WHAT TO DO?

Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary for the Government, is trying to whip up support for standards of decency online, where it’s possible for a kid to walk into a room and see someone beheaded in full colour with all the accompanying sounds. He is going to lobby President Obama of the US, for example, in an attempt to force some standard on English-speaking websites. His idea is rather like the provision of a British Board of Film Classification for websites. You know, the following material is suitable for 18’s only, over 15’s etc.
Now. . .
Child porn is wrong. A picture of a child being porned is not acceptable, and there are laws and controls in place to stop the potential observer from observing. Even if it can be proven the child is acting and is loved and towelled down and given free toffees or toy cars or dolls after. Even if the person watching is not after a sexual thrill, but their brand misanthropy sees them searching for such sites to have a good old laugh at the ways of human nature. Or they are just searching out of curiosity. That’s no excuse. If you look for child porn, you are in for a shed load of trouble.
Erotic peril is wrong. Pictures of a young woman strapped naked to a bed with a gun in her mouth and a man squirting his semen all over her, and she cries and pleads and chokes is wrong. Even if it’s all acting. If you’re caught with such subjects on your compy, it’s three years inside and no mistake. It doesn’t even have to be for sexual purposes. Even if you like pointing and laughing at torture because you hate human beings and again it’s been proven that you’ve been right all along about how crap they are as a species, is no excuse.
You have to prove you aren’t a perv, and how many could prove that? The prosecutor doesn’t have to prove that you are. You have to prove you aren’t. The very fact that such things are stored on your machine is proof it’s for sexual purposes. Even if it isn’t.
Now, I know what you’re thinking now, ‘what the hell you mumbling on about now, All The Best!?’ or even, ‘when we gonna find out about that chap being beheaded? Like the relevant URL’s, etc?’ So, here is the point;
WHO DECIDES WHAT ISN’T OR IS OFFENSIVE?
Personally, I’d find none of the above attractive, for any reason; I get enough laughs at the human condition from the news. I think jokes mocking Jews or people with a different amount of melanin in their skin isn’t funny or clever. Using powerful language doesn’t float my boat. So I avoid ‘em. But then, not everyone enjoys reading physics books or drinking tea or writing crime stories or reading true crime or enjoying relationships with much younger members of their own gender. If it was up to me, I would ban the drink and make harming other species a capital crime. Not everyone thinks like me. What I find offensive or disgusting or whatever is not what others would. So, who decides. . .?
One argument against a BBFC classifications is that films are a static medium, once the thing is made and pressed onto celluloid it isn’t going to change. If it’s U or 18+ it stays that way. Unlike a website that can change frequently. This is a good argument up to a point; you can bet that if you get Disney type content, you can guarantee the web owner won’t deviate from family friendly rather treacly content because that’s what the website owner’s mindset contains. Same with someone who thinks necrophilia is the way to go.
But back to my point; who decides what is offensive? If you are going to be honest, some of the nastiest violent, sexually abusive stuff can be found between the pages of the good old Holy Bible. If it was made into a film, I can bet most countries will slap the highest possible category on it. Because it needs it. And yet the Bible is available to all age groups all over.
And what about true crime accounts? Some of the stuff in my library, written by Colin Wilson or one of the retired FBI Mind-Hunters are full of graphic accounts of murder and nastiness that if it was put uncut on a website would classify as not suitable for almost anyone. And then there are medical sites. You know, for trainee doctors. Pictures of people laid open with their insides on full view. Is that offensive?
And then there are the problem of adults. You know, together grown-ups deciding watching a bit of torture on the Interwebs is a perfect compliment to eating their tea. If an adult can sit in a room and shove forkfuls of pasta and sauce into their mouths while watching people being dismembered, why not a kid? How are the classifications going to be enforced? It won’t be like trying to get into the pictures or a DVD shop to get hold of some over 18 stuff. You don’t have to provide ID on the Net. I suppose of course passport details or bank details could be asked for, but I won’t even give my bank details to people I’ve known all my life and I’m sure as hell not going to provide them to someone I’ve never even seen in exchange for the right to read about the latest crimes, just because what’s in there might upset small children. The Net could be nothing but Disney and fluffy bunnies happily bouncing on sunlit uplands. Nothing nasty or cruel or graphic could ever get in and we’d all be happy. We wouldn’t be able to learn anything of any real importance in case anything distressing might be uncovered. No pictures of spiders or snakes, for example, because everyone knows they are offensive.
But then, again; who decides what is offensive?
Take the four main English-speaking nations. All have their own ideas on what is offensive; for example, the US would put a ban on nakedness, the Brits depictions of violence, the Aussies racism, and the Canadians swearing. So I suppose between us we could take anything unsuitable for anyone over eleven off the Internet. But we would all have to work together. The US might not have a problem with shoot-’em-up cop programmes, the Aussies might want to be entertained by adult language, the Brits might want to laugh at the French, the Canadians might want to watch a bit of porn. You know what I mean.
In the long run, The US would lose their much vaunted right to freedom of speech and us Brits might as well tear up our thousand year old right to speak up. The Aussie would have to wave goodbye to their precious fair goes. The Canadians would not be happy at all at having to stop before they said what they thought. All because of the other chap saying ‘no, you can’t do that, it might upset someone.’
But at least the Net would be safe to be used as a babysitter while the parents got on with doing their drinking and having their own life.
Of course, the government providing free Net Nanny type programs, for an adult to download and place on their computer, with settings for various age groups, to make sure no one of twelve came across anything for an eighteen-year old, is too easy. Better ban it all, just to be on the safe side. Anything decided on as offensive, take it off the Net. If the owners of the item refuse, take them off the Net. Prosecute those who make such doings for perusal. Much easier. And safer.
And yet the Bible would still be available.

