THE FOLLOWING ITEM FROM RAW STORY VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, AS BROKE THIS PAST WEEK, should be of particular interest to the Lou Dobbs crowd and other unreconstructed specimens of Fu Manchu-model xenophobia who invoke discredited "racial honour and integrity" platitudes and bromides to excuse their opposition to immigration reform--let alone wanting to dust off apartheid South Africa's "Make Babies for Botha" appeals to increase white birth rates:

Chinese leader Mao Zedong proposed sending 10 million Chinese women to the United States, in talks with top envoy Henry Kissinger in 1973, according to documents released Tuesday.

The powerful chairman of the Chinese Communist Party said he believed such emigration could kickstart bilateral trade but could also "harm" the United States with a population explosion similar to China, according to documents released Tuesday by the State Department on US-China ties between 1973 to 1976.

In a long conversation that stretched way past midnight at Mao's residence on February 17, 1973, the cigar-chomping Chinese leader referred to the dismal trade between the two countries, saying China was a "very poor country" and "what we have in excess is women."

He first suggested sending "thousands" of women but as an afterthought proposed "10 million," drawing laughter at the meeting, also attended by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.

Kissinger, who was President Richard Nixon's national security advisor at that time, told Mao that the United States had no "quotas" or "tariffs" for Chinese women, drawing more laughter.

Kissinger then tried to highlight to Mao the threat posed by the Soviet Union and other global concerns as he moved to lay the groundwork for restoring diplomatic ties a year after Nixon's historic visit to China.

But Mao dragged the talks back to the topic of Chinese women.

"Let them go to your place. They will create disasters. That way you can lessen our burdens," Mao said.

"Do you want our Chinese women? We can give you ten million," he said.

Kissinger noted that Mao was "improving his offer."

Mao continued, "By doing so we can let them flood your country with disaster and therefore impair your interests. In our country we have too many women, and they have a way of doing things.

"They give birth to children and our children are too many."

A shrewd diplomat, Kissinger seemed to turn the tables on Mao, replying, "It is such a novel proposition, we will have to study it."

The two leaders then spoke briefly about the threat posed by the Soviet Union, with Mao saying he hoped Moscow would attack China and be defeated.

But Mao again lamented, "We have so many women in our country that don't know how to fight."

The assistant Chinese foreign minister, Wang Haijung, who was at the meeting, then cautioned Mao that if the minutes of the conversation were made public, "it would incur the public wrath."

Kissinger agreed with Mao that the minutes be scrapped.

But when Kissinger joked that he would raise the issue at his next press conference, Mao said, "I'm not afraid of anything.

"Anyway, God has sent me an invitation," said the Chinese leader, who coughed badly during the talks.

Mao died in September 1976. US-China diplomatic relations were restored in 1979.

I will leave any judgement on these freshly-released developments up to you.

DESPITE GETTING BUT HALF AN INCH OR SO OF SNOW HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI YESTERDAY, it's shaping up to be a rather cold President's Day where Your Correspondent is sitting.

And should remain so the next couple of days, especially in view of pre-sunrise windchill readings likely to crash to the -20 to -25 range.

Speaking of weird weather, Your Correspondent has to wonder whether the late spate of tornadoes across parts of the Deep South are some class of Divine Wrath and Judgement for such being major bastions of support for the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right.

*************

ONE OF THOSE "DEFINITELY NOT FOR TOURISTS" SIGHTS TO BE ENCOUNTERED in parts of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Bhangladesh is dog fighting a la mode--traditionally the enclave for the local version of Angry White Men Eating Krispy Kreme Donuts, with many such contests featuring under-the-table betting and substantial cash prizes.

Seeing as how a suicide bomber disrupted a dog fighting tournament in Khandahar, Afghanistan yesterday (with 84 deaths ensuing) makes me wonder if said suicide bomber really had as motivation therefor a protest against such a cruel, inhumane and degrading sport--especially given the laxity of police power in parts of Afghanistan.

=============

STAYING WITH ANIMAL-RIGHTS ISSUES, AS IT WERE, FOR THE MOMENT, you can expect the People for the "Ethical Treatment" of Animals crowd to be rejoicing @ the news of the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service recalling some 144,000 tons of ground beef produced by the Westland/Hallmark company out Southern California way--most of which you may have already eaten, alas for it! by way of either:

• the School Lunch programme; or
• Jack in the Box and/or In-N-Out Burger locations, both concentrated largely in the western states.
  (Both chains concurrently announced they would stop buying ground beef from Westland/Hallmark forthwith.)

