Free Country? Not likely.

I'm not a great fan of America right now, but one of the several things that they get right and we get badly wrong is that they don't prohibit the respectable millions doing and owning things on the basis of what a handful of criminal loons may do.

In the UK, the exact opposite prevails. We have no rights; we must be licensed to do mundane things. The reason for this, is that a tiny minority of our fellow citizens are bad or mad. This is very much the wrong way around.

Always remember that Allan Johnson wanted a law to force the ownership of a dog to be a licensed, trained, insured, micro-chipped, and government controlled activity.

Julian Assange - A threat to whom?

Governments all over the planet have been embarrassed by revelations from the diplomatic bag of US foreign policy. The egg is not just on Uncle Sam’s face - far from it. Toadying Brit politicians, whimpering like naughty puppies left out in the cold. Scheming Gulf tyrants recommending the devastation of Iran, Putin described as a Mafia Godfather. The dirt spread far and wide. But there was more. The hidden toll of Iraqi families slaughtered by accident, dismissed in bare faced lies by a military pretending only the bad guys bought it. The revelation that drone strikes kill the innocent at a ratio of 100:1. Who really suffers by these revelations? Only those who would rather the people didn’t know the truth.

It is comforting to believe that power is in the hands of just and honest men; that political systems, wisely designed with laudable ideals protect us from villains and tyrants, but revelations down the years from Watergate Tapes, the Pentagon Papers to Wikileaks have shown us they do not.

We need to know this. We need to hold politicians and military leaders to account for what they do, and above all, they need to know they can not lie to us. Assange, Ellsberg, Woodward and Bernstein lift the lid, exposing what government would prefer keep hidden.

Were their revelations treason? I doubt it. If government isn’t straight with the people, where do we stand. Probably with the people of Russia, China, Burma and North Korea.

Munir Hussain is Freed

Thank God for some common sense! Today, Munir Hussein was released from jail with a revised suspended sentence, after the violence which followed the horrible illtreatment and humiliation by violent burglars who were never prosecuted. The total arsehole Judge John Reddihough thought it appropriate that a man who lost control in the immediate aftermath and pursuit of his tormentors, should be sentenced to a term of 39 months imprisonment. Reddihough ought to be sacked tomorrow morning, and deprived of his no doubt villainously large pension.

God Help us!

It seems that Peter Mandelson may be brought back to life by necromancy from the Lords and thrust into the Commons again so that he may become Prime Minister....

Surely not? It would be like putting Old Nick in charge. In no time at all we will have horned goats in the Commons and the MPs will be ravishing virgins in the corridors of power..... Oh hang on - they already do that as well as stealing large amounts of money. Still, having Beelzebub answering Prime Minister's Questions will be a pretty awful thing.

..................

Also in the Daily Telegraph today, we have Bryonie Gordon complaining about research which shows women are at little risk from having drinks spiked with date rape drugs. She says that such research is useless since they are nevertheless frequently raped while drunk.

I disagree. Perhaps Ms Gordon, the revelation that drink spiking is almost unheard of and is a widespread myth used to excuse total loss of self control through common drunkenness, might actually encourage some to take responsibility for themselves, and to stay sober.

Only a savage would make light of rape, but girls who get so drunk as to be unable to stay in control, have voluntarily placed themselves in peril - a very stupid course of action. This needs to be made clear and not excused. Taking note of this would be of great benefit to them.

As for those accused of taking advantage of people in such situations, while 'No' always means exactly that, the states of being 'drunk' and 'sober' are more of a continuum than a clear line, so how are males to judge, unless a girl is almost comatose? Is the lady who is exuberant and lascivious after three glasses of Chardonnay 'drunk' and out of bounds, or does she become so only after four, or maybe five, or is it more? Is she only 'raped' when she reconsiders an unwise liaison next morning, even though the night before she was an active participant?

