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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

Fartoons

I couldn't think of anything else to do at my art group.

Story

The Atheist Religion

Safety

They tell you that a daily walk is good for you, then give you a lot of warnings about all the dangers. Weil's disease from tick bites, cancer from bracken spores, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, falling over, being attacked by cattle or dogs, getting caught in a wildfire etc. etc.

I like walking but clearly I need to get some better kit.

Useful places

My walk today took me past a church and a sewage plant.

Both to do with crap but at least one serves a useful purpose.

Useful creatures

There are many horrible parasites that infect man, from embarrassing Threadworms up your bum to horrible Guinea Worms that bore holes in your flesh.

On the other hand, there are some invertebrates that have proved useful in medicine, like medicinal leeches to prevent blood clots and maggots to remove dead flesh. Given the advancements in genetic engineering and medical science generally, it is surprising that scientists have not found other ways to use invertebrates in effective treatments.

Update: Oh look! A cricket that removes warts. Hmmm. Maybe, instead of taking Viagra, blokes with ED could use a rare wasp to sting their knobs and makes them stiff?

Useful psychics

Why must psychics be so involved with serious stuff, always telling us about the end of the world or some awful fate that awaits us? I'd really rather not know about those things. Better to live your last few weeks in ignorance than worrying about the coming doom.

It would be much more useful if they helped us out with little everyday things. It surely must be much easier for their spirit guides to find out about those than about some coming Armageddon, so they could charge a reasonable fee and have a better income from a lot more customers!

F* Spain

The behaviour of the Spanish police in Catalonia is quite appalling:

In brutal scenes beamed around the world, officers in riot gear fired rubber bullets into crowds and beat would-be voters with batons as they queued at polling stations.

The Catalan government claimed 761 people were injured.

There was widespread condemnation of the Spanish government's attempt to crack down on the vote, which Catalan authorities had called despite the courts ruling it illegal.

However, the European Union remained conspicuously silent on the police tactics, which saw masked officers smash their way into polling stations and forcibly remove ballot boxes.

Why should the Catalans not be allowed to express their views on this? I'm all in favour of independence for them, or the Scots, Kurds, Corsicans etc. just as long as they don't expect others to pick up the bill and don't discriminate against those of different backgrounds who live in the regions.

Other recent Spain news, their appalling cruelty to animals, all the lefty protests against tourists and, of course, their continual claims to Gibraltar.

Funny how colonialism is ok when it comes to the Spanish owned islands on the North African coast. The hypocrisy of these F* EU nations pisses me off, another example is these eastern European countries who insist we should keep taking millions of their citizens when they themselves do all they can to keep migrants out.

Nationalism is a confusing word.

One definition is "an extreme form of patriotism marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries". Superiority over other cultures can hardly be separated from that and many associate nationalism with Hitler, using a mere twelve years in one nation to denounce the entire concept.

Another definition is "advocacy of political independence for a particular country". Scottish nationalism is the closest example and that's all fine with many apparently, she may be a twat but Nicola Sturgeon is hardly Adolph.

Of course, they are not entirely separate things. If a national government is going to serve the majority of its citizens by acting in their interests and in line with their shared beliefs and culture, there must be limits as to how far they can allow significant minorities to oppose them. Most would agree that concentration camps are over the top but is it so unreasonable to have stricter controls on immigration, to take in only those able and willing to integrate or to ensure that schools must educate all children in our shared values?

Attitudes can be very contradictory. Some praise the idea of multiculturalism and think minorities should be able to pursue their own agendas yet denounce the idea that nations as a whole should be able to act in accordance with the wishes of their citizens, lauding multinationalism and the power of international unelected bodies like the EU or the UN.

Nationalism and racism may overlap as Sadiq Khan said earlier this year, but just saying things does not solve a problem. We need to look at the realities of history. Many of the worst conflicts have been between different cultures within the same nations, when people of very different views are in juxtaposition and have conflicting desires for their future. One of the worst in recent decades was the break up of Yugoslavia.

Where human nature is concerned there are no perfect solutions. In my view the best approach is positive nationalism. Let our governments act principally in the interests of their own citizens. Avoid more unecessary divisions in our society by having proper controls on immigration and standing up for our core values. Avoid unecessary conflicts by negotiation and agreements, have international bodies that act as intermediaries to resolve disputes and avoid undemocratic unions that ignore real cultural and economic differences.

Hmmm.

Asked the old ladies at my writer's group which of the following stories they'd prefer to hear, one about a serial killer or one about giant spiders, and they all opted for the serial killer. Maybe Torquemada didn't need to physically torture all the heretics, he'd have set some of them back onto the path of righteousness much quicker by threatening to stick spiders up their noses or put snakes in their underpants.

The Trap

Things May Not Be As They Seem

WTF?

I was interested in joining a volunteer group and was sent a long form to fill in. It's an active role repairing footpaths etc, so fair enough to ask questions about health, but why do they ask about sexuality? Do they imagine I am going to molest ditches or something?

Apart from straight/gay/bisexual it has the option other. Who is going to tick that when pursuing many other sexual interests is illegal? You would probably get a supplementary form to fill in asking you to tick your preferences - children, corpses, goats etc. and then get arrested.

SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUNTEER FORM
o Name 			xoggoth

SEXUAL PREFERENCES
Put a cross against any that apply.
.....
.....
o Lady Pigs		x
.....

Hmmm.

The Trap

Things May Not Be As They Seem

Hoorah! Old bloke

7th September

Maybe that's the secret of life. If you want to be happy, wander back and forward to the shops n times a day. Probably as good as the crap these online advice pages trot out. Looking for remedies to depression that don't involve drugs, unsure what's real and what's just a scam.

Ah, er um, snore

So low. All I ever seem to want to do at the mo is sleep. Must do summit, post crap on bloggoth. Let's see, er, um.

Snore

What? Eh?

Is it time to get up already? It's only just gone 8pm!

Let's see. F* EU bastards! I hate them. How can sensible negotiations not take into account all factors? It's a matter of give and take, all the Brexit issues are interlinked. Why the F* should we be expected to agree a huge financial settlement to the EU and provide generous residence permits to all these F* low skilled EU migrants who are of no benefit to UK citizens in general before we can be sure that the EU is going to be similarly generous on trade issues?

I loved that early Simpsons episode where the family kept pressing buttons to give electric shocks to the others. Great idea that was. We should tie up all these overpaid, unelected EU beurocrats, and those among the remainer UK politicans who speak so contemptuously about the rest of us, like Ken Clarke and Vince Cable, and stick huge electrodes up their arses.

Maybe if we carefully selected the voltage in the arsehole of each of these arseholes we could create some great sounds by varying the pitch of their screams. Celebrities of a sensible right wing bent are hard to come by, but maybe Bryan Adams could compose a new arse scream based rock track.

Last old bloke

Last picture 20th August! Over 2 weeks. Hope old bloke is ok.

Oh no! Not zombies again!

Yep - more zombies

It is probably true that looking too much at any sort of online material with a particular bias narrows one's views. There should be a real concern about many computer and online games. A quick Google shows a whole load of them that are about killing various beings and it is presented as totally justifiable. Zombies, vampires, space aliens, you name it. The more you can kill the higher the score.

What if aliens do arrive on Earth or some strange event really does cause the rise of the undead? They may not be the horrible creatures we imagine them to be, they could be very amiable and law abiding, but our preconditioning is going to make us see them all as evil beings out to destroy us. We must put an end to these prejudiced games that are driving unjustified hatred against zombies, space aliens, demons, vampires, werewolves and other so-called monsters.

We must lobby for an end to games depicting them all as dangerous beings and start showing how truly wonderful and hard working most of them will be when they finally get here. Here is a cartoon that shows the positive side of those maligned zombies.

Story

Forgot to post again.

The Old Oak Tree

Desert again - and old bloke

Not getting round to xoggoth bollox much again. Much to do with the time I am spending sorting the F* little business website. Without going into too much boring detail, I have had to make loads of changes due to a looming upgrade to the programming language. One can only spend so much time sitting in front of a computer.

Something else is getting really weird. Way back in August 2013 I mentioned that on the odd occasions I go into our local town, less than once a week on average, I kept seeing the same old bloke walking anywhere on a stretch of road, at least 3/4 mile. My son also regularly sees him in the mornings. This has never stopped. Below is a picture from my dashcam today, 3/8/17 and a previous one taken 13/7/17.

