An Open Letter to "President" Karzai

Dear President Karzai,
Recently there was an incident that took place in your nation that caused a bit of controversy. Some members of the United States military burned some volumes of the Koran and other Islamic literature that had been used by prisoners to send coded messages to one another. The prisoners marked the literature to indicate passages or letters. From my understanding, the marking of the Koran by a reader is considered a bad thing by orthodox Muslims.
The result of the burning of the literature were a series of riots and the killings of American military personnel by Afghan soldiers. This despite the fact that the Korans had been defaced by Muslims and were, in fact, only, according to your own religious precepts, only good for burning.
And our President apologized for the burning to you and the Afghan people.
Know this. President Obama is a girl. He apologizes to every damn body. Last year he was about to apologize to the Japanese for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki until the Japanese government told him not to. An apology from Mr. Obama is worthless.
And please know this. The American people do not apologize. They just don't care. What they care about is that American soldiers have been killed by soldiers serving your government. They care that we have wasted blood and money on you country.
You are in power because of the US. You should be apologizing to us for the bad behaviour of your countrymen. If it were not for the US you would be running a liquor store in Oakland. You owe us. We don't owe you.
One day the US will leave your nation and we hope that you will stay there once the Taliban takes over. We don't want you running under our skirts like a frightened kitten. We don't want you. We don't want your countrymen. We want you to play the man. But you won't because you're a rounder, a crook and a lick-spittle of the worst sort.
Ask yourself this question: Why was Kabul more modern in the 1960s than it is now? It wasn't our fault/ It wasn't the Russians fault. It was your fault. Why should we help you against your will? You're savages by nature.
Yours,
The Bloody Nib

An Open Letter to the Syrian Rebels

Dear Syrian Rebels,
For some months you have been waging an armed rebellion against the Syrian government and you have not having very good success at overthrowing the Great Opthamologist. Your attempt to participate in the Arab Spring seems to have come a bit of a cropper.
Now, let it be known that most of us in the United States think that Mr. Assad is a man of bad character, a totalitarian and general creep of the Arab sort, and we really can't blame you for wanting to send him to Hell, or at least a sumptuous retirement on the Costa del Sol in Spain.
But your rebel army seems to be a rag tag construction despite the fact that some Syrian Army soldiers have joined your ranks. You do not seem to have the leadership nor competence to overthrow a ruthless regime.
Let it be known that we in the U.S. Wish you a bit of luck. We tend to root for the under-dog.
Several times on the radio and on television we here at the Manor have heard those among your ranks cry out, "Where is America? We need America's help to find freedom!"
Well, guess what, dudes. If you're waiting for the U.S. to help you out you're going to be waiting for a long time. A very long time. And the reason is not because we don't care about the freedom of our Arab/Muslim co-humans. The reason is simply because you stand for something that is other than freedom as we in the West know it.
On September 11, 2001 there was film of you all jumping up and down on the streets celebrating the deaths of over 3,000 Americans caused by your Muslims. You celebrated the deaths of Americans and you expect us to feel pity for you? Americans are suckers for a sad story, but we hope that we aren't that big of suckers.
Also, Egypt has shown us that once the strongman is out of power the Muslim Brotherhood moves in. Why should the United States help the Muslim Brotherhood get into power? The result of Muslim Brotherhood government is a worse persecution of Christians than under the strongman. The U.S. is an overwhelmingly Christian nation. Why should we participate in the oppression of our Christian brothers?
If you want help look to the Arab League. Look to your own. Don't look to us or Europe.
The American Civil War was waged without foreign assistance. The French revolution was accomplished without foreign assistance. Do it your own damn selves! American blood is not worth your Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship.
Yours,
The Bloody Nib

The Oscar!

Today is the Academy Awards Show celebrating the best of the motion picture industry. The word "best" in the previous sentence is, of course, subjective
But whether or not the moving pictures and actresses and actors who are awarded the little golden idols are the best in their respective fields is, in the long run, meaningless.
The Oscar ceremony is really nothing more than a back-slapping festival put on by a group of rather emotionally needy and superficial people who are really not all that sure if their trade is of any real worth to the greater society. They, like professional athletes, are paid a lot of money and adulation that children do for free, or even have to pay to do.
Ask yourself this question: Is there an awards ceremony for the best in my trade or profession? A company my have an employee of the month, or even of the year, but that Starbuck's barista is not competing with other store's, or even those in the over-priced coffee world to receive that award. Who would be truck driver of the year? Or the engineer? Or the doctor?
We, outside of the motion picture industry, slog through 50 weeks a year (allowing for a two week vacation) expecting nothing more than a paycheck and perhaps a bonus of some sort. But in the entertainment industry there are awards given every time one turns around.
A violinist studies at Julliard for four years, at least, hoping to get a paying chair at any orchestra or symphony and working up o the first chair, receives not much more than a paycheck despite the fact that he has probably spent his life since the age of seven playing the fiddle. There's no chance nor expectation of walking down the red carpet in a trick tux accompanied by a quarter dressed babe. But an actor with good cheekbones and an ability to read, in a convincing way, the words written by another person, and who has probably not studied acting in the classical manner, is adulated and fawned over for pretending to be something that he is not.
John Donne, the English poet of the 17th century, despite his misspent and rascal early life, called actors "idiot actors." And Donne knew of what he spoke. He knew personally Ben Jonson and perhaps Shakespere. His son-in-law was a famous actor at the time. And he was right. Few actors are as smart as the people they portray and even fewer are as wise.
But they are eye-candy and that's what the populace seems to want. And that's rather sad.

A Stolen Thought

What was once thought sinful or immoral eventually becomes accepted, and perhaps even mandatory.

Huh?

Back when this writer was a young apprentice the shop in which he worked held a drive for the United Way. An hour during a particular work day was set aside for the employees were given the opportunity to listen to a presentation by a flack from the United Way attempting to separate them from their hard earned long green for various "charities."
The result of the drive was that during the set aside hour the only people in the room where the presentation was given were the United Way flack and the personnel manager.
Needless to say, the personnel manager was embarrassed and asked why nobody showed up for the presentation. The reply given was usually something along the lines of, "The United Way supports organizations I don't like." The PM said, "But you can direct your contribution to a particular organization." And the machinist would answer, "That means that I gave to the organization I don't like because the money will be shifted from the undesignated money. In one way or another I'm giving to such and such charity that I don't like. I'll just give my money directly to my favorite charity and make sure that it gets to where I want it to go."
Have said this, here's this:
Huh? - hitz53's Space

On Letter Writing and the USPS

For some years the United States Postal Service has been the whipping boy of conservative and libertarian politicians and commentators because the Postal Service, does not only not make money through its postal fees, but because it loses money. Said Solons suggest that the USPS be either disestablished and the delivery of First Class mail be taken over by private firms along the lines of UPS or Federal Express, or that private companies be allowed to compete with the Postal Service. They will even go so far as to say that First Class Mail is outdated and has been replaced by e-mail and on line payment of bills.
Unfortunately, the check of the mail box for many of us results in junk mail, bills and magazines. Perhaps we may receive a card or two at Christmas, on our birthday or Valentine's Day. Very rarely do we receive a letter from a friend, a postcard from a relative vacationing in the Bahamas or a tome from one's grade school teacher expressing what a pleasure it was to teach one despite the fact that one remembers one's self as being an awful brat.
Instead we punch on the computer and check our e-mails for personal messages and then delete them after a while.
All these things are all rather sad. It's sad that the USPS has become a joke for unimaginative comedians and cheap shot pols when one remembers that the United States Post Office was set up by Benjamin Franklin and was for many years a department of the government. The Post Office was considered so important and the mail so sacrosanct that to interfere with the delivery of the mail was a Federal crime. The delivery of the mail was a service that was expected by the citizen to be performed by a federal agency. Now there are voices calling for the delivery of the mail to be performed by private firms with no guarantee that said mail will be delivered or tracked. And as far as cost and convenience is concerned, this writer has sent packages via both the Postal Service and United Parcel Service and he has found the USPS much easier to deal with, and cheaper, than UPS.
And one wonders, if there were competition for the USPS one's mail would be delivered to one's house into one's mailbox. Not to mention the matter of stamps or where to post letters. From how many companies would one have to buy stamps and where would one post them?
All of the above is written with the understanding that the writer is not an employee of the United States Postal Service. But he posits that the main reason that the Postal Service has declined is because of us and we are all worse off for it.
Those who have read novels written in the late 18th century, the 19th century and up to the mid 20th century are aware of how important that proper letter writing once was, and who were alive and reasoning in the 1980s remember receiving letters and post cards from friends and relatives. To receive a proper letter from a friend, whether handwritten or typed, was usually a joy that went beyond the receipt of an e-mail. And to tell the truth, it probably still does.
Think of the times back in Regency England when people used to cross write (writing the length of the page and then turning the page ninety degrees and writing over the previous writing) their letters to save money on postage, the letters sent by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barret Browning, the shoe boxes of letters sent by one's father's or grandfathers squatting in foxholes or trenches in World War One, World War Two, Korea or Vietnam that have been saved and cherished. Can one really cherish an e-mail printed out on a printer? A proper letter, written by hand or a typewriter, placed in an envelope and sent with a stamp on the envelope is to give the recipient a part of one's self. There is, on the paper, the handwriting, even if it's only a signature, part of one's self. One offers one's bad handwriting or bad typing (or good handwriting or good typing) to the recipient in a way that e-mail cannot. E-mail, for personal correspondence, is a fake. It is electrons. It is, no matter how heartfelt, the real deal. It does not have the DNA or a real person.
One wonders if in twenty years there will be books published containing the e-mails that are made up of e-mails from American soldiers in Iraq to their sweethearts.
Writing proper letters on paper with a pen, pencil or typewriter is hard work. It makes the writer slow down and think in a way that e-mail does not. In proper letter writing one doesn't use emoticons, memes or any of most popular e-mail abbreviations like LOL or ROTFL.
E-mails are quick for quick notes to friends, but do they really replace a letter? Imagine receiving an e-mail from a friend vacationing in Japan such as "Am in Japan. Having a great time" instead of a postcard of the NHK Tower saying the same thing. Which would you rather receive?

