Click here

Here's a cool little thing, project playlist. Search for a tune you like, add it to a playlist, store them all up and whack a bit of code on your blog. It searches sites that have mp3's uploaded links to them and outputs them via their funky little flash player. You can keep adding songs to your playlist too. I doubt the copyright mob will like it but...{insert naughty word with them on the end}

You can autoplay it or leave it to people to click and choose, or let it randomise.

Tommy Cooper, just like that
Made us laugh and wore a hat

Big tall oaf, funny voice
Starey eyes, jokes of choice

Drank too much that's for sure
Made me laugh was not a bore

Fez and stuff a har har har
A little bit of magic, alacazar

glass bottle bottle glass
spoon jar spoon a har har har

Man walks into a butchers shop, butcher says "I bet you 10 quid you cant reach that meat up on the shelf" Man replies, "Nah, the steaks are too high..."

Two elephants fell off a cliff...boom boom.

Watch this, it's pretty interesting and says all sorts about the 30's and their morals and attitudes to the sexes and more specifically 'sex' itself and the dangers inherent!

The opening warning on the evils of syph are almost hell and brimstone in their intonement, I'd say some preacher out of the film Poltergeist wrote it! The acting is kind kooky, but bear with it, especially when she smiles sweetly and says "oh darling they are going to get married, if they can be happy we can too"

How times change, live well or go to hell folks.

Did you ever paint? Have you ever tried? Did you enjoy it?

Why can't people just let things go.

What is this slavery reparation bollocks?

Sure, discuss it by all means if you have to, but for gods sake, don't apologise on my behalf, I or my ancestors did nothing. We were in the workhouses or being used as cannon fodder to prop up some feudal lord or baron somewhere. Taking the logic of wealth built by exploitation to its logical outcome, you may as well argue that all wealth accrued by land ownership or bestowed by the crown was to the detriment and enslavement of those who lived and work the lands. How about a bit of reparation for the relatives of those too.

Grab all the wealth from old Duke of Westminster and share it out. Or what about the royal household. Redistribute all theirs too?

200 years ago bad things happened. Slavery was an awful thing, implemented by ruling class greedy bastards who had the capacity to see people as animals and commoditites.

The same people exist today, they go by the names of George and Tony and Vladimir.

Sony Gamers get a free HD TV. Nice little bonus eh? A £2500 quid HD telly.

They had just been told they had been rewarded for their patience and loyalty with a free £2,500 high-definition TV on which to play their shiny new console.

Personally, I wouldn't dream of queuing all night for anything, let alone a £500 games machine.

I've got an xbox360 that I picked up cheap for the boy and am pretty impressed with the quality. Gears of war is scary, trust me.

Becky makes an interesting point about Digg today.

For those of you who don't know Digg is a social media site where people 'digg' or 'bury' stories.

 Becky noticed that a lot of her blogs or dugg stories are often buried by the same groups of people. She looked a little further and found that the same people appeared to be doing the burying.

If you get a story on the front page of Digg it can get your blog a lot of attention. The greater the number of diggs, the higher you go in their system. Other people as a result will blog about what you say, especially if its interesting/noteworthy. Links are a currency, lots of links can earn you lots of attention and raise your importance/authority in the blogosphere and search engine scoring systems. Where money or influence can be bought cheaply and sold on for greater value, then some people will seek to exploit/ manipulate it.

As Becky shows, political groups and individuals are getting the hang of this web 2 stuff. They realise that certain platforms used correctly, can be useful tools for promoting their agendas.Heavily trafficked sites that push  messages out based on user metrics are popular because people believe that they are in some way democratic. The theory goes that if say 1000 people who use a system have felt motivated to click a button whose subtext is 'this a great site/story', then it must be worth a look.

I guess ultimately, people will always try and game systems.If its exploitable and people feel they can get away with it without causing too much observable harm, then people will act out of self interest and do what they do.

We are all on some level political animals; we will use our friends and networks to achieve our aims, be they benevolent or otherwise. Its how life works.Be it newspapers, tv shows, radio, and of course now the internet, people will look for ways of pushing their agendas and getting their mesage in front of your face.

Knowledge is power dudes

 

Burn candle burn give us some light
Deft little flickers are such a delight

Turn up the flame burn with desire
Let us all feel your pulsating fire

Watching your flame glow orange and red
Putting my hands up to your head

Basking in your warmth and heartening glow
As the crowd and the masses they cheer below

Burning with passion your light is aglow
The wisdom and energy it doeth bestow

Turn down the flame, its far too hot
We do not wish to exhaust you not

To have no warmth would make us cold
Without your fire what would be told

No more interest no more desire
Just a cold dark dank spent, funeral pyre

She smiles so happy, bright and cheerful
Lippy and trappy, she gives me earfuls

Her smile is big, her teeth are gappy
She loves to tell me, shut your trappy

She sings and dances and takes the stage
She wears cool clothes that are all the rage

She's blonde she's lovely, I love her lots
She is my daughter, Amber Watts.

x

Quick rant.

If you live or work in London and drive you would have at some point probably had to have paid the congestion charge.

£8 to enter an area of London and a big fine if you forget to pay it. Now, I'm not here to rant about the charge, thats been done to death far more eloquently than I ever could or more occassions than a matabelian witch doctor could shake a stick at.

My beef today is those adverts you get on the radio. The ones with the soft female melifluous voice and the cute little beeps from car horns and oh so innocent sounding.."what if I do this and that" type questions from some dumb sounding ass, whilst miss melifluous answers in those soft reassuring provided-you-pay-in-time-we-wont-nail-your-bollocks-(or tits)-to-the-mast tones!

Grrrrr, listen here Mr nasally-bugled-I'm-alrighty-jack-doing-very-nicely-thanks-very-much Ken Livingstone, no matter how you try and dress it up, you will never ever in a month of 75 degree centigrade sunny sundays convince me that the congestion charge is anything other than a diabolical liberty of the most monumental proportions, so there! I hope you feel put out for the knowledge too!

Seriously, do the advertising execs who are paid excessive amounts to dream up these cheery little pieces of "get inside your head and press your emotional buttons bullsit" really think that we will all sit there and say "awwww, how nice of them to put it like that" They must, else why would they bother!

Reminds me too of those other ads from the Inland Revenue. That nice old boy with the grey hair who talks enthusiastically about machines and inventions, the one where he is standing inside a big egg timer whilst the sands of time ebb away, whilst cheerily proclaiming if you don't pay your tax on time, you'll get hit with a fine of £100.

Know when you are getting got at people, and tell em bollox, thats what I say

Last month on average property prices rose 1.8%. Some people are now seeing their wealth increase by a greater rate than their incomes, simply due to the increasing valuation of their properties.

Apparently profiteering irresponsible banks are now giving people mortgages at 6 x rate of their salary, and in some case more!

Lets assume that you earn a modest sum of say £30,000 per year. Lots of people earn way below this, but its useful for the purposes of what I'm saying.

At a rate of 6% a mortgage on a loan of £180,000.00 would cost you over 300 months (25 years) about £1159.74 per month.

Your post tax net income from your wages would be in the region of £1840 per month leaving you around £700 to cover food costs, council tax, electric, gas, clothing, holidays and any other thing requiring a £ note. Not a lot to play with is there. Add kids to the equation and it becomes tighter still.

Now, imagine that rates went up by just 1%. You'd then have to find a further £111, at 2% its £230, 3% its £350. Basically for every extra % point it goes up you'll have to find £110. You think this unlikely? Just look back to late 80's and early 90's for a glimpse of what can happen to moneymarkets and interest rates. They are extremley volatile to say the least. Under a Tory chancellor in the late 80's interest rates hit a whopping 15%! Under that kind of rate our sample repayment rises to a staggering £2300 per month you'd need to earn an extra £500 per month simply to pay the mortgage!

