We are off to spend a chilly but picturesque Easter at Kyle of Lochalsh. I shall be taking a total break from thinking great thoughts until Tuesday. I shall also again wonder why in my youth chocolate Easter eggs easily came apart into two neat halves, whereas nowadays they are fused and have to be smashed.
If you want to hear me on somewhat more serious subjects, this was my conversation early this week with Michael Greenwell on prospects for Independence, the banality of evil and a few other topics.
We used to go and and see Hawkwind together.
We smoked dope and made love…
and we like Jimi Hendrix, and
David Cosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young
We didn’t cheat – We were and Are In Love –
“Love the One You’re With”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5IVuN1N6-Y
We are going to the pub..She is nagging me to Get Ready…
There’s a Good Live Party Band on – and She is going to turn up – and She is Not My Ex.
She is Our Mate – and We Both Love Her To Bits.
Grandad Tony xx
Memory Check O.K – I didn’t cheat
For those interested, here’s Gearòid O’Colmàin’s take on what happened in Brussels this week…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtDMQQi7Xuc
I don’t agree with everything that O’Colmàin says, but feel it’s important to present a different view from the absolute bullshit put out by the mainstream media.
Make up your own mind.
A wee reminder of what RoS flagged earlier. Execution of prostrate, semi-conscious Palestinian by order.
Judging by the body language, and lack of reaction from the surrounding players, soldiers & medics, this seems to be standard operating procedure now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj8rGao47Mg
It might go some way to explaining why Israel seems safer from terrorist attack than Western European countries.
Oh, and by the way, yesterday afternoon Belgian police shot dead a person who acted suspiciously by refusing to obey an instruction to open his rucksack.
You see, things have got serious now and we’re not playing silly little internet chatroom games any more.
Somehow, Hab, you didn’t manage to notice that the guy wasn’t shot dead by the Belgians, but only wounded. On the other hand, the Israelis shot dead a man lying wounded and unmoving on the ground. That’s the difference between Israel and the civilised world. Glad you’re getting paid for that, Hab.
‘Good Friday’ is not a holiday here in France (except in the Alsac region), and as far as I’m aware it’s not a holiday in most parts of the world.
Can someone explain to me what ‘Good Friday’ is all about? (without boring me with all this religious crap). Why, in this capitalist lunatic asylum, are we allowed a day of rest, and what does this have to do with religion?
These seem like reasonable questions to ask, in a totally mad world.
You cannot separate Good Friday from what you so charmingly call “that religious crap”.
My God, what a fool you are, RobG.
This is a must read:
A WORLD WAR HAS BEGUN. BREAK THE SILENCE.
It seems we are sleep walking to a WWIII without anyone of the pusillanimous stenographers even batting an eyelid as they go about using the company credit card to wine and dine the polticos who will then will guide them to print/broadcast their propaganda verbatim in their relevant oligarch owned media outlets.
Isn’t Britain great?
Supporting the bombing of Yemen. Arming Israel. Occupying the Chagos Islands. Supporting US aggression. Arming Colombia. Maintaining the global network of tax havens. Conniving with the CIA in secret renditions. The special relationship with Saudi Arabia. Bombing Syria. Shell in Nigeria. British companies in occupied Western Sahara. Supporting Oman. British mining companies in Africa. Supporting the New Alliance for Food Security. Promoting the privatisation of health and education in developing countries. Little Englanders in Brussels. Lonmin at Marikana. Failing to support Palestine. Backing Turkey’s war on the Kurds. Opposition to a Financial Transactions Tax. Aiding forced relocations in Ethiopia. Dismantling of climate change policies. Hey, read on:
https://markcurtis.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/britains-collusion-with-radical-islam/
For all those people interested in sourced information here is some good news.
The New York Times (a highly credible source) is reporting that the Pentagon (and surely they should know) confirms that a top ISIS commander one Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qadul has been killed by US Special Operations forces in Eastern Syria.
In April 2015 the Wall Street Journal (another highly credible source) reported that the same gentleman had been killed in a US air strike on a mosque in Iraq.
Reviewing highly credible sources it also transpires that the same gentleman was also killed in September 2014.
Perhaps it is significant that news of his third death should break during the Easter period – a time traditionally associated with death and resurrection.
Thanks for the laugh.
Should we run a sweepstake on when in the future these very credible sources are likely to kill the invincible and ever lasting Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qadul yet again? Also are the various branches of the US forces taking part in the killing of the said super villain in a rotating fashion?
I have a vision of the heads of the various services sitting around a table before a press conference. “So, what are we gonna give those jokers out there this time?” “Ahh, why don’t we just tell ’em again that we’ve killed that Mustafa guy? That always goes down well.” “Yeah, okay. Hank, your guys can take a turn for the credit this time. And don’t worry, they never remember or check back…”
Yes, that’s the scariest thing: they don’t even bother to get their stories straight, so low are we in their estimation. It doesn’t matter any more.
Defo
Judging by the body language, and lack of reaction from the surrounding players, soldiers & medics, this seems to be standard operating procedure now
It Is…there are many videos online. of theses Executions,seems it has been Largely Young Palestinian Girls / women in recent Months.. with the idf being caught planting knifes by murdered Natives…Shot by Cowards in NOT the slightest bit of real danger.. i remember Both Mary and myself posted one video up here..of a terrified school girl, near hysterics, it Plainly shows idf throwing a knife on the ground in front of her, then ordering her to pick it up.
This latest execution sees the idf soldier Elor Azraya, Charged with murder, ( Only because it was Caught on Camera ) his lawyer Eyal Beserglick said Azraya “acted in accordance with the rules of engagement as suggested by his superiors.”
According to Ha’aretz, the settlers in Hebron give trays of pizza to IDF soldiers who kill Palestinians.
Stay with me.
There’s a method to my madness.
So?
Hi BrianFujisan, thanks for the link, but can you please modify the “d” in that vigilante thug outfit? There is no defence in that offensive lot.
Brian. Yes, but what really stood out here was that there were dozens of witnesses, who didn’t even flinch.
I’d like to think that Netanyahu would be called to account for this policy, but with the BBC giving the story short shrift on the World Service then nixie thereafter online, or broadcast, it seems what the world doesn’t know can’t hurt him.
