³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

TO HELL IN A HAND BASKET?



What can one sayt except, .

We're not very good at spotting our own talent sometimes ;-)

Why are the British so hung up about the so-called Special Relationship with the United States?DOH

I think you'll find that's the media, not the great british public! ; )

ecolizzy (#2) Maybe it's better to turn it on its head and see it from the perspective that it's the people who abuse/milk the GBP are hung up about the Special Relationship with the United States, a place where those in control there also abuse/milk their people? For example: as footsoliders in Iraq/Afghanistan, and saps for bailing out banks at home at the expense of their Public Services.

THAT'S QUITE A LIST

Wasn't it Thatcher who imagined a special relationship into being? Then Blair added his imagination (belief). Now things are REALLY special.

The level of political deceit is now so great, I would not be surprised if Brown has done a deal: a quid pro quo return if he agrees to be 'snubbed'.

I notice the HIV vaccine was tried out on 'them' (as was the contraceptive pill). It's the same with bombing . . . Civilisation R us.

Britain eh? The insecure led by the insane.

What does ANYTHING new, that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ does, tell us? There ya go.

ALL TOGETHER NOW: "I don't want to leave the ar-my, I just want to go to war. I want to feel that shove, into doing the job I love, Go to foreign lands for some extreme paint-balling. I want some shooting at live tar-gets, I love to see their poppies shot away. Don't take me back to Blighty, not while I'm wild and fighty; if one is left alive I want to stay.

"We'll explore the US-UK relationship and whether what has really been exposed is not a snub but British insecurity and the reality of a new world order with a diminished role for the UK." Bring it on I say, let's:-

(1) downsize from United Kingdom (which it isn't)to an English Parliament, getting rid of the Scottish MPs making laws at Westminster that do not affect them or their citizens, but incur the highest expenses and travel costs; and
(2) Cut free from control by a bunch of bureacrats and federalists in Europe, most of whom we did not elect.

We can then select (preferably) by Single Transferable Vote from a number of candidates put up by each political party and independants, a much smaller number of Representatives, retaining the right to deselect for misdeeds.

More power can be transferred to Local Governments, where we have more awareness of what is being done in our name. The record shows that to be the case, and we will have the choice of moving to areas with policies that suit us individually. I would opt for one that restricts housing development and is tough on lawbreakers. I worked for two Local Authorities in the 1970s that were totally different in their approach to these issues, so I know it is possible.

from mimpromptu
Instead of listening to NN talk about dancing, I may actually do some. Call it what you will, I may classify the discussion about your dance once I've watched NN on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iplayer at some stage tomorrow.
Have fun

barrie (#4) "Wasn't it Thatcher who imagined a special relationship into being? Then Blair added his imagination (belief)."

They've both got chapters in Irwin Stelzer's 'The Neocon Reader'.. It says it all really, but most of the public can't take that on board, as they won't/don't understand the very simple nature of anarchism/Trotskyism as . :-(

THE SNUB WAS REAL INTENDED AND TOTAL

While Brown grinned manically, trying to 'connect' for the cameras, Obama looked back and then away - anywhere but at Brown.

Game set and prat.

Ageism? I watched Gavin Esler "interview" Joan Bakewell and Esther Rantzen about "ageism". I also heard Jenny Murray interviewing Janet Street-Porter re this matter...coincidence or conspiracy? Who arranges this agenda? I understand Joan Bakewell thinks the presenters/broadcasters should reflect their audience...you mean like they reflect the working class? I do think that high performing educated middle-class women have no problem in getting on the telly or radio with their point of view, I note that all 3 of these people are always on the telly or radio, so what's the problem? Do I want women or men running companies that are out to screw me? Can't say I'm particularly worried about what age or sex they are...wouldn't mind seeing some real issues addressed though and see some companies run for the benefit of their customers...do me a favour girls, you are just climbing the slippery pole and don't like it when you can't make the top...join the club and get a life.

