Archive for December, 2008

(Old site, 2003-2006)

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In English terms, this blog loves this country, and it just wishes its politicians would somehow always remember that Britain is where our modern, free world truly began. Not Brussels. (Actually, to be more precise, just south of Brussels, where Wellington had thumped a certain well-known continental who was also in favor of "European union".)

In political U.S. terms, this blog is disgruntled Democrat turned Republican, slightly right of what is now deemed "center" -- but admits still to possessing moments of weakness for the rapidly vanishing Democratic party that helped win WWII and the Cold War. (Then again, finding oneself "right of center" is not difficult nowadays, given that according to what one sees of much U.S. political discourse, even a Castro -- and Hillary Clinton -- are apparently now rather rightist, and merely attending church weekly gets one labelled "Ker-ris-chan". Eeeeyou! Not one of those!)

A Dirty Martini (UK)
Ambush Predator (UK)
Consul At Arms (US)
Dock Green (UK)
El Té de las Cinco (Spain)
Hermann (US/Germany)
Iberian Notes (US/Spain)
Israel Matzav (US/Israel)
Judson’s Corral (US)
Laban Tall (UK)
Letters From A Tory (UK)
Lisa's (New) Place (US)
London Crackers (US/UK)
Mark Humphrys (Ireland)
Maurizio - Omnologos (UK)
Metrolingua (US)
Midnight Blue (US)
¡No Pasarán! (US/France)
Over The Water (UK/US)
Pub Philosopher (UK)
Robert Duncan (US)
Sam Tarran (UK)
Shield of Achilles (US)
Sister Toldjah (US)
Throwing Bullets (US)
TigerHawk (US)
Unenlightened Commentary (UK)
Viking Pundit (US)
What's That Smell? (US/UK)
Wind Rose Hotel (US/Italy)

AtlanticCrossings@mail.com.

This writer sure as heck doesn't know everything -- unlike the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, who obviously does -- so disagreement is expected. For up to 90 days after a post, comments may be offered. (After that, well, that's that. Blogs are also about timeliness, remember. If one has to draw a line somewhere, 3 months sounds reasonable.)

Thus well-expressed alternative views and interpretations are more than welcome, for that's how we all learn more in this life. Which means that vulgar and/or obscene comments will probably be deleted. So please phrase all abuse politely, and if in doubt refrain from any colorful metaphors and get thee to a thesaurus.

If you have never commented before, please note there may be a delay of however long before your comment appears. It is merely being held for first-time approval.

Afterwards, assuming you follow the modest guidelines above, your comments appear immediately.

Please, be calm. The campaign is over. There will be another one in 2012. This blog will not encourage any "Obama Derangement Syndrome."

We made our arguments badly and we lost. He is now our president. Support him when he needs supporting, and criticize him reasonably when he deserves criticism.

'...For the first time in my life, I felt comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide, how it could carry an entire history in other people's memories, so that they might nod and say knowingly, "Oh, you are so and so's son." No one here in Kenya would ask how to spell my name, or mangle it with an unfamiliar tongue. My name belonged and so I belonged, drawn into a web of relationships, alliances and grudges that I did not yet understand...'

President Barack H. Obama, "Dreams From My Father."

[Also, there was that time the Wife strode into a London meeting hosted by a group of Italian businessmen, who, having seen her name on the list, but not having seen her previously, were taken aback by the height and red hair, when she walked in.

That troubling identity crisis at last resolved to the world's satisfaction, yours truly can now obviously be president also.]

'I was asked the other day by a well dressed frenchman whether my province (for he took the United States to be a mere province) was not a great wine country and whether it was not in the neighborhood of Turkey or somewhere there about! Another time I was accosted by a French officer "vous etes Anglais monsieur" said he--"Pardonnez moi" replied I "Je suis des Etats Unis d'Amerique"--"Eh bien--c'est la même chose"!'

Washington Irving, 1804.

"But we love the Old Travelers. We love to hear them prate and drivel and lie. We can tell them the moment we see them. They always throw out a few feelers; they never cast themselves adrift till they have sounded every individual and know that he has not traveled. Then they open their throttle valves, and how they do brag, and sneer, and swell, and soar, and blaspheme the sacred name of Truth! Their central idea, their grand aim, is to subjugate you, keep you down, make you feel insignificant and humble in the blaze of their cosmopolitan glory! They will not let you know anything. They sneer at your most inoffensive suggestions; they laugh unfeelingly at your treasured dreams of foreign lands; they brand the statements of your traveled aunts and uncles as the stupidest absurdities; they deride your most trusted authors and demolish the fair images they have set up for your willing worship with the pitiless ferocity of the fanatic iconoclast! But still I love the Old Travelers. I love them for their witless platitudes, for their supernatural ability to bore, for their delightful asinine vanity, for their luxuriant fertility of imagination, for their startling, their brilliant, their overwhelming mendacity!"

Mark Twain, in "The Innocents Abroad."

1 In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down grade.

2 Church work and church attendance mean the cultivation of the habit of feeling responsibility for others.

3 There are enough holidays for most of us. Sundays differ from other holidays in the fact that there are fifty-two of them every year. Therefore, on Sundays go to church.

4 Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that one can worship the Creator in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in a man's own house as well as in church. But I also know, as a matter of cold fact, that the average man does not thus worship.

5 He may not hear a good sermon at church. He will hear a sermon by a good man who, whith his wife, is engaged all of the week in making hard lives a little easier.

6 He will listen to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if he is not familiar with the Bible he has suffered a loss.

7 He will take part in the singing of some good hymns.

8 He will meet and nod or speak to good, quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling a little more charitable toward all the world, even toward those excessively foolish young men who regard churchgoing as a soft performance.

9 I advocate a man's joining in church work for the sake of showing his faith by his works.

Fake Charities.org

Look up the "public service" British "charity" you just noticed was cited in media, and see if it really is a "charity," or is actually a state-funded mouthpiece.

Bournemouth Daily Echo
Dorset Echo
Devon 24
Dorset Police News
Isle of Wight County Press
Jersey Evening Post
Mid-Devon Star
Portsmouth Today
Southampton Echo
This is Hampshire
Western Gazette