This won't have come as a shock to the medics and dentists amongst us, but I had no idea that this is what children look like underneath the nice skin. This skull is part of the collection of the Hunterian Museum in London, but they are all like that, apparently. I was shocked rigid. Looks like an alien.
No jaw to speak of - just full of teeth. Could take your leg off with a single bite. You wouldn't want one of them anywhere near your soft bits, let alone try breast feeding. By inference, of course, I was like that once - these days I have to pay the dentist a fortune to have implants.
It being almost Hallowe'en, I was googling images for skull decorations and came across these toothed babes. I don't really understand Hallowe'en. It seems a nasty American import. Is the purpose to accustom children to death and decomposing bodies, or to the idea that begging whilst dressed up is a great way to score sweets and rot all those fine teeth their heads are full of? mr ishmael and I used to deal with Hallowe'en and New Year's Eve by closing the curtains, turning off the lights and locking the doors. We were especially apprehensive about drunken bonhomie by kilted Scotsmen carrying coal and demanding drams when we first moved to Orkney, but the New Year's Eve marauding is focussed on the towns, and apart from one little incident when a Scots nationalist demonstrated the correct way to don a kiltie - by way of spreading out the kilt on the floor then throwing himself backwards, naked, onto it and gathering it around himself - and he was a bit of a nutter, having had the Declaration of Arbroath tattooed on his chest; we were untroubled by the jollity. They don't like to get too pished in Kirkwall on New Year's Eve because the next day is the Ba', which is quite demanding enough without having been up all night. The rest of Scotland takes the welcoming of the new year very seriously, to the extent that two days public holiday are granted for recovery - not the measly one day doled out to the English.
Back to Hallowe'en and the avaricious children, with their buckets and demands. The older ones prefer to administer the trick, which in this part of the world consists of egging cars, houses, pavements and each other, followed up by bags of flour. The egg and flour combination is pretty slimy and resistant to usual cleaning methods, once it has hardened overnight, but a pressure washer will get it off. The supermarkets used to discount eggs and flour especially to encourage the kiddies to have fun, make it pocket-money affordable, but now that we are eco-aware, that is frowned upon. Kirkwall's communal bonfire, when we celebrate the judicial execution of Guy Fawkes, is also to be toned down this year, as we have 40 swans on the Peedie Sea, and they would be disturbed by the fireworks and screams of joy of little children. Bonfires are a survival of an old tradition whereby the bones of animals were burned in purification rituals to ward off evil spirits and ensure the fertility of the land. Samuel Johnston, silly man, thought the "bon" bit of the word meant good.
Maybe it's because we are a predator species - as evidenced by all those teeth hiding in our jaws, maybe it is because of Margaret Thatcher and her selling off the nation's housing supply to fulfil her dream of inherited wealth cascading down the generations - every ex-council house a proud inheritance, or maybe it is Britain's fixation on home ownership and the belief that some poxy 3 bed semi will ensure your fortune and that of your kids without you having to do a hand's turn other than to paint a wall now and then and to cut the grass; but avaricious children grow into avaricious adults, anxiously waiting for the aged parent to shuffle off the old mortal coil to step into an inheritance that will see them right. Needless to say, there is national resentment of the requirement to pay for care for long-lived demented or physically frail relatives - they won't look after the old dear themselves, but expect the tax-payer - that is, me, to pay up and therefore preserve their inheritance. That's why the hospitals are full - relatives prefer their elderly burdens to remain in hospital - which is free, rather than be decanted into a care home at £1500 a week. There's an idea for you, Rachel Reeves - impose hotel charges on longstay patients. And don't listen to all those idealists - it was a great idea to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance.
And these avaricious adults have already had a good old whack during a lifetime of mumanddad paying for food, clothes, toys, holidays, education, driving lessons, cars, deposits on houses, weddings so they can pretend to be landed aristocrats (but its my special day - aren't I worth a ten grand wedding dress?), divorces, care of grandkids, etc, out of their earned income - and now the offspring are coming for the house.
McCarthy Stone has had some criticism in the press about the financial model of their retirement communities. You know the sort of thing - old dear sells the family home and buys a leasehold retirement flat, which has some communal space and activities, to stave off the loneliness of being ignored by the adult children, who are busy with their own toothed monster offspring. There is a maintenance charge of £blah per month, which pays for upkeep, external painting, grass cutting, window cleaning, council tax and what not. If personal care is needed, additional charges apply. Richard Osman popularised the idea of the retirement community in his series of cosy murder mysteries, in which a friendship group of incredibly active and resourceful old dears solve preposterous murders that stump the police, and encounter romance along the way.
