EU Spectacle
The word spectacle is carefully chosen, since this is what the current drama of which Greece is the symptom, not the cause, has become. It no longer bears any relationship to coherent democratic leadership or process of governance in a workable political and currency union. The cancellation at a moment’s notice of a summit of all EU leaders is extraordinary.
There is a problem with Greece, but it is not that difficult to solve. Indeed this blog working alone would be able to negotiate a workable solution. What is proving impossible is to find an acceptable solution, because the institutions normally established to process decision making at national and international levels are not there, or there in such abundance nobody can detect who is in charge. And to make matters worse the structure of the currency itself is unsustainable as it lacks a treasury and a finance minister answering to an elected government. A committee of finance ministers at loggerheads, elected by only one member state in each case, on conflicting mandates and to differing electoral timetables will work only in the good times and becomes dysfunctional under pressure.
So all we know at this moment is that Greece may or may not go bust tomorrow, the euro looks more like an impediment to growth than an engine of it, and the reputation of the EU as a coherent political union is severely damaged. Beneath that a big gap is developing between the north and the south of Europe, between the politicians and their electors everywhere and between those in the eurozone who want to stand firm to high principle even if it brings the whole thing down, led by the Germans, and by those who feel pragmatic reality demands compromise, led by France and Italy.
At the heart of of this crisis now engulfing the whole EU are three violated principles. You cannot have a democratic political union without an elected forum from which all authority flows. You cannot have a currency which cannot be printed. You cannot have capitalism which does not permit debtors to go bust. The first is violated because the whole EU is wrongly configured. The last two are rescinded because Germany says No.
Next Monday here is the Fourth of July which you will remember is a holiday here. We went grocery shopping yesterday on Wednesday to find that they were stocking up the store with picnic and barbecue items. We noticed there was a counter where you could buy a bucket of fried chicken. The last time we had even eaten fried chicken was on vacation two years ago, so we decided to take out a bucket for dinner. I had to reheat it at 375 degrees for 25 minutes at dinner time. My question is, is fried chicken just an American specialty? Or do you eat it in Britain? Have you ever had fried chicken? It is particularly good with mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Or is coleslaw just an American dish, too? It's made with shredded cabbage, carrots, and mayonnaise, stuff like that.
How did you like the article I sent you on Fidelity? They talk about anti-globalization as some sort of reaction against the financial crisis of 2008 which is now eight years ago. They see the Brexit as some sort of anti-globalization move on the part of Great Britain. There is too much no growth and slow growth. They say that global growth lifts all boats. But slow growth or no growth leaves too many in the industrialized world behind. So they are rebelling and turning inward or something like that.
Have you noticed any problem lately with your credit cards or debit cards? This year we have had numerous incidents of credit card fraud. In years past we encountered this only once about fourteen or fifteen years ago and it was a very trivial, isolated incident. We are beginning to wonder what is going on. Today someone put a fraudulent charge through on our Master Card attached to PayPal. Just a couple of months ago we had two separate incidents with our Capital One Master Card and Visa card. Those were actual credit cards.
Watching the rattlesnake video is like watching a horror movie. Ever since I saw the rattlesnake on Monday night I haven't ventured out into the backyard where all this stuff is going on. And last night I saw another Gila Monster crawling through the garden bed towards the same back patio outside the dining room sliding glass doors where we found the rattlesnake. Then he crawled across the patio. Do they like the patio? I don't get it. The only thing we can think of was that the light was on near the sliding glass door on Monday night. Bugs are attracted to the light. The rattlesnake may have been after the bugs. But that sounds rather thin as an explanation. I've had the light on every night for months and no rattlesnake. Ditto at Wallen Ridge, the other house. At the other house we NEVER saw a rattlesnake no matter what we did. We never saw a Gila Monster either.
You notice how the Italians don't object to what the Germans do. I had the idea that if the Euro Zone dissolved, they'd still be trying to cling onto the Germans and use their currency. But then a lot of the wealth of Italy comes from the South Tyrol area, and that is Austrian and stolen after the First World War. They are used to depending on the Germans. Also I think the Italians aren't very nationalistic. They may have unified Italy, but it didn't seem to mean much. It certainly didn't have the momentum of unifying Germany.I don't see how Belgium or Brussels would suddenly dislike the EU. That's now one of their main industries.
