#1
Pinchos Morunos Spanish Pork with Moorish Spices
Preparation Time: 1 Hour
Serves: 4-8 People
Ingredients:
1 Pound Pork Loin (cut into small cubes)
¼ Cup Olive Oil (dont bother using extra virgin)
1 TBS Ground Sweet Paprika
1 TSP Ground Allspice
1 TSP Ground Cayenne Pepper
½ TSP Fine Ground Black Pepper
½ TSP Sea Salt
Small Bamboo Skewers (soaked in water)
Preparation:
Soak bamboo skewers in a tall tumbler of water for one hour. If not submerged completely, invert after 30 minutes. Cut pork into small bite-sized cubes and thread onto skewers. Pierce each cube of meat in two places in order to prevent rotation while turning skewers on grill.
Combine all spices with the oil and mix thoroughly. Place marinade in a small deep pan that will accommodate at least one skewer. Submerge each skewer in the pan of marinade to coat completely and place in a baking dish. Continue coating all of the skewers until finished. Pour the remaining marinade over the stacked skewers and cover with cling wrap. Allow them to marinate four hours or overnight.
Light grill and allow coals to ash or until preheated. Over medium heat, grill skewers for about ten minutes and baste frequently. Serve immediately with warmed Spanish tortillas or pita bread.
Note: This is but one of many different appetizers from the classic Spanish cuisine known as tapas. The variety of different flavors and preparations for tapas is simply endless. This same recipe can be adapted for seafood like prawns or scallops.
1-1 ½ Pounds Boneless Pork Loin
2-4 Cloves Garlic (peeled)
1 ½ Cups Chicken Stock
1 ½ Cups Spanish White Wine (Albarino or Godello)
Salt and pepper to taste
2-4 TBS Vegetable Oil (or olive oil)
Options:
Sliced Green Olives
Use half white Sherry (Montilla or Manzanilla, not sweetened or fortified Sherry)
Preparation:
Crush or chop the garlic. It can also be mashed with the salt using a mortar and pestle. Rub all over the pork loin. Heat the oil in a large covered skillet. Brown the pork in the uncovered pan, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the cracked black pepper. When meat is browned, add the stock and wine, reduce heat, cover and continue to cook at a low simmer for about one hour or until meat reaches an internal temperature of 155-160°F (70°C).
Remove the pork from its broth and allow it to rest for five minutes before carving. Raise heat and reduce broth to less than one cup. Add olives at this time, if desired. Carve the pork into medium thin slices and shingle on a warmed serving platter. Drizzle some of the reduction over the cut pieces and reserve the rest for service at table.
Note: For improved flavor, reduce the white wine by 50% of volume in a separate pan before adding to the meat dish. Increase the amount used to two cups.
1-2 Cups White rice
2-3 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Large Tomato
2-3 TBS Cup Oil
½ TSP Salt
Dash of powdered cumin
Options:
Peeled roasted green chiles
Onion powder
Garlic Powder
Fine ground white pepper
Saffron (soaked in 1 TBS warm water)
Preparation:
Wash the rice thoroughly for at least 15 minutes until water runs clear. Warm a skillet over low heat. Drain the rice completely. Add the oil to the skillet and increase the heat to medium high. Add the washed rice to the pan. Stir occasionally to ensure that all of the rice grains are coated with oil. If needed, add a little more oil. Reduce the heat to medium and continue frying the rice. The rice should eventually take on a golden brown color and give off a nutty aroma.
After the rice is browned, increase the heat to high. Once the pan is really hot, pour in one or two cups of the chicken broth and quickly cover the pan very tightly. Wait for about one or two minutes, then uncover the pan and stir the rice. Repeat the process with another cup of broth. At this point reduce the heat to medium low and if the pan is dry, add some more broth. Peel, seed and chop the tomato. Strain the seeds and reserve the juice.
Continue to stir the rice occasionally and add more broth if the pan goes dry. Sprinkle some salt over the rice, stir and keep the pan tightly covered. Once the rice has begun to soften add the chopped tomatoes, their juice and the rest of the broth. Add any extra spices at this time. Reduce the heat to low, stir occasionally. Cover the pan and continue to cook until the rice is tender.
