CoffeeHousers' Wall 24 August - 30 August

Jez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w2pct5oDkU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALhU_475Oz0&feature=channel

Could all who can please watch these films.

This is happening right now.

The first film; 3 minutes 20, look at the smirking guards face.

The second film; 1 minute 29 to 2 minutes- listen to the medi-vac operative.

3 minutes 19 seconds- listen to the narrator.

To conclude;

6 minutes 58 minutes- listen to the GI/Marine

A recent blog comment read;

“These men go into war as a career - they get paid to do so.
It's pointeless moaning about lack of compensation afterwards - you know what is on offer, if you don't like it don't go to war.
We should feel little if any sympathy in my opinion.”

Our soldiers take an oath and this is to the Queen. They stand together, fight together and now are dying together.

'Dr Reid', yet one more career politition (ex Far-Left obviously) told the world we would leave Afghanistan ‘Without a shot being fired’.

British lads and lasses are juggling soot- for what seems to be an attempt to keep afloat a political/establishment elite that’s obliviously becoming more and more isolated by the second.

How many lads are going to be killed or damaged for the rest of their lives from IED’s before the government attempts to make an unselfish proactive approach?

Tribal politics remain tribal. You don't go with the flow and you've had it-

that's the law in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

It's always going to be the same- no matter how much our over educated elite here in the UK demand it isn't.

One more thing;

instead of paying billions of tax into the myriad of benefit scams, public service scams and all the government funded equality industries, what about giving them *absolutely nothing* and our lads and lasses who are injured to get it all?

What about that?

Bert

Is it normal for Prime Ministers to have such long holidays?

Jonathan Cook

I'd like to put forward an argument that the BBC needs to be broken up and remodelled.

My argument is that the BBC is complacent and produces television which is centred around an urban, middle class, liberal west London bias.

I propose that production companies are invited to propose and produce television content under a BBC brand.

The board of governors will be responsible for outlining the parameters that a production company must work within.

This model might see the production company that delivers BBC branded sports coverage change. As a result we might have a lot of free to air Rugby League, rather than Wimbledon coverage.

This model would allow new talent to flourish. Competition to produce BBC content would prove whether the likes of Jonathan Ross deserved their wages.

Quality would be protected. A production company with failing standards would be fined or ousted. The company producing BBC branded news would ensure balance, otherwise it would lose it's contract.

If we are producing better television for our licence fee, then we are likely to sell more content around the world - and hence fund further investment in our media industry.

The BBC is an expensive and complacent asset. Let's shake it up and make it work harder for the UK.

Frank P

Bert

It's a McCavity holiday.

Florence of Arabia

Bert - Is Gordon Brown normal? I suspect he's in a sanitarium somewhere with soothing music and no loud noises.

Jonathan Cook, you've got to think in much less fiddly terms. The BBC is a gigantic parasite pulsating and sucking in money from all over Britain and it offers appalling value for the money it extracts. It pays garbage like Jonathan Ross mind-boggling salaries. (I've always wondered if he performs some other, secret, service for the BBC, below the waterline, because there are so many millions of people in Britain with no talent; how did he get chosen to be rewarded for his own lack?

It hammers home thought fascism with a jack hammer and grinds home the lefty, one-worlder message 60 seconds a minute, sixty minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a monstrous means of repression of the British who pay for it at the point of a gun.

No other country in the world has such a Sovietesque propaganda monster working against the people who pay for it by force.

Destroy it. The sun will still come up tomorrow. The birds will still sing. You will still be able to buy your favourite food at the supermarket, order a curry and you will still be able to drink your favourite tipple. But the air will be clearer. In fact, broadcastwise, the social engineering will come to a screeching halt.

I have long suggested dynamiting the whole stench-laden premises, with a tribute dynamiting a few hours later on New York's East River. Get rid of them all in one fell swoop. Call it Freedom Day, if you like. But meaning, this time, freedom for us.

Pot Head

Florence of Arabia is Verity

Verity

Pothead, that is not a secret. I usually, although not always, use Florence of Arabia when I'm writing about the Middle East. BTW, Verity's Patio is also me, used exclusively for responding to Trevor's Den.

