3 boys expelled for having a snowball fight!
This is yet another reason why this country is going to ruin.
When I was a lad there was a number of things I loved doing - playing and collecting conkers in the autumn. In the winter when we actually saw significant snowfall one of the best things was snow fighting - yeah we all heard the apocryphal stories about the kid who lost his eye when someone put a bit of broken bottle in the snowball, but we all knew this was an urban legend designed to scare schoolkids. Except, I can appreciate in this day and age that this is more likely than legend.
But excluding 3 boys for playing snowballs? Jesus H, I thought the council in Sunderland who cut down the chestnut trees because of the danger of sticks hitting people on the head during conker season was almost the most laughable bit of nonsense I'd heard in years, but now a County Durham headmaster takes the biscuit (for this week, anyhow) for banning these obviously evil and twisted little bastards who were probably trying to subvert national security with half a dozen compacted handfulls of snow.
One other rant before I go and make a vast difference to my life...
The 2012 Olympic bid. This time nothing to do with Red Ken's Jewish outburst, but more to do with a Tory statement that confirmed my deepest suspicions about the Conservative party's burning desire to get back into government at all costs...
In Stratford where the Olympic village is being cited there will be 280 businesses, plus about 300 homes that will have compulsary purchase orders slapped on them - this means they have NO recourse, no appeal, no nothing - they are given by the purchaser a compulsary amount of money - normally the going market rate plus a little bit extra to offset moving and other miscellaneous expenses. It sounds reasonably fair, especially if every piece of property in the UK, or especially London, was the same price. But Stratford is probably the cheapest place in London, by a Fleet Street mile, in fact it is so cheap that if you go across any of its borders into neighbouring boroughs you will find prices going up by astronomical amounts, some as high as £200K. The 280 businesses have collectively expressed both their desire to see the Olympic Games come to London and their dismay at being offered not enough money to relocate effectively, or if they did they would have to move so far away that most of their workforce would not being about to move or afford to move. The London Games committee (led by a staunch Tory, Seb Coe) have said they have done nothing wrong and the fair price had been offered. No one denies this, except that the 280 businesses and 300+ homeowners and tenants all live in the real world and not the fantasy world generated by computer for 2012.
What's this got to do with Michael Howard and his crones? Well, they've thrown their weight behind the businesses and are asking for a fairer deal, claiming, if they win the next general election, these people will get what they need to remain local. It was a Tory government that introduced Compulsary Purchase Orders in the first place and it has been subsequent Tory governments that have ignored the plight of small businesses, despite claiming to be the supporters of. It proves that they will all (and by 'they' I mean all politicians) say what you want them to say to give them the opportunity of getting into the Commons.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Supper's Ready
I've talked about politics, let's talk about religion...
First off, I feel really sorry for the Pope (no, I do, really). If he had been any body he would have been dead by now, but because the Catholic church revere him so much, they'll do anything to keep him alive (that and the bollocks about the sanctity of life). Today he had a tracheotomy, to help him breath easier, but the signs are pretty crappy and had it been your dad or mine the doctor's would probably have suggested a quiet euthanasia, off the record.
I have an ambivelant attitude towards homosexuality - basically I'm a firm believer of each to their own. I have had many friends who were 'Friends of Dorothy' and a lot of my cultural influences were aided by gay friends recommendations. I'm anything but a homophobe, despite having been accused of being one once, not so long ago. Equally, I have about as much 'love' for the Americans as a Gaelic protestant has for a Catholic and vice versa - it's nothing personal, but if the majority of Americans can vote a warmongering chimp into office - a man who makes Reagan look saintly - then they fall off my radar. Yet I find myself supporting the American Anglican Church 101% over this 'gay bishop' business.
The fact that the rest of the Anglican church, represented in the main by (and let's pull no punches here) millions of ignorant, uneducated Africans and fundamentalists, who, for some reason believe the God they believe in would not have embraced all of his creatures equally - especially homosexuals, want the US church to get rid of the good man who is a Bishop and also likes to throw his sausage up dark tunnels, is totally abhorrent. The Anglican church should face anathema, they deserve it, the bunch of hypocritical arse bandits*.
