So...I go to John Lewis if I'm an old man who wants to look at little girls through a telescope?


The Man in the Moon had silver shoon
And his beard was of silver thread;
He was girt with pure gold and inaureoled
With gold about his head.
Clad in silken robe in his great white globe
He opened an ivory door
With a crystal key, and in secrecy
He stole o'er a shadowy floor;

Down a filigree stair of spidery hair
He slipped in gleaming haste,
And laughing with glee to be merry and free
He swiftly earthward raced.
He was tired of his pearls and diamond twirls;
Of his pallid minaret
Dizzy and white at its lunar height
In a world of silver set;

And adventured this peril for ruby and beryl
And emerald and sapphire,
And all lustrous gems for new diadems,
Or to blazon his pale attire.
He was lonely too with nothing to do
But to stare at the golden world,
Or to strain at the hum that would distantly come
As it gaily past him whirled;

And at plenilune in his argent moon
He had wearily longed for Fire-
Not the limpid lights of wan selenites,
But a red terrestrial pyre
With impurpurate glows of crimson and rose
And leaping orange tongue;
For great seas of blues and the passionate hues
When a dancing dawn is young;

For the meadowy ways like chrysophrase
By winding Yare and Nen.
How he longed for the mirth of the populous Earth
And the sanguine blood of men;
And coveted song and laughter long
And viands hot and wine,
Eating pearly cakes of light snowflakes
And drinking thin moonshine.

He twinkled his feet as he thought of the meat,
Of the punch and the peppery brew,
Till he tripped unaware on his slanting stair,
And fell like meteors do;
As the whickering sparks in splashing arcs
Of stars blown down like rain
From his laddery path took a foaming bath
In the ocean of Almain;

And began to think, lest he melt and stink,
What in the moon to do,
When a Yarmouth boat found him far afloat,
To the mazement of the crew
Caught in their net all shimmering wet
In a phosphorescent sheen
Of bluey whites and opal lights
And delicate liquid green

With the morning fish — 'twas his regal wish —
They packed him to Norwich town,
To get warm on gin in a Norfolk inn,
And dry his watery gown.
Though St. Peter's knell waked many a bell
In the city's ringing towers
To shout the news of his lunatic cruise
In the early morning hours,

No hearths were laid, not a breakfast made,
And no one would sell him gems;
He found ashes for fire, and his gay desire
For choruses and brave anthems
Met snores instead with all Norfolk abed,
And his round heart nearly broke,
More empty and cold than above of old,
Till he bartered his fairy cloak

With a half waked cook for a kitchen nook,
And his belt of gold for a smile,
And a priceless jewel for a bowl of gruel,
A sample cold and vile
Of the proud plum porridge of Anglian Norwich —
He arrived much too soon
For unusual guests on adventurous quests
From the Mountains of the Moon.

Excellent article CE. As someone who misses reading knowledgeable liner notes and critiques of form and structure, and listens to a well-balanced slathering of all kinna sounds, including Norwegian death metal, trad jazz, rockabilly, or forty-minute Ravi Shankar jams...Even dig me some traditional hymns and marching band from time to time. Fuck, I'd sing that Muslim adhan from a minaret in Morocco if they'd let me make-up my own words.

I wasn't there and can only guess what these folks meant. But this ANALsys will be way smarter than lefty insults.



Guy #1 "Obama has no idea how serious this is." ----Agree. This a power-vacuum that will likely be filled by radical muslim vermin.

Guy #2 "Obama has no idea what a Republic is." ----possibly referring to Obama's "unawareness" that there is no stable government to replace the dictator

Guy #3 "No coherent message from the White House/No one seems to know what's going on --self-evident

Woman "Obama's religious beliefs govern his foreign policy" ---disagree. Obama has no foreign policy, except to apologize for the US and turn a cold shoulder to our allies

Same woman/half of crowd - "He's a Muslim". ---Obama claims he's a Christian. If you take him at his word, he's the most Muslim-sympathetic Christian President besides Carter (BTW, the majority here at atheisift likely sees Obama's Christianity as a sham or character defect, so what's the big deal either way)?

