Suggestion Box

...anyone who does have any ideas of inspiration - please stick them in this comment thread as Id love to hear them!

I think this is a terrific and interesting summary. Its from a hand wringing lefty-apologist and in some ways typifies what i mean about the lack of left right convergence on the issue of Islam.

I didnt mention religion as a seperate issue - and as a whole - but it worries me. We are getting more and more polarised as a nation over religion. As a very relaxed catholic i see the views on secularism becoming increasingly more important, even though ive argued very much against them in this past year and never thought that the UK would EVER need to think about this.

and lastly....'Eurabia'

"The possibility that some smelly little jihadi is looking at his computer screen, laughing and saying to his friend; "Look Ahmed.... They hate each other as much as they hate us.... this is going to be easy!", is perhaps not as remote a possibility as people may think. Some people need to get a fucking grip" (commenter at LGF)


Rightwing blogging doesnt seem to be about circulating whats hopeful and monopolising the propaganda war or battling the issues. Whereas it should be. I often think the Left and Right, the anti religious and the mod-religious DO need to converge on issues cleverly, if those issues are to be shouted down. The issue being islamic nuttism.


Some of the issue is down to the fact that the Establishment is comprised mostly of White Self Loathing Middle Class PC Liberals - so to be anti establishment or rebellious is to be in many ways anti-PC, anti-Islam, anti-everything. Where the Left have been slogan driven the Right now seem to be following.


Its not just about uncovering what the media misses anymore - its about hoping for the very worse to prove your point about it even if that is dangerously contributing to the issues you hate (eg the self loathing, hand wringing PC and anti democratic forces be they in your view Islam, the EU or New Labour or a useful combination of all three!).


And sometimes the arguments are not all they are cracked up to be. France is one such issue where people actually seem to be hoping for the very very worse. The issues -which are certainly there - sometimes get hyped out of all proportion by all the hyperventilating. The fact that most of the recent rioting occured in central Paris and was by white anarchists in the throws of extreme leftwing '68 throwback chic, or that France suffers from a deep underlying racism (but theyre secular socialists.. so say it aint so!?) which has long affected jobless North African third and fourth generations, slips on by.



And gives smelly gangstaboy-jihadiz an unnecessary sense of superiority.


"According to the information in our possession, Muslims voted in more or less equal numbers for both candidates - Sarkozy and [Socialist contender Segolene] Royal in Sunday's run-off..." says the head of the Islamic Council ...that Sarko cleverly set up a few years back and which consequently are very on board with the guy. If you look at the interactive voting map of the regions below, its pretty interesting overall.


And so much for Sarko being racist.


French footballer player Lilian Thuram has something to say on the above.

"Stop. There are many other means of being heard more effectively. We live in a society full of prejudices, this violence reinforces them whereas they should be fought.(...) people revolt when there is injustice...but Nicolas Sarkozy was elected democratically....and (contrary to what he was saying in a debate on racism that was too often 'banalise' )...what he is saying now is pretty good"

First there was Thatcherism...followed by Son of Thatcherism - Blairism...followed by not too distant French Hungarian cousin ....Sark-asm

Blogging is Bollocks: Rant Numero Trois

What was all that bollocks over Iran about?


Opening up a third front in the war on terror... or Iran, however you see it, at a time when we have fuck all to show in Iraq, stretched militaries both here and in the US and an incredibly important mission to win in Afghanistan with the start of their Spring Offensive isnt very smart. Sure everyone has opinions about it, right or wrong - but the level of crap that spewed forth towards the UK and its military just underlined a point: this isnt about 'the West'.


Propaganda.


The Middle East is shit hot at this. Not only are they skilful using the media and internet in the service both of electronic jihad and the bamboozling of Western opinion by Muslim spokesmen ...but a collective outpouring of sentiment from across the Atlantic and in the blogosphere lamenting the fact that Britain didnt start world war three and slamming Britain and its military as 'wimps' was really quite, um - special.


If you'd followed the Iranian newswire, as I did, you would have seen it first hand. They loved our self loathing.


What sickened me most though was the desire for so many across the Atlantic, who yell about anti-americanism if you criticise their soldiers - ever - was the desire to whitewash our entire military over this.


Quite honestly thats the equivalent of me suggesting the US military is entirely comprised of rapists, torturers and gung ho morons who enjoy alientating the civilian population of the country they are trying to help. Or Jessica Lynch.


Isnt that what the MSM does?


We won that round of the propaganda battle by isolating Iran - but you could be forgiven for thinking we had lost if all you ever believe is knee jerk might is right - and that propaganda has nothing to do with it.


One of the things about the blogosphere I would have at least expected them to circulate in opposition to the MSM was this image below. Someone at Free Republic got that, i suppose. And Michael Yon is an absolute star.


But the comments and crap ive read over the last year and a half needling the UK over a nos of issues were pretty much confirmed in that little issue. ...along comes a situation where the world needs to take a collective deep breath and suddenly everyone is to put it mildly indulging that certain fantasy...


Ill borrow from Steve here : Bloggers and commentators can have teenage wank fantasies about what they'd like to do to the Iranians but that's all they'll ever be - fantasies"

Blogging is Bollocks - part 2

The media is trying to colonise the blogosphere.

All the major media outlets have comment pieces on them and in many instances the British media has started to cotton on to what issues are of interest and dig a little deeper - C4 Dispatches has, even the BBC is now looking into the issues and Sky even ran a piece on Hamas propaganda last week, amongst a whole slew of comment pieces in various broadsheets - to outsmart the MSM blogging has got to almost reinvent itself again.

Of course the blogosphere has been successful in catching the media out as it did over the Hitzbollah-Israel war last year and the appauling lies propagated as truths. In fact EU Referendum has a good piece here on another buiried issue.

But part of this means some joined up writing. Instead of all standing in various corners and screaming - blogs need to try to generate some much needed light instead of so much heat.


How About Rooting for the WEST for a change you rightwing scumbags!



For an example of one of the biggest cultprits Id be inclined to point to LGF. A clever blog that to its authors kudos has been incredibly successful and was definitely one of the original blogmasters to outwit the MSM.

But it often links to islamic sites where its commenters rush to pour in their special brand of vitriol and hatred that gives the too often undeserving recipients the moral high ground!

