It is said that travel broadens the mind. But who would want a broad mind? Keep an open mind and people throw rubbish into it. What we need are narrow minds, with laser-like focus, bringing a honed intelligence to issues of values and ethics, not those flabby, cellulite-pocked broadened minds. And a GSOH, of course. Anyway, I'm back from my holidays. The ishmaelette's little dog brought a flea infestation back with her, don't know whether or not her mind was broadened.
Bradford grew wealthy on the toil of the white working class in its textile mills. It has some nice Victorian show-off civic buildings in the centre, which nestles in a bowl, the markets, slums, fishnchip shops and pubs climbing the hill-sides of the bowl to the less dense suburbs on the tops. John Betjeman once did a documentary about Bradford's Victorian markets, with their glass domes, wrought iron, Pie Tom's and Morrison's little stall. All knocked down now - I think its a carpark. We went there as a memory-lane trip, to show the ishmaelette her roots. It was hot, so the windows were down, and, as we started down the Bradford bowl, past the back-to-back terrace housing, the ishmaelette demanded the windows be closed, despite the heat: "it stinks! Mu-thurr - it smells of curry". And it does. The whole city was redolent of warm garlic, cumin, turmeric, coriander, fenugreek and chilli. I'm quite fond of an occasional curry, despite the subsequent intestinal havoc but for a whole English city to reek of curry on a July Sunday afternoon was both disconcerting and disorienting. When I lived there, apart from Lumb Lane; Bradford was a white northern, industrial town, with David Hockney, black buildings and black sparrows (when I went south to University I was astonished to see brown sparrows). Here's the tourist blurb about Bradford these days: "If you are looking for a diverse and vibrant destination that combines culture, history, and nature, then Bradford is the place for you....... You can enjoy a variety of delicious dishes from different cuisines here. And if you want to escape the city, you can discover the beautiful countryside of the Bradford district, with its moors, valleys, and villages. Bradford is a destination that will surprise and delight you with its rich and diverse offerings." And it smells of curry. Just saying.
They seem to have flooded the Town Hall square and called the resulting paddling pool City Park:
It certainly doesn't look like the city where I went to school - which seems to have become embedded in a south Asian district. Little wonder that in a speech for the National Conservatism Conference in Washington DC, J.D.Vance recounted a conversation with a friend:
“I was talking about, you know: what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon?” he said. “Maybe it is Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we finally decided that it’s actually the UK – since Labour just took over.”
This caused, predictably, outrage amongst Labour politicians, all busily denying that Starmer is in hock to the Muslim vote.“I was talking about, you know: what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon?” he said. “Maybe it is Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we finally decided that it’s actually the UK – since Labour just took over.”
When I was studying for my A levels, we were informed by our Miss Jean Brodie careers teacher not that we were the crème de la crème, but that we were among only 15% of the population to attend university. Back then there were only 45 universities. In 2022, there were over 2.86 million students at UK Yoonies, and amongst people aged between 30 and 34 in the UK, half were educated to a tertiary level. There are around 176 universities. I don't think that this means that the population is getting cleverer - indeed, all available evidence seems to suggest the reverse. Many universities are struggling financially and are heavily reliant on foreign student fees. Maybe it is time to question the purpose of University education - is it to prepare young people for a career - a vocational purpose, as in medical or law schools; is it to train minds in an academic method which is then transferable into a variety of fields of endeavour, is it to make money from foreigners, or is it to provide jobs for academics who can have their books as required reading by these bright young minds? And is training 50% of the population in higher education a good idea when there aren't enough carers, plumbers, builders, mechanics and electricians to go around? In fact, is it civilised to take kids from the ages of 18 to 21 away from home and support structures, allow them to mix only with their fellow incarcerates and incur huge debt against the promise of earning £10 grand a year more than non graduates? I really liked the National Service idea - get them usefully occupied and then, when their brains have finished growing, if they still want to study at a higher level, the Open University offers excellent educational materials and support for learning - which is more than my law lecturers and tutors ever did, as they shambled into lecture rooms and read out the same notes year after year, boring even themselves.
