A Friday mumble

Normally when my concentration wains and my imagination wilts I save up a collection of (almost) one-liners which I grudgingly dribble out under the heading of "A Sunday Rumble".  However, today, with the temperature in the high 20s, I really do not have the energy or the inclination to delve in depth into various topics so instead I shall simply mumble quietly - and briefly - about a few of them.

Lying liars:  What is it about (mostly) Democrat politicians that makes them into such lying liars?  We all had a good snigger at the ridiculous John Kerry  bragging about his Vietnam war service - until some of his ex-comrades told the truth.  Now we have some braggard bozo from Connecticut who for years has paraded his Vietnam war service record and now we learn that he was in the Marine reserves and never left the good ol' USA!  As George Neumayr points out in The American Spectator, the American liberal Left has gone from spitting on the Vietnam war and anyone who was in it, to desperately trying to climb on the bandwagon.

The wages of laziness . . .   Is to be pipped to a post by Matthew Parris in The (original) Spectator (no link yet so go and buy a copy or better still take out a subscription - that's an order!)  Where was I?  Oh yes, WOTP!  That is the acronym invented by Matthew Parris for that obscure entity we call the Will Of The People.  More like the Will of the Wisp according to Parris and I agree with him.  Ever since the election ended, all the 'talking heads' and 'tapping fingers' have been going on and on about the WOTP which Parris maintains, and I agree with him, simply does not exist.  I really did mean to write something along those lines myself, honestly I did, but my terminal idleness held me back.  Anyway, I couldn't have expressed myself anywhere near as elegantly and intelligently as Parris does so perhaps it's just as well I haven't embarrassed myself - again!  Keep an eye on The Spectator site because it will probably appear in a few days.

'You never 'phone, you never call, you don't love me any more'!  Another good reason to buy The Spectator this week is an essay by John C. Hulsman who is one of those tremendously learn-ed types who fill up the ranks of various strategic studies groups.  In it, Hulsman offers some long-overdue commonsense into the so-called 'Special Relationship'.  The love-in between Bush and Blair is dead and buried - how could it be otherwise now that we have a president whose view of this country is at best neutral and at worst positively hostile.  If I may blow my own squeaky trumpet, I did warn some considerable time ago that America would become increasingly pre-occupied with the Pacific at the expense of its interest in the Atlantic.  One aspect that Hulsman does not touch upon but which I think is important is the unbelievably huge influx of Hispanics into American society who have no particular reason to worship at the Anglo-Saxon origins of their new country or its progenitor in the Old World.  Thus, a more realistic assessment needs to be taken of our mutual relationship, and that need not be a bad thing.

Oh, please, spare me the details!  Surely this must take the prize for the least appetising headline of the year:

Woman died after doctors failed to spot toilet brush in her buttocks

I have left the link open for those with a stronger stomach than me. 

Judge 'Cocklecarrot' Pallet:  Why are so many well-educated women utterly useless?  They have degrees and qualifications spilling out of their handbags but they couldn't spell the word 'commonsense'.  This particular dim specimen is acting as the Coroner at the inquest of the people killed in the 2005 terrorist attacks.  Under pressure from the families she has agreed to include enquiries into the actions of MI5 prior to the attacks.  There have already been two, or is it three, enquiries, so all this silly woman will achieve is to drag security service officers away from their important jobs to answer silly questions from a woman with little or no understanding of how intelligence services work.  Of course, it is perfectly possible, even likely, that mistakes were made, that is the nature of war - and it is a war they are fighting on our behalf.  Another spectacularly stupid woman, a journalist for AP News, described it as "a victory for victims' families".  Why?  How?  Even if some MI5 officer is criticised for not seeing as far into the murky crystal ball as hindsight allows - what does that achieve?  And how is it any sort of victory.  For fuck's sake, they're on our side and it's the terrorists who are the enemy!  (Sorry, I don't normally lose my temper like that.)

Additional:  Needless to say, another silly woman, Rachel of North London, whose blog had fallen into disuse, has suddenly lit up again - I would have put money on it!  Another 'me, me, me' merchant busy exhibiting the sort of stupidity which anyone with an ounce of self-awareness would keep hidden.  Here is an example of what passes for her thinking:

This was never about blame. [Oh yeah!] This was always about one thing: my hope that this never happens again, and that other ordinary members of the public do not have to go through what I have seen my friends go through. [Of course they will, you silly woman, this is a war and it is going to last for decades and there is no way casualties can be avoided.]  I pray that those tasked with keeping the public safe from harm will answer questions honestly and fully [They will do their best whilst their minds are really back on current operations aimed at avoiding imminent attacks - of the sort you want to be stopped.]  and in doing so reassure the public whom they are sworn to serve and protect that after the terrible events of 7/7, they have learned and implemented all the lessons that will save lives.' [Do you really think no lessons were learned, and are not continually being learned, in this hideously tricky asymetrical warfare?]

