Page 36 The ramblings of an old git bloggoth Mission Statement:           We aim to never raise our sights above the gutter and preferably to stay much lower

Give us all a lift (we at bloggoth anyway)

It seems that the Royal Mail is to issue Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps.

Excellent news. But if the Royal Mail is to encourage people to send cards to their friends and relatives at this happy time, even us miserable old gits who usually can't be arsed, they should be thinking about a whole range of themes that will appeal to all sections of society. We at bloggoth would welcome supersized stamps with pictures of ladies' arses on them. Obviously these pictures would be on the back of the stamp that we need to lick. It doesn't matter what they have on the front, the cards are only for relatives and such, so who cares?.

Dr Doolittle and other scientific news about little spiders

We at bloggoth have at last learned to communicate with spiders. We were brushing our choppers the other morning and a big cellar spider was attempting to climb across from the sink unit to the door but kept slipping on the bathroom tile. We said to it "Why don't you go a bit further up and climb along the grouting between the tiles?" and it immediately did exactly that.

Our van mirrors are covered in spider webs which naturally we refuse to remove, being able to see other traffic is a minor consideration compared to providing homes for nice little creatures and, anyway, the stupid government have not yet banned drivers from watching little spiders while driving.

We have now made a major discovery that none of these serious arachnologists have. Given a choice of habitat, a garden spider will choose a car wing mirror over any other. The door and mirror provide a rigid and well sized triangle across which to construct the web and the gap behind the mirror is a perfect hiding place. Quite possibly the reflection in the mirror is perfect for deceiving the fly who is unable to see any object in his path. This is based on observation the other morning when a fine drizzle made all the webs visible. There were a few on plants and trees but by far the greatest number were on the car wing mirrors in our road!

Yet more good news from The Gaurdian

What a relief to know that if burglars break in to your home they are unlikely to steal your wheely bin or dustbin. Yet.

The plus side of religion

We at bloggoth have just got back from a Catholic christening. It is not something you quiz people about obviously but like many Catholics they seem to have timed their families to suit their careers.

According to polls most Catholics support contraception and a woman's right to abortion. You might argue that if they do not follow the teachings of their church they are not true Catholics at all. Who gives a shit? Except where religious principles are just reinforcements of our natural instincts as social animals or of the practical principals that allow society to function (nobody is seriously quarrelling with commandments like "thou shalt not kill") it's all bollox anyway.

These "bad" Catholics, and I daresay this apples to the non fanatics of all religions, the many Muslims who take the odd drink or sell top shelf magazines in their corner shops for example, are no sort of problem. They have the best of both worlds, they get comfort from their faith but they pick and choose what that faith means to them, it's a faith that suits their normal lives and the real world, a faith that lets them to fit into the society they live in.

It isn't the religious who are a problem, it is the fundamentalists, like the pope, who cling to a detailed and rigid dogma which has no relevance to modern times.

PS Although, come to think of it, a bit of heretic burning would have been much more entertaining.

PPS. And the pope didn't bother to turn up.

Aaaaagh no!!!!!!!!!!

Having confessed to agreeing with Polly Toynbee a little while back we suddenly find ourselves in the awful position of agreeing with a comment by Bob Crow! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh. Mind you it's only because we have a small bladder and drink too much coffee.

Excellent

The government plans a "blitz on compensation culture" of which the best element in our view is a crackdown on those "no win no fee" lawyers. It may offer a chance for some deserving claimants who cannot afford huge solicitor's fees but then what of the other side who can get no such help and cannot afford to defend a reasonable case?

If any government really wanted to help society it would do everything possible, with simpler laws and an affordable arbitration system, to put as many lawyers out of business as possible. It will never happen, lawyers rule our society.

Couldn't have put it better ourselves (although obviously we could if we could be arsed)

More sense from The Guardian on the supposed miracle leading to the beatification of Cardinal Newman.

And so the story becomes thus: Deacon Jack Sullivan had a pain in his back. After a year it got bad enough that he consented to a fairly routine surgery from which most patients are able to return home in a couple of days. He had the surgery, he got better, and 10 years later he can still walk. Miraculous? Not really.

.....

Even if this were a miracle, it would only reinforce a disturbing long-term trend. God used to be able to part seas and flood planets. By the end of the Old Testament he was turning people into pillars of salt and Aaron's rod into a snake. At the time of Jesus, God our omnipotent deity was basically down to party tricks, and now, what, easing an old man's backache for a few months? It's hardly the swaggering, all-conquering God of the glory days.

So what's happened? Are we not devout enough? Is God getting old? Has he lost interest? Are his powers subject to some form of spiritual entropy, leaving him hot and spent in heaven? Perhaps this worrying decline in God's powers is what the Vatican's crack team of miracle investigators should really be researching.

It's the same with everything "out there" whether god, ghosts or demons; it really is curious how the prevalence of them has declined with the growth of cameras and other technology that could prove their existence.

Pick and Mix

What a shame one can't do it with people and swap the brains of decent sorts with disabilities who do what they can with those of fit vicious criminals in our jails. Then the former can start to make something of their lives again while the latter would not be the danger to others that they currently are.

Sense from a righty's favourite demon

Although it is not uncommon for Guardian articles to make a lot of sense, we at bloggoth are not normally a fan of Polly Toynbee but she makes a very sound point here:

This intellectual pope yesterday brought the full majesty of his office and the complex twistings and turnings of his conservative doctrine to perplex a mainly secular nation, speaking clear English but pretty dense theology. The "moral relativism" he has railed against will seem to many like moral irrelevance when points of mystical belief and dogma take precedence. Obsessions with people's private sexual behaviour trivialise the great pressing moral issues of how we should all live well together in the here and now. Were Pope Benedict and all the other religions to devote themselves single-mindedly to social injustice, they would command immense moral authority that would silence any quibbles from non-believers.

Story

This month's short story is Looking for meaning in which a desperate man find solace in his weekly Tesco receipt.

Not one iota

Since we are now stuck with picking up the bill anyway, much of the furore against the Pope's visit seems rather overdone. Catholics don't really cause us any problems, so why offend them unecessarily? That is not to say that the nonsense Pope Grandpa Munster spouts is not thoroughly irritating:

...let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society

...Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms

When exactly was this time, the one we seem to have forgotten, that lack of religion in public life led to a truncated vision of man and of society? *Note 1 He wasn't referring to an actual period in history? Ah! just another unfounded assertion then. It was clear from the BBC TV news that religion in public life meant more than freedom of the faithful to openly express their opinions, rather he meant participation and influence in government intended to impose religious principles on all of us. Given the Catholic views on some issues I can well understand why Fry and Tatchel and many others would object to that.

Then there is the same old assertion that somehow religion gave us a freer society. No it didn't. Christianity controlled European society for most of two thousand years and there was arguably little progress in the way society worked until the mid 17th century, when science and reason began to flourish. In the UK it was under Charles 2nd, a rational and very Hedonistic ruler. It was the Royal Society, men like Bacon and Newton who indirectly began our social advance and as we moved forward it was the industries provided by men of science and commerce that delivered the increasing prosperity that led to a more stable, more democratic and lower crime society.

In his Edinburgh speech we also had the usual smeer by association that the Nazis were atheist and actively promoted atheism. Actually, that point is debatable, certainly a lot more so than the completely indisputable point that the Spanish Inquisition was Catholic. QED, all Catholics like to burn and torture Jews and heretics. What's wrong with that? Same logic.

What does faith actually do to improve anything? If it had an effect then, given the church's views on sex outside marriage and homosexuality, one would surely expect that its priests would be considerably less likely than other men to abuse young boys but the problem appears to have been worse than in other institutions where men look after boys, like ordinary state orphanages. If the paedophile scandal proves one thing, it is surely that religion does nothing to improve man's behaviour.

Note 1: Whatever the fuck that means

PS According to The Daily Mail etc those opposing the Pope's visit are all left wingers and Labour party supporters. We at bloggoth are now officially socialists! As atheists we are also Nazis according to the pope. Nazis AND socialists at the same time, wow! One thing we are is confused - by the nonsense of the religious.

