Pretty Kooky

This week a CD crossed the transom of Bloody Nib Manor that demands special mention. The CD is entitled "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" by the Japanese girl duo Petty Booka. The CD is basically a Best of Petty Booka thing. The music is strangely addictive. It's almost hypnotic. If you've got a few bucks to drop you might go to Amazon.com and listen to the samples before you order it. And once you listen to the samples you will order it.

And speaking of music Asian, if you have DSL or Broadband, you might want to check out this link:Crazy Korean Karaoke Girls. It's like watching your little sister. If your little sister had any talent.

And you may well ask, why the Union Jack, Piglet and Eyore image when writing about two Asian musical acts? It's just a good thing to remember that our Western heritage has to be protected from the Moorish horde.

People Who Take A Stand

Realizing that in the past your faithful correspondent has stated that he will stay off topics of a political nature he was reluctant to add these links to this post.

But considering the fact that there are politics and real life, I feel that the following links refer to real life and don't have much to do with real life.

What's the difference, you may ask The difference is that politics consists of a bunch of self proclaimed "wise men" deciding how to run the world while trying to get (re) elected to office. Real life has to do with cultural survival.

First we have an Australian official telling the local Mohammedans that if they want to live under Sharia law they'd best live someplace other than Australia -- Go elsewhere for sharia law: Costello - National Breaking News - Breaking News .

Second, a Nigerian Anglican cleric sounds the alarm about the safety and future of Christians in Nigeria -- Anglican Communion News Service .

Third, the Vatican calls for parity from the Mohammedans --VATICAN: LEADING BISHOP CONDEMNS SILENCE OVER ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE .

And finally, a Lebanese woman describes what Mohammedan supremacy over a nations looks like --- FrontPage magazine.com :: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel . Make a point of reading the first sentence of the sixth paragraph. Memorize it and teach it to your friends and children. There's no point in trying to get your local politician to remember because the first twenty bucks passing under his/her nose will erase any moral lessons that said pol has learned.

A Good, Cheap Uke

In a previous post your faithful correspondent praised the value of cheap musical instruments for the average amateur player. Earlier this week a parcel arrived at Bloody Nib Manor containing a Mahalo uke. Mahalo ukes, unfortunately made in China as is everything else these days it seems, cost less than thirty dollars (not counting postage and handling) over the Internet. WWW.MotelMusic.com sells them, as does Ukulele World. They are available in about a half dozen colors.

The uke I received is not of the quality of a Martin or Kamaka, but it's better than some I've seen over the years. My only problems with the uke are: 1.) it has machine tuners instead of pegs, which makes working the upper part of the fretboard a bit difficult for me, and 2.) the strings. The strings seem to be some sort of fishing line instead of proper uke strings. They go out of tune within a half hour. But changing the strings will change that problem.

It's a decent little uke for practice. I bought mine as a work uke. In other words, it's the uke I leave at work for practice. So, if you're looking for a cheap musical instrument to start your rock and roll career, you might consider the Mahalo uke. If nothing else it'll make people think that you're doing something artistic.

The Trouble with Harry

We here at Bloody Nib Manor read the first two or three Harry Potter novels. While entertaining, your faithful correspondent found them lacking. Perhaps it is because the books were written for children. When yours was of the target age of Harry Potter novels he was reading Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels in the hope of growing up to become an Oriental villain with plans to take over the world. Instead I became a Christian and a machinist and married a wonderful, and decidedly not evil Japanese woman.

The attached link gives a pretty good look at the Harry Potter books: Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy. And if you have the time, read the links at the bottom of the article.

I apologize for the lack of proper paragraphs in this post but the Blogger word processor seems to be having trouble understanding what an Enter key is for.

In Praise of Cheap Musical Instruments

We here at Nib Manor are not a particularly musically educated bunch. Yours likes Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart, but he cannot say why. The ever lovely Lady Nib prefers Italian operas. Yours can play several musical instruments badly; the mandolin, the harmonica, and the ukulele. Lady Nib, at one time, was a passable classical guitarist, but then she married your faithful correspondent and abandoned said instrument in favor of gardening and computer solitaire.

