The World Is Small, The World Is Good.

As I type I am enjoying a mug of super-strength English tea, a present from old chum Walter Mondale hand-delivered by Brooklyn bloggerati Listmaker and Youthlarge. I am also listening to a copy of "Listmaker, Volume One" (I'm tapping my toes to Neko Case). Blogging shrinks the world.

When I started this hokey little collection of diatribes 15 months ago I didn't think that one of the results would be Mrs. Weasel and me sitting up here in Maine at Hadlock Field with Listmaker and Youthlarge watching the Portland Sea Dogs (AA Red Sox affiliate)take a mediocre 3-0 game over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays). The game was so unremarkable that it was agreed to universal consensus that the Sea Dogs mascot Slugger (a mer-dog; unlike the logo his costume lacks fin-feet but I understand the problems true accuracy would cause. "Mummy, why is that furry fish dog ineffectually flapping along the left field line?") earned his money (and his sponsored minivan) this afternoon. Lets see; we had a crazy drive through the outfield on a special ATV, a rendition of YMCA with toolbelt from atop the Fisher Cat's dugout, a fixed footrace with a toddler, and various gurnings and arm flappings all game. Beautiful stuff.

The lack of on field fireworks also allowed us to provide background and character sketches for about 90% of you on the links bar, tackle a couple of cold and tasty Geary's Pale Ales, admire Youthlarge's forthright attack on her third consecutive daily hotdog, and to enjoy the incongruity of the crowd turning to face a small flag dwarfed by a gigantic model LL Bean Maine Hunting Shoe during the 7th inning stretch and "God Bless America". I hesitate to speak for Listmaker and Youthlarge, but I did notice that they were very taken with the scale replica of the green monster (replete with Citgo and Coke signs) as well as the clam chowder they had for late-lunch/early-dinner (lupper? Dunch? Is there a word for that meal akin to 'brunch'?) while Mrs. W daintily enjoyed a crab roll and I demolished a mound of fried clams like an orange haired ogre.

When we left them gazing out to Casco Bay from Commercial Street the last intelligence we had was that they were venturing north to Bath- home of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer and the Chocolate Church arts center, among other things. Who knows? Maybe we passed them northbound on I-95 as we beat feet for Camden and two hungry hounds.

I believe a good time was had by all- diplomatic gifts were exchanged, seafood and beer consumed, baseball watched, and stories told (only the publicly cleared-for-air ones, Mondale; have no fear. As you have said before, we could destroy each other with the terrible knowledge we hold). The only thing I failed to do was wish Youthlarge and Listo a belated happy 1st anniversary, so consider that done.

I suppose I should come good on my threats to invade Brooklyn next. And yes, before the Mets shut up shop for the year (so before October, given current form). See you when the leaves begin to turn.

What The Underground and The Subway Need

Further to Listmaker's post from Thursday, July 28th 05, here's what we used to get by on back in the old days:

We Shall Have A Village Fete To Welcome The Incomers

As per the mandate of Chairman Mondale, a special epoch defining meeting of two worlds in close orbit will take place this Sunday. In the spirit of cooperation and fellowship, Maine is preparing to welcome The Listmaker and Youthlarge. Bring your parkas and snowboots. Its July, but you never know up here.

And to appease Mondale's sense of symetry, in a concious echo of Listo:

History Friday

Having successfully and semi-accidentally stuck my head in a wasps nest with yesterday's post on Ulster (I feel a little like a man who used the n-word at a NAACP meeting) I feel obliged to make use of the History Friday forum to take us back to a happier, more innocent time. Let us all travel together in the magic time machine to 1981, when I was eight years old and innocently English, when politics meant nothing to me, and royal weddings meant no more than days off school and free cake:

July 29th, 1981: Charles and Diana marry


"The newlyweds took the open-topped state landau to Buckingham Palace where they emerged on the balcony at 1310 BST to give the crowds the kiss they had been longing to see. Afterwards Charles and Diana retired from the public gaze to enjoy toasts and a wedding breakfast with 120 family guests.