And yet. . .
Did you know that if you do a search for ‘His Dark Materials’, or one of it’s derivatives, the stageplay, etc, it is possible to come across links for get-the-heck-out-of-here hardcore porn? Seriously. I’ve mentioned it in a previous posting (bloody find it yourself if you’re that interested, it’s here somewhere). Now, ‘His Dark Materials’ is crafted for the young adult reader, under eighteens only. I’m not saying you have to be over eighteen to enjoy young adult writings, but why on earth should any porn, which is for over eighteens, be included in a search for young adult material?

ONE DAY TO GO

And it’s here (practically). Christmas has already started around here, the first pre-drunks are bellowing their traditional festive cries across the suburban landscape to one another with the volume up and my young neighbour is enjoying Christmas so much she is determined to see I hear it too. If I hear bloody modern (with more bass and slightly speeded up) versions of Seventies Christmas pop once more I shall end up being booked into our local cop shop for at least attempted murder by Christmas morning. Same if someone I only vaguely know wishes me ‘merry Christmas’ or, agonisingly, ‘all the best’. (That’s my bloody catchphrase and it has to be delivered with the right amount of sarcasm.)
Anyhow, enough of my selfishness (?) here’s the final edition in this years’ Heading Full On For Christmas.
It’s ‘Everybody Must Get Stoned‘ sung in his inimitable way by the great Bob (Judas) Dylan. (for you obsessive pedants, I know that the official title is ‘Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35′ and it can be found on the double album ‘Blonde On Blonde’.)I know it’s sod all to do with Christmas, but there is something in it that appeals to me,* a helpless slightly misanthropic fitting in with the idea of enforced jollity.
So,
Enjoy, whether they stone you while they say good luck or not.

*This addition is for entertainment purposes only. All The Best! does not condone drug taking of any kind. Remember, when you’re drinking down your ethanol alcohol, wacky backy is bad for you.