Hullo Fedup
I seen you were on good form recently..keep it up mate.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon
October 9, 2015: “Right now is it required to respond quickly to any local attack to eliminate the terrorist stabber or the perpetrator stone thrower and the like, immediately, on the spot.”
Link to my Post @ 25/11;57
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/top-israeli-officials-who-issued-directive-to-execute-palestinians-hang-hebron-killer-out-to-dry/
Six US federal agencies are now headed by former google executives. Obama’s chief technology officer is a former google executive. Clinton’s CTO was hired a few months ago, taken – again – from google. The head of google bankrolled a semi-secret company last year called “The Groundwork”. Try to find out about it:
https://thegroundwork.com/
Their biggest client is the Clinton campaign. The site was set up by Eric Schmitt (former google CEO) with the sole purpose of getting Hillary Clinton in office. Google is reckoned to be able to shift between 2.6 and 10.4 million votes in November to Mrs Clinton, without anyone knowing it’s occurring and leaving no paper-trail. This is not democracy.
For more, look up Robert Epstein: Google’s 21st Century Mind Control. (Robert Epstein a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California, explains how search rankings effect consumer choice.)
Defo
Yes the utter casualness of that scene.. Like,” Who’s turn is it then” , i repeat if this had not been filmed.. Then there there’s Open Policy of Medics refusing to even attempt to help ..Sickening..Hateful Cowards.
Havea Peacul weekend to ye
Famine threatens half of Yemen: WFP [UN World Food Programme:
Lysias
Yes.Unreported Yemen.. good take on the Different way Terrorism in the west is reported..Compared to the M.E –
” All of that is how it should be: that’s news. And it’s important to understand on a visceral level the human cost from this type of violence. But that’s also the same reason it’s so unjustifiable, and so propagandistic, that this type of coverage is accorded only to western victims of violence, but almost never to the non-western victims of the west’s own violence.
A little more than a week ago, as Mohammed Ali Kalfood reported in The Intercept, “fighter jets from a Saudi-led [US and UK-supported] coalition bombed a market in Mastaba, in Yemen’s northern province of Hajjah. The latest count indicates that about 120 people were killed, including more than 20 children,..
Farther down this Piece ( By Glen Greenwald )
In April, 2003, Ashleigh Banfield, then a rising war-correspondent star at MSNBC, returned from Iraq, gave a speech critiquing the one-sided, embedded U.S. media coverage of the war, and was shortly thereafter demoted and then fired. This is part of what she said:
That said, what didn’t you see? You didn’t see where those bullets landed. You didn’t see what happened when the mortar landed. A puff of smoke is not what a mortar looks like when it explodes, believe me. There are horrors that were completely left out of this war. . . . [I]t was a glorious, wonderful picture that had a lot of people watching and a lot of advertisers excited about cable news. But it wasn’t journalism, because I’m not so sure that we in America are hesitant to do this again, to fight another war, because it looked like a glorious and courageous and so successful terrific endeavor, and we got rid of horrible leader: We got rid of a dictator, we got rid of a monster, but we didn’t see what it took to do that. . . .
https://theintercept.com/2016/03/25/highlighting-western-victims-while-ignoring-victims-of-western-violence/
Zionists, to the barricades! We must preemptively attack Michael Lynk. He is a quadruple threat to The Jewish Heimat of Israel because
– He has a three-digit IQ;
– Our most alluring honey traps are not to his taste (too hairy or swarthy);
– We haven’t been able to plant any child porn on his computer;
– He’s not scared of our shrieking hysterical 5th column.
Habbaakukk, we’re counting on you!
I got seriously told off tonight, but I didn’t really have any option – cos of stuff…
you see – well a… friend of ours was really nice to me (she comes from Bristol – and is a mate)
I reckon her cancer has been cured – nipped in the bud(thanks to my mate) She is O.K. now..
but she is obviously still going to be worried…
and the band were really good…
All the girls were looking at me..and some of them touching as well…
She gave me a bag of 3 of her old T-Shirts…
And I looked at the first one..I am going to change and wear that…
I just stripped off and changed..and my wife was looking at me…
and then I did it again…
She says you are going to get thrown out…
So on the third change – – they held their coats up – so the Landlady couldn’t see.
Brill Night
My Video is Awesome. They will see.
Life in the old camera yet.
(the sound is Brill too)
I did ask permission – well sort of.
Tony
Well, they can hack me as much as they want – but at the end of the day….
is he an honest man – can we change his mind…??
What You Fuxxing CIA And MOSSAD and MI5/6 & Seven and Useless Cnts Working in Westminster…
We do know who some of you guys are
so Behave
Personally We can’t Be Arsed But You Guys are Doing a Lousy Job..
You Must Do Better
…you will never pull a nice girl behaving like that
We Think You are All a Bunch of C’nts
and i am not going to vote for any of you
You useless bunch of shiits.
We Don’t Like Any Of You.
Did You Get That??
Tony
Morning team. Just back from holiday.
Re ‘Thoughts for Easter’
“Muslim shopkeeper who wished his ‘beloved Christian nation’ a Happy Easter is stabbed 30 times by a fellow Muslim who sat laughing on his dying victim’s chest.”
Doubtless this was a staged event involving patsies and ketchup. Or a legitimate response to the Iraq War.
I see also that the RoP has been active in Brussels.
Ditto. But Fedup has surpassed himself with the ‘alienation of young Muslims’ justification for blowing oneself up at airport check-in. Tosser.
Have a great Easter pal…thanks for the visa help…
Welcome back, Anon1 !!
You have been missed but I must admit that I have been having fun dealing with the various Excellences and their sundry hangers-on and, without boasting, I think I’ve made rather a good job of it.
If you look back a little, you’ll come across the excellent “Martinned”, who is relatively new on here but who has already proved his worth by wiping the floor with that old fraud “Lysias” and the abominable “Herbie”. I think it’ll be a little while before they attempt to lock horns with Martinned again – they simply aren’t in the same league! 🙂
Apart from that, all one should perhaps say is that with belly-aching about Western policy on Iran no longer possible, the theme of the month now appears to be Saudi”genocide” in Yemen. Used as a pure distraction, of course, including from the Muslim terrorist scumbag attacks in Brussels.