Just listened to Michael Heseltine on Question Time tonight...
to paraphrase his comments..."the UK is deluded if it thinks it has a 'special relationship' with the US...the ONLY country the US has a 'special relationship' with...is Israel".

#5 I'm a bit worried about full on Local Government indignantindegene.
If you think of the ethnic mix of some of our towns now, surely we will end up with the majority, say pakistani or ethopians, or any other racial group that have now settled in large numbers, as the one chosing who the councillors would be. Yes in a democracy that's right, but it would leave a lot of indigenent people in the minority, and what would a foreign person vote for to be done in their area. I think it could be very devisive.

GOOD TO SEE A RIP-ROARING, RACIST SLUR (#11)

Hells bells Lizzie! You cannot, surely, be saying that ethnics vote ethnically for councillors? That would surely be descriminatory and not only unethical, but unlawful also. Worse - it would be un-British. It must be possible to have - yet another - law passed to outlaw biased voting? We could get Keith Vaz to pilot it through Parliament; he seems a fair-minded sort of chap.

From mimpromptu
Barrie, one of the things I appreciate about you is that after considering things from different angles, be their subjective or objective, you know how to draw conclusions from them.
I hope you don't mind, but I've taken the liberty of applying one of your observations in one of my ditties addressed to Streetphotobeing which I shall be sending in my next post.
Have a good day, Barrie!

from mimpromptu
Streetphotobeing, Friday we’ve reached.
Gavin on NN, seduced and bewitched,
By the creeps dictating his ‘tune’
Cooking up their place on a dune.

Alas, dunes never preserve their shape
It’s winds that determine their fate.

So what plans have they got for tonight
With Gavin indulging their ‘plight’,
The insecure led by the insane?
It’s bound for them to end up in pain.

****

Streetphotobeing, today is Friday
The fifth day of the week counting from Monday.
If with Sunday we start, it is the sixth
Hope you enjoy its breadth and its width.

from mimpromptu
I have now watched fragments of Gavin's 'dance' and I'm afraid to say that unless he undergoes deep reformatory transformation, which often is very painful, he doesn't seem to me to be properly equipped for the job as a Newsnight presenter. It is normally enough for me to read his patronising introductory note to be put off from watching what the NN's 'team' has cooked up for the viewers.
And the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ executives have the cheek of claiming that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is impartial. It's joke or what?

just some info from mimpromptu
I visited the Queen's Gallery yesterday and while there I learned that The Save the Children Charity was celebrating its 90th Anniversary and that it was Eglantyne Jebb who was its founder.
I didn't attend as I hadn't been invited, nor shouldn't have been as they don't know me, but I had the honour of chatting to a gentleman working for the Charity who explained things for me, etc.
I'm not sure whether there has been any news about it on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and that's one of the reasons I'm sending this info.
Have a good day and be kind to kids

Three for mim.



Its Jaco Pastorius's haunting bass life weaving through Joni Mitchell's journey.



Album version :



Re Emin

She is just a product of the feudal art world, a modest talent with sexy eyes, got lucky and was given value by the art kings. Once given value the dealers and collectors have to build on their investment. Same for Hirst and others.

#12 Ah Thanks Barrie, I'm splitting my sides with laughter, what a good way to start a morning!

Sorry completely off topic, did anyone watch the Channel 4 news last night? Did you see the piece about european men going to Kenya to abuse children? No wonder we're looked upon with disgust in Africa!

Can someone tell me why men do this type of thing? As a woman I can never understand it. Are they so deprived of sex that they have to travel to another continent to behave this way? Of course I suppose africa is the "in place" now as the far east has wised up to our european mens disgusting behaviour.

Come on, there's loads of men on this blog, you must have some observations!

"OOOOOH GRRREAT AND WONDROUS BRIDGE OVER THE SILVERY TAY, WHAT A PITY YOU DID NOT STAY UP LONG ENOUGH TO WITNESS THE OUTPUT OF MADAM MIM (some might say)."

