sparrow chat

During our recent British vacation, my wife and I visited Stratford-on-Avon and spent time rediscovering the town’s many associations with the poet and playwright, William Shakespeare. Below is a photograph detailing the magnificent chancel of Stratford’s Church of the Holy Trinity, with it’s superb stained glass windows.

The Bard’s final resting place is just below the alter (somewhat obscured by the woman with the red bag). Shakespeare’s wife, Ann Hathaway, and other family members are buried alongside him.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring barque,
Whose worth’s unknown although his height be taken.
Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 116

Filed under: Manna to the soul

Posted under Sparrow Chat

I finally decided Brian Williams had to go. NBC Nightly has evolved into a collection of old Tim Russert memorabilia, followed by an infusion of weirdos doing strange things while occupying NBC’s regular nightly segment, “Making a Difference’. Quite how, and for whom, any difference is being made always remains open to the viewers’ speculation.

We’ve switched to Katie Couric and CBS.

The twenty-four hour cable news channels have been out of bounds to my brain for longer than I care to remember. Lou Dobb’s attempt to sever Mexico from the American continent and float it out into the Pacific Ocean, along with eleven million immigrants in life rafts, was probably what blew my last fully-functioning neuron.

I can only tune to sanity these days, but it’s so difficult to find. BBC World News was a reliable standby, until they moved it lock, stock, and barrel to Washington. Now the whole show is financed at Republican Party expense and Matt Frei, once a decent, balanced reporter, has converted to GOP lackey. They recently flew a BBC man all the way to Vietnam, so he could seek out John McCain’s old prison camp commandant and persuade him to say that, if he were an American, he’d vote for McCain just because he was always a jolly nice chap. This, a few seconds after El Commandante denied anyone was ever tortured in his camp, thereby implying John McCain was a bloody liar.

You could almost hear the dongs changing hands.

CBS allotted half their thirty minutes to yet another nationwide poll on American belief in god.^[1] I use the small ‘g’ because it appears many US citizens are now ready to accept almost anyone’s god as legitimate, and suitable as a leg-up into eternity Eternity.

(Sorry, there’s still only one of those, apparently.)

This suggests an amazing step forward in US religious belief. It means a god no longer needs to be swarthy, muscular, dressed in a five-star general’s uniform with wrap-around shades and swinging an AK47, to be accepted as a suitable candidate for American family worship.

And to think we were all concerned a black man or white female might not be sufficiently ‘American’ to gain the White House.

That Americans have highly differing views of their gods is highlighted by one particular statistic: 92% believe in a god, but only 74% believe in life after death. This begs the question: why do 18% bother?

Perhaps it’s a question that could be put to the three hundred and three Anglican bishops presently ensconced on a hill in Jerusalem protesting at Archbish of Canterbury Rowan Williams, his theological views in general, and his support of gay bishops, in particular.^[2]

When churches split asunder over such issues it has nothing to do with religion, even less association with spirituality, and simply defines the mean-mindedness and petty arrogance of the individuals themselves.

Personally, I’ve no great faith that Jesus of Nazareth was more than a gentle voice crying in a chill gale, but from what he had to say I’m utterly certain how he’d respond to three hundred and three blinkered idiots sat on their butts in the Holy Land decrying their fellow man.

However, it seems unlikely all their blather and prejudice is going to make a difference in the longterm.

Perhaps that’s a pity for them, if only because they’ll never, ever make it onto NBC Nightly News.

^{[1] “Americans: My Religion Isn’t The Only Way”, CBS News, June 23rd 2008}

^{[2] “Bishops criticise Anglican leader”, BBC News, June 23rd 2008}

Filed under: Sacrosanct media

Posted under Sparrow Chat

News today that the Israelis have been rehearsing an attack on Iran raises serious questions.^[1] Until recently, the US/Israel alliance could be considered merely that – an alliance of nations with vested interests in the region. The news that Israel carried out maneuvers in early June, obviously in anticipation of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, begs the question of who is in control? Is America the strong arm of this relationship, or is – as seems more likely – Israel in the driving seat when it comes to controlling action in the Middle East?

While America finances much of the Israeli military, it seems she has little say in how those weapons are used. An Israeli government spokesman said today that his country would not tolerate Iran possessing nuclear weapons and would take all necessary steps to prevent them from doing so.

The concept of preventing others from obtaining what you already have is common throughout the world. America has long dictated the nuclear question and spends obscene amounts to ensure its nuclear arsenal is superior to any other on the planet. It’s bully-boy tactics with Iran of late are a perfect example.

Israel, on the other hand, fails to flaunt its nuclear prowess, perhaps due to its flagrant contravention of UN agreements, but nevertheless is still in the “do as we say, not as we do” category of world bullies.