The banks don't give a shit of course, they are quite happy to give mortgages for 90% of property value as they simply cant lose. If mortgage rates rise, or you lose your job and you can't pay, then they get the property to sell on, whilst you are evicted along with any shortfall liabilty arising.

That's the nightmare scenario. The other scenario is that rates again would rise, albeit not excessively, yet excessive enough to put you under considerable hardship. Where this happens, property prices fall, thus leaving you with a negative equity.You can't even sell to lessen your liabilities, you are stuck, up the creek without a paddle.

How is such an insanity allowed to prevail? Where I ask is the responsible lending there?

A roof over ones head is one of lifes fundamentals. Mortgages at those rates are irresponsible. The people who are forced to take them on often have little other alternative.Where is it all going I wonder.

Perhaps its a product of the I'm alright jack attitude that prevails. Many people are quite happy with the status quo. Lots of home owners have seen their homes and investments rocket and are now sitting pretty. A substantial number of people are not, and struggle through with an array of secondary less appealing options.

Can such stratifications be good for society? What future for our children and people unable to access the opportunities that such access to wealth brings. Do we want a ghettoised society. Do we want gated communities like they have in places like California

Where are the policies that will unite and integrate I wonder? Obvious really I guess, such policies don't exist. They simply aren't compatible with an unfettered free market economy.

A light it glows upon the rocks
Calling out and sending shocks
A rhythmic beat, a pulse of love
A resonance, yet not enough

The bag awaits its content to be
Shirts and Shorts quite possibly
A book, a tune, a reference point
To a land called home to soul anoint

The pull is strong, yet hesitant
In seek of life benevolent
The warmth and promise of talk intense
Yet still in fear and reticence

In doubt of word and feeling be
Just lost in a mazed soliloquy
Tender words that dance on ice
Perhaps for now, that will suffice

...Oh baby its cold outside!

Serious, its feckin freezin out there.

I just got back from a lickle cycle over to Letchworth to give Amber her hair straightners that she left here yesterday, who could resist an angelic, "Dad, I left my hair straighteners at yours can you bring them over to my house please..."

This was at around 9am so I looked up through the skylight, saw blue sky and thought yeah why not, I'll cycle over, 3 miles for crows around 4 for bipeds.

How looks can be deceptive, I'm kinda glad I wrapped up warm. I put on a t-shirt and my hoodie, banged on my Adicolor Clare Rayners, whacked a little pack on my back, and headed on up the hill.

Jesus, talk about howling bite through your arse wind! I was kinda lucky going up the hill cos the wind was behind me and gave me a determined assist. For a moment I thought to myself, fuck, I'm fitter than I thought as it really was a piece of piss.

I got to Amber's in record time - cold hands and warm heart ( I should have been a Dr) Amber bless, was still in her Jarmas, so I gave her the benefit of a big cold hug and a kiss before heading on back.

I detoured into the ex Bro In laws to nick a cup of tea and a quick natter before hitting the road again.

I took a different route home thinking that I needed to try and find a way that was a little bit different. Ever feel like some things are too familiar or same old same old? Its funny what goes through your mind when you are out and about peddling hard. I tend to play little tapes in my head and weigh and redress or balance out things that I'm not too sure of or that are bothering me in some way. I never come up with any answers mind, but its good to process and channel it throuugh a little physicality.If your ego is too noisy and won't give you a break, then go out and burn some cals, works wonders and shuts you up, trust me.

I made a bit of a boo boo on my route back though cos the wind really got me, especially as i went through some of the more exposed parts. There's one particular downward hill where I usually manage to attain 40mph, which on a bike, is pretty fast, i aint shitting you. Today with the wind in my face I had to really push to get above 10mph! I even put me hood up and found myself making references to the words fuck game and soldiers, but hey I made it back and feel like Ive done a bit, which is all good.

Off to see my adopted mum in a minute, gonna take her some flowers and give her a little card and some chocs and stuff.

People need to feel like they matter, here's a little idea for today, find someone you love, who matters to you, and let them know, just tell them, they might look at you as if you are a bit weird, or they might not even. Whatever their reaction you can be assured that it'll stay with them and warm their cockles. They'll love you for it, trust me.

Whatever you do today, I hope its nice.

Edit: Duh, I need to read the instructions it seems..

I quite like blog.co.uk. but I'm not totally enamoured with how when you create a new blog site, the whole world has to know about it.I think it would be cool if you could create new blogs and in some ways disassociate yourself from them publically, or at least have the option to hide their existence from other casual visitors or friends should you so choose..

Currently every new blog site that anyone creates is there to be seen by others in ones profile. For others, your new posts will appear to them in their 'friends posts' list and unless you make it private, everyone will be able to tie your identity to what you write.

If you make it private then its a pointless exercise as for me, the whole point of blogging is to communicate ideas, express what you think and gain a little feedback and discussion. If you want to keep everything private then you might as well just open up a word document and save it in a password protected directory on your hard drive!

Why does this matter? Well, as I've touched on already, there may for example, be something that I want to blog on which is kinda personal. It could be the rumination of the loss of a loved one, it could be some discussion of some obscure sexual fantasy involving sellotape and blue tack, it could be related to how crap my current job is (it isn't) , some anorak interest, a business venture maybe... basically, it could be any number of things that I want to discuss and get feedback on whilst at the same time preserving a degree of anonymity.

I think I'll write to blog.co.uk and see what they think. It shouldn't be too hard to implement, just a line of code in a file somewhere.

What a great film this is I loved it. I borrowed it off of a friend. I liked crouching tiger hidden dragon and another similar offering, the name of which escapes me right now but, hey what a great film this was.

Solemn, dignified, beautiful, enigmatic,artful, great choreography, poetic, emotional. It's so well connected,the direction, the soundtrack, the acting, you really get into the sense of honour that the characters feel towards their roles, you get a taste for the time. It really is a visual and aural feast, might even make a tear appear on your cheek too.

Check it.

Some kid on an advert on TV just asked the question

"What's the point of a daddy longlegs? They just come out and hassle you.."

He has a point too, to us they are just horrible, they fly in your mush and make you wave your hands around like a loon on speed trying to take off. They make your kids scream out "Dad! Dad! there's a daddy long legs in my room" they are a bit like wasps or bluebottles, shit don't even get me started on those fuckers.

But hey, just to get contrary for 10 seconds. There we go again in our arrogant we own the fucking planet way we have about us.

There is a point to them, however annoying they may be. They have as much right to earth tenancy as you or I. They are part of the biosphere, feeding other predators, enabling them to play their part in the thing that is life. Feeding the bird that fed the cat that fed the dog that fed the local tai pai take away that fed the bloke on the way home from the pub that....

I can see a new advert actually, there could be a group of people, all in various states of profession...actually no, hang on better still. Put all the MP's in a big room with Tony and George and have them all singing...

"I don't know why, we swallowed the lie, perhaps we all should fuck off and die..."

I used to enjoy watching that ray mears thing on the BBC. He'd make things and show you little techniques for survival. Be it tents, or obtaining water, or keeping warm or fishing techniques, it was all good stuff, I liked his style.

Right now, I'm watching this program on channel 4 there is this chap named Bear Gryss I think, who is walking round some jungle somewhere, closely followed by a camera crew. Oh no its not a jungle, its the Everglades. Swamps and crocodiles.

