tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post8856426604895883547..comments2024-03-18T21:17:01.996+00:00Comments on call me ishmael: LABOUR'S STARS ASCENDcall me ishmaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-62182052335432577742017-07-09T11:41:30.253+01:002017-07-09T11:41:30.253+01:00Thanks indeed.
I also used to own three expensive ...Thanks indeed.<br />I also used to own three expensive watches, a Fortis pilot's watch, a limited edition RLT and a Zenith. The Zenith I dropped onto a tiled floor at the swimming pool and it broke.<br />I sold the other two and now wear Casio's cheapest digital watch, the F91. Now I own the watch, not the other way round, there is the beautiful absence of concern on the occasions when it falls or gets scratched.<br />I remember going to Scotland on my £120 East German motorcycle and watching a guy with a new Triumph literally dancing round his bike in an agony of fear lest it be scratched by the crew strapping it to the deck. <br />I've since philosophised about this and with a few exceptions - tools, shoes, etc - have gone the Way of the Bic or, as with the watch, the nearest equivalent.<br />A serviceable pen, lighter, and razors for a month's use for fifteen minute's pay.<br />And my current bike, a scooter, cost a measly £50 which is probably less than the equivalent weight of firewood. A piece of crap? It's faster than a racehorse.<br />-richard<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-84522924907080507772017-07-04T19:46:50.135+01:002017-07-04T19:46:50.135+01:00Was there a time, mr mongoose, when the involvemen...Was there a time, mr mongoose, when the involvement of the Press, didn't make matters worse? They are vermin, aren't they, the proprietors, editors and hacks, and always have been; some, the odd one, has a pleasing sensibility and a graceful turn of phrase but they are no worse and no bettter than any whore walking the street, well, probably quite a bit worse. Would we, for instance, have had the First and thus the Second World War had the Press not been owned by arseholes?call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-87869461764587771102017-07-04T12:24:54.716+01:002017-07-04T12:24:54.716+01:00You failed, mr dick, to pay proper attention to pr...You failed, mr dick, to pay proper attention to prime minister Gordon Snot, when he explained to us that money for wars, weapons and nuclear power plants isn't like other money, it's Contingency Money, from out of the Contingency Vault, a vault which never empties but cannot be withdrawn-from for silly things, like wages, or houses or health care.<br /><br />Here, a full tenth of a per cent of the populace speaks Pikey and just under one per cent have expressed an interest in learning so to do and yet millions of infratsructure pounds are spent on broadcasting the filthy fucking doggerel and on road, street and public building signage.<br /><br />I am disgusted, incidentally, at Manchester University - is there such a thing ? - for engaging the services of the infamous Russian-funded Bukkake Boy, George Osborne; have they no shame, the universities, is celebrity everything. Poor old Germain Greer, at least she's half-way educated, and she gets banned by the LGBTQers - who actually owe her more than they can imagine - Osborne, on the other hand, the Bankers' Fellatrix is hailed by Northern Academe. call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-63831330625564519272017-07-04T12:12:42.919+01:002017-07-04T12:12:42.919+01:00We have discussed archery here, previously, mr bun...We have discussed archery here, previously, mr bungalow bill, Zen in the Art of..... and as a means of legal self-defence, against the nomadic caliphate, the New People or the cops, whoever. The Welsh-English longbowman's ghost must be shrivelled at the thought of languid French bureaucrats threatening to punish us for our independence of thought. To quote the Brummie sage-patriot, Sir Digby Sweat, two eords for the French: Agin Court.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-83359081135520789192017-07-04T02:18:52.511+01:002017-07-04T02:18:52.511+01:00My da spoke the gaelic, so he did, and the phrase ...My da spoke the gaelic, so he did, and the phrase I most often heard him say translated as "one cockroach will attract another cockroach". I think he had it spot on the nose. There is more of Ireland in my toenail clippings than there is in the Good Friday Agreement and all of its bastard offspring.<br /><br />The nonsense of politics is now getting wearing. The dissonance between what we are supposed to think, what the media says we think, what it is acceptable to think, and what we are actually thinking is about to go tits up. The politically spastic media is, I think anyway, making the fallout of what is about to happen even worse. mongoosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-35599855965581106282017-07-04T01:45:58.080+01:002017-07-04T01:45:58.080+01:00Dear Mr Smith
