394 – Go ahead, but we all know your record for being hilariously wrong with election predictions precedes you.

384 – Integrated in terms of economic activity and infrastructure, certainly not in terms of feeling “Spanish”.

Southam Observer @402 Right, gotcha. Agreed.

If the Euro breaks up next year as I suspect, then that will be 2012-1999 = an unlucky 13 year project. How apt for the Eurocracy, hadn’t realised that before.

400. Be fair. He hasn’t become a complete lunatic and predicted Lansley will be PM.

moderator — can you free my latest post from the spam-trap (my last reply to TimT) ?

Regarding the Debt Ceiling

Obama has just notified Congress that the US was within $100B of the debt limit. The $400B is now released, so the debt ceiling is now around $14.7T.

Congress is now in recess until September.

400. I bet, less than 40% of my bets on horse racing for example w come home winners. Others like boxing come home over half the time and so on. Financial bets are percentage better, politics, probably about 50-50.

I tend to back relative outsiders so do expect to lose plenty.

I make a profit overall.

I succeed overall sometimes lots, sometimes not so lots.

What is it you do again?

hunchman Thanks.

On topic – probably not in view of the vehement denial, but note that Mike didn’t actually link “Davis to stand down” with “Boris to stand in that by-election” – he suggested that other MPs might be tempted in their localities, giving a more tempting opening for Boris than Yorkshire. But the Tories would be very annoyed to have to find a new Mayoral candidate, and I can’t see it.

Off topic – it’s interesting how DD’s narrowed eyes in the thread header make him look thoughtful and judicious (not the first words that otherwise spring to mind about him). There ought to be a book about how people react to different eye positions (perhaps there is).

philippe Know what you mean about Western society being rigid and geriatric. Each time I go to Morocco (or any Middle Eastern country) the youthful vibrancy of society is palpable in its contrast to the West.

Alas, we also seem unable in the West to simply enjoy what we have – everything seems to be valued in comparison to something or someone else, rather than for its intrinsic ability to make our lives easy and enjoyable.

Of all the things I miss in the US, (and fortunately these still exist in parts of Europe) the street market with really fresh fruits and vegetables is moving up to number 1.

Hope you are enjoying your son and making up games for you to both play.

413. Poor Log. So predictable yet so amusing.
When all else fails you always try so very desperately to condescend but that obvious desperation always backfires to reveal a pompous poser blustering furiously.

You tried a different version of that post already with oldnat (originality not being a strongpoint of yours) and I fear I laughed very hard indeed as he destroyed your pretension.

Keep at it Log as your efforts never fail to raise a smile.

420 — ” we also seem unable in the West to simply enjoy what we have ”
you’re right — I shall become more creative in that regard.

Mick Pork @422:

he destroyed your pretension

 
You do me too much credit. Seth is an interesting chap, with whom I enjoy debating from time to time. However, given his social and political inheritance, I’m afraid that pretensions are too deeply ingrained in him to be destroyed.

401 TimT

Pork has cousins everywhere, but few of aristocratic lineage. We have mentioned the Italians and the Spanish so noblesse oblige requires reference to the Jambon de Bayonne family. They mix with the sweet and sour too: a fine Sauternes or a dry Jurançon.

425.Cameron and credibility on defence

just like labour and all politicians,have you signed yet ?

tim @425:

I’d be more concerned that the turnout is low, allowing well organised but narrow campaigns to get unrepresentative placemen elected.

Unlikely that we’ll get people more unrepresentative and more of the placeman type than under the current system.

417. The issue is the gross distillation of GOP politics.

In 2007/2008 we had the similar view of the GOP by some posters who just saw them in caricature the whole way. Then it was the religious right now its the Tea Party. They are factions of greater or lesser degree, and not the whole story.

Backing against that caricature was a grand success.

There is a decisive enough split between the evangelicals and the Tea Partiers that suggests they may not vote anywhere near as a contiguous block. A section overlaps, an equally large section does not.

It is in that difference that you may find the decisive block that swings the primaries. The other potentially decisive block is independents in states where there are open primaries. As yet we have little definition of who they are. Are they genuine swing voters, are there more disillusioned former Republicans amongst their ranks.

The religious angle is also over-pursued. Whilst the evangelicals were big on GWB they were an engine, not the voters who made all the difference in his ascent to the White House. Yet the evangelicals couldn’t stop McCain who didn’t fit their mold in 2008. Yet plenty of people we define might define as ‘religious right’ in this part of the world, voted for McCain. Too often we see them a unified group and they are far from it.

Very few people have also noticed that the primary season has been skewed by the GOP herarchy? Why? They don’t want a case of runaway early momentum with early voting states.

434 — yes, increasingly the Tea Party is becoming a movement against Spending, For fiscal responsability. It does not move along lines of religion or ethnicity or “class”.

Philippe Magnan @436:

the Tea Party is becoming a movement against Spending

 
And does that include spending for the benefit of the military–industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against? I suspect not.

433 oldnat

No doubt your deference to the aristocracy is based on your identification with the Marquis de Sad.

My great role model is the Marquis de Parys. His bedroom manners are reputed to be better.

As to my pretensions being too deeply ingrained to be destroyed, I should warn you that I keep them in the safe and shake hands in public with a common touch.

– and it is increasingly obvious.