Guy # 4 -- "His religious belief is liberalism" ---- Obama has faith in liberalism above all religions. Sure seems like it.

Guy #5 --"He's NOT a practicing Muslim. He is a Muslim sympathizer." And a Muslim apologist.

Blue Shirt Guy -- "His religion is liberalism, the most intolerant religion of all." If you're on the left this won't make any sense. Yet it's correct. Ever see how the left treats 'heretical' conservative minorities?

Plaid woman - "It's possible he's Muslim though he claims to be a Christian." ---less important than the observation that he's "waffling on both sides"----certainly not the first politician to do so.

Stache' --"He's an appeaser." Absolutely. No historical reference to Chamberlain necessary.

Glasses Chick -- "He gives textbook answers." ---She done goofed. 'Textbook answers' means "the most examined and correct answers possible" She probably meant Teleprompted answers, aka canned responses.

Next Guy -- "The crisis snuck up on (Obama) and he was unprepared." ---Agree

Glasses Chick -- "He doesn't know what to do....he 'never' knows what to do." ----Obama only knows what HE will do, whether or not it causes harm. If he 'never' knew what to do he'd be slightly less of a threat.

No Tie Guy -- "I think he believes America's at fault for the world's problems. I think he doesn't see the good America does in the world." This man is guilty of plagiarising Rule #1 from the Liberal Handbook.



Of course you're free to judge these folks as you see fit, just as I don't have to wait for Egypt to fall under the shadows of minarets on His Earness's watch to judge him.





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@quantumushroom Those of us from the British Isles tend to spell words correctly because we've been using this language a hell of a lot longer than residents of other countries around the world. Coincidentally did you know that the English language originated in England? Yes I know, how bizarre!

I meant no offense and was joking.

Besides, everyone knows the favorite spelling of favourite is favouЯite.

good analysis...

here is a selection of statements he made and for which he is currently being prosecuted:

Fitna(film)
"The Islam wants to conquer, subjugate and destroy our civilization. In 1945 Nazism was conquered, in 1989 Communism, and now we most conquer the Islamic ideology"
The movie show images of a future Holland as a Islamic country. A postcard of The Netherlands which s only shows minarets, a violent decapitation and images of terrorist attacks.

Volkskrant, 08-08-2007
"The root of the problem is the fascistic Islam, the sick ideology of Allah en Mohammad demonstrated in the Islamatic Mein Kampf: The Qur'an. The texts of the Qur'an leave little to the imagination."
as sanderbos said, referring to Mein Kampf is a big no-go in Western Europe.

"Ban that book (the Qur'an). Just like Mein Kampf!”
It is still illegal to sell Mein Kampf in the Netherlands. You are allowed to own it and trade it but not to buy it however.

De Pers, 13-02-2007
"Enough is enough. Close the borders, no more Muslims for the Netherlands, export as many as possible. Take away the Dutch passport of Muslim criminals"

Volkskrant, 07-09-2006
"Close the borders for non-western immigrants'
“We have to stop the tsunami of Muslims. It is a matter that touches our heart.”