PETER FALK IS HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN

I’ve read on various websites that Peter Falk is the subject of what can only be described as a custody battle between his wife Shera and his daughter Catherine. Catherine filed paperwork in the Los Angeles court in an attempt to get some kind of legal control over him, and get him away from the influence of his wife.
Why? Because Mr Falk has Alzheimer’s disease and doesn’t know where he is and what he’s signing and according to Ms Falk, Shera is taking advantage of it, keeping him away from his children, forcing him into doing things he wouldn’t do if he was clear minded.
The point that stands out is;
Peter Falk has Alzheimer’s. Peter Falk is (and always will be) Columbo. Which means Columbo is mortal and subject to the same problems with genetics and DNA as the rest of us. I am a Columbophile* The idea of Peter Falk being held down by the ravages of this brain disease is agony to me. The idea of his family fighting over it, is, I’m afraid, something I am not shocked over.
But there is still hope. Nothing has been mentioned on his official website, nor has it been mentioned on the Ultimate Lieutenant Columbo site. Maybe he is just a bit off, forgetting things, slowed down, after all, he is eighty-one, and Alzheimer’s has been used to get the attention of the courts in an unseemly battle over who gets the grand old man’s spondulicks.
Whatever the truth, I’m going to slip in a Columbo DVD when I’ve done, and watch and think of the dishevelled man with the sharp mind in the scruffy old raincoat, car that only works when it feels like it, perpetually present cigar and sentimental love for Dog, as well as his ‘one more thing’. I’m sure this is how Mr Falk would want to be remembered.

*-phile to fan is staying in to watch a programme to catching it if you happen to be around.

UNDERSTANDING TRANSSEXUALS

The Bishop of Rome* has made a speech insisting that being gay (lesbian, bisexual, transgender) is as much a threat to the planet as the destruction of natural habitats. That being unsure about what you want to do with your bits, in private, with another consenting adult, could cause more trouble than global warming for the future of mankind.**
Yes, again another big cheese theist had shown that gender issues and belief will never live side by side.
The thing is, he’s right. Read your bible. He is telling it like it is. Biblegod hates fags (lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered). He just does. Even though King David was obviously bisexual and loved Jonathan more than the love he had for women. Obviously preferred women for sex and men for romantic companionship. But to be fair, the bible doesn’t mention transgendered at all. It also doesn’t mention lesbians directly either; Romans chapter one, verses twenty-five to twenty-eight is the nearest reference that if it can be twisted and forced a bit, and outside ideas imposed upon it, MIGHT mention lesbians; Verse twenty-six says;
‘For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:’
That which is against nature to the twisted bitter male old gits who invented god and wrote the bible could be a woman taking the initiative, not just being a baby machine and a convenient place for a man to dump his semen. A woman on top, in the eyes of such old men, could be swapping natural for unnatural.
But, god does hate fags (I’m not going to keep listing the other categories just to be PC. When I say ‘gay’ it covers all the others, too). The old men who invented the bible and it’s god were, like a lot of grumpy old gits, disgusted at the thought of poofs and condemned them to hell gleefully. But here is the true good news;
Biblegod is made up.
That’s right. Never existed. Those so called self-denying gay Christians can give it up, because they may as well pray to King Arthur or worship Robin Hood, or a character from whatever book of fairy tales they choose. And they will have no eternal consequences. Now that truly is liberating.
The biggest joke of all, of course, and here is the punchline; you don’t have to actively believe in an involved god to hate homosexuals/homosexuality.
I have got close to a teenage female recently and made the mistake of telling The Family. And they are not happy about it. (I made the mistake of innocently believing it was the age difference. Was it soddery. It’s the fact she was born with the same set of bits as me). They haven’t said it in so many words, but I know them well enough to find the whole lesbian business disgusting. Even my own sisters are against it. When I was with my (male) ex they accepted it a bit more. Because he was male. And it hurts. I happen to care for my sisters, but I know they will never understand and never accept. They won’t meet her. They won’t even speak to her. They won’t even let me speak of her. I’m not going to mention her and the whole thing again. She’s too good for her name to be mentioned in such company. I’m going to go to The Family Christmas get together (it’s my youngest sister’s turn to host it this year) this Thursday and I’m going to watch the various members with their sweethearts and I’m going to not say a word about mine. Because being in love with a member of your own gender is worse than drug taking and pirating DVD’s and getting into drunken street brawls and cheating in their eyes.
As for my Mother. She is different again. She has a dear friend who is an obvious MTF transsexual and she links arms with her and walks down the street with her and when challenged, even by my sisters, she says;
‘She’s never harmed me’.
Her opinion of my latest relationship is;
‘So long as it makes you happy and you stay healthy it’s all right by me. Just be careful you don’t get hurt.’ And then, with a wonderful defiance, in front of one of my sisters, from her hospital bed where she’s recovering from her brain operation,*** she said; ‘give my best to that girl’.
She reminds me again why she is my favourite human being.
It is worse for my Tyneside teenager girlfriend. She hasn’t even been able to tell her parents or friends. She has to spend the holidays amongst people who don’t even know about her and me. Only her older brother knows and he accepts. If we end up breaking up, it’ll be due to her fear of what others think.
Anyhow, it’s not homophobia that my sisters have. It’s not fear of homosexuals. It’s a lack of understanding. Because only those who truly know what it is like to have a relationship of a romantic nature with a member of their own gender will have understanding. The best that can be expected from straights is acceptance. And it won’t come from the Bishop of Rome and his minions or relatives of a single small middle-aged female.
So that’s why instead of, for example, ‘women born women’ shunning male to female transsexuals, we should all accept that we are on the same side. We are a persecuted minority and should line up alongside one another and defend one another from attacks from the lack of understanding coming from the straight majority.