And its dislike of anywhere outside America is all too bleedin' obvious. And often indulged by the kind of British idiots that still unfortunately wash around these shores and who like nothing more than a bit of self indulgent self-loathing. The left and right seem to have so much more in common than they thought! The "Britain deserves to be bitten. They've invited the vampires in" attitude for example.

Along with its desire to hog the limelight - detracting from the blogospheres main strengths - the ability to work collectively. An example of this was when Pub Philosopher did some great work on the Clare College Cambridge nonsense that LGF didnt even bother to credit. There isnt much of an excuse for that really.

Great comment lifted off LGF and reproduced here in same shit in our own backyards :-


....."It's not just you either. I can't count the number of posts I read each and every day prattling on about the lack of moral fortitude or opposition towards any given issue that can be ascribed to the people of Britain, mostly based on what little representation our media affords the majority of our citizens....Need I point out that you would find it grossly offensive if we held to the view that Americans are little more than overweight, beer swilling, gun toting cowboys, sitting in their trailers and watching talk shows, waiting for the weekend when they'll be marrying their cousins?. Never mind that it would be an entirely crass and uneducated view.
So we just love to be bombed do we?. We'd just love to see our children blown to pieces by terrorists would we?. Whose arse did you pull that opinion from eh?. Also, since when did any single nation have the monopoly on historical infallibility?. Any person who wishes to express that their particular nation has never made a mistake or followed the wrong path before today is full of shit, end of story. No mans nation is unnacountable for its errors in the past, but the past is unchangeable. It's where we go from today that determines where we'll be tomorrow. As Churchill said: "If we open up a quarrel between the past and the present, we will find that we have lost our future"..."

I do wonder though - especially after the Iran issue: next!

Blogging is Bollocks - part 1

It is our job continually to retest old assumptions and to seek new ideas. But we must not try to find one unalterable answer that will solve all our problems for none can exist. Margaret Thatcher

I'm trying to get into perspective why i think blogging is a load of old bollocks and why its best left. First up: The Right in the US and UK.... & Tony Blair.

Not your average homo-lefticus - credit where its due, morons!

From what ive read so far, the Right in the UK and US are happy to see the back of a man who stood firm after 9/11, took this country to war to fight terrorism, acted as a sort of Lawyer to the often hopeless George W Bush and who stood firm on Israel - all at a time many on the Left would have sold their souls to the devil on any of these issues. The right wing blogosphere spends a great deal of time issuing criticism to the Left on its reaction to 9/11, the War on Terror, Israel, anti-semitism, anti-americanism and the failure to grasp what it feels (uniquely you could be forgiven for thinking), is a basic fight for our shared values.

Interesting then that in their sending off of Tony Blair ive not see one sincere mention of the mans single and often lonely ability to cut through all of those apparently massively important issues in his own party and make a decent number of points.

Mr Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister between 1996 and 1999, speaking about Tony Blair last year during the Hitzbollah-Israeli conflict:

He said he believed Mr Blair had correctly judged this situation: "that this is not a local conflict between two tribes". He said Hezbollah regarded Israel as "the first step on the way to an Islamic empire"

"It is a mad wisdom and it should not be dismissed because it's mad, just as Hitler - he started off as an attack on the Jews and this is the same thing," he said.

"Tony Blair understands this. Some of the chattering classes do not. They learnt nothing from history. They really think it is a problem with Israel.

"Mr Blair is doing a great deal. He's standing up for his beliefs - he is nobody's puppet.

"He genuinely understands what is the correct picture. He is getting attacked from every side.

That makes him more of a leader, not less so.

"Leadership is tested in doing the unpopular things - not going with the flow."

Please show me a Western leader who has, on the international stage, been as outspoken on these apparently massive issues as Tony Blair or one who has dedicated as much energy since 9/11? At a time when we could have been under some nutjob commie, here we have a leader that makes clear his position on Israel. On democracy. On supporting our values. On reaffirming the problem of islamism. On daring to suggest that pernicious forces are at work globally formenting anti western opinion and who sees it as a wholly international problem. Anyone would think these issues are the kind to be easily unpicked. How can you implement anything at home and abroad when it takes the energy it does to sell the idea in the first place? And if the manner in which he went about it at home wasnt up to scratch where were the big demos, the outrage..in fact come to think of it where is there any challenge from Opposition or opposition? I get the feeling its easier to point the finger and bemoan the fate of democracy than play a part in defining it.

Blair party speech 2006:

"This is a struggle that will last a generation and more. But this I believe passionately: we will not win until we shake ourselves free of the wretched capitulation to the propaganda of the enemy, that somehow we are the ones responsible.This terrorism isn't our fault. We didn't cause it. It's not the consequence of foreign policy. It's an attack on our way of life. It's global. It has an ideology"

"Yes it's hard sometimes to be America's strongest ally. Yes, Europe can be a political headache for a proud sovereign nation like Britain. But believe me there are no half-hearted allies of America today and no semi-detached partners in Europe. And the truth is that nothing we strive for, from the world trade talks to global warming, to terrorism and Palestine can be solved without America, or without Europe"

Blair on Israeli conflict 2006:

"The purpose of the provocation that began the conflict in Lebanon was clear. It was to create chaos and to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it."
The point is this. This is war, but of a completely unconventional kind....9/11 in the US, 7/7 in the UK, 11/3 in Madrid, the countless terrorist attacks in countries as disparate as Indonesia or Algeria, what is now happening in Afghanistan and in Indonesia, the continuing conflict in Lebanon and Palestine, it is all part of the same thing. What are the values that govern the future of the world? Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division and hatred? My point is that this war can't be won in a conventional way. It can only be won by showing that our values are stronger, better and more just, more fair than the alternative. Doing this, however, requires us to change dramatically the focus of our policy..." ...."And most contemporaneously, and in some ways most perniciously, a very large and, I fear, growing part of our opinion looks at Israel, and thinks we pay too great a price for supporting it and sympathises with Muslim opinion that condemns it. Absent from so much of the coverage, is any understanding of the Israeli predicament..."

Blair - Council of Foreign Relations written piece in the US 2006

"....many in Western countries listen to the propaganda of the extremists and accept it. (And to give credit where it is due, the extremists play our own media with a shrewdness that would be the envy of many a political party.)"