Gary reminds me that today is the beginning of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. This is where your uncle comes in. I see you did a blog about him. I'm surprised to hear about your father, though. I didn't know he was involved in the Great War. What battles was he involved in? This is what you should be writing books about. I know I have said this before, and I will say it again. You owe it to their memories. This must be why you dislike T.E. Lawrence so much because he was involved in WW1, too. I think WW2 was really part of WW1 and is now concluded. But I think that WW1 is still going on as a kind of 100 Years War where all the countries of the world have to feel the effects of westernization, industrialization, and have to have their liberation movements.
We never go outside in bare feet. I never did this even when I was a kid back in Pittsburgh. Right now I have stopped going out in the backyard at all. We're having an inspector come over to look over the house itself and make sure there are no rattlesnakes hiding under it or right around its foundations. Then we're getting the doors checked to make sure there is no way to crawl underneath them. After that we're getting somebody to put in a door on the side patio to block out the backyard. Right now we have a dog gate there. We're going to put mesh over the drains and make sure the two front gates are blocked underneath maybe with door sweeps. This is the first order of business. This would effectively seal off the wraparound patio in the front yard and side yards which is enclosed by a high brick wall.As far as the perimeter of the backyard goes, I don't know what to do. The wire mesh that you're supposed to install around the chain link fence is unsightly, especially since we have slatted the chain link fence with brown plastic panels. It would look even worse applied over a wooden fence. It takes a lot of maintenance. It is subject to getting knocked down or torn. The only alternative is putting a brick wall around the entire backyard which is one acre. This would be nice, but I don't think I can afford it right now. The poor dog cannot go outside in the backyard, not even on a leash, and we simply can't figure out what to do about it. Even getting all the cactus removed (which we have started to do) is no sure fix.
If it's not the mover, it's the rattlesnakes and Gila Monsters. Who would ever have thought of such a dilemma? I don't think I would have been the type to live in Africa in the early 20th century.
No way. What I say is true in any country at any time period. Thatcher was an exception that eternally proves the rule. Ditto with Merkel. There were women like that in ancient times such as Cleopatra. There were women like that in the Middle Ages such as Eleanor of Acquitane. There were women of the Renaissance of that character such as Elizabeth 1. You had Katherine the Great of Russia.But I still think that the average woman does not want to be liberated from anything. In terms of anthropology, it was women who decided long ago on the social norms by which society has always operated. Men need protected from women, if anything. Even in Arab countries women are the ones who decided on harems, multiple wives, etc. In America as in other modern countries women work at jobs ONLY because they don't have enough money otherwise. If their husband earned enough, most wouldn't bother to do anything except shop and socialize. To prove my point, what do a lot of women with disposable income spend their money on? They buy makeup, high heeled shoes, and fancy clothes. They haven't been liberated from anything since the days of the hoop skirt, which was another invention that women decided on. Obviously there are exceptions. I am talking about the average woman.
P.S. Who do you think was the most powerful woman in American history? This is one you will never guess. I can make a really good argument for my choice here.
If it has to do with the light and the bugs, why didn't the rattlesnake show up before? It simply doesn't make sense to me. We lived at Wallen Ridge and never saw a snake. For that matter I think the range of the rattlesnake extends way beyond Arizona. I certainly never saw it back East.
A southern euro and a northern euro would still be two currencies. That wasn't the idea of the EU. That's like saying we should have a Northern Dollar and a Southern Dollar in the US.
I don't understand anything about Corbyn. Gary said something about how he was in trouble now that there is a Brexit. You say he isn't. But then you are one of his supporters. And what happens in 2020? Is that the date of an election?
No one in England today is Winston Churchill. He was as eccentric as the Madhatter. But he certainly knew how to inspire people and how to build a team. Extraordinary leadership skills. Extraordinary rhetoric. But if Boris intended to run, he should not have allowed a traitor to spoil his chances. At least Boris was a "character", not as dull as most politicians nowadays. But then it's an American trait to evaluate politicians on their "entertainment" factors.
