She's gagging for it

The headlines in this morning's Metro is:

Flirting women "asking for rape". And here’s a link to this story in The Telegraph

According to a new Amnesty International telephone survey around a third of British respondents believe that a woman really can't expect not to be raped if she's being a bit flirty.

We haven't come a long way, baby. After all a (flirtatious) wink is as good as a nod.

Similar attitudes prevail over the wearing of tight clothing and about 20 percent thought a woman was at least partly to blame for her rape if she was "known to have had several sexual partners".

Part of me is shocked, but part of me is not in the least surprised. Egalia of Tennessee Guerilla Women covered this topic back in June with a Tennessee billboard advising girls to “cover-up, if it’s not for sale” or presumably just there for the taking…

This same survey found that 3% of men and 5% of women thought a woman was “totally responsible” if she was drunk.

I can find similar attitudes to rape in my own family (you know who you are) that were not just held but acted on in defending a young man against an allegation of rape. The statement “____ was drunk” which applied to both of them in that case was used as an excuse for his behaviour and a reason to blame her. In fact, she was passed out and was penetrated without her awareness much less her consent.

When I first arrived in the UK the legal position of rape claimants was shockingly poor. A valid and often successful legal defense was assumed consent. That's right - so long as the alleged rapist could convince a jury of his peers that he thought she wanted it (maybe she was being a bit flirty, maybe she was passed out – which seems to be as good as a wink or a nod) even if he and/or the jury later accepts she didn't, it wasn't rape. Until relatively recently, a rape victim's previous sexual history was also admissable and could be raised regardless of relevance.

Investigation of rape allegations is still poor. Only 10 police forces in the England and Wales (out of 43) have specialist rape investigation teams.

UK convictions for rape are shockingly low - only 6 percent of reported rapes lead to conviction. But to be fair this is probably nearly as attributable to the general incompetence of the Crown Prosecution Service and the poor administration of the courts as it is to attitudes toward rape.

Tags: Feminism, Sexual Assault,Rape

New York City, imagine that

I've been struggling with a cold for ages, so I took the opportunity to have a nice quiet weekend, no going out. Obviously, I was checking football scores...grrr.

Last night the Vol-in-Law and I watched the Country Music Awards on BBC2. It's an edited broadcast, they show only the performances and skip the awards - which is probably just as well, since I don't know who half these people are. London, a city of 7 million people and probably over 70,000 Americans no longer has a country music radio station (there used to be a fairly good one) so I'm not really up on the latest names.

I have to say that despite my doubts about the CMA in NYC, it was pretty good. Better than last year's which I found absolutely unwatchable. What is it with trying to mix rap and country? Dreadful. I won't even go into the "mainstream country music has no soul, no respect" rant. There's no point, so many others have done it so much better. And anyway, I'm grateful for the small amount of C&W I do get - so what if it's more like the musical version of Skoal Bandits, when it should be that tar black twist of tobacco that my great grandfather used to chew.

Anyway, I was glad to see that George Strait was in good form, Willie is still alive and Kris Kristofferson looks better than he did last year.

Dolly's maybe looking a little rough. And the Vol-in-Law nearly spit out his drink when he heard Dolly singing Imagine. "When did Dolly Parton become a tool for International Communism?"

This wasn't supposed to happen

enmph, nmm, euhhehh

I don't know how to spell the whimpering sounds I'm making. See Big Orange Michael's post - all that - enhh....


Fire Phil Fulmer!

Santa's pal, yumm!

The Vol-in-Law and I met up yesterday to go to the Finnish Christmas Fair. After a rather disastrous tube journey, I finally got on to the Docklands Light Railway (this is a form of transport for East Londoners). I met the ViL on the platform of Prince Regent station and we tried to make our way to the Sunborn Yacht Hotel where the fair was being held.

