Warm Days of 'Winter'

Just gorgeous days here in Western Cape.

Yesterday's high and low for Franschhoek: 87 at around 3PM, 64 at breakfast time on the terrace... Afternoon trip down to the shore near Kleinmond (Clarence Drive) where we stayed overnight. Shortly we'll take the 40-mile scenic route to the Theewaterskloofdam, just 10 miles from our Franschhoek homestead. Tomorrow, New Year's Eve, we'll be back home for some proper celebrations. Hottentots among Huguenots... lol

Lots of [private] pics from the trips at my Facebook 

Elton Meltdown

Beyond the good time we are having here in Franschhoek, I feel the need to comment on Elton John's weird offspring:

"Elton [what a name that is!], you will be 80 years old when your 'son' will turn 17. Congratulations to you, you selfish bastard; and pity for the newly-born."

Happy Happy Joy Joy, in South Africa

All actors in place, let the fun commence: Franschhoek is in the grip of EURO & his company. Mum's beaming, for once the centre of all attention. The stage is set for the feasting, first to celebrate a European inspired traditional Christmas with luscious food and drinks on festive tables, followed a week later by ringing in the New Year.

Let's not reminisce over the travel woes getting here from London and Paris; rather let's enjoy what we have here: a refreshing chill of 60F at night, and balmy 82F during the day. I'm in paradise...

Vac Time

Leaving for St Pancras first, then Gare du Nord; a bit crazy, but hey! I do it because I can. E-1 will depart for SA on Sunday, while I return to London that evening; only to leave for CT myself on the next day.

The temp's make SA the right place to be: sunny and 78 in Stellenbosch vs cloudy and 29 in London today.

Back on the 4th, unless one of my stunts goes wrong... lol 

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Snow in Paris

Snow in Paris means? To stay put in London and do the Christmas shopping at England's best mall. Hopping on the Eurostar yesterday on a moment's notice was Her right idea.

Where were you, when...

... John Lennon died?

I lived in San Francisco at the time, and was in bed when the TV interrupted its programme with the breaking news. And I muttered, "only in America."

Fresh off the ticker...

• Noble boycott: At least the communists in China have the decency not to soil the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony with the presence of any of its miserable representatives. It would have been a travesty if some of the regime's underlings attended a ceremony to honour the country's most eminent critic.
• I knew it all along as soon as the story broke last month: the husband concocted the infamous plan to have his newly-wed wife Anni Delawi shot execution-style in a Western Cape township near Cape Town. I hope he will be thrown into the Indian Ocean and be eaten by sharks.
• I applaud the arrest of WikiLeaks' Assange today; next stops should be a Swedish court room, prison and finally extradition to the US. Once there he should simply disappear at a place in the sun: Guantanamo.

London Weekend, Guernsey Revelations

After Eurostar, like most of the mass transport of England last week, stopped their often unreliable service in the wake of 1.3 inches of snow and temperatures near the freezing point - quelle surprise in December! - I found myself stuck in London. As a result I raked up a handsome phone bill over the weekend. But, this being London, I found enough activities to beat any emerging boredom right in its tracks.

Talking of tracks: while the ones leading to Paris defied me this time, I carved my own into the ice rink at Somerset House, twice. Together with three reg's, we enjoyed the musical and architectural beauty of the setting at the palace, did our 1-hour routines on Saturday and Sunday, enjoyed the mulled wine and the occasional fall onto the ice (especially when I tried to let Emily listen to my skates carving into the ice up close, bending over and holding the phone close to the skates).

Saturday night we spent at the usual hang-out, Trader Vic's at the Hilton. Great food, good music and fantastic drinks. By 2:30 in the morning we had split as I had to take up my position as weekend psychiatrist of AOL's Anglochat room - a free service of the NHS. It's my way of being Christmassy and compassionate according to the spirit of the season. I extended treatment to such reg's as the schizo-paranoid AOL members coma284, brandi620, Lameducks, Sugapiehineypunch, AlteredStates (a pun of mental debilities), and the crystal meth victims Carrcrater, vickylake, crampierat and doveinamist. The sessions went by uneventful, no further actions like forced injections or straight jackets were needed this time.

I also am in the midst of reading two books; one is Paul Erdman's "Crash of '79", the other a historical account of Guernsey, a renegade island off the coast of France that was deeply embroiled with the Nazi henchmen in the 1940s. Turns out that the people of Guernsey not only fraternised intimately with the nazis, even to the point that inhabitants of neighbouring Jersey were appalled, but they also made sure that all of the island's Jews were murdered. Two concentration camps on the islets around Guernsey were sustained by the crucial help of Guernsey folks. Their attempts to white-wash their past sins for more than 5 decades have been completely thrashed by the book. Two schools on the island have been provided by the islanders to the nazis as interrogation centres, from which suspects regularily have emerged dead. Later, after the war atrocities were stopped by British invasion forces, Guernsey has used the institutions to incarcerate, torture and sexually abuse children methodically until as recently as 1997.

On a lighter note: I accumulated 18 hours of OT last week, which I will utilise this week to have Monday-Wednesday as half-days. Afternoons will be spent shopping and visits at the (Germanic) Christmas market on South Bank, with original kraut goodies like mulled tea, bratwursts, potato dishes and gingerbread from Nuremberg. My eyes will be sparkling from the glare of Christmas tinsel and lights, and my hands will embrace the hot cups in nippy temp's. Undoubtedly I shall OD on roasted chestnuts.
You may hate me now... LOL

Current Music: GEOFFREY ORYEMA - Ye, Ye, Ye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0u5yYEEluA

AOL Splinters

Within 10 minutes of the announcement that Britain's heir to the throne would get married 'some time next year,' a huffing and panting oversized regular of Anglochat blitzed the unsuspecting members with the news that "I'm gonna be at the Royal wedding!"

After the "ooh's and aahh's" of the ambushed crowd had subsided, and the potential party-crashing nutter had caught her breath, someone dared to point out that no wedding date had been announced yet. Feeling caught out again, the Colossus of Rogues - visibly shaken and embarrassed - quickly hissed, "Am goin' regardless, me and me 'Manda, after our cruise out of Miami," and pressed the Anglochat's panic button to drop out with great haste through the trap door which member LaChateauEURO@aol.com had previously installed for such precious moments in AOL's trademark arena for the insane.

Leaves the question of who is "'manda?" Our New York correspondent unearthed some facts about 10-year old Amanda, often referred to as "Tasmanian Devil" in Anglochat. For a long time it was suspected to be the spawn of Satan, or that it may have been aborted from a bulging piñata on Cinco de Mayo in the year 1999. Newly recovered documents, however, shed new light on the origins of 'Amanda' now.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a brilliant year so far (minus the broken arm), and a lot of reasons to be grateful for.