These are complicated matters of fine judgement and are in practice acted on by people often young and somewhat under the influence of alcohol themselves. Cases like this are worlds apart from the savage, wicked and ungodly acts traditionally described as rape, and it is no surprise that juries find it extremely hard to convict those accused when cases come to court.

..................

A medic was recently overheard reassuring a very confused girl in a hospital casualty department saying, 'Yes my dear, and which of the fifteen tequilas was it that you think was spiked?'

Immigration is a good thing.

In the Times this morning, David Aaronovitch complained about the failure of panellists on the recent and now notorious edition of Question Time, to extol the advantages of immigration in the face of the unattractive leader of the BNP. He said:

'...there was no one to say that it (immigration) had benefited us economically and enriched us culturally. Surely, I thought, it was this unchallenged and cowardly perception of the negative nature of migration, rather than migration itself, that was a part cause of the growth in votes for the BNP.'

No - not cowardly David; just realistic.

Mr Aaronovitch must be mad if he thinks anyone, but him and a few deluded New Labourites, believe that adding another ten million immigrants to the population of this island, would be anything but a disaster for the quality of life of all concerned - especially we already over-crowded Brits. He and I and Baroness Warzai have something in common; we are all the descendants of immigrants, though mine arrived a while ago, in 1895. What I and Baroness Warzai have in common, and Aaronvitch doesn't, is that she and I believe that immigration needs to stop right now, before England becomes one huge, dystopian, high rise city.

Eating Meat is as anti-social as drink driving!

In the stupidest climate panic statement yet made, New Labour's Lord Stern of Brentford likened the supposedly anti-social habit of eating meat to drunk driving. Warning us all of the coming conflict he thinks will be engendered by global warming, he tells us all that a vegetarian diet is 'better' and uses less water.

Is there no end to the idiocy of these proselysing busy bodies? Now that Marxism and traditional religion have become unfashionable in Europe, the rudderless mob has flocked to environmentalism and instead of demanding that we stop having sex and worship Jesus' or support the dictatorship of the proletariat, they want to create another kind of global misery, in which we all embrace poverty, veganism, lack of mobility, and power our fluorescent glow worm lights with windmills. All they have underlying the hype, is a change in global average temperature of one degree. The span of this change is a hundred years. Apart from the output of magical computer models; a sort of latter day holy book, not to be questioned, that is the evidence on which the scam is built. One degree of observed change.

Science is supposed to be founded on EMPIRICISM, actual observation and measurement, not predictive computer programmes. Never since Joseph Smith told his neighbours that angels brought him some golden plates and some magic spectacles - thus founding Mormonism, has such a con been set in motion. Global Warming is an article of faith in the new religion of Environmentalism, and like other religions, it depends on prophets to spread the word. Last week Gordon Brown set off on his own prophetic mission - going about with a worried look and telling people that we had fifty days to save the world. We already know that he is a liar - why do people listen?

Is BBC Radio4 Alienating its Core Audience?

What's gone wrong with Radio4? Simple, it has slid disastrously to the left, adopting all manner of PC, feminist, and greenie causes and promotes these pretty much as unquestionably good. Now don't misunderstand, I am not against any issue being dealt with in a balanced and critical manner, but I don't want strident, polemical minority advocacy shoved into my ears throughout my waking hours. I used to love Radio4 - I've listened avidly since I was a lad in the 1960s, but I am increasingly angered - especially by that man hating hag Jenny Murray and her vile programme 'Woman's Hour'. Murray seems intent on scraping away at the wounds of women who have been illtreated and deprived by unpleasant men. I wouldn't mind that this was done occasionally, but Murray seems to want it as as a kind of daily therapy. Today she was interviewing a rather spunky lady airforce helicopter pilot awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a heroic rescue she carried out under bombardment in Iraq. This outstanding woman (worth fifty of the haridan Murray), is a very fine example of our forces personelle, but all Murray could bang on about was that she was a woman. This unsurprising fact she could not let go and she persisted in trying to get her to accept full responsibility (as a woman and on behalf of women) for the whole rescue - dimininishing in the process the contribution of the rest of her brave crew, including one supposes the male medics who got out of the helicopter under rocket and machine gun fire and spent five minutes stabilising the casualty and getting him back aboard. Flight Lietenant Goodman however, to her considerable credit, declined to follow Murray's harpy agenda, and steadfastly pointed out the fact that she was one of a team who depend on each other for their lives and that the successes they have are not the result of a single members actions. In the end, the putrid Murray had to abandon her quest to diminish men, and just congratulate her guest.