Note: This recipe is essentially like an Italian risotto without any dairy product. For extra color feel free to add some peeled and chopped roasted green chiles. For a more intense red color add some tomato juice and reduce the amount of broth.
The tragedy of Rwanda a dozen years ago was that no one was concerned until the genocidal rampage killed some 800,000, and the UN vowed "never again." The tragedy of Darfur today is that everyone is concerned -- but little is being done, least of all by the UN.
The AU acknowledges it can't stem the violence, and justifies its failure by saying the military personnel from different African countries are too few to risk combat with rebels or government-supported militia like the janjaweed. Besides, AU troops are only there by grace of the regime in Khartoum; if they actually tried to be effective, Khartoum would kick them out.
The 7,000 soldiers representing the African Union (which used to be the corrupt and useless Organization of African Unity) are hopeless at protecting civilians, whose death toll rises daily and already exceeds 200,000, with a couple of million people homeless and refugees in their own country. The AU acknowledges it can't stem the violence, and justifies or explains its failure by saying the military personnel from different African countries are too few to risk combat with rebels or government-supported militia like the janjaweed. Besides, AU troops are only there by grace of the regime in Khartoum; if they actually tried to be effective, Khartoum would kick them out. So, the AU apparently feels a token presence that does little is better than no presence, which does nothing. A questionable viewpoint.
The proposal for 20,000 troops from NATO countries, authorized by and representing the UN, is rejected by Khartoum on grounds that as well as protecting innocent civilians, the Western troops would encourage a regime change in Khartoum. NATO and the UN deny this, but it's probably true.
The proposal for 20,000 troops from NATO countries, authorized by and representing the UN, is rejected by Khartoum on grounds that as well as protecting innocent civilians, the Western troops would encourage a regime change in Khartoum. NATO and the UN deny this, but it's probably true.
If any country deserves a "regime change," that country is Sudan, where the government has imposed sharia law, with its barbaric practices of hand amputations for theft and stoning for adultery. Virtual civil war, or savage reprisals, have been intermittently underway in southern Sudan for some 25 years, not just the past two years as is generally publicized. Violent subjugation of the non-Muslim southern Sudan escalated when in 1983 a young Sudanese army colonel, John Garang, was dispatched to tame a mutiny of southern soldiers -- and stayed to lead the rebellion for 22 years. By the time of a peace accord a couple of years ago, some two million had been killed. Last year, Garang died in a mysterious helicopter crash after he was named Sudan's vice-president, touching off the unrest that reigns today.
Garang was an interesting man. Little known in the West, he had A Ph.D in agriculture from an Iowa college, and later took military training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Charismatic, autocratic and with a keen sense of humour, he saw what was going on when he reached southern Sudan in 1983 and changed sides and joined the rebels in their fight for justice and equality. Until his mysterious death, he was on the verge of forcing a compromise with the Khartoum regime. Now, all bets are off.
Romeo Dallaire and others warn of similarities between Rwanda and Darfur. Several times Dallaire has reversed himself on what should be done -- send soldiers, don't send soldiers, send more soldiers. In my view, judging from his leadership heading "peacekeeping" in Rwanda (the greatest administrative disaster in UN history), Dallaire is the last person likely to have a workable solution for Darfur.
Just as the tyranny of Saddam Hussein in Iraq warranted UN involvement to stop his homicidal tyranny, so Khartoum's genocidal practices demand UN intervention. Yet in both cases, the UN has ducked decisions -- talked, but never acted.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay met with his Sudanese counterpart at the UN to "explain Canada's feelings," which, when you think about it, is about as helpful as a glass of water to fight a forest fire. We are spending money to help the AU military, which is more waste. Meanwhile, the Khartoum regime and its proxy militia kill on, and Darfur differs from Rwanda only in that it goes on longer with no let-up. Just as the tyranny of Saddam Hussein in Iraq warranted UN involvement to stop his homicidal tyranny, so Khartoum's genocidal practices demand UN intervention. Yet in both cases, the UN has ducked decisions -- talked, but never acted.