Wonderful to see you back. Missed ...Dear Mr Smith<br /><br /> Wonderful to see you back. Missed you hugely.<br /><br />I'm still trying to work out how come HS2, Hinkley C and Trident brings down the debt but I ain't hear no blues yet. May QE don't rhyme with stuff.<br /><br /> £1 billion quid to continue the Good Friday Peace Accord? For once i'm on the side of the bureaucrats - cheeky fucking gits - speak Pikey in every school even though they don't - hmmm... <br /><br /> Cheers<br /><br /> DtP<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Dick the Prickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02683095612320513712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-23242948584685416122017-07-03T23:01:38.675+01:002017-07-03T23:01:38.675+01:00Fascinating those films, Mr Mike and Mr Verge. The...Fascinating those films, Mr Mike and Mr Verge. There is, then, a link after all: my own rapid archery skills have waned but there must be someone on here who could get into the Lincoln Green and set about the Dromeys and their kind.Bungalow Billnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-66467271387023012392017-07-02T19:43:15.873+01:002017-07-02T19:43:15.873+01:00Speaking of arrows - I expect you'll have seen...Speaking of arrows - I expect you'll have seen this before, Mr Mike, but if not, 6 minutes worth spending:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk<br /><br />An odd fish, to be sure, but remarkably deft.<br /><br />v.//Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-32190042075389687242017-07-02T13:54:48.849+01:002017-07-02T13:54:48.849+01:00Yes, he's not even as black as Lord Sir Trevor...Yes, he's not even as black as Lord Sir Trevor Philips is and I'm blacker than that. I really would love to see some righteous, angry blacks in parliament, saying OK, 'slike this, see, just for starters, me an' me bredren, we 'ave all de money wot is currently in de hands of Tate and fucking Lyle, de SlaveSugar fellas, innit, an' den we 'ave all dem posh 'ouses, in Glasgow, wot is owned by descendants of de slave trade innit, an' Bristol, too, an' Liverpool, an' like brother mongoose and 'im guillotine list, dat is just for dis mornin'; dis afternoon we come for de Stock Exchange, but no, instead we get Diane Abbott, only in it fot herself,and Chukka; a parliament of Uncle Toms and house niggers, oh, yes, and good old Benjy Zephaniah, peddling hisd watered-down rubbish, Benjy, to proper black issues what the PBC's Mark Steele is to socialism. call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-91293212458331719122017-07-02T13:17:10.661+01:002017-07-02T13:17:10.661+01:00Isn't Chukka a white - not really a black, des...Isn't Chukka a white - not really a black, despite the skin tone? He ticks a few boxes, with a girly voice as well.Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-35873631585745756482017-07-02T12:35:49.997+01:002017-07-02T12:35:49.997+01:00Maybe, given everything else which is happening, m...Maybe, given everything else which is happening, manifesto-wise, mr mongoose, the opposition will be able to scream and hiss the boundary changes into the long grass.<br /><br />I htink Umuna is just too superficial, even for the New People; MediaMinster loves him because he's a most acceptable black face, but most will despise him. call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-44260473915390345162017-07-02T12:32:19.072+01:002017-07-02T12:32:19.072+01:00What struck me about the swordsmiths, mr mike, was...What struck me about the swordsmiths, mr mike, was that they only receive orders for two or three a year, making cutlery the rest of the time; that must be hard.<br /><br />He looks and sounds like a wrong 'un, that guy Pell; may he dull the sanctimonious lustre of wotsisname, Pope Frankie de los Fray Bentos and his recent predecessors.<br /><br />i saw just a few minutes of Broken, a week or two back, Sean Bean giving a surprisingly deft performance as an RC priest tracking-down a teacher-priest who had abused him in childhood, hairy stuff. Bean's character, whilst You-Dirty-Bastarding the elderly miscreant was still able to forgive him. I guess that's the essence of the RC brand - BMW has build quality, Kentucky Fried Chicken has finger-lickability, Beanz Means Heinz and the Global Noncing Corporation of Rome has Forgiveness; what a business that is.<br /><br />Sorry about the security checks, nothing I can do about it.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-26805847436966218952017-07-02T12:17:49.914+01:002017-07-02T12:17:49.914+01:00That's right, mr richard, I have had a Rolex a...That's right, mr richard, I have had a Rolex and a series of Swatches and the Swatch is the better timepiece, a better design, more reliable and as you say, junkable. I sometimes think that Rolex and Omega only exist as an earner for Roger Federer and the like, I mean, who would want one, heavy, vulgar and unreliable, as they are? Sheikhs like them, don't they, they like everything vulgar an ostentatious, have you seen the new Bentleys?<br /><br />It has been a constant thread of these commentaries, the doing of stuff, for its own sake but your last paragraph summarises the pursuit of Quality better than I have ever managed to do.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-64123038192298425152017-07-02T12:09:12.973+01:002017-07-02T12:09:12.973+01:00I don't know what caused the fire in Kensingto...I don't know what caused the fire in Kensington, mr old rightie and I doubt if we will ever be told. Can a fridge really cause that sort of inferno?