My first instrument was the mandolin. It was a "tater bug" bought at a pawn shop. I don't know how much it cost since Baron Nib bought it for me a a pawn shop. As time went on I bought a flatiron mandolin so I could play chords. My first guitar was bought a a swap meet. It was a piece of junk that couldn't be brought into proper tune without pulling the bridge off. Harmonicas are always cheap. My uke cost my not more than $80.00. My pennywhistles never cost more than ten bucks. I have a mountain dulcimer that cost fifty bucks. And each instrument gave me pleasure. Any failing in the instruments was due to me, not the instrument. And there lies the trick. A good musician can make a cheap instrument sound okay. A bad musician can't. Musical instruments are like golf clubs. A set of Pings can't make a hacker into Tiger Woods, but Tiger Woods can do wonderful things with a set of cheap clubs.

Unless one makes one living at it, cheap musical instruments are okay. In fact, they may be preferred. One, trying to play a Martin guitar for only a halting version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" , may feel that one is failing the instrument. Plunking away on a Wal-Mart guitar, on the other hand, may make one more experimental. One has nothing to lose (perception-wise) in thrashing a cheap git-box or violin or dulcimer.

Let's face it, music is a little like driving a car. The most adventurous thing we do is drive the freeway. Most of us can get by by driving a Chevy Aveo, a Nissan Sentra, a Ford Focus or a Kia Rio. We really don't need a Lotus Formula One car. We have neither the talent and/or overwhelming desire to take our car/guitar/uke to the higher levels. So why invest in a Corvette when one can get by with a Cobalt? Is it ego? If one is going to have a big ego one should at least have the stuff to back it up. And most of us don't.

I cannot count the times when I've heard a beginning guitarist lament the fact that he or she didn't have a Les Paul Gibson instead of an old Silvertone Deluxe (sold by Sears) or a cheap knock-off of a Fender Stratocaster while ignoring the fact that Willie Nelson, for some reason, was able to make a pretty good song using a guitar that had a hole worn in the top of the sound box.

.

Nowadays (and why is the word not now-days?) a cheap guitar is good enough for the average amateur. The bridges don't pull off the sound board, the necks don't bend and the guitars are probably a lot better than what your favorite bluesman used back in the twenties. The same goes for ukes and mandos. And the same goes for pennywhistles. Anyone who pays more than twenty bucks for a pennywhistle is an idiot trying to buy talent. And consider the great country harmonica player Charlie McCoy preferred the Hohner Old Standby (the cheap harmonica) over the Marine Band (the more expensive version until the Special Twenty). Until you can play Whammer Jammer on an Old Standby you can't bitch about your instrument failing you. Until you can play Malagenea on your Wal-Mart special your really haven't much excuse for not sounding like Segovia.

Most of us amateur musicians are tyros. We have neither the time nor desire to be really good. And even the cheap instruments that are available are better than a lot of the cheap instruments, or even middlin' instruments of times past when great music was being made.

Consider it this way. Roger Bannister was a medical student with little coaching in running. The only coaching he had was from the running coach at Oxford. There were no computers available, there were no biometric data available. He didn't have expensive running shoes. Bannister had two desires. He wanted to become a doctor and he wanted to run fast over the course of a mile. He busted the four minute mile, a goal that is even now, with all the technology available, that is a rarity. Bannister, in effect, played Vivaldi or Hendrix on a cheap git box. He didn't''t depend on his shoes or biometrics to reach his goal. He ran with shoes that current runners wouldn't even consider. He made the shoes. The shoes didn't make him. And the instrument won't make you.

