BERLUSCONI REVEALED
... as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader",
but not as a major criminal, anti-democrat and plastic Mussolini.

"The return of The Savoy after years of closure is seen as a symbolic turning point. Not surprisingly, many of the biggest parties are being held at the grande dame of The Strand.
"One party for 500 in December will have a Twenties theme with a fountain spurting gallons of pure gin while scantily clad waitresses serve gin jellies and molecular cocktails."

Yes Dave-David, we're all in this together.

ORGANIZED RAGE: Bankers party whilst millions worry about how they...: "Below is part of an article from the London Evening Standard, I have reposted it as it highlights just how much we are 'all in this economic..."

I sincerely hope that Mr. Julian Assange has a long, healthy, accident-free life. I just wouldn't like to hazard any of my meagre income on his longevity, God be good to him*.

*I may be agnostic but I'm superstitious, and there are certain formulae that are used when speculating on someone's future.

HUGH DALLAS, PROTESTANT MARTYR?
I bet that's the way it'll play in some parts, old Shuggie a victim of the Whore of Babylon.
I suppose his resignation is intended to stave off calls for an investigation into sectarianism and corruption in the SFA. It could work too. "Time to close the book on this divisive issue", or "get the lid back on the can of worms."

STS Bulletin no.32

"We have been going through a period where we have not seen that sort of violent disorder," Stephenson said. "We had dealt with student organisers before and I think we based it too much on history. If we follow an intelligence-based model that stops you doing that. Obviously you realise the game has changed. Regrettably, the game has changed and we must act."

means

"Prepare for an orgy of police brutality. The gloves are off."

Student activists should be aware of the possibility of 'intelligence gatherers' at their meetings and actions. Whenever students become politicised these types appear in their midst. Some of them are blackmailed by the cops into informing on their peers. Others ... who knows?

Yesterday I read the following on the 'Bad Old Days' blog -

Pensioners on the rampage
One new development at today's disturbances in London was the emergence of a group of militant pensioners who could be seen urging the youth on to further acts of rebellion. Some of the wrinkled revolutionaries that I spoke to claimed to be members of something called RAMP-AGE, a kind of KING MOB for old people. And there was me thinking that Rampage was a Midwest wrestling promotion.

My appetite whetted I went in search of enlightenment, without success. Then I enquired of fellow Wobblies and got a pointer from a Fellow Worker - Ian Bone's blog, where I copped the above logo.
Thence I was led to this site, where evidence of a genuine European Union - united against the common enemy - is on display.
As one commentator put it, "Young, black, old or white. We all hate the tories, they're all shite..."

One day the Effendi will have a little Goy to pick his nose for him.

(Image lifted from the Angry Arab's News Service)

Today I heard a BBC newsreader refer to a terrorist threat from "right-wing extremist groups". Fortunately he was quoting some high-ranking policeman. On Planet BBC there are NO right-wing extremists, only far-right activists. I'm surprised some editor didn't manage to arrange for a misquote, so as not to offend the sensibilities of "far-right activists".

Youth Against Normalization: #BDS: Open letter from Besieged Gaza to Michel Pla...

Youth Against Normalization: #BDS: Open letter from Besieged Gaza to Michel Pla...: "We are writing as Palestinian footballers, coaches and athletes in the besieged Gaza Strip to commend your statement highlighting the imposs..."

"I detest prejudice and selfishness, bullying and meanness ..."
Lorraine Kelly in next week's edition of the 'Radio Times'.
I wonder how she reconciles these sentiments with being a stinking Tory.

Good point

"As any trade unionist will tell you, you need a postal ballot and to provide seven days’ notice to conduct a legal strike, neither of which Scotland’s referees have done. To add to their miscalculation, their employer, the Scottish Football Association, do not administer league business in Scotland, this is done by the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League, both of whom are free to recruit referees from outside Scotland (as the Polish league did this weekend in less stressful circumstances).
No lying, no sectarian emails and accountability for dishonesty!"

