Electronic Filing

Would be wonderful if you could easily access them. Would be even better if you could find the discs you originally stored them on, and then, once you've found the device that allows you to 'read' the old 3.25 inch 'floppy' (which isn't), if the Word version you are currently using, could open them ...

There is a large degree of frustration in constantly getting an "error' message that says the file is 'blocked.' There is an even greater degree of frustration when the Microslosh provided advice on dealing with the problem, doesn't actually solve it. The problem, of course, is Microsloshes habit of changing the Operating System every time they bring out a new version of something. These files were originally created on my very first laptop running on Windows 95. Since then there have been several new versions of the Word for Windows system, though, to be fair, I could still read these files on the last version of that I had on my Windblows operated PC. But not, it seems on Word for Mac ...

Fortunately, the information is not a matter of life or death, just a favour for a friend, so I will now have to dig out my last laptop using Windblows and see what I can do on that to access and convert the files to a format everthing else can read.

So much for "Electronic Backup."

Interesting History ...

Today is the 48th anniversary of the shooting of President John F Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President of the US of A whose election, as I recall, was greeted with almost as much hype as that of the present incumbent. It is often said that his assassination is one of the world events that remain firmly in a person's mind and I can certainly say, in this case, it is true. I was at school. It was a maths class and it was interrupted with the announcement.

A teacher came in, told our class master, who told us, then returned to the lesson. That was it. As we weren't in the US it was shocking to hear that a head of state had been deliberately killed, but it apparently didn't affect us - so we just went on with our school  work.

I remember it was on the news that night on the radio (South Africa didn't get television until the mid 1970s) and it was a week or more before any of us saw it on the Movietone News in the cinema. By then, of course, a great deal more had happened, including the killing of the accused gunman. I was astonished recently to learn that, at the time of this assassination, killing a US President wasn't a "Federal Crime" and the whole affair was, technically, the jurisdiction of the Dallas Police Department and no one else.

One can only wonder whether anything would have been different if JFK had not died. Would Vietnam have escalated the way it did? Perhaps not, since L B Johnson appears to have made that his "Cuba crisis" stand. On the other hand, there are a whole slew of very good social programmes that the US owes to LBJ and not to Kennedy. JFK made the promises, LBJ delivered them.

History certainly has a number of interesting "what ifs" attached ...

Dealing with Bureaucracy ...

Aargh! Or, as another blogger has titled her blog - Ack! Thbbbbbt!

In order to get the money from a small "paid up" policy now maturing in South Africa I am having to leap through more flaming bureaucratic hoops than I ever imagined possible. Even if I succeed in getting all the "proof" they demand to show that I did, in fact, emigrate more than twenty years ago, they will still only allow the money to be paid into an account in South Africa...

OK, that's one way of making sure you don't have a currency haemorrhage I guess, but as they don't have or are not able to supply me with copies of some of the certificates I had to file to leave SA in the first place, how the heck am I supposed to do it twenty-three years on?

I love bureaucrats. I do. I really do. I just want to see them all dangling from lamp posts or swimming with over excited sharks ...

An uncomfortable truth ...

I have seen this before,but, as we stand at the beginning of the Christian Year (First Sunday in Advent is the start of the Liturgical Calendar) it is worth considering what this says. Whether you are a church goer, or not, atheist or something else, the point being made is that if you take discipline and morality out of society, you really should't be surprised when bad things start to happen around you ...

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America .. 
The following was written  by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday  Morning   Commentary. 

My confession: 

I am a Jew, and every  single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me  even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled  trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel  discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. 

It doesn't bother me a  bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are  slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind  of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters  celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that  there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach  house inMalibu .  If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me  as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting  pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting  pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in  God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no  idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist  country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it  being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it  another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship  celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God ?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But  there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from  and where the America we knew went to. 

In light of the many  jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little  different:  This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's  intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter  was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could  God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)..   Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She  said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for  years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our  government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He  is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to  give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us  alone?'

In light of recent  events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it  started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a  few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we  said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in  school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal,  and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock  said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their  little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem  (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know  what he's talking about.  And we said okay.

Now we're asking  ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right  from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their  classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think  about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out..  I think it has  a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is  for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to  hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question  what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail  and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages  regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how  lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace,  but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and  workplace.

Are you laughing  yet?

Funny how when you  forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list  because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you  for sending it.

Funny how we can be more  worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of  us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard  it.... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought  process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is  in. 

My Best Regards,   Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

Feel free to copy it and paste it into an email if you think it should be shared.

In or out?