Seth O. Logue @440:

Marquis de Parys

 
You need to be careful in suggesting on here that you model yourself on a purebred Arabian. Many calls have probably been made to the security services suggesting that you shouls be investigated as a potential Islamist activist.

Philippe Magnan @441:

the Tea Party, as a movement, does not follow other ligns of force, such as ethnicity, religion, economical status, etc.

 
But its attitude to military America?

445 – If Palin does stand, I’ll donate half this to the site.
As it is I extended my position £100 further than I wouldve done as I presumed you had f£cked off.

446 – i dunno, honestly.

441. Perry and Romney have an interesting history in an article I posted if the moderator would be kind enough to release it from moderation.

There is no love lost there it seems.

Philippe Magnan @449:

I’m a big fan of le Marquis de Sade.

 
Perhaps. But I didn’t include the final “e” when chiding Seth.

Philippe Magnan @445

I knew Philippe! And welcome back. My purpose in asking was purely to disarm tim’s bragging rights.

Seth O. Logue @457:

the middle English great bowel shift.

 
But I see you still use the Southern English intrusive “f”.

Philippe Magnan @449:

I’m a big fan of le Marquis de Sade.

He certainly pushed the boundaries of literary imagination. But in the end it was buggering a maid that did for him.

So much for the French Revolution. Some things never change in France.

– 459 Wow!

“He certainly pushed the boundaries of literary imagination. But in the end it was buggering a maid that did for him.”

I’d rather say : he destroys the classical boundaries set by Cervantes, and replaced ‘imagination’ with litteral anatomy. By being the first pornster, he opened the way to modernity in litterature!

oldnat @458:

But I see you still use the Southern English intrusive “f”.

My very first linguistics tutorial was on the final inflected -e in Middle English. Well the real purpose of the lesson was to demonstrate that imported or invented words get adopted into a language and become subject to its laws including changes.

I was told the word “pipe” was originally created as an onomatopoeia pronounced ‘pee-per’ to imitate the sound made when sucking on a pipe. But that the great vowel shift lengthened the “i” to ‘ai’ and it lost its final inflectional ‘e’. So ‘pee-per’ became ‘paip’.

Now I thought Sir Walter Raleigh introduce tobacco from the colonies in the early 17th century. So just what was it that those middle-English mediaevals were smoking?

I just bought 23 shares of S&P.DOWNGRADE.US.DEC13 @ 51.2%

TimT @469
Ta

Philippe Magnan @464:

By being the first pornster, he opened the way to modernity in litterature!

Not sure you can get away with that claim, Philippe.

Mediaeval and ancient classical literature had their fair share of ‘pornographers’.

In modern times John Wilmot, The 2nd Earl of Rochester, established new boundaries for English literature in the late 17th century restoration (see ‘A Ramble in St James Park’ at http://bit.ly/ntckLk ).

What the Marquis de Sade did was to move the imaginative and literal onto the field of the illegal and taboo.

Yokel @447:

“I was closer than most people think to jumping in, Pat. But when it got down to it I felt like the atmosphere right now was so toxic. And part of it is that I think many people in my party, the Republican party, are unrealistic and what they want is something that no one can deliver. And that is a candidate who is going to solve every problem in an election cycle.”

The GOP primary candidate problem by some guy called Mike Huckabee.

Wow!! Some very plain talking from Mike Huckabee. But then when you look at the far more interesting array of possible Republican candidates who decided to miss this one out. You get the feeling that its maybe not just about going up against Obama, but that the whole election this time around might turn out to be a poisoned chalice for any party who wins?  

475. A bird in the hand…

oldnat @475

oldnat, its going to be interesting to watch events in the US and in Europe over the next few months and years. Spain up next, and after the terrible events that dominated their last election, its going to be equally febrile this time around due to their economy.

Seth : “Mediaeval and ancient classical literature had their fair share of ‘pornographers’.”

They didn’t name things, they used analogy.

Sade however catalogued perverted passions in details, descripting almost every possibilities. Like a grammatician of perversion, the characters of his books are trying to name the violence immanent to sexuality, death and desire.

I agree however that the notion of “being the first” is very fragile, tenuous.

Philippe Magnan @480:

They didn’t name things, they used analogy.

 
Part of the problem of tracing literary antecedents for eroticism is that each age applies its own ethical standards to the source. Careful translation and cautious editing can obscure original meaning. There is also a tendency to assign to the original author and text a contemporary purpose and sensibility. So what might have just been a ‘dirty poem with dirty language’ becomes an allegory to the Victorian interpreter.

Just look at how the Church has interpreted, translated and edited the Song of Songs in the Old Testament over the centuries. Pope Benedict XVI is the latest with his encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)’ of 2006 refers to Song of Songs in both its literal and allegorical meaning, stating that erotic love (eros) and self-donating love (agape) is shown there as the two halves of true love, which is both giving and receiving.

More disinterested scholars than those of the Vatican will seek to trace parts of the song to the Mesopotamian and Sumerian traditions of erotic poetry, particularly ‘bridal songs’ where the original texts are unambiguously direct and literal in the actions and parts described.

If we think how many words and euphemisms we have for male and female genitalia today, then compound that through many millennia, languages and civilisations the problems of being ‘lost in translation’ are clear.

As SeanT admitted the other night, it has taken him a full six years to run out of synonyms for “pizzle”.