Cheap Musical Instruments

As regular readers of this blog are aware, your faithful correspondent is an advocate of cheap musical instruments. He believes that good and enjoyable music can be made with a cheap First Act guitar and a pair of bongos as well as it can be made with a Fender Strat and a Ludwig drum set.
Be it known that this author has a $40 uke, a $70 guitar, a $7 pennywhistle and a $20 harmonica, none of which he plays well, or even competently. But he enjoys playing those instruments.
He also owns a thing called a StrumstickTM. The instrument is also known, and will be known heretofore as a stick dulcimer because the StrumstickTM is a trademarked name and the "inventor" of said "stick" is not loath to complain about other builders of stick dulcimers calling their products being called "S-sticks."
This writer has owned a "S-stick" for some years and has enjoyed fooling about with it, although he has never taken it very seriously. The tuning is usually G-D-G, which allows for a good range of songs, and the thing is usually played in a diatonic mode. It has only three strings and some people think that it is easier to play than a proper dulcimer, though yours would dispute this since the diatonic spacing of the frets make the thing easier to play on the lap than as a half guitar.
But it is a fun thing to fool around with. It actually sounds more like a banjo than it does a guitar or dulcimer. And the cost of the thing, the last time checked, is not awfully high especially if one buys one of the many stick dulcimers besides the "S-stick." In fact, the quality of the construction of the "S-stick" is lacking and feels really cheap. The neck is very narrow making it difficult to finger chords and the neck feels almost as if it were teak. Teak is a great wood, but it's not very smooth. Considering the fretting demands of a stick dulcimer one would expect that the neck be not only smooth, but slick. One can fret faster with a proper dulcimer than a "S-stick."
So if you want to have a cheap stringed instrument that is fairly easy to play you might consider the stick dulcimer, or in a bind, the "S-stick."
Here's a YouTube thing of an explanation of the "S-stick" not "S-stick" controversy:
This is NOT a Strum Stick! - YouTube

When Actresses Go Bad

Sometimes one, while watching a motion picture, will see an actress that one sees some promise as a proper actress in. And often one is disappointed in that said actress decides that she would rather be a "Star" instead of an actress.
This is a short post about the two Kates - Kate Winslet and Kate Beckinsale. One decided to become an actress and the other decided to become a "Star."
Both women entered the motion picture industry at about the same time. Beckinsale perhaps a bit earlier. The first time this writer became aware of Beckinsale was when she co-starred in a movie version of Much Ado About Nothing. Your faithful correspondent first saw Winslet in Beautiful Creatures. And he hoped that both women would go on to become skilled and real actresses.
Beckinsale went on to star in Cold Comfort Farm, Emma and The Last Days of Disco. All three films, while not art films, were movies that demanded acting skills. Winslet went on to star in Titanic and was in danger of becoming a "star", but she seems to have come to her senses and has deigned to go into movies that were examples of acting and writing instead of special effects. Meanwhile Beckinsale has gone into a series of vampire/werewolf themed action pictures and the result has been that, while she's been pulling down a bit of coin, has not shown that she has any acting chops anymore. She'll occasionally co-star in a bit quieter movie, but she's the co-star and is not asked to do much than support another actor. A walking stick could do that.
It's a sad thing to see a woman of such talent as Kate Beckinsale fall to the "action star" bit. In a few years she'll be too old to be an action star and she'll have a hard time finding a job as a middle-age actress. She'll always be thought of by the casting directors as the lanky Limey carrying a sword.

Men In Hats

After a bit of an absence it is time for another Men in Hats feature.
Having in the past covered the majority of types of hats worn in the United States and Europe it has become time to travel farther afield. For this edition we travel south of the border to Mexico to take a look at the sombrero, or as it is more properly know in Latin America and Spain, the sombrero mexicano.
Properly speaking, sombrero in Spanish means "hat." "Hat" meaning a head covering with a proper brim going around the crown of the hat and not a cap with just a bill in the front (or back or side if one is into the hip-hop nonsense).
The sombrero descends from the Spanish "grandee" hat -- a felt hat with a straight flat crown and a fairly large flat brim. One sees picadors in bullfights wearing such hats. The native Mexicans changed the hat to something with a much larger curled brim and a sugar-loaf type crown.
There are various styles of the hat ranging from the woven straw or reed hat, usually worn in the southern parts of Mexico, to the heavy felt and straw spangled charro version worn by Mexican vaqueros and frontera singers to the chaparral, in which the back of the brim is almost folded up flat against the crown somewhat like a bi-corn.
The most practical variation is the straw/reed type. It is fairly light, gives plenty of shade and the tall crown allows the heat of the head to escape.
Nowadays the hats are worn by country people and vaqueros and singers. At one time the Mexican Federal police wore them as part of their uniforms. And of course, Mexican revolutionaries wore them.
Who should wear a sombrero? A Mexican rural person, a Mexican cowboy, a Mexican country singer, and anyone on the beach on a hot day.

Progress Doesn't Always Mean PROGRESS

We here at Bloody Nib Manor try to maintain a positive view of life in the United States, but to tell the truth, while walking down the street or going to the local emporium, we find it difficult not to believe that manners and behaviour are undergoing a de-evolution.
Be it known that this writer is no prude. And that this writer is no snob. Your faithful correspondent is a working man who works in the manufacturing industry in order to put bread on the Nib table.
But this writer is often taken aback by the, to put it mildly, the lack of self respect with which some people dress themselves while in public. In other words, they dress like idiot children or just plain slobs. A trip to the local Wal-Mart did nothing but re-enforce this thought. Men and women, all chronologically adults, walking about wearing tee-shirts, singlets, short (often very short) pants and thong sandals as if they were at the beach scaring the fish in the ocean.
Is there no sense of propriety? In fact, one the way home this writer saw a young woman wearing short cut-off jeans with lace tights.
We live, despite the current economic downturn, live in a much more materially rich world than people did during the Great Depression , and yet, if one watches old films of the Dust Bowl, bread lines and strikes, one can see that the people then dressed more properly than they do now. The men wore proper shirts and pants and hats, and the women wore dresses that did not make them look like refugees from some sort of adult-child summer camp.
Why is this? Is it because we have become more "free" or because we have just become a bunch of lazy slobs?
It's a sad thing to see.

The New Year

We here at the Manor are not given to making New Years resolutions, but this writer has decided to make a resolution to be a little more upbeat and humorous this coming year. Let's face it. This year is an election year and promises for this reason alone to be nothing but depressing. Plus one has the Iranian acting like Iranians, the Chinese acting like Chinese and the Norks acting like the crazy uncle deciding that the attic would look better if it were on the ground floor.
So to start things right your faithful correspondent offers these stories about animals in war and animal heroes:
File:LostBattalionMonument.JPG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Animals In War Memorial - The Animals In War Memorial - Park Lane, London

Churchill's mission to rescue the war horses and how he made officials bring tens of thousands home | Mail Online

Dickin Medal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It makes one wonder if animals are not better than us.

