I hope you believe in ghost stories...

....because you're in one - so the line went in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  I thought it a pretty apt title for this post, although I did consider "These are the droids you're looking for". There's a video at the end of this post that sets it out very simply from Bill Whittle in the US and I recommend that even if you can't be bothered with this post, you watch.

What am I on about?

Well, as a "political" blogger I've long since worked out that there are much finer minds than mine out there in the blogging world who a better able to dig deep and demonstrate flaws in the plans and policies of politicians than myself.  I can't do it to the level they can and I would be doing my small readership a disservice if  I attempted that, although from time to time I come in with my own simplistic viewpoint.

I've said, time and time again that I want a better Britain.  A strong healthy and robust nation where everyone has the same opportunity to make something of their life based on a willingness to work for it and one that can catch those who have served us well and have fallen on hard times.  I personally don't feel we have that for all sorts of reasons and I think it has to be worked towards in a democratic and legal fashion.  What I'm also clear on is that to achieve that, everyone has to pull on the rope.

What I've therefore tried to do is focus my blog postings on pointing to the man and woman in the street, the need to play their part and how they can do that.  I'm hopeful they will come by my blogs and decide they need to do their bit.  At the moment I don't think that's happening to the degree it's required.  It's not so much a vein but an artery of apathy that runs through the people of Britain.  They don't realise they've all got a wheel to help steer this nation or if they do, too many of them are asleep at it.

I partly understand that apathy.  Politics is boring, vote for different ones and get the same thing, none of them listening and so on and so forth.  I get it all.  I also get their notion that the country (and the world) seems to have gone mad.  Truths become lies, victims are criminals and justice systems seem more about criminal protection than its published principles.  Furthermore you can see what's wrong but you're in a position where you need to keep your opinion to yourself because everything you think and want to say about it will render you a pariah, even amongst your friends.

That brings me back to my earlier question "what am I on about?" with the movie quotes.  I think it's really important that joe public understands something and if you're joe public stopping by this blog - then I mean you.

It needs to be understood that the inversion of reality and justice is not haphazard and occurring by accident in a world that just seems to have gone mad.  It was deliberately designed decades ago.  It was implemented by very bright people who knew precisely what it was intended to achieve.  It  was designed to put you in the place you now find yourself.  It continues to be advanced to this day, in part, by people who know exactly what they're up to.  More importantly it is being advanced by well intentioned people who have no clue they are being manipulated to take something devious forward dressed in a cloak of fairness. These people walk amongst you every day, saying hello and smiling.

Here's something else.  It was designed to surround you, without you even realising. They needed to move invisibly because if you had spotted it you might well have stood up to them when you had the chance.  They needed to avoid that because the reality is we outnumber them and they need to look bigger than they are to make you feel afraid to stand up, speak out and push back.  They need to give you the impression you're surrounded which is why they needed what Lenin called useful idiots to help them create the illusion of size.  In reality they are like the Wizard of Oz.  The big green fire breathing man is a misdirection to hope you don't spot the curtain where the scared little bully is pulling handles and pushing buttons to create the illusion.

Like I say, I hope you believe in ghost stories, because you're in one.

This, for me is the big secret to turning the madness around.  I want to draw back the curtain on this plan and show you what's going on, because once you see the trick being played before your eyes, you can do something about it.  Until everyone wakes up and sees this, they continue their "advantage" over us.  Even if Westminster, Brussels and all of that seems beyond you you'll see that there are lots of things you can do in everyday life that will start to get the nation back to where it needs to be for the benefit of a stable world for our children to live in.  Part of their plan was to make you feel alone and isolated, but once you start doing things day to day, other people will see they're not alone and they'll start acting and speaking up and slowly but surely, things will change.

I'll give you a quick example.  For a long time these people have had success in making Britain feel like a place of horrible people responsible for all the ills of the world.  Their view was we should become a place of perpetual losers and self-flagellation.  Then the 2012 Olympics came along.  An expense white elephant?  Maybe.  But look at what it did to us.  Look how we came out as a people and got behind it, shouting cheering waving the flag and showing our pride in who we know we really are.  Once one started making a noise, others joined in and there wasn't a damn thing they could do to stop it.  That scares them.

So here's Bill Whittle to tell you all about them and how they worked.  Know them and look out for their work.

Causal CO2 Link Found

But not in the way the greens are hoping for.  Der Spiegel is carrying an interesting report that despite the success of Germany's renewable energy industry, it has not reduced CO2 output by a single gramme.  In fact, perversely, efforts at green policies may actually have resulted in increase in CO2 output.

The article which can be seen here and the accompanying editorial seen here illustrate the inverse relationship between increased renewable energy sources and C02 emmissions. There seem to be several issues in play here including German policy and the EU mechanism for CO2 output "management".

