A few days ago I read an article which has disappeared into the bowels of IT. That’s how things are on the WWW. It’s a bit like flipping through a phone book after the imbibing of a couple and not only not remembering the page number but also what you had actually read. I get this more and more. No sooner have I read a fascinating unforgettable bit of essential trivia and even before taking leave of my chair, it has already gone or in a Dali Watch meltdown.
I have told my wife to take a good grip on me. I am losing it. Oh, now I remember what it was that took my inattention. Something about bombing and the futility of it. Someone pointed out that;
We not only fight our enemies in Iraq and Syria but also our allies and friends.
The situation gets more and more complicated as time goes by.
Get again a bit closer now and écoutez carefullement svp.
We don’t like Isis, but Isis is supported by Saudi Arabia who are our friends. We don’t like president Assad and support the fight against him in Syria. So does Isis who we don’t like. We don’t like Iran but Iran supports Iraqi government against Isis. We support Iraq in fighting Isis but not others such as Iran who also fight Isis. Isis must only be killed by our friends but not by our enemies.
Some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies support our enemies. Some of our enemies support our friends. Some enemies are fighting against enemies that are also (at time) our friends. Some want our enemies to win while some of our enemies want our enemies to win depending on who is enemy or friend.
Our best friends are or were also our enemies and vice versa.
Hope this clears it up.
Or, someone better grounded in logic could sum it up thus: Our friends and enemies are one. They are us. I now surmise but ask; are we really bombing ourselves?
Does that make sense?
Or have I fuckcen flipped?
Should I just concentrate on growing Foxgloves.(Foxglove poisoning usually occurs from sucking the flowers or eating the seeds, stems, or leaves of the foxglove plant.)
Foxgloves by Mary Webb.
“The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue,
Will not reveal what peals were rung
In Faery, A thousand ages gone.
All the golden clappers hang
As if but now the changes rang;
Only from the mottled throat Never any echoes float.
Quite forgotten, in the wood,
Pale, crowded steeples rise;
All the time that they have stood
None has heard their melodies.
Deep, deep in wizardry
All the foxglove belfries stand.
Should they startle over the land,
None would know what bells they be.
Never any wind can ring them,
Nor the great black bees that swing them
Every crimson bell, down-slanted,
Is so utterly enchanted. –
Tags: Assad, foxgloves, Irag, Iran, Isis, Saudi Arabia, Syria
September 29, 2014 at 6:05 am |
http://wp.me/p3ZISx-1kC
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September 29, 2014 at 6:58 am |
Yes, now you are telling me. I looked under every carpet and at around every corner, even inside my neighbour’s cloth dryer. She caught me at it and thought I was very rude.
Thank you for your ever vigilant observing eyes.
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September 29, 2014 at 7:00 am
I LOVE it that you’re talking about it again, Gerard: this ludicrousness of the whole sorry mess can never be pointed up sufficiently often.
If only we were preaching, you and I, to the as yet unconverted …
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September 29, 2014 at 9:32 am
Watching the SBS news. Fighter jets taking off, swooping majestically through the sky leaving white vapour trails. A United Arab Emirate woman fighter pilot climbing aboard her jet on a red painted ladder, her veil kept on beneath her helmet. Now, there was a woman! The only positive news for the evening.
Sorry; got a bit excited.
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September 29, 2014 at 7:36 am |
It’s rather like an anti-war video the late Tony Benn did asking why we were in Afghanistan again.
We don’t learn from our history and we just meddle here, there, and everywhere, meanwhile killing a few unimportant civilians who happened to be in the wrong place. And then there’s the after effects of war in the countries that ‘we’ invade.
It’s quite nauseating, unlike Albinoni or the poem. Foxgloves are a nightmare to get rid of. Huge deep roots.
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September 29, 2014 at 9:25 am |
Gee, did not known about foxgloves and deep roots. So far we haven’t been successful at getting any to survive.
The snails love them and descend on the innocent seedlings like bombers on Syrian Isis. They destroy everything in their path, leaving slimy trails. Should we think of eating them to supplement our diet? (snails not Isis)
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September 29, 2014 at 10:14 am
I suspect FGs like an odd mix. I seem to remember ours were often in the shady damp areas of the long shrubby borders in our garden, touched occasionally by the sun, but not muchly.
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September 29, 2014 at 12:19 pm
I thought FG were the epitome of a cosy country garden together with daisis and lupins. I believe they grow profusely on the Dnieper river at Dneprodzerzhinsk where they were blamed for killing fish stock including the sturgeon fish that gives the world its caviar.
We just planted another box of FG seedlings and spread slug killer pellets around them. I feel rotten beacuse snails have a right to live good, full and productive lives. It must be agony to die because the pellets lure them inexorably to a slow death.
I suppose thta’s why those extreme orthodox Jews refused to sit next to women on the airline as outlined on your blog’s piece. A cruelty imposed by culture.
I expect FG values to be above that of snails. In a more tolerant world I would let both live, perhaps accept that FGs will at times get eaten by snails, the same as snails get eaten by predators such as lizzards.
It is complicated.
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September 29, 2014 at 8:15 am |
I see no solutions, only problems. In the case of IS caused by an idea which functions as a virus. This has happened several times before within Islam, once leading to a successful attack on Mecca.
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September 29, 2014 at 9:26 am |
But where is the virus that would make young people lure them to stay home and better our own countries?
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September 29, 2014 at 4:31 pm |
Nuff said.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/cartoon/2014/sep/27/1#zoomed-picture
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September 29, 2014 at 7:54 pm |
When people in power deliberately lie to you, I’m not sure there’s much merit in trying to untangle or understand their lies. ISIS, Khorasans, al Qaeda all started as fictional groups originally created by US, British and Israeli intelligence to justify prolonged occupation of the Middle East by the US and NATO.
The real goal, as always, is to topple the secular government of Syria and the Shiite government of Iran because they are hostile to US and Wall Street interests.
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September 30, 2014 at 2:14 am |
Gerard, I think you hit the nail on the head or is it the head on the nail? 🙂 Anyhow, yes it is all so contorted and convoluted or whatever adjective you want to give the enemy and the friend thing. We, the so called peaceful countries, I believe have made it all worse but now it is too late and “we” are in the mess and can not see/find a way out.
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October 1, 2014 at 1:21 am |
Yes, listening to the news now gets me sunk in clearsighted despair.
You get to watch those black puffs of smoke coming towards you in the TV and people are blown up in real time.
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September 30, 2014 at 10:02 pm |
Confusing isn’t it? Nice poem though.
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October 1, 2014 at 1:19 am |
Yes, I get dizzy watching the news now.
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October 1, 2014 at 12:54 am |
Even Stalin was a friend at one stage and as for the beautiful foxglove, a little digitalis is good for the heart!
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October 1, 2014 at 1:19 am |
Digitalis can also be given by Lily of the Valley. Is no area of the body safe anymore?
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October 1, 2014 at 11:25 am |
I loved the Adagio and the beautiful pictures. Makes me forget all these confusing news. Thank you for the music!
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October 15, 2014 at 10:17 pm |
Thanks for clearing this friend / enemy dichotomy up for me. Now I can concentrate on the enemy in Canberra. I love that I don’t have to love this bare-chested lunatic who is preparing to “shirt-front” the Russian bear. I hope it will be live on “Free View”.
I’m sick of seeing air planes dropping bombs on people. In 1939 there were STUKAS dropping bombs on Warsaw, now I see Super Hornets dropping guided missiles on some people in Iraq. The people of Vietnam still suffer from unexploded bombs and the residue of Agent Orange.
We are mad !
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