He is finding things like fish and maggots and frogs and putting them in his mouth and eating the buggers. Alive mind, no ceremonial slaughter or humane killing with this guy, uh uh. Straight in the gob munch munch munch.

I was only half watching this thing realy, until that was he finds this turtle, huge thing it was, like a big old chicken, only not a chicken. Minding its own business in the swamp doing the thing that turtles do, when suddenly this guy Bear finds it. He holds it up to the camera and starts going on about how important such things are in the wild to ones survival. Suddenley, he pulls out a big fuck off knife and yams it, straight in to the turtles head and kills the thing. He then stuck it on a fire and cooked the bugger.

Now, ok its a TV program and yeah, they've gotta make it watchable and maintain our interest, but really, was that so fuckin necessary I ask? I don't think it was. I think it was senseless brutality inflicted purely for effect. He didn't have to kill it, he could have just held up and said this would be yum, and moved on. Same with the fish and the frog I guess.

Oh look he has snake now, I spose he's gonna kill that little fucker too. Oh no, he let it go. Shit, what an arse, he could have skinned it and made a shoe.

Wanker.

Sally Clark was found at home today dead, she was 43.

She served three years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her newborn sons Christopher and Harry.

She was later released in 2003 after a court found the conviction to be unsafe.

The testimony of an expert witness Professor Roy Meadows was deemed to be pivotal in securing her conviction. Mr Meadows was later to be struck off the medical register by the GMC after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct. Decisions which were subsequently overturned at the high court of appeal.

It hasn't yet been reported as to the cause of Sallys death. Her family have spoken of the terrible toll that this whole episode had had upon her.

I can't begin to know what it must be like to serve three years in prison as a convicted child killer. One reads all sorts of accounts of how people convicted of such crimes are treated by their fellow inmates. I wouldn't even try to begin to imagine how it must feel to know that you are innocent and have to deal with all that comes with being convicted of such a thing. Add to that the loss of your children and the inability of being able to grieve for that loss and you can only but wonder what it does to ones soul.

The police and lawyers who prosecuted that case, the people who put stock in the evidence of one man, simply because he was a professor and esteemed professional, should today hang their heads in shame and take a very long look at themselves and how they conduct their business.

Life is precious, you get just one shot at it. Sallys life was ruined through no fault of her own. Crushed by the weight of an adversarial legal system that all too often convicts people on the basis of spurious claims or dubious evidence.

Rip Sally Clark, I hope you are with your babies and are now at peace.

...May well sound like I'm some kind of hitman, but I'm not, I'm signing up for a male escort agency. No no no, not the sleazy male prostitute variety where I'll be banging old grannies, or face like the back of a bus les dawson looky likeys or anything like that, oh no.

It's the type where you  just escort women who need a guy on their arms or a bit of company to a corporate event or social event somewhere. Someone to talk to and discuss things with, someone to have a laugh with even.

See, I've tried dating and to be honest, its all a bit of a pain in the arse. All that expectation, romantic hopes,  all that trying to impress nonsense, nah - I'm sick of it .

I think thats part of the draw with this male escort thing. I'll get to go out and have a bit of female company and get paid for it too, win win. I don't have to bang them or anything either, there's no obligation to any kind of romantic involvement too, just a plain old night out, doing something different with someone who is paying me for the pleasure, how bad that? If I dont like them or they don't like me then great, no problem either, I don't have to go through that whole feeling rejected or doing the rejecting thing.

Why else do I want to do this? Well, whilst I'm like most red blooded heterosexual chaps, as ive already said this isn't about finding women to bang and have sex with, this is more about the fact that in my job, I just don't get to meet women. It just doesn't happen. I don't even get to have a flirt on the m25 even, I leave work too early for traffic jams.

I come home, sometimes pick my kids up and feed them, then drop them off home and at times that'll be that for the evening.Don't get me wrong thats fine too, but it can get a little boring and repetitive, lifes more fun when its varied and random.

See,  I don't do that whole go to the pub thing and invade some womans space and due to the nature of where I live, don't get the options to go out with lots of friends and meet people socially; besides, it's hard work being a 38 divorcee singleton. Most of your mates are married, and many of your old friends are just caught up in their own lives or live miles away. 38 isn't a time of having lots of boozing buds and clubbing and going out on the pull - its different, Ive changed, I have to re-learn all this stuf and find out how it all works again I guess.

I love women, don't ask me what it is I love exactly, as I don't really know. I love their softness, their smooth features, I'm a sucker for beautiful eyes and a fine form, yet I'm also a sucker for the feminine nature in general. I love the way a woman see's things differently. Her perspectives on life in my limited experience have often been softer and more nurturing. I'm drawn to those things. I love the way they fawn and awww over babies and frilly things and perfumes, I love how they can get lost in shops for hours on end, I love the way they laugh or tease, I guess that ultimately, I just love that whole maternal thing. It might explain why I fell drawn to matriarchs. I love strong independant women who are family focused and orientated.Perhaps its the maternal thing. Freud said that we all want to get back and bang our mothers or in the case of women our fathers even ( the Oedipus Complex ) , those being the first real opposite sex loves of our lives. To me thats a bit icky, well actually cancel that, its a lot fucking icky! I prefer to side with the idea that as adults we all have a deeper need for that emotional reconnect. Subconsciously we look for aspects of our mothers or fathers in our prospective life partners. A cockney mo fo I aint.

Yeah ok, so not all women are like that either, I know that, duh. I've painted something close to a version of my idealised version of mrs  perfectomundo. There isn't anything inherently wrong with aggressive pushy women. Or macho women, of insert any number of different representations of female gender representations other than of course, that I don't find certain aspects of them that attractive, or at least have yet to meet one who displayed contrary characterisitics in abundance, that floated my boat

So yeah, I've filled in the forms and have sent my monies off to be vetted and cleared and be given the good to go. Watch this space. It should be fun.

Hat tip to James

Despite all the deeper issues it raises and all my complaining the other day, I gotta say I'm a sucker for a funny face and a bit of humour, so separating that out from all the stuff I ranted about the other day, i gotta say I have laughed and smiled and even shed a tear.

Emotive music coupled with emotive imagery have a powerful effect.

Maybe its the two glasses of chardonnay mixed up with visual graphics of pain and suffering blended amongst a well of cheer and hope as a graphic appears announcing 26 million squids raised. I dont know where such monies will go, but going with a belief that some charity somewhere will put it all to good work, using that thing called blind trust to say, 'Uh uh, no way it'll all get used on good stuff'. To be honest I didn't really want to watch it, but I got sucked in; the kids are staying over and they insisted, so I relented.

I still maintain that some of the bigger issues are being missed and that things like this are mere sticking plasters on a recurrent problem caused by the way in which societies are run and economies managed, yet I get too the reasons behind its popularity and pull, I'm not a fucking alien after all, I have feelings, I hurt, I feel pain , I laugh, I cry, just like most people!

People want to feel part of positive things. In many ways we may all to a degree or other feel relatively powerless to make a difference in the world. Perhaps things like this give us that opportunity to feel connected or part of something that is trying to make that difference.

When presented with various anectdotes about heartfelt stories of tragedy or proclaiment, then its natural that a good person would feel warmed and heartened to identify with an idea that suggested that they were making that important difference to those poor peoples lives. If you didn't then you might need to take some kind of rochstadt inkblot test and check the 'I'd like to know If Im a psychopath' box.

We all need to feel we belong. Who wants to be that person alone and isolated? Perhaps its a lack of purpose/identity thing. Perhaps we all need some thing or cause or other to latch on to and feel like we are doing something, feel part of that thing called nation or community even, fuck knows.