According to the article, the EU wide emissions trading system determines the total amount of CO2 that can be emitted , by power companies and industry but apparently, this amount does not change regardless of how many turbines are produced. Worse still is that everyone involved from law makers to industry seems to know about it, but each has their own reasons for keeping schtum.  It appears (subject to further research by interested parties who will look beyond the article) that there isn't an obvious process by which the CO2 amount permitted by the process is rolled back as the growth in renewables comes on stream and that despite all their noise, politicians aren't that keen to go back to try and implement a change to this.

Its almost comical to read how the increase in renewables doesn't change the amount of certificates available and as a follow on dilutes the cost of producing CO2 making "polluting" the atmosphere cheaper.

So next time someone starts banging on about renewables to you and decides to cite Germany as the shining example we should be following, gently point out to them that their appraoch hasn't dropped CO2 output by a single gramme and that coal usage is up 8% as a result of that glorious policy and that unlike them you've got verifiable evidence.

Must be the day for it

Obviously it's one of those days where I'm finding quotes that resonate with me.  Having found Heffer hitting the nail on the head in my previous post, I stopped over Your Freedom and Ours for a quick read and I came across neo-neocon.  In one of the older posts theres a great comment from another reader referring to liberals that sums up a lot of the left wing mindset very well:

"... Always willing to give up the shirt off someone else’s back."

That one's going to get used a lot in the future.

Excellent Diagnosis

Simon Heffer sums up just one of my frustrations about Cameron perfectly this morning on the Mail website.  Commenting on Cameron's "scientific" observation that he almost certainly believes the recent horrible weather is down to man made global warming (yes I know - I got the memo too about the name change, but I refuse to help their subterfuge), he observed how it was an odd statement for one who had recently used the phrase "Green Crap" to describe it, then goes on to opine:

"The trouble with Dave is he can’t see a bandwagon without jumping on it — even one he’s only just jumped off"

Yep.  That just captures it beautifully.

History Repeating Itself?

Some days I recall things from some time back - odd things.  Things you wouldn't think were particularly memorable.  Mostly trivial junk that used to stand me a few quid better off in a pub quiz, but didn't endear me to family when games like Trivial Pursuit were being played. 

Some of that came back to me yesterday when I was having a  post Christmas & New Year surf around the Internet and came across this story over at Townhall.  In the story, former US Secretary of Defense who has served under most Presidents since Nixon (Clinton aside) has slammed the current administration for allowing politics to dominate foreign and defence policy in a book he has penned.  Now we all know politics dominates these all the time, but this seems particularly damning in the article gives the impression that the politics were so dominant that genuine military experience in the room was marginalised at best.

The article took me back to a book I read some years ago called Why America Slept by Gerald Posner.  In the book, Posner charts the path to September 11th and tells how the signs were there all the time as well as charting the failure of the Clinton administration to act when they had the chance to have Bin Laden effectively handed to them.

Unfortunately I don't have the book to hand, but one of the stand out sections for me described how security briefings had little to do with security and more about how they played out in the press.  Security officials commented on their surprise to find that on numerous times discussing national security issues was often dominated by the thoughts and musings of individuals such as Clinton's press and spin team.  The overriding concern was how action or non action would play out in the media as opposed to what was right for security or foreign policy purposes.  There's a wonderful observation in which this "spin" conversation was interrupted by a security official who made a key observation about the specific issue being discussed.  Within that he described the disdainfully detached look the the spin team gave this observer for having the temerity to ruin their wonderful train of thought before returning to their original conversation without acknowledging the security official's viewpoint.

Posner's book also tells of how Clinton in his obsession with polling seemed to show how he wasn't required to actually take tough action, only give the impression of doing so.  Like the situation Gates seems to describe in the Townhall piece, Clinton too seemed to let the politics of perception dominate to the point he would be prepared to compromise US security.

The Townhall article also gives a sense of disdain for the military within this administration.  That too was something I recall reading about during Clinton's time.  Not necessarily by the President but I certainly recall that being said of his coterie.

My point?  Well - recalling where Posner concluded this culture and subsequent inertia ended up on September 11th, I'm just wondering if history is repeating itself?

Shamelessly Christmassy

Good morning everyone. It's Christmas Eve morning as I write this.  I've done the last few bits of shopping already and pleased to say, there was a lovely sense of calm out there which is just how it should be.  I hope that today you all have a pleasant Christmas Eve and that there is certainly time for your family somewhere in there.

Today I'm going to be shamelessly Christmassy.  It starts with me wishing everyone (and I mean everyone) a very Happy Christmas. I didn't always like Christmas but I have grown to love it.  We've got beyond the competition of who can outdo who in the gift stakes and have got to the point beyond that where we enjoy family time and get a sense of charity about us.  I've come to like Christmas and its story because it has a message of hope.  No matter how bad it might seem, there's still hope and while we're breathing there will always be hope.

