Lost Worlds

Sometimes history is brought alive in an unexpected way ...... Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was a Russian aristocrat from pre-revolutionary Russia who invented his own colour picture technique (involving triple exposures on blue, red and green plates to create 'colour') ... while clever, it would not really ever take off because if any one moved inside the six seconds it took to take the shots, the the picture blurred. See the blue fingers on the self portrait.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii - self portait.

 

At the request of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, armed only with a special pass, he toured the Empire and took thousands of pictures between 1909-1912. He created a unique record of all the peoples, landscapes, industries and buildings under the Russians control. They are now owned by the US Library of Congress.

These pictures are from the period 1909 - 1911 ...... Quite stunning.

Bureaucrat in Bukhara

Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan the Emir of Bukhara

Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand

Kalganov family zlatoust workers

Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk

Peasants harvesting hay in 1909

Prisoners and Guard

Prisoners in shackles

Saint Nil Stolbenskii Monastery

Sukhumi, Abkhazia and its bay

Water-carrier in Samarkand

Globalising Funerals

There are jobs and there are jobs ...... the bad ones seem to follow Death around as he carries out his gruesome duties. Now I am aware of the Chinese boatman who collects suicides bodies from the Yellow River and either returns them to the families (for a fee), or buries them, so I was much taken by the tale of Abdul Hakim.

Apparently, more by accident than planning he has become the body collector for the Taliban after firefights with the NATO troops (so he's a busy man then), in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.  For over six years he has collected many many bodies on behalf of the local Taliban, even though they killed his two sons, and also his son-in-law. So far he has tallied the body count as 250 (127 were Taliban, 28 civilians, and the balance government supporters).

A fairly thankless task but I guess someone has to do it ......

What particularly drew my attention though, was the gravestones ..... it was the surprising fact that they were predominately in English.

Afghanistan Cemetery

Maybe its because they are Red Cross cemeteries (ICRC) via the Red Crescent affiliate, but I just assumed that any English would be restricted to an ID number, and that the rest of the details would be in the local language or Arabic.

Globalisation just marches relentlessly on, without us even noticing.

Of Mice and Men, or "The Best Laid Plans Of ..."

When the Labour Party encouraged mass Muslim immigration in to the UK in the 1970's and again in the 1990's, it was based on the same sort of strategic plan that had said that Scottish Devolution would mean that everyone north of Hadrian's Wall would continue to vote vote for the Labour Party (forever) as they had done for the last 50 yrs.

Of course, as we have recently seen, this strategic plan was fatally flawed by the hubris of the strategists i.e. The mistaken belief that everyone north of watford (and especially in Scotland), was actually an active or lapsed natural Labour Party voter. This in fact was completely wrong .... the moment the Scots got a whiff of real power they started voting for the SNP in their droves, and now the Labour Party is a poor second place party in that country, and probably will only ever get some power there by forming a coalition with the Liberals.

Now they are also discovering that the Islamic vote, far from being eternally grateful for being allowed into a socialist paradise (with its 'happy' marriages, wimmins rites, and general atheistic whiff), are actually likely to start voting for 'Sharia parties' as soon as their mass of numbers allow them to win, whatever the non Muslims want to do ..... in the meantime, they seem to have found a halfway house by massing behind the 'Respect Party' with its eternal candidate George Galloway. This is basically a one man show, (Galloway co-founded the Respect Party on an the anti-war platform .... using the issue of the war in Iraq to mobilise its vote), with an agenda that's a mix of extremely pro-Islam, anti Israeli and left wing social policies.

Respect George Galloway ......

Now in the 'safe' Bradford West parliamentary seat, the Respect party candidate (guess who?), has beaten  Labour, winning the by-election by 10,100 votes..... the Labour Party candidate Imran Hussein was a distant second in what Galloway called the  'Bradford Spring'. "They have to stop supporting illegal, bloody, costly foreign wars because one of the reasons why they were so decisively defeated this evening is that the public don't believe that they have atoned for their role in the invasion and occupation of other people's countries and the drowning of those countries in blood" .... meaning Iraq and Afghanistan (not non Muslim Serbia or Sierre Leone) ....