We're off to a lavish traditional dinner tonight, and unquestionably will we need a weekend to recover from it.

Traitors - in London and Dublin alike

The Conservative-led government betrays once again a 'red line':
Sending more than $12 billion to Dublin, and to bolster the eurozone without being a member, is a travesty. For decades Ireland bragged as an economic role model, financed with more than $46 billion from Brussels over a period of 15 years, which the EU agreed to transfer to Dublin to coerce the half of the island into the eurozone.

The word of Irish politicians is worth nothing. On Saturday the government affirmed that it will not seek help from the eurozone. On Sunday they crawled on their knees and begged for $128 billion. To assist Ireland would not be so disgusting if it coincided with the transfers of powers from Dublin to London. It is obvious that the Irish cannot - and must not be allowed - to govern themselves. It is repulsive to think that Britain needs to borrow funds at 4.5% and will lend to Ireland at a rate of 2.75% p.a.

It would only be balancing the immorality of the past to give development aid to Ireland now on the condition that it leaves the eurozone.

This article constitutes the termination of my support for Prime Minister Cameron.

Horseing Around

The clock has started to tick for yet another equine member of the Royals. Ever since Charly, the Prince of Whales, has confided to an American tabloid that his two-legged consort would be called Queen - once his mother and real queen has been carried out of Buckingham Palace - some sinister albeit familiar conspirators have swung into action to prevent the unthinkable.

Camilla Park-er-Bowels and HRH Princess Anne at a recent photo-op

It will be again up to Prince Philip and his phoney pharaoh chum Muhamad Al-Fayed, the Egyptian carpet trader, to concoct a plan to preserve the purity of the inbreds. Philip called his son yesterday to 'congratulate' him for his "dutiful aspirations" but also added that, if they were in the same room now, he would lash Charly's bare bottom with a birchtree branch until "the camel's back breaks". The conversation was leaked to us by someone within MI5.

Charly remained unfazed by his father's strong-armed threat and retorted, "I have been a tampon inside Camilla already, blood don't [sic] impress me much dad."

In the meantime, the plot thickens. Al-Fayed offered the service of a French driver ("Henri has rosy cheeks, is jolly and always ready for a tipple, or two, or 3, or 14") and also a 'very safe, armor-plated Mercedes 600'. Philip asked to put the couple up at some stables around Paris, and Fayed obliged by reserving a suite at the Hotel Ritz for the pair.

This morning a huge white "X" mysteriously appeared on the second concrete pillar of the underpass at the Pont de l'Alma along the banks of River Seine.

It seems all the prep work has been done.





Some readers may find this article disturbing and offensive. However, great effort has been put into this posting to make it suitable for readers of all ages and IQs. None of the animals involved have suffered in the wake of writing this article, and no products of beastly origins shall be entered into the food chain or offered for sale.

United Queendom

Britain is the drabbest country of Europe, with the exception of London (many argue that London should declare itself independent and proclaim a status of city state like Singapore). Economic crisis, derelict townships and chav-savaged inner cities, no sun and wind-swept; the United Queendom presents itself today as a recession hit theme park, deserted by visitors and with brittling facades rendering it into an unmasked Potemkin village.

With gloom and doom abound, news breaks that the #2 in line to ascend to the throne of the Germanic make-belief fiefdom (after all, it exchanged its name of noble lineage from Saxe-Coburg & Gotha into Windsor(e) some years back, to lure more American tourists through its gates after WW-I) is about to get married to a commoner. While it's good to see that two bright and well educated people tie the knot, and even present themselves uncharacteristically attractively for Brits, the nuptiles do nothing to improve the image of the country, let alone to pull the nation out of the doldrums of general decline.

The world laughs once again at Britain, but Brits mis-interpret the global appearance of bemusement and condescending grimaces as shared expressions of merriment. I approve of, and wish the best of luck to the future couple, which so far seems to have done everything right to break with the tradition of crumbled marriages and dysfunctional relationships which are hallmarks of the world's ugliest monarchy to the naked eye.

London added a new feature to bolster its reputation as the world's top city, rich of cultural diversity and a haven of tolerance: a previously unthinkable French-only radio station hit the airwaves today (link: http://www.frenchradiolondon.com/french/listen-live/?v=1 )

It's a fitting response to the insecure Gallics, who impose circumspectively severe on-the-air restrictions on their media outlets to prevent the use of such potentially corrupting foreign words like 'computer' instead of the complex and elaborate 5-word French term for it (which we decided to ban here). Any French radio station is prohibited to air a greater than 10% share of its playtime with non-French language music.

French Radio London is an enrichment for the country; a warm welcome to London!

L'art de vivre

Emily invited me and 2 of her girlfriends to a restaurant last night. It was the - gasp - La Tour D'Argent! The setting, cuisine and service were exceptional; no wonder we stayed from 8:30pm until past midnight.

When the moment came to fetch my AMEX card, Emily leaned gently over to me, blinked with her lashes innocently and assured me, "it's all taken care of, mon chéri." No bill presented, no moneys exchanged; she had it all previously arranged. And the fact that at the next table dined Catherine Deneuve and her entourage, and Emily struck up a brief conversation with her, only added to the classy evening out.

After dropping in at the Bus Palladium for a while, enjoying some leg exercises on the dancefloor, which I enjoyed especially after the de-casting of my left arm on the previous day, we finally arrived back home just after 3. Tonight we're invited to her mother's place in Neuilly.

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Salut!

Je suis arrivé à Paris

... and my luggage as well

DEMAIN:
La capitale accueille le Festival International de la Photographie Culinaire et ses instantanés gourmands.

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Long-term plan: 2012

I habitually hate to make long-term plans, enjoying spontaneity and last-minute surprises too much. But this is a sizzling ticket worthwhile to drop anything and attend:

Lang Lang's first complete Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle in London
Heralded as the 'hottest artist on the classical music planet’ by the New York Times, 27-year-old Lang Lang has played sold out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world. In 2008 over 5 billion people viewed his performance in Beijing's opening ceremony for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (3.8 billion tuned out from the Games afterwards) and the following year he was named as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people.

Following his sold-out in-the-round performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010, Lang Lang returns to the Hall in March 2012 to perform his complete Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle for the first time ever in London. He will be joined by the acclaimed conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Programme:

Tuesday 20 March 2012, 7.45pm

Beethoven - Overture, Namensfeier, Op. 115
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4

Wednesday 21 March 2012, 7.45pm - - that's the one I will attend!

