  |
 |
Page 55The ramblings of an old gitbloggoth Mission Statement: |
Improvements
Spent hours this week doing F* tax returns for the sister. Complicated enough as she owns property but made much worse by her crappy incorrect figures and inadequate information.
My temper was not helped by all the unnecessary garbage in these things, sure I could do them a lot simpler. What is it about public sector IT that it's so crap? I do some volunteering for things run by the police and local government and it's routine to get an email, followed later by another correcting the previous errors or saying the first was sent in error to the wrong people. Back to the tax return, my BP was raised even more by "technical fault please try again later" just as I was about to submit.
Got back on eventually and started checking things out (again!) and there was a popup:
Always pleased to help out on IT issues HMRC, here's my improved version, free of charge:
PS Wow! A government "page" without the usual 66% ethnic minority quota!
A world full of infants
Know I'm not the only one to say it but, darn it, need a rant fix. Why are some people, and more importantly our law and institutions, so ridiculously oversensitive about everything?
Just recently we have seen a speech by the Home Secretary, in which she said we should "look again at whether our immigration system provides the right incentives for businesses to invest in British workers", reported as a hate speech. I suppose a professor who has made significant discoveries can't really be described as an idiot but really, what an idiot! If a very measured speech about the potential effects of immigration on British workers is a hate crime, how could we ever discuss immigration at all? This ludicrous oversensitivity affects everyone, including some minorities who have been more affected by EU immigration than the rest of us. This week's "Article we Could Not be Arsed to Write", by an Asian lady, says it all.
Individuals are affected by this oversensitivity too, like that Jeremy Vine case. Seriously, some verbal abuse by a lady against a 6' 3" bloke, with an emphasis on her making a gun sign with her finger? I don't think fingers can fire real bullets. Not yet anyway. Why is court time wasted on cases like that? Vine, you're a total wooftah!
Rant Over. Ah, that's better! Ok Zebedee, you can go home now.
That's an idea!
We keep reading all this stuff about transgender people undergoing operations so their bits conform to their self perceptions. Can't imagine what it looks like (yuck!) but there is such a thing as genital reassignment for women that involves grafting of bits to make a willy. There have also been sophisticated advances in replacing limbs with mind-controlled prosthetic robot arms
Why are people so limited in their imaginations that they want to replace their real body parts with replicas of the same old thing? All the technology is there to make a real Robocop! If I lost a limb in an accident I would like it replaced by something much more useful. Being a boring old fart who spends time fannying around in the shed I would probably have a complete tool kit built into my hand, just press my elbow the correct number of times and my thumb would turn into a 15mm socket spanner.
The transgender thing would be useful too, the police would have to have a very good reason to look there. Gangsters could just think of something suitably rude and out would pop their .44 crotch revolver. Or a .22 if their masculinity was a bit lacking.
PS All done on the NHS of course
Red button
Reading the BBC Red Button text news while slurping my breakfast this morning as usual. Compared to the old Ceefax service one advantage, or disadvantage depending on what's on, is that the current TV program plays on the left.
I was just reading some text news that a male who had received gender-changing surgery had given birth and was wondering quite how that worked. Where did he get the lady's bits from? Or did he give birth out of his arse? Then, Ken Clarke came on on the Andrew Marr show at left. F* hell, I hate that loathsome twat!
Perhaps one advantage of someone giving birth out of their arse would be that, if the child turned out to be like Ken Clarke, they could shove him back up there!
You can't pick your relatives
I have never checked it myself but, according to a relative who claims to have delved into his ancestry, I am descended from Richard Doyle, a Victorian illustrator. For unspecified reasons I can well believe it. That makes me related to his nephew, Conan Doyle, most famous as the author of Sherlock Holmes. Not as good as being descended from Jack the Ripper but I was quite chuffed at the possibility.
Until now anyway! It seems that makes me related to Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Sherlock in the TV series of that name and he is on my very long list of lefty twats!
I like Sherlock but both of the main actors are lefty twats as most famous actors are. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an app for smart televisions that substituted the faces in a program for faces of one's choice in real time? Sherlock would be more enjoyable if I could swap the faces of Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman with those of some sensible righties.
There we are, Sherlock Season 1 starring Jeremy Clarkson and John Wayne! A huge improvement!
Raising the bar
Bumidick Cuntisnatch is best known recently for swearing on stage while demanding that the government take in far more Syrian "Child" migrants. I would not necessarily disagree if they were all really children but they are not.
Even leaving aside all the phonies who lie about their age, calling an under 18 a child is a subjective legal assessment in an affluent society that bears no resemblance to physical reality. Most boys are physically men 5 years or more before that. Mentally too. I was rather immature for my age but hitchhiked around Denmark on my own when I was 16, had no problems doing it and did not feel in any way vulnerable. In poorer countries many people live independently and are self supporting at ten years old.
Take in those who are really children, physically and emotionally, and there is some chance of integrating them into their new nation. Taking in well developed lusty single teenage males, especially if they are low performing and/or traumatised, puts our own citizens at risk and it is their welfare that should come first. Young adults can also be unrealistic and, in their search for "meaning", may embrace daft ideas, including Islamism.
Moderate numbers of real chidren maybe, if lefty twats like Cuntisnatch contribute some of their huge wealth to pay for it so our own kids in care don't go without anyway, but all these other "children" ? No thanks.
Raising the bar ever higher
It does make you wonder how much higher the legal age of adulthood is going to go.
The outgoing idiot - good riddance
Most of us are little affected by the internal affairs of other nations, so we don't get as worked up about their leaders as we do about our own. We judge them more on the foreign and trade polices which do affect us. Obummer always looked to me like a head-nodding, platitude-spouting nothing but I can't say I hated him. At least he didn't drag the US, and us, into any more ridiculous wars with no hint of a proper post-war plan.
But what a total twat he is proving in his last weeks. He has apparently tasked his staff with locating as many areas as possible where his agendas are protected from Trump's, like placing bans on offshore drilling. Not that I necessarily disagree with all of them, it's just the timing. Having not done these things in his four years in power he is simply trying to "cement his legacy". That sounds to me like a) a pure ego trip so he can nod his head left and right and say "Look what I acheived" and b) rather undemocratic. The US electorate made its choice in accordance with the rules that have applied to every presidential election and to start a last minute drive simply to thwart the intentions of the incoming president shows a contempt for US democracy.
Much more important is the decision to expel Russian Diplomats for a supposed interference in the US election process. While I would not rule out the involvement of Russian hackers in anything (see next post) the claim looks distinctly unproven. Raising international tensions is not something that should be done lightly and without very good reason, we don't want to get into another cold war. When the nukes start dropping on the rest of us it will be no comfort to know that Obummer and Clinton are happy in their cosy bomb-proof bunkers enjoying their little victory. This looks like a decision made out of pure spite over internal politics because the Democratic candidate didn't win the election.
At least Putin has had the sense to avoid any retaliation against an idiot who won't be around for much longer. If Trump acheives nothing else, improving long term relations with Russia would be a real legacy.
PS And, as far as we can make out, these supposed hacking attempts did not involve false news but rather the publication of genuine emails which revealed some unfortunate truths about the Democratic candidates, the rigging of debate schedules to suit the preferred candidates for example. Exposing truths about politicians is anti-democratic? Just the opposite I'd say! Come on Russia! Pleaser hack into our leaders' emails in the UK and tell us what the F* bastards are really up to!
Russian hackers continued
We have a little online business and keep a log of all visits where somebody adds something to the shopping cart but do not proceed with a purchase. It's necessary because, while shoppers may not proceed for various reasons, a large number of such failed purchases could indicate a technical fault.