This is not a matter of being "behind the times" or "ahead of the times". This is eternally the "way it is". The science of anthropology studies gender roles in both primates and humans. And believe me just like anthropologists I give women a leadership roles when it comes to society. But they lead the family group. They are the real heads of families and even clans but always WORKING FROM THE INSIDE. Apache Indian warriors used to consult the women of the tribe, particularly the elder women of the tribe when they should go to war and who they should go to war with. They would advise the warriors about the food supply and if there was something they needed to take in a raid or "steal". (Apaches were great horse thieves). Women in ancient Rome had something of this authority, too.In fact, religion in the West started with the MOTHER GODDESS. All religions which later became patriarchal were originally matriarchal. Have you ever heard of the British writer Mary Renault? She used to be a favorite of mind and a model for my writings a few years ago. She wrote a novel called The King Must Die about Theseus. In those days of ancient Greece she postulated there were only queens who chose their mates. But every seven years or so the current king had to fight for his role against a challenger. He had to fight to the death. Thus the title The King Must Die. In my novel To Follow the Goddess, the Trojan War from the point of view of Helen, Helen is the Throne Princess. Her mother is the Queen and ruler of Sparta. Menelaus is the prince who wants to marry her and thus inherit the throne of Sparta which passed in matrilineal succession. Paris kidnapped her because with Helen went the right to take the throne of Sparta, thus causing the Trojan War.
With this sort of awesome power, women are fearsome creatures. Men need protection against women, not the other way around. Through childbirth comes woman's awesome power, of course. So this pill you talk about interferes with a woman's power. It doesn't liberate her from anything. Also pills aren't safe. I know gynecologists who thinks so and advise against its use. They cause manifold problems. I'm surprised they are still around. Tampering with the female reproductive system isn't safe at all. Much easier to tamper with the male reproductive system as a means of population control.
This is history. It might be conservative, but then women are the conservative force in history. And there is lots of scholarship behind this point of view.
I knew you would pick Eleanor Roosevelt, but she is not the woman I had in mind. There is another woman in American history who was in control of the country for a couple of years. She operated behind the scenes. She was very quiet and polite about it, thank you. She was a Virginian, believe it or not, and from the upper classes of society. But she was in fact the first woman President of the United States. This did not occur in the Civil War era. It was in part a reaction to her behind the scenes Presidency that Congress later passed laws about the succession of power from the President to the Vice President to the Secretary of State, etc.With all these clues, do you know who I am talking about?
My view about women and their role in society doesn't even have to do with being German. It is more academic than anything else. It also results from attending a women's college, Bryn Mawr, which was supposedly full of women's liberationists who really weren't all that liberated. I got to observe the thing close up and first hand, including the professors. Also I have listened to countless working women talk and complain. One of the things they complain about most is childcare and the fact that they don't have anyone to care for their kids if they work. Also emotionally they don't feel right about working if they have kids. Again this is the AVERAGE WOMAN. I read the Bryn Mawr alumnae news. Lots of women with careers can't seem to wait to get out of them and switch to something else such as special ed or just being a teacher or a librarian. They seem to especially hate being lawyers. Most of the vets we visit are now women, but being a man you don't get to hear them grumble and complain about it.I like the way you say in England they were all "compulsorily conscripted" and you are talking about women!!! And being England, I bet in was just the working classes, too. I doubt if it was lady so and so who was conscripted to do anything at all when class consciousness depended upon NOT WORKING. No women were conscripted in America. And nobody surpassed American industrial output even without the women. Your remarks prove what I just said. Most women don't want to work unless they are forced to. In peace time that means in order to have enough money to live on.
Certainly you would be in a position to write a book about his activities during the Great War. He was already a character in Hitler's First Lady.
If that is the leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, the lady looks like and sounds like a librarian. No way does she remind me of Thatcher or Merkel. Interesting that the phrase "trench warfare" of politics was used. Nobody here in the US would use such a phrase. Most Americans wouldn't know what they were talking about. Also it would sound like a ridiculous exaggeration. Here I think most politicians don't directly engage with each other. They just compete to get noticed and compete in the opinion polls like competing brands or products.The room they were meeting in looks more modern. I'll grant you that. So the Queen has a separate crown in Scotland?
I like the title, Ways Forward. It sounds like a good title for a book, too. You could collect all the separate essays and then publish them on Kindle as a book. Have you thought about including links to news articles and photos having to do with what you are discussing? Just an idea. For this one you could have photos of Marx and Lenin and Thomas Jefferson. You might even have a drawing of a Neanderthal. It might sound silly, but these days people seem to think photos are important.
