Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

Many brave people are going with the Gaza Flotilla II assembling in the Med right now.  The Zionist Entity has made its usual revolting attempts to stop the ships before they sail and smear the people but the ships are going.  Shame on Greece, Cyprus, The USA, Canada, France and Australia for telling their citizens not to participate.  Interestingly The Zionist Entity is claiming that people on the flotilla entering Gazan waters 'will be treated as individuals having attempted to enter Israel illegally' (Jerusalem Post) thus demonstrating that they consider Gaza to be under the authority of the Zionist Entity...

"And when no elite existed, one could always be imported from elsewhere. Cyrus [the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire], even as he flattered the Babylonians with the attentions he paid to Marduk [Babylonian God], had not ignored the yearnings of the city's deportees, exiles such as the Judaeans, brought to Babylon decades previously - for the Persians had recognised in these wretched captives, and in their homesickness, a resource of great potential.

‘Do animals .. .” she said, and paused to consider, ‘feel disappointment
in each other, Jack, the way humans do?’

‘Well...

‘Or is that what makes us human, the fact that we can feel
immense disappointment in each other?’ She poured herself another
glass of wine.

‘I don’t know,’ said Jack, cautiously. “What do you think?’

‘I wonder if they ever go through the trauma of sensing that
someone they once liked, maybe even loved, is now turning into
someone they don’t respect.’

‘Why do you say that, Martha? Where’s that coming from?’ Jack
was chewing on his cheeks again.

‘Do animals, birds, fish, whatever, fall in and out of love?’

‘I believe they can.’

‘In that case,’ she continued drowsily, ‘can a fish, Jack, listen, can
a fish love another fish, but then one day imagine that they do not in
fact love that fish and that they now love another fish, only to realise at
some later date that they did actually love that first fish more than they
would ever love another fish for the rest of their lives, and therefore
feel that their existence is overcome with a feeling of regret that they

Ten years. Everything can be divided into decades. Three of Brendan. One of Bruno. How many more did she have before her time was up? Two perhaps, three if she’s lucky? Measured like this how short it all is. We spend most of the first half of our lives getting used to it. Learning the ropes, making mistakes and preparing for what lies ahead. And, for a moment, there’s a feeling that it all finally makes sense, that we’ve arrived and understood something about the world. Then, before we know it, it’s all over. The tide coming in and washing away our footprints to leave an unmarked beach.

"Rainsongs Page 7 by Sue Hubbard"

You know the worst thing about this government? It’s the war on woke. Woke means caring for people and it can only be a good thing to care for people no matter what.”

Chinese

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/jeremy-hunt-fac...

...few things are so important you would risk your life for them, but all sorts of things are important enough to risk somebody else’s life.

Chapter 12

"Would I that he was not here now, but was then, than he never was here at all’"

Freya North