And that’s why I’m sewing gold jewelry into the lining of my parka.
A few decades later one got “Cool Britannia”
Virginia Cowles: The American who saw Britain at its best
Charles Moore reviews Looking for Trouble by Virginia Cowles (Faber)…
Cowles was most struck, especially when she compared it with the rout of France, by the way the British naturally respected their political leaders, and the way those leaders did, when they finally had to, lead. She also noticed how the British were positively pleased (see above) to be alone, defending their own shores. “I was more than impressed. I was flabbergasted. I not only understood the maxim that ‘England never knows when she is beaten’; I understood why England never had been beaten.”
What would she think now?
Via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs (“Book Reviews” at end, with further links). Your thoughts?
Please Remember: Weather Is Not Climate
Vampire bats are climate.
CWB: Last Gasps
Over the past two decades, the number of farmers growing wheat and barley on the Prairies has fallen by over 40% as tens of thousands of producers have stopped growing so-called “board grains” and taken up harvesting other crops so as to escape the board’s control. These former CWB farmers are not polled by the board in its annual survey nor are they eligible to vote in the current plebiscite. And still the CWB cannot find majority support.
(Schadenfreude mine).
Related: “Mr. Herle, taking the CWB’s view as irrefutable fact is not being objective, which is unfortunate for a pollster.”
“That’s why it’s called ‘concealed’”
I Can See Mouseland From My House
From Marquis Downs To Mongol Derby
Someone asked how Sophia Mangalee is faring on her big adventure – pretty well! Here’s an Aug.13th report.
The Money Hole
While in Seattle last week, I watched this segment of John Stossel’s show. It’s well worth watching if you want to understand how difficult it is [politically] for politicians to stop spending money.
The Invisible Ron Paul
Motorola Morbidity
Profitable trade
Shares in C & Company currently trade at $10 per share.
1. A short seller borrows 100 shares of C & Company and immediately sells them for a total of $1,000.
2. Subsequently, the price of the shares falls to $8 per share.
3. Short seller now buys 100 shares of C & Company for $800.
4. Short seller returns the shares to the lender, who accepts the return of the same number of shares as was lent, despite the fact that the market value of the shares has decreased.
5. Short seller retains as profit the $200 difference (minus borrowing fees) between the price at which he sold the shares he borrowed and the lower price at which he was able to purchase the shares he returned.
Loss-making trade
Shares in C & Company currently trade at $10 per share.
1. A short seller borrows 100 shares of C & Company and immediately sells them for a total of $1,000.
2. Subsequently the price of the shares rises to $25.
3. Short seller is required to return the shares, and to meet the obligation is compelled to buy 100 shares of C & Company for $2,500.
4. Short seller returns the shares to the lender who accepts the return of the same number of shares as was lent.
5. Short seller incurs as a loss the $1,500 difference between the price at which he sold the shares he borrowed and the higher price at which he had to purchase the shares he returned (plus borrowing fees).
h/t Melinda Romanoff
Y2Kyoto: The Planet Has A Shiver
The polar blast that brought snow to downtown Auckland for the first time in 72 years – and created the city’s coldest day on record – is set to worsen in many parts of the North and South Islands.
WeatherWatch last night predicted more snow in 29 cities and towns by this evening – including the capital, Christchurch, Dunedin and Taupo – and a medium risk of more snow flurries in Auckland overnight and in Napier, Hastings, Rotorua and New Plymouth today.
Reader Tips
From a television show aired in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, here’s soft-spoken Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-‘Arifi thoughtfully counseling a group of young men on How To Beat Your Wife.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Just imagine how this Globe and Mail story would have been reported…
… and the following commentary (want to bet there would be little if none about the, er, religious aspect?) had these actions been attributed to people professing Christianity?
Somalis suffer and die as Islamists ban ‘infidel’ aid
Even as drought and hunger grew to disastrous levels in Somalia this year, Islamist militants told destitute farmers to “depend on God” instead of the “infidels” at foreign relief agencies…
One farmer described how his 40 goats and 20 cattle died of starvation as al-Shabab refused to allow any help from relief agencies. “They were telling people to just depend on God and forget about depending on the agencies,” he told the human rights researchers.
Another refugee said the insurgents told him: “We don’t want the food of disbelievers.”..
In the territory under its control, the Islamist militia “continues to carry out public beheadings and floggings, forcibly recruits both adults and children into its forces, imposes onerous regulations on nearly every aspect of human behaviour and social life, and deprives inhabitants of badly needed humanitarian assistance, including food and water,”..
