3.8 million children in the UK don't own a book, according to a survey conducted by, or for, the National Literacy Trust*.
Well, maybe some of them have a library ticket. They could always read online, but most probably don't.
But, as Chris H. pointed out earlier, there's more to books than just reading matter.

*Never heard of them, but I stick to my old caveat; never trust an organisation with the word 'Trust' in its name.

Addendum: I have heard of this mob. They're the ones who recruited Premier League footballers to pretend that they can read, and name their favourite tome. It turns out that these jokers are all childrens' authors by proxy, and their favourite books turn out to be the ones they get royalties for putting their names to.
I was going to suggest that these moneygrubbers would sell their own grannies. But maybe they already have ... Wayne Rooney's a collector.

This morning I caught the tail-end of Melvyn Bragg's programme (I don't know what it's called). There was a panel of academics talking about Erasmus. I keep saying that I learn one new thing every day, and forget two or three old ones. Today I learned that, more than anything else, old Desi was an unequivocal, and vocal, opponent of war. One of the panel - I think it was Eamon Duffy - quoted him; "Dulce bellum inexpertis", a great line. "War is sweet to those who haven't experienced it", to those who haven't been "up to their necks in muck and bullets", as the old army saying goes. But the Latin version is short and bitter-sweet, succinct.
Later, chasing up the adage online, I found that Professor Duffy (if it was he) was quoting Erasmus quoting a fourth century Roman known as Vegetius.

I remember a couple of things about the learned Erasmus from school. He was a humanist; an advocate of reform in religion. He remained loyal to the old faith in spite of his objections to it's corrupt ways. He wrote a work called "In Praise of Folly". That's it.
Now my interest is awakened. Now I have to find out what of the works of Desiderius Erasmus is available in print. There's stuff online, but that's no good to an old gimmer like me.

E-books, PAH!

Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.

... the Royal Society working group says the Government shifted its position to allow the development of more severe chemical agents, such as the type of potentially dangerous nerve gases used by Russian security forces to end hostage sieges. "The development of incapacitating chemical agents, ostensibly for law-enforcement purposes, raises a number of concerns in the context of humanitarian and human-rights law, as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)," the report says.

(The Independent)

This on top of the news that the Paras are been trained to brutalise their fellow citizens. Nothing new there, of course. Remember Bloody Sunday?

Hardy Sheffield Wobblies brave the elements to show support for ripped-off P*zza H*T workers.
According to the British IWW website, "Solidarity demos were held all over the UK and worldwide, including Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Calais, Portland, Vancouver, Berlin." In Hull the placards were taken up by our comrades of the Solidarity Federation, living up to their name. The manager called the cops on them, but - silly manager! - the picket was legal. Book that man a place on the company's next union-busting seminar!

Courtesy of Viola Wilkins (though she doesn't know yet).

Stating the obvious -
'Right wingers are "less intelligent"'
(Headline in today's "I on Saturday")

The research leading to this conclusion is supposed to have been publicised in a periodical called "Psychological Science".
One problem for me -
If the research was commissioned by right-wingers then the results would have been suppressed. If commissioned by left-wingers then they were demonstrating a want of intelligence, chucking their money away to learn what they should have known and been relaxed enough not to need to go in search of external confirmation.
Value-free academic research conducted by disinterested individuals or organisations? I chortle at the idea.

Maybe it's a wind-up, to induce an epidemic of coronaries among fascists, crypto-fascists (aka Mail readers), racists, tories, etc.

During the course of a long correspondence, the BBC’s head of editorial standards for audio and music, Paul Smith, wrote that the show’s producer "did not edit out the word 'Palestine’ because it was offensive — referencing Palestine is fine, but implying that it is not free is the contentious issue."

In the same letter in which he disputed the occupation, the BBC’s Paul Smith went on to say: "Palestine does not exist at the moment … 'Palestine’ refers to a historical state or an aspiration."

I don't like to plug brand names here but sometimes they merit a mention -

"No more slimeburgers? Until recently, 70 percent of burgers in the United States contained “pink slime”, also known as ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings, a cheap beef filling unfit for consumption until it is gassed with ammonia. Now McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King are dropping the magic additive following a campaign of withering criticism from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver."

I wonder what appetising ingredient will replace the missing bonne bouche.

READY TO KILL
(Carl Sandburg)

Ten minutes now I have been looking at this.
I have gone by here before and wondered about it.
This is a bronze memorial of a famous general
Riding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver
on him.
I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be
hauled away to the scrap yard.
I put it straight to you,
After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory
hand, the fireman and the teamster,
Have all been remembered with bronze memorials,
Shaping them on the job of getting all of us
Something to eat and something to wear,
When they stack a few silhouettes
Against the sky
Here in the park,
And show the real huskies that are doing the work of
the world, and feeding people instead of butchering them,
Then maybe I will stand here
And look easy at this general of the army holding a flag
in the air,
And riding like hell on horseback
Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way,
Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men
all over the sweet new grass of the prairie.

I was going to make that the last poem in my current season, but I've found another poem about John MacLean, a great source of bardic inspiration, it seems - Matt McGinn, Sorley MacLean, now Derick Thomson.

WARRIOR
(Derick Thomson)

In another age
you might have been "a warrior of Mull,"
John MacLean;
the history of your people flung you
into a new battle:
the Gael's exultant cry
coming from the chest of the Lowlands;
if only the flame lasted
it would write "Freedom" on Scotland's sky yet.

ARMANN
(Ruaridh MacThòmais)

Fear de dh'àrmainn Mhuile is dòcha
ann a linn eile,
Iain Mac'illEathain;
ach thilg eachdraidh do dhaoine
a chath ás ùr thu;
iolach a'Ghaidheil
a'tighinn á cliabh na Galldachd;
nam biodh seasmhachd ás a laisir
sgrìobhte "Saorsa" air nèamh Alba fhathast.

AN ACT OF VICTIMISATION
(From the London Regional Secretary, Industrial Workers of the World)

The Industrial Workers of the World Cleaners and Allied Grades Branch
Secretary Alberto Durango was today sacked from his job at the Heron Tower
by the contractor Incentive FM Group Ltd. It is an act of victimisation
of a leading union activist well known for campaigning to defend and
improve the conditions of workers in the cleaning industry.

In August 2011 IWW secured a significant success on the London Living Wage
for cleaners at Heron Tower and in defence of victimised staff. Since
then there have been those seeking revenge against Alberto and the IWW.
In November 2011, Alberto was suspended for using a service lift used
daily by other staff. The same month IWW negotiated an agreement with
the cleaning contractor LCC that there would be no compulsory redundancies
and any staff reductions would be by transfers to alternative posts. A
new contractor has taken over at Heron Tower who have not recognised this
agreement which continues under TUPE, Incentive have singled out Alberto
for redundancy without any objective justification.

The company Cushman & Wakefield who manage Heron Tower also manage
Exchange Tower where IWW has a campaign for the London Living Wage. This
company had taken an excessively aggressive stance against IWW and our
members, preventing leaflets being distributed and threatening IWW members
with investigations.

The Industrial Workers of the World is based on the principle that an
injury to one is an injury to all. We call on all workers to show their
solidarity with the Cleaners Branch Secretary and demand the immediate
reinstatement Of Alberto Durango and no compulsory redundancies.

This morning I switched on BBC Radio 4's 'Today', and heard the name of Mustafa Barghouthi. Dr. Barghouthi was about to be heard on BBC radio. He spoke, about the Qatar (Doha?) skyline. He remembered when there were only two high-rise buildings in Qatar.
And that was it.
The report was was about the growing importance of Qatar in Middle East politics and business. I'm guessing the Dr. Barghouthi was corralled by the programme makers on the pretext of his being questioned about matters Palestinian, and Qatar's possible role as a mediator. Then the superfluous stuff about Israel/Palestine was binned.

I wonder what safe pair of hands will replace the arch-zionist Mark Thompson as Director-General of the BBC.

