Savagery in Magdelene Laundry - nuns exhonerated

 Today the Irish Government on behalf of her People issued an apology to the women enslaved in Magdelene Laundries since the 1930's Now they have a chance of being recognized as people , girls . women who were used as chatles , lived in penury , were subjected to humiliation and de-personification and the vilest punishments for trivial offenses at the hands of Nuns - In the Name of God.
These are too painful to recount .
But consider the following :
The plot where they were buried was sold to a developer , the bodies were exhumed . There were more bodies than they had accounted for on their books . One body was headless. Another had a plaster cast still on for a fractured arm. They were buried as they died , some curled up like animals in hibernation.Some had their hands tied behind their backs
Yet ! No coroner came to investigate the additional corpses. No investigation of the headless corpse . Who were these remains . Who lived in these bodies . What were their names .No DNA testing was carried out .
None of this mattered because today's apology is as vacuous as it is cynical . It is a ruse to silence these women for good- Pay the 30 shillings - Close the mindset of the debtors yard , the beatings ,the enforced wearing of soiled underwear on their heads , for wetting the bed , broken bits of a cup hung from their necks as punishment for breaking the cup.
I too benefited from the misfortune , the odious torture which these girls/ women were subjected to
I plead innocence like everyone else.
I was employed by the nuns in the South West, where , by some arrangement which the Nuns of St Catherine's had with the laundry , we had our white coats cleaned initially , then whole bags of washing done for a pittance.
I suspect that we suspected there was something very wrong going on . I recall the look of mute terror on the face of the petrified country girl who took our bags , gave us tags
and when we collected them we paid some small ' consideration' for their services , to a flirtatious nun with an angelic , voice and a face like Audry Hepurn in the Nun's Story.- She was considered demonic and a tyrant behind the barred -in community.
Yet no conviction . No investigation of the deaths or the barbarity - the inhumane treatment , which was little better that Belsen .
Many years passed before I actually got round to finding out a little more about the laundry . Eventually with the help of an aunt who was also a member of the clergy I began collecting clues , anything to help me find out what actually went on.
I have since then retrieved the name of that petrified girl, and arranged to meet her . It was a very clandestine affair . She is happily married now , against all the adversity.
When I finally tracked her down , she was shocked and terrified that I would betray her 'shame ' to her children , as she had never told them anything about her ordeal- Imagine - she still thought of her own 'shame ' - it was persecution and torture to the extent that the UN have demanded answers from our Government - but all M thought of was her own legacy of shame
She told her husband some . But he also came from a very disturbed and abusive childhood , and he too miraculously came out the other end , and went through the compensation process.
I gave no inkling that I knew anything about her past. We pretended she had worked in the hospital ,and she brought me to meet her family . She has , in private moments told me some horrific stories about the Laundry in Tralee .
We keep in touch by email.
She goes to an internet cafe to write her emails under a pseudonym although there is a computer at home .

I wrote this for her over a period , but did nothing with it regarding publication ,but I sent it to Margret ( not her real name ) earlier this week.
She wrote to thank me and asked if she could pass in on to the few other survivors she knew .
I dont know if it brought her one Iota of solace , but for what its worth , and it's not much - as it doesn't rhyme or even have a rhythmic pace or even cadence to it .
If it is of any use to you ,please accept it on my behalf , although it will always be for Margret - accept it as a plea for expiation.

The image is Courbet's L'Origin de Monde
I've given some consideration before attaching it here
It is not intended to be evocative or sensual . It is as he painted it , a headless figure
The relevance may become aparent to the reader  . Interestingly , he painted a full nude , with full face and limbs , then cut it in two. The other half has been 'dicovered' many times .The most recent claim to verification of the 'top half' has been put through all the rigors of a full forensic examination. It looks like it maay be the real deal
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                                                                       Poem for Mx

Scarlet woman
Fallen woman
Harlot whore of the Bible
She shed her tears on His feet and dried them
With her lover’s locks
And she shared her name with His mother
Mary


Peak capped -penguin figures
Preside over the slaving women,
Each magpied ghostly face turned to withered prune
Raging at the nubile beauty of a new recruit
Lustfully at her
Unblemished face


A crucifix
Custodian of the devout sister -her virtue
Chaste !
Rattles down the satanic robes

A heart grown wretched
Wicked and wizen
Devoted to an alabaster figure
Hanging from a wooden cross


The girl grown flighty on the village square
With boys from the boarding school
Coming home from football training
The gimlet eyed cannon didn’t like the look of it