I still maintain its important to question and to challenge and say things that aren't popular, because life shouldn't be a popularity contest, it relies on controversary and sparks and contrary viewpoints to keep it all alive and buzzing. There's nothing wrong with those 'ambiguous dichotomous hard to grab hold of and define' counter positions. Life is a mass of contradictions and counter viewpoints.

Buenos Noches

He then proceeds to attack me with his can of red hair spray.."Just doing your grey bits dad" he says...

He is bigger than me now 6ft 1 size 12 feet and still only 14, I was gonna chin him, but decided to spare him cos, actually...

Im off down to the salon in the morning to make it permenant

Hackers have control of a server I use to host a lot of my websites.

Hindsight is marvelous. I wish I'd be a little more sensible and distributed my sites across a greater range of hosts or IP addresses. I didn't, and now I'm paying the price.

It reminds you of how selfish some people can really be. These people, whoever they are just couldn't give a stuff about how their actions affect the lives of others. In their eyes if a door is open then its for them to push and walk in and do as they please.

My provider has had to switch the machine off, as these bastards were using it to send brute force attacks to other servers across the internet. This entails bombarding a server with multiple requests against a users account, often using a dictionary based attack. So, if your account name was fred then the hacker would make repeated http requests starting at aaaaaa and cycling through with aaaaab, aaaaac,e tc up to zzzzzzzz999 for example.

Most webservers protect client accounts from this, by recognising these using logs and rjecting the connection if say a remote request is made more than x amount of times within any given timeframe.

The problem for me however is that, multiple attacks like this not only hog up all available server resources, they also use excessive amounts of bandwidth, which when uncapped, can rise to considerable amounts of money very quickly. This is therefore effectively a DDOS attack aka denial of service.

We all have a propensity to feel like grabbing hold of someone and hitting them very hard.

Hackers are not smart, they are not clever, they are selfish cyber criminals who deserve to have ten tons of shit kicked out of them, just to make them think twice the next time.

I feel similarly about burglars and car thiefs. There really is little difference between the two.

I'm not happy.

source:
The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has confessed to his role in them, and 30 other terror plots around the world, the Pentagon says.

 Must be true then eh, he confessed in a 'private hearing' at Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Amazing.
 
It's certainly news that the Pentagon has put out something like this, but that is about the only thing that we can know with any certainty that is true.

Don't get me wrong, this Khalid Sheikh Mohammed chap might well be guilty as hell, but come on, a transcript from a private hearing! How would the BBC report say, a story put out by ETA or the IRA of old, or any other group/govnt it didn't agree with?

Why has the BBc reported that story in the way that it has? Why hasn't it said something like

"The US Military, when asked to comment on whether such a story about a privately held meeting in a Military prison, should be relied upon as objective truth, failed to comment"

Or how bout

"The US Military, when asked to comment on whether such a story about a privately held meeting in a Military prison, should be relied upon as objective truth, responded with......we take the health and welfare of people under our care very seriously indeed, at no time was Mr Mohammed at any point put under any duress etc blah blah blah"

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said there was no way of knowing whether the confession was the result of torture.

 

Amazing.

Promote your blog...if you want to of course

Ever wondered how some people get more readers than others? Here's a quick and dirty guide to gaining more readers and growing your blog base.

Sometimes it works on word of mouth. Some people have an exceptional ability for writing that others are just knocked sideways by and tell others; via email or IM or linking or just plain old fashioned conversation. After all, we aren't all budding Billy Waggle Daggers and most of us (if we are interested even) will struggle to gain a big readership. It'll be a slow long haul, but provided we write something thats legible and appeals to an audience of sorts, then overtime it will build. People like to be commented on and tend to comment on stories or issues that are of interest to them in some way. Be it making them laugh or cry or just striking a general chord.

There are things you can do to get yourself out there though, and there are lots of tools, techniques and websites that can help.

Social media Sites

Check out sites like mybloglog, stumbleupon, technorati, digg, reddit, delicious. Give your readers options. Make it easy for them to 'Digg' you or tag you. Use visual widgets to create a sense of community. Use the tagging option is your post fields as these enable sites like technorati to categorise your content and give them to people searching for those specifics words.

The more you get your content noticed within these sites , the more links and attention to your content and message you will get.

RSS feeds and subscriptions

Use the rss feeds and subscription options to enable people to subscribe and read your content in email and 3rd party reading devices. By syndicating what you do, your content will be picked up by news aggregator sites and will gain you those all important links in.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation

Try to write your content in a way that is structured and logical. Title your blog in a way that makes sense and trgets your main keyword or theme.Use proper headings to segregate your content. Use heading tags and structure them according to how the w3c suggests. Bold relevant words that are particularly relevant to the pice. Link to authority websites on your topic. Try to keep your blog or post central to the theme of what you are discussing. Resist the urge to go too far off topic. Think semantically, write in ways that use a rich variety of words that have a semantic relationship with your titles and content.

Try and ensure that javascript and css code is referenced via a call to a file, rather than being hard coded into the head of the document.

Be a link slut

Get your friends to link to you with keywords and phrases relevant to your post. If your post is about promoting a blog, then generally you want people to link to you with the terms promoting a blog in the link text.

Don't be a spammer, but where possible use opportunities to gain links back to your blog. If you are commenting on a post that discusses blog promotion, then talk about it at the place you are commenting on and reference back to the url where you discussed it. Most blog owners will not have a problem with this and will welcome you taking the time to link in context, especially if you have written something that informs them.

Choose the right blogging platform
 
Try and use a blogging platform that has SEO built in. Look for one that puts your blog post title at the front of your post. Wordpress is one good example I use elsewhere , drupal is another. Blog.co.uk is ok too, but needs a little work around url formatting and title tag structure and additional plugin options, but  its not too far off target.

Look for a blog that enables you to populate the meta description tag of your webpage with a fitting relevant description.

Blogs that offer plugin options are great for adding extra features and integrating additional content.
The richer your resource, the more likely you are to get attention and links.

Be provocative

Write compelling unique content about stuff you have passion for or are familair with. Try and engage your reader, speak with authority and if you can't then at least link to a few sources that do. In other words, create something that will be useful, something that will tease, or inform, or just plain entertain.

Use titles that will pull in your reader and make you stand out from the crowd.

Page titles are often used in search engine results, or outputted in digg or technorati pages to display to users. Try and be ironic, or obtuse. You have around 80 characters to make your impact, choose them well.

Finally

Of course, none of this might even matter to you. You may be one of these people who just writes because you enjoy it. You use it as a means of self expression, a means for banging out those diatribes or things you find otherwise difficult to share or gain feedback on in the standard everyday out there world. If this is the case, then just ignore all of this and carry on

Anyone who ever did a RAOK might have an idea of how it really does have all sorts of positive flow throughs and benefits.

There are lots of things that you can do. Might be just letting another driver out in a traffic jam, or opening a door for someone, or just smiling at some stranger in the street. If you are really brave then you could perhaps pay for the stranger behind you's toll on a toll bridge, or put an extra pound in someones parking meter, or give your local newsagent an extra £5 and ask him to knock it off of some old lady or single mothers food bill.

Give it a try, you'll love it.

People are complex. They are full of all sorts of emotions and contradictions. The beauty of language is that it can be used to support or oppose practically any position.

No specifics here yet, I haven't gotten that far, I'm just generalising, just going with a stream of consciousness and seeing where it goes, I know i want to talk about people and the mind and alliances and all that stuff, but I don't yet have specifics, lets just see where it goes.

