Ocular opening; oscillating opinions...

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Happy New Year. 2020...a leap year. I awoke with a 20/20 vision* of a wonderful year where the UK will leap ahead...as expected. Hopefully a belated return to the sensible Right and back away from the turgid lefty 'backward progressive' direction we have been heading for 20 years. Just a bit of fun but the two images are from  January 2010, when Gordon Brown (Brownstuff) was still Prime Minister (seems a decade ago!...oh) and the whole of the UK was white with snow and beset by blizzards.

Image from Wikipedia: "The cold weather was caused by high pressure over Greenland and Iceland forcing weather patterns southward, a phenomenon described by meteorologists as the Arctic Oscillation and also the North Atlantic Oscillation which were negative compared to normal."



* it was a vision..could mean shit! LOL.

Ocular opening; oscillating opinions...

---

Happy New Year. 2020...a leap year. I awoke with a 20/20 vision* of a wonderful year where the UK will leap ahead...as expected. Hopefully a belated return to the sensible Right and back away from the turgid lefty 'backward progressive' direction we have been heading for 20 years. Just a bit of fun but the two images are from  January 2010, when Gordon Brown (Brownstuff) was still Prime Minister (seems a decade ago!...oh) and the whole of the UK was white with snow and beset by blizzards.

Image from Wikipedia: "The cold weather was caused by high pressure over Greenland and Iceland forcing weather patterns southward, a phenomenon described by meteorologists as the Arctic Oscillation and also the North Atlantic Oscillation which were negative compared to normal."

* it was a vision..could mean shit! LOL.

Overwhelming optimism...

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Happy New Year!

'The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' 

'I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.' [LINK]

I really enjoyed James Delingpole's six point plan for 2019 at Breitbart London. He wasn't even too hard on the wankerati (that wonderful term he himself coined a few years back): from Truth (Trump) to Candour to Integrity to Optimism to Sexism.




I agree with every word and stand up and applaud some of it, tongue in cheek besides, what he writes is 100% true: "I’m not suggesting that the mighty, wise and funny God Emperor Trump is without flaws. (Though I can’t immediately think of any). What I am saying is that if any of his predecessors – Obama especially – had been held to the same standards by the media establishment, half of them would have been impeached and Obama would now be in Gitmo."



Anyway, in a few weeks it will be the Year of the Pig, so a third Winston Churchill quote:

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Overwhelming optimism...

---

Happy New Year!

'The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' 

'I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.' [LINK]

I really enjoyed James Delingpole's six point plan for 2019 at Breitbart London. He wasn't even too hard on the wankerati (that wonderful term he himself coined a few years back): from Truth (Trump) to Candour to Integrity to Optimism to Sexism.

I agree with every word and stand up and applaud some of it, tongue in cheek besides, what he writes is 100% true: "I’m not suggesting that the mighty, wise and funny God Emperor Trump is without flaws. (Though I can’t immediately think of any). What I am saying is that if any of his predecessors – Obama especially – had been held to the same standards by the media establishment, half of them would have been impeached and Obama would now be in Gitmo."

Anyway, in a few weeks it will be the Year of the Pig, so a third Winston Churchill quote:

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Omisoka osechi...

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May your special box be bountiful...and beautiful. I like the cut of the Japanese jib: they traditionally (or did) spend the year end with, as one might expect, activities considered important for the year-end: a clean start, house cleaning and tidying, repaying debts (ha!), "purification" (such as driving out evil spirits and bad luck) [Wiki], and personal hygiene/bathing. This chimes exactly with what me and my OCD like to do. That and light a candle. Clean, clear, rest, relax, welcome. best wishes for 2018; totally off topic a couple of quotes from the mighty Albert to end the year:  "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."... ..."Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Or an even better quote from Muse: "Don't Waste your Time or Time Will Waste You." It will anyway but don't let it be for nothing!

Omisoka osechi...

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May your special box be bountiful...and beautiful. I like the cut of the Japanese jib: they traditionally (or did) spend the year end with, as one might expect, activities considered important for the year-end: a clean start, house cleaning and tidying, repaying debts (ha!), "purification" (such as driving out evil spirits and bad luck) [Wiki], and personal hygiene/bathing. This chimes exactly with what me and my OCD like to do. That and light a candle. Clean, clear, rest, relax, welcome. best wishes for 2018; totally off topic a couple of quotes from the mighty Albert to end the year:  "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."... ..."Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Or an even better quote from Muse: "Don't Waste your Time or Time Will Waste You." It will anyway but don't let it be for nothing!

Overtly optimistic ovine O...

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Well said Matt Ridley: a highly optimistic outlook as one would expect from 'the Rational Optimist'; also published in The Times with excellent comments (£ Link £): "Britain's best years", a New Year's offering: "800 years after Magna Carta and 200 after Waterloo, the UK's in good shape". Worth a read in full but something Matt says chimes true:

"All my life I have been told that Britain is in decline. But stand back and take a long, hard look. Even by relative standards, it just is not true."... ..."Compared with many other countries, we have enviable opportunities ahead of us."

Not forgetting of course how much of that history was England. Just in case you're wondering about the title of this blog-post, in one month the Chinese Year of the Sheep/Ram starts and 'O' is the 15th letter of the alphabet. :-)

Overtly optimistic ovine O...

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Well said Matt Ridley: a highly optimistic outlook as one would expect from 'the Rational Optimist'; also published in The Times with excellent comments (£ Link £): "Britain's best years", a New Year's offering: "800 years after Magna Carta and 200 after Waterloo, the UK's in good shape". Worth a read in full but something Matt says chimes true:

"All my life I have been told that Britain is in decline. But stand back and take a long, hard look. Even by relative standards, it just is not true."... ..."Compared with many other countries, we have enviable opportunities ahead of us."

Not forgetting of course how much of that history was England. Just in case you're wondering about the title of this blog-post, in one month the Chinese Year of the Sheep/Ram starts and 'O' is the 15th letter of the alphabet. :-)