Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[burgundy]

14 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Inevitably press references to 'last stand' puts me in mind of the fall of the Kabul Residency in 1879.  It is an event marked by the same sort of treachery that the Taliban is currently engaged in (fair words the West wants to hear coupled with fouls deeds that give the lie to them).

 

When the most recent campaign in Afghanistan began, the then Defence Secretary, John Reid (everyone remember him?) commented that he hoped that we would go in without a shot being fired. 

A military colleague, with a better understanding of history, remarked to me that the score so far was 3 - 0 to them and he wondered what would be different this time.  

Best wishes 

Eric 

[Nearholmer]

Here’s what the newspaper aimed at ten year old’s that pops through our letterbox every week has to say.

 

Clearly put, and possibly of use to government ministers.

 

 

However, the rules of the game oblige us to be there in some capacity, to limit the chances of Russia or China being there decisively. “Trade and Aid” might be a far better idea that what’s been tried so far.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

I anticipate what will happen is the same as happened before. For the moment the Taliban will be in charge, but as time passes the non-Pashtun tribal areas will begin to assert themselves and we will see a fall back to the old tribalism that existed during the Mujahedeen period and continued into the previous Taliban period. Then we'll be back to square one as usual in Afghanistan. Next time we might like to try simple diplomacy and not an invasion. 

[alastairq]

But....exactly who do we talk to, or deal with?

 

I think we, as a ''western'' nation, are to blame, not just for the situation in Afghan, but for even financing the Taliban as well.

It is known the Taliban financed their operations using the drugs trade [nothing new there then?]

But, if it wasn't for countries like the UK, with the financially-comfortable young things who like to indulge themselves in 'recreational' drug taking [not forgetting recreational alcohol abuse?]...creating a huge market for drugs in the first place, then folk like the Taliban would be in a struggling situation.

 

The big mistake we made [as a western influence] {IMVHO} is to make more affluent a 'ruling' elite in Kabul, leading to inevitable corruption [the place couldn't run without corruption]...So maybe throwing money at the plot isn't such a good idea in the long term?

 

I think the world will end up with another Iran, the way things are going? Without the  missiles?

The Mullahs have taken power yet again...

[Edwardian]

10 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 

I think the world will end up with another Iran, the way things are going? Without the  missiles?

The Mullahs have taken power yet again...

 

Plus ça change.  Just as the original ISIS was the Mahdist State 1885-1898 in North Africa, for the original 'Mad Mullah', see the Afghan border at the same period. So far as I know, this was when that phrase was coined.  The 'Mad Mullah' manage to preach a Jihad that temporarily united a number of tribes in a general rising in 1897 along the North-West Frontier that posed a significant threat, and which required significant military intervention based on defeating the Enemy in the field, but recognising that you could never kill or capture enough of them, or hold their ground, thus you had to damage them enough for them to cease attacking you, whilst you inevitably sustained many of your casualties on your withdrawal.  

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

As Kabul is generally recognised by the Afghans of whatever tribal affiliation as the capitol then establish an embassy and just deal with whoever is in charge. That's  the general way most things in the diplomatic arena work. The Mujahedeen regime that the Taliban defeated was quite corrupt at all levels, but in most parts of the world corruption is just part of the game. The secret is to allow just enough to dribble down to the people so they don't get too jealous.

 

Overall though we tend to forget that the Taliban were welcomed by many Afghans when they took power back in the 1990s. Islamic values are very strong in these tribal societies and I think that we in the West tend to model our perceptions on the behaviour of governments in Turkey, Indonesia or Egypt for instance which are very secular and ignore the fact that many Islamic countries are far less secular.  We have managed to deal without recourse to invasion with Saudi Arabia which makes the Taliban look almost dissolute by comparison. The difference being the Saudis have oil so we're happy to forgive their little judicial quirks and treatment of women. 

 

The Afghans however, as we are becoming increasingly aware, are sitting on a lot of very valuable minerals, which is why China is interested, apart from deterring the Afghans from stirring up their Uighur problem. Only the monumental disarray of Afghan governments for the last 60 odd years has prevented the western mining companies trying to work there. So instead of behaving like headless chooks over this less than unexpected turn of events I'd suggest, if I had the say so, that we forget our wounded pride and think like the avaricious western capitalists we are - that's what we have always done. Re-establish diplomatic relations and do a bit of diplomatic grovelling - after all we all know that it's just for show and we might start making a return on the effort. 

[rocor]

20 hours ago, Regularity said:

Where's that "scared to death*" icon when you need it?