The Arab Spring and French Common Sense

Not so many months ago the popular press was trumpeting the glories of the Arab Spring and how popular protests against the rulers of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia would result in liberal democracies of the Western European type. So far it appears that the movement has resulted in a strengthening of conservative Muslim control over those nations.
In Egypt the Coptic Christians are in worse shape than they were during the reign of Mubarak. Murbarak, as authoritarian as he was, managed to protect the minority communities of Egypt from the hate and idiocy of conservative Muslims. In Libya the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take control. In Tunisia, a nation that was, in culture at least, was friendly to the West having been a French colony, the M.B. waits for it's chance to strike and take control.
Recently in Egypt, in Cairo, in fact, there were protests against the military regime (who seem to be working at the behest of the M.B.), and it has been shown that the Muslim "respect" for women isn't worth much. In fact, the demand for "modesty" in women is not a big deal as long as one is beating them publicly. This writer is of no doubt that these protesters would have much preferred to have been pepper spray as the Occupiers in Santa Cruz (or was it UC Davis?) were. One recovers from a pepper spraying a lot faster than a beating by steel rods:

The brave women of the Middle East: Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame | Mail Online

David Cameron has thrown the "defi" at Archbishop of Canterbury Rowen Williams and the Church of England in general. In a speech celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible he stated what the chin scratching crowd would like to deny: that Great Britain is a Christian nation. The King James Bible is the glue, that in a sense, holds the Anglo-sphere together. And it is Christianity that that spread the KJV to the world.

David Cameron: "We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so" The Tory Diary

The French often take the politically correct route, but as bar as the burkha goes, they have taken a stand that the U.S. should. There is nothing in the Koran about the burkha. The burkha is a national cultural artifact from the Middle East. If a person immigrates to a nation and does not want to become part of that nation they show not bother to unpack their grip. Just go the hell back home. And if you want to be a member of a primitive society despite being born into a modern society just go to the primitive society you so admire. Don't expect to have it both ways:


Burka ban. New French law forbids Islamic women from wearing full-face veils in public (but the only real protest was in London) | Mail Online

Trump Trump

We here at the Manor are conservative, though we are loathe to call ourselves Republicans. We support the conservative candidate and will have no truck with any party machine.
Having said that, let it be known that this writer will not vote for ANY candidate, Republican, Democrat or whatever, who kisses Donald Trump's ring.
Donald Trump is nothing but a big blowhard and bully, a self promoting bankrupt, a man who thinks that his money buys him wisdom. He is, in a sense, the financial version of Alec Baldwin -- a bloviating anus that thinks it's a mind.
All politicians are whores. Some are call girls. Others are skid row kneelers. Any politician who does not denounce Trump, or at least ignore him, is nothing but a strawberry kneeling on broken glass in a gutter to make five bucks.

Suck It Up, But Don't Be Afraid to Protest

This writer has long been of the opinion that certain groups are all too thin skinned. Examples of such groups are feminists. Muslims, blacks, evangelical Christians, Catholics, liberals and conservatives, among others.
We live, due to the rise of the psychiatric professional, in the age of the sensitive. Counsellors are called out to comfort children when a mountain lion has been killed near a school or when a bad man has been shot down by the police at a shopping mall. It is assumed that every living thing has a right to live despite the fact that that particular living thing undermines the society. The individual is important, but a bent individual is less important than the good of the polis.
The end result of all this nonsense is that people have become very thin skinned. They hurt and bruise easily. They take offense easily. They make it almost impossible to express one's opinion without being accused of being "hateful." Well, guess what. Some people do hate things and hate ideas. Some people hate some ideas and they hate some ideas. They see some things, some ideas and some people as dragging the nation down to the level of a Norway where the idea of nationhood is an embarrassment.
Your faithful correspondent is of the opinion that this thin skin attitude is partly due to the fact that most people do not perform manual or skilled labor. They sit in cubicles and they really do not deal with other people. Their dealings with other people are limited to company sponsored "sensitivity training". In other words, one is told that to call something wrong is wrong in itself.
Here's an article from the Tory party in Great Britain that is interesting:

Andrew Lilico: For a tolerant society to work, we all need thick enough skins Conservative Home Columnists

But that doesn't mean that one should allow one and one's beliefs to be kicked around by the art crowd. Modern art stands for nothing but the shocking and itself:

Catholics protest against 'blasphemous' play in Paris | World news | The Guardian

Some Links

The United States has spent lives, blood and money in an attempt to rid Afghanistan from the influences of fundamentalist Islam and the Talaban. Apparently our investment is not paying off very well:

AFGHANISTAN Afghan women victims of violence and abuse like under the Taliban - Asia News

Your faithful correspondent has often stated that the American civilization is now living on the interest of the investment that Christian-Americans made up until about two generations ago and that that interest is running out. In Great Britain it appears that it has run out and the heathens have taken over:

The National Secular Society doesn't get it: Christianity is integral to our national life – Telegraph Blogs

Britain: Islam In, Christianity Out :: Hudson New York

Some Links

These are interesting:
The Totalitarian EU Tightens Its Grip « British Freedom

Christian worker loses her job after being 'targeted' by Islamic extremists - Telegraph

A fifth of Iraqi women 'subjected to abuse' - Yahoo! News

Links Galore!

While it is too early for those of us at the Manor to start pulling for presidential candidates, Michelle Bachman seems to have more sense than the rest of the field:

Gates of Vienna: Michele Bachmann on Pakistan

And a church seems to have realized that Sharia law is more of a danger to the US than the pols:

Anger, fear, determination permeate anti-Shariah conference at Madison church | The Tennessean | tennessean.com

Some people seem to think that Islam and its adherents are a "protected" species when it is, in fact, the gray squirrel displacing the red squirrel. The end result is a damn mess. This guy gets it:

Protecting Muslim honour at the price of freedom of speech: Bruce Crumley, Time and Charlie Hebdo – Telegraph Blogs

Usually, in India and especially the West Hindus are considered peaceful and non-confrontational. This dude proves that their is more to cow love than most sahibs realize:

INDIA VHP leader calls for decapitation of those who convert Hindus to Christianity - Asia News

We here at the Manor shop at Fresh and Easy which is owned by Tesco. The following does not do anything to insure our custom:

Tesco backs gay festival but drops support for Cancer Research charity event | Mail Online

Holy Logic, Batman!

This from Frank Miller, the creator of the Dark Knight concept of the Batman:
ANARCHY | Frank Miller Ink

A Couple of Links

The offices of a French humor magazine were bombed a short while ago because the magazine decided to publish some material that the Orcs deigned to be offensive to the memory of the Pedophile. Unlike the Danes in the Mohammed cartoon controversy, the publishers and editors of the French magazine have decided that they will not be bent under the pressure of Islam.

Charlie Hebdo attack: No more excuses | Index on Censorship

A Norwegian writer and thinker has written something pointing out a few things that the Norwegian government (or most European governments) refuse to face, realize or understand.

Gates of Vienna: Time to Uphold Western Roots

What a Dope!

We here at Bloody Nib Manor have suffered the residence of a cat for the past 12 or 13 years. This is not to say that the cat is "our" cat. The cat just lives on the grounds. The cat is a pretty little female tabby with a bobbed tail with some interesting habits. But the cat is, in reality, a feral cat. We made the mistake some years ago of feeding the cat and we can't get rid of it. If we do not feed it it sets up a yowl. And despite being fed by Lady Nib and this writer, the cat will not allow itself to even be touched. When a hand approaches it the cat hisses and strikes with claws.
This situation reminds your faithful correspondent of the unchecked immigration. A nation lets in what are, in effect, a feral people with no love for the host country, feeds and supports said immigrants and ends up with a group of people with no loyalty or appreciation for the host nation.
Take Great Britain, for example. Tony Blair, for some reason a loved Brit of both Clinton and Bush fans, decided to let the feral into Britain and the result has been not good. London has turned into Londonistan and Birmingham has turned into Birmingstan. And all the while the newcomers have been given favors tat are denied the native Limies.
But guess what? Blair defends his decision. Probably because he isn't living in the East End:
Tony Blair defends opening door to mass migration | Mail Online

Mitt Romney = Pancake

Be it known that we here at the Manor are not too crazy about anh of the Republican candidates for President. But we find Mitt Romney especially distasteful. Here's why:
Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

The Last DJ? Pffffffft!