The order being issued in response to undercover video made by Humane Society officers discovering where halt and lame cattle as should not otherwise be processed for human consumption were being forced into the abattoir--in some extreme cases, resorting to cattle prods or even forklift trucks.

Remember, boys and girls, that PETA sees releasing flatulence for the sake of dietary reform to be a Badge of Honour--the louder and smellier, the better.

*************

SO MUCH FOR THE CONTINUING HANNAH MONTANA MANIA ABROAD, especially to the point where such is getting too much attention as "junk food" news (a/k/a prolefeed) serving only to distract the attention of the weak-minded and vulnerable from The Bigger Picture of the ur-RAHOWA's failings and Indecision 2008.

Which recalls this Burma-Shave sign from the around 1936:

RIOT AT
DRUGSTORE
CALLING ALL CARS
100 CUSTOMERS
99 JARS
BURMA-SHAVE

*************

MUHAMMAD AL-FAYED, THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN BUSINESSMAN AS OWNS THE RITZY LONDON RETALER HARRODS (motto: Omnia Omnibus Ubique--"Everything, for Everybody, Everywhere"), finally got his opportunity to tell his version of events in what he always wanted all along: That inquest by the Paris authorities into the tragic 1997 accident as killed Mr. al-Fayed's son Dhodi and Diana, Princess of Wales.

To hear Mr. al-Fayed put it, such was actually part of a Greater International Conspiracy--involving, if not the Usual Suspects in conspiracy theories of Jews and Freemasons, then the British Royal Family, MI6 (Great Britain's overseas intelligence agency), Interpol, the Central Intelligence Agency and Other International Operatives acting, if not exactly sinister, then weird and unwholesome.

Which is enough to wonder whether Mr. al-Fayed may be overdoing it in his claims and substantiations, let alone fearing the likelihood that he may have to reimburse the French courts if it emerges that the grounds for his inquest request turn out being frivolous, vexatious or otherwise tending to malicious prosecution. Let alone the prospect of al-Fayed having close connexions to the Britophobe extraordinaire, Lyndon LaRouche, considering the British Royal Family being implicated.

And if it turns out that Mr. al-Fayed has to make reimbursement (yet wants to avoid needlessly tying up his own cash resources), he can always turn to Harrods Bank, Ltd., the in-store banking service of Harrods, for an overdraft facility on any personal accounts he may have as a matter of course with same, catering largely to the gin-and-Jaguar belt along the M25's outer fringe with much the same range of banking products and services as the High Street such--howbeit in a more personal and discreet stylee.

In other words, Harrods Bank isn't for everyone.

But then again, if the Banking Halls (where Harrods Bank has its premi on the Ground Floor of the Harrods premi in Knightsbridge) were to demand timely repayment of any overdrafts from Mr. al-Fayed, the question is whether he's likely to make repayment @ all, invoking his position in the management of Harrods.

"Think about it" 

YOUR CORRESPONDENT UNDERSTANDS THERE'S AN ANNUAL RACE BETWEEN MAN AND HORSE every year somewhere in Wales, which began as a pub argument over who would be the faster if the two ran against each other.

Perhaps the promoter of the annual man-v.-horse race may not have been aware of the frequent exhibitions in the 1930's in which the great Jesse Owens (as in he who made Schicklgruber furious @ the 1936 Berlin Nazilympics because Owens was of colour, anathema to what the Nazis had in mind about an "Aryan Master Race") was said to have outrun a horse more often than no.

WELLLL--!!!

Your Correspondent was thinking @ some length about the prospect about having Silver (The Lone Ranger's faithful steed, if you still recall the radio and/or TV permutations thereof) and/or Scout (that of his Faithful Indian Companion, Tonto) taking the equine role in that annual exercise in silly-season excess.

Or, for that matter, Red Ryder's black steed Thunder.

But then again, there's always the risk that such specimens of equine speed from "the arrogant American colonies" might be seen as having an unfair advantage.

=============

ON THE OTHER HAND, IT MIGHT BE EQUALLY INTERESTING TO IMAGINE what it would be like to have Silver racing against The Black Beauty, streamlined car of The Green Hornet (which everybody knew was the secret identity of Britt Reid, crusading publisher of The Daily Sentinel in his relentless mission against the forces of crime, evil, vice and corruption, with his faithful valet Kato helping more often than no).

