British Far Right, Defeated At Polls, Resorts To Street Thuggery

Can we expect this even if our own ultra-right is marginalized and defeated in elections? Somehow I think our racist wackos skew older, and less physically able to carry out coordinated attacks. But dang, they could sure cause traffic jams and hog all the sidewalks with their RVs and scooters.

Far-right activists have attacked trade union meetings and anti-racist groups in the past month in what campaigners and politicians say is an escalating campaign of intimidation and violence.

In the latest incident, a 20-strong group hurled concrete pillars, glass and rocks at a meeting on multiculturalism organised by Labour councillors in Barking, east London.

“It was terrifying,” said Beverley, 48, an NHS worker who was hit by a rock, leaving her hand so badly damaged that she needed surgery and was on a drip in hospital for three days. “These people seem to think they can bully and intimidate people into staying away.”

The attack last Thursday followed incidents in Liverpool, Brighton and east London involving people who claim to be supporters of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right street movement. A spokesman for the group said the EDL was unaware of any of the incidents, adding that it did not condone violence.

The attacks follow disastrous election performances by the British National party, leading analysts to warn that some of its supporters may be turning their backs on electoral politics to focus on more violent street confrontations.

“The threat is that as far-right activists decide the electoral path is no longer possible … we will see more aggressive street-based groups linking up and a rise in racially and politically motivated violence,” said Nick Lowles from Searchlight.

Via The Guardian

Riley Doing Well At The Kitty Spa

Riley

While we’re on vacation, I checked with our vet, Arlington Cat Clinic, where Riley is being boarded (and probably being a little boreded). He’s fine, eating well, getting his meds. Doc Esbenson thinks he should have better “numbers” for white blood cell count, though, so he will check with a specialist. They’re taking good care of Riley and report that he really, REALLY likes the Fancy Feast Extra Gravy style that we sent along with his prescription Science Diet food.

We miss Riley and although we’ll be sad that vacation’s over, we’ll be glad to bring Riley home once we return.

In Which I Has Yet Another Pifanee: Friends and Family Matter

I has a pifaneee!!1!

So here we are, blogging again, are we? It seems the only times I bother to blog are those times when I’m traveling, when I get a burst of blogging energy and also take a lot of pictures which will have to be uploaded, culled, cropped, and commented on.

This time, we’re back in Seattle getting ready for another run at Northwest FolkLife Festival after spending the first half of our trip in Port Angeles exploring the edges of Olympic National Park while living the luxurious high life at Colette’s Bed and Breakfast.

As lazy-blogged previously via Twitter, we got to Seattle (eventually) last Friday, stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn Sea-Tac, picked up a bright red Ford Escape the next morning from Avis, and caught the Bainbridge Island ferry all of the Saturday morning. While bumbling around in the town of Bainbridge, we checked out their weekly Farmer’s Market and found my most favorite-est tea in the world, Yorkshire Gold, at the Churchmouse Yarns and Teas shop. Honestly, I teared up when I saw it prominently featured in their little corner devoted to high-end teas. The first time I had Yorkshire Gold, I was on a walking tour in England with my friend Christine, and as it happens we’ll be meeting up in Bainbridge tomorrow (it’s a convenient midpoint for us as we’re now in Seattle and she’s way out on the tip of the Kitsap Peninsula). This was one of the many epiphanies I’ve had on this trip; they all have to do with re-connecting with friends, families, and former lives.

The time in Port Angeles was wonderful, restful, full of great food, new friends, lots of memories of hikes, the ocean, and even eagles. The memories of our single night at Kalaloch Lodge – meh, that was a disapointment aside from the views. One thing I did manage to do was get in touch with my Second Life friend, Tammy, and we met up today for the first time in “meatspace.” And the other was that I managed to get a postcard sent to David’s and my niece Melissa, who’s very special to us and doesn’t get to spend nearly enough time with family.

She’ll get it in a few days and we’ll try to call her; I may not send my own sister a goldarned birthday card, but at least I got something in the mail to “Me’Liss.” I may have mentioned how Melissa lives several hours away from the rest of our Illinois family and only gets to see all of us at special occasions; we’ll see her next for her sister’s graduation celebration/college farewell party later this month. She doesn’t have access to tools like Facebook and Twitter, and pretty much lives from visit to visit, phone call to phone call. She sends notes by mail too – and it seems we never send her any mail back unless it’s a postcard, so that’s another pifanee I’ve had on this trip: I really must start writing her regularly, it would make her so happy and it’s such a simple thing.

Anyway.

I’ve been horrible about keeping in touch with more distant friends and family for the last few years…

Hi Timmy! How was your birthday?? I suck at birthday cards!! How’s your vacation going? Mine’s good so far

You know, kind of like that, neglecting people and taking them for granted… and neglecting myself, and neglecting the blog, my (feeble) creative impulses towards writing and photography and so on. I’m getting together with as many Seattle friends as possible on this trip, and I’m going to try to stay in better touch and not simply bounce in and out of their lives every couple of years on our biannual trips here for Folklife.

