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Why Charles III not Carolus III? It was Georgius VI.
Queen Elizabeth I's name was Elizabeth on her coins. Elizabeth is a Hebrew name and there is no Latin version. St Elizabeth was the mother of St John the Baptist. Eliza is not the Latin version, but simply a diminutive form of Elizabeth.
Something I posted as a comment in a Facebook thread today 6 years ago, the morning after the first the Clinton Trump debate and five weeks before the 2016 presidential election. 'I think Trump is a sort of genius. Not a 1st class mind, as we Cambridge men say, of course - nor was Napoleon. Though I don't think businessmen usually make good politicians. Berlusconi had his pluses and minuses. Joe Chamberlain is an exception - can't think of others. Neville was a bad businessman. At least his rubber farm went bust.'
From his article in Unherd today.
'Putin started the war on February 24 with an ultra-modern, high-speed, paralysing coup de main based on the soundest principles of “hybrid warfare”. This works beautifully in war games, and is beloved by beribboned generals who have never fought patriotic Europeans in arms. Having expected, therefore, to take Kiev in one day, and all Ukraine in three or four (that was, of course, the forecast of the CIA, too), Putin discovered abruptly that he could not.
'Because Putin did not stop then, he cannot stop now. We might be headed for another Seven Years’ War. It did not seem like that when the Ukrainians counter-attacked in August, and Putin briefly considered retreating to Donetsk and Luhansk, as he signalled overtly. Then seven months after starting his Six Days’ War, Putin finally mobilised the trained reservists he needed on day one.'
'Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.'
He went on,
'We shall be left defending, not only the incredible virtues and sanities of human life, but this huge impossible universe which stares us in the face.'
I am not sure how Euro-sceptic the new government is or will be allowed to be. I suspect it will be as compliant to the EU and moderate on refugees as the True Finns and the Austrian Freedom Party.
Let's see.
The EU intends to rule Italy as when they imposed Mario Draghi as Prime Minister.
“In Europe, we have certain values and, obviously, we will be vigilant....It is a human rights value and the respect of others, namely the right to have access to abortion, [that] should be upheld by all.”
As a warlord Mr Putin has proved himself to be one of the great bunglers of history. He has not known what to do since he failed to
'People aged over 40 can save the planet if they act quickly, before the progressive young take over. Then all is doomed. Brexit is a start.'Now the outlook looks much gloomier, to judge by this description of the generation that is starting at British universities now by Matt Goodwin, who predicts another cultural revolution.
"Ukraine will never forgive Russia......You may want to forgive everything, but you click in the search engine: Mariupol, Irpin or Bucha. And you can’t forgive a goddamn thing anymore. Every step of this war, every crime and every shot, every torn scrotum will now remain forever.”
'Russia’s defense of Donbass, wise or unwise, by no means indicates a Russian intention to invade other countries. This false alarm is the pretext for the remilitarization of Germany in alliance with the Anglo-Saxon powers against Russia.
'....But the real point of the Kosovo war was that it transformed NATO from a defensive into an aggressive alliance, ready to wage war anywhere, without U.N. mandate, on whatever pretext it chose.
'This lesson was clear to the Russians. After the Kosovo war, NATO could no longer credibly claim that it was a purely “defensive” alliance.
'As soon as Serbian President Milosevic, to save his country’s infrastructure from NATO destruction, agreed to allow NATO troops to enter Kosovo, the U.S. unceremoniously grabbed a huge swath territory to build the its first big U.S. military base in the Balkans. NATO troops are still there.'
Full article here. Actually, it seems to me, Germany is being forced to do America's bidding, but she is looking at the Ukraine war in the right way, as a struggle for power between Russia and America.
Are shadows, not substantial things;
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
.
"Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic." Walter Bagehot
"You can make all sorts of solid arguments against a constitutional monarchy — but the point of monarchy is precisely that it is not the fruit of an argument. It is emphatically not an Enlightenment institution. It’s a primordial institution smuggled into a democratic system. It has nothing to do with merit and logic and everything to do with authority and mystery — two deeply human needs our modern world has trouble satisfying without danger." Andrew Sullivan in Unherd today
“If racism wasn't a problem in the UK, why do you think this is the first time in 300 or so years since a person of color married into the British Royal Family?”
This is a very interesting thread on Twitter from a professor who wrote a book about Vladimir Putin. I quote a small part:
...As recently as yesterday, the consensus in Western policy circles – among US, UK & EU experts & officials – was that while Russia was not winning this war, neither was Ukraine. It was hard to find anyone who believed that Ukraine could make significant territorial advances.
For two months or more, everyone has assumed this to be a war of attrition, rather than of position – and for good reason. The counter-offensive in the south was a slog, and reports were coming in of heavy casualties. Meanwhile, signs of fatigue in the West were mounting.
...In war – as in politics – what people believe will happen next can be more important than what has actually occurred, and those beliefs can turn on a dime. What's more, in violent conflict those beliefs are imbued with powerful emotions, which can submerge rational thought.
It's tempting to say that yesterday's 'attrition' story was wrong and that this war will now be decided by Russia's ability to resist Ukraine's advances. But the attrition story was not wrong yesterday: it only became wrong today.
At her Coronation she was allowed behind the thick curtains which conceal the workings of Government from most of us, and saw with absolute clarity that Christian faith is the compact that makes our freedom and laws possible. Unless we believe that a higher power stands above us, we will in the end have either anarchy or tyranny.