A "just married" sign attached to the landau by Princes Andrew and Edward raised smiles as the married couple were driven over Westminster Bridge to get the train to Romsey in Hampshire to begin their honeymoon."

The full story...

Too bad it all went to hell in a handbasket, but for one day it was agenda-free fun. I seem to remember a gigantic cookout, bright warm sunshine, and lots of giggling Royal Air Force personnel enjoying free or discount beer and Pimms on the Queen's tab on the lawn of the Officer's Mess. Sigh.

A Good Day For European Democracy

Anyone who believes in the right of democratic self-determination based on the desires of the majority population (cf. South Africa, Palestine/Israel, the Shia in Iraq etc) should rejoice at the news that the minority of a minority the IRA is apparently going to lay down their weapons and fully engage in the political process.

Besides, it allows those of us with Unionist tendencies to get under the skin of Leprechaun loving English fellow travelers who lust for a little celtic mystery (too mean?) by posting pictures of King Billy murals, comemorating the closing of catholic France's back door into protestant Britain and thus ensuring the survival of a proud and dissenting culture.

Anyway, enough busting on Walter Mondale. Here's the story from the BBC:
IRA says armed campaign is over
"The IRA has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign and says it will pursue exclusively peaceful means. In a long-awaited statement, the republican organisation said it would follow a democratic path ending more than 30 years of violence..."(read the rest...)

Blunt Is An Understatement

Just when you think "as seen on TV", "Not Available In Stores" type TV ads can't get anymore inane, along comes:


I suppose "Piss Off" was still beyond the pale.

And for those of you with particularly incontinent pets or the lack of gumption to let Rover or Mr. Twibbles out (or empty the litter box) you will be glad to know that you can buy "Three Kits (for) $59.97, (plus $23.85 s/h)".

As cat owner Traci testifies at the urinegone website:
"No matter how well I cleaned, my house still smelled like one big litterbox. But with urinegone I just spray and the odor goes away...and stays away."

Good for you, Traci. And seeing as it is for both "pet and people accidents" I sincerely hope your smell issues were caused by a cat not grandma.

From The Latest Atlantic

One of the highlights of my month is when the Atlantic shows up in the mailbox. I rip into that puppy like a kid with the latest offering from Marvel. Chris Hitchen's book reviews and occasional articles, the long academic treatise on international relations, and the profiles of obscure new European politicians keep me busy for at least a whole evening, and at least once an issue there is an article or feature that causes me to have an "aha!" moment.

This month it was in the "Primary Sources" section, which I reproduce verbatim below:

Sports: The Blush of Victory
"In many animal species red coloration in males- a sign of high testosterone levels- is associated with fitness and dominance... The color may also be linked to prowess in human athletes. Two English academics examined four 'combat sports' (boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling, and freestyle wrestling) in the 2004 Summer Olympics; participants in these events were randomly assigned either blue or red attire. The athletes in red won 55% of all these competitions- and when contests in which the competitors were deemed unevenly matched were eliminated from the pool, more than 60% of the winners were found to have been wearing red. A similar phenomenon obtained in Euro 2004, a soccer tournament in which five teams alternated shirt color from game to game; all five did better when wearing their red shirts...."

The England football (soccer) team's change shirt is red; they were wearing it in 1966, the only time England has won the World Cup. The 2003 England Rugby World Cup winning team won white and red shirts (and red warm up tops). Three of the top five teams in the 2004-05 English Premier League wore red (Chelsea, a blue team won, breaking red team dominance for the first time in nine years).

Right, thats it; England play in red from now on and Norwich City FC is changing its strip (although we did have a red away strip [or road uniform] for a while and a fat lot of good it did us).

Although the Atlantic does note:
"None of this of course explains why the white-and-red-clad Red Sox spent so many years playing second fiddle to the blue-and-white-clad Yankees."

Hmmm. I think I'm going off this magazine.

Oh To Have Breathed The Cleansing Air Of This Day 60 Years Ago

Caption Reads: "Now then Clem, let's see what you are made of!