Talking of boredom, I don't suppose you were able to miss the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris. Which was the best bit for you? Did you enjoy all the headless aristocrats and the talking decapitated head of Marie Antoinette in the windows of the Conciergerie, followed by the coup de theatre of thousands of red ribbons streaming down the walls to mimic the gallons of blood shed in the Revolution? Or did you like the zombie faceless torch bearer in billowing white grave clothes and corset lacing running through the unsavoury bits of Paris and along the roof tops? Or how about the blasphemous and tasteless depiction of the Last Supper by a bunch of drag queens? My best bit was the troupe of jolly French matelots bearing aloft a large chest down some steps by the Seine - just cos I hoped one of them would slip in the rain and the chest would bob about on the waves until the lid popped open and Macron emerged, like a stripper from a cake.
I have to confess that I turned it off after the first five and a half days of grinning, wet, Olympic teams clad in Pac-a-Macs on a variety of boats chugging their way through the Seine's filthy waters, so I missed the denouement, but I'm reliably informed that the damn thing continued until 10.15pm and that none of it was as good as the late Queen Elizabeth II parachuting into the London Olympic stadium, ably supported by 007.
Should I be worried about Stephen Fry? There he was on the Laura Kuenssnose Show with Victoria Derbyshire this morning, having a bit of a rant about the need to renationalise Britain's water, when he threw his glass of water down his pretty pink shirt. Now, it could have been intended as a visual aid, but, judging by his aghast expression, I think not - he just missed his mouth.
Mr Mongoose's Election Crossword-
The Solution
Congratulations to all successful crossworders and many, many thanks to mr mongoose.
- If you would like to read some original ishmael or stanislav, then 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.IIshmaelites wishing to buy a copy from lulu should follow these stepsplease 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/je7nddfrLink for Paperback : https://tinyurl.com/3jurrzuxhttps://www.lulu.com/shop/ishmael-smith/flush-test/paperback/product-9yjvn7.html?q=Flush+Test&page=1&pageSize=4At checkout, try WELCOME15 in the coupon box, which (for the moment) takes 15% off the price before postage. If this code has expired by the time you reach this point, try a google search for "Lulu.com voucher code" and see what comes up.With the 15% voucher, PB (including delivery to a UK address) should be £16.84; HB £27.04.
35 comments:
Satan is dancing among us, Mrs I, and not only in the form of Mr Mongoose's crossword.
We would do well to pay attention and to take the terrible attack seriously.
paris 2024: an olympic disgrace
even adolf didn't stage an olympic games whilst at war with russia...
have the frogs no fucking shame?
Welcome back Mrs I; its been quiet these last 2 weeks; not much to attract one's attention, and certainly not the olympics.
Its truly sad to see what once great, proud, and productive cities like Bradford and Sheffield have become. I recall Fred Dibner grinning with pride when he was climbing the Bradford town hall to replace its weather cock.
I'm showing my age, but it was only 10% who went to uni in my days, and we were paid a grant rather than having to pay fees. Blair to thank for all that.
I once worked in Paris, Mr ultrapox. The answer to your question is NON. Even the rest of France thinks Parisians are arrogant arseholes.
mr mike, hello, but have you not been watching? We've had a coup d'etat in the US and an assassination attempt upon the Republican nominee - himself a former President - and this latter event in the most suspicious of circumstances. Although nobody is talking about this event now. The local LEOs - on video - have said that the usual Secret Service co-ordination event ahead of the rally was nixed by the Feds.
In the UK, the Univ Freedom of Speech Bill - and Act of Parliament - it is law now - will simply be ignored. Not repealed. Just, err, nah.
BTW it seems tat maybe Queen Kamala is the daugter f two non-US citizens. Althugh her dad was naturalised several decades after her birth. But let's not talk about that either.