Especially when you consider that both The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet were created by the same man (George W. Trendle) for Detroit radio station WXYZ ... who let it be known on more than one occasion that Britt Reid was really grand-nephew of Dan Reid (the true name of The Lone Ranger), the fact of which the former noted in @ least one episode of The Green Hornet's radio version when he took note of a photograph of his grand-nephew in Lone Ranger getup, astride Silver, in his office @ the Daily Sentinel.

=============

AND SPEAKING OF HE WHO "HUNTS THE BIGGEST OF ALL GAME--PUBLIC ENEMIES WHO TRY TO DESTROY OUR AMERICA!!!", as was the opening message of every episode of The Green Hornet, perhaps one who deserves his painful sting more than anything is none other than Michael Savage "himself."

Savage's homophobic, Islamophobic and xenophobic tendencies deserve a good dose of what The Green Hornet has to offer.

Or, failing that--especially if Mr. Savage has this martyr complex that's been suggested--bring in The Shadow ("Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"), who can manage to butt into The Savage Nation when his poor, undereducated and easily-influenced listeners least expect it. Credit that to The Shadow's hypnotic powers to cloud mens' minds so they cannot see him when they least expect it.

Thereupon prompting Michael Savage to go into a loud, toilet-mouthed barrage which The Shadow quickly retorts in the stylee of his radio days (along with the inevitable reminder that The Shadow is invisible and, hence, Mr. Savage cannot see The Shadow in physical form, let alone hear his stentorian pipes) ... only before too long, Michael Savage suffers a Fatal Heart Attack in studio, with The Shadow breaking the news (and his faithful companion, Margot Lane--who is the only one to know that The Shadow is really the playboy Lamont Cranston--rejoicing all the more).

If not The Shadow--then how about The Green Lama?

WITH THANKS TO CROOKS AND LIARS FOR THE HAT TIP, AS IT WERE, Your Correspondent wishes to call your especially timely Notice and Attention to Keith "Countdown" Olbermann's Special Comment on Valentine's Day about His Fraudulency's potentially desperate state of affairs when it comes to perpetuating the "prevention" of terrorism through questionable and Constitutionally-dangerous means--and the depths His Fraudulency is sinking to towards such ends (emphasis from the transcription):

Democrats in the House of Representatives are closing the shop down tonight, until a week from Monday… leaving President Bush twisting slowly in a wind of his own creation.

Our third story on the Countdown: the FISA bill—and the retroactive immunity for the telecom giants that helped Mr. Bush illegally eavesdrop on Americans—will thus just sit there, unacted upon, not even a temporary extension which the Republicans and Mr. Bush refused, despite the President's threats that if the bill isn't passed by Saturday, there'd be a breakdown in counter-terrorism surveillance and plagues of locusts and stuff.

A Special Comment, in a moment.

First the details.

House Democrats, in essence, calling the Republicans' bluff.

They staged a walkout at mid-day… led by John Boehner, who in one act managed the cheesy political theater, and managed to get out just as Representatives were to vote on Contempt of Congress citations against Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten.

That the Republicans just happened to walk to a stand-full of microphones… pure coincidence.

The President had started all this, with his now-daily message of fear, with what he apparently sees as a threat, to postpone his scheduled trip to Africa.

The House should not leave Washington without passing the Senate bill. I am scheduled to leave tomorrow for a long-planned trip to five African nations. Moments ago, my staff informed the House leadership that I'm prepared to delay my departure, and stay in Washington with them, if it will help them complete their work on this critical bill. The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor terrorist communications.

Having lost, he now says he's going to Africa—another threat, or promise, unfulfilled.

Now, as promised, a Special Comment.

A part of what I will say, was said here on January 31st.

Unfortunately it is both sadder and truer now, than it was, then.

"Who's to blame?" Mr. Bush also said this afternoon, "Look, these folks in Congress passed a good bill late last summer… The problem is, they let the bill expire. My attitude is: if the bill was good enough then, why not pass the bill again?"

You know, like The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Or Executive Order 90-66.

Or The Alien and Sedition Acts.

Or Slavery.

Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger.

Yet you have weakened that ability!

You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger!

This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough even for you to understand.

For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You.

By your own terms and your definitions—you have just sided with the terrorists.

You got to have this law or we're all going to die.

But practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an Ex Post Facto law, which could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive, and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.

But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn't even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.

"The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America." Believed?

Don't you know?

Don't you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you?

Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here?

If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business—come out and say it!

There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.

