COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, March 14, 2014

SAILING THE COAST OF MAINE





Sailing Down East in Maine for the first time is like traveling backward in time. The rocky headlands and islands composed of granite, sculptured, scoured out, chiseled by glaciers, bear few marks of civilization. The place names remind us that it was the French who first explored and settled there, that it was the home of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indians.
SUSAN BUTLER is a writer who lives on Martha's Vineyard. Samuel de Champlain first explored the Maine coast in 1604, establishing a colony that he planned as the first settlement of the Acadian territory, claiming it for France. When he saw Mount Desert Island, it appeared as a line of seven or eight treeless peaks and so he called it Isle des Mont Desert. One of the most spectacular sights Down East, the island's Cadillac Mountain, is, at 1,532 feet, the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard, and it boasts the only natural fjord in the United States, Somes Sound. 


There are towns on the Maine coast, of course, tourist towns, but they differ in degree and size from those in more populous, gentler climes; fishing villages are more the norm. Even the charming but busy (by Maine standards) town of Camden, for instance, with its antiques stores, restaurants, inns, windjammer cruises, is looked at askance by many of its neighbors.
The New England cruising authority, Roger Duncan, of Stonington, on Deer Isle across Penobscot Bay from Camden, notes: ''Having seen what happened . . . to Camden, Stonington people are in no hurry to promote tourism.'' Everywhere Down East there is a genuine helpfulness about the people, but also a deep reserve, a feeling of ''respect me and I will respect you.'' A feeling of privacy. 


The best way - in keeping with the wildness of the coast - to explore is under sail. And the very best time of the year to do it is in September, just after Labor Day. There is, historically, less fog than in the summer months, schools has started, the crowds have gone home and the harbors and coves are as deserted as they ever will be while the weather is warm. For days you can sail, it seems, alone. Hours, a whole morning, can go by without another cruising boat in view; only lobster boats break the horizon with any regularity. 

It is also a lot easier to charter a boat for a week's cruise, the minimum time that should be considered. It is possible, in fact to charter out of Mount Desert - pronounced, for reasons no one can agree on, with the accent on the second syllable, as in dessert - upon a few days' notice. There are three companies one can agree on, with the accent on the second syllable, as in deerage, whose offices are in Southwest Harbor but whose boats are in Bass Harbor. There are two smaller yards on Somes Sound: the John M. Williams Company with five boats for charter, and Bar Harbor Boating, which has 11. 

 
Be prepared to have your yachting credentials thoroughly checked out. All the boats are privately owned, in top condition, and both owner and chartering concern want to make sure they are returned in the same condition. You will be asked for bank references, sailing references (not lightly given) and a history of your previous yachting and chartering experience. If there is still doubt about your ability when you arrive, you may, if you charter from Tom Emlen of Bar Harbor, be asked to take him out for a brief sail. Bob Hinckley, at Hinckley's, can supply a skipper, either for the duration of the trip, or until you get your sea legs. 


If one started out driving in a leisurely fashion to Maine, which takes about eight hours from Manhattan, a perfect place to spend the night would be a tiny (seven room) French inn called Le Domaine on U.S. 1 in Hancock, a half hour from Mount Desert. The inn is known for its immaculate, comfortable rooms complete with books, back issues of Architectural Digest and excellent wine and food. A typical dinner might start out with Belon oysters fresh out of the nearby Dama riscotta River, go on to include South Carolina quail wrapped in double- smoked bacon cooked with whole garlic cloves, or Maine crab meat cooked with white wine, butter, parsley and fish stock, gratineed, accompanied by a classic tomato proven,cale and wind up with a fruit tart. The owner and chef, Nicole Purslow, is a granddaughter of Pierre Monteux, whose Domaine School of Conducting is across the road. 

The drive the next morning is a pleasant one. Wisps of steam will be just starting to curl up from the roadside stands as people begin to heat up outdoor cauldrons of sea water to cook lobsters in. You will drive through Somesville at the head of Somes Sound, catching glimpses of the fjord as you go. 