WAY-HAY!
Michał Kamiński, homophobe, anti-semite (but pro-zionist atrocities) leader of the Tories in the EU parliament has left his crypto-fascist party after it became less crypto. Who leads the Tories now? Vacancy for a Fuehrer.
What, by the way, is the position of the Clegg's post-liberals in Strasbourg? Do they vote with the Liberal and Democrat bloc, or with their new allies in the Conservative and racist bloc?

This list of Israeli "war criminals" keeps appearing online and disappearing. Let's see how long this manifestation lasts.
I write "war criminals" within quotation marks because I've no way of knowing how reliable the information is. Certainly there are some well known war criminals on the list, e.g., Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi. The Zionist "Ynet" site admits that much of the information is accurate, and it is believed that the source of the leak is inside the Israeli military.

"Hitchiking beyond the Wash or riding on the (then) fabulously cheap British Rail, in each and every town square I always found a first world war monument listing name, rank and unit, followed by shorter lists of the dead from 1939-45. Standing in the rain, gazing at the honor rolls of the Accrington Lads, Leeds Chums and Grimsby Pals – whole towns' full of young men wiped out – a Great War generation, many still rotting in Passchendaele shellholes – I imagined blood rather than water dripping off the granite rifles and helmets and winged angels of the obelisks. Hearts as well as bodies go dead."
...
"A few blocks from where I live, homeless, dazed Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan vets sleep under the 405 Freeway, a stone's throw from a vast VA military cemetery – the irony lost on no one. Except perhaps on Diane Feinstein, one of my two California senators, whose husband, Richard Blum, owns a controlling interest in two war-related companies, thriving in Iraq and Afghanistan, that directly profit from the invasions Feinstein voted for."

(Clancy Sigal)

I've liked Clancy Sigal's work since I read his pieces in the Guardian in the early 1960s. His novels (romans à clef) -
"A Weekend in Dinlock", a Yank among Nottinghamshire miners (1950s)
"Going Away", the road movie Hollywood will never make
"Zone of the Interior", in which R.D.Laing stars.
Clancy S. also wrote the screenplay for that Frida Kahlo film, but nobody's perfect.

"People ask us: Is this the end for Berlusconi? And we answer: No, it isn’t."

"Wherever you live, watch your arse, because some re-elaborated, partially de-italianized version of 'Berlusconism' is may be awaiting you up the road."

Blepharoplasty - whew! Five syllables; I must see if I can slip it in somewhere.


(Link below)

"Brown must stop sitting on his hands. He must condemn unambiguously Israel's tactics, just as he has rightly condemned Hamas's rocket attacks. Then he must lead the EU into using its economic and diplomatic leverage in the region to broker peace. The EU is by far Israel's biggest export market, and by far the biggest donor to the Palestinians. It must immediately suspend the proposed new cooperation agreement with Israel until things change in Gaza, and apply tough conditions on any long-term assistance to the Palestinian community." (Nick 'Ratfink' Clegg out of power)

"Deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg attempted to open a new chapter in the relationship between the Liberal Democrats and British Jews this week when he emphasised his party’s support for Israel and reiterated the coalition’s pledge to change the law on universal jurisdiction.
"He told a lunch held by Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel that he was aware of past tensions, and was engaged in 'an operation to clarify misunderstandings'."
...
"However, he did not believe it was right that magistrates should be able to issue 'politically motivated' warrants for visiting politicians and military figures. The issue reached a head last December when an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Opposition leader Tzipi Livni for her role in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
"'The issuing of such warrants should be a matter for one of central government’s senior law officers, not for local magistrates,' said Mr Clegg." (Same fellow, now in government)

"Millions of hens will have their beaks mutilated; game birds will remain in cages; pigs, sheep and cows in abattoirs will lose crucial protection from abuse; badgers will be culled and lions, tigers and other wild animals will continue to perform in the big top.
"In a series of little-noticed moves, the Coalition has scrapped or stalled Labour initiatives to improve animal welfare some weeks before they were due to come into force.
"The Agriculture minister James Paice, who part-owns a farm in Cambridgeshire, has been behind most of the moves – which have infuriated welfare groups. In the latest of a series of controversial decisions, Mr Paice this week delayed by five years a ban on beak mutilations of laying hens due to come into force in January."

