Putting the grim in pilgrim

I recently spent a few days on the Way of St James, walking the stretch across the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles in Spain, the site of Roland's mythical last stand against the Moslems in 778 AD. I joined a soccer friend, Seth, and his friend, Greg, on their pilgrimage from London to Santiago de Compostella, site of the supposed remains of the apostle James, a fisherman who became a fisher of men.

The first day was a washout, more like snorkelling than walking, then the sun came out, the foothills of the Pyrenees cast their spell and we strode on. As pilgrims, 'pelerins', we received kindnesses along the way. Until we reached St Jean Pied de Port, where several routes converge before the push across the Pyrenees, our route from the north seemed hardly used by pilgrims and we were a little special. You can identify pilgrims by the scallop shell swinging from their sack or their broad-brimmed hats.

Greg is a damned liberal and I'm a damned conservative. He's just gained a first class degree in 'Developement Studies' and plans to take a Master's in 'Peace Studies' at SOAS, the infamous School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He's recently been in Palestine, mewling and puking over the oppressed Palestinians, and cares little for history prior to the start of 'de-colonization'. Any normal person would ostracize him or pelt him with rotten eggs. I relished the mental fight and the klicks (kilometers) flashed by unnoticed as we cudgelled each other with words up hill and down dale. I won all the arguments (you know the stuff: Hummers are greener than Hybrids; everyone should pay the same tax; no tax, no vote; the Palestinians are lucky to have the Israelis as enemies; American soldiers are heroes), but I rubbed it in by grinding his liberal arse to dust at chess. Greg, you've been mugged by a neocon and one day you'll be mugged by reality, but you're a good sport and I relished being baited back.

I'm invited to re-join them towards the end of the pilgrimage and I might, especially if they want to go the extra 90km to Cape Finisterre

Land's End/End of the World. This mythical promontory symbolizes for many pilgrims the end of the terrestrial way and the beginning of a spiritual renewal. It is the tradition of pilgrims who continue to cap Finisterre to burn their clothes and sandals as a sign of this renewal.

Sondheim teaches pronunciation

Note Sondheim's wince at the first slurring of 't's, but also his beautiful teaching style, his absorption with the potential of the lyric in its setting, his happiness at his pupil's success, his succinctness, his persistence to defeat the 2nd rate.

I'd also have asked the singer to improve 'careah' to 'career'. It's not at all that there's a proper way to speak or sing....there's an expressive way, an accurate way, a suggestive way... and before that happy state there is basic state of respect for words to be mastered and then riffed around. Mere slurring doesn't cut it.

The religion of Me

John Hinderaker at Powerline critiques an interview with Christiane Amanpour about her new CNN series 'God's Warriors'. He refutes the equivalence of 'Jewish Warriors', 'Muslim Warriors' and 'Christian Warriors', but what I'd like to quote is this:

I think we can diagnose her perception of "fundamentalism" as follows: "fundamentalism" means religion-based beliefs that are antithetical to her own liberal views. Islamic "fundamentalism" is a serious danger in that it encourages terrorist violence that could kill her. The likelihood of that, however, is relatively remote. Christian (and Jewish) fundamentalism doesn't pose any such hazard, but the danger that it does pose is much more immediate: most such "fundamentalists" vote for and support political candidates with whom Amanpour disagrees.

The liberal condition is often a puzzle to me. Why would they not want America to beat the head-hackers? Why would they not want nuclear families to thrive? Why would they not admire men who voluntarily risk their lives to protect the rest of us? Why would they not want to protect unborn children? And so on...natural positions that harmonize with a compassionate outlook just don't appeal. This is why: they never grew up. They are fundamentalists of the religion of Me. Their own stimuli determine their worldview, but that worldview has self-regard at its centre so that infantile postures are dissimulated as rational stances - 'Choice' 'Diversity' 'Sexual Liberation' 'Women's Liberation' are code for 'Daddy can't tell me what to do' and Daddy is a more immediate threat than the enemy over the water. The unfunny part is that these permanent adolescents have votes. I would simply disenfranchise non-taxpayers as a starting point to a more adult society. Why should college students or other welfare recipients have a say in how much money another family should be forced to pay them? “Power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.” Amend 'harlot' to 'liberal.'

Let me scratch that

A candidate Commander-In-Chief says

"I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance" Obama said, with a pause, "involving civilians." Then he quickly added, "Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table."

Together with his recent policy announcement to attack Pakistan if necessary to root out terrorists, this puts the USA in an interesting position vis-a-vis the only Islamic nuclear power.

Brown brown-nosed by Brown, steps in doo-doo, wipes his shoe

There have been high hopes in the media that the new UK Prime Minister will distance himself from the Bush regime not least to validate the idea that the UK was poodlificated by a Blair/Bush Christianist cabal. The atrocious appointment of Mark Pilloch Brown, snobby disdainer of flyover America, as a junior minister in the Foreign Office is hard to read except as a prelude to multilateralism - ie outsourcing Britain's interests to the UN's unelected Wise Fathers ... like Malloch Brown himself in fact.

Well....Brown (Gordon of that ilk, not Pilloch) says this ahead of today's meeting with Bush:

we should acknowledge the debt the world owes to the United States for its leadership in this fight against international terrorism.

Would any Democrat say that of their own country or their own military?