*He might be the Pope to lots of countries but not to us in the UK he isn’t. Henry VIII saw to that.

**A bit back Sturmfuhrer Ratzinger quoted from an set of ancients writings describing Muslims as evil and twisted and things. When the outcry and backlash hit he apologised. We of the gender confused (I love that phrase and I’m going to try and slip it into everyday conversation as much as possible) won’t get such an apology. Mind you, we don’t behead people and cause riots and blow things up when we’re outraged or offended.

***In fact, the hospital authorities at Hope have moved her to a hospital closer to home. It’s only just up the way, so on Christmas Day I can tell The Family I’m off to see Mum, and leave my sister’s house earlier and make my way up to her and spend a bit of time with her. And with her I can be myself.

TWO DAYS TO GO (HURRAH, ETC. . .)

For the heading Full On for Christmas two days to go edition I’ve given you this link that opens a Ministry of Information propaganda effort from 1940, entitled ‘Christmas Under Fire’.* The title of the video is ‘Christmas Under Fire (1941)’ but Quentin Reynolds says it’s 1940, and he should know, with him narrating and actually being there. Plus it gives little clues as to the actual year, mentioning the Blitz and the first year without church bells. What might have thrown some people is that US citizen Quentin Reynolds fully and enthusiastically engages in the pro-Brit propaganda,** even though the US was officially neutral and pursuing a policy of isolationism in 1940, not joining the war until the end of 1941, which was the first Christmas where the US was at war.
I don’t know about you, but it makes me go cold with fierce pride at my origins, and I reach out to my cousins across the pond with thanks and remembrance at how we’ve stood side by side, and hopes that our being allies, our friendship, that of two English speaking peoples, will not ever falter or end.
The bit near the end where the singing ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ starts and the scene takes the watcher into the Underground and the shelterers always gets me hardest in the unfettered emotion department.
Watch out for the scene of the morning after a Blitz, where people are moving about and a body is being carried over the ruins of shattered houses. I happen to know for a fact that that is a scene from the Christmas 1940 Manchester Blitz.

*It’s a fully nine and a half minutes, which for the YouTube generation is the equiv of a four hour French art house film to a Hollywood film watcher, but stick with it, it really is stirring from beginning to end.

**Have a look at the comments, how members of the PC brigade comments insist it’s all racist. Funny how this effort, part of the war against the most unashamedly racist, gay-hating, anti-Semitic nation in the Age of Technology, could be labelled racist, but I suppose that’s how some people are taught to think.