As I started the day I went back to some of my childhood memories.  One of my favourites was walking through a cold city centre, all wrapped up seeing the lights.  What rounded that off was a Salvation Army band standing outside M&S, playing songs.  There's something about beautifully played brass that reaches into your bones and really helps you feel it.  It used to really evoke something in me that has stayed to this day.  I found a video to share with you.  The music is lovely but there's something else as well.  Look at at the end and the lads adding a bit to pot. On any other day you might have made a different judgement.  But right there at the end is proof of hope.

This is what they're scared of

At the bottom of this post is a video.  A wonderful video, that I've put up a couple of  times on this  blog usually because I think it's a thing of beauty for all manner of reasons which I'll explain shortly.  However this year it takes on a new resonance because it helps spell out something that I've been struggling to articulate for some time now.

There are a number of posts around a few blogs, that help set the scene.  First there's Julia's entry over at Orphans of Liberty which is basically about the twisting the perceptions of Christmas with it's "Mother Christmas" and then there's this one by James at Nourishing Obscurity.

It's so easy to look at these, throw your hands up in the air and say something like, "It's political correctness gone mad" or "the bloody loony left are at it again".  You'd be right but at the same time you do them a disservice because you would be underestimating them.

As I mentioned earlier, crackers as it might seem what's happening is an ongoing relentless effort to break you by breaking your culture.  We can talk about politics all we like, but right here you're seeing an effort to break your culture.  The aim is to separate you from one another.

Take Julia's story.  Mother Christmas?  What on earth is that about?  It makes no sense in the sphere of what we've come to associate with Christmas over hundreds of years.  Of course it doesn't.  It's not meant to make sense to you.  It's meant to leave you confuse, befuddled and bewildered, because when you're all of things, the people pushing this can take advantage and advance what they want.

Then there's James' story.  As a seasoned watcher of Duck Dynasty I know just how popular a show this is.  Phil Robertson has his views on all kinds of things and you see many of them on the show.  He largely doesn't agree with the direction America and the world is going in on all sorts of levels.  Now it seems he has made a comment about his view on homosexuality, in a magazine but not on the show.  In fact I've never heard him utter such things on all the episodes I've ever seen.  In writing this however, I too am beginning to make the mistake I'm cautioning against.

Now before I go any further, if you're thinking about about using the comment section below to accuse me of homophobia - don't! Bore off and go somewhere else.  I'm not interested in your game of ad hominem.  This post isn't about an anti gay agenda and I am none of those labels you will try to project on me and no amount of your politically motivated name calling will make it so.  I'm making a point about the manipulation of messages and groups to further other political ends which means I've seen through your little game and if you can't work that out then you're not smart enough to get into a debate on this.

You see, to me, this isn't about Phil Robertson's views on gay people.  Phil Robertson seems by and large a traditional man.  His family all pretty much seem happy and stable and able to take care of themselves. they are self reliant and  they provide for themselves and they share what they see as their blessing with others.  They go to church, they give people jobs and they've clearly extended the warmth of human kindness by adopting a child, incidentally one from a mixed race background.

Alongside the comedy somewhere in the region of 11-14 million US viewers who tune in each week to watch the show, making it one of the most successful shows on US TV, never mind its global following. You see, Phil and his family are a thriving example of living successfully in a western culture still bound to the traditional totems that have helped it thrive for so long. Within that lies the nub of this issue for cultural Marxists. It's not about his views on gays. despite all the noise, that just happens to be a convenient weapon with which to beat him (something I'll explain more on in another post).

So for that reason, Phil Robertson must be silenced.  He must be denounced and he must become a non-person and be convicted of thought crimes.  It's being reported over at Townhall, that A&E Insiders are suggesting that even an apology won't do.  In effect he has to go.

Now why would he need to go.  Why is there an thought that even an apology wont suffice.  Its simple really and its the grubby little secret that underpins the whole agitprop movement. It's why Saul Alinsky wrote that you should appear bigger than you are.

To break a nation, you have to detach it from its culture.  That's what this is about.  Strike at the shepherd to scatter the sheep.  His comments, no matter what you might think of them are just weapon of choice.  If he is successfully denounced and made to disappear, so does the signal his family sends.  Then all those who identify with that culture are on the receiving end of a message that they are alone.

They have to do that because they know the power of the culture and that those trying to smash it are really few in number.  They must appear bigger than they are.  they have to create the illusion of power and dominance and make you back away from asking awkward questions. The only way they can do that is to make you feel alone and think that there is nobody else who thinks like you think.  If you're alone you feel helpless, fearful and the perception that there is no hope becomes all pervasive.

And so we come back to the video I mentioned at the top, because it shows what they  are afraid of.  Watch the video in two ways.  Enjoy the fine voices, but watch the crowd.  There are all kinds in there.  All social classes and all levels of education I'm certain.  But watch what happens to them as the signal once again begins to get out.  Look at the tears The joy, the wonder and the tradition relights something in them all.  Hope comes back.

That's what they're scared of.  Once it breaks out in numbers, they can't contain it.  Bliss.