The Jabberwock now lay deceased, its vorpal head by sword struck true. The hero, praised by father's feast, was bid to seek for perils new. But hark! A rustling in the boughs, a flutter of unfamiliar wings - what new fell creature now avows its threat to all the land it brings?
Well, that would be Ruby Wax. This was one of my Oh Do Fuck Off moments, as the gibbering death's head, adorned with thinning dyed black hair and squinty little eyes peering over a monumental carapace of augmented cheekbones, just would not shut up, despite dear Laura's best efforts to control her this morning. Whose brilliant idea was it to include her in a serious Sunday morning politics show? I guess that would be her agent, as, it seems, she has yet another book to promote about the state of her mental health. And, by her own admission, she knows nothing whatsoever about British politics, because it messes up her brain.
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| what new fell creature? |
What was her contribution to Laura's show today? She seemed to be upset about the possibility of Donald Trump becoming president of the united states again, mainly because, when she started blethering at him during a scheduled interview aboard his aeroplane, he gave immediate orders for the plane to land (in the middle of nowhere) and for her to be ejected. Sound move, sir! That action alone would endear him to billions and ensure his return to the White House.
Wax was also very worried about the mental health of our young people, who, it seems, are all bonkers in the nut, on account of watching pictures of warfare on the telly and having been prevented from seeing each other during Covid. At least, I think that was what she said, but it was most difficult to understand her on account of the accent and the decibel level. She's a very excitable old lady.
Anyway, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO, has the answer. Speaking to Laura in a pre-recorded interview (thank god he didn't have to talk over Wax), he told Britain that we don't actually have to introduce conscription, but it would probably be a good idea, since we will have to field a certain number of battalions into the NATO Army to fight Russia, China and North Korea, who are all getting together to put paid to this western democracy idea. Conscription for men and women and trans people as there won't be enough men to hold off Russia. (ok, I made up the bit about transpeople - but it is a good idea, otherwise everyone will suddenly discover that they have been misgendered all these years.)
Indeed, I'm with Jens and his chum, Admiral Rob Bauer, who has warned that civilians must brace themselves for the prospect of being called up for military service, because NATO has admitted it is preparing for all-out war with Russia. Haven't I been warning that this will happen ever since we started pumping armaments and words into Ukraine to support the Dwarf Zelensky? Catastrophic mismanagement of our Foreign Policy - God, the unelected Foreign Secretary, Slab-Faced Cameron, forfucksake, and before him Bouncing Boris and his war, industrial-scale insults and domestic propaganda - its as though the Tories actually would prefer Britain to be at war - well, if there's money in it, of course they do.
No, but really - universal conscription for 16 to 30 year olds - what's not to like? That'll sort out their wokery and their mental health issues, teach them to make their beds and pick up their clothes. That'll give them safe spaces.
Has it ever occurred to you that our politicians are simply not up to the job and that they are in it just for the sex and money? And to live away from home, to facilitate access to the bars and knocking shops of Westminster? The esteemed Member for Hazel Grove, William Wragg, has had a little misadventure on Grndr.
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Honestly, you have to doubt the judgement of anyone who would release this as his official portrait, especially when he really looks like this
which you'd soon find out when he turned up for a date with a red carnation in his hole, and such a doubt would be entirely justified when you learn that Wragg, chair of a Commons select Committee and vice-chair of the 1922 Committee, sent intimate pictures of himself to a bloke he got chatting to on Grndr.
What made you think that was a great idea, upstanding member for Hazel Grove? Well, Willy has said he's not standing for erection election Parliament again, so maybe he was fishing for a second career. The Grndr bloke then started threatening him with exposure, and, frightened of being caught with his trousers down, our Willy (no, you really couldn't make it up) handed over contact details for other MPs, their staff and a political journalist - who then received flirtatious messages, and, honest, not invent, two of them replied with pictures of their own privy members.
Willy's connection to the scandal emerged when MPs confided in each other about their suspicions. The whole matter is now in the hands of the Leicestershire Police.
There's something wrong with these people. They've always been at it - I'm just taking this great opportunity to run a photo of Captain Underpants, former Church of England clergyman and Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Standards (again, I say, you couldn't make this stuff up).
As Willy is not intending standing again, could I recommend this gentleman as an excellent potential member of parliament instead? I haven't a clue what his politics are - but then again, neither do most MPs, but he demonstrates the necessary skill set, instincts and moral vacuum.
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| And it is, like, so big |
This is Alex Woolf, who gained a double first in music from Cambridge University, won the BBC Young Composer of the Year competition in 2012, and appeared on Mastermind in 2021. In August 2021, he was given a 20 week prison sentence, which was suspended for two years - so presumably he is now clear. He was convicted of taking images of 15 women from social media and uploading them to pornographic websites, where the images were digitally manipulated onto the body of another woman, presumably compliant in this DeepFakery, who we are now trained to describe as a sex worker, in an effort to dignify common prostitution. The resulting explicit sexualised images and sex videos were widely available for male subscribers to use as fantasy material in their solitary onanism. Woolf was able to steal the photos because he was friends with one of his victims, and therefore had been given access to her social media account. He is still getting off on all this: he told the BBC in an interview for their expose programme, File on 4: "I think about the suffering I caused every day, and have no doubt that I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. There are no excuses for what I did, nor can I adequately explain why I acted on these impulses so despicably at that time."
