(0818) Greetings again, all, at a more respectable hour. Saving Steve’s up, plus DAD’s second, for Mon [11 to 15]. (0833)
10. Moo corner
9. Woke left women and girls
8. Meanwhile, in communist Britain
7. Exchange rates and rentals
6. Much early news is from the far flung realms
One of the crossbeams has gone out of skew on the treadle?
(0434) Please read item 1 today … then maybe even 2, 3, 4 and 5 … know you will but juss sayin’. For more rivetting “advice”, please see the next post. (0602)
5. Fulfilment
4. It’s straight out genocide, nothing else
3. A certain Matt Roberts at Lord Toby’s site writes
“Silly season no longer seems to arrive. Every summer now brings another existential crisis demanding constant commentary. Brexit negotiations gave way to Covid and lockdowns. Covid gave way to Ukraine. Ukraine gave way to inflation, leadership contests, small boats, riots and a seemingly endless succession of emergencies. Westminster has become a theatre in permanent performance. There is no interval, and the actors never leave the stage. There is only crisis.
In the midst of all these crises, each year there seem to be more calls for Parliament to shorten its summer recess. Ministers, we are told, should remain in their departments to deal with the latest furore. Increasingly, I find myself wishing the opposite. Not because the country faces no serious problems, but because so much of what now passes for governing consists of performance rather than the exercise of power: full of sound and fury, signifying… nothing.”
Not sure why any of us of a certain vintage should be surprised … we had our formative years, our “match and procreate” phase, our consolidation phase when we truly lived to the most, then our gradual irrelevance over some decades. I’m thinking that once we get to four generations there, anything else becomes a bonus.
“Silly season” was very much a net phenomenon in the mid 2000s, to the point Man in a Shed ran a competition to see who could come up with the silliest story. It would be nice if the civic mood were still “silly in summer” but there it is.
2. DAD at 1450
a) Following accusations of illegally leaking banking information relating to Reform UK, including transactions involving deputy leader Richard Tice, the National Crime Agency said on Friday that it has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for investigation…..
b) The French government’s new social media law is presented as a safeguard for minors, but critics warn it creates the infrastructure for mass identity verification.
c) Top French Bishop: “Catholic lawmakers’ who support assisted suicide should not receive Communion”.
d) France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux [National Gambling Authority] has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket.
e) French Protesters Target Ukrainian Troops At Bastille Day Parade In Paris.
1. Keep your friendships in good repair
… and while you’re there … your internet connection.
For those who were of that blogging era, LegIron has returned, plus Ripper has commented here under Sunday 6. In a trifecta, I found a youtube last night in which my stepfather’s military unit interviewed him in 2004/and he spoke of his war experience. It was him all right … he died I think in 2005/6, my mother years before, my dad eons before that.
I do have photos of those three here but we’re talking twenty plus years now. Last night, I tried contacting two ladies attached to Leggy and neither had working DMs nor emails … at least not current ones … maybe they want it that way, we don’t always know.
The love of my life when I was fifteen wrote to me on the 10th of this month, which is a major thing to me, plus one I’ve known since I was ten, plus my most recent “bereavement in the world of love” in 2008. So I have “sort of” kept them in repair but the world just now, particularly our immediate world, is racing to oblivion.
Leggy’s story is sad and I’m thinking is going to soon become increasingly frequent … farmer wanting the house back. Actually, same happened to me in Russia in 2008 … so even if nothing else had happened, they wanted their flat back. My headmistress who had signed my invitation to come over and whom I got along with well was hit by a passing tram a couple of years before that. New guard, I was unknown to the new admin … why was I there?
My university faculty head who was the key person employing me was ousted in a “palace coup” in 2007 and the rest just followed … do they call such things “quantum shifts”?
Also, note who’s making all the noise now on the world stage … it’s the ones called Gen X, innit? So heaven help any of the Gen they detest … the Boomers. As for anyone even earlier … we still have DAD here, seemingly fighting fit.
Keep your contacts in good repair, as that list slowly reduces in size.
(1700) Evening all.
22. Macheath from Orphans on Piddington
The residents of rural Oxfordshire are generally feeling somewhat persecuted, what with the widespread 20mph speed limits, planned closure of lanes connecting villages and the effective ban on St George’s flags in public places, not to mention the massive solar farms blighting the landscape and the Council’s anti-farming policies.