Well, normally the only people who go out this way are there to buy arms or weapons of medium scale destruction at the ExCel Convention Centre. This is where they hold the big annual weapons show. And these aren't the everyday gun shows that you can get down at the Rotary gym. No, you can buy tanks and stuff (if you got the cash! Human Rights Violator? - no problem, meet me 'round the back.)

We did have to wander round the back to get to the Sunborn Yacht and the place was absolutely deserted and not really set up for pedestrians. (I guess most weapons buyers don't come by public transport).

I don't want to dis' the fair, but I have to say that it's a lot better when it's held at the Finnish Church - for one because they have a liquor license (they only just managed to get it for the yacht on the day). Nothing quite means Christmas like walking into the church and seeing the giant pyramid of Finnish beer available for purchase. There was, sadly, no beer this year. Some Londoner had taken a day off work just to go buy Finnish beer. Boy was he disappointed. We did get our liqueur, though, but at boat prices, not at the low, low prices you normally expect when you buy liquor at church.

They had less room on the boat than they do at the church, so they didn't put on a full meal (which is fantastic). Instead they just had a "grill" where you could buy reindeer meet on mashed potatos or sausages and mash. We got the reindeer - yumm!

How did I miss this? Osama's wish list

What does Osama have on his Christmas wish list? Well, for starters, no Christmas, of course.

A collection of Osama's demands were published yesterday according to this story in the Telegraph:

The first complete collection of the Saudi's statements published today
portrays a world in which Islam's enemies will take the first steps towards
salvation by embracing the "religion of all the Prophets".

What does he want?

Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its
constitution, abolish banks, jail homosexuals and sign the Kyoto climate change treaty.*

They Kyoto treaty!!! What? That's what Osama wants? Dude, you got to prioritise. First global domination...then carbon reduction. Everybody knows that.

__
*Check out BP's sponsored link -- that's probably not what they had in mind when they signed the contract.

Monkey pet

I always wanted a monkey for pet. When I was in first grade we lived in Philadelphia for a year. I went to a private school that was cool and quirky. In our Science room there was a monkey. How cool is that? Sure, the room smelled like monkey, but still...

Ever since then I've wanted a monkey pet. I already have two cats - Fancy and Other Cat, who are just as adorable as can be... but they ain't monkeys.


Cute, but not a monkey

My friend Karen, from Mississippi, told me her dad once had a monkey pet with a poor understanding of etiquette. If I remember correctly, which I probably don't, she said that it would steal food and throw it around the house. This did not deter me in the quest for a monkey pet.

I keep tellin' the Vol-in-Law that I want a monkey pet, but I'm afraid he's kind of the sensible sort. He says "They bite. They're nasty and smelly and dirty. And they cost money." For more of this view - see Rex L. Camino's coverage of the Mississippi Night Monkey incident here and further updates here. Plus Paris' monkey runs amok here. It's like a full season of that show When Good Pets Go Bad (or as it might be more aptly titled: When Really Inappropriate Pets that You Messed With Did Exactly What You Thought They Might) but with court artist's representation.

Hmmph. I still think it would be great. Plus I think a monkey would be the ideal companion for Fancy and Other Cat.


Photo ripped from One Fun Site

What's the rising agent for that thing?

Along the blog "ticker" bar at Nashville is Talking, I saw Cake Fun's post for Persian Love Cake. I'm not much of a baker, but gosh I had to take a look at that. What's in Persian Luurv Cake? What happens when you eat it? What's the decoration on top? I must confess I thought of certain temple reliefs in India.

No such luck. But the cake still looks pretty tasty.

This is why I like Bob Krumm

Bob Krumm has a post on an Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruling which, basically, hopefully, means that bloggers can keep on blogging even if they have a political axe to grind.

Bob thinks that's a good thing. I do, too.

Bob finds himself defending Kos against GOP Blogger, despite the fact that he's a (potential) Republican candidate for the Tennessee State Senate:

So I just laud a story from Kos, and the next thing that pops up on my news feed is a GOP Blogger story that I disagree with, talking about a similar subject. It's entitled: The FEC Ought to Regulate Liberal Hollywood.

