Born again

Via AFP Getty

For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From this time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7 New King James Bible

According to some public pronouncements from the good and the great, it seems that we need to re-evaluate the way we in the United Kingdom commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Her Britannic Majesty spoke of

Our thoughts are with the victims

Blow winds and crack your cheeks

In retrospect and with the clarity of vision that only hindsight can give, rather than designate 2015 as the International Year of Light and the International Year of Soils, perhaps the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly missed a trick by not naming 2015 as the International Year of Victimhood.

Once upon a time, when powerful public figures were caught doing something illegal or immoral, they would own up, display heartfelt contrition, beg for forgiveness and quietly disappear. Now, with wealth and power more than willing and able to blur the boundaries of criminality and with an aggressive disregard for common decency; those that have will fight tooth and nail to keep what they have. Consider a character by the name of Sepp Blatter.

Fifth column

Smiley`s people

Regardless of the systematic dismantling of the state, the blatant lies and the ideological glee at making the disadvantaged suffer, the British public owe a huge debt of gratitude to the clever spooks who tell David Cameron what to do, think and say. The Machiavellian undermining of political opponents by Tory Party strategists is as good if not better than a John Le Carré novel and the intrigue and subterfuge employed to allow kippers to implode has seen off the danger of a nasty bigot and his odd followers getting anywhere near parliament. The spin doctors at Conservative Central Office deserve our undying and, in some cases, dying thanks.

Fractious

Whiter shale of paid

I freely admit that I have absolutely no idea if the process of extracting shale gas and oil using hydraulic fracturing is either economically viable or environmentally safe.

Mercifully, this shocking ignorance is quite rare as the rest of the planet is divided into those who are convinced of the definition of “viable” and others who are certain of the definition of “safe”. Even sensible “experts” not usually prone to the smooth hyperbole of drilling companies or the hysterical claims of anti-fracking campaigners seem divided. Some say; “Yup…it`ll probably work” but others remark; “Hmm…I dunno…needs more research.”

Ignition sequence start

The Right Stuff

In a relatively short space of time, an awful lot of flying things happened in the years separating the Wright Brothers from Yuri Gagarin. Exactly 112 years ago, on December 17th 1903, Orville and then Wilbur took to the air each making two controlled, powered flights in a machine constructed of spruce timber, muslin and string. The first flight by Orville covered 120 feet and the fourth flight by Wilbur went for 852 feet. The average altitude was 10 feet and the average airspeed was 6.8 miles per hour.