While my missus was buying curtains this morning I did penance for my sins by entering that bloody bookshop where every nonentity who has appeared on the television in the course of the year has a book for sale. Each book is adorned by a smirking or sneering face on the front cover. Sneering is the preferred look of the REAL MEN who drivel on about cars and manly things.
I made my way to the poetry section and saw, to my surprise, a collection of poems by the immortal Dorothy Parker. I didn't realise she'd written so much verse. That goes on my list of acceptable Christmas presents.
One of the poems I read was called "The Veteran". I've since found it on the net and copied it. Here goes -

THE VETERAN
(Dorothy Parker)

When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
"Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I,
And wept there was but once to die.

But I am old; and good and bad
Are woven in a crazy plaid.
I sit and say, "The world is so;
And he is wise who lets it go.
A battle lost, a battle won -
The difference is small, my son."

Inertia rides and riddles me;
The which is called Philosophy

Some time ago an "artist" hired some carpenters to erect shuttering in the form of house walls with openings for doors and windows. Then she hired a concrete gang and ordered up concrete. The concrete was poured and left to set. Then the carpenters stripped off the shuttering, and voilà! A work of art created by this "artist", whose name I forget. I haven't forgotten the names of the creators of this masterpiece because nobody bothered to identify them.

QUESTIONS FROM A WORKER WHO READS
(Bertolt Brecht)

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who
Else won it?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man?
Who paid the bill?

So many reports.
So many questions.


FRAGEN EINES LESENDE ARBEITERS

Wer baute das siebentorige Theben?
In den Büchern stehen die Namen von Königen.
Haben die Könige die Felsbrocken herbeigeschleppt?
Und das mehrmals zerstörte Babylon –
Wer baute es so viele Male auf? In welchen Häusern
Des goldstrahlenden Lima wohnten die Bauleute?
Wohin gingen an dem Abend, wo die chinesische Mauer fertig war
Die Maurer? Das große Rom
Ist voll von Triumphbögen. Wer errichtete sie? Über wen
Triumphierten die Cäsaren? Hatte das vielbesungene Byzanz
Nur Paläste für seine Bewohner? Selbst in dem sagenhaften Atlantis
Brüllten in der Nacht, wo das Meer es verschlang,
Die Ersaufenden nach ihren Sklaven.


Der junge Alexander eroberte Indien.
Er allein?
Cäsar schlug die Gallier.
Hatte er nicht wenigstens einen Koch bei sich?
Phillip von Spanien weinte, als seine Flotte
Untergegangen war. Weinte sonst niemand?
Friedrich der Zweite siegte im Siebenjährigen Krieg. Wer
Siegte außer ihm?

Jede Seite ein Sieg.
Wer kochte den Siegesschmaus?
Alle zehn Jahre ein großer Mann.
Wer bezahlte die Spesen?


So viele Berichte.
So viele Fragen.

"Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise".

"New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday that some newly elected members of Congress 'can't read' and don't know what or where China is." (Huffington Post)

"You're never too old to learn", people used say. I suppose the modern-day version would be, "Learning, that's for old gits with time on their hands. I'm too busy making money/binge drinking/trying to get on the telly."
Anyway here's something I learned today, courtesy of one John Feffer -

"The Song of Roland, an eleventh century rendering in verse of an eighth century battle, is a staple of Western Civilization classes at colleges around the country. A “masterpiece of epic drama,” in the words of its renowned translator Dorothy Sayers, it provides a handy preface for students before they delve into readings on the Crusades that began in 1095. More ominously, the poem has schooled generations of Judeo-Christians to view Muslims as perfidious enemies who once threatened the very foundations of Western civilization.
"The problem, however, is that the whole epic is built on a curious falsehood. The army that fell upon Roland and his Frankish soldiers was not Muslim at all. In the real battle of 778, the slayers of the Franks were Christian Basques furious at Charlemagne for pillaging their city of Pamplona. Not epic at all, the battle emerged from a parochial dispute in the complex wars of medieval Spain. Only later, as kings and popes and knights prepared to do battle in the First Crusade, did an anonymous bard repurpose the text to serve the needs of an emerging cross-against-crescent holy war."

