grizzman69.bsky.social
Eclectic Pagan with a thing for books and Celtic art... living in Ireland with my husband.
Not very active online as I'm also my husband's carer and don't always have the energy to sign on at the end of the day, but will happily natter as and when able.
154 posts
1,530 followers
172 following
Getting Started
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Hmmmm. I would prefer to see the changes given in numbers-percentages can be misleading, e.g. a drop of 40% in a country where they previously sold 100 cars vs an increase of 5% in a country where they previously sold 10,000 cars = 40 cars less in one place vs. 500 cars more in another.
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Yes. I'm no scientist, but my husband and I have had that happen to us, on several occasions. We've learned to forego physical contact and intimacy when one or the other of us is down with a bug. It's the only approach that seems to work.
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Aye, I understand. I'm probably on the spectrum as well (self diagnosed, so don't make much noise about it), and have the same thing going on. Aided and abetted by the fact that my husband has bad COPD and I'm his carer... putting myself after others is natural and required these days.
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No surprises here-this is exactly the kind of response I expected. Trump has triggered European rearmament, and Ukraine is now the European front line. Once we get to the point of EU-China trade deals for military equipment it'll be a case of WW3, here we come.
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Nuclear weapons proliferation is scary. But unless the pro-Putin administrations (Hungary, Slovakia) are kicked out of the EU first, a unified EU level response and nuclear programme won't happen. The EU knows this. It's why the individual national approach is on the table and may well happen.
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Yeah, my husband watched Vikings... I watched a bit from the sidelines but never really got into it. Interested to see the story being told, though-I'm from Northumberland myself, so am familiar with that part of the history in its backstory.
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Yuck. Thanx for the tip-off. Blocked without compunction... we can do without her sort here. OK, I'm a gay man, so might not be on her target list... but better to play safe and keep my environment untainted.
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Money talks. Now the USA bares its true soul to the world... as the land of Mammon. The Land of the Rich and the Home of the Hoodwinked. Yuck.
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Thanx! I'll give them a look-tip is most appreciated. FYI, the YouTube channel I'm watching is called "The Irish Homestead", if you're interested.
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Aye. I watch one where a husband and wife from the Greater Manchester area, with two kids, are restoring what appears to be a derelict cottage/smallholding in Leitrim. They're wowed by the help and hospitality they've received too. I also understand the Brehon Laws included a section on hospitality.
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I remember going to see one on a school trip, back home in Northumberland, during the late 70s/early 80s sometime. The one we saw had been dug to extract coal, and the hole was still open... fascinating.
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Yeah, I bet it can. I'm following at least one of the first set of accounts (English couple restoring a derelict Irish cottage), but haven't bothered with the latter ones. As a naturalised British immigrant here in Ireland, I had to find my own way. Nuff said.
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Best Of Luck to them. For everyone's sake, I hope they pull it off. This is going to be the only way to stop the fat cats... in the USA and elsewhere, now and in the future.
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Think also of the Hindu Yuga cycle. We are in the early stages of a slow 10,000-or so-year rise to perfection, having left the Kali yuga in the late 19th century. All we can do is keep trying to do the best we can.
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Think of the Pillars of the Qabala. Might & Mercy... with humans challenged to embody the Middle Pillar of Equilibrium. Balance is the key.
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The virtues never stick around unless the vices are also there. For us to gain one, we must have the other too. Both are part of the same thing-one is meaningless without the other. Don't fixate on perfection. Just do the best you can.
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Hmmmm. Does the agency by which the Age of Pisces is brought to an end really matter?
We know its end is inevitable. We know some disruption is needed to clear out the Piscean social structures to make way for the Aquarian ones.
Focus on dealing with the disruption rather than its cause.
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No... but then, I ditched the dead bird site a while ago. Wonder if Musk has fired the security team now?
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The kickback seems to be starting at provincial level-Ontario's governor's banned US firms from all provincial govt. contracts & is threatening to tear up Ontario's Starlink contract. He's facing re-election, so some of it may just be bluster-but the very fact that it's being said is significant.
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Captain Beaky!!!
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Indeed. I just hope they didn't find a dead jewel thief tied up in the bell chamber afterwards... that would be TOO close to the book for comfort!