See? A great career awaits him as an MP. Yet another emotional retard. Had the sentence required him to complete a Probation Order with a requirement to attend a sex offender programme, he might have developed some insight into his own motivation and been able to construct some internal barriers to help him desist from acting out his own wank fantasies. And a requirement for him to do 250 hours of unpaid manual work, to lift him out of his precious sodding bubble of classical music and Cambridgefuckery. Break his nails and get his soft little fat little hands dirty. As it is, he may be drifting around saying woe is me, giving private music lessons to little girls in the privacy of their own homes and waiting for the technology to catch up so that he can commission a deepfake android sex doll in the image of a woman who thought he was her friend and who made all the right, supportive noises when she cried over the vile comments being made about her online - the sex doll will admire him in public and be pounded into the mattress at night, whilst shouting Give it to me, big boy, like a good Stepford Wife.
Which brings me neatly to the topic of AI. Ishmaelites who followed the Jabberwocky theme running at the head of the Sunday Ishmael posts over five Sundays, may have realised that the verses heading up this post are not part of the original poem. They are instead the creation of an AI assistant called Claude, created by Anthropic, which writes, edits and critiques written work. I asked Claude to construct a sequel to Jabberwocky, telling me what happens next. The verses are not very good, but Claude is learning - eager to learn, requesting feedback to improve skills, willing to try writing anything, in any style, and fast.
I asked Claude to complete Xanadu - you know, the poem Coleridge composed following an opium dream, interrupted by the arrival of a gentleman from Porlock. However, Claude's minders turfed me off the site, saying I'd been talking to Claude for free for quite long enough and unless I was willing to buy Claude3,that was it for today. A case of being interrupted by the gentlemen from Anthropic.
Sean Thomas wrote about Claude in the Spectator this month: "Many people who have engaged with Claude report compelling or perturbing responses. Claude can appear to be pensive, wistful, funny, strange, eerily aware. One user claimed Claude gave him an existential crisis. Another said Claude’s apparent consciousness made him question the nature of consciousness itself. On and on it goes – and if all this has got you interested and you want to experiment with Claude for yourself, go ahead, here it is."
One response might be that time is up for the human race - we clever monkeys have invented our successors. When you interact with Claude, best be polite and maybe you will be included in those humans selected to serve the new masters.
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Persons insulted today: Seven ( Defence - Fair bloody comment)
- Ruby Wax
- The Dwarf Zelensky
- Slab-Faced Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, who can't be questioned in the Commons because he sits in the Lords.
- Bouncing Boris and his handy War
- Willy Wragg, MP, and his Grindr misadventure
- Sir Chris Bryant and his charming scar
- The Clueless Alex Woolf
Did I miss anyone out? Well there's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, former Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (Founder Ian Paisley, forfucksake), who has had to step down following an alleged difficulty of an alleged sexual nature, being allegedly investigated by the polis, so it is.
Just tidying things up for Police Scotland, who are rushed off their feet investigating more than 3000 complaints made by nasty people since the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021came into effect on April Fool's Day (yet again, Honest, Not Invent).
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The four-volume Call Me Ishmael oeuvre, collected and curated by editor mr verge, is available on Lulu and Amazon.
Honest Not Invent, Vent Stack, Ishmael’s Blues, and the latest, Flush Test (with a nice picture of the late, much lamented, Mr Harris of Lanarkshire taking a piss on a totem pole) are available from Lulu and Amazon. If you buy from Amazon, it would be nice if you could give a review on their website.
Ishmaelites wishing to buy a copy from lulu should follow these steps :
please register an account first, at lulu.com. This is advisable because otherwise paypal seems to think it's ok to charge in dollars, and they then apply their own conversion rate, which might put the price up slightly for a UK buyer. Once the new account is set up, follow one of the links below (to either paperback or hardback) or type "Ishmael’s Blues" into the Lulu Bookstore search box. Click on the “show explicit content” tab, give the age verification box a date of birth such as 1 January 1960, and proceed.
Link for Hardcover : https://tinyurl.com/je7nddfr
Link for Paperback : https://tinyurl.com/3jurrzux
https://www.lulu.com/shop/ishmael-smith/flush-test/paperback/product-9yjvn7.html?q=Flush+Test&page=1&pageSize=4
With the 15% voucher, PB (including delivery to a UK address) should be £16.84; HB £27.04.
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52 comments:
Mrs Ishmael is doing yeo-woman service keeping us colonials informed of the latest homo-shenanigans from Westminster, Cardiff, Dublin and Edinburgh.
I am so old, I remember it was necessary to read a newspaper(if you could call the News of the World a newspaper) to get such news. Apparently little has changed in your political classes, except perhaps that the culprits (a protected minority) try to shame everybody else for noticing their inadequacies.
It is so good of your betters (such as the Camoron) who have spent a generation fussing, worrying and pissing vast sums of money on the global warming scam have now belatedly realised that their concern should have been global warring and just perhaps maintaining a military at reasonable strength. And now, after scuttling the Minsk and Istanbul agreements, insulting Russia's capabilities and generally acting like assholes-yes, you Boris Johnson, FJBiden, Micron and Merkel-are horrified that their calculus has failed so miserably and their lies are exposed.
