Happy Christmas!

Ive been reading up in (sadly moonbat friendly) Time Out magazine about some of the London Christmas rituals of the past - these included gems such as ‘walking the turkey’. In Victorian times goose was as popular as turkey for the Christmas feast. Norfolk farmers would ‘walk’ the geese and turkey into Smithfields markets close to the city – as they were often too numerous to be transported in. The geese were given a special tar coating to their feet and the turkeys were kitted out in leather booties! The turkey auction still takes place at Smithfields on Xmas Eve. (Walking the turkey actually takes place every day of the year in London between 6am and 9am and 5.30pm and 8.30pm – you can catch it outside any tube station)

Did you know that Pantomime evolved from what was a long tradition of cross dressing for Christmas?! Or that Joseph Grimaldi was the first ever panto superstar?

The poor and the entertainers of London were invited to feast on the scraps of the royal feasts at Christmas. 24 courses would have provided a lot of scraps – and the kitchens were asked to over provide to ensure there was enough for all. (Bit like Christmas tax then).

In the Christmas Carol Dickens writes of Cratchit playing snap dragon – a game involving currants floating in a shallow bowl of flaming sprit where small children had to be quick at snatching the currants out of the flames to feast on them. Cant imagine schoolkids participating in that little game nowadays! Im mildly surprised the story hasn’t been ‘adapted’ – just in case…

On a similar Dickensian Carol note this years Scrooge award goes to Ken Livingstone our esteemed mayor. Not content with chucking insults at Jewish journalists – he took a swipe at those of us ‘mad’ enough to feel strongly about the Routemaster bus. Apparently according to endearing Ken we all need to get a better sex life. (…We probably would Ken – if we could get home without feeling totally shagged before we step foot in the door).

Since Kenneth prides himself on championing the put upon (unless you’re a hapless put upon commuter that is) perhaps he would like to hear from one young London mother I know who suggested she would rather walk ten miles with a pushchair then even attempt to get onto one of his bendy buses. “They were designed to gobble up passengers at bus stops and as an afterthought provide access for people on wheels” she wails. They might allow for access on to the bus but aren’t that good at allowing enough space once youre on board, in fact its a bit like being on the tube. Imagine being on a really rammed bus with a pushchair where essentially you cant get off. If that’s not terrifying enough for a toddler then imagine being in a wheelchair! I have to agree – I was unfortunate enough to be stuck on an over packed bendy bus with only a small suitcase to contend with and getting off was an experience and a half.

Perhaps, in his spare time, and in a much needed break from being gobby and insulting he might like to consider consulting some sex starved Londoners on their travel needs next time round (he is standing again for the 2008 elections! Groan)



….. on a happy note the congestion charge is suspended over Xmas so im taking advantage of this opportunity to pick up the first members of my family arriving for Xmas by driving to Victoria (I must be mad!)

****Happy Christmas to everyone out there in the blogosphere! It has been such a treat discovering all those wonderful blogs I have visited these past few months – to all those listed on the right and to anyone else who happens by – wishing you all a peaceful Christmas and a wonderful 2006****

Signing off til January!



p.s

We are into Week 6 of the Jack Idema campaign and whilst Xmas is on everyones minds make sure you catch up on the latest both primarily courtesy of Caos Blog (link right) where you can join the campaign and c/o Rottweiler Puppy below.

Rottweiler Puppy

....and the Spirit of Democracy....

Polling booth queues. Hat tip Through the Looking Glass

"Anyone who doesnt appreciate what the US and Mr Bush has done can go to hell"

Iraqi voter Betty Dawisha

Hat tip yesterday's The City Troll

‘Please tell Tony Blair that I want to thank him. He made this day possible’

Maher Mehdi Saleh, 38, Iraqi voter

There you go BBC - stick that in 'Have Your Say!'

Christmas Holiday Spirit

Regent Street lights. More to follow once ive downloaded images from my camera!

There is no place better than England for Christmas. Ive decided its official.

Posted all my Xmas cards today - *shock* *horror* i noticed Christian images on the postage stamps! A picture of Mary and baby Jesus. Blimey. Wonder how long it will before someone spots that and cites it as offensive that someone sent them a freaking xmas card. Also down in the PC front line trenches ive done my bit for Qerween and country. In my office where im honoured with the task of getting the company Xmas cards made up, the big cheese popped round and suggested we amend the wording to read Happy Holidays, it being a more international non 'offensive' english greeting. I smiled sweetly and then 'accidentally' forgot to copy check the cards before they went to print. So all our international offices will now have to suffer that dreadfully offensive christian message of good will - Happy Christmas. Bad luck eh. Frankly he's lucky i didnt insert the word sodding between the Happy and the Christmas.

