19 September 2010

19/09/10


The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true.
It is the chief occupation of mankind.
-H.L. Mencken

53 comments:

  1. Morning all! Some good discussions in the last few days esp on immigration.

    But chiefly I'm posting to thank spike for the music links yesterday. Only just caught up with them and the second piece by Oumaima Al Khalil had me in tears fabulous!!

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  2. Napoleon

    "I went to that exhibition. Very good. The rest of the Tate is cobblers though."

    Oh shit..and I've always liked it...but now that a real-life, high-brow narodnik informs me otherwise, I'll amend my tastes accordingly.

    Just one thing I've gotta ask: why's it cobblers?

    do we have a bit of a 'thing' about modernism in general...were you mobbed, harassed and 'space-invaded' by the brutish peasantry outside?... or is the Tate just a cesspit of affected bourgeois foolishness?...I can never remember.

    Then again...I suppose I'm coming over a bit "..but I know what I like", which is hardly a sentiment a noted intellectual guru is likely to feel compelled to engage with...ignore me.

    What football team do you support btw?

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  3. PeterB (from last night) - I wouldn't like to civilise the UT - it would be very dull - and I wouldn't like to see Turminder depart from it either; wouldn't normally have stuck my oar in, but that just struck me as a step too far.

    Now nursing a hangover as a reward.

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  4. Anne

    Just caught up with last nights posts. Second your praise for Oumaima Al Khalil - thanks Spike.

    The rest of the Tate is cobblers though

    I laughed at that MF. There's no accounting for taste. Personally I think the Tate Modern is one of the best exhibition spaces I've ever seen and has fantastic shows. I love everything about it - the building, the situation on the river, the views across London, even the millenium bridge.

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  5. Leopolds piece on cif about 'Strange Fruit' has brought out some strange neo-segregationist voices and the dreaded MAM - is holding court.

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  6. brusselsexpat on the FĂȘte thread, complaining because I'm not getting much stick and it's all so so so unfair! :-)

    @anne

    Glad you like it. Marcel Khalifa and Oumaima are brilliant and remind me especially of the days before fundamentalism took root in Lebanon and Palestine.

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  7. Here's a treat for you all you God fearers this Sabbath Sunday.

    Galileo was wrong: The Church was right, The first annual catholic conference on Geocentrism Nov 6th 2010.

    There's a range of speakers but the two that stand out is Dr Robert Bennett's Scientific experiments showing the earth motionless in space and Hugh Miller's Carbon 14 & Radiometric dating show young earth which I daresay is 6,600 years old.

    Montana, is Indiana near you? I'm on the KLM website ready to book my flight and wondered if you'd put me up?

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  8. I've always respected BTTP for his honesty about his Communist affilliations.

    Ha ha! Poor old brusselssprouts! I imagine she thinks that being a communist is a bit like being a 'homosexualist' in the 1950's or secretly strangling cats whilst pretending to be an animal lover.

    fwiw, spike, I too admire your honesty and have great respect for your courageous openness about your affliction. I myself have a shameful 'affiliation' with a little-known guerilla ballet group who spontaneously take our entre-chats to the uncomprehending inner-city peasants (but I would never dare admit to that publicly!)

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  9. scherf

    Having developed my own mental image of you - pulled from memories of some of the truculent Irishmen I have known, you have now added a vision of your good self pirouetting in a tutu and points.

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  10. Hello All

    duke

    thought you were joking ! But no - this conference really is going to happen.

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  11. Just had a look at that Your Grace - is there no depth these lunatics won't plumb?

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  12. Scherfig in tights. Phwoar! Now you've done it, Sheff!! :o)

    Right, now I have got my daily dose of gratuitous sexism out of the way...

    Afternoon all.

    Isn't it time to leave Bru be, though? The point has been made over and over again now, and all it does is come across as a silly playground spat on CiF these days. I know there are a lot of valid reasons for it, but it is getting tiresome, imo.

    Just my two penn'orth. Which, taken together is probably only worth tuppence anyway.

    I think I will go along to that conference as well, Your Grace. It's clear that I have been living a deluded life all these years. :o)

    Re Leopold's thread - as soon as I saw WeAreTheWorld spouting forth on there I gave it a miss, which is a shame really, but he does that to me. Either that or I would have to be prepared for a war (of words) of attrition, and I couldn't muster the energy. The man is a bigotted arse.