So when it was reported
She was seen dishevelled
Rising from the meadow
With a farmhand
That was it for her

She went without a mother’s tear
Nor a father’s backward glance
Into that satanic laundry



Her glorious raven locks
Hacked away with a vile revenge
To de-feminise her all the more

Two of her inmate friends die
She lays them out
Before the burial
Fifty bodies in unmarked graves
And more unaccountable bodies
are retrieved by the undertakers
When they sell this plot of shame
A plot lconverted to a a car park
No murder scene investigation
No DNA recovered
One body with a plaster cast on a broken limb
And one without a head .
The State Pathologist is not required
They were brides of the Nazarine carpenter
Sold - to the only bidder
Without a dowry
Not even thirty pieces of silver

''To Keep Paradise -Put up a parking lot -''- Joni Mitchell

Today the State said -'Sorry'
A week after the evasions , calculations :
How many pieces of Silver would it take
To silence them ,finally
In full payment for services received

Yet no Judas went to the stony field
And hung himself in shame.
No Nun to blame , No vicar , doctor , judge or parent
No one is named
When the Magdelenes were claimed ,
incarcerated , in these labour camps
Beaten , whipped , demeaned and maimed .

Tonight she says ,in a voice which is:

Soft as the voice of an Angel
Breathing a message unheard
With a Whispering hope ,
Oh ! how gentle thy voice
In its sorrow : rejoice
I laid them out -one two

(She said for the baying TV crew)
And I’ll cry no more after 40 years
Fourteen  years , washing without pay
Washing ironing sheets , shirts
Linen for the church, the army
The judges , the doctors and the gentry
I’ll cry no more

Soft with a gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting words
Whispering Hope
Oh ! How gentle Thy Voice.
In it's Sorrow rejoice .

LINCON - MOVIE -A PE|RSONAL VIEW

Thursday LINCON If you haven't seen this movie it's worth a trawl through the film plot , to get the jist of ''Lincon'' - a few minutes on Wikepedia will do- but the more links you follow the more the whole thing will gel. Set during a 3 week period towards the end of the American Civil War, Speilberg casts a wide net here trapping all the subtle ruses used by the most esteemed President in US History . Day Lewis takes you into his confidence from the start and you find yourself suddenly inside the head of a troubled man ;driven by the abolition of slavery for posterity .You find yourself looking up at this projected giant who is everybody's favorite wise old uncle. When he realizes the immensity of his task he sets his mind and body against the squalls and storms from his own party , and the Democratic Party .You soon find yourself in a race to the final debate - You know as it accelerates that the vote count is narrowing- leading to the vote in the house that Abe has a determination which is etched in the rock on Mt WHitmore. The dialogue often becomes turgid , but the scriptwriters use a clever ploy to lighten the load . When times get tough Abe frequently starts telling a yarn that has little to do with anything , but you listen to is as if he's telling it for the first time .- and by the same device both the tension of the moment is eased , yet you know the clock is ticking and Lincon is now depending on members of the Democratic Party to bring his amendment over the line . We find a Lincon who is a bland mystic at times , but shrewd manipulator ,who sails quite close to the wind of political propriety- but is sure footed and cunningly ethical . Day Lewis is Lincon : the Lincon who presides over Capitol Hill, whose portrait sits on coins and stamps -the man who'se zeal torments him so that he ages before your eyes as his war weary shoulders carry the agony and revulsion of the Civil war - a comment made to him in the later stages of the movie by General Grant, His performance is superb throughout , so much so that you feel you've connected with the real Lincon -not with Lewis . This is an epic tale of 3 short weeks during the civil war in which there is only one battle scene. Lincoln's much quoted Gettysburg address , which Lincon based on a speech by the ancient Greek Commander / philosopher -Pericles , strangely is omitted . It is narrated , however by three different soldiers -2 whites and a black to Lincon when he visits a battlefield at Gettysberg . Lincon's oration is reputedly given at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.Vicksburg - Why Speilberg does this with one of the greatest speeches in history may have had something to do with the actual brevity of the speech itself -300 odd words. Maybe he uses it this way to intimate of things to come , as the black corporal imagines to Lincon ''a day , a 100 years from now when a black man could be an officer in the US army. Pericles -the most prominent and influential Greek statesmen, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age gives his famous oration which is equally brief. The Pericles address referred to as- Pericles's Funeral Oration begins "I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the present"; He then praises the uniqueness of the State's commitment to democracy..'' Somilarly to Lincon's speech it lasts lasts roughly 3 minutes. The similarities , or indeed where Mr Lincon may have got his inspiration can not easily be dismissed There have been many allusions to Obama's presidency and his 2 battles in the field and his constant battle with the Republican party , who try to thwart him at every turn- Lincon is also in his second term - but the let the parallels end there and sit back -let Speilberg do the driving . Day -Lewis is truly mesmerizing at times in this movie , otherwise he is -just flawless . If any scenes are ' stolen ' from him it would be in his encounters with Tommy Lee Jones , who has deservedly the last potent and powerful scene . Sally Fields is a contained diminutive H-bomb , too demure to distract her husband , but is a powerhouse nonetheless who strains to the creases on her neck to stay with Day Lewis - and she succeeds. It Deserves ; Best Actor- Day -Lewis Best Supporting actor - Lee Jones or Sally Fields Best Scriptwriters Best Director . What else can I say Best Movie ! Go and see it