THREE IN ONE FOR ONCE

For someone with no life I have been astoundingly busy, (if it was possible, I wouldn’t like just one new body to swap for my disabled, worn out one, but being able to bilocate* would come in damn useful) and haven’t had the time to do what I wanted to do to this site. So I’d like to wish you all a good Winter solstice for the shortest day of this year, and I’ll mingle the Song To End the Weekend On with Heading Full On For Christmas four days to go.
The song is ‘Rocking Around The Christmas Tree‘ written by Johnny Marks who also wrote ‘Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer’, and this version is by Mel and Kim (Mel Smith and Kim Wilde), a novelty number put together in 1987 for the Comic Relief Charity. If you’re expecting Mel and Griff’s (‘I got her eating out of my hand’. ‘ugh! that’s not very hygienic’) interaction like on the record version, you’ll be disappointed, but I can’t find that version so this YouTube version will have to do. I really must learn how to put stuff from my own CD collection onto this blog.
Anyhow,
as always,
Enjoy, and
A good week whether you deck the halls with bows of holly or not.

*Actually, I once took bilocation lessons as an adult education course at our local college but I got fed up and stopped attending before we got to the practical part.

BECAUSE IT’S A FACT+FIVE DAYS BEFORE

Just because the events around me have taken hold of my mind and moved it off myself hasn’t stopped my disability from affecting me. I was brought down hard by sinus trouble about a week back and I’ve only just recovered.
Anyhow. . .
The addition to Heading Full on for Christmas, five days to go, is a poem I’ve written myself and it’s called;

JUST ANOTHER DAY*

I wish that Christmas could
be just another day
instead of enforced jollity
carrying me away

I wish the shops were open
and singers gave it a rest
I wish no one would feel the need
to put on happiness

I wish that all would carry on
And there was no need for me
to spend time with The Family
by the big fake tree

I wish that those who didn’t
believe in Jesus’ birth
weren’t made by other’s attitudes
to join in the fake mirth

It isn’t if it’s all that great
it’s really just one day
but still you shouldn’t have to
join in the merry fray

I wish that Christmas could be
just like any other day
then I’d be free to do my own
in my own own way

That’s your lot.
More Heading Full on for Christmas tomorrow when it’s four days to go.

*I never will get into ‘the spirit’ of Christmas no matter who insists it’s fun. But I do have a lot of time for the New Year celebrations.
As the song goes, to each his own. . .

SONG TO END THE WEEKEND ON : ‘PAYBACK’

This weekend’s song to end the weekend on is ‘Payback’ a challenging, unforgiving number from Slayer’s 2001 album ‘God Hates Us All’, which was (apparently) inspired by members of the band reading true crime books on serial killers and thinking about it.
I first discovered Slayer a couple of years back and now I can say they are amongst my favourite bands. I especially like this one because (according to my listening) I can see a bullied victim many years after when it was all forgotten by the bully and everyone else finally getting the main bully from school somewhere where no one can disturb them, (perhaps feigning friendship and taking them home to share memories from their school days) duct taping them to a chair and shouting this at them; Listen to the lyrics. (‘When you draw first blood you can’t stop this fight’ ‘I only want vengeance to come shining down on me’ ‘Payback’s a bitch!’) Exciting stuff!
Best thing about Slayer; They are all middle aged; Tom Araya being two years older than I am, Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King being a year younger, and Dave Lombardo being two years younger than me, and they are a well established band, having been together for twenty-seven years, not some kids coming up five minutes back and rising in popularity quickly and getting little girls (and boys) worshipping them and taking every word they say as gospel when they are barely out of school and know nothing about real life.
Anyhow,
As always,
Enjoy, and,
A good week, whether you need to take a closer look at me or not.