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

Today is the 60th anniversary of the election of Britain's most visionary government and a mark of triumph for a democracy then tested by 5 1/2 years of brutal war. On July 26th, 1945 Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party conceded defeat in the face of an overwhelming landslide victory by Clement Attlee and the Labour Party. Because of the privations and call to duty experienced by all classes during the Second World War (still ongoing in Asia at the time of the election) a unique mood of clarity and maturity seemed to come over the British people who instead of voting for a return to the deluded imperial pomp and dusty noblesse obilge culture of pre 1939 that a peacetime Churchill represented, chose to grasp the nettle and set about trying to build a better future.

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Attlee's government has long been regarded as Labour's greatest and most successful period in office. At home it extended the Welfare State, introduced the National Health Service and brought large parts of British industry into public ownership. Abroad it was instrumental in persuading the Americans to implement the Marshall Plan that saw the revival of a war-torn Europe. It was the inspiration behind the creation of NATO, and it gave independence to India. They were not perfect and they faced their fair share of internal squabbles and political disasters. After all, if they had been all that the myth claims they were, Britain would have had a Labour Government uninterupted by those bothersome Tories for the last 60 years. But although they might not have had all the answers the ones they did have were sublime.

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

In our post modern, globalized, free-market, me me me, small thinking world it is argued that the great social reforms of Britain 1945 cannot ever be repeated and that we should be content to get by on the morsels our corporate masters and corporatized governments give us. Even if that is the case (and I don't think it truly is) I'd rather be Don Quixote and keep tilting than cower before the god of market psychosis. After all, it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Here's the BBC account (my major quibble being the way they phrase the title):1945: Churchill loses general election

And here's the 1945 Labour Party Manifesto (Platform) in full.

Aneurin Bevan, coal miner and Minister for Health in the Attlee Government elected this day in 1945. Thanks to Nye, my family and millions of other people have enjoyed outstanding free health care for over 6 decades. Even Thatcher couldn't destroy the NHS

Weather Station Weasel

Thanks to Bowles' online antipodean chum Clokeeeey and his blog My Pies Rant I now have a funky little weather station complete with pixelated avatar. Those of you interested in the conditions in midcoast Maine (and if it is dark or light out), you can check in below the links and archives on the right.

Errors and Corrections

From a July 11th post on this blog, extracted from an email from me to my brother:

"Its not brave to get on a bus or a tube train (when have terrorists repeated themselves either geographically or tactically in this current campaign?) per se."

Oops.

What have I always told myself about definitive statements? It seems the only blanket concept that holds true is the more we know, the less we know.

Well, At Least The West Talked About Africa

Locusts and drought- so called 'Acts of God' like the tsunami- have caused yet another preventable crisis in Africa. Sadly for the residents of Niger, not enough of them died at once, or spectacularly enough, to get our attention.

World Ignores Niger Food Crisis
"...The Niger government has said it would be "foolish" to distribute free food, as demanded by some 2,000 protesters on Thursday in the capital, Niamey.
More than 3.5m people need food aid after poor rains and a locust invasion, and some accuse the government of ignoring the crisis. But a government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said that its food stocks could not be handed out for free..."

"...Mr Egeland said it would have cost $1 a day to prevent children becoming malnourished but it was now costing $80 a day to save a child's life. The UN has now received just a third of the $30m it had asked for, Mr Egeland said. The UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs also said that beyond immediate food aid, the world should help Niger improve its agricultural methods to avoid future food crises - but this programme had received even fewer pledges. He said the $30m requested for both short - and long-term aid "was nothing"..."

Both the Niger government and the international community are failing people terribly. Where are the mega-churches? Where are the muslim charities so keen to fund madrassas? Where are the self-congratulatory leaders of the G8? Where are the Live 8 performers? Where is the popular outrage; that this horror, this evil of indifference, this national security threat (if we need a selfish motivation) is going unchecked?

In the words of the UN's head emergency aid official Jan Egeland:
"Europeans eat ice cream for $10bn a year and Americans spend $35bn on their pets each year"

I am disgusted and ashamed; I need to set more money aside, and try to do something.