The British Empire is over -The Falkland Islands - Are they British?

The british have again laid claim to the legitamacy of the Britishness of the Falkland Islands . When Argentina claimed the Islands in the early 80s the british sent a fleet into the Southern Atlantic to reclaim what were little more than a cluster of craggy patches where sheep farmers eeked out a meagre living .
The Times ran an editorial to substantiate the Tory claim yesterday .
The following comments ensued ( among many others ) Mine are those headed ''Don '


Don says
The war was Thatcher's ''Churchill-moment ''.
She wanted a war to confirm that she was as Iron as her soubriquet suggested , and her Ministers confirmed
Best forget about the Falklands now.
The British invasion of the island of a few scattered sheep in the southern Hemisphere -( before the war ) was as inglorious as the sinking of the hospital ship Belgrano. Sunk while it was in retreat in neutral waters .
Besides what difficulty did Barroness Thacher ever have in non accommodating brutal dictators. What about Pinochet ?
The personal sense of triumph which the war undoubtedly brought to Thatcher will always be linked to her
ravenous appetite to be remembered as being as bellicose as any man .
Then she went on to dismember British Society , saying there was no such thing as society - Yes . In a different context - She and Reagen agreed on the liberation of the markets allowing them free reign .; but at the same time abandoning central Keynesian economic philosophy , which was all about society.


Mike says

January 20, 2012 4:52 PM

What the hell does that have to do with the rights of the Falkland islanders to self determination or the current threat posed by the Argentinians to obtain sovereignty over them and to try blocade them into submission !


Don Says

Mike ,
You come from the generation which believed that there was a ''Right of Conquest ''- Colonialism . Britannia

Rules ,and all that rot .
Sorry , But they've discovered that its an oxymoron , or something .
But yours Mike is the land of Alf Garnett - Till Death Do Us Part-
Alfred Edward Garnett. was reactionary, self righteous mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, Jingoistic racist, , who only disliked Mrs Thatcher because he believed a woman's place was in the kitchen , "chained to the bloody kitchen sink!" ..
The war had nothing to do with protecting residents of the Malvinas .
It was to secure in her time the great British Empire , and meanwhile diverting public attention from her unpopularity at home . Good -time- to release- bad -news strategy.( familiar ?)

But Mike ..Ahh THe Empire .!!
What Ho Mike ..Ye Olde Empire.
But riddle me this . Why did the sun never set on the Empire ?
Because God didn't trust the Brits in the dark .
And now what have we have .. well ... a kingdom ? a disunited one perhaps.and we have OBE's and stuff even if the '' E'' is no longer for Empire , but Excellence
But maybe they should send those self same soldiers north and knock some sense into those Scottish Celts who just dont know how bloody good things are for them...too late for Wales I suppose . Well , we still have the Prince of Wales , whether the Welsh like it or not ..More mule pigheadedness from more thankless Celts.
The residents of the Malvinas have the right to self determination without any assistance from Britain or should that be England ? And when they do vote on the issue they can themselves determine what they wish to be ,through the auspices of the UN - exclusively .
Now what would Alf think about that ?



Mike had many other comments on other peoples comments which is why I introduced the Alf Garner character .
Despite claims made by the British ( esp Tory party- Who knew what Blair was ever thinking other than stacking up facts for his memoirs and after dinner speeches at 100 Grand a whack ?)
Ultimately it must come down to a referendum. But my guess that any Brit borne in the 90's has no idea what the Falklands war was about or where in fact the Falklands are located .
But the new interest is not motivated from any sense of loyalty to a former colony . Now there's the whiff about the Islands , and that is what is making them British . The three most powerful words in geo-politics O.I.L.
There is the added urgency that with the threat by the Iranians in the Straits of Hormuz , the British source of cheap oil would be jeopardized , as N sea Oil is running out rapidly .

