Recently, there has been a mass of these 'Reforms' going through the UK's political elite, collected in their respective houses with the green or red leather benches. In terms of modern governmental practice, these reforms seem to be either one of two things. The first is the depriving of the public of necessary and previously workable services under the guise of 'austerity' - a sort of reverse Robin Hood scenario where the government rob from the poor to pay the rich, despite the rich having made the costly mistakes through gross financial mismanagement in the first place. The second kind of reform is one whereby it means little or nothing to no one and serves merely as a nonsensical distraction, to keep the public from getting truly up in arms about the first kind.
The currently proposed House of Lords reform is an example of the latter. People will argue that these reforms would be the greatest shake up of the House of Lords in living memory...but that's not exactly a difficult thing to do when the house of lords is only outdone in its anachronistic capability by the monarchy this country still recognises as its supreme authority. The abolition of hereditary peerships was supposed to be the biggest shake up in the Lords, making it less cliquey and elitist and yet it is, not surprisingly, still a who's who of elitist twats. This reform would be no different.
"Ah!" you say, "but we want to make it so that most peers are elected!" Oh brilliant! So now, instead of being able to blame an antiquated and unfair political system built upon lies and nepotism for the out-of-touch nature of the House of Lords - Now we can blame ourselves! YAY! Presumably, if elections to the Lords were to take place they would take place using the same ridiculous, redundant, false, farcical, two-party popularity contest we use to elect our public servants today. Now, there would be further need to boost party coffers as election campaigns for Lords needs take place as well as for MPs, and as if our outdated 'first past the post' political system were not nearly unrepresentative enough, now your Lords could all find themselves from the political party in favour at the time of their election, too...Potentially increasing the stranglehold that destructive, elitist wankers following bullshit, false ideologies in the guise of 'political parties' have on this country!
You might think this lack of support for these reforms means I prefer the old way of doing things. "Oh, you'd rather it stay just as it is!" You'd say with a knowing, condescending snort that makes me want to punch your smug face! NO! I don't like the system the way it is, but nor do I think it needs reform. As far as the House of Lords goes I think it needs complete demolition, along with the farce that is the House of Commons, and that inbred elitist demon-slug that is the monarchy. I think we need a completely new, more representative and barely existent political system in this country that lets people get on with their lives, does little to interfere and doesn't have a foreign policy susceptible to lobbying from companies that produce weapons, or need natural resources. I want a system that doesn't seek to take something so wonderful as the National Health Service, a system that is the envy of much of the world, and dismantle it into nothing short of a deconstructed cash cow on something so base as the whims of their own avarice. Reform is not going to achieve this. All it is going to achieve is distracting you from the fact you're being robbed blind, manipulated and treated like capital and not human beings. It's going to give you something to moan about over your coffee while you read whatever agenda laden newspaper you happen to prefer, but never actually do anything about it. An elected House of Lords is just another distracting sideshow to make you feel like you have any say, power or control. But you don't have any while you allow yourself to be so easily distracted and manipulated. You don't have any power while we continue this false left-right paradigm in politics. You don't have any control while politics is manipulated by the media - who shape your opinions subconsciously. Opinions you later claim are definitely your own. The only reform I would support is a reform of your consciousness. See the truth, learn from the past, be in the present and change the future.
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Friday, 6 July 2012
Human Civilisation in a Nutshell...
...Still fighting each other over the thoughts of those who claim to be in contact with omnipotent, invisible sky people or shiny rocks and the artificially prescribed values thereof.
~Old Posts~ Make Sports, Not War
Being, as I am, a simple man I do quite enjoy sports. Not so much playing them, alas my passion for that was killed many years ago. But watching them.
It is while enjoying the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 that I wondered if sports could not be used to solve international disputes.
You see, war, well war is a terrible thing. Hideously, grotesquely expensive not just in terms of actually monetary wealth but in terms of life as well. And not just human life either, let us consider that ‘collateral damage’ must also include animal life too. It makes you wonder why, instead of investing massive amounts on weapons, the technology of killing, the science of killing, the psychology of killing and invading. Why do we not, instead, invest all that money in sports?
I don’t think it is too farfetched an idea, indeed both methods of international dispute resolution are as redundant and futile as the other. But sports, like military training, pits one group or team against another. Sports training, like military training, has a great deal of emphasis on discipline and hierarchy. Sports training, like military training requires the participant to be physically fit and mentally sharp. They are essentially one and them same thing. Except one can be fun, and one most certainly isn’t unless there is something dreadfully wrong with you.
What is more, there is less dehumanisation involved in sport. When you are on the pitch/field/area of play the atmosphere may well be hostile, passions may flare, sparks may ignite little battles, but once time is called you can all be friends again and go share a drink and a meal. Unlike with war whereby, if you are the victorious party, you will presumably have very few people to go share a drink and a meal with. Indeed you may very well not have anywhere to go to get a meal, because you’ve bombed it.
It is while enjoying the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 that I wondered if sports could not be used to solve international disputes.
You see, war, well war is a terrible thing. Hideously, grotesquely expensive not just in terms of actually monetary wealth but in terms of life as well. And not just human life either, let us consider that ‘collateral damage’ must also include animal life too. It makes you wonder why, instead of investing massive amounts on weapons, the technology of killing, the science of killing, the psychology of killing and invading. Why do we not, instead, invest all that money in sports?
I don’t think it is too farfetched an idea, indeed both methods of international dispute resolution are as redundant and futile as the other. But sports, like military training, pits one group or team against another. Sports training, like military training, has a great deal of emphasis on discipline and hierarchy. Sports training, like military training requires the participant to be physically fit and mentally sharp. They are essentially one and them same thing. Except one can be fun, and one most certainly isn’t unless there is something dreadfully wrong with you.
What is more, there is less dehumanisation involved in sport. When you are on the pitch/field/area of play the atmosphere may well be hostile, passions may flare, sparks may ignite little battles, but once time is called you can all be friends again and go share a drink and a meal. Unlike with war whereby, if you are the victorious party, you will presumably have very few people to go share a drink and a meal with. Indeed you may very well not have anywhere to go to get a meal, because you’ve bombed it.
I stress again, both methods are strikingly similar in many ways, and both are as redundant as each other in regards to settling scores. All that is proven when one army is victorious over the other is that one army had better weapons, tactics and/or numbers than the other. All that is settled in sports is that one team had better players, tactics and or training than the other…See how similar it is? If anything sports is a much fairer way of solving disputes but maybe that’s where the problem is.
I’m missing the rugby to write this piece. If it seems at times my thoughts are distracted or being interrupted then that is the reason. But, I just think sport was an evolution. I think sport was mankind evolving a way of conflict so that rather than have blood spilling all over the place and families torn apart by bereavement and destruction of land, homes and habitats - Instead there’s just an hour or so of fun, followed by a friendly handshake and resolution as one team proves itself victorious over the other in the spirit of fairness. I think it’s time we started demanding this. No more war, just sports!
And another thing. If we invested all that money that goes to war in sports the populations in the Western world would be easily able to solve their obesity crisis. I mean, I would gladly sign up for two years compulsory service if all it meant was two years playing football, cricket, rugby etc. and the possibility of playing in an international match for my country and her allies…A lot of men and women would gladly sign up for that! Hell, they’d do it gladly to save them a fortune on gym subscriptions! Our children would be raised in a happier, healthier world where they are taught that even the most serious issues in the world are trivial when there is fun to be had in their resolution. There shall always be conflict, and disagreement. That is a fact. But to say that, as a result, there must always be war is to be completely blind to any other possible solutions or resolution methods. Make sports, not war. That’s the answer.
And another thing. If we invested all that money that goes to war in sports the populations in the Western world would be easily able to solve their obesity crisis. I mean, I would gladly sign up for two years compulsory service if all it meant was two years playing football, cricket, rugby etc. and the possibility of playing in an international match for my country and her allies…A lot of men and women would gladly sign up for that! Hell, they’d do it gladly to save them a fortune on gym subscriptions! Our children would be raised in a happier, healthier world where they are taught that even the most serious issues in the world are trivial when there is fun to be had in their resolution. There shall always be conflict, and disagreement. That is a fact. But to say that, as a result, there must always be war is to be completely blind to any other possible solutions or resolution methods. Make sports, not war. That’s the answer.
~Old Posts~ Occupy
There are, at this moment in time, multiple movements across the US and the World to occupy financial districts in major cities in protest. Indeed, Occupy Wall Street has already being going on for about two weeks now, with estimated numbers of occupiers at 300-700, and estimates of people joining the protests daily at up to 5000+ (with estimates set to get higher as more unions take to the streets.) But the message has unfortunately been blurred. People are confused as to what these protesters wants and, with Occupy the London Stock Exchange coming up, I want to clarify quite what my intentions are when I am protesting.
This is not just about workshy hippies moaning because they can’t get a break, although of course that does come into it. My participation is for one goal and one goal alone; the removal of corporate power from our Government. The removal of ‘lobbyists’ - whereby lobbying is essentially corruption but given a silly name so people don’t think of it like that. Corporations, and particularly banks have far too much power and influence in our political systems to the extent that we are living in a virtual dictatorship. If you go to London today you will find Transport for London (a government organisation) have for-hire bicycles all over the place. This is a very good idea. What isn’t a good idea is the fact that this scheme is sponsored by notorious tax dodgers ‘Barclays’ - who are a bank. No government initiative should have corporate sponsorship, this is not acceptable. Particularly when the sponsorship would not be required at all if the companies actually coughed up their taxes. It is disgusting, it is amoral, it is unjust, it is corrupt and it has to stop.
With the country operating at a huge deficit, and the people. The good, honest, hard working people, being pressed more than ever due to higher prices, higher taxes, even a fucking increase in VAT - The least equal tax of all because all of us have to pay it! - Companies like Vodafone get off paying BILLIONS - Yes, BILLIONS - of pounds in taxes thanks to cushy deals being instrumented behind closed doors, without public consultation, without professional consultation with the Inland Revenue’s own lawyers and tax experts! This is a country that is working AGAINST you, not for you. You are being squeezed ever tighter so that the vile financial institutions who made the mess our economies are in at the moment can be bailed out time and again. The reason you are being used as collateral is simple. Sure, banks could lend to each other to get themselves out of trouble. But all the banks are broke. So they go, cap in hand, to your governments for help after having caused the mess themselves and use your tax monies to pay them because, well if banks lend to each other and one bank forecloses and can’t pay, no one wins. But if an individual can’t afford their bill to the government, well then you can see all sorts of legal proceedings against that person. You cannot, unfortunately, be a conscientious objector to taxes.
So what can you do? You can protest. It has got to a stage in our political arena whereby the supposed ‘democratically elected’ officials are no longer working for we the people as they are obliged to do so. They have become so comfortable in an atmosphere of apathy and bullshit two party politics that they’re happy to take turns. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter, the Imperial Eagle needs both to fly and that Eagle’s name is finance. Whichever party gets power in the UK, they will always serve the financial institutions and large corporations. There may be a little more union give-and-take from Labour, there may be a bit more mollycoddling of the middle and upper classes from the Conservatives but they both shall always work in favour of the banks and large corporations. This has to stop.