Note also this:

David Miliband, the new Foreign Secretary, publicly reprimanded Lord Malloch Brown, stating: "He's been given a very specific job to do by Gordon Brown, he's been asked to work on Africa, on Asia and on UN reform."

Maybe Brown (Gordon) was simply untuned to the repulsive vibe of Brown (Lord Pilloch) after years of being sucked up to by him as UN Deputy Secretary General and just made a mistake.

The next Mayor of London?

Ken Livingstone is Mayor of London. He's a good operator with a tough political temperament and atrocious views. He's an Islamist/IRA fellow traveller whose enemy is America and whose enemy's enemy is his friend; Chavez, say. The low turnout for mayoral elections and block voting of Muslims and other identity groups have won him 2 elections. The Conservative candidate just announced to fight 'Red Ken' is Boris Johnson. He stands a chance thanks to his high profile and likable style. At least I like it, judge for yourself:

The Special Relationship

"Wanna play toss the hoop or are you just pleased to see me?"

Subprime thinking

From an article by Niall Ferguson this is neat:

..subprime is a euphemism for poor. And consequently, in Detroit and Memphis, it is a euphemism for African-American, which is itself a euphemism for black.

The rest is big-governmentitis written by a twit.

Interesting how little effect the credit events are having.
Non 'subprime' US property is down because of 'irrational exuberance' and easy money on the way up yet the US economy is thriving and will benefit from more affordable housing. CMOs and other real estate financial packaging have dispersed risk more widely than in the past. Bearstearns isn't bust, but so what if it were ? Meanwhile the stock market is at record highs and the US's vast foreign debt is growing smaller by the day as the dollar depreciates.

Actually the financial sophisticates in the subprime sector are often the borrowers - "These dumb white guys in suits want to throw money at me and, if things work out, in 2 years I'll have a house worth more, maybe much more, than it cost. If they don't work out, I'll be foreclosed and the smart money-men will own a house worth less, maybe much less, than it cost."

Biking in Utah

Inspired by Mick's post I looked up this picture of the virile Utah style of biking in 1948. It's Rollie Free breaking the American speed record on a Vincent Black Lightning.

The 1952 Black Lightning inspired the great song by Richard Thompson.

in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

Here's another great bike song with pix by PJ Harvey (profanity ahoy).

Never complain, never explain..well maybe this once

I rarely read speeches, but this one by Tony Blair will be making waves. Full transcript here

"I need to say some preliminaries at the outset. This is not my response to the latest whacking from bits of the media. It is not a whinge about how unfair it all is.As I always say, it's an immense privilege to do this job and if the worst that happens is harsh media coverage, it's a small price to pay. And anyway, like it or not, and some do and some don't, I have won 3 elections and am still standing as I leave office. This speech is not a complaint. It is an argument."

"From Stanley Baldwin's statement about "power without responsibility being the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages" back to the often extraordinarily brutal treatment, if you've ever read it, meted out to Gladstone and Disraeli through to Harold Wilson's complaints of the 60s, the relations between politics and the media are and are by necessity, difficult. It's as it should be."

"The metaphor for this genre of modern journalism is the Independent newspaper..... a well-edited lively paper and is absolutely entitled to print what it wants, how it wants, on the Middle East or anything else. But it was started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views not news. That was why it was called the Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a newspaper."

"So there are my thoughts. I've made this speech after much hesitation. I know it will be rubbished in certain quarters. But I also know this has needed to be said."

I despise much of what Mr Blair has done, but he's brave and resilient and he's 75% articulate which helps. I think he'd agree that an avowed viewspaper like The Independent isn't too obnoxious. It's the priestly hypocrisy of the BBC and the NYT that stinks up the joint.

Lies, damned lies and The New York Times

The Fork Tongue Times June 10th:

Grass Roots Roared and Immigration Plan Collapsed

Public opinion polls, including a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted last month, showed broad support among Americans for the bill’s major provisions.

Rasmussen Reports May 25th:

NY Times/CBS Poll Finds that 69% Believe Illegal Immigrants Should Be Prosecuted

The New York Times/CBS News did not specifically ask about the immigration bill currently being considered in the Senate. However, in the article written about the poll, the Times states “large majorities expressed support for measures contained in the legislation.”
The survey found, for example, that 67% would allow illegal immigrants to “apply for a four-year visa… as long as they pay a $5,000 fine, a fee, show a clean work record, and pass a criminal background check.” That, too, is similar to a Rasmussen Reports survey which found 65% support for a compromise proposal allowing illegal aliens a “very long path to citizenship” provided that “the proposal required the aliens to pay fines and learn English” and that the compromise “would truly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the country.” The proposal, specifically described as a compromise, was said to include “strict employer penalties for hiring illegal aliens, building a barrier along the Mexican border and other steps to significantly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the United States.”
However, while 65% were willing to support such a compromise, only 26% support the legislation currently before the Senate.

Rasmussen Reports June 8th:

Why the Senate Immigration Bill Failed

23% of Americans supported the legislation. When a bill has less popular support than the War in Iraq, it deserves to be defeated.
There is no mystery to why the public opposed the bill. In the minds of most Americans, immigration means reducing illegal immigration and enforcing the border. Only 16% believed the Senate bill would accomplish that goal.