Be prepared for anything

This is a sad day indeed. Harry at Harry's Place has published his last post as a regular blogger at the site where he's been writing for three years. Work and family commitments take first place for now although I predict that he'll start blogging regularly again one day. His site is going to be run by four other guys who've been doing a great job over the last few weeks, particularly with regard to raising awareness of George Galloway's pro-war, pro-jihadist, pro-fascist beliefs.

The post is long and touching and well worth reading so click here. He talks about "the ethic of responsibility" and describes his position as "an anti-fascist, pro-democracy, internationalist, secular, liberal and social-democratic stance".


"This medium isn't going to disappear nor are readers going to return to being passive consumers of other people's views."


In his last post he has quite a few entertaining and enlightening links. That is one of the drawbacks of the blogosphere, you get sucked into spending hours following various links. Pleasurable but time consuming hours go past at warp speed.

I want to return to the idea of the nationality of the terrorists in Iraq as I found some statistics here.

"In New Republic Online Husain Haqqani and Daniel Kimmage attempt to glean what they can from biographies (posted on the internet) of suicide bombers in Iraq:"

Saudis 61%, Syrians 17%, Iraqis 10%, Kuwaitis 5%, Jordanians 5%, other countries 2%=100%

At the Society of Cogers meeting last night someone mentioned that Iraq's inevitable civil war will be between the Shiites and the Sunnis. I think the Baaaathists may get a look in and according the statistics above there will be Saudis popping over the border on the odd occasion. That is, if the coalition pulls a substantial proportion of their military might out of Iraq before the Iraqis themselves are trained up to police their own country. And the example of New Orleans is a valid one here, get the wrong governor and things go to hell in a handbasket. But I don't think there's any likelihood of the armies leaving anytime soon. That's just a headline for a slow news day.

I really enjoyed reporting on the Galloway/Hitchens debate at my Cogers meeting last night. I was the only American in the room and the only one who had watched the debate and the stony faces didn't daunt me at all. My fellow Cogers are an intelligent lot and not a one can defend someone who so openly supports totalitarian regimes like the Syrian dictatorship of al-Assad. In fact, later on, someone drew a laugh when referring to Galloway's party name - RESPECT. That is funny and an example of how George understands public relations so much better than some members of the US government.

Time to focus on the day job.

You come into my little scene

A VHS of the C-Span television programme showing the British MP George Galloway debating the British writer Christopher Hitchens in NYC two weeks ago has arrived. I got called by fedex for the first time ever, "just to confirm delivery address" which is the same address I've had on my account for four years so excuse me if I find that suspicious. But having watched it, I'm not surprised as this is explosive material, intellectual pornography.

George may be absolutely bonkers but he really holds his end up. He's very energetic and had clearly prepared a plethora of insults, although nothing as good as this from "Innocence" Buffy, Season Two:

Cordelia: This is great. There's an unkillable demon in town. Angel's joined his team. The slayer's a basketcase. I'd say we've hit bottom.

Zander: I have a plan.

Cordelia: Oh no, Here's a lower place.

Galloway is a happy fascist and loved leaning on his podium and talking to the audience in his transatlantic Scottish accent about how Sodhim Hinsane was a democratically elected president of the perfectly reasonable Baaaath political party. He had some hilarious comments to make, such as taking Barbara Bush to task for some outlandish quote attributed to her, something along the lines of the refugees from Louisiana who were given a place to recover in Texas would probably want to stay. How ridiculous is that? Texas is scary, you're legally allowed to shoot intruders in Texas, although "you only get a trophy if you kill them" - hi Candi!

Hitchens is a proper intellectual, that is, someone so intelligent that if a truthful, persuasive argument is made, he is willing to change his mind. Winston Churchill was the same. Both quick witted, flexible and brave enough to admit when they got things wrong.

So Gall accused Hitch of being against the first Gulf War and Hitchens just looked over his glasses and said "I began a process of re-examination of which I can't really say, or be expected to say I'm ashamed."

Gall misquoted statistics all over the place, one notable instance, when he said only 6% of the "Iraqi resistance" have been foreigners. So how about the terrorists George? Tons of Libyians, Syrians, and so on, can't remember the full list although Michael Yon has reported on this in his blog, for instance here, and I'm sure I heard him mention it on one of the numerous radio programmes he's been on recently. Also, George quoted the Lancet figures which have been thoroughly evaluated and derided even by left wing publications like Slate.