"If we recognized this struggle for what it truly is, we would at least be on the first steps of the path to winning it. But a vast part of Western opinion is not remotely near this point yet.This ideology has to be taken on -- and taken on everywhere. Islamist terrorism will not be defeated until we confront not just the methods of the extremists but also their ideas. I do not mean just telling them that terrorist activity is wrong. I mean telling them that their attitude toward the United States is absurd, that their concept of governance is prefeudal, that their positions on women and other faiths are reactionary. We must reject not just their barbaric acts but also their false sense of grievance against the West, their attempt to persuade us that it isothers and not they themselves who are responsible for their violence"

Couple for the road:


Good read. Can't read French? tough! c/o l'Ombre (great blog) who notes what i thought:

"the banlieues failed to explode into an orgy of rioting and protest as certain folks (hoped) predicted".

I hope Nawal El Saadawi was as encouraged by Sarkozys words in his victory speech - to women in burqas (eg under Islam) - as I was.

She wrote the following letter c/o Ni Putes Ni Soumises:

Ségolène Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy. Vous qui aurez dans deux semaines les rênes de notre pays, puis-je vous interrompre quelques instants. Je sais que la campagne vous occupe pleinement, mais le sujet pour lequel je vous interpelle est suffisamment sérieux

A l’heure où vous lisez ces quelques lignes, une femme égyptienne, Nawal El Saadawi, est exilée de son pays et ne peut pas y revenir. Médecin psychiatre, écrivaine et féministe depuis près de 50 ans, Nawal a publié une pièce de théâtre en janvier dernier. Elle y écrit que Dieu est un esprit, et non une femme ou un homme. Pour cette « injure à l’islam », l’université islamique du Caire lui a intenté un procès.

Nawal is an Egyptian exile, psychiatrist wroter and feminist who has fought for equal rights in the muslim world and wants to get the Arab world out of 'l’obscurantisme religieux'. She made the mistake of publishing a theatre piece in which she likened God to a spirit - causing offence to Islaaaaaaaam! And so the University of Cairo has started legal proceedings against her.

Maybe they should contact Cambridge Uni for some pointers.

Bye Chirac

Im still in France and will be for a while (this will be last post from me for a good while reckon, not sure about this blogging lark and so need some time away).

Its been fascinating to be here as the French election draws to a close. The tv and news is no longer allowed to report - allowing the traditional two days of reflection for the French public.

Ive been following the campaigns for over a year and now its crunch time finally. Everyone here wants to talk politics and share their views, considerable choice and real democracy has seen all the parties get a reasonable look-in.

The TV debate between the final two contenders did little to sway people one way of another in the end though Sego cam eout of it well - and neither did Bayrou who came out and damned Sarkozy on Friday in a day that offered up little other than desperation.

It seems as though the French have, barring some last minute shock, which i wouldnt put past them, made up their minds. Most felt the gaff prone Sego came across well in the debate but that it wasnt enough - and that Sarko though at times too often on the backfoot and unsure of how to tackle this woman, in the debate - had all the ideas. I also felt that Sego spent too much timing chalking up her resume for women. Anyway - 90% of the French public have now decided and the polls indicate a solid Sarkozy win - which would be fantastic.

Im not sure that I am the same as everyone on the right in that I view good and bad in all ideas but essentially want a strong leader in the West. I am fed up with the transatlantic nonsense. Chirac was a buffoon but then Bush is noone to hold up as an aspirational leader - and whats to come in both the UK and US fills me with a sort of malaise! For all his faults i still maintain Blair was a Tory and a strong one at that. The issue for me there was always how we eventually went to US hardcore style over substance in terms of personality and media driven agendas. All politicians rest on soundbites and that includes Sarkozy but he offers France a clear choice. Please point to what we have in comparison in the UK?

Anyway- the debate was substance over all too often simpering style. I hope that the French dont cave in at the last moment. Watching the UK elections in comparison you could be forgiven for thinking democracy is well and truly dead, finished, over. I caught the news on the BBC in time to hear one Scot moan that if this was a small African country the issue of the ballot paper spoiled would have resulted in international cries for a re-vote. Quite. The politcal stalemate was indicited nowhere more so than in the Tory victory - nothing short of sensationally boring. Across the Atlantic I gather a young Obama is seen as something of a breath of fresh air. But reading his speech on Harrys Place left me cold - rhetoric rhetoric and yet more rhetoric.. What are people voting FOR?

Thats the issue with Sego. And she though became desperate and ridiculous yesterday suggesting he was a threat to democracy. An offer of something clear and different to socialism on the table is a threat now. She looked ridiculous and i think that may have finished her off.

Slowly walking down the road flanked by muslims suggesting Sarko’s elections would spark violence to end her campaign she bemoaned what was to come in the face of a clear set of proposals to lift France out of 1968 politically. Sarko also used the banlieues at the start of his campaign - suggesting they would clean out the banlieues with a karsher. The issue goes to the core of some of the French worry.

Then of course she suggested Sarko was a mini-Bush - but not the war mongerer, rather the veneer of compassionate conservatism:

"He (Sarkozy) imitates George W. Bush in this technique of compassionate conservative. One cries over people. The various facts are used and, when one is at responsibilities, one does not act for the present and one promises for tomorrow. See the election campaigns of Bush, but, when there was the catastrophe of New-Orleans, one did not see it on the ground!...(Sarkozy) carries the same neoconservative ideology."

Sarko eventually put paid to her desperation in Le Parisien on line:

"To explain that if people don't vote for one candidate there will be violence is quite simply to refuse the democratic and republican expression of opinion. We've never seen this before, never. It's a worrying form of intolerance."..(Come to the Uk Sarko experienece itfor real and then revel in the future)...."Instead of explaining her propositions and criticizing mine, she has wanted to caricature me...I am myself, I defend my own ideas."

Good luck to him & cheerio at alst to Chirac Le Grand Voleur.