<br /><br /> I don't know where all these people come from, although I suspect there is much in what you say about the nomadic entitlementista, but none of that excuses the fire hazards, nor their authors, and it does appear that residents raised safety concerns and were, for their pains, threatened with eviction; this is intolerable and people should be jailed, even be there not one indigent in that place, even if every one of them meets your freeloader criteria. BoJo, Osborne, wotsisname, that gabshite, Livingdtone, that arse from the council, I'd put them up against the wall, motherfuckers, and shoot them, pour encourager les autres.<br /><br />Tell you what though, I'm getting rid of the chest freezer just the same, and maybe the fridge-freezer, too.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-83691583542234008072017-07-02T11:58:49.712+01:002017-07-02T11:58:49.712+01:00I suppose what bugged me about Dromey, mr mongoose...I suppose what bugged me about Dromey, mr mongoose, was that Adam Lard DIDN'T put to him any of the points I made about his nefarious history but simply treated him as a decent human being. They'd sup with Hitler, these MediaMinster vermin. call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-23242849809695634912017-07-02T08:42:49.633+01:002017-07-02T08:42:49.633+01:00The Japanese used to make swords for NCOs from the...The Japanese used to make swords for NCOs from the mid-1930s to the end of WW2. Stamped from sheet metal then tempered, they had aluminium or copper handles whic were stamped to mimic the traditional item. <br />As a weapon and item of uniform it was effective and inexpensive.<br />On paper an item can be useful without thousands of expensive man-hours being consumed on it.<br />Who wouldn't want a hand-made sword or the expensive watch? But who wouldn't rather have an equivalent that they won't miss if it gets broken? <br />And that's the point. Japs keep their values and monoculture but the West doesn't.<br />Which is why Japan is full of Japanese who sell us saws that cut, motorbikes that win races, and who tut and look at their watches if their train is more than thirty seconds late.<br />-richard<br /> <br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-46713141199650564502017-07-02T01:58:43.934+01:002017-07-02T01:58:43.934+01:00PS while searching for the samurai sword doco I c...PS while searching for the samurai sword doco I came across a Korean arrow maker - if anything, more remarkable. Hard to believe anyone would fire one of those arrows away.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK5INvoNTdk<br /><br />Added bonus for you chaps into saws - a saw makes a brief appearance.<br /><br />PPS - getting harder to prove I'm not a robot.Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-63369840376159338542017-07-02T01:25:56.748+01:002017-07-02T01:25:56.748+01:00And I will just say "boundary changes". ...And I will just say "boundary changes". Has everyone forgotten but me?mongoosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-49857919038698393722017-07-02T01:22:44.782+01:002017-07-02T01:22:44.782+01:00What we hate about politicians is the letting go o...What we hate about politicians is the letting go of normal life. A perfectly understandable and good reason turns into a convenience because "I am inportant" turns into entitlement because I am grown fat and slick with power turns into just swinehood. <br /><br />The Harperson is a fairly tedious I-know-bester and to be frank I can't be bothered to think about her. Dromey otoh is a talentless parasite who thinks he deserves something other than a good kicking. These are definitely only C-grade scum though. They are nonentities to be ignored until the revolution. Then they'll be on the third week's guillotine list along with the bankers and the media hacks. Blair will be Monday morning bright and early and the Kinnocks Monday afternoon. Life is too short to worry about the Dromeys of this world. <br /><br />What the fuck are we going to do about Chuckles Umana? It's going to be a battle between Chuckles and the Owen Jones boy in 2025. And I have a dead cat a yard deep in the garden with more political insight than the pair of them put together.mongoosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-10479716365811401912017-07-02T01:17:18.616+01:002017-07-02T01:17:18.616+01:00Thanks, Mr Verge, I watched that sword documentary...Thanks, Mr Verge, I watched that sword documentary on youtube. Hard to warm to the Nips, but you have to admire their respect for tradition. Its quite a feat to make something like that from the elemental forces - fire, water etc.<br /><br />Reminds me of an MGB I had in the 70s. Shit made car by Red Robbo and this mates, but with a half-inch spanner and a screwdriver it was possible to transform it into something reliable.<br /><br />Mr I: re the Noncing Monsignors, you may have seen the news? A Govament enquiry has been working for some years to get to the bottom of this (apologies). The latest scalp is Cardinal Pell, once touted as a possible pope, just charged.