DUFF & NONSENSE!

George Blake R.I.H.

The "R.I.H." in my title stands for 'Rest In Hell'!  And I sincerely hope - alas, I don't 'do' praying! - that you share your space there with the late, and equally vile and treacherous, Kim Philby.  Did both of these despicable traitors truly believe that Soviet Russia was the idealistic heaven the world was waiting for?  That Stalin and his henchmen were the saviors of Mankind?  If so, they were both as stupid and ignorant as they were treacherous!

Alas for the mostly admirable Aussie army

The Australian army is a magnificent fighting force admired and respected world-wide.  It is, therefor, an even more bitter blow that their reputation has been besmirched by the activities of some out-of-control idiots - and criminals! - in a sub-section of their Special Forces.  Obviously, the main victims were those who were shot in cold blood but the subsidiary victims of those crimes are the honourable soldiers who took no part in the illegal killings but who have now been sullied by the incident.

We in Britain have suffered similar humiliations.  The reputation of my own Regiment, of which I am inordinately proud, has been similarly besmirched from time to time by the rash actions of some individuals in various scenarios.  Even so, those of us who were not there should hesitate before delivering judgments.  Members of both our Parachute Regiment and the Australian SAS are hand-picked for their natural (some might say 'un-natural'!) belligerence which in a war can be exceedingly useful.  Alas, so many of the operations required of them these days take place in civil situations falling short of outright war which leaves them subject to all and sundry to voice their opinions of the right and wrongs of their actions.

I hope and trust that the Australian authorities will act with care!

 

 

 

La (not so) Belle France!

Of course, being a Brit to my finger tips (although rumour has it that my toes might be Canadian!), I cannot resist a snigger and a chortle at the news of the former President of France doing the French equivalent of 'goin' up the ol' Bailey'.  Well, there's not much to laugh about these days so the sight of the diminutive but jumped-up Nicolas Sarkozy having to account for his past actions can bring Christmas cheer to us all.  Apparently, much of the case concerns 'loads'a moolah' shuttling between Sarkozy and some judge, and guess who is on the fringe of this, er, contretemps?  Why, our old ami, Muammar Gaddafi!  What's the French for "hoodathunkit"?

 

 

 

Australian shame

Sorry, mates, but there are no other words for it!  I refer, of course, to the just released report into atrocities perpetrated by some 'Aussie' soldiers over nine years in Afghanistan.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, the British army from time to time has 'executed' similar operations around the world.  Nor am I even slightly surprised that an earlier 'investigation' by the Australian military 'found' that the shooting was in, er, "self-defence"!  What can one say except, 'Yeeeeeeeees, quite'!

I'm sure that the overwhelming majority of 'Aussies' will be sickened and ashamed by this report which, at least, will add pressure to the useless senior ranks of the Australian Army to do what they evidently failed to do 'back in the day' which was to exert discipline!  Having said all that, were I in some crazy world to find myself up the 'sharp end' of some conflict, there is no set of troops I would rather have alongside me than Aussies.

 

 

 

Why do the people of Minneapolis all look suspiciously like each other?

I assume it is the result of decades of inbreeding which also means that they tend to shuffle round with their mouths sagging open and faithfully chanting the latest mantras issued by the (non)Democrat Party.  Thus, it was just recently that a majority voted in favour of cutting resources to their Police Department following the death of George Floyd.

Guess what!  According to Zero Hedge there were 48 homicides in Minneapolis in all of 2019. There are still nearly two months to go in 2020 and so far there have been 74 homicides this year. Doubling last year’s homicide number is not out of the question.

'HOODATHUNKIT'?

Well, obviously not the muppets of Minneapolis!

 

 

 

What's the French for, "Why am I not surprised?"

Or perhaps, a better question is, "What's the French for 'Bang him up!'?  I refer, au naturel, to that French pygmy - or should that be 'pigmy'? -  Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France and a leader - mais non, the leader! - of the European Union.  According to Zero Hedge, he has just been charged with taking back-handers from one of the most disgusting North African leaders of modern times:

Sarkozy - who was president of France from 2007 until 2012 - is said to have accepted around €50MM [my emphasis]from Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's overthrown leader, was captured and killed in 2011. As we noted, the amount was more than twice the legal spending limit in French elections for the time, which was €21MM. Gaddafi's alleged payments to Sarkozy also violated foreign financing laws and declares the source of campaign funds.

Rather shrewdly, Zero Hedge suggested that M. Le President should have followed the example of the Clintons:  

If Sarkozy were smart enough, maybe he should've opened up a foundation - like the Clinton's to accept foreign bribes donations.

They do that sort of thing so much better 'over there'!

 

 

Not "a naughty Tory" but a stupid, arrogant one!

I refer, of course, to Mr. Charles Elphicke, the former Tory MP for Dover and about to be resident of Wormwood Scrubs!

My instant re-action to seeing a hitherto successful man, in effect, drive headlong into a concrete wall, not once but several times, is a tiny dash of pity.  Alas, reading of Mr. Elphicke's trail of self-inflicted injuries as he constantly followed his erect penis into even greater trials (literally!) and tribulations, such pity as I might have faded rapidly.  Did he really and truly believe he was so irresistible to so many women?  The jail-time he will serve will be a severe punishment but the loss of his career and political power will be crushing.  How much grief the loss of his wife will be can only be answered by him.

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 5.7.20

Sometimes 'the cousins' can be a tad forgetful:  For example, some of them are huffin' 'n' puffin' because Prince Andrew refuses to go 'over there' and testify against Ghislaine Maxwell.  They appear to have forgotten that we are still waiting for that American woman who left a US Air Force base driving on the wrong side of the road and killed a young lad on a bicycle.  She, of course, instantly fled back to the States, never to be seen again.

I bid farewell to F1 racing:  Actually, I have been gradually going off it for some time but now that Lewis Hamilton, who is, I think, one of the greatest racers ever, has joined the unholy chorus of 'Black Lives Matter', then that's it, as far as I am concerned.  He can continue to go round in circles until he disappears up his own exhaust pipe!

Additional:  Perhaps I wrote too soon because I gather that several drivers refused to bend their knees.

Well done, Boris:  I gather from news reports that Boris is on the brink of cutting ALL connections with Huawei.  Obviously, my instructions to that effect have been received and acted upon!

You lucky American 'Peeps':  Have you heard the great news?  Apparently, Mr/Mrs/Ms Kanye West - don't ask me, I've never heard of him/her - is planning to run for the Presidency. Well, I assume it must Mr. Kanye West because his wife, Ms. Kim Kardashian is supporting him.    Should be a shoo-in, don'cha think?

A damned fine run thing that Battle of Britain:  As Leo McKinstry reminds us in The Spectator this week.  As so often in WWII we must thank German stupidity for helping us to win, not least 'Fat Hermann's error in ordering his bombers to switch from attacking Fighter Command's airfields to bombing London.  Hitherto, the German's had been aided in their near victory by the top brass in the RAF, especially Sir Hugh Dowding, whose operational tactics were hopeless.  Eventually, the likes of Douglas Bader who understood the necessity of attacking German formations with large formations, not penny packets, had his way. "A fine run thing" indeed!

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

The 'Old Bill' gets busy!

Like most people, I suppose, I have mixed opinions on our Constabulary - or the 'Old Bill' as they are frequently referred to. Not, I hasten to add, that I have had much contact with them!  I suppose, in my usual lazy way, if I was asked for an opinion on them I would come up with some 'smart Alec' (or 'Dim David!) remark to the effect that they were 'over-weight, over-paid and never 'over-here' when there was a burglar about'!

Well, not for the first time, I appear to have it all wrong. According to reports in The Telegraph today:

Britain’s National Crime Agency, with European law enforcement bodies, had spent four years trying to crack [a European IT] system without success. But in April, cyber specialists working with the French police managed to hack into the network without being detected.

They were able to eavesdrop on millions of chilling messages and harvest a treasure trove of evidence. Nikki Holland, director of investigations at the NCA, said: “It was like getting the keys to Aladdin’s cave”, while her deputy, Matt Horne, likened it to “cracking the criminals’ Enigma code”.

Unaware they were being spied upon, gangland bosses were unwittingly providing evidence the police could have only dreamed of. As well as drug deals and gun running, law enforcement agencies intercepted gangsters as they planned assassination hits.
In one case killers were intercepted on their way to kill a rival drug dealer.

Within weeks, more than 740 suspects had been arrested and millions of pounds in illicit cash, tons of class A drugs and vast caches of firearms seized.

Now that is what I would call a RESULT!  Well done, Constable!

 

 

 

Come and enjoy a bowl of schadenfreude

"Och! Och! Oh mein Gott, 'wotabloomin' lot!"  An old English - not German! - expression which might be suitable as a new anthem to replace "Deutchland, Deutchland, Uber Alles!" and all that sort of thing, given the antics of Herr Markus Braun, the mega-boss of the German mega-company "Wirecard".  No, I have never heard of it, or him, either.  Still 'n' all, as they say 'over there' in the 'Land of Mega Bucks', it takes some doing to, er, mislay 1.9bn euros!  What's the German for, "Look, I just put it down over there for a second and it disappeared"?  Thus, in effect, spake Herr Braun and the German auditor, "EY".

According to Mr. Ben Marlow, the City writer for The Telegraph:

Disappearing acts don’t come much better than that, except perhaps when Wirecard’s own auditor EY admits that it can’t even confirm whether the cash was ever there in the first place. Talk about a twist. EY has been looking after Wirecard’s books for the last 10 years so if it doesn’t know, then the chances of anyone else finding the answer seem remote.

Have they looked under the sofa, one wonders?

 

 

The final surrender

What is the point of having an enormously expensive police force if it lacks the guts to defend a statue of Winston Churchill?  And when will the people of London finally recognise that Sadiq Kahn is the most useless and cowardly Mayor of London since time immemorable?  He's not fit to sweep the streets of London let alone have charge of them!  Mind you, his quivering backbone is hardly supported by the utterly inept Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the policewoman in command - who giggled? - of the fire-arms squad that, in the wake of a terrorist shooting, managed to shoot dead the totally innocent, Snr. Jean Charles de Menezes.