*An old friend of mine and Anglican minister told me once that he believed a huge percentage of vicars were either outwardly gay or stuck in the closet, in loveless marriages with a whole world of repression heaped on their confused shoulders. When I asked him what 'huge' was, he said, "At least a third." I see the UK church is backing the rest of the world on this one and not the USA. There's all kinds of twisted logic in this world, but the fact our church can't support the US church on something like this, yet our government can support Bush in a war hardly anyone wanted, just seems so... I dunno, stupid.
First off, I feel really sorry for the Pope (no, I do, really). If he had been any body he would have been dead by now, but because the Catholic church revere him so much, they'll do anything to keep him alive (that and the bollocks about the sanctity of life). Today he had a tracheotomy, to help him breath easier, but the signs are pretty crappy and had it been your dad or mine the doctor's would probably have suggested a quiet euthanasia, off the record.
I have an ambivelant attitude towards homosexuality - basically I'm a firm believer of each to their own. I have had many friends who were 'Friends of Dorothy' and a lot of my cultural influences were aided by gay friends recommendations. I'm anything but a homophobe, despite having been accused of being one once, not so long ago. Equally, I have about as much 'love' for the Americans as a Gaelic protestant has for a Catholic and vice versa - it's nothing personal, but if the majority of Americans can vote a warmongering chimp into office - a man who makes Reagan look saintly - then they fall off my radar. Yet I find myself supporting the American Anglican Church 101% over this 'gay bishop' business.
The fact that the rest of the Anglican church, represented in the main by (and let's pull no punches here) millions of ignorant, uneducated Africans and fundamentalists, who, for some reason believe the God they believe in would not have embraced all of his creatures equally - especially homosexuals, want the US church to get rid of the good man who is a Bishop and also likes to throw his sausage up dark tunnels, is totally abhorrent. The Anglican church should face anathema, they deserve it, the bunch of hypocritical arse bandits*.
*An old friend of mine and Anglican minister told me once that he believed a huge percentage of vicars were either outwardly gay or stuck in the closet, in loveless marriages with a whole world of repression heaped on their confused shoulders. When I asked him what 'huge' was, he said, "At least a third." I see the UK church is backing the rest of the world on this one and not the USA. There's all kinds of twisted logic in this world, but the fact our church can't support the US church on something like this, yet our government can support Bush in a war hardly anyone wanted, just seems so... I dunno, stupid.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
From out of Nowhere
My grandmother was Jewish. She married a gentile and basically spent the best part of her married life acting like a good CofE Christian.
I have an affinity with Jews. I find them funny, attractive and slightly tragic. I also think we pussyfoot around them too much and we do that because Jews make us do that. If the holocaust had never happened I wonder where our Hebrew friends would be today? They would have very little to complain to the world about.
Perhaps it's because Jews are predominantly white that we view their attempted genocide with so much horror. I mean there have been many occasions in the last few hundred years alone where blacks have been mercilessly murdered, I mean look at Rwanda. Yet we don't see the same empathy towards these people as we do towards the Jews. I don't think that's particularly fair, even if I am trivialising it to a degree.
I've touched on this before, with the Prince Harry wearing a Nazi uniform affair, but I'm getting fed up with the Jewish people, because they are contributing to this Nanny State more than anyone else. Red Ken Livingstone, the leader/mayor of London has been in hot water for calling a Daily Mail journalist, who happened to be Jewish, no better than a Nazi Concentration Camp Guard and as a result there has been more hours covered on the news than proper serious issues ever get. It seems that the world is more concerned about comments made by politicians than they are about any real issues.
So Ken upset a Jewish journalist, who really cares? Apart from the Jews who see Ken as a scapegoat. If you look at the reasons behind this and most TV reports seem to be ignoring the facts in favour of wheeling out every leading Jewish spokesperson to declare what a rotter Ken is, you might be a little more sympathetic to Ken...
