caroljane

Yes, I knew of the Jim Peron case, it is prominent on the forums board as it should be, and I have always admired you for recanting false allegations you thought in the heat of the moment were true. This case is different, as you say. Partly because there are so many, many accused of being complicit in pedophilia that it is dizzying, and all of them are politically opposed to the present administration. "The people against the ruling class pedophiles" are not motivated by power-lust, or even gossip, if I may precis your post. But does the motivation of the opponents of the accused pedophiles make the accused any more or less guilty? Surely only the evidence can do that. If their motivation is only to protect children, then surely they and their supporters would have no interest in smearing, but only to root out all pedophiles they can verify by fact, not supposition, and not by connecting dots that lead nowhere, unless viewed through the magic lens of Confirmation Bias. You know more about the psychology and process of all this than I do through your studies, Michael. I try always to live by your motto too. Know thyself.

Oh, too close to the bone for me too. As a Boomer, my ground zero definition of utter evil still stays fixed at the Holocaust. How about a more genteel walk down literary lane? after dinner tea-drinking with Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen and Candace Bushnell. Bronte scorned Austen' s work as trivial and bloodless, Austen would have found Bronte rather common but interesting,and Bushnell rather vulgar and pushing. Bronte and Bushnell would have bonded over hating on Austen for not appreciating their superior qualities.

So Adam Schiff is a ruling class pedophile? Proven and convicted under the law?

What is wrong with you? Why do you need to obsessively fantasize about the suicides or executions of those whose politics you disagree with? Can't you just vote against them and campaign for their rivals like a normal person? Jeez.

Sorry, my time travel fantasies -- since it is us now meeting the already dead, I just thought of a past setting for the group. Kind of like a Destination getaway.

Er, no. This is the 21st century and you cannot only invite one token female philosopher. You will have to invite Tara Smith too. Chortle, chortle.

It is James Baldwin of course! And they are in Paris in....say, 1776.

Of course they can be of any language!.. I want to be there too, and if John the Baptist crashes the party I want to hear his comments on primogeniture!

The New York Times Book Review (I know, I know, but it is the International Edition and is all about South America and Africa, and it is free with the Toronto Star on Sunday)-- they have a feature where they ask authors who they themselves like to read. It is really enjoyable even though I have usually never heard of the authors being interviewed or of half the living writers they cite. And last week was just woo-hoo! for me. It was an economist-writer I never heard of (natch) but she answered this question: "If you could invite 3 writers living or dead to a dinner party, whom would you want?" ACnd she said, "Vikram Seth (my own total favourite of the century), Maya Angelou (American poet etc) and wait for it... Ayn Rand! That is the most perfect mix I can possibly think of., what with Vikram and Maya trying stiltedly to talk poetry over AR's scornful smiling gaze, her razorlike comments ringing through the bewildered clutter of the other two making excuses for their muddled thinking. and me hiding under the table before the inevitable epic catfight. The answers to this kind of question to celebrities is always so predictable and disappointing. Jesus, Ronald Reagan and/or FDR, etc. I am sure OLers can do better. Which 3 would you bring home for dinner, dead or alive?

He said people lie, but I for one don't believe him. It is only devious traitors who lie, not really people at all.

Priceless. Especially loved the royal "we" in "we can take the fifth like any other president of the U.S."-- never give up your dream Rudy!

Dear Diary, I have just received the strangest communication from David Seaman and, do not know what to make of it. First I should say that it came in an odd way, not through regular channels although he knows he could always reach me through the FA or indeed through KP staff who are all fans. But apparently this missive was actually stuffed into the pocket of one of the Beefeaters at the Tower of London, if you can credit that! A small person, thought at the time to be a child, approached the soldier as children do, and when he looked down , he felt a wad of paper being wedged between his halberk and his hat! Before he could even react, the perpetrator (captured on the phone of a Myanmar tourist) ran through the exit and simply disappeared after that. Well, you can imagine the kerfuffle. Once it was determined it was just paper with no powder or enclosures, all the tourists there on Gallows Green had to be interrogated, but nobody had noticed the "child" except the Myanmari tourist. Who does not speak English. Or any of the other main languages of Myanmar, but some obscure tribal tongue which few people speak even in Myanmar itself. Well, not to be long-winded as good old Det. Doplew was when he explained, when they finally found and flew in an interpreter, the witness was unshakeable in not knowing anything about the appearance of the little person. He just noticed him as a blur coming across his camera, while he was filming Gallows Green. He was interested to see how it would compare with the various gallows in Myanmar. Oh NO! Not Louis again-- fine, it is my shift, but it would be nice if someone around here appreciated that I gave up flying around the beaches to do a job which we have three or four really well-paid people already to do - oh, I'm coming for heaven's sakes! In haste Ich dien, William

Are we talking about the same Pele (or Pere as in Michener's Hawaii) ? The one with the glassy hair like dried lava, who warned selected worshippers when she was going to erupt? Come on, if there was ever a thorough Democrat, she's it! Carol #Times Up for EOMDEs* *(Entitled Overrated Male Divinities Everywhere)

The goddess Pele must be really, really irate. Maybe somebody finally told her about the 2016 election.