Several people here post under a couple of nommes de guerre.

S.D.D.J.L.

Verity's Florence Patio,

I too do the same! There are four of me. One I too, strangely, keep for replying to that foolish Trevor's Den epistle's!

I reckon the man walks around with a picture badge of Cameron on both lapels.

Derek

Janet Daley in the daily Telegraph has an article today about the imminent banning of conventional light bulbs by our masters in the EU. There was a well written article warning of this in the Spectator, last year I think, by an old school member of the entertainment world - can't remember his name right now.

Can anyone who contributes here and actually reads the Spectator remember the chap's name? Tip of the tongue, etc.

In China, the minority who read are going blind because you can't get a bulb stronger than 60 watt. There's also lots of that nasty, cold bluish-grey light available which, had I visited, would probably be reminiscent of Guantanamo Bay solitary confinement cells.

The future beckons.

C. Manager

There are in fact only four real people contributing to the entire warp, woof and weft of the threads in the Spectator Coffeehouse and two of them are full time writers on the magazine's staff. Only the Circulation Manager is aware of this, because he has the password that lets him check the URLs of those posting.

Incidentally, since the remit of the Wall is all encompassing, CHs might be interested to know that when I double-checked the meaning of "woof" in Wikipedia, I came across an alternative definition, thus: ""Woof.", a common greeting within gay, bisexual, and transgender bear communities". I have not yet ha an opportunity to follow the link to "bear communities", so am still a bit in the dark...

No pics this week?

Hysteria

gee - you mean people don't use their own names here? and change names as well?

I am shocked - shocked I tell you....

Arnie Sagnussen

This practice of using false names - it should be stopped.

Immediately.

David Ossitt

Bert.

He is not a normal Prime Minister.

David Ossitt

Pot Head

"Florence of Arabia is Verity"

Should that not be; Verity is Florence of Arabia?

David Ossitt

Arnie Sagnussen.

Why?

Verity

C. Manager - Regarding "bear communities", I can help you out there, having been motivated by a weird compulsion, to read one of Andrew Sullivan's stultifying gay articles. In a surprise move, this one did not involve gay marriage, but "bears", which seems to be an American gay term (stop me at any time) and refers to overweight men with beards, who apparently attract gay men who like ... um ... that type.

Marie of Roumania

Arnie Sagnussen, We concur, totally.

C. Manager

Verity on "Woof!".

Many thanks, I guess...I can now ponder the implications of bear "communities" that are "transgender".

Vulture

Yesty, (MOnday, 24.8.09) there was an interesting piece in the Daily Telegraph abt novelist Sebastian Faulks saying disobliging things abt Islam in general and the Prophet Mohammed in particular.

The general gist was that he had read the Koran to research his new novel and found that it wasn't good literature compared with the Bible, and basically amounted to a lot of repetitious commands and threats that if they weren't obeyed the sinner would burn in hell. For good measure he said that Mohammed was 'schizoid' for hearing voices.

Today, surprise, surprise, there is a long article by Faulks himself in the same newspaper in which the noise of furious back-pedalling is heard and in which he recants all he was quoted as saying the previous day. He ends by offering to meet Muslims who complained abt his views for talks in which he could learn more abt Islam. Clearly ( and understanadably) he does not want to become the next Salman Rushdie.

My point is simply this: we have become an un-free society in which it is impossible to express even mildly critical views abt Islam without fear of attracting violence. When did this happen, and why have we become such contemptible cowards?

Derek

@ Vulture. I couldn't believe that he had recanted. I had to go straight and look. My God, you're right! Faulks, what a pathetic creep!

Eppur si muove!

logdon

@Derek and Vulture.

I read his original and thought, at last!

I then read this mornings recant and thought, we are Faulked.

Florence of Arabia

Faulks has probably had death threats from the religion of peace and I'm sure he's too worldly a man to imagine he could get protection from today's British "police" (if that is not too strong a word). But Faulks is not the first to voice these thoughts. When you think about it, the society that Christ lived in was settled in towns and cities. There was a lot of interchange between people, which will have encouraged streams of thinking and discourse.