"Is he still the President? I thought it was the little guy?" from a cartoon last year

Friends like These

Shitbag Mr Armageddon and his (not so ) adoring 'masses' - hat tip Azamehr

Last weekend, 15 of our sailors and marines -- part of an international force and under U.N. auspices (which means nothing nowadays)-- carried out a routine inspection of a merchant ship near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iraq from Iran. As they returned to their own vessel in small boats, two Iranian gunboats approached, signalling friendly intentions – fairly regular and normal encounters in these waters - according to the journalist on board HMS Cornwall at the time. However four more gunboats, armed with machine guns and RPGs surrounded the patrol boats and with the 15 sailors clearly outgunned forced a surrender. It appears the Cornwall lost sight of her patrol boat (not unheard of) and faced with RPGs a helicopter stood NO chance. Opening fire at this point (Cornwall or personnel) would have been an utterly futile and frankly, pathetic last act. As would hairy chested gung-ho knee jerk military action into a third front in a war with Iran. The IRG are well trained ffs.

The Iranians have their men in a pre planned mission and are now attempting to do what the Islamic world does best, drive propaganda and blood pressure levels to drive rifts between allies and the West in general, show Western ‘aggressors’ as weak and distract from popularity issues at home. How much more popular are service personnel along with their "confessions", in uniform, paraded & widely broadcast to get people feeling good about a government unpopular with so many.

It’s pretty clear now that some (unexpected) voices are doing their level best to play along with the Iranian ruse at a point when even the EU has stepped out of its traditional line!

Without a hint of irony, one jerk, in his helpful rush to pass judgment a week after the ambush, in some American rag I need to provide a link to (!), managed to heap blame on the British AND talk about Nelson spinning in his grave. As if Nelson was bobbing around in some dingy when he took on the French? The Cornwall unleashing any power on retreating boats would have done what precsiely? Anyone? He also manages to pour scorn on the British reaction and then bypass the facts that the US were caught hand-wringing for a ‘mere’ 444 days in the mother of all hostage crises that ended so tragically and went on to inspire the arab world. Mr Armageddon was even a main player in the abduction of those US staff in 1979. And sidesteps the fact that in Mogadishu in 1994 the greatest military power in the world was ill-prepared, out-manoevered, humbled and humiliated, its men paraded both dead and alive –to Bin Laden’s delight. Who cares they got their man when 2 Black Hawks were brought down and the American Goliath was dragged through the town?


The point is that in 2007 it really matters very little how they rumble you at the end of the day. The 'lame', 'spineless' accusations are just a load of useless tub thumping & music to Iran’s ears. To my surprise, there seems to be plenty of this in the US blogosphere. Why? UK forces, command & government have been no quislings (whether you support this as a war on terror or view them as tools in America’s 9/11 payback). Blair is isolating Iran and has done so quickly. He seems to playing his hand in this ludicrous game rather well. What do those who accuse the British government of being spineless specifically want them to do – RIGHT now.

Any war with Iran needs some preparation. However this progresses it's patently clear the Iranian government is holding a burning fuse (from the inside and out)..not a fucking candle!

(Christ on a bike - Pelosi blocks motion of basic support for the British hat tip Troll.)

'Percifics'

(hit pause and let it load)

(Going to be away for a bit, bfn)

Medals from the Queen

The Queen presented Major William Chesarek from the United States Marine Corps with a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), awarded for gallantry in action during operations. He became the first American serviceman to receive a DFC since the Second World War. Private Michelle Norris has become the first ever woman to be presented with a Military Cross, one of the highest awards for exemplary gallantry against the enemy on land.

pic hat tip Op For via Defence News

Mike at ATW points to this - 'see how we like to say 'Thanks!' to our friends and neighbours".

Iraqi children celebrate their hard fought freedom

pics from Lenins Tomb Watch

"Many believe that the war was a dreadful mistake from which Iraq will take decades to recover and that its people would happily prostrate themselves in front of Saddam Hussein again if the hangman’s noose had not intervened. However, a survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis by Opinion Research Business, a reliable pollster, gives an utterly different view. It shows a country which is far more optimistic than anyone would have expected. By two to one, Iraqis say that life is better under the present system. There is, as might be expected, a clear Sunni-Shi’ite split. But even 29% of Sunnis, who had it pretty easy under Saddam, say things are better now. This result, when you take into account the fear, the bloodshed, the power cuts, the lack of water and the sheer struggle of everyday life, is remarkable...."

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Empress Alison the Ceaseless of Yockenthwait Walden Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Power to the People

Ken Livingstone's transport heavies have been giving someone we know an unjust threatening hard time of late.

I'm pleased to report a citizens victory.

INTERNATIONAL Womens Day.... Was Rubbish

Ethical shopping, exhibitions from fashion designers and Kulture2Couture, preparing meals with Spice Magic and how to fix your bike. Some of the treats in store for us layyyydeees care of our gracious Mayor, for International Womens Day, in an email circulated last week.

What a patronising joke (and way to spend your money!).

Truly emphasising how trivial International Womens Day has become in this country, if it were even needed other than to grab your cash. It took some time to dig about and get some 'soundbites' about meaningful issues that represent the original intention of this day and I posted the ones i found below earlier this week.

In the West weve moved beyond 'feminism'. The IWD website acknowledges that we have come so far, this day is more a 'celebration' than a movement. Yep we left that sad shower of hippie 'radicals' (Germaine Greer and her...um, gusset). The Commies who turned into Barbies PR brigade or worse..Islams PR brigade. Eugh. I'd love to dissolve the twitty 'war' started by people who think i should be boiling pulses, smiling at native dancers (as a token gesture to international) and cooing over some street fashion ...whilst paying glossy lipservice to the environment and 'positive discrimination'. Continued by their male antagonists and 'misguided' f$male chauvinists - the ones who think a womans virtues are best liberated by size 6 airbrushing and frilly thongs. Tweee! Being duped into the male stereotype is nothing new - at the opposite end of the addled spectrum are women who tell you the burqa protects them.

Ultimately - if you want to, you can make it on merit in this country. You can argue your case by demonstrating your self belief, or by example, or presenting a strong enough case, or saying ladz magz schoolboy needling is like Gay Pride - all in-ya-face tits, arse and innuendo.

You can challenge real issues like rape and get it taken seriously. (This is NOT an issue that sits on the left or the right by the way and i resent that being perpetuated by the old associations with the word feminism in this country).

Maybe Ferris Bueller was right all along. "A person should not believe in an 'ism' he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me"". At any rate the mysognists that remain here in the West (mostly it would seem bobbing about in the blogosphere..) only need a 'dose' of reality - here we can at least load and administer the 'syringe' ;) .