If you are chartering from Hinckley, as we did, and your credentials are in order, checking in with their office in Southwest Harbor is made easy by the small staff. Within a quarter of an hour you can be on your way to Sawyer's grocery store on the main street in Southwest Harbor (parking in rear) to buy supplies. They are used to people stocking up for a cruise, helpful and patient as the items pile on the counter. Everything must be bought. Not only all the food - the fresh fruit, vegetables and meat the store carries - but also soap, paper items, canned goods, salt, pepper and charcoal for the tiny stove that warms the cabin on chilly nights. 


·         It takes five minutes to drive the three miles to Bass Harbor. When you get there, the boatyard crew that has been readying your boat will help you get ice from the ice machine and stow your gear. Before casting off, walk over to Rich's wharf to buy crab meat to take with you, and to watch six expert women rhythmically swing their mallets, cracking the crabs and picking out the meat at the rate of six pounds an hour. The leg (lump) meat is $6 a pound. Lobsters are also available for about $3.50 a pound. 
 


·         Unless fog closes in, you can sail so that you are never out of sight of land. As one island vanishes, another appears, possibly deserted, possibly with one or two houses standing back from the shore. You might start out by heading into the Casco Passage, north of Swans Island, and sailing northwest up Eggemoggin Reach, stopping the first night at Benjamin River, a cove entirely ringed by farms, with fields sloping down to the water, usually quite peaceful. An appropriate first meal would be lobsters boiled in water you have pulled up in a bucket from the sea. There is no better way to eat a lobster, and no lobster that can compare with it.
it.

Continuing up Eggemoggin Reach the next day you will pass under the Sedgwick Bridge, 
which links Deer Isle and the mainland. Then a good sail if the wind is southwest, which it usually is 
(the prevailing southwest wind earned for the Maine coast the descriptive term Down East because the coastal schooners,
 sailing east, were always sailing down wind) would be to head up around the north end of Islesboro, a long skinny island 
that lies in the middle of Penobscot Bay. As you sail through Gilkey Harbor you can get a good look at Charles Dana Gibson's massive but now crumbling home sitting on a knoll on neighboring Seven Hundred Acre Island (a misnomer: the island measures some 500 acres). The waters are full of seals; it is just a matter of time until one is sighted. 
 

Because there are so many islands just off the coast it is impossible to stop or even to see each one. Following are a few of the  
places you might include in a week's sail. Isle au Haut should be high on the list. It is one of the most beautiful islands, 
with just a narrow slit of a cove, about 75 yards wide by 200 yards deep, called Duck Harbor, 
where there is room for exactly three boats. 
In summer, forget it; in mid-September make sure to get there early in the afternoon.

·         Once safely anchored in Duck Harbor, go ashore and climb Duck Mountain (314 feet high the chart says; it seems much higher) which rises straight up out of the cove. The way is marked by cairns. From the summit you get a breathtaking view of the island. If you descend as the sun is setting, you will see colors you will not forget. Isle au Haut is part of Acadia National Park and the Park Service ferries people out to the island on ''Miss Lizzie,'' the mail boat, but even a few campers cannot take away from its beauty. 
 
·         It is a great adventure from there to follow the shore and go through Isle au Haut Thorofare, which is narrow, rather shallow, but well marked, and the channel between Isle au Haut and Kimball Island. In navigating it you will go through the remains of a mussel bar that was dredged with a suction hose that removed the mussels but not the boulders; go carefully. In fact, follow the advice given in what should be the bible of the Maine coast, ''A Cruising Guide to the New England Coast'' and enter it ''on the high side of half tide,'' when the water level is high enough to allow passage but slow enough so that you can see the boulders. Continue from there through the Burnt Island Thorofare separating Isle au Haut from Burnt Island, even more of a challenge, being just as shallow, rock stewn, but narrower. 