Of such visits recently, the majority are from Russia and India. We know why the Indians are doing it, we often get emails from Indian SEO companies claiming they can improve our site SEO and put us at the top of Google searches. Funny how all the sites they do expensive work for can be top of Google! No idea why the Russians are doing it, though. Our products are solely aimed at the UK market and would have no relevance at all for Russians. The site also clearly states we cannot sell outside the EU.
I doubt anything on our site would have significantly influenced the US elections. So what is it all about? Probably they are just looking at sites everywhere, big and small, trying to find security issues so that they can infect them with malware. It is an unfortunate reality that specific countries can become world centres of specific crimes, whether drug smuggling, cold calling scams, email frauds etc. Romania has been the hacking center of the world to date but maybe Russia is competing for that title. Could these "Russian tamperings with the US election" just be part of that process?
Maybe some of these Russian hackers were not trying to influence the election but just wanted somebody who clicked on a top secret government website to be redirected to a scam website that would try and sell them fake legal highs, dodgy unregulated investments, expensive watches that would never turn up or packets of exploding Chinese-made counterfeit luxury brand underpants.
New Rant Ratings Gauge - see top left
Sometimes I sleep okish, sometimes not so good. Woke about 5 last night. The brain usually goes into rant mode when that happens but I was determined not to let it last night and soon had a few stupid ideas for possible stories. Could it be that creativity = 1/rantivity ? Invisible graphene monsters, a world leader whose policies are decided by his pet hamster, a second hand scrabble board that is actually a ouija board and releases an evil ghost when someone scores above 38, an author taken over by his fictional character...
Talking to some people can be quite inspiring if they are not mundane sorts who yack about shopping at Tescos etc. Was at a family do on xmas day, aaaaagh!, but it was actually ok as spent most of the time talking total bollux with my favourite, and oddest, nephew. Had a brilliant idea for a story but forgot what it was. Damn!
Maybe I should get back into reading too. Nowt is more mind numbing than sitting in front of a PC idly scanning the news. Books seem much better, you have to think. I was reading a paperback I have had for years and never read - "The Necronomicon", all about the supposed facts behind H P Lovecraft's ideas. It looks like it turns into bollox once it gets going, bible style tracks on Nyarlathotep etc., but the long preface is very interesting, about the psychology of people like Lovecraft, Machen, Crowley and the other supposed loonies of that era. Lovecraft was an obsessive reader and a reclusive individual who suffered from lethargy all his life and died quite young of cancer, not long after losing his imagination apparently. May be a warning there - writing utter bollux keeps you healthy!
This is my new year's resolution (again! say the non-existent readers of xoggoth) - avoid too much rant! I have therefore added a xoggoth page checker at left to show percentages of posts in each of four categories, one of the bloggoth three Rs - Rude, Rant and Rubbish, or other. Non existent readers may think the definition of what is a rant must be rather subjective. Not at all. It goes without saying that bloggoth posts will always be 100% accurate and brilliant so issues of bias cannot exist. The allocation is made subjectively according to scientific and accurate measurements of the level of gruntiness I feel when posting them, with due weighting given to any use of arse, wanker, bastard and so on.
We aim to reduce rant content to below the critical level of 26.51039%. If we cannot manage this within a reasonable period we will die of cancer like our hero Lovecraft.
PS One of several heros that include Alistair Crowley and Vlad the Impaler.
Seeing what's not there
Suppose it happens more as you get older. Silence is never total silence, darkness is never total darkness. Draw the blackout blinds, get into bed, pull the duvet over your head, close your eyes and you can still hear a faint hiss, still see a pinkish glow. The latter diminishes a bit after a while but doesn't disappear. Sure if one worried about these too much they'd keep you wake.
But what seems odd is that in this glow, in the dark and underneath your eyelids and the duvet, one can still seem to detect movement of your hand above the duvet. This must surely be imagination, one knows where the hand is after all. Still, I might try and devise some gadget to test this out. Who knows? Perhaps we do have an X ray vision. All I need is a bit of practice and I will be superman!
Naturally I will be looking through ladys' dresses, not wasting my time performing heroic deeds and rescuing people. After all, who is worth rescuing except me and large bottomed ladies?
That one sidedness again
The usual lefty papers, the Guardian, Independent and Metro, are on about how a forced marriage victim had to pay to come home to the UK.
However,
government advice on help they can offer abroad quite clearly states that they cannot...
"Pay any bills or give you money from public funds because we are not funded to do this and it is the obligation of individuals to take
responsibility for themselves. It would also be unfair for those who take out insurance to subsidise those who do not, and you would not
normally get these bills paid if you were in the UK."
An awful situation for the poor girl to be in but why should she be exempt from payment when anyone else in trouble, if taken ill due to a condition excluded by the small print in their insurance for example, would have to pay? Maybe the best long term solution to this problem is to not give citizenship to awful people who believe in forced marriage. Best long term solution to improve perceptions about the decent Pakistanis who don't too.
Historic "crimes"
Sure it's not just we at bloggoth who are bothered about all these investigations into historic crimes, things that supposedly happened years ago.
Sometimes it's necessary so we avoid making the same mistakes but what if there are no more real lessons to be learned, if we have already done as much as is necessary and possible, within reason, to insure pople's safety? Perhaps a major factor to consider should be the real possibility that such investigations, when concrete evidence has long disappeared, when the memories of the supposed witnesses have been blurred by time, may stigmatise, or end in conviction of, innocent people.
False memories, confusion about events, getting people mixed up are not impossible after decades. There is also the real possibility that some attention seekers will make false claims, either with a hope of getting compensation or just to join in with the crowd when some famous person gets accused as happened with Lord Brittan. What did that do for the last years of his life I wonder? The police, having been accused of failing to tackle these problems did what authorities often do, they swung to the other extreme. Anyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty but it appeared they were doing the opposite and treating everyone as guilty until proven innocent.
While being a celebrity has its advantages, it has downsides too. You or I could be accused of some crime and few outside our family would know about it but, if you're famous, the accusation will be in all the papers. If you are not prosecuted, even if all the indications are that you are innocent, your name will be tarnished and your income damaged for ever more. We are no fan of Cliff Richard, he's a boring singer and religious twit, but what happened to him was appalling.
Always dubious about laws but maybe the government does need to consider introducing a few more rules. Perhaps judges, before the actual trial, should decide on whether it is in the public interest to pursue a prosecution once a certain interval has passed.
Historic "war crimes"
Worst of all are the prosecutions of our armed forces personnel years after the events involved. Time on its own introduces uncertainties over supposed events as in the above post but there are additional points to consider.
- Some complaints are coming from those who were our enemies, not just innocent civilians, so malice is likely to be a major factor. Should we seriously imagine that The Taliban are going to tell the truth?
- The nations involved, like Afqhanistan and Iraq, are very poor so it must be very tempting to make false claims to obtain compensation.
- Given that these countries are dangerous and still have a very tribal mentality, is it possible to properly check both sides of a story? What if an Afghan or Iraqi witness could support our soldiers' case, would they come forward? Would they dare to? I doubt it.
- We need to take account of the realities of war. Someone hiding behind a bush might be an enemy or an innocent civilian but how long can a soldier take to decide without risking his own life? Quick decisions are sometimes necessary and they are bound to be wrong on occasions.
- We also need to take account of the enormous stresses of soldiering. When soldiers have been involved in conflicts, been in great danger, seen their mates killed or witnessed atrocities carried out by the enemy, is it really fair to expect the same dispassionate behaviour that we would expect from a ticket inspector?