Those who have lived in the Los Angeles area between 1972 and the present day, if they listened to rock music on the FM band have probably heard of, and even listened to Jim Ladd on the radio. During his career he has worked at at least four radio stations, being fired from some and having one fold up and change formats.
This writer remembers Ladd best from his days at KMET (aka The Mighty MET), and this writer remembers him as being the most self-absorbed, self-congratulatory and most pretentious disc jockey on the air. He was one of those idiots who thought that music could save the world. Actually, to be more accurate, he was one of those knuckleheads who felt that rock and folk-rock and art-rock music could save the world when in fact said music was not able to save a good number of the musicians in the genre (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, John Bonham and on and on).
Ladd was clever with his choice of music and his play lists, but he was no better than most of the DJs at KMET or KLOS. In fact, your faithful correspondent would posit that Mary Turner, Rachel Donahue, Allen Burton and Pat Kelly were better than Ladd. There were, and are, better DJs on public radio (one of the best being Ian Whitcombe on his show about the history of popular music), but, for some reason or another, Ladd survived until a few days ago.
This survival has done nothing to make the man modest and has done nothing to promote rock music. The man long ago became a bit of a fossil. His playlist was stuck in the '70s and '80s and his mind set was stuck in the same period. And while some of the music from that time was good and entertaining, it was nothing really exceptional. It was music of its time. Listeners to Boss radio on the 1960s got a much later variety of music than did any listener of Ladd's show. But Boss radio was a product of a time before teenagers and young people still spent time with real adults and were exposed to singers ranging from Perry Como to Mungo Jerry. Ladd appealed to an audience stuck in amber-- fifty year old men still wearing Led Zeppelin t-shirts and grandmothers reminiscing about how high they got at the last Cheap Trick concert while telling their grandkids to just say no.
Ladd, although he will deny it, acts as if he invented free-form FM radio. He gives a nod to Tom Donahue, but does not realize that the AM station KLON had the same thing before Donahue hit the air. He likes to think of himself as the last DJ. But he forgets that the last passenger pigeon (a species that once was so numerous that when it migrated in the East and Midwest that its numbers hid the sun for hours) ended up in a zoo until it died and was later stuffed and exhibited in the Smithsonian.
Unlike the passenger pigeon, there will always be another free-form DJ somewhere in the US. Said DJ may not be playing Tom Petty and the Doors, but he will be playing something that appeals to his crowd whether the crowd be in Los Angeles or Bangor.
In fact, this writer posits that Ladd will find another gig. And as much as he is an irritant, that is probably a good thing. If nothing else it shows that for a few hours a station will not have an auto tune play set. It's just too bad that a more worthy person could not get the gig.

You Have a Nice Little Business Here.

In the old movies about fighters against organized crime there was always scene in which an "enforcer" would walk into a barber shop, look around and then walk up to the barber and say something like, "You have a nice little business here. It would be too bad if anything happened to it. We can insure that nothing does if you co-operate. If you don't, something will."
Now-a-days the racket still goes on with the only change being that not only are the Mafia, the Black Hand, the Tongs and the White Fence pulling that gag, but "human rights" organizations are using it to get their way.
Two cases in point:
A seven-year-old boy in Colorado, who apparently is under the mistaken apprehension that he is a girl, has decided that he wants to join the Girl Scouts as a Brownie. When his mother applied for him to be a Brownie the local Girl Scout Council told her that the Girl Scouts is an organization for girls, not boys, and that no matter how much her boy feels that he is a girl he is, in fact, a boy. Therefore, her boy could not be a Girl Scout. The mother, being the modern easily offended type, instead of perhaps talking to her son about becoming a Boy Scout and actually behaving like a boy or looking into join the Campfire organization (which accepts both boys and girls), contacted the press to air her grievances and accomplished two things: revealing that her son is an oddity and the fact that she is raising her son as a daughter, and drawing the attention of the homosexual slat kickers. The result is that several lesbian/gay organizations complained about the lack of "inclusiveness" of the Girl Scouts. The Girl Scouts, being afraid of being called meanies did a quick about face and are welcoming the little fella with open arms. It remains to be seen whether the boy will wear the traditional Brownie dress and beanie.
In Washington, D.C. there is a university named Catholic University. Needless to say, it was founded by and for Catholics, but now accepts students from all backgrounds and religions. A bunch of Muslim students at the university are complaining that the university is too Catholic and they demand a change:
Do Crosses at Catholic University Violate “Human Rights” of Muslims? | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes
So we have people who want to join a club because they like the club, but they want the club changed to their liking because the club isn't quite what they think it should be. They don't want to bother to start their own club because it's just too much trouble and there is too big a risk of failure. In other words, they behave like parasites feeding off of, and hoping to master the host. If such a thing were happening to your body you would not think twice about getting rid of the parasite, but for some reason when the same thing happens to the body politic nobody bats an eye.

What the Hell?

Mohammar Khadaffi (Kadaffi, Qadaffi or whatever) was killed this past week in Libya. The guy was, to put it simply, a rotten bastard. But he was no more a bigger bastard than any other Middle East or North African leader.
But when Qadaffi was killed this week there was a controversy about how and who killed him. Was he killed by a Libyan rebel? Was he killed by cross-fire? Was he killed by NATO cross-fire?
The United Nations has decided to investigate the death of Qadaffi and how he was killed. Apparently there are some people at Turtle Bay who worry about the method and manner in which a crazy dictator was killed.
Those people are removed from the real world. They live in a swank area of New York City. They never have faced true badness. To them the whole thing is academic. They've never gotten slapped in the face with a wet fish, let alone had an AK-47 shoved in their back.
The UN geeks have bought into the whole Soviet pushed idea of trials to judge and punish the bad instead of just killing the bad.
Those who have, through their history, have denied the rights of others really don't deserve any rights, especially by those who they have denied rights. There is such a thing as justified hate.
Having said that, this writer is of the opinion that the killing of Qadaffi and the overthrowing of Mubarack will not result in anything good. The old boss will be replaced by the new boss, and that boss will be waving a Koran while he squashes dissent.

A Few Words on Words

As those in the know are aware, we here at Bloody Nib Manor are Christians of the conservative type. This is not to say that we are Christians of the modern American evangelical type. We do not appreciate bad rock and praise music during the church service or the happy, clappy stuff. We do not sit around and talk about the Left Behind novels. We do not spend our time standing on street corners passing out religious tracts. We are Christians of the John Bunyan type or the later Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones type.
One thing we absolutely do not do is read the modern versions of the Bible. We do not read the RSV, the NIV, the ESV, the NKJV, the Living Bible, the Good News Translation or any other translation written after 1611.
We will occasionally read the Tyndale translation or the 1599 Geneva translation in order to gain more understanding about certain passages, but the King James Version is our favored text.
We hold that the translators of the KJV, Tyndale and the translators of the Geneva Bible had a much more comfortable knowledge or Greek and Hebrew, and were much better educated men, than are the translators of the modern versions. Many of those men learned Greek and/or Hebrew in their childhoods, while almost all the translators of the modern versions learned those languages in college. Also, the earlier translators were immersed in religious and classical learning; they lived, in a sense, a bubble and ignored the wider world while the modern translators are of the world and seek to please the world so their work will be well-paid.
Also, the KJV reads much better than do the later versions. The KJV is majestic and yet simple. And, probably more than any other work the KJV made then modern English language (not the contemporary English language, which is an awful mess). Shakespeare comes a close second. If this writer were asked to suggest a text to use to teach the English language to a non-English speaker he would suggest the KJV. Aside from the "thees" and "thous", the text will teach a form of English much better than the average native English speaker uses.
But to get to the point, this year is the 400th anniversary of the KJV. Here is an Anglican priest (an evangelical) who appreciates the KJV for both it's teaching and its language. In the little video on the right side of the page he manages to make a rap type thing of over one hundred common sayings that are from the KJV that are still in use. And he does it all in less than 3 minutes:
The King's English

It's All Gone to Hell

By now only the most idiotic fellow traveler has not realized that Vladamir Putin is a neo-Stalinist and a Russian nationalist of the worst sort. He's not a friend of individual or religious freedom. He sees religion as an arm of the state in the same way that old Joe did, and those religions that hold to a God that is higher than the Russian state or Russian leader are traitors to the State. For that guy the State is all, and thus, the State is God.
Here's an example:


RUSSIA Permission to build a Catholic church in Pskov denied - Asia News

England, or at least London, has gone to Hell. It is no longer English. It is a multicultural amalgam that stands for nothing other than inclusiveness. And that means that a nation, or city, is no longer a nation or proper city. It means that it is a big mess:


The Islamization of London: A Photo Tour | FrontPage Magazine


As the almost divine Brigette Bardot said twenty some odd years ago, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when the prostitutes in a city are made up of Arabs and North Africans instead of honest French women.

