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Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland and anticipating my return to the Murcia region of Spain in August 2008 for about a month
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Drugs in the army - soldiers dismissed in batches
And these are just a few recent cases involving Scottish regiments (I expect that the situation is much the same in English, Welsh and Northern Irish contingents):
Date: 17 May 2008 Regiment: Royal Regiment of Scotland Battalion: Black Watch Location: Fort George (near Inverness) Number who failed tests for illlegal drugs : 10 Specific drugs idenntified: not mentioned
Date: 13 Nov 2007 Regiment: Royal Regiment of Scotland Battalion: Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Location: following return from Cancun (Mexico) after participating in exercises in Belize Number who failed tests for illlegal drugs : 17 Specific drugs idenntified: reportedly heroin and cocaine (unconfirmed by Army)
Date: 22 Mar 2007 Regiment: Royal Regiment of Scotland Battalion: Royal Highland Fusiliers Location: Glencorse (near Penicuik, Midlothian) Number who failed tests for illlegal drugs : 20 Specific drugs idenntified: cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis (plus others?)
Date: 22 Feb 2007 Regiment: Royal Regiment of Scotland Battalion: Royal Scots Borderers Location: Dreghorn Barracks (Edinburgh) Number who failed tests for illlegal drugs : 10 Specific drugs idenntified: not mentioned
As is mentioned by an Army spokesman in one of the reports, recruitment is conducted in mainly urban areas throughout the country and the drug problems within the Army are a reflection of those within British society as a whole. Sad, but realistic, unfortunately.
Of all composers my favourite is Johann Sebastian Bach. I have rarely heard a piece of music composed by him which did not immediately enthrall me and 'take me out of myself'; the world really seems somehow a better place when one can listen to the musical genius of this man. I could have chosen many other pieces for this evening's post, but I hope you will agree that this performance of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor [BWV 565] performed by Ulrich Böhme on the Sauer organ in St Thomas Church, Leipzig (Germany), is a superb example of sublime music:
Unfortunately the recording above, whilst superb, is slightly curtailed at the very end, so I am embedding another very fine performance of this music, this time performed by Diane Bish on the organ of St Bavo Church, Haarlem (Netherlands). Enjoy!
I had a good session at the gym today (I wrote last week that I was joining a gym again after a break of about a year) and I feel good now, so I just wanted to spread a little of the joy that I experience when listening to Bach's music.
California Supreme Court Affirms Right to Gay Marriage
Tremendously good news coming out of the US and from various American bloggers (some serious, some whimsical).
The California State Supreme Court has struck down two state laws that 'limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman'; the ruling comes into effect in 30 days and was voted with a 4-3 majority. California Chief Justice, Ronald M. George, wrote the majority ruling:
"In view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship,” he wrote, “the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."
The ruling draws on a similar ruling of six decades ago overturning the then ban on miscegentation (marriage between persons of different racial groupings) and will make California only the second US state, after Massachusetts, to permit same-sex marriage. However, rulings in California often trigger changes elsewhere in the US and, ultimately, the rest of the western world. Our Civil Partnership Act in the UK already gives people much the same rights (and obligations) as marriage confers upon heterosexual couples, but for some the use of the word 'marriage' to authenticate their relationships will undoubtedly provide additional comfort.
"I’m going to defer on the politics of this for now and just let everyone enjoy, discuss and revel. After thirteen years, today, I am fully a Californian."
The implications for the forthcoming US Presidential election are discussed in thisNew York Times analysis (registration required); California governor Schwarzenegger has already stated he will uphold the ruling and oppose any initiative to overturn it. I suspect that this ruling, however postively I and many others may view it, will trigger the same kind of odious electioneering practices that marred the last two Presidential elections - that's perhaps a worst-case scenario, but it's as well to be prepared.
Police and CPS condemned for 'fake' claim about Moslem TV documentary
Channel4 television and production company Hardcash Productions have today been totally vindicated for a 'Dispatches' programme (Undercover Mosque) detailing the extreme views being propagated in some mosques.
I watched the programme when it was broadcast and was astonished when I heard later that the broadcaster and production company had been accused by West Midlands Police and the CPS of 'selective editing' and 'distorting' (i.e. faking) the filmed material and evidence they had gathered. They were also accused of 'undermining community relations'. Media wathcdog Ofcom, to whom the police referred their allegations, has thrown them out declaring that the programme had "accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context". Ofcom also stated that it was a "legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest” and that each quote was "justified by the narrative of the programme and put fully in context".