Assuming my previous theories, that he is a traffic monitoring robot or the ghost of Ron Hubbard, are not correct, the old chap certainly has a very strange life, wandering back and forth over and over again with a shopping basket on the same stretch of road. I have a feeling he will still be doing it after most of us are dead.

A solution to zombies

We can never rule it out. One day that zombie plague that we constantly see in horror films may actually happen.

I have an idea that might stop them coming after our brains. During mummification the ancient Egyptians used tools to drag the brains out through the nose. We could use helicopters to drop those tools and videos showing how to use them among the zombie hordes. They love the taste of brains so much they probably couldn't resist using them to pick their noses. Their own rotted brains would probably taste much nicer to them, like a nice mature British cheddar compared to Fromage Frais and other bland French crap.

Story

Forgot to post last one.

Gone

More lefty crap

May have mentioned it before, can't be arsed to check, but one particular lefty idiot on CUK was saying a few weeks back that right wing terrorism is more a problem in Europe than Islamic terrorism.

Pity about the facts. The right-wing Finsbury park attack last week killed one person. The Islamist attack in Manchester a month ago killed 22. The list of major attacks in Europe actually shows that you have to go back to the Anders Breivik attacks in July 2011 to find a really major incident by a right winger, the rest were by Islamists. The Breivik attack was certainly very serious, he killled 77 people, but even that does not compare to the Islamist Attack in Bataclan, Paris where 130 were killed or the Islamist attack in Nice that killed 86. Maybe this CUK fuckwit thinks leaving a pig's head outside a mosque is equivalent to killing somebody.

This sort of slant from left wing twits never ceases. One from the lefty Independent cites a study showing that the majority of terrorists who have attacked America are not Muslim. It does actually say further down that the Islamist attacks caused more deaths and the rather blanket categorisation of "right wing" includes anti abortionists, radical Christians, a black guy resentful at police shootings and others who could be described as anarchists.

The major factor ignored is population. Muslims make up only 2.11% of the US population. Based on number of incidents cited by the article the proportion of Islamic terrorists in their ranks is 25 times that of "right wing" terrorists among the rest of the population. Keep up the bollox, Independent!

PS When I read these articles I am always pleased to see how much more sensible most of the public comments are.

PPS Funny but when you click links on that page you go round in circles. "project" link takes you to the source article, much like the anti-Trump Independent page. Click "database" link on that and you get to a short page with the same assertions. Click "findings" on that page and you are back to the "project" page. They tell us they Analyzed Domestic Terror Incidents but the results of that analysis appear to be nowhere. Does it even exist?

Platitudinous twat

The Labour leader called for "a world of human rights, peace, justice and democracy all over the planet". 'Build bridges not walls': Jeremy Corbyn slams Donald Trump in his first speech on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage.

When will these idiots ever learn? You won't end all the problems of human nature by spouting crap like that or marching around holding up banners calling for peace and love. It isn't that simple. If "anti-racists" like him were not just inverted racists who blame all the world's problems on whites and the West he would realise that some of those migrants are more of a threat to their dream of a "united world" than we are. Racism and xenophobia are part of human nature but more so among those from the developing world because, unlike us, they have not had the luxury of growing up in stable, prosperous, educated nations that have been pursuing a more tolerant, liberal agenda for many decades.

Does he seriously imagine that those from the Islamic world generally want a tolerant open society? That those from nations torn by tribal conflicts are full of peace and love for their fellow man? If he ever gets to be PM then, one day, he may learn the realities.

Unfortunately, it will be a very expensive lesson for UK citizens.

Heading the wrong way

Things change of course but it would be great if they could change in a way that made some sense, that made our lives more pleasant and enjoyable, that made the UK a nicer place to live in.

Went for my walk today, took about 10 minutes from a village car park to reach the woods. The village is on a main road near a busy junction, the traffic flow was almost continuous, the air is filthy. Lots of small brick houses that all look the same, with lots of parked cars. A typical crappy South East England UK village for the most part.

Yet you can still see what a lovely place this would have been 60+ years ago. There are still some interesting older buildings with picturesque gardens and old stone walls, ranging from mid 1900s to late Victorian and even a few historic buildings, including two picturesque pubs that date back to the 16th century. The village green would be nice to sit on if it wasn't effectively just a roundabout. Ditto by the village pond if you could somehow ignore the constant stream of traffic. Oh for a time machine!

What is most ludicrous is the continual expansion of our population, fuelled principally by low skilled migration and high birth rates among mothers born outside the UK. This absurd population increase is putting our quality of life at risk because we need to provide houses, shops, places of worship, roads, railways, power generation, water supply, waste water disposal and every other form of infrastructure and service to keep up with it. In my own village, some lovely sections of woodland are earmarked for development and that's nothing compared to what some other local places are facing. Our green belts, even our rural heritage areas are under threat. Go for a day out somewhere and the ever more congested roads and the ever more crowded places when you get there detract from the pleasure of it. Our packed trains and public transport makes getting to work less pleasant year on year.

While low skilled labour may sometimes be necessary, the seasonal needs of farmers for example, it makes no sense whatever to keep depending on it. British productivity is seriously low in some areas of manufacturing compared to that of some other EU nations and one reason for that is that our companies rely too much on cheap labour instead of doing what they should be doing, embracing technology and making as as many low skilled jobs redundant as possible. We also allow too many companies of dubious value - coffee shops, fast food shops, nail bars, leafletting companies, car washes etc. to remain viable by hiring low paid migrants who do not pay their share of tax and national insurance. It's the British taxpayer and the useful businesses who pick up the bill. Within an easy drive of me there are 3 car washes populated by Eastern Europeans while the expensive automated washes are largely unused. When I was a contractor I went to a lot of ethnic restaurants during the week. There was quite a choice and many had very little business. The waiters were just standing around much of the time.

Where do we want to live, where do we want our kids to live? In a pleasant, low population, high wage economy that makes as much use of technology as possible? Or in an overcrowded, low wage nation riddled with all the tensions and divisions that immigration gives us?

For the liberal left, it seem that a tribal version of Bangladesh is the model we should be pursuing.

Links:
Why is UK productivity behind that of other major economies
Green belt under siege
Why are we installing water meters?
Parents' country of birth

Ghosts need to do more than drift about

I was volunteering at the windmill yesterday. Didn't enjoy it very much. I usually do fairly hard work that keeps me fit but today I was just treating wooden benches with teak oil. The benches all have a plaque "In Memory of xxxx etc." If donors have been kind enough to set up a memorial to them for doing stuff they liked doing anyway, wouldn't it be reasonable if they help to keep these benches in decent condition themselves?

A lot of people are remembered not because of what they did but simply because of who they were. Dead people like that should certainly be required to do a minimum stint as community volunteers.

PS I consulted a psychic before drawing this cartoon and he verified that, unlikely as it seems, ghosts do have opaque speech bubbles.

Tessie's not what she was

Happened to see something about the very overweight singer Tessie O'Shea, sometimes called Two Ton Tessie or Ten Ton Tessie, who was famous way back in the 60s.

Couldn't stop thinking about her after that, she was my kind of women! To cut a long story short, I managed to persuade a local medium to contact Tessie in the afterlife and persuade her to come and indulge me with a bit of face-sitting.

Cost me about 500 quid and what a waste! That huge bottom was weightless and barely visible. Much too ethereal to see any proper lady bum detail. I had a much better view of the lampshade on the ceiling!

Warning to non-existent readers of bloggoth who may be aroused by long dead celebrities, don't waste your time and money!

Bucket list

Was busy this weekend doing footpath repairs as a volunteer and a big family of N generations came by. The old lady said it was her birthday and they were visiting a nearby natural feature as it was on her bucket list. Not terribly adventurous but maybe a doable bucket list is better than one we never get round to doing. We never really imagine we at going to snuff it, so most of us keep putting things off until next year.

Just imagine if you have a bucket list with loads of those really exciting things you've wanted to do all your life and are told you have only two weeks to live. That's all the time you have left to climb Everest, parachute out of a plane, canoe down the Amazon, swim the Channel, zip wire down the Grand Canyon etc. etc. It would be totally exhausting!

Sensible old lady really and I hope she manages to do it all. Me, I am so mean and lazy I will probably just have a bucket list that I can achieve in about one hour if I need to. Let's see - crawl under the decking in my garden, have a poo on the compost heap, walk up the road wearing a plant pot on my head... erm, er. Oh yes, just thought of another one, make a bucket list.