This is why we need to occupy. To let it be known that this is OUR country, that we, the people, are the power base here. We elect our officials to work FOR us, not to control us. The Prime Minister is not our ‘leader’ he is our BITCH and he should do what we, the people, want. You only have to look at the country to realise what a shambolic mess it is in, but if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Apathy never solved anything. Doing nothing never achieved it’s goals. Political change and reform never came from sitting on your arse watching football, X-Factor or bloody soaps. This is not beyond your control. This is not just ‘how it is’ - You have the power to change it. David Cameron is not an immortal, he is not a God, he is not a superman, he is a human being, like the rest of us. He is a man. He was born a crying baby, he bleeds red, and he shall one day die, like all of us. He has no more power than you or I besides that which we believe he may have. Stop believing. Stop thinking he has power when it is you who truly have the power. Take your country back. Before they ruin it for all of us.
Occupy the London Stock Exchange - October 15th until we win.
To all the occupiers worldwide - There is no defeat. You’re already winners. I love you.
This is not just about workshy hippies moaning because they can’t get a break, although of course that does come into it. My participation is for one goal and one goal alone; the removal of corporate power from our Government. The removal of ‘lobbyists’ - whereby lobbying is essentially corruption but given a silly name so people don’t think of it like that. Corporations, and particularly banks have far too much power and influence in our political systems to the extent that we are living in a virtual dictatorship. If you go to London today you will find Transport for London (a government organisation) have for-hire bicycles all over the place. This is a very good idea. What isn’t a good idea is the fact that this scheme is sponsored by notorious tax dodgers ‘Barclays’ - who are a bank. No government initiative should have corporate sponsorship, this is not acceptable. Particularly when the sponsorship would not be required at all if the companies actually coughed up their taxes. It is disgusting, it is amoral, it is unjust, it is corrupt and it has to stop.
With the country operating at a huge deficit, and the people. The good, honest, hard working people, being pressed more than ever due to higher prices, higher taxes, even a fucking increase in VAT - The least equal tax of all because all of us have to pay it! - Companies like Vodafone get off paying BILLIONS - Yes, BILLIONS - of pounds in taxes thanks to cushy deals being instrumented behind closed doors, without public consultation, without professional consultation with the Inland Revenue’s own lawyers and tax experts! This is a country that is working AGAINST you, not for you. You are being squeezed ever tighter so that the vile financial institutions who made the mess our economies are in at the moment can be bailed out time and again. The reason you are being used as collateral is simple. Sure, banks could lend to each other to get themselves out of trouble. But all the banks are broke. So they go, cap in hand, to your governments for help after having caused the mess themselves and use your tax monies to pay them because, well if banks lend to each other and one bank forecloses and can’t pay, no one wins. But if an individual can’t afford their bill to the government, well then you can see all sorts of legal proceedings against that person. You cannot, unfortunately, be a conscientious objector to taxes.
So what can you do? You can protest. It has got to a stage in our political arena whereby the supposed ‘democratically elected’ officials are no longer working for we the people as they are obliged to do so. They have become so comfortable in an atmosphere of apathy and bullshit two party politics that they’re happy to take turns. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter, the Imperial Eagle needs both to fly and that Eagle’s name is finance. Whichever party gets power in the UK, they will always serve the financial institutions and large corporations. There may be a little more union give-and-take from Labour, there may be a bit more mollycoddling of the middle and upper classes from the Conservatives but they both shall always work in favour of the banks and large corporations. This has to stop.
This is why we need to occupy. To let it be known that this is OUR country, that we, the people, are the power base here. We elect our officials to work FOR us, not to control us. The Prime Minister is not our ‘leader’ he is our BITCH and he should do what we, the people, want. You only have to look at the country to realise what a shambolic mess it is in, but if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Apathy never solved anything. Doing nothing never achieved it’s goals. Political change and reform never came from sitting on your arse watching football, X-Factor or bloody soaps. This is not beyond your control. This is not just ‘how it is’ - You have the power to change it. David Cameron is not an immortal, he is not a God, he is not a superman, he is a human being, like the rest of us. He is a man. He was born a crying baby, he bleeds red, and he shall one day die, like all of us. He has no more power than you or I besides that which we believe he may have. Stop believing. Stop thinking he has power when it is you who truly have the power. Take your country back. Before they ruin it for all of us.
Occupy the London Stock Exchange - October 15th until we win.
To all the occupiers worldwide - There is no defeat. You’re already winners. I love you.
~Old Posts~ Nice Weather
It is quite warm, and, by all meteorological accounts, it is set to steadily get warmer. “Why is that a problem?” I hear you cry with a unity unfortunately lacking in your political aspirations. Well, it’s a problem because unlike you sun-loving, skin cancer chasing, bikini wearing, shorts and flip-flop donning, sunglasses worshipers I abhor hot, sunny weather.
While you’re outside slathering yourself in oils and lotions and believing the hype about sunny days being in some way good for you; I am inside with a thousand fans blazing, panting like an over-worked dog. While you’re out squinting past the burning rays of the sun and her oppressive, dazzling light I’m at home, curtains drawn, probably with a DVD on or something. People always say “It’s a nice day, you should get out.” But, let us analyse that statement.
Firstly, the description of the day as ‘nice’ is entirely subjective. Unless of course that is you’re some pre-programmed sheep, inherently incapable of defying your programming that tells you that just because the big yellow thing in the sky is present and making the temperature a little higher then the day must be ‘nice’. Secondly, I don’t want to get out more on days like that. It’s hot, you get all sweaty, In order to somehow survive without melting you have to dress like an idiot and what is worst of all about hot, sunny days when you don’t like hot sunny days is you have, surrounding you, a thousand and one idiots who all think you’re in some way a bit malfunctioned because you don’t like it as much as they do.
Fuck you sun worshippers. I do not like hot, sunny days. They’re shit, at least to me. Because I am a human being, with a free mind, and free will, and as such it is perfectly well within my rights to think that a hot sunny day is NOT NICE. It does not make me weird, odd, strange, misplaced, out of touch, out of sync, malfunctioned, malformed or disabled. I JUST DON’T LIKE HOT FUCKING SUNNY DAYS, OK!?
I am so sick of everyone always telling me how nice it is. Where is the objectivity!? I don’t think it is nice, and that means there must be others like me out there because I am fairly certain out of nearly 7 billion people I am not the only one who thinks hot, sunny days are not nice. It is one of those things, like language, whereby some things are considered ‘good’ and some things are considered ‘bad’ almost arbitrarily because, well, they just are. The word ‘fuck’ for instance is considered ‘bad’ by most, although common of use. But there’s nothing bad about the word fuck. It’s just a fucking word. I’ve never seen a word knife someone to death for their iphone. I have never seen a word start a war. The same is true of weather. Just because you all think it’s ‘nice’ it doesn’t mean it is. I’ve never known a hot sunny day to prevent world hunger. A hot sunny day has never caused a ceasefire in a war, so the opposing armies can go have a fucking picnic. There is no good or bad in either context, there just is. There are words, there is weather - No good or bad.
The flipside of this, of course is that surely I can’t enjoy bad weather; because that is ludicrous. Well, no it isn’t. I love walking in the pelting rain. There is something about it that is free and cleansing and right; and there is something so lovely about arriving home after a walk in the rain, soaked through, and peeling off your wet clothing (maybe taking a quick shower thanks to all the pollutants and shite in rain) and then just warming yourself. I love the cold. I love an autumn morning more than anything else; when the delicate backdrop of the pink-hued sunrise kisses the orange, red and brown leaves and everything looks gilded. And as you walk past fields and parks that golden morning sun twinkles on the dew and it looks like a sea of stars before your feet. You’re wrapped up relatively warm but you can still feel a slight chill, and the air has such a harsh bitterness that it tickles your lungs after you’ve just left a warm abode. The delicate scent in the air of wood smoke from someone’s chimney.
Storms are another thing. They’re lovely. The air aflame with licking forked tongues from some electric-blue reptilian devil in the sky. The booming roar of the heavens as clouds collide in epic battles of air pressure. The hard, yet gentle rapping on windows, doors and rooftops as rain, like some majestic tapdancer, clicks its heels with wondrous choreography.
There is such romance that can be extrapolated from those weathers that cannot from hot, sunny weather which, unfortunately for me carries connotations of idiots getting too drunk for their own good, alcoholics tanning themselves to the point that their rotund beer-guts look like bulbous leather domes. Toothless skanks wearing far too little clothing. Sweaty masses ambling about in the oppressive humidity. When it is hot, you toss and turn at night, distancing yourself from a loved one as you have to peel your bodies apart with discomfort. In the colder seasons it’s all about snuggling. Coming together to keep warm. Staying indoors a lot and communicating. To me there is something very civilised about the cold, the damp and the dreary. Spring and summer may pack the heat. But Autumn and winter are cool, and they have soul.
While you’re outside slathering yourself in oils and lotions and believing the hype about sunny days being in some way good for you; I am inside with a thousand fans blazing, panting like an over-worked dog. While you’re out squinting past the burning rays of the sun and her oppressive, dazzling light I’m at home, curtains drawn, probably with a DVD on or something. People always say “It’s a nice day, you should get out.” But, let us analyse that statement.
Firstly, the description of the day as ‘nice’ is entirely subjective. Unless of course that is you’re some pre-programmed sheep, inherently incapable of defying your programming that tells you that just because the big yellow thing in the sky is present and making the temperature a little higher then the day must be ‘nice’. Secondly, I don’t want to get out more on days like that. It’s hot, you get all sweaty, In order to somehow survive without melting you have to dress like an idiot and what is worst of all about hot, sunny days when you don’t like hot sunny days is you have, surrounding you, a thousand and one idiots who all think you’re in some way a bit malfunctioned because you don’t like it as much as they do.
Fuck you sun worshippers. I do not like hot, sunny days. They’re shit, at least to me. Because I am a human being, with a free mind, and free will, and as such it is perfectly well within my rights to think that a hot sunny day is NOT NICE. It does not make me weird, odd, strange, misplaced, out of touch, out of sync, malfunctioned, malformed or disabled. I JUST DON’T LIKE HOT FUCKING SUNNY DAYS, OK!?
I am so sick of everyone always telling me how nice it is. Where is the objectivity!? I don’t think it is nice, and that means there must be others like me out there because I am fairly certain out of nearly 7 billion people I am not the only one who thinks hot, sunny days are not nice. It is one of those things, like language, whereby some things are considered ‘good’ and some things are considered ‘bad’ almost arbitrarily because, well, they just are. The word ‘fuck’ for instance is considered ‘bad’ by most, although common of use. But there’s nothing bad about the word fuck. It’s just a fucking word. I’ve never seen a word knife someone to death for their iphone. I have never seen a word start a war. The same is true of weather. Just because you all think it’s ‘nice’ it doesn’t mean it is. I’ve never known a hot sunny day to prevent world hunger. A hot sunny day has never caused a ceasefire in a war, so the opposing armies can go have a fucking picnic. There is no good or bad in either context, there just is. There are words, there is weather - No good or bad.