An excerpt:

The FEC loves to quantify the value of in-kind contributions and it ought to figure out how much NBC is contributing to liberal causes with its propaganda.

Something must be wrong when I'm defending Kos against Republicans. It's time for me to go to bed.

Many issues he's blogged on, I don't agree with his take. But those are political issues. I have to say he's always blogged on keeping political discourse civil and keeping politics and public service ethical and transparent. I also think that's the way things ought to be. He's seems so wedded to this philosophy, I have to wonder why he's a Republican. :-)

________
Update: The Vol-in-Law thought my last comment was too mean. He says "The important thing is for the Republican party to turn around, and that means encouraging decent people to run as Republican candidates"

Get typin'

Kathy F at What Do I Know asks "Where are all the British Political Bloggers?"

Indeed.

Perhaps the Vol-in-Law will consider this question in a post on the death of liberty in the UK? I wonder if there's a link??

Finnish Christmas Fair

Tomorrow is the Finnish Christmas Fair - hurray! I love the Finnish Christmas Fair. You can get Finnish food, Finnish drink, Finnish crafts, Finnish design items. You get to meet the Finnish Father Christmas (and sometimes he's a little worse for the Finnish drink).

The only thing I'm not crazy about is that the Finnish Church in London's website - the main place to get information on the Finnish Christmas fair is nearly all in Finnish. (Perhaps Stormare Mackee of Appalachistan can work it out for me.) If you switch to the English version, not all the info is there. Hmmm? Perhaps they want to keep all that cloudberry liqueur for themselves.

Here's how to get to the Finnish Christmas Fair:

Bazaar will be held in a unigue place
The Finnish Church in London´s traditional Christmas Bazaar will be held in a unigue place due to the Church`s renovation work. The Finnish ship Sunborn Yacht Hotel, which is moored on the Thames beside the ExCel London Exhibition Center, will be the venue for this year`s fair. Royal Victoria Dock, London E16 1SL
Welcome!
Friday 18.11 noon - 7pm
Saturday 19.11 10am - 6.30pm
Sunday 20.11 noon - 6pm

Every year I go and take a suitcase to bring back all the goodies. The Karjalanpiirakat, the Lapin Kulta, the Lakka liqueur, the special rye bread, the sausage, cheese and candy. I may even pick up some Koskenkorva Viina - that'll put some hair on your chest. And of course, I need room to bring back my real addiction - Arabia and Iittala tableware.

You don't have to wear that thing

A Muslim woman in Holland has won the right not to wear hijab (the headscarf). Well, that's good news.

A Times article describes the fight with an Islamic school board that she took to a Dutch equal opportunities tribunal.

Samira Haddad, 32, won her case against the Islamic College of Amsterdam,
which insists that all Muslim women wear the hijab. The secondary school
rejected her for a job after she said in an interview that she did not wear it.

The country’s Equality Commission ruled in Ms Haddad’s favour, saying that
the college had illegally discriminated against her on the ground of her
religion and that it could not legally compel Muslim women to wear headscarves.

....

A member of the school board explained at the time: “If Miss Haddad were to
declare she was no longer a Muslim, then she could in principle come and work
for us.”

Another case where Muslim women are under pressure to wear hijab...

Personally, I don't think Islam need be a threat. But I have a deep, deep suspicion of all forms of fundamentalism. (As my mother-in-law would say "All extremes are pathological") Fundamentalists seem to have grabbed all of the "moral authority" and are quick to condemn or ostracise if you don't fall in line. And pressuring women to wear the headscarf isn't the end of the line.

I have a friend who's Muslim, but pretty secular, she doesn't wear hijab, drinks (moderately), eats pork, etc, but she describes herself as a Muslim, so that's good enough for me. I mentioned this once to a more "strict" Muslim who said "She's not a Muslim!!"