As i walked home this evening the whole of London was gorgeously lit up and Christmassy. I am lucky enough to live in a true Christmas card of a location with Victorian and Georgian houses and pretty Dickensian little streets. Cant afford to live in any of them of course. A meer snip at £330 000+ for a two bed - so we get to rent . The building we live in is one of a few that ceased to be Victorian and became 1930s when they were all bombed out in WW2. In fact a couple of the Vic houses have corner sections of new bricks where you can see one side of the property suffered bomb damage. History (and the odd hooded chav) aaaall around you.

The tree is up in the window. Its not overly blinged. I was restrained. It is quite big though. I notice the house across the street went nuts with flashing lights. Always a wonder - since they are most likely on benefits. I expect im subbing the leccie bill? I consider it my Xmas present to them. Anyway i digress. (Stay in the spirit). It does look gorgeous though the Old Smoke. Speaking of which - happily that fire is out and we can breathe easy again. Slightly nervous when i left the office that the gentle sleet that was falling might in fact be poisonous soot but seems okay.

Everyone seems pretty jolly. People are smiling and generally being un city like to one another. The pubs i walk past on my walk home from the West End are packed with office workers much like any week i suppose - but its always a cosier feeling at Xmas. Ive braved the shops and survived unscathed thanks to relatively chirpy shop staff and cabbies. Although the check out staff in Tescos are wearing silly hats and tinsel hair but still dont quite seem able to crack a smile. Odd. The other day someone ushered me into first place in the queue when they saw i was only buying stamps. Odd. And under the sparkly Christmas lights at the end of the road theres a French crepe stall, open rain or shine. This evening i stopped and chatted en francais feeling sociable and Christmassy. I often walk past him and never say a word. As i left he offered me a free Nuttella crepe. I had to turn it down as its loaded with chocolate, carbs and about 5 squillion calories. Felt mean though. Still i consider this odd because - well..he's French!

Yep I love this time of year in London. I feel lucky to be here. I also feel lucky that my dad made a decent recovery after unexpected heart surgery recently and that we are only a week or so away from all being together. Its been a while since my sister made Xmas with only two weeks holiday a year in the US. On that note, Im sharing with you a smiley happy silly photo of moi in smiley happy silly Xmas mood. (I know the background is too much. Not very good at photoshop - in fact this was my first attempt). And actually you had to get the large version of this photo here so i could get the more modest version into the profile pic!



ps. Hat tip Right for Scotland via Dangerously Suberversive Dad for this one:

A Modern Fable

and

Rottweiler Puppy magnificently dismantles the Ozzie riot coverage - well worth a read - link right

and also


Please take a moment to read Cao's incredibly thoughtful reminder of the plight of Jack Idema. Particularly as we approach Christmas, we need to spare a thought for him and also the Taylors below. If you havent already clicked on the banal terror poll in a post below it is well worth it. We moan about how these ludicrous PC behaviours are adopted - nows your chance to get in there and mess it all up!

Jack Idema Wednesday Blogburst

Democracy 'imperfect' shock

Iraqis "surprisingly"content

Please link to Through the Looking Glass (right) to see yet more photos of lovely US soldiers and smiling Iraqis the like of which you never ever see in the MSM. Then link on the above which was buried in the BBC website today presumably because the BBC who conducted this poll were disappointed with the result. After all if the poll had produced the results al- Beeb and presumably other anti war media elements had wanted, this would have superceded the new London smog as the news item of the day. The Independent and Guardian would have been fighting over the best anti Bush headlines (The Independent would have won purely on the cheesy stakes). But no, turns out the Iraqis think democracy is alright after all, shock horror!! So then, the Beeb probes, how ya gonna sort out those nasty 'insurgents' then eh?? Or how about the fact that not everyone is behind the newly formed government eh?? Someone needs to remind al beeb that thats the thing about democracy you aint ever gonna see a full consensus! I guess theyre just scratching around -true to media form -ensuring a negative spin.

"As soon as anybody starts to do something about it somebody sticks their hands in the air and says 'What about their human rights?'

"What about the human rights of my daughter and the 50-odd people on July 7?"

Mr Taylor whose daughter was murdered on July 7 and who ive mentioned here before - speaking at today's Together Against Terror conference - where he attacked the government for being slack on security. Mr Taylor criticised the Home Office, Liberty and the Met chief all in attendance and told reporters he felt 'very angry' (source BBC). He has also previously criticised those who opposed the 90 day detention proposals and used the same obvious and powerful argument above.