The journo in question (and having been one I know what a tenacious and thoroughly despicable lot most tabloid journos are) had been harassing Ken for months, trailing him, asking him the most personal and prying questions. He was just one of many journos who, once someone becomes 'public property', spend their time constantly getting in the face of these people. Half the time these 'journalists' are intent in getting their own stories and if that means provoking the target, then so be it. This is what this Jewish journalist, Oliver Finegold, did and Ken reacted to his tenacity by insulting him. I would have done the same thing. In fact many people would have, just like many people hire Nazi fancy dress costumes. Except me and you aint Ken Livingstone are we?
I'm sure that some Jewish people will have been offended by this statement of Ken's, but aren't they taking it all a little bit too seriously? I mean, we have thousands of Muslims in this country and when some twat like Abu Hamza says stupid things like 'death to all the British infidels' and gets cut to shreds by the papers, we don't see a huge swell of support from the UK Muslims, do we? In fact whenever anyone is insulted in some way, some minority group, we don't get the over reaction we've had this last week or so.
But, of course, we're entering a general election campaign and Ken is a Labour politician and the Daily Mail and it's snide sister paper the Evening Standard are both so rooted in the Tory camp that Ken Livingstone could be responsible for saving the lives of 50 kittens from drowning and they'd find something wrong with this selfless act. The Daily Mail also supports fox hunting, do I need to say anything else?
I have an affinity with Jews. I find them funny, attractive and slightly tragic. I also think we pussyfoot around them too much and we do that because Jews make us do that. If the holocaust had never happened I wonder where our Hebrew friends would be today? They would have very little to complain to the world about.
Perhaps it's because Jews are predominantly white that we view their attempted genocide with so much horror. I mean there have been many occasions in the last few hundred years alone where blacks have been mercilessly murdered, I mean look at Rwanda. Yet we don't see the same empathy towards these people as we do towards the Jews. I don't think that's particularly fair, even if I am trivialising it to a degree.
I've touched on this before, with the Prince Harry wearing a Nazi uniform affair, but I'm getting fed up with the Jewish people, because they are contributing to this Nanny State more than anyone else. Red Ken Livingstone, the leader/mayor of London has been in hot water for calling a Daily Mail journalist, who happened to be Jewish, no better than a Nazi Concentration Camp Guard and as a result there has been more hours covered on the news than proper serious issues ever get. It seems that the world is more concerned about comments made by politicians than they are about any real issues.
So Ken upset a Jewish journalist, who really cares? Apart from the Jews who see Ken as a scapegoat. If you look at the reasons behind this and most TV reports seem to be ignoring the facts in favour of wheeling out every leading Jewish spokesperson to declare what a rotter Ken is, you might be a little more sympathetic to Ken...
The journo in question (and having been one I know what a tenacious and thoroughly despicable lot most tabloid journos are) had been harassing Ken for months, trailing him, asking him the most personal and prying questions. He was just one of many journos who, once someone becomes 'public property', spend their time constantly getting in the face of these people. Half the time these 'journalists' are intent in getting their own stories and if that means provoking the target, then so be it. This is what this Jewish journalist, Oliver Finegold, did and Ken reacted to his tenacity by insulting him. I would have done the same thing. In fact many people would have, just like many people hire Nazi fancy dress costumes. Except me and you aint Ken Livingstone are we?
I'm sure that some Jewish people will have been offended by this statement of Ken's, but aren't they taking it all a little bit too seriously? I mean, we have thousands of Muslims in this country and when some twat like Abu Hamza says stupid things like 'death to all the British infidels' and gets cut to shreds by the papers, we don't see a huge swell of support from the UK Muslims, do we? In fact whenever anyone is insulted in some way, some minority group, we don't get the over reaction we've had this last week or so.