·         Going from Isle au Haut to Stonington on Deer Isle is one of the most delightful passages. There are so many islands - over 20 - so close together that it is a little bit like threading your way through a maze. All are uninhabited at this time of year and offer good anchorages, occasionally granite ledges, occasionally sandy beaches (Maine version - small pebbles) and spruce ringed coves. The musseling is excellent. If you anchor off an island called Devil's Half Acre, for instance, you will find the shoreline a carpet of mussels. Before going off in the dinghy to gather them, put on your boots; the mussels are covered with barnacles, and mired in the black, glacial mud the coast is famous for. It is only five miles from Isle au Haut to Stonington as the crow flies, but don't rush through. Spend a day or two on this stretch. Stonington is a fishing village. The main street is short, perhaps a few hundred yards long, the town is small, having a year-round population of 1,200 (slightly higher in summer). Like many of these islands, it is famous for its granite; like many of these islands, its granite ended up in New York. The Triborough Bridge is built of Deer Isle granite, the granite pillars for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine came from Vinalhaven. 

·          
Blue Hill Bay is good sailing, particularly if fog seems threatening. 
There are plenty of dolphin and seals in these waters to watch if the wind dies
·         
·       
  One of the most delightful coves to anchor in is Dogfish (a euphemism for shark) Cove on Bartlett's Island in Blue Hill Bay. 
Deserted at this time of the year, except for lobster boats, it teems with wild life. As we turned into the cove we saw a seal 
playing. An osprey wheeled overhead, then perched for hours in a dead tree guarding one shore. Loons, which used to be 
confined to lakes but have now spread out onto the coast, swam in and out of the rocks. Eider ducks paddled by. A great blue 
heron stood immobile on the stony beach. On one side of the cove a sheer granite cliff drops straight into the sea; on close 
inspection we found its side, below high water mark, to be covered with mussels that we pulled off while sitting in the dinghy. 


 By the time you are sailing back to Somes Sound, and Mount Desert is a familiar sight, 
you can appreciate the Down East saying, of those who live on Mount Desert, that they ''sit on their view,'' 
further refined by the residents of the nearby coastal town of Sorrento across Frenchman Bay to ''they walk on our view.'' 

·        
 When you are cruising in Maine, unless the fog shuts down and the world becomes, to paraphrase Roger Duncan, 
''two waves wide,'' it is difficult to be out of sight of either lobster pots or a craggy shoreline. 
It is for this reason that cruising is so pleasant. One is constantly challenged and constantly interested. 
Add to this the sunlit misty mornings, deserted coves, jagged coastline, incredibly fresh shellfish. All this and sailing, too.


 


78 comments:

  1. Two posts in a row, an No Thongs.

    Next!

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  2. Since Putin didn't roll those tanks, and the news is all about London banks ...

    Better to go sailing.

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    1. Hasn't rolled those tanks, yet. I've been peering at a map and I'm a little confused. Crimea isn't really contiguous with Russia. It abuts Russian territory across some water, and I understand a bridge is being built, but other than that Crimea seems to be, geographically, quite separate from Russia. I wonder how much of Eastern Ukraine is being eyed, or if all of Ukraine might be on the menu...

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    2. Sailing beats paying child support.

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    3. If, when Putin decides to roll those tanks, we'll have a post about it, I'm sure.

      Eastern Ukraine is/ was the bastion of the President in exile, as was the Crimea.
      Crimea will declare 'Independence', as both options on the ballet are for Independence from Kiev.
      One goes back to the 1992 Constitution, the other puts Crimea in the Russian Federation.

      Either way, Kiev loses sovereignty over the Crimea.

      If there are riots in Eastern Ukraine, Putin will have to fulfill Russia's "Responsibility to Protect".
      Just as the US, Italy, England and France did in Libya.

      It'd be the only 'civilized' thing Putin could do, follow Obama's lead.

      Sanctions can do only so much, and the counter move, the nationalization of 'Western' assets in Russia, would be a high price to pay for political theater. The Brits are quite hesitant to take that step. As are the French, Germans and the Poles.

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    4. The US Congress, as noted in an earlier thread, have gone home.

      Leaving Obama room to maneuver, if Putin does 'something', in the next ten days.

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  3. Here’s a milestone to mark. Solar power is apparently going to be sold to Austin Energy for a tiny bit less than 5¢/kWh under a new 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with SunEdison. Austin Energy says the deal will even lower electric rates a bit.

