A man can never have too much red wine or too many books. ~ Kipling

There’s some stuff going around in the US Presidential campaign that’s supposed to appeal to the very masculine man; you know the kind of a real man who can strip and fix a carburetor. Let me disabuse you of one thing, maybe one man in 1000 can actually service and balance a traditional set of carburetors. And that kind of arcane expertise is not the true measure of a man. Real Masculine traits include; good manners, honour, honesty, integrity, courage, self-awareness, self-confidence, strength in mind, body, and spirit. We could add; robust independence coupled with friendliness, assertiveness coupled with kindness, and especially being nurturing, loving, and protective of women. No real man would ever belittle anyone, and especially a manly man would never denigrate a woman ~ even when he utterly disagrees with her. But then, no real man would become a politician in this day and age.

Jack Collier

First they burn books, then they burn people…

Hilary Clinton wants the US Government to crack down on social media content, saying that otherwise leaders could lose control over the people. Next she’ll want to stop the publication of all the books she doesn’t approve of. I thought your First Amendment protected the freedom of speech? Meanwhile, here in England, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater wants to expand her bill to legalise the mercy-killing of the terminally ill to include all those incurably suffering with mental disorders such as depression. Hitler’s Nazi Death Camps started off by mercy-killing all the mentally ill. It isn’t ‘assisted dying’ it’s the government murder of the weakest in society. Given our Labour Party’s history of rabid anti-Semitism, who knows where the unintended consequences of mercy-killing of just a few could take us?

Jack Collier

But it was not a small job, like, I did the fries… ~ Kamala Harris

Lately I have come to notice just how often some people sprinkle their conversations with the word ‘like…’ American women especially are guilty of this linguistic sin. Randomly saying ‘like’ for no reason whatsoever adds nothing to the meaning nor veracity of whatever it is they are trying to say. Of course it gets worse than that when they use the F word for no readily apparent reason. Another terrible mangling of English is the interrogative lift at the end of a sentence, young women from Australia often being guilty of this? One could not imagine Mister Bond, Churchill, Shakespeare, nor Orson Welles making such elementary errors in their mastery of the English Language. As a skilled communicator let me tell you that ‘Like’ ‘Fuck’ and the interrogative lift indicate the speaker is both pretty thick and not telling the whole truth. But around here I should follow all that with; ‘You know what I mean…’

Jack Collier

Anyone who keeps on learning stays young. ~ Henry Ford

I have come up with a cunning plan, which at first glance might look like I’m going to be pushing a huge boulder up a mountain, but everything is not what it seems. All things being equal I am going back into full-time education, probably to read for a BA, MA, Bsc, or Msc. I have not yet decided what topic I am going to study, nor with which university, but whatever course I take it will be though what is now called ‘distance learning’. I don’t want to have to travel to a campus, nor mix with a horde of very young students, but with today’s technology what used to be known as a correspondence course can be very slick and efficient indeed. The next part of my plan is to research syllabuses and universities, followed by thoroughly going into the financials; what grants, loans, and concessions are available to a mature student such as I. Of course, no plan, not even a really cunning plan, survives contact with reality for very long. I will keep you posted as things develop.

Jack Collier

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. ~ Churchill

In the summer of 1940 the few Spitfires and Hurricanes of the Royal Air Force battled against the all conquering Nazi Luftwaffe in the skies over Southern England and London. In the end ‘The Few’ triumphed over the German Scourge, but it was a damn close run thing. Had Hitler won, and gone on to invade this green and pleasant land, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, would have been lost into the abyss of an horrific Dark Age.

Lest We Forget

Jack Collier

This island is made mainly of coal… ~ Aneurin Bevan

Under prompting from our new Labour Government an ignorant unelected judge has blocked the opening of a new coal mine in England. Instead we will be importing coal from Brazil and China, while we also burn wood chips imported from the USA and Canada in our power stations. The Industrial Revolution was built on coal. You can’t make virgin steel without coal. In the USA a third of total energy usage is based on oil, another third from natural gas, and 10% comes from coal. Meanwhile less than 1.5% comes from costly windmills and a lot less than 1% is provided by expensive solar power. And the thing is wind and solar power only works some of the time, but a coal-fired power station works all the time. In the meantime thousands of old-age pensioners will be dying of cold here because they can’t afford to heat their homes.

Jack Collier

Luck will not fail us in our hour of need… ~ P.G. Wodehouse

The number 13 is unlucky; do not ever have 13 at supper, there should never have been an Apollo 13, and I would never stay in room 13 or on the 13th floor of an hotel. Friday 13th is doubly unlucky; never start a journey today, walk under a ladder, let a black cat cross your path, nor have your cards read. On this day in 1940 the Luftwaffe bombed Buckingham Palace in London. On a Friday 13th in 1307 the French tortured and murdered most of the Knights Templar, a few years ago a 13 years old English boy was struck by lightning at 13:13 on Friday 13th of August. And this morning my utilities company just told me my gas and electricity prices are being hiked by a lot from October 1st. I may just go back to bed for the rest of the day.

Jack Collier

Grief is the price we pay for love. ~ H.M. Queen Elizabeth II

Everyone remembers where they were when the twin towers went down.

Lest we forget.

Jack Collier