Image-mania

By now, the whole Mohammed cartoon bit is pretty well known. Mohammedans in several nations have rioted and burned Danish embassies. Our own State Department has stated that they have taken a stand against such cartoons as those printed in the Danish newspaper back in September. Meanwhile the foggy noggins at Foggy Bottom have yet to protest against television versions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion being broadcast in Egypt or the fact that the Koran basically calls Jesus Christ a liar and a fraud with a certain prophetic talent. Be that as it may, after all diplomats have never been known for standing for anything but their jobs, the European and American world may have been given a bit of a slap in the face that will prevent suicide. Our Islamic friends may have forgotten that they, themselves, have in the past, portrayed their "great" prophet pictorially: Mohammed Image Archive If the Christian world had reacted to negative or unorthodox portrayals of Christ Nikos Kazantakis, Marty Scorcese, Sorianno and Dan Brown, in the US or Europe, would have been strung up at the nearest lamppost instead of dismissed as misguided or an idiot. Meanwhile, It would probably be a good thing if we all re-read Solzhenizyn's Harvard Address : Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address

Ukes on the March

Since Christmas your faithful correspondent has had the opportunity to see two DVDs produced by the English/Canadian musician Ralph Shaw.

Mr. Shaw is a musician/entertainer/teacher living in the lovely city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

If you are a uke fan you would be well served by checking out his website: www.ralphshaw.ca and ordering his instructional DVDs or his CDs.

The man's an awful show-off and has good reason to be so.

He also has a pleasant tenor.

Amazing Grace (Yeah) Overuse (No)

The other day you faithful correspondent made the mistake of watching a television news broadcast.

During said broadcast there was an account of some protest or another. The footage of the protest showed Joan Baez on a make-shift stage singing Amazing Grace. Last month, on the night of the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the television news featured footage of Joan Baez singing Amazing Grace.

I'm getting damn tired of Joan Baez (or anyone else for that matter) singing Amazing Grace at this or that protest meeting. It seems that Amazing Grace has become, over the last forty years, the official protest hymn for people who do not evidently believe in amazing Grace.

The hymn was written by an ex-sea captain and slaver named John Newton in the 18th century. Newton abandoned his wicked ways and became an Anglican clergyman. He was, despite his opposition to slavery, a man who supported the establishment. He supported William Wilberforce and John Wesley. His hymn addressed personal conversion to Christ. Not the idea that Grace is universal.

Read the words of the first verse:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost,
And now am found.
Was blind,
And now I see.

Note that in Newton's words Grace is personal. It is not corporate. It refers to one person -- me. It doesn't refer to us. It is the individual who knows whether or not he has received God's Grace. It is not for another to know. For another to claim to know whether another person has received God's Grace is an exercise in presumption, but one often finds those of the liberal bent to be presumptuous in their pronouncements.

The last I heard Joan Baez was a Quaker. Quakers believe in the doctrine of the Inner Light, not the doctrine of Grace as do the (shudder) Calvinists or Wesleyans. So why does Joan Baez sing Amazing Grace? Is it because it's a catchy tune? The tune used in the Americas is based on an English tavern song. It surely couldn't be the words, because if she intended to sing an old Christian hymn she could (and should) sing Isaac Watts' When I Survey The Wonderous Cross. But to do so would ruin the whole thing, I suppose, because the average American liberal has no more idea of the religious definition of Grace than he does of the string theory in physics.

As a Christian of the conservative ilk (though so very flawed) I'm getting tired of a hymn that American Christians have sung for close to two hundred years, a song giving praise to Christ, being used as a protest song by people who can't even spell Christ for the purpose of trying to prevent the state from exacting its due from people who have violated the lives of others.

The hymn Amazing Grace is a CHRISTIAN hymn. It is not a secular hymn. It is not a protest song. It is a hymn that reflects the Christian's awe that Christ has deigned to save him or her.

Did Christ deign to save Stanley Williams? I don't know. But I never saw any evidence of it. His last interviews emphasized no one other than Stan Williams, not Christ. In fact, Jesus was never mentioned. And in Joan Baez's last protest appearance there was not mention of Our Lord and his sacrifice.

So please, Joan and Judy (Collins), if you want to use the tune for Amazing Grace to express a protest of some sort, at least have the decency to write new words to the melody. The old IWW did it for the melody of Revive Us Again by using the tune for Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. If a bunch of uneducated workingmen can make new lyrics for an old melody, why can't you? If you can't, go back to singing Joe Hill.

Amazing Grace (Yeah) Overuse (No)

The other day you faithful correspondent made the mistake of watching a television news broadcast.