Maybe reciprocity should be a factor too. If we have a conflict with a reasonably advanced nation that has also signed up to the UN treaties then it makes sense to adhere to the rules because, hopefully, they will accord the same rights to our soldiers. Also, if we can avoid any serious breaches, it should reduce the hatred and make a reconciliation easier once the tensions are over. On the other hand, if the enemy is a terrorist group that is likely to torture or kill our troops whenever they get the chance, no matter how we act, why should we be concerned about what happens to them? We should protect ourselves and others by eliminating them whenever possible.
If I was an officer in our armed forces and was informed one of my men had machine-gunned some men while they were eating breakfast and they belonged to one of those Islamist groups who kidnap and rape young girls, who use innocent citizens as hostages, who torture and behead those who don't agree with their deluded claptrap, I would certainly hush it up if I could.
And slap the chap on the back and buy him a drink!
Let's just surrender next time. Much easier.
In other news
Apparently dogs like to face North when they crap. Funny, since I have had an en-suite with approx. East facing bog I haven't had much enthusiasm for life. Maybe these things affect us. Perhaps I need to start s(h)itting sideways.
What right?
Some leaked cabinet letters apparently suggested that the Home Office wanted schools to withdraw places offered to children if their families were found to be living in the country illegally. Naturally some twat lefty has denounced the idea, saying that denying innocent children the right to a good education is disgusting.
Right? What fucking right? Why should those here illegally have rights and entitlements to services paid for by our citizens and legal migrants? What about our own children who are finding it increasingly difficult to get into the best schools or those closest to home thanks to mass immigration? Don't they have any rights?
And why do we allow someone to claim asylum if they only do so when they get caught , as is the case with 70% of them?. If they have a genuine case they should be able to make it on entry or, if they are here on a visa, as soon as good reason emerges. If they only claim it when facing deportation they are clearly frauds.
One often sees these people saying how the UK treats them so much better than other nations, especially France, as here or here or here.
Sensible French. We will never stop illegal immigration until we stop being so tolerant and supportive of the illegal immigrants.
Oh yes, the story
I did manage to write a story for my writer's club at the very last minute. Funny, once I'd got into it creativity started to return and I had other silly ideas too. Must be... ah yes! My downstairs bog is blocked! Could it be that my imagination was draining into the toilet?
Well ok, it's less of a story, more a short philosophical treatise explaining life, the universe and everything. Makes as much sense as all the bollux written by famous philosophers anyway and at least it doesn't take 3 days to read it.
Strike back !!!
It's as though Bonfire Night never finished round here, you are constantly hearing loud bangs. It's all those bastards, including him next door, shooting poor little pheasants. Why should they put up with it? Fortunately birds are not stupid, this little cockatoo can make his own tools.
For some months I have been training a brigade of pheasants to fight back, here they are on parade before they go to war tomorrow.
Revenge is coming Mr Pikey Scum!
Stuck in the past?
Apart from the evening news, I rarely watch TV because there's never bugger all on that's worth watching. I flick through the channels and it's nearly all utter crap. The only things I ever do watch occasionally are really old series, Last of The Summer Wine, Dad's Army, Mash, 'Allo 'Allo, etc. Is modern stuff really all crap or am I just a fossilised old fart? Even more worrying, most of the ladies on TV I lust over are on ancient repeats too. Raquel in only Fools and Horses and Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Mash are the two I still fancy the most.
Stuck in my own past? Trouble is, can I be sure that these lusts will not start to go back even further? How long before I start fancying Hatshepsut? She looks pretty sexy there.
Hmmm Just been for a coffee, don't find Hatty attractive anymore. Now here's a lady I really fancy!
Hypocritical but...
As we have said before (can't be arsed to check) we should not be judging Brexit by short term economic factors, market movements are not reality, it's all just a casino. Nevertheless, we admit we cannot help but snigger when things are not half as bad as the Bremoaners kept telling us or when others are doing even worse. We know their long term views are unrealistic idiocy but, even their short term views were wrong too, even though short term major economic turmoil seemed a real possibility.
What have we got here? Oh dear!
- Euro's longest losing streak on record continues with the Euro slipping below $1.0620.
- Pound edges back towards $1.24 even though the Dollar is on track for the best fortnightly performance since 1988.
We know it's far too too soon to be making judgements of course but..... Snigger.
Bring it on
Can't seem to find the link but was there yet another warning a day or two ago about the amount of time children spend on their mobile phones or computers and watching TV.
A bad thing? Nah! Real world interaction by humans is outdated and very destructive of our planet. Let's aim for a future where we all just lie still on a bed all day with our physical needs taken care of by robots and our brains tapped into a virtual world where we can do anything we want to do. Then humans would take up very little room, we could be packed feet apart in huge warehouses in safe places where there are no earthquakes or oher natural disasters.
Then the rest of the world could be left unspoilt to be enjoyed by nice little elephants, birds, earthworms etc.
Bash me nut
Scrambling down a steep bank today, tripped over a branch and fell on the pavement. As usual, nothing at all hurt. Dunno how I can manage to fall on concrete and never hurt anything, must be luck or fast reactions (for me age).
Been trying in vain to do a story for Friday's writer's club but can't think of bugger all. Used to be creative once but seem to have lost it. In hindsight I wished I'd cracked me skull, it did a good job for Roald Dahl. Hmmm. Cracking your skull in an accident might be a bit hit and miss, I suppose, instead of being a Roald Dahl I might end up as a Fred West.
I need a more targetted approach. Right! Where's me electric drill?
PS Although actually, being Fred West might be quite fun too.
Evil Deer
We like decorating our garden with wierd things. Deer jawbones make the perfect Swastika.
We should have listened to Al Capone
Many are now questioning the righteous push of our governments to enforce healthy lifestyles. The huge rise in taxes on alcohol and tobacco in recent years is causing many people to find cheaper, often much more harmful, black market alternatives. As is well stated in This Week's Article We Could Not Be Arsed to Write Ourselves, use of these cheaper alternatives is closely related to the cost of the legitimate substances in relation to income. Rules on plain packaging of cigarettes make the packets easier to copy as well.
So do all these well meaning (no! not just to get more taxes - oh you cynic!) laws have any positive effect? Will laws on other supposedly unhealthy things like sugar acheive anything either? Given human nature one suspects not. If people need these things for comfort, are poor on will power, and can get them relatively easily they will go on using them.
Making dangerous and addictive drugs illegal probably makes sense since a relatively small percentage of the population has ever used them anyway. But trying to stop people using fags, booze and cake? Those cats have been out of the bag for so long we will never get them back. Prohibition should have taught us that.
And let's blame the EU. Why? Because it is largely to blame, that's why!
Tax is not the only factor. Another major cause is the EU, its open borders and all those wonderful hard-working migrants. Because of much lower costs in some Eastern European countries, smuggling legally purchased cigarettes to countries like the UK where cost is much higher is a lucrative business and, due to the relaxed border controls, relatively low risk. Counterfeit cigarettes *Note also mostly come from Eastern Europe via the borders with Turkey and other countries and these may be much more hazardous. Consumption of illicit spirits, which can be lethal due to high concentrations of methanol and other poisonous substances, has traditionally been much more common too in low income Eastern European countries too, and hardly surprisingly, this is now being smuggled into western Europe on an increasing scale.
Maybe leaving the EU and ending free movement of Eastern Europeans to the UK will partly solve the problem. Be better than raising taxes anyway.
Note: Mostly from China, it hardly needs saying
PS here's a few links.
- Link 1 Illicit spirits made in places such as Latvia, Estonia and Poland are proliferating across Europe as tax increases have fuelled demand for cheaper alternatives in the black market.
- Link2 The illicit tobacco trade in the EU is huge and is run by serious organised crime rings. With 10% of the market in the EU, organised crime groups illegally sell 65 billion cigarettes a year, making a profit of up to €5 billion. Two out of three cigarettes smuggled into the EU are bought by criminals legally – with all taxes paid - in 3rd countries on the EU’s Eastern border.
