The mess got messier very quickly — Wee Ginger Dug

The mess got messier very quickly. Yesterday the British Government was mired in a political mess, today it’s mired in a legal mess as well. Today all three judges in the highest Scottish court, the Court of Session, have ruled that the prorogation of parliament was unlawful. The case was brought by a group of […]

via The mess got messier very quickly — Wee Ginger Dug

Robert the Bruce, historical accuracy and being Scottish

Human beings are hardly able to agree upon what is happening now, so it seems unrealistic to expect them ever to agree about what happened in the past.

We can no longer ask what political action to undertake […] because the question takes for granted what is at stake: it assumes we are capable of acting. But isn’t that precisely the problem? Isn’t the problem first of all becoming capable of acting politically? Of producing the capacity in ourselves? We don’t act based on the mere fact that it is possible or because we have the capacity, and still less because we have the will. The problem is not knowing how to act but first of all making ourselves capable of acting.

David Lapoujade, Aberrant Movements: the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, Semiotext(e), 2017.

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Turning sixty

never be more than two of cold, tired, wet and hungry

Munro since diagnosis #180

14:00 – Ben Lomond (M184), 3196ft, 974m

What greater logistical challenge can there be than gathering together a group of people at the base of a mountain at a specific date and time? And what is the chance, having chosen a particular mountain, a specific date and a time, that the weather will be clement and that all in the party will experience views from the summit? Continue reading “Turning sixty”

Young golden eagle flying around Cairngorms National Park with an illegal trap clamped to its leg — Raptor Persecution UK

This is beyond what is tolerable. Police Scotland have issued the following statement this evening: Appeal to trace golden eagle in Aberdeenshire Officers are appealing for information to help locate a Golden eagle which was seen flying in the Crathie area of Deeside with what appears to be a trap attached to its leg. Concerns […]

via Young golden eagle flying around Cairngorms National Park with an illegal trap clamped to its leg — Raptor Persecution UK

Comparing like with unlike — Wee Ginger Dug

The “argument” that there is any similarity between Scotland in the UK and the UK in the EU is here thoroughly blown out of the water. Thanks to the Wee Ginger Dug.

On Saturday night, I had the misfortune to watch the press review on Sky News. One of the guests was a Brexit supporting writer, a woman whose name escapes me, which is a pity because it means that it will be harder to avoid her nonsense in future. It was the usual ill informed guff […]

via Comparing like with unlike — Wee Ginger Dug

Disappearing eagles

Why is there such a need to defend this system of land management with such ignorance and stupidity? Why the desperation to maintain this denuded, denatured topography, while presenting it as the outcome of responsible husbandry, sensible economy and dutiful custodianship of the land?

Even under the influence of testosterone suppressing medication, the disappearance of two satellite tagged eagles within a few hours of each other at the same location snaps my twig, and briefly I get the urge to hurt somebody or damage stuff. Thankfully I am aware of this, but there is evidently something quite visceral, yet cold and calculating about the reactions I observe in myself. Apart from the sheer rage associated with cruelty and killing animals for fun, there is more a general fury penetrating deep into the bit of me that identifies as Scottish. Even without the natural motivation of hormones, I want to act now, decisively, to bring an end to this wickedness, see the perpetrators punished severely.

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