To reply to Jim D's comment: yes, he makes a career out of permanent peevishness -- not always without reason, given what appears to be the sorry state of modern Britain. But he is a true and dedicated cyclist who rides to get to places--don' think he owns a car--and who regrets the passing of Britain's earlier cycling culture.
Patrick Moore iPhone On Aug 12, 2012, at 1:50 PM, PATRICK MOORE <bertin...@gmail.com> wrote: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2P86C-1x3o > > Conservative loonie (not a loonie because he is conservative; he's > just a loonie and he is conservative), long-time dedicated > transportation cyclist, and brother-to-Christopher, Peter Hitchens, > writing for the raggish Mail, sez: > > "If you believe that Olympic glory makes a nation great, just remember the > USSR > This is Peter Hitchens’ Mail on Sunday column > > It seems that you can now be arrested for not smiling when an Olympic > event is taking place. So I had better watch out in case I am wrestled > to the ground and carted off by some Compulsory Happiness snatch > squad. > > For I have not been smiling nearly enough. I have watched two or three > races on the TV. > > There is still something thrilling in a raw contest among men and > women stretched to the uttermost, in which there can be only one > winner. > > It is refreshingly unlike modern Britain, where the very idea that > there must be losers for there to be winners is banned from most > schools, and denied by our political leaders. > > But I can summon up little interest in all the other alleged sports, > dancing animals, underwater basketball, bikini display or whatever > they are. As a lifelong cyclist, I find myself startlingly unmoved by > Olympic cycling. > > It is too technological, too dependent on machines and airlocks. > > The riders look like aliens in their special outfits. > > But good luck to you if you have enjoyed it. I am happy for you, > provided I’m allowed to differ from you. The trouble is, I’m not sure > I am. > > From the moment these Olympics started, there’s been a strong smell of > New Labour totalitarianism. > > Those who have dared to say they didn’t like the Opening Ceremony have > been lectured and made to feel isolated. > > The BBC even transmitted an astonishing personal attack on me in which > I was misrepresented (they have since apologised, an event as rare as > a Lottery win, but alas the apology is nothing like good enough). > > Now someone called Armando Iannucci, who is famous for something, has > called me a ‘scribbling cynic’ and proclaimed that I and those like me > ‘took a hell of a beating’. > > I think this is because the British team has won a lot of medals, and > the Opening Ceremony has been much praised. > > I can’t see why an Olympic opening ceremony should have any politics > in it at all. But remember how deeply the Blairite Cosa Nostra was > involved in securing the Olympics for London at all costs, and how > their heirs, the Cameron Tories, have taken up the baton. > > Why? I think the pitiful failure of the Millennium Dome rankled badly > with the Blairites. They were and are revolutionaries. They had long > hoped to use the new century to proclaim Year One of their nasty, > tatty, multicultural, anti-Christian New Britain. > > Put simply, I think they wanted to undo the magic of the 1953 > Coronation Ceremony, with modernist incantations and a censored, > reordered version of our national history. > > The Olympics were a second chance, in which a normal love of sport > could be converted into an anti-conservative wave of feeling. > > And behold, they have done it. I don’t begrudge the winners their joy, > or the spectators their delight. > > But do Olympic medals make a nation great? Was the USSR a great nation > because it won lots of them? Is Jamaica a stable and happy society > because Usain Bolt is a great athlete? > Would you rather have Australia’s thriving economy, or Britain’s medal > tally? And by the way, have Prince William and his wife forgotten that > they are future monarchs of Australia? > > In a free country, there is no obvious connection between sporting > achievement and national standing. The truth is that we have used > scarce money to hire coaches, buy equipment and subsidise athletes in > sports where competition is weak. > > When all this is over, we will still be broke, disorderly, badly > educated and gravely troubled by the greatest wave of mass immigration > in our history. I cannot see why I should smile about that." > > -- > "When in Rome, do as they done in Milledgeville." > > Flannery O'Connor > > ------------------------- > Patrick Moore, Albuquerque, NM, USA > For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW > http://resumespecialties.com/index.html > ------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