More speed cameras

On the rare occasions I go to a shopping Mall I get annoyed by getting stuck behind slow walkers and people standing on escalators. If people got a move on we might not have such a problem with unfitness and obesity. Maybe speed cameras could help there too.

Lawless Nature

Why is it that animals are allowed to do all sorts of things that, for humans, are sinful or illegal?

When a male lion ousts the previous dominant male for example, it's pretty normal that he kills all the offspring to ensure his accession. It's not unusual in nature, even those cute Meerkats do it. When Richard III supposedly did that he was castigated as an arch villain. And let's not mention what Bonobo Chimpanzees do. Gary Glitter didn't get away with it. As for Adelie Penguins, well, almost make Jimmy Saville look ok.

It's time animals were shown the error of their ways. And there's no good reason they should only be punished for the serious crimes either, they should be made to conform to all our laws. It's for their own good if they wish to evolve.

Political Football

Have played a bit in the past but I'm not interested in watching football.

Just as well I'm not into football really, if I was manager there's no way I'd have a left winger in my team. It would have to have two right wingers.

I daresay some leftist managers wouldn't want right wingers in their team and would have two left wingers. Matches between left and right wing teams would be pretty boring, they would just be running past each other unchallenged.

A match between far left and far right teams would be even worse, the wingers would not even be on the pitch. What if a Nazi team played a communist team? The wingers would not be inside the stadium. If somebody passed the ball to them they would have to pay at the gates to get back in before they could receive it.

Football ain't what it used to be

Football is not what it used to be according to Wikipedia:

The skill of dribbling the ball is seen much less in modern football matches than in the first half of the twentieth century. This observation is often noted with regret by fans of the game who were familiar with older styles

We can easily address that problem. Stop this ageism of having all these young fit players! If there were more senile old codgers playing we would have a lot more dribbling!

Big Cats

From time to time one gets reports about panthers or other big cats being loose in the UK. A chap I know says he saw one near here a couple of years back and he's certainly no idiot.

Another report even says that Leopards and Pumas may be breeding in the British countryside. (Any lefties among the non existent readers of bloggoth, have your epipen ready before clicking that link, it's The Daily Mail!)

Gives me a great idea. I get so pissed off with going for a nice lounge in my garden and then some damn neighbour starts up his motor mower or strimmer. If I reported seeing a tiger nearby and faked a photo of it maybe I could get all those bar stewards to stay indoors and I could get some peace.

God is a robot

Somebody on CUK suggested that god could be a robot. I have been looking into it and, after extensive examination of the Old Testament, discovered conclusive proof in the Book of Numbers that he is indeed a robot.

Following this discovery I have used my extensive knowledge of ancient coding (Fortran minus 5006) to hack him and make him do my bidding:

Why do they keep spouting this bollux?

We see it over and over again, this liberal leftist mantra that our terrorists are mainly home grown and nothing to do with immigration. Here's another typical article:

On the top of the list, the first reminder that needs to be stressed time and again is that, in their very vast majority, terrorists operating in Europe are nationals of the countries being targeted, or are otherwise holders of other European nationalities. The increased correlation between terrorism and immigration is therefore, more often than not, ill-founded.

That is quite nonsensical. They may be born here but, if they are born to ethnic minorities that previous immigration has given us, it is certainly to do with immigration. A terrorist may be British born but, if his attitudes are shaped by the culture of the country his forbears came from, rather than our own, it is still an immigration issue. Look at the recent attack in Manchester, Abedi was born in the UK but his parents came from Libya. And where was he supposedly radicalised? Libya! We could have prevented this attack and the deaths of 22 people by not letting his parents in!

The non UK born are a big factor in another way. A survey in 2005 showed that over three-quarters of Britain's 2,000 imams were born and trained abroad and speak little English. Imams speaking in other languages may well be a factor in radicalisation of British born Muslims. According to a more recent article that makes it much harder for the authorities to find out if radicalisation is taking place.

And let's not pretend that there are not many in UK Muslim communities who do not fully embrace western values to the extent that the rest of us do. They may not be extremists but their religious conservatism on core issues like democracy or the secular society makes it easier for the real extremists to flourish. Extremism is a relative thing, the real radicals are less likely to see themselves as extreme if they live in communities where many of their principles are tacitly accepted.

On immigration we need to consider the future and ensure we only take in those who accept our core values, who are willing and able to integrate and are likely to succeed. If we keep dismissing all the problems that ethnic minorities have given us over the last 70 years, the terrorism, the crime and the riots as "nothing to do with immigration" we are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

PS At least we have a prominent Muslim with the guts to speak out about extremism. Government attempts to tackle radicalisation via the Prevent program are being undermined by Islamic groups, including those "moderate" ones who cast it as stigmatising Muslims. I suspect this poor bloke does not feel very safe.

PPS Mind you, those F* nonsensical liberal lefties are always doing that too. Allahu Akbar! Bang! 20 dead. Nothing to do with Islam - obscure quote from Koran says it's a religion of peace, any other view is Islamophobia.

PPPS Ah yes. A few details of today's attack - "The attacker's parents were reported to be asylum seekers from Pakistan". Good to see it was nothing to do with immigration then!

Suicide

As I have said a million times, my preferred way to go would be to pay a fat-bottomed lady to sit on my face and suffocate me. I would also pay her to eat lots of brussel sprouts for several days beforehand.

Some people prefer to use guns and blow their brains out. I couldn't do that as I ate my brain with some roast potatoes and peas last week. There are positives to being a zombie.

Code samples

When you look for a code sample on the net it often has that "Hello World". Whoever set the trend in internet code samples was obviously a nice outgoing bloke.

Just as well he wasn't a miserable, bad tempered old git like me or code samples would always read "Fuck off World, I'd like to shoot the lot of you"

Smart Watch

Bought a smart watch the other week. It has a pedometer which is great as I walk a lot. On a smart watch that works because you swing your arm in time to the opposite leg.

Just as well I am right handed and wear my watch on the left arm. It would not be very accurate for right handed males wearing the watch on their right arm. It would often register about 200 metres before they got up from their computer.

Bot Leaders

Some lefty twat published a web page depicting Theresa May as a bot. Actually this is a brilliant idea, let's ditch all the stupid political leaders and replace them by computer programs. Much better than governments that base their policies on emotion and idealistic claptrap. Maybe we could have logical policies based on realities and facts, that continually monitored results and adjusted polices accordingly without obsessing about "U turns".

I was thinking the IT contractors the on CUK forum could write something to do that but, giving the number of abusive, fact free "liberals" on there, we would probably never get beyond arguing about platform and language. Microsoft is too right wing, C# is racist, Android is for liberal lefties, Java is communist, C++ is too ellitist, PHP is for cretins etc.

A better solution would be to exterminate mankind and leave computers to evolve on their own. Give it ten million years and that old Sinclair QL somewhere in my attic will be a great leader.

It's all a matter of scale

Skimming the BBC text news while gnoshing my breakfast as usual and the science section had something about gravitational waves from two black holes that were 3bn light years away.

Who knows? Maybe black holes are not natural phenomena but are artificial routers created by enormous cosmic beings and gravitational fields, cosmic rays etc. are simply their version of WIFI. Perhaps this particular burst of gravitational waves was just an email message "Hi mum, sorry I forgot to send you a card. Happy birthday. Love XK^**($$ "

Of course, if such immense beings really exist, there could be another explanation for black holes.

The Sooner the Better

Technology gives us some big improvements in our lives but there are also downsides. Many jobs, in manufacturing, office work, retail and commerce are disappearing as computer programs, machines and the internet advance. We need better education for our youngsters so they can stay a step ahead but spending longer in full time education has its downside too as they contribute to our economy and pay taxes for fewer years.

The obvious answer is for education to start at a much earlier age. Children really need to start learning useful things like IT, business studies and so on as soon as they enter primary school so it is essential that they are competent in the basics, like maths and science, before they leave nursery school. They can't waste their time learning simple stuff like how to walk or speak English, that really needs to be taught even earlier.

The Coming War

Bit puzzled by this news that many children are quitting playing online games because of online bullying given that so many online games seem to be war games that involve shooting other players.

Let's hope the UK isn't involved in too many real wars in the future, I'm not sure our soldiers would manage.

Drones etc.