Beethoven - Overture, Leonore No. 2, Op. 72a
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 2
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 3

Friday 23 March 2012, 7.45pm

Beethoven - Overture, King Stephen
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor

Sadly, I will miss a brilliant evening at RAH on the 25th, trading a fab concert for a Thanksgiving Party instead. And as my fork and knife dig into some roasted bird and its stuffing, my mind will wander to a concert that I shall miss:
Bruch's phenomenally successful Violin Concerto No.1 - performed by Nicola Benedetti - and it is framed by two English masterworks: Elgar's (yes indeed!)  Cockaigne Overture and Holst's celebrated Planets Suite.

Sniggers with the N-iggers

Filed by our correspondent at the Los Angeles Bureau

Pretty much everyone receives unwanted e-mail from time to time. My weekly review of the SPAM folder routinely reveals unmarked/anonymous proof of illiteracy at various levels.

AOL members usually lead the list of the insane, with most senior member Netcitizen2006@aol.com claiming the undisputed top spot. The senior whigger, who is a day labourer in the avocado fields outside Oxnard, California, subscribes to dozens of gay porn sites and shares his passion - you guessed it - by linking your screen name to these websites. As he is no smarter than a California Raisin, with looks that match the mind, as he leaves his footprints all over the place, and the porn website will advise you that "your new subscription has commenced thanks to your friend Netcitizen2006@aol.com."

Peculiar as it is, he also sends such invites to female AOL members and girls of age 16-20. All this despite previous convictions for various crimes such as check-hiking, larceny, shoplifting, indecent exposure, grand theft, possession of indecent child images, fraud and public disturbance. Convictions, as far as we managed to trace them, were levelled against Netcitizen2006@aol.com in 1962, 1964, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1984 (after introduction of the "3 times you're out" legislation, under which a third conviction for a crime leads to automatic incarceration for life, even Netcitizen@aol.com realised that it's too risky to carry on). He spent at least 8 years in various penitentiaries, most notably in the men's colony of San Louis Obispo, Pleasant Valley State Prison (Coalinga) and Vacaville, all in California. Vacaville prison is also the permanent residence of a Charles Manson, Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan is held in PVSP, while several members of his gang that butchered Roman Polanski's wife and seven others are imprisoned in SLO. Hard core criminals, just like Netcitizen2006@aol.com

"Netcitizen2006" at a 2001 court appearance in Simi Valley, found not guilty on charges of sexual abuse of under-aged boys for reasons of diminished responsibility

But the point I would really like to make is to warn the public of a scam to defraud from N-iggers: Nigeria rooted thugs (iggers) that are dumb enough to concoct scams so infantile and retarded that only they believe in them enough to go public with them and expect some unsuspecting fellow N-igger to respond and become entrapped.

Case in point is this crudely composed plot that supposedly entitles me to $10 million from people and companies I have never heard of before. As I said, only some dirty skinned fucks in Uncle Tom's, Dick's and Harry's Hut believe in their tales as they disseminate their imbecile compositions into your mailbox.

This particular SPAM even dared to fake the F.B.I. as the original source. For reasons to maintain the authenticity of the circular I left the niggerish grammar and orthographical errors unchanged.

Rush of blood to the head

Quiet chaotic scenes this afternoon at Party HQ:
first came some anarchist elements among students who protest the changes of tuition fees and general costs to studying in Britain. They left their trademark swath of destruction in the reception area of the Millbank Tower, and some staff from the Tory HO had to abandon their positions, either to be sent home or using our offices. Damage is reportedly significant over at #21, some injuries too, and around 40 riot police have taken up position inside. Unprecedented, all that.

As the Mayor said, a minority of thugs have hijacked the agenda of students who exercise their right to protest. The rampage inside Millbank Tower cannot be justified and I hope that police bloodies the intruders and drags them off to jail.

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For Fawkes' Sake

Tonight is bonfire night, and chances that the House of Parliament will come under renewed subterranean attack are slim. Since Labour was chased out of the halls of power in London things have calmed down considerably, and the hands-on approach for serious reforms and productive work under Tory leadership begins to take hold. The world embraces the Conservative-led cabinet: LSE traded shares are at a 2-year high, and Sterling enjoys an ascent from the Labour lows against the dollar ($1.62 as of late, from 1.44 when Labour was doomed by the electorate).

Nevertheless, this is Guy Fawkes Day, and - thanks to our Mayor - the much trumpeted strike by London's firemen has been called off; just in the nick of time before we had gone up in smoke here. Besides our stroll along the embankment to watch the fireworks, and heading to a Camden party at midnight, we'll limit our conspiratory ambitions to fixing Gunpowder Tea from Twinings; no implied pun nor commercial pull intended. I wonder how the Royals feel tonight, trying to remember, remember...

For those who like to learn more about the plot to kill  summarily King and Parliament from the comfort of their armchair, here's the link to a fun game to blow up the Commons as often as you wish (if you fail to answer questions correctly):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/gunpowder/index_embed.shtml

Want to click and fire off fireworks yourself?
http://maylin.net/Fireworks.html


Have a safe one everybody!

VOTE 2010

It's election night, and I will attend a polling event at the embassy starting midnight. A lot is at stake, and Obama and his cohort Democrats are facing a humiliating setback. All 435 Congressional seats are up for grabs, and my prediction is that the current Democrat majority of 39 will turn into a Republican majority of 15-20.

In the Senate 37 of the 100 seats are contested. The current 9-seat majority of the Democrats will - according to this expert - melt into a one-seat edge as the Rep's pick up 8 seats tonight. Watch the current majority leader Harry Reid (D, NV) lose his seat...

Finally there are 37 gubernatorial and State House races, with California as the top prize. I hope for, but don't expect, that the successor of Arnold Schwarzenegger will be a Republican: the resurfaced 1980's governor Jerry Brown could prove too popular and with great name recognition to be beaten.

UPDATE [10:03AM]
Republicans swept the House, capturing a comfortable majority. The Senate remains in Democratic hands with a reduced margin of 51:47 (from 57:40), plus 2 Independent but Democratic leaning senators. 37 Senate seats were contested, 19 from the Dem's and 18 from the Rep's. Republicans won the seats in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois (seat previously held by Barack Obama), Utah, Arkansas, Indiana and North Dakota. Disappointing is the re-election of Sen Harry Reid (NV), who will remain Senate Majority Leader.

All 435 Congressional seats have been up for election and the current Republican gains of 60 seats (10 more seats are subject to recount) to secure a 239:185 majority constitute a landslide victory. The much behated Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been re-elected in her seat, but will be ousted as Speaker of the House. President Obama loses a close, albeit incompetent power base in Congress.