That was in 2005 and, guess what, in 2006 she was promoted, well, that's how it works in the 'Met'!  Obviously, this week the gutless woman has shirked her duty to protect the statue of one of the greatest, albeit with faults, British Prime Ministers in our history, and instead had him covered inside a wooden shelter.

What would 'Winnie' have said of her?

And by the way, what has she ever done to deserve all those medals?

 

 

 

I am beginning - just - to dislike black people!

I have never liked or disliked them as a group before.  In fact I never thought about them! They were just there, part of the warp and woof of modern British society although, to be honest, in the mostly middle-class, provincial parts of the country in which I have lived, there were never that many of them.  Even so, today I am forced to quote one of my favourite Jewish sayings, "Enough, my life already!"

There was a time when public, black violence was restricted to a few punch-ups, or the odd stabbing, at the annual Bank Holiday black festival in north London. Now, they seem to be erupting every where and at any time and involve enormous crowds of malevolent people, black and white, intent on wreaking havoc on ordinary people's property.

I seem to remember, back in my army days, we used to rehearse riot squad drills designed to clear people from the streets.  It involved, if memory serves, marching in open square formation up a street and coming to a halt in front of the mob. The men on the sides of the square would turn, alternatively, left and right.  The soldiers facing the street at ground level would aim their rifles at the doors and windows facing them. The others, facing across the street would aim at the windows on the higher floors.  Two men from inside the square would run forward with a coil of barbed wire which they would stretch across the street between the troops and the mob.  A bugler would sound off to attract the attention of the mob - if they hadn't already noticed!  Then a banner would be unfurled inside the square stating that unless the mob dispersed we would open fire.

What happened after that?  I don't know because - thank the Lord! - I never saw it put into practice.  Mind you, my Regiment did execute - I choose the word carefully! - a rough proximity to it when they opened fire on a mob in Northern Ireland.  Not, alas, likely to be repeated in this our sacred Isle!

 

 

 

Oh, come on, Dov, just say what you mean!

Regular readers will have picked up on the  'irony ahead' warning in my title!  In it, I refer, of course, to Mr. Dov Fischer, of The American Spectator who has, shall we say, some choice opinions concerning the previous tenant of The White House.  For example and with my emphases:

I accepted Obama. I never articulated his first name, and I never called him “president,” but I accepted the results and accepted that this Pretender was our country’s lawfully elected chief executive. I watched his arrogance, the unctuous way he carried himself literally with his nose up, the way he never held a railing while walking a stairway because he was too cool, the kinds of human dreck he regularly invited as his White House guests, and I accepted it all with the soft whisper, “This, too, shall pass.” I watched the Corrupt Journalist Corps idolize him, crown him a king, admire him as a messiah and a deity, and I accepted the milieu. This, too, in time would pass. It meant living through eight years of the deepest public corruption. Lois Lerner stealing an election by leveraging the awesome power of the Internal Revenue Service to close down legitimate conservative political groups. Eric Holder — the nobleman who urged people to kick enemies — bringing lawlessness and corruption into the Justice Department, even approving the “Fast and Furious” idea of releasing lethal weapons to Mexican drug lords in the cockamamie scheme to find out how they access and move their weapons. Glenn Beck exposed Obama’s Maoist communications director, Anita Dunn, who walked children through the White House.

Riiiiiiight, Mr. Fischer, so not a fan then, I take it!

The waters did not stop rising on Obama’s watch. The Earth was not healed. On his watch, a country that finally had healed itself from the shame and scourge of imposing slavery on human beings more than a century earlier, a country that had atoned and that had created and institutionalized a new social infrastructure by which people no longer were denied because of their skin color or religion — a country that reflected that healing by electing a Black man president despite his manifest lack of personal achievement, close ties with an organized-crime felon, and questionable biography — suddenly erupted into a new era of racial bitterness. Michael Brown and Ferguson aflame amid the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” lie promoted by Obama and by Eric Holder but shot down by a Missouri grand jury. Freddie Gray and Baltimore aflame followed by a series of outright judicial exonerations handed down by a Black judge who saw that every accused cop had acted properly and lawfully. A lowlife killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, a thug whom Obama told us would have been the likes of his own son if he had had a son. Eight years of racial divide, social division aimed at tearing us up as a color-blind and religion-blind American People, just to promote electoral successes.

Weeeell, yes, actually, it's all coming back to me now!

When the Mets finally took it all in 1969, the other teams accepted the results. They lost gracefully. Now it was the Mets’ turn, and they had won it fair and square. But these past three years have been something different. Trump and Pence won fair and square. But there was no grace. Rather, there was instant character assassination, instant war, instant denial. Advertisements urging electors to violate their Electoral College oaths. Fabrications of collusion with Putin. Investigations that hamstrung a presidency. Lies and innuendoes leaked and published by the unindicted co-conspirators we call the “mainstream media.” A never-ending hunt to find scandals and Trump accusers: a bimbo who pole-danced at bars, her lawyer who now dances behind bars, another crooked lawyer who tape-recorded his own clients and now is locked up, disbarred from the Bar. One cartoon character after another.

Certainly that's what it looks like from 'over here'.  Rabbi Fischer, for that is what he is and has been for 40 years, is loath to hate but, alas, can no longer resist:

I have come deeply to hate. I hate that Donald Trump never was given a chance to be president of the United States for even one day’s honeymoon. I hate that, long before he won the presidency — fair and square — corrupt crooks and criminals in the United States Department of Justice, its Federal Bureau of Investigation, were actively plotting to take him down. I hate that there are so few outlets in the media that give voice to condemn the criminality and corruption that broke every accepted societal norm by which we play the game. I hate that Obama was in on it, yet continues to pontificate on what is just and on what threatens freedom.

In addition, Rabbi Fischer is outraged at the deliberate and vile destruction of General Flynn, a soldier who served his country compared to the smooth outcomes for so many corrupted crooks including,  especially, the utterly despicable Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There is something so evil in a society that tolerates a dual standard of justice, dual standards of everything. On the one hand, we political conservatives harbor profoundly deep feelings, but we do not destroy people’s lives based on abstract politics. Yes, we oppose them and expose them, and we hope that contemporary society and history judge them for the evil they represent. But we do not destroy them in their lives. They get away with everything. Hillary Clinton spoliated 33,000 emails amid a federal probe, a federal crime that always ends up with prison time — but not for her. It is a federal crime to lie under oath to Congress. Comey, Clapper, Brennan — how have they all avoided prison time? Strzok, Page, the whole bunch of them? Adam Schiff. The outliers on the Mueller team. Not one single slime among them in the swamp has been brought to justice.

Rabbi Fisher closes his passionate, outpouring of rage with a single deadly line:

There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate.

 

 

 

 

'Something rotten in the State of America'

I lack the energy these days to dive into the intricate details of the current 'mess of pottage' that is the political condition of the (dis)United States of America. The essence of the matter appears to be that the, er, 'sainted' former President 'Obamarama' was, in fact, "a dirty rat" of the very worst kind who led a cabal of crooks in a highly organised campaign of spying and subversion against the Republican party and their Presidential candidate at the time, Donald Trump.  Please read the long and detailed report on these nefarious activities over at Zero Hedge.  Suffice to say that whilst there is little doubt that the Republican party has its fair share of scallywags, the Democrat party is corrupt and criminal to its very core.  Former President 'Obamarama' must be running his finger round his collar as the heat mounts and he is in danger of wearing out the knees of his trousers as he prays ten times a day that Biden beats Trump in November. If Trump wins, and launches a judicial enquiry into those 2015/16 "events, dear boy, events", it could be the American equivalent of the 'Old Bill' feeling 'Obamarama's' collar!

Too delicious, simply too, too delicious!

 

 

 

I defend your right to hate

Apparently the Jocks, under the leadership of Mrs. 'MacWhinge' - whom I hate! - are getting set to pass new laws banning hate speech either written or spoken.  What's wrong with that, you may ask, but as is usual in the hateful game of politics, it is not intended to ban all 'hate speech', just the 'hate speech' of which Leftie nitwits do not approve.  As part of this, er, crusade, all blasphemy laws are to be removed from the legal system so the Christian community can look forward to a non-stop pounding which will not observe any courtesies.

If you think that this will open the doors to real freedom of speech you are dim beyond belief because, of course, the, er, 'freedom lovers' of Scotland have a long list of topics about which you must never - ever! - cast any criticism.  As Ms. Melanie MacDonagh explains in The Spectator:

How about these positions? That gender is not a social construct but a biological genetic reality. Taking issue with aspects of Islam relating to the life of the prophet of Islam. Expressing the view that abortion is immoral because it involves taking a human life (it’s forbidden to demonstrate outside clinics in many cities). Suggesting that the best model of parenthood is the heterosexual married couple. Pointing out that a man accused of predatory sexual behaviour isn’t guilty simply because women say so. Refusing to accept that all alleged victims of abuse must be believed, regardless of the evidence.

Personally, I am all in favour of permitting, or even encouraging, 'hate speech' - it says so much about you!  

 

 

 

Good news from Baltimore

I like to think of Baltimore as 'my city'!  No, no, not because I have any links to the place, heaven forfend, no, it's just that ever since I first started watching "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the numerous follow-on TV police series, I have always had a sot spot for the dump, oops, sorry, I mean city!  Alas, as far as I can tell, as the years have gone on, the 'dump' has slid further and further into decrepitude.  Mostly, of course, this is due entirely to the never-ending Democrat 'mafia' that has run the place for decades.  Like Chicago, it says much about the low intelligence of the mainly black citizens who year after year continue to vote these political crooks into office.

However, today there is good news in the fact that a previous mayoress of the city has just been 'banged up' for 3-years for fraud and corruption.  She is Ms. Catherine Pugh and I am happy to report, courtesy of Zero Hedge, that further "state perjury charges" are pending.  

 

 

"Australia’s Dreyfus case"

It is, of course, totally daft to step into anyone else's dispute but especially so, an Aussie one!  Even so, Australia has much to mull over in the Cardinal Pell case which has finally ended with his complete exoneration from charges of a sexual act with a choir boy.  I cannot pretend to any detailed, or even much general, knowledge of the case.  Today I am depending on the report by Damian Thompson, a practicing Roman Catholic, in The Spectator.