The Muslims were desert nomads, as is amply demonstrated by their attire. They were unsettled people, knowing only their tribe and, I guess occasionally bumping into another tribe in the vast emptiness of the Sahara. There wasn't a lot to do but sit around at night and develop crackpot theories and bay at the moon. (The Iranians were different. They were more settled and had developed the arts, and they had contact with other peoples. They are a completely different kettle of fish, and these are the ones who are going to be our allies again, eventually.

That's my two penny worth. Back to Faulks, for a view of the mood in Sweden, go to jihadwatch.org I commend this site very highly.

logdon

Verity
August 24th, 2009 8:17pm

Reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Brian the Dog invites his gay brother over from San Francisco to partake in a civil partnership with his Far Eastern friend.

'Isn't it everyones right to have a hairless Phillipino?' he lisped, 'It's the American Dream'.

David Ossitt

This is why David.

Archibald Percival Wavell

I am an edacious regular reader of the articles on Coffee House, from them and the posted comments I derive much pleasure. Although these posts are often witty and most are enlightening, I find that some express views and arguments that are diametrically opposed to my own opinions and that is, as it should be. There are many well thought out arguments and counter-arguments, most of these written with good manners and not a little humour.

However one of the regular contributors to the comments has of late increasingly used his posts as a way of self-aggrandizement, in my opinion and experience he who is for ever gasconading has a monumental inferiority-complex.

David Ossitt

"David Ossitt
August 25th, 2009 5:54pm

This is why David."

This was not me; it was another.

MikeF

There was a complaint earlier that no-one had sent in a photo, so I have led the way - closely followed I see by a very colourful Benjamin Disraeli. My contribution is more subdued. It is entitled A Severed Head, but the head is not human. Instead it is the former 'head' of Herne Bay Pier, as with Reculver last week on the north Kent coast.

In its heyday a century or so ago this was one of the liveliest places in the
UK - the disembarkation point for holidaymakers and day-trippers who made their way by steamer to what was at the time a major resort, especially for Londoners. The pier was, in fact, a particularly spectacular structure - around a thousand yards long - so much so that a little railway ran along it to carry baggage to the resort itself.

Sadly the majority of the pier has long since disappeared and the stump that sticks out from the shore now has an ugly box-like metal structure on its end. However the old head is still there stranded and derelict out to sea. What gives the sight a cetain piquancy, though, is that beyond this now delapidated icon of the early 20th century are some examples of the sight we will increasingly see offshore as the 21st century progresses - wind turbines.

Arnie Sagnussen

David. Please.

Bernard Fergusson, Baron Ballantrae

@Viscount Wavell: Who do you mean? C'mon. Name names. Frankly, you could mean any one of about six.

The Bellman

I think Faulks needed another fight to pick. He bit off more than he could chew with the No 228 'bus route.

Jeremy

Following a request from David Blackburn, the following is the full text which accompanies the portrait of Benjamin Disraeli at the top of this thread:

THE YOUNG ROMANTIC

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881).

Nicknamed "Dizzy", as a young boy he deeply admired Lord Byron and went on to become (by turns, or in combination) a dandy, a wit, a novelist, a politician, leader of The Conservative Party and finally Prime Minister.

He was created 1st Earl of Beaconfield by Queen Victoria in 1876.

'Since childhood he had cultivated a reckless Byronic exhibitionism, which had been most obviously demonstrated in his dress. In his teens Disraeli had affected wearing velvet coats with flamboyant ruffles and silk stockings with red clocks. As a young man about town this developed quickly into full-blown dandyism...

'Disraeli understood exactly the impression he was able to create. "The people quite made way for me as I passed," he wrote of a walk through town. "It was like the opening of the Red Sea...Even well-dressed people stopped to look at me." He favoured sensuous material in bright, contrasting colours. His waistcoats were embroidered with gilt flowers. Pockets overflowed with golden chains. His ivory cain was held in hands gleaming with sparkling rings worn on top of white kid gloves. It was all calculated to make an immediate and lasting impact on those he encountered. "I love fame; I love reputation," he proclaimed.'