So what did the Labour Party strategists blame this terrible defeat on? A flawed immigration policy perhaps? Or maybe an acceptance that this is what will eventually happen in all Muslim immigrant areas? .... No, Labour MP Toby Perkins told the press, "I think frankly there wasn't a lot the other parties could do about it. [Voters had] seen him on Big Brother. They wanted him on their streets and now they've got it" ....

So not only a denial of the reality of the Britain they have created, but a slap in the face for those very shallow ex labour voters, who actually would apparently rather vote for an 'ex Big Brother contestant', than the Labour Parties policies .....  Oh, and here's a thought, as predicted here before, Ed Milliband the Labour leader is Jewish, the majority of the ex labour voting population in Bradford West are Muslim ..... the Respect Party specifically targeted the Asian wards .... any connection?

Where's the Beef?

Recently a report came out in the US from Harvard Medical School that said that a diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy. These reports come out regularly enough, and in fact we are told that sugar, caffeine, salt etc etc are all killers .... if you eat enough (or rather too much of them). This research found that eating just one extra portion (about the size of a pack of cards) of steak, lamb or pork every day increased a person’s risk of dying from heart disease by 16 per cent, and raised their chance of developing a fatal cancer by 13 per cent. Processed meats (such as hams, sausages and burgers) are more deadly. Adding two rashers of bacon or a sausage to breakfast everyday increased the chance of premature death by 20 per cent .... but many believe its the salt levels in processed meat that make them so deadly.

The key to this finding is the word 'daily' .... you have to eat red meat every day, then add extra portions. In fact I was going to ignore it completely, but for the fact that a British farmer came on the radio and said that we should ignore the report, as its the way Americans treat their meat, and their propensity for processed fatty meats such as burgers which had slanted the results. He then explained that American farmers regularly laced US Beef with growth agents and anti biotic, and finished them on maize wheat's rather than grass. He then added that in the UK, and EU generally, doesn't allow any of these drugs so these issues wouldn't arise in the UK. In fact studies show that grass-fed cattle have higher levels of beneficial omega 3 fatty acids compared to grain-fed livestock, and these nutrients that can protect against heart disease. This issue has caused trade issues between the US and EU over the past decade.

Now we know that female oestrogen has actually polluted the environment - so despite denials by the US farmers - these drugs must be making their way into the US food chain (with what effects, no one knows) and this must impact on the health of the general meat eating population. So it stands to reason that the reports on red meat eating in the US should be influenced by this fact. Incidentally there is a simple and cheap way of protecting ourselves from the oestrogen in the water which is detailed on the this link ...... but you can bet that we don't use it.
 
Also, in the US 'red meat' includes large amounts of 'burgers', which are so cholesterol laden that they make you wince, for instance how many calories in a burger? Depends where you are in the world, a Big Mac, purchased in

• Australia is 480 calories
• UK is 490 calories
• U.S. version has 540 calories (260 from fat)

I was also surprised to find that a medium milkshake has 420 calories, medium fries contain 330 calories and a Chicken Legend burger, which I stupidly assumed would contain fewer calories than other sandwiches, contains a whopping 535 calories. The recommended daily average calorie intake for men is 2,500, and for women it's 2,000 and this means if anyone goes into a  famous burger joint and order a Chicken Legend with medium fries and a milkshake, they'll be consuming 51.4% (more for women) of their recommended daily calories. This is major factor in obesity and heart disease in the West generally and the US in particular.