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HA! That bird is SWAGGERING. How refreshing to see that even penguins can fall prey to the vicissitudes of the ego! 🤣🤣🤣
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Yeah-and what about the twits who started using the term "Brexpat" for UK nationals who'd settled elsewhere in the EU before Brexit? NOT happy when I got called that... I'm a naturalised Irish citizen now.
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Aye. The political class, in America and elsewhere, are far too focused on corporate culture. The only way to change that is to build the co-operative model at a grassroots community level. Quietly build clout among voters. Once it's strong enough, the politicians will have to listen to it.
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Aye. And guess what? Windows 11 defaults to "S Mode", which doesn't allow you to install apps from anywhere except the Microsoft App Store... and while it allows you to switch out of "S Mode", it includes dire sounding warnings to try and scare you out of doing it.
B1g T3ch 15 4 b45t4rd.
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I think the higher up the financial pyramid you go, the more you depend on people in the levels below to maintain your position.
Every billionaire needs others to manage their wealth, work for them, help their dealing & so make them more money. Pecks on the posterior would be second nature for them.
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Aye. That's the Ghastly Old Party for you... says it all.
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Yes, I've had a few vamps follow me too... poor things haven't twigged to the fact that I'm gay and have absolutely no interest in them!
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That's true. Maybe the gold standard was also a concept, just more regulated than the current system of determining a country's wealth by its assets... wouldn't surprise me.
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True. IMHO, ever since countries came off the gold standard, money has been nothing but a concept. You don't need to use materials or resources to grow a concept. You can invent whatever financial constructs you wish to grow it instead.
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"Mean Democrats" is too simplistic. Musk's a typical white saffie, raised during apartheid and very conservative. My husband, another white saffie, has a similar mindset... tho' not as strong, due to being gay & so outside the conservative box. Gotta take their backgrounds into account too.
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It's a smokescreen. Like the wall & QAnon last time. Smoke & mirrors to distract while he uses the presidency to line his own pockets. How many foreign delegations got what they wanted after booking into a Trump hotel last time? Check and see. This is his playbook. Pure Kissinger.
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Bottom line is the elephant in the room... the demand for priests. During the time of the Black Death, most English people would have been Christians. Today, fewer than half the population (about 46%) are Christian.
Fewer Christians = fewer priests + lower stipends.
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Deposited in a time honoured manner once practiced by citizens of the Roman Empire, methinks... an apt nod to the drunken litter louts of ancient Rome, who left their former dwelling places strewn with broken amphorae and cups for the edification and education of modern archaeologists.
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Aye. Same here in Ireland. The health service is strained; there is some official assistance & a semi-official support network of charities/NGOs, but the load still lands on the family carers first and foremost.
Ireland has half a million family carers, and we save the state 2 BILLION euros a year.
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True. AFAIK, P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, was an adherent of Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way" approach to spirituality... what other philosophies she followed I don't know, but there are messages and teachings hidden within her work. Look deeper into both film and books.
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Assuming they were ever sane in the first place... relying on a 1000+ year old book which has been subject to political censorship, misinterpretation and mistranslation, instead of your own wits and acuity, is not a sane thing to do.
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Aye-I know what you mean about "oddly soothing". It's like rereading a favourite book, or binge-watching a TV series you've seen before. You know the environment of the story and how it will turn out. That certainty is the comfort bit. Nothing nasty will happen, so you can relax into the story.
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Believe me, this isn't just an American thing. I'm on the other side of the Atlantic, in Ireland, and caring for my husband... while we do have some support here from the state, it takes months of paperwork and means tests to get it, and even then we still have to fight for some of the help we need.
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Have you given W. Dan Willis a look? His Arcane Casebook series is unique and quirky.
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That use of a vanguard party IS communism unrestrained... Scandinavian democratic socialism is closer to the balance I spoke of.
Socialism needs money to look after people. Money is generated by capitalism. No jobs=no taxes to fund health and social care. This interdependence makes balance vital.
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I know that feeling... when your country of origin becomes a source of embarrassment. I'm from the UK, though I moved to the Republic of Ireland almost 25 years ago, and Brexit, followed by the populist nonsense spewed by the UK "government" of the day, provoked similar feelings for me then.
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Aye. It's described by some as Dorothy L. Sayers' best murder mystery... definitely worth a read.
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Also a fan here... I've read all but Five Red Herrings (which I found rather heavy going and gave up on).