Yet, after the 7/7 bombs this same person wouldn't condemn those who condoned or excused terror - "We can't be divided, it's unite and fight."

Right... have a little drink, don't wear a headscarf and you're condemnable, excuse terrorism as a likely and reasonable reaction to "Western imperlialism" and hey, it's all part of the big tent of Islam.

UTK, Dick Cheney and parking

Hearing about Dick Cheney's visit to UT Knoxville (link may require registration) has reminded me of another presidential visit to UT. Back in (was it in 1990?) George Bush the elder came for a visit. Tickets were free, all you had to do was take your activity card down to the Student Center and get it punched.

In the run up to the big day Secret Service were prowling all over campus and they weren't very secretive about it. I remember working out at the Bubble and looking up from the stairclimber machine to see two men in dark suits and dark glasses with wires coiling out of their ears surveying the sweating students. It was rumored that the Secret Service had crawled through the sewers running beneath campus as part of their detailed security assessment.

The night before Bush spoke I drove up to the Hill, parked in the Faculty One lot and studied in the Geology building. I then went to the library (the one stocked with books, not the one stocked with beer) and walked home.

The big day.
Maybe I went to class, maybe I didn't. But I met up with friends and we all went to see Daddy George speak at the Alumni Gym, I don’t recall that the president received the same kind of warm reception that Cheney got. Lamar Alexander was there, too. Perhaps it was during his brief ineffectual spell as UTK president.

I can't remember much of what was said but I do remember the sound of Security locking the doors behind us and the curdle of panic in the packed auditorium. Alumni Gym is old and wooden and a fire trap. And we knew that should anything happen they'd get out the Pres and the Republican elite of East Tennessee while our bodies piled up in a terrible crush at the sealed exits. (However, I'm sure there would have been a lovely memorial to us all in Circle Park).

After the speeches we all went down to the Copper Cellar where it was dollar well drinks. I handed over more ones than a groom at a strip club stag night. I think other fine establishments were visited, but which ones they were has been lost in the mists of time and sloughed off brain cells.

I crashed at a friend's dorm room in Morrell and got a lift home the next day. The first thing I noticed was that my car wasn't parked in front of my apartment. I asked my friend to circle the block. No car. We circled a couple of blocks. No sign of it.

Then I suddenly remembered I had left my car up on the Hill - in the faculty lot - and it had been sitting up there all day Friday. Damn, damn, damn - the Parking Nazis* of UTK were sure to have plastered the car with expensive tickets. My friend assured me that I wouldn't behold that sight should we drive up to the Hill, for the car was certain to have been towed already. (If you didn’t go to UT, I don’t know how to explain exactly how evil and ruthlessly efficient parking enforcement was)

I made him drive up there anyway. And there was the car, parked in front of Ayers Hall. How many tickets? – Zero. Not a single ticket. Apparently there’s either a special rule for full parking amnesty during a presidential visit, or the Secret Service didn’t want the Parking Nazis roaming around. I meant to share this before Dick Cheney spoke at UT, so any students might take advantage of this piece of secret wisdom, but I didn’t. Story of my life – (more than one) day late and a dollar short, but overall pretty lucky at parking.

Update: Egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women has some great pics of Cheney's visit - Go Vols! I hope y'all all went down to the Copper Cellar afterwards for a snootful.

*These people are hard. I once saw them ticket a female faculty member’s car who was about 8 and 3/4 months pregnant as she parked in front of the Physics building (1 Lot) five minutes before parking restrictions lifted. She had a permit for the 2 Lot which would have required her to climb many flights of steep stairs.

War memorial update

The other day I got an email from a reader about my post on the war memorials in London and the American plot at Westminster Abbey. It was a really kind offer to financially assist the British man who pays for the US Armed Services plot.

If this plot is ever not set up, not paid for, in any given year, the plot is lost and another will take its place (almost certainly to a British regiment that currently doesn't have its own plot).