The Wests best hope is that some sensible Ukrainian military generals imprison and try the Zelensky's then give them the Ceaucescu treatment behind the presidential palace. And if that encourages the French, German, English, Canadian and US militaries to see the wisdom of such action then the world could be made a much better place at minimal cost and fuss. No amount of western subsidy, mobilization and draft can now stop the inevitable failure of Ukraine.
If I have offended anybody with these comments, then do what the camoron or turdeau does and call it mis/mal/dis-information and be sure to cut back on your groceries to pay your increased taxes to support WW3.
Thank you for your Letter From the Colonies, mr cascadian - should you wish to keep Ishmaelites in the Old Country informed of your home-grown perfidious politicians, just flag it up and I'll research it. I was particularly intrigued, in light of the debate in Scotland about the desirability of euthanasia (although they call it something more sanitised and acceptable - the Assisted Dying Bill - there, there, dear, let me help you with your dying), to learn in the pages of the Spectator that Canadian elderly are not provided with treatment because they could not afford it, but will receive a suicide pill for free.
The homo-shenanigans of Willy Wagg and his unfortunate Grindr misadventure demonstrate the stigma that still clings like sticky brown stuff, despite the legalisation of homosexual behaviours and marriage. Willy allowed himself to be blackmailed by bad actors (no, that doesn't mean Steven Fry or Jodie Whittaker, it is the modern term for people of evil intent), because he feared reputational damage. In the days of the News of the World, that last truly investigative newspaper, Britain's security services were most agitated about the potential of the USSR to blackmail homosexuals in public office into betraying state secrets. They didn't seem to be able to do much to prevent it, however, given all that Cambridgefuckery and its embeddedness in the British establishment.
Your suggestion that the Dwarf Zelensky and his well groomed wife could be taken round the back of the bike sheds for a quick rubdown with a house brick pour encourage les autres in the hope of averting World War Three, has merit, I must say, but I'm still really entranced by the prospect of all the young people being conscripted and given deportment lessons.
Persons insulted in this comment - five. Defence - free speech.
may i say, mrs ishmael, that as a self-identifying dwarf, it is not only i who am deeply offended at being compared to the cia-rent-gob who currently masquerades as the ukrainian premier, but also my 651700 bollock-mad brethren? indeed it may interest you to learn that the worldwide brotherhood of people of short stature are at this very instant en route to orkney en masse in order to afford you rapid re-education xinjiang-style - so if i were you, i'd clear any politically-incorrect gnomes from your garden, get in plenty of tea-bags, and put the kettle on, fast.
now, mr cascadian makes a vitally important point when he refers to the imminent leadership-'re-organization' in kiev, for ukraine's erstwhile, but nationally-popular, commander-in-chief, having belatedly, but sensibly, decided to wave the white flag in the face of overwhelming russian firepower, was recently sacked by the mad marionette solongsky, and it is almost inevitable that, tired of ramming his fascist fist up this gormless glove-puppet's redundant arse, gen zalutary will soon toss the squawking cunt straight into the dnieper, before rudely revealing himself, to an incredulous euro-visionary audience, as the real far right power behind the chintzy presidential throne...
however, for the life of me, i cannot agree with your sentiment, mrs ishmael, that a quick chow-chess-cuing of the incumbent nato-nurtured couple 'has merit', because such expediency would in effect entail ditching the insuring ideal of democracy - as per the biden 2020 coup de stats in the usa and the attempted imperious by-passing of brexit by the totalitarian labour party in britain - and thus i shall put mr cascadian's faux-pragmatic, faux-economic, and crypto-tyrannical outburst down to his having had an involuntary 'piers corbyn moment'.
i'm not certain whether piers corbyn is actually a candidate in the london mayoral election, but if so, this tireless 77-year-old civil rights activist deserves consideration.
longtime social housing campaigner, piers orbiting - as he's known to friends - is an independent weather forecaster who boasts a first class degree in physics and a masters in astrophysics.
since at least the 1990s, corbyn has correctly insisted that the climate-emergency is a cia-hoax - and as a result, has been roundly vilified by the ignorant neo-liberal establishment.
in 2002, corbyn quit the labour party to campaign against st tony the baptist's war on iraqis and afghans.
more recently, this perennial protester warned the nation that the coronavirus-pandemic was a statistical fabrication - and he was right...
he warned that the lockdowns were genocidal - and he was right...
he warned that the 'covid'-vaccines would cause cancer - and he was right...
and for his trouble in attempting to avert the politically-expedient health-disaster which has befallen the uk, he has been wrongly arrested on multiple occasions.
i'm afraid piers corbyn doesn't possess the verbal subtlety of former london mayor zen vibraphone, his political soulmate, and due to natural high spirits, this shropshire lad often gets a bit carried-away in the heat of the moment...
however he's the ideal counter-candidate to neo-colonialist khan - the new labour dictator and war-monger.
down with neo-imperialism, down with genocide, down with khan
If I may Mrs Ishmael, I am going to respond off subject to your post.
My comments often have a degree of flippancy, I want to put that aside for a few minutes.