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  13. Leni/Sheff,

    there's a new speaker just been added lecturing on Dinosaurs-Godless Communism's greatest cold war hoax

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  14. I particularly liked this comment on the book Your Grace

    "Robert Sungenis and Robert Bennett have done a great service to science and to men of good will. Those who see the universe as the handiwork of the benevolent God need no longer be subservient to fairy tales"
    (Anonymous, Ph.D., MIT);

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  15. What is the theological imperative behind the geocentric view ?

    The sun is not even at the centre of the galaxy let alone the universe. How do this alter God's position in all this ?


    Is this - and Creationism - only about 'proving' that the Bible is the ultimate authority on all things known and knowable or something else ?

    Do these people really believe that the centuries of human endeavour to understand ourselves and everything else have been a waste of time 'cos all the answers are already there ?

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  16. Leni

    "Do these people really believe that the centuries of human endeavour to understand ourselves and everything else have been a waste of time 'cos all the answers are already there ? "

    Sadly, yes. I think they really do believe it.

    Scary, innit? :O

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  17. Sheffpixie -- thanks, I'd missed Leopold's article, great writing, and he gave me my first belated and very much-needed LOL of the day-

    " The rest of you can go have an orgy with MAM when he's finished drowning tonight's batch of kittens."

    My own life is a little er 'troubled' at the mom, but that is minor shit compared to, for example young Charles who is still in the process of learning (or not) what it's all about, and many others .

    I see that brookly trawled thru me posts to 16th june to totally misunderstand a minor detail of what I wrote then -

    Now apart from (your) use of the abusive term 'frog' when referring to French people here, with which I profoundly disagree",

    Pompous git. Gave me another much-needed larf tho .

    XX to all.

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  18. BB

    these people really boil my blood - this dismissal of all things human - diminishing us to something less than a speck, denying us of the power of rational thought and development ae the buttresses of everything wrong in the world.

    They allow even the atheists to declare that certain things are immoveable when it suits them. Such things as the inevitability of an underclass for example.

    Both use the same fallacious and stultified 'thinking' that says what was or is now is what must be. They deny any chance of transformation or change.

    Same thinking - just one lot put God at the centre while the other puts self interest.

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  19. Morning all

    Have the hangover from hell and whatever else may or may not be orbitting about my backside is in a state of total inertia.

    Regarding Duke's link the most depressing thing is the number of eminently qualified people who support such foolishness but by their academic standing give it some legitimacy.

    Right i'm off to make meself a fried egg sandwich.It's kill or cure time!

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  20. Paul

    Don't you just hate when people tell you to pull yourself together - get moving etc ?

    i am quite dearthled today - in the 'I'm going to' mode. Still - needs must .

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  21. frog

    i trust things are not too troubled.

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  22. Frog - whatever the trouble is I hope its quickly resolved.

    Paul

    a beaten egg in orange juice with a slug of brandy for preference but whisky would do - will set you up nicely.

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  23. Whew! Saved by the Berbatov!

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  24. Leni, sheff,paul etc: A few weeks old, but here's a cracking piece by Matthew Norman on the iniquities of successive Govts' posturing and scapegoating welfare recipients.

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  25. What an excellent piece of absolutely spot on controlled rage Alisdair - thats definitely one worth keeping. If only we could read similar in the groan but thats hoping for far too much I think.

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  26. @Duke:

    I'm afraid I'm about 500 miles from South Bend, but maybe several of us could bunk together to share costs. I note that, while the conference is near the University of Notre Dame, it is not sponsored by Notre Dame. Makes me think they're all a bit too batshit even for their fellow Catholics.

    Did you know that around a quarter of Americans believe that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old? About the same number still believe that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya. I'm guessing that, if you did a Venn diagram of the two groups, there'd be a lot of overlap.

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  27. Alisdair --thanks vm, distributing that article. My sister started Agency 'carer' work this year, ranging from Alzheimers cases to post-op, sickness and stroke convalescence at home . I'm wondering if some of the latter group are destined to go through the WCA system.

    Spike - you lost me there, even slower than usual. Still, 1947 was an exceptionally good vintage.

    Leni and Pixie -- pretty resilient, but moral support very welcome . Now cooking some garden spuds to go with that entrecote that was meant to be shared on friday night, patient about to take solid fgod fer a change:) Lovely day outside, so will get out a fergie and put some winter fuel under cover .

    I'm sure the age of the earth was 4,400 ?

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  28. Montana,

    it's no problem getting to yours.

    I prayed all afternoon and the lamb of God has just got back to me in a vision saying two of the horsemen of the apocalypse, pestilence and famine, will pick me up at the airport.

    They did say to warn you that you'll know we're coming when everyone in your surrounding area drops with disease followed by a widescale famine.