But fortunately, investigative reporter John Pilger can easily wipe the floor with clowns such as you:
http://truepublica.org.uk/global/world-war-democracy-john-pilger/
I take it you must be the government agent (I won’t use the word “Intelligence” in your case) assigned to troll Craig’s blog.
John Pilger, telling the truth to power since Vietnam.
Hasbara troll, what evidence do you have that any Belgian bombers were Muslim. Islamic State is a USUKIS fraud to discredit Islam.
You come here hoping to extract Hasbara advantage from Hasbara plots, forgetting that your party, USUKIS have lost bthe Syrian war, the war on terror, the Bush Blair crusade and that USUKIS policy is now consigned to the garbage bin of history.
keep crowing about your Israeli-made bombs in Brussells. The yahudi invented the crucifixion of Jesus pbuh, and they are still inventing false flags against the true religion of Islam, 2000 years later. plus sha change plus sh’est la meme chose. Don’cha know?
Giyane
“what evidence do you have that any Belgian bombers were Muslim.”
________________________
Being of Moroccan origin they may indeed have been Christians, Jews, or even Hindus or Zoroasterians but I think Muslim is the most likely, don’t you?
Imbecile.
Unless, of course, a certain other ME country carried out one of its famous False Flag Operations. You know, the one with the motto “By way of deception shalt thou do war”.
As you very well know, h-imbecile-uk, I was not questioning their nationality but their faith. The Qur;an doesn;t tell people to blow other human beings up. If they follow the Saudi argument that you can pronounce infidelness on strangers , it comes back automatically to yourself, which is why the main proponents of takfirism, i.e. Judaism, muslim masonic Brother hood and Saudi wahabism, are not yesterday’s news,
it is, simply put, imtellectually impossible to proclaim that someone else is a kafar, and is entitled to forfeit their life and possessions etc, without bringing the charge onto your own head.
without doing any thing else, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the violent excesses of the ‘muslim’ freemasons have forfeited their authority to represent Islam. So what are the terrorists who detonated bombs in Brussells, definititely not Muslims.
That includes you by the way, in the greater sense of the word muslim, meaning submitting to the laws of the One God.
now yesterdays news , in fact
Yes I had noticed. Yemen is the current distraction. But it’s usually Israel. I recall that in the aftermath of the Paris attacks the ranting about Israel here increased tenfold.
Happy Easter Craig – Kyle of Lochalsh is my very special place full of great memories. Regards to the Dornie Hotel and RIP John and Joan Macrae – loved and missed.
Alan
March 26, 2016 at 11:45
Excellent article Alan, thanks. 🙂
Likewise. Actually this article goes into detail on the Chagos Islanders, something I have remarked upon on the previous thread. I have been looking for online critiques of the 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that the Islanders lost. Here is a good one:
http://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/MRG_Brief_Chagosv2.pdf
Martinned took such a beating from Lysias and Herbie the other day he hasn’t been seen since.
Most amusing
🙂
Think MoD should be asked who was doing adventure training at Balmacara House at the Kyle of Lochalsh over Easter 1985 when SNP leader Willie McRae was murdered.
If the secret tri-service base was preparing personnel for service in the 14 Intelligence Company, the Det, or SAS, his killers could well have been working from there.
Secret tri-service base, eh?
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafsubaqua/rafcms/mediafiles/6C858DA2_5056_A318_A8C1A8AA5E875133.pdf
Book your (civvy, too) subaqua b&b now….
Willie McRae – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKqWj3emm08
The disgraced and self-confessed liar Alistair Carmichael, has received a further £16,000 pounds from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, taking the overall total to £50,000 pounds. Why (JRRT) would donate monies to the shamed former secretary to Scotland, whilst claiming its remit is to promote the wellbeing of society and strive to uphold civil liberties, is beyond many.
No doubt if Joseph Rowntree (Quaker, liberal and chocolate manufacturer) were alive today, he’d be utterly dismayed, that a large amount of funds could be spent, defending such a dishonest individual.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has distanced itself from this, and I’d say watch this space for shenanigans between it and the JRRT. The JRF has a reputation it probably cares about:
https://www.jrf.org.uk/press/jrf-statement-joseph-rowntree-reform-trust-and-alistair-carmichael-mp
That’s right Baal, the JRT, according to some social media outlets has taken it in the neck over the behaviour of its sister charity (charity for whom I ask) the JRRT.
I’d imagine the shamed liar Alistair Carmichael received the funds, because several prominent LibDems loiter on the JRRT board.
Interesting reading (2007):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1544315/Lib-Dems-given-2m-by-Rowntree-Reform-Trust.html
Still a wholly LibDem outfit (2016):
http://www.jrrt.org.uk/directors-and-staff
I’m all for Quakers, and their great philanthropic founder-businessmen. They have something of the quality of a political party themselves*. But should they associate themselves with existing political parties – particularly with one which will promise the moon for a vote and shrug indifferently at requests for lunar rock samples once in power?
*Today, sitting alongside cynicism about religion and politics, there is an almost palpable yearning for a space where ethics and politics, environmentalism and spirituality, come together. Quakerism, with its active social engagement, and its injunctions (or ‘testimonies’) to “try to live simply” and “step lightly on the earth”, seems to provide one such example.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/28/quakers-religion-dawkins-sign-up
Craig, re a past thread, in which you ruled out joining the far left political party known as Solidarity.
You were correct not to get involved with Solidarity, as currently infighting bickering and bullying has led to a large number of list candidates resigning.
It would appear that those candidates and others complained about senior member John Parks. Even close friend and supporter of Tommy Sheridan Rosemary Byrne looks set to resign. Sheridan seems to be siding with Mr Parks over the issue, it’s a pity really its sure to damage Solidarity’s image.
Sheridan proposed a viable alternative to the Council Tax, in 2006, called the Scottish Service Tax, based on income.
“You were correct not to get involved with Solidarity, as currently infighting bickering and bullying has led to a large number of list candidates resigning.”
Lol.
The gene pool of socialists/leftists must include anti-social tendencies. If any can find two of such having comparable philosophies/protocols I will trade you my collection of 4-leaf clovers for their identities.