A ridiculous comparison

How absurd to equate the French eviction of Roma from illegal settlements with Nazi actions on Jews. Any EU state is perfectly entitled to remove other EU citizens who have no visible means of support and cause nuisance.

It is easy for those who are not directly affected to be liberal in these matters but maybe they should try living in the areas of these camps before they criticise in such terms. The BBC news showed a little of them, the unsightly makeshift shacks, the disgusting piles of rubbish everywhere. One assumes they do not have any proper sanitary facilities so the rest is probably best left to the imagination. If they have no jobs or trades how do they live unless by begging and petty theft? Why exactly should the French put up with that, especially when these people are not French citizens?

This illustrates the sheer odiocy of the last batch of admissions of the poorest eastern countries into the EU, they should have been given some associate arrangement until their economies improved and their social problems, like the marginalised status of the Roma, had diminished. Like many other decisions by those determined to impose their grand vision at breakneck speed this has only damaged the whole concept of a United Europe in the eyes of many.

Volunteers

A bit further back we suggested that an army of the retired could be recruited to break public sector strikes. But maybe they could help in other ways, to mitigate the defence cuts for example.

Mrs Elsie Turner of the Old Farts Regiment searches for IEDs in Helmand.

It is expected that the new group will be able to tackle more mountainous terrain once Stannah have installed the necessary stairlifts.

Running around in circles

We at bloggoth did think of making one of our summer runs around Chanctonbury Ring to see if the devil would pop up and offer us some milk in exchange for our soul. We don't believe in a soul, although if the devil did pop up that might be quite a convincing argument that we could be wrong.

Trouble is, the legends are all so variable it was just impossible to say how or when our run should be. Is it May eve, Midsummer eve or any midnight? Do we run forwards or backwards and is it clockwise or anti-clockwise? And is it milk, soup or porridge? If it's soup, what sort is it? Soup is the one food we are rather faddy about, we only really like Heinz tomato.

You would think if the devil wanted to snare the souls of some sceptics he would have been a bit clearer. Not that he is alone in garbling his message; mainstream religion is also such a mess of conflicting stories that you could make the same comment about god. How is anyone supposed to follow the word of god when all his messengers don't seem to agree what that word is? Some might say that the fact that these disagreements are so similar in nature to those that exist about every other issue is more evidence that the supposed words of god are inventions of man.

Not us obviously, we really want to see the devil, it's just that we can't stand the idea of having to drink a horrible big bowl of chicken soup. That would be hell.

Fantastic

The election of The election of Labour MP (yuck!) Phil Woolas is being challenged on the grounds that he knowingly made false statements about his opponent's links to Islamic radicals. According to this opponent's website:

Under rules governing the conduct of election candidates and campaigns, Mr Watkins has submitted his Petition for a hearing of a rarely-convened election court, based on an alleged breach of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act (1983).

Specifically, part one of Section 106 states:

A person who, or any director of any body or association corporate which-

(a) before or during an election, (b) for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at the election, makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct shall be guilty of an illegal practice, unless he can show that he had reasonable grounds for believing, and did believe, that statement to be true.

We have no idea on the truth of the allegations and cannot be arsed to look but, like 99% of the population probably, we are amazed that politicians deliberately making false statements at elections is illegal considering that most of the dishonest bastards do it all the time!!

Can any of us petition for an election court to consider false claims made by MPs? You never know, with a bit of luck we can get rid of the f* lot of them and start again.

Crap Commie Crow and others

The Unions are planning more disruption over cuts which a majority of the public support.

There may be valid arguments about impact of spending cuts on the deserving poor or public services which benefit the economy indirectly but nobody should confuse those with the politically motivated and/or entirely selfish arguments from unionists like Bob Crow who seek merely to preserve privileges like early retirement and inflation proofed pensions that those in the private sector, many on lower wages, have to pay for. Some, like Crow's jumped up door operatives on the London tube, are being paid huge salaries for jobs that are totally unecessary; this man is the modern face of Luddism without any of the justifications of the original.

Do not swallow the leftist argument that purely because a strike has a major impact that is somehow proof that the jobs of the strikers are essential. We do not need tube drivers because we could have a fully automated underground network like Copenhagen's but clearly that is not something that can be implemented quickly so strikes would be enormously disruptive to London' economy. Similarly, even when other jobs in the public sector have little implicit worth, that does not necessarily mean they can be abolished without disruption when they have become part of the bureaucracy. There may be ways of acheiving the same results with fewer people but that may require a different organisation.

So do we carry on as we are with the rest of us bearing an ever greater cost of these useless people (who cost vastly more than bankers due to far higher numbers) or do we take short term pain for a long term gain? Maybe it would be in everyone's long term interest if the government took on the leftist unions like the RMT, UNISON and Unite whatever the initial cost.

Maybe too those of us who have the time should be volunteering to help break the strikes. An army of the politically right retired could be rather useful.

Nessie comes nearer and nearer

An early recollection is of my older sister chasing me around with rusty pliers singing "The nippers came nearer and nearer". When she caught me she would tear small pieces off my ear lobes.

We pregress.

This item is about a Loch Ness style monster being seen in Lake Windermere. Clearly this story must be true, why else would they go to the trouble of hiring a psychic to track down it down? Some among the non existent readers may ask how a Loch Ness monster travelled from Loch Ness to Windermere. Can't see what's so unlikely about that, almost every week we hear stories about freshwater creatures arriving in England from much further afield, only last week an enormous shrimp-eating shrimp from the Black Sea region turned up, so why would a fit and healthy 20′ monster have a problem travelling 313 miles?

The other reason we are pretty sure it is true is that another Loch Ness monster has been living in our small garden pond for a couple of months. Yeh! They really do look like that! Those "vague and fuzzy" pictures sceptics complained about were actually an accurate capture of the monster's appearance!

PS It was only thanks to a medium that the first fossil of T Rex was ever found in Texas in 1908. Apparently she asked "is anybody there?" and the ghost of a huge monster materialised, roared and bit her head off. A search of a nearby garden revealed its resting place.

The real reason

The ill discipline among youngsters is a frequent topic in the news and there is endless discussion as to why. We at bloggoth have been doing some research and have found the reason. Kids don't get toys in their cereal or packets of tea anymore.

You would start the day all excited wondering if you would find the little baking powder-powered submarine in your Kellogs. You weren't allowed to pull a new packet apart to find it obviously, we had discipline in those days. Tetley was great too, they had plastic dinosaurs once. The football cards were even better as you could take them to school and swap them during playtime. They were our currency, the primary school equivalent of snout in a prison.

Coincidence

We have had it for ages but yesterday we decided to start reading Sebastian Faulkes' Birdsong. A bit later, the book still on our lap, we flipped through a few pages of the new National Trust Magazine and it had an article by Sebastian Faulkes. The day before we had noted that our waspies all seemed to head off in one direction and said to the missus it would be interesting to have a tiny version of those animal tracking devices to see where the nest was. A bit later there was a post on CUK with somebody suggesting the same thing.

Coincidences manufacture themselves. A stream of minor events pass through our conciousness all day so it is not surprising that things will pop up twice on occasions. We notice those and not the millions of other things that have no relationship. That National Trust magazine had short columns by four or five authors but I couldn't say who the others were, it was only the Faulkes one that caught my eye.

Sound logic xoggoth. Trouble is, this sort of thing happens so often we do not entirely convince ourselves. Could there be an imp of coincidence?

Eating your greens

If you made up a huge list of statements about world issues and got enormous numbers of people to tick for, against or who gives a shit, you would probably find a lot of commonality between different groups which do not share the same vision.

Sometimes they have common enemies, as with the alliance of the left and Islam that is much in evidence; both hate Western capitalism, neither believe in freedom and democracy and both want to see their version of utopia imposed on the world at the expense of our national cultures and independence.

There is also an apparent link between those who support the green agenda and the left. Presumably they see pursuit of individual wealth coupled with personal freedom as something that is incompatible with concern for the environment. More environmentally friendly policies are something that must be imposed by the state and more redistribution of wealth is then necessary to compensate those at the bottom of the heap for the reduction in national wealth that will follow. Socialism in other words.