I'll be the first in line to congratulate whoever in the BBC gives the beastly Murray her p45 and dispenses with her services. It will be a great day for mankind.

American Idol - or should that be 'American Freak Show'?

As a kid with what we used to call in the 1960s, a 'handicapped' sister, I remember sitting in class open mouthed, learning that in the nineteenth century, the well off were taken on tours of mad houses for entertainment. Even worse, we were told in hushed tones, that the 'keepers', would prod the lunatic inmates with sticks, stirring them up into outbursts of 'hilarious indignation'. Yesterday though, I had the misfortune to witness the twenty-first century counterpart - the freak show, which 'American Idol' has become; less the audition of wannabe pop stars, more perhaps, the public exhibiting of people with learning difficulties for the amusement of others.

In the broadcast of the heats at Seattle, Washington, we saw Britain's Simon Cowell, scowling at one after another of bizarre individuals, accompanied by a whooping Randy Jackson, and the disingenuous Paula Abdul, who told one no hope contestant after another that they were 'Awesome'. They came, in a depressing straggle, opined about their talent, their personality, their commitment to achieving stardom, and all the while they looked like the inmates of a special needs institution. It was painful, and that was before they opened their mouths to perform, or should I say, 'to massacre' the songs they had chosen to showcase their 'talents'.

Cowell, a look of horror on his face, likened one obviously autistic individual to a 'bush baby'. The blogosphere is now referring to the unfortunate lad as, 'lemurboy', and like many of the Seattle hopefuls, he was obviously someone who ought to have been protected, rather than put up on TV for public ridicule. Should we really be projecting this cruel spectacle, and the humiliation of such people for our entertainment?

The exhibition of the inadequate, is what masquerades as 'Reality TV' these days. It ranges from the porcine Jade Goodie in Britain's 'Big Brother', to the likes of Lemurboy, and his fellow contestants; an obese fellow called Jonathon with learning difficulties in a Hawaiian shirt, and a gap toothed ginger headed man who could have been in Deliverance if only the casting department had discovered him. No doubt they will use him now when they need a mutant for some sickening horror flick.

Maybe we laugh at the unfortunate delusions of these people because seeing them make a spectacle of themselves somehow confirms that we are 'normal'.

After I turned it off, I felt ashamed that I'd watched it for as long as I did.

Blunkett Resigns

So David Blunkett has resigned, brought down it seems not by news of scandal, but by an email from a colleague in the Home Office advocating ‘no favours but slightly quicker’ – that and the indiscretion of his chat with a biographer and the slagging off of most of his colleagues.

I’m sorry for the man. Even the sight of Thatcher’s distressed departure was not as poignant, but I’m glad he’s gone. Someone described his output as Home Secretary as prodigious. It was. More than one bill a month for three and a half years, tumbled helter skelter from his mind, and as someone else said of him, ‘with never a doubt that he was right.’ In the end, that was what was wrong with Blunkett, not individual items of legislation, but his absolute refusal to confront the idea that he might be wrong. Blunkett is at heart a megalomaniac. He has shown it wherever he had power. His relationship with his mistress Kimberly Quinn, his conflicts with the teachers, judges, police, prison officers, the probation service. They can’t all be dismissed as ‘Hampstead Liberals’, the disrespectful term he used so often in caricaturing his opponents – they aren’t. They just happened - all of them to get in his way.

Who do you think was right?