THE UNLIBERAL TRUTH ABOUT TRUE LIBERALS

Robert Mugabe has lost touch with reality. He must be the first true example of a leader who could fall under the M’Naughten rule (quick run down of this rule:a person cannot be held responsible for a criminal act (usually murder) if he has a disease of the mind that makes him unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. The tiny minority who fall under this rule end up in asylums for the criminally insane* (Like Broadmoor) instead of gaol, ie they are mad not bad and need help instead of punishment). His nation has massive out of control inflation and huge parts of it are being ravaged by cholera. He has sent a message to the world claiming, in all seriousness, that as part of a plan to return to the days of colonialism the UK has somehow injected the cholera bacteria into Zimbabwe, and that because of Mad Cow disease Britain also should be invaded and forced into a change of leadership. This country is being slowly murdered and there sits Mr Mugabe completely detached from what’s going on.
So I ask the only question that comes to mind;
Where are the protesters?
You know, the ones who stood night and day chanting outside the South African embassy in London during the tail end of Apartheid? The ones who tore down fences of Greenham Common to force the US nuclear bombers out, those who marched in cities across the UK against the war in Iraq? Those who loudly blame Israel for all the ills of the world ever? For reason’s sake, even those who even stood outside a theatre and called for the removal of a ballerina who just happened to admit she voted BNP?
I mean, there is a nation under a dictatorship and the people are suffering. All right minded people should stand up and protest. So. . .why is no one giving it a go?
Why not protest against this regime? Or congregate outside the Iranian embassy shouting out protests over the hanging of gays and uppity women from cranes in that nation? Why not call for the removal of the Castro brothers from Cuba?
Why does it always seem that white, Christian (these two cover a whole lot of categories, mostly to do with living a Western capitalistic democratic lifestyle no matter where in the world it actually is located) nations are in the wrong and any nation that kills and neglects and generally persecutes it’s people has to fall under this aforementioned category for the liberals to come out and protest?
I am a liberal,** and the reason why I am is because liberal means fair goes for all. Everyone should have a chance at whatever they can do best. No one should be picked on because of their age or height or colour or religion or no religion or sexuality or any reason. There is nothing selective about liberalism. But there is, obviously. So I come to the truth; liberal is only liberal when liberals say it. Everything else is rejected as bigoted, small minded, even Fascist, and if you don’t agree with liberals you aren’t allowed to even engage in a reasoned debate. As proof I shall make two statements;
Gay sex can kill.
Smoking can kill.
I bet if you state these two facts to any liberal you will be accused of being small minded, bigoted, even homophobic for reason’s sake, but only in the case of the first one. Why’s that? Seriously. Why is that? Another point; There is no problem with mocking white straight men but if you dare suggest, in the form of a joke, that Asian gay men are somehow deficient you are beyond the pale.
If you think the old brain-space has been stuffed too full with what’s happening in yours truly’s life at the moment, and all the reasoning has been pushed into a corner where it hasn’t room to move and make itself known, don’t take my word for it; you try it yourself. Even anyone who doesn’t fully ID as liberal will be cautious in saying ‘Gay sex can kill’, and conservatives mostly state this for shock value. But it isn’t shocking, in that it’s like stating child abuse can be excused, it’s true. Even writing this; ‘gay sex can kill’ has made me want to add something apologetic, about reading my previous writings to show my liberal credentials, and I don’t really mean it.
I don’t want to go into the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy, but a true liberal should not distinguish, they should be fighting for everyone’s rights. But I have come to the sorrowful conclusion that liberal is only liberal when liberals say it is liberal.

*The thing is, in today’s ultra sensitive PC world, these places (Broadmoor in the south of England, Rampton in the Midlands, Ashworth in the north west and Carstairs in south Scotland) are known as Special Hospitals or Secure Psychiatric Units. I truly believe that is one change that doesn’t appeal. If I ever snapped and went on the rampage(?)I’d much rather reply to the inevitable fan mail as from ‘The Asylum for the Criminally Insane’, as it’s a lot more challenging.

**Although pure Communism, with it’s doctrine of ‘treat everyone fairly but don’t bow down to anyone’ and everyone allowed to have a say, is looking more and more appealing to me. See this posting for more mumbling on from All The Best!’s resident oracle(?) on this subject.