Heads-up for activists, journalists, etc.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3509898/Google-warn-Gmail-users-government-backed-attacks-new-warnings-tech-industry-backs-Apple-privacy-fight.html
It’s (as near as damn it) official, then.
I’m very disappointed to find out that the leader of Scotland’s largest mosque has praised a extremist killer. Imam Habib ur Rehman, is said to have showered praise on Mumtaz Qadri, assassin of the governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer.
Qadri was sentenced to death in February, for the killing of Taseer, because Taseer supported and aided Pakistani christians, who have constantly suffered from persecution.
In recent weeks the old guard of Scotland’s largest mosque, has lost a power struggle with, a more strict and dare I say radical force. Now if the remarks attributed to Rehman are true, it will be a bitter and disappointing set back regarding ethinc relations.
If the remarks attributed to him are true, Republicofscotland, then I would suggest that he should be deported to whence he came.
Because his presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
And no human rights nonsense about having to leave behind his three wives and seven children – they can go with him.
Should he in fact also have UK citizenship, that should be revoked before he is expelled.
No sensible person could possibly disagree with the above and therefore there is no need for anyone to write in to agree with me.
waythitht
Who actually died and made you Home Secretary in that you get so say who should, or should not, be deported?
Getting back to False Flag Operations, who would love to see all out war between Christians and Muslims? Who stands to gain? Come on Habbabkuk, you get one guess.
Just to help you out, here is a clue:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ex-mossad-agent-israel-uses-false-flag-in-most-operations-to-avoid-suspicion-in-arab-states/17853
In fact, the above from RoS – and thanks to him for bringing it to our attention – makes me think that there should be increased surveillance of what is preached in mosques in the UK.
There are many impressionable young people around who might at the same time be disaffected for one reason or the other (eg, a brush with the law) or simply show the careless and unthinking characteristics common to many young people.
Such young people may easily fall victim to the lures of guileful and manipulative hate preachers.
Better, therefore, that what is preached in all mosques should be known to the authorities so that these can act swiftly and effectively whenever necessary.
My! My! You do have a low opinion of young people, don’t you? “Careless and unthinking characteristics”, eh? Nothing like tarring everybody you don’t like with the same brush, eh? Better get them all up against the wall, eh?
Well, I actually feel sorry for some young people, Alan – as you should. I feel sorry for those young people who for whatever reasons fall victim to hate preachers and end up dead in Syria or in jail in western European countries.
As for young people in general – were you not more careless and unthinking as a teenager/young man than you are now? I should be surprised to hear you deny that, although it’s possible that you might have been born middle-aged, I suppose.
Like Jacob Rees-Mogg, for example (ouch!).
“Qadri was sentenced to death in February, for the killing of Taseer, because Taseer supported and aided Pakistani christians, who have constantly suffered from persecution.”
That is not what Qadri said in his defence. Qadri said that he had acted under irresistible impulse, because Taseer had in his presence abused the law of blasphemy, calling it a “Black Law” and “shit”. Qadri claimed that this was tantamount to “directly defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and was an attempt to lower down this sacred provision of Law, which is in consonance with the dictates of Quran and Sunnah”.
Reading the judgement of the Supreme Court in dismissing Qadri’s appeal is a rather frightening experience. It is based solidly upon religious principles, that is clear from the outset. One gets the impression that, if Qadri had been able to offer proof of his contention and if he had not been in Taseer’s employ, the Court would have accepted his defence at least in considerable mitigation, and possibly more.
I imagine that the Imam you mention, and the many supporters Qadri has, disagree with the Supreme Court and accept Qadri’s account, which is why they think he’s a hero. This does not mitigate their deplorable sentiments, but underlines them: I do not have a right to pump 20-odd bullets into someone whose opinions disagree with mine, and claim I acted on impulse and had a religious duty to do so. People who do say that, need to be condemned with vigour.
You can see, however, that it is not quite as simple as support for terror. It is, rather, the support for a right to execute blasphemers against Islam. I am not quite sure which is the more objectionable.
Here is the Supreme Court judgment.
http://www.supremecourt.gov.pk/web/user_files/File/Crl.A._210_2015.pdf
John.
The court found him guilty of murder, Qadi, had 300 lawyer lined up in his defence offering to work pro-bono. Imam Habib ur Rehman reportedly said on being challenged that Qadi had murdered Taseer.
“According to some, he (Qadi) was a murderer, but according to many others he did what was the collective responsibility of the ummat (Muslim community).
As I stated further up the thread the conservative old guard have, been overthrown in a power struggle. That in itself doesn’t bode well for the Muslim community.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4682477.ece
It’s worse than that, as I read it. I do not read the Imam as saying that he was a murderer. He says some people think he’s a murderer but others do not – and he seems to place himself firmly in the latter camp.
Imagine a power struggle between members of an Anglican congregation, with some saying it’s a religious duty to execute doctors who work in abortion clinics and others saying it’s not.
Indeed John, what concerns me more, and it should concern others as well, is the tone, of the alleged comments, as if it was the right thing to do. Now I expect to hear such talk in Pakistan, a quasi-lawless and religiously fanatical state, but not on mainland Britain, and certainly not from the chief imam of Scotland’s largest and most influential mosque.
Rehmat’s words may well, l have a profound affect on young Muslim minds, in a time when young Muslim minds really ought to be focusing on other matters, less controversial.
It is not exactly going to assist Muslims in this country, particularly children, who rightly fear hatred and prejudice.
I once briefly got to know a Pashtun in Peshawar who slapped his arm around my shoulder and said that, as people of the book, we Christians weren’t so bad. Not as foreign visitors at any rate. It was the Hindus who needed to be put to the sword, he insisted, awaiting my approval with a smile.
I didn’t know quite what to say.
Mind you, Anon1, some Hindus (cf almost daily events) and Buddhists ((cf the massacre of Muslims in Burma) can be evil bastards towards people of another religion as well.
Now it’s true that we Christians were busy killing other Christians and indeed non-Christians up to a few hundred years ago (and in the case of the Nazis, a few decades ago). But we’ve been around a little longer than the Muslims and so it’s perhaps just a question of them catching up on a couple of centuries time. Bit as for the Buddhists…there you have me.