 

* I am aware of the irony here: they aren't scared, but they may soon be dead.

 

Unfortunately, many can not be presented with a Darwin Award, as they are of an age where procreation has already taken place. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, is 47 years old and has given birth to 3 children.

[webbcompound]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Yes, but one of the, to my mind, odd facet of the US religious right is how supportive it is of the State of Israel,

You have to get inside the heads of the nutters to work this one out, but there is this curious strand we've touched on before that seems to go back to the historic curiosity of British Israelism 

 

British Israelism is just benign eccentricity compared to the real reason the US Evangelical right wing support Israel. They believe that the "End Times" and preceding "Rapture" will be brought about by a final conflict which begins at Armageddon (which as we all know is Megiddo in Israel) and so supporting a clearly destabilising Middle East policy is just part of the game. They don't see Israel as a natural ally. They see it as the place where the end of the world happens. The following is from an article published in October 2020.

 

According to surveys 42% of Americans believe that the 38th Chapter of the Book of Ezekial fortells that  a “place in the far north” (interpreted, naturally, to be Russia) would team up with “many nations” (certainly including Iraq and Iran) to attack a “peaceful and unsuspecting” Israel. This would lead to a cosmic battle in which God would come to Israel’s defense, true Christians would be “raptured,” or spirited away to heaven, and the wicked of the Earth would be left to suffer the trials and tribulations of God’s wrath during a horrific seven-year period when the Antichrist would reign supreme and a totalitarian world government called the New World Order would be established. Finally, Jesus and his raptured church would return, vanquishing the Antichrist and ushering in a thousand-year golden age, at the end of which Satan would be permanently defeated and all Christians would live in glory in a newly created heaven and Earth.

 

The polices pursued by the Trump administration were all part of this belierf system. For those not steeped in rapture theology, the decisions to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen Qasem Soleimani may have seemed risky at best, nihilistic at worst — potentially destabilizing acts with little geopolitical upside. Yet many fundamentalist evangelicals rejoiced.

[alastairq]

This is what is wrong with our Government!

 

It's all in the wrong hands!...[I just knew there was something untrustworthy with Tony Blair, et al!]

 

 

[Edwardian]

5 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

British Israelism is just benign eccentricity compared to the real reason the US Evangelical right wing support Israel. They believe that the "End Times" and preceding "Rapture" will be brought about by a final conflict which begins at Armageddon (which as we all know is Megiddo in Israel) and so supporting a clearly destabilising Middle East policy is just part of the game. They don't see Israel as a natural ally. They see it as the place where the end of the world happens. The following is from an article published in October 2020.

 

Not so sure that a movement that has tended to fabricate support for a white supremacist view based on anglo-saxon particularism can be regarded as particularly benign, though the fact that it's head-quartered in Bishop Auckland, a place undeservedly down at heel, suggests to me that these days it doesn't amount to much.  

 

Anyway, I was trying to account for origins of bonkers beliefs in the minds of more dangerous numpties in the US, so I think we agree there.   

 

5 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

According to surveys 42% of Americans believe that the 38th Chapter of the Book of Ezekial fortells that  a “place in the far north” (interpreted, naturally, to be Russia) would team up with “many nations” (certainly including Iraq and Iran) to attack a “peaceful and unsuspecting” Israel. This would lead to a cosmic battle in which God would come to Israel’s defense, true Christians would be “raptured,” or spirited away to heaven, and the wicked of the Earth would be left to suffer the trials and tribulations of God’s wrath during a horrific seven-year period when the Antichrist would reign supreme and a totalitarian world government called the New World Order would be established. Finally, Jesus and his raptured church would return, vanquishing the Antichrist and ushering in a thousand-year golden age, at the end of which Satan would be permanently defeated and all Christians would live in glory in a newly created heaven and Earth.

 

Well, it all seems to be going to plan so far.

 

Mind you, I hear the Templars are really p1ssed off at being left out of this one.

 

 

5 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

The polices pursued by the Trump administration were all part of this belierf system. For those not steeped in rapture theology, the decisions to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen Qasem Soleimani may have seemed risky at best, nihilistic at worst — potentially destabilizing acts with little geopolitical upside. Yet many fundamentalist evangelicals rejoiced.

 

Oh no, you were doing so well, but now you seem to have stepped into some sort of Escher drawing of conspiracy theories!

 

 

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, rocor said:

 

Unfortunately, many can not be presented with a Darwin Award, as they are of an age where procreation has already taken place. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, is 47 years old and has given birth to 3 children.