What's needed is a new government in Khartoum, but that would require fighting soldiers, and that's a non-starter with the EU, NATO, the UN, and certainly Canada. If the African Union took responsibility to change Khartoum's government, perhaps it would then deserve recognition as a force for good, as well as an instrument for self-indulgence.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2006 00:00 ||
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I'm oppressed, you're oppressed, we are all oppressed: the victim culture
By Anthony Browne, Chief Political Correspondent THE vast majority of people in Britain are officially oppressed, according to a report that claims we have become a nation of victims. The study calculates that 73 per cent of Britons are members of officially recognised victim groups, including the disabled, women, ethnic minorities and homosexuals. Each group is given government support, including protective legislation. The report, Were (Nearly) All Victims Now, by the socially conservative think- tank Civitas, gives warning that the rise of a victimocracy undermines democracy because people are no longer considered equal under law.
We have become a nation of victims, it says. Victimhood today is a political status that is sought after because of the advantages it brings, including preferential treatment in the workplace, the possibility of using police power to silence unwelcome critics, and financial compensation. To be classified as a victim is to be given a special political status, which has no necessary connection with real hardship or oppression.
Continued on Page 49
However, the report gives warning that seeking victim status can harm the victims, denying them personal responsibility by always blaming others and undermining their self-respect.
#2
It also states that claiming official victim status enables groups to silence critics, often using taking offence as a political tactic. The benefits of taking offence are so great in any debate, that it has encouraged the growth of increasing touchiness in Britain.
So much for the touchy-feely group hug era.
More than anything, since when is personal offense allowed as a viable forensic strategy? Silencing debate due to personal offense without actually specifying the nature of and justifiable basis for said offense is the argumentive equivalent of saying, "Just because ...".
I know, I know. What a whopping surprise that observation was.
#3
"Jailing the two men for 28 years, the judge said that the sentence would have been halved if they had not voiced any opposition to the victims sexuality."
But white non-gay non-pensionable males are victims too! In which case we are all victims. Where to now?
#4
I wonder how far ahead of us the UK is in the development of this loathesome "Cult Of The Poor Helpless Victim"? Five years? Ten? Twenty?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/09/2006 7:16 Comments ||
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#5
You never know. The non-victims that actually do all the real economic lifting (white males 25-50) might decide that they are victims too, and stop work.
#6
With great ceremony and boisterous declarations, the civilized world tumbles down the slippery slope into the hell of street fighting for daily sustenance. Quagmire ! Holocaust !
#7
Victimhood today is a political status that is sought after because of the advantages it brings, including preferential treatment in the workplace, the possibility of using police power to silence unwelcome critics, and financial compensation. To be classified as a victim is to be given a special political status, which has no necessary connection with real hardship or oppression.
So too does this exist in the U.S. The paranoia of the American Indians over the Kenniwick Man discovery has everything to do with fear of losing the economic perks that go with being a victim.
#8
The paranoia of the American Indians over the Kenniwick Man discovery has everything to do with fear of losing the economic perks that go with being a victim.
That, and the revelation that their ancestors did the same thing the Dreaded White Man did.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/09/2006 11:32 Comments ||
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#9
Rob Crawford, actually, a bit worse... Some of the noble savage tribes indulged in human ritual sacrifice, even a couple of decades into 20th century.
#13
as a white male raised in a supportive two-parent household without notorious dysfunction, I feel I'm a victim. I have nobody else to blame for any poor life decisions, personal habits, and general assholery. Evryone else has someone to blame, apparently, I'm now in a protected minority, and I want my due!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2006 21:01 Comments ||
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#14
sorry Frank - but no white men allowed. Someone has to support the rest of us. Get to work, slave boy :-)
So much for honor, eh? Being "so appalled" by a remark, not an act mind you, is sufficient among the media. Last week, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner addressed the Reform Club Media Group. Nothing like the 'establishment' sticking together is there? The meeting was conducted under Chatham House rules, which mean that no one attending is supposed to divulge what is said. But one person present was so appalled at Sir Ian's attitude and authoritarian stance that he has revealed to me an alarming - and seemingly off the cuff - remark made by Sir Ian at the event.