- Richard Aldous, The Lion and The Unicorn

Vulture

While fully aware of the injunction " de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est " may I be the first to raise a foaming beaker to toast the long overdue passing of Edward Kennedy?

Forget the BBC tributes, this was the coward who let a young woman with whom he was having an adulterous affair die slowly and horribly after he had drunkenly steered their car off a bridge into the sea. He compounded this by not reporting the accident - when there may still have been a chance of rescuing Miss Kopechnie - for some ten hours, and never really admitted his responsibility for her death.

In addition, until 9/11 he was an outspoken supporter of Irish terrorism - specifically of Noraid, the IRA's US financing arm, and an embittered enemy of this country like his corrupt old father before him.

Nope, the passing of this horribly over-pampered creep and hypocrite leaves me strangely dry-eyed.

logdon

Frankfurt School? Political Correctness? Slavery? Radical Feminism? Racial issues?

This is a blistering thirteen minute expose of the how's and the where's and the now's of the insidious attack on western values which is eating us from within.

Divide and conquer is their method.

Attack the culture is the route.

And Obama, the EU and our own Labour Party are using these insidious tactics to ensnare us all.

This is not soundbite journalism, just a step in our knowledge as to what is going on right now.

Maybe some are aware already of the way left wing manipulation works, but this piece joins the dots and neatly nails the strategy.

It is rivetting stuff.

http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/___MSNBC_%26_The_Great_Liberal_Narrative%3A_The_Truth_About_The_Tyranny_of_Political_Correctness/2343/

Derek

On a management note, why is it so difficult for this subscriber overseas to get a response from the subscriptions department and customer help service of the Spectator to a question on renewing a subscription online with a visa card and dealing with the non-delivery of the last three issues of the magazine? Is it just me? My subscription expires on 3 September and the website subscription page is no help. I am also already about three issues behind. "Could do better."

Derek

Jeremy. very nice painting. Who is it by? It looks as though Wyndham Lewis had been in bed with the Fauves.

David Blackburn

Derek,

Sorry about that management failure. I'm sure you've done this already, but my advice is to call 01795 592886 and failing that, try the switchboard on 020 7961 0200.

Many thanks

logdon

To an individual, countering the Guardian lies on Islam and Israel may seem like a sysiphean task.

This is a new site based in America which does just that.

But why the US? Are we so in the thrall of the MSM that doing nothing is our only option?

There is already a biasedbbc site which takes no prisoners, why not it's brother in deception?

"CiF Watch: A Very Good Blog, Indeed

Bless these folks for documenting the vile Jew hatred that The Guardian happily hosts. That "publication" is a sewer for the worst kind of incitement to violence.

Well, cyber warriors have documented it all. And will do it daily. Evil unmasked! We love that.

CiF Watch Website Launched to Combat Antisemitism on the Guardian newspaperâ™s â˜Comment is Freeâ™ blog

New York, NY â“ August 24, 2009 â“ CiF Watch (www.cifwatch.com), a website dedicated to monitoring and exposing antisemitism on the Guardian newspaperâ™s â˜Comment is Freeâ™ blog, announced its launch this week.

Created to address the endemic problem of antisemitic discourse on the Guardian newspaperâ™s â˜Comment is Freeâ™ blog, one of the most popular mainstream blogs of its type, CiF Watch documents manifestations of antisemitism both âœabove the lineâ� in the Guardian-approved articles and âœbelow the lineâ� in the post-moderated comment threads.

âœThe proliferation of antisemitism in mainstream media platforms has become a growing phenomenon as media outlets like the Guardian attempt to reinvent themselves in the online worldâ� says Hawkeye, founder of CiF Watch. âœCiF Watch has been launched as a consequence of the complete and utter failure of Guardian management to adequately confront the problem of antisemitism on â˜Comment is Freeâ™, this despite the submission last year to the UK Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism of the report on antisemitism at â˜Comment is Freeâ™ compiled by Jonathan Hoffman.â�

CiF Watch primarily functions as a blog that provides a platform for discussion of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish articles posted on â˜Comment is Freeâ™, free from Guardian censorship. At the same time, CiF Watch features separate areas where antisemitic writings of both contributors and commenters alike are documented.