During said broadcast there was an account of some protest or another. The footage of the protest showed Joan Baez on a make-shift stage singing Amazing Grace. Last month, on the night of the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the television news featured footage of Joan Baez singing Amazing Grace.

I'm getting damn tired of Joan Baez (or anyone else for that matter) singing Amazing Grace at this or that protest meeting. It seems that Amazing Grace has become, over the last forty years, the official protest hymn for people who do not evidently believe in amazing Grace.

The hymn was written by an ex-sea captain and slaver named John Newton in the 18th century. Newton abandoned his wicked ways and became an Anglican clergyman. He was, despite his opposition to slavery, a man who supported the establishment. He supported William Wilberforce and John Wesley. His hymn addressed personal conversion to Christ. Not the idea that Grace is universal.

Read the words of the first verse:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost,
And now am found.
Was blind,
And now I see.

Note that in Newton's words Grace is personal. It is not corporate. It refers to one person -- me. It doesn't refer to us. It is the individual who knows whether or not he has received God's Grace. It is not for another to know. For another to claim to know whether another person has received God's Grace is an exercise in presumption, but one often finds those of the liberal bent to be presumptuous in their pronouncements.

The last I heard Joan Baez was a Quaker. Quakers believe in the doctrine of the Inner Light, not the doctrine of Grace as do the (shudder) Calvinists or Wesleyans. So why does Joan Baez sing Amazing Grace? Is it because it's a catchy tune? The tune used in the Americas is based on an English tavern song. It surely couldn't be the words, because if she intended to sing an old Christian hymn she could (and should) sing Isaac Watts' When I Survey The Wonderous Cross. But to do so would ruin the whole thing, I suppose, because the average American liberal has no more idea of the religious definition of Grace than he does of the string theory in physics.

As a Christian of the conservative ilk (though so very flawed) I'm getting tired of a hymn that American Christians have sung for close to two hundred years, a song giving praise to Christ, being used as a protest song by people who can't even spell Christ for the purpose of trying to prevent the state from exacting its due from people who have violated the lives of others.

The hymn Amazing Grace is a CHRISTIAN hymn. It is not a secular hymn. It is not a protest song. It is a hymn that reflects the Christian's awe that Christ has deigned to save him or her.

Did Christ deign to save Stanley Williams? I don't know. But I never saw any evidence of it. His last interviews emphasized no one other than Stan Williams, not Christ. In fact, Jesus was never mentioned. And in Joan Baez's last protest appearance there was not mention of Our Lord and his sacrifice.

So please, Joan and Judy (Collins), if you want to use the tune for Amazing Grace to express a protest of some sort, at least have the decency to write new words to the melody. The old IWW did it for the melody of Revive Us Again by using the tune for Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. If a bunch of uneducated workingmen can make new lyrics for an old melody, why can't you? If you can't, go back to singing Joe Hill.

Sex Symbols

One of my casual New Year's resolutions ("casual" here meaning not written down or promised) along with eating less and moving more, is to spend less time paying attention to politics. Your faithful correspondent has long held the belief that blogging and talking about politics, both world and national, is a waste of time because very few blogs have any influence on the body politic and talking about the latest crisis in North Korea at the shop coffee pot only shows one to be a news geek and does nothing for the victims of the North Korean Elvis, Kim Il Jung.

So yours has made a resolution to spend more time blogging about things that he is interested in such as music, culture, religion and literature.

A case in point is the decline of sex symbols. When I was a laddie gambolling about the banks of the San Gabriel River, there were women,why, since we were young sprites unaware of exactly what a sex symbol was, were considered by man, woman and child, to be sex symbols and truly beautiful women. Such women had names such as Jane Russell (a tough but sexy woman), Rita Hayworth, Rhonda Fleming, Sophia Loren, Gina Lolabrigitta (sp?), and the almost divine Brigitte Bardot. The common factor in all these women was that they were women. They were not teenagers. They were not children. They were all women who knew their own minds. A grown man who had the hots for Jeanne Craine in her role as Margie was considered a little suspect because Margie was a teenager.