Dear Madam Mim! A ditty:

Quite clearly Madam Mim
Has done a McGonogall Master Class.
It is to be hoped, such instability,
does not cause her to drop on her posterior
when spinning.

from mimpromptu
To Streetphotobeing and Barrie, with the hope that none of you will get offended by me addressing you together:
Thank you

and before getting on with other things, a question came to my mind:
If Gavin and co are so excited by the number of drawings (and its contents) that Tracey Emin has managed to draw, why don't they concentrate their attention on her and not on the twirler who doesn't count the number of twirls or whatever she's doing?

from mimpromptu to Barrie Singleton
I haven't stopped thinking yet and have just asked myself whether you weren't by any chance taking the mickey out of me?
Which McDonogall are you talking about anyway?

barrie (#12) "Hells bells Lizzie! You cannot, surely, be saying that ethnics vote ethnically for councillors?"

There's no need to suggest it, it happens. East London is growing faster than West London, and over 99% of the growth of London itself is going to be in BME groups over the next 30 years (generation). That's official. In boroughs like Tower Hamlets (the poorest in Britain?) only about 23% of Primary School children at 7 years of age are White British. It's a combination of immigration, settlement, birth rates and 'white flight'. If acheivement in school was random across the ethnic groups this would be no problem - seriously, most sensible people don't give two hoots about skin colour and where one hails from..but that isn't the case. If educability could be improved through education that would be no problem either. But it can't. The hope was that group differneces would just be because of Engliah as a Second Language as an impediment. But it can't be, the Black Caribbean as a group. in schools across the country, still come bottom in SATs/exams. English is their first language! The Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups come next above Black Carribean. Then Black African, then White British, then British Indian, then British Chinese/Jews. It's most likely a selection and migration i.e. gene-barrier thing. It is not skin colour as our model pupils are Chinese British and Indican British!

The reason this entire issue causes so much heat is because so many people are awful at logic and maths! It's a genes and skills matter. We will, ultimately, replicate the conditions in parts of teh UK which mirror parts of S Asia and Africa and the Carribean if trends continue. It's only logical is it not? If not, why not? I would love it to be otherwise.

And Madam Mim would recommend that Gavin and some of the bloggers start working on developing at least 2% of self-criticism, although 100% would be preferrable.

Could a new economic order emerge from the G20 summit?

Can't say it is so much of a new economic order, but it is definitely and clearly a big indication that world economic is controlled and managed by little more than a few countries. And i only hope more countries have a say in this. So that world poor are not look away.

Thank you.

WORTH DEBATING - OR IS IT JUST ME?

Hi JJ. You state: "most sensible people don't give two hoots about skin colour" - is that a 'stand alone' tenet?

I find (as I have more-or-less stated before) that the person I need to 'adjust to' least, in all situations, is me - my identical twin - my clone. As the person I encounter, progressively, is less like me, and/or less like people I am used to interacting with, so my unease/antipathy/hostility (dependent on their impingement - social, medical, authoritarian) is inclined to increase.

I am much persuaded that being 'sensible' is not available to me in many such situations. I stand ready to be judged by my peers, and would only ask, that they ensure they are being sensible as they do. (:o)

PS Now that I have formalised the above, I am wondering if we 'marry our own face' for the reasons above and NOT because Mother Nature is prepared to risk incest in the interests of a tight gene pool.

Hope you will visit me in 'Though Prison'.

ecolizzy (#19) "Can someone tell me why men do this type of thing? As a woman I can never understand it. Are they so deprived of sex that they have to travel to another continent to behave this way? Of course I suppose africa is the "in place" now as the far east has wised up to our european mens disgusting behaviour.

Come on, there's loads of men on this blog, you must have some observations!"

The way you have phrased/framed the question will not dispose some to answer as it is in fact couched in terms of the ad hominem if you look at it critically. There are female sex offenders, just less of them, and most forensic psychologists (like most psychologists in fact these days) are female, so you are more likely to get a useful response from a female.