>> ^sanderbos:
Well rougy,
Dutch 'liberal' here, not a Wilders fan.
The court case is completely ridiculous, of course he should be able to say what he wants, especially since he is a politician and has to be able to express things even if they defy laws (since politicians define laws), and because he represents a large constituency of Dutch voters (8 percent in last election, could be up to 30% according to some polls).
However, this speech, man he or his (famous) lawyer seemed to have cobbled together all divine phrases of free speech and wrapped them together in a nice little presentation. Anybody can put together a speech like this ("wasn't it Voltaire who said 'as much as I despise your opinion, I will defend your ability to speak it'" is a staple of such speeches, and no it wasn't Voltaire).
You must understand that Wilders' other thoughts include a tax of say (pinky to mouth) a thousand dollars per hijab (islam head scarf) to fix the economic crisis.
The situation on free speech in the Netherlands is super unclear. Because we are such a liberal free country, nobody really bothered/ bothers to ensure those rights are also legally documented. So on some fronts the freedoms of speech are very limited if prosecution occurs (almost yearly people are put in prison over making pretty tame references to the queen, giving somebody the finger is technically an offense).
In this particular case, the Dutch DOJ first decided not to sue, then some hippy who can't deal with anybody not agreeing him (Rene Danen) forces the DOJ to reconsider, if you read the verdict of that case you can see it is all about Nazi Germany references, a big no-no in the Netherlands (Wilders compares the Quran to Mein Kampf, as in both books that cause people to do bad things).
Anyway, this is just part of the whole Wilders big clown extravanganza show that is going on for years now. He is just making outregeous claims and getting in trouble everywhere to drum up support (actually I am most impressed by the way he does these things, as he does really little press or other public things yet gets the press to talk about him constantly). I think it is unclear what will happen if he gets into power (which probably won't happen all too soon, in part because of him the Dutch political landscape is superfragmented now, any coalition created in the next four years will be crazy enough without him in it).

No, I'm afraid I don't have precise figures for you. There are other issues to consider as well, such as how much it costs for students not studying in a government-supported institution (Michlalot), there's the whole issue of the three years of military service the Haredi are exempt from and it really isn't as simple as "they get X, we get Y".

And regarding the "bread thing", it's not illegal to buy it, but it's illegal to sell it, and stores selling bread during Pessah get fined regularly.

Saying it's not a religious law is laughable, almost like saying the Swiss minaret ban is an architectural dispute.

They also recently voted out outlaw Minarets. So clearly, all is not well in CH.

Stop that nonsense at once, and start building minarets!

>> ^eric3579:
Singling out one religion is just wrong. I would expect a law like this would pass in America, but Switzerland. How disappointing.


gotta start somewhere...

I am a Swiss citizen living in Switzerland, and while I voted against this ridiculous ban, I think I can understand why it passed (after the initial shock of course... I had put more stock in Swiss citizens than this).

All the polls predicted that the ban would be massively rejected and yet it passed; it seems to be an awkward attempt by the people to express their distrust of islam and their fear of its rapid progression in Europe, something that is quite impossible to do in public or in the media without being belittled as a “xenophobe” and “islamophobe” (the latter of which should not be considered insulting). The government, largely left-wing, continually undermine or disregard certain real problems regarding immigration/integration of muslims – most of which come from Turkey and ex-Yugoslavia – in order to retain their politically correct image, even when it is at the expense of the people. One example: the fact that individuals of the above-mentioned population, along with African immigrants, are responsible for over 70% of all criminality in Switzerland, was systematically downplayed and the statistics criticised by the media and the government left, without proposing any constructive solutions. One mustn’t forget that one of the UDC’s main beefs is with immigration, not religion (not that that makes them any better, mind).

@rychan: the ban, like every law project, had to pass the parliament first, where they decide if it is constitutional or not. This is where the UDC, the far right party, sneakily got away with what is in effect a straw-man ban: a mosque is still a mosque without a minaret, and banning them cannot be considered against religious freedom because they can still worship in a minaret-free mosque.

The UDC’s argument was that the minaret, whose purpose is to call for prayer 5 times a day (not allowed in CH), is also a symbol of conquest. Dumb, I know, but it fed into the fears of a country already fed up of being toyed with (Khadafi, the EU, the US and the “secret bancaire”, etc.) and represented by a bunch of pussies who will bow and scrape< /a> to the worst of tyrants just to be liked.

Of course, there is the “religious war” side to it as well, even if all the religious authorities here, christian and other, vehemently rejected the ban, possibly fearing that such legislation could eventually turn on them.