"Obviously someone close to Thompson believes that the best way to rebut his Zionist and pro-Israel allegiances is by erasing from Wikipedia any reference to them which – like his meeting with Ariel Sharon – lay bare his political bias. Lest anyone is still in doubt, analyse the BBC’s coverage of this latest Israeli atrocity. No amount of whitewash on Wikipedia can hide the facts."

(Yvonne Ridley)

"With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China." Umberto Eco
You see now there are no wars, no civilian casualties. Pouf! Eco has abolished them. Evviva il mercato globale! Now, on to the next award ceremony.
Eco, the man who finds he's too busy to protest at Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
The man's a fraud, though we will probably wait for his passing to learn how much of a fraud.

Via IWW Sheffield, whose website I visited in pursuit of news on the pizza front, I encountered an alien life form called conservapedia. There I was able to view my union through extra-terrestrial eyes (on stalks?) -

'In contrary to traditional American values, IWWs are known for their open support of radical extremists such as Earth First, Mumia Abu Jamal, homosexuals, lesbians, and transvestites, convicted criminals, Black Panthers, Mexican re-conquistas, Leonard Peltier, Judi Bari, Palestinian extremists, radical Jewish Communists, and atheists of all stripes. Current IWW poster children include members such as anarchist "professor" Noam Chomsky, UFC "Fighter" Jeff Monson, and left wing rock "musician" Tom Morello.'

On Planet Conversapedia Professor (emeritus) Avram Noam Chomsky is no professor; Jeff Monson is no fighter;
Tom Morello is no musician.

Stripped of their titles by reason of membership of the One Big Union. Planet Conversapedia is union-free, and talent-free.
And short on facts, if this article is typical.

NHS 'culture' trip to Florida included sunset cruise on luxury yacht
(Hull Daily Mail)
Safe in their hands.

Welcome to the home page of Sheffield Pizza Hut Workers Union – 460. Sheffield is the birth place of our union, which started up the hill in Crookes. Get Organised Get Involved – email us at pizzahutIU640@IWW.org.uk
http://iwwgmbsheffield.wordpress.com/pizza-hut-workers-union/
The Pizza Hut Workers Union is currently fighting on three key issues -

1.Drivers Conditions

2.Pay

3.Union Recognition

In drivers conditions we are demanding regular updates of all moped drivers safety gear. We are also demanding an increase to deliver drivers per-delivery commission, which now stands at 60p, which clearly does not cover costs.
Over pay we are demanding pay increases in line with inflation, as currently our pay is seeing regular decreases. We also that we deserve time and a half for working Bank and National Holiday days. This is industry standard, we are not demanding the earth!
Lastly on the subject of Union Recognition, we believe it is only right as the workers that make the Pizza Hut company what it is we deserve to be talked to on an equal footing to management and have the right for our union to be recognised, giving us all stronger voice

Brendan Gleeson secures funds for Flann O'Brien film (BBC News)
I just read this on Ian Duhig's facebook.
I posted before (23rd October 2010) about this project. I honestly don't know whether to hail the news as good or bad. Strange things happen to books once film people get hold of them, and, as this is a strange yarn to start with, it can only become less so as the adaptors work on it.

The swans were rustled from the blog of the Rev. Patrick Comerford.

Man in coma loses benefits as he's classified "fit for work"

(Via Viola Wilkins' post on Unionbook)

Last July, American historian William Blum published his "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy". Since the Second World War, the US has:
- Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected.
- Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.
- Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
- Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
- Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
In total, the United States has carried out one or more of these actions in 69 countries. In almost all cases, Britain has been a collaborator. The "enemy" changes in name - from communism to Islamism -- but mostly it is the rise of democracy independent of western power or a society occupying strategically useful territory, deemed expendable, like the Chagos Islands.
The sheer scale of suffering, let alone criminality, is little known in the west, despite the presence of the world's most advanced communications, nominally freest journalism and most admired academy. That the most numerous victims of terrorism - western terrorism - are Muslims is unsayable, if it is known. That half a million Iraqi infants died in the 1990s as a result of the embargo imposed by Britain and America is of no interest. That extreme jihadism, which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon of western policy ("Operation Cyclone") is known to specialists but otherwise suppressed.
While popular culture in Britain and America immerses the Second World War in an ethical bath for the victors, the holocausts arising from Anglo-American dominance of resource-rich regions are consigned to oblivion. Under the Indonesian tyrant Suharto, anointed "our man" by Thatcher, more than a million people were slaughtered. Described by the CIA as "the worst mass murder of the second half of the 20th century", the estimate does not include a third of the population of East Timor who were starved or murdered with western connivance, British fighter-bombers and machine guns.

The full article here. It's by John Pilger, so can be dismissed by some as the work of the Devil.

SUBSTANDARD and PISS-POOR
Who are these people? Why does anyone take any notice of them when they have been so disastrously wrong - or criminally misinformative - in the past? More and more observers are recognising these people as key conspirators in a gigantic con-game. And yet the media continue to disseminate their thimble-rigger's patter, as if it had some basis in reality.
As we used to say, what a load of old MOODY.

AT LAST
(Attila József)

I have scrubbed boilers, I have cut seedlings,
On rotting straw mattresses I've found sleep;
Judges have sentenced me, fools have mocked me,
My glitter poured forth from cellars deep.
I've kissed a girl who sang even as
she was baking someone else's bread,
I was given clothes and I gave books
to peasants and to workers instead.
I was in love with a well-to-do girl
but her own class wrested her from me;
I ate but once every other day
and I got an ulcer finally.
I've felt that the world, too, was a turning
inflamed stomach and that slimy thing,
our dyspeptic love was our mind, while war
was nothing but bloody vomiting.
Since sourish silence has filled our mouth,
I kicked my heart that it might shout with rage.
How could my active mind content itself
with lulling songs composed for a wage.
They offered money for my great vengeance;
Priests have said: trust in the Lord, my son.
And I knew, he who returned empty-handed,
with axes and hoes and stones would come.
I have flashing eyes and the will to win,
and I must have the willingness, the means
to do justice and so to take sides
with these severest of memories.
But what concern are memories to me?
Rather, I lay my worthless pencil down
and start grinding the scythe's edge instead,
for time is ripening in our land
with a silent, threatening sound.

(English version by John Székely)

VÉGÜL

Kazánt súroltam; vágtam sarjat;
elnyúltam rothadt szalmazsákon;
bíró elítélt; hülye csúfolt;
pincéből tódult ragyogásom.
Csókoltam lányt, aki dalolva
ropogós cipót sütött másnak.
Ruhát kaptam és könyvet adtam
a parasztnak és a munkásnak.
Egy jómódú lányt szerettem,
osztálya elragadta tőlem.
Két naponként csak egyszer ettem
és gyomorbajos lett belőlem.
Éreztem, forgó, gyulladásos
gyomor a világ is és nyálkás,
gyomorbeteg szerelmünk, elménk
s a háború csak véres hányás.
S mert savanykás csönd tölti szánkat,
szívembe rúgtam, ordítson már!
Hogyan is hagyna dolgos elmém
feldtető, de bérdaloknál.
Kínáltak pénzt nagy sok bosszúmért,
pap mondta: Fiam, szállj az úrhoz!
S tudtam, ki üres kézzel tér meg,
baltát, kapát meg köveket hoz.
Villogó szívû, győzni bíró
vagyok, kinek kell legyen kedve
igazat tenni, pártot állni,
ím, e szigorú emlékekre.
De emlékhez mi közöm nékem?
Rongy ceruzámat inkább leteszem
s köszörülöm a kasza élit,
mert földünkön az idő érik,
zajtalanul és félelmesen.

"The government is investigating 82-year-old Agnes Heller, Hungary's most famous philosopher, a former dissident, Marxist and student of the Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács. The government, with massive support from the right-wing press, claims that she squandered European Union grant money.
"A monument to the poet Attila József on a square in front of the parliament building is expected to be taken down soon. József, whose works are classics of proletarian poetry, was a humanist with a Marxist worldview. He threw himself in front of a freight train in 1937. The new government does not believe that a monument to this sort of a person ought to be standing in front of the parliament. It's as if the Germans were to remove a statue of Friedrich Schiller because the poet had long hair."