You're a fascist—get them to print you a t-shirt with "fascist" on it!

What else is this but fascism?

Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?

Mark Klein was the AT&T Whistleblower, the one who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all AT&T circuits—everything—carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your web browsing into a secure room, room number 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy—a spy both patriotic and telepathic—might able to divine had been sent or spoken by—or to—a terrorist.

Everything!

Every time you looked at a naked picture.

Every time you bid on eBay.

Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat.

"My thought was," Mr. Klein told us last November, "George Orwell's 1984. And here I am, forced to connect the big brother machine."

And if there's one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, is that he is—you are—a liar.

"This Saturday at midnight," you said today, "legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning, will be compromised…You said that "the lives of countless Americans depend" on you getting your way.

This is crap.

And you sling it, with an audacity and a speed unrivaled even by the greatest political felons of our history.

Richard Clarke—you might remember him, sir, he was one of the counter-terror pro's you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality—Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year."

You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.

And your minions like John Boehner—your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them—they should just keep walking, out of Congress and if possible, out of the country.

For they—and you, sir—have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The lot of you, are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic, to whom "Freedom" is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for, when you want to get away with its opposite.

Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as "protecting America."

Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring, only of "terrorist communications."

Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done, isn't unlawful, it's just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!

Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.

That the President was willing to veto this eavesdropping, means there is no threat to the legitimate counter-terror efforts underway.

As Senator Kennedy reminded us in December:

"The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.

No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies."

And that literally cannot be.

Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists.

I am not talking about ethics here.

I am talking about blame.

If the President seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it means we can safely conclude… there is no baby.

Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow…

You would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists…

You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people…

You would not merely be guilty of stupidity…

You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir…

You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again… it is that you are never responsible.

As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.

The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history—George W. Bush—would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people—was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.

We will not fear any longer.

We will not fear the international terrorists—we will thwart them.

We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety—we will call it what it is: terrorism.

We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government—we will name them.

And we will not fear George W. Bush.

Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear.

THE EXAGGERATOR, NOTWITHSTANDING THE INHERENT OBJECTIONS OF SERBIA AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, WISHES TO USE THIS OPPORTUNITY to extend congratulations and best wishes to the people and nation of Kosovo on its Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

And hopes sincerely that the ethnic Serbian and ethnic Albanian peoples of Kosovo will finally live in amity and peace, with a firm and unyielding commitment to democracy and liberty in the face of uncertainty posed by Certain Other Soverign Powers envious of the UDI.

IN EXACTLY ONE YEAR'S TIME FROM TODAY, TELEVISION BROADCASTERS IN THE UNITED STATES will be required to make the complete and final transition of their broadcast emissions from 525-line analogue standard to digital such.

And it's going to be a rather difficult and trying such for such TV viewers (my Motherdear among them) who would still prefer to eschew cable or satellite TV reception in favour of "pure" FreeVee (i.e., over-the-air broadcast reception, limited largely to the Six Networks [ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW and MyTV], PBS and the occasional independent or Pray TV freecaster, with reception via traditional antennæ), yet want to keep their existing analogue-reception sets inasmuch as newer digital sets are "too expensive" @ this time.

Not to mention the inevitable "common sense" arguments many among the older generation especially enjoy subscribing to.

For them, there is a solution: Vouchers will be available (maximum of two per household) to provide a point-of-purchase credit of $40 each towards the purchase of approved set-top converter boxes as would allow existing analog TV sets to receive digital TV signals now emitted. Said vouchers can be requested online (q.v.) or by freecall to 1-888-DTV-2009 (vox)/1-877-530-2634 (TDD).

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AS IT TURNS OUT, THERE HAPPENS TO BE A "DARK SIDE" TO THE DIGITAL TRANSITION MANY MAY BE UNAWARE OF--in particular such receiving their beloved FreeVee through translator stations as rebroadcast FreeVee signals in mostly rural areas where reception is otherwise difficult, cable is out of the question, and satellite TV is seen as frivolous or otherwise wasteful.

As well as broadcasters holding low-power licences as are:

• designed to target niche audiences not otherwise expected to be served by traditional FreeVee outlets (especially so Fox affiliates); or
• serving mostly as rebroadcasters of Pray TV stations such as Trinity Broadcasting, with the master feed delivered via satellite and, for the most part, reckless and utter disregard for public service in the communities so targeted (usually poor, undereducated and easily-influenced).