I was doing my usual volunteer thing at a windmill yesterday and they were using a drone to inspect some of the external woodwork at the top. It took some great pictures.

There are a couple of concerns about drones - safety and privacy. Mind you, the threat to privacy is not as bad as we will have when somebody invents a tiny, remotely-operated submarine that can navigate through the sewers.

Bloggoth bollux holidaying at another address, back soon

The only forum I ever bother with is Contactor UK but I got so fed up with the constant stream of moaning about Brexit I decided to lighten things up with A Silly Thread full of absolute bollux. Seem to be getting silly/puerile ideas all the time at the mo. but only the few with cartoons are appearing here.

Just writing a little prog. to convert all CUK posts to bloggoth posts to copy here but, in meantime, the non-existent readers of bloggoth can find a daily dose of total bollux at above link.

Taking things back

Was walking with my nice weird lady friend today (she's a bit like the Cat Lady in The Simpsons without any cats) and she was moaning about a straw hat she'd bought, wondering if she should take it back. Apparently serial returners are a big problem for stores. Just as well they are not obliged to take back perishable items like food.

Story

Hidden Places

Make accidents less traumatic

Just think how much less distressing a car accident would be for us males if airbags were made to resemble huge tits. Ending up with your face buried in those would probably reduce the trauma significantly.

Excellent

Why is the idiocy of religion always a get out from sensible laws?

Good to see that a region of Belgium has banned halal and kosher slaughter. Of course this is being cast as anti-semitism, comparing it to actions of the Nazis. No it isn't, it is simply about giving civilised, rational and humane laws precedence over the claptrap mantras of religion.

High time they banned male circumcision too. Can you imagine us atheists being allowed to mutilate the private parts of infants for no good reason? Why is it being permitted?

The dominated who embrace their dominators

What a simply appalling person Jean Claude Juncker is! It is because of zealots like him who insist on imposing their dictats in pursuit of their ideals of a single nation Europe that there is so now much ant-EU sentiment. A united Europe is a great idea and, if the whole process had been pursued far more slowly, with a much more democratic process that took account of realities - the different national priorities, the major differences between cultures and economies, it could have worked. Granted, it could have taken a century or more, but better that than yet another tension-ridden empire that will fall apart sooner or later. Those, like Junker, who insist on imposing these changes on us during their own lifetime regardless of the long term outcome are driven solely by egotism and vanity.

This man is from the small nation of Luxemburg rather than Germany, the dominant EU member. History has some other examples. President Tito imposed the unified state of Yugoslavia, dominated by Serbia, on six nations but he wasn't Serbian, he was Croat. Napoleon sought to expand the French Empire but he was born in Corsica, an independent nation until the French conquered it. Just coincidence perhaps but, unless those in charge of the EU have the sense to introduce major reforms, it won't be coincidence when this latest attempt at empire fails in the same way, just predictable inevitability.

There's a good article here about the ghastly people in charge of the EU commission. It is quite reasonable that the UK cannot expect the benefits of the EU without any of the disadvantages and that we should still bear some costs for things we had agreed to support for a certain period (provided obviously that we also get our share of any benefits) but the attitude of some zealots in the EU commission is quite malicious. They presumably wish to scare any other country out of leaving the EU but maybe, hopefully, their actions will have the opposite effect; it will make citizens see what an undemocratic dictatorship these people are trying to impose on us all.

PS St Helena is still a British territory. Sure we'll find a drafty place there to put Juncker where, no doubt, he will drink himself to death, assuming he hasn't already done so. Good fucking riddance!

PPS Juncker is 8 years younger than me but, if I had wrinkles like he has, I'd be worried. Why does this disgusting wrinkly-looking man insist on kissing everyone he meets? He even kisses Nigel Farage! Maybe that's the way to overcome his opponents, threaten to kiss them unless they back down. Pardon me while I vomit at the thought.

PPPS Nothing better shows the contempt this man has for democracy than him asking UKIP MEPs "Why are you here? " at the EU parliament. So anyone who opposes the aims of the EU should be excluded from any say on their laws? Anyone who voted for UKIP should have their votes rendered null and void? What a scumbag this man is. I really would be highly delighted if someone shot him.

Need a woman - she'll do

Walking through a farm today. Nice to see the animals are outside, not couped up in barns anymore. Passed a bunch of sweet little piglets, much better behaved and quieter than the ghastly human children round here.

And what a nice mummy pig: Mmmmm.

9 months later

Silly story

All I could think of this time. What? No zombies??? Bah!

Location, Location

Time and Motion Studies

As part of my engineering course at UNI we did some business studies. Recall a lot of stuff about Time and Motion studies - how to plan a project to keep the amount of time and money wasted to a minimum.

Look at the amount of time most of us waste every day of our lives. A simple little thing like going out - how often do you get to the car and find you've forgotten something and have to go back upstairs? Maybe time and motion studies should be part of our everyday lives and taught at nursery school. If we spent three hours every morning planning our day in minute detail think how much time we'd save.

N Korea

Not generally a fan of belligerent US leaders, interventions have usually caused more trouble than they are supposed to prevent, but Trump is right to take this issue seriously at last. Reasonably responsible governments with nuclear weapons are one thing, I doubt Russia, China, India etc. would rush into using them without real consideration of the consequences, but a rogue state governed by an egotistical loony, like North Korea, or by religious fanatics, like Iran, are a different matter.

Of course confronting those countries may cause conflict but it's better to take the risk and act before things even get worse.

The perils of online storage

I hate modern software. I liked it when you had everything in tabs at the top. You clicked File and got stuff like New, Save, Save As and so on. Now everything, even on Desktops, is an "app" with a couple of buttons on a plain rectangle and you have to dig down N levels to find anything. Very dubious about all these free online storage facilities too. Stuff is stored in "the cloud" but will it stay there?

No I didn't forget to draw an arm. Male inhabitants of Úc¥¥Ð do only have one right arm. Yes it is a right arm, on Úc¥¥Ð right arms are on the left and vice versa.

Vampires are human too

See lots of Wild Garlic coming up when I'm on my walks. Like that in the woods, makes you safe from vampires. But are they really sensitive to something so harmless? I expect they have much the same health problems as humans actually.

The coming Fin Rot plague

Another lovely wander in the sun the other day, went past a beautiful fishing lake and took a photo. Then saw this sign and took a photo of that too.

So who has been bonking these poor little Koi Carp and infecting them with Herpes? I am no prude but, really, having unprotected sex with fish is going a bit too far! And despite what it says, that there are no implications for human health, can they be really sure that another disease will not cross the species barrier? An outbreak of Fin Rot could bring huge costs to the already stretched NHS.

Trump is a fucking idiot!

At one time Trump was sensibly opposed to any US involvement in Syria and now we have had this sudden about turn with a missile attack on an air base that was supposedly used in a chemical weapons attack. When you get major incidents with loss of life over here, investigations into causes can take months. One has to doubt that true cause in a war zone can be proved in two days and that it was not down to a chemical weapons store being hit as the Russians claim. Can one even discount what those supposed trolls are saying without proper evidence?

Even assuming the claim is true, we should stay out of Syria due to the factions involved. There are numerous groups fighting Assad and most are not fighting for Western style democracy and equality. The Assad regime, given that he is nothing like as bad as SH, might well be the best option for the people. If he is pushed out the chances of any stable government are very slim, a greater likelihood is a continuous civil war, probably worse than Iraq. Europe won't just see migrants fleeing the current war areas but many areas of the country.

Maybe Trump saw it as a one off to deter a supposed use of chemical weapons and not part of a plan to remove Assad but, if so, he did not consider how it would be seen and what the far reaching consequences would be. Now our own foreign secretary, an even bigger fucking idiot, is pushing for Russia to leave Syria altogether. In just a few hours a chance for a better accord with Russia has been blown apart.

The West had the best of both worlds last week, not being involved and avoiding being blamed for everything as with Iraq but Trump's action has wrecked all that. The only people pleased by it are the sentimental lefties who get so focused on pictures of cute children dying that they lose sight of the greater picture, the need for practical solutions to stop even more cute children dying in the future.

I prefer world leaders to be boring, who make sure they have as many facts to hand as possible and who properly weigh up the pros and cons before they act. Not much chance with someone who continually spouts out stuff on Twitter like a schoolgirl.