Sir Ian said the British people should 'brace themselves for a truly appalling act of terror'. He said that following this act of barbarism 'people would be talking quite openly about internment', giving the impression that he would be leading the pro-internment lobby. No doubt he will find a willing supplicant in the tougher than tough Home Secretary John Reid.
My informant thought at first that it really was a throwaway remark but on reflection felt that it couldn't have been made by accident. Well, either that or the Reform Club claret had loosened his tongue.
I haven't even bothered to ring the Met Press Office because I know what they will say. But if this really is the stance Sir Ian is taking then we should be even more worried about our civil liberties than we already are. I'm now even more convinced that the Conservative stance against 90 days detention was right. It matters little, now, that when that day comes, he will turn out to be right. For now, there must be much waving of arms and he must be reviled, excoriated, and crucified on the almighty altar of PC.
#1
heh. There will be attempts to crucify him, of course. But this surprises me that the media would wish to publish his comments, because what this actually does is open the door to discussions about internment.
#2
At the risk of giving people ideas, there are 3 main aspects to terrorism. The terror itself, the publicity it generates and for want of a better term the military symbolism or pretention. Bombs are high on publicity and military symbolism, but actually quite low on genuine terror.
That's right, bombs don't do a very good job of terrorizing people. And before anyone says how would you know? Remember I lived in Belfast and have direct experience of bombs both with and without warnings.
There are other weapons that would be much more effective at causing terror. Note, we have had 2 terror poisoning stories in the last 24 hours. Were another plot uncovered, let's say to poison groceries, and partially executed, the UK could well see internment without trial.
#3
honestly, if I had to put money on it, I suspect we will see internment and deportation within 3 years, perhaps much sooner, in at least one European country.
#4
Frickin' hallelujah! It's about time someone broached this topic and began warming it over for public consumption. At the very least this must begin serving final notice to so-called Moderate Muslims that their flaccid responses have been for naught.
At best, we have government politicians finally beginning to mention measures that could possibly have an actual impact in fighting terrorism. Muslims, by their very nature, represent ten times the potential threat that Japanese-Americans ever did during WWII. Their internment would represent a serious action to purge Western societies of terrorist actors.
I think that it is also time for all Western nations to outlaw the burqa. Much like wearing a non-theatric mask in public (or even a theatric one for that matter), such a garment too easily provides concealment for someone who might wish to carry out a terrorist act. The hajib or headscarf can remain, for now, but full body and face covering should be considered a potentially criminal disguise.
As Fjordman mentioned, this is simply one small way we can begin making Western nations Muslim-unfriendly. The time is long past for taking such measures and we had best start putting them in place to discourage any further influx of these nonassimilating immigrants.
#8
These internal discussion are a very good indicator. The ruling elite are seeing the gross errors of their ways. A shift of attitudes begins. The mention of internment is encouraging. Then, load them on old freighters. Get them waay out to sea. A mechanical breakdown ? Whooda thunk it ?
#9
The problem is the writer cannot really get their mind around what a 'truly appalling act of terror' would be like and thus cannot take the next step.
Personally I think Sir Ian Blair is wrong. I think a truly appalling act of terror will lead to the burning down of Mosques and businesses and the self-emigration of Muslims because things become very unfriendly in the host countries.
Either that or the Muslims get off the fence, turn over/chase off the radicals, and live happily within their newfound nation so that internment isn't actually required.
I think option one is more likely but hope for option two.
#11
Terrorism is not the main threat posed by Muslims in Europe, but if it can be used as a pretext for starting to solve the demographic problem, then so be it.
I -- Jeffrey Lewis, crossposting from Arms Control Wonk -- love the US Geological Survey. They've published lat/long (41.294 N, 129.134 E) and Mb estimates (4.2) for the North Korean test.