The World Gone Out of Kilter

Well, this Occupy XXX still goes on and the press still wets itself thinking back to an imagined time in the '60s when the world could be saved by some pot addled twenty year old or the Arab Spring when it was cool to beat up on the Jews and Israelis.
Let us just face the facts. The Occupy "movement" is really nothing but a big bitch-fest. Every-damn-body with a bitch is showing up to pitch their bitch. It's not really a movement with any sense of purpose other than "I want more and you should pay for it." It's really a collective holding of breath until the spinach is replaced with Snickers bars.
The "movement" is so unfocussed that the American Nazis and the American Communists are showing up. And during the thing The One and Nancy Pelosi cater to the thing:
Nazis and Communists Throw Their Support Behind Occupy Wall Street Movements (Updated) | The Gateway Pundit

Occupy This!

This writer is considering organizing an Occupy Skid Row movement to be participated in by the working and middle classes. The goal is to clean out, by occupation, the drunks and druggies from Skid Row and drive them back to the railroad sidings where they used to hang out.
Your faithful writer is not familiar with cities other than Los Angeles, but in L.A. Skid Row spells from the old cathedral to J-Town (Little Tokyo) to Broadway. The result is that if one wants to go downtown to do some business, shopping, sight-seeing of old LA or museum going one has to trip over drunks and fend off Sterno drinkers and put up with the smell and squalor that the less restrained of us produce. Hell! One cannot even pick up a proper suit from Brooks Brothers without having it smelling like cheap muscatel by the time one gets to one's car.
Occupy Skid Row! Drive the drunks and druggies to the Salvation Army or the Union Rescue Mission. They know better than do the cities how to help those people than does the government.

A Picture is Worth...

There is a theory in physics that posits that the presence of an observer influences the outcome of an action. In fact, the observer influences the action itself..
Now, this idea was come up with while dealing with sub-atomic particles.
But it has been held by some that the presence of an observer influences the actions of the actors (this meaning those performing the act and not that awful class of entertainers known as "actors"). In other words, if a person is about to key a car and sees someone watching him before the key is laid on the paint, that person will likely not key the car. On the other hand, if a person is angry for a reason, the presence of another person will turn the anger to outrage.
There is the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. This writer has held, at least since the invention of the modification of photographs, that a picture is really not worth not much.
Consider this:
The reader sees a photograph of a close up of a woman screaming. The question is, why is she screaming? Is she screaming from grief or terror? Is she screaming from pain? Or is she screaming because she's on a roller coaster? Because she's joyful because she just saw her sailor husband on the deck of a ship arriving home after a twelve month deployment in the Persian Gulf? Maybe she's not even screaming. Maybe she's laughing. Or perhaps she's screaming because she thinks that the photographer expects her to scream.
The photographic art in journalism is tricky. Free lancers have to sell photos, and they can't sell photos if they don't have interesting photos. And people with a bitch are more than willing to act out for a photographer than they would for the neighbors.
This photographer exposes the whole deal:
An Eye-Opening Look at How Many Conflict Photos Are Staged

Fergit it

There are weeks that one finds one self that one wishing that one were at sea on a merchant vessel or yacht where one would not be able to receive the latests news. This is one of those weeks.

What the H---?

You sit around and worry about the state of your IRA or 401(k) whi8le this type of nonsense goes on:
Bosnian family earning over $121,000 on welfare in Ireland | Irish News | IrishCentral

Manners, Letters and Haircuts

We here at the Manor are rather old-fashioned in many way. Among those ways are manners (or etiquette), the writing of proper letters and proper haircuts. And while those who run around glorying in their rudeness to the supposed barista at Starbucks because said barista is a kid from Downey, California instead of a middle-aged man from Milano, Italia and thus deserves a good dissing because the kid is a posuer because he or she is not a real barista, we prefer to be polite to everyone, if possible. Proper manners and etiquette are really gifts that one gives to oneself that is reaped by others. Why go through life like a drunken German baron living in the Middle Ages (or even the late 19th century in Prussia) dealing with peasants when one can take the higher road and treat other people kindly while still being drunk.
Many years ago, when this writer was a bit of a rounder, he and his brother used to frequent topless bars on a monthly basis. That was back in the days before the dives were called "Gentlemen's Clubs." Your faithful correspondent and his brother were popular patrons at those establishments. And the reason was not because we were big tippers. We were average tippers. What we did was treat each dancer and waitress as a valued individual. We were very polite. We showed an interest in the person and not the body of each woman. We made it known that we were not looking for a quick lay. And the result was that we were considered odd in that we showed an interest and proper and formal attention toward each woman. One dancer even said, "We don't know what to make of you guys. You're so polite." And even though they didn't know what to make of us, they liked us because we treated them like people and not breasts.
The contemporary person in the US seems to have lost the art of writing a proper letter. By this your writer does not mean only a letter written on paper with an ink pen. The modern man and woman seems to have lost the talent to even write a proper e-mail based on the letter model.
Now-a-days e-mails are written in such a staccato style that they make the old Westren Union telegrams appear models of the literary art. It is troubling.
If the reader is of an age, the reader may remember waiting almost with bated breath waiting for a letter sent through the post for a letter from one's friend, pen-pal, uncle, aunt, granny, the movie star one had written a fan letter to, or the House of Humor and the sense of joy that one got when one actually held the envelope in one's hand. The letter could be saved in an old shoebox, be stuffed under a mattress to be read and re-read or torn up in anger. The Save and Delete deals on one's e-mail account do not have quite the same impact or physicality.
And the physical distance of the writer from paper in using the electronic forms of correspondence seem to have removed the writer from a form of expression that a pen and paper or typewriter offered. A letter on a CRT is not real. A letter printed out on a printer is not real. They are not real in the same way that a hand written or typewritten (and that means on a typewriter) are real. A handwritten or typed letter is a more physical expression of friendship, whether there are mis-spellings or typos. There is no spell or grammar check. There are blots and erasures and cross outs in real letters. The slowness of writing a real letter gives the writer a bit of time to think before he or she adds another word. The computer, because of its sense of speed and urgency, does not. Ask your self this question: How often have I re-read what I have written after I have written something in an e-mail. This writer would be willing to make a bet that it has not been very often. The editing has usually been limited to a spell-check.
Now, in fairness to the computer age, this writer does not blame e-mail for the death of proper letter writing. He does not even blame the telegraph or radio. This writer blames television. Television gives the viewer a sense of urgency unlike any other medium. One cannot really write a letter while watching whatever permutation of CSI in the same way that one could write a letter while listening to Fibber McGee.
But this writer also blames the school system. Children are no longer taught to write. They cannot write longhand and they cannot write a proper sentence. Writing is now being considered an option. The result will be the death of great letters and diaries and the promotion of texting talk and unthinking nonsense.
If you are a man do not go to a hairstylist to have your hair cut. Go to a proper barber with a red and white or red, white and blue barber pole outside the establishment. Hair stylists, especially women, have no idea about how to cut men's hair. A proper barber, man or woman. knows how to give a haircut. Stylists have no idea. If you walk into a haircutting place that has in the magazine rack copies of Vogue, People or Cosmopolitan instead of Field and Stream, Popular Mechanics or Hot Rod, run out. If you don't youo'll end up walking out looking like some sort of Muppet.