    So you don't have to cook anything for my arrival.

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  29. Dave

    They believe the Earth was created in 4004 BC so it would be 6013 years old, it's nice to be precise isn't it. ;)

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  30. Hmm. I could've sworn we had the pestilence thingie going already. What, do you mean to tell me that terminal ignorance isn't a disease?

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  31. Read the first two comments on this. Number of recs 15 & 13...

    Ignorance on so many levels...

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  32. Jenni -- please see above, mention of the Hungover Nightshift , be kind to an old man ;)

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  33. My bacon & egg sarnie only took the edge off the hangover, I'm going back to the pub, while I can still afford it.

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  34. @Dave

    Now you've lost me. Where did I lose you?

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  35. Get yer chops round a full Scottish, incl the haggis and black pudding, and a pint of tea, Turm. You'll be as right as rain.

    I've been off the booze lately - not deliberately, just driving a lot when out and, frankly, I could do with getting the pounds off, so I will stick to being abstemious for the time being.

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  36. berbatov-- but I am super-extraordinarily slower than usual today . 1947 was right tho ?

    I replied to the dreaded brookly on yr thread, 'mazing chap. Soon to be scroll-by event like Mam.

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  37. Turm-- so that's 4 in the hungover crew, My entrecote is SIZZLING now !

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  38. @Dave

    Oh, right, I'm the one being slow. I thought it was 1946.

    goes off and googles it

    Yeah, Stan Pearson on 11/9/46. The 46/47 season so fair enough.

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  39. Spike-- ferget it , I can't add or subtract at the mom ; just very tired, not emotional tho :)

    I see madeley on tax at waddya, so may add there . seeya

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  40. BTW:does anyone have a link to "Leopold's thread on CIF, I can't work out which one it is.

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  41. Hi All--Make that 5, small party last night. Wifey kindly cooked me late breakfast and I'm on my way again with friends over to watch NFL. Will I never learn?

    Duke, Montana--Won't be able to attend geocentrism conference as I must go to a BB King concert in Vancouver. Damn!

    Back later.

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  42. Just watching news....according to Cameron the nation is "deeply, quietly compassionate." Thats why our masters are shitting all over the most vulnerable I suppose....it's an act of compassion! There are times, there really are...

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  43. Sheff

    C obviously hasn't read Cif threads on benefits.

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  44. Well he can certainly rely on cif to give him the comfort he needs Leni...in that dark night of the soul moment..if he ever has one, which I doubt.

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  45. Leni and pixie -- reminds me of the memoir of one of FDR's speechwriters ( william seward ?) who recounted how FDR would read all the major papers, including one which was always hostile to him ... a good quote from himself on that slips my mind .

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  46. There are some good links at the industrialised farming discussion in the Editorial section. Hermit and jeremyjames there too .

    Looks like I will have to get my head around Permaculture .

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  47. If you disagree with Peter Bracken your argument is either risible or laughable.
    No clue to be given why either might be the case. No evidence to support the assertion; just the usual "I am right you are wrong claptrap"

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  48. You're writing doggerel again, chekhov :)

    brooklynowes is another champ .

    The MamBrooklyBracken Front-- strikes terror into the strongest .

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  49. I wish I was smart enough to write "doggeral"!

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  50. Ah well, can't be fantastically brill at absolutely every thing, gotta have the good things in life shared out .

    Nice one 'ere --

    Wal-Mart (and Woolworths, Coles, etc…): The High Cost of Low Prices
    Consumerism, Economics — by Craig Mackintosh September 13, 2010

    I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country… corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

    http://permaculture.org.au/

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  51. i chekhov

    try writing doggerel - it's fun. Will email you tomorrow when brain is working.

    frog

    Some good quotes there. I think my brain is ossifying (can it ? ) - i once went to series of lectures on permaforests. V interesting. NZ has done quite a lot with permaculture.

    Attempts in India to plant wheat with minimal soil disturbance (arid regions) - just scratch drill deep enough to plant seeds - cover with rice straws. Lots of interesting stuff out there.

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  52. Leni --- jeremyjames put me onto mob-grazing on permanent pasture . Its somewhere in this lovely site --

    http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/home

    Between that and the Oz permacuties above, I think I will take a break from financial studies . The Baltic Dry Index and the Shanghai Composite will go down the pan without my attendance.Fuck 'em.

    Going to bed sober, I'm all for innovation :)

    The answerrr loies in the SOIL, moi dearr, Aaargh

    PS direct drilling, planting 3 intermingled fodder crops together, all sorts of new stuff locally . Goodnight from Joe Grundy an me . XX

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