The flipside of this, of course is that surely I can’t enjoy bad weather; because that is ludicrous. Well, no it isn’t. I love walking in the pelting rain. There is something about it that is free and cleansing and right; and there is something so lovely about arriving home after a walk in the rain, soaked through, and peeling off your wet clothing (maybe taking a quick shower thanks to all the pollutants and shite in rain) and then just warming yourself. I love the cold. I love an autumn morning more than anything else; when the delicate backdrop of the pink-hued sunrise kisses the orange, red and brown leaves and everything looks gilded. And as you walk past fields and parks that golden morning sun twinkles on the dew and it looks like a sea of stars before your feet. You’re wrapped up relatively warm but you can still feel a slight chill, and the air has such a harsh bitterness that it tickles your lungs after you’ve just left a warm abode. The delicate scent in the air of wood smoke from someone’s chimney.
Storms are another thing. They’re lovely. The air aflame with licking forked tongues from some electric-blue reptilian devil in the sky. The booming roar of the heavens as clouds collide in epic battles of air pressure. The hard, yet gentle rapping on windows, doors and rooftops as rain, like some majestic tapdancer, clicks its heels with wondrous choreography.
There is such romance that can be extrapolated from those weathers that cannot from hot, sunny weather which, unfortunately for me carries connotations of idiots getting too drunk for their own good, alcoholics tanning themselves to the point that their rotund beer-guts look like bulbous leather domes. Toothless skanks wearing far too little clothing. Sweaty masses ambling about in the oppressive humidity. When it is hot, you toss and turn at night, distancing yourself from a loved one as you have to peel your bodies apart with discomfort. In the colder seasons it’s all about snuggling. Coming together to keep warm. Staying indoors a lot and communicating. To me there is something very civilised about the cold, the damp and the dreary. Spring and summer may pack the heat. But Autumn and winter are cool, and they have soul.
~Old Posts~ The Scientific Agenda
Science! Oh it’s a wonderful thing is it not? Turning the imaginings of the past into present reality. Who would have thought videophones would actually exist one day, but not just that, they would fit in the palm of your hand, and you could use them without the aid of wires and things…It really is a marvel isn’t it!?
Well, yes but, let us not forget that we still have incurable diseases, poverty, famine, and war. And indeed, technological advancement has been of huge benefit to war. So let us not go giving blowjobs to scientists just yet, eh?
Here is the problem with science. Rather than grant monies being doled out to people performing the most worthwhile research, every single bit of funding comes with an agenda. That agenda is always to the detriment of actual scientific advancement and that is why we, as a human race, are being held back. You see, instead of having every able mind slaving away trying to cure cancer; a lot of able minds will be away in their top-of-the-range labs doing work funded by a women’s magazine on why men get Man-Flu. Think I’m joking about that - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8793301/Women-found-to-be-the-tougher-sex.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter - I am not joking about everything but it being funded by a women’s magazine.
Let’s fucking face it. I’ll make an admission now. I am a science student. Well, all being well. I can give you one bit of advice for free; as a scientist. There is NO FUCKING POINT studying the common cold virus. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Why? Because it mutates too quickly. If, perchance, we ever do invent a ‘cure’ for the common cold (which we probably won’t…but if) then it would be one of the most dangerous things mankind could do, because rhinovirus will not go away, and its next mutation may well kill ALL OF MANKIND! There is a precedent. A lot of the ‘superbugs’ you can catch in hospitals are so dangerous because they are mutated strains that have developed a resistance to antibiotics. So, leave the cold alone, let us have the scientist spent wasting time on this putting their time and energy into researching actually important stuff like, I don’t know, say the massive epidemic of HIV and AIDs in third world countries.
But, sadly, the funding for those sorts of projects comes from charities, and even then, the charities budgets are split between paying wages of staff, paying for existing projects and treatments, etc. etc. Actual research gets very little in the way of funding. And herein lies the issue.
Funding always comes from somewhere and that somewhere will always have an agenda. Sadly, science and agenda do not go hand in hand. The basic dogma of science is that everything is theory - Everything has the potential to be proven wrong. There is no bias in that system and any bias in scientific literature comes from one thing and one thing alone; Who funded it?
For example, the commonly held belief is that smoking is very bad for you. This is just a theory but, it is one that has a mass of evidence in its favour. However, research funded by tobacco companies, for instance, may have a different view. It may underplay links, it may even claim benefits. This is just a hypothetical example but I am sure if you check back in the literature you can find tobacco company funded research and check whether or not my hypothetical is true.
This is something that has to stop. Scientific advancement should have no agenda but the betterment of mankind. One obvious, controversial field for example would be genetically modified crops. Research funded by companies with an Anti-GM agenda will be biased in their favour; research funded by companies with a Pro-GM agenda will be biased in their favour and somewhere in the middle the truth is being obscured as a result. Science should always be unbiased, and have NO agenda whatsoever. As a scientist-in-training I have always held the belief that I know nothing. That I know absolutely nothing about what I am researching and thus, the results are the results. There is no point to prove. There is no agenda. There is just experimentation, and data at the end of it to be analysed.
If every scientific study were to be carried out with this level of objectivity; and if the market driven economy were to support it, advancement would flourish. Unfortunately, as it is, all we are going to get is bullshit stories telling us one week how tomatoes help skin and the following week how make your skin worse. Instead of a cure for cancer you’re going to get another pointless piece of research about why women are better than men or men better than women. Rather than have any REAL discovery, all we are going to have is endless newspaper dross making scientists look like nothing but boffin pranksters in labcoats.
When you next read a story about a nonsense piece of research. Don’t giggle and think it’s funny. Ask quite why your relatives are still dying of cancer while the finest researching minds the world has to offer are being made to devote their time to such bullshit. Write a letter to the newspaper, website, or agency that promoted that story and tell them you are ashamed that they are publishing such nonsense and not helping fund research into real issues. And ask your politicians quite why private corporations are being allowed to fund such useless research when there are still REAL ills in this world waiting for a eureka moment.
Well, yes but, let us not forget that we still have incurable diseases, poverty, famine, and war. And indeed, technological advancement has been of huge benefit to war. So let us not go giving blowjobs to scientists just yet, eh?
Here is the problem with science. Rather than grant monies being doled out to people performing the most worthwhile research, every single bit of funding comes with an agenda. That agenda is always to the detriment of actual scientific advancement and that is why we, as a human race, are being held back. You see, instead of having every able mind slaving away trying to cure cancer; a lot of able minds will be away in their top-of-the-range labs doing work funded by a women’s magazine on why men get Man-Flu. Think I’m joking about that - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8793301/Women-found-to-be-the-tougher-sex.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter - I am not joking about everything but it being funded by a women’s magazine.
Let’s fucking face it. I’ll make an admission now. I am a science student. Well, all being well. I can give you one bit of advice for free; as a scientist. There is NO FUCKING POINT studying the common cold virus. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Why? Because it mutates too quickly. If, perchance, we ever do invent a ‘cure’ for the common cold (which we probably won’t…but if) then it would be one of the most dangerous things mankind could do, because rhinovirus will not go away, and its next mutation may well kill ALL OF MANKIND! There is a precedent. A lot of the ‘superbugs’ you can catch in hospitals are so dangerous because they are mutated strains that have developed a resistance to antibiotics. So, leave the cold alone, let us have the scientist spent wasting time on this putting their time and energy into researching actually important stuff like, I don’t know, say the massive epidemic of HIV and AIDs in third world countries.
But, sadly, the funding for those sorts of projects comes from charities, and even then, the charities budgets are split between paying wages of staff, paying for existing projects and treatments, etc. etc. Actual research gets very little in the way of funding. And herein lies the issue.
Funding always comes from somewhere and that somewhere will always have an agenda. Sadly, science and agenda do not go hand in hand. The basic dogma of science is that everything is theory - Everything has the potential to be proven wrong. There is no bias in that system and any bias in scientific literature comes from one thing and one thing alone; Who funded it?
For example, the commonly held belief is that smoking is very bad for you. This is just a theory but, it is one that has a mass of evidence in its favour. However, research funded by tobacco companies, for instance, may have a different view. It may underplay links, it may even claim benefits. This is just a hypothetical example but I am sure if you check back in the literature you can find tobacco company funded research and check whether or not my hypothetical is true.
This is something that has to stop. Scientific advancement should have no agenda but the betterment of mankind. One obvious, controversial field for example would be genetically modified crops. Research funded by companies with an Anti-GM agenda will be biased in their favour; research funded by companies with a Pro-GM agenda will be biased in their favour and somewhere in the middle the truth is being obscured as a result. Science should always be unbiased, and have NO agenda whatsoever. As a scientist-in-training I have always held the belief that I know nothing. That I know absolutely nothing about what I am researching and thus, the results are the results. There is no point to prove. There is no agenda. There is just experimentation, and data at the end of it to be analysed.
If every scientific study were to be carried out with this level of objectivity; and if the market driven economy were to support it, advancement would flourish. Unfortunately, as it is, all we are going to get is bullshit stories telling us one week how tomatoes help skin and the following week how make your skin worse. Instead of a cure for cancer you’re going to get another pointless piece of research about why women are better than men or men better than women. Rather than have any REAL discovery, all we are going to have is endless newspaper dross making scientists look like nothing but boffin pranksters in labcoats.
When you next read a story about a nonsense piece of research. Don’t giggle and think it’s funny. Ask quite why your relatives are still dying of cancer while the finest researching minds the world has to offer are being made to devote their time to such bullshit. Write a letter to the newspaper, website, or agency that promoted that story and tell them you are ashamed that they are publishing such nonsense and not helping fund research into real issues. And ask your politicians quite why private corporations are being allowed to fund such useless research when there are still REAL ills in this world waiting for a eureka moment.
~Old Posts~ Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
I like to consider myself quite an objective person. My emotions are not easily stirred by trivial things. Well, that is in most circumstances. You see, as an objective individual I DO get annoyed by the big things, when it comes to morality or politics I have my lines drawn and if you cross them I will argue my point until you’re a jelly like wreck tucked in a corner begging for your mother. I will respect your opinion. I will just argue mine fervently.
But every now and then, regular folk can do things that just really wind me up. It’s an inexplicable sensation that overcomes me. Not so much one of tutting minor inconvenience but one of summoning the vengeance and ire of the universe to rain down unholy hell fire on people. This does not happen often; and it is always for the silliest, least important things.
For example, one thing that gets me EVERY DAMN TIME. When you approaching a road crossing that is at a junction, as a pedestrian. A car is coming your way so you decide to wait, always hoping, usually in vain, that the driver will let you cross. When they don’t, they pull up at the junction and you’re always left in a quandary. Do you attempt to cross the road now, and walk around the car? Or do you wait for the car to go? While you’re thinking of an answer to this small question a few seconds pass, and, just as you have made your mind up to cross, you walk around the length of the car and just as you are round it’s back end, breathing in noxious exhaust fumes, the driver pulls away; leaving you a few short steps away from your optimum line of crossing the road. For them it’s nothing! They’re in an automobile, that back end of their car is irrelevant. But to you it means two things; one, energy expended for NO reason. Yes, it might only be a few steps, but it’s a few pointless steps that need not have been taken. but two, and this is the most important one, you have to walk DIRECTLY into their barrage of exhaust fumes, polluting your lungs with their gaseous emissions. If they are going to subject you to this, the least courtesy they could provide you is waiting at the junction until you have crossed the road so you don’t feel like it has been entirely pointless. Those are steps you could be using to do productive things like…I don’t know…Walking to feed the homeless or, helping an elderly lady cross the road. Instead they’re spent dawdling around the length of Captain McSmallDick’s massive vehicle only to find that, when at the furthest point away from where you wanted to be, said vehicular obstacle is removed! It’s ridiculous. Every junction should have a bloody zebra crossing or something to prevent idiots like me getting annoyed about small things like this! Plus, it would just make the world a nicer place; particularly for people like me who, despite being able to drive, choose to be pedestrians because they’re not lazy and have a conscience that makes them worry about pollution. Grrr!