For them, the 17 February 2009 deadline to transition from analogue to digital transmission does not apply; however, industry groups and consumer advocates are petitioning the FCC for assistance to help low-power and translator stations make the switch.

The FCC has some comments on this pecuilar issue in this fact sheet, which may be of interest to such operating translator or low-power stations. But then again, some pseudoreligious FreeVee broadcasters have been overheard pushing the patsy that The Digital Transition is really a ruse by which to silence religious broadcasters suspected of promoting "controversial" or "unpopular" views, especially on such non-issues as homosexuality, "protecting the purity of marriage," opposition to abortion and family planning, die Kulturkrieg, etc., usually having little or nothing to do in the first place with religious ministry or evangelisation.

And such pseudoreligious pushing such a platitude must, methinks, subscribe to a martyr complex as fears G-d A-mighty will suddenly destroy their studios and transmission equipment without warning unless the Great Silent Majority "gives till it hurts" to cover transition costs--only to divert the funds to personal use more than likely.

Such is no doubt something worth watching, if only to see the excesses of emotional pathetitude such Elmer Gantry wannabes will resort to.   

A LITTLE-KNOWN SIDELIGHT ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREDIT UNION CONCEPT IN NORTH AMERICA is the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in the Canadian province of Québec in promoting Alphonse Desjardins' caisse populaire concept as a means of promoting thrift, self-reliance and rural socioeconomic development--particularly so @ local parish level, and with particular attention towards the rank-and-file working classes.

Such, no doubt, calls to mind what I discussed previously about where payday-loan companies tend to be concentrated in lower-income and lower-working-class communities, with an eye towards their deliberate exploitation. (With the suggestion that some such consider reinventing themselves among mutually-based models if the desire is one of promoting socioeconomic empowerment in the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced based on free-market models and paradigms.)

WEEEEELLLLLL--!!!

The Consumerist (ultimately by way of RawStory) makes note of two rather interesting (and yet revealing) studies which show a potentially deliberate interconnexion between payday lenders and such areas of the country where the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right hath major support, both financial and moral.

One of the co-authors of one of the studies suggests the unholy alliance of Politics and Religion may be to blame thus:

When the Christian Right allied itself with conservative Wall Street business interests in the 1980s and early '90s, consumer protection law was placed to the side as an inconvenient sticking point. The laws allowing an astonishing number of triple-digit-interest-rate lenders throughout most of the Christian South and Mormon West are a legacy of that political alliance.

(You can read the studies here and here, and also study some interactive maps developed by Cal State/Northridge which makes clear what these studies found.)

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SO WHAT EXACTLY PREVENTS THE PSEUDORELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT FROM SERIOUSLY LOOKING INTO PROMOTING CREDIT UNIONS--or, for that matter, mutual savings banks--if their articles of faith are so gung-ho about promoting self-reliance, personal responsibility and thrift in the Lower Classes they claim to be supporting and defending?

Is it, perhaps, their flawed equation of wasteful and frivolous consumer spending being one with the "antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity" of the United States--never mind that said spending is expected to place greater emphasis on cost over value for money?

Is it the Unholy and Dangerous Alliance of Church, Wall Street and Wally World?

Or what exactly?

=============

BESIDES, LET'S NOT FORGET THE ROLE OF WHAT COULD BEST BE CALLED FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS BELIEF in developing the mutual savings bank concept:

Rev. Henry Duncan, a minister of the Church of Scotland (think Presbyterian) in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, set up a modest savings bank in 1810 for his parishoners to promote thrift and self-reliance against times of hardship and need. Its basic concepts were:

• Investing the savings thus deposited in only securities of the highest quality;
• Returning any dividends on these investments to the depositors as dividends on their accounts; and
• Entrusting the management of the savings bank, and its investment policies, to a Board of Trustees acting for and on behalf of the depositor/owners.

The concept quickly took off, so that by 1818, 465 mutual savings banks were in operation between Land's End and John O'Groats--182 of them in Scotland alone. And in 1816, the concept crossed the Atlantic with the founding of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS), recognised as the first savings bank in the United States.

Which, in any case, would become the foundations of the TSB Group in Great Britain, created in 1983 by the consolidation of the 16 remaining regional savings banks created themselves following consolidation of the 73 local savings banks in 1975, soon after the Central Trustee Savings Bank (founded 1973) became a London Clearing House member.

Following demutualisation and subsequent share flotation of TSB Group, they would merge with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB.

As the songwriter put it, "everything old is new again."

But when will the Religiopolitical Right learn?