He describes the RC background in Victoria, thus:

There has always been a strong strain of anti-Catholicism in Victoria, which was traditionally tribally divided between the descendants of Protestant Britons and Catholic Irish. In recent years, many Catholics have, understandably, turned against the Australian Church, which has often responded by parroting the politically fashionable views aired by the ABC network.

Deep waters, methinks!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble 29.1.20

Life's an itch!   And no, that is not a mis-spelling!  I haven't, as yet, caught that impertinent bug so I have nothing serious to complain about but even so, being a grouchy, old 'geezer', complaining is my default mode!  It is the increasing list of minor irritations that are getting under my skin.  For example, today 'they' buggered about with the clocks which has thrown me into total confusion!  Not, mind you, that my life is exactly run to a tight time schedule!

 

Frankly, I'm delighted not to be in charge:   For a start, it leaves me free to 'grump 'n' grouch' which, as you may have n0ticed, is my default mode.  Secondly, I am uneasily aware that I would not be able to take decisions with a constant influx of changing advice based on changing information.  So good luck with all that, Don and Boris, just do your best!

 

In case you're worried about me:   And I heard that!  Down 'ere, in 'zunny Zummerzet' I am assured by 'Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph' that I live in one of the lowest infection rates in the country, only 31 confirmed cases in a population of 5.5 million.  That, of course, is only right, fitting and proper!

 

But is it all 'blx', anyway?   According to Peter Hitchens it is!  Read his article and judge for yourselves!

 

Even by British standards the weather is bonkers!   For the first two months of the year it did nothing but rain, rain, rain and then rain some more!  In recent days we have 'enjoyed' some brilliant sunshine but our smiles froze on our faces as we had to put up with non-stop freezing winds straight off the arctic circle.  Dammit, enough is enough!

 

This sums up the European, er, 'Union:   From the Daily Telegraph:

When Italy invoked the EU’s formal disaster procedure with desperate calls for protective gear and ventilators, no country responded. Germany and France instead imposed export bans. The EU’s single market did not exist when push came to shove.

 

Vomit-inducing, why do I read it?   I refer to the biography of the late and utterly useless Adolph Hitler which I purchased a few weeks ago.  I take occasional dips into it and each time it leaves me grinding my teeth in fury and disgust.  Not, mind you, entirely at his maniacal stupidity but also that of his Generals and political advisors who, without doubt, were the biggest collection of 'toadies', cowards and dimwits the world has ever seen.  Pass the sick-bag!

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

By Jove, Boris, did you feel that warning shot fly past?

Well, if you didn't then you are dimmer than a really dim thing!  I don't believe you are but even bright sparks like you can miss 'the bleedin' obvious!'  In yesterday's preliminary vote on allowing the Chinese company branch of government, Huawei into our national internet system, your working majority of 87 was slashed to 24.  The original mad idea of permitting China, a hostile state, access to our computer networks was totally lunatic and verging on traitorous, in fact so much so that I would set MI5 into a 'deep state' investigation into who, if anyone, in government circles was in receipt of massive 'bungs' from an outside source!

In the meantime, I hope and pray that even more Tory MPs 'man up' and prepare to vote against this act of lunacy!

 

 

Not all American judges are useless

The other day, in a fit of the grumps, I fired a salvo at the American judicial system so I want to make it clear that there are many honourable exceptions.  For example, Judge Royce C. Lamberth who is over-seeing the case between Judicial Watch and the State Department - or to be precise, 'HillBilly's role and actions when she was the boss during the Benghazi fiasco.  According to Zero Hedge, Judge Lamberth has ordered 'HillBilly' to provide sworn testimony in response to Judicial Watch's specific questions regarding her actions during the murderous action at the American consulate, in particular they are focusing on her use of a private and totally insecure e-mail system.

The net is tightening, let us all hope that soon it will be a noose!

 

 

 

The trial seems to say much about him but just as much about them

I refer, of course, to the trial of the exceedingly ugly and deeply unpleasant Mr. Harvey Weinstein which, I hasten to add, I have not followed in detail.  Of course, the 'villain of the show' has been exposed as an exceedingly creepy, sexual-psycho predator who used his enormous wealth and power to forcefully engage in obscene sexual activities with various women.  He deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his miserable existence.

Even so, as old 'Bill' Shakespeare would have noted, although in wittier terms than I can manage, 'it takes two to tango' or, if you prefer, engage in mutual sexual activity.  And that brings me to the parts played by the ladies!  If, to quote the old saying of the sadly missed 'Screws News of the World', the ladies concerned had "made their excuses and left", none of this would have arisen.  Yes, I understand that women are the weaker sex, not least because they never stop telling me so, but I can't help suspecting that some of those ladies involved might have had the teeniest, tiny awareness of what might ensue from a 'one on one' private interview with Mr. Weinstein!  Holly wood is, so I am informed, a hotbed (no pun intended!) of rumour and whispers.

That said, none of it detracts from the sub-human beastliness of Weinstein who, I hope but do not trust given his wealth, will suffer the remainder of his life under exceedingly harsh conditions.

And yes, I am standing by for heavy incoming from the ladies!

 

 

 

I am tested and will probably fail!

In this week's 'Speccie', Matthew Parris raises the exceedingly uncomfortable notion of 'evil' following last month's 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.  Of course, to most of us 'soppy' Brits, that ghastly 'murder machine' is the very epitome of evil but that may be because not much is made of Stalin's incomparable efforts in Russia and Mao's in China!

Be that as it may, Mr. Parris is surely right to wonder at the fact that so many, er, 'ordinary' people joined in the mass slaughter of fellow human beings.

I asked myself the age-old question: why? Why, how, could apparently ordinary German citizens have connived in this obscene butchery, assisted in it, or (in most cases) just turned away.

Answer came there none, until he was advised to read: "Ordinary Men" by Christopher R. Browning; subtitle 'Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland'.  Mr. Parris, being made of sterner stuff than me, accepted the challenge.  In the book, Mr. Browning relates his search of all the available documents from the Hitler period and the judicial records which followed.  He also makes clear that the men involved in the slaughter were not Nazi fanatics but ordinary people roped in for duty.

The personal testimonies are remarkably candid. The mission imposed upon these men was to kill Polish Jews, largely indiscriminately: not in extermination camps but town by town, village by village, in what amounted to systematised pogroms. Usually they’d herd their victims to field or forest nearby, shoot them, and leave the bodies. But often enough they’d execute Jews where they found them — at home, or in town streets or squares. Over the years this battalion killed tens of thousands.

I cannot possibly summarise Browning’s findings. Read the book! It’s shocking — in a sense even worse than concentration camp stories because the contact was so personal, man-to-man, man-to-woman, man-to-child, shooting in the neck, shooting brains out, again and again and again, all day, every day.

I should read that book, dammit, because in a way I feel it is a duty to the memory of those men, women and children who were slaughtered wholesale.  But will I?  I'll let you know in due course!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 02.02.20

Peter Hitchens is spot on:   Because Hitchens writes a column for the Mail on Sunday, his opinions are frequently repeated here - well, waddya expect from me - originality? - so today I have decided to quote one of his comments in full:

When a man tried to steal one of the few copies of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral, it was lucky that American tourists were on hand to help catch him.

Americans still revere our great charter. Most British people these days have never even heard of it, and would respond to cries of ‘He’s trying to steal Magna Carta!’ by asking: ‘Trying to steal what?’ 

Once again, I am happy to say, 'God bless America'!

 

There will be no change to EU hostility:   I don't altogether blame them, after all, we did walk out of their, er, 'exclusive' club!  However, if you think, or hope, that now we are gone, relations will improve - 'faggetaboutit'!  If anything, their venom will increase and the chances of a trade deal are minimal and shrinking.  In fact, they will take every opportunity to inflict damage upon us and I trust that 'DomBo' are busy preparing for WTO trading arrangements.  Mind you, I suspect that 'les euros' do not quite understand the damage we could return on them, were we so minded!

 

Bercow keeps on digging:   According to The Mail, Bercow has claimed that he was the target of anti-Semitism by Tory MPs but never by the Labour party whose anti-Semitism is public knowledge.  Also, he claims Boris cheated at a tennis match between them although, given that Bercow won 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, it doesn't look as though Boris was very good at it! 

 

Jeremy Clarke moans about Heathrow:  In this week's 'Speccie' he re-iterates its many faults, most of which I recognised decades ago when I lived near the dump!  When, eventually, I moved 'down 'ere to zunny Zummerzet', I made use of Bristol Airport which, by comparison, was delightful.  But bloody-bloody time moved on and a few years ago I realised that it had become a mini-Heathrow.  It was about then that I decided never to fly abroad again - EVER!

 

So-called "Smart Motorways":   For the benefit of my foreign visitors, on British motorways always - but ALWAYS - the inner lane is reserved for broken down cars and their unfortunate passengers thus allowing other cars to whizz by at speed.  Then some mentally retarded 'pen-pusher' decided that because the motorways were becoming so crowded, the inside 'safety lane' should be opened for normal traffic.  I'm not sure what the death toll is so far but it is mounting.  Perhaps we could tie that retard to a rubber post in the 'new' lane and see how long he lasts!

 

'Kindle':   The greatest invention ever - until the "Beam me up, Scotty" device is perfected!  As an almost non-stop reader, I still cannot quite believe that I can carry around with me 50+ books in a tiny plastic case which fits into my pocket.  Hoorah for the 21st century and all those four-eyed 'wierdoes' who put it together.

 

Islamist nutters:   They really are as 'thick as planks'!  I mean, time after time they choose the dimmest, most useless ways to slaughter us non-Muslims and end up dead themselves.  Is Mohammed impressed?  I doubt it!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

A grim week ahead!

Yes, indeed, I am not looking forward to next week. It will be the 75th anniversary of the capture of Auschwitz, forever a bleak symbol of 'Man's inhumanity to Man'.  It will, of course and quite properly, be the subject of 'meeja' attention but I will have to grit my teeth to take it on.  Not that it is the worst example of inhumanity, history abounds with them.  Even so, there is something utterly and completely revolting in the sight of men - and women! - herding other men and women and children into gas chambers to complete an industrial-style elimination of them.  Each time I catch a glimpse of old photos showing the inmates of Auschwitz with their stoical faces pressed against the wire I feel . . . well, actually, I can't quite summarise my feelings . . . a sort of mixture of rage and pity and impotence.  