But this is my point; that is such a small thing. Such a tiny irritation. It is something that if I were in a vaguely good mood I probably wouldn’t even notice. But I have noticed it and since noticing it I continue to notice it and I just cannot help but be annoyed by it.
There is one more anecdote of minor irritants, but this one had a good reason. I was late. I was already late thanks to a delayed train (i.e. not my bloody fault) and I managed to jump a bus that would have got me to my intended destination JUST on time. That was until two obviously quite well off idiots decided to get on the bus. And each. Yes EACH wanted to pay their paltry fare with a £20 note! I’m not sure what buses are like where you are, but where I was they didn’t tend to carry buckets of small change to service idiots like these and thus, the driver rightly told them he hadn’t enough change. For one thing, these two knew each other, so why didn’t one offer to pay for the others fare out of his money and, if he’s that much of a miser he can’t spare a few quid, he could have been remunerated at a later time or date that was more convenient. The other thing, however is the incredibly irritating behaviour of the driver who WAITED while these two court jesters went into a nearby shop to buy something to get change….HE WAITED! He delayed the bus because two people who should have known the driver wouldn’t have change tried to pay a very small fare with the 2nd largest denomination bank note in circulation in British currency. I was late, as were, no doubt, many others on the bus and that kind of behaviour annoys me. What is more annoying was the bus journey for me was around about 45 minutes but they were only going around the bloody corner. They could have walked it, the lazy shits, but they chose to attempt to get on the bus I had no option but to be on due to an already delayed train and they may as well have been trying to pay in bloody gold bullion! JUST WALK YOU LAZY BASTARDS! WALK! It’ll do you good! ARGH!
But I take a lesson out of all this. I know I can often find myself in situations where I consider someone else’s behaviour an inconvenience, but if I feel that minor inconvenience then it lets me know one important thing. I am OK. If I have enough sense about me to be irritated by the small things, then it shows I have a brain capable of processing them, a body capable of being annoyed with them, and thus, a life that is OK. Some people say “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But I find if you’re not sweating the small stuff, you probably have bigger things on your mind and that is probably a lot more unhealthy. So I shall continue getting irritated by minor inconveniences, and I will continue enjoying portraying them to people in a way that is much exaggerated and littered with hyperbole so as to make them vaguely humourous to people. because while I do, I know I’ve got my health and that’s all that really, truly matters.
And so long as I have my health, I shall also be busy fighting for peace, justice, equality and most of all, love. Because as much as I get annoyed by these things, I love having things to complain about. I complain about them in such a way as to make people laugh and laughter is, truly, the music of love.
That said, if you’re happier not moaning about little things, that’s fine too. So long as you have your health you’re capable to think and feel what you like. I’ll always continue getting annoyed about stupid little things for you.
But every now and then, regular folk can do things that just really wind me up. It’s an inexplicable sensation that overcomes me. Not so much one of tutting minor inconvenience but one of summoning the vengeance and ire of the universe to rain down unholy hell fire on people. This does not happen often; and it is always for the silliest, least important things.
For example, one thing that gets me EVERY DAMN TIME. When you approaching a road crossing that is at a junction, as a pedestrian. A car is coming your way so you decide to wait, always hoping, usually in vain, that the driver will let you cross. When they don’t, they pull up at the junction and you’re always left in a quandary. Do you attempt to cross the road now, and walk around the car? Or do you wait for the car to go? While you’re thinking of an answer to this small question a few seconds pass, and, just as you have made your mind up to cross, you walk around the length of the car and just as you are round it’s back end, breathing in noxious exhaust fumes, the driver pulls away; leaving you a few short steps away from your optimum line of crossing the road. For them it’s nothing! They’re in an automobile, that back end of their car is irrelevant. But to you it means two things; one, energy expended for NO reason. Yes, it might only be a few steps, but it’s a few pointless steps that need not have been taken. but two, and this is the most important one, you have to walk DIRECTLY into their barrage of exhaust fumes, polluting your lungs with their gaseous emissions. If they are going to subject you to this, the least courtesy they could provide you is waiting at the junction until you have crossed the road so you don’t feel like it has been entirely pointless. Those are steps you could be using to do productive things like…I don’t know…Walking to feed the homeless or, helping an elderly lady cross the road. Instead they’re spent dawdling around the length of Captain McSmallDick’s massive vehicle only to find that, when at the furthest point away from where you wanted to be, said vehicular obstacle is removed! It’s ridiculous. Every junction should have a bloody zebra crossing or something to prevent idiots like me getting annoyed about small things like this! Plus, it would just make the world a nicer place; particularly for people like me who, despite being able to drive, choose to be pedestrians because they’re not lazy and have a conscience that makes them worry about pollution. Grrr!
But this is my point; that is such a small thing. Such a tiny irritation. It is something that if I were in a vaguely good mood I probably wouldn’t even notice. But I have noticed it and since noticing it I continue to notice it and I just cannot help but be annoyed by it.
There is one more anecdote of minor irritants, but this one had a good reason. I was late. I was already late thanks to a delayed train (i.e. not my bloody fault) and I managed to jump a bus that would have got me to my intended destination JUST on time. That was until two obviously quite well off idiots decided to get on the bus. And each. Yes EACH wanted to pay their paltry fare with a £20 note! I’m not sure what buses are like where you are, but where I was they didn’t tend to carry buckets of small change to service idiots like these and thus, the driver rightly told them he hadn’t enough change. For one thing, these two knew each other, so why didn’t one offer to pay for the others fare out of his money and, if he’s that much of a miser he can’t spare a few quid, he could have been remunerated at a later time or date that was more convenient. The other thing, however is the incredibly irritating behaviour of the driver who WAITED while these two court jesters went into a nearby shop to buy something to get change….HE WAITED! He delayed the bus because two people who should have known the driver wouldn’t have change tried to pay a very small fare with the 2nd largest denomination bank note in circulation in British currency. I was late, as were, no doubt, many others on the bus and that kind of behaviour annoys me. What is more annoying was the bus journey for me was around about 45 minutes but they were only going around the bloody corner. They could have walked it, the lazy shits, but they chose to attempt to get on the bus I had no option but to be on due to an already delayed train and they may as well have been trying to pay in bloody gold bullion! JUST WALK YOU LAZY BASTARDS! WALK! It’ll do you good! ARGH!
But I take a lesson out of all this. I know I can often find myself in situations where I consider someone else’s behaviour an inconvenience, but if I feel that minor inconvenience then it lets me know one important thing. I am OK. If I have enough sense about me to be irritated by the small things, then it shows I have a brain capable of processing them, a body capable of being annoyed with them, and thus, a life that is OK. Some people say “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But I find if you’re not sweating the small stuff, you probably have bigger things on your mind and that is probably a lot more unhealthy. So I shall continue getting irritated by minor inconveniences, and I will continue enjoying portraying them to people in a way that is much exaggerated and littered with hyperbole so as to make them vaguely humourous to people. because while I do, I know I’ve got my health and that’s all that really, truly matters.
And so long as I have my health, I shall also be busy fighting for peace, justice, equality and most of all, love. Because as much as I get annoyed by these things, I love having things to complain about. I complain about them in such a way as to make people laugh and laughter is, truly, the music of love.
That said, if you’re happier not moaning about little things, that’s fine too. So long as you have your health you’re capable to think and feel what you like. I’ll always continue getting annoyed about stupid little things for you.
~Old Posts~ Things That Should be Conspiracy Theories...But Aren't...
Let’s not get into a debate about BIG conspiracy theories here. Whether or not Prince Phillip hired Mossad to drive the world trade centre into a magic bullet making JFKs head explode in amazement is not something that shall concern me in this little piece. No, what I want to explore are conspiracy theories that aren’t, but should be.
I postulated, via medium of twitter, that wisdom teeth were a genetically modified invention of the elite to make your mouth hurt like holy buggery just as you reach an age enough to question them and their intentions. And I stand by this. Just as you reach an age when you can be politically astute, and active, something conspires to make the rear of your mouth expand so that chewing anything essentially feels like you’ve got a mouthful of razorblades, salt and lemon juice. Subsequently you visit a dentist whose only option is to tell you they’re infected and thus they have to scare the living daylights out of you by jabbing a needle the size of the Eiffel Tower into your gum and extracting said tooth in the most brutal and painful way possible, just to show you the grizzly realities of life…If you fuck with the authorities, men in white coats will perform unspeakable tortures upon your person. Is this a conspiracy, no. Should it be; yes. Yes it probably should.
A reply to this comment implied with wit that I should blame grey hair on the ‘elite’ too. So I will. I am certain that some big money makers who really run this world have a disproportionate amount of shares in L’Oreal and Just For Men and whatever other hairdye companies you can think of. Celebrities are actually all grey haired old hacks whose hair has been dyed so shiny, lustrous, wonderful shades that we all must aspire to have wavy locks just like them. The following frenzied purchasing of ammonia laden follicle rot is inevitable, and what is more, I think hairdressers are also part of this established elite; because, after all, anyone can cut hair, you just need scissors. So why do we go out of our way and spend a lot of our hard earned money having someone with all the personality of a Jacob’s Cream Cracker fondle our scalp and ask us if we went anywhere nice on our holidays. Is this a conspiracy, no. Should it be. Of course.
Public transport also has its theory. You know when there’s always that person who makes you feel uncomfortable on public transport? Maybe it’s a shoddy dressed homeless man with a can of something that is supposed to be alcoholic but looks, and smells, like wood varnish; and his dog that looks past the rabies stage and well into undead. Or that old trampy lady who smells of cat piss and spends far too much time scratching a part of her that should never exist, let alone be touched by human hands. Well, they’re a conspiracy created on behalf of big oil companies to make you feel that the world of public transport is so threatening and maladjusted that you just have to purchase an automobile and further clog the already congested road system with your own fume-emitting tin box.
Cars themselves are actually a conspiracy on behalf of podiatrists who got so fed up with being busy with people complaining about their skanky feet that they had to invent something to free up their day, so they could pick and choose the most attractive people to fondle the soles and toes of.
Lighters. They’re not a convenient source of flame, they were invented by rockstars who got fed up of people suing them because when they held matches in the air during the soft-rock ballad they burnt their fingers. Something had to be done, so they conspired together with canny inventors to create the lighter.
I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP, CHECK THE FACTS.
The old philosophical questions “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is only still in circulation thanks to a conspiracy on behalf of the creationist movement.
Trees are a conspiracy on behalf of the wood so that you can’t see what the wood is actually up to. Hence the expression “Can’t see the wood for the trees.”