Now that I am a man approaching senior citizenship I find that the sex symbol has become the child-like teenager as is evinced by Brittany Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Gweneth Paltrow, et al. In other words, youth women who all look like they just got out of junior high school instead of ripe women. Apparently the modern taste is for the green instead of the ripe, and that says something not good about the society. It's as if a bunch of adolescents have taken over the society. When Catherine Zeta-Jones, a truly sexy woman, is considered and oldie, one knows that something is wrong.

It may be that I'm spoiled. I grew up with truly beautiful women. The ever young Baroness Nib (my mother) and her sister were beautiful women. I married a truly beautiful and sexy woman -- the ever lovely Lady Nib --(especially when she wears stocking and a nice pair of black pumps), and she is still, some thirty odd years, later my ultimate sex symbol.

The sex symbols of my youth all smelled of Tabu or Nuit de Noel. The current crop smell of Heaven Scent or bubble gum.

It's sad.

Muslim Moral Values

Since at least September 11, 2001 we have been told that, in the view of Muslims, the West is a place of decadence. Which, of course, explains why the plane hijackers (devout Muslims) who guided the airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon spent the evenings before their highjinks in topless bars badly tipping for lap dances and watching porn on hotel television sets.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Apparently all European women are, by the fact that they aren't Muslim, whores. Consider the following: Gang terrorizes train in France - World - The Washington Times, America's News It was a hell of a way to celebrate New Years in France. And it was a hell of a police response. There are a few things that are better addressed with a nightstick and gun than with being sensitive to cultural differences. Our Gallic friends seem to have not heard the lines from Pirate of Penzance, " A policeman's lot is not a happy one." One gets the idea that the French police are getting ready for service in Vicheystan.

Or perhaps this: Pan-European Arab Muslim Gang Rape Epidemic - IRIS Blog might make one think that Islamic values in Europe and Australia are better than good old Anglo-Saxon values.

Earnestness Hurts

In a previous post or two your faithful correspondent has mentioned his fondness for the ukulele. One of the things that yours finds so attractive about the instrument is that it is so unformed. By this I mean that it has not gelled into a particular form of playing.

Acoustic guitars are usually associated with classical or folk music. Electric guitars go with rock, country or jazz. Clarinets equal classical, big band or klezmer music. But the lowly uke manages to cover all those genres and more.

This very day I have received in the mail a CD of Bach music played on the uke, listened to tin pan alley, rock and comic songs all played on the uke. It's a great little instrument and one of it's strengths is that it that it has not been niched.

On the other hand, the dulcimer, one of which I received for Christmas this year, has been niched to death. In reading over books, notations and the Internet, I see that the instrument has been niched to the point of causing it's own death. The niche for the dulcimer is earnest folk music, either American or English. A whole lot of dulcimer players seem to think that by playing the instrument they are preserving a musical tradition that would be lost unless they kept playing Barbara Allen or Boston Boy. Nothing new, nothing funny beside Little Brown Jug.

The average dulcimer player does not seem to have a sense of humor. Their earnestness is almost painful. The wildest they get is to have hummingbird shaped sound holes cut into their instruments. Or a headstock shaped like a dragon. They're either honoring "roots" America with their songs or pretending to be Elizabethan bards with songs about some character longing for his lily white lady while forgetting that Ben Jonson was an awful drunk and that it was more likely that the song sung among the costermongers was more likely to be something comic about old Jake trying to shag Betsy instead of Lancelot longing for Guinevere.

If you go through the Internet sites selling ukuleles and dulcimers you'll see that the ukes are offered with pineapples, tikis, cowboys or flames painted on the sound boards. Uke players and makers have a sense of humor. But you'll have a long, hard search trying to find a dulcimer with anything more "radical" depicted on the instrument than a hummingbird or a lily shaped sound hole. One wants for the day when some musician realizes that a dulcimer can kick out the jams.

Until that day the dulcimer will remain a painfully earnest instrument. That situation ill be good for the dulcimer aficionado, but it won't be any good for the instrument itself. It will become a new sackbut or psalter.

The Enemy of My Enemy...