Medal Of Freedom

Yesterday, George Bush awarded America’s highest civilian honour to three men who served him in Iraq. As he pinned the Presidential Medal of Freedom onto the proud recipients, he painted a rosy picture of their achievement. ‘They have played pivotal roles in great events, ‘ he said, smirking disingenuously . Others might be forgiven if they entertained uneasy feelings that the trio actually made pivotal misjudgements. First, came George Tenet, Director of the CIA during the time that 9/11 was planned and carried out without his knowledge, he who told Bush, it was a ‘slam dunk’ that Iraq had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Then came General Tommy Franks - the man who planned an invasion on the cheap. Other commanders say he should have stood up to Rumsfeld and insisted that if an invasion was to happen, it should involve enough manpower to control the country. The final recipient, and perhaps the most guilty of misjudgement, was Paul ‘Jerry’ Bremer, de facto ruler of Iraq in the months after invasion. Bremer at the stroke of his pen, dismissed the four hundred thousand man Iraqi army and national guard with the chilling words, ‘You have no future in the new Iraq - allowing them to melt away with weapons and become insurgents. This week, Iraqi interim president, Ghazi Yawer complained in a BBC interview, that American policy (Bremer’s policy in fact) had created a security vacuum. "We could have screened people out instead of screening them in, and this could have saved us a lot of hassle and problems," he said, during a discussion of the fact that thousands of newly trained security personnel are absent without leave in the face of an insurgent onslaught.

Bush’s honouring of those associated with the miserable policy in Iraq, discredits earlier recipients of the medal, but also confirms that he is a man determined to manipulate the minds of those he swore to serve.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4090963.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4096741.stm

The Long View

Listening to reports of how a superpower is engaged in flattening a city to prepare it for elections, I drifted into thinking about the agendas of other great powers that once held sway. For a while now, I’ve been musing on the fact that though some of us get very excited about superpower meddling, in the great scheme of human affairs, it actually doesn’t matter at all.

Falluja just happens to be a very few miles from the site of ancient Babylon, and many’s the tyrant that has flattened, burned and spilled blood, around its mud bricks over six thousand years. Bush’s marines and their Islamist (or maybe patriotic, depending on your viewpoint) foes, will not be the last to struggle there for victory. In the end, their struggle for power will not matter any more than did those of Cyrus, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Alexander, or any of the other greats of history. The dust will still blow over their sun bleached battlefields, if not their bones, Americans being more inclined to take away their dead than Alexander was.

Modern Americans are certainly not the first superpower citizens to believe they are invincible, or that their system will prevail a thousand years. All of them were wrong, though probably none so badly as the little Austrian with the cropped moustache, who built his monuments for a thousand year Reich upon a pile of bones. Nevertheless, they couldn’t see the wood for the trees, and looking to the future, others will rise to take the mantle of the empire that bases all on its thirst for oil, and flattening cities in preparation for elections. They’re already on the rise – look East my friends, and in the rising sun you’ll see the next great global players. Paradoxically, they were great, when the bison roamed the plains of North America, and the people of Europe were forest dwellers frightening away spirits with their bonfires and human sacrifice.

What goes around, comes around.

Follow this link for a fascinating site about the rise and fall of civilisations:

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

The Great Divide

Listening to the radio this morning, I suspect I was not alone in my discomfort at hearing the words of Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps: "The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him." It is not that I have sympathy with the fundamentalist forces, who control the city, but rather that like many Europeans, I see fundamentalism itself as the enemy. We may share with Brandl a desire to see the end of murderous savages like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but the colonel’s brand of Old Testament rhetoric, is as abhorrent to me, as any announcement from the other side.

That fundamentalists line up to fight each other denouncing Satan’s legions, leaves me with an intense unease. Are we entering a new Dark Age? Gary Brandl’s belief that Satan walks the streets of Falluja, is as much at odds with my World view, as any Islamic madman’s is, and I fear for the innocent hundred thousand people in that city, when his crusading troops of macho believers find them in their gun sites.