Daily Double

Mrs. Weasel will look on me with regretful scorn having heard iterations of all of this before, but an email I got tonight from MEMRI (The Middle East Media Research Institute) was a real two-fer Tuesday, featuring two of my pet subjects: Arab culture and Oprah bashing:

Oprah Angers Saudi Women With Cliched, Over-Simplistic, and Stereotypical Portrayal of Their Lives
"The American talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey recently did a show on "Women Across the Globe," in which she hosted 11 women, each representing a different country and culture. Representing Saudi Arabia was television hostess Rania Al-Baz, who made headlines in August 2004 when she was beaten nearly to death by her husband.

The fact that Al-Baz was chosen as representative of Saudi women provoked criticism in the Saudi press, particularly among women columnists. These columnists claimed that the show had shown bias by portraying Saudi society as oppressing women; they also argued that Rania Al-Baz's appearance on the show damaged the reputation of all Saudi women. They argued that violence against women is not a phenomenon unique to Saudi Arabia, but is rather a global problem and, furthermore, that the situation of Saudi women is better than that of women in the U.S....."

One of the top ten greatest Americans, my hairy arse. Where's her bloody advocacy magnet?

No Half Measures Please, Fundamentalist Christians

I'm often baffled by the concept that even in this day and age people base their opinions and decisions on the umpteenth (mis-)translation of a series of legends and apocryphal stories derived from a culture that apparently believed that snakes had vocal cords and that shrubbery could spontaneously combust. It always strikes me as odd that as technology and science has moved forward over the time, the appearance of chatty reptiles, flaming instructional tumbleweed, resuscitated lepers and so on has diminished. Perhaps by the time we invented the bbq-flavored snack food the higher power felt it was time to take his hand of the tiller a little. Or maybe he was never there in the first place (shocking thought, ain't it?)

What is stranger still is that despite this lack of critical thinking and massive display of herd-mentality gullibility, some of the adherents to this Aramaic equivalent of the works of the Brothers Grimm seem able to display a level of discernment as to which of the binding life laws they choose to follow. Hence, the condemnation of gay people seems acceptable to certain of these goons, but not the condemnation of shellfish eaters. Well, no more: finally some brave brothers and sisters have stepped up to the plate and are taking the rake to the clam in no uncertain manner:

God Hates Shrimp
"Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God's law unto the heathens and the sodomites. We call upon all Christians to join the crusade against Long John Silver's and Red Lobster...."

Always Look on The Bright Side of Life

The last word (for now) in this place on the London bomb attacks. From an email from my father, who commutes into central London every day to drink tea and ponder engineering questions in the defense of an unsuspecting nation:

"Journey in to London a bit quiet and sometimes slow but at least I can get a seat (on the train) at the moment."

One man's hysterical fear-filled reaction is another's blessed rush hour leg room.

Dad also comfirmed the extremely filthy derivation of the mildly perjorative British insult "Berk" (so popular with the young 'uns, at least in days gone by) as theorized by the late Douglas Adams in his essay on swearing brought to my attention by my good pal RPS. Frankly, I'm shocked and appalled, especially given all the times dad called me a berk in the seventies and eighties, but what can I say? Pater is from the hood, the E17, the Perkiss boys' manor, and he knows a grand don't come for free.

WW Hearts JS Mega Fanboy Posting

Well come on, there can be no other way to put it. It may have become trite to wander the streets and coffee houses babbling on as if you were a top notch in-the-know-media critic about how Jon Stewart and the Daily Show has saved tv journalism and how comedy is the new investigative reporting blah blah blah. As I'm sure Listmaker will sniff, "when those beyond the Hudson are comfortable talking about a show, the show has obviously crossed over into cliche" (I kid because I love, Listo) and I'll admit that what was once a semi-secret pleasure is now part of the zeitgeist. Luckily, I've always been able to resist the siren call of desire to damn the good stuff that becomes popular.

