Now We are 7 (I Think)

We are in it for the Long Haul as John Wayne might have said rounding up the doagies. (What on earth are doagies... Ed? I think someone wasted their childhood watching cheap Holywood Cowboy filums!)  Yup. You gonna call me out like a man or hide behind that bottle of ink and quill pen with the white feather?
So now we are 7.
The world may appear to be a different place. We still have the most right wing, militaristic, nuclear weaponed government in our history. Italy is still in crisis. The poor are still with us. The pope is still a shy, and retiring, catholic. They are still prising guns out of the hands of cold, dead, mass murderers.  They are dying in Syria as opposed to Afghanistan. Oh they are still dying in Afghanistan and Gaza and god knows where else. Despite this Blog's call for World Peace and Justice by 4pm, non negotiable, I suspect we may all be banging away about it for a lot longer.

I am shocked and shamed by the energy, industry, and courage of individuals who challenge the evil parts of the system. The power of the big bad guys to destroy you is truly scary but many have the courage to resist and provoke.

Aaron H. Swartz was an American computer programmer, writer, and political organizer. He resisted and spent a large part of his short life organising and looking for loopholes.  Larry Lessig devotes his inaugural lecture, as the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership of the Harvard Law School to "Aaron's Laws". It is very moving so I guess we should be moved.

George Monbiot has a piece describing the actions of EDF in response to a peaceful protest. 

If you want to register a protest you can always sign the petitions.

And you could ask yourself why you get your energy from EDF if you do and you could ask yourself who owns EDF?

(Be warned! Any untoward comments in this Blog concerning Cheese Eating Electric Monkeys will be dealt with, most severely..Ed!)

Gis a Book?

Books & Libraries again...
I was discussing the merits of libraries at breakfast and realised that one of the benefits of the library system, little promoted, is the idea of sharing. Yes, libraries provide 'books for the poor', reference books, tomes  provided for  wide groups of users.  They can act as a focus for community and artistic endeavours. There are many examples of other 'uses'.  We seldom promote them as exemplars of the shared resource; learning by doing.
I do not need my own universe perhaps would you like to share this one!

Later an article in the Observ-a-Tory
It's not what a library stocks, it's what it shares | Books | The Observer

The bookless library is not a contradiction in terms, but a continuation of the library's core purpose, providing access to knowledge and information, and a public statement of the value of that access.

I'm forced to agree but a bookless library, a bit like a pub with no beer!

Falling Standards

Post at Nick's excellent blog caught my eye ( I wonder why...Ed?)
The “whore’s drawers” and the Libor scandal – a tale of two cultures

On the trading floor at Buddhist Pizza Inc we would never have used such a tasteless phrase.
It would, of course, have been the bride's nightie.

For those seeking titillation and (horse) flesh no pornography was used in the making of this blog.
(Is that a fact. I'm glad to hear it... Ed!)

Horsing Around

It may have escaped your attention that there has been, allegedly, sins of the horseflesh in the kitchens of our once great nation. I leave that matter to the purveyors of scandal and pony burghers.
There was consternation, also, for a moment in Buddhist Pizza Stables  as we sat down to our evening meal. Herself is a vegetarian of sorts but is allowed, by the dietary authorities, to eat fish. I will eat anything, though of late I have avoided eating people because it is wrong! On our plates was a wholesome repast of baked potatoes, crunchy salad and tuna mixed with sweetcorn. Lady BP chuckled that one of the benefits of being a sort of vegetarian was that it would prove difficult to consume horse meat unknowingly.
I retrieved the tin of tuna and read :-
Line caught Tuna, may contain traces of Horse Mackerel.
You could have heard the Gopaleen running in Connemara.

I made my apologies and ducked.

Walking the World

If I could not have mountains or sea as a view from my window in old age, I would choose the sight of a road vanishing round a corner in woods, or disappearing over a pass of the hills. And it would need to be a road with a surface soft enough to show ruts and footmarks, and on it a homely plop of dung, and a few puddles to reflect the stars. What pleasure is there in the contemplation of a tarmac road, with nothing significant on it but white stripes and blobs of dirty oil?
Driftwood and Tangle p183.
Margaret Leigh