I was thinking about how and why it is people tend to side with a position or statement. Why is it that for many, they feel there is no choice other than to adopt a standpoint that opposes the position that they wish to dispute? Where does that come from? What is it that drives that need to dispute and correct; when really, there are very few absolute truths. Are our experiences, ideas and the likely opinions formed from them so immutably fixed that we have little choice but to press ahead and do whatever we can to buttress and reinforce our view? Is it as people like Ekhart Tolle suggest a mere ego thing. Or is it something deeper, something just so intrinsic to us and who we are that gives us very little say in the matter.

A weak analogy yet an anology nonetheless is me and football.

I like Arsenal Football Club, always have done since I was little. It was drilled into me, cup finals and trophies were times of glee, Arsen-al , Ars-enal Ar-se-nal really did and to a lesser extent today -  warm my cotton socks. Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club were my popular enemy. The team I loved to hate, the team I could'nt follow ever, no matter what. To do so would be to commit the most heinous of loyalty crimes. It's clear here that my DNA has been drenched and steeped in all things AFC whilst my kryptonite is the obverse, or to be more exact THFC. Even at work, when Derek gets all uppity and starts giving it the big un,I feel a part of me tense inside and cannot but help myself from lashing back with caustic verve and deconstruction. I remind him in no uncertain terms how rubbish they are and how really, my team is much much better than his pile of shite will ever be.

Its irrational, yet, they are the scum and that's that. Why?Um..because they are Tottenham Hotspur FC. End of. Derek thinks the same yet in reverse. I respect him for that. It's how it is, it is as ingrained for him as it is for me. Neither of us could ever cross the floor and join the enemy. Not ever.

Which got me thinking about politics and people who are capable of changing their ideas or more to the point their allegiances radically. This list of MP's who have crossed the floor shows that despite the perceived divides, there are people capable of upping  sticks and siding with the 'enemy' who for whatever reason feel that the party to which they'd served no longer represented their view and decided to go with one that suddenly has.

The SDP in the early 80's was formed by a group of discontented Labourites who at the time felt that the Labour party of the time, for whatever reason no longer gelled with how they saw things. Their new party sought to realign the political compass to a more satisfactory position. The other story, or interpretation would be of course, that they as individuals were incapable of affecting change from within the Labour party at the time, so took their ball and ran away with a few like minded individuals to create a team built around how they saw the world.

It's interesting to read from that list of defector (or should that be defective), MP's since 1945, just a handful have taken any hugely radical steps, radical in the sense from perceived left to perceived right and visa versa. Reg Prentince in 1977 went from Labour (AFC) to Conservative (THFC) a remarkable event at the time, and Alan Howarth from Conservative to Labour in 1995, closely followed by Shaun Woodward in 1999 and Robert Jackson in 2005. A less than charitable view would be that jump ship tories weren't really jumping ship at all, as they simply see that the party they were joining was more likely to gain power and therefore maintain their parliamentary seats. A real wag might suggest that the party they were joining wasn't really Labour anyways and was more Conservative than the party that bore the name.

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Prescott, Margaret Beckett, Jack Straw and all the rest of that mob who helped ditch clause 4 are in the eyes of many Tories anyway, political careerist opportunists, but thats a little outside the remitof this little meander so i'll park that here.

Getting back to the Gooners and the Scum though however much I loved to laugh at their misfortune over the years, I've respected nonetheless, friends of mine who have stuck by them. It cannot be easy to have 16 yers plus of seeing your team win next to nothing whilst your greatest rivals just keep on winning and winning. When George Graham (ex Arsenal manager) went to manage Tottenham it was interesting to hear the respective howls of delight and wails respectively. Arsenal supporters weren't fussed, George was a good manager who'd done his bit, we all knew he had Arsenal running through his veins. he played for the club in the 70's and had taken them to all manner of footballing heights. To us he was a sleeper, a plant. Tottenham supporters on the other hand hated it. They hated him. they knew what the board couldn't possibly relate to in a million years. He was Georgie Graham, ex Arsenal Manager who'd won everything for their most hated rivals.

Loyalties or the feelings that tie us to a thing run deep.I  ecall a conversation I had once with a schoolfriend I haven't seen for years. Arsenal were having a rocky patch I was about 12 or 13, he suggested that we become West ham supporters cos they were doing alright and played better football. Jas, I said, are you fucking mad? What!? was his quizzical reply..What! said I, fuckin what! Jas I said, you just don't fuckin do that kind of thing. He saw sense and last time I spoke with him he had a season ticket and has raised his boy in all things Arsene Wenger.

Anyhow, this particular stream of thought has just hit the buffers. So I'll leave it at that for the moment, thanks for hearing me out.

The sun is shining, there's cirrus nimbus clouds in the sky, it looks like a nice day to hit the road and knock up a few miles on the bike and burn off that Belgian Wheat Beer I gloomped last night .

The plan is to head off out from Hitchin to Shefford and back via Arlesey. Its about 15 miles, or 1000 calories

What do you like to do on gorgeous sunny days?

edit:

I just unpadlocked the bike to find I have a puncture and no puncture repair kit - bah.

Oh well, I guess I could go out in the car instead, it's a nice day for a drive with the top down.

Tree on a road to nup end 11 march 2007

Some of us get a kick out of this red nose lark. Kids embrace it wholeheartedly, workplaces organise little events and raise money and have a laugh during the process. People as individuals feel fulfilled or proud of themselves as a result. Seriously, that's marvellous, I don't have a problem with any of that. I'm not knocking good human nature.

What does piss me off a little is the corporate side of it all.All that cheery bollocks and hypocrisy. All the hangers on who benefit. The BBC show presenters, how much they getting out of it all? £50k a show, more, less? I dont know, i might be wrong as they could all well be doing it all for nothing all part of some great humanistic upswell of giving and philanthropy.

Supermarkets are full of goods and posters and labels and stickers and red nose buckets. They embrace it like they would any other marketing opportunity. Its like xmas or easter or mothers day or valentines day or any other monetised opportunity they can profit from.

Take this morning. I was watching some cooking program on TV. This woman with a haughty voice comes on strolling around some vineyard with a glass of grape juice in her hand and said something like.."if you go to the supermarket today, look out for wine aid stickers" apparently the supermarkets will be donating 10% of the price to comic relief. Ooh thought I, how generous - not!

Sorry, people must be thick as pigshit if they think these businesses have huge philanthropic streaks running through them. They don't, they exist to make money. Its a hard headed cynical business choice to get in there and plan things around events like this. They know that people are gullible. People will think "oooh thats a nice company to shop at, they are great. They put buckets and noses up everywhere, get their staff to walk around with red noses on, all the staff were smiling, what a wonderful wonderful shop that is, I'll go back there and shop again" To them its just good business sense. They are not charities.

Just watch as this whole comic relief thing continues. Look at the companies who jump on the bandwagon, ask yourself if they really gave a shit about African women with aids in Uganda, or underpriveldged kids in Bolton. Read articles like this and decide for yourself.

Im sure there is a benefit somewhere in all this too. Im not disputing that, lots of good comes from it. I just question whether there isn't a better way of helping people. I just question whether we really have to marry serious things like dying from nasty viruses often prematurely due to the fact that the drugs that could help prolong their lives and are just insanely priced and out of their reach, with a thing like entertainment and comedy is really sending the right signals - I think not, I think it reduces the issue to something lesser and doesn't really help us slap ourselves around the mushes and see these people and their problems in the right kind of light. Dying is serious shit, its not fucking funny.