Yes, her name was Edith Wilson. Even when she first married him she went everywhere with him and took a keen interest in politics always in the guise of assisting him. She attended the Paris Peace Conference with him. He was never seen without her at his side. She stepped in to make decisions in the name of her husband. She was always very careful to pretend to defer to him. She was a lady of the old school. After his death she spent decades writing and speaking about her husband, the President. She never said a word about how she was really the first female President of the United States.
I'm sure that many of his contemporaries did not like Churchill. I recently talked with someone who remembered that era and they said he was considered radical and dangerous. They said that Neville Chamberlain was the one who was respected. Churchill was also disliked in Britain because he was half-American. I'll agree he made mistakes such as the Lusitania when he was First Lord of the Admiralty during WW1. But he was still a great leader of men. Just the fact that he could have his own foreign policy during the 30's and have a government within a government that was more in touch with the Germans than Whitehall was incredible. And during that time he led and inspired men such as Edward Ware. He also liked to come to America and inspire people there. He had an American touch which proved to be very important later. You say the war made him and rightly so. He was the man of the hour. Britain needed a man with the idea that they should pull towards America. And Churchill was going to think that since his mother was American.
You say upper class girls were in uniform including the Queen and Churchill's daughters. I think the Queen drove a vehicle. But what else did they do? They certainly didn't work in factories, did they? Yes, I have a calendar that I bought four years ago in Britain about victory gardens and stay calm and carry on, that sort of thing. But I'll never believe that Britain gave up its social classes.You say you won the war by mobilizing your population. I don't think the US mobilized its population. The people here wouldn't put up with it. Here people expect the President and the armed forces to take care of battles and wars without bothering the people. In that respect it resembles ancient Rome.
Rick Steves is an American based in Seattle of all places. He had set up his own small tour company. He hires his own guides. He had a "Europe through the back door" philosophy where you are supposed to experience Europe in an economical fashion. He stays at hotels where you have to carry your own luggage and walk up three flights of stairs. He takes the subway or the bus instead of the cab where practical. He says this makes you experience Europe like locals and not tourists. Supposedly he visits Europe for 3 months each year, revises his guidebooks, and films travel videos on location. Twice a year he offers a symposium on line where you can tune in and listen to presentations about different European countries all days long for over 12 hours. It doesn't cost anything. But he is trying to get you to either buy his guidebooks which are all on Amazon or to sign up for one of his small tour groups. He doesn't provide airline transportation. But once you get yourself to Europe you meet up with one of his tours.
It went on for 45 years? I didn't know it was that long at all. I thought the euro currency started around the year 2000. I was working for Cora Verlag, and the books were originally priced in German marks. Then they changed to euros about that time. I have the books to prove it.
This article seems to be written for Europeans, not Americans, and is very detailed and full of facts and figures that most Americans don't know anything about at all. I would not have thought that England had integrated its economy to such an extent with that of the Continent. I had assumed it was more independent. That is one of the reasons I wonder why England lets the United Kingdom break apart.Still what impresses me more than anything is this European tendency to breaking up into small parts and constituencies. I guess they can't help it given their history. Germany seems to be the only voice for law, order, and union (of course with Germany at the head of it which is what everybody else doesn't like.) But an American could go crazy trying to figure it all out. It is all totally irrational. This is why the US has made it so that you can't secede and break up. It is why you can move from state to state in the US at will to take a job or just on a whim. Nobody can refuse to cooperate. It is against the law, and it is a law that can be enforced.
A lady who acts and speaks like a librarian or a school teacher would never make it as a politician in the US. You need more showmanship than that. Here you have to have pizazz and showmanship to even get noticed at all amidst all the other manifold distractions. But I don't think they serve the same purpose here. They don't do much except foreign policy and that only now and then. The rest of the time they just argue with each other and leave the public alone, thank you.
It's not very clever of me. It is a very clever Edith Wilson we are talking about here. There is a book coming out in October called Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson. Though not written by an academic, it looks interesting. It says she controlled the Oval Office months before women even got the right to vote in America.