Notable in the 37 Gubernatorial races is the election of Jumpin' Jack Jerry Brown in California (D, 54%), the election of Scott (R, 48.8%) in Florida and the election of dago Andrew Cuomo (D, 61.5%), son of previous Gov Mario Cuomo, in New York.

Of the many Propositions nation-wide the one in California to legalize the "recreational" marijuana use failed by 54-46 per cent.

Paris

Off to strike Paris (no pun intended) at noon; back on Tuesday. It's All Saints Day after all, and the Frenchies take their holidays religiously serious. Sunday and Monday we'll spend at friends' in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Boris vs Cameron

A political row has broken out today over the government's plan to limit future weekly housing benefits for people on welfare to £400 ($630). Now anyone in the rest of the world could hardly fathom that local governments would throw that kind of money at people who do not work, do not pay taxes and cannot afford living so extravagantly to begin with. Not surprisingly I support Boris Johnson in principle; but I also deem the repercussions of the government's plan as not severe enough to shelve it altogether. The fact remains: if you are living on government hand-outs, it is not unfairly harsh to expect such dwellers to see cheaper accommodations.

The government has decided that routine cases, where families receive up to £700 a week just to be able to live in London, is unsustainable in the current economic climate.

So far so good. Today the Mayor of London, who is involved in a bid for re-election in 2012, took up the issue and clearly embarked on a confrontational course with the prime minister. The row came as MPs debated planned changes to housing benefit, announced in last week's Spending Review, which it is estimated will affect about 17,000 people in London if introduced in full.

Tate Modern

Even though I got a ticket for £6.25 (half price) I still purchased a 12-months membership for £52.00. It's amazing what the museum offers, and I will make it a regular stop from now on. The Gauguin exhibition is just awesome. Probably we'll be here another hour, then hit the book/gift store before heading home.

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AOL / FACEBOOK Splinters

The common maternal ANGLOCHAT-ter spends each day on average 03:42 hours on Skype, 07:33 hours on AOL and 09:23 hours on Facebook & FarmVille, often simultaneous. Add the 09:21 hours for sleeping and boozing, and you come up to the balance of time spent each day for the offsprings or - imagine that! - with honest work: none at all, unless cutting the grass or spraying the fields with manure on the cyber farm allows to rock or shake the toddlers on their lap. Sometimes with deadly consequences, as seen with derelict AOL members: whether it's a New Jersey based Abortion Anne, a Long Island brandi-ed cow, a Vegas slut, a psychotic Alabama Carrie or a suburbian Chicago psychopath, a white supremacist tramp from Florida turned fugitive in NE-England, or a tattooed German heffer in Cornwall; they all have in common child abuse and neglect in order to entertain themselves online.

One particularly appalling case is that of former AOL member A. Tobias.

The 22 year old mother from Jacksonville, FL, plead guilty to second degree murder in the death of her 3 month old son Dylan Lee. She claimed that she was so angry and agitated because her child was crying while she was playing on Facebook's FarmVille on her computer.

According to Tobias, she shook her baby while angry, then smoked a cigarette to calm herself down before shaking him again. The baby hit his head on the computer while she was shaking him, causing severe trauma and other injuries.

Internet addiction is a very real crisis as we know from Anglo-ers, and games such as FarmVille are designed to be addictive in order to get players to spend real life money on them. Unfortunately, sad incidents come out of addictions quite frequently and it is people like Tobias, Brenda, Vickie, Carrie, Anne, Nicola, Kendra etc. who give Facebook games a bad reputation and negative stigma.

Alexandra Tobias will be sentenced after her confession next month, and at this point could be looking at 25 years to life in prison.

Hush now, gotta CONCENTRATE on harvesting those crops. Can't have a crying baby disrupt that.

AOL Splinters

A friend of mine passed through a low-income residential area of Nassau Co. in New York recently, and made out a pale behemoth among the crowd of dark-skinned juveniles, either chaotically running across lawns or Jay-walking through the crime-infested neighbourhood, stolen TV sets and audio equipment clutched firmly under their arms. With wailing sirens from approaching patrol cars in the distance, the white colossus stood stoically - presumably accustomed to the chaos, and posed for the stranger, brandi-shing the best smile she is capable of:

The modest 2 1/2 bedroom dwelling at the 1200 block of Jacob Drive in Seaford (NY 11783) is a far cry from what the address plaque of AOL member Brandish620 may suggest. The "12-17" refers to the size of the ass of the Colossus of Rogues, not the spanning outlays of her suburban shed. The most valuable artefact that the passing photographer could make out was a semi-torn Piñata, from which a Tasmanian Devil called Amanda has hetched in 2000. [The runt is in the picture, but obscured underneath the Rokoko outfit] The 1940s Cuban style robe on the blood clot font Queen of Sagginess only accentuates the humongous size of Nassau County's oldest landmark. Little surprise that, to complete the class act, Brenda wears flip-flops with the purple evening robe.
(Report filed by the NY correspondent of LCE)

Current Music (Spotify enhanced): LADY GAGA - (Show Me Your) Teeth

Mayor Success

Wheeling success of Mayor Johnson

The bicycle hire scheme, dubbed 'Boris Bikes' after London's Mayor, has proved a resounding success - on October 8 the millionth journey was made, just two months since its launch. Of the tens of thousands of bikes for hire only five have disappeared (in three cases the villains have been found and put to good community tasks).

More than 90,000 people, including me and Emily, are now signed up as members and the scheme is due to be opened up to casual users later this year. In the meantime, anyone who has a debit or credit card with a UK billing address can sign up.


People who sign up for 24-hour, seven-day or annual membership can choose to auto-renew, which means they can start a new hire period whenever they want, by simply inserting their cycle hire key into a docking point and taking a bike.

Of the 92,000 people who have signed up for membership, 42% have opted for daily access (£1 for 24 hours), four per cent for weekly access (£5) and 54% for annual membership (£45). At the moment there are nearly 200 docking stations throughout central London. I will be back on the bike as soon as warm weather hits or my cast comes off; whatever happens last...

... and off she went, sitting in the Eurostar to Gare du Nord, and texting like mad. LOL

Should be an entertaining afternoon today. It is well known that in professional football, I support the 49ers; always have (when they were lousy in the late 70s, and when they captured numerous Super Bowls in the 80s), and always will (even though they have been the most awful team for the past 6 years). BUT!! They are coming to see us today, cheerleaders included, and the Mayor and Staff will welcome them to City Hall shortly after 4. And when the pompoms are lowered, maybe this tall guy becomes visible standing next to the Mayor.