    It’s from no small project either. It’s from two solar power plants totaling 150-megawatts of capacity — a 350,000-panel, 100-megawatt facility; and a 150,000-panel, 50-megawatt facility nearby.

    Oh, by the way, this wasn’t the . . . . . . . .

    Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/13/solar-sold-less-5%c2%a2kwh-austin-texas/#FdDg8hP0SYeomo6K.99

    Less than a Nickel? For 25 years?

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    1. Quote of the Day: Putin can't turn off Europe's Wind.

      I would add "Solar."

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Funny, that for all the derision of Jimmah Carter, the US is still dependent on OPEC, even after the Carter Embargo.

      No US President since had the balls to step up and pursue alternatives. They all left US vulnerable to the Arabs.

      Even the deaths of over 4,000 of US in NYCity was not enough to bring the threat into focus.

      Instead we went on a military hardware spending spree, charging a trillion dollars on a credit card, for tanks and planes that we won't, can't, use.

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    4. And, despite all the hype over "fracking," we still import almost 1/2 of our oil, and about 10% of our natural gas.

      Delete
  4. 'When a parental abduction takes place, children are pulled away from their home, family members and friends.

    Often, they have to adapt to a lifestyle of hiding —
    their names might be changed, their outward appearance might be altered; they leave everything behind, and can be scarred permanently.

    Child abduction is a serious matter.

    There are an estimated 350,000 family abductions in the U.S. annually, and most involve concealment, transportation of the children out-of-state or out-of-country, and an intent by the abductors to keep the children indefinitely, according to information published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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    1. ... we concluded that this 23-year-old woman calling us and telling us she didn’t know who she really was and didn’t think she was in the right place, was probably Carlina White.

      We alerted the New York Police Department. Their investigators followed up—she was living in Georgia, they went to Georgia, they interviewed her, they took a DNA sample, and it was confirmed that this was that child abducted 23 years ago.

      Well, people say to me all the time,”Well that’s a miracle story, that just doesn’t happen every day.”

      What we try to say to these families, is just because a child has been missing for a day or a week or a month or a year, or even 23 years, doesn’t mean that there’s not hope.

      Halpern: White was eventually reunited with her birth parents.

      Delete

    2. The birth parents did not pay 'child support' to the abductor.

      Delete

    3. They did not even know where the abductor went, with their child.

      There was no where to send a check, even if they wanted to.
      The abductor did not send them an address.

      Delete

    4. The good news, when the child was old enough to figure out the truth of the matter, he was able to find his way home.

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    5. And they all lived happily ever afterward.

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  5. ah, good ole John McCain:

    "Obama Has Made America Look Weak
    John McCain on Restoring America’s Credibility

    Should Russia’s invasion and looming annexation of Crimea be blamed on President Barack Obama? Of course not, just as it should not be blamed on NATO expansion, the Iraq war or Western interventions to stop mass atrocities in the Balkans and Libya. The blame lies squarely with Vladimir V. Putin, an unreconstructed Russian imperialist and K.G.B. apparatchik.

    But in a broader sense, Crimea has exposed the disturbing lack of realism that has characterized our foreign policy under President Obama. It is this worldview, or lack of one, that must change.

    For five years, Americans have been told that “the tide of war is receding,” that we can pull back from the world at little cost to our interests and values. This has fed a perception that the United States is weak, and to people like Mr. Putin, weakness is provocative.

    That is how Mr. Putin viewed the “reset” policy. United States missile defense plans were scaled back. Allies in Eastern Europe and Georgia were undercut. NATO enlargement was tabled. A new strategic arms reduction treaty required significant cuts by America, but not Russia. Mr. Putin gave little. Mr. Obama promised “more flexibility.”

    Mr. Putin also saw a lack of resolve in President Obama’s actions beyond Europe. In Afghanistan and Iraq, military decisions have appeared driven more by a desire to withdraw than to succeed. Defense budgets have been slashed based on hope, not strategy. Iran and China have bullied America’s allies at no discernible cost. Perhaps worst of all, Bashar al-Assad crossed President Obama’s “red line” by using chemical weapons in Syria, and nothing happened to him.