- Link 3 Cigarette factories in Belarus and Ukraine have also been pinpointed by customs officials as selling to criminal gangs, who smuggle them into the EU. Greece has become a popular route for tobacco smugglers recently as its borders are porous because of the economic crisis and the near collapse of its customs authorities.
- Link 4 HM Revenue & Customs estimates that 10 per cent of cigarettes in the UK are illegal, rising to 39 per cent of hand rolled tobacco. And while the racket costs taxpayers at least £3 billion a year, it's not just a revenue issue. Dodgy fags are often packed with rat droppings, grass cuttings, and chemicals. Human faeces, asbestos, and dead flies, have been discovered on occasions. While many illicit cigarettes are copies of popular brands smuggled from countries such as Poland, China is becoming a major player in the market. Tobacco companies are increasingly seeking to unearth illegal supply networks fearing that new blank packaging will play into the criminals' hands. No longer will they have to forge intricate packet designs.
- Link 5 Although most illegal alcohol and tobacco comes in from Eastern Europe and the Far East, the majority of end-user sales takes place within local communities. The most common sources for buyers include car boot sales.
Lovely and wobbly
My nice loony religious lady is visiting her daughter in the US again so company has dropped. Ah well, got my volunteer things, Wednesday windmill work and my council footpath inspections. On the latter I wander around logging position of styles, gates and signs and checking for any problems. Actually, don't tell the council, but I have ulterior motives. When you ain't got a woman in your life, the second best thing is to go around wobbling signposts.
The following image was deleted on grounds of obscenity.
Have you heard? xoggoth is being investigated for abuse of underage signposts and posting illegal signpost porn on the net.
Can it be so simple? Ah! Nothing is simple.
Been feeling tired and low for months. Then a week or two ago I got some multivitamin pills with iron. Amazing difference! For almost a week I've been feeling back to normal. Looked it up online and it appears there is an established link between lack of iron and tiredeness. Of course if you look at anything to do with health online there is always the doom and gloom as well. Too much iron, and these vitamins appear to have about twice as much as is required, damage your arteries, increase risk of heart attacks, arthritis, macular degeneration etc etc. Healthier to eat lots of red meat, which I don't, but then that gives you cancer etc etc. Bloody hell! Is there anything that's good for you that isn't bad for you?
Oh well, nice to go out feeling good. Sunny again, must get out for a walk before I suffer my heart attack/stroke/blindness/psychotic episode or whatever.
Sensible chap
Can't be arsed to check but, according to my financial advisor, it is normal for every US president to move to the centre on attaining office. As Obummer's tenure has indicated, the US constitution does limit the president's power, especially on domestic issues. He has more say on foreign affairs and something that Trump has not backed away from is his intention to stop support for Syrian rebels.
Excellent! The numerous groups fighting Assad are not mostly fighting for Western style democracy and equality, most are, or have associations with, Islamist groups and many are hardline Islamists. They are not all as bad as ISIS, but any government they could form would be pretty damn awful for anyone who is not a Sunni Muslim or would like to live in a more free society.
However, Islamism is perhaps not the major issue. It is the shear numbers of these groups and the differing aims that make it extremely unlikely they could ever get together and agree on a government anyway. As the Iraq fiasco showed, getting rid of a dictator, even one as nasty as Hussein was, when there is no realistic chance of a cohesive single opposition is only going to lead to another prolonged conflict that will kill even more people.
PS Another plus for Trump. For those lefties who lump together Brexit and Trump's election as the rise of facist nationalism, interesting to see that Trump's concerns about Chinese dumping of goods on the world market are shared by the EU. High time this was tackled, along with their turning of a blind eye to counterfeiting of goods on a huge scale and their general disdain for intellectual property rights.
PPS More sense. US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will deport or jail up to three million illegal migrants initially. Those targeted would be migrants with criminal records, such as gang members and drug dealers, he told US broadcaster CBS in an interview. Racist to deport criminals who have no legal right to be in the US? Daresay some loony lefties will think so but most sensible people will be behind this. If it ever happens of course.
That's how balance works in human societies
Nice if we always had practical, pragmatic and democratic governments that acted on realities and put the wishes of the majority of their citizens first. Too often it doesn't happen, we are ruled by elitists who have little comprehension of what life is like outside their cosy sphere, idealists who pursue their impractical visions and businessmen whose main priority is their own wealth. Hardly surprising when ordinary people have had enough and vote for the "extreme" candidates, like Trump, who see things as they do. Hardly surprising when they want to cast off the yoke and take back some control as with Brexit.
Who can blame them? Look at what ordinary people in the UK have had to put up with as a result of immigration pressures due to the EU's freedom of movement. They can't get their kids into nearby schools, wages are being held down, rents are being driven up, the roads are getting more crowded. The looming problems with shortage of power and water are being exacerbated and our beautiful countryside is increasingly under threat. And who knows what will happen in the future when there is no democracy? When the unelected Eurocrats decide to expand their dream by letting in Turkey or Albania or bring in regulations that damage our banking sector? And for what? If you divide the increased national wealth as a result of immigration by a similarly increased population nobody is any better off. In many parts of the EU, the over liberal attitudes of idiots like Merkel to "asylum seekers" has put European citizens at risk. In some areas people don't fell safe anymore.
In the US too, immigration, mainly illegal in their case, is seen as even more of a problem. The crime caused by illegal Hispanics is not a far right myth and the economic impact on the poorer US citizens, including the Black Americans who should be a priority for any responsible US government, is enormous.
Can't say we are a fan of Trump but he looks like the best option who will restore some balance. Let's hope we get some similar upsets in Europe. Even extreme policies, if they contradict the previous extremes, do provide balance when you average them out over time.
PS Pity about his attitude to global warming though.
Piling up
Cebrities! Bah! There are so many well known British liberal-lefty celebrity twats like Benedict Cumbernatch, Lily Allen, Jude Law, Russel Brand, Emma Thompson, Bob Geldorf, Charlotte Church, Martin Freeman, Paul O'Grady, J K Rowling, the list goes on. And on. There are a few celebrities I do like from time to time but it never seems to be long before I discover they are liberal-lefty twats too and I have to add them to my total wankers list. In you go, Gary Lineker.
Little birdies
In Kent pet-friendly oxygen masks are being distributed around fire stations and installed on fire engines to help animals survive fires. Excellent! As long as they don't work for F* cats obviously.
Came back from holiday in Spain last week with lots of photos and videos of boring castles etc. Naturally the video we like most is one of little sparrows and doves gnashing food left on the next table.
A Swedish chap at the hotel took a video and posted it on Facebook. Can't think who that is.
PS Pity he didn't do it when we were dancing with two nice young ladies, not when some wierd young bloke in white came up and started jumping around.
Topic: Little birdies Comment here. Comments so far: 0
Would you?
Went for my usual wander today. The footpath went through a field with several young bulls with very sharp horns. Hesitated a bit, I must admit, but then thought, nah!, If they were aggressive, the farmer wouldn't put them in a field with a public footpath through it. Well, they weren't aggressive but they were either curious or friendly. Four of them came right over to me and followed me all the way across the field.
Animals like xoggoth cos he's nice to them. Someday I would like to go to Africa and wander across the Serengeti at night, Hello little lions!
Those double standards again
A producer is applauded for his "furious and ironic response" when a resident complained that a Sevenoaks’ panto was ‘too black’. Of course when a black actor claims that Game of Thrones is 'too white' that's fine.
Eeeeeeeeh fookin' 'ell...
