A prophet not without honour save in his own country

Whilst greed and unenlightened self-interest have always been a mainstay of capitalist economics, these qualities were brought more to the fore in the era of Thatcherite and Reaganomics. Increasing calls from the capitalistic squawk leaders for deregulation were acted upon and have now been found sadly wanting. It has frequently been said that capitalism contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction and, there have been many times that I yearned for its demise.

 

The present crisis, inevitably, calls for some major restructuring of the system on a global scale. Those who have opposed government intervention, whilst at the same time not objecting to state funding of their illegal oil wars, now cry out to the state to rescue them from their own greed and recklessness!

 

The free marketers have been granted more and more rope but, all they’ve managed to achieve is a noose around all our necks. In the UK we find the media attacking the Prime Minister for incompetency, although that cry is now mingled with outrage at the reckless / unethical speculators whose activity they have thus far passively condoned. I actually find myself feeling sorry for Gordon Brown, who finds himself pilloried for all the mistakes of global capitalist economy. It was therefore refreshing to come across these comments from the American press:

 

“But on Wednesday the British government, showing the kind of clear thinking that has been all too scarce on this side of the pond, announced a plan to provide banks with £50 billion in new capital — the equivalent, relative to the size of the economy, of a $500 billion program here — together with extensive guarantees for financial transactions between banks. And U.S. Treasury officials now say that they plan to do something similar, using the authority they didn’t want but Congress gave them anyway."

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What should be done? The United States and Europe should just say “Yes, prime minister.” The British plan isn’t perfect, but there’s widespread agreement among economists that it offers by far the best available template for a broader rescue effort.” - Paul Krugman –  Moment of Truth

 

 

“In this financial catastrophe, last week's unthinkable idea quickly becomes this week's imperative. The Bush administration is wisely contemplating following the lead of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in having government take ownership shares in many banks to get them more cash and allow them to lend again.

If Obama had suggested such a thing, he would have been condemned as a socialist and the administration might well have had to shelve a necessary idea. Better that the candidates acknowledge that they are powerless until after Nov. 4.” – E J Dionne Jr – Hoover vs Roosevelt

That which was lost is found ....

 

My old favourite, age, usage, and weather gnarled, walking stick has suddenly re-emerged on the scene after a couple of days absence. Great was the rejoicing in the land at this recovery, the stick and I go back a long way and, it’s always good to have a familiar and trusted friend readily to hand. After Friday’s recovery of access to a blocked website, it seems as if the age of miracles is not yet passed.

 

Altogether, it has been a much better day; sunshine replacing last night’s deluge, and a remission from the more severe pains that I had been experiencing. After lunch we took our freshly brewed coffee out into the garden, where we sat beside the pond. It wasn’t long before the urge to do a little pottering about arose, so my beloved went to change out of her Sunday best, whilst I (being perpetually scruffily dressed) was immediately ready to spring into semi-sluggish action.

 

I was able to retrieve some very rich compost from the bottom of our composter, to revitalize part of one of the borders, and sprinkled the remnants of some pre-packaged compost onto other border areas freshly relieved from the ravages of ground elder by my beloved. We really do make a great team, I’m frequently ready to watch whilst Helen does the grafting! Having thoroughly raked over these areas I was able to sprinkle a few teasel seeds into the prepared area. Other batches of wildflower seeds had previously been scattered into seed trays and, hopefully (by next Spring) we’ll have ample seedlings to transplant into our wildflower meadow area.

 

Being the day of rest, it seemed far easier to take my leave from the gardening endeavours whilst I still had stamina in reserve. Pacing doesn’t always come that easy!

 

I rejoice and am glad in this day the Lord has made.

catch the wind

My latest posting, Who knows how the wind blows?, can be found on Mal's Murmurings

Update on Blankness

Whenever I enter, or click on any link with, my Luv4Sinners website address, I'm still greeted with a blank screen. At least when I go to my UK Geocities page, it has reverted to showing the uk.geocities.com website address and, the File Manager takes me to the files but clicking on 'View', against any of the html files, still results in a blank screen.

I have used both Firefox and IE7 as browser, utilizing four different PC's. As yet I've not had any reply from Yahoo to the enquiry, regarding this problem, that I made online yesterday morning.

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P.S. 03 October '08 - 3.40pm

According to an entry in the PC Advisor Forum

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadID=338220&ForumID=16&sr=1

it seems as if the problem could be with my ISP (Virgin/NTL); that's all I need after recent wranglings with them!

