Seem sometimes like radical Islam wants the world to despise or destroy them and nothing else will do.
Some events? More a litany of 'events' recently I would have thought. So many 'lone wolves' and not a pack recognised.
I've made my statements about this and my predictions , but no-one is listening to a 'racist' like me.
I fear this is not the end of it, or even the beginning of the end of it - but as per Churchill and quoted out of context, it might just be the end of the beginning.
Weep for those who died, but save some for those to come.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, but that's how I see it.
I've made a new one now, Peter ; not to get up- (or down-) swept by waves of rage after these events... like some are trying to whip up...
As Pete Townshend wrote
" I hope I die before I get old " !!!
Well, my 'world peace' resolution only lasted six days in Paris so I hope it lasts a bit longer in the Haute Vienne !
Peter, when you ARE 75 it's amazing how the goalposts shift! Many a good tune etc.........? Not that I know personally, but from what I have heard.
Extremely difficult to clearly explain how Marseille actually "works", Peter. Been a couple of good books out lately, by insiders, notably this one :
"Marseille ma ville, portrait non autorise" by Xavier Monnier, he takes you through all the complex ramifications of who controls what ; don't be foxed by who is under examination or condemned for false finance of associations etc (Guérini, Andrieux), they all do it, it's obligatory. That's one reason why there was no rioting in Marseille when all the other conurbations had it those few years ago.
Another good way to understand the basics is to go see the recent film "La French" which is doing the rounds now. Went to see it in Lyon over the holidays, excellently close to the facts and beautifully filmed in Marseille itself.
The "règlements de compte" are linked to who gets the percentages in each carefully-designated area ; since the old Corsican mafia lost control of things the "quartiers" are held by the local "pluri-ethnics"...
When I was working in the local authority, we had to go down to the Region PACA HQ quite a lot, sometimes with people from Rhône-Alpes too ; these last would always whisper to me "but how on earth do things work down here? It's impossible to understand", to which I would give the standard reply "Oh, on s'arrange..."
Heads immediately to Amazon to search....
Reckon I just need 'Somebody to Love' !
Probably not Gracie who is now 75 !
Brian, here's a pithy one a local small farmer told me when we would go rooting out the poitin down in the bog of a soft afternoon in West Cork :
"The day of the wake it was very soft and the priest left his umbrella open by the door. The crowd were having difficulty getting in with the umbrella in the way so the fella goes to get the priest to move it. He folds it up and takes it off, yer man looks to yer other man and says, with great respect : "Ah, dey have da power alright, so..."
Haven't heard too much about the gang wars and the 'Réglement de Compte' etc at Marseille lately, maybe some kind of peace has broken out in the northern suburbs Ian ?
I acquired the CSN 2012 reunion dvds last year. A pretty good performance by the oldies including DC performing Wooden Ships at the end.
:-D
Ian, strange to say, but a strong memory is when we went to Dundee when my father had leave. The Wee Frees probably contributed more to my disbeliefs than anything else. There were none in the family but neighbours. They stopped me playing, singing and just about anything else. My cousins would go near the close where there were some then crash the dustbins whilst making a real hullabaloo.
It all became reinforced by me getting to know a couple of clergymen who went through the motions but believed in nothing. More recently my OH's emeritus RC bishop uncle actually dares to discuss his doubts and happily admits to having no expectation of an afterlife.
Secularity can also be a pain in the rear, like religion, but devout atheists who preach more than priests and agnostics who insist on rabbiting on about the bits they have and not have are worse. I simply do not have beliefs but allow myself an opinion which I would never shove down anybody's throat. I leave that to the priests of the various denominations including atheists.
Argh, don't start chasing the White Rabbit again, Peter :)
...wouldn't mind being far out with our Grace !
Doesn't sound too much like fiction to me, these days, Peter...
Anyroad, you don't get prose like that these days, except maybe from a couple of poetaster slam groups like IAM, for example.
Oran-Marseille Remix
Les vagues s'écrasent sur les roches, fauchent, façades moches
Vie de cloche poche, vie de pèze fastoche
Mais la poisse accroche ma face de métèque
Je viens du bled, plein de verbes dans les bagages
ça je tiens ma rage dans ma gorge
La plage déserte me pousse au cafard
Tu traînes dans les bars tard le soir
Où les soûlards se filent au rasoir
Spliff noir dans le cendar
Je sombre dans le mégatrip égoïste
Jette mes tripes dans la musique
Marseille, ma ville, un plateau
Où le désert avance, un gâteau partagé à dix
Mes khos pendus à un lasso
Nourri au gaz de ville, à la lumière orange
Comme elle, je dérange, étranger aux pensées étranges
Des odeurs de couscous, de tajine, de pruneau,
De mafé, yassa, poisson frais
Pâtes carbo les épices me collent à la peau
Assise là, les pieds dans l'eau sous l'il du Tréo
Ma ville s'éveille chaque matin quand les fourmis s'en vont au boulot
Fragile, emporte ta faux, situation où tout le monde se marre
L'économica autre comme une vieille bécane
Pluriethnies cohabitation naturelle
Les cultures, les murs, les couleurs dansent comme dans une aquarelle
Seul le Serval dévoile la face B de la carte postale
At-on cache les nuages, un cercueil passe, mauvais présage
L'ennui vainqueur, sueur, peur devant les seringues de l'horreur
Le noir château entré sans un mot Marseille aspire au renouveau
The JA version is listed on the mid-1990s CD re-release but is not actually on it! Never heard the Crosby explanation, so not the Woodstock album. But, yeah man, blow the right gear and what comes out...
Well to me, a belief is a belief and a religion is a religion. A connection could be made I suppose. The afterlife is in no way a religion to me. But yes it probably is 'something spritual'.
I'm sure we'll all find out one way or the other...
I remember being "very afraid" of the aura from Catholicism. This probably being down to a solid Proddy Methodist upbringing in a heavily Catholicised town in industrial Lancashire. We even used to "walk King Billy" at Whitsun. All that obviously went down the drain when it became impossible to be associated with events "elsewhere" - but by then I was long gone and way out on another "belief system"...
Sorry Brian, didn't read your post before posting.
Amazing what can be written when one is as high as a kite Ian ! Crosby wrote the music and SS & Kantner wrote the words. JA actually did their version of the song at Woodstock too (not a lot of people know that !)
Crosby explains on 4 Way Street (or was it the Woodstock album ?) that this song is science fiction - it was driven by the Vietnam War with a nuclear holocaust in mind...