Liife gets bloody annoying. Spent nearly £9000 on a new central heating system, installation finished last Friday. Seemed dodgy last night but got it going eventually, thought I might have just had the RF controller too close to the TV, but today it's not working at all. The installer came round but couldn't fix it, the fault is in the boiler unit. Hopefully the manufacturers are sending somebody on Friday and I might get some heat. Not related to the fault, but it would seem we have a tank full of the wrong fuel, got to get that drained and refilled. Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
Oh well, going on holiday to Spain next Wednesday. I expect the plane will crash immediately after take off. At the moment, I'm not sure I'd mind.
PS Apparently I could use the old fuel oil in my van as it's basically diesel. Just that, as it was for domestic use, I never had to pay tax on it. Wahee! Cheeting the stinking government out of their "due". Less money to pay for f* foreign aid, f* EU contributions, f* welfare for non-citizens, f* health tourists, f* "expenses" for MPs that nobody else can claim in similar circumstances, f* cost of the House of Lords, etc etc. Citizens of Britain! It is your MORAL DUTY to evade tax!
PPS Look at this tax evading CUNT, Prince Charles Much fuss about Amazon and Google not paying enough tax in the UK but at least they do help the UK economy with their sales platforms. Even us republicans have to conceed that some other members of the royal family do a lot for Britain's image but nobody likes the Prince of daftness (or his ghastly brother). What does this privileged, interfering arsehole do for the UK? Time for BEHEADING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big bugs have little bugs...
Maybe it goes the other way too, big bugs are feeding on larger bugs etc. If there is a god who created us all, maybe he was just one of many like him who was created by an even more powerful god, and that more powerful god was among the many created by an even more powerful god... and so ad infinitum.
Or perhaps gods evolve over time, just like life on earth does. Maybe our god was pretty primitive, just a caveman as gods go. The next god may be more intelligent and have the technology to to make a better job of things. In the future, the Steve Jobs of gods is going to create life in a far more sophisticated way. He may allow us, in return for more prayers or something, the opportunity to pick and choose what sort of bodies we can have. Huge brain, huge muscles, huge knob or whatever else appeals to you.
Do something useful you little sods!
Aside from eating them, mankind has always made use of animals - horses/elephants/camels as transport, sheep and silkworms for fabrics, bees for honey, pigeons to carry messages, leeches for microsurgery, etc.
Got around to treating all my wooden garden furniture this year. Painted it with teak oil anyway, couldn't be arsed to spend ages treating and sanding the surfaces to bring the original colour back. In autumn I always see wasps nibbling at the surfaces so can't we get them to do the job in return for a plastic nest or a jar of jam?
Philosophy is crap
Had an odd experience the other night. Woke up at about 4AM and was trying to get back to sleep when I heard the doorbell. Looked out the window, saw nobody and was just about to go back to bed when I heard my son shouting "Dad!!". Went downstairs, checked front and back doors and nobody there. That wasn't quite the end of it, just going back to bed when I heard a thump on the back door. Nobody there again. Son came back about 7AM as usual and he'd been at work all night so I obviously dreamed the whole thing. But it was just as real as reality, so how do you tell the difference? Mention things like this to anyone and most people will recall some similar odd experience.
When the difference between imagination and reality can be so blurred on occasions what sense does it make trying to look for meaning in life? Was asked if I wanted to go to a philosophy class. No way. Philosophy is just as pointless and futile as religion. It's all just a lot of conjecture. Whatever you believe, there are others out there, as educated and bright as you are, who are equally convinced of something totally different and their arguments are no less "logical" than yours. Humanity should stop wasting its time on this crap and just go with realities.
Or what appears to be real - it really makes no F* difference.
How do you get it back?
Lost our imagination, as is totally obvious from this blog recently. At one time the stream of total bollux on here used to flow like the river Tiber, now there's just a rare drip.
Ah well, at least we don't (yet) have the physical problems that our ageing friends and acquaintances have. One lady (the one that resembles the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons) has to go to Brighton hospital for tests tomorrow. Know it well, spent a lot of time going there with the missus for her radiation therapy and chemotherapy, fat lot of good they did. Another old male acquaintance I was talking to today has been to hospital twice this week.
Naughty/rude bits involved in both cases, as with the missus. It's usually the embarassing bits - colon, testicles, prostate, breasts, womb, uterus, ovaries, cervix, etc. that get ill. Why is it we never get cancer, or any other disease, in our elbows or ear lobes? In my opinion we should have eggs/sperm extracted from us at birth and then used, as in Huxley's Brave New World, to create humans as required in test tubes. Then we could have have all the reproductive stuff removed, greatly reducing the risks of cancer and helping us live longer.
Hmmm. On the other hand, without any bonking, probably the best thing in life (after raspberries and cream, once you get to my age), would we want to live longer?
Life on Mars
News items about the possibility of life being found on other planets, within or outside our own solar system, crop up fairly frequently. Nothing has definitely been found as yet but it's bound to happen in the next decade according to NASA's top scientists. Hopefully it will not be intelligent life capable of coming here, we have enough problems with people from elsewhere on our own planet at the moment. We don't want giant transparent centipedes claiming asylum and helping themselves to our welfare and social housing thanks very much.
Can't say we are that interested in astronomy, we prefer things a bit nearer, like the nice little bugs in our garden but we suppose there could be some aspects of alien life that could be interesting. NASA scientists discover new galaxy that is actually a huge alien lady's bottom. Mmmm.
Things change
We always read the crime news and one thing that stands out in the last few years is a rise in Asian crime in the South East. It was a different story in the Midlands but they used to be pretty law abiding down this way, noticeably more law abiding than white Brits it appeared, but that does not seem to be the case now. Our "racist" observation is quite correct according to this 2014 report from the lefty Guardian:
Scotland Yard is to set up a specialist team to deal with soaring crime in London's south Asian communities,
.....
The number of south Asian murder victims has almost quadrupled in the past decade from 10 in 1993 to 38 last year, compared
with a 32% rise for the general population, while the kidnap rate has more than doubled from 90 to 228 from 1998 to 2003, accounting
for 20% of the Met's total kidnap figure last year and racking up 114 kidnaps so far this year.
.....
Drug crime in Asian communities has increased 41% in the past five years, compared with the overall figure of 37% for London. Pakistan
is the source of 27% of the heroin found in London, with a rising number of Asian addicts and associated crime, and Tower Hamlets,
one of the Asian crime hotspots, dubbed the UK's heroin capital.
As you'd expect from The Guardian "lack of jobs and educational opportunities, community deprivation" is quoted as a factor, implying we are to blame, but look at the two crimes mentioned, kidnapping and drug dealing. They are both linked to what goes on in these South Asian countries. Pakistan is one of the world's 5 most dangerous countries for kidnapping and ransom. Pakistan is also the most heroin addicted country in the world. Drug use is rising alarmingly among the young in Bangladesh too.
If we take in people from nations with significant problems they bring those problems in with them. If they retain more of a bond with those nations than they do with their adopted one, the problems won't stop coming when most are born here. If we take in people who won't integrate and become part of our own society they are never going to succeed in it.
Maybe one day we will learn from realities instead of blaming ourselves for everything.
Got me worried
When you operate a website, even for a very small business, you get used to comment spammers. Occasionally, as with this blog, you get a lot of totally pointless generic comments, usually from somewhere like Russia, Ukraine etc, that have nothing whatever to do with anything on the site. They don't have any links to dodgy sites or contain any software with viruses etc so I really have no idea what purpose they serve.
Just recently have been getting empty comments from my business website with my own email address. Darn it! I know I have been a bit loopy over the last few years but have I unconsciously started to contact myself?