    For Mr. Putin, vacillation invites aggression. His world is a brutish, cynical place, where power is worshiped, weakness is despised, and all rivalries are zero-sum. He sees the fall of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” He does not accept that Russia’s neighbors, least of all Ukraine, are independent countries. To him, they are Russia’s “near abroad” and must be brought back under Moscow’s dominion by any means necessary.

    What is most troubling about Mr. Putin’s aggression in Crimea is that it reflects a growing disregard for America’s credibility in the world. That has emboldened other aggressive actors — from Chinese nationalists to Al Qaeda terrorists and Iranian theocrats.

    Crimea must be the place where President Obama recognizes this reality and begins to restore the credibility of the United States as a world leader. This will require two different kinds of responses.

    The first, and most urgent, is crisis management. We need to work with our allies to shore up Ukraine, reassure shaken friends in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, show Mr. Putin a strong, united front, and prevent the crisis from getting worse.

    This does not mean military action against Russia. But it should mean sanctioning Russian officials, isolating Russia internationally, and increasing NATO’s military presence and exercises on its eastern frontier. It should mean boycotting the Group of 8 summit meeting in Sochi and convening the Group of 7 elsewhere. It should also mean making every effort to support and resupply Ukrainian patriots, both soldiers and civilians, who are standing their ground in government facilities across Crimea. They refuse to accept the dismemberment of their country. So should we.

    Crimea may be falling under Russian control, but Ukraine has another chance for freedom, rule of law and a European future. To seize that opportunity, Ukrainian leaders must unify the nation and commit to reform, and the West must provide significant financial and other assistance. Bipartisan legislation now before Congress would contribute to this effort.

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    1. More broadly, we must rearm ourselves morally and intellectually to prevent the darkness of Mr. Putin’s world from befalling more of humanity. We may wish to believe, as President Obama has said, that we are not “in competition with Russia.” But Mr. Putin believes Russia is in competition with us, and pretending otherwise is an unrealistic basis for a great nation’s foreign policy.

      The U.S. actively encouraged a movement to overthrow the democratically-elected (if admittedly quite corrupt) government of Ukraine with the...

      If Obama appears weak, he has been weakened by the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham constantly trying to run a separate foreign...

      Senator McCain makes some good points, but he seems to forget one thing. The republicans have been the real culprits in undercutting...

      Three American presidents have sought to cooperate with Mr. Putin where our interests converge. What should be clear now, and should have been clear the last time he tore apart a country, is that our interests do not converge much. He will always insist on being our rival.

      The United States must look beyond Mr. Putin. His regime may appear imposing, but it is rotting inside. His Russia is not a great power on par with America. It is a gas station run by a corrupt, autocratic regime. And eventually, Russians will come for Mr. Putin in the same way and for the same reasons that Ukrainians came for Viktor F. Yanukovych.

      We must prepare for that day now. We should show the Russian people that we support their human rights by expanding the Magnitsky Act to impose more sanctions on those who abuse them. We should stop allowing their country’s most corrupt officials to park ill-gotten proceeds in Western economies. We should prove that countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have a future in the Euro-Atlantic community, and Russia can, too.

      We must do all we can to demonstrate that the tide of history is with Ukraine — that the political values of the West, and not those of an imperial kleptocracy, are the hope of all nations. If Ukraine can emerge from this crisis independent, prosperous and anchored firmly in Europe, how long before Russians begin to ask, “Why not us?” That would not just spell the end of Mr. Putin’s imperial dreams; it would strip away the lies that sustain his rule over Russia itself.

      America’s greatest strength has always been its hopeful vision of human progress. But hopes do not advance themselves, and the darkness that threatens them will not be checked by an America in denial about the world as it is. It requires realism, strength and leadership. If Crimea does not awaken us to this fact, I am afraid to think what will."