It was Rationalism that brought us Science, medical advance and the modern world. Fundamentalism gave us the burning of heretics, witches and a miserable self righteousness that stagnated progress for fifteen hundred years. In my lifetime, the Atlantic Ocean has never seemed so wide.

The Saddest Country

The news leaked out of Iraq yesterday that militants had murdered another twenty-one policemen, and barely raised an eyebrow in the west. Mass murder, it seems, is now de rigeur in what has become the saddest land on earth. For a moment, I was tempted to say, ‘saddest country’, but Iraq is no-longer that. Since last year’s invasion, it has disintegrated into a wasteland, riddled with the cancer of foreign psychopaths and Saddam loyalists, all intent on mass murder in pursuit of power.

That the remnants of a displaced regime would ambush coalition forces, was no surprise - that they would slaughter Iraqis like sheep, shows the depths of their unreason. Alawi may be Prime Minister, but he is beset by bearded savages that drag his country day by day into a new dark age. Whether the land was better governed by Saddam Hussein than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or Donald Rumsfeld’s proxy - I cannot say, but which ever rises to pre-eminence, will do so on a ziggurat of corpses.

God help the people of Iraq. I have a feeling that their trials are just beginning...

Delta Boobs Sack Ellen

Flight attendant and Queen Of The Sky blogger, Ellen Simonetti has been sacked by her employer, American, Delta Airlines, for posting what were described as inappropriate images of her in the Delta flight uniform. Ellen says she had no idea they’d be upset at scenes of her charmingly draped around the cabin of one their planes. Last month’s suspension, shocked the hot hostess when the provocative pictures inflamed the airline's bosses, and yesterday, the spoil sports confirmed that she'd been fired. Now a court case is pending since Ellen has instructed Texas lawyers to bring a suit for unfair dismissal. "There are many pictures of male Delta employees (mostly pilots) in uniform on the Web. I wonder if Delta plans to fire all of them, too? I guess that would be only fair," she said.

I think it’s a pity really - with a little foresight, they could have used her obvious talents in a run of tasteful adverts.

“Wanna fly me big boy?”

“Yes please!”

She’d sell out every flight.

QUEEN OF THE SKY: http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/

Cops Down Tools

Twenty firearms officers in London’s Metropolitan Police, handed in their authorisation to carry weapons yesterday after two colleagues were suspended. A further hundred are reported to be refusing firearms duties on a temporary basis. Glen Smyth of the Police Federation, said his officers needed clarification over how they were to respond when they believed themselves to be under threat. An inquest jury into the death of Harry Stanley, returned a verdict of unlawful killing last Friday, after hearing that the 44 year old father was shot down because he was carrying a table leg in a plastic bag. Stanley’s solicitor said the jury had not believed the officer’s accounts that they thought he had a sawn off shotgun, and had not considered such a conclusion reasonable.

The people of Britain owe a debt of gratitude to skilled and professional police. We can be proud of them, but those among them who habitually back their colleagues, even when they are manifestly in the wrong, should consider whether they owe loyalty to their mates, or to the law. At the distance Stanley was shot, less trigger happy officers would have seen that possession of a table leg was no threat to them, or to anyone else.

http://www.met.police.uk/

The End Is Nigh!

It comes down to this folks - who do you want?

a) A man who squandered the worlds outrage and sympathy after 9/11 by spurning the opinions of friends to plough a lonely furrow that led to chaos in Iraq, and who in spite of all the tough talk, is still being taunted by a skinny bearded guy in a nightie?

Or -

b) Do you want a man who can speak his own language without sounding like a farm boy, who, whatever his shortcomings, at least bothered to go and fight in an unpopular war, and maybe most importantly, do you want a man who can recruit a coalition of nations to work with you in fighting extremists because he hasn’t insulted them, ignored their input and blustered at them like a bully?

Do the right thing when you vote. It matters to you, and it matters to the rest of the world.

Kilroy Was Here

Mahogany skinned, megalomaniac, Robert Kilroy–Silk warned UKIP organisers last week that the party would be destroyed unless he was made its leader. He said they had next to no members when he'd joined and now had thousands. "I have had letters, phone calls and faxes from people," he said.