Hang on, the door bell is ringing! Might be me.
Wow
I actually feel ok today. First time in weeks I have not been downer than an extremely down thing at the bottom of down there. Who knows, may actually get back to blogging summit.
Crazy
All in favour of sexual freedom, what people choose to do with their arses is up to them. The big butt, I mean but, is, as with any risky activity, adults should bear the consequences of their own actions.
It is entirely wrong in principle that uninfected men should be able to get pills costing £400 a month so they can continue having unprotected sex with other men while pensioners can't even get cataract operations until they are almost blind. The latter makes no sense as, if they cannot do things for themselves, they will be more of a burden on the state and others.
These men could just buy some condoms and if they can't be bothered that's their problem. Men involved in risky bum sex, migrants trying to cross the Med or channel in unsafe boats or whatever. As adults you are responsible for your own decisions. If it goes wrong, don't expect the rest of us to pick up the bill or waste our time and resources to help you.
Stop this waste of money too
The government has rejected the idea of removing the triple lock on state pensions.
As an old fart I should support handing out money to us old farts but I don't. There is no very good reason for the triple lock pension scheme. Those who have paid for their pensions with lots of tax and NI throughout their working lives should certainly have their pensions protected from inflation but there is no justification to keep raising it in real terms. Same with the winter fuel allowance, why hand that out to well off sorts?
These schemes were just bribes to get the older section of the population to vote Tory. Not the way democracy should work.
Well done US
Interesting news here on US oil production from shale.
Opec's worst fears are coming true. Twenty months after Saudi Arabia took the fateful decision to flood world markets with oil, it has
still failed to break the back of the US shale industry.
...
North America's hydraulic frackers are cutting costs so fast that most can now produce at prices far below levels needed to fund the
Saudi welfare state and its military machine, or to cover Opec budget deficits.
Doubt it will happen but bankrupting that F* awful country with their disgusting, backward strict Islamist laws and their continual undermining of Western democracy by financing the spread of Salafist claptrap can only be good. If we don't depend on them so much we can stop pretending that this very worst of all Islamist states is our friend and ally.
PS Hopefully we can ignore the "green", AKA ignorant lefty twats, and get fracking going round here too.
Losing things
Went for a walk with my nice loony religious lady recently looking for the cardigan she lost while walking the day before. Found it fortunately. She lost a jumper the previous time we went walking together near there too. Last week I lost a pair of pliers when I went to help my son after a collision with a fox damaged the sump shield on his car. Poor little foxy was dead unfortunately.
When you get older you seem to be constantly losing things, especially if you walk a lot. In the past year I have lost a compass, the spare batteries for my GPS tracker, a pair of sunglasses, the case for another pair of sunglasses, a pedometer, a couple of maps, two pairs of reading glasses, a case for some other reading glasses and a camera. When doing jobs round the house or garden I must spend 90% of the time looking for tools or materials I have absent-mindedly put down somewhere.
Ah well. There is a plus side to everything! Haven't had a search team callout in my area for some time but all the ones I have been on have involved screwed up younger people and dozens of us spent hours looking for them. It will be a lot easier if we have to go out looking for some old fart like me.
Could this be the trigger?
Yet another severe attack in France.
We don't have much info yet, it could just be some deranged non Muslim loony, but, if it turns out to be yet another Islamist attack, will it trigger the severe reaction that a French intelligence chief has warned of?. The French have seen too many serious Islamist attacks since 2013 and I do not know how much longer some will put up with it.
Of course people will say, and quite rightly, that the majority of Muslims in France will not be supporters of these actions but, when we fought the Germans, did we think about the many Germans who did not follow Hitler's extreme views? When a threat springs from a particular group, when we cannot readily distinguish those who threaten us from others in the group, when too many innocent members of that group see the reporting of the real offenders as a betrayal, when the threat grows to such an extent that our whole society and safety of our citizens is threatened then there is no other logical action but to act against that group as a whole.
There comes a point when you have to forget all the subleties, the distinguishing of the innocent individuals and make the logical decision to defend yourself against an enemy .
Lists
The solution to all things for us OCD sorts is LISTS! We used to laugh at the missus for making lists of everything she planned to do with her day but now realise how wise she was. We now keep lists of everything, how long we go walking for and what footpath map was applicable (yes we have books of printouts of footpath areas, all numbered in order from North West to South East) , how many of each exercise we have done in our little garage gym, all the things we plan to do each day.
When you are totally F* disinterested in doing anything at all, working your way through a boring list at least keeps you from staying in bed all day.
A new friend
People think we are barmy for sharing our meals and vodka with a little puppet parrot but this week we took a small step towards normality, we have a new friend - a Wood Pidgeon! It's a living thing at least!
It is an odd colour, most wood pidgeons are gray but this one is light brown although it must be the same species as it gets attention from other randy Wood Pidgeons. Poor bird has a few problems. It does not appear able to fly properly, although it can just about get onto a fence to keep itself out of danger. Also it seems to sit dozing in the sun a lot with its feathers all fluffed up making it seem very fat. But it's the behaviour that is really odd. The first day I saw it, it was waddling down the path. Then it stopped and looked at me and came flying over and perched on the trellis right next to my seat. Put down a bit of seed and it was wandering around right under my feet, not afraid of me at all.
Now it turns up at about 5pm every day and sits with me listening to my wisdom. And eating any food I give it of course, but it's a lot cheaper than the whisky I have to provide for my drinky neighbour.
Natural art
This looks like a piece of artwork or a computer generated image but actually it is just an untouched, accurate photo of a stream.
In some areas of the forests round here the streams have a very high iron content. The downside is that they contain very little life, you never see anything moving in them, not even insects. The plus side is this very red colour and when the bright sun manages to make it through the trees and hits the surface this is what you see.
Rants
Must stop ranting so much! How does it help? Want to go back to days when bloggoth was almost all bollox. Was happier then. So from now on must mark rants and keep to minimum. Starting now we shall mark all our rants, and hopefully, by making them stand out, do a few less.
The F* French. Is it just we at bloggoth who loath them?
Other enemies come and go and a few decades after its all blown over we like them again. How many in the UK still hate the Germans or the Japanese? But the F* French!
- They blame us for the migrant problem in Calais and are threatening to pull out of current border agreements. Maybe there would not be a major problem if you were not waving them over your borders, you arseholes!
- There have been huge lorry hold ups due to all the strikes by their F* ferrry workers that have included violence and deliberate damage to cargos of British Lorries.
- More lorry hold ups due to blockades of ports by their F* fishermen over EU imposed quotas.
- Violent attacks by French fishermen on British fishermen who had the right to be fishing there under the same EU rules that give the French access to our waters.
- Strikes by their air traffic controllers that wreck people's holidays. It's happening again this summer and has become such a regular problem that there is now talk of an EU wide traffic control to tackle it.
- Recently France has seen a wave of violent clashes and strikes in protest against labour laws that caused petrol shortages and more hastle for holiday makers and people going to the EURO football. Why are they always on strike????????????
- In the wake of Brexit it is the frogs who are making most of the threats, like Hollande's warnings to London financiers over Euro clearing, even though it is bollux according to Forbes and they do know a bit about these things.
Of course we are more likely to have problems with our nearest neighbours because their proximity necessarily creates conflicts of interest, when did you ever hear of a war between Australian Aborigines and Eskimos? It isn't always the case of course but bound to happen if the people in your neighbouring country are F* self centred, socialist, striking wankers like the French!
PS They have just lost 1 nil to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final. Hurrah for Portugal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those wonderful wise youngsters
Much has been made of statistics relating to the EU referendum result. Bremainers were mostly educated young people while Brexiters were mostly uneducated old people.