Erm…
No, I’m not just making these up as I go along!
“Man cannot live on bread alone” was invented by supermarkets so you think you need stuff like, I don’t know…Pop tarts and cereal bars and orange juice from concentrate to live.
Erm…
Cows invented milk so that humans would keep them alive rather than slaughter them for their meat.
OK, I think I’m about out of ideas for now. But my point is; Is there a point? Well let us make one. My point is that there are a lot of things in this world that could, with sufficient circumstance and bullshitting be made to look like something is going on when it is not. As such, instead of believing the first thing you see, hear or read, you should examine all the evidence, and all the opinion before arriving at your own conclusions. In doing so you will see that big media corporations are just as guilty of bending the facts to an agenda just as much as tin-foil hat wearing reclusive virgins. It doesn’t necessarily mean one, or the other is wrong. But facts exist in the grey area between these two extremities. The human mind is a wonderful thing, capable of reason even against our natural instincts. As such we should all utilise it. Study the facts, study the evidence, study the stories, study the fictions and somewhere, in the midst of this great jungle of reported ‘truths’ you shall find what you believe.
I postulated, via medium of twitter, that wisdom teeth were a genetically modified invention of the elite to make your mouth hurt like holy buggery just as you reach an age enough to question them and their intentions. And I stand by this. Just as you reach an age when you can be politically astute, and active, something conspires to make the rear of your mouth expand so that chewing anything essentially feels like you’ve got a mouthful of razorblades, salt and lemon juice. Subsequently you visit a dentist whose only option is to tell you they’re infected and thus they have to scare the living daylights out of you by jabbing a needle the size of the Eiffel Tower into your gum and extracting said tooth in the most brutal and painful way possible, just to show you the grizzly realities of life…If you fuck with the authorities, men in white coats will perform unspeakable tortures upon your person. Is this a conspiracy, no. Should it be; yes. Yes it probably should.
A reply to this comment implied with wit that I should blame grey hair on the ‘elite’ too. So I will. I am certain that some big money makers who really run this world have a disproportionate amount of shares in L’Oreal and Just For Men and whatever other hairdye companies you can think of. Celebrities are actually all grey haired old hacks whose hair has been dyed so shiny, lustrous, wonderful shades that we all must aspire to have wavy locks just like them. The following frenzied purchasing of ammonia laden follicle rot is inevitable, and what is more, I think hairdressers are also part of this established elite; because, after all, anyone can cut hair, you just need scissors. So why do we go out of our way and spend a lot of our hard earned money having someone with all the personality of a Jacob’s Cream Cracker fondle our scalp and ask us if we went anywhere nice on our holidays. Is this a conspiracy, no. Should it be. Of course.
Public transport also has its theory. You know when there’s always that person who makes you feel uncomfortable on public transport? Maybe it’s a shoddy dressed homeless man with a can of something that is supposed to be alcoholic but looks, and smells, like wood varnish; and his dog that looks past the rabies stage and well into undead. Or that old trampy lady who smells of cat piss and spends far too much time scratching a part of her that should never exist, let alone be touched by human hands. Well, they’re a conspiracy created on behalf of big oil companies to make you feel that the world of public transport is so threatening and maladjusted that you just have to purchase an automobile and further clog the already congested road system with your own fume-emitting tin box.
Cars themselves are actually a conspiracy on behalf of podiatrists who got so fed up with being busy with people complaining about their skanky feet that they had to invent something to free up their day, so they could pick and choose the most attractive people to fondle the soles and toes of.
Lighters. They’re not a convenient source of flame, they were invented by rockstars who got fed up of people suing them because when they held matches in the air during the soft-rock ballad they burnt their fingers. Something had to be done, so they conspired together with canny inventors to create the lighter.
I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP, CHECK THE FACTS.
The old philosophical questions “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is only still in circulation thanks to a conspiracy on behalf of the creationist movement.
Trees are a conspiracy on behalf of the wood so that you can’t see what the wood is actually up to. Hence the expression “Can’t see the wood for the trees.”
Erm…
No, I’m not just making these up as I go along!
“Man cannot live on bread alone” was invented by supermarkets so you think you need stuff like, I don’t know…Pop tarts and cereal bars and orange juice from concentrate to live.
Erm…
Cows invented milk so that humans would keep them alive rather than slaughter them for their meat.
OK, I think I’m about out of ideas for now. But my point is; Is there a point? Well let us make one. My point is that there are a lot of things in this world that could, with sufficient circumstance and bullshitting be made to look like something is going on when it is not. As such, instead of believing the first thing you see, hear or read, you should examine all the evidence, and all the opinion before arriving at your own conclusions. In doing so you will see that big media corporations are just as guilty of bending the facts to an agenda just as much as tin-foil hat wearing reclusive virgins. It doesn’t necessarily mean one, or the other is wrong. But facts exist in the grey area between these two extremities. The human mind is a wonderful thing, capable of reason even against our natural instincts. As such we should all utilise it. Study the facts, study the evidence, study the stories, study the fictions and somewhere, in the midst of this great jungle of reported ‘truths’ you shall find what you believe.
~Old Posts~ Drunken Reflections
What follows is a piece I am reluctant to share due to its massive exposure of, well, me. It seems a lot of my vulnerability went into these short paragraphs. But I am sharing it, in the hope that it makes some understand me better.
N.B. Since I wrote this, I have stopped drinking.
My Nan was a drunk. I can see why.
Every dim memory of existence fades into insignificance in the presence of grog. Life is a fantastic thing in the face and mind of the naïve and unwise. An experience provided only through youth and alcohol.
She was onto something my Nan.
Her death face was a pained and elfish withdrawal of features; slender, with pointed ears. Her oxygen mask-scarred features drawn into a grimace as her breath drew heavy and her heart ceased caring. The hangdog expressions on her face betraying a near universal fear of that; the most inevitable of inevitabilities; the most ultimate of ultimate. If she’d been drunk, in the presence of my father and me, her face would have been the picture of nostalgic joy. Instead, it hung heavy, like a gaping, toothless, pained invertebrate.
She was far from that. My Nan was a paragon of strength defiance, injustice and, essentially, ‘fuck you’ism. Life was a constant struggle and she always fought it. “It’s just you and me against the world kid!” she used to say, apparently.
Well I agree. Fuck the world, like she has always fucked me. I owe my environment no favours, like the government that rules her, or the ceaseless dictation of marketing forces that control her.
Fuck sobriety, fuck tee-totalism and fuck thinking substance abuse is bad. It masks the truth, and the truth is life, love, dignity and joy all end. In death. In eternal.
If it just ends, why defend it. I’m no nihilist, I believe in something greater but really, what is offered so great as to be entirely virtuous for it. Not much, in all honesty. Even Dante Alighieri speaking of hell as a place of eternal pain and damnation can’t make me repent for my faith in booze. If hell were really full of sinners what the fuck makes Satan powerful enough to control billions? Because sinners far outweigh saints, let us remember that.
Heaven may seem an endearing prospect, but, all that virtue? Really? No offence but no one but God and Jesus are good enough to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and if they let in any other I’d assume a slip in standards,
When I die, I know where I’m heading.
I’ll be at your bar grampy, The Dommy of the deceased, make mine a red wine and I’ll chat with you all about how I tried to do better. I’ll let auntie know I worked hard at it, I’ll let Nan know I fought for it, and I’ll let you know I wanted a Daimler like yours, and I always took care of my mum and dad. Most of all I’ll let you see the self-righteous, pretentious tosser I am, and hope you’ll appreciate the wisdom-beyond-years that plagues me, the fact that I tried to do better, and improve the family name.
I’m intelligent without being smart; Wise without experience, and, ultimately, sarcastically immodest. Better assets with lesser opinions, unfortunately, do not mix.
Fuck life, I’m inferior. But better than most.
~Old Posts~ An Eye for an Eye - The Murder of Troy Davis
Troy Davis is an innocent man. This would the stance of any jury, of any legal team and of any judge were his case to be presented today. He has spent the best part of two decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit and, if the State of Georgia has anything to do with it, today, he will be murdered.
Yes, murdered. This is not an execution. This is murder. Pure. And. Simple.
There has been a large movement, for a long time, against the death penalty for the simple fact that it is better to let a hundred guilty men go free than to kill one innocent man. Legal systems have, time and again, been prone to injustices either through accident, or authority coercion, and those injustices have seen innocent people get murdered by their state. It is an archaic, and barbaric practice that is merely one of vengeance and fails to solve any of the root causes of crimes. Nor, apparently, does it act a deterrent since, despite the death penalty existing, they are still committed. The case of Troy Davis is one such example, whereby a man was identified merely through flawed eyewitness evidence, despite no physical evidence, or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Since his incarceration, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their statements claiming mistaken identity or pressure from the police. The process of identification in the first place has been shown to be flawed and some have even claimed the real killer has confessed to them.
Even if you support the death penalty, this case should rest heavily on your heart. It is a punishment that should only be incurred in the most extreme circumstances and where evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual in question has committed the crime. Troy Davis has not had the crime he is alleged to have committed proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not to begin with, and now, due to the recanting of statements, even less so.
It is a damning testament to our inability to progress as a society that the death penalty still exists in the world. Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” This seems, at a cursory glance, to be a statement of forgiveness in the face of crimes. However, if you study it deeper you will see it says something much more profound. We are all guilty. An eye for an eye will make us all blind because we have all sinned against our fellow man, we are all guilty of the system and how it operates. We are responsible for changing things and, we seem too reticent to do so. If you do nothing about this case. If you do nothing to at least try to help Troy Davis then you, too, have his blood on your hands. You are guilty of murdering an innocent man.
Please, do all you can to stop this injustice from happening in your name. Please.
Yes, murdered. This is not an execution. This is murder. Pure. And. Simple.
There has been a large movement, for a long time, against the death penalty for the simple fact that it is better to let a hundred guilty men go free than to kill one innocent man. Legal systems have, time and again, been prone to injustices either through accident, or authority coercion, and those injustices have seen innocent people get murdered by their state. It is an archaic, and barbaric practice that is merely one of vengeance and fails to solve any of the root causes of crimes. Nor, apparently, does it act a deterrent since, despite the death penalty existing, they are still committed. The case of Troy Davis is one such example, whereby a man was identified merely through flawed eyewitness evidence, despite no physical evidence, or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Since his incarceration, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their statements claiming mistaken identity or pressure from the police. The process of identification in the first place has been shown to be flawed and some have even claimed the real killer has confessed to them.
Even if you support the death penalty, this case should rest heavily on your heart. It is a punishment that should only be incurred in the most extreme circumstances and where evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual in question has committed the crime. Troy Davis has not had the crime he is alleged to have committed proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not to begin with, and now, due to the recanting of statements, even less so.
It is a damning testament to our inability to progress as a society that the death penalty still exists in the world. Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” This seems, at a cursory glance, to be a statement of forgiveness in the face of crimes. However, if you study it deeper you will see it says something much more profound. We are all guilty. An eye for an eye will make us all blind because we have all sinned against our fellow man, we are all guilty of the system and how it operates. We are responsible for changing things and, we seem too reticent to do so. If you do nothing about this case. If you do nothing to at least try to help Troy Davis then you, too, have his blood on your hands. You are guilty of murdering an innocent man.