There is lots of data floating around: The CTBTO called it 4.0; The South Koreans report 3.58-3.7. You're thinking, 3.6, 4.2, in that neighborhood. Seismic scales, like the Richter, are logarithmic, so that neighborhood can be pretty big. But even at 4.2, the test was probablya dud.
Estimating the yield is tricky business, because it depends on the geology of the test site. The South Koreans called the yield half a kiloton (550 tons), which is more or less -- a factor of two -- consistent with the relationship for tests in that yield range at the Soviet Shagan test site:
Mb = 4.262 + .973LogW
Where Mb is the magnitude of the body wave, and W is the yield.
3.58-3.7 gives you a couple hundred tons (not kilotons), which is pretty close in this business unless you're really math positive. The same equation, given the US estimate of 4.2, yields (pun intended) around a kiloton.
A plutonium device should produce a yield in the range of the 20 kilotons, like the one we dropped on Nagasaki. No one has ever dudded their first test of a simple fission device. North Korean nuclear scientists are now officially the worst ever. Of course, I want to see what the US IC says. If/when the test vents, we could have some radionuclide data -- maybe in the next 72 hours or so.
But, from the initial data, I'd say someone with no workable nuclear weapons (Kim Jong Il, I am looking at you) should be crapping his pants right now.
First the missile, then the bomb. Got anything else you wanna try out there, chief?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/09/2006 14:14 ||
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#1
So Kim came up a little short! hahaha
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/09/2006 15:05 Comments ||
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#3
Where was the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!
Posted by: Tibor ||
10/09/2006 15:18 Comments ||
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#4
North Korean nuclear scientists are now officially the worst ever.
Probably too hungry to properly concentrate.
But, from the initial data, I'd say someone with no workable nuclear weapons (Kim Jong Il, I am looking at you) should be crapping his pants right now.
North Korea is not at its most vulnerable. We really need to go in, kick ass and take names before they can perfect their designs.
#7
A "high ranking administration official" should make a comment that with the design they're using, they should have gotten at least 5 times the yield. The resultant slaughter among the Nork generals and scientists should set both them and Iran back a decade.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/09/2006 17:26 Comments ||
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#8
Mb = 4.262 + .973LogW
The constants coem from Soviet test site, not NoKO.
Without knowledge of the geology, this is quite suspect
the strength of the seismic signal is determined by the way the explosive energy couples into the geological medium, and there are strong regional differences. In fact, each seismic station has to be calibrated, and this is obvious from the range of seismic magnitudes reported by various global seismic stations. A small difference in body wave magnitude of a little over 0.2 corresponds to a halving of the yield estimate. And for any underground nuclear explosion, seismic body wave magnitudes are known to range over 1.0 or even more, which indicates the pitfalls in yield estimates from seismic signals, unless they are done carefully and correctly.
Posted by: john ||
10/09/2006 18:14 Comments ||
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#9
Thinker of the difference in waver speed thru granite and sandstone. Rock gottem Convergence Zones too...
#1
There is, but it isn't pretty - and it will push China an SKor hard becaue it may collapse the ability of Kim's mafia to control what's left of the army and the country. Massive refugees crisis, and within 6 weeks, probably starvation deaths of 1/3 or more of the civlian populace of NKor, given winter is coming.
Take out the civli infrastructure: key bridges, rail lines and railyards, fuel distribution, power distribution junctions and all power generation. This includes the Nork side of all bridges, rail, power and phone lines to China.
Welcome to the 1350's, North Korea. If this comes down its going to be a very cold winter there, and a fouls pring ans millions of corpses rot when they thaw.
The trick is to neutralize all the artillery within range of Seoul quickly before the countervalue strikes.
I leave that as an exercise to the reader. There are some particularly brutal ways of doing it.
#3
Considering that most of the NKor population is living at an 1830's level right now, OS, that drop back in time won't be as hard on them as a true technological society. Only Pyongyang and a couple of the industrial cities have any electrical power for even a few hours, and almost no factories are functioning.