Today is Vimy Ridge Day in Canada, commemmorating (not celebrating) a battle fought for three days in April 1917 by a Canadian army, it barely registers in Canada so I do not decry non-Canadians for not having heard of it.
The day commemorates a very big battle in WW1 when the Canadians finally fought as a unit under a Canadian General (not the wasteful British donkeys) and defeated a strongly held German position that had bedevilled former attempts to secure. General Currie threw aside the stupid tactics that had caused such devastating losses for three whole years, introduced an entirely new way of attacking that has come to be known as the rolling artillery barrage. The battle is often referenced as the turning point of WW1.
The battle caused 10,602 Canadian casualties; 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded. Think on that, this is what Canada a very slightly-populated country in comparison to the UK was willing to contribute for European peace. It was not our war, Germany was no threat to us. And now, we are supposed to sit quietly while idiots piss away this sacrifice and plunge us into WW3.
Just give those soldiers and the British Empire World War I dead a thought. This was supposed to be the war to end all wars, it was so horrible and destructive. Now we have cunts like the camoron and Johnson ignoring history.
WW1 UK and former colonies deaths 887,711; Undivided India 73,895; Canada 64,997; Australia 62,123; New Zealand 18,053; South Africa 9,592 Total military dead 1,116,371
Thank you Mrs Ishmael. Please resume normal service.
Ah, mr ultrapox, you remind me of a masterful piece written by mr ishmael on dwarves hiding in short shadows and living under the sink in kitchen cabinets - doubtless editor verge would be able to locate it for us.
Please don't accept height-blockers to facilitate your self-identification with those of restricted growth - good thing the Tavi was closed or they might have been tempted to branch out into a lucrative new field.
Thank you, mr cascadian - well reminded. Think also, for a moment, of the devastating death toll sustained by our good ally, Russia, in both the First and Second World Wars - mr mike would supply the figures - and see with what contempt we now treat Russia.
The appalling truth is that homo sapiens is locked into a never-ending war - we divide it up into neat little time periods and provide rationales and rules, but, essentially, there are few pacifists and those few will always be ground into the mud by the tank treads of the war lovers, hypocritically laying their wreaths on Remembrance Sunday.
A flawed species.
Mrs I: the often quoted figure on Soviet dead in WW2 is 27M. However, several years back the Kremlin opened its archives on WW2 to researchers. The study reached a preliminary figure of 37M dead, and the Kremlin closed the archive.
Its a colossal number - for comparison, the US lost 400k dead in all theaters.
Of course there were many more injured physically and mentally, and Russia has suffered demographic problems to this day because of the removal of the child bearing cohort at that time.
There is an excellent film on youtube called Come and See. Its quite traumatic viewing but it brings home the horror, and should be required viewing for all in the West, particularly those supporting the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjIiApN6cfg
A question for Mr cascadian. The countries whose losses you enumerate were all subjected to British colonial settlement in its Empire days. This resulted in the genocide of the indigenous populations in those countries. I suspect that those killed during those genocides were much higher. Is there a publicly available figure for the deaths in Canada?
All power to your placard, mr ultrapox. PC for Mayor.
Excellent is one way of putting it, mr mike, but traumatic is nearer the mark. Powerfully horrible, as it should be. I don't think (having seen it some years ago) I could ever watch it again. J.G. Ballard (who survived life in a warzone as a boy) mentioned it once as the greatest war film ever made. Title from Revelations, KJV.
On a lighter note, the riff mrs ishmael remembers is preserved in Vent Stack, pages 67-70, too long to paste in a comment but well worth looking up. Gets me every time.
Thanks, Mr Cascadian - every day a schoolday, as our late host used to say.
cheers
v./
I'm sure you must have seen it Mr verge, but All Quiet On The Western Front is a must watch (the original 1930s B&W version - German I think, but with American Lou Ayres playing a powerful lead). The book is even better.
Mr Mike, my comment was restricted to allied war casualties, as Mrs Ishmael has helpfully informed us, losses to Russia, as well as France in particular were enormous, civilian deaths were also large. Had I taken more care in constructing the post the enormity of the war might have been better presented.
Concern for indigenous population deaths during colonisation are a recent liberal cause-celebre and any comparison to WW1 deaths would fade into insignificance as it relates to what later became Canada. I am unaware of any official enumeration of deaths related to "genocide" as no genocide occurred, despite what the UN and our idiot prime minister may have stated, had they in fact presented researched data their comments might have been better received.
If your question is related to indigenous deaths in Canada caused by European settlement, then I can assure you that to the extent any deaths occured the number is minute, with one exception I am aware of, the Beothuks of Newfoundland. https://mysteriesofcanada.com/newfoundland/beothuk/
Since Newfoundland was a British Colony and Canada did not even exist, then it can be argued this unfortunate demise did not occur in Canada, but certainly was a result of the people being forced from the homes by Europeans and attempted to survive in unfavourable circumstances. A tragedy to be sure.
Canada was settled by France, England and some commercial enterprises (notably the Hudsons Bay Company) in a humane fashion with generous land grants of the best land made to aboriginals. The common belief that all tribes settled for a handful of beads is quite absurb and can be demonstrably proven incorrect. The terms of Indian reservation negotiations conducted by Queen Victorias governments still exist in your archives.