I share your disappointment with the way the Buddhists carried on in Burma. Mind you, the Japanese didn’t exactly give a fine living testimony for their religion in the second world war.
A lot of the “troubles” in Northern Ireland were very much down to brands of Christianity, don’t forget, and this is only recently fizzling down to a slight effervescence. If faith-based schools were abolished, I hazzard that we would see an end to sectarianism as anything but the most fringe concern in a generation, and confined to the history books in three.
Religion is certainly a terrible thing – an excuse to kill the “other”, with the blessing of an omnipresent invisible personal friend, who happened to have created the Universe. It should have been included in DSM-V.
“I didn’t know quite what to say.”
Given the circumstances, I’d have given a hesitant approval, with the understanding that some restraint ought to be employed, and smile back.
Alternatively, you could have slapped his hand away, saying “Get your filthy hand off me, you SOAB!”
But that might have spoiled whatever dubious transaction you were undertaking. Either way, I would have as little to do with them as possible from that point. For very much the same sort of reason, I don’t envisage us ever being friends.
Now let’s leave aside all the nonsense about false flags and who profits most from the horrible slayings in Paris and Brussels and all the foolish little attempts to divert the conversation and get serious for a moment. A few random thoughts:
******************************
There are undoubtedly lessons to be learnt by the Belgian authorities and also, surely, by the authorities of some other Western European countries from these latest Muslim terrorist attacks.
And at least some of those lessons could be learnt by adopting best practice – in other words UK and Israeli practice (perhaps one should also add USA best practice but I’ll leave that to others as I can’t speak authoritatively here).
After all, as Craig wrote but a couple of days ago, there has been only one terrorism-related death in the UK in the last decade and Israel also seems to have been rather successful in preventing organised terrorist attacks of various sorts – it is most unlikely that the events at Brussels National could have happened at Ben Gurion.
Key must surely be, first and foremost, good intelligence. Contrast here the huge increase in the ressources made available to the UK agencies charged with counter-terrorism over the past years with the woefully underfunded and undermanned Belgian Sûreté de l’Etat. This must change – and the money found by whatever means, whether by increased taxation of those who can afford it or cutting state benefits in other areas. Counter-terrorism authorities and structures must be enhanced to meet the challenge posed by unscrupulous enemies outside our countries and their co-religionist fifth-column within.
Good intelligence can be fostered by better and wider surveillance of potential terrorist enemies of the state. Here again, the UK (and the US) have shown – and continue to show – the way. Namby-pamby objections by “human rights” useful idiots should be disregarded and surveillance should be extended to those who are not necessarily potential terrorists but whose utterances ‘objectively’ minimise or deny the menace (this should not be seen as thought policing – everyone is free to think what they want but this does not mean that they should necessarily have the right to disseminate their unhealthy views without coming to the notice of the security authorities).
As Craig recently said, alienation is surely a factor in the conduct of some of the home-grown variety of terrorists. Now, the Belgian experience shows that all of the terrorists identified so far “were known to the police” – ie, they had criminal records, usually for offences involving armed violence, and it may be imagined that this might well lead to a sense of alienation. But, although known to the judicial authorities, they were not known to the security services. That seems to point to the need for a greatly enhanced (UK-style, again) coordination and flow of information between agencies: in the Belgian case, for instance, I would hope that in future the security services should automatically be informed by the judicial authorities of anyone from certain target groups who had been convicted of a criminal offence involving violence.
On security in public spaces we would have a lot to learn from the Israeli experience, which demonstrates that much righter security can be guaranteed without public services and utilities (eg airports) being rendered unworkable: this involves active security measures (there is sufficient information in the public domain for it to be unnecessary for me to go into detail here) but also educating the general public toward a greater awareness of risk and how to react when the presence of risk is suspected (progress towards the latter has been made in the UK, other countries still have some catching up to do).
Now, some people – and surely many on here – will beef away about “civil liberties” are being eroded or how the behaviour of society is being altered in “unacceptable ways” and that “the terrorist will have won”.
This is of course nonsense – but even if it were not, the appropriate answer might be : address all complaints to (as appropriate) ISIS HQ/Al Quaida HQ / your local hate preacher…etc.
A very happy Easter to all.
That’s strange! I distinctly remember my own brother being commandeered by the authorities to take a truck load of body bags to Lockerbie. I remember seeing many bodies, not just one.
Oh, but Craig was nowhere near Lockerbie that night, was he?
My brother, for one, will never forget!
Craig said “in the last decade” – learn to read!
Sorry about your brother’s experience.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board, news reports cited UN Assistant Secretary-General, Bernt Carlsson, as its highest-profile victim. US and British intelligence operatives, posing as Lockerbie investigators, ignored the evident targeting of the UN diplomat and instead focused on the jumbo jet. With the result that the wrong country was blamed and an innocent person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
You forget one thing GCHQ, some of the readers of this blog also read The Herald. Why else do you think they want independence?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13050293.Lockerbie_Revealed__The_secret_report_that_damns_Scottish_justice/
FALSE FLAG OPERATION – ALWAYS ASK WHO GAINS!
Gawd, GCHQ even work over the Easter holiday weekend; and no doubt all on time and a half or double bubble; unlike the plebs, who are now told that they have to work on a weekend flat rate, and that includes the doctors.
GCHQ, et al, are total traitors to my country, and they will be held to account.
Make no mistake about that Habba, old boy.
Oh, and happy Easter, by the way…
RobG
Seeing your comment reminds me of what you write about your trade falling away because of fears about terrorism.
Assuming that you’re telling the truth (OK, I know it’s a big if), are you sure clients are not staying away because they’ve somehow heard that Mine Host is a utter nutter with a penchant for putting unsuspecting guests against a wall and shooting them?
I was thinking the same thing. Has he got any reviews on TripAdvisor?
Wrote one reviewer:
“Rob appeared to be the perfect host and the gite was everything my husband and I had hoped for in this quiet corner of rural France.
However, one night after Rob had started drinking heavily in front of his computer, he enquired as to our views on the death of the Pacific. We hadn’t heard anything about this, but Rob insisted the ocean was on its last legs and we would be held to account for our ignorance, which he likened to support for fascism.