Links

Call this writer a liar or a breaker of promises, but your faithful correspondent cannot help but add these news items about our Islamic "friends."
The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany have decided to fold in a way that would make the French during World War 2 look strong. If one's church is willing to basically submit to another religion that can only mean that one's church really doesn't believe what it preaches:

Gates of Vienna: German Catholicism Welcomes the Barracks and the Bayonets

Become a Prostestent.
Muslims, based on the words of that 7th century pedophile, Muhammad, do not like dogs. In fact, they hate dogs. Their dislike of dogs shows that they are really not human. There is an old American Indian legend that when God split the world between humans and animals the dogs jumped across the gap to be with humans. In the New Testament the dogs who licked the wounds of Lazarus were doing him a service in taking away the corruption and adding the healing qualities of saliva. But Orcs don't know what is what:

Islamic Dogophobia and Our Canine Heroes | FrontPage Magazine

This writer has always been of the opinion that Islam is really a homophile religion. It's hostility towards women is unlike that of any major religion in the world. Christianity has often been accused of being hostile towards women, but it must be remembered that the the first witnesses of the Empty Tomb were women, and one of them was, by tradition, a prostitute. Meanwhile, our Orc friends in Pakistan spend their time dancing dances that would embarrass the the most gay San Franciscan:

crazy chicken dance, 1 - YouTube

Links Round-Up

Today is the tenth anniversary of the attack by the Orcs on the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon, and a failed attempt to attack someplace in Washington, D.C.
Modern Americans, being what they are and at the tacit urging of the United States government have decided to use the anniversary to promote a sense of victim-hood instead of rage against the those who attacked us. The whole nonsense started about a day after the attack with liberal and politically correct asking themselves (and thus us, sense the pc never ask themselves questions without trying to make the non-pc feel guilty), "What did we do to offend our little Muslim brothers?" instead of expressing proper outrage and demanding blood and fire. They did not (and still do not) see the irony in the fact that September 11 was also the anniversary of the repelling from the gates of Vienna by Jan Sobeiski while the French king Louis XIV plotted against other Western European nations and played with his mistresses.
In addition to a quiet remembrance of the 9/11 attacks we should, as Westerners, celebrate the repelling of the Orcs by Sobieski and we should also celebrate the destruction of the Ottoman navy by Andrea Doria on October 7, 1571.
Referring to this writer's last post, this is a day to urge hate; hate against the evil that wants to subjugate the West. Do not wonder why evil desires harm to you. It is what evil does.
Three links follow. Two concerning (/11 protests by Orcs in London and one a consideration of Sarah Palin and her willingness to offend the Democrat and established Republican powers. In her opposition to welfare and corporate welfare she stands for us than the current crop of Republican presidential candidates come near to doing.
Breitbart.tv » British Islamists Burn American Flag at 9/11 Protest
Gates of Vienna: 9-11 at the American Embassy in London
Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Mama Grizzly Lays Down the Anti-Establishment Gauntlet

What's the Deal?

During the past few months a good number of Republican pols have start parades to the White House. The number range from the barely conservative John Huntsman to the nutty uncle, Ron Paul. You've got Mitt Romney with his Ken Doll act and Rick Perry playing Woody from Toy Story.
Only the women (Michelle Bachman and not quite announced candidate Sarah Palin) seem to be going out on limbs in making statements that are really conservative. Don't mention Ron Paul as a conservative; he's a libertarian and corporatist of the worst sort.
Why is it that the women seem to have the testosterone that the the male candidates don't?
Bachmann: Why do we need a Department of Education, anyway? « Hot Air
» Root Causes: In Iowa, Sarah Palin Lays Out a Governing Philosophy that Should Worry Both Sides of the Aisle - Big Government

Friends Don't Let Friends ...

Back during the last California election there was a Proposition on the ballot that advocated the outlawing of state recognized "gay marriages" in the state. The Prop. was called Prop. 8. The Prop. was passed by the voters and thus, for a while, there was no such thing as "gay marriage" in California that was recognized by state law. Needless to say, the Sodomite lobby pranced to the courts and managed to find a pink judge who over-threw the will of the voters because that it was state appellate courts do. The appellate courts are our are our wise men who know the will and desires of the citizen better than the citizens do. In other words, they are liberal missionaries who have deigned themselves the educators and non-elected legislators of what the old, honest Christian missionaries in Africa called "little brown babies." You are a little brown baby and we here at the Manor are little brown babies because we hold to a Judeo-Christian ethos that is, according to the Solons that govern us, is out of date.
During the election period under consideration there was a bumper sticker/poster/slogan that was clever and almost interesting: No to H8!. In other words, Prop 8 was considered an action of hate. Since that time those opposed to "gay marriage" have used the meme H8 as a shorthand to insult those who do not think that legally recognized "gay marriages" are such a good idea. They are called "H8ers."
Well here's the deal. Hate is not illegal. It is not always bad. You or this writer can hate anyone or anything we like without any fear of legal repercussion. You can hate the military, your faithful correspondent can hate politicians and gays can hate Christians to our hearts content. As long as you don't punch a sailor, this writer doesn't punch Dianne Feinstein and a RuPaul doesn't attack Greg Laurie with a high heel we're all cool.
In fact, sometime hate can be a good thing. God hates sin. Americans hated the Nazis and the Imperial Japan, Lincoln hated slavery, Andrea Doria hated the Turks. If those aspects of hate had not been present it is not unlikely that by now we'd all be speaking German, drinking ocha served by a slave of some sort just after dirtying our schnozzes on a prayer rug pointed to a God benighted desrt kingdom ruled by a bunch of hypocritical Arabs who play saints at home and screw Spanish whores while on vacation.
Now look here, dear reader. The whole H8 bit is a bunch of nonsense. If you don't like Sodomites marrying that's your business. There is a good and a bad. There is a moral and an immoral. There is a right and a wrong. If you don't agree with the nonsense that the popular media vomits out that is not reason to feel guilty. The popular media is populated by unthinking boobs who have been indoctrinated by over paid college professors who couldn't hold a job in the private sector if their lives depended upon it.
This political correctness nonsense is just nonsense perpetrated by a bunch of people who who really stand for nothing more than some sort of Kumbaya world. It like the Unitarians have taken over the media and the government. Unitarians are okay in their place; New England. But that stuff doesn't work in the rest of the U.S. despite the fact that the politicians and the courts have been trying to "educate" us for some years. We are the little brown babies. They are the Great White Father. The problem is that their father is not our Father.
This writer proposed a new bumper sticker/slogan: I Heart H8 ( the heart being represented by a heart graphic). There are things worth hating -- sin, evil and those who intend evil toward you.
Remember this: Hate is not always bad and love is not always good.
Friends don't let friends become polictically correct.

It Gets Stranger and Stranger

This week it was announced that Chaz Bono was going to be a contestant on the television show Dancing With the Stars.
We here at the Manor are not very television friendly, but we have heard of the program and know what it is all about. How can one listen to the radio, read the newspaper or the articles on the Internet and not hear about the show? It is as ubiquitous as American Idol.
This writer has a couple of questions about the announcement.
The first is why is Chaz Bono famous? S/he has done nothing to be famous. S/he is the only daughter of two famous parents, Sonny Bono and Cher, but s/he has done nothing but be a daughter/son who became a lesbian and later had plastic surgery and chemical treatments to appear to be a man. Her half-brother, Elijah Blue Allman is also the child of famous parents, Cher and Greg Allman, has pretty much disappeared despite the fact that he probably has more musical talent than his half-sister.
At one time a purported "trans-sexual" was news. Christine Jorgenson back in the 50's and 60's was big news. Christine Jorgenson was originally name George Jorgenson and he went to Sweden to have plastic surgery to make him appear a woman. It was big news then.
Nowadays one trips over a "trans-sexual" every time one goes to the local Wal-Mart. It's no news. "Trans-sexuals" are the modern version of the tattooed man at the carnival. They just have more money to pay for their stupid decisions. And the actual change physically in a "trans-sexual" is that when the person once squatted to pee is now standing to pee or vice-versa.
When a man to woman "trans" gets ovaries or a woman to man "trans" gets a prostate then you might have something close to a real "trans-sexual." the only creatures that have true sex changes are seahorses and snails. No mammals.
So Chaz Bono has to shave. A lot of women have to shave after they hit menopause. Hell, Kate Winslet has a pretty good growth of fuzz, and she's still a fairly young woman.
Is Chaz Bono on the show because of the "freak" factor? Or because s/he appeals to the queer crowd? S/he's got no discernible talent beyond that of shoving her mug in front of a camera.
Why is Dancing With the Stars so popular? It makes no sense. The entertainment value is less than that of the old dance line on Soul Train or the dancers on American Bandstand or Lawrence Welk. Dancing is something that one does (excepting "art dancing" such as ballet or "modern dance") in the same way that sex or tennis are things that one does instead of watches. And dancing is the most primitive of "arts" except for beating a skull with a femur. To quote Mr. Darcy from the novel Pride and Prejudice, "Any savage can dance."
Is that what we have descended to? Freak seeking savages?