So with that in mind, I sat happily in front of the TV on Wednesday night, not thinking "this show is not as good as it was" or "Ed Helms is over-reaching" but rather marveling in rapt awe at what a brilliant job Jon Stewart did on Bernard Goldberg. Goldberg of course is the former network news staffer turned conservative pundit who has carved out a profitable niche claiming that the media is controlled by lesbian communists from France with the torsos of lizards (or something like that; its no less believable put that way than as the empty concept of the 'liberal media').

Buoyed by the success of his diatribes on media bias and the blatant falafel stroking of his new home Fox News, Goldberg has raised his elephant gun back over the parapet and has "authored" (any interns harmed in the researching and writing of your book, Bernie?) a tome called "The 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America". As you can no doubt guess, the book is not a list of polluters, crooked CEOs, corrupt politicians, or even the Red Sox bullpen but the usual conservative crib sheet of rappers, torch singers, 'serious' actors, and fat filmakers/nebbishy talk radio pioneers. Oh, and Judge Roy Moore of 10 Commandments fame to prove he's not biased. Essentially, Goldberg has taken the central joke from "Team America: World Police", removed the humor, and unlike Parker and Stone is trying to hide his strings that control his actions. According to Goldberg, the biggest threats to the American way of life are cussin', kissin', and disagreein' with his politics. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Anyway, Goldberg dutifully showed up at Comedy Central to plug his book, no doubt expecting a gag-fest of no import. Instead, Jon Stewart- in a very polite, intelligent, quietly forceful, and hysterically funny conversation- eviscerated the pomadoured buffoon. If you didn't get to see it, the video can be found here; just scroll down a little. Its things like this that make me glad I don't live somewhere with interesting 11pm local news.

Damn It, France: Shut Up, You Are Not Helping.

France: hardly a glorious beacon in the struggle for freedom and global justice (picture shows Petain, president of the French rump after the Nazis invaded)

As has only recently been mentioned, the French establishment make it terribly hard for even the most committed pro-European Briton to like them. I love their stylish movies, their outstanding food and wine, their varied and gorgeous landscapes, and I have found individual French people to be some of the nicest on earth (even if Paris collectively booed the London 2012 announcement) but their politicians seem intent on being pricks.

I am no fan of British Home Secretary (interior minister) Charles Clark; I feel that he is a blustering, craven opportunist of an ideologically barren stripe, but if he's telling the truth in the excerpt below one can only wonder what the hell the French hoped to accomplish by their comments:

(From the BBC): Row over French bomb arrest claim
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has denied some of the London bomb suspects had been arrested last year. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the UK delegation made the claim at an EU terrorism meeting.

Mr Clarke said the comments were "completely and utterly untrue", and said there had been no conversation on the issue. Officials are adamant the men were not arrested and then released in order to break a wider network.

Mr Sarkozy said: "It seems that part of this team had been subject to partial arrest."

But Mr Clarke said he was baffled by his French counterpart's comments.

"Mr Sarkozy was inaccurate, shall I put it gently, in suggesting that there had been a discussion of this kind because there was not," Mr Clarke told journalists. "There is absolutely no foundation in them. Mr Sarkozy was a little late to the event today and I had a brief conversation in the corridor with him and had a discussion in the full council about some of these issues. In neither the full council discussion nor the discussion with Mr Sarkozy personally was there any exchange or discussion on this matter whatsoever."

He added: "I'm not aware of the allegations that Mr Sarkozy has made. The police are looking into the background of each of those individuals involved... very comprehensively. I simply don't know where he could have got that from to make his remarks. I'm sorry to be so blunt but that is the state of affairs."

Asked whether he had approached Mr Sarkozy to correct his comments, the home secretary said: "I haven't seen him yet. He left the council halfway through. He didn't feel it appropriate to stay until the end of the discussions, perhaps that is his style. He's a great leader for France and I wish him the best."

A French diplomat later sought to clarify the comments, insisting that Mr Sarkozy had said, quoting British sources, that the bombers belonged to a network, some of whose members had been arrested in 2004.

Now what good did that do? French politicians are like the people you invite to dinner who then spend the whole night telling you your pictures don't hang straight and that the curtains don't go with the sofa.