Not a good week to look forward to!

 

 

 

The GOOD NEWS day that keeps on giving!

All together now:

Bang - Bang! Bang -Bang! And another one bites the dust!

I was a bit grumpy on this cold, dismal day until I came up here to my 'eyrie in the sky' and checked my computer for news - well, I wouldn't trust the BBC!  And lo, there was a report that another 'beardie-weirdie', murderous Muslim has been 'offed' by, needless to say, another gang of 'beardie-weirdie',  murderous Muslims.  Such fun!  

  

Apparently the rascal's name is Abdol-Hossein Majdami, the head of some militia outfit.  They can't blame/praise (you choose) 'The Donald' for this because it looks like yet another internal blood-letting.  Let there be more and may be soon they will have 'offed' each other and the normal Muslims can return to a peaceful life.

 

 

That Rebecca Long-Bailey ain't all bad!

Of course, her political and economic opinions are dafter than a really daft thing but she has her good points, too.  I like her frowning disapproval of our totally lax laws on abortion, of which Dominic Lawson writes approvingly in today's Daily Mail:

He informs us that:

She pointed out that while abortions could not be carried out beyond the 24th week of a ‘normal’ pregnancy, it was allowed right up to full term if the unborn child was found to have a ‘disability’. Long-Bailey said: ‘I personally do not agree with this position.’

 

Good for her!  As Lawson goes on to inform us:

 

I am not a Catholic. Nor do I share Long-Bailey’s political views, which are what you might expect from someone who even after the election gave Jeremy Corbyn ‘ten out of ten’ for his leadership. But for personal reasons, I am grateful for her criticism of the way unborn children with disabilities are regarded as suitable for eradication at any time in the womb, unlike those designated ‘normal’. [My emphasis]

 

Politically, the girl might be nuts - but she's got guts!

 

 

"How long until there are no Jews left in France?"

My shocking - well, I was totally 'gob-smacked'! - title is copied from the heading to an article at The Coffee House by Gavin Mortimer.  

Anti-Semitic attacks in 2018 soared by 74 per cent on the previous year and the figures for the beginning of 2019 have revealed a 78 per cent increase on the same period in 2018.

In 2017 an elderly Jewish lady who had undergone constant verbal assaults from her Muslim neighbours was battered to death by a Muslim man, Kobili Traoré.  The French, er, judicial system, er, sprang into action by showing the killer mercy and NOT charging him for murder:

Last month a court showed compassion to Traoré, declaring that he was ‘criminally irresponsible’ for his actions because he ‘was not aware’ of the adverse effects of regular cannabis smoking.

Yeeeeeeeeeees, quite, si tu le dis, if you say so!  Alfred Dreyfus, you are not forgotten!  

According to Mr. Mortimer:

There are 460,000 Jews left in France, and they desperately need more than just the occasional facile tweet from their president about how ‘Jews are and make France’. It happens after every new anti-Semitic outrage but virtue signalling is of no value.

The truth is that the French establishment is in denial, and has adopted the ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ approach. Yet evil there is. As one of the Halimi’s family’s lawyers put it this week, the leniency shown to Sarah’s killer ‘is a warning that society is becoming sick’. If this sickness isn’t treated then there will come a day in the not-too-distant future when there won’t be a Jew left in France.

There is something rotten in the State of France!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble 12.1.20

In which Peter Hitchens agrees - with me!   Well, obviously, that is a whopping great misdirection - or lie, if you prefer! - but I can with accuracy say that in his column today he repeats sentiments expressed by me a few days ago.  I expressed my hope that Labour would succeed in ridding itself of the ignorant loonies who infiltrated it and then took it over completely.  It is critically important because, like every other democracy, we need a functioning opposition, never more so than now when we have a government run by the, er, eccentric 'Boris & Dom' team.  Get a grip Labour and get your act back together!

 

Poor Harry, the Prince who chose exile:   Or, to be more accurate, perhaps, the Prince who was nagged into exile!  Alas, I fear an Edward/Wallis Simpson future for him.  On the surface, no doubt, it will be very exotic as he and Meghan 'cruise' the 'sleb' circuit, well, to begin with, anyway. But "that old common arbitrator Time/ Will one day end it".  Looks and youth will fade, money will shrink, invitations will wither; new, fresher, younger 'slebs' will capture the headlines and then the dread question will be asked - "Meghan who?"

 

More Hitchens!    And no, I am not apologising because he is a writer I much admire.  Today, in The Mail, he demands to know what has happened to the film "An Officer And A Spy" based on the superb novel by Robert Harris which detailed the disgusting campaign which eventually brought down Alfred Dreyfus, a totally innocent French army officer who just happened to be Jewish.  The film won 'yuuuuuge' plaudits when released but then more or less disappeared.  Mr. Hitchens suggests that the fact that it was directed by Roman Polanski, a self-confessed paedophile, is the main reason for its banishment from our screens but he also points out that if we are to be denied access to artistic creations simply on the basis of the artists' disgusting behaviour then we will lose a lot;

If so, what should the BBC do about the sculptures by Eric Gill, which adorn its London HQ? Gill’s sexual crimes were so horrible that I will only say they included incest.

As for the much admired surrealist painter Salvador Dali, his private life (by his own account) was cruel and disgusting beyond belief. Should his pictures be removed from the world’s galleries?

Whilst we wait for commonsense to apply, read Harris's book - it is superb!

 

Taki is still a very naughty boy!   As I keep telling you every time I mention his name.  To be fair, this time it is one of the writers at his magazine who is the naughty one.  I refer to Mr. Jim Goad (No, me neither!) who has provided us all with his choice of the 19 most annoying people of 2019.  To give you the flavour, this is his view of #1: Pete Buttigieg, a 'wannabe' Presidential candidate:

1. PETE BUTTIGIEG
Hey, it’s “Mayor Pete”! He’s the first millennial homosexual mayor ever to make a serious bid for a major party’s nomination. He has never had an original idea in his life, and the only reason he’s gained any traction is because he’s an anus-nuzzling bone-polisher. Blacks don’t like him, Hispanics don’t like him, and radical homos think he’s too boring. Whenever this smarmy little vole starts pontificating about some policy issue or another, all the entire world can think about is that later tonight, he’ll be batting around his husband’s testicles as if they were ping-pong balls and his tongue was a paddle.

Er, well, yes, if you say so Mr. Goad!

 

Look but don't touch!   There is a very 'swotty' article in The Telegraph which suggests that just looking at something alters its state of being.  This might help to explain it for y'all.  

 

Oh, come along, do buck up, it's all very simple really. If you are not sure whether something is a particle or a wave, just look at it!  See?  That quantum physics is dead easy, really!

 

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!   It looks as though ex-Cpl. Duff might be re-joining the Colours.  Apparently, our (so-called) Ministry of Defence has let it be known that they wish to attract old soldiers back to military service.  They are desperately short of recruits, mainly, I guess, because the delicate youngsters of today are failing to volunteer.  Anyway, I stand ready to return, er, just so long as someone can give me a hand with my back-pack, allow me time for a nap in the afternoon and bring me a hot cocoa at bedtime.

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Here's some good news - for a change!

The young man in the photo, Master Nicholas Sandmann, was a pupil at a Catholic High School in 1918 when some sort of demo-rally kicked off featuring some old Red Indian 'scrote' called Nathan Phillips, a well known activist on behalf of 'native Americans'.  Master Sandmann did nothing but be a spectator but was caught in a photo opposite Phillips and subsequently the photo was, er, 'adjusted' and the story put about by the 'meeja', mainly the WaPo and CNN, that Sandmann had mocked 'Big Chief' Phillips.  Screeching demands were broadcast that Sandmann should be punished.

The fact is that Sandmann did nothing other than smile politely and - SCHLOCK-HORROR! - wear a Trump-style 'MAGA' hat.  That was enough for the dimwit fanatics at CNN et al to launch their vicious campaign against Master Sandmann.  Yesterday, CNN settled a $275 million lawsuit brought against them by Master Sandmann.  OUCH!  Those useless, lying-liar, Leftie-journos must cost their employers a fortune - I'm delighted to say.  The WaPo and NBC Universal are next up in the dock. 

What can one say except 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind'!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 5.1.20

Both here and 'over there' the Left is loony:   I have been struck by the Left-wing re-action to Trump's decision to assassinate a man whose entire career has been dedicated to ferocious and murderous campaigns against America's allies and who was planning to extend this ferocity on to Americans as well.  The plan was, er, 'executed' immaculately!  Cue: the Democratic party dissolving into mass wailing and gnashing of teeth.  How odd that when the previous President did more or less exactly the same, it was 'all hail, Obama'!  It is obviously an example of the new colour problem evolving 'over there'; Black Good/Ginger Bad!

 

Meanwhile, 'over here' we can enjoy our Labour loonies:   This morning my TV screen has been filled with 'wannabe' hopefuls desperate to be the new leader of the LMP - the Labour Marxist Party.  I almost yearned for 'Jezza' to come back because this lot were the dimmest, dumbest collection of dimwits I have seen and listened to since, er, well, the election, actually, in which the MLP were as close to annihilation as you can be in a general election.  We all make mistakes but to keep on repeating the same mistakes defies definition.

 

'Anything Republicans do, Democrats do worser'!   Yes, America has its problems and according to the Democrat party it is all the fault of the Republicans in general and Trump in particular.  And yet … and yet … even a quick glance at those 'yuuuuuuuuge' cities that have been completely controlled by the Dems for decades, like 'Noo Yawk' or Chicago or Baltimore will show utter corruption, filth, poverty and conditions which are more fourth, or fifth world than third world!  Which would you rather live in - Calcutta or Baltimore?

 

I hope Boris has plenty of axes:   Well, first of all there is the BBC who need to be decapitated immediately, or at least, have the tax-payers' teat ripped from its greedy mouth!  Then there is this ludicrous HS2 rail system which, allegedly, will get you from London to Manchester eight minutes quicker even if it cost zillions of tax-payers' money.  Apart from the obvious question in this 'whizzy-do' electronic world we live in - who the hell wants to go to Manchester in the first place? - we all know for a dead cert that whatever the budget is today, it will be a fraction of the total cost in the end.  Get chopping, Boris!