On a serious note the issues that matter to women here, still do matter but they are perhaps more readily surmountable if we find a common, respectful ground and understand all sorts of issues really do matter to gals ...and guys.. to us all. We all need to 'buy in' to 'it'.

The 'sisterhood' and its true worth in obtaining insurances on votes, a chance to change things politically and fight real injustice should extend to the serious efforts being made beyond our own borders to women who want the same 'start'. Serious serious efforts. Big risks are being taken elsewhere. This international day should be a unique (soley!) an opportunity to focus attention onto those who are making these powerful strides, as the original meaning of this movement intended - if its to have any lasting meaning at all. They are fighters. They have a genuine desire to change their lot and risk it all. The MSM rarely shout about it. This is an opportunity to go all out and support them.

Last year's International Women's Day rally in Iran for equal rights was a horrendous affair. The women were set upon and violently beaten by special anti-riot squads from the Revolutionary Guards. The security forces charged the group and began beating the protesters. Even after the protesters had dispersed many were followed and beaten. Some of the female protesters were beaten repeatedly with batons, and some male protesters were beaten severely by security forces in teams.

Last Sunday in what seems like a premptive attempt to dissuade anyone from demonstrating this year on IWD - and after a year of crackdowns on what women can wear, university places for women and so on...Thirty seven leading Iranian women campaigners were arrested outside the revolutionary court for staging a peaceful demonstration. One was thrown against a busstop and had her teeth smashed. See pictures of the women posted here on ATW and in this link The gathering was in support of five other women activists who were appearing in court for having organised previous peaceful gatherings. The five who were appearing in court today were Nooshin Khorassani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer and Soosan Tahmasbi.

The following petitions in support of the arrested Iranian women campaigners -HERE

hat tip on this as always... - For a democratic secular Iran

International Womens Day? Bear with me....!

Since its International Womens Day March 8 (is that a collective groan i hear?!) here are some different inspiring thoughts and themes I collated that stand out (to me) that I thought id share with you (if you are out there)... some where we need to see urgent change.

-'The capacity to dream and have fun' - Urvashi Butalia, head of Kali books, India - (from the Guardian)-

"I'd be deep in a campaign, locked in discussion with the state, fiercely opposed to the fundamentalists, fighting for the rights of minorities. If he were then to ask - as young men in the21st century might well do - what I wished for Indian women in this century, I would say an end of illiteracy, poverty and hunger, and, of course, the capacity and possibility to dream and have loads of fun. In other words, not only the whole of akasha, but a profoundly transformed akasha, a whole new sky, covering a whole new world, And I'd hope that the young man wouldn't then slink off but would stay, cast off his devilish garb, and join in the campaigns and the fun..".

-343 mothers of the ghettoes speak out - France-Campaign for Mamans (Ni Putes Ni Soumises)-

"It was to us, the mothers in the ghettoes, that you turned when the riots erupted in France, to calm the rage. To tell our children that violence isn't the solution to unemployment and racism. To stop these images of civil war that ran throughout the world. It was us you asked to prove our ability to control our kids, to keep our kids (often bigger & stronger than us) inside and at home. We ask you to assist us as women first. Give us transport out of the ghettoes - where the only meeting places are cafes...for men. Creche facilities ...so that we are not restricted to homes, vulnerable to sexist violence. Help us expose and condemn polygamy, forced marriage. ...Put our academic qualifications to good use. ..Because we are the real actresses of integration, we ask you the ladies and gentlemen of Politics to stop marginalising us. It is only by being free, emancipated that we can fulfil our roles as mothers properly and make real Citizens of our children"

-'Another sexual revolution' Women's rights and healthcare advocate, New Zealand-(Guardian)-

"My second wish is to see another sexual revolution led by women. The first one was about women earning the right to say yes and now women need to fight for the right to say no - to reclaim control over their bodies. What I see now is women willingly embracing damaging stereotypes concerning their bodies and their sexual behaviour. New Zealand has a major problem with eating disorders, there's a boom in cosmetic plastic surgery, then we see people like Bernadine Oliver-Kirby, a prominent sportswoman, posing on a rugby magazine cover naked from the waist up with a rugby jersey painted on her torso. How can you expect to be treated seriously and at the same time want people to look at your tits?"

-Women with Voices Bagdad - planned and on the IWD website but not sure if this will go head -

A day planned to Inspire, Educate and Empower the international women within the International Zone..to celebrate the beautifully diverse cultures and history within the local military and civilian populations as well as women from our Host Nation of Iraq. * American military women read inspiring poetry and true stories; * The highest ranking female Iraqi military officer who is Kurdish will speak about her "Journey of Courage" and An Iraqi female physician speaks to "Vision and a Voice".

-Prostitution: What's Going On? (a UK Exhibition until 31 March) -

A provocative and challenging exhibition exploring the topical and urgent issues of prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation ....and ...elsewhere a seminar entitled Women’s Rights, the Veil and Islamic and religious laws will be held by the International Campaign in Defence of Womens Rights in Iran and with the Secular Society - at the University of London Union Thursday March 8 from 6 - 10pm.

In IRAN recently, over 30 women were arrested and charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering after protesting outside the court where 5 women were being tried for organising a protest last June against laws discriminating against women (hat tip Harrys Place)

Thing that i am most grateful for today? That I was born here in the UK and that I can make my own informed choices about everything - and that I can make my way on merit. Thing i most hate about feminism? A man summed that up. Nick Cohen remarked in Whats Left? that if western feminists dont fight oppression in Kabul and turn their backs on, for example, Afghan women..and believe God only gave rights to free born Englishmen... then feminist beliefs wouldnt be a philosophy but...a way of obtaining advantage in the Western job market. And you could conclude that feminism was not a serious political force. I agree. (Yes i think there are issues to highlight here - rape, the justice system and the shoulder shrugging being one such issue). And i thought it was pretty poor indeed that Alan Johnson chickened out of reinforcing the recent High Court ruling on the veil in schools - leaving it to schools to muddle through that equality battle and Islamic quagmire unsupported themselves.

The pic is of a recently freed Nazanin top left and middle ex Miss UK 'role model' 'Danielle Lloyd LAID BARE Inside!' in Maxim and 'a Marianne', a celebrated woman of France - who tragically died of stomach cancer after surviving gang rape in the banlieues as a young girl and helping found Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submissives).