Anonymous bard = medieval spin-doctor

Addendum: I had to leave this posting in a hurry, and didn't get the link right; now done. Also, didn't credit 'Pitirre' who posted a link to this article on the Angry Arab's Comment Section.

Forced labour, eh? Japanese blood will out. I reckon Duncan Smith is going to get the unemployed to build a railway while living on rations of a bowl of rice a day. Banzai!

Every time the Israelis insult a British Minister of the Crown the minister feels the need to apologise.

Action Alert: Tell your MP that war criminals should be prosecuted not welcomed!

"In Flanders field the poppies blow"
And in the BBC News Studio
Not one lapel without its token
The word from above, its rule unbroken.

The mouthpieces who cheered the war,
Who questioned not, who played the whore,
For one short minute stop their lies
But still won't hear the orphans' cries.

Then, back to business, spin the yarn
Assure them we must bomb Iran.

Doggerel will have to do. Seeing those dissembling cowards, twisters of the truth, paying hypocritical tribute to those whose fates they helped to seal continues to rankle year after bloodsoaked year.

Now for a real poet -

THE GENERAL
(Siegfried Sassoon)

"Good morning; good morning!" the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
"He's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
. . .
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

A lot of hoo-ha about the likelihood of banged-up offenders getting the vote; as if it was a great honour and not a joke played on a gullible public. I don't know why the Conservatives are up in arms about it (if they really are). Most criminals are natural tories, apart from the sex offenders, who are fascists.

Addendum (4th November); a couple of local Conservative MPs are kicking off about this, saying that the vote is a privilege and not a right. Well, well! I never knew that. I thought that univeral suffrage meant something else.

The party however has sparked a lot of controversy and has received a lot of criticism for its flamboyant display of wealth in a time of economic hardship.
It does redeem itself when it becomes clear that all the proceeds will go to charity. The expected £5 million to £10 million will go to the charity ARK (Absolute Return for Kids), founded by hedge-fund manager Arpad "Arki" Busson, Uma Thurman’s husband.
The hosts include Mr. Busson, entrepreneur Tom Singh, a Pakistani prince, and Stanley Fink, the hedge funder and Tory Party treasurer.
Mr. Fink told the Times of London that such parties are ultimately altruistic.
"Yes, to the average man in the street they do look obscene but they do an incredible amount of good."

(Emphasis added)

I note that the "charity" is called ARK and the bloke running it is called Arki. I wonder who are the kids who will benefit from this festival of ostentatious bad taste.
I learned of this from the Max Keiser Report.

I have copied this from Larry Gambone's blog -

The following was written by economics students at Berkeley CA
a week ago with the intention of launching an international
student movement in oppositionto neoclassical domination.

Kick It Over Manifesto
We, the undersigned, make this accusation: that you, the teachers of neoclassical economics and the students that you graduate, have perpetuated a gigantic fraud upon the world.
You claim to work in a pure science of formula and law, but yours is a social science, with all the fragility and uncertainty that this entails. We accuse you of pretending to be what you are not.
You hide in your offices, protected by your mathematical jargon, while in the real world, forests vanish, species perish and human lives are callously destroyed. We accuse you of gross negligence in the management of our planetary household.
You have known since its inception that one of your measures of economic progress, the Gross Domestic Product, is fundamentally flawed and incomplete, and yet you have allowed it to become a global standard, reported day in, day out in every form of media. We accuse you of recklessly projecting an illusion of progress.
You have done great harm, but your time is coming to a close. Your systems are crumbling, your flaws increasingly laid bare. An economic revolution has begun, as hopeful and determined as any in history. We will have our clash of economic paradigms, we will have our moment of truth, and out of each will come a new economics – open, holistic, human scale.
On campus after campus, we will chase you old goats out of power. Then, in the months and years that follow, we will begin the work of reprogramming your doomsday machine.