Good. Would you believe that today is the Fourth of July. It is just an ordinary boring Monday where you are. Here it is the major summer holiday weekend. Tonight we will hear fireworks whether we like it or not. And the pets usually don't like it. The dog wasn't here last year on the Fourth. He was in Pittsburgh at a dog camp. So he's never been here for the Fourth. I wonder if he will be scared of the boom, boom, boom? Putlitz will put his ears up and looked alarmed. Around here they sell the stupid stuff in the grocery stores believe it or not. But it will be over by tomorrow. Then it will be a normal work day.
This all is so confusing it is impossible to understand. I had no idea that the EU started as far back as 45 years ago which would put it at 1971. Was Brussels the capital then, too? Who started it and why? Just Britain and Germany because they had been at war with each other for the first half of the 20th century?It sounds very idealistic, but it doesn't sound as if the idea of peace would work in the long run except for the US being there which prevents Europe from going to war. In a way it sounds like the ancient Greeks who used to join to together to hold the Olympics and other religious ceremonies (yes, originally athletic games were all religious, did you know that? look at Mary Renault's last novel called Funeral Games). They called a truce and had peace for as long as it took to carry out joint religious activities. Then hostilities would again commence. The whole history of Europe has been one war after another after another. The only periods of relative peace occurred when one power became so powerful that it stopped the others such as the Roman Empire at its zenith or the British Empire at its zenith. And right now you have the US at its zenith which is enforcing peace. Otherwise, right now England would probably be declaring war against Germany again.
You should be very happy that you do not have such a thing in England. This is a reptile paradise. Even when we don't see the Gila Monster, every days scores of smaller lizards (which are not poisonous) scatter across the yard and the patio. It can really give you the creeps. They even climb up the windows and the screens. This is supposed to be a desert, but since I've moved here I've seen more wildlife than anywhere else I've ever been. Because of the snakes and reptiles, there are more raptors here, too. You hear owls and see hawks and vultures all the time, too.
This is all the more reason why you should not allow the Scots to form a separate country and why you should not let the British Isles break up. It leads to a more vulnerable position internationally and makes it more likely there will be a war.Maybe the presence of the US leads Europe to dissolve into smaller and smaller parts. They don't have to worry about protecting themselves anymore.
You should have set it up so that if you joined you couldn't leave again. Of course, what would be the enforcement authority? The US certainly wouldn't want to play the role. Nobody else has the power to. If Germany had such authority, England would object, and it might even lead to a war.
The chances of the members of the EU going to war are 0 not because of the EU but because America presides over it with the military power. If there was an altercation, it would have to be settled peacefully. You say Europe is too joined together to start a war. Therefore that makes it like the US. I say think again. Europe is not like the US. For one thing it speaks all sorts of languages. That is a big issue when you want to have unity. Also religion is a dividing force traditionally in Europe. Not so in the US. You can't absorb foreign immigrants very well. The US can. The EU isn't even as unified as America was BEFORE the Civil War which was really about states rights vs. central authority. The results of the Civil War are what turned America into the superpower that it is today. You have to have a central authority to be powerful. And you have to have a powerful central authority to prevent war. The British Empire once held the world together from 1815 to 1915+. Now it is the role of the US. So the US is what holds Europe together.
In America most people have not even heard of the EU. If I asked the checkout clerk at the grocery store, they would think I was talking about a TV program. I have said repeatedly that America is very isolationistic. It thinks of little beyond its own shores.But I am not talking just about Britain when I talk about Balkanization. I am also talking about the Continent. There are all sorts of regions everywhere it seems that want independence and want to be a separate country. Or at least they want to belong to a different country. Barcelona is part of Catalonia. Supposedly they want independence from Spain. The British are in Gibraltar. The Spanish want Gibraltar back. In northern Italy you have the Sud Tyrol. They want to be part of Austria. Germans want to recolonize parts of Poland and the Czech Republic. Eastern Europe itself especially as you get closer to Russia gets more and more unstable. Also everywhere in Europe you have Gypsies wandering around. This is outrageous and makes for an unstable situation. By now they should have been absorbed into the general population. They shouldn't exist. Several million came to the US. Now they don't exist here. They have been absorbed.