Facebook

This writer recently re-signed up for a Facebook account. Having done so your faithful correspondent remembered why he quit the silly thing in the first place. Be it know that the only reason that yours signed up for the thing was to keep track of his favorite niece and to try to be the "cool" uncle. A waste of time. Do you really think that this writer cares about his niece's next cubicle occupant. She might, but the person is really a non person here at the Manor.
Facebook is a silly thing. It's all based on a false definition of friendship. After having signed up for the thing this writer looked through the list of "people you may know" and found that he actually knew about two percent (either in person or electronically) of the people listed. Some names were recognized, but some of them were columnists.
The idea behind Facebook seems to be "Be friends with the world." The whole idea is ridiculous. Do you REALLY want to buy the world a Coke? Most people have about a half dozen real friends and about three close friends. Other people known by name are acquaintances, not friends. If everydamnbody is your friend then you have no friends. A friend is a special person to YOU. If everyone is a special person to you you might as well crawl into a hole and cover yourself up because you'll never get any peace.
But, hey! If you want to be a Facebook friend of your faithful correspondent, feel free to ask. You'll get made a "friend" for sure. Just e-mail thos blog and the Facebook address will be sent to you.

Some Times the Truth Hurts (the Guilty)

Every time this writer thinks it might be a good time to make this blog a little more upbeat the real world comes along and slaps your faithful correspondent in the mug with a wet mackerel.
When Bob Wills, the great Western swing band leader and song writer was a young boy in Oklahoma his mother went out into the backyard and found young Master Wills on his knees repeatedly tossing a pair of pebbles from his hand and shouting. She asked him what in the world he was doing, and he answered that he was not quite sure but, "that's what the niggers in town do." In other words, he was copying the playing of street craps that he had seen Negroes play in town. His mother was quite upset and told him never to do such a thing again. She was not so much upset that her dear boy was playing at gambling as she was that he was pretending to be a black boy.
For let's say one hundred and twenty years American black culture has leeched into the greater American culture; blues, jazz, clothing, rap and hip-hip as well as certain types of rock music. And most of those influences have been of the lowest sort from, during their initial phases, were considered low culture by blacks themselves. The result of this influence is a bunch of white kids (so pale as to defy description) From Maine to San Diego to Anchorage playing "gangsta" wearing "hoodies" and flashing bogus gang signs on their photographs on their Facebook pages. It's all silly and despairing. It's a sign that, if not urged to rise, a generation will descend. It's easier to sink than swim, and, culturally, can be a lot more fun. It all has to do with the great urge downward.
The recent riots in London and Birmingham and other parts of Great Britain make one think of the irreducible element of rascality that lodges in the human breast. This is not to say that being black means that one is a rascal. Rather it means that some cultures trying to raise themselves as a whole while others don't. Maintaining a civil society is hard work. Being a a thug is easy. The sin nature is strong in man. And if a civil society (as well as church or synagogue or temple) does not fight against the sin nature of man in the name of political correctness, their is no hope for that society.
A British historian has caused a bit of a brouhaha by his statements regarding the riots. The chin scratching class has gone kooky, while the common sense faction has agreed with his statements.

David Starkey claims 'the whites have become black' | UK news | The Guardian

David Starkey says Enoch Powell was right with infamous 'rivers of blood' speech | Mail Online
Just because an opinion is unpopular does not mean that it is wrong.

We've Become Awfully Soft

This past weekend thirty some odd Americans, some of them Navy Seals, lost their lives during an action in Afghanistan. All the Americans, were killed while riding in a Chinook helicopter after an action against the Taliban. The educated guess is that the kill shot was via RPG. In fact, some of those in the know say that it was a lucky shot.
Needless to say, we here at the Manor mourn the loss of lives of the National Guard pilots, the Air Force combat directors and the Navy Seals.
The various news organizations have claimed that the incident is the greatest loss of American lives in Afghanistan and are wringing their hands over the incident. They hold the opinion that the loss of life should result in a withdrawal from Afghanistan and that the incident is the worst loss of life in American history.
Let's face the true facts. This incident, while tragic for the families and the comrades, is, historically negligible. The daily loss of American soldiers during the Civil War was much higher. The daily loss of Americans during World War One was higher. The loss of soldiers during the Tawara, Saipan or D-Day landings were all about ten times higher.
War is a bad thing and men die. It seems that the news organizations now think that only the enemy die. But the enemy gets to shoot back. That means that some of our men will die. But the strange thing is that when our guys kill the bad guys we are supposed to feel guilty. How can a warrior win?
The way the Afghan War is waged is all bulls**t. The press wants a clean war like that of 500 BC Greece (no civilians involved). But those days are long gone. The enemy uses civilians as cover and has done so since before World War One.
Modern warfare, in the American and NATO style, has prevented the killing of civilians supporting the enemy. Be it known that the supporters of enemy fighters are really part of the enemy.
But the news orgs seem to think that the West, and especially the Americans, fight with one and a half hands tied behind their backs. The Taliban and Al--Queda can kill innocent men, women and children with impunity while the West is expect to hold to the Marquess of Queensbury rules.
It's all a one way street with the popular media. Any death is bad. In fact, death is bad, which it is. But one has to ask CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC what is the cost of defending the Western and Christian world? Apparently nothing. The Taliban for that crowd of clowns, equals evangelical Christians and Al-Queda seems to equal the Roman Catholic Church.
An interesting thing is that some news talkers have actually asked the question, " Are the Navy Seals receiving grief counseling so they can grieve for their comrades?" The answer4 is that the Seals, Air Force men and Soldiers have grief counselling. It's called a bullet for the enemy.
We are at a low level war. A war that politicians are not willing to invest their children, but a good and just war nonetheless. As is usual, the upper classes call for war to be fought by the middle and working classes while they save their dear ones to rule in the future. It's all pretty crappy. But life IS pretty crappy. Just remember, at voting time, that one should hold one's representative responsible and ask the question as to whether or not the representative has made a blood investment. If he or she hasn't, f**k 'em.

Men in Hats

Due to the various oddities of Blogger the correspondent is unable to add a photograph of a hat or a man in a hat. So this writer asks the reader to use his or her imagination.
It is the middle of summer and it is time for a man to wear a light colored and light constructed hat. Not a baseball cap worn sideways, backwards, or frontward. Not a skater's "beanie", which is, in reality, a truncated navy watch cap, not a rasta toque whether made of cotton or hemp. It is time for a proper straw hat with a proper brim.
There are two choices: the Panama or the boater. The boater is the lesser choice simply because they are harder to find, and the fact that the modern wearer of a boater may find himself embarrassed by comments by idiots on the street that the wearer is an escapee from a barbershop quartet. But, of course, the modern man cares little for the trend of the times. The modern man wants to present himself as a man and a gentleman in a society of children and barbarians.
Having said that, your faithful correspondent would suggest that the modern gentleman not willing to wear a proper boater or skimmer wear a Panama hat of some sort. The cost of the hats varies greatly - from $300 for a handmade hat from Ecuador to $10 hat made of a paper product from China. The point is to have a cool hat that looks sharp and to have a hat that looks like a man's hat.
Get a freakin' hat for the summer and save yourself from the sun.

Men in Hats

What Do They Have In Common?

There are sometimes people who have outlived their own perceived influence or importance. This is not necessarily a matter of the person aging and holding to old ideas or philosophies, but more the matter of holding to old stupid ideas or philosophies or denying that they ever held those ideas. Prime examples would be Timothy Leary and his idea that LSD was a great thing for the general populace as a way to get to "enlightenment" or Jimmy Carter who denies to this day that he is responsible for the current rotten government of Iran or that Fidel Castro is a rat bastard.
Recently two women who came to fame in the '60s and '70s are making fools of themselves and showing their absolute lack of awareness of how times have changed or opinions have not changed.
Firstly, let us look at Jane Fonda. Miss Fonda, whose best cinematic work was contained in two movies -- Cat Ballou and Barbarella (based on a comic strip that was based on the almost divine Brigette Bardot) -- is one of those people who is always re-inventing herself because she seems to not know who she really is. She was a sex kitten, she was a leftist political activist, she was an exercise guru, she was a Christian woman, she was a feminist, she now is an exercise guru aiming at seniors. Many of her various permutations seem to be based on the man with whom she is living at the time; Roger Vadim equals sex kitten, Tom Hayden equals political activist, Ted Turner equals jumping jack (or is it jumping Jill?). Once divorced from the mouth of the South she declared herself a Christian of the liberal sort, and when that didn't get her the proper attention she wanted she went back to the exercise bit because, let us admit it, she is in pretty good shape for an old broad.
Dear Jane is now pushing some product or another and planned to push the thing on QVC. Let us keep in mind that during the '60s. '70s and early '80s that Janie would have gotten no closer to QVC than she would have gotten to a nuclear power plant. Now that, fame-wise she's a was and not an is, she wants to push her thing on cable.
The trouble for her is that people have long memories and they remember that during the Vietnam War she campaigned, actively in favor of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. This writer remembers the time and the scandal that she caused and the embarrassment she caused her father. Janie made radio broadcasts a'la Tokyo Rose to the U.S. troops, the difference being that Tokyo Rose was forced to make the broadcasts while Miss Fonda did so with enthusiasm. The result is that QVC, after a good number of written protests from viewers about Janie's appearance, cancelled the appearance of Hanoi Jane.
Jane's reaction? Denial. She did nothing to harm the American troops fighting in Vietnam. In fact, she was leading the charge waving Old Glory while fending off bullets from the Cong with her metal cufflets like Wonder Woman.