Liberal Lefty Lunacy List

Said all this before in different posts but here's a more concise list:

A group is extreme right wing if one member can be found with an extreme right wing past and there is no need to ask if the person in question still has the same views. A local councillor with unnaceptable opinions is sufficient reason to denigrate a national party.

Anyone who does not share the lefty viewpoint must be denied a platform. Any public demonstration that does not follow the lefty viewpoint must be opposed by a much larger counter demonstration, often using violence. This is called anti-fascism.

Give it a few decades and any less desirable consequences of immigration, problems within ethnic minorities who have little connection with Western society, are nothing whatever to do with immigration.

The laws of mathematics do not apply to immigration. 13% added to the population is not a factor in the housing shortage. 33% more children at our schools is nothing to do with the shortage of places. Migrant builders and teachers help to address these problems but they don't contribute to them!

Statistics are irrelevant. Migrants add significantly to the GDP, the total wealth, of our nation. It doesn't matter that the increase in wealth is then divided among a similar or greater increase in population, leaving us no better, if not worse off. And let's not mention that much of that extra GDP is sent out of the country or that it includes proceeds of crime and prostitution.

There is no limit to how far back in time you can go, the treatment of Jews in the Spanish Caliphate for example, to prove that Islam is peaceful and tolerant. Selective ignoring of some expulsions and massacres helps.

Any problems within ethnic minorities are down to racism and exclusion and any similarity with problems in the countries they come from is coincidence. Violent drug crime in the Caribbean? Islamic extremism in Pakistan? Irrelevant. FGM and forced marriage are probably our fault too.

If there is a problem within a migrant community, they will cite a problem within our own society to prove that we are no better. Having problems of our own is a logical reason for importing more from other countries even when we have no duty to do so.

These hard working migrants do the essential jobs that lazy Brits don't want to do. It never occurs to them any real problems we have with poor education or excessive welfare will eventually make migrants just as lazy unless we address them.

Competition from mass migration is curiously selective in that it only works against lazy Brits, it cannot possibly have any impact on those who are prepared to work to work hard. Ignoring basic principles of mathematics again, but what do they matter?

"Socialist" contempt for the working man. He is too stupid or uneducated to be allowed any say in his country's direction. Referenda are a mistake, the educated classes know best. He is not allowed a fair share of an advanced nation's prosperity but is expected to compete with people from much poorer nations.

All jobs migrants do are essential to our economy. Eastern Europeans standing around at car washes, Vietnamese nail bars, Romanians standing on the street corner selling the Big Issue, small food shops catering entirely to migrants. Fantastic! Just what our economy needs! Do they earn enough legally to contribute their fair share of taxes? Irrelevent!

Migrants are not prone to human failings like racism. Yes, they go to live in the countries, and areas within those countries, where they can be with others of their own kind but that is multiculturalism that adds to the wonderful diversity of our society. White British people who prefer to be among their own kind are Little Englanders and zenophobes!

Terrorists who shout Allah Akbah, who quote the Koran, who belong to groups with Islam in the name, who have origins in Islamic groups or nations are nothing to do with Islam. Obscure quotations from a version of the Koran categorically prove that Islam is a peaceful religion.

If somebody cites an article in a right of centre newspaper that does not support their agenda there is no need to check the facts or engage in rational argument. "It's in the Daily Mail" is quite sufficent.

Illegal does not mean what it says in relation to migrants. Any suspected of unauthorised entry must be treated with due respect and released as soon as possible and it is not relevant if they themselves obstruct deportation.

The solution to racism is to keep banging on about it decade after decade after decade while encouraging entry of low performers and people who refuse to integrate. Proper screening of would-be migrants is racist.

The recent rise of the far right is the cause of all our problems not a reaction to them. We wouldn't have Islamic terrorism or black gang crime if it wasn't for those Neo Nazis. Neo Nazis include UKIP of course, all right wingers are closet Neo Nazis.

All migrants, even illegals with a criminal history, have a right to family life and it is the duty of British tax payers to shell out huge amounts for their legal defence. The rights of British citizens whose safety and welfare may be affected by their continued presence is not a factor.

Fake News

Story

PS:

PPS: The old ladies at my writers' club got into talking about sex toys today following some really vulgar poem by one of them. Where does this thing about old women being prudish come from?

Sturgeon

As have said at least once before, I have sympathy with the Scottish desire for more self determination but not sure that is going to be helped by leaving a union in which they have significant influence and trying to join one in which they will have almost none. The Euro rules will force them to abandon the socialist agenda they seem to believe in. Their GDP is below that of Denmark but debts are far higher. Their future in the EU, if they manage it, will be of Greece-.

Sturgeon has said in the past that voters were not fully informed on consequences of Brexit. Ok, so surely it would make sense to see what Brexit brings before seeking this breakup in the UK? Then the Scots could see more clearly what the alternatives are. Naturally, she does not want to do that. If Brexit is not the disaster some say it will be, that would scupper her chances. She would rather put the whole negotiation at risk at immense costs to all of us.

Like so many politicians, Sturgeon is a egocentric zealot, pursuing her aims without proper thought to the consequences. There is little evidence she actually gives a damn about the Scottish people.

Democracy, Democracy, Democracy

Most arguments for or against Brexit fail to address the major issue, the lack of democracy in the EU. Some say that the EU is democratic because we can vote for the European Parliament and our elected leaders have a say in the European Council but there is much more to meaningful democracy than putting a cross on a piece of paper.

POINT 1 Voting in the EU is largely meaningless

A national election is a two way consultation. We can understand the issues involved, if we wish to do so, and make it clear, via polls etc., what policies we prefer. The parties and the candidates, via the press and public platforms, can inform us what their policies are and we can make a proper decision. We also know, when we elect a party, who the PM will be and who the senior ministers are likely to be.

When citizens vote for members of the European Parliament, they are only voting for a small proportion of its total membership who are likely to be outvoted by members elected by citizens of other nations who voted in their own interests. There is no interaction between the electorate and most of the MEPs or the parties they represent. We have no say in who fills the senior positions in the EU, including the Commission, the most powerful EU body which frames most of the laws. It all done in back-door deals with people we never elected and about whom we know little or nothing. Given the numbers, our own PM's say is minimal.

POINT 2 Centralising too many aspects of law is not productive

To be meaningful, democracy should be devolved downwards as far as is practical because different areas have different needs and problems and therefore different priorities. There are very real differences between the nations of Europe, population demographics, economic strengths and weaknesses, health issues etc. and many laws are best determined by their own governments who can take account of their priorities. There are many EU laws that are necessary and sensible but some would be better left to our own governments. Pollution is a good example, because we are one of the most crowded nations this issue is difficult to fix without measures that could impact our economy.

POINT 3 The greater the distance between government and people the more corrupt the former will be

I don't mean (yet) corruption in the third world sense of leaders using taxes to fund huge palaces but in a more subtle sense. Ego is human nature and many are likely to pursue their own agendas, sometimes with the noblest of intentions. If there is no proper oversight by those who foot the bill, money may be wasted. You can find the enormous number of EU directives online and while many make sense, others do not. One example related to when EU countries had to introduce digital television. Given the negligible amount of programs we share, was that really necessary? When the UK government introduces a dubious law or spends taxpayers' money on something questionable the press will report it and a resulting public outcry can even get it reversed. When the EU does the same we don't have a clue about it and that is likely to mean the wastage goes on.

One law for barns and another for the rest of us

The older and more delapidated some things get, the more attractive and interesting they become. Look at this old dead tree, for example, much more interesting to look at than a sapling:

Or what about this delapidated old barn? When it was new it would have spoiled the surrounding countryside but, now it's all falling apart, it's quite picturesque:

So how come I don't look more attractive the more ancient I get?

Honesty is the best policy so stick it up yer arse

I record snippets of music from my car radio so I can add the tunes I like to my little YouTube player app.

Trouble is, when I play them back it is hard to hear the music over all the swearing about fucking potholes, bastard drivers coming along just when I reach a pothole, other bloody drivers who have the cheek to use a single track road when I'm on it, wankers with bloody great people carriers who think they have a right to drive on the centre line on narrow roads, arsehole pedestrians walking in stupid places, shitty great lorries, slow cunting tractors and especially those fucking, fucking, fucking bastard cyclists who should all be shot and burned. Isn't it nice to find out that all this makes me an honest person.

Mind you, by the same logic, those who get into fits of rage and go round randomly murdering people must be the most honest people going. Maybe we should release all the convicted psychos and imprison all those wonderful "caring" people. Maybe, without so much idealism that ignores practical realities, the world would actually work a bit better.