I’ve had phone calls too Kilroy – people tell me they think that you’re a tosser. One or two said they think you've got the same psychotic condition as David Ike - the long time BBC reporter, who suddenly shocked the beeb by declaring on TV that he was the Son of God, and now believes that reptiles rule the planet. Actually, if Kilroy ever got his way, becoming Megalomaniac in Chief, there might be something in that reptile thing.

Mad Goth Woman Sleeps In Coffin

Weirdo, goth exhibitionist, Kay Groom (42) of Swaffam in Norfolk, ought to be old enough to realise that sleeping in a coffin and then inviting the press to photograph you as you make a bufoon of yourself, probably doesn't win you many friends in the 'normal' community. Halloween stunts are one thing, but Kay's interest in coffins is not her only foible. Apart from her unusual sleeping arrangements, freaky Kay has a strange line in mantelpiece bric a brac, with a collection of over three hundred ornamental skulls and a real skeleton.

The more liberal among you may take the view that if you're going to sleep in a pine box, you might as well go the whole hog and turn your home into a charnel house, but I'm not so sure. I'm just wondering how her daughter feels about bringing friends around for a drink, when such an invitation not only means introducing them to Norfolk's most bizzare woman, but also sitting around with what's left of the ancestors.

Communication Between The Sexes

DICTIONARY FOR WOMEN'S PERSONAL ADS:

40-ish = 49


Adventurous = Slept with everyone


Athletic = No tits


Beautiful = Pathological liar


Contagious Smile = Does a lot of pills


Emotionally Secure = On medication


Feminist = Fat


Free spirit = Junkie


Friendship first = Former slut


Fun = Annoying


New-Age = Body hair in the wrong places


Old-fashioned = No BJs


Open-minded = Desperate


Outgoing = Loud and Embarrassing


Passionate = Sloppy drunk


Professional = Bitch


Voluptuous = Very Fat


Large frame = Hugely Fat


Wants Soul mate = Stalker

DICTIONARY FOR INTERPRETING MEN'S REMARKS:

I am hungry = I am hungry


I am sleepy = I am sleepy


I am tired = I am tired


Nice dress = Nice cleavage!


I love you = Let's have sex now


I am bored = Do you want to have sex?


May I have this dance? = I'd like to have sex with you


Can I call you sometime? = I'd like to have sex with you


Do you want to go to a movie? = I'd like to have sex with you


Can I take you out to dinner? = I'd like to have sex with you


I don't think those shoes go with that outfit = I'm gay

This piece was taken from another blog. Hope it helps clarify one or two things in inter-sex communication.

A Voice From The Wilderness

Four days before the Presidential election in the USA, evidence of the health and wellbeing of the world’s most wanted man was broadcast by the al - Jazeera news channel yesterday. George W Bush has not as he promised in 2001, smoked out the evildoer.

The choice is stark and simple. Three years down the line from 9/11, the thin bearded gent in the funny white hat is still broadcasting his insolent messages. Does America want more of the same failed policies from Bush, or is it time for a change?

Fahrenheit 9/11

I watched Michael Moore’s controversial film about George Bush today. All I can say is, you should get it from your local video shop and watch it. While you’re about it, tremble at the prospect that Bush’s gang of crooks and liars may get another four years to corrupt, exploit and abuse the people of the world. Moore’s documentary is partisan for sure, but that doesn’t make his accusations false. So many voters in the US are apparently unmoved by the issues the fat guy raises, that I have to conclude that in America, being an idle, dishonest son of a bitch, is no bar to office. Oh – and Q - if you’re there and wondering why I haven’t blogged on the question of the UK’s devolution referendum – sorry. I’ve spent my time writing about American politics, because they matter, and whether or not we have a North East Assembly won’t make the slightest difference to anyone, except to the wasters on the assembly gravy train. I mean, why would voting for another useless layer of bureaucracy be interesting, when Bush might get another four years to enrich his family and destabilise the world?