All theatre Mr mongoose. Do you think any of all that changes things for the better or worse?
Alas, mr mike, I fear that almost everything is theatre now but that does not mean that we should not rail against it.
The Democrats will use three months of artificial media acclamation to undermine the outrage of the election steal to come. Who will be brave enough to stand up when BBC Verify says that there is "absolutely no evidence that"? I ask again, is it for this that the clay grew tall?
Shame on us.
Spot on Mr mongoose.
I think that would be Bolton town hall Mr Mike, he’s a bit of a local hero hereabouts is old Fred, even has a statue dedicated to him, on the pedestrian precinct by the town hall. Not that anyone walks there anymore, all the shops are either boarded up or Vape, bookies, pawn or pie shops.
Worked in ‘Brattferd’ a few years back mrs I, the takeover was in full swing then, however, if you want to experience the full exotica of south Asian cuisine, culture, smells and their treatment of women, then take a trip to Lancashire. Blackburn, Rochdale, Oldham, Bolton and Cheetham Hill in Manchester; no-go areas, drug gangs, child trafficking and honour killings, all run through local taxi firms and barbershops.
"no-go areas, drug gangs, child trafficking and honour killings, all run through local taxi firms and barbershops"
s'a bit racist to blame all the above-described decadence on the wogs, mr inmate: in the gentrified neo-colonial heaven of politically-correct progressive hackney, one simply terms such cia-seeded culture 'socialism'.
Who said anything about Wogs mr Pox, these tinged folk are all second/third generation englishmen, scientists, engineers n surgeons dontcha know.
Good to be back with you, Ishmaelites, although my holiday was terrific and I'm sure I'll soon get over all the viruses I picked up in the diseased south.
We're all racists, mr ultrapox - its an evolutionary hard-wired survival characteristic. It was a shock returning to Bradford after decades and seeing it through the eyes of my daughter - she loved Halifax, by the way, but hated Bratford on first sniff. Mr inmate's description of Lancashire is truly scary, and I'm sure he knows what he is talking about. White guilt prevents the liberal middle classes from acknowledging that this criminal behaviour he describes is endemic - I've seen it in Probation and social work - professionals are prevented from intervening for fear of being thought racist. They are told that it is the culture and must be respected. Maybe so - but it is not the culture of the country that migrant groups have chosen to live in and ethnic diversity should give way to integration to the values and criminal law of the host country. Can't see Starmer standing up to it, any more than the Tories did.
Bratford and, in all probability, the Lancashire cities, was the target of successive waves of immigration: the Irish diaspora, fleeing poverty and famine, a post second world war wave of displaced Europeans, particularly, for some reason, Poles. My own mother left her European home to marry my father - they met when she threw flowers on his tank during the liberation of Brussels. But the thing about previous migrations was that the newly arrived moved into the Victorian houses and terraces near the city centre, which had been divided into houses of multiple occupation, worked and integrated, and moved on out into their own homes in the suburbs, freeing up the houses of multiple occupation for the next influx of displaced people, all en route to becoming northern English. This doesn't seem to have happened with the south Asian diaspora. They have stayed put in the areas to which they first moved and built a city within a city, creating an infrastructure which has its own language, shops, religion and places of worship.
I've been mulling over your comment, mr bungalow bill. I'm assuming you are referring to the rocket from Lebanon into the Golan Heights, which killed at least 12 youngsters on Saturday on a football field. Israel has blamed Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Hezbollah has denied responsibility - but, if not them, then who? I don't think we need to blame Satan for this - humans are quite capable of appalling behaviour - again, this is hard wired - only those early humans able to form close fighting troupes to defeat sabre-toothed tigers, bring down woolly mammoths and prevent other humans from taking their feeding territories survived to pass on their aggressive genes to their children. The early pacifists and vegetarians got either eaten or clubbed to death. We have not evolved beyond warfare. In order to feel okay about committing atrocities upon other humans, it is usual to deny the "enemy" full humanity. My Jewish friend tells me that Palestinian Muslim young men are taught, in all seriousness, that Jewish people are descended from miscegenation between humans and pigs and that it is their duty to eradicate them. All that nonsense aside, the Middle Eastern situation is, at essence, a territorial dispute. All sides are fighting to own the same bit of land. As that is impossible, the war aims of all combatants cannot be achieved. Since the establishment of the state of Israel, it has been involved in an existential struggle. A never-ending war. Fuck knows what will happen, but I'm really not keen on the Book of Revelations as a guide to the future.