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/opinion/mccain-a-return-to-us-realism.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

      Delete
    2. Lots of contributors, here on the blog, thought that John McCain would have made a 'dandy' President of the United States.

      heh, heh, heh.

      Delete
  6. There's nothing more disgusting than an old coot who drips saliva over a string bikini.

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    1. Then wipe your chin, or do you need someone to do that for you, too?

      Delete
  7. Check Aircraft Hanger Q at the Detroit Municipal Airport for the missing 777.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Go look yourself, why try to task others to do what is your duty?

      Delete
    2. Why don't you go transponder?

      Delete
  8. At least, this old coot doesn't have to pretend that a girl is a family member/blood relative to appreciate a fine looking ass.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. You do not mean to imply that incestuous relationships are a fantasy of his, do you?

      Or is the implication that the incestuous relationships are a reality?

      They did move after that rape scandal went public.

      It’s been 16 years since JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colo., home the day after Christmas. That morning, the Ramsey family found a horrifying ransom note, threatening to kill JonBenet if they didn’t pay $118,000. That was the exact amount Ramsey had recently received as a bonus, leading him to believe his daughter’s killing was an inside job on some level.

      Ramsey, the well-to-do executive, was the one who made the shocking discovery of JonBenet’s body.

      “When I found her it was a rush of relief,” he said. “And then of course within moments, I realized that she probably was dead. But she was back in my arms.”

      For years, Boulder police suspected the Ramseys killed their daughter. In 2008, Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy cleared the Ramseys of any wrongdoing and issued a letter of apology them. JonBenet’s mother Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer on June 24, 2006, without knowing her name had been cleared.

      One of the only developments in the case, which eventually became a dead-end, was when suspect and school teacher John Mark Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, in August 2006. At the time, Karr told reporters that he was “with JonBenet when she died” but that “her death was an accident.”

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    2. You don't know your ass. It was not a fine looking ass. It was a wide ugly looking ass. Much like your ass.

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    3. Without the hair.

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    4. Are you losing your mind, along with your hair?

      Delete

    5. Is it coming out in clumps, or falling out one hair at a time?

      Delete

    6. Do you think it'll grow back?

      Does Medicare cover hairpieces?
      It could improve your self-image and thus, the state of your mental health.

      Delete
    7. Medicare covers Penis Pumps, and, I think, Viagra.

      Delete
    8. Rufus II would know. They don't call him ol' PP Ruf in the neighborhood for nothin'. All the trailer court girls love 'im.

      ;)

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    9. I've had pussy on 3 Continents, and all social strata, bubba, and I'll tell you this: you turn the lights down, and it's all pretty similar.

      (and, I didn't have to pretend that any of it was "family" to enjoy it.)

      Delete
  9. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said ...



    "We will respect the expression of the will of the Crimean people in in the upcoming referendum,"
    Lavrov told reporters at a briefing at the residency of the Russian Ambassador to London.

    "The Russian Federation does not and cannot have any plans to invade the southeastern regions of Ukraine,"
    Lavrov said.

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  10. Farmer Bob's NATO candidate is still having issues with its diplomats and their slaves


    Indian Diplomat Re-Indicted in US Visa Fraud Case


    An Indian diplomat was re-indicted Friday on U.S. visa fraud charges that touched off an international stir after she was arrested and strip-searched last year.

    The new indictment, filed Friday, essentially just reinstates the charges against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade — charges that now arrive with her out of the country. A judge had dismissed last year's virtually identical indictment Wednesday on diplomatic immunity grounds, but the ruling left a door open to federal prosecutors to revive the case and they suggested they would.

    Khobragade's lawyer, Daniel Arshack, had no immediate comment Friday. He said Wednesday that re-indicting his client "might be viewed an aggressive act and one that (prosecutors) would be ill-advised to pursue."

    Khobragade is back in India, and it's unclear when, if ever, she might appear in court in New York again. There was no immediate response to messages left at India's embassy in Washington and consulate in New York.

    The U.S. State Department had filed court papers opposing Khobragade's bid to get the charges dismissed and stands by it, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday in Washington.