The man seemed less concerned about the money and was more worried about whether he might fall sick or die. He really wants the plot to go on and he wanted it taken over by the US Embassy. IAs I understand it, Federal law dictates that war memorials for US soliders must be on federal land or American soil. No exceptions. The reason that the Field of Remembrance plot doesn't count is that you only "rent" the land from the Church of England for a period of two weeks or so. The Federal Government can't own a piece of Westminster Abbey's front yard, and so won't maintain a memorial.

I suggested that he hand over ownership to one of the long standing US clubs, such as the American Women's Club, but I think he was concerned that these weren't reliable and long lived enough to support a monument in perpetuity. Of course, I thought his faith in US bureaucracy in the form of the Embassy was touching if perhaps a little misplaced. I've worked with government long enough to know that things slip through the cracks.

This same reader emailed me back suggesting that we set up a small trust to fund the plot. Perhaps, if the law doesn't forbid it, this could be administered and held by the Embassy but paid for by the American community in London. I'm certain we could raise the money for this, but I'd have to dig out my old financial formulas to figure out by how much we'd have to capitalise the trust. I think I will investigate.

If the law does forbid such a thing, then that's a damn shame.

ViL: The future of British policing

My wife has a name tag from a long ago conference that says "The Future of Policing: The Vol Abroad!" (ok, it has her real name and no exclamation mark).

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (London's Chief of Police) Sir Ian Blair, has demanded a debate on the future of British policing

"The silence can no longer continue. The citizens of Britain now have to articulate what kind of police service they want."

What do I want from the police? Well, reading Peter Hitchens' "The Abolition of Liberty", which is about the British police, was instructive. Let me see - I want:

1. Beat policing. In urban areas that means lone policemen on foot - or on bicycles in the more spread-out areas like large council estates - each assigned to a particular 'beat', with the entire beat patrolled several times a day. This is the one simple but radical measure that would reconnect the police with the people and provide a sense that inner-city areas were owned by the lawful inhabitants, not thugs and criminals.
Currently the police are never seen on the streets, except whizzing along in their cars with sirens blazing. This does nothing to make the public feel safe, quite the reverse. We're lucky enough that the visible presence of police here does make people feel safe, in many countries the police are a source of fear. That's a huge asset that is currently squandered. Now we have "Police Community Support Officers" who perform the beat policing function in some areas, but with limited training, limited powers, low pay and un-policey uniforms - they look more like traffic wardens. Realistically, our pampered 'real' police are not going to give up their desks and squad cars, so I guess improving the status and uniforms of PCSOs is the best alternative. What we don't want is the French situation with a widely distrusted police force waging paramilitary warfare against its own territories. Police have to be there on the ground, interacting with the community, part of the community - most PCSOs in London seem to be ethnic minority, I think as long as they meet reasonable standards of probity and honesty it's a good thing the police are part of the community they serve and nice if they look like the community to some extent. One reason for this is that ethnic minority police should be less vulnerable to unfounded charges of racism and other thought crimes, which should enable them to act more professionally. Currently it seems if a white police officer hears someone say nigger, they arrest them, for fear of being found Institutionally Racist. I'd like to think a black police officer would use their discretion more sensibly.

2. Crime to be investigated and prosecuted, with criminals jailed. Likelihood of punishment is vital if policing is to have a detterent function. The current prosecution service have a very poor reputation. Returning prosecution to the police would probably be a good idea - OTOH they recently abolished the no-double-jeopardy rule. Repeated prosecutions can be easily abused and are not acceptable IMO. I'd bring the rule back.