An Army of Wuss

US military based in England react to the news of the London bombings

And we have the nerve to call the French surrender monkeys and cowards? I know the Lord Above decreed that an American life is worth 10 times that of any other nationality and that the potential death of just one volunteer member of the military during a time of conflict is cause in and of itself to preemptively bomb up to five Iraqi or Afghan weddings, but come on! What a bunch of big babies.

From the BBC: "The US military has rescinded an order to its personnel to avoid London in the aftermath of the bombings. Personnel, most of them from US Air Force units at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, were told last week not to go within the M25 motorway.

But there was criticism that it sent out the wrong signals at a time when the emphasis was on "business as usual" in London after the attacks. The US embassy said the order had been reviewed and had now been lifted.

The Commander of US Forces in Europe, General James L. Jones, based at Mons in Belgium, said in a statement: "[We have] lifted all travel restrictions for US personnel stationed in the United Kingdom. "While all personnel are encouraged to be vigilant, we cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated by the acts of terrorists. All US personnel are encouraged to continue with their normal routine."

The US air force had said the order had been made in the interests of the safety of its personnel.

But speaking outside Lakenheath, Major General Michael Gould of the US air force, said: "Our hearts and souls go out to the victims and their families on behalf of the some 75,000 Americans who live and work here in the United States air force in Europe. We're truly sorry, we feel badly for you all and we will continue to stand side by side you as partners in the war on terror."

(British) Defence Secretary John Reid told BBC News he had been "trying to get to the bottom of this".

Lieutenant Gloria Smith, based at RAF Mildenhall, said: "It's just a prudent measure, it's normal procedure any time there's such an incident. Our presence in Great Britain is our voice of saying we stand with the British people. We have a long historic relationship and we will stay here to stand by the British people."

They just won't stand too close.

Not Everyone Has To Be Involved

One of the more annoying things associated with last week's terrorist bombings in London is that in our modern media "how do you feel?" age everyone seems compelled to try and insert themselves into what is essentially a tragedy for a relative few. I am not talking about those who take a minute to reflect, comment, or offer assistance and support but rather those who insist on parachuting their own egos into the disaster without any sense of proportion or basic decency.

I wrote to my brother about this impression I was picking up from various online newspapers and so on, and he replied with his own observations. My brother writes from Leicestershire in the middle of England, a fair distance from the geographically compact area affected by the bombings:

From me to my brother, Barry: "Do you think it is time for British people to stop posting to message boards about how stoic and brave they are being? As in "I live in Garboldisham and refuse to let terrorists stop me from going about my daily business of molesting sheep" or "Here on the Isle of Mull we refuse to be cowed by the bombings in a geographically tiny bit of London". Its not brave to get on a bus or a tube train (when have terrorists repeated themselves either geographically or tactically in this current campaign?) per se; especially not when people keep bleating on about it...."

From Barry to me: "It is getting a bit like that over here, I think it is an overwhelming sense that people want to be involved, as well as the impression that some are quite enjoying the drama. It is ridiculous to hear people in Leicestershire discussing about how it will not stop them carrying on with their daily business, whilst at the same time using it as an excuse to knock off early to avoid rush our on the A607 to Melton in case it is a target. All that happens is that whilst those people in the rest of the country go on about their bravery in face of events 150 miles away is that it prolongs the fears and worries for those in London. There is also a wealth of inappropriate near miss stories of 'I once went to Oxford Street' or 'I was in London on Monday'. people just want to be involved. The latest one today is that we will not be having a collection for someone's birthday given 'everything else that is going on'. I am also concerned that people's 1st thought is to record it on their mobiles when this happens."