The allegedly (by the police and the CPS) 'distorted' commments by Moslem clerics included the following:
— Whoever changes his religion from al-Islam to anything else — kill him in the Islamic state
— Take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain
— By the age of 10, it becomes an obligation on us to force her [young girls] to wear hijab, and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her
— Allah created the woman deficient
— If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that is my freedom of speech, isn't it?
In exactly which context would such comments ever have been justified? The police and CPS need to explain exactly what was their thinking when they made the allegations they did.
It is stated that a 'six figure' sum in libel damages is being paid by the CPS and West Midlands Police for their outragreous attempt at stifling legitimate exposure of shocking utterances. However, although this sum will undoubtedly come out of a police and/or CPS budget, it will ultimately be borne by all tax-payers as it is they who fund theoretically public services such as the police and the CPS.
Now that this ridiculous case has been thrown out, when are the police going to recommend a prosecution by the CPS against those Moslem clerics who uttered those obnoxious sentiments, quite clearly in contravention of British law? I am not holding my breath!
Cost of Inverness southern by-pass could exceed GBP200mio!!
It is being 'privately-'admitted (*) that the cost of the planned Inverness southern by-pass could reach GBP200mio, way above the current 'conservative' estimate of GBP120mio (itself well above the initial estimate of GBP83mio). On this basis, I suspect that GBP250mio might be nearer the mark eventually!
I know, despite the somewhat narky tone of the previous sentence, that this by-pass is becoming increasingly necessary. However, according to the linked article, at its eastern end the by-pass will involve a 'Trunk Link Route' (TLR) to link-up the A82, A9 and A96 and is likely to involve the demolition of either the Tesco store there or Inshes Church, a pretty recent construction itself. There are also numerous new 'executive-style' homes pretty close to the Church.
Later in the article, however, it is indicated that Highland Council have more or less committed to retaining the retail centre where Tesco is located, so things probably look bleak for Inshes Church and some nearby houses! I imagine that tonight's public meeting, held earlier this evening at Inshes Church, will have been a lively affair!
Another question that needs to be asked is if the high costs likely to fall on Highland Council as its share of funding this development will impact adversely on other parts of Highland Region? We in Nairn know already how parsimonious Highland Council has been with expenditure here, as compared to Inverness (e.g. the unwillingness to fund proper repairs to the Baillie Bridge across the River Nairn at the harbour, as against the wilingness to pay a significant sum to provide such fripperies as seasonal lighting on a bridge across the River Ness for use on special occasions).
(*) Not so very 'privately', as the details are splashed across an Inverness Courier article. Either the 'officials' referred to are very naive, or the Courier's reporter a venal knave (or possibly both) or the Courier article is completely made up. I doubt the latter is the case.
Yes! I'm just about to start going to a gym again, after a break of about a year. Long-time readers of my little blog may know of my long-standing (lifelong, really) struggles with efforts to keep my weight under some modicum of control and my pretty successful efforts with the Atkins diet a few years back to reduce my weight significantly on a long-term basis, and (unlike with previous different diets I have tried) to keep it there.
Atkins has been fairly successful for me, but there is no getting away from the fact that my weight has, over the last 6 months or so, begun to creep up again because I have been ignoring some of the 'rules' which make this diet work; that's largely a self-discipline and will-power problem I have to solve on my own and I know myself well enough to avoid making rash promises - I am trying, but the facts about my progress, and success (or not), will speak for themsleves in coming months. External issues do have an effect however - I no longer have my pet doggie Tara so have less incentive to at least go out for regular walks several times a day. I also like good food and I like nice wine. The weight gain so far is not in any way dramatic, but I know where this trend is leading and I desperately wish to avoid continuing down this self-destructive, if comforting, route.
However, all these so-called external factors are really just excuses - if I really wanted to do it, I would be doing it; as the slang has it "simple as ..."!
In about an hour's time I go for my initial 'orientation' visit to the new gym I joined last Saturday and I'm looking forward to it. As for the rest - getting back to controlling my food-intake better and taking regular exercise (not just of the gym-variety), well that will be a work in progress as it has been for most of my life, quite apart from getting a few more hours sleep at night (television and internet addiction to be curbed!). I'll report back in due course on how I'm getting on, warts and all.