The 49ers play Denver on Sunday at Wembley Stadium (the game has been sold out for 5 months). Last weekend the lame broncos were thrashed by the Raiders; maybe a good omen for things to come...

Weekend Extension

After sleeping through much of Sunday (well, not me, but her), as we returned home from various gigs and clubs only after 7AM, we decided to recoup partly the lost hours. I took this afternoon off, and she re-booked her departure for tomorrow. Another dinner gained (as last night's bash in Camden did take place).

I got a ticket through the office for the spectacular Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern, half price. If the weather is nice (like today) I might even stroll directly from the office. Friday is another half-day, as I board the Eurostar bound for what has become the twin city for me; the City of Lights. Amazingly, it will be this year's 10th visit already to the city by the Seine, and it hasn't lost one iota of its seductive appeal on me.

Tonight we'll be at Trader Vic's; my home from home. LOL

London Weekend

The weekend starts today, precisely at 2:30PM when Mrs E arrives at St Pancras ("International", as it likes to be called) to be treated by Mr E to a flute of bubblies at Europe's longest champagne bar.

It promises to be great fun even with the arm in a sling: the Bloomsbury Festival returns after a three-year hiatus, with more than 100 events for art lovers, music fans, shop-aholics, literature buffs, etc. Taking place across the area, the programme includes a lantern-lit procession (tonight 6-8pm), dance snippets by The Place all around the festival site (Sat, Sun), music in the area's parks and gardens (Sat, Sun), a tour of the secret spaces in Charles Holden's Art Deco Senate House (Sat 10.30am), a South Asian festival (a MUST!) with a food market, henna hand painting, dance and music at SOAS, and a street party on Lamb's Conduit St with music, entertainment and food (Sun 4-9pm). There are also open days at local museums including the Dickens Museum, Foundling Museum and Cartoon Museum.

Two dinners, a brunch party on Sunday and nocturnal pleasures complement the exhilerating joys outdoors until Monday morning. It's good to live in London.

A Security 'Warning' From - chuckle - Moscow!

Of all places, a Moskovite felt the need to warn the Olympic Committee not to award the 2018 Soccer World Cup to England, "due to the high crime rate and the culture of public binge drinking there." This despite the fact that based on these two criteria Moscow would be ruled out for the next 300 years: deaths from excessive alcohol consumption - Moscovites drink vodka like Brits jug down cider - are 1,300 per cent more than in London, and the number of murders is six-fold that of London (2009 figures).

The leader of Russia's 2018 World Cup bid today had to apologise for making slurs against London after a personal intervention by Mayor Boris Johnson. Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of the Russian campaign team, was forced on the defensive after he said London was plagued with record levels of crime and youth binge-drinking. His humiliating U-turn came after aides of the London Mayor this morning contacted Sorokin's office to demand an explanation for the outburst.

Mayor Johnson immediately refuted the claims, writing on Twitter: "Can't believe Russian slurs over 2018 bid. Pls tell them crime is down & London's the most tolerant city in the world."

A spokesman for Sorokin said the comments reported in the Russian paper Sport Express were "mistranslated" and taken out of context. The spokesman said: "Mr Sorokin regrets if his statements have led to such an erroneous interpretation and understanding."

Sport Express initially reported Sorokin as saying: "We do not enter into squabbles, although we have much to say. It's no secret, for example, that in London they have the highest crime rate compared with other European cities [FALSE], and the highest level of alcohol consumption among young people [not per capita].”

Sorokin's comments could land him in trouble with FIFA, whose strict rules prohibit comments about rival bidders.

Guernsey Inbreeding

A good friend of mine has recently relocated to Singapore from California. Seen the best of two worlds, Wendy enjoys her new life to the fullest. Yesterday she published in her website the tax table of Singapore, which shows income of less than SGD320,000 p.a. (= USD 246,000; GBP156,000; SFR 236,000) at a tax rate of 17% tops (up to 40,000 the rate is 8.5%).

In response I wrote to her:

LOL... I have known the tax table for years, and wouldn't mind to object myself to such taxation again. Again, because I did enjoy the tax rate in Guernsey of 10 per cent on my income there.

However, to be fair, Singapore operates as an independent city state, while Guernsey is a parasital inbreeding entity within the UK. While Singapore contributes to the economies of neighbouring states, Guernsey is a basket case that costs British taxpayers £190 million a year to sustain.

The pride of locals: typical dwellings scattered around Guernsey

The cosmopolitan, modern flair of Singapore is in stark contrast to the barren, desolate, delapitated and barren rock called Guernsey. Considering the poverty and desolation that exists on Guernsey, the navel-gazing pride of the inbred islanders is grotesque and bizarre. I always called Guernsey the Alcatraz of Europe.

More 'bendies' replaced

One of the most annoying forms of mass transportation in London is the "Bendy-Bus."

The Mayor pledged to get rid of the monsters by the time of re-election. Route 149 is the fourth line to see the 'bendies' withdrawn, and the plan is to have all replaced with double-decker buses by November 2011.

The bendies are only popular with chavvy fare evaders, usually on lines serving the London ghettos. Once you board a bendy you are being thrown around while the bus is in motion, so poorly is the bus built (Made in Britain). To phase out the dangerous creatures will save the City nearly £2 million a year. These monstrous vehicles also have become a grave danger to roller-bladers (...), cyclists and pedestrians, either by snapping around the victims or hitting people with the swerving rear end in a fashion similar to a body check from ice-hockey cracks.

It is also estimated that moving from having bendy buses with open boarding to double-deck buses will save £550,000 a year from fare evasion on the busy route. The Mayor addressed the slum rodents that make it into the City: "The fare evaders who duck and dive their way around these hulking great monsters without fear of having to put their hand in their pocket are finding that on our replacement double-deck buses there is nowhere to hide."

Boris Johnson added: "These monoliths of the road were never appropriate for the narrow streets of London and I'm delighted we've now sent over 100 of them packing."

Good riddance, bravo BJ!

On the mend

The intense pain has gone, but with an arm in a cast and some numbness in my right leg I can't say things are back to normal yet. I will be back at work tomorrow, having the luxury of a project- and result-oriented employer which allows for choosing the work hours and total hours in the office.

That means I am not taking off for SA as planned tomorrow. BA showed flexibility in re-scheduling the flight now for December 21st free of charge; had they not done so I would have shown even greater flexibility in switching to South African Airways (something I will seriously consider in the future). I mean, this is my third trip to SA this year alone, and if BA had insisted to be anal retentive about re-booking I would have told several people that also fly routinely this long haul, to leave BA for good and cut up their Frequent Flier membership (on my card are 142,000 bonus miles, for example).