But, of course, we're entering a general election campaign and Ken is a Labour politician and the Daily Mail and it's snide sister paper the Evening Standard are both so rooted in the Tory camp that Ken Livingstone could be responsible for saving the lives of 50 kittens from drowning and they'd find something wrong with this selfless act. The Daily Mail also supports fox hunting, do I need to say anything else?
Monday, February 21, 2005
At the End of the Universe
I was most amused by Conservative leader Michael Howard's rant about the Council Tax rises and how the government has abused this indirect taxation. What I found particularly hilarious about this is that Michael Howard is responsible for the tax - he invented it.
I guess that politicians hope that the general public - the majority of them anyhow - will have bad memories.
George W is in Yurp and is attempting to renegotiate his image with the 90% or so of Europeans who would rather have Donald Duck as leader of the most powerful country on the planet than a man who has questionable policies and motives. I'm not surprised he's not coming here again and I'm also thankful, especially as the British press only seems interested in concentrating on non-stories these days.
The snow didn't last. Apparently there's a lot of disruption along the East coast, many places have had a lot of snow. When I say a lot, I mean 6 or 7 centimetres. People in the USA, Canada or anywhere on mainland Yurp will know that the UK is the only country in the world, apart from Hawaii, that has serious problems with a light dusting of snow. In a morbidly evil kind of way I'd love for the country to have the worst snowfall in living memory get dumped on us in the next couple of days. You know metres rather than centimetres. It would be a stick in the eye to all those people who said just last year, "Oh snow, ooh, you'll be lucky if you see any ever again in a few years, what with global warming", and there's nothing more amusing than watching a bunch of Brits panic because of slightly adverse weather.
I guess that politicians hope that the general public - the majority of them anyhow - will have bad memories.
George W is in Yurp and is attempting to renegotiate his image with the 90% or so of Europeans who would rather have Donald Duck as leader of the most powerful country on the planet than a man who has questionable policies and motives. I'm not surprised he's not coming here again and I'm also thankful, especially as the British press only seems interested in concentrating on non-stories these days.
The snow didn't last. Apparently there's a lot of disruption along the East coast, many places have had a lot of snow. When I say a lot, I mean 6 or 7 centimetres. People in the USA, Canada or anywhere on mainland Yurp will know that the UK is the only country in the world, apart from Hawaii, that has serious problems with a light dusting of snow. In a morbidly evil kind of way I'd love for the country to have the worst snowfall in living memory get dumped on us in the next couple of days. You know metres rather than centimetres. It would be a stick in the eye to all those people who said just last year, "Oh snow, ooh, you'll be lucky if you see any ever again in a few years, what with global warming", and there's nothing more amusing than watching a bunch of Brits panic because of slightly adverse weather.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Superhero
There have been moments this week when I've wanted to get on here and wax lyrically about all the things that fuck me off, and I realised that it's a bit pointless. I wish it wasn't, but it is. Life is pointless, even if you have meaning in it.
There's a story I like to tell my friends and people who need a jolt of philosophy in their lives. I once had a Chinese landlord, who when I owed a lot of money to, said, in a very unpatronising tone, the following words of wisdom: "I never wish for the world to be a better place because it won't be. That is asking for too much. What I wish for is for the world to be fairer, that isn't asking too much." I like the Chinese. In fact, I'm beginning to like a lot of races that aren't English or American. I think I should have been born a European, but it wouldn't have worked because I'm so bloody Victorian in my attitudes.
It's snowing. It won't settle and in some ways that is both a good and a bad thing.
There's a story I like to tell my friends and people who need a jolt of philosophy in their lives. I once had a Chinese landlord, who when I owed a lot of money to, said, in a very unpatronising tone, the following words of wisdom: "I never wish for the world to be a better place because it won't be. That is asking for too much. What I wish for is for the world to be fairer, that isn't asking too much." I like the Chinese. In fact, I'm beginning to like a lot of races that aren't English or American. I think I should have been born a European, but it wouldn't have worked because I'm so bloody Victorian in my attitudes.
It's snowing. It won't settle and in some ways that is both a good and a bad thing.
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