Only a Dog

It was a grey and blustery October morning, half term, and as a house parent I had decided to make the children go out with the dog for a walk along the beach. At Whitstable steep pebble beaches descend to greet the waves between high wooden breakwaters. On that day we were walking along the waterline with a sucking tide falling rapidly – the sea green and grey and a surf that was rough and bounding.

I saw a plank in the surf, a heavy one like might be used for floors or for roof beams. In a second I simply gave it a kick and it floated momentarily in the tide, before the rip of the outgoing wave took it. In the same moment the dog had grabbed it and was afloat, a corner gripped with grim determination to return it to the shore. It was his game after all. Jump in the sea and bring back things. A great game.

In a moment the plank was beyond the end of the breakwaters, rolling in the deep waves, already out of depth. The little dog holding tight of course. And after that the rip tide took the wood. It was out of my control anyway but not of the tides. I was in the ice cold sea up to my waist then my chest shouting. To no avail. The water took the plank and its passenger – heading out into the sea towards the distant Isle of Sheppey. All at once the waves intervened and the sodden head of the dog was disappearing at a fast pace on his doomed vessel.

All at once a man was by me shouting.

“ I have told the bloody coastguards – bloody idiots – I said there's a dog lost in the waves – they said we cant scramble a lifeboat for a dog, its only a dog” He paused, eyes angry. I remember he had white stubble on his chin, and some kind of hat. The sky was silver and grey behind him. “Only a dog– only a dog?” Her seemed lost for words. Catching in his throat.

I was strangely calm. Already ice cold with exposure. Imagining seeing my working wife !”How was the day – ok -went for a walk drowned the dog, came home....”

In the leaping waves the dog is almost lost – up to a mile out I later learnt.. “Only a dog?” My friend is muttering under his breath. And as I watch there's one final wave and the tiny almost invisible white spot which is all that's left of the dog is gone. And for an aching moment he is gone. Then suddenly – a little white spot reappears moving slowly on the water between the waves. Unbelievably his course is exactly a reverse of that which took him out into a busy shipping channel. Its much too far for him to see and the waves too high. He's following his own scent trail still hanging in the air. Now. Imagine the strength to fight a roaring Thames rip tide and the courage to even try. And then against all odds . He is getting closer – now the children were in hysterics. Crying and shouting – he's been gone thirty minutes easy. Its a long winding course and he keeps vanishing beneath the surf, for seconds at a time. He is close and I wade out out to meet him- waves breaking against me. And as his curve took him into the land he suddenly spotted me and his tail flew like a flag - one final wag.

And I had him suddenly, surprisingly in my arms. Safe.

And My God he puked. Great body wrenching shuddering. He had always known it was OK, he would be safe, just find his safety. Of course he couldn't stand up and I was ice cold, shivering. I would never see him in such a weak and damaged state again until his last few days. We staggered home thankfully only a few short yards and lit the gas fire and placed his little person like an offering. And roasted stewing steak to nourish him and booked one of his few vet visits to be diagnosed with salt poisoning. And of course he did get better. He ate his steak and gazed around with groggy eyes, but the next day rare autumn sun warmed the day and he was up and about as usual – though he eyed the sea with newly learnt respect

The Budget -- My Thoughts --- Andrew Allison

I called Alistair Darling's pre-budget statement as 'Darling in Wonderland.' It was and so was his economic forecasts today. In 1945 we had just helped defeat Nazi Germany. The country was - understandably - in tatters. What is Brown and Darling's excuse in 2009? All we hear are the usual mantras: global recession, unprecedented times, global response, the UK is in an advantageous position to weather the recession, etc. What we heard from the Chancellor of the Exchequer today was nothing to help the British economy. It was tired and lacked imagination, just like the rest of government policy.

Already the IMF has stated it disagrees with the Chancellor's predictions. How a serious politician, holding one of the great offices' of state can stand up in the House of Commons and say in two years' time the UK economy will move from negative growth of 3.5% to growth of 3.5% is amazing. It is a ridiculous statement to make and is purely designed as a political gesture; vainly hoping the electorate can be conned into giving this shower a fourth term in office.

Assuming the Chancellor's predictions are incorrect - which is a safe assumption to make - what will the actual level of borrowing be in a year's time? He is predicting 12% of GDP for this year. What will it be? Probably more like 14-15%. And where is he getting the money from? Who will want to loan the government this money? How long will it take before he has to go cap in hand to the IMF?



Continued at Andrew Allison - A Conservative View.