Sometimes the left seems to has eaten all the greens. We could have sworn the Green Party used to be about the environment but take a look at the Green Party website today. Total opposition to spending cuts or privatisation, jibes about corporate policies, stuff about building a fairer society, more wealth distribution, more state spending on social housing and job creation - this could be Wedgie Benn speaking. The only thing that there is hardly anything about is protecting the environment. All we can find that qualifies is free house insulation and grants for that are already available, even for well off home owners.

Wonder how many environmentally conscious middle class voters voted for this leftist party thinking it had something to do with saving our planet?

Make your own Collider

It was we at bloggoth who came up with the first working Hardon Collider and CERN nicked our idea when we could not be arsed to patent it. Our research is also way ahead of theirs and our coal bunker is already chock full of Higgs Boson particles in anticipation of another hard winter.

As we are in a good mood we thought we would share our design with the non existent readers. The xoggoth Hardon Collider, like everything described on the xoggoth website, is made of simple everyday materials and can be put together by anyone with reasonable DIY skills and some basic power tools.

You need:

• One large plastic water butt.
• 20 foot of rigid plastic pipe about 5" diameter. Marley 49S downpipe or similar. The colour does not matter.
• 8 45' elbows to fit the above pipe
• 10 foot of 13 amp power cable
• 25 foot of 6 amp power cable
• 8 cwt of builders sand. Note sharp sand is not suitable

Continued on the Hardon Collider project page.

Usual proportionality

Can't really see the point of unecessary insults like burning the Koran as the Pastor of some tiny US church plans to do. Challenge Islam on the things that matter, like secular government.

However, we do note the usual utterly disproportionate reaction. Tiny church means just that, it has around 50 members, yet Middle Eastern papers warn that it is "likely to ignite a fire of rage that could consume swathes of the globe". An insult by some Christian wierdos that most Christian bodies have disowned will clearly be used in their view to physically attack Christians throughout the World, although obviously when we have our citizens blown up that isn't any reason to be slightly cool towards Muslims.

This says everything about what Islam is really.

PS Actually this sort of ridiculous overreaction, repeated over and over, gets so annoying we can see the attraction of gratuitous insult, so if any non existent readers are feeling stroppy why not relieve your feelings as follows: a) Google for Quran download b) Download Quran c) Move to recycle bin

Thought for the day

We came across a Christian site with a search box that allowed you to search the bible so naturally we typed in "arse" and got this:

Jeremiah 50:25
The LORD has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.

Conspiracy theories begin at home

We at bloggoth loved our runs during the summer, so much great country around here. Print off some footpaths in streetmap and you can have a very enjoyable hour. Second best thing to an hour in a brothel but much cheaper.

Sometimes the footpaths can be a bit hard to follow, signs don't always point quite the right way so you end up wandering up the side of a field trying to find the next bit. Sometimes footpath signs are missing, most commonly when they go up a private drive near a road, we suspect the house owners remove them because they don't want too many people wandering by. You can usually pick up a sign at the far end.

Sometimes it seems more than that. There's a big estate called Twyford Lodge not far away and the footpath signs all round it seem to have been comprehensively erased. What is Twyford Lodge? Signs on it seem to indicate some sort of business centre but there is no record of that anywhere on the net. Not too far away is a place with a sign saying the Zion Centre, is that the Christian organisation? Oddly there are no records of it whatever on the net, or in the phone book either. Hmmm. What are they up to?

At least we seem to have got shot of another bunch of religious loonies. New Connexions, a national network of small evangelical churches that took over our church hall a few years back, seems rather to have died the death judging from the 3 year old news on its website but let's not celebrate too soon, as soon as one tide of religious crap recedes another one grows.

Hopeless cases

Knowlegeable observers of one nation's citizens described them as emotional, lazy and utterly indifferent to the passage of time, living only in the present. A management consultant touring the country had this to say about its workers:

My impression as to your cheap labour was soon disillusioned when I saw your people at work. No doubt they are lowly paid, but the return is equally so; to see your men at work made me feel that you are a very satisfied easygoing race who reckon time is no object.

Another nation's inhabitants were variously decribed as dishonest, dull and heavy, slow witted, indolent, never hurrying, working as and when they pleased, a plodding, easily contented people with neither great acuteness of perception nor quickness of feeling.

Sounds familiar but these descriptions are a century old and they refer to the Japanese and the Germans.

This paper on the relationship between culture and economic performance is well worth reading. One paragraph in particular would win a Blessed Perry (praise him) logic award, invoking as it does the engineering concept of feedback. We have mentioned how negative feedback operates in society before but there are also positive feedbacks at work.

A lot of behavioural traits that are meant to be good for economic development will follow from, rather than being prerequisites for, economic development.... Once economic development gets going, it will change people’s behaviour and even the beliefs underlying it (namely, culture) in ways that help economic development. A "virtuous circle" between economic development and cultural values can be created.

The author is a sound chap, although obviously some conclusions may need to be expanded upon when we at bloggoth produce our definitive treatise "A behavioural study of the common wasp in the pursuit of raspberry jam and its application to human society" Anyone who reckons human societies function substantially differently from those of other social animals is an idiot. Granted, our technology gives us better means to pursue our ends, better ways to eliminate other tribes, to bend others to our will in order to exert our supremacy, to ensure that we and our offspring get the advantages, to get the best mates, but basically there is nothing that has has ever happened in history that you cannot see in simpler form in Meercat Manor.

Half arsed

Got a lyricy thing working that shows lyrics for a youtube video that aint got 'em. At times we can certainly relate to these lyrics.

PS We used to have hair like that. Sigh.

???

Here we go again

The last time any Middle East talks looked remotely promising they were scuppered by the bombers. Look like it will be the same this time around, a stepping up of militant actions designed to scupper any peaceful solution when the talks have scarcely started.

Even if Israel agreed to a full Palestinian nation with no restrictions on trade or defence, a nation that included all the West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem, they would not get even an ounce of security in return from these malignant Islamists whose main goal is the destruction of the Jewish state and the imposition of yet another harsh Islamic state on those of all faiths. The Israeli government surely knows this and it beats me why they are bothering, they have to show willing I suppose.

We should ensure that Gaza can trade in goods and services that are not for attacks on Israel but equally we should not be supplying it with aid in any shape or form. No group or nation should ever be shielded from reality; if Gaza's people want to adopt a total victory or nothing approach that is up to them but we should not be propping them up while they do. That is a misguided compassion which condemns future generations to an endless conflict.

Google land registry

The floods in Pakistan will have so altered the topography in some areas that much of the land will be unrecognisable and many documents proving ownership will have been lost. Pakistan does have an official land registry but considering that our own has only quite recently moved most UK deeds to a central online system it seems unlikely that they will have yet done the same. Land in the third world and developing countries, particularly that owned by those of lower incomes, is often not registered at all. Add attempted grabs by dishonest individuals or corrupt organisations and it hardly surprising that after many major disasters, disputes over land ownership are a major source of tensions and continuing problems for those affected.

We at bloggoth hate global legal and political organisations, bodies like the UN cost a vast amount and seem to solve very few problems. If we have to spend money on international organisations the money would be better spent on practical provisions, an international land registry perhaps?. With the topography of most of the Earth recorded in detail on Google Earth, how much would individual land owners need to pay to get their land mapped out on it?

Terrorist dummy run or ...

No explosives, phones taped to a bottle of medicine?

Things people do don't always make sense but a dummy run for a terrorist bombing sounds really daft. If they find the dummy, as they did, then you are in trouble and certainly won't get another chance at the real thing. If they don't find it it doesn't mean that they won't on the real attempt and it won't improve the chances of that succeeding one iota.

What's the betting this is another of those propoganda scams that will turn out to have some "innocent explanation" so that poor Muslims can claim they are picked upon and persecuted? No mention of them yet but what's the betting also that CAIR will be involved by the end of the week?

Assuming they aren't already.

Is there anything in the world dafter than? ...

...white underpants.

The Professional Left

There's rather too much very US specific stuff for them to qualify as a coven member but The People's Cube is excellent. Shows that effective political comment does not have to be devoid of humour. This item on "the professional left" is well worth a read as it is so true in the UK too.

