Letter from LC in The Daily Telegraph today

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lizzytysh
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Post by lizzytysh »

:lol: I almost think you're serious, Margaret :lol: :wink: .

~ Lizzy
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Post by hydriot »

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Shall we get back to the thread ... which is LC, the Daily Telegraph and the House of Windsor?

First, the reason for LC's response in the Telegraph will have been primarily promotion. He is a driven man today, determined to make good the losses he suffered from being unworldly about money. The days of the amateurs are well past and he is now under professional management, where success is measured in column inches. His manager will have recommended that he respond.

Secondly, HRH is not going to be phased by any unpleasant things LC is alleged to have said in the past. That family has suffered far worse insults plus a string of hurtful 'kiss-and-tell' stories.

Thirdly, HRH and the Duchess are rather popular at the moment. He has finally got the woman he loves, who he would have married instead of Diana had he not been trapped by his birth into a family traumatised by the events of 1936. His opinions on architects and his support of organic farming are popular.

Fourthly, ordinary people are so disgusted by politicians of all persuasions since the idiocy of Iraq that monarchy has begun to look a lot more attractive in comparison. (See how Ben Elton has changed. Ten years ago he was a staunch Labour supporter and gave the impression of being a republican. Yet ... a few months ago, he asked his audience "Who would you prefer as Head of State? Someone who is forced to do the job or someone who really really really wants the job?" Too true.)

As for the death of Diana, nobody would plan an assassination by such an uncertain means, one utterly dependent on a single small detail: seat-belts. She and Dodi died because they were not wearing seat-belts: her bodyguard survived because he was.

Humanpony, I am sure that that clattering helicopter over Hydra was full of paparazzi: we have them too often. More sinister forces are careful to be discreet. You and I were probably on the island at the same time. I will always remember that I was told about the death at an exhibition at the Miranda, by her brother Aris. He had great difficulty persuading me.
“If you do have love it's a kind of wound, and if you don't have it it's worse.” - Leonard, July 1988
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

Well, last things first, I heard about it that evening at the Bratsera, and so my next question is: who are you.

As for Prince Charming and his new sweetie, I tend to believe the rumour that she is not a woman.

Those paparazzi must have been using high powered lenses to get so many close-up from the air. As for seatbelts as a cause of death, I'll remember that next time I'm in a high-speed chase through a tunnel in Paris with a driver who's had a few barbiturate cocktails too many.

But I'm like Leonard, I know nothing, least of all about British royalty, and at least he hasn't started penning "Lines on the Queen Mum's birthday" although it could come to that.

I would have thought the reference to "Jackie Kennedy" in those lines about the Queen made it pretty clear they weren't written last week. No need to fall all over himself begging forgivenness.

All I know is, Beautiful Losers makes no sense and may have been his most honest book.
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Dimensions and so on

Post by humanponysss2000 »

Hi Tchoc

Did I say Jesus was a terrorist?? Now I think you have a wild and dark imagination that reads between the lines seeing things that aren't there... but this is also maybe a creative occupation of yours.

We're not allowed to discuss politics in this thread, otherwise I would say a lot more. As I have many Jewish friends, I am also experiencing this war through their perspective. I try to keep my emotions out of it, and concentrate on the body count, which speaks louder than words. And something I have noticed over the last few years: it is always 10 to 1. Always. So there is a nation which is "defending itself" and "clinging to a small sliver of land" and then there are the terrorists, but these terrorists continue dying at 10 times the rate of the defenders. This is strange. It suggests those endless scenes from the movie ZULU -- did you ever see that? -- where the Zulus just keep attacking, wave upon wave, and being slaughtered. But we know this is not the case in Israel, waves and waves of Palestinians aren't rushing up to be blown up by Israeli tanks and guns, most of them are civilians crouching in their homes.

So our rhetoric and our images need to catch up with reality, but this is difficult when you are emotionally invested in a place and a particular people and way of life.

So I said to one friend, recently, who was talking about how the Arabs are so primitive, as if we were doing them a favour by invading their countries and stealing their oil... And this offended me, because I also have Arab friends. So I blew up finally, and said "The Jews are very smart, but the British are even smarter. They knew when they helped set up the state of Israel that it would be populated by a couple of million traumatized holocaust survivors, set down in a sea of Islam, and they knew exactly how that would all play out. The Jewish people were just pawns in a long-term plan the British had to take over the region. And it took them 60 years, but now it's really about to happen."

And basically, I blame the leaders of all sides because who else is there to blame? Yesterday while riding my bicycle trying to forget the war in the Middle East, I took a new route and -- very ironic -- it took me down a path and suddenly I'm right at the house of the Lebanese family who were killed last week while visiting Lebanon. People had left wreaths and photographs on the steps, ,of the whole family, a beautiful young couple and their children... I came to a stop and I just looked, it was like meeting them all face to face, and seeing the lawn needed mowing, but they are not coming home, and someone also left a placard asking why this had to happen, and "trente arpents de neige, entendez-vous les voix de Liban?"