It’s not hard to imagine smug city-dwelling civil servants and local officials happily signing off on policies which will only affect a few insignificant peasants or retired villagers (who probably vote Tory anyway) – the local women afraid to walk their dogs alone or let their daughters play outside are likely to rank very low on the priority list.
It’s already happened to the towns thanks to the placement of asylum-seekers in large hotels; just yesterday, my daughter-in-law – recently arrived from a country regarded as far less secure than the UK – told me she didn’t feel safe walking down the high street of our local town because of the large groups of men sitting outside coffee shops staring at passing women in a way she had not experienced in her (Muslim) home city.
Macheath by the way can be found here
21. Lord Toby’s site this morning
The youngest black professor in Cambridge University’s history, Jason Arday, is at the centre of a plagiarism row after academics came forward claiming large parts of his work are copied almost verbatim from others. The Telegraph has the story.
When Jason Arday became a Cambridge professor at the age of 37, he was lionised by the academic world and became a poster boy for the university’s diversity drive.
He had beaten almost impossible odds to get there. Diagnosed with autism, and non-verbal until the age of 11, he had only learnt to read and write at 18 but obtained a degree and a doctorate before forging a career in teaching.
Now, on the eve of the publication of his autobiography, the University of Cambridge’s professor of sociology of education has become the subject of a bitter row over plagiarism that has pitted his peers against each other.
20. TPA earlier
New analysis from the TPA eggheads this week revealed that there are expected to be 1 million more people paying income tax this year compared to last as a result of the ongoing freeze to tax thresholds. Burnham can talk about the cost of living all he likes but the reality is that tax is the main reason there’s pressure on household budgets. All told, ministers will take an extra £55 billion a year from taxpayers by the time the freeze comes to an end in 2030-31. Check out our full analysis here.
19. Moo corner
18. A puzzle for all men ☺️
17. A WitchEnd triple-o
16. Steve with another Zoomer
Not all that sure they’re all that good today … they were a post from 2024:
1927:
1929:
1930:
(1352) About to have steak breakfast. (1421)
15. The way they were
14. The evil muvvas certainly do their homework though
13. Remember
12. The exception to every rule
11. The elegant panda
One of the side ventures post-Python, Gilliam did quite well according to many:
Sorry in one way to bring something so dystopian on a Sunday but there it is … I lost the Bergerac.
(1108) Elevenses are upon us here. (1118)
10. Moo corner
9. The wildfires
8. The mental illness forced on children by teachers and single mothers today
7. State of play in Iran
(0917) Auspicious day proceeds. (0928)
The stealing of an 18 year old blog…
… after previous attempts by GglBlgr, stealing older posts and all the rest of it …
Nourishing Obscurity 20th birthday today (would have been)
Some might recall …
The blog was vulnerable, including its “Guestposts” separate blog … when Unherdables finally went up on September 7th, 2024, it was a more professional set up, though I know quite a few do miss the amateur fun vee had.
Despite being more professional in its engine room, it’s still being hit by about 20 spam an hour but that’s covered inside. All and all, it’s worked out so far, except for the commenting woes but chaps and chapesses … for such a naughty blog complex … with its history … well, that’s only to be expected and thx for your perseverance. 🥰
The short version:
The long version:
There’s quite a history behind this girl:
Her mother was groomed, threw in her lot with one of the chief baddies, JJD still drags her beloved mom around for her cause and mom, bemused, not a true believer, goes along with daughter dear. Similar to Lydia Taylor Davis on abortion.
At this age, girls get very active. They either go Woke and start throwing soup at old paintings, gluing their hands to roads etc. …
… or they miraculously wake up and are then a fierce force for good, forever.
This topic today, of course, is the older vehicles versus thevnew, controlling, remotely cibtrolled EVs many don’tvwant, esp. the Zoomers.
And one more thing, between ourselves … if we do not get behind the right thinking, “having woken up” lasses and lads, plus at the same time we’re trying to change society back … then WTH are we doing? Tying our hands behind our backs after donning the blindfolds? Zoomers and Alphas are the future … so let’s join with them in getting it right.