Gall also quoted Juan Cole a professor from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) who is such a devalued source that after his long tirade Hitchens just said "wow!".

Hitchens had a wonderful response; "Professor Cole, who's never set foot in the region, changes his mind on the subject every week."

Galloway said something about Colin Powell saying his UN speech was a stain on his public record and Hitchens goes "I don't give a damn what Powell says about anything". Yay! Neither do I!

Overall, Galloway held on well until losing steam at the end. He was a fantastic example of how a good public speaker can distract you from the content. Now I understand why Antony Beevor said that of all the people from history the one he'd most like to meet is Adolf Hitler.

Well, I'm off to the monthly meeting of the Westminster Society of Cogers. I'm looking forward to discussing Katrina and Rita and George. Cheers!

Oh, almost forgot, I was working with a woman on Monday who said she could read palms. I handed her my left palm, she looked down at it and started laughing uproariously, picked my hand up and flung it back at me saying "you are going to have such a happy life". She's right.

The Tipping Point

You won't be surprised by this statement: I distrust news from "old media". I reached my tipping point last November. But the process began many years before.

It started with a whispered accusation in Dublin in 1997. If it was dark and late, I believe I could enhance this story to a point where I'd hope to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Ask me to tell you about it one day!

"You know f***ing nothing".

I interpreted this to mean I knew nothing about Michael Collins and Irish history of the early twentieth century. I took it to heart and read a few books which just made me hungry to know more. One of the earliest findings from my research was that the recent terrorist activities reported as "IRA" atrocities by the media had nothing to link them to those far off days just after the First World War.

Michael Collins and all the figures from that time wanted and partially achieved fiscal and legislative autonomy from Britain, a desire any American can appreciate. What the so called present day IRA wanted to achieve appeared to me to be a way to cover up and romantise their criminal activity. Smart criminals with a great smokescreen, it's an old old story. And the British media was in collusion with them because hey! the aggrandisement of this group of criminals filled newspaper pages and gave newscasters something to talk about on slow news days.

This realisation grew and grew in me and was confirmed by the Omagh bombing in August 1998. Those Northern Irish Terrorists (Nits? ok?) were chop shop criminals who set up that bombing in order to divert police attention away from their criminal activities. The information is available but the media has no interest in making that information clear because it's so - boring and prosaic? Fine. Whatever.

Then September 11th 2001 came and just after lunch I answered my phone and my sister said "turn on the tv". I turned on the BBC and watched aghast as the commentators savoured the horror and tragedy and attributed it to American political thinking. I turned it off and I haven't watched the BBC news in my own home from that day to this.

But what stopped me watching any news or buying any paper on a regular basis was my discovery of internet blogs.

You have to understand, for more than ten years I believed the news when they reported on the IRA. Yet I discovered, without much effort, that it had all been a con. Then I watched and read as the BBC (we're taxed here to pay for this!) and British press got September 11th wrong, and always erred on the side of making Assima Bin Liner some kind of super hero.

In the lead up to the November 2004 US elections, my mental health was saved by American blogs. I revelled in Dan Rather's bigotry being exposed and the higher profile gained by the Swift Boat Veterans and their debunking of the 'Christmas in Cambodia' ("seared I tell you seared") story disseminated from Kerry's campaigners. I recently enjoyed reading the story about the election day exit polls being knocked by the internet in real time in Hugh Hewitt's book 'Blog'. Yup, they turned out to be wrong, but old media was reporting a Kerry landslide based on them anyway.

There's a lot of talk about "tipping points" in consumer research these days. What starts the process? Can the final element that changes everything be predicted? It's a really good way of describing the stepping stones towards change. All of us are capable of changing the way we think. My new attitude towards the media took seven years to develop, some pop tunes drive me crazy after one week.

All of us are living through times which are inspiring us to think more deeply about the world around us. The timescale will be different for everyone but we are all capable of changing our minds and affecting the attitudes of others.

Plan of Attack

I once described the account planning function thus:

"we do the in-depth, back room analysis, so you don't have to".

It's fun to do research and it's enormously satisfying to delve into things and focus hard for hours and hours, even if I lose the ability to string sentences together for a while afterwards. Can't imagine that? How about this...

When I read a non-fiction book, I'm looking for clues about the author's intent. I grabbed Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward out of a friend's bookstall pile, started it this evening and I'm already reeling with shock (not really, come on, it's Bob WOODWARD). In the 'Author's Note' he refers to his editorial assistant's "insistence that we reflect with precision what people said, meant and did." The italics are mine.