Look out for more of this Jingoistic Oxbridge rants in the coming months , and think of Alf , who despite his fictitious background as being low working class is a Tory supporter. He would now be a member of the National Front of course . His son would be married to a coke addicted hooker . He would be tattooed from forehead to toe with God Save the Queen , and I LOVE LINDA on his forearms , and I LUV MUM on his fingers

Norris and the Irish Presidency ; Empathy expressed with perpetrator of Paedophelia - little understanding or concern for victim of child rape

We have 7 candidates lined up for election to the Irish Presidency .
The salary is about € 300,000 / annum.
Among them we have ;
A song contest winner
A gay activist
An ex IRA Commander .
David Norris is the Gay representative . HE is an acedemic ; a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin. He claims to be a Joycean Scholar.
Just listen to him doing the impression of a wave following Joyce's '' text'' in Finnegans Wake.
Norris's problem is that he sent a series of letters to petition the Israeli authorities for his jailed lover, who raped an Israeli boy.
Norris claimed that the letters were not available to the media because of legal issues. When pressed on this by legal experts here he resorted to saying he couldn't
disclose the letters because of advice he is getting from Israel. He doesn't say when he received this advice, or whether it is from a professional lawyer.

Norris gave an interview to Magill magazine some years ago, This might put in perspective his view on pedophilia . He talks about the classical love between a man and a boy , without penetrative sex. ( pederasty ) . But is is the ease with which he talks of this love - a love which he himself would have enjoyed as a child- he doesnt seem to give any thought to the boy's feelings which chills the reader .
It is a most disconcerting interview , and it is my belief that it is tendentious . And it displays a laxity of scruples regarding the innocence of the boy .
It is my view that unless Norris discloses all the letters of petition he wrote on his lovers behalf, and subjects himself to scrutiny as to where exactly he stands on the

love - classical Greek or otherwise , between an adult and a child who is not his son. That love he speaks of is to my mind a flagrant expression of empathy if not
advocacy of pedophilia.
If Norris does this soon , he may retrieve some of his credibility. But this is one area where the invasion of the person is justifiable in the greater public interest - the OLd Latin Adage - Pro Bono Publico springs to mind.

Mr Norris's arguments without either disclosing these letters to the media will run to the Reductio ad absurdiam. His patronizing cods wallop about the ''Plain People

Of Ireland '' stands for nothing unless he comes clean with these intelligent decent people he keeps harping on about as if it were just the media who want to know the disposition of a future President towards pedophilia .

To quote what Norris often refers to as Blooms obduracy in Ulysses , one of the characters . He holds a straw in front of Bloom and says ; '' Lookit Bloom ..Its a straw .. I declare to me ant macassater that he would talk about it for an hour so he would. And talk solid .
Lookit David - Its just s straw !! Isn't it ? What is the problem.

Do You approve of open love between a man and a boy who is not his son - irrespective of the physicality of that love or the expression thereof.
You have the name of being witty , charming , engaging , garrulous , loquacious - and of course a Joycean scholar.

Talk for an hour or so and talk solid. But keep it solid for the Plain Peole of Ireland !!

Expansion in occupied territories continues

In the face of the Palestinians , in the coming weeks , going to the UN to apply for part or full membership , Israeli Premier Benjamen Netentahu has accedded an extreme right wing Jewish lobby to the construction of a further 1100 units in East Jerusalem.
Bear in mind that this Jewish expansion into Palestinian territory is a continuum of the violation of the UN rule of law.
As if it is calculated to provoke the oppressed Palestinians into retaliation in defense of her already compromised territory , Netenyahu will put this proposal before Israeli planning authorities to give validation to these constructions .
In even entertaining such an application for further constructions in occupied territory ie ; territory taken by force by the Israelis during the 1967 war Netenyahu is again showing not just disdain to the UN but loathsome contempt for the UN , the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

In another development the Israelis have just released an al Jazera news reporter who was held for 6 weeks on trumped up charges by the Israeli Shin Bett .
Samar Alawi , admitted under coercive physical and mental pressure that he was acting as an agent for Hamas .
On payment of a $900 fine and 6 weeks incarceration by Israel he was released having made the confession , which he immediately repudiated .

Following a funeral of an Israelis father and son who perished in a car accident , allegedly caused by a Palestinian throwing stones at the car , a Rabbi has called for '' collective punishment '' against the Palestinians saying '' there are no innocents in war ''
In any other society this would be regarded as an incitement to hatred .

