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Summer Reading

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 12:42

So in between art attacks I was reading a lot over the summer. I finished the Tom Rob Smith Trilogy which includes Child 44, The Secret Speech and Agent 6.  I would definitely recommend them. Child 44 was made into a film, I haven’t seen it but my sons didn’t think it was up to much.

One of the local charity shops has a whole room of second hand books so I pick up most of my fiction there quite cheaply. They always get them back when I’ve finished with them, so it’s a win, win all round. I read some ‘womens’ fiction, if you’re allowed to call it that now. Anita Shreve’s, A Change in Altitude and one called Home but I cannot remember who wrote it, Trophy Child by Paula Daly, and The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. You could rattle through them in a day or two and they won’t tax your brain too much. One of the reasons why I don’t particularly like ‘women’s’ fiction is that the central characters are always so bloody weak and drippy. And it’s all a bit ‘Oh no! Gerald is shagging the au pair again, and that’s the third time this week, whatever am I going to do? But I still love him so much!’ It hard to feel much sympathy for the characters when it usually turns out she started shagging Gerald at the Christmas party when his wife was 6 months pregnant. But they’re a cheap read and it’s probably the only way I would ever read them, I wouldn’t spend good money on them. One exception was Sail Away by Celia Imrie. I got this as part of my prize for winning the Haiku competition and really enjoyed it, so this is one I would recommend and will definitely read more of hers.

I’m not a great reader of fiction and prefer autobiography over other genres. But as I worked my way through The Gulag Archipelago, I needed a break now and again, as the brutality was quite harrowing at times and, more so, at present, as we seem to be sleep walking back into totalitarianism. Everyone should read this book, it should be on the Secondary School curriculum. It is an appalling indictment of man’s inhumanity to man and, as I’ve said before, Stalin killed no one, it was the ordinary Russians who ‘followed’ the orders of the tyrant. They estimate 14 million Russians died in World War 2 and 17 million Chinese. They estimate 65 million died under Stalin and Mao, killed by their own, murdered and starved. An appalling lesson from history that everyone should know about, but seems to have been forgotten by our glorious leaders and their minions. Ignore the lessons of history at your peril!

Other good reads were Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. The Geisha who the book was based on was not impressed with Arthur’s interpretation and wrote her own story afterwards.  I have it on the Kindle but haven’t read it yet, but I would still recommend Memoirs.

Other fictions were John Grisham’s The Appeal. I enjoyed this up to a point and it felt very relevant considering it’s themes of political and corporate corruption. There is no happy ending to this one so don’t read it if you’re feeling depressed, it just might tip you over the edge especially with ‘life’, if you could call it that, at present.

On the rest of the reading list was Wilbur Smith’s Blue Horizon, this is book 11 in a whole series about the Courtney family but I haven’t read any of the others. It was a bit of an epic and set in Africa in the early days of colonialism. I did enjoy it and will look out for the others.

John Case’s The Genesis Code was ok. I could see where it was going quite early on, part of the ending didn’t quite gel, but it was ok and worth a read, if you’re not looking for anything too taxing on the brain cells.

Since it was a bit of a Russian summer, I also read Shallow Graves in Siberia by Michael Krupe. This took me back to autobiography. He was a Polish national and this is the story of how he ended up in the gulags and managed to escape both them, and the Jesuits, eventually ending up in Britain. A happy ending for once! I would strongly recommend it. A great read and a reminder of just how amazing the human spirit can be and what we can endure and overcome.

And after all that, and to continue on the Russian theme, I was trawling through some music on Youtube and came across this stunning piece by Tchaikovsky. I’m a big fan of Tchaikovsky but I had never heard of this one, it is called Hymn of the Cherubim. It has to be the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard and it gives me great pleasure to share it with you all today. It shows that even though we can be absolutely appalling to one another, we can also be beautiful and wonderful, and this is a demonstration of what humanity can produce when we are at our absolute best. Food for the soul that speaks to God. Turn out the lights, turn up the volume and let your soul soar to the heavens. Amen!

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim - YouTube


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Weddin

Tyrants

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 12:58

So, what did I do in my six weeks of off? Well, I read the entire Harry Potter series, and very enjoyable they were too. I didn’t want to read anything political or anything ‘real’ and I’ve carried on reading more fiction since. I’ve just finished the excellent Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. It is about a serial killer and is set at the end of the Stalin era in Russia. It is based on the story of the real-life serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo who murdered 56 people in Russia in the 1980’s and 90’s. I’ve also ordered the two sequels, The Secret Speech and Agent 6.

There are some statistics at the back of the book relating to Russia under Stalin that are chilling. The two that stood out for me are; it is estimated that 14.5 million people died during this time (the proletariat whom communism was supposed to free) and they would even execute children as young as 12. Absolutely brutal!