#4
In any case, I think it would be best just to destroy Kim's defenses and make it possible for the civilians to march in and take care of him themselves. Then get tons of food, fertilizer, etc. in there to stave off mass starvation. No need to destroy everything.
#5
Sub; surface, launch multiple cruise missles at specific targets (nuke facilities, kimmy, whatever else deemed important); sink back under the waves.
Who, us?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/09/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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A lack of resolve may have effects worse than can be imagined, writes Aaron Friedberg.
After four years of bluster and build-up, North Korea has finally reached the nuclear finish line. Last week it announced its intention to step across.
At every point along the way, North Korea has telegraphed its intentions, first announcing that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and reprocess plutonium, then declaring that it already possessed a "deterrent force" and now proclaiming that it will conduct a weapons test. In this way, it has probed the resolve of those seeking to stop it, extorting economic rewards for simply showing up at the negotiating table while forcing the world to adjust to the idea that it either already is, or soon will be, a member of the nuclear club.
In keeping with past practice, North Korea will probably not test right away, preferring to see what new concessions it can extract. Unless it encounters a tougher and more unified response than it has to date, it will probably follow through on its latest threat. On the nuclear issue, at least, Kim Jong-il has proved a man of his word.
#2
..I disagree with the call about the ROK insisting on more of what hasn't worked - I really think they are going to take this personally, like a slap in the face.
And these people take their 'face' seriously. I see a strong possibility that that the ROK government (which may have convinced itself that a test was either impossible/wouldn't happen or that Kimmie would back down) will fall, and whoever takes over next is gonna be a LOT less tolerant of Kimmie's BS.
It's been pointed out that this shot actually hit the ROK in the one place they care about - their economy. Confidence in the ROK as a trading partner is going right through the floor this morning, and they're not going to take it well.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/09/2006 12:13 Comments ||
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#3
international unity
Ha ha, hee hee. Too funny. Unless by 'international unity' you mean hand-wringing, finger-pointing and blaming it on the Bush administration.
A look at possible next steps in the wake of N.Korea nuclear test
The Associated Press
North Korea announced Monday that it has tested a nuclear weapon, a claim that, if true, would draw world condemnation, possible U.N. Security Council action and sanctions from countries like the United States or Japan. On a wider scale it could lead to an arms race in Asia or increase the risk of nuclear proliferation.
A glance of some of the possible next moves in the North Korean nuclear standoff:
SHORT-TERM: Expect widespread international condemnation of the test. The United Nations denounced North Korea's plans to detonate a bomb shortly after Pyongyang announced its intentions Oct. 3.
North Korea's neighbors may step up diplomacy to formulate a common response. China may hold emergency talks with North Korea in an effort to restart long-stalled six-nation talks on persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
North Korea is likely to push for bilateral talks with the United States.
MEDIUM-TERM: Japan may, as it previously threatened, seek punitive measures from the United Nations. Japanese media have reported that Tokyo is looking at ways to step up unilateral sanctions, by hampering trade and imposing more financial restrictions. The United States may follow suit, but may also compromise in sending an envoy to North Korea for dialogue on restarting six-party nuclear talks.
China may also consider cutting off the vital flow of economic and energy aid that largely keeps North Korea afloat. The aid is seen as a major point of leverage over its impoverished communist neighbor.
LONG-TERM: Other Asian nations, including Japan or South Korea, may seek their own atomic weapons as a safeguard against a nuclear-armed North Korea, possibly triggering a wider arms race that threatens regional stability. Additional economic sanctions against North Korea may further weaken an already poor and isolated nation.
The risk of nuclear proliferation increases with an impoverished North Korea possible selling nuclear technology to terrorists or other countries. That's it. Sorry, AP can't imagine anything stronger than these. So just stop yer belly-achin' and choose your poison. Heh.
#1
How could they have possibly overlooked an ultimatum that North Korea's armed forces deliver Kim's severed head on a pike so that we don't bomb them back to the stone-age? Funny how that one slipped AP's list. I'm sure they meant to include it but just ran out of space.