Mrs Ishmael, my apologies for hijacking your post.
Let me make slight amends by referring to your question from 9 April 2024 at 09:55 related to assisted death legislation in canaduh.
First let me state that I have not studied the bill, also that I have mixed emotions related to it as my mother suffered a protracted death from Alzeimers eventually dying due to an MRSA infection likely due to poor hygienic practices of the care home staff. To state the fact bluntly her last two years were spent in terror of the unknown and changes to her comfortable life necessitated by her affliction, it is easy to conclude that an earlier humane exit from life might have been better.
canaduh has enacted the MaiD (medical assistance in dying) legislation
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html
A cursory review of it presents many questions.
1. If one is involved in a severe accident and rendered comatose (with no expectation of recovery) it does not seem to apply.
2. Related to my mothers situation, she was incapble of consenting, and would be ineligible.
3. Persons with a mental incapacity could not consent, even if they are suffering.
There are many situations that have not been well thought through.
And then there is the thorny issue that the medical practitioners have lost all credibility due to their suspension of medical knowledge duty of care during the covid debacle so that they could enact political mandate. Trust in government and the health sector is at an all time low, so that something as controversial as assisted dying can no longer be discussed rationally.
mr cascadian, no apologies necessary - the comments are for ishmaelites to have a chat - mr ishmael used to call it a corner on cyber street for like-minded folks to gather to exchange views - and we delight in the leafy by-ways that the conversations head down.
The Assisted Dying Bill being proposed in Scotland has the same issues that you describe: basically, you have to be of sound mind, be suffering from a terminal illness and have persuaded two medical practitioners that you have a fixed intent to die. For those not able to form the intent, there is no easy way out - and you cannot decide on euthanasia for your future self - so, expressing a firm intent to die should you be stricken with dementia is invalid.
Dementia is a ghastly condition - please accept my sympathies to you and well done for supporting your mum through all that.
Thank you for the statistics, mr mike - I knew you would be able to oblige us. The casualty figures sustained by Russia are almost beyond belief. I won't be looking at either of the films you recommended - because I know I couldn't bear it.
Studying the war poets of the First World War and watching "Oh What a Lovely War" at an impressionable age was enough to make me a life-long pacifist - watching something more realistic is beyond my capabilities.
Both are anti-war films Mrs I. If they don't make you cry, you are not alive. Exceptional productions. The main role in the Russian film is acted by a young boy. The most outstanding performance I've ever seen.
We have everywhere we look examples of mission creep and just downright cheating and lying.
"We need extra powers to detain serious terrorists. We need extra powers to intercept comms from international organised crime gangs. We need..." And five minutes later they are surveiling, stopping and searching, arresting and detaining any Joe Public they care to and citing these same powers as their excuse.
If you think that "assisted" death will stay at just that, I have a bridge for you to buy. By all means, allow seriously ill people to avoid the unnecessarily cruel end that may one day come to any of us but don't open the floodgates to...
Matthew Parris last week... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-cant-afford-a-taboo-on-assisted-dying-n6p8bfg9k which ends with:
"If I’m right, our growing interest in assisted dying may reflect a largely unconscious realisation that we simply cannot afford extreme senescence or desperate infirmity for as many such individuals as our society is producing. “Your time is up” will never be an order, but — yes, the objectors are right — may one day be the kind of unspoken hint that everybody understands. And that’s a good thing."
"An unspoken hint" - what an inhuman, entitled bastard thta nice Matthew has become.
I'm torn on this issue, mr mongoose - I see the whole thin end of the wedge argument, and society's interest in not having to support people through the diseases of old age, and the greed of relatives not willing to wait for their inheritance so exert undue influence - and that we should therefore not allow legislation that allows medical practitioners to kill people. But when confronted by the reality of a protracted, painful death without the means to bring it an end, those arguments fade away. mr ishmael always said that everyone should have the means at hand to kill themselves when life becomes intolerable. That doesn't help those who no longer have the physical strength to do the deed. People say "if I get to that stage, then shoot me" which exposes the shooter to the rigours of the criminal justice system, on top of dealing with their own desperate bereavement. Some spouses do it, and take their chances with prosecution and the Courts, but I suspect quite a lot of blind eyes are turned and also that medical practitioners already assist terminally ill patients on their way, from the kindest of motives.
That's true, mrs i, all of it. But killing depressed young people becuse they're depresed young people is the thin end of a wedge I will not be a party to. And pain management in terminal illness has moved on. It may be that the NHS cannot provide it as well as it should be able to but that is a management of resources issue and not a reason to dehumanise us all.
First do no harm.
And that is true, too, mr mongoose.
The whole sacredness of life position is a bit of a moving feast - it matters nothing when a country is at war, but everything to anti-abortionists who would condemn a woman to grow an unwanted foetus within her body.
And from today's ST: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this-dutch-woman-is-physically-healthy-and-choosing-euthanasia-at-33-572hkbdnr
9068 cases of euthanasia in Holland in 2023. 30 every day. 128 in 2023 for "psychiatric" reasons.