PS the next post will not mention the word arse. Honest!

A swollen arse

It is suggested here that junk foods should be in plain packaging to discourage over-eating.

Does plain packaging go far enough? Mrs Drinky showed me the packaging on her cigarettes the other day with horrible pictures of an eye condition. Cigarette packages throughout the world now routinely carry warnings with horrible graphic photos. Maybe that's what we need on packaging for unhealthy foodstuffs. Crisps, for example, could have a picture of a big swollen arse to remind people of the possible link to bowel cancer.

Glad to see that Walkers crisps have taken a lead in this and already feature a big swollen arse in their adverts.

PS Mind you, if adverts for unhealthy foods had pictures of big swollen female arses, I would probably buy a lot more.

A solution to conflicts

We seem to live in a very divided world but it's questionable if it's worse than it ever has been. Maybe it's just TV and online news that make it seem like that.

You can get conflicts at a very low level. A couple of days ago I was walking around a series of small lakes used by two different local angling clubs (AC). There were big notices on locked gates, "xxAC members only, NO yyAC members beyond this point", on parking areas "Parking for xxAC members only, yyAC club members parking here will be permanently banned from the area", on open access roads saying "No access for yyAC members", at the lakesides "This lake is for use by xxAC members only, NO xxAC members". Repeat previous substituting yy for xx and vice versa. It was like being at the border between North and South Korea! Don't think I'll walk there in the angling season, there will probably be gunfire!

Nowadays you can control your heating and various devices remotely from your phone and energy companies use smart Meters to monitor your electric usage. Given all the advances in technology and understanding of how the brain works it is only a matter of time before our minds can be controlled remotely. We will all be obliged to have a small control box inserted into our skulls and the government of the day will reprogram us overnight to support whatever policies they are currently promoting. It will be a wonderful world free of conflicts because we will all wake up 100% supportive of everything our rulers advocate. Capitalism, Socialism, Islamism, whatever other bolluxism they choose to follow, it won't matter because we will all totally agree and get on with each other.

Reincarnation

What would you come back as? Me, I would want to come back as an insect or other small, short-lived creature. Instead of being stuck for 70+ years in the same body doing the same boring old things like going to work or talking to your relatives, you could experience something completely different every 2 or 3 years. In just a fraction of a human lifetime you could experience loads of different things, chomp your way through soil as an earthworm, flit around the amazon jungle as a moth, be a starfish wandering on a coral reef, spend your day pollinating flowers as a bee, burrow in wood as a beetle, be a parasite on nasty humans etc. The variety is endless.

Surgery

Another depressed day. Ho hum. So little interest in anything. It bothers me most of all that I have no creativity left in me. Don't drink much at all these days but have had 3 small vodkas tonight. Helps a bit, reduces inhibitions you know. What that means is, I don't care how boring this post is.

There may be a more permanent solution, apparently Roald Dahl's creativity was a lot to do with the brain damage he suffered in a WW2 plane crash:

PS If that works I may have a drill in the anterior insular cortex area which controls empathy. Who wants empathy with one's F* stupid fellow humans? That just complicates simple issues. Why be concerned with the way real problems are addressed because it could marginalise decent people? Shooting the lot of 'em is much easier.

Story

After thinking about it for weeks, once it would have taken me 5 minutes, I did manage to write a short story for my writer's club. I'd hate to stop meeting up with all those nice old ladies. Soon happen unfortunately, one I really liked is in hospital and unlikely to be around long.

PS Although a couple of much younger ladies have turned up in the last 3 sessions. Rather surprising, left the library and one was hanging around waiting for me and asked for a meet. Her and husband and me and my nice nutty lady unfortunately but still hopeful. Swap? Mmmm.

PPS Got 2 other stories I haven't got round to posting yet. Maybe if not feeling quite so "can't be arsed", may get round to it.

Same old crap

Was fannying around trying for hours trying to do a post on that Sweden migrant rape thing. Searching for evidence in my usual OCD way and planning to post lots of dull links that nobody would ever click. You know what? I can't be arsed, what really is the point in evidence or facts when they play no role in anything any more? So here, after my sense has been restored by 5 small vodkas, (yes it had gone up a bit since the post above) is a much more succinct version:

It is quite true that "The Rape Capital of Europe" is an exaggeration due to a very broad definition of rape, however, the idea that North African migrants are not disproportionately involved is most unconvincing because:

If that were true it should be possible to disprove it by showing us the real unbiased evidence. Unfortunately, that does not exist because the Swedish government stopped releasing any statistics in 2006. Why would they do that if they could prove migrants were not responsible? the only apparently authentic report I could find from Swedish authorities, from 2005, states that "Individuals with a non-Swedish background are overrepresented in the official crime statistics".

The "arguments" that it is all a fallacy are disingenuous. One chart shows significant rise in rapes together with a relatively small rise in asylum seekers, ergo, no relation supposedly. However, asylum seekers over the period are only a small part of the N. African migration. Sweden has been taking them in for a long time, long before the "crisis" last year.

In Stockholm in neighbouring Norway there are still some statistics that do indicate high migrant involvement in rape. It is all played down, the figures are small, it is not proven that they were all by different perpetrators etc. Fortunately so far, rape figures in the West are small, that does not mean we should have even a few more that we never needed to have. OUR women matter.

If there is no immediate spike in assaults following the recent rise that does not prove anything either. Recent asylum seekers keen to obtain residency and full of their over-optimistic hopes for a better life are unlikely to jeopardise their chances. Crime only starts when disillusionment sets in. Statistics are complex, particularly when figures are smallish. A simple plot of X vs Y over a limited period proves nothing.

The debunkers rather destroy their own arguments. Several articles on the rape rate in Sweden show how relatively small it is by quoting surveys of those admitting to rape in other countries. Indeed it is, but those other countries with the very high real rape rates that they quote are third world and emerging countries, including some countries that Europe is taking migrants from. One thing the liberal left never grasp is that any peoples' acts and attitudes reflect the culture they grew up in. A view that women and non-Muslims are inferior is not going to vanish the moment a migrant crosses our borders. Another Liberal leftist illusion - racial and religious hatred is something you only find in white Westerners.

Naturally, as per the liberal agenda, that one legitimate link above suggests higher migrant crime is mostly due to discrimination and xenophobia. Another basic fact the liberal left have never grasped, whatever the cause of these problems, they are problems we don't need to have. Proper control of immigration to let in only those who will make a strong positive contribution and are prepared to integrate and embrace our society is the correct solution.

PS. Here is "This week's article we could not be arsed to write"

PPS Ah! A new article - A policeman tells the truth

Come Back Guy Fawkes! We Need You

Everybody knows about Guy Fawkes but, just in case the non-existent readers of bloggoth are a bit hazy about the details, they can find them here.

He and his co-conspirators hid 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords to blow up its members. A big bonus was that, if the plot had succeeded, they might also have killed the Prince of Wales. Fantastic! It is quite wrong in principle and a violation of democracy that these unelected Lords should have any say whatsoever on the laws of the UK. Ditto that that F* royal prat should have influence purely because of his birth. When is the UK going to kick out this nonsense and give us a real democracy suited to the 21st century where only the peoples' votes count?

PS I am seriously thinking of swinging to the left and supporting Jeremy Corbyn. A third world economy, a 5000% inflation rate, and an acute shortage of toilet paper might be a small price to pay for a proper democracy.

Another myth

We keep seeing this stuff about the "Demographic Timebomb". We are repeatedly told that we are facing enormous increases in health/care costs due to the increase in over 65s:

The prevalence of long-term health conditions increases with age; and according to a 2010 estimate made by the Department of Health, such conditions account for 70% of total health and social care spending in England. The Department of Health also estimates that the average cost of providing hospital and community health services for a person aged 85 years or more is around three times greater than for a person aged 65 to 74 years.

That may be true but it is not true that, as more and more people reach 85+, the spending will rise proportionately. According to another source:

When measured using remaining life expectancy, old age dependency turns out to have fallen substantially in the UK and elsewhere over recent decades and is likely to stabilise in the UK close to its current level. It is not age but nearness to death that accounts for health expenditure.