That is all true mrs I, they, the ‘parquis’, don’t move out, they stay and transform areas of these northern towns that now resemble the places they were so desperate to get out of.
The number of taxis we see hear now with licence plates registered with Wolverhampton council, Birmingham council, Stoke council, don’t ever have fair paying passengers. Local taxi drivers now what’s going on but daren’t say anything. A young Asian girl was shot dead in Blackburn recently, caught in the crossfire, of a local gang war. Scousers and their gangs have nothing on the new gangsters, and yes the ‘authorities’ are scared to confront them for fear of being racist..innit.
Anonymous above was me, feckin iphone, again.
Mrs I: I heard the rocket in the Golan was a failed Iron Dome missile. Hezbolla definitely said it wasn't theirs. Also, can't discount an Israeli false flag to trigger the invasion of Lebanon.
Eight young children stabbed, one died apparently, in a Southport kids club , Lancashire eh whodda thowt?
That Hezbollah have fired rockets, are firing rockets and will fire rockets is beyond dispute. Ask Jimmy Anderson about it and he'll tell you to focus on the process and not the outcome. Firing rockets into the civilian territory of a neighbouring state is evil and wicked whether you kill anyone or not with any particular rocket.
PS the children were killed in the Golan which is Israeli occupied Syrian territory. The children were Druze Syrian nationality kids. Hezbolla has no reason to do this.
Maybe so, mr mike, but does Israel need a further justification to invade Lebanon? And why would they want to, as they are pretty well extended with the Gaza business, they are not a large country with an infinite military capability and the support of the US is waning?
Lancashire sounds dreadful, mr inmate - is it in the middle of a drug distribution battle? That is a war that can't be won. Taking the profit motive out of illegal drugs is the only solution - legalise drugs and accept the addiction and loss of life as an inevitable consequence. There would probably be less fatalities than in the current situation, where gangsters fight each other and the public to the death. The Ishmaelette tells me that cannabis was legalised in Thailand and every household was given a cannabis plant to grow their own, along with the parsley and lemon grass.
The word is that at Netanyaho's visit to the US recently he was given the green light to attack Lebanon. This has been reported by officials. In the last few hours the Israeli cabinet approved an attack on Lebanon. The prosecution of the attack has been delegated to Netanyaho and Gantz the defence minister, and is imminent.
Now, what matters is what will the Israeli's hit. If its civilian targets then its all our war.
BTW, the Israeli military has been badly hammered by Hamas, beaten if you like, and all the experts say it can't beat Hezbolla (it was beaten last time it tried). Netanyaho is trying to drag in the US - hence the suspicion that the Golan thing may be a false flag.
With you on this Mr Mike, Netanyahu would prefer American troops facing Hezbolla.
The Golan has effectively been Israel since I was in short trousers, mr mike. That war and that territory was lost. Gone, gone, and she ain't coming back.
As for who fired the missile in question. I do not know, and at this stage, as we said just a few inches up the electronic page, all is theatre.
Mr Mongoose said (and others implied) -"As for who fired the missile in question. I do not know"
Say what you like about the Israelis, they are an advanced technological nation and will by now have collected every scrap of that missile and determined where it was made and by whom. The fact that no news is forthcoming PERHAPS points to another failed or mis-fired US patriot defense missile (fired by the Israelis), or they may wish not to announce potential target countries. Will we ever know the truth-unlikely?