Government at all levels here provides huge sums to organisations with global leftist agendas like nef. *Note It has provided many tens of millions to militant leftist run unions like Unite under the Union Modernisation Fund. It funds Muslim Groups, some with very dodgy associations, to promote the Muslim image such as the "Inspired by Mohammed" poster campaign; the London Mayor has even funded the Muslim Safety Forum whose leader apparently approves of the killing of British soldiers. Government departments also pick up the salaries of full time union officials who do no government work at all.

Socialism and Islam collude to wreck our society and we pick up the bill.

Note: For New Economic Foundation, not to be confused with the kitchen appliance company.

Englishness not permitted

In the wake of the Bradford event we had another much less publicised confrontation between the "Far Right" and "Anti-Facists" in Brighton this weekend. Although neither event saw serious violence, the Brighton event followed the more usual pattern in that what there was came from the "Anti-Facists" who outnumbered the "Far Right" by three to one.

We already know what violent scumbags the UAF are but who were the "Far Right" on this occasion? The English Nationalist Alliance should not be confused with the Nationalist Alliance or various other parties with confusingly similar names. Here are some snippets from their website:

• ONE LAW FOR ALL IN ENGLAND, IRRESPECTIVE OF COLOUR RACE RELIGION OR SEXUALITY



• While no racism or Xenophobia will be tolerated in our society, no political or social favour will be given to any ethnic group. All legal citizens of an English state will be afforded the same rights of full protection from the law the government and the judiciary against any infringement of their public and human rights as English Nationals. All people living in England, have to conform to English law



• England is a country with a distinctive and ancient identity and culture, founded upon a dominant religion, Christianity, to which most of its citizens still feel an attachment.



• without national loyalty there can be no common ground. Democracy works only if its members think of themselves as 'we'. If there is only 'them', people no longer recognise the validity of laws that bind them, and are no longer prepared to make sacrifices or die for a country inhabited by people they don't know or trust.



• Of course, most immigrants are hardworking, honest and possess many other admirable characteristics. The problem is that if their numbers are too large, or if they don't want to integrate, the indigenous culture cannot absorb them.



• We have further compounded the issue by granting national status to the Scots, Welsh and Irish without defending the basic democratic principle which sees England having a national status of her own

Hardly a bunch of Nazis, just people who want what would be considered normal and desirable anywhere else in the world, a nation and a culture of their own.

More fans

Nice day today for a long jog in country. We get used to footpaths that run through fields full of farm animals, sheep, cows, bulls, horses, dogs, mososaurs etc. All of them love xoggoth of course and they often trot over to share their flies with us. Had three pigs running along behind me today in that funny drunken, this way, that way, Charlie Chaplin trot that pigs do. One kept bonking my calf with its snout. Then, at what I suppose was the edge of their territory, they stopped abruptly and ambled back. Did not have the camera unfortunately, just my phone which seems to have acquired a very colourful outlook on life, but here are three little rather purple pigs.

Fantastic

At last, recognition for the right creatures, waspies not HORRIBLE COMMON PEOPLE and STINKING CATS, both of which deserve to be bulldozed into huge wheely bins by the billion in our view.

Waspies are marvellously intelligent little creatures. Look how any other insect behaves when it meets a window, crawling about randomly, banging itself against the pane. Not a waspy, if you don't frighten it it will fly slowly a few inches away from the glass exploring here and there until it finds the way out. Leave something edible in a greenhouse and a wasp will find its way in through a small opening, have a snack and then fly back out the same way. A while later you will see it come straight back through the same small gap for second helpings. Even bees with their supposedly great navigation skills don't do this. Bees are stupid pane bashers who can't learn. (Like all lefties)

What is even more brilliant is that they recognise where jam comes from. We at bloggoth always leave some jam on a plank near the decking. When the jam runs out while we are in the garden one of more waspies will come wandering over and hover about in front of us to let us know. You can see its little Japanese face mouthing "Can we have some more jam please?" It's been a good year for waspies.

Fantastic 2

And here's a nice little Harvestman spider. We have no idea what its IQ is but it will have more sense than a lefty, that's for sure. As seems to be quite common with spiders it has lost a leg (by god sir, so you have) but it doesn't need your sympathy or welfare thanks.

Neither does this coffee mug, which lost its handle due to an act of extreme negligence by missus bloggoth. As non existent readers will know, we at bloggoth are very inclusive. (Except where HORRIBLE COMMON PEOPLE and STINKING CATS are concerned but that's a detail.) We insist on treating it with the same respect as would be due to any able handled mug and refuse to let the missus throw it away.

What fun is a marriage unless we strive daily to annoy our spouse?

Apologies

To non existent readers for grumbling continually about religion this weeekend. This is down to total stroppiness brought on by relative fatigue. Bloody relatives! Christenings, weddings and funerals, why would anyone want more contact with relatives than that? And that's way too much. Normal ramblings resumed ASAP.

The real EDL support is not what turns up

Good to see that the EDL's Bradford rally did not result in any major violence on Saturday. What little there was, some stone and bottle throwing, was mostly by the EDL this time around.

Some of the EDL people who attend these rallies, what proportion it is hard to say, are exactly what the group's opponents accuse all its supporters of being, right wing thugs and hooligans just spoiling for a fight. However, if you look at comments in newspapers the group still has a great deal of support from the general public, most of whom one assumes would not dream of yelling Paki at someone even if they were sure they could get away with it. Why? Because nobody else is speaking for them and nobody else is listening to them.

What is Islam?

1. Islam is not just a religion but a political creed that believes, like Communism, that the laws of society should be based upon its tenets.
2. It is a political creed that, like Communism, seeks to spread itself throughout the world including the UK.

These facts are totally beyond doubt. Most Islamic scholars are quite explicit that there is no separation of religion and state and the concrete proof is in the over 50 countries in the Organisation of Islamic Conference who have some or all of their laws based on Shariah. Evidence of the intentions of Islam are legion, to be found in many Muslim pronouncements and publications. Most support the spread of Islam by peaceful means and are well intentioned, believing that it will be an enlightened society of benefit to us all.

Well intentioned or not, those of us who believe in a secular society with rational laws, who find some of the principles of Islam totally objectionable, have every right to oppose it by peaceful means, just as those of us who believe in the Capitalist system have a right to oppose Communism. And yet every objection, however valid, however politely put, no matter how considered and logically consistent the argument, no matter how sound the evidence on which it is based, is dismissed out of hand as Islamophobia or bigotry or predudice. A properly reasoned reply is rarely forthcoming.

What is really irritating is that so many in the non Muslim community, most of whom clearly know nothing about Islam, join in this idiot game. They are like the sheep in Animals Farm, baaing away with what PC society expects them to say. Their arguments are mostly utterly ludicrous, they insist that harsh Islamic laws are just the work of nasty dictatorships, that what happens in Islamic countries has no relevance to what Islam does or will do in our own, that Christianity was just as horrid 400 years ago, that they know a jolly nice chap called Ahmed.

We have a suggestion for the sheep. Try changing the context to that of an argument about Capitalism vs Communism. Tell us that the Gulags in Russia were nothing to do with Communism, that the Soviet Union had no connection to Communism in the rest of the world, that your friend Bill is a Marxist and that none of them have any interest in seeing our capitalist system replaced. You might begin to see how idiotic your arguments are.

Getting back to the first point. The silent supporters of the EDL may not turn up at demos because they do not want to be associated with some of the extreme elements who do, they may disapprove of the violence and language of the hooligan elements, they may suspect the motives of those behind it, they may simply be too polite or too cowardly. But until somebody starts listening to the valid concerns of the British public about Islam and what it may one day mean for our society that silent support will only grow.

If legitimate concerns are totally ignored and dismissed out of hand for much longer many may cease to really care whether the point is put in a civilised way or not. If the politest objector is treated the same way as a yelling skinhead, if the only alternative to violent action is supine subjection, many may sensibly say "fuck it" and reach for a rock.

Oh good grief

What hope is there for a rational world when a prominent politician in the world's most economically and technically advanced nation can get huge support for advocating "turning back to god"?