I would have been happier if he'd used 'report' or 'present' instead of 'reflect'.

I would have been much happier if he didn't reflect his own personal biases so early in the game.

On page two he refers to Donald Rumsfeld's "large, infectious smile" that "can overwhelm his face". What crap. Rumsfeld is attractive for a seventy something, gray haired guy in glasses and he looks twinkly and cool when he smiles. How unhelpful is that description? I think of the Cheshire Cat when I think of overwhelming smiles. And the word infectious?

Remember "you had me at hello"?

How about "you lost me on page two".

I'll jump ahead to the September 11th bit, which I've been told is really exciting, but if that's as biased I'll put this book in my own bookstall pile.

Federal Express called today to confirm delivery tomorrow of the Galloway/Hitchens debate. A dear friend in the States has videoed it for me and I can't wait to see it, every twitch and eyebrow arch. Can George really appear as crazy as it's being reported? I'm not surprised the BBC hasn't shown it, why would they allow the British public and George's own constituents to see and hear him in full fascist mode?

I fully intend to write up my notes on the link between Barbara Cartland and Michael Collins. It's an interesting story and relevant to the documentary being filmed in Dublin at the moment on the 21st November 1920 assassinations ordered by the proscribed Dail and overseen by the Director of Intelligence.

I wish I could relax sometimes and just read a romance novel in the sunshine but September started with a bang and there's no end in sight. Someone asked me the other day - "glass half full or half empty" and I truly answered "full to overflowing".

Pick up my guitar and play

New Guardian? Plenty of them left at my local convenience store tonight. I thought there'd be more interest "up the hill". The size is just plain weird. It reminds me of 'The Weekly Reader' but the Brits amongst you won't get that.

The articles are annoying, but you already know I've got it in for misrepresented statistics. The 'Arms Trade' double page spread with graphics in G2 has got a few doozys. Whoever was editing this ran out of steam at point 6. Which you won't know about because you didn't buy it today either. There's no reason to buy a paper these days unless you're a blogger and enjoy sneering. But it's just too easy!

What's good is the chart with the national newspaper circulation figures on page 9 of the media Guardian section.
Dailies % change:

- 4.98 Daily Record -- however, not as big a decline as the LA Times (-6%)
- 4.00 Guardian -- that's gotta hurt
- 3.46 Independent - so size didn't matter
- 2.82 Daily Mirror - maybe the Sun's more fun?
- 2.79 Daily Star - sorry, don't know this paper
- 2.28 Daily Telegraph - good writing, terrible old fashioned image
- 1.90 Daily Express - who reads the Express? no really
- 1.37 Daily Mail - effectively still holding at 2.3 million
- 0.07 Sun - the biggest paper in the UK at 3.4 million
+ 0.39 Financial Times
+ 5.62 The Times - what could be the reason for this impressive increase?

It makes me sad to live in a country with such a vibrant newspaper culture and watch as the papers lose their way. Truth and accuracy are important, especially now that the internet supplies all the "shock horror" the papers used to supply. Plus the internet supplies the unvarnished, unedited truth from sources you figure out you can trust.

As Julia Roberts said so endearingly fifteen years ago: "big mistake".

Solitude Creek

My grandfather retired to his farm on Solitude Creek. The road's still named for it but the farm is gone now. Solitude Creek is a real place but it also stands for where I go when I'm not responding sharply or quickly. Sure I'm here, but in fact I'm there. Sitting very still. Feeling safe, at peace.

The War of Art

Went into Waterstones to avoid the deluge and buy 'The Art of War' as I won't return my library book otherwise. Except it's the War of Art. So consider this a correction.

The problem with library books is you can't highlight the great comments, such as these from Chapter One, Resistance, Defining the Enemy:

"The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration."

"As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture."

"Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance...if you're paralysed with fear, it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do."

"It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it."

Introduction to 'The Art of War'

I have a sister who is brilliant, beautiful, hard working and demanding. She has commanded me to read ‘The Art of War’ by Steven Pressfield and that is what I’m doing, right now. Well, not right this minute because I’m typing this but you know what I mean.