"Perseverance Is More Prevailing Than Violence"

Its not often I have the occasion to quote Plutarch (title, above) and I apologies if my memory of his exact words are a little rusty, but you get the idea. A great deal has been written in recent days about the stoicism of British and Londoners in general and I would be a liar if my sadness since Thursday hasn't been accompanied with a little vicarious chest-puffing, knowing that I was raised in a tradition that dictates that quiet defiance is the default response to a challenge. The various British and foreign reports from "The Smoke" (my guilty favorite is partly reproduced and also linked to below) on the behavior of that city's residents in the face of terrorist attack have offset the chest twisting anger and agony I have been wrestling with as manifestations of a temporary loss of perspective and empathy for humankind in general. I have always had a fairly strong antipathy for the allegorical work of J.R.R. Tolkein (and his fellow Christian conservatives like C.S. Lewis) but as I have grown older his version of the everyday British fellow, the hobbits, seem to ring ever more true as the years go by. The British, like the hobbits, love their comforts, their privacy, and their fairly sedentary lifestyle; a factor of life of a small island I think rather than bloodlines or ethnicity as Britain is a polygot place and every generation of immigrants seems to adopt hobbitlike characteristics, by and large. But when challenged, when faced with danger and assault, and when asked to shoulder a burden at first too large for them my hobbit-like compatriots cannot do anything but press on with grim determination. Jolly good, I say, and I can only aspire to measure up should I ever be tested personally.

Truth be told though, the old Second World War phrase "London can take it" that is being resurrected in various forms this week really should be "humanity can take it." Time and time again, whatever the conflict and whatever the cause victims of terrorism across the globe refuse to take the "terror" part of the equation seriously. The real threat and aim of terrorism seems to be the creation of "others". Terrorists hope that through their actions they can capitalize on humanity's tendency to generalize. Therefore, all muslims and South Asians of whatever creed become suspect, all Israelis misappropriate land, all Americans want to kill muslims and steal oil, and so on. It is our common responsiblity, if we want to take an active role in defending our way of life (beyond shopping and traveling as suggested by the President) to educate ourselves as to the true nature of those who seek to make us cower under our beds and what distingushes the enemy from those who share certain physical characteristics with them. Otherwise we will have nothing but a series of Guantanamo Bays, arrests on suspicion, misdirected aerial bombings and checkpoint shootings, and all the while we'll be beating the recruiter's drum for those who seek to drive us into a hole.

Refusing to bow to fear is all well and good but true victory over terrorism will only come when we recognize the common bonds that bind us as people regardless of national borders; that decent treatment is not a privilege of the wealthy or the free but of the have-nots and oppressed also. Contrast the euphoric determination to do someting good engendered by the Live 8 concerts (and even the promising start towards an equitable solution for our fellow humans in the poorer part of the globe who suffer so needlessly undertaken by the G8) to the airheaded warblings of "a war of civillisations" and the reflexive belligerence towards the so-called "freedom haters" (do terrorists on the Atkins diet hate "freedom fries" as especially bad carbs?) that followed Thursday's attacks. To think and to use empathy are not signs of weakness; they are a prerequisite for victory. "Know your enemy" is a maxim as old as war itself; considering their position is the key that will unlock our most effective weapons system- our minds. If the bombings in London teach us anything, I hope with all my heart that it is that we begin to understand that we need to be more reflective and less reflexive.

As to the future, let me close with one of Winston Churchill's lesser known sayings: "I am an optimist. It doesn't seem too much use being anything else."

(Now for that chest puffery). "London Has Seen Worse"
Andrew Roberts in London, National Post (Canada)
Friday, July 08, 2005
'I can tell you now that you will fail in your long-term objectives to destroy our free society. In the days that follow, look at our airports and seaports, and even after your cowardly attacks, you will still see people from around the world coming here to achieve their dreams. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.'

The defiant words of Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler during the London Blitz? Or of Rudy Giuliani after 9/11? Yesterday they were spoken by Ken Livingstone, the left-wing Mayor of London, no ally of Tony Blair in the war against terror, but someone clearly capable of Churchillian oratory when a great and terrible moment comes.

The best mood to describe London now is "disgusted resignation"; we have been here so many times before over the 20th century, and that historical knowledge gives us comfort. What is totally lacking is any vestigial sense of wishing to appease the people responsible for these outrages. At the back of every Londoners' mind is pride in the bloody-minded way previous generations have viewed every attempt to coerce them by force. Defiance is the default position of this city, and has been for generations.