Time to Catch up Post --- Age is all in the Mind

Not having posted for rather a long time - I don't seem to feel inclined but rather tend to favour reading all of my favourite blogs instead - I thought I would do a bit of a catch up.

Redundancy / Retirement
The saga of the official paperwork (or should I say lack of it) continues so I still do not have a final date yet. The departmental reorganisation has completed so I don't have any official work to do and am on 'Gardening Leave'. Suits me, getting paid to do what I want to do which is .........

Guitar Playing
It is improving my playing no end having some additional free time to get practice in
Current pieces under the cosh are Highway to Hell, AC/DC, Pride & Joy, Stevie Ray Vaughan and getting to grips with some music theory which I didn't ever think I would enjoy but is adding to my practical work. It's amazing how much better it is when you understand how it all works :-)

Golf
Managing to get out 2 or 3 times a week now instead of the lone Saturday morning round and boy does it show. I'm still nowhere near threatening Tiger but hey he better watch out, I'm coming.


Continued at Age is all in the Mind.

On Angst, Or, We Meet A Tea Party Protester --- Advice from a Fake Consultant

So if you're like me, you have been wondering just exactly what all this "tea party" stuff is about. There's going to be some sort of protest, that we know; but beyond that the whole thing seems a little...vague.

Alternatively, it's possible that you were unaware that "tea party" has recently become a word reborn in conservative political circles.

Well, whether you knew it or not, April 15th was indeed a day of protest, with citizens gathering for what were reported to be a series of grassroots events across the nation that was intended to invoke the spirit of the Boston Tea Party.

In an effort to find out exactly what is motivating these folks, and to find out what they are trying to accomplish, I took my handy recorder and captured a conversation with a "tea bag" protester.

We will review that conversation, and we will follow it up with a few thoughts about how this group of voters might impact electoral politics going forward.

Let's begin by setting the stage: the city of Issaquah, Washington (population about 17,000) is more or less 15 miles east of downtown Seattle, in eastern King County. It's a bedroom community, for the most part, with some light industrial and stores like Home Depot. The Costco corporate headquarters is located over where the old skydiving airport used to be, and I-90 bisects the city.

Seattle's eastern suburbs have been a good source of reliable Republican voters, and the Representative from the District (WA-08) is former Sheriff Dave Reichert (R-Ineffectual), who defeated Darcy Burner in one of the more closely watched Congressional races of both the '06 and '08 cycles.

Continued at Advice from a Fake Consultant.

20 Stupid Questions asked by Tourists --- Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe

via telegraph.co.uk

Very entertaining.

Crossposted at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe

The Sad Death of Ian Tomlinson -- A Conservative's Blog

I have to say that I was saddened by the death of Ian Tomlinson when I heard about it. At the time I thought nothing more of it. After all, he died of ¨natural causes¨.

However I am deeply disturbed by the footage shown. He appears to be walking around posing no threat to anyone trying to get home on a bad day in London when he was assaulted for no obvious reason by some one in a uniform.

Whilst it is not possible for me to say whether the assault and heart attack are linked, heart attacks can be brought on by difficult circumstances.

That officer has now come forward, presumably because he can be pinpointed. It does him no credit that he did not come forward earlier.

The police do also need to rid themselves of people who break the law and give them all a bad name.

The state has to have a monopoly on violence, or else there is anarchy, but that violence must be used lawfully. I have to say that it does not appear to have been so in this case.

The BBC has this.

Crossposted at a Conservative's Blog.

The Courtly Reich --- Westminster Wisdom

Power does not change its forms as much as we think. Whether it is a state which controls vast resources and populations or a state which has shrunk to the level of the city or the village, the means of exercising power and its problems are often similar. A state has to use levers to exert force- the image is exact because the order of a single politician has little to no power, it is the way that that is converted into the actions of hundreds, thousands or millions that is the key to his power. The Third Reich in that sense is an interesting example of what a state can do- insane and destructive policies which led to hideous human rights abuses and the holocaust, not to mention the destruction of Germany and much of Europe in the bloodiest war ever seen. Amongst the central issues anyone has to confront when they look at Hitler's regime is how such insanity- and such unstable clowns- came to govern a civilised and educated state for 12 years and become intensely popular, not merely in Germany but also abroad. How did they exert that influence- what kind of levers did they pull?