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PPS: 03 October '08 - 8.35pm

Having contacted Virgin Media with a link to the PC Advisor Forum, I am now able to view Geocities web sites once again. It may just be co-incidence but, I'm certainly a happier chappy!

Like A Blank Out Of The Blue

 

Suddenly, I discover this morning that my Luv4Sinners website is not available. This site: http://uk.geocities.com/luv4sinners/  is apparently non-existent. When I go into the UK Geocities page, for managing my site, it states that my web address is www.geocities.com/luv4sinners but, when I try to access my files I’m quite simply transferred to a USA Geocities page where I’m asked if I would like to start a website.

 

My Ace FTP programme is still able to access all my files on the uk.geocities server so, I’ve duly copied them over to a folder on my PC as backup. I have contacted Geocities, via an online form this morning, in an attempt to find out what’s going on.

 

Had I been informed of any impending change I could have removed all the links to my website from my blogs and other websites but, at the moment I don’t know whether it’s just a temporary aberration, on Yahoo’s part, or whether I’ve been purposefully removed.

 

Does anyone out there know if the UK Geocities free websites have been discontinued, I’d really like to know?

Thought For The Moment

 

“I wish the church knew that having questions, experiencing doubts and being uncertain about things that the church is teaching does not necessarily equal spiritual immaturity.”

 

http://gracerules.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/what-i-wish-the-church-knew-about-spiritual-maturity/

 

On stumbling across this post my first thought was that those who have no doubts or questions may well be the spiritually immature. Perhaps they mistake their own spiritual ego with the divine spark itself! 

 

Reluctantly Staying Put

After considerable soul destroying hassle with our ISP, Virgin Media, we have now agreed to a new 12 month contract giving us the same broadband & phone package as we’ve had for a few years at £7.00 less per month. Of course, had we not been existing customers, it would have been a further £4.50 less for these 12 months.

Although we had threatened to move to another ISP, I doubt whether I could have coped with the upheaval that would cause. As it is, I’m in a physical and emotionally lower state than I was before these “negotiations” began. Oh, how I longed for the stamina and resilience I knew several years ago.

Although we’re staying put for the time being, I could not honestly recommend our service(!) supplier to anyone that I respected! And that’s despite the profuse apology, passed onto me by my beloved, proffered by the helpful lady who finally sorted things out.

Thanksgiving

Yet again, on this Sunday, we once more are blessed with glorious sunshine, accompanied on this occasion by a gently refreshing breeze, a day for true thanksgiving.

 

Needless to say, although I still persist in saying it, the love seat beside the garden pond became my abode for most of the afternoon. As we sat there, the cheerful chattering of the house sparrows in a nearby shrub proved a real uplifting balm to the spirit; I seemed to be transported away from the sharp shooting pains emanating from the sciatic nerve, my constant companion over recent days (and nights).

 

My beloved (that’s Helen, not the sciatica) soon felt the urge to do a bit of gardening, with me in the role of passive observer. Obviously her stamina levels had been refreshed by the Harvest Service at her chapel this morning.

 

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I suppose that this posting is a natural sequel to yesterday’s posting, Flutterby Visions, on ‘Mal’s Murmurings’.

A lesson in objectivity!

 

Are they really reporting on the same debate?

 

“From the economy to foreign affairs to the way they carried themselves on stage, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama offered a dramatic contrast to the nation in their first presidential debate on Friday night, mixing disdain and often caustic remarks as they set out sharply different views of how they would manage the country and confront America’s adversaries abroad.”

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/us/politics/27debate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

 

“JOHN McCAIN and Barack Obama entered last night's debate with fewer differences on foreign policy than their rhetoric usually suggests. Some nuances excepted, the two candidates basically have the same ideas for containing the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, responding to Russia's aggressiveness toward its neighbors, fighting the war in Afghanistan and advancing the Middle East peace process. On many of those issues they wouldn't stray far from the policies they would inherit from President Bush.”

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092602981.html?wpisrc=newsletter

 

Getting Down To Business

The 6.00pm news on BBC Radio 4 is a regular accompaniment to meal preparation chez nous. Not exactly a barrel of laughs but, tonight they excelled themselves.

The news headlines, which top and tail the bulletin, were a cause for mirth and merriment:

(initially referring to Gordon Brown’s speech at the UN) "Gordon Brown said it’s time to end the age of irresponsibility. He will be meeting George Bush this evening”

This evening's encounter should be quite something : An awesome vision of the British PM toting an AK47 flashed across my mind, as if to show that he meant business.