Check out Moore's web site:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Arafat Near Death - Or is he?

Had he died ten years ago, the Palestinians would have been in an incalculably better position than they are today. The thousands killed by an implacable enemy, might have played their part in a better future.

Arafat had a cause - his people suffered an historic injustice with the permanent occupation of their land, but the grotesque mishandling of negotiations, corruption, mendacity and his utter venality have besmirched the people he professed to fight for.

Cess Pit Of Evil

The antichrist and his heir – Paisley and Robinson

Why am I not surprised to read that hate crimes are a growing problem in Northern Ireland? Probably because hate crimes have been a feature of that benighted province for decades. What else were the systematic indignities of the suppression of Catholics by the so called ‘Loyalist' population throughout the twentieth century? What else were the revolting scenes of barbarism that have taken place outside Catholic schools where five year olds and their mothers were spat at and abused? Just listen to the poisonous bile of the evil Doctor Ian Paisley as he rants that the Pope is the antichrist.

If I seem to be leaving out one party to the troubles, I am. Here we're talking about hate crime, and I put that firmly in the hands of the bitter right-wing Protestantism of Paisley and his ilk. Men who have systematically preached hatred and intolerance and have done everything they could to hinder progress between communities. The reason we have no working devolved government there today is that the so called Democratic Unionists, refuse to take part. IRA violence, though wrought by psychopaths and murderous dogs, was a reaction to oppression. Evil as it was in it’s often indiscriminate carnage, it would never have started but for the bitter poison of the likes of Paisley.

If there is a Hell, may he rot in it – and the sooner the better.

Linked Story on Hate Crimes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3957381.stm

John Peel Is Dead

That a sixty four year old could remain a much loved music presenter on the UK’s top popular music station, says something about the remarkable talent of John Peel. That he could have deserved a place at the heart of such a station for forty years, shows something of his character. He will be greatly missed by millions - fans from Radio 1 and from more recent work on Radio 4, people who like me were devotees of his programme, Home Truths. It was as zany as Peel himself, treating the trivia and oddity of human life with a freshness that was compelling. Saturday mornings won’t be the same without his drawling tones and ironic sense of humour.

The world feels a poorer place today, but many will remember his work and smile at what he gave us.

John Peel 1939 – 2004 – A fine man.

More about John Peel:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3955289.stm

Listen to John Peel - you won't regret spending the time:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/ram/20041002_coming_out.ram

Choosing A President

In seven days time, our American friends go to the polls to elect the next President of the United States. I'm sure they'll all be pondering the qualities of the candidiates and of course it doesn't do for people like me to interfere - but hell, since when did I ever let good manners stop me from sticking my oar in?

One of my sons has a copy of Fahrenheit 9/11. I Think I'll watch it. He says the accusations are dynamite, but strangely, not too many Americans seem to believe them. One fundamental difference between people on this side of the Atlantic and those who'll be choosing their President next week, is that here in England we are deeply sceptical of politicians and utterly unforgiving of signs of weakness in their intellect. Here, Bush could never have risen above local politics - he is too obviously an unintelligent buffoon, and the startling interview he gave before the last election in which he was unable to name the president of Pakistan, would have sunk him as a candidate. Under pressure from the questioner, he said Musharraf's first name was 'General'. It was one of those moments when you just knew the guy was far from up to the job. I'd love to see him doing Prime Minister's questions in the House of Commons - a weekly inquisition by his peers, and no one to save him from his idiocy. He'd crap his pants and they'd all throw paper at him.

The Commons is a bear pit, but the rough and tumble ensures that idiots don't survive. Bush is protected from all that, and in the recent debate with Kerry, had a wire up the back of his jacket so someone could work his mouth. Just check out the photograph above this post and try to convince yourself I'm wrong. If you can, just don't go out in the street without a care worker. Someone will take your money and your pants and convince you its the right thing.