So, what’s happening in the nearby town of Portadown?

“A large crowd gathered on Sunday shortly after midnight in the Mandeville Street and West Street area. Ten officers sustained minor injuries and a number of vehicles were damaged. A police spokeswoman said appropriate resources were in place. The trouble, said by police to be sporadic, lasted for about three hours.”

Local nationalist figures have alleged that this rioting was planned in advance and was a show of strength? By whom? Was there paramilitary involvement and if so, why did the police not move against all thugs concerned? In what way is three hours of rioting acceptable to the PSNI?

I noticed that Garvaghy Road Residents Brendan McKenna got stuck in the condemnation of the mob. Mr McKenna, as I point out in my book “Unionism Decayed” has distinguished himself in years past by trying to contribute to the development of Portadown by …bombing it. Nice guy.

The big questions here for me is why, if this event was known about, did the PSNI not move to prevent it? People in Portadown deserve better than three hours of rioting! Arrest all concerned.

Interesting article in the press today concerning the DUP. One of Paisley’s former closest friends, Rev Ivan Foster, has claimed that Sinn Fein are running the DUP policy.  He is, of course, right. The fact that those such as Rev Foster are now such staunch critics of the DUP is evidence of the stresses afflicting the DUP these days.  There is a visceral grass-roots rebellion amongst once loyal DUP voters who BELIEVED the DUP leadership when it said that it would NOT sit in power with IRA/Sinn Fein. The scale of this worries Robinson and co which is why they are stalling on so many fronts.

My thanks to the ATW reader for the details

Via the hacked emails from the British Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, the investigation into the AGW scandal is widening to include other universities and research centers around the world.

Lord Monckton is calling the AGW scandal  a “ financial and science fraud on a global scale” and he is setting  up a new website to track and report developments in the AGW scandal. The website address is called:  science and public policy.org

Lord Monckton and Professor Singer, both called “charlatans” in the CRU emails, have filed a joint report/request with the UK Information Commissioner to investigate the possible criminal wrongdoings of scientists involved in the AGW  scandal.

Will Nobel Prize Winner/Carbon Credit Billionaire/ Snake Oil Salesman, Al Gore end up destitute and behind bars?  Only time will tell.

Ht: hyscience 

Sir Paul McCartney will this week throw his weight behind a growing campaign to address global warming by…… reducing the amount of meat we eat, lobbying EU politicians for their backing.

The former Beatle will interrupt a European tour to fly to Brussels on Thursday, where he will make his case at a special hearing of the European Parliament. Sir Paul said yesterday: “The message that I am taking to the European Parliament is – less meat equals less heat.”

Look, I don’t eat meat and after a few years don’t miss it. I recommend a meat-free diet but clearly this is a decision for the individual and it has NOTHING to do with “global warming.” I do understand the point McCartney is making but I think that this “less meat equals less heat” is spurious.

What do you make of this?

Joanne Goody-Orris and her partner Maurice Benton, both 79, from Somerset, began sending packages to serving soldiers two and a half years ago.

Since then they have sent over 6,000 parcels containing everything from treats such as chocolate and crisps to necessities such as wet wipes and thick socks.

They drive hundreds of miles every week, collecting donations from local businesses, charities and individuals and setting up stalls at fetes and other events. They even spend hours writing four-page letters to every soldier.

But the Ministry of Defence has said that the troops have enough resources and has told the pensioners to stop sending parcels, claiming that the extra transport needed to take them to the soldiers could put servicemen’s lives at risk.

The couple, who have become hugely popular with troops in Afghanistan, said they were “amazed and appalled” by the MoD’s attempt to stop the parcels.

The troops, who call them “Jo and Mo”, write warm and moving letters of appreciation. Some send photographs and some have visited the couple on their return to England.

Mrs Goody-Orris, a retired lawyer who comes from a military family and has two grandsons serving in Afghanistan, said: “We were contacted by an army captain in Afghanistan who said he was in charge of the mail and said we had to stop sending parcels because the MoD had told him that the soldiers did not need them.

Appalling.

I read that Obama’s much-vaunted eloquence faces the biggest test of his presidential career this week when he takes to the stage at West Point military academy to explain to a nation that thought it had elected an anti-war president why he is escalating the conflict in Afghanistan.

After almost three months of agonising, nine war councils and endless leaks, the president will finally make his views known on Tuesday when he is expected to announce that he is sending about 30,000 more troops. This will push up American forces to 100,000 and the total number of allied forces to almost 140,000, as many troops as the Soviet Union had in Afghanistan.