Please, do all you can to stop this injustice from happening in your name. Please.
~Old Posts~ How Do You Define a Dictator?
As many of you will be aware, there has occurred, live on most of our televisions, in the spring, a massive rise against authoritarian regimes in Middle Eastern territories. Scores of people, organising by any means they can, rising up against dictators who do not have their best interests at heart and looking to set up a new, more humancentric leadership.
Many people have been injured, oppressed, abused, tortured and in some cases even killed for their freedoms. Because freedom, apparently, means that much to people. However, it appears that, unfortunately the mass people-support these protests and rebellions recieved was as a result of their freedoms being easier to define than ours. After all, we live in a state of freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from tyranny and oppression via our democratic governments; don’t we?
Well, that depends on how you define a dictator. It is easy when you have one individual whose face is plastered on all officialdom. The people can look at that person, point their finger and say “That’s the villain. That is our dictator!” But in the supposedly ‘free’ world, it is not so easy. That is, unless you dig a little deeper than the superficial puppets who lead your national press conferences and sit in your house of power. Then, oh then the truth is revealed.
Our governments, I am sorry to inform you, are not the democratically elected supermen they led you to believe. This should be no more self-evident than subsequent to the crises which have led to the current economical state of things. The first reaction of our superheroes in government was not to tax, fine, or even imprison members of the global banking cartel who had plunged us into the depths of austerity. The first thing they did was tax you more. The everyday folk. The hard working, salt of the Earth types whom they had so previously supported to borrow more and spend more and have more and get more and work more.
Why would they do this? Why is it your responsibility to pay for the mistakes others have made?
The government will tell you that all your previous borrowing and spending is what has caused this, and that, really, you should have ignored their advice previously and had some common sense. But the public purse barely makes a dent in the vast amount of wealth being hoarded by the miserly top few. So surely this is a lie?
It’s everyone’s responsibility they say as they give themselves greater and greater leniency in their pay, and cuddle up to their banker friends hoping for nice, comfortable directorships once they have left office. Of course as if that wasn’t potential reward enough, while in office, they receive massive donations and sponsorship for conferences and round table groups and events. They call this ‘lobbying’ - I call it corruption, pure and simple.
This is the truth of the matter folks. Even your halcyon elected officials are members of a group outside the collective elite, desperately banging on the door trying to get in. They don’t care about you. They care about money. They don’t care about social progress. They care about economic growth. They don’t care if you, or your children starve. So long as it makes them money.
There is a cancer growing in the economic and corporate sector of the Western World and, unfortunately when faced with cancer there are only two options. One is to fight it tooth and nail, as hard as you can, no matter how hopeless it seems at times, in the hope that it goes into remission. The other is, with utmost finality, die.
I am not scaremongering when I use this analogy. Our financial system is a mass consumptive cancer being controlled by a few and if you think they’ll be happy sharing the world with you then you are sadly mistaken and, obviously, oblivious to quite how selfish and megalomaniacal these people truly are. You are already slave labour. You are capital tied up with flesh and the labour market is little short of a butcher’s shop for remedial, repetitive, humanity sapping work. They use their media and news to fill you full of fear so all you wish to do is work and go home, work and go home. Never socialising, never expanding your horizons, never, ever dreaming of a better world. They dehumanise humanity, by filling your brains with all the negativity mankind can perform upon itself, all the while funding these self-same negative aspects of humanity. Every war that is fought is big bucks for some disgusting leech of a human being clutching desperately at his blood money.
With protests worldwide from Yemen to Wall Street we are at a unique stage in history where all the people’s of the world seem to have an axe to grind with their governments. You can either turn your head, pretend it doesn’t exist, continue thinking everything is fine while you have your house, your TV, your car, your X-Box and a job. Or you can realise that soon you won’t be able to afford that house, that TV, that car, your X-Box and you will be laid off. You think it couldn’t happen to you? Why not try asking the millions of others in the western world who thought exactly the same about themselves before they had to swallow pride and plead poverty? Let us get this straight, this not about protesting against honest, hard working people who have earned their money. The people at the centre of all this were born with their money, and all of it comes slathered in blood. Whether it be from back in the days of the slave trade, to funding modern warfare and terrorism just to make a quick cash fix. These are not ‘innocent’ people, these people are so guilty they require a new definition of the word. These are the evil instruments of the world’s worst evils. And they want your blood too. They want you to work hard, pay your bills, keep working, pay for more stuff, keep consuming like happy, oblivious little worker ants. Because while you do, you will always be in the hopeless spot of barely being able to improve, and meanwhile they will skim the cream of your crop off of you and hoard it for themselves.
The culture of ignorance, obliviousness and mind programming is scary. When you speak to people they all know the basic ins and outs of what is going on, but they feel it can never change. It’s just the way it has to be. This is exactly how your are expected to think. Don’t.
Open up your mind, open up yours eyes and open up your hearts to your fellow man. See that the world doesn’t have to be this way. There are over 6 billion people in this world. That is enough to overrun all the elites, with their puppet politicians, their propagandist military and their poor, misguided police. This is not a battle that can be one without participation. Everyone needs to pull their weight if they believe that working hard should earn you a better standard of living rather than a worse one.
It’s an unfortunate, and unprecedented state of affairs in the West that we have democracy. But we can only vote for whichever puppet wants to have his strings pulled by our corporate, dictator masters. Remember, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. If you have doubts, then it is a conspiracy, you were right, you should do something and YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.
Many people have been injured, oppressed, abused, tortured and in some cases even killed for their freedoms. Because freedom, apparently, means that much to people. However, it appears that, unfortunately the mass people-support these protests and rebellions recieved was as a result of their freedoms being easier to define than ours. After all, we live in a state of freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from tyranny and oppression via our democratic governments; don’t we?
Well, that depends on how you define a dictator. It is easy when you have one individual whose face is plastered on all officialdom. The people can look at that person, point their finger and say “That’s the villain. That is our dictator!” But in the supposedly ‘free’ world, it is not so easy. That is, unless you dig a little deeper than the superficial puppets who lead your national press conferences and sit in your house of power. Then, oh then the truth is revealed.
Our governments, I am sorry to inform you, are not the democratically elected supermen they led you to believe. This should be no more self-evident than subsequent to the crises which have led to the current economical state of things. The first reaction of our superheroes in government was not to tax, fine, or even imprison members of the global banking cartel who had plunged us into the depths of austerity. The first thing they did was tax you more. The everyday folk. The hard working, salt of the Earth types whom they had so previously supported to borrow more and spend more and have more and get more and work more.
Why would they do this? Why is it your responsibility to pay for the mistakes others have made?
The government will tell you that all your previous borrowing and spending is what has caused this, and that, really, you should have ignored their advice previously and had some common sense. But the public purse barely makes a dent in the vast amount of wealth being hoarded by the miserly top few. So surely this is a lie?
It’s everyone’s responsibility they say as they give themselves greater and greater leniency in their pay, and cuddle up to their banker friends hoping for nice, comfortable directorships once they have left office. Of course as if that wasn’t potential reward enough, while in office, they receive massive donations and sponsorship for conferences and round table groups and events. They call this ‘lobbying’ - I call it corruption, pure and simple.
This is the truth of the matter folks. Even your halcyon elected officials are members of a group outside the collective elite, desperately banging on the door trying to get in. They don’t care about you. They care about money. They don’t care about social progress. They care about economic growth. They don’t care if you, or your children starve. So long as it makes them money.
There is a cancer growing in the economic and corporate sector of the Western World and, unfortunately when faced with cancer there are only two options. One is to fight it tooth and nail, as hard as you can, no matter how hopeless it seems at times, in the hope that it goes into remission. The other is, with utmost finality, die.
I am not scaremongering when I use this analogy. Our financial system is a mass consumptive cancer being controlled by a few and if you think they’ll be happy sharing the world with you then you are sadly mistaken and, obviously, oblivious to quite how selfish and megalomaniacal these people truly are. You are already slave labour. You are capital tied up with flesh and the labour market is little short of a butcher’s shop for remedial, repetitive, humanity sapping work. They use their media and news to fill you full of fear so all you wish to do is work and go home, work and go home. Never socialising, never expanding your horizons, never, ever dreaming of a better world. They dehumanise humanity, by filling your brains with all the negativity mankind can perform upon itself, all the while funding these self-same negative aspects of humanity. Every war that is fought is big bucks for some disgusting leech of a human being clutching desperately at his blood money.
With protests worldwide from Yemen to Wall Street we are at a unique stage in history where all the people’s of the world seem to have an axe to grind with their governments. You can either turn your head, pretend it doesn’t exist, continue thinking everything is fine while you have your house, your TV, your car, your X-Box and a job. Or you can realise that soon you won’t be able to afford that house, that TV, that car, your X-Box and you will be laid off. You think it couldn’t happen to you? Why not try asking the millions of others in the western world who thought exactly the same about themselves before they had to swallow pride and plead poverty? Let us get this straight, this not about protesting against honest, hard working people who have earned their money. The people at the centre of all this were born with their money, and all of it comes slathered in blood. Whether it be from back in the days of the slave trade, to funding modern warfare and terrorism just to make a quick cash fix. These are not ‘innocent’ people, these people are so guilty they require a new definition of the word. These are the evil instruments of the world’s worst evils. And they want your blood too. They want you to work hard, pay your bills, keep working, pay for more stuff, keep consuming like happy, oblivious little worker ants. Because while you do, you will always be in the hopeless spot of barely being able to improve, and meanwhile they will skim the cream of your crop off of you and hoard it for themselves.
The culture of ignorance, obliviousness and mind programming is scary. When you speak to people they all know the basic ins and outs of what is going on, but they feel it can never change. It’s just the way it has to be. This is exactly how your are expected to think. Don’t.
Open up your mind, open up yours eyes and open up your hearts to your fellow man. See that the world doesn’t have to be this way. There are over 6 billion people in this world. That is enough to overrun all the elites, with their puppet politicians, their propagandist military and their poor, misguided police. This is not a battle that can be one without participation. Everyone needs to pull their weight if they believe that working hard should earn you a better standard of living rather than a worse one.
It’s an unfortunate, and unprecedented state of affairs in the West that we have democracy. But we can only vote for whichever puppet wants to have his strings pulled by our corporate, dictator masters. Remember, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. If you have doubts, then it is a conspiracy, you were right, you should do something and YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.
This is a dictatorship. There is no one face we can point to as our dictator, but aspects of your lives from day to day are ‘dictated’ are they not? You have to work to pay your taxes and your bills. You have to buy things, otherwise how would you eat, and clothe yourselves and improve your lives? You are only free to do what is expected of you. All the while, meddling in the background are what must be no more than a few thousand who have somehow convinced the world they are free, laughing at us. Laughing at you. Laughing at your ignorance, and how pathetic you are that you have to work and struggle to pay your bills. You are being oppressed. You are slaves in a system they tell you that you cannot change. But you can. And you must.
If we don’t act now then we will end up in a state, like in the Middle East, whereby the next time we have to take action it won’t be a protest. It will be a civil war.
