The Sunday Rumble: 10.11.13

NO, we shall NOT remember them:  What the vast majority of us will do today is buy a poppy when the tin is shaken under our nose, perhaps briefly think of a long-dead relative we never really knew because we were too young when he was around, switch channels rapidly when we find our usual Sunday morning programmes filled with scenes from the Cenotaph and then get off down the pub to watch the Arsenal play Man United on the 'telly'.  Not, mind you, that I think this is wrong; it is, so to speak, 'in the way of things'.  To go too far in the opposite direction and to have state encouragement for a sort of hysterical, orchestrated, national 'wail-in' would be positively North Korean!

"Blow, wind and crack your cheeks":  Thus, shouted that mad, stupid but brave, old man, Lear, as he waved his puny fists at a pitiless cosmos.  I doubt many of the pitiable people in south east Asia had time for that as they struggled to survive the hurricane/tornado that 'blasted their particular heath'.  Still, as the political saying goes, it's an ill-emergency that doesn't blow someone something good and the Warm Greenie Slimes are already at it, according M' Lord 'Bishop' Hill:

Jamie Henn of 350.org calls the storm a wake-up call for the upcoming UN climate summit. Simon Redfern in the Mirror says we should expect more
such storms in future.

'Bishop' Hill quickly deposits that in the dustbin for recycled lies:

Meanwhile, we learn of this 2004 paleoclimate reconstruction of hurricane
landfalls in South-eastern China. The conclusions seem to contradict the
wild claims of the drama greens more than somewhat: 

Remarkably, the two periods of most frequent typhoon strikes in Guangdong (AD
1660–1680, 1850–1880) coincide with two of the coldest and driest periods in
northern and central China during the Little Ice Age.

 

Barroso gains an 'F' in European history:  And so the President of the European Commission demonstrates his ignorance of European and Churchillian history by suggesting that Churchill's words in 1948 indicated the great man's wish for Britain to be part of a new, united Europe.  Oddly enough, I had just passed that particular episode in Richard Holmes's superb single-volume biography of Churchill and in it he makes clear that whilst Churchill wanted Europe to coalesce in a union of sovereign states he had no intention that Britain should join it.  The normally acerbic Richard North is surprisingly restrained in pointing this out to 'President' Barroso, giving him the equivalent of fifty lines instead of sending him to the headmaster for six of the best! 

 

 

 Corky again - and again:  I found 'Corky Again' some time ago but in my stumble-thumb way I lost him whilst tidying up my 'favourites' folder - see, as I never stop telling the 'Memsahib' when she moans about the state of my garret, too much tidying is a disaster in the making!  Anyway, I re-found (is that a word?) 'Corky Again' just recently and his current post is worth a read if you are feeling in a philosophical mood today.  'Corky' is that rarity, a man who can write on the complexities of philosophy in plain English.

 

Bits and bobs: That's 'bobs' as in the old English expression for a shilling piece.  The 'bits' is the English expression for a new currency called 'BitCoin'.  This 'currency' exists only in the imagination, or the internet, as some people call it!  Even so, this 'figment of someone's imagination' has risen to $325 which is enough to give me pause.  I cannot explain it to you but you may visit HERE and HERE and the writers concerned will partially lift the veil.  As far as I am concerned the main attraction of 'BitCoin' is that it operates completely outside the control of any government - for the moment, anyway!

 

Talking of old wars:  Which I was doing in my opening 'rumble', I have finally got round to starting a book on another old and famous (infamous, perhaps?) war about which I know very little - The American Civil War by the late John Keegan.  I only read the Introduction and before I even reached Chaper One I was already groaning in anguish.  Just like WWI and WWII, there was an awful inevitability about it.  Those three usual rascals were involved - Principle, Politics and Money!  Nothing was going to solve the impasse except that great leveller - War.  "Oh, the pity of it!"