Note some people think that understanding something = condoning it. That is just an error.

Having said that, firstly, note that it is the age difference which matters. The law looks upon sexual activity between the under 16s with some tolerance. Secondly, childhood (pre puberty) sexual exploration/activity is a fact of life. So, many (most?) people will have had some sort of sexual experience in their childhood, with what is effectively (another) child. It just is not acceptable between people of marked age difference, and rightly so for all sorts of reasons. That most men do not understand such behaviour either is shown by the quite horrific way in which some sex offenders are treated by other offenders in prison and by the rest of the community.

If something is biologically natural you can bet that there will be cases where the normal process breaks down, probably for some cerebral, physical reason as yet unknown in detail. Even if we knew what that was, could we do anything about it? Punishment empirically doesn't work, but prevention, i.e reducing opportunity does, that's what is done these days.

streetphotobeing (#19) "She is just a product of the feudal art world"

Or, is it just money-laundering/nepotism and cultural subversion?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

barrie (#27) Assortive mating is a biological fact of life. Look into Histocompatibility and the MHC on C6P21 (and whilst you are at it, look up CYP21 and C6P21 and NCAH prevalence too, and look up stress in that context).

But skin colour is a phenotype. It serves as a signal for other gene expression and so is selected for and against, but skin colour per se is not what matters (except to protect from UV). What is interesting is the relationship between melanocytes, melanin and the other hormones of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis, as MSH, ACTH and Beta-Endorphin are all cleaved from teh same parent molecule POMC, That's my point. Unless people look to genotype and its expression in behaviour, and its diversity, they will miss what is really important. The adrenals provide addiction sex hormones/steroids too, as well as being critical to our stress/immunity responses - i.e self-non-self. We use phenotype to guide our behaviour (like we select foods by sensory signs such as taste, smell etc), but what matters is not the signs (conditional stimuli) but what they covary with, our biological needs/drives.

PS Look up Nelson Syndrome. Why do they go almost black under stress?

#5,12,18 24
Obviously Barrie's #12 was tongue-in-cheek, though 'many a true word is spoken in jest' (I was tempted to paraphrase as 'many a rude herd is ingested in the west') but I will let jj's #24 state my case more objectively - to be followed, no doubt, by the inevitable cut-and-paste respondent.

My #5 was a shade on the wishful thinking side, but I can assure ecolizzy(#11) that I did move in the 1960s from Woolwich (Labour and proud to keep building blocks of flats as required by Gov't) to Bromley (Cons/Liberal, who instead spent ratepayers money on a wonderful town redevelopment). More power for Local Government would result in wide differences, socially and ethnically, and would give us the chance to choose and move, no doubt creating ethnic towns- as Brixton became.
To me that is a far better choice than the homgeneous melting pot with central dictat from Westminster and Brussels this country has become.

erratum (#31) "The adrenals provide additional sex hormones..."(especially significant for 'females')

Re ageism, this isn't limited to women. From my perspective it permeates the entire ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ culture and is fostered by a bulging HR department with little or no appreciation for experience.
True story: A year or so ago, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ was recruiting a roster of freelance journalists who could be called upon if needed. Now, this wasn't a job offer, but a list of available journalists.
I have been a journalist for 40 years, 28 in London. I have had my own national radio show and have repeatedly been on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio and TV news shows as a guest pundit dozens of times. I even helped out with the first pilots of Five Live. In addition, I have extensive cross media experience, having worked for major print and broadcast operations as both a reporter and news manager.
Several months after I applied to be on this roster, I was told I didn't qualify. Was it my experience or my age...maybe it was bad breath. I complained to a few top ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ bosses and heard nothing. But could I expect more from such an omnipotent operation?
SincerelyDan Ehrlich

mimpromptu (#25) "And Madam Mim would recommend that Gavin and some of the bloggers start working on developing at least 2% of self-criticism, although 100% would be preferrable."