 

Aussie news is lost in the smoke and flames!   The Australian, continent-wide fire is a colossal disaster quite beyond my British imagination!  I simply can't get my head around it!  And today I hear that it is likely to go on for months!  Of course, eventually it will end and then, I hope, a full scientific enquiry needs to take place because I suspect that management of the countryside has been a major factor.  Don't let the 'Greenies' and the 'Warmers' influence matters because they will ignore the science and simply chant out their 'religious' beliefs.  In the meantime, if any of my Aussie pals know of any proper fund-raising schemes to help support the distressed and the fire-fighters please let me know.  I want to contribute something and I guess many of my readers feel the same.

 

No more Rumbles 

 

 

 

Oh, how the mightily virtuous have fallen!

I refer, of course, to that 'saint of virtuosity', Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the holder of a Nobel Peace Prize, no less, who yesterday was hauled in front of a United Nations, er, 'court' to explain the wholesale slaughter of thousands of Rohingya Muslims executed by the Burmese army which has forced over 730,000 of them to flee their country.  She, of course, having risen to world-wide 'sainthood' as the victim of the ghastly military junta that really runs the country, eventually became the Prime Minister of it under exactly the same rule of exactly the same military thugs who once ill-treated her!

What can one say except:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

And what a pity old Bill Shakespeare isn't around to write a play on it!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 8.12.19

Art criticism at its very best:   As y'all do know, I am in a quiet way a bit of an old 'arty-farty'.  I rarely pay attention to art critics because I know what I like even if, sometimes, I don't exactly know why!  But here is a man whose, er, 'taste' I would trust implicitly.  Recently an 'artwork' was unveiled which consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall with a price tag of $120,000 attached.

On Saturday, the man, Mr. David Datuna, who is obviously of impeccable, er, taste, ate the banana!

 

Are you as confused as me over the forthcoming election?   Well, neither of us can be blamed given, as an example, two headlines in the same edition of the Sunday Mail:

"Tories scent victory with fresh poll showing late Labour surge has not materialised"

"Boris Johnson refuses THREE times to say if he would quit, should the Tories fail to win the election, as polls tighten with just days to go" 

I think I'll just stick to the pattern of the tea leaves at the bottom of my morning cup of tea!

From The Telegraph

 

Classic Peter Hitchens:   He is always a 'Must Read' on a Sunday but today he covers a range of topics all of which make you think.  I never followed his late brother and I wonder if he was a patch on Peter?

 

Hoot of the Year:   I am indebted to the Red State site for providing the hoot of the year from the lips of that well-known American comedienne, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  She was re-acting to that mummified creature who calls herself Nancy Pelosi who has inveighed against Trump's evil ways and threatened dire legal counter-measures.  'HillBilly' responded with these immortal words: “no one is above the law”.

 

If only!   Apparently that irritating little girl, Greta Thunberg, is complaining that 'they' are trying to silence her!

Well, 'they' are obviously not very good at it because she never shuts up talking total 'tosh'!  Good job she's not my daughter!

 

Why I no longer go the theatre:  Particularly if it is a play by William Shakespeare.  The pig-ignorant dolts who rule 'theatre-land' these days are an insult to my intelligence but not to theirs because they do not have any!  This from a review of Richard III in this week's 'Speccie':

This modern-dress production (co-directed by Sean Holmes and Ilinca Radulian) has been cast without regard to race, gender or age. Anyone who doesn’t hold a professorship in Plantagenet genealogy will struggle to comprehend the sinuous plot. Richard (Sophie Russell) enters wearing a white footballer’s shirt inscribed RICHARD 03. Clear enough. Margaret, played by a man, also appears with her name embroidered on her football kit but with the letters covered by a coat. An easy blunder to correct. Harder to fix is the sparse company which isn’t populous enough to serve the text. Matti Houghton plays Anne and two other large-ish roles. Colin Hurley begins as Hastings and morphs into Tyrrell, the Mayor and Oxford. Steffan Donnelly opens as Margaret and ends as Richmond.

Need I say more?

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 1.12.19

God bless 'Speccie' readers:   Well two of them, at any rate.  They wrote in to the latest edition to settle an old puzzle which has baffled drunks the world over!  How do you pronounce 'vermouth'?  Alas, both writers disagreed so we are no further forward:

Sir: Henry Jeffreys (Books, 16 November) asks if vermouth should be pronounced ‘vermuth’ or ‘vermooth’. I can’t go past Cole Porter’s song of ‘Two little babes in the wood’, who discovered that ‘the fountain of youth is a mixture of gin and vermouth’. Vermooth it is for me.

Sir: Regarding the pronunciation of ‘vermouth’, I strongly maintain that it should be ‘vermuth’. A resident of a well-known Dorset seaside resort would not say that they lived in Bournemooth, nor would a Geordie pleasure-seeker spend a beach holiday at Tynemooth.

Oh dear, I need a dry martini!

 

I told you the Poles were mad!   One of the courageous civilians who leapt into action to deal with the terrorist in London was a Pole called Lukasz.  Rather sensibly he armed himself with a 'pole' in the form of an enormous whale tusk which was displayed on a wall in the building where things kicked off.  Here he is in action on London Bridge with two others.

Well, makes a change from charging German panzers on horseback armed with a lance!

 

Oh God, now 'panto' has fallen to the 'woke' brigade:   According to Toby Young, in the 'Speccie' of course, good old-fashioned pantomimes enjoyed all round Britain have been got at by the PC miserabilists.

If you were hoping to escape the bilge that’s been pumped out by supposedly neutral organs of the state during this general election campaign — the BBC, schools, the NHS — I don’t recommend going to see a pantomime. Gramsci’s long march through the institutions has finally reached the last redoubt of political incorrectness. Say goodbye to bum-pinching, boob-squeezing and irreverent, smutty gags about holier-than-thou political figures; say hello to anti-austerity scripts, racially sensitive casting and three-hour lectures on climate change.

 

(Sir) Lewis wins again:   What an incredible young man!  Brought up in a council house in Stevenage but with the help of an even more incredible man - his father who once held down three jobs to pay for his son's early attempts in motor racing - he has now won the last Grand Prix of the year - his eleventh.  Only one thing holds him back - he must, absolutely must- get rid of that dreadful hairstyle!  How can he expect 'Her Maj' to entertain him to tea and a Knighthood with his head covered in dead rats?

 

 

No more rumbles

 

 

This piece of irony is more sour than delicious

As y'all do know, there is no-one who appreciates irony more than me and yesterday, during that incredible action on London Bridge, there was a major example of it and yet … and yet … perhaps I should explain. A Muslim 'nutter' went berserk with a knife on a London street, killing two people and wounding several others and yet sundry passers-by courageously decided to take the man down themselves.  My admiration for them is boundless.

However, according to The Mail, amongst these heroes - and I do not use that word lightly - was a Mr. James Ford, 42, who instead of running away from a dangerous man who might have been wearing a bomb-vest, he stayed and attended to a wounded woman.  And now comes the irony.  It transpires that Mr. Ford is, himself, a killer who had recently been early-released from a long prison term for murdering a young woman in 2004 by cutting her throat!  Sometimes, there are just no words I can think of, so once again I thank God for William Shakespeare who sums up the quandry in one brilliant phrase;

 

"What a piece of work is a man"

 

 

 

'Vee haf veys of making you luf each oser'

Thus spake a 'beacon carrier' for 'lurve' in the somewhat dumpy form of Chancellor Angela Merkel.  According to Mr. Thomas Lifson, who is, of course, a very naughty boy, Chancellor Merkel has a very simple way to prohibit hate and instil love - all 'hate speech' ist verboten!  Well, it makes sense because if you ban all 'hate speech' then obviously people will love each other - simples!  

Jawohl, but there is the odd problem which will arise.  For example, who, exactly and precisely, will decide what constitutes 'hate speech'?  And what do you do if it arises?  Burn books - again?  That didn't work too well the last time you tried it in Germany, Frau Chancellor!  And, of course, you do realise that banning hate speech will not banish hate!  In fact, with no outlet for their bile, the chances are that it will intensify and soon the 'perps' will remember the old adage - actions speak louder than words!

Time, methinks, for your late-night schnapps, Frau Chancellor!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 24.11.19

Thanks, 'Jezza', for being so honest:   Yes, you did read that right but please note that I do not suggest he was totally honest which would be a ludicrous suggestion as he faces a general election. Even so, he and his 'polit-bureau' have laid their aims and purposes face up on the table for all to read. In the unlikely event of his and his 'Marxist-Labour' party actually winning, no-one will be able to claim that 'they didn't know'!  Now, precisely what 'Boing-Boing' Boris will actually do when he is in office is much more of an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, etc, etc!

 

Time to say good bye, your Honour!   The remarkable High Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, has been carted off to hospital yet again.  She is, of course, battier than a really, really batty thing but, dammit, you have to admire her guts.  Apparently she is determined to serve on into her 90s not least, I suspect, because she wishes to deny Trump his pick for the Supreme Court.

Wouldn't want to come up in front of her for some misdemeanour! 

 

"Great balls of fire!"   Er, well, 'great balls of steel', actually!  That is what Mr. Elon Musk arranged to have thrown at the windows of his new armoured van at its mega-launch a couple of days ago in order to prove how resistant is was to any sort of attack:

'Shurely shome mishtake here!"

What can one say except 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind!'  Never mind, Musk baby, at least you set Xmas off with a laugh!

 

Let's hear it for Ms. Joy Morrissey!   She is the lady contesting the Beaconsfield seat for the Tory party against that 'dirty rat', Dominic Grieve, who, in his impeccably snooty way pulled every trick in the book to ruin Brexit.  I hope he loses his deposit!

 

A little taste of Hopper:   I just came across his name and instantly, no hesitation, I went to look for some examples of his superb artistry.  He is, without doubt one of my favourite artists.