Problem with the model is that these retirement flats are quite hard to sell on - there's a limited market for that sort of thing - probably all the cosy murders and sleuthing and communal fun, so the flat can sit empty after the death of the aged parent, and the maintenance charges keep ticking up until the property is sold, eroding the equity for the adult kiddies who really did believe that "one day, my son, all this will be yours".
Residents who bought flats at Oakfield Court, a McCarthy Stone property in Urmston, Trafford, compared the costs to having a mortgage. One resident, Veronica Williams, lives there with her husband, who has Parkinson's disease, said a 15.9% rise in a year was punitive. Another resident, Pat Burrows, said the owners of the complex "don't seem to care - that's the big thing - its just money, money, money." She also worried that her children would have to "pay the service charge even when we're dead, until they can sell the flat". Companies such as McCarthy Stone point out with some justification that buying into a retirement community provides help at hand, company and camaraderie.
This is a section of the housing market which is not increasing in value - but why should it? It provides specialist housing for older people at the end of their lives, and that costs money, whether in a care home or a private facility. If people are not willing to pay what it costs because they want to leave their "estate" to their relatives, who then is to pay for it? The problem doesn't arise if you are destitute, because the state then steps in, and the tax payer - us- foots the bill. But your options are then limited to institutional care - which can be substandard, despite the efforts of regulators. This week, dozens of elderly residents were evacuated from the Gainsborough Care Home in Swanage in the night, to a church and village hall, after three residents were found dead and seven were taken to hospital. The police are investigating what is thought to be carbon monoxide poisoning, and a woman has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter (presumably by negligence).
If Rachel Reeves can tackle the national care disaster, she will have succeeded where all previous governments have failed. Go, Rachel! Budget on Wednesday. Can't wait.
There are four splendid anthologies of the writings of mr ishmael and stanislav, the young Polish Plumber, compiled by his friend, mr verge, the house filthster. You can buy them from Amazon or Lulu. Here's how:
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 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
At 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.
29 comments:
Seems like they are pushing the assisted dying idea, Mrs I, as a cure to unwanted old buggers. The only obstacle will likely be the purveyors of old age communities, who are probably Tory donors. Otherwise, I can see it catching on quickly.
I think Canada has led the way on saving on geriatric health care by a little spending on suicide pills, mr mike, but I daresay mr cascadian will tell us the right of it.
I wouldn't want to give the impression that I have never seen British elders treated kindly and with respect by their families. Over my several decades working in Probation and as a Social Worker, I have seen touching examples of patient, generous love and care given by families - which is what you'd expect, given the physical, mental, emotional and financial cost of having children. But I've also seen downright cruelty and greed, even old folk made homeless after the mandatory period following signing over their house as a "gift" to their kids, in a bid to avoid death duties or care home fees, when the kids put the house up for sale and flog off the furniture. Even people that you'd think were ok, who you wouldn't mind having round for dinner, can shock you to the core, by casually saying, oh we don't get on, I'm dreading having to see mum at Christmas, but at least that will be over for another year.
Its all part of Ruin - the cult of the individual, the death of deference, the triumph of sexual love over duty, despising one's origins, shuffling off family obligation, geographical and social mobility, the ingrained belief that the State should be everyone's parent, husband or carer.
I see that the budget has budged. No cliches neglected, no old chestnuts left undisturbed. We're going to legions of Bizzies chasing tax debts and covid cheatery. Ten bob spent to win eleven bob back two years later. Oh dear.
Starmer is truly a ghastly bastard, I am afraid. Just a pitiful I-know-bester in a clean shirt and sensible underpants. He could bore for Britain. The rumoured Ugandan discussions with that lady from his office? I thought after Major and Cruella Currie that we would never have to think about anything more woefully improbable but this is a fresh level of horror. I wonder, does he know what we think?
He doesn’t give two fucks about what we think mr mongoose, the epitome of the Peter principle, he’d have Ishmaelians in gulags and pensioners in death camps if he thought it served him some good. He’ll bring an end to small business and farming, pubs n entertainment, with this budget and this is just the beginning.