So far we have reams dedicated to those survivors who 'forgive' and feel no anger, bear no grudge and... oppose the 90 day proposals. Some conservative blogs have also been very quick to smack down The Sun newspaper for being the (only) paper to have supported the PM on these proposals and have voiced their distaste for the view point in a trite and patronising manner. Perhaps those same bloggers would like to take the same stand against Mr Taylor and tell him he's wrong?

I hope that Mr Taylors voice gets heard above the oh-so-righteous din of all those protecting terrorists in the name of what they believe to be our sacred unalterable values. If not Mr Taylor, im listening!

Terror Poll

.....Part of the conference today and for the Metropolitan Police Authority...argh!

***Update - please participate in the moonbat poll open til next Monday - and make the inevitable 'focus' group's life as complex as the poll itself! Make sure your voice counts. The conference today was attended by Liberty's director, i wonder what her reaction was to Mr Taylor? As if i couldnt guess. Make SURE Liberty and the rest of these moonbats are not the ones dictating how we view the terror threat and how our police force is continually sculpted and fashioned by the Academic moonbats, by registering your opinion and COMMENTs. ....And marvel at the way the moonbats put these questions together for the very pc PCs. Small wonder the pc brigade exert the influence they do with polls like these.

Almost There...please?!

Yep this was pretty much what we woke up to in North London Sunday morning creeping across the sky. At the time i pulled back the curtains I thought that was the oddest sky i had ever seen - of course before i got round to switching on the news. On one blog early yesterday (ill link later) an engineer suggested it was most likely to be a vapour leak that ignited - which has since been circulating in the MSM. This has now been ruled out by oil industry bods. So - human error or something more sinister?

Today the smoke fumes are drifting south west and we have clear beautiful blue skies here in London again. This wont though help the incredibly brave firefighters out there struggling with the largest fire this country and Europe has seen since WW2.

The blast was heard in Holland.. how did i sleep through that?? A Saturday night Brazilian cocktail called a caipirinha thats how!

Almost There

**Belated (apologies) link to the Free Jack Idema Blogburst Week 4 also below**

I always feel like the weeks preceding Christmas are a bit like walking a tightrope. More precisely the last few feet of a tightrope where you sort of speed up at the end and wobblingly ‘dash’ to safety. This time of year is a strange mix of excitement that you’ve made it to the end of the year and can look forward to some much needed wind down time with family - and a nervous expectation of impending Doom. Ok im exaggerating - but it is always around Christmas that bad things happen to good people. Lately that’s true on a personal and general level.

Personal aside, the general includes the moonbats dancing around the so called torture camps and the painful hostage publicity – at the top of my Doom list. We can always rely on 'Liberty' (For Who's) Shami to kick up a stink about nothing, whilst remaining tight lipped over the hostage situation and turning a blind eye to someone like Jack Idema. I’m convinced she drags out a copy of the Diana - Martin Bashir interview and emulates the butter wouldn’t melt eyelash fluttering technique for her media moments. I only wish I had saved the Times interview where they desperately tried to find something interesting and flattering to say about her but had to concede her branches dont go all the way to the top of the tree.

Then there’s Ken the Moron ~ by his own recognition. He makes the Scrooge list rather than the Doom list. “Only a moron would discontinue the Routemaster buses” he once said and then promptly took them out of service. He replaced them with a bus that ticks all the boxes for a whopping 10% of Londoners. The 10% who are disabled that is. And wont use the buses anyway Ken – Timmy friendly or not. F*** the able bodied 90% eh. Id truly love to rock up to his office and ask him of he’s seen any disabled Londoners on the bendy buses that lean down to scoop them in. I mean I’m able bodied and I cant get on one of the sodding things they’re so packed. Yup - Routemaster *RIP* this week.

Next up - David Cameron the Limpet of Liberalism takes over at the helm of the Disaster Party. Then we round off the week with the LawLords, back to Shami in the wings again, banning the use of torture evidence. I KNEW it was too good to be true when the Appeals court ruled in favour of hearing terror cases in secret. “No compromise on torture” bleats Shami (subtitle: unless you’re a terrorist). UK: Don’t Turn a Blind Eye to Torture screams a banner. You mean like the upcoming hostage beheading or a certain US marine hero Jack Idema stuck in a hole where he’s periodically beaten up? Or perhaps the torture of spending your Christmas without a son or a daughter or a husband or a wife after our recent summer of love?

Just so long as she and the Crusty Lords of Fuckwittagedom get to take the moral high ground for a bit of free publicity, we get to feel much better as a nation about defending ‘values’. Apparently. Completely useless babble. Someone needs to point out that the moral high ground is none too effective a position in a WOT. Human rights groups - all squillion of them that got out and pushed on this one - are the scourge of society - they need rooting out like Maggie rooted out the Unions (glad to hear she is out of hospital god bless her)

I hope we make that little dash into Christmas safe and sound. Spare a thought for someone like Jack Idema – Rotty does an excellent job again on reminding us why.