You are forgetting Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire centered around Cologne in Germany. Germany has been a major force for organization in Europe for centuries. Charlemagne and his monks were responsible for saving the manuscripts from Greece and Rome that are the ones we have now. If Charlemagne didn't save it, we don't have it. He used power pretty well.Also what about Martin Luther? They are celebrating 500 years of Martin Luther in Germany right now. He was a major force for organizing the northern part of Western Europe. He had a different kind of power. But how can you say he was a German who didn't use power well? He is by far the most influential and most powerful man of all Germans who ever lived. There is no way to argue with that.
Also, what about Frederick the Great of Prussia? Voltaire was one of his best friends.
I bet I can think of other examples, too.
The past does not exactly predict the future. No one can predict the future. When people try, they always make mistakes and assume the continuation of present trends. To give a pop example that is well known, 2001 Space Odyssey predicted that in the future computers would be big. Instead by 2001 they turned out to be small and getting smaller. That sort of thing. But even though you can't get details right if you look at what has happened in history again and again as far as general patterns go, you can see things that do tend to repeat themselves such as the rise and fall of empires. It seems fairly safe to predict a continuation of that same pattern. What thinkers such as yourself hope is that somehow mankind has turned a corner and things will be better from now on. You point to WW1 and WW2 and say that mankind shouldn't repeat them. Especially with technology the way it is, mankind should learn to focus on improving their lot instead of fighting with each other. I say it's possible but not likely that you are right. Only time will tell for sure. The biggest thing you have going for you is capitalism. That requires peace. It is also why in the past few centuries there has been less violence overall. Apparently even with WW1 and WW2 there was less violence. But if something happens to capitalism itself in the future, peace will probably end.
You say I see a more turbulent Europe that "we" do. Who is we? Everyone in Europe? Just people in Britain? Where in Europe? Certainly you don't mean Eastern Europe, do you? There fighting is actually going on. And apparently the fate of Catalonia is the reason why Spain didn't want to admit Scotland to the EU. Since WW2 there has been political violence in France. It's not the most stable place. Just a few decades ago there used to be a Fascist dictator in Spain of all things. Greece certainly isn't stable at all. Even Germany went through reunification in the early 90's. When we visited in 2012 we drove through East Germany. Things there didn't look as prosperous as the rest of the country. Even the roads weren't quite as good.
I'm not talking about influence here. I'm talking purely about military power. The countries of Europe don't have much anymore in the way of armies, navies, and air forces. So if the US wanted to stop one country on the Continent going to war with another country, it could prevent it with a military occupation, etc.But as far a cultural influence goes, I think you are wrong, too. When I was driving through Germany in particular, I saw all sorts of American influence --- everything from Burger King and McDonalds to stores that reminded me of Home Depot. They watch Hollywood movies. Computers come from US companies. The entire internet as we learned recently gets filtered through the US. I know exactly the place, too. It's located just south of Salt Lake City. Even the EU is a direct reflection of the US, especially when they call it the United States of Europe. I don't think 9/11 has anything to do with it except maybe in the popular presses.
That's right. It was designed to prevent war. But the only way to prevent war is to have a strong central authority in a democracy. That's what keeps the peace --- not everybody breaking up into fractious little pieces. As I said before, the only reason that doesn't cause a war right now is because of the existence of the US.
Germans have not been able to come up with the empire they are seeking or the coalition they are seeking or the territory they are seeking since the time of Bismarck. They have not been able to hold onto their gains very long. But oddly enough ever since that time they have been on the march. Despite losses in two world wars they keep on trekking. I don't know of another example like it in history. The reason it doesn't seem to make sense is because it is contemporary. We don't know the conclusion.
We will see what happens. When is the election? September? Or is it a vote among the Conservative party members?I am not fond of women in public life unless they are exceptional. But since I am not a citizen of Great Britain it hardly matters. You are a citizen. It is better that you should be pleased.
It is lizard season in Tucson. Yesterday I saw a horned lizard looking in the sliding glass door into the bedroom. Then the thing climbed up the wall and sat there while we watered plants. He liked the rain-like effect. But the thing was really hideous even though he's not poisonous. This morning the dog found a very small gecko lizard in the living room. Gary had to get him out using cups. He was only about two inches long and non poisonous, but it's enough to give you the creeps.You get up in the morning and look out in the backyard and see small lizards (some not so small) chasing each other around on the walkways, patios, and out in the garden beds. It's really yucky. Remember I wasn't here last summer at this time. And the summer before that we weren't in this house yet.
