SATURDAY NIGHT MISCELLANEOUS.

Fly like an eagle. Steve Miller Band. From the 1976 album of the same name, which was their best selling ever.





I try to present a balanced rock/pop spectrum spanning five decades, but I must admit I find it hard to come up with decent recent material. Is it just me, or do you think groups like Finger Eleven, Linkin Park or freaking Evanescence are a match for, say, The Cure, Level 42 or Kate Bush?

Seems I always have to get back to Moby for high quality ballsy 21st century music. Here's Lift me Up. From the 2005 album Hotel.





MFBB.

FRAHAN-SUR-SEMOIS, PROVINCE OF LUXEMBOURG, BELGIUM.

Frahan, a little village in Belgium's deep south, perched on the flank of a crest around which the Semois river meanders. It's one of those places in the Ardennes where time seems to stand still. People used to cultivate tobacco there. Don't know if it's much done still.





If the weather's good come Sunday, we're heading over there to so some reconnoitring for a hinking weekend somewhere near the end of October. There's an elusive couple of weeks in that timeframe when the Ardennes woods have their own 'Indian summer'.


MFBB.

CONGRATUFUCKINGLATIONS PORTUGUESE SOCIALIST ASSHOLES!!!

Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Abortion is now possible in Portugal!!!





Well, okay. It's been made far more easy back in 2007 already, after a referendum organised by the Portuguese socialists that was legally unbinding, given the low turnout. The Portuguese socialists however, like their comrades everywhere on the globe, could however not be bothered by such childish observations. Two years later, raw data are pouring in, and raw foetuses are flushing out. An article in Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws, 9 September 2009:



Translation:

TWICE AS MANY ABORTIONS IN PORTUGAL BECAUSE WOMEN PREFER TO GO ON VACATION.

"In traditionally catholic Portugal abortion was forbidden until 2007, but since then there's no stopping it. Especially the last months saw a sharp increase in the number of abortions.

Medical personnel say the recession plays a role in women not wanting any more children. In the "Clinica dos Arcos" private clinic alone, during the first four days of this months 144 abortions were performed, an average of 36 a day. That's almost double the normal daily total, writes Diário de Notícias.

Rather on vacation.

According to the clinic's director, there's a combined effect of the holiday period and the economic recession at play: "Because of the recession there's insufficient money for everything. Women put going on vacation highter on the list."

First ten weeks.

In traditionally catholic Portugal abortion was forbidden until in a referendum in 2007, 59% of the population voted for a more liberal legislation, whereby the woman could have an abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy."

Hahaaaa, 59% of the population. Have you ever!!! This 2007 article, admittedly from the BBC, sheds another light on that figure:


"Prime Minister Jose Socrates has said abortion will be legalised in Portugal despite the turnout for a referendum being too low to be legally binding. Turnout was about 40%, far less than the 50% required, but of those who did vote, 59.3% backed a proposed change to the current law...."


See? Democratic rules? What democratic rules??? We don't need no stinkin' democratic rules senhorrrr!!!! Same ol' same 'ol all the time, everywhere.

When debating abortion, socialists will always come up with arguments like "imagine if your teen daughter is raped by a gangster", or "will you let a girl carry a foetus that is known to have Down syndrome" etc etc etc. As terribly and/or unwanted instances like these may be, they remain what they are... cases. For in the truly overwhelming majority of abortions, it ISN'T about raped teen daughters or foetuses with severe deficiencies. Most if not all legislation in civilized countries PRIOR to the whirlwind of the left's obsession with freedom of choice for unwilling mothers provided for cases like that. We know, my wife and I. In 2004 my wife "lost" her thirteen month old foetus. The reality was that technically... it was an abortion. Because tests and scans had proved without doubt that for some unknown reason the foetus was terribly, severely, well, our baby-in-being never had a chance to become a normal person. What is more, the risk of my wife staying dead at giving birth were too great. After careful consultation with the medical staff at the hospital near XXXXX, we decided to let the doctors perform an abortion.

The Left makes a lot of noise about the Church's adamant, inflexible stand with regards to abortion. But in such instances, you'd be surprised how much understanding we met from the clergy present on the hospital's premises. After the operation, our boy-who-would-never-be (it was a male) was... cremated... and we were presented with the opportunity - and took it eagerly - to have a decent Mass for him.

Little XXXX is resting now in our garden, under a weeping willow tree, and his little grave is marked with a granite plaque emblazoned with an angel, a cross and a proper saying. He is with us forever.

HOWEVER... of the tens of thousands of abortions now taking place in Portugal... there are not that many that can be placed in our category. And thus Portugal has joined its neighbour Spain, and by extension the European Union, on the perilous path towards self-extinction. Because I do not see how you can call societies with birth rates hovering around 1.1 otherwise. Of course, in Portugal too, the socialists have figured out how to make up for the human losses they inflicted on themselves: legalizing illegal immigrants, just like in neighbour Spain. The results are, well... predictable.

One more thing. Jose Socrates, Portugal Prime Minister who pushed for the referendum to be held, and subsequently acted on it even though it was invalid because of the far too low turnout, is also secretary general of the Portuguese Socialist Party.

I suspect however, that you suspected that already.


MFBB.