These sorts of health concerns over read meat are even being manifested in the US, where concern over what's in burgers, fast food restaurants and school meals has led to calls to stop selling or serving so-called "pink slime" beef to their pupils at mealtimes. This is the finely ground beef (and other bits) that makes up the major constituent of burgers, sausages, etc

Red Meat Processed Products and Source Material

Now to suggest that we stop eating all red meat is ridiculous as its in our genes ... for example marks found on fossilised animal bones in Ethiopia show that one of our ancestors (the ape-like Australopithecus afaransis), was butchering antelope and cattle for meat 3.4 million years ago. So we are adapted to it and many anthropologists believe mankind needed to switch to meat-eating to give us the nutrition essential to evolve bigger, smarter brains. However shorter life lengths meant that cancer was hardly a worry, you died of too many other things first, so we shouldn't perhaps eat as much meat as them.

The main point of this is that the food fascists are on the march, and after the success of the anti cigarette lobby, and the drive of the anti alcohol campaigners, we can expect the anti meat lobby to start pushing to ban red meat.

Life Imitates Art

In another case of life imitating art there was chaos at the shooting championships in Kuwait when the organisers first got the Serbian national anthem wrong, playing an old version. Then in a moment that must have made the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen laugh out loud, they played the spoof Kazakhstan national anthem from his movie 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' while the gold medal winner Maria Dmitrienko tried not to laugh.    

Amongst other things the Borat anthem praises Kazakhstan for its 'superior potassium exports' and for having 'the cleanest prostitutes in the region'.

 

 

 

National anthems are always a nightmare for organisers when countries that few people have much contact with suddenly turn up and win a medal ..... there have been numerous blunders in the past.

• Instead of singing "we love your mountains" in his attempt on the Croatian anthem, an English opera singer sings "my penis is a mountain".
• Swiss TV ran the obsolete words "Deutschland uber alles" in subtitles over the German national anthem.
• The island of Grenada plays rebel province Taiwan's national anthem at a ceremony inaugurating a Chinese funded stadium.
• The Saudis play the Syrian anthem for the Lebanese football team.
• Belgian party leader Yves Leterme sings French anthem when asked to sing the Belgian anthem .... easy mistake to make in that divided nation.
• Electronic Arts had to apologise for a culturally sensitive blunder in the game UEFA Euro 2008, in which they have the Northern Ireland football team stand to 'The Soldier's Song', traditionally sung at United Ireland sporting events.
• In 2011 the Bermudan Football Association had to apologize for playing the wrong national anthem before Bermuda’s World Cup win over Trinidad .... they played the 'US anthem' instead of 'God Save the Queen' as the teams lined up before kick-off.
• At the South Asian Games in Dhaka the wrong version of the Nepali national anthem was played, explanations were required. 

So as you can see, something of a mine field and maybe the Kuwaitis can take some comfort from that.

Race Politics

There is breaking news that once again a major organised paedophile ring has been uncovered in the UK .... the victims are apparently female children who were in council care homes, or who had run away from home and were on the streets.

There Are Thousands Of Vulnerable Runaways

The gang has been operating in the in Oxford area (and nationwide) for a number of years.

Quote Of The Week (France)

Now that the French have reported that the terrorist/serial killer they had been hunting for was Mohammed Merah, who has also apparently confessed and who is now under siege, the press have been hunting for 'background' information on him, and have been interviewing 'his friends', and or acquaintances.

Paris - Only Two Mosques Mean Muslim Street Prayers.

This hunt produced one quote that deserves to be given a wider audience. One of these friends, 'Samir', said he had seen Mohammed Merah in a Toulouse night club last week .....  it was the accompanying quote that took me attention. After stating that Merah had apparently not had a problem with the French army .... "I served in the army and he never said anything to me about it."  He then went on to add the quote that once examined sends shivers down your spine.

"I am also shocked he killed North Africans. We can't believe it."

Notice .... Not word of condemnation for the cold blooded murder of a Jewish man and his two children, no, just 'shocked' that he had accidentally 'killed North African' Muslims. A mind set almost as frightening as the killers themselves. It will be interesting to see how all this affects the French Presidential elections, when the 'Front National' are so strong in France.

Reporting The Facts

One story has dominated this week, and that is the rampage of a lone gunman in a killing spree across southern France. The first victims were French soldiers .... A soldier was shot and killed while waiting to see a man about selling his motorcycle, and a few days later, two soldiers were shot and killed, and a third was wounded while waiting at a cash machine. Then finally this week, three children and an adult were shot and killed outside a Jewish school.

