Whatsthatsmell?

A tribute to the Troops (US bias...)

Must see...as they say, freedom ain't free...(h/t to my Dad)

It's a sad state of affairs when...

one finds oneself humming Skrewdriver songs to oneself after reading certain news items.

Now look, what a sick society, look back in time...
Now look, what a sick society, you commit the crime...

There are a few basic things wrong with the scenario in the first place...Why the hell are military wounded getting therapy in a public pool rather than a dedicated MOD facility?

Why the hell weren't the women who were complaining asked to leave by the council workers?

I don't give a f*** who paid to use the facilities...give them a refund.  Get them out of there.  If it wasn't for men better than them willing to go out and lose their limbs on their behalf, there probably wouldn't be a public pool to use.

Even better was that it took place two days after Remembrance Day.

Accompanying said article in the print edition of the Mail the other day was an article about Gordon Brown declaring that the Military will have to compete with hospitals and schools to justify its existence.

Thus it is that the final nails have been driven in the coffin of British greatness.  Gordon Brown has relegated the UK's identity as a political entity to that of a second-rate region of the EU.

We were the country that had everything
We were the country "Rule Britannia" we would sing
We were the country and we could never lose
Once a nation, and now, we're run by fools
We want our country back now...

By the Way - Happy Thanksgiving, all...

I am grateful for America, and for being an American, and a Brit, and for the bounty that I have been given.

And for the first time in a long time, I am really missing Thanksgiving Day, which I haven't celebrated in well over 10 years, I think.

Ignorance and Freedom vs. Education and Slavery, Part II

Carrying on from my earlier e-mail conversation with my friend.

He replied, tongue-in-cheek, with two salient points:

you’re saying ignorant bliss is preferable to educated slavery. Both, very poor options, no? The problem with freedom-loving yokels is that you can give them any facts at all and they can’t fight it except on whether it “feels” right or not. The people interviewed mostly seemed switched off in almost all socio-political issues (ask them about sport or entertainment and you might get a different reaction) which is open season for the unethical or even well-intentioned leader with an agenda.

and

I mean Vietnam too! Apart from when you guys stepped in at the end of WWII has the US actually “won” a war it got itself involved in (forget Hollywood please)?

What follows is my reply:

How to Be Right

Yesterday was my birthday and the wife bought me the book How to Be RIght: The Essential Guide to Making Lefy Liberals History by James Delingpole

It is an amusing glossary of all that is wrong with the UK and the world.  Very funny.  One definition that jumped out at me last night as I was reading, really hit home (as I used to be just like this):

Ignorance and Freedom vs. Education and Slavery

A very dear English friend of mine who lives in Portugal sent me this link.  I'm sure you have probably seen it before.  He asked me what I thought of it, and how it made him think that maybe having the voting franchise extended to everyone in the US may not necessarily be a good idea.  He wanted my reply because he knew he could count on something out of me...So here it is:

Someone was shooting off...

fireworks last night...

That is soooo two weeks ago.

And I am suffering from yet another virus/infection...Woke up with a sore ear, throat, and head, spent most of the day in bed, again.   This is getting old.

This Week's Word

Turducken

I have been going around the house mortifying the wife and the mother-in-law with the concept as a possible Christmas dinner.

Philistines.

John McClane as a Metaphor for America?

From Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free or Die Hard in the US):

"You know what you get for being a hero? Nothing. You get shot at. A little pat on the back, blah blah blah, attaboy. You get divorced. Your wife can't remember your last name. Kids don't wanna talk to you. Get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me kid, nobody wants to be that guy."

I don't have the exact follow-up quote, but when the character is asked why he continues to be a hero he said something to the effect that "If I don't, no one else will."

On the Shoulders of Giants (Reprise)

This year, for Veterans/Remembrance Day, I shall be going to a service at the Findon Valley Free Church as a friend of mine who goes there tells me they'll have a piper and a trumpeter there.  Really looking forward to it.

In honour of it being that time of year again, I thought I would reprise one of my own favourite posts ever, which I wrote last year (by the way, buy yourself a poppy):

Yesterday morning the wife, the daughter, and I were down in town, and it just so happened that the mayor was presiding over an act of remembrance at the war memorial in front of the town hall in honour of Armistice/Veterans’ Day.

Whilst waiting for it to begin, my eyes were caught by the following poem (hat tip to Steve for publishing it):

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Well, once my eyes were caught, they started leaking like no one’s business, and my daughter jumped up and gave me a big hug, her little hands patting my back.