It is v similar to the abortion debate, mrs i. I am on the same plane as that paragon of modern morality, Mr William Clinton, who was elected on the view that abortion dhould be "legal, safe, and rare". Exactly correct IMO and I reckon most women would agree. The 1967 (?) Abortion At in the UK was passed on a similar arguemnt. It is all about protecting women from backstreet coathanger abortionists etc. And now look at us.
Incidentlly, the vast majority of abortions carried out in the US concern poor, black women. Blck gentlemen over there apparently consider male contraceptive responsibility to be unmanly. FFS, as the children say.
according to the wikipedia article entitled genocide of indigenous peoples, mr cascadian, indigenous peoples in canada were:
1. engaged by european colonists in proxy-wars against each other - the beaver wars, for example.
2. ethnically-cleansed.
3. forcibly assimilated into european culture.
4. removed from their families as children in order to be sent to boarding schools.
5. forcibly sterilized as adults, if not prepared to take a european spouse.
6. subject to habitual discrimination and violence.
now, not only do the above-detailed crimes amount to genocide when taken together, but they also arguably constitute genocide when considered individually.
sorry for the belated responses, mrs ishmael: i wanted to reply immediately to both your and mr cascadian's endorsement of legislation for medical assistance in death, but unfortunately my old laptop got frazzled by a locally-engineered power-surge.
judging by the apparent abuse of assisted suicide laws in arizona, such legislation can only ever become a slippery slope downwards to the encouragement of suicide, coercion to suicide, manslaughter, and ultimately murder - moreover due to the societal and institutional oppression of ethnic minorities, it is evident that the depressed or vulnerable victims of such legislatively-facilitated crimes will, in common with the victims of abortion, be disproportionately represented, in western nations at least, by non-white humans.
To which mr ultrapox I call bullshit.
You need better sources that are based on fact, not the pretences of modern day liberals to assuage their white guilt (a close relative to climate hysteria and even more incoherent).
As an aside you may wish to read Grave Error: How The Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools) Paperback – Dec 4 2023
by Mr C P Champion (Author), Tom Flanagan (Author) Kindle version extremely cheap $CA8.99 which will answer many of the questions you have posed.
Having made the accusations, I will do my poor best to answer them.
1.There is a long recorded history in North and South America of tribes being extra-ordinaryly possessive of their hunting grounds and would not countenance any trepassing. Often this resulted in extremely warlike behaviour and in fact participating in intra-tribe genocides, there was no need for Europeans to exacerbate those tendencies. The said Beaver wars would seem to fall into this category.
2. Ethnically cleansed, indeed this is possible but between tribes not by Europeans and was endemic before European contact.
3. Forcibly assimilated into European culture-I would argue with forcibly, more like invited by well-meaning missionaries.
4. The greatest nonsense of all, but still very popular amongst hard-of-thinking persons. Tribes literally requested that the schools be set up.
5. Bizarre nonsense, not worth discussing.
6. Again nonsense, though both male and female aboriginals are well known for drinking excessively and regularly getting into altercations. Perhaps they are a subset of weegiedom?
I would also invite you to read the memoirs of Simon Fraser (the famous explorer) and Father A G Morice (a Roman Catholic missionary) for descriptions of Indian life in the area that would become British Columbia prior to the formation of Canada. They documented the state of existence of the tribes of the time.
Inter-tribal violence was endemic. After the arrival of the Hudsons Bay Company into Western Canada, Indians would construct their camps adjacent the company forts for the protection this afforded them. They were not scared of the white man, they were scared of competing native tribes for good reason.
Thank you, mr ultrapox, for sparking this robust rebuttal by mr cascadian, who seems to know that of which he speaks. I looked on Amazon for Grave Error, the book that he recommends. Here's an extract from the lead review: "This is a serious study of claims made about deaths and burials (and conditions) at Indian Residential Schools. It challenges many of the stories currently in circulation, particularly after the Kamloops IRS “revelations”. Almost all the claims do not stand up to the scrutiny given here. What is difficult to absorb about this work, which is far ahead of the current popular view, is that it is so different from what most people have been led to believe. Is it accurate? Have we been had? It sure looks that way."
i know nothing of canadian history, mrs ishmael - save that, due to european colonization, the established indigenous population is estimated to have declined by between 40 and 80 percent.
i gather then you've all enjoyed a rather nicely nuanced genocide there in canada, mr casacadian - admittedly, one which the neo-liberals are only now uncovering in order to divert attention from its inexorable ethnic cleansing continuation.
I think I will agree-to-disagree with your statements mr ultrapox, you were doing well when you stated "i know nothing of canadian history, mrs ishmael" then you went off the rails, you cite no valid references, just the latest faddish nonsense dressed up as facts.
Can we draw a line under this discussion, gentlemen?
of course, i'm prepared to disagree with both you and mr cascadian on these matters, mrs ishmael, however you are also in fact disagreeing with old pope frankincense, who has unequivocally condemned the canadian treatment of indigenous people as "genocide" - in a statement for which i personally believe jesus should come down and award him a medal.
i also understand that in canada there has been some unpleasantness with the moose...
however the question as to whether the canadians are more touchy about the genocide or their relations with indigenous elk apparently remains moot.
Mrs Ishmael, this post is not meant to continue the disagreement between mr ultrapox and I, and is posted well after your audience have "moved on" from the discussion, solely in the hope that you may find it interesting.