He then proceeded to explain that the UK is a police state and we would be put against a wall and shot for disagreeing with his views.
Sensing an opportunity after Rob fell slumped over his computer after what must have been his fifth bottle of vin de pays de Gascoigne, we abandoned our belongings and fled to the woods and the nearest village where we called the Gendarmes. My abiding memory of our stay will be the sound of a chainsaw firing up as we escaped.
TripAdvisor Rating: 0/5
What would TripAdvisor say about Habba and Anon 1..?
“No dogs, no blacks, no Irish, and I just loved the neo-Nazi ambience”.
Anon
Many thanks for quoting that brilliant review from Tripadvisor- sheer genius!
Habba, you contemptible little so and so, it’s not a real review.
Nor is this TripAdvisor review of Habba and Anon1:
“When we arrived our hosts goose-stepped out to greet us. After some hearty choruses of the The Horst Wessel Song we settled down to spend the evening watching some of the Fuhrer’s finest speeches. Our only regret during the stay was that we weren’t allowed to actually kill people. This isn’t the mark of being ‘pure’ and ‘strong’ and didn’t make our holiday complete.”
John and Jane Psycho, Slough 2016.
Rob, you forgot no Muslims.
RobG
The review you quoted was very good as well. Do people usually give their full names on Tripadvisor, I thought they usually just gave their initials?
While Craig’s post about one Briton having been killed by Islamic extremism in the mainland UK in the last decade was factually correct, he was using it to suggest that it is irrational to fear terrorist attack. He omitted to mention the large number of potential attacks foiled by the security services and the far greater number of casualties that would have resulted were the restrictions on intelligence gathering and security measures he wishes to see put in place.
Therefore, what enabled Craig to gloat about the tiny number of terrorist-caused deaths in the UK* is the exact same thing he opposes (tight security controls).
(*the implication being that there is little or nothing to fear from Islamic extremism. Tunisia, Paris, etc., and the terrorist atrocities committed daily throughout countries Islamic and ostensibly non-Islamic with fewer security controls and less advanced intelligence gathering capabilities suggest otherwise.)
He also omitted to mention the large number of false flag terrorist attacks prepared by the intelligence community which are foiled by the commonsense of the patsies being lured to their own and others’ deaths.
Giyane
There are no such false flag attacks. They are a figment of your diseased imagination. Please assure me that you have sought treatment or I shall have to consider getting you sectioned for reasons of public safety.
Karadic is a war=criminal because he was pro-USSR at time when the West wanted Europe. weird that the UK , having got Europe , and owns Europe, now doesn’t want not to be ruled by European governmental institutions.
Hey, you want to own the Middle East, but you don’t want to be ruled by Middle-Eastern institutions once you own it , do you?
You just want Queen, ermine, tights, eggs, bunnies, xmas turkeys, Tel Aviv consensually bonked bikinis, and to own the land and to colonise the globe with your empty-headed oafish theories.
Then when you get in your graves you will see a furnace like the US bombings of Baghdad and now Mosul, rising from your heart of poisonous greed and methodical destruction of truth.
Excuse my flecks of saliva foam
One day the whole roller coaster film of false -flag Zionist portrayal of Islam as evil Islamist nutters will be exposed for what it is, a desperate crushing of the truth by a failed culture.
Remember how in Victorian times promiscuous men consigned their vapourous wives to lunatic asylums?
Today = More likely the other way round
No False Flag attacks? LOL
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/27/brussels-attack-another-chapter-in-natos-gladio-strategy.html
That NATO message is not merely for the attention of Flanders and Wallonia but also for separatists in Catalonia, Scotland, Corsica, Wales, Veneto, and other independence-minded regions within NATO borders.
Oh but maybe you’re not old enough to know about Gladio. I’ll wager Craig knows.
It would be interesting to know how much, if anything, they told ambassadors and FCO types about Gladio. I believe a lot of CIA stuff was kept hidden from U.S. ambassadors.
Fiddlesticks. You presumably think, Habbabkuk, that the entire Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be ripped up and thrown out?
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 General Assembly resolution 217 A as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.”
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
You have a couple of pals here who will presumably agree that advice should be taken from the Israelis. I guarantee you that the remaining large majority wouldn’t take advice from that quarter on brushing their teeth, much less “best practice” when dealing with security.
“I can’t speak authoritatively here”
No, you can’t. So go away and eat an easter egg (or a – chocolate – hand grenade, if you prefer). You write the most terrible bilge.
What has that Declaration to do with most of the measures and recommendations I mentioned?
By condemning something I have not suggested, you stand guilty of setting up a straw man.
As Anon has just pointed out, various measures taken by the services have foiled many plots and have enabled Craig to say that there has only been one fatal victim of terrorism on the UK mainland in the last decade.
Security measures have the potential to stop you getting blown up by a terrorist fanatic – the Convention most certainly doesn’t.
“What has that Declaration to do with most of the measures and recommendations I mentioned?”
You did say that, “Namby-pamby objections by “human rights” useful idiots should be disregarded” – which doesn’t sound like much respect for human rights to me.
“you stand guilty of setting up a straw man.”
Certainly not.
Itsy
The Declaration is so widely drawn – and so ‘generously’ interpreted – that there is not a single country on earth which is not in permanent breach of it in some way or another (and frequently, in several).
In the light of that fact, no reasonable person can equate what I wrote with a desire to “tear up” the Convention.
Which, incidentally and in turn means that you did set up a straw man.
*********************
And now put on your itsy-bitsy-tiny-polka-dot-bikini and strut your stuff in the local park 🙂
“You have a couple of pals here who will presumably agree that advice should be taken from the Israelis. I guarantee you that the remaining large majority wouldn’t take advice from that quarter on brushing their teeth, much less “best practice” when dealing with security.”
_____________________
You are right.
The large majority of the active commenters on here – but not, I suspect, the large majority of readers – would rather see people (not themselves – just other people, of course) get blown to Kingdom come rather than follow Israeli best practice.
That’s because they place their hatred of Israel above the safety of their fellow citizens.