 

An American takes an outside look at America:

  "O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as ithers see us!"  Thus, spake 'Rabbie' Burns over 200 years ago and that, more or less is what Thomas L Friedman is begging his fellow Americans to pray for.  He quotes another American observer who like him is a frequent visitor to Singapore and who recognised that "you know that all the modernity and prosperity you see here [in Singapore] is not based on natural resources but on a natural resourcefulness".  That used to be the proud boast of the USA but as Friedman points out, "[H]ow could the people who gave us Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, HP and Google not be able to build a workable health care website? I know it had 5 million users, but there are 48 million Indonesians on Facebook!"  Worth reading!

NEW COMMENT POLICY:  Dealing with this spam attack is tiresome!  I cut down the time interval at which I would accept comments from 6 months to one month but they still managed to sneak them into posts which were about three weeks old so now I have stopped accepting comments after two weeks!  So, if you have anything to say, say it quick!  If that works and the spams fall off I will extend the 'opening hours', as it were, back to where they were.  I have asked TypePad if it is possible for commenters to request that they be placed on an 'approved list' so that the spams can be stopped at source.  I await an answer.  If it is negative then I might adopt the system used by others of not printing comments until I have approved them - which I am reluctant to do because it rather spoils the sponteneity.  Anyway, for the moment, two weeks and then the comments on any particular post will close.

 

No more rumbles today

 

 

Comments

[dearieme]

When I was wee we had a proper parade on the eleventh in the town square. It made sense more than fifty years ago - there were survivors, widows, orphans.

[libertybelle]

For the "Warm Greenie Slimes": Unusual quiet hurricane and tornado season on this side of the pond, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/06/extreme-weather-snoozer-no-hurricanes-and-low-tornado-numbers-in-2013/

[David Duff]

Quite so, DM, but these days there is more than just a taste of mawkish sentimentality to it.

"Unusual quiet hurricane and tornado season"! What! This is deeply significant of, er, well, something to do with man-made global warming, obviously . . .

[dearieme]

"That used to be the proud boast of the USA": yes, but untrue. America had the handy combination of wonderfully abundant natural resources and no need to spend a great deal on armies to defend them.

[David Duff]

True up to WWII but there-after they spent fortunes on defence, and yet, at the same time they made amazing leaps forward in computers and the like. Even so, they are now in great danger of suffering with sclerosis!

[Dom]

America's defense bill is humongous. I lean towards the pacifist side, so I wish it were otherwise.

The ACA website is the typical government snafu. They could have gone to amazon, google, Facebook, whatever, and said "let us use the same people you used". Instead, they went to an unknown Canadian company. There may have been some sort of back scratching involved.

But the real issue is, what do we mean by a website that works? It has worked in a few cases, and people were dropped from their insurance carriers, or found their premiums increased.

[Glesga]

I always lean towards defense whatever the cost.

[David Duff]

If it is any consolation, Dom, we suffer the same problems 'over here'. I don't think there has been any government IT plan that hasn't cost zillions and then had to be scrapped. The latest is in our Nation(alised) Health Service ("The envy of the world").

But Jimmy, as a small power we need to differentiate between 'defence' and 'projection of power'. We definitely need the former but these days we do not need, and cannot afford, the latter.

[JK]

David?

Your new policy of limiting comments to two weeks - that doesn't imply I'll be restrained from hitting your archives whenever you come up with a "new prediction" so I can add to the conversation a link from your "past predictions"?

(I'm just interested in maintaining your reputation you understand?)

[JK]

Lessee ...

http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2008/09/president-mccain.html

[David Duff]

Yes, indeed, JK, you remain free to peruse and quote any of my past prognostications and, of course, I will be free to quote some of your responses. For instance, to the link you made above you stated:

"I agree with a good deal of your analysis"!

Very wise, er, well, actually, dead dumb because I was almost exactly 180 degrees wrong! So no change there, then!

[Glesga]

David if we are seen to be weak then some others may well project their power against us. We have to keep history in mind.

[David Duff]

Jimmy, we will not "appear weak" if we build up our *defences* which, in our straightened circumstances, does not include projecting power overseas.