If the detail in the book is anything like it really was, the levels of paranoia and fear, it must have been hell for the citizenry. I remember in Wild Swans how people were the same under Mao, paranoid and ready to sell out their family, friends and neighbours, and how in the blink of an eye you could fall out of favour with the authorities and the dangers that brought.  The frightening thing about this is when I look around me today, I see we have learned nothing. It would take very little to turn society into that again, we are halfway there already. I’ve seen and experienced first-hand in the last year, how people who I thought had a modicum of sense and intelligence, completely caved into the fear and propaganda. I have been ostracised by family members for not taking the virus ‘seriously’. (What was I supposed to do, invite it around for dinner and talk to it?!) And the ‘covid cult’ has caused divisions that debates about Trump, global-warming and Brexit never even came close to.

I have also refused to wear a mask, (I will not be complicit in my own enslavement) something which pisses some people off. I think part of it is because it highlights their own cowardice - they don’t want to wear it but haven’t the nerve to go out without it. I tell people now I have a rare condition, it’s called CSIT, it stands for common sense and independent thinking, and believe me it’s a rare commodity around here, I just didn’t realise how rare!

The ‘covid cult’ also reminded me of the early days of the Troubles, especially Bloody Sunday, when a wave of collective insanity seemed to grip the population and which I’ve seen again this year. The change in society was palpable after Bloody Sunday, you could almost taste the anger and hate. Northern Ireland descended into darkness and fear, paranoia and brutality reigned, and every nut job with a grudge had an outlet in which to exercise it. There were also those who took advantage of the anger and the nut jobs, and used them for their own ends, financially and politically. The fear generated then still haunts NI, (they haven’t gone away you know) I see it when I post anything critical about Sinn Fein on Facebook, and it is collectively ignored.

People have remarked privately, that they thought I would be burned out or shot after my letters to the paper. I really didn’t care and knew they wouldn’t because what I have realised is that, underneath it all, Sinn Fein and the rest of them are just another bunch of cowards, who are just as corrupt as the rest and always were. If the last year has shown me anything, it is that all the ‘hard’ men around here are nothing more than a shower of gutless wonders. Pathetic!

Anyway, getting back to the books, I’m reading Carl Sagan’s Contact at the moment, (and hoping for a worm hole to open up to another galaxy!). I had started it before Lent but set it aside to read the Harry Potter’s. I will then get back to some of the heavier stuff which is starting to pile up. Next up is Solzhenitsyn’s, The Gulag Archipelago, for some real insights into life under Stalin and Nietzsche’s, Beyond Good and Evil.

It was good to take that time away from the world and switch off from all the hysteria and misery, especially when the government denies you the right to live your life. There’s another year gone which I’ll never get back. Man cannot live for work alone and neither can I.

The fear is also starting to recede and I can see people beginning to question themselves and their actions. The media are still doing their best to ramp it up, with all eyes on India, but with a bit of sunshine and people getting out and about again, the tensions are definitely easing.  Well done too, to all who turned out to march last week in London, it was great to see, especially for those of us living in the outer reaches with little or no support.

When you look back at history and read the literature, whether fictional or not, from the Roman Empire to the present day, you wonder why tyrants never learn and continue with their insane plans for world domination and human enslavement. Because, it doesn’t matter how successful they are initially, in the end, empires always fall and their leaders die, whether it’s Josef Stalin, Mao or Lord Voldemort. Could someone please tell the Rothschilds/ Rockefellers, George Soros , Henry Kissinger, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, the Democrats, the Zionists and Xi Jinping? It could save us all a lot of time and trouble, and spare us a lot of pain and misery.

Enslavement is not sustainable in the long term, not matter how brutal they make it. Eventually, some people tire of it and decide to fight back for freedom, to die on their feet rather than live on their knees. What is the point of a life, if you cannot live it as a free human being, especially when none of us are going to be here very long anyway!

The one factor that could have stopped Mao and Stalin was the people, if people had not complied with the orders and stood together, they could have done nothing. Because there are always more of us, than there are of them.

I watched a lecture of Dr Jordan Peterson’s recently where he talked about what a miracle it was that we existed, and how many pairs of males and females it took to successfully mate and produce a healthy child over thousands of millennium for us to be here now. Our ancestors in Europe have lived through the rise and fall of many empires, the Black Death, the Inquisition, famine, starvation, invasions and wars, and here we are cringing in fear with our face nappies, over a flu that has a 99.97% recovery rate. Just think about that for a moment then, grow a pair, take that rag off your face and man up, ffs!  

Vivir con miedo es como vivir a medias!

 


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Weddin

#NoMasks #KBF

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Well, I managed to get the whole way to the South of England, and back again, without a mask and without much hassle too, I have to say.  Had a lovely few days enjoying the sunshine and heat with visits to Brighton and Littlehampton, where the beaches were busy with people out and about and enjoying themselves, and barely a mask in sight. 