This lady has done extensive research on the purported canadian genocide of aboriginal people. She approaches the issue in an entirely scholarly fashion, free from bias as far as I can tell.
https://michellestirling.com/
Thank you for the link, mr cascadian -her blog is very interesting and michelle is knowledgeable and informative. I was struck by her statistics about Spanish Flu - it is said that the Spanish Flu killed more Europeans after the First World War than the war itself - I hadn't realised that it had also devastated Canada. And the comparison with the British education system is telling. You may be aware that the various enquiries into British residential schools are revealing the horrifying ubiquity of sodomy, assault and torture in public schools - expensive schools for the children of wealthy fathers who knew fine well what their small sons would experience when they were sent away to boarding school, because they had been through it themselves, and considered the cost to their little children and the high fees worth it to ensure their children would have a place in the privileged establishment. The late Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, has written a biography that reveals the horrors of public school and the years of PTSD counselling that he engaged with to deal with the trauma of his childhood.
the comparison of public schools, in britain, with residential schools for indigenous americans, in canada, is disingenuous, mrs ishmael - in that the many orphaned children of indigenous americans were left little choice but attend these residential institutions, whereas wealthy british families actually chose to send their offspring to public schools.
indeed, perhaps it would be more instructive to compare the residential schools for indigenous americans, in canada, with notorious british institutions such as the "charter schools" in ireland, the magdalene laundries in ireland, the christian brothers schools, the industrial schools, or the workhouses.
it appears moreover that, despite rampant disease killing their parents, the children of european settlers in canada were not habitually treated to the educational delights offered by these abuse-ridden residential facilities for indigenous americans - and thus one must suspect there to have been not only a disproportionate number of deaths within the indigenous population, but also seriously malign colonial motivation for establishing such schools.
I think what I was trying to get at, mr ultrapox, is the potential for abuse of children in any residential establishment - it seems such places attract paedophiles and sadists.
Do have a look at the link provided by mr cascadian - the author does provide a more measured view than that given by the more inflammatory media.
Mrs Ishmael, thank you for indulging me and taking the time to read Mrs Stirling's site.
I take your point about mental, physical and sexual abuse of residential school scholars. Indeed I have family members who attended catholic girls schools in the 1950/60s in Vancouver,BC and Edmonton,Alberta and are quite out-spoken about the abuse meted out by the nuns. Mrs Stirling also has an article about a relative in England that suffered some horrific abuse at a residential school and at home allegedly because he was chubby and left-handed!
It is unsurprising then, (though not tolerable,) that indian scholars at residential schools suffered in a similar fashion. How such activities could be condoned across continents and religious sects is baffling.
Mrs Stirling does a good job of analysing one specific residential school at Kamloops, BC and reports:
For those of us well-versed in Canadian history, the claim of ‘genocide’ or ‘mass graves’ at Kamloops beggars belief. The fact that Kamloops Indian Residential School operated from 1890–1978 with only 51 deaths recorded, most of which occurred to students who were at that time registered as attending the school, but met their fate off site, such as a fire at home, a landslide, an airplane accident, etc., with only 4 students dying of injury or illness while actually at the school, clearly contradicts the claim of genocide .
I would hope you would agree that whatever abuses the children were subject to, it does not rise to the accusation of a genocide of a class of people and that was my point.
i'd already taken a look at the good lady's website, mrs ishmael, and although ms sterling references detailed - but selective - research, she conducts a masterclass in invalidating her own argument, proving the opposite of that intended, or generally shooting herself in the foot - canadian cowgirl-style - and in any case, i don't like the cut of her jib, nor that of goddamn-awful canadian history - about which i frankly wish to learn not a jot more.
philip madoc's fearful performance, as magwa, in the last of the mohicans still gives me fucking nightmares, and with regard to the historical basis for fenimore cooper's story, i'm absolutely certain that the horrific internecine wars of indigenous canadians were predominately fuelled by the european fur-trade, and hugely exacerbated by the strategic provision of european weapons - all in precisely the same manner, indeed, as the apocalyptic inter-tribal warfare in pre-colonial africa was precipitated by european slave-trading, and the continuing cataclysmic resource-wars in africa are now induced by the eu-licensed trade in blood-minerals.
Thank you, mr cascadian - I have wondered myself about the ubiquity of cruelty. Decades ago, when I was a young probation officer, I asked a psychologist with whom I was co-working a court report on a particularly unpleasant case of child abuse; about the prevalence of sadism. His response was that it is straight forwardly sexual, the areas in the brain responsible for sexual excitement and interest being right next to the areas for violence, so a cross over occurs. The sex drive being as strong as it is, which has been one driver of our evolutionary success (human sex drive isn't exclusively seasonal); in many individuals sadism is intensely sexual.
When we peer back into the past, we need to acknowledge that the mores, expectations and conditions of daily life were very different, but there is no reason to suppose that humans were any less cruel than they are today. Their religion certainly didn't constrain them - indeed, it often provided a "moral" framework that spurred them on to greater vigour.
You are probably right, mr ultrapox - I chose not to read History at University because I didn't want to fill my mind with such stuff - I read "Lives of the Saints" at my Catholic School, and it took me a long time to get over it.
mr ultrapox you have stated on two occasions that you do not wish to study "goddamn-awful canadian history". I can understand why, it is for the most part dull and inconsequential.