    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/indian-diplomat-indicted-us-visa-fraud-case-22915981

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    1. Jackrat doesn't real well. Bob's favorite candidate for NATO was Israel, not India. That is what he said.

      Q: What do Jackrat's first wife and Bob's niece have in common?

      A: They once both fled from their hateful and abusive relationships with their man at the time.

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    2. Jack's first wife from Jack. Bob's niece from her Hindu mate.

      Jack should move to India. That is a good place to abuse women.

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    3. Jackrat doesn't real well. Bob's favorite candidate for NATO was Israel, not India. That is what he said.

      He reads better than YOU write.

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    4. As for Israel, that is the subject of the next thread.

      Unless there is 'Breaking News',

      But with regards to NATO, Bibi does not want foreign troops in Israel or Palestine, so ...

      That disqualifies Israel from membership in NATO.
      The Palestinians want NATO deployment in the Levant, Bibi says NO!.

      That and the other NATO members would never stand for an Apartheid state in the Organization.

      The vote for membership, it has to be unanimous, since each nation pledges to defend the other, and Israel has already attacked Turkish shipping on the High Seas of the Mediterranean.

      The Pirates of the Mediterranean would never get the votes, just as North Korea would not, Pakistan would not, India would not. Nuclear outlaws, rogue regimes do not qualify for NATO membership.

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    5. We're all waiting breathlessly for your next twisted thread.

      Delete
  11. Ralph Peters claims that General Petraeus lied to Congress.

    When pressed on the sophistication of the mortar attack, two sources familiar with Petraeus' statements to Congress said he also seemed to downplay the necessary planning and skill, stating the mortars could have been fired from the back of a truck with the same accuracy.
    ...
    Others take a more skeptical view.
    "It just sounds to me like General Petraeus was trying to do a favor for the administration. I just can't see any way around it because he's an infantry man, he knows you can't do it," Peters said.


    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/08/evidence-casts-doubt-on-ex-cia-leaders-claims-on-benghazi-mortar-attack/?intcmp=obnetwork

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    1. Ralph Peters seems to have forgotten the salient fact that General Petraeus WAS the Administration in Benghazi.
      He was doing the favor to and for himself.

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    1. Foreign forces at play in Palestine


      On 2 February, Mahmoud Abbas – President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – told the New York Times that Palestine would accept the introduction of a US-led NATO force to replace Israel's military occupation. These forces would be present

      "For a long time, and wherever they want, not only on the eastern borders, but also on the western borders, everywhere".

      This proposal was immediately rejected ... and has been overshadowed in most news reports by Israel's continued demand for Palestinian recognition that Israel is a 'Jewish State'.


      https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/10019-foreign-forces-at-play-in-palestine-

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    2. Israel's occupation of Palestine needs to be monitored by NATO, and Bibi refuses to let it happen.

      Bibi is allied with Hamas, on this issue, both of those parties want the conflict to continue, for their own political survival.

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    3. What a lot of horse shit, you shit for brains.

      Yes, yes, Israel loves to be rocketed.

      This blog is absurd.


      Doug......please please start a new rat free blog.

      Delete
    4. Do it yourself, loser.

      Hire a helper..

      You said you could have had ObamaCare web site up and running, you can't even post a simple blog thread

      If your daughter respected you, she'd help you out, but she thinks you're wasting your time, and she is correct.
      You are in way over your head . . . Go buy some water wings.

      Delete


    5. Bibi is NOT Israel, dumb ass.
      No more so than Obama is the United States of America.




      Delete
  13. Netanyahu has suggested Israel be considered for NATO, you Jackassratyahoo.

    (note to Quirk - my google thingy fucked up again, and I'm too tired and uninterested to fix it)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or you will be shown to be a liar, again.

      Delete
    2. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen received Israel’s president Shimon Peres at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 7.

      The order of the day: to enhance military cooperation between Israel and the Atlantic Alliance focusing on issues of counter-terrorism.

      “Israel will be happy to share the knowledge it has gained and its technological abilities with NATO. Israel has experience in contending with complex situations, and we must strengthen the cooperation so we can fight global terror together and assist NATO with the complex threats it faces including in Afghanistan. “

      Israel is already involved in covert operations and non-conventional warfare in liaison with the US and NATO.