The carefully chosen backdrop cannot disguise Obama’s dilemma. Somehow he has to convince his own public that the United States has an exit strategy and will not become bogged down, as it did in Vietnam, while making clear to the Taliban and Pakistan that it has not lost its resolve and will stay as long as it takes.

Obama’s toughest challenge will be to win over his most loyal political supporters. He is facing a growing revolt in the Democratic party over why the US needs to be in Afghanistan at all when the real threat — Al-Qaeda — is in Pakistan, and over the spiralling cost in both lives and dollars.

Well, let’s see how The One deals with this. I do not buy into this “exit strategy” guff that the MSM fixates on. I prefer to focus on what constitutes a WINNING strategy. Had Churchill an “exit strategy” during WW2? No. I remind you of what he said back in 1940 and which remains true now. Obama should reflect on this….

“We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

Interesting to read that Margaret Thatcher stayed up all night in her Downing Street flat throughout the three months of the Falklands War and never changed into her bedclothes, it has been revealed.

Yes, I am a fan of Margaret Thatcher and rate her second only to Sir Winston Churchill in terms of Great British Prime Minister’s of the past 100 years.

She sat fully dressed, huddled round a two-bar electric fire, nervously listening to the radio for news of the conflict, nursing a glass of whisky while husband Denis slept in the spare room. Baroness Thatcher survived by taking 20-minute catnaps – a ‘zizz’, she called it – in the day and catching up on sleep at weekends at Chequers. The extraordinary account was disclosed when she returned to No10 last week to unveil a portrait of her commissioned by Gordon Brown. Her ability to survive on four hours’ sleep has long been the stuff of Tory legend. But she took it to a new extreme in the war with Argentina in 1982, said her former personal assistant Cynthia ‘Crawfie’ Crawford.

Thatcher was a leader. She took risks, she defied convention. The Falklands War was one of the highlights of her time in power – the time when Britain confronted bullies rather than appease them. That she did not sleep until the war was won is remarkable but then again she was a remarkable lady. 

I remember buying The Smith’s single “Heaven knows I’m Miserable Now” many years ago – good tune, silly lyrics. Morrissey was, of course, the lyricist for the Smiths and I see he has appeared on a BBC programme claiming that suicide is “honourable” and “an act of self control.”

It’s a tough subject and I write this in the knowledge that there will be some reading this who may have lost family in this most traumatic way. I don’t believe that suicide is honourable, I think it is tragic. I don’t think it is an act of self control, I think it indicates being out of control. Setting aside the theological aspects of suicide, surely one must conclude that suicide is more often a cry for help, an act of desperation, maybe a moment of madness. Honourable people may take their lives, I accept that, but in itself it is not an honourable course of action. 

I have had little experience of this most tragic circumstance although I know of a guy that I was friends with decades ago who ended his life by walking in front of a train. How sad and how grim for those he left behind.

Morrissey may well look on the dark side of life. He needs to cheer up. There is so much that is good in this world, so many things to celebrate, so much to do, that life is to be embraced. And as for those dark moment we all get….?

Well….

“Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best…

And…always look on the bright side of life… 
Always look on the light side of life…

Well, could it be more clear? 

A date for the transfer of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland must be set before Christmas, Martin McGuinness has said. The Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister was speaking after meeting the Republic of Ireland’s leader, Brian Cowen.

As you may know, the DUP have been prevaricating on this for one simple reason – it will cost them even more votes comes the General Election. The Robinson plan has been to keep trying to kick this forward into the long grass and his bluff has been called by IRA/Sinn Fein. Robinson, of course, WANTS to see Policing and Justice devolved so he is ideologically aligned with McGuinness – the problem is how this is sold to the unionist electorate so perhaps slipping a date in place in the run up to Christmas and then making sure it does not actually kick in until after June of next year is the desperate hope of the DUP. They have arranged for Alliance leader David Ford to play the role of stooge Minister for Policing and Justice in an attempt to hide the awful truth – namely that the IRA could get one of it’s men to hold this post further down the road.

All the DUP bluster about P&J is aimed at re-assuring its voter base that it is being “tough” on this crunch issue even as it prepares to roll over once again. The people will judge the DUP and I believe they will suffer severe damage care of their lust for power  and lack of integrity.  

Good news from the land of cuckoo clocks.

Projections from exit polls suggest that voters in Switzerland have backed a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, Swiss TV says. The result is not yet official, but the BBC’s correspondent in Berne says if it is confirmed, it would be a surprise. The proposal was backed by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which claims minarets are a sign of Islamisation.

Looks like the Swiss people DO realise the danger of Islamisation and have taken a decision to do something about it.

Do you think the UK could follow this example and show Islam that we too will not tolerate it’s unwelcome encroachment into our society? No, me neither!