And that emotion I felt very clearly, but not the "emotion" that says "these people are terrorists and we have to kill them." That's an emotion I just can't or won't feel.

So about dimensions, you can google "multidimensionality", it's not so esoteric. I found a site that looks kind of interesting when I googled "fourth fifth sixth dimension"

Many of these sites appear to be channelled so the speaker may not even be human. What do you think of that? I somehow get the feeling you might like it.
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Post by tomsakic »

About groups...

"I wouldn't want to be the member of any club that would have me as a member".
- Groucho Marx.


That's why I'm marxist. :lol:


Btw, Jesus was not a terrorist but he was marxist.
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

One thing I know for sure: Jesus would swat George Bush.
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Post by lizzytysh »

I agree, HP... yes, he would... for using his name in vain.

Even some in favour of the Israeli action against Hezbollah have been expressing chagrin at the massive taking of lives of the Lebanese people... and the destruction of the infrastructure [regardless of the goals]. Even people on the road waving white flags are being bombed... after having been told to leave in order to stay safe. So many contradictions.

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Post by lizzytysh »

Dear HP ~

I'm sorry I didn't get further in my response to you than the above. That is, of course, not by coincidence that you ended up at that young family's home. So sad, even to the point of their lawn remaining unmowed. For a simple visit to their homeland, they lost everything.

I know what you mean about feeling both sides of the situation. Your situation with your friends, on both sides of the conflict, is difficult. I'm glad to hear that you could only take so much before 'exploding' in response to the unjustness of things being said.

I haven't seen the movie you mentioned to Tchoc, but it sounds like I should.

What you've postured regarding the 60-year-plan sounds all too likely, to me. Sixty years is nothing in the scheme of things.

Bee spoke of Israel being invaded/attacked by five countries immediately. Still, it was a set-up for failure that they were placed in by whatever authorities were able to do as they did. Put them into a vulnerable and 'hated' position from the beginning.

I need to stop, as I have an appointment.


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Post by Tchocolatl »

Jesus was not marxist but marxism is a very christian thing... without the Christ.

HP2000, this is this "dying on the cross" thing that leads me to think you where comparing him to terrorists who "sacrifice" themselves in the name of Allah.

For some reason I prefer your "I think that you are"and "maybe you are this and that" than your "you-you-you-you-you-you-are" followed by your prejudices about me. You have the right to think what you want. And it gives me space to be what I really am.

What I know is that we know really not much about that question.

Really not much.

We know what media wants to show us, and we know by now that all the images that we see may be false.

This is why I prefer not to go overemotive about that.

I feel that there is a lack of decency about taking sides and acting like if this is hockey game. It is a too much serious matter.

Also I think that the Canadian government is too much sollicited to solve problems that people are created themselves, usually. And there it seems to go again.

The government is not God. It is just a government. Where are they those people when it is time to do something for the country from which they ask so much? Most of the time, it is not "don't ask what the country can do for you, but what can you do for the country" it is "don't ask me to do anything for this country (including paying taxes) but tell me what the country is not doing for me, besides having health care, social measures, freedom, peace, that I can complain how rotten this country is and its inhabitants are". I'm sorry but being good and being stupid is two different things. If they don't like what Canada is doing, well, they just have to pack things and go back to Lebanon, there, they could complain about the Lenanon government that lets Hezbola spoiling the peace with Israel.

Really, I have enough of the abusive complainers. Abuse is abuse. An abuse from victims is still an abuse.

I'm sorry, but I prefer to deal with people who are conscious enough to see the bad side AND the good side of living here, conscious enough of the second chance they have in life to have arrived in a land that gaves them opportunities they would not have had elsewhere and people who left their names and their marks or at least a friendly smile or something kind before dying. Thanks God we have the chance to have those great people a lot around - and some are coming from very wounded countries. War and sufferings do not justify anything.

I continue to think that this horror that is the murder of innocents should end as soon as possible and should not have been, but I am not ready to overeact not to acknowledge overeactions. I'm sorry.
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

Tchoc, this war was started when two Israeli soldiers were "kidnapped" -- but it turns out they were inside Lebanon and this is not actually kidnapping, it's capturing enemy soldiers who are inside your territory.

And the response is all-out bombing of towns, cities, civilians, refugees.

Over two kidnapped soldiers, and the threat of Hezbollah and Hamas. Not saying Hezbollah and Hamas are angels -- not at all. But there are extremists in all countries -- should we bomb them in the hope that we will hit a few extremists?

You need to read more about the actual situation in Gaza, which has been without electricity and water for over a month, after Israel bombed its infrastructure as punishment for a border incident which may, or may not, have really happened.

This is not the place to discuss "politics" or are we really talking about "religion" -- what we choose to believe in the face of the facts we can't stand to look at...
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

<<That is, of course, not by coincidence that you ended up at that young family's home. So sad, even to the point of their lawn remaining unmowed. For a simple visit to their homeland, they lost everything. >>



Yes, sad, and I just can't get their smiling faces out of my mind.