Technically that's correct, if you define education in the very narrow sense as having a college or university qualification. The reality is that, thanks to the leftist agenda which sees higher education as yet another human right, far more people go into it than used to be the case even though, for so many, it does nothing at all for their career prospects. Maybe a degree in history or economics has some relevance but how exactly does a 3 year course in Media Studies or Architecture or Computer Science make you more able to judge the future direction of Europe?
It is the older people who are more qualified to make these judgements because they are more educated in ways that matters. They may not have a BA but they have experienced far more, both personally and through the media. They have seen wonderful ideals come to nothing, seen the duplicity and egotism of our leaders exposed and watched imposed empires break apart in violent conflicts. They are far better equipped to judge what the EU is and what it may become.
Older people are also more practical. Too many youngsters look for meaning and grasp at the latest social movement without considering the realities. In my yoof many threw away their career prospects because they were sucked into the hippy rejection of consumerism. Today some are violently opposing any belief that does not fit with their often absurd anarchist or socialist ideals. That's always easier when you are still a student and not actually picking up the bill via your tax payments. I wonder how many of these No Borders people will be so keen if it actually happens? When our economy is wrecked by a huge flow of people from places like Somalia or Sudan and nowhere is safe. Don't notice too many of us oldies going to fight with ISIL either.
When I acheive my ambition to become world dictator I'm going to raise the voting age to 30. That's when most people start to have some sense and a grasp of reality.
PS They won't be able to vote me out obviously but I would allow voting on a few things, e.g. micro-chipping of dogs or having performing arts in schools that I didn't give a shit about.
Just rephrase and inflate it minister
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said today that it would be unwise to guarantee EU nationals living in the UK assurances they could stay without UK nationals abroad getting the same assurances. Sensible people will ask why that is unreasonable but the lefty idiots like Labour's Andy Burnham and Independent commenters think it is "threatening migrants".
What he should have said was something like: "Of course we want all the positive, hardworking migrants from Europe to remain here. They are an enormous benefit to our economy and contribute greatly to the wonderful and vibrant diversity of our society which would be far poorer without them. We will do everything in our power to negotiate a reciprocal arrangement that will provide legal guarantees on residence for them and for British citizens currently in other nations of the European Union. The other forward looking nations of the EU share our belief in moving towards a more equal global society, one in which we leave behind our narrow national differences and predudices and it is unthinkable that such an accord cannot be reached.
There you are minister! It says exactly the same thing but is full of PC crap and five times as long and lefties will be happy with it. And note the clever encoding. We can still kick out all the useless sorts because it specifically refers to positive, hardworking migrants. In righty terms that means what it says but a lefty will take "positive, hardworking migrants" to mean all of them!
Backwardness does not exist - unless it's in defence
The "anti-racist" agenda tells us that, despite the documented problems of poor and third world countries, including low performance, backward cultural beliefs and practices, poor education, conflict, high levels of violence, crime and corruption, and despite the real traumas they may have experienced, that all migrants from them are aspiring, law abiding and hard working people the moment they cross our borders. Any problems are down to exclusion by us nasty racist white people.
It's a different matter when they end up in court obviously. Don't you just feel sorry for this Somalian rapist whose defence lawyer (funded by us obviously) claims he did not realise that rape was not acceptable in the UK? Even though he had been convicted of it before! Or how about this poor Kurdish refugee whose assault charges are down to the trauma he suffered while illegally sneaking into our country in a lorry. His defence, the interpretor, dealing with his depression are all paid for by us obviously, not to mention the probably tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods that had to be ditched from the lorry.
The UN asylum convention, drawn up over 60 years ago when global travel was not easy, needs to be ditched or seriously reformed. We should not be expected to permanently take in people who are a threat or a major burden to our own citizens.
Why don't they set up special stores to sell food that has been in asylum seeker filled lorries? Surely those wonderful No Borders people would buy it? It's only us racists who don't want to eat food that these poor people have been pissing and shitting on.
Threat???
A Man has recently been charged for threatening to shoot an MP on Twitter.
What this "threat" actually amounted to was a gun emoji and a message "Another MP that needs...". In other words it was not actually a threat at all, just the sort of joke comment that people make all the time. Some will rightly say it was in extremely bad taste so soon after the shooting of MP Jo Cox but our authorities should not be cracking down on bad taste, they should be acting in a cool headed manner to tackle genuine threats or those that appear genuine enough to frighten and cause distress.
Let's hope the police do not decide to investigate everyone who has ever suggested Tony Blair should be killed, the investigation could take even longer than the Chilcot enquiry.
More disdain of democracy and the working man by the left
The title says it all. "Brexit reminds us some things are too important to be decided by the people". It's one of several articles we have read recently (all from the political left) that tell us that the common man is too uneducated and stupid to make important decisions, we should leave them to our elected leaders and the appointed government experts. Sorry to bring reality and logic into it again but let's point out a few flaws in that:
The most obvious one is that our elected leaders and experts are not guaranteed to be benign and act in the public good. Hitler was elected and had the benefit of state advisors, so that made him a good leader of the German people did it? History is littered with self-serving, egotistical or impractically idealistic leaders, both elected and otherwise, who have inflicted disaster on their citizens.
While it is true that those who acheive leadership will generally be more intelligent and better educated than average, intelligence and education do not define political direction or views. You can find equally intelligent people on both sides of every political argument - look at Camoron and Johnson for example - both highly intelligent, Eton and Oxford educated men and yet they had (or claimed to have, which is what matters) completely different views on EU membership. You are telling us we should trust our leaders to do the right thing but which leader is it that we are supposed to trust?
If the common man is too ignorant or stupid to make a decision on EU membership, why is he capable of making a decision in a UK election when many of the same issues are involved? The various political parties have very different views on the major issues like the economy, welfare and social services, world trade, immigration, defence and... ah yes, EU membership! If we can't be trusted to weigh up those factors in a referendum, why can we trusted to do so in an election? One can only conclude that some lefties do not believe in democracy at all.
If the common man should trust in our leaders to do the right thing, then surely you should do the same lefties? If a Tory/UKIP coalition wins the next election you'll still be telling us we should trust our leaders will you? I suspect not. This protest against the referendum result is just hypocritical sour grapes and I have no doubt that, if stay had won, you'd be praising the common sense of the British voters.
Finally let's look at some recent history and one of those wise leaders, President Tito of Yugoslavia. He imposed a common government on disparate nations, largely dominated by the most powerful state of Serbia, although he was from the small nation of Croatia. There are distinct parallels with the EU today where the zealots like Junker from the small nation of Luxemburg are obsessed with trying to pressure us all into a common federation that is largely dominated by Germany. And what happened? Yugoslavia fell apart in Europe's deadliest conflict since WW2, having failed after nearly 50 years to acheive a conscencus between the constituent nations. The EU that Junker and others are trying to press us into is even less likely to succeed given the greater divergence of cultures and languages. Yugloslavia is just one example of the way that forced unions between people of different views and cultures rarely work. Not to say that they can't, but what is the best way to find out if people feel they have a sufficiently common ground to make a success of it? Ask them of course!
PS As usual, we are delighted to see that most of those who comment on Independent articles have far more sense than those who write them.
Why are the left so fucking illogical?
The Independent used to be one of our favourite newspapers but it's now hosting some screaming loony articles, appallingly one sided, illogical and often innacurate, in their Indy500 column.
Take this one. Ah, so the UK has dropped from fifth largest in the world to sixth overnight! The importance of that rather depends on how close the economies of France and the UK were to start with doesn't it? And it isn't even true as this main Independent article states.