Continued at Westminster Wisdom here

Blogroll Issues and an Updated HTML Blogroll

At long last Blogrolling.com is functional again. However it comes with the addition of advertisements, which, while being quite unobtrusive in themselves, has the disadvantage of not showing the URL of the blog itself but of a redirect page of Blogrolling URL. In addition the blogroll itself is not in alphabetical order although they are still working on it so perhaps this will be corrected soon.

On Defending the Blog I have been using the Blogger blogroll option as the main BP blogroll, with the Blogrolling.com roll one listed below below. I will continue to update both so if you use the blogrolling.com one you need do nothing.

I have also updated the html blogroll which you find below and if you use this option you need to use this new version. If there are any errors or omissions please let me know.


<!-- Blogpower HTML blogroll begins -->
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://aconservatives.blogspot.com/">A Conservative's Blog</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://adelaidegreenporridgecafe.blogspot.com/">Adelaide Green Porridge</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://fakeconsultant.blogspot.com/">Advice from a Fake Consultant</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://ageisallinthemind.blogspot.com/">Age is All in the Mind</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://andrew-allison.blogspot.com/">Andrew Allison</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.pageflakes.com/tom.paine.ashx">Blogpower Homepage RSS</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://defendingtheblog.blogspot.com/">Blogpower HQ</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://braveheart-does-the-maghreb.blogspot.com/">Braveheart Does the Maghreb</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://brummierepublic.blogspot.com/">Brummie Republic</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com//">Capitalist@work</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://cafe-grendel.blogspot.com/">Cafe Grendel</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thecornishdemocrat.blogspot.com/">Cornish Democract</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://corporatepresenter.blogspot.com/">Corporate Presenter</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://criticalfacultydojo.blogspot.com/">Critical Faculty Dojo</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://elleeseymour.com/">Ellee Seymour</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.liz-and-harvey.blogspot.com/">Finding life hard?</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.hercules-28704.blogspot.com/">Hercules</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.wholeheartedly-sudaniya.blogspot.com/">Kizzie</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.lettersfromatory.com/">Letters From a Tory</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://lookingforavoice.blogspot.com/">Looking for a Voice</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://onewalesgovernment.blogspot.com/">Miss Wagstaff Presents</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://mutleythedogsdayout.blogspot.com/">Mutley the Dog</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com/">Never Trust a Hippy</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://nobodyimportant-jmb.blogspot.com/">Nobody Important</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://observationsfromthehillside.blogspot.com/">Observations from the Hillside</a>
<li>
<a href="http://politicsandpoetry.com/">Politics and Poetry</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://pubphilosopher.blogs.com/">Pub Philosopher</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://ruthie-zaftig.blogspot.com/">Ruthie Zaftig</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://sallyinnorfolk.com/">Sally In Norfolk</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.museinmeltdown.blogspot.com/">Sempiternal Horizons</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/">Sicily Scene</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/">The Conscious Earth</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.lastditch.typepad.com/">The Last Ditch</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://the-morningstar.co.uk/">The Morning Star</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://norfolkblogger.blogspot.com/">The Norfolk Blogger</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thethunderdragon.blogspot.com/">The Thunderdragon</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thetindrummer.blogspot.com/">The Tin Drummer</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.theospark.net/">Theo Spark</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://tuscantony.blogspot.com/">Tuscan Tony</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/">Two Wolves</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/">Wardman Wire</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://gracchii.blogspot.com/">Westminster Wisdom</a>
</li>
</ul>
<!-- Blogpower HTML blogroll ends -->

Membership Changes

Crushed by Ingsoc is no longer a member of Blogpower.

JMB will be updating blogrolling shortly to reflect the current membership.

Photographs of Policemen, Section 76 and the G20 Demos: Ministers have their heads in the clouds ---- Matt Wardman

These are a small selection of photos taken at the G20 Climate Change demonstrations.

Others will be covering the big political issues around the G20 itself. I'm going to focus on the rights of photographers not to be harrassed as they go about their work, and the rights of the public to receive full reporting of demonstrations from all sides.

First of all, remembering that Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2009 makes "Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc" an offence, this post can probably be *deemed* to be a Criminal Offence, and me a supporter of "The Terrorists" (cue Jaws music). And that is the problem - creating uncertainty creates insecurity and room for intimidation of the photographer, whether snapper or pro.

Under the section heading "Terrorist Offences", we have:

(1)A person commits an offence who—

(a)elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been—

(i)a member of Her Majesty's forces,
(ii)a member of any of the intelligence services, or
(iii)a constable,which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or

(b)publishes or communicates any such information.

(2)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action.

Continued at The Wardman Wire with photos