April 18, 2005

Iraqi Alliance Seeks to Oust Top Officials of Hussein Era (washingtonpost.com)

So they tell us things are getting better!

posted by Tony @ Monday, April 18, 2005 0 comments

April 05, 2005

To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme.

This Month's Slate magazine has a piece by Robert Pinsky. He discusses poetry and rhyme, and gives this example of Ben Jonson "taking both sides of the rhyme question".

A FIT OF RIME AGAINST RIME

Rime, the rack of finest wits, That expresseth but by fits, True Conceipt,

Spoyling Senses of their Treasure, Cozening Judgement with a measure, But false weight.

Wresting words, from their true calling; Propping Verse, for feare of falling To the ground.

Joynting Syllabes, drowning Letters, Fastening Vowells, as with fetters They were bound!

Soone as lazie thou wert knowne, All good Poetrie hence was flowne, And Art banish'd.

For a thousand yeares together, All Pernassus Greene did wither, And wit vanish'd.

Pegasus did flie away, At the Wells no Muse did stay, But bewail'd

So to see the Fountaine drie, And Apollo's Musique die. All light failed!

Starveling rimes did fill the Stage, Not a Poet in an Age, Worth crowning;

Not a worke deserving Bays, Nor a line deserving praise, Pallas frowning.

Greeke was free from Rime's infection, Happy Greeke, by this protection, Was not spoyled.

Whilst the Latin, Queene of Tongues, Is not yet free from Rimes wrongs, But rests foiled.

Scarce the hill againe doth flourish, Scarce the world a Wit doth nourish, To restore

Phoebus to his Crowne againe; And the Muses to their braine; As before.

Vulgar Languages that want Words, and sweetnesse, and be scant Of true measure;

Tyrant Rime hath so abused, That they long since have refused Other ceasure.

He that first invented thee, May his joynts tormented bee, Cramp'd forever;

Still may Syllabes jarre with time, Still may reason warre with rime, Resting never.

May his Sense, when it would meet The cold tumor in his feet, Grow unsounder,

And his Title be long foole, That, in rearing such a Schoole, Was the founder. t

posted by Tony @ Tuesday, April 05, 2005 0 comments

What the Tifosi did not see.

"There was no live television coverage in Italy of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ferrari fans were therefore spared yet another disappointment in the Scuderia’s fraught start to the season.The race was won by Fernando Alonso in his Renault, ahead of Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen.Michael Schumacher retired with brake and hydraulic problems.Rubens Barrichello was lapped, and finished only in ninth place.Both Ferraris bore black noses as a mark of respect for the death of John Paul II." Corriere della Sera International. Cheers. t

posted by Tony @ Tuesday, April 05, 2005 0 comments

April 04, 2005

Foot in Mouth

Not only have both Dyer and Bowyer shown themselves little better than highly paid hooligans after brawling with each other during Newcastle’s match with Aston Villa last Saturday, but now their manager has made a complete fool of himself by telling the press today that -"They've spoken over the weekend and have had a laugh about it." http://tinyurl.com/3ktxr

Laugh about it Mr Souness, so they think it’s a joke? Well I suspect few of those supporters paying their hard-earned money to see these yobs brawling on the pitch see the joke. Better shut-up Mr Souness! Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Monday, April 04, 2005 0 comments

Where Are You?

Her Majesty’s Court Service popped into the world on April Fools’ Day this year.

Is this serious? Its all singing and dancing website shows this address for South Tyneside Magistrates Courts.

Millbank Southampton Hampshire NE33 1RG England DX 68670 South Shields 6 Follow the link from HMCS website

Cheers,

t

posted by Tony @ Monday, April 04, 2005 0 comments

ASBO Corner

As regular visitors- and my SiteMeter reveals there are a few- to this blog know, I have serious criticisms of these Orders. They are becoming no more than “vigilante training”.

You can find a list of some of the more unusual examples of these orders at

http://www.statewatch.org/asbo/ASBOwatch-extreme.htm

But there is an example in this week’s Private Eye.

HARTLESS?

“ At 9pm on 29th October 2004, police served Susan Hartless with an anti-social behaviour order, saying three and her four children had to leave their home immediately.

The order was a complete surprise: the family knew nothing about ant ASBO hearing and had not been warned about the behaviour of anyone in the family.

Last week the high court ruled that the family could stay in their home in Liphook, Hampshire, so long as they were on their best behaviour.

Moat Housing Association used consultancy firm Community Assist to take out the ASBO and the possession order against Ms Hartless, her partner Carl Harris (who was staying elsewhere on the day of the eviction but normally lives with the family) and their children, aged 14, nine, eight and seven,

Luckily for the family the police did not think that chucking the family on to the street that evening was a great idea and so gave them until the morning to leave. Overnight Ms Hartless found a solicitor who contacted a high court judge at 1.30 a m to get the order put on hold.

At the High Court this month, Lord Justice Brooke found that most of the evidence gathered from neighbours and presented at the ASBO hearing by Community Assist boss Angus Macdonald was hearsay, and much of it lumped the Hartless family in with a different family in the same street, who were also served with an ASBO and evicted last year. The judge said MacDonald gave “statements of the utmost generality without identifying the source of his inevitably second hand or third hand evidence”.

Decades of housing law says eviction should only be used as a last resort and “without notice” evictions should only be used in extreme circumstances. Lord Justice Brookes said there had been no previous warnings, no attempt to get Social Services involved in resolving the behaviour problems and none of the family had criminal records.

The two middle children had glowing school reports and Ms Hartless’ eight- year- old daughter was to appear in a carnival with her Brownie Guide pack the day after the ASBO was served. The teenage boy’s behaviour on the estate had been unacceptable (fighting and shouting abuse) and both parents had rowed with their neighbours; but making the entire family homeless was unreasonable, said the judge.”

As I was reading this, I found out that more and more local authorities are using ASBO’s to rid themselves of troublesome tenants. In the Hartless case, Moat Housing used an outside organisation-Community Assist- to do the legal work. I understand South Tyneside Council, stuffed to the gunwales with lawyers are farming their ASBO work to a Newcastle firm of expensive commercial lawyers, who instruct counsel AND send members of their staff to hold counsel’s hand during the application before the magistrates. The fees paid by the local authority would make a local council taxpayer weep. And it’s not as if persuading South Tyneside magistrates to grant an ASBO presents insuperable difficulties! Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Monday, April 04, 2005 0 comments

April 02, 2005

You Could Not Make It Up.

For a country whose “Founding Fathers” looked towards Europe, the Enlightenment and the “Age of Reason”, it’s staggering to see our American cousins believe in this mumbo-jumbo.

Yes folks it's a Creationist Museum being built in Kentucky. Have a virtual tour! Cheers, t

posted by Tony @ Saturday, April 02, 2005 0 comments