That it is incitement there is little doubt and that hatred exists there is none.

But this is all part of the retaliation before the provocation strategy on behalf of Israel , which are occurring in the West Bank , in the run-up to the Palestinian application for statehood with the UN.
Why the Israelis even bother with this provocation at all is an enigma as Israel do not adhere to the notion of co-existance , much less the rule of law by the ICJ .
At least the EU representative Catherine Ashton has made her objections to the Israel authorities . Needless to say Tony Blair has made none on behalf of the Quartet .

Israel / Palestine - 2 State Solution or Pretext for War ; What's the West done to help? Tony Blair as '' Special Envoy '' Blairs for Blair period

As the date for the Palestinians to declare their Statehood to the UN draws neigh ,it is unfortunate that we know that the USA will use her veto to keep the Palestinians out of the Security Council.
That the USA are taking this initiative in order to show her unequivocal support for the State of Israel is a cause of great concern for the Palestinians .
That they have lived in the region for over two millennia counts for nothing . But that this aggressive attitude should come after the Israelis have broken 2 UN resolutions , calling for them to cease building further settlements on Palestinian land , and their refusal to return to their pre- '67 birders .
Not only did Israel choose to break the peace with Palestine by resuming the illegal constructions but that they choose to do so on the very day VP Mr Joe Biden arrived in the region was surely to give the two fingers to her main sponcers ( USA) . This diplomatic insult was calculated only to singularly embarrass and demean Mr Biden . Yet Mr Obama has declared that he will use the power of veto to thwart Palestinian membership to the Security Council.
Why ?
The powerful speech which Mr Obama made in Cairo was inspiring ; it lifted the hopes of the Arab world that maybe after all this time the a new USA administration could at last deal the Arabs a decent hand . But it was not to be .
Now they look with distrust and suspicion again towards the USA . All of the dreams and hopes they held dear after the speech were dashed when the Israelis played their emotional blackmail card .
Now the Palestinians will be relegated to applying for membership to the General Assembly of the UN.
They may have to settle for less than full membership of the General assembly and enjoy a much more emasculated form of admission- one similar to the Vatican State enjoys .
But at least they will have access to the ICHJ - Courts of Human Justice- aka -The World Court or ICJ) . This is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the The Hague.Its main functions are to settle legal disputes submitted to it by states and to provide advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized international organs, agencies, and the UN General Assembly.

At least now , the Palestinians can invite UN observers to officially report on the progress of the illegal constructions in the West Bank.

Why have the Palestinians been reduced - or have always endured- the existential state of second class citizenhood ?

The Israelis have every reason to complain that they were abandoned by Europe during WW2 - but because of the atrocities perpetrated against their race leading to the appalling Holocaust - is this sufficient reason for them to exercise such oppression over the Palestinian peoples - The Palestinians have seen their farms carved up by the illegal security wall ; seen their border crossing access points grievously restricted , and in Gaza - her port opened at the whim of the Israeli Naval services .

.


Background and development

As if the Palestinians are not already beleaguered and besieged I quote from Harriet Sherwood of the London Observer

In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise ,according to Harriert Sherwood .Settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers.
On Friday, violence between settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh and around 300 Qusra villagers ended in a haze of teargas and bullets fired at the villagers by Israeli troops, two of which struck Issam Odeh, 33, killing the father-of-eight.

Qusra set up a defence committee earlier this month after one of the village's four mosques was vandalised in a settler attack condemned by the US and the European Union. Up to 20 unarmed men patrol the mosques from 8pm to 6am every night, and Abu Reidi claims they have already foiled at least one attack. Other Palestinian villages have followed suit.

This week, photographs were published on a pro-settler news website, Arutz Sheva, showing women from Pnei Kedem, an outpost south of Bethlehem, learning to shoot. In Shimon Hatzadik, a Jewish enclave in the midst of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in east Jerusalem, settlers are preparing to invoke a law allowing self-defence against intruders. "We are talking about shooting at their legs and if that doesn't work, and our lives are in danger, we won't be afraid to shoot straight at them. Most of the residents here are armed," spokesman Yehonatan Yosef told parliamentarians two weeks ago.

Preparation for war?
Israeli settlers have become more militant even defying the orders they receive from the Defence Forces. They fear that the Israeli military will restrain their antagonism and confrontation with the Palestinians . Provocation , were it to be successful would spark a retaliation from Palestinians , possibly from the extreme Islamists - possibly the Hezbollah . And this would bring world attention to the area , apportioning blame on the Palestinians for precipitating the conflict and scuttling the talks.

