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00

meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28

a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07



DISCLAIMER
Allanspacer

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
  1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
  2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
  3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
  4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.


Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner



GNU Terry Pratchett


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.
free counters