#4
I read an article this year estimating Japan could go nuclear in 6 months. They have the fissile material from power plants, tech out the wazoo, money, industrial capability, just no pressing need for nukes, until now. That 6 month figure prolly isn't for a crude bomb either, it's probably for a miniturized warhead on a medium range delivery platform.
Note: Paul Johnson writes a column under the general title "And Another Thing" for the London weekly political/literary magazine The Spectator. This was his column for December 7th, 2002. It is quite out of the ordinary run of his columns, and came as something of a surprise to regular readers. So far as I know, P.J. has not subsequently made any reference to it. It is an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing, putting into fine prose thoughts that cross most of our minds at one time or another. The title comes from Revelation 9.ii.
There arose out of the pit the smoke of a great furnace
by Paul Johnson
The sound of the explosion was so loud, so prolonged and so unusual that I knew at once I was listening to a historic singularity. Indeed, it may not have been an explosion: more a catastrophic global event. Was it the end of the world? As the initial noise fell in volume, though it did not cease, a pentecostal wind swept over my house in Notting Hill. It faces north into the street, and the air current came from the south, as I could see from the trees bending over in our south-facing garden. I was sitting in my library, in my habitual chair near the French windows, and was astonished to see fallen leaves plastered on to them and held there by the fierce wind. Then I felt movement. It was not like an earthquake, which I had experienced in South America. In such tremors parts of the earth's crust crack and move in relation to each other, to produce disorientation and dizziness. It was, rather, as if the entire earth moved, as a unit, but out of its regular axis.
Despite the feeling of movement, I went to the bottom of the stairs and began to climb them, up to the top floor, where a glass door in my bathroom leads out to a flat roof. It was midday, but I became uneasily conscious that I was ascending not into light but into darkness. There was no disturbance inside the house and the roof door opened easily. But once I stepped outside I knew I was in a different world, and that the constants of the old, familiar one had changed utterly. The noise continued but spasmodically, ranging in its decibels and nature in an erratic and unpredictable fashion. It was now, audibly, the noise of destruction on an immense scale. The wind, too, came in gusts. I feared the wind. I was beginning to fear everything. The light, or rather the comparative absence of light, was sinister. To the north, the sky was blue, yet there was no daylight. The light was thickening. When I glanced south, into central London, I saw why, and I began to get, for the first time, an inkling of what was taking place.
The whole of the southern view was occupied by a dense, swirling, expanding and ascending column of smoke. It was many miles wide and already tens of thousands of feet high. Though five miles distant at its nearest (I guessed), it was moving with great speed, not so much horizontally as vertically. It was punching a colossal hole in the sky, filling it, then finding fresh energy to punch another, so that at intervals the column was encircled by giant haloes, stretching out vast distances into the stratosphere. I could not see the top of the central column. It was covered by one of these haloes, which was now stretching into the northern portion of the sky, so producing that progressive light reduction I had already noticed. I call the column smoke, and some of it was smoke the result of a giant conflagration but most of it was dense, throbbing, twisting cloud, white and grey vapour, of the kind emitted by the steam-engines of my childhood but on an unimaginable scale. How had so much water or whatever it once was been turned so swiftly into trillions of square yards of foggy miasma, still piling itself up at high speed into the stratosphere and beyond? What incalculable force had done this monstrous thing?
As my eye fell to the bottom of the column, I began to grasp the source of its power. A white incandescence, low by comparison with the column but still perhaps a mile high and 20 or more broad, filled the skyline of the south horizon. Its fiery heat mitigated the gloom caused by the towering cloud above obscuring the sun. As my eyes grew accustomed to looking at this radiant epicentre, I saw that it was composed not only of white-hot elements, but also of fiery red particles, orange and blue flames, shooting heavenwards like the gigantic tongues which leap out of sunspots thousands of miles into space. There were also sporadic flashes of white, caused, I assumed, by continuing detonations on a stupendous scale. The epicentre was spreading steadily; or rather not entirely steadily, for it moved in spurts and formidable leaps, as well as munching and digesting its periphery. It was alive, this prodigious sore or cancer in London's heart, expanding its frontiers all the time. It had swallowed and vaporised all Westminster, and sucked out the entire contents of the Thames and turned them into thick clouds. It had gone down the river at thousands of miles an hour, engulfed the City and its tall towers, vaporising steel, concrete, glass and water as it punched and thrashed and pounded the streets of massive buildings into nothingness or, rather, minute particles of its flaming column, surging high into space. Now it was crumpling and atomising St James's.