AND WE’RE ON OUR WAY

It’s that time of year again. (Actually, my mind has been so stuffed with thoughts brought by events outside me, I’d forgotten, but here we go) The first posting in the annually resurrected category; Heading Full On For Christmas.
This first addition is provided in a link from YouTube, ‘Merry Christmas Everybody‘, it’s a lively number with a cynical twist from 1973, belted out by the Brummie band Slade, with a genuine joyful enthusiasm mostly lacking in today’s overly serious musical efforts. Slade, who were really massive in the early ’70’s are today (tragically, mostly) consigned to the dustbin of musical history. But some of us will never forget.
Bet you can’t help singing along, ’so here it is merry Christmas everybody’s having fun, look to the future now, it’s only just begun’.
A bit like the All The Best! Heading Full on for Christmas category itself.
And that’s it for the first edition.

BLOODY ROTTEN (ALTERNATE TITLE : SOME PEOPLE DON’T DESERVE DEMOCRACY)

Well, I’m a bit disappointed, but fair enough, the people of Manchester have spoken, and the congestion charge is not going to happen. I honestly did expect the ‘no’s to win, but with a much smaller majority not at a four-to-one in favour.
The damnable thing is that last I heard only thirty-eight per cent of those who could have voted did vote, which means sixty-two per cent didn’t bother to vote at all, and according to my very unscientific personal poll, the majority of those would have fitted into the ‘yes’ category.
We could have done it. It wasn’t difficult. All you had to do was take the form out the the envelope, put a cross in the ‘yes’ box, fold into the A envelope, then into the B envelope and post it off. What on earth was there not to understand and how could it be too hard to work out? And how could a body not be bothered? I mean we could have been provided with more public transporter, later, more frequent, and of the buses than come along after six pm it wouldn’t be three out of every five carrying the banner; ‘Sorry Not In Service’
There is the joke and here is the punchline; pound to a pile of horse muck those who found it too difficult or couldn’t understand it, or couldn’t be bothered, are those who complain loudest about the buses not turning up and get in your face when you’re at a bus stop and HASSLE you like you have any control over timetables when you’re trying to listen to your MP3 player.
Next time I’m waiting at a stop and the bus doesn’t turn up, and the person at the stop with me is complaining I’ll just say;
“Well, we perhaps could have had buses on time if them who could have voted had bothered to.”

SAYING ‘NO’ AND MEANING IT

Now our wise and caring leaders have seen to it that our young are not tempted to smoke by banning cigarettes on display. Which means, you will have to ask for you favourite brand, if you are of the bent to smoke, and the person behind the counter will have to reach for it where it’s out of sight.
Putting aside the fact that porno magazines are on display, as is alcohol and it is against the law to purchase either of these at under eighteen, and cigarettes at the age of under sixteen (or is it eighteen now?) so the young shouldn’t be able to buy fags even if they were on show. . .
This whole nanny state government business is seriously getting out of control. The single rule seems to be ‘I don’t like it so I’m damned if you’re going to do it’. And us poor ordinary sods sit back and let it happen. So I’m going to propose something that is highly illegal (illegal=against the law but not necessarily a crime according to natural morals).
Us poor ordinary sods should get together and do what they are doing in countries like Greece and Thailand. That is, engaged in civil disobedience. I’m not talking about chucking petrol bombs or setting homes afire, I’m talking about people standing up en masse and giving a massive ‘no’ to this government. All the unions should strike to bring the transport system to a halt, and those with private vehicles should align themselves with the public transport workers and refuse to get to work. A week of people not getting into work will make the capitalists who rule this nation think again. You see, they (the bosses, name badge wearers etc) need us (those kicked about by the bosses) more than we need them. It will give those who work a bit of time off to spend doing what they want and not have to worry about clock punching and coming home exhausted. It will scare the living heck out of the government, local and national. If this doesn’t work, a peaceful occupation of government buildings and factories and business. We can do it in rote. There are more of us than of them. What can they do? Get the police in in riot gear? Surely if the police think about it seriously, they will see they are suffering from this capitalist master’s divide and rule situation, and will stand alongside the workers. If everyone did their bit, we could bring this country down and the poor ordinary sods will still get what they need.
I guarantee that after a month or maybe longer of civil disobedience our capitalist masters and their cringing lackeys will be willing to come to the table and ask US who really are THEIR bosses, what WE want. Give us the chance to make our own laws and rules.
The only true away ahead is genuine Communism.
We could, if enough of us did, we could do it.
But thinking about it, I doubt very much it will work, you see, we are fed by the capitalist newspaper owners and their lackeys who are taught to believe, that single mothers and foreigners and ex cons always come before US. It’s easier to complain about supporting the doley on the corner with his fifty seven pounds a week than the boss who at the touch of a button can put hundreds out of work and with the other hand vote himself another massive pay rise. The capitalist masters, the name badge wearers, the members of the Authorities have it all, and they are damned if they are going to let us poor ordinary sods get a sniff of the good life. They’d rather keep us working, harder, putting in all the hours with the threat of losing our jobs above our heads, and when we are forced into unemployment we are marked as useless, scroungers, dole dodgers, work shy.* Meanwhile, the capitalist bosses keep taking more and more and the rest of us get lower and lower, forced to obey more and more silly laws on pain of losing our freedom and our chance to get on in the world. All that energy that could be used into working together to bring this government and it’s capitalist masters down is being wasted on arguing who is working the hardest, and suffering the most, and turning on the single mothers, foreigners, ex prisoners, dole dodgers.
Almost everything I have written above is now illegal, something to do with anti-terrorist laws. I truly could get into serious trouble just for speculating and encouraging such ideas. Better sneer at single parents, doleys, foreigners et al. It’s safer and they can’t arrest you for it.