Typing is a bit cumbersome these days, using only the right hand (the left is good for nothing except to press the key to switch to upper case. Four more weeks of operating under diminished capability. The culprit of the Sunday crash has been charged by the Met police, just a prelude to what I intend to do: sue the hell out of the fucker.

Current Music (Spotify enhanced): Najoua Belyzel – L'âme Exilée

Blasted

I don't know what's worse: being condemned to stationary idledom, sweetened by my never failing new Kindle, or the pain whenever I make an effort to 'jump' - OK, it's more like a slide - out of bed. Alone I couldn't manage, but the helping hands actually add a degree of pleasure in this miserable position. For instance, months of training her how to cook pay off royally.

When I went out on Sunday I followed a familiar path that I have enjoyed in London for so long now. At 7 in the morning the Capital is still asleep, and barely traffic as I criss-cross the Royal Borough from The Churchill Arms south on Kensington Church St, turning left at the T-intersection into Hyde Park Gate, turning right into Palace Gate and proceeding south on Gloucester Rd. Often, like on Sunday, I meet up with 2 friends on Wetherby Gardens, and continue south to the Chelsea Embankment through little tranquil residential streets. We became aware of the commotion at 76 Gledhow Gardens, with several fire trucks, ambulance and police cars attending to a victim lying on the sidewalk. Only hours later, when I found myself in the same hospital as that victim, did we learn that the sister of the singer Mika has fallen from the 4th floor of her home, landing on the fence in front and impaled on 3 spikes.

My mishap ended relatively less dramatic. Going full speed on rollerblades we tried to cross the Battersea Bridge along the Embankment when a car driver attempted the totally illegal maneuvre to back onto our path to make a U-turn! Frank and Miriam managed to swerve around the car into the road. I was not so fortunate and hit the car at the rear fender and became airborne. I crashed against the wall that stood between me and a 30ft fall to the bed of River Thames. The impact broke my left arm, as well as bruised ribs and legs and a concussion. Bless my helmet... By 8:30 I was in the emergency room.

It looks like I will miss work for the whole week and - much more regrettable - I will not leave for South Africa on Sunday. The haggling with British Airways for a refund has begun...

Accident

Had a crash this morning, with broken arm, lacerations and bruises; oh, and certainly planning to sue the fucking idiot. Anyway, 3-4 days off work as a result, and in some need of a nurse. And that's been taken care of too.

Birmingham Conference & I / 3

A terrific Party Conference concluded today with a fitting speech from PM David Cameron. Free of unrealistic promises we have become so accustomed to from the past 13 years of Labour conferences, the PM outlined somberly the consequences of the need to undo catastrophic damage on the British economy and society during the premierships of a Brown & Blair.

The final day also saw William Hague speak about UK foreign policy, maintaining the global role of Great Britain and accentuating the distance between the elected British Government and the incoherently imposed Brussels regime. No more rights will be transferred from London to the EU, and past transfers could be become subject to reversals after referenda in the future. British sovereignty will be enshrined in UK Law and a referendum lock introduced.

It must send shockwaves throughout the EU that the people will decide on the future course of our EU policies, not boiler room hagglings in the corridors of Brussels. Imagine that: the people decide!

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox lambasted Labour for the inheritence it has bequeathed him at the MoD, virtually undermining British ability to defend herself, and for leaving behind a vast hole of £38 billion as a result of a spending spree that was unprecedented in the history of this country by the sheer size of wasted taxpayers'  funds, the miniscule value for money spent and the brazeness with which Labour governments have squandered public funds for Labour projects. Most importantly, Liam Fox reiterated that the Trident nuclear submarines will be replaced, the British nuclear deterrent to stay. This comes as a great relief and reassurance to this Blog.

Dealing with the greates challenges at hand in 50 years, the Party Conference has successfully provided for a realistic snapshot of the dire state of the country, put forward a strategy to roll back deficits and to focus on changes back to old values in society: no family on welfare should earn more than working families, housing allowances and child support cut or reduced, and has intruduced new incentives for creating and expanding small businesses. Prisoners ought to work 40 hours a week, illegal immigrants deported swiftly, legal immigration curtailed, parasital families forced to abandon high priced areas such as London by sharply reducing housing allowances, more and better teachers to change an education system that was completely mismanaged under Labour, and to force increased bank lending to small and medium business in Britain.

I walked away from this conference in awe over the substance of themes and policies put forward, and of the absence of the irrational exhuberance one could witness in the past 13 years at Labour conferences.

The Conference prepares the nation for the publishing of the stark figures of the prolonged Labour assault on Britain in the past 13 years: October 20th, when Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will present the COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW.

Birmingham Conference & I / 2

Boris Johnson brought down the house, and the delegates to their feet with a thundering broadside at unions trying to cripple London today with a wildcat Tube strike, holding working Londoners hostage. Alternate ridicule and sarcasm applied, the Mayor captured the audience with a speech peppered with wit and humour.

(Click "Read More" for transcript of speech "Keep the UK Motor Going")

Then came George Osborne, who ripped apart Labour's 13-year legacy of record debt, reckless spending of money borrowed from future generations, incompetence and indiscipline. We all know that Labour brought Britain to the brink, faced with a national downgrade - the first in Britain's history - and a daily(!) debt interest payment burden of £120 million on average; that's £1 Billion in interests every 9 days. That does not even reduce the overall debt yet. The financial effect of Labour on Britain is worse than WW2 had!

The Chancellor praised the courage and foresight of PM Cameron to depart from past government forming and to invite the LibDems to govern Britain in a coalition. Osborne's praise also included the leadership of the LibDems.



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Birmingham Conference & I

Conservative Party Conference 2010 -
Events planner for: La Chateau Euro
Sunday 3 October

18.00 ConservativeHome and the Canary Wharf Group
The ICC : Hall 1   -   Rally For Boris
Speakers : Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Refreshments available
19.30 CER, BNE & Open Europe
The ICC : Hall 8A  -  Is The Channel Wider Than The Atlantic?

Speakers : Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist - Financial Times (Chair); Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minister; John Bruton, Former Irish Prime Minister; Vicky Ford MEP, Member, East of England - European Parliament; Daniel Hannan MEP, Member, South East Region - European Parliament
Refreshments available
19.30 Social Market Foundation 
Hyatt Regency : Soprano  -  Whose recovery is it anyway? Public vs private sector jobs

Speakers : Ian Mulheirn, Director - Social Market Foundation (Chair); Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury; Oliver Letwin MP, Minister of State, Cabinet Office; Brendan Barber, General Secretary - TUC
Refreshments available

21.30 European Commission Rep in the UK
The ICC : Hall 7  -  European Commission in the UK - Reception
Speakers : Jonathan Scheele, Head of Representation - European Commission Rep in the UK
Refreshments available

William Hague raps Labour record

In a rousing speech to the opening session of the Conservative Conference in Birmingham, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State tore into the Blair/Brown administrations and their legacy of economic incompetence, Whitehall chaos, and nationwide demoralisation.