~Old Posts~ Celebrating Celebrity
The amassed crowds screamed and roared with joy as their star had arrived. Their banners and picket signs professed such love that the ambient air was almost filled with pink love-heart shaped butterflies flitting over everyone’s heads. Gathered press let off camera flash after camera flash looking like twinkling stars in a sky of crowded adoration. As the limousine pulled up, the screaming grew louder and more passionate and the swanky valet opened the door revealing…
…
…
…A 62 year old old lady from Nuneaton who, despite the complications due to her age, still manages to go out every day and do chores and errands for her older friend who is housebound through disability.
Yeah. As if.
Welcome back to the real world folks. Sadly, individuals like this fictional old dear are usually never recognised. OK so there’s the occasional ‘Bravery Awards’ or local news human interest story about them. But otherwise this world does not celebrate true hard work, determination, effort, heart, soul and care. No, instead we have upon our front pages rampaging hordes of actors, singers, footballers and women who get their tits out for money.
Let me make my most controversial statement of my feelings on this subject now. Jade Goody. Died of cancer. I couldn’t give a flying fuck.
For those who don’t know (possibly because you’re from the US) Jade Goody was a vacuous, ignorant, racist idiot who rose to fame after being on a reality TV show called ‘Big Brother’ whereby they stick a group of idiots in a house and watch them grunt at each other for a week or two. Apart from, having been diagnosed with cervical cancer, doing some good work to raise awareness of the subject, she did next to nothing for humanity besides breathe and some would argue that even that was just a waste of oxygen. She deserved no press or publicity whatsoever; and certainly not for merely living, and dying, which is what she got. We all live, we all die. Where was my Grandad’s Hello magazine tribute when he died of cancer? Where was my friend’s father’s front page when he died of cancer? Where was the interview exclusive for my friend on his feelings on it? Why did Kylie Minogue get a sky1 documentary about surviving breast cancer with the best, most expensive care, treatment and support money can buy when all my mother got was an infection and money problems?
There are issues and events going on in this world that need addressing but our media is far too busy following an agenda of bullshit to mention them. There is no objectivity in our media anymore because they are all subjected to commercial pressures. There is no such thing as a free press if press costs, and earns, money.
…
…
…A 62 year old old lady from Nuneaton who, despite the complications due to her age, still manages to go out every day and do chores and errands for her older friend who is housebound through disability.
Yeah. As if.
Welcome back to the real world folks. Sadly, individuals like this fictional old dear are usually never recognised. OK so there’s the occasional ‘Bravery Awards’ or local news human interest story about them. But otherwise this world does not celebrate true hard work, determination, effort, heart, soul and care. No, instead we have upon our front pages rampaging hordes of actors, singers, footballers and women who get their tits out for money.
Let me make my most controversial statement of my feelings on this subject now. Jade Goody. Died of cancer. I couldn’t give a flying fuck.
For those who don’t know (possibly because you’re from the US) Jade Goody was a vacuous, ignorant, racist idiot who rose to fame after being on a reality TV show called ‘Big Brother’ whereby they stick a group of idiots in a house and watch them grunt at each other for a week or two. Apart from, having been diagnosed with cervical cancer, doing some good work to raise awareness of the subject, she did next to nothing for humanity besides breathe and some would argue that even that was just a waste of oxygen. She deserved no press or publicity whatsoever; and certainly not for merely living, and dying, which is what she got. We all live, we all die. Where was my Grandad’s Hello magazine tribute when he died of cancer? Where was my friend’s father’s front page when he died of cancer? Where was the interview exclusive for my friend on his feelings on it? Why did Kylie Minogue get a sky1 documentary about surviving breast cancer with the best, most expensive care, treatment and support money can buy when all my mother got was an infection and money problems?
There are issues and events going on in this world that need addressing but our media is far too busy following an agenda of bullshit to mention them. There is no objectivity in our media anymore because they are all subjected to commercial pressures. There is no such thing as a free press if press costs, and earns, money.
Some of you might argue that I am only jealous. That I wish I got as much attention as these people got. I will admit that as a human being I do quite enjoy attention at times. We all do. We are social creatures. We crave community and the attention and support of that community. But I don’t seek attention. I enjoy what comes my way but I want credit for what I do, not for who I am. If a musician releases an album they should be credited for and rewarded for that and only that. What car they drive, what house they live in, whatever their personal and social health may be and what bloody underwear they choose should be their business and their business alone.
But what irritates me most is not the attention these people get, but the inexplicable wealth they receive. It is disgusting that there is still world poverty and meanwhile footballers could be earning anywhere from £25,000 to £250,000+ a WEEK for doing what a lot of men do for fun up and down the UK. There are actors and actresses who command huge fees into the tens of millions for starring in a movie and, well, they don’t fucking deserve it! How stupid do you have to be to think they do? Again, I am not jealous of their wealth. Money means nothing to me. Money is literally a valueless idea, and one that I think we have to get rid of if this species wants to maintain survival. I just can’t understand how any individual could feel they deserve that much money for playing football, singing a song, acting in a film or any other activity that could put you in the limelight or amass a bank balance (bankers, I’m looking in your direction…) and actually think you deserve it more than, say, a HIV positive African child who has to provide for his/her younger siblings due to their father having been murdered by militia and their mother having died of AIDs. They have to travel miles a day to get a small amount of food and dirty water just to survive and yet, they keep struggling.
There is no perspective in this world and the proof of that is on your front pages, in your twitter trends, amongst your facebook likes and plastered over every major newsmedia website across the length and breadth of the World Wide Web.
I’m getting rather angry and upset now…The trail of thought that was in my head is now just an explosive muddle of ire, upset and expletives. Because unlike a population of individuals who are so wrought with insecurity and banality that they have to aspire to be somebody, I just want to be me. And rather than worry about what some glamour model tart wore to a party, or what an actress or actor had to say about something, I’m too busy thinking about the unsung tales of that poor old lady, or the African child.
I know this blog may offend some people who enjoy celebrity culture. For that I am sorry. I am truly sorry you’re an inhuman, vacuous, soulless dunce. I still love you. And I hope my words can at least make you think before you next purchase a daily tabloid, or before you tune into some mediocre reality TV programme. Because unlike you, I love everyone regardless of whether they make it into my newspaper or not.
There is no perspective in this world and the proof of that is on your front pages, in your twitter trends, amongst your facebook likes and plastered over every major newsmedia website across the length and breadth of the World Wide Web.
I’m getting rather angry and upset now…The trail of thought that was in my head is now just an explosive muddle of ire, upset and expletives. Because unlike a population of individuals who are so wrought with insecurity and banality that they have to aspire to be somebody, I just want to be me. And rather than worry about what some glamour model tart wore to a party, or what an actress or actor had to say about something, I’m too busy thinking about the unsung tales of that poor old lady, or the African child.
I know this blog may offend some people who enjoy celebrity culture. For that I am sorry. I am truly sorry you’re an inhuman, vacuous, soulless dunce. I still love you. And I hope my words can at least make you think before you next purchase a daily tabloid, or before you tune into some mediocre reality TV programme. Because unlike you, I love everyone regardless of whether they make it into my newspaper or not.
~Old Posts~ Endangered
For http://tigertime.info
An issue that has come up with regards to myself, through twitter, recently has been the plight of tigers worldwide and, indeed, naturally, the plight of many native and non-native species.
I am a bit of science geek and, biology just is my bag. Within the scope of biology I have a fond love of the zoological and, within the scope of that, I am a man of the cat. As such, the work of Tiger Time immediately appealed to me and, with it being run through such a reputable and amazing charity as the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation you know that money and information is being used in the right ways. Charities don’t have to be huge to make a difference, indeed, large charities require lots of experienced staff to run them and, sadly, those staff do not come with the charities best interests at heart…they expect to be paid. As such, smaller, but more efficient charities can get money where it is needed, when it is needed as directly as is possible and, thus, make a huge difference.
The tiger is a fantastic creature, a walking paradox that is as cute as it is scary and as affectionate as it is murderous. But such is the appeal of the feline. Their subspecies have, sadly, been dwindling rapidly, with I believe around 4 subspecies going extinct in the 20th century alone. That kind of rapid extinction rate can only be attributed to man and, as such, it is our responsibility to make up for past mistakes and past ignorance in order to help support the species that remain in the world.
It may escape the notice of a lot of individuals due to its lack of press but, amongst biological circles it is well publicised that we are in the midst of one of the largest ever extinction events known in the 4.5-5 billion year history of the Earth and it is one that is occurring directly as a result of mankind’s actions. It is not just the majestic Tigers prowling around from the Tundric plains of the Amur region to the humid forests of India, but many species worldwide that are under threat.
One fantastic cetacean, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin is already functionally extinct. Essentially, a population may exist but it is too small to sustain itself, and, natural problems caused by unnatural death, inbreeding depression etc. is going to kill it off. I am sure the massive commercial and industrial forces in China are directly responsible for this. There sadly cannot exist ecological and economic growth based upon commercialist ideologies and, as a result, many species in emerging nations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are going to see drastic declines in their populations and, scientists will see many more extinctions, unless we make urgent plans now to stop such from occurring.
I’m no hippy. I get that money makes the world go round. But money and ecology do not have to be mutually exclusive. If the UK can spare £250m to murder innocent children in the name of Nato in Libya why can we not spare such an amount to assist in protecting populations of creatures that are now endangered, some of which are in their delicate positions as a direct result of British colonialism and the selfish breed of trophy hunter that helped us establish colonies.
There is always money to help kill, apparently, but never any money to preserve life.
An issue that has come up with regards to myself, through twitter, recently has been the plight of tigers worldwide and, indeed, naturally, the plight of many native and non-native species.
I am a bit of science geek and, biology just is my bag. Within the scope of biology I have a fond love of the zoological and, within the scope of that, I am a man of the cat. As such, the work of Tiger Time immediately appealed to me and, with it being run through such a reputable and amazing charity as the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation you know that money and information is being used in the right ways. Charities don’t have to be huge to make a difference, indeed, large charities require lots of experienced staff to run them and, sadly, those staff do not come with the charities best interests at heart…they expect to be paid. As such, smaller, but more efficient charities can get money where it is needed, when it is needed as directly as is possible and, thus, make a huge difference.
The tiger is a fantastic creature, a walking paradox that is as cute as it is scary and as affectionate as it is murderous. But such is the appeal of the feline. Their subspecies have, sadly, been dwindling rapidly, with I believe around 4 subspecies going extinct in the 20th century alone. That kind of rapid extinction rate can only be attributed to man and, as such, it is our responsibility to make up for past mistakes and past ignorance in order to help support the species that remain in the world.
It may escape the notice of a lot of individuals due to its lack of press but, amongst biological circles it is well publicised that we are in the midst of one of the largest ever extinction events known in the 4.5-5 billion year history of the Earth and it is one that is occurring directly as a result of mankind’s actions. It is not just the majestic Tigers prowling around from the Tundric plains of the Amur region to the humid forests of India, but many species worldwide that are under threat.
One fantastic cetacean, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin is already functionally extinct. Essentially, a population may exist but it is too small to sustain itself, and, natural problems caused by unnatural death, inbreeding depression etc. is going to kill it off. I am sure the massive commercial and industrial forces in China are directly responsible for this. There sadly cannot exist ecological and economic growth based upon commercialist ideologies and, as a result, many species in emerging nations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are going to see drastic declines in their populations and, scientists will see many more extinctions, unless we make urgent plans now to stop such from occurring.