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Jane Fonda Blames Canceled QVC Appearance on the ‘Right Wing’

If our dear Jane had had any sense in her noggin she would have taken the BB route: love animals, love her nation and fear unrestricted immigration by the uncivilized.
Secondly, we have Erica Jong. For those who are old enough to remember, Miss Jon wrote a book (a novel) called Fear of Flying. The premise of the book was that "free love" i.e., unrestricted sexual activity, was a good thing for women. In other words, being a slut allowed women to find themselves and empower themselves.
Be it known now that feminism was the best thing that good happen to men. It meant that women, when they weren't busy wondering of they were carpet munchers, would bed with any guy who asked. Even the Romans, who among the upper classes were unbound libertines, the women as much as the men, didn't advocate the Jongian philosophy. They at least had the sense of decency to be hypocrites ("hypocrisy equals the duty that vice pays to virtue"), while the Jongian woman is really nothing but a sort of nymphomaniac without the psychological pathology. He reward is not even that of the cheapest crack whore. She'll give a guy a leg over in order to "discover her power" while Beulah on the corner of Fifth and Main, does the same for 10 bucks. The result? Beluah has ten dollars. The Jongian woman feels "empowered."
Well, Miss Jong has out lived her time in the '70s and '80s. The girl children of the Erica philosophy have finally figured out that sometimes tradition, instead of being a restrictive and anti-female mode of oppression of women, can be a tradition for a reason; that it works better, and is better, for the self and society than is the new thing. But Madame Jong denies that she is wrong. She's rather her own daughter behave like the slut that she was

Today's women are rejecting promiscuity for monogamy and motherhood | Mail Online

It makes one wonder.

I Can't Reed!

Be it known that this writer does not have a college education. He has a high school education and he served an apprenticeship in a trade. The lovely Lady Nib has a college education in art, but she has the sense to ignore all the social nonsense that the university added to a training in painting and drawing.
This being said, your faithful correspondent has always been a big reader of novels ranging from Lester Dent to Shakespeare and Joyce (a truly rotten writer despite what the Micks may say). In high school we were expected to be able to read sophisticate and adult (not "adult") literature.
Now it seems that the average high school student cannot read a non-abridged version of one of Fitzgerald's novels.

Gatsby without greatness - Roger Ebert's Journal

Let's face it, Roger Ebert is an elitist butthead, but a blind squirrel is right occasionally.

Finally!

Peter Hockey, head of Beaconhills College junior school says 'bully' is overused | News.com.au

Da News

We here at the Manor have the unfortunate honor of being served by two newspapers. One is the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which is good for local news. The other is the Los Angeles Times which covers national and international news than it does local news.
This writer started reading the Times when the Herald-Examiner went belly up despite the fact that the Her-Ex was a better paper. It was more of a newspaper than the Times in that it actually reported the news in a fairly objective manner. The Times, since the late 1960s, has been a forum for the opinions of the "reporters."
In fact, if one listens to the various Times reporters and journalists and one were to take them seriously, one would think that the Times is the most objective news organ in the Southland. But those name scribes mostly live west of the L.A. City Hall. They do not live in East L.A., they do not live in the South Bay or South Central. They do not live in the southeast county. And worst of all, they seem to be all the products of journalism schools from whatever college or university.
Newspaper reporters like to portray themselves as "cynical" despite the fact that they are the biggest suckers in town. They will accept the story that a welfare mother has been wronged at a public housing facility before they will investigate that said welfare mother has raised a couple or three gang bangers and that she has a big screen television and she has her nails done by a Thai immigrant.
Let's face the facts. The journalism game has always been dirty. Back in the day reporters were high school grads who could write. Those guys were always out for a scoop, even to the extent of ruining a murder investigation like the Elizabeth Short murder in 1947. But the old timers were looking for a story. They weren't looking to change society
The modern reporter, having been infected by the university, is trying to change the world. The welfare mother is a victim instead of a lazy bitch and the bum is a victim of societal neglect instead of a bad drunk who'd rather be drunk than work.
Speaking for those at the Manor, we'd much prefer the old type newspaper man than the modern journalist. At least that guy, while trying to get a scoop, was pretty honest, straight forward and clear-eyed. He saw a bastard as a bastard, not as a poor thing.

Technical Issues

Technical issues have prevented the author of this blog from posting this blog via typewritten scans. Your faithful writer apologizes for this, and hopes that by next week the reader will be reading properly typewritten posts instead of formed electrons.
Consider these issues.
1.) NATO and the US are bombing Libya for some reason. If we here at the Manor understand the explanation properly, the excuse has something to do with human rights and the fact that Qadaffi is an awful dictator and all-around bad guy. We here at the Manor do not doubt that Qadaffi is a complete butt and butt-head. But one has to ask one's self if he is any worse than the government of the People's Republic of China. Mr. Qadaffi, as far as this writer is aware, has never arrested or persecuted the citizens if Libya for religious reasons. In fact, considering that he has in the past proclaimed himself a devout Orc, he has given Christians a pretty free reign (the citizens of Libya, on the other hand, have not). The Chi-Coms, on the other hand, have not been loath to pound down on Christians outside the Three-Self Church, members of the Falun Gong and Muslims. This writer has heard no demands for actions against China in reactions to Chinese persecution.
Analysis: Libya is weak and has a bunch of oil used in Europe. China is strong and will have no oil until they start to steal it from Vietnam and the Philippines.
2.) The One has announced that the US will be withdrawing 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by late 2012 and there will be a pretty much complete withdrawal by 2014.
There's nothing like telling the enemy what you will do. The stupidest chess tyro knows that. If The One had been president during the Civil War he'd probably still be a slave.

Links. No Tlog

This writer is still attempting to work out the niceties of scanners (oh, for the steam powered age), so this Tlog is a blog.
Two items of interest:
Gates of Vienna: Camp of the Saints: How Many Infidels?
Germany has too many housewives, EU warns - The Local
One has to ask oneself two questions concerning the above:
1.) Do the problems of other nations require the aid of other nations to their own detriment?
2.) Why should Germany, or any other European nation pay any attention to the wishes, opinions or suggestions of the European Union? The EU is an artificial construct based in a joke of a nation.

So Long Blog, Hello Tlog

As those in the know are well aware, we here at Nib Manor are considered old-fashioned. The reason is because it's true.
In the spirit of Ludditeism, starting tomorrow this blog will, for the most part, become a tlog. A blog is a blog in which actual typewritten pages are scanned and uploaded to the blog. More misspellings and more typos, but more human.

Link-O-Rama

While we here at the Manor are capitalist, we are not modern or extreme capitalists. By this the writer means that a company or bank should expect a FAIR return for its investment and not an excessive return for its investment or perceived investment. Banks are especially guilty of being, and perceived as being greedy entities by their customers. Here is an example of someone getting their own against the Bank of America:


Gates of Vienna: News Feed 20110604


The writer of this blog has for several years urged the reader to read the novel The Camp of the Saints. The novel is coming true in slow motion:


Gates of Vienna: Camp of the Saints: Rediscovering Sovereignty


Please note that added to the links on the right side of this page has been added a link to Professor Martin Rice's Typewriter Blog. If you want some intelligent insight, check it out.

Johnstown Type Writer Conservatory, Johnstown Typewriter Conservatory

And finally, the rap chickens have come home to roost:

Uncle Luke, Co-Founder Of Urban Beach Week, No Longer Attends Event « CBS Miami