William Hague: "New Labour Is Dead" (Watch and read the speech):

Brummi

Off to Birmingham shortly, as part of a group of 16 delegates from London.

The highlight of the 4-day event is this evening at six: Boris Johnson speaks to us in Hall 1 at the ICC.

Books Re-Kindled

Hooray for Amazon!

Just before I left for Brussels I ordered my Kindle + nifty burgundy coloured protective cover. Just after my Saturday routine - lecturing and diagnosing some dimwits on AOL's Anglochat forum - I received the items by special delivery. At £198.00 it is 60% more expensive than in the US, but so worth it. Up to 3,500 books to download, and to be read anywhere, anytime; even on freshly polished and painted parkbenches. LOL

I am besides myself, digging my virtual heels into my latest gadget, which I will surely show off in the coming days in Brummi-Town. Why? Because I can! 

Nouvelle Marché

The new farmers' market at Elephant & Castle surely is an enrichment to quality of London living. Not far from the mega-mall where I love to hang out at anyway, it provides a welcome array of fresh fruit within my rollerblading radius. So I spent £36 on fruit and berries, something like a 'house-warming' gift to the newly established place, amongst the produce I bought were four baskets of golden(!) raspberries. I had to get used to the colour, but once put on top of some raspberry and lemon sorbet, it was even pleasant to look at. All gone, before you ask... lol

Survey

For the politically adroit there's a survey (please submit by 30 September):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=IfE_2fypwrA_2fI_2b20eDn1aBOA_3d_3d

Itinerary note

Brussels,
Sep 29-30

Birmingham,
October 3-6

York,
Oct 9+10

Cape Town,
Oct 18-28 (preliminary dates)

In thoughts...

The Prime Minister said today that "our troops did not die in vain" in their mission in Afghanistan. I know the good spirit in which such hollow words are spoken, and I understand why the PM has to say them publicly.

According to Tony Blair's book "A Journey" I also understand much better the circumstances that preceed such phrases. Sitting comfortably in an armchair near a cozy fireplace, brandy, whiskey or red wine in one hand, telephone receiver with a link to Washington in the other, the stark images of 'our' troops being torn to pieces, stabbed or hacked to death, shot or blown to bits by roadside bombs, all become blurry and abstract.

I do believe that the final judgement, whether a young person in his and her prime has died in a remote and desolate corner of the world not in vain, should rest with the family of the deceased. I am sure that, if given the chance, the victims would also slightly differ with politicians, who so graciously and with great grandeur, praise them for their unsuspected and usually unexpected fatal demise. Silence seems to be the most appropriate way to commemorate those who have fallen far from home and next of kin.

Sarkozy - Lost in Translation

Immigrant Sarkozy in Roma Deportation row
Even the EU Commission scolds the president

Politicians usually look most ridiculous when they are pushed into the defensive to grapple with proven accusations, and when they base their defence on made-up, worse accusations nobody has accused them of to begin with. Point in case: France's infamy of swooping onto Roma and Travellers' dwellings, round up the occupants, finger-print, strip-search and load them into busses in early morning raids. The alikeness of GESTAPO attacks on civilians under Nazi occupation did not escape the EU Commission, and the EU Commissioner of Justice Viviane Reding spoke up this week, clearly fed up with the lies and excuses vented from the French government.

Ms Reding referred to a leaked document from the French Interior Ministry in which local authorities are asked to specifically target Roma and Travellers - most of them French citizens - in a crackdown aimed to deport members of that ethnic group as expediently and secretly as possible. The commissioner lambasted the French leadership and condemned the fact that its members lied to the commission previously.

"This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War," she said. I didn't either. But France's Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche lamely responded that a plane ticket back to Romania or Bulgaria is not the same thing as death trains and gas chambers. Nobody said that, Mr Lellouche; but the valid parallel which was pointed out by Ms Reding was that once again an ethnic group has been singled out for mass persecution, ill treatment and deportation, just because they belonged to the "wrong" and unpleasant" and undesired ethnicity.

Mr Sarkozy, born as Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa in Budapest and only to become French citizen in 1970 after 20 years as a stateless vagabond merely by virtue of past service in the French Legion,  also waffled on about the inappropriateness to compare one wave of deportations with earlier ones in France. He then finished his tirade against the EU by mocking the Luxembourger Reding to open the tiny grand-duchy for the next wave of Roma refugees.

The crux of the matter is that around 14,000 Roma and Travellers have arrived in France since Romania and Bulgaria had to open their borders to ascend to the European Union. The ethnic minority is brutally surpressed and deprived of meaningful income in these countries and the flow of migrants intensified in recent years, mainly to Italy, France and Spain. The respective governments, in violation of EU law, continue the practice to deny members of the Roma and Travellers community with work permits despite the fact that they are European citizens as much as the Hungarian refugee Nicholas Sarkozy who, by a freak of coincidence, ended up as resident inside the Elysee Palace.

The state-sponsored discrimination and persecution of Roma and Travellers, who are French citizens mostly, needs to stop - even according to the EU commission at last. It would be helpful if the commission stepped up its cruisade for justice also in Spain, Italy, Hungary and Slovakia, where Gypsies are equally mistreated and deported to areas of Europe that remain to this day desolate, dilapitated, derelict and outright dangerous. 

On the eve of destruction

It is the eve of commemorating the monstrosity of 9-11-2001.

Spoiling the purity of honouring the many victims of Islamist terrorism is a little obscure man who leads a small sect of 15 members which only in the US would be recognised as a church.

The little hate-mongering man intends to burn copies of the Koran, in a rather idiotic and irrational demonstration of inarticulate protest over plans to build a mosque at the site of the 9-11 atrocity.

I am disappointed that neither President Obama nor his cabinet and military leaders cannot condemn outright this vitriolic act by an obscure buffoon in sunny Florida. They should not be concerned about the publicity fiasco and the heightened danger to US servicemen abroad, but chastise the act of a dimwitted renegade anarchist, a criminal by intent, a self-described pastor of the Christian Right, as an outrageously wrong and sinister and vile act. Not the least because it soils and tramples on the respect we pay to the many victims of 9-11.

I oppose the erection of the mosque in New York, but I also deny that the intended criminal act by a Florida pastor to be a legitimate form of protest. It is immoral and blasphemic, and a collective insult of 1.5 Billion people who chose Islam as their vocation for redemption.