There was one other on Afghanistan to add in - too tired now, later...fwiw

You will Reap Nothing

After looking at the images posted on ATW of systematic kilings i think its only natural to question who on earth we are helping in Iraq.

Prior to the overthrow of Saddam all sorts of hideous barbaric acts were committed and the people who participated in any of these were vile then and are vile now. A country with systematic abuse is bound to have its share of vile specimens. And a good number pouring in from abroad.

What shocks me most is the lack of condemnation. Whilst our lads actions are held to account and highlighted and used to condemn every reason to be there, such disgusting muslim on muslim violence is not met with anything near the outcry from those who claim we are just there 'killing muslims'.

Last weeks Guardian heaped scorn on the PM towards his remarks that we should be 'immensely proud' of our efforts and our troops as they withdraw from southern Iraq. Marina Hynde in The Guardian alluded to and made light of Comical (not Chemical) Ali's remarks to make her jokey point. Asserting that his 'ravings' seemed somehow 'prophetic' - "Dont be so hasty because your disappointment will be great".he said ."You will reap nothing from this aggressive war except for disgarce and defeat" . 'Little did we know it but he was speaking more sense than our Prime Minister' she concludes. Really Marina? Could that be because you've thought so from the start and drumming home your determination has helped it along? It is interesting that Comical Ali and Marina both concentrate on what 'we' would reap as opposed to what local Iraqis want as that is the view they both couldnt care less about.

Who knew for example that, thanks to British troops, Saddams cruel efforts to drain the southern marshes have been reversed and are now back to 40% of their original size? That British aircraft sprayed almost 100,000 trees with insecticide helping their production to double since the days of Hussein's rule, immensely appreciated by the locals. BBB comments in the IHT that one of the locals asked him to visit the old British cemetery in Baghdad.

It was beautiful, he said: a sanctuary, a paradise. "And the gravestones are safe," the local assured him. "I have removed them, so that no one will destroy them." Such is the hatred?

He also points to the turnout in the elections which was strong and better than elsewhere (re Basra), 'where there have been highly successful missions to capture arms caches and terrorists, and grateful Iraqis rush to ask for their help in mediating tribal disputes or providing more protection from the militias'. Importantly 'The American presence also is helping to convince local tribes to turn against the bleak worldview offered by Al Qaeda and they are frequently asked to return to protect neighbourhoods they have cleared and moved on'.

He concludes that the "moral hazard" argument — 'the idea that, the longer coalition troops stay, the longer we simply allow the Iraqis to avoid sorting out their own problems — is perhaps the most powerful claim for coalition troops to leave Iraq altogether. To some extent this is too simplistic - Iraq's historical state has always been one of constant internal violence...The priority now is to give Iraqis the best possible conditions to achieve the best feasible Iraq: one that stays whole, that suffers less internal violence than it has historically, that is not a threat to its neighbours or to the rest of us and that, through a few good internal examples and a modicum of representative government, has hope and mechanisms for improving itself'. Pity the worlds media couldnt get behind that idea at the start.

How often did we hear of the success stories and achievements such as these? How often was this allowed to balance out the negative, damaging and often hysterical propaganda prefered by the likes of Marina, Stoppers and co in her quasi admiration for Comical Ali? Hers was the sort of dispicable criticism most often parroted eg all a BIG joke...like 'Bush No 1 Terrorist' and 'Bliar'. Same tired old joke. It certainly is a case of you reap what you sow from that perspective.

We are ALL Angry

In a well structured response to the newspaper The Independent (a broadsheet with an ailing circulation i prefer to think of as the Daily Mail for liberals) Michael Ehioze-Ediae at 18DoughtyStreet summarises what we've all said at one time or other.

You are not the only ones grieving.

1 Increase in Terrorism
2 Africans are Angry
3 The British are Angry
4 The Americans are angry
5 We are all angry

1 Increase in Terrorism

The Independent’s leading story has laid the blame for the rise of terrorism at the feet of America. It argues that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have radicalised a new generation of young Muslims who are angry about the treatment meted out to their fellow Muslims. Further, the paper claims that its view is backed up by evidence provided by the United States National Intelligence estimate. One should ask, even if these claims are true, do they justify the slaughter of innocent women and children? Why is it that the rest of the world is expected to ‘understand’ the anger of these radicalised Muslims? Are they the only ones who are angry?

2 Africans are Angry

Black Africans are angry that Condoleezza Rice was described as a black monkey by Palestinian newspapers because she supports Bush’s policies. They are angry that black people are being killed in Sudan by an Islamist government. They are angry that black people were killed when Tanzania and Kenya were bombed by Al-Qaeda. They are angry that black people are taken as slaves by Muslim Arabs. They are angry that when the Trade Towers collapsed, killing black people, there was rejoicing by Muslims on the streets of Gaza.

3 The British are Angry

The British people are angry that they have offered hospitality to Muslims fleeing persecution in their home countries only for clerics to call for the destruction of Britain in return. The British people are angry that British Muslims whose parents were welcomed to this country decided to blow up the underground trains killing over 50 people. The British people are also angry that during the cartoon protests, Muslims carried banners warning Britain to expect another terrorist attack.

4 The Americans are angry

The Americans are angry that despite intervening at the cost of their lives to prevent genocide in Kosovo, Muslims cheer when America is called the great Satan. The Americans are angry that despite the huge amounts of financial aid they provide to Pakistan and Egypt, the populations of those countries hate America. The Americans are angry that despite the fact that they provided security to the Arab countries when Saddam Hussein threatened to attack them, people danced in the streets during 9/11.

5 We are all angry

Well, Independent, as you can see, there are a lot of people angry on the planet. Therefore instead of appeasing fundamentalist anger, it would be perhaps more advisable to explain to these people that they should join the peacful political processes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Other groups have done the same and thus they have no excuse for murdering innocent people in the name of ‘grievance’. After all, they do not have a monopoly on ‘grievance’.

I just somehow ended up reading a wiki entry on Norman Tebbit. Tebbit was a close ally of Thatcher and served as her Secretary of State for Employment, Trade and Industry and as party chairman. - fyi - His wife became permanently wheelchair-bound after the Provisional IRA bombing of the 1984 Conservative party conference in Brighton. On 30 January 2006 he accused the Conservative Party of abandoning the party's true supporters on the Right, and opposed the new Leader David Cameron's attempts "to reposition the party on the 'Left of the middle ground'. Ive heard some of these before but liked them grouped together.