Rottweiler Puppy

Id better shake off this bah humbug mood by lighting up the Christmas tree.

Now.

Is it over yet?.... It is!

Been a busy week at work. Ive finally found time to get blogging again. And prompted by Carol Thatcher winning the appauling but oddly fascinating Im a Celebrity I walked to work thinking about the good ol days with Carols’ mum at the helm of true conservatism - and I wondered how the Tories have managed to tail spin into nothingness with such glee. NB Prompted by Carol Thatcher - not the ever so exciting news that Cameron is IT.

I guess its mostly due to that smart statesman Tony Blair that the Ts are fumbling mess. I found myself voting for him last time around purely on the back of his terror credentials. Not something I would have ever expected to do but faced with a clear set of concerns that I could see and the Conservatives at that time, who could blame me. The Ts said all the right things regards home policies but didn’t approach the situation with any vigour a bit like opposition government. They’ve had enough time to grapple with being out of power after all. But they still seem to be in shock. They still seemed unconvinced of themselves. And the sneering pompous Michael Howard was in charge.

Then suddenly they think they see a bright new vision of…. well er...something. Noone appears to know what. And the media start hyperventilating.

About what? It was baffling!

So far all they have done is put forward some mediocre candidates with a half vision of the future - that doesnt include conservatism. In fact all the policies I would have voted for with the right leader seem to have been binned in favour of having a fluffy media bunny. They’re so clearly unsure who their voters are its almost comedy. They are now openly and proudly liberal. Theyre 'out'.

Even the candidate who was supposed to be right wing didn’t have an edge, a bite, a statesman like appeal to drive this country in the right direction, excuse the pun. The media have successfully pushed their Cameron into the role of leader and are busy patting themselves on the back and the spineless, spinning conservatives were happy to let them. Its as if they believe they are in for an easy media ride now: “look what we gave you ~ looook!”. The media will soon get bored of Cameron - it wont take long to rip him to pieces.

Overall it was hardly two great statesmen squaring up to each other.

And so we continue with a lacklustre, now left of centre conservative leader and a liberal media more resoundingly in charge of this country than ever before.

Where the Tory's are priceless at being wrong, Tony’s lot are absolutely priceless at achieving nothing of merit. With all being sensationally adept at soundbites and spin. Frankly its more exciting watching Carol Thatcher win Im a Celeb.

And at least that doesnt let you down.

A belated note on that woman

The West’s first female suicide bomber. So what was in it for the she-bomb? Their male counterparts can look forward to a heaven full of unveiled virgins and a big hand shake from Mohammed for their efforts. At least that’s what local mad mullahs would have them believe. Strikes me as odd that someone can find such breath taking courage as to take her own life and those of others on the promise of sweet FA but cant see her way to ripping off her burka and basking in some much needed sunlight.

What a mixed up bunch of unhinged sisters they must be. Lets not forget that Muslim women are so devilishly sluttish that they risk enflaming all sorts of bestial undesirables in all who pass them by. Rather than find this empowering they are content to believe the real reason for this creepy piece of bedlinen is ‘modesty’ and protection from the ‘infidel’. (Of course rape, beatings and honour killings are unquestionably acceptable from ‘non infidels’).

Yep, generally, the concept of the she-bomb is obvious. Theyve nothing to lose, are easy to persuade, gullible, absolutely no strength of character.

Meanwhile the parents of this western mulsim she-bomb seemed almost resigned that it was their daughter before they had even heard it confirmed.

"When we heard on Tuesday evening on the television that a Belgian woman had blown herself up in Iraq, we thought it was Muriel "

“She was more Muslim than Muslim”. “The religion was totally ingrained in her. She only lived for that.”
Initially, she wore a hijab, or Islamic veil, but soon started wearing the head-to-toe chador that leaves the face visible. Finally she wore a burka".

“When we saw them, they imposed their rules. We were at home, but my husband had to eat in the kitchen with Issam while the women ate together in the sitting room. There was no question of putting on the TV or opening a beer,” M Degauque said.

“My husband got so fed up that he said the next time they came round we should leave them by themselves.”
The parents seemed almost transfixed & powerless. A bit like the whole of society on a regular basis. After all, even walking past a woman in the backward looking burkha should shock and anger us. But society just shrugs its shoulders. And parents of a western woman are unshocked that they should be eating seperately in their own home and that their daughter becomes a suicide bomber.