3. ...um, that's it really. Does Blair want us to give him a license to kill? I guess I want the police force idealised in Dixon of Dock Green, albeit using modern investigative and forensic techniques. I want the "colour blind policing" the MacPherson report condemned, in that I want the police judging us by the (likely) content of our character rather than by our skin colour. Of course more West Indians are muggers and suicide bombers are Muslim, I don't want them ignoring empirical truth; nor do I want them flagellating themselves at the altar of cultural Marxism. Not when it can get the rest of us shot, blown up or unfairly arrested. I want them to call everyone "sir" or "ma'am" - I like that. I want them mostly unarmed, and I want the armed ones reluctant to shoot - this isn't Basra - in fact it seems investigation of the army in Basra is rather more aggressive than the Met's attitude to trigger-happy CO19 members, such is the power of unionised labour.

Tags:Politics, London, Crime, Police

Is that a threat?

My neighbour - the jihadi, Babar Ahmad is due to be extradicted to the US to stand trial for all kinds of allegations around running websites to promote terror in Afghanistan and Chechnya and for attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Arizona. And there are loads more ancilliary charges.

He's being dealt with under new "fast track" extradition procedures, which haven't proven to be very fast (this has been dragging on for a long time).

There's been quite an active campaign supporting Mr Ahmad and needless to say, they're upset that he's finally being bound over for trial, according to an article in The Telegraph.

A statement on the Free Babar Ahmad campaign website says:

This is a sad day for Britain and an even sadder day for British Muslims. In
effect this sends a message to British Muslims that there is no “legal and
democratic” means to air your concerns: you must use other ways to get
justice.[Emphasis mine]

Is that a threat?

And in Mr Ahmad's own statement:

Babar, speaking from Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes, said today: “This
decision should only come as a surprise to those who thought that there was
still justice for Muslims in Britain. I entrust my affairs to Allah and His
Words from the Quran, “And when the two armies saw one another, the companions
of Moses said, “Indeed we are finished.” Moses said: “No! Indeed, with me is my
Lord and He will guide me.”’[1] O Allah, You have seen what they have
done to me. O Allah, avenge my injustice. In Allah we put our trust.”

Is that some kind of threat?

Politics, London, terrorism, terror

Tennessee on the BBC

I listen to the radio in the morning. Specifically BBC Radio 4's Today program. This is news for British policy wonks, and there are occasionally people I know, people I've chatted with in the lift or shared a few drinks with, on the show. So I listen faithfully.

This morning on Today I heard someone from the British policy elite whom I once drunkenly accosted at a Christmas party and then there was another story even closer to home. There was a little feature on Tennessee. Rocky Top and the sounds of a Crossville, TN high school homecoming parade drifted from my radio. Awww, how sweet, wholesome Tennessee fun.

Nope, it was a story on meth addiction.

From the Today programme website:

“America's long-running "war on drugs" is now focused on Crystal
Methamphetamine [link to story’s audio file]. Use of this highly-addictive
and largely home-made drug, has reached epidemic proportions in rural areas of
the country.”

Tennessee doesn't get much press in the UK* and when it does it usually isn't flattering. Stories from the past year (in the Economist) covered the collapse of TennCare (with requisite photos of dentally challenged, overall beclad hillbillies) and the Tennessee Waltz scandal wherein The Economist noted that despite the FBI using both the names Operation Rocky Top and Operation Tennessee Waltz, we have yet more official state songs they can use in political stings.

To be fair, the TN meth story on the BBC seemed pretty reasonable to me. Meth is a scourge with disastrous consequences for communities. And meth hasn't really caught on in the UK, so why shouldn't they go abroad to cover it?

Hmm, this story could stimulate demand and there is clearly a gap in the market. (I made an A in high school chemistry...) Goodness knows there are plenty of dentally challenged (track suit wearing) Brits who could use a little extra buzz in their lives.

__
* Glenn Reynolds did have some positive coverage on the BBC a while back.

Granddad blogging: Hot coffee

Last week in Granddad blogging, my grandfather and a few others were ordered to hold a bridge against the German Tiger tanks. This week, he gets a brief respite, fresh clothes and the offer of a hot cup of coffee.