Now to most people this would point to just one likely group i.e. a Muslim gunman or gunmen, but then more facts came out. Whilst the three children and adult were Jewish, the soldiers were actually Muslims of north African descent. Cue the left wing media, in France and the UK suddenly saying, then it must be another right wing killer like that Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik (when oddly, everyone initially thought that killer must be Muslim) ..... the BBC radio programme 'Today' ran a discussion piece on the killings, with the premise that the killer of the Muslim soldiers and the Jewish school-children was most likely to be a group of right-wing extremists .... three ex French paratroopers expelled for 'racism' were the chief suspects.

A few voices pointed out in vain that the killer couldn't have possibly known that the French soldiers were Muslim, and therefore that the 'Right wing killer' hypothesis, was just one possible one, with the terrorist attack theory probably more likely, but they were silenced by the relieved clamouring of the left wing press, for a hunt to root out the 'far right' in Europe.

Toulouse Siege Outside Mohammed Merah's Apartment

Then the French authorities announced that, rather than the right wing group that the press had been running with, they had in fact surrounded a Toulouse house, where a self confessed Al-Queda follower, Mohammed Merah was under siege, and that he was the suspected killer. 

 

He had apparently told police he wanted to avenge Palestinian children, and attack the French army because of its foreign interventions. He has also apparently expressed no regrets other than "not having claimed more victims" and is proud of having "brought France to its knees".

Suddenly the stories about the right wing threat disappeared (as if they had never happened), to be replaced with stories about the killer, with his criminal background as a juvenile delinquent highlighted, as well as his radicalisation in Toulouse, and training in Pakistan (our friend and ally). The police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of the gunman's family. 

To misquote Keynes, 'When the facts change, the reporting changes'.

Political Freedom

Imagine this, in China there are absolutely no books on the life or thoughts of the likely next Chinese 'Red' Emperor Xi Jinping.

 

Xi Jinping - Top Role

 

If a Chinese person wants to find out about the career of the man who will rule for at least the next decade (and have influence over the following one), then they will have to get the information from Western Internet sources.

Clerical Crisis

Dr Rowan Williams was appointed the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002 and its safe to say that his 10 year reign as head of the 85 million-strong Anglican Communion has been 'interesting'. He has now announced his intention to step down from the role in December this year to return to academia (and in this we at PC towers wish him good luck).

However, it has to be said that his decision to carry on until the end of the year could prove to be something of a mistake, because despite his legacy as Archbishop being open to debate, no one could deny the fact that the long anticipated split in the church has so far been avoided. This is something of an achievement, as the tensions that have beset the church for the last decade over homosexuals and women's ordinations are still there.

Dr Rowan Williams

It safe to say that all his skillful maneuvering (especially the Lambeth agreement of 2008), could easily unravel over the next nine months and leave him with only a legacy of regret. Already doubts about his achievements have been voiced  .... the BBC quote Church of England General Synod member and long term critic of his Archbishopric Alison Ruoff, as saying that "Under Archbishop Rowan's tenure, the Church has really gone in a most liberal direction. Many, many churches have gone away from Bible truth and that's really to the detriment not only of the Church of England but also to the detriment to the nation. He's a kind, wise, warm, godly man, but had he actually stood up and been counted as a leader, I think we would be in a very different place in the Church of England from where we are now, and that is thoroughly regrettable". .... in this she is voicing the sentiments of many on the conservative wing who consider that he has has not defended 'Bible truth'  against those who wish to subvert it.

The struggle to replace him will no doubt cause yet another crisis in this collapsing Church as both right and left try to determine the next decades course.  

For this blog, he will best be remembered for calling for elements of Sharia law to be incorporated into British Law ..... a madness that we may even now have to face in the future.

Songs Of Praise

There is a dark-side to the music business that only occasionally surfaces for us to look at ..... one of these bits of dark matter is the gangsta praise side of the business.