      This agreement is of particular significance because it deepens the Israel-NATO relationship beyond the so-called “Mediterranean Dialogue”.

      The joint statement points to an Israel NATO partnership “in the fight against terror and the search for peace… in the Middle East and the world”.

      What this suggests is the participation of Israel in active theater warfare alongside NATO –i.e. as a de facto member of the Atlantic Alliance.

      In other words, Israel would be directly involved were US-NATO to launch an outright military operation against Syria, Lebanon or Iran.

      Some things are not for the public to really understand.

      Delete
    3. This is not the same as "nato" troops being used as a shield for the Palestinians.

      To conflate the two? Simply points to the ignorance or purposeful deception by Jack.

      Tsk, tsk. Tricks are for kids...

      Delete
  14. Syria anniversary: the psychopaths are unstoppable

    Three years after it began, the civil war has become a nightmare of barbarity and carnage, reports Richard Spencer in an impassioned dispatch from the province of Aleppo

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10695217/Syria-anniversary-the-psychopaths-are-unstoppable.html

    That's the nature of mental illness. It usually does not recognize itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where's that Bibi statement on NATO link?

      Delete
    2. I have the transcript of his speech at AIPAC, where he said that foreign troops WOULD NEVER be allowed to secure Israel's security.

      That means "No to NATO".
      I have the link and the words, Farmer Bob.

      You have squat, nothing but lies!

      Delete
    3. Once again, you distort truth, the issue of foreign troops protecting Israel from the Palestinians has NOTHING to do with Israel and NATO being de facto partners.

      Jack, you take liberty with truth. i suggest you stick to thongs.

      Delete
  15. You absolute DUMB FUCK.

    You SHIT FOR BRAINS

    "The Jerusalem Post said that Israel’s closer links with NATO were crucial in the case of “future confrontation with Iran” (1 April 2008). In fact, Netanyahu wanted Israel to join NATO even before coming into office for a second time as prime minister. He has since made Israel’s membership of NATO a central piece in his policy."

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/when-israel-joins-nato/17427

    This has been talked about for years and years.

    Only a SHIT FOR BRAINS like you would miss it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, SHIT FOR BRAINS, there is a difference between the West Bank and Iran.

      But you are TOO FUCKING DUMB TO REALIZE IT.

      Delete
    2. I've had enough of you bull shit for today. The treatments are weakening me. I've had today's gut full. Everyone is SUPER looking forward to you new bull shit post on Israel for tomorrow.

      out

      Delete
    3. Bibi's statement Farmer Bob. where is the quote?

      You wrote that Bibi suggested ...
      Give us the quote, not from 2008, six years ago, mine is from 5 days ago.

      the only force that can be relied on to defend the peace and defend Israel is the force defending its own home -- the Israeli Army, the brave soldiers of the IDF.

      http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/03/bibis-speech-to-aipac-text.html#.UyOwW4VuAug

      Delete
    4. That is in direct opposition to the concept of joint defense, Farmer Bob, that is from 4March2014.

      Get your head out of your ass.
      Suck it up and fly right!

      Delete
    5. Bibi does not trust NATO, can't say I blame him, but that is not the point, is it?

      It is what Bibi said, less than two weeks ago.

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    7. You babble about a opinion piece from 2008, if that is all you have, you're a loser.

      Delete

  16. Oh, and bye the bye, NATO is not at war with Iran, neither is the United States.

    Suck on that reality, while your hair falls out.

    ReplyDelete
  17. On 2Feb14 Abbas calls for NATO to provide security in Palestine.
    One month later, on 4Mar14, Bibi says 'No Way'!

    Farmer Bob still advocates for Israel to join NATO, when Bibi says NATO is not trustworthy.

    The radiation in his ass has eaten his brain, must be where his head is.

    ReplyDelete
  18. .

    While his hair falls out?

    Always manage to bring it all down to your level, don't you , rat?

    .

    ReplyDelete
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