(Philipp Oehmke, in Der Spiegel)

Somebody tell them that Lajos Kossuth, father of the nation, was a Slovak; and Sándor Petöfi, national poet, was a Serb. I'm not crazy about József's poetry, but I think I'll post something to revive my flagging poetry season.
I wonder if these are allies of Cameron-Clegg in the European Parliament, along with the Polish fascists.

I first read of this on Ian Duhig's facebook pages, which I now read daily.

QUADROFENIANS - amusing hybridisation. Well, I laughed when I heard it.
My son just told me about them and I had to seek them out, if only for the name. It's anybody's guess what the music's like.

Happy 70th birthday, Muhammad.

An hour after Ali refused induction into the armed forces the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing licence. Every other state athletic commission did likewise and Ali was stripped of his title.
It was a period in history in which he stood alone against a tide of militarism and reaction in a society that has since embraced him. He faced prison and financial ruin, and his passport was confiscated to ensure that he wouldn't be able to make a living outside the country.
Yet for the three years of exile from the ring that he endured he grew in stature and with it strength. Speaking at colleges throughout the country, he resonated with young people of every race and background as a man of deep conviction. His defiance in the face of such massive odds inspired more and more to follow his example.
When he returned to the ring in 1970 it was as a hero. He had defied the mightiest government in the world and emerged as a symbol of justice and hope for millions of poor people in the US and beyond.
He truly was the lion that roared.

(John Wight)

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:04:45
Appeal to Trade Unionists, Trade Union Branches, Trades Councils, Political Organisations, and Supporters

From: siteworkers@virginmedia.com

Dear Comrades,
Our dispute has reached a critical stage, the BESNA 7* have upped
the ante by threatening to sack workers in the coming weeks if they do not sign
these new contracts.Wages will be cut by 35%. They intend to introduce a new
grade, an installer , who will do 75% of the work normally done by skilled
electricians, completely destroying our trade and exploiting workers. Most of us will end up out of work or forced to work for less money, doing the work we have
always done on £6 an hour less. Apprenticeships will be non existent.
These firms have been bullying workers to sign these inferior contracts since before Xmas, holding a gun to workers' heads with the carrot being dangled (Well if you don't sign you are throwing away 5 years work or more). The Crossrail Project is the
perfect example; NG Bailey has this contract. They are one of the rogue 7. Balfour
Beatty also have stacks of work all over the country.Unite the union are re
balloting BB, result should be known 2nd February. We are confident of a massive
yes vote bigger than the last vote. In the meantime the rank and file are
continuing with their weekly protests. We have a number of meetings planned and
if all goes to plan we will need transport to get around and picket all BB
sites.
Please pass this email on.

Donations to Unite rank and file construction workers fighting fund
cheques payable to joint sites committee
70 Darnay Rise
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4XA

Many thanks
In solidarity, Alan Keays

*Building Engineering Services National Agreement
The seven are -
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited
N G Bailey Building Services
Crown House Technologies
Gratte Brothers
Spie Matthew Hall
Shepherd Engineering Services (SES)
T.Clarke Plc

... and the new look Titi Henry reminds me of someone.

Bashshar al-Asad - I knew I'd seen him somewhere before.

Before I read this poem I'd never heard of Manuel Palafox, but he was a real person. Did he write letters, Herzog-style, to famous people? Was he a cross-dresser? We should be told.
For me Ian Duhig is one of the top poets around today; erudite, witty, his work full of references you (well, I) have to go in search of. Before reading Duhig I'd never heard of Fauvel, or Palafox, or Poggio Bracciolini. Also he mentions exotic locales such as Hull and Beverley; yea, even the Fishermen's Bethel on Hessle Road where my missus was inducted into the Church Militant.
Here's an interview with the poet, with some quotable observations.
Where's my notebook?

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
(Ian Duhig)

Dismissed from Tlaltizapa for changing sex
Manuel Palafox sulked in Arenista. At markets
he bought chimoyas, limes and ink from Oaxtepec.
Some days he wore his twenty-ounce sombrero,
Deerskin pants and "charro" boots. On others
Gold-embroidered blouses and red kerseymere skirts.

He wrote to Magonistas; "Zapata is finished.
He takes orders from Obregon. Rally the Peones!
Death to Carranza! Tierra y Libertad!"
He wrote to Lenin; "Trotsky is finished.
Seek concord with the Ukraine Makhnovshchina.
Brest-Litovsk's a cock-up. Regards to the Missus."

He wrote to Freud; "Were you coked when you dreamt up this?
No Mexican has even heard of the sexual revolution.
All Eros last year now it's Thanatos, bloody Thanatos.
Jung was right- grow a beard, you think you're Moses.
I hope your jaw drops off. Regards to the Missus."
At last he wrote to Yeats: "Dear Willie, how's The Vision?

Mine's double, ha-ha. Shit. Willie, I'm finished
In Mexico - it's full of bigots. Ireland can't be worse.
I'll work. Your brother paints - I'll hold his ladders.
You can have my poems. The one about this year -
Change it round- it'll do for Ireland. What happened
To my lift with Casement? Willie, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Shopping in Cashel for pulque, Michael Robartes-
"Research Assistant to a popular writer"-
Itched in his Connemara Cloth. Himself well-known
For a Special Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe,
He frowned on local talk of a drunken madwoman
In red skirts, publicly disputing with the bishop.

Ian Duhig also has a facebook page. I'm sure it's genuine and not a case of identity theft.

(... but who was Michael Robartes?)

The Irish for jellyfish translates literally as 'seal snot'.

We learn something new every day, so they say, and the things that stay with me are such useless pieces of information.
Unfortunately I've already forgotten where I read that snippet, so can't give the exact Irish. I think it's either smug róin or smugairle róin.

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hacking of Israelis: Saudi hacking of Israelis received more coverage in the Western press than Israeli killing of Palestinians.

VEOLIA WATCH

One of the largest actors on these markets is Veolia Environment, an international giant in the fields of water supply, waste disposal (where it was formerly known as Onyx), energy supply (Dalkia) and public transport (formerly Connex). The company is the largest private employer in France, and has specialized in taking over public services in all the areas mentioned and in all parts of the world. It has more than 320,000 employees in more than 70 countries, and a worldwide turnover of €45 billion (2007).
Along with another French company, Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux), Veolia controls no less than 70 per cent of all the privatized water supply in the world (Hall, 2002, p. 6)! Both belong to a small cluster of multinational companies that seek to take over public companies over a broad spectrum. There is, however, not always the cut-throat competition between these two competing giants that one might expect. They cooperate on tenders within a number of areas by establishing joint ventures. How they cooperate on the same board in one town, yet keep tenders a secret from each other when competitors in the next town, is a problem we are not going to investigate further here.
In waste disposal, the world market is dominated by only four companies – including subsidiaries of the two French companies mentioned. A few years ago, the figure was eight, but the four others have been taken over by the remaining giants. In both energy supply and public transport, the same concentration is taking place. From scarcely owning a single bus outside France in the early 1990s, Veolia Transport has advanced to being the world’s largest private company in the public transport sector (Hall 2002, p. 7).
Just recently (in March 2011), Veolia Transport merged with another French-based major international actor in the field of public transport, Transdev. After the merger, this transport company has become a real giant, with 124,000 employees in about 30 countries and an annual turnover of just over €8 billion. The markets are systematically monopolized, something that naturally helps to weaken the competition the neoliberals are so eager to emphasize. The result is of course increased market control by these companies. Despite all rhetoric in the opposite direction, maximum competition is not precisely what the companies are yearning for. They want maximum profits – and monopoly profit does not differ from any other profit except that it is often larger.

Asbjørn Wahl, "The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State" (Pluto Press)

This is the company that pollutes Palestinian land and its meagre water supply on behalf of ethnic cleansers.

HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE? I WISH ...

Fellow Worker Arthur J. Miller on political prisoner Leonard Peltier, "North America's Nelson Mandela".