The irration failure of the religious to recognise self evident truths manifests itself on a daily basis. We were watching a program the other day and a man asked "without guidance from god, how do we have any basis for society?". How about the same basis that every social animal has? Our built in natural instincts. Do Chimpanzees, Meercats or even wasps attack each other entirely without reason? No, they do not, and neither, contrary to that man's logic, are us atheists prone to attack or steal from others, even when we could do so with impunity, because we have a natural empathy with them. We don't do it because we know what it is like to suffer such things ourselves and we recognise that if society allowed them we would all be unhappier and worse off.

Neither are the religious any less likely to resort to dishonesty or violence than atheists. There is not a shred of correlation between violent crime levels in different nations and the extent of religious beliefs in them. Among the law abiding, the religious are just as likely to engage in or approve of wars and other violent conflicts when they feel that they or their own society is threatened and that too is as nature intended. No matter how peaceful the message of their religion they will contort their beliefs to fit the requirements and march into war "with god on their side".

Religion is not necessary as a basis for society and does nothing to improve it - sense, acceptance of our own natures and proper education is all that we need.

Law based on religion is bad law

As far as we know, there are no patents on laws and there would be nothing to prevent us adopting the harsh Islamic elements of Saudi Arabian law if we thought the reduction in crime would benefit our society. We do not need to convert to Islam to do that.

Whilst the legal details might be the same, there would be one very big difference in the basis of our laws and theirs. Because we had introduced it for rational reasons we would be free to monitor its effects, review it, modify it and, if the cost of all those unemployable eyeless, handless ex criminals became too much, abolish it if necessary. There would doubtless be bureaucratic delays while people argued over the validity of studies but that is hardly comparable to the decades or centuries that Imans would probably spend wrangling over what the Prophet really said or if the sacred text had been altered by the evil Jinn of the Desert.

A law based on religious dictat is bad law. It might work very well, the problem is that it is not subject to rational scrutiny.

Another one

Only a week after the last another celebrity, Paul Hogan, enters the bloggoth list of absolute heros who can do wrong by being targetted by the stinking taxman. Bastards! Everyone should stop paying 50% of their taxes until states start listening to the useful citizens who actually pay it. That's about how much is either wasted or spent on things we totally oppose.

Right again

In our idiot PC world you are never supposed to stereotype people. If that means assuming an individual x did xx because he belongs to group xxx without looking at his/her individual qualities then we would totally agree. However, that does not mean it is invalid to assume that xx was probably by someone of group xxx when there is a statistical link. That is just sound maths. It is also sound logic, as every group tends to have its own characteristic tendencies, both good and bad. If that wasn't true they would not be definable groups at all.

Even when there is no established statistical link as reported by the Royal Society of Statistically Linking Things, just going from events can often be accurate. If you read five reports of xx and four were done by xxx that is not proof but it does suggest a link may exist. It is random sampling with a rather small sample. Fine as an initial presumption provided you don't rely on the conclusions without further checking.

Yesterday we had news of an MI6 agent found stuffed in a bag. We saw the photo of the chap and said to the missus Hmmm, MI6? Pimlico? Gay lover! Bound to be! Actually, we can't really recall the details of why all members of MI6 are gay in our mind and really can't be arsed to look it up and if we did it would certainly be a very small sample. Wrong? We shall see.

So up yours

Ed Milliband Appeals to the Lib Dem voter to switch to Labour. I love most of the comments, maybe people are not so stupid. Actually, Liberal Democrat voters have never been stupid, the party has always had a string belief in democracy and individual freedom and that is enough to make many Lib Dems loath everything the Labour Party stood for. They may be more committed to wealth distribution than us righties would like but it has never been that malignant class based thing, or should one say that malignant affected class based thing, that afflicts the Labour party.

Eh?

So many times you wonder about the sheer stupidity of criminals, they act incredibly, unbelievably stupidly even for criminals. Like the young men who shoot somebody they know, in their own neighbourhood, in front of others, just because of a verbal insult. Does it not cross their cretinous minds that they will almost certainly be caught and given long prison sentences?

However the bus hostage taker in Manilla really should get the stupid award of the year. He did it because he wanted his job back and posted signs demanding his reinstatement on the bus' windows. Did he seriously think they would say "Oh, all right then, see you tomorrow at 9. You can have your old desk back" and life would carry on as normal?

Vacancies

Non existent readers will note yet another new vacant slot among the coven at top left, Mr Sheep having packed up again. Great shame, one the few blogs worth reading on a regular basis. Crabby Old Fart and Gimcrack are entertaining. We also like to visit HMRC is Shite occasionally to see what the stinking taxman has been up to before climbing the evolutionary tree to see what snails have been up to on Snails Tales. We would read Nobody's Friend if he could be arsed to post more than once a month.

TBH we never bother to read the others, the links are there as an expression of approval of anti state, anti EU and anti religion positions. We have far too many atheist leaning blogs at mo, we want more silliness so silly bloggers please apply. We did Google "silly blog" but they were all crap. A violent anarchist blog would be good too. Plus some more sheer rudeness. We want crudeness rudeness with lots of arse, tits and fanny, nothing tasteful please.

Bashing away to music

"There will be Blood" is a great film and the best part is at the end when that twat preacher has his head bashed in with a skittle.

If people choose to fill their private lives and those of like minded individuals with religion, no matter how idiotic, that's entirely their own business. If they want to advertise their faith or attempt to convert normal adults in an unintrusive way, that's fine too, we can always say no. The aggressive proselytisers, those will not leave us alone, who prey on vulnerable people, who demand all sorts of concessions to their faith and expect the rest of us pay for them, who lobby for their daft views to be implemented via our laws and imposed on all of us, they are something else. There are not nearly enough skittles to go round in my view.

The music at the end is Brahms' violin concerto. Fantastic music for bashing religious nuisances' skulls to.

Wait and see? Why? We already know who's guilty.

The planned march by the EDL in Bradford next weekend has been banned although static rallies have not.

We don't know if there will be any major trouble yet or who if anyone will be responsible for any injury or damage but our impartial press has decided that already. Check out the commentary and the pictures used whenever such issues are reported, the associations trotted out whenever the EDL are mentioned and the complete silence about any links to Islamic or revolutionary leftist groups by its opponents. Then look at the facts as reported by the likes of the BBC and The Guardian. Which group actually started the conflict, first began throwing stones and bottles, first broke through the police cordon, was responsible for most of the attacks on police and most of the senseless damage to the property of those not involved, had its leader arrested for inciting violence and usually had more of its supporters arrested.

If the Bradford riots kick off again, whoever starts it, even if very few right wingers are actually there this time as well, you can be sure the EDL will be to blame for everything.

Short story

Decoding Revelations

Keep it short

Whichever of the three R's a bloggoth comment may be, whether RANT, RUDE or RUBBISH, we believe that we at least make the point (or lack of it) fairly succinctly. (Provided you ignore the occasional comments in brackets obviously, those are not from us but from our other self and do not count. Fortunately Victor is usually out murdering prostitutes somewhere.) We gained this ability from decades of technical report writing.

We agree we have not yet demonstrated perfection in this task as ideally a RANT, RUDE or RUBBISH bloggoth comment should consist of one word, either BASTARDS!, WAHEE! or WIBBLE! respectively but unfortunately the intellect of the non existent bloggoth readership has not yet evolved to match that of our own whereby it can comprehend the complexity of an argument encapsulated in a single word. Maybe in a million years or so you lesser mortals will catch up.

In the meantime it would be great if you could all at least attempt to communicate more succinctly. This afternoon we were watching Sky News at the gym and a breaking news item came on, Hilary Clinton announcing peace talks between Israel and Palestinians. She made the announcement concisely enough but then we had 20 minutes of some old US guy at a press conference. During this period we heard a lot of repeated generalities about the talks not being easy in view of decades of conflict and previous failed attempts at a solution etc. Well Duh! My goldfish could have told you that, if I had one. (I've eaten the one you never had anyway - Victor) What is the bloody point of "news" like that?