We had an inspector here yesterday. He walked the property carrying a rattlesnake trap. He says he gets 911 calls every day about rattlesnakes. He couldn't find the rattlesnake we saw. But he did find evidence of pack rat and other small rodent activity and showed us where they might be nesting. We also hired some men to help clean out the backyard which is mostly still in its natural desert state. We've made some progress over the past months, but not much. He also advised us about installing better sweeps underneath the doors to keep out small snakes, etc. Even the garage door has a problem in one corner. He also wants us to prune the trees that hang over the walled in patio. Apparently rattlesnakes can climb trees. Lovely.
Isn't there some rule or law in Britain that you can't personally insult the Queen in public? I don't think you can do it in Hyde Park for instance. How does that work? I know you can advocate the abolition of the monarchy. You can say that you favor a republic, etc. But you can't say certain things about Her Majesty. Isn't that right?
If this is all you can get as candidates for PM, you ought to have the Queen take over. She wouldn't be trading petty insults with other women either. Of course she has some presence so I doubt if most Britons would dare to insult her to her face either. You claim that Britain in reality is a monarchy. So why not?Also this business about Mrs. Clinton and one of these ladies running for Prime Minister is really freaky. Britain should ban US TV coverage of the American election until you decide on another PM.
These women that you talk about in your blog sound silly arguing about motherhood. This is one reason why I would never vote for MOST WOMEN. You would never find Thatcher talking about women's lib or trading petty insults with other women. She was a masculine woman with big issues in mind. Merkel reminds me of the same kind of tough-minded woman. Germans love to joke about Merkel's clothes. Apparently she doesn't pay much attention to them. This is the kind of woman who succeeds as head of state.
You say that you prefer women as politicians. Do you still prefer them after you see how silly these women are behaving? Men in national politics would never trade insults over how many children they had and you know it.
I thought there was some rule about this. Maybe I was thinking of Hyde Park Speakers Corner. But you claim there is no rule even there. I looked it up. It said that prior to some Article 10 ruling of the European Convention of Human Rights you weren't allowed to use profanity or to insult the Queen at Hyde Park Speakers Corner. But I don't know when this occurred or how it used to be enforced.
I thought you liked all the wildlife in Arizona! You said you thought it was charming and how nice it was that the creatures could live right next to people and share the same landscape. Well, these creatures are sharing it all right! They seem to be trying to squeeze us out.Yesterday afternoon right before dinner a tarantula took up residence right next to our bedroom sliding glass door. Tarantulas are big, ugly, hairy spiders. Again they are not poisonous, but we wanted to stay away from the patio all evening. We were going to grill there. We had to grill on another patio instead. By bedtime the thing was still there. We half expected him to be there this morning. But thank goodness he had disappeared! Believe me you don't have to go looking for these creatures. They come and find you.
This is what happens if you are here during the monsoon that lasts from June 15 to October 1.
Surprisingly enough from November, 2000 until the middle of December, 2000 there was a Bush/Gore post election drama that ended at the Supreme Court. But it hardly mattered as far as the functioning of the country was concerned. It was more like an exciting, suspenseful TV mini series that you could tune into. I don't know how to emphasize enough how much politics here is viewed as entertainment and nothing serious at all. If there was a gap in the Presidency for six months or a year I think the country would function normally. The Presidency doesn't contribute much on a day to day basis. Many people would be relieved that they were getting a vacation from the government. But this must be a strictly American attitude --- government is optional.
Here there are definitely rules. As far as the succession to the Presidency goes, after the Vice President you go to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker can be of a different party than the President. So succession here can cross party lines. Nobody can dispute it. Nobody can argue about it. Rules and laws are so predominant here that they rule by themselves. Even if they are stupid or don't make sense, there is order and very little squabbling.But if the truth be known, there isn't that much difference between political parties anyway. it's just the team and the opposition like two baseball or football teams. In the long run it usually doesn't matter which one wins or loses. It's just an exciting game that counts to most people. It's like ancient Rome. They want to be entertained.
The Germans have the right idea. You should listen to them.