About CiF Watch

CiF Watch (www.cifwatch.com), dedicated to monitoring and exposing antisemitism on the Guardian newspaperâ™s â˜Comment is Freeâ™ blog, is a grassroots, unaffiliated group that strives to hold the Guardian newspaper accountable for proliferating antisemitism over the internet. To learn more about CiF Watch, please visit www.cifwatch.com/about/.

http://cifwatch.com/

Verity

David Blackburn - Why the hell should Derek make an international call because no one answers his (free) emails. You people are the last word in provincialism.

David Blackburn

Derek,

I've called the subscriptions department about your query and they say that you can renew your subscription with a visa card. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, you have to call the subscriptions office to do so. Their number is 01795 592886. Hope that clears it up.

Derek

David Blackburn. Thanks very much. I will give them a call. In the past, it was not necessary to phone them!

egh

logdon @ 12.19.
Yes. Glad someone's able to get the message out there.

Derek

Verity & David. The number's always busy... It's the first time since the introduction of email in the early 1990s that I have had to phone in from abroad to renew my Spectator subscription. Looks like I won't get my missing copies and may not be able to renew this year, unless they answer my email. I will try emailing them again tomorrow, but now I'm going to bed as it's almost 1.00am. I see the sub department is in Sittingbourne and I assume the work is outsourced to them, so they handle subscriptions for many publications - apparently with only one telephone line...

David Blackburn

Derek,

If you email me your subscription number to dblackburn @ spectator.co.uk, I'll give them a ring and get them in touch with you.

Derek

I see it's 5.45 pm in England, so the Subs department had probably gone home. I'll try a bit earlier tomorrow. It might be an idea to upgrade the Spectator website so that anyone with an acceptable credit card can subscribe there.

Jeremy

Derek:

"Jeremy. very nice painting. Who is it by? It looks as though Wyndham Lewis had been in bed with the Fauves."

It's by me.

I am aware of Wyndham Lewis, but who are "the Fauves"?

egh

Derek - I admire your perseverance!

There's hope yet - I see the comments here are now appearing much faster. So asking the Speccie for consideration does eventually pay! Thanks all.

Derek

@ Jeremy.

Sorry to take the easy way out and use Wikipedia, but: "Les Fauves (French for The Wild Beasts) were a short-lived and loose grouping of early 20th century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only three years, 1905–1907, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain."

Nicholas

I thought the "painting" was a flattering image of Jonathan Woss. That's his style isn't it? Frippery and lisping obscenities.

The Hearne Bay photo is depressing. We are going to blight our coastal views because of the self-righteous arrogance of the lefto-fascists. The Victorian and Edwardian day trippers would be shocked by it all. No doubt the climate change and assorted green prigs will tell us how important it is and lecture us on how to achieve ugliness for Britain by "doing good" and being the World's conscience.

At the moment I feel like walking through the National Gallery smoking a particularly foul smelling and heavily smoking pipe and flicking two fingers at any trendy, bien pensant, lefty pillocks I encounter. You do know what you can do with your wind turbines don't you?

Jeremy

Derek:

Interesting. Thank you for that. Any similarity you may see between the style of my piece and that of The Wild Beasts (exciting name!) is, regrettably, purely coincidental.

Nicholas:

The picture is attributed and the textual source for the image has been quite clearly displayed earlier in this thread. If you have some disagreement with it that is actually rooted in fact, then I have yet to hear it.

Derek

@ MikeF Is there no campaign in Herne Bay (note spelling Nicholas) to restore the pier? The history of West Pier in Brighton suggests that it is not a hopeless idea.