On Tuesday evening at the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy in London's Piccadilly, I happened to spot a tiny memorial of the night that German zeppelins had bombed the St. James's area of central London in September, 1917, part of a series of devastating air-raids during the First World War. The Nazi's Blitz against London during the Second World War killed over 20,000 of the city's inhabitants and wounded 72,750. Irish nationalist terrorists killed Londoners in the 1880s, in 1938-39, and on a regular basis over 30 years after 1970. Ordinary Londoners treated each threat with the same kind of "disgusted resignation" that they have treated this one.

For us, nothing has changed, and nothing will change so long as London is a truly great world-historical city. To live under the threat of terrorist attacks is simply part of being a Londoner. If London were a geographical backwater, or merely the tourist-site of a long-passed world power, we would not have to face these horrors. Instead it is one of the great symbols and entrepots of the English-speaking peoples, who have retained global hegemony for over a century, and as such it will always be a target.

"Here is Britain now burning with fear and terror," boasts the group most probably responsible for yesterday's attacks, the "Secret Group of al-Qaeda's Jihad in Europe." A much more honest assessment comes from an American tourist friend who could not believe the calm and stoicism of ordinary Britons during the attacks. "They were well informed about what to do and no-one panicked," she said about the people near her. "I was warned about secondary devices and told to stay behind solid buildings and away from glass. They seemed to take it all in their stride." Read on...

Pauvre Jacques, Tien...

I am not going to crow about today's decision by the IOC to award the 2012 Olympic Games to London, and I am not going to pile on the French in their hour of misery. I will instead leave that to the BBC here.

I did want to draw attention to comments by French raised NBA star Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, who had been part of the Paris delegation in Singapore, and who was very downbeat after the result. He stated:

"I don't know what else we could have done. If we don't have it now, I guess we will never get it. "The IOC seems to be very pro-Anglo-Saxon."

Oh, that pro-Anglo-Saxon IOC, with their recent track record of Athens (Hellenic), Sydney (ok, Anglo-Saxon-ish), Atlanta (ok again), Barcelona (Iberian), Seoul (Korean), LA (ok, ok), Moscow (Slavic), and Montreal (French-Canadian with a soupcon of Anglo-Saxon). And let us not forget the two previous Paris summer games (1900 and 1924) and the three French winter games (lingustic pedants could also the two winter visits to St Moritz in Switzerland). Why do the French try so hard to make themselves unpleasant, even to those of us who really want to be part of a big happy European family? They way they carry on, you'd think they were Republican talk show hosts. Où est la version française de "Chariots of Fire", place aux Jeux Olympiques 1924 de Paris? Yes, I thought as much.

I shall leave it to a reader of the BBC website to extend the olive branch to our Gallic chums sur Le Manche:

"Great news for London but rather than put up our taxes to pay for it should we not ask the French to support us with a cash donation as they have nothing to spend the money on they put to one side for their Olympics? This would enable them to show solidarity with another EU member.
Harry Lewis, Stratford, England."

Apocalypse Magnet Redux

Regular visitors to this humble blog might recall a series of posts in December and January around the issue of Yellow Ribbon Car Magnets. I won't recap the whole discussion but rather express my deep gratitude to my pal Richard Sassaman (hmmm... maybe I should commission a magnet to show my gratitude?) for sending me a link to this chap anti-magnet.com who writes very well on the subject and sells these wonderful things:



Of course we know that not all magnets are made in China, Micah from Magnet America told us so, but we do know that all are sold for at least some degree of profit.

(P.S: New maniacal contrarian war on inanity tactic emerges from fevered Weasel brain: I am going to send off for a selection of Army and Marines recruiting brochures and pop one under the windshield wiper of any Hummer H2 or H3 I spot, adding a post-it to the effect of 'if you want to drive a real humvee call the number on this pamphlet. If not, stop pretending you are General Patton, jet-ski mullet boy.' Hopefully this will piss off a few knuckle dragging mesh tank topped morons* in their tonka yellow abominations.)

*And that's just the women who drive them