Yesterday I got my barnet cut. 15 quid plus 3 quid tip. Half hour of chat and whatnot. Jess is nice, I like the way she can end up getting me talking about all sorts. I gotta watch that stuff

Anyhow, today I was having a shave and said to meself, Hmmn I think I'll tckle those eyebrows while I'm at it. So I adjusted the sideburn trimmer tool and put it to setting 4. Snip zoom brrr done, apart that is from 2 annoying hairs that had stayed put. I know says I, I'll grab the bugger with my fingers and yank it out. Ouch, not advisable. Next thing I says to myself I know, I'll take the fitment of the end of the trimmer and use the raw cutting edge, minus comb. Bad idea.

Why is it that when you try and do certain things in a mirror, you misjudge things and do it all wrong? The upshot of my little eyebrow trimming escapade is that I have a chunk missing in one of them. Yep, I ballsed it up see.

Better than being a Dennis Healey looky like though eh

.

Steph did a blog about France jailing some basque separtists It got me thinking about how and why they'd jail them and got me thinking back to my old days on the good old Royal Mail. I drew this connection because much of what I did in my final years there was the result of a fair degree of industrial struggle. It involved a shed load of unofficial industrial action, which long story short, resulted in a deal. A deal that enabled the job to move forward, saved a bit of face and enabling those who'd had enough to move on with a £ note in their pocket. The deal itself was pretty shitty in the grand scheme of things, but was better than what could have happened.

The backdrop to this was that prior to all this there had been a  weak agreement negotiated, management then sought to dictate all manner of new terms and conditions, taking an aggressive stance with various people on the job. Initially people were reluctant to resist. They were subjected to a moody agreement negotiated by weak union reps that basically left them in a pretty difficult position. Certain members of the local management team saw this an opportunity to settle a few old scores and so the path was set..3 long years of walk outs and private tragedies, eventually resulting in a settlement that gave the illusion of progress. Had the people who worked there not have resisted, had they rolled over, then most would have been sacked, and those that weren't would have ended up with far worse conditions and their dignity stripped.

For me it was an important lesson. I learnt that a. you can't achieve change through imposition and b. you dont get nothing for nothing, you have to fight tooth and nail for anything worth having.

When you think about it and look at the workplace today, you might be forgiven for thinking that all manner of terms and benefits are just a natural part of the process.The stresses of the modern workplace can be bad enough, but can you imagine working without things like annual leave entitlement, uniform, sick pay, holiday pay, reasonable working hours, lunch breaks and any number of other things you'd come to take for granted? To think of a workplace without these things is almost crazy, dont you think? Yet a few short years back they simply didn't exist.  It gives some idea of the type of society that pre industrial britain was when you read things like in 1776 a   South Shields postman was executed for stealing a letter containing two £50 notes from Newcastle Post office yes that's right hanged!  The onset of the Industrial revolution, the need for labour and the radicalisation of work set against a backdrop of virtually no rights and the thoughts of Adam Smith et al gave rise to all manner of radical groups determined to fight for a better share of the pie and minimum rights. Its bizarre to think that Trade Unions were actually Illegal in Britain for a large part of the 19th century  and were'nt really given any legal status or protection until 1871.

Companies today like to brag about the  benefits they offer their staff as it makes them look good of course. They want their employees to see them as a benevolent employer. Even government likes to get in on the act. The shorter working week and the minimum wage are two recent examples where people like Blair or Brown have extolled the virtues of a Labour Governement.

No mention is made of the lobbying that goes on. No reference is made at all to the fact that many labour MP's are sponsored by trade unions.No mention is given to the fact that unions do expect something back for their membership and that their membership forms a large part of the community of this country.

Government, the Labour  Party even, would like us to believe that they are a really nice bunch of chaps and chappeses who have the best interests of hard working people at heart. They wan't people to think that it is they who give people things like a health service free at the point of delievery. Pension rights, Free education, Public services, Benefits for the unemployed and those who can't work, Public housing and transport.

Its good to remind oneself that such a position is bollocks.

Every single right we have today, was hard fought on the back of struggle and resistance to something that was unfair or unjust.Everything.

You don't get something for nothing. I think its a good thing to remember that.

FUD - Short for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

I was on my way home yesterday and heard this advert on the radio. All sinister with that spooky music, the type you find in some horror film or high drama, you know the type; designed to make you wonder what's about to happen, put you in a state of fear.

Campaign Link

Before I go any further, I think its important to highlight one particularly tragic event that happened on the 7th of the 7th 2005 here in London, the London Bombings as they have come to be known. People lost their lives, mothers lost sons, daughters lost fathers, brothers lost sisters, aunts lost nieces, husands lost wives. A tragic senseless obliteration of life. Scores of others lives have been blighted, people both mentally and physically scarred.

We will never know whether an advertising campaign could have gone anywhere near to preventing that event. To be honest, I don't really see the point in debating the point either, its likely to be circuitous.

I kinda struggled with the idea of whether even mentioning that event was even fair or justified or relevant.Its always difficult to make a point that has a connection with the loss of life as, well, I just dont want to use it to score any points or ratchet up any defence of anything. Its appalling, its awful and there isn't too much more that can be said about the loss of life so close to home, yet saying that, I can't help but draw paralells with others and at least mention some of the stuff they have to endure, because whether we like it or not, they are all connected, at least thats what we are told to believe. Ive no idea what it must feel like to be an ordinary citizen in Iraq today. Just thinking of the crap they have to put up with. Mass murders daily, no power, water and sewage issues, health issues, communities destroyed and fractured.

Its odd though, cos we don't really identify with their loss. Iraq is 1000's of miles from us in a land full of sand and people who talk arabic; we are disconnected from it all, yet at the same time we are reminded daily that people from this country, British soldiers are out there, killing and getting killed too. Young men acting under orders, losing their lives in the name of something already conveniently forgotten - WMD.

Our media tend to show us the odd picture of a tank or a tent or soldier in the distance, up will pop Blair or Bush and say the odd token terrorrist word and rant on about the evil and danger they represent, how the stability of the middle east is paramount and all that, almost suggesting now that really, its all the fault of the terrorists out there and that the war on terror needs to be ramped up or continued until its all gone away.By creating a climate of fear, talking about an axis of evil, bringing it here to our doorsteps and public transport systems, then overall, it becomes easier to maintain things like the invasion of sovereign nations, tragic loss of life. It also makes it that much easier to pass laws designed to weaken individual rights, easier to restrict and control and maintain power, power borne out of oil and the ability to control its supply lines and production.

Originally when I started this post, I wanted to rant about those adverts I'd heard, I wanted to say how insipid they were. How they undermine community relations, help engender a spirit of separateness, a spirit of disunity and mistrust.

The advert said things like (paraphrasing) "If you see something that looks suspicious, it could be terrorists, they are living in our communities, shopping in our shops, you cn help us catch them, call us free on xxx xxxxxxx xx"

I wanted to ask, where is the benefit in having phone lines full of calls from Mrs Goggins at number 47, reporting how she'd just seen a few men in Bradford with white cloaks and beards unloading some boxes out of the back of a car? Then multiply that by a few 1000 and tell me how such a report a foreign terrorist line benefits anybody at all?

II wanted to ask why that if there really is such a clear and present danger to society, then why not just spend that money on extra 'intelligence'?

I wanted to be flippant and say things like "What warn people I hear you say? As in the days of the war, air raid sirens and all that jazz? How about morning broadcasts with a little scale. What about a terroist forecaster with a map and bomb symbols?"

But now, it just doesn't seem appropriate. I still think the adverts suck, but I'll leave it at that.

Well it works for me, so far so good anyway!