Quotes:

Said to Tom Litterick, a Labour MP, during a Commons debate in the late 70s (he died of another heart attack soon after this):

Go away and have another heart attack

On the BBC:

A typical piece of BBC anti-Tory propaganda.

(From an article heavily critical of the BBC and of what Tebbit regarded as the corporation's left-wing bias. Tebbit was referring to an episode of Doctor Who entitled Pyramids of Mars which he had recently seen - he perceived a "wasteland version of 1980" featured in the episode to be a symbolic, allegorical and propagandistic attack on the Thatcher government. Tebbit was apparently completely unaware that the episode in question was actually filmed in 1975, four years before Thatcher had even come to power). (He wasnt wrong though. It was just the BBC being ahead of its time.)

and

The word 'conservative' is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate minds of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties.

On John Major

He has the mulishness of a weak man with stupidity

About Tony Blair

I don't think he's a liar, just a fantasist. He says whatever he likes, and then he believes it.

On Islam and the West

The Muslim religion is so unreformed since it was created that nowhere in the Muslim world has there been any real advance in science, or art or literature, or technology in the last 500 years...we've leapt ahead in all material terms, but the Muslim world would say we have fallen down in all spiritual and moral terms. We have to accept our share of the blame and they have to accept theirs.

On changing the rules of the House of Lords

My Lords, would it not be a good idea if the Chairman of Committees and all Members resisted the mad idea of this House being dragged into this century? It is a very disagreeable century. Would it not be a better idea to drag us back perhaps into the 19th century, which in many ways was a very much better one for this country?

On claims that he is a racist:

I haven't got a racist bone in my little finger

On Muslim women wearing the veil:

If they wish to cover their faces and isolate themselves from the rest of the community and so thoroughly reject our culture then I cannot imagine why they want to be here at all. Perhaps they should just push off back to their own countries.

The Lost Tomb

The Discovery Channel now has a website up and running about the documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which will premiere in the US and the UK, i think, at the beginning of March.

In the feature documentary a case is made that the 2,000-year-old “Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries” belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth. Since the 1970s, hundreds of tombs and thousands of ossuaries (limestone bone boxes) have been discovered in the Jerusalem area. These ossuaries served as coffins in first-century Jerusalem. One of these tombs was found to contain ten ossuaries. Six of the ossuaries in this tomb have inscriptions on them. As it turns out, every inscription in this particular tomb relates to the Gospels.

All leading epigraphers agree about the inscriptions. All archaeologists confirm the nature of the find. 'It comes down to a matter of statistics'. A statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters (Discovery Channel/Vision Canada/C4 UK) concludes that the probability factor is 600 to 1 in favour of this tomb being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The film also documents DNA extraction from human residue found in two of the ossuaries and reveals new evidence that throws light on Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene. (How would they be able to do that?!). All sounds incredible to me but fascinating nonetheless.

Misogyny 6, women 0

A fanatical religious preacher shot a woman cabinet minister in Pakistan for not wearing a Muslim veil at a public meeting she was about to address. Zilla Huma Usman was Punjab's Minister for Social Welfare and a strong campaigner for women's rights,. She was shot in the face as she was being showered with rose petals by supporters on arrival at a public meeting. Her bearded attacker, Mohammad Sarwar, called out: "Why aren't you in Islamic dress?", her sin in his eyes was not wearing the traditional veil . "I have no regrets. I just obeyed Allah's commandment," he said. The country's minister for social welfare described her death as "an unbearable loss to the cause of women's rights and their empowerment". Meanwhile of course, back in Lancs: Mohammed Riaz made every conceivable attempt to prevent his wife and daughters enjoying their Westernised lifestyle. He destroyed their clothes...t[T]he labourer killed his wife and four daughters by throwing petrol over them as they slept and igniting it. (hat tip Butterflies and Wheels, yes, i feel sick too)

**update: Mysoginists 8, women O

It has a name: Raunch Culture

Something's been bugging me for ages and ive never been able to really put my finger on it - other than to say i am fed up with knickerless Britney, Paris Hilton and some dirty internet footage, Jordan and her boob jobs, Abbey Titmuss and Rebecca Loos celebrated as celebs for doing nothing more than shagging someone famous..... Im fed up with GQ, Maxim, Loaded and a variety of soft porn bullshit boys magazines that set girls up on the cover like a couple of grinning bimbos which the models themselves seem to buy into, unquestioningly, and would probably babble on about being 'empowering'.

On the back of a post at ATW on teenagers aspiring to have kids as fashion accessories (nothing new really 'i want a brown baby like all the other mothers on the estate') it got me thinking about role models and all this sort of stuff again. It has a massive influence. I was looking up figures and found this:

Which of these professions appeals the most to teenage girls?

Glamour model 63%

Lap dancer 25%
Teacher 3%
Doctor 4%
Lawyer 3%
Nurse 2%

In a poll conducted by mobile entertainment providers, www.thelab.tv over half of British teenagers between the ages 15-19 would rather take their clothes off for a living than enter the professional sector. The seemingly endless media coverage of celebrities such as Jordan, Abi Titmuss and Lucy Pinder has sparked a shift in the professional ambition of Britain's teenage girls as they see glamour modelling as more appealing than more traditional jobs such as doctors and lawyers.

Looking up the stats I also found this. A book that tries to pinpoint it all.

"Levy cleverly leads us to explore the role models women aspire to emulate. We are not pursuing the confident, self-determined, powerful, free ideal the women’s liberation movement would have dreamed for its daughters. Instead, our icons are porn stars and strippers and prostitutes. Paris Hilton and Jenna Jameson flaunt their successes in the pornography industry, and in doing so seem to earn our adulation", "that a number of female Olympic athletes saw fit to pose nude for Playboy before the 2004 games in Athens, for instance..." says it all really.

This comment struck a chord for a number of reasons:

"Every once and awhile, a book brings together cultural trends that until then were rattling around unconnected in the back of our minds. This is one of those books. When and how did porn suddenly become mainstream and cool? It wasn't that long ago that it was a back-room thing, and now it's sexy and desirable. Girls don't want to be pretty anymore -- they want to be "hot," which apparently means something that used to be called "slutty." Read this book, and a lot of contradictory cultural trends suddenly come into sharp focus. A great analysis of modern American trends".