As an agnostic I find any violent act in the name of a god a very earthly criminal offence. Burning books invokes memories of a dictatorial regime that started burning books and ended up burning people. I expect representatives of the US to apprehend and neutralise now this miserable cretin in sunny Florida.  

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BJ for London

Boris Johnson declared this morning that he will run again for the nation's most powerful position after that of prime minister. It was the main prerequisite for me to quit banking and shift to City Hall. Now that the cat is out of the sack it means to devote the next few months to the re-election campaign to make London the best city in the world and to assure a smooth run of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Good move from there...

Boris pinned the Conservatives' top brass against the wall in arduous budget talks in the past few weeks, leaving all major projects for London's future intact and - more importantly - fully funded. With nearly £35 Billion at stake, Chancellor George Osborne had to grind his teeth and grudgingly sign off on the transfers to our coffers. Cough cough...

... to here:

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Thames Festival

The Thames Festival in London

This weekend the Thames Festival takes place in London, with main events along the river from noon to 10pm between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge, on or beside the river.

Cleverly turning the fact that shorter, darker, colder days will be our lot for months to come into a convincing cause for celebration, the festival will culminate on Sunday for a night carnival, and concludes with a firework display from a barge on the river between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge. I will be there on both evenings.

Classic vessels with a connection to the river and its arteries, including Thames barges and an oyster smack, are moored in St Katharine Docks for this vintage boat show, with dockside entertainment, nautical games such as a 'Row of War' and boat-building demonstrations. I will be at the Thistles Saturday night.

To hell with the euro

Leave Europe while you can -
'Leaders' begin to look for scapegoats

Ten years ago navel-gazing EU officials boasted to the world that a new currency will emerge within a decade to become the new global reserve currency of choice, replacing the Greenback. Reminiscent to German leaders in the past, these premature boasts of a "Thousand Year Currency Reich" imploded merely 12 years later: the European Union, especially the eurozone, is a clique of defunct and disillusioned national entities, adrift without vision, legitimacy or plan. The sinkhole of ever rising debt, uncontrolled public spending, mass unemployment and virtually bankrupt, Europeans begin to look for scapegoats, with minorities taking the brunt of the inarticulate rancour of neo-fascists, from Hungary to France, and Germany to the southern tip of Italy.

But the fact is that the obsessive introduction of the euro, which was heaped on unsuspecting and duped citizens by their respective fuehrers - regardless whether they were bunkered in Berlin or Paris - is to blame for the doomsday scenario today. As eurozone members drown in debt, caused by the wrong belief that "together we are too strong to fail" it becomes clear that this theory went out the window fast, once reality hit. When Greece hit the headlines in late Spring that its $530 billion debt put the nation within hours of a declaration of bankruptcy, hastily arranged credit lines from fellow members saved the day. Quick credit checks within the European Union revealed that six other member states are in similar conditions of disrepair. Credit lines thrown in by supposedly wealthier states had the opposite effect as intended: instead of soothing jittery markets, the mere revelation of the extent of the dire financial state caused panic and grave concern, as creditors are now threatened to be dragged down by the sheer size of the mountain of debt accumulated by irresponsible regimes in Athens, Rome, Madrid, Brussels, Budapest and Lisbon in the past.

It leaves a populace in Europe dumbfounded today. How could leaders be elected who deliberately and methodically hauled the continent into a financial desaster similar to the (monetary) cost of World War II: capital and wealth of $1.4 Trillion has been destroyed since the introduction of the euro as common currency. At least one generation - like the one in post-war Europe - will suffer and repay for the poor decisions of the preceeding ten years. In Britain the situation is so bleak that towns begin to turn off the lights at night in order to "save money." The real state of affairs could not be demonstrated in any starker terms.

Europe is - literally - a dying continent. The demoscopics show that for more than 20 years more of its citizens die than are born. The mortality gap, which
bodes catastrophic for securing pensions in 25 years from now, is only partly cushioned by outside immigration. The endemic xenophobia and open hostility towards foreigners make European countries already a dangerous and life-threatening option for migrant workers. But this openly flagrant racism does not even stop towards its own citizens, as the forced state-sponsored expatriation of hundreds of Roma from France has shown. Had France observed some simple Gypsy rules, namely not to spend fortunes that haven't been earned yet, France would not be in such demise, unable to provide for its pensioners. The expelled Roma, who were rounded up at night in brutal police raids and evicted from their homes in the process, were whisked to the airport and hurridly shipped out against their will to Romania where they await more brutality and dangers. The fate of the Gypsies, Europeans and often more French citizens than the Hungarian refugee-become-president Sarkozy, is a showcase for European racism and firmly engrained prejudice.

It is curious to hear Europeans muse over "American arrogance, pride before the fall of an empire," while they are already halfway on the slide to hell.

France condemned by EU Parliament
EU Commission accused of conspiracy to discriminate Roma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11243923

Condolences

Sadly, Mr Ian Cameron has died today after suffering a stroke this morning. Our office was informed at 9 this morning that the Prime Minister has left for southern France to be at his father's bedside.

My condolences to David and his family; we were keenly aware of the towering and inspirational role his father has played in the PM's life, and the physical handicaps he had to endure in life, which did not stop Ian Cameron to become a wealthy and successful stockbroker.

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Poop on Pope

The strike is on, the tube(s) are clamped. Naturally my line is most affected, so I left an hour early and went home by cab. I strongly believe that strikers of London Transport should be shot or hanged with piano wires; their walk-out is frivolous and crippling the city. Bastardos to the gallows!

Another gullible topic is the pending visit of the pope here.

The first ever papal state visit to Britain will commence on September 16. An online poll of 2,005 people, published this week also on BBC, found that 79% had "no personal interest" in the visit. The survey by think tank Theos also found 77% thought that taxpayers should not help pay for it. Count me in on that number.

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has now said it is right that UK taxpayers should help pay for the Pope's trip to Britain. Critics are angry that up to £12m is to come from the public purse. But Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols told the BBC it would be a "sad day" when the UK "closes its doors and says we can't afford state visits". He muses that "It was right the taxpayer and the Church shared the bill because the Pope was coming at the invitation of the government. It is a state visit, and the day that this country closes its doors and says we can't afford state visits is a very sad day because it would be a real gesture of isolationism," he said.

That logic in mind I support dispursing of public funds for the state visit of His Wholeness of Vatican State; but with not one Dime beyond what London has paid for heads of state of similar proportions, such as Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein.

Current Music (Spotify enhanced): Dirty Stop Out – Tie Me Up