Consider This

The great Mark Steyn has come out in support of Elizabeth of Austria;

Gates of Vienna: Mark Steyn Joins Elisabeth’s Voice

And if you don't know who Elizabeth of Austria is, check this out:

http://english.savefreespeech.org/

Free speech against the Orc tidal wave/kindness offensive is in danger in Europe and in America while slams against Christians and Jews are accepted.
To repeat something that this writer has often said, "You may not be interested in Islam, but Islam is interested in you." And to paraphrase the great Puritan theologian John Owen, "Always be fighting Islam because Islam is always fighting against you."

IMperial President?

Apparently, this is what is takes to get The One to India:
Forty aircraft and six armoured cars: Obama visit to India the 'biggest ever by a US President' | Mail Online

Men in Hats

Your faithful correspondent is of such an age when it was the norm for newly elected presidents of this great nation to be inaugurated into their office while wearing a top hat. The last man to honor the populace by wearing proper attire was John Kennedy. After that time standards fell and presidents decided to pretend to be "regular guys" by not wearing proper head attire and business suits instead of formal suits. In doing so they probably thought that they were making a statement that the identified with the "man in the street." What they were really doing was insulting the American citizen by showing that they did not think enough of the office that they were assuming to dress in a formal and proper manner. And in presenting themselves in such a manner they cheapened the image of the office. Would the reader have as much respect for Elizabeth ll if she showed up for a soiree wearing a muumuu and flip-flops? Respect goes two ways. And those in power seem to have forgotten that they should show us respect by dressing and comporting themselves properly.
But to get to the point.
This edition of Men in Hats concerns the top hat; sometimes called the topper.
The top hat, while nowadays considered a very formal hat, was, historically, not so formal. Consider Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist, the Victorian coachman wearing the coachman's version of the hat, the Mad Hatter, the Ton riding to the fox while wearing top hats.
The traditional top hat comes in various forms -- the silk hat, the collapsible silk hat, the beaver hat of mid-nineteenth century America, the felt top hat and the exaggerated top hat as shown in Tenniel's illustrations in Alice in Wonderland. The cat in Disney's Pinochio wore a collapsed topper.
During the time of the topper's popularity the hat was not so much known as a rich man's hat as it was as a town or city man's hat. As a practical hat shading the face or warming the hat it's not much use. But, when worn with a certain panache, whether the wearer is rich or poor, it looks cool. And it makes short men look taller.
Sherlock Holmes, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Mr. Darcy all wore top hats.
Could it be the hat for you?

Jane Austen

As those in the know are aware, we here at the Manor are fans of the writings of Jane Austen.
The ever lovely Lady Nib prefers Miss Austen's Pride and Prejudice, while this writer favors Mansfield Park.
Recently an academic egghead has come to the conclusion that Miss Austen used an editor for several of her novels. Among the pondering crowd, this "revelation" has been greeted with either huzzahs or raspberries.
We here at the Manor are of the opinion that whether or not Miss Austen used an editor is of no matter. Consider the fact that such writers as Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway used the editorial talents of Maxwell Perkins and have never been slammed for it. The modern scholastic egghead or college professor teaches Hemingway, Faulkner and Wolfe without ever mentioning Perkins.
Why should an editor who corrected the divine Jane's spelling and sentence structure be a scandal?
Given time, this writer has no doubt that a college professor in search of tenure will claim that he has found the editor who corrected Beowulf.
Here's the article regarding JA, for what it's worth:
Academic: Jane Austen had helping hand from editor - Yahoo! News

Link-O-Rama

Here are three links worthy of the readers' attention.
Two concern the Orcs. The third concern the state of the republic.
Clash of Civilizations: Europe vs. Islam

UK jihadist: Muslims "may say one thing to you in front of CNN," but behind your backs they support jihad - Jihad Watch

» The Tea Party vs. the Ruling Class - Big Government

A Bit of Sense From Germany and Such

Angela Merkel has come to the conclusion that American politicians should have come to long ago:

Merkel says German multiculturalism has failed | Reuters

Meanwhile, Great Britain refuses to face facts about the insidious nature of the religion of the Orcs:

Islamic face-veil part of 'British way of life' - Telegraph

Even some of the French have twigged on the threat from Mecca:


French MP says UK is 'losing fight against Islamic extremists' - Telegraph

Perhaps Columbus knew more than the average US politician:

Columbus knew the dangers of the Muslim tax man « Money Jihad

The Orcs in Austria seem to have picked up the American weakness by waging Lawfare:

Lawfare in Austria: Is Truth Illegal?: Paul Revere Gets the Slammer :: Hudson New York

The 17th century Puritan writer, John Owen, wrote, "Fight sin because sin is fighting you." This writer suggests that while the reader is fighting sin he remembers to fight Islam because Islam is fighting against him.

Diane Lane

Those in the know are well aware that this writer has always had an eye for the ladies. This is not to say that you faithful correspondent is, or was, a rounder -- he has been ever faithful to the ever lovely Lady Nib. But he enjoys looking at attractive women in life and in the movies.
The woman in question in this post is Diane Lane and the question as to why she has become a bit of a mystery.
As a young woman Diane was a lovely woman -- one of the loveliest of her generation. There was, during her youth, few women prettier.
But as she aged she seems to have become rather blandly pretty. In fact, she seems to have become, in her looks, bland. She's gone from the femme fatale to the co-star's girlfriend in looks. And this writer has wondered why.
After several years of pondering your faithful correspondent has figured out why.
Diane Lane has, in her appearance, shown no growth of character. Her face has shown no experience. Consider Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor,Jane Russell, Charlotte Rampling or Jane Birkin. All the women mentioned showed or show lines and planes in their faces of experience. Their faces show growing character. Diane Lane's face shows no character. She's like a woman frozen in time who has aged but who has not lived life.
It's creepy.

Sports

As those in the know are well aware, we here are at Nib Manor are not rabid sports fans (excepting Lady Nib's enthusiasm for Sumo, but the Japanese are funny).
We are casual sports fans, the favorite big league sports being baseball and and occasionally ice hockey.
But despite the fact that he have neither Angels not Ducks banners hanging outside the gate of the Manor. we are of the opinion that the seasons of professional sports in the US make no damn sense.
Baseball is a sport that should run from early spring to late summer. This year the World Series, is played all seven games, will extend to early November. The professional hockey season started a few days ago. Professional basketball will start in a week or two. And during this period professional football will be underway.
The money lusters have taken over the sports. By money lusters this writer does not mean the players. He means the team owners and the television moguls. To refer to the old saying, where money is to be made money will be made. And the owners and the leagues desire to make as much money as they can despite the natural order of things.
The natural order of sports is that baseball is played from the early spring to the early fall, hockey from late fall to early spring, basketball from mid-winter to late spring, and football during the early fall to mid-winter.
Now we have all four sports being played at the same time. And nobody gains but the team owners, the sponsors and the broadcasters.
What can we, as sports fans (even casual sports fans) do? All we can do is quit watching those sports after their natural end has come.
Quit watching!