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER MARCHES AND RALLIES
FEBRUARY 4, 2012, WORLD WIDE

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!
If you can organize, or help organize and event in your area, please contact LPDOC. Please if you can make a donation to help with the costs of the LPDOC. Scheduled events will be announced and details provided at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106 Phone: 701/235-2206 E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE. PLEASE SHARE AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/events/173509072747628/

From: Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

STATEMENT

"I have no doubt whatsoever that the real motivation behind both Wounded Knee II and the Oglala firefight, and much of the turmoil throughout Indian Country since the early 1970s, was - and is - the mining companies' desire to muffle AIM and all traditional Indian people, who sought - and still seek - to protect the land, water, and air from their thefts and depredations. In this sad and tragic age we live in, to come to the defense of Mother Earth is to be branded a criminal." (Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings)

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admit ted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
Leonard has been in prison for over 35 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten. We will not let that happen.
We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional marches on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere. Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

Miles Copeland, one of the CIA agents who organised the earlier coups in Syria, later regretted his actions. After the publication of his book, the Game of Nations, in 1969, he told Keith Kyle of the BBC: "My feeling is that on balance this is a bad thing to do, and it's better to let a country stew in its own juices. If it has a corrupt leader, let them have it. It's their tough luck. If the people in the country don't have what it takes to get rid of a corrupt leader, to hell with them. Let them keep him."

A little Syrian background from Charles Glass.

STS Bulletin no.42

Big Talk From Egypt -
"We will not recognize Israel under any circumstances; we are talking about an occupation entity and a criminal enemy," said Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy head of the [Muslim] Brotherhood."

means

"Washington we want more money, from you or from your Sa'udi fixers."

Being fond of poetry featuring imaginative insults I thought to make a copy of of a poem know as "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy" to spice up my poetry season. Then I found that the version in the Penguin Scottish Verse gives only William Dunbar's side of the slanging match. Also I realised it's not an easy read on account of the antiquated and very Scottish vocabulary. Furthermore it's a little too long for this blog.
It can be found on the internet if anyone's enthusiastic enough. And someone has englished up part of it here.
Rather than act as ringmaster for the the big guns of verbal duelling, I've settled for a more manageable, one-sided example.
I'm also partial to alliteration, so double points to this gent.

SATYR UPON SIR NIEL LAING
(Sir Thomas Maitland)

Canker'd, cursed creature, crabbed corbit kittle,
Buntin-ars'd, beugle back'd, bodied like a beetle;
Sarie shitten, shell-padock, illshapen shit,
Kid-bearded gennet, all alike great;
Fiddle-douped, flindrikin, fart of a man,
Wa worth the, wanshapen wran.

Sir Niel Laing was a Catholic priest, a "Pope's Knight". So the title doesn't indicate knighthood but, I believe, an uneducated cleric. An educated priest would be styled "Master".
Sir Thomas was a genuine knight, and a religious reformer. Intriguingly he died(1572) en route to Rome in the company of a Jesuit priest. Second thoughts?
I think the same gent was responsible for two other poems which I like, but am unable to locate at the moment; approximate titles "The Pleasures of the Football", and "Anent the Thieves of Liddesdaill".

Glossary-
buntin-ars'd, fat-arsed
beugle-back'd, bent-backed
flindrikin, contemptible person
shell-paddock, tortoise
sarie-shitten, constipated?
Wa worth the(e), loosely, "you're not up to much.

Addendum, 3rd January: of the other poems I mentioned the correct title of the second is "Aganis the Thievis of Liddisdale", and was the work of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, father of Sir Thomas. I suspect that Sir Richard was also the author of the football poem, but am still in pursuit.

A couple of pieces of news.

i) The NHS wants more sick old people to be cared for (or neglected by the NHS) in their homes, "freeing up" hospital beds.

ii) The government is going to allow to NHS hospitals to assign 49 percent of their beds to private patients.

No connection of course.

Still more than half of beds will be reserved for NHS patients, so don't call it privatisation, not even creeping privatisation. And I'm sure there'll be quango created to ensure that the Hospitals don't go above the 49 percent "freeing up" (Christ! I hate that stupid expression), Only like all the Of---s (Ofsted, Ofcom, etc.), it will turn out to be toothless, even an arm of the privatisation as non-privatisation flim-flam. Later the 49 percent will turn out to be a "target", and not to be taken too seriously.

'Twas Christmas Day in the harem
The eunuchs were sitting on chairs
Watching the Vestal Virgins
Combing their pubic hairs.
When suddenly Father Christmas
Came striding through the halls,
And said, "What do you want for Christmas?"
And the eunuchs cried out "BALLS!"

An old army song,sung to the tune of the "Eton Boating Song". There is another verse about the sexual proclivities of the camel, but we'll draw a veil over that one.
A little seasonal ribaldry to get me back in the mood for blogging.

Recently Alan Hansen got in hot water when he talked on the telly of 'coloured' footballers. When his faux pas was pointed out he apologised immediately.
A couple of black players wondered out loud what colour Mr. Hansen imagined them to be.
I don't know who wrote the following lines. They are in French and not too serious, but the sense probably comes through. If I find an English version I'll add it later. No title -

Quand je suis né, j'étais noir.
Quand j'ai grandi, j'étais noir.
Quand j'ai peur, je suis noir.
Quand je vais au soleil, je suis noir.
Quand je suis malade, je suis noir.
Quand je me blesse, je reste noir.

Tandis que toi homme blanc,
quand tu es né, tu étais rose,
quand tu as grandi, tu es devenu blanc,
quand tu vas au soleil, tu deviens rouge,
quand tu as froid, tu deviens bleu,
quand tu as peur, tu deviens vert,
quand tu es malade, tu deviens jaune,
quand tu te blesses, tu deviens violet à cet endroit

et après ça, tu m'appeles homme de couleur.

I have some sympathy for Hansen. When I was young - he too, probably - 'coloured' was the accepted term, 'black' considered in bad taste. Even since black has replaced 'coloured' I've heard black West Indians use the latter term. And the NAACP in the United States retains its original title.

The following poem is by Michael Rosen. It is from a collection called "Fighters for Life" (2007), and has no title. I would refer to it by the title "Promised Land".

A family arrived and said that they had papers
to prove that his house was theirs.
- No, no, said the man, my people have always lived here.
My father, grandfather ... and look in the garden,
My great-grandfather planted that.
- No, no, said the family, look at the documents.

There was a stack of them.

- Where do I start? said the man.
- No need to read the beginning, they said,
Turn to the page marked 'Promised Land'.
- Are they legal? he said. Who wrote them?
-God, they said, God wrote them, look
here come his tanks.

"Eventually, just as we were getting restless and starting to tut-tut, in they trooped to a shambling step, a picture of latter-day bohemianism, a gang, I felt, with little respect for the great literature and fine art housed at The Huntington, protected by locks and alarms and earthquake stabilizers. I recognized at once (from his many appearances on television current affairs programmes) Christopher Hitchens, the transatlantic pundit. A red hot poker in print, in the flesh he seemed a pathetic creature, as he struggled past us, a person you needed to stay clear of in case he might suddenly lash out. His long floppy corduroy jacket could not conceal the shirt tail hanging down over the seat of his jeans. His bullet eyes, piercing through a film of blood, darted around the half-empty room, giving our little group a curl of the upper lip and a glance as if to acknowledge that he recognized the land of the crass but at least there might perhaps be some potential customers present.
"He was part of a shaky line of literary lions but I recognized none of the others. Where was Martin Amis? I continued to fix on Hitchens, a loathing enveloping me like a nasty cold. Led onto the dais by an official, he flopped down into a chair, his belly parting his jacket, his eyes closing contentedly, a hand shaking noticeably as it was raised to push back a stray lock of greasy hair."

"... I attacked with my follow-up question (something you're allowed to do in America): 'You have made no mention of the finest of all modern British comic novelists'. Hitchens performed his lip-curling:'And who might that be, in your opinion?' 'Julian McLaren Ross', I answered loudly and with relish. "I've heard the name but never read a word of him. Next..........'"