He lists the lucky charms around his desk and I glance sideways at my lucky charms; my signed photograph from Buffy, my favourite photograph of Michael Collins, a big rock crystal and a small rose quartz, a gray stone from Greystones and a shell from Clonakilty. There’s an acorn I picked up a few weeks ago that reminds me of my earliest memory:

I was underneath the dark wood dining room table at my grandmother’s on Vesey Street. The acorns I was polishing were coming up a bright shiny green. The scent from the boxwood hedge was strong. I could hear my mom arguing with grandma. “You shouldn’t let her use those.” The tablecloth hid me and the pile of crumpled damask napkins from her view. Grandma murmured something back. I continued polishing.

Some of the early pages in this book have no number. Here’s what he says on one of those pages:

“It’s not the writing that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”

I’ve got a particular method that helps me, no, forces me to write regularly. There is only one chair in the whole of my flat. It is at my desk, which is my dining room table too. The tiny sofa is buried beneath two feet of papers and magazines. If someone drops by unexpectedly, they walk right over and sit in my chair and I end up sitting on the coffee table after putting the kettle on.

Chapter one is about the enemy which he calls 'Resistance'. I've got to go and read this now. But I'll report back.

Blogging from Dublin

I've never been to Dublin when it hasn't rained at least once. Not this time. The sun is beating down and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky. Stephen's Green is beautiful in sleeting January rain. When the sun is shining it's ravishing.

This fragile feeling can't be blamed on the weather. Last night I met up with friends at the Trocodero on St. Andrews Street. Irish, British, German and American friends all looking glamorous and drinking for, well, Ireland. Half way through we drank champagne in honour of Shay and Dymphna's wedding anniversary. Phyllis told a dear story about Phil (Lynott? 'The Boys are back in town'?) :

Philomena: "Every Christmas I bought him underpants and tee shirts."

Robert (Troc owner): "It was pre-boxers back in Ireland in those days."

Phil's mum (for it is she): "He said 'mum, don't buy me any more of that boring stuff. Can you go to Brown Thomas and buy me a Stetson.' So I go to Brown Thomas and the guy opens the book and Philip was already in the book. His hat size was enormous because of his hair so it was a special order. The penny dropped when he opened to the L."

Me: "What colour were they?"

Philomena: "I'm his mother, of course they were white."

She unveiled a statue to him on the 19th of August, just off Grafton Street, and when we were done (ahem) we trooped along to see it.






Phil Lynott died almost 20 years ago from heart failure related to his addiction to drugs. Nowadays his mum lectures at schools and prisons about drug misuse.

She's right, he had a lot of hair.

This is my first time using Wi-Fi. The hotel I'm in charges to use it. The cheapest deal is 20 Euros for 24 hours so to get my money's worth and to distract myself from the drilling outside my window (and bang in front of the dail, Dublin's Parliament House) I've had a bit of a read of some articles on the web.

Wesley Pruden, Editor in Chief at the Washington Times has written an irritatingly misogynist article about the personalities involved in Louisiana these days. Read the whole thing here.

While the President is "tardy", he's still manly, "bucking up spirits" and "stiffening the resolve". Generally critics are gender neutral, merely heaping calumny and scorn if rather venomous if they're lefties.

But Wesley applies his tinted lip balm and stamps his fashionable new shoes when it comes to the women in the news. So Sheehan couldn't attract attention "if she stripped down". Louisiana Governor Blanco pouts, has snits, and dithers because she's indecisive. Senator Landrieu "seems to think she's cute when she's mad". Even Dr. Rice is referred to condescendingly as "Condi".

Poor Wesley, it must be that time of the month for him. I recommend a tumbler of Paddy's and a nicotine patch. It always works for me.

So don't debate, play it straight

The latest post on Michael Yon's blog is the most moving account he's ever written and confirms he's one of the finest authors of this age. There's nothing at the cinema these days that's as good. He's writing from Iraq and he's not pro-war, not pro-Bush and he's not for the fainthearted. I'd say he was pro-truth. If you haven't been reading his blog, don't start now. 'Gates of Fire' made me nauseous and I cried for ages after. Guys will get it, girls will cry. You have been warned.

"I may be down, but I'm not bad as all that"

My charity link for Hurricane Katrina relief is the Salvation Army and not just because I was lighting crew for Guys and Dolls at university. The Salvation Army started in the east end of London, I think, a Victorian institution that has been flexible enough to move with the times.

From Buffy, Season Two, Episode 13, Surprise

Buffy crashes through window, stabs her assailant with a wooden stake and he explodes into dust.

Oz: Hey, did anyone just see that?
Xander: (resigned) Yeah, it's all Bush's fault, vampires are real, some of them live in Sunnydale, Willow will fill you in.
Oz: That explains a lot!