The glittering, searing edge of the immense fire, with its bottomless black crater beneath, advanced before my eyes, having snuffed out Buckingham Palace and the Mall in an instant, snapped at Mayfair with cavernous jaws, swallowing it in three rapidly succeeding mouthfuls, while simultaneously devouring all Belgravia in one tremendous gulp. Appetite unappeased and seemingly unappeasable, it was now guzzling up Hyde Park, its trees whooshing into brief candles of flame, the Serpentine quaffed and vaporised in an instant, the Round Pond licked away in one fiery rub of its tongue.
As the darkness increased and the compensating fire drew nearer, I grasped that the catastrophe would soon swallow up my house and me, too. This was not an episode, like an earthquake, leaving a giant print on the earth in a minute of time, but more like a volcano, spreading its lava with all deliberate speed over a vast area. How many billions of tons of high-explosive equivalent had gone into what I assumed to be the detonator, at ground level, of an enormous hydrogen device, I could not guess. Yet, surely, even the largest blast conceivable must be of limited duration, and its immediate physical consequences reckoned in minutes, not hours or days. But there was no sign yet of an end, or even a diminuendo.
I suddenly noticed that I was not alone. At my feet, or very near them, was a curious congregation of creatures. First, there was a fat wood-pigeon, who usually gives me the widest of berths for he knows he is not a favourite. He was motionless, cowering, his feathers dank and bedraggled as though he was in a cold sweat. There was a crow I had never seen before, more composed than the pigeon and looking about him with alert eyes. There was the hen-thrush, who nested in the tree a few feet from my study window this year and produced a brood: no sign of them flown off, perhaps, already and she was clearly frightened, too. Above all and I was strangely comforted to see him was Randolf, or Randy, my audacious squirrel, not bold now, however, but sitting stock-still in terror, waiting for a doom which he could not evade by flight. It suddenly struck me that these varied creatures, enemies or competitors as a rule, were crowding together for comfort, and looked to me for salvation. But how was I, or anyone, to render help in this Armageddon, or apocalypse?
At that point I became aware that my eyes were open, and focused on family photos near the foot of my bed, all steady and correct. Behind my head, my beautiful crucifix, carved by a holy monk in the hardest of woods, hung motionless, not a millimetre out of place. The sun was wintry, but it shone nevertheless.
#2
As a kid, I recall reading the end of Fahrenheit 451 (which goes something very like this), and being chilled just at the thought of such an impossible scenario, in an indeterminate time and place.
Now, the concept that this could happen tomorrow is equally chilling, but utterly ordinary. The new normal. Where has the urgency gone? Have we lost our minds?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The tragedy of Rwanda a dozen years ago was that no one was concerned until the genocidal rampage killed some 800,000, and the UN vowed "never again." The tragedy of Darfur today is that everyone is concerned -- but little is being done, least of all by the UN. 
THE vast majority of people in Britain are officially oppressed, according to a report that claims we have become a nation of victims. The study calculates that 73 per cent of Britons are members of officially recognised victim groups, including the disabled, women, ethnic minorities and homosexuals. Each group is given government support, including protective legislation. The report, Were (Nearly) All Victims Now, by the socially conservative think- tank Civitas, gives warning that the rise of a victimocracy undermines democracy because people are no longer considered equal under law. 
Last week, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner addressed the Reform Club Media Group. Nothing like the 'establishment' sticking together is there? The meeting was conducted under Chatham House rules, which mean that no one attending is supposed to divulge what is said. But one person present was so appalled at Sir Ian's attitude and authoritarian stance that he has revealed to me an alarming - and seemingly off the cuff - remark made by Sir Ian at the event.
HA HA HA HA.
