| View previous topic :: View next topic |
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
 |
|
Alfred de Grazia's works -- which I know more by repute via Gunnar Heinsohn than directly -- have now been collated and are available here
http://www.q-ency.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Somebody should plod through them and post up anything of particular interest. I unfortunately am committed to plod through seven series of Public Eye, a 'tec series from the 1970's which is even better than I remembered. I am Marker.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
I have always been frightened by Jeanette Winterson and news that she reads a poem every morning before getting up hasn't helped one little bit. However she said a fascinating thing in today's Guardian
The book I couldn't finish
Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James. Are straight women really having such terrible sex and terrible lives? |
This raises so many points about both the human and the female condition I don't know where to begin. But I do know one thing, nobody else will.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
| Ghost trees: Nature and People in a London Parish by Bob Gilbert. |
The parish? Poplar.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
|
|
|
|
| Mick Harper wrote: | | I have always been frightened by Jeanette Winterson and news that she reads a poem every morning before getting up hasn't helped one little bit. |
Jeanette's 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' is brilliant and years ago I went to a talk by her and was so intimidated I felt obliged to buy the book and ask her to sign it (though I never read it and can't remember its title). Her spouse, Susie Orbach, is possibly even more formidable.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
|
Fancy a tag team?
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
I know a lot of you look to me for guidance about Christmas so here is my usual ten-point guide:
1. Get out of the present racket. That could have been worded better but basically adopt an absolutist position: "I am not giving any presents this year or any year and if you give me a present I will treat it with the derision it (usually) deserves." Make no exceptions. Except for your own children (they are as entitled to the most exciting moment of the year as anyone else's) but do not extend this to other people's children (they get quite enough excitement from everyone else and will not even notice). And I mean 'children'. You must be the judge but the experience of witnessing fond parents trying to provide their thirty-something children (I could have worded that better) with the most exciting moment of their year again is painful in the extreme.
2. Ditto Christmas cards. It's taken a lot of effort but my mantelpiece is finally clear of everything except Greetings of the Season from two of my local takeaways.
3. Christmas games. Adopt an eminence grise position to ensure the correct ones are chosen without them realising.
4. Christmas dinner. Offer to do the sprouts with great insistence then fade into the background. The washing up requires a master class so I won't go into it here.
5. Drugs. Taking downers rather than uppers is a rookie mistake.
6. Boxing Day requires careful handling. Basically, encourage everybody else to go out on their various expeditions so you can catch a couple of hours of sweet peace.
7. Pre-record all telly programmes that look interesting so that you can enter into disputes without any personal stake in the outcome. All disputes in fact should be provoked and/or steered with the following in mind...
8. Never be the lowest person on the social totem pole. Be near the bottom (to avoid responsibilities) but not at the bottom (to avoid feelings of low self-worth).
9. Leaving ceremonies always take more time than you can reasonably allot to any form of social interaction (including sex) so remember that nobody will notice you are not taking part in the mêlée.
10. New Year resolutions. Cut down on ten-point plans.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
|
|
|
|
| 1. Get out of the present racket. |
You might be onto something. I had noticed that our cats are particularly unfestive when receiving their seasonal gifts.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
|
Stop lying about 'our cats', Wiley, it's an open secret that you and your cats spend Christmas tout seul.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
|
|
|
|
Faulty fuzzy thinking.
You start off well....
Who in their right mind would want to live with Wiley?
But fail to ask the supplementary
What cat in their right mind would want to live with Wiley?
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
|
Look, Wiley, if you want me to come and spend Christmas with you, just come right out and say so. Well, the AEL will send someone, it won't necessarily be me. It's all done on a points basis. If I get the short straw this year, so be it.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
The Unreliable History has received its first (independent) review in Indonesia (where I'm particularly big)
Watch Maga 9 hari yang lalu [9th December?]
For an interesting take on this and other controversies of World War II, I highly recommend, "An Unreliable History of the Second World War." The author, M. J. Harper, has an original interpretation of the significance and purpose of the Maginot Line: It was never intended to stop the German Army. I am confident you will find the entire book interesting. |
though the following day Cyrus Fidelio took a completely different line
Cyrus Fidelio 10 hari yang lalu
The French are only good at sucking negro cock. |
He doesn't say whether he is referring to men or women, military or civilian, so we must assume it's a general criticism.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
|
|
|
|
MH asks about the replacement of gold with silver.
I came across this silver dirham at the bottom of a well.
Islamic world
There was little interest in the crusades in Islamic culture prior to the 20th century. Carole Hillenbrand has argued that Arab historians have often taken a Western viewpoint because they have historically been opposed to Turkish control of their homelands. [25] Phillips (2005) summarizes the general indifference by stating that "most Muslims" see the Crusades as "just another invasion among many in their history".[26] The veneration of Saladin as chivalrous opponent of the Crusaders likewise finds no reflection in Islamic tradition before the visit of German Emperor Wilhelm II to Saladin's tomb in 1898.[27] The visit, coupled with anti-imperialist sentiments, led nationalist Arabs to reinvent the image of Saladin and portray him as a hero of the struggle against the West. The image of Saladin they used was the romantic one created by Walter Scott and other Europeans in the West at the time. It replaced Saladin's reputation as a figure who had been largely forgotten in the Muslim world, eclipsed by more successful figures such as Baybars of Egypt.[28] Modern Arab states have sought to commemorate Saladin through various measures, often based on the image created of him in the 19th-century west.[29]
Renewed interest in the period is comparatively recent, arising in the context of modern Jihadist propaganda calling for war on the Western "crusaders".[30] Notably, a fatwa signed by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in 1998 called for jihad against "the crusader-Zionist alliance" (referring to the United States and Israel).[31] By 2008, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World claimed that "many Muslims consider the Crusades to be a symbol of Western hostility toward Islam".[not in citation given][32] The term á¹£alÄ«biyyÅ«n "crusader", a 19th-century loan translation from Western historiography, is now in common use as a pejorative; Salafi preacher Wagdy Ghoneim has used it interchangeably with naá¹£ÄrÄ and masīḥiyyÄ«n as a term for Christians in general.[33] |
For those, like Wiley, who know very little about the crusades. Here is a quick summary. The crusades were called to wrest control of pilgrim routes from west to east, with the objective that pilgrims could reach Jerusalem. There is no evidence that muslims were stopping christians from going, there is no evidence that christians were going. Some historian folks thinks this crusading stuff is all about (that old chestnut) keeping folks at home happy. (!) Of course when your crusaders arrived they primarily spent the time fighting, killing and pillaging christians (which is not to say that small numbers of others weren't caught up)
Is it any wonder that the Islamic world at the time failed to notice?
Saladin turns out to be a 19th century fiction.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
|
|
|
|
This made me laugh.
A comedian of Russian extraction living in Britain was engaged to front a student charity Unicef event. There was only one problem, he was only allowed to tell jokes that were respectful and kind.
| 'By signing this contract, you are agreeing to our no-tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-religion or anti-atheism.' |
Not having any material left, he was forced to turn the event down.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
| Mick Harper wrote: | Watch Maga 9 hari yang lalu [9th December?]
For an interesting take on this and other controversies of World War II, I highly recommend, "An Unreliable History of the Second World War."... |
Ha ha ha! That's me! Watch Maga! That's my YouTube channel. :-)
I was trying to get some traction for your book with a history-related YouTuber.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
|
That's good. Could you move on now to the non-anti-black-cock-sucking market?
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
The Library Index 
FAQ 
Search
Register
Profile 
Log in to check your private messages 
Log in 
