Charles III's coronation

[novaphile]

Originally Posted by GlennB

Yup. I avoided the thing as much as possible, but caught a lot of fragments while tuning in for other news, plus seeing still photos online.

He looked positively ill to me.

It has demonstrated, yet again, that my powers of prediction are crap.

In recent years, I'd believed that Charles would do the right thing for the UK and Commonwealth and immediately abdicate, in favour of his eldest son, after the Queen's death, so that there would be some chance that the Commonwealth would have some stability during the reign of his son.

Guess not.

[bruto]

I noticed that too, intermittently watching the replay on PBS tonight. He doesn't look well. He doesn't look very happy either. He looked at one point as if he was muttering to Camilla, and it sort of looked as if he was saying something along the lines of "won't this ******** ever end?"

[Chanakya]

Originally Posted by novaphile

It has demonstrated, yet again, that my powers of prediction are crap.

In recent years, I'd believed that Charles would do the right thing for the UK and Commonwealth and immediately abdicate, in favour of his eldest son, after the Queen's death, so that there would be some chance that the Commonwealth would have some stability during the reign of his son.

Guess not.

But the monarch is just a figurehead; and in any case the commonwealth itself is no more than an anachronism, and not a pretty one at that. What difference would it make if there were one monarch, or two, or five, over the next few decades? That's a symbolic position in any case. (And a particularly tasteless symbol, given history; but regardless of whether you agree with me that the whole institution's an abomination, it's all a pointless distraction anyway, isn't it, all of it from start to finish, simply playing dolls with empty figureheads?)

[Leumas]

Originally Posted by novaphile

I was also rather surprised how terribly old King Charles looked.

I'm never surprised to see a person being helped up from a kneeling position, because that is something that older people rarely do, but was astonished to see the King being helped up from a chair.

It was not his frailty… it was the weight of all the crimes committed by his predecessors and their minions that are associated with the symbol of those crimes that was placed upon his head.

[Skeptic Ginger]

Originally Posted by zooterkin

Scroll down.

That was the second half of "sort of" making it even more hilarious.

[Leumas]

Originally Posted by Steve

Sometimes the hyperbole and ebullience of your posts gives me a good chuckle. Thanks for making my day just a tad brighter with this one.

[Skeptic Ginger]

Originally Posted by Steve

... Is is a sad thing that there are people in this very thread so shallow and immature that they would seriously write posts similar to your first paragraph.

Not to mention Charles can't be much of a pleasant thing to wake up next to either.

I think the two of them make sense together.

[Skeptic Ginger]

I didn't see it in the thread yet but there's a lot of buzz going around that the Grim Reaper walked in front of the church doors during the ceremony.

So much fun but I have to spoil it already. I tracked down who it was.

It was a church Verger. Some wear black robes and carry some kind of staff (that isn't a scythe, so that was a clue).

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by Leumas

It was not his frailty… it was the weight of all the crimes committed by his predecessors and their minions that are associated with the symbol of those crimes that was placed upon his head.

Nah, I called it: the late queen did return from the grave last night and fight Charles for the crown! He ended up winning after all, but not before she ran him through with her lightsaber. He's held together with gold-colored duct tape at the moment. Maybe he'll recover, maybe he won't, it all depends on whether he's cultivated immunity to any of the poisons William will be slipping him with every meal from now on.

[Leumas]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Nah, I called it: the late queen did return from the grave last night and fight Charles for the crown! He ended up winning after all, but not before she ran him through with her lightsaber. He's held together with gold-colored duct tape at the moment. Maybe he'll recover, maybe he won't, it all depends on whether he's cultivated immunity to any of the poisons William will be slipping him with every meal from now on.

Hahaha... funny....

Elizabeth's ghost may have been accompanied by two others to show him the past present and future VICTIMS of the criminal enterprise he has just been handed.

[bruto]

Originally Posted by Leumas

It was not his frailty… it was the weight of all the crimes committed by his predecessors and their minions that are associated with the symbol of those crimes that was placed upon his head.

Not to minimize the crimes but I think you overestimate his ability to appreciate them and his ability to deviate from the path for which he was wound up and aimed.