Rob the daft brush has kindly let me lose on his blog, so that I can rant and rave and basically comment about whatever I feel like... hehe evil cackle! I have not known Rob that long, but one of the first things that struck me about him was his down to earth approach to life, his great sense of humour and his honesty. Haha sounds like a dateline discription But seriously for a southerner he has the best taste in hats I have ever seen.

My friends have a nick name for me, it's 'subtle Sarah'. This is mostly due to the fact, I open my mouth before putting mouth into gear.

Here are a few example of my lack of sutlety:

In a management meeting we were told recently that a new person was starting and her surname was liquorice. To which I blurted out, 'ha, I bet she gets upto allsorts'. To which my boss said, mmh ok miss gets the cracks out before she starts. So even work know me :0)

A newish person at work came to see me recently. We get on really well and have quite a giggle. He was saying that some people in our staff are so rude, you say morning and you get a grunt or even worse, they ignore you. So I pipe up, yeah so and so is like that, he can be really nice, or just rude to me. Guess who walks in the door! Ouch .... Lucky for me no P45 was on my desk by the end of the day. Saying that, every morning he now walks past me and says very loudly, 'morning Sarah'! Mmh maybe it was a good thing in the end.

I have to say that over time I am getting better, honest!. Unless of course I have had a drinkie poos, then literally anything I think comes out.

Rob talked earlier about the poor folks who work in supermarkets who have to constantly ask stupid questions. I am not blunt enough to say, if I had a Nectar card it would right now be rammed up your arse haha but give me time ..... Nah that's just rude but it's sooo tempting ;0)

I suppose as my big 40 is coming up I have bascially had it, that's me you get what you get. I say what I am thinking. But at least you know where you are with me, if I feel you have upset me, I will mention it. If you have made my day I will say it. If you need my advise I will give it. I don't count many as best buds, as Rob also mentioned the word friend is banded about far to much.

By the way Rob, your posh if you go to Sainbury's haha my other half only let's me go to Morrisons, where no one has a Nectar card, most are lucky if they have a credit card:0)

Well that's my yack on Rob's blog. I throughly enjoyed my yack.

Till next time ...

I awoke this morning to the sound of torrential rain battering down upon my attic windows splittering and pattering, wind howling.

I lay there for a while and glanced at mobile phone, it was 4:48am. It's difficult to express in words how relaxing it was to just lay there knowing that I didn't have to get up for another 42 minutes or so. The world, as it always is was alive and wild, yet strangely I felt quietened within its whirling ferocity, snug warm and dry beneath the pane, wrapped within my duvet.

This it turns out, kinda set the tone for the day. It got me thinking about the elements our seasons, the power it exerts, how remarkably insignificant we all are in its thrall. We can't stop the earth from moving in its timeless elipse, we cannot affect the pull of the sun, the path of the moon, we are all bound by the clockwork rhythms of life, tick tocking onwards to some time indefinable.

So here I am some 4 or so hours later, having just managed to sit down and grab a cup of tea. The rain has eased off and the Sun is now shining.

Spring is almost upon us. (Yay!)

It officially starts on the 20th March.

Just the other day, well last week in fact, I heard a blackbird singing in a tree; it was 6pm of a Tuesday evening. I distinctly recall feeling some inner cheer, almost a message reverberating within calling from some inate long forgotten internal signalling system. It actually gladdened my soul I distinctly recall thinking, yes excellent.The thought of passing winter, lighter days, warmth, life renewed, dormant bulbs slowing pushing upward, birds out gathering and feathering their nests for their young to come, the sprouting blossoms, the pink and white littered pavements, happier people.

England loves you springtime, we all look forward to your coming.

Well some one has to and I am perfect. Get used to it! Sarah has arrived! :0)

When I was a younger person I used to enjoy watching politicians deflect and obfuscate. It used to amuse me.

Right now, for no apparent reason other than the assemblement of a few random neurons here and there, I'm suddenly sick of reading or hearing or watching some little article or TV program discussing the lack of interest in local or national politics. I'm sick of it because its fucking patently obvious why.

 

Why do I find myself, (when hearing  sombre toned  yeeees yeees yeees Paxman, or that other supercillious bumptious old fart Dimbleby ) responding in increasingly irritable tones of "Well perhaps you ought to stop asking us, and state the fuckin obvious for 10 seconds!"?

Well, allow me to tell you. What really does me in is the way they just ask the questions and then proceed to allow the politicians to say what they want without answering the bloody question! We might see a show of say 30 minutes, of so called, serious political debate, yet nothing ever comes of it. No one ever really ends the program protesting loudly at the farcicality of it all. No one, not ever. It's fuckin entertainment, why doesn't anyone question that?! It's not real political discussion about real issues affecting real communities, real people, real lives. It's more about giving opportunities to politcal careerists, intent on raising their profiles. Program ends, and that's the end of the topic. There is little, if any political continuity across any of the mainstream vehicles. The only medium that currently allows it, is the fuckin internet! Technorati, Digg, reddit et al.How long before they are sucked into some framework of compliance?

Am I so fucking naive to ask why it is that we can't, just for once, see or hear a reporter or presenter  saying to the likes of Blair or Brown or that toff Cameron, in response to the entirely reasonable question of  "Why do you think there's such a dirth of interest or lack of trust in politics and politicians these days?" After hearing them mouth back their respective mealy mouthed platitiudes of saying what they think the public wants to hear, wouldn't it be great, just once, to hear someone have the balls to say..."Well sir, I put it to you that the reasons for such attitudes is in the main are due to the fact that most people think that politicians, like yourself are all just a bunch of self serving, egotistical lying wankers anyway, what say you?" How refreshing would that be be? 

Tell you what, why not go one step further reporter. Go out, get off your fat arse and  conduct an exit poll. Ask people a simple question. Cut and dried, binary response type - Alpha or Omega, yay or fuckin nay.

Question: Do you think politicians are self serving lying bastards yes or no?

 A fair enough yes or no question. Surely.

What better way to frame the attack on the smug faced bastard before them?

"Sir, in a poll conducted by whoever, it was found that over 90% of respondants believed that you and people of your ilk are self serving lying bastards, what say you sir?".

Great TV if nothing else.

I just watched this guy on TV. I've nothing against him personally. He was from Northern Ireland, a politician. He was talking about how he wants to reinvigorate local communities, create jobs, make a better society -  usual style; know all -  I-really-know-better-than-you-lot -of-wankers-tone, parroting out tired old cliches around societal cohesion and hope, and all the usual set of empty phrases we hear them spout and parrot.

Well you know what? I didn't fuckin believe him either, uh uh, not one bit.

I found myself saying, oh no you fucking don't you red nosed so and so, you just want to continue your little jolly until retirement and keep doing your little deals, whilst getting your little backhanders and what not, don't tell me you really fucking care cos you don't, you sir, are a lying fucking bastard.

I could see it, fuck why couldn't the reporter? Where is that hard edged mythology we see in our films and hard hitting TV dramas? You know the type, Watergate style where they nailed that lying bastard Nixon? Ha! In reality, perhaps it just doesnt exist anymore!

Hehe - Its all academic I guess, just go read manufacturing consent, political economy and the mass media its a right eye opener and splains lots.

Anyhow, that politican I refered to. He'd defend himself to the last of course; he'd tell me in the most strongest terms possible that what I'm suggesting is absolutely outrageous, without foundation, entirely devoid of any sense of truth or reasonability whatsoever, how dare I suggest such a slant on his character etc etc but then..he would wouldn't he? That's how these people respond to such things. They can't exactly stand there and say well yeah, its a me me me world old boy and i'm just filling me boots! They play the game of perception and reality. Unless you actually catch them with their hands in the till, you'd just never know. The problem is compunded however, by a weak media who just dont bother looking hard enough, or are prevented from doing so by some Judge pontificating from on high.