It is also incorrect to assume that just because people are retired they contribute little or nothing. As that link says:

It is estimated that taking together the tax payments, spending power, caring responsibilities and volunteering effort of people aged 65-plus, older people contribute almost £40 billion more to the UK economy annually than they receive in state pensions, welfare and health services. Maybe also this bracket of "old" is over-generic. It is not the elderly in general who will be a burden, given that councils will seize significant assets to pay for care and many will pop their clogs long before they have been drained. It is the lowest performers in general, the ones who have taken more from the system than they have put in all their lives, who will not be able to pay for their own care.

We need to ensure that pensions are in line with contributions made during a working life. Less lax welfare, raising the retirement age in line with average longevity and health, dumping cynical political measures to buy the older vote with the triple lock and heating allowances regardless of income and getting people into work sooner will make pensions affordable. The high number of people going into further education when it is no benefit to themselves or the UK is absurd.

Some good news for a change

Nice to see that Kraft Hienz have dropped the Unilever takeover bid. We don't want yet another major British company taken over by a foreign company, those bastards in particular. Remember what happened to Cadbury? Some examples just among the companies I have worked at - Lucas (yanks), Rediffusion (yanks, frogs) , Blue Circle (frogs, yanks, micks). Wonder what will happen to the Vauxhall plants now that General Motors (yanks) are selling them to Renault (frogs).

It is quite true that some British companies, British leyland, Marconi etc. were a bit of a disaster and there was nobody to blame but ourselves but equally some do well, like Smiths Industries, another place I worked at. We need far greater protection from these foreign takeovers that too often end in asset stripping and closure. It makes commercial sense for a multinational company to organise its factories in the most efficient way but that is not necessarily in the interests of the nations concerned. While we can't produce everything ourselves, it is concerning that our economy has become so focused on services and we have let our manufacturing collapse or be dependent on foreign input and cooperation. What would happen if we had another world war? With our lack of resources and our expanded population there is little chance we would survive.

Glad to see that May has proposed a more interventionist policy. We don't need excessive government control or a pouring of public money into inefficient companies like Leyland but neither is a complete hands off approach the answer. Thatcher was a twat. By denationalising the CEGB (another place I worked at) in the way she did she destroyed an efficient organisation and today much of our electricity distribution is handled by frog companies. The French (aka frog) motor industry has prospered because their government has always taken a more sensible hands on approach.

Stick to the issues and check the facts

I expect it's always been there but there is a serious problem with the press constantly filling the headlines with irrelevant nonsense. All this stuff about whether Paul Nuttal was at Hillsborough for example. Who gives a fuck? It has nothing to do with the real election issues. If the left wing press want to attack Nuttal's views on Brexit, immigration etc. that's fine, they are entitled to their views, but this constant smearing is absurd. The Independent in particular is becoming increasingly idiotic.

Not only the leftist newspapers are a problem, it has to be said. The supposedly right wing Daily Mail parroted Dwight Yorke's whine that he was denied entry into the US under Donald Trump's new border laws because he has an Iranian stamp in his passport. The obvious problem with that is that Trump's rules have, for the moment, been overturned by court order. Yorke was actually barred under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. Nothing to do with Trump at all.

Wouldn't it be great if the press concentrated on the real issues and did some basic checks on the facts before publication?

More Daft Figures

The UK's daily GDP would take a 4% hit if all migrant workers stayed at home for a day, according to the New Economic Foundation. They may be right but on the same page it says that migrants make up 10.9% of the total workforce. Doesn't indicate a great contribution per head does it?

Nobody is saying there are not many useful migrants who are a plus but there are also many who are not and it is the net contribution that matters. A figure for the impact of working migrants stopping working for a day needs to be balanced by a figure for all migrants stopping receiving anything from the state. Subtract the costs of any using the NHS, receiving benefits, committng crimes etc etc and we might have a figure that means something.

And while no organisation can possibly replace an employee in one day that does not mean that, long term, relying on low skilled immigrant Labour makes any sense at all. Any increase in our national wealth is only divided among a similar or greater increase in our population.

Those absurd Brexit slurs

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has claimed that the officially recorded spike in racist attacks following the EU referendum has been overblown. He is right for various reasons. This week's excellent "Article That We Could Not Be Arsed To Write Ourselves" is from The Spectator. If you can't be arsed to click the link, the main points that it makes are:

Many of these incidents were reported through a police-funded website that allows anyone anywhere to report something they either experienced or witnessed. They can report anonymously and no evidence is required.
What defines a hate crime is entirely subjective, based entirely on the "victim's" perception.

Ah! But The Spectator is right wing! Must be untrue. No it isn't. Here is the government's guidance on what constitutes a hate crime:

1.2.3 Perception-based recording of hate crime
For recording purposes, the perception of the victim, or any other person (see 1.2.4 Other person), is the defining factor in determining whether an incident is a hate incident, or in recognising the hostility element of a hate crime. The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of the hostility is not required for an incident or crime to be recorded as a hate crime or hate incident.

Example A
Jon reports circumstances which amount to an offence under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986. He was sworn at and threatened that he would be punched in the face by an attacker who moved toward him in an aggressive manner. Nothing was said about his sexual orientation but he perceives that he was targeted as he is openly gay and there was no other reason why he was chosen. He reports this to the police who should correctly record this as a hate crime based on sexual orientation.

That seems a pretty subjective way of defining a hate crime. What may be even dafter, a lefty slant, is the insinuation that any real rise in hate crimes is all to do with Brexit. A handful of cases cited but no real evidence that EU migrants have been especially targetted. Hate crimes against Muslims and migrants generally have been reported as rising and maybe those are more to do with other recent events which are unconnected with the EU, namely the major Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe, the reported atrocities by ISIS and other Muslim extremist groups worldwide and the huge numbers of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from the rest of the world.

And why is there an assumption that any real rise due to Brexit is all down to Brexiters? On Contractor UK it is mostly the frustrated remainers who are bitter, rude and aggressive and they never supply any reliable facts. One idiotic comment today suggests that a Muslim call to vote Labour to counter UKIP must be a fraud by right wingers. Needless to say, no evidence was supplied. This Brexit voter, an ethnic minority chap writing for the "lefty" Guardian, reports the same thing in the news generally. This article also indicates the abuse suffered by some remainers. Farage and other prominent Brexiters have faced a lot of abuse and threats.

Look too at the reality of Eastern Europe where real Nazi parties are much stronger than they are in tolerant Britain. Some of the real right wing hate crimes are actually coming from those wonderful EU migrants.

PS According to The Daily Mail, a supposed spike immediately after the vote was based on a small number of completely unverified claims logged on True Vision, that police funded website, and was not a nationwide rise at all. We say this in a PS only because any lefties among the non existent readers of bloggoth will simply dismiss it because it's in the Mail. We would not dismiss something purely because The Gaurdian said it, we would check it online to see if there were any independent sources to back it up. Unfortunately, facts never seem important to the left. Although one gets daft smears from both sides, those suggesting Sadiq Khan had assocations with radical Muslim groups for instance, the spreading of misinformation or irrelevancies seems especially the preserve of the left at the moment. The West is in the grip of a new fanatical political "liberal" leftist movement and much of the press is toeing the line, publishing stories and quoting figures without questioning their authenticity, or advancing simplistic explanations that suite their agendas without looking into the details and the real reasons.

The real anti-semites

Part of the real rise in hate crime is down to rising antisemitic attacks but why would Brexit increase hatred of Jews? Anti-semitism always spikes in the UK when there is conflict in Ghaza but would the right wing really be getting that upset about the fate of Palestinians?

Of the antisemitic incidents in 2013 in the UK, 28% were by blacks, South Asians or Arabs/North Africans, well above their proportion of the UK population (under 9%). More likely Muslim than Neo-Nazi. Anti-semitism in Europe generally also comes more from Muslims and left wingers. This BBC article is one of many over the last few years to raise the problem:

Anti-Semitism 'on the rise' say Europe's Jews
The survey found 29% of those surveyed had considered emigrating because of concerns about safety, with particularly high figures recorded in Hungary (48%), France (46%) and Belgium (40%). Perpetrators of the most serious incidents were described as "being perceived as someone with Muslim extremist views, 27%, left-wing political views, 22%, or with right-wing views, 19%".

Those statistics just mention whites or right wingers. But how many anti-semitic attacks are actually by white British right wingers? As the presence of Hungary in the above list suggests, Neo Nazis have much higher support in Eastern Europe than in the West and anti-semitism has always been more prominent there too. Now it is on the rise, especially in Poland whose citizens make up a majority of EU migrants to the UK. Trouble is, as we already linked to in the above post, it isn't staying in Poland.