Even if it was true, it's quite absurd to make judgements based on a few days. Everyone expected the pound and stock markets falls, it's the nature of the finance market, it's just a global casino. It's the long term that matters. The left is always extrapolating from nothing. We saw the same thing two years ago last January when they told us, based on a few days migration figures, that fears of mass immigration from Bulgaria and Romania were unfounded. Can't find any recent figures but there were 219,000 in the UK 8 months ago and rising.
And why is blanket hatred of some groups ok?
The other day my nice loony religious lady overheard some shop assistants moaning about the older vote affecting the EU referendum result and the one who served her seemed rather hostile.
Leftists have been blaming the brexit vote on the uneducated working class and the boomers for weeks and one of the worst articles is again in The Independent - How old people have screwed over the younger generation - in three charts. What would be the reaction if somebody did a similar article showing how the ethnic minority vote affected the result, with "black" instead of "old" and "whites" instead of "younger generation" in that title? Yet it's ok to use such terms when referring to older people.
Leaving aside the referendum, it seems too common to see articles blaming the older generation for things or resenting their relative wealth. Is this totally unrelated to the rise in crime against those over 50? I suspect not.
Every generation blames the one before
Ah yes, The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics. One of my all time favourites.
Out of the frying pan...
I can well understand Scotland's desire to be free of the UK. It never works when people are forced into a union with others who have different cultures and different views on what the future should be. People need to look at history - the Roman Empire, the Austro Hungarian empire, the Ottoman empire, the USSR or Yugoslavia for example. As Scotland's case shows, even centuries don't necessarily solve the issues. But this is exactly why we voted to leave an EU that was seeking more and more to impose a uniform government on disparate nations!
The Scottish really need to think logically about what they are doing rather than just act out of their historic resentment at the English. They have already managed to get quite a bit in terms of self government. If we English can also get self determination and our taxes do not pay for Scottish public spending, most of us would be in favour of them having even more autonomy. They are an important part of the UK and their desires should not be ignored.
On the other hand, if they are a separate nation within the EU they will count for very little. They have a GDP not much different to that of Greece. They will have almost no say in what happens and one seriously has to wonder, if they want to be a self determining nation, how staying with the EU makes any sense.
Narrow Minded Youth
It is one of those myths that younger people are more open minded but the exact opposite is true. Today we are seeing a lot of hatred like this being whipped up against older people in the wake of the refererendum result.
It is quite true that younger people are more likely to embrace the latest fashionable ideals. In my hippy yoof, many young people threw away their career chances due to their rejection of consumerism. Today many embrace similarly unrealistic ideals, like open borders with little consideration of the consequences, or socialist societies, despite the failures of every truly socialist/communist society there has ever been.
It is also quite true that older people are more 'set in their ways'. They prefer it when things do not change too quickly but that is down to experience, they have seen it all before and tend to have better knowledge of the realities of history. The numerous failures of UK governments to live up to their election promises, the many military failures by the West, the collapse of the USSR, the lack of bog paper in Venezuela, they have seen so many great ideas come to nothing or have adverse consequences.
Being open minded is not about zealously embracing the latest idea, it is about being able to consider the pros and cons of an idea and too many young brains seem poorly wired for that, their emotional need for meaning and purpose in their lives overrides their ability to think logically. You can see this closed mindedness everywhere today. The NUS "No Platform" policy has been used to bar many who do not follow their liberal left agenda. It is impossible for any group to publicly protest about mass immigration without being violently attacked by far greater numbers of "anti-facists" and the pictures indicate these are mostly young people. Ah yes, and those raping, beheading Islamists joining ISIS, not too many oldies there either.
Maybe these hate-filled young fanatics who object to leaving the EU should do a Google of "violent protests Greece". Lots of young people violently protesting aganst austerity imposed by the EU!
YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
No need to say why.
PS I see Hollande is saying "The EU must be understood and controlled by its citizens. I will do everything to secure profound change rather than decline"
It's a pity you and the other zealots didn't do that before instead of sending Camoron away with next to nothing you fuckwit. A seriously reformed EU, with more democracy, that went with the realities of human nature and evolved more slowly, that was prepared to learn from history, that put the real concerns of ordinary citizens above the unrealistic ideals of unelected, overpaid, privileged bastards is something that I, and many others, would have voted for.
Why do the left so hate democracy?
Back in the 60s it was possible to have some respect for leftists. As real socialists should, they put the interests of working class people first. The Labour party back then was totally against the Common Market, against globalisation and domination by large companies.
Now all you see from many on the left is contempt for ordinary people, surveys that show Brexiters are less educated, dismissal of any idea that they deserve a say in their own future. Everything should be in the hands of wealthy educated people who know best. Above all, they hate referenda. A total fuckwit on Contractor UK was citing the fact that a referendum was used to give Hitler absolute power as an argument against referenda in general. It's the sort of "argument" that is typical of lefties, maybe they should denounce reducing inflation on the grounds that Hitler did that too.
There's a pretty typical item in today's news. Among the worst things Camoron ever did was "pandering to the right wing of his party by announcing a referendum". Terrible! If you let ordinary people make a choice about their own future you must be a neo Nazi.
Silly Scottish cow
Nicola Sturgeon is banging on about an independent Scotland again. Actually, she is not an idiot and will probably want to make some firm arrangements regarding Scotland's currency first.
She can no longer join the European Union without also joining the Eurozone. Given the leftist nature of the Scottish, and the inevitably struggling economy that will result, we are probably looking at another Greece if they join the Eurozone, their GDP is very similar. Like Greece, Scotland will be totally dominated by the Germans and forced into stringent controls on public spending that they will not be too happy with.
The only alternative is total independence, difficult for a small country. Good luck to them but I hope to hell they are not allowed to remain in any sort of currency union with England, we have been propping them up with the Barnett Formula for far too long. Independence should mean exactly what it says!
PS Hang on! In just a few years' time the British pound will have the Prince of Daftness's face on it. Take it! Take it! Nicola, we don't want it any more! I'd rather trade in old socks than have to look at that bastard's face every time I buy something.
This Silly Seacole Stuff
It's something that never seems to go away, arguments about the merits or otherwise of Mary Seacole.
Who cares either way? We really do need some icons to persuade the lowest performing minorities in the UK that they can succeed if they put in the effort but is a black youth in a gangland area going to be convinced of that by the case of a lady who was 3/4 white, died nearly 140 years ago and suffered the real discrimination that was acceptable at the time? And why would she mean anything at all to a Bangadeshi kid?
Surely it would make far more sense to make more of successful minority people in today's Britain?
The Next President
The US has a reputation for being socially conservative but, if Clinton gets in, they will have had a black and a female president in quick succession. They have already had a disabled president in Roosevelt. Well done US! You are leading the way in breaking down the barriers against the poor oppressed minorities!
Let's see, disabled president, black president, female president, that only leaves one major discriminated against minority to go, the LGBT community. Say hello to 2020's new president.
Topic: The Next President Comment here. Comments so far: 0
CONTEXT again
As we have commented before too many have no ability to appreciate context, seizing on some single word or phrase and ignoring all the words that actually define the point. This seems to be particularly a lefty/liberal problem. Not to say all of that bent are illogical loonies, in general we find the leftist Guardian presents its case rather well, even if we don't agree with it. Their "What has the EU ever done for my..." series of articles in favour of Bremain may be rather selective, we are all selective when arguing our own case, but at least they appear properly researched.
On the other hand, the once sensible Independent now runs articles from the most irrational people you can imagine. How's this for a heading? The 3 words Donald Trump said that made the Orlando shooting even worse. Gosh! What has nasty Trump said now? Shoot All Muslims? Er, no:
Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!
We need to be tough, vigilant and smart to prevent further terrorist attacks! What an appalling racist suggestion!