Nello Liberti Uses The Neapolitan Slang Dialect

In Italy, the home of organised crime, the singer Nello Liberti has been accused of inciting violence in his song 'Clan Chief', a catchy little number in which the murder of a Neopolitan Camorra "traitor" is praised.

Enemies Of The Internet

'Reporters Without Borders' have produced their annual list of "enemies of the internet".

• Bahrain
• Belarus
• Burma
• China
• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam

Censorship Is Always A Threat

What struck me was that in many ways the list is like that of countries who boycotted the Nobel Prize because the peace prize went to a Human Rights campaigner Liu Xiaobo.

• Russia
• Kazakhstan
• Algeria 
• Tunisia
• Saudi Arabia
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• Iraq
• Iran
• Vietnam
• Afghanistan
• Venezuela
• Egypt
• Sudan
• Cuba
• Morocco

The threats to the freedoms that we in the West used to think were permanent features of mankind's future come in many guises .... some are from countries like these, but also from those at home as well. The recent attempts by US legislators to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (STOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA)  show that there are pressures on the 'freedom of the net' coming from many sources.

We need to be on our guard, or the late 20th early 21st centuries will be seen as the watershed for what was achieved by the enlightenment, before the darkness started to come down again. The new barbarians are swarming outside the gates.

Faking Liberalism

You can take a man out of the Khyber, but you can't take the Khyber out of the man.

Imran Khan the Pathan descended ex cricketer and Pakistani politician, has sold himself in the West, as a highly articulate and 'liberal' Muslim. The truth about the real state of his 'liberalism' occasionally surfaces, but is immediately dropped by the left-wing 'intelligensia' who want to think of him as the urbane face of Pakistan.

However, western educated he may be, but liberal? Ah there's a question. A story on the BBC this week indicated that his 'liberalism' certainly doesn't extend to freedom of speech where the religion of his family are concerned.  He has announced that he will not participate in a conference in India because the author Sir Salman Rushdie is due to speak there. He claims that the author had "caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims", by writing 'The Satanic Verses'.

They will never share a room

Blowing up mosques and school buildings, suicide bombers, bloody civil wars, sectarian murders on an industrial scale, terrorism worldwide, ethnic genocide on non Muslim minorities from Turkey, and Iraq through to Pakistan  ..... none of these have apparently "caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims," but writing a novel that no Muslim has ever read if they were religious, or was ever forced to read (and about which they actually know nothing about), apparently has. 

Educated he may be, but just as full of self righteous hypocrisy as any ragged arse illiterate sheik in the Afghan foothills. Mr Khan has no real idea what a liberal and tolerant society consists of .... 'freedom of speech and religion'. That's only for Muslims to use to shout hate about to the rest of the world. However it can never never be used for anyone in the rest of the world, to criticise Islam .... he's not much different from the worst of them, often speaking out in favour of Sharia laws. Faking liberalism has always been easy, and fooling the left-wing intelligentsia of the West even easier .... most of them believed Stalin in the 1930's was liberal for gods sake.

Ironically Mr Rushdies participation was or is (he will probably receive death threats from exponents of the religion of peace), to be entitled "The Liberty Verses - I am What I am and That's All That I am".

Paranoia Alley

In the land where Psychotics are in power, then Paranoia is normal ... should be an old Chinese adage, but isn't, because I just made it up.

No Mistaking The Message In Iranian Elections

However what else can you say about a country, where the religious establishment put up billboards on the capitals main highways before a recent election, that warned the electorate in large letters that if the turnout was less than 50%, the US would attack Iran.

Lunar Larceny

Once upon a time in America, there was an organisation called NASA, and the US of A was very proud of its achievements.  In fact so proud of its achievements were they, especially as it had eclipsed the bad boys of the CCCP, that when it reached its peak and sent men to the Moon, they wanted to show the world of its prowess.

Apollo landings - the peak of US space achievements.