Rather than write lengthy blogs detailing the grotesqueries of the past few weeks in British politics, more specifically the fact that Gordon Brown's authority as Prime Minister is being increasingly called into question, even by supposedly loyal memmbers of the Labour Party (plenty of other bloggers across the UK are writing such posts) I thought I would continue a recently-started experiment with video-blogging and put up occasional vlogs incorporating some comment on recent political developments in the UK, or different parts of it, and couple this with some more of my domestic routine now that I have returned to Scotland for the summer.
To kick this off, today I recorded some comments (two separate short videos) whilst preparing lunch. The main theme is the slide in the popularity rating of 'The Glorious Leader' and some of the developments of recent times which led to Gordon Brown's popularity rating taking a [long-overdue] slide downhill.
Enjoy! Comment if you like ...
The above two videos total about 13 1/2 minutes and have taken an incredible 5+ hours to upload, even with my 'upto 8Mb' broadband connection - I know the upload speed of an ADSL broadband service is much, much slower than the download speed. When uploading normal webpages, even with decent-size images, the slowness of the upload speed is hardly noticeable, but when it comes to video files it is a really critical factor because of the sheer size of these files. At least this forces people like me who indulge in this kind of activity to keep it reasonably short, you'll be glad to realise!
Visit stats it's better not to talk about in too much detail ...
... I wrote a brief post earlier today about a delayed exit visa from Cuba for a critic of the regime there, who is a blogger, and who has been unable to travel to Madrid to collect a prize given for her blog-writing. Already I notice in my blog stats a couple of visits from Cuba, but I won't identify who the visitors' [servers] are, just in case anyone from the island's state security apparatus ever stumbles on my little blog and decides to query with my visitors why they chose to visit the blog of a renegade capitalist running-dog such as me. On the other hand if anyone 'official' from Cuba does ever visit here then can I just say to them:
When are you going to introduce proper democracy and accountability into your corrupt and inefficient socialist system of government?
... and a (despite it being in exceedingly poor taste in the circumstances) realisation that the old pantomime chant: "Look behind you!" can sometimes be of real practical value. I hope the woman wasn't injured too badly and that the shop's owners were suitably punished financially.
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has had to miss out on collecting her Ortega y Gasset digital journalism prize from Spain's El Pais newspaper in Madrid, for her blog which is often critical of Cuba's government, because the Cuban authorities "were unable to process her travel visa application in time". A likely story!
I think this must be relatively new on Channel 4 (I don't remember it being mentioned before I left for Spain in January), but I saw it referred to between programmes a couple of days back and this struck a chord when there was a 'plug' later for next week's episode of Brothers and Sisters, to which I became addicted when the last series was run last year on E4. That 'plug' made me realise I had missed the episode from the night before, but not to worry - I was able the watch the whole programme on my PC in 'full screen' mode and enjoyed it, even more so because it was without the ad-breaks. In fact, being able to watch Channnel4 programmes whenever I want, for upto 7 days, makes this a viable alternative to recording programmes on my DVR, even if the picture quality isn't quite so good.
Margaret in a withering folow-up comment on Michael, the Jewish/non-Jewish contestant on this evening's The Apprentice episode, who apparently studied at Edinburgh University.
Classic!
(Personally I would have fired Michael, too. The only one I would have reprieved from the final 3 tonight was Clare. The two who were fired - totally justified!)
UPDATE:(Friday 9MAY08 06.57 BST) Well I suppose it was too much to expect that Edinburgh (and its University) would brush off this off-the-cuff remark on a television reality show as hardly worth a comment and certainly not a full-blown article such as this in 'Scotland's national newspaper' The Scotsman, which of course originates in Edinburgh; comments in that newspaper are often laughably parochial and over-the-top, but commenters 2 and 7 have probably got quite close to the 'actuality'.
I arrived back in Nairn yesterday afternoon, after a pleasant sea-crossing from Zeebrugge to Rosyth and a very easy drive back up north - the road, specially after Bruar, was not very busy in my direction so I made pretty good progress.
I won't write more now because I seem to have internet connection problems at home - I don't think it is a problem with my equipment, or my broadband wi-fi modem, but the internet seems to cut out unexpectedly from time to time; perhaps it's a local network problem? More later...
UPDATE: (Thursday 8MAY08 09.11 BST) Well I'm glad to say the connection problems I referred to above have disappeared; it must have been a general network problem in Nairn (or perhaps further afield).