One gives the paper some credit for serious reporting (much though they may have been pained about this reality)–but what about the lessons to be drawn? The paper also runs this:
…
The first thing we need to understand is the all-important difference between Muslim terrorists and European terrorists like Mr. Breivik and American terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber and Jared Loughner (killer of six in Tucson, Arizona, attempted killer of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords). Here’s the difference: Apparently Muslim terrorists terrorize because they are Muslims and that’s what Muslims do. White, European, American and Christian terrorists terrorize because they are psychotic loners who represent nothing besides themselves…
Must have that religious equivalency, eh?
Coffee And Tea Lie Down Together
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz urged other CEOs to stop donating to U.S. political campaigns to encourage leaders to solve the nation’s growing budget deficit.
“I am asking that all of us forego political contributions until the Congress and the President return to Washington and deliver a fiscally disciplined long-term debt and deficit plan to the American people,” Schultz wrote in an e-mail sent to business leaders that was obtained by Bloomberg News.
Bring back the Dominion Observatory too/Update: RCN, RCAF Redux Confirmed
A whole lot of announcing by senior federal Conservatives will be going on tomorrow; this appears to be the reason:
Royal to return to Canadian Forces
Remember there never was a Royal Canadian (or British) Army. As for the observatory…other suggestion for resurrecting previous names?
Update via Milnet.ca:
CANFORGEN 147/11 VCDS 021/11 151502Z AUG 11
RESTORING THE HISTORIC NAMES OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY, THE CANADIAN ARMY AND THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE.
UNCLASSIFIED
THE CDS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS RESTORING THE HISTORIC NAMES OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY (RCN), THE CANADIAN ARMY (CA), AND THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE (RCAF)
THE INITIATIVE TO RESTORE THE HISTORIC NAMES OF CANADA’S THREE FORMER SERVICES IS AIMED AT RESTORING AN IMPORTANT AND RECOGNIZABLE PART OF CANADA S MILITARY HERITAGE. THESE WERE THE SERVICES THAT FOUGHT AND EMERGED VICTORIOUS FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND KOREA AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEFENCE OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLD WAR. THESE WERE ALSO THE SERVICES THAT PAVED THE WAY IN TERMS OF INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS
THE CHANGE WILL BE IMPLEMENTED BY RENAMING THE THREE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMANDS. MARITIME COMMAND WILL BE NAMED THE ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY LAND FORCE COMMAND WILL BE NAMED THE CANADIAN ARMY AND AIR COMMAND WILL BE NAMED THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE. IN THIS WAY WE WILL REGAIN AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE HERITAGE WITHIN A UNIFIED EFFECTIVE CANADIAN FORCES COMMAND STRUCTURE..
President Damon?
Is Matt Damon a social crusader or just a guilty rich white guy? You decide.
“The Barbarians Inside Britain’s Gates”
The estimable Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece in the Wall St. Journal–worth the full read–thus:
…A woman got into an argument with someone in a supermarket. She called her boyfriend, a violent habitual criminal, “to come and sort him out.” The boyfriend was already on bail on another charge and wore an electronic tag because of another conviction. (Incidentally, research shows that a third of all crimes in Scotland are committed by people on bail, and there is no reason England should be any different.)
The boyfriend arrived in the supermarket and struck a man a heavy blow to the head. He fell to the ground and died of his head injury. When told that he had got the “wrong” man, the assailant said he would have attacked the “right” one had he not been restrained. He was sentenced to serve not more than 30 months in prison. Since punishments must be in proportion to the seriousness of the crime, a sentence like this exerts tremendous downward pressure on sentences for lesser, but still serious, crimes.
So several things need to be done, among them the reform and even dismantlement of the educational and social-security systems, the liberalization of the labor laws, and the much firmer repression of crime.
David Cameron is not the man for the job.
Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name of the physician Anthony Daniels.
Y2Kyoto: We’re Winning
Last person leaving the Chicago Climate Exchange, please turn out the lights.
Paul Krugman Has A Nobel Prize in Economics
And my dog doesn’t.
h/t syncrodox
The World Still Has Too Many Toronto Stars
A column by Heather Mallick on July 28 contained a number of inaccurate statements about the well-known British journalist and author Melanie Phillips.
Not any more, it don’t.
h/t BCF, who saved a copy.