The real test will come when the people vote on an initiative by the “jeunnesse socialiste” which aims at secularising the state. They wish to completely separate church and state, removing catechism, theology and crucifixes from public schools, replacing religious education lessons (which should only be a part of history class) with ethics/civism, cease the funding of “state” churches (protestant or catholic depending on the canton) with tax-payer money, etc.

Somehow, I am not so optimist as to how this will fare... Ignorance is a tough opponent.


@Krupo: your knowledge of CH seems a tad outdated. Not only does CH have one of the smallest and most under-financed armies of western Europe, but it is planning on making it even smaller. As for the sexism, it is the same small group of idiots who proposed the minaret-ban who want traditional christian families with mommy at home and daddy at work, but they're the only ones. An educational reform is working on changing the long lunch break, but most kids eat at school already because, well, mommy's at work too.

As for old-school... how many countries have legalised assisted suicide?

I have to say though, looking at this from an objective journalistic point of view, ignoring the topic for a moment: this was an incredibly snarky piece of one-sided reporting, "this tree is ok, look how clever I am, tee hee!".


The only thing that sort of surprises me is how surprised everyone is. Do you not know much about CH?

Like the fact its websites' domain is *.ch?

This country that makes you wait at least 10 years before you can get citizenship - this country is super old school. *controversy? Heck yeah.

It's one of the most hyper-militarized states in the world, you do realize, right?

And the country - at least in some parts - that expects women to stay home and raise kids - and has a crazy long lunch break that makes it difficult to do otherwise.

>> ^rychan:
This is ridiculous. Is there nothing in the Swiss or EU constitution that prohibits a law that targets a specific religion? How on Earth did they even write this law, anyway? "If the people inside a building believe Jesus was the son of God, they can build really tall towers, but if they believe Jesus was only a prophet, they can not". Does the building permit for towers have a checkbox for allowable religions? Does an architectural review board decide if a tower is too Islamic-influenced versus Christian-influenced? It's preposterous.


Actually Switzerland is not part of the EU, and there's another reason for you.

BTW, title's misleading, there are already apparently 4 towers which stay - it's just preventing new ones.

The Swiss are the most zoning-law-trigger-happy people in the world, no doubt.

Ahhh ya, that whole mess. Ya, I feel ya man, it seems like this is more the normal way of thinking now. Instead of liberty and freedom for all, its my pet views and values for all...

In reply to this comment by eric3579:
I'm still just pissed that my fellow Californians passed prop.8, and in my mind I'm drawing some weird parallels between the two. I just can't stand when any single group is singled out by the masses.

In reply to this comment by GeeSussFreeK:
>> ^eric3579:
Singling out one religion is just wrong. I would expect a law like this would pass in America, but Switzerland. How disappointing.


Well, we might promote one over the other at times, which isn't good mind you. But we don't stop people from doing most anything with their faith on the whole, which to me is a far worse thing that could happen.

I'm still just pissed that my fellow Californians passed prop.8, and in my mind I'm drawing some weird parallels between the two. I just can't stand when any single group is singled out by the masses.

In reply to this comment by GeeSussFreeK:
>> ^eric3579:
Singling out one religion is just wrong. I would expect a law like this would pass in America, but Switzerland. How disappointing.


Well, we might promote one over the other at times, which isn't good mind you. But we don't stop people from doing most anything with their faith on the whole, which to me is a far worse thing that could happen.

Minarets do not murder people...next straw man please.

>> ^eric3579:
Singling out one religion is just wrong. I would expect a law like this would pass in America, but Switzerland. How disappointing.


Well, we might promote one over the other at times, which isn't good mind you. But we don't stop people from doing most anything with their faith on the whole, which to me is a far worse thing that could happen.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

Ahhh, the spirit of freedom and liberty is with this one. Are you perhaps familiar with the phrase "I don't share your beliefs but I will fight to the death to defend them"...I would guess not.


Ahhh...as long as their beliefs aren't the murder of the non-beleivers.