(Ian Whitcomb)

Cavalier dismissal of the work of Julian MacLaren-Ross - one more reason to despise Hitchens.

(I can't help messing with this post. Sort of a work in progress.)

House of Commons public accounts committee: You gave Goldmann Sachs £20 million of our money.

Her Majesty's Tax Avoidance Facilitators: No we didn't, your conclusion is based on incomplete information.

HoCPAC: Then give us all the information.

HMTAF: We can't do that, it's confidential.

HoCPAC: So how can we know what you're up to?

HMTAF: You'll just have to trust us.

Jackals of the Press:What is The Government going to do about this, Mr Spokesman?

Government Spokesman: HMTAF has the Prime Minister's full support.

JotP: Based on what, Mr. Spokesman?

GS: Based on our just having to trust them.

First Goldmann Sachs Oligarch: Anybody know the current price of a Public Accounts Committee?

Second Goldmann Sachs Oligarch: You can ignore them, we already bought the government.

The name of the poem Mná na hÉireann became well known after the release of Stanley Kubrick's film "Barry Lyndon", released in 1975. An air, composed by Seán Ó Riada and recorded by the Chieftans, was part of the musical score. The air was the setting for the words of the 18th century Ulster poet, Peadar Ó Doirnín. Later these original lyrics were recorded by a variety of singers, mainly female, though the sentiments expressed are clearly those of a male.
The following English language version is by the poet Michael Davitt. It does not appear to be literal; but who am I to criticise the work of a Gaeilgeoir?

WOMEN OF IRELAND

There's a woman in Erin who'd give me shelter and my fill of ale;
There's a woman in Erin who'd prefer my strains to strings being played;
There's a woman in Erin and nothing would please her more
Than to see me burning or in a grave lying cold.

There's a woman in Eirinn who'd be mad with envy if I was kissed
By another on fair-day, they have strange ways, but I love them all;
There are women I'll always adore, battalions of women and more
And there's this sensuous beauty but she's shackled to an ugly boar.

There's a woman who promised if I'd wander with her I'd find some gold
A woman in night dress with a loveliness worth more than the woman
Who vexed Ballymoyer and the plain of Tyrone;
And the only cure for my pain I'm sure is the ale-house down the road.

MNÁ NA hÉIREANN
(Sean Ó Doirnín, d.1769)

Tá bean in Éirinn a phronnfadh séad damh is mo sháith le n-ól
Is tá bean in Éirinn is ba binne léithe mo ráfla ceoil
Nó seinm théid; atá bean in Éirinn is níorbh fhearr léi beo
Mise ag léimnigh nó leagtha i gcré is mo tharr faoi fhód.

Tá bean in Éirinn a bheadh ag éad liom mur bhfaighinn ach póg
Ó bhean ar aonach, nach ait an scéala, is mo dháimh féin leo;
Tá bean ab fhearr liom nó cath is céad dhíobh nach bhfagham go deo
Is tá cailín spéiriúil ag fear gan Bhéarla, dubhghránna cróin

Tá bean a déarfadh dá siúlainn léithe go bhfaighinn an t-ór
Is tá bean 'na léine is is fearr a méin nó na táinte bó
Le bean a bhuairfeadh Baile an Mhaoir agus clár Thír Eoghain,
Is ní fhaicim leigheas ar mo ghalar féin ach scáird a dh'ól

Latest News: Salah Hamouri to be released today.

Update 2053 hours: according to the latest bulletin Salah is free and with his parents. Only a few thousand more hostages to liberate.

Professor AbuKhalil on the Barstool Bombardier.
The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hitchens: I debated whether to write about someone who agitated for war and for racism against Arabs/Muslims.  I never met this man, and never liked ...

What has happened to Thankgodimatheist's blog, 'Angry Arab's Comments Section'? When I try to log in I get a message that it has been removed.
WHY?
If you read this, TG, leave a message.

TO QUILCA
(Jonathan Swift)

Let me thy Properties explain,
A rotten Cabbin, dropping Rain;
Chimnies with Scorn rejecting Smoak;
Stools, Tables, Chairs, and Bed-stede broke:
Here Elements have lost their Uses,
Air ripens not, nor Earth produces:
In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,
Fire will not roast, nor Water boil.
Thro' all the Vallies, Hills, and Plains,
The Goddess Want in Triumph reigns;
And her chief Officers of State,
Sloth, Dirt, and Theft around her wait.

Full title, "To Quilca, a Country House in no very good Repair, where the supposed Author, and some of his Friends, spent a Summer, in the Year 1725"
Quilca, or Cuilcagh, was the home of Swift's friend, Thomas Sheridan, grandfather of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Thomas S. was described by one who knew him as, "ill-starred, good natured, improvident ... a punster, a quibbler, a diffler and a wit ... his pen and his fiddlestick were in continual motion, and yet to little or no purpose." He was a clergyman, too outspoken to retain any position in the church. When he obtained any money he found himself "besheridaned" (his own coinage), that is, surrounded by importunate kinsfolk. County Cavan is Sheridan territory.
'Sheelah', the name suggests, would have been a household servant, Catholic, peasant, and in language a Gael. The Sheridan family had Protestant and Catholic branches, the latter having to remove to the Continent in order to avoid descent into extreme poverty. Their landowning cousin did not prosper in spite of conforming to the established religion.

"It's dark out, Jack, the stations out there don't identify themselves, we're in it raw — blind like burned rats, it's running out all around us, the footprints of the beast, one nobody has any notion of. The white & vacant eyes of something above there, something that doesn't know we exist. I smell heartbreak up there, Jack, a heartbreak at the center of things, & in which we don't figure at all."
Kenneth Patchen, poet, born 100 years ago today.
"Mingus Ah Um", powerful back-up there.

Photograph and poem lifted from "anti-CopyRite" Daily Bleed.

Norman Mailer on Gore Vidal's homosexuality*: "As a homosexual he's very much a man ... in sex, he does it ... No one does anything to him."

When I read Mark Thompson's fulsome, and spewsome, praise of Dirty Harry Clarkson and his juvenile killing spree fantasies I wonder what hold Clarkson has on Thompson and his managerial coterie. I also wonder at times if one of them's doing it and the other's having it done.
The search for an explanation goes on.

*Or, as Vidal himself would insist, homosexualism.

Some unconfirmed news on political prisoner Salah Hamouri, whose original release date was the 28th of last month -

Benjamin Netanyahu was contacted by French President Sarkozy (Salah is a French citizen), and informed him that everything depended on the Grand Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his agreement to the release of Salah at the second exchange of prisoners linked to the release of Gilad Shalit (Salah was accused of plotting the Rabbi's assassination).
Sarkozy wrote to the Rabbi, and the French Ambassador to Israel, Christophe Bigot, met Salah, then Rabbi Yosef. The latter expressed his agreement. This agreement has been confirmed by the Israeli Minister of the Interior. The final decision on Salah will be made by Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet, and should be known by the 18th December.

"It is not an exaggeration to say Cameron's priorities lay with the City of London, not the mass of the British people he was placed in office to serve. Although it is worse than that alone, as it was the casino and tax dodging end of the city which the British prime minister tried to protect. The very people who wrecked the world economy. Cameron, and his closest colleague George Osborne should forever be known as the the first, and deputy first minister of the ‘city’ of London, which incidentally despite what the rightwing media claims, makes up only 7.5% of the UK’s GDP."

(Mick Hall)

Dave Hartnett, the man who gave £20 million* of our money to Goldman Sachs, is to retire.
That's Dave Hartnett who gave £5 million of our money to Vodaphone.

I wonder what he'll be doing now.
Going to work for Goldman Sachs - 3/1
Going to work for Vodaphone - 5/1
Going to work for some other firm he helped - 7/1
Taking up post as advisor** to George (tax dodger) Osbourne 9/1
Cultivating his garden - 50/1

*Apparently he only admits to giving them £8 million of our money.