[lionking]

Originally Posted by bruto

Not to minimize the crimes but I think you overestimate his ability to appreciate them and his ability to deviate from the path for which he was wound up and aimed.

I think you are crediting Chuck with brainpower and wisdom he doesn’t have.

[Leumas]

Originally Posted by bruto

Not to minimize the crimes but I think you overestimate his ability to appreciate them and his ability to deviate from the path for which he was wound up and aimed.

You're so very right... why should he care... god ordained he be where he is and it's god's will... or at least I think he believes that all the way down to the core of his consciousness... if indeed he has one.

[Wildy]

Originally Posted by Leumas

It was not his frailty… it was the weight of all the crimes committed by his predecessors and their minions that are associated with the symbol of those crimes that was placed upon his head.

I see you watched the ABC's broadcast. Shame you missed out on a fair amount of the music beforehand.

[zooterkin]

Originally Posted by Vixen

Wow, sexist much? It may have escaped your notice that Charles is no oil painting himself.

"What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Prince Charles?"


That said, I thought we had perhaps moved on from looks being the only criteria when choosing a husband or wife.

[Norman Alexander]

I thought some of the music was wonderful, especially the two tenors. Apart from that, it's pretty much: after some faffing about with stuff, an old guy and an old gal get expensive hats to wear.

[Pixel42]

"Man in hat sits on chair", as Private Eye put it.

[timhau]

"On may 6th, in London, a man will be given a hat," is how The Economist's take on the coronation starts. Well worth the read, if you can get it from behind the paywall.

[Nessie]

The ceremony of giving an old man a second hand hat, is the subject of state police repression;

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/06/u...ntl/index.html

The Met warned beforehand they would be intolerant of protests and many have been arrested, none of whom were doing anything other than what can be described as peaceful, normal protest, of holding banners and chanting.

[PitPat]

Is it just me that I think it's weird that a 1st World Country still has a King?

i get that it's mostly ceremonial....

Or is it?

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Nessie

The ceremony of giving an old man a second hand hat, is the subject of state police repression;

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/06/u...ntl/index.html

The Met warned beforehand they would be intolerant of protests and many have been arrested, none of whom were doing anything other than what can be described as peaceful, normal protest, of holding banners and chanting.

From that story:

Quote:

Stratton said that when the organizers asked police why they were being detained, they were told officers “would figure it out” after they had searched the anti-monarchy protesters. After searching them, police told the six organizers they were arresting them and seizing hundreds of their placards carrying the slogan “Not My King.”

“They didn’t say why they were arresting them. They didn’t tell them or us where they were taking them. It really is like something out of a police state,” Stratton said.

See R v Haddock (1927) Herbert's Uncommon Law 24 at 26, per Light LCJ: "citizens who take it upon themselves to do unusual actions which attract the attention of the police should be careful to bring these actions into one of the recognized categories of crimes and offences, for it is intolerable that the police should be put to the pains of inventing reasons for finding them undesirable."

[Leumas]

Originally Posted by Wildy

I see you watched the ABC's broadcast. Shame you missed out on a fair amount of the music beforehand.

I did not watch any of it... I just watched a shorty on Youtube showing the moment he had the symbol of his crime family's global rapine and pillaging placed on his head... and I was reminded of how meaningless humanity is and that we have not really evolved much beyond baboons.

[sinnikal]

Not just 'potential' protestors arrested - the Met Police managed to arrest a few people from 'Night Stars', an organisation working with the Met Police and the local council to patrol Soho streets at night to try to keep women safe at night and handing out rape alarms as part of their work. ******* brilliant!!!

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-05-07/...-spark-concern

[PitPat]

Did Elton John perform a new version of Candle in the Wind or The Bitch is Back?

[The Atheist]

Originally Posted by Matthew Best

She had to carry Excalibur and then return it to a body of water afterwards - a task for which she is famously well-suited.

She's been widely praised for both carrying the sword and looking classy, making headlines around the world.

She definitely looks the part.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

Not to mention Charles can't be much of a pleasant thing to wake up next to either.