Oops, small typo. But there really IS something from Buffy to fit every occasion. I have managed to avoid the news this week. At home, I never turned on the tv news, ever. I'm so pleased about that. I did not buy one paper this week, although people keep leaving them on the tube so I have glanced at a few.

I've seen the Nielsen figures for US news programmes and except for the cable channel Fox, all tv news there is trending down. I read the circulation figures for British newspapers yesterday and they trend down too, although "most held onto their circulation in July". Since July had Live 8, winning of the Olympic bid, mass murdering Islamofascists on the 7th and 21st, armed policemen in every train station and travelling the tube, and so on, it doesn't surprise me that circulation held steady. But the overall trend is down.

I've got a really good example of why this is the case:

Sunday September 4, 2005 The Washington Post, read the whole thing here. (found at lgf)

Title: "Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting"

(Here's the formula: thousands equals x, many equals y, x divided by y equals z. Percentage helped versus those still waiting not clear? Duh.)

First paragraph: (italics are mine)

Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.

-- how crazy are they? Fancy blaming the Democrat mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin or Louisiana's Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco, who's so busy hiring herself a lawyer that she hasn't got time to address the catastrophe going on in her state. But she's smart enough to have got herself a good one, James Lee Witt who was Clinton's director of the Federal Emergency Management agency. Just the fee negotiations, contracts and non disclosure agreements alone would have taken up all her time.

Second paragraph:

President Bush authorized the dispatch of 7,200 active-duty ground troops to the area--the first major commitment of regular ground forces in the crisis -- and the Pentagon announced that an additional 10,000 National Guard troops will be sent to Louisiana and Mississippi, raising the total Guard contingent to about 40,000.

-- ok, the math is easy. 40,000 minus 10,000 minus 7,200 equals 23,800. So those twenty three thousand troops were superfluous? Until Bush pulled his finger out? Why does anyone read the news these days, when you have to keep a scratch pad beside you to track what the journalist is actually saying.

The governor of Louisiana is in charge folks. And she's really blown it.

She's had access to plenty of warnings. The National Geographic magazine outlined the scenario that is happening now back in October 2004. Read the whole thing here.

However, I blame Bush. The guy does NOT understand public relations.

There are examples from history to learn from, such as the brilliant pr campaign Michael Collins ran while on the run in Dublin in 1920. The copywriters he had for his daily propaganda bulletin/newsletter "An tOglach" included lawyers, doctors, university lecturers, journalists, authors, and newspaper editors. Just some of the contributors are listed below:

Erskine Childers
Arthur Griffith
Desmond Fitzgerald
Moya Llewelyn-Davies
Piaras Beaslai
Eileen MacGrane
Eileen Hoey
Kathleen MacKenna Napoli

Michael Collins also called for a poll (market research) when the dail was debating the treaty. It is a shame he couldn't persuade the other members of his government to conduct one.

Bill Clinton was a master of public relations. He was also getting great advice from stylists. Remember the story of the haircut on Air Force One? It is a rock solid fact that a good haircut can have a powerful effect on your image. I got a great haircut yesterday. Then I bumped into a very young and gorgeous neighbour. "Carol, what eye cream do you use?" It's not the eye cream, it's the art director at Cobella Akqa.

Tony Blair's not bad at pr. Blair had the uber account planner Alistair Campbell as well as Peter Mandelson and even a good stylist in Carole Caplin. Make up is important and reports of Blair spending almost two thousand pounds for make up artists is low considering all the time he's been in office. He's also had someone "leaking" stories to the press and this is what President Bush needs. Someone who could "leak" insider info on the phone calls backwards and forwards in between Louisiana Governor Blanco's meetings with her lawyer.

To this day Bill Clinton has past employees on side, helping to support his good name. Do you remember "Trousergate"? That's the story about the Clinton aide, Sandy Berger, who was Clinton's National Security adviser. He was caught sneaking original documents out of the US National Archives around the time of the 9/11 commission. Hmmm. As a frequent user of library archives, I can say that hiding original documents on myself in order to sneak them out has occurred to me. (Buffy: "That would be wrong.")

I remember Antony Beevor admitting to doing exactly the same thing in Moscow at a talk for the launch of his book 'Berlin The Downfall 1945'. To be fair to him, he said he hid handwritten copies of archive material while his twinkly female translator had chats with the Russian guard. Must be a guy thing.