_______

Course we were wet and cold and everything else and in a little while here come a bunch of trucks and they load about half of us on these trucks and take us back three or four miles. And they’d set up a great big tent back there and they had dry clothes back there and extra rifles and everything and hot coffee.

Well, at that particular time I didn’t drink coffee. I didn’t want any coffee. So I got my dry clothes on and got my rifle and got to lookin’ around and saw what they were doing. When they got the coffee they’d load ‘em right back on those trucks and they were gonna take ‘em and put ‘em right back on the line again. Well, three or four more of us saw what was going on so we just eased out under the side of the tent and didn’t go get any coffee and therefore didn’t get in those trucks.

And we went back down in the town somewhere, I don’t know where it was and went in this town and took our blankets and hung ‘em up over the windows, tore the panelling off the walls and built a big fire in some stoves and went to sleep and woke up the next morning.

In daylight we were a little worried, maybe we had deserted, maybe – we didn’t know what. So we decided we better get out and find our company. There wasn’t hardly anybody in this town and we finally saw some MP s and told them we were lookin’ for George Company and they said “Man, George Company’s about five miles down the road.” And we were five miles closer to the front than our company was. So we walked all day long getting back to our company. And there wasn’t much hardly anybody left in our company. But we got a few replacements in and we're back, we’re gonna attack the Colmar canal and go into Colmar.

Now the Battle of Bulge was going on up on the right toward Belgium and Holland and we’re way down on the left close to Switzerland. But we didn’t know all of this. WE were supposed to go across this canal. I don’t know exactly what happened, yeah I do, too. That’s where our first lieutenant and a bunch of people got killed with a shell or two. This was on the second day of February, ‘cause I was sittin out there in the woods it was real bright- sunshiney – wondering if the groundhog in Lawrenceburg was gonna see his shadow.

And here come a shell and WHAM – it killed the only commissioned officer we had – a First Lieutenant and I never did see any blood on him. I reckon the concussion killed him. But there were shells landing on other people and wounded them pretty bad and killed some of ‘em, I don’t know. And that’s when I thought I had got hit because I felt a sting go in the back of my shoulder and being that cold you can’t imagine how many clothes we had on to stay warm, but we had a lot of ‘em on. So I started to peelin’ ‘em off and get a man to help me get em off and got down to my shoulder and there a piece of steel about the length of a needle and half the size- no, maybe about the size of a fountain pin point stuck in my clothes into my shoulder, but didn’t break the skin. So not only did I not get a million dollar wound to get to come back home, but I didn’t even get a Purple Heart.

So for some reason, the Sergeant took over, there were no commissioned officers and he said we’re supposed to go this way. And we went that way and went down to that canal, there wasn’t anybody to give orders or tell us what to do and another little boy, he was much shorter than I were together then. I don’t know how we got together but we did so we decided we’d dig us a hole and get in it and get to sleep. The ground was frozen and it was hard and we dug a hole about a fourth as deep as you’re supposed to and he got in the hole and layed down and I layed down on top of him and we both went to sleep. And now that’s where you get killed, when you get careless and don’t watch your hole or pull guard duty or anything. But that’s what we did. We didn’t really care.

And we woke up the next morning and there was the biggest fire fight going on you ever heard in your life. And we were right down on this canal and really didn’t know we were that close to it. And there was another company coming through attacking the barges on this canal. And I reckon they must have gone on across, I don’t know.

______

Read the first post
Read the previous post
Read the next post
Go to the granddad blogging portal page

Technorati tags: oral history, WWII, history

Straight eye for the straight guy.