Whats wrong with this picture?

Human Rights Farce

Im late in posting this - no excuse really other than it has been hellishly busy this week.

This directly from Cao's blog on Jack Idema speaks volumes.

It demonstrates the hypocrisy of the human rights bridgades in the ongoing situation and touches on the lack of impetus momentum, whatever you want to call it, in really facing up to a threat and tackling it. This includes the noble but weak approach to dealing with the threat in the UK. As reported over at

Through the Looking Glass

this week whilst only marginally reported in the MSM it appears the anti terror police we think are such a load of crap have been busying themselves ensuring we all enjoy our Christmas - in spite of our best efforts to hinder and rubbish them at every turn. Anti terror police, our armed forces & Mr Idema and pals - the very people who are protecting us - seem to be so much easier to villify if youve nothing better to do - on the left.

(Lets hope that in the process of tracking and catching these charmers our police managed to get enough admissable court evidence in the next two weeks to ensure they wont be out buying RPGs again in the near future)

Over to Cao:-

"Ted Kavanau is a veteran television news executive, was one of the founders of CNN and created CNN's Headline News. He has served in news managerial capacities at TV stations in New York, Oakland, Calif., and San Diego. He discovered Katie Couric, and groomed several of the newscasters we see on news shows today.

He left this comment on the Brent Bennett post the other day. Here it is.

Americans should understand the stake they have in helping free Jack, Brent and Ed and put back in action his team of terrorist hunting Afghans. Very recent history makes the case ever more sharply. Following the three bombings of American-owned Hotels in Jordan there was again a lot of chatter by pundits on TV here about how vulnerable we are in the US. Was that vulnerablity a surprise to anybody? Did it really take a horrific event to happen before we again fall back into enjoying our pleasant lifesyles? It is ironic that the attack in Jordan comes one day after the British Parliament voted down Tony Blair's proposal to triple the number of days a suspected terrorist can be held in a British prison. I hear the British press is calling for Tony Blair to resign after his defeat. I think it is time for the British Parliament members who voted against him to resign. Here in the US the Democrats, after a few electoral victories in Governor races, are smelling Bush weakness and again getting aggressive about our not yet finding Bin Laden (as well their other complaints about the war in Iraq). The Republicans are playing into the hands not only of their political enemies, but of their terrorist enemies by not unleashing one of the best weapons they have against Al Qaeda and its followers, namely Jack Idema, Brent Bennett and the Afghans warriors of Saber7. If Idema and the others had not been arrested, there was good reason (you can read all about it on www.superpatriots.us) to believe Idema would have captured Bin Laden.

Let's hope that with the new Afghan Parliament Idema and Saber7 will again have the opportunity to go hunt terrorists and keep us all a lot safer. That's the stake we all have in what happens to Idema and his team and that is why his story is so worthy of our attention and our action.

When all was said and done, these people admitted that no torture occurred, and 5 Afghan Supreme Court Justices decleared them innocent of all charges. Yet, the American government won't allow them to be released. The question is...why?

What I don't understand is why Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and all those "watch groups" haven't raised any hell in this case. I haven't heard the human rights activists complaining about THESE injustices, why would that be? Could it be that the only people they are supporting in terms of human rights violations are the terrorists and not our soldiers and the men who are defending us in this war?

Idema was tortured with boiling water, starvation, threats of death, and assault with various implements (such as wire cables and rubber whips), resulting in broken ribs, a separated sternum, torn rotator cuffs, hemorrhaged eyes, multiple concussions, lacerations, contusions, and bruises. Although the U.S. Embassy later had medical reports indicating the extent of the torture, Sandra Ingram, Assistant U.S. Consul DOS Kabul, ordered the reports rewritten to tone down the extent of the injuries.

And let's not forget how they were treated at Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving for Jack Idema, Captain Bennett, Lt Banderas, and Journalist Carabello went like this: Ten US Special Operations Soldiers were threatened by the Dept of State with Article 15's (low level court martials) if they brought Turkey to Pulacharke Prison on Thanksgiving.


If that's not enough,

US Consul Addie Harchick visted them, refused them mail, and then tried to drive away with the water the Marines sent them, until an Afghan General had his bodyguards block the Embassy car and force them to deliver the water. One of the State Dept Security officers told the story at bar last night, and it made the boys sitting there listening f***ing sick. We treated Nazi POWs better than this.

Something's terribly wrong here, and part if it has to do with the leftists who are supporting the rights of the enemy versus truly supporting our troops and the people who are fighting the WOT on our behalf.


To join the campaign, email Cao of Cao's Blog and tell her you want to join the Free Jack Idema blogburst"