idj

2009 was one of the most promising and one of the most wonderful years of my life in many ways for which I will be eternally grateful and equally 2009 was a powerful lesson in just how painful and damaging life can be and thus, there comes a point in time when it's best to move on. The sanctuary of soul was left frozen in time at the Winter Solstice 2008 and the past was not erased, forgotten or denied, it was just left behind, a line was drawn. With 2009 fast coming to an end I feel the desire to start something new and once again, leave the past where it belongs, where it resides and where it reigned. With that in mind I intend to start a new thing so idj will be locked down now and remain as a record of what was for 2009. We all need to be 3 steps ahead and 2 behind and so the time has come to move on and grow stronger. Once again it's time to leave the past alone and focus on the future for 2010

So with Bush in the White House the American Government waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to make a change as promised, Obama decided to continue the wars already in progress and then add to the list with more War in Pakistan, not the change we was all expecting right ? To put some more change into the mix he decides to put some more War on the Horizon by issuing warnings to Iran. Congratulations America, you are now without doubt, the world's Kings of War and in this perverse reign of the New World Order, your elected President gets the Nobel Peace Prize. God Bless America ! I don't think so . . . the devil will bless you though so paint the White House black. As for the 'land of the free' - America has over 2 million people in prison, that's more than any other nation and with the exception of China, America has more than double that of any other nation.

peace man

1. United States of America 2,085,620  
2  China  1,548,498  
3  Russian Federation  763,054  
4  Brazil  330,642  
5  India  313,635  
6  Ukraine  198,386  
7  Mexico  191,890  
8  South Africa  186,739  
9  Thailand  168,264  
10 Iran  133,658

Now she has a name . . . returning light

zayin

Do you believe that honesty is the best policy ?  Absolutely . . . without question and beyond all reasonable doubt. The lack of honesty in this world and the lack of truth among the human race has led to an eternal stream of confusion, destruction and self-destruction worldwide for thousands of years and it seems to be accelerating towards oblivion. Without honesty there is no truth and without truth there is no reality, without reality all we have left is lies and deceit and life is not worth living if that's all there is.

How beautiful are these white lion cubs - so cute but not so cuddly, no doubt limbs may be lost if you get too close.

white lion

This is a letter to the Prime Minister written by Joe Glenton, Lance Corporal, Royal Logistics Corps and he's a brave man to take this stance and should be admired for doing so, not taken to court by the government.

joe glenton

'Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to you as a serving soldier in the British army to express my views and concerns on the current conflict in Afghanistan. It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy. I believe this unethical short-changing of such proud men and women has caused immeasurable suffering not only to families of British service personnel who have been killed and injured, but also to the noble people of Afghanistan.

I have seen qualities in the Afghan people which have also been for so long apparent and admired in the British soldier. Qualities of robustness, humour, utter determination and unwillingness to take a step backwards. However it is these qualities, on both sides, which I fear will continue to cause a state of attrition. These will only lead to more heartbreak within both our societies.

I am not a general nor am I a politician and I cannot claim any mastery of strategy. However, I am a soldier who has served in Afghanistan, which has given me some small insight. I believe that when British military personnel submit themselves to the service of the nation and put their bodies into harms way, the government that sends them into battle is obliged to ensure that the cause is just and right, i.e. for the protection of life and liberty.

The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there. I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, Sir, to bring our soldiers home.

source - stop the war

I got to think of a name for her. I think she's settled in now and intends to stay for winter.

native7spot

Having lost lots of data stored on Apple servers using the Apple MobileMe account, their customer services agent pointed out to me that Apple are in no way responsible and I should have read the small print . . . 'Apple does not guarantee or warrant that any Content you may store or access through the Service will not be subject to inadvertent damage, corruption or loss.' I guess she was right and so I read some more small print and it turns out that Apple are not actually responsible for anything at all, non of their hardware, non of their software, none of their services, absolutely nothing. It's kind of sad that huge corporate company's manage to free themselves of responsibility yet rake in millions of dollars in profit for goods and services that they admit, may breakdown and not actually work at all. Lesson learned, always read the small print.

For the record, the featured promotional text reads . . . With MobileMe iDisk, it’s easy to store, access and share files online. You have plenty of storage space - even large files are no problem. Just add the files you need to your iDisk, and whatever you upload will be there for you to download using a web browser on any computer or using the iDisk App for iPhone or iPod touch . . . but then again, it may not be

Who are you dying to see in concert ? I really wanted to see Sara Tavares perform at the Jazz Cafe in London tonight but I could not get hold of tickets for the event. I shall just have to wait and hope she returns to the UK next year.