Years ago Steve Miller sang a song which contained the phrase, "the pompatus of love." No one could ever figure out exactly what a pompatus was. But Miller was never quit the wordsmith of say, Irving Berlin or Cole Porter. Miller actually tried to rhyme "taxes" with Texas."

But "pompatus" is pretty close, in pronunciation to "pompous." so it's a pretty good launching pad to talk about George Galloway.

George Galloway is a member of the British Parliament. He has been implicated in the UN Food for Oil Scandal and has been accused to funneling money to Saddamite Iraq. As outraged, pompous politicians often do, he blustered his way through it sounding like an old Kawasaki 400 running on one cylinder. He managed to cow the United States Congress because he has a British accent and has a larger vocabulary than your average Congressman. But he was later shown to be a prevaricating weasel

Mr. Galloway likes to make himself out to be a champion of the little guy. As we all know, in the Western world there is usually more sympathy for the little guy than there is for the big guy. In Galloway's case the little guy in the Arab world and various Third World dictatorships. The big guy is the US. It makes good public relations and the press eats it up.

But in this little guyism it is often forgotten that sometimes the little guy is a real jerk and deserves to be be slapped around like Wilmer was by Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon. North Korea is a little guy playing with matches in a dynamite factory. Cuba is a little guy with it's own little gulag. And the Arab world is a little guy ruled by people as crazy and authoritarian as Nazi outhouse rats.

George Galloway recently gave a speech in Syria, part of which follows:

"What your lives would be if from the Atlantic to the Gulf we had one Arab union -- all this land, 300 million people, all this oil and gas and water, occupied by a people who speak the same language, follow the same religions, listen to the same Umm Kulthum.... The Arabs would be a superpower in the world if they had unity, instead of the shameful situation in which Arabs find themselves today.... Hundreds of thousands are ready to fight the Americans in the Middle East, and in Latin America there is revolution everywhere. Fidel Castor is feeling young again. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile are all electing left-wing governments that are challenging American domination. And in Venezuela, the hero Hugo Chavez has stood against them over and over and over again." (Tip o' the lid to Mark Steyn)

So there you have it. Galloway thinks the US is bad. Therefore those who hate the US are good and are his friends. What he doesn't realize is that if the Arab world extended into Great Britain he would find himself out of a job and would be acting as a lickspittle to some mullah sitting in Buckingham Palace. That is if his throat was cut for being an infidel.

But that's the leftist way. It worked for Stalin. Until he found a bunch of Germans parading into Russia.

The Integrity of the Academy

Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC the Saudi Prince, Alwaleed bin Talal offered to make a donation of 10 million dollars to be used for the rebuilding effort of NYC. In his offer he made several unwise, from the American viewpoint, comments about the need for the US be more sympathetic to the Arab world and quit worrying so much about the security of Israel. Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the prince to keep his money partially because of the prince's remarks.

Giuliani, not running for office at the time, showed some integrity that several universities have not. Talal has made contributions of 20 million dollars each to Harvard and Georgetown University for the establishment of departments, of centers, for Islamic/Western understanding: OpinionJournal - Taste

In other words, the presidents of these universities have sold their souls for filthy lucre. Harvard was originally founded as a training college for Presbyterian ministers. Georgetown was founded as a Jesuit college. In years past the purpose of the universitie's studying other religions was to understand how best to present the Gospel to members of those religions. Now it's all a big ecumenical love-in and the race for the long green, no matter where it comes from.

Some Guys Are Just Made For Killin'

If you don;t live in California you may not have heard of a man named Stanley "Tookie" Williams.

Williams (I refuse to refer to him as "Tookie" or Mr. Williams) is on California's Death Row at San Quentin prison. He has been there for 24 years. He was found guilty of the murders of four people. One was a clerk at a mini-mart. The other three were a father, mother and adult daughter at a motel. The goal of the murders was robbery. All four people were shotgunned.

Williams is also often "credited" with helping to found the Crips street gang. Actually, he was not one of the founders. He was a guest of the California Youth Authority (read youth prison) during that time. But the claim, made by his supporters seem to think that his being a founder of this band of hyenas seems to give him a street "cred" that he would not otherwise have.