Demands of either side

At the moment the talks seem in a state on entrenchment . The Israelis will not agree to basic minimums to facilitate Abbas's agreement to his minimums.
The settlement talks require the Palestinians to recognise an Israeli State with Jerusalem as its Capital

The Palestinians demand that the Israelis return to the pre 1967 borders - borders which were imposed by the Israelis and are in contravention of UN law , which declares void the claim to land taken by conquest .
The Palestinians in demanding the pre 67 border position are by association demanding a removal of the settlements , and equally the removal of the Separation Wall
They are also demanding recognition of Palestinian Statehood , with Jerusalem as its Capital.

The Quartet

The '' Quartet '' which is made up of the US UN EU Russia - arguably the most balanced and powerful organisation in the world , have as its representative one Tony Blair .
One can only pause for a sharp intake of breathe here . What a choice . A man who followed the USA into two ignominious wars . One who had access to the private dossiers of the unfortunate scientist Mr Kelly , who repudiated the fact that Saadam ever had WMD’s or who was prepared foor world war within 30 minutes- Who said his own documents were ‘ sexed up’ to advance the case against Iraq , and who ( we are told ) then took his own life .
Mr Blair has been making contacts for his own ends during his tenure as ''Special Envoy to the Quartet ' A Panorama programme last night showed how he ( and his staff ) lived in a luxury hotel in Jerusalem , occupying one entire floor at the cost of € 1 million / yr .When he learned that the Panorama team were on to him he moved to a moderately less luxurious hotel. He has spent less that ½ of any year of the tenure in the region .
He has visited Gaza on two or three occasions .
But most of his time he has been feathering his own nest - Tony Blair Inc. He gives lectures at the princly cost on €100.000 minimum. He is currently involved with Russian oil and Gas Oligarchs , and inveigled his way into many more industries involving vast amounts of money .
Mr Blair - Special Envoy to the Quartet .!!
It makes me want to puke , but watch the Panorama programme or read about it in London Observer 25 Sept.2011

With this kind of assistance it is easy to see how the settlers are arming themselves , and the Palestinians are getting more frustrated than restive .
With this kind of self interest - Blair for Blair . USA for Israel , should we be really surprised if there is yet another outbreak of violence in the region.

Worst Fears
I fear that there will be another Israeli incursion into as yet unoccupied territories, and perhaps even into Lebanon again.
Another 6 day war may be looming .And we in the west are presiding over its incubation

For my New Reader

Well , it is nice to be back; back in this cloistered monastic cavern of my own. where only the shards of light are sucked in . This is not a discussion stie . More of a Saadam or Gaadafi podium .
No one argues here .
Uno voce !
I will abide no contrarian opinion. I will treat any such to ''Reductio ad absurdum ''
Some of the things - possibly all - here are dated, and I take no responsibility for them !
I'm weary of these sites howeever as this week alone , my email was hacked into sending mesages all over the place - I abandonded trying to write one common apology , but i do believe it is possible to do this.
Next my ID to acces my bank a/c was foiled- you get 3 tries, when the second try failed I contacted my bank who ' oversaw ' my 3 rd go; this also failed. All of this required that I had to get a new ID and password. Then I noticed that the Norton software was not affording me complete pprotection , so I followed the links and downloaded a patch to fix the problem . THe patch wouldnt run .
I contacted my server. There seemed to be something lacking in the spontaneity with which she replied to me " what I'd like you to do Don....- pause for 3 mins '' - ''' are you still there ''
I asked her where she was ringing from - the Philipines . Then she took over the running of my computor. - no hands .. my mouse skidded this way and that , save-click- run click...
then she told me she could take over the rest from there and I could hang up.

It was curiouser and curioser the more I thought about it. ant the confluence of these 3 things.
Am i being managed from abroad.?
What do you think ?

I could tell you all about the passing clouds and the changing light and what I had for breakfast etc but you too have clouds , and skies and have had a breakfast and or dinner , so I will desist from writing about the mundane world of my vapid thoughts -

Did you ever read '' country notes '' in the Guardian london) - you can download most of the paper free from here at least . try it.
I sent CP a piece I wrote in her 'voice'- did you read it ?

Whats your blog .
We can read one another when I am less afflicted with inertia .

How did you find me - I thought it was '' grumpy old men '' - but as good as it gets hits much the same spot at my age .