Since I work five or six blocks from the White House, if there is a terrorist incident in D.C., I would be at as much risk as most anybody. When I was stationed in Berlin, the Baader Meinhof Gang was laying bombs on American military bases. I saw one discovered and defused something like 100 yards from my barracks. During that time, another bomb was discovered in a car just outside the American high school in Berlin the night of the senior prom. One bomb that went off at U.S. Army headquarters in Heidelberg killed an American officer.
So, I am at as much risk as just about anybody in the U.S. from terrorism, and I have personal experience of the threat of terrorism. Nevertheless, I greatly prefer the preservation of civil liberties to any program that aims to eliminate all threat (an impossible goal, anyway).
And I suspect much the same can be said of many people who value civil liberties more than the elimination of all risk.
Bit confused about the chronology, Walter.
Was that before or after (1) your studies at Oxford (2) your studies at Yale (3) your various language studies (Russian, Biblical Hebrew, Turkish, French, German, Rumanian….) here there and everywhere (4) your studies for your various “higher degrees” (5) your long service as a US Navy officer including many overseas postings (6) your service at the Pentagon and last but not least (7) your private practice as a lawyer in DC, during which you spend so much time posting on here?
And you still haven’t told us which Oxford college you attended (but you have told us you’re circumcised which, frankly, is not very interesting).
Why anyone would bother to keep a file on all that I have said about my past I must admit I find mystifying.
But not as mystifying as why the odious snitch never tells us anything about his past.
Yes, I’d noticed too that Hab seems to keep files on us all. A very professional job, I suppose.
Yeah, the Israeli solution is to shoot dead any Palestinian. Good solution for the rest of us, the civilised world. The genocidal Israelis naturally want to implicate us in their crimes. And Hab is their spokesman.
Taken as an aggregate whole no-one cares about your views – no-one is going to pay more tax for your security based paradise. Sure you can you screw a few poor people into the ground – but for what ultimate purpose?
What do you think poor people care? They don’t know how many steps there are in Oxford colleges and they don’t care. Mostly they would prefer not to be blown up or put in prison. But in the end they accept what they must, as they always have done. If you want more money for surveillance you will have to take it from the rich – and they won’t give it to you. You can print money – but in the end that will destroy the entire economy.
The only winning option left is to tell the truth. I am not holding my breath for that option to be deployed.
Hard to appreciate the lack of interest by posters on a thread about the Kyle of Lochalsh which Craig is visiting over the Easter holidays, and where and when SNP leader Willie McRae was murdered 31 years ago.
Think he was murdered because he was learning too much about Scotland’s role in a surprise attack on the USSR which the KGB was discovering more about, thanks to the efforts by its London resident Lukasevics Guk’s, and MI6 learned of them too because of Oleg Gordiesky’s work.
Looks like Willie was cut down to help undo Guk’s spying while Gordiesky was allowed to escape from Moscow to trick the covert Anglo-American government into thinking that the Soviets didn’t know what was planned.
Would explain why Willie was so pleased about what he had discovered, what was in his briefcase which went missing after the murder, and why family and officialdom are so eager to write off his murder as a suicide, like those of Dr. Kelly, Gareth Williams, and Gudrun Loftus.
Who is this Gudrun Loftus person you’re always on about, Trow?
Trowbridge, I don’t know enough about the McRae case to be able to comment.
I am familiar with the Kyle of Lochalsh, and after paying five quid to cross that bridge I did live on the Isle of Skye for a while, albeit a number of decades ago now.
At the time, you could go in to pubs in both Kyle and on Skye and find the locals muttering about ‘submarine activity’ in the sea channels. If I remember rightly, one submarine actually got stranded on rocks north of Kyle of Lochalsh.
That’s, helpful RobG.
Think that was what Willie was taking advantage of.
Don’t know who he was planning on giving his dossier to, but suspect he was set up by the Army team at the Kyle, having someone like Forbes Cay-Mitchell follow him from Glasgow, and a recruit like Hayward bushwhack him on the A87 at the shire borders.
The killing of McRae was a big relief to London and Washington.
It sounds so informed, Trow. Nobody would think that it’s wild speculation, would they? You’ve blagged your credentials as a historian here, and I’m beginning to find a few reviews of your work which don’t inspire uncritical confidence, either. You want to know who was at Balmacara House during the time slot in question? You want the authorities to tell you? Dream on. You think Balmacara House was a secret spook base? As my earlier link indicates, its existence and at least its overt function are in the public domain. There is no more reason for your putative snuff squad to be based there than ( where they would be a lot less conspicuous) at the NAAFI at Fort George. Or a tent.
I’ll say it again, you’re in the diversion and distraction business. You don’t believe the total bollocks you post any more than I do. You’re taking the piss.
Willie Macrae deserves a better memorial than anything you can provide. Whether the state killed nim or not, let him rest in peace. Let’s concentrate on today’s villains.
“Willie Macrae deserves a better memorial than anything you can provide. Whether the state killed nim or not, let him rest in peace. Let’s concentrate on today’s villains.”
Yes, in Glasgow the boundaries between politicians, the legal profession and organised crime are extremely blurred. It’s anybody’s guess what happened, it happens from time to time, best not to ask too many questions. His family seemed happy to not dig too deep into his affairs.
As for today’s villains I see more SNP sleazeballs are making the papers. How do they get away with it?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/12205169/SNP-expense-row-over-87000-milked-from-public-purse.html
Certainly not wild speculation.
Balmacara House is the center for special force training for Northern Ireland and North Scotland, the ideal place if you wanted to kill someone coming up from Glasgow to Dornie on the A87. The intended victim would be setting himself up for his own murder.
And Simon Hawyard increasingly seems like the killer since he was training there when Willie was killed, and when Hayward went on to apparently kill Olof Palme, and then set up as a drug ruiner in Sweden to take him out of circulation, the MoD gave him an alibi for not having been in Scotland at the time, having Neil Wallis, you know this great liar, in The Sun claim that Hayward was doing great counter terrorist work in Northern Ireand which Hayward went out of his way to deny.
Little wonder that the ‘Iron Lady’ went berserk when she learned in July 1989 that his autobiography, Under Fire: My Own Story,was to be published. For good measure, he showed that he knew everything a covert operator needed to know about Scotland.