Aren't all the fundamentalists also creationists to whom Darwin is a heretic who should have been publicly burned at the stake!

 

Jim

[rocor]

21 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

In some papers this morning, there were noises that the proposed booster-vac due for all over 60s from next month is to be scaled back to the initial "vulnerable groups", with no timetable for the rest of the over-60 cohort, which is not good news.  There is also no mood music getting out about the importance of getting a flu jab from next month either.  It was mentioned a month or so ago, but given the attention span of those keen to get their "holidays", and their cheerleaders in the popular press, its been well forgotten.

 

 

 

I happily trotted along to get my 2 Covid jabs, and would have no opposition to getting a winter booster. A flu jab is another matter. As far as I can remember, I have never had the flu, plenty of colds, no flu. In the past I commuted into London on the Southeastern's (that is the modern reincarnation, not the pre-grouping  SECR)  cattle trucks, which would be packed tightly with diseased anthropoid beast. Still never managed to contract flu though.  In recent years I receive an annual invitation, from my local health centre for the flu jab. To which I demur. 

 

This leaves me feeling very ambivalent towards the flu jab.

 

[Nearholmer]

"Proper 'Flu" is a strange  thing. I had it in 1968, then not again until towards the end of 2010, despite crowded train and tube commuting from 1976 onwards, so its clearly not that easy to catch.

 

But, the 2010 episode had a long tail.

 

The actual 'flu only knocked me down for about a week, but it initiated some craziness in my immune system, which slowly, and very subtly, set off an auto-immune response. It took about six months for this "thing" to be noticable, mainly through getting tired really easily, then losing weight, and getting strange heart responses (sudden excursions to 200bpm with light exercise; palpitations). 12 months on, and I was 15kg lighter (I weighed 60kg, at 1.8m tall, so looked like a cadaver), still losing 1kg a month despite eating like a glutton, and totally kn@ckered, although I didnt take a single day off work with it (winter weekends I was sleeping all afternoon, most saturdays and sundays though).

 

The Doc looked terrified, and wouldn't express her suspicions to me, but all power to her, because when tests of every conceivable thing came back "normal", she commissioned yet more tests, some of them repeats. Upshot, c15 months from the 'flu, was a diagnosis that required no more than some very cheap pills at low dose to "reset" my system. They began to work almost instantaneously, but it took a further c18 months to recover weight and stamina, and be off the pills altogether.

 

So, I do now accept 'flu jabs, on a "potential consequences", rather than "probability of catching it" basis.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

44 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Aren't all the fundamentalists also creationists to whom Darwin is a heretic who should have been publicly burned at the stake!

 

Jim

 

Yes, fundamentalists are often creationalists who don't believe in Darwin.  That explains why they have not evolved!

 

[alastairq]

58 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

"Proper 'Flu" is a strange  thing. I had it in 1968, then not again until towards the end of 2010,

I caught what turned out to be Mexican or swine, flu at that time.  I remember having to telephone an NHS number, and a box of Tamiflu was posted through my letterbox.

This, the day before Xmas Eve, too. Not surprising I caught it, given that where-I-worked, a lot of unhealthy individuals were crammed in together in close proximity. These unhealthy individuals refused point blank to report 'sick' as they wanted to be out of the establishment toot sweet.

Anyway, I reacted adversely to tamiflu. Managed to speak to my own GP on Boxing day.who told me not to bother with them. It lasted about 2 weeks...living on one's own meant I could not simply 'retire' to bed.  Since I was on leave at the time, that had to be cancelled , to go on the 'sick'....but with it being deffo the mexican bug, I stayed [legitimately] away from work [on full pay]until the end of February. The establishment learnt to 'do without me'....A struggle really, as so many of my co-workers[colleagues, etc] were off sick with it at the same time....and since it was a recognised bug, and the establishment was unable to do anything about limiting its transmission, the 'sick' didn't count towards my normal quota for the year.

 

Since then, despite the best efforts off various types of flu, I haven't caught a damned thing....not really even a cold,either.

So I declined an offers of a flu jab. {Since the flu jab is likely to give one a mild dose of whatever the variety-of-the-year happens to be, I don't see the point in poking the wasps nest!}

 

PS..I wonder if the Taliban have all had their two jabs?  If not, nature may d the job for us?

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by alastairq

[Annie]

Over 25 years ago I came down with the 'flu.  I don't know what variety it was, but it absolutely hammered me.  Before this I'd had a medical problem which was bl00dy painful and needed surgery and it was a good month before I got my turn on the table and went under the knife.  The surgery was completely successful, but I was in such a worn down state in the aftermath that I utterly crashed.  In the following weeks and then months I had no energy or motivation for anything.  My GP diagnosed me with post-viral syndrome and then eventually Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  It's an auto-immune  illness, but I'm awfully glad I didn't get what Kevin had because that sounds downright awful.