As I noted the other day in this post, democracy is perceived in different ways by different people and at different times. Thus, for the anti-EU factions in the UK, the changes of government in the countries at the heart of the €uro crisis is "undemocratic" and one is given the impression that the democratically elected parliaments have been overthrown and unelected governors imposed. Yet, all that has happened is the unpopular and incompetent minority governments have been replaced, in Greece by a new coalition of sitting (elected!) MPs and in the other, by a new coalition, again composed of elected members already 'sitting' in the legislature. No different in fact to what happened when Mr Blair "retired" and handed over the reigns of power to Mr Brown without "consulting" the electorate.

I find myself amazed at some of the statments being made by presumably intelligent people. I have read in some blogs the assertion that "German Militarism" is once more a threat to the "freedom of Europe," that the whole EU is a "German plan to seize control of Europe" and many other similar, equally silly statements. For one thing present day Germany is far from "militaristic." In fact it is probably less "militaristic" than France or the UK. It has just slashed its Armed Forces, scrapping an entire class of modern frigates in the navy, entire regiments in the army and entire squadrons in the airforce. Having scrapped National Service, they are now struggling to recruit people for the services and, quite frankly, their focus is on protecting their own economy.

As for wishing to deprive anyone of their "democracy" I'd suggest that those making the charge should get a reality check. The German government operates and has done for as long as I can remember, on a coalition system. Everything the Chancellor does has first been fought over, argued and eventually voted on by the Bundestag. Then, sometimes, things still have to get the approval of the Landestags. There are 17 of those and they don't always do as the Bundestag recommends - far from it.

Yes, the proposals on the table at the moment is for a central committee which would determine the spending and borrowing levels for the member states. Yes, that takes control away from the member governments of their economies, but, frankly, if the peoples of those states want the stability of a solid currency, they have to surrender that control. No one is compelling them - if they want out, they probably still have the printing plates for their original currencies. The problem they would face, of course, is the value of that currency when they re-issue it. It could be just so much monopoly money ...

Does anyone accuse the USA of having "robbed" its constituent States of their democracy because Washington DC determines the spending and borrowing limits? No, and it is worth remembering that the US Dollar also went through a tramatic start up.

Frankly I think the UK news media, the vociferous anti-EU-ers and and the government of the UK have to step back, stop throwing their toys out of the pram and decide whether they want to be a part of a larger Europe, or vanish into obscurity all on their own. I rather think Scotland will take its own route in that event and remain a part of the EU and other parts may take the same decision. The UK is a Great Power because it has a nuclear deterent, it no longer has the armed forces that could fight a major war, in fact I suspect that the Falklands, if invaded now, would be left to the invaders with no more than some "diplomatic exchanges" in the UN.

The real problem for the UK media and others, as I see it, is that the rest of Europe has made plain that they will not be dictated to by a single member which consistently refuses to follow the same rules they demand everyone else should. There is a LOT wrong in the EU, not least the unelected Commission appointed by the Council of Ministers - who claim this is legitimate because THEY are elected. By some measures that is democratic...

It does seem to me to come down to a single issue. The UK has to make a decision, to stay in the EU or to withdraw. Personally I will be sad to see the latter because I do believe that the UKs best interests lie in being a part of Europe, but that certainly isn't helped by the utter lack of understanding of so  much of Europe's history, or of the manner in which so many government's function.

It is a very complex issue, but it isn't helped by the likes of Nigel Farage slinging mud and refusing to work with people to achieve what we would all like to see, a strong Europe, democratic, and able to show the world a fair dispensation for all its people. That won't happen if the mudslinging and wrecking continues.

Cool Cat ...

We have a new "cat" in our garden. He looks slightly appealing to me, probably wondering why he's been left outside in all the cold and damp. Seriously though, he's there to protect our rose bush which didn't really appreciate the heavy snow last year. Bet we don't get any this year - and "Cool Cat" will wonder why we did this to him after all ...

Actually he makes me feel quite guilty ...

Uncollected tax...

It has emerged that the Greek taxpayers owe their government €60 billion in unpaid tax... That is just unbelievable in itself, but even more amazing is the fact that the Greek government has made no effort to collect it.

No wonder they are an economic basket case. €60 billion uncollected tax, with the most generous social security handouts in Europe - paid for it seems by massive borrowing and the taxpayers of every other EU country. The new government of "national unity" (Contrary to some of the reportage I have seen from UK based news sources, consisting of sitting MPs elected to the Greek Parliament and not unelected apparatchiks from Brussels as the media have implied) would do well to collect the outstanding tax immediately and pay off some of their debt.

Frankly, the more I think about this the more I need to go and lie down with a damp towel on my forehead. Even the German news services seem to be stunned by this revelation ...