Tag Archives: Sondergebiet

Diary Blog, 26 October 2026

Morning music

On the blog 3 years ago

On the blog 2 years ago

On the blog 1 year ago

A few thoughts out of season

I understand that the little twerp currently posing as Prime Minister took part in the TV show Gogglebox recently. I have never seen the show, but I believe that it consists of people sitting on a sofa and commenting on other TV shows. If so, pretty pathetic even without the Prime Minister being there.

Once again I was reminded of the pathetically low standards of those presently allowed (and I do use the word advisedly) to become MPs, ministers, prime ministers.

I also saw a clip of an interview given by Angela Rayner a few days ago. Again, absolutely pathetic. No point in reiterating my views about her. Regular readers of the blog will know my opinion. Suffice to say that I do not think some uneducated, uncultured, “chavscum” woman, utterly dishonest, and complete with tattoos, “vapes”, and a liking for booze and vulgar noisy “clubs” on Ibiza (at the age of 46, at that) should be anywhere near political or social power.

Those now “at the top” of the political totem-pole are almost ludicrously poor-quality. A few examples? Lammy. Burnham (obviously). Angela Rayner (ditto). Shabana Mahmood. Kemi Badenoch. Many others.

A different subject. Oxford Street.

I used to live in and around London (various times during the overall 1976-2002 period, and in a number of places, but most often in the Little Venice neighbourhood). Occasionally, I would go to shops in Oxford Street, mainly to Selfridges, which then sold Russian beer, Zhiguli (now all but unobtainable in the UK), and other items of interest.

I see now that the main part of Oxford Street, between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus, has been pedestrianized. Big mistake, in my view. Now, if anyone wants to get to a shop or store in Oxford Street without a walk, he or she will apparently have to get a taxi or bus to the streets round the back of the shops, somehow. Most people will not bother.

I saw a few minutes of an interview with that unpleasant little Pakistani, Sadiq Khan, in which he said that the decline of Oxford Street will be reversed by reason of the pedestrianization. Ha. I doubt it, and such pedestrian streets usually end up as the haunt of petty criminal elements, street buskers and jugglers, and beggars.

That Sadiq Khan individual is plainly, like so many political nonentities in the UK, living in a bubble of self-delusion.

Final stray thought: the less I hear, or see, of that ridiculous princeling, Harry Windsor, and (a fortiori) Meghan Mulatta, the more content I shall be.

Tweets seen

Looks like those untermenschen are in Finland.

They each need a [REDACTED] or two in the head. To each his own…

I suppose that they think —know— that nothing much is going to happen to them. It would be great if they were mistaken.

Europe is now infested with trash.

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Quite. Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan.

I used to have an interesting book called A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, but it was lost in 2009, along with most of my old 2,000-book library in France.

[“Russia is interested in all markets that are profitable for it when it comes to gas exports, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has explained on several occasions, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Asked about the situation regarding gas supplies to Europe, Peskov clarified that Moscow is ready to consider this issue if European countries show interest.”]

See also: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/26/european-gas-prices-four-year-high-winter-supply-fears-middle-east

[“Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr combat engineers defused more than 300 Ukrainian army explosives and mines near Alyoshki in the Kherson Region over the week, the Defense Ministry reported. According to its statement, the Ukrainian army is remotely laying mines on access routes to Alyoshki to prevent the evacuation of civilians and block the delivery of medicine. TASS has compiled the Russian Defense Ministry’s key statements: https://vk.cc/d3hy3p“]

The opposite of the story broadcast by Sky News a day or two ago.

Historical piece about Mount Athos

[“During the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II, Mount Athos—the autonomous monastic republic—occupied a uniquely remarkable diplomatic position after its Holy Community (Iera Koinotis), fearing plunder or annexation by Bulgarian forces, sent a formal petition directly to Adolf Hitler in April 1941 asking for his intervention.

Hitler accepted the appeal and declared the holy mountain under his personal protection (Sondergebiet), assigning a minimal German garrison while tasking Ahnenerbe scholars like Franz Dölger with surveying and photographing the priceless Byzantine manuscripts and treasures rather than looting them.

Seeking to maintain local stability, prevent the peninsula from becoming a base for Greek resistance or Allied intelligence, and respect the ancient monastic Avaton (prohibition of women), German authorities strictly regulated military conduct on the peninsula, enabling the visiting Wehrmacht soldiers and the centuries-old monastic state to coexist in relative quiet until the German retreat in late 1944, leaving Mount Athos’s sacred architecture and millennia of historical archives virtually intact.“]

Late tweets

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Our animal friends.

Several times, over many years, I have handed in (to the police, or to the owners directly) money and other property found lying on the ground. Smaller amounts than in the above example, and always with some kind of ID with it. I would not take on the karmic burden of appropriating it. Admittedly, if it were a suitcase containing a million pounds, I might take a different view…

Late music