Is Madam Mim leading by example?

bbc to be more 'representative'?

so women in burkhas reading the news then?
why no gangsta rappers reading the news?
or jihadi preachers?

Carry on up the G20?

uk should forget the world stage and stick to gardening and walking the dog down to the the Blue Bell?

I have said before that the far right are very adolescent in their lies such as "there was no Holocaust" based on statistics with no reliable base data. There is also the way they manage to talk around the fact that genetic variation is greater within a race than between races and therefore there are no significant differences between the races.

But the London Assembly Member Barmbrook surely takes the cake. A combination of dyslexia and church bells led him to refer to three local murders - that never happened.

Is that not the worst explanation for a blatant lie that was ever given?

Jaded_jean does better than that when that poster tries to paint Old Labour voters as neo-Stalinist and therefore - in far-right-world - close to National Socialists. Don't ask about Stalingrad or the Battle of Britain.

They just thought they were against Nazis and Hitler and for Churchill.

So they would presumably vote for a party, the BNP, that is "not a Nazi party" but is populated by people who revere Hitler and would replace democracy with National Socialism. Hence they use images of Churchill and Spitfires on their Euro campaign literature.

There thats all clearer now isn't it.

#32 indignantindegene

"More power for Local Government would result in wide differences, socially and ethnically, and would give us the chance to choose and move, no doubt creating ethnic towns- as Brixton became."

You far right people always manage to try and talk around your perceived reality rather than confront it.

You offer an analysis that would appeal to the kind of football hooligan that drags his knuckles on the ground and gets involved in the English Defence League.

It would also appeal to those like ecolizzy who has stated in the past that that poster did not like visiting London due to the racial mix.

Not that racial prejudice would ever rear its head in the far right! Its all patriotism. Its not about the numbers of people involved in recent immigration its about race.

Hence Jaded_jean, the "high end" of you far right thinkers is "not a racist" but is a race "realist".

But the truth is that poster reveres Hitler and would replace democracy with National Socialism and is "agnostic" on the Holocaust.

Science has yet to catch up with you latter day Haw Haw's as you will not grasp that genetic variation is greater within a race than between races. All of the races are very closely related and the pathetic rebuttal offered in the past by Jaded_Jean with reference to dogs relates to a different species and is irrelevant to the proven scientific reality.

It says so much about the far right.

"In 1981, the United Nations Security Council passed UNSC Resolution No.487 asking Israel to put its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguard.

As its follow-up, the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1995 and 2000 twice stressed the significance of Israel's accession to the NPT treaty and of putting all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguard."

Xinhuanet 22nd Sept 2009

Obama will be speaking at 13:30GMT on the second Iranian facility. But, what about Israel etc not being subject to the NPT and IAEA? Might it be that Iran is a little uncomfortable about having it's nuclear facilities potentially bombed by its near neighbour Israel? Does Iran have no right to national security?

#31 jaded_jean

"Unless people look to genotype and its expression in behaviour, and its diversity, they will miss what is really important."

The Ladybird Book of Far Right Ideology and Science obviously didn't cover the fact proven by DNA analysis that nearly all people on earth are related to a very few individuals and that your "explication" therefore misses the fact that there is greater genetic variation within a race than between races.

Hence there is no academic body or scientific body that would support your charlatan claims that emerge not due to scientific knowledge but due to psychological issues.

But perhaps you are, like the BNP London Assembly Member caught out on non-existent murders, sitting near church bells and are dyslexic.

#19 ecolizzy

"Can someone tell me why men do this type of thing? As a woman I can never understand it. Are they so deprived of sex that they have to travel to another continent to behave this way?"

I think you may find that there are people like the Baby P batterer and child rapist - who reveres Hitler - who could be looked at.

The Twickenham Green murderer - who reveres Hitler - is the chief suspect in the poor Millie Dowler case.