Lighthouse at Two Lights by Edward Hopper

 

Hotel Lobby by Edward Hopper

 

Automat by Edward Hopper

It's not just the paintings but the untold stories behind them which Hopper leaves to the viewer to invent.

 

An historical view of Britain and Europe!   I draw your attention to a thoughtful article at the CAPX site by the distinguished historian, Niall Ferguson, on the hoary, old subject of Britain and the EU.  The good news is that he thinks the EU is going 'tits up' irrespective of anything Britain does.  Bring it on!

 

You may need to fasten your seatbelts 'over there':   I offer this entirely unwanted, and indeed, un-needed, advice to my 'Yankee-doodle' friends 'over there' who appear to be headed for exceedingly tempestuous times.  This extract from a piece over at the American Thinker sums it up fairly well:

I'm sure I am also not alone in thinking that Attorney General Barr, with his recent speeches, is using his bully pulpit to lay the groundwork for shaping public understanding and support for drastic action that should result from those reports and that he is employing high-octane, carefully crafted rhetoric to prepare public opinion for the explosive, controversial revelations — i.e., possible judicial proceedings against high-ranking members of the Deep State in the CIA, the FBI, and the Obama administration, including such persons as Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Rice.  [My emphasis]

What was that remark concerning "interesting times"?

 

No more rumbles

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 17.11.19

Those damned Dambusters!   I am somewhat over-hyped because whilst slurping my morning 'drain-clear' (aka: my fresh orange juice) this morning, I read that part of Max Hasting's superb history of the 'Dambuster' raid in which the actual attacks went in.  I found myself gripping the arm of my chair!

Can you imagine flying that behemoth, straight and true at night, just 60' above the water, with German AA fire streaming in at you?  The courage and the skill required defies belief!  Mind you, it is worth pausing to also remark on the courage and sense of duty of the likes of Cpl. Schulze, the son of a local farmer, who remained at his AA post on top of the dam desperately trying to defend against this seemingly endless line of incoming bombers all of whom were firing back at him!  All that courage, all that skill, all that scientific expertise - and all for the purposes of mutual destruction!  One can only echo Othello: "But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it! "  And it's worth remembering that it was very much and Anglo-Saxon enterprise.  The crews were an ad hoc mix of British and British  Empire men from around the globe and also included an American (Joe McCarthy - no, not that one!) who had volunteered for the RAF before his country was involved.  It's a terrific book - treat yourself - or others - at Christmas!

 

Poor old Oliver Kamm, up the creek without a paddle!   As regular readers know, I have not just a soft spot for Oliver Kamm but admiration.  I remember way back in the day, long before he rose to the dizzy heights as a leader writer for The Times, when he was just another blogger, er, like me, really! (Well, not quite like me because he has brains, intelligence and learning and all that sort of thing!)  Anyway, I have, sort of, followed his progress since then and occasionally picked up his 'scribblings'.  Like today, for example, over at CAPX where the poor chap finds himself all at sea now that he accepts the cold truth that his lifetime of love and support for the Labour party needs must end.  He appears to be dismissive of the 'il-Lib-non-Dems' and somehow I cannot see him ever voting for Boris, so the question remains, who will he vote for next month?

 

We can't see ya' but we can hear ya and smell ya'!   According to the Sheriff's Office in Clay County, Missouri, a runaway dope-dealer suspect hid himself away so well they could not find him.  Alas and alack, he could not control his wind and let forth an almighty loud and long fart which gave him away.  The story does not say how long the sheriff had to wait up-wind before carrying out the arrest.  Possibly the suspect had over-indulged in a slug of Barney Magroo's finest!

 

Movin' along from Missouri to Louisiana:   Bad news for 'The Donald' in a State Governorship election in Louisiana.  The incumbent Democrat who took the 'Repubs' by surprise by winning the previous election, now he's done it again to win a second term.  This, despite three visits from 'The Donald' and a 'yuuuuge' campaign by the GOP who were anxious to regain what they considered to be a safe Republican state.  Not the best pre-Christmas gift Mr. President was hoping for!

 

Does anyone really know the real Boris?   I ask because I haven't a clue!  But next month I will probably help vote him in as Prime Minister.  What will he actually do?  The only 'hints', broadcast across the 'meeja' at full volume, is that he will spend money like a drunken sailor.  I must ask my e-pal, 'JK', how that works in practice but I fear the worst.  Part of the problem is that I have considerable difficulty in understanding what he is saying via that gurgling, stuttering,stammering burble that sounds terribly posh but is mostly indecipherable!  Mind you, I have no problem understanding 'Jezza's' agit-prop and I tremble!  Alas, when it comes to Boris, all we can do is hope for the best but expect the worst and comfort ourselves with the thought that his 'worst' is infinitely preferable to Jezza's best!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

Farewell, Tom Watson and good riddance to bad rubbish!

The utterly disgusting Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader who swallowed whole the ludicrous phantasies of Carl Beech, a paedophile 'nutter', and thus helped besmirch the reputations of decent men, many of them brave former soldiers, has (at last) resigned from Parliament.  The reputation of the House of Commons is at an all-time low but his absence will help raise it several notches!  

Watson might run but he can't hide.  One of his victims, Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, who lost his job, his seat in Parliament, his home and much of his money, is already in legal pursuit of Watson and has no intention of stopping.  For Watson, the pain is just beginning!

 

 

Sorry to make you vomit your breakfast

Hillary Clinton (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Yes, I suppose that photo should have been accompanied by a 'Health Hazard' warning but, 'Man up, people', slowly but inexorably the noose is tightening around the plump neck of that disgusting woman.  Mostly this is due to the excellent 'Judicial Watch' organisation which is relentless in pursuit of her and her gross dereliction of duty in using a totally insecure and private e-mail system to conduct the business of the United States.  By the slow but steady application of judicial pressure on the State Department, whose employees, you will remember, crowded outside their offices to cheer her into office, the so far hidden documents are being dragged into daylight.

You may be tempted to repeat her infamous phrase in connection to the slaughter of four diplomats under her care and protection, "What difference at this point does it make?"  You may, indeed, be prepared to repeat the (in)famous phrase beloved of the London police, "Nothing to see here, move along!" but I hope, and get as near to praying as an old agnostic like me can, that eventually that ghastly woman is charged with serious dereliction of duty.

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 6.10.19

The difference between two brothers:   I refer to the Princes William and Harry and, no, I do not wish to sink in the mire of speculation concerning their parentage!  Suffice to say that they could not be more different.  William is the straightest of straight arrows, imbued with the sense of duty possessed by his Grandmother.  Harry, by contrast, is a loose canon careening around the Royal deck and likely to go off at any moment.  It's a pity because he is a courageous and likeable young man who did his duty in Afghanistan 'up the sharp end'.  Alas, his wife, I suspect, has an ego that far exceeds her brain cells.  There will be trouble ahead . . .

 

Will Boris blink on the 'chicken-run'?    As he accelerates towards the massive road block that faces him in Europe, in Parliament and in the Courts, will Boris lift his foot off the accelerator or will he push down even harder?  I do not know but the fact that he still employs that determined/fanatical (you choose!) back-seat driver, Dominic Cummings, would indicate that we should not expect the shriek of brakes!  Also, the fact that an increasing number of voters are sick of the whole business and simply want 'OUT', then it will aid Boris, when we finally get to the inevitable election, to show that he has been deliberately obstructed by people intent on defying the will of the majority of voters.  Bring it on!

 

Murray mints:   Do you remember them and their catchy slogan, "Murray mints, Murray mints, too good to hurry mints!"  I am reminded of them, for obvious reasons, because Douglas Murray has entered my life - BIG TIME!  He is, and has long been, a fairly constant commentator on all sorts of subjects in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, as well as being a prolific author on a variety of subjects.  In fact, I have just purchased his latest book: "The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity" so you can expect a review (of sorts) in due course.  He is a former practicing Christian, a homosexual, a strong anti-Islam critic and politically a conservative.  The Guardian described his latest book as "the bizarre fantasies of a rightwing provocateur, blind to oppression."  Apparently they are unaware that he also wrote a book severely criticising my old Regiment when in 1972 it shot 28 unarmed civilians in Derry, 14 of whom died.  So, an interesting fella' and I am looking forward to reading his latest book.  Also, of course, he is a contributing editor of The Spectator - so that's alright then!

 

Call in the Paras!   Apparently, the dim-dumb 'kiddiewankies' are planning to bring London to a halt for a fortnight whilst they protest about '_____________'  (fill in your choice of cause).  I am not really suggesting the military but the police, with the full support of the government, need to act with energy and, if necessary, force!  They might consider spraying them all with yellow paint!

 

Oh 'strewth, I just fell into a gay/queer imbroglio:  Even at my age I keep stumbling over topics about which I know little or sometimes nothing!  The world of 'gays 'n' queers' is one of them but, courtesy of Mr. Murray (see above), I now know very much more.  As I mentioned, Mr. Murray is homosexual and the opening section of his book is devoted to explaining this highly nuanced sub-section of society.  For example, did you know that 'gay' is the word used to describe the more moderate world of homosexuality where-as, 'queer' is the far more extreme version of it?  From that point on, Mr. Murray, with his piercing intelligence, analyses - dare I say? - the 'ins and outs' of this section of society.  I could have managed the rest of my life quite well without it but, dammit, I do have an enquiring mind so I am happy to explore different facets of life, particularly with Mr. Murray as my guide.  All I can say is - 'HOONOO'?

 

No more rumbles

 

The Sunday Rumble: 22.9.19

Who turned the sun off and the taps on?   I don't know but when I find out he, or perhaps that should be 'He', will get a slap!  We have, or at least, I have, enjoyed two incredible weeks of delicious, non-stop Autumnal sunshine - until this morning!  Needless to say, this non-stop sunshine occurred when I was on duty as volunteer 'garden waterer' to two of my neighbours, so every evening I have been trudging the paths acting as a sort of latter-day 'Gunga Din'.  When they get back they will never know the hard labour I put in - unless I tell them, which I will, over and over!

Talking of 'Gunga Din':   I sort of 'know' of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem but I have never actually read it which is my 'bad' because it is excellent.  Here it is so you, too, can re-educate yourselves:

You may talk o’ gin and beer
When you’re quartered safe out ’ere,
An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that’s got it.
Now in Injia’s sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin’ of ’Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them blackfaced crew
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din,
He was ‘Din! Din! Din!
‘You limpin’ lump o’ brick-dust, Gunga Din!
‘Hi! Slippy hitherao
‘Water, get it! Panee lao,
‘You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.’