** Alongside Philip Green the billionaire who pays no tax at all.

ANOTHER EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES
(Hugh MacDiarmid)

It is a God-damned lie to say that these
Saved, or knew, anything worth any man's pride.
They were professional murderers and they took
Their blood money and impious risks and died.
In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

A reply to A.E.Housman's "Epitaph ..." (here)

MacDiarmid served, as a conscript, in World War I. Housman was too old.

TO NEARLY EVERYBODY IN EUROPE TODAY
(Hugh MacDiarmid)

A war to save civilization you say
Then what have you to do with it, pray?
Some attempt to acquire it would show truer love
Than fighting for something you know nothing of.

Today's wars are fought for freedom, democracy, human rights.
Killing people to civilise them is no longer fashionable; we find other reasons.

THE DESERTER
(Boris Vian)

Mr. President
I'm writing you a letter
that perhaps you will read
If you have the time.
I've just received
my call-up papers
to leave for the front
Before Wednesday night.
Mr. President
I do not want to go
I am not on this earth
to kill wretched people.
It's not to make you mad
I must tell you
my decision is made
I am going to desert.

Since I was born
I have seen my father die
I have seen my brothers leave
and my children cry.
My mother has suffered so,
that she is in her grave
and she laughs at the bombs
and she laughs at the worms.
When I was a prisoner
they stole my wife
they stole my soul
and all my dear past.
Early tomorrow morning
I will shut my door
on these dead years
I will take to the road.

I will beg my way along
on the roads of France
from Brittany to Provence
and I will cry out to the people:
Refuse to obey
refuse to do it
don't go to war
refuse to go.
If blood must be given
go give your own
you are a good apostle
Mr. President.
If you go after me
warn your police
that I'll be unarmed
and that they can shoot.
(English version by Gilles D'Ayméry
and Jan Baughman)

LE DÉSERTEUR

Monsieur le Président
Je vous fais une lettre
Que vous lirez peut-être
Si vous avez le temps
Je viens de recevoir
Mes papiers militaires
Pour partir à la guerre
Avant mercredi soir
Monsieur le Président
Je ne veux pas la faire
Je ne suis pas sur terre
Pour tuer des pauvres gens
C'est pas pour vous fâcher
Il faut que je vous dise
Ma décision est prise
Je m'en vais déserter

Depuis que je suis né
J'ai vu mourir mon père
J'ai vu partir mes frères
Et pleurer mes enfants
Ma mère a tant souffert
Elle est dedans sa tombe
Et se moque des bombes
Et se moque des vers
Quand j'étais prisonnier
On m'a volé ma femme
On m'a volé mon âme
Et tout mon cher passé
Demain de bon matin
Je fermerai ma porte
Au nez des années mortes
J'irai sur les chemins

Je mendierai ma vie
Sur les routes de France
De Bretagne en Provence
Et je dirai aux gens:
Refusez d'obéir
Refusez de la faire
N'allez pas à la guerre
Refusez de partir
S'il faut donner son sang
Allez donner le vôtre
Vous êtes bon apôtre
Monsieur le Président
Si vous me poursuivez
Prévenez vos gendarmes
Que je n'aurai pas d'armes
Et qu'ils pourront tirer.

One of the best anti-war poems/songs. There are plenty of sung versions online, including Vian's own (corny arrangement). A singable English version given a British context is here.

My old comrade John T., alias "Homebrew", who died a year ago today. I posted a poem in his memory at the time. I post it again.

If sadly thinking, with spirits sinking,
Could more than drinking my cares compose,
A cure for sorrow from sighs I'd borrow
And hope tomorrow would end my woes.
But as in wailing there's nought availing
And Death unfailing will strike the blow
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

To joy a stranger, a way-worn ranger,
In every danger my course I've run;
Now hope all ending, and death befriending,
His last aid lending, my cares are done.
No more a rover, or hapless lover,
My griefs are over - my glass runs low;
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

Goodbye, Sócrates.

"Até já, Doutor. Tá confirmada aquela próxima cerveja. Vai na paz."

"At a time when most people were still afraid to speak out against the regime, he politicised football in a way no other player has even attempted, before or since. And he was as proud of his team's valiant contribution in helping dismantle the dictatorship as he was his considerable football achievements. At the end of 1982, Corinthians won the São Paulo state championship with "Democracia" printed on the back of their black shirts. Sócrates said it was "perhaps the most perfect moment I ever lived. And I'm sure it was for 95% of [my teammates] too".

A poem by a Fellow Worker -

ENRON
(Richard Myers)
Friend, have ya heard the corporate lies--
They vow to double your dough?
They solemnly swear the stock will rise,
You'll watch it climb before your eyes
As your savings grow and grow?

Have you learned too late the corporate rule:
The boss already cashed?
Have ya felt just like a bloody fool
'Cause ya bought him that new swimming pool
While all your dreams are trashed?

Have you watched him haul away the loot
And ya know that you've been had?
Have they given you the golden boot
While the boss straps on his parachute
And it leaves you fightin' mad?

If you're sick to death of corporate lies
But ya don't know how to approach it,
Then fellow worker, organize.
Prepare the boss a big surprise
And stop ingesting bullshit.

No more the thief, the parasite!
No more of this abuse.
When workers everywhere unite
The bosses we shall disinvite,
We'll keep what we produce!

"... we might observe that there are two kinds of jokes about incitement to violence. There's the kind you make on The One Show, which sells your DVD, and there's the kind you make on your obscure little Facebook page that gets you a four-year sentence, as happened during the summer unrest with a pair in Northwich who didn't even turn up to their own "riot" (nor did anybody except the police). Or perhaps you prefer the chap convicted for a joke tweet about Doncaster airport."

(Marina Hyde)

I feel a poetry season coming on.
I just bought a book described as collected poems of Sorley MacLean. We've sampled the great man before on these pages (here and here) and I'm happy to have access to more of his work, some previously unpublished. Here's a short, angry assault on a deserving target -

To the Pope who offered thanks to God for the fall of Barcelona
Deceitful pious whore of a bitch
who carries Christ's tiara,
around this time last year you were wallowing
in children's blood and holiness.

Don Phàp a thug buidheachas do Dhia airson tuiteam Bharsalòna
A ghalla shiùrsaich shlìom, dhiadhiadh,
's tu giùlan tiara Chrìosda,
mun àm seo 'n-uiridh bha thu blianadh
am fuil naoidhean 's nad dhiadhachd.

The English language version is by Christopher Whyte, editor, along with Emma Dymock, of this collection.
I'm assuming that the Pope referred to is Pius xii, later known as Hitler's Pope. Pius xi was on his last legs when Barcelona was taken by Franco and his rebel forces, and died a couple of weeks later.

Another poem, this time translated by the Emma Dymock -

Scotus Erigena
Did you hear the tale
about Scotus Erigena
who spoke out against the Election
for two days, without tiring;
and who also abolished Hell
and Sin with the unfailing vehemence
and subtlety of his argument
before he was forced to fall silent?
Pity a voice like his was not heard
among the flock of seceders.

Scotus Erigena
An cuala sibh an sgeulachd
mun Scotach Erigena
a labhair an aghaidh an Taghaidh
dà latha, gun sgìths air;
's a chuir às do Ifrinn cuideachd
's don Pheacadh aig dìorras
is eagnaighachd a labhairt
mun deach a stad chum sìthe?
Nach bochd nach cualas a leithid
am badaibh nan Sisìdear

I take it that 'Election' refers to predestination.

HOW TO BE A TALKING TURD

So Shithead apologised - well no, he didn't. He said IF people were offended by his repetition of the Cameron dinner party table talk, he'd be happy to apologise. So he hasn't apologised, has he?
There is, of course, no chance of the BBC's unofficial spokesman on industrial relations getting the push. The ONE Show (one's enough) is live, according to the BBC. Live shows, we all know, go out with a minute or more's delay, in case anyone says anything reprehensible. So the BBC OK'd this incitement to violence.
Later, when asked if the corporation would apologise for offending millions, spokesperson stated that no comment would be made.
Then the manure started to pile up, and a mealy-mouthed semi-apology slithered out.
Let's try to imagine what would have happened if a statement of this nature had been made by a Muslim about Christians or Jews. I believe there's a law against such inflammatory speech.