There was also that far right would be nail bomber and paedophile jailed a year or more back.

Not all of them are far right however but if you looked at the statistics of offenders related to political outlook I wonder if there may not be significance.

THE DRONE OF MALE SEX DRIVE IS EVERWHERE. (#19)

Actually Lizzie, Mother Nature wanted to put the sex organs a 'decent' distance from the eliminatory bits, but God (who is a prude) converged them to discourage excessive use. Then the Devil introduced perversion, and the rest you know.

I dare not tell all here, I will be Blogdogged for life. Suffice to say that The Male is like unto a football pitch, on which a match is in constant play, between the two teams: 'Cerebral Academicals' and 'Genitals United'. I have to report that Genitals United ALWAYS play dirty - and win.

I wish to express my delight that you have no idea how the male functions - I am pleased to tell you, you 'passed'. (:o) I bet you cannot begin to comprehend how a bunch of squaddies can gang-rape a 14 year-old and then kill her, and her family. If I tried, you would not believe me - amen to that.

#24 jaded_Jean

"If acheivement in school was random across the ethnic groups this would be no problem - seriously, most sensible people don't give two hoots about skin colour and where one hails from..but that isn't the case."

This would be the same Jaded_Jean who reveres Hitler (promoter of racial purity in the form of a Heck cow), race "realism", eugenics, National Socialism and is "agnostic" on the Holocaust. The Jews are "internal political and economic enemies"?

Are you dyslexic and you live between several churches that are holding permanent bell ringing contests?

Actually achievement in schools does not relate to race as there is no significant genetic variation between races (as in science) and therefore race cannot be a factor.

In simple terms your analysis is "super stupid".

thegangofone (#37) "There that's all clearer now isn't it."

No. You're still very confused.

Far Right = no government, individuals, freedom, free-market, anarchism.
Far Left = big government, statism, welfare, command-economy, planning.

Centre politics = mixed economy of various sorts.

Now, look about you, what do you see? Do you see the welfare state having been made stronger or weaker over the past 30 years or so?

Simple isn't it? Surely even you can grasp this basic fact? What we are seeing is great efforts to prevent the growth of big government as that gets in the way of financial services and business via lots of regulation aka planning. The people who are free are the businesses making a good living out of unorganised consumers. The more dumb the latter the better. Hippies made good consumers. Hippies helped bring about free-market anarchism. Guess who controlled/controls the music business etc?

You can almost set your watch by gangofone and his multiple spam attacks, although he did surprise everyone and do one around midnight the other day as the exception to prove the rule.

thegangofone (#41) "Not all of them are far right however but if you looked at the statistics of offenders related to political outlook I wonder if there may not be significance."

If the figures showed you to be wrong would it make any difference to your ill-informed posting behaviour?

Logically, why would you expect those who subscribed to socialism, i.e duties to others over individual personal rights, to be more prone to sex offending than anarchists who are clearly averse to rules/regulations being imposed upon them? If you look into Axis II, Cluster B, which is what typifies offending behaviour, they are hardly social conformists. They take what they want from others. They lack empathy.

They are the far-right, many work in the City and Wall Street too. They are not socialists. You have ideas unconnected to reality. So do pipe-bombers and baby-batterers. They may read books, but do they really understand what they read?

Do they confuse their own thoughts with reality? Do they misunderstand perhaps? Why might that be?

thegangofone (#43) "Actually achievement in schools does not relate to race as there is no significant genetic variation between races (as in science) and therefore race cannot be a factor."

Read before posting again. Look up our own SATs figures published by ethnic group every year since the beginning of this century. You are wrong. Race is a gene-barrier. It limits gene flow via assortive mating.

I always love comments on isms that start 'You people...':)

Sets the tone for an irony-free zone.

2. At 7:12pm on 24 Sep 2009, ecolizzy wrote:

I think you'll find that's the media, not the great british public! ; )

And I think it is a unique, usually within congestion zone-centric version of the royal 'we'.