The uniform ’e wore
Was nothin’ much before,
An’ rather less than ’arf o’ that be’ind,
For a piece o’ twisty rag
An’ a goatskin water-bag
Was all the field-equipment ’e could find.
When the sweatin’ troop-train lay
In a sidin’ through the day,
Where the ’eat would make your bloomin’ eyebrows crawl,
We shouted ‘Harry By!’
Till our throats were bricky-dry,
Then we wopped ’im ’cause ’e couldn’t serve us all.
It was ‘Din! Din! Din!
‘You ’eathen, where the mischief ’ave you been?
‘You put some juldee in it
‘Or I’ll marrow you this minute
‘If you don’t fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!’

’E would dot an’ carry one
Till the longest day was done;
An’ ’e didn’t seem to know the use o’ fear.
If we charged or broke or cut,
You could bet your bloomin’ nut,
’E’d be waitin’ fifty paces right flank rear.
With ’is mussick on ’is back,
’E would skip with our attack,
An’ watch us till the bugles made 'Retire,’
An’ for all ’is dirty ’ide
’E was white, clear white, inside
When ’e went to tend the wounded under fire!
It was ‘Din! Din! Din!’
With the bullets kickin’ dust-spots on the green.
When the cartridges ran out,
You could hear the front-ranks shout,
‘Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!’

I shan’t forgit the night
When I dropped be’ind the fight
With a bullet where my belt-plate should ’a’ been.
I was chokin’ mad with thirst,
An’ the man that spied me first
Was our good old grinnin’, gruntin’ Gunga Din.
’E lifted up my ’ead,
An’ he plugged me where I bled,
An’ ’e guv me ’arf-a-pint o’ water green.
It was crawlin’ and it stunk,
But of all the drinks I’ve drunk,
I’m gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.
It was 'Din! Din! Din!
‘’Ere’s a beggar with a bullet through ’is spleen;
‘’E's chawin’ up the ground,
‘An’ ’e’s kickin’ all around:
‘For Gawd’s sake git the water, Gunga Din!’

’E carried me away
To where a dooli lay,
An’ a bullet come an’ drilled the beggar clean.
’E put me safe inside,
An’ just before ’e died,
'I ’ope you liked your drink,’ sez Gunga Din.
So I’ll meet ’im later on
At the place where ’e is gone—
Where it’s always double drill and no canteen.
’E’ll be squattin’ on the coals
Givin’ drink to poor damned souls,
An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!
Yes, Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Dammit, now I really must read some more Kipling, he captured an era.

 

Is nothing sacred to the 'Woke' idiots?   In this case I am referring to the 'soppy sillies' who run the charity that in turn runs our National Life Boat Service.  According to The Mail, a volunteer life boat skipper has quit in disgust at the increasing stupidity of various management decisions based more on 'Political Correctness' than common-sense.

Last week The Mail on Sunday reported how the RNLI is spending millions on projects abroad, including buying burkinis for Muslim women in Africa.
Now we can reveal that the charity is slashing more than 100 jobs in the UK despite sitting on a cash pile of £126 million – and is facing claims of ‘hushing up’ the loss of one of its lifeboats following a fire on the vessel.

The disclosures follow clashes between the RNLI leadership and lifeboat crews, including the sacking in 2017 of a coxswain at a station in Arbroath, Scotland, after he failed to prevent a prank in which a crewman bared his buttocks.

Two crewmen from Whitby, North Yorkshire, were also dismissed last summer after tea mugs were found to be decorated with ‘inappropriate material of a sexual nature’.

I wonder if any of those 'PC softies' would volunteer to go out in raging seas at midnight to rescue mariners in peril?  Only, I suppose, if the victims first passed a 'woke' test!

 

Greta Thunberg is a dim, dumb, little, lying liar!   Yes, I know she's only a young gal but this grumpy, old man shows no mercy to anyone spouting, misleading rubbish!

As so often in this never-ending agit-prop concerning 'Global Warming' which the fanatics have now dropped as a key phrase mainly because it has been utterly disproven and replaced it with the utterly meaningless 'Climate Change', I rely utterly on the one man I totally admire on this subject.  Yes, of course, it is the superb Anthony Watts.

 

Dawkins well and truly thumped!   Alas, I don't have the time to summarise, suffice to say that Richard Dawkins receives a right hook, a left hook and a kick in the goolies from a man who knows where-of he writes and contradicts just about everything in Dawkins' latest book.  You read and drool over it here:

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/if-richard-dawkins-loves-facts-so-much-why-cant-he-get-them-right/

 

There's no justice in this world!   I have just read in The Mail that George Blake is still alive and well and living in a four-bedroom dacha outside Moscow.  This half-Dutch, half-Turkish, former MI6 agent betrayed hundreds of others to the Russians. 

 

To be fair, which I am not inclined to be, he was an exceedingly brave and resourceful operator, almost to a 'James Bond' level.  Even so, with deliberate malice and forethought his treacherous actions led to the deaths of hundreds of other men.  He should have died of agonising cancer years ago but somehow he dodged the bullet.  I can only hope he has a sad and painful old age!

 

The legal 'brown stuff' will hit the fan:  Either tomorrow or perhaps the day after when their Lordships in the Supreme Court issue a decision on the recent Parliamentary shenanigans.  Actually, I suppose, it will be more like political 'brown stuff' but either way it will smell as sweet!

 

No more rumbles today

 

 

The corruption cancer inside China will one day kill it

As old, regular readers will know, I have been boring on for years about the cracks and fissures that lay behind the inscrutably smug mask of Chairman 'Xi-ping-a-ling'.  My suspicions were aroused years ago by the sight of all those brand new cities they built but which were occupied by no-one.  That shrieked 'crooked money' to me and it could only have happened with governmental connivance.

Today, Leo Austin (and no, me neither!) has an interesting article on the CAP-X site headed "China's economy runs on corruption - and the state is scared".  So it should be because, in the end, you cannot dodge the inevitable laws of economics. 

Small-scale corruption is endemic in China. Every time a company wins a tender, or an agency is retained, or a salesman selects a distributor, a deeper relationship is revealed than that which is shown in the contract.

The impact of corruption on China’s economy is much larger than its cost in cash. These choices distort the market. They make it hard for new entrants to get a first break. They lead to bad choices on government investments, to the sustained use of the wrong technology, to the wrong manager getting the job. They add costs to every single part of the economy.

Well, to a greater or lesser extent that could describe the internal mechanisms of many different countries but not many of them have the all-pervasive, governmental controls with which the Chinese Communist Party grips its people down to street level.

Where does this corruption come from? Part of it is driven by the unfairness of incomes and a lack of opportunity. The state system was designed to keep people in their place and the Chinese people have raged against it for decades.

China has had a ‘hukou’ (or similar) household registration system for a thousand years now, which identifies and determines the rightful home of each individual, the place where they enjoy state education and medical services. If you are very lucky this is Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Shenzhen. These days, any provincial city is a reasonable outcome. But for most people it is a rural county.

In the end, like dry rot in a basement, this inherent encouragement of corruption will bring the house down and it can't come quick enough in China!

 

 

Well, well, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case re-appears!

Standby, take cover, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is about to resurrect!  According to the American Thinker site, someone called Joel Gilbert is poised to unveil a TV/film documentary on the subject.  Don't ask me why but that case back in 2012 utterly fascinated me.  It sort of encapsulated the essence of American society riven as it was, and still is, with racial differences.  Also, and more to the point, it showed up the American Left for the utter set of lying liars they were - and probably still are. Happily, in this case, an American jury of 'jes' ordinary folks', saw through the machinations of the prosecution trickery and found Zimmerman 'Not Guilty'.  

Now I am waiting for another book and Hollywood film along the lines of "To Kill a Mocking Bird", er, but given the hopelessly 'woke' rot that permeates the film industry I will definitely not be holding my breath!

 

 

Does anyone give a flying fig that Prince Andrew bonked a few birds?

Yes, you may call me out for raising the utterly tedious subject of the late, unlamented Jeffrey Epstein only a few days after telling y'all that I automatically skip any news report bearing his name!  Alas, now his sorry tale has been supplanted by Prince Andrew who, being a 'Royal' and all that sort of thing, is now the lead story in all the 'meeja' including, for all I know, the Church Times!  Mind you, I suppose that if he drives off the front pages all that 'screechy-weechy' hysteria from the anti-Brexit loons who are currently swinging from their own petards (too, too delicious!) then in my view that makes him "A Good Thing"!

So, here we have a wealthy, single, middle-aged man with time on his hands and a bulge in his trousers who pals up with a mega-rich, sex-obsessed bachelor who possesses an endless list of young 'fillies' eager to do whatever it takes to move in these, er, luxurious circles.  It is claimed that some of these young women were under-age although in this era of non-stop shagging I'm not sure that age limits apply!  Equally, I suspect that were you able to stop these young women on the threshold of Mr. Epstein's 'palace' and suggest to them that given their juvenile status perhaps they might like to think again, my best guess is that you would be side-swiped with a hefty handbag and told to get out the way and get lost!

If ever there was a 'typical man of our times', or of any times actually, then Prince Andrew is it.  Served his country 'up the sharp end' in the Falklands war, failed marriage, no ambition, plenty of money, a Royal title, time on his hands - what else would he do other than 'Bonk for Britain'?  In a way, sad and possibly a waste of talent but who cares?  And who the hell wants it plastered across their newspaper day after day after day?

Not me!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 25.8.19

Uncork the 'Champers' and celebrate!   My 'recce patrol leader' (aka: JK) informed me yesterday in comments below that the odious Michael Mann, he of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph which purports to prove global warming, has just lost his case against Dr. Tim Ball whom he sued over the good doctor's refutation of Mann's dodgy statistics.  (Actually, JK, I had picked up the news but I was too 'knacked' yesterday to post a triumphant 'Hoorah'.)  Mann and his lawyers, ducked and dived to put off the court hearing for 8 years but eventually, "Truth will out".  In the meantime, Mann's case against Mark Steyn remains mired in the US court system - with more than little help from Mann's lawyers.  Can't wait for the truth to come out in that court case!  (I should live so long my life already!)