It all leaves one wondering if Israel is a satellite state of America, or whether the US is really being controlled from the Knesset?

^{[1] ” Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’”, BBC, June 20th 2008}

Filed under: Who’s working who?

Posted under Sparrow Chat

I read recently that “A minority of Americans are against allowing inshore oil drilling.”

My reaction: the ignorance displayed by a majority of US citizens is truly difficult to comprehend.

Inshore oil drilling has long been a no-no in this country because of the potential environmental impact of an oil spillage on coastlines. George W Bush, a leader whose decisions are so regularly and monotonously wrong that running the world requires only the taking of an opposing stance to this US president’s viewpoint to ensure success, has of late announced the need for just such action. The American people, suddenly faced with inflated gas prices – though still barely realistic compared to the rest of the world – agree virtually en masse that this is the right thing to do.

Here’s why it isn’t:

• 1. There is no shortage of oil.
• 2. There is no shortage of oil
• 3. There is no shortage of oil.

Get the picture?

“Ah!” I hear some of you cry, “But if there is no shortage of oil, why is the price so high?”

“Simple,” I answer, “the price is high because, yet again America, you’re being ripped off by your fellow countrymen.”

Oil prices have risen dramatically in the last five years due to US speculators using the Iraq war and its attendant Middle East crisis as fuel for speculation. It is that speculation that has pushed prices to $140 a barrel, resulting in $4, and likely $5, gas prices at the pump.

Opening up inshore oil fields may help stabilize the price of oil, but it will take ten years to do so. Hardly a quick fix for the cash-strapped citizen struggling to fill his gas tank.

There’s one other minor consideration to be taken into account before inshore oil production becomes the panacea to all America’s energy problems. It’s an irritation, admittedly, but one unlikely to go away, though most of the world seems bent on hoping it will.

Yesterday, the US Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research published a report stating emphatically that the severe and unusual weather being experienced over much of the United States is due to man-made global warming.^[1]

A large percentage of the CO₂ emissions responsible result directly from the burning of fossil fuels, primarily oil. Drilling more oil from inshore fields will only aggravate a situation already near, if not already, critical.

By suggesting inshore drilling is a practical possibility, George W Bush (supported by John McCain) is totally ignoring the longterm effects on the American populace of global warming, and pandering only to the short-term interests of the oil companies.

Of course, this is exactly what George W Bush has been doing for the whole of his eight years in office. Originally, he planned to make them a present of the Iraqi oil reserves. That proved an abortive idea, so now he’ll strive to present them with the inshore fields as a parting gift.

Fuck the American people; fuck the environmental devastation that may result; fuck the catastrophic effects of global warming already being experienced in the American Mid-West. If the American people have hesitated to accept that their president and his nefarious clan are only interested in feathering their own nests, and those of their pals, this sudden about-face really should make them sit up and take notice.

When they are drowning in catastrophic floods, burning alive in drought-fueled forest fires, suffering severe financial deprivation, unable to feed their families and dying of thirst as reservoirs dry up, they can draw satisfaction from the knowledge that George W Bush and his cohorts are experiencing none of these things. They will be well away from the events their policies have created.

Let me repeat: there is no shortage of oil.

Unsurprisingly, no-one is suggesting there is. OPEC is refusing to pump more because there is simply no need.

Why is no-one asking the question: Who gets the profits? On the sidebar of this blog is a simple statement: “The world consumes around 86 million barrels of oil every day. When the price of a barrel rises by $3, it generates an additional $94 billion dollars per year for…….someone?

Who is that “someone”?

Ask yourself another question: if oil is not in short supply, what is causing the price to skyrocket?

There can be only one answer: speculation.

Webster: Speculating: “To buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations.”

If markets are manipulated, then speculation takes on a more sinister stance. The oil markets have been manipulated throughout the presidency of George W Bush. The situation we find today directly results from that manipulation.

And yet, only “…… a minority of Americans are against allowing inshore oil drilling.”

The ignorance displayed by a majority of US citizens is truly difficult to comprehend.

^{[1] “Scientific Assessment Captures Effects of a Changing Climate on Extreme Weather Events in North America” NOAA, June 19th 2008}

Filed under: Snake-oil salesmen

Posted under Sparrow Chat

Our 2008 British vacation included a visit to the wonderful Bodnant Gardens at Conwy in North Wales. Below is a photograph of the Hall, home to Lord Aberconway, though the gardens are now owned and administered by the British National Trust.

An excellent website displaying stunning photographs of these gardens is available HERE

Filed under: Lighter side of life

Posted under Sparrow Chat

“If I were to watch the American news that you hear in the US I would blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts.” ~ CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan speaking of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the Daily Show.

Filed under: Bean spilling

Posted under Sparrow Chat