I’m no hippy. I get that money makes the world go round. But money and ecology do not have to be mutually exclusive. If the UK can spare £250m to murder innocent children in the name of Nato in Libya why can we not spare such an amount to assist in protecting populations of creatures that are now endangered, some of which are in their delicate positions as a direct result of British colonialism and the selfish breed of trophy hunter that helped us establish colonies.
There is always money to help kill, apparently, but never any money to preserve life.
~Old Posts~ The Arms Trade
The Arms Trade
You may notice below* a poem for which I, in my preamble, expressed a lot of scorn, despite the fact that I wrote it. This was because I was written very emotionally, and, being the common lad that I am, emotion generally equates to swearing. It is probably the most sweary poem I have ever written, and it’s content is quite graphic. But, I have to say I have changed my opinion of it.
The poem itself is about the arms trade and is specifically aimed at the DSEi arms ‘fair’ currently going on in London (at the Excel exhibition centre in the Docklands area if you feel like going there and protesting on my behalf because I am too skint to get there…)
Now, let’s just break this down a moment.
The poem itself is about the arms trade and is specifically aimed at the DSEi arms ‘fair’ currently going on in London (at the Excel exhibition centre in the Docklands area if you feel like going there and protesting on my behalf because I am too skint to get there…)
Now, let’s just break this down a moment.
Arms - Many items may come under this term but, ultimately they are all involved in killing or the business of killing (i.e. support of killing, defending your killers etc. some things may not kill directly but are support mechanisms for killing)
Exhibition - A showing off. In this case it is a trade exhibition whereby people who make things to kill show off their killing machines.
Pardon my language, but WHAT THE FUCK!?
I say again.
Arms - Stuff that kills.
Exhibition - Showing off that stuff
WHAT, THE, and FUCK!?
The truth is I had never really spent much time thinking about that sort of thing before. In the past I have often been a busy man and, my recent sedentary lifestyle has led to me thinking more about things and, when I heard about this ‘Arms Exhibition (WTF?)’ I got to thinking about that.
Here in the Western world we like to tout ourselves as civilised people. The nations who lead the rest of the world in pursuit of what’s right and just in the world. And yet. In London. Right now. There is essentially an arms bazaar going on. To make it worse, the police and government know about it. Indeed the police are there, but they’re not there arresting international despots, tyrants, dictators and general blood-dealers. No, they are harassing and arresting the peaceful protesters who think, quite rightly, that there is something wrong with people dealing instruments of death on their doorstep.
There is something wrong with it, and quite frankly our government should not be encouraging it. I am sick of this god damned war economy we are living in. Here is how the
world works. There will never be peace with our current system. There, I said it. Notions of world peace. Forget it. It WILL NOT HAPPEN in our current system. Because war is driving the economy. Rich people love to make money, and will do so any way they can, and countries (especially the UK thanks to our own homegrown arms dealers!) will be happy to throw their troops into stupidly expensive wars because it makes the political elites rich donors very happy. The upshot of it is money comes out of the public purse and lives are lost while a lot of evil rich men are exceptionally happy.
THIS
HAS
TO
STOP!
Repeat.
Pardon my language, but WHAT THE FUCK!?
I say again.
Arms - Stuff that kills.
Exhibition - Showing off that stuff
WHAT, THE, and FUCK!?
The truth is I had never really spent much time thinking about that sort of thing before. In the past I have often been a busy man and, my recent sedentary lifestyle has led to me thinking more about things and, when I heard about this ‘Arms Exhibition (WTF?)’ I got to thinking about that.
Here in the Western world we like to tout ourselves as civilised people. The nations who lead the rest of the world in pursuit of what’s right and just in the world. And yet. In London. Right now. There is essentially an arms bazaar going on. To make it worse, the police and government know about it. Indeed the police are there, but they’re not there arresting international despots, tyrants, dictators and general blood-dealers. No, they are harassing and arresting the peaceful protesters who think, quite rightly, that there is something wrong with people dealing instruments of death on their doorstep.
There is something wrong with it, and quite frankly our government should not be encouraging it. I am sick of this god damned war economy we are living in. Here is how the
world works. There will never be peace with our current system. There, I said it. Notions of world peace. Forget it. It WILL NOT HAPPEN in our current system. Because war is driving the economy. Rich people love to make money, and will do so any way they can, and countries (especially the UK thanks to our own homegrown arms dealers!) will be happy to throw their troops into stupidly expensive wars because it makes the political elites rich donors very happy. The upshot of it is money comes out of the public purse and lives are lost while a lot of evil rich men are exceptionally happy.
THIS
HAS
TO
STOP!
Repeat.
THIS
HAS
TO
STOP!
People, you might be happy with your little life. You might have a reasonable job, you might have a comfortable home, you might have your brand new iphone and your bose sound system and your sixty-inch widescreen HD BULLSHIT. But there will not be a world to enjoy those things in if this system carries on. This economy is a perpetual motion machine of consumption and destruction. It may not affect you in your lifetime but your children, and your children’s children will suffer. The basest natural instinct is survival, not of the self, but of the species. Unfortunately a group of people who know your psychology very well have managed to engage in our brains needs and desires that detach us from that base need so as they can make money. But stop. Think for a moment. Do you want your lineage. Your family name. Your proud and noble genes. Do you want them to continue in the future?
Because there won’t be a future for them to carry on in.
It really is that simple.
The world as we know it will have all of its resources consumed and all of its land rend asunder by weapons if we don’t make a stand NOW for real change.
Forget this ‘terrorists will get you’ lie. You’re probably about as likely to die of a petrified owl falling out of the sky and hitting you on the head as you are from terrorism. Your own government is a bigger threat to you than terrorism. A much bigger threat. To the extent that they unashamedly sell instruments of death at ‘Arms Exhibitions’. Do you not see something wrong with that?
Stop being scared of what little you might lose. You have nothing if you have no future. So you have nothing to lose.
There is at the moment a large movement of people wanting change. Please join them. You have nothing to lose. Nothing except your guilt and shame at this current system. Please, world. Let’s make this change. Let’s get together as people and change this world. Please.
I apologise if this piece has been a bit disjointed. My thoughts do not organise well when subjected to extreme emotions and I am extremely emotional right now. But thank you for reading and I hope you find some agreement with me.
Let me just repeat for clarification.
Arms - Death
Exhibition - Showing it off.
SHOWING OFF DEATH - WHAT THE FUCK!?
Wake up people. You are change. You are freedom.
You exist, and that means that this world and everything in it are within your control. Use it. Change it. Before it’s too late.
HAS
TO
STOP!
People, you might be happy with your little life. You might have a reasonable job, you might have a comfortable home, you might have your brand new iphone and your bose sound system and your sixty-inch widescreen HD BULLSHIT. But there will not be a world to enjoy those things in if this system carries on. This economy is a perpetual motion machine of consumption and destruction. It may not affect you in your lifetime but your children, and your children’s children will suffer. The basest natural instinct is survival, not of the self, but of the species. Unfortunately a group of people who know your psychology very well have managed to engage in our brains needs and desires that detach us from that base need so as they can make money. But stop. Think for a moment. Do you want your lineage. Your family name. Your proud and noble genes. Do you want them to continue in the future?
Because there won’t be a future for them to carry on in.
It really is that simple.
The world as we know it will have all of its resources consumed and all of its land rend asunder by weapons if we don’t make a stand NOW for real change.
Forget this ‘terrorists will get you’ lie. You’re probably about as likely to die of a petrified owl falling out of the sky and hitting you on the head as you are from terrorism. Your own government is a bigger threat to you than terrorism. A much bigger threat. To the extent that they unashamedly sell instruments of death at ‘Arms Exhibitions’. Do you not see something wrong with that?
Stop being scared of what little you might lose. You have nothing if you have no future. So you have nothing to lose.
There is at the moment a large movement of people wanting change. Please join them. You have nothing to lose. Nothing except your guilt and shame at this current system. Please, world. Let’s make this change. Let’s get together as people and change this world. Please.
I apologise if this piece has been a bit disjointed. My thoughts do not organise well when subjected to extreme emotions and I am extremely emotional right now. But thank you for reading and I hope you find some agreement with me.
Let me just repeat for clarification.
Arms - Death
Exhibition - Showing it off.
SHOWING OFF DEATH - WHAT THE FUCK!?
Wake up people. You are change. You are freedom.
You exist, and that means that this world and everything in it are within your control. Use it. Change it. Before it’s too late.
*************************************************************
*The poem mentioned above.
Gun Runners
*The poem mentioned above.
Gun Runners
Blood stained hands in expensive executive wear;
red shirts. They were once white, now red.
On their backs are skin-spun sacks
bundled full of body parts.
Oozing fluids indiscriminately
across the slippery exhibition centre floor.
Death is the currency here.
Trades are done with limbs and torsos.
Limousines fuelled with blood.
Smoking cigars made from
rend burnt flesh, rolled;
the stench unbearable
as they disrespectfully fellate
these smoking, rotten cocks.
red shirts. They were once white, now red.
On their backs are skin-spun sacks
bundled full of body parts.
Oozing fluids indiscriminately
across the slippery exhibition centre floor.
Death is the currency here.
Trades are done with limbs and torsos.
Limousines fuelled with blood.
Smoking cigars made from
rend burnt flesh, rolled;
the stench unbearable
as they disrespectfully fellate
these smoking, rotten cocks.
These disgusting monsters,
their morals loosely hanging around their groin
as a pair of dishevelled, atrophied testis,
don’t need cock and balls.
They’ve got a bigger sack,
full of other people’s bodies.
Their dick ejaculates bullets
through a rifled bore.
Their own body means nothing.
They are not human.
Soulless vacuum ghasts
inhaling, ingesting, consuming.
their morals loosely hanging around their groin
as a pair of dishevelled, atrophied testis,
don’t need cock and balls.
They’ve got a bigger sack,
full of other people’s bodies.
Their dick ejaculates bullets
through a rifled bore.
Their own body means nothing.
They are not human.
Soulless vacuum ghasts
inhaling, ingesting, consuming.
They tear off their clothes in a fit
of onanistic, orgiastic death fucking;
Shooting holes in skulls
to have more orifices.
Fucking everything.
Fucking the innocent.
Fucking the guilty.
Fucking the poor.
Fucking the dead.
Fucking the world.
The future lies raped, defiled and sobbing.
Twisted Necrophile beasts contorting their
scarred and ugly faces in orgasmic ecstasy
at the thought of deaths bony hand
touching another child,
another woman.
Another man.
Another innocent.
Poltergeists rutting
rifle cocks,
shooting hot-lead climactic fluids
into the hearts of all around.
As each tear and gash in human flesh
becomes just another cunt to get fucked.
Each bullet wound an exploitable hole.
Each severed, dangling limb
just a dildo to fuck some more.
Disgusting
Earth raping
anima defiling
Incubi.
When demons in hell have nightmares,
they dream of a world where self-aggrandising pricks
preach peace and civility to the world,
whilst marketing death on their doorstep.
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