The question was how? Then some eager beaver in the US State Department  noted the words of the crew of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, when Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (still incidentally the last men to have set foot on the Moon), picked up a rock and turning towards the cameras Cernan announced: "We'd like to share a piece of this rock with so many of the countries throughout the world."

What better way they thought, to trumpet American technological and military superiority, than by handing out to various national leaders, little pieces of the very brick-sized rock that Mr Cernan had been holding in his hands? And so throughout the early 1970's, under the orders of President Richard Nixon, fragments of the rock were sent to 135 foreign heads of state, and the 50 US states. Each of these "goodwill Moon rocks" was encased in a lucite ball and mounted on a wooden plaque with the recipient nations' flag attached.

Truth be known they were rather tatty gifts .... but then this was the 1970's, when taste reached an all time low ...

The Goodwill Moon Rock given to Britain.

Two hundred and seventy were given to nations of the world, and one hundred to the fifty US states. Not much thought was given to what happened to these rocks .... it was assumed that they had all gone to national and local museums, until one day in 1998 one of these rocks, the Honduras goodwill Moon rock, was offered up for sale to a NASA investigator.  He had been hunting for fake 'moon rocks' which were being sold in various scams. The rock he was offered weighed 1.142g and the seller wanted $5m (£3m) for it, and the FBI recovered it in a sting operation.

The investigator then made it a personal mission to find out where all the bits of rock were .... he found attempts to sell both Spain's and Cyprus's moon rocks, and that the two Moon rocks Gaddafi's government was given are both missing. Romania is also missing its Apollo 17 goodwill Moon rock, as is the rock given to Malta. The Irish rock is under tons of waste on a landfill following a fire at its housing site.

In all the US gathered and distributed a large number of rocks to various national states, scientific institutions and domestic states ..... and a total of 160 of all the moon rocks gathered by the Apollo 11 and 17 missions are currently unaccounted for or missing (including 24 in the US alone). It has to be assumed that many of these were sold on the black market ..... the hunt is now on to find them all.

Biblical Imagary

I have knocked the ultra orthodox Jewish community for their aggressive intolerance in the past, but I have to say that this series of photographs from one of their marriage services are simply stunning. They were taken at the marriage of a couple of members of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

An Almost Biblical Scene

19th century Dress Is De Rigueur

The Bride Wore White

Really great photos which deserve to be given prominence and a wider audience  .... credit to the photographer (who was unnamed). They are almost like a classical painting by an old master in their composition and use of light and colour.

Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt Would Admire The Photographs 

Legalised Theft

Greece has just stolen 172bn Euros worth of  private lenders money, by forcing them to accept a 74% down grade in the value of the money they will get back, for lending them money. This is a state organised theft, whereby the Greeks will not pay back private lenders, while they will pay back the EU governments and the EU central bank who have lent them money.

So are they ashamed? Well no, the Greek Finance Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, hailed the theft as an "exceptional success". And their confederates in this crime? Well they are just as happy .... French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, "Today the problem is solved. I would like to say how happy I am that a solution to the Greek crisis, which has weighed on the economic and financial situation in Europe and the world for months, has been found." The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was "encouraging".

Three Masked Bandits - Wanted Across Europe

So now that we have removed 172bn Euros from the Greek debt what as we going to do? Why, we are going to give them a new 130bn-euro (£110bn; $173bn) bailout ot taxpayers money. In other words we are re-saddling them with nearly as much debt as we took off them by stealing it from the private lenders ...... its a very strange and disturbing world.

It's A Gay Old Life

A Catholic Bishop, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has set the PC Brigade into overdrive by his suggestion that plans allowing homosexuals to be classed as 'married' was a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right", and would "shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world". 

 

He has joined other church clergy, such as the Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who in January insisted governments did not have the moral authority to 'redefine marriage'. Interestingly the word 'Gay' was also defined differently, until the homosexual lobby forced it into another usage ..... so the fact that 'Gay' people are 'Unhappy' about the Bishops comments strikes no one as faintly ludicrous.