<br /><br />http://www.smh.com.au/comment/fitz-20170630-gx22lk.htmlMikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-56392345356558565482017-07-01T21:35:28.714+01:002017-07-01T21:35:28.714+01:00surely all decent people want the best for everyon...surely all decent people want the best for everyone but also we all need to earn our place. Just to be fucking born surely is not all it takes to be a human being? Indeed my take on the modern world is all you need to do is beg off others. If your country is up the creek, bugger off. If that means leave your women and kids to their fate, so what? Particularly if you get a billionaire's flat in Kensington cos you torched your own slum, rat infested hovel.Oldrightiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03192587284458430556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-27857103004409137232017-07-01T19:57:10.629+01:002017-07-01T19:57:10.629+01:00Yes, mr verge, probably more attuned to the nature...Yes, mr verge, probably more attuned to the nature of the Pacific than most, they did that balloon thing but it was hopeless; the great brains were the Hermanns, the V2 went to the Moon, didn't it, more or less, carrying Neil Armstrong? And Ike, conquering Germany, was astonished by the autobahns, at a time when the US had dirt tracks, Germany inspired his post-war presidential programme to build the Interstates and everything that straddled them and flowed from them. Jack Dromey, on the other hand, is good for fuck all.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-61287393765688678532017-07-01T19:48:45.680+01:002017-07-01T19:48:45.680+01:00I blame mr bungalow bill; a rant about the vile Dr...I blame mr bungalow bill; a rant about the vile Dromey turns almost into a meditation on saws. From my reading of professor McLuhan's writings on media I learned that the rock amplifies the fist, the wheel amplifies the foot, the blade and spear amplify the tooth and nail and that the fire and frying pan amplify the stomach and so on, that all technologies are an amplification of an existing human sense or ability; the saw has its origin in the picking-up of a toothed jawbone and its deployment as a sawing tool, hence the "teeth" of a saw. There are worse things upon which to ponder than the origin of tools. But he's still a cunt, Dromey. I never blamed Harriet Harman for being Lord Longford's niece; I met him and spoke to him a few times and he was a decent human being, but even if he hadna been, Harman can't help who her uncles are. There is a tradition in which well-bred gals take up the cudgels on behalf of the unwashed, Elizabeth Fry and some of the Cadbury girls come to mind, that Harman fell foul of Blair & Co is probably to her credit but her efforts, with Patsy Leatherface Hewitt to liberalise the paedophilia laws and her shameles promotion of her husband's interests, contrary to her cultivated persona of a Women's rights activist are quite revolting, as bad as phony lefty, Diane Abbott's, sending her son to private school, as far away as possible from her constituents. Abbott is one of the reasons that Corbyn will not swing a majority his way, he needs to sack her, she's as much a hypocrite as Mrs Askey and even stupider.<br /><br />I am sick of hearing thieving cunts like Mr Harman prattling abour isms and ists, there's only one community, only one enemy; when you hear the IRA pontificating about gay marriage, you know the rights game is up.call me ishmaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369028864168461729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-43694005609283692402017-07-01T19:45:10.500+01:002017-07-01T19:45:10.500+01:00WW2 innovations: I think the Japs knew about the j...WW2 innovations: I think the Japs knew about the jet-stream before anyone else. (An American bomber-pilot was almost court-martialled for turning back when he realised he was running out of fuel having made little progress in a high-altitude run towards the target.) If I'm remembering this correctly, they rigged explosives to small sturdy balloons and sent them off up in the jet-stream towards the West Coast; thousands of the fucking things, most of which did fuck-all for one reason or another. However, the only mainland American WW2 casualties were a pregnant schoolteacher and five children aged between 11 and 14 who came across one of the last of these jet-stream balloons in Oregon when they'd gone to a beauty-spot for a picnic.<br /><br />v.//<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065998731267025499.post-107710649948284692017-07-01T16:22:56.401+01:002017-07-01T16:22:56.401+01:00There is in my workshop a little corner with half ...There is in my workshop a little corner with half a dozen saws in it. They are awaiting resetting and sharpening. I am forever moving the bastards out of the way to somewhere which will be in the way tomorrow. I fear that although I have the kit and the knowledge and that this sharpenign would be a useful task, it will never happen. They are nice saws that I got off my dead dad but I cannot be arsed with the palaver frankly. <br /><br />I bought a few years back three of the japoanese pull-saws - 20", 15" and 9" or thereabouts. Cheap ones with plastic handles - just to see. The smaller two are double-edged with different sizes of tooth. I almost never use anything but the smallest one and the finer tooth. As you say, mr i, afer-thin but it cuts anything. Neatly, cleanly, squarely, quickly. I was using it to cut fucking fencing for the vegetable patch just the other week. I have never sharpened it either, and the teeth are far too fine to try. I think the set of them cost me twenty quid or so. And I don't think that they have ever been to Japan either.<br /><br />I will look for the sword-making geezer on the iThing.mongoosenoreply@blogger.com