 

So it's war!   And, of course, like all wars the collateral damage to bystanders will be enormous.  I refer, of course, to the US/China trade war.  I am simply - because I am simple! - unable to comment with any authority on the pros and cons of it except to say that I suspect that an increasingly belligerent and powerful China has been using underhand tactics in furtherance of its trade/political ambitions.  No other western politician would dare to call them on it except the equally belligerent Trump.  I just hope that he can fight the good fight as well as talk it!

 

MDJ writes excellent sense today:   Well, actually, My Darling Jane (Daley) writes excellent sense every Sunday in The Telegraph and today she attempts to search and make sense of the swirling, contrary tides beneath the surface of Anglo-European discussions.  On the whole she is hopeful which is more than I am - but what the hell do I know?

 

Now this will shake the rafters 'over there'!   I refer to the sad news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (86) of the US Supreme Court has been re-admitted to hospital for pancreatic cancer treatment.  I would not wish that upon anyone, er, well, maybe a few, but certainly not her who, despite her silly political views, appears to have led an honourable life.  Even so, the fact is that she is a hopeless old Leftie and her retirement would provide 'The Donald' with a gift to his presidential record.  No doubt RBG will cling on for absolutely as long as possible but were she to fall off the twig, hopefully 'The Donald' will have the chance, against a sea of opposition - remember Kavanaugh? - to choose an 'originalist' Justice, that is, a judge who bases his rulings on the original constitution. 

 

In which I worry about Brigitte Macron:   Of course, the lady is in a dire situation being, at 66, some 25 years older than her 41-year old squirt of a husband and, even worse, being constantly in the publicity eye of the world.  Thus, such are her Herculanial efforts to appear as young as her husband that she is in danger of appearing mummified!  Show your age, dear, and don't pay any attention to him!

 

But, Barack-baby, what about all that rising sea level you promised?  Apparently, rumours that President Obama is actually President Canute are true!  This is the new multi-multi-zillion palace country cottage that Mr. ex-President is thinking of buying in Martha's Vineyard.

  

Mind you, I'm sure he is only thinking of it as a chance to invite some boys from the Chicago 'hood' over which he ruled all those years ago to enjoy a Summer vacation!

It was the best of cricket, it was the worst of cricket:  Very, very sorry, my Aussie friends - er, we are still friends, aren't we? - but this must rank as the most incredible Test Match of all time.  In their first innings, England were skittered out for a truly embarrassing 67 runs!  They went in for their second innings facing a monstrously 'yuuuuuuge' Australian lead which most people doubted they would even reach halfway.  But they did it, by Jove, they did it, so now it is one each and two more matches to play.

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

What the 'Pell' is going on 'down under there'?

Sorry for the heavy-handed humour in my title but the Pell case in Australia is somewhat ominous - particularly if you are Australian!  For those unaware of the details, it concerns Cardinal Pell, an exceedingly high-ranked Australian Catholic priest who has been charged and found guilty of sexually assaulting two young boys in the sacristy of  St. Paul's cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s.  Neither of the boys made any complaint at the time and in fact one of them died later from a drug overdose.  It was then, or shortly after, that the remaining boy, now an adult, made a complaint to the police.

Somewhat disturbing is the fact that:

In March 2013, more than a year before any complaints were filed [My emphases] against Pell, Victoria police began their “Operation Tethering,” soliciting any “information” regarding inappropriate contact with minors at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. No crime had been reported. Requests for information were advertised in the local press.

In early 2017, the police told Pell that there were, as yet, no allegations. A few months later, they alerted him to forthcoming charges. Of his own volition, Pell travelled from the Vatican back to Australia to defend his innocence.

A trial took place in 2018 and on a majority verdict of 10-2, the Cardinal was found 'Not Guilty'.  Technically, that constituted a 'hung jury' and so the prosecution insisted on a second trial in which on that occasion he was found guilty.  Pell appealed against the result but the three appeal judges confirmed his guilt on a 2-1 basis.  The odd man/judge out, Justice Mark Weinberg, wrote this:

[From] the complainant’s evidence, it can be seen that there was ample material upon which his account could be legitimately subject to criticism. There were inconsistencies, and discrepancies, and a number of his answers simply made no sense. . . .

An unusual feature of this case was that it depended entirely upon the complainant being accepted, beyond reasonable doubt, as a credible and reliable witness. Yet the jury were invited to accept his evidence without there being any independent support for it.

In other words, it was one man's totally unsupported accusation against another.  To paraphrase 'old Bill': Something is rotten in the state of Australia!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble 18.8.19

D&N Health Warning:   Do not, under any 'circs', read Peter Hitchens today!  To do so might well ruin your health, destroy any vestiges of good humour remaining in you and even nudge you to "to take up arms against a sea of troubles'!  It might even drive you to 'do an Epstein'!  You have been warned!

 

'Her Maj' is above and beyond all praise:   As we approach the anniversary of the explosive slaughter of Lord Mountbatten, his 14-year old grandson and a local lad helping with the boat, I am reminded of the way in which 'Her Maj' conducted herself when forced, by State business, to shake hands with the smirking, murderous psycho, Martin McGuinness.  That she did so with impeccable manners is a tribute to her deep attachment to a sense of duty.  Happily, McGuiness died young aged 66 of a particularly gruesome and painful condition called amyloidosis.  Perhaps there is a God!

 

Only 74 days to go!   Apparently, according to the 'meeja', the Brexit Secretary, Stephen Barclay MP, has just signed the 'commencement order' which releases the brakes on the process by which we leave the EU on 31st October.  Note to self: must order in some 'Champers'!

 

I'm hooked on "Downton Abbey":   They have started re-running the series during the afternoons on one of the more obscure TV channels and the 'Memsahib' was captivated, so I suggested we buy the DVD box set and watch it in our own time.  It is a superb piece of 'TV theatre'.  Exceedingly well written and exellently performed, in particular by Ms. Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary.  Born and raised in Romford - yeah, Romford, innit, know wot I mean?! - her upper-class accent is superb - not least the way she very slightly elongates the last syllable of the last word she delivers.  It is impeccable acting of the first order and she is far from being the only one!

 

Another stray thought on "Downton Abbey":   Of course, the 'toffs' of those times enjoyed an exceedingly comfortable life-style but I am not sure I could have put up with the plethora of servants constantly surrounding them.  As a 5-star, lazy bugger of the first order, I would be happy for a team to follow me around picking up everything I carelessly drop but I suspect that after a while I would demand solitude!

 

Another difference between 'pros' and 'ams':   I would never have made it as a professional actor - and not just because I wasn't a very good actor!  Yes, it's wonderful, Darling, if you are one of the chosen few who make it to the top of the tree but just think about the vast majority doomed forever to play 'walk-ons' or even worse, perhaps, to be cast in a tiny role with five lines in a show that runs and runs and runs!

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Epstein - suicide or murder - who cares?

Increasingly these days, as my patience wears down to microscopic levels, I simply allow my eyes to pick out key words from various headlines which, when spotted, automatically cause me to click on to the next story.  Such a 'key word' recently has been "Epstein", a man about whom I know nothing and care even less.  Alas, given the number of 'slebs' with whom he fraternised, his woeful tale over-runs with 'yuuuuuuuge' possibilities for a starving 'meeja' and they have descended into a frenzy of non-stop 'ifs, buts and maybes'.  The man himself appears to have been the dirtiest of 'dirty rats' and in all honesty his suicide/murder (you choose!) is the best possible outcome.  The only thing of which you can be fairly sure is that all those wild, and getting wilder by the day, stories of who exactly did what to whom and who watched and assisted should all be taken with a shovel full of salt.  Eventually 'truth will out' but will anyone care?

 

 

 

The spirit of Auberon Waugh lives on, er, in David Cole, actually

The other day I mentioned David Cole, a resident scribbler at Taki's Mag, because not only was he exceedingly funny but he was also uncomfortably accurate.  As Waugh did 'back in the day', he can take a fundamentally serious subject and by applying the driest of dry humour to some common-sensical observations, reset your focus on sundry 'shlock-horror' stories driving the 'meeja' to hysteria.

Here are his opening paragraphs on a column addressing the problems of mass shootings 'over there':

What does a Japanese lesbian jumping into a volcano have to do with American mass shooters? I thought you’d never ask! Mount Mihara is an active volcano that sits on the island of Oshima, off the coast of Tokyo. For centuries, Mihara has been an exotic destination for suicidal Japs who believe that by jumping into the volcano their body will be vaporized by the intense heat, thus speeding the soul toward its heathen Nip afterlife. Mihara suicides have always been a thing, but an infrequent thing.

Then came February 11, 1933. Kiyoko Matsumoto, a 21-year-old student, had fallen in love with a female classmate. Seeing no future for her and her resbian rover, Matsumoto, after penning a heart-wrenching farewell note to her beloved, ended it all by diving into Mihara’s gaping mouth.

And a legend was born.

'Gotta just lurve' that phrase "her resbian rover"!  His penultimate paragraph more or less says it all;

For once, the news isn’t actually that grim. Opinion journalists [like bloggers!] will always inflate a problem to justify the need for their wise words of advice. But in this instance, ignore the opinion a-holes. They’re as full of hot air as a suicide volcano.

Quite so!

 

 

 

I do NOT under any circs wish to meet the Clintons!

Apart from the fact that everything about them indicates that they are deeply unpleasant people, what would worry me most is the extra-ordinary number of people acquainted with them who - ended up dead!  According to the Gateway Pundit site as reported via Zero Hedge, either in mysterious circumstances or by suicide, some 47 people, all connected to the Clinton 'family', are no longer with us!  And now, you can add the late, and definitely NOT very great, Jeffrey Epstein to the list.  He, of course, committed suicide - no really! - honestly! - in a high security prison just days after his first failed attempt, despite being under suicide watch by the authorities - HOODATHUNKIT?

Anyway, thanks, darling Hillary and you, too, good ol' Bill for the invitation but Mr. Duff regrets he will be unable to dine tonight!