In the interests of clarity, I should point out that the proposed change is not to religious marriages and is not to be imposed on religious groups. Its just a change to call what is now called 'Civil Partnership' to be classed as 'marriage'. Sadly for the Bishop, the Catholic churches moral standing has been much dissipated by cover ups associated with the child abuse scandals of the last decade, so he is hiding behind a very small moral fig-leaf when he starts arguing against 'gay marriages'.

My interest in this is that in opening up the debate like this, the Bishop has raised some interesting questions, not least of which is do the government have the right to redefine marriage without asking everyone? For several thousand years (in both pre and post Christian times), marriage has been defined pretty much as the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc. No society before has ever permitted the definition to apply to same sex partners.

All the evidence shows that when governments start to tamper with the common rules that have bound societies together for millennia, then it has unforeseen consequences .... unmarried pregnancy was frowned upon before the law changes of the 1960's, and now we have 44.4 per cent of live births outside of marriage. We also have very high single parent rates (especially amongst teen girls) .... society is paying a very high price in terms of crime, civil disorder and a low level permanent degradation of values for that bit of social engineering.

Once the homosexual lobby could argue that it was them who were being discriminated against in the West, but increasingly its now the gay activist wing of the PC brigade who are practising legal discrimination and harassment, against anyone who stands against them. Its now the gay activist lobby who is usually the first to call the police as soon as anyone disagrees with them. How many people have lost their jobs after being dragged before a tribunal or court for "homophobia?

Gays In The West Fare Far Better Than Middle East
 - Gay Marriage Definitely Not An Option.

One final thought, there has been marked silence in all this anti religious (Christianity) rhetoric about the thoughts of the self claimed 'fastest growing religion' in the UK and West. You know the one, the one whose adherents believe that homosexuals should be hanged (and even have the tacit support of the UN). Being denied 'married status' would be the least of the 'Gay' communities worries if they had their way. 

All those calling for the end of Christian churches influence in the UK and elsewhere, should be careful what they wish for, and what might replace Christianity as the moral authority in the vacuum of the West.

Tough As Wood

The expression "Tough As Wood" has taken on new meaning, after scientists in Scandinavia reported that many of the trees in that area of the world are direct descendants of trees that inhabited those lands before the last Ice Age .... they had always thought the trees all migrated back in to the area 9,000 yrs or so ago.

Scandinavian Forests - Ice Age Survivors

The researchers came to this conclusion by studying the DNA of both the modern spruce (which distinctly show two Scandinavian types), and by analysing the composition of pine and spruce DNA contained in the sediments taken from lake-core samples from before the ice age. 

 

The exact mechanism for this amazing survival in the middle of the ice sheets for tens of thousands of years is not known, but its speculated that trees could have survived on nunataks (mountain tops and other bits of land sticking out above the miles of ice sheet), and then were able to spread once the ice retreated.

Nature never ceases to amaze in its abilities to survive the worst, but whether it can survive mankind is another matter.

Auxiliary Compassion

Report after report, and horror story after horror story, show that health care for the elderly in the UK is now an advert for voluntary euthanasia  .... it frightens me, and millions more to feel themselves on the foothills of old age.  The latest report suggests that compassion should be the main key for working with the elderly.

Auxiliary Care For The Elderly

This should be a no brainer with all the money pumped into the NHS, but lets be honest, the 'upgrading' of nurses to become 'mini me' doctors in the NHS (to justify the higher wages Labour gave them), has simply made many 'too posh to push' a commode. Its the auxiliary helpers who now do the cleaning up and compassion (such as it is) for the elderly. ..... even if they come from abroad.

We need to have a new grade of geriatric nurses trained purely to comfort and spend time with the elderly .... maybe paid for by sacking nurses who so singularly fail to provide this care any more.

Mermaid Or Fishy Fake?

I have briefly discussed Merfish (aka Fiji Mermaids) amongst other things on previous blog posts ...

 

Typical Monkey Fish

 
..... but never seen how to make them.