Wouldn't it be great if Twitter took over the whole news media industry? People make fun of the banality of Twitter comments, what I had for lunch etc., but they ignore its one great beauty - brevity. Actually 140 words is still too much as most news item can be encapsulated in 14 or less. "Obamma to bring Iraq troops home after another dismal and expensive US failure." What else is there to say? Do we need to see the twat mouthing his empty rhetoric and others voicing their well rehearsed opinions yet again? Is there anything anyone, anywhere could possibly say on this issue that we have not heard a thousand time before? Have we all been on MARS for the last seven years?

We rest our case.

Keep it short 2

We hate Sky News for the reason above. They take some tedious news item and stick with it, going back and forth between different commentators, all saying much the same thing, dull politician making a dull speech, dull commentator commenting on dull speech, another dull politican being interviewed by a dull commentator about the dull speech, back to replay of original dull politician, a full more dull comments. They spin absolutely nothing out to 20 minutes or more.

Now none of this would matter if Sky News was not about the only occasionally watchable channel at our gym. It is very boring running on a treadmill for 20 minutes and we need to watch something. It's either Sky News, CBBC (quite why in an adult gym excapes me) or some other crap channel with endless repeats of The Midsommer Murders and Inspector Morse. Or we could take the earphones out and listen to a stream of ghastly indistinguishable rap music over the gym's loudspeakers.

Look here Mrs Clinton, the idea of Middle East peace is all very lovely obviously but we all know that it is not going to happen and even if we pretend it is, the whole bloody mess has been going on so long it wouldn't hurt to delay your announcement for another ten minutes until we at bloggoth have finished on the treadmill would it?

The Blessed Perry would tell us that in the real world we should rate different courses of action mathematically in terms of a) The importance of a favourable outcome, principally how many stand to benefit from it and to what extent and b) The likelihood of that outcome occurring. Applying this logic we can see that:

Estimated favourable impact of Middle East peace talks on Palestinians and Israelis = number of people who stand to benefit x probability of a lasting peace settlement
= 11,300,000 x 0
= 0

Favourable impact of no Middle East peace talks on xoggoth's gym sanity = number of people who stand to benefit x probability of some interesting news on Sky
= 1 x 0.2 = 0.2

We rest our case again.

Strange

Our local library has a number of internet connected PCs for public use and there are rarely any vacant seats. Quite a few using adult chatrooms away from the prying eyes of the missus I shouldn't wonder. Wouldn't dream of spying on them but it was impossible not to notice in passing what one sixtiesh chap was writing, being that it was in about 80 point text and bright red.

I AM CAPABLE MYSELF BUT IT SEEMS WE ARE ALL GREAT/PHANTASTIC IN BED

Hope the recipients weren't at work when they clicked on that one.

First bloggoth tax heroine

She isn't everyone's favourite person at the moment and previous incidents might indicate that she perhaps isn't too nice a person but none of that matters now! Naomi Campbell is the subject of a demand from the bastard IRS bastards and anyone who fiddles or avoids tax immediately joins the bloggoth list of absolute heros/heroines who can do no wrong. She is fantastic!

Who cares about blood diamonds? She can have received diamonds covered in minced up bits of children for all we care; its not as though there's a shortage of them.

Us too!

Australia's PM has called for her country to become a republic when the queen pops her clogs. Quite right, why should a country have another country's head as their own, even if the role is only symbolic? It is understandable that they voted against it last time; a decent and harmless figurehead that somebody else is paying for anyway was preferable to a costly Apparatchik who might interfere in the political process.

If the Prince of Daftness takes over it will be entirely different as the twat is going to be constantly using his unmerited position to influence things anyway. Why would anyone want that hypocrital, Islam pandering, interfering arsehole as head of state? Why are the odd numbered King Charlies always the crap ones? Talking to plants was actually by far the most sensible thing this one has ever done. This brill article in The Independent about the "clown prince" saves me the job of being arsed to write more.

Hopefully we too will get the opportunity to get rid of this ridiculous institution and maybe it will be for good the second time round. On the day the monarchy is abolished we could have a national holiday with celebrations and fireworks all over the country. We at bloggoth have a great idea for the main televised event. We all missed it last time around.

One of those days

Some days, quite sober, you can be doing something mundane like looking for the wife's mobile phone charger in the suitcase in the attic and memories invade for no very obvious reason. You can scarcely remember the details except for the music that went with them but when you recall the music something in there gets it.

The world nicks our ideas again

These architects obviously read my thread about turning wind turbines into art to gain acceptance.

It is quite clear that bloggoth is the inspiration for everything that is best in the world. You all pretend you don't read it and Google even fiddles the stats to bolster the lie but we know better.

A turn for the better

We at bloggoth really have no idea if Dr David Kelly committed suicide or not but naturally we have no doubt whatsoever that he was killed on Blair's orders. We are very glad to see a poll that shows most British think he was murdered. Probably most of those have never bothered to look into the facts but they are quite right to think that he was killed on Blair's orders.

Distrust and dislike of government for any reason or for no reason whatever is a very sound trait in a society. The Americans have always been more sensible than us in that respect, now at last we too are beginning to see the light, to recognise the egocentric, self regarding, self serving nature of the types of men who seek to lead others, the way that they cater to their own vanity and further their own careers, the way that even the well intentioned pursue their own visions of society and are contemptuous of the normal aspirations of ordinary men.

Unbalanced? Yes, but actually you need more unbalance to get a balance. If everything they do is subject to hostile scrutiny, if we look at every law, every international agreement, every meeting of leaders and ask "How are the bastards trying to screw us this time? What's in it for them? What are they trying to hide here? What are the c*nts REALLY up to?" it can only help to get better government.

Who knows? One day we may even get something approaching a democracy.

How pathetic

It seems that many adults still take a teddy bear to bed. Teddy bears in the bed! Good grief. We at bloggoth don't do anything childish like that, do we Mr P?

Certainly not. You always tuck me up in my own little bed. Shall we have another Archers or is it time for some vodka?

Brill

Today's Daily Mash. Jesus H Christ and Allah be praised, if you can't laugh at religion then, by all that's holy, what use is it? PS Would any Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Rastifarians, Scientologists etc among the non existent readership please send us your favourite incantations so we can sneer at you too. We like to be inclusive.

Heritage slavery

We have bemoaned in the past the counterproductive way we unecessarily separate different aspects of our life. The separation of art and technology for instance. As we said here if only we made wind turbines that were also works of art people would be far more willing to accept them dominating our country's beauty spots.

We also make an unecessary separation between commerce and leisure and nothing shows this more than Britain's heritage industry. In the past, Britain was the world's major producer but one by one all our mines and factories closed down because other countries had better access to fuel and raw materials and cheaper labour. Yet in many areas these same mines and factories, albeit in a somewhat fictionalised form at times, are still going strong as mainstays of the tourist industry. You can wander through old cotton mills, rope making plants, even go down a tin mine and see what working life might have been like in Victorian or earlier times. These places are very popular with families, we recall taking the wife and kids to the Geevor mine in Cornwall and it was packed. At that time it had only fairly recently closed down although the actual refining had been done in the far east for some time.

Why can't we combine tourism and production? Families could pay £10 per adult, children under 5 free, to take part in a historic learning experience and actually produce things for a day just as they used to. This would transform the profitability of British manufacturing industry and make production economic again. Parents could send their kids on adventure learning holidays up chimneys, it would be great! Maybe even the old Geevor mine could reopen for business and produce tin again.

The Blessed Perry speaks

As Johan Hari points out in the link in the previous thread, those with Muslim names are 50 per cent less likely to get interviews.

Our own guru, The Blessed Perry (praise him) would have referred us to the chapters on control theory in the sacred text "Chemical Engineers' Handbook 1950 edition" and told us that these things are about negative feedback. Poor perceptions of Muslims make people less willing to employ them. This will create resentment and some of those who were not a problem may turn to crime or fundamentalism in the absence of any other direction in their lives. This makes perception of them even more negative and makes the employment problem worse and this etc etc.

The Blessed Perry would inform us that we need to reduce this negative feedback mechanism by addressing all the loops in it and this is where both rightist and leftist approaches go so wrong. The former favour measures that only address the majority concerns and ignore valid concerns of the minority while the latter do the opposite. Either approach will never work on its own.