So, rather than being immobilized by all that STUFF WOT HAS BEEN LEFT IDLE I’ll just… start somewhere. And that somewhere is right here, on this page, letter by letter, word by word, thought by thought.

We’re currently set up in a comfortable hotel suite near the Seattle Center – David even has a little office space he’s set up in, so he can keep up with some of his mailing list stuff that he hosts/administers. We’re here until Monday, but won’t spend ALL of our time at the music stages – most of Saturday and Sunday, probably not Monday as we’ll head home that afternoon. May wander down to the site Friday for the opening, although in all my years of going to Folklife, I’ve never made it to the opening drum circle or hippie hootenany or whatever it is. It’ll just be fun hanging out with a few hundred thousand people, listening to music from hundreds of different pro, semi-pro, and serious amateur acts. I’ll run into more friends, load up on new music CDs to load into iTunes, and get back in touch in all senses of the word.

Meanwhile, I had another absurd epiphany in the QFC grocery store earlier – there were cases of Henry Weinhard’s Special Reserve, the favorite beer of my so-called college career. And there were also cases of some truly great beers from Hawaii, that David and I are very fond of because they evoke wonderful memories from stays on Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai.

Which reminds me… some great hula halaus performing on Friday, must try to catch at least one of them that evening.

Happy Folklife, everyone! Hope to see a lot of old friends and new friends there.

Fixed the Delicious 500 Error Posting Problem (I Hope)

My benign neglect of all things Blogula is ending – at least that’s my intention. One little thing that’s been bugging me is a bug with Delicious.com’s filtering – they’ve recently started filtering out links saved via their otherwise excellent service that they identify as “malicious” or bad somehow, and replacing them with “Internal Server 500” errors. I finally tracked down the Postalicious plug-in’s blog to get a possible fix for this problem, or at least a workaround: burn the Delicious feed through Feedburner, and use THAT feed in the plug-in.

As a side note, duh, when did Google buy Feedburner? Oh, well, I’ve been spending too much time just reading in Google Reader rather than actually writing or blogging to keep up with this stuff.

My Delicious link feed will now be http://feeds.feedburner.com/ Delicious/ginnyred57

And I promise to save interesting links, once I’m satisfied the thing is working right. The posts will be titled “Links” instead of “Linkdump” if I set it up right.

Via Shifting Mind » Postalicious 2.0

Is this thing still on?

Yes, Ginny is a bad blogger. A bad, bad blogger; she never updates her blog. Or she lets automatic updates fill in the blanks from Twitter and leaves her broken del.icio.us reposter running.

She’s on vacation and tinkering with a really old desktop blogging platform on her laptop called ‘ecto for windows’ that hasn’t been updated by the developer since about 2007.

It would have been convenient to work offline, but oh, well, she’ll have to blog the normal way after all.

More to follow.

Seattlite Again, For A Few Days

Aside

On our way to Seattle after several days in Port Angeles. Friends, fun, and Folk Life, here we come.

On our way in, had lunch with Tammy of Jackson St Books/Books on 7th in Hoquiam. We quaffed delicious Hoppy Bitch ale, and very tasty it was, too.

Now sporting a spiffy knit cap Tammy made, I’m feeling tres fashionable and will enjoy wearing it when I’m back home too.

It’s nice to be on the road to Seattle for the final leg of our vacation; the stop in Kalaloch was kind of a bust but another time we’ll stay somewhere else.

We kept seeing a cyclist on the road, first encountered at Lake Crescent. We stopped at Sol Duc for lunch yesterday – their deli was a complete dud – and when we got back on the road, the cyclist had gotten ahead. Saw him again after we stopped at one of the beaches, and again this morning; he stayed at Kalaloch too. It’s raining today so it can’t be too pleasant riding, hope he’s holed up somewhere dry and warm.

Our cabin last night was a sad comedy, couldn’t keep the fire going, and that was the one selling point the place had aside from the stunning view.

