Povey Prattle

Micky Birnbaum is one of my favourite neighbours.  She and I often encounter each other as we walk our dogs. Micky and I have seen each other on at least 1,500 occasions since I moved here in 2006. We saw each other again this morning, alongside our mutual neighbour Betty. Micky complimented me on my beard, saying that it suited me well, and that she was glad that I had decided to grow it. I told Micky that I’d had a beard since 1975.  She did not believe me. I told her a second time that my beard dated to 1975.  She replied “no”. After my third assertion of my 38 year old beard, our mutual neighbour Betty intervened. She said “if Michael says that he has had a beard since 1975 he must be right, after all it’s on his face”.   Thanks Betty!    But it’s so odd that Micky (who I have known since 2006) had never before noticed my beard, even though she had seen it for at least 1,500 times.   Thereby is an illustratio...

But  I am glad that I cannot afford it cos I am not sure that it does much good for African countries., and I am sure that I would not like my traveling companions! http://www.rovos.com/journeys/cape-to-cairo Cairo Journey 2014 Home  >  Journeys  > Cairo Journey 2014 Rovos Rail has designed the ultimate African experience for this exclusive five-star journey, which includes the incomparable luxury of the Pride of Africa and a comfortable aircraft. This 28-day expedition will carry an elite band of intrepid adventurers through the heartlands of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, the Sudan and Egypt. The  northbound  route begins with a four-night train journey from Cape Town to the Victoria Falls. Thereafter, guests join our air safari and continue north to Zanzibar, after which they fly into the heartland of Tanzania with a four-day visit to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. Continue on to Entebbe, Uganda, ...

Cambridge Boy Scout Troop Bucks National Trend on Gay Participation Share Tweet E-mail 6 Comments Print By   ANNE MOSTUE Enlarge image Cambridge Boy Scout Troop 56 Listen 4:38 The Boy Scouts of America will vote next month on whether to end a controversial ban on gay participation. Technically, Boy Scout troops do not allow gay and lesbian members and volunteers. But one troop in Cambridge is not waiting for the vote, and has come up with its own rules. On a Tuesday evening, inside St. James Episcopal Church in Cambridge, about 12 uniformed scouts are reciting the Boy Scout Oath: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout law …” If you listened carefully, you’d hear the voices of boys and girls. “… To help other people at all times, keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” “Morally straight” has become a loaded term in the Bo...

The West End of London (U.K.)  1936

“Popular culture” says “do not speak ill of the dead”.  It’s been said for so long and for so many times that it has achieved the status of an axiom. But of course it is “popular baloney”. Unless we wish to live in a deceitful fairy tale world in which “everyone lives happily ever after” we must tell the truth about the departed, even if this truth goes against the mainstream grain, or disturbs the smug certainties of the ruling classes. At the heart of all the (almost world-wide) teary eyed hagiographies of Margaret Thatcher there are lies, and damnable lies - not about her character – but about her policies. She has been described as a friend of “freedom” and liberty.  In truth she was a friend of repressive rulers – Suharto in Indonesia; the corrupt Saudi Regime; Pinochet in Chile; Botha in South Africa; and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette Her dearest friendships...

My friends and colleagues from Massachusetts days, Manny Faria and Dan Weir each posted this: I trust that it is accurate, i.e. that FDR truly said this. (I wish that those who create "posters" such as this would include a footnote which would give the source for their quotations.) Nonetheless,  presuming that the FDR quotation is accurate I would categorise it as a judgment on “the Corporate State” We do well to recall that  Fascism is rooted in the ideal of the Corporate State -  a nation in  which the interests of corporations are deemed to be more important than personal and individual  freedoms. We are there. NOTE FOR INSTANCE that 7732 individuals have been arrested between Sep 17 th   2011 and Feb 28 th 2013  in their individual protests of the abuses of corporate America,. NOT ONE BANKER HAS BEEN ARRESTED DESPITE THE GROSS, EGREGIOUS  AND UN-PATRIOTIC ACTIONS OF BANK EXECS. htt...