We must halt immigration of those who are not prepared to fit in to our society, stop making exceptions for minorities and talking to or consulting Islamist groups, exclude foreign extremists, apply laws in an even handed way that recognises that racism can exist on either side and that some will exploit victim status and stop making it easy, with free translation and other services, for minorities to remain entirely outside of British society.

Equally, we need to halt the disastrous aspects of our foreign policy that affect Muslim countries abroad, to support the REAL moderates in their attempts to reform the creed, to improve employment prospects of British citizens by recognising that not every practicing Muslim wants special treatment, to see that not everyone with a Muslim name supports Shariah law or is unBritish in outlook, and to integrate them into other aspects of British life.

Cowards indeed

We have said this before, not necessarily on here but on online discussion boards, that those who refuse to recognise the nature of Islam despite the realities, despite what is happening in Islamic countries, despite what is spouted by its radicals here, despite what is contained in the Qu'ran and the Haddiths that form the basis of the religion, are either ignorant, illogical, misguided optimists or cowards.

• The ignorant They have never looked at the laws in Islamic countries and what they mean for those of other religions, for apostates, for those deemed to be heretic, for women, for gays or anyone else who believes that their private lives and their sexuality is their own business or for minor criminals who might be reformed by rational law that takes account of individual circumstances. Or perhaps they know of those things but naively believe that laws based on Islamic law are merely the acts of repressive regimes, that attacks made in the name of Islam are by ordinary criminals. They think these things have nothing to do with Islam because they have never read the Qu'ran or the Haddiths, because they are unaware that the very worst aspects of Islam, like the stoning of adulters, the categorisation of women as second class humans or the cutting off of the hands of thieves are all based on the writings and the reported words and actions of the prophet.



• The illogical These are the people who take refuge in platitudinous comments and have no grasp of what drives human societies. They say things like "most Muslims are very decent people". Well, of course they are but then aren't most in Iran, Saudi Arabia, The Maldives, Afghanistan or Northern Nigeria decent people too? They haven't stopped fundamentalist governments in those countrias have they? Societies are not shaped by ordinary people, they are driven by the activists and fanatics who prefer to devote more of their lives to politics than the rest of us who have more natural priorities. The illogicals also fail to see how the ordinary decent person is a vital part of the fanatics' plan because they are manipulated into providing the necessary support for the activists to take over. They fail to apreciate that when men are forced to choose between their own kind and outsiders there is a built in bias towards the former. Add to that the way that a future Islamic party will represent itself in a way that will appeal to moderates and you can be sure that most Muslims in the UK will vote for it. We would only see what sort of Islamic government the UK will get after the election but by then it will be too late.



• The misguided optimists These good natured sorts see silver linings in everything. The optimists have a space alien's view of time and will point out, quite correctly, that Christianity was just as bad once but that it reformed. Indeed it did, but then we are talking about four centuries ago, how are we mortals who mostly live less than a century supposed to find that reassuring? Most are sensibly more concerned about what happens in the lifetime of themselves and their children. The fact that Christianity has reformed is not evidence that Islam will and all the current signs are that Islam is becoming more extreme, not less. There is another reason to be pessimistic. The New Testament's message with its emphasis on forgiveness and love were in stark contrast to the actions of groups like the Spanish Inquisition and that made it far easier for reformers to challenge their unacceptable actions. On the other hand, the Qu'ran and the more important words and deeds of Islam's prophet in passages of the Haddiths are fully in line with the extremes of Islam as practiced in Saudi Arabai or Iran. Yes, there are many decent, moderate Muslims who reject these passages and want to see them removed but they face an uphill struggle against an accepted text. Should we really be gambling our own futures on hopes that they will succeed at all, let alone in our own lifetimes?



• The cowards The cowards are so afraid of being denounced as racist or Islamophobic that they will not stand up openly for their own beliefs. Let's be logical here. If someone with no particular view of an issue is scornful of the Islamic position on it then we may reasonably assume predudice, but how often does that happen? Many in the UK, probably the majority, believe in democracy, in secular government with rational laws, in individual freedom including the choice to decide one's own religion or lack of it, in equality of women and the rights of a woman to make the choices over her own life, in sexual freedom including the rights of homosexuals to govern their own private lives, in civilised and rational criminal law that at least offers an offender a chance to reform and in humane treatment of animals. We regard these things, not as minor issues, but as the pillars of a civilised society. So why should we pretend to respect a creed that believes that a nation's laws should be decided by the supposed teachings of an 8th century warlord, that punishes anyone who chooses to leave it or encourages others to do so, that deems that a women should be subordinate to her husband, that punishes adulterers and homosexuals for purely private acts, that employs barbaric punishments including mutilation and which practices rutual slaughter? If we believe in capitalism and the free market do we let ourselves be bullied into silence by Communists in this manner? Of course not. We are not advocating unecessary insult or offensive language, those are counter productive, but our failure to speak out plainly against unacceptable views in our own country is cowardice, pure and simple.

Johan Hari makes the last point very well in the Independent.

Awful maybe but only human

The Telegraph comments on the extremely meagre international response to the floods in Pakistan. It mentions various factors including the lack of coverage in the news relative to the Haitian earthquake and the fact that so much money donated to Pakistan in the past has been creamed off.

However, if the comments are any guide, another major reason is the fact that the British just don't like Pakistan or Pakistanis, who are associated more than any other group with terrorism and militant Islam that threatens our own society. The 7/7 bombings and the celebration of them in Pakistan, the many less serious incidents of terrorist plotting, the jihadist websites, the young men who fight our own troops abroad, the alien tranformation of huge areas of our cities, the no go areas and attacks on non Muslims, the Bradford riots, the revolting nature of the placards in the London protests and the protests against our troops in Luton were guaranteed to create a negative impression.

Yes, it grossly unfair on the majority of affected people in Pakistan who probably never give a thought to Jihad against the West and on the many of Pakistani origin over here who are as British as you or I in all important respects but unfortunately this is the way mankind thinks and, in the context of ensuring the survival of our own society, it might appear to be rational thinking. If we had refrained from bombing German cities in WW2 because some Germans did not agree with the war then the price of that compassion might have been the loss of our own freedom. Whether it is rational in the context of a struggle that falls far short of a war is highly questionable. If we don't chose to take a path to total victory or nothing then some compromises to reduce tensions are necessary but they should be the right ones and the right compromise is not subjugation of either side's beliefs to the other but disengagement, to withdraw and leave each to their own ideals.

We need a halt to the continual exacerbation of tensions by blindly following insane US invasions and interfering in the cultures of Muslim countries with our own views of democracy. It would help to reduce the resentment, much of it justifiable, that provides fertile recruting ground for those behind the radical movements. For them we often need to look, not to Pakistan, but to Middle Eastern countries including some of our supposed allies. Equally, we cannot keep stoking the fears of our own citizens for their own safety and their culture by continuing to allow immigration from Pakistan or the free movement of non-citizens between the two countries. Neither should we be making concessions to Islam in the UK that go against our own beliefs.

Hey! We used to live there!

Quite by accident we came across news that famous Horror writer Dennis Wheatley used to live at No 1 Palace Road, London SW2. Wheatley was the author of "The Devil Rides Out", among others. We liked the one with the disabled guy haunted by a demonic giant spider but as horror writers go we at bloggoth were not great Wheatley fans. Unlike Stephen King, who can be an amazing writer when he is not boring your socks off with something overly drawn out, his literary style was always pretty second rate. Wheatley was to horror what Ron Hubbard was to science fiction. It's just that we used to live at 98 Palace Road.

We once used to live a short walk from H G Wells' birthplace in Bromley too. He died 4 months before we were born. We also share a birthday with Nostradamus, must be why we spout such carp.

Listen now

A while back we mentioned that having a little note pad by the bed to jot down story ideas was not much help as, come the morning, we could either not read our own writing or did not have a clue what the cryptic comments meant. This was a terrible waste of inspiration so we decided to buy a dictaphone but they all seemed very expensive and complicated and looked difficult to operate in the dark when you are half asleep. After a lot of searching we finally found the AVR Argos ICR-403 for £9.99 from Cheap Electricals on eBay. Just press the button at the end, speak when the LED lights, release button when finished. Brill!!!