Weekly Tweets 2011-05-22

  • Dug out the "kitty garden" again, none of the perennials made it due to poor drainage. Removed about 8 gallons of horrid yellow clay. #
  • Kitty Garden ready for more "good earth" and this year's batch of doomed perennials: phlox, coral bells, coriopsis http://twitpic.com/4y0skr #
  • PS I hurt all over. #
  • RT @HoardersPossum "RT @cluttercleaner: A bunch of people have asked, so here you go. Hoarders – Season 4 – Starts June 20th." YAYY! #
  • There are wineries in Illinois and Michigan but somehow I don't think they'll be on the next season of #JamesMaysRoadtrip #
  • For instance, can't see James and Oz rolling past the freeway interchange truckstops to visit Mt Vernon IL's winery #JamesMaysRoadtrip #
  • I don't think poking the easily provoked is a good policy. 😉 #
  • So is @PaulRyan going after the stereotypical #welfaregranny now? #p2 #tpot #hcr #
  • Self installing lapcat… SUCCEEDED. #
  • I want to know why #cellphonelady wasn't put off the train after ONE hour of talking in the quiet car, not 16 (and almost home). @AC360 #
  • RT @KagroX "@peoplefor: As seen on @MSNBC: "ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures": http://bit.ly/kEcd0D" #
  • We need an American People's Union lobbying state legislatures for real-world solutions to our problems. @KagroX @peoplefor #
  • Watched #Castle finale last nite. Way 2 do good drama, @NathanFillion & all. You upped ante from "romantic comedy." #BAMgoesthelady #
  • Lots of great drama from entire #Castle ensemble in finale, actually. Well done. #
  • With every fresh new scandal, the GOP is revealed as the party of Dysfunctional Family Values. #p2 #schwarzenegger #Gingrich #
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's wasn't enough for Newt; had to have second breakfast, elevenses, brunch, coffee break, and tiffin too. #
  • Uh, no: @RepJoeWalsh "Let's show the country there ARE (not) solid conservatives in Obama's backyard" #p2 #youaremistaken #GOPbeGONEin2012 #
  • Oh, Satire, how I wish you were true… #pulpedfiction http://www.esquire.com/blogs/p…..ok-5765410 #
  • At 6pm PDT 22MAY I will be drinking wine and enjoying some awesome seafood with my hubby @fallingrock #
  • Get your last minute #RaptureTips gear at Eddie Bauer's #LastDays event (sale ends 22MAY)! http://twitpic.com/5059n4 #
  • Subject line: #LastDays – 25% Off Everything at Eddie Bauer, for all your #RaptureTips needs. http://twitpic.com/505bp0 #
  • At 6pm local time tomorrow I plan to be nekkid in a Jacuzzi. #
  • What if they held a Rapture and nobody went? #postrapture #
  • RT @episcopalcafe "Speaking up for the poor" Episcopalian lay leader Bonnie Anderson on real work of the church http://bit.ly/jjxjJD #ecafe quot; #
  • RT @schadkitty: Some call it rapture. I call it recall. Either way, the Republicans are leaving office. #wiunion quot; #
  • Bones just #jumpedtheshark for me but then I'm #childfree #
  • Headed to the Port of Air. #fb #
  • Should have marketed Sinful Second Thoughts parachutes. #RaptureTips #doh #
  • Are there ANY power outlets in ORD C terminal? Stupid proprietary plugs. @United terminal full of delayed folks. #
  • Flight delayed. Again. #
  • RT @HawaiiNewsNow "Lei needed for Memorial Day: city is seeking the public's help providing 50,000 lei for graves http://bit.ly/lIaqoy" #
  • Upgraded. Delayed. Arriving SEA after midnight PDT, 2am CDT. The good, the bad, and the not pretty. #
  • Need drink heavily once boarded and wonder what the hell is up with @Wonkette #
  • Why did Harold Camping's Family Radio file for a tax extension until July? #RaptureFacts H/T @Liturgy @CNNMoney http://is.gd/9aivzt #
  • Landed SEA. Very sleepy. #
  • Why can't ORD have free wifi and power outlets like SEA? #whywhywhy #
  • Everybody on our flight was coughing and sneezing. And soon, so shall I. #fb #
  • RT @skilleahy "@RepJoeWalsh So what are you doing to promote alternative energy?" He's hoping his seniority improves first #RaptureDownside #
  • RT @Shoq "THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! Reclaim Twitter names from people who just got #raptured http://retread_the_dead.com #p2 quot; #WIN #
  • Recommend the Holiday Inn Sea-Tac for biz and leisure travelers. The night driver ROCKS. Courtesy phone 28 rings his cell. #
  • Why does Harold Camping's group have $70 mil in the bank? Balance should zero out at 6pm local time. #RaptureFail @rapturefail #
  • Lining up for Bainbridge Island Ferry. #fb #
  • Truth: I feel sorry for anyone who actually believes in the concept of the #Rapture or who've been scammed by Harold Camping. #
  • Scored Yorkshire Gold Tea at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. Nice chat with the owner. www.churchmouseyarns.com #
  • RT @schwa Today is like an atheist Christmas. Either all the good Christians are taken away. Or we get to mock them forever. Win/win." #
  • Hmm, @lutheranish perhaps FamilyRadio.com's servers got raptured by mistake. #
  • About to have open face crab sammich with Tillamook cheese on it at Cafe Nola, Bainbridge WA. @TillamookCheese on the menu! #
  • My father-in-law will be attending Post Rapture Looting. We think he's after office supplies and outdated software. #
  • Only three hours until Pacific Daylight Rapture Fail Time. #
  • Arrived at the most luxurious B&B ever… holy COW! #
  • Wine and horse doovers in half an hour. #ApocalypseMaaaaaybe an hour later. #fb #
  • What a rip, NO UPSKIRTS! #RaptureDisappointment #
  • Now my biggest priority is watching the eagles and thinking about where to have dinner. #thenewnormal #

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