I just attempted to reply to mrs ishmael related to canaduhs MAiD programme, Google seems to have me on some kind of shitlist and advised me "there was some difficulty in posting"
Okay since that post was accepted, perhaps Google did not like the link to X that was included in the delated post.Lets test that thesis
https://x.com/SNewmanPodcast/status/1852016119550480584
So I must conclude that criticism of our canaduh government which was included in the deleted post is no longer acceptable to Google. Not surprised our government is deeply involved in the worldwide misinformation/disinformation scam.
Your x/twatter link was shocking, mr cascadian. Trudeau, and many others, deserve to be at the end of a rope.
And another article
https://nationalpost.com/feature/canada-maid-assisted-suicide-doctor
I could not follow that to the end of the research, mr cascadian. Why is it that honourable, sensible, intelligent people do not see? The wickedness of it all. "We must have this power because..." "It will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be extended beyond the use we assign it now." We alone in the universe are the only creaturess able to make a poem, a lego brick, to prune a rose, to stack on brick atop another. We are special in this way. And the life of each of us is sacred in a way that matters. A Lord of the land has hanged by a silken rope in England for killing his servant. It is important.
Folk in Canada "choosing" to die because they cannot afford to live or because health care is too expensive is disgraceful. Doctors actively offering the idea to folk who come to them for help is wicked beyond understanding. Time to burn the Canadian cities down and go start anew in the wild.
I know we have had a disagreement on history, mr cascadian, but I think it is a fact that the British Empire and its sibling the American Empire have their origins in the genocide of indigenous populations and then the theft of their resources and labour.
The so-called "5-eyes" countries have 3 characteristics:
1. they are predominantly white
2. they were established on other peoples land by imperialism
3. they all undertook genocide of indigenous populations
Re 3 you could argue that there wasn't a genocide in England, but the Scots and particularly the Irish would beg to differ (BTW I am one quarter Irish).
So it should come as no surprise that England, Canada, and soon coming to other members of the 5-eyes, promote "assisted dying".
mr mongoose and mr Mike, thank you for your comments. Google is apparently banning any of my comments that are negative towards the government of canaduh, therefore continuation of the conversation is impossible.
No Indigneous genocide in Canada by whitey Mr Mike, honest not invent.
Do you have any faith in the medical profession mr mongoose after the covid debacle?
I'm confused, mr cascadian. Why would a country half way around the world decide to speak french and then english, and still have an english head of state? Was the settler colonial rule by mutual consent? To enable the breading of beavers in a sustainable way that wouldn't impact on the climate?
If you have access to the Spectator's online archive, mr mike, there's a good essay on these ideas about colonial taint by Jeff Fynn-Paul : The myth of the ‘stolen country’ (Sept 26, 2020.)
Thank you for your post mr verge, the essay is well worth reading. It can be found here.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-myth-of-the-stolen-country/
It seems that the "facts" mr Mike quotes are likely to be derived from BBC "documentary" related to the Mayflower which the article criticizes.
Messers verge and cascadian.
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.pdf
Here is a supplementary official government report on Canadian genocide of indigenous people.
Read it all, but if you scroll down to the beginning of page 24, it states in highlighted text:
"Canada’s colonial history provides ample evidence of the existence of a genocidal policy, a “manifest pattern of similar conduct”, which reflects an intention to destroy Indigenous peoples. "
Mr verge: I note that the few articles Jeff Fynn-Paul has published in The Spectator have all been arguing against colonial genocide in the Americas. I'm no historian, but who can deny what happened in America, in particular?
mr mike, obviously.
mr mike, the whole missing womyn boondoggle was a woke government initiative, birthed by a phoney UN special rapporteur "report".
The supposed genocide is what the woke call "cultural genocide" ie whitey attempted to bring the indigenous population which was living in abject poverty and starvation in twelvth century conditions into the nineteenth century, even providing free residential schooling IF they requested it, what terrible monsters.
Instead of referring to the supplementary report go here
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/
and read the ACTUAL report, read it closely and come back to report how many cases of actual missing women were resolved?
And now I will tell you the actual reason why these women cannot be found-it is because they do not want to be found and have taken on new personnaes hidden far from their persecuters. Why would they do such a thing? Things are SO BAD in their homes it is better to try to exist on the streets far from persecution. You see the great secret Canada wishes to conceal is that the murder rate amongst indigenous peoples is astronomical, women particularly are treated like shit, but to report this would be racist (even though it is factual)
And so we have missing women inquiries, a great opportunity to whine about all and sundry and for lawyers and scholars to line their pockets. Inquiries do not come cheap.