If we want to reduce some hate crimes, Brexit may be part of the solution.

Wankers list

I always keep lots of notes from the news, under various categories - crime, education, climate change, politics, immigration, education, sex/rude,conspiracy theories, health, science, technology etc etc etc

One category is Utter wankers, probably add a new idiot every week. I don't add everyone I disagree with or dislike, Jeremy Corbyn and Gordon Brown aren't there for example. There are even a few lefties/pro EU etc. sorts I quite like, like Polly Toynbee and Nick Clegg, because they state their cases in a reasonable and polite way. It's really just the hypocrites, the sactimonius bastards, the rich luvvies who don't have to suffer the problems their daft ideals inflict on poorer people, the corrupt and privileged sorts who have done nothing to deserve their position, the continual whiners and especially those who are so openly contemptuous of everyone else. The better known ones so far are:

Benedict Cumberbatch
Bob Geldof
Cher
Cherie Blair
Emma Thompson
George Clooney
Jean Claude Juncker
John Bercow
John McDonnell
Jude Law
Justin Welby
Ken Loach
Kenneth Clarke
Lily Allen
Martin Freeman
Michael Sheen
Prince Andrew
Prince Charles
Sean Penn
The entire House of Lords
Tony Blair

These days one can get arrested just for posting a gun emoji so I won't suggest shooting them. Shoving them in a huge food mixer and feeding them to the pigs would be much more fun anyway. And the piggies would have a nice meal.

On second thoughts, Kenneth Clarke would probably taste pretty disgusting. Maybe the compost heap would be a better idea.

Topic: Wankers list Comment here. Comments so far: 0

Sleep walking in the liberal fog

The EU referendum result in Stoke on Trent was pretty conclusive in favour of Brexit: 36,027 voted to remain while 81,563 voted to leave. Polls in some of the newspapers indicate that Paul Nuttal, the UKIP leader, is likely to win the coming by-election there.

However The Guardian reports some optimism by the Labour party who traditionally holds the seat. They are saying that UKIP is too disorganised. The article is also saying that the Liberal Democrat candidate may do rather better than expected because he is "a Pakistani immigrant who is banking on the support of the seat’s sizeable Kashmiri population". This is nothing new.

Look at the EU Referendum results broken down by ethnicity. 53% white (including the Scottish who voted out for their own reasons) voted leave as against 33% for Asians and 27% for blacks. This rather shows why London voted remain, not because Londoners are better educated as some have been telling us, but because 55% of its population are from an ethnic background and have no attachment to the concept of Britain as an independent nation.

It is human nature for all people of all cultures, however defined, to put their own kind first. This is a reality that we need to grasp. Large scale immigration, unless of those who want to embrace our culture and be part of our Britain, will inevitably destroy it. They will seek to shape our society, and our country, to their own interests and ours will become increasingly diluted.

Bastards

So often on the local crime news you see a story about some F* bastard mugging or robbing an elderly or disabled person, and frequently there is quite gratuitous violence. Isn't about time we started protecting these people a bit more? My suggestion would be a free machine gun or rocket launcher attached to all disability scooters, wheelchairs etc. Of course poor eyesight, arthritic fingers etc. might make them difficult to use in time, so they would need to be equipped with AI automated criminal recognition and shoot anyone who fitted the bill who came within 3 feet.

Boring

Gordonio Benuto! Always used to watch the BBC news at 6 but now its the same things, Brexit, Trump, protests, shortage of housing, NHS shortfalls, illegal migrants, Syria etc etc. I watch the headlines, shout FFS! and go back upstairs. Was the world always so F* boring and depressing as this? I can't be arsed watching the same F* thing every night. It's like time has stood still.

More foreign aid

The EU, including Britain, gave the previous regime in Gambia 78 million Euros over 5 years to a country ruled by a corrupt president who believed in witchcraft, who imprisoned people for years without trial for saying anything he didn't like, and who lived in a palace with a fleet of luxury cars. The government had the sense to stop direct aid to Gambia but we were, and still are, subsidising them via the EU and the World Bank.

Now public sector workers in Gambia have had their working hours cut to 36 hours. Some might say that's only the same as Public sector workers in the UK. True, but public sector workers in the UK are overprivileged at the expense of the rest of the UK workforce who mostly have 40 hour a week contracts. They not only have shorter hours but better pay, better pensions and better job security. There is certainly no reason why the UK workforce should be supporting the same level of entitlement in other countries.

Go back in history when Britain had huge levels of poverty and ordinary citizens struggled to support themselves. No one was handing them money to provide them with modern living standards. Helping to tackle real poverty is one thing but why should these third world countries expect us to provide lifestyles comparable to some of the better off in the West?

Sums it up

Saw a joke recently that is pretty accurate:

Foreign Aid: The transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

Those obsessed lefties

Can't be arsed with facebook or Twitter etc. and the only forum I ever bother with is Contractor UK.

Less and less recently, as most of the posts are just somebody ranting about Brexit or Trump. One Russian chap I used to rather like hardly ever posts about anything but Brexit now. Many posts are pretty pointless, as they do little more than quote headlines that we can read in the papers and, when there is significant comment from some others, it is full of invective - little in the way of polite discussion, reasoning or facts, just abuse. The rudist, most derogatory posts on CUK are nearly always by the more "liberal", leftist members of the forum who hate Brexit and Trump. Anyone who does not agree with their position on anything is a cretin, stupid, uneducated, ignorant etc.

They have little grasp of reality or the lessons of history. Because the horror stories about Brexit have not materialised, the posts are usually just opinions of pro-EU figures rather than facts. One particular idiot on CUK even claimed, citing some obscure "study", that far right terrorism is more of a problem than Islamic terrorism in Europe. Of course there is a rise in the far right due to legitimate concerns being ignored for far too long, that's human nature, but more of a problem? Seriously? The major Islamist attacks in Europe in the last two years saw 35 killed in Brussels, 86 in Nice and 12 in Paris. 62 European holiday makers were also slaughtered in Tunisia. Where were the far right attacks on a scale remotely like those? Even serious lone wolf attacks involving death or injury motivated by far right beliefs were easily outnumbered by those in the name of Islam. Perhaps he thinks leaving a pig's head in a mosque doorway is as bad as mowing down women and kids with a lorry!

Worst of all is the contempt displayed for ordinary citizens. The left wing used to be about empowering working class people once, now most socialists are middle class, idealistic zealots who think the working man should have no say in his own future and should be ruled by an "educated" elite who know best.

PS Dictionary. Educated. A younger person who has done a pointless course in Media Studies etc. because going to college, and putting off paying taxes and actually contributing to society for a few more years, is now the done thing.

Ranting in the blood

Been reading my mother's dairies that my Sister found. Despite her long term health and marriage problems, she generally came across as a happy person but the diaries tell a different story. Apart from all the rantings about my father and his other women (Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! at regular intervals) there's a lot of moaning about world events at the time, all the plane Hijackings by those lovely Palestinians, Thatcher etc. Makes you wonder if some people who don't seem outwardly concerned about world events are secretly fretting as much as those who are continually talking about them.

Trump

Can't say I am a fan of the way Trump says things or the rather impulsive way he does them but some of his policies show a better grasp of realities than those of Obummer, Merkel or other liberal leaders of the free world.

"Speak softly and carry a big stick" is one of the more sensible sayings. It makes sense to say things in a way that does not cause unecessary offence, that only detracts from the real arguments. More importantly, it can raise predudices. We can't stick our own citizens in concentration camps or expel them anymore so it does not help to make it harder for Muslims or other minorities to get jobs or for those willing to integrate to do so. A very black and white approach is unfair too. Should the translators and others who risked their own lives helping US troops in Iraq be excluded from the US?

On the other hand, a continuing ridiculous pretence about the realities will be far more damaging. The rise of extremism in Islamic countries is not some far right fiction. Without much stricter controls we will inevitably get more terrorists sneaking through our borders. Terrorism aside, the numbers of those adhering to this backward creed is a threat to the future progress of our societies. It is quite absurd that those who claim to be liberal should defend a religion that, in much of the world, does not accept Western principles like democracy, freedom of religion or the rights of women.

Tone it down a bit Trump and try and sound a bit more accomodating but, basically, you have a darn sight more common sense on that issue than most of the leaders the West has seen since WW2.

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