The talking turd is on a million quid a year, and, as has been pointed out he works in the public sector, i.e., at the BBC. But his job's safe, unlike those of hundreds of thousands of the poorly-paid people he wants to kill.

Addendum (2nd December): I knew it -

But Clarkson told the Times that he had informed the One Show's production team of the details of his joke. A BBC spokeswoman said last night: "Jeremy had a meeting with a One Show producer before appearing, as is standard for all guests. The meeting is to cover the topics that will be discussed and the expectations the show has around issues such as tone and balance, and it was made clear where those boundaries lay."

So, passed for tone and balance by the BBC.

Over 5,000 people marched through Hull city centre today to show their opposition to pension theft being perpetrated by the millionaire clique in Whitehall. I believe it was the biggest demonstration in Hull that I've ever taken part in. As we made our way through the streets bystanders applauded us. I don't recall that ever happening before.
Many people were filming and taking photographs. I hope someone filmed the whole march from start to finish, and that they'll post it on the net. I saw one acquaintance with a camera on the roadside, and hoped he was filming, but it seems, looking at his website, that he was only taking photographs.
In the meantime, a short burst from the local paper.

I wonder if Malaysia is on Tone's money-spinning lecture tour itinerary.

I found this on facebook. Seems appropriate.

British companies targeted for investment in Israeli agricultural export companies

"The government of Goldman Sachs is getting a grip on one European country after another. On Wednesday we will get a glimpse of an alternative – not on paper or a petition, but when millions stand up for themselves."

According to a BBC poll 61 percent of the population support Wednesday's public sector workers' strike. So all the government lies are not working.
A missing figure from this survey is the percentage of the population opposed to the strike. It can't be high, as the BBC tells us that the strongest opposition is among the over-65s, but then tells us that just under half of that group support the strike.
The survey results, which must have come as a disappointment to the BBC, don't get a big splash. Slithy Gove's attack on the unions is higher up the running order. That's the little chap formerly known as 'Red Mike' Gove. The BBC's diffidence won't prevent the "Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation" tomfoolery being aired by the hominids on the government benches.
The Conservatives are making noises about increasing the restrictions applied to the legally most restricted unions in Europe. Personally I hope they make unions illegal. Then we'll be forced to build working class organisations that cannot get into bed with the class enemy.

Another statistic: people admitted to hospital at the weekend have a ten percent higher chance of dying. This is being blamed on lack of staff on duty.
The government's going to have to come out fighting on this one if it wants the NHS to continue shedding workers and closing down hospitals.
We may soon hear that the research that led to this result is based on out of date figures, and matters have improved markedly.
Or we may be informed that the research was flawed.
Or someone at the Department of Health will declare that these figures are intolerable and action must be taken to bring them down.
Apart from a search for a method of massaging the figures nothing will be done.

Conservative MP Richard Ottaway said strikes should be banned unless at least 50% of members voted for them. The prime minister replied: "Just one quarter of Unison members voted to strike, just 23% of those balloted at Unite voted in favour."
Unison and Unite only balloted members who belonged to the affected pensions schemes. Unison had a 30% turnout for its members in local government who voted 75% in favour of a strike and a 25% turnout for its NHS workers, 82% of whom backed strikes.
Unite workers voted 75% in favour of strikes - on a turnout of 31%.
Downing Street aides said the prospect of banning strikes which did not get the backing of at least 50% of a union's members was never "off the table" but added: "We are not at that stage."

Let's see now. General election 2010 - turnout, 65%; Conservative share of the vote, 36%: Percentage of electorate voting for Cameron's Conservatives, 12-. Post-Liberal share of the vote, 23%: percentage of electorate voting for Clegg's clique, 8.5-. Combined percentage of electorate electing (though not voting for) the Con-Dem conspiracy, circa 20%.
Not at the 50%+ stage yet.

Every time I've gone to wikipedia recently there's that unshaven, needy face giving me the Evil Eye. I was going to boycott the site for a while until I learned that there's an unobtrusive x in the upper right-hand corner. Press that and the bad screws are gone for good (I pray).
I've been trying to find out how much the randroid Wales is worth. No luck so far, apart from his claim that he's only worth $1 million. Nobody believes him.

While searching for the information I found this site, and learned that I'm the 655,895,612th richest person in the world. This places me in the top 11% globally. Still, Cameron and Osbourne are working on that. Third World, here we come!

I've just discovered the works of a lady who goes by the name 'Sedulia Scott' on the internet - very informative. I had to copy these definitions of French nouns (she is only responsible for the English translation) -

* Un gars : a young man
* Une garce : a whore

* Un courtisan : someone close to the king
* Une courtisane : a whore

* Un masseur : a masseur
* Une masseuse : a whore

* Un coureur : a jogger [someone who runs]
* Une coureuse : a whore

* Un rouleur : a cyclist [someone who rolls]
* Une roulure : a whore

* Un professionnel : a top athlete [a professional]
* Une professionnelle : a whore

* Un homme sans moralité : a politician [a man with no morals]
* Une femme sans moralité : a whore

* Un entraîneur : a man who trains a sports team
* Une entraîneuse : a whore

* Un homme à femmes : a ladies' man
* Une femme à hommes : a whore

* Un homme public : a well-known man [a public man]
* Une femme publique : a whore

* Un homme facile : a man easy to live with [an easy man]
* Une femme facile : a whore

* Un homme qui fait le trottoir : a paver [a man who does the sidewalk]
* Une femme qui fait le trottoir : a whore

* Un péripatéticien: a pupil of Aristotle
* Une péripatéticienne: a whore

The mother of Guillaume Apollinaire was described as an 'entraîneuse' when she was thrown out of Monte Carlo. I thought it meant 'hostess'.

Afterthought (24th November): 'coureur' can have a meaning other than 'jogger', which might be considered disapproving. I would consider it at best a euphemism.

After-after: I neglected to add a link. Rectified below.

I've had a couple of messages from my cyberstalker, who uses two IP addresses.

Just read your debate with vza on aacs. She destroyed you. Haha Yessss sure, business is evil.....Jemmy, do you have a brain the same size as a rabbit's? Meanwhile he can't explain why capitalism has worked so much better than anything else in building wealth the world over. But damnit, common sense and logical thinking never held much sway for Jemmy Whemmy! LMAO!

As I should have expected you misrepresented, mostly, my post here to vza. Deception being your hallmark, it comes as no surprise. But let me affirm her denunciation. I have always confirmed caitalisms flaws. It has many, some that are hard to stomach, perhaps. But that is just like mother nature. Even at it's worst capitalism is 10000 times better than any other system. As "bad" as you potray capitalism, you have no examples of where your preferred system has produced anything besides misery and decay. Cuba? N korea? The USSR? Pathetic. The tiny country of Sweden, with it's homogeneous populstion and singular culture, is the classic choice of all who defend your philosophy. Tell us, why not implement that system in Hatii and expect wondrous prosperity to ensue?

"Why not implement that system in Haiti ..." Haiti is capitalist country, also a country occupied by capitalism's most enthusiastic missionaries. This fool thinks that any other economic system would make it worse. To borrow from his vocabulary, hahaha. Of course, the fool could fall back on another of his arguments, that he deploys with care - the Haitian people are not white, so it will take them a thousand years (I think that's his usual figure) to attain the standards of the white man.

More on the name Emily, and its saintly bearers.
Aemilia (yes there were some), two virgins, both martyred at Lyon (Lugdunum) anno 177. Their joint feast day, 2nd June.

Émilie de Rodat, born 1778 at Druelle near Rodez France. This lady founded an order called the Sisters of the Holy Family, apparently an offshoot of the Ursuline nuns. She died 1852, and was buried at the convent she founded. Feast day, 19th September.