Why do I just know that 'Rachel of North London' has a degree in plasticine modelling from 'Uddersfield 'University'!

Comments

[Umbongo]

"For fuck's sake, they're on our side and it's the terrorists who are the enemy!"

DD you're forgiven for losing your temper and you can't say/write it often enough. You only have to see the endless succession of talking heads on the BBC bleating about the saints who have been miraculously repatriated to Britain via Guantanamo after doing a post-graduate degree in Islamic Pacifism at the Open University of Pakistan to realise that not everyone might agree with you.

[David Duff]

Thanks, 'Bongers', you have a way with words which indicates, to me at least, that it is time you started your own blog.

[JK]

Meanwhile in Louisiana (now whether this has anything to do with the BP spill or not - I've yet to complete my research - but the name "reads" like a Muslim terrorist, of sorts).

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20100521/UPDATES01/100521005/La.+man+tells+cops+God+told+him+to+stroll+in+the+nude+

I just hope they can get him into the care of the physicians at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre. He obviously needs repatriatriation to Great Britain.

[Umbongo]

" . . . it is time you started your own blog"

I'm flattered that you think so - and then I say to myself "is this DD saying, in the nicest possible way, that I comment too much and at too great a length . . . . . . ?"

Actually, about 4 years ago I did start a blog at http://thesageofmuswellhill.blogspot.com/ but (at the rate of 4 posts over 4 years) you can see that I don't have the application to blog on the admirably regular (and entertaining) basis that you somehow manage.

[JK]

I do hope this link works David. I know you'll see it a "a sign."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37271859#37271859?from=en-us_msnhp&GT1=43001

[David Duff]

'JK', as to your first link, at least his weapon was not concealed! As to the second, that was no rat, that was a Congressman!

'Bongers', don't worry, I'm not usually one for subtle hints. Also, I think that regular blogging of the sort I go in for is really a substitute for being an AI crasher in real life. I'm the sort of bloke I never want to stand next to in a Saloon Bar!

[JK]

David? Everybody I normally ask for translation services is out enjoying Arkansas' beautiful weather. "Aha!" I thought, D&N posted yesterday a potpourri of timely topics which required translating. So, might you explain to me David just what the Mayor of Chicago is saying?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2010/05/20/mayor-daley-threatens-to-shoot-the-messengernamely-me

[David Duff]

Tricky, 'JK', but it might be something along the lines of 'Yeah, I'll have another an' go easy on the water!'

An' waddya mean my prose needed translatin'? Pellucid, that's what it is, dear boy, pellucid! You just need new specs!

[dearieme]

Kerry was an interesting case - unlike almost all of the leading politicians of his generation he'd actually served in the fighting in Vietnam, and then he managed to undermine any credit he deserved for it. He was surely the most absurd of the main party candidates in, what, fifty years?

[JK]

Apparently I was misconstrued. David, you mentioned several items then went on to give me a better understanding of just how I should proceed should I ever land on a "Rachel of North London."

As we say in Arkansas, "she's a double-rubber gal" meaning, should the outer one break... or more correctly, take precautions not to land on her in the first place.

[David Duff]

"a double-rubber gal"! Truly, 'JK', you are an education!

Actually, poor Rachel was in one of the trains which was bombed and also she had a wretched history prior to that, so she deserves some sympathy - but not from me when she agitates on subjects about which she knows nothing and which will do more harm than good.

'DM', difficult to say for sure because they do seem to produce some 'lulus' over there!

[JK]

"Lulus" you say? Here's a 'thought' for improving an area of your life the Mrs will appreciate. With of course all the attributes I know you too appreciate. Republican, Fox News commentator, left Arkansas and moved to Florida.

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2010/05/mike_huckabee_is_the_key_to_gr.aspx

[David Duff]

I liked this comment:

"Lemma get this straight: The Huckabee Method delays ones ejaculation for a few seconds or does it kill ones sex drive for five whole weeks? I am guessing the later." [sic]