You will recall the missing women report was heavily into 2SLGBTQQIA people. Here is a recent report of such an indigenous "person", read this to hear what transpires at the local reservation.
https://vancouversun.com/news/dangerous-offender-sexually-assaulted-bc-baby?taid=6724f4048dc0d200012de020&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
Gentlemen, the colonial era followed hard on the heels of the naval era. Suddenly it became possible to go long distances overseas with a decent chance of coming home. I live in England - only because my father fled the inhospitable beautiful wilderness called Connemara - and England was invaded and its inhabitants slaughtered, otherwose brutalised, their lands stolen by - oh, let's look - the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans. This is what power used to do. Every war in the history of the universe up until but a few centuries ago ended up with the loser's children killed or enslaved, the women raped and killed or enslaved, and the men slaughtered or enslaved. There is no special badness about what happened in the Americas. Or indeed the Congo, although that was particularly vicious and vile in Belgian way.
In all the world, the only two peoples who have ever stood up and shed their blood and treasure to end slavery are the Brits and the US Union Army. Credit is due.
Now I also hail from Catholic stock and not far from where my father was born is a place of imprisonment for single young women. The buildings are surrounded by the graves and dumping places of their children. Power and money enslave us all.
I live in a house in Bandit Country that it took us 30 years to pay for. And if I do not pay the extra property taxes on it every year, money and power will take it off me. When we die, mrs mongoose and I, money and power will take a good lump of it off us anyway.
And Reeve just made farming unworkable. Now when a farmer dies, he will have to sell up, at least in part, and corporations will buy - at depressed prices - and farmers will farm as stewards, as serfs, as slaves to money and power.
Do stop moaning about what happened to stone age twats who were generations deep intop slaughtering each other before the colonoials came with their gunpowder. I have a bow and arrow and am a mighty warrior! Are you big boy? Meet Mr Winchester.
thank you for your common-sense contributions with regard to the systematic strangulation of the indigenous american population, mr mike, and thank god someone 'round here is not tempted to rely exclusively upon unconsciously-biased neocolonially-nobbled ai as a research-tool...
unfortunately, however, the cream of conservative consciousness certainly does appear to have been educated by rogue racist robots - probably of the same manky eu-cocksucking model as sir killer.
according to tory-leadership hopeful rob genocide, t'was unchristian members of the african ruling élite wot dunnit: yeah, having manufactured their own guns, slaughtered millions of their neighbours, and then sent the lucky survivors on an all-inclusive luxury-holiday to the caribbean, the unicorn-kings of west africa and kongo then popped across to kanada, where they proceeded to do the same favour for the injuns - but with a beaver-themed butlins-package thrown-in at no extra cost.
in fact, those naughty african entrepreneurs are still making their own weapons and playing the same wacky war-games today, but this time in order to extract mineral-resources from mama - rather than human ones.
don't ten million dead congolese constitute a huge enough price-tag for our information-revolution?
of course, the clintons, the obamas, the bidens, the bushes, the blairs, and all the banks of england and wall street have never profited from any of this neo-colonial nonsense whatsoever - nor from the historic transatlantic bartering...
and don't draw the wrong impression from seeing africans left to drown in the med, the eu blood-mineral-emporium just loves black people to bits - even more than its spiritual progenitor and angel-investor, the rollicking royal african company.
incidentally, didn't uncle joe, charlie michel, and arschula von der leyen do well?
now it's the turn of the snuffer's apprentice.
al jazeera:
‘blood minerals’: what are the hidden costs of the e.u.-rwanda supply deal?
e.u. plans to secure supplies for green revolution from rwanda are likely to support smuggling of conflict minerals from d.r. congo.
needless-to-say, by bigging-up the british empire in order to land the conservative leadership-job, "the brat" badenoch hasn't exactly covered herself in hope-and-glory...
but in the new conservative leader's defence - and granting all due respect to her cultural roots - one must understand that the first casualty of conversation with a nigerian is, naturally, the truth.
na wa, i suppose we should now expect a cunning tory plan to relocate the passport-office to lagos.
Cynical, much, mr ultrapox? I'll not believe a word agin her - I think I'm in leurve.
These are the kind of activists that sign up for a report of aboriginal "cultural genocide"
https://x.com/Harry__Faulkner/status/1854974187762303045
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