We tried it out last night, what a treasure trove of brilliant ideas from the bloggoth subconscious this will be! Oh no! What is that half asleep muttering noise? What was I saying? Sounds like plane? or vain? No it's plain I think, plain something animals heavy? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Rats

Good news

It seems that we may keep British summertime all year round. There has been protests from the Scots who fear that darker mornings may increase the number of accidents. We at bloggoth sympathise but darker evenings similarly increases accidents further south and how is it logical or reasonable to have a time that suits a minority of the population?

Actually, how is it logical to have fixed times for things like the schoolday across the British islands anyway? Even without setting different official time zones, why can't school and businesses just start at a suitable time for their own region? Is it laid down in holy scripture that work must start at 9am? Are there hidden ley lines between schools in John O Groats and Lands End that will hasten the end of the world if they don't start lessons in the same minute?

What on earth did they expect?

There is news that plans for a mosque near Ground Zero are fueling anti Muslim protests in the US. Really? Gosh, who would have thought it?

Let's leave aside opinions on Islam in general, let's even pretend, despite all the evidence, that it is as reasonable and peaceful as its apologists tell us it is. These are facts: 9/11 was the worst terrorist incident in the West and was perpetrated by Islamic militants. Even if we believe, despite all the evidence, that the perpetrators were entirely unrepresentative of the creed then quite obviously the construction of a mosque at that site is going to be grossly offensive to many Americans. If this crime had been committed by a Marxist group most would equally object to a Communist centre nearby. As one Governorial candidate has said, it is like Japan wanting a memorial to Japanese pilots at Pearl Harbour.

The promoters of this mosque cannot possibly be so unbelievably insensitive as not to have grasped this. One might almost imagine that the whole thing is actually an idea of those who oppose Islam as it is quite the most effective bit of propoganda that they could possibly have come up with but there appears to be no evidence of this. One would think that the promoters would be aware of the security downsides of this location; isn't it likely that some visiting ground zero are not going to be well disposed to Muslims in the area, that there is an increased risk of vandalism and graffiti at the very least?

One can only suppose it to be the sort of bloody minded confrontational mindset we expect from Islam. Like the way that some Muslims in the West insist on Bhurkas when they are not a requirement of Islam, are not widely worn outside of three Muslim countries and are banned in some. Like the way that some Muslim surgeons here refuse to use alcohol based handwash although external application is not forbidden and is not a problem in Muslim countries, even in inessential cosmetics.

There is a plus side to this bloody mindedness and hopefully this Mosque will go ahead. The more opposition that is stirred up to Islam in the west, the better.

She's right

A Tory back bencher has criticised the daft government plan to end council homes for life She's right, knowing you may have to lose your home will not provide an incentive to do better. Of course other council tax payers should not be subsidising anyone with a decent income but a better solution surely would be to reduce the subsidy as income grows? If better off council tenants end up paying a full commercial rent level where's the problem?

As we have said, despite a promising start, this government is going down the drain.

The real reason bees are dying out

There has much concern in recent years about the decline of honey bees. Viruses, parasites, pesticides, loss of habitat and mobile phone signals have all been blamed. There are no obvious signs that any plants have become less common due to lack of pollination and there's a reason for that, there are many other flying insects that perform the same function. The most active serial visitor to flowers is the Hoverfly although but it doesn't seem to get any credit for it.

Look at the Honey Bee, those crowded hives where every bee, whether queen, worker, or drone has its allocated role. They all work together in a coordinated fashion defending the hive, feeding the communally raised larva. Isn't it obvious why are they dying out? Because they are all a bunch of fecking communists! When has any communist state ever been a success in the long term?

Meanwhile, the brave little non social Hoverfly, the small business, entrepreneurial little Hoverfly is grasping the opportunity and taking up the slack. We have never seen so many as we have this year. Good luck to them, we at bloggoth hope they exploit the gaps in the market left by the demise of the statist monopoly of those other horrible little pinko commy bastards.

Sorry Carl Lewis but it's no good for uncoordinated old rockers

Some years back number 1 son brought a Carl Lewis cross trainer but got fed up with the space it took up in his bedroom so it got relegated to the garage where it is in regular use by we at bloggoth. Just as well we have a welding kit because it keeps getting torn apart and has had to be patched with bolts, bits of old dexion, tyre levers and a steel gate post. Today a former repair went again so we had to hold it together with a G Clamp. A bit of rock on the headphones turns a tedious period into an experience but there is a downside in the stresses this poor old machine suffers. The darn thing frequently leaves the ground. What can you expect of an uncoordinated, 70s, head banging rocker with a few vodkas and music like this?

PS Does it say (1.49 in) "the Devil's rectum won't let go"? That sounds like fun.

PPS Oh, it's grip. Still sounds like rectum to me. But then most things do.

Must have been something you said

Reminded me of this one

Blame where it's due this time around? Probably not

The EDL is planning a march in Bradford which, it is feared, may lead to more riots. Unfortunately, it appears quite true that the EDL has been taken over by those with a wider agenda than their proclaimed one. Nevetheless, if there is a riot, will it be EDL members causing most of the injuries and damage? If the details of the 2001 riots as reported in the Guardian are any guide, probably not.

It is true that there were attacks by white skinheads but these were far less than the damage inflicted by Pakistani youths. A planned National Front rally had already been banned by the authorities, so why was it necessary to hold an Anti Fascist rally and inflame tensions further rather than let things cool down? According to most sources the riot probably began with the stabbing of a white man when some from the rally went to a pub where some National Front sympathisers were rumoured to be. In other words they went seeking a confrontation.

Earlier this year we had an extremist Muslim group being grossly offensive to most Britons in Luton but did anyone see that as an excuse by them to riot, to attack the police or innocent Muslims, to go in force to mosques which extremists were said to frequent? Of course not, so why do we make excuses for Muslims and leftists? Shouldn't anti racism, by definition, be about treating people the same way?

If there is a riot, even if it is clear that leftist and Muslim youths are responsible for starting it or causing most of the mayhem, even if the EDL rally is banned (as it probably will be) and only a handful of right wingers actually turn up, you can bet it will be the latter who will get most of the blame in some quarters while excuses for the former will come thick and fast.

More heros

Our only experience of Portsmouth Football club is being stuck in traffic as we drove past the ground just after a match ended but we forgive them. They now join the bloggoth list of absolute heros having won against HMRC.

A xoggoth tale comes true again

Today there are reports of a Dutch woman with an attic full of dead babies and last week we had similar news from France. Obviously they had been reading xoggoth tales. Wonder if they liked biscuits?

Stop indulging them

The independent reports on a doctor banned from performing circumcisions due to a lack of care. How about banning all circumcisions on chidren other than the very few that are necessary for medical reasons? What on earth is a civilised country doing allowing mutilation of childrens' genitals for reasons of religious superstition? We also have yet another report of halal meat promoted at public expense. It seems that story is not entirely true in that other children still have other choices but that is a minor issue, the ritualised slaughter of animals without stunning, whether Halal or Kosher, is another bit of barbarism from these religions that should get the boot.

Update: Nope, it seems it is entirely true according to the BBC and the council concerned has been deliberately misleading in the phrasing of their denial by suggesting that all children have a full choice. At schools who go with this caterer the only choice is halal meat or non meat dishes.

No it isn't

There's a lot of fuss about meat originating from a cloned cow being sold and eaten in the UK. On the BBC TV news tonight the reporter was grilling an expert, telling him that what people wanted to know was how many more there might be.

A cloned cow is genetically identical to the original and although the cloning process can lead to some defects in the animal they are nothing that cannot happen due to natural processes so surely the question people should be asking first is why it matters anyway. What scientific basis is there for any restrictions at all? One cannot help feeling that the concern has not arisen for any rational reason but because of the whole stupid religious mindset that cloning/genetic modification is somehow "playing god" and morally questionable. QED, it must be harmful in some vague way.

Morally questionable food tastes much better anyway. There is nothing quite as tasty as an immoral steak with unethical roast potatos topped off with EVIL sauce. Anything that gets up religious peoples' noses is fine by we at bloggoth.