If all goes according to schedule, Williams will be walking the last mile this coming Tuesday and will be breathing his last for killing four people. I celebrate the death of no man, but there are some people without whom the world is a better place. Williams is one of those. He did bad things and, for his own justice as well as ours, he deserves to be executed. To deny him the death penalty would be to deny him his justice. He knew the rules when he pulled the trigger and there's no reason for society to cheat him out of his reward.

But there has been a movement afoot among the local glitterati, race hustlers, bleeding hearts and dimbulbs to demand that the state give clemency to Williams because, in prison, about ten years ago, he made a turn around and was, to quote one supporter, "redempted." What did he do to get "redempted?" He said that his involvement in the Crips was a bad thing and "wrote" books for young people telling them that gangs are bad. The word "wrote" is used in the preceding sentence because it is suspected that the books were actually ghostwritten. This despite the fact that prison officials say that Williams is still a "shot-caller" for the Crips.

What's interesting is that Williams has never apologized for, or even admitted to, the murders for which he is in prison.

As I write the governor of the state of California is pondering the giving clemency to this beast. What I want to know is, why? Williams cannot, no matter how "redempted" cannot bring back the lives of those he murdered. "Writing" kids' books about how bad gangs are just doesn't make it. 99.9% of the people on Williams old turf could tell a kid that gangs are bad.

I Didn't Mean Go This Far!

Last week I posted a piece about the value of modesty among young women. In doing so I didn't mean that I condoned the going of this far: International News Article Reuters.com But once again, our Muslim brothers have shown themselves more enlightened than we in the West. Or is it because a burqua covers a woman's bruises inflicted by her husband than does say, a nice pillbox hat?

Round Up O'Links

Christopher Hitchens, apparently, is an ironman. He's survived a long sojourn with the hard Left, has imbibed countless gallons of Scotch and has smoked enough ciggies to supply a small country. But he keeps going on. Even when I disagreed with his formerly hard Left politics I enjoyed reading and listening to him. Red-eyed with a hangover he is able to speak or write better than 99.9% of politicians.

Hitch weighs in on the Saddam Hussein trial and Ramey Clark's place in it:FrontPage magazine.com :: Saddam's Chief Apologist by Christopher Hitchens .

We here at Bloody Nib Manor are not Christmas freaks. We long ago abandoned draping the manse with fairy lights, wearing holiday sweaters in 80 degree Southern California winters or expecting everyone to smile and say Merry Christmas as they hand over a Big Mac. Nowadays we use a dandelion sprinkled with glitter as a Christmas tree, hide under the blankets until Jan. 2 and growl and anyone saying anything to us as we force ourselves out if the local Wal-Mart.

That being said, the leveling of Christmas is amazing to behold. By leveling your faithful correspondent means that a minor Jewish holiday (Hanukkah, Chanaka, or whatever) that used to be celebrated by spinning a top and handing our gold foil chocolates for the kiddies has been elevated to an excuse to go out and shop, the Muslim holiday, Eid, has it's own postage stamp, the fraudulent Kwannza is now honored by greeting card manufacturers and we're forced, while listening to or watching the news, to listen to neo-pagans whine about how Christmas was ripped off from them when, in fact, if Christ had never been born said neo-pagans would probably be sacrificing their first born on December 21 to make the sun return. Never mind the village atheists whining about the "establishment of religion" in the Great Republic while happily accepting Christmas (opps! I meant "holiday") bonuses from their employers. It's all Happy Holidays and Holiday Trees and Holiday Shopping and the Midnight Holiday Mass from the Vatican. And if you don't like it you are the Scrooge for reminding the great unchurched that the reason all this goes on is because of the birth of Jesus. The "holiday" season is supposed to be a bacchanal of buying, partying, groping and regretting the morning after.

Meanwhile, some Jewish thinkers are coming to the defense of Christmas as Christmas and as a celebration of the birth of Christ:FrontPage magazine.com :: Jews for Christmas by Sharon Hughes. And while you read it I'll be singing "Unthinking Physics of the Universe Bless Ye Merry Gentlepersons."