The wind turbines, while quite attractive in desert areas such as the terrain between Los Angeles and San Diego, are a bit of an eyesore in in England's miniature landscapes. Perhaps they could be redesigned more along the lines of the classic Dutch windmills... Along the coast though, there is the alternative of tidal energy projects. I don't know how the cost stacks up against the wind turbines, but the turbines are out of sight below the sea's surface. There is a small such project about to be launched on the Isle of Islay, but only serving 3,500 people (and some deserving distilleries) - or so the Guardian "reveals" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/25/scottish-power-islay-tidal/print)

@ logdon Thanks for the link to cif watch. Although the link doesn't work where I am for some reason, it is good to know it is out there somewhere. As a broad approach to combating "proliferation of antisemitism in mainstream media", I would like to see more made of the common predicament in which England and Israel find themselves as targets of islamofascism, albeit in the ratio of a Canary and Elephant Pie. I would also hope that eventually the Spectator would commission Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post to write something for the magazine. Here's her website address in the meantime for those interested: http://carolineglick.com/e/

@ David Blackburn... With my current subscription due to expire next week, still not a peep out of the Spectator's Subscription Department (or its "servicehelpline". May be I should send them a cheque, but it will take forever to get to them by snail mail and I'm concerned that they might mislay it. No sign of my overdue issues either. may be the staff has been paid off by the New Statesman not to respond or may be they are overwhelmed by new subscriptions as the country swings away from New Labour...

Nicholas

Jeremy: "The picture is attributed and the textual source for the image has been quite clearly displayed earlier in this thread. If you have some disagreement with it that is actually rooted in fact, then I have yet to hear it."

So what. It is still just a ghastly piece of computer generated tat. I was not "disagreeing" with anything - just being rude about it. Don't confuse the increasing plethora of computer software technicians who fancy themselves at Photoshop with real artists. I realise that "art" in the 21st Century is an even bigger pretentious con than it was in the last half of the 20th Century but where is the "flawed humanity" in cgi? The motivation may be human but the execution is robotic and the results clone-like. It is the artistic equivalent of walking with electronic leg braces, functional and permitting the challenged to equalise but not intrinsically human or beautiful of itself.

Derek: Typo on my part. I was probably around Herne Bay longer than the policeman and probably before you were born - or is that borne?

Frank P

Nicholas (11.08am)

Bwaahahahaha.

I think you were born to rile.

Derek

@ David Blackburn

An email, no doubt prompted by you, arrived from a Customer Service Advisor, Alex Miller,at about the same time I managed to get through to the Spectator Subscriptions department by phone. Still some wrinkles - but hope to have my sub extended and missing issues replaced next week. Many thanks.

Jeremy

Nicholas:

"I was not "disagreeing" with anything - just being rude about it."

I see. I would add the word "ignorant" to the word "rude" - as in "I was just being being rude and ignorant about it".

Edward McLaughlin

Dr Davis is offering another of his 'you only THINK you're being taken over by Islam' pieces.

So sure is he of this, that we can leave it all to him and Sunder Katwala and the Liberal congregation. Their sense of fair play will see us all through.

How I love being talked down to.

Nicholas

Jeremy, I wouldn't. It would be presumptious to do such a thing. Nor would I resort to an ad hominem attack on someone whose lefty credentials are not as certain as their pretentious ones. But as your concept of "ignorant" seems promulgated solely on the basis of your own prejudices and preferences (so common amongst the young and arrogant these days) you very clearly don't see.

You see, Jeremy, in a free society I am free to criticise that ghastly picture and to be rude about it as you are free to accuse me of ignorance. The merit of one however, rooted firmly in the depressing relativity of the subject as displayed, is considerably more than the other, which is based only on pique and speculation. Here is not the place for a well-deserved lecture on art, art history or the artistic aesthetics of the 21st Century (arguably a contradiction in terms) and in any event you would just accuse me of something else pejorative, regressive, obsolete or irrelevant in order to undermine the dissenting viewpoint and to promote that which you admire and think everyone else should too.

Frank P

Just to cheer this thread up a bit I offer the following video from Tim Hawkins, very good and a very catchy tune:

http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/culture_civilization/from_torturing_the_cia_to.php

Verity

Does anyone else keep getting sucked into Cappucino hell? I keep getting bounced into it against my express will, and once in stagger around in a bewildered fashion, worried that I may never get out again.

Fraser, can they please stop bouncing innocent readers into this construct?