It took a very long time for me to recover from CFS and sometimes when I'm having a not so good time it will come bouncing back, - 'Hey remember me!'  So as you might expect I go and get a 'flu jab every year since my immune system is not exactly the best anymore and getting trashed by the 'flu is absolutely no fun.

[webbcompound]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Oh no, you were doing so well, but now you seem to have stepped into some sort of Escher drawing of conspiracy theories!

 

thats the problem with this stuff isn't it. Sane people like us can't believe it. Here is a straight report from Time about the connection between the Evangelical right and the presidency. https://time.com/4766485/national-day-prayer-white-house-dinner/

 

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by webbcompound

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Yes, fundamentalists are often creationalists who don't believe in Darwin.  That explains why they have not evolved!

 

A soupçon of Lamarckism lurks ironically within that observation…

[Regularity]

8 hours ago, Edwardian said:

HMG had managed to grant 30,000 temporary seasonal agricultural worker visas so that EU nationals can come over and pick our crops for us. 

Wasn’t that why we left the EU?

Oh no, it was because they liked it here enough to stay.

As Angus Deayton once said on HIGNFY, “Poles have a lot in common with the British: they eat a lot of meat, drink a lot of alcohol, and they don’t want to be in Poland…”

[webbcompound]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Oh no, you were doing so well, but now you seem to have stepped into some sort of Escher drawing of conspiracy theories!

 

Unfortunately not. https://religionnews.com/2018/05/14/some-christians-and-jews-hail-embassy-move-to-jerusalem-as-key-to-a-biblical-plan/

 

[rocor]

23 minutes ago, Regularity said:

A soupçon of Lamarckism lurks ironically within that observation…

 

A co-worker in a company that I worked at, once indicated to me a small deformity in one of his earlobes, and claimed that he had inherited it, because his father, as a boy, had been bitten in his ear by a rat. 

[Regularity]

9 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Hamilton's statue does not offend me. What offends me is that Jewand Singh does not have a statue in the former capital of Empire, that there is no memorial to the garrison in the UK.  I would retrospectively re-write the rules and award them all VCs. 

Another lovely post, and that is a great point, well-put.

Reminds me of a conversation with a well-meaning left-leaning social studies teacher about mixed-ability classes vs. streaming/setting, during which it transpired that the overall effect (due to a lack of understanding over regression to the mean, and an over simplification of the concept that only if every child gets the best education for them, can every child “succeed”) was to dumb things down, if anything. 
So, instead of celebrating Jewand Singh as well as Hamilton, we praise neither. To me, that’s the problem with excessive woke thinking: ignore history by whitewashing (chosen on purpose) over the defects and errors of the past, and it will be forgotten as will the lessons from it.

Presumably because we are nominally a Christian country, we should demand the destruction of, for example, the Coliseum in Rome, as it was built before the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and was used to sacrifice and torture early Christians?

 

Looking at the Cameron and Johnson leaderships of the Conservative Party, the idea is much simpler: if your family did well enough to be able to afford Eton, then their wealth should be rewarded on your behalf, and everyone else dumbed down.

 

 

[rocor]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Presumably because we are nominally a Christian country, we should demand the destruction of, for example, the Coliseum in Rome, as it was built before the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and was used to sacrifice and torture early Christians?

 

 

 

 

 

On the basis of the actions of some religious (and a few fanatical secular ones) fundamentalist throughout the World during the past century, it is possibly not a good idea to present Christian ones with destructive ideas.

Edited August 21, 2021 by rocor
The wrong box grommet.

[alastairq]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

because we are nominally a Christian country,

 In itself perhaps now an anomaly?

Given C of E bleatings around falling attendances, etc in church....I get the feeling we live in a new world of hypocrisy.

Surely our churches should be full to bursting every Sunday, given the sheer number of people posting on social media, whereby the first thing they utter is OMG?  **

It follows then that if so many people feel the need to invoke God [their God]...either hypocrisy reigns supreme amongst social media-ites [like the medonites, but less hairy?]....or the church isn't doing enough to capitalise on this outpouring of religious belief..?

 

** No, I don't believe the exclamation refers to ''Oh My Giddy-Aunt''....

[CKPR]

1 hour ago, rocor said:

Presumably because we are nominally a Christian country,

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by CKPR