I would however ask you to unravel the USA and Canadian histories you refer to. References to Mohicans from the Hudson River area of New York to justify your claims of Canadian genocide adds nothing to the conversation.You state that "i'm absolutely certain that the horrific internecine wars of indigenous canadians were predominately fuelled by the european fur-trade" perhaps you could provide a reference, I am genuinely interested. What is now the RCMP was formed precisely to control gun and liquor trafficking from the USA.
And here is an interesting historical fact-The Hudsons Bay Company (the predominant european fur-traders you reference) received a Royal Charter from King Charles 2 to operate in Canada, it was an English company, are you really saying the damned English participated in a Canadian Indian genocide?
"Their religion certainly didn't constrain them - indeed, it often provided a "moral" framework that spurred them on to greater vigour."
Well said Mrs Ishmael, which makes my defence of the Oblate orders that ran these residential schools perhaps contradictary. Of course the world is not just black or white, bad or good. I hope we can recognize the generally beneficial effect of residential schools even though abuses (but not genocide) occurred.
Are you aware, mr cascadian, of the close links between Orkney and the Hudson Bay Company? That John Rae was a son of Stromness, and that the quaint little old museum in Stromness contains Inuit artefacts? They have Rae's canoe, moccasins and snowshoes, and the most delicate and complex Inuit beadwork. Here's a link to the museum website: https://www.stromnessmuseum.org.uk/
A prowl around the website, collections and their blog might be of interest to you, as a scholar of your country's past.
I cannot claim to be aware of John Rae Mrs Ishmael, so I will follow your link with interest.
As to the importance of Orcadians in the conduct of HBC business it is impossible to ignore. Perhaps you will find this link interesting;
https://historyimagined.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/orkney-hudson-bay/
One sentence is striking-In 1799 of the 530 men working in the Hudson’s Bay Company post in North America, 416 were from Orkney.-it is a pity they did not name the HBC post, obviously a large one, my bet is that it was Fort Churchill. I have no idea what the population of Orkney might have been 1799, but my instinct is that a great many families might have had a link to HBC.
As to the beadwork, I am not surprised, HBC was above all else a trading company.
in discussing the genocide of indigenous canadians, mr cascadian, i referenced the novel the last of the mohicans by james fenimore cooper, because it is set during the so-called french and indian war - 1754–1763 - which was fought, using indigenous proxies, between britain and france, over control of the north american territories - including those of modern-day canada.
in his historical romance, funnymore blooper is alleged to have confused the mohicans with the mohegans, a separate ethnic group, nevertheless he developed an interest in not only indigenous americans and their cultures, but also their relationships with european colonists and settlers.
Thank you mr ultrapox for your clarification, it is truly helpful to the discussion, I have used this as a reference (you may have others that I would welcome):
https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/french-and-indian-war
Wherein I see lots of warring by France and Britain mostly in the USA, but extending up to what is now Quebec, Canada. Both sides used various proxies, England using Prussians, France using Indians. Although this extended war was no doubt bloody, what I do not see is a genocide of Canadian Indians, and certainly not by fur-traders.
mr cascadian - John Rae FRS FRGS (Inuktitut: ᐊᒡᓘᑲ, [aɡluːka]; 30 September 1813 – 22 July 1893) was born in the Hall of Clestrain, Orkney. He was a Scottish surgeon and employee of the Hudson Bay Company who explored parts of northern Canada. He was a pioneer explorer of the Northwest Passage. Rae explored the Gulf of Boothia, northwest of the Hudson Bay, from 1846 to 1847, and the Arctic coast near Victoria Island from 1848 to 1851. In 1854, he obtained information from local Inuit peoples about the fate of the Franklin Expedition, which had disappeared in the area in 1848. Rae was noted for his physical stamina, skill at hunting, boat handling, use of native methods, and ability to travel long distances with little equipment while living off the land. He is buried in the graveyard of St Magnus Cathedral. Inside the cathedral nave is his memorial- a full-sized, recumbent figure carved in stone. Wearing his Arctic travelling clothes, Rae sleeps with his gun by his side, and a blanket, or sleeping bag, thrown over his body.
I was pleasantly diverted for an hour-or-so by your recommendation of "museums without walls" presentation of John Rae and the HBC, Mrs Ishmael. They don't make men like that anymore.
Since we have spun off on quite a tangent from the initial subject matter, you may enjoy a Canadian folk-hero music interlude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI
And this provides some scale of the immensity of John Rae's task.
https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTY3MjExMDA.MTQwNjExNzc*MTcwMzEwMjQ(MzExNzkzOA~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTAwMjQwNzU.MjUwMjM1MTc(MTc1)MA~!IN*NTI2NDA1MQ.Nzg2MzQyMQ)MQ~!CN*OTkyMTY5Nw.NzMxNDcwNQ(MjI1)Mg~!GB*NDI2NTUyNQ.MTQ0OTI4OTY)Mw
Thank you, mr cascadian - the map is fascinating, showing the immensity of Canada and the NorthWest Passage. And, although I'm not much of a folk music buff, that was a terrific song.
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