I think the two of them make sense together.

I guess I have to defer to your expertise.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by zooterkin

"What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Prince Charles?"


That said, I thought we had perhaps moved on from looks being the only criteria when choosing a husband or wife.

Well I have been having some fun picturing all the perfectly gorgeous members here and their equally knock-out partners. They are all no doubt perfectly qualified to disparage the appearance of people. After all, as every skeptic knows, physical attractiveness is the most important attribute when choosing a partner.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by GlennB

ffs, now we're getting endless coronation chatter and action replays on the BBC. I'd quite like to see some ordinary news. I demand a refund!

My [VERY] smart TV switched itself off automatically and I couldn't be bothered to turn it back on!

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Myriad

I understand the idea of splendor and looking regal and wretched excess and all that. But the crowns are too tall. They cross the line between "here's proof these are the royalest royals you've ever seen" and "let's keep these precious jewels well away from their greasy scalps," by about four centimeters.

That's the whole point. Whilst it may be true that by thinking, a man cannot add a cubit to his height, he can do so by other means: crowns, tall hats, long fancy names, especially French or German sounding ones and being [sfx Brummie accent] 'considerably richer than yowwwwwwwww!!!' (although these days anyone with a credit card can go to Argos and buy a crown and gold carriage with eight white horses on tick).

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Leumas

Watching this video with its pomp and fanfare made me realize that humans have not really evolved much beyond baboons.

In 2023 "god save the king" is seriously uttered with all that swank and wasteful ostentation of a mafioso family brandishing the loot of centuries of rapine and pillaging and plunder.

Just demonstrates how meaningless humanity is.

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I AGREE

And the article below further illustrates how pernicious this system really is... they obliviously deride China's fascistic treatment of their Hong Kong demonstrators feigning concern for the demonstrators... what hypocritical thugs.

‘Something out of a police state’: Anti-monarchy protesters arrested ahead of King Charles’ coronation

Humans are not descended from baboons, which are a completely different species, albeit within the same family as primates.

Mafioso are criminal organisations. The British Royal family has the blessing of its democratically elected parliament.

Thirdly, it is nothing like the censorship of China on Hong Kong - that is to do with imperialism. The UK clamp down is because there is a far right government in place that is ever more fascistic by the day but nonetheless the bills voted through by MP's. The main reason for the arrests in advance of anti-monarchist and Just-Stop-Oil-style protestors was more to prevent the embarrassment as experienced during the Queen's funeral of protestors succeeding in breaching the police line and hurling themselves in front of the horses, and viewed worldwide. Whilst these can be be seen as the usual harmless British eccentrics there was a real concern about serious terrorist threat.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by novaphile

It has demonstrated, yet again, that my powers of prediction are crap.

In recent years, I'd believed that Charles would do the right thing for the UK and Commonwealth and immediately abdicate, in favour of his eldest son, after the Queen's death, so that there would be some chance that the Commonwealth would have some stability during the reign of his son.

Guess not.

No, never. History is scattered with the blood of sons trying to usurp their fathers, brothers their brothers and any close relative combination you like. Charles plotted with then PM John Major to somehow get himself installed and his mother retired. Andrew was in machinations to replace Charles. Harry has similar unkind thoughts towards his big brother. Erik XIV of Sweden was deposed by his half brother John III, himself overthrown by brother Duke Charles to become Charles IX a pretender, who usurped his own nephew, Sigismund, who was the real heir.

The idea of Charles abdicating in favour of William gave me a chuckle.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

Not to mention Charles can't be much of a pleasant thing to wake up next to either.

I think the two of them make sense together.

It's my impression they have long distance phone sex.

[GlennB]

Well, double ffs. Tuned in to catch the 1 o'clock news and it's wall-to-wall coverage of street parties etc from all over the country.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by zooterkin

"What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Prince Charles?"


That said, I thought we had perhaps moved on from looks being the only criteria when choosing a husband or wife.