In retrospect, what made that scene so eerie was the fact that their house was a made of those white ceramic bricks -- popular with the Lebanese community -- so with the photos and flowers and wreaths, what had once been a modest little dream-home now looks just like a mausoleum or cemetery.
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Post by Tchocolatl »

humanponysss2000 wrote:Tchoc, this war was started when two Israeli soldiers were "kidnapped" -- but it turns out they were inside Lebanon and this is not actually kidnapping, it's capturing enemy soldiers who are inside your territory (...).
:shock: This is simplistic (please understand that I don't say that you are simplistic, I don't) explanation again. You seem very fond of simplistic explanations I don't know why.

The problem of using violence to "solve" conflicts is going on on this part of the world between the Arabs weeeeeeell before the Jews arrived there. This is not an excuse for the violence of the Jews, though, some of them are as fanatics and dangerous then the bombers terrorists. Both sides need to be tamed, now.

In any way what is happening there is an easy and simple question. Those are complicated conflicts between old cultures, not just "two kinapped soldiers". This, it is just what started another (among so many) burst of crasy violence, and this crazy violence is going on for a long time well before you and I were born, and that crazy violence seems to be there for the ends of time if "the international community" does not put all the weight of more modern societies on the balance and other means than "pow-pow-your-dead" way of dealing with each others.

I know for sure what is happening there (I just remind here that there is many other places on Earth right now where humain horrors should not happen, it appears that they are not under the spots right now, but the sufferings of people are not less hard. And if we say "what the eck it does not affect us" we are wrong. What happens to a poor Chineese family could lead to pandemia of bird flu. Poor anonymous women in Africa having Aid never stop "rich countries" people to sleep tightly until aid spreads all over their world.), and I don't think that it should happen and I think that it should end as quickly as possible, and it will never be quick enough.

But this is not this little conflict that must me terminated, like a fire badly taken care of - it is the problem of using extrem violence to try to solve conflicts that must be taken care of. Otherwise, much more other innocents victims will die.

This is my opinion for now. Like everything it may evolve with time.

I don't care if you don't want to go on talking about this question, about politics and/or religion.

We have plenty to talk about with Leonard Cohen stuff.
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

Maybe it's off topic to talk about religion and politics under the heading "Leonard and Prince Charles" but somehow, I don't believe that -- as if religion and politics were not behind everything that happens in the world, including the current bombing of Lebanon and what people are thinking, saying, and not doing about it.

Everybody operates out of a system of beliefs and myths, and there is one that says "Kill or be killed" and "An eye for an eye" and that way of thinking is typical of the people who are drawn to neo-conservative beliefs, which includes most of the rulers of our planet at the present time -- and even if Prince Charles eats granola and expresses some liberal ideas at times, deep down he is a member of that group that controls the world through fear.

On another side, you have the people who pick up guns and put on headbands and try to fight the power -- with missiles made from tin cans and so on -- and they are called "the terrorists" -- but EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT FIGHT IS FIXED and they mainly serve the purpose of targets, scapegoats, bad guys while most of the violence and killing, the vast majority of bombs, are coming from the centers of political power. And a guy like Prince Charles -- I'm not saying he does, but he certainly could -- just has to make a phone call to initiate a wave of killing that could wipe out hundreds or thousands of people. And he can do this in between two spoonfuls of granola, or two statements about the need to "help Africa" or "stop global warming."

And that way, a whole generation can grow up confused, thinking "Prince Charles listens to Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen was a Zen Buddhist, therefore Prince Charles must be okay."

That is also a form of clever propaganda. Which is what music is, really, or has become since it was taken over by corporate talents who want to empty out as much of the content as possible. Another kind of mind control: making people feel simultaneously that everything is both hopeless and okay.

I was reading Roger Waters' lyrics to his song, "Leaving Beirut" and this makes me think old rock stars still serve a purpose on our planet, if only to remind us of what we were trying to change 40 yeara ago, before the CIA started killing off the heroes of the "Love generation."
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Post by Tchocolatl »

Its OK to question "our" leaders, humanponysss2000, but this exercice should be done with the leaders of people you take the side of without a second though. About their leaders and their goals.

You act like if they where the "good" against the "bad".

Simplistic way of looking at the problem again.

Go see how they are using their power and leadership those leaders.

And do you think that Hesbola cares for Lebanon people? Not a bit. They don't care. They don't care at all. And I don't hear much voice but the one of Israel (and some Libanese people for the peace thanks God), to make them stop those cruel and stupid activities.

If I follow your logic, Sadam Hussein is an angel compared to Prince Charles. It would be funny if it does not imply so much sufferings and slauthering of innocents.

I must concentrate my attention/action elsewhere dear, and I don't know when I'll come back to this forum. Take care.
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Post by humanponysss2000 »

I just remembered someone else who loves Leonard Cohen:

Martin McGinniss, of Belfast, talks about how he and other IRA paramilitaries locked up in the British Army prison, used to listen all day to Leonard's music.

Now what does this say? I have no idea -- perhaps it speaks to his universal appeal, if both Charles and his sworn enemies find support for their completely opposing worldviews in the songs of Leonard Cohen.

Or are they really completely opposed? Perhaps just two sides of the same coin?
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