Émilie de Vialar, born Gaillac, near Albi in the Pyrenean Midi, 1797. Founded, 1832, the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition (?). Died at Marseille, 1856; canonised 1951. Her feast day, 24th August.

The above was taken from this site.

Emilia Bicheria, reliever of headaches and gout, appears to be this lady, Emilia Bicchieri. Born Vercelli, in the Piemonte region, circa 1238. The obit, 1314, is the same for both Emilias. However this Emilia is only a 'beata', Blessed Emilia, not Saint Emilia, which wouldn't preclude her from effecting those cures; continue your devotions, cephalalgics and hyperuraemics.
This is another nun, and founder of a convent - "Beata Aemilia de Bicheriis de Poenitentia Sancti Dominici, fundatrix monasterii Sanctae Margarethae de Vercellis extra muros." She was beatified in 1769. Who knows? Maybe she's been canonised recently.

(Lifted from Uruknet)

"If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can't find me nowhere",
That's because I'm banged up in an Israeli cell.
(Apologies to Pete Seeger)

"Is there a neo-con cell of senior ministers and officials, co-ordinating with Israel and the United States, and keeping their designs hidden from the Conservatives' coalition partners?"

We-ell ... neo-con cell, yes. Keeping the Post-Liberals out of the loop, maybe. But why would the Post-Liberal leadership have a problem with zionism or warmongering?
Clegg called the Iraq war illegal. His party, under a different leader, opposed that war. That leader paid the price for breaking ranks with his Privy Council colleagues.
One assumes that Clegg doesn't consider the Libyan adventure illegal, as he was part of the government responsible for that war. Personally I also assume that if Clegg had been party leader before the Iraq invasion and occupation he would not have paused for one minute to question its legality. He is a Conservative in Lib-Dem clothing.

The quote is from "Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran" by Craig Murray. This is an article that no British newspaper wants to publish.

Some thoughts of Professor Richard Falk on blogging and an approaching birthday (the (the internal quotations are from Yeats' poem "The Second Coming") -

"Overall, doing a blog reminds us of the art of amateurship (affirming the French root meaning of ‘lover of’), almost lost in our age caught between the mind of the specialist and the nihilistic effects of various cynical brands of postmodernism. The specialist impact on language exhibited by its impoverishment of the word ‘amateur’ to mean dabbler, or superficial idler who should never be taken seriously, and of the nihilist postmodern success in discrediting all forms of belief in a better tomorrow."

"Yes, ‘the center cannot hold,’ but that might, if true, be welcomed rather than lamented as it is the center that is mainly responsible for ‘the blood-dimmed tide’ that has been ‘loosed upon the world.’ Instead of (re)constructing centers, especially governmental centers, more responsive to our needs and desires, maybe we should think more about revitalizing peripheries or finding ways to dispense with or at least all centers of hard power for a while."

"My most abiding lifelong political commitment is to side emotionally and actively with the underdog in conflict situations without attention to ethnic, religious, and class differences."

"It is strange how we never manage to move much beyond the shadows cast by our parents ...

"I do wish that a year from now the lines from the Yeats poem will seem quaint and obsolescent so far as the surrounding world situation is concerned, and will be replaced in 2012 by a more life-affirming lyric that thanks time’s angel for spreading its joy to the world. Maybe by then we will think about people as much as we now dwell on the perils of the Euro! Of course, happily, life didn’t begin or end for me at 80, and so I can only become 81 in a state of expectant bemusement!"

Europe, as viewed from Hopetoun -

The Masters of the Universe are getting anxious about pseudo-democracy. Everything was hunky-dory until the subservient political class, once "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich", could no longer hold the line. The people are on the streets demanding that their elected "representatives" take control of the economy, start taxing the filthy rich and super-rich, and put a stop to the depredations of the the crooks and privateers.
The politicians are turning to the people they sold their souls to and asking, "What do we do now?"
The crooks, the financiers and bankers, seeing their frontmen wavering, some making sympathetic noises to the masses rising from their knees, turned to their trade union, the IMF.
Now the kleptocrapts' "beards" (the politicians) are being discarded. Time for the experts to take over, govrnments are resigning to be replaced by the so-called technocrats, who turn out to be bankers and financiers. These latter may co-opt some of the more docile representatives of the people to be thrown to the wolves when the sans-culottes bay for blood.
A bloodless coup, one might say, or the end of the puppet show.

Cameron knows what he must do to stay in Downing Street. He may have to increase police numbers instead of cutting them. There are streets to be cleared of riff-raff; banks and finance houses to be defended; scabs to be escorted through picket lines.

Addenda (14th November)
The new Greek Prime Minister - "A former ECB vice president (2002 - 2010), he earlier served as Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 - 2002. In 1980, he was Federal Reserve Bank of Boston senior economist. Afterwards, he became Bank of Greece's chief economist.
"Since 1998, he's also been a Rockefeller-controlled Trilateral Commission member."

The new Italian Prime Minister - "Earlier he served as European Commissioner for Internal Market Services, Customs and Taxation. He also chairs the Breugel think tank, is Trilateral Commission European chairman, and leading Bilderberger Group member close to Goldman Sachs."
(Stephen Lendeman)

R.I.P. Joe Frazier - maybe now they'll put up that statue.

"Not that most people would know, however. Philadelphia is the birthplace of American independence, yet its biggest tourist draw is probably the Rocky Balboa statue at the foot of the art museum steps. What makes the statue so depressing is that not only is it a tribute to a fictional boxer, but that Sylvester Stallone burgled Joseph William "Smokin' Joe" Frazier's life story for his Rocky movies. It was Frazier who worked in a Philly slaughterhouse, pounding the huge sides of beef in his down-time; it was Frazier who trained by running up those steps; and it was Frazier who went head-to-head with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s in a trilogy of fights now known as the pyramids of boxing."

(John Dower)

"City of London shame on you."

Film of IWW cleaners' protest on BBC website.

Cameron's al-qa'ida allies

"Remembrance Day is not long off and the period of poppy wearing will start in a few weeks. It is normal for the BBC to agree dates between which, for those wishing to do so, poppies may be worn on screen.
"This year, David Jordan (Director, Editorial Policy and Standards) suggests that poppies may be worn on screen from 06.00 am on Saturday 29th October to 23.59 on Sunday 13th November - Remembrance Sunday."
(from the BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards)

So now we know, poppy wearing is "for those wishing to wear them". Now the BBC is going to have to designate a token non-poppy wearer, in order to garner some credibility for this line.

A more legible version here.

Reminiscent of Wu Ming's declaration -
"They say that they are new, they christen themselves by acronyms: G8, IMF, WB, WTO, NAFTA, FTAA… They cannot fool us, they are the same as those who have come before them: the écorcheurs that plundered our villages, the oligarchs that reconquered Florence, the court of Emperor Sigismund that beguiled Ian Hus, the diet of Tuebingen that obeyed Ulrich and refused to admit Poor Konrad, the princes that sent the lansquenets to Frankenhausen, the impious that roasted Dozsa, the landlords that tormented the Diggers, the autocrats that defeated Pugachev, the government whom Byron cursed, the old world that stopped our assaults and destroyed all stairways to heaven.
"Nowadays they have a new empire, they impose new servitudes on the whole globe, they still play the lords and masters of the land and the sea.
Once again, we the multitudes rise up against them."

"Historian" Sebag-Montefiore, at it again -
"Montefiore reminds us, Yasir Arafat 'shocked the Americans and the Israelis when he insisted that Jerusalem had never been the site of the Jewish Temple.' He also forbade Palestinian historians to mention the fact."

No he didn't -
"Who on earth believes that Arafat--as much as I detest him--has ever forbade Palestinian historians from writing on anything, and who but an idiot would believe that Palestinian historian would ever take orders from Yasser Arafat. Imagine if Anis Sayigh, for example, received an order from Arafat along that line. But this reveals the extent to which those Zionists are so ignorant of the nature of Palestinian society and of the political dynamics of the PLO. Arafat never ever had the power to forbid any Palestinian academic from saying or doing anything."
(Angry Arab)