A Stew O' Stuff

As regular readers of this blog are aware, Bloody Nib Manor is in California. This year there is a gubernatorial election. The main contenders are Jerry Brown (who was governor for two terms back in the 1970s) and Meg Whitman.
This past week the comically publicity seeking attorney, Gloria Allred, came out with an accusation that Ms. Whitman had knowingly employed an illegal alien woman from Mexico named Nikki for nine years and had mistreated this poor benighted mija by paying her $23.00 per hour for a fifteen hour work week. Accordin to the lawyer Allred, Ms. Whitman fired Nikki when she decided to run for governor. and when Nikki asked Ms. Whitman to help her gain legal status in the U.S.
The whole thing has blown up into a farce on every front and the details on the affair are readily available on the Internet for those who are interested in following the tale.
But, be it known, that this writer, while never a Meg Whitman support of any enthusiasm, will vote for Ms. Whitman whether or not she knowingly employed a border jumper for the simple reasons that 1.) Jerry Brown was a rotten governor and would be better employed as the editor of Mother Earth News. and 2.) she has slimed by Gloria Allred in the same way that Gloria Allred slimed the present governor during his first election run (and your faithful correspondent readily admits that the Arnold has been a disappointment, but he's better than Davis would have been) and the way the Bob Mulholland slimed Bruce Herschensohn during his run for the Senate against Barbara Boxer. This writer refuses to reward bad behavior by politicians even during campaigns.
This writer remembers lawyer Allred's first showing on the public screen. She sued a drugstore for having two rows of toys. One row was labelled Boys' Toys and the other was labelled Girls' Toys. The difference was that in one row there were toy soldiers and cars and in the other there were dolls and tea sets. Lawyer Allred wanted the labelling changed to just Toys, because she thought the sex identification was sexist. After all, as everyone knows, any boy wants to look at dolls while trying to find toy soldiers and any girl wants to look at toy trucks while going to the tea sets.
And lawyer Allred won the lawsuit despite the fact that the drugstore chain was a private company. It was then that she learned that she could gain publicity by filing lawsuits that have no real basis in common sense, but can be argued by the niceties of legal interpretation.
The woman is a joke. Some people call her a publicity whore. But many of the same people, in the media, who call her that, are not loathe to have her on their televisions shows to allow her to argue her point and to get publicity themselves. An example would be The John and Ken Show on KFI in Los Angeles. J&K have spent a lot of time calling clown lawyer Allred a publicity whore, but they salivate over the idea of having her on their show.
This writer would remind the reader that for every whore there is at least one john. One has to ask one's self, in moral terms, is the whore any worse than the john? One is walking away with money received for giving up something that she does not hold dear. The other has a lighter wallet and perhaps some dread disease.
But to get to more serious matters.
This past weekend United States citizens visiting Europe were warned of possible terrorist attacks upon them by Islamic extremists.Some writers have claimed that the attacks will be modelled upon the attack in Bombay (Mumbai) perpetrated several years ago.
This article from the Telegraph in the U.K. raises some concern about Great Britain's preparation for such an act:

SAS officers warn that Britain is unprepared for a Mumbai-style attack - Telegraph

This writer is of the opinion that if such an attack were attempted in Los Angeles, for example, the attack would be much less successful if said attack were attempted in London or Liverpool for the simple reason that all policemen, and much of the citizenry are armed with firearms.
While we're talking about the U.K., this article shows that some Orcs are trying to institute Sharia Law in their businesses. Note that the woman in question is a non-religious Muslim and was being held to a standard that the employer did not hold white women to. The subtext is that white non-Muslim women are loose and sluts:

Muslim woman sacked for REFUSING to wear a headscarf | Mail Online

Some people find the actions of the schools mentioned in the following article disturbing i.e., the schools (private Islamic schools in Britain) expect their female students to dress in the approved desert Orc manner (wearing veils or hijabs). This writer has no problem with the school's dress codes for girls. The schools are private schools. The parents pay for their girls to attend the schools. The parents should be aware of the requirements of the schools. For a parent who has enrolled his or her daughter into an Islamic school to expect that his or her daughter not to be expected to conform to the most backwards elements of Islamic custom is tantamount to a Jewish parent to be upset that his or her child not to be exposed to the Roman Catholic Catechism at a Catholic school. Or a for an Evangelical Christian to be upset when their child ends up celebrating Passover while attending a Jewish day school. The problem arises when a student is attending a public school and is expected to conform to the norms of Mohammedism or Judaism. Since Great Britain has a state church it is no surprise that a child in an English state school should be given Christian instruction. But the English abandoned that requirement on teaching long ago.

British schools where girls must wear the Islamic veil - Telegraph

Here's just another example of Muslim love and tolerance from Pakistan:

Muslim Extremists Murder Christian Family in Pakistan

And finally, here's an example of a country exporting a product that they do not want returned:

FOXNews.com - U.S. Worsens Mexican Violence by Returning Criminal Aliens to Border Cities, Mayors Say