However, on the journey itself, I was one of the very few flying (or using the trains, or shopping) without a mask, and I never saw the airports as empty as Heathrow and Gatwick were. The travelling was actually quite depressing, normally there is a buzz around the airports and London, but not this time. There was a general air of despondency hanging over everyone which is sad to see as I love London/England. I wonder how long the trains can run like this too. On the way back yesterday, I was the only person in the carriage and the one next to me was empty as well. This was the Gatwick Express going to Victoria and there were barely 15 people on it, a train that is normally full to bursting, especially, at this time of the year. 

As I was travelling, I was thinking about England and the English. England is not a very big country geographically, but in spite of that, and I'm addressing this to the people of England, you started the Industrial Revolution and led the world in manufacturing, science and technology. Just take a walk around Highgate Cemetery to see the names of the many scientists buried there, many of whom escaped persecution in other countries and found a home in England. 

A hundred years ago, you had conquered most of the world with the 'sun not setting on the British Empire' and I'm not going to get into a debate on the historical rights or wrongs of that, at least not today. You fought two world wars and were on the winning side each time, you built your country back up afterwards and created the welfare state and the NHS which lifted millions out of poverty and gave them a higher standard of living. This led to a rise in social mobility that, in turn, created the explosion of talent in music, art and technology that was the 1960's when Britain led the world in manufacturing, fashion, culture and innovation. Political debates raged and London was the centre for all that energy and enthusiasm which promised so much for so many. 

And how many times in your history have you fought back against invaders? Spanish Armada, Battle of Britain, anyone?

So, what happened, where has it gone? Travelling around Southern England I can only shake my head in despair to see the people of England so low, muzzled and depressed by a 'virus' and a government that doesn't give a damn about your health and is nothing more than the puppet of the corporate and banking empires that now rule the world. If they really cared about your health, would there be a mental health/obesity/poverty/social care crisis that has been building up for 40 years?

But it's not just England, look at Scotland, home of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, presided over now by a woman who is becoming more like Stalin with every passing day. Where is the heart of Scottish rebellion now, locked down and masked in tyranny by Nicola Krankie over a bad case of the flu?

And Ireland? I came back to find that the Sinn Fascists have made muzzles mandatory in shops here too. The great Irish rebels, the great freedom fighters of Ireland are now the foil of the Tories, Maggie Thatcher's old party. Excuse me, while I pull the craw of hypocrisy out of my throat! Their compatriots in arms terrorised the country for 30 years, with their masks and guns, and have left behind a legacy of severe social and mental heath problems in their wake. We don't have the highest suicide rate in Europe for nothing! 

Not to mention, the thousands who left or were driven out by them since the 1960's. If they really cared one iota for the 'health' of the people here, tackling that legacy might be a good place to start and maybe they could begin by removing all the memorials to death and murals, to what was 30 years of hell, instead of constantly raking up the past and playing the victim card when the truth is, they were the biggest terrorisers of the nationalist community. I know because I lived through it and it galls me to see them self-righteously pontificate to the rest of us now. 'There is no one more pious than a reformed whore', as the saying goes. But then Sinn Fein were always fascists dressed up as freedom fighters, and have become everything they railed against Unionism for, before they 'reformed', and it's jobs for the boys and their families and friends. Nepotism/cronyism rules!

And lets not forget Owain Glyndŵr of Wales, another fighter for freedom, he must be spinning in his grave with the rest of them, and all over a flu that has negligible impact on the fit and healthy, that has seen a fascist agenda imposed across the world with every little tinpot dictator having a field day. If only Adolf, Mao and Josef had known that all they had to do to impose a complete totalitarian/authoritarian dictatorship was to yell 'Virus' and then sit back and watch as the people capitulated, and not just capitulated but actively report and police those who would dare to defy the 'authorities'. 

And don't even start with the 'you're going to kill granny' propaganda. Honest to God, you would think that no one ever died before! Did you think we all lived in some airy fairy dreamland, some utopian oasis where we all lived forever and no one ever got sick and died? Like the US before Donald Trump became president, wasn't it such a paradise??!!! 

Good God, what planet are you living on? Where is your fight and your spirit? What did all those millions fight and die in two world wars for, especially those in the First World War, in the mud and dirt of France, conditions you could not even begin to imagine in your worst nightmares - FREEDOM!!! FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY! And you're sitting at home with your mask cringing about a 'flu', shame on you!

It's a sad fact of life, we're all going to die, REALITY!. And as I said before, it is not about dying, it is about how you lived. Now seriously, grow up and deal with it!

THEN, GET OVER YOURSELVES, GET BACK OUT THERE AND TAKE YOU LIFE BACK, FFS!


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