Screen Queen Makes Sense

The television program "Dynasty" was never a favorite of those here at Bloody Nib Manor. It was just too soap opera-like and damn silly. It was "Dallas" without the cowboy hats.

And Joan Collins, despite the fact that she was at one time a real "babe", was never one of our favorite actresses. This may be due to the fact that she never appeared in a demanding role since she appeared in "Samson and Delilah" with Victor Mature and Angela Landsbury, and the fact that she always put herself forward as a Glamour Puss.

But even a thinking a Glamour Puss is sometimes able to see the light:Britain Destroying Itself From Within

I may have posted this link before. It's just too bad that I wasn't able to link a French thinker saying the same thing.

Don't Let It All Hang Out

Bloody Nib Manor is in a metropolitan area. We're not in the back of beyond or the far side of the desert. And we're not prudes. We can remember when young women wore bell-bottom pants and fringed bikini tops. But that wear was worn at such places as Grateful Dead concerts, Love-Ins and parties. Daily life was usually much more modest consisting of bell-bottom pants and t-shirts with inane saying printed on the front.

Contemporary life has given us what we call "hootchie-mama chic." For those not in the know, a hootchie-mama is a woman who dresses like a slut. These young women seem to have woken up one morning, looked down at their chests and suddenly discovered that they have breasts and have had the thought, "Wow! I've got boobs! I have to go out and show everyone these things!" Consider the various Brittaneys, Christinas, Jessicas and Parises, or whoever graces the cover of the latest People/Us/Star/ National Enquirer. The current crop of Pop Tarts has inspired little girls to dress in a manner that would have made a Saigon whore blush back when a bar of soap could buy a Yank dogface out of his virginity.

Finally someone has come to the conclusion that looking like Madonna (not the Madonna) in her early career is not such a good thing for women or girls. Check out this site:Modesty Zone ,and make sure to check out the store.

On a personal note, a few years ago while looking for a new church, I attended a fellowship that was of the Dutch Reformed tradition. In fact, the preacher was a Dutchman. But the way the young women dressed would have made Abraham Kuyper drive them out with a stick. One Sunday a woman in front of me was wearing a skirt so short, with a slit up the back, that if I had wanted to I would have seen more of the woman's inner thigh than I've ever seen of the same of the ever young Lady Nib. The woman in question was in her late twenties or early thirties with two young children. There's a place for such attire. Church isn't the place.

Let's face it: most people look better with clothes than without clothes. There's no point in ruining one's image before intimacy. And why is it that Brad Pitt or whoever never showed up at the Academy Awards wearing only a tux jacket with no shirt when any female actor could do it an not turn an eyebrow?

On the Front

Having called a cease to the Bloody Nib Bardot versus Deneueve controversy, it's time to get back to things that matter.

The French, having not so much ignored the problems that the recent riots raise as much as they have downplayed the problem (It's not cancer. It's just a plum sized bleeding cyst on the inside of my stomach), have decided to try to pay off the rioters with promises of a better life in the land of Roland. So once again, those who hate filthy lucre but believe that all problems can be solved by an exchange of the long green, believe that they can buy peace and love from those who hate them. Meanwhile the Mohammedans in La Belle France continue their march to overtake the nation that was once called the Catholic Church's first daughter:Fundamentalism in French Workplace - Los Angeles Times . We here at Bloody Nib seriously doubt that if there were an underground of Huegenots at EuroDisney or Renault that had unofficially set aside broom closets as "Prayer Rooms" the employers would have been so inclusive. After all, there's nothing so militant and offensive to the body politic as old fashioned Protestantism.

Oriana Fallaci was in the U.S. this past week and had some interesting things to say:Jihad Watch: Spencer: Fallaci: Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom . Meanwhile those women who don't seem to care much about Islamic women being beaten and treated pretty much like slaves because they want to be allowed to pee standing up at a men's urinal say that Fallaci is being intolerant because of her stand against the Islamic invasion.

It's rather too bad that Gloria Steinem didn't marry a Saudi and tell us all of the joys of being a woman in an Islamic country and how it would be good for Europe and the Americas to embrace the Koran.