The Vol-in-Law and I shopped for new tablecloths at the John Lewis Department store on Oxford Street today. Being mucky pups, we got the easy wipe down kind. It's a necessity, because I embarked on refinishing our dining table. I got it stripped, but never varnished the top again, so it has to have protection. (Before you ask, that was a project I started about eight years ago - and yes I have older unfinished projects)

I must have caught the ViL in an exceptionally good mood, as normally he prefers not to browse amongst the dry goods. After guiding him to the correct table cloth choice from the three options I presented him with, he was still in such good cheer that I suggested we look for a new sofa bed. He agreed. The ViL is an intense shopper, he actually considers the options, feels the fabric, tests the springiness of the cushions, consequently he burns out early in shopping. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything to suit. There was one sofa I quite liked, but it came in pseudo suede only.

While at John Lewis, we ran into a friend of mine. A male friend, who was shopping for upholstery fabric on his own. He has recently moved in with his girlfriend into a new (to them) house. He's a great guy to drink beer with, but I'm really not sure that I would trust any man to go out upholstery shopping on his own. Certainly not for fabric that I have to live with.

My shock at seeing my friend out shopping on his own made me realise that I am a tyrant of the domestic sphere. It's definitely my (design) way or the highway. But the ViL doesn't mind, because he knows I have exceptionally good taste.

The Vols and diminished expectations

At supper:

Me: The Vols won, but you know I don't really care.
Vol-in-Law: You'd care if they lost.
Me: Yeah, too right. Against Memphis?!
ViL: You know that numb feeling you have right now?
Me: Yeah.
ViL: That's the best you can hope for this season.


____

Big Orange Michael has more on the numbness.

London remembers the fallen of War

Today I went up to Westminster Abbey to see the Field of Remembrance.


Today is Remembrance Sunday, and the area around Westminster was very busy with people paying their respects.

The entrance to the Field of Remembrance.


The field is divided into plots, each dedicated to a different Regiment. One section is dedicated to the fallen of the US Armed Services.

The American section


A few years ago when I visited the Field of Remembrance in the middle of a weekday I came across two older English gentlemen standing in front of American section. One of them holding a wreath asked me if I were American, and I replied I was. He told me he was a young boy during the war and a number of soldiers from Arkansas were stationed near where he lived. He said that they were very good to him, generous with their time and their food. When they were shipped to Europe they took heavy casualties and he leaves a wreath in their honor every year. (For this, Bill Clinton thanked him when he was Governor of Arkansas). He said he never lays the wreath himself, but always asks an American to do it for him and there's always one there when he arrives. He asked me if I would lay the wreath, and I told him I would be honored to do so. The wreath in this photo is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of Arkansas.

The other man who was standing there was the 'owner' of the plot. Each plot is paid for (money to charity) and if you don't pay for your plot you don't get a plot. Someone else in the waiting list for plots gets it instead and it will be years if ever before you get another one. He has been paying for the US Armed Services plot for years and for around the same length of time, he has been trying to get the US Embassy to pay for the plot. But there's a problem. Under US law, there can be no war memorials to American soldiers unless it's on land owned by the US government. Of course, this monument is transitory, it's only up for about two weeks a year, and then it comes down again. If something happens to this man (whose name, I have sadly lost) that means no more plot for the fallen of America at Westminster Abbey. I'd like to see an exception to this law.

Here are the crosses I left in the American section.

One for an old war and the men who died while serving with my grandfather. And one for a current war and the fallen of the 278th.

Then I walked down to the Cenotaph - the tomb of the unknown soldier - which the center of Remembrance Sunday ceremonies.


I decided not to get back on the Tube at Westminster, but walked down Victoria Embankment by the River Thames. I'm glad I did. There's a new monument there to the Battle of Britain. "Never in human history have so many owed so much to so few" W. Churchill. It's kind of an unusual monument, full of detail, depicting civilians, air raid wardens, pilots, soldiers, munitions factory workers. It's a stark reminder of what it must have been like in London during the blitz.

An air raid warden shocked by what he sees:


Another detail: Civilians scanning the sky for terror.


Now when we look for terror we scan the faces of our fellow passengers.

Finally, here's a picture of a Women's Auxilliary veteran leaving her poppy on the Battle of Britain memorial.