This war with Hamas and Hezbollah is an existential war for the Israelis so much more death and destruction can be expected, and in my opinion is well deserved. I am not of the opinion that Gaza has been exceptionally costly for the Israelis and war-fighting has changed immeasurably since the Ukraine experience.
As for mr mongoose doubts related to Kamala being an American (US) citizen, she fulfils the three requirements spelt out in the US constition, but you may recall that with adequate melanin content (Obama being the example) then the requirements may be waived. Should you be curious enough to research how many delegates kamala polled in the presidential primary, the answer is here. She is the choice of the sheepul. We live in a time of deceit and lies.
https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/democratic-party/president?election-data-id=2024-PD&election-painting-mode=projection&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false
No Mr mongoose. The Golan is legally Syria's and there is a UN resolution (ie international law) which requires Israel to cease its illegal occupation. Ditto the West Bank which is illegally occupied Palestinian land.
Mr cascadian: there are reports that there are missile fragments which are from an Israeli Iron Dome surface to air missile (same as a patriot missile, I believe).
The children killed were Druze Christian Syrians. They should not have been paraded as Israeli jews, and covered in the Israeli flag. A disgrace.
Sorry, forgot to add link.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/dancing-on-blood-of-our-children-bereaved-druze-village-rejects-israeli-ministers-videos/
"International law", mr mike? Who voted for that?
And if I was in charge, I would shut down the UN tomorrow. It is but another layer of theatre.
And, mr mike, "natural born citizen" is not defined in the US Constitution but has been the subect of subsequent legal discussion and debate.
Sorry, that was for mr cascadian.
"Natural born citizen" is not the same as "natural born" or "natural born human being". It carries a burden of citizenship - whatever that is - and not just existence and a geographical birth. The lads who wrote the US Constitution had no little wit and considerable elegance with the language, don't you think?
mr mongoose, the drafters of the US constitution (I managed to spell it correctly this time) indeed had considerable elegance in their use of language, their writings are quite clear with little room for mis-interpretation, despite what modern marxists believe, as in, define a woman.
I will leave you with this:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S1-C5-1/ALDE_00013692/
While the Constitution does not define natural born Citizen, commentators have opined that the Framers would have understood the term to mean someone who was a U.S. citizen at birth with no need to go through a naturalization proceeding at some later time.9 British statutes from 1709 and 1731 expressly described children of British subjects who were born outside of Great Britain as natural born citizens and provided that they enjoyed the same rights to inheritance as children born in Great Britain.10 In addition, in the Naturalization Act of 1790, the First Congress provided that children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, . . . shall be considered as natural born citizens . . . .11 Consequently, under the principle that British common law and enactments of the First Congress are two particularly useful sources in understanding constitutional terms,12 it would appear likely that the Framers would have understood natural born citizen to encompass the children of United States citizens born overseas.
Yep, I think we are there, mr cascadian. Neither of Kamala's parents were citizens of the US when she was born within the shores. Her father very much later underwent naturalisation.
It don't mean nothing. Just saying.
In the light of very recent events, looks like mr mike and mr inmate were right about Israel's retaliation and the US support for their assassination target. Now we wait for the retaliation to the retaliation. And so it goes.
And in matters closer to home, the simmering resentment towards Muslims in Britain's northern towns, as described by mr inmate, seems to be kicking off another summer of rioting.
And if the stabby loon turns out to be of Rwandan heritage - as is rumoured - he is very large odds-on to have a christian backgrund of some sort.
That's right, mr mongoose - and if the police had been less reticent and described the killer as a teenage boy with mental health issues, then there would have been less scope for the internet to make false allegations about him, which led to the attack on the mosque. Mind you, hot summer, overcrowded cities, simmering resentment about Muslims - any excuse for a riot will do, really.
The polis, mrs i, described the wee lad as Welsh!
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