What gets spun in the minds of a few who are supposed to merely report somehow is translated into a world view they have, that through abuse of power of the word the rest of the population gets co-opted into. And told to have.

OBAMA ON IRAN

Iran alerts the IAEA. Iran reveals what it is building a facility. It then gets criticised for revealing it! It can't win. To use nuclear energy you need to enrich uranium for fuel rods. They don't exist naturally!

This is all about regime change. What right have Liberal-Democracies to insist that other countries also become Liberal-Democracies? Why don't other countries like China etc have the right to demand that other countries and not Democratic Centralism, or the Islamic world insist that Liberal-Democracies become theocracies by the same daft logic?

This is barking, narcissistic, hypocrisy. The SCO (Russia, China and the rest of the world which is now the majority) will not wear this. The arrogance will, alas, infuriate them :-(

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ NEWS you need to take a much more even hand over this.

#27 Barrie "WORTH DEBATING - OR IS IT JUST ME?"

There's no doubt you're in a minority - at speaking up on the subject; but the debate is still awaited at national level, postponed again whilst we await another dose of Equality medislation,intended to cure us of this wicked natural urge to discriminate and choose.

I'm certainly no clone of yours(or vice-worser)as I have been fascinated by the differences in homosaps ever since reading one of my dad's books 'Peoples of the World in Pictures' at the age of innocence, which I blame for my life of travel and forming liaisons with different partners. It was differences in culture,values and beliefs that got in the way of most, never colour.

I can state proudly that mixed-race offspring often combine the best of both parents, at least in terms of appearance. In my neighbourhood, this has led to a proliferation of young women who disregarded the factor of cultural differences, and as single mothers remain free of any shame or resentment by the changes that have occured in our own society, such as the incentivisation of single motherhood by our government.

See you in the exercise yard, Barrie.

On the Emin quote, perhaps some one should mention to her that McGonagall was fairly pfolific writing over 200 poems.

I AM NO ARTIST BUT DON'T THEY USE SHADING TO CREATE ILLUSION? (#50)

I am, of course, into generalities. Taking an extreme case:

To me, an eye showing a lot of stark white, all-the-starker for being in a very black setting, messes up my ability to read the expression being projected by that eye. (This is without the reduced reflected light from the face itself, denying me fine data, regarding expression.)
Now, I know a lady who is a rich conker-brown and I find her attractive; but surround me with very black blokes, as defined above, and I reserve the right to be viscerally daunted. Of course the truth is my attraction and my daunt are BOTH PREJUDICE!

I feel sure Leonardo could have made The Mona Lisa look dead scary with a few strokes of shading round the eyes and a curl of that mouth.

To be blunt - no offence - Kossovo 'worked' until it didn't. ANY difference will do, when men turn nasty.

Yeah - in the yard - remember to act mean.

barrie (#52) You have a good point there. There is indeed safety in numbers and similarity. If one stands out in a crowd one is more likely to be picked out! Fish shoal, they try to get near the middle as its the ones on the outside which get gobbled first! Kids know this in school. People are picked on for being different, and these days, in some areas of the UK, it's the White British which is the minority group. When they start complain that they are discriminated against, they get called names like 'racist' or 'nationalist' No wonder some of them flock to the BNP in such areas :-(

Addendum (#53) It's why you get 'white flight', as parents know about assortive mating, and that if they stay in areas where they are becoming a minority when their kids hit adolescence they'll have less choice. Those that can afford (usually therefore the brighter families) move, do so, those who can't stay. Given the ability differentials, the areas deteriorate, money and work dries up etc. See USA....urban blight.

This is what happens. Those who say otherwise are being 'economical with the truth'. Why they ever let it happen is, as I say, all about short-term money making in the anarchistic Liberal-Democracies where chaos (the market) must have its way. That's what peole have been voting for for 30 years or so :-(