Absolutely. However, Chanakya does have a point (aside from the sexist phrase 'old bag'). Any eighteen-year old looks naturally hotter (i.e., Diana) than the average frumpy housewife with three kids, as Camilla was at the time. I recently came across a photo of Diana - from my late mother's photo collection - at a hospital in St John's Wood (I believe) taken by a nurse friend of the family, visiting her hospital ward, and my goodness, Diana lights up the whole photograph! What an amazing presence she had.

IMV I suspect Camilla is Charles' beard although I dare say they are soulmates of a sort.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Norman Alexander

I thought some of the music was wonderful, especially the two tenors. Apart from that, it's pretty much: after some faffing about with stuff, an old guy and an old gal get expensive hats to wear.

I was impressed by this charming version of Zadok the Priest (Handel) as sung by a Ghanaian choir.

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I AGREE

Dedicated to Charles III although actually performed live in Oct 2021, according to the blurb.

[PitPat]

Originally Posted by Vixen

Humans are not descended from baboons, which are a completely different species, albeit within the same family as primates.

Mafioso are criminal organisations. The British Royal family has the blessing of its democratically elected parliament.

Thirdly, it is nothing like the censorship of China on Hong Kong - that is to do with imperialism. The UK clamp down is because there is a far right government in place that is ever more fascistic by the day but nonetheless the bills voted through by MP's. The main reason for the arrests in advance of anti-monarchist and Just-Stop-Oil-style protestors was more to prevent the embarrassment as experienced during the Queen's funeral of protestors succeeding in breaching the police line and hurling themselves in front of the horses, and viewed worldwide. Whilst these can be be seen as the usual harmless British eccentrics there was a real concern about serious terrorist threat.

I don't understand how you'd want about 100 heads of state at one city. It worked pretty well so Kudos to UK for not getting anybody killed in a mass shooting.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Leumas

I did not watch any of it... I just watched a shorty on Youtube showing the moment he had the symbol of his crime family's global rapine and pillaging placed on his head... and I was reminded of how meaningless humanity is and that we have not really evolved much beyond baboons.

The crowning was nothing to do with raping and pillaging, except in a broad abstract sense of colonialism, which doesn't require a coronation.

I would disagree it was atavistic but actually forward looking and clever, insofar the first such crowning (with the pointy style of crown, as opposed to erstwhile warrior headgear, or the crown of thorns for Jesus) was Charlemagne in AD800 being so crowned by the Pope. This was clever because it linked being King with being approved by God, specifically, the Christian God. It worked very well for King Alfred of England, Christian reformer, who vowed to serve Jesus and follow the scriptures in a holy, righteous and merciful way and not - oh no, no, no, no, no - Heaven forfend!- because of hunger and greed for power and lording it over people. We, the people, we no-likey meglamaniacs in the fashion of Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jung, Putin, the Ayatollah Khomeini, but let them declare they are serving a higher God and following the paths of righteous, gentleness and all his paths are peace, then we the people likey very much.

[Jack by the hedge]

Originally Posted by Vixen

... IMV I suspect Camilla is Charles' beard although I dare say they are soulmates of a sort.

This is just fishing for a reaction, right? I'd say that was about as likely as his being an alien reptile.

The history of their relationship isn't a great secret.

[angrysoba]

Originally Posted by GlennB

Well, double ffs. Tuned in to catch the 1 o'clock news and it's wall-to-wall coverage of street parties etc from all over the country.

Never knew Erling Haaland's premier league scoring record would be so popular.

To be honest, though, Dixie Dean will always be the king in my eyes!

[Jack by the hedge]

Originally Posted by PitPat

I don't understand how you'd want about 100 heads of state at one city. It worked pretty well so Kudos to UK for not getting anybody killed in a mass shooting.

I was working at Westminster Abbey for both the coronation and the queen's funeral last year (when Biden* attended too). It was more in the back of our minds that someone <cough>Russia<cough> would love to drop a bomb on the place if they could do it deniably. That Kremlin drone explosion a few days ago didn't help set our minds at ease.

*Biden got an aisle seat fairly far back in the South Transcept ("poets corner") and the Beast was parked right outside there. I had the impression of protocol taking second place to the secret service saying "Our guy is going to be no more than this many seconds from the door".