Tom commented on the ATW post:

"I think teen magazines (both lads' and girls') play a part in all this too.You walk past the magazine racks and the covers of Zoo & Nuts are just porn in your face. What image of women do those mags create for the 13-20 year old lads who buy them?"

Very true. It does cut both ways and does create this vicious spiral. There's been a relentless media drive towards this sort of consumerist 'ideal' which then gets heaped back onto young men and women growing up as they grapple with it all. Some power struggle. It has really all gone off the deep end when women buy into all this crap and see it as 'empowering', when the media churn it out for a fast buck ad nauseum and when tacky models are known by name by some blokes and are seen as aspirational by some girls.

"Our popular culture, she argues, has embraced a model of female sexuality that comes straight from pornography and strip clubs, in which the woman's job is to excite and titillate - to perform for men. According to Levy, women have bought into this by altering their bodies surgically and cosmetically, and - more insidiously - by confusing sexual power with power, so that embracing this caricaturish form of sexuality becomes, in their minds, a perverse kind of feminism"

Apparently this book which is two years old, will 'create many aha! moments for readers who have been wondering how porn got to be pop and why feminism is such a dirty word'.

Having just used that word pop on that thread myself, Im inspired to read the book.

We all aspired to be British Once

"My secular creed is drawn from Rudyard Kipling, and is succinctly reviewed in his “If” poem, wherein the applicable text reads: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same.” It is a creed in which, plainly, wailing and gnashing of teeth is for savages.

As likewise, hysteria at funerals, chauvinist displays, and expressions of hatred in the public square. Ladies and gentlemen don’t do that sort of thing, and don’t even need a religion to know better. Unmanly behaviour is “not British”, if I might use an expression our Canadian ancestors understood, whether French, English, or whatever. For we all aspired to be “British” once, in the sense just given: it was something deeper than ethnicity"

I loved the story the Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling, concerning two British ex-soldiers who set off from 19th century British India in search of adventure and end up as Kings of Kafiristan (Afghanistan).

The story was inspired by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan who claimed the title Prince of Ghor around the year 1840 thanks to the military force he led into Afghanistan.

The story goes (thx to Wiki for sumary) : On a hot summer night, Carnehan creeps into the journalist's office a broken man, a crippled beggar clad in rags. For the rest of the evening, he tells an amazing story. Dravot and Carnehan succeeded in making themselves kings, persuading the natives that Dravot was a god (the son of Alexander the Great). Their schemes were dashed when Dravot tried to take a native girl for his wife. Terrified of marrying a god, she resisted, biting him so he bled. At this point, he was seen to be "Not a God nor a Devil, but only a man!"

Led by the priesthood, the people turned against their would-be rulers, pursuing them to a gorge. Driving their quarry to ground, they forced Dravot, wearing his crown, to walk a rope bridge and sent him to his death by cutting down the long rope bridge with the bottom far below, and then crucified Carnehan between two pine trees. Seeing that Carnehan survived a day with wooden pegs driven through his hands and feet, the people concluded it was a miracle and released him. As proof of the veracity of his tale, Carnehan shows the journalist Dravot's head, still wearing his golden crown. He had climbed down that deep bottom and got the head and crown of his friend. He hobbles away in the morning. When the journalist searches for him two days later, he finds that Carnehan has died of exposure to the blistering mid-day sun. No belongings are found with him.

The film is great and starred Michael Cane and Sean Connery.

Gramsci the Dog

In honour of Pete at ATW who has been on about Gramsci and the Commies all week - not all wrong, it has to be said. I would post it at ATW but..um, i cant figure out how. From tv series 'Spaced' starring Simon Pegg, a series c. 2000, about 'hapless happy go lucky twenty somethings' living in North London. Funny and Genius.

Window shopping

The Gloves are Off -from 18DoughtyStreet.com

Tom posted a poem (a slightly modified version) ...on his blog and since i love it ive stolen it from him and posted it here for posterity. It's wonderful.

"The Last Hero"

The wind blew out from Bergen, from the dawning to the day
A wreck of trees, a fall of towers, a score of miles away
And drifted like a livid leaf I go before the tide,
Spewed out of house and stable, beggared of flag and bride.
The heavens are bowed about my head, raging like seraph wars,
With rains that might put out the sun and rid the sky of stars
Rains like the fall of ruined seas from secret worlds above,
The roaring of the rains of God, none but the lonely love.
Feast in my halls, O foemen! O eat and drink and drain!
-You never loved the sun in heaven as I have loved the rain.

The tide of battle changes - so may all battle be;
I stole my lady bride from them, they stole her back from me.
As I wrenched her from her red-roofed halls, I rode and saw arise
More lovely than the living flowers, the hatred in her eyes.
She never loved me, never wept, never was less divine;
And sunset never knew us, her world was never mine.
Was it all nothing that she stood, imperial in duresse?
Silence itself made softer with the sweeping of her dress.
O you who drain the cup of life! O you who wear the crown!
-You never loved a woman's smile as I have loved her frown.

The wind blew out from Bergen from the dawning to the day,
They ride and rage with fifty spears to break and bar my way,
I shall not die alone, alone, but kin to all the powers,
As merry as the ancient sun and fighting like the flowers.
How white their steel, how bright their eyes! I love each laughing knave,
Cry high and bid them welcome to the banquet of the brave.
Yea, I will bless them as they bend and love them where they lie,
When upon their skulls the sword I swing falls shattering from the sky.
That hour when death is like a light and blood is as a rose,
-You never loved your friends, my friends, as I shall love my foes.

Know ye what you shall lose this night, what rich uncounted loans,
What heavy gold of tales untold you bury with my bones?
My loves in deep dim meadows, my ships that rode at ease,
Ruffling the purple plumage of strange and secret seas.
To see this fair earth as it stands, to me alone was given,
The blow that breaks my brow tonight shall break the dome of heaven.
The skies I saw, the trees I saw, after no eye shall see.
Tonight I die the death of God: the stars shall die with me!
One sound shall sunder all the spears and break the trumpet's breath:
-You never laughed in all your life as I shall laugh in death