Thanks Bill. I don't mind the robot voice at all. I thought it would be a cartoon, or maybe a SNL skit, not a straight news report. There is dark humour there, I guess, as there is in all of life and death. as to my tech problem, I have scrolled back and find it is mostly on Miichael's posts that the files are unresponsive-- of course much of my interaction is with him anyway - any theories Dr Supercyber?

Dear Diary, Can it possibly be five years since I put this journal into my spare Air Rescue Uniform (not that I think anyone would read a private diary, especially Dear K, but better not to leave it lying around) and forgot where I had put it. I do not mind confiding that for days - weeks - I was terrified of it showing up somewhere inappropriate, like the News of the World, and did not trust myself to write anything personal! And now there is no News of the World and nothing personal I could ever write would interest anyone, except my relatives and those strange Luminous people who think we are in league with Satan and some businessman called Soros, or perhaps they are the same person. Looking over my last few entries, how well everything has resolved itself! Here I am, a father of three, and this time I put my foot down and insisted that K come home to KP instead of haring straight to her mother's again. Many of those original Middletons and neighbours who infested the house after Georgie's birth have acquired spouses and in-laws , all ardent monarchists of course, and Bucklebury was simply unlivable after Charlotte. Actually, when I did mention to K that we now have two perfectly good homes with staffs sitting around with nothing to do most of the time.... she immediately caught my drift, and when I gave her the diamond and emerald necklace as a baby present, she told one of the maids to unpack the country wardrobe and prepare for London. How our minds and hearts are still as one! And now Harry is also as lucky, and soon will be united with his chosen bride. I don't think that after their first baby, she will go to her mother's even. Sometimes I think the Spares have all the luck. It's so jolly to see these dear old lined pages again! Ich dien, William

Why? It is a second hand Chromebook. Heeelp.

Further to the Epstein coverup, which there surely was/. There is no doubt in my mind that Prince Andrew and Clinton might well have availed themselves of the services offered (Rothschild I know nothing about so can't comment). But if either of them had become a pedophile at their late stages of life, I would doubt it. You Americans have trawled through every woman Clinton ever hit on, and I don't recall any minors he assaulted or even groped. Not that there were none, but surely if there were any fire there Ken Starr et al would have fanned the smoke up to high heaven. About the house of Windsor I do know, Andrew is a corrupt, venal, pompous waste of space. But like all Windsor men, starting spectacularly with the ex-king and Duke of Windsor, as sons deprived of their mother at early ages,* their only known attractions have been to women older or equal age to themselves, efficiently managerial and comforting. Andrew had a famous affair with Koo Stark, a soft porn star - and, well, Camilla. Meghan, 3 years older and hugely more worldly. Etc. As far as child prostitutes here, my judgment says and I hope I am right, in these two particular cases, nothing to see here, folks.

Small fact-check correction, Jon. Mack is charged with trafficking women, not children. Two women brought complaints against her on which the charges are based. There are no allegaions about children , except one rumour emanating from a well-known fake-news site. You have been wrongly informed. The facts of the indictment are publicly available. We should all be glad that this revolting mindwashing sadistic pyramid scheme has not proved, yet anyway, to have victimized the youngest and most innocent.

You are right, I meant the opposite Objectivism had powerful effects on individuals, many beneficial and long-lasting, and still continues to. But as a "movement", with joint projects such as the newsletter, events, educational agenda and so on, it blowed up real good after the Branden-Rand split and the existing Ayn Rand Institute now , a not-for-profit propped up by Koch money and rigidly ideologically controlled, can hardly resemble anything AR might have envisioned.

Michael In which war did they effect such consistent successes, -- the Hundred Years' War? Vietnam? WWI, that unnecessary but inevitable nightmare of butchery and stupidity ? I read the Proud Tower too - wonderful book. Do you remember the part about how after the war, they were redecorating the wartime headquarters of one of the French generals, or an allied command centre (I forget the exact venue). They rolled up the carpet and found dozens of telegrams stuck under there, all marked Urgent and demanding immediate reply, ranging in date throughout the four years. iDid you read the Guns of August too, also by Tuchman? And William Manchester'sthe Arms of Krupp, that chilling and terrifying classic of the utter defeat of reason and humanity by the armament industry? Krupp and co. were the real victors, not the Allies. Their losses were negligible, and their gains were great.

Back at you, Tony.

As my hometown faces unprecedented flooding, and many of my relatives are building backyard arks, on top of totally crazy hot weather, maybe it's time to forget about the day and just abandon Earth...

Maybe it might be wonderful too, but I can't believe in a superhuman omniscient Big Brother controlling my life, anymore than the dark forces doing it as you describe. Unless they really are superhuman, I cannot believe any coalition of mere human beings, however rich and powerful, could produce such teamwork with such success. Even the most reasonable movements - forces of brightness, like the Objectivist movement, break apart on the very ground of their individual humanity.