*I am disabled, but if someone could give me a go, cleaning or something, I’d damn well do my best and make anyone willing glad they’d given me a chance. The number of business closing or companies shedding jobs, it’s hard for those perfectly healthy to get work. And all this is under the party laughing labelled Labour, once the party for the people and not for the capitalist masters and their lackeys.

BLOODY GOOD NEWS

I’ve just got in from Hope Hospital, Salford, where my Mother is ensconced in the Surgical area after having an operation* to tie off three aneurysms in her brain.
Three, I mean three. She’s been walking about with four aneurysms in her brain, one of which burst on Friday morning, and the warden at her complex got the ambulance and the silly sods at our local general sent her home on the same day after a cursory examination and she was walking about (well, being sick and generally off) with three of this deadly threats ticking away, any one of which could have burst any time,** until I managed to convince her to get the ambulance on Saturday, and on arrival she was given a brain scan where the truth was discovered. One had burst and another three were ready to do so. She was transferred to Hope Hospital, the best hospital in the north west for neurological problems, where she was made to lie flat and still while they prepared her for surgery.
At the moment, I feel nothing but a mild relief that she has come through such a serious operation, and is still alive and still my Mum, nothing of her has been removed in this operation, although she is deeply uncomfortable and still wants to come home to her senior citizen’s sheltered accommodation flat.
You know, I sometimes call my sisters, but we all rally around when we are needed.
My young Tyneside friend has been like scaffolding, holding me up.
I am still a misanthropic personality, but the kindness of people whom I can never repay has given me a touch of faith is some aspects of human nature.
Before I ended this vaguely celebratory episode of mumbling on, I will add a small aside to prove I am still a sceptic.
When we were in the waiting area, as only two family members are allowed around the bed at one time, and there were already two around my Mum’s bed, my youngest sister, who is a BELIEVER, said;
“Who do we thank for this? Her Mum or our Dad or who?”
And I said;
“How about the surgeon and anaesthetist and surgery sister and all them in Intensive Care monitoring her?”
Our Mother is alive, and at the moment, that’s all that matters.

*They called it a ‘procedure’ inside of an ‘operation’. I wonder why?
**In fact, the surgeon informed me in a private room that if she signed herself out as she wanted to, she probably wouldn’t get to the end of the corridor of the hospital before another one burst and it would have killed her.