Think Willie knew even more about Fortress Scotland when the Cold War was increasingly becoming hotter, though I still have to determine who that briefcase full of secrets was for.
And I don’t expect anything from the MoD. Only hope that poor Willie’s survivors make such a stink about his murder that it has to release all it knows about it.
Trowbridge, I’ve come across many, many conspiracy theorists on the internet, but you take the biscuit.
Thanks, Itsy, but there are many, like Jim Fetzer, Alex Jones, and our Chris Jones, who top me.
Know anything about Michael Shrimpton?
Veterans Today.
He’s always banging on about some German secret outfit, GO2 or something.
Whatever’s going on in the world, seems they’re always at the centre of it.
Never any reasoning as to how these Germans got to be so powerful, what’s their objective and so on.
A bit like your work.
Willie McRae was found dead 40 miles from the Kyle of Lochalsh. Interestingly though the holiday home he was heading for was barely ten miles from the RN Diving School, oops sorry Ultra Top Secret Tri-Service Assassin Training Centre, which raises the question of why they didn’t just lay in wait for him there.
She was a linguist at GCHQ, and a language teacher at Oxord who worked with Williams in translating the Afghan File into colloquial German.
When he was murdered for failing to see that its names were redacted when it was published in The Guardian, and he went berserk over the FBI’s exposure of the Agency’s Manhattan 11 as Russian agents, she took up Williams effort when he was brutally murdered.
She was a member of St. John’s College, Oxford, and met someone there. outside its Senior Common Room, early one Octobert morning, only to the pushed down its zteep stairs to her death.
Of course it was ruled an accident, though she fell backwards down the stairs.
Seems she was pushed by a senior colleague who discovered her body, and went on to kill Dr. Steve Rawlings when they got into an argument about what was going on at the college.
Of course, his death could not be ruled a suicidre, so it too was just called accidental.
The next time you kill someone, just tell the authorities it was accidental!
Trowbridge
The SCR at St John’s Oxford is on ground level – there are no stairs to fall or be pushed down.
Perhaps you’re thinking of St John’s Cambridge?
Habb – she did fall down some stairs. Or maybe was pushed. Anything will do for a conspiracist. You may believe that her sherry was spiked with a rare and untraceable hallucinogen provided by the NSA, and she thought she could fly, if you wish.
Just an example of the trolls taking over, and not giving a shit about what the Anglo-America covert state does to anyone.
Dr, Gudrun Loftus, a Senior Fellow at St. John’s College, Oxford, died after she was pushed down the steep stairs outside its Senior Common Room, and fell backwards down them to her bloody death.
Her body was found by a still unidentified source, most likely fellow Senior Fellow Dr. Dewinter Sivia, who, as I recall, attended St. John’s College, Cambridge.
Dr. Sivia went on to kill with a headlock most upset Professor Steve Rawlings after they attended the annual dinner at the Oxford college, and got into an argument on the way back to Rawlings’ home because of his questioning who had killed Loftus and discovered her body.
The most corrupt Oxford coroner ruled at Rawlings inquest that his death was accidental after the police had released him without charge.
“Dr. Sivia went on to kill with a headlock most upset Professor Steve Rawlings after they attended the annual dinner at the Oxford college, and got into an argument on the way back to Rawlings’ home because of his questioning who had killed Loftus and discovered her body.”
Trollbridge
You’ve been watching too much Midsomer Murders and Morse.
Never watch them, but Professor Steve Rawlings was hooked on them.
When he addressed murders in Oxford, alluding to Loftus’s to Dewinter Sivia, he put that deadly headlock on him.
And Andrew’s bolllocks about the KGB, CND, MI6, and the missing murder of Wiillie just another example of why you recommended his work.
So, what does it all mean then, Trolly.
All this intrigue.
What does it amount to.
What does it tell us about the world we live in.
Are there larger purposes here in all these slayings or is it just local infighting.
Picture of renovated Senior Common Room at St. John’s College, Oxford shows a staircase. http://www.burohappold.com/projects/project/senior-common-room-st-johns-college-university-of-oxford-383/ . Renovation completed 2005.
LOL
Habby hasn’t ever been invited back…
Sherry consumption not normally done on the ground floor, doncha know..
Daily Mail: Is this one for Morse? Police probe unexplained death of Oxford University lecturer found at the bottom of steep spiral staircase (Oct. 9, 2010):
Yes, I know – I was just teasing and wanted to get some of you to do some work on a Saturday evening. I succeeded by the look of things, ddn’t I 🙂
You succeeded in padding your resume as an inveterate liar, for whom the truth is an enemy against whom permanent war has been declared.
No doubt there is a job posting in Cheltenham for which the competition has begun.
The sole source for the allegation that Loftus was pushed down the stairs* is one T H Ford, in his plethora of contributions to everything from Wikispooks to babblingly insane conspiracy sites (probably his own). Where he posits that Loftus, working like everyone else in Oxford, only 37 miles from Cheltenham, was clearly a spook. And thereby Gareth Williams’ colleague because she might have (though is nowhere demonstrated to have) taught him German.
I might be accused of protesting too much, and probably will be. But I don’t have a dog in this fight at all. I just find the expectation that we are to believe these incessant allegations by THF insulting to my intelligence, especially as they reveal his utter scientific and technological ignorance from time to time. The pretence that he is the recipient of privileged information is likewise absurd – would you trust a state secret to this man? Unless…unless…disinformation is the game.
*Obviously, she could have been. Means, motive, opportunity, who? Lost in a miasma of peripheral assertions, none checkable.
Of course you have a dog in this fight and many others as you have been attacking me as a complete nutty conspiracy theorist since I started posting on this site.
“you have been attacking me as a complete nutty conspiracy theorist since I started posting on this site.”
Ahhhh.
Perhaps he read this barely literate load of junk:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/ford/
i mean:
“While I did this, I had made too many enemies with the White House not to be punished – first by attempts to establish that I maliciously tried to destroy Richard Nixon during Watergate by libeling him, and when he died, DCI George Tenet tried to have me killed by poisoning – what would make my death look like suicide or a natural one.”
The way you turn up, mate, in all the pivotal events of world history is a tad Forrest Gumpish, no.