Another part of the problem I think, is that It's all too comfortable for them, all too easy for them all to saunter along in some unrealistic world surrounded by fauning puppy sychophants telling them how wonderful they are, whilst furiously licking their arses in the hope of some little political job to come.

Then there's the tenure of the job itself. 4 years of jollying it up on a nice few quid every week all expenses paid.  Not to mention the structure of the parties and how it all falls into some back scratching mentality. It's all pretty obvious I guess, just look at the nature of the office itself;  designed to get them all to play along and keep mum. There are no real mechanisms to allow any sense of radicalism; in fact the opposite is true. The party whips keep everyone in line, threatening them with deselection or some mud raking if they step out of line. The minority who don't tow the line are ostracised as some quaint mad anomoly on the fringes and derided by the odd tablod artice or program.

Then there are the reporters. How do they get to where they get? How do they become senior correspondants? Hard work? Outstanding ability? Yes to both no doubt, but what else? Playing by the rules maybe? Obedience to the aims and objectives of their editors? Yes that too, wheres the room for hard edged truth reporting there then? Then there are the editors and their appointees. What of their political persuasions? Who pulls their strings I wonder - refer to Chomsky again, perhaps?

Am I so far off the plot here? Is my cynicism entriely without foundation? And if it isn't, then what are we to do about it? Where are the drivers for change?  Where is the upsurge of political activity from the masses, yes the masses, not some extreme little fringe ranting on street corners selling newspapers full of red square imagery and dead propoganda.Why even bother painting all manner of radical ideas that most people couldn't even begin to relate to in 10,000 years!? Doesn't it make you wonder why some respectable grouping of individuals haven't yet coalesced around an idea that reigned in the very things that contribute to this malaise of apathy that engulfs us all?

Can the blogosphere save us?  -Could the blogosphere be the form that helps build some alternative, create some grassroots movements via things like tags and labels and what not?

Only this morning I randomly encountered someone talking about fingerprinting, she is very much like most us who talk about these things, politically alive and astute, thinking, feeling much of what most of us do; yet  people like her are no new phenomenum either, they've been around for years - most who get active; at least in the mainstream, find themsleves pulled into the qaugmire of existing party political structures and are then lost, lost to the wheels of the machine.

Or is that really so? See,  I'm just summising here, throwing out a few contentious points for discussion. In my everyday life, the only evidence I see of anything remotely politically active is that which is organised by mainstream parties at election times, or far left/right extremes - I see very little evidence of any others, seriously. Everything that is radical is reflected back and set against a backdrop of anarchy and confusion. How could anyone wish to want to be a part of that? Where is a peacable workable alternative? Or am I just so incredibly fucking idealistically naive?

When I first started rapping this out on the keyboard here my gut feeling was that politicians and those who enable their lifestyle and way of doing business were akin to parasites, participating in a game of hoodwink designed to just pull us along on the ragtails of their tv stations and newspapers. I ventured to ask how many of them beyond their weasly self effacing words actually gave a damn for the communities they purported to represent. Where was the action, where is the political activism beyond the confines of a safe set of party parameters in which they operate.High salaries, expensive perks, junkets and jollies for the boys and girls; all acting as dissuaders from any real drive and commitment to make any difference. Parliament, the house of the people, full of people elected on minorities of little if any political mandate worth mentioning.Granduer and media inflated prominence, minor celebrity, point scoring, acting at the behest of other countries yet trying to convince us all otherwise. Them and their media, spoon feeding us with that all too familiar daily dose of like it or lump it.

My gut feeling remains unchanged.

How would you tag a movement for political change, would you bother even?

 

 

Well according to this thing I am.

Friends, jesus, in the real world I can count them on my hands and feet, ones I truly value that is. Everyone else is just an aquaintance on some scale somewhere. Every once in a while someone will come along and touch me and find a way into this chest cavity of mine and resonate in some way, but fuck that's a rarity.

The friend word - sure, maybe I need to lighten up a little Ive got a shit bag cold see and am feeling a little ranty. But seriously, dontcha think that the friend word is bounded about with too much regularity?

The lady in the supermarket queue said hello to me today - Fuck a new friend.

What about that person who waved his fist at me on the M25? Another new friend

Oooh lets not forget of course the shop assistant at Sainsburys who wished me a nice evening - Another new friend.

Talking of sainsburys and all that corporate have a nice day sir bollocks. Would sir like a hand with his packing? um...Im 30 fuckin 8 for fucks sake, not 100 and 24, do I look that fuckin infirm?

See, I bet all those staff who work them tills, fuckin hate saying that, how many times do they have to say that each day i wonder, and how many times do they either a. have to listen to some muggy wag like me come back with some tired old witticism. or b. Actually have to suffer some lazy bastard say, yeah can you call someone to pack it for me...Not often I'd imagine.

See this is one of my little pet hates. Management gets a little idea then rolls it out across the country effectively homogenising huge swathes of society, forcing people who don't really want to ask stupid fuckin questions like 'Have you got a nectar card' 'Do you want any cash back' 'Have you got a parking ticket' Um...if i wanted any of that stuff I'd fucking tell them now wouldn't I? Ok so yeah, the parking ticket validation one perhaps, but the others? Nah, ever heard of personal responsability? Besides that nectar bollocks, they only want you to use it so they can track you and know every little bit about you so that they can devise more methods for suckering an extra pound note or two out of you.

Maybe I should just get a card and hold it up in front of them that says No No and Fucking No and watch them stare back at me blankly whilst discreetly reaching for the supervisor panic button.

Shitty jobs, we've all had them. When you go to the supermarket today, think about those poor little fuckers who have to man those tills and ask you stupid dumb questions that you hear all the time, just be nice to them, its not their fault.

(Ok so they dont HAVE to do these jobs but some feel that they HAVE to and if you felt that you HAD to do a job that you didnt want to do then maybe you could perhaps begin to at least empathise on some minor microscopic speciel level)

Ive got a fucking cold. I hate fucking colds, they piss me off big time. Sniffle , waaah, blech. My head feels like its munged up with a load of swarfega. Hacking and spluttering and sneezing like some TB infested leper from South Af Fuckin Ghanistan.

What is the point of them I wonder, no seriously, what the fuck do colds do in the grand scheme of things. What is their fucking purpose??

I had a conversation with someone once who suggested that it was Gods way of creating a few jobs. It creates a bit of overtime for the bloke who has to fill in for you when you are laying in bed dying of man flu. It creates a little, well no cancel that, A LOT of profit for the multi pharmo sooticalls thus enabling other more useful life saving drugs to produced more cheaply. It also powers the tissue industry, helps you in your relationships too ( extra sysmpathy from your loved ones for example). Colds also enable you to slow down, take time out from an otherwise frentic existence full of rush fucking rush.

Know what I said? I said bollocks, nope not having none of it. I don't believe a word of Im not convinced. I mumpled on saying what kind of God would do all that? Surely the time and efforts involved could be spend more productively, and then what of all the pain and discomforture and groaning and grumbling? What about all that negative shit that stems forth. Oh darling, Im dyyyyying, get me a cup of tea please..what about when she says, cobblers get up and get it yourself you lazy good for nothing feel sorry for yourselfagain...

Doesn't help.

Ok, he might have had a point on some of the stuff. I hear some of the arguments, but fuck, it stil doesnt really make that much sense, not to me at least. I just want to see the germ fuckin zapped, cos every year at some point it comes and visits me and fucks with my biosphere.

Oi, cold germ, fuck off!